“Iroha Iroha, you look happier than usual today. Did something good happen?” Miyuki asked, coming over to my desk as soon as lunch break started.

“M- Miyuki!? I guess you could say that… Sorry…”

“What? What are you apologizing for? Isn’t it good that you’re happy?” Miyuki leaned against my desk, looking at me over her shoulder.

“Ahahaha, I guess you’re right.” It’s been about a month since Miyuki transferred, and she’s made friends with pretty much everyone. Miyuki’s the only person in class I’d call a friend, and while she could hang out with a larger group just fine, she ends up sticking with me most of the time. She’s great… “So… What are you up to? Did you need something?”

“Right, wanna eat lunch together, Iroha?” Miyuki waved her boxed lunch in front of me. “How about we head to the rooftop for a change of pace? It’s been a while.” That came out of nowhere… The rooftop, huh? There’s no one around up there, so it can get awkward sometimes… But it’s not a feeling that I completely despise. Either way, Miyuki’s the one who’s asking, so I’m not gonna say no.

“Fine by me. That sounds fun!” I’ve come to learn that the best way to deal with Miyuki is to take things in stride. Miyuki feels like eating on the rooftop, we eat on the rooftop. Sometimes she asks something too crazy, and I gotta say no, but those usually happen after school.

Miyuki said I looked happy, and the reason why is because of how yesterday’s battle went. After I woke up in Ririna’s lap, we went back to town, and Flanne was in front of the gate with a small crowd. They saw the monsters suddenly go away, and when we told Flanne what happened, everyone cheered, and our names were cleared. I’m so glad it went so smoothly! It’s such a big weight off my shoulders. Before I left, Ririna asked me to meet up with her today. She said it was important and that she had something cool to show me. What is it? What could it be? Why was she so vague? Is she gonna confess? Probably not, but I’m so excited!

Miyuki and I arrived at the rooftop, and we sat down next to each other in the shade. We started eating, but I quickly got distracted by her. I’ve been slowly getting used to it, but Miyuki really is pretty… It’s hard to tear my eyes away when we’re right next to each other. She’s completely out of my league… What was I thinking back then? I’m so glad that I met Ririna. She’s also nearing perfection, and she keeps getting cuter and cuter the more time we spend together. The fact that Miyuki’s friends with me is good enough. School has become a lot more bearable now that I have someone who will stick with me no matter what.

“Why are you staring at me, Iroha? Falling in love?” Miyuki notices me staring and teases me with a grin.

“N- no! I- I was just thinking about something…” I looked down at my lunch and stuffed my face.

“That’s a good idea. You wouldn’t want the bell to ring before you finish eating…” Miyuki nodded approvingly, probably because she found my reaction amusing. “That reminds me, Iroha, remember when we ran into each other near the ice cream store? Did you end up finding what you were looking for?”

Uhmm… When was that? Right, I was looking for the portal in the parking lot! Yeah, I ended up finding the portal! Wait, there’s no way I can tell her that… “Yeah. I did.” I remember that Miyuki encouraged me. She told me I was gonna find it for sure, and she sounded so confident for no reason. That was funny.

“That was where we first talked as well. It feels like such a long time ago, doesn’t it, Iroha?”

Don’t remind… I was so nervous at the time… “Yeah… Uhmm… Sorry we haven’t been able to hang out much. I asked you to be my friend, and then I didn’t help you get used to life here. Not really a good friend, am I? I should make more time for you.” My life got so messy all of a sudden that we haven’t hung out lately.

“You helped me enough. Being in a new environment is nothing for me. I would have been fine either way. Besides, I’ve been having fun talking to you, and for now, that’s good enough for me.”

“Uhmm… I’m glad that’s the case.”

“Don’t think you’re safe, though, Iroha. You may be busy now, but when I get my hands on you, I’m gonna toy with you until I’m satisfied!”

“P- please spare me…”

“You’re gonna regret making me wait. Ahahahaha!”

