Episode 16: The Third Person
April 2033 – The Real World
It was challenging to start a new school year after everything that had happened. Fortunately, I had managed to get my mom to change my glasses to the basic black color a year ago in order to avoid people picking on me again. Even if they were a bit too thick for me, it was better than that stupid blue. The cherry blossoms that had bloomed a bright pink during that season were definitely a sight to see, however, my mood that day was far from bright. All of the students stood in front of the bulletin board which displayed our names and classes. My eyes scanned frantically as I disappointingly lowered my head.
"We're not classmates, huh?" Shimpei scratched his head in frustration.
"Aw… that breaks our eight year streak." Genji said with a sad tone. The three of us had managed to be classmates for eight straight years so it was sad to see us split up. Fortunately for them, they ended up together. Just my luck, I probably had this coming thanks to karma.
Shimpei noticed that my head was low and tried to comfort me. "Hey, Hiro. Are you-"
"I'm going to be fine." I told him without facing him as I pushed up my glasses. At that point, I didn't even know if it was a lie.
And that was how our final year of junior high school started. Ever since the incident with Chikamoto, I had learned to keep a low profile so I never spoke to anyone. No one would willingly chat with a bully like me, anyways. I was used to sticking with Shimpei and Genji all the time but now I just had to settle with hanging out with them during breaks.
Even then, they had somehow managed to amass a group of friends that would join us every time. They even managed to bring Chikamoto in. Of course, he would leave whenever I was there and vice-versa. Even if our table was usually full of people interacting and having a laugh, I still felt out of place.
We usually gathered in the cafeteria where noise was abundant. However, the noisiest group of them all was known by everyone as the Divers. Not because they do actual sea diving but because they were the school's first varsity VR team formed only two years ago. The game they played was more akin to competitive games like battle arenas and character based shooters.
"Them again?" Akinori Rin, who you knew as Mnbbvb. He had a sturdier look in real life with short hair and glasses to boot. He'd always talk about VR since he was the only one of us who had an AmuSphere. "Wish they'd shut up for once. What's so great about Paradawn anyway?"
"You're just annoyed because you didn't make the cut." Michinori Rokkaku, Orhaxum. He was a lot taller in real life and a lot skinnier, looking more like a skeleton to be honest but he always said it had something to do with his metabolism or something. The only thing he had in common with his avatar was his constant emotionless expression.
"Well, it's not my fault I specialize in a completely different genre!" Aki crossed his arms and sighed. He wasn't fond of shooters in the first place.
Shimpei laughed at his frustration. "Is fishing even a genre? If I were you, I would expand my game library to more than that."
"You should buy your own VR device then!" Aki stuck his tongue out in retaliation. He knew we could barely afford such a pleasure. "Oh, by the way, did you hear that they're developing the AmuSphere's successor?"
"Oh yeah, isn't your uncle working on that, Hiro?" Shimpei would always try to include me in the conversation as much as possible. It wouldn't work for long, however, as I would usually speak for a few minutes before they would return to another topic.
"Y-yes…" I managed to get the word out of my mouth.
"What's it look like? Is it going to have any new features? What's the launch game? Can you hook us up with some advanced copies?" Shimpei winked at me as the rest laughed at his delusions of grandeur.
"Well… I don't really know much. He doesn't talk to me as often as he used to." At that point, I had almost no contact with my uncle. It was like he no longer existed.
"Oh, you guys should definitely think about picking it up when it comes out." Aki faced the others, slightly ignoring what I said. I always felt like there was an uneasy aura between us.
"I've saved up quite a lot of money for an AmuSphere but I guess it'll be worth it to wait for the next generation." Shimpei smiled as he leaned on the circular table we sat at.
"I don't know… I'd rather not spend too much on a gaming device." Genji was always careful when it came to cash. All Michi did was silently nod in agreement even though he would probably end up buying one anyway.
