"Should I have asked him to come with us?" Mori asked. Ren's cloaked figure faded in and out of the fog, the grass softening their footfalls so they trekked through the hills of the fifth ring like wraiths in the mist. Once in awhile, craggy structures came into view, scattered pieces of castle ruins which looked like they'd weathered dynasties.

"He couldn't have in the long-run," Ren replied. "Fighting without party immunity is dangerous—we learned that in the early days with crossfire casualties—and our leader wouldn't have allowed it." She glanced at Mori. "Don't second-guess yourself, Mentos. You made the right choice. We're going to make it out of here."

 "You sure this leader of yours will want me on the team?" Eyes flicking to their sides and flank, Mori adjusted her rifle's sling to help support its weight. "My stats aren't the greatest."

"I'll vouch for you. Need a new invite?"

Another party request materialized and this time Mori accepted. Swiping quickly through the next window asking for confirmation that she wished to leave her current party, Mori blinked as Ronin's stat bars faded and six new sets took their place. Their cumulative effect overwhelmed her so that when the contract option came up again, she selected "as is" to get the extra window out of her face—

And tripped over a half-buried statue anyway.

"Oh wow, your agility is low, but at least you have nice accur—" Ren looked back and laughed. "You good there?"

"Peachy," Mori answered. "Admiring the scenery. Any chance I can somehow hide all these stats so I can see where I'm going?" Mori scanned the usernames in the sidebar, five total not counting Ren's. "Nikonikonii and bonzaii are obviously Niko and Yuta...did Tsuna pick a new tag again?"

"As she always says, never wear the same tag twice." Ren winked. "Tsuna's Mentalillness. SevenCyns is leader and potato is the new recruit. You can minimize the tabs or move them around by thinking of it as click and drag on a computer screen. I bunched everyone's health bars together in one section for mine since it's the most important thing to keep track of."

Mori shook her head, clearing her vision like an Etch A Sketch. Pulling the info bars out one at a time, she managed to sort them into neat boxes out of sight with color-coded tabs to mark them. None of them trended toward a particular trait, which relieved her. Out of the six, potato's resembled Mori's most, though the other player had higher agility and lower speed. 

"Wait." Mori frowned. "My defense and health aren't as high as normal..."

Ren didn't seem to have heard, since her voice came clear over party communications. "This is Wraith approaching from the east side. I brought a friend I think a lot of you will be happy to see."

A soft voice replied a moment later. "This is potato. Copy that."

Looping her arm through Mori's, Ren smiled. "You'll like Perera. She's a real sweetheart and steady support too."

They approached a crumbling tower of stone with a golden sheen running through the cracks. A figure near the wooden door broke away from the shadows and ran toward them.

"Mentos!" The woman tackled Mori with a hug. "I saw your tag pop up and I couldn't believe my eyes! How are you? How's your family? What have you been up to all these years? You have to tell me everything—I've been dying for someone to talk to!"

"I—I've missed you too, Tsuna," Mori stammered, identifying the player to confirm she knew her. Even though she tried not to stare, after Ren had appeared the same albeit matured, seeing Tsuna look nothing like she'd remembered shocked her.

Gone were the brown bangs, multi-colored hair clips, and a thousand sparkly charms on several bracelets. In their place were tattooed cranes decorating Tsuna's muscled biceps, a sleeve-less white turtleneck, and platinum silver hair in boxer braids. Granted, they'd only met once in the real world and Tsuna's avatar might not reflect her true appearance, but still...

"You two can have a slumber party tonight and catch up then," Ren teased, tugging the both of them forward. "We need to introduce Mori and fill her in on our mission."

"Can't have slumber parties when we don't sleep," Tsuna pointed out.

"People don't sleep at slumber parties anyways, not if they stay up chatting," Ren said.

"What's the mission?" Mori asked. She sent her rifle to inventory before stepping into the stone tower. Stairs coiled around the center like a snake slithering up a staff, but the two players led her downward instead.

Ignoring the shushing motion Ren made at her, Tsuna giggled and answered, "We're going to be the first to make it out of Valor, of course."

The stairwell opened up into a storage room with a couple wooden crates lining the walls and empty shelves. A man sat against the wall opposite the entrance, a dagger glinting in his hand. He didn't look up or answer Tsuna's greeting, though when she pulled out a piece of dried meat and put it on his lap, he slowly blinked and picked it up to eat.

"Yuta's been like that since we lost Demi," Ren murmured. "Hasn't said a word but he hears us fine and still comes through in a pinch."

Mori's fists clenched, reality hitting her like a sucker punch in the gut.

There's no guarantee that even if you return, you'll ever be the same.

Skye hadn't been joking. There might be beauty in Valor, but underneath the thin veneer lay FEAR's poison. Real life held consequences—death the most permanent—but a game with consequence stripped off the blinders that let them ignore it.

