She was not okay.

Yumi looked at Sachiko for the hundredth time that afternoon and, to her dismay, Sachiko' scowl only deepened. The rest of the Yamayurikai noticed her bad mood for the past day and they stared at Yumi as if she was the source of everything. Yoshino's eyes screamed: "what you did now?" and truthfully, Yumi had no idea.

She tried to think what she may have done to annoy Sachiko, but she couldn't, nothing made sense, she was positive that this time it wasn't her fault. However, then, whose fault was it? And what she could do to fix it?

Sachiko grumbed something to herself and Yumi gulped. She looked around and the other girls were looking at her, urging her to act.

"I think it's enough for today," exclaimed Sachiko out of nowhere. She got up quickly, almost as if she was late for something.

"I can go with you, onee-sama!" said Yumi standing up too. If they stayed alone for some time, Yumi could try to understand what was going on and maybe fix it. Sachiko's mood affected her greatly, all Yumi ever wanted was for Sachiko to be happy and not knowing what caused her anger bothered Yumi, so she would do whatever she had to do to make it all alright again.

"No, you should stay. I'm tired and I need to go home. We will see each other tomorrow, okay?"

And with fast moves, she left, barely looking behind or waiting for an answer.

Yoshino stood up and glared at Yumi:

"What did you do now?"

And poor Yumi had absolutely no idea.

"Just apologise already."

At this hour, Ogasawara Sachiko was normally preparing to sleep, but it wasn't a normal night, not even a normal week. In fact, Sachiko wasn't being her normal self for a while now. She fumed while arguing with a R5 in the kingdom chat.

'It's a kill event,' she wrote and if glares could kill, that french asshole would be dead.

'You'll kill this kingdom,' they wrote back. She rolled her eyes.

'It's a war game!' answered one of her team members and she agreed with him.

She was going to say something else when her R5, the alliance leader, called her in private. They did nothing wrong, they were following the game's calender!

'Chinensis,' he wrote, 'it's useless to argue. Just keep having fun and forget the criers'

'I'll destroy them,' she wrote back. 'All of them.'

'Do it,' his answer was really fast, 'it will be great to watch'.

She smiled to herself and crossed her legs on her bed. That position was new for her and all her tutors would be appealed if they saw her crouched staring at that smartphone and making faces.

This was going to be fun.

She waited for ke for days now, building up, training armies, helping her alliance to grow and selecting her targets. Sadly, her day was full and rushed, so she couldn't play earlier, but she could imagine what was happening, counting the seconds to get home. The first place of the kill event was probably taken by one of her teammates, an australian guy with almost as much money to spend as she did. He sent her a message earlier telling her to keep an eye on the french jerk because he wouldn't be on.

She looked at her alliance chat and her mood worsened when someone mentioned that they called her a coward in the kingdom chat. She wrote the answer, then she took a deep breath, erased everything and checked her bookmarks for the french alliance hive. Her equipment was perfect and her army was perfectly balanced. Her golden castle showed up in the middle of her enemies and she only planned to sleep when they all quit.

Five of her teammates followed her almost immediately and then, it started.

Yumi saw her spacing out, she noticed when Sachiko closed her eyes for a few seconds in exhaustion before waking up again. Her onee-sama seemed exhausted and Yumi was terribly concerned. Yumi waited for Sachiko during the morning and she was surprised when her onee-sama got late, Sachiko was never late. She swallowed her concern and pretended it was all okay when people questioned her.

Not even Touko-chan seemed to know what was wrong, Yumi asked her many times and she almost called Kashiwagi-san to ask him if he knew what was going on. Although Touko-chan agreed that Sachiko was weird and even more reclused than usual, she admitted she thought it was Yumi's fault.

What Yumi noticed more was that Sachiko was almost inseparable of her smartphone and it was rare because her onee-sama didn't even like the device very much (contrary of her grandfather that gave her news models every time they were out), but for two weeks now, her onee-sama had her phone near her and her eyes went to it with a disturbing constancy.

