A black adept rogue looked over the bridge in Mac Anu, his countenance even more somber than it usually was. In fact, his expression was extremely dour since it was a step up from his usual depressed or pissed off looks.

Why was he then standing at the bridge, looking at the computer generated scenery when something was obviously bugging him? The bridge from one part of the Root Town had a special meaning to him that few other players knew about, and as such he remained there as he sulked in his thoughts.

A man in a yellow outfit and had a long blue ponytail patted Haseo on the back, his own positive emotions radiating out from him, "What's wrong Haseo?"

The adept rogue didn't even turn towards his fellow GU member, to many thoughts on his mind to even notice the man.

Seeing that he wasn't going to get a reply anytime soon, Kuhn shrugged his shoulders and began to leave, "If you want to talk about it sometime, just let me know Haseo. I'm here for you if you need me."

Haseo sighed and continued to look at the digital river and sky in front of him. The scenery didn't change at a very rapid pace, but even as the fake clouds shifted it felt like it was all going by quickly. He had been standing in the spot so long that he was beginning to lose all track of time. Luckily for him, he had the next day off from school so he could stay standing in this spot for as long as he wished.

An orange skinned man with an odd outfit and an equally odd bird mask crossed his arms as he stood next to his pupil, "I know why you're sulking kid. Listen, it wasn't your fault. You got that? Nothing you could have done would have changed what happened. I know it's hard, but move on and try to keep going. Only if you do that will you ever be able to help her."

The adept rogue growled lightly at the former head of Icolo, "What do you know! Just get the hell away from me, Old Timer! I don't have time for your pep talks!"

Antares shook his head and turned away, "Whatever you say, Kid. Whatever you say. Can you imagine how she would feel about how you're acting right now? I don't think she would want this to be the end of the world for you, in fact I'm sure of it," turning his head towards his student, the man spoke through his odd mask, "I'm going to let you think about that for awhile. Seeya Kid."

Haseo shook his head angrily, still bitter about how Antares tried to straighten his attitude out. How could the old man possibly understand what it was like? He couldn't. Haseo slammed a hand down on the railing of the bridge, pissed that his so called mentor had even tried to tell him to move on.

A white clad Harvest Cleric stood nervously behind the adept rogue, "Um, Haseo? Are you alright? I mean yo-"

Unlike Kuhn's calm and somewhat heroic voice, Atoli's was impossible to simply block out since it was so high pitched. Coupled with the fact that half the reason that he was upset at the moment was because of an identical player character to Atoli, Haseo snapped loudly at the pacifist.

"Shut up Atoli! I've had enough of your constant cheerfulness, I've had it with your annoying attitude! Just leave me alone!"

Atoli stepped back in shock before lowering her gaze and logging out. Haseo felt slightly less irritated now that she was gone, but his mood was very far from even just neutral.

Letting out a growl, Haseo slammed his hand down angrily again, "None of them understand how I feel…damn Beaurdoux…damn AIDA…damn Tri-Edge…damn World! Why is everything so messed up!"

"Well with an attitude like that how can you expect to ever change anything about it?"

Haseo turned his head to face a tan skinned shadow warlock with green hair standing to his right, his expression changing from somber to surprised at seeing the newcomer.

"Tawaraya? I thought that you were going abroad to study. What are you doing here?"

The former leader of the merchant guild TaN laughed, "I am on break at school, so I decided to check up on you just as Phyllo asked me to. And didn't I tell you, the name's Tohta now."

Haseo harrumphed indignantly, turning back towards the water, "Whatever. And why are you checking up on me? Don't you have more important things to do?"

Tohta smiled as he leant on the bar, "You're here for a reason aren't you? I remember how you used to come here in the past, back when Phyllo was around," he sighed before continuing, "We all came here actually."

Haseo continued to stare at the water, trying to block out what Tohta was saying. If two people being gone wasn't enough for him, the mention of the passed away sage was just aggravating. Sensing Haseo's mood and recognizing what was going on, Tohta gave another sigh.

Stating more as a fact than a question, Tohta continued, "You've lost another friend haven't you? Someone else has become a lost one," Seeing Haseo's character tense up, the shadow warlock knew he hit it, "And yet, you're not obsessively chasing after Tri-Edge. So who was it that PKed your friend?"

The adept rogue didn't reply at first, but he spoke after realizing that Phyllo's chosen successor was not going anywhere, "It was a PKer named Beaurdoux, a member of the guild Kestrel who is infected by a special kind of virus. She lured my friend into a hidden ground by herself, saying that she had information that could help my friend help out a friend of hers who was going insane," Haseo looked down towards his feet, to angry and sad to look at the CGI clouds any longer, "She told me that she was going to the hidden ground…I arrived to find her character fade away just like Shino's."

