When Underneath's second VR concert started on Sunday afternoon, ZipZing was almost entirely covered in strange black markings. Whoever had designed the "Staff" label, hadn't taken into account the possibility of it being applied to tiny characters.
Danika couldn't really understand why Shinichi seemed to be so discontented with her appearance, and she reminded him, "At least I get to watch as ZipZing this time, even though you're sold out for both days!"
"Yeah," he agreed but his expression was still dissatisfied.
"I can modify the stamp, I think," Penname volunteered.
Danika hesitated before answering the girl. She didn't see why it mattered if she was streaked in unreadable black marks. If the attempt at modifying the staff marker somehow invalidated it, she would be kicked out again, and everyone watching the new display that Logical Heart had set up for them inside her stone space would also lose access.
It turned out that Shrubbery had only purchased one ticket, and Kit hadn't gotten any. In her case it was due to her budget restrictions, instead of having shared Danika's mistaken assumption that guild members would be able to come and go as they pleased.
Their string quartet members had each gotten a ticket for this Sunday show, so it was really only Kit, Shrubbery and Jade who would be evicted with her. She glanced at Shinichi. She wondered if he would be happier if the staff marking were small enough to be readable on her.
She had pretty much decided that it wasn't worth the risk when she turned back toward Penname and saw the girl's expression. Sometimes a guild leader needed to trust a guild member even if they didn't agree with a proposed tactic. "Alright, go ahead and give it a try," she agreed instead.
--
A few minutes later ZipZing sparkled cheerfully beside Shinichi, with the word 'Staff' emblazoned on her tiny chest.
"You look a lot better this way," Naoki said approvingly.
"Right?" Penname exulted.
"Alright, time for us to get out of the way," Quicksilver said firmly to her daughter. She turned to Kimitoshi and added, "Thanks again for letting me take a look at how things are managed behind the scenes for your concert."
Danika was confused and asked, "Isn't this stuff pretty much the same as what you do all the time?"
Quicksilver flashed a smile that came and went as quickly as an emote, as she replied, "Everything that's the same is something that I can give myself a pat on the back for."
After the two departed, Shinichi murmured, "I think she's giving us too much credit."
Kimitoshi shrugged and said, "If it works, it's worth copying? That's how we did a lot of things at first too."
"Time," their manager, Priyadarshi, announced.
"Alright, I'm off to fill my stealth viewing box," Danika told Shinichi.
"We all know about it, so it's not very stealthy is it?" Naoki argued cheerfully.
Shinichi caught her and held her in his hands for a moment. Danika looked up at him from the familiar perspective, and smiled as he dropped a kiss on her nose before releasing her. She thought that he seemed to have cheered up, although she wasn't sure that her own sparkly appearance was the reason.
She zipped into the outer ring and followed her party compass to where Shrubbery, Kit, and Jade waited. Hikaru popped out and circled them all briefly, before focusing on Jade. Jade ignored the firefly and obediently entered the stone space first at Kit's prompting.
Hikaru glowed red and vanished into the stone. Danika blinked and then thrust the stone into Shrubbery's cool hands before entering it herself. She feared that Hikaru was attacking Jade again, but Jade was a lot more powerful than he had been originally, and she thought that her garden might be destroyed once more.
Hikaru flashed dangerously, and Jade focused his attention on the firefly. Danika shouted, "Stop!" But not before Hikaru cut at Jade with a wind slash in response to his use of the mobile application's auto targeting.
Her little apple tree rattled its branches menacingly as Jade took a step backward toward it, and Danika was suddenly glad that Hikaru hadn't yet learned impartation. She could just imagine what would happen if her tree could use her wind slash skill too.
"Don't move Jade," she instructed.
"Oh, sorry, I thought you were speaking to your pet," he apologized.
"I was, but my tree seems to be upset too," she replied quickly. The witch grown bushes that had never shown any sign of independent movement before, reached out and entangled Jade's boots, and of course, that was when MatchlessMinion's cat messenger sauntered in.
The plushy gray cat completely ignored the rattling tree, the strange human, the grasping bushes, and the sullenly glowing firefly, and stopped in front of ZipZing and stared up at her expectantly.
Danika laughed like a little mad fairy dragon as she took the message and read: "Shrubbery said you've set it up so we can all watch for free! Come get me too?" The cat stalked off into nothingness in an offended manner.
"Is everything okay?" Jade asked with concern. "You are laughing like you do when you're about to delete a scenario and start over."
"Ha, I'm fine, we're just running out of time," Danika replied with dry amusement. She was going to miss the beginning of the second concert as well. "For now Hikaru has stopped trying to kill you, and you don't look like the bushes are hurting you." She turned to the firefly and instructed it, "Jade is a friend. He can't look at you without using his targeting system, so do not attack him unless he actually attacks you first." She wasn't certain that the firefly could understand and wondered if she should simply have told it that it could never attack Jade.
Kit appeared beside Jade as he replied tranquilly, "Okay. I am no longer being injured."
"Is something wrong with Hikaru?" Kit asked with concern. "Why does it keep attacking Jade."
"He can't look at things without using the auto targeting," Danika replied quickly. She looked at the plants entangling Jade and announced, "I'll send Shrubbery in," before zipping back to the center stone and instructing her pet, "Hikaru, you come outside with me."
Danika explained the problem with the plants and Jade to the Dryad as quickly as possible, and as soon as Shrubbery entered the stone she zipped in the direction her compass indicated for MatchlessMinion.
To her relief, the chinchillamin didn't argue or ask questions when she zipped up and demanded, "Get in!"
She turned and darted toward the nearest entrance and heaved a sigh of relief when she didn't bounce off of the invisible ticket barrier. She glanced around at the crowd, who were restlessly murmuring in the darkened space, and turned toward the stage with concern. Underneath stood silently for another second, but an instant later the stage lights blazed and they leapt into motion.
She wondered if Shinichi had made them wait for her and a smile lit her face as she turned invisible and zipped toward him.
Logical Heart had finally found time to modify her stone space in the fashion that he'd thought of after creating the window portals for Aishin's stone so long ago. Hikaru circled her as she activated the new enchantment that would turn the center stone inside into a display of everything that was within about eight meters of the stone.
She activated her stealth skill so that she wouldn't disturb the view of others when the invisibility spell wore off, and did her best to position herself so that her passengers could have the best box view available. A moment later she gazed at Shinichi in disbelief as he held out his hands demandingly in a familiar pose.
He stood there expectantly as he sang, instead of following the same choreography as the others. She couldn't help glancing around herself as though everyone would already be staring at her, before zipping forward to land in his hands.