Written by Brandon Okamoto

Koji sat in the small den of his family's large home. The cramped room was filed with mounds of computer junk that Koji didn't really need. Bits of hardware was strewn across the computer desk that was so large, it seemed to shrink the whole room. Koji busily installed new RAM into his now restored computer, since he had a little explosion problem by 'suping' up the original computer.

Koji's eyes scanned over the computer once, just to make sure it checked out okay. After he was satisfied with his construction, he sighed in happiness.

He wiped his brow. "Whew! I'm, done!" Koji marveled at his caseless computer.

Foot steps sounded lightly in the hall way outside of the den as Koji's sister, Misa, passed. She stopped for a moment, and then momentarily backtracked to the room, peering inside the dimly lit den.

"Hey doofus," Misa teased. "Why don'cha turn on a light so you don't make those glasses of yours even worse than they already are."

Koji looked at her, annoyed. "I'm fine. Go about your business wretch."

"Wretch?" She whispered to herself. "Oh, but my dear Koji," she mocked. "You just can't do this to yourself!"

Koji's shoulders dropped in annoyance. 'She should go back to acting class,' he thought. He stood up and lethargically made his way to the door, ignoring his sister's bad vernacular ranting and raving.

"If thou always shut thine own self away from this world, thoust willist never be cool!"

Koji stood at the door, his blank face no more than six inches than her's.

"Just so you know, 'cool' wasn't a word used back then. And at least every guy in school doesn't know me inside and out, like they do you."

Misa gritted her teeth. "Come off it you little jerk besides, I've only been with twelve guys!" She rolled her eyes. "Geez! You could at least get it right!"

"Go back and be a boothy at the Renasance Festival, because you know that they would never accept you as a festy!" Koji barked at her.

Misa gave him the finger, and stormed off down the hall, and Koji closed the door.

He went back over to his computer and plopped down in the fancy office seat he had bought with the left over money from his birthday. Koji swiveled in the chair, dwelling somewhat on the beast he called his sister. However, his eyes fell upon the still uncovered computer. He looked around the desk for a screwdriver, and once it was found, he went to work on the simple task of screwing the case unto the computer.

As he finished putting in the sixth and final screw on the case, he heard thunderous foot steps coming down the hallway towards his door. They stopped in front of the door.

"You jerk!" Misa yelled, somewhat muffled by the door in her way. "You almost made me forget what I had came to tell you!"

"And what, pray tell, may that be?" Koji asked.

"Faeryn is coming over to do some studying with me, so don't bother us. I especially don't want you drooling all over the carpet over Faeryn like you usually do! And if you do, I'll tell her you like her!"

'It's not like I care,' Koji thought to himself. 'She wouldn't give a rats ass anyway, She'd probably just think it's cute of me to think so, and then absolutely forget about it.

Before Koji could respond, her footsteps went thundering back the way she had came. Koji plopped back down into the chair, relaxing against it's gentle support. He popped the on switch on the computer.

"Faeryn…" he mumbled to himself. His thoughts then wandered to the beautiful creature dolefully named Faeryn. Her mother had named her after her a minor character in a novel called 'The Parallel World War Saga: The Dragon Lord of Tsuchi", by Brandon Okamoto.

He thought of her wonderous golden-red hair that seemed to splash down her slim shoulders. He imagined what it would be like to have her emerald eyes; like that of a shallow Australian lagoon, stare lovingly into his, which was a sight beheld by no one as of yet, or so Koji had heard.

His chest felt fluttery, feeling as if it would escape at anytime into the free and open air. An exuberance took to his heart. He tried to concentrate on the feeling, but he found it made it harder. So he just let the feelings flow.

'Oh, what infatuation takes to mine heart! What false love is this? If only I could get to know…' All of a sudden, his thoughts were interrupted by a loud clank sound emminating from his computer, signifying a problem.

"What the?" Koji looked upon the screen to see a warning box on the screen. It read; ERROR! Default cable modem could not connect. Make sure that the proper drivers are installed, and that the cable line is connected properly.

Instantly, Koji remembered that he had not yet bought the cable line. He had forgotten it, Koji just now realized.

"Damn!" Koji swore under his breath. "I'm gonna have to go get it tonight."

~ A brief slam was heard nearby in the house, like a door closing. ~

Koji fumbled for his wallet, and when he had retrieved it, he found $30 left over from this morning's shopping spree. He looked at his watch and saw that it was only 6:14, and the local computer stores thankfully closed at 8 o'clock on Sundays for gift returns, since Christmas had just ended.

He grinned. "Great! I have enough time!"

He jumped up from his seat and jogged over to the den door. As soon as he had opened it, he saw a surprised Faeryn on the other side, coat, hat, and gloves still on, with her fist raised as if to knock on the door. But now, there was no door to knock on.

Koji, startled slightly also, just stood there, looking blank faced at Faeryn. He already felt his face warming.

Faeryn's soft face broke into a smile, a smile just for Koji. A smile someone gives one that they really like, or love with all their heart.

"Heey! Koji, whats up?"

Koji's heart skipped a beat as he peered into her bottomless emerald eyes. He felt he face, surely now, reddening like a beet. His smiled embarrisingly.

Before he replied, Koji realized that he had been holding his breath. He slowly let it out, and said, "Uh, not too bad. Um, your eyes, er, I mean, you too are well I presume?"

Faeryn clasped her hands together nervously and rocked back and forth on her heels. "Um, yeah, I'm great!" She looked down the hall towards a waving Misa, trying to get her to hurry up.

"Um, yeah. I'm here to help your sister with her homework, and to hang out, I guess. Wanna chill out with us?" Her hopeful eyes begged silently.

Koji felt his heart drop, and in his mind, Misa drop kicked it into a waste can near the corner of the den. He watched it slowly slide down the wall, leaving a distinct blackish-red stain behind on the wall. Koji looked right at Faeryn, hoping to find strength by looking towards her. He could think of two things, one really important, that would block him from enjoyably hanging out with Faeryn. However, all his mind and will did was faulter, even by just thinking about his arm around Faeryn, yet staring at her didn't help much either.

