Logging in felt normal. At least, it felt normal right until the moment that it suddenly did not. The dark-haired brunette had a rather rough day, and she just wanted to unwind playing some Untold Eternity. Maybe take up the Red-Hand challenge or something like that, that'd be a good way to distract herself. Or the new content, see if she could find anything super-difficult to take on in that. And hey, her little sister was going to be on, wasn't she? That meant that she also had the option of helping her sibling out with one of the harder early-game dungeons or something... Of course, these thoughts fled her mind when she was, abruptly, no longer in her room.

The Araldyne town square... was not an image on her computer screen. She was standing in it. Eyes wide, the brunette looked down at her lightly trembling hands. She couldn't manage to articulate any words. She couldn't fathom how something like this had ever happened. Her avatar looked mostly like herself, with only a small tattoo under her left eye as a difference between them. She'd been a little proud of doing such a good job of copying her real-life appearance at the time. For a few more moments, the girl stared at the world around her, at the other people who were popping into existence out of no-where.

"What the... what..." she trailed off for a few moments, shaking hands held out in front of her. Then...

"WHAT THE HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELL?!" cried Yukimura Fujiko, turning her head to the sky and yelling her confusion to the heavens. Her right hand flew to her left side, grasping the hilt she suspected was there. And indeed, there it was. Spark Blade, just as it had been ever since she won it for beating the Black Cairn of Hidgorod at such a low level. Except she'd never actually felt it before. Fujiko was at a loss. The situation was so bizarre, so out of no-where, so unlikely, what else was she really supposed to say about it beyond questioning what the hell had even happened?

At least, that was what was on her mind in the initial few moments after appearing in Araldyne square. One thought cut through everything else rather quickly.

"... Kirika!"

The girl had not been in Araldyne's town square when she'd last logged off. And she'd been logging on...!

Shoving past someone else who had newly appeared, Fujiko called out for her little sister.

"Kirika! Kirika-chan!" she called, "Don't worry! Onee-san is coming, it's gonna be okay! And if anyone tries screwing with you [i]I'll kill them[/i] so just call out if you hear my voice!"

There was no response, even as Fujiko kept running through the town. If anyone was screwing with her...!

[hr]

Kirika opened her eyes.

"... Wh... what?"

The young girl blinked several times, rubbing her eyes and looking down at herself. She was... wearing her clothing from Untold Eternity. Otherwise she looked the same ... Wait, no, her... her hair was different. When Kirika reached up to feel her hat, her hair was different... and she felt ears! And... and a tail! Those were definitely not things she usually had! ... Well she usually had ears, but not fluffy dog ears! And this was definitely area she'd left off in! She'd been 'grinding' on the low level enemies in this area on advice from her older sister. And, well... Fujiko had told her to do it, so it must have been good advice. She said they were at a good level, they'd give her a decent amount of EXP without being too hard to deal with. And yet... now, well... well this was weird! It couldn't be VR, VR needed a lot more stuff! You didn't just log into VR and not know it! ... At least, as far as Kirika knew.

... But now she had fluffy dog ears so those were cute but still! This was crazy and strange!

".... U-um..." Kirika looked around, trying to get her bearings a bit better. It was definitely the plain she'd left her character in previously, only now... real and all. She didn't even remember the place's name, and now she was actually physically there!

"... Uwah, I... er..." her fingers traveled to her back nervously, feeling... that staff her big sister had given her, there like it was on her character.

"... Waaah I'm my character and the game is real this is really weird!"