A/N: This is a sort of retelling of the story-so-far from a mainly-Akatsuki point-of-view, which will eventually focus specifically on the day-to-day interactions we have seen in the series between Akatsuki and Shiroe. I felt like there was always a spark between the two of them—note I have only watched the anime—and I want to further realise their connection through a story of my own. Each few chapters will cover each episode of the anime, with some chapters sprinkled here and there that I've made up completely for some added content and interaction. There is less of a focus on 'the system' and the nuances of the world; this is mostly a character-based romantic/friendship story between two awkward people as the world unfolds around them. A lot of the dialogue stems from the dub of the anime, though I'll be either tweaking or changing some parts to try and keep the cringe levels down. Also, my Japanese sucks, so if anyone is more familiar with kanji, please let me know and help to correct the titles.

Word glossary:

1. shoji screen = room divider / a place to change clothes behind

2. VC = voice chat

3. Wakizashi = short sword used by samurai and ninjas, now used in kendo.

Inspired by Hanami by Sakura no Mai and Natural Progression by manycolouredeyes.

#1 — 借金 | Debt

Peering out of the dilapidated building I'd been hiding in ever since my unexpected arrival in the world of Elder Tales five days before, my eyes chanced upon the man that I needed to see immediately. Shiroe. The form I was in—a male avatar—was sure to cause more trouble than it was worth, and despite my preference I thought it best to see the most gifted Enchanter I knew, for he had what I needed: an Appearance Altering Potion.

Under an eerily realistic-looking blue sky, with fluffy clouds that floated by, Shiroe passed by the building I was perched in with a Lv. 90 man clad in steel armour and a huge greatsword strapped to his back. A friend? I'd never seen him before and he'd never seen me—that I was sure of. But I felt like that complicated things slightly; I wasn't the talking type. But perhaps I had to speak up to get them to hand it over. Maybe his friend wasn't as intimidating as he looked.

With a nervous sweat, I chucked down a large, concrete boulder into the water beside the road they stood on to gain their attention, accidentally splashing them wet.

The both of them covered their eyes and looked up at me.

'What the hell is your damage, man?' the man I didn't recognise blared, pointing at me. 'What if you hit us!? Do you want no kids?'

I cowered away slightly from his loud, annoying voice. I hated being discovered, becoming known, having attention drawn to me. Gripping an exposed column, I covered half of my body away.

'You're… Akatsuki!' Shiroe said, surprised.

At this moment, I thought that it might have been better if I had gone down there myself, for I could breathe a sigh of relief in their presence knowing that the Enchanter Shiroe recognised my avatar and name. Instead, I shared my consolation with no-one, as I had often done being a ninja. It was the way of my kind to be alone. Not knowing what to say, I recoiled back into the building for the rest of the afternoon waiting for their arrival.

I sat atop the second floor in the main room for what felt like forever, thinking only about how this body I was trapped in felt so revolting. It was hell to actually control a male avatar; I thought I'd like the taller stature, the strength, dexterity, and slenderness. But it didn't feel like me at all.

When I saw them again, the deep orange glow was well underway, casting shadows all over the exposed part of the building I was in.

The man I didn't know had such an obnoxious grin on his face I felt the urge to kick whatever happiness he felt and wipe that smile off Yamato—but he at least looked harmless up close. If in a pinch, I was sure I could eliminate him easily, despite being an even level.

'Well, well, it looks like you got stuck here with us, Akatsuki,' Shiroe said, walking forward to greet me.

'I'm Naotsugu, a lady-lover first and Guardian second,' he said so casually, which pissed me off.

Shiroe cringed. 'Of all the first impressions, that might have been one of the worst ones, Naotsugu.'

I didn't offer a hand or even a voice of mutual greeting. Quite frankly, I didn't care at all about Nao-whoever-he-was, instead turning my attention to the person I was desperate to ask for help. 'Sir Shiroe, I've been looking for you,' I said, bluntly, removing the cloth surrounding my mouth to speak more clearly. 'I need your help. I need something to fix this body I'm in. Sell me a potion.'

