Requiem of a Black Sun Volume I: The Ebony Shogunate

Chapter III: Homecoming

Dreams are by far the best things I have ever known. Ever since mastering the art of lucid dreaming, I felt as if I could bring my gaming to life more and, more importantly, it was if I could keep playing even in my sleep. The closest thing I could liken it to was a sort of immersive virtual reality simulation in which I was free to roam about in whatever world I pleased so long as my eyes were shut and my brain was still struggling desperately to fight against the caffeine surging through my veins.

Now, don't get me mistaken, there was no way in hell I was ever going to actually play a VR game without first letting some guinea pigs do it first (thank god they did because I found out that was a lie as soon as I figured out what Cybernetic Gaming was).

I mean, I had watched Sword Art Online and I wasn't exactly fond of the idea of some stay-at-home programmer like myself trapping me in a video game. I like immersive video games, I do, but it sort of crosses the line when you're playing games for two years 24/7 and it's so damn immersive it kills you. I was totally a fan of getting a hot girl to be my partner and then single-handedly saving the world or whatever, but anime sadly is a little bit on the far-side of reality.

First things first, how the hell do you play videogames for a living and, all of a sudden, this girl just hops into your lap and says, "We're gonna get married when we leave this place!" On top of that, why was a girl that hot even in a videogame with all those creepy guys in the first place anyway; don't they have things to do like, you know, having a life?

All in all, it was great show and I bought all the box sets for it on pre-order...I'm disappointing, I know.

Well, if my dream at this point hadn't already been ruined by my discourse about some VR-anime, which had long since been disregarded as a "futuristic" genre with the invention of NCMP's, I also noticed someone attempting to invade my personal space on a grand scale. Opening my eyes, I discovered Victoria, her legs and arms straddling me as if trying to pin me down, crawling onto the bed; she was still wearing the same Comiket shirt she had worn the previous day but seemed not to be wearing anything else. Thankfully, the shirt, although it was tight on her, it was rather long as I tended to order my t-shirts in the case that I should somehow grow in the coming years, which was wishful thinking indeed. I had known from our first encounter that she owned a set of panties so at least she had something on down there, but I was minorly (severely) disconcerted by the fact she found it necessary to molest me in my bed, not to mention with such scantily clad attire on.

My hearing started to kick in at this point as I realized she was speaking to me, her face pouting as if she were displeased with my fear of awkward, vaguely sexual interactions while I was swaddled in my blankets.

"Nn, what do you want, Victoria-san?" I murmured gently, my voice still trying to adjust to the fact that it now had to actually produce some sort of sound.

"Kichirou-kun, c'mon! It's breakfast time!"

She rolled off of my bed, a godsend in the least, presumably running back to the kitchen where she was pan-frying the remainder of her expensive grocery trip. I squirmed out of my sheets, unable to use my arms properly, and spilled out onto the floor where I saw Hide reading a magazine at the table with a mug of coffee held in one of his hands. I stood up slow, attempting to get a sense of the strength I had left in my feet after walking the previous night for a few kilometers to hail a taxi.

"Ah, Kichirou, you're awake! Hey, did you know one of the members of AKM-47 is getting married? I'm pretty sure it's Uehara Kana; they say she's engaged to the guy who owns Arxus Corp."

He had my attention at this point at the mention of one of my favorite idol units.

"Kana-chan, eh? I guess that means the next album's delayed then."