Gundam Wing Fan Fiction / Trigun Fan Fiction ❯ The Game ❯ Mission complete ( Chapter 6 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Category: Anime, Gundam Wing, Yaoi, Timeline-What-Timeline, Alternate Universe
Minor Anime: Trigun, Sailor Moon, Samurai Deeper Kyo
Pairings: 1x2 main
Warnings: shonen ai
Author: Arigatomina
Email: arigatoumina (a) hotmail . com
Website: www . geocities . com / arigatomina

The Game

Part 6: “Mission complete”

Despite having gone to bed early the night before, Duo did have a significant headache when he woke up. He considered it very lucky that his partner was an early riser. He had nearly four hours to ‘walk it off’, as Heero recommended. If his friend hadn’t smirked at him the entire time, he might have been grateful for the advice.

Yukimura didn’t meet them that morning, which surprised Duo, who didn’t really recall how the evening had closed. Heero had just explained the man’s absence when a stranger introduced himself on behalf of their missing host. Their first reaction was suspicion, but after the man treated them to breakfast, they were more willing to believe his story.

Saizo was a tall, slender man with long black hair that was held back from his face by a dark blue scarf and a band over his forehead. His pale skin and dark eyes made him look similar to Yukimura, but he was quick to deny any blood relation. The fact that he sported a dark blush when he denied it made Duo smirk and elbow Heero with a pointed look. Duo had an idea he knew where Yukimura had gotten off to the night before. He was pleased to see that Heero responded to his teasing with a visible smile. However badly he might have acted in his drunken stupor the night before, Heero didn’t seem to think any less of him. If anything, his friend appeared to be more at ease than he’d been since they started the game.

Their impromptu host detailed the day’s events, explaining that Yukimura had sent him to make sure they were warned. The preliminaries allowed everyone who wanted to compete, so the danger was minimized. The actual tournament was a series of matches from which one of two people would advance. Anyone who was killed, knocked out of the ‘ring’, or rendered incapable of fighting, lost the match. There were no rules about weapons, so they were to be prepared for adversaries with hidden weapons and techniques.

“You have Kyo’s Muramasa, don’t you?” asked Saizo. “Yukimura-sama said to make sure you’re willing to use it, or to leave it out of the match. You won’t be able to win this with your bare hands. You’ll need to bring a weapon you’re able to use. For that…”

Saizo pulled a small cylinder that had been strapped to his back and offered it to Duo, not minding the boy's doubtful expression. Once Duo was holding it, he showed him how to activate the weapon by turning the center ring. The cylinder promptly extended into a staff.

“It should be strong enough to withstand a blade,” said Saizo, “but only if you can use a staff. Yukimura-sama didn’t think you were comfortable with a sword.”

“I’m not,” Duo admitted. He hefted the staff with a surprised smile. “Now if this just had a scythe at the end, I’d be set.”

“It’ll have to suffice for now,” said Heero. “If one of your opponents uses something you can’t counter, step out of the zone. It doesn’t matter which one of us wins this tournament, so long as one of us does. With my canon, there’s no need for you to endanger yourself.”

Duo shot him a light scowl that Heero was careful to ignore.

“This isn’t a matter of pride,” Heero continued. “We have a mission, so we should work together to accomplish it. It doesn’t matter who plays the largest role.”

“Oh,” Duo scoffed, “now you’re being a team player. That’s convenient.”

Heero smirked in return, having spotted the glint of humor in Duo’s eyes. “Just taking your advice.”

“Of course you are,” Duo smiled back, with a saccharine tone. “You’re just sweet and considerate like that.”

“Ano…”

The two boys turned to find Saizo watching them with a light blush on his face. He was standing in the grass a few feet from the porch, and he dropped his eyes with an uncomfortable look. “You just reminded me of something I’m supposed to ask you two…”

Duo exchanged a wary look with Heero before prodding the man to continue.

“Are you lovers?” Saizo ground out, his face flaming red.

