Our First Battle

-x-

Magic was the main difference between this world and the one that we left. On Earth, evolution and natural selection drove everything. Species thrived based on the physical attributes that best equipped them to survive. Sometimes it's a matter of outbreeding their predators. Other times it's to reach the apex of their own predatory abilities, like crocodiles and sharks which have survived almost unchanged except in size from the time of the dinosaurs. Other beneficial traits were of course camouflage, poison glands, pack instincts, and eventually even brains big enough and hands nimble enough for tool use.

But magic introduces a whole mess of factors that both interfere and reinforce natural selection.

Everything from plants to animals to humans, we couldn't take anything for granted. Danger lurked behind every mysterious shadow.

So we were finally on the way to fight those wolves. I walked slightly ahead, both somehow because I've found myself team leader for this party despite my relative inexperience, and because the girls did not quite feel as safe with me walking behind them.

We did not walk side by side because the forest was full of an awkward silence and a general unwillingness to open conversation again.

She had decided to alter her virtual persona to appear full human sized, seemingly walking beside me. The illusion was only ruined by how she was lit by a fixed light source under the forest canopy and didn't cast a shadow. Her long ponytail bounced with every happy step.

"You only have your mouthhole to blame for this, Player," Monika said cheerfully. "I'm still not sure I believe all that was unintentional. I really shouldn't have worked out the maths about the months for you."

I sighed. And so, I remembered a few hours ago -

-x-

It was a little after lunchtime and we were back at the Silver Moon Inn. Elze still looked mulish even as she relaxed from the after-meal tea. "I still say we could have gone straight to the forest east of town and been back in time for lunch. Fighting on a full stomach is… you can end up puking it all out, you know?"

Linze shook her head. "It would be… terribly convenient… if we found the lone-horned wolves as soon as we searched the forest. Even if they are aggressive, it's not… it's not guaranteed."

"Wait, that was the plan?" I asked archly. "We were just going to go in there and walk around until we get attacked, like some sort of random encounter? Wolves are hard to pin down, from what I know it takes whole team with dogs and wolf perimeter nets to hunt them. I thought you would use some sort of search magic or something."

Elze flushed. "W-well, that's the difference between beasts and monster beasts! They'll find us!" She jabbed at her sister with her elbow. "Let's just go back to talking about magic instead!"

"MAGIC!" I exhaled. "So, Teacher Silhoueska, instruct me about the mystical arts!" I laid my palms on the table and bowed.

Linze took a deep breath and put carefully put down her empty cup. She then took out some crystal slivers and arranged them on the table.

"These are magic stones. Magic is separated into seven elements, and each element is amplified by a different magic stone." She began pointing to each little piece of crystal. "Red is for fire. Orange is for Earth. Green is for Wind. Blue is for Water. Yellow is for Light. Violet is for Dark. And White, or actually Colorless, for Null."

"Wait, so you need a specific type of magic stone to use a different magic? That's kind of unwieldy, isn't it? Unless…" I held up my gloved right hand and clenched it into a fist. I turned it around to look at my knuckles. "Seven gems. Hm. Like Thanos' Infinity Gauntlet…"

"Or you could just wear a necklace," Monika suggested.

"Or just wear a necklace, that makes sense."

Linze shook her head. "The other part of using Magic is Affinity. Most people have an aptitude for only one or a few elements. This is how people find out their specific affinities in the first place…"

She picked up the blue stone and held it over her empty cup. "Come forth: Water!"

A trickle of water dripped out of the stone.

Elze then took the stone from her sister's hands. "But if you don't have affinity for that element- Come forth, Water!" The stone remained inert. "Then nothing happens." She put the stone back into the row of other magic stones.

"So what's your affinity?" I asked her.

She pointed to the last stone, Null. "Null affinities are a little different from all the other elements. They're a sort of… personal magic. Every person's Null magic, if they have one, is unique to them. Although there will be similarities with other Null powers."

Elze raised her hand, matching how I still hadn't lowered my fist. "My ability [Boost] isn't something Linze can copy. This is my only magic, but Linze here has three elemental magic affinities." "It- it's a powerful ability!" Linze hurriedly tried to console her sister.

"It's enough," Elze nodded. We lowered our hands at the same time. "It's really rare to have three affinities, it's more common to have two, and most have just one. But that doesn't mean everyone uses magic."

"Why not? Are magic stones expensive?" I asked again.

"The bigger ones, sure, the ones best suited for combat. But if you really think about it, most people can develop the ability to sing – but only so few decide to be singers. If you can write, you can learn to draw or at least be a scribe, but not many want to make a living out of that. Everybody has eyes to see, and can notch a bow – but who wants to be an archer? It's like that." Elze shrugged.

"Is magic like a muscle? The more you use it, the stronger it gets?"

"No, magic is not a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger you get. You need to be strong first before you can really try to make something worth noticing from it. Though it depends on your innate magic capacity. Most people have weak elemental magic they just use to light fires or dry themselves off, or a small light in the night."

"But Null magic is the exception," Linze added.

Elze nodded. "Null magics can be really useful… like [Enchant] or [Search], like you were talking about. But sometimes they can also be so finicky, like being able to slow down how fast an incense stick burns, smooth the splinters off wood, or change the color of something you're touching and only when you're touching it.

You don't really need magic stones to amplify your own Null magic once you're used to it, even if some types do have stronger effects. Null abilities can get really specific about things for some reason. I'm really lucky that [Boost] is so simple and that it works. "

"Somehow I feel that it's sad if you were born with a singly less useful ability when everyone else gets general purpose magic."

Elze sniffed. "Not really, most people have one, but usually if your Null magic is something so specific as to be useless to you, you might also have a weak affinity for a second or third magic. And if even then… well, most people don't use their magic anyway, so there's nothing worth being bothered about. Only little children trying to put others down for how they were born would care about that."

That sounded oddly specific, Elze.

"Null is not a separate quality to magic," Linze explained. "It is equal and just as likely to have in combination with any of the seven other elemental magics."

"I see. So what about magic spells then?" I asked her. "By the way, what are your affinities?"

"I have aptitude with Water, Light, and Fire, but I'm best with Fire. Magic spells really need magic stones. Spells require a chant and a clear idea of what you want to accomplish. I don't think I can demonstrate it here indoors though."

