That incident may not have killed anyone, but the damage was done—particularly to Kazune’s mental health.
Our New Year’s holiday would last for the next three days. After that, we would go back to work, and Ryou would go back to kindergarten… At least, he was supposed to. But Kazune could no longer handle being apart from him.
“C’mon, there’s nothing to worry about. He’ll be fine.”
“But what if something like that happens again?!”
No matter what I said to her, she stubbornly refused to detach herself from him. Could I really blame her? I could only imagine how it must have felt to watch a crazed man come charging straight at her with a blood-soaked knife. One wrong move and that weapon could have ended her life—or our son’s. I understood why she was so anxious.
Thus, I contacted the lab and Ryou’s school, letting them know we needed a few extra days for Kazune to feel secure again. She was a rational person; after a few days of peace, surely her emotions would stabilize, and she’d be fine again.
“Okay, Kazune, I contacted the school and the lab. Just take it easy and relax with Ryou for a few more days.”
“Okay… Sorry about this, Koyomi. Thank you for understanding.”
She smiled weakly, and I cursed myself for lacking the power to allay her fears. But as her husband and the father of her son, the best I could do for her was to go to work in her stead. So that’s precisely what I did.
Two days passed, then three, then four.
But after a full week, Kazune still showed no signs of improvement.
On my day off from work, I watched TV with my mother while Kazune was off playing a game with Ryou in his bedroom. According to Mom, Kazune had been hovering over him nonstop this past week. She was still keeping up with her housework, and by keeping our son within arm’s reach at all times, he had learned how to help out with some chores too. That much was all well and good, but…
“The boy’s fine. He’s a little ball of energy, and he wants to go outside and play. But Kazune-chan… She worries me. Now, I don’t blame her, given what could have happened, but… Frankly, she’s blowing it way out of proportion.”
Mom didn’t know that the culprit had targeted Kazune and Ryou; we had lied to her about it to prevent her from getting paranoid herself. So in her eyes, it must have looked like Kazune was just being dramatic.
“And she even cut herself with a knife while cooking? I’m just saying, it might be good for her to speak to a therapist at least once.”
A few days prior, I came home from work to find Kazune with her left wrist bandaged up. She told me she accidentally dropped a knife while cooking and cut herself pretty badly. Since the bandages were still there several days later, the wound must have been fairly deep. If she kept slipping up like that, she could injure herself even worse, or Ryou could be hurt. That was the exact opposite of what she wanted.
But something told me it would only make things worse if I tried to push her to seek therapy out of nowhere. Instead, I decided I’d stick with my original plan for the day and have another long talk with her. I let Mom know, then I headed off to Ryou’s room.
“Right there, Ryou! Get over there!”
“Quit nagging, Mommy!”
Through the door, I could hear Kazune and Ryou shouting excitedly to each other. From their voices, you’d almost think everything was fine.
“I’m coming in!” I called as I entered.
Inside the room, Ryou was wearing a headset and playing a VR game while Kazune cheered him on. On the external monitor, I could see it was a soccer game.
“What is it, Koyomi?”
“Well, I kinda need to talk to you.”
“About?”
“How about we step into our room real quick?”
“Can’t we talk here?”
“I need to speak to you in private.”
“But…”
She glanced furtively at Ryou. Meanwhile, he carried on playing his video game like he couldn’t even hear us. I waited for him to reach a good stopping point, then gave him a little pat on the shoulder.
“Ryou, put that on pause, buddy.”
He pulled off his headset and looked at me in confusion.
“Daddy needs to talk to Mommy for a little while,” I continued. “You can play VR again later.”
“Awwww! But Daddyyyy…” He pouted his lips at me.
In our household, Ryou wasn’t allowed to play VR without adult supervision. The realistic 3D worlds were so engrossing that real-world accidents were all too common, and I could tell that was what Kazune was worried about.
“Just play a game on the TV screen.”
“But VR’s easier!”
Sign of the times, I suppose. When I was a boy, VR was something only rich people had access to. But just ten years later, it became the top Christmas gift for kids. Those days, when people said “video games,” they meant VR by default. The standards of “normal” were prone to change over time, and at that point, the concept of playing games on a monitor was outright foreign to most kids. Then again, perhaps the evolution of video game technology was nothing compared to how quickly and drastically imaginary science had changed the whole world.
“All right, Daddy’s confiscating your HMD for a bit. You’ll get it back once we’re done talking. And let us know if you decide to play outside, okay?”
“Okaaay…”
Though he didn’t look happy about it, he still obeyed, and I was relieved to know that we were raising him right.
“Be safe, Ryou. Don’t do anything dangerous.”
“Mommy, you’re so naggy now!”
“It’s for your own good! The world’s not a safe place!” Kazune spat, angry that he was brushing off her concern. She had never shouted at him like this before, and I could see a hint of fear growing in his petulant eyes.
“Wow, Mommy sure is nagging a lot. But our Ryou’s gonna be just fine! He’d never do something unsafe. Isn’t that right, son?” I said in a playful voice as I ruffled his hair, hoping to keep that tiny seed of trepidation toward his mother from taking root. “C’mon, Mommy, you know what you ought to say. ‘I’m starry.’”
Kazune paused for a moment. “Don’t be ridiculous… Ryou, I’m safari.”
“It’s SORRY!” our son retorted with perfect timing.
Frankly, I was glad to see that Kazune still had it in her to play along with my joke. We all shared a laugh, and then she and I headed off to the grown-ups’ room.