CHAPTER 2
Questing Together
Saturday, September 5th.
“Yo! Congrats on your one-week anniversary of getting dumped, Llenn!”
“Don’t keep track of that!”
Fukaziroh and Llenn were meeting up in Glocken, the capital city of GGO.
The little blond bombshell was wearing a MultiCam shirt and shorts today. Llenn had on her desert-pink fatigues; she basically never wore anything else in the game. Even her boots were pink. If they put out a statement banning pink from GGO, Llenn might have to quit and never look back.
But today, the two had sheathed their weapons and were adorably hidden under dark-brown robes from head to toe. They looked like tiny friars. Or perhaps electronics scavengers from a desert planet in a series of films about interstellar warfare.
One reason they were cloaking themselves was because they were so cute that they stood out. Another was that their many exploits in Squad Jam had garnered them a certain level of recognition.
It was eleven o’clock.
Despite the prenoon hour, the sky was dark red over the neon glow of Glocken’s bustling streets. Like amusements parks and tourist spots, full-dive VRMMOs were always packed on the weekends.
“Anniversaries aside, let’s go buy some stuff! I’m a girl, and I don’t have any nads. Gre-nads! Get it?”
“Straight into the dirty jokes, huh?”
The two diminutive figures trekked down the gleaming neon street of Glocken. Their destination was a place that resembled a supermarket, except that the only thing on sale was weaponry and ammunition. They had to load up on as much ammo as they could before the competitive quest started at noon.
“You haven’t gone back, have you, Fuka?” Llenn asked her partner as they walked. It was a short message, but Fukaziroh got the meaning.
Llenn was confirming that Fukaziroh hadn’t gone back to her usual haunt, the fantasy RPG ALfheim Online (ALO) since the fourth Squad Jam last week. In fact, ever since she’d converted over for the special playtest on August 16th, her character had been in GGO the entire time.
“You bet. Converting back and forth with the same character is a snooze. Plus, I’m a tall sylph in ALO, so it throws off my senses each time. On top of that, you haven’t been playing GGO with me because of some dumb reason like ‘preparing for the new semester,’ so I’ve just been rampaging on my own here.”
“Ah, gotcha. You should also be preparing for school, though.”
“Just gonna ignore that comment. Anyway, it looks like they don’t have the nads I’m lookin’ for. A woman’s—”
“Don’t tell me you haven’t gone back to Hokkaido yet!”
“Whoa, whoa, are you seriously trying to talk about real life here?”
“Just answer the question.”
Llenn knew full well that it was considered taboo to talk about real-life matters in the virtual world, but she couldn’t help herself.
Fukaziroh’s real-life player and Karen’s friend since high school, Miyu Shinohara, had flown in from Hokkaido just to spy on Karen’s date. Apparently, Elza had paid for a proper first-class seat for her, which seemed exorbitantly expensive when you were used to bargain hunting.
After Fire Nishiyamada turned Karen down, everyone went to a karaoke place and sang their hearts out to blow off steam. Miyu stayed at Karen’s apartment that night, then left around noon the next day, saying, “Welp, I’ll head back home now. But I’ll fly back to console you whenever you get dumped!”
But whatever she actually did after that point had been a mystery. Miyu liked to call Karen from her family home in Hokkaido while taking a long, luxurious bath, but there had been no such calls since that day.
She hadn’t been caught hanging around Tokyo ever since, so she was probably staying at Elza Kanzaki’s place, right? Karen couldn’t help but worry a little—or a lot.
Fukaziroh read Llenn’s mind like a book. “You think I’ve been staying at Miss Elza’s place? No way; I wouldn’t do that. I mean, I’d be curious to see what it’s like, but Goushi’s there, too, and I wouldn’t want to intrude on their little love nest—oh, who am I kidding? I so wanna do that!”
“Don’t. Also, don’t,” Llenn ordered.
“I did go home. I’m in bed right now. That’s where I’m logged-and-in!”
“Why did you split that word up?”
“Anyway, back at our house in the village of Obihiro in the Tokachi Republic of the Great Federation of Hokkaido, the weather is cool and autumnal. ’Tis the season of delicious fall flavors.”
She wasn’t talking about beer, but rather the salmon that swam upstream in there during autumn.
“That’s true…”
Llenn loved salmon. Her virtual stomach growled with hunger.
Simple slices of grilled salmon. Tightly packed salmon and miso hot pot. Chanchan-yaki, that panfried salmon dish with a tantalizing aroma of frying miso. Homemade soy-marinated salmon roe…
“You suppose it’s pork bowl and curry season, too?”