Tohta expected Haseo to continue on, but when he heard nothing he looked at him. Tohta was extremely surprised to find that the adept rogue had a tear rolling down his cheek, so he decided to let the kid sort himself out and not press the issue.

After almost a minute Haseo continued to speak, "Why…why do I always arrive to late? I couldn't save either of them. I might not have been able to stop Tri-Edge even if I was there when he attacked Shino, but I should have been able to stop this from happening. I should have been there."

The merchant frowned slightly and leant forward on the railway, "Would you mind explaining what happened a little bit better? I have been offline for some time now, so I may not be able to help you with my current knowledge."

Haseo sighed lightly, "Since you left the game a computer virus named AIDA has been causing issues here. AIDA is as dangerous if not more so than Tri-Edge, in that normal players can't even fight it in any way, shape or form. Furthermore, players who are defeated by AIDA are either controlled by it and infect other players, or they lapse into a coma," Haseo cleared his throat, his face sad as he recollected the computer virus, "Only special player characters can see the virus and fight it, and I happen to be one of them. Using a special feature about my character called an Avatar, I am able to fight off AIDA."

The prospect of certain characters having the ability to combat a dangerous virus while others could not irked Tohta, "Well, what is the avatar like? How does it work? And how many people have them? A couple? A dozen?"

Haseo shook his head, "Myself included, I know of six Avatar users. There may be a couple more, but they are rare. Yata, or should I say Naobi, used TaN and its resources to locate avatar users so he could recruit them against AIDA," Haseo took in a breath, "And Avatars are like large monsters that can be summoned by their users, although they are directly tied to the user. My Avatar, Skeith, is vicious and has forcefully taken control of my mind before, all so that it could viciously defeat whatever enemy I am facing…even other players."

Tohta's brow creased, "So wait, you can use this Avatar against other players? What happens in that case?"

Haseo kept his gaze from the merchant's as he continued, "Players defeated by an Avatar can become Lost Ones too. Sometimes they are only unconscious for a second, sometimes a minute, but it still is dangerous. Normal players can't see Avatars, just like AIDA, and using an Avatar makes it seem like you used some special one hit kill attack on your opponent."

Still not at ease, Tohta continued questioning, "Sounds like you know what its like to use your Avatar on another player. Mind if I ask whom?"

Haseo continued to avoid his friend's gaze, "I-I used my Avatar in an arena match against another Avatar user, but that doesn't count I guess. Other than that I used Skeith by accident against my friend who was just PKed, and I used it against the player from Kestrel who PKed my friend."

Tohta nodded, "So, let me guess, this Kestrel player was infected by AIDA and attacked your friend?" Seeing as Haseo didn't respond, Tohta took it as a yes, "So which was it? Are they comatose now, or has your friend become infected as well?"

"They are comatose now…they are a lost one just like Shino."

Tohta nodded and placed a hand on the adept rogue's shoulder, "I'm sorry for your loss Haseo. It's never easy losing someone, and its harder to lose somebody just after you lost someone else," retracting his hand, Tohta looked at the scenery of Mac Anu, "Keeping it all bottled inside won't be good for you Haseo. Mind talking to me a bit more?"

Haseo nodded numbly and the shadow warlock grinned softly, "Alright then, would you mind telling me about your friend who was PKed? They must have been really close to you in order for you to be this depressed."

Haseo sighed, not wishing to discuss what had happened but also wanting to get some of this off his chest, "Her name was Alkaid. She was the former empress of the Demon Palace arena, until an Avatar user like myself cheated in the tournament by using his avatar to rise to the top. When I first met her she basically kicked my ass, even lifting me with one hand into the air."

Tohta laughed at the idea of Haseo getting his just desserts, and nearly bawled at the thought of it being by a girl, "You are usually acting like a tough guy. That must have hurt your pride quite a lot."

Haseo nodded slightly and his expression became a little less somber, "I swore to defeat her fairly, without using Skeith to fight her and I trained hard to do so. But when I fought her in the tournament it was clear that we were on totally different levels and she easily kicked my ass. Skeith, sensing my anger at losing, took control and ended the fight instantly."

Tohta's eyebrows rose again, "So you cheated too? She must have been angry that she had her title stolen from her twice by two players who both cheat."

Haseo's grim expression returned in full, "Well, I guess so. She got up right after the fight though and claimed that she could never forgive me for what I had done before leaving," a small smile actually crept on the sad player's face, "Sometime later she would actually join my arena team. It's funny how fate works out like that."

Tohta's eyebrows continued to stay in their raised position, if not rising higher, "Wait, rewind a bit. Did you say she joined your arena team even after all of that? You send her flowers with a card saying "I'm Sorry" or something like that?"

Haseo shook his head, "No, nothing like that. She wanted to help out a fellow member of the emperor's guild Icolo named Sirius who was acting strangely. It turned out that he was infected by AIDA and so I worked together with her to try and get through the tournament and defeat Sirius and the AIDA infecting him."

