Chapter 23 – Expensive Tea, and Akagi’s Theory.

Chapter 23 – Expensive Tea, and Akagi’s Theory.

The two sisters embraced each other for a while longer. Kana's lingering doubts about her sister had vanished, and Akagi was comforted in the knowledge that her sister still loved her. On this night, the bond between the two was tested, and, yet again, it was proven to be unshakable. As far as Kana was concerned, Akagi's appearance didn't matter; as long as she was still her sister, she didn't care how scary she looked.

Akagi separated from Kana. "Do you feel better now?" she said petting her head.

"Yes, I do." She looked up at her sister and smiled. "I think all that crying made me thirsty though." she chuckled.

Akagi smiled. "Well then, take a seat, I think I've got something you'll like." Akagi reached into her item storage and pulled out a teapot, some cups, and some black tea leaves. The two sisters sat at the table as Akagi began to pour water into the pot with her magic.

"Is that tea?" Kana asked leaning in to smell the leaves. "It's strong." she pulled away from the smell. Kana wasn't one to like especially strong or bitter tea.

Akagi chuckled. "Trust me, the leaves are pretty pungent, but I've never had better." Akagi lit a small fire around the pot to bring the water to a boil.

"It's called Black Ash. At least that's what the game called it. Apparently, it came from a Japan Esque nation in FWO." Akagi said sitting down. "That area wasn't in the Alpha, so I never got to visit it, and as a result, this tea was super rare," she told Kana the price it cost.

"That's absurd!" the amount Akagi had paid was crazy high. "Why would you pay so much for tea leaves?"

Akagi could only shrug. "I have far more money than I could ever hope to use, Kana. So even paying that much didn't really matter. Besides, you know me, if it's something rare in a game, I want it."

Not much later, the teapot gave off a whistle.

"It's done." Akagi dispelled the fire. "Now we give it a minute to cool and it will be ready."

"You seem used to this. I know you cooked for yourself most of the time at home, but you rarely made tea. Was it something you drank often?" Kana asked while pulling a teacup over to her.

"Kind of," Akagi answered. "You know me, I still prefer coffee to tea, but the developers didn't really share my love of the stuff. Much of what you could drink that wasn't alcohol was tea, any of the coffee they did have was....." Akagi's face contorted to look like she just ate something very sour.

"So rather than drink that nasty stuff, I began to experiment with tea and this stuff was the best I could find. Although I usually just drank sake to be honest." Akagi's love of the drink was quite well-known among players.

"Never thought you would be a drinker, but I guess that goes with the whole Taisho Era motif you have going." Kana chuckled. "You have no idea how many of my classmates have asked about your outfit."

Akagi shrugged. "If you think that tea costs crazy money, remind me never to tell you what I paid for these clothes. I think your head might explode."

“Based on how Naomi reacted, you're probably right.” Kana shook her head.

After a few minutes, the tea had cooled to an acceptable level, and Akagi poured a cup for the two of them. Kana took a sip and was floored by just how good it was. "This is amazing! It's got to be the best tea I've ever had! Just how could something from a game taste this good?" Kana was amazed by its quality.

"That is an excellent segue into something I wanted to discuss with you," Akagi said while drinking the tea. "But first, Kana, I need you to keep what I'm about to tell you between us. Yumi and the others are aware but don't speak about it to anyone else. You never know who is listening." Akagi warned.

Kana nodded.

Akagi set her cup down. "At the very end of the game, right after the system listed statistics, things like which player killed the most monsters or which one had the highest bounty on them.”

“I presume you had the highest bounty?” Kana chuckled.

Akagi replied with a smile. “But that wasn't all, it also stated that one player became a "Limit Breaker."

"A limit breaker? That sounds like it had something to do with level caps in a game." Kana theorized.

"I'm ok. It's just.... going to take some getting used to, is all." Kana gave a wry smile. "But, um. Why did you change into your shadow form?" Hearing her sister's voice come from a black mass of shadow would take some getting used to.

