Author’s corner: HELLO HELLO! Some foreshadowing for things to come!

ANYWAY, this chapter was kind of fun to work with, and despite a minor failure in the fourth wall containment, it worked fairly well, if I do say so myself. Also, an old friend of ours makes a comeback after so many chapters away! Hooray!

ALSO, next IO chapter should come in two days, and I hope to get back to Beepy within the month. I’m in a bit of a slump with that story, but I’m not abandoning it.

Have a good read!

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While laying on the sofa, I put on my headphones and started listening to music while waiting for the girls. I heard as Yuu called on Maya and Mary so that they logged off and got ready. There was some ruckus as they opened and closed their wardrobes, changing clothes.

Finding it odd that they were taking a bit too long, my worries became true when I heard Mary shouting out from the door.

“Gon… Rick-kun! Do you think a kimono is alright, or would it be better to go with a dress?” She asked me, her voice sounding as sincere as possible.

I face-palmed myself while taking a deep breath. I had kind of expected this question to come, but I was sure that Yuu would be the one to make it, not Mary. Taking a few seconds to breathe deeply, I said back without raising from the couch.

“We are just going to a small restaurant two streets from here! What the hell are you doing with formal dresses?” I told them with a slightly annoyed tone.

There was a few seconds of awkward silence as the girls processed the information, and after some seconds the sound of the door closing again echoed, followed by even more rummaging as they changed clothes again. All in all, it took them around twenty minutes to get ready.

When they came out, Yuu was wearing a simple light blue sundress while tying her hair in a simple pony-tail. A pair of white sandals finished her fresh appearance.

Mary let her hair down and wore a simple shirt and shorts, keeping herself in a fairly tomboyish fashion.

Finally, Maya… Had the same black shirt and jeans.

I’m beginning to have my doubts whether she have a different piece of clothing in her wardrobe at all. I also couldn’t help but notice a slight look of satisfaction in her otherwise serious dead-pan face.

After crossing gazes for a couple of seconds, I understood the reason. She probably understood right from the start that there was no need for formal clothes, but somehow fooled Mary into thinking that she would need, and got her fair share of Mary in a kimono or dress.

Well, at least that was the impression she gave me, there’s no real way to be sure without actually talking to her. Heaving a long sigh, I shook my head as they left the room.

“So, otherwise ignorable being. Where are we heading to?” Maya asked.

“I’m afraid you might be mistaking me with Paul, you know?” I said with a raised eyebrow. “And geez… With a tongue that sharp, do you even need a knife when you eat?”

“It helps to cut things before biting them.” She replied coldly.

“Fair enough.” I nodded. “Anyway, it’s just two minutes away from the apartment, so it’s not that far.” I stood up from the couch and stretched myself for a moment. “It’s a small restaurant with a kind of home-made food. I was planning on having a take-out, since it’s cheaper and have more food than buying it normally.”

“So, you plan to buy it to eat here?” Mary asked curious and I nodded.

“Yeah. I’m not sure if you have something similar over there, but here in Brazil it’s quite common for smaller restaurant to have a system like this.” I explained to them while walking out of their house. Maya stayed behind to lock the door while we went ahead to call the elevator.

It took some time for the elevator to arrive because we barely missed it, but after a few minutes we were already down the streets. I recommended the girls to get two for them because of the sheer amount that comes with each serving.

They didn’t really believe me, so they decided to check it on store. After crossing a couple streets, going to a slightly emptier place, we soon reached the corner street where the restaurant was. Stepping in through the open doors, feeling somewhat lucky for it to be open today, I soon made my way to the balcony.

There I found a slightly burly man that was on the borderline of being chubby and strong. With short black hair and wearing the usual checkered shirt, he was somewhat of an acquaintance of mine.

“Yo boss!” I greeted the man who was standing around distracted. He blinked back to reality and looked at me for a moment before giving me a brief nod.

“Hi there, lad.” He said to me in portuguese. “Same as always?” I nodded briefly and he started to raise from the balcony before landing his eyes on the girls, who came in quietly. “Are they with you?”

“Yeah, but it’s their first time here, besides not knowing portuguese.” I said with a wry smile. The boss widened his eyes for a moment before sighing. “I’ll translate for them, but for now just give me the usual.”

“Aye aye...” He said half-heartedly while taking a small Styrofoam container and walking to the balcony filled with food. As he started to put down the usual food, a smirk appeared in his face. “So, did you win the lottery or something like that? You sure got lucky with your pick!”

“Shut it, will ya?” I said in a mocking tone. “You are jealous and you know it.” He let out a snicker for a moment. “Anyway, they are my friends and are staying nearby for a few days, so I decided to bring them here to taste your food, so feel honored.”