'Uh—wait—you sound like a…'

'Woah. All this time you weren't a dude?' Shiroe asked, eyes wide behind those large spectacles of his.

Shaking my head so stiffly I felt like a robot, I felt so silly in his presence not having said anything sooner, but that was who I was: someone who skulked around in the shadows, preferring limited interaction. I hid behind a screen and a male avatar because nobody could judge me for being a girl, and could instead judge me for my abilities. No telepathy link, no text chat, nothing. So when Shiroe said that, I averted my gaze and blushed a little. I'd known him on-and-off for a long time; blushing a little in our first presence together just felt right to me. Shiroe was someone I trusted.

'Guess that explains why you've always been so quiet.' He waved his fingers in the air for a moment and then a small flask materialised out of thin air. 'Here, you can have it free of charge.'

Taking it out of his hands, I slipped behind the worn shoji screen and popped off the lid.

'That's a real Metamorphing; those were only available when the game first started—a do-over should you mess up the first time,' Naotsugu said.

'I remembered Sir Shiroe had one,' I replied, and upon hearing the metal clunking of his full-body suit of armour getting closer to the screen, I downed the contents of the flask in one gulp and continued: 'Hold it. Not one step closer, perv.'

'I thought that you'd want to VC to feel more like an assassin,' Shiroe mentioned.

Before I could answer him properly, my body heated up immensely all of a sudden; I felt like I was going to explode. My vision flashbanged into a white screen. Suddenly, my body thrust itself into the air slightly as if I were suckerpunched in the spine, and intense rays of light exuded out of me in an instant. The metamorphosis was too much to handle for just a brief moment and I let out an exasperated cry of pain in a moment of weakness. Shiroe asked me something just now—I was sure of it—but I was using all of my power and willpower to fight and subdue the fabric rupture of my avatar. An inferno had engulfed all of my senses. Though my mouth was wide open, screaming into a fiery wall, I heard nothing save from the burning on the inside and out. And then as suddenly as it started, the rays and the light stopped, the pain dissipating instantly.

Stepping out back into the sunset-covered room where they stood eagerly awaiting, I instinctively gripped my wakizashi as they towered over me. 'Much better, thank you.'

My words were met with gasps from the both of them, particularly Shiroe who I noticed was particularly stuck in a bit of a daze, his cheeks a light pink.

I didn't know what to do or say, really, in this scenario. My eyes darted to and from the both of them, at the floor, the walls, the trees outside, and to my feet as if they had a mind of their own. '

'Aw shit, now that's what I'm talking 'bout, babe-city seriously here!'

His gaze made me feel so awfully uncomfortable, as did his putrid words. I had experienced enough of his kind in the real world on a daily basis; being shorter than normal was a curse. But I tried to shake that feeling off to thank Shiroe, who stood looking at his friend with a grimace. 'You've—you've truly saved me. I appreciate it.'

'Hey, erm, n-nothing to it,' he said, before turning around and exiting the room. 'Let's head out, guys.'

We didn't walk for that long before the sparkling night sky covered us above, just as beautiful and as realistic as the world we came from. I forgot that time worked differently in the game to real life. Days sped by faster, a time dilation of sorts, which led to me thinking that perhaps there would be days ahead where I wouldn't sleep at all, not from inability but lack of necessity.

Getting used to a body akin to my real self wasn't all that difficult or jarring; a few exercise warm-ups and rotating splits made me feel much more physically at home. Balance was a ninja's best tool—something I practised often in university and high school from my kendo classes… just without the assassinations and skulking around.

While I was in the zone, Naotsugu just had to open his annoying mouth. 'Getting back to what I was talking 'bout earlier, guys—which, by the way, I feel you didn't understand well—women are amazing and a real man ain't afraid to tell them all about it. Compliments, yanno? I mean, seriously, that's what a man should do when faced with a real babe,' he droned on with a ferocious tenacity, fist clenched as if ready for battle.

