Not working on stories has had an (Extreme) impact on social Life, social graces, social well-being and perception of other individuals…

The whole fucking spiel.

In any case, on Good Friday today, way in the earliest of this glorious morning, I got the idea for a story after Reading stuff from the Kingdom Hearts Section of the site, while at the same time, watching "My Gym Partners' a Monkey" special movie, "The Big Field Trip" on Cartoon Network. Bizzare, was not a word that could do the justice of describing how I felt about the sudden inspiration from what I was watching and yet at the same time what I was reading, nor did it help understand why it made feel like I needed to write one anyway. Oh well. I guess it's better not to ask questions, and in the words of Lulu from FF10: "Go with the flow".

This story is basically revolved around some nameless point in Time during the events of ".Hack//G.U." It'll be really short.

Title: Silhouette: a shadow of things to come

Delta: Pitied/Endless/Midnight Rain

"See! There's nothing wrong with this area. Low level monsters, and a few really good items. A few. Not like this place has much value anyway."

It was a woman from first appearance. She had green hair and wore a nurse's crown on the top of her head, out of place with the rest of her jaded physique, which was a baggy pair of pants and an antique pair of designer gloves. The same could be said of her boots, if you paid close attention.

She wasn't heavily counting on seeing anything of rare interest in an area like this. It was level 20. She was level 40. Some time back then, she was a low level newbie who didn't take the game as seriously as she believed. She chose instead to lay low and hang out on servers, because why waste your time leveling up and having to go through hard dungeons for some stupid items? They really weren't worth all that trouble, were they?

But then she grinned like a fool realizing the irony in her beliefs; here she was, now helping out a player obviously weaker than herself. She turned around to see that player just coming in, and apparently it must have been her first time playing. On coming in she appeared to be cross-legged, showing she was still getting used to her "land legs" in a sense. This girl was a level 1 Twin blade. She had Green hair like Saburo, and sported a blue-toned, sleeveless shirt with matching skirt, and boots. She was wearing mid-sleeve gloves. In each hand she carried a short dagger. She looked pretty anxious to get started, because she struggled to move over to wear Subboru was, at the edge of some huge plateau over-looking a huge gorge. This area was very mountainous. It was nighttime in that field, and far away hanging in the dark blue the sky so many worlds beyond was the moon. It the largest moon that Sabruo had ever seen. Figures. After all, in "The World", almost anything is possible. She knew first hand.

"You ready to tackle this area? It can be really dangerous, if your not too careful. Even for me, besides the fact that I'm a level 40 Lord Partisan," she remarked coolly.

"I don't care, I just want to get started," said the female twin blade, but in a very ravenous voice. Ever since R:1 had been down, she had been waiting a long time to get back into playing online again, but more importantly it provided her the opportunity to try and meet again with someone…

"Hey! You can't just rush into things," Saburo told her sourly, a frown creeping up on her placid, irregularly cheerful features. "I only volunteered because you looked like you needed help."

"Sure but now you're saying that I looked like needed help," the girl pointed out, and Saburo wasn't exactly amused. Why should have to deal with this? She could go on without her anyway. She walked off. The Twin Blade girl thought she had offended her, and then proceeded to chase after her. She didn't want to have to struggle on like that by herself. She called out eagerly, "Hey! Wait up, come back!"

How long the trip down into the gorge lasted, neither player weren't so sure; Along the way, they had already encountered at least 3 monsters in the field, guarding altars. The twin blade girl didn't fare so well in fights, and before long, Saburo had to use many revival feathers just keeping that player alive. Getting tired repetitively trying to help her, she thought for a moment about getting rid of her. But alas, in some of their battle victories the girl ended up becoming stronger then she had expected, going from Level 1 to level 14 by the time they found the last Symbol fragment and then received the judges' Symbol, opening the way to the Gott Statue.

The two of them were standing outside the entrance before Sabboru said, "Let's go. Our prize is inside."

"Okay."

They descended the lengthy staircase down to a set of large double doors and opened them. Then there was a huge hallway that ran straight to the statue, and Saburo had a wry, wily smirk appear on her features.

"looks like a trap."

"I don't think it does," said the twin Blade girl. "Look, the statue is right there." Having assured herself of her own sensible explanation, she walked over, but soon two other players jumped out.

"Newbies! I'm going to love this!" said a young man with white hair who laughed derisively into her face, while brandishing his sword. He then proceeded to scream, "Hey Asta! I've got this one!"

