Masayoshi stood in front of the cluster of Shugos in the main square of Rockport village, hands on his hips, halberd slung on his back as he listened to the overlapping chatter of answers he had received in response to a simple question. Gotou stood back a ways, right outside the tavern, steaming flagon of something that was labeled as coffee in one hand, hoping desperately that despite its strange taste there was something resembling caffeine in its contents.
Blue was supposed to meet them in Rockport, but there'd been no sign of him when they got to the tavern. Gotou had been thankful, because he was certain the flush had yet to fade from his face, but Masayoshi was immediately concerned, especially given Black's disappearance. Gotou had to argue him down long enough to get him to eat something, but as soon as he'd cleared his plate he was up and talking to every NPC he could.
The cluster of Shugos - Black Cloud traders, Gotou guessed, based on their parcels and various wares - seemed to be the best source of information for the small town. They gesticulated wildly as they spoke, their high-pitched tones conflicting and overlapping. Masayoshi was nodding a lot, listening as thoughtfully as he could, and finally when he'd given up sorting them all out he trotted back over to Gotou. "Seems a daeva fitting Blue's description left via teleporter," Masayoshi reported as Gotou sipped his strangely-flavored coffee.
"Wonder why he won't respond via group chat?" Gotou said idly.
Masayoshi shrugged. "I tried pinging Green, too, but no one's home. We're supposed to meet up in Sanctum, though, so want to head there?"
"Might as well." Gotou drained the rest of his drink and ducked back into the tavern, to deposit the flagon next to their cleared plates, where a Shugo was already starting to clean behind them. Yesterday Masayoshi had tried to clean their dishes but the Shugo had actually gotten upset with them, so this time they left them without complaint. Masayoshi waited outside.
He kept doing this thing where he would kind of glance at Gotou, then look away quickly, slightly pink. Gotou would call him out on it but it meant that he'd have to confront what had already happened today and damn it if he wasn't going to just pretend things were still normal for the moment. He wasn't dealing with it right now. Gotou ignored it, focused on ensuring his sword belt was buckled properly, and that he had enough gold in his pouch to cover the teleportation fee. "To Sanctum?" he said when he was outside, and Masayoshi looked at him finally and nodded.
The teleporter was the same slightly bitter one they'd spoken with the day before. He glanced at them casually, took their coins, and half muttered something under his breath as he opened the teleportation portal. Gotou ignored him, this time, and stepped through.
It was remarkable, what one got used to.
Gotou stepped out of the portal into a busy intersection. There was another teleportation specialist standing in the center of a long platform, but he was swarmed by people - players, jumping and shuffling around, each one stepping in to an opened teleportation corridor. Gotou shuffled forward when Masayoshi popped through behind him, and Masayoshi pushed Gotou with both his hands, moving him out of the way. Players might phase through each other as they ran about with no hint of consequence, but when they collided with those in-game, there was some confusion.
He'd been to Sanctum before, the headquarters and safe-haven of the entire race; but never like this. It was all white marble, rising high above them, shining gloriously in the morning sun. Wisps of clouds floated along among some of the taller edifices, and Gotou remembered as the wind blasted past him that Sanctum was actually suspended in the flow of aether, high above the earth.
He suddenly felt just a touch airsick.
Masayoshi didn't even seem to notice, the wind blowing his hair about. He jogged past the mob of players toward stairs that led into the city proper, and after a moment, Gotou followed him.
Sanctum was busy. Even past the entrance there were people - players - everywhere. Running back and forth on quests, errands, grouped together waiting to teleport somewhere, sitting on chairs with their own personal vendor stores open, just constant movement and chatter. It was in the strangest way reassuring. Gotou didn't linger, following Masayoshi's longer stride as he headed deep into the city, to where the library was.
There were not nearly as many people down in the plaza square. Gotou remembered it was usually reserved for event staff, when the game ran special prizes and rewards for players. He slowed along the railing, though, seeing a flash of violet that struck him as instantly, strangely familiar.
Gotou glanced forward, but had already lost Masayoshi to the crush of people. Gotou knew where the library was, though - he'd catch up. He stopped at the railing, both hands firmly on its delicate metal sculpting, and vaulted over it.
It was a drop down to the next level, a significant one - but not enough to do damage. It wasn't the sort of jump that Gotou would have attempted in reality, but that person, in the violet armor was heading out of the plaza in the other direction. Gotou wasn't entirely certain what compelled him to follow, to see, but the armor seemed out of place among the shining, clean colors of the other players - it almost looked like the armor that came from Asmodae, their enemies.
It reminded him of the PVPer.
Gotou almost lost them in the crowd that had gathered in front of the resurrection obelisk - it was where people teleported in via scroll, if they didn't use an actual teleportation specialist. The armor-clad person ducked down a small alley between a great hall and a specialty shop, and Gotou, without hesitation, followed.
Masayoshi had been chattering happily to himself, unaware that he'd lost Gotou on the other side of the city. The library was situated at the far end of the city, in a largely protected area. Masayoshi jogged down the steps, looking at the array of long benches scholars used to spread out on, and saw Blue, standing near the end of one. "Blue!" he called cheerfully. "Green! Arieluma!"
"You've gone native," Pink's voice said from behind him, and Masayoshi jumped a little and turned, smiling blindly.
"Pink!"
She wore a glimmering pink kimono, altered so that it was enchanted over proper armor. She glanced up at him, then patted his elbow with a sharkish grin. "Have a good morning so far?"
Masayoshi blushed a little, but nodded his head. When he glanced over to Blue, and Green - Blue very obviously Would Not Meet His Gaze, and Masayoshi frowned and looked at Green.
Green said, from his seat, "next time, please exit the group chat if you need ... personal time."
It took a long moment for it to sink in, but when it did Masayoshi turned a deeper red than his costume. He almost choked on air. "I'M SORRY," he shouted, taking a step back, half-turned to share this horrified embarrassment with Gotou.
Who was not behind him.
Masayoshi's mortification paused mid-flail - he heard Green get up as he turned back around, as if Gotou had snuck around him as he was standing at the bottom of the steps. "Where is your boyfriend?" Pink asked, and Masayoshi looked back up the steps.
