... perhaps it is the most thrilling moment for students to run through a main
gate of the school while listening to the chime for the beginning of class. This might
not have been changed from thousands of years from now... I was running through
the main gate while thinking about such a stupid thing.
Without further delay I breezed through the front yard then into the main entrance.
I quickly said my code to the voice recognition machine and there was a confirmation beep.
It was actually two seconds before the limit but I could manage to get in.
My heart was beating fast as well as my breath. When I looked up from the cool white ceramic floor,
I saw a familiar face.
There was a girl who was wearing a navy colored blazer with a red and black
chequer-design skirt. She had her brown hair shortly and tidily cut. The girl with a pretty face is my best friend
Kasuga Murasaki.
'Haha, morning. You are just on time as usual.' Murasaki was saying so with her husky voice and looking down on me
(because she is 170cm tall, 20cm taller than me.)
I replied, 'There's nothing I can do, I have a low blood pressure...'
'What is that? That cannot be an excuse. Even if you are a low blood pressure person
you can still try your best.'
After she said that she smiled and turned back gracefully. The way she moves is uni-sexed.
No wonder why she is popular among the junior girls... perhaps it means that even
in girl schools girls are wanting a heroine.
While I was watching her back and thinking about those, she turned around,
'What are you thinking about? The first class is going to start soon, Koruri.'
Yes, I am called Koruri. Sex: female; Age: 16; Height: 156cm; Weight: ??;
Grade: above average; Sports: not proficient; Interest: dessert cooking; Eye
Color: dark brown; I tie my semi-long hair and I believe that I look just like
a normal girl. I am a student at Kashii Girl's High School. A boyfriend... of
course I don't have one.
I was born in VC0084 in Fukuoka, western area of Japan. I am the second girl
in my family. This data is all which can prove my existence in this world.
We had an unexpected 2-hour self-study session after the first class. However,
my life was boring as usual. At lunch time Murasaki ate all my dessert
chocolate cake. In the afternoon, we were required to do a Marathon run in P.E. class, and
as usual I finished quite late. I think I didn't enjoy that day.
'Hey Koruri, are you free after school?', asked Murasaki as I was backing up that day's
lecture materials. The one who took my chocolate cake and also being the day's fastest
Marathon runner, Murasaki seemed to be continously lucky.
'From now? Well I guess OK.'
Since I didn't have a date nor did I belong to a club, I had to agree with
my best friend's proposal.
'OK, why don't we go to a new amusement spot in Temjin, from now?'
'Amusement spot...' These were called Game Centers in the last century.
'I heard that there is this new simulator game coming out! I just got my salary from my
part-time job so I have to spend it...'
... she just kept on talking and didn't even care about my schedule. My
right of decision had already been lost to her.
'... Let's take the 4 o'clock liner. Hurry up or we are gonna be late!'
'Hey, w... wait!' She grabbed my arm and took me to the station.
'Oh no, it's packed!'
Around 20 people were surrounding a two telephone box
sized game machine. There were some teenagers, some 30-year-old men and girls
like us.
'Let's queue up Koruri. Do you have any small change?' Even in front of these
people Murasaki became aggressive.
'Em... Murasaki, I think there are too many people out here today, shall we
come back next time?'
Murasaki rose her posh eyebows and said, 'What are you talking about! We came
here all the way and we leave without playing!?'
She put her face so close to mine, that even she is a girl I felt embarrassed
and my face turned red.
'Why don't you want to play? Is it too time-wasting to wait for it? Or is it too
embarrassed to play while all these people are looking at you?'
'eh...'
I do play some video games, but not as much as Murasaki. And yes it is quite
embarrassing to play the first game in front of those people.
'You will never know what will happen unless you play. You care about other people's
sight too much. You can't grow up if you keep on thinking like that.'
After saying so Murasaki joined the end of the queue. I think I won't follow her
aggressiveness like this forever. Me and her personalities are totally
different. And she does better than I do on everything... I don't know why
did she become my best friend. I am learning many things from her but what she
can get from me? Without coming up to a conclusion and with a bit of
hesitation, eventually I ended up queuing behind Murasaki.
We still had to wait for a while before we could play the game. 'Em, Murasaki, I
don't have a clue on how to play this game.'
My voice was covered by the noise of the game machines, so I had to talk into
Murasaki's ear.
'Eh? OK, I thought you had heard about it before. It's called Virtual-On
and it's created by DN. It's a 3D two player versus game.'
'Virtual... On.' ...mahjong?
'Yeah it's a 3D robot combat game. There weren't that many before but recently
many robot games of this kind have come up.'
'OK, so it's a mecha thing...'
'And you maneuver like this...'
Then our turn came.
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CHANGED EDGE
'That's pretty good, although it seems difficult to control. But I'm
doing OK aren't I!?'
As she was getting off the cockpit shaped simulator after the game,
Murasaki had a very excited look on her face.
She beat her first challenger even that it was her first time to play the game.
However, it was game over when she faced the next challenger,
although she didn't feel bad about that. As soon as she was beaten,
she was about to queue up again. I sat into the cabinet in place of Murasaki.
Not far from me, the boy who beat Murasaki was sitting there,
watching the monitor without any expression on his face.
'I decided to choose Apharmd, which specialises in close combat. Sounds cool!'
Beside the game cabinet there was an instruction card which introduced all
the available machines. The camouflaged combats look of Apharmd's lower
torso reminded me of the army design which Murasaki seems to like.
I looked back into the cabinet, and two flight sticks came into view. I saw
buttons for manipulation. I could understand how to use them because Murasaki
told me before.
'You'd better play this round as a practice because this is your first bout.'
As soon as Murasaki said so she left the cabinet. I wanted her to stay with
me until I finished the game. I was worried.
I inserted the tokens into the coin slot. It was quite expensive at two tokens per credit.
Watching a CG-rendered battle field in the monitor I quietly grabbed the two flight sticks to get ready.
All of a sudden,
'!!!'
I felt an electric shock throughout my body. Static electricity? No.
Electricity leakage? I didn't think so either. Something which I couldn't
express scared me. I cound't express that shock even if I put together all
the words that I know. It shocked me from head to toe, and even my soul.
That instant, I was like being entrapped in that moment to eternity. My
conciousness had started to fade away from my body. I felt like I was being
reborn. Existence. Killing. All kinds of conciousness weaved together and
created a world of flash.
The universe? The object which was floating in front of me... was it Earth? If
so, was I on the moon? Ruins? Eh? Who was I, what was I doing, why
was I crying? Ah, I was fighting and killing people in order to survive...
TO BE CONTINUED...
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