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Flashes of magic fill Ako’s vision just as the sounds of battle fill her ears. She rushes forward alongside her skeletal army to meet the enemy, the heat of his flames bearing down upon her.
“Cower in fear demon, for you shall soon feel my flames of… uh…” Ako pauses for a few moments, sighing as the words refuse to come to her. “Pain!” Her misstep doesn’t stop her though, as she raises her staff in preparation to strike down the foe.
However, the words don’t come out fast enough and she’s promptly smashed several feet backwards, flying across the battlefield in an angry ball of purple pain.
“H-help…” Ako mutters weakly as the borders of her vision begin to turn red, signifying her imminent demise and subsequent several minute trek to return to the fight. She’s not expecting anybody to actually heal her - most people had long since given up trying after her numerous deaths in almost every single raid - but she calls out nonetheless. “Some...body…” A tank in the distance asks everybody to group up, and she immediately sees the party moving away from her.
Well, I guess I’ll have to respawn…
As soon as the thought enters her head her vision is encompassed with a blinding flash of white light, and the heaviness pressing down on her begins to leave her body. From behind she hears the muttered sounds of incantations gently whispered, and within moments Ako finds herself back on her feet.
“H-huh?” She gasps before turning around as quickly as she can to gaze upon her mysterious saviour. That saviour stands before her in a long red dress, gilded with gentle gold accents around the sleeves. A bejewelled hat of the same colour complements the clothes, while an ancient oaken staff sits within her hands. She’s… well, exceptionally attractive, Ako thinks, but more than that she’s clearly of a very high level - everything she’s wearing is not only rewarded as a rare drop from high level raids, but also carefully coordinated to maximise her effectiveness.
“Are you okay?” Ako’s angel speaks in a soft, kind voice, with an amount of concern that she’s wholly unused to hearing. She looks herself up and down, checking everything is completely fine, before nodding.
“Yup, I’m fine! I may have looked injured, but I was of course protected through the endless dark energies that pool through my…” She pauses, thinking quietly to herself about where next to take her spiel. A groan escapes her mouth, as do the words she so desperately searches for. No sooner does she resign herself to the fact that she’ll simply have to give up on her speech, she’s dragged from her thoughts by the same soft voice as earlier.
“Um… satanic veins, maybe?” Says the other girl, which prompts a wide eyed stare from Ako. She gasps, blushes and covers face while mumbling endless apologies, but Ako forces her out of it by rushing forward and taking both the girl’s hands in her own.
“Satanic veins, yeah! That’s so cool,” Ako grins and widely exclaims, “How’d you come up with that so quickly?”
The other girl stutters for a few moments, desperately trying to stammer something out through her obvious embarrassment. Ako grips her hands slightly tighter, and so she takes a few deep breaths before continuing.
“I… um, people tell me I’m good at this sort of thing… speaking Japanese, I mean…” She mumbles, while at the very same time twirling around to launch a torrent of light at a demonic lord approaching behind her. It evaporates in a singular flash, dust scattering in the wind and gently tickling Ako’s nose. (It makes her want to sneeze, but that probably wouldn’t look very cool so she does her best to hold it in.)
“Whooaaaaaah, you’re amazing! What’s your name?!” Ako asks excitedly, looking on in awe as the other girl calmly returns to a resting position.
“R...RinRin…” She says, pointing to the tag floating above her head.
“No, no, I mean your real name! I mean, onee-chan normally says you shouldn’t tell random people online your name, but it’s fine because I’m not an old man, right?” Ako says, smug grin adorning her face in celebration of her watertight logic. Rinko looks at her, confused, for a few moments, before breaking out into a fit of quiet giggles.
“M...my name’s Rinko,” she laughs quietly as a wide smile lights up her face, “you’re Ako, right? I’ve heard about you from my guild members.”
“Mhm! Hey, Rinko, come with me! Let’s go and do the raid that just opened up!” Ako says, not waiting for Rinko’s answer before turning on her heel and walking in a direction that takes her out of the instance.
