Author's Note:

I wrote this back in 10th grade and I have to say . . . the grammar is terrible. Good thing has this neat downloading service because there's no way I could type this atrocity again. Now with that out of the way on to the repost of:

Disclaimer: I do not own .Hack//G.U. otherwise the entire male cast would be open to the marriage ending. Not just Endrance.

Warning: These guys are a bit out of character, but I'm trying to fix that.

-//this// is short mail

-//this// is when Azure Kite is speaking via short mail, I was going to use l33t (like in Megatokyo) but I was too lazy to translate it, so I italicize everything Azure Kite sends because it shows that he is not quite using a standard . . . language without confusing anybody . . . if they are not behind slanted lines then it is a part of the normal language.

-Oh yes, the area words are from the game, but the settings are not

.Hack//G.U Repose

By: Gin van Geovanni

Chapter 1

// . . . I've never made an e-mail this long before, so I'm sorry if it takes you a bit to read this . . . Lately I've been having these . . . strange feelings for you. It's best to not ask how it came along because even I'm not quite sure. We were enemies at one time, and even after all past misgivings were cleared up you still found it hard to trust me. All I wanted was for you to not look at me with disgust, and now that you do . . . I think I want more than that . . . It's confusing because I don't want to ruin what took so long to establish . . . I don't know what to do, or what to feel, or even if it's right to feel the way I do . . . Or does it truly matter?//

//Haseo?//

//Where should an AI's feelings be placed? //

There. It was finished, and now all he had to do was send it. For some reason, though, that was the hard part. For once in his life, Azure Kite could not make up his mind, which was crazy in all forms of thinking. So, for a while, he simply stared at it, eventually allowing his green eyes to fade out of focus, thinking of how his dilemma arose.

Since he was created using the memory of another character Azure Flame Kite (simply called Kite by everyone else that knew him) knew where certain aspects of his own memories came from (like hobbies he had personally never heard of). However, this new feeling came from some independent part of him he had yet to discover. Why or how it happened was even more confounding, but that was ultimately for another time.

The more pressing issue was the e-mail before him. Would he send it, or delete it? Send? Delete? Send. Delete . . . No way he was going to delete it, it took him a whole week just to piece the thought together and an additional four hours to put it all in organized words. No, he would save it and send it later. Probably.

/// Area Words: ∑ Chosen Hopeless Lover ///

'Who would have thought . . .' Haseo thought as he lay in the bright green grass, staring into an almost unrealistic blue sky. 'Who would have thought that I would find a place of . . . tranquility . . . Still, I suppose everyone has a place like this in either the world or in real life.' He turned on his side and looked at the Crest Gun in the distance, musing at how ridiculous its purpose was: In the history of 'The World' it was a weapon that humanity created in order to destroy the gods. Haseo laughed at such an idiotic idea and closed his eyes again. A cool breeze played with his rather shaggy silver white locks. His eyes closed tighter at the sound of a short mail alert. 'Not now . . . I'm actually relaxing . . .' the alert went off multiple times with more urgency to the point where Haseo knew there was no message in to read. Simply to stop the noise he jerked out of his comfortable position to be greeted with one large, wide, green eye rimmed with red and framed by spikes of bluish green hair. Beneath said eye was a triangular shaped red wavemark (slightly thicker than the ones on Haseo's own face) that contrasted with slightly pale bluish skin. A partially smiling, curious mouth was remotely visible under a row of thick leather bands.

Caught between the shock of almost crashing into Azure Kite and the extra shock of seeing his face up so close, Haseo was left to sit with his mouth wide open.

"…" The knight said nothing as he surveyed Haseo's face, his bewildered expression in particular. 'Hmm . . .' was all he thought as he hovered about less than an inch above the adept rogue.

With a jolt, Haseo sprang up snapping (but not lashing out) "What?! What is it?!"

Remaining silent, Azure Kite continued to stare at him.

"C'mon, Kite I know you have something to say, just say it already . . ." He paused in thought "Say what's on your mind, in whatever way you can."

'How exactly can I say that I want to spend time with you without causing you to look at me like I'm insane . . .' Azure Kite thought, his eyes unnoticeably focusing on the platform not too far away from him. At a loss for words he simply turned and floated towards the Chaos Gate.

