Chapter 13 - Getting A Job

Chapter 13

~

Jun closed his eyes and took a deep calming breath though abruptly gagged a moment later when the cloying smell of blood thickly suffusing throughout the arena burrowed into his nostrils instead of the fresh air he expected.

A bit obvious in hindsight but he attributed his currrent scattermindedness to the circumstances, he was always a bit destabilized right after high intensity missions and although he currently wasn't running away surrounded by a hail of bullets and pissed off agent looking motherfuckers the successive deaths of his team did affect him even if he did his best to conceal it.

Shaking off his idle thoughts he perked up when the girl took her place opposite him. She sent him a scrutinizing look more intense than she had Saul, Mergen and Quill making him a bit confused wondering why he was singled out.

Though it apparently amounted to nothing seeing as she once again lost interest a few moments later.

He could almost swear he saw her cheeks minutely puff up after she averted her gaze but eventually disregarded it as nothing considering that, so far, she didn't strike him as an especially outwardly expressive person.

Shrugging, his face soon turned ponderous as he thought about how he wanted this to play out.

Well, in the end he really only had two options broadly speaking. Either he fought, or he didn't.

In terms of close combat prowess he stood roughly about equal to Mergen as long as he was limited to his knives and his more tame concoctions, below Quill bolstered by decades of past experience and the not so inconsiderable talent in fighting he possessed, and also below Saul blessed with his sheer natural bulk and monster strength alongside the knowledge of how to properly use it.

Oh, he was stronger than Kaya but that wasn't very surprising considering that she wasn't that big into fighting in general.

He had tried encouriging her to at least learn some basic self-defence, which she very reluctantly did. During that particular period of time he was 'mysteriously' plagued with numerous minor inconveniences but he'd take that trade any day.

She just didn't really see the point since her primary role was gathering information, real time surveillance if possible and in rare cases, backup, able to provide assistance from range courtesy of the silenced handgun she carried on her body.

With that said she was in all honesty a pretty proficient shot having saved a fair share of their missions from failing by herself.

He had also eventually managed to convince her to add a knife to her usual mission loadout, just in case.

Regardless. Seeing as he didn't really have to force himself to stall thanks to the others' valiant efforts he could theoretically just give up and be done with it, or just run away but that wouldn't really result in anything productive.

It wasn't like he could run until the timer ran out since there wasn't one to begin with.

Before he got too carried away, though.

<"Hey Kaya notify me when you're done doing... whatever it is that you're doing.">

<"Okay...? And whyyy?"> She asked confusedly with a dragging lilt.

<"So I know when I can give up."> He answered bluntly.

<"...You know, the others fought until they couldn't go on anymore."> She reminded after a brief moment of silence.

<"Yeah...? I know? What's that have to do with anything?">

<"So why're you tapping out then?">

<"Because I can, because the girl is kind of terrifying, because I'm sacred!"> He straightened his back and puffed out his chest before he succintly reported with a militaristic flair to his tone.

<"Why do you sound so proud of yourself...">

<"Knowing your limits is also a kind of strength, uneducated little one. One must first acknowledge their flaws in order to remove them. Humu, humu.">

<"So you're gonna be working on removing your flaws now, huh? I'll help you along your journey of self-betterment then: Stop leaving snack crumbles everywhere, stop wonkily cutting the cheese unevenly, stop fucking up the butter by using the knife like a goddamn spear instead of gradually shaving off neat layers, stop-"> Kaya promptly launched into a long rant about various habits of his that had been really grinding her gears since they all first moved into their team's headquarters.

<"..."> A subdued silence settled over the connection after what must've been at least a solid minute of non-stop complaints lodged against him.

<"Well, oh wise one? I've got alot more where that came from but the match and you getting your shit kicked in is just about to start so I'll save it for later."> She eventually spoke up when he continued staying quiet.

<"...I have not yet acknowledged them myself and I am therefore unfortunately powerless to change them.">

<"Asshole.">

<"Love you too.">

Feeling the mental tether disconnect Jun refocused on the arena and going by the commentator currently doing their introductions he didn't have much time left for any real planning, not that he had much to work with in such an open space and without any equipment available, but still.

A short while later the countdown began and he ultimately just settled on a rather simple goal of surviving until he got Kaya's cue signalling their success and then decide what he'd do from there, then.

Based on the girl's previously displayed behavior of a lengthy period of prodding before eventually going in for the kill he was confident that he could pretty easily manage to last for multiple minutes allowing Kaya to do her thing, at the very least that is.

...

<"I'm almost done over here. You still breathing out there shitty boss?"> Kaya's voice transmitted a couple of minutes later whilst she was tapping away at the tablet.

She had just gotten through all of their defenses and was now working on getting a copy of everything she could find after which she could get started on injecting another one of her brainchildren brought to life alongside the bootleg telepathy.

An insidious little virus she had created that would slowly but surely, for all intents and purposes, 'lock' the creators out of the local digital space's main console, the only caveat being that it required a fair amount of time before it really took hold.

Although most digital spaces were always up and running, which would in theory allow for a rather snappy takeover considering the virus would during that time constantly continue spreading and get faster and faster with every core program it latched onto only further propagating it's infestation, the sheer amount of code required to create a digital space in the first place sort of balanced it out.

Even if digital spaces allowed for a crazy amount of customization it also required an equally crazy amount of dedication and work which meant that individually created ones were honestly incredibly rare.

Not to mention the necessary hardware both terms of in quantity and quality that was needed to have it running smoothly. Comparing the sensations of the world around you lagging with all that that entailed to your character rubber-banding from behind your computer was like comparing riding a kid tricycle and gunning it down a straight strip on a the world's fastest motorbike.

It was borderline impossible.

