Ayame smiled silently to herself as she read Umichi's message, pleased that the other two would be on board with the project as well. Believing that the conversation needed no further prodding, she closed the PM window and returned to her file. The document had grown to a considerable length, but by this time it was simply a rough draft of what had happened. Editing would probably have to come later; for now, chronicling their story as it came was top priority.

-----------------------
As the hour passed by, Ayame stretched and looked at the document she had written. It was maybe eight or nine pages in length, but even without everyone else's adventures the story seemed to be shaping up decently well. Saving the file and closing the interface, Ayame got up from her seat and stretched her arms out. Even though it was a virtual world, the strain of having her body in such a position for so long still managed to elicit an involuntary response from her. As she turned around, Ayame noticed Fujiwara sitting on the steps up to the second floor of the inn, almost expecting her to have noticed him earlier.

"Hideki! You're awake!" Ayame cried out, startled. Fujiwara simply shrugged and nodded.
"Yeah, guess I am. Still a bit sore though. Goddamn, last night was the most intense crap I've ever seen before." he said before standing up and walking up to Ayame. "Hope I didn't make you worry too much."
"You idiot! Of course I'd be worried about you! If you're gone the entire night and we don't get any warning about you going off on your own, we're ALL going to be worried!" she responded, fists clenched tightly. Taking a deep breath, Ayame sighed and relaxed. "Geez. I thought you'd have learned from when you were 7..."
"Well, circumstances were different then. Whatever. It's fine. I'm heading out to train-"
"Not this time." Ayame responded, grabbing Fujiwara by the ear. "You're staying here for today."

Fujiwara winced in pain as Ayame dragged him down into a seat and rubbed his ear as she quickly brought up a PM window.

"Don't I get a say in this?" he asked, rubbing his ear as he looked at Ayame.
"Nope. You brought this on yourself. You're sticking with us, and that's final." she responded as she typed up a message to everyone in the party.

"Fujiwara's awake now, so I guess that means it's getting close to night... I guess? We'll meet you back at the inn whenever you're ready."

Sending off the quick one-line PM, Ayame sighed and leaned back in her chair. Today was much to stressful for her to keep her composure any longer.

"So... Can I ask what happened to you this morning?" she asked, looking at Fujiwara expectantly.
"Ah... that's a long story..." Fujiwara trailed off as he began to retell the story as to why he was out for so long.