Duo choked in surprise, and Heero cocked his head to the side as if he thought he’d misheard the question. Saizo jumped and waved his hands at them, edging toward the forest and bowing at the same time.

“Sumimasen!” he blurted. “You don’t have to dignify that with an answer. Yukimura-sama told me to ask, but you don’t have to say a word. I have to go now. Gomen nasai – that is – it was a pleasure meeting you both!”

The tall man escaped so quickly he might have been a waft of smoke blown away in the breeze. Heero blinked and raised an eyebrow at Duo. His partner let out a choked titter that might have been a laugh on a good day.

“I knew Yukimura was a pervert,” Duo grinned. “How much do you want to bet he made him ask us just because he knew it would make him blush like that? It’s twisted.”

“Mm,” Heero breathed, not having anything to say in response. For a moment he’d been wondering what he and Duo had done to make Yukimura think they might be lovers. Now he was sure Duo was right, and that the question had spawned not from a misunderstanding, but from Yukimura’s twisted sense of humor. He shook his head and pushed to his feet.

“I don’t think he’ll be back,” said Heero. “Yukimura said he’d meet us at the tournament. We should head over there now.”

Although there were far fewer contestants on the yard, the number of spectators had increased significantly. They were now crowded in every free space available. Heero found Yukimura waiting for them under the tree where they’d sat the day before. There wasn’t time for more than a brief greeting. The matches began a few minutes later.

The lots were drawn randomly, and Duo was annoyed to find that his fight would be late in the day. He already had Heero’s insulting advice to ‘stand down’ if he found himself up against a dangerous opponent. Now he had to wait all day just to meet his opponent. The name wasn’t familiar to him – none of the names were – but Yukimura told him it was the masked man they’d noticed yesterday. Unfortunately, that man wasn’t anywhere to be seen on the yard. Duo settled down with a very irritated scowl. It would be just his luck if his opponent decided not to show.

As it turned out, Duo didn’t have to wait to find out if his match would take place or not. Heero stopped the tournament in its track the moment he won his own fight.

It was a strange battle from the start since Heero’s opponent used some sort of technique that made him appear to have more than one body. The move was something Duo immediately considered magic, and he ignored Yukimura’s whispered explanation that it was a legitimate technique without any grounding in demon work. Whatever the technique was, Heero had seen right through it. He’d use his canon on all of the ‘bodies’ except one – the real one. His opponent had wasted little time backing out of the boundaries and forfeiting his match. That was understandable after seeing what that canon had done to the ‘fake’ bodies. The problem came when Heero lowered his canon and accepted the forfeit.

There were clicks from the walls surrounding the yard and murmurs from the crowd watching the tournament. The man who’d lost the match froze in place, his face turned to stare up at the pagoda, where the man in charge of the tournament was giving a dark glare. Heero stiffened and shot a look of disbelief at the wall nearest him. A dozen men with rifles were lined up on the circling wall, all of them aiming for the loser of the match.

Yukimura eased closer to Duo, his eyes dark and steely. “I suspected as much.”

“What?” Duo demanded, his eyes flicking from one rifle to the next. “What are they doing?”

“No one will walk away from this tournament,” said Yukimura. “They’d break their own rules to make sure of it. Maybe you didn’t notice, but none of the losers from the preliminaries are here today. All have been killed, or turned into demons, both of which mean the same thing. If Heero doesn’t kill that man, the guards will. They may even kill them both.”

Duo jolted forward, meaning to warn Heero. Yukimura caught him by the arm and slung him to the ground. Duo was so startled he didn’t have time to so much as glare before the sharp tip of a sword was pressed to his throat.

“Don’t,” Yukimura said softly, with a sad sort of smile. “If you separate from the crowd, they’ll kill you before you can say a word to warn him. My shadows will take as many as they can. I’m sure Heero is fast enough to dodge the rest, assuming he doesn’t use his canon to end the standoff himself.”

