Ascension: Online

Soon after I got all the skills, Hina-nee and I prepared to head out of Tianyin City. We still needed to descend Mount Valgan to truly begin our journey in this world, after all.

As we walked, I noticed Hina-nee looking at her System then sighing.

"Still grey?"

She smiled sadly. "Yeah…"

I chuckled. "A.R.X.A. won't let us off that easily. She said there's only one way out, and that is to Ascend. So, that's all we gotta do."

"Easier said than done, of course. Did she even tell us what level we need to reach?"

I shook my head. "No, but it's almost certainly going to be an extremely high level far beyond our current reach."

She sighed. "Yeah…"

"By the way, what skills did you use your AP on?" I asked curiously.

"Well, I had 9 AP to spend since I'm level 10, so I didn't have all that much," Hina-nee replied. "After getting the 5 'Basic Skills', I was only left with 4 AP leftover. I got the 'Way of the Assassin' passive skill, 'Inspect', 'Vanishing Clouds', and 'Reveal.'"

"'Reveal…' what does that do again?"

I think I've seen that skill before, but never really read into it.

"It basically reveals an enemy's weak spot," Hina-nee explained. "Pretty useful, in my opinion. But the real reason why I got it was the skill that needs this one unlocked first."

"Oh?" I raised an eyebrow.

"It's an active skill called Sonar Pulse. What it does is scan 180 degrees in front of you for living beings, and then highlight them for a short period afterward. Awesome, right?"

"Hmm, that is useful," I nodded in agreement. "I might have to get that one myself."

"Heehee, you totally should!"

It was only around 7 AM right now, but the city was already bustling. Despite the calamity that occurred just a few days ago, the people in Tianyin were as lively as ever as the gates continued to get repaired by the soldiers under Captain Ling Ye's command and some citizen volunteers.

As we moved past the crowd in the direction of the east gates (the non-broken ones), I was suddenly called out from behind.

"Yo! Igarashi!" a voice shouted.

I turned around. "What… wait, Ichigo?"

"Mhm. Who else could it be?" the boy approached me and laughed. Then, upon spotting Hina-nee, his eyes widened. "Woah, is that Sakura-senpai?"

"Um… hi?" Hina-nee waved gently, seemingly confused at the friendly relationship between Ichigo and I now.

"Damn, she looks just as stunning in-game as she does in real life…" Ichigo muttered dreamily.

Hina-nee quickly grabbed me by the shoulders and whispered sharply into my ear, "Hey, Kaze-kun, what's with him? Didn't he used to bully you a lot with that other guy…?"

"Well, uh… one thing led to another and now we're allies. I still don't see him as a friend though," I explained hastily, then turned back to Ichigo. "Was there something you needed with me?"

"Oh, yeah, the others are online as well," Ichigo said. "Chiaki-san said we should do it today. The four-way duel, I mean. Horiya said he wanted to join in as well."

"… Right. That," I scratched my hair awkwardly.

Ichigo frowned in puzzlement. "What?"

I couldn't tell him that I had… well, forgotten about that matter completely. Hina-nee's sudden appearance riled me up so much that I forgot about the battle I had promised the others last night.

"Er, nothing," I quickly said. "Let's go, then. Where are the others?"

"Waiting by the western gates," Ichigo replied. "I was tasked with finding you. Didn't take long, as you can see."

I nodded. "Alright. In that case, there's no sense in waiting any longe-"

"Hold on, Kaze-kun," Hina-nee frowned, grabbing me by the arm to prevent me from going. "What is this I hear about a battle?"

"Well… I agreed with some other players to fight with them to see who's the strongest," I replied honestly. "There's a reward of gold on the line too."

"Hmm… that sounds interesting. Since when did you like fighting though, Kaze-kun?"

Met with her stern gaze, I could only look away awkwardly. "Er… I don't particularly 'like' nor 'dislike' it. It's more a matter of… if I have to fight, I'll do it."

"Then why are you participating in this battle, hm? Don't tell me it's for the gold. I know you have plenty of that from how generously you tipped the restaurant earlier," Hina-nee asked, as observant as always.

I glanced at Ichigo. "They… kind of roped me into it."