“There’s a season for those?”
“Yep. Over the course of the year, they’re considered especially delicious in the spring and summer, as well as the fall and winter.”
“So all of them.”
They were still absorbed in their conversation about the real world when they finally arrived at the gun shop.
“C’mon, let’s buy! Buy, buy, buy!”
“I’ve got to restock my ammo for P-chan and the Vor-chans, too.”
They bought tons of rounds.
Team LPFM and their partners in SHINC planned to meet about twenty minutes before the start of the quest, around 11:40.
Their rendezvous point was a place they’d been many times, a bar and restaurant that looked like the perfect location for a western movie shoot-out.
Llenn and Fukaziroh finished their shopping surprisingly quickly, so they were in a private room by 11:20. A freckled NPC waitress took their message to send their companions through to the right place.
They sat down at a huge round table that could seat a good twenty people.
“Games are so much fun, ya know? Wonder what kind of battle awaits us today.”
“I know it’s fun, but whenever we’re with Pito, it ends up being really hardcore.”
“Don’t be stupid. The game is fun because it feels like you’re constantly gonna die!”
“I just don’t want to feel like I’m going to die in real life.”
They chatted and sipped on their ginger ale and iced tea to kill time, until at eleven thirty, the door burst opened. A boyish, Takarazuka-esque character with short black hair stepped inside.
“Yo! Hi, you two!”
It was Clarence, dressed in an all-black outfit that complemented her nicely.
“Heya, long time no—”
“See.”
She plopped herself down next to Fukaziroh and Llenn. “Have I ever told you how small you two are? In fact, did you get even smaller?”
“Heh-heh-heh, can you tell?”
“No, Llenn, she can’t. Your avatar doesn’t shrink.”
Clarence waved her hand to open the menu and order a drink. A glass shunked up out of a hole in the center of the table.
“Well, let’s have a toast!”
She lifted a glass of something that was impossible to identify. It looked like the cup of water that was left behind at the end of art class.
Fukaziroh lifted her ginger ale and asked, “Okay! To what?”
“To our utter defeat in SJ4!”
“Damn, I’ll drink to that! Cheers!”
“Whoo! Cheers!”
“…”
Llenn lifted her glass but didn’t say anything. Oh right, we lost, she recalled.
The winners of the fourth Squad Jam were the All-Japan Machine-Gun Lovers, aka ZEMAL.
In SJ1, they were just a pack of trigger-hungry idiots who never bothered to check on one another. But with each new round of the event, they’d gotten tighter and tighter as a team.
Finally, in SJ4, they showed up with their new leader, a mysterious woman named Vivi who guided them to a stunning, tremendous victory, where they didn’t lose a single member before the end.
Llenn’s team wound up in fourth place.
It was the first time she hadn’t been on the medal stand in Squad Jam. Not that she was obsessed with it or anything. But it left a conflicted feeling in her heart.
I guess I love GGO and Squad Jam way more than I realized…
Using a straw, she took a little sip of iced tea right as Shirley walked through the door, her hair as green as ever.
She wore her usual realistic tree-patterned hunting jacket and brown cargo pants. Her baseball cap was turned backward so the brim wouldn’t bump against her rifle scope.
Incidentally, while she’d put on camouflage face paint in SJ2 and SJ3, she hadn’t done so recently. Maybe someone had told her what a try-hard dork she’d looked like.
“Oh, you’re here early.”
They exchanged greetings, and Shirley sat down next to Clarence. “Hey, partner, how you been?”
“Good, good. A little busy, though. In real life,” mentioned Clarence, with one of her typical handsome smiles.
“That’s good to hear.” Shirley didn’t have anything more to say.
Despite Clarence’s insistence that they should meet up in real life, she hadn’t reached out once since SJ4, but Shirley wasn’t going to bring that up today. There wasn’t anything urgent enough to be worth mentioning. If she wanted to make plans, she could say so.
There’s always a comfortable distance between two people, and that distance can change over time. No use in trying to force the issue.
Shirley thought back to the girl she’d rode horses with last week in the real world (where she was named Mai) and wondered what she was up to now.
“I’ll have an iced coffee. Syrup, no cream,” she ordered.
“Oh, you’re all here early.”
Pitohui entered the room at 11:35. M followed behind her.
