Chapter 13 - Chasing The Shadows II (Part VII)
December 14, 5:18 PM JST / Sakura Arcade / Tokyo
"When you spend long enough chasing shadows, do not be surprised when one of them bites back."
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The HUD vanished.
Rin lay still in the dark, feeling the weight of his body slide back into place.
The full dive rig wrapped him from shoulders to ankles, harness straps crossing his chest and hips, contact pads pulsing in slow, steady waves along his spine and calves. The shell around him hummed softly, old fans pushing warm air through tired vents.
For a heartbeat he just breathed in and out, letting his lungs remember they were real again. His chest rose and fell under the harness, the faint ache of mana burn fading into the dull ache of muscles that had been still for too long.
His dreads dangled in front of his eyes when he cracked them open, fuzzy in the dark, and that was the first real confirmation that he was back in his body and not in HGO.
Rin shifted his shoulders, trying to get comfortable before he even reached for the latch, and his gaze snagged on the inside of the shell.
Kazahaya.
The logo was faded almost to a ghost, but the oval outline and the stylized K were still there, tucked under a strip of cracked plastic near his left arm.
For a second, the sight of it crowded out the present.
The inside of the pod blurred, and the memory hit.
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2035 | FLASHBACK | TOKYO, JAPAN
Ikko's voice filled the workshop as if the pod itself was replaying him.
"This is it, Rin." His father's knuckles rapped a cheerful rhythm on the side of the gleaming prototype shell. "The Haya VR Gen One. When you are older, there are a few games I want you to test out for me."
A smaller Rin dangled half inside the open pod, sneakers kicking uselessly a good foot above the floor. Ikko laughed and hoisted him higher, one strong arm under his ribs, the other bracing the lid. With his free hand he ruffled Rin's hair.
Back then Rin had braids, not dreads, the plaits barely reaching his ears. They did not look much alike, not in the obvious ways. Ikko had that typical Japanese tone, light and sharp, and Rin was darker, his mother's roots written all over his skin. The one thing they shared outright was in the eyes. Same shape.
Rin reached out, tiny fingers tracing the fresh Kazahaya logo like it was some kind of magic seal, and the flashback ended.
[FLASHBACK END]
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Rin let the echo linger one more breath, then smiled to himself, a tired, crooked twist.
"I wonder if any of your old games were anything like this, old man," Rin muttered. "You would have loved this goblin nonsense."
He exhaled and thumbed the manual release.
The lid hissed and rose. Warm air spilled in, carrying the smell of old plastic, fried snack oil, dust, and hot circuitry. Arcade noise seeped through the gap, the faint clatter of buttons and a rhythm game beat fighting with the tired hum of ceiling fans.
Sakura was quieter than the soundscape made it feel.
"Small bathroom break," Rin mumbled, voice rough. "Convert the money, do not panic. Last thing I need is to get overwhelmed now. Still have to dodge PK Wraith, but two million yen… I can finally pay on some of the seven million Tabuchi debt and even surprise Chiyo and the twins when they get home."
His brain tossed numbers and threats in the same bowl, stirring them together until they tasted like static.
"Ugh. And Winter Bash. I have been stuck in PVE so hard. How am I supposed to walk into real ranked matches, let alone a tournament…"
His thoughts kept racing even as he pushed himself upright.
His six foot frame did not enjoy it. His back popped once, his legs protested, and his body tried to remember how to sit up in real gravity instead of simulated. The harness slid off his shoulders with a tired whisper.
Rin's dreads brushed the back of his neck as he straightened, a few twists falling into his eyes until he shoved them under the brim of his cap out of habit. The thin scar over his right eye tugged when he squinted against the light. The triangle ink wrapped around his neck peeked above his hoodie collar, black lines framing his throat.
Sakura stretched out in front of him in tired rows.
Bulky monitors lined old wooden tables, most of them dark. Patched up office chairs slouched at odd angles. Warm light from hanging lamps pooled over exposed brick and posters for games that had not had server support in years. The one rhythm game in the back kept the place from feeling like a tomb, neon arrows flying up the screen while a middle school kid stomped along with his whole soul.
