Volume One: .hack/GHOST

Disclaimer: I do not own .hack or anything associated with it. The only things I own the copyrights to are my own original characters, Miyuki, Yoji, and Aoi, and their PCs, Miokiu, Nightmare and Toya. I also own the character Sakura. I am not making money off of this story.

A/N: Welcome to volume one of my four-part .hack story! Just so everyone knows… the phases are based off of the new Bandai project .hack/G.U. I got this information from the main .hack website a while ago. I'm sorry if my story isn't accurate, but hey, it's a fan fiction! All names were made up. Well, most of them anyway. I got most of the names out of random mangas, such as Imadoki, Ayashi no Ceres, and Cardcaptor Sakura. And… only one of the phases names is made up, but that phase will only be mentioned… probably only once or twice in this volume of the story. Anyway, I hope you enjoy my story!

Chapter One

"Thank you for purchasing Version 7.3 of THE WORLD. When you set up your system, please follow the on screen instructions to set up your PC. Have a nice day and we hope you enjoy your adventure in THE WORLD." Miyuki Kugyo read the card that came with the newest version of THE WORLD aloud. She looked down at the parts on the floor. "Damn… I'll never get this together… stupid non-computer smart self!" she sighed and looked around for the instruction manual.

Her mother appeared at her door as she found the manual. "Miyuki! You have a visitor."

"Mom!" she whined. "Can't you tell them to come back at some other time?"

"No, Miyuki, I can't. Just wait and see who it is."

"This had better be good…" Miyuki placed the manual on the floor and followed her mom down the stairs. As she opened the door to the living room, she stopped. "No way… it can't be… Aoi?"

Aoi Mikage smiled. "In the flesh."

Miyuki ran into his arms. "Aoi! It's been forever since I've seen you!" she wiped away tears. "I've missed you so much…"

"I've missed you to Miyuki… hey, no fair, you've gotten taller! Still not as tall as me though! Ha ha!"

Miyuki hit him over the head. "And you're supposed to be my best friend?"

Aoi smiled. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Anyway… what have you been up to?"

"Well… nothing much, but… I need your help hooking up this system I got. It's an online MMORPG call-"

He interrupted her. "THE WORLD, right?" Miyuki nodded. "I can't believe a girly girl like you would get into this kinda thing."

"Very funny, Aoi. I actually wanted to play because this guy…"

"Yoji Ikari, right?"

Miyuki blushed. "How did you know?"

Aoi scratched his head. "I had this feeling you did."

"C'mon, help me hook this up." They headed upstairs to Miyuki's room. "I have no idea what any of this is for! Does this go here?"

He laughed. "No, Miyuki… that's the controller. This goes here…" a few minutes later, everything was hooked up.

"Wow… thanks Aoi!" she turned to the screen. "Please fill in the fields below so you may begin enjoying THE WORLD. Alright… Name: Miyuki Kugyo, Age: 16, Sex: Female, Username: … username… Miokiu, Desired hair color: White, Desired eye color: Blue, Class: … um… Heavy Blade." She clicked the 'Next' button. "Please choose your hair, eye, body, and clothes style." Miyuki messed around with some things. After she was pleased, she pressed the enter button. "Thank you for registering, Miyuki. You may now login as user Miokiu. Please use the password that is provided at the end of this notice. You may change your password as soon as you log in. Have a nice day and we at CC Corp. hope you have a greattime in THE WORLD."

Aoi smiled. "Now we can play! " he handed Miyuki a headset. "Ready to play?"

"I didn't know you played." Miyuki said as she slipped on her set.

"It's been two and a half years since I've seen you. Things change." He entered his username and password. "Well, see you in the root town, Miyuki!"

"Alright…" Miyuki entered her information. A blue background flashed in front of her eyes. "Welcome." She scanned the screen. 'News… mail… backgrounds… audio… change your password… THE WORLD." After she changed her password to something easier to remember, Miyuki clicked THE WORLD button. Another screen flashed up. A sword slashed across the screen. The words 'Key of the Twilight' were engraved on the sword. Beside the sword, a beautiful town on water was displayed. Below that there was more text. 'Enter THE WORLD… Message Boards… I just wanna play, damn it!' she clicked Enter THE WORLD. A loading screen popped up. A few characters flew across the screen, underneath them their usernames. 'Kite, Black Rose, Mistral, Balmung… they must be some super important characters or something…' the characters stopped coming up and the words 'Legends of THE WORLD… the .hackers…' came up. 'The .hackers?' The screen disappeared and Miyuki saw the most beautiful place she'd ever seen.

She stepped forward. "Wow…this place kicks ass!" she shouted. A few people turned around and stared at her. "Newbie…" a few whispered.

"Miyuki?"

"Huh?" she turned around and nearly ran into a boy. "Whoa, what a hottie!"

The boy rolled his eyes. "Hello, it's me, Aoi!"

Miyuki's eyes widened. "Ah, hell, sorry! It's just… your character… it's…"

"What about it? Do Twin Blades look weird or something?" he looked down at his character.

"No, it's just so… uh… this is hard to say because you're my best friend and your character isn't real… but damn Aoi, your character is sexy!"

"Riiiiiiiiight… I get that a lot. Anyway… I'm not Aoi here; I go by Toya. I see that you go by Miokiu."

"Yeah. I couldn't think of anything else so I decided to use her!." She looked around at the town. "So, what is this place?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot you were a Newbie. This is the root town of Mac Anu. Anyway, you need a few potions. C'mon, I'll take you to the item shop." He grabbed her arm and led her down a flight of stairs. After she had purchased all she needed, she turned to Aoi. "Aoi… I mean Toya, what do we do next?"

"Well… I'm actually waiting on one of my friends. We'll wait up for him and head out to an area to train you!"

"You don't need any training?"

"Everyone does, but me and Nightmare, my friend, are pretty well known. I'm Toya of the Scarlet Sky and he's Nightmare of the Scarlet Sea."

Miokiu looked at him. "I have no idea in hell what that means, but okay."

They started to head back to the head of the town when someone stepped out in front of them. "Toya!"

'Wait, I know this voice…'

"Nightmare, what's up? Oh yeah, this is Miokiu!"

"Hi, nice to meet you!" he smiled at her.

"Yoji?"

Nightmare stepped back from her. "How… how do you… know my name?"

"It's me, Miyuki Kugyo!" she turned to Aoi. "Toya… all along… you knew it was him… AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ME!"

Toya smirked. "It must've slipped my mind… my bad!" Miokiu jumped at him and they fell to the ground. "Hey, what did I do!"

"You… you… arg!" she punched him and he suddenly flashed red. "Ah! What the hell did I do?"

He laughed. "It's fine, you took some of my life points. It'll be fine, it's only like 3."

Nightmare sighed. "Are we gonna get goin' or not?"

"Yeah, yeah, c'mon. We're going to Hidden Goddess Field."

Miyuki pumped her fist into the air. "Let's go kick some ass!" Then they all disappeared in golden rings.

END CHAPTER ONE

Well… this isn't as great as I thought it would come out. Oh well. This is still only the first chapter! Please leave a review!