Author Note: Flexing my lack of mmo knowledge today.


Finally, after what felt like months of packed schedules with no end in sight, Rinko had some time to play NFO. It was only a small amount of time, barely an hour, but she was determined to put her other worries aside and make the most of it. She would suppress her concerns about the future and enjoy herself.

At least, that was what Rinko told herself as she booted up her computer and launched NFO.

When Rinko logged in as her character, slipping her headset over her ears, Ako's character immediately materialized next to her.

"Rin-rin! You made it!" Ako typed in the chat, before making her character jump around Rinko's multiple times in a row.

"I did! \( ̄▽ ̄)/ " Rinko typed in response. She opened up the mailbox on her account, which was full of unopened messages. Some of them were system messages, while others were from Ako and her other online friends. She hit the button to claim all attachments, leaving the rest of the messages for later.

"There's a hydro boss you just have to fight." Ako had stopped jumping to type. "We can get there from the undersea cave city." That sounded like a lot of fun. A party request flashed on Rinko's screen, inviting her to team up with Ako. She clicked yes, and a moment later was pulled into a loading screen.

When the game loaded once again, her character was the aforementioned undersea cave city. "You need more debuffs for it, right?" Rinko popped open her hud menu as she recalled their prior conversation, looking at her presets for hotbars.

"It hits suuuuper hard." Was the reply, which Rinko took as a yes. She picked her best preset for attack debuffs, making sure to bring some hard-hitting spells as well. She was all set for ranged dps.

"I'm ready to go." Rinko messaged once she had saved and closed the settings.

Ako's character cheered, and then ran over to the npc who assigned the dungeon. The queue timer popped up on the screen.

The dungeon was meant for four players, so they would need to be matched with two more. Usually, they would form their own full group, but that was when they had more time to play together. For just one dungeon, it wasn't worth it.

"What boss patterns should I look out for?" Rinko asked as the timer started to tick up.

"He does a lot of aoe attacks." Ako typed back quickly. She was in the process of changing the appearance of her character's armor. She was set up to tank, so she probably wanted to look the part. "In big square patterns." Rinko would need to keep moving to avoid those. Unlike Ako's build, hers could barely take any hits.

The queue timer ticked on.

Luckily, they didn't have to wait long. Within a couple minutes they were matched into a full party and started loading into the dungeon.

This dungeon was added about a month ago, though Rinko hadn't had time to play it yet. It was a new area that explored the depths of a large cave network. It was full of different water based creatures, with a tough boss at the end. Rinko and Ako had talked about it a few times, planning to run it together as soon as Rinko had time.

Rinko smiled as the game loaded, getting her first look at the scenery. The caves stretched ahead of her character, lined by glowing stone. The others appeared as well, which triggered the start of the dungeon.

As the group moved through the dungeon, Rinko filled her role. She provided buffs and debuffs, as well as hitting enemies with magic spells.

She was having so much fun, she could almost forget about what she needed to do after this.

Rinko glanced at her wall calendar, without even thinking about it. The large red circle drawn around one of the dates was a reminder.

No, Rinko jerked her eyes back to the screen. Now wasn't the time for that. While she'd been distracted, the group was getting away. Ako had stopped midway to wait for her.

Rinko triggered her sprint skill to chase after them.

They cleared each section of the dungeon, wiping out enemies and picking up the quest items. When they reached the end, they placed the items in a plaque to open the final door.

Rinko followed the others inside. Her build was pretty squishy, so she tended to stay in the back of the group. The healer, a player they picked up from the queue, stayed close to her.

Past the door was a large open room. It had transparent walls that showed water on the other side, where various fish and sharks swam past. Rinko looked around at it for a moment, impressed with the new graphics. The devs had put a lot of effort into this. Then the boss roared, drawing her attention to it.

The new boss was a huge, towering creature. It had dark blue skin and gills like a fish, with bubbles of water emerging from them. A text box popped up of it yelling for them to get out of its kingdom.

Rinko couldn't help but smile as she moved into position; no matter how cocky this boss was, her party was going to win!

