Masayoshi was right on both counts, something that Gotou was beginning to get used to. They split the drops on that particular lizard — frillneck, Masayoshi insisted — and continued deeper along the path. It was strangely comfortable traveling with Masayoshi like this, it felt right — even when they were bolting off the path into the hills trying to evade the four or so enemies that Masayoshi triggered trying to pick fruit. "I hope those apples are worth it," Gotou heaved, standing on a rocky outcropping. There was a small pool here, a trickle of a waterfall that gathered and looked clean and clear. He was suddenly very thirsty, for the first time that he'd noticed.

Masayoshi held out one of the apples — Gotou was certain it was an apple, no matter what his display told him otherwise. It was red and cheerfully round, a single green leaf still attached to its stalk. Gotou took his gauntlets off and crouched down to rinse it in the water. He wiped it dry and took a bite, then made a face.

"It's not an apple," Gotou said as Masayoshi washed the ones he hadn't dropped in their flight.

"It's not?" Masayoshi held it up and squinted at it. "What is it, then?"

"Hell if I know, it's a lot sweeter than an apple." Gotou took another bite. "S'good … just, not what you're expecting it to be."

Masayoshi nodded and continued to rinse the fruit.

The voice chat came about a quarter of an hour later. Gotou had the thought of filling some of his empty flasks with the sparkling water, which tasted better than any water he'd had before. "Probably has kerub piss in it for flavor," he said when Masayoshi commented, and Masayoshi made such a face that he couldn't contain his snort of laughter.

Hey, where the hell are you, Leader?

Gotou blinked and looked skyward, then glanced at Masayoshi who was sitting on the rock outcropping with his sabatons beside him, bare feet in the cool water. "Green?" Gotou said, and Masayoshi nodded.

"We're by a small waterfall and pool," Masayoshi said, addressing the chat directly. "Deep in frillneck territory."

Knew it. You took the wrong fork, you're nowhere near the Airon Desert.

"Well, if he's so smart and knowledgeable why doesn't he come to us then?" Gotou muttered, shifting his flasks of water back into his inventory.

If either of you knew how to read a map we wouldn't have to.

"Hey, reading a map is the least of my worries when I'm staring down the gullet of a fuckin' dinosaur," Gotou said, standing upright. He hadn't addressed the chat previously, but if Green could hear him anyway then, whatever.

"We can still come to you," Masayoshi said, giving Gotou a Look. "It's not a big deal."

There's a shortcut not far from where you're at now. Some spiders and earth spirits, but nothing too hazardous.

Gotou rolled his eyes as Masayoshi acknowledged and ended the chat. "Don't be like that, Gotou-san," Masayoshi said, pulling his armored boots back on.

"Okay, for one — that's not how armor even works, you shouldn't be able to just, take it off so easily," Gotou said, and Masayoshi shook his head.

"The boots of my uniforms have always been easy to get on and off," he said earnestly, as if that was the issue at hand.

"Anyway," Gotou said. "It's creepy that someone can, like, cut in at any point. What sort of shit could someone overhear, that's really intrusive."

"Only people on your friends list can message you," Masayoshi reminded him. "And since we're in a party I added you to the chat before, so if I accept a message you can hear it too! Even if we're not together." He stood up and shuffled a moment, staring at his feet and making certain that his sabatons were on correctly.

"I bet the spiders are huge," Gotou muttered, mostly under his breath and arms crossed stubbornly.

Masayoshi picked up his halberd and got himself situated, then patted Gotou's head absently as he passed. "They won't be that bad," he said, stepping back up on the rock to reorient himself. "We're a higher level. Probably." Gotou touched the top of his head with one hand, ears pink as he sputtered indignantly.

The spiders were in fact, very large.

And very, very aggressive.

Fortunately, Masayoshi was right and they were a lower level and fairly easy kills, all things considered. The two of them stood in the natural crevasse between two verdant green slopes of hill to catch their breath — part of the 'short cut' Green had given them. "Potions are bitter as hell," Gotou complained, pulling a face after chugging one of the red flasks he kept in his inventory. It was frankly weird to see his physical status reduced to a red bar above his head … but hey, as long as that red bar was full he wasn't too upset by it.

