Review Responses:
NotSoGreatGamerGirl: Omg it really makes my day when someone leaves a review saying I get to their feels, lol. I'm glad you're enjoying my writing and thank you as always!
ilovefonandalaude: Heehee, I know you've been waiting for this chapter, and here it is! Thank you for your patience!
Sparrow McGraw: Thank you, I will! Please stay updated!
GuestWithIdeas: You'll just have to see, haha! I'm planning on going into more detail on both of those subjects in one of the next few chapters, and it's like you read my mind! Thank you for your great review, and I'll definitely update when I can!
The next thing he knew, Chrom was spawned in GGO.
"Where's Yui?" He thought immediately, spinning around to find her. She was nowhere to be seen. His first instinct was to message her, but then he remembered that she wasn't on his friend list in this game.
He sighed and spun around, facing the building behind him. It was black yet glossy, so he could see his reflection.
At first, he was taken aback by how his hair was now black rather than blue, and his eyes were a dark charcoal gray. He wore a black shirt with one sleeve on the left arm, with gray gloves. Over this he had gray armor on, and black pants with dark gray boots.
"Well, I suppose it's for the better so that GRIMA doesn't recognize me," he thought.
"Daddy!" A voice shouted from behind her, and he saw Yui running towards him. Her hair was also now a silky black and her eyes were the same as his. She wore clothes similar to the ones she wore in Yume Online, except these were more black rather than the deep plum purple color they were in that game. Her light purplish-black chest armor had no sleeves and hung off her left shoulder, while a thick leather strap held up the other side. Underneath she had a darker sleeveless top that started at her throat and stopped near the middle of her thighs. Over her armor she wore a black jacket with many pockets the sleeves rolled up. On her legs she had tall, thick stockings and black shoes.
"Wow, I look weird with black hair," she commented. "But it looks pretty good on you, Daddy!"
"You look beautiful, Yui," he told her.
"Really? Aww, that's so sweet! No wonder Mommy fell in love with you!"
"Uhh..." His cheeks flushed. "Well, anyways, we should get to work."
"Yeah," Yui nodded.
"Alright, Yui, GGO is set to real time, so we only have three hours here," Chrom informed her. Since this was for "job-related" reasons, they had an extended period of time.
"Okay," she replied, craning her neck around. "Well, we should buy some weapons first. According to the database, the weapons shop should be this way."
The girl gestured for him to follow, and he did. Eventually she led him to a building where there were gun displays inside, holographic images floating and showing the models.
"Hmm, since you're a strength-agility type, apparently a good gun for you would be-" She paused, tracing Chrom's gaze to the energy swords.
"You want a sword, Daddy?" She asked curiously.
"Huh? Oh, well," he began to say. "I was just thinking it would be easier for me to use..."
"Well, they're not that popular in this game, but if you want to use it," she smiled, walking over to the display and observing it.
"Oh, right... We don't have enough money," she remembered. "With what little we have, we could probably only buy a cheap holster."
"I see..." Chrom pondered. "Well, is there anywhere we can get some credits?"
"Hmm, apparently there's a casino with a gambling game over there called 'Untouchable!'," she turned to the other side of the room. "But it's never been won before."
"Never?" He looked at it observingly. "How does it work?"
"Well, the ultimate goal is to tag the cowboy NPC. However, to do that, the player has to run through and dodge the bullets that he fires," she points to the robotic cowboy NPC. "But his shots become more rapid and harder to predict as you get closer than him. You need to have an incredible reaction speed to get through."
"Let's check it out," Chrom said, walking towards it while Yui followed.
There were three players near the entrance and a small crowd as well, murmurs and laughs present.
"Alright!" One of the players there said to his friend. "Just watch! I'll get those credits and buy me a shiny new rifle!"
His friends laughed and watched as he paid some credits before starting the game.
The cowboy began yelling some expletives at him before shooting his pistol while Chrom and Yui looked on in interest. The challenger managed to dodge the first three waves of shots before making it to the ten-meter line.
