Nari is saying goodbye to her friends. Candan; blonde haired and donning a dress shirt, Caspian; wearing his favorite purple dragon shirt and decked out in piercings, Tia; her braids sticking out like the rays of a poorly drawn sun, Myrrh; with her sunglasses and beret, and Auster; light blue-haired and skin pale like ghostly fog.

  One by one, they hand her a present.

  “For good luck,” says Caspian.

  Tia was next, “for prosperity.”

  and then Myrrh, who’s gift proclamation made Nari giggle-snort and blush, “For luck in having babies.”

  Auster hands her a present. They say, “don’t open until you are near the coliseum.”

  “Ah, that's cryptic.”

  Candan is the last to give her a present. He doesn’t say anything. His eyes well with more tears. Gently, Nari’s palm touches his cheek.

  “You’ve always been there for me. I'll miss our game nights.”

  It’s not enough, but he accepts it with a sigh. His hand holds her’s, and he can't take it anymore. He pulls away as ragged, hushed breaths escape his mouth.

  Candan barely speaks as everyone gives her a hug one by one. He is last again. His hug lingers the longest, refusing to let go. The hug lasted longer than it should. She tries to break away, pulling gently, but he just won't let her go. Caspian and Tia have to pry him off of her.

  She bids them all farewell.

  In the car, she listens to draconic opera. She has some understanding of the lyrics. The music lulls her into a deep sleep with dreams imagining herself dancing along with ribbons. A dragon flies around the stage, docile at first, before gracing her with its icy breath. Her movements slow as the ice dragon's sheer cold overtakes her.

  She wakes up, eyes wide. She sighs, “it will be good to dance again.”

  She wonders, ‘why dream about an ice dragon?’

  She gives no more thoughts to it. The contents of the dream do not disturb her.

  At the airport, her and her family begin to board the plane.

  In the boarding line, her cousin taps her on the shoulder and asks, “How excited are you?”

  ”Extremely,” Nari smiles awkwardly, “almost too excited.”

  ”Remember,” her cousin gestures her hand up and down, “temper our expectations.”

  Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

  Nari nods, “Right, right. Got it.”

  Nari sees a girl pass by with her service dragon. The little girl takes the dragon to the desk, and the dragon turns into a human male. It asks the receptionist for a ticket for Sasha Ebony.

  Nari thinks, ‘oh cool, a rich girl on our plane.’

  Of course, she gives no thought to it.

  On the plane, Nari tunes out the world with music and imagines an elaborate music video in her head, anime-style. Something with dragons in it, definitely some alien invasion involved. Hmmm, maybe draconic gods descending from the sk—

  “‘Ello there!”

  Her anime movie is interrupted by Asha Kang, a dragon walking about in his human form. His striking red branded hoodie and brown hair combo are unmistakable. He sits next to her and says, "I noticed your Swap. Would you like to play a game with me?"

  Nari stares at him for a moment. She wants to decline but she yawns (mouth covered obviously) and nods. She tries not to let it go to her head that she is sitting next to and interacting with a CEO.

  Her console is a handheld that easily rests on the pullout tray. She doesn’t have an extra controller but of course he brought his. He takes it out of his bag with a smile.

  They end up playing many games for three hours straight. They play co-op in a first-person demon shooter called FELL.

  “I got a running theory about this game,” she says when there isn’t as much action going on, “I think Fellguy is an angel. He’s got ungodly power and absolute bloodthirst for these demons.”

  Asha shrugs, “makes sense. I never thought of it cause I don’t play Fell for the story.”

  “I am unfortunately a story player with most games I play.”

  He gives her a big ol’ pat on the back.

  “Aaawww there’s nothing unfortunate about that!”

  Their next game is heavily co-op dependent in its gameplay. It involved cutting shapes and swinging the controller. Nari might've accidentally leaned into him a few times. A few "excuse me's" and a blush later, they moved on to a less bumpy game: Six Nights at Daisy's, a horror game about life sized animatronic versions of Vtubers in a luxury restaurant. Gameplay involved the character moving automatically on a set path, like a rail shooter. Minus the shooter part.

  “I’ll take the left, you take the right,” says Nari.

  “Got it. I can gleam from our past game that you'll be jumping a lot at this game.”

  “Mmmmmm,” Nari wants to say no but honestly...

  They reach Night 5 and the gameplay mechanic is switched up. No more are you flashing bright lights into the eyes of Vtubers. Now you must sit in a room and prevent them from reaching it by distracting them with audio cues. The titular Daisy makes her appearance on this night. No longer is she peering creepily at the cameras from her stage.

  Nari gets frazzled at the constant anxiety the game causes. Flipping through cameras and keeping track of the many Vtubers in separate rooms is harder than it sounds. After a while, Asha takes over.

  “I’m not easily scared,” he says, “I’ve worked in the human tech industry.”

  Nari bites her nails as she watches him flip through cameras and play audio cues in rooms opposite of the Vtubers. He wins with flying colors, giving himself a pat on the back.

  “Whoa. You even got me an achievement.”

  “You’re welcome~”

  “Ahaha… thanks.”

  Nari tells him about the lore of SNAD. He nods and listens, and at the end he says “you really love this series, huh?”

  Nari nods, “yea. It’s one of my childhood favorites.”

  During the ride, they watch more movies. Asha holds onto her arm while he’s sleep. It’s unexpected, causing a blush.

  She mutters, “this wouldn’t be so shocking if he weren’t a billion dollar CEO.”

  She looks over and sees his bodyguard staring at her. She laughs nervously. Not today, sir. Not today.

  Asha makes a tiny growl, and Nari remembers something:

  ‘oh, right. He's a dragon.’

  She puts on her music. The song she’s listening to is a pop song made by Italy’s own beloved prince, Ashuton Karrucci.

  This flight might be longer than she thought…