There were some earth spirits floating along the crest of the two hills. They didn't have to go up, so they had avoided the earth spirits altogether. They were brown, rocky creatures that floated around in set paths, trailing a haze of dirt and dust. Masayoshi watched them, leaning against his halberd with a distant look on his face.

"Masayoshi?" Gotou asked, and Masayoshi shook his head as if waking from a trance before he glanced back to Gotou.

"Oh! Your health is restored. We can keep going."

"Yeah." There was a pause, and Gotou decided to press forward anyway. "Do me a favor, and lay off the area-of-effect attacks, would you? I feel like I take more damage from you than I do the monsters sometimes." The emptied flask disappeared from his hand, back into his inventory.

Masayoshi swung his head around, his eyes wide as he regarded Gotou. "I'm hurting you?"

"Yeah, some of your attacks…" Gotou trailed off when he saw the expression on Masayoshi's face. "Hey, don't look at me like that, I'm fine." He thumped the breastplate of his armor. "Some of your sweeping ranged attacks cause me some damage too, it's not that big of a deal. I'm a sturdy build, remember? We're different classes…."

"I won't use those attacks any more," Masayoshi said in all seriousness.

Gotou sighed and decided it wasn't worth the energy at the moment. "Let's go on, okay? We can talk about this later." He took a step forward toward the main path and hesitated when Masayoshi didn't move. He knew he shouldn't have said anything. "Seriously, do we have to do this right now?"

Masayoshi shook his head and pointed up the slope of the hill. "Gotou-san, look," he said. "Those aren't … players, are they?"

Gotou looked along the line of sight where Masayoshi was pointing. There was what Gotou first took to be a regular player crouched next to one of the trees that tilted at an angle from the soil. He was pretty certain it was a player, as it didn't look like any of the NPC enemies that the quests in this area had — and Gotou realized, as he brought up a map, that it was a player.

"Enemy faction," Gotou said quietly. "Look at your map, Masayoshi."

How had they forgotten? Even if the encounters were rare on this map, this was a PVP-enabled zone. The lore of the game had two different factions, enemies who fought each other as well as the monsters on the terrain. So far they had stayed well clear of PVP zones because Masayoshi made noises about how he didn't like the idea behind it, but now…? Things might just get ugly.

"Let's talk to them," Masayoshi suggested, loudly, taking a step in that direction.

Gotou caught him by the arm and yanked him back."If we can see them on our radar, that means that they can see us." He looked back up the slope, it was too far away to make out the enemy's class. "Do you really want to engage an enemy hostile in PVP?"

"That's why we talk to them, Gotou-san," Masayoshi said patiently. "If we can sort things out reasonably-"

The enemy stood up, back still to them. They were watching over the crest of the hill — and after a moment they jumped atop a rock that jutted out over the sharp incline of the hillside. They leaped off the cliff, black tattered wings spreading as they headed west, out toward the desert; along the path that Masayoshi and Gotou had planned to take.

Gotou exhaled a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. "We have to be more careful," he said, still holding Masayoshi's arm tightly. "Unless you want to fight them, they're going to attack first and to hell with the questions. They want your AP more than your friendship."

Masayoshi still watched off in the direction that the enemy had vanished, his bangs shadowed so that Gotou couldn't see his eyes. "We don't have to fight," he said, insistently, and then pulled his arm free of Gotou's grip.

"Yeah, I meant to ask how you planned on dealing with that when we made it to a PVP map," Gotou said dryly, stepping out around the hill, his eyes open for movement. "Unless you're just not gonna fight back and respawn frequently." His stomach twisted at the thought of watching Masayoshi die, over and over. "Don't do that," he added.

"It's just a game," Masayoshi muttered.

"Yeah, except for us," Gotou said, and Masayoshi didn't respond. "I'll fight," he said, looking back at Masayoshi. "I might not be good at it, and I might get killed, but I'm the group's shield." He patted the edge of the shield that was slung over his back. "I'll protect you, even if you won't fight."

Masayoshi shook his head and stomped past Gotou, onto the main path proper. He looked up and down it both directions, then turned back and looked at Gotou. "I'm supposed to protect you, Gotou-san," he argued back. "How can I do that if I'm causing you damage, too?"

