Hey, how r'ya doin'? It's me again. A-huh. That's right. GPS.
I'm gonna deviate from that somewhat pedo-like introduction to say: Welcome back to another chapter of KWO.
As it's been for the past two weeks, this chapter is betaed by Hayasaka Shion-san. Thanks to her, you don't have to deal with all my little funky mistakes.
Disclaimer: I'm pretty sure the creator of KnB wouldn't be writing AU fanfiction about it... just in case though, Kuroko no Basuke does not belong to me~
Chapter 14: Meeting (2) & Beginning
Kuroko was glowing.
There was really no other way to describe it.
His guild members watched in confusionand mild fascination as his usually stoic self started to emanate an aura of content and bliss. Though his expression looked nearly the same, the corners of his lips were upturned just the slightest, and he had bits of wonder shining through his slightly widened eyes.
All because of a vanilla milkshake.
"Midorima-kun… this… this is amazing", the bluenette exhaled after having taken a long sip of the sweet confection, then going back for another.
"Ahem," Akashi cleared his throat. "Since our food has arrived, I believe we should begin discussing about what I've called you all here for."
The bluenette detached his lips (albeit reluctantly) from the straw and glanced up towards the redhead, who was looking them over with his sharp gaze, arms folded across each other as usual.
"Have you yet become aware of the Winter Cup?"
From the questioning look they gave each other, it seemed neither of the blue-haired men did. Momoi, with all her access and navigational skills of the internet KWO forums, looked like she had at least a faint inkling of what he was talking about.
As for the other two, Murasakibara was focused on scooping spoonfuls of flan into his mouth and Midorima already seemed to know what this meeting would entail. Kuroko wasn't really sure of why a fast food restaurant like this was serving flan as part of the menu, but he decided not to question it even as the green-haired began drinking a bowl of oshiruko to his side.
"The Winter Cup is our main obje-"
The Sorcerer couldn't complete that sentence he was speaking as a loud, "Yo! Sorry I'm late, I was with my woman just now", sounded out. The bluenette's aura of happiness faded.
Haizaki sauntered into the restaurant, lips curved in a slight smirk.
"Shougo, you know I have no tolerance for your tardiness."
"My bad, my bad. She wouldn't let me go, ya know? All of a sudden she kinda jumped me and started sucking my d–"
Momoi gave him a disgusted look and palmed her face, and to Kuroko's side, Midorima did the same, though without the hand part.
"I'd prefer you not talk about your personal life," the Archer cut him off. Right now, he could tell Akashi was less than satisfied with the silver-haired Thief; one of the things he hated most, after all, was defiance to any degree. If the other wasn't an important piece, he'd most likely be either dead or wishing he were–since this was a game, there were no rules against slow torture, after all.
"Sit, Shougo. We are discussing our goals as a guild and it'd benefit us all if you joined."
The Cleric didn't want to subject Momoi to sitting next to the taller man, who gave her chest a not-so-inconspicuous leer, so he ushered Midorima to scoot closer into the booth to make room. The bespectacled man complied, and after a few seconds of scooting and shuffling around, Haizaki was properly seated.
Akashi, only slightly appeased, opened his mouth once more. "As I was saying, our main objective is the Winter Cup. Official details were released when this game first came out, though you probably won't hear much about it until the future. Currently, not many people are interested in it."
He glared at Haizaki, who had stolen Kuroko's milkshake and was slurping it noisily, much to the discontent of the table's occupants. The target of his scrutiny at least had the decency to stop without him having to voice a verbal warning.
"The Winter Cup is a large group tournament that will start somewhere in November and end in either the same month or the succeeding. Only official guilds may join, though there's no limit to how many factions of a single union can participate. There are several amendments we have to make to our party before we can join, as they have rather strict but strange qualifications and rules.
"First of all, as I said, it is a group tournament. Currently, we are missing in need of at least one more member as the bare minimum we can have is eight.
"Second of all, all our levels have to be at least thirty, though the majority of us have already completed that requirement. I would like for us to be at least fifty by the time this tournament comes around. There is no limit though, however, so it may behoove you further if you would like to complete further training.
Finally, as I've said, one of the requirements to join this tournament is to own a guild."
"Huh? Aren't we already a guild?" Aomine asked, swallowing down the remains of a teriyaki burger.
