The hustle and bustle of the Delta server, which was rich with diversity and vigorous liveliness, did nothing but serve to irritate Tokki, who sat with her legs draped lazily over the concrete ledge that bordered the river. Her elbows on her knees, and her chin resting in her palms, she stared emptily into the water below. It seemed the year and a half she had spend captive had been more helpful than hurtful, as many of the players in Mac Anu didn't seem to recognize her anymore. In essence, she could thank both her year and a half absence, and the not-so-subtle changes in appearance she had experienced.

The glowing ball of liquid known as the mistglaive floated around her ankles, it's luminesence reflecting onto her legs. Trailing it were three smaller orbs of water that Tokki had been controlling with her eyes as she sat there. She imagined it were a train, and within it were lots of little people made of water walking about, reading papers, and listening to music through mp3 players. From her dream she was untimely ripped, as a rather large party, controlled by what sounded like 12 year olds, scurried bye. One of them, not looking where they were walking, kneed Tokki in the right shoulder, causing the three globules of liquid to fall back to the river below as Tokki's eyes left them, and darted back to the clumsy player.

Her eyes bore into his, as he peered back not to deliver an apology, but to smirk as if to say "What are you going to do about it?" Tokki knew that using her abilities in Mac Anu would draw too much attention, so instead, she just walked by him, eyes closed. His eyes never left her, and as she passed by, she turned her head quickly and caught his gaze. She could have sworn she saw his Adam's apple rise 5 inches as he gulped in poorly hidden terror.

That was sufficient for the long arm, and she continued on to the Chaos Gate. Mac Anu was lively and truly envigorating-- but that was far from what she needed at the moment. She needed to clear her head. She raised her hand towards the spinning circle as she gave it her itinerary.

"Theta Server."

Instantaneously, golden rings surrounded her body, and she was whisked away from Mac Anu, only to appear in the root town of Dun Loireag moments later. Dun Loireag had always been rather... weird... for lack of a better term, in the eyes of the Long Arm. It was the first time she had run into Grunties, the small pig-like animals that, if fed correctly, would turn into the even more awkward adult versions that players used to traverse the fields much faster. The town was a series of floating chunks of land, suspended merely by code, it seemed. Between each "island', was a walkway of land that connected it to the main strip. Players ran up and down the strips of land, traveling along the winding paths of rock and grass as they went from vendor to vendor preparing for their next quest.

Tokki scuttled along the main path, looking at the floor so as to not draw too much attention to herself, when another long arm sped by, brushing her arm and nearly knocking her off balance. Tokki's eyes widened in surprise, and then narrowed in irritation. She turned quickly, and watched as the girl ran to the Chaos Gate, paused for a moment, and then spoke out her keywords.

"Pulsating Sage's Arctic! The long arm called out. Tokki made a mental note of it, and then continued on to the item shop. She placed her slender digits upon the counter top, and begun clattering them along the hard surface to get the vendors attention.

"Ahh.. yes ma'am. How can I help you?" The vendor asked, a bit embarrassed by being caught unaware.

"Let's see, 5 Fairy Orbs, 5 Fortune Wires, 5 Sprite Ocarinas, 10 Health Drinks, and 1 Mage's Soul."

The vendor seemed taken aback by Tokki's precision in ordering her goods, but Tokki didn't show any interest in his reaction. She didn't even blink. He cleared his throat, said "Sure thing!", and began to gather up her goods. She rolled the mistglaive around in her hand, marveling in it's wonderous qualities. It could roll over her hand, and feel like cold water, yet her hand would not be wet in the slightest when she made it float off of her palm once more. Though she had been with her mistglaive for a long time, she never really got used to it.

"That will be 2010 gold pieces, miss." Tokki started off towards the Chaos Gate. It was so ridiculous, in a way, that they even had vendors here. For you didn't actually hand over the gold pieces, and they didn't actually hand over the items. The items just appeared in your inventory, and the money would just disappear from it. Although it was understandable that the NPCs vending the items were there for the sense of reality. She never really gave these NPCs the respect they deserved, for they were simply programs without emotion beyond what they are programmed with.

She stopped in front of the slow spinning chaos gate and leaned her head back, looking off into the sky, grasping at the keywords she had just set into memory, and then snapping her fingers when they came back to her.

"Pulsating Sage's Arctic!"

* * *

The temperature of the field brought a wry smile over the ice queen's usually stoic visage. She brought her hands together, intertwined her fingers, and cracked her knuckles loudly. During her ensuing stretches, that she did for no apparent reason other than to look like she was warming up to the non-existant onlooker, she heard a vaguely familiar voice shouting off a string of curses. Tokki stood up striaght, and peered around for the source of this obnoxious voice--

*THUD*

The long arm from before had run headlong into Tokki and, as if she had run into a brick wall, fell over backwards soon thereafter. She looked up shocked at Tokki, and then over her shoulder at the advancing water faeries. Tokki shook her head as if trying to get clearer reception in the memory that was currently playing in her head. She saw a mans face-- a long arm. His weapon was pulsating with life, and vines shot out from it and pierced an enemy. The same enemy they were facing right now. She couldn't, however, remember the man's name. Nor why she was fighting alongside him.

"They're too strong!" The girl sounded so frightened on the ground before Tokki. The long arm, nodded, and raised a slender hand in the direction of the Water Faerie. The mistglaive followed it's silent order, took it's usual shape, and hurled itself directly into the chest of the advancing water faerie. Once lodged inside it's prey, it grew more blades in it's center, that ripped through the faerie from the inside out, and soon caused it to diminish.