"Just forget it," Gotou said with a sigh. "It's barely anything and I regret having ever brought it up." He rested his arm on the hilt of his sword, riding on his hip. "I think I see the start of the desert wastes up ahead, look at how quickly the trees start to thin out." Masayoshi looked in that direction and nodded, before starting off down the path that way. Gotou followed a few steps behind. "Wasn't the instance back in the swamp?"

"Yeah," Masayoshi said. "It still has a lot of time before it resets, we can only hit it once per day."

"Well, we better get to the bottom of this when it resets, because I do not want to have to spend another day here."

Masayoshi nodded his head and didn't say another word.

It was comfortable and easy to kill things in this environment. Masayoshi really didn't like how that felt, how easy it was. True, this was a video game; and monsters were monsters, of course — he had faced down and fought and, arguably, killed monsters in the real world. That was to protect the greater good, to protect others and not just himself.

The same argument could be made for the monsters here, though, digital though they were … and to protect Gotou, he would do a lot without even thinking twice. Masayoshi would fight, he knew it in an instant, didn't even really have to think about that — but it didn't change the fact that he wanted to take the diplomatic route first if it was an option, that he would first say that they didn't have to do this, that it didn't have to come to blows.

Besides, it wasn't like killing an enemy meant he was ending them their existence. Their character would respawn back wherever they'd bound.

Masayoshi exhaled a breath when he remembered that fact, and suddenly he felt worlds better. Yes. This was a video game for everyone else, killing their character wasn't actually killing anyone. Just points in a column. It was so easy to forget, when he was here and they … weren't.

He heard Gotou clunking along behind him. Masayoshi moved faster than Gotou at the same pace — taller build, longer stride as well as the fact that gladiators had a speed boost to their stats that templars didn't. He made a conscious effort to slow down, to keep a pace so that the distance between them didn't grow, but it happened all the same. Masayoshi couldn't resist a small jab. "Gotou-san, you're so slow," he said teasingly, turning around to jog backwards for a moment.

"I'll fight you," Gotou called, as Masayoshi slowed his pace again to allow Gotou to catch up. "I will, Masayoshi, I swear I'll fight you."

Masayoshi grinned and turned about again. It was nice, that they'd thought to make their characters at least resemble themselves, even if they weren't one hundred percent accurate. Gotou looked really, really good in his armor even if he was … short.

The Airon Desert was called such because of the flocks of airon, a tall bird that roamed around its sandy wastes. They weren't aggressive, and some would scatter away, honking, if they passed too close. "Those things look like a flamingo and a dinosaur went at it," Gotou said as they passed a particularly brightly-marked bunch.

"More like an ostrich," Masayoshi said, slowing his jog again to allow Gotou time to catch up. "Besides, aren't dinosaurs and birds related?" He could see the slope of the dune that Green had directed them to — there were some unnamed garrison guard NPCs standing at its base, and near the top he could see several players moving around.

"Must be an outpost," Gotou said, stopping beside him.

"Took you guys long enough," Green's voice called irritably. "What, did you stop to take a nap?"

"I really like your friends," Gotou said dryly, as they started toward the outpost.

"They're great," Masayoshi repeated enthusiastically, ignoring Gotou's tone entirely.

Both the NPCs nodded their heads in greeting as they passed, and one remarked idly to the other, "lots of traffic today?" Masayoshi noticed Gotou's interest in their conversation.

"It's rude to eavesdrop, Gotou-san."

"They're NPCs, Masayoshi, it's not eavesdropping if it's what they're programmed to do." He lowered his voice as he walked beside Masayoshi. "Although I'm beginning to wonder what, exactly they are programmed for."

The outpost was hardly that. Most of the people at the top of the hill were players - there was a large, old, mostly-dead tree - which Masayoshi only jumped slightly when it moved and addressed some of the players. Aside from the fencing and scrub, it was the only thing there

Green was sitting on the fencing, his sorcerer's robe unbuttoned to display the light armor underneath. He was fanning himself ineffectively with a book, Masayoshi blinked and looked at the blue cloudless sky and realized he himself was sweating. He'd been so deep in thought he hadn't noticed the change in temperature.

At least Green lived up to his name, his robe and armor all in varying shades; his hair even tinted a dark green.

"Midorikawa," Gotou greeted him tersely.

