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Shiro had been waiting in Dalaran for almost an hour now. He had triple-checked his gear, refined his second spec, hell he even had started cleaning his inventory and the bank – resulting in the realisation he had way too many low-level blacksmithing materials stacked aside for later use, so he decided to put a bunch of them up for auctions for some easy earned money. The latter had kept him occupied for another ten minutes in Undercity or so, just to teleport right back to Dalaran. Yet, still, none of the others had appeared and Shiro was now standing in front of the little fountain of the city, throwing out his fishing rod time after time, trying to finally pull out the last gold coin he was missing for the damn achievement. But of course, it kept playing hard to get as always. Stupid frosty king of Lordaeron!
To be fair, he had started the game an hour early, figuring the rest would come online sooner than later too. But nope. Not even Senbonzakura, who was playing almost twenty-four-seven if not occupied with any Shinigami duties, was anywhere to be seen. Only five minutes before the scheduled start someone finally walked up to the whiter-than-white blood elf. Someone who smelled even more like death and decay, than Shiro as a death knight did.
“Yo, Shiro. Trying to finish your meta-achievement again?”
Shiro didn’t need to look at the warlock in his earthy robe with the poison green rune-like marks accenting it. After all, he had been one of the four he’s been waiting for.
“Well, one day I need to get lucky, right?”
Wabisuke chuckled with spite, which sounded like the undead would die for real at any moment.
“You got damn Ashes of Al’ar last week. What more do you want?”
“Fucking Arthas’ Gold Coin!”
Now the warlock laughed a lot harder, which – believe it or not – sounded even more concerning.
“What’s so funny?” rang an icy yet very neutral male voice through the air, before a female blood elf entered the scene, with blazing red hair and dressed in a deep red cloth armour resembling a robe which emitted sickening green light from the diamonds on its shoulder pads, belt and the collar reaching up over the hooded head.
“Evening, Hyorin. Just teasing Shiro.”
“Like hell you are, filthy corpse!” Wabisuke only laughed, despite the nickname.
“So just the usual.”
“Yes, just the usual.”
Shiro rolled his eyes at them as they fell into their casual boring How are things in your squad talk. It appeared to him, that this was the one topic all the others were eager to talk about first when they met. As if they couldn’t discuss such matters another time. But hey, at least that made three out of five if he included himself. Now the only ones missing were Senbonzakura and whoever the mysterious healer might be he promised to drag along.
The death knight proceeded fishing while ignoring his forming group and instead worried about who the new one could be. Hopefully not a newby. Naturally, he hated playing with newbies, especially newby healers. But he had no choice since his preferred healers weren’t available at the moment. Monkey was busy teaching her master a new technique, Suzumebachi angry cause Kazeshini overdid it again by wiping the group on purpose five times within ten minutes and he sure as hell wouldn’t let Senbonzakura heal him ever again, cause while the guy really knew almost everything about the game – especially lorewise – he was a freaking pain in the ass if you put him in the role of a healer not only because he would sit down every other step to consume mana like a drug addict. But to be honest, the cherry blossom spirit was even worse as a tank, always insisting on marking every single mob of every single group before pulling. The only thing he was actually good for, was damage. That he dealt like no one else, at least no one else Shiro knew. Yet, this didn’t solve his problem of who might be joining them tonight.
“Hey guys, sorry for the delay. We had to fix Sode’s sockets cause she accidentally mixed up the colours.”
Immediately switching his fishing rod for his axe Shadowmourne, Shiro was about to get a rage fit for Senbonzakura brought a literal noob to the party. But then the name of the aforementioned noob sank in.
Sode.
As in Sode no Shirayuki.
It made the death knight’s jaw drop. How on earth had Senbonzakura managed to pull that off?! He was unable to get a single word out, for one of his secret crushes only Ossan knew about was standing right here in front of him, in the midst of the world of World of Warcraft.
“Now look at that. Who would have guessed Zakura would bring you along,” Wabisuke acknowledged with a nod. Hyorinmaru greeted the two blood elf newcomers with a single word and a little bow.
“Y-Yeah, who would have guessed,” Shiro managed to mumble, while taking in the view. Senbonzakura was attending with his paladin – as expected – that looked rather similar to the real spirit with his long dark hair and bright skin tone, his armour polished till even the parts of it that usually wouldn’t shimmer had been turned into bling-bling. The gear of Sode no Shirayuki on the other hand was a wild mash-up of random items farmed in various dungeons. He still could identify her as a priest though. A very pretty female priest, as white as possible for any non-death knight blood elf.
