PLEASE ENTER NAME : LEVEL 9

DAY 117 : D-DAY, THIRDWEEK, DEIMOS, YEAR 1

CLUBHOUSE 2 : LOUNGE 1 : RETIREMENT

[ NEW S.T.A.T.S — STRENGTH: MAGICAL=29 - PHYSICAL=16 — TENACITY: DEFENSE=29 - SPEED=16 — APTITUDE: MANA=29 - STAMINA=16 — TILT: CONTROL=29 - LUCK=16 ]

[ NEW UNCOMMON C.L.A.S.S. ACTION: DULLAHAN / HEADSPLOSION — EFFECT: YOUR HELM EXPLODES, DEALING MASSIVE DAMAGE IN A LARGE RADIUS TO EVERYTHING BUT THE HELM ITSELF — WARNING: HELM TAKES EXTRA DAMAGE FROM ALL SOURCES FOR HALF OF RECHARGE TIME IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING THE EXPLOSION — COST: LARGE MANA — STRENGTH SCALING: MAGICAL — TILT SCALING: LUCK — RECHARGE: MEDIUM ]

[ NEW RARE C.L.A.S.S. PASSIVE: DULLAHAN / BODY DUPLICATION 5 — EFFECT: MAX SUMMONED ARMORS *= 2 — PREREQUISITE 1: SUMMON ARMOR 3 — PREREQUISITE 2: BODY DUPLICATION 4 ]

Yuki walks into the lounge, talking with David. “Honestly, I don’t know if I should be here… But he said I needed closure and-”

Everyone apparently takes that conjunction as their queue to jump up out of hiding. “SURPRISE!!!”

Yuki cowers back at first, shrinking into herself. But then she seems to notice that what’s surrounding her are smiles. One appears on her own face to match the room. “You guys…” She looks around at everyone. As she does, she starts to tear up. “Tha-” She freezes when she catches sight of Kirito. After a small shudder, her gaze moves past the rest of us to finally land fully on Tyrone. Then she bows to him. “Thank you…”

A few minutes of awkward silence blooming into only slightly-less-awkward conversation later, Alex is talking to her. “Are you okay? I mean don’t get me wrong… This is a goodbye party. Not an interrogation. I respect your right, and decision, to leave. For any reason at all. Or no reason. If that’s what you want…” He seems to be getting flustered. “But you two were always so inseparable. I just… Can’t help but wonder why.”

Yuki blushes. “I met some-” Her eyes dart to Kirito, widening as they meet his gaze before reflexively focusing intently on her own hands. “-one else. And… It just feels like time to move on.” She twirls her thumbs around each other before looking back up at Alex. “Does that make sense?”

Alex chuckles warmly. “Not at all, Yuki. With the four of us… Me and the three new guys, I mean… We finally have enough people to make a real run at Ascension.”

“We try every year. Or at least we always try when we have enough people… And we always fail. That isn’t why I’m leaving… But it doesn’t feel very good.”

David sighs from the other side of Alex. “I know what you mean. But Alex is right. We haven’t had this good of a lineup since before he left for Swchool.”

Yuki stiffens at the implied reprimand.

David sets a comforting hand on her shoulder. “But he’s also right about something else. Leaving is your choice to make. And not ours to prevent.”

“Th-thanks…”

“You know… You’re actually helping us out. Not a lot. I mean, you’ve gotta be more useful in a fight than someone like me… But having eight people instead of nine does simplify things.”

That seems to make Yuki feel genuinely better. She opens up a bit at the words, appearing to finally be something other than curled in on herself.

Meanwhile, Kirito is glaring daggers at all involved.

David rounds on him, the first real anger I’ve seen from the guy finally boiling over. “Oh, what? You got a problem with Yuki not feeling like shit for getting away from you?”

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Kirito only stares back, his silent expression a mask of burning rage. But then his eyes meet Yuki’s beneath the tangle of her own hair she seems to be hiding under, trying in futility to look anywhere but at him. At that, his burning seems to steam. And then fizzle. Between himself and David, teeth clenched tight, Kirito is the first to turn away.

The room as a whole seems to palpably untense as he focuses intently on his screens.

