Game of Light

Chapter 6 - Home

Chapter 6

The process by which you were sucked back into the real world, which was called “Firma” by the players since it is realistically “firm”, always took about a minute. This time it felt much longer to Light. Image’s last words were ringing in her head, repeating themselves like a scratched record: “Light you are-, Light you are-” What was she? Stupid or idiotic? She wouldn’t put it past him to say something like that out of the blue, but for some reason she was convinced that this time he was being serious, that he was about to say something very important. What would even be important to a buffoon like Image? It had to do with some “infant strength,” whatever that meant. Maybe he was just a List and Ranking fanatic and hated her for getting into the List faster than he had?

Light would have come up with a heap of new and even weirder speculations, but reality struck and she now felt the softness of her bed beneath her.

It was usually her best friend Rain who woke her up. Rain was an almost stereotypical Californian teen. He had sandy blond hair, blue eyes and was an amazing mountain biker. Lila a.k.a. Light had met Rain through the community house in which they both lived. Rain was shy, but since Lila was a pretty open person they had become fast friends. Lila grinned at an image that immediately popped up whenever she thought about her Californian friend recently.

Rain had confessed to her not many days before that he liked Elli, the Gothic-Lolita in their small community. Lila kept trying to picture the short dark-haired haunting figure of Elli and the tall sheepishly smiling Rain as a couple. Although her imagination always broke down every time she tried to, seeing Elli and Rain stand next to each other still made her laugh.

“Lila, you awake yet?” a softly growling voice asked her.

Just a second, that’s not Rain’s voice, Lila thought confusedly, if I’m right that’s-

Lila rolled over in her bed, removed her game visor and carefully opened an eye. She was prepared for bright, garish light, but was awaited her was much more calming. A teenage boy with white bleached hair was leaning against the wall facing her bed. He was shirtless, revealing heavily muscled shoulders and arms, a six-pack and darkly tanned skin. His faded straight jeans were covered with blotches of paint. A sight like this might have robbed Lila of her breath a year back, but this was usually how Gon walked around.

Lila croaked “I’m not.” In a reply to Gon’s earlier question and closed her eye again to see what he would do.

In the next few seconds Lila’s blankets were stripped from her bed and she was picked up and positioned in Gon’s arms. Lila blearily opened both eyes and narrowed them at Gon.

“What did you do that for?” she asked grumpily. Out of slit eyes she followed his progress in moving her. He carried her past a stuffed bookshelf into the living room and placed her on one of the couches before replying to her mumbled question.

“It’s your turn to make food and it’s breakfast time,” Gon settled himself beside her and turned on the TV. “What game was that game visor from?” Gon’s voice purred with the question. Lila always thought he sounded like a wild leopard when he spoke.

Forgetting to answer his question, since she started to feel awake enough to get going with breakfast, she stood up and headed towards the kitchen. In their house the living room, dining room and kitchen were all in one open room. Every space pretty much flowed into all the others. Lila fished for a pan, turned on the stove and started cracking eggs over the sizzling metal. Gon had reminded her of that darned Image whose spirit still haunted her mind. The guy was insane! Teasing her, taunting her, he just couldn’t lay off. He might have been a fourty year-old in Other but she was convinced that behind his visor he was no more than twelve. No matter, she thought mumbling under her breath, I won’t have to deal with him for two days, since he’s stuck in the Med.