"What if she has a boyfriend?" Noriko said that during their lunch time. "They may talk a lot on the phone, that's why she spaces out and is tired. Maybe they have a distance relationship going on."

Shimako and Yoshino, after the initial shock, looked at a frozen Yumi. The poor girl stared at Noriko with wide eyes and a completely horrified expression. Yoshino touched her shoulder, but poor Yumi was lost in her mind watching her beautiful onee-sama with an unknown man. She could see clearly now. How Sachiko smiled quickly at the screen sometimes, how she was inseparable from a device she very recently hated, how she always seemed to be in a hurry and how whatever happened on that screen influenced her mood sometimes. Her heart hurt when she imagined Sachiko smiling and laughing at something a stupid man said to her, Sachiko would say she needed to sleep and he would beg her to stay with him just a little more and Sachiko would agree because staying with him like that was all she needed to be happy. She didn't know if they had seen each other personally or if he asked her for pictures… Normal pictures, smiling pictures, spicy pictures… did they use some video chat? Did he go to sleep every day with Sachiko's face being the last thing he saw? Did he ask her to let her phone on so he could see her beautiful face sleeping? Did he call her the first thing in the morning just because he wanted to hear her voice? Did he miss Sachiko as much as Yumi did most of the time and worse of all, did Sachiko miss him as well? Was that why she was so anxious the other day?

She envied him and hated him at the same time. She already hated a dumb man she didn't even know just because he had everything she ever wanted and it wasn't fair!

Yoshino touched her again, but Yumi's panicked face didn't change.

"Well done, Noriko-chan," said Yoshino. "You broke Yumi-san."

"What is she imagining?" said Noriko examining Yumi's face. "It must be something awful."

"Probably she is imagining Sachiko with a man."

"Poor Yumi-chan," said Shimako worried. She tried to touch Yumi as well and this time the girl blinked. "Yumi-chan?"

"NOOOOO!"

Sachiko barely slept.

After the initial attack, the french guys' allies went to her alliance. It was war all night while she attacked and reinforced her weaker allies. When things finally quieted down, she went to sleep and apparently two or three hours of sleep weren't enough to fuel her. It was hard not to yawn, her eyes were heavy and it stung, most of her lectures went in a blur and suddenly she was in a Yamayurikai meeting with Yumi's worried eyes on her.

Her phone buzzed and she saw someone had sent her a mail. She took the phone and, discreetly, she opened the game. She had, in fact, 5 private mails, all of them saying the same thing: "we are being attacked", she checked the hive immediately and yes, three large castles were killing all smaller castles around. She checked her friends again, but Yoshino had called Yumi's attention and with Yumi distracted and Rei, busy, nobody would pay attention to what she was doing.

She told her allies she was there, and she reinforced a small castle that was being attacked, she used almost all her speed-ups to send her army there in time. The victory report was beautiful and she immediately shared it to her alliance. One of the three large castles simply disappeared and the other two immediately stopped attacking. She told everyone to use a protective shield and she closed the game. Her large and victorious smille, however, didn't go unnoticed.

"Happy, Sachiko?" for the first time since picking up her phone, Sachiko remembered her friends.

"You can say that," she answered, hiding her smile with her hands.

She didn't miss Yumi's terrified expression. Noriko looked at Sachiko and then at Yumi.

"Something wrong, Yumi?"

"It looks like you saw a ghost, Yumi-chan." said Rei. "Are you okay?"

Yumi shook her head. Hopefully her onee-sama wouldn't see the tears in her eyes. Was Noriko right then? The change in her onee-sama had been obvious, she was so excited and proud after reading whatever she had on her phone and Yumi felt her heart soar (Sachiko was the most beautiful person in the world, especially when she smiled) and break as she imagined who put that smile there and why couldn't she do the same. She left early this time and ignored her onee-sama's call.