***
Ako awoke with a light grumble, eyes slowly adjusting to the newfound light shining through her bedroom window. She mumbles slightly as she brings her head up, mouth leaving a slight trial of drool on the desk in front of her. As expected, the slight whirring from nearby confirms that she’d fallen asleep with her computer on — presumably playing a game with Rinko. A glance at the clock confirms that she’s awoken just after noon.
Well, at least it’s the holidays now, so onee-chan can’t be too mad at me, right?
Ako thinks, but she forces herself up nonetheless. No harm in trying to look slightly more put together than she currently is. As she goes to leave the room she wiggles the mouse slightly to force her computer out of sleep mode and smiles at the wallpaper, a photo of her and Rinko with the rest of Roselia either standing awkwardly in the background or giving a thumbs up.
Ako giggles at the memory; Sayo and Yukina awkwardly trying to hover out of the frame while Lisa dragged them back in, and of course Rinko overcoming her shyness to stand at the front, blushing all the while. Still, as much as she loves Roselia, she does admit that the chance to have a full day off thanks to the lack of practise on that day is a refreshing freedom.
All the more time to work towards becoming lord of the undead and the greatest ruler of the damned there ever was!
Smiling, she leaves her room and makes the lightest preparations for the day ahead (enough effort that she looks presentable but slightly less than the usual, just in case somebody sees her).
As luck would have it, her readiness seemed necessary, as Ako finds herself alerted by a knocking at the front door upon leaving the bathroom. Tomoe was out, so it couldn’t be one of her friends — she thinks for a second as to who it could be, before shrugging and rushing downstairs to open the door.
The door is pulled open and Ako is greeted with a sea of black hair on top of a cream white dress. She gasps, smiles and pulls the other girl in for a hug before she even has a time to say ‘hello’.
“Rinrin!” Ako shouts in excitement, “What are you doing here?” She pulls back slightly, releasing Rinko from her grip. As far as she was aware, neither of them had made plans to meet up today, but she’s not going to turn down the chance to hang out. The other girl smiles softly as she steps inside at Ako’s request, shutting the door quietly behind her.
“Um, since practice is off I wanted to spend the day with you… if that’s okay?” Rinko says, looking at Ako somewhat hesitantly. Ako nods vigorously, grabbing her hand and beginning to pull her up the stairs.
“Of course it’s okay, Rinrin! Come on, I want to show you this awesome new weapon I found in the Blazing Plains of Zhankar last night, you’ll love it!” Ako replies, though she’s slowed nearly to a half by a Rinko who’s paused for a moment and is looking at the ground nervously. “Rinrin, are you okay?”
Rinko blushes and seems to hesitate about something momentarily, but she quickly shakes her head and looks back up at Ako.
“N...no, I’m fine. But…” The hand in Ako’s grips slightly tighter as Rinko steels herself. “There is something I’d like to talk about later…”
For a few moments Ako considers making a light joke, or asking if it’s about something in Neo Fantasy Online, but the resolute expression sitting on Rinko’s face gives her pause and she bites her tongue.
She’s not even this serious during practice… this is what onee-chan would call an ‘important moment’, huh?
“Sure, we can talk about whatever you want, whenever you want! Just give me the word, okay, Rinrin?” Ako says with all the considerateness she can possibly muster. She’s unsure about it, but it seems to ease some of the tension on Rinko’s face, and the two of them continue up to Ako’s room.
Upon entering the room, the first thing Rinko notices is the computer’s wallpaper. She giggles at the expression on Ako’s face in the image and smiles nostalgically. It had been nearly a year since they’d joined Roselia, and while Rinko held almost every member of the band close to her heart, it was undeniable that Ako was by far her closest friend and confidant, and seeing her slowly grow from just admiring her sister to being an exceptional drummer in her own right had been a joy.
“What’s up, Rinrin?” Ako asks, looking at Rinko with a tilted head. Rinko blushes lightly, looking away from the monitor.
