There’s a reason I still don’t play RPGs.
I was in the second grade of elementary school. As we all know, that was the heyday of the NES.
At that time, my parents didn’t buy me NES software, not because of financial reasons, but because of their educational policy.
My grandma would buy me one for my birthday, Christmas, and once a year.
I think it was about a month after the release of the third title of a great RPG.
I was walking around the neighborhood with my father, and we saw a used software store selling software on the street in front of a local supermarket.
The one that caught my eye was the RPG software.
I can still imagine the look in my eyes as I stared at it. I guess I was just staring at it as if I were devouring it.
Then my father said to me. “Do you have something you want? I’ll buy you one once in a while.”
I still remember how happy I was.
Well, in hindsight, something may have already gone wrong when my father suddenly bought it for me.
I wanted to go home and play it right away, but we have a strict rule in our house. NES is limited to 2 hours every Sunday.
“Darn, it’s only Wednesday evening today…! I can’t do it.”
I went to my room and looked at the cassette and the manual until I was bored out of my skull. Then I noticed something.
On the back of the cassette and on the last page of the manual, it says “Akio.
Well, it wasn’t so strange to see my name on the cassette at that time.
I didn’t care so much about it at that time. After all, it was used software.
The next day, I came home from school. My mom is a stay-at-home mom, so she is rarely home.
There was a letter on the doorstep.
“I’ll be back at 5:00.”
It was a strange coincidence. But I didn’t think of it that way at the time.
My mind went into game mode at once.
“A chance to make a thousand and one corners! The time is still past 2 o’clock! From now on, I can play for almost 3 hours!”
I quickly prepare the NES and go to my room to get the software.
I thought I had put it in my desk last night, but “Sore” was out on the desk as if it wanted me to play it as soon as possible.
But I didn’t think too much about it. I turned it on immediately.
The screen was pitch black.
I had not seen the opening of this game anywhere yet, so I felt no sense of discomfort. I accepted it as such.
I wait for a while.
I wait for a while…and wait some more.
Nothing… Seriously? Is it broken?
Remove the cassette and breathe into it. Then I carefully inserted the cassette into the main unit and turned it on again….
The sound came out. But is this background music?
It sounded like a xylophone or an iron harp, but at the same tempo.
Well, I still don’t suspect that I’m in game mode.
Without even a title being displayed, the saved data suddenly appears.
As expected, it is the data of the main character “Akio.
I immediately deleted the data and tried to create new data for me.
But then I noticed something.
Something was wrong with the text that prompted me to create a save data.
Who will play with me?
Something was wrong. That was the first time I began to think something was wrong.
The strange background music went on and on.
I was suspicious, but at first I put in a name. Shinichi (pseudonym),”
At that moment
‘Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Shinichi! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha…!”
Inside the quiet house. The TV was filled with the sound of loud, raucous child’s laughter.
My mind went blank and I was out of it.
But I saw it clearly.
In my fading consciousness, I saw the face of a boy about my age on the black screen. With a big smile on his face.
Evening. I was woken up by my mother and realized that my NES had been left out.
The NES had been left out, so she knew I was trying to hide and was furious.
I looked at the TV screen with a sideways glance and saw that there was nothing on it anymore.
I didn’t want this software near me anymore. I wanted to throw it away as soon as possible.
But my father had bought it for me. I couldn’t throw it away because I felt bad.
In the end, I decided to put the software in my toolbox deep in the closet of my room.
The next day. When I came back from school, my mother had gone out..
But there was no letter left on the doorstep. That meant Taku(my brother) was still at home.
I put down my school bag and went to the living room.
Taku was sitting facing the TV. In front of him was the NES.
And there was that software that I thought I hid.
The next moment, I saw the TV monitor.
Akio” looked at me and laughed out loud.
Taku, who turned around and looked at me, was laughing with the same face as Akio.
The two smiles and voices swirled in my head, and my mind wandered away again.
Sorry, that’s the end of the story.
Well, not so much a continuation.
In the evening, for the second day in a row, I was woken up by my mom, who was really pissed at me.
Taku was also sleeping (or was he passed out?) and we both got angry.
Taku didn’t remember anything, and it was very annoying.
My mom didn’t believe me at all when I said “Akio is…!
I can still remember the background music, and it’s really creepy.
But as I get older, I don’t know if it was real or not.
Well, if it was just a dream, then so be it.
