Now... on with the show!
Disclaimer: I do not own The World, which is the property (I believe) of Rei Izumi and Tatsuya Hamazaki. (Feel free to correct me on that). However, all of the characters in this story (so far, may change later) are my own creation.
Blogging The World
Entry 1: Kirikozou and Tomara
Entry 1: Kirikozou and Tomara
Hey! My name is Kathryn, Kat for short, though online I usually go by KaEme. That’s a username made up of the first two letters of my first name and the first three letters of my last, though I’m not going to tell you what my surname actually is.
This is my first blog, though I don’t know why it never occurred to me to create one until now, since in real life I regularly keep a diary, and I’m really chatty too! I didn’t start this up to try and make a name for myself or attract lots of readers, which is what lots of people do. In fact, I hope I don’t get many readers, because that would be embarrassing! I’m not out to be popular, although a few friends are nice.
No, I started this blog in order to write about my adventures in The World, the best online game ever! I regularly log on to both the American and Japanese servers (though don’t think I’m a crip, because I’m not! I have a life!), and even though I live in America, the Japanese one is my favorite because The World was born in Japan, so it feels more authentic. I’m bilingual, so communication isn’t a problem for me. (My dad’s Japanese, and I lived there until I was about three years old).
My character in The World is called Kaeme, just because I’m so used to having it as my username, and it’s not a bad name. It even sounds a little bit Japanese! She’s a Blade User, of a moderate to low level. Although I’ve been playing The World for a while, I much prefer socializing to leveling up!
Playing on the Japanese server, I’ve got so used to hearing the language all around me that a voice in any other language sticks out a mile! So when I heard two guys arguing in English today, I homed in on them immediately! They were already attracting a lot of curious looks from the people around them.
“This is great! Bloody great! We’re stranded in the middle of a Japanese root town and I hardly speak any Japanese!! How are we going to ask anyone anything, or even understand what the NPCs are saying?!”
This outburst came from the shorter of the two, who looked young but who had spiky hair of a pure silver colour. Fascinating! His clothes were fairly boring though: a tank top and loose trousers, no shoes or anything. He should have some more imagination! My character has purple hair and violet eyes, with her hair wound up either side of her head in a complicated plait style I’ve never been able to replicate! She wears a lilac T-shirt over a mauve long-sleeved top, and has a long indigo skirt. Her shoes are almost like ballet shoes: white, with ribbons that criss-cross all the way up her legs. Cool or what??
“Calm down, Tomara,” urged his friend, who sounded embarrassed even though his character’s face was impassive; it needed him to type in certain commands to convey that emotion, and at that moment he was more occupied with other things! “My Japanese isn’t bad, and this version of The World isn’t very different to that of the UK server.” Ah! They were British! Doubly cool!! “I’ll email Alyssa, and see where she is. She must be here somewhere.”
“She’d better be,” muttered Tomara.
I gathered from this exchange that Alyssa was supposed to be their ‘guide’ around the Japanese server, but for whatever reason, she hadn’t showed. Not to worry! I was always willing to help a newbie out, and these two might as well be, for all that they had played The World before.
“Hey there!” I greeted them brightly, approaching. The second one to talk, a tall guy with long red hair tied up in a ponytail, turned towards me. He was a Heavy Blade, and dressed like a samurai of old from the Meiji era, in a forest green kimono and white hakama. I wondered if he was an anime fan. I am!!
“Hello,” he greeted me with a smile, his voice relieved. “You speak English!”
“Yup. I’m American! I’ll be happy to guide you around the Japanese server until your friend shows up. If you like.”
“That’d be gre-” The samurai broke off and paused, as if listening to something. I realised his friend must be talking to him in Whisper or Party mode. It seemed a little rude, but I did my best not to be offended, instead smiling up at the redhead’s classically handsome features. If I weren’t used to seeing good-looking avatars, I might have had a crush on him! Not to mention that he was friendly, and seemed as if he could be pretty charming when he wanted to. But you never knew who anyone could be online, not even in The World; voice alteration software could be used to make someone sound younger or older, and avatars didn’t have to be true to real-life appearance or even gender!
