INTERLUDE III

Tabletop Thursday is tomorrow.

That’s fine.

There’s no need to throw dice to pretend he’s in another world anymore—OR SO HE’D SAY, BUT HE’S A FUCKING SNOW FAIRY.

Yukimura Isami avoids any and all eye contact. He wants nothing to do with these weaklings. Their instructor is a snow-white Igasu with sparkling sound effects. “Hi everynyan!” She says. “My name is Stonie. Let’s have a ton of fun together!”

There are twenty other snow fairies. From what Isami heard, his class has the highest number of players. Light and dark fairies are the least common—four and six, respectively. Not only that: it’s all but confirmed that those elements are also the strongest ones.

“Everynyaaan!”

From the corners of his eyes, at the edge of the arena, Isami can see a GIANT GOLDEN DRAGON guiding the light fairies towards their destination. Meanwhile, he’s stuck getting instructed by a sparkling snow bunny that talks like an anime girl.

“For our first trial, we’ll be summoning our first ice bridge!”

The pack or harlots talking next to him stop to listen, as does a couple-to-be nearby, flirting in plain daylight… or whatever classifies as such in this place. There is no blue, no black, no red in the sky, only a faint, unsettling white.

Stonie hops, claws wide in a Y formation. “That’s right! Ice bridges. Snow fairies can’t teleport without dissolving into mist, so we use these instead. It might not be as fast as other species, but it’s a lot cooler! No pun intended.” Isami does not believe her for one second. Why did she call herself a snow fairy if she’s an Igasu anyway?

Stonie extends her paws, closing her eyes. Something sparkles again; out of thin air, a thin, silver sheet materializes before her. Upon hopping onto the platform, she surfs. There is no other way to put it. As though riding an invisible wave, Stonie twirls across the room with the snow fairies clapping and cheering around her.

“Follow me!” She says. “Don’t worry about breaking the ice! If you have any trouble with it, let me know and I’ll help you!”

The first few daredevils imitate her. To say the sparkles are grating would be a violently gross understatement. Once the first one—one of the harlots—begins to surf on the, she says, “Woooo! You guys should try thiiiis!”

No shit. That’s their assignment. It’s functionally the same as getting excited about homework.

Isami and small spaces do not match.

Isami and any height above three centimeters above floor level do not match.

However, as the rest of the snow fairies twirl in the air over their iceboards, Isami soon finds that Stonie is not as nice as she seems. She lands next to him, silver eyes inquisitive. “What’s wrong?” She asks. “Are you having trouble with visualization? Materialization? Desublimation?”

“No. I’ll just walk.”

“Why would you walk when you can glide?”

“I like walking.” And so he begins to do just that. He hasn’t taken more than five steps when he slides, not because he trips, but because the floor below him freezes. Before he can jump off, an iceboard forms below him, lifting him high across the arena along with the rest of the stupid snow fairies. Isami has to hold onto it for dear life with one hand and keep his scarf in place with the other.

They take off, high, so high that the arena gets swallowed by clouds. By this point, it’s clear that even if the others made their boards, it’s Stonie guiding them. Otherwise, they’d get lost since they can’t see anything.

Why can’t they see anything?

Where’s the lush, emerald foliage? Naked elves? Snow-covered peaks nestling the sun?

Everything is white.

“Almost there!” Stonie says.

When Isami fell onto this world, he saw a pretty standard… for lack of a better term… ‘otherworld’ landscape. The sun had either begun to rise, or set—he couldn’t tell. Giant dragons flew across the sky while forests of pines and giant, glowing crystals littered the world below, so…

So…

Where did all of that go?

They begin to descend.

He won’t pass out this time.

He won’t pass out this time.

He won’t—

“Almost there, everynyaaan! You’ll just love the snow temple!”

Yukimura won’t love the snow temple. He hates ice levels. All of them have that stupid sliding-across-the-floor shit. Devs love to add environmental conditions such as freezing unless the player finds a heat source, blizzards that reduce visibility, or the worst, by far: stamina reduction.