Sachiko was in second place during the kill event. She imagined that the difference with the first place was low and she could get first place easily. There were still 28 hours of the event and she was positive she would finish in first.

However, she was sad. Yumi took off as soon as she could and Sachiko had no idea what had happened. She even asked Rei if she did something wrong, but her friend had also shook her shoulder.

"I think Yumi had a bad day," said Shimako. Noriko lowered her head as if guilty of something.

"Oh Yumi, what will I do with you?"

She overanalyzed the situation many times, trying to see what she did wrong, but nothing came up. She would have to pull her imouto aside and confront her. Seriously, Yumi should know better than run away from her problems, especially if Sachiko was in the middle of it.

'Chinesis,' someone called her in the alliance chat and shared some coordinates. 'I want to attack their alliance, but I can't take this guy.' He shared a report and her eyes shone with the 300k plus army there.

'I can,' she answered. Her castle ported near her enemy and she attacked.

She went to sleep after 2 am and after killing half the kingdom. Her alliance was proud of her while their enemies cursed her name. That stupid game shouldn't make her that angry nor that proud.

"We should take her phone!" exclaimed Yoshino.

Shimako and Yumi looked at her with surprise.

"Whose phone?" asked Yumi, lost. "Onee-sama's phone?"

Yoshino nodded.

"So we can figure out why she is weird!"

Shimako shook her head.

"Or Yumi-chan can ask Sachiko-san what is going on. We don't need to steal anything."

"We won't steal, Shimako," said Yoshino. "Just take it for a moment, like a loan. She just won't know she loaned us her phone. What do you think, Yumi-chan?"

"EH?"

"Yumi-chan," said Shimako. "Just ask Sachiko-sama what is happening, she would tell you."

"What if she doesn't, Yumi-chan?"

"Of course she would, Yumi-chan. She's your onee-sama!"

Yumi looked at her friends. Devil Yoshino on the left and Angel Shimako on the right. She swallowed.

"I dunno…"

Before Yoshino could shake her by the shoulders, the teacher arrived and Yumi never felt so relieved to see a teacher's face. She needed to think. Yoshino's plan was interesting because she would learn what her onee-sama was hiding, but invading Sachiko's privacy seemed unthinkable. Shimako's plan on the other hand was safe, Sachiko would tell her the truth and everything would be fine.

"It wouldn't," she whispered.

Hearing from Sachiko herself would be devastating, what if she had to hear about things they talk? Would she have to see his pic and pretend he deserved her? Would she become Sachiko's confident in this secret romance? Could she? She tried to swallow the lump inside her throat. Could she handle knowing that Sachiko's smile was for someone else? Wait! Would she have to meet him? Was she even ready for that to happen? What if they kissed in front of her?

Her stomach burned and she felt like throwing up.

Yumi wasn't a fool. She knew this day would come, but she didn't expect it to be so soon! Sachiko was supposed to be only hers for about another year! But this secret guy showed up and everything was breaking earlier than expected. She didn't want to ask Sachiko and rush the process, she needed a few more days to process everything. Her head hurt.

It was happening too fast.

It was the last day of the event. So far she had lost 300 k men and she was speeding up their healing. She and two more were planning one last hit, their biggest hit, that night, and she was anxious.

"Sachiko!"

Sachiko sighed when she heard that voice.

"Sei-sama," she said with no motivation when her senior went running after her. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to see Yumi-chan!" she exclaimed way too happily, "Oh, and Shimako too."

"How many times do I have to tell you to leave Yumi alone?!"

"One more? Maybe? How are you by the way? You were walking really fast. Are you in a hurry? Do you have something to do?"

"I have a meeting to attend," she was annoyed with Sei's presence and her reason to be there. "What do you want with Yumi? Don't you have studying to do?"

"I missed Yumi-chan's face. That's all. Oh, look there, a girl is running!"

Sachiko turned to look more out of reflex than anything else. It took merely seconds for her to look at Sei again. She was going to scold her when Sei beat her to it.

