Aono woke to pounding on her door. As she got up, she realized she had fallen asleep right there in her Aono mode clothes. "Give me a moment!" she called out.

"It's already time for patrol!" Sardu's voice called back. "I'll give you a little then it's to busting your ass looking for gnarlies!"

"Time for patrol?" Aono looked to the light coming through the closed windows and realized it had that hue of afternoon. A very light green, barely not white. Damnit, she had forgotten that she'd heard the talk about the crash that happened after the first levelup. It gave a burst of energy but then you were out just like that.

She said, "I need to change clothes and the slimes have to be fed and--"

Sardu's curt voice said, "Thoy took care of the slimes. Said she'd heard you talk her ear off enough about what you do for them oozies. And if you took a bath like you told Head, you should be fine to--" The voice stopped after the door opened, revealing the muscular woman with spiky red hair who was now staring at Aono.

Damn Sardu and her impatience. This wasn't the first time she'd opened doors before folks were ready. Once she'd walked in on someone in their bath...

At the same time, other thoughts were warring for prominence in Aono's head. Oh gods Sardu saw was the winning thought.

Sardu blinked. "Huh. You going by Aono now? Cute look. I'd kiss it. Now get on something suitable for patrolling!"

"Wait, what? You know that name?" This situation just felt too surreal for Aono to take in.

"Yeah, System's displaying it right now. Now patrolling clothes on! I'm closing the door!" The door slammed shut after Sardu.

Hastily Aono took off her Aono clothes, careful not to damage them, and threw on a tunic and trousers. It would do. She wiped the makeup off with the remover cloth, finishing the last bits just as the door slammed open again. Wait. "How'd you get my door open? I locked... Sardu did you pick my lock?"

"Sure did!" Sardu cheerily replied. "Aww, that look's gone. I liked it. Okay, patrol time!" A powerful arm grabbed Aono's own arm, pulling her outside.

Damnit. Aono did her best to think like Gara. She wasn't Aono right now. She was Gara. Time to be Gara. Gara. Gara. Gara. Gara. Like always, it hurt.

Sardu looked at Aono, no, she was supposed to be Gara. "What you doing? Your name's flickering back and forth. Come on, that ain't how you hide your name."

"Hide my name?" Ao-Gara blinked back the tears forming in her eyes.

Sardu nodded. "Yeah, just slide the other name over yours. Imagine it as a sort of shield protecting and concealing your real name."

"How'd you hear about something like that?" Aono stopped short, processing what she had just been told.

"I'm a Ninja, you know. As in Muscle Ninja class. You think I wouldn't know something like that?" Sardu made a little hmph sound. "Doesn't work as well for impersonation, easier for others to spot. Gotta be really good to pull that off."

Aono recalled Sardu boasting about her class, saying she was taught it by a legendary Muscle Ninja with thick eyebrows named Stone. Apparently there was more to that class than Aono had thought. "Right. Yeah, you'd totally know, wouldn't you."

"Right, yeah. Now get hiding your name. You a princess in hiding or something? Right, right, suppose not my business." Sardu shrugged.

"What?" This was getting weirder and weirder.

"Figures you have a reason to hide your real name and face." Sardu waved. "Doesn't matter. Tell me or don't tell, doesn't matter."

"I... have my reasons, yes," Aono said, her voice full of bemusement.

Sardu nodded with satisfaction. "There you go. Now get to sliding that fake name on."

It took a few tries, but a check of her own status showed a name field of "Aono (Current alias: Gara)". That hurt somewhat, but less than wrestling her mind into Gara mode did.

Aono examined both abilities. Status Concealment at the basic level she had it at apparently allowed her to alter her displayed name and class. Forced Persona was described as "A dangerous ability that allows one to tortuously and forcibly convolute ones mind into believing one is someone else. When fully employed, this ability becomes hidden even from the user."

...It might be a good thing Aono had lost that ability. It felt like a weird weight had slid partway off her. She still had to pretend to be Gara, but she no longer had to go to her normal lengths to force herself into Gara-mode. Maybe one day she would be able to be Aono full time where everyone could see. One day.

"Thanks. This... is much easier." Not completely easy, but.

Sardu nodded. "Okay, now we can go patrol. Uh, and if you need to talk, I'm fine whenever. Or not if you decide not." Her tone was somewhat awkward, like she wasn't sure she was peopling right.

"Uh, okay." This was still a surreal feeling, but right, Aono still had a patrol to make. "So where're we going?"

"Our patrol route's thereabouts." Sardu pointed off in the distance toward the Blinking Mountain.

The Blinking Mountain still somehow disturbed Aono even several years after she moved to the area. It was the remains of a god who had fallen in the Second Godswar, and even though the body had largely turned to marble, a single completely orange eye slowly blinked, never ceasing, never varying from its steady once a minute rate. It no longer was as frightening as it used to be, but she didn't really like it. However, the dead god had been there for many centuries without doing anything amiss so local folks simply ignored it. The god was once called DREAM, Aono remembered hearing. Now there was a new DREAM in its place.

