Into the Metaverse

Friday 22nd April

Haruto tried to ignore how his already sore arm only got sorer as he stepped into the cold lab.

"Ah," said Wakaba, smiling at him as she looked up from her computer screen, "decided to change your mind, have you?"

"This had better not be a trap," said Haruto, carefully putting down his bag on one of the empty chairs, careful not to strain his arm as he did.

Wakaba clicked her tongue. "So distrustful! You're worse than Sojiro."

"Got a lot to lose," said Haruto, giving her a half-smile. "I can't accept anything less."

"I understand," said Wakaba, her expression growing serious. "Are you sure it's wise to re-enter so soon? Your arm…"

"It's practically half-healed already," said Haruto, which was true enough. The doctor had done a good job stitching him up. "And besides, I know to be careful now."

Wakaba nodded, rising from her seat. "In that case, sit down while I get everything ready—this will take a moment to set-up."

Haruto did as he was told and watched with interest as Wakaba began to get out various bits of machinery and start plugging them in and wiring them up.

"Oh, I suppose I should have asked this sooner, but now will have to do," she said, winding the crank on a very ominous-looking machine. "When you go to the cognitive world, do you do it physically or mentally?"

"Physically," said Haruto. "I disappear from this world when I enter that one."

"Interesting," she huffed, dragging a heavy-looking square pad into the centre of the room. "Do you think if you died in there your body would be stuck there—or would it materialise in this world?"

"A bit dark, don't you think?"

"Just wondering."

He could appreciate such questions, of course. It was one of the things he'd have wondered about before the question resolved itself.

"My body would stay there. If I died."

Wakaba shot him a look out of the corner of her eye. He hadn't said it explicitly, but she was definitely smart enough to pick up on the implication.

"You can't afford to be that reckless this time, Haruto."

"I know," he said.

"Good."

Haruto took another look around the lab as Wakaba flicked various switches and tuned different dials. It wasn't long before he spotted what he was looking for.

"So do you have free reign on the security cameras on Fridays or…?"

Wakaba chuckled, finally turning to face him again. "Ah, sharp boy—not quite. I suspected you might be coming in so I took the opportunity earlier this week to loop some footage of other experiments I've done back through the feed. No one's looking at them—this place is pretty empty on a Friday, but I'd never take such a risk where you were involved."

It was… oddly touching to hear her say as much. He'd always gotten the impression that Wakaba was less sold on him than Futaba and Sojiro, and her attempted blackmail had only worsened that impression—but it seemed she hadn't been quite as sincere as she'd claimed.

"That's… good," he said, trying to hide the flush he knew was rising to his cheeks.

"Silly boy," said Wakaba, shaking her head fondly. "Come over here, let's get you wired up."

He got up and walked over, sincerely hoping that whatever 'wiring up' entailed, it wasn't as ominous as it sounded. It was quite a relief therefore, when Wakaba simply opened up a cupboard and retrieved two cylindrical plastic-looking things and placed them on the side.

"Arms out," she said, and he dutifully raised them for her.

She rolled up his sleeves and briefly felt his pulse in both wrists. It felt oddly like being examined by Takemi Tae. Albeit, possibly even more illegal.

"Alright, that should be fine," she said, before retrieving one of the cylinders and ripping open the velcro along one-side, revealing a series of wires underneath. "Now, I'm going to put these on both your wrists," she said, "it'll allow me to track your blood pressure, brain waves and general location while you're in the cognitive world. Hopefully."

"Hopefully?" asked Haruto.

"Unfortunately until now I haven't been able to find a way to access the cognitive world itself to test them out, but with you here that shouldn't be a problem. According to all my preliminary tests though, it should work just fine in the cognitive world."

That was all well and good, but Haruto knew full-well that unless he was also convinced they were going to work in the cognitive world, they wouldn't do anything. In fact, he might actually break them, if he wasn't careful. And he didn't want that.

"Go ahead and put it on," he said, hoping that feeling it might induce a bit more confidence in him that they were going to work.

