100% of gamblers lose before they win. (Arcana Virus)
-
“From the chatroom?!” Kaita blurted in genuine surprise.
“Kaita!” Turboman hurriedly hissed. “Keep it down—“
“F— from the chatroom?!” Kaita asked again in an undertone. “But they should know all about this kinda stuff! Aren’t they supposed to all be Net Saviors, too?!”
“…I have to admit, I’m surprised, too,” Turboman added while his Operator simmered down a bit. “It’s pretty tough to come up with a perfect answer when you’re going two hundred down a rocky road…”
“You shouldn’t feel bad about it, is what he means,” Kaita was quick to explain. “Nobody’s gonna make a perfect choice in a situation like that, and people from the chatroom oughta know it.” He offered Lan a sunny smile. “I found out all that stuff about my Netto, and it was a lot, but I still get it. He really didn’t have a shot at making a perfect choice! So, what I mean is, don’t worry about me.”
Both Kaita and Turboman nodded at Rock’s suggestion of finding something to calm Lan down. That took a moment of thinking over, since neither of them were sedate sorts of people. “Like… reading a book, or looking for some cool page on the Internet? Mary-chan knows more about calm than me, I think, but those are things she likes, so, um…” Kaita looked back to Lan. “What do you like?”
-
Unfortunately for them, Kaita's outburst was enough to attract the attention of Lan's mother, if only for a moment. "Is something going on with a chatroom?" Ms. Hikari called out from the kitchen. "I hope you're not getting in trouble online, again. Everything's safe? You aren't doing any drugs, or anything? Ha, ha."
Lan blanched at such a strange attempt at a joke. "What?! No!" she barked back as she peeked over the couch. "It's nothing! It doesn't have anything to do with me." She ducked behind the cushion again before any part of her face could betray the lie... though Kaita's reassurance quickly changed her expression to a strangely thoughtful one, anyways.
"I've only heard of Net Saviors bein' in your guys' world," Rock observed as Lan lowered her head. "There's Officials, and Net Sheriffs, and stuff, but some of those Officials have been way more of a pain in the ass than you'd ever expect." She shrugged. "I don't really get it, myself."
"...I mean, you're not an adult," Lan muttered to herself, before immediately hurrying to correct herself. "I-I guess Netto-san, and Meiru-san, they kind of are, but- um- it's different." Embarrassed, she looked away for a moment. "But... I didn't think of it that way. With the stuff that happened to Netto-san..."
Rock raised an eyebrow. "The Silver Division stuff?" she asked, her expression becoming just as thoughtful as her operator's. "Yeah... yeah, that's true, ain't it? There wasn't ever going to be a perfect answer... so we might as well just play the cards we're given, right?"
Lan went quiet, like she wasn't fully able to express her feelings. "I... I guess," she murmured to herself. She made eye contact with Kaita again, and after a few quiet seconds of contemplation, she blushed. "W-well... um. Either way. I don't know what I like," she admitted shyly. "I mean, battling isn't going to calm me down..."
"You're always watchin' anime when you're-"
"We're not watching anime," Lan instantly responded.
-
Kaita felt both baffled by Hikari-san’s interruption—drugs?—and backed into a corner—‘in trouble online’ described basically everything Kaita and Turboman ever did there. He stayed huddled behind the couch, staring in the direction her voice was coming from with wide eyes.
“I guess ‘Official’ was the title before it got changed to ‘Net Savior’,” Turboman explained. “Dunno why it didn’t change for everyone else’s worlds. The new one sounds way cooler.” As Rock thought through Kaita’s example, he turned back to Kaita. “I don’t think Hikari-san was being serious.”
“Oh,” Kaita said faintly. His eyes met Lan’s before she began to throw out suggestions of what not to do.
“Not anime, and not Netbattling,” Turboman repeated for the nonexistent record, entirely serious. “Got it.”
“We could… go back outside, I guess?” Kaita suggested. “We could send our Navis to Internet City, or some other hangout spot? We could watch not-anime…”
“Why don’t you do something outdoors? Like… uh…” It was obviously taking some doing for Turboman to think of something that didn’t involve some form of vehicle. Kaita couldn’t help but smile.