"Great, once we get it, we can form a team and beat down those Diver losers!" Aki raised his fist in the air. However, that display of valor only attracted the wrong attention.
"What'd you call us?" In an instant, all six members of the Divers came up to our table. Half of them were girls while the other were males. All of them were led by Ryotaro Chiba, the team's captain and a well-known name among the students and was the one who confronted us. "Losers?"
"Eh... You heard me, huh?" Aki scratched the back of his neck and tried to laugh off his insult.
"Of course he did, you're too loud." Michi said which was definitely true.
"Then how about it? A one-on-one match of Paradawn? We'll see who's the actual loser." He slicked his hair back up, giving off a confident aura. I hated people like him, always walking around with a flare of power like he was above everyone else. What was worse was the flock that followed him everywhere he went, never thinking for themselves like mindless sheep.
With lunch time running out, we quickly rushed to their training room where multiple PC's and AmuSpheres were housed. Beside them were comfy beds for the players to lie on. Our school definitely did not skimp on the budget for their varsity teams. At first, I was worried that the bell would ring in the middle of the fight but instead, it was over way too quickly.
"Damn it…" Aki put down his AmuSphere in defeat. I guess he never stood a chance in the first place.
"That's our Ryo-kun!" One of the girls whose name I didn't care to know came up to him to congratulate him. He confidently smiled as he sat up from the bed he lay in and received a couple of fist bumps from the guys.
"In any case, good game, Rin-kun." Ryo held his hand out as Aki met it, to our surprise. "Next time, try to keep the name-calling to yourself okay? I don't appreciate you insulting my team like that."
"Yeah, yeah… next time, we should compete in Fishing Planet." That was the game Aki had been playing non-stop. I heard it was popular for merging fishing and RPG elements.
"Yeah, I don't think so." His eyes then turned to me like he recognized me. It was obvious from where. "You're Takamura-kun, right?"
"Huh? Yes…" I didn't expect him to single me out, to be honest. I thought I had kept a low enough profile. 'What do you want from me? Just leave with your minions already.'
"Oh nevermind. It's nothing." With that, he smiled and left along with the cult that worshiped him. I had to steady myself since I could already feel like he was looking down on me. It took a long time for people to stop picking on me but even now, their eyes were that of judgment. I knew what their thoughts were with every wordless glance. Everyone knew who I was, everyone knew what I did. He was no different from the rest so I was angry that he refrained from saying what everyone was thinking: that I was just a monster.
*DING*
The school bells rang as we realized it was about time we got back to class. With a few words, I parted from my friends and headed to my classroom, the loneliest place on Earth as I'd call it. It was the usual subject where we had to get a group work done. The teacher had selected the groups randomly, not that I had anyone in particular I wanted to be grouped with anyway. Most of the class were already familiar with each other so hierarchies had already formed. My group had three girls along with another boy. I never bothered to call them by their names since I just responded with nods. It was pretty simple; all I had to do was shut up and follow the leader, pasting a bunch of paper onto an illustration board.
'Isn't he the bully from last year?'
'I heard he made the transfer student take a week off of school.'
'Ha? That's so mean.'
'Good thing he's not with us. I could never stand people like that.'
'Shut up. I can hear you! You don't need to remind me!' I heard their voices with every glance thrown in my direction. I kept hearing them every time I walked down the hallway, every time I ate lunch. All the time they would talk and talk without even opening their mouths. It was driving me insane to the point where I could feel my body starting to shake.
"Hey." My lowered head lifted as I was met with a girl who had her brown hair tied back in a ponytail. Her eyes had a sparkle in them while a small lock of hair fell over the side of her face. I didn't recognize her but she definitely wasn't part of my group. "You're Takamura-kun, right?"
"Y-yeah?" I tried to speak as clearly as I could, waiting for her to give me the same disgusted face that everyone made but what she said next completely caught me off guard.
"You know a lot about games, don't you?"
"Eh?" I couldn't hide the look of surprise on my face after she asked me that question.
