A/N: I want to thank Riva for their review. It's been 6 years since the original game so the fact that someone, anyone is reading this story makes me ridiculously happy and gives me all the motivation to write, so you're the real MVP. Thanks for the support.

May 2nd 10:54pm Half-Moon Rank 1

For the twentieth time tonight, I glance at my clock and immediately regret it. I'd spent the last week replaying our conversation in my head, and it wasn't even a long one. Twenty sentences at most. I had known she was Japanese just from looking at her username, but everything about her bugged me. She didn't talk like someone who played video games. She didn't talk like a kid or even a teenager. If anything, she sounded like a bot. But then, who made her? For what reason?

I sigh. Takaya and Chidori could both tell something was wrong, but neither of them said a word. I'd gotten all my work done so there wouldn't be any complaints, but this was bothering me more than it was bothering them. I should've been able to handle this mission without any problems, so what the hell was all this?

I swivel in my chair, looking at the girl sleeping in my bed behind me. Chidori wouldn't wake up for another hour. She has a mission tonight, but there was a good amount of time before she needed to leave. The Dark Hour was the only time we could commit crimes. Any injuries our victims sustain disappear after the hour is over. A murder without the evidence.

Chidori has her own room, but no bed. The only furniture in there consists of a wardrobe for her clothes and art supplies. She could do anything from drawing to sculpting. To be honest, sometimes I wonder why she chose to be a criminal. Her sketches are pretty good and her water colors could probably go in art galleries if some uptight critic saw them. It also helped that she could auto-heal pretty much any wound. She cuts herself up pretty badly when she does woodwork.

I sigh again. My eyes keep drifting to the clock no matter how much I will myself not to look. This was getting ridiculous. I didn't wait for things; certainly not people. There isn't enough time in the world for all the waiting I'm doing tonight.

*Bing* My aggravation disappears entirely and I immediately swivel back to my computer, the adrenaline rushing in my veins. All of these reactions are unnatural. I know that, but I can't stop it. What the hell was this feeling?

The alert is from a chat notification.

~"Hello. Sorry I'm late. Do you want to get started?"

Seriously, who talked like that online? Was she someone's grandma or something? Every statistic in the world tells me she's a bot, but my gut says something different. I'm smiling. That's weird. I don't smile. What the hell is wrong with me? I take a deep breath, and the emotion immediately disappears. Nothing. I don't feel anything.

I send her a battle request, and we're immediately sent to the arena. We were given one minute to pick our skillset, and I get to work. She was a really aggressive fighter, but I was able to counter pretty well in our last match. My goal then had been to get her attention, now, it was to win.

We enter the match, and I realize immediately: She is crazy. As soon as the counter starts, she charges at me. The girl is playing Rush, a mostly useless skill. While it made you faster and pretty much quadrupled your attack, you couldn't stop or turn.

I sent off a million Homing Projectiles, in her direction while I backed away, but she'd starts Teleporting. Another useless skill because you couldn't control, where you reappeared. That clearly didn't bother her when she was just randomly attacking from every direction. I almost laughed. This girl was beyond smart. Reckless as hell, but smart. Definitely a bot.

The time left in the fight dwindles. Her HP was going down slowly. My missiles always kept chipping away at her health, but she'd smash into me every so often and I'd lose a giant chunk of my life. This fight had turned into a game of chance more than anything else.

Before I know it, we are transported back to the open world. The open world chat is a mess of comments. People were going ballistic.

Congratulations

ShiroiTobira has beaten KotoneShiomi22 +1,212 Prestige

Rank 10 = Rank 10

KotoneShiomi22 has lost to ShiroiTobira -1,212 Prestige

Rank 32 = Rank 33

~"the queen finally lost!"

~"YO! ABOUT TIME"

~"add me girl ill make you feel better"

~"haxx"

~"It's just luck. She'll win next time"

~"really though. did you watch that fight? it was insane"

~"ADD MEE"

~"pm me"

The masses were idiots, I've known that forever. But this was ridiculous. The entire fight had been a matter of luck but she'd probably known that from the beginning. Her skillset told me she didn't care about losing. I sent her a message.

"gg wanna move somewhere else?"

~"How do I do that?"

