Where I Belong (part 2 of 4)

LOVE AND DESPAIR

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“Uh, hi there!” Mitsuki Kanae exclaimed awkwardly when she opened the door to An’s room and found the paraplegic young woman sitting on the bed with her back against the headboard. “Uh, how are you?” She climbed onto the bed and settled down by Mariko’s side, carefully making sure that she wouldn’t sit on the latter’s legs by mistake. Stealing a glance at the twenty-year-old, Kanae felt warmth blossoming on her cheeks. She seriously doubted the image of An and Mariko on the bed, arms entwining around each other’s body, lips locked in a kiss, was going to fade from her mind anytime soon. Sure, she had been going online since she was twelve or so... but honestly she hadn’t seen two girls kissing ever before. That... surely was a first.

“Hi, Kanae,” Mariko said with a smile. “It’s been more than a month since we last hung out in Shimokitazawa, hasn’t it? How’ve you been?”

“Same old, same old.” Kanae returned the smile. “It’s still boring as usual.”

“Boring? Shouldn’t you be worrying about your senior high entrance exam right now?”

“Oh that. My school has an elevator system extending all the way through college,” Kanae answered with a grin. “That’s why everything’s kinda lax in my class. That’s why I could spend so much time in The World with you guys when most kids my age went crazy doing homework or getting supplementary classes.”

“And that’s also why you were bored most of the times?” Mariko chuckled quietly behind her raised hand.

“Well, I guess.” Kanae scratched the back of her head and laughed. “What am I to do? The teachers don’t assign much homework, they don’t lecture seriously, and they won’t even bother to check if we’re cheating during exams. I’m not exactly motivated to study in that case now am I?”

“Sounds like it’d be a breeze until you graduate from the university, then,” the young woman commented, her smile unwavering on her lips. Kanae couldn’t help but notice that Mariko had been smiling a lot more than she used to when she, An, and Kanae went window-shopping in the Shimokitazawa Mall. If anything, Mariko’s smiling face only enhanced the natural charm and beautiful face that Kanae would kill to have. She guessed this was how one would become when one fell in love....

“Is there something on my face?” Mariko asked suddenly. Kanae gave a start. She had been staring openly at the young woman, it appeared.

“Oh no, it’s... nothing!” Kanae said hastily. She didn’t have to find a mirror to look into to know that she was blushing. She should have knocked before she entered even when the door was open. That way, she would have remained blissfully ignorant about the whole relationship business between her girl friends. That way... she wouldn’t have realized what kind of effect the very sight of An kissing Mariko so affectionately would produce on her mind.

“So, why did you come back here alone, Kanae?” Mariko asked. “Where’s An?”

“Ah, we were... um... talking on the balcony when Oji-chan called An and told her that the ingredients were ready,” she explained. “She’s down in the kitchen right now.”

“Has An managed to tell you about us before she was called to the kitchen?” Mariko said quietly.

“Yeah... she did.” Kanae scratched the back of her head again.

“I’m sure our images in your mind have changed somewhat, ne?” Mariko said, her smile growing more and more rueful after every word. “I’m sorry we kept it from you. Would you forgive us?” Mariko gave Kane a deep bow where she sat.

“Forgive.... What is there to forgive?” She scratched the back of her head again and gave a quiet chuckle. “Is there any rule that says you have to tell your friends the second you start dating?”

“Guess there isn’t,” Mariko smiled and said.

“Say, Mariko, um....” Kanae gave the woman five years her senior a gentle poke on her arm with her finger. “What do you usually do when you’re together?” A mischievous grin curved her lips, which made the blue-haired young woman color faintly. She looked nothing alike the Heavy Axe Subaru, Leader of the proud and prickly Crimson Knights. “Give me the juicy details, will you?”

In The World, Mariko was the very example of a perfect leader. She was in total control of her emotion, she was able to keep her calm even in dire situations, and she commanded a presence that inspired confidence and awe. Yet, Kanae wagered that no one could have associated the unflappable Lady Subaru with this paraplegic woman sitting on the bed, who was growing embarrassed just from a simple question posed to her by a junior high student.

“Oh come on,” she urged, “It’s not that difficult. It’s not like I asked where An touched you when you two were in private, right?” Unable to help herself, Kanae let out a small giggle that earned her a very startled look from Mariko.

“What kind of perverted fifteen-year-old are you, Kanae?” the young woman asked, the color on her cheeks deepening.

“One whose classmates spent a lot of time gossiping about that kind of stuff?” she countered with a grin. “I’m not interested, for your information, but when they kept on droning about it every time they were out of the teacher’s earshot, I couldn’t help but learn a few things even when I tried not to.”

“Your school’s a co-ed one, isn’t it?”

“Yup.” Kanae nodded. “Why did you ask?”

“I’m just curious,” replied the paraplegic woman. “I’ve always attended all girls’ schools all the way through senior high, you see. That’s why I sometimes wondered how it’d feel to have boys for classmates.” She poked Kanae gently on the shoulder. “How many of them do you have in your class?”

“Quite a few,” she answered. “They’re a bunch of good-for-nothing, though. They mainly stuck together and drooled like a bunch of dimwits over the ero-magazines they snuck into the classroom. Sometimes I think they have too much hormones for their own good.” Her mouth twisted slightly in distaste. “What’s with them and their fascination over big boobs anyway?”

“They can’t be all bad,” Mariko commented in amusement. “There has to be someone you don’t dislike, I’m sure.”

“None I tell you, none!” As soon as she finished saying that, she blinked and gave Mariko a sidelong glance. “You sneak, Mariko,” she said, “you’re trying to change the topic and make me forget about my inquiry, aren’t you?” The grimace that was formed on the blue-haired woman’s face told Kanae that she had guessed correctly. “Nice try, but it isn’t going to work. When I want something, I won’t stop until I get it.” Heck, even An, when she was still trapped as Tsukasa in The World, failed to chase Kanae away once she had made up her mind that she was going to become the other girl’s friend. If Kanae wanted, she could be even more unrelenting than a vial of superglue.

“If you want to know so badly, why don’t you get a girlfriend, Kanae?” Mariko suggested with a playful gleam in her amber eyes. “Wouldn’t it be much better than me telling you about it?”

“Gods, no!” Kanae exclaimed. “Girls are even worse than boys in some aspects, for pity’s sake!”

If she was irritated by the boys, she was almost driven insane by the female population of her class. During her three years in junior high, she constantly found herself wondering whether the other girls had other things to think about rather than boys who obviously were only interested in their bust size. That was why during those last three years, Kanae had stayed a loner. She did try to seek out others and make friends so that she could find some saving grace in a school that bored her to death, she did! Too bad, she never succeeded. She guessed it was because she was too much of a tomboy whose hobby involved online gaming, which normal school girls weren’t terribly fond of. There had been times she considered conforming to the others’ taste... yet the very thought of spending hours flipping over shoujo manga, gossiping about boys, and exchanging small talks frightened Kanae no end. She told the young woman as much.

