megafan505: Hello one and all! It is I, megafan505! Yes I realize that I have other fics that I should be working on but I just had to write this one down. I am currently working on another chapter for Kingdom Hearts Shadow Sides but I've been longing to work on this one for a while now. I always have .hack/fics in the back of my mind.

Yamimega: I didn't know you had a mind to begin with.

megafan505: I'll just ignore that for now, I'll kill you later, unlike in my other fics I shall do the disclaimer myself for this one.

Disclaimer: I do not own .hack/ in any way, form, or matter. I own the storyline for this one fic and several of the characters. Many of the characters will belong to the same people who own .hack/ while others may derive from other fics, including the fic "Log On!" but won't appear just yet. Now on with the fic!

.hack/Chosen

By megafan505

Chapter 1: The Legend Unfolds

"Really? I'm a Wavemaster! I wanted to be a Twin Blade but I didn't like their designs."

"I just got to level 32 last night!"

"So we're all gonna meet in the Theta server to check out the rumor right?"

"I can't believe I spent all of my GP on a hideout!"

"Oh cool! You got an Aqua Grunty? Every time I try I just get a Noble Grunty! "

Akira Hayabusa was an eighth grade boy with black hair and silver eyes. They weren't gray, they were actually silver, like moonlight or metal, a strange color for eyes to be but he didn't want to be normal. Akira sat in his seat and yawned. He had been sitting there all by himself drawing, he loved to draw. There were few things in life he enjoyed more. There weren't many people around him who shared the passion however. Everyone around him were too preoccupied with video games, the most infamous of which was "The World." "The World," an MMORPG which changed the very meaning of gaming as it was. Akira couldn't care less about it however, above all things he hated video games. To him they seemed like a waste of time and money, once you finish them there's nothing you can do but sell them to some secondhand store for a fraction of the cost you spent on it. Wavemasters, GP, Grunty. All these words were like someone from France coming and trying to explain politics to him, he just didn't get what drew people to it. It all just sounded like meaningless garble to him. It seemed nobody in his class, grade, or even entire school understood him. Even some of the teachers were sucked into the game. Noone of course except Natsume Ichiya, his girlfriend.

The bell rang and everyone hurried to their seats, finally silencing all of the nonsense about "The World." "All right, settle down everyone," the teacher, Mr. Kurasume said, "We have a new student joining us, he comes from Tokyo. Everyone give a warm welcome to Taro Kishinuma." A boy with half-moon glasses and dark brown hair entered the room and bowed. "Now please Kishinuma-san, take a seat, um... let's see, how about behind Hayabusa-san."

The boy made his way to his seat, "Tokyo huh?" Akira asked turning around, "Very nice." Akira had always wanted to go to Tokyo but his parents said that they were always too busy. They promised him that they would take him as a present for his fifteenth birthday, but they would probably forget about that promise. Akira hardly mentioned it to them and they were very bad at remembering promises. "I'm Akira Hayabusa."

"Hey, nice to meet you," Taro said and smiled for a moment, "Yeah my parents said that they wanted to move some place quiet, that's why we came here." The school that they went to, Nakama Academy, was located in Murakami, a small little town. In fact that's what the name of the town meant, little village.

"Now everyone, please turn to page 137 in your books," Mr. Kurasume said, "Yesterday we were talking about the Pythagorean theorem." Akira turned to his desk and put away his drawing tablet. In its place he put down his Algebra book and opened it. He sighed, it seemed like it would be just another uneventful day in his life.

"So do you play 'The World?'" a voice came from behind him said. He turned around to see Taro slightly leaning over his desk.

"What did you just say?" Akira asked, hoping that he had heard the boy wrong. He thought that once the bell rang all of the garbage about "The World" would finally disperse. Boy was he ever wrong.

"Do you play 'The World?" Taro repeated. It seemed this boy would be just like every other student, obsessed with the stupid video game. "Because you really seem like someone who would like to play video games and since 'The World' is the ultimate video game I thought you would like it."

Akira clenched a fist in frustration, "Look, can we talk about this later?" he asked trying to get off of the subject.

"Hayabusa-san!" Mr. Kurasume shouted, "Is there something you wish to share with the class?"

Akira stood up and bowed, "No Kurasume Sensei, I apologize." He sat back down and glared at Taro. 'Just another annoying character in the story of my life,' he thought to himself. Apparently Taro didn't see Akira glaring at him nor did he realize that Akira got in trouble because of him. All Taro did was smile at him. "This is going to be a long day," Akira muttered under his breath.

The bell rang, it was now lunch time. "Now remember class," the teacher said, "Our test over the entire chapter will be tomorrow, if you start studying tonight it will show in your test."

