Welcome to the story Database Horizon! This is my newest story, featuring elements from two (actually three) anime and a video game. ZEXAL is obvious; it's what this story is categorized in. But you guys gotta guess the references for the others, unless you voted on my poll. Which you'll probably guess easily.

Anyway! I'm planning on having at least two stories in this Database Horizon thing. It'll definitely have a sequel, which I'll reveal the title for later.

There are a few OCs in here that aren't mine; I don't own those characters, obviously. I'll let you all figure out who's who.

Possible couples to appear are (for sure, anyway):

Kaito/Droite
Durbe/Rio
Vector/Sylvia (Kat's OC)
Pulsar (My OC)/Layla (My OC)
Rio/Vector
Yuma/Kotori
Alit/Kotori

Warnings

Gore/Violence (Nothing too extreme unless requested)
Language (Again, nothing too bad unless requested)
Some drug/alcohol usage
Character Death
Some sexual situations (Due to shippings; nothing higher than T unless requested)

Anything else I'll explain within the story! Enjoy and don't forget to review!

It was planned to be the biggest game release in the history of Japan. The game, called 115 Online (One-One-Five, as it was pronounced), was going on sale later in the year; potentially a million copies were going to be produced even during the beta testing. It was going to be the third VR-MMORPG to be distributed worldwide. The company developing it, called Horizon Industries (or HI for short), had posters everywhere for it, requesting testers in any possible way they could within the limits of the island country.

The gear required for the game was correctly called the Gazer. Fashioned to look like a pair of glasses that went all the way around the field of vision—even peripheral— it connected the brain and the nervous system directly to the circuitry through a very complicated process that most people chose to ignore. It looked cool enough—hence the ignorance that would soon choose the fate of a thousand beta testers.

Nobody knew it was going to be this bad, or that something like this could happen.

I flipped through the tabs on my browser, reading various articles on previous Virtual Reality games such as 115 Online. The two computer monitors were filled with different programs running, which I was going to use in order to set up the game's system so I could play it. Doing so was taking forever, because the technology had never been introduced to my computer before. I wasn't big for games, but when my father had told me about it, I couldn't help but get it. The concept art, along with the other miscellaneous items sent to me, displayed what the game was capable of; and God knows that I have an obsession with history.

The computer beeped, sending me a notice that installation of the hardware had been finished. Jeez, it sure took its own sweet time with the program. I clicked okay on the notice box and got out of my chair. The Gazer's box was sitting on my bed, the lid part of the way opened. I hadn't taken the device out yet because I needed to do a few other necessary things in order to get the visored thing to work. Getting out of my computer chair, I grabbed the box off of the bed and grabbed my Gazer from inside. It was blue with a crimson lens, a custom model since beta testers were apparently 'special'. The colors hadn't been entirely important to me; I just used a randomizer on Google in order to choose what to paint it.

Along with the Gazer was the cord to connect it up to the CPU. This would link me directly into the game. I plugged the cord into the side of the glasses, then shuffled my computer's CPU around in order to find the place to push the adapter in to. As soon as the two pieces of technology were hooked up, another installation program began to download. According to the notification on the second monitor, it would take a couple minutes to be finished.

The game sat on the desk. I took it from there, settling back into my chair. The cover had the game's name printed in sharp, block letters across the top, showing the Nazi Germany theme in the background. A player's avatar, based off of some guy probably involved in the development, was slicing into a Nazi Zombie's neck with a knife (yes, you read that right). The picture itself wasn't very gory, but there was still blood involved in the game; a heavy amount, according to the list on the back of the box. Along with that was the possible weaponry involved, the mentions of armor enhancement, the possible enemies to be faced inside (zombies, liches, undead demons... you name it, it's in this), with many more things that completely blew my mind. It was a jump from my simple pixelated games that I had come up with in my elementary school years.

The combined noise of the Gazer and computer finishing their introductions to each other made me jump slightly. Opening the case for the game, I took the small box from inside, as well as the cord, and hooked it up to the CPU. A menu appeared on the main monitor, and I clicked around until everything had been finished installing. Exiting out of the internet and everything else (excluding stuff for the game), I grabbed the Gazer from on top of the CPU and laid down on my bed.

