“Alright, good prog, everyone. Let’s take a lunch break!”

The intermission card went up on the stream with everyone’s socials and channels plugged. I was reluctant, but I included the link to a tabletop booklet I published once. I don’t ever post anything to social media.

I placed my controller down and removed my headset.

Everyone was gathering around the catering table. I went to join them while staying close to Rainy.

“Hey, Kyrie, you’re the person Rainy’s been showing off on her insta, right?” This one was Angel. A handsome young man, probably of Hispanic decent.

“Probably. She was pretty insistent.”

“So… What happened to, you know.”

As he asked the question, the others gathered to hear my response. Even Chris and Elma, pretending not to pay any mind, had turned their ears my way.

“Know what?”

He motioned to his chest and outlined sizable breasts with his hands.

“And here I was hoping no one would notice.”

“How could anyone not notice!” Han-wool blurted out while the other girls nodded in agreement.

“They were fake. You know, cosplay boobs.”

“What brand are they? I’ve never seen any look that good before!”

I guess it was only natural that Han-wool would take interest. Maybe I should have come up with a different excuse.

“Easy, girls, you’re clearly making miss Kyrie feel uncomfortable.” Myrian, playing the responsible adult, reigned in the lions before they could eat me alive.

After, it didn’t take long for everyone to make smaller groups as we relaxed over our break.

Rainy had me join her and Erica for lunch.

Erica looked pretty similar to her character. In the face, at least. They both had the same asymmetrical bob and spiky bangs. Both her hair and eyes were a matching ink black.

Given the shape of her eyes and face, I would guess Japanese Filipino. I found myself drawn to her complexion. Maybe it was the make-up?

Her character was meant to be a cyberpunk hotty who was a full-grown adult. Erica was clearly just a teenager with far less exaggerated proportions. In fact, she was pretty skinny.

She acted as sweetly as Rainy. Like a comedy due to a cute girls doing cute things anime. Though maybe with a couple more degrees of wit.

“So, how did you come to meet Rainy?”

“I’m friends with her older sister, what about you? How did you two meet?”

“We met through work. Rainy is technically my seんpai.”

“My adorable underclassmen. Founder her one day being chased by the mob before Bridget chanced them off.”

“Bridget did?”

Erica started laughing as she recalled the moment. “It was surprising. Never had I seen someone so small scare off such large men before.”

“Wait, actually, back up. The mob was chasing you?”

“I think they were with some gang or evil syndicate. I don’t know why they were chancing me, though.”

Could this girl really be a Mundo? I shook the thoughts out of my mind. The Mundo family didn’t have anything to do with me anymore. I hardly keep up with my immediate family.

I changed the subject, and we started talking about our raid progress. Rainy is a skilled healer. I rarely play alongside someone whose skills are so on point. But her item level is just meeting the minimum to run the raid with us.

Erica played DPS, a black belt, to be specific. It helps that we have a melee DPS, but since we only use our LB to LB3 heal, the skills the black belt has doesn’t work well with the positioning. But it can’t be helped. It's her only class that’s at the level cap.

And then there is me… the main tank. Me being the most experienced tank doesn’t put us in the best position. I don’t normally tank, and I keep missing some of my cooldowns.

We’ve cleared the fourth raid in the arc, so only eight more to go. We might finish all the raids today as planned. But the story’s been amazing so far… if another long cutscene hits us again, it's hard to say.

“Alright, girls, ten minutes until we’re back on.”

Thirteen hours and one successful steam later, we were able to cheer and enjoy the ending cutscene as Myrian couldn’t help but nervously pace as we had gone an hour over time.

We were mostly minors, after all. Between how late it was and eight hours clocked on stream, we could end up in a child labor abuse scandal.

Just as the cutscene ended, we were rushed through our outros. Myrian ended the stream just as Erica finished signing off.

The engineers and a couple more technicians start going to work, putting the store back to how it should be for the morning while Myrian funnels five of the girls into her car before driving off.

Angel is sixteen and emancipated and starts walking himself home.

Just as quickly as we said our goodbyes, it was Rainy, Erica, and myself. Technically, I am an adult. So it should be fine if we take our time getting back home.

“Where do you live, Erica? We can walk you home.”

“Oh, no, it's fine. I should be able to get home by myself.”

“Nonsense. You’re still just a kid, and with those minions of Darkness running around, it’d be irresponsible of me to just let you off on your own.”