Beauty here was an illusion, but the pain and death were all too real.

Ren steered Mori around the corner. "Cynthia, this is MementoMori."

A woman sat on a bench, head bowed, but she looked up when they entered. A golden cape hung over her shoulder, covering silver scales of armor. Long hair of the same shade glowed in the lantern light like a halo, though her dark blue eyes glimmered like a stormy sea.

Mori recognized her. She'd viewed Cynthia's feed at Cap's restaurant, watching her and a team—Ren's team—fight a chimera. "It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm grateful that my old team found a skilled leader after I left."

The corner of Cynthia's lip quirked upward. "Is that sarcasm?"

"What? No—"

Cynthia jerked her head at Ren. "We agreed to look for a tank."

"You and I are tank enough for this team," Ren answered, her face expressionless, almost bored. "Demi held rearguard with Perera. If you don't like my pick, I'm sure Ronin would be more than happy to have her back."

"Ronin?" Cynthia glanced sharply at Mori.

Shrinking a little under the leader's gaze, Mori kept silent. She hadn't been here long, but the undercurrents shifted far more than Ren's placid tone suggested. Stick her feet a little too far off the edge and she might be dragged under.

"How'd you get that earring, Mori?" Ren asked. "If I'm not wrong, it's from the Red Moon challenge. Requires a single player to draw first blood and deal majority damage on every single wolf, then their party must eliminate them within a set time frame." She tapped her chin. "How many times did we attempt that challenge, Cyn?"

"It could've been Ronin," Cynthia said, staring at the wall. The slight droop of her shoulders, the dark circles under her eyes—Mori knew that feeling, that burden, all too well.

"Could've. Was it, Mentos?"

Don't drag me into this, Ren. "No. I didn't know about the challenge requirements though."

Cynthia stood, her head almost brushing the stone above. "If your pick is so good at challenges, Wraith, then you won't mind me issuing my own." She pointed at Mori. "You'll fight one of my party in a mock battle tomorrow. If you win, you're one of us. If you lose, you forfeit the earring and are off the team."

Mori touched the earring with her finger, the shade of light emitting from the jewel changing to red.

"Mock battle, Mori's choice of opponent," Ren argued.

"Mori's choice of anyone on the team except you," Cynthia corrected.

Scratching at the hard chip in the side of her neck, Mori gave a nervous laugh. "Does Mori get any say in this?" she joked.

"You can leave right now and I'll let you keep your trinket and your pride," Cynthia said with a hard smile that made Mori want to crawl into a hole and hide forever.

"We'll get back to you on that, Cyn. Now if you'll excuse us," Ren said, hooking Mori under the arm and dragging her out of the room and up the stairs.

Once they made it out into the open, Mori hissed in a whisper, "That's who you chose to be my successor? She's like a hybrid of something out of Mean Girls and a criminal documentary!"

"Cyn's first impressions are always the worst, I promise," Ren said, plopping down on the grass. "You two aren't all that different which I guess means you're not going to hit it off all that well first time, but hey! I'm sure you'll be breaking bread over the burdens of leadership and responsibility in no time."

Mori fell back to lie flat on the grass, covering her face with her hands. "Thanks, that makes me feel so much better. Who should I even fight? Yuta? Potato?" Do I even want to fight? I could run away...back to the bridge I burned to stare at the ashes. Mori groaned.

"Don't fight Perera. You'll go soft on her, I know it. Not Yuta either." Ren sighed. "Or Tsuna, she's way too fast and Cyn has the highest stats on the team."

Mori sat up, feeling miserable and trapped. Cynthia couldn't force her to give up the earring, could she? But just the thought of standing up to that titan-like woman sent shivers down Mori's spine. Cyn wouldn't have to snap it, she'd flop like a jellyfish. "So that leaves—"

She and Ren locked eyes. "Niko," they both said.

As if on cue, a guy's voice registered over comms. "Niko to home base with the piping hot tea. Perera, don't you roll your eyes at me! Coming from the west side. 'Bout to show my best side—"

"You know he used to have a thing for you." Ren snickered as a staff-wielding player approached them, still rapping corny lyrics that hit surprisingly on beat.

"Stop." Mori wheezed. "I'm going to die laughing."

"Oh, hey." Niko stopped in front of them, electric green hair spiked and glowing like a lava lamp. Black stripes painted his cheeks like a football player's. "Long time no see, Mentos."

"What's the tea, Niko?" Mori asked, trying not to erupt in giggles again.

"Not much, not much. Doomsday is approaching. Players are falling asleep and not waking back up again." A soda can appeared in his hand which had rings bedazzling each finger. He cracked the lid and took a long slurp, oblivious to their stunned silence. "Also, I got a new hair style today. You like?"

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Chapter Word Count: 1826
Total Word Count: 20070