HEADPHONE ACTOR V

In front of a banner ad for an eBook site, I whispered to no one in particular:

“…I’ve been through here before, haven’t I?”

I leaned against the banner and heaved a sigh.

“I can’t believe I forgot how to get back home…I’m such an idiot sometimes.”

In this world of continually tangled data, a single eye blink would make everything seem startlingly different.

The gardening page I traveled through yesterday was now occupied by a rather sinister-looking, members-only cosplay site.

A band site, once filled with the soulful lyrics of some would-be musician or another, was now devoted to ranking the best ramen joints in Tokyo.

This kind of thing happened every day. I was familiar with it by now, or so I thought. But if we’re talking a gap of two years, that’s a different story.

“Hmmm…I better come up with an idea or something…”

I tried flapping my arms around, but there were sadly no good ideas hiding in the nether regions of my sleeves.

Somewhere along the line, I had fully transformed into Ene.

The dull sense of exhaustion that made me sleep half my life away was gone now. I was Ene, my master’s personal girl-power life coach, running on all cylinders twenty-four hours a day…

“I guess that story was true all along, though. But, ooh, I gotta make that faker pay!”

I began flailing around in frustration.

Soon, I was floating on my back, listlessly looking at my surroundings. The boundless world around me was filled, as always, with the electronic desires of all the world’s population.

“Though I guess this whole world’s a fake in the end, isn’t it?”

I rolled to the side and steeled myself. I needed to find my way back home.

Extending an index finger, I began typing a URL into the air in front of me.

“Can’t win the lotto if you don’t buy a ticket, I guess. I think it was something like this…Here we go!”

Once I typed it out, I was greeted by a familiar-looking window.

“Yes! Bingoooooo!”

I flashed V for Victory to myself and dove into the window, eventually reaching a small, square space.

“Whew! I haven’t been here in ages! Not that it was all that great an experience…”

I had sobbed hysterically in here.

I wouldn’t call that “great” at all, no.

One side of the space contained a list of options, INBOX and SENT MAIL among them.

I selected FAVORITES and opened the top mail on the list.

“Sorry I’m so late on this.”

As I spoke, I tapped the REPLY button. The one thing I couldn’t do two years ago.

He wound up getting wrapped up in it all, too.

I was pretty amazed that Momo was also one of them, but…

I think everything’s turning out okay with him, though.

He made the choice himself, and now he’s moving on. I always knew he had some man in him.