“Serra?” Cassandra asks.

Both of the girls just blink at one another.

Sure, Serra might have come here expecting to see Fenrir and Oleander, but she didn’t expect to see Cassiel!

She nods her head and pulls out her phone to type a message for the other woman to read. Once it’s typed, she holds the phone up for Cassandra to read with one hand while pointing to her ear with the other.

“You’re deaf? Shit, sorry, you probably…” Cassandra pauses when Serra shakes her head, taking the phone back to type another message. Serra holds the phone back up. “You can read lips? Good. Sorry, but I don’t know the first thing about sign language. Anyways, I’m surprised that Franky over there even let you in with how… tiny you are.”

Serra pouts and huffs, bringing her phone back to type in a very offended message!

Cassandra looks at the phone again. “Sorry, but no matter how you look at it, you’re small. Anyways, nice to meet you offline I guess. I’ve heard of people meeting up with friends they make online but never this soon.” She shrugs. “Can I get you anything? The other waitress had to go, so I’m in charge of the booths now.”

Serra looks over to where the two men were. She’s not much of a drinker and usually only ever comes here for the food, and very rarely at that. Without her totally-not-stalking-targets here, she doesn’t have another reason for being here. But, if she leaves now without even having anything right after meeting Cassiel, she’ll feel bad.

Cassandra looks at the screen. “A hard cider? That’ll be right up,” Cassandra says, turning to leave but then she looks back at Serra. “By the way, if you tell any of those guys about this, I’m going to throw you overboard.”

The serious expression is enough to make Serra gulp. She figures that now probably wouldn’t be the best time to tell her about how she’s already met them in reality.

…

“Fuck, my head – why can’t I move?” Ryouta grumbles, the scent of liquor on his breath reminding him why he feels the way he does.

He looks down and sees himself tucked into the bed with extreme tightness. It feels like he’s been wrapped up in a straightjacket!

Fortunately, with enough wiggling, he breaks free from his tight yet comfy confines and takes a sip of water from the glass on the nightstand next to his bed. A couple of over-the-counter pills are sitting next to it with a note that reads:

For the headache.

Stop being so messy or you’re never going to get the wife you always complain to me about not having yet.

You also need to fold your clothes so that they aren’t so messy and wrinkled whenever you go out. You can’t just leave them sitting in the bin after washing them.

Thanks for the fun night and giving me a break from school.

P.S. I did lewd things to you in your sleep.

Ryouta can’t help but laugh. Spencer is too good of a friend. This is what happens every single time, and he always feels horrible for never getting to do anything similar for him. “Sorry for making you take care of me, Spence,” Ryouta says to himself.

He pops the pills into his mouth and washes them down with the provided water. Next thing he does is get a look at just how much Spencer did for him.

Every single room in his house has been cleaned from the entrance to his bathroom. Everything has been dusted off, any messes on the floors have been cleaned up, all garbage is gone, his clothes have either been neatly folded or hanged in his closet, and--to really prove just how perfect of a wife Spencer would be--even his keyboard has been cleaned out of any stray hairs and food crumbs that have gotten stuck underneath its keys.

“Fucking waifu tier, man. Why do you have to have a dick?” Ryouta says. “You’re going to make me regret turning you down back then.”

There is no way that Ryouta can not take care of himself for the day after everything Spencer did for him. So, after eating breakfast, he actually does his dishes. Then he even showers, and brushes his teeth, and – and… combs his hair!

“Yeah, that’s enough of that for a month or two.”

Something has been bothering him ever since his headache went away and he’s had a chance to recall last night’s events. There is something that he just… feels like he should be remembering, but doesn’t. There was that blonde with the really great chest who looked like Cassiel, that girl who looked like Serra, and Spencer carrying him around. What else?

Oh.

He looks at his right hand. There’s a couple of small bandages on it.

That’s right, he punched a guy!

Time to internally regret everything he did.

“You stupid idiot, now we’re not going to be allowed back! Guess I can use the rest of my savings for plastic surgery, maybe that’ll fool them.”

Though, as much as he wishes he could find a way to get back into the bar, he can’t really regret what he did when he remembers why he did it. He may not be able to remember exactly what the man did to deserve getting punched in the face, but he knows that the man made the wannabe Cassiel almost cry in front of everybody which is enough reason to—

Wait a second.

Was that Serra he saw?

Before he went into the bathroom last night and only landed half of his stream in the urinal, he recalls making eye contact with some girl at a booth outside of it and staring at her like a deer about to get splattered by a self-driving semi.

She looked exactly like Serra. Everything from her hair to her eyes and her petite figure was the same. He also knows that Serra lives in this city and apparently looks the same way both in-game and in real life.

It must have been a coincidence, right?

No, that had to be her. There is no way that it wasn’t her. Even Ryouta knows that there are only so many coincidences occurring in reality at once. She already lives in the same city as him by coincidence, so there is no way that another coincidence is happening where she has a doppelganger also living in this city that he just so happened to have met.

