[colour=Crimson][center][h1]Keiko Inata[/h1][/center][/colour]

The replies from both were more or less instant. 

Yoshiki, as always, was casual. A simple, small answer limited to a couple of words summing everything up. Most of the time, that was just the way he was. Shizuka, on the other hand, went for the more long winded reply. She had always been one to elaborate, even if the situation didn't call for it. In a sense, it might have just been the way she wrote. But to anyone who knew her from before, it fitted her status as a King. 

A smile traced over her lips reading the message from the Black King. From the sound of it, even if she didn't mean for it to, she was hesitant. Even after all the time since the accident, she was against playing multiplayer. Despite the numerous attempts to... Revive, her passion for Brain Burst, all their efforts were for naught. It was only natural for her to be hesitant about returning, but to an extent such as this? It didn't seem right, despite everything she had been through.

Which was why this was more or less a last ditch effort. Keiko had concluded that the only way for the Black King to return would be to re-ignite her love for the game. That in of itself was a hard enough task, save for one thing. Shizuka had never become a Guardian. She still had her copy of Brain Burst to transfer onto someone else. The same could be said for Keiko, of course, but there wasn't any need to use it. Not yet. The Black King on the other hand needed a push over the edge, and making her into a Guardian was the perfect way to do it.

The only problem with that, though, was that she would have to find a suitable candidate who could both impress Shizuka, and have a chance at installing Brain Burst successfully. Luckily enough, she already knew one such person. Yoshiki Kaibara; intelligent, skilled, casual. Her was amazingly good at both VR and old world fighting games, very intelligent for what effort he ever gave, and all around easy to be with. Provided you ever got to BE with him at all. Despite his easy personality, he stayed away from people in general. All except people in the VR world. If there was who could download it successfully, and impress Shizuka, it was him. 

The boy in question soon materialised into the room she had constructed, and proceeded to look around in the curious fashion he always did. Her free hand danced across a control window to the left; scrolling through several pages of pre-made objects. Her hand finally tapped on one object in particular - a pure white balcony. She dragged it into a 3D rendition of the room, and placed it on the wall behind the catboy. Keiko then brought up a second window, selected a few different options and typed in a few lines of code. In a minute, the spawnpoint had been changed to the balcony.

[hr]

[center][colour=SlateGray][h1]Yoshiki Kaibara[/h1][/colour][/center]

The world around Yoshiki de-materialised as a new, virtual world constructed itself onto his vision. Perceptible reality broke down around him, slowly replaced with a pure white room. Every surface was covered in shiny white panels, almost impossible to tell apart. From somewhere, lights illuminated every space visible. He had played a couple of Keiko's games before, but they were mostly demo's for [i]"a big project for a close friend"[/i].

The room itself contained very little in the way of decoration. Towards the back wall of the room, a single shiny white robot stood - a sword at its side buried slightly into the ground. On the wall to it's left, weapons of every type lined it. Axes, swords, daggers, guns; everything. However, every single on was blacked out - like a silhouette. The only one that remained was an unsheathed katana. From the way every other weapon was seemingly unavailable, it felt as if the game was telling him to take it.

And so he did. The blade glimmered with the unsee-able light that illuminated the room, perfectly showing his reflection; a human male, with his exact features. Besides a pair of black cat ears, a crimson streak through his hair and bright red eyes. He gave the blade a few practice swings, then made his way to the center of the room; where a virtual control panel sat floating a meter or so away from the drone.

It bore three screens all placed next to each other, all with a different title - [i]Name, Difficulty, Commence?[/i]. Yoshiki typed his name into the keyboard provided by the name section, and them turned to the difficulty. He scrolled down the options with his finger , looking at the different options. [i]Beginner, Easy, Intermediate, Medium, Expert, Hard, Insane, More[/i] he read in his head, before realising that there was one that didn't fit. [i]More[/i]. He tapped it, and immediately the difficulty screen vanished, instead replaced by two options directly next to each other; "Yoshiki" and "Shizuka". 

However, as much as he was confused about the second name, he instinctively chose the option bearing his name. The screen disappeared, and all that was left was the begin button, which he proceeded to press. In the instant, the robot opposite Yoshiki powered up, standing straight and reaching for the blade in the ground. When the AI was in a fighting stance, ready to begin, a countdown started. 

[center][b]10, 9, 8, 7, 6...[/b][/center]