“As long as it brings in money, it’s not me who’s complaining.” He said with a laugh.

“... You wouldn't happen to know a guy named Argento, would you?” I asked slightly suspicious, but he looked at me confused.

“No? Never heard of that before. Why?” He asked me back.

“Nah, you just sounded awfully a lot like a certain guy I know.” I smiled wryly.

He shrugged as he put the last piece of food on the container. As he took a lid to cover the container, I quickly asked him to lend me it so that I could show the girls how much food there was. Once they saw, I saw as Mary and Maya paled slightly.

Easily two large plates worth of rice, black beans, chicken, pasta and salad, stuffed inside a large styrofoam container and ready to burst. This was a dish usually made for people who take on heavy works, like construction workers, so it tend to be a bit more to the reinforced side.

Surprisingly enough, Yuu didn’t seem all that surprised by the amount.

“So, think you can take it alone?” I said with a challenging smile. Maya and Mary shook their heads together, but Yuu didn’t.

“On training days with grandfather, I usually eat something around this amount.” She said with a slightly serious tone. I widened my eyes surprised for a moment before smiling wryly. It would make sense for a martial artist to eat more than the usual, I guess.

“Then, you’ll take one alone?” I asked slightly surprised, but she shook her head.

“I haven’t been practicing recently, so it’s better to not eat too much.” She replied with a slightly shy tone.

Well, I won’t fake not knowing the reason, but I don’t really see the need for her to worry too much so soon. But then, I’m no nutritionist, so it’s better to keep quiet.

In the end, they decided to share two of the full dishes between the three of them. So while I translated for them, I had the boss make a dish for them. Sadly, using this method left us with limited options, only being able to chose the meat and the salad. On the good side, you do get to pay almost half of what you would pay if you bought it by serving yourself and weighting.

Also, there’s few food that can be considered more brazilian than rice and bean, so it’s all good. And I can atest for the taste, so the girls will probably enjoy themselves.

Yeah, I know that might have been a bit boring, so lets get to the interesting part.

As we were leaving the restaurant, after having paid for the girl’s share as well as for a large coke bottle for us, we were halfway into the apartment when Mary’s cellphone started playing some kind of japanese pop-ish music. She took it out and made a slightly bitter smile as she saw the caller.

Instead of answering it herself, she passed the cellphone to Yuu, who took it without looking confused.

A scene that was oddly familiar, as something like this happens usually with me and another friend, I thought to myself.

Yuu answered the call with a polite tone while speaking japanese. I couldn’t quite understand what she was saying, but I did hear her saying “Ojii-sama”. If my anime-acquired japanese doesn’t fail me, this means grandfather in japanese.

She suddenly looked surprised and started speaking in a slightly less calm tone, looking even a bit frantic. Looking at her in wonder, I caught with the corner of my eyes as Mary and Maya also looked strangely shocked, sporting slight frowns in their faces.

“Do I want to know what she’s talking about?” I asked them worried.

“Actually, yes.” Mary replied with a wry tone. “From what I got, it seems that her grandfather is coming to Brazil to meet you.”

“Oh...” I said with a nod. “The martial-artist grandfather who taught Yuu everything she knows and recently got himself a D-lute to play Insania?” I asked.

“That one.” Mary replied.

“You don’t seem surprised.” Maya noted while looking at me.

“Ha ha ha...” I laughed dryly while scratching my head. “I’m… Pretty sure I saw this coming since a few chapters… I mean, hours ago.” Maya and Mary blinked surprised as they stared at me. “I have no doubt that I ended up meeting him in-game.” I told the duo with a smile.

They gave me a pair of pitiful eyes as I laughed dryly, already somewhat seeing how the situation would develop. As we all sighed in unison, Yuu finally finished the call and had a slightly worried look in her eyes. Taking a peek at me, she gulped loudly before looking away slightly embarrassed. There wasn’t any need to be a detective to notice that she was hiding something.

“Disciple...” I said in my best serious tone, making her flinch. “What is it?”

“Anoo… Shishou...” She said shyly while looking downwards. “I… Just got a call from my Ojii… Grandfather.”

“And…?” I asked her to go on.

“He… Said that he is boarding a friend’s plane right now...”

“That’s a family thing, isn’t it?” I asked Mary and Maya lowly. “The whole coming unannounced thing?” I mean, first was Yuu who wanted to keep a secret, then were her parents that were supposed to drop off at the capital. Now it’s her grandfather...

“Probably...” Mary said with a wry smile, reaching the same conclusion as mine.

“...And he said that he will stay at your house...” Yuu added lastly.

This one made me freeze in my tracks and stare at the black-haired girl for a long time. She shrunk slightly under my gaze, her face blushing in an extremely charming way. However, my mind wasn’t really focused on that right now.

