Chisame couldn't sleep….mostly because she wasn't awake. Though she realized virtual "sleep" was possible within the Spectrum Virtuale version of Magic's Play, she was all too aware in the dim techno-twilight that her real body-not the mental/digital version that had met Seto and begged him to help her out of this mess- was still asleep in her dorm room, holding the artifact that had brought them here.
Apparently, the "real" Seto was now asleep in her dorm back at Mahora Academy, in the real world, as well. Seto's mind, on the other hand, was asleep in a tent across the clearing, in all likelihood praising her for making the virtual forest where they lay so real.
But it hadn't been her, no matter how badly she wished it had been. The fault for the situation lay at the feet of magic. Magic, which Chisame wished she hadn't been forced to believe was real.
That's why I like Kaiba-sama so much, Chisame mused, listening to the sleepy snores of Nodoka and Yue around her. She was happy those two, the ones who had chosen sleeping places closest to her own, had had more than enough time to fall silent and asleep while she had been talking with Seto. I can't believe I was out there talking to him for so long, long enough for Honya-chan and Yuecchi to pass out from exhaustion waiting for me to get back so they could seal the tent. But it was so good to talk to someone like him..someone who doesn't believe in magic or blindly follow that ten-year-old brat these girls call a sensei. It was nice to talk to someone who still follows logic, who's still normal, unlike the ditzes and baka around Mahora Academy.
Well, as normal as a teen corporate genius and duel champion can be, that is, she smirked to herself in the semidarkness. In reality, the only "normal teenager" here was Chisame…or, at least, she would have been, if she hadn't gotten ahold of the Spectrum Virtuale.
If Chisame hadn't ferreted the secret of magic from Negi-sensei, or been dragged into making a Pactio with him and getting her technomagical artifact, the Spectrum, in the first place, her life wouldn't have gotten this problematic. If she hadn't, she would have never been able to enhance the game of Magic's Play, or trap them all here, she realized.
Of course, she thought to herself, smirking slightly, then, I wouldn't have met Kaiba-sama, either.
Therein lay her problem, the thing that was keeping her pragmatic, reluctantly- virtualized mind awake. She liked Seto because he was sane like her, not automatically believing magic was possible. He was a creature of logic alone, someone not manipulated by idiots who believed in magic, and in the sugary-sweet power of friendship. He'd said as much: he knew a dumb kid who believed he had some magical destiny, too. Yugi, he'd called him, who sounded almost exactly like Negi, but with more Egyptian leanings. Seto had refused to place his faith in Yugi's friendship or his magic, just as Chisame had refused Negi.
Nevertheless, there was one big difference between Seto and Chisame.
Seto could still refuse to believe magic existed. Chisame not only knew it did, she'd used it to bring herself here, and bring them together.
So her conversations with Seto had a flaw. Even as she and Seto had agreed that Negi and her classmates accepting magic had brought them here was stupid, she knew the truth.
Magic was real, and it was the true creator of the virtual reality Seto sought so badly to control.
As that cynical, sad thought bloomed in her mind, she heard Konoka, at the edge of the tent, shift and awaken. Chisame shifted out of the direction of the beam of light Konoka had magicked up to see by, but otherwise stayed silent.
"Set-chan!" Konoka whispered, calling to warrior-garbed Setsuna on the other side of the tent. Chisame heard Setsuna yawn and stretch from her sleeping place.
"What is it, Ojou-sama?" Setsuna answered tiredly, fingering the hilt of the sword given to her by the game system when they had arrived.
"Set-chan," Konoka giggled, "isn't this amazing? We're inside a video game. We get to be Magic's Play heroes! Isn't that so cool? I get to be a Healer, and where the pretty outfit that kind of character wears in the game. I feel like I'm wearing cosplay. And you get to be a Warrior, Set-chan! Your knight outfit looks so cute. I'm jealous!" she giggled, continuing, "It's so awesome that we get to do this, camp out in a magic forest and see dragons and stuff. It's so different from home, and I think it's really exciting!"
"I want you to be careful, though, Ojou-sama," Chisame heard Setsuna warn, "what if a dragon ate you, Konoka-ojousama? I-I-I'd never forgive m-myself."
Chisame didn't look, but she swore Konoka must have been pouting. That was the difference between Konoka and herself. Konoka thought it was "amazing" to go inside a technomagical bubble and pretend to be a wizard, even if she was trapped there. Chisame just found it problematic.
"Either way," said Konoka, "I'm happy that I get to do this. I know we have to get home, but, honestly, I love it here! I could stay in this dream world forever."
At that, Chisame forced herself into a sitting position and spoke up. "Konoe-san!" she chided in the darkness, "You can't stay here forever. God, you shouldn't even say that. Do you not get the fact that if Kaiba-sama hadn't showed up and agreed to help us beat the game, our minds might seriously be trapped in here for the rest of our lives? We wouldn't get to ever go back to the dorms, or the real world, or our normal lives. We wouldn't be able to graduate with the rest of the class. We'd probably die in here…if not for Kaiba-sama's help."
"For that, then," said Nodoka, awakened by Chisame's unwontedly passionate speech, "I'm very grateful that Kaiba-san has agreed to help us beat the game of Magic's Play. I've never played this kind of game before, so I'd probably fail on my own. It's good that Kaiba-san can help us get home. But, nevertheless, Chisame-san…." Here Nodoka paused, and Chisame braced herself for a critique of the plan she'd worked so hard on to get them help and home.
"Nevertheless, Chisame-san, I'm excited about this opportunity, and I think you are, too, otherwise you wouldn't have enhanced Magic's Play this way in the first place. You've given us a wonderful, magical place, here, and even though I do eventually want to leave with you're and Kaiba-san's help, I intend to enjoy the opportunity to be a mage, even if it's just pretend, for as long as and as well as I possibly can."
"Nodoka's right," Yue agreed, now also awake after hearing the conversation of the others, "Anything less would be a waste of Chisame-san's artifact, correct?"
Chisame grumbled, but inwardly realized couldn't particularly argue there. The power of the Spectrum Virtuale was kind of incredible. It had made the world where they now talked and slept. It had allowed her to meet Seto Kaiba, and allowed them to both use magic in a way that didn't make them feel like they were sinking down to the foolish level of their enemies….Negi for Chisame, and Yugi for Seto.
For better or worse, here they were, and here they would remain until victory could be reached. Now, all they had to do was survive.