“Now you’re being difficult.” Mariko chuckled softly. “You frown on boys. You dislike hanging out with girls. How on Earth are you going to find yourself a romantic interest?”

“Don’t need one, don’t want one.” Kanae stuck out her tongue. “Significant others are a pain to deal with in the first place.” She blinked at Mariko. “But hey, you’re avoiding the issue again,” she pointed out. The young woman sighed.

“You’re really persistent, you know,” she said in a resigned manner. “What do I have to do to make you give up?”

“There’s nothing you can do,” Kanae declared. “Let me be honest with you, if you don’t give me the answer I want, I’ll ask some worse questions.” She grinned in such an evil way that she even managed to make Mariko swallow audibly in shock. “You’re not going to like them, I assure you.”

“Okay, fine...” Mariko said finally. Kanae could tell, the woman had stopped thinking that she could get out of this room without telling Kanae wanted to know. She rewarded herself with a satisfied nod and a quiet chuckle. This surely was going to be fun.

***

Looking around the dinner table, which consisted of a circular slab of marble stone resting on four wooden legs, Sakuma Ryo felt as though he was tasting dust in his mouth, not the chicken salad with mandarin that his adopted daughter had spent an hour to make. It wasn’t that the food was bad. In fact, when the kid brought the dish to the table, Ryo had simply marveled at her skill, as did the other two girls who sat on either of An’s sides at the table. Yet, after a few bites, his appetite winked out of existence. He glanced at the dark-haired fifteen-year-old sitting on his daughter’s left, Mitsuki Kanae, who was doing her best to suppress her uneasiness but not quite succeeding. Once in a while, the girl would steal a glance at An and Mariko, who were sitting quietly, eating, and gazing at each other in a way that excluded intruders. Well, he couldn’t blame Kanae for feeling uncomfortable around the two lovebirds. Even he sometimes found himself wishing that they would either admit it to his face that they were an item... or just refrain from showing such intimacy to people from whom they tried to hide their relationship.

His eyes returned to the junior high student. If Kanae was reacting this way around An and Mariko, it only followed logically that she, too, had discovered the kind of bond her friends shared. He gave his lips a thoughtful tap. After he asked Kanae to bring a dish of fruits to An’s room about an hour earlier, he had heard the former’s startled voice and the shattering sound of china almost immediately afterwards. A few minutes later, he found the two girls standing on the balcony and talking to each other in such low voices that he couldn’t hear a word from either. Yet, he had realized that something was amiss the moment he noticed that the expression on An’s face was rueful while that on Kanae’s was a thorough mix of amusement and surprise. Now that he looked back at it, yes, it all made sense. Kanae must have walked in on An and Mariko, consequently learning the truth.

‘Gods, shouldn’t you be a little bit more discreet about it, An?’ Ryo mused to himself.

Still, the sudden disappearance of his appetite had nothing to do with Kanae’s discomfort. On the other hand, it had everything to do with the couple who couldn’t seem able to peel their eyes off each other except once in a while to eat their food. Ryo sighed softly. Looking at them being so happy around one another so, who would have the heart to announce what he was going to?

Still... it was what he had to do... so he had better be quick about it.

“May I have your attention, ladies?” Ryo called as the same time he tapped his silver spoon on the rim of the china bowl. Three pairs of eyes, one brown, one blue, and one amber, swiveled to meet his. He cleared his throat, feeling a pang of guilt in his heart, before he began slowly, “I’ve been doing researches and making phone calls lately in the hope of finding a way to cure Mariko’s condition.”

Those pairs of innocent eyes widened upon the revelation, all three shone with surprise, two of them glowing with gratitude that seemed to hurt him more than made him feel happy. Still, the girls kept silent as though waiting him to finish making his announcement. From the way An’s right arm and Mariko’s left were coordinated, there was no doubt these two were holding each other’s hand beneath the marble slab that was the dinner table.

Sighing, Ryo continued, “Two days ago, a contact of mine informed me that the UCLA in California, a famous and trustworthy medical center, has come up with a new method to effectively cure paraplegia via surgical operation and physical rehabilitation. They were confirmed to have been successful in a few cases brought to their attention, in which the patients’ ability to walk was restored.” He paused to look at his audience then added, “I would say that if we can bring Mariko to the U.S., the chance of her recovery is miraculously high.”

“But...” the young woman hesitated, “My mom can never afford the fee.” An glanced sideways at her girlfriend, appearing to be doing her best to restrain herself from pulling the latter into a hug. Kanae’s eyes, however, remained fixed on An’s worried face.

“That’s where my friend comes into the picture,” he said. “Through her, I managed to get in touch with an international charity association also headquartered in the U.S. Knowing about Mariko’s condition, they had promised to fully sponsor her treatment in UCLA.” Ryo gave each of the girls a reassuring smile. “You don’t have to worry about a thing, Mariko. The association will even cover the living cost for your guardian, namely your mom, who’ll be accompanying you to the States.”

“Is... it... real?” Mariko said wonderingly, her hands rising up to cover her mouth, her eyes growing wetter after every heartbeat. “I... I... don’t know what to say... Ryo-san.... Thank you!”

Unable to say anything else, she buried her face in her hands and wept. Ryo’s adopted daughter quietly pulled the older woman into her arms and gently ran her hand up and down the small of the latter’s back. The brown-haired girl, too, seemed to be on the verge of tears. Of course, there could be no joy greater than knowing that the one she loved now had a chance of once again having the life of a normal person, the life that was robbed from her by the nasty car accident that killed her father and disabled her legs. Even Ryo himself felt moisture growing in his eyes.

“I’m sorry if I sound skeptical...” Kanae spoke up in a rueful voice, “but is there no catch at all?”

‘She’s sharp,’ Ryo thought. Next to her, An was using the sleeves of her shirt to dry the tears on Mariko’s face. Then both of them heard what Kanae said, looked up at her, then turned their attention on him, their eyes troubled by the same question.

“Yes, there is a catch,” he admitted. He could feel the large dining room becoming so quiet they would probably hear the sound of a needle falling to the floor. “The only condition is that Mariko will have to stay in the hospital for one full year so that the researchers can collect data on her recovery. Every patient must agree to that if they wish to receive treatment.”