"We made it," Masayoshi said, as if that wasn't plainly obvious. "Where's Black?"

Green pushed his glasses up his nose, glanced at Gotou for a moment before addressing Masayoshi. "... he went to make certain you two made it safely. There's been some enemy activity recently, a rift opened between the two factions."

"We saw," Gotou said. "One of them, at least."

Green nodded. "Black took care of them, I think. He'll be back shortly."

Masayoshi said without preamble, "You're here, aren't you." He sensed Gotou tense behind him, but what use was there in being all secretive about it? They needed to get a handle on what was going on.

"If by 'here', you mean 'trapped within the game', then you are indeed correct." Green sat the large book on his lap and put both his palms on it. "I've been here for almost a full day, Black too. We were running in an instance, and when we came out of it we couldn't log off." He cocked his head at Masayoshi, squinting. "You are in the same boat."

Masayoshi nodded. "The instance run out of the kerub swap?"

Green shook his head. "We were in the aethergenetics lab."

"Great," Gotou said. "Two different instances. It's spreading."

"Not necessarily," Green said. "I haven't noticed anyone else — it's pretty easy to tell who is playing and who is not."

"What about Blue, or Pink?" Masayoshi asked. "I see that they're both logged in, but I can't reach out to them."

"You were the first person I could contact on my friends list," Green said. "I have to wonder if its usage is restricted to those of us caught up in this." He sighed, pushed up his glasses again as they'd slipped down, aided by the sweat. "I've been using my time to read up on lore, and my spellbook."

Suddenly, a small dark figure jumped up the fence behind Green, both hands on the old wood as they flipped over into a three-point landing. "Sorry to interrupt," Black said, standing up, brushing his hands over his outfit.

"You're a-" Gotou said, then stopped himself, and covered his mouth with one hand, looking away.

"I did indeed choose a female avatar," Black's voice was still his own, despite the small frame of the female character in front of them. "I liked the aesthetic."

"That's so weird," Gotou said, still looking away, mouth still covered with his hand.

Green shrugged. "You get used to it."

"So why call us all the way out here, where it's roasting?" Gotou asked finally, focusing back on Green while Masayoshi stared at Black's small form.

"The Elim," Green gestured toward the tall, half-dead tree that was talking animatedly to some of the players. "Lodas, please."

The tree-creature abruptly bowed to the players, and shuffled over, causing Gotou and Masayoshi both to scoot aside. "Daeva Green," the Elim said, its words slow and heavy. "These are... your friends?"

The Elim towered over them all, but unlike the ones that had startled him earlier, this tree had no leaves in its branches. Even the beard on its face which should have been green and mossy was a dried, brittle brown.

Masayoshi bowed in front of the tree. "I am Masayoshi," he said. "And this is Gotou."

The Elim called Lodas inclined its body in a bow as well. "We meet ... in Ariel's light," he said.

He glanced back to Green, who had slid off the fence, book tucked under his arm now. "Tell them what you told me, please," he said.

"There is a great ... cataclysm," the Elim said slowly. "Greater than ... the rift between our worlds. It threatens ... all of us."

"Sounds like a quest to me," Gotou murmured. Masayoshi elbowed him.

"It is ... no laughing matter ... young daeva," Lodas said, his tone labored. "If he ... is not stopped ... then this world ... will be no more." The tree took a long, tired breath. "This land ... is changing. ...Dying. ... Arbolo can tell you ... more."

"The Elim share knowledge through their roots and magic," Green said. "But their network isn't what it used to be, it's broken and fading. That's all he was able to tell me."

"Thank you," Masayoshi said, bowing to the tree again. "King of the Forest."

"Faith and arms, daeva."

Masayoshi looked back to Green as the Elim shuffled back to its original position, where a few players were idling. "So what does it mean?"

"It means," Green said, "that we have a lot of work to do."

The sun sank past the mountains — the sky was still lit, but now just shades of purple. It never got truly dark, Gotou figured it was just a game mechanic because as a player you didn't pay attention to the in-game time, you just kept doing what you were doing. Now however he could see the pillar of light that erupted from beyond the horizon, glittering now that it caught the fading sun's rays.

