Zero ~Zero~ The Official Novel Translation Chapter 1-7

Once the game begins, I feel the fine hairs on my nape standing.

The polygonic figure on the screen really resembles me.

I’m standing in front of large house in ancient Japanese style. Himuro Mansion.

My acquintance, and also the person who can be said as someone who often helps me, Takamine Junsei and his group are said to be missing while they were investigating this house.

I know it’s strange, but, because our relationship is described very similar with the reality, I even think that, if this all is true, I would look for Takamine-sensei too.

I start to wander around the inside of the mansion. It looks like that the house had been empty for quite a long time.

At that moment, I suddenly see a figure of a person passing through the darkness of the hall in front of me.

Takamine-sensei!!

Sensei! I call him. But, it’s as if he can’t hear me and disappears around the hall.

I run after him immediately. The sound of my steps make the wooden floor creak ominously.

I try so hard to chase him. Passing through a room with a fireplace in it, then I run up the stairs. On the first landing I come across, I find a notepad lying on the floor.

Without any reason, I pick the notepad up.

Once I touch it, the screen turns monochromatic, and in my mind, flashes something like a movie playing.

It’s the event when Takamine-sensei and his group were in the mansion. It looks like that the ‘memory’ of the event is ‘recorded’ on the notepad, and flow into me when I touch it.

At that moment, I see the face of the editor who came with Takamine-sensei to the mansion. I swallow the lump in my throat when I see his face. The thin figure, and the brown-highlit hair… It’s Mr. Ioka!

I open the document that I got from the game maker’s office to make sure the name of the man.

According to the document, his name is ‘Ogata Kouji’. But I’m really sure that he’s Mr. Ioka.

Apparently this video game ‘Zero’ is really the key to all this problem. My instinct, or rather, my spiritual power, whatever it’s called… tells me that.

But I don’t have the time to be surprised, because when the flashback scenes disappear, in front of me, appears a spirit that attacks me!

Inside the game, I only have a camera, which is called Camera Obscura, as my weapon (if indeed it can be called a weapon).

Camera Obscura is said to be able to seal evil spirits on the pictures if we use it to take their photographs.

It’s not a problem if I succeed. But if I fail, it will be Game Over instantly. And for me, who’s not a gamer, it’s a struggle to even fight one spirit. Plus, for me this is more than just a duel with spirits on a video game.

The person on the screen in front of me is ‘myself’, and I have to try really hard to not just die.

I aim through the finder and take pictures like crazy. One moment of carelessness, and the spirit will attack me. My heart bets louder and louder when the vibration joystick in my hand activates and shakes everytime I’m attacked.

Finally I can keep my distance with the spirit, and press the shutter again.

I did it!

The spirit looks pained, then, she opens her mouth which is torn to her cheeks, and howls loudly before she finally is sealed in the camera.

I sigh in relief.

But it’s too soon to be relieved.

My controller suddenly malfunctions. I feel wary instantly. I turn around slowly, and face a large old mirror hanging on the wall.

A figure comes out of the mirror and attacks me.

I feel my body is drenched with my sweat. So are my hands, holding the joystick tightly.

But the surprise doesn’t end there.

Miku!

The first stage, titled ‘1st Night: Strangling Ritual’ has started.

The figure in front of me is polygonic, but it’s true, it’s my sister, Miku.

“Two weeks have passed since the last time I heard from my brother. Reading the notes he left, I came to this house… I don’t know why… I feel like someone is calling me here… Brother…”

The monologue that faintly comes out of the game is too voiced by Miku’s voice.

To look for me, Miku went to the mansion in the middle of the mountain.

She was worried about me and, abandoning her fears… came to the mansion… for me…

I can’t deal with all of this reasonably even though this is just a game.

This is not an ordinary game!

It’s like… the concept of the Camera Obscura which can seal spirits inside the camera. It’s just, what’s sealed by this game ‘Zero’ is my own sister.

“Miku!! Can you hear me?! Mikuuuu!!!!” I call out to her.

I know it’s crazy. But, for me, the Miku in front of me isn’t just polygons, but really my sister, Miku.

Miku’s movements on the screen suddenly stop. And then, without the controller moving her, she turns to face me from behind the screen.

“Brother…,” she says faintly.

“Miku! You’re really Miku, aren’t you!?”

Instead of answering, she nods. Tears start to run down her face. And with a weak voice she says,

“After you left… I became even more worried so I ran after you. I saw you at the train station, but you’ve entered the train already. Then… I was guided here by an unseen force…”

So that’s what I felt.

The strange feeling that came to me when I entered the train station. So something did happen then.

Maybe it’s somekind of a time or dimensional slip.

I remember, when I was a child, I was with Mother, she chose to avoid a road with nothing on it, and preferred another road.

But, when I try to remember again, on that place which looked there was nothing on it, I felt something strange.

It was just an instant, but I felt that I saw a blurry figure, a strange smell, and distorted shadows.

When I told Mother about it, she just looked at me sadly and then said,

“Don’t ever tell it to anyone else. When someday you feel something like that again, go away from that place immediately. If not, people who have spiritual power like us are easy to be possessed, or caught. Do you understand? Promise me this.”

When I remember, the strange feeling that I felt at the train station was the same with the feeling I had when I was a child. Mother called it time slip.

The thing that I forgot has caught and locked my sister away somewhere… because of my mistake, Miku…

“Brother… please get me out of here…,” Miku says.

The face which looks at me pitifully with tears running down her cheeks is no longer polygonic, but has changed into Miku’s real face!

And she’s asking for my help…

Her face looks like a frightened child, but tries really hard to hold it back, and ask for help to her only blood relative… me…

I reach out slowly.

But, when I almost touch her cheek, instead, I touch the screen of my 14 inches TV.
The next second, the screen turns dark.

When I pull my hand back, the TV is switched on again like before.

But Miku’s figure is no longer there.

Replacing her, there’s a polygonic figure of a girl carrying a flashlight walking to the mansion in front of her. I look at my fingers still pressing the keypad on the joystick.

Once I lift my fingers, the girl’s movements on the screen stop.

I reset my PlayStation and try over and over again to reply the scenes where Miku ‘appeared’. But no matter how many times I try, the result is always the same. The scenes never appear anymore.

I move to my work desk. There’s a computer with an internet access there. I sit down and type a short mail to Mr. Ioka.

‘I’d like to do a survey to the location of the game ‘Zero’s setting. I’m waiting for your reply as soon as possible.’
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