"Isn't that all you've been calling him all day?" Cy rolled his eyes again. "I don't even know his name because all you do is fawn over him."

"You are soooo gay, Benjamin," Ukeru snorted, clasping the other on the back. "Good night!"

With that, he disappeared through a red portal.

"He's been trying to prove that since I met him and he fawned over me like he does you." Cy explained to Arashi.

"With a name like Ukeru, I'd imagine he's gay," Arashi informed, before he blushed. "Not that there's anything wrong with being gay-! There are plenty of nice gay people at my school... some of them are a little scary, but the rest are nice..."

"You're trying to hard, I'm not gay and therefore can't be offended." Cy sighed. "The only thing that bothers me are stupid people...which I must be since I'm on an MMO and have that pet-peeve."

"Are there a lot of stupid people in M-" Arashi started to say before someone ran by, cutting him off as they yelled.

"WHERE'S A GM!? I CAN'T OPEN MY INVENTORY!! SOMEONE HELP ME!"

"...Don't you just-" Arashi motioned to the bag on his hip with a frown.

"...Is there another damned glitch?" Cy blinked and checked his own pack.

"A glitch?" Arashi asked as Cy's inventory opened fine - proving the guy was either an idiot, or trying to get attention. "There are glitches?"

"Only on occasion and normally due to stupid people, as the a fore mentioned." Cyprian replied.

"I hope they take careful care of that," Arashi hummed. "A glitch in a system that links up to your mind could cause serious brain damage."

"You're talking to one of the beta-testers." Cy informed. "I know."

Arashi's eyes went wide. "I thought you guys were the Alpha testers... but, wait... wasn't there a 6th one?"

Cyprian fell silent his expression darkened.

"...It's late, don't you have school or something?" He asked.

"Oh! I have a test in five hours!" Arashi squeaked. "I'll talk to you later, thanks again for the help!"

With that, he logged from sight.

Cyprian sighed again and shook his head before held his forehead and tried to distract himself.

--Scene Change--

The students groaned as their professor handed out the test - a packet of at least ten papers stapled together, along with his provided number two pencils... and no sharpeners. He had a nasty habit of saying if you couldn't provide your own, you failed the test.

It was the first test of the first semester of the school year. A fresh new intake of exchange students had the school buzzing, but today no one in the room was feeling it. Everyone looked exhausted from late night cramming and Arashi Haru was no exception... although cramming had not been what he was up all night doing.

He supposed it could be worse... although staring at the paper through his glasses, he didn't see how. At least it was all material he knew and the only things he had to worry about were trying to get his left hand to properly function and ignoring the half-snores of the person falling asleep beside him.

"Ah, mister Kristy, I see you're first...again." The Professor hummed as a slightly tanned boy with brown-ish hair and glasses with a green sweater handed in his test.

Looking up, Haru let out a slow breath. They'd barely started and this guy was already handing it in?

Feeling defeated, he eyed the graphs and numbers on his paper, before pulling off his glasses to clean them on his shirt.

It was going to be a long hour...

Lunch came not long after that and all the castes fell right into place at their own tables. It was hard to call it the most diverse school when everyone was keeping it so segregated.

Haru himself was spending his own lunch hour in the computer lab, reading up more and more about the different skills in The Game that his healer could use.

There were a few people around him and at least a gentle few of those were also on the game, but playing it rather than researching. But here in the lab, they wouldn't have the up-link capabilities. They couldn't feel the world as acutely as they could at home.

He paid them no mind, completely entranced by the fact that healers, when paired with mages in particular, could be extremely powerful damage dealers... especially in places with un-dead monsters, where they could use their area of effect heals, when amplified by a mage's area of effect amplifier, to take out undead creatures.

The door came open and he looked up to see the Kristy boy from earlier come in- taking a seat at the terminal across from Haru and flipping on the computer.

For a few moments Haru paid him no mind, but after finding it increasingly harder to concentrate on what he was doing he sighed and sat back.

This guy was smart... smarter then anyone he'd ever met before. It was enchanting... part of him wanted to approach the guy but... what would he say? 'Hi, I'm an exchange student from Japan, I think you're super smart'?

No way... as far as he was concerned that guy would be impossible to talk to.

With a sigh, Haru grabbed a set of link-ins and clipped them over his ears, feeling the small pinch as they dug in and allowed his vision to cloud over, bringing up The Game.

He wouldn't be able to smell or feel without the full system back in his dorm room, but he couldn't head back there... he had a class in an hour.

--SCENE BREAK--

Arashi stumbled out of the gate and right into another player.

"Oof!" He cried, surprised that he couldn't feel it for a moment even as he stumbled back.

"Watch new- oh it's you." Cyprian sighed. "What the hell, aren't you in school?"

"I have an hour between classes," Arashi explained, dusting himself off - and realizing in awe that there was actually dirt on his outfit. "I wanted to get my new armor and skills while I was not doing anything."

"I take it you're not an excel student or you'd be studying." Cy rolled his eyes. "C'mon, no-one else is online yet...except maybe Ukeru, but I don't know where he is."

"Actually, I get all good grades and I finished my homework in class," Arashi hummed, following Cy as they headed into town. "What about you...? Didn't you have a test today, too?"

"Is that any of your business?" Cyprian asked.

Arashi's eyes went wide and he looked down."Well, no..."

"I'm not some little kid you have to look out for." Cy said. "I'm a powerful spellweaver in a twisted fantasy world that battles demonic creatures the likes of which you've never seen in your most intense nightmares. I'm disciplined, powerful, knowledgeable and- above all other things -respected."

"Sorry..." Arashi whispered meekly, tensing up as if he was expecting to be hit, even though players couldn't hit each other in town.

Cyprian was quiet a moment before he sighed.

"Don't get fooled by the others." He warned. "Ukeru gets away with stuff because...well...we were all in the beta together and...you don't know...only the right stuff came outta that. We weren't just testing the game, we were testing the equipment and everything. You said there were six, but there's only five now...right?"

"Yeah," Arashi said out loud, before he realized that Cy had been talking to him privately and he quickly willed his own responses to be in private. "Yes, I remember saying that."

"Enough said." Cy replied flatly. "And you're not replacing them either."

"I... I wouldn't imagine I was," Arashi breathed, frowning even more. "I mean... I wouldn't want to... and I don't think I am, I..."

"Good, because you can't." Cyprian said firmly. "Now...what's your current level?"

He seemed eager to change the subject.

"Nineteen," Arashi breathed - just as eager. "Huntress said at 25 I change jobs... I've been researching all day and I decided to go Monk, since they are better suited to heal aoe mages."