“Then, this line here calls back to this function while using these variables as the input.” I said while scrolling through the program and showing it to Yuu.

“Hmm…” She nodded while staring at the screen. “But didn’t you call these variables before? In the previous function?” She asked me confused.

“Yes, but I also changed them afterwards in the main function, so this use their updated values after that function.” I explained to her, and she nodded while her eyes shone in excitement. She quickly took my notebook and started writing it down in the last-most pages like she had been doing previously.

I already knew that Yuu was a bit of an honor student, but I never expected it to be that bad. She literally started fidgeting uncomfortably for not having a notebook to note down what I was explaining to her. With that, I opened my notebook and put it on the last page, giving her the chance to write down what she wanted.

Still, it’s almost hilarious how a sheltered princess is actually going really well on a programming class despite barely having used an electronic device previously. Well, yeah, it is pretty much the most basic programming class, making some trivial programs, and these programs don’t really require much knowledge on how a computer works as much as they require logic thinking, but it’s still a funny image. Bonus point for the programming language using English words most of the time.

“Those who have finished the program can leave for today. Whoever is still having trouble, I’ll go see you one at a time, so wait patiently.” The teacher suddenly said.

While making a mental ‘WOO HOO!’ and physically raising my arms in cheering, I kicked back the chair, saved the file and removed the pendrive in one fell swoop… Actually not since there wouldn’t be enough time for the file to be saved and it would corrupt it, but you get my meaning.

Looking to the side, I noticed that a certain someone was still watching anime in his Compaq, so I gave Jean a light tap to the head to get his attention and make a motion for him to follow me. He quickly understood, turning off his console and starting to prepare to leave.

“Oi! Wait for me!” I heard an insignificant being calling out to us. “I just need a few more minutes here.”

“Man, I’m hungry. I wonder if Maya already have lunch ready.” I said while ignoring said being.

“I don’t think I heard that name before…” Jean said as he stood up.

“Oh, she’s my long lost twin sister.” I explained briefly. “And Hanbei’s maid. A bona fide frilly-maid-dress wearing maid.”

“Maya-san is really interesting.” Yuu agreed with a smile while giving me my notebook back.

I took the chance to peek at the pages that she had written down. A stream of Japanese characters were covering the entire page, traced with an elegance that I wouldn’t be able to copy even if I spent an entire day per character. Flipping back to my own notes, I saw letters that looked like they were written by a guy being run over by a truck while a horde of hyper-active kids shook him while asking for cookies.

Yeah. The difference in calligraphy is ridiculous.

“Oi! You seriously ignoring me?”

“Anyway, what did you think of the class?” I asked Yuu as I put the notebook away in my bag.

“It was interesting.” She said excited. “I thought there would be more math since you said it’s an engineering course, but this was much easier than I expected.”

“Do you have problem with math?” Jean asked her curious, but I just sneered in response. Yuu? Problems with class subjects? Preposterous! Yuu is a perfect girl who…

“Yes. I usually have more trouble studying math than anything else.” Huuuh… What? No no no. I must have heard it wrong. The Yuu I know is supposed to be a perfect student who can ace all the tests with her two hands tied behind her back and blindfolded! While peeking at Yuu confused, she continued. “I usually have to study twice as much for math as I do for everything else.” She said embarrassed. “On the other hand, I find calligraphy and history to be really easy.”

“So you have a subject you aren’t good with?” I asked her just to be sure.

“Hmm? Yes?” Yuu said back confused while tilting her head slightly.

“...I was sincerely expecting you to say that you find everything easy.” I crossed my arms and looked down, letting  my mind process her words. Yuu. Bad subject… Hmm… Seems like my brain refuses to file the two together.

“…Ri-kun…” Yuu said awkwardly.

I sighed before deciding to not mind it too much. The three of us left the classroom while hearing some strange being calling out to us, but since it was probably no one important, we started strolling around our way to the exit.

“Anyway, you said you were a mage in game, right?” Jean asked Yuu, completely oblivious to the shocking fact that Yuu had just dropped on us. “What’s your class specifically?”

“I am a sorceress.” She replied happily before stopping to think. “Anoo… Sore wa… Standing… Artillery? I think that’s what Mari-chan called it.”

“Oh? First time I’m hearing about that.” I said surprised. “You mean that you deal more damage if you don’t have to move?” I mean, I know it’s easier to focus and whatnot, but I didn’t know of any specific bonus around that.

“Hn!” She nodded. “I get bonus damage and mana discount if I’m standing still for some seconds. That and some of my strongest spells cannot be cast while moving.”

Hmm. The more you know.