Neither of them had gotten a makeover for the occasion. They looked the same as ever. Meaning that Pitohui wore a tight-fitting bodysuit, while M wore venomous-green camo fatigues. They were dressed light for the moment, with no gear visible on their persons.
“Hello, Pito and M.”
“G’morn’, Sis and Bro.”
“Hey, hey.”
“Hello.”
Llenn, Fukaziroh, Clarence, and Shirley greeted the newcomers. Shirley couldn’t help but glare when she saw Pitohui, but she was still a grown woman. She made sure to offer a modicum of courtesy.
The pair sat down in open seats and ordered their own drinks. “Let’s not go over the game rules until all our teammates are here,” Pitohui said, right at 11:36.
“Pardon us!”
That was when those teammates arrived—a squad of six women wearing the same camo pattern with green spots.
In the lead was a gorilla with braids, Eva—better known as Boss—followed by Tohma the black-haired sniper, Sophie the squat dwarf, Rosa the burly one, Anna the blond beauty with sunglasses, and Tanya the silver-haired fox.
That was Team SHINC, the group that had clashed with Llenn in a tremendous duel in SJ1.
“It’s a pleasure to be here with you today!” Boss announced.
“Let’s have some fun!” the rest shouted in unison.
While the intimidating display blew Llenn away, Fukaziroh grinned, Shirley seemed disinterested, and Clarence whistled.
“Okay, okay, enough of the stuffy formalities. Knock it off. This is a game, so we’re forgetting all the real-world annoying junk and just having fun! I said fun!”
“Yes, ma’am!” Knowing her true identity was Elza Kanzaki, the group couldn’t help but straighten up. “Pardon us, then!”
They sat down in a row of seats directly opposite the table. It was like sitting across from six nervous potential recruits at a group job interview.
“Wait, what’s going on? Is this supposed to be a scary game we’re about to play?” asked Clarence, who was feeling intimidated by the strange vibe all of a sudden.
After SHINC ordered their favorite drinks, the atmosphere seemed to relax a little.
“Now then, thank you all for being here! And thank you again!” Pitohui announced, launching into a speech. She really loved to do that. “We’re going to take part in a quest designed to deepen our friendship! There will be no pointing of guns at one another today! How lovely! How sublime!”
Well, I gotta agree with her there, Llenn thought.
In SJ4, her long-awaited wish had finally come true, and she’d engaged in a one-on-one duel with Boss. She’d eked out a victory by the slimmest of margins. Now there was nothing left for her to do—not that she intended to quit GGO, either.
“Let’s have fun, get along, rip through this quest, and win first prize!”
“Yeah!”
Fukaziroh and SHINC gave each other daps for fun. Clarence, too, joined in after a beat.
Shirley did not, of course. With the mood in the room, she couldn’t very well announce that she would find a way to take out Pitohui while she wasn’t paying attention. She only thought it. That’s right, she hadn’t given up yet. One of Shirley’s strongest qualities was her refusal to admit defeat.
“Now, coming up on this quest,” Pitohui said, as though she were reading a preview for an upcoming anime episode.
“A three-parter?” asked Fukaziroh, joking.
“Close! Five-parter!”
“Huh?” She was not expecting Pitohui to give her a serious reply.
Llenn realized, Fuka…you didn’t actually read the quest synopsis that everyone had access to, did you?
As a generally hardworking person, Karen went over the quest beforehand. It was important to do that.
“Fuka, I love the way you live your life,” Pitohui said.
Please, no, Llenn thought. Don’t encourage her.
“Anyway, let me just give a quick explanation of this quest,” Pitohui announced.
“Huge thanks, Miss! I mean, Master!” exclaimed Fukaziroh, clapping her hands.
Llenn and SHINC understood the gist of the competition, of course, but it never hurt to have a refresher. They still had a few minutes, so they decided to let Pitohui give the class a lecture.
“Unlike Squad Jam, there won’t be any player-versus-player combat in this quest. Just like with normal gameplay, we’ll be attempting to clear the assignment by defeating enemies out in the field. What’s most important here is that this is a competitive simultaneous quest where everyone starts exactly at noon.”
It was competitive, meaning that it was a onetime event that only squadrons who had signed up ahead of time could experience, right here and now. In other words, it was going to be an enigmatic riddle of a quest, full of twists and turns that would be totally spoiled if you heard them from someone who had already beaten it.
“So when the dust settles, and we end up in first place, there’s a boatload of bonus points in it for us,” Fukaziroh noted.