The mistglaive turned back into a ball of freezing cold water, and floated back to Tokki's side. The girl seemed amazed at the magnificent mistglaive, but Tokki paid her widened eyes no mind.

"If you're going to fight in the Θ server as a beginner, you should at least take someone along with you who can defend you. It's only logical."

The girl looked away in shame, and sighed. "Yes, I know. But I didn't know that this server was for intermediate players. Someone obviously played a prank on me when they told me to come here if I was starting out. I was expecting much weaker enemies."

Tokki's hardened visage became less tense at this explanation, and soon she let out a sigh that signified a drop in her rigidity at least for the time being.

"If you'd like, I can travel along with you. I've been quite lonely recently, anyway. I could use the company," Tokki offered. Tokki extended a gentle hand out towards the felled long arm, and did her best to smile warmly. It was the first time she had ever considered having someone walk alongside her as she traversed the world looking for her calling. Searching for her niche. Though rather sudden, it became obvious to her that it couldn't hurt in having a companion-- and so there she was, one of the most deadly long arms in the game offering her hand towards one of the newest.

It seems The World is not without a sense of irony.

"She must be new, look how she's holding her Iron Spear, like some kind of rag doll." Two women looked at the short young female as she gave a smile and a wave then began running toward them.

"Hi! I'm Nikkou, what's your name?"

"..." The girls said nothing. Just smiled and looked at each other, as if to examine their extremely revealing pink and green outfits. It seemed that everything but the bottom half of their chests, torso, and shoulders was revealed.

"Okay, well. I'm new, and I was wondering if you could help me? I know I need to you know, fight monsters and stuff.. so, how do I get there?"

The hens bursts out laughing, the blonde one leaned it to whisper to the other. After another bursts of laughter, they finally managed to stifle their joy enough to talk.

"Yeah, you'll need to go into Theta server through the Chaos Gate. After that, near the blue ring thing say 'Pulsating Sage's Arctic', that will take you to level 1, and you'll have no problem."

"How do I get back?"

"You'll figure it out." The redhead smirked and waved her hand as if to dismiss Nikkou, pointing briefly in the direction of the Chaos Gate.

"Oh... okay," Nikkou seemed uncertain and wary of the girls, but pressed on.

“So, where are we?”

“Mac Anu, idi--” The redhead nudged her elbow into the mean blonde, stopping her in mind sentence.

“Ahem, Mac Anu.”

"Want to come with me?"

"Ha-- I mean, no, sorry. We can't, we just came back and we're really tired."

"Oh well... okay. Thanks, and wish me luck!" Sunny waved again, then ran off in the direction where the two girls had pointed, through the Chaos Gate into the Theta Server, trying to ignore the giggles behind her.

"Pulsating Sage's Artic!" The naive eighteen year old disappeared once again, still being able to hear the two girls ugly laughs ringing through her head.

// ***




Whispers of pure snow fell with untold secrets all around Nikkou after the three golden rings developed her full form in the Theta server. She stood still for a moment, moving only jade hues in one direction and another, taking in her surroundings.

"Oh, it's so pretty!" She whispered out loud to herself, Nikkou never favored the cold, but this place was a sight to see: Hills one could jump over in two sprints led up to others that seemed they would take weeks to overcome for such a small individual. The only thing that wasn't covered in the white carpet were multiple pairs of giant golden rings hovering in the air scattered as far as her squinting eyes could see.
That, and the footprints left behind by other players that had entered the server recently. But even those were being covered up with unmatched snowflakes considerably quickly.

The ray of sunlight finally took a step forward. Testily planting one foot in front of her, Nikkou looked down, as if expecting the ground beneath her to give way to the Artic Sea. When finally satisfied that the ground was sturdy, she quickened her pace, wondering what to do first. She paused a few hundred yards away from a pair of golden rings near a tall mountain.

Attempting to twirl her new not-so-lightweight weapon around like a giant baton, she giggled to herself. After numerous pathetic attempts at gymnast arts, she let the Iron Spear fall to the ground beside her.

Wide-eyed, she stared up at the hovering bangles, almost expecting an answer from them, a guide as to where to go and what to do. Obviously, no such occurrence commenced, and Nikkou sighed. Slumping her shoulders for a moment, kicking the snow in front of her, she wondered to herself what to do. As silly as it may seem, she looked up and smiled-- it couldn’t hurt to try...

"Open sesame!!"

"Abracadabra?!"

"Um...there's no place like home?" Nikkou whimpered, then hugged herself, rubbing her bare arms for a little warmth and comfort. She just stood there, hugging herself for a moment, and tucking her dress in-between her legs to keep it from flying up for any hidden bunny or squirrel to see anything obscene.

"This is ridiculous! I want to log out! These things must be like emergency exits or something." Nikkou bent and grabbed her spear, then charged obliviously towards the intertwining rings.

Since she held the object loosely, her weapon flew in front of her and fell sharp edge first into the ground when Nikkou tripped over her own footing, crashing into the snow face first.

"Ugh!" Nikkou groaned and lifted her head, failing to get up because of four loud pops echoing around her, this time she fell on her back.

"Huh?!"