“Good to know. So we have someone who can be our main nuker.” Jean mumbled to himself before turning to me. “What about your class? Don’t think I’ve heard you saying anything about it yet.”

“I got skirmisher. It’s a class specialized into dealing with stronger enemies through the usage of guile, gear and tactics.” I said proudly.

“Though you mostly use recklessness and hard-headedness.”

…

I quickly fished my cellphone and stared at Crys in her usual maid outfit, who had begun to whistle innocently while looking away.

“…I… Don’t have anything to say against that…” I said after a moment of trying to find my words.

“I guessed so.” She replied with a shrug. “And geez! What was with your connection? The signal was horrible! I couldn’t even stay connected long enough to hear what you were saying!” She started complaining.

“Yeah. I know. But I can’t really complain because that class at least still have some signal.” I said with a sigh. “You should see one on the first floor. It got literally no signal coming through.” I put on my most intense voice, and Crys made an expression of pure horror.

“…what the HELL have I been missing here?” Jean asked once again.

Hmm, I feel that if he asks that again, it might become his catchphrase in this story. Oh well.

“Jean, meet Crys. She’s one of Cygnas avatar and my pet in game.” I said while showing him the screen.

“Hi there!” Crys said happily. “I take it that you were Phantoms that Gon called that day?”

“Ah? Humm… Yeah…” He replied confused before eyeing me with a ‘tell me what the hell is going on’ glance.

“Well, things happened, crafting ensued, and pet was acquired. That’s pretty much it.” I explained it to him with the most concise words I could muster.

“…I have absolutely no idea what that means.” Jean said while face-palming.

“Then you not ideaing hard enough.” I said bluntly.

“Gon …While I do get what you mean by that, the way you said it makes absolutely no grammatical sense whatsoever.” Crys said with a sigh.

“Anyway, why did you call?” I asked curious.

“Hmm? Oh, no reason. I was actually wanting to ask you something earlier, but since the connection was bad I didn’t manage to do it.” She said with a shrug before making an expression as if she recalled something. “Oh yeah. Yami is asking if you’d rather have chicken or red meat.”

“Oh? Hmm… I’d say chicken.” I turned towards Yuu and she nodded in agreement. “Chicken it is then.” She nodded briefly, and I was about to put away the cellphone again, but quickly recalled something. “By the way, did you manage to buy that?” I asked curious.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Yep. It was cheaper than I thought to be honest.” She said with a wry smile. “Well, it truly is a village of dwarves.”

“Nice. Tell lord Wich that we’ll get going to that mansion as soon as I get back to Insania.” I said with a wide smile.

“Leave it to me.”

“Hmm… Are you sure that’s going to work, Ri-kun?” I heard Yuu asking me with a worried voice. “I mean… It just sounds…”

“Well, I’m not really sure. That’s why I’m also planning to take Plan B with me when I get going.” I said happily.

“…You are totally not going to tell me, are you?” Jean asked annoyed.

Nope. I’m not.

…

As soon as the flash of light died down, I found myself in the same place where I had logged off last time. Looking around I quickly found out that Crys was already on my side, with Aura and Mr. Pebblesworth being close-by.

“Did you see Yuu?” I asked her while stretching myself a bit.

“Yeah. She arrived earlier and went to the market, something about getting prepared.” Crys mentioned while sounding curious about the kitsune’s doings.

“I was a bit curious about this too.” I said while recalling that she had went ahead and logged in before me. “Anyway, I also need to go to the market to work on my plan B, so might as well go look for her meanwhile.” I said with a shrug

“Hmm. If you say so…” Crys said a bit suspicious. Probably curious about my oh so secret plan B.

We soon reached the market, meeting with Aura and Pebblesworth on the way, with the larger fox serving as a ride for the smaller elemental. Since I needed to find out about a certain someone’s whereabouts, I went around asking the shopkeepers if they had seen said person around, and after a couple of times asking, I received the news I wanted.

“I saw him going into the weapon store earlier.” The dwarf manning a skewer store said while handling me a piece of the meat. “That’ll be eight coppers.”

I nodded while taking on the skewer and removing a piece from the wooden sticks to give it to Aura, who cheerfully ate it.

Taking the directions from the shopkeeper, we made our way through the streets while Aura stopped to greet the few people she recognized from back at the snow ball wars. Looks like that she became some sort of small celebrity around here.

It didn’t take us long to reach the weapon store we had been guided to, near the center of the village. As we reached it, a client came out through the door, which I quickly took as the chance to pass through the door and go inside.

And how happy I was when I saw the one I was looking for looking over the wares on the walls. I approached her from behind while giving him a friendly slap on the back.

