Shimokitazawa
Ann Shoji slowly removed the headset that enabled her to go into the virtual reality that was The World and stared at her computer screen in front of her, without really seeing it. What she had just experienced had left her full of as much doubts as joy. How would they see each other in the real world? What would Ryo, her new father, say if he found out? It was so unfair, that they would have to hide their happiness to be able to keep it. She was tired of running and hiding, first in the virtual World and now in this one. Yet no other choice seemed to be available to them. She sighed and shut down her computer. She was about to go out of her room when she heard the phone ringing behind her. She turned around and looked at the machine, puzzled. Nobody knew her number except Ryo, and she wasn't expecting a call from him. She sat down again and picked up the receiver.
"Yes?" she asked into the machine.
"Ann?" came the response, the female voice was distorted by its voyage through the line, but it still seemed familiar.
Ann hesitated a moment before asking, "Mimiru?"
"Hey, you remember me!" came the cheerful reply, "we all thought you'd forgotten about us, you haven't even logged in a moment to say hello"
Them… Mimiru, Crim, BT, and Sora and Silver Knight, even. They had all been her friends in The World. She had forgotten about them, hadn't she? She only ever thought about Subaru, when she had left The World Ann hadn't considered staying around to see if any of them were around. Mimiru had been right that once, inside The World, she was very selfish sometimes.
"I'm… sorry," she said.
"It doesn't matter, I understand. If what happened to you had happened to me I wouldn't touch a computer again in my life!"
Ann stayed silent, not really knowing what to say, until Mimiru realized she wasn't going to say anything and continued.
"We were going to go to Shimokita sometime, remember?"
Yes, she did, now she did, at least.
"Yes"
"So how about this Sunday?"
Why not? She didn't really have anything to do.
"Okay," she said, and then a wonderful idea occurred to her, "hey, Mimiru…"
"Yes?"
"Can… Subaru come too?"
Mimiru seemed to hesitate a moment at the other side of the line, and Ann was afraid she didn't like the idea, but she answered cheerfully.
"Sure! The more the merrier! This Sunday at the Shimokitazawa station at… uhm… three, then?"
"Yes," she hesitated a moment before adding, "thank you"
There was a slight surprised pause at the other end of the line, before Mimiru said, "Well, see you then"
"Yes… goodbye"
And she hung up. She thought a moment and then turned her computer on again, opened the e-mail program and started to write:
Mariko...
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Mimiru sat on a bench watching people walk one way and the other while she waited, and wondered why exactly she'd come so early. Just because she was here before didn't mean Tsukasa would arrive any earlier. She was so tired of seeing people she didn't even see the small kid that walked up to her until a voice said:
"Mimiru, I suppose?"
The voice sounded strangely familiar, but she couldn't really place it. She looked down at the grinning, black-haired, green-eyed child and couldn't remember seeing him anywhere before.
"Who are you?" she asked.
The grin on his face seemed to widen as he said, "you don't remember me, Mimiru, I'm hurt"
With that, he jumped up onto the bench with a cry of "Boing!" and smirked at her from there.
"Boing?" Then it dawned on her. The voice, the way of talking, the smirk, it all pointed to one person. Of course she hadn't recognized him, she'd never really seen him.
"Sora!"
The boy, still grinning, said, "that's me! My name outside is Yoshi, actually"
"But… how did you know what I looked like?"
The boy looked about as if checking if anyone was listening to them and then leaned forward to whisper in her ear, "it's a secret"
She sighed, knowing she wouldn't get an answer, and instead asked, "what are you doing here?"
"Waiting for our friends Tsukasa and Subaru, of course!"
Now she was really puzzled, surely neither of them had invited him along, and she definitely hadn't.
"How did you know?" she asked.
The mocking grin widened. "It wouldn't be a secret if I told you, would it?" he answered in a playful tone.
She so wanted to have her virtual sword here now in reality to be able to slash at that smirking face.
"I've always wished to meet you in the real world to be able to finally strangle you," she said, probably only half joking.
"What? Hurt an innocent child like me?" he put on such a falsely angelic expression on that she had to laugh. That seemed to please him mightily, and the smirk softened to a smile as he sat down beside her.
"Hey," he said, "do you know what exactly is between those two?"
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"Tsukasa and Subaru, of course. I mean, Subaru was always "Tsukasa…" this and "Tsukasa…" that," his imitation of Subaru's voice was so good she had to laugh, and it was true, now that she looked back at it, Subaru had probably said Tsukasa's name about at least once every few minutes. Seen in hindsight, it was actually quite funny.
"They're just friends, " she answered, "I mean, Tsukasa is a girl in the real world"
"Oh"
They stayed silent for a while. When she saw Yoshi getting restless, she decided to say something before he started clowning about, however.
"You know… sometimes I wish Tsukasa had been a boy," she immediately regretted saying it, Yoshi was deceivingly easy to talk to, and she knew he was going to say something silly…
"What does he have that I don't?" he said, in mock anger.
"Sora!" she complained, but the truth is she had to fight not to giggle. However much the virtual Sora got on her nerves, she found herself liking the real world Yoshi, in an "amusing little brother" sort of way.
She looked up at the sound of an arriving train. She glanced down at her watched and noticed it was just past three o'clock. Maybe they were coming in this one.