"Sure, whatever, Iyoten," said the girl, Asta, calmly brandishing her own blade fiendishly with an equally fiendish smile. She was an Edge Punisher, The twin Blade girl was thinking. She knew because before she started playing she studied all the varieties of different classes in "The World R:2", and could tell by the Extremely large, and wide black sword with spiked gears spinning on both sides she was no regular Heavy Blade like from R:1.

Asta had her sights set on the girl she spotted standing far away. Not the least bit phased by the sudden, and unfortunate turn of events, she brandished her large Lance and casually walked over.

"Don't try anything stupid!" Asta screamed waving her sword near the girl Twin Blade. "You better not try anything stupid! Or we'll kill her! Now then, hand over all of your GP and items and we'll be on our way!" her voice rose to a squeaky, panicking tone. Saburo didn't stop walking. Why was she walking over so calmly? Didn't she fear her words?

Apparantly not, since she said with a bored expression on her face and a sigh, "Player Killers. Cant' live with them in the game, can't live without them in the game. But regularly, I choose to prefer the latter." Asta and Iyoten grew tense, not seeing the fear in the feminine Partisan's eyes they so dearly hoped to instill.

"You two…" Saburo started.

So fast that neither Asta or Iyoten could not see at all, Saburo ran right behind Iyoten and relished the appalling expression on the Blade Brandier's face as he fell with one stroke of her mighty sword.

"You're boring me," she finished.

"Damn you! I'll kill you!" Asta screamed in terror, not taking one second to look at her falling partner in crime. She rushed her and clashed blades with Saburo, and Saburo parried her blow with a powerful flick of her own sword. Confidently she pried the sword right out of Astas' hands to her ultimate dismay and then before another second passed, struck her deeply right in the pith of her stomach. Asta fell like precious china, and her character disappeared after a minute.

The female twin blade, astounded by what she had witnessed, wasted no time in walking over to the chest and opening it to receive a "simple Necklace" out of the chest. She then walked back over to the Saburo, staring at the spots where both Asta and Iyoten vanished after she PKK'ed them. The girl gave her a very impressed smile.

"You must be powerful. How were you able to beat them like that?"

"Experience," was all Saburo had to say about it. Then she remarked, "It's really not something to cheer about. I was probably a lot stronger than them."

"Cool. Maybe I'll become stronger too," the twin Blade girl envisioned herself.

"Huh. Good Luck," Saburo coolly but not sarcastically told her. "What will you make of yourself indeed?" she asked her.

"Maybe do what you just did," said the girl. "I bet I could learn to defend myself and overpower all my opponents. And people will respect me. Yes! I'll be stronger. And then people will always respect my reputation as "Chaotic PKKer or PK-er Natsume"!"

This girl had high hopes, and Saburo wondered out of curiousity where the sudden confidence came from. She was way in over her head.

But then she thought to herself, why should she care about this? It was her purpose for playing, and there was no need to bother her about it.

"Yeah," she answered. "You do so."

The both of them were back in root town server and Saburo walked away from Natsume. She turned around for a minute to tell her plainly, "Congrats, Natsume. You found your place in the game and you know how to play. This is probably the last time we'll ever meet. I'm logging out of "The World.""

"Really?" Natsume asked her, looking very doubtful. She looked sad but then remembered something she wanted to ask her since meeting her in the root town.

"Hey, before you go, do you know anyone by the name of Kite? I'm looking for him, and I wonder if he signed up for R:2."

Saburo just stared at her for a moment. Inside of Saburo were many memories of her previous encounters with so many odd people in game, and then there was one memory in particular that would forever send chills down the spine of the player controlling Saburo and haunt her dreams. So much pent up angst and feeling left in the dark of everything. She asked herself, did she really want to tell this player anything about that? And how would she respond?

It wouldn't make any difference.

"Um, no not really."

"Oh. Cause you look like the kind of player who would have seen him."

But only on pictures of old boards regarding myths about the "The World." Saburo had no means in any way about telling her. She had seen him. but then, something in her gut whispered like a fainting wind, was it really him?

Instead, what came out was, "No. I have not seen him before… but good luck."

"Oh. Okay. Farewell then. Till we meet again!" Natsume cheerfully told her before going over to the gate and going over to another area.

"Yeah, which will be never," Saburo remarked snidely before logging out for the final time. Maybe out there in the real world there were more opportunities. She hoped so. Better to be out there, then here.

-The end