Part 2: Eyes in Eyes

Part 2-Eyes in Eyes





SFX: Computer Noises

Not being able to see it even though it's watching me; what a weird concept.

For as long as I can remember, there have been countless instances of me sensing a "gaze" from who knows where.

Even if I turn around, there's no one there. But I'm always convinced that someone had in fact been watching me.

A chilly sensation at the back of your neck.

Is that just what's called being too self-conscious?

Or else, a phobia of being watched?

Until I reached middle school, "Surely God is watching over me." That's seriously what I thought.

An essay I wrote around the same time centered around that kind of theme.

Of course, thinking back on it now, I was a kid and overly full of myself no matter how you look at it. That really stings.

If somebody else happened to read it now, I'd shut myself up for the rest of my life.

Hehehe.

I still remember the title of the essay.



Whose eyes are those eyes?


"Don't look at me"

Fed up, I murmered that as I looked up at the gloomy ceiling. Of course, there wasn't any answer.

This is my room. I live by myself.

There isn't a single human being in this room besides me.

I tried turning around.

He turns and looks behind him.



He turns back...



giving a glimpse of a figurine shelf as he does. See how many you can recognise!



The room doesn't have any windows, so it's dark to begin with.

There's absolutely no way to tell what it's like outside. There's no way to tell if it's noon or night.



"My name is Nishijou Takumi, 17 years old. I am a second year at Suimei Academy. But the truth is I really don't go to school that much."
"Grades have never been a problem for me. I always take the midterms and finals, and I get pretty good marks on them. You could call me pretty smart."

It wasn't as if yelling out was going to make anything happen. No one would come running.

The darkness just went on being there in the form of darkness.

But the dark arouses peoples fantasies as well as nightmares.
Something that can't be seen is ultimately something unknown.

Even if you know it's impossible, you can't help but wonder if maybe something might be lurking out there.

Dammit, I have this habit of unintentionally exacerbating my own paranoia....

As though to break away from that, I continue my speech.








The Shibuya 107 in better times than we saw it last





The blue text is a TIP. TIPS are terms that are explained in more detail in the glossary. For example:
Unfortunately, the process of translating Chaos;Head has taken quite some doing, and most peoples efforts are focused on getting the NoAH remake translated and playable. The end result is that while the story for the original Chaos;Head is well translated, little time was spared for the TIPS. Many are entirely untranslated. I will transcribe every translated TIP as we encounter them, but the untranslated ones will be left out. Now, to continue on...

It's official title is "Empire Sweeper Online."

I enter Baselard-that's the name of the world in ESO-pretty much every day, to the point of depriving myself of sleep.
Deans Valley is the name of an area that appears in ESO, and only aggravating monsters show up there.
For all that they come at you with sickening special attacks, they don't drop any good items.

The guys who hunt in Deans Valley are idiots.
Upper-level players quickly call it quits and head into the nearby Liate forest.

Naturally, I did the same.




"But this room brings it down to a level I can handle. That's because it has a top-of-the-line computer and blazing internet connection. Well, it kind of makes a first-class place for a student. So I call it my base."

Nothing but me ever moves in the room.

Becoming aware of how dumb it was to go on talking to myself, I decided to stop my little self-introduction for "whoever was watching me".



The room smelled of something rotting. I could feel the stagnancy of the air on my skin.

Empty plastic bottles and the containers of already-eaten convenience store lunches lay scattered across the floor.

There were ero-game packages piled on top of the bed. Thanks to them, I ended up sleeping on the sofa mostly.

"I should really clean up the place. Who the hell would leave such a-? Oh yeah, that'd be me.







I couldn't let any harm come to my nearly 100+ brides, sisters, and daughters. These girls are the precious existence that heals my heart.

It's their shelf alone that I make sure to tidy up once a week.

I investigate things like the angles from which they look the cutest and where they should stand on a daily basis. And, not wanting my darling big sisters and daughters to get dirty, I never neglect to dust them.



My personal computer is enshrined at the farthest-back part of the room.




"Seira, Seira, you're so cute."

Murmuring that after meeting her eyes, I grabbed a bottle of cola from beside my computer and drank it down. It was lukewarm, but I didn't really care.

"All right, gotta get back to ESO-ing."

Settling down in my chair, I put both hands to the keyboard. It's the only thing that calms me down.




Obviously, he's currently at the max level, 50. It's the highest rank you can get in any of the valid servers. Most people recognize me just from the nickname "Neidhardt der Blitzschnelle".

They all treat me like a god.

I've completed all the rare weapons, rare armor and rare magic. My rare items completion percentage is 95%... Well, it's a bit of an uphill battle.

I could never use all the moneypoints I have. Since I make pocket money through RMT-Real Money Trade-I could live like this for half a year without needing to do any part-time work.




I take care of all my basic communication this way.

I've even helped other players out at the huge, anonymous message board "@channel." I participate in epic threads a lot, too.

Oh yeah, that's right; in "Furepara"-a social networking service, you know-my friends list passed the 100-person mark ages ago.





It's not that I don't want to go, it's that there's no point to going.

I can get all my studying done online. Studying at home is enough.

But it seems that you've gotta have this thing called sufficient credits to graduate, so I spend the absolute minimum amount of time at school that I have to go. That's the smartest way to survive as a student.

The parents always complain about it.



According to the chart, if I go 2.5 times a week I'll be fine.

The guys who go to school everyday call me an otaku freak and look down on me, but from my perspective, the ones who stop thinking for themselves and just go to school as they're told are the real morons.

-In any case, my lifestyle here ain't so bad.




Grim's a friend I always team up with in ESO. We've never met IRL, but we always talk online.
On top of that, Grim brings me all kinds of valuable news. He's almost like some sort of information broker.
Seated in my chair, I started typing.


Grim and I talk about everything. We're not face to face, so I feel at ease talking about almost anything.
But in real life... that's not the case.





And with that, we reach the first choice in the game. Unlike the majority of choices in this game, this choice has multiple components to it. Thus, to avoid bogging the thread down with votes on individual questions, I have created a poll. It is located in the link below, and will run for a total of 20 hours. I'll have something ready soon after results come in. See you then!


Decide Takumi's tastes here!