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The dark lord of shadows’ castle looms high in the distance. The many twisted spires of the castle’s malevolent hold pierce the nightmare clouds twirling in a wicked cyclone. It is a place many adventurers have tried to conquer and the place where they all met their tragic end. Now, eight more shall attempt it.
They are a motley crew, cobbled together by the demon necromancer, Ako the Maleficent, out of family and friends, but without doubt Ako knows they will be the one to free the land of the dark lord’s curse. Her constant companion—the greatest sorceress to ever walk the land—stands by her side accompanied by the noble samurai from across the sea who’s pledged her love and loyalty to the sorceress. Their bond warms the necromancer’s dead heart and adds a much needed physical dps component to their usual four person party.
The last member of that core team consults quietly with the fiery warrior Ako begged persuaded to join their quest. The paladin has grown quickly since that fateful day so long ago now that the Necromancer and the Sorceress held her hand through those first quests. Now her shield can hold back any foe, though from the way her attention flickers to the young healer joining them for the first time, perhaps she’d prefer to open that shield up.
Finally, there’s the rogue and the tarot reader loudly teasing one another as they wait to begin. Ako invited the rogue personally—there is no one in the world cooler than her after all—but was surprised when she asked to bring her partner along. Little Ako knew but the actress moonlights as a fortune teller—something about the relaxation of crushing one’s enemies. Unexpected but delightful.
The necromancer casts her gaze over her team and smiles proudly. There is no one in the world she’d rather march into hell with. She gathers all the thoughts in her head and readies a speech so incredible the bards will sing songs of it for eons.
“Let’s go kill a bad guy!” Ako cheers into her headset before slurping down the gamer fuel so kindly provided by the internet cafe for the low low price of double the retail cost. She loves her home computer but there’s something special about playing in a private internet cafe booth, knowing her comrades are beside her just separated by a few walls.
“Ako-chan… the ready check…” Rinko whispers through the headset. Even though they’re on coms it’s probably the last time Ako will hear Rinko’s voice until the end of the session. Rin-Rin’s demon fingers are way stronger than her voice.
“Right!” With a few swipes across the keyboard, Ako makes a confirmation box pop up across all her party members’ screens. Quickly they all confirm that they’re ready to begin the dungeon. All except… “Sis are you okay?”
Confused grunting trails through the wall. Technology has never been Tomoe’s strong suit. “Ako.” Tomoe whispers even though they’re on a group call. “Which button accepts?”
“You can use the mouse to click ‘ready’!”
“Ah…Okay.”
As Tomoe joins them in the ready cue Ako cackles into the mic. “Now our dark journey… BEGINS!”
The paladin has won many honors. She is the savior of Utheric, the warrior of dusk, and a gold card member of the silver milk bowl casino. Yet, none of those titles bring her as much joy as leading this party through the castle knowing the girl she loves so much follows behind her.
Sayo knows she can’t let Tsugumi’s presence distract her, not when she has such an important duty. As a tank she must serve as the guiding light to her team—both protector and navigator. Although this dungeon is new to her—Ako insisted they save it for when they could all play together—Sayo has studied extensively. She knows the map as well as if it were a new Roselia song. She’s read all the meta on this location and has committed the optimal strategy to her heart. As long as they follow her, she can keep them all safe.
“Tomoe-san, please stick to the path.” But alas, Sayo is not the only tank on this journey.
“Sorry, Sorry!” The warrior laughs, running in a circle around Sayo with the flare of her defense ability flickering on and off uselessly. “I thought I saw something down there!”
“I assure you, I have routed the ideal path for us.”
“Sure thing!” Tomoe laughs before immediately turning down the wrong hallway.
Sayo breathes deeply. She refuses to get frustrated when Tsugumi is standing so close by. The paladin glances over her shoulder and catches the healer’s eye. She waves and smiles so sweetly. It’s worth putting up with Tomoe’s inexperience if she gets to enjoy Tsugumi’s company for just a bit longer. She guides them further into the dungeon.