"Dai-chan, there's a difference between being a guild and owning one."
"Momoi-san is absolutely right, Daiki. Entering the Winter Cup requires the purchase of a town hall or castle of some sort–which is what I'd like to review next.
As you may or may not know, the purchase of a guild costs a rather considerable amount of ladomi and Guild Points, which is why most groups can't afford one until they reach higher levels or are made up of an vast sea of members."
"How much is it?"
"About ten-million ladomi and five-thousand Guild Points for a simple building, though from there it can be upgraded to several options that each possess different benefits. Currently, we have around three-million in our treasury. As for GP, we have around half of the number we need. I'd like to acquire a guild hall as soon as possible as owning one will give us several useful bonuses. Does anyone have any questions?"
No one in the booth raised an inquiry or objection to his speech, so the Sorcerer smoothly moved on to the next topic in his agenda.
"With the concern of investing in a guild and the interest of gaining combat familiarity, I'd like for us to participate in official group battles every-so-often. We each have our own time constraints and duties to fulfill in the real world, so I propose we clear at least one day a week, much like this one, for activities such as duels or high-level quests that would be difficult to complete alone."
Haizaki groaned. "I have stuff to do, ya know?"
"I am aware, Shougo. My condition was that you would do at least the minimum amount of work in exchange for your terms fulfilled. I intend to fully keep that promise so long as you are compliant."
"Tch."
Akashi stood up from the chair he had been seated on. "That being said, I will arrange for a group battle the next time we are all free, which I assume would be quite easy for this next week."
Kuroko checked him mental calendar. Today is… the twenty-eighth… next week is Golden Week.
Leave it to the redhead to calculatingly monopolize their free time.
Not that the group seemed to mind though, save for one Haizaki Shougo.
Aomine looked excited at the prospects of finally joining a group battle, unable to contain his happiness, in fact. His hand clenched in anticipation, as if looking for his unequipped sword.
Earlier on, he had said Momoi hadn't wanted to participate in fights like this, but the pinkette seemed rather happy as well. Maybe it was the fact Aomine was happy. Or maybe she secretly just enjoyed fighting.
Perhaps both.
To Kuroko's side, Midorima had a resigned expression accompanied a light sigh, but nevertheless it seemed he wouldn't protest against their guild leader's whims. The Cleric speculated it was rather like Momoi to Aomine, except it was him and Akashi and the reasoning behind the actions were probably different.
And Murasakibara? Well, he just carried on with his food.
"I have set out the basic expectations I have for you. It would be in your best interest to follow them", the Sorcerer said while standing up, "Now, would anyone like to join me for a training session? It would be better to gain experience fighting in a group before dueling against human players."
One-by-one, the members of Generation of Miracles filed out from the booth and stretched their stiff legs; even Haizaki had begrudgingly followed, probably knowing he'd push their leader's buttons and limits if he didn't.
Meanwhile, Kuroko was still silently sulking (even if he didn't look like it) over the loss of his newly-found, creamy, vanilla paradise. As they walked out, Aomine placed a hand on his shoulder and with a bright smile said, "We'll get more food after training, 'kay?"
"If I can move after this."
"Eh, did Akashi made you go through nighttime maps too?"
"Yeah," Kuroko grimaced in remembrance of his mad rush to the bathroom.
Next to him, it seemed the Paladin was having similar thoughts –his spirit seemed to float out, deflated from his sad, grimacing face. The bluenette wasn't exactly sure how to describe it, but the words "zombie" and "constipation" came to mind. Either way, the expression was so ridiculous, Kuroko couldn't help but let out a miniscule smile.
"Well, it's not night and we're in a group, so it probably won't be that bad, right?" The taller of the two question as he recovered from the sad memory.
"I hope so."
Sadly for them, three and a half hours worth of various boss fights was pretty much "that bad".
Kuroko spent the majority of the training session wishing his invisibility worked on monsters, or that Akashi wouldn't keep moving them to stronger bosses each time they defeated the last one. It was getting considerably more difficult to dodge giant feet and horns and freaking boulders being hurled at him, especially because he had to spend so much time running around doing a Cleric's job and attacking weak spots.
Really, when did the redhead get all that time to set up dimensional gates?
Kuroko didn't have time to think about it.
Of course there wouldn't be time when four level 40 bosses surrounded the group at all sides.