Outside the front windows, Akiba's evening blurred in streaks of neon and headlights.
Inside, it was just Rin, the kid at the rhythm cab, and Leon.
Leon stood at the counter now. Aria was gone. His suit jacket hung nearby while he wore a beat up polo, collar half popped and glasses halfway down his nose. A single lit cigarette sat in the ashtray by his elbow as ash piled around it.
The big monitor behind Leon was not on random clips or HGO feeds.
It was on news.
Rin squinted as he walked closer.
Prime Minister Saito's face took up half the screen, pale under harsh studio lights, lips pressed in a tight line. Kanji banners crawled across the bottom in bright blue.
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RESOURCE CRISIS
SUPPLY CHAIN SHOCK
UN SECURITY COUNCIL EMERGENCY SESSION
KAZUKU ACQUIRES RIGHTS TO ALL REMAINING SE ASIA ORGANIC FUEL. MARKETS UNSTABLE.
The ticker kept going, smaller lines stacking under the main headline.
KAZUKU CONFIRMS CONTROL OF DEEP SEA ORGANIC FUEL FIELDS
US, RUSSIA, CHINA CONDEMN VIRTUAL MONOPOLY, PREPARE "RETALIATORY MEASURES"
LEAKS SUGGEST STATE BACKED "AGENT TEAMS" ENTERING HERO'S GLORY ELDORA EXPANSION ZONES
The anchor's voice cut through the arcade's hum as Leon turned up the volume for the feed.
"WHILE CRITICS ACCUSE NEXUS AND KAZUKU OF BENDING INTERNATIONAL LAW THROUGH VIRTUAL RESOURCE AGREEMENTS, THERE IS, AT PRESENT, NO CLEAR VIOLATION UNDER EXISTING TREATIES.
THE NEW ELDORA EXPANSION IN HERO'S GLORY ONLINE HAS BECOME MORE THAN A GAME. IT IS A CONTESTED STRATEGIC SPACE, WITH MULTIPLE NATIONS RUMORED TO BE SENDING TRAINED OPERATIVES INTO THE SERVERS TO SECURE EARLY CONTROL."
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Leon snorted and finally looked away from the screen, his eyes tracking Rin as he approached the counter.
"Crazy how a game holds this much power," Leon said. His voice was easy, but the lines under
his eyes were deeper today. "You play."
Rin leaned on the counter, rolling his shoulders out, letting the heat and noise settle back into his bones.
"Yeah," Rin said. "Sort of. Just started recently."
Leon tapped the side of the monitor with one knuckle, ash dancing beside his cigarette.
"Be careful, man," Leon said. "With how this is playing out, things can get ugly fast. Governments get their hands on something, they usually break it."
Leon took the cigarette, finally brought it to his lips, and drew in a slow drag. The tip flared orange, then dimmed as he set it back in the ashtray.
"I have my own worries here though," Leon added.
Leon nodded toward the empty rows of PCs and the flickering sign out front.
"They grabbed all the remaining sea organic fields in Southeast Asia," Leon said. "Now they are cozying up to every oil prince who ever dreamed of retiring on a floating yacht city. Prices spike in Shanghai and Osaka, politicians pretend to be mad, and then everyone quietly sends their own little spy teams into Eldora so they do not get left behind."
Leon's mouth twisted, somewhere between a grimace and a smirk.
"Electric goes up, net goes up, rent never goes down," Leon said. "You stack a couple bad months on top of that, Sakura does not make it to next Christmas. I am not trying to dump my bills on you, I am just saying… if that happens, there is no 'free after five' for you to sneak into."
Rin let out a low whistle, not sure how to answer right away. His eyes flicked between the news ticker and Leon's face.
The idea of Sakura going dark made Rin's chest tighten more than the headlines did.
For a moment Rin saw a quick montage in his head, every failed search from that first day. Net cafés booked out. VR lounges demanding months of fees up front. Corporate pods locked behind contracts.