That’s just too unbelievable. If something as crazy as that were to happen, he would have to begin believing that he’s the main character of some sort of cliché anime-esque romance novel full of unbelievable coincidences and… wait, if that’s the case, doesn’t that mean there will be scenes like being on the beach with cute girls wearing swimsuits getting assaulted by fanservice-y tentacle monsters, visits to hot springs, and plenty of wardrobe malfunctions?

If only.

Ryouta shakes his head, trying to figure out what he was thinking about in the first place.

Right, he punched a guy and saw Serra. At least Serra won’t know that it was him. She’ll probably just think that he’s some crazy drunk guy whom decided to stare at her before going to the bathroom.

He sits down at his computer and opens up Fiscord.

>HushedVoice: I saw you at the bar last night! After hearing you guys say that you were going to a bar close to me, I couldn’t resist going there myself to see if it was true. I realized how silly it was when I remembered that I have no idea what you look like… but the picture you sent in the group chat, which I think you did by accident, helped me find you! I really

>HushedVoice: AHH I HIT ENTER I DIDN’T MEAN TO, I WASN’T EVEN GOING TO SEND THAT I WAS JUST TYPING IT TO GET IT OUT OF MY SYSTEM, I SWEAR I’M NOT LIKE A STALKER oR ANYTHING I WAS JUST REALLY CURIOUS AND I’M SORRY PLEASE DON’T THINK I’M CRAZY. WHY CAN’T I DELETE MY LAST MESSAGE? WHY ISN’T THERE A DELETE BUTTON? I SHOULD BE ABLE TO JUST HIGHLIGHT MY MESSAGE AND THEN BACKSPACE!

…

…

Oh.

He looks at the group chat to take his mind off of what he just learned.

>Viktor’s Favorite Slut: cant play today

>Viktor’s Favorite Slut: just keep going south

>Viktor’s Favorite Slut: even u should be able to handle it @TheMemeStruggle

>Viktor’s Favorite Slut: u showed me last night just how good you are at handling things<3

>Serra Berra: Lewd o///o

“Spence, please,” Ryouta groans.

He returns to the direct message conversation with Serra.

>TheMemeStruggle: Sorry about last night! I saw you and I should have said hi, but I was really drunk and needed to go to the bathroom. Then I guess I forgot afterward. Hope you didn’t think I was ignoring you.

He picks up his headset to head over to his bed, but Serra replies in her typical quick fashion.

>HushedVoice: It’s okay! I’m just happy that you don’t think I’m like a crazy stalker or anything like that. You don’t think I’m like that, do you? I swear I’m not! I guess it was inappropriate of me to go there knowing that there was a strong chance of seeing you, but – I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have gone.

>TheMemeStruggle: Don’t worry about it, dork. Crazy girls are my fetish anyways.

>TheMemeStruggle: Just kidding, you’re not crazy. Promise. You’re just Serra Berra. Hey, if you were there, did you see if I at least got a good hit on that guy?

>HushedVoice: His nose was bleeding, but I don’t know if that was from you or the bouncer. But it was really cool! Even if I still feel guilty about going, I don’t regret it. I got to see you be a hero!

“The hell are you talking about? I ain’t no hero. You really are crazy if you call me something like that,” Ryouta says with a blush on his cheeks.

>TheMemeStruggle: I was just trying to act tough to impress all the girls in the bar, obviously.

>HushedVoice: It worked >///>

“Why do you have to admit that? I'm going to fall for you if you make it so obvious. Seriously.”

>TheMemeStruggle: You’re a dork. I’m going to be in-game in a bit. Company would be appreciated.

>HushedVoice: Sorry! I can’t get on until after lunch with a friend. I guess like how you and Olly have your boys nights, this is my girls… midday!

>TheMemeStruggle: Fair enough. I’ll see you in-game later then! Have a nice lunch.

With that, Ryouta gets up from his desk and lies back down on bed with the headset already around his head. Time to immerse and get back to being Fenrir.

Fenrir finds himself in the usual spot with Saya sitting across from him.

“You need to work out more, Onii-chan,” Saya says, shadowboxing in her seat.

“Says the girl who doesn’t even have any muscles,” Fenrir fires back.

He regrets it.

Saya goes from being a cute little sister to being a bulked up weightlifter with a head too small for her body in the blink of his eyes.

“Please.”

Saya returns to normal, a smug grin on her lips. “My gains are too much for you, bro!”

“Are you learning how to be a dork from Serra? Such a copycat.”

“I’m just copying what you like! I – I mean, it’s not like I want you to like me or anything, Onii-chan.”

“Anyways,” Fenrir changes the subject before his heart gets going again, “I have a question.”

“Of course you do.”

“I remember that dude we killed talking about streaming. How does that work?”