The cheery little ray of sunshine kicked the snow in front of her once again. She sat on the ice blanket, ignoring the cold that was seeping its way through the thin material of her clothes. A terrible thought ran through her head: What if those girls were villains of some sort, or just all of a sudden hated her enough to send me here without a way to get back. If I starve? Or freeze to death-- No, she was being absurd. Someone would find her, or she could find her way out eventually. Still, this whole thing felt like it was going nowhere fast. Beginning to groan and whine out loud to herself while brushing the snow off of her, Nikkou repeatedly fought away thoughts of death and abandonment to keep herself from panicking.

Eventually becoming aware of the noise besides her incessant whining (nothing she would have dared do in front of anyone else), she moved her eyes (now reflecting more of a silver than a green) from her bare legs up to what was once the empty air in front of her. A large, winged creature with the head, arms, and torso of a woman with rigid teeth and long flowing hair, combined with the feathered wings, tail, and legs of a phoenix had appeared where the large golden wings once stood. The disgusting specimen reared it's ugly head and squawked violently, obviously enamored that it had been released into the field by such a pitiful looking opponent. Taking off into the air and looping backwards first as if to gather up momentum for it's advance, it eventually sped back towards Nikkou in descent, it's claws honed in on her fragile frame that stood unaware of the danger below.

"OH GOD!" Nikkou shrieked, dove for her spear and grabbed it firmly. After lifting herself up with it, she began running the opposite way.

Forgetting about her dress versus the wind, Sunshine kept her eyes locked on the ..well, what was there ahead? Nothing but more golden rings and snow. But she refused to look back, being able to hear the hideous banshee shrieks of the monster right behind her. The wind the fiend stirred up with it’s wings didn’t help Nikkou keep her cool, and everything suddenly seemed more treacherous than it had been before. The snow wanted to trap in her footsteps, the white blanket felt more like quicksand now as it kept her from running a lot faster than she normally would be capable of.

"Pulsating Sage's Arctic?!" She yelled the words out over and over, thinking that she could leave the same way she got out.

"Pulsating-- EEEEE!!! Oh god!" Too busy with her frantic chant, Nikkou didn't notice she had run under another golden ring.

This time, what looked like a blue faerie joined the hideous thing already following her. It was glowing with the blue hues of a clear summer sky, and floated over the snowy turf magically, arms extended, and one hand clasping a wand that no doubt held the type of power Nikkou was not eager to be the victim of.

Halting, Sunny almost toppled over, but she regained her balance quickly. Standing with her back to the blue faerie, and her eyes darting around to watch the other ungodly sight, she nodded to herself as to agree with an internal thought.

"Hmph!" Nikkou turned around to face her new born enemies and stood in a fighting stance any one around her watching would have taken as a joke. Her right hand towards the tail of her spear, and her left near the top. She bent her knees and jerked her head around at the two monsters who were circling around the girl. Chocolate strands of hair blew into her eyes, challenging her vision. But through them she could still see the monster pause it’s taunting in mid-air, and get ready for what seemed to be an oncoming attack.

"... Just kidding!" Nikkou couldn't take it, she was too scared that the thing would take a giant chunk out of her torso, or the wand the other held would take away any vigor or spirit she had residing in her.

"Eeeee!" Nikkou closed her eyes and sprinted away in whatever direction her legs carried her, refusing to even imagine whatever was in front or behind her.

"There's no place like home, there's no place like ho-- Ughhhh!!" Little girl lost bumped into something solid, and fell to the ground for the third time today. One would have thought she had run straight into a padded wall with the flamboyant way the girl fell backwards, but such an assumption would be false. Nikkou winced and rubbed her nose roughly with the back of her hand to stifle to the stinging caused by her abrupt stop. As if she had finally realized where she was, she gasped aloud, glanced up at the figure she had run into, and then back over her shoulder in a panic. The creature definitely was giving chase, and was closing in on her and the newly discovered player that stood above her.

Nikkou returned her gaze to the person she had collided with, allowing her eyes to travel up the figure from the feet; they led up from long legs to a beautiful girl with noir hair and ice blue eyes that were down upon her with a look that seemed to absorb every degree of cold that encumbranced them. Reluctant to say anything that bordered along an excuse for her clumsiness, she said only what her instincts led her to say.

"They're too strong!"

"If you're going to fight in the Theta server as a beginner, you should at least take someone along with you who can defend you. It's only logical."

"Yes, I know. But I didn't know that this server was for intermediate players. I think someone played a prank on me when they told me to come here if I was starting out. I was expecting much weaker enemies."

Nikkou waited for the girl to extend a helping hand to her, but none came-- at least not a first. Then to the surprise of her, the first and only person in this whole World gave her the warmest smile, something that seemed incapable of the stranger at first. Returning the smile, she took the girl's hand and pulled herself up. Looking on in curiosity as the scantily clad girl stepped up to face Nikkou's predators.

OOC: slow-ass. :ph43r:

// * Nikkou

A faint sound grazed Tokki's ears moments after the long arm had failed in suppressing a quaint smile at the thought of traveling with a companion. Delicate hands, cream in complexion, fell silently upon Nikkou's shoulder, half with the intention of grasping the young girl's attenion-- half simply out of reflex. As if respondant to imminent danger, her pools of sapphire, still fixated on the young girl, darkened to midnight as her eyes unfocused so that she may scour with her peripheral vision. Identifying nothing to effectively couple with the soft beating noise that pricked her senses. Pausing only for a moment, she returned her gaze to Nikkou, who sat as if she was awaiting some important string of linguistics.

"Exactly.. how many portals did you run through?"

"Uhh..."