Akira walked out of the room only to be followed by the same voice that was irritating him through the entire class. "Hey Akira," Taro said running after him, "Why were you ignoring me?" Akira just kept on walking, "Hey, where are you going?" Finally Akira could ignore him no more.

Akira turned around, "Look, I'm sorry I was ignoring you but you were the reason I got in trouble!" he shouted. He turned to his locker, opened it, and pulled out his box lunch. "And if you must know where I'm going, I'm going to have lunch with Natsume, my girlfriend."

Taro's eyes grew wide, "So, you have a girlfriend?" he asked slightly jabbing Akira in the side, "Okay then I'll talk to you after your little date! Don't you two do anything naughty!" He ran off snickering.

Akira slammed his locker shut and sighed, "Good riddance." He walked through the hall and outside where a girl with long brown hair and a blue hair ribbon was sitting on a bench. This girl was Natsume. She waved to him and he headed over, "Sorry, I took so long, the new kid was annoying me."

Natsume giggled, "That's all right, come on let's eat." He sat down and opened up his lunch. "Um, Akira-chan," Natsume asked, "You know the game 'The World?'" Akira looked up at her.

"Oh no, please don't tell me that you're getting sucked into the game too," Akira said twiddling his chopsticks in his fingers, "You know I don't like video games."

"Well, I've been playing it for a while and I really think you would like it," she continued, "It's really not that.."

"Look, Natsume, once everyone gets tired of that game what will be left?" Akira interrupted, "Nothing but a software disk, a virtual helmet, and a bunch of attachments that do nothing but enhance the game!" Akira sighed, "Look, I'm sorry I yelled at you, let's just eat our lunch without anymore stupid stuff about 'The World.'" A slightly sad look came across Natsume's face but she nodded.

The two of them ate lunch together for a little while but then Natsume's friend, Sakura Nakamoto came by. "Hate to break up your little date," she said, "But we have that thing to take care of Natsume." Nastsume nodded and stood up.

"Sorry Akira-chan, see you later!" Natsume said as she and Sakura ran off. Akira put away his lunch and walked over to a cherry blossom tree. He sat down and took out his drawing tablet. This place was like his little inspiration spot, every time he came here ideas just flowed right into his head for drawing. Besides drawing, he also liked to write poetry, but still drawing was his passion. He had been working on a picture of a girl, he wasn't sure who it was but her image just came to him. She had long, straight, golden hair and a sad expression on her face. She wore a little dress that was made up of many different colored cloths.

"It's just missing something," he said to himself, tapping his pencil on the pad. There was something that he needed to add but what? It was tugging at his mind and he couldn't focus. He spent the rest of his lunch time just sitting there, thinking and staring at the picture. She looked so lonely, as if all she wanted was for someone to come and help her. "But what is it?"

The rest of the day seemed to take an eternity to pass by. Every class Taro had sat right behind him, jabbering on and on about "The World," and every class Akira would get in trouble for trying to tell him to shut up. For some reason Taro just couldn't get the message, that Akira did not want to talk about "The World." Then, after what felt like a lifetime, the bell rang. Taro, still close behind Akira, followed him to his locker, "So, how did your little date go?" Taro asked.

Akira opened his locker and sighed, 'Finally, he talks about something besides "The World",' he thought to himself. "It was fine," Akira said turning to see Taro with a strange grin on his face, "And no, we didn't do anything like that you pervert." Akira put away all of his books except for the ones he needed to work in and his tablet. As he turned to take something out of his locker he found it. Underneath his science book was a box, wrapped in brown paper with a little sheet of paper attached to it, "What's this?" he asked himself looking at the paper, it was a note that read:

Dear Akira,

I know you hate video games but I promise that you'll like this one.

Please give it a try, just for me?

Love, Natsume

Akira sighed and put it in his bag, "That girl will be the death of me," he said hoping no one else saw the package. Of course they wouldn't know what it was, after all it had been wrapped. Not even Akira was entirely sure what it was, but he could give an extremely good guess, a guess that would be right. He closed his locker and turned, "You're still here?" he asked Taro. Akira picked up his bag and started to walk.

"Wait where are you going?" Taro shouted after him and soon he was following Akira home, "So do you want to meet up in 'The World' later? How about we trade some items or go to a dungeon in a party? Yeah that would be great! I know this place, well I heard about it on the boards, but there's supposed to be a really rare item there and..." It just went on and on. Akira thought that if not after the bell, then at least after the end of school he would be safe from "The World" but again he was wrong.

Finally he got home, well actually his parent's mini mart. They owned a small store and their house was right above it. He went inside and walked through and up the stairs to the house, all the while ignoring Taro. He lay down on his bed and sighed. All of a sudden his cell phone began to ring, "Hello?" he asked picking it up.