Tohta began to piece some of the puzzle together, "You two became friends through the tournament, kind of like comrades in arms?"

Haseo shrugged, "You could say that. She had some sort of rivalry with our other teammate Atoli, a Harvest Cleric who is almost identical to Shino. In fact it would be easy to confuse them if Atoli wasn't so loud and annoying. Anyway, Alkaid and I got closer through the tournament and I have to honestly say that it was easy fighting through it with her."

"Alright. So what happened next? You rarely become friendly with anyone, so what made her so special?"

Haseo tried to find what to say, failing and restarting his sentence multiple times in doing so, "Well, she was a little bit like myself. Determined, hot tempered, and I later learned that we both are fans of the same book series. Stuff like that made me feel closer to her than say Tabby and especially Atoli," pausing for a moment, Haseo actually chuckled, "I think she felt like that towards me too, since she always seemed to be arguing with Atoli about me."

Tohta grinned wildly, "Ah, girls fighting about you. That's always interesting, especially if you like one of them yourself," he gave a wink at Haseo who only blushed lightly in response, "You must have liked her a lot if you even gave her the time of day, so don't even try to deny that you must have had some feelings for her."

Haseo tripped over his words again, "Well, I guess I was beginning to have feelings for her. I think that really started when she gave me a pair of rare Honeysuckle twin blades."

Tohta's eyes widened, "Wait, do you know what those symbolize?"

Haseo nodded, "Devoted affection. She tried to play dumb about that fact, but her character was blushing intensely and she couldn't even honestly deny it when I mentioned what they symbolize. She logged out as quickly as possible after that interesting turn of events."

"You don't seem like the type to know a lot of stuff like that. How did you learn that?"

Haseo's face returned to its previous depressed look as he replied, "Shino told me before."

Tohta nodded, not replying verbally so the adept rogue could take his time to pull himself together again. After a little while Haseo became markedly happier, containing an almost neutral mood, "Alkaid was definitely interesting. I just can't believe that she is gone now…she was always so chipper when she was still around. I really miss that."

"Well Haseo, not to make you sad or angry, but you said that you saw her character as it faded away. That interests me. What happened?"

Haseo took his time to answer, "Well, she told me not to cry, because boys don't cry. She also tried to calm me down because I was freaking out at the moment…it was just the same as when Shino was PKed. Shino told me not to cry too…blasted irony."

Tohta put a hand on his chin, thinking for a second before replying, "Well Haseo, from what you've told me I think that you should continue to battle this AIDA. From what I see, it may be the only way for you to save her. You said you defeated her PKer and that she is still a lost one?" Haseo nodded, "Well then, hopefully by fighting this AIDA you may be able to find a cure for the lost ones."

Haseo nodded at Tohta, understanding the man's perspective. After Tohta saw his confirmation, he continued with a laugh, "If she was really as tough as you said she was, then I am pretty sure that she would kick your butt if you simply moped around when you could be helping her out. So go out there and fight this AIDA. I'm sure its what she would have wanted. And maybe if you're lucky, helping cure Alkaid will help your quest to save Shino."

Haseo didn't reply to Tohta, instead focusing on his thoughts. Tohta let him take his time again, knowing that none of this could have been easy for him. After Haseo reached a decision, he looked up at the scenery in front of him.

"Tohta…thank you. A lot of people have tried to fix me recently and for some reason none of them have been able to. But after talking to you about everything I feel better."

Tohta nodded, "You're welcome, Haseo. I may not be Phyllo, but I promised him that I would take care of you and I intend to do just that. If you ever need me, just send me an email at this address," Haseo got a flashing message telling him that he had gotten an email, "So don't be afraid to contact me. I may be busy at school, but I can always find the time to talk to you if you need me."

Haseo nodded and turned to face Tohta, "Thank you again. I think I should head to bed now so I can get back into the swing of things tomorrow."

"I really should get going too. I am staying with family at the moment and they are wondering why I am spending so much time here in my room talking to a computer. Good-bye Haseo, and good luck. If you find a way to help Alkaid or Shino, please update me."

Haseo nodded his head to his elder friend and the shadow warlock logged out. Looking back at the scenery, Haseo smiled.

"I swear that I am going to help you both. I will save you two no matter what it takes."

Taking one last look at the railway of the bridge, Haseo could swear that he saw a hooded raccoon floating next to the rail. When Haseo rubbed his eyes the apparition was gone, but it left Haseo sentimental.

"I'm sorry Phyllo for never listening to you. I promise that I will not ignore Tohta and Antares like I did you. Any one of us may be gone one day or the next, so it's important to cherish the people around you while you still can. I have learned that the hard way three times already," standing back from the rail, Haseo began to log out of The World, "Good bye Phyllo and may you rest in peace."