In the complete darkness, if it wasn't for the light coming from the laptop's screen, Honoka was very focused. Her headphone on, the young college student was listening to a playlist of idol song as to cheer her up and help her finish the assignment as soon as possible. Since she has only been playing video games lately, she has failed to notice the approaching deadline of their assignment.
'The raid will start in one hour and I still need to repair this.'
A very long sigh escaped her as she rested her back against the bed. Her knees were sore from sitting for too long but she couldn't complain. After all, she had one month to complete her project but always pushed it for another day. Now, it goes back to her at full force.
'Dammit! I can't fix this bug.' Honoka mentally screamed as she took the book resting beside her laptop and scanned it. The cover said "Conversion C to Java". Since her project was about conversion and bug fixing of a software, it turned harder than building. 'I should have done with the project of building a maze game using Java software. This is a nightmare!'
More sigh later and she found herself moving her hands as to write more on the compilator. The ginger was talented in compilating C language but was not very good in Java with its complex functionment. Never did she think she would cry like this from trying to find a way to convert a couple of code.
As the tension was building very high, the alarm she set on the laptop went off and it startled her to the point she almost jumped. She was about to scream and swear about her bad luck but then realized it was time for the raid.
'Well… I could always take a small break. I will need to stay long on this all day tomorrow though…'
Deciding she will kill herself the next day, the girl switched the tab and opened the Love Live online game. It didn't take long to load and she got a logging notification. It turned out she has received a gift from another player. It was an enhanced mythril shield. Sure it was a good item but compared to her Legend shield, it was lame. She decided to keep it anyway.
"Hello, Konoka-chan!" A familiar voice echoed on her headphone and she realized the auto-chat option was on since everyone taking part in the raid has arrived. "Let us do our best again today nya~"
"Yeah! Let's do so, NyaRin-chan!" Honoka had to say these in a low tone as she couldn't speak too loud or her mother and Yukiho will give her hell.
"Good evening, Konoka-chan!"
"Yeah! Let us do our best as well, Panayo-chan!"
"You took your time."
"ToMaki-chan~!" The ginger smiled happily as she heard the other familiar voice. She has already heard her voice several time but never got to see her face. "How are you?"
Their avatars were all already visible on screen and were gathered at the guild while waiting for the time. However, out of sudden, the Valkyrie—Mitori—violently smashed the Wizard—ToMaki—with her weapon, making her HP drop dangerously.
Everyone gasped. "What are you doing, Mitori?" The owner of the Wizard avatar asked angrily as the team's Priestess—PanaPana—started healing her character back.
"Sorry. My fingers slipped." Kotori replied with a very innocent tone but Honoka knew it wasn't that honest. Maybe it would be better to not tease someone else while the brunette was around, she noted to herself. "Anyway, now that Konoka-chan is here, only Sonoda Umi-chan has not arrived, right?"
"Yeah!" Eli responded with a nod and everyone else decided to check their inventory and equipment one last time. Not long after, a notification popped, signaling someone has joined the raid. "Looks like she is here."
"Sorry for the wait!" The Samurai entered the guild and greeted everyone.
"Hello, Sonoda Umi-chan!" Honoka greeted back and she could have sworn the resident Valkyrie was casting a spell. She quickly moved her character beside Mitori. It was enough to cancel the spell and the ginger let go of a sigh. "Anyway, should we start the adventure now?"
[-x-x-x-]
A/N: The following scenes will be from the game's point of view.
As the nine adventurers entered the raid area, they were instantly greeted by powerful monsters. Since discussion of strategy was already done via message text, they had no problem organizing.
Their Tank would be Sonoda Umi the Samurai, Konoka the Rune Knight and Mikozomi the Berzerker. Their job is to get the enemies' attention and take their attack. Since they have lot of defense, there shouldn't be any problem.
Next up were the Rangers; NyaRin the Assassin, Mitori the Valkyrie and Elicchika the Sniper were to attack the enemies when the Tanks get their attention. They usually have high offensive power but lack defence.