Pitohui smirked. “You bet. And that’s what we’re after, of course! On top of that, there are bonuses within the team for the player with the most kills, least damage suffered, etcetera.”
“Hoo, doggy! Well, that does it for the refresher! Thanks for the lesson!”
“Not so fast,” snapped Llenn.
Pitohui continued, “This quest is titled…Five Ordeals.” The name was an English equivalent of a Japanese term.
“Uh-huh, I see, very interesting… The Five Ordeals, eh…? I see we’ve got our work cut out for us…with these…ordeals…,” commented Fukaziroh, a grin tugging at the corner of her mouth.
“You don’t know what that means, do you, Fuka?” Llenn had to ask.
“It means, like, a trial, right? You spell it o-r-d-e-a-l,” Fukaziroh replied, much to Llenn’s surprise—and disappointment.
“That’s right, Five Ordeals,” acknowledged Pitohui. “In other words, we’re probably looking at not just five different battlegrounds with different enemies, but five sets of custom rules, too. I can’t predict what they’ll all be, of course, but I’m sure certain parameters will wind up being more or less advantageous…”
“So it’s testing our overall team ability,” interjected the gorilla with braids, the first time she’d spoken in several minutes.
“Precisely!” Pitohui shouted, rudely pointing a finger at her.
“Hmph!” But Boss looked delighted. She couldn’t hide the fact that she adored Pitohui’s player. She looked like she was thinking, I can’t believe this day has finally come! Long live GGO!
I suppose that I, in my own specific way, had that feeling once, Llenn haiku’d.
“We don’t know what hurdles these five battles will bring, but we can band together and get through them! We can do this! Because we’re us!” Pitohui yelled, a statement that did not justify itself.
“Yeah!” roared six burly voices belonging to little teenage girls. They were young. It was as if Pitohui was their teacher.
Whether we can beat it aside, it’s so nice that we can simply enjoy a game together, without any high stakes or guns pointed at one another, Llenn thought blissfully.
Hmm, when should I make my move and do Pitohui in? Shirley thought blissfully.
Pitohui continued, “I’m assuming that someone must have designed this quest, but as usual, it’s unlisted.”
Of course, that was almost always the case, so they wouldn’t know who was responsible for the competition. The few instances of quest-design information that had been published in the past were exceptions to the rule.
“Players get one life, and when it’s gone, that’s it, the end. Also, there are no healing items distributed to players, and you can’t use your own, either.”
Llenn had to admit she was surprised to learn about not having any healing. Was it going to be just that hardcore, or would there be lifesaving tools here and there? They wouldn’t know until it started.
“Since Boss and her team are here, we’re at the maximum group size of twelve players. Naturally, not having a full twelve puts you at a disadvantage. I can’t imagine they’re adjusting the difficulty to scale with the number of players on a team. But as long as just one member survives, all members will receive the experience points for the fastest completion.”
“Oh-ho. So what you’re saying is I could just hang out in the back and doze off, and that’d be fine,” Fukaziroh smirked.
“Yeah, right. You’re going to rush to the front,” Llenn shot back.
Fukaziroh snorted. “Oh yeah, I forgot you were psychic.”
“What, didn’t I tell you?”
“All right, girls, may I continue?” Pitohui interrupted, returning to the explanation. “Anyway, that’s about all we know for now. We’ll have to wait for the event to start to learn more.”
With her lecture over, she asked, “Has anyone changed anything on their main weapons? Let’s have a look-see.”
“Ooh!” the leader of SHINC said, grunting. “We brought a full stock of ammo for everything. The rules didn’t mention it, but we all have pistols, too. And we’ve got a new weapon for Sophie—a GM-94. Show them, Sophie.”
As Boss gave the explanation, Sophie produced a new toy from her inventory. She lifted it up and set it down with a thud on the table. The others stood up to get a better look.
It looked like a pump-action shotgun, with two large barrels, top and bottom—but with dimensions about three times fatter. The metallic stock was folded in, and it was longer than the P90 at about twenty-one inches. If the stock was fully extended, it would be about thirty-two.
As the one-and-two-thirds-inch-diameter barrel made clear, this wasn’t your standard peashooter, but a grenade launcher like Fukaziroh’s MGL-140s. It was designed to propel small grenades through the air in a ballistic arc to explode on contact.
Like SHINC’s other weapons, the GM-94 was Russian-made.
“Oooh, a launcher…but can it best my Rightony and Leftonia?” Fukaziroh jeered, feeling needlessly competitive.
