It was the best of days; it was the worst of days.

Saturday had come, and Risa was determined to spend it in as satisfying a manner as she possibly could. That, however, did not entail a trip to the city on the orders of her mother, who wanted her to assist with the grocery shopping in a bid to get her out of the house. They rarely ordered groceries online, so someone would have to do it, and Risa and her mother both knew that without any external impetus, Risa might well use up the full forty-eight hours deviating between sleeping, eating, going to the bathroom, reading a light novel or two, and playing Bullet Dance.

At least, that would have been the case a week ago.

As Risa meandered through the network of streets and roads in the inner city, avoiding the areas that remained unlit by lamps, her mind was only on one thing. She was so preoccupied with thinking about what had transpired the past few days that she almost walked headlong into the concrete barrier flanking the side of the road before a passerby pulled her back.

"Watch it," he said. "It's not green yet."

"Oh, right. Thanks."

A section of the barrier retracted into the ground as the light embedded into the pavement flickered from red to green, and Risa continued walking, trying her best not to look embarrassed. But this only served to reinforce the prevailing thought currently occupying her head: that there had never been anything that had captured her imagination quite like the game she had played for the past two days.

It was an unusual impression to have, not least because at first glance, nothing about Gun Gale Online really stood out. It was a dystopian VR first-person shooter amongst a veritable sea of similarly themed titles, and Risa had played a whole slew of games that had taken her to the most creative and fantastical placesimaginable: from sparkling woodlands to far-flung planets; from the deepest oceans to the highest skies.

Perhaps it was merely the idea of a game being her very own to play, her very own secret to keep, that was so enthralling. Perhaps it was the game's 21st century vibe that had hooked her on its promises of nostalgia. Or perhaps she had simply been looking for something to whisk her away from the mundanity of diving into Bullet Dance every day, and the glow would fade once she had played Gun Gale Online for long enough.

As she entered the supermarket, tapped the items she needed on a nearby checkout screen and swiped over the scanner on her holo-phone, a notification sprang up. It was from the only person – aside from her mother – who would message her on a weekend.

Bored. Wanna hang out or play a match?

On any other day, Risa's answer would have been obvious and unequivocal. Today, however, her answer would take a different course. After a moment of hesitation, she tapped in her reply.

Not today. Got something else to do. Maybe another time.

It wasn't a lie, really. She had the grocery shopping to finish, and maybe her mother would ask her to do the chores when she got home. But even if her mother let her be for the rest of the day, she still had something important she needed to see to.

Gun Gale Online was no longer just a game for her. It had become, in many respects, a mission. Something to devote time to; something that had more meaning than playing the same game every day – though that was not in itself a high bar to overcome. She would make sure she gave it as good a shake as she could muster, at least, until boredom inevitably caught up with her again.

Her ordered items arrived on a conveyor belt, neatly packed and ready to be whisked away. Leaving the store with her bags in tow, she hummed happily to herself as she began the journey back home, almost colliding with the barrier again in her reverie.

This time, however, she did not mind the stares.

"You're late."

Musketeer X folded her arms and glared crossly at Risa, who was panting heavily, hands on her knees as she tried to recover her breath.

"Sorry, I lost track of time. I was doing the grocer… the food shopping."

"I did tell you to meet me here at fourteen hundred. Also, food shopping? Doesn't your apartment have a dispenser?"

It was only then that the fact Risa might have an apartment of her own in the SBC Glocken crossed her mind. "A dispenser?"

"Yeah. It turns nutrient granules into the food you wanna eat. Though I guess you didn't know that, you not being from around here or whatever the story was."

"That's what we're rolling with." Risa looked around. "Just the two of us?"

"For now. Yamikaze is meeting us at the rendezvous inside the abandoned water plant. You kitted up for the outside?"

"Sort of. I have everything you asked me to get, at least."

The day before, Musketeer X had given Risa a long list of things to buy before they made their way out of the SBC Glocken, including contingency supplies, extra ammo, a few essential bits and bobs such as healing kits and a radio – and, weirdly enough, a harpoon.

"You'll see what it's for," Musketeer X had said, and so Risa had bought it for the princely sum of fifty thousand credits, a price which dwarfed the other purchases she had made combined. Having little knowledge of how the economy within the SBC Glocken operated, she had no choice but to trust in Musketeer X – though her advice had proved relatively sound thus far, so Risa didn't have too many qualms about doing so.

