"Am I Dead or Just Stupid?"
Kaito Asuma died in front of a vending machine.
Not with honor. Not with drama. Just a stupid slip, a toppled machine, and a bottle of lemon soda as his last memory.
When Kaito woke up, the first thing he noticed was the sky.
Or rather, that there were two of them. One above, filled with unfamiliar stars. One below. He wasn't sure but he was sure about the d*mn dreadful headache that sounded like Windows XP crashing on repeat in his skull.
He groaned.
> ERROR 001: Welcome Protocol Failed.
ERROR 002: Class Not Found.
ERROR 404: Sense of Direction Not Found.
A glowing blue interface blinked above his vision. Then another. Then three more, overlapping like a panicked slideshow.
Heswatted at itbut it stayed.
> "Congratulations, [NULL]. You have been selected for System Installation.
Would you like to install the NSFW Add-On? [Y/N]
Kaito blinked.
"Y," he muttered instinctively.
> NSFW Add-On installing... Warning: Add-On not compatible with base build. Expect glitches.
"Wait, what?"
> Would you like to disable genital physics? [Y] [N]
"What..?"
"Oh, great. I died and reincarnated into a bugged MMO."
A sound behind distracted interrupted.
Kaito turned slowly.
A creature. Enormous, it looked like a bear and definitely all teeth, came out of the treeline. Its eyes glowed red. Its breath steamed. And Kaito's inventory consisted of one (1) linen tunic and zero (0) weapons.
He turned and ran.
> Tutorial Activated: How to Use Your Weapon!
Step 1: Get a weapon.
Step 2: Don't die.
"Useless piece of sh—"
The beast approached.
Kaito stumbled sideways, crashing into a tree. The interface glitched, momentarily going pink before showing a badly rendered chibi of himself crying.
A shadow fell overhead.
Then steel flashed.
A single, clean swing. The creature's head landed next to Kaito with a wet thump.
Over it stood a woman, tall, armored in blood-splashed steel, golden eyes glowing like a furnace.
She didn't smile.
She kicked the corpse, wiped her blade, and pointed it at him.
"What are you?"
"Uh. Human? Mostly?"
"Who summoned you?"
"God? Glitch? A vending machine? I don't know."
She moved so fast he didn't see her. One second she was ten feet away. The next, her sword was at his throat.
"You smell wrong," she hissed.
"Okay, rude, but maybe." He said with a rised hand
Then they heard a noise.
More howls. The trees trembled. A pack this time.
The woman cursed under her breath and tossed him a dagger.
"Don't drop it."
"Of course, no pressure."
The fight was chaos. She swept through enemies like a hurricane, limbs severed, blood spraying. Kaito managed to stab one in the eye and almost threw up.
> COMBAT FRAGMENT SYNC DETECTED.
STATS TEMPORARILY BOOSTED.
WARNING: EMOTIONAL PROXIMITY MAY TRIGGER FURTHER INTEGRATION.
In the middle of battle, his hand brushed hers as they both struck the same enemy.
Something clicked.
The world stopped. His strength surged. She paused just long enough to glance at him curious. Almost amused.
He stopped.
"What's going on?"
She didn't reply.
But her blade passed dangerously close to his side on purpose.
"Run." She shouted
"Don't need to tell me twice." He whispered
They ran further away from the forest, heading for a block of ruins nearby.
They found shelter in a ruined temple. Broken pillars. Cracked icons. The air still surged with old magic.
Kaito collapsed against the altar. "That was insane. I'm not built for this."
She leaned her sword against the wall. Unstrapped her gauntlets. Sat, silently.
Minutes passed.
"Thanks for not killing me," he offered.
She glanced at him.
"Yet."
> COMBAT FRAGMENT BOND STABLE
Sync Level: 8%
The interface flickered.
LYRIA (NAME ASSIGNED BY BOND)
"Wait, I didn't name you."
She smirked. "The system recognizes hierarchy."
"So it thinks I'm above you?"
"Don't get excited. It's broken."
As Kaito lay back, the interface projected her battle profile including, awkwardly, a slowly-rotating silhouette.
"Why is it showing me your armor stats and other sizes?"
"Because you installed the NSFW patch, idiot."
He turned bright red.
From her stone bed, she rolled to face him, eyes glowing faintly.
"Stop thinking about me naked. The system echoes your thoughts."
He buried his face in his hands.
"This world is going to kill me."
Lyria's soft chuckle echoed off the ruins.
"If it doesn't, I might."