Warcross

“[…] …but tonight, I can join in with everyone else, put on my glasses, and watch magic happen.” 

Emika gives in to the escape of Warcross, a virtual reality world and competition. In Warcross, amazing scenery replaces her ugly, harsh environment, and watching the professional competitors in the opening ceremony game of this year’s championships distracts her from her debts and hopelessness.

“See? Every locked door has a key, Emi.” 

Emika recalls a time when her father showed her how to see the unmatching elements between two similar photos on the back of a magazine. When he tells her to look at “the whole of something, not just the parts” (33), she spots the differences right away. Her success prompts this line from her father. Later, recalling this advice from her dead father and the inspiration she feels after learning about Hideo Tanaka’s Warcross invention boost 11-year-old Emika to see the mistake in her Computer Science assignment code.

“You glitched the game!” 

Keira says aloud what Emika already knows in the moments after Emika hacks into Warcross player Jena’s account and successfully steals Jena’s newly acquired Sudden Death power-up. Emika’s hack and theft somehow brought her into the Warcross competition, making her visible to the players and to millions of invisible spectators. The game ends due to a “system glitch.” Stunned, Emika assumes authorities are on their way.

“I have a job offer for you […] Would you like to hear more?” 

Emika falls asleep waiting for authorities after glitching herself into the Warcross competition. When she awakens, she is surprised that no one came to arrest her. Her phone alerts her to 84 texts from the Henka Games headquarters. When she calls the number given, Emika is shocked to speak with Hideo Tanaka, who offers to fly Emika to Tokyo and learn more about a potential job. 

“Join a session of Warcross with me […] and I’ll show you who I’m after.” 

In Emika’s first meeting with Hideo, he gives her NeuroLink lenses and invites her into the virtual world of Warcross. In two levels inside, he shows her Memories of the damage to the code caused by the perpetrator he calls Zero. Emika finds the damaged spots and repairs even the more complicated one with relative ease.

“It’s my name.” 

At the Wardraft event in a Tokyo stadium, Emika’s name is the first one chosen. This makes her top draft pick for this year’s Warcross championship. Asher, captain of the Phoenix Riders, chooses her. Hideo added Emika to the draft so that she could pursue Zero from within the competition.

“It seems I’m becoming the weapon in disguise for more people than I’d like.” 

Emika reacts with this line in her internal monologue when Asher assigns her the task of chatting with Tremaine, Architect of rival team Demon Brigade, at the club party. By “more people,” she refers to Hideo, who recently hired her as a secret bounty hunter of his nemesis, Zero.

“Look, Princess Peach, this isn’t how things work in the championships.” 

At the club party, Tremaine reacts with this line to Emika when she extends a hand to shake. Tremaine dismisses her offer of goodwill and greeting, insults her, and goes on to say that he will win in their first round of competition together. Emika’s intent is to appear naïve, so that Demon Brigade members will not understand what to expect from her.

“Welcome to the training grounds.” 

Asher introduces Emika to the virtual world of the training grounds that help prepare professional Warcross teams for the championships. The training grounds offer parallel worlds, levels, and challenges to the ones the competitors will face in competition. Emika spends exhausting hours in the training grounds leading up to the first game against the Demon Brigade.

“You didn’t listen to my instructions.” 

Though Emika successfully retrieves the Morph power-up in her first training session with the Phoenix Riders, she loses it to Hammie, who steals it for the captain of her practice team, Asher. Asher tells Emika with this line that retrieving the power-up was not the mission; it was to deliver it to her practice team captain, Roshan. Emika learns that follow-through and instructions, two challenging areas for her, are important in Warcross. 

“It’s my job to walk with the criminals, Mr. Tanaka.” 

Emika tells Hideo this when the two see that Ren will be meeting at the Pirate’s Den in the Dark World, the threatening underlayer of crime and gangs that exists “beneath” Warcross. Emika intends to go to the Pirate’s Den and spy on Ren’s activity there. This line is also significant because it is the last time Emika calls Hideo by his last name. She also requests that he call her Emika instead of Ms. Chen.

“This is who Ren is meeting. It’s Zero.” 

