Disclaimer: Project .hack is not my work. It is the work of a group, and
I but one person. I also have no money, so don't sue me. I'm not marketing
this work, but writing it only for my own enjoyment as well as that of
others.
Plot: Read on. Figure it out yourself. *insert Mr. Yuckface, as my Geography teacher would say*.
July 18th, 1999
Kazeyaki Itsuko sat at her computer monitor, typing rapidly into the keyboard. A data box appeared, showing her exactly what she had needed to know. She embedded a virus in the system's mainframe computer and was able to destroy all its data. Avoiding detection like this had become a great game for her.
Kazeyaki was a family famous for its restaurants. When Itsuko's mother and father had still been alive, they taught her how to cook well, along with hiring good employees and maintaining fine service.
Itsuko had no intentions of ever taking possession of the family restaurant. She sold it to some lucky fellow who happened to want to buy it. Itsuko was hired by a fine computer software company, and became a programmer.
The young woman would often hack into their competitors' files and destroy everything, leaving the other companies in a bit of trouble. It took a while for them to install the back-up data, and by then, Itsuko's company had usually put another product on the market before the others could. The hacker was also able to discover other software ideas before they were released, and change them minimally so her company could get it out first.
And all of this happened without her employers' knowledge.
It was today that Itsuko was celebrating her 25th birthday. She was turning ni-ju-go sai and was quite proud of it. However, she had refused her friends' offers of a party- politely, of course -and spent the day hacking into random sites. It was fun to destroy someone else's things, even if it was wrong.
Not to say Kazeyaki-san was dishonorable. In fact, she strictly adhered to many excellent values that were hard to maintain for others. Her only problem was resisting the urge to hack.
Itsuko did not believe in any religion, although sometimes she would acknowledge Shintoism as the closest to the right direction, that there were spirits in all things. Her family had been Kirishitan, though she herself did not agree. What god would allow himself to be nailed to a cross?
Scanning through a random data stream, the hacker found something unusual. It was a data stream she had never seen the likes of before. The coding seemed utterly random, just gibberish numbers placed at random to form an inexplicable pattern. It perturbed her deeply, and she set her homemade program to unscramble it.
As the code slowly rearranged itself, Itsuko finally realized the meaning to the string, though to her it made no sense.
Kazeyaki-san began to feel somewhat queasy. She shut her eyes, trying to steady herself. She felt like vomiting loudly, but was able to limit herself to quiet gagging.
A bright flash of light entered her head, and she clutched it feebly. Her nausea was increasing drastically. She growled deeply in her throat, desperately trying to fight it off, and the words finished in her head.
Skeith, Innus, Magus, Findell, Gorra, Maha, Tarvos, Corbenik.
The pain became too much.
A/N: How do you like it so far? I'm trying to go a bit slower for once. I usually jump to the big plot first, so now I'm trying to stick with a small morsel at a time. To keep you coming back for more. I hope it's good. Please review, if you have the time. ^_^ Domo arigatou gozaimasu, minna- san!
Plot: Read on. Figure it out yourself. *insert Mr. Yuckface, as my Geography teacher would say*.
July 18th, 1999
Kazeyaki Itsuko sat at her computer monitor, typing rapidly into the keyboard. A data box appeared, showing her exactly what she had needed to know. She embedded a virus in the system's mainframe computer and was able to destroy all its data. Avoiding detection like this had become a great game for her.
Kazeyaki was a family famous for its restaurants. When Itsuko's mother and father had still been alive, they taught her how to cook well, along with hiring good employees and maintaining fine service.
Itsuko had no intentions of ever taking possession of the family restaurant. She sold it to some lucky fellow who happened to want to buy it. Itsuko was hired by a fine computer software company, and became a programmer.
The young woman would often hack into their competitors' files and destroy everything, leaving the other companies in a bit of trouble. It took a while for them to install the back-up data, and by then, Itsuko's company had usually put another product on the market before the others could. The hacker was also able to discover other software ideas before they were released, and change them minimally so her company could get it out first.
And all of this happened without her employers' knowledge.
It was today that Itsuko was celebrating her 25th birthday. She was turning ni-ju-go sai and was quite proud of it. However, she had refused her friends' offers of a party- politely, of course -and spent the day hacking into random sites. It was fun to destroy someone else's things, even if it was wrong.
Not to say Kazeyaki-san was dishonorable. In fact, she strictly adhered to many excellent values that were hard to maintain for others. Her only problem was resisting the urge to hack.
Itsuko did not believe in any religion, although sometimes she would acknowledge Shintoism as the closest to the right direction, that there were spirits in all things. Her family had been Kirishitan, though she herself did not agree. What god would allow himself to be nailed to a cross?
Scanning through a random data stream, the hacker found something unusual. It was a data stream she had never seen the likes of before. The coding seemed utterly random, just gibberish numbers placed at random to form an inexplicable pattern. It perturbed her deeply, and she set her homemade program to unscramble it.
As the code slowly rearranged itself, Itsuko finally realized the meaning to the string, though to her it made no sense.
Kazeyaki-san began to feel somewhat queasy. She shut her eyes, trying to steady herself. She felt like vomiting loudly, but was able to limit herself to quiet gagging.
A bright flash of light entered her head, and she clutched it feebly. Her nausea was increasing drastically. She growled deeply in her throat, desperately trying to fight it off, and the words finished in her head.
Skeith, Innus, Magus, Findell, Gorra, Maha, Tarvos, Corbenik.
The pain became too much.
A/N: How do you like it so far? I'm trying to go a bit slower for once. I usually jump to the big plot first, so now I'm trying to stick with a small morsel at a time. To keep you coming back for more. I hope it's good. Please review, if you have the time. ^_^ Domo arigatou gozaimasu, minna- san!