"Ops, look at the time, I have to go. Bye!"

Sachiko had no idea what had just happened, she just sighed and shook her head. Sometimes she was sure that Sei's presence was just to annoy her. Nothing else.

"Wait," Yoshino said with her arms crossed.

"We will get late, Yoshino," complained Yumi. "Shimako-chan went already. I don't want onee-sama to scold me."

"I promise it will make you happy."

"Getting scolded doesn't make me happy!"

"Just wait, Yumi-chan. I'll tell Sachiko-sama that it was my fault, ok? Just wait."

Yumi grumbled.

"What are we waiting for anyway?"

"Answers!"

Yumi was going to ask again when she felt arms snaking around her waist and a warm body crashing against her back.

" EH!"

"Yumi-chan! I missed you!"

"Sei-sama! Let me go!"

"No!"

"Sei-sama!"

Sei laughed in her ear, then looked at Yoshino grinning.

"I got it!" she exclaimed, handing something to Yoshino. "It was easy!"

"Thank you, Sei-sama! You just saved Yumi-chan!"

"I aim to please! Especially if it's to please Yumi-chan!"

Yumi struggled to get out of Sei's arms and she questioned Yoshino what it meant. Her friend grinned like mad and presented her the object Sei got.

"Behold, Sachiko-sama's phone!"

Sei looked proud, while Yumi stared at the object with confusion.

"How did you get that?"

"I have very skilled hands. Plus Sachiko's head was somewhere else."

"Sei-sama is the best!" said Yoshino trying to unblock the device. "Damn, she has a pin code. Spill it out,Yumi!"

Yumi shook her head.

"I didn't agree to this! I don't want to break onee-sama's trust!"

Sei approached Yoshino and whispered something in her ear. Yoshino nodded and typed something.

"It worked!" she exclaimed.

"Yoshino, no!"

"So, you don't want to know, Yumi-chan?" Sei asked her, barely lifting her eyes from the device. "You truly don't want to know? You can blame me, if you want."

"No, I don't want to know!"

Yoshino and Sei looked at each other.

"Okay, then," said Yoshino. "I want to know though."

"I do too!" said Sei. "I want to be the first to tell Youko if Sachiko got a boyfriend."

"She doesn't have a boyfriend," said Yumi glaring at Sei, who laughed.

"Let's see it now," said Yoshino browsing the apps.

"Is that Tinder?" asked Sei surprised.

"Onee-sama doesn't have a tinder!" said Yumi running to them and checking the screen. Sei laughed and Yumi knew she had been played.

"No tinder," said Yoshino. "No other dating app too."

"Message app? What else she has?"

"Almost nothing," saide Yoshino.

Sachiko's phone was empty, pretty much. Some college apps and standart apps. No social network either.

"Why is she paying so much attention to it if there is nothing here?" asked Yoshino confused.

"Wait, here." Sei pointed to the app. "It seems to be a game."

"Onee-sama doesn't play games."

"Yeah, Sachiko-sama isn't the gamer type."

"But it's the only weird thing here," argued Sei and she touched the app.

Yumi should tell them to stop. She expected to see love messages, but there was nothing there. Sei expected spicy pics, but Sachiko's gallery was empty.

"What is Sachiko-sama hiding?"

The app was indeed a game. It took some minutes to fully load and they examined it. It was a large golden castle in the middle of many other castles, few were gold, but most of them were smaller. There were red and green dots crossing the screen. Plus some monsters with different levels around.

"What is this?"

Yoshino clicked on the chat box. A cute girl named ThePrincess had just said: "we need Chinensis or Lord Z now! Mail them!"

"Ha! I bet Sachiko is Chinensis! So predictable." exclaimed Sei. "Click the mail, she has six messages!"

Yumi was lost. She had no idea what was happening, even though it was clearer and clearer. There was a Lord Z's message and Sei clicked on it.

