Chapter 421: Heart to Heart
When Underneath logged in for their VR concert, they didn't come alone. Not only did the group log in with their official commercial avatars, but they brought their official staff members along. It made Danika wonder how they'd been allowed to choose Endless Song's property for the location.
She felt unaccountably relieved when Shinichi grinned at her and held out his hands in exactly the same way he had when he played as Aishin. She zipped over to land on his open palms, and smiled up at him as he laughed happily.
"I forgot how tiny your character is," he told her cheerfully. "So cute!"
Danika turned her head to look at Naoki, and whispered back, "I feel like Nao1 is cross-dressing."
Shinichi turned his laugh into a cough, when Naoki looked over at them and shook his head, but he didn't argue. He set her on his shoulder while they attended to their last minute preparations, which seemed to consist mostly of confirming positioning details and song line up, since they didn't need all of the electronic equipment that they usually dealt with.
Danika wondered if he intended to sing with her still on his shoulder, right up until the lights came up, and the game suddenly teleported her into the outer ring where the shops were. She reoriented herself in the crowded corridor and zipped toward the nearest entrance.
ZipZing bounced off of an invisible barrier, and a system notification popped up: "Only ticket holders admitted beyond this point."
Danika stared blankly at the notification, and then pulled up her menus. A friend request from Aichi Shinichi was already waiting, and as soon as she accepted it, a default bird messenger swooped up to her with a message. The message read: "Where did you go suddenly?"
Shinichi obviously didn't know what had happened, and Danika groaned aloud. The crowd in the corridor was quickly thinning out, and she could hear one of the NPCs explaining to someone patiently, "There are no more tickets or private booths available. The concert is sold out."
She spun slowly, looking for other members of Endless Song, and spotted a small gnome in the thinning crowd. She zipped over to Logical Heart, who looked up at her and asked with surprise, "You didn't buy a ticket?"
"I didn't need one for any of the other performances," Danika protested.
"And you've been working in the other server, so you missed the change," Logical Heart said wryly. "Um… Ah! I think you can log in with your work account and watch that way?"
Danika hovered indecisively. ZipZing wouldn't have the event recorded if she did that, but at this point she couldn't think of a way to get around that. Shinichi could still message ZipZing and it could be relayed to her through the mobile app, but he wouldn't be able to see her watching. She had really been looking forward to finally getting to attend one of Underneath's concerts in person.
With another groan, she brought up her messages again and replied to Shinichi: "Sorry… I was expelled from the area because I didn't realize that I needed to buy a ticket this time. I'm really sorry. I might be able to watch from my work account."
Shinichi replied as quickly as ever, but his message began with a short curse, and then continued with echos of her apologies: "I just asked, they said it's too late to set you as staff, and that it's totally sold out. I'm so sorry, it never occurred to me that you'd need one here. I'm sorry. We have to start now."
Danika messaged back as fast as possible: "Don't worry! I'll be right beside you, even if you can't see me!"
--
The concert had already begun by the time she got logged back in. Thankfully her work account had enough permissions these days that she could simply set her location to the concert hall, and there she was. Her assistant chattered along beside her about the stack of waiting notifications until she told the little dragon to be silent.
She could see Shrubbery and Ryullusion in the crowd, which made her feel even more guilty about not having bought a ticket. Especially when they both messaged ZipZing, who was now hiding safely inside her stone space, with concern about her absence. Quicksilver and her daughter were there too.
On the plus side, she really could stand right beside Shinichi on the stage if she wanted to, she could even sing along and no one except her assistant could hear her. She thought that maybe this was actually the 'magical' experience that the Sugar Wings audience had hoped for, and part of her mind started speculating about how it might be achieved.
Shinichi couldn't see her though, and he didn't have time for messages, so she couldn't reassure him that she was really there. She couldn't see anything wrong with his performance though. He was really good at this, although all of his smiles were the warm professional ones, instead of the brighter ones that she was used to.
She felt like she practically jumped out of her skin when Lin Hao asked with amusement, "Want me to make you visible to him?"
Her heartbeat fluttered wildly, like a trapped bird, as she stared at Shinichi indecisively. She didn't ask if he could really do it. She didn't want to be a distraction, but she did wish that he could know she was there, and after a moment she nodded.
Lin Hao didn't pull Shinichi's avatar into the frozen mode that Celestial Servants could use to talk to characters privately, there was no visual indication of any change at all, except in Shinichi's expression. His gaze suddenly focused on her, and then shifted to something beyond her for a moment before returning. There was no pause or waver in the song, except the way he whispered between lines, "You look like a goddess when you're working."
Danika blushed scarlet and glanced toward Lin Hao, only to discover that he was gone. She spun for a moment, and when she came to a halt Shinichi's hand was extended into her chest, and he was blinking in surprise. His expression as he stepped forward was wicked, and Danika couldn't stop giggling, because the words he sang fit too well as they merged for a moment.
No one seemed to be able to hear her giggles, so she dared to turn and murmur, "I might be floating around in a pretty robe, but you're the one who's being worshipped."
Shinichi smiled as he turned away from her, and it took her a moment to realize that his movements were still synchronized with Naoki and the others. When he faced her again he winked, but after a while she decided that he could see her, but not hear her.
"I guess that this is when I should tell you how much I love you and how freaking hot you look," she commented laughingly.
Her heartbeat sped up again as he reached for her, and she laughed as his fingers passed through her.
--
After they finished the concert and logged out of their commercial accounts, the members of Underneath were allowed to spend the rest of the evening in the VR consoles, so Danika used up all of ZipZing's transformation time as a pixie.
Before he logged out for the night, ShinZing whispered, "I bargained for a few hours of play time every Sunday morning, so don't stay up too late."
Danika was still grinning when she went to sleep.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
gusdefrog
gusdefrog You are existing beautifully today, whether you're standing all together, or all alone in a cold garden of stone. May you eat, drink, and be merry.
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