"You ever used this thing before?" Musketeer X gestured to the teleport station, a circular glowing pad located at the farthest end of the plaza that constituted the city's ground level.

Risa shook her head. "I know how it works, but I've never actually left the city."

"It's quite straightforward, so you'll get the hang of it pretty quick. Just stand on it, open up your personal menu, and pick where you wanna go." Musketeer X swung both her arms towards the platform and bowed slightly. "After you."

Risa made her way over, stepping onto it and squinting as the glare from the pad's lighting surrounded her. Her personal menu unfurled in the air before her, displaying a list of addresses.

"Where are we going?" she asked as Musketeer X moved beside her.

"Solitary Sands. Zone 2, 'Abandoned Water Plant', teleport coords 15-40-3."

Risa sifted through the options and pressed her destination, and the radiance beneath her feet abruptly intensified, forcing her to clamp her eyelids shut. When the blinding light finally subsided, and the residual streaks of green and red in her vision cleared, she found herself standing in a dark, musty space the size of her living room, lit only by a single incandescent bulb hanging from the ceiling. The sounds of dripping water reverberated in the distance, and the concrete flooring was covered in a layer of sticky black grime, upon which a trail of footsteps could be seen leading away from their current position.

Risa pinched the bridge of her nose. It smelled like a sewer – which was probably to be expected, considering what this place used to be. "Remind me again why we're here," she said.

"You wanted to tag along with us so you could have a look at the world outside the Glocken," Musketeer X replied with a shrug. "Here we are."

"Yeah, but did it have to be here?"

"We can always head back, princess. Most of the outside world stinks, so you gotta start getting used to it. That's why coming out here pays so well – nobody really wants to leave the comfort of the city." Musketeer X began walking towards the exit, and Risa hurriedly followed, making sure not to trip over anything and face-plant into the grime as they exited the room.

The next room over was as empty as the last, though it ended in a pair of large steel red doors instead of an open doorway. Musketeer X pushed those doors open, revealing what lay behind them.

A saw-edged gap in the ceiling – through which the eternally glowing and cloudy night sky could be seen – provided the only illumination for the chamber they now entered, which seemed to stretch on for miles. The floor below them was filled with rows of metal pumps connected end-on-end, as though they were the tubes of a giant radiator that had been laid flat on the ground. A network of catwalks hung overhead, some of which had collapsed after the pillars supporting them had crumbled from disrepair. The pumps also showed patent signs of disuse – many of them were completely covered in rust, and some of them had collapsed entirely into themselves.

As Risa glanced through the grille beneath her feet, she was at last able to pinpoint the source of the dripping noise: a massive tank with a gaping hole blown out of its side from which water was slowly leaking.

"That's weird," she muttered.

Musketeer X turned. "What is?"

"How long has this plant been abandoned for?"

"Heaven only knows. The war was a long time ago, and we only just got back to Earth recently. Only the oldest of timers would have any idea."

"Then why's there water in this tank? It should've dried up a long time ago."

"That may have something to do with… Well, you'll find out soon enough. Just follow me." Musketeer X started to head down the nearest catwalk. "And watch your step. You might fall through the rusted parts if you're not careful."

"No need to tell me twice." Risa winced as the catwalk creaked under her weight the moment she treaded onto it, gingerly easing herself forwards as quickly as she could bear to. She clung onto the railings, gripping them tightly every time she took a step. Eventually, she gained enough confidence to move at a similar pace to Musketeer X, who strode briskly across the expanse, evidently not feeling the need to heed her own advice.

At the far end of the catwalk, a figure stood, giving them a quick wave as they approached.

"Hey there, Yami," said Musketeer X. "Been waiting long?"

"Not particularly." He pushed up the goggles on his face and brushed the tuft of red hair streaking down the top of his head as he scrutinized the two of them. He was ostensibly an old friend of Musketeer X's, but beyond that Risa knew little about the diminutive figure standing before them. "Sinon. You alright?"

"I… Yes?"

"Sorry to hear about the overdose. I'm glad you're up and running again, but a little restraint wouldn't go amiss. If you need any help remembering something, I'll do what I can."

Risa hooked an arm around Musketeer X's neck and yanked her out of Yamikaze's earshot. "What the hell did you tell him?" she hissed.

"I had to give him something, so I just said you fucked yourself up with hallucinogens after a particularly bad night out and lost your memory temporarily." Musketeer X smirked. "Didn't expect him to actually buy that, but it makes things easier."

