Kagero sat on the edge of the cliffside, looking over the river valley and towards the Tower.  The sunset illuminated the side of the Tower, casting much of it into ominous shadow, while the valley slowly filled with shadows as well.  Looking up at her companion, Kagero - in the real world, Kyugami Hoshino - smiled at the exclamation.  She was more interested in the unusual choice of both avatar and name that Sara had selected than the sunset itself.  Oh, the sunset was beautiful, the world was amazing, but it was definitely the Canadian who had Kagero's attention.<br/><br/>Here, as in real life, Artemis was ten centimeters taller than Kagero; here, Kagero was no better endowed than she was in real life, and her hair just as long - though it white as snow and her eyes gleaming red.  It seemed odd to Hoshino that their sizes and body shapes would be the similar here as in real life, though she did not mind much.  The ninja-style armor and outfit she had chosen clashed with the more European armor of her friend, and had garnered a great deal of attention from the many male players.  Her blush had been transmitted into the game when Artemis had come to her rescue, the spectacle and use of English having made 'him' a number of enemies who would undoubtedly show up later to bother 'him'.<br/><br/>The fact that Hoshino had been more than just flattered by the rescue had much more to do with the player behind the avatar than the actions of the avatar 'himself'.<br/><br/>Their short wandering and more-playful-than-serious attacks on the low level enemies outside the tower had been enough to give Sara a taste of the virtual environment, though Kagero had been amused at Artemis' reaction to her in-close fighting style.  That Artemis was worried about her in the game was, again, more than just flattering.  The beautiful bishonen warrior had been spurred to greater efforts in fighting so that 'he' could protect Kagero; it had given the player some hope that what she felt, what she felt that the player of Artemis felt, weren't just figments of her imagination.  Well, she knew what SHE felt wasn't.  While she smiled and steadfastly refused to actually deny or verify to her friends at the university that there might be a crush involved, her friends weren't terribly far off the mark on Hoshino's side of the equation.<br/><br/>As gold and red slowly melted into the skyline, the rainbow of dusk creeping over their heads, Kagero finally responded.  "I think the moonrise would be more lovely.  After all, you are the goddess - oh, sorry,<em>god</em>of the moon currently, aren't you?"  Her eyes sparkled with amusement.  Artemis was the goddess of the moon, and a virgin one at that.  It made for an interesting contradiction in mythologies.  "Actually...the Japanese moon deity is a man.  Married to the sun, banished for slaying the goddess of food.  But he is bathed in her light, even as far apart as they are."  Kagero smiled and pulled her white hair back with a slow flourish; leaning back (an act which exposed a great deal more cleavage than she would even dare think about revealing of of a beach), she looked up at her beautiful male companion.<br/><br/>"I think it is sad, that two deities who love each other should be separated by such an unkind fate.  Sometimes, I wonder if there was a different reason Amaterasu sent Tsukiyomi away.  After all, it was the goddess of joy dancing naked and seeing her own image in a mirror that brought Amaterasu out of hiding."  Her own arranged marriage loomed in her thoughts.  It wouldn't be bad; at least she'd made a livable arrangement with her husband to be.  Though...she would have much rather had a choice.  While she could tolerate the rather beautiful image of the man that Sara was playing here, she really wished that Sara had chosen a female avatar.  Still, if Artemis made Sara feel a little more comfortable flirting with Kagero, she would certainly play along!<br/><br/>Of course, she really couldn't blame Sara; her own name was that of a persistently doomed ninja-girl who invariably died as she found love, after all.