Chapter Text
It’s a totally normal Sunday morning in my dearest Ikebukuro.
The oh-so shiny Sun, as always, is sharing it’s daily dose of delicious Vitamin D; people are hastily treading along the heat-ridden streets, tapping their shoes in a cacophonous urban rhythm; birds, cars and Digivices loudly sing their natural tunes; some patch of grass in a random corner of the district is probably doing the most delicious photosynthesis of its life; and above all, for some reason…
…Hudie is abnormally quiet.
I’ll say it again. Today’s Sunday. It’s the big weekend. Being part of an on-duty Hacker team, when a big portion of your job is to solve technical problems commissioned by users of the greatest virtual reality network system in Japan, you’d normally expect that at least some part of the populace would bump into a fair share of viruses, bugs or some petty malicious Hackers. The weekend's always the time where average people - especially students around my age - tend to carefreely log into EDEN, with little attention to proper security, proportionally increasing both the rates of data traffic and propagation of technological issues.
Basically, instead of nothing, everything should be happening today. On the weekends, we usually receive around... Seven or eight new cases, I believe? Hypothetically, if we got eight cases to solve today, we'd divide it like this: Ryuji, serious business as he always is, would immediately pick the three toughest ones; Chitose, hands behind his head with his usual lax tone, would pick other three and call them easy peasy; me, the unremarkable rookie, would deal with the two easiest; and Erika will support all of us whenever we need some of her more extensive hacking knowledge. Strong and weak points divided evenly between the team to get the best out of each case… It's a neat job division, y'know?
...And yet, none of that is happening. Today's mood is just as still and as the heart of a highschooler after finishing their finals.
One glance towards the chair behind the reception desk leads me to Chitose; taking the fattest nap of his life, a half-eaten green-bean bun sat beside him, competing over who's better at standing completely still. Surprisingly, it seems like the bun is winning the… Is… Is he drooling? Oh god, he is. I'm not cleaning that, no sir!
Meanwhile, Ryuji, our fearless leader, has been sitting as quietly as a rock in one of the café's booths for the last two hours. On the booth's door, there's a sign, written in a greyish-blue colored marker, that alerts "DO NOT DISTURB. PLAYING CHESS" to passing onlookers. I'll be honest, he... Doesn't look like the type of guy who plays chess. He's built like a jacked-up Minotaurmon, so I thought that he only lifted weights in his free time. I hope I’m not the only one who thinks that… He’d probably kill me if I said that out loud, though.
What about me, you ask? Well, I'm lazying around on the café's main lounge, drinking a good old cup of morning coffee, sipping the morning's warmth as the drink's steam rises to my amygdala... Making me miraculously want to work in a day where nobody's working.
It's almost ironic to say that; back when I went to school, I barely had any willpower to study! It's like I became an adult in a few months' time! Though… Man, thinking about it, is this how I'm gonna be for the rest of my life? I-I mean, it's not that bad, even when you consider the fact I got my account stolen, but… With all due respect, I wouldn’t want to be like another Ryuji, Chitose, or even a Matayoshi… I can’t really see myself as the type of guy to pull up to a random person and give them some motivational life lesson. I mean, it’s pretty cool when it happens in Shounen manga, sure, but those sorts of things don’t work in real life, do they? I really don’t want to be the Kakashi to someone’s Naruto… Wait, isn’t that technically what Ryuji did to me? Huh…
...While I amused myself with the thousands of possibilities regarding my dreams for the future, my ears capture a rhythmically rising sound of rubber colliding against the cafe's floor; I just realized, but I've finally gotten used to the sound of those slippers.
Coming directly from the corridor, the cutesy sound came, naturally, from Hudie's genius pajama-wearing hacker, Erika Mishima, holding an empty plastic cup in her right hand. It seems that she just came out of her comfy VIP room to get something to drink.
Seeing by the dark circles under her eyes and her usual stern expression, she clearly stood up late like usual.
…
…That’s… Not good for her health, is it?
- Good morning, Erika. - I greet her with the usual smile on my face, amicably lifting my coffee cup to express my hospitality.
- Good morning. - But of course, Erika is Erika. Nodding at me with a tone of seemingly complete indifference, she quickly puts her cup under the iced drinks machine and starts making the most sacrilegious beverage of all time, destroying at least half of the Japanese Penal Code. Of course, for Erika, that's completely normal. Both her tone and expression seem to express the contrary, but everyone who knows her even a little knows how much she loves her cold drinks. The sweeter it is, the better it is.
It’s all normal to her.
...
…Ever since the day of the incident in the Shinjuku subway station, when I learned of her illness, it's been… Abnormally hard to talk to Erika. Like chains wrapped around my Adam’s apple, slight hesitancy is turned into heavy stuttering at the mere thought of talking to her.
The worst thing is, I don't even know the reason why that's been happening, but… It’s kind of scary, and somewhat melancholic. We haven't known each other for long, but even then, this kind of mental indecisiveness is almost driving me crazy.
Still, I have to try something. Even if I’m clueless as to why I’m being like this, this might be my only chance. So… I’ll take it! I’ll start a conversation with her! Don’t leave for tomorrow what you can do today, as they say!
- Uhm… Erika.
- Hm?
- Uhhhhhhhhh…
Dammit! I forgot that I’m a dumb teenager that doesn’t know how to start conversations!
- Is… I-Is Ryuji good at chess? - I say that as if I’m even the slightest bit interested in chess…
- Eh? - As I thought, she didn't expect this to be the first thing to hear in the morning. Glancing at her side, her curious eyes quickly meet mine. - Why do you ask?