The fight started with a flurry of action as Ako lunged at the boss. Their physical dps was close behind her.

Rinko started casting her debuffs, taking note of how quickly Ako's health was depleting. She started with the attack debuffs, before pelting the boss with magic spells.

After a few seconds, the ground below her character's feet glowed red. This was the aoe attack Ako mentioned. Rinko cancelled her current spell to move out of it, barely evading being hit.

The boss was only down about 10 percent of its health.

Rinko had missed this, the thrill of playing online with friends and the danger of a hard fight. This boss was particularly tough, no wonder Ako had needed her help.

The fight went on, with the four party members all working together to take the boss down. When its health had reached around 25 percent, Rinko glanced down at the time.

She only had about 20 minutes left before she had to go. More than half of her game time was already over. After this, it was back to the grindstone, back to the task she didn't want to think about.

Suddenly, Rinko's screen flashed bright red. She'd only lost focus for a moment, but that was enough for the boss to fire off another aoe attack. It had blasted her character, taking her from almost full health to fainted in just a few seconds.

"Rin-rin!" Ako's character ran over, using an emote to kneel down next to her. "You will be avenged!" Rinko could imagine her shaking her fist in the air.

"Hey!" Their healer typed, running over. "I'll rez her, don't stop fighting."

"Oh, right." Ako's character stood back up. She scurried back into the fray, regaining the aggro from the physical dps.

Their healer cast a spell, and within thirty seconds Rinko's character was back on her feet. "Thank you (* ^ ω ^)" She quickly typed to them.

The healer didn't reply, just went back to focusing on the boss. Rinko recast her debuffs; they were close to finishing the fight.

Next time the aoe attack came, she dodged it successfully. The boss reached 10 percent health, then 2 percent, and then none. It collapsed with one last text box of rage, before a treasure box appeared in its place.

The party all approached to claim their shares of the reward. Rinko gained a cool looking armor piece, which was dark blue like the boss. They then exited the dungeon through a portal.

When the game loaded again, the party had been disbanded. Once again, their group was just Rinko and Ako.

"That was so much fun!" Ako typed in their party chat. "Next time, there's a lava one we just have to fight."

"For sure." Rinko changed her settings back to her usual hotbars. She felt a little guilty, as she then checked out the new armor piece. She was the only party member to die while fighting the boss. "Sorry about fainting (*/_\) I was only distracted for a moment."

"It's alright, I avenged you." Ako said that so matter of factly, as if Rinko's character hadn't been revived to rejoin the fight. "Was there a loud noise or something?"

"No, that's not it." Rinko glanced at the clock again; she only had five minutes remaining. "I was just thinking about later." Rinko hadn't talked about this with her bandmates, even as she missed practice to work on it. She wasn't intending to hide it or anything, that was just how it worked out.

"Oh?"

It was alright to tell her. "I'm practicing for my midterm, which is a live solo performance." She didn't add that the performance would basically determine if she was allowed to stay in the piano performance program, and that it would decide what track of the program she'd be placed into.

"When when when?" Ako typed the word multiple times, expressing excitement. She asked another question without waiting for an answer. "Can I come?" Her character clapped.

Rinko glanced back at the calendar, at the date circled in red. "It's at the main concert hall on campus next Friday. I think you can reserve a seat online."

"I'll be there!" Ako asserted firmly. "And I'll bring the rest of the band with me!" Rinko knew how unlikely that was to succeed. At least two other band members had conflicts at that time on the master schedule. She couldn't say that to Ako though.

"Thank you." Rinko typed back. "I'll look forward to it (。- ω -)." Knowing that Ako would attend was comforting, made the performance a little less scary.

Without looking back at the clock, Rinko knew her time was up. She said goodbye, made her character wave, and then logged out of the game.

Rinko shut her computer screen off, before moving to her piano. The piece was already there, from the last time she practiced it.

She stretched out her fingers, getting ready for a whole new challenge than the one she just faced.

There were many hours of practice ahead.