For the first time since he'd woken in the game, Gotou felt the pull of nature. He yawned, thinking at least to cover his mouth with his hand as he jogged behind Masayoshi along the dune. They'd split up - Green to Sanctum, and the great library of the daevas to see if he could find anything on a coming cataclysm, or anything that might "change" the nature of a daeva. "We can keep in contact," Green said, tapping his fingers on the book. "Chat seems to work for us, at least."

"For the awakened," Masayoshi said, his voice odd for a moment. He blinked and shook his head as if to clear it, then nodded sharply.

It was amusing to him that Black ran faster than either of them. He wore the avatar of a gunslinger - Gotou's reaction to that was at first disbelief, then a nod because, yes, that fit. Although he still couldn't wrap his head around guns in this fantasy world, but that was his own problem.

"I'll go as far as the fortress with you," Black said, having stopped to allow the two warrior-class players to catch up. He was staring up at the darkening sky. "The teleporters won't work after dark."

"What?" Gotou said, feeling for the first time winded. "That's the first I've heard of that, why not?"

Black shrugged and flipped the long dark ponytail over his shoulder. Masayoshi cocked his head, leaning on his polearm and breathing equally hard. "How long have you been in the game, Black?"

"Longer than you," he said simply, and tilted his head toward the hills, where the wind rustled through the leaves ominously. Gotou could hear the frillnecks crying out, their shrill cries echoing through the landscape. Suddenly, this felt less like a game. "We're not going to make it before the teleporters close down."

"Does that mean we're stuck out here?" Gotou asked, feeling the hair raise on the back of his neck at the call of some creature yet unseen. "All night?"

"The teleportation to the Shard works after dark," Black said. "That's where I'm headed, you can come as well."

"That's the PVP-heavy zone, no thank you," Gotou said, as a puzzled expression crossed Masayoshi's face. "The abyss, Masayoshi. I don't think you've been."

"You have, Gotou-san?"

"And promptly got my ass kicked, so I'm not in a hurry to go back."

"Then I guess you'll be staying here," Black said simply. "Come on, the fortress doesn't shut down at dark, just the transportation."

The fortress in this zone was much different than the previous. Gotou had been here a few times in passing, but things were much different (and much more impressive) from this view as they started down the side of a cliff, headed toward the bowl of a great valley.

The structure resembled an enormous tree in its shape, springing from the ground and reaching skyward, but there was no living growth to its core. The center column was in fact hollowed out, and a small platform lifted at regular intervals up, taking visitors right into the center of the fortress. Here was a free-flying zone, however, as players would leap from the many platforms and glide safely to the valley's floor, or take off from the ground and flap upwards, toward the sky.

"Whoa," Gotou said as they made it to the basin, neck craned upwards. There were things suspended in the air here, floating rock platforms, small bursts of glowing green energy.

"Impressed?" Masayoshi asked with a grin, elbowing Gotou.

"You wish," Gotou said, and elbowed Masayoshi back.

Black watched them with a strange expression, not that Gotou was that familiar with Masayoshi's former teammates. He shook his head, arms crossed. "I'm going to the Shard," he said. "Last chance to tag along."

Masayoshi looked hesitantly over at Gotou, then seemed to come to a decision and shook his head decisively. "No," he said. "While I don't like the idea of everyone splitting up, we need to get to Arbolu."

"That's not going to happen tonight, either way," Black pointed out.

Gotou stifled another yawn, and Masayoshi looked at him again. "Tired, Gotou-san?"

"Exhausted," Gotou said truthfully. "Do you even sleep, here?" Gotou asked Black specifically.

"I nap here and there," Black said. "I don't really notice that I'm tired."

"That's not going to happen tonight, either way," Black pointed out.

Gotou stifled another yawn, and Masayoshi looked at him again. "Tired, Gotou-san?"

"Exhausted," Gotou said truthfully. He elbowed Masayoshi back again, the armor making a rough metallic sound when it made contact. "Aren't you tired?"

"A little bit," Masayoshi admitted. "Also I'm really hungry. I just noticed that. S'weird, if I'm not thinking about it it's like I'm ... I don't know." Masayoshi gestured with his hands, and Gotou nodded. "But when I slow down to think about it, I feel tired and hungry and worn out."

