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“Yo, Sunraku!” came a loud voice from the entryway, having had her own key to the place for quite a bit of time now. “You here?!”
“Yeah!” he responded from upstairs, and the woman heard some cluttering from above. She let out a light laugh as she watched her boyfriend barrel down the stairs with a smile on her face. “What’s up, Pencilgon?”
…Yes. Her boyfriend.
“...How long are you gonna call each other by your in-game names?” Sunraku’s mother asked from the kitchen with a fond sigh. “I know you two met on one of those…”
“Trash games?” Towa teased, and Sunraku only rolled his eyes playfully.
“Yeah, those,” she laughed with a light wave of her knife. “Well, anyways, I know you two met on them, but don’t you think it’ll be time for you to refer to each other more…I don’t know. Personally?”
“Mom!” He flushed red at the idea, though clearly not out of opposition to it. The two of them had already called each other by their given names before. It was just…
“That’d be my call,” Towa chuckled as she grabbed onto his arm and planted a kiss on his cheek. “It’s cute, isn’t it? I like being able to call him that.”
“Kids these days, I guess,” she gave in with a shrug. “Well, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!”
As Towa and Rakuro both finished up the conversation as they normally would have, the two of them started to make their way upstairs. The two of them were both planning on chugging through more of Towa’s debt, because not even selling off the Tome of Truth for Wethermon could get through it all.
(In other words, Towa gave Rakuro her best cutesy eyes and he just couldn’t help but refuse. Of course, they worked. Not just because the two of them were together, but also because she was freaking AMANE TOWA, THANK YOU VERY MUCH.)
“I’m shocked I’m not hearing Rumi-chan fawn all over me again,” Towa lightheartedly remarked as the two of them walked up to Rakuro’s room.
“Well, I hope the two of them have fun,” Eika hummed as she went back to her cooking. Right now, she was currently making sure that Rumi had something to eat when she came back from her part-time gig. Ever since Rakuro and Towa had started dating, Rumi had been overcome with an even greater desire than before to become better at modeling. Helped when Towa herself was willing to help Rumi and give her tips here and there.
Though…if she had any say in it, she would’ve liked her daughter to spend just a little less time on her modeling and just a little more time on her studying. Not that her grades were bad! Just that she wanted her daughter to have options in the future instead of being potentially pigeonholed into only one or two.
RING! RING!
Eika was knocked out of her thoughts by the doorbell ringing, which was…odd, to say the least. Senji was still supposed to be out of the house for at least a few hours for his fishing trip. Rumi was accounted for. So was Rakuro. And, of course, Towa was here now. So who could it be?
As she walked to the door, she was naturally wary. So, peering through the peephole, she saw a tall woman with messy brown hair in a tracksuit. Her face was sharp, and she had a clear ambition in her eyes. That said, it didn’t seem like she was threatening or potentially harmful.
Hesitantly, she opened the door just enough to let her head through, and she looked at the tall woman.
“Is Towa-chan here?” the woman got straight to the point, her arms crossed and her voice certain, blunt but not impolite.
“...Uh…who are you, if you don’t mind me asking?” Eika asked. She knew that her son had made quite a few friends online, and she’d also gotten to know the look of a few of them. Pro gamers, models, martial artists. Apparently, he’d even made friends with the local video game store owner, whose husband was also a bigwig at a big video game company or something like that? It was all a lot for her to wrap her head around.
But that was neither here nor there. Right now, what she was focused on was the woman in front of her, who seemed to be staring with the most intense gaze she’d seen somebody wear in a while, perhaps more intense than when her husband had vowed to catch a fish that’d gotten away from him.
“Oh, sorry,” the woman seemed to soften up. “I’m one of her friends, and I’m pretty sure I saw her walk in here a few minutes ago.”
Eika still seemed a little wary at this. After all, she very well could be lying. Towa was, in fact, one of the world’s greatest supermodels right now. Sure, she didn’t have any love contract or anything like that which would’ve prevented her relationship with Rakuro, but she wanted to make sure that she could have a private life of her own, away from the cameras.
She cleared her throat before lying straight through her teeth, “Uh, no, we haven’t had any visitors today. Sorry about that.”
The stranger seemed unconvinced for a moment, but eventually gave up, “...Must’ve been seeing things. My bad.”
