Promise.

In the game world:

“Hmm. It’s quiet.”

“Ah.”

It was nearly evening, and the sun had beginning to set. The shoreline was coloured with deep crimson red of the setting sun. The evening star had appeared in the eastern sky and the echoing ripples of water in the lake nearby, was seemingly pleasant to the ears.

The place had no crowd and was practically empty, it was a perfect situation for a date.

Beside me, stood a petite girl with light blue hair. She was wearing an orange hakama which were fashionably worn by schoolgirls in Taisho era. The outfit revealed her bare shoulders, her hand holding a cane.

Apart from this what caught my eye, was her fluffy and erect ears with that tail at the back. In simple words, she was a beautiful Japanese style magical- fox girl with fox-ears.

“This place is so unexcited… the monster for whom I am looking for is not even spawning!” (The monster who will give him the rare item, which he was looking for.)

“Even though I am using this drop chance booster item, its damn useless!”

“Oi Oi… didn’t you just defeat one a few minutes earlier.”

“HAAA!! I am going to send a quick email to the game developer about this. Moreover, I will also emphasise about implementing a separate category of cosmetics regarding changing the avatar’s pants according to the taste of the user.”

“Obviously they aren’t going to listen to you, are you dumb?”

Despite her cute online appearance, the words that come out of her mouth is demeaning and gross.

She swung her hands, stomped her foot on ground and clicked her tongue in distaste and disgust. She was expressing her displeasure through every part of her body.

“Yare yare”

I shrugged my shoulders while looking at her, wearing scale-mail armour equipped with a large battle axe.

It was no “date” or even as such a sweet ambience in that situation whatsoever.

Her name is Philia san.

Judging by our daily conversations, she must be a high school student like myself.

We were playing Find Chronicle Online or FCO, a MMORPG net game. It’s online fantasy game, which became popular because of it being integrated with VR goggle support, giving the game an unprecedented sense of reality.

Although, unfortunately, I don’t have VR goggles, but….

Currently, I was working with Philia-san to gather the desired number of materials we needed. I’m chatting with her to kill time while I’m waiting for my target mob to respawn.

“By the way, what are your thoughts regarding this avatar?”

“The skirt seems to be too long for your taste I think.”

“Exactly! Sometimes I wonder if it will be better to hide my legs. The thighs are indeed well made, also those arms and back too well designed. Un un. Judging by my physical health bar, it can go up to 3 bowls of rice.” [TL note: some games use food to fill their hp, so hp is counted with respect to the amount of food.]

“You’re obsessed with the weirdest of things aren’t you”

Philia san likes to mess up her characters’ outfits here and there, trying to make it look cute and cuter.

“There can never be someone in real life who would wear a skirt this short! Look, the pants are completely visible!” or she is heard saying.

And even now, she is saying stuffs like, “The nape and my upper arms aren’t visible …… Shall I change the hairstyle?”.

The way she is pricky about the fashion sense and the dress is just like a perverted old man. Well, it’s an everyday occurrence.

Even I was told by Philia san that I should as well equip fashionable cosmetics. But well, since I have no interest in those stuffs at all, it seriously can’t be helped.

Even if I were to dress up this man character of mine, well it doesn’t excite me one bit.

Well, doing this and that together, it had been about 3 years since we met each other in this game.

I occasionally happened to meet Philia, who started the game at around the same time as me, and thus happened to come this far together.

There was even a time when we worked hard enough in the game to get our name inscribed in the rank table as well.

I’ve never met him in person, but I consider him to be my best friend.

……no, if it were to be decided to be either of the two, it would definitely be a dark influence huh.

I don’t even know if the person controlling the avatar (Philia) is a man or a woman, but it’s fun to be together, and being worried about the gender is a minor issue.

And after all, I don’t even know the other person’s real name or where they live. It’s only an in-game relationship.

Even now, talks about thighs-something, arms-something, or even that bareback-something, such trivial talks which we do may not happen in our daily lives.

The only things I know about him is that he is a student and that he likes scented candles. I even remember stepping on a landmine, making him sulky when I told my views on his hobby being like a girl’s, him replying, “Is that bad?”

“Ah right, Kreis-kimi, did you hear about this game collaborating with Karaoke Celery. It seems they’re going to recreate some of the meals from the game. It’s also on the official website.”

“Let me see — ah, it’s really officially out, the croquette of Dragon King Fabneil… What the heck is this?”

“The raw kraken and ham karaage dishes made by this city Goblins, doesn’t it make you curious too?”

“Uwaa, the presentation of these dishes are horrible! On the other hand, it does make me curious.”

Karaoke Celery is a karaoke group that focuses on anime songs and other products. It is also used frequently for offline meet up venue as well, it seems.

“Oh, I want to go there at least once!”

“Come to think of it, it was going to open a branch in front of the station near me… Oh, it going to go in business from the weekend.”

“Ah, you are lying! So nice for you… this place comes under a regional city. …… Oh, they are also there near the Hatsuseya store!”

“Hatsuseya?”  That word sounded familiar. The name was of the station I use every day to go to school is the same.

What if ……

“Yes, it’s the closest station to my house. But even so, I’m not sure if I would want to go to karaoke all by myself ―.”

“Seriously? It is Hatsuseya for me as well!”

“What? is that so for you as well Kries-kimi?”

“Wait really? Is our house perhaps near to each other then? Then what do you say, would you want to go together on one weekend?”

I got so excited by the unexpected coincidence that I couldn’t help but ask Philia instantly.

Philia’s big eyes wavered in response to my invitation. The sound of the ripples flowing in from the background window seemed to appear louder.

Two minutes……. three minutes passed by

There are many times when there is no immediate response that comes in from chat room. However, it was enough time for my excited mind to cool off.

“Oh, did I go in too far?”.

There are many people who draw a clear line between games and real life.

Perhaps Philia san is also someone who doesn’t wants to extend online friendships outside the gaming platform.

We’ve been online friends for three years now, that was probably something I should have been a bit more careful about.

Thinking it to be really insensitive, I went on to type “Please forget all that!”

When a reply came.

“Well, what can I say? I have a totally different personality in real life in contrast to when I am gaming.”

“Ok?”

Is that really something to be concerned about?

I have always talked about strange fetishes with him (Philia), so I’d not be surprised if he reveals himself as an old man who is handling her character in the game. Oh, I see! Though he has been telling me that he is in high school, but it can be the case that he is a working member of the society who is keeping his age hidden.

“However, from the inside you will still be Philia, isn’t it? But if you aren’t comfortable then you need not pressure yourself to come.”

“Un but if you definitely make a strange face after you meet me in person, then —.”

“Hahaha, I won’t, I promise.”

“Well, then its fine……. Tte, IT SPAWNED!”

“Ah?”

A huge turtle with a very long neck spawned in front of me. The shell of this thing is the drop item I’m looking for.

【Flash Lightening! 】tte, kyaa! “It is coming towards me”

“Oi oi don’t attack it before I get into position!”

…………

……

Philia san who couldn’t afford to wait for me, resumed to attack. Perplexed, I hurriedly, follow up and rebuild my position.

It was a game tactic that we had done many times in past.

Such unplanned, bittersweet exchange between us makes it all the more exciting.

I am sure we can be close best friends in real life as well— at that time, that was literally what was going on in my mind.