“That’d be great,” the redhead repeated firmly after a moment or two. His friend was scowling, obviously not afraid to show that he disliked the decision, probably disliked me. What a hard guy to please! First he’s complaining about being ‘stranded’, then when a guide shows up and offers her services, he doesn’t want them!
“I’ll send you a party invitation,” continued the samurai. “By the way, I am – that is, my character’s name is – Kirikozou, and this is Tomara.”
“I’m Kaeme. Nice to meet you,” I replied brightly, accepting the invitation Kirikozou sent me. “You have interesting names. Did you make them up?”
“Yeah,” Kirikozou laughed. “I literally just pressed some random letters on the keyboard with my eyes closed, and made a name out of what came out. I like it.”
“Well, why not?” I replied with a smile. Kirikozou was a lot more open and easy to talk to than his friend, who just trailed along silently behind us as I led them towards the Chaos Gate. I sure wasn’t going to ask him where his name came from! “Do you fancy doing some fighting? I haven’t done any in a while; I could do with the experience.” From their character specs, which had appeared at the bottom of my screen as I joined their party, I could see that Kirikozou and Tomara were of an identical level, one much higher than mine. “That is, if you don’t mind fighting with someone who has such a low level,” I added, feeling a little self-conscious.
“Not at all!” replied Kirikozou, sounding surprised. That was a relief; nevertheless, I targeted him and Whispered, “What about Tomara? I don’t think he likes me.”
Kirikozou shook his head. “It’s not that. He’s just not much of a people person,” he reassured me. I nodded and didn’t say any more, in case Tomara got suspicious about our silence.
We had reached the Chaos Gate by this point, and so I recited in Japanese the three co-ordinate words which would take us to my chosen destination. It was a place I’d been before whilst playing with my Japanese cousin, but the monsters were way too high-level for me back then – and now, probably! Still, I figured they ought to be more Kirikozou and Tomara’s level.
“Darkness, hidden, labyrinth.”
Within moments, our little party had been transported to the labyrinth in question. ‘Darkness’ was a good co-ordinate word for it – we could barely see a thing! I strained my eyes, even though I knew that it wasn’t possible for them to adjust to cyber-darkness. What wasn’t visible simply wasn’t visible.
“We must beware, milady Kaeme,” warned Kirikozou, who had equipped a large, two-handed sword to his avatar and held it before him, ready. I recognized that he was role-playing the samurai he was dressed as, and suddenly realized that he had spoken in Japanese. (Of course, this is an approximate translation!)
“We must,” I echoed in the same language, drawing my own, thinner katana. Although my character looks like a modern teenager, I think it’s more fun to talk like they do in fantasy novels! Role-playing also gives me a chance to be someone who I’m not in real life. Kaeme is a lot braver than I am, just like a manga or anime heroine should be!
I expected Tomara to scoff at this sort of thing, and to be annoyed that we were speaking in Japanese, so I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard the clang of metal on metal, and found Tomara standing in front of me! He’d blocked an unexpected attack from a monster, using a large axe. He turned and looked over his shoulder at me.
“You ought to be more careful… milady,” he murmured. In English, but even so! Turns out Mr. Stoic could be chivalrous when he wanted to!
Fighting in that dungeon was one of the most nerve-wracking things I’ve ever done in The World. My hands were rigid and sweaty (yuck!) round the controller, and I jumped every time a monster loomed out of the darkness at me. Kirikozou and Tomara fended off most of the attacks, but there were still a few coming my way! The thing about the monsters was that all you could see of them was their horrible, glowing yellow eyes; everything else was just a shape, and only then when you got close. On the BBS I’ve read them described as shaggy, brown werewolf-like creatures, about shoulder height to the average man. (Though ‘average’ takes on a whole new meaning in The World!)
After what seemed like an indeterminable amount of time, the attacks stopped. Both Kaeme and I were breathing harshly; I switched to third-person POV and scanned the area for more monsters, still on edge. At the corner of my screen, it was still calculating the experience points I’d gained from contributing to the fight. There were quite a lot! I’d used up almost all of my supply of health drinks.
