Harry briefly paused at that point, lifted haunted greens eyes to meet Agil's eyes for the first time since the man and the teen had arrived, and unconsciously switched over to speaking English; his voice shaking with fear as he continued, "I kept shattering over and over and over again. It hurt so bad that I really wanted to die but I couldn't and there was nothing that I could do to make it stop. When it was finally over I was like I am now and I ached all over and everything was all messed up."
"The day of the launch, everyone received a mirror that was designed to sync their Avatars with their physical bodies; how did you manage to avoid having your Avatar synced to your real body along with everyone else's?" Kirito inquired (the teen automatically switching to English in response to Harry's use of the language) in order to give Harry something else to think about aside from the apparent torture he'd suffered through from some kind of glitch in the system.
"I hadn't understood very much of what the mod-bloke said that first night because I didn't know very much Japanese back then and he spoke too fast for me to puzzle out the words I didn't know. The next thing I knew, the other Players standing around me were pulling out those Mirrors from their Inventory and before I could see if I had one too, I saw the others being changed. Everyone else was so angry and scared that I thought the mirrors hurt them so I never took out the one in my Inventory. Once I learned what the mirror had done, I deleted it from my Inventory because I wasn't supposed to be here and I knew that if someone recognized me, then I'd be in even bigger trouble than I already was."
"You avoided being unmasked as a child on the day of the game's launch due to a mere technicality?" Agil drawled in disbelief. Harry shrugged his shoulders and shifted uncomfortably as he glanced between the two older Players. Agil sighed at that point as he asked, "You avoided answering me every time I asked you previously but this time I really need for you to answer me; how old are you, James? You don't look a day over seven or eight but that's impossible because an age restriction was imposed upon the equipment necessary to experience a FullDive. On the other hand, I just can't see you as being thirteen."
"I'm nine," Harry confessed meekly as he dropped his eyes back to the ground in shame.
"That's not possible; none of the technicians would have implanted a NERDLES in a nine year old. Not even for a rather hefty bribe," Kirito insisted with a frown as he apparently just noted how small Harry looked.
"I… I'm not even supposed to have the gaming console. I stole it. My uncle bought it for my cousin but then he threw it away after my cousin made a comment about something he'd learned in this game and I dug it out of the rubbish bin because I'd wanted to know why my uncle was so mad about what had been said and why he refused to give my cousin back his things. I didn't know you had to have someone put the NERDLES in for you; I just stuck the extra one my uncle had bought to the back of my neck where the picture on the package showed it was supposed to go. That was back in the middle of August."
"You were a Beta Tester," Agil surmised as he immediately understood the significance of the timing.
"Yes."
"Your parents and your friends must be very worried about you," Kirito stated softly, his eyes filled with concern as he eyed the wounds that were visible through Harry's ruined shirt once more. "Your injuries are also still bleeding pretty badly. You said something about being in pain earlier, are you in pain right now?"
"My parents are dead, no one in the real world cares about me, and my only friend is Agil," Harry retorted casually as he poked at the rather nasty gash that ran from between his middle and ring fingers on the back of his left hand down below the thumb before wrapping around the underside of the wrist from where the one crow had grabbed him. "And, yes, the cuts still burn and sting and I still ache all over."
"Surely someone must be concerned for your health since you've been trapped here for so long now," Agil insisted; the older man clearly upset and uncomfortable over the implications of Harry's declaration. "You spoke of your uncle and a cousin; won't they be concerned?"
Harry glanced up at his friend briefly before he turned to stare out over the field as he let out a soft, humorless laugh that sounded wrong coming from the mouth of a child as he stated, "My aunt and uncle made it a point to remind me on a weekly basis that I'm an ungrateful freak and a burden that should've done the world a favor and died in the car crash that killed my parents when I was still just a baby. The only thing they'll be concerned about is the fact that I broke the rules; I dared touch something that belonged to my cousin and I stole from them. I'm surprised they didn't pull the plug on the Nerve Gear I'm wearing the moment they discovered me linked up to the game in my cupboard under the stairs."
Harry didn't notice that Kirito had a horrified look on his face due to Harry's declaration or that Agil's expression was mostly filled with concern, more than a little sadness, and barely suppressed anger; the nine year old far too occupied with his inner turmoil.
"That's why I came here in the first place. During the Beta Test this world became my home. I was free here. Now… now this place scares me. As bad as my relatives are, they never hurt me. This game… this stupid, cruel game made me bleed," Harry continued hoarsely as he pushed up his ruined left sleeve to bare the numerous gashes that had been left by the crows as tears began sliding down his face once more. "Why? Why did their attacks hurt so much? Why did the crows suddenly make me bleed when they attacked me this time? What is wrong with me!?"
The other two Players said nothing because they had no answers.