The Dogs

"Flank him! FLANK HIM!"

"Calm down, Hiro…"

"I TOLD YOU NOT TO CALL ME THAT!"

Someone cackles. I can feel my shoulders beginning to cramp from being way too tense, but I hold my breath, spamming buttons.

"Got him," I call out, releasing a breath I didn't know I was holding.

"NICE!" The little figure with the name 'CRIMSON' following above his head charges into the now-scattered enemy ranks, aiming for the weakest hero.

"Hiro, hang on," Mori complains weakly. Carrying a huge shield and claymore, 'riki' struggles to keep up with Hiro's whirling hero, cutting down enemy forces left and right with no care for his depleting health bar.

I take a moment to hide in a bush, watching my health bar creep back up to full and my cooldowns tick by. Typically playing the assassin role in the team, I nip in, weaken the opponents greatly, and get out quickly.

"How are you feeling?" The bush shimmers next to me, and 8 appears, or Hachi, as we call him. He tosses me an MP (magic point) recovery spell.

The question is kindly left open-ended. How are you feeling about this game? This character? About life? Do your eyes hurt?

But knowing that he's streaming (as usual), I simply reply, "Thanks. But my shoulders hurt."

He grunts, or hums, or makes a noncommittal noise in return.

I like talking to Hachi, mostly because we don't talk at all.

"He's getting away!" Mori cries out, breaking into our silent conversation.

With one HP (health point) left, the last enemy opponent stumbles away back to their base. Predictably, Hiro hadn't watched his health bar and was down for the count, and Mori was too slow as a tank to chase them down.

"I got him." I use the teleport I'd been saving up, apparating into a nearby bush and striking them down in a satisfying maneuver.

"Wipe out!" the in-game announcer cheers.

We gather back at base, recovering our points while the enemy death cooldown ticks by.

"Dude, where were you?" Hiro asks irritably, as the fifth and final member of our crew pops up next to us.

It didn't take a genius to know that he was embarrassed over letting the last enemy slip away, and as a result, angry. Hiro's response to most things did tend to be anger. The smartest thing to do was to just let him blow it off.

"Helping," Aoi replies innocently. Creatively, his in-game name is Blue.

We all snort. Mori starts laughing. "With all those buffs? No way!"

More like he'd been stealing the opponent's power-ups while we'd all been struggling to pin down the opponent team - not that we needed the help, we knew how to be good enough in most configurations of the team.

A gong sounds. "Opponent team has surrendered!" the emcee thunders cheerfully.

"Hell yeah!" Hiro whoops, followed by the sound of his chair creaking as if he'd just leapt out of it. I can almost imagine Hachi's solemn nod of approval.

"Good work, guys," I say. It had been a great game; one of our best plays, even.

"Yeah, good work, Blue," Hiro sniffs, putting extra emphasis on "Blue". "I'm gonna go piss."

Aoi just laughs in response.

"Me too," Mori says. Out of game, she immediately returns to her shy, soft-spoken self, no more raising of her voice or tone out of excitement.

"Take your time," I tell her, to which she replies a tiny "thanks".

On Hachi's end, we hear nothing but the sound of a chair creaking, then a door opening and closing.

"Guess he's gone too," Aoi comments unnecessarily.

Unsure if Hachi still had his stream on, I keep silent.

"Hey, you really came in clutch back there," Aoi says again, as if attempting to break the ice.

"Thanks," I reply automatically, and we immediately burst out laughing at how mechanical I sound. "I'm sorry. I'm turning in after the next one."

"Aw," he says. The sound brings to mind Aoi's habit of tilting his head to the side when he's considering something, his blonde head in need of a haircut yet still managing to be artfully tousled. "It's not even two yet. School?"

"Yeah." When was the last time I'd seen Aoi in person - four months now, maybe more? He always seemed to miraculously have other plans overlapping when we met, though what he did out of school, none of us knew.

"Pity." I can hear the pout in his voice. It's the same pout that gets him illegal discounts at cafes, or second looks from girls passing by as we sit around, our little crew of gamers, outside a convenience store. "I'll miss you."

