Nyaa-chan was grinning with a cornstalk sticking out of his teeth.

“The mysteries Magitective Nyaa-chan finds are her’s alone, nya~”

“Ah- um, so you two definitely did it then. I have to say, you look a lot happier.”

I almost used his real name. Him and Myrnie? Moreover, he was smiling. Didn’t you just blow up a Peacer town a few days ago? As guild master, I almost kicked him out by reflex but then I remembered it was completely out of his character to bully little kids and old people.

“Nyaa-chan got a miracle, Magical Girls blow everything away. I was… about to do something dumb,” he grinned.

“You’re not going to tell me are you? Mystery’s are her’s alone after all?”

“About that? No. But, about the miracle, sure. I talked to Cowboy, you know, the Samurai subclass guy? He said he heard a voice when he got the class and skill, I heard the same thing. When I blew up that town, I learned a new skill. A Negativer skill. It’s one that doesn’t exist on the wiki either.”

I stayed silent. That smug grin looks good on him. I almost wanted to just sit here and admire the change in him.

“This case, I’ll get to the bottom of it.”

He stood up. I had to ask, even though I knew what he was going to say. If I didn’t I felt like I wasn’t doing my job as his friend. He likes showing off a little after all in times like this.

“Will you tell me what you find out?”

“Maigitective Nyaa-chan’s mysteries are her’s alone!”

I cringed a little. The fact that he wasn’t making a face of anguish was admirable. Good job, Nyaa-chan, you’ve grown.

“Thanks for being there for me, Iroas,” Nyaa-chan smiled.

Did I just think he was cute? I’ll file that away to my ‘Take to the Grave’ folder in my mind.

Entering Reality…

“I don’t think we have enough money to get through this month.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of it,” I said.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’ve got some savings. I’ll manage the rest somehow.”

“Well, you do always pull through. I don’t know how you do it.”

“Part of being a hero, right?”, I laughed.

“Someone had to manage this nightmare… I don’t envy you at all.”

Me either, I thought. You think this business runs itself? No, I had to make decisions I didn’t like making. I make those a lot these days.

That’s reality though. Someone has to make the decisions when the chips are down, and if it isn’t me it’s going to be someone else. Then they’ll be in power and holding the money.

I can’t let that happen. I don’t want to, even if it’s tough, I’ll make the call when no one else will.

So I cut the budget right then and there. Sorry guys, you’re the fifty worst. Sorry, I meant most liable.

I want to make it work for you. You just don’t fit in here. It’s not a problem of skill, education, timing, commitment, or years invested in the company. It’s just a combination of all of those.

I’m sorry. I failed you.

Entering World Online…

I went to Eirnir, the Peacer starter town.

“Guild Havesiosi? Oh, what are you doing here?”

“I heard lots of people needed extra money for materials to rebuild,” I said.

“Yeah, you’d think the game masters would just roll the city back. The whole place got obliterated in one shot, you should have seen this one kid crying, it was horrible.”

“You have any idea who did this?”, I needed to find out if Nyaa-chan needed help.

“Nah, I asked a game master. He said it’s private information! If this isn’t griefing, what is?”

“I’m sorry. I’m here to lend out loans for reconstruction, are you interested?”

“Loans? You’re going to make money on repayment, from this?”

How else can I help?

“Materials do cost people a lot of time, even if it’s a game it’s still necessary. Especially since I’m doing the whole town, I might go bankrupt just from this.”

“I’ll pass. After all, I didn’t lose that much. I don’t know why you would want to play like a banker in a game though, that stuff is boring enough in real life. Goodbye.”

I took off after politely telling him his options.

A cloud of dust and clang rang out as bricks toppled down into the street. Griefers again? Good thing I’m here.

Hey, it’s that Cowboy guy. He really is dressed like a samurai. Playing hero, huh? He got killed before I could get there, those Chaosers are all level 30, just what were you trying to do?

“Hey, did you guys destroy that building? I saw you take down Cowboy, how about we take this outside of town?”

It’s not a threat. They began to bark a bit.

“Ah, damn it, a level 60!”

“We can take him, there's five of us!”

“Heh heh, Let me show you…”

I didn’t like the look of that last guy.

My subclass is Negater, my class Neutraler, and I’d make sure justice was on the menu if I was running a restaurant.

“‘Balance Maker’”, I cast the skill and flattened him. One shot, he was pancaked into the ground with his spirit rising out.

“Get him!”

You’re just wasting your time. A full on charge and a fireball coming at me? Here, I’ll help you.

“‘Negation Reflection’”

I bristled my armor a bit as I felt and saw the skill send one Warcan flying and one fireball guzzling into its owner.

Hope you had the sensitivity set low, I’m sorry.

“‘Balance Maker’”

You’re not getting a chance to move.

There was a creepy guy in a robe and a viking cosplayer on the ground now. Vikings didn’t really have horns on their heads, you know? Too late to save that tragedy from occurring.

The Warcan that got some air time was still struggling to get up.

“Hey, get out of here. Don’t do that again, okay? I’ll be around.”

Like he’ll listen to me, I watched as he ran off.

A Peacer came up to me, her face screwed up together.

Ah, I had my apologetic face locked and loaded like a bullet in Nyaa-chan’s revolver stave.

“Why couldn’t you have come sooner?”

“I’m sorry.”

Nothing I can do, ma’am.

Entering Reality...

The beach is nice. I was laying back on the chair, watching the waves ebb.

Sometimes I feel like I’m working two jobs. Why play a hero in a game? Well, I can’t be one in real life. Sometimes, sometimes I get to be the hero in real life. In the game, it’s more of the time.

I remembered Nyaa-chan telling me about something he was working on, an uploader. He mentioned it in passing when I was bothering him, I made sure to check in with him every couple of days.

“Right now, the game is just overloading the subconscious mind’s ability to process it. You can’t possibly get into a game world all the time, but isn’t it interesting? Maybe, someday, someone could invent a way to pull all that data the other way. Instead of your subconscious receiving all that data, it would be the system receiving the data. So many problems with that though...”

“Good thing we have the safeties then. You might just end up getting your brain stuck in the game forever.”

I remembered the look on his face at that time. He was happy.

“Oh, no. Was that it? God damn Nyaa-chan, did you really?”, I said out loud startled by my own thought.

He said, “about to do something dumb”. I knew he wasn’t the happiest guy but would he go that far? He’s smart, but I didn’t think he was that good.

Nyaa-chan likely made an uploader, and probably was going to kill himself by uploading his mind into Mental World Online.

Nah, no way. I laughed.

That’s just insane.

But, I’ll ask him. He’ll play dumb I’m sure. At the very least it will amuse the both of us at the thought of him running around as a magitective for the rest of his life. You don’t play a crafting class Nyaa-chan, what would you do about your job?

It was a fun idea though. With an uploader, everyone could live forever on a server. Only a small percentage of humanity would be needed to steward them, and everyone could live however they wanted free from the difficulties and pains of the real world.

As I was looking out onto the sea, I was thinking that. I laughed again looking at a girl that had to be in her late twenties. She was smiling and building a sandcastle.

Hey, doesn’t she look a little like Nyaa-chan? I felt shame building up.

This is off time, isn’t it? How about you relax? I heard myself say that in my mind. I felt the heat building in my stomach, I’m really doing this?

I stood up and walked over. If Nyaa-chan can accept playing as a magical girl, I won’t let him beat me.

Being a hero in a game is easy.

Being a hero in real life, I’m working on it.