Ep17: Heard You Wanted a Plot...

"Sometimes, I just get this feeling that things revolve around me, you know?" Virto says, overlooking the ground below them with Vargas. "I don't have protagonist syndrome, but, it's like there's someone out there, just reading what I say to you."

"Even when we're high up on this cloud?" He asks back, running his hand along the puffy substance. "It would be hard for even tengu to be here for long."

"Even then. Is it me, or is your mom shining a bit less bright today?" He looked up at the sun, covering its view with his hand, but sensing something off about its power. "Do not worry, it is just the harvest season. As yokai, it is our duty to make sure the seasons come and go properly. Would it truly be fall if the sun felt like summer?"

"I guess not. Oh yeah, Ganan's going to her first meeting on her own right?"

"Yes." Vargas kept ground gazing from his spot, seeing a couple float through a river. "It is a special harvest season as well, as we have another Yokai that will be joining the association."

"beastman-ki or elemental-ki?"

"Dragon-ki."

"Fancyyy, are you going?"

"But if I went, we wouldn't be able to go on our picnic later, and I am very excited to try these soft shell tacos you talk of." The kitsune quickly pecked Virto on the cheek. "From what you say, they taste just as good as you."

"Keep sweet talking me like that and I might actually turn into alp. Now, you see any clouds?" Vargas' eyes stayed locked on Virto, his tails beginning to sway behind him. "Nope, but you're making feel light as one."

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After staring down at the ground, Virto decided that the next place to spend their day would be at the library, mostly to continue to work on his watch while the kitsune watched with interest. "So you're saying that the watch helps you stave off demonic mana?"

"Yeah," Virto responds, pressing a button on his watch to show a holographic display. On it, listed several different graphs on the data from the watch, none of which the kitsune understood a single bit. "So, very, very interesting view Virto…"

"I get it, someone once called my lighter elemental sweat. This is like a sort of...it...alright it tells you how I, and the watch are doing through math and numbers." He points to one graph, colored blue, white, and red. "This manages my Spirit energy and Demonic energy. The more red there is than white, the more demon mana in my system, and vise versa." He points to a small version of the graph, that was labeled 'average levels' with small letters. "This one is more important. If this one is more red than white, then that means that I'm more incubi or monster girl than human."

"I think I understand," he says.

"Good, because we are going to test how good the watch is at keeping me human."

"Do you mean…" Vargas stands up, watching as Virto undid his ponytail, and let his green hair flow freely over the back of the chair. "I will admit, I don't have the trappiest body, but we have been together for quite some time now." he started, getting up and stripping himself of his lap coat and clothing under. Vargas blushed at seeing him naked for the first time, a tent forming rather quickly in his kimono. "I guess then it works…"

…

They fucked into the late light of the falling sun, until falling asleep in the same room they started in. As losing your anal virginity and getting creampied many times would do, Virto had forgotten all about the main reason he had agreed to their first round of intercourse together. Vargas had long since lost the thought as well and was currently holding his man in tails while hugging him in sleep. Virto fell asleep like that, to the steady beat of the watch, left on the counter, doing it's warning beep about his DE levels rising.

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"I move….king to D5," Holi said, shifting her dream-created piece up the board. The whispered fuck under Virto's breath told it all, a smug look taking over her face. "Guessing that's a checkmate then?"

"Ah, fuck it yeah. It was nice of Di to connect our dreamscapes so we could do this though."

"Yes, now I can torment Ice however much I want~"

"Who's Ice?"

"That is not important, as I am tormenting you right now Virto." Holi held out her hands, watching as popcorn fell into them on command. "Do you have any more memories we could explore? I want to see what other games you have stored besides chess." She started going through his mind, looking for anything that stuck out to her to look at. She found one from his childhood, of him, doing a weirdly enticing handshake with a fellow classmate. "Who is this child? He has short black hair and a darker complexion."

