Wow.
Color me surprised, but that pie had actually been very, very good.
I rested my fork on my plate and sighed in satisfaction. Save for a few light streaks of sauce on the rim of the plate and a small sprinkling of crumbs, there was no indication that a pie had ever been there.
Emi, meanwhile, had not been able to finish hers. Surrounded by its spilled innards (which were conspicuously devoid of chicken), the pie sat sadly on its little plate, the top layer of its partially eaten shell drooping down like the curves of a deflated balloon.
I chuckled at this image. Emi was clean and meticulous when it came to most things, but eating was not one of them.
While she had still been eating, I’d considered calling her out on it and lecturing her again on the importance of vegetables. However, after remembering what had transpired at the grocery store, my conscience ruled heavily against it.
I had told myself I would just work a lot of veggies into the rest of the weekend’s meals. If all she had to eat were peas and rice, she’d tough it out and eat peas and rice. That I was sure of.
As for the remains of the pie…
“Emi. You know you have to finish the rest of this eventually, right?”
She was watching cartoons on the aging TV hanging off the wall. She had her back leaning against the table, on the side opposite from me, and she didn’t turn when she responded. Her eyes were glued on the screen.
“Yeah.”
“Tonight?”
“I can’t. I’m really full.”
“Tomorrow?”
“I think so.”
“Okay. Then into the fridge it goes.”
I stood up, using my right arm to push myself off of the floor. After a quick stretch and slap of the cheeks to fend off the impending food coma, I picked up my own plate in one hand and Emi’s in the other.
I didn’t have to go very far from there; the “kitchen,” or at least the appliances and such that make up a typical kitchen, were in the same room, mere feet away from the table.
Barely having to look as I did so, I set my plate and fork at the bottom of the sink. Some plastic wrap then went over Emi’s plate, and I opened the fridge.
The contents made for a bit of a sad sight, but such was life. There were cans of processed vegetables, some eggs, half a jug of milk… and that was pretty much it.
“Well,” I muttered to myself. “Makes this addition all the merrier.”
I slid the rest of Emi’s pie into the fridge, making a point to put it next to a can of peas. So I’ll remember, I told myself.
Humming as I closed the fridge back up again, I pulled my phone out and checked the time.
8:08 PM. Friday, March 31st.
Thankfully, I had this Saturday off. It was the end of the quarter, and our goals for the period had not only been met, but had been far exceeded. While this did mean a small cash bonus for everyone in the company, the real reward was getting to return to a 40 hour work week, at least for the time being.
Frankly speaking, I wasn’t a huge fan of the working conditions in Japan. But I had to make do. For the foreseeable future, returning to America was simply an impossibility.
I walked back over to the table and sat myself down to Emi’s right. I rested my left arm on the smooth wooden surface and leaned my weight against its edge. With no work that needed to be done at that moment, I began to browse the article feed on my phone, glancing up occasionally to keep an eye on what Emi was watching.
It was such a monotonous task, swiping my thumb constantly downwards to refresh the page, tapping every now and then on maybe one out of every hundred links and posts, the rare gems that actually managed to pique my interest.
And yet I always did it. Everyone always did it. A completely pointless action, one that was incredibly easy to get lost in. Jumbles of bright images and sensationalist text, all fighting tooth and nail to grab my attention. All trying their hardest to be flashy enough to get me to stop and listen to what they had to say.
For the most part, it was pure drivel. “How Paul Marco’s Latest Film, ‘Five Nights in Paris,’ Will Change Your Life.” “Watch This Boy Prove Reincarnation Is Real.” “Australian Middle School Girl Upsets With ‘Eccentric’ Photos.” “The Fruits of CRISPR: Toshima, the Town Where Every Baby Has Cat Ears.”
Actually, that last one sounded really interesting. I tapped it.
I supposed part of the reason browsing these things was so addicting was the thrill I got when I finally did find something worth my time. It made me feel like I’d accomplished something.
I sighed. Clickbait. Ears that have a little extra hair growing on them are not “cat ears.”
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I backed out of the article... and continued to browse.
It was crazy, though. As the posts kept scrolling past, I realized there was quite a bit of coverage being given to ARIA Online, of all things. The up-and-coming VR-MMO, one that early reviewers had come out in droves to praise, one that was being hailed as the game that would change the industry forever. I hadn’t been following its development very closely, but I at least knew that much. Well, that and the fact some asshole had spent a quarter million USD on it.
A new headline popped up with my latest refresh.
Calling All Gamers! ARIA Online Goes Live Tonight!
Tonight?
I opened the post.
----------------------------------------
Posted March 31st, 2034 at 20:27
By Kevin “Königstiger” Tea
At 0:00 JST, less than 4 hours from now, ARIA Online (The Ardent Realms of the Illadic Age) will be opening its servers across the world. If recent community discussions and sales figures are any indication, ARIA Online is going to be a smashing success.
The creators of the game, Ambition and Harmony International, were the studio-publisher pair behind Black Sun, 2029’s Sci-fi VR-MMO hit. As such, ARIA Online will be available exclusively on the same system as its predecessor. Black Sun players rejoice! Your Ether VR will not need to be replaced.