Koji looked down at the ground, and then down the hall.

"Aw, I can't. I really wish I could! But I have a few things I have to run out and do, I'm sorry!"

"Okay." Faeryn said, her voice dripping with dissapointment. "Well, we gotta hang out sometime, ya know?" She playfully poked at his stomach, finding they were as hard as rock. She briefly remembered that Koji had been taking a style of karate for quite some while, but she didn’t know the particular name.

Koji jumped a little and smiled.

"Alright, that’s cool," he said weakly.

"Good." Faeyrn stood there for another moment, and she then pointed down the hall. "Um, well I gotta go. So, I'll see ya later, okay?"

All Koji could do was nod his head.

"Okay," she said. She turned and walked to where Misa had situated herself. He looked back and waved good bye to him. He waved back.

After she was out of sight, he let out a deep sigh. "I sounded like a total dork," he told him self. He then got on his coat and hat, and stepped out into the bitter, early dusk.

* * *

A sun lowered by the winter and it's effect on bringing down the warm sun earlier with it's bitter cold, barely still hung unto the horizon. Koji had his sun visor down, but it still didn't stop the dark orange sun from pestering his eyes as he drove down to the local computer store.

He turned down a boulivard that gave passage to the mall on his left, and a large shopping mall, containing the super store he needed to go to, on the right side. He turned in to the parking lot servicing the 'Milton Computer Store' of White Lake. After spending over ten minutes browsing up and down the parking eisles, he finally found a parking spot near the back right corner of the parking lot.

He came into the large store, it's grand automatic doors opening for him, making him momentarilly feel like he was noticed. Until the doors shut on him. However, because of a safety mechanism, the doors automatically popped back open as soon as they felt resistance to them closing, therefore eliminating decapatations and dismemberment as motors struggled more and more, their gears grinding to close upon whatever human appendage happened to get caught between them. Milton Inc. had found that out personally around ten years back.

"What the heck!?" He yelled. The doors opened back up, and everyone inside stared at Koji. "What? It closed on me!" Everyone quickly turned their heads and hastely went on their ways.

Koji sighed. 'Whoops, I didn't mean to seem so harsh…'

After but a moment of searching, since Koji basically had the store's layout memorized and as well known as the back of his own hand, he found the cable line, and took off towards the nearest checkout counter.

After a few more monotonous moments in line, he finally got up to the check out associate. Koji looked at the guy and recognized the man instantly from school.

"Hey Ron, man. Whats up?" Koji asked.

"Oh, hey dude! Back again I see?"

Koji grinned. "Yeah. I forgot this this morning." Koji handed him the small box.

Ron laughed. "Hey man, did'ya hear about Joel Niewbacher?"

Koji scrunched up his face in confusion. "What? What about him?"

Ron rang up the package on the register, and it noisily printed it out on the receipt. "$16.97 please."

Koji took out his wallet and fished out a twenty. "So what happened?" Koji asked anxiously.

"Well, it seems that he had died or something last week. Maybe he commited suicide, but I haven't heard any details."

Koji shook his head. He felt something grip his heart. "No way man, Joel wouldn't kill himself. He had no reason to do that for."

Ron sighed. "Well, he's dead. I know that for sure. Did you know he lived right next to me?"

"Me too…" Koji barely whispered.

"What?" Ron looked at Koji funny. "Here, here is your $3.03 back."

Koji took it and put it away. "Nothing man."

"But check this out man. The other day, I was going onto Cybril, and I got a message that he was on, but it was after he had died. I was like, 'no way!' Then I sent him a message, and he said for me to join him, to buy the new helmet from Inextech for the game. But then, his person-icon faded away before he could say anymore."

Koji was barely listening. He was thinking deeply on what had happened.

"And dude! I found this rumor on the internet the other day that Inextech had been making their helmets especially to let you go in your subconsciousness, as if you were really there! Feel, touch, smell, all of it! And they also said that a lot of the helmets were making copies of the person's brain, because of a special connection to their brain…"

"…What?" Koji interuppted. "What did you say? I didn't hear any of that, I'm sorry."

Ron looked at the line, and saw that it was bigger than usual. "Oh, it's not important man. Listen, I've gotta get back to work. The line's building up man."

"Oh, all right. I'll see ya later."

"Bye man. Can I help you ma'am…?"

Koji walked out towards the door and saw a big coin on the ground. He bent down and saw that it was a half dollar coin. It was heads up. Also, the person on the face of the coin seemed to have barb wire drawn around it's head.

"Hm, cool." He said softly. "Fifty times good luck. If only Joel would have found this." He flipped the coin up and then caught it, sticking it in his pocket.

* * *

On the way back home, Koji couldn't get the death of Joel out of his mind.

'I can't believe it!' He thought. 'No way! Joel had never, ever said anything! He wasn't even depressed! He had it going well! Rich family, great, loving parents. Geez! He would of grown up to be the 'Mr. Perfect' for some girl out there! Deep in thought about life, kind and gentle. My goddess! He was more kinder than I! All girls wanted him! Not only that, he was the truest friend I had ever had!'

No more than two years ago, in Koji's freshman year, he had joined the fledgling online-anime-life simulation still in its testing section of it's now long time line, called Cybril, and had gotten Joel as his next door neighbor. At first, they had no idea that they went to the same school. But after to getting to know each other on-line, they became great friends, and eventually found out that they knew each other because their identification names were their real names in life.

On Cybril, Koji's favorite after-school activity, started you off with a character of your design, and some money to strike out and find somewhere to live, and a map of the city. From there, you had to navigate the, at first, small town of Cybril, and get a job somewhere. However, the game grew from an anime roleplaying game to a veritible online world. Most people still try to act as an anime character would, being melodramatic and confrontational (peacefully and not) about everything, but it's a fading mentality. More and more people are just joining the game because it's so popular and easy to use. The user's character walks around in a 3D enviroment, something only new internet bandwidth technology and faster computers could achieve in the fifth year of two-thousand.

