Versatile: Alternate World

After giving me the news, I ended up getting a bit curious about what happened at night. It was just a small span of time since the Guild War occurred so I am not entirely sure what is happening. I didn't check the forums and didn't check any internet info at all after the battle as I am too tired to even care about it.

Once I am done eating my breakfast, I decided to hold off on checking the internet, it won't run anyway and I can check it anytime. It's been a while since I trained my body after I keep on focusing more on the stuff at the game and all that is happening that I kinda neglected my practice for a bit. I should at least do a bit of a jog around the neighborhood and maintain my body to keep it strong and to keep it available in battle in case a real-life incident occurred just like the hostage-taking that occurred on the school.

First, I check the weather outside to see if it is raining since I would have to change plans if it is falling pretty heavily outside. When I checked, it was not raining and the sky seems pretty clear without any hints of dark and heavy clouds. However, for some unknown reason, it was pretty cold and it was like it just started snowing yesterday. Of course, there are no traces of snow but I can see in my windowpane that it's freezing outside.

I am quite sure this phenomenon did not occur in the past timeline cause if it did, I would be able to remember this happening as this is a pretty major event in the real world. I am active in the past outside since I am not that active much during the beginning times of the game, allowing me to have more time to wander outside. So seeing it very cold without any apparent reason is something new.

Still, it doesn't mean I have to stop my plans. It's not raining and the cold is not that troublesome that I would need to stay at home to keep myself warm type of cold. But it was a bit strange to have cold weather in a blazing hot sun over the sky without any signs of clouds covering it. I would be more understanding if we are living in places that snow all year round or have colder weather all year round. But this is Japan, it is indeed cold when winter kicks in but at this time of the year, I don't think we are going to expect any snow, more like we are expecting the spring to kick in.

Without much explanation on what is happening, I grab my jacket and running shoes before going out to go on a run around the neighborhood.

...

Due to the cold weather that is occurring and only a handful of students walking to their school, there are only a few people on the streets. Most are holed up on the establishments and I don't see the usual people taking a jog in the morning before. I made a loop around the neighborhood once and plan to do another loop but for some unknown reason, the cold is just getting seeping through the skin despite the thick jacket I am wearing. Therefore, I decided to stop at a nearby vending machine in a convenience store and grab a can of hot coffee to drink to minimize the coldness that is seeping through my skin. I am not a coffee person but I could drink it without any problem.

The convenience store has a few customers but they were busy doing their business. I don't have any business inside so I just stay outside and drink the coffee. I am just there trying to make out where the cold is coming from when all of a sudden, I saw a glimpse of someone familiar to me running past by while being followed by a few people who seemed to be like bodyguards.

It just occurred in my peripheral view of my vision so I am not entirely sure who passed by but since I seemed to feel kind of recognize who they were chasing with, I decided to follow them and to avoid getting spotted by those bodyguards, I decided to use the roof and started chasing on them.

Since I am using the rooftops as my method of transportation, I am not blocked by intersections and corners that would slow down my chase allowing me to catch up and see who they were chasing. 

And to my surprise, it was none other Rika, aka Harmless Sparrow. Seeing her being chased, I can immediately tell that these guys chasing her are the people that she said to be the people under the orders of her fiancee. Seeing her escape like this desperately while they are chasing, I can tell she is in big trouble.

Rika is not that far from the chasing guys but she is not visible to them at the moment so I decided to help her out. When she turned into the corner, I jumped down, grabbed her waist, and carry her like a princess before jumping back again to the rooftop.

This caught Rika by surprise and tried to break free from my grasp.

"Stop struggling or you will fall off the roof, also, be quiet if you don't want your pursuers to know where you are right now."

When she heard about this, she stopped struggling and turned to look at me. She was about to say something the moment she have seen my face but I gestured her to keep silent and peered under the roof where her pursuers arrived where she was before.

"Where did she go?!"

"She shouldn't have gotten too far just yet, she must be around hiding somewhere! Go and split up, that way, we can cover more ground!"

The men quickly moved in different directions to search for Rika.

"We are not safe here, let's go somewhere safe. And remember to stay quiet. We might get discovered if you don't."

She nodded and I quickly traverse the rooftops. I didn't know if there were any tracking devices on her so I decided to bring her to the playground for kids in the neighborhood. There was a nearby gazebo so we can stay there for the time being.

Who would have thought that rescuing her would lead me to some complicated situations more than what I signed up for.