That was how I met the third person I trusted completely. That was also how I made one of the biggest mistakes of my life.
After class had ended, I said goodbye to the others and made my way to the back of the school with my school bag in hand. That was where she was waiting. I found her leaning on the wall with her own blue bag on her shoulder while whistling a tune I was not familiar with.
Her head lifted as she smiled and waved. "Takamura-kun, you came."
"Well, you didn't really give me a chance to refuse…" All she did was tell me to meet her at the back of the school after class before immediately skipping away.
"Let's go." She walked past me as I stood there, unsure if I should follow.
"Where?" I asked as she replied with ease.
"To my house." She wanted me to go to her house…?
'I'm sorry what?' I had never been invited to a girl's house before so it was very suspicious to hear her say that. Even if my face was already red, she just acted like it was no big deal for me to come over even if we just met.
Spinning, her skirt flared around as she smiled at me. "I just need you to take a look at something."
"Can you tell me what?" I lifted an eyebrow. Honestly, this seemed more and more suspicious by the minute. My adolescent imagination was clashing with the thoughts that said it was a trap to make fun of me.
"I'd rather show you but you need to promise not to tell anyone else, okay?" She swiftly raised her finger to my face, startling me a little bit.
"Okay…" I didn't know why I agreed right away. 'I'm going to regret this, aren't I?'
She led the way as I pulled out my phone and texted my mom that I would come home late because of a project. That was a lie of course but I would never hear the last of it if I told her I was visiting a girl's house.
A few minutes of silence between us passed by as I glanced over at her hair which was swinging back and forth from the wind like a pendulum. The sight of it nearly hypnotized me as her hand firmly grasped the strap of her blue bag which was swaying along with her movements. Who was she anyway?
"Um…" My attempts to have a conversation were as effective as usual.
"We're almost there, don't worry." She gave me another smile as we passed by a grotto of blooming cherry blossoms leading up to the local shrine. I paused in awe at the beautiful sight. The shade of the sunset really made the colors pop.
"Takamura-kun, my house is right here." She pointed at a path leading to a secluded house that sat near the shrine. As we approached it, I recognized the place as our hometown's main shrine. The same one we would go to as kids every time there was a festival.
"Wait… you're not Amari-san, are you? Mariko Amari?" I asked her as she giggled.
"Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself, didn't I? How did you know?"
"I used to visit the shrine as a kid. You're one of the shrine maidens right?" That statement made her blush in a way that gave me the same reaction as well. I didn't even know why that memory lingered in mind.
"N-not anymore… I kinda outgrew that." Amari scratched the back of her head and laughed nervously. "Oh, we should get going. You probably need to get home before dark, don't you?"
"Yeah…" I reluctantly followed her into her house which was a lot bigger than I expected. It even had a familiar western feel to it. As we took off our shoes, a middle aged blonde woman who was all dressed up for a party greeted us.
"Auntie, this is Hiroyuki Takamura, a classmate from school." She introduced me with an open hand as I tried to straighten my posture.
"Oh, a boy! How exciting!" She giggled in a mischievous manner.
"Auntie! Behave yourself. I'm just bringing home a friend to help with homework." Amari puffed her cheeks as she told her aunt off.
"Okay, okay." She put her purse to her side and moved towards me. "My name is Chigusa Amari, Mari's aunt. Nice to meet you Takamura-kun! Feel free to make yourself at home."
"T-thank you." I nervously said as she walked past us and put her shoes on.
"I'll be back by midnight so take care of my little Mari until then, Takamura-kun!" She happily waved as she left with a wink.
"Sorry about her. She can be over the top sometimes." Amari sighed as she apologized to me.
"Where's she going?" I asked as I wondered if she was the only other person in the house.
"Oh, out with her friends again. That woman has a constant need to socialize." Ah, her boisterous personality really backed up that statement.
"You don't live with your parents?" I asked Amari as her mood seemed to change from the question.
