Elder Tale.
Makoto had only been a fan of a few video games. The games Ran and Ren played, Haru's slight obsession with the underwater version of Animal Crossing, and a few Pokemon games that the twins managed to wheedle out of their parents.
Makoto only ever bothered to play Pokemon on the off time when he absolutely had nothing else to do. If Haruka didn't want to come out of his house to go somewhere. If his parents were not doing anything in the house. If the twins weren't asking help from him. If his swim team didn't need him at the moment.
If all four of these coincided at the same time, it was what qualified for Makoto as "absolutely had nothing else to do."
He liked playing Pokemon because he adored the cute creatures (monsters) inside of the game. Going as far as to making a team roster of nothing else but adorable-looking pokemon on their pre-evolutionary stages.
But when the concept of MMORPGs finally reached the faraway town of Iwatobi, Makoto had his first brush with using the internet for anything else aside from research.
Their parents had initially bought a brand new computer because of various reasons: their dad needed to send in reports over the week through email, their mom wanted to have more access with recipes and crafts, Ran wanted to download music and chat with her friends, and Ren wanted to try the new things his classmates mentioned about MMORPGs.
Makoto thought it was a fine idea, but when they asked what he wanted to do with the computer, he told them he couldn't think of anything to do with it. Check the web for things on swimming probably?
The whole family agreed to set up the PC and internet connection inside Makoto's room, much to his slight dismay.
"Mako-chan is a responsible boy." Everyone agreed.
So that was why every time someone needed to use the PC, they had to go to his room.
It irked him a bit for a few weeks, but he slowly got used to having his privacy disturbed every now and then.
It was the twins who near begged and pleaded for their parents to have the game "Elder Tale" installed into the PC. Their mother and father looked apprehensive, since there was the slight issue of a monthly subscription fee with the game.
Makoto wasn't all unfamiliar with the game. Even at school, he would hear passing conversations about the game. The swimming club wasn't at all the enthused with it, however.
Haruka remarked that while he did know a few things about the game, it was general. And there were no water-borne races you can choose. And he'd rather soak in the tub instead of spending his time sitting down in front of the PC.
Rei expressed interest at first, saying the graphics and gameplay were 'beautiful'. But Gou would have his head if he didn't practice and improve his butterfly strokes. And Rei agreed with her. His performance at their first meet was less than stellar. He vowed he didn't want a repeat performance.
Makoto had expected Nagisa to have jumped the bandwagon now. He always had the impression that things like these were up Nagisa's alley. But Nagisa shook his head, saying his time with the PC in his house was limited. He had to share it with five other annoying sisters, so MMORPGs, especially Elder Tale which was rather competitive, were impossible.
And Gou was just busy enough with all the managerial duties with the swimming club, dealing with the too-enthusiastic Mikoshiba-buchou of the Samezuka swimming team for their joint practices and actually living the life of a girl in her high school years.
And Makoto really didn't have plans to play the game, if not for the twins who kept inviting him to try it.
"Really, niichan." Ren would pout, in an attempt to sway the older boy. "The subscription fee is wasted if no one is logged into the game since Ren and me study hard in order to keep the subscription on. It would be nice if you could make your own character in the game too."
Ren and I. He mentally corrected his younger brother's grammar.
"It would be nice if niichan was playing." Ran added, twirling her hair while sighing. "I want to make a party with niichan and we could go on quests and hunt for rare items. All my friend's brothers play the game, and they're helping their younger sisters in-game."
Long story short, he got roped in to start the game. He wanted to ask both of them to help him out, but they assured him the in-game tutorial is enough to help him get set up for the game.
He grumbled at that, but he begrudgingly set up an account and waited for the confirmation email.
After a long time spent on tutorials and guides, raising six levels with the NPC Tutor Major Colonel, Makoto's avatar finally arrived into the heart of Akihabara, one of the games many servers.
He had finally settled down with making a Bard of the Wolf Hair race.
He had initially made a human Summoner, hoping to find cute monsters to tame (if he was going to play this game, he wanted to do it with leisure). But the barrage of things to understand like the mechanics of magic skills, the description of contracts, the quests needed to go look for stronger spirits, and most importantly, the severe lack of cute monsters made it not worth his while to continue.
After deleting his first character, he decided against blindly jumping into the game again. He took his time to learn the game outside of it. Visiting the forums to ask for help from its members, reading game FAQs from various sites, skimming over reviews in regards to classes and races, and even personality tests that recommended what class you were best suited.
He settled for being a bard. He did sing in his off-time, he chuckled at his lack of hindsight.
He enjoyed designing his avatar to uncannily look like himself, sans younger. His avatar was now wearing his harshly longer pale olive green hair (a side effect for choosing this particular race), droopy puppy dog eyes and standing at the height of when he was still in middle school.
Would be a tad creepy to have an avatar that looked like a clone of himself.
But then again, this experienced taught Makoto something about the appeal of MMORPGs.
They gave you freedom to become a new person in a whole new world that rarely followed the laws of the natural one. Going on dangerous adventures, working hard for a treasure, becoming a whole new person altogether and building new families with the people you meet along the way!
He wasn't loath to admit it, but constantly having to look over his shoulder when accompanying Haruka in case the latter would strip down to his jammers in public left little to no time for expanding his social circle outside their swimming club, classroom, and to a lesser extent; Rin and Mikoshiba-buchou of the Samezuka swimming club.
His trail of thoughts were momentarily disrupted when his avatar encountered a female NPC dressed as an officer of some sort, with blond hair wound in a tight bun and stern glasses perched on her nose.
In order to officially recognize your registration into the city of Akihabara, please provide your name:
Makoto smiled, as he deftly typed his name in.
"Ma-ko-to."
The NPC asked him if he was sure, and after clicking the 'Yes' button; the registration was complete and Makoto was finally free from the presence of tutorial windows.
"Ah-."
He used his real name on his game avatar. Makoto dropped his head, muttering "what was it about becoming a new person in a whole new world".
Still comically sighing over his lapse in thoughts, Makoto proceeded to explore the ruined streets of Akihabara.