“Oh, it’s not really a catch, is it?” Kanae burst into laughter, tension draining from her face. “It’s not like they wanted to you sell them your soul or anything. Just one year of staying in the U.S. is no biggie....” She stopped abruptly as soon as she looked in the other two girls’ direction and saw that they had fallen deathly still. A light of comprehension dawned on Kanae’s youthful face. All three of them had realized the only one drawback of this gracious offer from beyond the sea, which was the fact that An was not going to be able to see Mariko, or stay by her side, for one full year. Ryo didn’t know what Mariko was thinking... but he could almost read the thoughts that were whirling around in the child’s mind. To a person who was possessive of the one she loved like An, it was a fate not quite unlike death.

***

Mitsuki Kanae, treading beneath a white umbrella that sheltered her from the heavy rain that was plummeting upon the streets of Tokyo, couldn’t seem to be able to lift yesterday’s events from her mind. She sighed. Perhaps it would have been better off for her had she stayed home the night before and ordered pizza instead of accepting Ryo-san’s invitation to dinner at his house. That way, she wouldn’t have had to learn the truth about her friends’ relationship. That way... she wouldn’t have had to see how much it pained An to know that her girlfriend’s recovery was going to cost her a price perhaps much higher than what she could possibly pay.

Kanae sighed. Once Ryo-san had finished announcing that piece of devastating news, An had sat there in dead silence and looked like someone whose life had just been sucked out of her. She recovered quickly, though. After a few minutes, the high school freshman was once again all smiles as though it didn’t bother her at the very least. Kanae got to admit that An was a good actress... but she wasn’t that good, really. No matter how hard she tried to pretend to be cheerful, she couldn’t fool the people who sat around her at the table. An’s foster father surely didn’t believe her the way he looked at her with an agonized and guilty look on his face. Mariko, who should know more about An than any other person in the world, certainly didn’t buy it the way she gazed at An quietly with teary eyes for a moment before she excused herself to go to the bathroom, alone, without An’s help. As for Kanae, she said nothing and kept her opinion to herself. The rest of that evening was spent sitting in the living room of the Sakuma household and playing Poker with three people who didn’t pay much attention on the cards in their hands. Kanae ended up winning almost every game as a result.

Kanae sighed again. An shouldn’t have tried to hide her thoughts so hard. Although Ryo-san and Kanae weren’t as close to the high school freshman as Mariko was, they were more than capable of guessing just exactly what An was thinking in that situation. An must have been dying inside, obviously, for she was well aware that she was going to spend one whole year without Mariko by her side. Of course, one could argue that the two of them could still meet online, in The World, like they usually did... but really, it was very much similar to drinking sea water to quench one’s thirst. Besides, Kanae doubted they were going to let Mariko bring a computer into a hospital just because she wanted to play The World.

Well, perhaps other people would find it hard to understand how one year of separation could affect Shouji An so greatly... but only because they didn’t know what kind of person the girl was, or how much Mariko meant to her. Back in The World, Mariko was the sole reason why An kept on fighting to return to reality. Now that they had become lovers, perhaps it was no exaggeration to say that An’s world revolved around Mariko alone. The latter, wise beyond her years, was deeply concerned about this fact. During their conversation yesterday, Mariko once confessed that she had realized An was growing more emotionally attached to her than ever. Although it made the young woman very happy, her skin still crawled whenever she thought of what was going to happen to An should something befall the former. Kanae had shivered hearing those very words.

Kanae’s heart went out to An, in any case. The girl, no matter how selfish she was, knew that Mariko’s treatment had the highest priority. That was why she only showed the others the happiness that was brought to her by the medical offer and hid within her heart the grief caused by the news that Mariko was going to leave for a place she couldn’t possibly follow. It was going to be one long and torturous year for An. Kanae had never had a girlfriend, or boyfriend for that matter, during the first fifteen years of her life... but she could imagine how it would feel to be half a world away from the one she loved. And knowing An’s temperamental and clingy personality, the girl had to feel ten times as much. Poor girl.

Still, it wasn’t as if An would be left alone in this world anyway. Mariko might be off all the way in the U.S.... but Kanae would still be there for An as long as the girl needed her. That had to help in lifting the high school freshman’s solitude... right? Kanae stopped abruptly in front of a large video store, on the front of which hung a large poster that showed a couple standing in each other’s embrace, lips an inch apart. For some reason, the poster drew her attention the way magnets did iron. She found her eyes glued at the laminated piece of paper, and at the faces of the couple, who were gazing lovingly into each other’s eyes. Her mind began to wander... and an image popped up in her head. It was what she had seen when she walked past the open door of An’s room yesterday. It was what had made her drop her fruit tray onto the ground and hurriedly retreat from the room as though hell was on her heels. It was the scene of An and Mariko lip-locking on the bed. Except that... for some reason... Mariko’s face began to fade... and Kanae’s own appeared in its place instead.

She gave a violent start that nearly dropped the umbrella from her hand. Her cheeks suddenly became so hot that she was under the impression that if a drop of rain fell on her face, it would be instantly vaporized. She peeled her eyes off of the poster and glared at the ground as though it was the cause of her perverted thought.

Kanae gave her head a thorough shake. She shouldn’t wallow in denial anymore. The fact that she liked An more than just a friend was but obvious. She had realized it as soon as she saw the girl kiss Mariko yesterday, for that moment was also the one in which she felt her heart clenching. Her suspicion was confirmed during her conversation with the paraplegic young woman, who had told Kanae how she and An became lovers and how happy she was once they started going out. Kanae, of course, was glad that her friends had found the happiness that they deserved... but at the same time she couldn’t help but feel jealous toward Mariko and wish that she had been in the young woman’s place. It had disturbed her so.... Yet, it wasn’t as if she was madly in love with An or anything. In time, her childish crush – she hoped it was just a childish crush – would fade and return her life to what it once was.

Sighing one last time, Kanae folded her umbrella and stepped into the movie rental store. Although the rain clouds had curtained the heavens and invited darkness to encompass everything in sight, it was still just two in the afternoon on a Sunday. And Kanae had nothing to do for the rest of the afternoon and the evening. She might as well rent a few movies so she could chase away the boredom that had been haunting her since Friday night, she thought. Well... she guessed she should have gone back to the local rental store... but that store was really small, and it didn’t carry as many titles as Kanae hoped it would. This store, however, looked much bigger than the one near her house, and it wasn’t that far away anyways, so why shouldn’t she take a chance?

***

“Welcome,” Kozuka Hiroyuki spoke perfunctorily as soon as he heard the electric bell chiming and announcing that someone had stepped past the door to the shop. When he looked up from his Megami Magazine, which was laid upon the circulation desk at the far end of the room, he found a teenaged girl with dark hair that fell to her shoulders and a slightly bored expression on her youthful face.

