"Ueda you jerk! Get back here!"
    Takahashi Ueda, eleven years old, former Japanese elementary school student, and now a Faerie of the Sylph Race in the world of Halkegenia, didn't bother to look over his shoulder as he ducked around the corner and darted into the morning foot traffic, the obnoxious girl who was presently targeting him with the full force of her anger in hot pursuit.
    He really didn't need this today, especially from her. Uncle had been called back to the Capital just last night to help train the army that was being put together to protect everyone, it was an important job, so he didn't begrudge his Uncle that, but it also meant he was all alone again.
    "Ueda! You can't just duck out of your responsibilities. Uncle made you promise!"
    Or at least, wished he was alone again.
    "I'm not ducking out!"
    He'd finished his homework already, staying up late last night and then slipping his answers under the door to Irene-sensei's room this morning. He was free to do what he liked until lunch, it was  her responsibility to keep up with the curriculum, she was the one who had wanted to pretend they were the same age so she could act tough and impress the other kids.
    He finally looked over his shoulder at the girl chasing him, blonde, and tall, taller than him, and slenderly built, his sister, Takahashi Kazuna. Seeing her now, most people wouldn't have believed that she was his  little sister instead of his twin, younger by almost two years.
    Complaining all the while about being stuck in this world because he'd convinced her to play ALO, she sure hadn't minded gaining nearly a dozen centimeters, or posing in front of the mirror in borrowed clothes like she was some sort of cute fashion idle.
    And also, thinking that her fake age entitled her to be treated as something more than a big crybaby. It didn't matter if she wanted to pretend she was the same age as him, if she didn't have the sense to act like it, she was still just a little kid. Which was why… he sighed… he still had to look out for her. She and Uncle were the only real family he had in this world.
    "And don't call me that in public, you know it's a bad idea!" The old advice about keeping your IRL name close to your chest had still held true. Uncle had tried hard to drill it into their heads that only trusted people should know their real names.
    That was why, outside of Uncle and Irene Sensei, Takahashi Ueda and Takahashi Kazuna were known simply by their former game handles and new Faerie aliases, Bardiche and Balandene, Sylph siblings.
    "I'm not calling you that stupid name!" Balandene shouted angrily. "Besides, it's just some made up word you invented to sound cool."
    'No, that's  your name.' Bardiche thought darkly. Whatever. "Just quit following me Balandene, if you're so worried about your homework you should go ask Irene-sensei for help. I'm not going to waste more time just because you didn't want to work on it with me."
    Besides, Irene-sensei's curriculum was really easy compared to what he'd been learning in school, so Balandene should have been able to figure it out. She didn't even assign extra homework the way his other teachers had. He wondered how much they must have been falling behind in that other world.
    He knew Irene-sensei was trying hard, but she had to come up with assignments for all of them, and she was the only  real teacher at Arrun Home, or at least, the only good one. Takai Sensei was way too impatient, and Ophelia Sensei, who had been a university professor, didn't know how to teach kids even though she tried hard.
    Together, the three teachers and the rest of the staff of Arrun Home were trying to teach them the skills they would need while they were in this world. With that in mind, the curriculum they'd been learning was really different from anything he'd done before.
    For instance, they weren't being taught any Japanese history right now, instead, Irene-Sensei and the others spent that time on current events and the geography of Halkegenia, which were a lot more exciting in Bardiche's opinion because current events involved lots of fighting. That stuff was easy to listen too.
    Mostly their other academic classes were math and science related because Irene-sensei said those would be useful anywhere, and also lessons in reading Tristanian lead by Ophelia-sensei and a hired Tristanian tutor so that they could understand directions and postings whenever they went beyond the Faerie settlements.
    The older kids also got to practice more interesting things like nonlethal combat spells and flight maneuvers to protect themselves when they went with the teachers to the other cities. Secretly, Bardiche knew that was the real reason Balandene had lied about her age, to get tutored by Takai-sensei.