Koji arrived back at home and went inside quickly. Koji wasn't very adept to the cold weather yet, since he spent most of his time inside and not outside, thickening his blood to get used to the weather.

As he walked towards the den, he heard Misa and Faeryn at the end of the hall watching a movie.

Koji frowned. "Great studying!" He yelled aloud.

"Shut up dork! We're trying to watch Clueless!" Yelled Misa. "You know that this is my most favoritist movie ever! Now I'm gonna have to rewind it!"

"It's… Never mind." Koji was amazed that between his sister and he, there was such a difference in intelligence. She wasn't always like this.

"Kooo-jiiii!" Faeryn yelled. "Hey, come join us man! Come sit with me! You can stave off my boredom!"

"No way!" Shrieked Misa. "Don't you dare you dork!" She then looked at Faeryn. "What are you talking about? This is the best movie ever!"

Koji heard a scuffle, and Faeryn came around the corner with Misa dragging on the ground, hanging on one of Faeryn's legs. "Koji!" She beckoned at him to come over to her. "Come watch it with us!"

Koji looked at his pathetic sister acting like a baby, (almost) throwing a tantrum. 'To think that we are twins…' Koji thought.

"No!" Yelled Misa.

Koji felt his heart jump, but he knew he had more important stuff to do. At least, he thought so.

"Uh, gomen! Er, I mean, sorry, but I can't. I don't want to watch a mind degenerating movie like Clueless that encourages just that! To think that girls actually take it's social showing as a reality, instead of viewing it like the spoofs of a certain types of girls! I just… Don't care for the movie at all. You know, had it not been for movies like this, America would not have become all the more stuck up it already is?"

Faeryn busted out laughing as soon as Koji had finished. Then she barely stopped for a moment to say, "Yeah, really! Anyway, that's okay! Have fun doing what ever your gonna do!" She then immediately went back to laughing in Misa's face. "Ha haha haha ha! He totally ripped down your whole life and beliefs!"

Koji turned and went into the den.

Misa scoffed at the thought that Faeryn didn’t believe in life like how Clueless so well represented life as it was, or so she thought. "Um, Faeryn honey, stop. We have got to talk! I look up to this movie. It has lots of important life values that we can all cherrish!"

Faeryn looked saddly upon her. "Is that so?"

Misa, satisfied that she had turned her back to her ways, settled back down and played the movie. "Oh I'm so glad you see it my way…"

"Or the highway…" Faeryn mumbled.

Misa turned towards Faeryn. "Huh?"

Uh, I said, by the way…"

Back in the den, Koji took off his coat and threw it in the back corner. He laid his bag on the computer desk and then took the package out. He opened the package up and took out the cable line. He hooked up the cable line into the back of his computer and took the other end to the cable jack under the desk.

In less than a minute, he had it all set up. He excitedly rubbed his hands together and sat down in the fancy desk chair and looked upon the screen. He moved his mouse over to the 'retry' button on the error box that had popped up earlier.

'Okay,' he thought as he clicked the button. In a moment, another box came up saying he was now connected. He then clicked on his browser button and opened the program.

He set his homepage as the Cybril Gateway page, and went on.

His screen went blank. Instantly, the Cybril button popped up. A little text line read, "locating and executing program…"

"…"

"…"

"…found program. Initiating…"

"…"

"…"

"…started."

Then, the screen went blank, and the familiar opening of the came came onto the screen.

:WELCOME TO THE E-TOWN OF CYBRIL. PLEASE LOG ON...:

Koji typed in his ID and password.

:WELCOME KOJI, PART OF THE TEAM ROCKET OFFLINE GUILD, LOCATED IN SECTOR 2523.

YOUR CHARACTER IS CURRENTLY IN HIS APARTMENT:

Koji left home and hit the bars for the night…

* * *

Over an hour later, Koji came home from the bars. He had met a few people, but they had to go out of town, or go home to sleep (actually, going off line). He went back into his apartment, and relaxed.

"Hm," Koji thought. "I think I'd like a kitty…" Koji hit a few buttons, and ordered a female Norwiegen Forest cat, an elegant, long hair breed of cat. He chose a baby kitty that had a white face, and white tipped paws, with a mostly brown and black body.

"What the hell?" Koji looked dumb-foundedly at his computer. "That can't be possible!"

Koji ran out of his apartment and out into the hall. The hall light next to Joel's door was lit, signifying that he was now online.

He looked down at the familiar welcome mat, always saying the same thing; "Welcome all!"

"Hey Koji…" Came a voice from behind him

Koji swiveled around in his chair to see Faeryn. His face warmed noticeably as soon as he saw her. "Hey, um, whats up?"

Faeryn looked back towards the hallway. "Misa fell asleep during her 'favorite' movie. So I came in here out of boredom."

Koji simply nodded his head slowly.

Faeryn blushed. "Um, that came out bad. I meant, I didn't wanna be in there. I wanted to be in here."

Koji chuckled a bit. "That's my sister. All she ever does is sleep, hit on guys, and eat, a lot."

Faeryn laughed. Koji's body felt light a feather in her presence, and her light, musical laughter seemed to be the wind that pushed the feather teasingly through the air.

Faeryn then looked at him. Koji's face was turning bright red. "Um, Koji? Are you even breathing, are you alright?"

Koji felt like his face would melt off, and at the moment, it sounded better than letting his face burn up. But he was breathing quite well. "No, I, uh… I am."

Faeryn laughed. She popped a spot on the floor right in front of him. "Hey, come sit down here with me."

"Um, sure." Koji jumped down on the ground next to Faeryn.

She turned to him, once again, her bright green eyes looked into his. "Are you shy?"