Finally, today was the big day. Rinko stood backstage with her classmates, dressed in her nicest black dress and heels. They were in one of the dressing rooms, waiting for the performance to begin.

Rinko kept to herself, choosing a spot near the corner to wait. She looked over her sheet music, making sure everything was correct.

When she went out, she would leave the music behind. Just like when Roselia played, professionals performed without it.

That wasn't why Rinko was nervous, no she was used to it. The weight of this performance had her frozen, anxious for the possible outcomes. Her whole career rode on playing well tonight, on impressing not only Professor Nakamura, but also a panel of other instructors. For the last week her nerves had been building, as she refined her piece.

Professor Nakamura was in the back room with them, checking in students as they arrived. Rinko had gone to her office hours a few times in the last couple weeks, playing passages and receiving additional coaching. Nakamura seemed unphased tonight; this happened every year and must've been normal for her.

It wasn't normal for Rinko.

Rinko's phone, which she carried in a small handbag, buzzed a few times. It must've been a text message. Rinko snapped the bag open and took it out.

"I'm here!" The text from Ako read. "Come meet me out front!"

She had promised to come, so Rinko wasn't surprised to see it. She smiled and texted back that she was on her way, then slipped out the door. Rinko walked down the long hallways separating backstage from the front of the theater.

When Rinko reached the front hall, she looked around for her friend. She wasn't able to spot her bright colored hair; perhaps she was still outside.

Rinko moved past the flow of the crowd, pushing the main doors open to head outside.

She almost gasped at what she saw.

As expected, Ako was waiting outside for her. That wasn't what surprised her. There were two other people with Ako, two very familiar figures. Lisa and Yukina were unmistakable, even at a distance. Rinko already felt like she could tear up, just from seeing them there. A wave of relief had rushed through her, some of the tension already lightened.

"Rin-rin!" Ako waved her over. She had her phone in her other hand.

"I-I wasn't expecting this… Thank you all… for coming." Rinko said as she approached them, looking between her bandmates.

Lisa smiled, throwing an arm around Rinko's shoulders for a moment. "Wouldn't miss it!"

"We wanted to support you." Yukina almost smiled as she spoke. Ako was fiddling with her phone, eyes down on the screen.

"Sayo-san is here too!" Ako said triumphantly, tapping a button on her screen aggressively.

A moment later, she spun the phone around so Rinko could see the screen. On it was the last member of the band. Sayo seemed to be holding her phone so she could facetime, since the camera was shaking slightly.

"You're going to be great." Sayo said, her voice slightly tinny through the phone.

Rinko couldn't believe it; Ako had managed to bring all of them here. Sure, it was kind of a loophole to have Sayo video call in, but it still counted. When had Ako grown so much, that she was able to pull this off?

Rinko's heart was warm as she looked between her bandmates, searching for the words to express her gratitude and how much their presence meant to her.

Tears welled up in her eyes, and she blinked a few times to hold them back. "Thank you… I'll do my best."

"We're rooting for you!" Ako grinned. "You've worked so hard for this!"

Ako was right, Rinko had worked incredibly hard to get to this point. To learn piano, to grow in university, and to prepare for this performance. It was alright to be nervous, but she shouldn't let it overwhelm her. She could do this.

Her bandmates were here to support her.

The group exchanged a few more words, with Sayo hanging up in the middle to return to rehearsal. Rinko told them about the piece she was going to play and looked at their tickets to see where they were sitting, before leaving them to head back to the dressing room.

She felt far calmer than she had at any point in the last week. When Rinko made it back to the room, she didn't check her music again. She found a safe place to leave her bag, and then went to the spot she needed to wait in.

Later, when the concert began, she went out to the backstage area when there were two pianists before her. She listened as they played, then it was her turn.

The crowd applauded as Rinko walked out onto the stage, the bright lights hot against her skin. She glanced out at the part of the crowd where her bandmates sat, though she couldn't see them through the stage lights.

With her band by her side, she was ready to face the challenges ahead.

Rinko sat down at the piano, took a deep breath, and began to play.