Seeing the otherwise stoic Azure Kite acting as though he did not know what to do made Haseo want to laugh out loud. He almost did while he followed, but someone hugged him tightly from behind. He made a noise between indignation and surprise, as though he had been attacked. Azure Kite turned around, tensed for a fight until he noticed who it was, and then his mind went uncomfortably blank.

Wrapped around Haseo's midriff were two long arms in tight violet armor, over his shoulder was the beautiful face of Endrance. He was an alluring blade brandisher with long, lightly braided sky blue hair that fell like water over his slanted, ruby red eyes. A rose donned cap sat loftily upon his head. He was a good head taller than Haseo and Azure Kite. "Haseo . . ." He purred. "It would seem that fate has brought me to you once again . . ." His illuminating features brightened the field as he spoke.

That illuminating presence missed Azure Kite by a cosmic milestone. 'Endrance . . .' He thought with little feeling 'Is there anyone . . . anyone at all in the World that is more open and expressive with their feelings? If there is then he or she has yet to reveal themselves . . .' little did the azure knight know that he was to become one of those people. He stood at a distance, now feeling slight envy. He made an odd noise, reminding the two PCs of his presence.

Endrance merely blinked in his direction 'He is so strange, like a doll . . .' he mused. 'Someone who is a part of this world yet at the same time something else altogether . . . On the outside, he appears to live out of obligation, however, there is more to him than that. After all, why else would he have a need for the attention . . . Haseo's attention in particular . . .' For a while, Endrance had been inwardly wondering if Azure Kite liked Haseo in a way other than comrade or even a friend for that matter. It was merely a hunch and not one he usually mulled over. After all there were a lot of people that thought of Haseo that way, male and female alike. However, there was still something there in the back of his mind, something that made him feel threatened by the AI. The blade brandisher glanced at Haseo, who struggled out of his grip. "Do the two of you have any pressing business?" Endrance inquired. "Or am I invited to this little party?"

Haseo glanced at Azure Kite "I have no idea . . . Is it just us?"

'I'd like it that way . . .' Azure Kite thought, instead he shook his head nonverbally saying "I don't mind."

Both Endrance and Haseo nodded and the three of them left the area.

At the town of Breg Epona they formed an official party and Azure Kite input the area words (every time he attempted to text Haseo it came out in a rather unreadable text, even more unreadable than usual).

/// Area words: ∑ Hidden Forbidden BBQ Plate ///

The area looked like the cross between a forest area dungeon and a silver mining shaft. Broken railroad tracks paved random paths and vegetation hung from the ceiling like the pendulums in the 'Forest of Pain' event. Azure Kite looked around, musing about the amount of thought put into such a thing and feeling a bit of empathy alongside that, knowing that the field would be deleted in a few days time. Haseo's voice made him turn around.

"I got an e-mail from CC Corp about this . . . It's some sort of chim-chim based event . . ." He paused in thought "Supposedly there's some sort of unique chim-chim and a rare item or something like that . . . it didn't sound worth the time to me . . ." He shrugged. "However, I never pegged you for much of an event person either, Kite, why the sudden interest?"

At the words 'sudden interest' Azure Kite inspected the wall, Endrance could not help but notice that the azure knight's hands were twitching. ". . . Do you honestly have an answer for that, Kite?"

Something in Azure Kite's mind shriveled and died, causing his physical self to glide away from it, first slowly then faster. Haseo and Endrance were left to tag behind him. In his rush, Azure Kite tripped over a small, black chim-chim, a round four legged creature with a blue sphere floating over its body. The energy of those spheres was used to power the various machines in The World. All one had to do was kick the chim-chim to release the sphere's energy. They were generally harmless (with the exception of a few).

Haseo kicked it violently, landed in Azure Kite's hands. 'What a sad thing to be created for . . .' He mused. As he did, the chim-chim's sphere turned a blazing red and it bit the hand holding it. Azure Kite let out a hiss of animalistic surprise and chucked it; it hit Endrance square in the face, but was tossed at Haseo before it could bite. It flew back towards a now prepared Azure Kite, who kicked it much like a pro soccer player.

For a moment, Haseo and Endrance stared at him. Then something else caught their attention. A horde of demonic looking chim-chims blanketed the ground. At first, kicking seemed to work, but when one was kicked out of the way three more took its place. In no time at all their numbers were too great to handle. The group's only escape was a large crevice on the 2nd block. All three players were exhausted by then. "Well, at least we know where all the 'monsters' are . . ."

