Shiemi nodded, "Of course it's me, Ren! Who else would it be?" She asked, putting her hands on her hips as her virtual tail flicked. She had spent a rather obscene amount of time upon entering the game attempting to learn how to move her ears and tail. It was difficult to master, as they weren't real parts of her body, so sending neural messages to them was impossible without practice. However, her gaze dropped as he hunted through his menu and she nodded, "Yeah, it's weird, huh?" She was clearly naïve, not thinking for even a moment that anything was amiss. After all, she didn't know anything about bugs or glitches. She quickly followed her childhood friend over the hill, keeping quiet during the whole scene with another gentleman named Kuzai. What did it mean if they couldn't log out? What if her parents went up to her room and yanked the Nerve Gear off of her head? Would she just log out, or would she fall unconscious..? Why didn't she just read the instructions that came with the device?!

Ren suggested they return to town and she huffed, "My name is Komada, Onii-chan," She stated in irritation. If she was going to play a game, especially a roleplaying game, she was going to do it right. "And... okay... Yeah, but when I was there, it didn't seem like anybody else noticed," She said sheepishly. The two of them started back for the town, but halfway there, a bright flash of white appeared in front of the girl and she screamed for her friend. However, he would be in the same position, the light dying to reveal them back in the Town of Beginnings, the main plaza. Player after player appeared around them and the frightened girl quickly found Ren beside her, latching onto his arm for dear life, "What's happening?!"

A voice soon answered, naming himself Kayaba Akihiko... He spent quite some time reviewing the new development: this was no game anymore. One hundred floors of Hell had been created and they were all trapped within it. At the mention of a new item in their inventories, everybody opened their menus and withdrew what was apparently a mirror. As Shiemi stared into it, she saw her ears disappear and knew her tail would be too and soon any minute difference between her nearly-identical avatar and herself had been removed, leaving her as the exact image she had seen before entering the game. At least her parents hadn't removed the NerveGear and killed her... They listened to the broadcast... or didn't even know she was in her room, playing the game yet. Oh god, what would they do if they found out later? What if they didn't know what was going on?

Komada let the mirror disappear as her eyes filled with tears, "This isn't funny..." She muttered, shaking her head strongly, "Ren, please... please tell me this is all a sick joke... I want to go home... I have school tomorrow, my parents are going to kill me... Tell them to us go! They can't [i]make[/i] us play the game if we don't want to..." She finally spoke as the robe in the sky seemed to melt away and flutter down to the ground, the "Announcement" message disappearing as well.