Editing .Hack//ZERO ME:1021 (section)

==ME:1021==

Before me stood a girl staring at me with a look of confusion.

And inside me, something snapped.

The girl’s beautiful, innocent façade was what sparked my anger. I wanted to ruin her. To beat her and kick dirt on her until she wasn’t so damn perfect.

I think this kind of feeling was known as ‘sadism’.

It would seem I have an appetite for inflicting harm onto others.

I held up my axe, its twisted blade gleaming in the light.

But she didn’t even look up at it.

Because it’s not me that she’s scared of. It’s something else. Something that’s not me.

I would fix that soon enough.

I could feel a shiver run up my spine, and my temples suddenly felt hot.

I raised my axe up, holding the weightless weapon high over my head

And finally, the girl’s expression changed.

At long last, she seemed to understand what I thought of her.

“Die!”

I spat out the simplest and most powerful curse I could think to say.

“Die, die, die, die!”

It’s not a word I’ve ever said out loud before. At worst, I would just mutter it under my breath.

I swung my axe down with pure, unadulterated hostility and malice.

But as soon as I did, my body locked up. I couldn’t move.

Or to be precise, my body stopped working. The character in the game wasn’t responding to the input from my controller.

I pressed down on the buttons hard enough for my knuckles to turn white and spun the joysticks around in every direction.

But ‘Carl’ would not budge.

“What is this!?” At the sound of my voice, the girl flinched. “Are you doing this?”

“……My……”

Her voice sounded exactly as I imagined it would. Soft, gentle – and not at all pretty.

“…name is……Aura.”

She actually introduced herself. Aura.

She was telling me her name?

What, was I supposed to care?

I wasn’t going to stop. I wasn’t about to feel sorry for her.

“You fucking moron! Just die already! Die! Die! Die!”

I managed to take one shaky step forward, but when I did, I froze completely. It was like the game had been put on pause.

And yet…

She alone kept on moving in that space.

She moved away from Sora with flittering motions, dancing like confetti with less weight than a fairy.

But Sora didn’t move. He didn’t even speak. He was frozen in place so completely that he was blending in with his surroundings.

It wasn’t Sora anymore.

It was just an object in the game.

And then the girl’s outline blurred and faded away, leaving me as the only sign of life around.

“Don’t run away!”

I kept screaming at her.

I remembered her features. Her pale eyes. Hair that danced in the wind. Plump cheeks like peaches.

“I’m……sorry……”

The girl had vanished into thin air.

I was dumbfounded by just how shaken I was.

Did I really just say sorry? Me? What on earth was I apologizing for?

It took me a moment to realize that Sora had disappeared, as well.

The moaning, struggling, screaming Sora was now gone.

And I was just left standing there in a daze. I kept trying to move, but I was still frozen.

Who was she?

Who is Sora?

And me – ‘Carl’ – Who am I?

I am… Junka Nimura.

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