Chapter 2:
The Game
Half a world away, on the east coast of the United States, Mana Saitou was on her front porch, the large bench she sat on swinging lazily under her. It was a hot, quiet summer evening. The Florida sun was just beginning to slide under the treetops.
Mana sighed and closed her eyes, rocking back and forth slowly. The summer so far had been rather uneventful. Her thirteenth birthday had been two weeks earlier, but aside from that, Mana had done nothing but clean house, read, or watch TV. Or sit on the porch and sleep. Summer vacation was almost over, and if it weren’t for camp and a couple of other things to look forward to over the next few days, she would be bored out of her mind.
“Mana!”
Mana’s eyes snapped open, and she quickly looked up to see a boy just about her age, with sandy blond hair and light blue eyes, on a bike stopped just in front of her house. The bored look on her face suddenly disappeared. “Jun!”
“Hey!” Jun answered, smiling and waving. He looked like he was out of breath.
Jun Aikawa was Mana’s best friend. They had known each other since they were little and had lived in the same city for years.
Mana hurried down the porch to meet him, with a curious look on her face. “What happened? You look like you raced straight from your house!”
Jun laughed hastily, still taking deep breaths. He lived on the other side of town from Mana, and it usually took more than twenty minutes for either of them to visit each other, even on bikes.
“I just wanted to show it to you,” he replied, indicating something in his backpack.
“Show me what?”
“You know,” he replied impatiently, “Digital Adventure! It just came out in the stores today! I stopped by the game shop after lunch, and they were almost out of it, but I was able to get one of the last copies they had!”
Mana looked at him skeptically. “But that was hours ago. Why were you hurrying now?”
Jun smiled. “I found out something incredible about this game. Something you wouldn’t believe!”
“Uh-huh…” Mana said dryly. “It’s only a game.”
Jun looked back at her, exasperated. “It’s not just any game, Mana! It’s the first game to work completely online in fifty years! Ever since-“
“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Mana interrupted, grabbing his hand and pulling him toward the house. “Come on, let’s go in.”
Inside, Mana’s mom was busy cooking dinner, and looked up to see the two kids walk by. “Hi, Jun!”
“Hi, Mrs. Saitou,” Jun answered.
“You staying over for dinner tonight?”
Jun smiled. “Sure, if it’s all right with you.”
“Of course!”
“Thanks!” Jun answered, then followed Mana up the stairs to her room. Along the way, Jun peeked into a darkened room with a desk and chair, with walls lined with books. A model of a naval aircraft carrier sat on the desk.
“Is your dad back yet?” he asked.
“No,” Mana answered, “Not yet. He’s not scheduled to come for another couple of days.” She looked a bit down, but then she brightened. “But at least I’ll get to see him again, even if it’s after we come back from camp, and he won’t have another assignment until next January! He’ll be able to stay with us for almost four whole months!” she cheered, twirling around the room. “Isn’t that wonderful!!”
“Yeah.” Jun smiled, happy for Mana. Her father was in the Navy, and he was often away from home for months on end. Mana missed him terribly whenever he was away.
Mana plopped down on the floor, where Jun was setting up his laptop. “So, what’s this ‘incredible thing’ you’ve found out?”
“You’ll see.” He started the game, loaded his file, and the game immediately picked up where he left off. He turned the laptop toward her. “Look at my character. Take a really good look.”
Mana looked, and she had to make sure she wasn’t seeing things. “That’s… you!” she exclaimed, “The game can make your character look like you?”
Jun smiled. “Apparently. But look at this-” He pulled out the instruction manual, flipped to a page, and handed it to her. “Look at ‘Character Customization’.”
Mana stared at the figures printed on the page, and looked back at the screen. “These don’t look anything like you! At all! Not even if you tried mixing everything up!”
Jun’s smile got bigger. “Exactly.”
“How did that happen?”
Jun shrugged. “Don’t know. It just happened, right after I chose a Digimon. I didn’t even get a separate screen to choose how I wanted my character to look like! And there weren’t that many Digimon to choose from, even though the book said it was over a hundred.”
Mana was silent for a moment, then she spoke up. “Can I try it? I wonder if the same thing will happen to me.”
Jun thought a moment. “I guess you could. There should be an option to add another character… here!” He clicked on an icon, and a menu with Digimon showed up.
Mana stared at the screen. “They’re only eight Digimon here,” she said slowly, looking at Jun.
He didn’t look very surprised. “Pick one!”
“Which one did you pick?”
