The Gathering

---Chapter 16: The Gathering

After I meet her today… I’ll tell Yui how I feel!

That was the sentiment filling the thoughts of Ryota Ueda, the man who played as Quartz12 in Myth of Genesis Online, as he traversed the cold streets of Shibuya. He walked alongside a good friend of his named Kousuke Arino, who played the character named Striker.

The bright lights of the city reflected off of the surface of lightly falling pieces of snow, creating a somewhat dreamlike ambiance as the two moved forward. Kousuke held a smartphone in his hand, which currently displayed a map application. Needless to say, he was trying to locate the pub he’d made a reservation at.

“It’s gotta be just around here…” Kousuke muttered, his focus going back and forth between the map and his surroundings.

Ryota merely sighed and glanced around at all the people nearby. It was Christmas Eve, so the streets were packed, especially with couples. Even knowing it’d be a busy night, Ryota didn’t expect so many people to be out and about. The weather wasn’t bad, despite the light snow, so it made for a rather romantic atmosphere. With that considered, it’s no wonder so many young couples decided to go out tonight.

“Found it!” Kousuke pumped his fist. “It’s right over here Ryota, let’s go!”

“Sure thing.” Ryota nodded, dashing along behind his friend as the two weaved their way through the crowd of people passing by.

After arriving in front of the pub, the two quickly headed inside to escape the cold. A waiter approached the pair, and Kousuke took care of confirming the reservation, after which the waiter guided them through a back hallway to a private room.

“Kind of cramped in here, isn’t it?” Ryota commented as he adjusted his posture.

“Hey man, these small rooms were the best deal I could get for something like this on my budget. I ain’t made of money!” Kousuke chuckled, as he began to flip through the menu.

Unsure of what else to do while they waited for the rest of the group to arrive, Ryota began flipping through the menu in front of him as well. Sure enough, the offerings weren’t anything too fancy. It was still a pub after all.

I haven’t had alcohol in months… Besides, I’m such a lightweight, and I don’t want to make a fool of myself in front of Yui, so I’ll probably just go with a juice or tea…

Ryota fidgeted around as he perused the menu, his thoughts filled with the restless anticipation of getting to meet Yui.

“You nervous?” Kousuke peeked over his menu, taking note of how much Ryota had been fidgeting.

“Nothing for you to worry about.” Ryota answered, hiding his face behind his own menu. Kousuke merely chuckled upon seeing that.

A short time later, a small knock came from the door. With Kousuke’s okay, the waiter slid it open.

“Another guest has arrived.” the waiter commented, making way for the person to enter.

At that moment, a mature-looking woman in a suit entered the room. Based on appearances, she must’ve been almost 30. Both Ryota and Kousuke did a double-take trying to figure out who this woman was.

“Good evening.” the woman said with a smile as she took her seat. “You two must be Striker and Quartz, I presume?”

Whoa, who is she? There’s no way this could be Yui, could it?

Ryota blinked, finding himself unsure of how to response.

“Yeah, I’m Kousuke Arino, and this is Ryota Ueda! I’m Striker, and he’s Quartz!” Kousuke grinned. “So you’re…”

“My name is Ayaka Hanawa. I’m Mint.” she stated, giving a slight bow.

“Wait, you’re Mint?!” Kousuke’s jaw almost dropped.

“Is it really so surprising?” Ayaka chuckled.

“You came in here looking so mature and dignified that for a second it felt like Rokugo might’ve turned out to be a lady IRL.” Kousuke smiled wryly as everyone began to laugh at his comment.

Just then, another knock came from the door. Yes, another member of the party had arrived. Ryota tensed up as he watched the door open.

“It appears I’m right on time.” stated the man who entered the room.

“Yeah, that’s more what I expected…” Kousuke commented.

The man, while still relatively young, was certainly the oldest one here. By appearance, he was probably in his mid-thirties. He also wore a suit, and had a worn yet gentle expression on his face. And of course, he wore a pair of glasses as well.

“Greetings everyone, I’m Tetsuya Nitta.” the man took a seat. “As you’ve probably guessed, online I play the character #65, aka Rokugo.”

“Yep, right down to the glasses, you basically look exactly like I expected.” Ayaka said with a smirk.

“What can I say? I don’t go out of my way to act any differently online than I do in person.” Tetsuya shrugged.

“Man, this is so cool! All of us being here in person like this!” Kousuke exclaimed.