Sakura had been the only place left with a crack in the wall.
Rin looked down, thumb ghosting over the edge of his phone where the HGO wallet icon sat, numbers he still did not quite believe hidden a tap away.
Two million yen.
Rin could drop a chunk on Tabuchi debt, just enough to get collectors to stop breathing so hard on his grandma for a month. He could actually buy the twins something that was not on clearance for once. He could walk into Tochi with shoes that did not look like they had already survived a civil war.
He could also watch Sakura go dark around him while he tried to play hero alone.
"Leon," Rin said.
Leon raised an eyebrow, cigarette hanging between two fingers now instead of in the tray.
"You still have the manual for the pods," Rin asked. "Like, the real one. Not the little laminated wipe taped to the side."
Leon blinked, then huffed a short laugh.
"That is an oddly specific question," Leon said. "But yeah. My grandpa hoarded paper like it was a side job. I have a whole binder in the back from when we first bought them. Why."
Rin pushed away from the counter just enough to glance back at the pods, then looked at Leon again.
"First, I should probably say sorry," Rin said. "I did override one of them to run HGO. I kept it quiet because I was not sure if it would hold, and it almost cooked the processing trying to keep up. If I leave it like that, it will burn out."
Leon's eyes narrowed, not angry, more focused.
"Good thing it did not," Leon said. "Go on."
"If I send you money, can you order parts," Rin asked. "Not whatever generic junk they sell for old gen rigs. I mean what these models actually need. Fresh neural contact gel packs. New cooling pump modules. Proper core stabilizer boards, not knock off stuff that fries in a month."
Leon stared at Rin for a second, measuring.
"You telling me you know the difference," Leon asked, "between patching an old rig and just slapping shiny parts on it until it dies faster."
Rin shrugged, but his eyes were steady.
"I keep a Haya e Beat running on my own," Rin said. "It has been outdated for years. Most people dumped theirs when recalls hit and new models came out. I did not have that option, so I had to learn fast. Old notes, old forums, whatever I could find. I had help getting parts, but I did the work."
Rin tapped the side of the working pod with his knuckles.
"The power management in that scooter is basically a baby cousin of the boards in these rigs," Rin said. "Different form factor, same attitude. If I upgrade cooling and power properly, these pods can handle whatever Nexus stacks on top of Eldora. They are not trash, they are just old."
Ikko's hands flashed through Rin's mind again, moving over circuit boards, explaining voltage in words he could follow even as a kid. For the first time, it felt like all those hours watching instead of sleeping might actually matter.
Leon's mouth twitched, half a smirk, half something more honest.
"Alright, Kazahaya," Leon said. "Let us pretend I believe you are not about to turn my pods into fireworks. What are you actually proposing."
Rin pulled in a slow breath, then let it out.
"You said it yourself," Rin said. "Traffic is dying. The new places have third gen pods and polished retro nights. This place only has these relics and a handful of stubborn regulars. Sakura was the only crack I could fit through when every other café was booked or locked behind contracts."
Rin hesitated, then forced himself to keep going.
"I got one pod to run HGO by brute force," Rin said. "If we do this the right way instead of the stupid way I tried first, it can be more than a hidden corner. You stop treating it like a dying arcade relic."
Rin pointed back toward the pods.
"You start selling what you actually have," Rin said. "You brand it. First gen Kazahaya tech, full dive compatible with HGO. Limited slots. If you want to really sell it…"
He could almost see it, neon overlaying the scuffed walls. A scuffed little ad on Loop.
Sakura Arcade. Old school shell. New school grind.
"You open preorder slots," Rin said. "You let people pay to reserve time blocks in advance once the second pod is online. Even if it is not ready yet, you take deposits. Use that money to keep the lights on while we fix the hardware right."
Leon let out a low whistle this time, mirroring Rin from earlier.
"You have been thinking about this," Leon said.
Rin snorted softly.
"When you have younger siblings and a grandma holding up a house by herself, you think about every side hustle ever," Rin said. "That is just life."
He did not say it with pride. Just blunt truth.