Black looked between them, then nodded up at the fortress. "Crash for the night," he said. "Get used to being here. Green or I'll contact you when the teleporters open again; you can use scrolls even when they're sending people across zones. We can pick up tomorrow where we left off."

"But the cataclysm thing sounded kinda urgent," Masayoshi said. Gotou caught his arm, tugged him toward the fortress "Gotou-san!"

"Urgent, yes - but what good will either of us do half-dead from exhaustion? Let's go eat and sleep and regroup, 'yoshi." He nodded at the petite form of Black, who had his arms crossed over a not-considerable chest. "See you tomorrow, Black."

"It isn't like there's an inn or anywhere we can bum a bed, or even a pile of straw," Gotou said with an aggravated sigh. It was dark now, but the fortress was lit by magic, glowing orbs interspersed like lanterns, great energy that flowed all around it. People were all about, although there were less players than NPCs, and the nonplayer characters seemed to be interacting with each other outside of their usual scripts.

There had been a food seller, a small tavern situated across a perilously thin bridge run by a large rodent-like creature called a Shugo. It came up to Gotou's chest and resembled an oversized ferret, and had a peculiar catch to its speech pattern. Gotou fully expected to be pulling long strands of golden fur out of his meal, but it tasted so delicious that forgot his discomfort at being served by a bipedal animal.

Food, and drink - all tasted wonderful, but not like what he expected it to taste like. Gotou was already over this strangeness, too hungry to even care any longer he scoffed his food quickly and was left to watch Masayoshi slowly eat his own. There felt like something he should be doing, with his hands, as he waited ... and it was with a pang that he remembered his cell phone, left on the table with his cigarettes. Well, it wasn't like he had anticipated going for an adventure in the world of a fucking video game, she'd forgive him.

Instantly he felt overwhelmingly guilty. Gotou swallowed and stood up. "I'm getting more to drink," he said when Masayoshi glanced up at him quizzically, and Gotou strode across the tavern to where the food seller lingered behind a counter.

He wasn't supposed to be thinking of her anymore. It hurt in his chest when he thought like that, when he realized how long it had been since he last thought of her, it hurt so hard he couldn't breathe and here he didn't have a cigarette to try to calm his nerves, to try to hide that something was wrong. He took the flagon of ale - bitter and heavy - and sat down again across from Masayoshi, who was watching him with too-sharp eyes. "Everything okay, Gotou-san?" Masayoshi asked, and Gotou nodded his head and didn't answer.

Once fed they wandered the fortress, but Gotou had spoken truly. There wasn't anywhere for tired warriors to bed down.

They sat side by side in the large great hall, backs to concrete as they watched people bustle around. "Oh," Masayoshi said suddenly. "We should go to my studio, I wonder if that works."

Gotou had been resting his head in his hand, braced on one knee. He lifted his head slowly and glanced at Masayoshi. "Your what?" He had an inkling he remembered, it sounded like something related to one of the quests he hadn't gotten around to finishing.

"I have a studio in Oriel, it's the residential district," Masayoshi said. "I think I even have a bed, if not that then big old stuffed chairs I won off a prize machine. I can't believe I forgot."

"Oriel's another zone, isn't it?" Gotou said with a yawn. "We can't go there anyway, not until dawn."

Masayoshi stood up. "I can summon a teleportation gate," he said, one hand on his hip as he gestured in the air, and a small, single-person sized portal opened in front of him. Gotou eyed it, and looked at Masayoshi.

"Enjoy your bed then," he said, aware of the dull ache that still sat heavy in his chest and seemed to grow at the thought of being left behind again, even for something as short a span as a night.

"Gotou-san," Masayoshi grabbed at his arm and tugged, pulling a surprised Gotou to his feet. "My portal can accommodate group members, come on, you come too."

"Ah," Gotou said, as Masayoshi shoved him forward.

Masayoshi shoved Gotou through the portal with both hands. He watched his friend stagger and then disappear into the gold-rimmed portal, then put his hands on his hips and sighed, glancing around the fortress a final time before he too stepped through the portal.

What he didn't notice, as he stepped through the hovering, shimmering portal, was the dark figure watching them attentively from the upper level.

The game system allowed each player their own private area. For those who didn't want to shell out the extra in-game money for prime real estate, they were granted a single-room "studio", with the option to furnish however they'd like, and a personal Shugo butler.

