by Blitz Kiva
“Thank you. We’ve never been properly introduced... I am Matsunaga. Really, I didn’t expect you to come to our little meeting, Mr. Tsuwabuki. I’m sorry about that article I wrote about you the other day,” Matsunaga said with his artificial smile.
So they had never met face-to-face before now? Ichiro had caused some trouble not long ago, and Matsunaga had written an article about it. It seemed that was as much as they had ever interacted.
“It didn’t bother me in the least,” Ichiro said, brushing off the words easily before changing the subject. “I wasn’t expecting to see you out already. I assumed you’d still be hashing out details with Stroganoff.”
“Actually, the one participating in the conference was a kagemusha, a body double,” Matsunaga said with a chuckle. “I love verifying things, you see. I have multiple accounts, all with the same face. It’s very convenient for times like these.”
With that, Matsunaga snapped his fingers. The air around them wavered, and several figures appeared. They were all handsome, smiling Elves wearing identical ninja gear and coats. “Matsunaga” was the name on each.
It was extremely unsettling, and inspired a powerful feeling of déjà vu.
“Why does this keep happening lately?” Felicia groaned.
“Indeed,” Ichiro agreed.
“I thought it made for a good show. You don’t like it?” Matsunaga snapped his fingers again, and the kagemusha Matsunagas all disappeared instantly. They must have had players behind them, suggesting a powerful degree of authority he held over them. Or perhaps they simply enjoyed playing the anonymous kagemusha role.
“Well, then, Matsunaga. Do you know where King Kirihito is?” Ichiro asked.
Given his opening statement, it seemed natural to assume that he did.
“No, I don’t,” denied Matsunaga with a grin. “It’s just, how to put it... Out of the kindness of my heart, I would ask you to stop searching for King.”
“Weren’t you searching for him?” Ichiro asked. “You invited him to your conference.”
“I ran into him yesterday at the bottom floor of the dungeon. I invited him, but of course, he turned me down. So I wasn’t expecting to see him there,” Matsunaga said.
Matsunaga was the kind of man for whom every word and smile seemed to have a double meaning.
Felicia moved behind Ichiro, not bothering to hide her caution in his presence. She couldn’t tell if he was roleplaying, or if this was simply how he talked, but either way, Felicia didn’t like men who smiled like that.
“You know Kiry... ihito?” Felicia asked, still gripping Ichiro’s sleeve.
“Know him? Hmm... we’ve crossed paths in the dungeons a handful of times. After all, I’m in an explorer’s guild, and I like verifying things, which often leads to me diving into unexplored dungeon depths. Sometimes I’ll reach the lowest floor of a dungeon, and just as I begin thinking, ‘Ah, I’m the first one here!’ I find King there, as nonchalant as can be.”
“Oh? That’s impressive,” Ichiro said.
“He must recognize me by now, as he’s greeted me a few times. But he may not remember my name. That’s about the size of our acquaintance.” Matsunaga shrugged.
Felicia wasn’t sure how to react to his implication that this made him and King Kirihito close.
“On that subject, Mr. Tsuwabuki,” Matsunaga said, “a question. Were you diving the Catacombs by yourself? That’s impressive.”
“I wasn’t by myself. She was with me,” Ichiro responded, indicating Felicia.
Matsunaga laughed. “That’s effectively by yourself.”
“Certainly. But while, effectively, I was by myself, to insist that I was alone would be to ignore Felicia’s existence. I cannot approve of that... even if, effectively, I was by myself.”
Felicia snapped, “Sorry for not being more useful! Sorry I’m only level 39!”
“Ah, you gained a level? Congratulations.”
“Congratulations, indeed. Once you hit 40, you clear most of the equipment restrictions, and everything becomes much easier,” Matsunaga said.
Ichiro and Matsunaga both applauded her, smiling. It seemed like they meant it sincerely, but Felicia was in no mood to accept the praise without reservation. She just clung tighter to Ichiro’s sleeve and grumbled.
“Given your level of skill, I had assumed you would want to fight the boss on the surface,” Matsunaga commented, turning back to Ichiro.