"That would be Lalu, but we called him Lao for short," he said. "If anyone knew I was gone, it would be him since he comes over every weekend to use my printer."

"Your mind tells me Lao was a close friend, and that a printer is like a printing press, but with gremlin technology," Holi says with hands-on her temples like a prediction maker. Her brow was furrowed, as she kept looking through his memories for another board game.

"No shit, but how far are you looking back? I was as nerdy as they came, so I don't exactly have any dark secrets to laugh at." He got his answer quickly, as a monopoly board appeared on the table between them. "Get ready to lose all of your money, and fuck me to pay it off~" she said, her lewd smug face returning to her.

"It's fake money!" He protested, but she seemed ament on turning the scientist into an indentured servant. "Fine, but I get the race car. I woulder how Lao is anyways..."

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An older and more mature Lao was staring at the door to Virto's once lived-in home. It had been empty since the scientist had mysteriously disappeared weeks ago. He clutched the flower bouquet in his hand as tears streamed down his eyes, frustrated at how the one week he didn't come over to visit, his friend had vanished in thin air.

No one in the neighborhood heard or saw a peep. Virto had never really interacted with his neighborhoods, they said. He understood that. That guy had always been a bit of a recluse, to the point where he let his hair grow for years without cutting it. Their third friend had jokingly said that if he dyed his hair green, he would look like he's cosplay an anime character from an anime she had watched.

Virto's immediate friend group didn't expand farther than him and Leana, the anime watcher. He had his coworkers and the students he taught, but besides him and Leana, no one else came over to hang out with him outside of work. Family was off and on, as Virto never kept too much in touch with his folks. No one even showed up when his body was reported missing…

A lady and her daughter walked by, staring at the black man who was dressed as if he came from a funeral. The daughter came by and hugged him before her mother quickly pulled her away. He turned around, seeing the small girl hugging his leg until she was picked up by the mother. "Sorry about that sir, she is a bit hyperactive today," she said, walking off, carrying the child in her arms. "But mama, you always say that hugging makes you happy," she whined, before getting out of earshot of him.

He went back to staring at the door but thought back to the hug. He checked the time, thinking that he had gotten here at around 1, or 2. It was four; he had been like this for two hours. Shit, she's right… he thought as he finally moved. He remembered that Virto had always left a spare key somewhere, changing the location to 'keep security up.' Sure enough, the key was still there, in between a gap between a rather large crack in the sidewalk. The door opened with a creek as Lao came into the house. He had made sure no realtors had come to refurbish the place on the promise that either he, Leana, or his brother would keep paying the rest of the mortgage. Everything had been left exactly as it was before.

He decided to look around one last time, unable to accept Virto leaving him without a shred of evidence. Even the best murderer leaves something right!? He yelled in his mind as he shuffled around. He prepared to be disgusted by bones, maybe surprised by calling cards, a reaction to something. He got nothing, from nothing, by nothing. Except for one room in the house. Out of respect to his possible dead friend, he had not stepped a foot in it. It was the door to his basement.

He remembers jokingly hiding in the stairway down, but Virto had chewed him out after catching him there. It was the most heated he got, mostly because what he did down there wasn't sanctioned by an IRB, nor zoned and cleared by the location he lived. If anything happens down there, the last thing I would want is it to be you or Leana involved, he remembered him saying. Lao's current logic? It is legally his house until Virto miraculously came back, and Virto was dead. Worst come to worst, he can pretend he didn't know about the secrets that lied under the first floor. Still, he put on a hazmat suit and sent a text to his brother in case he disappears as well.

Even with wearing something that completely sealed his body off from harmful elements, he could still feel the hairs on his short fade stand up as he opened the door. The hairs on the rest of the body stood up as well, as he saw the second door, the door the lead to the unknown, left ajar.

Virto never ever left that door open.