Duo lifted a hand to push the sword away and found the tip pressed tighter till it almost pricked his neck. “Are you trying to protect me, or kill me?!”

“Don’t rise too quickly,” warned Yukimura, his eyes glinting with dark amusement. He slowly removed the sword and flashed an unbelievably affable smile. Then he pulled Duo carefully to his feet. “As far as the guards know,” he murmured, “I just stopped you from attempting to save the loser of that match. Don’t give them a reason to shoot you.”

“I wasn’t planning to,” Duo ground out, glaring hatefully at the man who’d as much as proven himself untrustworthy and extremely dangerous.

Duo turned worried eyes on Heero, who was now standing with his beam canon aimed at the loser of the match. He knew there was no way his partner would kill someone who’d forfeited, but he couldn’t see an easy way out of the predicament. If Heero shot one of the guards – even if he fired his canon in an arc and took them out one by one – the other guards would fire after the first blast. And what if Heero did manage to kill all of the guards? What would happen to the tournament, the ‘prize,’ the task of the game? What if the player was supposed to kill his enemy?

Duo couldn’t look at the loser, standing there unarmed and defenseless with a beam canon and a dozen rifles aimed at him, his eyes wide and fearful. Whether he was a game created character or not, the fear on his face was real. He was confident Heero wouldn’t kill that man any more than he would have.

There was a clatter and a thump as one of the guards suddenly pitched forward and fell from the wall to land in the yard. A crack followed, a plume of dust rising from the ground where the loser had been standing. Heero had lunged forward in time to knock the man back. Now he fired his canon at the guards on his left, at the same time as another body fell from his right. And a rapid series of shots were fired from the middle of the clustered spectators. People panicked, ducking to the ground to avoid being caught in the crossfire. In a matter of seconds all of the guards were lying like rags dripping blood down the wall, or piled in twisted death on the ground below.

The spectators fell into a disorderly stampede that probably would have left Duo a flattened smear if Yukimura hadn’t had his sword drawn and held at a threatening angle. The people gave them a wide birth, and Duo edged back enough that he was sure that Yukimura wouldn’t be able to touch him. Then he darted to the side and dodged through the crowd. He was crouched next to Heero a moment later, no longer caring if Yukimura noticed his absence.

“I’m fine,” Heero said, not waiting for Duo to voice the question written all over his worried face. He stood and watched as the man he’d been shielding beat a hasty retreat, with no more than a cursory bow of gratitude.

Duo slumped in relief and fought an urge to hug Heero and yell at him for looking so calm when he’d almost been splattered by a genuine firing squad. Heero stiffened and stepped in front of him, his canon aimed at someone across the yard from them. The spectators had fled completely, so it was easy to spot where those rapid shots had come from earlier. Yukimura was talking with the masked contestant who was to have been Duo’s opponent. A few minutes later the two approached them, Yukimura with a smile, the other man with a very large machine gun that appeared to be built around his right forearm.

“Now aren’t you glad you didn’t get to fight?” Yukimura asked, in a teasing greeting to Duo. The boy shot him a dark glare, and he blinked in surprise. “Still angry that I kept you from running to your death, I see. Well, that can’t be helped. Your friend here tells me he didn’t plan to show up for the match. It seems he didn’t want to fight you. I can’t imagine why.”

“I guess I’ve just never been fond of killing friends,” the masked man said. Duo and Heero rounded on him before he even got the mask off. He’d no more than dropped it before Duo was circling him with startled laughter.

“Why didn’t you say something yesterday?!” Duo demanded. “And what the hell happened to you…? You look like shit.”

Heero shook his head in dull surprise, not bothering to approach the man or Duo. He’d recognized Wolfwood’s voice the moment the man spoke, but his appearance was vastly different from what he’d expected. The enormous gun attached to his right arm was strange enough, with its circular barrel having chambers for bullets as well as a larger center chamber for what was either a missile or a canon. Even more striking was that the man looked six years older than he had mere days ago. His pale skin had darkened into a rusty tan that looked oddly right on him. And his face was as roughened as any of Quatre’s younger Maguanacs. Heero shook his head again.

