Idoru (Bridge, #2)

by William Gibson

this last all strung together like one word, indicating a concept that taxed the lexicon of the ear-clips. Chia wondered briefly if it would be worth running it through her Sandbenders, whose translation functions updated automatically whenever she ported. “A what?” “Otaku,” Mitsuko said carefully in Japanese. The translation burped its clumsy word string again. “Oh,” Chia said, “we have those. We even use the same word.” “I think that in America they are not the same,” Mitsuko said. “Well,” Chia said, “it’s a boy thing, right? The otaku guys at my last school were into, like, plastic anime babes, military simulations, and trivia. Bigtime into trivia.” She watched Mitsuko listen to the translation. “Yes,” Mitsuko said, “but you say they go to school. Ours do not go to school. They complete their studies on-line, and that is bad, because they cheat easily. Then they are tested, later, and are caught, and fail, but they do not care. It is a social problem.” “Your brother’s one?” “Yes,” Mitsuko said. “He lives in Walled City.” “In where?”