“Frisbee, or soccer, or something,” he finished so his Navi didn’t have to stay stuck on it.
-
"It is way cooler," Lan muttered under her breath, puffing her cheeks. For a moment, she didn't even realize she'd voiced the thought out loud, and immediately shied away. "U-um... but, yeah. I don't know. I don't even think there's that many of them. I don't know what they do." She paused, averting her eyes. "At least you guys have to go look at those liminal spaces or whatever..."
Rock exhaled a little once Kaita realized that it was just Ms. Hikari having a very strange sense of humor. Really, she didn't understand half the things she said sometimes... but it wasn't like she saw her much, anyways. "Internet City...? They have cities on the Internet?" she couldn't help but question. "I sure as hell haven't seen 'em."
"I don't care what we do," Lan mumbled. "But if we go outside, then we could talk a little louder... I guess." She narrowed her eyes, having remembered some fuzzy things in the back of her mind. "When was the last time I ever thought about... soccer...?"
Without waiting for an answer, she kicked her feet up off the couch and swerved towards the door. Her mother, of course, wasn't going to let her leave without some comment. "Going somewhere?"
"I dunno," Lan mumbled back. "I just want to go outside."
"Well, be careful. Don't stray too far," Ms. Hikari responded, in a tone that Lan always had trouble tolerating. "You know how I feel when you're out late..."
Lan didn't respond verbally, instead opting for an incomprehensible, embarrassed "mmmph".
-
“Yeah, Internet City!” Kaita answered Rock. “It’s a huge virtual world with lots of games and the Net Colosseum and stuff!”
“It started up a while ago now,” Turboman added. “Seven years, at least…”
Lan pointing out that they’d be able to talk more freely outside caused Kaita to nod enthusiastically in approval. “Let’s go!” He sprang to his feet and ran after her to the door, only stopping to quickly pull his shoes back onto his feet.
But Hikari-san’s interruption at the threshold, after the troubling interjection of earlier, stunned him into a momentary silence while he scrambled to figure out what to say. It wasn’t like his own mother had ever seemed to completely believe him when he tried to come up with what he could be doing that wasn’t ‘chasing down Nova’…
“We’ll stay out of trouble, Hikari-san! Promise!” he finally managed to blurt. Then, he took Lan by the wrist and marched the both of them out the door before anything else could be asked.
Once they were down the front steps and out of the lawn, Kaita could finally relax. “I think we’re in the clear!” he cheered to Lan.
-
"Huh. Sounds neat. For a second I thought you meant... here... which, uh, yeah, no," Rock commented, just before her hologram disappeared so she could catch up to her operator. Shows how good of hosts they were if Kaita was already jumping to going to a completely different Internet. She should really be putting more effort into finding interesting things to do, shouldn't she...? Especially after their meeting with the other Lan ended so poorly.
Lan would have darted out of the house on her own, but Kaita unexpectedly ferrying her out stunned her a bit. Once they were outside, it took Lan a few seconds to pry her hand away and look a little more alive again. "Y-yeah," she mumbled, still looking embarrassed. "Um... sorry. I-I mean, I don't want to look for trouble, but I hate just... sitting around... and..."
As if specifically to spite her, it was then that the PET was attacked by an incoming call. "What now?!" Lan couldn't help but groan, pulling her PET screen close to her face... and quickly finding out who was actually calling her. "What?! No! I'm not answering that!"
If it weren't for the fact that it would be a supremely bad idea, Lan probably would've thrown her PET to the ground. Instead, Rock reappeared on her shoulder, looking just as annoyed. "I wish we could just ignore it," she groused. "But it's probably... something important."
"Ugh! Fine!" Lan complained, before realizing that Kaita was still standing directly next to her. "Uh! One second! It's nothing!" she said sheepishly, scuttling off to the side and hiding on the side of the steps leading to the front door. Dr. Wily, of all people, was the absolute last person she wanted to be hearing from now. What was he going to do, trick them into using another super-powerful program or whatever?!
