"Hey there, Daddy," Minako said sheepishly. "I... didn't know you and Mom were back already."
"We were able to leave a bit earlier," her father said with a frown. "And you couldn't hear us, of course."
"Um, I was just..." Minako thought frantically for a good excuse she could give her father. "...cheking my homework for Math."
"Oh, really?" her father said with a nod, his thoughtful expression never changing. "Let me guess, you had some problems and asked your friend 'Amelia' if she could help you."
Minako gulped. Amelia? Somehow this wasn't the first time she believed her father could read her thoughts.
But she understood right away when her father's gaze fell on the monitor which was standing next to her... and the big, flashing window with the bold letters 'GAME OVER'.
"I always told you to switch off the monitor when you're using the headgear," her father said.
"I guess I must... have forgotten," Minako said with a nervous chuckle. Just how much of the game had her father seen?
Her father took a thorough look at the sleek plastic cases in which he kept his floppy disks and CDs, all of them carefully locked with a key. Had he known that Minako was owning an identical key as well, it would be an understatement to say he would be shocked.
"What game is that?" her father asked with a nod towards the screen.
"It's... it's called 'Warcraft Maker'," Minako explained.
"Really?" her father asked with a raised eyebrow. "I figured it's name would be 'Gottakillemall' or something like that."
'Very funny...' Minako thought to herself.
"It's not like that," Minako tried to explain. "It's not just a game were you have to kill everyone. I mean, it can be used to create your own characters in the world of Warcraft, no matter what they look like, and you can create your own scenarios. I just used the already existing Warcraft world and combined it with characters from this Anime I like, 'Slayers'."
"It's called 'Slayers', but it's not about killing?" her father asked sceptically.
"Well, at least not just killing," Minako tried defending herself and her game. "I mean, you only have to fight when the Orcs arrive. And then you have to defend the human cities against them..."
"Just like I have to defend my computers against the likes of you," her father added grimly. He shook his head. "Oh, Minako, Minako... How often do I have to tell you that my computer is off limits for you? I work with it and all of it... the monitor, the head-mounted display... belongs to my company. All of it is worth a lot of money. And when something happens to the data on my hard drive..."
"I didn't even touch your data," Minako hastily said. "Honestly! I even set up my own partition..."
OUCH! That was the most stupid thing she could have said at this point. Not to say that she used her father's computer, but also that she had actively MANIPULATED it to a considerable degree...
"You did WHAT?" her father shouted and quickly sat down on his PC. His fingers flew over the keyboard and the mouse while his expression grew more and more grim until he asked: "Dear god, how big IS this game?"
"Very big," Minako admitted. It was actually the biggest and most extensive game she had ever seen. That was also the reason why she was playing it on her father's computer instead of her own. The game was running much, much better on the new, state-of-the-art computer her father's company had given him so he could do his work at home.
"I can see that," her father grumbled. He pointed at a file that was exceptionally big and asked: "Is that what I believe it to be?"
Minako nodded. That was the security file of her game, and if her father would take a look at it, he would have a look at everything her character Lina had done since the last time she had saved. So much for her claim that Warcraft wasn't a war game...
"I believe we should stop for now until you say anything else that might expose more of your... deeds. Now, about your homework... Did you finish it?"
"Um, almost..." Minako said sheepishly.
"That means you haven't even started," her father sighed. "Oh well, at least we can't say it will be a wasted evening for you. And during dinner, we'll have a talk about your questionable preferences regarding computer games... and about certain rules that parents set up to make sure that their daughters don't use anything that doesn't belong to them."
Minako nodded and walked out of the room. Thankfully, she was able to save her game not only on her father's computer, but on her own as well.
But that really had been close. If her father found out that his computer wasn't the only one she had used to play the game...
No! She didn't dare imagine what he would have done. Her father was a decent guy who could take a good joke... but he also could get pretty scary when he got angry.
Back in her room, she couldn't quite concentrate on her homework. Instead, her thoughts went back to what happened before Lina Inverse had been shoved through that portal.
She growled angrily when she recalled the moment when aa certain golem-demon-chimera had attacked her without any warning.
'Oh no, that wasn't the last you heard of Lina Inverse, Zelgadis!' she silently swore to herself. 'I shall be back one day...'
Even if Zelgadis and Lina had been friends, she would make sure he would regret what he did!
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by Shritistrang
(Posted Tue, 19 Jun 2007 21:30)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.