    Bardiche Grimaced.
    Balandene would blush and get all giddy when the Salamander helped her with her form and stances, its was enough to make him want to wretch. Didn't she know that wasn't what class was for?!
    Bardiche had barely been old enough to qualify for the training sessions himself, and only because he was so well behaved. Most of the time. Now he wanted to try out some of what he'd been learning.
    Hitting the main street and bolting underneath the footbridge at a sprint, parting the crowds as he ducked and weaved, if he hurried up he could get down to the armory before the defense classes left, he'd gotten permission from Uncle, and he really couldn't think of a better way to blow off steam than beating up on the slime type mobs that infested the city walls along the river edge.
Mud Skeet Toads, elastic blobs of ambulatory mucus that collected a protective layer of muck like a rubber eraser picked up hairs and lint. Pests that were spawned from slime mold that collected at the sewer outlets and along the edges of the river, feeding on garbage and other, less pleasant things. The influx of people and the need for Arrun to deal with its waste meant that they'd had plenty of food recently and had been spawning like crazy.
    They weren't very dangerous, though they'd happily surround and attempt to consume any isolated player or mob, which was why people weren't supposed to travel alone if they went down to the lakeside nearest the wall.
    More importantly, keeping their numbers down by breaking them apart and incinerating their slimy carcasses had become an important job, just not one that paid very well. Their mucus was a useful ingredient in a lot of potions, but their sheer numbers and ease of killing them, and the relatively common and steady supply it generated meant that most hunters weren't very interested in collecting them.
    That was, until an enterprising Salamander and Cait couple had gotten permission to start leading volunteers along the wall every week.
    The reasoning was pretty simple, Bardiche thought, ALO had been a game about combat, and there had been lots of emphasis towards fighting monsters and other players. It had been fun, and also a little scary until you got used to it, not at all like the screen and controller based games Bardiche had played before.
    But now that death was a possibility, the number of people willing to go out and fight real monsters had taken a dive.
    At the same time, people had to leave the cities from time to time to travel and couldn't always expect to have the protection of armed guards. So self defense classes had seen a sharp rise recently. That was where Arrun's slime mob problem had come in handy.
    Mud Skeet Toads, while not very powerful, came in a lot of different varieties. Some were poisonous, while others could use simple magic, or merge together into stronger, but not too powerful, monsters. They made really good practice for people who wanted to learn to use their magic for self defense. More importantly, it was good sport, and kids like him could get permission to harvest the carcasses to make a little spending money to supplement their meager allowances.
    'Man, why couldn't I have gotten a courier job like Yuki and Silica.' He lamented.
    But even with age restrictions being 'loosened', the minimum age to take a job, or to travel beyond the City limits by oneself had been kept at fourteen. Of course, there were people who lied about their real age to get around that. It was easy too, since lots of people didn't look their real age.
    Unlike Bardiche himself who looked every bit to be eleven years old, all because he'd read that the top full dive players made their avatars their real height to make sure their coordination didn't get messed up. He sort of regretted it now, but Uncle would have still known his real age and stopped him if he'd tried to do anything too dangerous.
    Who knew, if they were still here in a couple of years, if he kept practicing, maybe he could get good enough to be approved to carry dispa…
    "Waaagh!" Bardiche stumbled as a weight hit him from behind, nearly throwing him forward before dragging him back, his sister had thrown her arms around him and seemed intent on keeping her grip, even if it caused them both to take a nasty spill.
    Stumbling, Bardiche used some of the choice words he'd learned from his Uncle as his legs got caught up in his coattails. Weeks of hard practice paid off as he flared his wings, the ground dropping away as the street continued to slope downward. It bought him a few seconds, but now Balandene was too scared to let go.
    No helping it, he dispelled his wings, landing in stumble that thankfully didn't turn into too bad of a tumble before they came to a crashing halt in a patch of grass beside the roadway, Balandene planted on top of him, straddling his stomach, hands on his chest, looking angry, as if completely oblivious to how dangerous it had all been.