Emika is in the Pirate’s Den in the Dark World when she sees a “lean shadow” of a figure enter the space. Dressed in black body armor and a helmet, the figure also has impressive security shields and a proxy to cover his identity. Emika feels a chill when she sees him.

“I just want some fresh air tonight.” 

Emika gives this as her excuse for avoiding a night of Mario Kart with her fellow teammates. The truth is that she already requested a meeting with Hideo and a private car is waiting to take her to him. Her lie shows the growing conflict she experiences in keeping the truth from her team, especially when she suspects that Ren is connected to Zero.

“I think we know the answer to both of those questions.”

Hideo asks Emika if stories of his success really helped her forget the pain of losing her father; Emika responds with another question, asking Hideo if his strenuous, knuckle-bruising workouts really help free him. Hideo replies to her question with this line. Emika does not respond, but instead of increasing any negative tension, the two “settle into a comfortable silence” (202).

“The closest player is me.” 

In the first match, Emika watches supersized beasts stir to life in the virtual glaciers that surround her. An ancient polar bear breaks free of the ice and goes after her, the closest player. Roshan, her teammate, sacrifices himself to save Emika. Shortly after, she harnesses another ice beast, a dragon, so that it attacks the Demon Brigade’s captain, Jena. Emika’s team goes on to win.

“I’m not going anywhere.” 

After the first game, an anonymous assassin makes an attempt on Hideo’s life. Emika discovers the plot from an encrypted file she snares from Ren during Warcross play. She warns Hideo, saving him; Kenn and Emika want Hideo to flee Tokyo for his own safety, but with this line of dialogue Hideo refuses to leave.

“I know that the space between us has changed permanently.” 

Emika leaves the first game’s victory party to travel by skateboard to Hideo’s home. She wants to warn him to leave Tokyo, but he is unwilling. They cannot deny the mutual attraction between them any longer and end up kissing. When Emika leaves that evening, Hideo kisses her cheek, and she knows that their relationship will be different from now on.

“There was a new expression in his eyes tonight, the kind open only to a few…but there are still secrets behind it.” 

Hideo confides in Emika about Sasuke’s disappearance on the same evening that he introduces her to his parents at their home and cooks dinner for her. Emika knows that she is one of the few people Hideo trusts with his background and emotions. Upon leaving each other that evening, however, Emika feels that he is still keeping things from her.

“I see a better route […] Don’t worry.”

Emika tells Asher why she is rejecting his instructions in the third game of Warcross against the Cloud Knights. He lets her go on the deal that it will be her only “solo move” of the event. This lie from Emika covers the fact that she wants to follow Ren through the level of underwater caverns. There, she encounters Zero and refuses to work for him.

“It’s just a game.”

After the media broadcasts the news of Emika and Hideo’s romantic relationship, Hammie and the other Phoenix Riders demand to know why Emika is keeping secrets. She is frustrated because she cannot tell them that Hideo hired her nor that Zero threatened her. Emika is also worried that she will lose their friendship, respect, or both. When she says this line, they do not understand that she speaks about Warcross with relative importance to her secrets.

“I’m too afraid of involving you in something far bigger than yourself, that you didn’t even choose.”

Hideo visits Emika in the hospital after Zero bombs the Phoenix Riders’ house. He pays her in full and releases her from the job of finding Zero, but Emika tells him she wants to continue. Hideo insists with this line that she abandon the work because it is too dangerous. He also alludes to his brain-control plan, but Emika does not know this.

“My plan […] was to stop Hideo.” 

In the moment after Emika disarms Zero’s second rigged Artifact, Hideo’s brain-control algorithm uploads to and activates for all NeuroLink users. Emika does not know the effects of her intervention yet but feels a sense of dread when the electric static hits her. She tries to tell Zero that his plan failed, but Zero tells Emika with this line that she did not understand the importance of his (Zero’s) plan.

“What’s the point of freedom if you’re just living in a miserable reality?” 

Emika is torn when Hideo tells her about the mind-control algorithm. She considers the loss of people’s individual freedom against the background of cities overrun with crime. She wonders if Hideo might be right, especially because he seems sincere; she knows that he is motivated by personal tragedy and wants to prevent others from experiencing loss. Eventually, Emika decides Hideo is wrong and cannot support him in his endeavor.