He could only struggle to keep up.
Thursday: April 26, 2038. 7:23 A.M.
.
"Would you like to begin game play?"
"Yes"*
"No"
.
"Yes"*
"No"
.
Wow. It's so beautiful.
This was it. Kise Ryouta's first ever VR gaming experience.
It had cost him a lot of trouble to get his hands on Kiseki World Online, but after logging into the game and making a character, it immediately felt like it was worth it.
This man, known as Kise in the real world, was a very popular model at a high point of his career. Ever since his Kindergarten days, he had known he was very good-looking (though he was teased ever so often for it. Before growing up, at least).
It had been between two and three years ago when one of his sisters had suggested he try professional modeling as a job, somewhere when he was in his phase of starting to become an adult and not knowing what he'd wanted to do in life. And so, he had taken her suggestion and tried it out.
In a matter of months, the name "Kise Ryouta" had dominated the popularity charts of the modeling world. His school was swarming with fan girls (and some boys) every day of his second year. Because of that, he had had to transfer multiple times throughout his high school life before finally settling at a high-end private school with high gates and security guards to keep rabid fans out.
Of course, he didn't hate them though. It was actually quite the contrary. He was very much grateful to them and the support he had been given, they were the ones who had boosted him up to that status, after all. Kise was also very much a people-person, and rather liked having the attention directed his way, provided no one tried anything funny on him–it was not a pleasant experience to find out the chocolates you were just given by that cute girl were drugged, or that someone found out a way to sneak naked pictures of themselves into your school locker (both of which have happened multiple times).
After all this time in the spot light though, Kise felt like he needed some time away from the cameras and just do something that was a different kind of exciting.
And that was when he had seen it.
Two days prior he had been surfing NND during a break in one of the modeling studios he often worked at. By chance, he had accidently clicked on a sidebar video labeled, "Fighter's Beginner Tournament, Final Round".
He hadn't known the VR world was so exhilarating, though that might've been because he'd never played one and because KWO had only started up its server recently.
On his phone projection screen was two Warriors, swords clashing and sparks flying at an incredible rate even though they were both less than level 20. One of the men fighting had caught his eye in particular–a blue-haired Warrior with tanned skin.
Kise had been amazed by his fluid yet erratic fighting style, the way he could parry and twist around and use skills and spells so effortlessly, as if he had walked down a road of dueling with long sword in hand his entire life. In those moments, the only things Kise could thing of were, "Waaah, so cool," and "That looks fun… I wonder if I could try it–something like that."
And now, he was.
The first chance he had gotten, which was today, he snuck out of one of his luxury apartments donning a cold mask, a black wig, and some large sunglasses; he didn't want to chance asking his manager to get it for his for fear of being reprimanded. It didn't matter that the store clerk had looked at him suspiciously, or that his glasses had fallen off at one point and he had to hide out in a park's public bathroom for a half hour away from a horde of followers, he had finally gotten it.
"But still, why are there so many girls up at 4 A.M. in a game center?" the model couldn't help but think, adding his little habit of saying "ssu" at the end of his sentence, even though it was in his mind.
After that, he had caught a cab to Akashi Industries' registration center which was, thankfully, just opened.
"Equip {Beginner's Sword}", he said, gripping the air and letting the dingy little weapon materialize.
The person registering him, a very nice married lady over the age of thirty, happened to be a fan of his, and so she happily granted his the request of pulling a few strings and allowing him to wear a pair of contact lenses he had along with the wig before getting scanned; he hoped it would be enough to trick the in-game fans, at least enough for his to get some time to train. Even though the game didn't have too many females in comparison to the reason world, he really didn't want to take a chance.
Kise was really having fun slashing through his first Slimes.
{+5 Experience}
{Obtained: Slime Gel, 7 ladomi}*
After a few levels and sessions of stat input, the blonde–excuse me–raven moved on to another map with some stronger slime creatures.
Kise, for the first time in months, felt… free.
Sure, he did enjoy modeling but it was too constricting and he'd spent a lot of time feeling like a caged animal. Studies in recent years showed most of them really disliked captivity, or at least the ones kept in small containers.
And now, with this bright, shining sun and crisp wind blowing through his now-dark hair (he was amazed it was actually attached to the scalp), he couldn't help but he giddy and excited for what was to come.