With somewhat of a sigh, she followed Sardu as the two of them trudged toward the eye of the Blinking Mountain. The plains gave way to forest partway to the mountain and Sardu explained that they would be going into it, making sure it was safe for the loggers. It was a bit of a long walk, so Aono had plenty of time to think. About how Sardu had called her cute and kissable and a princess...

Okay, time to think about something else. Right, potential tactics. she'd be working with a Muscle Ninja with a Strength/Agility/Luck build. Who had called her cute. Um. "So if we do run into a monster, how'll we handle it? I can hit them with a slime tendril or put a blade on that tendril and hit them, or shoot them with slime bullets. I can also summon a slime and regenerate."

Sardu shrugged. "If I think you can handle it, you solo it so you can maybe level up. If it's too dangerous for that, I take it on and you shoot bullets and sick a slime on it. If it's too dangerous for us, I send up a signal and we try to run away. Hopefully it isn't a speedy build. Not many gnarlies that dangerous. Level 1 and 2 mostly, a few 3s."

"Oh," Aono said, not precisely reassured.

The forest spread overhead over them, bits of skyglow shining through the green leaves with pink veins. Aono leaned against the pink bark of one of the trees and sighed. It had been... a boring couple or so hours with nothing happening. Sardu hadn't seemed to be in a talkative mood and Aono felt too awkward to break the silence. Normally she didn't have a problem finding something to say, but after the way Sardu had complimented her... She wondered what Sardu thought of her.

Then she heard a loud unintelligible shout. She froze and Sardu did so as well. The two of them slowly crept forward toward the continual shouting, Sardu more silently than Aono. It didn't take long to arrive at a clearing in which a naked human figure stood above a deer that had been brained by a rock grasped in its right hand, judging from the blood on the rock and hand. It had a mouthful of fangs and its eyes were fully red without a single sign of intelligence in them. There was no sign of genitals or other sexual features such as breasts or a beard. Its status told Aono what she had quickly guessed. Not Folk like most humans. A monster. Level two, too.

Sardu pointed toward it and signaled in hand language, "You solo it."

"What?" Aono signed back. "It's level two."

"A good chance for you to level up. If you get over your head, I'll help." Sardu made brisk motions with her hand toward the monster.

This was not something Aono felt happy with. But... leveling up would make patrolling safer. She'd be more likely to make it home to her slimes. To keep having Aono times. If it wasn't for the need for silence, she would've sighed. She began to creep toward the monstrous human, trying to get a good angle for a slime bullet. Just as she felt confident in hitting it, it suddenly paused and sniffed the air. Its head whipped toward her and it suddenly charged toward her.

Shit. Hurriedly, Aono let off a purple ball of slime that slammed into the charging foe's left shoulder. There was a bellow of pained anger as the slime began to eat into its flesh, but the monster didn't slow its charge. Quickly, Aono fired another slime bullet, which shot off its mark into a tree. Then the enemy was upon her and she hurriedly whipped a sharp-edged tendril from her hand at it. It raised the rock in its hand to ward off the strike but the tendril stuck its fingers, causing it to give out another pained bellow as it dropped the rock.

Just as Aono was beginning to think she could manage it, it glowed with a violent red light, hurdling at her with a sudden burst of speed. Pain filled her chest and she could swear she felt the cracking of ribs. Falling down, she hit her head on the ground. But the pain that shot through her head wasn't severe enough to keep her from thrusting another bladed tendril at her attacker while activating a burst of regeneration. This time she drew blood. Then the thing started pounding at her, its hands moving rapidly.

Fortunately, she had already thrust her arms in front of her. Pain shot through them, but she gritted her teeth and sharp slime whipped out from her shoulders, lashing rapidly. As the monster recoiled, she hastily called a blue slime into existence. Sensing the situation, they immediately began slamming into the monster. With a roar, the monster raised its arms as a red light flashed from it at the same time as a shockwave sweeping the slime into a tree.

But the slime had bought her a needed moment. A sharp tendril curled around the monster's throat, cutting into it. Its shriek was almost worth the reeking multi-colored blood that splattered across Aono's face. A few moments of thrashing later, the monster slumped dead.

Aono laid there for a minute before pushing the corpse off herself. Wincing at the tingling of both pain and the regeneration working on her body, she slowly walked toward the slime which had been slammed into a tree. The creature wiggled cutely and somehow she knew they were trying to tell her they were hurt but fine. With a sigh, she said, "I'm sending you back, okay?"

The slime wiggled in acknowledgment and disappeared as she dismissed the summoning. Then she heard a grunt of approval from behind her. Shaking her head, she said, "You could've made it a little easier for me, you know."

Sardu shrugged. "Could've, but you got your level. Handling gnarlies will be easier with that. Your regeneration covering you fine, or will I have to help you get back?"

"Give me a while," Aono said, "I'll deal with my level up while I rest."

Sardu nodded and Aono took a look at her own status, bumping her chosen stats up and popping up the list of acquirable abilities. Immediately, she froze as she saw the description of the ability at the top of her list.