Leon studied Rin, eyes a little sharper now, a little more respectful.
"So the plan," Leon said slowly, "is you put that money into parts, I handle the ordering and paperwork, and Sakura turns into the weird little place in Akiba where people line up to play on first gen pods."
Rin shrugged again.
"When you say it like that, it sounds less dumb than when it was just in my head," Rin said. "But yes. Something like that."
Leon laughed, a real sound this time, low and rough.
"You are a menace," Leon said. "In a business sense. I mean that mostly as a compliment."
Leon walked back to the office and returned a few minutes later with a thick binder. Dust puffed off it when he dropped it on the counter.
KAZAHAYA TECH CORP - HAYA VR GEN ONE SERVICE MANUAL
Heavy block letters stamped the cover.
"I will call our old distributor," Leon said. "See what is even still on the market. If half this stuff is out of print, we might have to scavenge, but I can at least get quotes."
Leon tucked the cigarette between his lips again, not yet lighting it this time, and nodded at Rin.
"You, meanwhile," Leon added, "take my number on Ping. I will keep you updated when my IT man comes by tomorrow. I am not one to tell anyone how to spend their cash, but if you do this, you can consider those pods yours as well."
Relief loosened something in Rin's chest as he took Leon's number on Ping. For the first time since logging out, he let himself grin fully.
"Deal," Rin said. "Once we get parts in, I will pull the panels and start with the basics… but not to cut this short, I really have to pee."
Rin chuckled as he said it, some of the tension finally breaking.
Leon shook his head, but there was pride hidden behind the exasperation.
"Bathroom is still down the hall," Leon said. "And try to avoid telling my sister about this yet. If she finds out those pods are working before I can get preorders in, I will never see anything from it."
Leon laughed, already picturing Aria losing her mind at the idea of playing here instead of booking some other café. He did not hate that thought, but right now, Sakura needed those pods working for business first.
Rin pushed away from the counter, heart still heavy but a little more balanced.
"Bet," Rin said. "Once we get that set up, we can talk more."
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December 14, 5:40 PM JST / Sakura Arcade / Tokyo
Rin pushed away from the counter, heart still heavy but a little more balanced.
"Bathroom first," Rin muttered under his breath. "Then figure out how to not screw this up."
Rin cut through the quiet rows, past the humming towers and empty chairs. The rhythm game was still going in the back. The middle school kid missed a late step, let out a frustrated grunt, and hammered the restart button with his heel before the song even finished. Neon arrows flashed up the screen like nothing outside the machine mattered.
"Must be nice," Rin thought. "Just worrying about a combo."
He slipped into the short hallway and shouldered the bathroom door open.
The lights came on with a soft click. White tile, a little worn at the corners. A pair of stalls. A small mirror over a clean sink. It smelled like citrus cleaner and old pipes. Leon might be behind on half his bills, but he did not let the place turn into a health hazard.
Rin used the toilet, flushed, then stepped up to the sink and let the water run until it turned properly cold.
He dug his phone out of his hoodie pocket, thumb swiping the screen open like he was scared the number would vanish if he blinked.
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HGO wallet. Balance.
¥2,000,000.
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It stared back at him, solid and boring in a way that felt unreal. Rin slipped the phone back into his pocket, then let out a long breath.
"One world quest," Rin muttered. "One glitch. One pissed off guild. And now I can actually move something that matters."
He could see it if he let himself.
A real payment to Tabuchi that did more than scrape interest. Collectors backing off Chiyo for once. The twins getting something new without him counting every yen. Groceries where Chiyo did not quietly put things back.
It made his chest feel light and tight at the same time.
"Do not get stupid," Rin told his reflection. "You did not come here to be a PVE farmer. You came here to win Winter Bash, pay the debt down, and change things for real.." he thought to himself more fired up then ever.
He splashed cold water over his face, dragged his wet hands over his cheeks, and scrubbed at his eyes with the heel of his palms.
Rin shut the water off, dried his hands on a thin paper towel, and tossed it in the bin.