But the time for talking was quickly replaced by the time for killing, as a rune circle appeared beneath the two girls that signified a magical attack brewing up. Tokki's eyes narrowed, and she grasped the girl under the arm quickly, and bent her knees to spring out of the circle. She slipped her hand forward in mid air, and mysteriously, it disappeared as if entering an invisible pouch. It returned almost instantly, and with simple sleight of hand, two thin pieces of paper, laced with katakana characters done in intricate calligraphy, followed the wind currents and pressed upon Tokki and Nikkou's foreheads. The charms immediately took effect, and the pieces of parchment began to glow a bright yellow color, before dispersing into their figures, and augmenting their speed exponentially. The effects were seen immediately, and the two girls blurred away from what would be the target area for thorn-ridden vines whipped about by a strong wind, cast by their pursuing enemy.

"Jeez.. I'm so fast!" Nikkou responded, amazed doubly at the fact that her legs were whipping about so quickly, and that the field was blurring by with equal expedience. After reaching the crest of the first snow laden hill they came upon, Tokki dug her heels into the floor, and released Nikkou's arm, who immediately looked over her shoulder to see what her new saviour was thinking.

"Get low! NOW!" And Nikkou got low without questioning the words, and without any time to waste. Just as she dropped to the ground, sinking a few inches in the thick snow, Tokki slipped to the side, and two spiraling blasts of wind , cutting through the stale winter air, sliced by them both, narrowly missing Tokki's knuckles, and Nikkou's face. The young girl's eyes widened as they passed overhead.

Tokki, relieved the girl had responded impetuously, spun to face the oncoming fiend, thrusting herself off of the top of the hill directly into the air-- which proved to be anything but smart to do. The opponent was airborne as well, a Phoenix Queen, and Tokki's mistglaive, which she brought down with sudden ferocity, found itself stopped by a pair of razor sharp talons, which grasped around the shaft firmly. The defensive measure was quickly followed up with a furious lashing at Tokki's chest by the opposite foot, and sending the long arm to the floor, where she landed hard. She flipped backwards off of the floor, and landed on her feet, bent over in pain from the searing blow dealt by the flying menace. Unlike Nikkou, Tokki was trapped in this game, and due to some unknown effect, could feel the attacks she received. The Phoenix Queen reared it's head back and shrieked hideously, having pilfered it's prey's weapon and dealt a furious blow at the same time. A feat which was immediately taken away, as the Mistglaive returned to it's purely liquid form and floated back to it's master.

Tokki straightened herself, and wiped off two large chunks of snow that had caked on her shoulders. As she prepared to counter attack, careful to think about her action before she made it, another water faerie pulled up behind it, it's hands performing a constant mystical ritual unbeknownst to anyone but itself. Tokki groaned inwardly at the pestilence, but wasn't worried in the least. If that faerie attacked with it's magic, it will be a quick end for both of them.

Sure enough, the water faerie began to glow brighter, and a rune circle appeared beneath Tokki, her obvious target. Also wasting no time was the Phoenix Queen, who flew up into the air, about faced, and swooped down towards the long arm, claws ready to strike. Tokki closed her eyes, and awaited the spell that would end the entire battle. It was a Rue Zot, and Tokki felt it descenting upon her. The large jagged spike of ice came at her figure from above, and inches before it touched her slender frame it stopped in mid air. Tokki spread her hands apart, simultaneously splitting the large glacier in two, and then pointed at both of her enemies-- one being the faerie, the other the approaching Phoenix Queen, and the large chunks of ice slammed headlong into either one, pinning them harshly to the floor, and depleting their health bars instantly. The figures faded to grey, and then dispersed as bits of data into the air.

Nikkou, peering silently over the summit of the snowy hill, found herself unable to remove her jaw from the soft pile of snow whence it fell. Tokki turned to her, scratched her head, and searched for the correct words to ease Nikkou's no doubt mystified mind. She found none.

"Yes?" The only word that managed to escape Tokki's mouth, and one that failed tremendously to appease the young girl's eyes and curious mind. Tokki managed a half-hearted smile, turned around, and started walking away form her new companion, signaling for her to follow along.

Nikkou’s entire torso was feeling two particular effects, neither of which were too pleasant. The first, was the outer feeling of multiple stings on the entirety of her body which lay against the cold snow-- a prognostic that if she lay there much longer, her surface wouldn’t be able to feel anything at all. More accentuated than the previous spoken sensation, was the one that followed from her stomach all the way to her throat. Nikkou wouldn’t be able to tell if she wanted to vomit or to scream, but for whichever came, her mouth hung ready. Unaware of the snow seeping through her thin dress, along with the fact of pouty lips being just a bit too parted, all Nikkou did was dig her slender digits into the polar ground.
Sunny watched her new patrol blankly, olive orbs remained unfocused until the corner of her eye caught Tokki making a motion for her to follow. This sent an automatic signal to Nikkou’s mind, and her body shot up, running after the girl strolling in front of her, leaving the bloodless crime scene behind.

Running in front of her, Nikkou spiraled around to face and halt Tokki in her steps.

“What were those?”

“A Blue Faerie and a Phoenix Queen, I’m sure I don’t have to say which is which.” Tokki stepped around her interrogator and continued ahead, trying to conceal a tiny smile even when she knew Nikkou wouldn’t be able to witness it.

“Hey--” Sunshine had to increase her pace to keep up with the ice queen, “will you slow down?!”