Finally, the Magic Users are composed of PanaPana the Priestess, ToMaki the Wizard and Nico-Nii the Bard. Their role was to give assistance with offensive or healing magic as to support everyone else.
With everything set, the party soon arrived at an intersection and paused. By the left was a dark corridor leading downstairs while on the right had stony paths leading upstairs.
"I propose we take the one on the right." Nico-Nii insisted as she pointed said direction with her harp. "Since most monsters here are Poison and Demon Type, we will be able to clear the dungeon faster by avoiding useless encounters."
NyaRin was the one to disagree. "I think we should take the dark path though. It might as well be a trap."
"Don't be ridiculous. The monsters here are just brawl and no brain."
"But let's think about the possibilities first. We shouldn't rush recklessly."
ToMaki stepped in between the two of them as she saw the tension was building in the air. "Calm down! We don't know for sure what might be ahead so let's take a break and discuss this over."
"I second ToMaki-chan!" The resident Berzerker raised a hand as she took a map. They have cleared about 1/3 of the dungeon by that time. The Boss' room wasn't identified yet but it might not take them too long. "Let's settle a temporal camp for now."
With that said, everyone decided to mount a camping area. Said area helped repelling monsters away and allowed them to regain their lost MP. With the Bard still pouting as she wanted to end the raid as fast as possible, everyone except Konoka were gathered around a table and talking. Seeing the Knight, Mitori approached and placed a hand on the shorter girl's shoulder. "Konoka-chan~"
The ginger smiled back as she watched the taller girl from over her shoulder. "Mitori-chan…" She was seated on a rock and patted the area next to her motioning the other girl to have a seat. The Valkyrie happily accepted the offer and clung to the ginger. "Actually… I don't know what to do…"
"About what?"
"You know… Sonoda Umi-chan… I had a childhood friend who had the same name so…"
A dark aura instantly formed around the Valkyrie but Konoka didn't notice it yet as her eyes were busy looking at the dark corridor. "So…?"
"Well… I didn't have the chance to talk to her yet so I was thinking of how to abort her."
A small evil chuckle escaped the yandere girl as she stood up and offered a hand to help her friend stand up. "I that case, I will help you."
"Really?" asked Konoka, oblivious to the evil smile on her friend's face. For once, Kousaka Honoka was a very dense girl and the fact of them being in a video game was making it harder for her to get a real clue.
"Of course." Mitori led them to the current group. "How about we split into several groups and look for clues?" The experienced student proposed.
"That sound like a good idea." Elicchi agreed as she closed her map. "Since we won't be able to progress by pouting at each others…" She glared at a certain duo who refused to look at each others and were acting childishly.
Sonoda Umi stepped forward at these words. "Then, we should split into three groups and bring a teleporting item all just in case. The first group will take the left corridor while another will move right. The last group will walk back another way to check if we didn't miss a secret door or something."
"Agreed!" Nodded the Snipper before Nico-Nii dragged her best friend and her to her side. "Nico?"
"The senior trio will take the bright path." Exclaimed the petite girl. Mikozomi didn't seem to have any objection.
On the other hand, NyaRin clung to PanaPana and ToMaki. "Then, we will take the dark path."
"Hold on a second." The red-head protested but everyone ignored her, forcing her to go with the flow.
"So, that leaves the three of us, huh?" The Samurai turned to the last two and gave a bow. "I will be in your care in that case."
"You are welcome, Sonoda Umi-chan." For the dense members like Elicchi, Konoka and NyaRin, the Valkyrie looked like she was smiling cheerfully but for the more obvious people, they knew something was off with that tone of voice but went against commenting about it.
"Then, we will meet again in 20 minutes. Be sure to have a fairy ring equipped so we could teleport where you are instantly." Mikozomi waves as her group walked their same. Same went with the second group.
After everyone else was out of sign, the last trio decided to walk back the path they took earlier. Konoka was somehow happy that she got a chance to talk with the mysterious girl thanks to Mitori (?).
