Disclaimer: I do not affiliate with Project .hack/ in any way. It does not belong to me. It is licensed by Bandai. The original story of AI Buster was written by Tatsuya Hamazaki.
Author's Note: This is my first fanfic, people. So reviewers...it's your job to be as HARSH as humanly possible when writing your criticisms.
Rated mainly for language.
I tried to get the chat messages into a similar style like the actual novel, but would not allow me the luxury. They wouldn't let me use indents and I had to replace the original slashes(/) with (parenthesis). Any help on this would be appreciated.
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Watarai/Albireo's POV
I stepped into the quiet apartment I called home. Thinking of what I should eat later, I walked over to my sofa and sat down, while popping open a can of soda from the fridge. The couch was cheap looking, but very durable. As was the case with most of the furniture in my room. Besides from my PC, a few games, CDs, and a TV, I only bought what was necessary for me to live a decent life. At least, until I start a family, that is. Although, I wasn't worried. That probably won't happen for quite a while.
I still worked with CC Corp. Although, I was no longer sure if the tasks I were given as a debugger were right anymore. The event with the AI, Lycoris made me think about the subject quite often. Who exactly is "Aura?" Is Aura's birth a good thing? But, "God" or "Morganna," as Lycoris had called it, was trying to prevent it. Her explanation was so full of holes, that it was hard to understand. It usually gave me headaches trying to comprehend it.
Deciding it was best not to think about it before I gave myself a migraine, I finished my quick dinner, walked towards my PC and turned it on. "It's been a while since I played 'The World' for pure amusement," I said as I watched the computer start up. The words, 'ALTIMIT OS' popped up on the screen...the name of the so-called 'Ultimate OS.' I also began wondering if it was really as great as people made it seem to be. Why were events such as the incident with Lycoris happening?
Before going deeper into my reverie, the system had completely started up. A soft, but happy tune came out of the speakers. As usual, several icons started to appear: The World, Mailer, and few other things. Small text flashed next to the Mailer icon indicated that I received new mail. I decided to check that out first before continuing on. Most of my mail consisted of emails from CC Corp telling me about various things, such as, of course, bug reports. Although quite a few times, there were a few emails from Orca and Balmung, usually about the game itself. But sometimes, there was casual conversation as well.
Speaking of which, when I had told the two that I had watched most of their battle against the One Sin, they weren't too surprised. I assumed that they saw the poem on the BBS. Of course, I told them that the poem wasn't by me, but presumably by Hokuto. Orca had told me that it didn't matter the poem was from me or not. They told me that it seemed that I was the type of guy who would be interested in watching a good battle. '…Was I really that predictable?' I thought.
I took a look at the date next to my most recent mail: February 14. To most, people call this day Valentine's Day. But to some of those that are part of the dateless/loners community, they call it Singles Awareness Day. Some might even go as far as to use the acronym, SAD, because it represents how they feel during that day. Of course, I honestly didn't give a shit. Why should I? February 14 was just a day, nothing more. Anyone who gets sad during that day just because they can't get a date is pretty pathetic.
Although, this does not mean I am completely devoid of sympathy. I'm a single too, and I've had quite a few lonely Valentine's Days myself. And I'll admit that I've cried a little the first few times, also. But eventually, at the third year or so, I looked at myself in the mirror and said, "God damn it…Look at me!" and laughed my ass off the rest of the day. After that, I just went with whatever happened on that day. There were even times that I didn't realize it was Valentine's Day until the day after!
Shaking my head of thoughts of some of my less the memorable Valentine's Days, I finally finished checking my mail. Just as expected, I got the usual junk and closed the mailer. It's about time I started playing. I clicked on the game icon and saw the newly redone menu screen. In the background there was a magic scroll with a hole burned through it, giving a good overview of the town of Mac Anu. Along with the game's title, copyright, and menu options, the blade of a sword appeared across the left side of the monitor with the words, Key of the Twilight, engraved on it. I've always wondered whether there was any significance to it…It's known to most players as some legendary, powerful item. I sometimes wonder how much of that is true. I'll have to ask someone about it later…
I was thinking, 'Screw the BBS, I'm on my off hours,' while I moved the cursor over to the 'log in' option with my controller. But I remembered that it was a special date (and one I didn't care about). Special dates mean special one day only events. I moved the cursor over to the board option and entered. I looked through the normal topics. "Ah…the desperate youth," I said. In the message board were several messages asking for a girlfriend/valentine. It's not like I haven't seen any before. But there were more than usual today. 'Obviously, you fool,' said a voice in the back of my mind.
After a couple of moments, I found an event amongst all the wasted posts. Deciding that I would join do the event just piss the admins off, I selected the topic and read the details:
Special Valentine's Event
Author: Admin of Romance
I scoffed at the stupid name the admin (whoever it was) decided to give himself. I read on.