"I'M BACK," Hiro interrupts, his voice distorting roughly from shoving his face into the mic. I jump.

"Wow. Bitch," Aoi responds.

"I'm back too," Mori says timidly.

"I'm not a bitch, bitch." Hiro sasses him back without missing a beat. "Hachi?"

He grunts. As far as we knew, he'd been there the whole time and we hadn't known.

"To the finals we go!" Aoi cheers.

The final match ends inexplicably quickly, due to a fatal mistake that the opponent team had made. Hiro was in high spirits (like a small dog, quick to anger but easy to please) at their utter and devastating defeat, and kept crowing about his MVP (most valuable player) status as the rewards came in and the highlights scrolled by.

I begin to feel the weariness behind my eyes, and yawn my first yawn of the night.

"Did you just yawn?" Hiro accuses, to which someone else responds with their own yawn.

"I have school tomorrow," I tell him apologetically.

"Don't you both have school tomorrow?" Aoi points out.

"Shut up! That's lame. I don't."

We all knew that was untrue. Hiro and I had been classmates for a full year before we'd realised who the other was. It'd been entirely a coincidence, a stray soccer ball leaving a bump on both mine and his head. Then we'd been allowed to sit out, had taken out our phones to play a round… and as they say, the rest was history.

"You should sleep soon," Mori says worriedly. Hachi makes a sound of approval, followed by the tapping of keys. Replying to comments, maybe? If he ever did that.

"I will," I tell her. "But I can stay and chat a bit."

"You and the Dogs are invited to try out our new game, Blood Oath."

We all fall silent for a moment, digesting the fact that Hachi had just spoken, then what he'd just said.

"Blood Oath is the most accomplished game on a VR headset that we have ever created. We are willing to partially sponsor VR headsets if you require them. Please reply to this email if you have made your decision."

"Dude? No way," Hiro breathes.

"Yeah," Aoi says, for once at a loss for words.

I can feel the same thrill of excitement fizzing up in my stomach echoed in their words. "Is it for real?"

"Yeah," Hachi says, with a tone implying that he's done talking for the night.

Mori squeaks, as if something just occurred to her. "Hachi, are you still streaming?"

"Shit," the boys echo. Hachi furiously clicks a couple of buttons to shut it off.

But the thought of such a big thing getting leaked was hardly the first thing on my mind. For the past year, Blood Oath had been the most highly anticipated game, on console, on the computer, even on mobile, if your poor phone could handle it.

And now it was coming to virtual reality? And we were getting partial sponsorship offers?

"We're taking it, right?" I ask, but as soon as I do, I know the question is moot. Of course we were. What group of gamers wouldn't?

"I didn't even know we were that well known," Mori mutters, completely in awe, which was a bit silly. The channel might have been Hachi's, and he streamed mostly alone, but all hundred thousand of his subscribers knew that we joined in so often that we'd ended up giving ourselves a name - just the Dogs, because none of us were creative enough for anything more than that.

"Well, I'm taking that sponsorship," Hiro declares.

"Me too," Mori says. "I don't have a set at home… but my parents should be okay with paying half if we all can use it."

"I don't need it." We already had a VR headset at home. "But you guys go ahead."

"I don't need it either," Aoi says, and for once didn't offer any further details.

"Okay, rich kid." I can feel Hiro's eye roll from here. "Flex or whatever."

"So three headsets." Hachi butts in before they can burst out arguing.

We all echo our assents, then another yawn wracks my body, rendering me immobile for a moment. "God, I can't do this anymore. I'm really going to bed now."

"Lame," Hiro crows. "I'm staying up."

"You always stay up, little kid," Aoi teases. "Little kid" was Hiro's least favourite nickname. "Goodnight, our loveliest assassin."

"Yeah, yeah. You're welcome." Despite managing to keep my tone neutral, I smile inwardly. Blessed with a silver spoon in his mouth, and a golden tongue besides.

"Nighty night, Yoshi!" Mori exclaims. "I'll head off too." She clicks off without waiting, and her online status quickly switches to off.

"Bye," I say again, and log off too. I see Aoi's status turn to inactive as well, leaving the two remaining boys to their own devices.