"Hey Akira are we still on for later today, I'll meet you in Mac Anu and then we can..." it was Taro. This was just getting too weird.

"How the hell did you get my number!" he shouted into the phone, "Look, we were never on to begin with! I hate video games and above all of them I hate 'The World!' Leave me alone! You are annoying!" If it hadn't have been a cell phone he would have slammed it down on the receiver but he had to settle for pressing the disconnect button for a really long time. He threw the phone on the ground and groaned, "Why doesn't he get it?" Akira's bag fell on the floor and the brown package fell out onto the ground. Akira picked it up and unwrapped it, it was just as he thought. In his hands he held a large box with "The World" written at the top.

He put it down next to his computer, "Well, Natsume asked me so I guess I could try it," he said to himself sitting down. He opened the box and found the software, a headset, the controller, and the user manual. He opened the disk drive and popped the software in.

"Thank you for purchasing, 'The World'" the computer said. It was preprogrammed on the disk obviously. Akira pulled out the manual and skimmed through it quickly.

"All right then," he said hesitantly picking up the headset, "Here I go." He closed his eyes as he put it on, for the time being he only saw the screen which read, "Register with The World." Akira moved his hands to the keyboard and tapped it for a second, thinking. Then after a few minutes he had it, Yamano. Last year he had written a story in poem form about a boy who was forced to face a wicked beast and save a kingdom all for the one he loved. The boy's name was Yamano and he had a spear as his weapon, so when it came to the part where Akira chose his class, he obviously chose Long Arm, a spear wielder.

Now it was time to customize what he looked like. This part was easy. To accompany the poem Akira had drawn a picture of his character. He had black, straight hair, except for a few bangs which were golden in color. He wore a yellow vest with a red shirt that had long sleeves. He wore two bronze shoulder plates and had grey, baggy pants. His shoes were normal leather shoes and on his waist he had a small satchel. "Perfect," Akira said, and he hit the create character button.

Apparently after he registered it automatically logged him in because the next thing he knew he was in the game. He looked around him and saw stone streets and little canals through the town he was in. There were players all over the place, running to and fro from shop to player to alley. Nothing was still, all was active. "I wonder where Natsume could be," Yamano asked himself. He turned around to see the Chaos Gate, a swirling ring that was filled with blue, "Cool." He turned his head a little more and saw a Heavy Blade girl standing there with her arms crossed and tapping her foot. She wore a small chest plate that covered up her upper torso and an armored skirt. She also had an orange shirt on under the armor and had red hair.

"Oh, hello can I help you?" she asked walking over to him. He paused for a moment and she smiled, "No need to be shy, you didn't disrupt me or anything, I'm just waiting for my friend."

Yamano looked straight at her, "Do you mean friend, or boyfriend?" He asked her. She began to blush a deep crimson.

"Well, actually I mean boyfriend," she laughed a bit and then looked at him, "You look kind of new. Do you need help or something?"

Yamano smiled a bit, "Your name wouldn't happen to be, Natsume would it?" he asked with a slight blush. He knew that the odds were really high that it would be her. After all there were over two million people who played "The World"

"Huh? Yeah that's my name, why?" the girl asked and the paused, then she realized it, "Akira!" She hugged Yamano and he blushed, "Oh thank you Akira! I knew you'd try it for me!" She let go of him and stood upright, "But never call me Natsume here. Here I am Nabuko, the Heavy Blade!"

Yamano paused for a moment not realizing what he was supposed to do. "Oh right, um I'm Yamano," he said introducing his character, "So I guess we should go to an area or something right?"

"You read the manual?" she asked in disbelief. He was always the type of person to just start using things and getting them as he went along, "I'm impressed! Yep, that's right! You should already have some items in your pack. Here's my member address," she said. On Yamano's screen a message appeared. "You now have Nabuko's member address: 68527893." He gave her his as well, 69251637. She stood there for a moment as if she were expecting something, "What are you waiting for? Send me an invite for your party."

"Oh right," Yamano said as he started to send the invite. "So where are we going to?"

"Hey you!" a voice from behind him shouted. They turned to see a red haired twin blade with an X shaped scar on his cheek. He wore a black scarf and an orange shirt. He also had a pair of green pants on. His blades were located in the gloves he was wearing and he had silver hair(This is a modified version of Sora's character), "Did you say you were going to an area? Then you'll need someone like me! I can tell you guys are noobs and"

Nabuko cut him off, "Excuse me but I don't think that we will need your help! Besides, I'm at level four! I am not a noob!"

The Twin Blade smirked, "Well, you might not be but he is," he said pointing over to Yamano. Yamano looked down at the ground and shuffled his feet, the Twin Blade was telling the truth, Yamano was a new player. "So come on, let's trade member addresses!"