He shoved the phone back into his pocket and rolled his shoulders until the stiffness cracked and eased. Then he stepped out into the hallway again.
Sakura's noise met Rin halfway.
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December 14,6:00 PM JST / Sakura Arcade / Tokyo
The rhythm track in the back flipped to another song. The kid was already back in rhythm, stomping his way through. Up front, Leon still watched the big monitor, which had shifted from Prime Minister Saito to a panel of talking heads arguing about treaties and "virtual sovereignty," the ticker still full of Kazuku, gas fields, and Eldora. Leon had his phone pressed to his ear now, voice low and tight as he paced behind the counter, clearly still on with IT.
Rin stepped back onto the main floor.
The Kazahaya pods waited where they had been.
One stood upright, lid half open, interior lights giving off a faint glow. The other rested on its side, panels loose and cables exposed, like it was waiting for a surgeon more than a player.
An operator desk sat near them now, angled so whoever used it could see both pods and most of the room. Rin had not noticed it staffed before; nobody had been there either time he had gone under.
This time was different.
Rin slowed.
Desk. Two monitors. Compact keyboard. A headset hanging off one corner. A small black box sat beside the left monitor, a silver seal stamped on the casing: a stylized brain overlaid with a circuit, ringed in kanji.
Neural Immersion Safety Council.
Rin knew that logo. NISC were the reason full dive rigs had not turned half the planet into lab experiments. After the early VR days bootleg headsets, shady firmware, kids getting nerve damage because somebody wanted to skip safety testing NISC stepped in. Now nothing went live on the grid without their stamp. Not the hardware. Not the OS. Not the games. Not the business sims where salarymen sat in virtual offices instead of riding trains.
If a device fully immersed a person, NISC had to approve it.
Public rigs got even more rules.
Full dive meant NISC. NISC meant backup power packs, no kill switches, and a mandatory operator channel. If a building lost power, the packs kicked in long enough for an operator to trigger a safe eject and walk the brain out of immersion without frying anything. If it was a commercial setup, someone had to be on that desk whenever a pod was in use. No exceptions. No "I left for a smoke" excuses.
Somebody always had eyes on the station.
Right now, those eyes were Aria's who must have just got there.
She sat in the operator chair, one elbow on the desk, gaze on the screens.
Rin tried to ignore her at first. Leon had mentioned calling IT and getting the pods and safety gear sorted; this could just be his sister doing the responsible part. Rin angled toward the upright pod, ready to pretend he was just going back in to grind.
He made it three steps before Aria's voice cut the air.
"Your tactics and coordination with them were almost flawless," Aria said, cool but edged with something close to excitement. "I am not big on simple praise, and I am definitely not desperate, so trust me when I say this. I want you to team with me for Winter Bash."
Rin froze mid step.
He had been ready to walk past like he was just going back for another session. That line killed the lie before it formed.
Rin turned his head toward the desk.
Aria sat in the operator chair like she owned the corner. Her hair was pulled into a high ponytail this time, a few strands hanging loose around her face. Same sharp gold-brown eyes as earlier, locked on him instead of the screens. Cropped black hoodie, jeans, boots hooked on the lower rung of the chair. Her frame was lean but not fragile; shoulders squared, knees angled out.
Rin clocked it without meaning to. Even with her lighter skin, the tired shadows under her eyes looked familiar. Grind looked the same on everyone.
Her HGO companion app was open on one monitor, the one that would usually be tied to the second pod. With the other rig out of commission, the app looked like it was connected through her own laptop instead.
The main monitor showed Eldora.
Not some random streamer. Not a polished replay.
Goblin-height camera. Goblin hands. His hands.
Rin blinked once.
"Oh yeah," Rin said, voice coming out more cautious than cocky. "What makes you say that."
The sarcasm was there, but curiosity did not bother hiding.
Aria's mouth curved.
"I have your full session log," Aria said. "When I got back from grinding at J Link, Leon was on the phone with IT yelling about Kazahaya parts and 'some kid' running HGO on the old pods. By NISC rules, if there is someone on a public full dive machine, a staff member has to be on the operator deck. So I came over."