“Hi,” said Hiroyuki’s young customer as she placed her dripping umbrella in the racket that sat near the entrance to the store. After that, she walked to the nearest aisle, where the newest releases were shelved, and started to inspect the empty DVD cases one by one with great interest. Since he didn’t care enough to make sure each and every minor who walked into this store wouldn’t sneak into the adult section, as his manager had drilled into him over and over, Hiroyuki returned his attention to his favorite magazine and feasted his eyes upon the screenshots and reviews of the latest anime. Every time he looked up to check on the girl, though, he would find her standing in a different place, and there would be another DVD case added to the stack that she was carrying. A couple of minutes after he had glanced her way last, the girl walked to the far end of the room and placed on top of the circulation desk half a dozen cases, all of them anime titles.

“This many?” Hiroyuki blinked at his unusual customer. He had never seen someone who wanted to rent so many titles at once ever since he started to work part-time in this rental store. “Miss, are you aware that these titles are new, so you have to return them the next day to avoid being charged extra?” He pointed his finger at a small piece of note that was glued on the front of each of the DVD case, which said almost the same thing as what he just did.

“Yup, I saw that,” the girl answered, her brown eyes, slightly tinged by annoyance, regarding him curiously. “What about it?”

“Nothing.” Hiroyuki shrugged. He seriously doubted that she could finish so many titles before this store closed down tomorrow... but who was he to say anything if people wanted to waste their money anyways? “Can I have your Membership card, miss?” He extended his left hand to the girl while his right one entered a few commands into the computer. The default blue ALTIMIT desktop screen was instantly replaced by the interface of the program that recorded every rental operation in the shop.

“Don’t have one,” she said. “It’s the first time I’m here.”

“Ah, I see,” he replied nonchalantly. “I’m afraid you’d have to apply for one. It’s free, though. Would you like to do that?”

“Sure.”

“Will you fill out this form for me?” Hiroyuki pulled a piece of paper and a pen from the drawer under the desk and placed it in front of the girl. “And I’ll need your government-issued ID, too,” he added.

“Okay,” was what she muttered before she took up the pen and started scribbling on the paper.

Hiroyuki was pondering whether he should just wait for her to finish or read the rest of current page in the magazine when the electric bell chimed again.

“Oy, Hiro,” greeted the newcomer, who was a lanky young man with short spiky hair and a broken nose. The guy’s name was Shimatani Kouta, Hiroyuki’s neighbor, his childhood friend, and also his former online gaming buddy. Hiroyuki sighed. He believed he knew just exactly why the man went all the way to this store. It wasn’t the first time he was approached during the last week, of course.

“If you came here to talk about the same thing you did yesterday, you’ve wasted your time and effort. The answer’s still ‘No’,” Hiroyuki said in a flat tone. The scribbling sound his only customer was making just a second ago ceased abruptly. He could even feel the girl’s brown eyes on him. He paid her no mind. it was not as if they were discussing top-secret stuff anyway.

“Oh come on, don’t say that,” said Kouta, who scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. The guy was transparent and as easily to read as an open book, he just didn’t know it. “We need you in the game, man.”

Hiroyuki glanced at the only girl in the store and found himself being studied openly by his target. She appeared interested as soon as she heard Kouta utter that word “game”, so he couldn’t help but wonder if she was a gamer, too.

“It’s the ten thousandth time you said it to me.” Hiroyuki sighed in exasperation. “Shouldn’t you have realized that you can’t change my mind? I’ve lost interest in The World, Kouta.” The instant he mentioned the name of the famous MMORPG was also the one in which he heard a sharp intake of breath from his young customer. There was no doubt about it. She was a gamer, and she was playing The World.

“But what about your sense of justice and order?” Kouta said pleadingly. “You were devoted to the team before, weren’t you? We know how much you loved what you did. Why won’t you join us again? We need someone who can help us put the Player Killers in line. Someone like you, Captain!”

“You overestimated me,” replied Hiroyuki calmly. “You can find a better leader amongst the old members, I’m sure. Besides, I need a life, Kouta. Look at me, I’m twenty-three and I have no steady income, no car, no girlfriend. Some people would call me lame.”

“Just admit it, Hiro,” said Kouta crossly. Hiroyuki could tell that perhaps his unwavering decision had finally managed to tick his childhood friend off. “You don’t play the game anymore because Subaru isn’t there anymore, right?” accused the man. “Get over that good-for-nothing hypocrite already! She isn’t worth it.”

Hiroyuki felt his face hardening. “You take that back,” he snapped. “How dare a Crimson Knight like you speak that way about your leader?” Kouta was about to shout back something when Hiroyuki rode right over him, his voice growing louder and louder by every word, “I won’t stand here and hear you calling Lady Subaru names, got it? Now get out of here!”

In front of the circulation desk Shimatani Kouta stood, face a thunderhead, eyes going as wide as they could in anger, clenched fist trembling at his sides. Then he spun on his heel and stormed out of the store, leaving behind his umbrella. Hiroyuki sighed. The other man was always short-tempered. He’d cool down in time, though. Maybe the cold of the rain would help quicken that process. He was sure that when he saw Kouta tomorrow, the man would already have forgotten about what just happened, though.

“I’m sorry you had to see this, Miss. I apologize...” he said as he turned toward his customer. He stopped talking, however, when his eyes fell on her face and saw that she was smiling the way someone did when they had uncovered a secret.

“You’re Silver Knight!” she exclaimed... and he gave a start. How the heck did she guess?

As if she were able to read his mind, she grinned and said, “You worked in a movie rental store. You addressed Subaru as “Lady”. And that man called you Captain! Isn’t it obvious?”

“Do I know you?” Hiroyuki peered at the teenager. “In The World, I mean.”

“Yes you do, now guess who I am.” She gave him a mischievous smile.

Hiroyuki decided to study the girl more carefully while going over what she had said in his head. Then it struck him.

“You’re Mimiru,” he said. She was the only person in The World to whom he divulged the information about him working part-time for a movie rental store. It had to be her. “But you’re... so young. I thought you had to be at least eighteen.”

“And you’re so old,” Mimiru retaliated. “I already knew that you had to be an old man from the way you talked and acted in The World but I didn’t imagine that you were already twenty-three!”

Hiroyuki cleared his throat and offered no comment to that. Twenty-three was old?

“What’s your name?” she asked. “I can’t keep calling you Silver Knight or grumpy old man, can I?”

“Are kids nowadays as rude as you?” He frowned at her. “Shouldn’t you be introducing yourself to your elder first?”

“Fine.” She stuck her tongue out at him. “I’m Kanae, Mitsuki Kanae. Nice to meet’cha.” She extended her hand to him. He took it and gave it a firm shake.

“My name’s Kozuka Hiroyuki,” he said. “Glad to make your acquaintance.”

