Crimson Dust: Meeting

/Whatever! I'm hungry~/ I go out and buy some ice, a habit that I didn't grow out of, I would always buy ice when I am hungry and have nothing better to do. I log into Second Life as I come back.

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Flower, Kaikishoku, I greet them and 3 o'clock jumps onto my shoulder, Yeah, you too, 3 o'clock.

I turn to Kaikishoku, How are things going so far?

The traps have been installed and I brought the iron you requested into the room with the crystal. ...The NPCs will vanish tomorrow, he reports the situation to me.

Go-, I try to tell him that he did great but I get interrupted.

„Hey! Girly? You there?!" someone shouts from the gate.

I go there to see the idiot and his team who stepped on 3 o'clock. What do you want?, I ask through the PM system with a bored tone /I finally figured out how to contact Players whose names I don't know!/

„Are ya so angry that you won't talk normal? I want to help you here. Don't worry, I don't want to have your title as landlord" he stares at me, his eyebrow twitches.

I stare back. I sigh and take 3 o'clock into arms and hold him before the idiots nose, Apologize!

His eyebrow twitches even more until he bows and apologizes to the cat, his team follows suit. I ask 3 o'clock if he is content with it and the cat agrees.

Listen, Idiot and rest turn towards me, We are mostly done here so you have nothing to do. Kaikishoku is handling finances and Flower handels the citys defense, only so you know. We will open the city in five days, you can handle advertisment from tomorrow onward if you want to.

„Y-yes!" comes a chorus of voices.

I nod to them and give Kaikishoku and the rest their freedom for today as well.

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Three days pass and I prepare to leave the city into Redforests direction. The NPCs within the city vanished and there were no problems like an invasion. ...I said that too early I guess, cause Flower just came into my direction, telling me to hurry since there was an invasion.

I arrive at the scene to see the gate nearly down. I jump onto the wall and from there into the enemyranks, I unleash my needle spell and half of the enemys fall. The gate breaks down and idiot and company rush out. We decided to stand before the gate and rush straight into the enemy for a reason.

I can easily wipe out the priests from my position and the frontrow doesn't need to worry about them healing anyone. We were heavily outnumbered with only 20 person, not including Flower, Kaikishoku, 3 o'clock and me against 200 players plus NPCs but won anyway.

I suddenly remember the time and excuse myself.

19:58 I am halfway at the forest

20:06 I reach the forest

20:07 I manage to arrive heavily breathing and due to some speed enhancing spells.

I take a deep breath and let it out. I look around for any signs of someone else 'Dust is here'

„So 'Dust' is a name and not a time or place" a man appears before me out of nowhere and I take a step back while I nod „What do you want? What need did you have to invade the system?"

Self-aware NPCs aren't normal, right? I have nothing against it but I found it weird and decided to look into the data when you counterattacked, I try to look at him but he stares into my eyes, I can't look into peoples eyes for long so I avoid my gaze.

„I haven't noticed that yet, I will look into it myself so you can continue to play peacefully" he tells me and I stick out my tongue to him.

You can't tell me what to do! I do what I want!, I stomp my foot on the ground angry.

I realise how stupid that must have looked. I sigh... I heard myself sigh... I heard myself...

...Impossible... r-right?! I start to panic.

„What's wrong?" the man leans over worried.

„M-my..." my face grows paler than it already is „...Sound...! I actually m-made a sound... I'm talking?!" I start to panic even more and fall onto my knees horrified. I grab my shoulders in an attempt to stop my shaking. The man looks at me not knowing what to do, I just stare at the ground, cold sweat runs down my back. My vision starts to darken and I look up... only for my body to stop working and collapse.

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Someone grabs my arm and pulls me with him, I look up to see my 'caretaker'. He pulls me into an alleyway until he yanks me into the air and pierces deep into the skin on my chest with a knife. I cry out in pain as loud as I can as he punches me into the stomach.

You little traitor girl! Just die!" He slashes my throat and I can hardly breath.

I can feel how something thick comes up my mouth and I open it, I cough up a huge amount of blood. My body gets hotter and hotter, my sight blurres and I notice other persons running into the alley. A feeling as cold as ice washes over me and I lose consciousness.

A wake up with my whole body feeling heavy. I open my hazy eyes to see blurres of white and green pass by quickly. I close my eyes again and continue my slumber.

I wake up as I hear a door open, I shift my eyes to the figure that stands in it. My vision is still blurred but better than before.

Zita? Can you hear me?" the man asks gentle.

I would regognize that voice everywhere, it's that nice policeman that would always keep me company when I'm lonely.

I beam at him as good as I can and open my mouth to shout a happy answer „..." No sound comes out of my throat and I touch my throat lightly to feel something weird,... it seems to be a line and it goes from one half of my throat to the other. I realise what happened and start to cry but no sound comes out.

The policeman takes me into his arms and pats my head „I'm sorry... I'm sorry... The doctors told me that this could happen... I'm sorry for not watching out for you better..."