“What the hell is Hikaru-san doing back there? I mean, uh, †Obsidian Fallen Angel†?”
He was our spellcaster, so why wasn’t he casting any spells? We weren’t even getting buffs up here. I set my character to attack semi-automatically, then let go of the mouse and pounded out a message on my keyboard.
Gen’ei Setsuna (me): “Angel, buff? need atk or def”
There was no answer from Hikaru-san, and his avatar didn’t move. Was he lagging? But how much traffic could there possibly be on a game that didn’t even have ten players? What was happening?
Whatever was going on with Hikaru-san, our party was headed for a total wipe if something didn’t change. I could see the dragon getting ready to unleash a spell.
Gen’ei Setsuna (me): “Tactical retreat! Use your Angel Feathers and get out of here!”
Boss characters’ attacks usually had wide areas of effect, but their magic spells tended to be outright MAP weapons, if you will, vast waves of destruction that filled the screen and could easily take out an entire party at once.
I activated my item and warped out, returning to the town that served as our base. “That was a close call...” I mumbled as the scenery changed from the craggy dungeon to the innocuous little city.
Miyuu (Myusel), Yakiniku (Elvia), GalGaiGar (Petralka), and Kyouya (Minori-san) soon followed me.
“Huh?”
There was one person I didn’t see. †Obsidian Fallen Angel† (Hikaru-san) didn’t show up. In fact...
“Oh...”
Then †Obsidian Fallen Angel† (Hikaru-san) returned. But he was just a transparent, spirit version of himself—i.e., he had been killed. I guess he had just stayed there, not doing anything, while the dragon murdered him with its magic. He didn’t come back to town by using his item; his avatar had just reappeared at his last save point after he died.
“Arrgh...”
What was he even doing?
Gen’ei Setsuna (me): “†Obsidian Fallen Angel†, what happened?”
Hikaru-san didn’t respond, not that I expected him to. He’d been talking to us just a few minutes ago, though.
Kyouya (Minori-san): “Think he got booted?”
Gen’ei Setsuna (me): “But then wouldn’t it have happened to all of us?”
If there was some kind of problem with the server or the network, I would have expected all of us to be affected. We probably wouldn’t even have been able to play the game or use the chat app. So maybe it was an issue with Hikaru-san’s computer.
Yakiniku (Elvia): “wonder whabs up.”
Miyuu (Myusel): “i will go look at him. i have his key.”
Elvia had clearly made a typo, but Myusel hardly seemed to notice. She must have gotten up to check on Hikaru-san without waiting for an answer from us, because her avatar was standing stock still.
Gen’ei Setsuna (me): “Something weird is going on.”
GalGaiGar (Petralka): “Mm.”
I typed the sentence, looked at the screen—and then I stopped.
........................
This was a problem. I had nothing to say.
When you couldn’t see each other, but you ran out of discussion topics, you were left not even knowing if the other person was still sitting at their screen or not. Our avatars, waiting for something to happen, didn’t move. Working the keyboard was hard enough for Petralka and the others that she couldn’t just toss in some chitchat, either.
But the thought of just sitting there, not saying a word—it was strangely... lonely.
There’s got to be something to talk about...
Gen’ei Setsuna (me): “Say, GalGaiGar, is it even okay for you to be here?”
When I thought about it, I realized Petralka had been at our mansion playing this game ever since this morning. Should she really be away from the castle for that long? Maybe she had snuck out again. I knew I was breaking my own rule about real-life topics, but I was at a loss. I would shelve the role-playing until Myusel got back.
GalGaiGar (Petralka): “we are a brave. fighting is what we do.”
Er, that was certainly true of her, uh, character, at least.
Gen’ei Setsuna (me): “I mean for real. I mean you, Petralka.”
GalGaiGar (Petralka): “hm? did you not forbid talk of the real world?”
Gen’ei Setsuna (me): “Pretend I didn’t. Just for now.”
Huh. When a hiragana-only sentence got too long, it started to turn really difficult to read. I decided to throw in a few kanji, just to make life a tiny bit easier.
Me: “Are you really okay spending all your time here, Petralka? Isn’t Garius going to be angry?”
Petralka: “Garius does not have time to worry about us. there is strange plague at the castle and he is responding to it.”
Me: “Wow. What kind of plague? Geez, are you guys okay?”
Petralka: “there are no deaths yet, so we think okay.”
Elvia: “scary”
Elvia knew even less about the keyboard—or for that matter, the Japanese language—than Myusel and Petralka, so it was all she could do to offer a word here and there.
Minori-san: “Frankly, I think it’s scarier that no one has died yet.”
Me: “Stop that.”
She made it sound like we were just waiting for the real trouble to start, when people would be dropping like flies.
Me: “Seriously, what kind of illness is it?”
I was feeling pretty anxious as I typed the question. Then...
........................
........................
Me: “Petralka?”
Huh...?
I waited a moment, thinking maybe she was struggling to type out an especially long sentence, but no matter how long I waited, there was no response from her.
What happened?
Minori-san: “Hey, don’t you think Myusel’s been a while?”
Minori-san had a point. It had been a good five minutes since Myusel had left her keyboard. I would have thought that was more than enough time to go to Hikaru-san’s room and back. Had something happened? I figured that even if, say, Hikaru-san had collapsed or something, Myusel would have come rushing back to call Minori-san and Elvia. The fact that she didn’t come back at all was... strange.
Elvia: “majesty, no talk”
Yep. When