Jun looked a bit embarrassed, then pointed to a small orange Digimon. “Patamon.”
Mana laughed. “Aww! You two look cute together!”
Jun looked very uncomfortable. “Shut up…”
Mana laughed again, and moved the cursor over another Digimon right beside it. “Then I’ll pick this one. Salamon, because it seems like the two of them belong together. Don’t you think so?”
Jun was staring at the floor. “Uh… I guess so.”
When she clicked on it, the screen dimmed, and another character was immediately added to the playing field. Mana examined it, and was completely baffled.
“Whoa! The character’s me, and I didn’t even do anything to it!”
“That’s what I was saying!” Jun exclaimed.
“Has it happened to anyone else?”
“No, not that I know of…” Jun thought a moment. “But let me check.” He quit the game, went online, and started typing in an address.
“What are you doing?” Mana asked.
“Going to AraNET.” AraNET was a popular social media site. He continued to type for several minutes, then wait, then type again. Mana didn’t say a word. Then, finally, they had an answer.
“Just one person,” Jun answered, reading off a recent post, “A girl up in D.C. - the same thing happened to her.”
“That’s it?” Mana replied indignantly, “Only three people out of millions?”
Jun shrugged. “I guess so.”
Mana smiled. “Oh well. That makes us special. It’ll be fun – just as if we were really there!”
Jun laughed. “Thirty minutes ago, you said it was just a game.”
Mana just stared at him.
Jun shook his head in defeat. “Whatever.” He started up the game again. “So, care to join me?”
They played for a while after that. At least, up until dinnertime.
“You sure you’ll be all right going home this late?” Mana’s mom asked a few hours later, “Do you want me to drive you home?”
Jun shook his head. “No, it’s okay.” He looked at his watch. “Dad should be coming home any minute now.”
Mana blinked. “He’s working awfully late nowadays, isn’t he?”
“Well… yeah,” Jun replied hastily, “He and the rest of his research team at NASA have been up to their necks in work, ever since they sent another crew to the Moon ten days ago.”
Mana’s mom smiled. “A hundred years since the first Moon landing… I don’t think any of us will ever forget this one!”
Jun nodded. “I guess not.”
“Is your mom home yet?”
“No… she’s still up north, at Langley,” Jun smiled a little. “Test piloting. She’ll be back in about three weeks, though.” He looked at them again, then got on his bike. “I guess I’ll be going.”
“Be careful,” Mana’s mom replied.
Jun nodded, then turned to Mana. “I’ll come back tomorrow, if you want. I’ll bring the game, too.” He smiled at her as he moved away. “See you tomorrow.”
Mana smiled back. “See you.”
Meanwhile, further north, Akira finally arrived at an airport in Washington, D.C., and was greeted by her mother.
“Akira!” her mother exclaimed, her face breaking into a smile.
Akira smiled at her faintly. “Mom…”
“Welcome back,” her mother said softly, pulling Akira into a hug. Akira hugged back, a little clumsily.
Her mother sighed, and quickly let go, as if she had somehow sensed the uneasiness between them. “How was the trip?”
“Okay,” Akira murmured.
An awkward silence emerged between the two, as neither mother nor daughter said anything.
“Akira!” A small voice rang out through the station, breaking the silence.
Akira turned in the direction of the voice, only to be nearly knocked right over. She looked down to see a little black-haired girl clinging onto her.
The little girl looked up and giggled, her bright blue eyes twinkling.
Akira’s expression brightened. “Kei!”
Kei grabbed Akira’s hand and pulled her away. “It’s good that you came back, Akira!” she said cheerfully, “I missed you so much!”
Akira smiled at her. “I missed you, too.”
“I have something cool to show you when we get home!” Kei said cheerfully, “Just wait!”
As they left the airport, Akira caught her mother’s eye. They stared at each other for a moment, and remained silent.
Everyone was silent during the drive home. Akira sat in the front seat, her face expressionless. Her mother glanced at her.
“You’re doing well with your father and grandmother?” she asked.
“We’ve been doing fine.”
Her mother fell silent for a moment, then replied, “I guess it’s no coincidence that you happened to come back for a visit when Touma’s out on his trip.”
Akira’s face darkened. “I didn’t want to upset him by visiting too early,” she said, “You know we’ve never really gotten along.” You have no idea, she thought bitterly. We hated each other, and I only agreed to come because he wasn’t here, and I could forget what happened and be happy with you and Kei. Why did you have to mention him? I don’t want to remember! Akira clenched her fist and shut her eyes.