And she did, giving a glance back towards Nikkou before stopping completely. Nikkou planted herself in front of Tokki yet again, this time holding up her spear horizontally, a pathetic barrier only to signify that she didn’t want the girl to move.

“What‘s your name anyway, superwoman?”

“Tokki.”

“... Oh well, I’m Nikkou!” Letting the spear slide out of the grasp of one hand, she extended her arm and open hand to Tokki for a handshake, almost not expecting one judging from the cold exterior of the girl. But Tokki slid her digits around Nikkou’s hand and shook it twice, letting her own hand fall she then continued on her way around the ray of sunlight’s stance, making her strides slower for the shorter girl.

“Why are you in The World, anyway? It seems you have no idea what you’re doing... Nikkou.” Tokki’s words came out quietly, without mal-intent, but they still managed to upset Nikkou enough for her cheeks to turn a light shade of carnation and her hand to reach up, tugging on her right ear.

“Well.. It seemed fun, and I had nothing to do-- Ugh, never mind. To be honest, I’m doing it to impress my boyfriend.”

This time it was Tokki’s turn to be caught off-guard. She shot a look a Nikkou with widened eyes, diverting them just as abruptly towards her own feet. Her brow furrowed, the way it does when one is trying to recall a distant memory or a forgotten name on the tip of the tongue.

Nikkou giggled and quickened her pace, hoping that Tokki would assume her blushing was a product of her quickened pace which was now getting her in front of Tokki insted o
ide her blushing. “I know it’s a stupid reason, but I really love him, and he... well he really loves this game. I figured if I can get even a little good at it, he’ll be impressed with me, think I’m smarter or something. He’s so much better than me at everything. One day I want to be half as good as him in anything, even if it’s The World.”
“Mm,” was the only acknowledgement Nikkou received in return.

“What about you? You’re so good! Why do you play?”This time Nikkou didn’t get a response at all.

“Hm.. Tokki, what’s that thing following us around?” Sunny raised her spear to try and poke at a floating ball of water that had been hovering near them for.. well, she hadn’t noticed it until now, but it was odd. She couldn't see how it didn't catch her attention until now.

“It’s my mistglaive, my weapon.”

The curious girl dropped her spear carelessly and stepped towards the mistglaive, attempting to tuck it into her hands.

“What class are you? If I would have known this existed I--”

“It doesn’t. I’m the only one who has it. And I’m a Long Arm, just like you.”

Nikkou frowned, letting go of the hope of ever getting something that seemed so powerful into her grasp. “Well if you’re a long arm, why don’t you have a thingy like mine?”

“It’s a long story. Besides, the weapon you own is just as important as the armor you wear, the spells you cast, the items you have, etcetera. You’ll learn it all as we go on together. We should probably get you a grunty, for when I’m off somewhere else.”

Nikkou immediately came to realize that Tokki didn’t like being asked about her past, and would change the subject after it was brought up. While the girls traded information-- or more, while Tokki gave Nikkou information about The World, they had come to walk alongside a spring, trailing it’s water into a small pond. The picturesque scene, which would have been just another piece of the winter wonderland Nikkou saw two seconds before she stepped under any blasted circle; now seemed so out of place in a field full of imminent dangers.

“What’s a grunty?” Nikkou inquired before stooping down to dip her hand into the cold water. Bringing it up to her mouth, she let the water drip in, quenching a much acquired thirst.

“It looks almost like a fat horse, but it talks. If you feed it correctly, it will grow. You can ride on it and if you were to pass under a rune circle while on one, no monster would appear. Which is why I think we should get you one.” After informing her, Tokki took hold of Nikkou’s spear, pulling it out of her grasp and tossing it into the spring.

“Aww, they so-- Oh! What did you do? Why did yo--”

Before the bewildered petite could finish her question, another strange creature appeared in front of her, causing her to fall back on her bottom for the third time that day.

A giant, dripping, condensating.. well, drop of water sprang up from the miniature lake moments after Nikkou’s unused weapon had fallen into it. The little ray of sunshine’s first instinct came into action, and she started balling up and throwing clumps of snow around her at what she thought to be yet another enemy.

“Heeellloo-- Oh noo!” The oversized raindrop began dodging the pummeling snowballs, flailing it’s water-made fins and tail around the air.

“Nikkou stop!”

“Tokki, it talks!”

“Of--”

“Did you drop this silver axe, or maybe it was this golden axe here?” Waterman wasn’t phased after Nikkou ceased her firing, and hovered above his little pond awaiting an answer for the high pitched and drawn out question. Sunny looked up at Tokki, scrunching her nose and awaiting advice.

“That’s monsieur, say no.”

“Monsieur? He doesn’t have an accent.” Indeed there was no accent, more like the warped voices of children inhaling helium.

“Say no,” The adviser insisted.

“No, monsieur.”

“Ooooh, then I guess it was this!” The droplet widened it’s lazy eyes and reached into the water, becoming a part of the pond again, then tossed out Nikkou’s spear.

Monsieur swirled around in the cold air and dispersed into it’s home. Leaving Nikkou to stare at her recovered weapon, half expecting it to explode if she touched it.

“Pick it up, let’s go.” Tokki sighed waiting for Nikkou to collect herself. Getting impatient, she bent and picked up the weapon herself, reassuring Nikkou there was nothing wrong with it.

“Let’s go.”