“So now that we were properly introduced, let me ask you a question.”

“Ask.”

“Do I get a discount?”

“No,” he answered immediately.

“Cheapskate,” Kanae declared, and they started to laugh together. She was an interesting girl, Hiroyuki decided. And if the rumors he had heard were true, she should be chummy with the Lady Subaru herself. Maybe he could ask the girl about his former leader. It had been a while since he last heard about her, after all.

***

Standing by the whiteboard of the room three-oh-eight of Touyou Eiwa Jogakuin, Rikudou Emi tossed a glance over her shoulder as her hand continued to use a piece of square cloth to wipe the remaining of the board. Beyond the glass windows, the sun was traveling toward the horizon, its light dyeing every desk and chair in the classroom with its sickly orange light. In the approaching twilight, Shouji An, a tall girl with soft brown hair and a pair of bright eyes of the color of amber, sat on her chair with her elbows on her desk like a lifeless statue. Her face, which was as blank as a sheet of paper often enough, was now covered by an aura of melancholy. Emi couldn’t help but wonder what the black sheep of the class was thinking in that head of hers.

Since starting her first grade in this school, Emi had been assuming the post of class representative. Yet, during the last ten years of her life, she had never encountered someone nearly as troublesome as the ever-so-aloof Shouji An in her class. Well, not troublesome in the sense that Shouji was a nuisance to other people around her – she never was – but in that the girl made Emi’s job infinitely difficult to carry out. She was the class rep, who was implored upon by the homeroom teacher to ensure that the students get along as well as family members would, so it was only natural that she tried to pull Shouji into the lukewarm and friendly atmosphere that she had spent ten years to create and maintain. The brown-haired girl, one year older than every other person in the tenth grade, elected not to. Emi wasn’t pleased in the very least.

Every time Shouji An stepped into the class, she immediately walked to her seat in the very last row and began to stare out of the glass window to her right without sparing any of her classmates a smile, a good morning greeting, or even a quickest glance. Shouji wasn’t snobbish or anything, that Emi could tell, she was simply uninterested in other people or whatever they did around her seat. Although she did respond when other students approached her – the girls who were Shouji’s neighbors wanted to make friends with her, Emi supposed – she did so in a manner that encouraged people to stay the heck away from her. It wasn’t that she was rude – nor was she polite, in any case – the way she answered people’s questions let them know exactly that they should stop bothering her and let her be by herself. Her classmates got the message almost instantly.

Emi tsk’ed in irritation as she recalled the first conversation she had with Shouji An, which happened during the lunch break of the first day she transferred into the class. All Emi had wanted to do was letting Shouji know that although she was new and that everybody else in the class knew each other – they had actually been friends since the first grade, thanks to the escalator system – she shouldn’t hesitate in making friends. Emi had said so as warmly and affably as she could, which usually helped her break the ice successfully, so she was shocked when she was met with a blank stare in the end and a curt “Thank you” before Shouji turned away and resuming her prior activity, which involved staring at the clouds through the window.

Of course, being the kind class representative that Emi was, she didn’t become angry. Instead, she tried to talk to her unresponsive classmate again and tried her best to learn more about the girl by asking questions involving her family. Five minutes after she started, Shouji An stood up and walked out of the class. Another five minutes passed before Emi realized that her target had settled herself down on the ground beneath a tree in the school yard, her arms hugging her knees, her eyes gazing once more upward at the sky. Only after the school bell rang did the girl return to class. Emi found herself thinking that Shouji An was a challenge that she could not, and must not, fail to overcome.

With that incident – Emi sometimes referred to it as a Public Relations disaster – in mind, she had assumed that it would be impossible to ask Shouji An to join a club, which was required by the school. At first, Shouji reacted the way Emi thought she would when the girl was informed about the school’s regulation, which meant that she gave Emi a bland look before she muttered a half-hearted “Thank you” and stared out of her window again. Then just as Emi was about to leave, Shouji suddenly asked in a drop-dead serious voice whether Touyou Eiwa Jogakuin had a movie club. That surprised her so greatly she spent a good two minutes gaping at Shouji An like a country lout before she gave the latter the directions to the club.

Now here was the oddest thing that had ever happened in Touyou Eiwa as far back as Emi could remember. Since she was terribly curious about Shouji An, she dropped by the movie club a few times to see how the girl was doing. She was shocked the moment she realized that despite Shouji’s unresponsiveness, the girl was fawned on by nearly every member of the club. When she carefully made an inquiry into the matter, a sempai answered her that they couldn’t help but wanting to spoil the girl because it had been a while since they managed to recruit a talent like the freshman... and that they thought Shouji was the cutest thing in the world. Emi simply couldn’t understand what was wrong with that crazy club anymore.

Snapping out of her recollection of the past, Emi sighed and finished cleaning up the whiteboard. She was about to go pick up her bag and leave the moment the classroom’s door slid open and admitted someone in a getup she never expected to see in Touyou Eiwa. It was a young woman in her mid-twenties, about five feet six in height, with short hair that fell in ringlets in front of her forehead and on either side of her face, which Emi judged to be not quite pretty but not exactly unattractive either. Standing in grave black business attire and wearing a gram face that brooked no nonsense, the newcomer was the very picture of propriety and strength of will. Yet, when Emi looked into the woman’s eyes, gray augers that seemed more than able to bore through the hardest material, she knew that this kind of person would do anything as long as it gained her the desired result. Emi shivered.

“Excuse me,” said the woman, “may I speak to Shouji-san, please?”

“Oh,” Emi swallowed audibly, “she’s over there.”

“Thank you.” The woman gave a small incline of her head, to which Emi returned a deeper one of her own. When she straightened up again, the woman was already walking toward Shouji An, who was studying the newcomer with a frown on her face.

“Hello,” said the woman upon arriving at Shouji’s desk. “My name is Minamoto Iriya, and I have come on behalf of CyberConnect Corporation. Say, Shouji-san, would you like to go for something to drink? I have an offer that you may just be interested in.”

The frown on the brown-haired girl’s face deepened while Minamoto Iriya’s lips curved upward into a smile Emi could only call... vicious. She wondered if she should find the nearest teacher and report this incident to them.