After a good minute of walking in the silence, with the only source of light being a torch in the Samurai's hand, the Knight finally decided to speak. "I forgot to properly introduce myself by the way." She turned to the taller girl with a beaming smile. "My real name is Kousaka Honoka and I am a college student."
Sonoda Umi seemed surprised and didn't respond for a while before returning the smile. "I am using my real name though." She weakly responded, avoiding eye contact. "You kind of remind me of someone I know…"
By that time, Mitori has lost patience, an angry vein popping on her forehead and without a summation, smashed the nearby wall with her spear. The two other girls jumped in surprise and turned to the Valkyrie who was giving a very creepy smile. Even for a dense Honoka, she could understand.
"Sorry. There was a bug on the wall so…" a blatant lie that fooled no one. However, neither dared questioning and just pretended to be fooled.
"Y-yeah…"
Out of sudden though, an earthquake took place and the ceiling started to fall. Mitori just had enough reflex to grab her Knight by the wrist and managed to cast a barrier spell. Fortunately, the rockfall only lasted for few seconds.
While the two friends were unscratched, Sonoda Umi was gravely wounded with only 10% of HP left. Konoka rushed to her and was about to cast a healing spell when something landed above them. Said thing turned out to be a giant humanoid towering over the trio. It seemed like having the appearance of a human girl clad in a full body armor.
The girl's expression instantly turned into horror at the enemy's aura. "Oh my ghost! It's the last Boss!" yelled the ginger as the Boss swung a giant hammed and hit her, sending the Knight against the wall, leaving her barely alive with 5% of HP left.
"Honoka-chan!" Mitori was in panic as she saw what just happened. Seeing that her friend was still alive, she glared at the monster thought and pointed her spear at it. "How dare you…? To my Honoka-chan!" She instantly casted several boosting spells on herself and charged at full force toward the giant, delivering a powerful blow, followed by a combo of attack.
The enemy seemed to loose balance fast so she jumped high and held her spear with both hand, pointing it downward. Following that, several thunderbolts fell on the Boss.
As Mitori landed, she gave another barrage of hit, not giving the enemy a second to breath. By that time, the Valkyrie was in full Berzerk mode, her attacks x5 and critical rate 100%. "It's not over yet!" She yelled while throwing the weapon. Said spear exploded as it made contact with the armor, fully destroying it and reducing the Boss' defense by half. Another combo of hit followed as the Valkyrie has summoned a rapier this time.
However, her luck ran out as the enemy's life reached 30%. It instantly entered veil mode, boosting all its stats and gained resistance against all elements. On the other hand, Mitori has lost more than 80% of her HP because of the recoil of her attack and now got the stats decreasing penalty from entering Berzerk mode.
As the Boss was about to smash her with its hammer, Konoka managed to save her at last time by diving forward. The two of them slid on the dirty rocky ground until smashing against a huge boulder. The Knight refused to let go of her friend though so she took all the damage due to that. Now left with only 1% of health, she still stood up. "It's all right, Mitori-chan! You did enough."
"Honoka-chan…"
The Knight turned to the Valkyrie and gave her a bright smile, telling her that everything was all right. Mitori felt powerless as she was unable to move due to a paralysis status. On her knees, she could only watch in horror as the Boss swung its weapon high in the air while Konoka turned to it, the smile still on her face.
Just as the monster was about to smash them, the taller girl shut her eyes close anticipating an imminent death. One second… then two… three… heartbeats slowed down as the brunette slowly opened her eyes, not feeling pain nor death and realized the monster has stopped dead in its track before the hammer hit the two of them. On closer look, a couple of near-invisible treads were binding the enemy's hands and weapon, stopping it from moving.
"Gheez! You three are so hopeless." Nico-Nii grinned as she appeared from a dark corridor to the left. "Feel thankful because everyone's idol has saved your life."
"Nico-Nii-chan!" Konoka and Mitori both cheered at the same time.