"My mom… she works most of the time. So I barely see her. And my dad…" Her feet shifted as she turned to me again. "Well, it doesn't matter, does it? I didn't bring you here to show you my life."
I momentarily regretted asking her that question since it seemed to be a personal one. Thankfully, she brushed it off and proceeded to lead me down the hall to a room that was on the left. Placing her bag next to the door frame, she welcomed me in. "This is my room. You can sit anywhere you like. I'll go and make some tea."
"T-thank you…" I carefully excused myself and stepped into her room, never letting go of the bag I held. This was the first time I had been inside a girl's room so I was a nervous wreck; my sister didn't count by the way.
It was a blast of purple which was what I assumed to be her favorite color. The walls and the bed had the same shade as well as some of the furniture. I nervously took my seat on her bed which had just enough bounce to it. Examining the rest of the room, I found multiple stuffed animals lined up around a purple bean bag. Next to those was her desk where an expensive looking laptop sat in front of a rolling chair. Curiously, I walked over to it and opened it. Password. Of course.
"Hey." My body froze as I turned around slowly, smiling crookedly. Amari was holding a tray with two cups of tea plated on small saucers. It definitely looked as elegant as her house.
"Are you trying to go through my stuff?" Her eyes vacantly stared into mine with a shade of suspicion.
"I-uh…"
She immediately let out a laugh and set the tea down on the stand beside her bed. "I told you. That's not why I brought you here, dummy."
"Then why?" I gulped in anticipation as she approached her bed.
"I wanted you to take a look at this." Amari knelt down and pulled out a cardboard box from underneath. I curiously gazed over her as she took out something I never thought I'd see in person.
"A NerveGear?!" Taking a step back, I shouted in surprise.
"Shush!" She quieted me down with a finger to her lips. "I was wondering if you could get it to work."
"Me?!" I pointed at myself in confusion. "Isn't that illegal? Those things were recalled after the SAO incident. Why would you want it fixed?"
"I-" She paused as she held her arm and looked down with a sad face. "I just want to try out VR that's all. My auntie and my mom would definitely refuse to buy me an AmuSphere so this is my best shot."
"Where'd you even get a NerveGear?" They were completely scrapped almost a decade ago. None of them should still be left in the world save for the black market or something.
"I-it's…" Her lips wavered as she spoke before she straightened up her face. "Look, if you don't want to do this, you're free to go back home. I'm sorry for dragging you all the way here for nothing."
Amari made a distressed face as she walked past me. Without thinking, I grabbed her by the arm and stopped her from leaving. "I'll… I'll see what I can do."
"Really?" Her eyes sparkled the same way they did when I first met her. I turned my face away to hide the blush that was forming on it.
"I'll just take a look at it first." Releasing my grasp on her, I picked the NerveGear up and spun it around. Finding the power button, I pressed it to no avail. Well, it wasn't connected to a computer, you idiot. "Have you tried plugging it in?"
"Yeah, but it still won't turn on." She walked over and unlocked her laptop. A photo of some famous actor displayed on her desktop as she frantically attempted to hide it with the web browser. I smirked a little bit at that. "Y-you're welcome to try, Takamura-kun."
"I will." Bringing the cord with me, I sat down on the chair and plugged the NerveGear into the laptop, pressing the power button once more yielded nothing. Scratching my head, I wondered what the issue was so I started examining the device from top to bottom.
"Hey, Takamura-kun?" Amari gently tapped me on the shoulder. "You mind if I take a shower real quick? I feel grimy…"
"Uh, s-sure…" I pushed up my glasses as she went into the bathroom. My head began to fill with thoughts that I forced myself to block out as the sound of running water hit my ears. What was I doing? Why was I here? Did she really just ask me to fix her death machine?
Over an hour had passed as I searched through forums and studied up on the NerveGear's mechanics yet none of these yielded anything of substance. After all, there was no one left in the world who still had a functioning NerveGear that needed customer support, not that it had customer support to begin with. Amari was sitting right beside me dressed in her pajamas which were also of a purple hue.