After breaking through the clouds, they reach the stupid snow temple. It’s, predictably, a gray castle surrounded by giant ice spikes. Seriously!? Korova has giant mushrooms glowing in primary colors, original creature NPCs, Japanese cuisine (best not to question this) yet cannot be assed to at least try with the snow level?

Shockingly, Yukimura lands on his feet at the entrance, which can’t be said for at least half of the other kids. To himself, he huffs. Dorks, all of them. He can tell just by looking. TCG gambling addicts. Figurine collectors. Writers. It’s no wonder that most of them land with no agility or decor.

“Ehh, that looks so cool!” One of the harlots tells Yukimura after stumbling her way down her iceboard.

He knows. “Thanks,” is his reply.

Her smile falters a bit. Good. Know your place. “W-well, it’s nice to meet you. My name is Yukida Mashiro. How about you?”

“Eh?” Yuki… snow… Isami doesn’t feel like asking anyone else’s name, but the idea of getting a class based on something he can’t change—a name—is highly disturbing. Hopefully it’s just a coincidence. “Yukimura. Sorry. I have a cold.” He steps away.

Sakura is related to plants. Kawa means river. Ishida is related to… rocks? He did mention using dust magic before or whatever.

….yeah, no, that’s it.

“Everynyaaan! Let’s get in a circle please!”

He leaves the group.

It’s not hard; in order to maintain those flashy ice structures, the castle has to be kept, well… damp and cold. Aoko described it as drawing, but to Isami, magic is like taking a piss. To camouflage himself, he hides amidst snowflakes that weren’t there a second ago.

Isami walks.

“Our second trial will be even more fun!”

It’s hard to see, but there’s a stone path under the snow. Isami kicks as he follows it. Ice crystals pulse around him, tall as houses, yet brittle and thin. Little by little, Stonie’s voice begins to blur among that frozen white world.

The weird thing is… he doesn’t feel cold.

At all.

Come to think of it, none of the others seemed to. It might be a class attribute. In that case… maybe Sakura is resistant to status effects? Aoko can breathe underwater? Ishida…

Isami buries his face into his scarf.

…best not to think about him. Isami is having a fun, short detour before returning to the group. Just getting some fresh air. Just… any air.

Where is it?

Where’s the entrance?

The ice crystals are thinning down now, but he can’t see any cave walls or cliffs or anything.

Isami walks.

Isami jogs.

The ice crystals have thinned to glass shards at his feet.

Outside of that castle, that structure… there is nothing.

A barren snowfield stretches in every direction, with no difference in elevation or color, ending only because it vanishes into the horizon. The only reason Isami can tell the ground from the sky is because the latter is marginally darker.

There’s nothing.

Anywhere.

It’s like swimming in the middle of the sea.

It’s like standing on a giant sheet of paper.

By the time he returns, Isami manages to get his nerves back in check. The rest of the snow fairies seem to be looking for him.

Stonie pats him so suddenly that he actually lets out a cry. She giggles. “Sorry! Where did you go? We thought you might have slid somewhere!”

“Yeah… I just… was curious about this place.”

“Ah, I see! I can see if we can schedule a toured visit soon.”

That sounds excruciating. “Thanks. How about outside?”

“Outside? Of the castle?”

“Of this… place. Of the ice crystals.”

Stonie steps back, paws crossed. “The problem is, there are monsters outside of safe zones. We can do that once you’re stronger. For now, let’s head to the castle to run some tests! We’ll see who freezes the most, the fastest, and the coldest!”

Isami says, “There are no monsters.”

“Nope, not here. Don’t worry.”

He wants to drag her out by her ears and show her that desolate, chilling place—all of Korova. All of it outside of the safe zones is dead, isn’t it?

But he does not, because Isami is not stupid. “Right,” he mumbles. “Thanks for telling me.”