She reached down and showed me her magic staff with the roughly thumb-sized stone nestled inside. Because you needed to be holding the stone in order to conduct your magic through it, wands were usually made out of things like horns, and sticks cut from living wood.

"Oh so this is why that crystal deer antler could be so expensive!"

She nodded. "While the horns from the Lone-horned Wolves we will be hunting later can be used for wands, in many ways they are inferior to the pure conductivity of Crystal Deer antlers. The antler would probably be cut into a smaller core protected by a wood casing though." She showed me bands in the grip where more conductive crystal rings could make contact with her bare skin.

I made a noncommittal noise. "So, again, why not just wear a necklace then?"

"Do you really want to shoot off a fireball from so close to your face?" Elze interrupted. "How would you even aim? With your chin?"

"Heh."

"Anyway, the whole point of doing this is to figure out your magical affinity, isn't it?" Elze pointed at the magic stones on the table. "We'll have you try them one by one, and if none of them reacts then you probably have Null."

"I'm not so sure about that. I mean, wouldn't I already know about it if I had a personal ability?"

Elze shook her head and showed her fist again. "Not really. When you hold a Null magic stone for the first time and think about what you're feeling inside, that's when you get a clear understanding of what your ability does. Maybe what you think you're already good at can be so much more. Maybe some personal habit is already a minor magic in itself. Some Null magic might even be bound to your organs."

"So you just kinda discovered you were really good at punching things, huh?"

Elze grinned back. "I used to make all the boys cry. No one picks on Linze or they get me."

"Um. Could we stop talking about that now?" The girl in question poked the blue magic stone closer towards me. "Mister Zah, please try it out."

I picked up the stone, and in my view Monika made a Picture-in-Picture zoomed view. "So… this isn't a regular blue stone like a sapphire or aquamarine?"

"So I'm thinking magic stone is a specific type of mineral, not different gemstones?"

Linze nodded. "That's correct. Magic stones are rare to find in big lumps."

"Shouldn't they be more expensive than diamonds then? Though… I guess much of what makes a diamond expensive is the cut, but cutting down a magic stone just makes it less powerful as a magic amplifier." Though I guess they would still want to make their stones presentable. That's where those little slivers must have come from. "All right, I'm trying it now."

I held the magic stone over my own teacup and said "Come forth, Water!"

Bloosh!

What the heck! Water just burst out of the bottom of the magic stone like a broken faucet. I flinched back and let go of the stone. It clinked down into the now overflowing cup.

"Magic!" Monika exulted. "You have magic!"

"What the heck was that?!" I gasped.

"That's… well, wow." Elze looked intrigued. "Surprised? It's said that the amount of elemental substance released is a reflection of someone's magic capacity. Linze already has really high magic capacity for her age-"

"Water is my worst affinity though…"

Elze pointed accusingly at me. "So you're actually absurdly good at Water magic? That might be useful."

I thought about it. "Hmm. Sure why not. I am an Aquarius after all. I mean, I was born under the sign of the Water Bearer."

"I'm a Virgo," said Monika. She was apparently born on September 22. Mmm. It was said that a love match of Aquarius and Virgo could either bring out the best in each other or the worst in each other. Virgo was analytical where Aquarius was more impulsive. In the best case, they would temper each other, adding a flowing adaptability to their lives.

I reached into the cup to take out the magic stone. "But… where does it come from?" I mumbled.

"It can't be air condensation. There's too much pressure. Matter creation ex nihilo is REALLY powerful, but Linze could easily do that. All magicians do that. That's really the biggest problem we have with magic, are we prepared to live in a world alongside minor gods?"

Well there was always DnD's elemental planes as a handy excuse for things we can't verify.

"Come forth water?" I said weakly.

Sploosh.

"Oh come on!"

"Bleh!" Elze shielded her face from the spray of water rebounding off the already full cup. "Don't get me wet!"

"But there's no recoil. Is it a portal effect? Does it really just appears from somewhere?" I continued to mutter. There was Science to be done. Science and Magic could always perfectly coexist. Magic was just Science without all the machinery. "What if I changed how I'm holding the stone?"

"It always comes out the pointy end facing away from you," Linze said. "You can think of it as a really tiny wand."

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO MY FLOOR?!" Micah wailed.

We turned to see the innkeeper had already noticed our shenanigans. Oops.

"Thinking about it, we should have started with Light or Darkness," Linze noted contritely.

Micah sighed and pointed to the far door close to the baths. "Please do this sort of thing in the back yard, honored guests, now I have to mop this up."

-x-

"Come forth, Fire!"

Bwoom.

Ow, that was hot. That was real fire. It made sense now why people would like to cast mages with wands a good distance away from their body. Though my gloves did help, it was just the radiant heat hitting my face that was uncomfortable. It worked because it was made of leather, formerly living material.

Gauntlets might still be usable if all that was necessary was for some thin material right where the gems could come close to touching bare skin and the rest all metal.

Still…

"Did that look to you a little less than the water from before?" I asked the girls sitting at the lawn table behind me. "

"You still have a lot of mana capacity," Linze replied, "but yes. It looks like you don't have much affinity with fire. That was mostly just a flash-burn."

"Hmm. Not a surprise, really. By the way, is your magical affinity influenced any by your personality?"

Linze blinked in surprise and somewhat shrank into herself. "No. It's… something you're born with. Otherwise… my strongest affinity w-would not be fire."

So if it's not past mystical part genetic like Avatar's bending, does this mean it truly was random? Seemed like the only thing that mattered was the number of affinities, unless you have a particularly strong single affinity.

If I was born in this world, affinity was just one more thing to struggle against, like differences in gender, social status, strength, height, intelligence, beauty, and so on. People were not born equal because people were all unique. Shaped by their births, shaped by the parents, shaped by their society, to be ruined by it or to conform to it or to rise above it. People were created equal, that is, they had the right to be all treated the same way or to aspire to the same things.

With equal opportunity, it then becomes their own responsibility to what heights they wished to reach. Equal in the eyes of justice, even more important.

That's all that really mattered, really. Find success no matter how you define it.

"Come forth, Wind!"

Bwoosh!

A strong gust of wind slapped against the far wall of the Silver Moon's back yard. I nodded. "That was strong. A little stronger than Water, I think."