“Sode, if I may introduce you to the rest of tonight’s group: here we have Wabisuke, Hyorinmaru and Shiro,” the paladin pointed at each of the other players as he said their names. Sode no Shirayuki’s eyes grew big when she looked at the other delicate female blood elf.
“Really, that is Hyorinmaru?!”
“Yes. I am.”
“Why would you play as a female character?”
“For- reasons…”
Shiro decided to throw him under the bus. “He didn’t know he could switch between male and female when he made his character.”
“And now he’s grown attached to her,” Wabisuke added and the other two experienced players simply nodded in silent agreement. The newcomer looked at the warlock.
“It’s not a surprise that you play an undead, though.”
“Of course. It’s closest to my natural posture.”
“I figured as much.” Then Sode no Shirayuki’s gaze moved to Shiro and lingered on him for a while.
“Why doesn’t Shiro ring a bell though? Could it be- Shiro is short for Toshiro? Is your wielder playing as well, Hyorinmaru?” While Hyorinmaru’s eyes widened in shock because of the thought, and Wabisuke started laughing again, Shiro’s heart almost dropped, before rage took over. Who did that damn pretty lady think she was talking to!? This statement alone was getting her so close to being kicked off his secret crush list.
“Oi, I’m not that little gremlin!”
“Then who are you?”
Senbonzakura answered faster than him, trying to calm everyone down. “You know Kurosaki Ichigo’s sword Zangetsu, right?”
“Yes.”
“Well, he is the Hollow part of it. We decided it’s easier to differentiate between them if we call him Shiro and the Quincy part Ossan, just like Kurosaki Ichigo does.”
“Wait, so that old man plays too?”
“Well yes. By the way, where is Ossan?”
Shiro snorted. “Somewhere in the Sholazar Basin camping for that spirit beast.”
“I thought he got it last month,” Hyorinmaru asked sending a confused gaze towards the death knight.
“Pf, yeah right. Some asshole killed it while he tried to tame it.”
Senbonzakura raised an eyebrow. “I heard that asshole was you.”
“So we’re up for farming Forge of Souls, Pit of Saron and Halls of Reflection tonight, right?”
“Oi, don’t change the topic, Shiro!”
“The Pit has some nice holy priest items, so we start with that instead of the Forge. She has done the prequests, right?”
“Well- yeah. At least the ones neccessary for Pit of Saron. But can we talk about-”
“Good~” as if Senbonzakura hadn’t said a thing aside from answering the question, Shiro fixated on Sode no Shirayuki, before speaking to her - ignoring Wabisukes chuckles and Hyorinmaru's half hidden grin as well. “I really hope you’ve practised healing in dungeons already. Otherwise, it’d only be a waste of time to run them with you.”
“Believe it or not, Hollow, I’ve gained quite some experience during levelling with Senbonzakura. He’s a great tank and I’m sure I can handle things unless you guys pull aggro.”
Death knight, warlock and mage exchanged worried glances. Then Wabisuke clarified. “But- our main tank is Shiro.”
“Not today,” Senbonzakura exclaimed proudly.
“Guess you’ll have to search for another warlock or whatever damage dealer then.”
“Same goes for me,” Hyorinmaru stated and Shiro just smirked broadly when he saw the paladin’s distorted face.
“B-But why?” He got an ice-cold reply.
“Shiro is way more efficient.”
“Hyorin is right. And he keeps the aggro no matter what we do. Like, honestly, he never loses it.”
“It’s just cause he has ICC twenty-five heroic gear!”
Another frosty answer came his way. “It’s because he has the skill and you don’t.”
“Again, Hyorin is right. No one tanks like Shiro. And if he’s not our tank tonight, then I’m out.” As if to underline his point the undead moved a step closer to Shiro. So did the red-haired blood elf.
“Me too.”
“Aw, aren’t you guys sweet~” Shiro bumped his elbows into the ribs of both cloth wearers. Thanks to his plate armour it must have hurt cause they stepped away a bit again.
Sode no Shirayuki’s eyes shifted from player to player as they spoke, obviously wondering what was going on. “I don’t understand. You make it sound as if Senbonzakura isn’t a good tank.”
“Cause he isn’t,” the death knight said confidently.
“Oh, but a lowly Hollow like you is?”
“If you don’t believe it, lil snow queen, let me show you the difference.”
Ten minutes later they were not only standing inside the dungeon called Pit of Saron but had already slayed the first two bosses. To the priests’ disappointment, they had dropped only plate armour, so nothing she could use. Which only added to Shiro’s amusement. She didn’t deserve it any other way for thinking he was that shrimp of a so-called captain.