As her laughter died down, we ate in silence for a while. I can’t quite put my finger around it, but something feels off about Miyuki. How does she see me? As a friend? It feels like there’s a gap that I can’t cross no matter what. Am I seeing things? When we first met, it was because of her that I ended up in the other world. She was probably under the effect of some spell and doesn’t remember anything about it, but what if that’s a lie? I was so infatuated at the time that I didn’t even consider the possibility. Was it all planned? Since when? When I was looking for another portal to go back to the other world, I ran into her again. Isn’t that weird? It’s too much of a coincidence… Could it be that she hasn’t forgotten? “Miyuki…”

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“Why are you looking at me with that serious face? Are you gonna confess your love to me, Iroha? Ahahaha! You can’t take it back afterwards! Are you sure you can deal with the consequences?” Miyuki grins and brings her face closer to mine seductively.

“W- w- what?! Of course not! Stop teasing me!”

“Sorry sorry, your reactions are just too damn funny! What were you going to say?”

“Forget about it. It’s not important!” My lunch was already done, so I packed my things and got up.

“Don’t leave! Come on, Iroha. Tell me! What were you gonna say?” Miyuki was also done, and she packed up after me.

“No. Forget about it… It doesn’t matter.” Miyuki followed me and pestered me as we made our way back to the classroom. Miyuki’s the same as always. I don’t know why I was doubting her. I was just reading too much into it. She’s impulsive and kinda crazy, but that’s it. What was I about to ask her? How dumb can I be? I’m meeting with Ririna later, so there’s no need to ruin such a great day.

…

“Where’s Ririna? I might have gotten here too early.” Ririna asked me to meet with her near the fountain in the town center. I came here as soon as school ended, and now I’m here too early. Oh well, I guess I’ll have to kill some time while I wait. Let me see what new skills I’m able to buy now.

[Iroha Shinohara: Lv.18]

[HP: 1718/1718]

[MP: 859/859]

[Skill Points: 70]

“Woah…” That’s a lot of them… It’s gonna take some time to look through them. Let me see if I can find the most interesting ones.

[Momentum – Evasion (Cost: 10 Skill Points)]

[Swordsmanship – Inner Strength (Cost: 10 Skill Points)]

First off, I’m immediately gonna buy these two skills. They’re not the flashiest, but they’re so versatile that I can’t possibly pass them up. Inner Strength is the strength equivalent of Nimble. It increases the effectiveness of my strength stat and opens up a lot of other skills. Evasion is just as simple, and it makes it easier for me to evade.

[Swordsmanship – Parrying Strike (Cost: 20 Skill Points)]

[Swordsmanship – Heart Piercer (Cost: 20 Skill Points)]

Then there are these two. They aren’t as versatile as the previous ones, but they’re much cooler. First, there’s Parrying Strike. It makes all my attacks meant to parry something more effective and grants me the ability to use MP for a better parrying strike. I’ve been parrying a lot of attacks with my own, so it’s a good purchase. The second skill is Heart Piercer. This one is a strong piercing attack that ignores part of the enemy’s defenses. I’m going for a hybrid build between strength and agility, and I was considering getting the Crushing Blade skill I unlocked a while ago, but this one might be more interesting. They’re both stronger attacks that complement Slash Flurry well enough, so either of them would be good. I can also buy Wing Slash, which also costs 20 skills, but I think I have enough mobility for now. In the end, I went with Heart Piercer.

Speaking of skills I unlocked a while ago, Parkour and Wall Artist have been on my mind since the very beginning. Parkour does just as you’d expect, but Wall Artist allows me to wall jump and run on walls. I’ve seen videos of parkour before, and it’s really cool, so I’m definitely going to get the Parkour skill at some point. Wall jumping, though, is not something that’s exactly possible in real life, so it sounds even more interesting. They’re both cool skills, but also a little useless, so it’s gonna be 20 skill points down the drain either way. But I’ve earned it. After what I’ve had to go through, wasting 20 skill points on a useless skill just because it’s cool is my right. I can already parkour with Agility Burst to some extent, so I’m going with Wall Artist for now. If Ririna doesn’t come soon, I’ll go see how it works somewhere out of sight.