My heart began to race as I placed the glasses over my eyes. The lens turned everything into a reddish color. For a few moments I sat there, wondering what the hell I was supposed to do, when a sentence reading in bold violet letters started flashing.

Please feel around your body for calibration purposes, it stated. Awkwardly, I gazed at the words, blinking in confusion until it brought up a picture to demonstrate. With an extended, "Oh," I felt around with my hands, following the instructions the moving image showed. It was really weird, feeling places that I honestly didn't want to touch (especially the crotch area—which, by the way, is awkward considering that this is a game), but I did it anyway just to get the process done and over with.

Fifteen minutes later I was feeling uncomfortable as I finished the calibration. The Gazer thanked me for helping it get acquainted to my body (which left me with an unending stream of hormones—caused by the damn touchy-feely thing), and then asked if I wanted to log in. Shaking slightly at the thought that this device was hooking my brain directly into a computer, I replied to it, a, "Yes," barely making its way out of my mouth.

A wormhole developed within the lens and I felt my whole body go completely numb. I swear I passed out,because the red lens disappeared and the colorful wormhole took over my vision. It was so weird, how this worked; I definitely had to get used to this before I got anywhere serious inside the game. After going through the wormhole for a few moments, it brought me to a large, white space, with the language setting floating in front of me. I chose Japanese, and it brought me to a text box displaying what my name would be. It instructed me to think of what I would name my avatar, so I chose my real first name, unable to come up with anything original. Confirming it, the game dumped me into a black space, with a clear solid floor.

"Come and choose your avatar's appearance," a female voice spoke from overhead, echoing throughout the darkness. A set of screens floated across the room, showing various options. I stepped up to the screens, choosing a male avatar. The basic outfit—a military uniform—covered the avatar. I chose a unkempt, blonde hairstyle for my character; a healthier, pale tone for the skin; and light blue eyes. As close as I could get to my actual appearance without making it too obvious. I confirmed that this was going to be my avatar during the beta test, and the game closed the avatar creation.

"Welcome to 115 Online," the female voice stated happily. "Here at Horizon Industries, we hope that you have a wonderful experience. Enjoy your stay!" With that, a light blinded me and I shut my eyes, waiting for the colors to stop dancing on the back of my eyelids.

I opened my eyes slowly, a new setting being revealed to me. In a sort of fish-eye effect, I found myself inside what looked like a colosseum of some sort. A glowing bar of green floated in the right side of my vision, displaying my name underneath of it. I assumed that this was the health bar, considering that there was a point indicator beside my name. Pulling my interest away from the statuses being displayed, I swept my eyes around, seeing some of the beta players talking to each other, getting acquainted with each other. The atmosphere was dank, dark, and despite this everyone seemed happy.

I walked forward, looking down at myself to see my military uniform. The camouflage, like everything else in this place, was black, green, and brown. Dark. Depressing.

"Well, this is supposed to be World War II," I murmured to myself, continuing forward. A few of the others waved to me, and I nodded my head in response; I wasn't very social at all. This game was just for me to assert myself with the mechanics of a virtual world of this type. I didn't care for social interactions. Just like how I was in the real world.

A loud boom resonated through the building, dark planes flying overhead. The players around me gazed up at the sky, some of the girls clutching to taller, handsome men that were talking to them. I frowned, inspecting each of the planes; American bomber planes. Odd...

Someone poked my shoulder. I turned around, seeing a girl close to my height standing behind me. Her hair was jet black and flowed down to her waist. She had equipped on a standard pistol, which each player had on apparently, along with her military outfit. She looked a bit nervous, her orange eyes slightly bigger than what was probably her avatar's natural shape.

"Hey," she said awkwardly when I didn't say anything. "Do you know how to open the menu? I forgot to read the manual before jumping into this game."

I nodded; luckily I took a day off from school in order to read the entire guide. "You swipe your hand," I started off, slashing my hand in a horizontal line at neck level, "to open the menu." After the movement, my menu appeared, the six white triangles displaying various places to go to with a tiny icon. The girl followed my actions, having to swipe a few times to get it right. Eventually she got hers open, flipping through the various panels that popped up with each button she pressed.

"The guide is in our items box, right?" she inquired. I nodded again. She searched through her items box, finding the small book and clicking on it. It appeared in midair beside the menu and she grabbed it, raising an eyebrow at the little amount of pages contained within it.

