Ryu

Ryu watched his master flee the cafeteria. The term 'master' was going to be a sore subject between them, he could already tell. He'd have to find something more palatable.

He looked at Claire's friend. The last time a master had... loaned him... to a friend, he'd gotten the scar on his stomach. He could still remember that one's laughter.

“You okay?” his Master's friend, Dare, asked.

Ryu nodded once. He was fine. He wasn't abandoned; Claire had responsibilities. She was a young scholar. Ryu knew enough about the modern world to know how expensive college was. She needed to be in class. He would like to attend, and as her familiar he had the right to go wherever she could go but those rights traditionally granted a familiar were extended only among mages and other Hidden societies. To the mundane humans around him, he was just some... some kid.

“So, um.” Dare scratched at the back of his neck. “Do you like video games?”

Ryu shrugged. “I've never played.”

He'd seen them, sure. He recalled when arcades first popped up in every mall and some street corners. They seemed nice. The sounds that came from them were pleasing and the children flocked to them. But his masters were too important to waste time on such things. And then the arcades vanished, and the games moved into people's homes. A couple masters had owned them because they became status symbols. They never did anything with the devices though.

“Never? Oh we have got to fix that.”

“Why?” Ryu asked.

“Dude, you're named like a video game character. I can think of at least four Ryu's in video games.”

“Is that where she got the name?” Ryu mused.

“What now?”

“Ah. Yes. Ryu isn't my, uh, real name.” Which he would not be sharing with anyone. He'd held onto his true name through much worse than a child's curiosity. “Claire came up with it. I'd wondered.”

“Yeah, that sounds like her.” Dare paused. “Before you ask, yes. Dare is my real, actual, on my birth certificate and everything name.”

“Oh.” Ryu paused. “I'd assumed it was short for something.”

“Nope. My parents suck in every way. Come on. I need to introduce you to the wonders of gaming.”

Well, the activity would pass the time if nothing else. Ryu followed Dare across the campus and into a similar stone block building as the one Claire lived in. It wasn't a pleasant place; long gray hallways were interrupted only by darker gray doors on each floor. They went up to the fourth floor, and down to the far end. Dare tapped at the door with a key card he kept in his pocket.

“Electronic locks?” Ryu asked.

“Yeah, like a hotel. And they charge us if something wipes the keys. And the tech probably added a couple thousand to our student loans.” Dare shrugged. “I'd rather have, you know, a key. Keys don't get wiped out if you wander too close to a microwave.”

Ryu nodded. “Sometimes the old way is the better way.”

“On that note, since you've never played a video game... I'm thinking we start with retro games.”

“Retro?”

“You know, old school. Games now have high resolution graphics, motion controls, all sorts of fancy stuff. And that's great. But... for a real introduction to the whole world of gaming, you need to start with the classics. Eight bit graphics, bit music, four button controllers. I have this little beauty,” he tapped a block of grayish plastic about the size of Ryu's palm. “It has dozens of games programmed into it. Back in the day you'd lock a cartridge into this slot and the game would play, but, well, this is just a replica. I have the real thing but it's in storage. This takes up less room.”

“Ah.” Ryu studied the controller. “Does Claire play?”

“Oh, yeah. She's a fiend for RPGs. Role playing games. Adventures in strange worlds, impossible quests, all that stuff.”

Dare handed Ryu a small, gray and black rectangle connected to the game system by a black cord. Ryu accepted the device, and glanced at Dare's exposed wrist.

Ryu wasn't the only one with scars.

He focused on what Dare was explaining about the game. Apparently pushing buttons on the controller moved the little... person shaped thing... on the screen. Other odd shaped things on screen were aiming to destroy his little person thing. Ryu's task was to stop that from happening. Simple enough.

The task was simple, yet challenging enough to be satisfying.

“Wow. You sure you're a noob?”

“A what?”

“Noob. New player.”

“I've never played this game, or any other,” Ryu shrugged. “Am I doing well?”

“Heck yeah. Let's try a harder game. Unless you want to keep with this one?”

Ryu shook his head. “I think I'd like to sample a few.”

He was a little sad, now, that he'd missed the opportunity to try these games in the arcades.

Dare showed him how to switch between the little device's library of games. There were a bewildering array. Ryu chose the next game basically at random and was presented with a strange puzzle that involved making falling blocks vanish.

“Hey, neat. Tetris. Pretty much every game system ever made has a version of this game on it.”

“Every one?”

“As far as I know, yeah.”

“Fascinating.” Ryu smiled as he made three rows of blocks line up at once. “I like these games.”

“Cool! I thought you might.”

Ryu paused. “You should take a turn. It is your game device.”

