The screen rippled.
The fight began.
The game forced a loading screen. Shin Budokai 9 logo in jagged font. Then, a cutscene began.
He threw the laptop across the room.
Leo couldn't control his character. Goku stood there, taking hits. Each punch made Leo's real chest throb with a dull, spreading bruise. A health bar appeared in the top-left corner: .
It wasn't the bright, cel-shaded lobby he expected. Instead, he was standing—yes, standing , as if his laptop were a window—in a wasteland. The sky was a bruised purple. The ground was cracked, glowing with a faint green light that pulsed like a heartbeat.
The cutscene ended. The stage loaded.
It was 3:47 AM when Leo finally found it.
"That's just a reflection effect," Leo whispered, but his voice cracked.
Now Goku was facing him. His face was the same—that familiar, cheerful grin—but his eyes were hollow. Not white. Hollow. Like someone had scooped out the insides with a melon baller. In his hands, he held a PSP. The screen on the in-game PSP showed Leo's own bedroom. His own face, staring back.
Please Wait requesting...