———Orrel———

  <2: 12 pm>

  “Some of you even doubled in strength. Obviously in the grander scheme of things it isn’t the biggest boost you could’ve gotten, and why are you two slowing down?” Rico said, sounding both impressed and disappointed.

  “Hey. In terms of gain I am only a little behind. And you’ve pyed RPGs, right? It’s impressive, all things considered.” Karra quickly interjected.

  “This isn’t a game, you know?” Rico said with an expression she rarely gave out, a disappointed, if also slightly hostile gre. It’s weird that she seems to be offended by a joke. She barely paid any mind to insults, let alone jokes. “Alrighty! Let’s do some tests to see how you guys are after the break. If you do worse somehow, I will strangle you to death!”

  ———Karra———

  <6: 17 pm>

  “Never asked you this before, but you have some dirt on Rico, right?.” It’s kinda dumb of me to not bring it up. Maybe I got a bit too desensitized to the obvious red fgs since she is around.

  “Not exactly the best phrasing, is it.” She sarcastically replied. “But yeah. I got some. Better to not talk about it though.”

  “...That bad?” If even she isn’t willing to talk about it, then I won’t. “Is it seriously on the same level as the full story on why Mythical Eclipse even happened?”

  “I wouldn’t go that far, but it is personal info. She’s hiding it, so I won’t share.” Wiina answered with a clear adamant tone.

  So much for that. Guess I’ll just have to figure that out down the line. I still don’t know why the school turned into what it is, and some of the kinks of all the changes raining down on the world.

  I have plenty of time to figure that out. It’s about stuff that already happened. And I’m sure Wiina would’ve told me any information that is very important. Like a ‘how not to die’ guide.

  She probably already insinuated a few things to make sure I wouldn’t act out foolishly. It’s always the small throwaway line that holds some of the biggest implications. The words added at the end that you couldn’t fully figure out without a pretty good memory.

  If I remember right, Wiina has a pretty damn good memory. She should be able to figure out all the little details in a conversation like she is pying a visual novel.

  Feel like if I had something like that I could figure out a lot of stuff on my own, but that is simply not the case, so let’s not mope over that particur detail.

  *Click* *Tap* *Tap*

  “Can you at least tell me if she was like this before or after the Eclipse.” That would tell a lot without being too explicit.

  “Before.” She said casually while in the middle of her gaming session.

  Now that… Hmm… Would that mean the rumors are completely accurate and her and Wana are… That’s really a lot to think about. “What about her power compared to yours?”

  “She’ll have a hard time killing me.” …So she can do it. That’s a bit concerning, even if it sounds like that scenario shouldn’t happen. I mean, I feel like that conflict would’ve started a long time ago if there’s any real malice on both sides.

  How many powerful beings even exist out there? Are there some sort of super ancient beings roaming around as well? Maybe from thousands of years back? Something more mytho… I guess elves and gods were already talked about, but I still have no clue on that. All Edea ever said about elves is… nothing, basically. I guess I need to find this friend of theirs. And the whole two gods thing… is very existential to even think about? I don’t even know a single thing about this topic. Like are there more gods? Are there only two? Is it from a specific faith or what?

  *Click* *Tap* *Click*

  What game is she pying right now anyway? Let me take a look here… Ah, this one, of course. Now that I think about it…

  “Wouldn’t you be able to ace basically every game? Won’t it get boring after a while?” I asked, knowing that she can split her attention well enough.

  “More or less. But that’s also why I shut off most of my abilities so as to not make it too unfair for others.” She answered. Guess she doesn’t care about always winning, probably a mindset that should be more common with some gamers. “I can’t turn it all off, but just enough so I’m just a pro pyer level.”

  “Weren’t you already quite good at this game? You smoked me during our fight at the firing range.” I got a bit tilted at that, but thankfully I didn’t throw out any insults.

  “Yeah? I am still better than before the Mythical Eclipse.” She said while nonchantly getting another kill on the board. Got all that mouse and keyboard movement down.

  “You could be in the pro league if you wanted to with that kind of gamepy.” I can’t help but remark.

  “No way. I’m not gonna get in the way of those teams.” She said with a slight bitter tone.

  “...Are you still salty they didn’t get to finals by one point?” I said since I remember her-

  “Yes I still am!” She said with a bit more emotion than she usually shows. It’s pretty damn tragic, but they kinda fucked up in multiple matches, so it wasn’t like it’s super surprising or something. “Meanwhile your favorite team gets second in finals!”

  “Could’ve gotten first.” I said just to mess with her. They get insanely close twice in a row, but I’m not that miffed about it since they at least get to finals. “That tournament was not good for my sleep schedule, that’s for sure.”

  “At least this time around I can stay awake for long enough even if it reaches double digit matches.” She said, sounding like a brag more than anything.

  “Speaking of that, isn’t the next one coming soon? It was deyed because of that thing, but they should be up and running soon.” I pointed out. I’m sure she can secure the tickets for the both of us.

  “...You want to go? I thought you’d be watch-partying.” She said, sounding rather perplexed.