“Just like in any other game! Well, maybe not just like it. If you are a streamer on any online platform, we can link your in-game character to the streaming service! You can either stream in first-person, so everybody sees what you see, or third-person. You’ll also get a little window floating up next to you if you want so that you can see what everybody is saying, know how many people are watching, and so on!”

“Wait, wouldn’t that give a massive advantage to streamers? People could point out if they see stuff, and if you can show them a third-person view of your character, they could warn you of anybody behind you.”

“No worries, Onii-chan! Us virtual assistants are required to filter out all messages that may give streamers unfair advantages. So, viewers can ask questions, say hi, talk about real life stuff, and so on, but they won’t be able to help out who they’re watching at all! We’re like… super chat moderators!”

“Alright, that makes sense then. Wait, since the game has nudity and sex, isn’t it like streaming pornography sometimes?”

“By most streaming platforms’ rules, yep! That’s why they have to either stream via platforms traditionally meant for sex and erotica, or they have to use one of the platforms that feature adult sections.”

“So, in a way… they’re almost kind of like camgirls.”

“By your logic, maybe.”

“It’s fun logic. Think about it, that annoying prick Cass killed is the equivalent of a camgirl. I mean, I’m not trying to shame camgirls or anything, but you know that he’d be super pissed off if I made that comparison to his face.”

Saya giggles. “Alright, Onii-chan, you win this one. Anyways, ready to immerse?”

“You know it.”

Fenrir finds himself in the hull of the ship. Rock must be able to sense that he’s in-game and awake because as soon as he opens his eyes and leans up, the rocky little puppy comes barreling down the stairs at full speed! And trips, and falls down the last few steps, but then continues running at full speed!

“There’s my girl! You been behaving? No accidents anywhere? Wait, I don’t think you can have accidents,” Fenrir says, running his hands along the length of Rock’s body as she wags her tail so hard that he’s worried it’s going to fall off.

Everybody else is sleeping still.

“It’s just me and you, girl. Come on, let’s get above deck.”

Rock hops off of his lap and rushes back upstairs just as quickly as she came down them. He cringes when he’s worried that she’s going to trip again, but fortunately, she makes it up without any issues.

Something bothers Fenrir as he brings the ship out of the cove.

He really wanted to play the game differently this time. Like, seriously this time. This wasn’t supposed to be another one of those times where he tells Spencer and Viktor that he’s totally going to be different this time only to end up caving in to their demands for violence and villainy. And to be fair, it isn’t one of those times.

Everything they have done to already get on the bad sides of others has been initiated by none other than himself.

“What am I doing?” he asks, leaning over the ship’s wheel.

Worry fills his mind and gut. After that last attempt at doxing him and the death threats he’s been sent, he really doesn’t want to rise to infamy again. Yet, as much as he loves fishing, he just feels so alive and natural when he’s doing the same old thing with the guys and now Serra and Cassiel.

Why can’t he just play the game how he wants to without worrying about people taking it too seriously and going after him in real life? It isn’t fair that he has to restrict himself so much more than everybody else does. He doubts many others are getting death threats and having dox attempts made at them just because they’re having fun playing games. He could understand it better if he was cheating or hacking, but they have never done that.

What does he truly want from this game?

Is returning to his roots really worth the risk? Isn’t playing games all about having fun and doing whatever he wants?

“Onii-chan, I’m detecting a lot of stress from you. You should wake and take a longer rest from the game so that you may properly consider all of this,” Saya chimes in.

“Thanks, Saya, but I’m fine. I’m just… kind of scared, but at the same time, it’s exciting. I think I’m just going to continue doing whatever I feel like doing at the time without trying too hard to do one thing or the other. I’m just going to be myself and screw around. Not going to be some super villain, not going to be a vigilante – I’m not going to try and avoid those either. Does that make sense? I’m just going to go with the flow. Besides, there is a virtual assistant inside of everybody’s mind who plays this. Couldn’t you just warn the authorities if anybody does anything illegal?”

“Yep! That was included in the terms of service you checked without reading all of it. It isn’t like we spy on you and send all your information to the government, but if we detect—for example—that you have memories of being a serial killer or rapist, then we alert the appropriate government agency so that they may place you on a watch list. Nothing we can give them counts as valid evidence in the court of law, but it can help prevent bad things from happening in the first place. So if anybody decides they are going to try and stalk you in real life because they want to kill you and harvest your organs,”

“That’s a bit specific.”

“Hmph, don’t interrupt me! If anybody wants to kill you and harvest your organs, we’re going to warn somebody about that intent.”

“That’s good to know. Thanks, Saya. It makes me feel a lot better.”

“No problem, Onii-chan! Now, go be yourself!”

“Aye aye.”

With Saya in his head and Rock by his side, a clear sky with a shining sun above, and a gentle breeze to fill out the ship’s sails, Fenrir couldn’t ask for better conditions to go sailing with.

Finally, the journey to the city of pirates is resumed.