Warcross

The file self-destructs. Emika calls Hideo to warn him before she hears gunshots in the upper levels of stadium seating near Hideo’s security box. Emika finds her way in the dark, discovering as the lights come back on that the assassin shot one of Hideo’s bodyguards. The fans are unaware. Hideo credits Emika with saving him from the shooter because he got her call just in time. Kenn tries to get Hideo to leave and go home to safety, but Hideo refuses and insists the police outside pursue the fleeing shooter. Emika tells Hideo he should leave Tokyo, but the look in Hideo’s eyes is “furious, cold, determined” (231); he tells Emika he will not leave. 

After the win, Kenn reaches out to Emika and asks her to try again to convince Hideo to take precautions. Emika goes to a karaoke bar with her team to celebrate but later sneaks away. She travels 30 minutes by skateboard to Hideo’s home, soaked by rain. Emika tells Hideo again that he should leave Tokyo. He offers her tea after she showers and changes into dry, loaned clothes. Emika suggests disqualifying Ren but Hideo rejects this idea; it would be too suspicious. Emika sees photos of Hideo as a child and notices one with a second boy. She asks if it is Hideo’s brother, forgetting momentarily Hideo’s rule against family questions. Hideo, however, answers Emika: “I had a brother” (245).

After Emika tries again to get Hideo to go to safety, he leans close and tells her he is glad to have her visit. Then he shows her his new communication system that works by linking and sharing thoughts. Emika realizes the “Link” can also communicate emotions. Hideo sends a thought to Emika that he has wanted to kiss her since the party at the underground club, and she can feel his strong emotion of desire as well. They begin to kiss passionately but Hideo stops: “I’m getting you into more than you bargained for” (250). Emika senses that he wants to tell her something, but Hideo stops the thought link between them. 

Emika spends the next several days watching other teams play and checking information on players. The Phoenix Riders win their second-round game against the Stormchasers. Hideo sends a Link request one morning, and while flirting, Emika can feel his desire for her even at a distance. He asks to see her and mentions showing her his “old home” (254). She accepts. Ren requests Emika’s help with something “about Hideo” (255). She goes to Ren’s room; it is outfitted with sound equipment. Ren claims that he made a track of music for Hideo as a thank-you gift and wants Emika’s opinion on it: “I wanted to get some feedback on it from someone who knows Hideo well and also knows my music” (257). Emika suspects that Ren is testing her when he plays a song that played during the Darkcross game. She thinks this means that Ren knows she was at the Pirate’s Den, and that she is investigating Zero and him. She tries not to let on—“I fight to look unaffected” (258)—but worries that Ren is on to her true mission.

That afternoon, Hideo arrives in a private car to pick Emika up. They travel to a polished-looking neighborhood outside Tokyo where Hideo’s parents live. Emika wonders why they appear “frail” though they are not elderly. The refrigerator is empty, so Hideo orders groceries; his mother forgets her glasses when she leaves a room, so Hideo takes them to her. Emika notices metal sculptures made by Hideo’s father that represent family scenes, some with two boys. Hideo takes Emika to a nearby hot spring where they kiss.

After a while, Hideo shares the Memory of what happened to his brother Sasuke when he was seven and Hideo was nine. Hideo and Sasuke went to a park to play a game in which each tried to find and collect the other’s plastic eggs; one set blue, one red. Hideo tossed an egg to Sasuke and it rolled out of sight, into a wooded area with a stream. Sasuke went to fetch it but disappeared. Hideo searched anxiously, but finally went home without his brother. No one ever found Sasuke. After his disappearance, Hideo’s mother became distracted, his father developed a chronic illness, and Hideo lived with a torturing guilt. He built and saved the Memory of the day of the disappearance, rebuilding and adding to it yearly; he also created false memories that show how he might have changed what happened. Emika guesses that Hideo created Warcross and the NeuroLink for Sasuke, who loved games, and Hideo confirms this: “Everything I do is for him” (271).

Back at Hideo’s parents’ house, Hideo makes a delicious dinner for Emika and his parents. Hideo hopes Emika likes the food. Hideo takes Emika back to the dorms and they share a goodnight kiss, but Emika thinks Hideo has more secrets.

Game Three against the Cloud Knights arrives, and Emika enters the competition with a “groggy” head. Intent on following Ren in the virtual game, she defies Asher’s instructions in the virtual underwater ruins of the level, telling him she sees a better route. Emika encounters Zero in the game, hidden to everyone but her, and speaks with him. Zero wants Emika to work for him, Zero, instead of Hideo, and offers to top Hideo’s payment. Emika scoffs at Zero and tells him he can take his “generous off […] and shove it up [his] virtual ass” (281). Zero threatens Emika, telling her she will regret the choice. While Emika speaks to Zero, her virtual form appears to be stuck in an underwater cavern losing all air. She is useless to the game and though the Phoenix Riders win, it is extremely close. Asher complains that their play was “embarrassing” and “shameful” and that Emika performed so badly that she must have “tried to throw that game on purpose” (282). Emika cannot say anything about Zero. As the team leaves the arena, a holographic photo appears in view of all spectators worldwide showing Hideo and Emika as she leaves his home, holding hands and close enough to kiss.