They had just finished looting and Sode no Shirayuki had resurrected Hyorinmaru for the second time in the dungeon and was now handing out her buffs again. Honestly, Shiro hadn’t expected anything else, from Hyorinmaru, and neither did Wabisuke nor Senbonzakura. Because while Shiro’s skills in all things protecting his group were hard to match, he really couldn’t do anything against the other’s inability to move out of the way when needed and Ick was almost always the death of the flaming cloth wearer. And he didn’t even know how the mage managed to die at Forgemaster Garfrost a few minutes ago.
However, as the warlock turned Frostweave Cloth into Bolt of Frostweave to make new space in his inventory, death knight and mage were about to attack the next group, when-
“Wait! Sode needs mana!” The scream of the paladin made Shiro stop in his tracks just in time before he got too close to the next mob group.
“What, again!?” It was too late though for the Pyro Blast Hyorinmaru had sent their way already and hit home with a blazing smash, drawing the attention onto him.
“Ups.”
Wabisuke just shook his head. “Ups. Yeah right. We all know how much of an ups that was, Hyorin.”
“Who cares, corpse? Charge!” And with a maniacal laugh Shiro jumped right into the approaching group, throwing his Death and Decay underneath them before spreading his plagues and smashing Icy Touch on each and every one of them to bind them entirely to him. Seconds later Wabisuke and his hell-hound companion joined Hyorinmaru’s flaming bombardment, while Senbonzakura remained at Sode no Shirayuki’s side to protect the still mana-drinking priest from any enemy, that may come her way. An unnecessary effort, because Shiro would rather die than lose the aggro of even a single mob. And simply because he could, he jumped right to the next group before the current one was down, triggering the event that would lead them uphill to the actual fun part of the dungeon.
Barely two minutes passed before they stood at the entrance of the cave filled with icicles and Shiro turned to Sode no Shirayuki once more to explain the rules like he had done before every boss so far.
“So, Queenie, this one’s an easy one since it’s not a boss, and you listen as well Hyorin! I know what a movement retard you are!” The announcement made the fire-mage look to the side mumbling something of the likes I am the strongest ice type Zanpakuto and for that can’t die because of ice. Wabisuke hit Hyorinmaru’s back of the head. “It’s not working like that, and you know it, Hyorin!”
“Back to you, Queenie. You see those bright blue circles appearing on the floor every so often? That’s where icicles will fall down and you don’t want to be hit by them for multiple reasons. So just run around them or, if they only just appeared, right through them cause it takes a few secs till they fall. In the middle of this tunnel is a platform, there we’ll gather and kill all the mobs I collected on our way there. Afterwards, we’ll run till the end of the tunnel where we repeat that game. Got it?”
Sounds of approval rang through the air.
“Good, then move your asses and stay behind me,” leaving them no time to respond again, Shiro entered the tunnel. Icy clouds filled the air, only broken by heavy snowflakes that rained down from where the icicles could break off any second. Like a lightning, he shot forward, his steps more like jumps than actual steps, and threw an attack at every enemy the moment he came into range. He had almost reached the platform in the middle of the tunnel when-
“Hyorin’s dead!” Was shouted by the undead warlock.
“Of fucking course he is…” Shiro mumbled placing a Death and Decay on the platform, wishing Monkey with her druid would be with them to battle rezz Hyorinmaru and save time. But then again, knowing Monkey she would only laugh and taunt him before leaving the fire mage lying on the floor like a rag. It was just the kind of healer she was. And so it was upon him to kill the mobs with the support of Senbonzakura and Wabisuke, since Sode no Shirayuki wasn’t good for anything, except for-
“Sode, rezz him!”
“Rezz?”
“Resurrect! Get him back to his feet! Rip him out of-”
“Ok ok, I got it! But I can’t resurrect him in the midst of battle, genius!” Rolling his eyes, because he wasn’t an oblivious idiot, Shiro snapped back at her.
“I know that, but we won’t be infight for long! So smash that button the moment we’re off-fight before the next mob group appears. Which will be in three, two, one-”
“I can’t resurrect him. I don’t have enough mana!”
“What!? Why!? You just drank!” And he just remembered why he hated newbies. Especially newby healers. Especially especially those without acceptable gear. Their mana management was just the worst!
“I needed to heal too much!”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I’m sure you didn’t need to cast a single spell, cause I have more than enough self-heal.”
“Well, you’re not the problem, Hollow! But Wabisuke is! Say, why are you close to death all the time?!” The priest shouted at the warlock who just giggled like a maniac, making the paladin angry too cause like Shiro he knew damn well what was going on.