“You try walking for days with no shade,” Wolfwood was saying, “and see how good you look. It’s a shame they don’t have sunglasses here. I’ve been squinting so much I think my eyes have frozen like that.”

“Well, you got your weapon,” Duo grinned, his eyes roving over that large gun. “It’s almost as cool as Heero’s.” His grin faded after a moment, and he frowned suddenly. “And I just lost mine…”

“What do you mean?” Quatre’s voice spoke up sharply from the blue band that was now on Wolfwood’s left wrist. “Your team is the closest to completing the first task. There’s no reason to assume you’ve failed already. The game will warn you if that happens.”

The clipped English words coming from thin air sent Yukimura stumbling away with wide, wary eyes. Heero and Duo stiffened at what they saw as a big mistake on Quatre’s part. Wolfwood turned to Yukimura and found himself blinking at the tip of a long narrow sword. Saizo and Sasuke appeared to have materialized on the spot, both in position to defend Yukimura from the perceived threat. The silver-haired boy was crouched with his glinting sword ready to dispatch Wolfwood at the slightest provocation.

“Nice one,” Duo muttered in English, scowling down at the blue band on Wolfwood’s wrist. “What? You didn’t think things were messed up enough? Now our only guide in this place thinks we’re demons.”

Quatre responded with a defensive tone, but he spoke in Japanese this time. “You should have explained your circumstances. If you complete this task, it will be in your best interest to have your current guide aware of the situation. You can hardly import a character if he doesn’t even understand the game. The first task you used him on, you’d have to spend an hour or two just explaining the help you need from him. This is why I didn’t want the three of you to separate. Hopefully we can clear this misunderstanding without violence.”

Sasuke had pulled back at the sound of Quatre’s voice, his expression almost dumbfounded. He spoke up before Heero could respond to Quatre’s revelation. “Is that an instrument to communicate, or a talisman?” Wolfwood didn’t respond fast enough, so he set his sword down again, this time with the sharp edge aimed at the blue band, and the wrist it was currently attached to. His golden eyes narrowed. “Which is it?”

“A communication device,” said Wolfwood. “It won’t harm anyone.”

Sasuke stepped back so he stood on Yukimura’s right, his sword held casually propped on his shoulder. “Weird. I’ve never seen that before.”

Saizo was still standing defensively in front of Yukimura, who calmly nudged him aside so he could approach the source of that voice. Yukimura flashed a reproachful look at Heero. Then he tilted his head to the side and smiled at Wolfwood.

“This has to do with your partners being ‘players,’ I take it,” said Yukimura. “They’ve been very closemouthed about their presence here.”

“Wait,” Duo blurted, flashing a look from Yukimura to Wolfwood. “Quatre, are you saying we’re supposed to tell characters about the game?”

“I told him you wouldn’t,” said Wolfwood. “It would have been better if he’d explained that when we first entered.”

“Well,” Quatre said sharply, his tone more defensive than ever, “if the three of you had stayed together, I would have told you. But there’s no point arguing over it now. Explain as much as you can while you work to complete the task. One of the other teams has already suffered a casualty. I’d rather not see the same happen with this group.”

Duo gaped, taken back by the strange tone and behavior of someone he’d have sworn was above such pettiness. He’d never heard Quatre talk like that, and he couldn’t understand what could have happened to turn one of his closest friends into a complete stranger. He glanced at Heero and was relieved to find his partner sharing a similar look of suspicion and surprise. Whatever had changed Quatre, it had been a change for the worse. They wouldn’t take anything he said on face value until they learned more about his involvement with The Game.