'C, is today still ok? I can't wait, bought a bunch of new toys to try it out. You will like it'

"Naughty Sachiko," said Sei grinning.

"It means nothing, Sei-sama!" said Yumi even if her mind took her to bad places… Like Sachiko meeting this Lord Z and trying out 'new toys'. Her face probably showed her thoughts because Sei and Yoshino laughed out loud. "It's not funny," she fummed.

Another mail from FuryLover:

'Can u rein me? I want to get that stupid LMT, but his t10 will murder me'

A third email was from LittleIndianGirl:

'Ty for the gifts, love. You're the best!'

"They seem to be friends," mentioned Yoshino. She closed the mail box. "She is the strongest here, look at her castle level". The number 28 shined among the madness of dots going around.

"Lord Z. is there," said Sei pointing the other large castle near Sachiko's. Yumi pouted and Sei grinned.

There were new messages at the chat box.

'C, are you on? We need your help!'

"Answer them!" said Sei too excited for her own good.

"I think that's enough," said Yumi and Yoshino agreed. They closed the game and stared at each other. "What does it all mean?" she asked her friend.

"Isn't it obvious?" Sei laughed. "Who could guess our Sachiko was a gamer? Youko will love it!"

"So it's not a boyfriend," whispered Yumi. Yoshino touched her shoulder and smiled.

"Boyfriend?" Sei laughed. "Yumi-chan, you are so cute and innocent! Sachiko doesn't want a boyfriend, silly."

"Yumi-chan," said Yoshino, handing her the phone. "Her pin code is your birthday."

Yumi apologised much more than necessary.

"Sei-sama", growled Sahiko with a very annoyed expression. "Of course it had to be her!"

Rei gigled.

"She does it just to piss you off, Sachiko. You know that."

"Still! She has no shame! No shame at all!"

It took Sachiko some time to calm down. Yumi watched secretly Sachiko checking her phone. She wondered what it all meant. It made no sense for her onee-sama to play games, especially war games, she couldn't see her stoic, beautiful and elegant onee-sama being angry or happy because of a game. Did they miss something? Maybe Yoshino didn't see the right app? Could someone hide a software so nobody else could see? It made sense, but still, it didn't seem like something Sachiko would do.

She sighed, troubled.

"Yumi."

"Yes, onee-sama?"

"Don't sigh. It's not ladylike."

"Yes, onee-sama."

Yoshino and Shimako giggled, while Yumi got scolded.

Yumi wondered if Sachiko scolded her team members like that and somehow, she didn't like it at all.

"Good night!"

Yumi blinked and only then, she noticed that it was her and her onee-sama alone for the first time in a couple of days. Sachiko was obviously done and she scrolled down her phone.

"Are you done, Yumi?"

"Yes!"

"Then, answer me this: why did you run away from me the other day? Did I do something wrong? Why are you hiding things from me?"

"Sorry, onee-sama," she lowered her head.

"Why? Just tell me that."

"I... ," she took a deep breath and raised her head. "You are the one who was weird these past days, onee-sama. I thought I had done something wrong."

Sachiko was taken back by that accusation.

"What? I was not!"

"Yes, you were!" she insisted. "You were distracted, and tired, and you rushed home! I tried to talk to you, but you ignored me! I thought that you were displeased with me!"

"I… I'm sorry, Yumi. I didn't notice I was different. Nothing bad happened and I'm not angry at you. You have been doing everything perfectly, Yumi. I couldn't ask for a better imouto. I'm sorry if I made you feel sad, I never meant to do it."

"I know, Onee-sama," it was now or never. "Please, tell me, onee-sama. What is going on? Did something new happen? Did you… did you meet someone new?" she felt the blush on her cheeks, but she refused to take her eyes off Sachiko's expression.

"Meet someone new?" she repeated. "I don't understand the question…"

"You smiled at your phone, Onee-sama. You are always with it and the other day you were really mad at it. So I thought… what if you… I dunno… Had someone there?"

