“Are you all right?” Subaru-san, whose name was Dane in this area, rushed to my side and hovered over my wounded leg. I had fallen on my backside after taking a critical hit in the thigh. Blood streamed from where the panther had split open the skin with its claws.
“Yes, I’m fine,” I said, standing up. I wasn’t just putting on a brave front. The leg throbbed only a little. Although I probably wouldn’t have been able to walk with a wound like this in real life, inside Dream Park, I only lost hit points—wounds didn’t hinder my ability to move.
Nevertheless, I was stunned by the impact of the panther’s attack. Even though the pain was significantly less intense than it would be in real life, I still felt some pain. This was a level of authenticity I couldn’t experience at C-grade.
I opened the ability gauge to check my HP just in case—13/24. I was down to almost half. I took a potion from my item bag to heal myself just a little.
“Sorry,” Subaru-san said. “I was late coming to your aid with my gun.”
“No, it was my fault.” I replied. “I hesitated to attack.”
With my persona’s skills, I should have been able to defeat that panther handily in one-on-one combat. But the panther had looked so real I recoiled and hesitated to brandish my spear. I hadn’t once hesitated to take down the monsters in C-grade; they had looked like stuffed animals.
“Remember, it’s just a game. It’s no fun if we die now.”
“Yes, I’ll be careful from now on,” I said as if to tell myself. “Let’s keep going.”
I urged Subaru-san onward, and we continued our journey deeper into the jungle.
“This Y-grade is amazing. Everything is so authentic.” As we walked side by side through the dense jungle, I couldn’t hide my excitement. I was breathless, still feeling high from the earlier battle.
The jungle was drastically different from a C-grade jungle. In the C-grade setting, the sensory data was kept relatively abstract, so kids didn’t confuse their virtual experiences with reality. The plants were made to look plastic and had no smell. They also felt soft and insubstantial to the touch, like cotton candy.
In Y-grade, however, the leaves on plants and tree branches looked so real that you could hardly tell the difference between them and the real things. Everything was accurately re-created, from the sweltering tropical heat to the piercing cries of birds and monkeys, from the way the leaves felt to the pungent smell of the plants. You couldn’t help but feel that you were really in the jungle.
Of course, it was also quite a bit different from a real jungle. For instance, there were no bugs to bite you, and you could thrash your way through the overgrown vegetation without much trouble. The ground was as soft as carpet and easy to walk on. If I were to walk barefoot in a real jungle, my feet would have been torn to shreds.
“I think I see it. Could it be in that valley over there?” Subaru-san pointed straight ahead. We came upon a steep valley where the jungle ended. A narrow path cut between two cliffs that rose up at nearly perpendicular angles. The valley looked like a deep fissure in an enormous table-shaped plateau more than anything else. Inside was dark and ominous.
If the village elder’s story was accurate, the flower we were searching for was somewhere in this valley. It was a rare blue-shimmering orchid, an indispensable ingredient to mix the medicine needed to treat the children of the fever-stricken village. But village legend had it that a terrible evil lurked within the valley. An explorer had apparently gone in search of the very same orchid five years ago, never to return.
Subaru-san and I stepped foot into the valley. Although we were initially met with avalanches and several attacks by poisonous insects, we managed to survive without any trouble.
Soon we came upon a skeleton lying on the valley floor.
The skeleton looked so real I was too creeped out to touch it. Ants swarmed around its skull. As weathered as the bones were, I gathered from the clothing that it was a Caucasian explorer.
Subaru-san searched its clothes and found a tattered notebook inside one of its pockets. “Hmm, must be the lost explorer we heard about. Let’s see…”
Subaru-san read aloud from the notebook. Although the man had managed to find the rare shimmering flower on top of the cliff, he had been chased by a gigantic XXXX (the ink here was intentionally blurred beyond legibility) and slipped and fell from the precipice. With a broken leg, he could only lay there until he died. What a shame that he wouldn’t be able to report this tremendous discovery—that was about the gist of it.