"He was right behind me," he said.
The alley didn't go anywhere - it dead-ended into another building. Gotou slowed from his trot to stop a reasonable distance from the player in the purple armor. He'd realized, as he'd followed, that this person took the same steps that he did to avoid being run into by other players, not just running about blindly. This wasn't a PVP zone, there should be no enemies here - all the same he kept his hand on the hilt of his sword.
He didn't say anything - but the other player leaned forward slightly, pulling off the helmet they wore. Their armor was black and purple, veins of glowing energy shifting between pieces, the large two-handed sword they wore at their back wreathed in the same kind of energy. When they straightened, familiar, tawny hair sprang free - and Gotou took a step back in surprise before bracing himself, staring.
Masayoshi's face looked back at him, the smile he wore more wicked than not. "Took you long enough," he said, in an unfamiliar voice. "Gotou-san."
"Masayoshi...?" Gotou said, voice uncertain. He'd taken a step back because no, this could not be, it really wasn't possible - but this person had the same countenance, the same hair, the same blue eyes... But the rest was all wrong. There was no light in those eyes, the way his mouth curled into something that might be described as a grin, and the way he looked at Gotou, head cocked, arms folded, sizing him up like a piece of meat.
"You're not wrong," this other person, this not-Masayoshi said, and shrugged his shoulders loosely. "For some reason, I'd imagined you taller."
"This isn't - I'm taller outside the game," Gotou said. He closed his hand on the hilt of his sword, prepared to pull it from its sheath but it wouldn't come free. Not-Masayoshi watched him struggle with his caught weapon, a slightly-bored expression on his face. "You're not Masayoshi - who are you?"
Not-Masayoshi's mouth quirked. "Again, you're not wrong," he murmured, and for a moment he sounded just like Masayoshi. Then he unfolded his arms, straightening to his full height, bolstered by the dark, wicked armor he wore.
Gotou gave up trying to free his sword, whatever was going on it was stuck firmly in its sheath. "You're behind all this," he said, hands curled into fists at his sides, glaring up at this stranger who wore Masayoshi's face. It wasn't a question when he said it, and this player-not-player shrugged again loosely, hands spread, palms up. "What do you want with us? Why are you doing this?"
He stepped forward abruptly, closer to Gotou - and Gotou took a step back without thinking. Not-Masayoshi waved his hand in the air suddenly, and the air glowed green about it - Gotou recognized a spell being cast in an instant and backpedaled, unable to even pull his shield off of his back in time.
The vine appeared from the solid stone wall to his right, shot out and wrapped around his wrist, yanking Gotou from the middle of the alley into the wall hard enough that he felt the pain of impact shoot up his arm and down his shoulder. He grunted, put his left palm on the stone to try to wrench himself free but then felt the not-Masayoshi put his hand on Gotou's shoulder and thump him solidly into the wall, the shield on his back scraping against the stonework unpleasantly.
"I'm going to take everything that my brother has," the not-Masayoshi said, hand still on Gotou's opposite shoulder, holding him back against the wall with more pressure than Gotou thought possible, trying to wrench himself free. He twisted his head away even as not-Masayoshi caught his jaw and turned his head so that he faced this not-Masayoshi. "I'm going to destroy him, piece by piece until there's nothing of him left. That's what I'm going to do."
Gotou clenched his jaw, tried to twist his head free again. "But then," this not-Masayoshi said, cold metal of his gauntlet-covered thumb rubbing Gotou's chin. "There's you. Haven't decided what to do with you, yet, Gotou-san. Maybe I'll keep you for myself, I think that would hurt him the most, don't you?"
"I don't know who you are, but you're crazy," Gotou said through gritted teeth, straining against the vine that bound his wrist, the pressure of the hand that kept him pinned to the wall. The not-Masayoshi grinned a little at that, jerked his chin up, and kissed him.
The response was immediate. Gotou braced his back against the wall, easy enough with the pressure of not-Masayoshi's hand on his shoulder, and he planted both feet in approximately the area of not-Masayoshi's solar plexus. All the breath left the guy in a low moan, the sheer force of the move pushed him back away, staggering into the opposite wall of the alley.
Gotou dropped down against the wall, landing awkwardly, his wrist still captured by the vine and wrenching his right arm so hard it almost popped his shoulder. "Fuck," not-Masayoshi spat, pushing himself off the wall, freeing an enormous two-handed sword from its position slung over his shoulder. "For that I'm going to cut your head off."
Gotou spat on the ground between them. "Anything to get that taste out of my mouth," he hissed. He couldn't draw his sword left-handed even if he wanted to, his arm wasn't long enough to free it from its sheath at the angle he wore it at.
Abruptly, not-Masayoshi raised his head. He looked at something that Gotou couldn't see - above his head, through the stone wall. The man offered another snarled oath and raised his hand - and instantly teleported away. The moment he faded out of existence, so did the spell that held the vine, and Gotou dropped completely onto his ass on the cold stone ground. He let his arm drop down, left hand going to his shoulder, even if he couldn't feel it through the paldrons, and tilted his head back against the wall, eyes closed.
What the fuck.
Black lay on his back in the center of the floor of his small cell, arms folded behind his head. There was no creature comforts, no hay to lie on, nothing even resembling a chair, so he made do. The ceiling was made of the same material as the walls, solid with no seams - not that he could reach those seams if there were any.
Well.
Black opened an eye and stared at the ceiling. He could fly, they were in the Abyss, the aether was a constant here. He just hadn't bothered - he couldn't touch his inventory, his weapons were gone, there was really no need to exhaust himself flapping around a box.
Right on cue, on the quarter hour, came the Balaur NPCs. Black closed his eyes and sighed, probed for a moment for the group chat as he had fruitlessly many times in the last few days, and when that produced no results (not that he had expected it to) rolled up onto his side, so his back was toward the open side of the cell.
All he had was his clothing - light armor, leather and thin tempered metal, nothing really weaponizable there. If he was a heavier class, like the warrior classes who wore chain mail and plate armor he might have been able to do something with that, but as it stood he was really, still, without options.