Dare chuckled. “You do speak like someone from another world, I'll give you that. Nah, I can play anytime. Although there are two player games on this. And more advanced game systems even have four player, eight player, more. There are party games, too. Jacob and Josh have a great collection of those.”

Ryu tilted his head. Multiple people could play one of these things at once? He wondered how, and wordlessly handed Dare the controller hoping he'd show him. Dare grinned and selected a game that claimed to have something to do with dragons, although Ryu couldn't spot a single great lizard beast anywhere. Oh, well, he wasn't a dragon either.

Soon Ryu and Dare were working together, moving their blocky, over muscled characters around the screen fighting other ridiculously proportioned figures.

“I am enjoying this... oh! New weapon!... but I do wonder exactly what we're doing?” Ryu asked.

“Catch that power up,” Dare pointed, “Well, in this one we're saving one of our girlfriends... I can't remember which brother is supposed to be dating the girl... most of these retro games, the story line was printed in the instruction manual because there wasn't room on the cartridge for that much text. There's a little cinematic but I skipped it because, well.” Dare shrugged. “Honestly? The game's fun but the 'save the girl' story is tired. It's lazy story telling. It's fine for these old games, but now? Bah. Games are cinematic and should have cinematic stories, you get me?”

“Not really.” Ryu shrugged. “If I'd played more than three games in my life perhaps I would.” Ryu hit the controller's little button and his character threw another character off the screen. “This is a lovely distraction though. This device has no instruction manual though. How is one to know the story?”

“You can find most of them online,” Dare said.

“Online?” Ryu glanced at him.

“You know, on the internet.”

Ryu blinked a few times.

“Oh, this is unreal. You have to know what the internet is.”

“I am aware of the concept.” Some of his masters had used it for business transactions, he thought. He'd never had any contact with it. He knew the little phones everyone carried could access the thing. Somehow. His former master had greatly enjoyed taunting Ryu that soon the devices would replace familiars, even among mages.

Like a phone could fight your enemies for you. Bah.

“Okay,” Dare said, drawing the word out slowly. “I begin to feel like your story may have a grain more truth to it than I thought.”

“Because I'm not aware they keep... video game instructions... on the internet?”

“They keep everything on the Internet, bud.”

“Huh.”

“Here,” Dare handed him a small, black device similar to the one Claire carried. “Go nuts. This icon opens Google. Type in any question. Or you can talk to it. Just hit that little microphone and ask a question.”

Ryu looked the device over. He saw what could, charitably, be called a microphone. He tapped it, and asked, “How large is the internet?”

The phone chirped and several lines of blue text appeared. There was also a block of text with a short answer. Experimentally, Ryu poked one of the blue text lines, and more text appeared. Ryu quickly realized that each blue text line was somehow bound to longer blocks of text.

“Those are hyperlinks,” Dare explained. “Google tries to find the article or website that has the best answer for your search.”

“How?” Ryu poked another blue text line, and found himself reading about Google's stock options.

“Honestly? I've got no idea.” Dare shrugged.

“You routinely use a piece of technology you do not fully understand?” Ryu blinked up at him, alarmed.

“Yeah. Why not?” Dare didn't seem concerned.

Ryu shuddered at the idea of using magic he didn't fully grasp. That was a grand way to find oneself transfigured into a slime mold. Or dead. Or worse.

An idea struck him, and he tapped in the word “familiar” into the device. A dictionary entry appeared, with several meanings. Below that was a song titled Familiar, and below that several articles about the legend of witches and their demonic animal companions. Well. He was hardly a demon. Or an animal. Though... some of the less powerful familiar beings did take animal form. He wondered where they came from, really. Surely no cat made the same bargain he had?

The device in his hand made an odd noise.

“Ah, Dare? I didn't mean to... I think I offended your smartphone.”

Dare held out his hand. “Nah. They can't be offended yet. That's just telling me there's a text message.”

“A what?”

“A text. You know, in case you don't want to call someone, you just type out a quick message and send it over the phone.”

“Like a telegraph.”

“Yeah. But less Morse code.”

“You can talk directly to a person, but instead you send... electronic telegraph messages.”

Dare shrugged. “It's a thing.” He tapped the screen. “Huh. This might be bad.”

“What is it?”

“It's from Josh. Just says, 'SOS.”

Ryu felt the blood drain from his face.

He knew what that message meant. The brothers were in danger.

“I'd better check this out,” Dare said. “Do you want me to find Claire, do you want to stay here, or would you rather come with me?”

“I'll come with you,” Ryu declared. “The brothers were kind to me. I owe them any assistance I may render.”

Dare chewed on his lip. “Okay. But. If this is bad, stay behind me. If I let you get hurt Claire will have my hide.”

There was no way in any realm between Heaven and Hell that Ryu was going to hide behind a child, but this wasn't the time to argue. He nodded once and followed Dare out of the dorm.