“I don’t mind if we drop you off first, Erica. Kyrie is also technically an adult.”

“Really? You’re just going to out me like that?”

Erica looked at me, surprised. “O-oh, I guess that would make sense if you’re around Bridget’s age.”

Fortunately, Erica lived not more than a couple of miles from the station in one of the exceptionally few nice apartments in Richardson Cove.

The walk through Crystal Gleam at night wasn’t too bad, either. The city put in a massive effort to reduce light pollution, making it easier to see the stars.

I would never have thought stargazing to be a novelty twenty years ago. And yet here we are, polluted skies, junked satellites, and blinding city lights.

“Kyrie, you’re a Starseeker, aren’t you? Why not tell us our fortunes?”

“Ha? I guess I could try.” I looked toward the stars to see if I could find something to divine the future.

I wasn’t sure what I was looking for. I guess I just let things come to mind, like when I use my magic to find people and things. It's mostly useful when I misplace something, though.

“Let’s see… Rainy… you will meet a hot guy soon. Very your type.”

“What? Seriously? How soon is soon? How hot are we talking? Can you tell me his name?”

“Alright, moving on to Erica… You will meet someone whose destiny is tied to yours. A hot guy who is not your type. Very soon, apparently.”

The face I saw both times. Even though I said hot guy, I couldn’t make out the image. Still, he seemed familiar. Maybe I was just remembering someone?

“I hate to tell you this, but you both got the same guy.”

Before Rainy or Erica could respond, a high scratchy voice interrupted our fun. “That’s quite a fortune, missy, kekeke. You wouldn’t happen to be a magical girl, would ya?”

I quickly turned to see a hideous-looking gremlin of sorts. Maybe goblin was more appropriate.

As he started to laugh, more of his kind crawled out from the darkness as their shadows rose from the ground and took the shapes of frightening apparitions.

By my count, ten and ten. And they had us surrounded.

I started to interpose myself between the two girls and the mob of ghosts and goblins.

Most of the goblins armed themselves with knives while a couple of them pointed guns in our direction.

This wasn’t good. If I was alone, I could probably fight them off. But I don’t think I can fight and keep Erica safe at the same time.

“Rainy, do you think you can take Erica and run?”

“Not if the shades chase me. They can travel through shadows which makes them hard to flee from.”

“I’ll try to kill all the shades first. As soon as you—“

“Heee!!!”

A charge?! I quickly turned to brace myself against the screaming goblin, only to see it fly past me.

The shades and goblins turned their attention to the new challenger.

It was the hot guy I saw in the stars!

Dressed in some serious drip with a smug look on his face and shade like being able to see at night was going out of style.

His spiky black hair was long only in the back and pulled back into a thin ponytail.

“I heard Lancaster was an amazing city, but here I find a bunch of creeps picking on some school girls.”

“You must be new here, buddy! D’ya even know who we are?”

Rather than answering with words, the hot guy grabbed the Earth and pulled the world closer to him.

That is to say; he is using the same martial arts style I use.

Channeling energy from his feet into the ground, his knee crashed into the face of one of the gun-toting goblins.

The second gun-toting goblin was slow to react.

Before he could point and shoot, the hotty vanished from their sight again, only to soon appear with his; damn. Those were some nice shoes—oh, they were in the goblin’s teeth.

Both goblins armed with guns were down from the count, assuming they weren’t dead.

More important than his shoes, however; his left face was covered in burn scars that looked pretty cool now that they’ve healed so well.

I couldn’t help but smile to see my beloved cousin doing well.

The other goblins looked around at one another. Not feeling so sure anymore, they quickly fled.

The shades were undaunted, however.

“Damn, I don’t think I’ve ever fought legit ghosts before.”

The shades swarmed around him, trapping him in a sphere of malice and shadow.

“Kyrie, do something!”

“Don’t worry. I doubt something like this could hold him back.”

“Mundo style martial arts. Fist of the Empty Void.”

Shrouding the darkness in ki, he contracted and compressed the sphere of shadow. Gathering it smaller and smaller until he held them between the palm of his hands.

With a clap, the shades were resigned to the empty void as they dissolved into light.

“Ha! Easy! Lancaster isn’t living up to its reputation!”

I guess it's only natural that he wouldn’t recognize me. I wonder if it would be okay to tease him a little.