Two pairs of long arm feet pattered across the powdery surface of the theta server field. The loud echoes that rippled through the field from their crunching footsteps threatened to awaken whatever fiends were resting behind every fabricated obstacle the World had to offer. If they stopped together and listened closely, the soft cries of numerous white cherries could be heard in the distance. Slowly but surely Tokki was finding herself becoming attached to the new girl she had begun to travel with. Why she was causing the long arm to drop her well built ice-wall defenses in such a short amount of time was uncertain, but it had to do with Tokki's fondness of the girls carefree personality. The girl seemed to live without any worries whatsoever.

The queen of ice longed for such a feeling. As each day passed, it seemed more and more like she would never see that day again. She often wondered how long her body in the real world had been lying comatose. How many thousands of dollars in life support was it costing her family? Her family.. how were they doing without her? How were they taking her condition? Were they putting effort into figuring out what had happened? If they had, would they stumble across The World as a cause? She always swept that presumption under the rug moments after pondering it. Even if they had noticed that she had been playing the game before it happened, her parents were not the type to think of video games as anything but a distraction. A waste of time. They would never give it more than a thought.

Tokki caught herself sighing heavily, and noticed after a while that she had been subconsciously avoiding the rune circles in the field during their walk. More importantly, she hadn't said a word to Nikkou since they left the Spring of Myst. Tokki cleared her throat, and turned to Nikkou abruptly.

"So.. Nikkou. How's about a fight?" Before Nikkou could answer, Tokki did something she hadn't done in a long while. She laughed. Dropping all worries, she let herself go, and sprinted headlong into the nearest rune circle. She had never told anyone this, and doubted she ever would-- She often liked to run into rune circles and see if she could dive through them before the monster would appear. Start out on the other side of the monster, if you would. The closest anyone would probably ever get to finding out about this childish act was Nikkou, who was witnessing it firsthand, though she most likely didn't know what the azure-haired long arm was doing.

Tokki dove through the rune, and rolled as she hit the ground on the other side. She twirled her body around in mid roll, and backed into a standing position once more. The monster was a Red Scissors, a big hermit crab looking enemies with a ferocious pincer attack that could shave almost all of Nikkou's hit points easily, she wagered. Tokki would not let that happen. The snow beneath the crab rose up and hardened aroudn those two pincers and held them in place. The crab squealed in anguish realizing it would not be able to defend itself from the upcoming attacks.

"Nikkou, it's time you learned how to use your spear. You've got a latent ability now that you have that one equipped called Repulse Cage. It's not hard for you to use.." Tokki thought about it for a while. It had been a long time since she even thought about the controller used to play The World since she had been controlling herself manually for so long. "There's a command for using it, you should figure it out easily. Attack while I hold it at bay!"

Tokki stood behind the crab with her arms crossed lightly over her chest. She did not plan to help Nikkou until she executed the Repulse Cage successfully. She could then perform physical attacks on the monster until it couldn't stand it anymore and was shrieking in humiliation. Then Tokki figured she would just end it with her mistglaive. If Tokki's intuition was correct, and she remembered anything about herself when she started playing this game, Nikkou would be anxious to excel at this game if she was doing it to make the guy she loved happy. And she was determined to help her do it.

Nikkou’s eyes shut tight seconds after glimpsing over at the monster that appeared in front of Tokki. Shaking her head and causing her hair to shamble itself even more so from the past occurrences, she mumbled to herself that it was impossible for her to do this.
It was obvious that the impetuous girl hadn’t read the manual before she began playing this game, and knew nothing of the controls or the weapon she held except the name.

“Nikkou, c’mon! It’s simple, just try.”

Nikkou heard her partner yelling and giving her words of encouragement, but they weren’t working. She stood with her eyes closed, rubbing her thumb over the canary jewels encrusted into the upper handle of her spear, trying to imagine the crab in his underwear, or something to take her mind off the hell she had gotten into. Instead, Chris appeared in her frightened frame of mind. Sunny smiled, knowing he’d be smiling right now, too. No.. that’s not true, he’d be laughing.
Nikkou opened her eyes wide, trying to get the sudden image of her fiance taunting her to disappear. The image left, but the thought didn’t. The girl looked to her sandal strapped feet, the golden shaded material on them was so thin it seemed she was merely barefoot. She placed one foot on top of the other, balancing herself while she thought about her love. He’d laugh, she thought. Then what?
Defeat it for me, do it all... for me. Then? Laugh again.

Nikkou’s eyes shot up to face the creature in front of her. She dug her heel into the snow, cocking her head to get the full shape of it. Once she had confirmed that the monster was truly confined to it’s ice restraints, Nikkou sprinted forward the few steps that were separating her from her defenseless opponent. Closing her eyes, she felt the spear hit into the Red Scissors, but could tell from the weak impact and blind advance that it had made little to no damage and the Repulse Cage attack she was supposed to be learning was far from complete.

The ray of sunlight stepped back to where she was before, and took her shot at the giant crab again. The same way, but her eyes open. Nikkou did this again; and again. Trying to get the attack to at least work, if not perfected. Sunshine knew Tokki was standing behind the target practice, waiting for the attack to take effect. It was embarrassing, really. She must have been getting impatient.. Just how Chris would be getting impatient.

Nikkou leaned into her upright spear, gripping the top of it as the other hand gripped that one. Breathing in, the girl tried to focus. But the only thought running through her was how Chris would be reacting, belittling her with his praise of how adorable his girlfriend was, and how she needed to be nothing more.

“But I do,” she whispered to herself.

