Erika Mitsuki and Asahi Goroshi
Erika had come into her home and was in the kitchen. A shadow over her eyes, she grabbed what she needed and slowly slid drawer shut. She turned to leave her home, tugging at her purse on her shoulder but still otherwise in the same attire she'd been in during the event. She paused. Her brother was there.
"Headed out?"What he asked was simple but the real questions in his eyes were complex.
Erika looked him in the eyes, but didn't respond.
"What's with that look? I'm not going to give you hell about it. You know I sneak out all the time. Actually, if you want, we can hang out together--""No... no. I.... Need to go do something. Alone."Her brother's eyes narrowed and he stepped towards her.
"You sure came out of that coma sassy. I like it, don't get me wrong, but I'm worried about you, Eri." Erika's grip on her bag tightened, knowing what she'd just slipped into it. She paused, looking up at her brother who stood just before her. After an unbearable tension in the room grew too high for her comfort, Erika wrapped her arms around him. He returned the hug, albeit surprised.
"Hito... If I did something bad..." She murmured at last.
"Would you hate me for it?" Her brother blinked in surprise.
"Okay, Now you've really got me worried. You know you can talk to me. You know you can..." Erika pulled back from the hug, a stressed, sad smile on her lips as she pushed him back as well.
"I need to take care of this."After a long pause, not unbroken by soft blue puppy dog eyes on Erika's part, Hitoru broke with a loud groan. He patted her head with a scowl.
"Go do what you need to."Erika smiled up at her brother one more time before rushing out the door, not without Hitoru watching her with the same scowl, and the same concerned eyes.
Her black curls bounced, her chest was heaving but not nearly as bad as it did before she went into her coma. She had the P.E. class to thank for that. She ran, her path lit by moonlight as she barely made it to the train station in time.
Just as the doors to the train slid closed, she thrust herself inside the cabin and fell into herself, her hands on her knees and half bent over with her head down as she caught her breath. This train should take her closer to the park.
Asahi sat near by rubbing his eyes. So much to do, so little time. He had to rally his guys together and get them organized. The Ebony Strykers needed to get their shit together and now the Cobalt Bruisers really needed help. He didn't care about what people said about their alliance; it wasn't over yet. Of course to make matters worse, the Sweepers were on the move too. He's already had a few brush in with cleaners, and one in particular gave him a warning that there was a purge going on. Who initaited it was unknown, but aparently the top dogs of the Sweepers think there is a traitor in their midst. As if things couldn't get any worse.
Right now he was taking this train to his old stomping grounds at the Full Moon Market. If he was going to get ready for war he needed to train. He's been slacking off on it to focus on DGO, but if the Sweepers really are on the move he needed to stay in shape. As he waited he heard someone dash onto the train and glanced at them. Much to his surprise it was Erika. She had earned herself quite a bit of fame recently for the reveal that she's dating the red king. But what was she doing looking so out of breath on this train?
"Late for your date or something?""...Huh...?"Erika looked up slowly, cheeks red from the exertion of running. Then her eyes widened and she straightened her back. She knew who this guy was. It hadn't been difficult to find out who the owner of the infamously badass-looking avatar 'Arms Slave' belonged too. Erika looked away uncomfortably and not without tension in her shoulders.
"Something like that."Ah, Asahi was familiar with that look. That look of fear. Normally he'd relish it, but now he just felt guilty. No doubt Erika was one of his past victims back when he was just some thug for the Sweepers. Chuckling he looked down at his feet.
"I guess my reputation proceeds me... I don't suppose you'd accept 'I was just following orders' as an excuse?" A bit of guilt built up inside of him. He promised to make the Sweepers great again, that he'll change for the better. Looking back up to the girl he decided that trying to make amends with her would be a good step.
"I'm Asahi Goroshi. Arms Slave. Ah... If I did anything to you, sorry. I mean...." This was very awkward for him.
"It doesn't really matter now anyways." She spoke with a finality as her gaze was still turned away. Erika had been well known around the school for her bubbler personality that had emerged and that had gained her her popularity. Here, her dark curls framing her face and curving back up to her lips, she looked like a young woman walking to the gullotine.
After looking at him for a pause, Erika decided she did want to sit beside him. She didn't immediately say anything more, choosing to let the rumble of the train speak for her as she stared at something unseeable, something in her mind.
"I guess you already know me as Erika Mitsuki. On Deep Ground, I kept my identity a secret but I can't remember why now. The reason seems stupid and pathetic now that I look back on it." Erika held her bag in her lap. Her hands gripped at it a little tighter.
"I should have been more proud of myself, I think. Now it feels like I've wasted a lot of time on..."Erika paused, her eyes were tight.
"Like I've wasted precious time that I could have spent being amazing instead. Heh..." Erika lowered her head, a thin but wide smile on her face. It could just be the reflection off her glasses onto her eyes, but they looked moist. She turned her head to Asahi, eyes closed in an upright angle with a smile on her face.
"My avatar is Azga the Amazing."Azga... Azga... That name was familiar. Looking through his e-mails he found the name easily enough. She was one of his targets in the past. Admitidly the details of the battle with her was very faint. He was only certain that he had defeated her at some point.
"I see. Yeah, I think I kinda remember that name. Azga the Amazing huh..." It was quiet between the two for a short while. The train went through multiple stops, but neither of them left. Their destination was else where. Breaking the silence Asahi spoke.
"I... If you don't mind me asking, how did you fall into a coma?" Asahi was pretty sure he had only been asked to attack her in DGO. He's never been comissioned to attack Erika herself. Certainly wouldn't do that now.
"I was about to defeat you in Deep Ground. You attacked me and my best friend." Erika had lowered her head and stared at the ground in front of her.