Once she answered the call, she didn't even bother turning on the face display. "What?" she quietly hissed. "Don't- I don't want you to-"
"We have a problem," Dr. Wily interrupted, before Lan could even finish her complaint. "News is getting out about those little Arcana-viruses that you've been battling."
Lan's blood instantly ran cold. Were they being watched? "Wh-what...?"
"Not the ones you fought," Wily corrected, which immediately relieved Lan. "Rather... There's some rumors going around that Dead Hand is suing a business for 'theft of proprietary data'... and their description of what they're after is all too familiar." Wily tapped his fingers on his chair, laughing darkly at the matter. "Oh, the things you find out about when you spend too long looking at public court records."
"...Okay?" Rock barked back. "What do you want us to do about it? We're not fuckin' lawyers." She crossed her arms. "If what's-its-name knows about it already, won't we just get in more trouble if we take it for ourselves?"
-
“Ah,” said Turboman, who had in fact assumed they were talking about whatever the equivalent was in Rock’s Internet.
“You really don’t have anything like it…?” wondered Kaita. He was genuinely amazed. Internet City was so old, and even discounting it there were independently-run webpages to visit, some of which were even older…
Before Kaita could reassure Lan that she was fine, her PET rang. It seemed obvious that she didn’t want to take the call, but just as obvious that she had to. Was this her version of Meijin-san…? He sounded a lot older… But he was speaking with authority about the Arcana Virus phenomenon, just like Meijin-san and Hikari-hakase would’ve to Kaita.
“Guess we’re drivin’ right into trouble,” Turboman whispered to his Operator.
“Looks like it.” Kaita didn’t really mind this turn of events; exploring the Internet and solving problems like this were what he did. But he couldn’t help but murmur, “Sorry, Hikari-san…” to the front door behind them. He hadn’t even realized what a relief it was to no longer need to lie to his parents until he found himself having lied to someone else’s. It was much more uncomfortable the second time around.
With that, Kaita stuck his head over the side so Lan and her caller could see, only to discover that said caller was voice-only. “Um, excuse me!” He turned on his Net Savior hologram on reflex, then remembered the other person couldn’t see it. “I’m Todoroki Kaita, with the Net Saviors of, uh, Beyondard!” he explained as quickly as his mind could recall the proper terms. “We’re doing research on the Arcana Viruses. Are you saying… that Dead Hand is trying to say the Arcana Viruses are theirs?”
-
Lan couldn't help but jump as soon as Kaita barged in. Rock cringed, too, waving her hands defensively, though it did nothing to stop her operator's resulting outburst. "K-Kaita- why'd you follow me?!" Lan hissed, immediately trying to hide her PET. "It's nothing- it's nothing, it's nothing, it's nothing-!!"
Unfortunately for her, the damage had already been done. Wily chuckled, his gravelly voice still audible even as Lan tried to muffle the speakers. "Todoroki Kaita, hmm? From Beyondard?" he said, sounding rather bemused. "I see that you haven't stopped making the rounds, Lan. A new friend?"
"Sh-shut up," Lan blubbered, completely embarrassed. The expression she was shooting at Kaita was wildly unreadable, besides her face being beet red.
Rock groused to herself, but there wasn't much she could to do perform damage control when Kaita was already engaging with the conversation. Well, it wasn't like they hadn't already been on a mission together - it was just that Lan (and herself...) had been particularly cagey about Wily lately. "A friend... yeah," she replied, sighing. "Just... spit out what you want, already, old man."
Ignoring Rock's less-than-satisfied tone, Wily finally responded to Kaita. "It would seem so. Or, rather... the vaults that those viruses sprung out from," he explained. "It doesn't surprise me. Anyone could've figured out they had some connection to those devices. After all, the first attacked not long after you met their agents, didn't it? But why they would want them back is another matter entirely."
Lan's lips twitched. "Hi...Hika... he, uh," she began, stuttering before she could bring herself to even acknowledge the other world's Dr. Hikari. "It was something like, they were absorbing data, right? Maybe they want that data, or something like that." She slapped the side of her head with her hand in frustration. "Or... that ancient... crap... ugh."
