Chapter 43：Bonding Part 1

--- AN: Small note. Yuki's second daily chapter will be out later. I have some things to do today. Sorry for the delay.---

Yuki chuckled as she put Chi down, who stood there with her arms crossed across her chest. Her cheeks were puffed out as she stubbornly turned her face away while blushing. But it was easy to see she was not mad since her ears were twitching and her tail was wagging back and forth. Yuki found this all to be very cute. "Then princess, let's head towards the mountain shall we?" Yuki asked as she bowed as if she was addressing royalty.

Chi, on the other hand, froze and looked at Ryu, a bit confused. 'Is he joking, or did he know!?' Sweat formed on her brow, and her palms became sweaty, but when she realized that Ryu was just joking around, she let out a big sigh of relief. It was not so much that she was worried about being exposed. It was more of her not wanting Ryu to only be nice to her because of her status. This was what she feared the most. She was suddenly starting to miss the cute girl who wore a hat and mask all day. She got lost in thought as she pondered how she could become even better friends with Yuki all of a sudden. 'I need to deepen my friendship with Yuki!' But only one thing came to mind as she tried to come up with ideas which made her blush slightly. But even if she felt it was slightly embarrassing, she was determined to do it!

"Earth to Chi." Yuki waved her hand in front of Chi's face causing her to snap out of her thought process.

"Huh? Ryu, what's wrong?" Chi asked. She was still a little spaced out.

"You were spaced out, so I was trying to get your attention. If we want to make it to that peak before we log out, we will need to hurry." Yuki explained.

"Oh! Sorry! Then let's go!" Chi pointed her index finger forward and began walking forward. Yuki chuckled and followed behind her, letting Chi lead the way.

They had really underestimated the distance that they had to travel to get to the mountain range. There was not a single life form around, although they did come across many skeletons of large monsters bigger than anything Yuki had ever seen, and by large, Yuki could only compare them to the size of the skyscrapers in the city.

"I am kinda glad these things are all dead..." Chi said as she trembled slightly. She had watched as one of the players from KillerT's party got eaten alive, and she really did not wish to experience such a thing. She instinctively hooked her arm around Yuki's arm and pressed her body close as she looked nervously at the bones. For some reason, she felt like they could suddenly come alive at any second. Yuki only chuckled as they continued on.

When they reached the mountain after a few days of ingame travel, Yuki frowned when she looked at the clock. She only had an hour before she had to log out. The travel between where they came into the mystic realm and the mountain took so much time! In a way, she was glad there were no monsters or scenery to really look at, or they would never have made it this far. "Chi, if we log out in a mystic realm, will we log back in inside it?"

"Yeah, wherever you log out is where you will log in." Chi replied.

"Then let's make a camp here. I only have an hour left before I need to log out." Yuki's voice showed a hint of reluctance. She really wanted to know what was at the top of that mountain. But she had already made plans with Trisha and did not want to disappoint her new friend.

"Ahh, You're right! Geeze, I lost track of time. I need to go now as well if I wish to get some practice in before I need to go. Ryu, can we meet up earlier tonight?" Chi asked, her eyes sparkling with expectation.

"Mm… That's fine. Let's meet up at six." Yuki replied with a smile.

"Then I will log off first." Chi said before waving goodbye and disappearing.

Yuki stood there with a faint smile on her lips as she lifted her head to look at the top of the mountain. "Let's hope what awaits us will not be too hard." Yuki stretched her arms and sat down. She pulled Nergal off the top of her head and began ruffling its fur. "Are you a male or female?" Yuki wondered. She lifted the two tails causing Nergal to squirm out of Yuki's embrace and glare at her.

"Meow!" Nergal dejectedly walked over to Yuki and jumped back into Yuki's lap, and laid down. Yuki gave him one final pat before logging out.

Yuki took off her VR gear and sat up. She rubbed her eyes and looked at the clock. "I got time for a run this morning." It had been a while since Yuki had the chance to exercise. She got up and pulled off her long shirt, and stretched a bit in only her panties. After stretching she found yesterday's clothes and put them on. For her jog, she was going without a mask or hat. She did not want to get them dirty with sweat. She put her hair into a ponytail before heading to the kitchen. She quickly ate some food and brushed her teeth before packing her bag for school. Since she was planning on going for a run, she would need to head right to college after so she could shower.

The morning air was crisp as the sun was just barely peeking over the horizon. Yuki jogged at a steady pace keeping her breathing even. Being able to come out and exercise like this without worrying about the people around her felt really good. Ever since she had moved into that boarding house before, she had to stop her daily training. But now that she was playing Soul Fusion Online, she wanted to take this chance to really get back into working out and practicing her martial arts. "I wonder if Trisha would like to learn martial arts." Yuki thought. She would not mind having a partner while working out. But thinking of how Trisha and her had just become friends, she decided against asking for the time being until she got to know Trisha more. The sky above was just as busy as always. The flying cars filled the sky, really blocking out the sky at times. From time to time, someone would even toss trash out their window to the ground below. There were nets installed to catch this stuff, but sometimes the wind would take it, causing it to miss the nets.

The Evergreen family was all about advancing technology and did not care about the whole environment thing. There were only about three protected forest areas left in the world, and they were all surrounded by massive tall buildings. The entire world, whether it be sea or land, was now covered in a metropolis. The oceans between continents were covered in floating cities, and each area was divided into sections in which nobles ruled. Some might say a monarchy was a bad thing and freedoms were restricted, but that was not the case. Everyone still had their own freedoms to do as they please. The only thing they could not do was defame nobles or royalty, so the freedom of speech was basically the only loss. And hitting such nobles was also a big nono which was why Yuki was worried that she might be punished for hitting Claudia.

The world's language was now pretty mixed. The evergreen family took the 2 most dominant languages of the world and merged them together. This was English and Chinese. Now from an early age, kids were to learn the two languages together. This did not stop people from using their lineage languages, though, but English and Chinese were mandatory. So every sign Yuki passed as she made her way to College had a mix of both English and Chinese in the text.

When Yuki arrived at college and entered the changing room, she saw Trisha sitting there playing on her phone. "You're early."

Trisha heard Yuki's voice, and her eyes lit up. She quickly put her phone away, got up, and hopped over to Yuki, hugging her tightly. Yuki was startled and felt a little awkward, not because of the hug but because she was all sweaty. "Trisha, I stink and am sweaty."

"It's fine!" Trisha said, not letting go at all. "Let's shower together today, and we can wash each other's hair." This was Trisha's plan! She wanted to get closer to Yuki and learn more about her. And the best way was to bond through skinship! At least, this was the only idea Trisha could come up with.

Yuki chuckled and peeled the excited girl off her as she reached up and patted Trisha's head. "Alright, but you need to wash my back too." Yuki thought nothing of it since she had always bathed with the other girls at the orphanage, so this was nothing new to her.