Ordinary

Chapter 7: And Break Beyond Repair

Though the two had stepped out onto the small ledge overlooking the mesmerizing night sky with the intention to talk, no words escaped either's mouth. With barely enough space, Kaze and Mai leaned on the railing of the edge, their arms crossing as the latter lounged across the confining space freely.

The girl was humming the tune of a popular song to the symphony of the gentle breeze when Kaze noticed the scar on her neck. It was right around where her VR/AR jack was and had long healed, leaving behind just a pale white mark of a rough stitch.

"So what's up?" She cheerfully turned to the boy beside her after patiently waiting for any sort of response. "Don't be shy."

Kaze blinked slowly, the weight on his chest got heavier as he finally spoke what was on his mind. "Your neck. You're one of the VR Disaster survivors, aren't you?"

The humming cut off, and Mai smiled through buried memories while scratching the pointed out spot. "So you could tell, huh? Was it that obvious?"

"I suspected it for a while." The guest stared on with a dismal expression.

"Since when?" She inquired.

"When we first met I had already considered the possibility. You were too good at parrying with a saber. That thing's unreliable on parries, especially with the Final Curse. I've played VR and AR for, what, over two years almost every day now? But even with that I was no match for you when I tried the saber in my spare time. No matter how hard I tried. The only way one could get so good at a game would be if one's life depended on it.

"Another giveaway was when Ryuu mentioned that other survivors were going to be here." He continued, "Disaster victims are known to be friends with others like them."

"Hah," – The girl sourly smiled – "I'd hoped Dragon would keep quiet about that one..."

"You two close?" Kaze wondered.

"Kaze, y'know it's rude to ask about things like that." She giggled, answering nonetheless. "But yes, we used to be." The VR veteran reminisced, "But that was well over a year ago, maybe two. He was one of my first friends after I came out of rehab, so we thought we clicked, but... Well, we were just too different. He's a good friend, though. I'm ever grateful to him for supporting me when no one else did. And thanks to him, I'm able to start getting back into VR. Been a month since I've started playing again."

The tryhard interrupted, dumbfounded by the last statement. "Wait, you've only been on PDP for a mon–"

"My turn to ask questions," The scarlet haired almost 21-year-old retorted, glancing at the one beside her teasingly. "Why do you care if I was a survivor? Are you one of those people overly obsessed with the Disaster?"

"No– well, yes, but... I... Argh, damnit." He stuttered in frustration. "It's very important to me. Sorry," Kaze continued with the same elegiac tone despite his body being stoically frozen. "But I have to ask."

Then, Mai took a breath, the first one that was actually audible, further leaning on her hands. "Nobody ever admits to stuff like that. Must be really important to you."

"I don't know how it worked in there since no one talks about it, but I'll ask anyway: have you met anyone named Hina in the game?"

"I mean, they didn't let us use our real names. Anyone who even tried to have a similar username got... taken. Not to mention the game assigned us appearances, we didn't choose how we looked, minus our armor and weapons. They were probably serious about letting those that were kidnapped go if the main boss, The Knight of Echoes was defeated. Maybe by assigning us different appearances and nicknames they'd hoped we wouldn't find each other in real life."