<"Everythi- Haah... Haa... Everything hurts... Hugk-!?"> Jun complained haggardly before hastily throwing himself out of the way of an incoming blow, currently on the verge of collapsing. His body was now also sporting a coat of brand new paint majorly consisting of a battered blue and bruised purple alongside an eye-catching layer of splatters and tiny streams of bloody red.

Getting hit by an unreasonably powerful swat that sent him to the ground he quickly scrambled to get back up and entered a sprint wanting to get as far away from the monster behind him as possible, the monster which shortly after caught up to him surrounded by a layer of mild winds aiding her as she started circling around him.

Imprisoned by a functionally omni-directional storm of blows courtesy of her speedy repositioning beating him back and forth, all he could do was trying to weather through it.

He had probably never felt as trapped, miserable and suppressed as he did now prior to this day.

Whilst she had in fact, according to his previous assumptions, begun the fight with a period of prodding him, he felt that this 'prodding' was just a teeny tiny bit more intense than preceding examples.

He could've sworn the girl had it out for him or something, at least she was acting with substantially more aggression against him than she did his team.

The match had initially started fairly slow which lasted just about... maybe 10 seconds or so, and that was his more generous estimate.

After that the pace had ramped up faster than he could react starting with her matching his punch rather than blocking or just tanking them, something she had done up until then.

The few moments he was reeling from the pain that came with what felt like punching a mountain wall, that also sped towards him, he was hit with a blisteringly quick blow to the chin snapping it to the left and instantly lost control of his body resulting with him down on the ground completely disoriented.

Then she apparently changed her mind again and reverted back to her previous approach.

Proceeding to take some distance and wait, presumably for him to stand up again, rather than pressing her advantage. The unexpected aggression replaced by a weighty intense stare locking onto him with an almost imperceptible eagerness, Jun managing to perceive what he thought were slight hints of anticipation hanging off her shoulders adding a touch of liveliness to her form.

Still plagued by a noticeable sluggishness to his being he was fairly sure wasn't abating anytime soon or even until the match ended for that matter, his mind quickly spun to life guessing as to what she was expecting him to do.

Whatever it was she evidently wasn't too keen on being kept waiting for too long, Jun forced to disorientedly scramble up to his feet when she dashed towards him after a short pause.

He had a feeling that trying to run away from her was the wrong move, the girl starting to aggressively hounding him immediately afterwards.

It was only a few minutes later whilst being pummeled to hell and back that he finally connected the dots when the care which she handled Quill's body with compared to everyone else's flashed through his mind.

He hadn't thought much of it at the time, which in hindsight maybe he should have considering that it was a deviation in her previously displayed behaviorial patterns, but could it be that she was impressed with his performance?

If that was true then it all made sense in a way. She wasn't expecting to fight against him, Jun, specifically. She was expecting another Quill, which...

...Yeah. He had no confidence that he could replicate his feats, it was next to impossible. He just didn't have the grit necessary to push himself to that level.

With that said, though he had now solved a few doubts of his, this revelation still did absolutely nothing to help him fend her off and the pain was quickly ramping up in both volume and intensity, he didn't know how much longer he could hold on.

Somehow managing to stumble his way out of the storm of blows he was trapped in he quickly booked it, though decidedly less energetically than before.

He was then subjected to her 'tender' mercies for the next while, an exprience he fairly quickly determined he'd rather not relive anytime soon.

Thankfully after he didn't know how long, but still a much too long, period of time later he was finally granted respite in the form of Kaya's voice.

<"Mission completed shitty boss, I'm done over here."> She reported coolly, her voice almost taking on an angelic tint as he processed her wonderful words.

<"My guardian angel! Have you finally taken pity on this lowly one and come to bestow upon me salvation, to save me from this eternal torture sentenced to be constantly hounded by such a fearsome beast!">

<"...What the hell are you talking about? Did she scramble your brain that much? Hurry up and die so we can get out of here.">

His passion filled plea fell flat, receiving a series of derisive jabs in response.

<"Yeah, yeah. I know. I won't go down without a fight though, I'm going out with a bang. Witness and be in awe of your captain's prowess.">

She sent over an unconvinced scoff hearing his boasting.

Thankfully he was by now proficient enough in using the connection to prevent the signs of his current physical state bleeding into the transmissions, his declaration would've been kinda lame if he was constantly hissing in pain and panting in between his words.

Anyhow he supposed it was time for him deliver on his statement now that their objective was completed, he couldn't tarnish his image as their very competent, unbelievably badass, dashingly handsome and most importantly reliable leader after all.

Kaya having access to not only their telepathic chat records but also the ensuing video footage which she'd probably lord over him if he messed up had absolutely nothing to do with it.

Sending a glance behind him his eyes suddenly widened before he instantly threw his dead-tired body to the side, the spinning form of the girl and the leg just about to take his head sailing over and past him.

Crashing down to the ground and withholding another hiss of pain after harshly landing on his shoulder due his hasty evasion, he kept his eyes on the girl who landed with only a slight stumble before unfairly quickly regaining her footing and shot towards him.

Taking a deep breath whilst readying himself for a last ditch effort Jun steeled his nerves, eyes sharpening into focus as he struggled to track her figure elusively swaying side to side possessing an unnatural fluidity leaving a trail of dust serpents in her wake.

When he thought she was close enough he quickly sprung into action, resolutely raking his fingers across the ground ignoring the damage they sustained he sent a small wave of dust and pebbles her way.

Jun clicked his tounge upon seeing her just swerve around it but had already accounted for that possibility, his shirt that he had gradually unbuttoned since a while ago meeting her hopefully covering enough of her sight for him to get in a last blow.

Closely shadowing behind it an intense expression of concentration hung on his face as he sent a wild haymaker through the airborn shirt watching her legs visible underneath it to roughly determine her position.

He was just about internally celebrating his success, the girl who probably registered something wrong having stopped her legs but was still swiftly sliding towards the ultimate destination of his fist by the leftover momentum.

