Work Text:
Yggdrasil, at inception and even many years after, the most advanced VRMMORPG of its time. Players flocked to the game for its mesmerizing visuals and intricate ingame NPC creation. Players fought together and against one another. Guilds rose to power and met their doom in equal measure.
But among them all was one guild that rose to the top early in the game’s launch and was never toppled: The Port Mafia. A guild of powerful players and equally powerful NPCs. At its peak, the guild boasted a measly 41 members. The only conditions for joining the Port Mafia: The player’s avatar had to be inhuman, and you had to be a functioning member of society.
But now, the developers of Yggdrasil had decided to shut down the servers of the game. After 12 years, Yggdrasil was finally coming to an end.
In honour of the last day, Mori logged into the game for the first time in months. He appeared in the guild’s hall, a spiral ceilinged room with large open windows casting a wide gaze out to the open area around them. The only feature of the actual room: a massive table that could seat 41 people.
But currently there was only Mori, at the head of the table as befitting of guild master, and 1 other player leaning back in his chair with his feet draped over the table.
“Ranpo-kun,” Mori said. He’d talked to Ranpo a week ago? Or maybe a month? It had been quite some time since he’d had a chance to talk to his adopted son. “I didn’t expect you to log on today.”
“Mori,” Ranpo nodded, “They’re shutting down the servers tonight. I wanted to revisit Fukuzawa and Kouyou-neesan’s legacy one more time.”
Right. That made sense. It had been hard on the both of them when the only other 2 people they knew in real life, Mori’s good friend, Kouyou, and his husband and Ranpo’s father, Yukichi died.
By Kouyou’s death, much of the guild’s drive had already begun to fall and really just the four of them still managed the guild. But after Kouyou died, the three of them put more work into maintaining her legacy. In fact, Yukichi had insisted they managed it to help with their grief.
And it had helped for a time. Until Yukichi was diagnosed with cancer.
After he died, Mori could really find the desire to visit much. He still forced himself to make monthly visits to manage what had once been their greatest obsession that the three of them had pooled hours upon hours into.
“I’m grateful for your appearance, Ranpo-kun. How’s Poe?” Mori could help but inquire with a smirk on his face, “Have you told him about his doppleganger here in these walls.”
Ranpo hadn’t liked video games all that much, but during his highschool days, Kouyou had managed to convince him to play enough that he was easily one of the strongest mages in the game. And then he left for university and hadn’t had nearly as much time for the adults to convince him to play.
But then he fell in love with another kid at university. Ranpo, being the lovesick, socially inept teenager that he was, decided that instead of actually confessing to his crush, he’d instead recreated him as an NPC in Yggdrasil. All throughout his first and second year of University, Ranpo had visited the game just to spend time with his NPC in the saddest yearning Mori had ever seen.
And then, in his third year, Ranpo and Poe finally confessed to one another, and Ranpo had no need to jump into the game and visit his replicant boyfriend.
“Poe’s fine,” Ranpo brushed off Mori’s concerns, “He’s consumed in writing his new mystery novel when he’s not obsessively researching adoption.”
“Oh? The two of you have decided to adopt?” He really hasn’t talked to Ranpo in awhile. He had no idea that his adopted son had decided to make such a commitment.
“Yep! After all, Fukuzawa adopted me, so I figured it was only fair that I do the same.” Ranpo’s avatar nodded. While the avatar revealed no emotions, Mori knew how sad Ranpo probably was at that moment.
“Yukichi would have loved to be a grandfather,” Mori added. His words were soft even though the functionality of the game didn’t allow those sentiments to cross over in his message.
But Ranpo just nodded again like he understood the sentiment of Mori’s words. The two sat there for a few moments in relative peace before Ranpo opened his menu, “I’d love to stay until they shut down the servers, but I have the night shift tonight.”
“Ah, right. You go do that. I’ll talk to you soon?” Mori phrased the last question as a statement, but they both knew it was a question. Yukichi had been their greatest link, and Mori was a workaholic. He’d plan to call Ranpo and then forget for a month.
