The Three by Sarah Lotz Page A

there’s nothing I could have done, but for some reason, even now, I feel responsible for what he did to that Japanese kid.

Chiyoko Kamamoto, the eighteen-year-old cousin of Sun Air 678’s only surviving passenger, Hiro Yanagida, first met Ryu Takami on the forum of a popular online role-playing game. The majority of the players are
otaku
(slang for geeks or obsessives) in their teens or twenties, and as one of the few female gamers, Chiyoko became extremely popular.
    It’s a mystery why Chiyoko chose Ryu, an under-achiever and hikikomori (recluse) as her chat buddy, although this has been the subject of endless speculation. Until events overtook them, the pair messaged each other every day, sometimes for hours. The messages were retrieved from Chiyoko’s computer and smart phone after her disappearance, and leaked onto the Internet.
    The original was written predominantly in ‘chat speak’, but for ease of reading and consistency, with the exception of Ryu’s use of emoji [emoticons], this has been modified. Translation by Eric Kushan.
    (Chiyoko refers to her mother, with whom she had a frosty relationship, as ‘Mother Creature’ or ‘MC’. ‘Android Uncle’ or ‘AU’ denotes Kenji Yanagida, Chiyoko’s uncle and one of Japan’s most celebrated robotics experts.)

Message logged @ 15.30, 14/01/2012
    CHIYOKO : Ryu, you there?
    RYU : () Where you been?
    CHIYOKO : Don’t ask. Mother Creature ‘needed’ me again. Did you hear? The flight attendant. She died in hospital an hour ago. That means Hiro is the only survivor.
    RYU : It’s all over 2-chan. So sad. How is Hiro?
    CHIYOKO : He’s okay, I think. A dislocated collarbone, scratches; that’s all as far as I know.
    RYU : So lucky.
    CHIYOKO : That’s what Mother Creature keeps saying. ‘A miracle.’ She’s set up a temporary altar for Auntie Hiromi. I don’t know where she got the photograph of her from. MC never liked Auntie, but you’d never know that now. ‘Such a shame, she was so pretty, so serene, such a good mother.’ All lies. She was always saying Auntie was stuck up.
    RYU : Did you find out what they were doing in Tokyo? Your aunt and Hiro, I mean.
    CHIYOKO : Yeah. MC says Auntie Hiromi and Hiro were visiting an old school friend. I can tell that MC’s pissed that Auntie didn’t visit when she was here, but she won’t say it out loud, it wouldn’t be
respectful
.
    RYU : Have any reporters tried to talk to you? That footage of them trying to climb over the hospital walls to get pics of the survivors was crazy–you hear about the one that fell off the roof? There’s a clip of it on Nico Nico. What a moron!
    CHIYOKO : Not yet. But they found out where my father works. Not even something like this, the death of a sister, is enough for him to take a day off work. He refused to speak to them. But it’s Android Uncle they’re really interested in, of course.
    RYU : I still can’t believe you’re related to Kenji Yanagida! Or that you didn’t tell me when we first met–I would have bragged about it to the whole world.
    CHIYOKO : How would that have sounded? Hey, I’m Chiyoko,and guess what? I’m related to the Android Man. It would’ve sounded like I was trying to impress you.
    RYU : You impress
me
? It should be the other way round.
    CHIYOKO : You’re not going to start all that self-pitying stuff again, are you?
    RYU : Don’t worry, you’ve got me out of that bad habit. So… what is he really like? I need details.
    CHIYOKO : I told you. I don’t really know him. Last time I saw him was when he, Hiro and Auntie Hiromi came for New Year two years ago, just after we got back from the US, but they didn’t stay over and I only said about three words to him. Auntie was really pretty, but quite distant. I liked Hiro though, cute kid. MC says Android Uncle might come and stay with us while Hiro is at the hospital. I don’t think she’s happy about it. I overheard her saying to Father that Android Uncle is as cold as his