[1989: p. 64]
[2003: p. 68]
DIMENSIONAL SLIP 2
How Can I Ever Repay Flying Man's Gift to Me!?
Seikou Itou
いとうせいこう
Author, Multimedia Talent
I've always said that I have the hardest time receiving presents I can't repay.
For instance, an only son.
"I humbly offer you, with tears choked back, my beloved, irreplaceable Toshihiko." If somebody told me something like that I'd just die.
"Okay then, here, have my Masao in return." It's not like I could say that!
Even so, what is this thing we call one-sided gift-giving? The one who receives the present can't help but go on living the rest of his life feeling that pressure, right? Plus, he has to raise the gifted son as though he were his own. It really is a troubling situation.
Even MOTHER has that kind of "present you can't repay" in it, and in admiration I say things like: "Yep, that's our Mr. Itoi, showing off the irrationalities of life."
Case in point: Flying Man. He just voluntarily joins me. This of course means he can be hit by enemies, but I can't protect him. I can't recover his health for him, either. He devotes his all to me, then dies. You can't get any more guilt-stirring than that.
But, see, the important thing is, here I am, and while I'm feeling guilty, I'm also feeling irritated at the Flying Man. Here I am, spitting at him: "You jerk! You had to go and force death upon yourself!"
These are delicate, complicated emotions. After breathing an especially candid sigh of relief at the death of the Flying Man, there came the moment I discovered his grave, and it was way too much for me. "What kind of person am I, that I'd breathe such an easygoing sigh of relief...?"
And, well, that sent me to wander around in the dungeons of my heart for a while. What's more, this may seem stubborn of me, but the important thing here is, while I'm supposed to be taking a good hard look at myself here in the dungeons of my heart, there's a part of me that again thinks: "You just had to go and die. ... Are you trying to place that kind of pressure on me!?" I just can't bear it.
I think you can compare how unbearable this thing is to the human experience. I'm still a spring chicken. My dungeons are as deep and as dark as the layers of my psychology are many. In that sense, the experience points you get in MOTHER may be close to the experience points you get in life. It doesn't matter if it's an unbearable feeling, a heartrending feeling or sadness — if we don't chuck them right out with a heave-ho even as we're feeling a bunch of different, conflicting emotions, we won't progress in the game. I imagine, by its very nature, there's as many things chucked out as there are people with a high level of life experience points, so it's got to be tough.
But you know, when the game is over, there's bound to be that refreshing feeling of letting it all go. In other words, this game ends up with the kind of structure where, if you're a child, you encounter the dungeons of your heart, and if you're an adult, you escape them. It's a back-and-forth. Whether you're going in or going home depends on who you are as a gamer.
Man, why did Mr. Itoi have to give such an enormous present? If I receive a game that's patterned after life, nothing I give in return can pay it back.
Oh, I guess I can buy him something.
[Screenshot dialogue box:]Here rests Flying Man, thecourageous warrior andeternal servant to Ninten.
[Names Entered:]¹
(N) Crossfan Crest
(L) Fad Shoes
(A) Softly Plucked Koto
(T) Folded-up Document
(F) Poison Mushrooms
¹ Take these names with about fifty pounds of salt. The names which this book's contributors entered for the characters and favorite food can sometimes be extremely difficult to figure out.
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