He looked right back. "A little," he replied. "I'll be a lot better when I get to know you. But, around guys, I'm fine, but I tend to avoid the general population. No one respects me. When I was a kid, I was really weird. Really weird. I would just do random stuff, and people at first thought it was funny, but I guess they got tired of me. I never grew very much, so eventually, everyone just seemed to look right over me. I settled down, and once I found that almost no one like my presence, I just kinda decided to fade away. Into the background."

"Hey, being shy and all, you're pretty open." Faeryn smiled coyly at Koji, making him blush again.

"Yeah, I tend to do that. Think of how much would come out of my mouth if I was drunk. But I don’t drink…"

Faeryn laughed. "Yeah, I hate it when society decides to outcast those who aren't like everyone else. I think it's so dumb and narrow minded of them. For all they know, you could be the one for them. I choose not to judge anyone, for if I judge someone, I judge god, ya know?"

"Yeah man, I know what you mean. Is that why you are talking to me now?" Koji almost bit his tongue after he had said it, but afterwards, he didn't regret it, being bold.

"Naw." she smiled.

Koji looked at her confused, "What?"

"Well," she looked down, her cheeks blushing. "I just think… Oh this is so embarrasing!"

Koji laughed light-heartedly. "What? Is it what you think about me?"

Faeryn's lips were pressed together, trying to hold back a huge surge of embarrasment. A strange feeling both of them had never felt before pounded against their chests.

Koji thought about what to say. Something came to mind, but he held it back incase she said what she was going to say. However, she just looked at him, as if Koji was going to say something first.

"Well…" he choked. "If you tell me what you think about me, I'll tell you completely what I think about you…"

She looked up at him. "It's hard for me to say this. Well, I see you around at school all the time. I loved it when we had to sit next to each other in science. I loved having to do that huge project on the physics of a falling egg! I loved spending time with you! Even though you didn't speak that much, while I talked about everything under the sun, I got these silent messages from you, even from what little you did say, even when I heard you talking to a few people in the halls, accidentally. I've just come to feel that you're probably a great guy who deeply cares about people who are his friends, is loyal to a honest degree, and sensitive. Correct me if I'm wrong on any of these…"

"Um, I don't think you are…" Interuppted Koji.

"Okay, well, I just really want truly get to know you. Hang out with you, and learn about you, not from a distance, but from very close."

Koji felt a choking feeling in his chest. Tears came to his eyes.

"Oh my god!" She wiped away his tears with her hand as she felt tears fall gently down her face too.. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to make you cry!"

Koji laughed and then sniffed. "You're crying too!"

They then both laughed.

"Wow," she sighed. "We need to chill out."

"Faeryn," he started. She looked right at him, anxious yet patient to hear what he had to say. Koji cleared his eyes, and the tears stopped flowing. In but a second, he settled himself down and said, "Faeryn, you have just confirmed everything I thought you were. Everything."

"So, do you think me and you could go out sometime?" Faeryn asked, hopeful.

Koji smiled. "Yeah, definitely. That'd be awesome!."

Faeryn giggled. "Kewl!" They then both laughed.

Then Koji's face became serious. "But um, how come you stoop so low as to even talk with my sister?"

Faeryn smiled mischeviously. "Actually, in hope of seeing you."

"Really?" Koji asked in surprise.

"Yeah. Actually, I can barely stand her! She's really too flaky for me. But she gives me $20 to help tudor her. Can you guess in what?"

Koji sat for a moment and wondered, but he eventually gave up. "Actually, I have no idea."

"To teach her how to survive gym!"

Koji busted out laughing. "ARE YOU SERIOUS?!"

Faeryn started laughing too. "Yeah! She didn't even know how to do a pull up or a push up before she asked me for help!"

Koji fell over in laughter. "Oh goddess! That's too funny!"

"How come you say 'goddess'?" Faeryn asked.

Koji looked at her. "Because, I look up to the Japanese love goddess, and I always refer to her as like people refer to Jesus Christ. You know, 'oh my god!', 'Jesus Chris'. Stuff like that."

Faeryn giggled. "Is that from Japan?"

Koji smiled. "Yeah."

"Cool!"

"Sugoi."

Faeryn looked at Koji. "What?"

"Sugoi. It's awesome, or cool in Japanese."

"Really? What else do you know?" She asked.

But suddenly, a clock rung on the computer. It rang twelve times before it stopped.

"What? Twelve o'clock?" Faeryn looked up at the computer in amazement. "We've sat here a long time! But, um, I have to get going. At least it’s a Friday night, huh?"

They both laughed. "Yeah," Koji agreed.

Faeryn grabbed her coat and accessories from the closet, and Koji followed her. They walked to the door, and Koji opened the door for her. The cold winter night once again blew into the front hallway, just like earlier, except the night had a bite to it.

Faeryn, in her blue snowboard jacket, hat with little furry ears, and her fleece mittens, walked up to Koji and kissed him a final time. His body, for a moment, felt no coldness at all. He wrapped his arms around her, and she put her soft mittens on the cheeks of his face. They broke off their embrace, and Faeryn lightly touched his cheek with one glove. With her other hand, she handed him a piece of paper she had written her number down upon hours earlier while watching the movie. She patted his face and said, "You're so special Koji. Call me, okay?"

Koji grinned happily and took the piece of paper. "I'd be more than happy to," he said to her.

Koji decided to kiss her. He didn't care what happened afterwards. She would either hate him for the rest of his life, or embrace him by kissing back.

At first she did nothing. But after a second, she closed her eyes and kissed back as well as she could. Even though she always had guys after her, and that she was seventeen years old, she had never been kissed. This was her first kiss, with just who she had always wanted it to be.

After a moment, they stopped. They both sat there, red faced, looking at each other, smiling to no world's end.

"See ya Koji." She grinned more gayfuly than the joy of a puppy innocently playing with a ball.

Koji just kind of tried surpress a grin. It didn’t work very well. "See ya later."

And she then turned out the door and walked off to her cold car. Koji closed the door, and meandered back towards her computer.

Koji was basically in shell shock. "I… I can't believe that just happened!" His whole body felt tingly and fuzzy all over. He then realized he had been feeling that since he had kissed her. "Aw, man! Love better be worth it!"