However as he was doing a last second check of her location, his mind stuttered when her legs had disappeared after a few mere moments of inattention.

He suddenly had a bad feeling about following through but was too committed to the punch and unable to stop himself in time, though whether that ultimately would have changed the outcome had he managed it was debatable.

Jun shortly after found his target tempestously spinning in a constant somersault through the air slightly above him, only managing to utter a curse before her heel smashed him into the ground like a boulder dropping at terminal velocity.

"Fuck."

A multitude of crisp cracks sang out in a synchronous choir of brutal violence accomanied by the ground cratering and dust scattering, a puddle of blood soon pooling around his head planted into the indent.

The crowd now temporarily desensitized to her casual nonchalance in ruthlessly dispatching her opponents could focus more on the pure bloodshed they craved, erupting into booming noise of savage revelry.

"Just one more and we're in the clear..." James muttered in slight disbelief, hands shakingly clenched in muted excitement as the end of this hell was quickly approaching.

"So it seems."

"Y-You don't think their last member can win somehow, right? Nana's so strong, surely no one would be able to beat her, r-right?" James felt a jittery paranoia set in, he didn't want to stumble at the finish line after all that had happened.

"Normally I'd say it wouldn't matter how strong you were since a single unlucky accident could be your end, but in this case I'm unsure if anyone present could even damage her beyond scraps with the options available."

"Yes! I mean, yes. Yes, that's... That's good. Good." James closed his eyes and took a fortifying breath trying to calm down.

...

"How incredibly... well it was amazing in a way, I guess." Kaya eventually concluded after watching her boss being smashed into the ground, unsurprised by the outcome.

"My turn then, let's get this over with so I can finally get out of here. I seriously need a bath, I feel like all the blood particles, if that's even a thing, floating around are trying to form a second skin around me." She let out a sigh as she stood up, she was familiar with the feeling.

It was something that usually happened during particularly bloody missions. At this point she was somewhat acclimated courtesy of the sheer number of times it had happened, but the phantom sensations of a humid, sticky wet blanket clinging onto her was still extremely uncomfortable.

Walking into the middle of the arena she had no intentions of even trying to fight back. Sorry, not sorry, if the kid was expecting anything other than complete inaction from her then she was in for a big heaping spoon of disappointment.

Fighting's never been her thing and it wasn't about to start either, she left that to the four readily available idiots.

Shoving her hands into the unbelievably rare pockets included in her pants she just waited for the match to start.

A couple of minutes and a short countdown later she watched placidly as the girl shot towards her, Kaya doing her best to squash the nervousness she never quite managed to get rid of, but hey. Dying in VR was still dying, kind of.

Whilst she was internally steeling herself she suddenly raised an eyebrow when the girl shortly after skidded to a halt just in front of her leaving shallow trails behind her.

Standing her ground she idly noted that the girl was a bit taller than she first thought, Kaya ending up having to slightly raise her head to look into the dull eyes staring down at her in what she was fairly certain was confusion.

Trying to glean her mood from looking at her face might as well have been like talking to a wall for all good it did but Kaya was surprised to find the girl's eyes rather expressive in comparison, though it was only really visible up close.

"What do you want? Stop wasting my time and just get it done with, I'm so over this already." Kaya commanded with a small frown as she crossed her arms, habitually shifting her weight to cock her hip to the side as she defiantly stared up into the girl's orbs.

Orbs which briefly captivated her with their exotically beautiful appearance intermixing with a sense of single-minded purity hidden just beneath before she quickly broke out of her daze and shook it off.

Thrown off by the borderline supernatural charm radiating from the girl's eyes she was suddenly startled by said girl making an inquisitive noise through her nose.

She most definitely didn't jump.

"What!?"

"Fight." A full but flat voice imbued with an addictive smoky quality pleasantly enveloped her in a smoldering warmth, ensnaring her mental faculties into it's seductive clutches she almost didn't want to escape.

Attempting to respond merely resulted in a series of stutters she managed to force out before she snappily shut her currently useless mouth with a 'clack' and then took a deep breath followed by a facepalm of disgruntlement.

"Eugh, so freaking unprofessional." A scoff. "Really, Kaya? A mostly stellar record for years straight and it's a voice that gets you tussled up? A kid's voice at that? Unbelievable." She berated under her breath after cutting her mic's broadcasting function, her already crossed arms allowing for an easier time doing it discreetly.

Taking a few moments to calm down and get back on track she then raised her head to look at the girl with an unamused expression plastered onto her face, only 'very slightly' peeved at her.

"No. I'm not gonna fight you, alright? Look, just stop wasting both of our time and kill me so I can get out of here."

The girl went quiet, just staring down at her blankly whilst Kaya impatiently tapped her foot as she waited. Just as her patience was thinning the girl finally reacted, directing an questioningly tilted head her way.

"...Fight?"

"No! I already told you, I'm not gonna fight with you so just kill me already!" She growled in irritation. What about her words was the girl finding so hard to understand? She wasn't about to just up and change her mind just because she kept asking.

The girl apparently didn't get that particular memo, or just she just threw it in the trash thinking it was spam mail.

"Fight." She repeated.

"No."

"Figh-"

...

"Fight."

"No! Shut the fuck up and just kill me already! You're just fucking with me, aren't you!? Bitch!" Kaya eventually screeched at the stubborn girl after a good minute of back and forth.

When said girl went quiet following her outburst a now panting Kaya thought she finally managed to get through her multiple steel wall thick skull, idly wiping a drop of sweat brought by her currently boiling annoyance and the slight exertion from all the screaming.

She was wrong.

"Fight."

"You-!" Kaya let out a choked noise of barely contained rage as her hands balled into tightly clenched fists painfully digging into her palms. If glares could kill, the girl would've been dead ten times over by the wrath filled glower she directed up at her.