The only thing that left was for him to turn over in his head his short encounter with the person who held this fortress, a player - not an NPC - but they hadn't given him much, except that he was being used as some kind of bait. Clearly this entire ordeal was meant to trap up the Flamengers for some reason, but that didn't explain why other players got swept up into the madness, like his fellow captive, or Leader's friend, Gotou-k...
Black opened his eyes, stared at the wall. Then he got up and walked to the wall that he knew he shared with the other female prisoner. He slapped his open hand against the wall, it barely made a noise. "Hey!" he called, and knocked on the wall with his fist. "Hey, do you know Hazama Masayoshi?"
There was a silence so long Black was afraid that maybe she was gone, that the Balaur or the other player had come to get her while Black was dozing thoughtfully, but then she responded finally, her voice clearly confused. "Yeah, I know Hazama-san," she said carefully.
"I mean, actually know him, not just know about him," Black said. He thought a moment, her name was what, Ruby? He opened his mouth to speak but snapped it shut again when he heard her smack the wall.
"Are you serious? What does this have to do with Samumenco? He doesn't even play-" another smack into the wall, hard enough that Black thought he felt it with his own hand on the wall. "Fuck, is he playing this game now?"
"You do know him?"
"I'm Flamenco Ruby, that's why my user name is Ruby-" this time it sounded like she kicked the wall. "Mother fucker, that explains everything."
"Almost everything," Black murmured, his hand on the wall still, closing his eyes.
"Now what?" Ruby asked, a voice without a face for Black.
Black inhaled deeply, eyes closed, thinking hard. He opened his eyes, looked at the ceiling - and smiled. "What class are you?"
It wasn't in the least bit reassuring to be among the players again. Gotou walked along the outside of a building, taking the long way so that he didn't get trampled by over-enthusiastic players and the occasional mount-riding asshole barreling down the middle of main street as if they hadn't a care in the world.
The moment Gotou had stepped out of the alley, he'd been blasted in one ear by Masayoshi in the group chat, wailing. 've lost Gotou-san agaaaaaain-!
Instead of answering, or responding, Gotou glanced back at the alley he'd exited from, brow furrowed. He stepped back into it - silence, Masayoshi cut-off mid stream.
He smiled grimly, at least that answered that.
Green noticed him back in the group chat a few minutes after he'd started walking slowly toward the library - which elicited another yell from Masayoshi that Gotou could imagine in all-caps, STAY THERE I'M COMING TO YOU GOTOU-SAN. Of course he didn't, but it was the main route toward the library, and he only had a few minutes to turn over what had happened in his head before he saw Masayoshi coming toward him full speed, armor glinting white and gold in the sunlight, the red highlights cheerfully accentuating it.
Gotou braced himself for a flying tackle, but Masayoshi drew up short in front of him, familiar blue eyes huge and watery, and Gotou said "please tell me you're not going to cry, you didn't cry when you lost me in a fucking jungle."
Masayoshi's expression wobbled for a moment then seemed to settle, he rubbed his hand over the bottom of his face and said, his voice trembling only slightly, "Gotou-san, what happened?"
Gotou wet his lips, glanced at the bridge that spanned the two districts of Sanctum behind Masayoshi. "Is everyone else still at the library?" he asked instead of answering, and Masayoshi nodded. "This is important, and I only want to tell it once, okay? Let's go."
"Gotou-san," Masayoshi said, hesitation in his voice - Gotou looked up at him, and realized Masayoshi was waiting for something else, blushing faintly pink - and Gotou wet his lips and thought of the way not-Masayoshi had jerked his head, covered Gotou's mouth... Gotou looked away and didn't acknowledge that Masayoshi wanted a kiss, instead starting for the bridge. "Come on," he said without looking back at Masayoshi.
"Yeah," Masayoshi said, after another moment, and caught up to Gotou easily.
There were five of them now, in one place finally. They were arranged around the table Green had been camping out at - near the back of the main room of the library, away from the handful of NPCs who never seemed to leave, ever-present for quest checkpoints. Gotou opted to stand - he didn't want to take off his sword or shield to sit, felt the tiniest bit better with them still on him, even if he hadn't been able to take his sword from its sheath when he needed it just the weight of it was comfort enough.
"I know why Black can't talk to us," Gotou said, arms folded. Masayoshi had seated himself at the end of one of the long benches, closest to Gotou, almost territorial. He was watching Gotou closely, not the others, it was unnerving. Gotou ignored it though.
Green pushed his glasses up, settled them on his nose properly again. "It's because he's off the map," he said, and Gotou nodded his head. Whenever everyone looked to Green, Green shrugged loosely. "When you're a sprite made out of pixels, programmers design your world with edges. It's not truly three dimensional."
"Of course," Pink said idly, seated down the bench from Green, her hands folded in her lap. "That's why there are teleporters between zones, because they're just small maps areas with edges."
"They're not," Gotou said. "At least, not for us. I've been outside of the zone at least twice now, without any indication otherwise. The world just continues on beyond the artificial borders put in place by game designers." He tapped the side of his head. "It's when I fell out of chat. The game constructs can't exist in the real Atreia."
"Wait," Blue said. "You're saying this place is real?"
"Well, we're here," Gotou said. "Aren't we?"
"But the game controls," Blue said. "The inventory, the teleporters, the quests-" he gestured broadly, at the library behind himself. "The other players."
"This is world wherein magic actually exists to begin with," Green said. "Technically, we're on the inside of the planet's crust, a feat which is a geophysical impossibility and yet..." He shrugged.
"So the mapped zones are where the game controls work - mostly," Masayoshi said, amending himself mid-sentence. "But the maps, the way our inventory is handled-"
"The longer we're here, the more part of its fabric we become," Gotou said. "If I had to guess."
"So, what do we do?" Pink asked.
"Finding Black is still at the top of the priority list," Masayoshi said, his elbow on the table, chin in hand and head still turned to Gotou. "That's not all though, is it, Gotou-san?"
Gotou rubbed his hand over the bottom of his face, considering. He was giving Masayoshi a thoughtful look - then shook his head and sighed. "We're here because of Masayoshi," he said finally. "I saw him - I think he's the guy who's caused all this, he's geared himself up and made an avatar that looks just like Masayoshi and everything." He sighed. "I don't know what his game is, but he's after you, 'yoshi."
