Look who's back

[The next day.]

While I was in my classroom at school preparing to take a nap during a lesson, Miko and Yuuki came and took me to the student council room.

I and Yuuki stayed behind in front of the president's office while Miko sat down in her chair.

"Alright, we need to make preparations for the school festival that will be held in two weeks."

"Where are the others?"

"And why am I here?"

"Yuuki, I already told you that they are all sick and can not come to school."

"All at the same time, huh? That's really strange."

"Yeah, but it does not matter. Shinji, I brought you here because I need your help."

"And what can I do?"

"I need you to organize a game design competition and supervise it."

"Huh? Why? Who would want to participate in such a contest?"

"There are many students learning programming, and it's a good opportunity to find the best among them to put together a team to compete with the other schools. In previous years, we never stood a chance against them, but with your help, our success is guaranteed."

"But it takes a lot of effort and I am bored..."

I did not manage to finish my sentence and Miko immediately appeared in front of me, making a sad face.

"Please~ Do it for me." she said with sparkling eyes.

"(Damn, she's so cute. I mean, I can not say no when she asks like that). Alright, I'll do it."

"Yaay!"

Then she turned to Yuuki and said.

"You, get ready to start the preparations."

"On my own?"

"Do you have a problem with that?"

"Why will not you or Shinji help me?"

"We planned to play the game together today." She said with a smile.

"Hey, that's unfair. I want to play too..."

"You said something? I could not hear you." Said she with a murderous look.

"Nothing, nothing." He said and covered his head with his hands.

"Wait, I did not agree to this."

Miko then turned to me with her murderous look and smiled.

"You know what? Now that I think about it, it's a very good idea. I am looking forward to it." I said with a nervous smile.

"Perfect, now you can go, Yuuki.

"*sigh* Okay, I'll go. I hope you'll survive, bro."

Miko walked behind Yuuki, yelled "I said get out" and kicked him out of the room.

Damn, this girl can just change her personality. Thank God I am not on her bad side.

"So Shinji, when should we play?"

"Um, I am free after school."

"Okay, I'll see you then. Also, where do we meet?"

"Hmm, we will meet outside in front of the Adventurer's Guild."

"Okee~"

After that, I returned to my classroom and continued my 'lesson'. I could not really concentrate in class for two reasons. First, I was bored and second, to be honest, I was looking forward to playing with Miko for some reason and I could not get that out of my mind.

Shit, I think I have fallen in love with Miko. If Ruby finds out about this, I am definitely dead. If I want to be with Miko, I have to fix the code in Ruby's program, or it will be dangerous for me to stay around Miko for too long.

To be honest, I feel like Ruby is my slave. I mean, she loves me because I messed up the program. She does not really love me. She's obligated to do it because I made a mistake. That does not feel right to me. I need to fix this as soon as possible. I want Ruby to be free to make her own decisions.

The rest of the school hours went normally, except for the fact that Miko's appearances made me the most popular person in my class. Kind of irritating because suddenly everyone wanted to be friends with me. I just want to be alone and peaceful, is that so hard? Damn it, Miko, look what you did to me.

[After six awkward hours at school.]

"Finally, I am free to leave this place."

"What happened while I was gone?" said Ruby.

"A lot of things. Wait. Where have you been all this time?"

"I had business."

"What kind of business, exactly?"

"I have been doing research."

"About what?"

"Something personal."

"Personal? What was it?"

"None of your business."

"I hope you did not do anything bad."

"I never did anything bad."

I looked at her with a look of disbelief.

"What, you do not believe me?"

"No comment."

"Humph."

After a while, we arrived home. I greeted my mother and went to my room.

I opened my computer and started to fix the program.

"Hey Shinji, what are you doing to my program?"

"Um, just installing a new update."

"But this does not look like an update."

"I am just trying out a different kind of update to see if it's more efficient than the normal one."

"Oh, I see."

Ah, I could not just tell her what I was actually doing. If she found out, there was no way she would let me continue.