“Are you okay?” Kei looked at her with concern.
Akira took a breath and turned to her. “Yes,” she smiled at her, “I’m fine.” The car slowed to a halt in front of the house. “Come on, you said you wanted to show me something. You can when I finish unpacking.” They got out of the car, ran inside the house, and raced up the stairs to Kei’s room. While Akira unpacked, Kei booted up her computer and started a game.
“You’re playing Digital Adventure, too?” Akira asked, deciphering the English script with difficulty.
Kei nodded. “Yeah! But wait till you see this!” She pointed at the character on the screen. It was a little girl with short, black hair and blue eyes. She wore a red shirt, blue capris, an orange vest and gray and white sneakers – Kei’s exact mirror image!
“Wait… That’s you, isn’t it?” Akira was shocked. “That happened to me, too! Look!” She opened up her laptop, started her game, and showed her.
“Weird!” Kei exclaimed, “They even have your goggles right! What Digimon did you pick?”
“Kodamon. How about you?”
“Terriermon.”
Akira thought a moment. “And you picked mission number-”
“Mission number 201981,” Kei answered, “It was the only one there!”
Akira frowned. “Weird.”
“It is weird,” Kei answered, “I talked to a lot of my friends about this, but it was completely different for them. They said they could make their characters look like anything they wanted to, and they could choose from over a hundred Digimon, and they could play at least ten different missions!”
“I know, the same thing happened with me. Are you sure there aren’t any others who have this problem?”
Kei thought a minute. “Come to think of it… yeah! There were two people in Miami who said so when I was looking at AraNET earlier today. They were the only ones, though.”
“Maybe it’s just a glitch,” Akira replied. “Maybe it happens in a random number of game discs or something…”
She was interrupted by a message flashing on her laptop screen.
Fellow Encoder in Range.
“Huh?” Akira exclaimed, looking at the screen. The message soon disappeared, and a new character showed up on the playing field.
The new character was a girl with blue eyes and short, dark blue-black hair. She wore a light pink hoodie, light blue jeans, and gray sneakers. A yellow and black baseball cap rested on her head, pulled backwards.
“Tian…” Akira whispered, shocked.
“Your friend?” Kei asked.
Akira nodded. “It looks exactly like her.” She watched as an image of a Renamon appeared next to Tian.
Then, a message from Tian showed up:
“Akira?”
Akira stared at the message, wondering what to say. Then she typed,
“Who else?”
A few seconds later, Tian replied.
“I knew it. I knew I wasn’t dreaming!” There was a pause, then she added, “That little girl with you – that’s your little sister, right?”
“Yes,” Akira typed back.
“What do you think happened with us?” Tian asked, “No one else I know has this problem!”
Akira and Kei looked at each other. Kei shrugged, looked back at her computer, and typed,
“Does it matter? It’s the coolest thing that’s ever happened!”
Akira looked back at her skeptically. “Kei…”
“Well, it is, isn’t it?” Kei shot back.
Suddenly, another message flashed on the screen.
Fellow Encoders in Range.
“More of them?” Kei asked, eyes widening.
This time, four new characters showed up on the playing field.
Two characters looked very familiar. One was a boy with blue eyes and black spiky hair with a blue sweatband. He wore a blue and white shirt, blue jeans, and blue and white sneakers. He had Gazimon as a Digimon partner. The other character was a little girl with blue eyes and short black hair, wearing a pink T-shirt, blue overalls, and pink and white sneakers. A Lopmon hovered beside her.
Akira laughed a little. “Yuka and Seita the Moron,” she murmured, remembering their conversation before she left, “Of course!”
Just then, a message from Seita showed up:
“Finally caught up with you! You’re not going to beat this game without me – I won’t let you! I won’t let you out of my sight!”
Akira scowled and banged out her reply:
“MORON!”
Seita’s reply came immediately:
“Moron to you too!”
The other two characters weren’t familiar at all. One was a boy with a Patamon. He had light blue eyes and blond hair, and wore a sea green and white T-shirt, brown pants, and green and white sneakers. The other was a girl with a Salamon. She also had light blue eyes, and had long brown hair in a pink headband. She wore a white hooded tank top, light blue dress, and white sneakers.
Akira glanced at everyone’s usernames, which strangely showed normal first names instead of Internet handles, and found two that looked unfamiliar. “Jun… and Mana.”
Then, a message from Jun showed up:
“Nice to meet you!”
