A few days later, Danika was startled when she suddenly received a call from Underneath's manager. But as he spoke, she realized that for him at least, it wasn't sudden.

Priyadarshi efficiently outlined a publicity schedule and then asked if she wanted to work with a coach before the premiere. "I'm afraid that I must insist that you make time to attend the rehearsal session next week either way," he added apologetically.

She took a deep breath and then replied, "It's okay, I understand. I don't know what a coach would be teaching me, so I don't know? Whichever you advise will be fine."

She suspected that Priyadarshi disapproved of having her attend at all, but Shinichi had been completely serious about telling the whole world that he was dating her. Since he was so determined about making the "great reveal" (as Naoki put it), she felt like she should at least do what she could to make his manager feel like it would go smoothly.

Someone spoke in the background and Priyadarshi said quickly, "Then I'll go ahead and arrange to have someone contact you for an evaluation session."

Danika muttered after the call ended, "You mean you'll have them try to scare me into not going through with it?" Saying the words aloud made her feel that she was being a little harsh. He was actually trying to be helpful, and not really complaining that she was going to be an embarrassment. He'd even given her the option of refusing guidance.

She had already asked for Ryuske's advice, and it had been pretty simple, "Don't lie, and don't worry about how people misunderstand and twist your words. Smile a lot."

She had even asked her own father's advice on the subject, since she suspected that corporate publicity meetings, with all of the unspoken politics behind them, were not actually that much different. His advice had boiled down to, "Don't bother to contradict incorrect information, just repeat the correct information, and don't lie about anything, especially if you're trying to downplay it."

It kind of irritated her that they had both felt it necessary to say, "don't lie." And she found it ironic that the man who spoke easily and often had given her his answer in under a minute, while the one who had barely talked to her for a decade had spent half of a Sunday afternoon detailing different examples of project information leaks and other things he'd seen happen that had resulted in publicity disasters.

Shinichi called her a few minutes later and asked, "Should we go dress shopping on our first date after I get back?"

Danika smiled wryly, since the question didn't seem to be related to his manager's call, but probably was. She replied, "It'll kind of ruin the date, but we can if you want."

"Ruin… oh. You don't like to go clothes shopping," he said without making it a question.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

The way he said it made Danika glance down at herself and wonder if she ought to update her wardrobe, or at least check her clothes for wear and tear. "I don't hate it or anything, it's just more of a chore than a fun activity?" she replied.

"You'll probably want to wear something fancy to the event," he suggested a little hesitantly.

She grinned and took mercy on him. "When I asked your dad, he took me up to visit Hikaru, the person, so that I could ask about outfits," she began.

"The person," Shinichi repeated laughingly. "As though your firefly is going to suggest outfits!"

"Hey, Hikaru might actually have useful advice. My firefly actually speaks more clearly than the King of Cats," Danika protested. "Anyway… Hikaru the person, is sending photos of me to some of the designers she and her husband have used. She also said that I should think about the expense as though it's a wedding dress, because even though you have to pay a lot and will probably only wear it once, you'll have to look at pictures of yourself in it for the rest of your life."

"Want me to pay for it?" he asked.

"Can you?" she teased. She told him the price range Hikaru had estimated for her. "It's almost as much as half a year of your allowance right?"

"Wow, um, yeah. But it sounds weird to have you call it an allowance," he protested. "I earned it after all?"

"What do you want me to call it then?" she asked.

"Dividend?" he suggested.

"Investing in yourself?" she teased.

He laughed but asked more seriously, "Will you be okay? If you want to choose something less expensive, it's totally fine."

"I'll be okay as long as I don't have to buy a wedding dress too," she assured him. "But I did have to borrow money from your dad for the remodeling."

"I'm surprised he didn't insist on just paying for it," Shinichi replied after a startled moment.

"Well…" Danika hesitated a moment, but it still made her chuckle to remember so she explained, "When I asked him, he said: 'Sweetheart, I'm too tired. Just pay for it and write up whatever terms you want.' So I did. He laughed so much when I handed him the terms the next day, because I just wrote 'IOU'."

Shinichi laughed.

--

Danika flew out to meet Shinichi and the rest of Underneath for the rehearsal with Sakurai. It wasn't quite what she imagined, since no one pretended that they were there to watch the production. Instead they selected a vehicle large enough to carry all of them, and visited the building that had been reserved for the showing. Akito's long term girlfriend would also be attending, even though she hadn't taken time off from school for this, since she'd attended a few things with Akito before.

The team plotted routes and access points, and generally went over the security and wheelchair access. There was a bit of choreography as Priyadarshi gave them directions about which order they would enter the event in, and then which order to leave in. Danika and Shinichi would enter first and leave last, both because of Shinichi's role, and to accommodate Danika's chair. Naoki, Kimitoshi, and Hideki would be in the middle and then Akito and Natsume would be the last in and the first out.

Shinichi spent the entire short visit practically glued to her side, but Danika didn't really mind, except that the restriction against being seen in public hadn't been lifted yet so they couldn't go out and about.

--

They started on the next demo game before Danika finished her short coaching sessions on how to phrase her answers to likely questions, posture, and waving like a princess.

'Living Jade Empire' also released another official update, one that would let guilds offer internal quests to their own members for things like construction and resource collection. It made Danika feel like she was falling out of touch with the game's development, and she worried a bit over whether she'd be able to settle back in quickly when she finally rejoined the sixth division.

SaltySiamese was the first to finish the King of Cat's long quest, and even though Kit and Danika finished their portions the next night, it made Danika feel like she was lagging behind in playing the game too. The King of Cats said so as well, "Slow dragon, not make good King either."

"Why would I need to be a good King?" Danika asked suspiciously.

"I will wear boots next," the cat replied cryptically.