It’s not long until they stumble upon a squadron of young dragons. With a sweep of her sword, Sayo baits them into targeting her so the others can focus on their magic and blades. Even when one scrapes past her shield and claws a sliver from her arm Sayo doesn’t so much as flinch. The wound is hardly worth looking at twice when there are enemies to kill.
Not that she has the time to look at it twice before her skin stitches back together with the warm coaxing of a little white magic. Sayo smiles to herself. “Thank you Tsugumi-san.”
“Be careful Sayo-san!”
The concern inspires her, Sayo redoubles her efforts. She fends off attacks from all sides but still teeth and claws manage to pierce her armor but it’s nothing Sayo hasn’t handled before and she hardly notices the damage before it’s healed up.
Which is very kind but hardly an optimal strategy.
Sayo tries not to pay attention to her health bar when she plays NFO—at least not when she works with a healer she can trust. But it’s impossible to miss how quickly she’s healed when she takes even the slightest sliver of damage. It wouldn’t be an issue except when she looks at her teams status bar it’s clear Tsugumi’s draining her mana pool far faster than it can regenerate.
It makes her heart warm to know Tsugumi’s diligent care is so very focused on her but at this rate when she really needs healing Tsugumi’s resources will be drained. “Tsugumi-san, you do not need to heal me quite so quickly. Please trust that I will not die so easily.”
Tsugumi’s chipper voice sounds like music over the headset. “Okay, Sayo-san! I’ll take good care of you.”
Is there anyone else in the world as wonderful as Tsugumi? Surely not, Sayo thinks as she presses forward into the dungeon. It’s difficult to think of anything but Tsugumi. Her soft hair, her tender eyes, her supple lips—
No! Sayo panics as her thoughts take such a wanton and lustful direction. She struggles to keep such thoughts from her head so hard that she completely forgets she’s marching into a trap until she’s got seven elite gnolls surrounding her and a young dragon on its way. Oh dear. Her health is already halved by the time she’s able to focus. No need to worry though, Tsugumi will surely help shortly.
Sayo navigates the aggroed beasts around the twisted castle halls, making sure to keep pointed away from her stalwart companions. Though she is a bit curious about the thought process of one companion in particular as Sayo’s health bar creeps into it’s last third.
“Tsugumi-san?”
There’s no reply from her girlfriend amongst the curses and cheers of the rest of their party. It’s been a long time since Sayo’s seen her health bar reach red. Her heart starts to pound in her chest. Sweat forms at her temples. Her hands shake over the keyboard. She calls out once more just as the health bar begins to deplete entirely. “Tsu-Tsugumi-san?”
A bright light envelopes Sayo’s character and the health bar zooms back to the top. A full heal at the last possible second.
Sayo pants into the microphone, nearly collapsed over the keyboard. “A-ah… well done.”
“Was that good?” Tsugumi asks, completely unaware of how deeply her perfect timing affected Sayo.
“Yes… that was very good Tsugumi-san.” She straightens back up and attempts to regain her dignity. “You’re a natural.”
Moca snickers in Sayo’s ear. “Sounds like Sayochi discovered something new about herself today.” As always, Moca misses nothing.
But Sayo’s annoyance with a certain rogue can’t last long when Tsugumi comes back on mic with a single cheerful phrase. “This is fun!”
“Oh ho~ Tsugu figured something new out too.”
Moca’s only a rogue because she wanted the class that could wear cool eyepatches. She actually wears two—they don’t add stats and they don’t block her eyesight; they just make her look like the shittiest pirate, which was exactly her goal. She’s more than happy to stand back and let Sayo and Tomoe do all the work as they make their way through the dungeon.
At least she is until she realizes all her girlfriend’s attention is set on Tomoe.
Moca knows that’s how the game’s supposed to work. Tanks take the most damage so tanks get the most healing but… something about it sits with her wrong. Maybe it’s the way Chisato seems to look back at Moca every time she’s thrown a recovery card at Tomoe. Or maybe it’s how she keeps placing buffs on Tomoe and Tomoe alone.
