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“Yukina-saaaaaaaaaaan!”
Ako burst through the door of the practice room, waving around 5 tickets in her hands, clearly excited about something which has a 99% chance of being game related. “I won five tickets to a VR full dive beta session for three hours! This is sooooo crazy! These tickets cost millions on Betsy!”
Flustered, Rinko tried calming the drummer down, but it was no use. Any gamer would understand this excitement. Hell, Rinko was probably even more excited than Ako. The company who made Neo Fantasy Online developed a completely new virtual reality game. It was where the mind would be transported to a whole new world, inside the screens, controlling your character with your entire body. It was something never seen before but was still in beta. Ako entered an online raffle for 5 tickets to a beta session, thinking that she couldn’t win them but she might as well try, and miraculously succeeded. Sayo and Yukina said that they didn’t mind playing more games and that’s what lead to the current events.
Not bothering to look up, Sayo continued setting up her guitar, ready for the intensive Roselia practice. “…So?”
“So um… Last time you guys said it was kinda fun so I was thinking that we could go there as a group…” Ako fidgeted, playing with the tickets in her hands but making sure she took great care of them. “It’s not like it’ll be bad for Roselia or anything. You can use your experience to write another song!”
Lisa hummed, walking over to Ako and took a look at the tickets. “I think it could be fun. What do you guys think?”
“Please please please please Yukina-san, Sayo-san! I’ll train extra extra extra hard from now on! I’ll never ask of anything from you again!”
Even knowing that Ako most definitely will not keep such a promise, Yukina agreed. It’s not like she wasn’t interested herself in this ‘virtual’ world, whatever that meant. She had been stuck on song writing so maybe this was a good chance for some inspiration, especially because she thought that Opera of the Wasteland, which was based off their last gaming get-together, was one of their best songs and the fans liked them too, even earning them new fans who were just like Ako and Rinko.
With some reluctance and a lot of encouragement from Lisa and Rinko, Sayo ended up agreeing too, or she’d look like the bad person. “It wouldn’t be that bad having a break every now and then I suppose.”
“Yaaaaaaaaaaaay! Rinrin, we did it!” the middle schooler threw her arms around Rinko, and sobbed. “Thank you all so much!!”
“Isn’t that great Ako-chan?” Rinko gently patted Ako’s head, letting her cry into her shoulder. Deep down though, Rinko knew that it wouldn’t have taken much to have the whole of Roselia agree to this. After all, Ako’s always bringing requests to the strict duo and somehow they all ‘miraculously’ get approved, no matter how much Yukina and Sayo refuse to do so at first.
“Now then, what happened to working extra extra hard, Udagawa-san?”
“Geh-“
16 th March. The day had finally come. VR Neo Fantasy Online day. After hearing from Ako that the place was well hidden away, in some dodgy alleyway, the five agreed to meet up at Lisa’s house, which was the closest to the supposed location.
Ako explained that they could use their characters from the last time they played Neo Fantasy, which would save them a lot of time as they only had 3 hours. As beta testers, they were asked to play through the first quest, and if they had any extra time, they were free to explore the open world however they wished.
Lisa woke up early. Not because she was extremely excited about the game but because she knew that Yukina’s parents weren’t home and she’d have to make her breakfast as per usual. It wasn’t like Lisa didn’t like doing it. In fact, she was glad to do it, honoured even. She loves cooking for Yukina after all.
She pulls out her spare keys to Yukina’s house and unlocks the door, which she has because she pretty much lives there as much as she lives in her own house. As much as Lisa would like to make Yukina’s favourite: her cookies, it would be a silly idea to eat such sweet things in the morning,so Lisa built a perfectly balanced nutritious and tasty meal. “Yukina~ Breakfast is done… Don’t tell me she’s not even awake…”
Sighing, Lisa leaves the food and climbs upstairs to Yukina’s room, not bothering to knock before she went in. Yukina was always asleep anyway, there was no point. “Yukina… It’s already 9…”
“Five more minutes…”
Staring at Yukina’s sleeping face wasn’t good for Lisa’s health. Maybe the fact that Yukina wasn’t a morning person worked in Lisa’s favour, as it allowed her to see this adorable expression, void of tension nobody else got to see.
However time is time. And its time for Yukina to get up. Ripping off the covers and poking her wouldn’t get her up. Lisa already knew how to do it. “Yukina, we need to practice for our sponsored live. You’ll be late.”
Almost immediately, Yukina jumped out, almost bunny like, and trudged to the bathroom. After the two finished their breakfast fairly quickly, Lisa went home to grab her bass for some morning practice. They had nothing better to do while waiting for the others.