***

Sitting at a table right next to the glass storefront of Hayamu’s Coffee House, which was actually more of a bakery shop than what it was named for, Shouji An silently studied the austere facial features of the woman who sat opposite her. As ever, every table of the shop, atop which sat dishfuls of delicious sweet cakes and cups of billowing tea, was occupied. As far as An could remember, there hadn’t been a day in which the establishment of Okada Hayamu-san, the gray-haired elderly gentleman who was the House’s owner, wasn’t crowded. Even now, there was still a long line of people who were waiting outside the door, waiting anxiously for the moment they could step in and relax themselves with Okada-san’s homemade cakes and homebrew coffee and tea. Yet, even in the din that encompassed the entire shop, amidst the loud chattering of the female students of Touyou Eiwa Jogakuin who hung out here after class every afternoon without caring about the amount of sugar they were accumulating into their bodies, An had the impression that a bubble of silence surrounded her and her companion, who exuded a very disquieting atmosphere at times. Many thought An naïve, but she had no difficulty identifying Minamoto Iriya as someone utterly dangerous. As for what someone like the young woman could have wanted with a high school student, An didn’t know.

She intended to find out, though.

“You called me out here,” she said in a cool voice to Minamoto, who had been staring at her with an interested expression on her face since the start, “shouldn’t you be talking?”

“Ah, yes, indeed so,” answered the woman. “Shouji-san, it is my understanding that you had spent a long period of time in a hospital more than two months ago, correct? In a vegetative state, I believe?”

“Right.” An gave a curt nod.

The more she listened to Minamoto Iriya, who introduced herself as the director of the Public Relations Department of CC Corp, the more uncomfortable she grew. Perhaps it was a very wrong decision to have let her curiosity win over common sense and drag her out here with the woman. She should have been back in her room, packing up her belongings so that she’d be ready when dad came and picked her up, so that she could spend her Saturday and Sunday at home, where she could stay near her beloved girlfriend.... ‘Before she flies away to America and leaves me here alone,’ she thought in deep sadness. An wondered if it was already too late to walk out of the door of the shop and pretend that Minamoto never approached her....

“Are you aware of the cause?” the woman asked before she quietly took a sip from her coffee cup.

“Yes,” replied An. “What’s so important about it that you had to seek me out?”

“Why, everything!” Minamoto made it sound the most obvious thing in the world. “Do you not see, Shouji-san? The fact that your consciousness,” faster than An could react, the older woman raised her hand and pressed her forefinger against An’s forehead, “can leave your body and enter the imaginary space created by a network of computers is something incredible!” An brushed away almost roughly the hand of the self-proclaimed director of the Public Relations Department. She hated being touched by people she barely knew. “My apologies.” Minamoto inclined her head. If she was offended, she hid it well.

“What exactly do you want with me?”

“What we at CyberConnect wish to discuss with you,” she said, “is a job offer. Shouji-san, would you like to work for us as a test subject for out newest Virtual Reality System? We have high hopes for it, as we expect it to be the key factor in revolutionizing The World and the Cyber world itself.” The woman’s gray eyes, cold as winter stone from the moment she approached An in her class, suddenly glowed with a mix of excitement and reverence. From a distance, anybody would have guessed that Minamoto was a devout Christian who was raving about her Almighty God. “Would it not be incredible if we succeeded in safely transferring people’s consciousness into the game? Would it not be a joy for true gamers to experience the game world the way they do the real world?”

“Why me?” An asked curtly. “There are millions of people in Tokyo alone. Why do you want me?”

“We have been trying with others before we decided that we should approach you, Shouji-san,” Minamoto Iriya said patiently. “Our experiments, however, proved to be unfruitful. No matter what we did, the system rejected our subjects the very same way magnets of the same pole repelled each other. It was only then did we think of you.” The woman’s eyes sparkled with a light that sent shivers slithering down An’s spine. “You were the first person to fall under the influence of that renegade A.I. Morgana. You were the one whose consciousness spent the longest period of time in The World. If our conjecture was indeed correct, the system should welcome you with open arms.” She spread her hands and smiled. “So, what say you, Shouji-san?”

“I refuse,” An said flatly. “I have better things to do than being your lab rat.” She rose to her feet.

“Don’t leave yet.” The smile on Minamoto’s lips deepened. “We have not even talked about the benefits of working for us yet.” She reached inside her suit pocket and brought out a folded piece of paper, which she straightened out upon the table top. “This is the contract. Why don’t you read it and see for yourself what we can offer in exchange for your cooperation?”

“Not interested, so no thanks.” An picked up her schoolbag and started for the exit of the Coffee House.

“How is Lady Subaru of the Crimson Knights doing lately?” Minamoto Iriya’s voice spoke softly behind An and made her stop abruptly in her track. “We at CyberConnect were truly sorry to see the Knights disbanded, you see,” the young woman continued while An stared at her. “We have always been indebted to her; for without her and her Knights, The World would have been a place where lawlessness thrived while we could do nothing to stop it.” Gray eyes now focused on An, strong as a snow avalanche, sharper than a butcher’s knife. For some reason, those eyes infuriated An no end.

“Why did you mention her?” she asked in her coldest voice.

“Because I believe this modest offer will benefit both you and her, of course. Say, Shouji-san, is it true that Lady Subaru is going to the United States for her treatment?” the woman said, her smile unwavering atop her interlaced hands.

“How do you know that?” An felt her fists clenching and her internal organs turning to ice.

“We always do our homework; that is why. Why don’t you sit down? We at CyberConnect have spent much time and effort trying to devise a contract that would delight you. At least read it, please? Else, we may have to resort to appealing to the Lady Subaru herself.” The threat, however disguised by polite and honeyed words, was plain. Unless An did what they wanted, Mariko would be endangered. For the first time ever since she walked into this coffee shop, An realized that she had been caught in a trap that had no easy way out.

***

Worried and slightly angry, Sakuma Ryo roughly pushed open the doors to Hayamu’s Coffee House and scanned the interior for his adopted daughter. When he spotted the girl, his breath caught immediately. Shouji An, sitting at a table by the transparent large glass panel that served as the storefront, opposite a woman in grave business attire, was holding in her hand the personal seal that was required for any legal documents. And she was about to press the seal upon a piece of paper lying atop the table while the older woman smiled at her in great satisfaction.

“Hold it, An!” he roared and ended up making nearly everybody else in the shop jump off their seats, including An and her companion. Shocked by Ryo’s voice, the brown-haired girl let go of the seal in her hand and let it fall all the way to the carpeted floor of the shop. The woman in business suit, whose nerves must have been made from steel the way she was unfazed by the commotion that he caused, looked up calmly at him. Yet, in those gray eyes of her hid a light that spoke volumes of hatred. She seemed a tigress whose prey had just been stolen and was determined to reclaim it. Ryo decided immediately that this woman was dangerous.

Being fully aware that every eye there was in the shop was glued at him, Ryo walked to An’s table, where he stood and stared down at the woman with his coldest face. Perhaps she realized that having a man looming over her like this made her look feeble, she rose to her feet and returned a stare that was no less challenging.

“You must be the lady from CC Corp. I’ve heard about,” Ryo said coolly. “My name’s Sakuma Ryo, An’s guardian. Pleased to meet you.” He extended his hand to the woman, who grabbed it and shook it as firmly as any other man would. She looked puny... but she sure was strong.