With that said, Nikkou tore the distance between her and the hermit like creature into nothing. Her spear was held firm as it plunged into the creature, she wavered for a second, surprised that it went through this time. But if she were to stop now, the rest of the attack would go to waste. So the girl’s iron spear was dragged in a transverse plane into it. Pulling her weapon away from the slash made, Nikkou spun, her chestnut locks shielding her vision for a second, but the same momentum rejected their intrusion. So she bent at the knees, sending herself to lurch into the cold wind. She cut into it, interrupting it’s increasing breeze, just as her weapon came to strike upon the opponent. Her feet came down to re-meet the ground after the scarcely jeweled spear had sliced perpendicularly from overhead. Half her SP was gone, she had only twenty to begin with, and after all that-- the creature wasn’t dead. But Nikkou didn’t seem to care, the repulse cage had been executed.

“Tokki! Tokki I did it!”

No response. Nikkou felt her body weight sinking her into the soft ground, but she did nothing but breathe, awaiting acknowledgement from Tokki. Her chest heaved up and down, mostly upon excitement for her completed act, and upon her growing anxiety as to the absence of her friend.

A lace curtain of snowflakes flurried in front of sunny, and the seemingly-infinite silence came to a sudden halt as a piercing shriek escaped from the bottom of the undefeated monster’s whole being. Nikkou stepped backwards, her left hand in front of her, ready to turn and run if she was left alone facing it. But as she kept her wide eyes on the overgrown seafood, she noticed it wasn’t giving a war cry, but a signal of frustration.

The curtain of snowflakes that had surrounded Nikkou earlier had now grown and was surrounding her opponent. Sunshine watched as the tiny snowflakes clung to each other, creating clusters of snow. Finally, it became an array, which hardened, locking itself onto the snapping pincers of the creature and cemented itself around the already compacted snow surrounding it’s legs.

Cold girl stepped out from behind the looming ice prisoner, azure rays transfixed on nothing else as Tokki paced backwards to be near Nikkou.
She was inexperienced, but as emeralds darted from the long arm’s slowly advancing figure, to the tortured, Nikkou understood: Tokki had manipulated the element around her. And now the blocks of ice that handcuffed the Red Scissors were being sent in opposite directions, straining it’s limbs so the soft flesh slowly became more visible.


“Go.”

Golden sandals grazed the distance once more. After gaining the speed she needed for her jump, Nikkou’s body sprang into the air in a revolution. The girl began coming down from her back flip, and the spear held in tense digits dissected without the slightest interruption through the left indication of flesh. Nikkou stood, in feline reference, steadfast on her feet.
She rushed to circle around, holding the weapon out to her side, letting it dig in-between whatever space was producing between the cased legs and upper body of the hermit, severing any flesh that came in contact with the blade. Pulling on the blade, Nikkou swung upwards when she came to the right, and last side of her obstacle. The sharp iron nearly flew out of her grasp as it cut from the sensitive bottom flesh to the surface.
Holding onto her defense like a worn teddy bear, Nikkou fled back to the observer’s side.

“Well?”

Tokki nodded her head, as the pinned Red Scissors let out a final shriek in frustration when it's last limb was severed from it's hulky body, and it crumbled to the floor, parapolegic and greyed out. Nikkou jumped in the air, turned to Tokki, and hugged her spear happily after her accomplishment. She shouted her excitement over and over in the form of giddy "I did it!"'s, and Tokki couldn't help but do what she had avoided doing for so long now. Her guard was completely dropped. Her heart was completely weakened by the girl she had met just under an hour ago.

Tokki finally gave in. A wide grin, and a loud, short laugh exploded from her frozen voice box filled with a stale, icy air. She clapped her hands together repeatedly, advancing upon her new companion. Her arms thrust outward, and she gave the girl a warm embrace-- if one could be called warm in the given climate. The hug represented more than just how proud the ice goddess was of Nikkou for destroying the monster, and executing the Repulse Cage. Tokki was having fun playing a game that had proven to be anything but soon after she stepped foot within it for the first time.

Tokki ended the display of happiness and affection, and continued forth, telling Nikkou that they were far from through. Tokki's pearlescent Shiva's rings clattered together at her sides as she walked, and the white mist that seemed to emanate from them was carried in her wake. The mistglaive floated behind the long arm, right in front of Nikkou's curious visage. Just as curiosity started to get the best of her, the ball of water would always switch positions, and go to Tokki's front as if it were patrolling it's owners body.

Tokki came upon yet another portal, and stopped several meters from it, just outside of it's activation radius. Tokki took this moment to explain something vital to Nikkou-- a bit of information that she lived and died by as a long arm that would surely be helpful to the young girl. It was somewhat funny.. Tokki's advice only really was necessary for those caught in the world, but as it happens, it's quite useful for those who are just casually playing as well.

"The way I see it, you can't die if you don't get hit, right?" Tokki said shortly.

Nikkou hesitated, wondering if it was a trick question due to the obvious answer, but eventually nodded cautiously. Tokki continued.

"So why cater to any other play style. Attack Evasion is the best approach to battle, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. The best way to start towards attack evasion is to practice. So I'm going to show you how to do so. Hopefully, this Rune Circle will contain some fast enemies." Tokki nodded to Nikkou, who nodded in return. A subtle step over the invisible trigger line made the "BATTLE MODE ON!" sign appear above their heads, and out came another Red Scissors. The look on Tokki's face let Nikkou understand that this one would not be restrained. Before she urged Nikkou to continue, she said a few more words.