The hype for the Ardent Realms has already become unbearable; streaming site Kafei is currently swamped with pre-launch parties, and character sharing threads on the game’s official site are exploding in popularity.
My advice to you? Hurry up and get in here! With ARIA Online’s character-purchase model, the price to play is a mere $50*. Compare that to Black Sun’s purchase price back in 2029: $500, adjusted for inflation.
So come on! L2P, ya’ll.
*Exact pricing may vary by region.
----------------------------------------
At midnight, in four hours. I’d forgotten.
Well, I supposed that settled that. Having been an avid player of Black Sun at one point in my life, I had considered learning more about ARIA Online and getting it before its launch. But now that the deadline was so imminent, the desire sort of just… evaporated.
Just procrastinator things, I guessed.
I’ll do it tomorrow, I often told myself.
But when tomorrow actually swung around…
Hahaha…
A little disappointed in myself, but not really caring that much, I set my phone on the table and turned my attention to the TV screen. It had just hit 8:30, and the next program would be coming up. If I remembered correctly, it would be “Otome Ne –”
“Otome Neko! Otome Neko!”
Emi’s cry of delight broke my train of thought and, at the same time, completed it.
Strangely poetic, I mused.
“You really love her, don’t you?”
“Yup! She’s so cool.”
I smiled. Truth be told, I was quite the fan of Otome Neko as well. In fact, I had been so since the character’s inception, some ten years prior.
A cheerful catgirl living in modern day society. A cheerful catgirl that was also a notorious gangster. A cheerful, notorious gangster catgirl who ran around with a tommy gun, shooting at anything and anyone that got in the way of her surprisingly pure sense of justice.
Even with a crazy synopsis like that, though, the show was actually very popular with kids and had even won the Parent’s Choice award the year it started airing. The violence it showed was always of the more “miss every shot” variety, the characters had surprising depth, and the various scenarios Otome Neko found herself in always taught healthy morals – or at least important lessons – at their conclusions.
“Oh. This is a rerun.”
“Daddy, daddy! It’s Episode 115! Otome Neko vs. Detective Watanabe!”
A fantastic episode. The first time I watched it, it had completely blown my mind.
“Emi, do you remember the story leading up to this?”
“Yeah, I do! Detective Watanabe was Otome Neko’s best friend. He helped her a lot with catching criminals. He gave her advice too, on how to be a ‘dark hero’ without crossing the line.”
“You were convinced he was a good guy, weren’t you?”
“Yes. But so were you!”
I laughed. She had me there.
“That I was, that I was.”
“But a few episodes before this, she finds clues about the big bad guy from the start of the show. And then Watanabe-san starts giving her fake clues.”
Big bad guy was one way to put it. Having read in between the lines of what the show put forward, the “big bad guy” was a serial cop killer.
I continued where Emi left off.
“So Otome Neko does a bit of digging and realized who the ‘big bad guy’ really was…”
“Detective Watanabe!”
Though I couldn’t see Emi’s face, I could hear that her voice was a little scrunched up; she was pouting.
And now here we were, episode 115.
Near the end of this episode, Watanabe tells Otome Neko that the police department had been filled with horrific corruption for decades. He’d watched it go on for at least half that time, but was eventually no longer able to just sit aside and let it continue happening. As a result, and consumed by guilt over his inaction, he had taken matters into his own hands.
I shook my head and shivered at the very thought of it.
Some of the best stories were the ones where the villain was by the hero’s side all along.
Bzzzrt. Bzzzrt.
Two buzzes? A voice message? No one ever sent me voice messages anymore, unless it was for work…
I picked up my phone, tapped the message notification, and put the speaker to my ear.
“Hey, Soren! This is D.K. It’s been like, two years... but you remember me, right?”
Of course I remembered him. D.K. Daniel Kim. I sank hundreds of hours into Black Sun, and he was there with me for almost all of them.
“Anyways, I hope you’re doing well, bro. I’m pretty good myself, but hey. Cutting to the chase. That new game, ARIA Online? It’s starting in 3 hours or so. I’m hella stoked for it and want nothing more than for you to come along and check it out with me. Thinking about bringing the old guild into this game, too. So what do you say? For old time’s sake? If nothing else, at least come chat, eh? Hop into my guild’s voice chat or something. Just tap the link in the text attachment to this message and you’ll be golden. Hope to see you soon, man.”
The message ended.
Huh.
That had not been expected.
Ever since I’d stopped playing Black Sun, I’d completely lost contact with D.K. As it was, it appeared that he’d held onto my phone number the whole two years since.
And now he was reaching out to me, asking me to join him again, this time in the newest MMO craze.
ARIA Online. VR games, and the high risk of addiction that came with them.
The call of the void.
Well.
I would just go and chat. Say hello, catch up a bit, and then tell him I’m not interested.
After all, it was either that or reading more clickbait.
“Hey Emi, I’m going into my room for a bit. Call me if you need anything.”
“Okie.”
I stood up again, opening D.K.’s attachment as I walked into my room and shut the door behind me.
This could be a bad decision. A very bad decision. In my heart, I knew I wouldn’t be able to say no if he asked me to join the game with him. A whole can of worms was just waiting to be opened…
I tapped the link.