LOUISE

After our fights were finished for the night, the new fighters were escorted to our new sleeping quarters. It was effectively a dorm room due to us also being enrolled in DFA Academy, but each room had the furnishings of a full apartment. Our rooms were basic to start, but if we earned enough DFA Cash, we could get some nice upgrades. I was already planning on making my new home look exactly as I had it in the game.

Amvery huffed as we walked through a long walkway. It was a treat to see the outdoor brawl areas from the game on either side of us, I recognized at least four of the stages that were personal favorites.

“I better not be your roommate,” Amvery grumbled.

“Everyone gets a solo room if it’s anything like the…” I looked around, making sure no one was close enough to hear. “If it’s like the game.”

“Why are you so spooked about that? Do you think the whole world will implode into a black hole if we tell everyone this is a game?” Amvery asked. “I bet I could shout out all like ‘it’s a game!’ And nobody would care.”

“That would be wildly disruptive,” I said. “A definite Amvery Astrell move.”

“Wildly disruptive is cooler than the Louise Lumi move of just being a boring do-gooder.” Amvery said.

We debated about our alignment choices a bit more. For someone who wanted to go separate ways, she sure made a point to talk to me. That was something I noticed about her back home too.

All of the buildings on the campus were generally connected, as the area took up most of the space in the not very cleverly named DFA City. While the nations that made up the disk cities had extensive lore, a lot of the naming regarding the Dragon Fighting Alliance arena and surrounding buildings were generally named after the league.

I was exhausted after my first day in this world. It hadn’t really sunk in yet that I was even truly in another world, and it was a mix of elation and pain thinking about it too deeply. I assumed sleep would come easy to me, but I tossed and turned until the sun rose. I heard a thudding sound outside that was rather annoying, and I figured I knew who was responsible before I checked out the window. Sure enough, Amvery was at a court outside trying and failing to shoot basketball hoops. I told myself it was my lack of sleep that brought me out to the court to watch her.

“I couldn’t sleep because of all the noise you’re making.” I said. “Why are you out here, anyways?”

“Getting a head start on practicing,” Amvery said. She shot for a hoop and missed. “I have three weeks to get good at this. I have to be able to make...a good amount of baskets to get past the first cage.”

“I see.” I said.

“You remember what the event is, right?”

I knew she was baiting me. She always gave a lopsided grin when she was trying to make me angry. And I knew what she actually was angling for.

The first big event of career mode featured a multi-tiered cage with challenges within each one. Only a select few could make it to the center, where the big battle took place. The first wave of challenges was a basketball section with a simple minigame. I wasn’t concerned about that as I did play basketball in my prior life. Amvery, however, did not.

“Hey, Louise,” Amvery said. “You didn’t answer. You didn’t forget the name of the event, did you?”

“I’d rather not do the Titans debate again.” I said.

“Why not? Would now not be the absolute perfect time for it with us about to live the actual thing?” Amvery said.

The first big event of career mode was called, for reasons I will never understand, “[…]lash of the Titans.” To note, when I poke fun at DFA’s eccentric elements, I do it out of love, the bizarreness makes it all the more special to me. There was a big debate in the fandom about what the first word was supposed to be. And an even bigger debate between Amvery and I.

“It’s definitely ‘Flash.’” Amvery said.

“Why would it be flash? That’s absurd.” I immediately failed in my strategy to not take her bait. “Flash of the Titans? As in titans…flashing each other? It’s obviously clash. It’s a fighting game!”

“Wow, settle down there, Louise.” Amvery said.

“I…” I growled. “Maybe we’ll find out now that we’re here.” The game didn’t have much in the way of spoken audio outside of the soundtrack, and this event’s name was something that went unspoken.

“It’ll be flash.” Amvery said.

“Are you trying to get me to leave?” I said.

“Yes! Can you just leave me alone?” Amvery asked. “You probably don’t even need to practice this, so you can go anytime, please.”