“I think the last of the beasts have been defeated,” said Kirikozou, who was a little out of breath, but not as much as I was. Tomara, too, seemed largely unaffected by the fight, though he still stood stiffly with his axe held in front of him, anticipating another wave of attacks.
As if responding to Kirikozou’s words, a blinding flash suddenly lit the screen. “Ack!” I exclaimed, shutting my eyes reflexively. I could see bright red as the light filtered through my eyelids; then it faded, and I cautiously opened them.
“Hahaha! Is this what we were fighting in?” The labyrinth didn’t look nearly so scary; the light levels had returned to normal, signaling that we’d completed the area. We were standing in what looked like a cross between a maze and a dungeon; the walls and floor were made of gray stone, and in front of us stretched an endless corridor.
“This light is all very well, but how are we to solve the maze?” asked Kirikozou. Gating out was always an option of course, but then we wouldn’t have truly completed the event.
“Well, it can’t be that hard,” I said, more confident now the monsters had gone. “Of course, there’s no map for this area; that would be cheating!” Feeling like I was excluding Tomara, I added in English, “Any ideas for getting out of here?”
“No,” he replied in Japanese, surprising me. “I-”
We didn’t hear what he was about to say, because he broke off, staring ahead of us. I followed his gaze and my eyebrows shot up (in real life, that is!) as I saw a figure approaching. I typed in the command /surprise to make my avatar show the same expression.
I switched to Party Mode and muttered, “Is this an event?” in English to my two companions.
“I think that’s another user,” replied Kirikozou.
The figure stopped a few feet away from us; it was dressed in a long, hooded cloak, meaning that its body was swathed in fabric and its face shrouded in shadow.
“I was watching you fight,” it said, in a voice that sounded female, but was flat and emotionless like a machine. Definitely voice-alteration software. “You are three brave warriors.”
It – though for some reason I think the player was female – approached Tomara, and held out a hand. “I congratulate you on your victory.”
Hesitantly, Tomara took the offered hand and shook it. Just then, a string of what looked like computer code appeared above his head!
a&?=emote_virus/?username=Tomara&
“Tomara, it’s a virus!” yelled Kirikozou, who was quicker on the uptake than me.
“I can’t take it back!” Tomara shouted back in a panic.
His and the stranger’s interlocked hands seemed to glow for a second, and then they stopped and suddenly, the stranger was gone! Above Tomara’s head were the words, Data modification complete.
“Tomara? Can you move?” asked Kirikozou urgently. Tomara’s avatar went through a series of poses – sitting down, lying down, standing back up, clapping and jumping in the air – as he tested it.
“Yeah, everything seems to be working,” he replied, his voice a little shaky. “And my specs haven’t changed, or any other data that I can see.” It sounded like he cared more about the game than he let on. Aww!
“Maybe it was just done to scare you,” Kirikozou speculated.
“Or it could be something hidden in your system, that won’t reveal itself until later,” I pointed out.
“Yeah,” Kirikozou agreed, sighing heavily. “Um… shall we gate out? I don’t really fancy solving a labyrinth at the moment.”
The virus – if it really was one, since we didn’t know by that point – must have shaken him too. I made my avatar smile, and then targeted him and gave him a hug. He smiled back.
“Sure, let’s get out of here,” I said, and returned the party to the root town we’d originated in.
No sooner had we appeared at the Chaos Gate once more, than someone from far away hailed us in English.
“There you are! I’ve been ********’ lookin’ all over for you!”
I had a feeling I knew who this was. I turned Kaeme, switching back to first person POV, and sure enough saw a tall, tanned girl with long navy hair running towards us. She was wearing a fairly skimpy outfit: a black, low-cut top which revealed a good six or seven inches of her stomach, and black short shorts, accompanied by knee-high black boots. I gathered from the spear strapped to her back that her professional category was Pole Arms.
“Why didn’t you stay put?” demanded the girl. “And who the heck is this?” she added, pointing at me.
“Nice to see you too, Alyssa,” said Kirikozou with a smile. “This is Kaeme; she kindly offered to be our guide around the Japanese server.”
