Streaks of morning sunlight grazed my face as I began to stir. I rubbed my eyes, trying to clear my blurry vision. My eyesight cleared as memories of yesterday began to come back to me.

“Good morning, miss lovebird,” Nina said, her tail swishing mischievously behind her. She was leaning forwards, her arms propping up her head as she continued to watch me intently.“Get a good night’s rest?”

“Mmmm… yeah…” I stretched, relieving my sore muscles before nestling myself back into Alec’s shoulder.

Wait. Huh?!

I jolted upright while Nina tried unsuccessfully to stifle her giggling. I felt blood rushing to my face yet again. “I-it’s not funny!” I pouted.

“Oh, calm down,” Nina said between giggles. “Besides, he said he was ok with it last night.”

“That just makes it worse,” I protested, covering my hands with my face. “Ugh! Why is this so embarrassing?”

“Welcome to girlhood, sis.”

“Hooray…” I replied unenthusiastically. At least Alec was a heavy sleeper, sparing me from an awkward conversation with him, at least for the moment.

Embarrassment aside, my quick headcount came up short 2 elves. I saw Kriffin outside in a small clearing, tending to a fire while the horses took a drink from the river. 

“If you’re looking for Kei, she’s on duty. Karyl is logged in right now,” Nina told me.

I was hit with a pang of homesickness. I wished I could talk to her. She probably worried sick. I just wanted to tell her I was ok… 

“Can’t,” Nina said with a sigh, reading my thoughts again.

“But-”

“The last thing we want to do is drag her into this too. I know you miss her, but I agree with Kei on this one.”

I knew she was right, but it still hurt being so close and yet so far at the same time.

“You can check in on her, at least. Here,” Nina handed me a small crystal, glowing softly with a blue fluorescent light. I looked up at Nina in confusion.

“It’s a waystone. We use it to go back to our offline locations once a player logs out. When they leave, we drop a green waystone at that location and teleport back to the blue one.”

“Wouldn’t they be all over then? How come I’ve never seen one? What do offline characters look like to other players anyways?” I was distracted as my curiosity surged forward in a slew of questions.

“Woah, slow down there, Syl,” Nina took a moment to process my questions before continuing.  “Yes, waystones are everywhere. You haven’t seen them because they can only be seen by characters, though you and Alec are a special case.” 

Nina stood up and stretched before answering my final question. “You know how the game puts random characters walking around towns as NPCS? Those are characters off the clock. When we’re outside of town traveling like this, we’re in the ‘offline channel,’ to put it in game terms. You can tell who’s on duty because you’ll be able to see their player’s username above them.”

“No wonder those NPCS had always been surprisingly realistic,” I thought out loud. “So, when people log in, do they control their characters completely?” I shuddered at the thought. Controlling people like that seemed creepy, no matter how it was spun.

Nina was quick to vanquish those fears. “Oh, no! Definitely not. It’s umm… more like being given orders? You communicate using the game controls, and we act on it. Players and characters tend to be very similar personality-wise, and since we’re a part of our players, we’re very in sync with each other. That’s why I know what you’re thinking at any given moment.”

“Ok, good. I’m glad I wasn’t some sort of creep,” I replied. “So, what am I supposed to do with this?” I asked, holding up the waystone.

“Oh, right! Guess we got a little sidetracked, huh?” She sat down next to me. “Hold it in front of you a little and focus. You should be able to see what Karyl sees right now since this is Kei’s waystone.”

I did as told, and sure enough, a familiar screen appeared on the crystal. Kei looked like she was back in Tanbomachi, hanging around the personal storage NPC. She wasn’t moving, as it looked like Karyl had opened every form of player communication. She scanned through the guild log while refreshing the mailbox every so often. When she gave up on that, she began typing out messages to at least three different people and started refreshing her friends’ list. I was overcome with guilt again, realizing she must be looking for any information from the night I had gone into a coma.

“Wow,” Nina breathed. “She really cares for you, doesn’t she?”

“I’d do the same for her, if things were reversed,” I quietly replied. 

We sat there in silence, neither one of us able to take our eyes off the crystal screen. I’m glad she cared so much about me, but all I’ve done was make her worry. Her and this game were all I could remember. Did I even deserve her as a friend? Did my family care about me? Did anyone else care about me? 

After what seemed like an eternity, Nina snatched the waystone from my hands and returned it to the carriage’s chair. I blinked as I came out of my negative thoughts, trying to push them aside.

“Hey,” she said, fidgeting a little. Her tail and ears went down apologetically. “I’m really, really sorry. I didn’t mean to cause all of this, I just wanted you to be happy. I should have listened to Kei. I knew there were still problems with the spell, but I thought it’d just fizzle if anything went wrong. You’re free to hate me after this is all over, but I’m going to at least get you to Amaterasu before anything else happens.”

What Nina said did have a bit of truth to it. She had basically kidnapped me and put me in a life-or-death situation because she was being reckless. At the same time, I couldn’t bring myself to hate her. Didn’t she do it for my sake?

“I’m part of the reason this happened, right?” I finally replied. “It’s just as much your fault as it is mine.”

“B-but I gave you the offer in the first place!” Nina countered. “ I might have just killed you! I shouldn’t have done it, I’m sorry!”

“I don’t blame you for doing what you did. In fact, I’m really glad you did, despite the current situation. I got to meet myself, my true self, because of this. And you and Kei and everyone else have been nothing but kind and supportive since I came here.”

“ I might have ruined your life! Please, just say you hate me and be done with it!” It was hard to watch Nina trying to make me hate her. She must have been shouldering a lot of guilt for her to act so out of character. Was that how I used to act too? I guess it didn’t matter now though. Right now, I wanted my older sister back.

“No way, sis,” I answered firmly. “You can read my thoughts, right? If you thought I needed help that badly, it was probably well deserved.”

“But! But-” She protested.

“Nina.”

“Huh?”

“Thank you. For everything, I mean it.”

Tears welling up in her eyes, Nina launched herself at me, wrapping me tightly in her arms. She held me close as she began to cry with what I hoped were tears of joy. I returned the hug with as much strength as I could manage, hoping it would be enough to comfort her.

“Are we still sisters?” Nina mumbled, giving me another squeeze.

“Yeah, forever.” My own tears began to flow as we sat there, wrapped tightly around each other’s arms.

Ninichu

Bit of an exposition-based chapter, but I hope it was enjoyable nonetheless! Constructive feedback is always appreciated, especially in chapters like these that I have a harder time writing. Regardless, I hope y'all stay tuned for the coming chapters!