She’s spent most of her playtime trying to convince Chisato to sneak off somewhere remote and put those elaborate emotes to use. Moca has two hot bars ready to go at a moment’s notice. She never expected to finally get Chisato into ERP with some fantasy cuckoldry.
“Thanks Chisato!” Tomoe says for the thirteenth time as Chisato heals her to full and Moca is left to languish in auto-recovery. This cannot continue. Moca deserves to have the careful caress of Chisato’s tarot deck fill her health bar!
Moca charges forward with her twenty second sprint. Past Sayo’s careful lead and right into the claws of a mini-boss—a particularly nasty malignant giant boll weevil. It’s beetle… claws? Teeth? Maybe they’re pincers… whatever it’s nasty things dig into Moca health bar and refuse to let go. By the time the others arrive she’s at about half health and way too smug about it.
“Chisato~ I need healing~,” Moca says, bleeding out from a million little cuts as her life bar keeps slipping from a dozen status effects.
Chisato regards her with as much interest as the monster they’re fighting. Negative. “Healing is for tanks. If you’re foolish enough to aggro in their place, then you get what you deserve.”
The last thing the rogue sees is smirk on the fortune teller’s face before everything goes dark.
Moca pushes away from the keyboard and tries to wipe the blush from her cheeks. Chisato might have won that battle—she knows how much Moca likes it when she’s bossy—but the war is still on. “Oh ho~. Moca-chan’s dead and gone. Won’t someone bring her back?”
A revive request pings onto the screen for Moca to accept. The sender? Tsugumi.
Rejected.
“Moca-chan? Are you okay?”
“Leave me Tsugu.” Moca says with the gravitas of a last stand and not an obstinate whine. “There’s only one person who can heal this broken heart.”
There’s no response on the line. Moca coughs.
“Did you say something Moca?” Chisato’s voice is too breathy for someone playing an mmorpg.“I’m sorry I was occupied with Tomoe-chan’s health bar. It’s just so… long. I find myself compelled to fill it over and over again.”
“Aw, thanks Chisato!” Tomoe says obliviously as she forgets once again to use her cooldowns and gets clobbered in the face.
The screen blurs. Cool. Cool, cool, cool Moca’s jealous of her best friend’s large, girthy HP meter.
Another revive request comes in from Tsugumi. Moca rejects it immediately. Either Chisato brings her back or she’ll just stay dead! Is it silly? Yes! Childish? Definitely! Needy in a way that comes way too close to sincerity? Absolutely with the emphasis on AHHHHH!
The last enemy falls to Rinko’s magic. Sayo begins to lead the group forward again without so much as a glance to Moca’s corpse—nothing if not professional. Tsugumi lingers a moment longer but quickly hurries to keep pace with her girlfriend. Rinko and Ako leave. Eve takes the time to salute Moca before dashing off into the darkness and Tomoe’s long gone and probably lost. Only Chisato stays behind, looking at Moca in silence before she too disappears from sight.
But not from casting range.
“Let’s go Moca.”
>Accept resurrection?
Moca smiles to herself as the prompt appears on the screen. She wins. With a triumphant flick of her wrist Moca clicks “reject”. The box disappears and Moca clicks hits the hotkey for auto-revive at the entrance to the dungeon. “Moca-chan’s taking the long way around!”
First there’s silence over the headset. Then there’s a cacophony of angry gamers and disappointed friends. But the only sound Moca cares about is the soft, muffled laughter she can hear rising up from the booth next door.
“Fear not Mistress Rinko!” Eve casts out her hand to stop the sorceress from stepping forward as they approach the entrance to the dark lord’s chambers. “I won’t let even a single hair on your head rustle in the monster’s breath!”
The path was long and arduous (and full of much more clicking than Eve ever imagined back in Finland) but at last Eve is the samurai warrior she’d always dreamed of becoming. With a blade that only grows sharper with every foe it cuts down and the love of the raven-haired maiden she’s sworn to protect, Eve is invincible. She never could have guessed that confessing her feelings to her nervous senpai would lead her here but she’s glad it did.