“Which must mean that the flower is on top of the cliff. Er, what are you doing, Mizuki?”
“Paying my last respects.” I was squatting next to the skeletal remains with my hands together in prayer, despite knowing how out of place it might look in the middle of the African jungle.
Subaru-san burst out laughing. “Mizuki-chan, you know he’s—”
“I know. It’s all fictional and no one really dies. But I still can’t help praying for him.” Subaru-san stopped laughing. After I finished my prayer, I stood up and looked up at the cliff. “Let’s go. Since my abilities are higher, I’ll go first.”
The cliff was steep, but I had the “climb” ability, making the ascent not nearly as difficult. In this world, I was blessed with the reflexes of an athlete. I bounded up the sixty-foot precipice with an ease that wouldn’t have been possible in the real world.
Once I reached the top, I threw down a rope. I used my WP (willpower) to activate my “brute force” ability and pulled Subaru up to the top. Subaru also had the “climb” ability, but since I was at a higher level than he was, this was the fail-safe way to proceed.
The plateau was thick with a jungle of gnarled trees. While it was impossible to tread through the trees, there was a narrow path that ran along the precipice. We decided to venture down that path.
“What a laugh if, after all that, the orchid turned out to be on the other side,” Subaru-san said, looking across the thirty feet to the other side of the cliff.
“We’ll worry about that later,” I replied.
I wasn’t all that bothered by such a prospect. There just wasn’t time to worry about such small things. I opened a personal window to find that I’d already been online for nearly two hours.
Something rustled in the undergrowth next to me. This time I didn’t hesitate. A snake jumped out at me like a jack-in-thebox, and I skewered it with a single thrust of my spear.
“You sure are tough, Mizuki-chan!” Subaru kept looking at me admiringly.
“It’s just my persona’s abilities.” I swung my spear around and shook it, sending the dead snake into the abyss.
“No, I meant you.”
“Huh?”
“I thought you’d be all, you know, prim and proper, being a proper lady and all, but you’re really quick on your feet. And you’re always actively pushing forward. You’re really something.”
“That’s just in this game,” I demurred.
“But the persona has nothing to do with your personality, right? I think that drive comes from you.”
“Do you really think so?”
I wasn’t exactly convinced. I was certainly much bolder adventuring in Dream Park. But that was because my persona possessed exceptional physical prowess. In the real world, I didn’t have any merits to speak of. I didn’t have it in me to act courageously. I was too timid and introverted.
5
A DECISIVE LEAP
My mind wandered as we walked. Then I noticed something blue glowing in the brush up ahead. “Could that be…?”
“There it is!” Subaru exclaimed. We quickly made our way into the brush. A single blue orchid lay ensconced deep in the growth. It glimmered in the dark like a vision, its petals enveloped in a shimmering blue aura. “This must be it.”
“Yes, let’s take it and go home.” I plucked the orchid and stuck it in my hair.
“I’d like to think this is mission accomplished, but…” Subaru cocked his gun and
looked around. “Somehow I don’t think we’re done here.”
“In theory, no.” I raised my spear and listened. “There has to be a boss fight at the end of every scenario. Now that I think about it, the notebook said something about the explorer being chased by a gigantic—”
Boom! Boom! The ground began to shake beneath us. Something enormous was rumbling our way. We swallowed hard and waited.
“Something tells me this is a big one,” Subaru said, his voice cracking.
We heard the thunderous sound of trees being snapped like toothpicks. A ridiculously large thing was moving on the other side of the vegetation. It looked to be at least three times bigger than we were. Stricken with terror, we began to inch back along the edge of the cliff.
Seconds later, the enormous creature mowed down the trees like a bulldozer and appeared before our eyes. Baring its teeth inside its red mouth, it let out a terrifying roar.
A bipedal carnivorous dinosaur!
“A T. Rex? You gotta be kidding me!”
“Actually, it’s a ceratosaurus,” I corrected him. The ceratosaurus was characterized by the rhinoceros-like horn on its snout.