"Can he actually make it?" Someone said from behind them.
The player ran and attempted to dodge to the left, but the shots were too fast and he was hit in the shoulder and leg.
"Damn!" He shouted.
"I'm untouchable," the cowboy smirked, putting away his pistol and resetting.
The crowd began to disperse before Yui stepped forward, garnering some attention.
"I'll give it a shot, okay, Daddy?" She beamed.
"Umm... Are you sure?" He asked her.
"Yes."
She paid the 500 credits due while some of the crowd began to laugh.
"Who does this noob think she is?" One of them snorted.
"She's pretty cute, though," another added, looking her up and down.
Chrom shot that person a murderous look that could have cut steel easily. That took him aback, and he inched farther away from the prince.
He huffed and turned back to Yui, who bolted and sprinted towards the gunman.
"Whoa!"
Awe rose up in the group of spectators as she dodged each bullet flawlessly, rushing through the first two waves in a few seconds.
"I knew Yui was strong, but this..." Chrom thought. "She's dominating!"
The small girl approached the ten-meter line with the speed of a cheetah, and the cowboy's gunfire began to become faster and more random. Yui began to show signs of difficulty at this point, however she never gave up and continued on. She knew that in this game, bullet lines were present, but not in PvP matches as it would give an advantage to snipers. The main reason she was able to dodge the bullets so precisely was because of her insanely high reaction speed. She had spent years within the virtual world, and she was basically a part of it. After all, she had a part of NAGA ingrained into her. It made her feel at somewhat at ease whenever she was online.
The bullet lines appeared, one on her forehead, leg, and arm.
"If I time this right..." She thought before springing herself up into the air, dodging all three bullets.
"The time between the lines and the actual shots are getting closer," she noted.
Chrom watched on as she landed from her impressive flip on both feet before dodging another round. Now the gunman was firing much more rapidly, and as she was two meters away from him. He suddenly shot six lasers, all of them aiming at her chest, before she slid down, the lasers just barely missing the top of her nose as she rushed forward and tagged his shoulder.
A few seconds of stunned silence passed before the robotic cowboy moved.
"NOOOO!" He exclaimed, all the money from the previous attempts flowing out of the top of the house.
"She actually did it!" A guy next to Chrom said in disbelief before Yui ran over to her father, showing him the reward with a grin.
"See? Now we have enough credits to buy stuff for both of us!" She smiled.
"Um..." He stammered. "Yui? How exactly did you do that?"
She beamed and held his hand, swinging it back and forth as they walked away from the crowd, who looked at them in shock.
"I was only able to win that game because..." She began to tell him. "I have the highest reaction time in this game."
"You do?" Chrom asked. "How do you know?"
"Well, it took time to develop. It was actually pretty slow when I first fought you, but by the time we battled Mirage and the other players, I was second only to Hiro," she explained. "That was why he was able to save Mommy in time... I saw it coming, but I wasn't fast enough... Maybe I could have..."
"It's not your fault," he told her, holding her hand tighter. "The reality of it is only Hiro could have done anything about it... And he did."
Seeing her sad and gloomy expression, he smiled at her.
"Hey, what happened to my little sunshine girl?" He asked, causing Yui to laugh.
"I'm right here, Daddy!" She grinned.
"Oh, there you are," he replied jokingly. "Now, let's buy some weapons from the shop and then we can practice."
"Okay!"
Chrom purchased an energy sword and a pistol, while Yui decided to follow after his example and do the same. However, she chose a revolver rather than a pistol.
"Alright, Daddy, let's go to the shooting range," Yui suggested.
They did so, and upon entering saw a short person in a gray cloak, a hood and cloth mask covering his face. He paid them no attention, and the two walked to a target a few away from him.
"Have you ever fired a gun before?" Yui asked.
"No," Chrom replied.
"Okay, well, let's see," she held her revolver, leveling it to the target. "So, there's a circle around your shot called a bullet circle. It means that the bullet could shoot anywhere in that circle."