Then, she turned around, and Eika found herself ready to relax for a moment and close the door. Letting out a silent sigh, she put her head back through the door and–
“THAT WAS EVIL, PENCILGON!”
“I HAVE TO CLEAR THIS DEBT SOMEHOW!”
“BY PICKPOCKETING A HOMELESS MAN?! HOW LOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY STOOP?! HE ONLY HAD FIFTY MAHNI ON HIM!”
“AND THAT FIFTY IS GOING STRAIGHT TO MY DEBT! IT’S FOR A GOOD CAUSE!”
“A WHAT?!”
…
“...”
“...”
“There is one person who I know that could possibly be called Pencilgon who would act like that in a game,” the stranger turned back around, and she grabbed the door and held it for a moment before it closed. “And I don’t know why she’s playing SLF here instead of her own home. Wanna make sure she’s okay.”
“...Well, I guess if you know that Towa-chan is Pencilgon in the game, then you two are actually friends…I guess it’s not an issue if you come in?” Eika compromised, giving a sheepish apologetic look to the woman. “Can I at least have your name, though?”
The stranger complimented eventually, “...I appreciate that you’re taking care of her and making sure that not just anybody gets to see her. Saiga. Saiga Momo.”
“Hizutome Eika!” Eika chirped back at her, opening the door for her. “I’m glad that Towa-chan has friends that care about her like this!”
As Momo walked in, Eika directed her to where Towa would be, and the brown-haired woman nodded curtly before making her way up.
You’re going to tell me just what you’ve been up to, Towa-chan.
“I do not think Aniki Vash would approve of this conduct,” Sunraku stated matter-of-factly. “As an honorary citizen of Rabituza with a vorpal soul, I cannot condone this.” He watched as the diversion that drew away the fruit vendor from his stall kept on going before turning his attention back to his girlfriend, who was happily grabbing away at the unattended fruits, planning to sell them at exorbitant prices to desperate travelers.
“Shut up about your vorpal soul already and help me grab this!” Pencilgon instructed, and like the good boyfriend he was, he helped her grab this.
“Ma’am, yes, Ma’am,” he saluted. “The forums are going to hate this one.”
“Seeing that the two of us are together? That was established the moment that Wolfgang became a thing, y’know,” Pencilgon remarked.
“No, no, that you’re finally roping me into your shenanigans,” Sunraku scoffed, his tone negative. However, Pencilgon could tell. There was some glee hidden deep down in there, some sort of mischievous excitement in his voice that made his admonishment all meaningless. Perhaps if they’d met earlier, he might’ve joined her on her tyrannic rule in United Rounds, but alas, fate drew them together in this manner instead.
“Now imagine if it got out that the two of us were together together? I think people would start throwing fits just seeing me,” Sunraku snorted, already imagining it. The idea that somebody would get a look at him, and like many others had done to Pencilgon before, instantly start paying much closer attention to their possessions, their stock of healing items, even eyeing the possibility of logging out entirely.
“More than they already do?” Pencilgon teased, having filled her bag to the brim with fruit at this point and signalling Sunraku to escape with her. She laughed at the sigh that he let out in response, which was fair. Being a celebrity in SLF was much different than being one in a trash game like BERP. The amount of sneaking around and trekking around in alleyways was something Sunraku had gotten used to horrifyingly fast.
Though…she supposed that it must’ve been natural for him, as he’d essentially started out a celebrity the moment he’d gotten Lycagon’s marking and Emul’s companionship. Pencilgon vividly remembered having to grind her way to infamy, reaching the peak of fame on a mountain of corpses instead, and her fame gave her easy access to walking in the open with people typically avoiding her, instead of Sunraku’s fame causing people to seek him out all the time.
She supposed it was fine for him to do that, though, considering how the situation for her was the exact opposite in real life. Well, it was a worthwhile tradeoff. Being adored in public, being feared in-game? Definitely an odd scenario.
Well, either way…
As the two of them made their escape, they heard the strained howl of despair behind them, no doubt from the fruit vendor who’d come back to see his entire stock gone with no apparent sign of who the culprits could’ve been. Great thing he didn’t see either of them, too, otherwise their reputation in the town might’ve taken a malicious hit.
“What’s our next job, boss?!” Sunraku cackled as he soared over the roofs. If Pencilgon’s antics made him any more unhinged, he might’ve just brought out one of Wethermon’s robots and used it to make a grand escape. Of course, she would definitely get on his ass for risking leaking unique information, but that was (partially) besides the point.