Simon watches the whole interaction with frustrated confusion. He stays silent through all the assurances that everything is fine.

That it’s just time she moves on. That she’s thankful to everyone here for respecting her decision.

Eventually, Simon puts down his cereal spoon and nudges Tyrone.

Tyrone looks impassively down at him.

In answer, Simon gestures at the goodbye party in general. “I don’t get it.”

“What’s not to get?”

“Alex has point, Tyrone. You’ve known them as long as I have. This thing… Is not just strange. It contradicts everything I’ve ever seen them do. I’ve watched them die together. For each other. Many times. And their behavior outside of combat is even worse. I…” Simon sighs. “Like I said… I don’t get it.”

But Tyrone just shakes his head. “It never makes sense when someone leaves a group you’re still in. But I’ve grown to accept it… Even if part of that is accepting that I’ll never get used to it. All we can do is stand back and let them go.”

“People leave, yes. I’ve seen it, you’ve seen it… We stood together and watched them leave in droves. I was here for that, same as you. But it always made sense. I always at least understood why. But this? Her? And now of all times? Those two have had worse spats by far than this. At least it seemed that way from where I was standing… Sitting… Probably eating… But you’re right. Last thing any of us want is for this guild to feel like a prison. We must simply… What? Keep going?”

Tyrone nods. “Exactly. We keep going. We didn’t stop then, and we won’t stop now. Or ever. Even if ‘we’ shrinks all the way back down to just ‘us’. Or even me. You can leave too, you know. I won’t stop you.”

Simon snorts.

But that’s when Kirito slams his hand on the coffee table next to the couch where he’s been sitting this whole time, getting up as he does. He rounds on Yuki. “I never hit you, you shouldn’t have any secrets from me-”

Yuki keeps turning her head away from him, but otherwise stays still as he moves around her, trying to look her in the eye.

“-Why Yuki, why, please talk to me please, you are part of my life, you are everything, I could not go on without you-” Kirito does a fist pump for some reason. “YOU ARE TEARING ME APART, YUKI!!!” At that, he finally seems to notice the rest of the lounge. That the general focus has palpably shifted. And harshened. All of it aimed straight at him. For an extended moment, he looks like he’s ready to challenge the whole room on this. But then he deflates.

Turning slowly on his heel, Kirito walks towards the door to each of our personal spaces. At the threshold, he turns back with eyes for no one but Yuki. “Do you understand life? DO YOU???” Through visible effort, Kirito tears his gaze away and mumbles out a final goodbye through barely suppressed sobs. “Errybuddy betray me, I fed up wivis worl-” Throwing his arms halfway up, he lowers them dramatically, and then limply, before disappearing from the lounge mid-word.

After all this, Zack leans over and whispers under his breath into the side of my helmet. “Trouble in bed.”

I nod. “Understood.”

“In BED…”

“Understood.”

“You don't get it?”

I nod. “I am in possession of a bed.”

“The bed is a very… Implicatious place for things to happen, you know?”

“By ‘implicatious’, do you mean ‘suggestive’?”

“Oh you motherf-YES.”

I nod. “Then yes. I am aware.”

“Oh… That’s good… PEN, I don’t understand your sense of humor.”

I nod. “That makes two of us.”

“Wait… did you just-”

Simon leans in from my other side. “Don’t worry about it. His jokes are turd in slipper.”

Zack lets out an exasperated sigh before turning to Simon. “Ok, I’ll bite… What?”

“Turd in slipper… Feels good. But somehow, is just not right.”

“Shut up.”

Cocking his head, Simon appears to have an epiphany. “I think I understand why Yuki is leaving.”

Joe seems to come out of a mental fugue from the other side of Zack. “Huh?”

“You can’t change the people around you, but you can change the people around you.”

“I don’t get it.”

“Alright, less confusingly then… You can’t change your friends. But you can get new friends.” He shakes his head. “Or more to the point… If you don’t like someone in a group, just leave.”

Zack folds his arms. “Then why am I still here?”

Simon seems to really think that through for a moment. “That’s… A very good question.”

Tyrone smacks him across the back of the head.