Not only her but PanaPana was done casting a healing spell on the near-unconscious Sonoda Umi. Said Samurai stood up with her help. "Thank you, PanaPana-san."
The brunette just chuckled as NyaRin ran past the two and jumped high until landing a good cut from her knife on the enemy's now bare back. It roared in pain as the attack has caused more damage than it seemed. "Secret Assassin technique: silencer." Normally, that technique would have cause both Silence and Paralysis status but the enemy's immunity was stopping it.
As the Boss let go of its hammer and turned toward the catgirl, a powerful smash from a giant axe hit her from behind, followed by an explosion. The enemy fell on its knees as Mikozomi landed near the wounded duo. "You two all right?"
"Y-yeah." The ginger nodded.
Elicchi also stepped in and charged five arrows at once on her bow before aiming the ceiling. As they were shot, a portal appeared and absorbed the arrows. Another portal opened, about 50 burning arrows rained on the Boss, severely damaging it. PanaPana took the occasion to run to them and casted a healing spell on Konoka and Mitori.
The group had to rethread at once though as the enemy's health has reached 5%, meaning ultimate mode. With its defense boosted tenfold and speed three times, it would be a pain trying to defeat it. Having already prepared a strategy beforehand, the nine of them got into position, their HP now full and waited for the giant woman to charge at them.
Before that though, ToMaki approached the Rune Knight. "You should equip the mythril shield by the way. It will protect you again charge skill."
"Y-yeah…" Konoka nodded before realizing she hasn't told anyone about the gift she received yet and wondered. "Wait. How do you know I have a mythril shield?"
The red-head avoided eye contact as her fingers started playing with a tip of her hair. "I-I just figured you had some additional equipments so I guess I guessed right."
"Really?" The ginger gave a tilt of the head, giving an unintentional cute appearance and ToMaki had to really avoid looking at her for fearing a cuteness overload. While doing so, she saw a menacing aura surrounding Mitori though as the cute girl seemed to be giving a genuine smile but had a very powerful killing intent. The Mage got the message right away and returned back to her original position, leaving Konoka confused. "Hein?"
She didn't get the chance to ask anything though as the monster charged and as advised, the mythic shield equipped, Konoka stopped it by blocking the charge with her shield. Oddly, she didn't receive as much damage as she was expecting, thanks to the equipment. Sonoda Umi then took the occasion to jump high and delivered a downslash toward the enemy. Being about 100 levels under the others, her stats were very low but Samurai skills usually went regardless of stats as they worked on the principle of luck and sacrifice.
That attack being her most powerful has managed to reduce another percent of life bar but in exchange of 90% of her own HP as well as being stunned for 20 seconds. During that time of weakness, PanaPana casted a healing spell on her while chanting a defense enhancing skill for Konoka.
It was now their Berzerker's turn to attack. Mikozomi ran behind the enemy and delivered several powerful smash at its back. It enraged the giant who then ignored the Knight and turned to the purplenette. It smashed the ground several times but the tall girl managed to counter every hit. She was able to survive thanks to Nico-Nii's auto-regen spell as well as ToMaki's speed enhance.
As the enemy's full attention was set toward the Berzerker, Elicchi and Mitori got ready. As the sniper aimed for its neck with her bow and arrows, the Valkyrie chanted a blizzard spell surrounding the Boss. With the constant smash from Mikozomi and the arrival of Konoka attacking from behind, NyaRin jumped high and stood on the ceiling, making ninja hand gestures and breathed a cloud of poison. A fire spell by their resident mage and the enemy exploded. Thanks to PanaPana's barrier, they all managed to avoid getting hit by the explosion.
A large smoke covered the area and everyone quickly gathered, backing each others until several spectral objects flew around. They all tried their best to destroy these. While the fighters were using their weapons, the casters used their most powerful spell and the smoke soon cleared, allowing their vision back. The Boss was no more and a popup message appeared, congratulating them.
"Honoka-chan~" The first thing Mitori did was taking her friend in an embrace while everyone else smiled. The dungeon cleared, the nine of them were teleported at the exit and received credits as well as rare equipment and fame. "We did it!"