'Hmmm I don't think so . . .' Azure Kite thought to himself.

" . . . Such a strange event this is, with an even stranger objective . . ." Endrance mused aloud.

"What are you talking about?" Haseo questioned.

" . . . I thought you read about this event."

"I skimmed the info about it; I could tell from the first sentence that I wasn't gonna like it. Besides, you only show interest in the things that I do." Haseo's tone was meant to tease not offend. "Therefore, you have no right to talk about me."

Endrance's cap slumped over the eye that was not covered by hair. "Haseo . . . you are . . . too cruel . . ." He shook his head, actually smirking under his hair. "I thought that it might be worth something . . . perhaps even enjoyable."

"Uh-huh." Haseo replied sarcastically. "Then why did you act so surprised when you saw me?"

"Actually, my surprise was reserved for Kite . . . I rarely see him in anyone else's company, let alone yours."

'So what, do I not have a life now?' Azure Kite hid his face under his hair.

Endrance continued "I was going to text you and ask, but then I happened to see you lying in the grass . . ." Azure Kite did his best to hide his growing anger. 'What am I now, Dead?!' He resisted the urge to throw his blades at the blade brandisher but Endrance's next statement erased that urge "However, I noticed that Kite was with you so I simply decided to wait and see . . . it would seem we were thinking alike."

' . . .' If one could see the inside of the AI's mind, they would see a raging sandstorm, complete with locusts and scorpions.

"Anyway, the purpose of this is to find the supposed . . ." Endrance paused and shook his head as though the thought of his next words were the most ridiculous things he could ever say. "Cupid chim-chim . . . In all honesty, it's an event leaning towards couples or . . . experimenting couples . . ."

' . . . Eh?' The sandstorm in Azure Kite's mind stopped.

Haseo placed his hands on his hips "That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of . . . and if it's for couples then why are we here?"

"You know why I wanted to bring you along, but Kite had the same idea." The crimson eyed PC adjusted his cap. "I am curious as to why he chose this event . . ."

For a while, Haseo looked at Azure Kite, whose mind had been replaced with a dense fog, he was glad Haseo was not attempting to him in the eye. " . . ."

Haseo laughed lightly "I'm sure Kite was simply bored . . . the only romantic one here is you, Endrance."

"Think what you will, Haseo." Endrance smiled inwardly, noticing the way Azure Kite's wavemarks had somehow brightened.

Azure Kite was oblivious to the fact that his facial transitions were actually noticed. He saw the slightly larger rare chim-chim scuttle by. Out of a desire to vent some of his frustration, he kicked it. It exploded on contact and took some of his health with it. He growled and drew both blades and stormed out of hiding, slashing at anything and everything that looked like a chim-chim. He did not care about the fact that he had left Endrance and Haseo behind in the dust, choosing to look back once he reached the platform at a sloping hill. From there he perched on top of it and waited.

A look of grim satisfaction briefly crossed his features at the sight of Endrance and Haseo. Both PCs appeared exhausted and ragged. Haseo in particular looked ready to pass out. "Geez, Kite, what was darting off like that all about?!" he snapped. "And why aren't you battered like we are?!"

Azure Kite had been moving so fast he did not look back, most of the things were small chim-chims. Only once did he run into the king chim-chim, -one of the few aggressive chim-chims in The World- he irritated it, but it could not catch him. However, Haseo and Endrance ran smack into it. Every time they attacked it, it would swell slightly, after taking a substantial amount of damage, it had swelled to the point where it was too big for the dungeon and exploded. The explosion and aftershock almost killed both players.

In response to Haseo's irritation, Azure Kite tilted his head, with one eye visible, he seemed deceivingly innocent.

Haseo wanted to say something but it caught in his throat. Instead, he snapped "Would it be too much to ask to stay with us, you are the one who invited us after all."

The AI nodded and hopped off the platform, his feet not touching the ground.