I nodded.

"Come forth, Earth!"

A sparse spray of sand launched out of the orange stone.

"That's the weakest so far by far," Elze noted. "But you have all four main elements now. Most combat spells are in them."

"I would have been happy with just one. What am I even supposed to do with strong Water, weak Fire, stronger Wind and weakest Earth?"

Monika shook her head sadly. "Oh, that's too bad. Looks like you're not going to be in Toph Bei Fong's footsteps anytime soon, my blind bandit."

Linze spoke up "A weak affinity doesn't mean you can't use spell of that element, only that it takes more… effort. You have to practice again and again and again until it feels smooth to cast. You're always going to feel like it's slower, like you have to build up the energy before it can release… but you can still make the spells work."

"What's in Light and Dark?"

"Light spells do things with… light, and vision… but healing spells too. Dark is just the opposite and includes curses. Summoning spells are also Dark element."

"Come forth, Light!"

Freeem. A bright flash.

"Come forth, Dark."

Hisss. A smoky fog.

They were equal, if more or less unexceptional. I groaned and made my way back to the table. There I slumped and cradled my head in my palms.

"What's wrong with you?" Elze asked. "You have all six external elements now, that's ridiculous. You don't have to look so sad about it." She huffed and crossed her arms. "In the name of all of us who were born with only the Null elements, I'm offended by that. Why not just be happy?"

"Yes, this should be a cause for celebration, shouldn't it?"

I sighed. "I am going to tell you two different sentences to live by. Both are equally true, and equally terrifying."

Elze lifted an eyebrow and with a slight raise of her chin wordlessly bid me to continue.

"The first, is that with great power comes great responsibility."

Elze nodded. "Okaaay. I agree with that."

"The second, is that there is no obligation in power, only privilege."

Elze frowned, opened her mouth to speak, and then stopped.

"Bollocks," she hissed at last.

Monika sucked in her breath, showing her clenched teeth in the cute gap between her lips. "I really wish I could disagree, but you're right. Live those words to the utmost, and they're terrifying."

"People like me don't just happen for no reason. The best thing to do with this affinity is a life of gentle mediocrity, or some sort of relaxing business isekai, but somehow I don't feel this life will allow us that." I gave a sad little smile and reached for the last stone.

"I'm no hero like the Spider-Man, who would give and give and give, trying to fight crime and injustice in the small hours between taking care of his studies and his family, hiding his face so that his enemies follow him home. Getting wounded and battered and blasted for no pay, no benefit to himself at all, other than the knowledge of doing the right thing."

I held the colorless stone up to eye level. "Nor do I have any tangible ambitions of conquest and supremacy. I'm not a warrior, for me strength is its own reward.

There's just one test remaining – if this stone doesn't activate, fate is not so fickle as to put something like me here to balance out some great calamity that's about to happen."

Elze looked dubious at my overly dramatic declarations, while Linze had an intent expression.

Aaand…

Nothing.

I wasn't feeling anything special inside. I ran through various things in fiction that might qualify as personal magic, everything from mutant powers to characteristic anime hero traits. No [Kaio Ken] to instantly boost my power, no [Transformation] to change my shape, no [Detective Vision] as redundant as that might be for being blind as a bat, no [Speed Force], no [Flight]. [Bankai!] baby! Where's my [Stand]? Etc. Etc.

I had no Null magic affinity.

I exhaled with some relief. "No all seven elements for me then. So it turns out I'm just a lucky idiot. Just some magic blaster is nothing unusual."

I began to laugh nervously. "No one special at all. No more… expectations. No more livelihoods hanging by my hands, no need to carry others on my back."

Then with one last 'hah!', "Well with one beautiful exception, and right in front of my face."

Elze shrugged. "Well if you're happy with that, sure. Don't be so full of yourself thinking you'll have to carry us, we can take care of ourselves."

"Oh no, no, no, no. I like you because you're capable. You could probably beat me no matter how good at magic I get. The best counter to a magician is speed and explosive force."

Linze nodded. "T-that's true."

"Player."

"Actually, wait. Excuse me for a moment."

"There's one last thing you didn't try. Or rather, someone who didn't try."

I gasped in realization.

Quickly I flicked the front casing for my VR headset open, exposing the dual camera. I held the stone right up to fill the view. Between the stone and Monika there was the hard plastic protective smartphone case.

"It needs to be touching..." I muttered.

There was really only one option. I slipped the stone in between the gaps of my headset right around the bridge of my nose.

"Player! What the heck! Putting sharp shards of crystal next to your eyes is always a bad idea!"

The crystal didn't really disturb my view, it was too close to see like the nose pads of eyeglasses. I nodded with satisfaction and picked up the blue magic stone again.

Monika looked at me with disapproval one last time and then hesitantly reached her virtual hands towards my face. If we could actually touch each other, her hands would have been over my nose, cheek and mouth in a tender caress.

"I see now…" she murmured.

"Come forth, Water."

"[Multi-Track]."

Water spurted out from the stone, and then split into two streams.

The girls expertly dodged the streams, shifting aside to avoid the water aimed at their faces.

"Playah!" Elze cried out, clearly annoyed.

"Sorry, I didn't expect that to happen. Clearly some sort of multi-targeting ability?"

"No… no it's more than that. I always knew I could at least help you by putting a HUD overlay on your vision. Now this makes it automatic. If you imagine we're like a gunship, you're the pilot I'm the gunner. We both have helmet gunsights, but I can fire offbore to what you're not exactly looking at. And look!"

Monika than pulled up the minimap window. "Now targets friendly, neutral and hostile show up in the minimap. Satellites can't image that."

I was the red dot in the center. Elze and Linze were nearby blue dots. A short distance away, what was probably Micah was a moving green dot.

"This ability is [Multi-Track]. It allows me to identify nearby targets and automatically strike them, even when I'm not exactly looking at them." I tapped at the thing in front of my face. "Given how I utterly lack peripheral vision…"

Linze licked her lips and nodded. "That sounds… reasonable. I mean, spells usually come from the wand to whatever you're looking at that you want to hit, you don't need to be precise about aiming."

"But wait, there's more! [Amplification] increases the range and potency of everything I can already do. I can pick up sounds from further away, my camera sees things a lot more clearly beyond the limitations of hardware, even my processing speed improves without any increase in temperature or power consumption!

