.Hack//ZERO RE:1010

RE:1010

Takie jumped out of the bathtub when she heard a scream coming from upstairs. Quickly, she wrapped herself in a towel and ran into Junka’s room.

“What’s wrong?”

And there, wearing what looked like an exaggerated pair of goggles, Junka sat slumped in her chair.

“Jun dear! Jun dear!”

Takie shook her granddaughter’s shoulders, then pulled her FMD off her head and tossed it aside like a piece of trash.

“What’s wrong? Hang on!”

Takie looked into Junka’s eyes, and finally, she blinked. Until then, she had just been staring into space without moving a muscle.

“……uh…”

Junka slowly focused on Takie in front of her.

“You were screaming; what happened to you, Jun dear?”

Junka looked over at the FMD lying on the floor. The blood had drained from her lips.

“The boss showed up. I got killed in a bad spot.”

The smile she gave was painful.

“Boss?”

“A really strong monster. I did my best, but it wasn’t enough.”

“That’s all?”

Takie relaxed her shoulders in relief. She was comforted, but not all of her doubts were alleviated.

“But you screamed so loudly, could a game really be that intense?”

When her daughter had bought this PC for her granddaughter, Takie had been a little concerned.

She thought it might be a bit much for an elementary school student to have.

But Kyoko had laughed off the issue.

“They teach web design in elementary school these days.”

It was something they would buy eventually anyways, so there was no reason not to do it now. That was how Kyoko saw it.

“But still, there are some things that shouldn’t be seen by children.”

“Perhaps. But that’s for Junka to decide.”

“You want your daughter to be able to look up pornographic and explicit images?”

“Oh, please. Junka is smarter than that, she has her own set of morals.”

The more important thing to realize when connecting to the internet was that knowledge was only the first layer of it. It was also an opportunity to discover new things for yourself.

Rather than trying to limit the amount of damage it could cause, people should be allowed to expose themselves to that turbid content, and try to not be tainted by it. That was what Kyoko wanted for her daughter.

That was how she had decided to raise her.

Takie did consider Junka to be mature and trustworthy for her age, but she still felt that Kyoko was too brazen with how she handled things.

One hour a day on the computer for gaming and one hour for schoolwork. Or two hours to study word processing and calculating software. In total, she didn’t want Junka spending more than two hours a day on the computer.

These were the limitations that Takie had set with Junka.

“But I won’t be watching every little move you make. This is a promise, and I’m trusting that you’ll keep it.”

When left to her own devices, Junka had proved that she could be quite independent. Takie knew her granddaughter well, after all.

But when she looked at the Junka in front of her now, Takie felt doubt.

Would she really get so upset over a simple game?

Upset enough to let out a soul-curdling scream that drained the blood from her face? Takie couldn’t stop herself from shaking at the thought of it.

“How long have you been playing?”

“It hasn’t even been an hour yet.”

“Then…”

For a moment, Takie recalled a time the news once talked about a young man who had died after playing a game for two or three days without sleep.

“We have a promise, don’t we, Grandma? I’ve kept my promise.”

“Yes, I know.”

“Man, now I’ll have to start over again.”

Junka picked up her FMD. “I’ll save for now and call it a day.”

“Yes. That’s sounds like a good idea.”

Junka put the FMD on again to save her data.

But her hand trembled as she took hold of the controller again.

A shaky breath escaped Junka’s lips.

And Takie noticed something fall down her cheeks.

“Jun, dear?”

Junka was crying, her shoulders started shaking violently with each sob. She took her FMD back off again and wiped her tears.

“I’m such an idiot, I…”

“What’s wrong?”

As Takie repeated her earlier question, Junka twisted her face into a smile.

“I feel like such an idiot for getting so caught up in a game.” Takie handed Junka a tissue. “It’s all fake, but I still get so drawn into it. Why is that?”

Junka laughed at herself through her tears.

And unsure what else to do, Takie held Junka tightly in an embrace.

When Kyoko came home after 2 a.m., Takie informed her of the incident.

“I’ve been concerned about this from the very start, of course. But what do you make of it?”

“Hmm… isn’t it fine?”

Kyoko took a bite of a pickle from her plate.

Takie frowned and opened her mouth to chastise her, but stopped short.

Although a parent would always see their child as a child, Takie had to remind herself that the person in front of her was an adult. Chastising her would not accomplish anything. Instead, Takie placed a beer bottle and a glass in front of Kyoko.

She poured herself a glass, and then downed half of it in one go.

Kyoko always smelled of chemicals even after taking a bath.

Her job must have been hard work, considering all the hours she put in, but Kyoko had never complained about it to her family. She might yell that management was too inflexible sometimes, but she would always be over it by the next day.