“Find another sucker!” Pencilgon laughed as she sprinted through the streets. “Think we can get anyone in Eighthold?”
“You bet we can!” Sunraku guffawed in response, landing gracefully on the ground and sprinting alongside her.
“You two seem like you’re having fun. Right, Towa-chan?”
“We sure ar–HUH?!” Pencilgon confirmed before realizing that the voice she was hearing was not anybody in Rakuro’s family, and instead somebody she personally knew instead. With unfathomable speed that might as well have risked damaging her headset, she ripped it off and came face-to-face with none other than one of her IRL friends. In the flesh, not just over call or in-game.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE, MOMO-CHAN?!” She shrieked, and at the sounds, Rakuro also logged out as fast as he could. Which was, of course, much slower than Pencilgon’s due to the fact that his setup was much better than before, having gotten the same industry-grade tech that pro gamers were using. He couldn’t risk damaging it like that. Well, that and the fact that Towa’s fame made it so she could probably throw out any VR headset she was using after each use and just buy a new one.
“Uh…who are you? And why are you in my home?” Sunraku looked wary, but didn’t feel threatened. After all, Towa didn’t seem like she was fearful of the intrusion in a “Oh, I’m in danger” way, but instead a “Why are you HERE?!” sort of way.
“Oh, sorry, the person who I’m pretty sure is your mom let me in,” the woman explained. “Now, who is he?”
Sunraku furrowed his eyebrows, but just decided to answer, “Hizuto–”
“Ah!” The woman interrupted him, turning her attention to Towa. “Towa-chan. You explain.”
She looked a little conflicted, confusing Rakuro for a moment. The informality let him know that they were probably friends, and the fact that Towa had recognized her and didn’t feel threatened alongside that might’ve meant that she might’ve mentioned him before, if not outright stated that they were together.
Eventually, though, she did speak up with joy in her voice, “Oh, he’s my boyfriend, Rakuro! The one I told you about, y’know, Hizutome Rakuro!” She got up from his bed and walked over to him, where he’d still been sitting in his super high-tech setup.
The woman, Momo something or whatever based on what Towa had said, quirked an eyebrow before finally introducing herself with a smirk, “Oh, so you’re the guy that Towa-chan’s mentioned so much! Nice to finally put a face to it. I’m Saiga Momo.”
Saiga…Hmm…That seems a little familiar…don’t I know somebody with that name? Yet again, Rakuro failed to recall something that wasn’t directly related to a trash game. Shame.
Momo continued with a smirk, “And I’ve heard so much about you from Towa-chan, you know.” She gave Rakuro a look that made him instantly understand why her and Towa were friends. That sort of mischievousness combined with a delight in somebody else suffering was something that she must’ve learned from Towa.
“Oh, really?” He leaned forward in his seat, an excited look on his face. “Like what, pray tell?”
“You do NOT need to know that, Su–Rakuro! How I talk about you to others remains private, thank you!” Towa exclaimed, but not before switching over to his real name, which confused him even more than when she’d looked conflicted before.
…Why would that be, though? If she’d just said his player name like she normally would, it’d be a simple matter of explaining that it comes from his username in-game. It can’t be the case that video games were a foreign concept to whoever Momo was, considering how it was one of Towa’s bigger hobbies. If anything, the two of them might’ve played together on a game or something.
(Thus, with the ability to miss the point of somebody who would stick to their point despite all the evidence pointing to the contrary, Rakuro failed to connect that very last dot.)
“What, is it something bad?” He teased, confident that she wouldn’t be like that. Despite how evil she liked to be in-game, he wouldn’t think that Towa would be the type of person to engage in actually negative gossip like that, especially circumventing her own relationship like that. He’d like to think he knew his girlfriend well enough at this point in time to confidently say that, when it came to actual love, she would be more than willing to properly communicate instead of engage in things like that.
“No, no, she talks about you with this light in her eyes that she’s never talked about anyone with before,” Momo explained, and Rakuro watched with rapt eyes as Towa’s face started to turn redder and redder. He oh so loved the look of a blush on her face, and how much more beautiful it made her in his eyes.
“Oh, do tell!” Rakuro hummed happily, and the only thing that was overtaking his joy of Towa’s reaction was the happiness flowing in his chest with how much joy he brought her.
