Chapter 202: 31: In-between

When Danika entered the pretty hall on the island in the sky beside the Jade Emperor's palace for the morning meeting, Ariana greeted her with, "What are you doing here?"

Danika gave her a blank look. "Attending the morning meeting?" she questioned. She glanced around and everyone present looked back at her with surprised faces.

Ariana scolded, "You only logged out an hour and a half ago, go back to sleep."

"But I want to at least submit the quest," Danika protested.

Devon Yu walked over and patted her on the head. Danika turned and frowned at him. He smiled back at her and said gently, "Good work. Consider yourself marked present, and the quest submitted. We'll test it carefully, so go sleep and we'll see you tomorrow."

She was too tired to protest, and when Ariana and Takahashi both nodded, she shrugged and agreed, "Okay. Thanks."

After she logged off she still didn't go right to sleep though. She knew that Shinichi was right and calling and yelling at her father wouldn't help, but it still bothered her. She compromised by logging on from the VR-medi pod interface and sending her father a message: "I'm sorry I yelled at you. Shinichi suggested that I ask if you'd like to meet him? My phone died and I left it on the charger, so I'll try to call you back this evening."

She felt like she should have said more, or asked more, but she was so tired. She told herself that it was better to keep it simple, and hit send.

--

She didn't remember falling asleep, but she still felt a little tired when she woke up. When she reluctantly exited the VR-medi pod, the late afternoon sun was warming her room with golden fingers of light reaching across her floor, and there was a key that wasn't hers on her table beside her phone. Danika grinned and shook her head as she pulled herself across the room.

She started water heating and ate a piece of fruit before calling Shinichi. He'd texted her about an hour ago too, with a reminder: "Call me?" She wondered if he was feeling worried or if he was being bossy, like Sea Song Tione had accused.

He answered quickly, "Hi, I know I demanded you call me, but I can't talk right now. I'll call you back in a couple of hours. Log in and at least read your messages?"

She frowned and decided that he was being bossy. She replied uncertainly, "Okay?"

He ended the call. Danika glared at her phone for a moment. Her fingers brushed his key as she set it down, and a wry grin replaced her frown. Even if it was useless of him to have left a key to a place she'd never been, it was a pretty clear message.

She ate and did her exercises and got dressed before she called her father. He hadn't called again, or replied to her message, so she wasn't sure he'd answer. Dimitri Belova did answer.

The call was short and awkward. Danika found that she couldn't bring herself to ask any of the things she wanted to know, but he did agree to meet Shinichi. She chose a time a little rebelliously, although she did limit her options to the two times of the week that Shinichi almost always had time to play, Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights. She chose Sunday morning because she'd have the day off and her father would too, and her father chose a place.

Danika had sort of expected to go home to introduce Shinichi to her father. She felt a little worried by his quick selection of a restaurant. It seemed like an impersonal and distancing choice. It wasn't like she needed her father to approve of Shinichi, but she wished he wouldn't keep finding ways to put more distance between them.

She messaged the place and time to Shinichi and then spent a few minutes staring blankly at the sky while the sun set. She didn't turn on a light though as her room dimmed, she just scooted over and pulled herself back into the VR-medi pod.

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--

She reappeared in Shrubbery's garden, where she'd last logged out, in front of a small plushy Chinchillamin who snapped, "Finally!"

Hikaru circled them curiously, and Danika gulped and glanced at the circle of messenger animals and MatchlessMinion.

MatchlessMinion looked at the crowd of messengers that had suddenly appeared with her, and regally gave his permission, "You can answer your messages." Danika raised her eyebrows, making ZipZing's ears swivel forward, and he commanded, "But don't move from that spot until Shrubbery gets here."

She laughed and his little hands flashed in a series of quick gestures. His own messenger cat twinned itself for a moment as it both carried away his message and sat waiting with the other messengers who had messages for ZipZing.

"Did Shin…" she corrected herself, "Aishin tell you I was coming?"

"Did he know?" MatchlessMinion questioned curiously. "He has hardly been on either. But at least he posts in the guild messages."

Danika pulled up the guild messages first, and asked, "Then why are you waiting and how long have you been here?"

MatchlessMinion was right. Everyone except her had posted since Shrubbery had announced that Eyes on the Sky was gone. Aishin had posted a gentle reply to that, and had even kept a sort of conversation going despite SilentSky claiming he had hardly posted in his old guild.

MatchlessMinion rubbed his nose and muttered, "I've been here off and on. I knew this is where you'd reappear because you left your garden here." He said rather accusingly, "You know she thought that you left it to her and ran away?" Before Danika could form her protest he continued smugly, "But I knew you'd be back because you didn't transfer the guild leader position."

"Maybe I should transfer it," Danika replied guiltily. She could see that MatchlessMinion and Aishin had each completed a guild quest each day despite their own busy schedules. Since Endless Song was currently accepting up to 2 extra missions that meant that they were the ones doing the most to maintain the new guild's reputation.

"Absolutely not!" MatchlessMinion declared decisively. "You're not allowed to run away from home!"

Shrubbery logged on in time to hear his last sentence and gasped. "Please stay ZipZing," she added quickly.

Danika held up her hands and protested, "I'm not planning to leave! But I haven't been doing a good job as a guild leader. Aishin and MatchlessMinion have been doing everything instead. The only advantage I have is lowering the upgrade costs."

"That's useful enough. Do you see anyone complaining?" MatchlessMinion said while rolling his eyes.

Shrubbery agreed, "It doesn't matter if you're useful."

Danika covered her eyes and laughed. "OK OK, I won't change anything!"

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