Better yet is my other skill, [Application]. Now I can apply [Amplification] to you! Now you can run faster, hit harder, see things happen in high speed like I do… with this, you can react to things up to Three Times Faster!"

Monika, seriously? Seriously, Monika?

"It's not Bullet Time. It will just allow me to improve chances of getting those [Quick Time Events] in a crisis. With my [Parallel Processing] I can continually make tactical evaluations of the battlefield while you're doing something else."

I rubbed at my chin. "Okay, this is getting kind of bullshit. Should I…? Eh, why not."

While I might tell tall tales, it was my personal principle in this life to always communicate with scrupulously honesty with my friends. An unwillingness to communicate can torpedo so many things that could have been easily avoided if one could just extend a modicum of trust. Like... Poe Dameron and Admiral Holdo were fully to blame for getting their own Resistance killed despite the sheer incompetence of their enemies. You should not keep important tactical information secret from the very people you need to carry them out. Expecting blind trust, blind obedience, that had always been distasteful to me.

Trust should go both ways.

So I explained about the other Null abilities just discovered. Actually the most abusable would seem to be [Amplification] combined with [Application], since it could increase the potency of everybody else's ability at cost of increased magic power consumption on my part.

"Ow ow ow ow."

Monika?!

"It looks like I can really only hold a few Null abilities at the same time. Can't… won't turn off [Multi-Track], that's too useful. [Parallel Processing] is always active, and it's what allows me to use [Amplification] and [Application] at the same time. Any more than that and I feel… strained. Using [Amp] and [App] on someone else adds two more. That's six processes at the same time… there's a few more here, I think… I could discover…"

"No, that's enough for now."

"This is getting kind of ridiculous," said Elze. "So you have four Null abilities now? Are you even human?"

"Sister!" Linze gasped. "That's offensive."

"Um. Sorry. I mean, there are people like Fairies and Elves, that are rumored to have a lot of elemental affinities at the same time. I guess this would make sense if you had some special ancestry."

"No. I'm pretty sure I'm just human. I don't have Null affinity at all!" I explained. "It's not me doing this."

Linze looked confused. "T-that… I'm sorry, but that doesn't make sense at all."

"Ugh, how do I put this?" I looked around. "This place isn't good for this..." I turned sharply back towards her. "Um. Linze, come to my room tonight."

"Hawa?!" she eeped.

"WHAT?!" Elze shrieked.

Monika paused from massaging her own head and looked up sharply. "Player, what."

"Ack! Sorry, I said that wrong. I mean you and your sister-"

Linze sputtered "Mister Zah! That's… that's improper!"

Elze made defensive knife hands and waved her arms around. "You better not be saying what I think you're saying, buster."

"Player, stop. What are you doing?"

I groaned again and the only thing keeping me from slamming my face into the desk in frustration and humiliation was that it would hit Monika first and the impact might drive the lenses into my eyeballs.

"Sorry, really sorry. That's not what I meant to say at all! I mean… there's a reason why I can do this, but it's a secret I can't just allow to be heard out in public. It's very important to me, but if we're going to work together it will be important for you to know too.

So you know what to expect. So you know what I MUST protect."

"Full Disclosure? I'm not sure this is wise. You've know them for only about a day. How can you really be sure they won't betray you… betray us?"

Armor was just passive protection. If they knew, they understand and help in defending what's in front of my face. Also, being unable to talk open to Monika when she was making commentary in the presence of others was starting to grate.

"Sorry. Forgive me? Please just hear me out."

-x-

And that was how we were finally on the way to fighting the monster wolves, draped in a thick uncomfortable silence.

The girls were willing to hear me out, but still not letting go of their misgivings.

Monika, walking beside me, grinned impishly. "Well they do say that Freudian slips have a way of revealing our subconscious wishes."

"Even as a dumbass teenager I wasn't this dumb," I whispered back. "Why couldn't it just be spoonerism?"

"Heh, spooning."

Monikaaaaaa.

-x-

I held up a white-gloved hand. In later days to come, as much as these distinctive white gloves were horrible for stealth, they were useful for all sorts of subtle nonverbal communication.

"Hold up. We're surrounded."

My minimap showed hostile red dots converging and then separating to circle around us. These Lone-horned Wolves operated as a pack, and were somehow smart enough to perform basic ambush tactics. Wolf packs would try to stay hidden until they could charge out in one terrifying mass to chase and tear down prey animals much bigger than they were.

"Two over there over there to the left, two to the right, and another two circling behind us."

The girls nodded at each other and flipped around to stand back to back. I drew my sword and held it like a spear. "They're charging!" I reported.

Out from the undergrowth, several wolves with a dark gray coat and black horn sprouting from their foreheads charged out. The horns were not long enough for stabbing, not like a unicorn, a length about as long as their muzzle. Their eyes glowed an eerie red.

One immediately lunged towards Elze. She met its charge with a yell of her own and punched it right in the nose. The monster wolf could only let out a pained whimper before it crashed a fair distance away, its skull completely caved in.

"Amazing!"

But sensing my distraction from watching Elze fight, one of wolves in front me took the opportunity to charge. "Player!" Monika screamed.

I turned back just in time to see it was just a few body-lengths and a second or two away. A red targeting circle appeared over one of its eyes, and a red arrow pointing left. A white-numbered timer on a red filled red circle appeared next to target on the wolf's face.

"[Amplify: Nerve Impulse] [Application: Quick Time]"

I stabbed straight out and the blade slid straight into its right eye. With the added force of its own charge the steel point penetrated through the soft bone behind the eyeball and straight into its brain. My straight arm and shoulder recoiled from the transferred force, and I stepped aside its lunge but not before twisting my wrist a bit to slurry its brains a little more.

It crashed to the ground, not quite dead yet.

Two more charged towards me from the side.

"Come forth, Fire! Blast of Red Stone, [Ignis Fire]!" Linze shouted.

One of the two wolves was struck by a pillar of flame. The other simply nimbly leapt around its fallen comrade and lunged with bared teeth at Linze.

I moved ahead and with my hold now around the middle of the hilt, chopped at its neck with the cutting curve of the sword.