"That's what I want you to investigate," Wily said, before quickly correcting himself to clarify, "Help investigate. No one else has quite the combination of strong Navi and stealthing ability like you do. Ha, ha."
"Oh, how you flatter me," Rock barked back sarcastically.
-
“Because it’s about the Arcana Viruses! I oughta help!” Kaita tried to explain over the panic.
(On his shoulder, Turboman wondered if his Operator had made the right move, but only for a moment. Everyone was following the same course now, after all, and the ride tended to be smoother that way. Besides, getting there faster was always better, in his opinion.)
At last, the ‘old man’ on the other end of the line regained temporary control of the conversation. Kaita listened intently, looking over at Lan when Wily addressed her in his explanation.
“‘Ancient crap’?” he wondered when Lan mentioned it, entirely earnest. “But, yeah. The way it got explained to me… it sounded like the program at the center of them was sucking up information from its surroundings, somehow. And that’s why they all turn out so different from each other.” He tilted his head. “But Meiru-san would’ve mentioned Dead Hand if she’d thought they knew about, y’know, the kinda stuff the Arcana Viruses have gotten up to since then…”
“Maybe they didn’t then, but they do now,” mused Turboman.
-
"She didn't mention them...?" Rock questioned, genuinely surprised. "I mean, I dunno what they've been up to since we went on our whole overseas trip, but it was still pretty suspicious that they were on the island at the same time as us." She crossed her arms, looking away from the PET; it felt bad to be having a normal conversation with Dr. Wily again, but there was really no avoiding it. "They were makin'... robots or something, right? So what the hell would these data-absorbers have to do with that?"
Lan narrowed her eyes, dots connecting chaotically in her mind. "Maybe they're trying to hide something," she speculated. "It'd make sense why they'd want the vaults back if they messed up, right? Maybe they got... like, loose, or something."
"If what your contacts say about the vaults is the truth, then that very well could be the case," Dr. Wily surmised. "Technology firms often have some very interesting things to hide. If anything, it would be wise to track this vault down... if only so we can pry for info on how to end this little problem of yours."
Lan grumbled, narrowing her eyes. "Okay? Whatever. Where is it, then?" she barked. "If we deal with it, then will you stop calling me?"
Choosing to ignore Lan's threat, Wily instead explained the mission. "The company they're suing is a gambling corporation. Their largest casino just so happens to be in downtown Den City," he said. "So it doesn't surprise me that one of those vaults could've crawled all the way there. I'd start by investigating that business. I'm certain they won't even care if you loiter around the premises, given our gambling laws. Ha, ha."
Lan immediately blanched. "C-casino... company?" she muttered, bad memories already bubbling up in her mind. Rock, similarly, was looking quite displeased. "Ew... ew... ugh."
-
“I guess we’d have to ask her about it,” was all Kaita could offer as an answer to why Meiru wouldn’t think of Dead Hand as a threat.
As Wily got down to business, Kaita nodded along. Turboman’s visor was displaying an expression somewhere between disbelief and alarm as Wily told the two kids to investigate a casino like it was nothing out of the ordinary. But it sounded like both the Net Saviors and Wily had plenty to gain from this mission, even beyond securing another vault...
“Got it!” Kaita said, not noticing Turboman’s discomfort… but immediately noticing Lan’s. There was probably no chance of her wanting to explain what was wrong in earshot of Wily, given how she’d been acting earlier. So he told their mysterious informant, “Shoot us the address and just leave it to us!”
-
Unfortunately for her, Kaita agreed to the mission before Lan could voice her severe disdain for the idea of getting anywhere within a ten-mile radius of a casino ever again. "Wh-whatever... It better be quick," she sheepishly mumbled as Wily nodded with satisfaction. It couldn't be as bad as Via Iracunda... right?
"Very well, then. The good news is that I'm sure you'll find a way to get into the network somehow, even if you aren't of age," Dr. Wily continued to explain. "The bad news is that I would expect their network to be rather up-to-date, given the money at stake. At the very least, scoping it out would be useful." He tapped his fingers on his chair. "I'll send the address to Rock, and then you can be on your way."