Risa glanced over her shoulder, where Yamikaze was staring at them quizzically. "Alright. But if I slip up, you're covering for me."

"You'll be fine. Just don't say anything stupid."

They returned to Yamikaze, who was busy fiddling with a device the size of his palm. As they watched, a lens popped out of the device, and a holographic map of their surroundings was cast into the air.

"Just for Sinon's benefit, I'll go over the layout again. Right now, we're here," he said, pointing at the red dot at the center of the projection. "The swamp rat's known hiding spots are marked in blue, including our current location." He waved his hand around the rest of the holograph.

"Wait, hold on." Risa raised a hand. "A swamp rat? What's going on?"

Yamikaze scratched his head. "You don't remember what that is?" he asked as he turned the dial on the projection device. A diagram of a grotesque-looking rodent with protruding fangs and sinister claws replaced the map. "That's our quarry for today: the mutated swamp rat. A dozen times bigger than an average person, and a dozen times more dangerous."

"Give me a moment." Risa wrapped her arm around Musketeer X's neck and hauled her away again. "I thought you said you would be taking me on a quick tour of the outside world?" she whispered frantically.

"But I am, aren't I?"

"This clearly isn't just any old tour though, is it? We're hunting something, and I have zero idea what it is, let alone what to do."

"Where the fuck did you expect me to take you? A nightclub?" Musketeer X peeled Risa's elbow off her shoulder. "Nobody goes to the outside world just to 'have a look'. Once you come out here, you only go back when you've done something that helps the Glocken. Hunting, scavenging, whatever. You should be grateful that we're starting off easy – better to learn now than to die later."

Risa puffed her cheeks out. Musketeer X wasn't wrong, and she knew Risa would never have agreed to this trip if she'd told her the whole truth. Still, it was all a little too sudden for her. "Right. That's… that's fine, I guess. I just need to prepare myself psychologically."

"You'll get all the preparation time you want while we stake this place out." Musketeer X clapped Risa's chest. "Come on. The world waits for no-one."

Having established their objective, they set about devising a plan. The swamp rat was known for burrowing in wet and watery places, so any places connected to the pumps that had yet to be breached – thus exposing their water to the air, causing them to dry up – would likely be the main culprits. The pumps were linked to taps and tanks in locations all over the facility, so it would take a while to look through them.

"Gotta start somewhere." Musketeer X leaned over the railings and peered down at the pumps. "Looking at the map, most of these things drew their water from the aquifer under this place, then sent the water into treatment rooms on the fourth and fifth floors before channeling them out to the surrounding area. Those are the only two key places I can see where the swamp rat might hide, since the other spots are either too small or too bright."

"There's an elevator down to the basement level not too far from here," Yamikaze noted. "It stops at every floor but the third."

Risa frowned. "Why not the third?"

"Maybe there was something in the way on the third floor." Musketeer X shrugged. "Though it just looks like a normal storage level on this map. Anyway, we should head to the elevator – the longer we hang around, the more time the swamp rat has to run."

They made their way through one of the nearby corridors and soon found themselves at the lift, a rickety iron cage that was pulled up and down by a series of chains that clattered loudly as they entered.

"No way this thing's still working," Risa murmured.

"You'd be surprised," Yamikaze replied. "Many water plants in the pre-war world were powered hydroelectrically, using the water they were processing. If this facility has the juice to keep the lights on, it can probably afford enough energy to run a lift."

He punched one of the glowing buttons on the wall, and the cage shuddered violently, letting out an ungodly shriek as the doors slammed shut. The elevator began to sputter its way down, and Risa grabbed onto Musketeer X for support – who, for her part, looked ready to push Risa away, but ultimately thought better of it. The elevator eventually ground to a halt at the base of the shaft where, beyond the meager lighting of the lift's control panel, the open doors led into nothing but darkness.

Yamikaze withdrew a pair of night vision goggles and replaced the ones he was wearing. Risa and Musketeer X did the same – though it took a while for Risa to find her own pair, which was submerged deep inside the long list of items Sinon had kept in her inventory. The world turned bright green, and Risa was now able to see what lay ahead: a wide cave dotted with stalactites jutting down from the ceiling, and a slope that led downwards into a seemingly unending pool of water.

"I don't like the look of this." Rule one of most adventure games was never to trust the water – Risa had learned that the hard way. "The map doesn't say how deep the pool runs, or exactly how big the aquifer is. We only have one escape route, and if the lift breaks, we're screwed."