- Oh, uh, he's apparently playing it on his booth. I-I'm just, y'know, curious. - Damn, Keisuke, you're a genius! Nice one, man! Dodged a bullet!
- Ah... I see. - Seems like she's almost finished preparing her beverage, with only “some” - rather, a dozen - sugar cubes left to be thrown on it. As she does that, she answers me with her usual direct honesty: - For someone who has played since high school, he's terrible. When I was nine, he decided to teach me the rules, and half an hour later we decided to play some matches. I won all fifteen of them. I even asked him if he wanted me to go easy on him, but he insisted that he wanted to "play fair".
- F-Fifteen matches? In a row? Wow…
As insanely smart as she is, I can't imagine Ryuji being that bad... I mean, he probably went easy himself, considering he wouldn't like to make his little sister sad. Yeah, it makes sense.
- Yeah. He telegraphs every single one of his moves, saying things like "be careful with your bishop", or "get ready to battle against my pawn", or "if you don't deal with my knight now, you're gonna regret it". It's so easy to win against him, it’s almost boring. Even Chitose, who didn't even know knights move in an L shape, won against him once.
…Ok, maybe I was wrong. Are hacker Ryuji and chess Ryuji really that different…?
- I see…
- Do you play chess?
- H-Huh?! - Striking me with that sudden question, words quickly fail me as I dig through the depths of my throat to answer her without sounding like a dumbass. - Uhhhh... A-A-Ah, no, no. I-I don't. I've been meaning to learn it, but I have no idea where to begin, hahaha…
- Really? It’s easier than you’d think. As long as you know what each piece does and you don’t open with the Bongcloud Attack, you’ll be fine. - Stirring her cup with a plastic spoon, her amber eyes once again share glances with mine, her voice keeping the consistent monotone. - I’ll get Wormmon to find some guides for you.
- A-Ah… Sure. - …But I’m still a nervous wreck, and subconsciously avert my gaze from hers. - Thanks.
- No problem. Are there any new messages from Zaxon, also?
- N-No.
- I see.
She quickly turns her heel back towards the corridor, apparently deeming the conversation as done. Before that…
- T-Tell Wormmon I said good morning, alright? - I exclaim, my nervous smile still plastered on my face as I try one more time to make it seem like this conversation was productive.
- Alright.
And there she goes, locking herself up in her heavenly paradise, probably readying herself for her usual shut-in detective antics.
...Normally, I'd have this conversation with her and go "Alright, nice, time to move on with my day", but... Like I said, these days have been different. When I speak with Erika, I always get this weird, suffocating feeling of excessive self-consciousness; like I'm a butterfly aware of my wings’ fragility, and that any abrupt movement could tear them down at any second.
Every action I make is filled with question over question, trying to judge if a specific decision is better than another.
“Should I ask her about this certain subject, or will she think I'm incompetent?“
“Should I take this seriously, or should I try to lighten up the mood?”
“Will saying this make her smile, or will she be mad at me?”
No matter what answer I reach, I always feel the same thing. Hesitancy… And fear.
Still, I'm not trying to call her something incomprehensible; far from it.
Despite her usual outlandish nature, she's been nothing but helpful and attentive to me for the past months; despite my clear inexperience with the hacking business, she - and all of Hudie, for that matter - has been helping me like no one else ever could. If it wasn’t for her proactiveness and sense of duty, I’d never make any progress on my account’s retrieval. I’ll forever be thankful to her.
Usually, I'd never even have a problem with talking to her; first impressions make it seem like otherwise, but she's surprisingly easy to talk with when you get used to her quirks. She's a bit shy, but becomes nigh-unstoppable when the subject turns into something she's interested in. In the end, she's just like any other normal teenager; like Yu, like me, like my old classmates in Inoden High School... And many other folks all around town.
Still, after the Digital Shift incident, all of this has become… Complicated.
It feels like something is wrong, and I hate that I have no idea what it is. Whatever is making me act like this, it's making me act like a clown in front of her; and if I keep at it, I'll be at risk to worsen our relationship. There's absolutely no way that I want that to happen.
Whatever it is, I know it isn’t her fault; but still, if I even knew what was going on, I could try to fix it…
Aghh, damn it… If only there was a case that could take my mind out of this…
…
…Huh, wait a minute.
Didn't I...
…Just describe the facts of a case to myself?
Oh... Oh, I see! So that's it!
All the details are right in front of me, and all I need to do is organize them and come up with the best solution! “What can I do to stop feeling weird when I talk with my friend”, sent by Keisuke Amasawa!
Alright, I can deal with this! I'm not sitting around here anymore, I'll get this done and fix my relationship with Erika!
Lifting myself from my chair with exasperating enthusiasm, I eagerly slap my own cheeks, reddening them with the color of motivation. I can barely hide the huge grin on my face right now; I’m lucky that Chitose is still asleep, or he’d probably start teasing me over it. I’m still not gonna wipe his drool off.
Anyway, first things first. Following a Hudie Hacker's personal work values, I'd normally have to deal with this internal case by myself; however, just this once, I don't think there's any problem to get a certain external help from a friend.
I pick up my Digivice from my booth, quickly tell Ryuji that I'm going to the market to grab something to eat, and dash outside. No time to lose. After reaching the outdoors area of the cafe, leaning on a nearby wall with my phone in hand, I quickly check my contacts to find the one guy I've been contacting the most for the past decade and a half…
…Ah, there you are.
“Yu Nogi”.