He strode gayfully back into the den and plopped down on to the computer. He saw that Joel's lights were out. "Hm, that’s what I thought. Damn man! Why…"

As tradition, he always looked at Joel's place mat before he left.

:Koji looked down upon the place mat and saw that the message had changed.:

:It read; Mine dear dear Koji, time makes no waste, but haste, when it comes to love. But in this case, it be different. Strike out while you can, for it is love that can unwrap the twine of thine own heart.:

Koji stared at the computer. 'Could Joel have written that?' He thought. 'No, that’s impossible…' He sat back down and relaxed in the chair, thinking about the night. 'How can I feel so happy when Joel's dead?'

He looked down at the ground, and saw the box that the new Cybril software had come in. He saw a little sticker saying that a VR Helmet was included for free for buying this version of Cybril.

'Hey, I'd forgoten about that!" He reached down into the box and scooped out the second box inside the first one.

He opened it up and took everything out. It's sleek finished shined in the light, and it was surprisingly lighter than it looked. "Cool," he said in awe. "Well, lets hook you in."

Koji hooked the helmet into the special port on one of his cards in the back of the computer. He then heard a light mechanical whir come from the helmet, but it's sound faded away. He placed the helmet on and saw that he could see everything in windows as if he had a screen bigger than his field of vision.

"Wow." He then clicked on the Cybril icon. A text box popped up. "Are you connected to the internet? Make sure your machine is. Cybril requires an ongoing internet connection." Koji clicked on the 'yes' button.

Instantly, the screen went to the Cybril logo screen. He heard a faint whir from the helmet again. All of a sudden, the image flickered, and then, Koji saw it in it's three dimensional glory. "Dude, this is awesome!"

Suddenly, Koji felt something prick his temples, like a hair had been plucked from his head. "Ow, hey!" But the pain didn't stop. It felt like tons of hairs were being plucked. "Hey man!" Koji tried pulling the helmet off, but it felt like something had pierced his temples, and all it did was hurt to try to pull it off. He heard a faint roaring sound in the back of a mind, like a drill. "Ah… ah…" he groaned in pain. He tried to yell out to Misa to help him, but he found he couldn't talk. All that came out of his mouth was air.

'WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!?' He yelled in his mind. Now, it was a deafening roar, with a stream of pain crashing up against his head. 'No…' he thought. He then felt himself go limp in the chair. The Cybril logo faded out, and he thought no more.

* * *

He awoke on some ground. He felt the warm pavement against his face. His eyes fluttered open to a bright day. He heard the sharp call of a raven some where above him.

"What the?" Koji sat up and looked around. He was outside his apartment building in Cybril. The streets were crowded. A man passing by stopped.

"Hey man," the guy asked, sounding eerily human. "Are you okay?"

Koji shook his head and stood up. "Yeah man, I'm cool. I guess my program went buggy for some reason and brought me in on the ground or something…"

The man shook his head. "Yeah, that’s weird. Well, if your okay, I'll see ya man."

"Bye." Koji looked around, seeing rendered perfection. "My goddess, everything looks real!" He looked down at his hands. He saw the little hairs adorning the back of his hand, and a little scar on the right of his left pointer finger. "Hey, I got that the first time I played with a knife." Koji was ammazed at the detail the system showed. 'How did it know I had a scar? But I look like my online alias..."

He started walking into his apartment. "Cool..."

He unlocked his apartment, and walked into the room. He saw his kitty he had ordered. "Hey, my cats here!"

Koji plopped down into the couch and relaxed into the gentle leather. "Dude! I can actually feel the couch! This is amazing!"

The cyber cat meowed softly, and jumped up onto Koji's lap. He put out his hand, and the cat sniffed it tenderly, and then rubbed it's mouth against Koji's hand, putting her scent on him.

Koji petted it's silky fur, scratching it's back. "Wow, you're soft kitty!" Koji went on petting the cat. "You know what? You don't have a name. I think I'll call you, Akuma. Yeah, Akuma-chan!"

The kitty meowed in response, and curled up on Koji's lap.

He then wondered oh so briefly, 'I wonder if I can get out of here?"

* * *

Faeryn knocked on the door of Koji's house. She watched her frozen breath blow out in heavy clouds in front of her. She rubbed her mittens together to warm her hands, and bounced up and down. "Where the hell is he? KOJI! MISA!" She yelled. He banged on the door once again, and the door opened. She walked in slowly, wiping her feet on the entrance rug.

"Hey Mis..." She started, but a sleepy-eyed Misa was walking towards her.

"Hey, why are you making so much racket? You scared me awake."

"Oh, sorry." Faeryn laughed a little.

"What's wrong?" Misa asked. She looked at her watch. "God, it's late. How long was I asleep?"

"I dunno. Um, my car broke down. Can you give me a ride?"

"Uh, I don't have my license. You'll have to get Koji to drive you home."

"You don't think he's asleep yet do you?" Faeryn asked. It was late, and she thought that in the twenty minutes it took her to figure out her car wasn't going to start, let alone go anywhere, he'd be in his room and asleep. She wondered what he sleeped in...

"Naw. He's probably in the loser game Crybil, or something."

"Dude," Faeryn laughed. "That game is awesome! I play it all the time!"

Misa raised an eyebrow. "Right... You're almost cool!" Misa gave her a thumbs up and then turned to go upstairs to her bed. She rubbed her neck, sore from her uncomfortable position against the couch in the living room.

Faeryn shook her head. "I should make her pay $30 from now on..."

She walked towards the den and found it closed. She opened the door and called his name. "Koji..."

She came into the den and found him slouched in his chair, a VR Helmet for Cybril on his head.

"Oh my god! It's one of those Inextech helmets! It can't be the one Joel told me about..."

She saw a line of dried blood on his cheek coming from his temple, and she gasped. "No way! SHIT!" Faeryn ran to the den door. "MISAAA! COME DOWN HERE, QUICK! KOJI'S IN TROUBLE!"