“Hi,” Alyssa greeted me offhandedly. “I’m Alyssa, although my character’s name is ‘Arissa’. It’s written in Katakana, of course.” Rather than try to find the Japanese equivalent of ‘Kaeme’, I just wrote it using English letters, but of course most players on the Japanese server wrote their names using one or more of the Japanese alphabets.
“Alyssa, where the hell were you?” said Tomara. “Don’t have a go at us for moving, you’re the one who bloody abandoned us in the middle of a Japanese server!”
I glanced over at Tomara and did a double-take. His hair was orange! When did that happen? Is it something to do with the virus? I thought worriedly.
Alyssa looked over at Tomara as well and started laughing, making her character mimic the action. “Nice hair, Tomara,” she commented. “When did you change it?”
Tomara was bewildered. “What do you mean? My hair’s always been like this.” There was a pause, in which I assumed either Kirikozou or Alyssa Whispered to him that his hair was orange. “Orange?!” he exploded. “What the ******** are you talking about?”
Just then, red streaks shot through his hair! “Wow, your hair changes colour!” exclaimed Alyssa. “Is that an upgrade?”
“What the hell is going on now?” yelled Tomara. More red streaks appeared in his hair. He was starting to cause a scene; he’d attracted the attention of several players, and many of them had noticed his color-changing hair and were starting to ask questions. “Wow, where did you get that?” “Are you a programmer?” “Is that a special upgrade?” Fortunately, I doubted many of them could understand us fully.
Kirikozou turned to me. “We need to go somewhere with less people,” he said urgently. “Can you take us back to the labyrinth?”
“Labyrinth?” scoffed Alyssa. “I know a better place than that.” Before any of us could say a word, she spoke the three Japanese co-ordinate words for her chosen destination: “Sakura, forest, glade.”
Our surroundings dissolved and then re-solidified into a deserted glade, with the odd cherry-blossom (or sakura) tree dotted here and there.
“This is the site of last year’s Tanabata event,” said Alyssa. “Apparently some career werewolf caused a huge scene by thrashing some random undead skeletons. I wish I’d been there – it sounds awesome!”
Tomara rolled his eyes. His hair had mostly faded back to silver, but it still had a couple of orange streaks in it. I was beginning to form a suspicion about what triggered the colour changes. But, not knowing Tomara, there was no way for me to test my theory.
Maybe Alyssa was thinking along the same lines as me, or maybe she just felt like teasing Tomara; either way, she said,
“So anyway, Tom, what happened? Did you get your a** kicked by a data-altering monster? Or did some pretty girl seduce you into accepting a trade that turned out to be a virus?” She grinned.
“It was nothing like that!” said Tomara hotly, and I zoomed in on him a little; sure enough, his hair was rapidly turning bright pink, and at the same time, more orange streaks were appearing, clashing with the pink.
“I’ve got it!” I exclaimed. “Tomara’s hair is changing colour according to his emotions.” I addressed Tomara. “As far as I can work out, orange is annoyance, red is anger and pink is embarrassment.”
“That sounds interesting,” said Kirikozou, sounding amused, although his avatar’s expression remained neutral, probably for Tomara’s sake.
“I’m not embarrassed!” Tomara protested, but his hair gave the game away, turning to an even deeper pink. Beside him, Alyssa was laughing herself silly, both over the microphone and with her avatar’s actions.
“Shut up!” growled Tomara, taking a threatening step towards her. Kirikozou hurriedly put a hand on his shoulder, something which I didn’t think you could do with an avatar. I made a mental note to ask him the command for that.
“Maybe we should log out now. It’s pretty late,” he said, and I realised that in England, it must be some six or seven hours later than where I live.
Without saying another word, Tomara disappeared. Kirikozou sighed, and Whispered to me, “It was nice meeting you, Kaeme.”
“You too,” I had time to say, before he logged out as well. Alyssa and I were left standing in the glade together.
“I’m going to go get some food,” I told her. I wasn’t that hungry, but it was the best way to avoid the awkward situation.
“AFK,” Alyssa typed back. Fair enough.