“This is awesome!” Kei exclaimed, “We’ve got a whole army of Encoders!” She paused to type in another message.
“Let’s get going!”
Akira laughed and saw a few evil Digimon show up on the playing field. “I guess we’d better start!”
The longer they played, the more time seemed to slip by unnoticed.
“Tian!”
Tian glanced behind her, startled. “Auntie…” she said faintly, rubbing her eyes with her arm. “What is it?”
Tian’s aunt looked sternly at her niece’s crouched form in front of the laptop. “It’s lunchtime! Get something to eat!”
“But I can’t!” Tian answered, “I’m still playing, and I’m not hungry yet!” She turned back to the laptop, stifling a yawn.
Her aunt shook her head and sighed. She looked at Tian again, concerned, noticing how many times she yawned and rubbed her eyes, trying not to fall asleep at the monitor. She knew that Tian had been playing for most of the day before, and possibly through most of the night, making up for the enormous time difference between her and her friends.
“Kids these days…” she muttered under her breath. She placed a steaming bowl of rice by Tian’s feet. “Eat,” she said loudly, “And then get some rest. You’ve been staying up too late!”
Tian didn’t answer. She was too busy focusing on the screen.
“Akira! Kei! Go to bed! It’s already late!” Their mother was exasperated.
“But Mom, I’m not sleepy yet. By Tokyo time, it’s only a few hours after breakfast!” Akira pleaded.
Her mom rolled her eyes. “Okay, you can stay up a bit longer, but Kei, you go to bed!”
“Awww!” Kei wailed, “but Mom-”
“No buts!”
Kei lay in bed and sulked until she fell asleep. A few hours later, she woke up again and noticed the night lamp was still on. She rolled over and saw Akira at her laptop, shadowed by the faint light. She looked at her bedside clock.
“Akira!” she called loudly, “It’s past midnight! Go to bed!”
Akira whipped around. “Shh!” she hissed, “Not so loud! Do you want Mom to wake up?” She sighed. “Okay, okay, I’ll go to bed!”
“About time…” Kei answered sleepily.
Akira smiled. “We’ll start playing again first thing tomorrow. Go back to sleep.”
Kei lay down again, and when Akira thought she had fallen asleep again, she spoke up.
“Akira?”
“Yeah?”
“How far do you think we’ve gotten today?” Kei asked sleepily, “Do you think we’ll finish the mission? It seems like it’ll never end, and we’ll have to keep playing and playing forever.”
Akira looked toward her laptop. “I don’t know. We’ve done so much, but it seems like we’re getting nowhere. But it has to end sometime, right?”
She was answered by a light snoring.
She smiled tiredly, shut off her laptop, and curled up in her sleeping bag, looking up at the ceiling and thinking of the next day.
“What do you mean, we’re playing an impossible game?” Mana demanded, after lunch the next day.
“I posted a couple of questions on AraNET earlier, and after reading most of the replies, there were a lot of things that made no sense at all,” Jun explained. “We’re playing a mission that doesn’t exist, with character and Digimon settings that don’t exist. We have characters that look just like us, but are impossible to create with the game’s character models. We each have one of only a few Digimon partners when normally, the game would let us choose from much more… and none of these Digimon are supposed to exist in a normal game.”
Mana nodded. “Go on.”
He was silent for a moment, then continued. “Also, in a normal game, players can choose missions out of a list of ten, with mission numbers ranging from 1 to 100, and with more than 10,000 people playing each mission at any given time. We only got one mission to play, with a mission number much, much higher than 100, and there are only seven people playing it!
“Do you want to stop playing, then?” Mana asked blankly, staring into space.
Jun opened his mouth to speak, then stopped. He glanced at the computer screen, watching Patamon moving around and smiling at him.
“No,” he answered finally. “I think we should play just a little longer.”
Meanwhile, Akira was in the middle of an overseas phone call with her dad.
“Everything’s just fine over here,” Akira said, “I’ve been doing nothing but sleep and play games with Kei all day.”
Her dad laughed. “It’s nice you’re having a good time. Your grandmother hasn’t been herself since you left – she keeps bugging me to call you all the time and make sure you’re all right.”
Akira sighed. “Well… I’m fine. Tell Grandma that she doesn’t need to worry.” She leaned against the wall, listening and looking at the microwave clock in the kitchen. “I’ll be fine. Like you said, it’ll only be for a month…”
Her voice faltered as she took a double take at the clock. The digits were scrambling wildly. Flashes of electricity lit up the inside of the microwave. She glanced around, and saw that several of the other kitchen appliances were acting just as strangely. The lights began flickering on and off.