“I am Minamoto Iriya,” she said, her hand letting go of Ryo’s. “It is my pleasure.” The shadow of a raging blizzard never disappeared from her gray eyes. Minamoto must be secretly steaming inside, he guessed.

He glanced at his adopted daughter, who was sitting very still on her seat, face painted with surprise and puzzlement. Sighing, he bent down to pick up her personal seal and slipped it back into her hand. The girl never said a word even as he pulled her up gently by the wrist and said quietly, “Let’s go back to your room, An. Mariko’s waiting there, and she’s very worried about you.” The name of An’s girlfriend brought a guilty grimace to the high school’s freshman’s face. Ryo wondered why.

“I’m sorry I interrupted your meeting,” he glanced at the woman from CC Corp, “but we have an urgent matter to attend to. Perhaps we can schedule an appointment on another day for the three of us?”

“Certainly,” Minamoto Iriya said as she folded the piece of paper on the desk, put it inside her suit pocket, and gave An and Ryo an incline of her head. “Good day.” She then walked to the cashier counter, gave the elderly lady over there a few bills, and left.

“Shall we go?” he quietly told the brown-haired girl. She nodded.

“Why is Mariko here, dad?” An asked, her voice slightly anxious, when they were crossing the school yard a few minutes later. “And... how did you find me?”

“Mariko asked me to let her tag along when I came to pick you up like usual,” Ryo replied. “Saying that she was worried is an understatement. It would appear you haven’t been calling her, again.” He gave his daughter a glance, which made her turn her head sideways in guilt. “On the way here, I received a call from my old friend the Headmistress of Touyou Eiwa. Thanks to your vigilant class representative, she learned that someone suspicious from CyberConnect had approached you. After taking that phone call, I left Mariko in your room went to look for you. As to how I found you... have you forgotten, An? Your mobile has a GPS tracking device.” Ryo gestured at her school bag, in which he knew her cell phone had to be.

“Ah, right,” the brown-haired girl murmured noncommittally.

A few minutes passed in silence between them before they reached An’s room in the dorm.

“An,” Misono Mariko, sitting on her wheelchair near the bed, called softly as soon as Ryo opened the door and ushered in the high school fresh man, who seemed as though she wanted to be on a different planet. Mariko noticed this, for the young woman’s face paled a little bit. “An, did something happen?”

Not answering her girlfriend’s question, An stood stiffly by the door and took up a serious study of the floor. Exasperated, Mariko turned her gaze toward Ryo and looked at him pleadingly. Sighing, Ryo sat down on the bed and raked his fingers through his hair, not knowing how he should begin. Silence, terribly uncomfortable silence, weighed on his shoulders like a boulder of rock until he could stand it no more.

“An, would you tell me what the woman from CC Corp wanted from you?” he suggested. “Please?” Not that he didn’t know... but he had better confirm it first.

Another few minutes passed before An decided to speak up. In a strained voice, the brown-haired girl gave them the details of their meeting. She stopped abruptly, however, upon reaching the part about her reading the contract and refused to speak more. He noticed her reluctance. He would have inquired further, too, had something in An’s story not struck him like a full-arm slap. Anger rose in him.

“So she threatened you with Mariko, didn’t she?” Ryo’s voice was soft and low, but inside his veins coursed torrential currents of molten lava. He was born mild-natured, but this was just plain outrageous! “I’ll call the authorities soon.”

“Oh An....” Mariko wheeled herself forward and stopped in front of her young girlfriend. There, she took the hands of the high school freshman into hers and squeezed them affectionately.

“An, next you see that woman, don’t ever let her get near you. She meant you no good,” Ryo said. “In fact, that job offer from CC Corp could have been the most dangerous trap you could possibly land yourself into.”

“What do you mean, Ryo-san?” Mariko asked. An, on the other hand, only gave him a puzzled look.

“I’m sure you both remember Helba,” he answered and continued after An and Mariko had nodded, “that wise lady has been keeping a tight watch on both The World and CC Corp even after Morgana’s defeat. When I was in the game yesterday, I received a message from her, which requested my presence at a meeting in a hidden Field. When I arrived, I saw her, Balmung, and Lios.”

Pausing to take a breath, Ryo silently watched as the girls’ eyes widened in surprise at the names he had mentioned. They both knew that Lios was the CC Corp. Administrator who had sided with the dotHackers in the war against Morgana and her Phases. Furthermore, they were also aware that Balmung of the Azure Sky had been made Administrator of the game. The fact that the famous hacker Helba and two Administrators summoned him to a secret meeting should be a sign that something terrible was going on.

“Lord Balmung was there, too?” Mariko said quietly, almost a musing, as a frown formed on her pretty face.

“Balmung said that he would have called you too, Mariko, had he not realized that he didn’t want to drag you into the mess ever again.”

“He’s always so kind,” the paraplegic young woman murmured in gratitude. Ryo nodded to himself. Of course, Balmung of the Azure Sky had always been protective over Mariko. In a way, he was like a father to her, who watched over her in the shadows, who silently ensured that no harm would fall her way. A good man, that was what Balmung was.

“Anyways,” Ryo cleared his throat and decided to get back to the important matter at hand, “in the meeting, Helba, Balmung, and Lios informed me of a danger lurking in the shadows of CC Corp. You see, since the company learned of the existence of Aura, Morgana, and what happened to An in The World, a faction within the personnel has been formed. The members of that faction, called the Revolutionists reverently by some and mockingly by others, advocated idea which was fed to you by the woman Minamoto Iriya, An. A perfect Virtual Reality where the player’s consciousness is immersed in the game so that they can experience the true sensations they would normally feel in the real world.

“At first, when the idea was first voiced, it gained enormous support from the leaders. However, once they took a careful inspection over the design that the Revolutionists wished to implement on the current systems, they found out a detrimental flaw. The design, despite its brilliance and intricacy, would place an immense stress upon the player’s mind, which was more than capable of sending him or her into a coma... or shut it down forever. Apparently, some researchers with too much time on their hands have been studying the remnants of Morgana’s data.”

An and Mariko stared at Ryo in shock.

“As a result, the big shots in CC Corp. decided to put the idea on a back burner until the flaw in the design was fixed. They refuse to grant budget to the researchers, too,” he continued. “The Revolutionists weren’t pleased with that. They argued that without being given priority and budget to continue their result, how could they overcome the problem? Since the higher-ups would hear none of it, the Revolutionists could only fume in silence... until they decided that they would take the matter into their own hands. Determined, they set out to look for test subjects, which had never been authorized.” His lips thinned in anger. “Thanks to those Revolutionists, five adults have been sent to hospital, all of whom were in a short comma before gaining consciousness in special recuperation rooms. Worse, they hadn’t been able to twitch a muscle ever since, as their brain cells were heavily damaged. That could have happened to you, An,” he declared firmly, trying to drive his point home.