She swung her legs back and forth as she curiously stared at the laptop's screen. "Nothing?"
"Nope. It's not like there's an active forum related to fixing a NerveGear. Something like that would probably be shut down immediately by the government or something." At that point, I wondered if I needed to risk going to the dark web or something.
"I see…" She held her head down.
"But..." I leaned back on the chair I sat on and stretched my arms. "I think I know where to get some solid information on this. I'll come back next time with it and we can try to figure out what's wrong."
"You're willing to come back?" Her eyes sparkled again as I tried to turn away again.
"I-I guess…" Standing up, I grabbed my bag and proceeded to leave.
"When?" She asked me as I stood in front of the door.
"Next week, I guess. Same time."
"Oh, okay!" She gave me another bright smile. "And remember, not a word of this in school! We can't even talk to each other there!"
"Yeah, yeah. Otherwise you'll get arrested and stuff…" This was weirdly similar to a forbidden relationship in my mind. Before I left, I turned around because another thought came to my mind. "Hey, Amari-san?"
"Hm?" She turned around as she was shutting down her laptop.
"Does your aunt come back to cook dinner?" It was getting late yet Amari was still the only one left in her house.
"Oh, no. She comes back after midnight." Midnight?! What the hell was she doing outside?
"Does she leave you food or something?" I asked her with curiosity.
"No, I usually microwave leftovers." Seriously? How long was she living like that?
"Oh..." I turned around to leave before letting out a sigh. I was really going to do this.
Immediately, I pulled out my phone and called my mom. She answered in an instant. "Hey, mom? Yeah, I'm okay. I just wanted to let you know that the project's taking a bit more time than I expected. Yeah… I won't be eating dinner there."
"What?" Amari's eyes widened as I spoke on the phone.
"Yeah… thanks, mom." I hung up and turned around to face her. She already had a confused look on her face.
"Takamura-kun…"
"Is your kitchen stocked? I'd like to brush up on my cooking skills, if you don't mind." I tried my best to form a genuine smile on my face. This was the first time I've smiled like that in a very long time.
With an apron on me, I did my best to cook a plate of scrambled eggs. Sifting the pan, I laid down the salt and pepper, making sure they were the right amount. Amari was beside me, waiting for the rice to finish cooking. Her gaze made me nervous as I sifted the eggs with a spatula.
"I didn't know you knew how to cook." She said with a smile.
"This is the only thing I know how to cook, though. It's a basic recipe from my uncle. He always said it got him through the toughest all-nighters back in college." This was also one of the activities we used to do together so the dish itself had a special place in my heart.
My story made Amari giggle which in turn made me smile like an idiot. "Your uncle sounds like a nice person."
"He was..."
"You're a nice person too, Takamura-kun." This came out of nowhere and caught me completely off guard.
"U-um, how's the rice doing?" I immediately asked, trying to brush off the compliment.
"Oh?" She went over and opened the top of the rice cooker. "Seems about ready!"
"Good. Let's plate them up." I told her as she grabbed two bowls which she filled with rice as I equally divided the eggs among them. To my surprise, they actually looked quite delicious. It was one of my proudest moments, actually.
"Thanks for the food!" We both dug into the food with spoons. It actually tasted pretty good. A minute of eating passed before I spoke up.
"I'm not as you say, Amari-san." I said with my head held down
She glanced up at me in surprise. "What?"
"I'm not a nice person. I'm sure you've heard of what I did." Everyone had at that point. It was no secret that I was a bully.
"Yeah, I simply don't care." Her statement widened my eyes as I blinked in disbelief. "It's in the past, isn't it?"
"Well, yeah but…"
"And you're not like that anymore, are you?"
"I-I guess…"
"Good. Then it's pointless to dwell on that. We can just talk about something else."