She tilted her chin toward the upright pod.
"One Kazahaya shell open, NISC box live, Leon screaming about repairs, and nobody sitting here," Aria said. "That is pretty much a flashing sign to get my ass in this chair."
Aria leaned back now, folding her arms, eyes staying on Rin instead of the monitor. One heel tapped lightly against the chair rung, a steady little metronome under her words.
"I watched you on what everybody else thinks is a useless race," Aria went on. "Saw you walk NPCs through a death camp and whip a player party with them. Yeah, some of it was luck. But people do not keep rolling 'luck' like that unless they know exactly what they are doing."
Rin snorted softly.
"So you were spying," Rin said. "Good to know privacy is alive and well."
He did not put much bite behind it. She had a legit reason to be there. It still stung that she had watched everything he had tried to keep out of sight.
Aria rolled her eyes.
"Do not be dramatic," Aria said. "Operators get read access for safety reasons only. I cannot touch your controls. I cannot see your private messages unless you pop them up yourself. I cannot move your character. I can watch your POV and hit safe eject if something goes wrong. That is it."
Her mouth twitched, not quite a smile.
"I kept watching because it was good content," she added. "And because PK Wraith is currently throwing a fit about you on the HGO companion app, which is hilarious."
Rin's shoulders tightened.
"I figured he might be salty," Rin said. "I did turn his boys into a pile of ash."
Aria picked her phone up off the desk, thumb flicking over the screen, then turned it so Rin could see.
Trader feed. Listings scrolling down. Item icons, names, short notes. One bar was pinned across multiple channels, tinted red.
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ITEM NAME: EMBER STAFF
STATUS: BLACKLISTED
Seller: Kaiseki
Note: Do not buy. Screenshot and report.
Underneath, a clipped screenshot from a blurred private channel:
[KILL ON SIGHT]
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Rin's jaw clenched.
He had not even opened the trade window for the Emberstaff yet. Had not worked numbers. Already blacklisted.
"Well, he did not mention the greaves or the other drops," Rin thought. "That is something, at least."
"So he is already blackballing me," Rin said. "That was fast."
Aria's expression went flat for a second, then tilted toward amused.
"He is a top one hundred SEA guild leader," Aria said. "Top five hundred global as a player. All built on stomping PVE farmers and staging open world PVP in dead hours. Real pros do not take him seriously in proper ranked. It is not that he cannot throw a comp together. He just cannot back it up in straight fights worth a damn."
She flicked back down the trader feed.
"But he has scared enough people with his little PK parade that he can throw weight around," Aria said. "When he says 'do not buy from this player,' a lot of noobs and half the SEA ladder listen. They do not want his guild griefing them or cutting off their access to their farming spots."
Rin blew a slow breath out through his nose.
"So your big opener, 'you want me to team with you for Winter Bash,' is what," Rin asked. "You saw my name on a blacklist and decided recruiting the cursed guy sounded fun."
Aria laughed, a short, real sound.
"Relax," Aria said.
She set the phone back down and tapped a different key.
The main monitor switched to a different overlay, zooming across Eldora to a city marker pulsing near the southern trade routes.
"One of my people runs deals for me," Aria said. "White Lotus banner. He is a blacksmith by trade, runs a crafting hall, but he handles side auctions and closed-circle trades too. Veterans or anyone serious about money do not live on the main auction house. Taxes are trash and everyone can see who bought what."
She pointed at a small icon on the map: Lunaris.
"He runs mini auctions in places like this," Aria said. "Private rooms. Invite only. Less eyes, better cuts. The main HGO auction always shows the seller and the buyer. His logs do not show up on anything Wraith watches."
Her gaze dropped briefly to the green drive hanging from Rin's Haya e Beat keychain.
"And before you ask," Aria added, "he does not care that you are running around on a goblin drive. He cares about the story on the item and the profit at the end."
Rin tried to keep his face neutral.
"Your people," Rin repeated.
Aria nodded.