“Akira?” Her dad’s voice crackled through the receiver, “You still there?”
“What?” Akira replied abruptly, turning her attention back to her cell phone. “Yeah, I’m okay.”
“I-” The phone immediately went dead.
“H-hello?” Akira stammered into the phone. “Hello, Dad?” The call had been cut off.
“That’s strange…” she murmured. She looked around, but all of the appliances seemed to be working normally again.
She slipped her phone into her pocket just as Kei let out a shout upstairs.
“Kei?” Akira called, “Something wrong?”
No one answered.
“Kei!” The strange occurrence in the kitchen was banished from Akira’s mind as she hurried upstairs and opened Kei’s door.
Kei was sitting at her computer. At the sound of the door opening, she turned to face Akira with a funny look on her face.
Akira let out a breath. “Kei, you scared me!” she said, “What happened?”
Kei turned back to the computer and pointed. “This.”
Akira looked at the screen, then, she shook her head and blinked. “Huh?”
It was a Digimon, but it was very different from any they had ever encountered. It covered more than half of the computer screen, and was a menacing patchwork of multiple Digimon.
“What the…?” Akira whispered.
“Seita…”
Seita turned to face Yuka, still staring at the terrifying sight of the Digimon. “Yeah?”
“I don’t like this,” she whispered fearfully, “It feels wrong!”
“Yuka,” Seita replied, much too calmly, “It’s only a game. It’s not real!”
Yuka swallowed and looked away from the monster on the screen. “I don’t feel like playing anymore.” Her voice trembled.
Mana and Jun gaped at the menacing Digimon. “That looks worse than everything we’ve beaten put together!” Mana spat.
“I don’t know about you,” Jun said faintly, “but this looks awfully like a boss battle to me. An impossible boss battle!”
Akira and Kei only had about five seconds to think before the monster began its deadly attack. It was very powerful – stronger than any of the other Digimon they had fought. Akira and Kei were having a difficult time keeping their Digimon partners from getting damaged.
To make matters worse, other things started to happen, and at the worst possible time.
A couple of minutes into the fight, two Digimon, Gazimon and Lopmon, suddenly slowed down to a complete stop. Their human counterparts promptly disappeared from the map.
“Huh?” Akira blinked and did a double take at the map. “What on earth-“
Suddenly, Renamon froze and Tian’s character disappeared.
“What’s going on-” Kei started to say, until she was interrupted by both Patamon and Salamon freezing up and their human partners vanishing.
Akira stared at the screen fearfully, realizing that their two Digimon were the only ones left standing against the monster.
“This is not good…”
Seita and Yuka stared in shock at the frozen game screen, where a small window had appeared on the monitor, showing a broken connection.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me…” Seita sprang up, dug through a nest of wires behind the computer, and unearthed a white box with blinking lights.
“Reset the router!” Yuka said frantically.
“I’m doing that, but it’s taking forever!” Seita snapped.
“Kids,” their mother said, poking her head into the room, “The net company just called. There’s an outage in the neighborhood until 11 tonight!”
Seita and Yuka looked toward her in horror. “Eleven?!” Seita shouted.
“Such horrible timing, I know,” their mother replied, shaking her head, “I guess the next episodes of my K-dramas will have to wait!”
“Damn it!”
“Seita! Language!”
An annoyingly loud bleep erupted from Tian’s laptop, promptly snapping her out of her drowsy stupor. An angry-looking notice in large, red Chinese text appeared on the screen, covering the game window.
“Huh?” Tian rubbed her eyes and squinted, trying to read the words. A moment later, her eyes grew wide.
“Classified Information… access denied… What are they talking about?!” she snapped, “I’m not hacking anything!” She kept on clicking, trying to rid herself of the notice, but it kept showing up.
Tian would have screamed in frustration, had she the energy to do so. Instead, she lay down on the floor next to her laptop, hand on her forehead, unable to think clearly. “I give up…” she murmured faintly, “I’ve had it with this game…” She gave her laptop one last glare before her eyes grew heavy and drowsiness claimed her.
“What the-?” Jun’s mouth fell open as he and Mana stared back at a flickering black screen. A short message appeared and a blue line started to inch across the screen. “Hibernate?!” He moved closer to the wall outlet, only to discover that the power cord was unplugged. He swore.
“Can you fix it?” Mana asked, frantically.