"O-of course." I was too ashamed to push the topic any further so I just shut up. The rest of the night was spent chatting about random things like school and such. She seemingly found classes to be a bore since she didn't have the patience to keep up. I laughed as I told her that I also had the same problem.
After we had finished, she thanked me for the meal and even insisted that she would be the one to clean up the dishes. It was a good night. I almost felt sad to have to leave afterwards but it didn't matter, I was coming back the next week.
"What's that?" Amari pointed at the small orange notebook I had in my hands. We were sitting on the floor with her laptop out and NerveGear beside it.
"It's a journal my uncle kept in college. He left it with me when he went off to work for Ymir. Inside it is information related to his studies on VR." I brushed the cover of the notebook as I wondered what it was like to be in college. He used it to take notes regarding full dive consoles but then switched to the one I gave him once he started work on his current project.
"Your uncle studied VR?"
"Well, he was a management student but VR was one of his hobbies." Flipping through the notes, I found the section related to the NerveGear. I knew he got it on day one but decided to tinker with it out of curiosity before using it. I had always gotten chills thinking about how close he was to joining the death game itself. On the side was a breakdown of the components. It seemed like we would have to check each one. "Amari-san? You don't happen to have a screwdriver do you?"
"Oh, I should have one in the shelves outside." She stood up and rushed out the room as I examined the notes. All the things my uncle taught me about these devices were a blur in my mind. I never knew a lot yet I could still grasp the concept of some of the terms inside the notebook.
"Here, Takamura-kun." Amari returned and handed me a small yellow screwdriver as she took her seat beside me.
"Thanks." I began to unscrew the top part of the device, revealing an amalgamation of wires and circuit boards. "This… might take a while."
Poking around a bit, I made sure not to damage any parts. As I did, Amari was closely watching my movements like a curious cat. I had managed to push through the first layer of wires before she spoke up again.
"Hey, Takamura-kun?"
"Yeah?" I replied to her as I kept my eyes on the NerveGear.
"Y-you're staying for dinner again, right?"
My hands stopped moving as I answered. "Of course."
August 2033 – The Real World
For the rest of the semester, I would visit Amari's house to examine the NerveGear. At that point my mom was already suspicious of my activities so I just changed my lie to having a group study with my friends every week. She ate that up way too easily. Thanks all the school work and occasional personal reasons, we still weren't able to find the problem. We'd tinker with the NerveGear for an hour before eating dinner. Sometimes we would just order pizza, sometimes I would make my scrambled eggs again, sometimes we would just give up and pop open a bag of chips along with some cola. That was our routine until summer had started. Once it did, I started visiting her more frequently under the guise that I was going out with my friends. We made so much progress within the first few weeks that it all passed by like a dream. It was only during the final weeks of summer that we made a major discovery…
"Hey." I removed a component from the NerveGear. "I think this is what's wrong."
"Seriously?" I handed her the part as she examined it curiously. "This little thing was causing the problem?"
"Yeah. It's..." I scanned through my uncle's notes for reference. "It's a mini battery that's supposed to power the microwaves emitted by the NerveGear. But it's completely fried…"
All of a sudden, the pieces of the puzzle automatically clicked in my head as I said that. How did I not figure this out right away? "Amari-san..."
She held her head down, her eyes not sparkling as they used to. Finding the courage within me, I asked the right question this time. "Amari-san... whose NerveGear is this?"
She deeply inhaled before replying. "It's... my dad's."
"W-what?" My eyes widened as I realized what she was saying.
"Eleven years ago, my dad bought a NerveGear against my mother's wishes. They were fighting constantly at that time so he wanted to escape into a different world. My mom told him to go die. Little did she know, that's exactly what he did. I-I thought that if I could get it to work again, I could…" Tears started running down her face as she broke down completely. "I could feel closer to him!"