“Sorry?” I said in a slightly silly way, unsure whether I heard it right.. Yuu gulped down and repeated the words.

“Ojii-sama said that he will stay at your house… While he’s here in Brazil.”

Yeah… I think I did hear it right the first time. While thinking so I couldn’t help but feel as a bit of my spirit left my body.

…

We left the task of setting up the table for Maya as Yuu, Mary and I sat down in the table. Quickly opening the food and distributing it around, which pretty much meant that I would take mine and the girls would take theirs.

I’m little bit of a glutton, so eating this isn’t all that much for me. I do end full for almost the remaining of the day, though. As we sat down, I let my mind wander about the problem of Yuu’s grandfather. He should be arriving here by tomorrow afternoon, which is fine by itself, however, there was another problem I hadn’t taken in consideration while thinking about it.

My recess ends today, so I will have class tomorrow. Luckily, monday I only had classes early morning, so I probably would be free by the time I had to go get her grandfather at the airport. However, I wasn’t sure on what I would do. Would I simply leave the girls and him alone here while I was at class?

As the (forced) host, I kind of feel like I would be a bit rude to leave them alone, but then, it’s not like I had to follow them around all day.

Still, I can’t help but wonder what is the reason for Yuu’s grandfather to come suddenly. Is it because we met in Insania? He did leave suddenly after that day, so it could be the reason. Still, isn’t that a bit too random?

Well… As I told Red, common sense doesn’t apply within a ten meters radius around me.

But he was all the way around the earth, so isn’t he a little bit too far away?

Meh, no matter.

But, would it really be fine to leave a traditionalist grandfather alone in my house? I’m a bit afraid of what he might do to the place while I’m alone. I hope it will be at least in recoverable pieces…

Sighing loudly, I saw as Maya brought us the plates and silverware so that we could eat.

The girls started dividing the food between themselves while I chose to eat straight out from the container, as it would save us on dishes to wash. While I had my fair share of fun seeing the girls eating “farofa” for the first time, I turned to them and told of my plans.

“Oh yeah… You also study, isn’t that right?” Mary asked me with a slightly surprised tone.

“What, you thought I was some kind of NEET or something?” I asked annoyed.

“Well, you WERE on pretty much the whole time since Insania launched, so...” She told me innocently. I sighed loudly while shaking my head.

“... Okay, I get it.” I said with a sigh before shaking my head. “Anyway, I have calculus class tomorrow… or was it algebra? No matter. It’s some kind of freakish math class that have way too many letters for my tastes, but it should only take a couple of hours in the morning from me. By afternoon I should be back and from there we can probably go get your grandfather.” I told Yuu and she nodded.

“Is it really that hard?” Maya asked with a slight frown. “Calculus, I mean?”

“I liked Math so much before they put letters and words in it...” Was my reply on the verge of tears.

The trio looked at me at loss, but soon we were back to eating our food. A few minutes later and some talk about my studies and so on, we logged in, because we probably wasted almost two hours in-game having our lunch, and we did promise Argento to come back the following day.

And we still had to go and see Yuu’s teacher, whom I had never met before! As if thing weren’t good enough.

Actually, yeah, the were. I mean, I got information on an interesting skill that might help me and got to fool around with Evelyn and Logan for a bit. It’s not like things were bad, actually…

As I thought that, I soon logged in the game, being met by a certain cheerful little fox who immediately jumped into my arms while having a perfectly huggable size. Being caught by surprise by Aura’s surprise pounce, I quickly put myself back up and pressed the Login button.

“Yo.” I greeted the crystal being who floated ahead of me. Cygnas turned to me with a slightly mischievous smile, and when I raised my eyebrow, I saw as a flash of light occurred besides me.

A few seconds later, a certain person appeared, walking forward with a serious face before looking around. However, when her eyes rested on me, she suddenly looked surprised.

“What are you doing here?” She asked me in confusion.

“Ask the goddess. She’s the one who set this up.” I said while pointing to Cygnas.

Yup, the one who appeared with me was none other than…

Yami. You thought it was Yuu, right? Well, too bad. Turning to Cygnas, the two of us looked at her with a questioning look, to which she replied with a cheerful smile.

“I’m testing a new linkage setting that works through the internet, kind of like the one I made on the first day.” She said with a cheerful and proud smile. “The code’s much cleaner now, easier to maintain and adapt, and there’s a significant reduction in lag too! Almost indistinguishable from a Lan connection! Not a bad work...”

Well, not that I mind helping and so on, but I do feel a bit annoyed that she did this without my permission. Seeing that Maya seemed to share these feelings with me, I turned to the annoyed slime and said.

“Hey, how good are you at baseball?”