Masayoshi had lifted his chin out of his hand, glancing back down the table at the other Flamengers. They were all looking at him - no one was surprised that Masayoshi was at the center of all this, but they were all looking at him for a different reason. "Gotou-san," Masayoshi said, looking back to him. "Did he have, like, a yellow collar around his neck, or maybe a tail...?"
"He was wearing a full set of Asmodian armor," Gotou said. "I couldn't tell you even if he did." He regarded Masayoshi curiously. "Why?"
"But Beyond Flamenco is dead," Masayoshi said, not quite in answer to Gotou's question. He was staring off, at the rows of bookshelves that disappeared into shadow behind them with a furrowed brow.
"There's no reason to assume it's From Beyond," Green said. "They were thoroughly eradicated, the chances that it's actually them are so minuscule that they don't bear mentioning."
"Yeah," Blue said, a little too enthusiastically. "We kicked their asses!"
"Not necessarily that it's From Beyond," Masayoshi said. "Just Beyond Flamenco."
"I think it more likely it's someone who created an avatar that looks like you," Gotou said. "You saw Beyond Flamenco die, so did a lot of people. There are a lot of messed up people in the world, Masayoshi."
"But," Pink said, tapping her fingers on the table thoughtfully. "Why the deception, then? What's the point in wearing Leader's face?"
"You'll have to ask him about that," Gotou said.
"Whoever he is - whoever he really is - he's up to no good," Masayoshi said. He folded his hands in front of his face as he thought hard. "We have to stop him."
"No shit," Gotou said. "The question is, how."
"And what do we do with him after?" Pink said. "Since he's a player, he would just resurrect at an obelisk, even if we kill him."
"And it's not like we have the capacity to incarcerate him," Green said.
"So we capture him, and we take him to the Emperyean Lords," Masayoshi said. "They're the rulers in the game, right? They'll know what to do with him."
"They're NPCs, Masayoshi," Gotou said.
Masayoshi looked to Gotou, then to Green. "Are they?" he asked. "If this game is real, then they are real, right? The teleportation kiosks close at dusk. We've seen NPCs close their stalls and move on. They're real. And that means the Emperyean Lords are real, and can deal with him."
"It's as good a start as any," Gotou said finally. "First, we have to find Black. Something's keeping him off the map, out of a zone, otherwise he clearly would have contacted us by now." He inclined his head at Masayoshi. "You have a plan, 'yoshi?"
Masayoshi looked down the table at Green. "Did you figure out where his last mapped location was?"
"Somewhere past the Eastern Shard of Lastran," Green said.
Blue leaned forward. "That's right by the Asmo fortress," he said. "I had quests over there and couldn't get them done without getting killed every time."
"Unlike you, Black is actually a competent player," Pink said, addressing Blue but keeping her attention on Green.
"Hey!" Blue said.
"So we're definitely headed to Reshanta, then," Gotou said. "Makes sense for a bad guy to hole up there, there are so many decimated, ruined fortresses from the Balaur invasion..." Gotou's thought trailed off. "Ruins," he said suddenly, and snapped his fingers. "That place I found off the map before," he said. "There were ruins there, they stank of sulfur and brimstone. It was too dark for me to explore then, but there's no reason they should smell like the Abyss."
Masayoshi cocked his head, looked back at Gotou. "I thought you'd never been to the Abyss, Gotou-san."
"I lied, Masayoshi." When Masayoshi's face fell, Gotou sighed and felt compelled to explain himself. "Couple of quests that took me Terminon, but I didn't leave off the platform, it hardly counts."
"He can do Abyss quests but not the studio quest," Blue commented idly.
"Shut up, Blue," Gotou and Masayoshi said at the same time.
"You think the ruins might be tied in, somehow?" Green said, redirecting the flow of conversation.
"Could be. There are those portals that allow you to walk between zones, there's one from the Holy Shrine into Eltnen." Gotou folded his arms again. "Maybe there's one into Reshanta hidden in there - or even better, a direct line to old boy's hidden base."
"It's worth checking out," Green said after a moment. "Especially if it means we have to avoid trying to fly and hide that deep into enemy territory."
"But what if it's not?" Pink said. "We'll have wasted the day running around in the jungle," she put special emphasis on that word, "and poor Black will have to wait another day for our rescue."
Blue was staring at Pink with the strangest expression on his face. "Did you just express concern for someone who isn't Master?" he said.
"I think it's more concern about messing her newly enchanted armor," Masayoshi muttered. There was a small clang, metal reverberating against metal, and Pink made a disgusted noise.
"It's ineffective to kick people in plate armor," Green reminded her.
"Maybe we should split up," Masayoshi said. "There are five of us. That way if this is a trap, not everyone gets caught up in it."
"Yeah, but with five of us," Blue said, "we're pretty much unstoppable. All the classes are accounted for -" he glanced to Pink. "I think."
"Leader's right," Green said. "And Blue is right." He sighed. "You know how much it concerns me when Blue is right about something."
"Even a stopped clock's right twice a day," Gotou murmured.
Green inclined his head to indicate that he'd heard Gotou. "I like our odds better as a group," he said, "but I think we'd get it resolved faster separating. If the ruins are a dead end, then we won't have wasted the rest of the day."
"Fair enough," Gotou said. "I know where the ruins are, I can check that out, and you four can go off and be-" he hadn't even finished his sentence when Masayoshi slapped his palms on the table and stood up, forcing the bench away and causing Blue to almost go over backward.
"You can't go alone!" Masayoshi said loudly.
Gotou looked up at Masayoshi, arms still folded. "I'll be fine," he said coolly. "I have a feeling this is a Flamenger thing - despite it being centered around you - so you'd be better off with them."
"No," Masayoshi said.
"Masayoshi," Gotou started to say. He glanced to the other Flamengers - all of which were currently, very obviously, looking somewhere else. "Hey," he said sharply, but none of them even looked at him.
"To be fair," Blue commented without making eye contact. "It's like you're an honorary Flamenger anyway-"
"Don't help," Gotou said. To Masayoshi, he said, "it's pointless for both of us to go, we're both the same class anyway. If you let just the three of them go without a tank, they'll get slaughtered."