Instead of giving her what she wanted, I grabbed a ball of my own and practiced a few hoops down from Amvery. I was glad that the amount of minigames in DFA led to some familiar sports existing in this world. After making a few shots, I felt my mind get clearer. Maybe I was still reeling from everything that had happened over the last day, lost in a foggy haze from jumping between worlds. But the familiar nature of playing basketball made the fog a bit less hazy.

“I figured out why I can’t move right,” Amvery announced. She turned around and shook her hips. “This stupid tail! I’m just not used to it yet.”

“I haven’t had an issue with it.” I said. “I’m quite fond of mine, already.”

“’I’m quite fond of mine, already.’” Amvery repeated in a mocking tone.

“Very mature,” I said. “How old are you again?”

“I think I’m still eighteen in this world too.” Amvery said.

“You definitely don’t act like it.” I said.

“Neither do you, you act like an old geezer that has to talk all proper for no reason.” Amvery said. “You don’t get any stickers for good behavior at this school.”

“I don’t act the way I do for the stickers,” I said. I admittedly did have a book full of the ‘positive participation’ stickers from our old school, but I wasn’t going to let her know that. “It’s just…who I am.”

“Uh huh, sure.” Amvery said. “Have you tried using your tail to fling yourself up to the basket?

That’d be a cool way to do a slam dunk. Wait, don’t try it, lemme try it first.”

She got under a basket and squatted. She slapped her dragon tail down and got herself about a foot off the ground before she fell forward, landing roughly on her ankle.

“Amvery!” I said as she groaned on the ground, holding her leg.

“Frick…”

I helped her to a bench. Without thinking, I checked her ankle. She winced as I lifted it, but didn’t question it.

“It’s not broken, at least.” I said. “Probably not sprained either, looks like it’s just tweaked.”

“I’m glad you’re such an expert on legs.” Amvery said. “Did you just do this to check out my legs?”

“You are so ridiculous,” I said.

“If it’s just a tweak, I can probably get a bit more practice in—” Amvery tried to step up, but stepping on her tweaked ankle hurt her to the point she had to immediately sit back down. “Ah, just gimme a sec.”

“You need to rest,” I said. “It’s not good to keep pushing after exerting yourself as much as you did tonight.”

“Whatever,” Amvery said. “This probably wouldn’t have happened if you didn’t cheap out with that leg submission.”

“How is that a cheap victory?” I asked.

“You didn’t even do a dragon shift finisher!” Amvery said.

“That’s because…I’m not sure how to, yet.” I said.

“Ha! Are you serious?” Amvery asked.

“You seemed to be having plenty of trouble with that yourself.” I said.

“Well, at least I tried to.” Amvery said.

“We’re getting nowhere with this,” I sighed.

“Do we ever get anywhere?” Amvery asked.

“We ended up here, I suppose.” I said.

It was absurd that I was in a video game’s world, and maybe even more absurd that Amvery was too. That we both ended up in our favorite game. But I think it would have been lonelier if she wasn’t there. I couldn’t exactly tell her that.

“Do you need help walking back to your room?” I asked. “It’s getting late.”

“Nah, I…” Amvery trailed off.

I smiled a bit as Amvery held her arm out for me to get her on her feet. She didn’t move once I had her arm slung around my shoulders.

“Does it hurt that badly?” I asked, unable to hide the concern in my voice.

“It’s alright, just,” Amvery said. “It might make me look weak if anyone sees me limping, though.”

“Ah,” I said.

“So maybe I should just walk on my own.” Amvery said.

“I could carry you,” I joked.

“Pfft,” Amvery laughed. “That’d probably be quicker.”

Amvery wasn’t the type to say it when she needed help, but her expression was pretty clear. So I ended up scooping her in my arms, rushing her back to her room before any of the other fighters in our dorm spotted her. The silliness of the situation had us both laughing. Though we had our rivalry at school, I did enjoy the times when our guards were down. It was also a bit sweet whenever she needed to be babied. These were rare pieces of home that made it all the way into the game with me.