Wolfwood lifted his left arm, but Heero stopped him from removing the band. He shook his head and turned away, making it clear that he didn’t want to switch just yet. Heero approached Yukimura and frowned at the man. Once again he was suspicious of the man’s glinting smile. Now he knew why Yukimura had pressed them about the game – the game itself had probably designed the characters so they would encourage the players to explain. They’d simply been too stubborn to realize it was an intentional ploy.

Yukimura took most of the explanation well, at least the part about how they’d ‘replaced’ Kyo, and the fact that they would be leaving after they completed their ‘task’. They were confident that once they finished, Kyo would either return, or things would be ‘reset’. Either way, the effects their presence had on this realm probably wouldn’t last. Yukimura offered a hypothesis that they were ‘altering’ reality, much like a certain ‘meteor’ had to his own world not too long ago. He didn’t bother to explain what he meant by that.

The tournament yard had been silent since the exodus of the spectators. It was Saizo who explained that the clan leader had undoubtedly taken refuge in the pagoda to await reinforcements. If they wanted to steal the ‘prize,’ they would do best to advance as soon as possible. Yukimura agreed to that and stepped over to drop a hand on Sasuke’s head, the boy scowling in response.

“Perhaps we can prevent the reinforcements from interrupting us,” said Yukimura, his eyes on Heero and the others, but his voice directed at Sasuke. “Saizo can accompany me for now.”

Sasuke snorted and flashed a smirk at the man in question, who was currently looking at his feet with a faint blush. “Wakatta. No one will get past the forest.”

The boy ducked away from Yukimura’s hand and slipped his sword into the sheath strapped to his back. A moment later he disappeared in a flicker of speed. Heero and Duo stared at the spot where he’d been, and Wolfwood rubbed his left hand over his eyes with a wry smile.

“He’s fast,” said Wolfwood. “Not human, is he?”

“Not entirely,” Yukimura smiled pleasantly. “Now let’s see about finding that treasure. I’m curious to see what will happen if you complete this…task of yours.”

Yukimura led the way across the yard, Saizo darting off to shadow their progress from a distance. Duo and Heero fell back behind Wolfwood, their eyes meeting once again.

Neither of them knew what to make of Quatre’s revelation about game characters. Duo had a suspicion the boy meant they would ‘import’ characters into other tasks, but he didn’t want to ask Quatre while Yukimura was within hearing range. And after the tone Quatre had taken with them, he wasn’t sure he even wanted to talk to the boy. Instead of dwelling on that, he glanced at Heero and thought about the brief explanation his partner had given Yukimura. He hadn’t said much, just that they were from a different place, and that they’d come here to complete a mission.

What was strange was how easily Yukimura had accepted it, as if impossible things happened so regularly in this realm that they weren’t telling him anything difficult to believe. And maybe that was the case. They had encountered a monster, and from what Yukimura had just said, one of the man’s comrades wasn’t human, at least, not entirely human. There was also the issue of the weapons, and the strange magic that fighter had used during Heero’s match. Duo didn’t know if he believed Yukimura’s easy acceptance stemmed from the unusual realm itself, or from the fact that he was a game character programmed to service the players. As much time as they’d spent around the man, it was easy to forget he wasn’t as ‘real’ as he appeared to be.

Heero nodded in response to Duo’s furtive look. He was sure their minds were on the same thing, and he was glad Duo didn’t feel the need to speak his thoughts out loud. Not only did he feel a need to be on guard now that Quatre could hear them, he also had a sinking suspicion that the game itself could hear them. He’d been wondering about the weapons – the moment he saw that Wolfwood had been given a gun, albeit a strange multifunctional gun, he’d made a connection.

The Muramasa shifted to fit its owner. So how would it know what was best for the owner? He and Duo had spoken about their own preferred weapons, so if the game were listening, they’d know it once they found the last Muramasa. If it shifted into the weapon Heero suspected it would, he’d have one more clue to how the game functioned. He had an idea it was monitoring them the same way Quatre and the programmer were. Maybe it had even heard what they’d said in the ‘guide’ area. Duo had wanted the fantasy door, and Wolfwood had wanted the gunslinger. Well, this realm had both aspects. That was quite a coincidence.