“For fucks sake, Wabisuke, stop using Life Tab all the time!”
“But I don’t want to waste my mana potions.”
“Hyorinmaru gave us his magical bread and water, so you don’t have to waste yours!”
“You don’t really think I’d take this crap, Zakura.”
“You kidding?!”
“Besides, my inventory is filled to the brim. No space for shit like that.”
Senbonzakura’s next words were drowned by the scream of the skeleton Shiro pulled close with Death Grip, almost hitting the two damage dealers with it before he smacked his two-hand-axe into the pile of bones.
“Focus assholes! Wabisuke, if you use another Life Tab in this tunnel I swear I fucking kill you myself. Sode, you use Arcane Torennt the moment it’s ready.”
“But why would I silence my enemies?”
“It gives you mana back too, in case smartass Cherry Blossom didn’t tell you,” another strike and the skeleton was down. A blue circular lightwave formed around the priest for a second as she used the aforementioned ability while Shiro saw the next mob group running their way. He still proceeded with his explanation. “I’ll collect the trash again. You girls stay here and when I come back we’ll kill them with everything we’ve got, so that you, Queenie, will have time to get Hyorin back right afterwards. Got it?”
Said and done. Another two minutes later the group of five ran towards the exit of the tunnel, with Shiro running only so fast that he could see every single one of Hyorinmaru’s movements while the death knight collected the mobs. Hell, he even stopped to make the mage stop as well, whenever a light blue glowing rune circle would spawn too close to him. Eventually, they reached the platform where Scourgelord Tyrannus, the end boss, would await them alongside his frost wyrm Rimefang.
While waiting till everyone had full mana again, Shiro explained the boss mechanics for Sode no Shirayuki. “So this one has his frost wyrm as his helper, but Tyrannus is the main target. The flying bone bag is dealing AoE damage, so we spread out across the entire platform. Overlord’s Brand doesn’t affect you as a healer, but anyone who gets it needs to stop attacking cause the dealt damage will be reflected onto the tank, aka me. The next ability is Mark of Rimefang, which will lead to the dragon blasting Hoarfrost at you. You better run away in case you’re too close to others cause it’ll not only stun you in an icicle but also other nearby players. The second ability the dragon throws at us would be Icy Blast. AoE that deals a nasty amount of frost damage at the impact and leaves a snowy area that’ll slow everyone in it down, plus it deals damage over time.”
“That is a lot already,” the priest interrupted.
“Oh, that’s not all. He also builds up Unholy Power, which increases his damage by seventy-five per cent.”
“T-That much?”
“It’s nothing and easy to counter since he’ll be a lot slower too. So I’ll just use Icebound Fortitude whenever needed and also start to kite him around to make your life easier. I just tell you the details, so you’re prepared in case you end up with some noob like Zakura as your next tank in here.”
“I’m not a noob, Shiro, and you know it!”
“Yeah yeah, whatever Cherry Blossom. Any questions so far, Queenie?”
“Not really, no.”
“Good. Then let’s start. And everyone, remember: keep away from Hyorin 'cause he’s too stupid to move.”
After an unnecessarily long monologue from the boss, the fight finally began. As usual Shiro, Wabisuke and Senbonzakura moved according to the tactics, avoiding every attack just perfectly. Sode no Shirayuki wasn’t doing a bad job either. And Hyorinmaru- well he at least tried like he always did. At one point Sode no Shirayuki screamed at the warlock again, that she’d stop to heal him if he kept on almost dying cause of exchanging health points for mana via Life Tab especially since she had enough to do with keeping the fire-mage alive in this battle. The next thing they knew was Wabisuke running her way as he was targeted by Rimefang, making the badly equipped healer explode only seconds later. Not that he survived it either thanks to his too-low life bar, but he screamed a loud and clear Worth it! before he bit the dust. Or rather: ice. Without a healer it didn’t take much time till Hyorinmaru was dead as well thanks to his non-existent movement skills, leaving only Senbonzakura and Shiro standing.
“Why does it always end like this with you guys?” the paladin complained at the death knight’s heels as Shiro started kiting the boss again.
“Oh come one, Cherry Blossom. It’s just some crazy fun, isn’t it?”
“You and I have very different definitions of fun, Shiro.”
“We both know you enjoyed it too when Kaze and Snake fell off that cliff when they were too focused on their quarrelling.”
“Course I did! They’re both idiots and deserved it. But Sode is new, so how about being a bit more thoughtful?”