Subaru shot one bullet after the next, while I hurled my spear. Although the spear hit its target, the thick-skinned dinosaur appeared unharmed.
“Does this mean we should run?” Subaru asked.
“I believe so.”
There was no way we could take it down considering our level. So the monster must have been put there as a trap, in which case it was useless to try to fight it.
Turning our back on the ceratosaurus, we hightailed it out of there. There was only a path along the edge of the precipice without any side roads to dive into to let the dinosaur lumber past us. I turned around to see the enraged dinosaur snarling and stomping after us.
I continued to run. I ran with all my might. It wasn’t something I was able to do in real life. In the real world, I would have surely tripped and fallen on my face were I to run this fast.
About two hundred yards later the path ended. A rocky wall rose up before us, blocking our escape. To the right of us was an impenetrable jungle, to the left a sheer cliff, and behind us was a charging ceratosaurus.
Although we had managed to get some distance between us and the dinosaur, it was fast approaching with long, sure strides. It would be on top of us in about fifteen seconds.
Was this the end? There had to be a way out. No designer would create a scenario that would inevitably kill the player.
“There!” Subaru-san pointed to a thick tree branch jutting out over the valley on the other side of the cliff. From it, a vine drooped down with the end caught on our side of the valley. Subaru yanked the vine free to try to swing to the other side.
But the vine didn’t exactly look sturdy. Would it hold the two of us?
“Go on!” Subaru pressed the vine into my hand.
“But what about you?”
“I’ll hold him off here! You have to deliver the orchid to the village!” Subaru said, reloading his gun.
I was dumbstruck. He meant to fight the dinosaur. He was going to sacrifice himself so I would have a chance to escape.
I hesitated for what might have been only a second. But I made up my mind in an instant. There was no way I was about to sacrifice Subaru-san!
The dinosaur was breathing down our necks. I activated my “brute force” ability, leaving only one WP point left, and wrapped my arm around Subaru-san’s waist.
“What are you—”
“If I go, we go together!” Gripping the vine with the right hand, I held Subaru with my left and leapt off the edge of the cliff. The dinosaur lunged soon after, swiping the air with its claws.
We swung the thirty feet like a pendulum. The wind lashed at my face. With the intense centrifugal force acting upon us, Subaru felt like a ton of bricks in my arms. I prayed for my persona to hold up for just a few seconds longer.
After a dizzying few seconds, we were on the other side. The vine snapped, throwing us onto the grass.
When we turned around, the ceratosaurus, having lost its prey, was teetering at the edge of the precipice. It appeared to keep its balance for a couple seconds before the edge of the cliff gave way under its weight. The dinosaur let out a sad cry and plummeted into the abyss, its long tail dancing like a whip. I couldn’t help but look away. Seconds later, there was a great boom like the sound of an enormous drum from below.
Afterward, we safely delivered the shimmering orchid to the village and completed the scenario. We exited “Jungle Drum” and returned to the park’s main plaza.
“You were incredible back there.” Subaru continued to seem impressed even after we had shed our personas and gone back to our ESes.
“I thought so too.” I was surprised myself. I had never imagined that I had that kind of courage and decisiveness in me.
Until now, I had only played by myself. Because the game had lacked authenticity, I had never been faced with the reality, or even virtual reality, of someone dying, which was why I had never gotten so involved over someone else’s safety.
But today had been different. Playing the game in Y-grade had been just like the real thing. Every action I took, every decision I made had been my very own.
If that were the case, I thought to myself, would I be able to act that way in the real world? Would I be able to summon my courage and overcome my fears?
Then I decided. Yes, I’d give it a try.
“Say, Subaru-san…”
“Yeah?”
“Could we meet again? This time in the real world.”
6
A LITTLE COURAGE
The following Sunday…
Sitting on a bench at a park not too far from my home, I waited for Subaru-san to arrive. Although I wore a large sun hat to ward off the sun, I could feel my skin baking. The smell of the grass was pleasant. The park was filled with the laughter of children chasing after a ball. Cherry Street was perfectly lovely, but the real world wasn’t all that bad either. As the appointed time approached, I grew anxious and began to fidget. I put a hand on my bracelet phone and activated the watch function. It vibrated to tell me that it was two minutes before two.
