The Captain and the Berserker: The Locker of Secrets

"So? Are you going to tell me what happened?" Mika exclaimed, looking at Sora, who clearly had something going on. "And hurry up. My friends will be here soon, and I don't think it's a good idea for them to see us together."

Sora took a few seconds to answer. "This morning, the girls accidentally hit me while cooking. They ended up arguing and punched me in the face."

"A punch in the face, really?" Mika thought, her expression shifting to disbelief.

"Honestly, I thought I'd give them the cold shoulder, so I haven't spoken to them since we left the house," Sora continued without lifting his head. "But it turns out that because of that, they found a new Guardian. He's smarter, into sports, and above all, better looking than me… I guess they don't need me if they have someone like him taking care of them." Sora's voice began to crack.

"Heh… You're like this because your companions met some other guy more capable than you?" Mika couldn't help but let out a small laugh at how unreal that sounded. However, when she saw that Sora wasn't reacting the way she expected, she started to get worried.

Mika stepped forward and, without warning, gave a strong kick to an old rusty locker resting against the rooftop wall.

The action made Sora jump; the crash Mika had caused could be heard everywhere.

"You say they don't need you?" Mika exclaimed, crossing her arms. "Do you really think those two fools stuck with you all this time because of physical skills?"

Sora lifted his head, confused. "But they look happy with him. Shiori was taking notes of his advice, and Mochi… Mochi wasn't crying. I only ever made them cry."

Mika let out a groan of contempt and stepped close until she was just inches from his face.

"They're women, idiot!" Mika shouted at Sora. "They were trying to fix the disaster YOU caused with your stupid cold shoulder. If this Ren guy helped them, it's because they're desperate to get back the Guardian they, for some reason I don't understand, still want."

Sora fell silent. He knew those words were harsh.

But Mika didn't have the same patience as the other girls; she was a ticking time bomb.

Seeing that Sora didn't respond, she gave the rusty locker another light kick and demanded, "Then improve!"

Those words made Sora lift his head slightly to look at Mika's face. "Improve?"

"That's right, moron. If something goes wrong, you just have to get back up again, don't you?" Mika said, raising her voice a little, a mix of anger and concern.

However, as those words sank into his mind, his brain couldn't help but remember his days on the Frontier Online server—the day he met the Berserker Valkyria Scarlet.

Sora closed his eyes for an instant. He could see her clearly in his memory: a warrior in crimson armor, wielding a double axe that seemed too heavy for any normal player. Back then, she was surrounded by a horde of elite-level monsters, her HP bar blinking red, but she refused to retreat.

Even when he, under the guild leader name Aegis, tried to intervene with his shield to take a blow that would have been the end of her, she didn't thank him. On the contrary, she shouted exactly the same thing she was shouting at him now on the rooftop.

"I didn't need your help, stupid Guardian! If I'm going to fall, it'll be fighting, so stop getting in the way and improve your defense if you don't want me to run you over!"

Sora let out a barely perceptible small laugh, opening his eyes to meet Mika's intense gaze. Time had passed, the server had shut down, but the fire of that Berserker was still intact in front of him.

"You're just as loud as in the game, Valkyria…" Sora murmured, using her old in-game username for the first time.

Mika froze. Her cheeks turned an intense red that no one had ever seen before. She stepped back, accidentally hitting the locker again, but this time with less force.

"H-how did you… D-don't call me by that embarrassing name!" she exclaimed, looking away while playing with a strand of her hair. "That character… that character no longer exists. Now I'm just me, and you're just an idiot who doesn't know when to stop feeling sorry for himself… Captain."

Sora couldn't help but smile gently at seeing the queen of the institute blush like that. The most feared Berserker of Frontier Online acting like a soft girl despite her attitude was an SSR-level spectacle.

"Captain? Wow, it's been a long time since I heard that nickname," Sora said, regaining some of his usual spark.

"Shut up! It was just a slip of the moment, don't get used to it!" Mika retorted, crossing her arms to hide that her hands were trembling. "Besides, I told you: you have to improve. If this Ren guy is so good, then surpass him. A Guardian doesn't give up so easily—he adapts!"

Sora was about to respond when the sound of laughter and hurried footsteps came from the other side of the rooftop door.

The door swung open, and Mika's friends entered. "Mika-chi! We know you're up here! We brought those iced coffees you like!" a female voice shouted as she crossed the door.

"Uh? Mika?" one of her friends asked upon not seeing Mika. "How weird, I could have sworn she said she'd be here," another girl responded.

However, what had actually happened was that upon hearing someone approaching, Sora and Mika instinctively ducked into the locker. Both were now locked inside together, and if anyone discovered them, it would be the end for both of them.