"It's really small," she murmured, flipping through the pages. "It only gives us control details. Nothing else. What'd they expect us to do? Die a hundred times before we get to another town? Geez. Damn developers." The girl then put the book back into her inventory, searching once more. "Another newb question: where's the log out button?"

"Should be in the home menu," I replied, reopening my menu and clicking on the home button. It brought up an image of my avatar, showing the various things equipped to me. But I didn't see a log out button anywhere. This was a beta, so it was common for bugs to happen, but this shouldn't have happened. At all. One thing's first when developing a virtual game like this; a log out button that works.

The players in the area were all doing the same thing. Checking their menus. Seeing no log out button. Various stages of freaking out. I bit my lip, looking around. This wasn't expected, nor was it on accident. I could feel it; someone had planned to do this. The girl beside me let her menu close on its own, shifting in her boots. Her hair tilted with how she moved her weight. Being a guy and all, my hormones responded in a way I didn't want them to; apparently my brain found her attractive even with her small chest and curves.

"Stand straight, you idiots," someone yelled from the seats of the colleseum, making me and the girl turn to look at a guy with a grim reaper outfit gazing down at us. More players appeared in glittering columns of blue light, looking confused as ever. A way to teleport people? Odd. This guy must be the GM, I concluded, stepping forward.

"Who are you?" a few of the others yelled. Chaos was on the edge of breaking out, and I could only hope that I managed to get out of here before that happened.

The man drew his hood down, and long blonde hair came flowing out. His eyes were black, or at least appeared that way from the dim light filtering down from the near-black clouds. "I am the Game Master," he addressed loudly. The players calmed slightly at that, becoming quieter to hear him. "As you have noticed, your Log Out function has been disabled. This is no bug, or accident. This is intentional." Before the crowd could throw a fit, he continued on. "You may wonder, 'Why would someone do this?' Well, it's simple; out of the thousand of you, only one hundred will survive."

I bit back a gasp. The girl who was with me couldn't stop hers and clung to my arm. I let her do so, feeling sympathy for her fear. "This game contains one hundred fifteen levels," the GM continued. "In order to get out, each of you will have to get through all the levels. There are no bosses in this game. The way that you can get through to the next level will be sent to you via message once this meeting is over." He paused, looking over us and descending a couple of rows, coming close enough that I could see through his cloak; his body below his head was all skeletal. "Your Gazers, if removed, will send a microwave pulse into your brain and kill you. This process will also happen if you die in-game. To add onto this, the pain absorption, along with other codes to block certain functions, will be completely shut off." He began to cackle. "I hope you morons can keep up! Ta ta." With a flap of his cape he vanished.

Chaos broke out. The girl beside me, still clinging to me, watched as others went rampant, sobbing, yelling, all kinds of insane states. I breathed out, pushing my panic down. A bubbly ring caught my attention and a message icon flashed in my vision. I swiped my hand through the air, the girl doing the same after letting go of my arm, and together we looked at our messages.

Starting in ten seconds, your appearances will be Mirrored. Afterwards, this Colosseum will be flooded with enemies. Enjoy your stay.

I blinked, confused by what it meant by 'Mirrored'. But then I felt a tingle and suddenly the girl and I were surrounded by a transparent light. We stared at each other, and I watched as her avatar changed. Her black hair shortened to her shoulders, her bangs poured over her face in a flood of violet, and her eyes got slimmer. Her body shape changed dramatically, from that of an underdeveloped girl to a girl in her late teens. Her chest got larger, her hips wider, and she retained her eye color and height. The light dissipated, and I lifted my hands to my hair, feeling the way my hair now stuck up like (as my brother had told me) an ice cream cone.

So that's what Mirrored meant.

Betas who had chosen to be the opposite gender of what they were in real life glared at each other if they had already been in couples. I sighed, disappointed in the people who would do such a weird thing. The girl that I'd completely forgotten about for a few seconds began to laugh, gesturing to my hair.

"Shut up," I told her, frowning angrily. Yeah, yeah, I get it, my hair is so very weird. I turned from her and began to walk off, but she grabbed my arm.

