Chapter 54: Chapter 54: Send a Message

Hakuta sat alone in front of the computer in his room. Many things ran through his mind as he stared at the screen, preparing himself for what he was about to do. One of the things that may run through the mind of someone who wasn’t him would be how someone who used to be poor like him now was the owner of a computer.

The answer to that was simple. His and Shiuka’s dads had gotten back from yet another adventure doing whatever it was they did on these expeditions. As usual, even though this would only be the second time they had done this, the pair had returned with many gains in terms of treasure.

This meant a lot of money had come along their way again. Of course the boss, AKA Shiuka’s father got most of the money. He was the one financing all these trips anyway, so it was only fair. But Hakuta’s dad was able to get plenty of money for himself and his son as well.

He gave Hakuta a bunch of money with a new bank account and told him to spend it wisely while he left for another adventure. So the young boy did the one things he knew that was responsible. This being to purchase a computer for the main purpose of playing video games. Only now he was able to do it in private.

Just gaming, for the record, nothing else.

Yet here he sat, waiting deeply in thought as he logged into his main gaming account. There was only one goal in mind he had as he stared at the bright screen. The tool needed to complete this goal was on his desk. The scrap of paper handed to him by the masked person back during the gaming tournament.

It had that person’s username. The identity they were known with in the online gaming sphere. He took a deep breath as he searched up the username and sure enough it loaded onto his screen. Now all he needed to do was simply send a friend request and proceed to wait until they hopefully accepted it.

Hakuta had no way of knowing when they would accept it. A part of him thought deep inside that perhaps it could even be a fake username. That this wasn’t the same person that he had met then. If this were the case, then a rejection was on the cards.

He shook his head physically in an attempt to shake out the bad thoughts. He was overthinking the matter. It was simply another case of him being stressed out about what someone else thought of him. Perhaps because for once he actually wanted that person to become his friend.

That was a rare occurrence in his life. Not that he hated people, but Hakuta preferred to stick to himself. As it was, he already had plenty of friends, most of it forced upon him. But he could at least live with what he currently had in life. Yet now he wanted to add along that circle of those he kept close. This masked person, this so-called ‘TheMaskedDemon’ was one he wished to learn more about.

There was an air of mystery to this person that intrigued him. Perhaps because he did not know their face, did not know their voice. Hakuta couldn’t even tell much about them outside of their hobby with video games. It was time to begin to figure out who this person truly was.

His head turned back up to the screen after hearing the chirp of a notification from his speakers. Hakuta noticed the masked figure had accepted his request rather quickly. It was surprising that it happened as fast as it did, but perhaps he was lucky in getting good timing when they happened to be online.

For a moment, he wanted to send a message to them. Nothing special, just a simple hello in order to try and break the ice. But he hesitated as his fingers hovered over the keyboard. Was he being to hasty? Surely they had a normal life to attend to, unlike him who was forced to live in the house of another. So Hakuta took a step back from his computer, trying to gather his thoughts.

This was when another chirp came from his computer once more. This time it was a message. Instead of him being the one to send it, it turned out the masked figure, or at least the username they claimed to be theirs, sent one first.

“You are the boy from the tournament, correct?” They asked in a simple straightforward manner. That was all what was written, which prompted Hakuta to write out his reply quickly.

“Yes.” He answered in even more simple fashion. “You’re the one who wore that mask, right?” In order to make sure there could be no possible misunderstandings, no matter how unlikely, he tried to assure himself this was the right person.

“Yes.” They answered in the same manner in which he did before. “I was worried you weren’t interesting in being online friends.” It was true he did take a while to send her this request. A week had passed since that tournament. His delay was only due to the timing of it ending along with his father coming back from the trip. Afterwards, it was taking care of what was brought back and setting up this new computer.

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“Sorry.” He typed back. “I’ve been really busy since that day. I didn’t mean to make you feel like I brushed you off.”

“It’s fine.” They responded. “If I may be blunt, it’s not often I make friends with someone I see in person.” He certainly could agree with that. Though it was clear their situations were evidently different.

“I wish I was able to see you properly in person.” He replied to her, sending along at the end a laughing emoji. While Hakuta did wish he could see the face and hear the voice of his new friend. He could live with the mystery for a bit longer. Hopefully one day they would be open enough to let him closer.

“I’m sure you think I’m strange.” That would be a massive understatement in his eyes. It wasn’t everyday a person would go to such lengths to hide their identity. “But if you truly knew who I was, then you’d understand.” The way they described it made it sound like this person was embroiled in conspiracy. That they were actually a spy attempting to get close to a dangerous individual.

When in reality all they were doing there was playing video games like a bunch of random teenagers. Actually, now that Hakuta thought about it, he had no clue on the age of this person. “Um, if you don’t mind me asking, how old are you?”

He was left for a bit on a response. The person took way longer than they normally did to reply, as they had been quite swift in chatting with him. Now after a minute had passed without a word being written caused him to fill with worry. Perhaps it was too personal of a question for someone who’s rather secretive. Maybe he had overstepped his bounds. It was even entirely possible he had offended them enough where they no longer wanted to be friends with him.

“16.” Finally, after a long wait that was not actually long at all, he got a response.

“You’re 16?” He couldn’t believe what he heard. “Wow that’s cool, I’m 16 too.” Hakuta smiled upon hearing this information. What were the odds they happened to be the same exact age? Sure he had an idea they might’ve been around the same age group. But he personally believed them to be actually younger than him. Someone who was in junior high judging from their height being noticeably shorter than him.

For the record, he considered himself average height for a boy his age.

“I suppose it could be a nice thing.” Their reply didn’t sound as positive as his. He wondered that perhaps this person was worried he might get close to finding out their true identity.

Now that he thought about it, they were indeed the same age. Did this also mean they went to the same school? It was obvious this person lived in the same area as him. While the tournament he recently went to was on the next town over, the first time they met was a local one in town. Was it possible he had already seen this person before but didn’t realize they were one in the same as the masked figure?

“Hakuta, we should make some dinner.” Before he was able to ask the question, he was interrupted by Shiuka as she quickly opened the door without knocking.

“Geez, at least knock first.” He scolded her, trying to calm himself after his heart raced from her surprise.

“I hope you’re not doing anything weird in here.” She replied, not thinking much of his reprimanding. “Anyway I’m hungry, can’t you make something now?”

“Fine.” He relented, quickly typing on the computer to let the person know he had to get off. “Sorry, gotta get off and make dinner. Hope we can talk again soon.” Was what he left as a message before logging off. Hakuta didn’t bother waiting for a reply as he got up from his desk and followed Shiuka out of the room.

“No problem.” Was the reply he would’ve seen had he stuck around another minute. “I’m sure we’ll talk again really soon.”