"Here? Not really. Back in the real world? Hamburger steaks." Kaoru groaned as she thought of hamburger steaks...because although she liked sweet things above all, hamburger steaks were one of her top rated meals. She was like a little kid in one respect though, always drooling at the thought of sweets. What she'd do for some dango right now....heck, she'd even go for some melon bread! On second thought, if she had some pocky she could share with-...no no no, back up there sister. She would have to try her damnedest to avoid that zone like she'd avoided doing her brother's laundry back before Babylon.
"I have.....roast beef or....hmm...vegetable soup. No hamburger steaks here I'm afraid."
"Uchi-kanda... Uchi-kanda... yes, same train line if the one you're talking about is the Keihin-Tohoku line." He answered, now more interested in the girl player. She tilted her head to the side as she sensed his interest in her, a quirky little half-smile turning up the right corner of her lips. She wondered if she'd ever seen him, even in passing when she had used the Keijin-Tohoku line to get to school. Kaoru reached up and touched the hair at one side of her neck, laughing a little as the game tried to compensate for the fact that in real life she was touching air;the ends of her real hair ghosting across the back of her hand. It was the little things that reminded her of her real form now...like how she had her ears pierced, but Shreya didn't...all that sort of stuff.
"Funny huh...if it wasn't for the fact that we couldn't log out, I'd want to visit you in Akihabara. I mean, I dunno about you, but I look real different from my avatar. You wouldn't recognise me I reckon." She said with a laugh, pushing a hand through the dark locks that she'd gotten used to over the months.
"I don't know. I usually just pick up mission after mission after mission. Hardly lingered in one place for long." Haruo told her before she watched him lie down on the floor and stretch. "I wanted to level up as fast as I could... but I'm tired."
"Ahh...trying to power level on your own huh? I can see why you're tired, I haven't done a mission in just over a week." She sympathised before giving him a little bit of a sad smile. Her poor brother...Kaoru wondered if her mum had already put her brother to rest. She wondered who would be at his funeral... because at the last time they'd looked, none of their friends had made it out of the arena. They'd stopped looking at the username lists after a while, the sadness still too raw over their loss...and now she had lost her brother too.
"...Maybe... we could talk about why Humans are in your black books?" He asked with interest, rolling onto his stomach and propped up on his arms to look at Kaoru. "We have some time to kill while I take a short rest." Ahh....yes, she'd said that she'd tell him. Well, she was always true to her word and she wasn't about to stop now.
"Or if you're not comfy with that, we don't have to talk about it."
"Well ah, last week I did a dungeon raid with my brother. W-We came out and there was a group of humans waiting...Yuuta tried to fend them off but my barriers kept breaking because they were working s-so well together. He was hurt really bad and I just...I had to get him outta there. I used all my remaining mana to bring us back here but he ah...he didn't...h...he-.." Her eyes filled up with tears, a slight sniffle coming from her as she couldn't go on.
Her throat tightened and she swallowed thickly as she blinked several times, swiping at the tears that had slid down her pale cheeks.
"I'm s-sorry, I just..." She choked out before turning her face away from him a bit, her hair slipping down to hide her features. "Told you i-it was a sorry tale." Kaoru murmured, her shoulders shaking just a little as she took in a deep breath. Despite the tears and the grief, she was glad that she'd told someone...kept her brother alive and well in her heart, with his goofy smile and the way he used to ruffle her hair. It was all part of her now and always would be.