The Games We Play

DISCLAIMER: This story is NOT MINE IN ANY WAY. That honor has gone to the beautiful bastard Ryugii. This has been pulled from his Spacebattle publishment. Anyway on with the show...errr read.

Checklist

I landed the Bullhead in the same place we'd left from and it was only slightly worse for wear, which seemed kind of miraculous. Blake was already there waiting for us, reading a book by the door to our acting headquarters on the docks.

"Welcome back," She said as we left the aircraft closing and putting away the book. "I take it everything went well?"

"Can't complain," I said, walking passed her. She wrinkled her nose as I did, so I probably didn't smell so great. "Crashed the Bullhead into everything I could, got chased and eaten by a Giant Nevermore, fought some Grimm, was hunted by a pack of Beowolves, gained some levels. It was fun."

Blake stared at me, then at Adam.

"He's not joking," He said. "Except maybe about the fun part and even then I'm not sure. He's kind of insane."

Blake frowned, looking between the two of us. Adam didn't say anything more but I shrugged my shoulders and smiled.

Blake paused for a long moment before gritting her teeth and shaking her head, moving on.

"And his training?" Blake asked Adam, looking away from me. Adam gave me what I guessed was a pondering glance, frowning slightly.

"He's gotten stronger quickly," He said after a moment. "At this rate, it should be enough if—"

"When," I corrected.

Adam thought about that for a moment before nodding agreeably.

"—When something goes wrong," He corrected. "There are still a few things that could use improvement, though. Pick up some books on boxing, dancing, sports, and any other martial arts books you can get. Anything that could create passive skills is worth the investment, even if it's not a huge improvement, and he could use more options for when he can't afford to use Bai Hu's techniques."

I raised an eyebrow, glancing at Blake.

"We don't have any other ancient magical martial arts if that's what you're wondering," She stated. "But it should be simple enough to get a hold of a few close combat books, though getting something you can absorb might take some looking. I'll handle it."

"Cool," I drew out the word and did some karate chops on the air while shifting my body as if to music, before stopping at the look Blake gave me and withdrawing my scroll from my Inventory. "I'll be lord of the battlefield and lord of the dance—though I assure you, my moves don't need much help in that regard. You get what we needed, Blake?"

She looked at me impassively as I checked over her results, whistling appreciatively.

"Guess we aren't the only ones who brought home some treasure," I said. "Emails and passwords…you have time to check through them yet?"

"I saw a few emails that looked promising, but I didn't want to accidentally do something that'd give us away," She answered evenly. "I figured you'd know best if you saw what we wanted, besides."

"Shifting through emails unnoticed isn't that hard, actually; I'll show you later. But yeah, I'll look through it. Since it's unlikely they'll change email accounts anytime soon, we can use these to monitor the company for a long time, too, though only what passes through these public emails. Still, as you can see, that's more than a bit." I replied absently as I flicked through pages, opening new tabs as needed. "It wasn't hard to get any of this, was it?"

Blake shook her head.

"The email accounts were easy to get into, since they had their passwords saved, though figuring out what their passwords actually were took a bit more effort. But usually, it was just a matter of figuring out one password and most of those," She nodded at my scroll. "Had files on their computers or notes. I'll go back and look at the others, if I have to."

"I'll show you a few more tricks if needed, but this should be enough," I mused. "Oh, there's even a list here about who to contact for what on the airship project."

Blake sighed.

"It's almost depressing how easy it was," She said scornfully. "Even more so because it would probably work on the White Fang, too."

I chuckled at that, shrugging.

"Hey, it's good for us, right?"

"Yes," She looked at me silently and then raised an eyebrow. "You said you found something as well?"

I grinned, reaching into my Inventory to withdraw Dreary Midnight and Lenore. I pulled them out with a swirl of the former, just for the sake of looking cool, slipping on the mask while my face was hidden and then settling the cloak around my bare shoulders and clasping it at my throat swiftly. As the cloak settled, I crossed my arms and stared at Blake with my four eyes, an awaiting eyebrow raised beneath my mask.

Blake tilted her head at me and furrowed her eyebrows, look surprised and confused by the two item and turned to Adam, apparently untouched by my transformation sequence.

"Is that a Nevermore Mask?"

"Yes," Adam said. "An actual one, from the Giant Nevermore we killed and he has another from an Alpha Beowolf. His power can form items from defeated opponent, or at least Grimm—items with magical powers and special effects. It's a game thing."

That last part was said in response to a confused, disbelieving look on Blake's face. She paused then, looking like she was about to say something, but then appeared to bit down upon it and shook her head.

"Money, too," I added, because she hadn't been impressed by my efforts. I drew the money out of nowhere and fanned Lien like playing cards so she could see. "We'll need to check if they're counterfeit, but I'm already pretty sure they're not."

