Danika had her celestial dragon assistant look up the guild that Shinichi had been invited to join. All but one of the members were NPCs, and the player was a relatively low level cat witch.

She actually recognized several of the NPC members. Arthur the Witch's Toad, Maou the Wizard's Cat, and Frederick the Farrier's Mule were all characters that she'd met within the game. There were more than a hundred of them.

She called up the traveling merchant and asked what he knew about the familiar's association, but even to her work avatar, he would only say, "It's a very exclusive group. Only familiars can join, and they don't accept player quests."

Danika wrote back to Shinichi: "Would you lose anything by trying to accept the invitation? Since you still have to wait a week between memberships, wouldn't it just give you an error? I'm pretty curious about it now."

He didn't reply until the next morning, but when he did he texted: "My character is now a member of two guilds, it didn't revoke my membership in Endless Song, and I can't seem to speak of, or send you messages about The Familiar's Association within the game."

Danika replied without thinking: "It sounds like The Way of the Cat. Is the first rule of the Association not to talk about the Association?"

Shinichi answered immediately, "Third rule, and if I'm going to keep breaking it like this, you have to tell me about the Way too! "