“Well, if you’re asking, then how about how she thinks you’re the sweetest person ever and how she–MMPH!” Momo started explaining, but got interrupted by a fully red-faced Towa, who’d slapped her hand over Momo’s mouth to shut her up. “MM MM MPPM MMP PMPMMMH!”
(That roughly translated to “GET YOUR HAND OFF ME!”)
“We DON’T have to talk about that!” Towa assured, reminiscent of the tone she had when she first had to admit that she felt sentimental towards Setsuna in SLF. “What I say about Rakuro is between US!”
“Fine, fine,” Momo gave in, thoroughly satisfied with the reaction she’d gotten from her. “Well, now that I know why you’re here instead of your own place…you two were playing SLF, right?”
“Eh? How’d you know?” Rakuro tilted his head, a little confused for a moment.
“...You were yelling so loud about stealing mahni from a homeless man that I could hear it from outside your home,” Momo deadpanned, and the two of them had the decency to look a little embarrassed at that. “That, and also because there’s only one person who I know who’d go by Pencilgon and steal from the homeless in a game.”
“It isn’t stealing, it’s being opportunistic of somebody’s lack of attention,” Towa countered.
Rakuro, however, was much more open about it, “No, it’s stealing.”
“Either way!” Towa moved along. “Yeah, he’s helping me chug along on my debt!”
The fact that she looked as proud as she did when talking about her debt would’ve made most people repulsed, but her two companions could only look at her with some sort of fondness and exasperation at the same time. Same old Towa.
“...There’s no way that’s going well if you’re stealing literal pennies.”
“Well,” Rakuro admitted. “That one was more for her fun than actually getting rid of the debt. Thank God there’s no interest being accrued here.”
“Hey, 50 mahni is 50 mahni. Are you too good to pick up a penny off the street?” Towa countered, as if she didn’t have enough wealth that she basically was too good to pick up a penny off the street.
Another look of affectionate exasperation.
“So, how ‘bout you, then?” Momo looked at Rakuro, slightly interested. “How long have you been playing?” It wasn’t often that she would directly look into this, but if he was playing with Towa, it was probably pretty likely that he wasn’t too shabby when it came to playing video games. Despite not being on the level of pros, she was definitely a high-level player, so trusting Sunraku to commit these…heinous acts, to say the least, was likely a sign that he was probably solid.
“Eh, only about three months or so,” Rakuro admitted, and Momo deflated a bit at that. That probably meant that he wasn’t super high-level, especially considering how the game had already been out for over a year longer than he’d been playing. If she had to wager a guess, she would’ve guessed that he would’ve been about in the mid-50s or mid-60s at best, and that was being generous.
There’s no way that he’d be able to help me hunt Lycagon down in his current state, she deduced from that.
Hmm.
Still, it couldn’t hurt to ask around. The more help she got, the better.
“You ever think about joining a clan?” Momo suggested. “They’re pretty good for people who haven’t been playing too long.” That was true for anyone, even beyond her ambition. Even though her clan was dedicated to Lycagon, it wasn’t like she neglected newbies. In fact, what could possibly be a better way to get high-level talent to fight uniques than to cultivate them herself?
“He’s not interested in joining any clans right now!” Towa interrupted as she sat down on his bed again.
A little too quickly.
Momo raised an eyebrow as she interrogated, “...Why? He already in one?”
“Uh…why are you the one speaking for me, Towa?” Rakuro asked, a light blush from saying her first name like that. That said, if she didn’t feel like saying his gamertag, then he wouldn’t be the one to mess things up.
“Don’t worry about it!” She sent a look his way that told him to temporarily shut the fuck up, there was something going on that he didn’t get and he needed to let her take care of this, God damn it!
Towa turned back to Momo, doing her best to keep things under wraps right now as she explained, “Just isn’t the type of person to be bound by clan things.” That was technically true. She knew damn well that, even though she was literally his clan leader, there was nothing that she could reasonably do to stop Rakuro from having fun in his own way in games.
“Got yourself a wild one?” Momo teased, and Towa blushed a little bit at that.
BZZT! BZZT!
“Huh? Oh, that’s mine,” Rakuro hummed as he pulled out his phone. “Got a message from Katzo-kun, Towa.”
…Katzo-kun? Momo thought. …Towa-chan definitely has an odd taste in the people she interacts with.
She did not for a moment think that she could be included in that group of odd people.