“I’m the best batter in the whole school.” She replied to me in a deadpan voice while making a thumbs up.

“Good. Now listen here...”

While I quickly explained her the steps she would need to take, Cygnas kept boasting about her achievements and so on. I put Aura down on the ground gently before calling up an error window and crumpling it into a ball.

Turning towards Cygnas, I took my baseball player pose and threw the straight ball towards the Goddess. However, a glint appeared in her eyes as she teleported one step to the side, dodging the ball magnificently.

“Did you really think I would keep falling for that?” She asked me in a tauntingly manner.

“Yup. I do.” I replied with a smile.

Yami swung a window-stick at my window-ball, making it bend under pressure as it flung the ball right at the back of the goddess’ head. Cygnas let out a surprise cry as she spun a couple of times forward due to the impact.

Walking towards the Ninja with a satisfied face, we quickly locked our hands in a handshake as a glint of friendship crossed our eyes. Just in time, as two more pillars of light appeared, from which Yuu and Mary walked in.

The looked at Maya and I shaking hands, then at Cygnas, still stopping her spin, then at each other. They were clearly confused, but there wasn’t really a need to explain them. After stopping herself, Cygnas came to Yami and I complaining and flailing her arms at us, which was pretty much like she was throwing a tantrum.

After calming herself down, she took a deep breath and stared at me angrily for some time.

“So, any other reason you gathered us here?” I asked her, curious, she blinked before shaking her head.

“No, mostly checking the system. Allow friends to meet before logging in and such.” She said briefly. “The original concept you made me create at the first day was interesting, but still a bit unstable. The one from parenting only works on LANs, so I had to make this one from scratch.”

I have absolutely no idea why she was telling us that, but who am I to complain. Shrugging, I quickly nodded and turned to Yami and Hanbei.

“Well, see you guys later, then...”

“Oh yeah!” Cygnas interrupted me. I turned to her with a window-ball in hands, but she quickly took some distance, slightly intimidated. “Well… Argento got the blimps ticket...” She said hurriedly. “It should leave right after lunch. it’s around midnight over there, so you probably should hurry a bit...”

I blinked surprised for a moment before sighing. Yuu and I were still a bit lost, deep into the forest. If we hurried, we might get to Eldor by morning, but we would still have to find her teacher. Seeing that there was no time to lose, I quickly logged in the game.

After waiting for the pillar to die out, I found myself in the same spot as the last time. Wordlessly I exchanged a glance with Yuu, who nodded briefly before we darted off, Aura and Crys right on our track.

I COULD go on how our way back was, but there wasn’t really anything new, so I might skip. Another day I might come back and tell you what happened with the cloaked guy wielding a scythe we found in the middle of the way, but it’s a pretty boring story, so no need for it.

…

Okay, we didn’t meet any guy like that, it was mostly me throwing a random joke. There, happy?

Well, since absolutely nothing interesting happened on the way back, as soon as the sun started to rise we found ourselves at the foot of the mountain, which was a bit faster than my original estimative. While thinking so, I turned to Yuu and raised her an eyebrow. She nodded before taking me on a wide detour around the city, which was a bit faster than simply going through it thanks to our skill.

After some time looking around, Yuu finally found what she was looking for. A small cabin somewhat hidden amongst a couple of hills.

For some reason, the placement of this house really left me worried.

I mean, Evelyn’s house also was in a similar situation, if not even farther, but this cabin just looked like something was seriously wrong within it. While harboring such feelings, I took a look at Yuu in confirmation.

As I looked at her, Yuu definitively made her way towards the house, and taking a deep sigh I immediately followed her to it.

Once there she knocked on the door a few times. The answer that came from within was…

“There’s no one here! Go away!” In a strangely childish sounding voice, and a clear sound of fear.

“Sensei! It’s me! Yuki!” Yuu said loudly.

After a few seconds, the door opened, and from inside came a person.

A Halfling, probably, as he heighted at most the same as a dwarf, but without any of the muscles. Looking almost the same as a kid, he had blond hair and blue eyes, giving off a charming smile as he stared at the kitsune.

“Well, if it isn’t my cute apprentice, Yuu!” He said, putting a REALLY annoying emphasis on the word cute.

“Greetings, sensei.” Yuu said in a perfectly polite and indifferent tone as she bowed slightly.

“It’s good to see you again, Yuki.” He said with an angelic smile that annoyed the heck out of me. “And who might you be?” He said while looking at me, his smile loosing a fair bit of brightness.

Give a forced smile, I extended my hand out.

“I’m Gondorrer Halflingbane. Pleasure to meet you.” There was no need to correct my words, but this made him flinch slightly.

Yup, no doubt about it. This guy reeked of a womanizer.

And no way in hell he’s going to touch Yuu under my watch.