Today we are holding a special event given only to couples!
Be sure to bring your lover to the dungeon: Δ Secretive
Forbidden Feeling. Exact quest details won't be given until
both players sign up for the event.
I sighed and closed the BBS window. 'Figures that the event would be for couples,' I thought. Knowing that I was unable to participate in the event, I decided that I would just log in and explore a few dungeons for treasure. Or so I thought. When I placed my FMD on my head and walked through Mac Anu, amongst all the couples was one lone girl. With her avatar's white witch's hat and waist long blonde hair, I recognized her instantly. I don't know where it came from, but my mind was telling me that if I talked to her today, horrendous things would happen to me. 'I haven't spoken to her in quite a while, but…'
I decided to follow my instincts and tried to sneak off. Unfortunately for me, she spotted me as I tried to leave and waved to me. "Hey, Al! Long time no see!" That was my cue to run for my dear life. I quickly thought of where to go. My house wasn't safe. Since she was in my friends list, she would be welcomed in. I decided to go to another server; she wouldn't be able to figure out where I've gone unless she was close enough to hear me. It would make things even harder if she heard me. Hokuto could just follow me to the server and block my escape when I reached there.
I snapped out of my thoughts. She was still sitting at her spot, smiling and waving at me, waiting for me to walk to her. This was my chance. I quickly turned and dashed towards the bridge. I looked back to see a surprised look on her face while she said, "Huh? Wait up, Al!" She was still standing there, dumbfounded. That also meant a few extra seconds for me!
It looked like things were going to be easy…until I crashed into someone without looking as I was crossing the Mac Anu Bridge. In front of me were two people, a dark-haired blademaster and his girlfriend, a wavemaster. I crashed into the girl. The blademaster walked up to me and yelled. "Hey, what the hell did you crashed into us for?" I glanced back. Hokuto had started to move. "Hey, I'm talking to you!"
"I have no time for this…" I grumbled to myself. I looked back at the blademaster. "Are you sure you want to mess with someone that is part of the debugging team?" I know I shouldn't have used my job as threat as well as telling it in the first place, but this was an emergency. But at least it worked, as I saw that the two slowly backed away from me. Although, Hokuto was starting to catch up. "Damn it, I've wasted enough time here!"
I continued to run. As I neared the Chaos Gate, I passed by two familiar faces. The two now famous blademasters who defeated The One Sin, also known as the descendants of Fianna, were waving at me. "Hello, Albireo," said Balmung. It was the first I've seen of him in a while. In fact, I haven't even seen his wings before. They were beautiful.
Before the two could say anything else, I cut them off. "Hello, Balmung! You too, Orca! Can't talk right now!" I walked towards the Chaos Gate and spoke a command. "Transport me to the Ω ser-" Before I could finish, Hokuto had suddenly caught up to me.
"I've finally caught up to you, Al!" said Hokuto as she pulled my avatar into a seemingly tight hug.
Hokuto: (glomp)
Albireo: …How the hell did you catch up to me?
Hokuto: With this.
Hokuto: (showprevitem)
What she held out in front of me was a speed charm. The fact that you could use them in town surprised me. Hokuto yelled at me. "Why were you running away from me, Al? It was me!"
"Hmph…you just answered your own question," I said. Silence ensued. I muted my mic. "Here it comes…" Like the first time we've met, sounds of tears could be heard. But unlike before, we were out in the virtual public, meaning that everyone could hear.
"I-I just wanted to say I was sorry back at the church, Al…Are you still mad at me?" Whoever said I was mad at her back there? But then I realized she said that to get back at me. As she continued crying, all the couples were staring at me, giving me disapproving looks and snide comments. I could see that Orca was laughing his ass off and was publicly showing his amusement by making his avatar do a laughing pose. Balmung was smirking at me. He must be laughing with his mic off…
Kamerio: Tsk tsk…
LyleRaster: Wow, what a smooth talker! …Not.
Caris: What a jerk!
Orca: Heh heh…Al, you're an idiot. XD
Balmung: Quite the heartbreaker, aren't you, Al?
I muted my mic again and slammed my head against the desk. She was being more annoying than usual. Although, I have to admit…It was a little rude to run away from her just because of a whim. I sighed and turned my mic back on. "I'm sorry, OK? Didn't mean to make you cry," I said to her. 'Again,' I thought. 'Although you're probably faking it to get attention and embarrass me…'
"Then why were you running away?" said Hokuto. Here avatar now showed a mixture of anger and sadness. Even more snide comments came from the crowd, which was slowly getting bigger. I was cursing in my room with the mic off, wondering why she has to attract such a huge crowd. She was also making this very hard for me. My mind quickly thought up of an excuse. It was too late to set this conversation to whisper mode, too many people were already surrounding us.