And the occasional phone calls from her co-workers proved that she was seen as reliable to some extent. It seemed they even referred to her as ‘Big Sis’ there.

Takie looked at the woman sitting opposite of her while holding one knee under her chin.

In the Nimura family, Takie played the role of the mother while Kyoko played the role of the father. There were no men to fill that role here – not since Takie’s husband passed away.

But she had never once felt inconvenienced by that fact before.

“I thought Junka was a child like you used to be – one who would never cry.”

Takie topped off Kyoko’s glass.

Junka had always been a quiet child, after all. She rarely had fits of anger or cried. She’d been known as a good listener since preschool, and her teachers were always complimenting how easy it was to take care of her.

Kyoko responded while chewing on a pickle.

“I was just stubborn. Seemed better than being emotional all the time.”

“You shouldn’t put it like that.”

“I’m not trying to be dismissive. This is important to me, too.”

“I don’t understand the way you do things.”

Kyoko wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so she just laughed, trying to act coy.

Takie reached for a pickle as well.

Junka would have scowled from the smell alone, so they could only have pickles at times like these. If they so much as left them out in the fridge, she would refuse to touch anything, claiming the smell had soaked into everything.

“I wonder what it’s like to be so obsessed with something like a game.”

“Well, even I cried when I read Anne of Green Gables.

“You can’t compare a book to a game. They’re completely different forms of media, so don’t talk like they’re the same thing.” Takie gave a heavy sigh. “I wonder if it’s Mr. T’s blood in her.”

“Mr. T, huh? It’s been a while since you wanted to talk about him.”

Kyoko grinned smugly as she took another drink of her beer.

“You haven’t talked to him recently, have you?”

“Nope. Why are you bringing this up now?”

“So cruel.”

“Who is? Mr. T?”

“Both of you, obviously.”

Takie glared at Kyoko for a moment.

That was a code word for Junka’s father. Kyoko didn’t want to use his real name around the house, so they called him ‘Mr. T’ instead. Before long, it had just become another quirk of the Nimura family.

“I wish we hadn’t been so thorough about all this.”

“We were kind of cold-blooded, weren’t we?”

Takie’s shoulder slumped.

A parent would always see their child as a child, but they wouldn’t always act like one.

For Takie, Kyoko had a personality that she could only work with because they were mother and daughter, but it was still difficult for her to tell what she was thinking sometimes.

And Mr. T was a prime example of that.

What had she been thinking when she got together with him? And what had she been thinking when they broke up?

Kyoko had said the marriage was strained, but it hadn’t been like they were really having problems – personal, financial, or otherwise – that would have caused them to split up. They had separated almost too easily, leaving everybody around them clueless as to what was really going on.

But as Kyoko had said, she was very stubborn, and once she had made a decision, she never second guessed herself.

“But times are hard on us, now. Thanks in no small part to Mr. T.”

Takie stared up at the ceiling.

“What are you talking about? What does it matter if we’re on hard times?” Kyoko hardened her voice. “You’re not about to suggest that I should get back together with him after all this time, are you?”

“I’d considered it.”

“Well forget it. What would that even accomplish? You really think we’d be happier like that?”

Takie shrugged and gave an exaggerated sigh. “You can spare me the lecture; I already know that.”

“For Junka, this is her reality. There’s no point worrying about hypothetical scenarios and what we could have done differently at this point.

“I know that, but-”

Takie had to stop herself from pushing the issue any further.

Kyoko was right, after all. Thinking in terms of ‘what if’ or ‘if only’ was a dangerous mindset, especially since they distracted from the heart of the real issue.

Ordinarily, Takie never would have brought up an idea like that in the first place.

But Kyoko hadn’t seen that look on Junka’s face, so Takie felt that she couldn’t understand just how dire the situation really was.

If she had seen Junka’s face as she had cried her eyes out – she would have considered it, too.

However, as things stood now, even Takie herself had no idea what to think or how to proceed.

This was a blind spot for them. Or at least that was what Takie thought. Some things were easier to see depending on if you were looking up at it or down. The child could sometimes notice things the parent could not.

Kyoko glanced at the clock on the wall. It was already close to three o’ clock.

“I agree that these are hard times, but we’ve always weathered our challenges before.”

“I suppose.”

Takie nodded, so Kyoko took her empty glass and beer bottle and stood up to put them in the sink.

“I’m going to bed.”

“Goodnight.”

Takie listened as Kyoko walked up the stairs. Once she heard the door to her bedroom close, Takie finally stood as well.

And somewhere outside, she heard the sound of an ambulance siren in the distance.

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