"Excuse me," Pink said. "I can tank."
Both Gotou and Masayoshi looked at her. "You changed class again?" Masayoshi said, surprised - and Pink cupped her chin in her hand, watching them with a droll expression. "I'm a spiritmaster," she said, "remember? My beasts do all the work for me."
"That's not the same as a tank," Gotou said, at the same time that Masayoshi said, "see? They'll be fine."
Green clapped his hands lightly, drawing everyone's attention. "It's decided then," he said. "We three will head out to the Eastern Shard by way of Terminon, you two will check out to see if the ruins are a shortcut. If they are not, pop back into the zone as quick as possible to update us. We'll find the line of demarcation and stay there until we know what's going on."
"Sounds good," Masayoshi said. "Let's do it."
"Hey," Gotou said, as everyone else stood up.
"Oh," Pink said. "I completely forgot. Yellow-kun, if you two are going to have sex please remember to exit the group chat next time first, okay?" She gave a little wave.
"Do not call me-" Gotou paused, a look of horror spreading over his face. "Wait, what?" He looked to Masayoshi, turning pink. "Is she serious? Is she fucking-"
Masayoshi had stepped even closer to Gotou, his face serious in a way that Gotou almost didn't recognize. "I'm not going to let you use yourself as bait, Gotou-san," Masayoshi said quietly, firmly.
Gotou stared at Masayoshi for a long minute, and then he looked away.
They gathered by the teleportation kisk, on the other side of Sanctum. "I have extra flight speed scrolls," Green said as they organized themselves. "If anyone needs them."
"I don't think I've ever seen your wings," Blue said to Pink, who ignored him completely. He shrugged and looked at Gotou, who was quiet anyway. "Hey, Yellow-"
"Do not," Gotou said, "even start that."
"He prefers Samurai Policeman," Masayoshi told Blue, and Gotou actually turned around and aimed a kick at Masayoshi. Masayoshi let the armor absorb the kick, like he had with pink, and it made a pathetic clanging noise.
"That was a one-time thing! Once! To help you out!"
"See you in the Abyss, I hope, Leader," Green said, as a portal opened up. Blue and Pink followed after, moments later, leaving Gotou and Masayoshi on the platform with the teleporter.
"Reshanta as well?" the NPC - he had to stop thinking of them like that, and Gotou knew his name was Polyidus.
"No, Heiron," Gotou said.
"Safe travels," Polyidus said as he opened the portal. Gotou stepped through it, and didn't look back at Masayoshi.
"Are we still in the group chat?" Gotou asked Masayoshi as they stood in the main fortress in Heiron.
"Probably," Masayoshi said.
"Can we turn it off without exiting it?" Gotou asked.
Masayoshi gestured - and brought up his command menu. He tapped a few commands, and said, "you can mute it if you go to its main menu. Just got to remember to unmute it."
Gotou gestured in the same manner, to bring up his own console. He tapped the air and swiped a few times, then satisfied that his group chat was thoroughly muted, hand waved the command menu away. Masayoshi still had his open, studying his inventory - which was fortunate, because that meant he didn't see it coming when Gotou punched him.
Masayoshi flailed back, caught his heel on one of the many stone steps and clattered down onto them, landing hard, his halberd knocked off his back.
"Damn," Gotou said, and held his wrist with one hand, shaking his hand loosely. "That hurt more than I thought, even in armor."
"What," Masayoshi gasped, hand up over his nose, which was now bleeding. "Why-?"
"You should have gone with them," Gotou said, and dropped his arm to his side. "I'm supposed to do this alone."
"I'm not gon' let you-" Masayoshi scrubbed his palm over his face, smearing the blood, but it had already slowed to a trickle, the HP points that Gotou had knocked off his bar already replenishing. "I won't let you sacrifice yourself-"
"Who the fuck said anything about me sacrificing myself?" Gotou yelled. A few players slowed their run past, but no one lingered or really paid much attention to them. Gotou glanced around, put his hands on his hips and exhaled. "Goddammit, Masayoshi."
"Why'd you hit me," Masayoshi said, looking at the blood smeared on his palm. "You didn't hafta-"
"You don't seem to have any sense in your head unless I actually knock it into you," Gotou said. He had been planning to use himself as bait, to see if he could draw out this not-Masayoshi again, but his Masayoshi didn't need to know that. "I can't believe you didn't think to have us mute our chats earlier." He held his hand out to Masayoshi, to assist in helping him to his feet.
After a moment, Masayoshi took it, and let Gotou help haul him upright.
"I forgot," he said, not making eye contact with Gotou for a moment. "You were a little ... distracting." Then he raised his head and frowned severely. "Don't hit me, Gotou-san. I don't hit you."
"Yeah," Gotou said, and looked at his hand. "Sorry. It still feels more like a game than not, I didn't expect you'd actually bleed. I won't do it again." He looked up at Masayoshi. "We need to figure this thing out, though."
Masayoshi nodded. "We'll find Black, and take Beyond Flamenco to the Emperyean Lords and let them deal with him-"
"Not that," Gotou said. "This..." he gestured aimlessly, seeming to indicate them both - then he sighed. "Us. We need to figure us out."
He looked up at Masayoshi, but Masayoshi was silent a long moment. Gotou was waiting for him to say, 'but what is there to figure out, Gotou-san?' but instead, Masayoshi surprised him by actually being reasonable. "Yeah," Masayoshi said. "We do." He rubbing his nose again and sniffed. "I do think," he said after another moment, "that I should get a kiss after you punching me like that."
Gotou smacking his arm, open-handed. "We'll talk after you've washed the blood off your face," he said. "Let's get going, we gotta head back to the jungle."
"No Godzilla-hunting this time, Gotou-san," Masayoshi said. Gotou laughed a little at that, as he walked up to the flight transporter.
"With all the monkeys around, do you think there's a King Kong?" he asked.
Terminon was bustling. "There's a siege about to happen," Green reported, pushing his glasses up his nose, the other hand in the air, scrolling through the LFG chat that they still seemed to have access too. "That's why it's so busy. I wonder if that will work in our favor."