But, ugh, I hadn't known him for long and already despised the man and the words escaping his mouth. It was a pity I couldn't slice out his voice box just to silence his heresy. Clicking my back, I directed my attention to Shiroe, who looked busy fiddling with his menu screen, and asked, 'Sir Shiroe, do you happen to know what's wrong with that sorry excuse of a man?'

Keeping his eyes locked onto whatever he was doing, he replied, without facing me, 'Unfortunately, the list of things is rather long and varied.'

'Your face is long and varied.'

'So we are in agreement that he has some sort of mental problem?'

'We are. By the way, Akatsuki'—Shiroe turned to face me, finally—'did you take that potion to make yourself closer to your real size?'

'Yes? What about it?'

'Should've just gone with that size to begin with,' Naotsugu's big mouth chimed in.

I huffed. 'Uh, idiot, that's kind of the point of being in a freaking role-playing-game. You know… to be someone else? And being stuck in a man's body in this absolute mess isn't helpful at all.'

'Ohhh, like peeing out—'

Before he finished his sentence, he was dazed and stunned from a full power kick to the face from me. 'Sir Shiroe, with your permission I would like to knee Mr Pervert here each and every time he says something disgustingly gross,' I asked, but the truth was that I'd do it without his permission.

'Ask before you do it, short stack!'

I felt a rage building up inside my head. 'Do not call me that.' Ignoring any attempts to rile me up further, I brought my attention to Shiroe once more and said, 'Now, then, what do I owe you for the potion?'

'Um, well, as I said earlier it's free. I was just, uh, happy to help out, really.'

Despite his considerate words, I was unsatisfied and let out a small frown. 'I'm afraid I simply cannot allow that. I wouldn't want anyone to claim that I'm ungrateful.'

He limply reached out his hand to waive off my words. Averting his eyes with lightly coloured cheeks once more, he said, 'It's okay… really.'

'Why don't you hang around with us until we figure out what the problem here is?'

'Finally, a sensible suggestion came out of that disgusting mouth of yours.'

'Why you—' Naotsugu began, but cleared his throat and calmly recomposed himself. 'Tell her about it, O strategist.'

I cocked my head to the side, wondering what things they had planned.

'You're right, we shouldn't leave her alone, even though I'm sure she can handle herself in a pinch. Akatsuki, didn't you say you had a thing against joining a guild?'

'I chose to be an assassin to avoid all the politicking.'

'Yeah, that's basically why Naotsu and I aren't in one either. But since we're actually inhabiting our avatars now and not sitting in front of a computer screen, it's likely that we'll come across challenges we didn't have to face before, and so we're probably better off banding together for our own safety. Strength in numbers sort of thing,' Shiroe explained.

It was a simple enough explanation I agreed with wholeheartedly. But the dilemma came with someone like me, an assassin and a tracker, being a part of a guild. Would I even fit in? Would I belong? I'd always been alone until now.

'You're sure?' I asked, uncertain if it really was okay or if I was even wanted. Nobody had ever brought up such an idea to me before. 'You really want me in your party, Sir Shiroe?'

A smile formed on his pale face. 'It'd be awesome to have you, Akatsuki.'

'Okay!' Such a simple compliment from him made me look up to him in admiration, slightly embarrassed by how I carried myself in the moment. But per my pride as a ninja and a woman of conviction, I knelt down before him and bowed. 'Then from this moment on I shall revere you as my lord, as your personal ninja.'

'My ninja?' Shiroe said, confused by my proclamation. 'Wait, my lord?'

'You saved me from a fate worse than death: to be stuck in a man's body against my will, and so my code of honour requires me to pay back the debt I have incurred; even if it is a mere small kindness, you shall be repaid, and I will be your undying, unwavering ninja, my lord.'

After my declaration of loyalty, I gazed at him intensely, overwhelmed with the embarrassment I threw up out of my mouth.

'Um, uh, thanks, I guess?' he responded, but I could tell behind his spectacles and sheepish expression that he was grateful.

'Wait, isn't that something samurai do, not ninjas?'

'You and your big mouth! Just shut it, Naotsugu!'