This reminded her the time she tried arguing with what must've been the world's most annoying little shit of a kid, she only just barely managed to hold herself back from beat the snot-nosed brat up because she was in a public at the time.

Morals could go fuck themselves where the sun doesn't shine, the hell spawn fucking scratched and buckled her ride and then tried accusing her of lying when she called 'it' out.

Whilst still holding the goddamn stick 'it' used, on top of a handful of ping-pong sized rocks scattered below which 'it' was throwing at said ride.

She had tried to be reasonable at first, but when the massive bitch of a mom that eventually arrived actually believed the actual bullshit spewing out of 'it's' mouth and absolutely refused to take even an iota of responsibility even with video evidence she gathered courtesy of a nearby surveillance cam?

Well, let's just say that a few very raunchy pictures the bitch probably hadn't intended to be seen by anyone had appeared online the next day.

Kaya had incidentally also just happened to have gotten interested in some of the more popular games currently up and graciously borrowed a few accounts from a very, albeit involuntary, generous donator.

Indefinitely, that is.

Petty?

Absolutely.

Lazy?

Kinda. She had the evidence she just couldn't be bothered to use it.

Even if not on the same level, she was now reliving her nightmares.

Difference being that this kid she actually could choose to beat up to vent, an impulsive decision she soon regretted.

Accompanied by a fury filled shout she directed an anger-filled punch with her everything behind it smashing into the girl's abs, which, in hindsight, might've not been the best place to aim but she wasn't really thinking straight at the time.

Her fist struck true producing a dull smack.

Kaya remained in the punching posture, idly noting that the girl currently looking down at her with something akin to confusion wasn't moved an inch.

A few moments passed before her arm gradually started to quiver minutely, shortly after beginning to tremble.

Tenderly retrieving her now shaking arm a prolonged strangled wheeze of pain soon escaped her constricted throat, her other hand flying up to tightly clench her wrist whilst she stumbled back unsteadily.

"M-My hand..." She croaked raspily. "My hand! My fucking haaand... W-What the fuck are you made of!? What do they feed you!? Metal scraps!? Motherfuckk-" An jolt of electricity suddenly shot through her arm deepening her wincing grimace, apparently attemping to tense it wasn't a good idea. Did she damage her brachiosaurus plex?

Whilst she was suffering in agony she inadvertently spied the girl in her periphery look down and leisurely scratch at the spot of impact before raising her head, meeting her eyes.

"Fight?"

"Oh- F-Fuuuck youuuu." Kaya grit out through gnashed teeth, her breathing calming to deep inhales and exhales from the previous disorderly rapid pace as the pain slowly turned into a constant dull pulsing instead of an overwhelmingly, incapitating red-hot searing.

The hair on the back of Kaya's neck suddenly shot up seeing the girl take a step towards her, her mind entering a frenzy when the girl began walking her way.

Although she wanted to get out of the game now that it was useless to stay any longer, she didn't want to go out in a state of extreme pain either. She had hoped the girl would just quickly end her and be done with it but noooo, when had her luck ever been that good.

Her mind spun as she tried coming up with a solution, one quenching the girl's weird thirst for battle and resulting in her, hopefully as painlessly as possible, departure from the game.

Whlist she was thinking she started slowly pedal backwards to keep some distance between the two of them, eventually ending up with her back against the wall of bars unable to proceed any further.

It was only when the girl was uncomfortably close that the metaphorical light blub clicked inside her head, a genius idea arriving with an angelic choir in the background as her ticket out of here in the shape of a plan began slowly forming.

If she succeeded not only would she accomplish her immediate goal of minimizing her pain as much as possible, she would also gain an unexpected hidden ace she could pull on in the future in case she needed some extra oomph.

"W-W-Wait. Wait. Wait! Wait! Y-You wouldn't want to fight with someone like me right? I'm like super. Super, super~ weak! But I can help you fight stronger people! Like Quill! You remember Quill, right? The old guy from my team." She stammered with her arms raised in front of her, gesturing for the girl to stop which she thankfully did directing a curious stare her way.

"Y-Yeah. Yeah! I meet strong people all the time in my line of work, you know? I've even met some people stronger than old man Quill." Kaya assured enticingly, her confidence returning feeling the control of the situation shift in her favor. She had a feeling she could emerge from this mission with far more than what she expected going in, now she just had to not screw this up.

Discreetly snaking a hand into her jacket whilst drawing attention to the other she, with a few taps, made it appear to the outside world that the two of them were staring silently staring each other down.

Unfortunately this required both her tablet, the extensively pre-programmed apps stored inside it, and her gradually increasing influence over this digital space courtesy of the slowly spreading virus to pull off.

Which kinda sucked major ass since she needed to penetrate into the cores of digital spaces before she could act like a badass mage and start slinging spells around.

Well, what in her mind classified as spells were a gross over-exaggeration but spellslinger sounds way cooler than 'partytrickslinger'. Even the 'illusion dome' was just replaying a loop of recycled footage rather than creating it from nothing.

"You wanna know more?" A smile spread on Kaya's face seeing the girl nod intrigued and launched the sales pitch of the century.

Describing what their team did which in simple terms were modern digital 'adventurers', accepting commissions from a forum where all kinds of requests popped up.

She gave the girl a brief rundown about what kinds of commissions you'd expect from things like bounty hits, espionage, sabotage, inflitration, shutting down and or invading other digital spaces to things like bodyguards, handymen and so on.

Surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly, requests for architects, designers, experienced programmers, artists and professions in similar strokes were very sought after and often very lucrative.

Fuelling the neverending dick-measuring contest of 'hey, look how important I am' with increasingly elaborate design requests for digital spaces, or, well, you know, people not wanting their world to be a blank space most of them defaulted to for some reason.

Ranging from dark to light to grey and every other shade in that monochromatic spectrum, you could find bits and pieces of it all posted onto the forum's board.