“Well, it can’t shoot six in a row,” Sophie replied, admitting defeat. Or perhaps she was mature enough—despite being in high school—to avoid bickering.
She went on, “It’s pump-action, so you put three grenades into the top tube, then pump the bottom barrel to load them. It shoots up to four.”
Sophie worked the action to show them. Unlike a shotgun, you pulled it forward to eject the casing, so the barrel itself moved. It was a very strange mechanism, but that’s Russia for you.
Since there was no grenade loaded, it only clicked when she pulled the trigger.
“That’s a nice buy,” admired Pitohui, a true collector who wanted every gun in GGO stashed away in her locker. “This launcher should be good for indoor combat. A grenade launcher you can use in close-quarters combat—call it a Russian Concussion. You can shoot it at a target thirty feet away at the shortest…unless you don’t mind splash damage, in which case anything goes. The shrapnel radius is about ten feet.”
“Yes. You sure know your stuff, Miss El—Pitohui,” Sophie corrected.
Incidentally, SHINC had acquired this grenade launcher after their battle against Llenn’s team in SJ3. Specifically, because of the bitter experience of taking huge damage from a grenade blast in the narrow hallway of the cruise ship (although the plasma grenade that nearly destroyed the ship was Fukaziroh’s mistake).
They’d always wanted one and had finally saved up the credits when one of the launchers arose on the secondhand market.
Boss explained, “I’ve told Sophie to blast away indoors if necessary and not to worry about friendly fire. She can also carry the PTRD-41, so we’ll switch between them as needed.”
Sophie had originally used a PKM machine gun, just like Rosa, but she couldn’t carry one of them along with the antitank rifle, which was just as heavy. The GM-94, which packed considerable punch at a third of the weight, was a worthy compromise.
“Mmm, excellent! I’m looking forward to that!” Pitohui exclaimed. It kind of sounded like she wanted Sophie to shoot a bunch of grenades her way while they were in battle.
“Umm…as for our firepower,” Llenn muttered. She started to calculate their total power in her mind. That consideration was a good example of her earnest personality.
“It’s a lot!” interjected Fukaziroh haphazardly, a good example of her personality as well.
Llenn kindly ignored her friend and said, “First, Clarence and I have submachine guns.”
Technically, the P90 and AR-57 used 5.7 × 28 mm rounds with more power than handgun bullets, so they were closer to the middle ground between an SMG and a 5.56 mm assault rifle, but that would make the explanation even longer, so she left that out. For simplicity’s sake, they could just define the guns as submachine guns.
“M uses an automatic 7.62 mm sniper rifle, the M14 EBR. Shirley’s bolt-action R93 Tactical 2 uses the same caliber, but she’s got exploding rounds, too.”
“And then there’s Rightony and Leftonia! I’m packed with standard explosives, and I’ve got twelve plasma grenades, too!”
Llenn had been with Fukaziroh earlier when she’d bought the plasmas and was aghast at how much the powerful explosives had cost.
“Okay. And Pito? What’s your loadout?”
“Same as always. The Squad Jam stuff.”
That meant her custom AK assault rifle, the KTR-09, with a drum magazine for long continuous fire, the M870 Breacher shortened shotgun for a sidearm, two XDM pistols, and three photon swords.
“Got it.”
“You brought the Vorpal Bunnies with you too, right, Llenn?” she asked. Llenn nodded.
Pitohui had given Llenn a pair of adorable pink pistols called the Vorpal Bunnies as a present for the “pistols only” area of SJ4. Llenn called them the Vor-chans. They came with a special backpack with spare magazines inside that allowed her to reload with one hand each.
Llenn had brought them along. Between the P90 and the extra ammunition, she was near the edge of the low weight burden she could actually carry.
But the thigh holster and pouches for the P90’s magazines interfered with the pistols, so she could only equip one of them at a time. Instead, Llenn made sure to arrange her inventory so she could switch them with a single button.
To use P-chan or the Vor-chans? That was the question.
Oh, but she couldn’t forget the little friend on her back, either—Kni-chan the knife.
“As for you guys,” she continued, referring to SHINC, “Boss has the silenced Vintorez sniper rifle. Tanya has the Bizon submachine gun. Sophie has that grenade launcher. Rosa has the machine gun. Tohma and Anna have automatic sniper rifles. And there’s the antitank rifle, your grenades, and pistols.”
She could list all the weapons off from memory. Some of them had been a major headache for her in the past. Others had also saved her virtual bacon.
“That’s right,” Boss confirmed.