All of a sudden, a giant shuriken whizzed by the knight's ear, taking a chunk of his flaming blue hair. He rolled his head to look behind him. A group of chim-chim assassins- ninja like chim-chims who did not like players kicking their kin- led by a larger one with scars and an eye patch, blocked their path. Haseo and Azure Kite were ready to start fighting, but Endrance opted for another option: He could not help but notice a trap door beneath the group of chim-chim, (they had possibly forgotten about it). He got both blade wielders' attention and turned their attention to the switch nearby. Endrance, who was closest, stepped on it. Even then, Azure Kite felt a bit of empathy for assassins as they fell through the door.

The third floor was practically the same except the gems on the wall glowed brighter as they walked deeper into the cavern. All of a sudden, Azure Kite stopped in his tracks. It took a while, but Haseo and Endrance noticed that the AI was well behind them. "What's up?" Haseo asked.

" . . ." Azure Kite pulled at a gem on the wall, it made a clinking noise every time his finger slipped off.

"Something's been bothering you . . . what is it?"

Clink. Clink. Clink. Crack! The stone came loose, but since it was not supposed to, the binary code behind it spilled out slowly. Azure Kite covered the spot with his right hand; something on his wrist glowed and when he removed his hand, it was as though nothing had happened. The rock in his hand had a small virus trapped inside of it. " . . ."

'Okaaaaay . . .'Haseo thought then tried again "You've been quieter than usual, and you seem a bit jumpy today, is something wrong?"

" . . .!" A low breath escaped Azure Kite and his eyes faded out of focus.

Endrance approached the AI. ". . . Is there someone that you like, but you don't know what you say . . .?" He whispered so only Azure Kite could hear. "And do you feel that only Haseo is fit to help you find the correct words?"

The azure knight wished that his head would fall off, even though he wished Haseo would have understood that, in the back of his mind he was glad that someone understood. A sudden, static-like noise distorted the area. "?!" The two epitaph users and azure knight tensed at the sound. They turned to see a large round pink thing. It had short angelic wings, a lopsided halo, and dangerously cute arrows strapped across its back. Its energy sphere was shaped like a heart.

'So that Cupid Chim-chim . . . was infected?' All three of them thought. The Cupid Chim-chim vanished before they could get a good look at it.

"It went into the outer dungeons, let's go!" Haseo instructed.

Cube like blocks rose and fell of their accord, turning twisting, and changing color. The area appeared to be safe enough, or at least it would have been if there was not an ominous static noise happening now and then. In addition to that, chunks of the dungeon were falling apart most of these places being where the chim-chims come in and out of the outer area. Azure Kite cut his eyes at those particular areas.

Haseo followed his avid gaze. "So do you think the chim-chims acting like that was a virus and not the event?"

Azure Kite nodded, Endrance looked thoughtful; "That would make more sense considering that chim-chims are runners, even the aggressive ones run from players at one point."Azure Kite and Haseo looked at him. "Think about it, the chim-chims are not meant to act like monsters, so such a drastic change in behavior had to have been a temporary change made by CC Corp or a virus. Judging by the state of this place, it's safe to say that it's the latter."

"Haseo! Endrance! Kite!" A voice called in the distance.

"What the . . ." Haseo turned to the voice, huddled on one of the cubed walls were Silabus and the chaotic PK, Natsume, the edgemaniac, however, they were not alone. A host of normal players were huddled nearby; most of them were in bad shape. As Haseo, Endrance, and Azure Kite neared them they were astounded at the party's near perfect health. 'So that's why something like this hasn't been reported . . .' Haseo thought. 'No one's gotten out of the dungeon.' "What's going on?" He demanded, speaking more to Silabus and Natsume than anyone else.

"Well, according to these two," He indicated to two harvest clerics, a male in all black and a female, possibly his girlfriend, in all white, "They bought some weaponry from a trader standing at the chaos gate, when they neared the Cupid chim-chim, their weapons disappeared in a flash of light and all of the chim-chims in the area attacked them and their screens went black. After about an hour, their sight returned they ended up here."

"It seems like most of the people here have been killed by that Cupid chim-chim or at least attacked by it." The harvest cleric in black added.

"What about the person who sold you those infected weapons?" Haseo inquired.

"He tried to attack the Cupid chim-chim, but it took out his character in one hit. He's the only one that has not ended up here."

"What a mess . . ." Haseo said wearily.

"One mess at a time, I suppose . . ." Endrance shrugged lightly then folded his arms. "There is a platform not too far from here you can all use that to warp straight back to town." He instructed.