“Ah, I was j...just remembering when we took that picture. Hikawa-san really didn’t want to be in it, did she?” That was an understatement — she had spent nearly ten minutes attempting to come up with vague, flimsy excuses as to why she couldn’t appear in the photograph. Eventually her and Yukina’s grumblings were stopped by the interference of a surprisingly menacing Lisa. Rinko continues to smile at the memory. “Um, Ako-chan, you said I could talk to you whenever, right? Is… is it okay if I just get it out of the way?”
The heavy atmosphere means that all Ako can really do is nod, walking towards her bed and sitting down next to Rinko. The gap between them feels somehow smaller than usual, particularly when Rinko nervously gulps and turns to face the purple-haired girl.
“Um… I’m not really sure where to start on this one…” Rinko says, pausing to take a deep breath. “I… I’ve recently realised something about myself and I wanted you to be the first one to know… Ako-chan.” Looking down, Ako can see the sweat forming on the other girl’s palms, which sit clutched tightly on her lap. This was… incredibly serious.
Far too serious a situation, frankly, for an Ako who had only just woken up to handle, but she’d do her best for Rinko’s sake.
“I, um, well…” The black-haired girl gulps deeply again, seemingly becoming slightly short of breath as she thinks things over. Ako notices that her hands are trembling, and so in a vague act of desperation she puts her hands atop Rinko’s, smiling as warmly as she can. It seems to calm her down, allowing her to continue.
“...I think I might like w...women. R...romantically, I mean.” She adds the second part nervously at Ako’s slightly confused face before covering her eyes with her hands, ears a deep shade of crimson.
There’s a small, pregnant pause as Ako attempts to process the words Rinko had just said. Rinko, for her part, remains exceptionally quiet, unable to meet Ako’s eyes as she awaits the response.
“That’s so cool, Rinrin!” Ako exclaims after a short while.
It’s not quite what Rinko was expecting to hear, if she was honest.
“H...huh? Y...you think it’s ‘cool’? Really?” Rinko says quietly, now peaking out slightly from behind her hands. Ako nods wildly and leans forward.
“Well, onee-chan likes women like that, right? And onee-chan is the coolest, so people who like women must be the coolest in general, right Rinrin?” Ako says excitedly.
Rinko pauses for a few moments, doing her very best to process Ako’s words. She attempts to consider them seriously, weighing them in her mind, but finds that an inadequate way of handling them. So, she simply goes with her gut and smiles while her eyes begin to tear up.
“Ah, Rinrin! D-did I mess up, was it something I said?” Ako panics as she fusses over Rinko, face twisting nervously. Rinko wipes her eyes and shakes her head, pulling Ako into a tight hug (“H..huh? Whoah!”).
“No… just… thank you, Ako. For, well, everything.” Rinko says as she pulls back. Her shoulders raise up slightly, a large weight having been released. The two remain silent for a little while; Rinko takes the moment to breathe and compose herself, while Ako takes the moment to think quietly. She ponders things for a little while and then asks the burning question on her mind.
“I do wanna know, Rinrin — why were you so nervous about telling me when you already knew I supported onee-chan and Hii-chan? I get it’s a big decision, like… uh, when I have to decide which denizen of hell must do my dark bidding before a raid, but you already knew I’d be fine with it, right?”
There’s no response. When Ako takes the time to look over she sees Rinko turning a deep shade of crimson, hands now returning to covering her face.
“R-Rinrin? What is it?”
“D...don’t worry about it, Ako-chan, I’ll tell you when you’re, um, out of Junior High…”
“Ehhh? Why do I need to wait that long? Why can’t you tell me now?”
Ako pouts and lightly pokes Rinko, whining slightly in an attempt to needle out an answer. Rinko smiles at the knowledge that nothing had changed between them, but panics internally as she wonders how exactly she’s going to handle the next few months before Ako’s graduation. Or post-graduation too, she supposes.
“Um… I think your sister might kill me if I do anything…”