  “Nah. I doubt I’ll get any views on that anyway.” Besides, it’s something we both are mutually interested in. I’m sure she’s quite ecstatic about it.

  “If you do your best as a stand-in for my self-control.” Why is that her answer, of all things?

  “What is that about?” I asked, puzzled at her weird request.

  “Basically… Ah… I want to do the meet-and-greet, for once. I feel like I might be tempted to cast a performance-boosting spell on them.” She expined her reasoning, and… I guess that makes sense? But that sort of foul py would probably be detected, right? At least the pyers should have noticed it… “I know it would cause a stir, so I’m asking you to help me out here, alright?”

  “Speaking of causing a stir. You sure you can behave yourself and not show up as yourself for the kick of it?” It would be really distracting to have someone like her disrupt the games. Last thing we need is her intruding on the stage and deying the games. “By the way, what do we know about the tournament again? Is it safe to open up there?”

  “It’s not in this wretched nd that is the United States, so they should be fine…” She said before her tone changed a bit at the end. “Actually…”

  You gotta be kidding. You’re thinking about doing that!?

  “Actually, before thinking about that. Is the school closed during that time?” …Oh. That might be a problem…

  ———Jeff———

  <10: 59 pm>

  “You do know we have school tomorrow, right?” Gregori said despite coming along for the ride anyway. “Do you even have a way to reliably provoke the monster?”

  “Like any of us have a way to do that.” I pointed out while discerning the expressions of each person.

  Kist’s face is a bit hard to see since his dark blue hair is in the way, the colors kinda make it hard to even tell that he has cat ears and tail. His expression looks neutral.

  As for Wers, he’s a bit grumpy, and with the scaly hands, feet, and ears, it really adds to that expression.

  Seni looks a bit scared. I wonder if her bright blonde hair would attract… Wait, why does she even come if she’s scared? She’s so weird.

  Anyway, us five should have no issue even if none of us are armed in any way. I mean that schoolmate killed a giant bird just fine, right? Then we can easily kill up to five or six.

  “I guess the best way to do it is to split up, or rather, leave one of us to roam around by their lonesome.” Gregori suggested. I guess that would work, but… “For the highest odds of it working, Seni should be the one to do it.”

  “Are you out of your mind?” Wers meanwhile quickly opposed the idea. “She’s shaking badly right now and you want her to do that?”

  “Monsters are pretty good at sensing fear, which makes their prey weak. That’s why she’s a good bait.” Gregori expined, not considering her feelings at all. “I’d rather get something out of this than not.”

  “I swear if we get in trouble for this…” Kist meanwhile seems more worried about all the commotions this might cause… Yeah. Would other people wake up from this? Last time there were four people woken up by the sound of that giant crow fighting her.

  I think we’ll be fine regardless. Seni is a strong gal, she can flung magic around easily enough, and it’s not like she’s frail. None of us are frail. Of course, if she doesn’t want to-

  “I-I’ll be fine.” …In that case, let’s send it.

  ———Lynda———

  <12: 13 pm>

  “So that’s what that fucking was…” I don’t think of them as teacher’s pets, but I also don’t think of them as troublemakers either. That commotion was so damn loud that it disturbed much of the neighborhood. I was out in the park and these dipshits were in the middle of a public pce in the middle of town! Where I was at doesn’t have many buildings near it, and it is next to a forest.

  “Kinda wish I could see it, but then again…” Fiss said while probably staring at the bags under our eyes. This really should get in trouble, but it is a rare incident no one knows what to make of. Outside of the public disturbance they didn’t really damage much. Maybe a few cracks in the road, but nothing really severe outside of the corpses left to rot. Seven in total.

  “I would absolutely not recommend…” Trener said, having by far the worst condition out of all of us. Some people just handle getting their rest disturbed better than others and he got the short end of the stick.

  I really want to give those guys a beating, but I don’t think any of us have a good list of who they were, and none of them are snitching.

  …Then again. I would probably get sughtered by them. I’m pretty darn confident that I’m not weak, but they’re just too strong. It’s pretty damn unfair.

  “*Gulp*! Haaah…” I drank the broth and put the bowl back down.

  “...That’s gonna be so many calories.” Fiss jokingly said.

  “I can burn that off easily enough. In fact, I think I’ll go do just that after… Wait a minute.” Almost forgot the sides, I shouldn’t waste any food. “I’ll go to a training room after this. Let off some steam and rex afterward.”

  <12: 54 pm>

  *Gleam*

  Her scythe reflected the artificial light, shining it right into my eyes and blinding me for a moment. Her grin is both frightening yet oddly elegant. That outfit of hers is as out-of-pce as it ever was. An elegant blue dress contrasting the giant brutal scythe.

  “Let’s see how you improve in the st few months.” She said, sounding very confident in her chances. She should be, I can tell that she has significantly improved since the st time we fought.

  “You’re gonna regret looking down on me like that!” If nothing else, I could at least show off some bravado! Bring it on you psycho!

  **Dash** *Csh*