“As I said at the conference, it simply doesn’t interest me,” he replied. “You also seemed to want to keep me away from the surface, so why complain?”
Felicia didn’t quite like the tone she heard in Ichiro’s words. He probably wasn’t lying; Ichiro had shown no interest in going after the boss on the surface. But she also wouldn’t expect him to just go along that easily with Matsunaga’s schemes. Ichiro must have seen some personal gain to be had in going along with the underground group. It would have been possible for him to simply not join the United Guild, so what was his reason for going along with this man’s request?
She channeled those doubts into stinging words directed at Matsunaga. “Exactly what’s so great about beating the boss on the surface?”
Felicia’s words were a rebuke to both Stroganoff, who was trying to keep his Knights force strong and united against the boss, and the scheming Matsunaga, who had been plotting to tear them apart.
Matsunaga’s smile did not waver, even as he scratched his cheek self-consciously. “Miss... Felicia, is it? Do you play any online games besides NaroFan?”
“No.”
“I thought not. You didn’t look like a hardcore gamer. Then you don’t know, I suppose. Defeating the boss on the surface is a truly amazing thing.” For once, his tone was entirely straightforward. “Of course, it’s amazing because we as a group have assigned value to it. This is all just a program to begin with. The developers control everything. But, you see... we’ve all invested our blood, sweat, and tears into making our game characters stronger. Those who share that common objective wish to prove their strength to each other, and defeating a boss confers a certain amount of status in that regard.”
She could at least understand the logic behind his words, but she rejected it on an emotional level. “But it’s still just a game...”
“What’s wrong with just being a game? Surely you have things that you’re passionate about,” he said, arguing with enthusiasm. It seemed clear that Matsunaga was quite a heavy gamer.
Ichiro commented, “But Matsunaga, you seem to lack a certain interest in defeating the boss, as well.”
Matsunaga smiled in response to Ichiro’s observation. “Ah, could you tell? Yes, I’m part of the dungeon crawl team. Though it’s not that I lack interest, exactly... but I’m happy as long as my blog flourishes as a result. I enjoy feeling like I’ve created an event.”
It was unlikely that Felicia would be able to accept Matsunaga’s words at this point in her life. The self-righteousness typical of girls of her age was a block against such understanding.
“I believe she doesn’t like me,” Matsunaga noted.
“It appears so,” Ichiro agreed. “I’m sorry. You may be roleplaying your character’s villainous tendencies a bit more than is necessary.”
“I don’t mind. That’s my guild’s policy.” It was hard to tell how serious Matsunaga was being, but he waved his hand and turned away with a flourish of his coat.
“Are you going?” Ichiro asked.
“I have a few arrangements to make. I’ll see you, Mr. Tsuwabuki. I look forward to tomorrow.” With that, he began walking away.
Once he was out of sight and Ichiro and Felicia were left alone in the Necrolands’ ghost town again, Felicia spoke through her pursed lips.
“Itchy. You are participating, aren’t you? In the quest, I mean...”
“Does that upset you?” Ichiro faced her, his smile as cool as ever. “Felicia, I told you that I would accompany you until we found Sera Kiryu. And I also told you that once w
e did, it would be up to you to decide what to do.”
“R-Right...”
“We have found Sera Kiryu. Maybe you didn’t know what you wanted from that at first, but I think you now have a starting point. In other words, you’ve passed the first hurdle. If you want to try to approach King again, you should do what it is that you want to do. And I will do what I want to do. Our initial promise has not changed.”
Ichiro’s attitude was as self-serving as ever. It was no way to speak to a 14-year-old girl. Felicia was about to comment on that, lowering her face, then raising it again to try to speak. But she closed her mouth a moment after opening it.
Felicia knew. She really knew. She knew what it would mean if she accused him of being cruel, or asked him to help her out more than he already had.
Asuha Tsuwabuki was an adult now. At least, she had insisted that this was the case. Ichiro was merely speaking the way that one would to an adult.
