"Welcome back to Valor. Loading data."

Mori surfaced, standing in the meadow of the starting ring. Unlike the first time she'd entered Valor, she didn't need to shield her eyes against the sun. Darkness clouded the sky and instead of the sun or moon, a black heavenly body watched over the virtual world.

The air held a chill and Mori shivered as if unseen eyes weighed her in their gaze. She opened her full inventory view, but everything she'd gathered in her last life, miscellaneous meat drops, crystal shards, and all her equipment were gone. The only items in her possession were a standard pistol and knife. 

With a small huff, Mori swiped the window closed and enlarged her stats. Her mouth fell open. The bars for strength, speed, and agility had all risen by one star. Even though they still scored below average, Mori did a little victory dance over the improvement.

Until a woman's voice cut through her imagined music. "Am I interrupting something?"

Mori whirled around, tucking her hands behind her back with a sheepish smile. "No, not at all."

The other player wound a single braid of her long red hair around her fist before letting it unravel. Ripped jeans exposed her knees and a cat charm on a necklace chain hung over an oversized black sweater. 

"Do I know you?" Mori asked politely. "You seem familiar." She identified the player, but their tag 'IWantItThatWei' didn't ring any bells.

"We crossed paths about five months ago...in the sixth ring?" The woman tucked a strand of hair behind her ear with a sad glance at Mori.

"Oh..." Mori sucked in a breath. This was the player that had carried Shiori to her. "Thank you—for that. I'm sorry if I'm a little out of sorts. It was only a couple hours ago for me." Tears pricked her eyes, even though she thought they'd all been used up.

"Please, it was nothing and I'm so sorry for what happened." At Mori's sniffling, the woman hurried to say, "Let me introduce myself. I'm Wei and I was hired to wait for you here, though we weren't sure if you'd come." She held out her hand, palm flattened and face-up. The air above shimmered and dropped a sparkling blue gem onto it.

Is that? Mori stepped forward to take the jewel. Her earring. "Who hired you to wait here?" she asked.

"Ronin," Wei answered. "I wasn't in any hurry to head back into any dungeons after what happened, so it's been nice to do some light grinding here. That is, I've been asked to let you know that he wants to talk to you, given that you're agreeable to it and I can help you get there. Ronin said you never had an occassion to use teleportation crystals and you wouldn't have any pieces to craft one when you came back in." Wei rubbed the back of her neck. "Sorry, I'm not the greatest at explaining things."

Part of Mori shrunk from the possibility of confrontation but she steeled herself with the resolution she'd made. I said I'd make things right and that starts here. "I think you're doing great, Wei," Mori said to reassure her. "Are we able to use the crystal now?"

Wei summoned a cluster of pale pink crystals and handed them to Mori. "You can travel to any ring you've already been to by stating the ring's number. Ronin's waiting in Cyber City at the Golden Cat."

"Will you be coming?"

"My destination is the fifth ring but I might see you again later." Wei's smile was unsure, but somehow more comforting that way. Mori wondered what stories the other player could tell her about Shiori, what they'd been through as teammates and all the adventures they might've shared. Another time.

Mori cupped the small formation of glowing crystals in her hands. "Well then, see you later...aweigator." She laughed at the annoyed frown Wei leveled at her.

"You really are Shiori's sister," the other player groaned.

"Terrible puns run in the family." Mori directed her attention to the crystal. "Second ring, please." In a flash of light, the crystals split into shards which whirled around her in a hurricane. When they dispersed, she stood in the city of neon lights, the smell of fuel emission thick in the air.

On the way to the restuarant, she noticed several alleys full of sleeping people, something she'd never seen in Valor before. Players with white half-cloaks that only covered their upper body patroled the entrances and exits to those sections, metal badges in the shape of a four-pointed silver star pinning the cloaks closed over their chests.

She reached the Golden Cat, bell chiming when she stepped in. Before she could ask, the man at the front counter pointed, the same chains on his leather jacket rattling with the action. "He's in the back room."

"Thanks," Mori said with a nod. She tapped the maneki-neko on the nose—its vermilion eyes no longer unnerving like she'd once thought.

At her knock on the employees only door, Ronin called for her to come in. Her heart skipped a beat at the sound of his voice, the knob slipping a little from the sticky sweat of her hand. She stepped in and shut it behind her.

Cap sat with his head on a small table, drool pooling across its surface while Ronin sprawled out on the couch. The bags under his eyes had darkened, but the greatest change was the white cloak that had replaced his trademark blue and black. The silver star emblem she'd seen sparkled below the hollow of his throat. "Hey, kiddo," he said.

"Hey, Ronin." Mori spun a plush chair around to sit across from him. "I don't really know where to start, but I wanted to say I'm sorry."

He sloshed the soda in his can around, not looking at her. "What for?"

"For leaving you for another party," Mori whispered. "For not listening to you. For not trusting you. I really" —she took a deep breath— "I really screwed up and made a mess of things."

"I don't think you can take the credit for all of that, though adding 'for scaring you to death when my dot disappeared' and 'for being an idiot who came back into the game after leaving' would be good points to add to the list." Ronin cracked a tired grin. "Though I might be slightly happy to see you back."

Mori relaxed at the joking tone in his words. "How did you even know I could come back? You sent someone to meet me and everything."