“Take care of yourself Mori,” Ranpo sent before he logged off and disappeared in a fizzle of sparkles.
Once Ranpo had disappeared, Mori checked the time. A blinking 23:00 told him his answer.
“Ranpo certainly has a difficult job,” Mori mused. Starting at midnight, or later. Even as a surgeon, Mori didn’t typically start so late.
With a sigh, he pushed himself up from his seat and paced over to the treasure of the guild. A powerful staff that the entire guild had poured their all into collecting the materials and crafting them together. The most powerful elemental weapon in all of Yggdrasil.
Taking hold of the staff, he glanced around and his eyes caught on one to a line of maids and a single buttler NPCs. He paced toward them and inspected the butler, an elderly man with a single spectacle.
“What was your name again?” He asked himself as he pulled up the NPCs specs. He read the name outloud into the chasm of silence in the guild hall, “Hirotsu. I’m guessing you were one of GreatBoss’s creations, weren’t you? He liked the whole butler/maid aesthetic.”
Hirotsu didn’t say anything. Not that Mori expected him too. He sighed once more and questioned, “Hmm, the command was ‘follow’ was it not?”
As he said the command, the line of maids and Hirotsu stood at attention and as Mori wandered out of the guild hall, they followed diligently behind him.
He lead them all the way to the entrance hall, the largest, gaudiest place in the entire building. A throne of bones and cushioned by lavish cushions and expensive fabrics. Large drapery created row after row of attire on the ceiling, flying the Port Mafia guild’s flag.
The entire room was just a spectacle, supposed to intimidate any who reached the inner area of the guild. TheGreatFitzgerald-san had insisted that they dazzle any adventurer who managed to make it to this point. And then he went and did it without any approval. But no one wanted to crush his dreams, and simply left it the way he’d done it.
Personally, Mori found it to be exorbitant and unnecessary.
But as he reaches the end of the walkway to the throne, Mori spies the greatest treasure of the Port Mafia.
Standing as far apart as possible, while still evidently guarding the throne were Sokouku.
Just seeing the tiny redhead with the elegant dark hat atop his curls and his lanky, dark haired companion wrapped up in white bandages brought Mori back to happier times. Back to when he and Kouyou had engaged in a battle of morals.
Kouyou had been certain that physical prowess was the greater strength in Yggdrasil, and had created a close combat fighter who only used magic to greatly increase his physical strength. She’d even found a cheat in the game that the developers never discovered (probably since you had to be max creation level and max fighting level) to create a character that could defeat even max level players.
She called him: Nakahara Chuuya.
Mori, on the other hand, believed that magic was much stronger than physical strength in Yggdrasil and had created his own NPC accordingly. Similar to Kouyou, he’d found his own cheat that allowed him to create an NPC that could beat even magic resistant players with its magic. Additionally, he found a way to rig his NPC with an incredibly intelligent AI that he’s never seen any other NPC with high enough intelligence to employ.
He called him: Dazai Osamu.
When paired together, the two could probably defeat all of the members of the Port Mafia at once. So, of course, he and Kouyou had made extra sure that their two NPCs would never go rogue on them.
And, as extra precaution, they’d programmed the characters with one very specific line:
“Dazai Osamu/Nakahara Chuuya absolutely despises Nakahara Chuuya/Dazai Osamu”.
Mori sat down on the throne and regarded the two members of sokouku. He reached a hand out and ran it through Chuuya’s hair.
He couldn’t help but think about Kouyou now that he was here with her creation.
He couldn’t help but remember his last phone call with his best friend.
She just found out that she was pregnant with a boy, and she’d been ecstatic. She had wanted to name him Chuuya, after her favourite NPC in Yggdrasil that she created, and she’d been trying to convince Mori to find a surrogate mother to birth a son for him. She’d wanted to recreate sokouku in the real world.
She’d even convinced Mori to at least look into surrogacy when he heard the news: Kouyou had died in a car accident. The car had punctured her lungs and the airbag had killed her unborn child.