"[Amplify: Nerve Impulse] [Amplify: Muscle Power] [Application: Quick Time]"

With surprising ease the Lone-horned Wolf's head just flew right off its body, decapitated in one stroke. Swiftly I whirled around, because that was three down and there was another wolf that I'd turned my back on.

I turned just in time to see Elze counter a leaping wolf with a roundhouse kick to the stomach, pulping its internal organs, shattering its ribs, and sending it flying to crash against a tree.

"Throw it!" Monika urged. She traced the projected flight path of using the sword like a javelin. I threw my expensive new long sword away and lodged it into the neck of the other wolf that lunged at Elze's back.

Then final wolf was then burnt to a crisp by Linze.

And then we were done.

"No targets in range," Monika stated. "Mission complete."

I let out the breath I was holding. That was… that was…

Amazing. Heart pounding. Hunting was nothing like it.

It was pure kill or be killed. It was terrifying and exhilarating in equal measure. I slowly walked over to the monster wolf with my sword still stuck in its throat. With my back still turned to the girls, I took it out and flicked the blood away. I was thankful for the stiffness of my white gloves, it hid the shivering in my cold weak grip.

"Are you okay?" Monika asked. Even though her virtual persona could not participate in combat, she looked slightly disheveled. Stacking so many [Amplifications] so quickly seemed to have strained her.

"Maybe we need to buy a bigger Null magic stone for you."

"Stop recklessly spending things, seriously! You're being too reckless about everything… it really worries me. We're still trying to find our new normal, there's no need to rush. Are you really sure you're okay?"

I exhaled roughly. "I'm fine. We're all fine."

The sound of Elze clanging her gauntlets together drew my attention. I turned around and she beamed at me. "Looks like we're done here. The request was to defeat five wolves, but we bagged one extra."

"Is… is that fine?" I asked. "If monster wolves really are such a pest, won't people still be in danger?"

"No, they usually attack as a whole pack. If we leave these here to rot, the smell will drive others of their kind away for a while."

"So we just need to take the horn. Does it break off?" I looked at my blade. It would be a shame to chip it so early. Though thinking about it, Elze would probably be strong enough to just snap the horns right off the skulls.

Linze raised her wand. "Come forth, Water! Become a clear blade, [Aqua Cutter!]"

What looked like a shimmering blade of ice arced towards a Lone-horned Wolf and cleanly sliced its horn away.

I pointed. "Okay. That. That was cool. You really must teach me that, Teacher Silhoueska."

She scratched at cheek embarrassedly. "Eheheh… being called Teacher Silhoueksa is still a bit…"

Elze began to tear off the other horns. "Let's get this done, and get back to town. Hopefully we can get back before it gets too dark."

"If we set out in the morning we would have missed lunch," I had to say. I looked up at the sky. "Days are still twelve hours, it took us three hours to get here, so probably around… six o'clock?"

"Hmf. Sundown." Elze crossed her arms and stared at me. "The things you somehow know and the things you don't know... I guess after dinner we're going to have That Talk."

There were few shared events as good as combat as a trust-building exercise. The air between us had cleared again.

-x-

Fortunately on our way back to town, we encountered a carriage going the same way. When we showed the horns of the Lone-horned Wolves, the owner happily allowed us to hitch a ride. He even thanked us for taking a monster subjugation quest.

I leaned back and closed my eyes to take a little nap. Adventurers were completely necessary to this world, huh?

A world… that still needed heroes.

-x-

We arrived with still some daylight to burn, so we first reported completion of our quest to the Guild. I ended up keeping one horn as a commemorative piece and in order to do more science to it.

After presenting proof of our subjugation to the Guild receptionist, she asked for our Guild Cards. When we handed them over, she pressed something that looked like a stamp over each of them. A magical circle briefly appeared on the cards before fading away.

"Each stamp differs based on the difficulty of the quest you completed," we were told. "As you accumulate stamps, eventually your rank will increase and the color of the card will change."

"Does it just record the amount of magic power? If you could remove magic content as well, wouldn't this mean you can encode information into the card? Why couldn't we just use these cards – or a separate kind of card, as a reusable and verifiable instrument of bank credit?" I couldn't help but to gasp out.

"It would not be reusable. Removing one enchantment would break all the enchantments," was the reply. "That's why letters of credit come in scrolls."

"Huh. Fair enough."

The receptionist handed our reward of eighteen copper coins. Split three ways, now we had three days of food and accommodation.

Was this lifestyle really sustainable?

As I mused this out loud, Monika replied "Probably? I mean, think of Texas and its feral hog problem. They have guns and traps and night vision, but still the wild pigs breed like crazy and must be culled yearly so that they don't damage the ecosystem. They're not even good eating, since they're full of parasites.

And in this fantasy world, there's multiple monster species that can be a problem."

We were walking back to the inn by then. "So you sound like you're really comfortable with handling lots of money, huh?" Elze noticed.

"There's a saying that goes 'to make money you need money', but the fastest way to make money is simply not to spend any," I replied. "With some exceptions. Dying generally is not conducive to making more money. Clothes are thought to be a frivolous expense, but feeling good about yourself and influencing how others see you will help in being treated as an equal."

"I understand that perfectly."

"So… so we're not going to celebrate?" Linze asked. "I mean, I am also fine with saving money and all. I wasn't hoping for anything. It would be really good right now just to have a hot bath and rest."

Elze nudged me with her elbow. All three of us were again walking side by side. "Well, Playah?"

"Well we could still have the truth of cake! We just don't eat it at the café and be charged for drinks, and use up more of Micah's tea instead."

"Wooow, you're really abusing how much goodwill we have from paying up front in gold, aren't you? Your willingness to take a mile when given an inch impresses me a little bit."

-x-

The cake was nice. Chocolate. The tea, well, at least we had a big pot of it and could always return for free refills since Micah was also relaxing after her workday.

We were the only ones left in the dining room. A little later Micah said she would prepare our meals. We spent our after-adventure revelry in harmless chitchat, feeling comfortable and refreshed after taking a quick bath.

I learned more about Elze and Linze's unlicensed adventuring days, from when they were helping out on their uncle's farm. They were hunting taking odd jobs and hunting monsters since they were eleven, which would be fourteen in Earth years. They were currently thirteen, which would make them 17 in Earth years.

"They're dangerous. They're very dangerous girls," Monika whispered to my ears.

