"Ohhh, good morning, Risa! You haven't been around here for a while, have you?" Her mother had been in some wierd, polite high ever since Fumikazu had come out of his coma, Akira realized. Her eyes slowly creaked open, blurring her vision as she tried to find something to focus on. There, on the ceiling. It was that mental voice again, the one who had been her inspiration for her character's name and the one who had given her the golden sword. It was referring to a spider that was crawling along the ceiling, minding its own business as it scurried to the other end of her room. Her eyes followed it, keeping careful track of its movements.

Spiders fascinated her. They were beautiful creatures that could be saviors or killers, never taking any side other than the one that led to their survival. She liked to think that they had complex lives like humankind did, events like Pluto Again that made them stop and think about the world around them. If they did though, they never let it show. Akira found this an excellent trait, even if they were truly oblivious to the thousands of spiders killed each day just because they existed. She felt sorry for the things, so helpless against the power of a shoe or fly swatter. So she let them roam around her room if she saw them, never even thinking of disrupting their patterns. They left her alone if she left them alone.

Of course, she would never tell this to anyone, especially not her friends and family. The only person who knew anything about her strange quirk was Daigoro. He told her about his motorcycles, she told him about her spiders. His reaction had consisted of a simple grin, a hug, and a brief statement on how she was 'unique' and that he admired her for it.

Then he had ruined the whole moment by telling her he had thought that she was a guy. After Akira had given him a well-deserved black eye, he told her that most of the females that he had met only were actually male. "There are no girls on the internet. Everyone knows that!"

"That's really not what any girl wants to hear. Let me guess, you don't get many girls at your place, do you?" He had been suspiciously silent after that. That made Akira feel bad, and she had apologized. Their relationship had remained at that strange awkward phase that neither of them really felt like leaving. Considering that their in-game friendship had started rocky and had never really progressed from that, it only made sense that in real life it would be the same way.

"- Akira should be up by now. If not, you have my permission to knock her off the bed!" Her attention returned to the present as she left her memories behind. The spider had long disappeared, probably camping out in a web that had been built between her wall and the bed. That was where most of the webs were until her mother actually got around to dusting.

Risa slipped into her room, causing Akira to quickly refocus on her friend. The hyper girl was already hopping up and down, clapping her hands wildly. Akira arched an eyebrow. "Hey... Risa..." She suddenly stopped, narrowing her eyes. A shiver made its way up Akira's back at her friend's death glare; she had forgotten something, hadn't she?

"Um, did you forget that we were going shopping with Shouko and Miho today? You're such an airhead!" Akira mentally cursed. Better tell her you have other plans, Akira! Gee, the voice sounded awfully happy that she had made other plans. Then again, it had also gotten excited when she had restarted her The World account, only to have been crushed when it found out that she wasn't acutually playing. Kazu said it was her inner temptation, only amplifying her desire for something.

"Feel free to call me that, cause I made other plans. I have to go to Umami at noon." This captured Risa's interest instantly. It was an infamous couple's stop, with very few non-romantic diners present. It just so happened that it was where the dot hackers held their meetings. There was nothing romantic going on between any of them, unless the counted the one-sided 'dating' that was happening between Natsume and Kenji. No matter how many times Kenji denied that anything was happening from his side, she always felt a strange twinge of jealousy everytime Natsume glomped him.

"Umami, huh? I'll be happy to excuse you for ditching us if you tell us who the lucky guy is!" She winked and nudged, waiting expectantly for an answer. If she was expecting something scandalous, she wasn't going to get it. There were going to be several others with the 'lucky guy', first off. And then they were going to be discussing how they could keep Aura, an artifically intelligent being inside a computer game, alive and well for the next generation of players. That not only sounded dorky, it sounded batshit insane!

"Well, it's a secret, Hamaoka, cause if I told you everyone would know by tomorrow!" She winked back, drawing away from her friend's disappointed figure. Almost instantly she brightened up, bouncing from leg to leg. Akira laughed.

"Well then, Hayami, I guess the gang and I'll have to do a bit of snooping, am I right?" With that she bounced herself off the bed, moving slowly towards the door with a sly grin on her face.

"Good luck finding anything, Hamaoka! You're gonna need it!"

"Oh, I always find something in the end, Hayami. See you later!" And with those final words, she left.

A/N: Yay, filler! I love it so~ Anyway, the next chapter will definitely have the meeting at the restaurant (bonus points if you know what Umami means) and actually having interactions beyond Risa.

Of course they're curious about this mystery boy that Akira's seeing, but how far will they go to get information? After all, she's the last person in their little gang without a boyfriend. It's a monumentous occasion!

Thanks for the reviews, by the way. They mean a lot to me! 8D