Chrom mimicked her movements, and saw the white circle shifting around the line of the shot.
"Hmm... How do you make it smaller?"
"Apparently you have to calm down so your heart rate doesn't go up. The higher it goes, the bigger the circle will get. So it's wise to stay calm," she informed him. "But since I'm an agility-dexterity type, my bullet circle is a bit smaller. That means I can make more accurate shots."
"I see," he said. "Okay, I'll try it."
He held his pistol the way Yui showed him, and fired. Yui brought the target closer forward to reveal that he hit on the outermost ring of the target.
"Huh... Well at least I hit it at all," he sighed.
"It's okay, Daddy. Besides, your main weapon is an energy sword, right?"
"Yeah, I suppose so."
Suddenly they heard the sound of another pistol, coming from the target the cloaked man was using. It hit the outermost ring dead in the center, then the middle, and then the bulls-eye.
"Whoa," Yui said. "He's good."
"Yeah," her father agreed. "But he's probably been in this game longer than us. After all, we just started today."
After a pause, Yui spoke.
"I can't help but feel a little guilty... Like I'm cheating. Since I have some of NAGA's power, I can see and access things normal players can't."
Chrom placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Don't worry about it. We're going to use that power for good..." He told her. "To end GRIMA. He's the one who took her... He's the one who planned to take her away forever."
He clenched his fist.
"I'll never let him do that again."
"... They're going to take Mommy away if we can't, right? They'll arrest her?" Yui asked fearfully.
Chrom shook his head.
"No. I won't allow that to happen," he said.
They didn't say anything for a while before they noticed other people at the shooting range running out towards where the TV screens were. Chrom and Yui followed them to see a GGO reporter on the screen.
"Attention, players of Gun Gale Online. Two more additional accounts have been hacked and stolen along with the original five. Zaskar has yet to release an official statement, however, please make sure you have your accounts secured to prevent yours being stolen as well. If needed, change your password. More information coming soon."
"Two more?" Chrom said in disbelief. "At this rate..."
"Wait! Daddy, I think I know what's going on!" She gasped. "He's going to use those accounts in BoB!"
"BoB? Isn't that the big tournament they're having in a few days?" He asked.
She nodded in reply.
"I think he can only steal accounts when they either die or log out. So by killing all the other players in one place under the pretext of trying to win the tournament, he can gain more accounts and solidify his hold on the network," she explained. "But, in order for him to do that, he needs to be in the game himself. I don't believe he's strong enough to do it externally yet, but I could be wrong."
"So we need to join BoB and find him?" Chrom asked her.
"Yes. However, it's going to be hard to find him. And we're going to have to win the preliminary matches first... Then, the most dangerous part: He might take our accounts. The only way we could prevent that is to not die while he's in range."
She paused to think.
"Hmm... How much time do we have left, Daddy?"
"Let me check..." He opened up his menu. "About an hour and a half."
"In that time, we can register for BoB and practice some shooting in the meantime."
He agreed, and they began to make their way towards the building where registration took place. It turns out that with their luck, it was on the other side of the city and it took them about thirty minutes to get there by foot.
"Nothing like a good march," Chrom commented as they arrived.
"Hm? Didn't you march a lot farther than this?" Yui questioned him.
"Yes, actually. At least three times as far."
"Wow, that must be tiring."
"It was at first, but once you get used to it, it's like a walk in the park."
"Oh."
They at last made it to registration, and they began to fill out the forms, leaving out their home address and other sensitive information. After they were done, Chrom checked the time.
"We don't have much time left, and we won't be able to make it back to the shooting range in time. How about we stop for today?"
"Okay," Yui nodded.
They both logged out, and woke up in their beds in the hospital room to see Robin there, in her nurse uniform, her long white hair tied up high on either side of her head as she smiled at them.
"R-Robin?" Chrom asked in shock. "You're our nurse?"
