Sabaku: Hey guys, Saba here welcoming you to my .hack// series titled .hack//ARBITER. Now I'm a .hack// junkie. I love this series almost as much as I love Bleach! And that says volumes. I'm doing this series for two reasons. 1) Because I felt moved to. And 2) as a tribute to my friend who got me so hooked on the series. May he R.I.P.

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. Hack//ARBITER

Log One

"Beginnings and the Resistance"

"So which character do you want to be like?" A slender youth of fourteen asked to his companion who stood behind him and to the right, "I want to be a steam gunner, like Kuhn. I met him once. The guy was awesome. Helped me out with a lot of things when I started." The boy ran his hands over the keyboard, barely touching the freshly unpacked keys. A jerk of his head violently to one side was in an attempt to clear his dark brown hair from his vision.

"I dunno… Maybe… Uh… Is Balmung of the Azure Sea still playing?" The other boy asked as he stepped up next to his friend and placed his left hand lazily on his opposite shoulder.

"Balmung?" The boy at the computer asked surprised, "I don't think so… Heard that he was a big player during R: 1, but after the first Internet crisis I hadn't heard anything about him." The brown haired youth swiveled in his chair so that he faced his friend. A friendly smile crept onto the brown haired youths face, as he looked at the blonde haired fellow cast a nervous glance back.

"Oh… Okay. Well does the R: 2 have Blademasters?" The other boy stepped forward more, cautiously, eyeing the screen as if it called to him.

"Not really. Here I'll show you." The brown haired boy turned back to face the computer screen and clicked on the icon that read "The World". "What do you want your user account name to be?"

"Silence. No! Wait. I want it to be Venger." A small smile began to spread over the blonde boys face. He bent over so that he could view the screen better. The light resonating from the computer reflected back off of his light green eyes.

"You're in luck! That hasn't been taken." The brown haired boy exclaimed after a few taps of the keyboard. "Okay now for your first character." The brown haired boy moved his left hand over the mouse and brought the cursor over the words "Create Character" and clicked twice. A new screen popped up and he turned his head to his friend, "Okay, I like giving my characters names before I start building them. What about you?"

"I-I guess…" The blonde replied quietly.

"Hey relax! I told you once you're in 'The World' you could be anyone you want to! Well, almost anyone." The brown haired boy omitted after a quick consideration, "Now what do you want your In Character –or I.C.- name to be?"

"Um… Arisuno. A. R. I. S. U. N. O." The blonde spelt out and waited for his friend to finish tapping the keys to enter the name. Once his friend was done he confirmed that the spelling was correct.

"Alright! Now that your character has a name it's time for you to make him. You said you wanted to be like Balmung, right?" The brown asked and waited for the blonde to nod in agreement, "Okay well like I said there aren't Blademasters anymore but in their place there is Blade Brandier. It's the equivalent to Blademaster."

"So why didn't they just keep the names?" The blonde asked.

"Who knows." The brown shrugged as he turned back to the screen and clicked the mouse until the class read "Blade Brandier".

After nearly an hour and a half of details and customization, the blonde switched places with the brown haired boy. The brown handed him the standard gray M2D goggles and joystick. "I'll join you in a few. Just log on and wait for me to contact you alright?" The blonde nodded in agreement and placed the goggles on and turned to face the computer screen. Swiftly he dragged the mouse over the word "Create" and finally dove into "The World".

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Sabaku: Wow! Okay I think I did all right for a beginning, but I have to stop for now. I want to leave off here so I can transist from one style of writing to another. Plus I want to leave you guys coming back for more and what better way than to leave you wonder what awaits our new crew? Oh and for future reference for all you readers wondering if this is going to have our new players wielding Epitaphs, sorry to disappoint, but no. This is going to run parallel with .hack//G.U. towards the end. Hm… Maybe I'll change that to after the events of the Second Internet Crisis. Anyways this rant is done!

Later folks!

Comments and reviews will be greatly appreciated.