“Good evening, Punklorde!
We now bring you a breaking bulletin from the Interstellar Peace Broadcast.
The S-rank wanted target, The Cremators known as the Beast Tamer, has been found dead inside her own stronghold, the Slag Gang.”
Silver Wolf sat on the rooftop, both long legs swinging back and forth, chewing gum and staring up at the sky, thinking about who knows what.
Light footsteps came from behind her.
Someone vaulted over the edge of the roof and landed as softly as a cat.
Silver Wolf didn’t bother turning around.
This was her and Felutina’s “secret base.” From up here you could see the whole skyline stitched together out of neon, and nobody else ever wasted time in a place like this.
“What are you thinking about?”
Felutina appeared behind her, lifted her arms, and looped them gently around Silver Wolf’s slender waist, resting her smooth chin on top of the silver head.
Warm breath drifted across silver hair.
“Don’t tell me the game launched and sank without a trace, nothing but bad reviews, and now you’re sulking and looking for a corner to cry and throw a fit in?”
“…As if I’d do that.
Those people just don’t know how to appreciate art.”
Silver Wolf shook her head and answered sourly, but she didn’t wriggle out of Felutina’s arms.
She just kept chewing her gum, eyes still fixed on the distance.
She’d gotten used to bickering with Felutina like this.
It had been most of a month since the day they first met.
Silver Wolf couldn’t have explained what exactly had happened in those weeks, only that with one more person around, a lot of things felt different.
Someone to eat with.
Someone to game with.
Someone around even when she was just spacing out.
It wasn’t a big deal.
She’d simply acquired a convenient companion, a tool that was easy to order around…
She had her own rhythm, and she was sticking to it.
“Life’s a garbage game.
So why not take it easy while you play?”
Silver Wolf said it quietly, almost to herself.
That was what she’d always believed.
Life was a garbage game, the rules were a mess, the balance was awful, and it didn’t even come with a tutorial.
So why take it seriously?
Why play by the rules at all?
Which was why, in the game she’d designed, every one of those puzzle rooms with “this door cannot be opened from this side” and “you must locate the safety catch” could simply be smashed straight through by the only two playable characters, “αWolf” and “Felutina.”
After all, that was exactly what they did in real life.
Felutina pressed her lips together and smiled.
She hadn’t actually played the game Silver Wolf released.
She’d just wanted an excuse to start a conversation.
Because walking up and grabbing someone around the waist without saying a word would have been kind of creepy.
Silver Wolf tilted her head and looked at her.
Neon light played over the white-haired girl’s face, blurring her expression, but the curve of amusement at the corner of her mouth came through perfectly clearly.
Silver Wolf always found that smile infuriating.
She jutted out her chin, feigning impatience.
“Done laughing at me?
Anything else?”
“Nothing major.
I just came to see you, and also…”
Felutina blinked, her bright eyes glittering, her voice carrying a mischievous laugh.
A bad feeling crept over Silver Wolf, but before she could react, her whole body left the ground.
“Uppies~”
Felutina hooked her hands under Silver Wolf’s arms and hoisted her high overhead, like lifting a doll.
“…You came all the way up to the roof to find me just to do this?”
Silver Wolf hung suspended in the air for a moment, silver hair streaming in the night wind.
She looked down at Felutina with the flat expression of someone examining a lunatic.
She wasn’t a kid or some little girl.
Getting lifted up wasn’t going to make her happy, and it definitely wasn’t going to make her blush.
“Heh heh, of course not.
This Lord read the heavens tonight and detected a rare celestial omen, so…
look up!”
Felutina announced it with a grin.
Silver Wolf raised her head without thinking and looked at the sky.
Punklorde had no day and no night, but from certain spots you could still watch the sky change, and Felutina had cast a reading specially for it.
Tonight the stars were going to be brilliant.
After spending a while around Silver Wolf, Felutina had figured out that she was really just a slightly prickly girl who wasn’t very good at saying what she felt.
She got lonely too.
She just never said so.
That was fine.
Felutina was very good at handling girls like that.
“Pretty, right~”
Felutina lowered Silver Wolf back down with great care and gathered her into her arms like an oversized plush toy.
Silver Wolf’s body went stiff at first.
She wasn’t used to being held like this, wasn’t used to that kind of closeness.
But after a moment she relaxed, settling back against Felutina, eyes narrowing to slits, apparently rather enjoying Felutina’s “brain-pillow waves.”
“It’s okay,” she said, delivering her verdict with a lazy drawl.
“Nature’s gifts are beautiful, but something’s missing.”
“And what would that be?” Felutina asked, playing the straight man with perfect cooperation, her voice full of curiosity.
“‘Us.'”
Silver Wolf raised a hand and a translucent holographic screen bloomed out of empty air.
She tapped it a few times.
“We’re the ‘players.’ The protagonists of this life story.
How can we not leave our mark in the cutscene?”
She pointed at the sky.
The stars flickered, and at the motion of her fingertip they rearranged themselves, slowly forming two chibi faces.
Felutina and Silver Wolf.
Pop.
The bubble of gum burst.
Silver Wolf turned her head, ready with some teasing remark, and met Felutina’s eyes, as dazzling as the star field above them.
Silver Wolf had seen a lot of eyes.
On Punklorde, people’s eyes usually held nothing but exhaustion, numbness, and wariness.
Felutina’s eyes were different.
There was always light in them, as if nothing in the world could dim it.
She’s beautiful.
That was what Silver Wolf thought.
“Thank you, Silver Wolf.
It’s the first time I’ve ever gotten a gift this romantic.”
The silence had lasted only a moment before Felutina broke it.
She lowered her head again and nuzzled her cheek against Silver Wolf’s soft one.
Silver Wolf couldn’t take much of that.
She put up a token struggle, and when it got her nowhere she sighed in resignation.
“Don’t thank me yet.
In a couple of days we’re going to be busy—”
“Ah, the picture’s gone.”
Felutina was still gazing upward.
The stars forming the two of them had held their shape for less than ten seconds.
“…If you want to see it, I’ll put it together for you again next time.
If you want it, I can make the whole universe twinkle for you.”
Silver Wolf hesitated before saying it, then paused and tried to make it sound more transactional.
“As long as you do a proper job helping me become a legend on Punklorde.”
“Okay~” Felutina answered.
She tightened her arms and held Silver Wolf a little closer.
“I’m looking forward to it.”
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