Amari let out a cry which I could only describe as pure pain. She wanted to see what her father saw. She wanted to know why he preferred the virtual world over the real one. Reaching my hand out, I hesitated. I definitely did not know what do to in this situation so I just put it back down. I wanted to comfort her but I didn't know how to. I cursed myself for my inability to act.
"I'm sorry, Takamura-kun. I didn't mean for you to see that…" She spoke as she tried to wipe away the tears from her eyes.
"Amari-san… you don't need to apologize." I stood up with the mini battery in hand. "Look, I know a place where we can get a replacement for this. With a little luck, we can get it working again."
"T-thank you…" She smiled faintly with her still moist eyes. "Thank you so much…"
"Don't mention it, Amari-san." I tried again to give her a comforting smile.
"Hey…" She was twirling the strand of hair on her face as she spoke. "D-do you think…"
"Hm?"
"Do you think it's okay if we call each other by our first names?" She spit it out as I stared at her.
"Oh? Uh, sure…" I know it was a big deal in Japanese culture to call people by their first names but growing up in a semi-American household, it was the norm for me so I didn't see any problems in it. "Mariko…"
Her face flushed red as she inhaled and said my name. "Hiroyuki-kun..."
I didn't know why but hearing that made me feel happy. However, something was definitely off. "Look, you can just call me Hiro, without the honorifics. My friends do the same anyway."
"You can call me Mari then!" She adorably grinned as I realized that I may have spent too much time with her. After all, I think I was starting to feel something I had never felt before.
I carefully inserted the plug into the laptop for what I had hoped was the last time. Carefully pressing the power button, we were met with a bright glowing light.
"Yes!" We jumped in joy. After four months, we had managed to fix a NerveGear!
"Right, I've connected it to the AmuSphere's VR launcher. Thankfully that part was free." I shuddered at the amount I had to pay for the extra parts. Mari had insisted on covering for it but I told her she just had to buy me a pizza or two.
"Then I'll be able to play any game I want?" She was leaning over my shoulders, staring happily at the screen.
"The free ones yes. You still need to purchase paid games, of course." Clicking around, I started a basic program that acted like a drawing app but in VR. It was the default application every AmuSphere came with.
"Right. All that's left is to test it." I held the NerveGear in my hands. We managed to replace the fried battery as well as any other parts needed but I was still unsure.
"Hiro, what's wrong?" She asked me as I had a distressed look on my face.
"This is still a NerveGear, a device that killed hundreds of people. If the microwave emitters mess up then I don't know if…"
"I'll try it then." She reached out to grab the device as I hesitantly pulled back.
"No, Mari. If something goes wrong then you could-" I didn't even want to think about what would happen if that occurred.
"It's my NerveGear. I was the one who asked you to repair it. I should be taking the risk." She gave me a gentle smile as I looked back at the device. I knew she wasn't going to let me test it so I immediately placed the NerveGear on my head with no warning. There was no way I was letting her use the damn thing without making sure it was safe. Besides, I was pretty curious to what full-dive VR felt like.
"Hiro!" She attempted to pull it off my head but I just swiped her hands away.
"We're not having this discussion." With one deep breath and a quick prayer, I clicked on the play button on the laptop's screen. I immediately felt a wave of dizziness go through my head as I entered a tunnel of light. That bright light filled my vision as I opened my eyes. I found myself in a completely white room which somehow made me feel as though I was completely weightless.
'Did I just die? Cool.' Waving my hand, a line of black ink followed. 'Oh, it worked?'
I started waving the rest of my hands around, forming a complete mess of shapes. This was actually really fun. I kept drawing and drawing while I was laughing and shouting like an idiot.
'I'm in VR. I'm in VR!' I couldn't wait to tell Mari about this. After a few more minutes of mindlessly making a mess of the room, I swiped my hand down and thankfully found the log out button. Pressing it, I was sent back to the real world. My vision recovered slowly as my eyes adjusted to reality again.
"Hiro!" I woke up to find her next to me, all teary eyed and such.