“Wakamiya-san! Everyone’s gone inside!” Rinko says through the chat—it was also surprising to find texting brings out an entirely different side of her girlfriend, but if one Rinko is good than two Rinkos are even better.
“Then we shall join them!” Eve messages back before marching through the gates and into the waiting lair of a ferocious red dragon.
Sayo leads them in their charge, taking the brunt of the dragon’s onslaught. This doesn’t sit well with Eve. She’s a samurai after all! The greatest of all warriors! She should be the one taking care of everyone.
But as Rinko often reminds her, that’s not what her class is for. There is a distinct disconnect between the samurai as imagined by Eve Wakamiya and the samurai as imagined by the game developers. Unfortunate but she’ll continue to do her duty: inflicting massive damage on that dragon… and keeping an eye on her girlfriend, just in case.
“Wakamiya-san! Remember the positioning!” Sayo shouts as Eve narrowly avoids falling into the Dragon’s fire blast.
Eve struggles to recall the colorful chart Sayo sent them all beforehand with the placement for the battle. Eve’s bushido spirit should be more than enough to carry them through the fight!
Emphasis on should. As Eve’s courage finds her surrounded by the dragon’s minions a bit too frequently for her health bar’s comfort. She can handle two minions on her own, even three can be fended off but when four bear down on Eve… well, it is noble to die in battle.
But before one last attack can claim the final sliver of Eve’s health bar—a bolt of lightning strikes down her foes.
“Wakamiya-san be careful,” Rinko types with panic in her fingers (so Eve assumes). “Work with the others!”
Of course. Rinko is so wise. But before Eve can compose another haiku to the elegant beauty of her lady love she sees with horror that an area of effect warning too large to escape has enveloped Rinko. Unacceptable!
Eve grabs her sword and runs forward as the rest of their party runs the other way. They call out for Eve to stop but she won’t listen, how could she when Rinko is in such danger? With a hoarse shout—“Rinko-san!”—Eve leaps in front of the sorceress ready to defend her from the blast. “I’ll protect you!”
“Thank you but—!”
The dragon rears back and blows a massive arc of fire around them. The flames burn hot but surely Eve’s love is hotter! Even if she perishes at least Rinko will surviv—
“—but it’s an AOE attack and you don’t have a defense skill…”
When the fire clears both Eve and Rinko’s avatars lie slumped on the ground waiting for a revival.
Eve smiles into the mic. “Better to die by your side than watch you perish.”
Tsugumi offers her a revive and Eve watches her character spring back to life and gets ready to return to the fray but before she can launch forward there’s a small knock on the door to her cubicle.
“Rinko?” Chisato calls out across the headset “Are you going to accept my revive?”
The door opens and Rinko steps into the tiny space—already practically on top of Eve before she closes the door.
“Rinko-san!” Eve’s eyes light up and she reaches for her girlfriend’s chilly hand. “Did you get lost looking for the restroom?”
“N-No…” Rinko smiles bashfully. “What… you said… it was… very romantic…”
Eve inches her chair forwards and draws Rinko into her arms, urging her girlfriend into Eve’s lap. “Should we return to the battle?”
Rinko wraps her arms around Eve’s neck and shakes her head. “Ako-chan… can handle… it.”
Eve nuzzles Rinko’s cheek and pecks it with a quick kiss and a happy sigh. “It’s cowardly to retreat, but it is also cowardly to refuse my lady!”
“That’s right…” Rinko kisses Eve and holds the back of her head tightly, just as Eve’s avatar on the screen behind them fell to another cone of fire. “I’m your… lady…you’re my… knight…”
“Samurai!”
Ako sheaths her staff as the hard fought battle draws to the end. But the victory is tainted with the bitter melon scent of loss. For though they won, they lost two of their companions to the dragon’s fire. Though Eve and Rinko don’t seem too upset about the loss.
