He was late. Kuraku sat in the arena and waited, growing impatient as time passed. It had been three days since his last battle with Tokumei no Tenshi, normally that meant he'dve been challenged again the second he came online. That hadn't happened however, and he was surprised to discover that he was disappointed. Normally he found the other player's repeated challenges annoying, so why was he now missing them? It didn't make any sense. That was all right though, it really didn't matter if Tenshi didn't show up.
Tired of waiting he left the arena. If Tenshi did log on then he would simply have to come and find him. Sinking down past the game levels he found a crossroad and sat at it. Really, he didn't feeling like challenging anyone else right now, but he also didn't feel like spending another evening alone at the lagoon. That left him with a bit of a dilemma, as he would be recognised if he went to any of the more populated levels. While his notoriety was a benefit in some of those areas, he really wasn't in the mood for that tonight either.
"Incoming communication request from outside the Realm." The computer informed him and he opened the connection with surprise.
"Xellos, I need to talk to you. Log off please."
"Yes mother." He replied, then closed the connection and exited the system.
"Kuraku Natte Kara is offline." The computer said as he took off the equipment and looked up at his mother.
"Yes?"
"Xellos, how are your classes going?" She asked as she sat down on the bed and he frowned.
"Fine, is there something wrong with my grades?"
"No, but your teachers are concerned. They say you don't participate enough in class."
"I don't see the need." He answered and she sighed.
"Xellos, it isn't enough to just have the answers, you have to share them."
"I don't see why I should be forced to respond to ridiculously easy questions simply because the other students in the class are too stupid to do so themselves."
"Xellos, those are your peers you are talking about. You need to judge them on their own scale, not on yours. There is not a single child in your class who qualifies as 'stupid.' They would not be in the advanced program if that was the case."
He didn't bother replying, choosing instead to scowl and look away. His mother apparently had a higher opinion of his classmates than he did, but then again, she didn't have to deal with any of them. She sighed and looked at him for a moment.
"Xellos, you have to improve your abilities to relate to your peer groups outside of the Realm. You will need to do so when you take over the program the way I intend you to do after you finish school."
"I could be finished school now if you didn't insist I limit myself to this snail's pace."
"I insist that you remain with students your age. Xellos, we have talked about this before. If you continue to ignore me then I will be forced to find a more drastic way to ensure you take me seriously."
"What do you mean?" He asked, looking up at her with suspicion.
"You are still only seventeen Xellos. If not for your unique position then you would be limited in your access to the Realm. I insist that you begin socialising with your peer group, if you do not, then I will remove your authorisation to the lower levels."
"You can't do that!" He yelled, standing up in shock.
"I can and I will. I realise that this is in part my fault. I have let you become far too involved with out little sub-world, but I intend to correct this mistake. You cannot live your entire life inside a computer program, no matter how well designed. Therefore, if you do not invite a friend over to dinner this Friday, I will remove your authorisation until you do. Is that understood?"
"Yes mother." He replied and then waited for her to leave before throwing himself down on his bed and sulking. Not the most mature response to the situation but at the moment he didn't care. It wasn't his fault he couldn't stand any of his immature, irresponsible classmates. He had been raised around adults in a lab, and he probably would have stayed in that environment if his mother hadn't suddenly developed a social conscience. Somewhere along the line she had decided that he needed to develop connections to people his own age, he'd still like to find whoever it was who had put THAT ridiculous notion into her head.
But enough with self-pity. He was not going to loose his access in the Realm, even if that meant spending time with someone from his classes. It shouldn't be that difficult, after all, that part of the real world was similar to the Realm, wasn't it? Damn, he hated this.