    "Oy, are you trying to kill me?!" Bardiche snapped. Crazy girl!
    "I can't ask Sensei for help." Balandene's expression darkened. "Irene-sensei had to take Rika-chan to the clinic super early this morning and she hasn't gotten back yet."
    Bardiche squinted, Rika had been taken to the clinic? "Weren't you just there a couple weeks ago? Does she have the same thing you did?" Something that a lot of the girls were catching…
    Bardiche recalled the strange occurrence. His sister's groans had woken him up late one night a couple of weeks ago. But when he'd gotten out of bed and turned on the light, he hadn't even had a chance to see what was the matter before she had shouted for him to go find Irene-sensei.
    He'd had to sleep alone for the rest of the night while Irene-sensei stayed with Balandene. The next morning, his sister had been acting, poorly, like nothing at all had happened. After that, Irene-sensei had told him it had been perfectly natural 'female stuff', which seemed to be Irene-sensei's way of explaining why his sister had been in an even worse mood than usual for a few days.
    Balandene's blush deepened until her whole face was beat red. "J-jerk!" She snapped angrily. "You shouldn't ask about something private like that… pervert!"
    Now she was just grasping for bad sounding words. "Whatever." Bardiche grumbled glancing down to confirm his suspicions while ignoring the crowd of onlookers gathering at the odd sight of the two children laying in a heap. "But should you really be calling me a pervert when you're the one flashing her underwear?" Sitting on top of him with her skirt partially hiked up by the way she had landed, it wasn't like he had to try to see anything.
    Where the heck had she gotten green frog panties anyways?
    "Wha-? Waaaagh!" His sister's attention shifted from him covering herself as quickly as she could, flattening her skirt over her rear and pulling it down in front. Her head spun in every direction, she was probably afraid Takai-sensei was in the crowd and had seen. Bardiche wasn't very sympathetic.
    "You should have known to wear shorts under your skirt." Irene-senei had tried to make sure all the girls did it but Balandene complained that they bunched up and made her skirts look bad. Well, she was a scarridy cat who didn't fly much if she could help it, so it usually wasn't a problem.
    "I would have if I'd had time." She stuck out her tongue, acting her own age. "But I don't want to bother Irene-sensei. Especially right now, Rika-chan has it really tough too you know… No family and…" His sister shifted from side to side.
    Right.
    Bardiche shifted into a cross legged sitting position, rubbing at the back of his head. Balandene had trouble being younger than she looked. It was even worse because they were both among the younger players. Balandene was even among the youngest of the children ranging to as low as seven or eight years old. But Balandene had only grown by a couple of years, Rika had leaped forward an entire decade. That couldn't be good, especially now that their avatars were their real bodies.
    There were times when Bardiche still felt out of place in his own skin. His formerly round Japanese face replaced by the sharp features and wind spiked blonde hair, and body, that while the same height, was definitely more muscular, as if he'd really spent his childhood training hard to use the collapsible halberd that was presently folded up inside his dark green long coat. He couldn't imagine how bad it had been for Rika and some of the others.
    And that was also part of the problem. He didn't like to think about it. Climbing back to his feet. The other people walking on the streets were still giving them odd looks, but had refrained from coming too close, warned off by Balandene's frantic hand waving. They couldn't trust appearances at all.
    Lots of concerned looking people, Sylphs, and Salamanders, Undines, Leprechauns, Gnomes, and Puca. And who could tell how old any of them really were. A youthful appearance didn't mean someone was young, and neither did a mature body. Irene-sensei had been an experienced elementary school teacher in that other world, but in ALO she was a cute, teenage Undine. And Rika, even though she looked fully grown, wasn't much older than Balandene.
    The age range of an ALO avatar was usually between ten and thirty, with the average being around twenty three. The ratio didn't really match the real life distribution of gamers which included lots of kids and lots of middle aged people as well. Add in vanity and wanting to play a character that was different from their real world selves and it wasn't difficult to figure out out that there were lots of people who didn't look their age.