The moment they stepped foot inside the entrance to the Japanese castle, the earth shook beneath them. A tingling sensation started up on Heero’s back, and a high pitched honing sound erupted from both his and Wolfwood’s weapons. They stopped in their tracks and Heero pulled his canon free to stare at the shivering light pulsing through it.

“Now I’m convinced the prize is a Muramasa,” said Yukimura, with a glinting smile. “A true Muramasa is said to resonate with its kin. There are a total of five true Muramasas in this world. Three of them have now entered this castle.”

“Five?” asked Duo. “Then…if we can’t get this one-“

“We’ll get it,” said Heero. “I’m sure of it.”

Duo glanced over and was surprised by the small, almost secretive smile Heero was wearing. He didn’t comment on the expression, but it made him want to smile in appreciation. Heero looked good with a devious smile, really good.

“In that case, what are we waiting for?”

Saizo reappeared once they resumed their search, now with Heero and Wolfwood leading the way. Their weapons continued to resonate, telling them when they took a wrong turn down one of the dark halls. Yukimura made the astute observation that the tremors earlier had come from the earth itself, so the Muramasa was likely underground. It didn’t take long for them to find an entrance to the tunnels below the castle. At that point they moved by the light pulses of Heero and Wolfwood’s weapons, dim flashes in the otherwise black earthy tunnel.

It was unreasonably cold below. Duo pulled his coat close around him and winced in sympathy at Yukimura’s thin kimono. The man didn’t seem to notice the drop in temperature. He was looking around him with casual curiosity, and he smiled when he noticed Duo’s attention on him.

“It’s odd,” said Yukimura. “No one is standing to resist us. There should have been personal guards stationed around the treasure. But I suppose that’s another result of your presence here. Things have been skewed in your favor. Such unreasonably good luck, I take it this is your first ‘task’ so far?”

Duo nodded reluctantly, still uncomfortable at the thought of talking about the game to someone in the game. “The next one will probably be a lot more difficult.”

“Naturally,” smiled Yukimura.

The tunnel opened into a slight detour, a curve in the wall with a wide wooden door set into it and chains and small white papers shielding it from being opened. Heero approached it and was almost thrown away. Those little papers sizzled the moment he came near in a visible flash of pale blue light.

“This treasure has been a curse upon the family,” Yukimura explained. “It’s said only a blood member can approach it. But like everything else, I’m sure that won’t apply in your case.” He flashed a taunting smirk at Duo, who almost stuck his tongue out in response.

“I’m up, then,” said Duo. “Blast the door open and I’ll ‘approach’ it. Just try not to cause a cave in. It’s too cold to be buried down here.”

Heero nodded and they stepped back into the tunnel so he would have plenty of room to use his beam canon. He fired a short burst, aiming for the top of the door. He was worried that he might accidentally damage whatever lay within the room if he fired a direct shot. The white energy from his canon sparked on the little slips of paper, as if it were an energy shield. Then he increased the strength of the beam and the door exploded in a flurry of wooden bits. He threw his arm up to keep the sharper pieces from slicing his face.

The dust settled and they could see the sword. It was held in a small enclave by dark metal chains, and it pulsed with a deep pink shade, the rhythm matching that of Heero and Wolfwood’s weapons. Duo approached it with a somewhat distasteful frown.

“Pink,” Duo muttered to himself. “They get white and I get pink, how screwed up is that?”

He picked his way through the remains of that door and noticed how the torn slips of white paper sparked when he stepped over them. Since it was rather hot in the little alcove, he expected the sword to be burning to the touch. Or maybe it would spark and try to electrocute him the moment he touched it. Duo stopped in front of the bound sword and reached a tentative hand for the hilt, steeling himself for whatever shock or reaction the sword would give.