Author's Notes: I know it might seem like a coincidence that all of my characters speak at least some Japanese, but you’d be surprised how many people I know who learn it: it’s really quite popular. Besides, since the game originated from Japan, any true fan of the game would want to play it ‘authentically’, on the Japanese server. (Or at least, I think so).
This is my first blog, though I don’t know why it never occurred to me to create one until now, since in real life I regularly keep a diary, and I’m really chatty too! I didn’t start this up to try and make a name for myself or attract lots of readers, which is what lots of people do. In fact, I hope I don’t get many readers, because that would be embarrassing! I’m not out to be popular, although a few friends are nice.
No, I started this blog in order to write about my adventures in The World, the best online game ever! I regularly log on to both the American and Japanese servers (though don’t think I’m a crip, because I’m not! I have a life!), and even though I live in America, the Japanese one is my favorite because The World was born in Japan, so it feels more authentic. I’m bilingual, so communication isn’t a problem for me. (My dad’s Japanese, and I lived there until I was about three years old).
My character in The World is called Kaeme, just because I’m so used to having it as my username, and it’s not a bad name. It even sounds a little bit Japanese! She’s a Blade User, of a moderate to low level. Although I’ve been playing The World for a while, I much prefer socializing to leveling up!
Playing on the Japanese server, I’ve got so used to hearing the language all around me that a voice in any other language sticks out a mile! So when I heard two guys arguing in English today, I homed in on them immediately! They were already attracting a lot of curious looks from the people around them.
“This is great! Bloody great! We’re stranded in the middle of a Japanese root town and I hardly speak any Japanese!! How are we going to ask anyone anything, or even understand what the NPCs are saying?!”
This outburst came from the shorter of the two, who looked young but who had spiky hair of a pure silver colour. Fascinating! His clothes were fairly boring though: a tank top and loose trousers, no shoes or anything. He should have some more imagination! My character has purple hair and violet eyes, with her hair wound up either side of her head in a complicated plait style I’ve never been able to replicate! She wears a lilac T-shirt over a mauve long-sleeved top, and has a long indigo skirt. Her shoes are almost like ballet shoes: white, with ribbons that criss-cross all the way up her legs. Cool or what??
“Calm down, Tomara,” urged his friend, who sounded embarrassed even though his character’s face was impassive; it needed him to type in certain commands to convey that emotion, and at that moment he was more occupied with other things! “My Japanese isn’t bad, and this version of The World isn’t very different to that of the UK server.” Ah! They were British! Doubly cool!! “I’ll email Alyssa, and see where she is. She must be here somewhere.”
“She’d better be,” muttered Tomara.
I gathered from this exchange that Alyssa was supposed to be their ‘guide’ around the Japanese server, but for whatever reason, she hadn’t showed. Not to worry! I was always willing to help a newbie out, and these two might as well be, for all that they had played The World before.
“Hey there!” I greeted them brightly, approaching. The second one to talk, a tall guy with long red hair tied up in a ponytail, turned towards me. He was a Heavy Blade, and dressed like a samurai of old from the Meiji era, in a forest green kimono and white hakama. I wondered if he was an anime fan. I am!!
“Hello,” he greeted me with a smile, his voice relieved. “You speak English!”
“Yup. I’m American! I’ll be happy to guide you around the Japanese server until your friend shows up. If you like.”
“That’d be gre-” The samurai broke off and paused, as if listening to something. I realised his friend must be talking to him in Whisper or Party mode. It seemed a little rude, but I did my best not to be offended, instead smiling up at the redhead’s classically handsome features. If I weren’t used to seeing good-looking avatars, I might have had a crush on him! Not to mention that he was friendly, and seemed as if he could be pretty charming when he wanted to. But you never knew who anyone could be online, not even in The World; voice alteration software could be used to make someone sound younger or older, and avatars didn’t have to be true to real-life appearance or even gender!
“That’d be great,” the redhead repeated firmly after a moment or two. His friend was scowling, obviously not afraid to show that he disliked the decision, probably disliked me. What a hard guy to please! First he’s complaining about being ‘stranded’, then when a guide shows up and offers her services, he doesn’t want them!
