"Ugh, seriously, what the hell am I even doing..."
"Hahaha, you really have had it rough."
Right now, I was out shopping with Mana.
Even if this was a digital space, hunger still existed, so I’d borrowed money with Arus’s help and come out to buy groceries with it.
"But why did I have to be the one chosen?"
"Well, that’s just how luck works."
What that meant was this.
A little while ago, when the whole group had gathered.
When I said I was going shopping, several of them said they wanted to come too.
So we decided to just draw lots, and once again I used Arus’s power to pick the names.
And somehow, Mana ended up being the one chosen.
Thanks to that, I could feel Itsuka-kun’s murderous glare on me.
Anyway, that was how we ended up going together like this.
"It’s already night. Time really does fly."
By the time we finished shopping, the sun had already set and the moon had risen, lighting up the dark streets.
Maybe it was because of everything that had happened today, but time felt like it had passed in a blur.
The night sky, glittering with countless stars that were hard to see in the real world, was truly beautiful.
"Since this is basically a dating sim, the night sky is absurdly pretty."
"I agree."
We stood side by side, looked up at the sky for a bit, then started walking again, feeling the weight of the bags in our hands.
On the way home, Mana and I didn’t talk all that much.
We barely knew each other to begin with, so it wasn’t like we were close.
Then, all of a sudden, one question came to mind.
"Mana. Why did you join the lottery?"
Thinking about it, Mana didn’t really need to.
The people who drew lots were the ones I’d already cleared, or the ones who had said they liked me.
That was why I couldn’t figure out why Mana had joined in.
"Ah, t-that’s because! I was just suddenly bored, I guess..."
"Ah, I see. That makes sense."
If you joined because you were bored, then fair enough.
She looked a little flustered, but... well, I had asked out of nowhere too.
"Hm?"
Just as I was wondering about Mana’s reaction, I spotted Arus up ahead.
It was very dark, and the streetlights didn’t reach that far, so I couldn’t make out the details of her appearance, but the silhouette and the shape of her clothes were definitely Arus.
"Hey, isn’t that Arus?"
Mana had noticed her too.
I waved happily and called out her name.
"Arus!"
Maybe she heard me, because Arus turned her head and looked our way.
Her eyes, glowing in the darkness, curved into crescents, then suddenly vanished.
"Mana. Let’s follow her."
"Okay."
Something felt off, so Mana and I ran toward the direction Arus had disappeared.
What we found there was a hilltop park.
We caught our breath for a moment and looked around.
And waiting there to greet us was Arus, sitting on a nearby set of stairs and looking down at us.
"Heh... so you really did follow me, Higakieta Hae."
"Who are you?"
Her appearance definitely resembled Arus.
But her hair was black, and instead of a white nun’s habit, she wore black clothes.
On top of that, her golden eyes, tinged with gray, were not the Arus I knew.
"Hieta-san. That isn’t Arus, right?"
"Ahaha!"
The girl burst out laughing at Mana’s and my questions, then spoke in a soft, gentle voice.
"Surprised? Which one do you like?"
"Which one? Don’t talk nonsense and start explaining who the hell you are!"
The girl answered Mana’s shout with the same smile still on her face.
"I’m Arus. Without a doubt... I am Arus."
I couldn’t believe that.
The Arus I knew didn’t look like that.
But then, I suddenly remembered something she had said when I first met her.
-Arus. A name that matches my appearance data.
Right.
That word: appearance data.
For some reason, it kept circling around in my head.
"Hmm~ But I am Arus, and yet I could also say I’m not Arus, I guess?"
"...Are you seriously trying to crack jokes right now?"
Even while saying that, I could tell she wasn’t joking.
If the appearance data Arus had mentioned matched this girl too, then this girl could also be called Arus.
To put it simply, it was like in Dark Souls, where we call them Lothric Knights instead of each one having a separate name.
"And you’re not even an NPC, so why is your appearance data fixed? Who the hell are you?"