The truth was, she wanted Itchy’s help. The thought of dealing with things on her own made her nervous. She felt the same way when it came to Kiryu. As she was now, Asuha had no faith that she could pull Sera Kiryu back by herself.
And yet...
Felicia nodded. “Okay. Got it.”
Itchy was merely treating her as an adult, as an equal. Felicia knew that he was acting colder to her than she had expected, but she had no intention of asking for special treatment and regressing back to childhood.
Ichiro was busy with his own concerns. To ask him to come back with her and continue to help her search for Sera Kiryu would just be selfishness. She was no longer a child.
“Now that we have that all worked out, shall we return? I expect Sir Kirschwasser is feeling lonely without us,” Ichiro said.
“Sure,” she agreed, and the two began to walk side by side down the Necrolands’ main street.
4 - Noble Son, Descend
Asuha Tsuwabuki was a 14-year-old girl attending a middle school in Nagoya. She didn’t yet know what she wanted to be when she grew up.
Turning 14 meant that she was an adult (at least, that was how she felt about it), and adults needed to solve their own problems. To throw a tantrum because nobody would help her was something a child did.
Asuha couldn’t understand what was going through Ichiro Tsuwabuki’s mind. In the 14 years she had known him, she had never been able to. Itchy was nice, and cool, and he often did whatever she asked, but she had never seen him compromise on the things he wanted to do. That he usually did whatever she asked didn’t mean that he always acted in her best interest.
Asuha was wandering around a residential block in Nagoya, having gotten Sera Kiryu’s address from her homeroom teacher. Apparently the teachers knew that the two of them had been friends since elementary school and, concerned about Sera’s non-attendance, they had given Asuha the address on the condition of secrecy.
They were friends, supposedly. But this would be Asuha’s first time visiting this house.
It was neither large nor small, just an ordinary residential home. Still, to someone like Asuha, who lived in an apartment, having a real house still conveyed a certain degree of wealth. She felt a little discouraged.
“Yes, who’s there?” a clear, feminine voice responded to Asuha’s press of the intercom button. It was Sera’s mother.
“Oh. Hello... Um, well, my name is Asuha Tsuwabuki, and, um...”
“Oh, Sera’s friend?”
Was she going to be allowed in as easily as that?
The door opened to reveal the familiar figure of Sera’s mother. She was a beautiful woman, completely unchanged from the day they had first met years ago at the arcade. It occurred to Asuha, for the first time, that Sera strongly took after her.
“Hello, Asuha dear. Come in, come in,” Sera’s mother said.
Asuha was vaguely startled. Was she actually being welcomed?
“There is another method by which you could talk to Sera Kiryu,” Ichiro had told Asuha yesterday in the game.
She had always known that if she couldn’t find King Kirihito in the game — and really, even if she could — that visiting his player at home would be a lot faster. Yet she had balked at the idea. She felt guilty over not having noticed that Sera was being bullied, like she had let her friend down somehow. In truth, it was Asuha who was most afraid of the face-to-face meeting.
But, Asuha decided, that wasn’t an excuse, so she steeled up her nerve to pay the call.
She knew that Ichiro would be using whatever methods he had at his disposal to meet King Kirihito in the game. She didn’t know what exactly he wanted, but Ichiro had said he would do what he wanted to do.
While he had always respected Asuha’s desires, he never compromised his own. And when they had met Sera in the game world, he had shown no deference at all to Asuha’s desires before adopting his own approach.
Besides, she wanted to make amends.
“It’s a bit of a mess. I’m sorry,” Sera’s mother said as they passed through the living room.
Asuha looked around, stunned.
It was game systems as far as the eye could see. Game systems from all companies and eras were hooked up to the TVs. There were multiple PCs, too. And not just that. In one corner of the room, collecting dust, covered in books and game software... was that a cabinet for a popular arcade fighting game?
“U-Um... Is that...”
“Ah. Er, the truth is, I enjoy games quite a bit. My husband doesn’t, I’m afraid... But I once had quite the local reputation as a gamer,” Sera’s mother admitted.
It appeared Sera had received some degree of special education from a young age. Perhaps it was simply in the blood.