The white harvest cleric blinked slowly. "This is actually a dungeon . . .?" She thought out loud, but her boyfriend gave her no time to look around, he ran to the platform dragging her with him.

Silabus and Natsume remained, Silabus fixed Haseo with an imploring look, and it was one he often gave the adept rogue when something strange was happening. Haseo pursed his lips; he knew this was one of those times when explaining things would only make the problem worse. Natsume and Endrance kept an eye on Azure Kite who was inspecting the wall. He touched it and a grid resembling the map of the area appeared. His fingers moved at an unnatural pace as the bracelet on his arm glowed, he managed to rewrite the area's data in order to isolate the infected chim-chim and stop it from moving. Endrance leaned over his shoulder slightly. "Haseo . . . I believe Kite has found the monster . . ."

For a brief moment, Endrance thought he had saw a sweatdrop run down Azure Kite's cheek, but it could have simply been the latter's hair bristling, which was still bizarre. All of a sudden, the AI's body was engulfed in blue flames and he vanished. Haseo caught his leaving at the last moment "Kite! . . . What's with him today . . .?"

Endrance shrugged in reply as he looked over the map one last time. Haseo was aware of the fact that Silabus and Natsume were not leaving. "Look, guys we'll be fine, aside from that, the last thing I need is to find you overreacting," He glanced at Silabus "And I don't need you going fight crazy once everything's over." He turned to Natsume. "Therefore it's best that the two of you leave the area."

Neither PC seemed too convinced, but they did eventually leave the area. At the same time an urgent message came.

//I'm having problems fighting this huge thing on my own!! It mutated!!//

At the scene, Haseo and Endrance saw what Azure Kite meant. What had been a pink winged chim-chim only minutes ago was now an enormous mace with eight clawed feet and a long spiked tail. Its eyes were streaming with ones and zeroes. The sphere on its head shot out like a laser, bearing the data of whatever it hit. 'Mutated? That's an understatement . . .' Haseo mused.

//Watch the tail! // Azure Kite texted both of them //It has a life of its own, but there's a virus core there . . . I'm going for the head! //

Azure Kite scaled its back, barely being missed by the tail. Endrance stopped it before it hit, slashing at it like a devil until it came off. Something red flashed and he caught it before the chim-chim reassembled. At the same moment, Azure Kite turned flaming blue again and shot through the middle while it was still weak. When he landed, a second red virus core was in his hand. The chim-chim reassembled again.

"Leave it to me!" Haseo drew both guns, firing at a distance to distract it somewhat, then he drew his scythe and scaled its back "Where is it?!"

//The sphere! //

In one stroke, Haseo slashed the sphere, which was more solid than it looked, and secured the last virus core. The monster fell apart in fragments of red data. Exhausted, Haseo sighed. "I guess that's that . . . Let's head back to town."

-Breg Epona-

Endrance sighed at the Chaos Gate his sigh turned into a rather long yawn. "Tired?" Haseo asked Endrance nodded.

Haseo placed his hands on his hips "Well, that's what you get for playing for 24 hours straight." He shook his head.

"Every hour is worth it if I can see you during at least one of them." He bowed slightly "Today was . . . interesting, thank you Haseo . . . Kite . . ." With a final wave, he logged out.

Haseo glanced at Azure Kite; the AI had had a distracted look in his shadowed eyes. "Kite . . ."

The adept rouge's voice made the AI shake his head. With a noncommittal shrug, he shoved something into Haseo's hands and teleported away.

.Chapter 1//End

Was that good? All I need is one review and I will keep going. Truth be told, the entire thing is written with a sequel in the works, but I have funny reactions to people's opinions (the flames) so I like to wait.

-Once again, if the characters were too OOC I apologize

-Um yea, so please say something if you liked it

-Oh and for the curious folk, the title is my own translation of the e-mail you get from Azure Kite when you send him the 'Leader' greeting card. The reply looks something like ". . .I Re/ $#se" or something like that . . . (some symbols I could not put in) anyway the only word that I could find in the dictionary that matched that was 'Repose' a word that means to place (i.e. trust) something in someone else. Not to mention, the word was meant to be positive, and the responses from the cards usually mean that the person likes Haseo more than they did when they first met him.