December 9th 2025

Forgotten Woods

GGO

"Asada Shino-san" His words cut into her like a dagger, it was him, Tachibana Yuuto. The man who had stole her first kiss within days of even being familiar with her.

"You'd better start explaining before I plant one right between your god damned thighs!" Sinons' voice was aggressive not even close to the soft and somewhat pleasant tone she maintained in real life. She raised her Hecate just enough so that the barrel was pointed directly at Ryuji's groin.

"I have a good reason! I swear!" His panic apparent. He certainly did not want to experience even the simulated pain of what Sinons' threat entailed. Ryuji began to explain his reasoning for being there, and more importantly the reason for kissing her.

"In case you die, huh?" Sinon had at this point unequipped her rifle and had her arms folded firmly across her, rather impressive, chest. 'I've had guys hit on me for worse reasons, and if he's being honest with me, he very well might die going up against Death Gun' Her mind rationalised.

"I guess you're in the clear, on one condition." She smirked before opening her menu.

Her finger hovered over the logout button as Ryuji gave his response. "What exactly would that be?" His head cocked to the side slightly, the forest camo helmet brushing against his bulky left shoulder pad as he did so.

"Dinner, me and you, after BoB. I'm sure you have no objections and frankly, you're not particularly repulsive to look at and you have a form of intelligence, I suppose." She gave a coy smile as she tapped the logout button and her avatar vanished in a white light.

Ryuji deemed it best to follow suit. His eyelids starting to feel heavy as he tapped the logout button.

"Sorry Shinkawa-kun but I-" Shino tried to explain for what must have been the third time.

Shinkawa and her were sat in the café they were both regulars at, the discussion had begun by Shino explaining her plan for the BoB preliminaries starting the following afternoon but had somehow ended up with Kyouji pestering her for a date.

'Dammit, take a hint idiot' Her mind yelled, but Shino thought it best to not be too harsh with her rejection, she had found it easy to reject him before due to her trauma or being busy prepping for the BoB. But now Kyouji was coming on stronger than ever. Little did he know that Shino had no interest in him as a potential romantic partner.

"Asada-san if you win, you'll be the best of the best and then you'll be free to focus on other things, right?" He insisted. His kind smile was almost pitiful.

Shino was aware that a harsh rejection would break his heart and probably cost her his friendship. But she simply had no interest in him that way. To be honest she wasn't even sure she thought of Yuuto in that way, but she was a damn sight more attracted to him than she was to Kyouji.

Shino took a sip of her coffee and glanced at the clock mounted on the café's yellow wall. 18:56. She downed the golden liquid with a gulp and grabbed her bag. "I'd better be getting home; I'll talk to you about this after the Tournament okay?" She mumbled to Kyouji before darting out the door without so much as a glance back at him.

She entered her apartment and locked the door ensuring to lock it by the chain, a habit she had developed from her social isolation. She quickly made herself her usual meal of instant Ramen and a glass of whatever fruit juice was on sale that week. And sat herself in front of her Television. A set of retro Game consoles lined the stand below it. Her sizeable collection pertaining mostly of Western FPS and action games. Neatly sat atop a shelf above the television. Shino set her meal on the coffee table in the centre of the one room apartment and retrieved a game from the shelf. Ratchet and Clank 2 A certified classic. Shino placed the disc in her old PS2 and felt herself immerse herself in the game world. She knew this game like the back of her hand. From Planet Aranos to Damosel She could probably beat the game blindfolded, the clock ticked over to 22:36 before long and she decided she had progressed far enough. Getting to Smolg in one sitting was an impressive feat considering how slow she liked to play.

She removed her uniform and delicately folded into a washing hamper she kept at the foot of her bed. She stepped into the bathroom and wiped her light makeup off before putting her standard nightwear of an old shirt and shorts on.

She wanted to be sure she was ready for anything in the preliminaries, losing was not an option she stared at herself in the bathroom mirror for a good five minutes after brushing her teeth. She would get stronger; she would be the strongest. No matter the cost.

Shino placed her glasses on the nightstand behind her bed. Dropping a quick mail to Yuuto on her phone with a warning:

You better be ready; I will not lose.

-Sinon

She received no reply, Yuuto was invariably still upset at her insistence on participating despite his protests. She felt a little bit of satisfaction from that, despite her determination though the thought of Death Gun did weigh on her but her rationale of 'It's impossible the Amusphere is no Nervegear' gave her some comfort. This combined with her exhaustion from multiple days of sleep deprivation from preparation allowed her to fall quickly asleep.

Yuuto gave a slight smirk at the mail he received. 'Good, so she really is determined' he thought to himself. Before firing off his own mail to Rina:

Operation beginning tomorrow morning

Will give updates before and after each match.

-Tachibana Y.

He was quite aware that MMO Stream would be showcasing each match of the prelims, but he was convinced his sister would be too busy to pay it any notice. His mind wandered to ideas of how to keep Sinon safe from Death gun a string of thought that kept him awake until very early morning, by which time he discarded the idea closed his eyes. 'I'll solve this before he even goes near her.'

Author-chans note: New author for this one, yeah he got ill so asked me to solve it. That's kinda why this took so long. I have a life and a job to do, and y'know a long-distance BF to keep up with, all that good stuff. Anyway hope you guys enjoy this one.

Usual Authors note: I had surgery it sucked. I'm better now.