After condensing the information down into a short period non-stop talking since she didn't want to make it 'too' obvious that something fucky was going on outside, she soon finished and waited for the girl's answer.

"So, how about it? Interested? It sounds fun, doesn't it~ I bet there's no end to requests involving strong fighters just waiting for you~" Kaya had a customer-service worthy smile on her face as she coaxed softly.

Suppressing a whoop of elation once the girl once again nodded she quickly brought up both of their previously locked out menus.

"Okay, I'm sending you a friend reque-" Kaya suddenly blinked, stunned as the girl hit decline almost before the window even popped up.

"Oookay...? Did you hit it by accident when you moved your hand? Don't worry I'll just send it again ahah-"

"..."

She did it again.

A beat of silence stretched.

She kept her gaze on the girl as she very slowly reached out to send another friend request, her eye twitching as the girl's arm snapped out, Kaya's friend request rejected the moment it appeared.

A deadpan slowly wormed it's way up Kaya's face as she started spamming friend requests, each and every single one of them being ruthlessly declined and dismissed with a machine-like efficiency.

A throbbing vein popping on her temple growing in strength for every denied request.

"Can yo- Can you stop!? Didn't you agree already!? I'm not letting you back out now bitch, you're my new ace in the hole! You hear me!?" Kaya eventually exploded.

Running forwards she grabbed the girl's arm and tried holding it still whilst continuing her request spam which amounted to nothing, the girl easily overpowering her grasp.

She wasn't deterred however, she wasn't going to let such a lucky encounter slip through her fingers.

So.

She kept trying.

Ultimately it ended with a sweaty Kaya haggardly panting as she clung onto the girl's arm like a koala, forced into employing her last resort.

"P- Hah... Puh-... Please stop... Hah... I'm- I'm gonna die."

She begged.

Fortunately the girl actually acquiesced to her desparate plea.

As the girl's movements slowly came to a stop Kaya had just let out a wheezing sigh of relief when another jolt of electricity shot through her arm. Her limb tensed inertly making her lose her grip.

An abrupt weightlessness accompanied by an alarming sense of urgency washed over her, Kaya's heart skipping a beat before she let out a startled yelp frantically flailing about in a panic as she dropped.

Closing her eyes and bracing for impact with the ground her momentum was suddenly arrested courtesy of a strong hand securely snatching up the fabric of her jacket in a tight grip.

The next moment her arms instantly surged forward to wrap around whatever was holding her up before then cautiously peeking through narrowed eyes, pleasantly surprised to see the girl being her timely savior.

Look, look, her gamble's already paying off.

Preventing her fall might've not been that big of a deal but it was the principle of the matter, the girl had 'saved' her.

Who knows. It was a fall this time, maybe next time the girl would pull her out of something a bit more pressing.

Reaffirming her decision to coax the girl into not only being her standby trumpcard, but also voluntarily wanting to protect herself, Kaya unfurled her legs which had instinctively tightened around the girl's shoulder when she was about to fall and stood up properly.

"Thanks for the save, boo." She gave the girl's muscular arm a grateful pat as her heart-rate slowly returned to normal.

"Now then, let's try this again shall we?"

...

"F-Finally..." Kaya breathed out a deeply exhausted sigh after spending what she felt was hours painfully trying to convince the girl that the weird notion she'd gotten into her head of only smashing the left most button on system windows wasn't always right.

However, she succeeded at last. It wasn't easy but she did it, Kaya seriously felt like she was pulling teeth with how stubborn the girl was.

Now she just had to arrange the scene a little bit before she could get out of here.

"Come here. Good. Okay, stand here. A bit to the left, too much. Nope, back a bit. Okay! Perfect. Stand there until I give the signal, alright?" She dragged the girl over and then tried positioning her so as to, as much as possible, overlap with the 'illusion' figure currently displayed to the outside.

"You also remember what we talked about, right? Kill me as quickly and as painlessly as possible and when we're both out of here I'll contact you. After that it's just a matter of time before you can fight as many strong people as you want."

"Mn."

"Good! Alright, here we go." Kaya also took her place pushed up against the bars, adjusting her expression as best she could and then dismissed the 'illusion dome' around them and sent the girl a wink, their 'signal'.

She saw the girl dash towards her and a few moments later her vision turned black after which she respawned inside their team's personal digital space.

...

"S-She did it..." James muttered dazedly as he slowly pushed himself off the ground, his body shaking in a mix of jittery excitement, hope of finally being able to leave, a slight disbelief, a flood of relief and so much else he didn't even know half of it.

Orson let out a grunt in affirmation as he followed the boy's lead, climbing up onto his feet but predictably more confidently and without the quivering.

Instead, his brows were somewhat furrowed in confusion. He had a gut feeling that something had happened towards the end of the match, not that it lasted very long. The woman's initial attitude going into the fight, the prolonged stare down during it and the minute displacement of their bodies towards the end.

He wasn't buying it.

At least the lass didn't outwardly portray that anything had happened, sporting her usual expression of dull vacancy she'd so far established to be her neutral face as she gently lowered the woman's body to the ground.

It wasn't to the degree with which she handled her previous opponents' body with, but it was noticeable enough.

So something did happen after all...

Orson eventually shook his head after a few moments of thought, the lass didn't look bothered and he didn't intend to pry either.

It seems his nostalgia and the handful of similarities she shared with his old friend had made him quite concerned about her affairs despite the short time they'd interacted.

If they kept in contact he'd have to keep a tight leash on that, to remind himself that in spite of their resemblance they were at the end of the day not the same person.

"And would you believe it!? Against all odds, she's managed to pull through! Not only did she win whilst acting as her team's only fighter, she doesn't even look all that winded even after cleaving through team, after team, after team!" The commentator's enthusiastic voice boomed across the arena as the two of them came up to stand next to Nana.