She ran back towards Koji. She danced about, struggling to try to think of what to do.

"Crap!" As Misa came into the room, Faeryn attempted to press the power button on the top of the helmet. However, she heard a momentary whir sound and then a thick metal spine shot out of a storage hole next to the power button. The thick metal rod, about as wide as a pencil, shot through her hand. A little blood splattered onto her face. Immediately, her hand started bleeding.

"Oh my god!" Misa yelled. She ran to Faeryn's side and stared at the piece of metal half sticking out of the back of her hand, and the other half sticking out of her palm.

"Aw! Hell, that hurts!" Faeryn went on a swearing tangent while Misa tried to calm her down.

After a short moment, Faeryn started feeling strange as waves of adrenaline swept through her body. She boldly grabbed at the spine and started pulling it out. Pain shot through her hand, although dulled by the adrenaline going through her body, but still painful.

Her skin bowed around the metal spine as she pulled out the sharp object. As she pulled it out, she felt as if the spine was pulling every bit of the insides of her hand with it. She breathed hard in pain, and finally, it came out. She stared at the bloody, extra wave capacitor that had been store in the helmet incase of repair by a proffesional. She gritted her teeth as she felt warm blood snaking down her palm, and down her wrist. She angrily threw the metal spine into the corner, and looked to Misa. Misa had been shocked into silence.

"Please go get me a towel to wrap this in." Misa turned quickly on her heels and ran towards the kitchen. Faeryn could feel her blood pulsing out of her wound with each beat of her heart. She quickly decided to take her own shirt and press it against the two holes in her hand. It helped stop the bleeding a little. She applied as much pressure as she could to the wound, ignoring the gut wrenching pain as she did so.

Misa returned with a towel, and Faeryn quickly started wrapping it. She spoke as she wrapped her hand. "The helmet must have a sub-routine that defends its self during its activities. They must not want him to leave. Damn! I hate these things! I had no idea that Koji had one of these things other wise I would have warned him. But at first, I didn’t believe what Joel had said about this yesterday."

"B-but, Joel has been dead for a week. Didn't you know that he killed himself or something?"

"I know. He told me yesterday on Cybril."

"What? How?" Misa's head was spining.

Faeryn looked at the unconscious Koji. "Well, a secondary corporation named Inextech made the VR Helmet for Cybril Inc., the people who put this game out. But in some of the helmets, they put special devices and transmitters in it to copy the users brain, and store it somewhere in a huge hard drive. And then, they get rid of the evidence. Joel was one of them. He's now stuck somewhere online, and is now basically an automaton. He's a limited program now, with nothing to allow his program to redefine its self. He can't grow mentally. He's like a robot."

"Then what's the point of copying the people then?"

"I don’t know. All I know, is that Koji is gonna die if I can't get him outta there!"

"How in the hell are you gonna do that?!" Misa yelled.

"Calm down!" Faeryn yelled back. "I can go home and go on Cybril and save him."

"But your car is broke down!"

Faeryn walked over to Koji. "Sorry," she whispered. She fished into his pocket, and grabbed whatever looked like keys. She found them, and then ran back to Misa.

"Which one is the keys to his car?"

"What?! Your gonna use his car?"

"WHICH ONE?" Faeryn yelled.

She jumped a little, and then nervously looked at the keys. She pointed at one with a Chrystler symbol on top. "Um, that one I think, I don't know! He has a Chrystler, and that’s the only chrystler key there is!"

Faeryn gasped and said, "Look, you can think!" She then ran out the door and back into the bitting cold.

* * *

Koji sat in a bar, talking with a large group of beautiful women.

"Yeah, I'm a new CEO at the online Cyrbril Corp. here in town. Soon, I'm going to be moving out of my apartment, and into a small house," Koji gloated.

"Wow, that's cool!" Said one girl.

"I want you now!" Said another.

"Hey, you're really lucky to get that job!" Yet another said.

"Can we go out sometime?"

"Whoa, whoa!" Koji waved his hands to quell the girl's constant questions. One at a time!"

‘Wow, this is great!’ Koji thought. ‘They all love me! Who needs the real world? All I have to do is eat in the real world, and then live the rest of my life here!’ Koji felt great at this appifiny. All thought of Faeryn had dissapeared from his mind, including the painful ride he came in on in order to get here.

Their chatting continued until Koji was just alone with one brunette, half an hour later.

"Yeah, in the real world, I’m not well liked for some reason. No one will give me the time or chance to get to know me. No one cares! They’re too set in their ways to even think about getting to know anyone else outside their group, their little world. This place! In this place, amlost no one prejudges you because they have no idea who are. They don’t know you from atom!" Koji said.

"Exactly, but you still have to live in the real world. You can’t run away..." Her virtual body started fading away. "Wh—t the?" Her voice faded in and out, and a look of surprise took to her face.

"What? Hey, who invited me here?" Koji asked aloud. He hoped that this wasn’t a prank; someone calling a person in to a room and then leaving before the other person comes in. It was a big annoyance if you were talking to someone important.

"I did," came a voice.

Koji turned around to see Faeryn. "Oh, hey! You’re online now? I didn’t hear ya come on."

"I had to come in in stealth mode. Anyway, Koji, did you read the instructions on the helmet?" She crossed her arms and waited for an answer.

"Uh, no. Whoops." Koji felt really dumb. "Was there anything important on it?"

"Yeah, like having to need a second person disengage you from it in case you needed to get off?"

He looked down. "Oh, really? Whoops. So, will you ask Misa to..."

"...Get it off you?" She finished. "I tried, and I got a pencil-like capacitor shot through my hand."

"What? You did?" Koji asked.

She nodded her head.

"Dude, are you okay."

"Yeah, I’ll be fine, but you may not be."

"Why?"

"Because it’s gonna kill you. Right now, it’s copying your brain information, and after wards it’s gonna kill you!"