"It'll distract the bad guys," Blue said, hands on his hips as he stood at the top of stairs that lead to the lower plaza. Pink had seated herself on the pedestal, legs crossed at the knee, one arm supporting her, the other in the air and scrolling through chat as well. "Most of them, anyway. We can handle the rest."
"I wonder," Pink mused. She gestured. "They're still in chat, I see. No response though - wonder if they muted us and went off to fuck."
Green pushed up his glasses again and said nothing, but Blue turned so quickly it was almost a flail. "How can you say that about Leader, he's a professional!"
"Yes," Pink said without looking at Blue. "He's also been wanting to jump his boyfriend's bones for the last two months. Tell me, Souichi, are you blind or just dumb?"
"Hey!"
"Settle," Green said.
Blue turned back to Green, folding his arms and huffing. "What are we waiting around for? We can at least go to the edge of the mapped zone."
"Not until the siege starts, at least," Green said. "That will pull almost all the legions toward the disturbance, and probably most of the people running solo. It'll be a great distraction."
"Another tally mark for 'dumb'," Pink said, checking her finger in the air. She dropped both of her hands and tilted forward slightly, interlocking her fingers over her knee as she cocked her head and stared at Blue. "This is why you're still single, you know," she said. "You should really work on that."
"You should talk! You're single too!"
"Yes, but I'm waiting for Kaname-san to realize what a bitter old hag his wife is," she said sweetly.
Green let out a long, low sigh of aggravation, and checked the chat to see how much longer it would be until the siege began.
It had started raining, as they jogged along the path that wound through the forest. The gentle drizzle was distracting, but not enough to impede their progress. "You really think that this is the work of Beyond Flamenco," Gotou said. He didn't quite believe it - Masayoshi had been hesitant to talk about his mirror's existence, even after the defeat of Alien Flamenco, but one thing he was absolutely certain of was his double's death. "I don't think that's possible."
"You said it yourself, Gotou-san," Masayoshi said. "Why would anyone wear an avatar styled to look like me?" He had stopped on a ridge, taking shelter from the strengthening rain shower under the wide shadow of a branch and waiting for Gotou's to catch up.
"Do you want the list? It'll take a while." Gotou hauled up the ridge and stopped beside Masayoshi. For the first time he was starting to feel a little winded, as well as the weight of the plate armor he wore. He held up his hand, palm out, before Masayoshi leaped off the ridge to glide down the hills toward the Klawtan's hollow. "One minute," Gotou said, and then sat on the soft ground. He exhaled a little, and put his elbows on his knees. "You saw him die."
"There wasn't a body." Masayoshi was leaning on his halberd, using it as a support.
"You guys had a massive battle on Mount Fuji," Gotou said. "It was likely incinerated."
Masayoshi was looking out, down the slope of the hill. "Probably," he said softly. "But I think it's him, I don't know why, I just do."
Gotou was silent for a long moment. He inhaled, exhaled - and then climbed to his feet, the short rest being enough to replenish him, if just for the moment. "Okay then," he said. "Your gut isn't the worst thing in the world for us to trust." Masayoshi glanced over to him and smiled, and Gotou smiled back. The rain dripped down from the canopy to the floor, moving from a soft rain to a deluge.
"I don't remember it raining like this in the game," Masayoshi said. They were mostly dry under the branch, but it was damp and cold. "Just drizzles."
"It's not a game anymore," Gotou said.
Masayoshi nodded his head, then gestured out with his halberd. "Wanna run for it, then?"
"Hell no, we'll give it ten minutes to ease up." Gotou sat back down, sinking slightly into the soft earth. After a moment of silence, Masayoshi joined him, sitting beside him on the ground, and they watched the rain together.
"Gotou-san?" Masayoshi asked, after the silence had gone on too long. Gotou sighed a little, leaned back on one hand. "Can I ask you a question?"
"I suppose so," Gotou said. As he watched Masayoshi gather his thoughts, he added, "don't make me regret saying yes."
Masayoshi looked over at him, brow furrowed and clearly deep in thought about how he should ask the one question he was being permitted. "Why haven't you ever ... said anything about what I asked you?"
Gotou cocked his head, listening to the rain around them. He furrowed his brow, thought hard - then looked over to Masayoshi in defeat. "You're going to have to be more specific," he said finally.
The ripple of emotion that crossed over Masayoshi's face was almost hysterical. He was on his feet in an instant, hands balled into fists, eyes wide and hair matted by the rain. "Gotou-san!" Masayoshi began, but Gotou held up one hand and he stopped, chest heaving.
"Is this," Gotou said, not looking at Masayoshi, but out into the jungle, dripping with rain. "About what you asked me bare-ass naked in your apartment like a freak?"
Some of the starch was taken out of Masayoshi by that. "That was to prove a point," he said. "To Sawada-san."
"I know." Gotou still didn't look over to him, felt the weight in his chest again. He looked away - from Masayoshi, out to the right. The sky was overcast, and the wind blowing from that direction was colder even than he expected.
"Gotou-san." Masayoshi was still standing, his stance a lot less combative, shoulders slumped slightly. "You said I could ask-"
"That didn't mean I'd answer."
He could sense the expression on Masayoshi's face, the coming quip about how that wasn't fair, and he sighed deeply, felt the knot grow a little tighter. "That's not - I haven't said anything about it because what am I supposed to say?" He glanced back over at Masayoshi finally, found his gaze unsettling and looked away again.
"You're supposed to say yes."
"That's not how it works," Gotou said. "That's not how any of this is supposed to work. You understand that, right? We're not - I have my girlfriend, Masayoshi." He hadn't mentioned her in a while, and the word felt weird falling out of his mouth. Gotou wet his lips and, after a moment, stood.
When he looked over to Masayoshi, he saw disappointment in his eyes. Either at being rebuffed, or at the other thing, Gotou really didn't care. He ran his hand through his hair. "It's not going to let up," he said finally. "We should get going before it gets any worse."
"Yeah," Masayoshi said softly.
Black wasn't entirely certain what he expected to happen as he sat, legs folded underneath him, in the center of the cell. It wasn't for the air to get thick and heavy, suddenly, like soup - and then for the energy that kept him locked in his cell to fade out with a sharp, static sound.
