It's the avatars. Although they don't know that until later. The avatars change everything.

GBN's new update is everything the hype claimed. The VR worlds are more detailed. The sensation of having a physical body is more solid. More real; to the point that if Hiroto thinks about it, he can feel the pull of his avatar's hair tie holding back dark blue strands.

It's odd. Even a little distracting, at first - though not enough to interfere with his missions. Nothing ever is.

So if the temple Freddie had summoned them to seemed truly ancient, if the dimension seemed so painfully real, from the youngster's hot-fur scent to the shattered moon with its belt of debris like white diamonds in the sky-

It was GBN's first Story Mission. Of course the programmers would have put their hearts into making it perfect.

(So perfectly, breathtakingly imperfect; sand shifting underfoot to turn unwary ankles, Freddie's half-stammered admission that maybe there weren't twenty One-Eyes after all, the heart-stopping blue of the sky streaked with clouds. Eve had wanted to go beyond the galaxy. If any remnants of her electronic soul still lingered in GBN...

He has to look. He has to try.)

Not to mention they'd all been thrown out of the Mission almost the moment the first battle was over. Leaving him no chance to explore the new dimension. To look at that sky, and drink in that perfect, jewel-deep blue. There was no way he'd let that stand.

So he keeps going back, no matter how odd the Story turns.

After all, he has no reason not to.

I'm just a wanderer. So long as it takes all four of us to enter the Mission... I'll wander with them.

At least, that's how it starts.

Then, things... get subtly odder.

Little things. Like not being able to summon their Gunplas to a battlefield. Fortunately, they check that bit of game function before they try to defend the village.

It's annoying, but Hiroto can see how that would add to the story part of the mission. It is, as Kazami might say, more Gundam-like. They can't just zip in and out of Gunplas as they see fit. Like any UC Gundam soldier, they have to have their machine with them to pilot. Otherwise, they do a lot of walking.

Hiroto doesn't mind the walking. After all, you can't get physically tired in VR.

Except they do. A little. Which just makes it a better match for reality, if you can feel the burn from climbing yet another hill, and stop to catch your breath at the top. It's worth feeling a little tired when he gets out of VR, for that sense of being there.

What he minds is young NPDs who will act like children, even running right into danger to get a better look. Seeing Asha, Towana, and Hulun on the battlefield had sent a chill down his spine; for a moment he couldn't see game characters, only terrified children who were about to die.

They'd saved the village. Well, mostly. They'd saved the people, and even most of Old Jiric's crops. He could tell his nerves to stand down.

(The children aren't Eve. They're not EL-Divers. They're not.)

But now he knew that things could... things would go wrong on missions. And they might be too far from their Gunplas.

So he starts carrying weapons. Like any UC soldier. The poncho can hide a lot.

(On Earth, he starts missing the weight.)

Being armed in the cockpit fits, after all. Adds to the reality. Just as the controls of his Core Gundam are slightly more finicky and hair-trigger. As if it's not the VR reading intent from his brain and translating that to images of consoles and joystick motion, but the actual response of sensitive equipment to real hands on the trigger-

No, that's too silly. This is GBN.

(And whether or not hands are real turns out to be an interesting question. How do you define real? Organic? But EL-Divers are proof that's not true.)

Besides, finicky controls are such a small problem, compared to working with - working around such a hastily assembled group of players to get missions done.

Not a team. There's no teamwork. Hiroto hasn't joined a team since Avalon.

(Eve had wanted him not to be alone. As if she'd known how close time was to running out. As if she'd wanted them to replace her.

Nothing could replace her. Nothing can ease the hurt, the shame of knowing what his Core Gundam... what he'd done. Avalon is innocent. So he leaves them.

A killer doesn't deserve a team.)

He runs out the frustration in real life, days they're away from Freddie's missions. It's not his usual thing, exercise and archery are Hinata's specialty. But nothing else seems to work. He needs the movement. He needs to be tired, so he doesn't think about being a BUILD DiVER.