“Um… I’m trying to revive Eve but it’s not working?” Tsugumi squeaks over comms, repeating the revive spell.
“Moca-chan’s preeetty sure they’re not coming back,” Moca chuckles. “So she can have all of Eve’s healing right~?”
“I can’t hear you over the sound of Tomoe’s health bar.” Chisato tops off Tomoe and follows Sayo out of the arena.
Their characters’ corpses disappear as Rinko and Eve disconnect from the game. Ako quickly resorts to her backup plan.
“Rin-Rin and Eve have to go AFK!” Ako shouts, frantically typing out a text as she does. “I’m calling in a sub!”
Luckily, she doesn’t have to wait long for a response.
>ok
Within minutes two new players enter the game. Their last hope against the dark lord. Two legendary bards: the maiden of Minato and the seer of Sunset appear before them.
The party watches as Yukina appears before them and immediately begins to walk into the invisible wall blocking the way backwards. “Mitake-san, I cannot proceed.”
Ran sighs, comms crackling to life. “Other way.”
“Oh I see, thank you.”
“I-it’s nothing!”
Ako silently begins to plan their second dungeon attempt.
No matter how the party composition changes, Sayo will not falter. She is the dependable leader of this party and they will not fail simply because some members of the team put romance before responsibility! Besides, Tsugumi is still watching.
The party arrives just outside of the final boss’ chambers. Sayo breaths deep and readies herself to reiterate the plan. “Tomoe-san, I shall act as main tank as you operate as off-tank. Udagawa-san will—”
“Sayo.”
Sayo bites her lip and fights against her instincts to answer Yukina. “Udagawa-san will be in back where Tsugumi-san and Shirasagi-san will—”
“Sayo. What about myself Sayo?”
“Minato-san!” Ran scolds more loudly and disruptively than Yukina. Let her finish!”
The line falls quiet. For a moment. Sayo sips her gamer fuel—kindly purchased by Tsugumi—before continuing.
Tomoe chimes in. “So like should I go or…?”
Sayo rushes to finish swallowing her drink but chokes in her hurry to answer the question before—
“Yes,” Yukina says with the undeserved confidence of a teenage boy with rich parents.
“No!”
But it’s too late, Tomoe enters the boss chambers and sucks the rest of the party along into the final battle.
Sayo grits her teeth and presses forward. Even if she cannot be heard she can still bring them to victory! Her four hours of preparatory research will not be in vain! As long as Sayo stands they have a chance at victory. Just as long as Sayo is still alive…!
“Sayo. You have died.” Yukina bluntly explains as the dark lord turns Sayo into a pile of bones. “This is an unfortunate turn for Roselia.”
The keyboard rattles under Sayo’s fists. All that prep work. All those tutorials. Ruined.
“Sayo-san?” The door to the cubicle slides open. Sayo whirls her chair around, almost smacking Tsugumi in the face.
“Tsu-tsugumi-san!” Sayo pushes back as far as she can in the tiny space. She covers her face with her hands. “Please don’t look at me!”
Tsugumi gently tugs at Sayo’s hands, pulling them away so she can bend down and cup Sayo’s face in her hands. “But I want to see you.”
Sayo presses her cheek against Tsugumi’s hand. “Even though I failed?”
A giggle. “It’s just a game. I still had fun.” Tsugumi presses her lips to Sayo’s forehead and pulls her seated girlfriend into a mismatched hug. “Did you?”
Her eyes flit closed as she relaxes into Tsugumi’s stomach with a sigh. “I don’t play NFO to have fun.”
The situation on the battlefield has quickly left desperateville for the hopelesstown and Moca’s not particularly interested in buying real estate. She’s doing the best she can but that mostly involves trying to keep Ran and Yukina from figuring out how to kill one another in a game without PVP.
“Stop casting the same spells as me!” Ran shouts at Yukina places an identical health buff over the party.
“Mitake-san, we are the same class.”
“You can still use a different attack!”