Hina-nee glared at Ichigo, who shrunk back in fear. He was instinctively afraid of Hina-nee because of all the times she practically scolded him like she was his mom back in middle school.

"This fight… can I join too?"

Both Ichigo and I were stunned to hear these words.

"Huh?"

"I said it. Can I join? I want to see just how much Kaze-kun has grown, hehe~" Hina-nee cackled evilly before cracking her knuckles. I gulped in fear.

"U-Uh, sure!" Ichigo quickly answered. There was no way he could refuse.

And so, just like that, we had one more contestant in our four-way fight. Of course, counting Horiya, that would make it a six-way fight overall.

*****

When we arrived at the western gates, the other three were already waiting there. On the way here, I had discretely whispered to Hina-nee not to reveal anything about A.R.X.A., our current situation, and whatnot to these other players. The less people that knew, the better. The reason for this was that A.R.X.A. may trap them inside too if they knew about our circumstances. That's partly what had gotten Hina-nee trapped in here, after all.

As for Horiya and Furuwa, their jaws dropped when they saw Hina-nee.

"S-Sakura-senpai?!" the two exclaimed at the same time.

"Good morning, Yamato-kun. And… Chiaki-san, was it?"

"Y-Yes!" Furuwa yelped, then shifted her gaze to me, as if asking 'what is the meaning of this?' I pretended not to notice her stare and looked away.

"U-Um, if you don't mind me asking… Sakura-senpai, what is your relationship with Igarashi-kun?" Furuwa asked, having no choice but to ask Hina-nee herself since she wasn't about to get any answers from me.

"Kaze-kun is my little brother, you see," Hina-nee smiled warmly and wrapped her arms around me.

"H-Hina-nee, we're in public…"

"Oop, you're right. I shouldn't embarrass you in front of your friends like this, hehe~"

"He's… not my friend," Furuwa muttered quietly.

"Well, well… now that everyone's here, let's talk about the bloody fight, ay?" Jim said, walking over to us boldly. "The name's Jim Fitzroy, by the way."

He added that last bit for Hina-nee, who had never met him before.

"Wait, before that… Sakura-senpai, a-are you going to be participating in the fight too?" Horiya asked timidly.

Ichigo went over and hit him on the head. "Idiot! Of course she is!"

"O-Ow…" Horiya groaned, less from the pain and more from the fact that Hina-nee would be joining our six-way battle.

Still, it was good to see that the two of them were still just as good of friends as they were before 'that' incident.

"So… uh, are we doing this tournament style, or just one large free-for-all?" I spoke up and asked.

"Free-for-all would be too messy," Furuwa immediately argued. "It is not a true battle of skill if everyone just relies on teaming and backstabbing."

"True. Tournament it is, then," Ichigo said. "As for the brackets… how about this? Me and Horiya, Chiaki-san and Igarashi, and Jim and Sakura-senpai. Then, the winners of those matches will face each other in a three-way battle or something."

"Sounds bloody fine ta me," Jim chuckled.

"Yeah, I'm fine with that as well," I added.

"If Kaze-kun is fine with it, then so am I~"

"… Can we start already?" Furuwa tapped her feet impatiently.

"Alright! Ichigo, can't wait to see the look on your face when you get destroyed by my LUC stat!" Horiya taunted, before moving to a separate area.

"Come back here, you little bastard!" Ichigo yelled, before chasing after him.

"Welp. Looks like it's begun," Jim laughed.

I glanced at Furuwa, and our gazes met.

I pointed to our left. "Let's… move somewhere more open, yeah?"

She nodded in agreement, so the two of us both changed our location, leaving Hina-nee and Jim behind to have their duel.

Once we were a good distance away from the two other fights, we stopped.

"How are we doing this?" I asked. "Weapons? To the death?"

"There's no need for a fight to the death," Furuwa replied calmly. "But we will use weapons."

I shrugged. "Sure."

We both opened up our Systems and pulled out our weapons. Both of us were using the new weapons we obtained from the Vault of Corruption - mine was a glowing-green dagger called Dokujin, while hers was a sword of similar appearance.

"Ready?"

I nodded, and smiled, as if welcoming this fight.

"Ready."