"Who knows~? I wonder~? Hehe. Higakieta Hae. I’m looking forward to what you do here... in this world... and how things turn out. So keep doing more, keep worrying, keep choosing. And show me. Show me what your love is."
"There you go again with the love nonsense—"
"Well then, let’s stop here for today. See you again, Higakieta Hae."
"Whoa!"
And with that, the other Arus—let’s just call her Black Arus—
Black Arus emitted a flash of light and vanished from the spot.
As a result, Mana and I got blinded and clutched our eyes in pain.
At the time when the full moon looked down on the street lit by the streetlamps.
The others, who had gotten bored waiting for Hieta to come back from shopping, decided to wander around in pairs.
For them, who had only been doing event progression since arriving in this virtual world, it was a perfectly natural choice.
"...Something feels a little off."
"Hm? Something wrong, Shido?"
Shido, who was walking around with Rinne, suddenly felt uneasy.
It was as if his little sister had gotten caught up in something.
His instincts as an older brother were shining.
"Hmm. Nothing."
But Shido decided to let it go.
He figured that even if something dangerous happened in a dating sim, how dangerous could it really be?
Of course, the thing he considered the most dangerous was Hieta being nearby.
"Still, this place is really amazing."
"Yeah. It really feels like we’re walking around a real place."
The two of them looked around as they walked and marveled at it.
The NPCs passing by acted as if they were alive, and from every shop came the noisy sounds of people laughing and chatting.
"Man, it’s insane they used this kind of tech just to make a dating sim."
"Ah, haha. Still, I heard it was hard to make."
Shido couldn’t understand what [Fraxinus] was thinking, using this level of technology just to make a dating sim.
He was sure there was some excuse about training or something, but he just couldn’t bring himself to accept that reality.
"By the way, Rinne."
"Hm? What is it?"
"How many is that now?"
What Shido was asking about was the takoyaki in Rinne’s hand.
Rinne usually didn’t snack much in order to keep her figure in shape, but after hearing that you didn’t gain weight in the virtual space, she’d been eating to her heart’s content.
And as a result, Rinne had now finished off takoyaki twice on her own.
Hearing that, Shido could only worry that his childhood friend had changed somehow.
"Huh? What’s that?"
"Hm? What is it?"
While walking down the street with Rinne, Shido spotted something strange.
Rinne followed his gaze and looked at what he was staring at.
"...Fog?"
What they saw was something like a wall made of fog, standing right there in an alley.
"What do you think that is?"
"Maybe it’s something like the edge of the map."
Shido made a pretty reasonable guess.
But that didn’t mean it was the truth.
So they worried, and they chose.
"Let’s go."
"Okay."
High school students.
At the age when curiosity runs high.
They chose adventure.
Ssshhk-
"W-whoa!"
The moment Shido’s hand touched the fog wall, the scenery changed with a feeling like he was being sucked in.
"...A dragon?"
Rinne’s murmur, as she came through with him.
The changed scenery was a huge cave, and inside that cave, a dark purple dragon was sleeping.
"W-what the..."
Shido was still stunned by the bizarre sight in front of him when a voice he and Rinne both knew rang out.
"I’m gonna... f-fucking get home! I’m getting out of this goddamn place!"
The person speaking in a rough, profanity-filled voice completely unlike his usual tone was none other than Hieta.
"H-Hieta!?"
"That’s armor..."
With Hieta’s sudden appearance, Shido and Rinne were shocked.
But for some reason, Hieta acted as if he couldn’t see them at all and just kept running toward the dragon.
"Hieta! Sto—"
Shido tried to stop him.
"He passed through... me?"
But Hieta simply passed through Shido’s body and kept running toward the dragon.
Crackle—!BOOM!!!!!
Once he reached the dragon, Hieta drove a massive bolt of lightning, [Lightning Blade], into its head.
-KROOOOOOOO!!!
The dragon roared and rose up.
"Fuck! Bring it on! You filthy giant reptile bastard!!!"
And the knight hurled curses at the dragon.
Shido and Rinne, who had seen the whole thing, could do nothing but watch the battle between the two beings, unable to make sense of the situation they were in.
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