“Hey there Riva-ough!” Before I even had the chance to react, she jumped startled, turned around, knocked me off my feet with a quick sweep of his feet and had put one of her knives on my throat, her face in pure shock as he stared down at me blankly. “…If I wasn’t hurting and scared to death of this situation, I’d have given you a ten out of ten for the counter.”

“…Where the hell did you come from?” The fire elemental asked me with a horrified tone.

“Ermm… From the door?” I said while pointing back towards the entrance. She looked back to the door in shock and confusion, then towards me. “Also… Aura’s looking pretty angry right now, so… Maybe take off the dagger from my throat?”

For a few more seconds, Ashley simply stared at me, before finally sighing and nodding. He stepped back and put the knife back into the sheathe. She walked off while facepalming in annoyance, leaving me laying flat on the ground.

“…You are forgetting to give me a friendly hand in getting up here.” I pointed out his mistake.

“I have absolutely no reason to give you a hand, and even less to be friendly about it.” She replied coldly while not even looking at me.

“Aww, come on. Don’t be such a tsundere! I know you love me!” I stood up and approached him to throw my arms around his shoulder, but received an elbow blow to my ribs instead. “Ughh… T-Tis sure be a t-tough love….” I said while holding my sides painfully.

“Stop with the nonsense. Why the hell did you sneak up on me like that?”

“I didn’t do it on purpose, okay?” I when I felt my body stop complaining.

“…Then, why are you here?”

I was about to say something silly like always just to annoy him, but I stopped as the meanings of her words reached up my ears. Taking a  couple of seconds to process them, I finally blinked surprised and stared at him in shock.

“…You are actually going to listen to me?” I asked in shock.

“Even if I said I’m not, you’d just follow me and talk anyway, wouldn’t you?” He said drily before turning back to me.

“You know me so well! I knew you were the perfect one to be my rival!” I said cheerfully, earning a new facepalm from her. “Anyway, I’m going somewhere a bit dangerous and I wanted you to come with m....”

“Denied.” She replied bluntly before waving me off. “Now you can go away.”

“I’ll pay you.” I interrupted her, making her freeze for a second.

“What?”

“You really thought I would come here not expecting you to deny?” I asked with a smirk. “Anyway, I’m willing to pay you to help me deal with a haunted mansion;”

“Pay… How exactly?” He asked me dubiously.

“Well, money maybe? Or possibly something else.” I said with a shrug. He widened his eyes in surprise before starting a smile. “That said, I’m not accepting a: ‘Don’t come near me again’, ‘don’t talk to me’ or anything of the sort, okay?”

She clicked her tongue in annoyance. Before crossing her arms and staring at me intensely for some moments. Probably thinking of what he should ask me.

“Wait, you said haunted mansion?” He asked me after some time. I nodded with a serious expression.

“I’m going to a mansion that I may or may not make into my house.” I explained. “But it seems that it’s been haunted for some time now, so I had this plan to deal with it. But…”

“Look, not that I mind the two of you flirting in my store, but you are bothering the other customers.” I was interrupted suddenly by a dwarf who was sitting behind a counter where many weapons laid. He was eyeing us with a slightly tired look before glancing at the others customers.

I could almost hear a certain someone’s vein popping as she became furious. Before Ashley blew up something in the room, I grabbed her by the back of his neck and gave him a light pull when he was distracted.

“We’ll move out, sir. Sorry about that.” I said politely while the elemental debated, trying to save herself. “But you see, my friend here sees himself as a man, and haven’t completely matured yet. That, and I already someone else in mind.”

While waving away at the merchant, I dragged Ashley out of the store ignoring his angry shouts. Once we were outside she shrugged off my hand and took a couple of deep breaths to calm himself down.

“Anyway, continuing on.” I said before he could start shouting at me. “You see, I want to hire you because I know of your capacity, and while I don’t expect things to descend into chaos ten seconds into the plan, it is better to be safe rather than sorry… I don’t really mind if you decide to stay and fight or just run and get some real help, seeing how ghosts are uncommon enemies, but… Ermm… Why are the two of you looking at me like that?” I said in annoyance upon seeing both Crys and Ashley looking at me suspiciously.

“Master… Actually said something serious.” Cry said in shock.

“You are actually giving me some decent terms and the right of choice for this?” Ashley said in a suspicious disbelief.

“What? I can actually do serious from time to time, you know?” I said angrily, then I took a moment to breathe in and calm myself down. “If you want, I can try and annoy you till you accept it, you know?”

“Yeah… no.” Ashley said with a worried look while shaking her head. “Anyway, aren’t you a chosen and whatnot? Why would you even need my help?” He asked confused.