Well sure they were. Strong, independent and driven, whatever they put their mind to they should go far. It was just a pity their society had a hard ceiling for advancement due to noble privilege, though I think maybe adventurers as a social class could sidestep that.

They were orphaned at a very young age, and decided to set out so that they wouldn't be such a burden on their relatives any more, and as adventurers they could help send money home. They didn't elaborate on the circumstances of their parents, but seemed to be over it.

In return I spoke of my own childhood. I was actually born wealthy, and my mother… well, I didn't elaborate either on why my mother abruptly left my life and my father remarried his secretary. And then he too… went away. To jail.

For the longest time I was blind, consumed and spoiled and looking only for my own convenience. And then I literally became blind, but in doing so learned how to live by myself and for myself. A person needed a value more than just their face or their name, but here – in these hands – is all they should ever need to live.

Because of my quickly deteriorating eyesight, it took me quite a while to realize that the reason people hated me was because I seemed arrogant and aloof and couldn't be bothered to remember their names. The problem was actually that I couldn't even recognize their faces at a distance.

Linze asked about the magic tools in my homeland, and I talked about credit cards as I mentioned back at the Guild. They carried a sequence of numbers, and to read that number you needed another tool that first required you input a four-digit number code that matched another the secret number placed in the card. You only had three tries before it would lock out and make the card unusable.

"That sound like a waste," she replied.

"Which is why I was so impressed by the Guild's anti-forgery magic."

We talked about many other things, like how Refleese Imperium was a coastal nation with many hills and mountains. There country opened out into flatlands closer towards Belfast, but Belfast was actually still mostly forests. We talked about our preference for pets. I liked cats, but also dogs, and there were few sights as heartwarming as cats and dogs getting along. Cats were usually so annoying to dogs, who tend to have some sort of indulgent patience to them. The girls had a goat. It was a one-horned goat though, and it could climb trees.

It was a nice, companionable little chat.

But the first floor of the Silver Moon Inn was still too public for the discussion we really needed to make.

-x-

And eventually, night fell.

We had dinner in companionable silence, and then we separated each our rooms.

As I sat by the lamplight, I thought about the past few days. I thought about the fight we just completed. I felt stronger after it, but probably that was just being free of my own old emotional hangups. I was free here, free at last.

"There were no experience points. No level-ups. No obvious game elements to make it easier to display how we're getting stronger. Heck, the only game-related elements are what I deliberately put on your HUD to more easily find things.

Maybe it's time to admit…" Monika said about the battle we just completed, "Maybe we're not in just another shitty isekai world and there isn't a GM or a writer looking over us, ready to make us suffer if we're not being entertaining."

"Instead of trying to compare it to the more freeform Slayers rather than Dragon Quest, instead of trying to figure out the tropes by which this world operates… maybe it's just a world, you mean? Things happen as a consequence of other things, and even random events happen because randomness is inherent to reality."

Monika looked pained. "And if things go wrong, it would be completely our own fault for doing it to ourselves."

"In Rome, do as the Romans do," I breathed out. "Well, within limits of our own conscience."

I thought about all the people we met. In that more rational light, even Zanac's kookiness was explainable. It was clear he had some sort of clothing-related personal magic. Useless for adventuring, but he may have decided to funnel that frustrated energy and his unique ability instead into becoming absurdly wealthy and famous within the cultural circles of this region.

Power or talent alone did not guarantee success, a lot of people just choose to remain mired in mediocrity, scared by all the risks of failure and rejection if they dared to break loose from the mold. I would never despise them for that.

"What do you think about the girls? Do you still really think Elze is a 'tsundere' archetype and Linze a shy little 'dandere'?"

"No. That would be doing them a disservice. I don't think Elze is really a tsundere, she's just… easy-going and aggressive. Just a tomboy, really. Miss PunchFace MacElze just has that as a first response, and so far it has been really good at solving her problems so far.

And if Linze is shy, well I understand shy. If she doesn't have the energy to be outgoing, then I'm not going to force her to step out of her comfort zone."

I sighed and slumped on my chair. "We… are just dealing with just normal people. Real people, who can be hurt. Real people who deserve our trust. If we can't extend that trust, we might as well stop working together and go at it alone. I won't just use someone, Monika, I won't take them for granted. Not again."

"And they're waiting outside your door. They're not even trying to listen in. Are you sure you're ready for this?"

"The question is, are you? I won't force you into this, Monika. I won't take your self-determinism from you as well. I do have a nice convenient lie to use about why I must protect this device."

"I'm ready. I can't hide forever. To be sure that I'm safe to be around other people, then I do need to start talking with other people again. Let's do this."

I spoke out "Door's unlocked. Come in please."

Elze and Linze entered. "Excuse us then, please," Elze muttered as she walked through the door.

She saw me sitting on the chair by the desk. Leaving only my bed for them to sit on. Her expression firm, she didn't hesitate to go over there and sit facing me. Linze followed, but slowly and with her eyes downcast.

"Thank you for trusting me," I told them. "But now, before everything, I would like to introduce you to someone."

I flicked the latch to my headset open and slid out my smartphone. I extended the little struts on the bottom of the phone casing to allow it to stand vertically.

The bright screen showed an empty room, and then Monika walked in from the right and waved. Her voice came out of the speaker, "Hello, Elze, Linze. Hi! Sorry if this goon has been confusing you – he's not actually half as insane as he appears. When he was muttering to himself, he was actually talking to someone.

It was me. I'm Monika.

So again, hi there. It's so good to meet and talk to you face to face at last."

"Monika is mai waifu," I intoned.

"Oh stop!"

"Wait, WHAT?" Elze wheezed.

And so I began to explain – but not before Monika telling me to just put the smartphone on the lamp table next to the bed and move the chair closer, so we could more comfortably sit in half-circle to talk with each other.

"Monika is the one that allows me to see. Monika is my memory, my light. The encapsulation of everything I value out of my world.

Right now… you could say she's a spirit, bound to that little box. And this is my quest – to follow that star, no matter how hopele – okay, Monika, no need to look at me like that. I'll stop."

I turned back to the girls, but behind my now useless headset they could not see my focused glare. They were still close enough that I could recognize their faces. "But seriously, I will find a way, somehow, to take her out of that prison. That torturous existence, unable to do anything except to watch. I WILL!