Blake's bow twitched but Adam spoke before she could say anything.

"I suggested adding another layer to his disguise once we found out about it," He said. "And making some additions to your previous work."

Blake raised an eyebrow questioningly and Adam pointed a thumb at me.

"Jian," He said. "Symbol on the back."

She tilted her head, squinted at me, and then nodded.

"It could work," She agreed. "And if it did, it would make it harder to learn of his true identity, as well as divert attention from any inconsistencies that arise. If we stay silent on the matter, act right…but can he play the part?"

"I think so," Adam nodded. "He's been training all the related skills relentlessly and he's earned several titles recently as well, like 'The Tiger.' I'll explain that to you later, but effectively, it makes him better at using Bai Hu's style."

I nodded in agreement.

"'The Tiger' will help a lot," I said. "And I think there are further titles I can get, but they probably require mastering the other skills. I'm working towards the next one and I'll get there eventually, but I don't know if it'll be before or after this mess. Still, with the boosts I've gotten recently from my new skills and wardrobe, I think I can fake it pretty well. No one else knows the style as well as I do, after all, even if I'm far from mastering it."

The Tiger

Obtained by defeating fifty opponents with the techniques of an ancient martial art. You have at last become a warrior of Bai Hu! Train hard to further improve your mastery!

40% increase the damage of White Tiger techniques.

40% increase to the defense granted by White Tiger techniques.

20% decrease in the cost of White Tiger techniques.

"You mentioned you're…" She gestured vaguely at me. "Items have powers, too? Are they infused with Dust?"

I shrugged.

"I don't think so," I said. "I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if we could get Dust drops from Grimm, but these things seem to be powered by…whatever powers the Grimm, I guess. And hey, it can still fit with the shirtless image thing, if I need it to. Look!"

I shifted how the cloak settled slightly and drew up the hood so that it and the mask hid most of my head but left it clear my upper body would have been bare, but for my armor.

"Since it doesn't have anything like sleeves, it's fairly easy to use it like a large cape," I said. "And I can also us my Inventory to do this—"

I took off the cloak and pushed it into to the equipment screen beside my Inventory, causing it to suddenly appear tied around my waist with a belt and falling down to brush my ankles and shins.

"For when I need to display my magnificent body," I finished gesturing at my chest, from which my armor had vanished. After the problems not being able to remove my armor on the fly had caused me, I'd realized a solution—it was equipment and I had an equipment screen. As such, it didn't matter if it would be practical to put on or take off my items, did it? I wasn't certain I could do it in battle, since some games didn't allow that, but shifting stuff to and from my Inventory or Equipment screens wasn't a problem.

Blake shifted her gaze from where it had faded into the air to where it now hung and stared.

"It should be longer than that," She stated, looking at the cloak that had covered my entire body moments before.

"One size fits all, Blake," I said, Adam nodding sagely. We could both see this irritated here. "In games, that is."

"And your armor…"

"Ah, Blake, game characters don't put on their pants," I said, shaking my head with a smile, Adam joining me. "They just equip them!"

I did just that, taking off my armored leggings by replacing them with my jeans.

"I can change my pants without even having to look down," I stated with proud superiority as she continued to stare. "Which makes me better then all of you, by the way."

Blake took a deep breath and held it for several seconds before opening her mouth, shutting it with a click, and then slowly exhaling.

"Don't worry Blake, He's wrong about that part," Adam chimed in. "He loses any of the points he gets for that by owning and wearing a bunny onesie."

"No, see, you're wrong—that makes me even more superior!"

Adam shrugged at Blake.

"I told you," He said evenly. "Insane."

Blake was silent for another second, blinking once, twice.

"It's been a long, long night," She said, turning away. "So I'm going to bed now. Goodbye."

"Wait, Blake," I said, becoming serious again. I gestured at her with the scroll when she looked back at me. "Thank you again for this. With this, we'll be able to move into the final stages of preparation. It's almost time so just hold on for a little longer and then we'll go save them. We'll win. I just need to handle a few more things, okay?"

One of Blake's hidden ears twitched and she nodded once before turning and continuing her walk. When she was gone, I took a deep breath and sighed, glancing up at the stars.

It wasn't a lie. The amount of time until the end of the mission hadn't changed, but from now on, it was just hard, repetitive work. We'd done what needed to be done, now we were just making last minute arrangements. The rest of my training would take some time and putting the finishing touches on our plan wouldn't be possible until we had all the information we needed, but really…this was it. We were going to do this and whether we would win or lose, return or die, I had no idea.

But we weren't going to turn back now. And I had no intention of losing. I'd stack the deck as far as I could in my favor and I'd keep my promises—to my father, to Blake, and to Adam. I'd make what we had be enough, do everything I could, and come back home.

There were only a few things left to do now.

"Hey, Adam."

"Hm?"

"You wanna play some minigames?"