“I’ll send you a party invitation,” continued the samurai. “By the way, I am – that is, my character’s name is – Kirikozou, and this is Tomara.”
“I’m Kaeme. Nice to meet you,” I replied brightly, accepting the invitation Kirikozou sent me. “You have interesting names. Did you make them up?”
“Yeah,” Kirikozou laughed. “I literally just pressed some random letters on the keyboard with my eyes closed, and made a name out of what came out. I like it.”
“Well, why not?” I replied with a smile. Kirikozou was a lot more open and easy to talk to than his friend, who just trailed along silently behind us as I led them towards the Chaos Gate. I sure wasn’t going to ask him where his name came from! “Do you fancy doing some fighting? I haven’t done any in a while; I could do with the experience.” From their character specs, which had appeared at the bottom of my screen as I joined their party, I could see that Kirikozou and Tomara were of an identical level, one much higher than mine. “That is, if you don’t mind fighting with someone who has such a low level,” I added, feeling a little self-conscious.
“Not at all!” replied Kirikozou, sounding surprised. That was a relief; nevertheless, I targeted him and Whispered, “What about Tomara? I don’t think he likes me.”
Kirikozou shook his head. “It’s not that. He’s just not much of a people person,” he reassured me. I nodded and didn’t say any more, in case Tomara got suspicious about our silence.
We had reached the Chaos Gate by this point, and so I recited in Japanese the three co-ordinate words which would take us to my chosen destination. It was a place I’d been before whilst playing with my Japanese cousin, but the monsters were way too high-level for me back then – and now, probably! Still, I figured they ought to be more Kirikozou and Tomara’s level.
“Darkness, hidden, labyrinth.”
Within moments, our little party had been transported to the labyrinth in question. ‘Darkness’ was a good co-ordinate word for it – we could barely see a thing! I strained my eyes, even though I knew that it wasn’t possible for them to adjust to cyber-darkness. What wasn’t visible simply wasn’t visible.
“We must beware, milady Kaeme,” warned Kirikozou, who had equipped a large, two-handed sword to his avatar and held it before him, ready. I recognized that he was role-playing the samurai he was dressed as, and suddenly realized that he had spoken in Japanese. (Of course, this is an approximate translation!)
“We must,” I echoed in the same language, drawing my own, thinner katana. Although my character looks like a modern teenager, I think it’s more fun to talk like they do in fantasy novels! Role-playing also gives me a chance to be someone who I’m not in real life. Kaeme is a lot braver than I am, just like a manga or anime heroine should be!
I expected Tomara to scoff at this sort of thing, and to be annoyed that we were speaking in Japanese, so I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard the clang of metal on metal, and found Tomara standing in front of me! He’d blocked an unexpected attack from a monster, using a large axe. He turned and looked over his shoulder at me.
“You ought to be more careful… milady,” he murmured. In English, but even so! Turns out Mr. Stoic could be chivalrous when he wanted to!
Fighting in that dungeon was one of the most nerve-wracking things I’ve ever done in The World. My hands were rigid and sweaty (yuck!) round the controller, and I jumped every time a monster loomed out of the darkness at me. Kirikozou and Tomara fended off most of the attacks, but there were still a few coming my way! The thing about the monsters was that all you could see of them was their horrible, glowing yellow eyes; everything else was just a shape, and only then when you got close. On the BBS I’ve read them described as shaggy, brown werewolf-like creatures, about shoulder height to the average man. (Though ‘average’ takes on a whole new meaning in The World!)
After what seemed like an indeterminable amount of time, the attacks stopped. Both Kaeme and I were breathing harshly; I switched to third-person POV and scanned the area for more monsters, still on edge. At the corner of my screen, it was still calculating the experience points I’d gained from contributing to the fight. There were quite a lot! I’d used up almost all of my supply of health drinks.
“I think the last of the beasts have been defeated,” said Kirikozou, who was a little out of breath, but not as much as I was. Tomara, too, seemed largely unaffected by the fight, though he still stood stiffly with his axe held in front of him, anticipating another wave of attacks.