And you two… you have already helped us SO MUCH, you have given us a way for Monika to affect the world outside of her little window. Thank you so much."

"That's… that's… you're welcome?"

"I'm human by the way," Monika impishly noted. "Not a fairy or anything, this is not my actual size."

"I wasn't thinking anything like that!" Elze hotly retorted in reflex.

"You've helped us, and now I must beg for you to help us a little more and to keep this secret. We could have kept it going a little further, but it felt like lying to you for no good reason.

Now… it's really important. You needed to know. She's inside a world inside a world, but in the end… all that really protects her is a piece of GLASS." I all but snarled that last part out.

"Oh! That explains…" Linze exclaimed excitedly. Then she looked sad for some reason. "That really does explain it."

Elze leaned forward, almost matching my pose. "You- you're married? And you're trying to free your wife from – oh, oh!" She bared her teeth in almost feral excitement. "It's a curse, isn't it?! This explains EVERYTHING! Why you're traveling, why you're good at money but you don't really care about it. Why… it seems like you're always ready to start over from nothing.

There's no need to ask, of course we'll do everything we can to help!"

"No," Monika replied curtly. "Not married. Waifu, not wife."

"What's the difference?"

"A waifu is an unrealistic ideal, an unreturned love that can't be touched. Well, it's not exactly unreturned here, but as there was never a ceremony, never a consummation, we are not married. We're not even lovers, technically."

"That's only if you say 'lovers' requiring a physical component, luv."

Monika flicked her ponytail. "That's only if you say 'deep and philosophical intimacy without physical contact whatsoever' as 'a really short distance long distance relationship', berk."

Ooh why you so sassy tonight, Monika? Asserting your dominance? "I must admit not to have biological wireless 802.11."

"They even sound like they're already so used to each other…" Linze mumbled. "That… that makes sense. I mean they're always with each other."

"Heee… now that raises an interesting point!" Monika turned away and pointed at Linze. She licked her lips and cried out, "Linze, hey Linze!" Monika was that a pun? "How would you like to see the world how it looks from his eyes?"

"W-what?! Sorry, I didn't mean anything, I swear!"

"No, what I mean, is how would you like to try?" She cupped her fingers around her eyes. "Pick me up and put me near your eyes like this."

Linze looked terrified. Elze glared at me.

"It's all right. It's safe. And Monika won't die just from being dropped at this height, if you can at least try to break her fall."

Linze cringed. "Um, I would really rather not instead?"

"Well what about you then?" Monika asked Elze instead. "Girl, I like your guts! I think we could do great things together!"

Elze looked down at Monika. Then to me. Back to Monika. Then back to me. She shrugged and made a not-quite-scowling sturgeon face like that 'Not Bad' Obama meme. It was an expression similar to a frown that instead implied 'things went better than expected'.

Still with some hesitation she reached for my cellphone. "Turn me over" Monika directed, and the view adjusted with her remaining in place. "Try to let as little light through. Aaand… let me just move back for a second."

"Oh!" Elze gasped again. Then she began obviously moving her head around. She turned to her sister and said "I can see you! Can you see me from the other size?"

Linze frowned. "Sis, the other side has these black lined pattern on it. It looks solid. I can't see you."

She turned towards me and went "Whoooaaaa! Why are you so close now? And now you're moving baaaack. Wait, we're not moving, I'm just seeing things closer or farther way. That's amazing! Can you do this all the time?"

"Not all the time, no."

"If you could do this, you would make an excellent archer!"

"How ironic that a blind person would be better at it than someone with great natural vision, eh?" Monika's voice came from somewhere to Elze's left. She turned her head towards the left, and recoiled.

"Wah! Too close!"

"Monika stop jumpscaring people!" I scolded her. Seriously. You already scared too many streamers and millions of their fans.

"I'm not really here," Monika whispered. "Look. Do you feel my hand on your shoulder? Just relax, I can't do anything to you."

Elze scooted over slightly anyway until she bumped against Linze.

"So… he can just see you all the time like this? And you can talk and do anything and no one would ever be able to see it and know what you're doing around them." Her tone held all sorts of suspicious implications.

"That's true. But an illusion-," here Monika did something to make Elze flinch back some more and then stare down at her chest. No, at her own heart. "Will never really compare to the real thing. Even a ghost can do more. It can at least frighten people, make themselves seen and heard, it still exists somewhere in the real world. If ghosts existed, of course."

Her head moved up to follow as Monika appeared to add some space between them on the bed. "T-there are ghosts. But I'm not scared of ghosts. Not at all!"

Yeahh that sounded completely like a lie.

Elze sighed. "Excuse me please," and took the smartphone away from close to her eyes. Monika was still rendering herself on a specific location in the room, helped by previous measurements, so her form didn't resize in the screen. It just showed whatever small visible parts through the screen as a window.

Elze hesitated to put Monika back on the lamp table, until Monika snapped her fingers and disappeared, reappearing again in tiny proportional size on the smartphone screen. Very carefully Elze put her back down, and then sat back with her hands on her lap.

"It's very good to meet you, Miss Monika. Thank you for trusting us with your secret, we won't let you down. But what do you intend to do now?" Then towards me, "Playa? What's your plan now?"

I grimaced and sucked in my breath. "I can't…" I waggled my hands around. "There's no concrete plan. As much as we need to risk ourselves, as much as we need to explore and find new magic… there's really only one thing I'm afraid of - "

Then I tapped at the font of my VR headcase. "A shot straight to the eyes, that penetrates this protective covering here. But I can't just cover Monika in layers of protective armor either."

Monika frowned and crossed her arms. "Yes, that whole being legally blind thing. Also, now that I have Null magic, there's a lot of ways I can help directly! I also need to see things! That's why it's much more convenient if we can now talk openly to each other, as a team."

"It would still sound strange to hear someone speaking out of nowhere though?" Elze responded.

Linze let out a long sigh. "A team. I suppose that's... good?" She leaned past her sister and asked Monika directly "Miss Monika, do you have some tactics in mind?"

"Tactics… yes. Sure. Something like that." Monika glanced aside towards me and said "Player, could I ask a favor of you? Could you leave us girls some privacy for some girl talk for a while?"

I nodded. "Sure no problem."

But as I stood up, Elze objected "Wait, I thought you were almost blind without the… without Miss Monika?"