"Guildmate," Aria said. "Old friend. Professional pain in my ass. He likes problems like this more than he likes sleep."
She shrugged once.
"You can sit on the Emberstaff and let it rot because Wraith hates you," Aria said. "Or we move whatever you decide you can part with and turn it into money you can actually use. I would buy the staff myself, mage main and all, but my money is tight. I am not going to lowball you just because I know who you are."
Rin thought about it.
More money would help. But with two million yen already sitting in his HGO wallet and a path to keep streaming and climbing the ladder without paying J Link prices, he was not as desperate as he had been four hours ago when he walked in with nothing but a broken plan.
"Do I really need to dump the staff right now," Rin thought. "If she is going to be playing with me, it might be worth more in our hands than in theirs."
Rin exhaled slowly.
"I have other items I can sell besides the staff," Rin said. "Wraith is just not seeing the bigger picture. But yeah… in exchange for this information and this connection, you want me on your Winter Bash team. Right."
The way Aria's eyes lit up confirmed it before she answered.
"Now we are getting somewhere," Aria said. "Yes. I had a team last year. All girl roster. White Lotus. We made it into Winter 3v3 qualifiers and then got knocked out. A fight broke out after the game and the rest is just drama."
Her jaw clenched once, then she forced it to relax.
"They were officers," Aria said. "They did not like being called out when they treated scrims like a social hour. They definitely did not like being kicked. Rumors happened. People picked sides. Most of my regulars left."
Rin made a face.
"So it is not just me getting fucked over by people playing this game then," Rin said.
Eren and everything tied to Tabuchi sat right there in the back of his head.
Something in Aria's eyes shifted. Less test. More respect.
"Yeah," Aria said. "Guess not."
She spun the operator chair a few degrees, pulling up a different menu on the monitor.
WRAITH ISLES – QUEUE SELECT
OPEN QUEUE – CLASSIC 3 V 3
TOURNAMENT QUEUE – SCHEDULED EVENTS ONLY
COMING SOON – TRI-CIRCLE SIEGE
The last option was greyed out, the icon of a new building on the Wraith Isles map faint but visible.
"Once we meet my blacksmith in Lunaris and move whatever gear you actually want gone, we grind here," Aria said. "Wraith Isles. Open queue at first. Tournament queue when it unlocks. That last mode is the three-team triangle siege Nexus keeps teasing."
Rin's pulse picked up.
"Grinding Wraith Isles before Christmas," Rin said. "No pressure."
Aria smirked.
"You have until the twenty-second before the queue rotations change and the match pool gets weird again," Aria said. "I plan on using every night I can."
The date poked at something already sitting in his mind.
Luxor Lakes. Yunaile's note. Pink-haired bard. Watch for trolls.
"Right," Rin said quietly. "I have to meet a friend on the twenty-second."
Aria's eyes narrowed in a measuring way, not jealous, not annoyed. Just noting it.
"A friend," Aria echoed
Rin nodded.
"Yeah," Rin said. "Long story."
He did not offer more. Aria did not push.
She drummed her fingers on the desk once, then pointed at the pods.
"Whatever deal you worked out with my brother, I want in," Aria said. "I spend way too much money at J Link just to get one hour on decent hardware. If that second pod comes back to life, it changes a lot. I know this place is struggling, but if I can start streaming and grinding here, I can actually build something. Hard to do that when you are paying café rates every night."
Aria's eyes flicked toward the front, where Leon was still half watching the monitor and half talking into his phone, gesturing as he mentioned parts and quotes.
"He is not good at keeping things quiet," Aria said. "He has been rambling to IT about getting parts to repair them. That is why I walked over. One Kazahaya pod open, NISC box on, nobody on the desk? That is already a rule break. Then I saw the drive on your Haya keys and your POV feed, and… yeah. Call it fate. Or my brother's bad opsec."
Rin huffed out a breath through his nose.
"I will call it 'weirdly convenient'," Rin said. "But I will take it."
Aria chewed her lip for a moment.