He didn't hesitate to see what was happening. Black uncoiled in a smooth motion and dashed across the cell, leaping through the empty space and slamming bodily into the curved wall opposite his cell. He rolled onto his side and got up, looking back at the cell from the outside, but the barrier had yet to reestablish. The air had the same heavy quality to it.
As he got to his feet, a thud down the hall made him turn - and his limbs suddenly felt heavy, too heavy - it was a struggle to stay upright, but one palm on the wall kept him there. He moved slowly toward the cell that Ruby was in.
She was collapsed on the floor in the center of the cell, back to him - and what a fortunate occurrence that was, because Black stopped and stared in surprise. Her skin - what was revealed by the soft leather armor, dyed white and pink - was a deep shade of blue.
Asmodian.
The atmosphere seemed to thud again, grow even heavier for just a moment - and then like nothing had happened it cleared. Black stood up straight, it felt like the weight had been shed in an instant. Ruby stirred in the center of her cell, rolled forward and put her hands underneath her, pushing herself to a sitting position.
"Ruby!" Black said, and she turned to the wall, eyes wide, deep red hair cut short around her head.
She stared at him, equally as surprised. "Elyos," she said, eyes wide. "Wait - I can understand you!"
He nodded, then stepped forward, put his hand through the cell where the barrier would be. "Hurry," he said.
"Got it." She rolled to her feet and moved forward quickly. And not a moment too soon, as she passed through the space where the barrier existed it reset, leaving a few ruffles of a ribbon she wore on her armor behind.
"What the hell," Ruby said. She stared at Black, and shook her head. "All this time, I was imagining you as Asmo," she said. "And ... a guy."
Black shrugged his shoulders loosely, not particularly bothered, either way. "Come on," he said, indicating the passage. "The Balaur who patrol should be along soon."
Ruby nodded her head sharply, and curled her bare hands into fists. "Let's find a way out of here - truce until this thing is over, right?"
Black nodded, and Ruby extended her hand, which Black looked at, surprised. "Flamenco Ruby," she said, referring to her username. "But you can call me Mizuki, or Ruby, I don't care."
"Flamen Black," Black introduced himself, and she stared at him.
"Flamen - you're a Flamenger, of fucking course you are." She took her hand back and folded them across her chest. "That's how you know Hazama-san. Why am I not surprised." She cocked her head, indicating along the hallway, in the direction that the Balaur guards always traveled in. "Let's go find our weapons, and start bashing some heads in."
Black nodded his head, and with a gesture, indicated she should lead the way.
The rain didn't let up, but it didn't grow any worse. It didn't matter either way, because Masayoshi was soaked through. He'd thought his armor would afford him some protection, but that was without the realization that he wasn't wearing a helmet, and the rain seemed to slide right down the back of his neck into the armor itself. Gotou had the thought to sling his shield off his back and carry it over his head, mitigating some of the damage.
They found the ruins with little difficulty. The ground still bore the scars from Gotou's fight with the PVPer, and small bits of debris littered the ground leading to its steps. Masayoshi slowed a little approaching it, but Gotou didn't, trotting past Masayoshi and up the steps to the relative shelter of the overhang. He lowered his shield with a sigh, snapping it back onto his back and rotating his arms, wincing slightly.
He stopped when he realized Masayoshi was looking at him, the tips of his ears pink. "Why are you standing in the rain, huh?" Gotou asked him, and Masayoshi blinked, looking up at the sky, then trotting forward to the cover that the ruins provided.
It was dark still - not the dark of night, but the dark grey gloom of an overcast sky, and an unending torrent of rain. Masayoshi ran his hand back through his hair, felt waterlogged and weighed down, in more ways than one. He made it a point to try not to look at Gotou, because he felt bad when he did, like just the act of looking at him was Not Allowed.
If Gotou didn't want ... then why had he kissed Masayoshi? Here, even, he'd kissed Masayoshi with no prompting from Masayoshi, sweat on his face and adrenaline throbbing in his veins. Masayoshi didn't understand how Gotou could be like that, could be lying in bed next to him, legs thrown over Masayoshi's sitting upright, naked together-
Masayoshi made a small noise, a squeak of an exhale, and Gotou looked over at him, expression concerned. "You okay, Masayoshi?" He turned so his torso faced Masayoshi, one hand on the hilt of his sword. "... why are you turning pink?"
"No reason," Masayoshi said, halberd in his hand. "We should ... we should check this out, right?"
"It's gonna be dark in there," Gotou said. He pushed his hand back through his hair, and Masayoshi Was Not Allowed to think that he looked good like that, wet and hair spiked funny from the movement. "I thought we'd just grab a torch, but the rain put a stop to that idea quick." He glanced over to Masayoshi. "Don't suppose gladiators have any magic skills that can cast light?"
Masayoshi shook his head. "I don't know any magic, just," he gestured a little with his halberd, and Gotou understood.
"I've got a couple of buffs, but nothing that lights the dark," Gotou said. "Midorikawa should have come with me, I bet he's got something."
Masayoshi's brow furrowed. "Well, if I'd known you wanted Green to come with you," he said shortly. Gotou lifted his head and glanced at Masayoshi, curious.
"I didn't want anyone to come with me," he reminded Masayoshi curtly.
Masayoshi looked away, resting the shaft of his halberd on his shoulder. "So we're stuck," he said. "This was a waste of time." Just like his feelings for Gotou, it seemed. Masayoshi shook his head sharply, scowling, and tried to banish the thought. Gotou-san just needs time, he told himself firmly.
Gotou was staring at him. "It's not necessarily a waste of time," Gotou said slowly. "Masayoshi, are you okay? You're acting weird."
Masayoshi stomped the end of his halberd into the cracked stone. "I'm fine," he snapped, and refused to look Gotou in the face.
Gotou said, curtly, "fine." There was a moment of silence between them, and Masayoshi heaved a heavy sigh, on the cusp of apologizing when he realized that Gotou was no longer in the periphery of his vision. He jerked his head up, and realized with a start that Gotou had gone ahead without him, into the darkness of the main room of the temple ruin.
