A phone rang and a slim hand picked it up.

"Hey, it's been a while," came a deep voice from the other end.

"No kidding. I see you haven't stopped your habit of using that voice-changing app."

"It makes me sound all mysterious, doesn't it. Anyway, did you have something you wanted to ask? I am rather busy these days, you know."

"Yeah, I know, that game server you're running and stuff, right?"

"Don't make it sound like it's some MMORPG. It's not that simple. We're dealing with actual people, you know. And for some reason our staff is constantly overworked."

"Whatever. I'm not that interested in your problems."

"Okayyy...and you contacted me because...?"

"Here's the thing. My little brother seems to have stumbled into something interesting these days. It's the summer holidays and yet he's almost never home. When he finally came back, he even brought a girl with him! Can you imagine!?"

"Uh, and I'm supposed to be interested because...?"

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"So I was curious and put a home-made tracker on him. And guess where he went?"

"At this point I'm more worried about your stalkerish tendencies."

A cold smile rose to the bespectacled man's face. "Do inform Feyril that Taka would like to have a talk with him."

~*~

"Look, there's the town! All right! I told you we would make it."

"We finally made it! No thanks to you or these lousy swords."

"Hey, c'mon, it's not the fault of the weapon if it's wielder sucks."

"What?!"

"I mean, you don't see me blaming my sword when I miss a swing, right? Just because you're better at tennis than swinging a sword doesn't mean--whoa, don't point that thing at me!"

"Shaddup! I just wanna go home already!"

"Yeah, yeah, we'll get ahold of those teleports and then go home, all right?"

"I hope the place at least has proper toilets and a shower."

"By the way, how are we going to get money? I doubt they accept Australian dollars here."

"You're the big brother, you figure it out! Plus you're the so-called expert on ee-say-kai or parallel worlds or whatever."

"Oh ho! Now you're finally regretting the time you could have spent reading rather than shopping for clothes, eh?"

"Maybe we could sell these useless swords..."

"No way! Chamisha is my partner! You should treat San better too!"

"Why should I? It doesn't do much damage and it's ugly to boot. And when I finally affect the target with my magic, it dispels the effect!"

"Yeah, I have to agree it's not too helpful on that point. Still, these are the only weapons we have. We can't just sell them!"

"Maybe there are better weapons at the town? Like a katana, for example?"

"Oh yeah! I'm gonna search for my new partner!"

"Wow. Even I'm not that fickle..."