“Hey, in case you haven’t noticed I’ve been thoughtful the whole dungeon, 'cause I didn’t pull the whole dungeon at once!”
“You may have but Wabisuke wasn’t! And he didn’t even put his Soulstone on her but on you!”
“Well, someone has to test her abilities.”
“Wait- so does that mean he did it cause you ordered him to do so?”
“Who knows, maybe,” was the answer that came with a big smirk.
“Shiro, you damn asshole!”
With that, they turned back to the boss again, whose buff had run out, and hit him with everything they got. Repeating this game over the next three minutes or so, they managed to beat him thanks to their self-heal abilities and Senbonzakura started to resurrect the others while Shiro took a look at the loot. This time fate worked in favour of their priest since the trinket had dropped, which of course was handed to the newest player of the group.
“Thank you…” the healer said a bit ashamed, probably because she had died.
“Don’t sweat it, Queenie. You’ll soon learn that everyone in the guild is an ass in one way or another and how to come back at them.”
“Guild? You guys have a guild too?”
“What do you mean, we have one too? We have the guild for Zanpakuto. Basically, every sword spirit who plays the game is a part of it, and we’re about to enter the ranks of the big player guilds soon,” Shiro explained and Sode no Shirayuki glared at Senbonzakura.
“Really? How come you never mentioned those details when you invited me to The Kuchiki-Clan?”
“Well, ahm- you see-”
Wabisuke rolled his eyes. “Shit, Zakura! Are you still upset about the fact, that we all voted to keep Shiro as the guild leader when you questioned him?”
“You all know I’d be a better one! Or at least take Ossan!”
The death knight sighed in annoyance since this topic seemingly came up every other week. “Ossan by far doesn’t play as much as a guild leader should. Besides, he is my second in command, so what more do you want?”
“I demand another vote!”
“If you insist, you can bring it up again at the next guild meeting in two weeks or so.”
“I demand it now!”
Hyorinmaru raised his hand. “I vote Shiro.”
So did Wabisuke. “Me too. Shiro’s the best.”
Before Senbonzakura could vote against him, Sode no Shirayuki imitated the other two’s gesture. “I vote for him as well, but only if I’m allowed to join.”
The paladin’s jaw dropped and Shiro’s smirk grew even bigger than it had in the face of his fellow players' loyalty.
“Sure thing, Queenie~” he hummed. “Just leave that no-name guild you’re currently in and I invite you right here and now.”
“Sode, you’re not really going to-” Senbonzakura’s face was distorted by shock when the guild name vanished from underneath Sode no Shirayuki’s player name.
“I left.”
“No!”
“Sent you an invite.”
“You can’t seriously jo-”
“And accepted.”
The new guild name appeared where the old one had been not only a minute ago, lighting up the priest's eyes with joy, which not only filled Shiro’s heart with joy as well but also made him make a mental note to not throw her off his secret crush list.
“Hehe. Welcome to The inner World, Queenie.”
“Thanks for having me. Are there any rules?”
“Nah. Just spread chaos and have fun doing so. And if anyone dares to bully you, bully them back or tell me and I’ll do it for you, till you’ve settled in.”
“Alright. So, what’s up next?”
Shiro glanced at his fellow players one after the other. “Well, as I said earlier, you’d profit from quite a few items that could drop in here. So, I’d say we do a couple more rounds, before we switch to Forge of Souls or Halls of Reflection. Besides, I don’t want to overload your pretty brain with too many new mechanics.”
A staff hit Shiro’s face. Hard. “Be careful, Hollow, and don’t you ever underestimate my receptivity again.”
The death knight only mustered an evil giggle as he rubbed his forehead. “I like that attitude, still, let’s make sure those mechanics will be burned right into your subconsciousness. Any objections to rerunning Pit of Saron?”
None of the likes was raised. “Good~ let’s make you an acceptably equipped healer then.”
The five of them ended up doing four more runs, with the last two only killing Ick since the damn belt refused to drop. But then it was done and Sode no Shirayuki had everything the heroic version of Pit of Saron had to offer for her – hell, even a Battered Hilt dropped and Senbonzakura immediately offered the priest to help her with the quests it would trigger. Which she declined to ask for the death knight’s assistance instead – which was of course granted to her.
All in all, Sode no Shirayuki had been doing pretty well, better with every run, and Shiro had to acknowledge her fast learning abilities. They made him excited for what was about to come in the next dungeons and hopefully soon in her first raids. Because yes, naturally he hated playing with newbies, but every once in a while, there were exceptions to that rule. And The inner World’s newest member, Sode no Shirayuki, happened to be one of them.