The moment Ryu felt the familiar sensation of his back lying on his bed, he let out a sigh of relief. But that passed the moment he saw it.

His visor was still down, blocking his view, but in doing so the white words became all the more intimidating.

Ryu immediately pulled off his headset and headed for the door. Ruri was in the living room doing her homework, and she called out as Ryu passed by.

“Hey can you help me with this questi-?”

Ryu glanced in Ruri’s direction as he walked, but before he even had time to spot the question he already had the answer.

<7>

“7.”

“Hey wai- wait! How’d you do that?” said Ruri, staring at her notebook.

By the time Ruri had finished her sentence Ryu was out the door. Fresh air generally helped him to think things through.

Ryu knew he needed something, anything, to relax, and so he walked. He didn’t have any particular destination in mind, but as if by nature he ended up heading towards an arcade.

<2.7 km to destination>

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Even though his eyes watched the ground ahead of him he could see it. It always dismissed itself once he’d read it, but he knew it was there. Looking up for even a split second he’d be bombarded by information, and whether or not he read it, somehow he still knew what it was saying.

Ryu stopped at an intersection, waiting for the little green man to tell him when to cross. It was fairly busy, though nothing out of the ordinary.

While waiting Ryu tended to look around, mostly doing the usual search for anything of interest. Usually girls. This time he spotted one. Coming from his right, he could see her looking down at her phone, and as she stepped past him, still looking down, he saw her take that step. But he didn’t see her finish it.

The girl’s hair hang, frozen, in the wind. Her eyes looked down at her phone, oblivious to the metal mass to her right. She would die, at best. If not she’d wish she had. Perhaps she’d be whisked away to another universe to fulfil her wildest fantasies. If not, she’d be stuck, forced to barely live as her family clung onto her poor existence in some cold hospital bed.

A single frame passed by, like a video in slow motion, and the truck's tires turned not even a fraction of a degree.

“Stop."

The girl looked to her left, making eye contact with Ryu. Her eyes were green, like the little green man who told people when to cross. Perhaps that was why she thought it was okay?

She didn’t stop, but Ryu didn’t stand still. The world seemed so slow in that moment, and Ryu couldn’t help but process why the girl still hadn’t moved out of the way.

So, after he’d finished considering all the possible reasons why this girl still hadn’t moved out the way, he grabbed her, at the very last fraction of a second.

“Do you want to die?” said Ryu, looking at the girl who seemed to be short of breath.

Ryu didn’t wait for her response, after all, the little green man was telling him to cross.