After that, Mori had given up on having kids of his own. (Something that Yukichi had been saddened by, but understood.) Instead, he’d thrown himself into caring for the skokouku NPCs, imagining a world where they’d actually both had real sons. Kouyou birthing a little red haired Chuuya, and Mori finding a dark haired surrogate to birth baby Osamu.
But now, looking at the two of them standing as far apart as possible, he couldn’t help but think of the last words Kouyou had ever said to him.
Over the phone, after Mori had finally agreed to look into surrogates, she’d said through the phone in a playful voice, “Imagine the irony if instead of hating each other, our real sons are completely in love with one another!”
Mori had laughter and hung up on her with a grumble, but now, looking at what was essentially their children, he couldn’t help but think…
Well, they always did say that hate wasn’t actually the opposite of love, but instead the same emotioned interpreted differently.
And it was the last day that they would exist.
He couldn't help but open each of their character menus and change the line:
“Dazai Osamu/Nakahara Chuuya absolutely despises Nakahara Chuuya/Dazai Osamu.”
To:
“Dazai Osamu/Nakahara Chuuya is absolutely in love with Nakahara Chuuya/Dazai Osamu”.
“Well, at least they’ll be happy.” Mori whispered into the hall, “Kouyou, can you see this? They really did fall in love.”
He leaned back in his chair as he checked the time once more. 23:59 blinked back.
This was it. The legacy of his dearest friend and husband was about to vanish.
He couldn’t even be all that saddened by it. Even he wasn’t playing Yggdrasil much anymore.
It had been years since any group had even made an attack on the Port Mafia. And the last attempt hadn’t even been a proper attempt. Just a collection of newbies that hadn’t even maxed their character level out yet.
“Goodbye Yggdrasil,” Mori whispered. He closed his eyes and waited for the game to kick him off as the servers died.
But then the unthinkable happened.
The servers didn’t shut down.
“Wha?” Mori’s eyes sprun open to be greeted by the hall of the Port Mafia.
He tried to open the game menu, but nothing appeared. He couldn’t see the clock either, but he knew that a minute had definitely passed.
Had a bug occurred? But how? They were supposed to just turn off the servers. That should have just kicked him out of the game. Not lock him in it.
What does he do now?
The first thought that came to mind is sokouku. Are they still there? Could he preserve his and Kouyou’s legacy for a moment longer?
His eyes flicked to the place where Osamu and Chuuya stood. But instead of the two boys standing at the far ends of the throne, they were side by side right before him. Both kneeling down before him, Chuuya holding his hat to his chest and Dazai flicking his coat back behind him and looking up at Mori with his single eye.
“Rintaro-sama,” Osamu breathed into his bow. Chuuya was quick to echo Osamu’s words.
Wait… NPCs have never actually been able to say player names. The developers intentionally did that so as to not have the NPCs mispronounce any names. In fact, now that he thought about it, player created NPCs couldn’t talk at all.
But Osamu and Chuuya had just spoken to him.
Maybe he should test it? “Osamu, tell me, who is standing at your side?”
Was that too obvious? There’s no way that Osamu could answer to a command different than the ones programmed into him.
He definitely should not have gaze fondly at the shorter boy at his side and with a reverent tone informed Mori, “Rintaro-sama, Nakahara Chuuya stands at my side.”
And Chuuya should definitely not have blushed at Osamu’s words and tightened his grip on his hat.
Wait! If these are his and Kouyou’s creations, have they been affected by his change? If they’re from Yggdrasil, they must be.
He turned his attention to Chuuya, curious if he too could speak, “Chuuya, I now have a question for you. Who are you in love with?”
And wait, was that a blush? Chuuya’s cheeks and ears had somehow turned the same colour as his hair.
And a quick glance at Dazai revealed the other to be smirking at Chuuya. But instead of malice, he seemed oddly… fond?