"Greetings, daeva," the Shugo butler said as Gotou staggered into the room, still off balance from the healthy shove administered by Masayoshi. He turned around and straightened, as Masayoshi stepped through the door, the portal vanishing behind him.

"You have a butler," Gotou said.

"Yes, he comes with the studio," Masayoshi said. "I assume he takes care of it when you haven't been for a while - you haven't gotten yours? That's a low-level quest, Gotou-san! You can get more inventory storage!"

There were quite a few low level quests that Gotou had skipped entirely. He shrugged loosely, glancing around at the one large room.

The studio was bigger than his apartment in reality, although the walls were smooth and had but a single door. By the station where the Shugo butler stood was a small pedestal with a glowing blue orb; and there was some sparse furnishings. Several large, overstuffed, gaudy as hell armchairs, a table by the entrance with several small potted plants, and pushed back in the corner, a bed. "Huh," Gotou said, looking at the plants. "Home sweet home, I guess?"

"It's a bed," Masayoshi said, pulling off his gauntlets. "I am so tired I feel like I'm going to sleep for a week."

Gotou looked around again. "So I don't suppose this place has facilities, huh?"

"Ask the Shugo," Masayoshi said, leaning his weapon against the wall carefully.

"Ack-ack-ack-ack," the Shugo said when Gotou turned to address it. "How can I be of assistance?"

"Bathroom," Gotou asked. "Where is it?"

The Shugo stared at him, then cocked his head and blinked once, slowly. "I don't understand."

"Facilities. Place to take a leak."

Silence from the Shugo. "I don't understand."

Gotou sighed. "Game's not constructed with toilets, I'm going outside to piss."

Masayoshi glanced over at him and nodded. "It should let you back in but I'll stay in here just in case it doesn't."

"Don't you have to go too?"

"You're not supposed to urinate in public, Gotou-san," Masayoshi said.

"Yeah, but that rule's for places that have bathrooms." Gotou raised his hand. "I'll be back in a minute."

Walking out the door of the studio took him to a small balcony. Gotou leaned forward, hands on the rails - just like in the previous zone, while the sky had gone dark it wasn't truly dark, the world stayed in a permanent state of twilight until the sun rose. There wasn't much activity on the path below, although there were a couple of tents and stalls that were likely inhabited by NPCs during the daylight hours.

It took a minute to find stairs, and then once he was on the ground he walked around the back of the building, planning to take a leak on the brushes and scrub that were behind the building. Gotou did not expect the several large deer-like creatures who were grazing back there - they startled each other an equal amount, and Gotou's sword was in his hand by instinct alone, but the creatures scattered off into the trees behind the building.

He hesitated a long moment before sheathing his sword.

Masayoshi was already in the bed by the time Gotou returned, curled up on his side and most of the way toward asleep. Gotou smiled despite himself, then looked at the Shugo who was watching them both. "Don't you have somewhere to be?" he asked the creature, who shuffled uncomfortably.

"Here to serve daeva, ack-ack-ack-ack."

"Serve daeva by standing guard outside the door, okay? It's creepy you in here, watching him sleep." Gotou laid his sword and shield on the table, and looked up at the Shugo, who was still standing there. "Go!"

"Live to serve," the Shugo said, and shuffled out the door.

Masayoshi lifted his head sleepily. "Come to bed, Gotou-san."

"I thought you had to piss," Gotou said, taking off his armor slowly. It was strange to shed it, he didn't feel any different without it, except now he could feel the temperature of the room, and the slow chill that rolled across him.

"Too sleepy'll do it in the morning." Masayoshi snuggled down under his sheet. "C'mon, it's cold, come get in bed."

"I'll sleep in the chair," Gotou said, shivering more as he set his armor beside the table. "Go to sleep, Masayoshi."

Masayoshi sat up, put his hands in his lap and glared at Gotou. "This bed is enormous, Gotou-san. I am not sleeping in it alone."

Gotou hesitated, glanced at the chair - which was probably more uncomfortable than it looked - and sighed in resignation. "Fine, but you gotta go out and piss first, I do not want to wake up to you wetting the bed because you misjudged how big your bladder is in this body."

Masayoshi grinned at him, sleepily.