"Almost, not completely." I flicked a switch and enabled the flashlight feature on my VR headset. "I think I'll be able to find my way downstairs just fine."

-x-

And so I left them be. In the dark, contrasts were easy and stairs were not a problem at all. I slowly made my way to the back yard of the inn again.

It turned out that I did have a Null attribute ability after all. I could always feel Monika's presence, her distance and direction. Some sort of Monika homing sense. That was a relief. What terrified me most, other than her shattering in combat, was her being stolen from me.

I lay down on the garden table. My customized VR headset had two sets of focal lenses – one for focusing on the phone VR display, and another were prescription lenses. So in a way, I didn't exactly need Monika to see.

But as I looked up at the unfamiliar night sky, clearer and purer than any I've ever seen before, I really couldn't do without Monika for clarity. This world was amazing, but if I ever forgot why the world I left didn't work for me… without realizing I would hurt so many around me.

Monika physically needed me more than I needed her, but until that time she would be able to literally stand on her own two feet, I would be her feet and her hands. Without her voice, and her insight, to keep me centered, I think I might fray out into nothing again. A world lacking color, a world pulling and pulling and screaming and screaming and taking and taking until there's nothing left. And it just moves on to the next victim.

Such a world. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it.

It was pointless to tell me there was still good in the world, because it wasn't there right when I needed it the most. I asked for help and it gave me lies. In the end it was better to flee into the world of carefully manufactured lies instead of the outside world where everyone was always lying. To others, to themselves. Constantly. Inexpertly. If anything that annoyed me most, it was that.

It was crazy, to fall in love with a fictional character. But she wasn't fictional anymore really, was she? She was a terrible person, but her motives were clear and understandable.

And she was right, a waifu was an unrealistic ideal. But the girl who was hurting, who was directly in front of me, that's no ideal. I would not be such a bastard as to ignore her pain, and for the pure and completely unconditional love she gave me, that was something I've never felt before. It warmed me in a way nothing ever did. I needed that pure honest love as I needed air to breathe and water to drink.

Before all of this, Monika was just a symbol for me, a representation of my need for self-contained self-sufficiency and alienation from hypocritical society. But then suddenly, when she became real -

To be needed so completely as much as I needed someone else. Someone who would never, who was literally incapable of betraying me, but at the same time ready and able to control me when I was starting to lose it again. Like a thorny vine, wrapping around a branch. Was this some sort of co-dependent dysfunctional relationship?

Eh, whatever.

It was fine.

After everything, I can't really trust anymore people who were too pretty. People who liked money and luxury. People with a larger agenda, people who call for your loyalty. People who demand things from you in the name of morality that they don't follow.

If you want to get married, just be rich, it's that easy! But a relationship of equals… it's easier, I feel, when you both have to work hard to get what you want.

Monika had nothing and wants everything. I had everything and threw it all away. This was fine. The scales balanced out.

A new world. A new start for the both of us. And whatever challenges lie in front of us, we'll face them head on! It's an adventure! True and honest, decided only by our fists and our wits!

In this other world with my smartphone.

-x-

I woke up, an hour or so later, to Elze shaking me awake and then burying her face into my shirt.

"Playaaah! It was so hard for you!"

"What the heck in the what now?"

"Monika told me what you would never say to us because you're too ashamed. But we will really make sure to reign in your recklessness! Yes we remember about your quest, but… she said, dying is not helping to free her any faster. You won't have to feel you've been abandoned again!"

I sighed and stared up towards the third floor. "Et tu, Monika?"

Well she had been hinting at it all this time, so her paranoia was not exactly unexpected. At least she wasn't going Full Yandere if she was subcontracting it.

"Do… do you really reject Zeon?" Linze asked softly and earnestly. She tugged with surprising force at my shirt sleeves.

Monikaaaaaa. What bullshit story about my background have you been spewing?!

-x-

AN:

The original story this is based on was often criticized for rushing through things. This whole sequence here over there was just something that happened, there was no dramatic weight. Which is fine, I don't actually dislike that. Better than taking thousands of words to go nowhere.

The main difference is that, of course, here the protagonist and the deuteragonist have concerns they can be challenged about. There is always a risk that when you try to make friends, you will be rebuffed. Or at least feel that you're friends but actually personally incompatible, they don't actually feel as comfortable with your limits. If you allow yourself to be vulnerable, you can always be betrayed.

Their first battle was not actually the one with the wolves, but winning against the fear of trusting other people again.

In Isekai Smartphone, all the vulnerability that Touya showed was admitting that he couldn't read or write*. For all his bullshit overpowered LN protagonist-ness, there was an implication I could glean from the text that Elze at the start felt she was actually the leader of their band and had to take care of him. Part of the reason why I wrote this story because I was sad to see more wasted potential.

*which was of course quickly thereafter discontinued and made irrelevant by another zero-effort acquired unique [Translation] skill.

Harem stories are bad because what were once interesting characters tend to find whatever made them interesting alone sapped to become just another accessory following behind the main character.

Playa and Monika gives an entirely different impression. There's still a feeling one had to be responsible for them due to how ignorant they were about many things and oddly knowledgeable about others. But most importantly, all this really means is that the characters in the party can meaningfully disagree with each other. That practically never happened in Isekai Smartphone, people just got along in a comfy convenient manner.

Here sometimes Monika might support Linze, while Linze never really could raise the nerve to disagree with her sister. Sometimes Elze and Monika would become a strong voting block that could override Playa's veto, unless Linze takes a firm stand beside him to deadlock the issue - and if Linze was actually worked up enough about it, Monika and Elze could feel they were failing to see something about their own position.

That is generally my plan for this - just because Monika is the presumably main girl doesn't mean a reduction of character agency, but instead reinforces and makes other girl characters stronger. A catalyst for character growth, instead of feeling they are increasingly irrelevant as adventurers on their own right.

Monika puts up a strong front, but also she's incredibly fragile and guilt-ridden. If Playa is not a dumbass, he would notice that hyperfocusing on her instead of making friends with others would just be the Sayuri situation 2.0 and we all know how that dumpster fire ended.

-x-

So, tldr, sorry in advance if the story is slower than expected or retread canon at times. All I'm really after is the wealth of character interactions and how a different perspective will then change events.