"There is no way I am trading member addresses with a jerk like you!" shouted Nabuko. The Twin Blade made his way over to Yamano.

"Well, what about you?" he asked, forcing his blades to come out. He held the blades up to Yamano's neck, "You could really use a friend like me." He swiftly put his blades back in, "I'm just joking, I wouldn't kill you. My name's Roat. Sorry for the comments about you guys being noobs, so what do you say, friends?"

Yamano paused for a moment and thought to himself. What was up with this guy. He didn't know wether he could trust him or not but one thing was true. Yamano was a new character and he could use some friends. "Well," Yamano said, "Alright I guess." He gave him his member address and sent him a party invite.

"I'm still not giving you my member address," Nabuko said glaring at Roat, "But let's go. I found

an area where you can practice at. It's called Δ Hidden Passed Over Prairie. It's a wood element area and it's level one."

"I knew you were a newbie," Roat muttered under his breath, "Ok let's go!"

They walked over to the Chaos Gate and all shouted, "Hidden Passed Over Prairie!" Soon gold rings appeared around all of them and they were warped to the area. It was a grassland covered with trees and rocks. Every once and a while there was a little fort, but there was nothing there.

Nabuko threw a Fairy Orb to the ground and little figures concealed in light came from it. They flew back after a few moments, "There, now we can see all the magic portals around here!" There were tons of them all around, "Oops, I didn't realize that there were that many portals around here..." Nabuko said scratching the back of her head.

"No problem!" shouted Roat, "With me here we'll clear them in no time!" Nabuko glared at him but he started to run off, "Come on! Let's get to a portal!" Nabuko groaned and they followed after him to a portal.

"You know what this is right?" asked Nabuko pointing towards the portal.

Yamano nodded, "That's a magic portal, if you enter it then a monster might come out. Other times treasure chests appear."

"Wow, you really did read the manual," she said walking into the portal. Two Mad Grasses came from it and they easily took them down. They then ran off to clear the rest of the portals. On the next one the monster left behind a blue treasure chest.

"What's that?" Yamano asked pointing to it.

"That's a Risky Treasure," said Roat, "I thought you read the manual." Roat threw a Fortune Wire on it and it changed color.

Yamano scratched the back of his head, "Well, more like skimmed really."

About fifteen portals later a message appeared over Yamano's head which read Level Up! "Yes, I got to level two!" he shouted. He looked over at Roat. Above his head it read Level Up! As well. "So who did you say was a newbie?" Akira asked.

Roat grinned. "Well, I'm level three now! You're still more of a noob than I am!" They spent about two hours clearing out the rest of the portals.

"I'm bushed!" shouted Nabuko laying down on the grass, "I think that was the last of the portals."

Yamano and Roat sat next to her. In the real world Akira took of the headset and looked at the time, it was 7:30 "Oh shit! I haven't done my homework!" He put the headset back on.

"I gotta go guys, sorry. Let's meet in Mac Anu tomorrow at say, 4:00" Yamano said as he disbanded the party and the same gold rings that brought him there surrounded him but this time they took him out.

"Don't leave me here with this guy!" Nabuko shouted. She turned around to see Roat getting slowly closer to her.

"I guess that means it's just you and me," he said with a wicked grin on his face.

"I don't think so," Nabuko put her hand in his face an gated out.

"Aw... now I have to go get someone else to go to a dungeon with!" he shouted as he gated out as well.

"They seem like they know how to have fun don't you think so?

"Yes perhaps we should show them how we like to have fun sometime."

Akira took off his headset and sighed, "I guess it wasn't that bad," he said to himself. He was lying though. He hadn't had that much fun in, well, ever. He turned off the computer and set the headset down. As he walked over to his bag he saw that his sketchbook was on the ground. "How did you get over here?" he asked. It was turned to the page that had the picture of the girl on it but something was different, her small hands were held out and in them there were two rings, "That's odd, I don't remember drawing that part." He picked it up and set it next to the headset, the thing that he felt was missing seemed to be there now. He pulled out his homework and was about to start on it when,

"Akira! Dinnertime!" a voice called. He set down his books and headed for his door.

"Coming Mom!" he shouted back. As he left the room he turned off the lights and shut the door.

"You have been chosen, like so many before you."

megafan505: Well that's the first chapter! Hope you guys liked it! In case some of you say that the .hack/ series has two slashes in it I know but won't let me use it put it twice so oh well. Please review and sorry it was so long! Expect the next chapter soon, in fact maybe in a few days. I'm on winter break and I have nothing to do besides my science project and I bet you know which one I would rather do. See you guys later!