“It’s more of a matter of being safe rather than sorry than anything else.” I explained. “We may be technically immortal and whatnot, but we do kinda lack the general knowledge of the world at large. That, and my guess is that you have more knowledge of the world than anyone else I can possibly call who have just as much, if not more skill as you.”

“…This is seriously disturbing, Mast-Ouch!” I flicked Crys’ forehead to stop her from saying her she was about to say.

“I see…” Ashley said while staring at me suspiciously. “And you say that I can choose my payment…”

“Yep.” I nodded while crossing my arms and staring at her waiting for her to make her decision.

For some time, Ashley stared at me for some time before starting to wander around thinking about it. From the looks of it, it looked like she was in conflict about what she should choose. After some time, she seemed to recall something, as she snapped her fingers and turned back while pointing at me.

“I want you to get me some of those bombs and arrows I’ve seen you using.”  He said. “Introduce me to the crafter or just work as the middle man, I don’t care. I want some of those.”

“Is that all?” I asked suspiciously. “Also, wouldn’t a throwing knife be better for something like that? I don’t think I’ve seen you using a bow before.”

“Yeah, that sounds good.” She replied with a nod.

“Great. Then…” I stopped to clear my throat and straightened my back. “Ashley, pleasure to meet you. Name’s Gondorrer Spider-ban… Gravelheart. Gondorrer Gravelheart. Crafter by trade and make of the crystal consumables. Pleasure to meet you.” I said while smiling proudly and forcibly grabbing her hand to shake.

“…Oh Cygnas, no.” Ashley said horrified.

“I’ll be the one who’ll be supplying you the weapons you demand.” I said with a wide smile.

“…I’m going to regret this, aren’t I?” Ashley asked in a defeated tone.

“I’m going to make sure of that.” I replied happily before becoming a bit more serious and scavenging around my inventory. “Here’s a couple of knives. I’ve resupplied recently so it’s not a big issue to pay in advance.” I said while handing her a couple of the knives I had made.

“Ugh… Looks like I don’t have much choice, huh?” Ashley said annoyed. “Okay. Tell me how to use these and give me another set after the job and you have a deal.”

“Yays! I knew I could count on my rival to help me!” I said happily while approaching him to give her a hug, but was received with a blow to my non-existing or at the very least stone-plated guts.

“One condition. Don’t go getting touchy.” She said angrily.

“Then… I can… Call you a gi-Girl?” I asked jokingly, only to get a kick to the ribs.

Tough love is painful.

“S-SHISHOU!” I heard Yuu calling to me while some footsteps hurriedly approached.

“Before you ask, he deserved it.” Ashley said in a cold fury.

“I… totally did…” I agreed with him. Crys and Aura both nodded in agreement while Mr. Pebblesworth simply stared at us confused.

“But there was no need to hit Shishou like that, was there?” Yuu defended me angrily. Ughh… I don’t deserve such an adorably pure disciple! While thinking so, I extended my arm up and Yuu helped me get back up. “Still… Shishou…” She looked at me worriedly.

“I know… I know… I’ll get some better armor so that these kind of paybacks won’t hurt as much.” I said, showing her that I had learned my lesson.

“That’s…” She looked a bit confused for a moment before finally pouting. “Erm… Ei!” She made a cute sound while giving me a light slap to the head that I barely felt. “Bad Shishou! You shouldn’t be teasing others like that!” She said in a pretend angry tone while I kept staring at her surprised. However, her façade quickly fell down as she looked at me worriedly. “T-That didn’t hurt, did it? Han-chan said that I should be a bit more strict with you or else you’d never learn, but…”

“Nah… it’s just that… It kind of surprised me.” I said in surprise while looking at the flustered Yuu. “Did you get that on camera, by the way?” I asked Crys.

“A scene of Yuu hitting Gon to teach him a lesson? I got it in HD with full surround sound and 3d enabled.” Crys said excitedly.

“Hah! I knew I could count on you!” I said happily. “We do think alike after all.”

At my words, Crys’ movements froze as she widened her eyes in shock and fear before holding her head in her hands and curling down in a floating fetal position.

“Am I seriously having to watch this?” Ashley asked angrily. “Can we just stop this whole skit and get going to this haunted mansion already?”

“Fair enough. I’m actually quite curious about the place to be honest.” I said agreeing with him before thinking about something. “Speaking of which, since we are going to a haunted place, I should probably teach you that, right?”

“Huh…” Ashley looked at me worried while Yuu simply tilted her head curiously.

“It’s the battle hymn for when one’s got to fight against ghosts and other such things.” I said with a wide smile. “We call it: The ghost busters theme song!” I said while dragging the two with me.