No one had any tricks up their sleeve. Nobody had any optical guns, either, which weren’t bad to use against computer enemies. But when you used a live-ammo gun for so long, it was very hard to adjust to the huge difference in weight, power, and usage with optics.
“Now, may I suggest a formation?” Pitohui ventured.
“Yes, ma’am!” Boss blurted out, as though she were about to make a formal salute.
“Enough of that. It’s fine if you’d rather decline,” Pitohui insisted awkwardly. It made Llenn just a little bit pleased to see. “Anyway, in my humble opinion, I think our point people slash attackers in the front should be Llenn and Tanya.”
No complaints there. Llenn and Tanya nodded and looked at each other. They were the fastest, so their job would always involve taking the lead to scout—or confusing and distracting the enemy. That was dangerous, of course, but it was a role that made the most of their talents.
“You’ll be in the front this time, M. Offer your support to those two and give them orders.”
“Understood,” he responded, his craggy face nodding.
Having M right behind us will be a relief, Llenn decided.
“Rosa and Anna are equipped with a machine-gun-and-sniper-rifle combination, which is very effective. You girls form a two-woman cell behind M’s position. As a core component of our firepower, you can venture right or left as the battle dictates. I’ll be behind you as your buddy.”
“It’s an honor!”
“We’d be happy to do that!”
“All right, all right. Anyway, Sophie and Eva and Tohma, you three will follow behind us. Again, you can change tactics as necessary at Eva’s discretion. You’ll be the rear guard, Boss.”
The rear guard was the person at the tail end of a group formation. It was a crucial position for guarding against enemy attacks from behind, especially when you were retreating.
“Roger that!” Boss answered for the trio. The others nodded.
“Whaddabout me?” asked Fukaziroh.
Pitohui grumbled, “Fuka, you’re a tough one… If we’re out in the wide open, you can be farther back, or you could come up to about where M is. Indoors, you have nothing to do.”
“Okay, I guess I’ll just wander around within the formation or something. Let me know if you need bombardment backup at any point, people.”
“With that settled, unless there are any objections, we’ll use this as our basic formation,” Pitohui finished. There were no quibbles from anyone whose name she’d called.
“Hey, wait a minute; what about us?”
Clarence hadn’t been mentioned. She pointed at Shirley, who sat next to her in silence.
“The Shirl-Clare combo will be roamers. Form a two-person team and do whatever you want!”
“Huh?”
“Shirley, you come after me whenever you feel like it.”
“What?”
Clarence seemed upset, but her partner looked positively wicked. “I’m glad you understand how this is going to work,” she said forebodingly. Shirley was only an avatar, but she wore the kind of expression you wouldn’t want your family members to see.
There was another woman bearing a vicious expression. It was Boss.
“Very interesting. So Shirley’s still gunning for Pitohui one way or another. But this time, we’re on your side, too. It’s not going to be as easy as you think to take her out.”
The members of SHINC, who were now Pitohui’s personal protection squad, glared at Shirley.
“Hah. Sounds fun. I’ll send you all to your final destination. Then when you come back to this pub, you can sip your tea and relax.”
“I’d like to see you try.”
There were already sparks flying across the table—between members of the same team.
“Oh geez…” Llenn sighed, taking a sip of iced tea.
Pitohui had just been telling them that the game wasn’t likely to lower the difficulty for a smaller group. It was bold to tell Shirley and Clarence that they could do whatever they wanted.
Both exasperated and impressed, she glanced at her watch and saw that it was 11:59.
“Well, gang, shall we get out there and have some fun? Class is dismissed,” Ms. Pitohui said, and the battle was on.
All twelve stood up from the round table, waved their left hands, and started working through their inventories. Light particles materialized around their bodies in various places, transforming into ammo pouches, combat vests, helmets, and the like.
Lastly, their guns appeared, settling into their hands. Metal clicked and clanked as the bits of gear loaded in and rubbed against one another.
Once they were locked and loaded, the last item was for communication.
They weren’t sure how best to interface with one another, but they settled on putting all twelve members on the same channel. That meant anyone could speak to anyone, regardless of how far apart they were or how noisy the gunfire clatter was at the time.
Llenn clenched her pink P90 and whispered, “Let’s have some fun, P-chan.”
She pulled the loading lever, sending a bullet into the chamber.
At the stroke of noon, they vanished from the pub as one.
The glass of ginger ale Fukaziroh was desperately trying to finish hit the ground and clattered away.
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