He turned on his phone light to shine his way down the steps, turning on the stair lights for safety. The fact that he didn't need to unlock this door means that something went awry, to the point where Virto couldn't get to the door to contain the mess he caused. He pushed open the door, taking his first steps into the basement. The lights didn't work, leaving only his phone flashlight to get him around in total darkness. He could rule out things like aliens, or slimy creatures that went loose as he looked at everything. No evidence of a scuffle or slimy mucus spread out across various surfaces. He didn't put it past Virto to test on a human in the moment, but there was a lack of blood, nor sign of any other creature living here.

It only made the ambiance worse, has he hadn't found the payoff that would at least get the fear growing in him out. Each random creak of old machinery or a pencil dropping of the desk would cause him to turn. He so wanted to leave right then and there, but the light of the stairs was long gone.

Finally, he had reached a different light source. A purple hue shined from around the corner. Like a moth to a lamp, he was drawn to it. With no weapons and only a probably tearable suit for protection, he rounded the corner and peered around.

A swirling portal was there, illuminating the small room in purple light. A cut and burned rope laid under it, along with a pile of since rotted apples. He looked around in every crevice, double-checking if there was anything that could jump out at him. While searching, he had found a videotape, labeled "please watch this." Curious, he found a player and started watching the events that had unfolded. He saw Virto talking to a camera, speaking of some technology that could not only revolutionize travel but make traveling to livable plants that are lightyears away possible. It went smoothly at first, the portal coming on and Virto tossing a few apples inside. Then he himself went in, and….nothing. Lao's heart sank as he saw the rope get violently pulled taunt, and snapped in two. "Damn…."

"You're probably thinking right now that I am gone forever."

Lao looked up, seeing Virto talking again. He's back! No...it must be a backup recording.

"I probably am, but as long as the portal is kept running...even if not the portal, the tech that saved the data...I will always be within reach."

"Most likely, it's probably either Lao or Leana watching this. Only they have enough care to break the one rule I have. Which reminds me, you broke the one rule you [bleep]!"

"As passionate as ever Virto…"

"But, I do want to thank you. I never told you this, but I did like those times you two dragged me out of my studies to do...normal things. I never thought of myself as deserving of people, not even my mother who I keep forgetting to call...yet you two stuck around."

"If you choose to finally go live without someone like me weighing you down, there is nothing stopping you. On the chance, you don't..."

"Of course!"

"I have devised a way for you to save me, without your body leaving the room you're in. After some test runs and modifications, I then made it so it will keep you alive and healthy while you do. Your body would move, talk with others, and go about its day as if nothing has happened, while your consciousness is busy tracking me down, or getting just as lost like me."

"There is a chair in the corner of the room. It is connected to the portal, and it has two buttons. The first strap you in for the procedure. The next will knock your consciousness unconscious, and, in a sense, separate your soul from your body, and send only your soul through the portal. Leana would call it Isekai."

"As with most of your motor functions, your brain will fill in for your life while you are busy in the world I'm in. It isn't a guarantee this will be a success, and there will be side effects and consequences. I tried to make it as user-free as possible, so when you are ready, press the red button, and pray. Make a decision here or upstairs too. I do keep a slimy alien creature down here you might stumble on, and yes, there is a chance you could die or be broken from it putting eggs up your-"

The video ended on that note, showing static before only a blank blue screen was on. Lao shuddered at the thought of an alien as he pointed a flashlight at the corner. Sure enough, a chair with retracted restraints was there, with two buttons placed on the left armrest. Virto himself had warned that it could be a very disastrous decision, but when you have a chance of rescuing a friend, what more could your tragedy-plagued mind ask for?

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(End credits to season 1)

Somewhere, at some time, an Imp looks up towards the sky, stargazing at the moon. Suddenly, he sees a purple pulse go through the sky as if a bomb had gone off above, yet there was no bang. It was unlike anything he had seen before and it disappeared just as randomly as it came. It would be a sight the imp could just throw away, as a fun quick story to tell his dad.

If he hadn't remembered this same absurd thing happening weeks ago.

….

He decides to look into it.