"Yeah!"
[-x-x-x-]
Honoka finally sighed as she smiled at the popup message on her laptop screen. Their team was a very strong one since despite it being their very first mission all together, they did very good, especially while fighting a giant and ghasts.
"Awww…" The girl fell on the mat and mentally cheered, not daring yelling because her mother would give her hell if she did so. "We did well."
After a good minute of celebration, she finally sat up again and opened the group chat. Already several messages from NyaRin and Nico-Nii were flooding in there and she didn't bother reading any of them.
"We all did good! We definitely need to meet in real life and hang out somewhere together."
There was a minute before responses came. The first to message was NyaRin. "That sound good! I want to meet with ToMaki-chan nya~"
"No thank you." came the Mage's cold response.
"No need to be shy, ToMaki-chan~" Mikozomi continued before she sent another message few seconds later. "Did you hear? There will be a festival at a nearby town's shrine. I want to hang out there~"
The next message that came was Nico-Nii's. "The super idol is too busy with her career so she will not be able to attend the event."
"And what does that have to do with Nico-Nii-chan nya? If an idol can't attend, where is the problem. We just need Nico-Nii-chan to attend nya."
An angry face emoji was sent by the bard following that, followed by a laughing emoticon from Mikozomi. For the first time, PanaPana has decided to give her opinion as well though. "I still want to meet you all someday. We have known each others for a while so I guess I second Konoka-chan's opinion."
A thumb up was sent by Elicchi and then a message from Sonoda Umi followed. "That sounds good. How about next Sunday? If we are talking about the same festival held at Shinto shrine, then how about meeting at the park east of Akihabara so we could all take the train together."
"Sound good!" instantly came NyaRin's response.
Everyone but ToMaki and Nico-Nii sent a thumb up.
"Jeez! Come on ToMaki-chan~" Honoka pleaded.
However, before anyone could respond, Kotori quickly gave a message. "ToMaki-chan, you really need to come. You don't want to make Honoka-chan sad, don't you?"
Such words brought lot of malice, everyone understood. Even if they weren't all fortunetellers, they could tell that the brunette was pissed at the other side of the screen and want to strangle the red-head so they all tried to find a way to escape.
"I better get going." PanaPana was the first to log out, followed by Elicchi, Mikozomi and NyaRin.
"Whatever… I will be waiting at 8 AM on next Saturday in that case." Sonoda Umi sent a message before logging out.
"ToMaki-chan~" that was the only message from Kotori before everyone else still online flinched and decided against more resistance. She had the reputation of being able to hack several network services and might find their home. The last thing the red-head wanted was to find a psychopath barge in her house and murdering her in her sleep.
"I got it. I will be there at 8 AM. Happy?"
Honoka smiled at the response. "I can't wait to meet you, ToMaki-chan~"
As soon as the message was sent, a message from Kotori popped up. It contained several curse words that will not be shown for the sake of the fiction's rating. Honoka's face turned in horror as her skin turned pale. It was soon followed by a notification. "Sorry. My hands slipped." The brunette even added a smiling emoji but then the damage was done. No one dared saying anything though.
"I need to get going."
With that, everyone logged out, Honoka included. She then sighed while opening another tag and stared blankly at the screen, watching her half-done homework. However, no information about it entered her brain as her mind was being bugged by the curse words she saw earlier.
"What am I doing with my life…?" She wondered, trying to imagine how her life might be if she had a yandere stalker having a crush on her. Despite being dense, she was sure Kotori definitely is a very possessive person. As if dealing with Kotori wasn't enough, she heard Ms. Minami was way more dangerous and the ginger flinched thinking about that. "Gyaa… I can't let myself get confused right now. I need to finish this project." She said that a little too loud, earning her a scowl from her mother.
[-x-x-x-]
A/N: Happy new year, everyone! I passed the exam by the way and I will be a third year student in college starting April. Wish me luck!
Also, sorry for taking time updating…
See you next time!