The first to arrive was Sayo. You’d probably think it would be Ako, who was too overhyped for this event, but unluckily for her, she was less of a morning person than Yukina. Sayo heard Yukina’s singing and Lisa’s bass from inside the house, waiting till they stopped before pressing the doorbell. “I admire you for your morning practice.”
Lisa allowed Sayo in, rushing to put on the kettle for tea. “I can’t be the one dragging down Roselia so of course I have to put in the extra work.”
The two continued to practice -with Sayo listening to them and providing criticism as Ako said specifically not to bring instruments as there really would be no point- for another good hour or so before Ako and Rinko finally showed up.
“I’m… so sorry… It took so long to get Ako-chan out of bed…”
“Haha, no worries. Thanks for your hard work, Rinko.” With the whole group arrived, Lisa packed away her bass and quickly got ready to go.
For the one being the last to wake up, Ako was full of energy. The drummer pulled the Rinko and Lisa by the hands, forcing them to run off with her, leaving the vocalist and guitarist no choice but to follow her.
Once they eventually arrived, just about on time, completely out of breath, the five were ushered into the building and with presenting their tickets, they were brought into a strange room with strange headsets and beds. The staff assisted them with putting on the headsets and explained rules, health and safety procedures and wished them a fun journey into the world of Neo Fantasy. During the set up, the staff had already put in their previous NFO characters and they were ready to go.
“I can’t believe we’re finally here…” Looking around, Ako knew that she recognized this place. “This is… the beginners town, isn’t it?”
Lisa remembered it too, from the last time they played. “Ooh, will the quest be to deliver a letter to Linda-san again?”
“From the set up of the game,I’d assume so, as it seems like it’ll be the same as the online version, except that this is a full dive and we can use all our senses, as if this was real life. (*ﾟ∀ﾟ*)”
“How are you still using emoticons in your speech, Rinrin?” Ako said, while blasting a spell at the weak low level bats in the dungeon, one-shotting them like the demon princess she is.
“A-Ah I think it’s a bug… They’ve been assigned into my auto speech patterns in game so I think it carried here too.”
Despite Yukina being able to control her character like as if it was her own body this time round, her sense of direction still wasn’t the greatest in these dark dungeons. Once again, she got separated from the group at least three times. Lisa almost died from stressing out. She couldn’t let this happen again.
Taking a deep breath, her heart exploding in her chest, Lisa stood closer to Yukina, whispering so the others couldn’t hear. “I’m going to hold your hand so you don’t get lost again.”
Instead of replying, Yukina reached for Lisa’s hand. “Yes, I think that would be a good idea.”
The bassist was never this glad that the cave was dark, so nobody could see her furious blushing just from some wholesome (?) handholding. “W-We need to catch up…”
By the time they realized, the other three were long gone. Getting lost with Yukina definitely wasn’t the plan. The three would have to pass through this area to get out so Lisa concluded that the best plan would be to sit down, have a break and wait for the others to fetch them, in case they miss each other. “Yukina…”
“Yes?”
Shivering, Lisa shuffled closer towards the other girl. “Aren’t you cold? This cave is pretty cold, isn’t it? Do you want me to give you my clothes?”
“You’re the one that’s cold. I’m fine.”
Lisa took off her robe and pulled it over them as a blanket, though it wasn’t long enough. “ It’s okay… if I squeeze closer right…? ” She thought. “ It’s cold so…”
Lisa turned her head to face the other girl, not realizing how close their faces were, their nose practically touching. The blood rushed to her face once again and she just couldn’t stop staring at those deliciously looking irresistible lips of hers. “ Argh, screw everything!”
Lisa closed the gap between them, but earned no resistance from the other girl. “Yukina…”
“Lisa…”
Despite how cold she had been a few minutes ago, Lisa felt completely revitalized, possibly even overheating. She pushed in for another kiss, wrapping her arms around Yukina’s waist, the latter doing the same to Lisa. “Hah…”
The two broke apart, staying close, tucking their heads into the cracks of each other’s necks. “I’m not cold anymore.”
“Me neither.”
Without moving an inch, Yukina blows on Lisa’s ear. “It’s fascinating how we can feel temperatures in a game. It feels so real.”
“Hya!” Almost breaking away from the embrace, Lisa pouted, not that Yukina could see it. “What was that for?”
“I’m proving my point, because you felt that.”
Lisa sighed, removing all temptations to do the same to Yukina for revenge. “No matter how real this feels, it’s really nothing compared to our world, is it?”
Breathing in, Yukina said, “If you want to try it in real life, I don’t mind. The sensations may be different, I don’t know.”
Pulling away from Yukina, Lisa stared at her, dumbfounded. “Yukina… didn’t just say that… Right…?”
“EEEEEH????”