Silent Guilt, Restless Mind

"Why didn't I see this coming?" Ryo muttered, pacing back and forth in his room. His footsteps echoed through the quiet house, the sound of his sneakers scuffing against the floor ("Step... Step... Step..."). "This... this is my fault."

He stopped, running a hand through his hair. The faint hum of his computer in the background was the only sound breaking the silence in the room. "Hum..."

"I was so excited," Ryo whispered to himself, his voice shaking slightly. "I didn't think about the consequences. I didn't... I didn't think this could happen."

He stared at his phone, the screen dimmed after his last search for answers. Shurei was still unresponsive at home, lying in that capsule, and Ryo couldn't shake the image of his friend—trapped, unable to wake up. The VR capsule's lights flickering in the darkness of Shurei's room were burned into Ryo's mind.

The Capsule's Glow

Ryo's gaze drifted to the corner of his room where his own capsule sat, deactivated but menacing. He could almost hear the sound of it activating, "Click... Click...", the soft hum of the machines coming to life.

"Why is his still on?" Ryo whispered, more to himself than anyone else. "Shouldn't it have powered down by now?"

He pulled his phone closer and stared at it. The device felt heavy in his hands, as though it carried the weight of every mistake he'd made. "He's still connected," Ryo muttered, his eyes narrowing. "But how? How is it still on?"

Ryo stood still, the words echoed in his mind as his breathing grew more erratic. His fingers clenched into fists, fighting back the urge to slam them into something. He walked over to the capsule, his legs heavy, hesitant. He knelt in front of it, running his fingers over the cold surface of the VR system. Its faint glow pulsed, steady and indifferent to the chaos it had caused.

"Are you... still in there?" Ryo whispered as though Shurei could somehow hear him. His heart raced at the thought.

The Theory Forms

He dropped onto his chair, his thoughts swirling like a storm. "What if...?" His voice was shaky, barely audible as the thought took root in his mind. "What if Shurei's... still in there?"

He shook his head, trying to dismiss the idea as quickly as it came. But no matter how hard he tried, the thought refused to go away. The longer he stared at the capsule, the more it made sense.

"No... it's impossible," he whispered, though his voice was filled with doubt. "Isn't it?"

But the facts were staring him in the face. Shurei was unresponsive in the real world, but the capsule... it was still functioning. The VR system was still connected. He hadn't noticed it before, but now it seemed glaringly obvious.

Ryo's hand hovered over the keyboard. He felt stupid for even thinking this could be true, but his gut screamed at him that there was something more going on. "What if Shurei really is trapped inside Gaia?" It was ridiculous, but it was the only theory that made any sense.

Searching for Answers

Later that night, Ryo sat at his desk, the computer screen casting a pale glow over the darkened room. His fingers hovered over the keyboard before he started typing: "VR Capsule coma case" into the search bar. He hit enter, and the screen filled with search results.

Most of the articles were about the potential dangers of VR technology—headaches, disorientation, rare cases of seizures—but nothing about someone falling into a coma. Ryo clicked through a few links, scanning the pages for anything that resembled Shurei's situation.

Nothing.

He leaned back in his chair, rubbing his temples in frustration. "There has to be something," he muttered, leaning closer to the screen. "There's no way Shurei is the only one this has happened to."

He clicked on a few gaming forums, hoping to find discussions from other players who had experienced something similar. He scrolled through pages of threads—people asking for tips, discussing the game's mechanics, but nothing about a player falling into a coma while connected to the capsule.

He typed again, faster this time: "Gaia player coma VR case." The search yielded the same results—discussions on game mechanics, speculation on new updates, but nothing even remotely helpful.

Hitting a Dead End

Ryo sat back in his chair, staring at the monitor in disbelief. "Why is there nothing?" he whispered, shaking his head. He ran his hands through his hair, frustration bubbling up inside him. "Am I just imagining things?"

The more he searched, the more desperate he became. Hours passed, the night deepening outside, but Ryo found no answers. Every lead he pursued led to a dead end—no special cases, no reports of people trapped inside Gaia, no hidden threads on dark forums discussing the phenomenon.

His chest tightened as he stared at the screen, fingers trembling. "I... I need to know. This can't just be a freak accident." He slammed his fist on the desk, the sound reverberating through the small room. "Damn it!"

He glanced at the dark screen of his computer, now displaying nothing of use. The reality of the situation weighed heavily on him, but in the back of his mind, that thought still lingered.

What if Shurei was trapped? What if there was a way to bring him back?

Determined to Investigate

Ryo lay on his bed, his mind still racing, staring up at the ceiling. The house was quiet now, but his thoughts were anything but. His phone buzzed on the nightstand, the app for Gaia blinking with a new notification. "Ding!"

He didn't reach for it immediately. Instead, he let his eyes drift to the capsule in his room. The one thing that started this entire mess.

"Gaia..." he muttered. "It started everything... and it might be the key." He debated with himself, torn between diving back into the game to search for answers and dealing with the crushing reality outside of it.

His eyes darted back to the capsule, his gut twisting in knots. The guilt was suffocating, his mind reeling with the possibility that he had caused all of this.

"I have to go back in," he said quietly, his voice steady now. "I have to know if Shurei's really in there. If I can't help him out here... maybe I can help him in Gaia."

Ryo gripped his phone tightly, his eyes filled with resolve. The guilt was still there, heavy and unrelenting, but it had transformed into something else—determination.

"I'm coming for you, Shurei," he whispered into the quiet of his room.