"Because doing this was the best way to explain things," Akagi replied. "You asked me how this was different from what Hishya could do. Well, it's simple; in-game THIS became my default state." Akagi moved further away from the table so Kana could see her entirely.

Her appearance was that of a writhing black mass of shadow. She appeared to be a cross between a liquid and solid. She was squishy, like dough, when touched, but when she moved her entire body flowed like water.

"There's no ability to activate, no cool-down to watch, nothing. I can change my shape between my usual appearance or this at will." the shadow Akagi began to coalesce into a humanoid shape. "This was not something that should have been possible within the game's logic." Akagi finished transforming and now had the appearance of a girl that looked like she belonged in Kana's class.

“There we go, I think I got it right. Although, I may have made a mistake or two, after all its been four years.” Akagi said with an much younger and more immature sounding voice.

"Ehhh!" Kana stood up in shock. “Onee-chan, you... you can turn back?!?”

Akagi transformed into an appearance Kana had known for her entire life. It was her original form before FWO. She even opted to change into her familiar school uniform. Kana had no idea this was possible.

"I can change my appearance into anyone I've seen; and much, much more," Akagi said in her original voice. “Of course, that includes my original appearance as well. Should I turn into you next?” she asked playfully.

Kana was stunned. She never imagined she would get to see Rishia again.

“Don't get used to it.” Akagi warned. “Looking like this feels wrong, it makes me uncomfortable to be like this, so I doubt you'll see it much.” her face told Kana that staying like this would be mentally taxing.

Kana got up and walked over to Akagi. “Is, is this some kind of illusion?” she asked while poking her in the face.

"It's an illusion in that its a false body, but, as you can see, it's corporeal." Akagi replied with a smile. "This is why I think I was considered a Limit Breaker." she walked over to the table and sat back down. "Every ability or power had some drawback or cost in FWO." she said as she poured another cup of tea.

"For example, Hishya's dragon form could only be maintained for about an hour, and she would need to wait three days to use it again. However, I don't have to worry about any of that." Akagi explained. "Since my real form is the shadow, I can transform back and forth as much as I want, for as long as I want."

"So the difference is that, while you became the shadow permanently, Hishya could only temporarily become a dragon?" Kana had figured out what Akagi was getting at.

"Bingo," Akagi confirmed. "Transforming into a non-humanoid creature, temporarily, was possible in the game rules, but permanently becoming one shouldn't have been possible. It was clear that the devs didn't want to deal with all the psychological issues that would come from long term use of a non-human body." The human mind did not take well to being crammed in a completely different body type. Most people couldn't handle it so games would limit it to only small amounts of time to reduce the chance of issues.

"But wait. How could you do something that went against the game?" Kana asked. "FWO was still just a game; it had pre-programmed rules. No matter how flexible it was, you still should have been limited by what the developers made possible." Kana asked.

{And what does it mean that you seem not to be affected by having your entire body changed; if you can even call a living shadow a body. Is it because Onee-chan's mind was already broken once?} (Kana)

"I don't know," Akagi said flatly. "But I do know that whatever gave me this power was most certainly not made by the developers." Akagi continued. "At present, my theory is that whoever caused this incident is likely some sort of supernatural being." (Akagi)

"You mean like a god?" Kana asked in disbelief.

{Do gods even exist? And if they did, why would one trap people in a game and give them powers? It makes no sense.} Kana was unconvinced.

"Yumi used to be a priestess before I recruited her. I picked her brain, and we both agreed it was the only thing that made sense. The only other possibility that we came up with was that some insanely powerful mage did it, but the amount of magic to pull this off would be ridiculous." Akagi said. "Neither of us recognized the name Mizumi as a god, either in this world or the game." Akagi shrugged.

"If it really was a god." Kana paused. "Why would they do something like this?"

"I honestly don't know Kana," Akagi said while looking at the night sky.

Spoiler

Akagi's original appearance!

[collapse]