    That should have meant Bardiche was happy to look his real age. But he was and he wasn't. Instead, he felt isolated. In a sea of young faces, there were very few he could point to and say confidently were really like him, kids he had something in common with. And that was the problem, surrounded by other kids, it felt like there was nobody but his sister to talk to. There was nothing more embarrassing than talking with a girl or boy and learning that they were actually much older. And even the kids who claimed to be his age, he could never really be sure.
    People like Silica and Yuuki were really nice and understanding, which almost proved that they were ever older than they claimed, and he got along really well with Rika, once he got past her bone crushing hugs, but the feeling of being out of place lingered. And with it, the feeling of loneliness.
    Which meant… looking to his sister, still fussing with her clothes, still looking for the world to be upset… he really should cherish the people he felt comfortable around. Bardiche let out another heavy sigh, casting a glance back towards the city gates. He hadn't really meant to go out mob hunting anyways. It wasn't like he needed that new utility knife he'd been saving up for or anything.
    "Come on." Bardiche tapped Balandene lightly atop the head.
    "What?" As if she didn't expect him to give up so easily.
    "I said, come on." Bardiche said again. "This is what you wanted right? But you better not waste my time with dumb questions."
    "They're not dumb!" Balandene scoffed, her confidence suddenly plummeting. "I just don't know how to do them." And she was probably too embarrassed to ask after acting like she was so smart around everyone else. Especially Takai-sensei.
    "Come on then." He started making his way slowly back up hill.
    Arrun home wasn't far from the main street. Like most important places that needed lots of space and room, the home for lost children and those who had been badly disoriented by the Transition had been set up in a Guild Hall. In fact, it had been set up in several guild halls located side by side, a cluster of buildings that took up almost half of one side street. Still uphill though.
    "Nii-chan!" Balandene reprimanded as she saw him conjuring his wings without a second thought. He definitely wasn't going to walk all the way when flying was easier, not to mentioned quicker.
    Kicking off lightly, Bardiche was airborne in a flash, savoring the heady sensation of becoming one with his wings. He'd taken to unassisted flight like a natural in both ALO and this real world, and alongside defense practice, it was one of his few real pleasures.
    "Nii-chan!" Balandene ran after him on foot. "You know that's a bad idea. You're not supposed to fly over the main street!"
    "Come on! It's faster this way." He grinned. "Unless you're a scarridy cat!"
    "Watch out for the bridge!" Balandene cried.
    The Sylph Youth rolled his eyes, like he was going to hit the footbridge while flying, turning his head back around to his front. He knew this route like the back of his…
    -WHAM-
    The solid, powerful impact of two very hard things, filled with something squishy, making solid contact. A reverberation that didn't so much hurt as immediately start throbbing. Bardiche felt his teeth slam together. His senses turned white, and for a sickening moment, he felt his body going limp before time reasserted itself and he very suddenly found he was rolling very fast and very hard until he came to an undignified stop in a heap.
    "Nii-chan!" One voice shouted.
    "Yui-chan!" Another voice cried.
    Bardiche's head throbbed and he squeezed his eyes shut. Now it had started hurting. He was painfully aware of every scrape and bruise. "Ah… ah… ouch.".
    "Nii-chan… Ue… Bardiche-kun, are you alright?" He heard his sister calling.
    Grimacing, Bardiche got one hand under himself, and then the other, pushing himself into a sitting position. "Yeah I'm…" -WHAM- His sudden quick motion, ill advised, it felt like he's just driven his head into a wall. This time, at least he wasn't flying through the air, but it still hurt a lot more, probably because it hadn't quite knock him senseless.
    "Oy… oy… a… ow…" Clutching at his forehead, Bardiche probed the air with his free hand to find whatever he'd hit, coming to rest on something small and warm and bony… a shoulder?