(The real Build Divers saved the one they loved. He hadn't saved Eve. He'd-)

Running lets him not think. Just push himself. Harder. Faster. Longer. It's as close as he can get to flying.

And the missions get more complicated, more intense. He doesn't want to fumble a simple shot because he's too tired.

(The runs get longer. Hiroto doesn't notice, until he starts checking his watch not to be late. There's a lot to not think about.)

He doesn't miss a shot. Too bad the same can't be said of his... party members. They're not a team. May doesn't know how to fight in a group; Parviz is totally inexperienced. Only time and more missions will fix those.

Kazami... Kazami is frustrating. Because the man knows how group fights work, but every time he sees a chance to show off his tactics go right out the window.

Kazami's old team leader is totally right to call Hiroto out, though. Hiroto hates that. But more than that, he hates himself. Because the missions are important, and if he can't count on the others to use the best tactics he should at least tell them what he's going to do. He used to be able to do that. He used to be able to talk to people.

(But there's a hole in his heart where Eve's smile should be, and sometimes it feels like every word has to claw its way out of that abyss.)

It's easier just to lean into the sharpness of the Story Mission. He has to be sharp. There are more sounds, more debris and birds flying through their vision, even more scents, than any ordinary GBN mission. Hiroto has to filter it all; what's important, what's not, what are new sensory cues to enemies GBN has never had before. It's a challenge.

(Already Created Missions seem too... easy isn't the right word. Too simple; that's closer. Not as much messy environmental data coming at them. Not nearly as much tricky sensitivity in his Core Gundam's controls.

And he doesn't get tired. It's like walking on a treadmill, instead of running up a hill. It's not enough.)

They push on with Freddie's missions, aiding the Resistance. They get better. Not a team, as he dives into the ocean; not yet, but-

Impact.

You don't get hurt in GBN. You don't - ever - really get hurt in VR. There are safety measures. Loads of them. You might get a little dizzy when you damage out, but that's all. Hiroto knows that.

And none of that changes the fact that he comes to on the cockpit floor; head splitting, Freddie crying as the canine boy tugs at his poncho, begging him to wake up.

Apparently the corner of his cockpit console is, in fact, harder than his head. Who knew?

Hiroto blinks, seeing double. Swallows back nausea, from more than just tumbling underwater. Is that blood?

(Why is it gray?

Why is there blood at all?)

They're still in danger; who knows what might happen to Freddie if he damages out with the boy still in his Gunpla. So Hiroto forces back icy unease and fights. They beat the ray, they survive the Seltsam by inches, and May is - May is-

(It's not fair.)

After that Hiroto's just glad it's over. When they log out, he goes home. He's... not feeling okay.

(Heartsick for a girl who was never real; how insane is that?

Home. Home and quiet, so he can pull himself back together for the next mission. Thank goodness the festival sounds like a breather ep. He needs it.)

And then. And then.

"Mrs. Kuga? You should really look at Hiroto's forehead."

Hinata says it, and Hinata doesn't lie. But Hiroto has to check in a mirror anyway, because it doesn't make sense.

(There was blood.)

You can't get hurt in GBN.

(There's a bruise. It still hurts.)

You can't get hurt in GBN.

(They've never damaged out. Even with their Gunplas wrecked into the red, even with missions just barely successful, they've never damaged out.

It's as if they're... really there.)

A/N: Damage to the Eldora avatars translates to the players. Given exercise is low-grade damage to muscles, scrambling around during a mission and general wear and tear should also get through. Hopefully healing also does; the avatars do seem tougher than your average human. As far as what fuels them - I suspect it's like Cuadorn, the energy of the planet sustains the avatar. Though they can eat, and so can he.

There is in fact in-canon support for the "avatar exercise builds muscle tissue on earth" idea. Masaki's been in a coma for 6 months, yet the day after he wakes up, he gets on a motorcycle and rides to see his rescuers. Mind, it's noted that was a bad idea and he's unsteady on his feet, but still.