"I don't know about you guys but I myself arrived today expecting to see two things, copious amounts of blood and some fucking monsters in human skin! And in my humble opinion, I wouldn't say I was particularly disappointed with what I was delivered. Don't you agree, people!?"

A wave of chaotic noise caused by countless roars of approval followed his announcement almost loud enough to drown out his next words.

"Now, then. I think it's about time to hand out the prizes!"

"There's prizes?" James whispered in justifiable confusion, he didn't think actual prizes would be a thing considering the game's premise and it's probably unhinged creators.

Orson shrugged, it wouldn't be the weirdest thing he'd ever seen.

Meanwhile Nana's attention had been caught by a brand new avenue of training she'd just discovered, something she gathered was somehow unlocked as a result of more and more of the 'cage' around her mind snapping apart.

Outwardly expressed in the form of her right arm fiercely trembling in a state of what seemed to be extreme physical exertion causing the veins shooting through them to pop out, her muscles crazily twitching as if strained by an invisible weight.

"First off we've got some badges to everyone on the winning team, whether they deserve it or not, they don't really do anything other than showing that you've managed to last until the end of this whole thing. Here ya go."

A trio of palm sized objects shot out from the sky flying towards the three of them.

James' badge nailing him in the face.

Orson's placidly landing in his outstretched hand.

Nana's instinctively snatched out of the air by her unoccupied hand the moment it got close enough.

"Apparently it's got the nerds' seal of approval for being completely unable to be replicated no matter what, how the hell they managed that or how you'd even distinguing between a fake and the genuine thing I have no idea, but good for you I guess."

The badges themselves looked like blocky black square tiles the thickness of a thinner book with a pointed bottom edge sporting intricate strands of golden accents running up it's sides imbuing it with a certain sense of regality and a heavy sense of imposing pressure.

Like items carried by royals from an ancient time long since forgotten.

It also had a jagged-wave patterned golden piece clamped onto the top minutely extending past the main body's breadth reminiscent of a hamon line as if to clue the unknowing into a past of illustrious martial might.

Engraved on it's front was an eerily slender gauntlet reaching up to grasp at the air with a swarm of ghostlike wisps circling around it's form, like a slain warrior just revived as an unholy creature of the night surrounded by vengeful souls of the dead.

James felt a bone-chilling coldness flush through his system as he looked down at it, almost dropping the badge in his startled state.

His shaking hand allowed him to catch a glimpse of something peeking around it's side and turned it over to see his name alongside a 'title' bestowed upon him engraved on the back.

[James - The Chivering Chicken]

"..."

"...Really? They couldn't even spelled it right? It takes like two seconds to just check, they didn't bother even doing that!?" James' expression soured, muttering angrily under his breath as he glared down at the badge, his previous dread suddenly cast aside to make way for boiling irritation.

"Orson, what's your title?" He suddenly turned to ask feeling like his accomplishment of staying mostly sane throughout this genuinely godawful day was being completely invalidated. He didn't fight sure, but Orson only fought a single match, and against someone that understandably didn't fight back at that.

[Orson - The Reticent Veteran]

"What the f- Why's there such a difference!?"

"I wouldn't be surprised if they took general behavior into account rather than just the fights when determining the titles." Orson mused calmly.

"I-... I mean, I guess that makes sense? But come on, couldn't they have at least given me something that didn't paint me as a someone that'd run at the first sign of danger!?"

The uncaring shrug James received in response to his very reasonable complaint resulted in a grumpy, sullen expression appearing on his face.

"Nana could I see what you got as your title too?" He didn't hold much hope that she'd receive something lackluster after her showing but he was kinda curious now, if she did they could bond over being trashy title buddies.

When she turned to give him a questioning stare James who was by now more accustomed to some of her quirks simply showed her what he meant, directing his badge and the title side towards her, Nana mimicking him a few moments later.

[Nana - The Drowsy Dragon Turtle]

"..."

"Yeah... I mean... It-... It's weirdly fitting in a way?"

Hearing the boy Orson also got a bit curious and leaned over to take a look, an amused huff escaping him shortly after.

"Are the three of you finally done inspecting the badges? Good, cause I'm continuing even if you're not. Anyway we're moving onto the, uh, grand prize I guess? Named after the tournament and or the game itself, kinda both I guess, either way I present to you. The [Gauntlet of the Underworld]!"

...

Eventually getting back to her own game lobby with a statuette fashioned after the emblem engraved on the badge made of some type of noxious green crystal with tones of black clinging to it's edges fastened on a circular block of jagged looking black stone, Nana simply placed the roughly meter tall trophy on the ground.

Not that she had a choice.

She never bothered with adding anything in terms of furniture or decoration to the personal digital space tied to her account that she'd been gifted by the developers as a thanks for the massive amounts of data she provided during the testing phase.

As for the trophy itself James wanted nothing to do with it since it was just as creepy as the badge in his opinion whilst Orson didn't really care, ultimately declining it considering Nana basically won it all by herself.

The two of them had also, mostly thanks to Kaya's efforts, managed to add her as a friend towards the end before they parted ways.

Speaking of which, although Nana still remembered Kaya's promise of contacting her after the tournament she felt that testing her new discoveries were more important. Her eventual call ignored, leaving her teammates to deal with a grumpy Kaya.

Leaving the VR world Nana placed her visor on it's stand and plopped down on the ground next to the bed before firing up an instance.

Her vision instantly shifted into two separate point of views.

Standing up inside the instance whilst remaining seated in the real world Nana then looked down at her hands and a few moments later a short metal bar slowly formed, one in each hand. Idly hefting them up and down Nana analyzingly examined their weights.

Traces of discontent slowly climbed up her features.

With another thought two 10kg barbells appeared on the ends of the bars. Still not satisfied she continued gradually adding more and more discs until she was left fiercely trembling in place, practically unable to move without dropping them.