"press M to open the map. click the area you want to go to. i'll meet you in left gamick. bottom left corner"

I warp first, just in time to hear Chidori move behind me. I minimize my screen, opening the Revenge Request Website. Why did I minimize my screen? There was nothing to hide. Chidori knows I play video games sometimes, but more than that, I was working. What was I trying to hide?

I hand her the mission details without looking at her. "I left your dinner on the table."

She grabs the notes without saying a word. This is normal behavior for the two of us. Chidori has a soft voice, and she rarely spoke but we spent a great deal of time together. She generally slept in my room, and when she did talk, it was normally to me. Every so often, maybe once in a blue moon, she'd ask me a strange question and we'd go into an inconceivably deep discussion. I pitied the guy who'd meet her tonight. He wasn't a bad dude. Just turned down a rich girl.

Left Gamick is empty. The only thing in the area is a grind tower. Expert quests can be done here, if people bothered to do them. The open world chat here is also much slower. The last time anyone had sent a message was six days ago.

~"I like it here"

"figured. get a lot of weirdos sending you shit i'm guessing?"

~"Yes."

"you did pretty well. you play like you don't care about winning."

~"That's because I don't"

That should've made me angry, but it didn't. Video games are a test of skill. It's a mixture of natural talent and practice. All for the sake of winning, but here was someone who treated it like all that meant nothing. She didn't care at all that she was taking a dump on everyone's hard work and for what? Why?

"then why play?"

~ "We already have the game. It feels like a waste if I don't."

"that's idiotic. why waste time on something you don't want or need to do?"

She doesn't respond for a minute, and I check the clock again. It was midnight. The Dark Hour. That made sense. Normal people couldn't move during the Dark Hour. She was probably stuck in a coffin at home. I walk into the kitchen to grab a glass of water. This had been a bad idea. I'd need to wait an hour for her to answer me. Next time, I'd message her during the day.

Minako was frustrated. A half-eaten sandwich is sitting in front of her. The Dark Hour stopped all electronics, rendering her computer more or less useless, not that it mattered. The guy she'd been talking to probably couldn't answer her anyway. Frozen in a coffin in his room.

She sighed, taking another bite of her sandwich.

"Hi, how've you been?"

Minako jerked her head to her bed where a boy with blue eyes and black hair is staring at her. All of her combat reflexes flare before she recognizes him in the dark glow. She lets go of her naginata, bracing her signature weapon against the wall. She knew she should've been scared, but she wasn't. He felt familiar to her, like she'd known him her whole life. Plus, this was their third meeting. Even if he hadn't been familiar before, he sure was now.

"Hello again. I'm alright. Kinda hungry. What about you? What are you up to, creepy little boy?"

"I just came to tell you that there will be a full moon in a week. You should be careful. There will be a new ordeal awaiting you." He was smiling as he talked. It was serene and passive. He was a pleasant-looking boy. The fact that he kept popping up when no one was around was creepy as hell but that was pretty much the limit of his weirdness. Easy enough to ignore.

"What kind of ordeal?" Minako was almost certain he meant another giant Shadow, but it was better to ask.

"The full moon will bring your greatest challenges. You must prepare for those, but time is of the essence. I'm sure you're aware."

"Very." Minako rolled her eyes. She'd been playing a game, but she'd also been studying for her exams. Everyone kept reminding her that life was too short. She was VERY aware of how easily it could end but the thought didn't terrify her.

Minako wasn't suicidal. She didn't want Death. Didn't ask for it anyway. But she often put herself in situations that walked that fine line. Creepy, dangerous, strange. That's what the other children called her before she learned to smile. After she learned to hide herself, everything became a game. Win or lose, the game always ends. People moved on. Time never stops moving except for the dead.

The boy on her bed chuckles at her sarcasm. "I'll see you again when it's over. Goodbye for now."

"Goodbye strange boy who appears in my room." Minako waves as he disappears, taking the Dark Hour with him. Her computer finally boots up her game again so she can read the man's message.

~"that's idiotic. why waste time on something you don't want to do?"

"I don't mind playing, and there's nothing I really want to do. Do you know what I mean?"

~"no"

Minako's fingers hover over the keyboard. This was difficult. She wasn't sure if she could explain this properly. How could she explain that she didn't know what she wanted, or that she didn't have dreams? How could she tell someone she didn't even know that she wasn't afraid of death because to live meant having a future, and she had none.