"You're not wrong, but we still have to catch this thing." Musketeer X stepped out of the lift, squatting down near the water's edge and peering out over its surface. "Did you buy the stun traps like I told you to?"

"Yeah." Risa could faintly see where this was going. "You don't mean-"

"I do. If the swamp rat is here, we'll lead it to the traps and zap it before it can reach the elevator." Musketeer X tapped the side of her head. "Given how much water there is, we'll probably need to use all the stun traps you bought, otherwise the electricity will dissipate through the water and won't do shit to the rat. So, we have to make absolute sure that it's here in the first place, otherwise we won't have any left to use."

"We're not all going out there, are we?"

"Someone needs to man the traps," Yamikaze replied. "Musketeer X will do this – she has the most experience with such gadgetry, and she has a sniper rifle, so she can cover us from afar. You and I will lure the swamp rat out."

"I have a sniper rifle too," Risa grumbled, though she then nodded in agreement. "Anything I need to know before we go fishing?"

"Yeah." Musketeer X twirled her finger. "Get the harpoon out."

Risa did so, summoning the weapon and letting it fall into her hands. "What do I do with it?"

"You steer the rat."

"…What?"

"The swamp rat has a patch at the back of its neck which contains a group of key nerves that regulate its motion. If you stab the harpoon deep enough, you can ride the rat and tug it in the direction you want it to go – for a while, anyway, before the rat bleeds out. That way, we'll guarantee the rat doesn't just run off into who knows where. You'll bring the rat near the traps, and then hop off so we can buzz it."

"If – and that's a big if – I can stab the harpoon that deep, I could probably just kill it outright."

"Stronger people than you have tried." Musketeer X gave Risa's back a hearty shove. "Off you go."

Risa shook her head. "This deal is getting worse by the minute," she griped as she reluctantly waded into the aquifer alongside Yamikaze, shivering as the icy-cold liquid crept up her pants, then her vest, then her shoulders. Just as Risa began to tilt her neck upwards to lift her head above the water, the bottom of the aquifer leveled out, and she was able to continue trudging forward without too much trouble. As the silhouette of Musketeer X gradually disappeared behind them, all that could be heard was the sound of sloshing water and their own ragged breaths.

After a while, Yamikaze – who was slightly shorter than her, meaning his head bobbed across the surface like a beachball – held up a hand. "We're approaching the center of the aquifer," he said. "There's a passageway to our left that leads into an enclave. Ready up."

Under the water, Risa fumbled for the harpoon's trigger and slipped her finger through the guard. Thankfully, the harpoon was of a more traditional and mechanical make, meaning it would not lose its potency in the water as gunpowder-based weapons might do. Moving towards the entrance to the enclave, they continued to plough through the murk as silently as they could, keeping their ears and eyes open for any anomalies.

The derelict concrete walls of the enclave appeared. It was a domed enclosure that, in a past life, would have served as a space where water could be temporarily redirected and stored. Now, it was little more than an aberration in the blueprint.

They made their way to the center of the enclave, pirouetting slowly as they surveyed the area.

"Looks empty."

"It does," Yamikaze concurred. "Looks like it'll be the treatment rooms in the higher floors, then."

Just as they began to head back down the hallway they had entered from, a droplet of water trickled into Risa's eye. She blinked, rubbing her eyelids as she tried to get the droplet out.

Yamikaze, noticing her discomfort, stopped and turned to her. "What is it?"

"Just a bit of water in my eye," Risa replied. "Must've dripped down from…"

Both of them looked up in unison.

Hidden in one of the indents at the roof of the dome was a pulsating shadow. As they watched, a pair of eyes blinked and gleamed back at them.

"Harpoon! Now!"

Risa didn't have to be told twice. As she pulled her weapon out of the water, the shadow sprang off its ledge and landed in the water with a large splash, temporarily disorienting the two of them.

"Where is it?!"

Yamikaze jabbed at the entrance, where a blur could be seen rapidly cutting through the water, darting away with practiced ease. "Shoot it! It's now or never!"

Risa raised the harpoon to her eyes, aiming the spear at the shadow. It was hard enough trying to see through her night vision goggles, which were now slathered with water, and the speed with which her prey moved only complicated things further. But there was no time to overthink – only time to fire. And fire she did.

The spear sailed forth, but landed agonizingly short, and the shadow disappeared around the corner.