Despite this however her small face was still set in a perceptible frown as she compared the difference between the sensations of the instance and the real world.

This was what she had discovered, well, just about discovered at least.

Anyhow as the prize ceremony was taking place Nana was simultanously fighting inside the instances, something that had been a near constant occurence since long ago, only rarely shutting them off.

When she felt her digital body very subtly but noticeably thanks to the monstrous control she commanded over her being and the hyper awareness it lent, start acting weirdly.

Muscles beginning to minutely twitch and tense in certain orders, her limbs wanting to move without her actively trying to, and finally, the feeling of feather like touches glancly impacting her body.

Although initially confused, she rather quickly puzzled out it's correlation with the instances she had running in the background when she shook off the suddenness of it, after which she quickly launched into a thorough examination to discern the reason in case it was something bad.

Following some initial testing, most of her concerns disappearing when the reactions stopped in tandem with her shutting down the instances, following that she did what in the past had caused both disasters and miracles in equal measure.

What humanity had repeated all throughout history dating all the way back to their time of conception, what the ancient humans had went through by first discovering fire, eventually getting over their fear of the unknown, and then-

By trial and error ultimately harnessing it's power for their own benefit.

She had in simple terms concluded that her instances could affect her actual body, solely VR body at the time granted, but apparently it worked in reality as well.

The reason for her currently disgruntled expression however, was that rather than the 100% of sensation transference present between instances and her VR body, on the contrary, her real body in comparison only received about 25% of it's total.

Thinking of a solution she eventually decided to fire up another instance and repeated the steps of the first one with the second a few moments later.

Now beginning to feel a fairly substantial load in the real world a glint of excitement flashed past her eyes before she quickly added another two instances into the mix, Nana's arms instantly crashing down to the floor as a result.

Fortunately, neither the 'barbells' she was 'holding' nor their weight physically transferred over as well, else she'd have found herself with some new holes marring her floorboards given how abruptly her hands slammed into them.

Nana blinked as she looked down at her arms before, within an instant, her strength suddenly erupted. Fiercely struggling and straining against the heavy burden bearing down on her she just barely managed to slightly raise them off the ground and keep them there, shakingly hovering in place no matter how stubbornly she tried lifting them further.

After another few minutes of messing around with her newfound ability she eventually stood up.

Letting out a hum, she spent another couple of minutes adjusting the weight distribution of the wonky suit practically covered with slots containing metal ingots of various sizes she had managed to conjure up from her slowly budding imagination.

It wasn't pretty and looked extremely inconvenient and limiting to wear, but since what she was wearing inside the instances didn't at all affect her range of motion in reality, she was pretty satisfied with it.

She made it so that it would be hard for her to move, but not to the point of completely immobilizing herself.

Incidentally.

Another positive side effect of her mind's cage's weakening was that her max number of instances she could have running before she started really losing track of her surroundings had jumped to a total of 5.

She allocated four of them to maintain the resistance, bootleg gravity training since although she, could, in theory, have only used a single one and instead increased the weights, she had a gut feeling that it would lead to lesser results in the long run.

As she made her way over to the bathroom to clean up she idly made the last instance continue her never-ending battle against her unwavering mental opponents.

---

It had been about a day since James had made his escape from the death game he was forced to enter.

A death game where he was sure he'd spent a few decades' worth of luck to make it through as... well, he wouldn't really call it leisurely himself, but he actually didn't know what else to call it in all honesty.

At least in comparison everyone else, barring a few outliers, he got out with barely a scratch if you ignored the massive amounts of stressed he went through.

He had spent his time since, lying in bed ruminating on what he was feeling and sorting out his thoughts now that he had calmed down somewhat and was both surprised and kind of scared by how little he felt the experience had affected him.

Not in the sense that it hadn't in some ways changed him, because it had. That he was sure of. But rather in the sense of how... little he felt about the whole thing. It was as if he couldn't bring himself to conjure any real emotional response towards it.

That was one of the big reasons he was so sure that he had changed.

It was possible that he just hadn't processed it yet and was in a prolonged state of muted shock, but he just... he wasn't sure, and that was what scared him.

Fortunately he hadn't gotten the urge to spontaneously go on a psychotic killing spree yet, so that was nice he supposed.

"I don't know what it says about me knowing that I was more pissed about my stupid ass title than anything else even after all of that." He let out a sigh before tiredly facepalming, groaning as he dragged his hand down his face.

"What the hell am I doing..."

---

"-ou would've liked the lass I'm sure. " Orson let out a slight chuckle.

He was currently lounging in his backyard under a large tree with a beer in hand sat on a small beach chair desperately holding on, wobbling precariously and just on the verge of buckling under his weight as he watched the sunset coloring the horizon a beautiful blend of warm oranges with tints of red and purple.

"If someone had told me the two of you were related I'd have believed it. Black hair and eyes, though I think the lass has you beat in terms of eyes, she's got some exotic peepers on her that girl. Both stubborn as mules, detrimentally curious, and both of you possessing that 'something', that unique quality that just seemed to disrupt the world's flow and conform it to your pace."

"..."

"It's just a shame that you..." A forlorn sigh escaped him as he leaned back, closing his eyes, a rumbling hum sounding out.

"..."

"Yeah, yeah. I know I shouldn't mope about like this, and while I am doing my best not to, I can't always be so damn sunnily optimistic all the time, right? That's your job. Just let me reminisce from time to time. I've managed so far, but meeting the girl brought me back to the old days."

Taking a sip of his beer he allowed himself to immerse in memories that now seemed so long ago yet also like it had happened just yesterday. Memories of a rickety shack of a house leaking at it's seams only held together by will and wish. A life of scarcity but warmth, of a group of dirty little brats starving on the streets slowly gathering together.