Koji felt his heart shatter. "Wha...? No way!"

"That’s how Joel died! He didn’t kill himself! He was killed by the VR Helmet! He told me!"

Suddenly, Koji remembered the sharp pain of the needles digging into his head, the roar of the drill in his ears.

He grabbed his head and gasped in pain.

"Koji? Hey, are you alright?!" Faeryn ran to him.

Koji stood back up and shook it off. "I remember what it did to me!"

"Koji, I think it’s done! I think it’s trying to kill you off now!"

Another stake went through his heart.

"Koji, you have to mentally push away the machine! It’s in your mind, and on your grounds! Push it out! If you don’t it’ll kill you!"

Suddenly, a faded image of Joel appeared. "It’s all true Koji, but life is so b-better here!" his voice called, echoing. "Just like the rest of us. Just like the re-rest of-of u-u-us…" his voice flickered off, and then he looked up at something unseen, and then dissapeared.

"Koji!" Faeryn yelled. "You’ll become an automaton! A program! You know they can’t truly copy someone’s essence! Their soul! You’ve told me in science class that it can’t be done!"

"W-well," Koji stammered. "Maybe they can now." His gut was doing flips.

"No!" Faeryn grabbed Koji and gave him a light shake. "Koji, don’t give up on life. Don’t give up on US! On ME! I love you!"

Faeryn and Koji both stared at each other, shocked that she had said that.

"Faeryn..."

"...Koji! Please! To live a perfect life would be pointless! With nothing different or ever wrong, or nothing ever happening in your life, which a utopia like this would give you, you wouldn't really be living! You'd just be going through the motions of life..."

"...Faeryn..." Koji's voice cracked.

"... Life is not life if you don't live it, which means new experiences every day! Happy moments, hard times! All this defines life and you! You need to have your own unique timeline of experiences, not all the same thing over and over, like here! You'd lose what makes you, you! You'd even lose your real self and become caught up in your mask of a life!"

Koji smiled weakly. "Faeryn, I'll come back with you!" Koji hugged Faeryn, and then said, "I... will... Faeryn..."

Suddenly, Koji's legs turned to rubber. He slipped out of Faeryn's arms, and he fell to the ground.

"Koji!?" She yelled. "Koji, no! It can't be too late!"

Faeryn kneeled down and laid Koji in her lap.

She stroked his rough, unshaven cheeks as his eyes randomly wandered and he mumbled nonsensical nothings.

Koji shook violently where he had lain limp in the chair in front of the desk. Misa quickly kneeled down beside him.

"Koji!" She yelled.

Koji sat in pure darkness. He felt immensely pressed on all sides by the darkness that surrounded him. He struggled to push it away, to stand up and embrace reality again. However, the darkness pulsated against Koji, each beat seemingly pushing him farther back down than he had originally pushed up.

"N-no!" He yelled. "This can't be happening! Where am I?" Koji grunted under the stress of the darkness. "How can I fight this? How!?" He yelled.

Somewhere off in the distance, he heard a voice. A woman's voice. Faeryn's voice.

He slowly turned to where he had heard her voice come from.

"Faeryn..." He whispered to himself. He just felt like falling down, succuming to the darkness to let it crush him in it's emptiness. But Faery kept on coming to his mind, the only thing keeping him from collapsing.

He barely stood up and started trudging his way through the immense darkness, heading towards where he heard Faeryn calling.

It became harder and harder to move forward the more he moved on. But a mere thought of Faeryn gave him more strength. 'And I still have to get to know her,' he thought.

Koji started to shake upon Faeryn's lap. She watched powerless from her computer monitor as she saw Koji dying in her lap.

Faeryn gently kissed the cheek of the shaking Koji, and caressed his face with her soft fingers.

As Koji struggled to walk towards her ever growing voice, he felt something, like an apparition, caressing his face.

He fell backwards a bit, a little taken off guard by the touch. Suddenly, he felt a little warmer. He concentrated on this feeling and kept walking upwards.

Misa shook Koji. "C'mon man! Snap out of it, you idiot! It's just like you to have something stupid happen to you like this! Damn it, c'mon man!" She sobbed over the limp body of Koji.

Koji came to a bright wall. 'What's this?' He then pressed against the wall. A shock shot through his bones, bouncing around and around until it finally faded away. He then started pounding on the wall, each blow hurting more and more.

"Noooo!" Boomed a deep voice.

'What the?' Koji thought.

"You will not escape this, boy!"

"What are you?!" Yelled Koji.

"I am the piece of hardware you put on your head. Right now, you lay dying where ever you were, and you will die."

"Yeah right! I'm gonna wake up and sue Inextech's asses for all the money they've got!"

The voice said nothing for a moment, as if processing what Koji had said.

"That is why you must die. We appreciate your donation to science. It's sad that my programmers didn't allow your contributions to the greater knowledge be known. I do not know their intentions."

Koji started glowing. "There's no way you can stop me!"

~ Something in his brain clicked ~

He started pounding on the bright wall again, and each time, it hurt more and more, but Koji noticed cracks. The more pain he took, the harder he punched. Soon, it all became a blur and all the pain he was taking as he thunderously and speedily pounded at the wall. It was out of his mind now.

After a head-sized hole had appeared, he started pulling at the brick, taking massive chunks out of it, each time, still taking pain, almost being electrocuted.

After a sizeable hole had appeared, Koji was blown back as reality came streaming into the void...

Misa blankly stared at Koji. "Where is mom and dad?" She rasped, her voice harsh from constant yelling. She glanced at her brother and then put a hand on his shoulder. "C'mon man…"

Suddenly, Koji started glowing blue. His body pulsaded slowly, as if with his heartbeats.

Misa stood up, in shock. "What the hell?"

Suddenly, a bright light eminated from the gear on Koji's head. A loud, thunderous boom was heard, and Misa felt something smack into her forehead. She stumbled back, and then lost her balance, falling. She fell unconscious.