"Huh?" Taking off the NerveGear, I placed it beside the laptop. "Why are you crying? It's fine. It worked."
"You… you looked just like my dad…" The tears fell down her face once more. "I-I thought you were gone like him… I thought I killed you!"
"Hey." To my complete surprise, she wrapped her arms around me. My hands waved around frantically before I calmed down and hugged her back, feeling the warmth between us. She sobbed as she dug her head into my shoulder. "Hey, I'm not going anywhere."
February 2034 – The Real World
The months following the first NerveGear test went by slowly. There was no need for me to visit her anymore so we mostly saw each other in school. Even then, Mari and I didn't really talk much since we still had to hide the fact that she was harboring an illegal piece of technology. Occasionally, we would bump into each other and exchange a quick hello before parting ways but that was about it. I sometimes wished we could talk normally since the only way we truly conversed was through texts. She would talk about what VR applications she tried out and described as well as she could. I wished things were as simple as that but unfortunately, that wasn't the case.
I was in the cafeteria yet again with the guys. We were talking about the recently announced AuraSphere that was going to be released in the coming months. It had just wrapped up its beta tests so it was in its final phase of development.
"It's so compact! It's perfect!" Aki was freaking out over the image on his smartphone. He seemed really excited about this.
"Yeah, I'm definitely picking this up when it launches." Shimpei stroked his chin in agreement, glad that he had enough money saved up. "We should all get one and play the free launch game. What was it again?"
"Aura Kingdom Online." Michi poked his head from his phone. He had already started reading up on any info that had gotten leaked from the game. At this point, he was already sold.
"I wish I could guys…" Genji laughed nervously since he knew that he probably couldn't afford to get one.
"Don't worry, if we work part time jobs, we can definitely raise enough money in no time!" Shimpei immediately patted him on the back.
"T-that just makes me feel embarrassed…" He lowered his head while blushing deeply.
This was the kind of stuff we talked about while everyone else was excited for the Valentine's dance our school held every year. It was a famous event held in February where people would dress up and do whatever they do at dances. I wouldn't know, I never bothered to go to any but now I was seriously considering it because I finally had someone I wanted to ask. That feeling didn't last long, however.
"Hey, so I was wondering if you had a date to the dance?" I heard a familiar voice from the distance. Looking over, my eyes could not believe what was in front of me. The leader of the Divers, Chiba, was there talking to one girl. Mari.
Ending: Shirushi by LiSA
"W-what?" Thousands of thoughts ran into my head. I had spent so much time trying to get her NerveGear to work, it never occurred to me that she might have had another reason to get a VR device in the first place. Now it was clear why. A single tear fell down my cheek as I took a step back in shock.
"N-no. Why?" She replied nervously like she was too embarrassed to even look at him.
He began nervously scratching his head. "Well I was thinking… you know? We could, uh, go together?"
She stared at him in surprise before she gave him a bright smile. Her eyes sparkled the same way they used to sparkle at me. "Sure, why not?"
"Hm? Hiro?" Genji turned to me, noticing the tears that had formed in my eyes. I immediately bolted in order to avoid showing them that side of me. I was an idiot. A stupid idiot. Pausing in my tracks, I took a breather.
"Why?"
One day passed.
Mariko Amari: 'Hey, Hiro? You still alive?'
I didn't want to reply. I didn't feel like replying.
A few days passed.
Mariko Amari: 'Are you doing well? I see you in the halls but you seem more distant than usual.'
I didn't want to talk to her. I didn't feel like talking to her.
Months…
Mariko Amari: 'Did I do something wrong? I'm really sorry if I did.'
Why? Why did it hurt so much?
Eventually, she stopped messaging me. When the summer break of our first year of high school started, I just decided to forget about her. What did I expect? I made a mistake of trusting her and she used that to her advantage. I should've seen that coming. After all, humans, in nature, are selfish. I thought that was really annoying.
Next Episode: The Dark Invasion