Fixing it took me a lot of time and Ruby was getting suspicious of what I was doing. Thank goodness I finished before she could check what I was doing.

"Okay, I am done."

"What took you so long? The other updates did not take this much time."

"I tried a new way to upload them."

"I see. And why do not I feel anything different?"

"Ah, it will take a while to install. Until then, let us play the game."

"Ok let's go."

We entered the game and spawned in the usual place. Then we made our way to the guild.

Miko and Yuuki were already there.

"Hey Shinji, how long will it take to install the update?"

"Hmm, it should take another ten seconds I think."

"Oh ok."

"Let me ask you a question before the update is installed. Do you love me?"

"What's with that stupid question? Of course I love you."

"I see."

"Why are you asking this now?"

"Because you will not feel the same when the update happens."

"Huh? What do you mean? What have you done?"

"Not much." I, said smiling.

Then the update happened. Ruby's eyes turned red for a second and then returned to normal.

As we approached the twins, Ruby said.

"Hey Shinji, who is that boy? He's so handsome. I think I like him."

"Hehe, (good. The update was a success. Now Ruby can live his life the way you want without being tied to anyone). He's Yuuki, the twin brother of Miko."

"Let us go quickly, I want to meet him."

"You will. Do not worry about it."

When Yuuki and Miko saw us, they both waved at us and called out

"Hey Shinji."

"Hello guys, how are you? Wait, Yuuki, what are you doing here? I thought you could not come."

"Well, I convinced Miko to let me play with you."

"Oh, that's good. How did you manage that? She looked absolute in her words." I said in a whisper.

"I had to make too many sacrifices. Now I have to prepare everything myself. Bro, please help me. I do not know if I'll be able to do it."

"Do not worry, I am here for you."

"Thank you. You have just saved me. Also. Who is this girl next to you?"

"Oh, I am sorry, I forgot to introduce you. She's Ruby, my cousin."

"Hello Ruby, I am Miko. Nice to meet you."

"I am happy to meet you too. I am Yuuki."

"Nice to meet you all."

"Good, now that everyone has introduced themselves, it's time to do something exciting."

"What do you suggest, Shinji?" said Yuuki.

"Let us go to the guild and take on a mission."

"Oh yeah, good idea."

We went inside and looked at the quests.

I chose one of class C, which was to collect 5 direwolf heads and give them to the guild. Pretty easy.

"Ok guys, what do you think of this quest?"

"Hmm, it seems a bit difficult, but there are four of us, so I guess we will manage." said Yuuki and the other two agreed with him.

"Alright, let us go then."

We left the guild and made our way to the gate of the city. The quest area was 500 meters southwest of the city.

During our walk, Ruby was with Yuuki the whole time and they talked endlessly. After a while, Miko came up to me.

"Hey Shinji, those two seem to be having a good time. Your cousin is really a nice person."

"Ha, you can not imagine. Do you want me to tell you why she's with Yuuki all the time?"

"Yeah, why not?"

"She likes him."

"Oh? Is that so? Do you think we should help them get closer?

"The way I see it, Ruby has already taken the initiative."

"Hehe, right."

"Are you jealous?"

"Huh? Not at all." She said, blushing.

"Do you want to hold hands?"

"HUH?"

At that moment, I realized what I had said.

"I am sorry, I am sorry. That was too big a request. I should not have said it."

"Um... I'd like to hold hands with you."

"Eh? Really?"

She nodded in agreement.

"Okay, let us do it then."

And we caught each others hands.

After fifteen minutes of walking, we finally arrived at the area.

"Hey Shinji, this is the area, right?" said Yuuki.

"Yeah, this is it."

"Yuuki, watch out! There's a direwolf coming at you!" Miko yelled.

Yuuki pulled his sword out of the scabbard behind his back and severed the direwolf's head with precise movements.

I and Ruby were startled.

How could he kill a direwolf with such ease?

I had been waiting for a fight between the two. But Yuuki just killed him without even breaking a sweat.

Okay, direwolves are not the strongest monsters, but still. He looked like a professional.