Maybe I'll join a guild–NO–I'll definitely join a guild. Hmm… what class should I choose… That Fighter was really cool, maybe I should be one too. Then again, it kinda makes me feel like a copy-cat.
He would only later know how ironic that last thought was.
Rogues are pretty cool too. I'd look cool with throwing knives. Or maybe a short sword. Ahhhhhh, choices.
Before he knew it, his auto-piloted mind and body had leveled up to ten. He was happy that he seemed to be a catching on to this fighting thing quite naturally. Then again, he caught on to a lot of things really easily.
The man made his way into the beginner's town, Creialle, to restock on potions, and then he boarded the ferry that would take him to the game's next island; there, he'd be able to change into the class he wanted (though he didn't know exactly what he wanted).
On the ship, he scooted to the farthest corner away from human contact. There were too many potential fan girls–maybe some boys–who could be there by coincidence. And then, even if they didn't know him (he'd learned many gamers weren't interested in the world of idols), there was still the chance they would approach him because of his looks.
The sea… it's really sparkly here.
The Beginner leaned forward against the ship's railing and stared into the widely stretched expanse of blue, the small Beginner's island fading, and occasionally around him in case someone happened to wander into that part of the ship.
Maybe he was being too paranoid, but it was way too often that others caught him off guard. Like this morning, for example.
Hmm. I have to go to a modeling session at 9:00. That means I have around an hour before I get picked up. I think I can get to level 13 or 14 at least.
Minutes later, the ship landed and Kise jumped off the side onto the wooden docks. He decided not to ask for directions and instead trusted his instincts, taking him to a large, black stone castle–it really stood out in among the short, drab huts and stands it towered over.
He walked in and was surprised when all the other players disappeared around him. He supposed it was rather a good thing though; this way he didn't have to hide his face or awkward shuffle away from anyone in a five-meter radius.
The unnaturally black-haired man wandered the castle, lost until he finally stumbled across the ballroom at the end of a long corridor. There, he found the first four class changing NPCs.
He clicked through the corny dialogue until he finally got to the selection screen.
"Please select the class you would like to become."
{Fighter}*
{Hunter}
{Rogue}
{Mage}
.
Hmmm… I look really good with neck bandanas… plus they're fast…
.
{Fighter}
{Hunter}
{Rogue}*
{Mage}
.
Should I choose a Warrior instead?
.
{Fighter}*
{Hunter}
{Rogue}
{Mage}
.
Eh… I think I'll just go with this after all. I could always just remake this if it turns out bad.
.
{Fighter}
{Hunter}
{Rogue}*
{Mage}
.
{Fighter}
{Hunter}
{Rogue}*
{Mage}
.
"Are you sure you would like to become a Rogue?"
"Yes"*
"No"
.
"Yes"*
"No"
.
{Kiiro has become a Rogue!}
{Kiiro has obtained: Rogue's Tunic, Rogue's Sandals}*
Yosh!
The man could not hold back a wide grin as he practically skipped around the room.
I'd really like to meet that guy one day… that Aominecchi.
Kiseki World Online: Guilds (2)
In KWO, if a person is not invited to or part of any party, they are automatically in a party with any guild members in the vicinity. Guild member parties can be up to twelve people in most cases. For normal parties, the number can vary anywhere from four to twelve depending on the island or area they are in. There are also certain special maps where a party can have up to twenty members, though those are usually high level bosses or party quests.
Guild parties receive a higher experience bonus than normal parties. Some benefits a guild can receive when upgrading their guild hall is extra damage when in groups, more EXP and ladomi bonuses, and less damage done to each other in case of friendly fire.
Kise is indeed using a slightly different name, so it's not a weird typo.I'm bored, so here's some fun facts about this fic:
Every single on of the monsters and their names, along with the cities, and spells are made up on the spot as I type. Also, they're usually based on Latin or Japanese words (sometimes mixed with English) that are skewed to the point that they're barely recognizable. I don't do well with creation.
All the author's notes are written right before I upload these, along with the KWO extras, so my beta doesn't get a chance to go over them, so please excuse any terrible grammar. It's why these notes tend to get really random too.
And anyways, since Kise has appeared, I will tell you now that he is 19-going-on-20.
Anyways, thank you once again for reading. Hope you enjoyed~Criticism (Hopefully constructive), comments, and questions are highly encouraged~