I could hear the faint sound of footsteps on the sidewalk coming closer with long strides. I gripped my purse nervously. I prayed for my persona to give me just a little bit of its courage.
The footsteps stopped in front of me.
“Are you Mizuki-chan?”
Timidly, I raised my head. “You must be Subaru-san.”
Although I couldn’t see his face, I could sense his surprise.
“Um… you’re not…”
“Yes, I am.” I tried to put on a cheerful face to soften the blow. After a moment’s silence, I felt him sit down next to me.
“I had no idea…”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to fool you. I didn’t know whether to tell you the truth or not, but I didn’t want to lie to you either if we were going to go on seeing each other. Which is why I wanted you to know the real me as soon as possible.”
“I don’t know… um…” Subaru seemed to be at a loss for words. “It must be, you know, difficult.”
“The accident happened right after I was born, so it doesn’t bother me much. Plus, I have MUGEN Net now. When I’m online, I’m able to live just the way normal people do. I can go window shopping, see movies, read books. I really love being able to read words that aren’t in braille.” I could feel my nervousness fading. As I continued to talk, I grew more relaxed. I began to smile more naturally. “I remember the time I accessed Cherry Street for the first time. I was so moved when I was able to recognize colors for the first time. The first color I learned was cherry pink. I had learned the name before but didn’t know what color it was. Cherry pink has been my favorite color ever since.” I turned to Subaru-san, who remained silent. How inconvenient it was not to be able to read what another person was feeling. How must he look after listening to my story?
/> “Do you hate me now?”
“Not at all!” he said hastily. “I was just surprised is all… I wasn’t expecting this. Actually, I think I like you more.”
“Huh?”
“You’re so cheerful, despite your disability. That takes a lot of courage. You really are something, Mizuki-chan.”
There wasn’t a hint of artificiality in Subaru-san’s tone. I had been right to reveal my secret to him. I felt relieved to free myself of the burden. “If it’s all right with you, would you go to Dream Park with me again?”
“In a heartbeat!”
“Great!… Oh?” My elbow brushed against his jacket. I could feel the coarse texture of leather with my fingers. “You wear a leather jacket in real life too?”
“Yeah, because I ride a motorcycle. It’s pretty cheap compared to V-wear.”
“Isn’t it hot?”
“My family’s not that well off, so this is all I’ve got. I turned my drawers upside down but couldn’t find anything to wear on a date with a proper lady. I thought, to hell with it. I’ll just go as I am. So I came looking like this.”
“Don’t worry,” I said. “I don’t judge people by their looks.”
“I guess not!” We shared a laugh, the initial awkwardness completely gone. “So, what do you feel like doing today?”
“Let’s take a walk. There’s a café nearby that serves a delicious napoleon. We can eat there,” I suggested, picking up my cane. Subaru-san took my hand and helped me off the bench. “No need to hurry. We have plenty of time.” I put my arm around his and smiled. “The color timer won’t be going off today.”
INTERMISSION 3
INTERMISSION 3
The next night, I sat by the window and waited for Ibis to arrive.
With the rooftop spray mist turned off at night, the skies had cleared up. It was a cloudless and moonless night. The stars were out, and the prickly star, which had just appeared, shone in the east. It was as bright as Mars on this night, and you could make out all six of its nodules. A little to the south of it, the gray cat-eyed moon began to dip down toward the eastern horizon. It did not wax and wane like Luna, the old moon; rather, it took its name from the way it grew round and became slivered like the eyes of a cat. It had appeared in the sky when my grandfather’s grandfather was still a child and was initially quite small before growing to its present size. Since the prickly star gradually grew brighter over a period of decades, it wasn’t clear exactly when it had appeared. But people first began to take notice of it around the time my father was born.
The Stories of Ibis Page 7