"There's nothing in particular that I like doing, so playing this game is the same as doing anything else. It's the same as doing nothing."

~"lol. you're so boring. don't you have any friends?"

Minako smiled. He was probably trying to make a joke, but the idea that he'd feel guilty after this was also kind of funny. Imagining some poor fool somewhere squirming felt kind of good.

"No"

He didn't answer for several minutes, and Minako thought that maybe she'd pushed her not-joke too far. She placed her head on her arms, contemplating what to say to him. She didn't have friends, not really. People liked her. They talked to her. Told her secrets. Some even asked her to go with them to places, but none of them dug any deeper than the surface. None of them saw passed the facade that controlled nearly every aspect of her life. Almost everything she did was based on what would give her the most amusing result, like she was living life on a whim, detached from her body and the choices she made.

*Bing*

She looks up to see a new message on her screen.

~"do you want a friend?"

She looked at the question and blanked. What was this guy talking about? Friends? When was the last time she had friends? Years ago. Before she forgot how to smile. Before everything crashed and burned around her. Did she want friends? Did she want to go through that kind of pain again?

"Yes."

~"then we're friends."

I'm screaming, literally screaming at my desk. Why the hell did I say that? I run my hand through my hair, sweeping it back from my forehead. This is insane. She probably thinks I'm some insane freak. I'm pretty much ready to throw something out the window and blow up the neighborhood. Someone probably already reported me for being a public disturbance. No one says shit like this. What the hell am I doing?

*Bing*

~"Thank you. That made me smile."

My face is hot. I'm blushing. Good Tsukiyomi, what was happening to me? Oh dear god. Embarrassed. Me? Over a girl who was probably actually a fat man eating ramen cups while locked up in his apartment. No. Even worse. Embarrassed because a bot was working some weird set of pre-programmed lines on me. This couldn't be happening. Why was I so compelled to answer her as if she was a real person?

"you're welcome."

~"Do you want to meet up sometime? I live in Iwatodai City. Port Island. What about you?"

My entire body freezes in fear. It takes 3 minutes of intense deep breathing before I can get my mind under some semblance of control. There's a logical explanation for all of this. Someone must've hacked my system and used Hemelin to trick me. A trap. The Revenge website was just the beginning. My account wasn't linked to the website but a super computer could make it through all my proxies to find my IP for both. It's possible the police were on to me. It's also possible the Kirijo group found us as well. Either way, I would need to prepare countermeasures.

"same"

She doesn't answer for a long time. It was possible didn't know who I was, and as a bot, it was taking her a long time to calculate the best course of action depending on my reactions. Did she know who I was? Was this another part of her elaborate trap? This entire thing had gone from slightly entertaining to downright nerve-wracking. I had to strike first. Set up a plan.

"do you want to meet up next saturday, iwatodai station? 3pm?"

Someone kill me. There was no way she would say yes. Even if she did say yes, she'd just bail at the last minute. She would say she had something she needed to do so I would never be able to see her face. The programming would allow nothing else and in my haste, I was giving myself away.

~"I have class. Can you do Sunday at noon? I like to get a head start on my day."

That surprised me for a minute. So she was at least pretending to be a student of some kind even though she didn't talk like one. Either high school or college then. I run some scenarios in my head. I wouldn't have a lot of time to set up my equipment, but if I woke up a little earlier, that might do it.

"okay"

~"What should I be looking out for?"

It occurred to me that I should lie, but what if she already knew I was lying? How would that play out? What if she really was this naive and idiotic, and she walked up to some guy who matched the description and was sold off to the black market. What would I do then? Every scenario runs through my head, before I settle on the truth.

"green jacket, blue pants, hair, and eyes. but i wear glasses so you probably won't be able to tell. look for a silver briefcase."

~"Okay. I'll be wearing a red scarf, and red headphones. My hair is brown but it looks red sometimes. My eyes are red too, so I guess look for a lot of red. I'll see you Sunday. Goodnight!"

She logs off before I could get another word in. This girl was either a very well programmed bot or she was really idiotic. I couldn't tell which. I read her description again, trying to picture someone who might look like that, but nothing comes to mind. My instincts keep telling me it's actually a fat old guy, and to not expect much but I can feel something in me shifting. Something that I thought was long dead: desire.