"Gotou-san," Masayoshi said, and hurried to catch up. "Gotou-san, I'm sorry-"
There was a moment of terror as Masayoshi stood in the open doorway of the ruin, but then as his eyes adjusted he saw Gotou in the dimness, crouched, picking up pieces of wood. "I'm sorry," Masayoshi said again, breathing closer to normal.
"For what?" Gotou held up a piece of wood, and tested it with his hand. He held it out to Masayoshi. "This feel dry to you?"
"For ..." Masayoshi took the wood in his free hand, feeling how heavy it was. "For being rude, it's not like me to be short with you! It's inexcusable!"
"You're a human being, Masayoshi." Gotou wasn't looking at him, searching around for another piece of wood. "You're allowed to be pissed, okay? We just shouldn't be having this conversation when there's work to do."
"I'm not pissed," Masayoshi said.
"Not a discussion we should be having right now." Gotou held up another piece of wood and squinted at it.
"If anything you're the one who's always pissed, and sulking," Masayoshi said. "And you brought up, you brought up her, I thought you were doing better-"
Gotou stood up, suddenly. He half-turned and stared at Masayoshi. "We're done here," Gotou said quietly. He tossed the piece of driftwood back to the floor and turned away from Masayoshi. He took a deep breath and said something, which made the room light up for just a moment, showing the extent of the destruction - but Masayoshi wasn't paying attention, eyes wide and face gone slack, as Gotou teleported out of the ruin and left him alone.
It hadn't been the smartest idea he'd ever had, to use the teleport back to the obelisk he'd bound to from a place that wasn't on a map. But Gotou was tired, and angry beyond what he thought was possible, and Masayoshi - Masayoshi got under his fucking skin in a way he just couldn't even articulate, and he Was Not Dealing With This on top of everything else. The Flamengers didn't need him around, Masayoshi was a tank, they'd rescue Black and defeat Beyond Flamenco or whatever the hell the final boss battle would be, and they'd be able to log out finally, and he could kick Masayoshi out of his apartment and pretend that the fucking idiot had never, ever been in his life to begin with.
Except, it couldn't go like that.
He wasn't supposed to be aware of the inbetween-time, that blackness that existed between the spell being cast and his teleportation to where he had last bound his soul. And yet he was. Gotou existed in nothingness but he existed, and that was wrong.
Then the darkness tore, and a hand caught him out into the light, and Gotou thought again, this is wrong.
"This is wrong," Ruby said as they rounded another corner. They'd been running through the brig for the last ten minutes, and hadn't met a single guard. The air was normal again, but ... no enemies. Not a single one. "You don't think that this is a sieged fortress, do you?" she asked as they dashed around another corner. Out of the prison area now, they'd found a stock room full of food, but no weapons, and no enemies either.
"It's not on the map," Black said.
"That doesn't mean it would be immune to sieges." Ruby nudged open a door and exhaled, relieved. "An armory. Finally."
"Why would anyone siege a fortress not on the map," Black asked as he stepped into the armory behind her. It was mostly Balaur weaponry - immense swords and shields taller than them both, twisted, gnarled weapons whose ungainly construction belied their strengths. "It wouldn't affect the game's power balance."
"Except we exist between the game and the reality of this world," Ruby reminded him. "It may not be players sieging."
Black hesitated, his hands on a pair of over-large revolvers, whose holster he'd have to wrap around his tiny frame many times. Ruby had selected a pair of daggers whose blades were longer than her forearms. "Something big is happening," he said finally, feeling better with a weapon in hand."
"That's something that we can both agree on," Ruby said. "If we can find our way out of the fortress, we can alert the others, and we can turn around and siege the fuck out of whoever thought this was a brilliant idea."
Black nodded his head, and thought, they should be here already.
"It doesn't look any different from any other fortress," Blue said, standing on the very edge of the plateau that overlooked the off-map area. This portion of the Abyss had several large chunks of land, plateaus of varying sizes and shape that some monsters roamed but were primarily arenas for PVP. However, over in an area that had been nothing but purple-and-red darkness was another large chunk of land, spinning in the aether, and on it, a fortress guarded by Balaur.
"Yes, except for the fact it's off the map," Green said. He stood back away from the edge, made nervous by the drop into nothingness. True, they had wings that could be called free at a moment's notice, but in the game metrics a fall into that space was an instant-death. Green wasn't certain if he would keep falling until he met with land, but wasn't eager to test that out.
Pink circled by overhead, before dropping the last few feet, her wings vanished into the aether, her pink patterned kimono fluttering around her as she landed in a three-point formation. "Nothing seems out of place," she said, back from her recon, running a wide perimeter around the area. "If I didn't know better, it's-"
"Just another fortress, I know, yes," Green said.
"It looks abandoned," Pink said, a little cross at Green talking over her. "There are no Balaur guards, despite the fortress marked with their army's crest."
That was not at all what Green expected her to say. "That's deeply unusual," he said, brow furrowed.
Pink nodded. "You're telling me? We can probably run right in."
Blue said, rocking on his heels. "He's moved."
Green and Pink both looked over to Blue, who glanced back over his shoulder at them. "He met Yellow, right? He probably figured it was time to pack his bags and find a new base, he knew we'd be breathing down his neck before too long."
"As much as I hate agreeing with Blue," Pink said. "I think he's on to something."
"Black could still be in there," Green said. "But I would say that the odds are more akin to 95% that our enemy moved his prisoners as well."
"One way to find out," Blue said, stepping off the tip of the plateau, his blue and violet wings spreading from his shoulders as he flew away.
"There is no use in telling this crowd to wait," Green said with a sigh, as Pink leaped into the air, her wings decorated and fairy-like, much shorter than the feathered wings that Blue and Green both had.
"We'll clear this place before our leader and his boytoy even have a chance to show up," she said, and flapped her wings once, before following after Blue.
"Yeah," Green said as he let loose his own wings with a sigh. "At least the odds of this being a trap are down to about forty-three percent, but that's still higher than I'm comfortable with."
"Can't hear you," Pink called faintly. "Gotta catch up, glasses!"
Green let out a little noise of irritation, and followed her.