“I hope you’re satisfied. I had to make quite the trip to get here, you know.” Ayaka side-eyed Kousuke. After all, while everyone else seemed to live somewhere in the Tokyo area, Ayaka had to take an hours-long train ride in from Nagano prefecture.

The group soon began to exchange various pleasantries and make various bits of small talk. While Ryota was of course excited to meet his friends, he was still feeling quite anxious waiting for the last person to arrive. The one he wanted to meet most of all: Yui.

“Jeez, Yui sure is running late, huh?” Ryota awkwardly broached the topic after some time had passed.

“Oh, right… um, Ryota…” oddly enough, the first to respond was Tetsuya, with a bit of hesitance in his voice.

“Hm?” Ryota tilted his head.

“Before coming over here, I actually logged in to MoGO for a short time.” Tetsuya began to explain. “I spoke with Yui, and she wanted me to tell everyone that she couldn’t make it to the get-together.”

“What…?” Ryota froze up, a cold chill running up his spine.

“No way, really?” Kousuke wore a disappointed expression. “Did she say why?”

“Yes, well…” Tetsuya looked down with a pensive look on his face. “It has to do with something I noticed a while ago.”

“Something you noticed?” Ayaka was intrigued.

“This may be a strange question, but have any of you ever played MoGO and seen Yui’s status as offline?” Tetsuya looked around at everyone else at the small table.

“Huh? Uh… I dunno…” Kousuke thought deeply to himself.

“Now that you mention it… I don’t think I have?” Ayaka lifted her hand to her chin. “She’s always one of the first to arrive whenever we meet up. Though I just figured I’m always coming in later than you all due to my schedule.”

“I… I guess I’ve never seen her status say offline either.” Ryota narrowed his eyes. “But what about it? What are you trying to say?

“Even though I took note of that detail, I didn’t really think much of it at first.” Tetsuya continued, adjusting his glasses. “However, one night when I had trouble sleeping, I logged into the game around sunrise. I didn’t end up doing much, but I did notice on my friends list that Yui’s status still said online.”

“Wait, she was online that early in the morning?” Kousuke asked.

“See, I’m a light sleeper, and often have trouble getting to sleep.” explained Tetsuya. “I’m a teacher at a middle school, so it’s important to get some rest every night, but on that particular day I didn’t end up getting much sleep and decided to hop online briefly before heading to work. Noticing Yui online at that time left an impression on me, so on a hunch I began trying a few things.”

“What…?” Ryota wasn’t sure what he was getting at.

“I began trying to log in at any irregular times I could, just to check if Yui was online.” Tetsuya frowned. “And in every single instance, she was.”

“Wait, but what does that mean?” Ayaka was beginning to worry. “It’s not healthy to play full-dive games like that for such long periods. But even putting that aside, what about any responsibilities she has IRL, like school or work?”

“If she’s online all the time, maybe she’s some kind of hikkikomori?” Kousuke speculated.

Yui, a shut-in…? There’s no way… Not someone like her…

Ryota began to feel a distinct sense of dread over this conversation.

“That was one of my leading theories as well, but… Well, this situation is even more bizarre than I could’ve predicted.” Tetsuya grimaced.

“What do you mean?” Ayaka asked.

“It’s something I confirmed with the moderator Chronos the other day.” Tetsuya answered.

“You mean back when you talked to him alone after I left with Yui?” Ryota asked.

“Yes…” Tetsuya nodded. “He was about to ask about her online activity, and I realized he’d noticed the same thing I did. After all, he’s a moderator, and likely has access to logs with records of every time a player logs in and out.”

“And…?” Ryota asked, nervously.

“Well… if Yui really were a hikkikomori, there would still have to be some moments when she’d log out. To eat and sleep at least.” Tetsuya reasoned. “Plus, this is a game designed to log players out after just a few minutes of inactivity, so considering that...”

“Just get to the point!” Ryota raised his voice a bit, his clenched fist trembling.

“… The player known as YUI-YUI apparently hasn’t logged out once in over 4 months.” Tetsuya muttered.

Huh…?

The other three were silent in shock at what Tetsuya had just revealed. After all, it didn’t make any sense. As a full-dive VRMMORPG, Myth of Genesis Online was not a space where it was possible to consistently stay online for such a long period of time.

Yui… what on Earth is going on?!

[To be continued…]