"Don't forget, you're much faster than this crustacean, so use it. Also, don't worry about attacking. Just evade. Evade, evade, eva--"

Nikkou had already gotten the point, and run at the Red Scissors, weapon at her side. Tokki gritted her teeth worriedly, and shouted out once more. "If your evasive maneuver ever falls short, don't forge to defend with the spear!" A confident 'Gotcha!' from Sunshine's direction made Tokki feel a bit more at ease. An inability to completely stop worrying about her new companion caused Tokki to send the mistglaive out along with Nikkou to follow her at every move, ready to reach out and defend her whenever things looked like they were going sour.

Nikkou’s body sent itself flying into the hermit, her spear coming to crash against it. She knew next to no damage had been done to the unrestrained beast this time, and pondered to herself if Tokki expected the girl to defeat it all by herself.
Sunshine gripped her spear and began her pace away from the advancing creature. The same pincher sunny had made a feeble attack on now came swinging at Nikkou. Her feet came off the ground once more, kicking her legs behind her, Nikkou sent herself into a back flip, landing in front of the once again extending arm. The giant claw came towards her, and in a panicked rush the inexperienced turned around to greet it with her weapon. A satisfying clash against the spear was heard, and the girl turned to run, when she met the pincher’s twin brother.
The hermit’s right came into her torso, sending the ray of light to land right in front of the shell of the hermit, surrounded on both sides by the encompassing arms.
Nikkou’s spear lay a few feet in front of her, and she knew that if she moved-- her death would be a lot quicker than if she sat where she was, an injured animal in a clearing. She had no choice but to risk it, of course, so the child dove for her protection, waiting for her defeat seconds after she wrapped her fingers around the iron..
The loss never came, instead she heard a crash against what could have been mistaken as glass. Nikkou looked up to see that Tokki’s mistglaive had actually been surrounding the fight the entire time, and now had been transformed into a temporary barrier for Sunny. The glint of her spear reflecting in her eyes, Nikkou smiled. Standing herself up, sunshine went into a charge towards what was seeming to be an attack towards the eyes and bottom half of the Red Scissors. Seconds before her weapon hit, Nikkou struck it into the ground, and used the rivets in the enemy’s shell to escalade up to the top of it. The girl stood there for a moment, the spear digging into the shell like a flag claiming land.
Looking around for Tokki, she saw that the girl was in her usual stance. Her arms crossed, back arched, expressionless except for the slightest concentration of the ice weapon. If only to make sure she was still there, Nikkou went back to her task.
For what for her was a while, Sunny managed to stay atop the enemy, attacking it and being in the perfect position to almost completely avoid it’s claws. Making significant damage, Nikkou had forgotten that all that goes up must come down. And she did, another glance at Tokki before it happened, and Nikkou fell.
Landing in snow angel position behind the seafood, Nikkou was almost completely drained once the crab had turned to face her.
Down came the swift mallet of the creature. Nikkou’s body blurred, blinked repeatedly before coming back into focus. One more hit would do her, her strength had gone with her balance.

“Tokki?”

Seeing the flashing of the young long arm's fragile body snapped Tokki into action almost immediately. Another connected hit would kill the girl, and though some may have the ability to avoid the downward falling pincer of doom, the time was not now to gamble on the girls evasive maneuvers. The mistglaive tensed and expanded rapidly, surrounding the overgrown hermit crab's large hammer and freezing it in place in it's makeshift shackle of ice. With a mere thought, the Mistglaive pulled the crab's appendage back behind it unnaturally causing it's exoskeleton to crack and crumble under the pressure and eventually snap off completely. The creature shrieked in horror, bellowing the way animated crabs do when in intense digital pain, and flailed it's remaining limbs around helplessly.

During all the commotion, the Mistglaive had dispersed and reaccumulated itself in front of the Ice Goddess in the form of a glistening glaive of ice with three jagged prongs that meant it's adversaries the maximum amount of harm. Tokki wrapped her slender digits around the shaft of ice, and darted forward to the now furious crustacean, where she slid low towards it's underbelly, holding the mistglaive low and parallel to the snowy field below. Her feet planted hard and the queen of ice launched herself into a glaive-assisted uppercut attack towards the soft weakpoint of the relatively high-level enemy. The blade sliced through the skeletal structure of it's foe like a hot knife through butter. Now in the air above her opponent, Tokki allowed herself to fall once more catching it's head with her right foot, and launching herself into a flip over it's back. She turned in mid flip, and stabbed outwards once more at it's much harder shell. The blade managed to dig a good 6 inches into it's hard covering, which was good enough. The glaive reshaped itself, hooking inside the shell at the last moment. Tokki yanked hard as she descended to the floor, giving it all of her might, and with a sickening suction sound the large shell on the foe's back became completely unattached leaving nothing but a weakened, pathetic enemy where it once stood semi-threateningly. The maneuver rendered it completely harmless, and Tokki stopped her high-speed assault to allow her protege to finish off what she had started.

Nodding in the flashing girls direction, Tokki tossed her a health drink so that she may restore her hit points before delivering the final blow to the pathetic monster before them. The glass bottle landed a few feet away from Nikkou and rolled the rest of the way until it stopped at her right arm. The mistglaive contracted back into it's liquid form and resumed floating around the ice queen's frame. Tokki crossed her arms lightly across her chest once more, and waited for the girl to impress her with whatever the young long arm could muster up as a grand finale.

"Finish it, and we will continue your training at the next portal. We have much left to do."