Rakuro kept going as he read the message out loud to himself, “Blah blah blah, that doesn’t matter…Oh, here: ‘Didn’t you say that Animalia figured out how to track Lycagon’s spawn or something? Why don’t you just ask her for that stuff and just let her hang around Emul for like an hour in exchange? That sounds like it’d be mad easy, Sunraku.’...Yeah, not gonna lie, that’s not a bad idea…Plus, it’d be a good idea to get rid of the Contusion. But Aniki Vash was talking about the other curse with the snakes, so maybe…”
Slap!
Rakuro got knocked out of his fervor and looked up to see Towa hit the most absurd facepalm he’d ever seen in his life. Despite being the most beautiful person ever (No, not just in the public eye, but specifically to Rakuro), that level of impact was hard enough that it might knocked her down to second…right behind Towa pre-facepalm. Or maybe it made her more beautiful. She was really pretty.
“Uh, what happened?! You good?!” Rakuro got up to sit next to Towa and make sure she was okay.
“You idiot,” Towa hissed in only a way that she could, filled both with love, resentment, frustration, and affection all at once. It was like calling him her idiot, in a way.
“Huh?” He blinked, before she just pointed with her free hand (the other one was still on her face) at the other person in the room. Momo. Who looked incredibly interested now.
“What’s up?” Rakuro tilted his head, still a bit confused.
“...It appears I didn’t quite introduce myself properly,” Momo smirked as she pulled up Sunraku’s chair and sat down on it, right across from where Sunraku and Pencilgon were. “I’m Saiga Momo. My player name in SLF is Psyger-100.”
Sunraku’s face blanched in terror as he finally understood why Pencilgon was acting the way that she was. The intimidation factor that was oozing out of Psyger-100 right now made him really think about how he might prefer fighting all of the Seven Colossi right now instead of be where he was right now.
“The…” he gulped, and she nodded.
“The leader of Schwarzer Vulf,” Psyger-100 confirmed with a predatory smirk on her face. “And I know all about you, Sunraku.”
She turned to Pencilgon, her smirk intensifying as she hummed, “Now, Towa-chan…you didn’t tell me that your boyfriend is the only person to have been part of the takedown of two Colossi…and you certainly didn’t tell me that your boyfriend has the most progress and information on Lycagon in the world out of all the players…”
Sunraku urgently whispered to Pencilgon, “Can we run?”
She shook her head, “She’s way too athletic in person. We’d never escape.”
Psyger-100 let out a malicious laugh, “You know me so well, Towa-chan. Now…”
Sunraku gulped.
“You’re going to tell me everything you know.”
The shriek that Sunraku let out soon afterwards was one so guttural that, even in-game, his vorpal soul grew in response to the hardship he’d faced.
Omake: Anti-Vorpal Soul
“Uh…Sunraku-san?” Emul blinked. “...Is there any reason why you and this…companion of yours are holding hands?” She looked at the purple-haired woman, who was brimming with a certain energy to her.
The two of them shared a look with each other, having a moment of confusion for a moment before the realization struck them both at the same time.
“Ohhhhh, we forgot to tell her!” Pencilgon hummed. “I was thinking that there was something we were forgetting to do!”
She turned to Emul with a smile on her face and declared proudly, “Yeah, Sunraku and I are together! Like, together together!”
“...Together together…?” Emul asked, not quite getting the hint.
Sunraku cleared his throat, ready to explain it the best way he could to somebody like Emul, “Think of it as…well…what Aramis wants his relationship with Bilac to be.”
That seemed to get the gears turning, as a look of astonishment started to grace Emul’s features.
Then, her jaw dropped, “Sunraku-san…”
“Yes, my dear Emul?” Sunraku posed with that smug smirk that he had on at times, the smirk that he sometimes had, like when he bragged to Oikatzo about whatever unique thing he’d had going on at the time.
“...Could you have not chosen your mate to be somebody with more…vorpal soul?” Emul questioned with a wary tone, as though she hadn’t encountered Pencilgon numerous times already.
“What do you mean, Emul?” Sunraku prompted.
“...Do you not see the evil energy radiating off of her? It’s as though she has an…anti-vorpal soul.”
At that, Sunraku couldn’t help but laugh his ass off, only to promptly be PK’d by his very own girlfriend.
Omake: Ol’ Reliable
“Man, you still can’t find your own uniques, Oikatzo?”
“I am going to kill you.”