    "Ah… ouch… ouch… ouch…"
    The second voice right beside him prompted him to crack open an eye.
    Struggling to sit up in heap beside him, he found that his guess was right, hand resting on the shoulder of a Faerie girl who appeared a little younger than himself. At least, he thought she was a Faerie. White… white dress and wierd white wings, she was really pale too… but her hair was super dark and glossy in the sunlight.
    His hand fell slowly back to his side, squinting hard, how had he ended up beside her? He looked around, on the footbridge? Slowly, the girl's head fell forward and he saw where she was presently nursing her own forehead while continuing to whisper 'ouch' over and over again like a mantra.
    Girl… forehead… Ah!
    "Hey, hey are you okay?" Bardiche leaned forward, taking the girl by both shoulders.
    From beneath her tightly held hands, she squinted out through one, dark eye, seeing Bardiche, she suddenly force a hurt little smile. "Y-yeah… ouch… I'm okay… ouch…"
    'Then why do you keep saying ouch?' He wondered. They'd hit pretty hard after all. Or at least, he thought they had, he wasn't sure, his head was still spinning.
    "Yui-chan are you alright?!" The voice from earlier came from over his shoulder the sounds of heavy footfalls coming to a halt beside them, he sensed another person crouching down beside him, looking over, he found that a really busty woman of his own race had arrived and had quickly begun to go about checking the girl for any sign of serious injury.
    Balandene arrived a moment later, flitting up from below on her wings, lighting softly on the railing of the bridge before hopping down. For someone who didn't like to fly, she sure was good at it. "Nii-chan!" She reprimanded. "I told you it was a bad idea!" She looked worried, a lot more worried than she ever did. "Are you hurt?"
    The Sylph boy waved off his sister's concern. His head was plenty hard enough, she didn't need to worry about him, but…
    "It's okay Aunt Sugu." The girl beside him said. "I don't think I sustained any serious damage."
    Aunt?
    "Don't think?!" The woman who went by the title of 'Aunt' asked. "You could have a concussion or… or…" She paused as if finally noticing Bardiche was there at all. "Oh! Are you okay… erm…" She cast green eyes between the girl and Bardiche until he nodded that he was okay.
    Only then, once she was sure the little girl was alright, did she suddenly grow angry. Rising back to her feet, the Sylph woman put hands on hips as she swept the children with a withering gaze. "That was really reckless Yui-chan! And… erm…"
    "Bardiche." Bardiche offered.
    "… and Bardiche-san." She finished. "I saw everything. Yui-chan!" The girl beside him cringed. "You should have looked both ways before crossing…"
    "Sorry Aunt Sugu!" The the girl pleaded.
    "And you!" The Aunt turned to Bardiche, who learned immediately why the girl had cringed like so. "Bardiche-san, city ordinance say that you shouldn't fly over the main street." The corner of her lip twitched. "Maybe I should take you in to watch HQ."
    Bardiche paled. "H-hey… Lady… there's no reason to involve them, right? I mean…" If he got in trouble with the watch, he'd get reprimanded by Irene-sensei! He could kiss goodbye to being able to take defense classes.
    Once he was good and scared, her expression softened. "You're not hurt though, right?"
    "What… erm…" He rubbed tenderly at his head, the center of his forehead specifically. It was welling up. Probably going to be monkey bump.
    "Y-yeah. I'm fine." He answered. "And uhm… you're okay too?" He nodded to the girl. Well, probably not a girl. With an avatar  that young it was good odds she was older.
    "Un." The… he glanced at her wings… why were they still out? And what race did those belong to? They were ridiculously big, almost touching the ground even when she was standing. "I'm fine. Like I said, I didn't sustain any serious damage!… Ouch."
    'If you're not hurt then why do you keep saying ouch?' Bardiche pondered as she continued to rub tenderly at her head.