“Rintaro-sama, I pledge my love and fealty to you,” Chuuya started, but his eyes trailed towards Osamu as he continued, “But… The one I’ve given my heart to is Dazai Osamu.”
“Ahem,” Mori coughed into his hand, trying not to mentally freak out. Had he really done this to Kouyou’s creation?! He turned the powerhouse, Nakahara Chuuya, into a blushing damsel! But what had happened to Osamu?
He repeated the same question to Osamu, and tried to not to shrink away when a wide, almost sadistic, smirk crossed his lips.
“Why, Rintaro-sama, you must know that while I pledge my loyalty to you, I gave Chuuya my heart ages ago!” Dazai’s single eye locked into Chuuya’s two and they became completely engrossed in one another as Dazai continued, “The only thing I could ever want now is for the chibi to finally agree to marry me!”
“Wha! Shitty Dazai! Who’d want to marry you! You’d just force them to sign a blood pact! Like hell, I want to see your gross blood!” Even while kneeling before Mori, Chuuya was somehow able to reach a hand over to Osamu (and did that point to how close to each other they were!) shook him as he screamed.
“How cruel! After I gave you my heart, literally! And this is how you repay me? Hasn’t the slug ever heard of something called equivalent exchange? Or does he think he can just take whatever he wants?” Osamu taunted the smaller boy at his side.
“Huh?! You thrusted a bloody organ at me. In no way was that romantic! And equivalent exchange,” Chuuya scoffed, releasing Osamu, “No trade with you could ever be considered equivalent, you slimy mackerel.”
“But you didn’t deny that you take what you want by force. What a brute!” Osamu commented to Chuuya before turning to Mori and wailed, “Rintaro-sama, save me! The chibi brute thinks he can just take my virginity!”
“Who said I wanted your false virginity! We both know you aren’t a virgin!” Chuuya raged, his fists clenched and one reached out to punch Osamu. He jumped to his feet and stalked towards the taller being. “And don’t involve Rintaro-sama into our fights!”
After beating Osamu a few times, Chuuya bowed even lower to Mori. “Rintaro-sama, I am very sorry for Dazai’s words.”
“Ah, no,” Mori waved away their concern. He was actually glad to see that their typical relationship was still intact. Although, he wasn’t sure how he felt about the more sexual undertone of their arguments. “I’m glad to see your relationship is as strong as ever.”
“My thanks, Rintaro-sama.” Chuuya shot out a leg to kick Osamu into a bowing position as well.
“You are welcome, Chuuya,” Mori didn’t know what else to say. But he figured he should at least get a handle on what happened. “Chuuya, Osamu, I want the two of you to inspect what happened to the Port Mafia building. I do not believe that we are still in Yggdrasil. Report back to floor 6 in 2 hours. “
“Yes, Rintaro-sama!” They chorused before Osamu casted teleportation and the two disappeared.
“Hirotsu,” Mori called out to the butler man still bowing at his side.
“Rintaro-sama?” Hirotsu asked as he bowed similar to Chuuya.
“Summon all the floor guardians to floor 6 in 2 hours,” Mori commanded.
“As you wish,” Hirotsu, unlike Osamu, strolled to the grand doors and exited through them.
With a sigh, Mori teleported to his room in the guild and flopped down on the bed.
Just what had happened? He thought he’d sit in Yggdrasil for an hour or 2 until the servers closed, collapse into tears until he fell asleep and wake up the next morning for his 6 o’clock shift.
Instead, he’d been sent to a world where the NPCs that he and rest of his guild had created were now alive! Just, what did that mean? And they were all loyal to him?!
At least, at least Osamu and Chuuya were still alive. Albeit a very odd dynamic has formed between them. He couldn’t imagine having that essentially teenager frustration following the two around for the rest of time. He’ll have to change that at his earliest convenience.
Wait. The NPCs are all people now. People with their own thoughts and opinions even if they are influenced by their previous setting. And he can’t even pull up the main menu. How could he possibly pull up the NPC stat blocks?
Doesn’t that mean he can’t change them back!!