"I go to Tendo Koen Higgh," Aria said. "Most evenings I am free unless Leon needs help here. What about you. When can you grind without wrecking the rest of your life."
Rin snorted.
"After the sixteenth," Rin said. "That is when I go back to Tochi. I dropped out to take care of family stuff, and my guardian Chiyo, basically my grandma, pushed me to stop wasting that. She is right. I am too smart to just sit around, and I still have Dad's work to honor. Tochi gives me a shot at both."
Something like relief passed through Aria's expression.
"You dropped out and you are going back," Aria said.
Rin shrugged.
"Yeah," Rin said. "Feels weird saying it out loud, but… yeah."
Aria nodded once, like that answered something she had not said out loud.
"Good," Aria said. "Kazahaya prep kid with a goblin main. That is a brand I can work with."
She stood up, stretching her back, then held out her hand.
"Here is the deal," Aria said. "I help you move whatever you decide to sell through my blacksmith. You team with me for Winter Bash. We start grinding Wraith Isles after the sixteenth until our eyes hate us, and then we walk into tournament queue like we belong there. Do we have a deal."
Rin looked at her hand, then at the pod, then back to her.
"Yeah," Rin said. "We have a deal."
He took her hand. Rin's grip was firm, not trying to crush anything, just steady. Aria's hand was smaller but solid, calloused along the fingers from too many hours on keys and controllers.
Aria's phone buzzed. She glanced down with her free hand, thumb moving fast across the screen probably already pinging her contact and setting up whatever came next.
"This is comforting," Rin said, half serious, half dry.
Aria's mouth curved into something sharper, more honest than her earlier smirks.
"Good," Aria said. "Means we are actually on the same page."
She let go of Rin's hand and hooked the headset off the monitor, letting it hang loose around her fingers.
Rin hesitated a second longer, then jerked his chin toward the upright pod.
"Since you are stuck at the operator deck anyway," Rin said, "you can hop in party chat, right. Talk in my ear while I am in there. You watch the companion app. I try not to die."
Aria's eyes brightened a fraction.
"Yeah," Aria said. "NISC does not care if I run my mouth, only that I do not touch your controls. I can shell from here, sit on the HGO feeds, and call out anything Wraith cries about or anything dumb I see coming. You focus on playing."
"Deal," Rin said.
Aria slipped the headset on, settling it over one ear so she could still hear the room. She tapped a few quick keys, bringing up a narrow comms overlay on the side of the main monitor.
"Go log back in and handle your business with Thrash," Aria added. "Yes, it might take Wraith's people a few days to actually find you, but you do not need to drag a whole warband around as a glowing target in the meantime. Split off when you need to. Do not make it easy for them. I will be in your party channel when you land."
Rin nodded.
"Right," Rin said. "Last thing I need is Thrash and his clan getting turned into a highlight reel just because I made one idiot angry."
Too many shadows. PK Wraith breathing down his neck. Tabuchi debt. Bash. Luxor. Yuna. Thrash's clan. Kazuku leaning on the world through a game.
At least Rin was starting to see where some of them actually stood.
He turned toward the pod, heart thudding a little faster now for reasons that had nothing to do with mana burn, and crossed the last few steps. His fingers brushed the edge of the shell, the old plastic warm under his touch.
"Alright," Rin thought. "Round two."
He ducked inside, easing his back against the padded support. The harness straps settled over his shoulders and hips with familiar weight. His six foot frame still did not quite fit right in a pod built for average, but his body adjusted, muscles remembering where to relax.
The lid swung down.
Darkness folded in, broken only by the faint status LEDs at the edge of his vision. Contact pads along his spine and calves began their slow, synchronized pulse. Somewhere under his feet, the Kazahaya's power unit hummed a little higher as the system spun up.
A soft chime ticked in his ears as the login sequence started.
Three. Two. One.
Rin's stomach did that same rollercoaster drop it always did when the world slipped. Limbs went light, then distant, then not there at all as the full dive cut him loose from gravity and dragged him back toward Eldora.
Chasing shadows again. This time with someone on comms.
END OF CHAPTER 13