As if responding to Kirikozou’s words, a blinding flash suddenly lit the screen. “Ack!” I exclaimed, shutting my eyes reflexively. I could see bright red as the light filtered through my eyelids; then it faded, and I cautiously opened them.
“Hahaha! Is this what we were fighting in?” The labyrinth didn’t look nearly so scary; the light levels had returned to normal, signaling that we’d completed the area. We were standing in what looked like a cross between a maze and a dungeon; the walls and floor were made of gray stone, and in front of us stretched an endless corridor.
“This light is all very well, but how are we to solve the maze?” asked Kirikozou. Gating out was always an option of course, but then we wouldn’t have truly completed the event.
“Well, it can’t be that hard,” I said, more confident now the monsters had gone. “Of course, there’s no map for this area; that would be cheating!” Feeling like I was excluding Tomara, I added in English, “Any ideas for getting out of here?”
“No,” he replied in Japanese, surprising me. “I-”
We didn’t hear what he was about to say, because he broke off, staring ahead of us. I followed his gaze and my eyebrows shot up (in real life, that is!) as I saw a figure approaching. I typed in the command /surprise to make my avatar show the same expression.
I switched to Party Mode and muttered, “Is this an event?” in English to my two companions.
“I think that’s another user,” replied Kirikozou.
The figure stopped a few feet away from us; it was dressed in a long, hooded cloak, meaning that its body was swathed in fabric and its face shrouded in shadow.
“I was watching you fight,” it said, in a voice that sounded female, but was flat and emotionless like a machine. Definitely voice-alteration software. “You are three brave warriors.”
It – though for some reason I think the player was female – approached Tomara, and held out a hand. “I congratulate you on your victory.”
Hesitantly, Tomara took the offered hand and shook it. Just then, a string of what looked like computer code appeared above his head!
“Tomara, it’s a virus!” yelled Kirikozou, who was quicker on the uptake than me.
“I can’t take it back!” Tomara shouted back in a panic.
His and the stranger’s interlocked hands seemed to glow for a second, and then they stopped and suddenly, the stranger was gone! Above Tomara’s head were the words, Data modification complete.
“Tomara? Can you move?” asked Kirikozou urgently. Tomara’s avatar went through a series of poses – sitting down, lying down, standing back up, clapping and jumping in the air – as he tested it.
“Yeah, everything seems to be working,” he replied, his voice a little shaky. “And my specs haven’t changed, or any other data that I can see.” It sounded like he cared more about the game than he let on. Aww!
“Maybe it was just done to scare you,” Kirikozou speculated.
“Or it could be something hidden in your system, that won’t reveal itself until later,” I pointed out.
“Yeah,” Kirikozou agreed, sighing heavily. “Um… shall we gate out? I don’t really fancy solving a labyrinth at the moment.”
The virus – if it really was one, since we didn’t know by that point – must have shaken him too. I made my avatar smile, and then targeted him and gave him a hug. He smiled back.
“Sure, let’s get out of here,” I said, and returned the party to the root town we’d originated in.
No sooner had we appeared at the Chaos Gate once more, than someone from far away hailed us in English.
“There you are! I’ve been ********’ lookin’ all over for you!”
I had a feeling I knew who this was. I turned Kaeme, switching back to first person POV, and sure enough saw a tall, tanned girl with long navy hair running towards us. She was wearing a fairly skimpy outfit: a black, low-cut top which revealed a good six or seven inches of her stomach, and black short shorts, accompanied by knee-high black boots. I gathered from the spear strapped to her back that her professional category was Pole Arms.
“Why didn’t you stay put?” demanded the girl. “And who the heck is this?” she added, pointing at me.
“Nice to see you too, Alyssa,” said Kirikozou with a smile. “This is Kaeme; she kindly offered to be our guide around the Japanese server.”
“Hi,” Alyssa greeted me offhandedly. “I’m Alyssa, although my character’s name is ‘Arissa’. It’s written in Katakana, of course.” Rather than try to find the Japanese equivalent of ‘Kaeme’, I just wrote it using English letters, but of course most players on the Japanese server wrote their names using one or more of the Japanese alphabets.
