Hi there! I am Child of Entropy, COE for short, and this is my first ever Fanfiction! Yay! First off, I hope you all like it. Second, I am a serious writer in real life, but I also love Anime, Video Games, Manga, and other things that make my siblings give me a weird look every time I cry while watching the end of Future Diary. You may be wondering, "Why Log Horizon? Why not choose some other more well known and more visited places like Bleach or Kingdom Hearts?" Well, I absolutely love this Anime, and it's manga is absolutely brilliant as well, and I am basically trying to get my foot into the whole Fanfiction thing. That's a lot of Ands. Well, I hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the brilliance that is Log Horizon. If I did, then I would be damn happy. Unfortunately, that honor belongs to the beautiful people that make up it's manga writer, the animators, and the people fund it's production. I do, however, own my OCs in this Fic, so I hope you enjoy them!
I'm almost in. Finally, after all this time, I can finally see her again. Aki… "Damn it! Not another firewall!" Crap. I need to keep it down. If Mom finds out that I've been hacking again, she'll kick me out.
For those of you that do not know me, my name is Atsuko Shiranai. I'm a nineteen-year-old girl, born and raised in a small town in mid-west Japan. There has never been much to do in this little two-horse town, yet for some reason we have some of the best internet connection, so many of the locals naturally turned to some kind of electronic profession.
When I was younger, I decided on a slightly… darker path, if you would like to call it that. I am a hacker; one of the best, in fact. When I was ten, I discovered how much fun it was to get into other people's systems, and learn some of their dirtiest secrets. Hey, so I'm not a saint, sue me. I've never actually done anything with the information.
After a while, I got into some trouble, though. I hacked into the school system to change someone's grades and got sloppy. I got caught and ended up getting kicked out of school. Only one person stood up for me after that; my little sister, Akisama, or "Aki", as I like to call her.
About six month ago, a big percentage of the population went missing for some reason. Aki was one of them.
It took the authority a while, but they eventually found a connection. It turns out that everyone who disappeared in the world had an account in this big game known as Elder Tales. I remember Aki would always tell me about "how fun it is to play" and "how cute her character is".
I always used to make fun of her for it. I've been into those nerdy magic and dragon games, not any kind of game actually. I always used to tell her how much of a waste of time it was, that she should use those wicked smarts of hers to do something more productive. In fact, the last time I spoke to, we were arguing about it.
It was such a stupid argument. But in the end, Aki was the one who was crying.
That's why ever since I got that news that Elder Tales was involved, I've been trying to get to the bottom of her disappearance the only way I know how: hacking.
But that's what brings me to my current problem. "Stupid coding." I whisper, because my mom is sleeping and I do not want to get caught. "Who designed this thing?"
Yeah, ever since the mass disappearance of people, the Elder Tales website ever so conveniently disappeared! For the past five months, when I have any spare time, I have been trying to find it among the endless sea of coding that is the Internet. Once I finally got a trail, I have been hit with every defense and virus a site could throw at me. My computer even shut down at one point!
Finally, after all this time, I am at the last bit of firewall that whoever designed this site has to throw at me. Finally, I can see my baby sister!
One more click, and I am in. I am going to uncover whatever conspiracy this is, turn it in to whatever government that will believe me and not try to arrest me, considering I actually stole a lot Government-issue hardware to get this far. Again, I am no saint. Sue me.
"I did it!" I yelled, and then quickly covered my mouth. I quickly tiptoed to the door to make sure I didn't disturb anyone. I sighed with relief when I saw my still lying there on her futon.
Quickly, I shuffled back to my computer to see exactly what my hard work had unlocked.
"Is this a… character creation?" I deadpanned. All of that hard work, the blood, sweat and tears, not to mention the amount of sanity I must have lost trying to accomplish this… to set up an account?
"I don't want to play a freaking game." I said, trying not to lose my cool. "Just give me my sister!" I say, grabbing the monitor as tears begin to sting at my eyes. "Please? I'm begging you! Just give me my little Aki!"
"Atsuko?" Mom said as I heard her get up from her futon. "What's going on, Sweetie?"
"N-nothing, Mom!" I say as I try to think of a good lie. "I was just… having a nightmare."
"Oh." Mom said while sounding a little tired. She knows that Aki's disappearance has really hit me hard, so she knows not to get into it with me over a nightmare. "Try to get some sleep, okay Sweetie?"
"Yeah." I say quietly. I wait for her go back to sleep before I pull myself together. I look at the screen again, the character creation page still there. It shows the default character that every person likely had to customize to their liking when they first logged in: Male, Warrior-Class, Tracker-Subclass, etc. The graphics of the character are pretty good, but not really too impressive. It's like, kind of 3-D, while still being kind of pixelated.
I sigh, realizing what my objective should be. I need to get the bottom of my sister's disappearance, not freaking out every time I hit a snag in the road.
Looking at the page, I can't really see any links to other pages. If I have to, I guess I'm to have to build a character. Maybe, if I start playing the game, I can find out what happened to Aki.
And screw that basic character thing that is in front of me. If I am going to do this thing, I am going to do it right. "Let's see… I am obviously going to be a girl." One that button gets clicked; the character switches genders in a little magical flash of animation. "Cute." That's all I have to say to that. "Species?"
Sure enough, I can pick what I want to be species-wise. I remember Aki once showed me her character being some kind of cute fox-girl like in Anime. I guess it could be pretty cool being one of those. I scroll through the options and see one that makes me look like a cat. That's… actually pretty cute. I'm doing that instead.
The rest is actually kind of complicated. There are only twelve classes to choose from, so that shouldn't be too hard. Aki was the Monk class, but I've never really liked the whole physical types of movies. I always liked the ones where everybody could use magic and junk. Ooh, there's a Sorcerer class! Lucky, lucky! Dear God, don't tell me I'm actually getting into this? I'm barely in the character creation! Geez, you need to calm down, Atsuko.
Getting back at the matter at hand, I guess I have to choose a Subclass now. That shouldn't be too… holy hell; there are a lot of Subclasses! "They really put some thought into this bitch, didn't they?"
Let's see here: Chef, eww, cooking; scribe, eww, writing; maid… Who hell would actually choose to be a maid? Finally, after much consideration, I decided upon the Subclass that would make the most sense for a Sorcerer to use, Alchemist. Come on, I can't just be a badass fire-flinger without making a few potions on the side.
Next is appearance. I've always wondered what it would be like to be blond, and Mom always made me cut my hair short, so it would be cool to have longer hair. I know I won't be the one with long blond hair, but hey, I can dream. After that is done, I decide on having purple eyes, being just as tall as I am in real life, which is pretty average, and using my real measurements; which is a pretty specific and perverted addition, might I add.
Once I am done, and my character is created, all I have to do is press "submit" and I am good to go.
I click it, which brings up a blank white screen, which eventually says, "Welcome Player…" The words fade, and screen begin to get brighter. "To Elder Tales!" The screen then gets blindly bright and I suddenly find myself knocked unconscious.
What is seriously up with this game?
So? How was it? Was it brilliant? Was it garbage? I know it's only the first chapter, but I like to think I may have gotten off to a good start. Tell me how I did in the reviews and I will give a nice, big, cookie! No, that wasn't a bribe... maybe.