"Sure," Rock groused, begrudgingly accepting the incoming mail. The second she checked if the address was legit or not, she side-eyed the video screen. "'K, we're done now, right? We're done? Then, bye."
Rock didn't even wait for Wily to respond for her to forcibly hang the call up. It was a gesture that Lan certainly appreciated, given the pained groan she let out a few seconds later. "Whyyy," she grumbled to herself. "I guess... it's just something we dealt with before. It's fine. But why..."
"To be honest, I kinda forgot about the vault stuff," Rock admitted, crossing her arms. "But if they've been runnin' around like rats while we've been overseas... then that's gotta be bad news, right?"
-
Kaita waited for the call to end, trying his hardest not to fidget even though he desperately wanted to talk to Lan without Wily around. Finally, the old doctor hung up, leaving Kaita free to turn to Lan and ask, “Are you okay? It felt like you couldn’t trust him, and you got so upset when he mentioned it was a casino…”
“What about me?!” whined Turboman.
Kaita glanced over to shrug, “Well, I can guess why you’re upset—”
“It’s a casino, Kaita,” Turboman couldn’t hold back from pointing out. “It isn’t even a fun kind of place you shouldn’t be going.” In an undertone, he huffed, “What did he mean, ‘given our gambling laws’?”
“Maybe it’s okay for kids to go to casinos in this world!” Kaita brightly offered for an explanation. “If we’re just following the law of the place we’re in, there’s nothing wrong, right?” Turboman wordlessly sputtered, not quite able to piece together a proper rebuttal.
With that, Kaita turned back to Lan, waiting to hear her out with big, friendly eyes.
-
Rock immediately narrowed her eyes. "Sorry to burst your... uh, I guess it wouldn't really be your bubble, in this case, but there's no way in hell that a kid's gonna be allowed in a casino on a legal level," she explained. "I think what the old man means is that it'll be pretty easy for people to turn a blind eye to any chicanery. That, uh, nothin's actually gonna happen to us."
Lan, meanwhile, retreated as soon as Kaita checked in on her. "It's- it's nothing. It's nothing," she blubbered, her face turning red. "I don't like him, and I don't like casinos, either. It's just stupid... it's all... stupid." Her voice trailed off as Kaita's big wet eyes burned holes into her soul. Eventually, she stomped her foot on the ground. "Kaiiittaaaa, this suuuucks! I mean, we can't just do nothing, right?!"
With Lan failing to provide an adequate explanation, Rock turned to Turboman. "Some bad shit happened at a casino we were in a couple months back. Uh, not here. Somewhere else," she said. "Nothin' to worry about, now. It was another world. But... still. The hell are we supposed to do about this?"
"I don't want to go downtown! I don't like going downtown," Lan grumbled. "I guess I kind of, sort of know the train routes... a little... Ugh." She curled her lip at Kaita, then averted her eyes. "Sorry. I-I'm just being weird. If it's a mission, then we should do it, right...?"
-
Kaita’s sympathy only grew, hearing that Lan absolutely did not want to do this, on any level. It was a bit of a tough situation to think through for him; it was true that going after the vault was important, but also true that he ought not to force Lan into it. “…We’ll take the vault back to my world when we’re done!” he finally settled on. “If you don’t like that guy, then we don’t have to help him.”
The whole ‘going downtown to the casino’ part, which was non-negotiable, seemed like a much more troubling issue. “I…” Kaita decided, “If it’s to do with the Arcana Viruses, I don’t wanna leave it alone. But if something bad happened, then I don’t think it’s weird or stupid if you don’t wanna go, either.”
“You’re not going to be allowed in to begin with, according to Rock over here,” Turboman pointed out. “So either you’ve gotta take us in remotely, or you’re gonna have to ride some crazy luck…”
“You know that’s no big deal! I’ll use my Net Savior badge, like always!” Kaita said.