[Enduring – Resilience (Cost: 10 Skill Points)]

[Enduring – Stone Skin (Cost: 20 Skill Points)]

[Enduring – Regeneration (Cost: 10 Skill Points)]

[Bloodbath – Bleed Boost (Cost: 10 Skill Points)]

[Strategist – Terrain Exploit (Cost: 10 Skill Points)]

These next ones are all interesting, but they’re from skill trees that I haven’t locked in yet. The Violence Impulse skill belongs to the Violence skill tree, so that’s four out of six skill trees locked in. I don’t like that… I don’t like that at all. I like my freedom, and my slots are running out quicker than I’d like… I’m probably not gonna get any of them. At least not for now. Enduring is a defense focused skill tree. Stone Skin is probably the most interesting skill out of those three. It’s a toggle ability that strengthens the user’s skin while draining MP. At max level, the skin becomes quite literally stone. Resilience is the defense stat equivalent of Inner Strength and Nimble. Good enough, but I’m not gonna get a new tree just for it. It might appear in another skill tree that I get in the future since it’s not a skill that’s locked to just one skill tree. Finally, Regeneration. It’s self-explanatory. It’s good, and it’s also kinda cool.

Bloodbath is a skill tree focused on bleeds. I’m not a big fan of status effects, and that’s not gonna change now, but bleed might be one of the coolest ones. Bleed Boost only increases the chance and severity of my bleeds, so it’s not worth locking in the tree. Give me something cooler, and I’ll consider it. The last skill tree is Strategist, and… I don’t know what to say about this one. Was it even in the game? Either way, Terrain Exploit makes it easier to find strategic points in any place… It might be useful… At some point…

[Mind – Pain Tolerance (Cost: 10 Skill Points)]

[Mind – Threat Awareness (Cost: 10 Skill Points)]

[Mind – Transparent Intent (Cost: 20 Skill Points)]

[Mind – Inner Awareness (Cost: 10 Skill Points)]

The last set of interesting skills are these four. Pain Tolerance overlaps with Psychological Attack Resistance a little, but it triggers even when pain is not being used as a psychological attack, which is most of the time. I wanna buy it since I’m not a big fan of getting hurt, but not right now. Threat Awareness increases my perception of enemies, and Inner Awareness increases my perception of what’s going on inside me. I wanna say that Threat Awareness is more valuable out of these two, but that might be foolish. The skill I do wanna get is Transparent Intent. It makes it easier for me to read what my opponents are trying to do. Combining that with Evasion, Agility Burst, and Parrying Strike later on, will make me invincible. Unfortunately, I’m down to my last 10 skill points. Violence Impulse cost me 50 skill points and ruined my skill point economy. It’s a good skill, and it saved my life, so I don’t regret it at all.

[Strategist – Valley Warrior (Cost: 10 Skill Points)]

There were other skills that I immediately dismissed, and most of them looked like this. Valley Warrior increases my strength when fighting in a valley. Okay… Cool, but how often am I gonna fight in valleys? I don’t see it. Seems just as useful as Forest Explorer that I got a while back…

[Skills: Momentum – Agility Burst Lv.4; Mind – Psychological Attack Resistance Lv.3; Momentum – Nimble Lv.5; Momentum – Wall Artist Lv.1; Momentum – Stamina Boost Lv.3; Swordsmanship – Sword Mastery Lv.5; Swordsmanship – Slash Flurry Lv.4; Violence – Violence Impulse Lv.1; Swordsmanship – Inner Strength Lv.1; Momentum – Evasion Lv.1; Swordsmanship – Heart Piercer Lv.1]

In the end, my complete skill list looks like this. A lot of skills ended up leveling up from all the enemies I killed, so I’m pretty happy with how this is looking.

Ririna still hadn’t shown up, so I escaped into an alley to try out Wall Artist. Totally worth it. I was able to get to the roofs in just a few jumps, and getting down was just as easy. Running along walls was also super fun. It’s like I was sticking to the walls with magic. Too bad it’s not a passive and drains MP when it’s being used. Either way, best 20 skill points of my life. Can’t wait until I can buy Parkour too.

“Iroha!” When I got back to the fountain, Ririna called out to me as she arrived from the fast-travel station. What the…? For some reason, she’s carrying a huge backpack with her… What were we doing again?