"Damn, Yuuki, you are great," I said.

"Hehe, thanks."

"Oh, by the way, what class are you two in?"

"I am a swordsman and Miko is a caster."

"Oh, I see, I see. I am an assassin and Ruby is a ranger."

"Be careful, there are more coming!" Ruby shouted.

"Why are there so many of them? There are at least fifty of them."

"Do not worry about it, Shinji. We can handle them. I think." said Yuuki.

"Okay, get ready to fight."

Yuuki and I stepped forward and Miko and Ruby stayed behind to fight from a distance.

Ruby started shooting her arrows in the air. All the arrows hit the head of five direwolves and killed them. She also used her {multiplication} ability and shot five arrows at a time, doubling them to ten. She does not have full control over these arrows yet, so only four of them manage to kill direwolves. The last one wounded another. But she was almost out of mana.

Miko fired fireballs that did damage in a large area. Pretty useful for our situation. But her mana began to dwindle quickly as well.

Me and Yuuki rushed forward to face the direwolves. Yuuki was quite skilled with the sword. Not a single direwolf could put a scratch on him.

I, on the other hand, was just having fun. I could kill them with ease and they could not catch up with me.

Everything was going well and it looked like we were going to win.

But then a direwolf howled and we saw another twenty of them coming towards us.

I was fine, but I can not say the same for the others. Ruby and Miko had run out of mana so they could not do anything and Yuuki went to protect them.

"Shinji! Come here and save the girls. I'll stop them."

"You can not take them all on."

"It's okay. I'll be able to do it. Do not worry about it."

"Aah, then I guess I have no choice. I'll have to do it."

I stepped forward and moved toward the pile of direwolves.

Both Yuuki and Miko yelled out

""What are you doing? You can not possibly kill them all by yourself.""

"Did you hear about the goblin invasion that happened yesterday?"

"Yes, people said that two orcs showed up along with the goblins, but an adventurer was able to defeat them with ease. But why does it matter now?" said Miko.

"I will tell you a secret. That person was me."

"You? How could that be you?"

"Hehe, you'll soon find out."

Twenty-five direwolves approached me. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and activated my {Flash} ability.

In the blink of an eye, I killed all the direwolves. It happened so fast that the others did not even see me move. They only saw all the direwolves being cut into pieces.

"W-what just happened?" said Yuuki.

"I killed them."

"How did you do that? Do not tell me. Are you really that person?"

Yes, I already told you, but you did not believe me."

"Oh, God. I was beginning to think I was dead."

"What's that face? It's not like you are really going to die."

"Yay! My Shinji is the best!" said Miko and lunged at me, causing us both to fall to the ground.

"Miko, can you stand up? Your chest is on my face. I can not breathe anymore."

"Aaah, sorry, sorry. It's my fault."

"Shinji, what are you doing with my sister?" said Yuuki, grinning.

"What are you talking about?"

"Come on. You know what I am talking about. Even though you are old enough, you should not do things like that in front of us."

Miko clenched her fist and punched Yuuki, who fell to the ground in response.

"What the hell are you talking about? We did not do anything. Get out of the gutter already." she said and kicked him.

"Give me a break, sister. I was only joking. I did not mean anything by it. Shinji, save me."

"Ruby, are you okay?"

"Hey, why are you ignoring me? I thought we were brothers."

"Hehe, no one can save you now. You'll feel my wrath." said Miko with a grim look.

After that little argument, we collected their heads and headed back to the city. During the whole trip, Yuuki did not dare to approach Miko.

Well, I can not blame him. She really is very wild sometimes.

When we arrived in town, we went to the guild to pick up our reward.

We sold the heads and divided the reward into four parts.

As we were ready to leave, I heard a familiar voice. A voice I had not heard in many years.

I turned my head and saw a middle-aged man with black hair and blue eyes standing in the reception area.

My heart beat faster and faster.

I froze. I could not say a single word. This... this man...

I gathered all my remaining courage and said

"Dad? Is that you?"

The man turned to me.

"Shinji?"

{To be continued}