"It's heading for Musketeer X!" Yamikaze yelled. "Run! We have to catch it!"

"No way we're catching that thing." Risa gritted her teeth as they swashed noisily back down the passageway. "If it's running for the traps, that's fine, right?"

"Not if we're in the water as well," Yamikaze replied breathlessly. "Musketeer X can't do anything as long as we're here. The electricity would kill us!"

"Fuck's sake!"

The first shot whizzed past them just as they rounded the corner. In the distance, they could see the figure of Musketeer X standing in front of the lift, taking potshots at the swamp rat as it closed in on her.

But it was to no avail. To their horror, they watched as the rat leapt out of the water and scrabbled onto the slope, bearing down upon their helpless companion.

Risa sandwiched the harpoon under her armpit and hastily pulled her player menu open, scrambling through her inventory to find the Hecate and beckon it into existence. It materialized into the air above her, and, catching it into her waiting hands, she immediately swung it upwards and pointed it at the swamp rat, aligning its hulking form with the center of the crosshairs.

The Bullet Circle appeared, and without waiting for it to shrink, she squeezed off a shot. The bullet pierced the rump of the now-irate swamp rat, which jerked around to face the source of its pain.

"Oh, shit."

The swamp rat barreled back down into the water, closing in towards her at a speed that belied its bloated frame. Risa barely managed to leap out of the way, coming just inches from a painful – and potentially fatal – collision. Her Hecate flew from her grip and disappeared into the water with a quiet plunk, but she scarcely had time to mourn its loss – her mind was focused on the only thing left for her to do.

Dislodging the harpoon from her armpit, she lined it up again and took aim.

"What are you doing?" asked Yamikaze with a hint of trepidation.

"What do you think?"

With a clunk, the harpoon's spear sliced through the air and buried itself into the back of the retreating beast. The swamp rat screeched in pain, its cry echoing around the cave, but was not noticeably slowed down by the impact. The winch of the harpoon began spinning furiously, unraveling the steel rope tied between the shaft of the spear and the body of the weapon itself.

Risa stole one last glance at Yamikaze.

"Help me look for my rifle," she said.

And with that, she was gone.

She couldn't exactly say why she'd done what she'd done. It was arguable that in a video game, it was easier to treat danger – and death – as an afterthought, even if she had no idea if she'd be able to respawn like with other games; the other "people" inhabiting the SBC Glocken certainly weren't able to. Or perhaps she was merely curious about what might happen.

In any case, she was now hanging on for dear life, hoping the handle of the harpoon, which was already slick with water, would not slip from her grasp. Yet despite the wind whipping in her face and the prospect of drowning or smashing against the jagged walls being as palpable as it had ever been, in real life or otherwise, she felt no fear.

Quite the opposite.

A grin stretched across her face, and she let out a loud whoop into the suffocating darkness, as though she were riding blindfolded on a rollercoaster. In her momentary frisson, she almost forgot to retract the winch and bring herself closer to the rat, lest it abruptly change direction and swing her towards an ignominious end.

The wall loomed into her view. To her great surprise, instead of decelerating, the rat began to gain speed. It slammed into the wall claws-first, knocking Risa's face unceremoniously into the aquifer, before scurrying up the concrete and into a previously undiscovered passage. Risa, having just yanked her head out of the water, was also pulled bodily upwards into the hole.

A different sort of problem presented itself as they rocketed through the mystery drainpipe. The swamp rat was made of stern stuff, but it could only take so much punishment – the shots Musketeer X and Risa had landed, combined with the harpoon poking out of its backside, were starting to take their toll, and their rate of ascension was slowing rapidly. If the creature faltered here, it and Risa would plunge to their deaths together.

Just as it seemed as though the rat was nearing its limit, they reached a cavity dug into the passage's cylindrical surface. The rat, now ponderous enough for Risa to run just behind it, darted gratefully into the hole, and before long they emerged into a largely vacant expanse around half the size of a football field. Having arrived at safe harbor, the swamp rat pattered over to one of the walls and curled up into a ball, trembling as it chittered and scratched at the wound on its back.

Feeling a tinge of pity, Risa went over to it and carefully extracted the spear from the rat's furry posterior. And with that, the great beast finally succumbed to its injuries, exploding into a shower of sparkling pinpricks of light that were carried by the draft back down into the sewer pipe. In place of its carcass, a glowing orb floated, rotating slowly.