“Of course I can fix it,” Jun answered angrily, trying to turn the laptop back on. “But if it turns back on and everything’s frozen, we might have to restart the game!”
“But then… we won’t get back there in time!” Mana said hopelessly, “What about the others?”
“This is insane!” Kei shouted, as she furiously typed on the keyboard and maneuvered Terriermon through a rain of fiery darts. She didn’t notice that the chair she was sitting in was wobbling dangerously. “How are we ever going to get a shot at it? These things just keep coming- aaah!” she finished with a wail, as she landed on the floor with a thud. The computer keyboard soon followed.
“Kei!” Akira turned away from her laptop, to see Kei rubbing her head and getting up, picking up the keyboard. “You okay?”
“Yeah, yeah…” Kei answered, “I’m fine.” She looked up at her computer. “Ah! No, I’m not fine!”
The entire monitor was blue.
“What did you do?” Akira demanded, while trying to restart the computer. “You should be more careful!”
“I know that!” Kei shot back, “But-”
Akira interrupted her with a sigh and started the game again. “Here,” she said, trying to smile. “Get yourself back in there.”
Kei tried. “It won’t let me connect!” she said frantically.
“Try again!”
“It’s not working!” Kei plopped down on the chair, glaring at the computer. “I guess you’re on your own,” she said softly.
Akira swallowed, and returned her attention to her laptop, half expecting her Digimon to be deleted. Miraculously, Kodamon hadn’t been touched. Akira stared at the screen, breathing heavily. “I guess it’s just you and me now, Kodamon,” she whispered. To her amazement, Kodamon turned toward her, winked at her, and gave her the thumbs-up sign. Akira blinked, and smiled in wonderment. “Let’s go!” She maneuvered Kodamon toward the monster, who was eyeing them hungrily, and attacked.
Back and forth, the two adversaries traded shots. Kodamon put up a good fight, but the enemy’s attacks were too strong. Akira was almost ready to give up, until she saw a bright red energy beam slice through the monster.
Akira looked all over the screen in bewilderment. That shot didn’t come from Kodamon, she thought, but from who? All the other Digimon were inactive…except for one. She glanced at the top right-hand corner of the screen and almost missed it. Another character had joined in at the last minute!
The new pair was a Guilmon and a little boy with black hair and brown eyes. He wore a navy blue tracksuit and red sneakers. Akira watched, dumbstruck, as the Guilmon shot at the monster with red-orange beams.
When the monster was close to its demise, Guilmon stopped, as if it wanted Kodamon to finish the battle.
Akira took that opportunity and made Kodamon launch one last energy punch…and it made contact! The evil Digimon convulsed and exploded into tiny data particles that disappeared slowly into thin air.
The other Digimon were beginning to unfreeze and the human characters started reappearing. However, the little black-haired boy and the Guilmon had disappeared.
A message slowly appeared on the screen.
Mission Complete. Thank you for playing.
Akira stared at the screen in shock.
“We did it…” she whispered.
Kei moved closer to her. “What?”
“We did it!” A faint smile appeared on Akira’s face. “We won!”
“We won?” Kei repeated.
Akira nodded, her smile growing.
“Yes!” Kei shouted, hugging Akira and almost knocking her over. They both started laughing, hard.
“Girls?” The door opened, and the two of them looked up to see their mother in the doorway, looking at them strangely. “You all right?” she asked, “From all the racket you were making, I thought you’d had an accident or something.”
Akira and Kei looked at each other, then smiled back at her. “It was something,” Akira answered.
“Oh?”
“Yeah!” Kei added, “Just something.” And both of them started laughing again.
Their mother shook her head, a half-smile on her face, and left, closing the door behind her. She walked softly down the stairs, and was passing the front door when the doorbell rang. She opened the door, and saw nothing but a small brown box sitting on the doorstep. Picking it up, she saw that it was addressed to Kei. Looking up the stairwell, she could still hear the girls laughing and carrying on, so she decided to leave the box for later.
Immediately after she had closed and locked the door, her cell phone rang from across the room. She hurried over to pick it up.
“Hello?” She listened a bit, then brightened. “Hi, Touma! Yes, we’re fine…” She listened some more. “Oh… you’re coming home early? When?” Her face fell. “Really? Okay… No, no, that’s fine with me. Kei will be happy to see you.” She was silent for a moment, listening, then her expression turned fearful. “Yes…” she said softly, unknowingly looking toward Kei’s door. She could hear Akira talking cheerfully. “Yes. She’s already here.”