Chapter 355: 88: Heartbeat

Nao1 put her hands on her hips and glared at Tundo. Danika thought that the pose might look a bit masculine and imposing if Naoki used it in person, but on Nao1 it looked cutely petulant.

"So what?" Nao1 demanded.

Tundo flinched, and avoided her eyes. But a moment later he turned back to meet her gaze and asked worriedly, "Tanaka Naoki? Seriously? What if someone finds out?"

"You're worried about me?" Nao1 asked less sharply than Danika expected.

Tundo replied uncomfortably with the same words Nao1 had used, "So what?"

Nao1 just stood there, arms akimbo, staring at Tundo for a long minute. Danika shifted forward, but ShinZing stopped her with a shake of his head. Saaki frowned and opened his mouth, but stopped when SilentSky held up his hand.

Edwardian just looked at Nao1 expectantly, while Shrubbery took two steps forward and stopped. Her eyes were round and interested. Ryullusion still waited beside the gate, with a faintly amused smile.

"You're not mad?" Nao1 asked at last.

"That," Tundo replied warily, "I haven't decided yet." He rubbed his forehead and then mirrored Nao1's pose. "You thought it was pretty funny," he stated after a moment.

Danika pushed forward and craned her head over the edge of the balcony, "I'm sorry, that's probably my fault, I'm the one that told him… her… whatever, that you don't like Underneath."

Nao1 and Tundo both glared up at her in unison, and Danika flinched, but she didn't back away. They glanced at each other and grinned a moment later, to her confusion.

"Entirely ZipZing's fault," Tundo stated dryly.

"Absolutely," Nao1 agreed, and laughed. "I wouldn't even be playing this game if not for her!"

"Me either," Edwardian agreed out of nowhere, "but it's been more fun than I expected."

Danika had no idea how to respond to them, and turned back toward ShinZing, who winked at her, and stepped forward to stand beside her at the edge. "It looks like there's only one guild quest left tonight, should we all go together?"

"Sure," Nao1 agreed cheerfully.

"Ah, I can't," Tundo said regretfully at the same time.

Nao1 frowned at Tundo who held up his hands defensively, and an ottermin appeared between them. "You're late! I knew you were still playing!" Icieth snapped at Tundo the instant she appeared. She looked around and her eyes widened as she asked, "The whole band is here, what's going on?"

"You knew?" Tundo asked. His whole bearing shifted to one of utter indignation.

"I figured it was so obvious that everyone else had already figured it out by the time I realized," Icieth replied defensively. "But who cares! Come on!" the ottermin bounced up and down anxiously.

Nao1 asked with interest, "Will there be a live stream?"

Tundo shook his head, but Icieth stopped bouncing and stared at Nao1 with her round dark eyes. She looked back and forth between Tundo and Nao1 quickly, and then volunteered, "My grandpa always records us, send me a contact message if you want a copy? Tundo's cello is the coolest!"

Tundo covered his eyes and logged off.

"Cello hmm?" Nao1 almost purred. "I'm sending it now," she informed Icieth as she pulled up her menu.

The ottermin held up both hands and exclaimed, "Cool! Later guys! And Shrubbery!" She waved to the dryad as she logged out.

"Poor ZipZing, just one of the guys now," Saaki said with a chuckle.

"Dan is," Danika agreed a little sourly. Even though she'd eventually tried to correct the ottermin's misunderstanding, she was pretty sure that Icieth was still convinced that her real name was Dan, and that she was actually a boy.

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ShinZing rubbed her head with one hand, and suggested, "Maybe Icieth is a boy?"

"I'll find out soon," Naoki said with a grin, "I'll let you know as soon as I get the recording of their quartet."

"Quartet? Aren't there only three of them?" Saaki asked.

Nao1 shrugged. "Tundo said he's part of a quartet."

Ryullusion stepped forward and volunteered, "Melodious and I have discussed their string quartet a bit. They are entirely acoustic, and apparently they haven't convinced their fourth member to try the game yet. That's what the stage is for."

"How is a stage going to convince them?" Saaki asked.

"Maybe they're going to show the other person a recording of the unaugmented performances?" Danika suggested. "Tundo was pretty happy about that nullification zone."

"Ready to start the mission?" ShinZing asked.

Danika turned and looked at him. He was obviously playing from his console, which meant that he was downstairs. He raised his eyebrows at her. "You're already home, so do you want me to come down first?"

He grinned at her and shook his head. "I thought we could just play together like this for a while? We've only been playing on our phones lately."

Danika's heart-rate sped up for no apparent reason, and she thought once again that he was kind of perfect for her. She had barely nodded in agreement when MatchlessMinion logged in.

The chinchillamin looked around, and said abruptly, "Good, everyone's here."

Shrubbery said laughingly, "You're just in time, we're about to start the last mission our guild has right now."

"None of you have read the forums today have you?" MatchlessMinion replied sourly. "Endless Song might not get any more missions from players for awhile."

"What? Why?" Danika asked, while pulling up her menus.

"Apparently we destroyed a guild, and declared war on four more," the chinchillamin announced.

ShinZing flicked through his own menus and reported, "We definitely haven't declared war on anyone, who are we supposed to have destroyed?"

Danika answered, as she gazed at the top forum posts in horrified fascination, "The guild we sold the philosopher's stone to. A sage level NPC Alchemist melted their guild hall with most of their members in it, and set fire to the rest of them simultaneously with some kind of guild targeted spell. Anyone who revived while still in the guild burst into flames within a bell."

Everyone turned to look at their guild hall tree, with its healthy green leaves and glossy bark. "Should we be asking Logical Heart if our new defensive enchantment can withstand that kind of attack?" Shrubbery asked nervously.

Edwardian reached out and patted her shoulder comfortingly. "Don't worry, Saaki can suppress flames now," he offered.

Saaki pointed out the obvious flaw before anyone else could, "If I'm within range. But even if I stay logged in all the time, and never leave the guild hall, I can't always be paying attention to this."

MatchlessMinion waved a little hand dismissively, "The Alchemist apparently recovered his stone, so I doubt we'll be targeted by the NPC, it's the players we have to worry about." He turned to Ryullusion and actually bowed. "Thank you for all of your hard work. I shall try not to ever annoy one of our bards. I think everyone in the game will avoid annoying bards in general for awhile."

Danika didn't ask what he meant, the second most popular post on the forums wasn't about the flaming guild. It was about the "curse" Endless Song had inflicted on the "completely innocent" bidders on the auction the "notorious" guild had run through a forum post to "trick" high ranking guild members into revealing their identities.

The all powerful bards of Endless Song had apparently hunted down their victims and then "attacked" them with an "irresistible" buff that lasted an entire day, and played a song that could not be silenced. It could be heard by the members of any party they joined, and any guild members within range.

"I thought that the only way to get an irresistible magic effect was for the target to agree to receive it?" Danika asked Ryullusion.

The temptingly beautiful dark haired elf grinned up at her and winked. The sly old man, who looked ageless here, didn't explain how he had gotten his victims to accept. He simply agreed, "It is, as far as I know."

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