Ready Player Zero

Chapter 6: Control

"Thank you for the meal, Mr. Toshiro, but I'll be heading back now." Zhou gave a short bob of his head, imitating a quick bow, before starting to turn around.

"Are you sure? It's a relatively safe district here, but that doesn't count as an invitation for a nine-year-old to be wandering around alone."

"There are other things that are far more dangerous. Walking is one of the least of my worries. It's alright, I'll be fine," Zhou insisted.

Toshiro hesitated, wondering whether he should let Zhou go alone, but relented. He seemed to want to be by himself for now, and besides, he had managed fine so far.

"Thank you again, and goodbye!" Without another word, Zhou started walking at a brisk pace.

In all honesty, he didn't really have an actual reason for preferring to be alone. Toshiro had already discovered his makeshift shelter in the park, making it pointless to attempt to hide it further.

But still, there was something unsettling about Toshiro's kindness. Zhou had accepted the meal, but he wasn't quite sure how wise it would be to trust him. What was the likelihood that he was doing all this without some other motive?

Even so, the brief hour of conversation with another human being had been nice, after forgoing company and staying in solitude for so long. He tried to remember the last time he'd had someone to talk to. It hadn't been that long ago, before everything had changed—

No, stop, he told himself. it was better not to think about the past. No point in dwelling on memories that couldn't be changed. He blinked hard and shook his head, pushing away the thoughts. This was his life now, and that was the way things were.

He quickened his walk. Better to get back soon. There were some adjustments he wanted to make to his shelter and the surrounding area after realizing that it could be so easily discovered.

Within ten minutes or so, he arrived back at the park and found his tree. He squinted, trying to discern how Toshiro could've noticed it.

Ah, he remembered now; Toshiro had asked about the canvas bag hanging from the tip of the tree branch.

The bag contained a collection of trinkets that had come from various origins, but most Zhou had just found lying on the side of the street or some other location that indicated they were ownerless. He wouldn't go so far as to steal something, nor was he planning on doing so, and he hoped that it would stay that way.

He wasn't going to discard the bag, though, even if it had made his location more noticeable. The items weren't valuable, per se, many old and some almost broken, but they were useful to him, ranging from the battered book that served as essentially his only entertainment to the patchwork quilt and umbrella that actually had functionality purposes.

No, instead he needed to find a way to hide them better. He had thought that it would be fine high up in the tree, but people could be very observant, he supposed. Perhaps he could find somewhere higher still, and where other branches would be concealing it from view.

Zhou began to climb the tree. Figuring out how to climb it had taken him a while at first, especially considering the fact that he hadn't climbed trees before and that these trees themselves were also particularly difficult ones, the lowest branches being a good five or six feet off the ground. But with experimentation and practice, he was now able to get to the first branch in a matter of seconds.

He quickly reached the bag, unhooking it from the branch before venturing up higher in the tree. He was approaching a height he hadn't climbed past before, unsure whether the less sturdy branches would be capable of holding his weight. The bag should be light enough, though, so if he could get it up there without actually needing to climb there...

Reaching up, he was able to hang it onto the branch. It was probably high enough that all the leaves and branches underneath would cover it. He scampered down the tree and looked up. Yes, it was hidden from sight.

Zhou grinned, somewhat cheered by this small success while his imagination whirled, thinking about what other methods he could implement to better hide his spot in the tree. Finding a solution to a problem was always an enjoyable experience, since it proved to himself that there were still at least a few things that he could still control, even when everything else was spinning out of it.