Wakaba dutifully wound it around his lower arm, and velcro-ed it tight.

Oh God that was cold!

"Oh yeah, the wires will be pretty chilly," said Wakaba, chuckling. "They have been lying around in here for a while now."

"Ugh…" muttered Haruto.

"Don't worry," she said, reaching for the other monitor, "once they warm up the electrics will start firing properly so you'll get used to them pretty quickly."

"Great," muttered Haruto, as Wakaba strapped on the other monitor.

"Now you be careful with that arm while you're in there," she said, giving his right upper arm a nasty look. "I don't want you to have to end up in hospital again."

"Understood," said Haruto.

Wakaba was right about the monitors—they were quickly neutralising to his skin temperature, and he was pretty sure that by the time he got into the Metaverse he wouldn't notice them at all. In that case they probably would end up working. Which was something, at least.

"Now then," said Wakaba, ushering him over to the flat, square-shaped device now sitting in the centre of the room. It was glowing a peculiar green colour. "If you step onto that, I can map you onto my system."

"Okay…" said Haruto, uncertainly stepping onto it. It didn't feel strange. Yet.

Then the system flicked on, and he was blinded by waves of green light.

"Don't panic," said Wakaba. "It's just measuring you."

"Right," said Haruto.

He really shouldn't be unnerved by this sort of stuff. He went into the Metaverse almost every day back in Itoiyama—he had no reason to be afraid of some machine.

…He really hated that green light though.

After what felt like an hour, but in reality had probably been more like five minutes, the machine gave a loud beep and the disturbing lights vanished.

"All done," said Wakaba, typing something into her keyboard.

"What happens now?" asked Haruto, sincerely hoping it involved stepping off the platform.

"Well, I have you all logged in, and the programme's all running so… I suppose you're free to go!" she said, grinning at him.

Haruto stared at her. "You mean… just like that?"

"Just like that," said Wakaba. "I must admit, I'm curious to find out how you get into the cognitive world. I haven't been able to research that aspect of it thanks to… logistical difficulties."

In other words, she didn't want Shido finding his way in. An excellent decision.

"I'm afraid it might be more anti-climatic than you were expecting," said Haruto, stepping off the platform and beginning to shift his focus.

"Oh?" said Wakaba.

"Well, there are a couple of ways to get in, but there's only one I use now," he said, extending his fingers and concentrating on the air around him, feeling for that ever-so-familiar spark. "The others are just too… inconvenient."

Wakaba probably said something in response, but Haruto wasn't listening. There were lots of potential flashpoints in this room—far more than he was used to, in fact. It seemed that just by researching the Metaverse, Wakaba had grown far closer to entering it than she might ever have realised. The easiest one to use would be directly in front of him, right in line with his eyes.

He reached up, letting the strange feel of a pinprick in the fabric of the universe ghost over his fingertips, the odd energy of the Metaverse calling out to him, even through this tiniest of cracks. He let it equalise for a second—this was the crucial moment—half in reality, half not—any error now could trap him between dimensions. But the Metaverse was drawn to him, reached for him, gave him the handhold he needed to pull himself through fully to the other side.

And there he was.

He hadn't mentioned as much to Wakaba, not wanting to alarm her, but manifesting in her lab was quite dangerous… being as that was where her Palace was located and all. Fortunately he wasn't too deep inside—which was just as well because the last thing he wanted was her working out what it was.

He quickly hurried out of the room, past the ominous bars and dodging nimbly around the guards patrolling the hallways.

The only good thing about her Palace was that the guards weren't usually particularly interested in him, thanks to the nature of her distortion. Whether that would last now they were working together… Well. He'd have to wait and see.

Soon he was out of the Palace and back on the reassuringly stable streets of Tokyo, inhabited by a multitude of Shadows, slipping in and out of the darkness. He vastly preferred this Tokyo to the real one, but he didn't have time to loiter. The point of this was to see if infiltrating Shido's Palace would be easier with backup. So it was back to the miserable cruise ship he went.

Hopefully it would go better this time.