RELAY || Virtual Reality AU

3

The tunnels were deserted. He might have thought it the early hour, but realistically even at their peak they never looked particularly lively. People were indoors, either sleeping through their DUVET sessions or already logged into the Interface. Busy exploring a fictional world in order to escape the drudgery of the real one.

It made for an introspective walk. The trams ran every twenty minutes along the main thoroughfare, and Toshinori settled his slender, near-skeletal body into one of the seats to wait. Once he might have considered walking, but years of putting in extra hours on duty had atrophied his real body past the point where he entirely believed it possible to recover. It was a problem for the future in any case, when he no longer had alternatives.

At least the view was nice where he was sat, and along the route of the near-empty tram when it arrived. Screens on either side of the residential district's tunnels displayed mostly consecutive views from the Interface; rolling hills and—at this time—glorious sunrises, right on schedule. The weather seldom varied, not when it could be programmed to its optimum for the enjoyment of the masses. Who would want rain at the start of their day?

His destination was off the beaten track, so after the first tram he had to change for another which ran through less salubrious areas. There were occasional screens here, mostly clustered around doorways to clubs or offices, but substantial stretches were just bare walls, and the ceilings overhead had long since been pulled down to expose the pipes and cables running along their length. Far easier for the engineers to get to when needed, and there were few enough people in these parts to look up and complain about their immersion being spoilt.

The digital tram schedule at the stop flickered, screen obviously due for maintenance. Toshinori idly tapped one corner where the LEDs were faint, and sighed as they popped back into life only to disconnect again a few seconds later. Damn things. He ought to have brought a book or his datapad along, to better pass the time until he reached the medical centre.

It had been far too long since he'd made this trip, if he were honest with himself. Time was, he'd been sure to visit every other week. Every week at first, until he'd calmly and gently been told to focus on his duty instead. And he had been working, certainly, so he knew there was no ill will, but it had still been too long. It chafed at him, an uneasy guilt not helped by the fact that he knew damn well that he was running out of time and he still hadn't found a successor. Were his standards too high? Was he doing something wrong? It was all very well knowing that he had to find someone worthy, but how exactly was he meant to judge something as nebulous as that? Perhaps he ought to take Nedzu up on his offer and scout out the Hero trainees.

Perhaps he'd get some answers during his visit.

Trams to the medical centre ran less often than those along the main routes through the tunnels. It wasn't as though a lot of people needed them—with most of the population safely ensconced in their homes all day, how exactly were they going to injure themselves? The clinics covered most problems, and even they were usually underpopulated. The flickering schedule proclaimed that he had five more minutes until the next tram, with a forty minute wait for the one after that. He was the only person at the stop, and likely would remain so for the entire day.

*

  There was a boy sitting on the tram when it pulled up, which was a touch unexpected. He was tucked into the rear seat, curled up around something he was writing on—good grief, was that an actual book? Real paper rustled a minute or so into the tram journey and Toshinori marvelled to himself. Now that genuinely was unusual.

He shook his head to himself, and stared out of the window at the barren sides of the tunnel. This far out, they hadn't even bothered to panel the walls and cover the concrete blocks they were formed of. Stark lights flashed by, guidance for the workers whenever they had to come down and sort out problems.