Risa reached out for the orb, and it instantly flew into her body, causing a screen to pop up on her player menu.

"Rat's Last Laugh," she murmured as she studied the information. "An accessory for those who care, but not about stares." She snorted. "Goofy."

Without bothering to look at the item preview, she tapped the 'Equip' button, expecting something on her body to change drastically. If she didn't like the look of it, she reasoned, she could always take it off. Yet staring up and down her own person, everything appeared to be the way it usually was, albeit completely soaked from head to toe. The scarf, the baggy pants, the uncomfortably revealing vest. All the same.

Just then, another notification startled her as it blinked into view. Risa reached for the popup, and a radio materialized in her hand.

"You okay, Ri… Sinon?" blared a staticky voice from the speaker. "Where are you?"

"I'm…" She pulled her map open and peered at her current location. "Huh. Looks like the third floor."

"The hell you doing up there? Get back down to the basement if you can. I'm assuming you got the rat, so we're heading back before anything worse happens."

"Right." Risa took one last look around what had apparently been the rat's abode, then retreated back into the hole from which she had been sent stumbling forth. Using a grappling hook attached to the mouth of the hole, she steadily slid back down the vertical pipe, only letting go once the aquifer and the worried looks of her acquaintances, whose faces were now shed of their goggles and lit by a glow-stick instead, returned into sight.

However, the moment she entered the light, their expressions of worry inexplicably morphed into laughter, though in Yamikaze's case that only took the form of a wry smile.

"What on earth is that?!" Musketeer X chortled, pointing at Risa's face.

Risa frowned, raising a hand and patting her cheeks. "What do you…"

Something stringy met her fingers. It felt like pieces of plastic wire, but as her muscles twitched, the wires twitched with them. She quickly opened her menu and stared at the model of herself in her personal display.

"What the…" There, on each cheek, were a set of three spindly whiskers. "What the fuck?"

"I think you should keep them on," Yamikaze said just as Risa moved to unequip them.

"Why's that?"

"The swamp rat is known for dropping high-stat unique items. That's the main reason we came hunting for it today. If you looted those whiskers from its body, that must mean they're quite good, appearances aside. Take a look for yourself."

Risa reopened the item's information panel, scanning the list of stats. "Wow, you're right. These are some crazy stats for a head accessory. A boost for all six stat types, plus resistances." She winced. "Isn't there any way to hide accessories? I do wanna wear these, but not if they look… like that."

"Afraid not." Musketeer X gulped down a breath of air to calm herself. "I won't judge if you wanna keep wearing them, but they're… You know what? They look cute on you. I dig it."

Risa's cheeks flushed red. "Didn't need you to tell me that." She tugged at the whiskers, but didn't take them off.

They meandered their way back to dry land, up the rickety old lift and across the creaky catwalks, and before long they had teleported out of the dismal environs of the water plant, returning to the relative safety of the SBC Glocken. Risa never thought she'd be so relieved to see the grim, grungy cluster of spires and towers that Musketeer X and Yamikaze called home. As she took in the increasingly recognizable landscape, she released a breath that she felt like she'd been holding for ages.

Musketeer X placed a hand on her shoulder. An unusually gentle gesture, by her boisterous standards.

"How was it? Your first taster of the outside world."

"It was… enlightening." Now that they were safe again, an unforeseen frustration began to bubble up in Risa's chest. "But I still have to ask, what the hell were you thinking? You didn't see fit to tell me a damn thing about what we were gonna do! What if I'd died down there? You said it yourself – nobody respawns. Once you're gone, that's that. I'm not ready to die here just yet."

Musketeer X sighed. "Didn't I tell you we'd started off easy? The swamp rat looks like a handful, but it's actually a bit of a coward. It hates pain, and it hates bright lights. I wasn't really in any trouble back there – I had a torch on hand just in case it got too close – and neither were you. Another lesson you gotta learn: everything has a weakness. That includes yourself, but that includes mobs, bosses… and other people, too." She put a hand on Risa's head and ruffled her hair. "Which is why we're gonna be sparring starting from tomorrow to get you back into shape. You better tighten up, 'cause the swamp rat might take pity on you, but I won't."

"Sparring?" If they were training to go hunting, surely it'd be more helpful to practice on mobs instead of each other. "What for?"

A now-familiar smile curled Musketeer X's lips, and it was an expression that Risa did not like the look of. Not one bit.

"Why, the BoB, of course."