“Will that even work here?” Turboman asked. “We’ll be disqualified before the starting line with credentials that nobody recognizes…”
For a moment, Kaita could only blink into the middle distance. “…Then we’ll have to dress up as people who do belong there! Just like old times!” He beamed at Lan. “Don’t you think it’s fun to wear a crazy disguise? Though, the best place I know to find them is by having Mary-chan ask her mom…”
“Towa-san is a fashion designer,” Turboman explained for Lan’s sake.
“But, that’s my world…” mused Kaita. “Towa-san always says things like how you have to dress for your occasion, and stuff. So, who would we go to here who’d know what to do…?” He abruptly stopped, shaking his head. “But I can deal with that later.” He turned back to Lan. “I wanna find that vault… but if you don’t want to, you don’t have to.”
-
Lan grumbled uncomfortably as Kaita took charge of the situation. Giving the vault to the Ministry over Wily definitely sounded a little more appealing, at least. "It's... it doesn't have anything to do with the arcana-whatevers," she sheepishly clarified. "So... it's fine..."
"We've beaten a couple of 'em before. As long as we can get in the network, it won't be anything we can't handle, right?" Rock insisted, trying to look as chipper as possible for her operator. "But... there's no way that that badge is gonna work, and..."
Both Lan and Rock went completely silent for a moment as Kaita cooked up a plan that neither of them would have even remotely thought of. "D-dress... up...?" Lan repeated in utter bafflement, her expression looking like she'd just been told to drink mud. "I've... I've never done that in my life... What...?"
"Maybe you would've if you bothered to participate in Halloween, kid!" Rock added, sounding strangely petulant about it, as if her tone was pining for the spooky season. Of course, such a jab earned her a glare from Lan. "Ah-haaahh... Well, it's still a good idea, ain't it? Isn't that the whole idea in movies, stacking on top of each other in a trenchcoat and pretending you're..."
"I am not carrying someone on my shoulders," Lan interrupted. "That's not going to work. At all."
Rock averted her eyes. "Well, okay, fine. But if you dress fancy, it'll seem like you're supposed to be there, right? Like some rich jerk brought their kids along," she continued, giving Kaita a thoughtful glance. "As for here...? Hmm..."
Lan exhaled, closing her eyes. "Triese might know.... I guess," she reluctantly admitted. "I don't want to get anyone else involved... but she knows, like... business stuff..."
-
Once the group had moved to Triese’s house and the introductions were gotten out of the way, Kaita wasted no time calling Mary and arranging for her to join them. As Mary gingerly stepped through the portal, Kaita realized it was her first time traveling across dimensions, just like it had been for him. “This is amazing,” she whispered, looking around herself in awe.
“Right?!” Kaita happily agreed. “Meiru-san said the Fossa Ambiences used to feel way worse, but with the chatroom’s portals it’s really easy.”
“I didn’t feel a thing,” Mary said in agreement. “And now we’re in another world…”
“Awesome!” cheered Ring happily. She ran through the air around Mary’s shoulder, her arms raised wildly. “I’m in another dimension, guys! Check it out!”
“We’re all in another dimension,” Turboman flatly pointed out before turning to Mary. “Anyway, like Kaita said, we need your help!”
“That’s right,” Mary said. She turned to Triese. “Kaita-kun said something about dressing up for a casino party, right? How flashy are you thinking we ought to go...?"
-
With how suddenly the plan had been expanded, Triese looked like she had just ate her entire candy stash in a single bite. She was practically bouncing off the walls getting to meet new people - Lan had briefly mentioned Kaita and Mary before, and she'd probably seen the former in the chatroom once or twice, but now she had a chance to actually speak with them!! Wow!!
"Oh my gosh!! Your Navis are so cool and I can't believe you guys have to do this, like, okay, you're basically dealing with kind of an expert here because I just did the same thing in Reg's world and it totally worked and I got away with it, so!" Triese blabbered in a single breath. "It's so nice to meet you!! You're from the same place that the Netto Lan's super friendly with is from, right?! I guess this is the first time I've got to talk to you guys, so-"
"Hey, uh, we might be on a time crunch here," Rock interjected, taking the wind out of Triese's sails. "Who knows how much longer we've got until that vault starts causing major problems? I know you're excited and all, but..."