    "Nii-chan." Bardiche felt Balandene pulling at his arm, leaning in to whisper very softly, so softly he wouldn't have been able to hear it as a human. "Hey Nii-chan… what's with this girl… she's  weird ." Casting suspicious eyes to the other girl, Yui, who tilted her head curiously. "And what's with her wings?"
    She might have heard that part, Yui's smile faded a little, wings folding sympathetically to hide behind her back.
    "Jeez Sis." Bardiche sighed. Didn't she know how to be polite?
    "Anyways, I'm Bardiche and this is my sister Balandene. It's nice to meet you." Bardiche bowed slightly, pulling his sister down with him.
    A hand pressed against the back of his head as Balandene forced him to deepen his bow. "He's  really sorry about running into you like that. Please don't tell on us!"
    Here was hoping. Bardiche kept his eyes closed. Finally, the Sylph woman gave a small sigh. "Well, I suppose this doesn't need to go to the watch. Just don't let it happen again, that could have been really dangerous." She smiled slyly. "And trust me, I'll know, since I'm a watch officer."
    The sylph boy swallowed, he'd really stepped in it!
    "Sorry!" This time, Balandene didn't need to push him down, he couldn't have bowed any deeper if he'd tried.
    "Like I said, its a first offense, so I'll go easy on you." The woman laughed gently, placing a hand on Yui's shoulder. "I'm Leafa by way and this is my niece."
    The dark haired girl gave a small courtesy. "Kirigaya Yui. It's nice to meet you, Bardiche-san, Balandene-san." Her smile brightened again. "Sorry I made such a good target."
    "Yeah…" Bardiche mumbled. "Sorry I made such a good missile…" Wait her name! "Uhm… Kirigaya… Yui?" Bardiche's eyes widened. "Wait, is that your full name?"
    "Un." Yui nodded, blinking curiously.
    "Like your  real  name?" Why would she be using her real name so openly?!
    Yui exchanged looks with the woman who claimed to be her aunt. "It's the only one I have, so it's my real name."
    "You know it's not safe to use your real name like that." Bardiche warned her quickly. Chances were good if she'd made a mistake like that, she probably  was as young as she looked. "You need to keep it between friends and family."
    "Why?"
    Perplexed, this girl looked utterly perplexed by such an obvious thing! Balandene was right… she was  really weird.
    "Because its not safe!" Bardiche exclaimed.
    "So?" Yui scrunched up her face. "I don't think you're going to do anything bad with my name, right? It's not like I shouldn't be able to trust you with it. After all, you feel really bad for running into me… " Her eyes widened. "Ah, but it's my fault too for not paying attention!"
    "Yui?" Balandene became thoughtful as she mouthed the name. "Yui… You wouldn't happen to know Rika-chan, would you?"
    "She's a friend of Rika's?" Bardiche asked.
    His sister and Yui nodded simultaneously.
    "Rika-chan told me about her. She visits lots at Arrun home." Balandene explained. "Not that you would know since you run out as soon as you're done with chores." She accused.
    It wasn't his fault that there were more interesting places to be. Like sneaking out to the lake, or climbing around the roots of the World tree exploring for good secret keeping spots and buried treasure. It was nice to get away from everyone else, except Balandene would inevitably tag along.
    "I heard you're really good at making floral necklaces!" His sister said. "Rika won't stop begging me to help her make them."
    "Un!" Yui nodded eagerly. "My Mama taught me how. Actually, we were going to go visit Rika-chan right now. I can show you if you want!" Yui looked up at her Aunt as if getting permission."
    "But just for a little while. You still have your checkup today." Leafa said seriously.
    Balandene beamed at the offer.
    'But what about… your homework…' Bardiche sighed. Was it too late to go meet Mud Skeet Toad hunting? "Wagh!" A hand grabbed him by the wrist, the small form of 'Kirigaya Yui' exerting a surprising amount of force as she started tugging him along after the two Sylph girls. "Come on Bardiche-san, you can help too!"
    'But I don't  want to make floral necklaces…'
    Maybe he would have listened to the rules and not flown on the main street…