“Hmm but was it not you who chose to copy my class?”
“That’s…”
“And if I’m not mistaken you told Aoba-san you quote ‘have no interest in playing that dragon game for kids’ unquote and yet when I asked you if you played you immediately signed up?”
“Th-that’s not! Um! Well uh,” Ran flounders for a comeback. “You wanna kiss me so bad it’s making you shit at video games!”
Silence as the rest of the party wonders exactly how long they’re going to have to put up with this before Ran and Yukina finally get together.
“Hmmm. I suppose that’s true.”
“Huh?”
“Excuse me, I must leave for Mitake-san’s house now.”
Yukina Minato has logged off.
“Shit. I need to clean up.
Ran Mitake has logged off.
The remaining four are left to wonder why exactly they’re still trying. At least Moca wonders. Tomoe sticks to her classic tactic of ‘hitting the boss in the face’ and it looks like it’s working well. Chisato keeps healing, Ako keeps… necromancing? All in all, they’re making good progress on that boss meter. Slowly, Moca starts to think they just might make it after all.
Moca combos her slashes into the dark lord’s side. There’s a special sort of pleasure that comes when you successfully pull off a five move combo like you care about being good at the game. Moca’s not a genius for nothing. Even if they can’t win, she’ll take as much of it down as she can.
She gets it all the way to that last eighth when he hits with a wave attack that sends Tomoe and Moca down to their last strips of health. Chisato springs to action, without even giving a moment to think she shouts.
“Moca! Hold on!”
Moca smiles to herself with a heart full of love and a head about to burst. She spreads out her arms in front of the computer like she’s about to trust fall into the LCD screen. “Nah. Keep Tomo-chin safe.”
And then she dies.
“You idiot,” Chisato scolds but her heart’s not in it and underneath the scorn Moca can hear a little sniffle.
Moca rises from her chair and steps out of the room. Silently, she leans against the plywood door frame and waits for the door to open. It only takes a minute.
Chisato bursts out of the room, fuming in the way that only losing a video game can make her. Moca greets her with a smirk and a wave. “Damn, you died quick.”
“Welcome to the afterlife.” Chisato rolls her eyes.
“Ho ho~,” Moca leans forward and falls over Chisato, her head and arms covering her girlfriend like a backwards coat. “There there, you’ll find someone who can love you after that bitter defeat~.”
“You lost too,” Chisato pouts with a rare childish whine.
“Ah ha ha~” Moca smiles into Chisato’s hair. “But Moca-chan gets to hug a pretty girl which makes her happier than 90% of NFO players~.”
“I’d rather win.”
“Harsh…”
And then there were the Udagawas.
Tomoe doesn’t notice that she’s alone on the field with Ako. She’s too busy trying to keep track of the only thing she understands in this complex game: big scary guy is bad guy. So she clicks and she clicks and she hopes Ako knows what’s happening better than she does cause she’s got a whole row of icons on the bottom of the screen and no idea what any of them are for. But she’s a big sister so like hell she’s gonna let Ako down!
She lets Ako down.
They do their best but it’s a trial meant for eight not two and no matter how over leveled Ako might be once Tomoe falls in battle there’s not much time left for one necromancer. The castle remains undefeated with their names added once more to the long list of victims.
But Tomoe doesn’t really care about any of that. She stands up and stretches, walks out of the cube and hesitates outside of Ako’s cube. Ako always used to get so mad at losing when she was little and Tomoe never really knew what to say then. How can she know what to say now?
Well, that’s what sisters are for. Tomoe opens the door and braces for Ako’s tears.
Instead, she’s greeted by the biggest smile Ako’s had since the day Yukina finally let her join Roselia.
“That was amazing! You almost had him!” Ako bounces from the chair and hugs Tomoe tight. “Can we try again sometime?!”
Tomoe rubs the back of her head and shrugs. “Sure?”
“Yes!”
Well, if Ako was happy. “You wanna get some ramen?”
“Yeah!”
Then that was all that mattered anyway.