Thick, light blonde hair fell gracefully to her waist. A pale, cream-like complexion complemented her delicately sculpted features. She had full, rose colored lips. Eyes so vibrantly blue that they looked like they were glowing.
For clothes, she wore a coat of white furs that ended at her hips; though her hands were uncovered, there were pockets amongst the fluff for her to warm them in. Short, tan culottes just barely poked out from under the coat and the rest of her legs were covered by knitted wool leggings patterned in soft, rosy colors. Black cloth was wrapped tightly around her knees, below which were a pair of fur-padded brown hide boots.
Earmuffs, ones with elongated ends to account for what I assumed were leaf-shaped ears, stuck out from her hair on either side.
And finally, around her neck was a large red shawl. On closer inspection, from the way it was stitched and the gold patterns around its blood-red edges, I realized that it looked a lot like the banner from the Snow Elves’ sub-race card. Whether or not it was that same banner, I did not know.
I took a deep breath.
Had she been real, I could very well have fallen for her right then and there; in the back of my head, I asked Natsumi’s spirit for forgiveness at this half-joke.
Thankfully, my sin was in thought alone. Because as things were...
This was the character that I was going to play. A girl.
Presumably, this was what D.K. meant when he’d said I was going to get “lucky as hell.”
I supposed “lucky” was one way to put it. D.K. was one of those guy that played as a female character whenever they got the chance. I, on the other hand, was definitely not.
I chuckled. Fate was a fickle mistress, indeed. Even in a game, I was unable to escape her antics. Not that this one was so bad, though. I imagined there were far worse outcomes to this than having to play as a gorgeous female Snow Elf.
I turned my attention to the card hovering in the upper left of my vision, which listed the basic information for my new character.
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Username: Akagi
Character Name: Eira, The White Eagle
Race: Snow Elf
Gender: Female
Class: Mage
Starting town: Roumen
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The White Eagle? Obviously, this wasn’t her last name. A title, perhaps? And why was it pink?
Just as I was about to ask D.K. about it, an alert popped up.
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One person has entered your vicinity. Identified as: Emi Akagi.
No public profile found.
Alerting range is currently set to one meter.
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I’d told Emi to come nudge me a bit if it hit 10:15 and I was still in the game.
Show clock.
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22:15
Fri. March 31st
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Right on the minute.
“Hey D.K., I have to go. I told Emi to wake me up at this time. She’s probably shaking me right now as we speak.”
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It took a few seconds for D.K. to respond, and I could hear food rolling around in his mouth when he spoke.
“Aw, what? Did your character finish generating?”
“It just did. The timing of this wasn’t great.”
“Ah yeah, no problem. You going somewhere? Or...”
“Nah. It’s just that Emi always sleeps at 11, and I make it a point to tell her a bedtime story and tuck her in every day on the weekends. Because I can’t always do that on workdays, you know?”
“That’s really sweet... but kinda sad too, man.”
“Yeah. We just have to count our blessings.”
“Truth. Well, be sure to tell Emi hi for me, huh? And you’ll make sure to be back in time for the launch?”
“I will. And yeah, I’ll be back as soon as she’s asleep. Peace.”
“Peace.”
Quit game. End VR session.
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Are you sure you want to exit?
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Yes.
And with that, the UI that had populated my vision blinked out of existence, and everything went black. Less than a second later, my eyes were open, and I was back in a body and back in the real world.
Emi’s head was hanging over mine, sideways. Her face lit up as she saw me regaining my consciousness.
“Hi!”
I grimaced, still a bit disoriented from leaving VR.
“Hey sweetie.”
She hopped backwards as I made to push myself up in my bed, into a sitting position. After a wide yawn, I reached my hand to my chin and flipped the locking mechanism on my Ether VR. There was a click followed by a soft whirring, and the harness loosened its grip on the sides of my skull.
I sighed in relief, as the pressure was actually quite uncomfortable. The feeling would disappear when the VR was active, but it added a fair bit of discomfort to the shutdown and booting processes.
When the whirring ended, I placed my hands on either side of the harness and slipped it off, forwards. The Ether VR was shaped like a mix between a helmet and a pair of gaming headphones. There were two large sections that went on the sides of the head, around the ears, which were connected by a thick metal band over the top of the head and the locking mechanism that went down around the chin.
I held it in my hands for a moment, marvelling at how this odd-looking contraption was all I needed to immerse myself in another world.
“Daddy, let’s go.”
I rested the system on my pillow, making sure it was still plugged in. Satisfied, I followed Emi out of my room and into hers, the door of which was directly next to mine.
She had already taken a bath and changed into her pajamas, and she now hopped into her bed and pulled the covers over herself in what was almost a single, swift motion.
“Are you ready for storytime?”
“Yep.”
“Okay. What would you like to hear today?”
“The Mirror of Matsuyama.”
“Again?”
Though I questioned her, I was already at her bookshelf, and had my finger on the top of the book.
“Yes!”
“Alright then.”
With book in hand, I rolled the chair at her desk to her bedside and sat myself down. The lamp on her end table was already on.
Though this book’s version of the story was written as a children’s tale, its cover was a plain parchment brown, styled to look battered and worn. Along its side, written vertically, was the Japanese title: “松山鏡.“
I opened the cover, revealing a painting of a mother and daughter. The mother was looking into a handheld mirror, while the daughter played with a doll in the foreground.
I smiled a bittersweet smile. It was a such a heartwarming story. And at the same time, so, so sad…
***
“Daddy... do you still think I’ll grow up to look like mama?”
I was up on my feet, and was in the process of pushing her chair back into place. When she asked this, I raised my head and looked at the framed photo that sat on her desk. It was a picture from long, long ago, and it had all three of us in it.
Natsumi and I were standing, shoulder-to-shoulder. I held her, and she held a one year old Emi, who was wildly flailing her arms but smiling sweetly all the same. It was a picture taken shortly after Natsumi had been diagnosed with her sickness, and after I had been granted a dependency discharge. It was the last photo we took where Natsumi could still stand on her own.
I closed my eyes.
“Of course. You’re already starting to look like her.”
Emi murmured contentedly.
“Mmm…”
I straightened myself up and made my way back to Emi’s side, where I crouched down so my eyes were level with hers. She was on the verge of drifting into sleep.
“Emi?”
“Daddy?”
I tucked her in before sweeping her bangs aside with my hand and giving her a quick kiss on her forehead.
“I love you. Don’t ever forget that.”
“I love you too, daddy.”
I smiled.
“Daddy’s going to be in a game for most of the night. But if you need anything, just wake me up, okay?”
When she spoke again, it was nearly inaudible.
“Okay... Will I have to wake you up in the morning, too?”
“No, you won’t. I’ll be awake. I have to make us breakfast, remember?”
“Promise?”
I stood up.
“I promise.”