Mariko’s hand rose to cover her mouth in horror, her eyes as wide as they could be, while Ryo’s daughter’s complexion went so pale one could have thought that all the blood had been withdrawn from her face. Her hands, which were hanging very still at her side since the beginning of the conversation, started to tremble. Ryo believed he had just succeeded in slamming fear back into her mind.

“Afterwards, the Revolutionists, fearful of the consequences, threatened the families of the victims that unless they kept quiet, they would be killed,” Ryo said. “That was how they managed to keep their CC Corp. superiors in the dark. Fortunately, however, Helba found out about the incident and immediately notified Balmung and Lios. Those three would have exposed the shady business to the executive personnel at CC Corp., I believe, had it not been for the fact that Helba deeply mistrusts them, that Lios and Balmung’s positions weren’t very high, and that they possess no evidence at all. Balmung and Lios promised to investigate further into the matter, though.”

“Why did they contact you of all people, Ryo-san?” Mariko asked, her voice a tad breathless.

“Because they had cause to believe that the Revolutionists would come after An, seeing how much she was connected to Morgana and The World,” Ryo replied and gave his daughter a glance. She shied back as though his eyes were bullets. “And I see that they were correct. An,” the brown-haired girl gave a start at the mentioning of her name and looked up at him in apprehension, “now will you tell me why you decided to print your seal on that contract?” Having heard the question, the high school freshman eyed the door to her room and appeared as though she wanted to break it down so she could escape.

“An, did they threaten you again?” Mariko supplied.

An shook her head and said slowly, “No, I was trying to sign that contract because I wanted to.”

“Why do you want to?” Ryo demanded, frowning.

An swallowed audibly and turned her sideways, lips thinned, blue eyes boring a hole through a wall standing opposite. She obviously didn’t want to answer. Ryo was about to pressure her to spill the reason why she would do something that, based on her personality and her unease toward CC Corp., would not do under normal circumstances when Mariko said in a soft, pleading voice, “An, please, talk to us.” Then the girl turned around.

“They... promised me fifty million yen in exchange for my cooperation,” the brown-haired girl said in a quiet and ashamed voice. “They said... it’d be enough to fund my stay in the United States during the one year Mariko’s hospitalized.” After she finished, she stood there and trembled as though she had just been tossed into a winter pond.

Deafening silence once again descended in the room and engulfed the three of them. Ryo was so shocked that he couldn’t find a word to say while Mariko stared at her lover, her amber eyes shining with unshed tears. An, on the other hand, never stopped trembling. She seemed on the verge of tears, too. Seeing her like that, Ryo could only blame himself and his uselessness. He only wished that he had more money. He only wished his financial situation hadn’t deteriorated so much lately that he didn’t have the power to make his daughter happy. Sure, outwardly the novelist Sakuma Ryo was wealthy but he and his daughter knew better than that. Unless his novel, which was still in writing, was successful, they would run into a financial crisis soon enough.

“Come here, An,” Mariko said softly and tugged at An’s hand with her own. At first, the high school freshman refused to move but when she looked at the young woman’s face, she gave in and got down on her knees in front of the wheelchair. “You must have suffered a great deal during the last week. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, An.”

“No, don’t apologize!” An gave a start. “I’m the one at fault. I shouldn’t be so selfish I made you worry. I’m the one who should say sorry. I should have been overjoyed just to know that you have a chance of being cured. I... I....”

“You don’t have to say anything. There’s nothing you should be sorry for.” Mariko hushed her young girlfriend by pulling the latter into a tight hug. In Mariko’s embrace, Ryo’s daughter started to cry. Knowing he shouldn’t stay anymore, he hastily opened the door stepped out of the room. Yet, quick as he was, he wasn’t quick enough to close the door in time so he wouldn’t hear a quiet “I love you, An,” issued from Mariko’s mouth. His fists clenched as he leaned his back against the door. Any other person perhaps could undergo a year without her love by her side... but he doubted An could without sinking deeper and deeper into depression first. In that instant, he decided that by any means, he would gather enough money so that he could send An to the U.S. with Mariko, no matter what he had to do to achieve his goal.

***

Under the camouflage of the night and the shadow of a tall building, Minamoto Iriya quietly observed the two-story house that was the home to Sakuma Ryo and his adopted daughter, Shouji An. The two of them had come back here a while ago, accompanied by a young woman on a wheelchair that could be no one else but the Lady Subaru, Misono Mariko. Iriya gave her lips a thoughtful tap. From the look on their faces, painted with a touch of sadness and frustration, she didn’t think that she should contact Shouji An ever again. The answer became obvious to her the moment Sakuma Ryo stormed into that coffee shop and prevented his daughter from signing that fake contract. Well, of course it was fake, if the Revolutionists possessed fifty million yen, they would be performing extensive researches on the Morpheus System right now, not dispatching Minamoto Iriya and her comrades around the country to abduct test subjects.

Iriya sighed. It was so close. Had Sakuma Ryo been a minute later, maybe even thirty seconds, Shouji An would have become a pawn in her hand, which she could move on the chessboard to her heart’s content. Now... Iriya suspected that the moment she stepped near the girl was also the moment her face was covered with the content of a pepper spray. If Iriya managed to get near the girl, of course....

Well... she guessed she needed to initiate Plan B now. Shouji An was a test subject that she could not afford letting go. By hook or by crook, Iriya would bring the girl to the Revolutionists’ secret research center.... The revolution of virtual reality was at hand, she and her fellow members only needed to try a little harder. When Shouji An finished helping them perfect the Morpheus System, the big shots in CyberConnect would open their eyes and recognize the System for what it was worth. The world would kneel at their feet then.

Taking out her Palm Pilot, Iriya quickly punched the dials and pressed it against her ear. In but a few seconds, the dull ringing sounds were replaced by the voice of one of her comrades.

“Headquarters,” she said softly, “Plan A has failed. Requesting permission to start Plan B.”

Silence passed for the next few minutes before a man’s deep voice answered her, “Permission granted.”

“My thanks, friend,” was what Iriya murmured before she hung up. Using her pen, she browsed the contact list on her phone until she found the address of the man with whom she needed to get in touch.

“1579 Meiji Avenue, Beika City,” she murmured as she walked away from the Sakuma residence, “Shouji Ichitaka.” If there was someone who could deliver Shouji An into her hand, it would be her rotten scum of a biological father. Iriya couldn’t help but chuckle softly to herself. This world was truly a joke....