Triese curled her lip and recomposed herself. "Right! Okay... yeah, that makes sense," she muttered, though she sounded a little disappointed. Turning to Mary, she continued. "So, I-I mean, you wouldn't want to stand out, necessarily, so probably nothing too flashy, but..."
"...I don't want to 'dress up'," Lan grumbled. "I don't even know if there's a party, so... whatever lets us blend in with, um, the least amount of effort..."
"I mean, dress shirts should be fine, right? What do people who go to casinos dress up like...?" Triese suggested, hovering around Lan and Mary as she rambled. "I have a couple shirts that should fit you. Basically, you'd wanna look like with your rich parents or something, right? So, I guess... think like you're going to a wedding. Nice shoes... and, uh..." She paused. "Um, I've never been to a wedding."
-
Ring, of course, was won over the moment Triese called her ‘cool’. Much as Mary usually stayed vigilant against her Navi’s easily-inflated ego, Triese was so earnest about it that she didn’t want to ruin the mood.
“It’s nice to meet you, Triese-san,” Mary said sweetly once Rock had steered the conversation back onto Lan and Kaita’s mission.
“Yeah, it’s great to meet more of Netto-chan’s friends!” Kaita agreed.
With that, Mary considered Triese’s advice. “That won’t be difficult at all. We won’t even have to ask Mum for anything.”
“Nothing too flashy?!” groused Ring at nearly the same time.
“I’ll just go and fetch the suit you wore last time, Kaita-kun,” Mary said. “And then, if Triese-san is taking care of Netto-chan, we’ll be golden…”
She disappeared back into the portal she’d arrived in, then reappeared with a red satin suit. It had distinctive keycap-shaped buttons, since it had been made for a much more flashy situation. But since she hadn’t brought the avant-garde hat that went with it, and she’d substituted a normal white button-down shirt for the shiny black one it’d first been paired with, Mary figured it was normal enough for a casino party.
"Go on and change, Kaita-kun," Mary instructed with a smile. Once he'd stepped into Triese's bathroom to do so, she turned to the other two girls. "Now, let's see what our options are for Netto-chan."
"Yeah!" cheered Ring.
"We won't go too crazy, don't worry," Mary reassured Lan. "A nice pair of trousers should do."
"Aw..."
-
Triese got the sense that she probably didn't want to run over Mary conversation-wise, so she patiently waited for her co-conspirator to give her opinion. "It's nice to meet you, too!! I haven't really met a lot of the friends Lan's made, so!" she cheerfully responded. "Um, not that I'm saying that's a bad thing, Lan! It's just something I noticed, and... uh..."
"J-just get on with it," Lan stammered, completely embarrassed. "I didn't do it on purpose. It's just, you were at the beach when I was doing something else, and..." She shook her head, realizing she was the one who decided not to go to the beach to begin with, then raised an eyebrow at Mary. "Last time...?"
Triese spun around and ducked into her closet to search for clothes. The first thing she pulled out, a combo piece of a collared white shirt with a black skirt, was met with immediate disdain from Lan. Next, a sleeveless blouse to go with a nice pair of dress pants... which Lan was similarly resistant to. "You gotta pick something, you know," Triese couldn't help but point out. "I know you just like wearing jackets, and I wish I had a fancy jacket or something like that to give you, but that probably won't cut it, you know...?"
"Wh-whatever! If I have to wear fancy... then... just give me whatever's the fanciest thing. I'll deal with it," Lan blubbered, crossing her arms. "I-I don't really care... it's... it's just clothes..."
Triese couldn't help but lower her eyelids and smirk. "Oh?" she muttered, before ducking back into the closet and pulling out a purple-and-white dress with multiple attached bows and too many frills for Lan's character. "I bet you'd be cute in this, you know..." she taunted, having way too much fun.
"Sh-- shut--...!" Lan barked back, growling before she bit her lip. "F-fine... fine... I'll do it..."
Rock raised an eyebrow. "You... don't have to, kid, you know that?" she chimed in with... but her operator's silence told her that she had somehow made this a matter of pride. She was going to wear the dress, because she wasn't a coward!... Or something. It was easy to imagine her saying that...