"Yes," she replied with a grin. "I wanted to keep it a secret."
He sluggishly sat up.
"Are you sure you're okay to do this? You don't need more rest?"
"I'm fine, Chrom. Don't worry about me."
"There it is again," he frowned.
"I'm serious."
Yui hopped off of her bed and slipped on her shoes before darting over to Robin and hugging her, resting her head on her chest. Robin, in return, stroked her daughter's long blue satiny hair affectionately.
Chrom did the same but without the hyper energy, walking over to them.
"Let's go home," he said.
"Yeah," Robin agreed.
As they were leaving the hospital, Yui walked between her parents and held their hands happily. Her smile radiated an aura of cheer and joy, not just to her parents but all who passed them. A smile, indeed, was a powerful thing.
When they came home, they ate lunch while Chrom did some work and Robin read books with Yui. After her two siblings came home, they ate dinner and talked about their day as Lissa, Frederick, and Owain joined them. Suddenly the doorbell rang and Robin went to go answer it. Chrom's stomach dropped when he heard her begin to scream.
"Robin!" He rushed towards her the second he heard her, and was horrified to see some police officers trying to handcuff her.
"No! Let me go! I didn't do anything!" She protested.
"Get your hands off of her!" Chrom shouted, trying to pry them off of her.
They ignored him as he desperately tried to reach Robin, who thrashed and struggled against them.
"Chrom!" She reached out for him, but one of the guards knocked her unconscious, driving Chrom over the edge.
"Chrom!" He could still hear her voice in his head.
"Chrom!"
The blue-haired prince charged forward towards them in blind rage before he woke up in his bed, Robin's hands on his shoulders. She sat in front of him, her brown eyes wide.
"Chrom, are you alright?" She asked worriedly. "You started yelling in your sleep... You were saying my name."
"I..." He pulled her into his embrace. "I had a nightmare."
"It was about me, wasn't it?"
"Yeah..."
After dinner he had finished some work and gone to bed. Those police officers never really came.
"What happened?" Robin asked him.
"They were taking you," he held her tighter. "The government... They were taking you away..."
"I'm not going anywhere," she assured him, looking him in the eye.
"But if I fail-"
"You won't. I know you won't. I believe in you," she smiled. "Just like you believed in me... Remember?"
He did. That time when Robin had demanded that Chrom kill her if Validar took over again, he had told her the exact same thing.
"I don't want to lose you ever again," he admitted. "I promise that no matter what, I will do everything in my power to make sure you'll stay with us here."
Robin didn't reply at first, looking down.
"I'm sorry," she said sorrowfully. "I've caused you so much pain..."
"It's not your fault," he responded. "You did what was right."
Just then, the door slowly creaked open, locks of long blue hair peeking out from behind the door.
"Mommy? Daddy?" Yui asked, her voice higher pitched than usual. "May I come in?"
"Yes, of course," Robin replied. "What is it, Yui?"
"I had a nightmare," she explained. "Would you mind if I slept next to you?"
"Not at all," Chrom told her.
She closed the door and scurried towards their bed, nestling between them like a little hamster looking for heat.
"Are you cold?" Robin asked pulling the covers over them. "I can get you a spare blanket."
Yui shook her head.
"No, I'm alright. But thank you, Mommy."
Chrom adjusted the pillows so she could lay down comfortably as she snuggled up next to them.
"That's better..." She yawned quietly. "Good night, Mommy. Good night, Daddy."
"Good night, Yui," they replied, both kissing her before drifting off to sleep themselves. This time, no nightmares plagued their rest.
Author's Note: And scene! I know this chapter was pretty short and kind of dull, but that's probably because I need work on writing introductory chapters. I'm assuming you can all guess what the next "arc" of this story is going to be, lol. By the way, I realized that Wendy Marvell from Fairy Tail looks a lot like how I pictured Yui as I wrote, lol. Anyways, I hope you managed to enjoy and constructive feedback is appreciated! Stay tuned for the next chapter!