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.

As Sera had said, the monsters King Kirihito was beating were just mindless things created by the program.

“I was thinking of completing the Grand Quest myself,” Sera said, looking back at the screen. On the screen was the site vsoku@VRMMO Aggregate Blog, the affiliate site run by that Matsunaga guy. “But at the end of the day, this stupid thing isn’t going to make me strong. Not really.”

“Kiryu...” Asuha saw the self-loathing in Sera’s expression. She wanted to shout, “That’s not true!” but she bit her tongue. She knew that would be an irresponsible thing to say, a pathetic show of kindness to set her own heart at ease.

“Tsuwabuki.” Sera broke away from the screen again to look back at Asuha.

“Wh-What?”

“Um, the old man. Ichiro Tsuwabuki...”

“Yeah?”

“Is he your brother?” Sera asked.

Asuha was surprised by the question. She had never seen Sera Kiryu express interest in any particular individual before.

“Um, well... He’s my cousin. My second cousin, actually. My grandfather is Itchy’s grandfather’s younger brother.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever known anyone who talks to their second cousin,” Sera said.

“I guess most people don’t.”

“Do you have a big family, Tsuwabuki?” Sera asked.

It was less a big family, Asuha thought, and more a strongly-connected one. She didn’t know how other families did things, but theirs met up at their great-grandfather’s house in Kyushu every year to celebrate the New Year. No matter how busy they were, even if they were halfway around the world, every one of them came together for a New Year’s banquet with about 50 people. Her friends never failed to be surprised when she told them about that.

“He seemed like a pretty amazing guy,” Sera commented.

“Yeah, Itchy’s really amazing.” Hearing what felt like praise for her beloved second cousin raised Asuha’s spirits a bit, and she immediately launched into a paean for him.

She began with Ichiro being the heir to the Tsuwabuki Concern, how handsome he was even in real life, and how he was so smart he’d graduated from college at a foreign university by the time he’d been their age. She described how he was a genius at sports, and how he ranked as a top artist in the fields of both art and music.

As she rambled on and on, most people would usually shout, “You’re exaggerating!” But it was all the truth, and Sera listened with great interest.

“I see.” Sera smiled for the first time as Asuha completed her bragging. “Do you love him? Your ‘Itchy’...”

“Huh?” The question so took Asuha by surprise that she couldn’t help but stammer. She knew that it was absurd for her to play dumb. She knew that. He was Ichiro Tsuwabuki.

If it came to love or hate, of course she’d say she loved him, with pride... but for some reason, she was hesitant to admit to it right here and now.

“W-W-Well, um... That’s none of your business, Kiryu!” To hide her sudden and inexplicable reticence, Asuha turned the question back on her friend. “I-I could ask the same of you, anyway! Why are you so interested in Itchy?”

“Hmm...” Sera sat thoughtfully, knees pulled to chest, and finally murmured a soft, “I was just curious,” followed by silence.

It was such a loaded silence that Asuha couldn’t find it in herself to press further. But her friend’s next words were even more unexpected.

“I want to beat him.”

Asuha was stunned. “Kiryu?”

“I think that beating a guy like him would give me a lot of confidence in myself.”

“Even just in the game?” Asuha asked with trepidation. Sera nodded.

“Even just in the game. Maybe all the more because it’s a game...”

Asuha was baffled. She knew how talented and amazing Ichiro was. Even in the game, Ichiro was strong. On top of his quick grasp of game fundamentals, he had his naturally quick reflexes and his pay-to-play resources.

Ichiro had seen King Kirihito’s strength, and still felt certain that he could rise above it. If Asuha were to be completely honest, she couldn’t imagine anyone beating her second cousin, ever. Thus, to say “You can beat him,” would be irresponsible.

But to say “You can’t beat him,” would be cruel. Asuha couldn’t say either.

In the end, she could only say one thing. “Itchy will be at the Grand Quest, too.”

Sera Kiryu’s eyes narrowed in the darkness. “He will?”

“And I think he wants to see you, Kiryu.”

“I see...” A smile appeared on Sera’s face, full of meaning Asuha couldn’t understand.

I don’t get it... Asuha thought frustratedly. Was a fundamental distrust of the game standing in the way of her ability to understand? All she could tell was that Ichiro and King Kirihito were bound up in some mutual agreement.

“I’m gonna go,” Sera announced.

“...Okay,” Asuha muttered, trying not to sound too petulant. But before she left, there was one thing she had to say. The one thing that honestly reflected her true feelings. “When you do come to school, I’ll be waiting.”

“Sure.”

Asuha started for the door, but Sera spoke again, giving her pause.

“Tsuwabuki.”

“What?”

“Thanks for coming. It was good to see you.”

“Sure.” The words lightened Asuha’s heart, even if only a bit.

Kiryu’s mother, who had apparently been waiting outside with her ear pressed to the door, must have realized Asuha was coming and quickly straightened out her appearance.

Asuha bowed to her politely, asked to be excused, and then left Sera Kiryu’s house behind.

“Ichiro-sama, what are you looking at?”

Ichiro was enjoying his post-breakfast leisure time on the sofa with his tablet in hand when Sakurako brought him coffee. He placed the tablet on the table to take up the cup.

“Matsunaga’s blog,” he responded.

“Ohhh...” Sakurako bent over to have a look at the screen.

It was vsoku@VRMMO Aggregate Blog, the affiliate site run by Matsunaga of the Dual Serpents. The blog amassed threads from message boards within the VRMMO and other social networks, and Matsunaga himself wrote articles on his own investigations and in-game events. The most popular posts were the event articles.