While Mrs. Kiryu went up to the second floor to fetch her child, Asuha cast another look around. The walls were packed with framed pictures and awards, all of them gaming related. Asuha was looking at one dated 15 years ago, entitled “With the PPC Siblings at Game Center Arcadia,” when Mrs. Kiryu came downstairs again with an apologetic expression on her face.
“I’m sorry, Asuha. Sera won’t come down. Could you go up instead?”
“Um, are you sure?” Asuha asked.
“Hmm? Sure about what?”
Asuha answered hesitantly. “Um, is it okay for us to speak face to face...?”
“Ah...” Mrs. Kiryu gave her a slightly pained smile. Judging from the way she was acting, she seemed to have had some idea of what had happened in the game.
“I don’t think you need to worry. Sera isn’t the type to hold grudges. And you have permission, so go ahead.” Kiryu’s mother seemed to be the rather carefree type. Even so, nervousness ran through Asuha as she climbed the stairs.
She stood tensely before the door, then gave a soft knock. She heard Sera’s husky voice from the other side, saying, “Come in.” The tone of the voice was surprisingly calm.
She opened the door and found the room inside dark. The curtains were open, but all the lights were turned off. There were no decorations and no notable possessions except for a desktop PC so impressive it was hard to believe it belonged to a middle school student. Its monitor was the room’s sole source of illumination.
Sera Kiryu sat in front of it.
“H-Hey, Kiryu,” Asuha said.
“Hey.” Kiryu’s hair was cut short and androgynous, as always. In one corner of the room hung a middle school uniform that Asuha could barely imagine Sera wearing; it had been that long since they had met face to face. It didn’t seem like an outfit her friend belonged in.
“Kiryu, I... I’m sorry about the other day,” Asuha said, leading with an apology.
“Oh, it’s okay. I got emotional, too,” Sera said, then fell into silence. There was a certain monotone quality to the words.
Asuha looked at the hanging uniform again. Despite not having been worn in close to a year, there was no dust on it at all.
“Listen, Kiryu... Come to school, would you?”
Sera remained silent at first, gazing at the computer screen, but
finally turned back to meet Asuha’s eyes. “I want to go,” her friend said.
Asuha was surprised by the response.
“But I can’t.”
“Why not?” Asuha asked.
“I’m weak.”
Asuha was startled. “You are?”
“Yeah.”
Sera apparently believed the bullying at school had been the result of personal weakness, that someone as strong as Asuha would never have been the victim of something like that.
Asuha didn’t believe she was that strong at all, but rather than protest immediately, she decided to listen.
Sera went on, saying things like, “I can’t go to school if I’m not strong,” and, “Even if I try to go, I’ll end up not wanting to go again...”
“In that case...” Asuha began, unable to just accept that. She had been feeling a growing sense that something about this was wrong, and at last, decided to come right out with it. “...it’s not okay to only be strong in the game.”
“Yeah, probably not,” Sera agreed.
The response left Asuha feeling a bit deflated. She had expected a stronger comeback.
Sera spoke. “I know it’s not enough to just be strong in the game, but I don’t have any self-confidence... I was hoping the game would be a first step to becoming stronger, but I guess it was just escapism...”
In the dim room, Asuha saw something glitter in Sera’s eyes. She stood there, not knowing what to say.
“I thought that if I could make myself strong in the game, the real me would be stronger, too. But all I’m doing is beating monsters created by a program. I’m not actually dealing with people. I guess that’s not good enough, huh?”
Sera’s grasping at straws, Asuha thought, in desperation...
Sera had stopped coming to school because of bullying, lacking the self-described strength necessary to fight back. That didn’t refer to physical strength, but something more internal.
Sera had needed a way to become stronger, and the most immediate solution had been the VRMMO. In other words, Kirschwasser had hit the nail on the head from the start.
From an outsider’s point of view, it did look like mere escapism... and perhaps it was mere sophistry to argue that it wasn’t. Asuha had to admit, even she wasn’t sure. She couldn’t imagine how a game could give anyone the strength to deal with bullies.