"Then, your chain snatched me and pulled me down. Crushed by the environment collapsing." Erika pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose.
The train rumbled on.
"I didn't wake up."That was weird. Asahi had made threats about knocking players out in real life, but he's never actually done it. It made him a bit unnerved that happened to her.
"That's... What? Did I really do that?" Granted Asahi has killed people before. He wasn't going to cry over that. Frankly he was more surprised that he had somehow knocked Erika into coma, and felt very little guilt about it. He isn't sure what that says about him.
"I'm sorry. I know they're just words, but... Well..." Asahi sighed.
"I promised to change. I quit the Sweepers. But things are getting out of hand you know. DGO was suppose to be a game, but lives are at stake now, you know? People's livelihood." The portly boy wasn't sure what he was going with all of this. Surely Erika didn't care about his sob story, her body becoming visibly tenser.
"I don't know why I'm telling you this, except that you have the perfect reason to hate me. But I intend to change things in DGO. I'll make the Sweepers clean up their act. No more assassinations. No more cheating. I want them to make the Ebony Strykers into a respectable guild now. I... I want to be better. I guess."Just hearing himself say all of this made Asahi feel like puking. It was so sappy. He really needed to work on this speech more.
"As one of my former victims, feel free to take my words with a grain of salt. If you want payback then you're welcome to come after me. But I intend to change things around here. And... And I'll start by doing right to those I've done wrong too. Yeah, that sounds good.""I don't hate you."Erika's whole body language had taken a shift. Her words were sharp, cutting, and she sat upright glaring at the air in front of her with a scowl on her face and a very, very dark shadow over her eyes.
"I don't want an apology, either."Her hands were gripping her purse so tight, her knuckles were white.
"Nothing you did to me matters, Asahi. None of it was your fault. It wasn't anyone's fault. We were just... we were just playing a game."Erika's head slowly lowered. Her words became softer and her grip on her purse relaxed a little.
"We were having fun, you know? Trying not to think about the fact that it ruled the rest of our lives. That it would change where we would be and our social status. That, in a few years, those of us who were too lazy to level up would probably never see each other again. We were just fighting for fun. We were just... " Erika's voice choked with emotion. After a moment, she took a deep breath and lifted her head again, her expression stressed. When her eyes opened, they were sharp again.
"You can try to change the surface, but here, it's the core that's rotten.
That... is nobody's fault."The train came to a stop slowly. The doors opened and Erika stood up. This was her destination.
"The only way to stop it from consuming you, from consuming the people you care about... is to cut it out before it can infect anyone else."Erika stepped off the train and looked back at Asahi, her body only half turned to his. After a moment of her stoic expression gazing at him, she smiled.
"Another time... Another place... Maybe we could have been friends."The doors closed on Erika and the train began to move away. Erika stood in place, smiling at the departing train with a sadness in her eyes.
"Hey. Fuck that." After the train left, Asahi was on the otherside of the track. His hands were cletched and he seemed angry.
"Is that always going to be our option? Cut them off? I'm tired of doing that. Always got to do things in extremes. DGO has problems, for sure, but cutting yourself off from it isn't going to do shit!" Asahi was taking this a bit more personally than Erika may have realized. Mostly because of what she said; that one could change the surface but the core would remain rotten. Asahi couldn't accept that.
"I don't know what you're talking about Erika, but we don't need to run away. We don't need to get rid of DGO! We can take it over! We can call the shots. DGO doesn't need to change us. We can change DGO." Asahi looked at Erika, and then into his hands. He opened and closed them, looking at his bloodied and bruised knuckles.
"We don't need to keep dreaming you know. There's nothing stopping us from doing what we want right here, right now. We... We could be friends now you know."Erika's eyes widened in slight surprise, watching Asahi on the opposite side of the train tracks. Slowly her expressioned softened into a smile. Then she giggled, then the giggled turned into a full on laugh, her hands on her knees until there were tears in her eyes as she leaned over herself. Then, as her legitimately happy laughter came to an end, she straightened up and took a breath, smiling at the boy across the train tracks.
"You mistake me. I'm not cutting myself off from Deep Ground. Far from it. As far as us taking it over..." Erika shifted her eyes to the side, then closed them.
She paused, then opened them again to look at Asahi.
"You're wrong about Deep Ground. It does need to change, just not in the way you think. As it stands, there is absolutely no possibility of us ever calling the shots." Erika raised her chin. Her blue eyes filled with a fire, a defiance that seemed, to Asahi, most likely to come from nowhere.
"You are not the reason I didn't wake up." Her eyes
burned into his. Her hand clenched at her bag. It was like... she was trying to tell him something. Something she couldn't say.
A train was approaching, the one bound for downtown. It wouldn't stop here, just passing through. Erika took a step back.
"I really wish... I could be your friend. I do." Erika closed her eyes as the train got closer, a smile on her face.
"I can't though. It's time for me to be a Hero. After tonight... You're not going to want to associate with me. Goodbye, Asahi"Erika opened her eyes. The train rushed through the station at a high velocity, obscuring Erika from view. When the train had finished passing, Erika was gone. She'd already run down the stairs to make her way to the park where she would meet the White King.
Asahi stood there thinking about Erika's words.
"A hero huh? A hero... Heh. That's a rocky road you're walking on Erika. I'm sure we'll see each other again." By the time the train left Erika was gone. He has no idea what she was up to but perhaps he wasn't the only one who had some conspiracy going on here. Between the Sweepers, himself, the Kings, and who knows how many others, there were many gambits being piled up here. Things were only going to get more complex from here on out.
"I better step up my game."
Apollosarcher
7 Szpadel