"Let's for a party," she stated. "According to that message, something is going to attack us. Teaming up might be the only way we'll make it out alive."

She had a point, even if I really, really hated the idea of partnering up with somebody. I had an ego to protect after all (at least according to my cousin Mizael). I turned back to her and opened my menu, sending her an invitation to form a party. She accepted, and her health status appeared under mine. Her name read 'Droite'. That was going to take some time to pronounce.

"Kaito, eh?" she murmured to herself. "My name's pronounced Dolowa, by the way. Sorry if it's so hard to say."

"No, it's fine." I was going to say more when a few girlish screams sounded from within the arena. We looked around, people going silent for a few seconds before ominous moans filtered into the building. Shuffling, echoing through the stone walls, grew louder and louder with each moment that went by.

"Great," Droite whispered, drawing out her pistol from her hip holster. I did the same, not realizing the gun was there on my hip until after she grabbed her own. "I've played enough games to know what that sound is."

"Zombies," I affirmed, as we started to back up in a random direction. There was no doubting it now; based off of the screams and panicked noises the undead was starting to fill the building. With only a couple of pistols and finite ammo, Droite and I wouldn't be able to take on such a large horde of dead people. Moving, dead people. She looked back over her shoulder while I kept watch, seeing several players starting to engage the growing amount of undead gathering around them.

"Kaito, there's a door back there that looks like it's clear," she whispered, tugging my arm. I started backing away from the players starting to perish to the flesh-eating creatures. Together, we ran towards the exit, trying to get there with everything we had. The gated door, however, was locked. Now, if I knew anything from action movies, shooting the lock might do something, but I wasn't sure. I pushed Droite back, pointing my gun clumsily at the lock and pulling the trigger. The recoil I wasn't expecting and the echo made me wince, but the bullet impacted the lock and somehow broke it.

The noise caught the attention of nearby zombies, who began to move, rather quickly, towards us. I struggled getting the chain off, hearing my new partner firing her pistol at the creatures. Swinging the door open, I hurriedly gripped Droite's shoulder and pulled her out with me. The door swung shut just as the zombies got to it, and the AI's were stupid enough to not figure out how to open the door. Apparently that was one thing the developers had gotten right about those undead people; no brain activity equals no thought process. Droite yelled my name, getting my attention, and I realized I had slowed to a simple jog.

Outside the building was a place that was ravaged by war. Any other structures were completely ruined, bullet shells and corpses lying around. I winced at the realistic stench the dead people gave off, but they looked too decomposed to come back as zombies, although I didn't rule out the possibility. I pushed myself faster, holding my pistol to the side as I followed after Droite. The only thing that mattered was getting out of this city.

A message popped up again, and I swiped my menu open, panting as I tried to keep up with her (she was one agile girl). It told me about the map and the types of cities; something I had read over in the manual. "Oi, Droite," I called, as we skidded past a burning vehicle. She yelled back over the roar of a plane above us, and I continued on. "Let's find a Cheap Level city to rest in. It's better than finding a Free Level city and possibly getting eaten!"

"Yeah, let's do that," she agreed, blasting a hole into a half-there zombie trying to bite at our ankles as we rushed passed. "I have enough money to get us into a cheap hotel."

"Okay!" I trotted after her, breathing hard. My health bar began to have a flashing outline of yellow. Droite apparently noticed this too, since she paused in her running and gazed over her shoulder.

"Your hunger is already affecting you," she grumbled. "At least, that's what I remember from the other VRMMORPG that I played." She flipped through her inventory again, frowning hard. "Damn. We need to get out of the city before your hunger level starts affecting your health."

Now that I thought about it, my stomach was grinding itself into a fit. I winced, feeling the full effect of the emptiness inside of the organ. "Well, do we have any options?"

"There's a town nearby," she said, going over her map. "It's a Free Level city, though. Do you want to take the chance of us dying at Level 1?"

"We don't exactly have a choice, Droite," I replied, annoyed. She glared at me as she closed the menu. "Let's go."

"Fine." She took the lead, and together we fled into the country. I wondered dimly why I was with this girl now, of all people. I didn't want to be with her, especially with that attitude of hers. But she was the only shot we had at this game currently. I grumbled to myself, wincing as another wave of hunger passed through me.

Hopefully we got to that damn city in time.