"Oh.. OH!" she finally understood and Yumi didn't know if she should feel relieved about it or not. "No, nothing like that happened."

"Would you tell me, Onee-sama? If you meet someone like that, would you tell me?"

Sachiko blinked, then her eyes warmed and she smiled.

"Yumi," she stood up and approached her imouto. "Stand up, please."

Yumi did as she was asked, her eyes gripping her own skirt and her face burning.

"Onee-sama…"

Sachiko touched her cheeks with hands and looked into her eyes in that way that made Yumi's knee weak and her heart almost burst from her chest.

"Yumi," she said with a whisper. "I promise you, nobody, nobody, will mean to me as much as you do. Nobody will take your place from my heart. I won't love anyone as much as I love you. Please, understand that."

"But…"

"No buts!"

Yumi smiled, her chest was so warm and her heart was beating so fast. She touched Sachiko's hands on her face and squeezed.

"Onee-sama, nobody means to me more than you. I love you!"

Sachiko hugged her tight and Yumi wished that moment could last forever. She was exactly where she wanted to be, between her onee-sama's arms and after being sure that her onee-sama loved her.

After they parted, Sachiko's expression told Yumi there was something else.

"But then, onee-sama, what is going on? Why are you so distracted?"

Sachiko probably didn't expect her to be that persistent and she blushed.

"Please," said Yumi again. "I want to know everything you like! I want to know when I find something that interests you! I won't judge you, onee-sama. But please I need to know!"

"Oh Yumi," she touched Yumi's face again, who blushed. "I can't say no to you, can I?"

"No," said Yumi, smiling.

"Well then. Remember, no judging."

"Never!"

Sachiko sat back on her chair and told Yumi to approach. They sat side by side with their arms and legs pressed together.

Yumi blushed again when Sachiko quickly unlocked her phone (it was her birthday!). Still, Yumi expected some occult app or something to pop out, but Sachiko went straight to the game app.

"A game, onee-sama?"

Sachiko blushed a little.

"I know it's silly, Yumi. But once I started, I just couldn't stop."

"That's why you were tired?"

"There was an event…" said Sachiko, not looking at Yumi. "I lost track of time."

"Why were you angry?"

"The stupid french!" she exclaimed looking at her screen. "They are attacking us! I'll burn them all!"

Yumi giggled and Sachiko blushed even more.

"And what made you smile?"

Sachiko thought a little bit.

"Oh, I guess, I reinforced a weaker ally and I got a very nice hit. I finally passed 27 milions deaths and i got my first place back!"

"First place?"

Sachiko clicked on 'Leaderboards' and there, in all seven categories was 'RosaChinensis'.

"I'm first in all of them."

"Eh! Onee-sama is amazing!"

"Not really, I had help. During the first day I met another player that helped me a lot."

"Who is he? Show me?"

Sachiko pointed at Lord Z gold castle near her own.

"Can you teach me how to play?"

Sachiko was surprised.

"Are you sure? Isn't it too weird?"

"No! I want to play it with you! Can I?"

"If you really want to… But you don't have to!"

"I want to do everything with you! If you like something, I want to try it!"

And if they shared funny glances all week, nobody mentioned (even if Yoshino was crazy to demand an answer).

EXTRA:

"Yumi, Yumi. Are you listening?"

After much convincing from Yumi, Sachiko finally agreed to video chat her at night. She was on her bed facing a very frustrated Sachiko.

"I am listening, onee-sama!"

"I know your faces, Yumi! You were spacing out!"

"I'm sorry!"

Yumi really was sorry, but how to explain to Sachiko that Yumi was too busy admiring her face to pay attention? She was happy because Sachiko would be the last thing she would see before sleeping, it made her giddy.

"I'm here telling why gems are important!"

"I know! Explain to me again, please!" Yumi, of course, already read everything she could find about the game, but she just wanted for Sachiko to keep talking.

"One more time! If you space out again, I'll hang up!"

"I won't, I promise!"