Albireo: Because, uh…you're cute face reminded me that I
had something to do, so I had to run!
Hokuto: ……
Xaktor: ……
Kamerio: ……
Orca: Ha ha ha ha ha!
LyleRaster: …Liar.
Hokuto: Al, that's the lamest excuse I have ever heard. But I
forgive you.
Her avatar's mood shifted from extremely sad to annoyingly smug. She was enjoying this sick form of torture. As Orca's laughing got even louder, people were leaving. Obviously, they were expecting some sort of argument to amuse themselves and didn't get what they wanted. When the crowd left, I realized something. 'Damn it! I could have just logged out right at the spot!' I sighed and stared at her. "So, how are things… Yates?" I said with a smirk, daring to speak what I assumed was her alias.
"Uh…my name's Hokuto, Al," she said in response to the name. I guess that means she's either trying to deny the fact, or that she really wasn't Yates. But, the latter would be impossible unless some other player was in the dungeon with us. And I was pretty damn sure that no one else was in there besides the people that I know of. I decided to play along with it by not saying anything. "Well, anyway, I heard about this event that's taking place in an hour!"
"Um…there is?" I made my avatar give off a puzzled look to give off the lie that I didn't hear about it. I didn't expect her to mention that. 'Now, I am eternally screwed. I bet she's going to…'
"I thought you read the BBS? Anyway, let's go together!" I knew she would say that. Rather than make another scene, I decided to accept. I reluctantly typed in the nod command. "Alright then, it's a date!"
I stared at her for a moment. Who the hell said this was a date? I sighed and said, "…Yeah." Suddenly, two whispered messages appeared in my text window. They were from Balmung and Orca, who were still hanging around the wall, while saving their data at the same time. "I'll be right back, Hokuto…" I moved my character close to a wall to avoid blocking anyone's path.
Orca: Show a little more enthusiasm, will you, Al? ;)
Balmung: He's right. You've taken the first step, but you
need to show some emotion while you're at it.
Orca: Exactly!
The two were teasing me a bit. My avatar gave the two a glare while Hokuto wasn't looking. I noticed that they seemed to be replying to each others whispers. They must have be repeating their messages to each other. I went into whisper mode and sent identical messages to the two powerful, but somewhat annoying players.
Albireo: You two assume too much. Anyway, can you two
help me escape this mess?
Orca: Oh, come on! You should have fun with other players at
least once in a while! This is a good opportunity to learn to
work with others! And besides you're single, right? ;)
Balmung: Teasing aside, we can't help you. Both of us have
important things to do. Orca has homework. I have some
bills to pay. Thus, we will be going offline pretty soon. If
you're really having that much of a problem just say no to
her.
Orca: Heh. Of course, you're probably too scared to make
another scene like the one from a while ago to take such a risk.
I was getting pretty annoyed at Orca, but he had a point in his last message. As a debugger, it would draw too much attention to myself when I'm doing my job. Of course, Balmung and Orca didn't know that. I switched back to talk mode and spoke to Hokuto. "I'm done. Let's go."
"What took you so long?" screamed Hokuto. Hokuto's avatar was infuriated. Her yell was so loud that a couple of people were grumbling about 'high-pitched yells' coming from their speakers. Their avatars were cringing to reflect their annoyance.
"I was taking care of a few annoying messages…" I said, glancing at the two blademasters. "Anyway, we have to form a party first." I toggled an invite to her, grumbling to a muted microphone. "You lead the way." As she nodded in the usual vigorous manner, the descendants of Fianna waved to me.
"See you later, lovebirds! Heh heh…" said Orca. He added in a whisper: If you survive. His comments were starting to give me a headache.
"Yes, good luck with your quest, Albireo. You too, Hokuto," said Balmung. With that, they logged out.
"Come on, let's go!" Hokuto said as she dragged me towards the Chaos Gate. Then she stopped and remained silent for a moment. "I…um…"
"You forgot the keywords," I said with irritation. "Don't worry, I know them," I said. I typed them in. I then realized I said something extremely stupid.
"So you did know about it! Were you trying to get out of it?" she said with a glare.
I laughed nervously as I confirmed the choice of keywords. With the system loading up the event's special maps, it gave me some time to think. I kept on having this feeling that this would be my worst Valentine's Day ever. 'Today is going to suck…'
Chapter 1 End
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Author's Notes: Yes, I know that the third volume of the LotT manga shows Watarai and Kamui as a sort of couple. Personally, I couldn't care less about Kamui since she didn't leave a good impression on me (no offense to Kamui fans). Judge my fic on writing ability, not the couple.