~ Next door, a neighbor called 911, wondering about the loud explosion heard. ~

Faeryn was hunched over Koji. She sniffled once and a while. Then, she felt something stir under her.

"Koji?!" She sat up and looked down upon the boy.

His eyes fluttered open. "Wha? Faeryn?"

"KOJI!" She yelled. "You're awake!!"

Faeryn's eyes exploded into tears. "Koji!!! You're okay!"

"Hm, yeah." He looked about, somewhat dazed by the light.

"I'm gonna log off and go get you at your home, okay?"

Koji cracked a smile. "Cool."

Faeryn dissapeared, and Koji sat up. He looked around for a moment, but then, he felt a huge force mentally pull him back down. After his momentary resurrection, he inevetably fell back into the darkness. He kept tumbling and falling and tumbling...

Faeryn arrived at Koji's house to see police and two ambulences in front of Koji's house. She brought Koji's car to a screeching halt.

"What the?" She flung open the door and ran up to the house.

A police man stopped her. "I'm sorry ma'am..."

"...Where is Koji?! What did you do with him! Did you disconnect him properly?! Tell me!"

"Please settle down miss."

"Tell me! He's my... my boyfriend!"

"I don't know ma'am. You might want to check the ambulence over there. I think they were taking a boy."

"Thanks," she yelled as she ran over to that ambulence. Sure enough, she saw the lanky, unconscious body of Koji carefully secured to a stretcher being put into the ambulence.

"Hey, can I ride to the hospital with him? It's my boyfriend," she pleaded to one of the medics. It was a little easier to say 'boyfriend' this time.

"Well, okay. Hop in, but don’t get in our way."

She got in with the two medics, and the ambulence took off.

"Did you guys disconnect him?" she asked.

"What?"

"What do you mean?"

"He was connected to an online game, and a device he was using was dysfunctional, and it was killing him. I was watching it online!"

"What? Were you guys on Cybril?" Asked one medic.

"Yeah!"

"Hm, well, you won't be seeing it anymore in a couple of days. I guess the company who made special 3D hardware for the game also included a secret and illegal experiment in the hardware. Inextech and Cybril are being sued for tons of money. Why? Was he one of those people who had the 3D things?"

"Yeah," answered Faeryn.

The two men looked at each other as they worked on Koji. "We thought so, but we didn’t know. We saw an exploded 3D headset all over the room he and the girl were in. He's lucky to have survived. Most of the people who have these things die from a toxin that is released into the body after its done doing what it does."

The other man checked Koji's pulse. "I heard that Inextech wanted to use the copied people to hack into huge corporations and rule the world."

The first man looked at the other funny. "Dude, I could see that in a movie, but not in real life. But I have to admit, I have no idea what those kids were seeing, or what the purpose of killing these kids for was."
"Pulse is normal," said the other medic. "He seems like he is just unconscious, and nothing else. But we won't know until the hospital does tests. He should be fine, miss."

Faeryn looked up at him from staring at Koji. She sighed. "I hope to goddess..."

* * *

Misa had checked-out okay with just a minor concussion and a large, red welt on her forehead from where the chuck of metal had hit her head.

Koji, however, was a different case.

After hours of studying and tests, a dark haired doctor came out to talk to the waiting parents and Faeryn.

"Are you Koji Ishinuba's parents?" He asked the two adults.

"Yes," answered Koji's mother, Hana. "How is he?"

"Well, I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that Koji is in a coma."

Koji's mother bursted into tears. Yoshi, Koji's father, stared at the doctor in wide eyed horror. Faeryn gasped.

"The good news," the doctor continued. "Is that he should only temporarily be in the coma. He could remain comatose from a few days, to a few months, and with a small possibility always lingering in the back ground, never."

Koji's mother turned and burried her head in her husbands chest.

"Hey, um," Faeryn started. The doctor looked at her. "Can I, um, go see him? I'm his girlfriend."

Koji's father looked at her strangely. "Of course you can Faeryn. Go ahead doctor."

The doctor simply nodded his head and said, "This way please."

Faeryn hastily followed the doctor. As they quickly walked off, Koji's father weakly smiled.

"Well," he started. "At least Koji has great taste in woman! And here I thought he was gay..."

Before he could continue any farther, his wife slugged him in the kidneys.

"Yoshiyaki!" She yelled between sobs. "How dare you say, let alone think such a thing!"

Yoshi hopped around in pain. She hadn't hit him very hard, but an ill-feeling pain crept around his sides, towards his stomach.

Faeryn sat beside Koji, holding his hand. She had just got off the room phone line asking her parents if she could stay the night with Koji. They had given her the okay, and a nurse had piled up pillows and blankets beside her reclining chair.

Being cold in the hospital, she had donned her fleece mittens. She massaged one hand with one glove, tears streaming down her eyes.

"Damn it Koji, you have to pull through this so we can get to love one another! We have to! Please?" She paused for a moment as if he would reply, miraclously coming out of his coma. But no such thing happened. He still sat there, motionless, the only sound to comfort her was the electronic beat that kept an eye on his breathing and heartbeating.

"Never mind." She voice shook. "Don’t worry." Tears came to her eyes. "I won't even look at any other guys besides you until you come to again. I will wait until you awaken, even if it takes years. Even if I'm a lonely old maid! Even if you never awaken, I will see you in death! I am eternally yours!" She pledged, and she burried her head in her arms upon his chest, sobbing. A tightness pulled at her throat. Her outpour of emotions seemed to never stop. Old ladies walked by, shaking their heads a such a tragedy. Children wondered why the girl cried, and others wondered, but never put much thought to it because their life emergencies, or not, demanded them to ignore and not really care that much about the red headed girls problems.

As she finally cried herself to sleep, any passing visitors to other patients could recognize the scene from the fair city of Verona of when Romeo had taken his life, and then Juliet in turn. They both lied there, motionless. The only, and big, difference was that someday. Someday, her Romeo would awaken, finally unwrapping the twine of his own heart, letting a light air in named Faeryn, like he had never let any other do.