"You know if you made mistakes, so did I." Ronin chugged the rest of his drink and crumpled the can so it disintegrated into multi-colored pixels. "I realized when I was asking myself what I could've done to convince you to stay that I'd been running from a fear for a really long time. I kept secrets from you because I was afraid of trusting you and I'm...I'm sorry for that."

She couldn't help herself. Mori hummed a little before saying, "You mean like neglecting to mention you're Riku Takahashi? The number one SniperX player?" Giggling at his embarrassed facepalm, she added, "I guess we're even on that one though. What are your other secrets, oh master of gaming?"

"Someone sure is more talkative than I remember," Ronin mumbled. He cleared his throat. "I wanted to start at the beginning—things will make more sense that way. You may have heard of her by now, but I got trapped in the game with my older sister, Tokiwa. She—" His voice cracked. "I promised I wouldn't cry when I told you everything," he muttered.

"Was your older sister TofuOfHonor?" Mori asked slowly.

Ronin nodded mutely.

"Cynthia asked me to tell you that she was going to say hi to Tofu...before she died." Mori realized what she'd said a moment too late.

Ronin clenched his teeth, eyes reddening. "She said that, huh?" He forced a chuckle out. "Sounds just like her. Cyn was a good egg, but boy could she be spiteful."

"Yeah," Mori agreed.

"I guess you heard about Tofu," Ronin said quietly. "She was the top player here and not for my lack of trying to be the best. Valor asks something different of its players than most games—it asks for a pure, strong heart and I didn't have that but Neesan did. Even when the player killings started, no one touched her. I had the hardest time convincing her to let me strike back."

Ronin leaned back and stared at the ceiling, prompting Mori to wonder if he'd forgotten or was trying to forget her presence. "Cyn helped me with that plan, managed to convince the other leading players. Somehow she and Neesan got along well, in spite of how different they were.

"When the first Fearless arrived, Neesan wanted to help. I didn't trust the guy, DarkHorse9, and when he disappeared while I was tracking him, I thought it'd be the end of it."

But DarkHorse9 is the player you pointed out to me on the feeds, Mori interrupted silently. He didn't die, he only exited the game with the ring. The very first test of it.

"But then he re-appeared and I jumped to this crazy idea. What if the Fearless couldn't be killed? What if they re-spawned like a player normally should? I got him to join our party, I didn't tell Neesan my plan, and I set him up." Shoulders shaking with suppressed emotion, Ronin wiped his mouth with his hand. 

Mori watched him, seeing the same dangerous rage as when he'd slammed a player against a wall, right here in this very city.

"One thing you have to know about my sister is that she's the kid who picked up stray cats and brought them home. When I did something wrong, Tokiwa took the blame for it. She used to sneak me extra puddings or snacks when I cried because I was the bratty kid who wanted more and I never realized at the time that she was giving me hers." Ronin blinked back tears. "She'd unlocked a signature skill called Heaven's Martyr. It could be used immediately after player death to revive the dead player at the cost of your own life."

Mori rose from the chair to sit next to Ronin on the couch. She put a hand on his arm. "Ronin, you don't have to tell me more if you don't want to." Her throat seized up and she tried to gulp the sorrow back down. From what he'd described, she could guess what happened next. 

"I'm done with secrets," Ronin said between his teeth. He squeezed his eyes shut. "I left the Fearless to die in the sixth ring from a health decay wound. She wouldn't abandon him so I left her behind—we had a huge argument and the last thing I ever said to my sister was 'I wish you'd never come into the game with me'."

It was like a dam breaking, a mountain crumbling, and Mori found herself supporting the weight of it. She patted Ronin's back as he ugly cried into her shoulder. "He would've died for good if she hadn't saved him," Mori whispered. "Your sister's sacrifice wasn't for nothing."

"She was the best person I knew, and I'm the worst." Ronin sobbed. "I didn't think she'd do it. I couldn't believe she would leave me like that, but it was me. I left her first and I wish every waking moment I could go back and undo everything."

"But we can't go back," Mori said softly. "We only have the future and what we decide to do with it." His pain resonated with her and for the first time, Mori felt like she understood Ronin and what he'd been through. Believe me, I wish I could go back too. "I'm sorry about your sister."

"I'm sorry about yours," Ronin said, drawing back but squeezing Mori's hand as he did so. "I heard from your party. How are you holding up?"

"I'm not really." Mori offered a sad smile. "But my sister told me to fight, so that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to face FEAR and end this."

"I decided to help the Fearless because that's what my sister would have done," Ronin replied, wiping his sleeve against his face. "Haven't exactly had a great track record but...I don't suppose you'd want my help?"

Cracking the mini fridge open, Mori took a marble soda out and offered one to Ronin. "On one condition."

"Lychee if there is some," he said, rejecting the default flavor. "Thanks. What's the condition?"

"I get to call you 'kiddo', not the other way around," Mori teased. "I am a whole two months older in the real world after all."

"Wow, stalker much?" Ronin raised his eyebrows and popped his bottle. He took Mori's from her hand and did the same, as if he knew she had trouble with them and had always drafted Shiori to push the marble in. "I'm mentally older now after being caught in time warp land here. Besides, that's weird. Tokiwa called me kiddo."

"So how is calling me kiddo any less weird?" Mori asked, accepting the glass bottle from him.

Ronin sipped his lychee soda and smacked his lips with a satisfied sigh. "Touché. So where do we start, Senpai?"

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Chapter Word Count: 2189
Total Word Count: 29711