Like moths to a flame, they were all drawn in by the dazzling sun-like brilliance a spunky, rougish girl not much older than them radiated. Memories of a wide, fanged smile filled with vigor. Memories of the constant antics forcing the lot of them to follow along leaving no time to get dragged back down into the dreariness haunting them.

Dragging them into her light, she banished their darkness and inspired them to be more. To strive to be the best they could be despite their circumstances. To always retain that spark of curiosity. To always stand tall no matter the situation, and most importantly.

To have a hell of a time whilst doing it.

Then she got it into her head that joining the military would be fun, and of course they followed her along when she signed up. They couldn't even imagine what she'd do without one of them constantly hovering over her shoulder on a daily basis, nevermind on a battlefield.

And despite what they had thought, the whirlwind of a woman took to military like a fish back in water. They had to spend countless sleepless nights just to barely keep up with her progress and not fall behind too far.

Well, 'military' on her own terms that is. She wasn't much for rules, but other than her tendency to ignore orders when she could she was the embodiment of a soldier through and through.

After multiple showings of a sharp-witted mind with a knack for picking apart enemies with an unfair ease, the combat prowess of a natural born warrior mastering both armed and unarmed combat in record time, and to top it all off that magnetic charisma of hers alongside her innately commanding air made for a stellar leader.

Was it any wonder she climbed up the ladder so quickly even with her quirks?

It wasn't long until she had unintentionally amassed an 'army' within the army who'd probably follow her to hell and back with just a word.

It was all going great. With her at the top, with them as the cornerstone of her command structure, and the hundreds of people inspired either by her feats, the rumors surrounding her or merely drawn into her world, just as they had been once upon a time.

And then it suddenly went wrong, so, so wrong.

The light of the brightly shining sun lion had been snuffed out just like that.

Exchanged in order to save countless mothers from losing their sons, wives their husbands, sons and daughters their fathers and mothers.

He remembered it so vividly still unto this day, cradling her body as the blazing flame slowly but surely dimmed and shortly after shone it's last luster.

"Orson..." She breathlessly wheezed out, covered in ash, dirt and blood.

"T's been one hell of a ride ain't it, huh? Wun't ya say?"

"This is probably the end of the journey for me."

"..."

"Heh, you always were the silent broody type. Ever since ya were a wee lil' brat. Khah- Hahaha! Kh-!" He remembered his fingers trembling as she coughed up flecks of blood.

"Now, when I'm gone, you take care of the boys ya hear?"

He heard the crunch of the boots brought by the others arriving, a suffocating silence surrounding hanging over them as they huddled around the closest thing to a mother and a father they'd had. The glue binding their family together, the person that brought them together as brothers.

"Ah, that you guys? I think my eyes are going, can't see shit anymore."

A choked sob came from his left.

"Ay, what're you snivellin' for? My adventure might have come to an end, but yours are just beginnin' you'll see."

"I-I don't want an adventure without you, sis-"

"That's Henny ain't it? Where are ya you big crybaby." She cut him off, shakily reaching out with her hand.

Henny quickly crouched down to grasp it before suddenly letting out strangled noise in surprise when her arm suddenly surged forward to catch his collar in a tight grip.

As if she was never injured at all she gave him a strong tug forcing him to follow along, ending up staring into a pair of stilling glassy eyes with their pupils blurred.

"Found ya." Her face stretched into the usual fanged smirk she often wore though as much as she tried hiding it, there was no mistaking the haggardness marring her features, despite that however, she was just as intense as ever. Her commanding tone compelling them to hang onto her every word and engrave it into their memories.

"Listen up, and listen closely. Cause I'm probably only getting to say this once. I know it may seem like a big deal here and now, but think about it like this. This is not a goodbye, it's a see you later. I'm gonna be waiting for you bastards right behind the veil and I'll even get to find out what's there first."

"And before I'm done explorin' all there is over there, I'm forbidding you from following after me. You hear?"

"I also want you guys to explore the rest of what this world has to offer on my behalf, I know it's a bit selfish but I'm curious, what can ya do. And after you've done that, I want you to go on the biggest adventure you've ever gone on. I don't care what you do as long as you behave, but I want one hell of a story from each of you when we meet again and I'm not accepting anything less."

"Oh, and also. Each adventure can't end until you're all at least 100 years old. If you croak before the big triple digits I'm gonna be waiting with a bat in hand. Just-... Just for you."

"Everyone... You got that...?"

"..."

"Heh, we're... We're playin' silent chicken are we? G-Good... Hah... cuz'... I- I'm gonna wi-"

...

Orson let out a shaky sigh as he emerged from his memories, hand tightly gripping the beer bottle whilst he used his other to wipe a stray tear from his eye.

He closed his eyes and sat in completely silence for the next couple of minutes, just feeling the light breeze caressing his body and inhaled large breaths of fresh air through his nose as he slowly steadied himself.

"Now that I think about it, I haven't checked in with those idiots for a while, huh." He mused silently.

He continued quietly relaxing occasionally taking sips from the beer. It was only after the bottle was empty that he leisurely reopened his eyes. Placing the bottle down next to him, he rooted around the inside of his vest for a moment or two before finding an old photo.

It was a wheathered thing, a few white cracks cutting through the chaotic scene it depicted. A little girl with a wild grin dressed in rags, a tattered general's cap placed on top of an unruly lion's mane of hair striking a heroic pose on top of a wrecked car with a stick in hand pointed into the sky.

Two boys sporting panicked expressions stood next to the car trying to persuade her to get down, arms raised to catch her in case she fell. Another two were yelling at each other as they, as quickly as they possibly could, dragged an old mattress towards it, their faces scrunched and teeth gritted in exertion.

Lastly, standing more towards the edge of the photo was a lanky boy with a pair of striking light blue eyes directed at the girl in wonder as he tried replicating her pose, stick in hand and a bucket on his head.