There was a tingling, heated sensation as his hand curled over the hilt. That pulsing pink light faded into a dark purplish shade. And the chains crumbled in a shower of rust and dust. Duo lifted the sword and waited. He was confident it would change shapes. It had to, because there was no way he’d be stuck with a sword when Heero and Wolfwood had cool canons. After a moment he turned to look over his shoulder at the others. Heero gestured for him to bring the weapon out of the room.

Duo exited irritably, still waiting for his weapon to perform some magical transformation. He was just about ready to start griping – probably at Heero since he’d gotten his weapon first – when that tingle lit back up in his arm. He grinned and lifted the sword, watching as it glowed and shifted. It lengthened and appeared to melt into a staff. He lifted it higher and concentrated on the curved tip. Sure enough a beam of dark blue-green energy arced out to form a proper scythe. Duo flashed a smug smirk at Heero.

“Done,” Duo said brightly. “Now how am I supposed to carry it around?”

Saizo approached and reminded him of the retractable staff he’d loaned him earlier. Sure enough, his new weapon had a similar mechanism on the grip. When turned, it shifted the staff down into a one foot long cylinder of smooth black material, possibly onyx. Duo stored it on the belt Saizo had given him, and returned the other cylinder with a cheerful smile.

“Congratulations,” Quatre spoke up. His tone was soft and happy, without the slightest hint of that petulance he’d displayed earlier. “I knew your group would succeed.”

“So that’s it?” asked Duo. “What now?”

Duo had been looking at Wolfwood, so he had a good view of Yukimura, who was standing behind the taller man. He’d no sooner finished asking the question than Yukimura faded. It was as if the man were a hologram slowly losing substance. The dark dirt tunnel faded along with him. Duo whipped around in time to see Saizo disappear in the same slow manner. A moment later he was standing with Heero and Wolfwood in a familiar purple room.

The pillar of purple fire tinted a dark blue shade and Setsuna appeared from the midst to smile at them. The dark green highlights in her hair now contrasted prettily with her outfit. Her short dress had shifted to a shady blue to match the flames she was standing in.

“Congratulations on completing the first task,” said Setsuna.

She waved a hand at them, and they turned to see a dark blue doorway behind them. It was identical to the other doorways except for the color of the ‘void’ it led to. And the title above was written in silver etchings. Heero quietly translated it as ‘Samurai’. They were surprised to see that they’d exited from a different door than the one they’d entered. The portal for ‘Random’ was now across the fire, on the other side of the room.

“There are multiple realms for each of the initial categories,” Quatre explained. “In order to reach some of the rarer samurai realms, you have a better chance if you go through ‘Random.’ We’re constructing a map of the known realms, but so far we haven’t found any better way to reach them than using ‘Random.’ You’ll choose that next.”

The boy sounded eager for them to continue with the game. Heero’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “How long were we in that realm? Does time run the same on the outside?”

“Mostly,” Quatre answered reluctantly. “If all the players are unconscious at once, sleeping for example, no matter how long they’re out only a moment passes in reality.”

“Like a sweep,” said Duo, “or a fade to black to mark time passing.”

“Correct,” said Quatre. “Now, then. If you’re ready to proceed…”

Heero and Duo exchanged a look, both noting how impatient Quatre sounded. It was clear to them that their friend didn’t want them to ask any more questions. They wouldn’t push him for now, but they reached an unspoken agreement to pay careful attention to his behavior as their interface. Luckily, Wolfwood didn’t seem the least bit suspicious. So long as he held the communicator band, they’d be able to discuss their suspicions without Quatre overhearing. Quatre’s behavior was quickly becoming yet another mystery to go with the game itself.

Wolfwood raised an eyebrow at the two boys, not having missed the look they’d exchanged. Duo flashed him a warm smile and he didn’t press the issue. They circled the room till they were once again facing the ‘Random’ portal. Duo waved a hand in parting to Setsuna, mostly so he could see the way she smirked in response. Then they caught hands and stepped through.

.-.
TBC