“Alyssa, where the hell were you?” said Tomara. “Don’t have a go at us for moving, you’re the one who bloody abandoned us in the middle of a Japanese server!”
I glanced over at Tomara and did a double-take. His hair was orange! When did that happen? Is it something to do with the virus? I thought worriedly.
Alyssa looked over at Tomara as well and started laughing, making her character mimic the action. “Nice hair, Tomara,” she commented. “When did you change it?”
Tomara was bewildered. “What do you mean? My hair’s always been like this.” There was a pause, in which I assumed either Kirikozou or Alyssa Whispered to him that his hair was orange. “Orange?!” he exploded. “What the ******** are you talking about?”
Just then, red streaks shot through his hair! “Wow, your hair changes colour!” exclaimed Alyssa. “Is that an upgrade?”
“What the hell is going on now?” yelled Tomara. More red streaks appeared in his hair. He was starting to cause a scene; he’d attracted the attention of several players, and many of them had noticed his color-changing hair and were starting to ask questions. “Wow, where did you get that?” “Are you a programmer?” “Is that a special upgrade?” Fortunately, I doubted many of them could understand us fully.
Kirikozou turned to me. “We need to go somewhere with less people,” he said urgently. “Can you take us back to the labyrinth?”
“Labyrinth?” scoffed Alyssa. “I know a better place than that.” Before any of us could say a word, she spoke the three Japanese co-ordinate words for her chosen destination: “Sakura, forest, glade.”
Our surroundings dissolved and then re-solidified into a deserted glade, with the odd cherry-blossom (or sakura) tree dotted here and there.
“This is the site of last year’s Tanabata event,” said Alyssa. “Apparently some career werewolf caused a huge scene by thrashing some random undead skeletons. I wish I’d been there – it sounds awesome!”
Tomara rolled his eyes. His hair had mostly faded back to silver, but it still had a couple of orange streaks in it. I was beginning to form a suspicion about what triggered the colour changes. But, not knowing Tomara, there was no way for me to test my theory.
Maybe Alyssa was thinking along the same lines as me, or maybe she just felt like teasing Tomara; either way, she said,
“So anyway, Tom, what happened? Did you get your a** kicked by a data-altering monster? Or did some pretty girl seduce you into accepting a trade that turned out to be a virus?” She grinned.
“It was nothing like that!” said Tomara hotly, and I zoomed in on him a little; sure enough, his hair was rapidly turning bright pink, and at the same time, more orange streaks were appearing, clashing with the pink.
“I’ve got it!” I exclaimed. “Tomara’s hair is changing colour according to his emotions.” I addressed Tomara. “As far as I can work out, orange is annoyance, red is anger and pink is embarrassment.”
“That sounds interesting,” said Kirikozou, sounding amused, although his avatar’s expression remained neutral, probably for Tomara’s sake.
“I’m not embarrassed!” Tomara protested, but his hair gave the game away, turning to an even deeper pink. Beside him, Alyssa was laughing herself silly, both over the microphone and with her avatar’s actions.
“Shut up!” growled Tomara, taking a threatening step towards her. Kirikozou hurriedly put a hand on his shoulder, something which I didn’t think you could do with an avatar. I made a mental note to ask him the command for that.
“Maybe we should log out now. It’s pretty late,” he said, and I realised that in England, it must be some six or seven hours later than where I live.
Without saying another word, Tomara disappeared. Kirikozou sighed, and Whispered to me, “It was nice meeting you, Kaeme.”
“You too,” I had time to say, before he logged out as well. Alyssa and I were left standing in the glade together.
“I’m going to go get some food,” I told her. I wasn’t that hungry, but it was the best way to avoid the awkward situation.
“AFK,” Alyssa typed back. Fair enough.
Author's Notes: I know it might seem like a coincidence that all of my characters speak at least some Japanese, but you’d be surprised how many people I know who learn it: it’s really quite popular. Besides, since the game originated from Japan, any true fan of the game would want to play it ‘authentically’, on the Japanese server. (Or at least, I think so).
