DotHack: Rejoinder

A DotHack fanfiction by Renfro Calhoun

Disclaimer: Project .Hack and attached concepts are property of Bandai and Cyber Connect. They are used without permission, but with the utmost respect.

Notes: Yes, I'm still alive!

I owe you all an apology. In fairness, I finally found a job, albeit a rather demanding one that ate up a lot of free time, to say nothing of my energy. I'm also writing for a blog/gaming news website, RandomNPC. But that's sort of beside the point; the more I put the story off, the harder it was to come back to it. I got lazy and there's pretty much no other way to put it. False start after false start, you know?

In any case, I'm back in business, hopefully to stay this time. Here's where we finally get to Hiro meeting Akira's family. Those of you who've read Another Birth will spot some familiar faces :)

A Step Outside

Hiro trod slowly along the sidewalk, unconsciously timing his steps to avoid the cracks. His destination lay in sight: the chain-link door to the fenced-off tennis court. He couldn't immediately spot Akira amid the bustle of teenagers, instead he sought out court number four, where he'd been told to wait. He saw three girls in workout clothes occupying the court in question, two practicing and one acting as referee. None of them looked enough like Akira from where he stood, though the referee heard the gate shut behind him and waved him over.

"Excuse me!" she called as he approached. "Are you Hiroshi?"

A vague look of surprise crossed his face, though he quickly surmised who these three were. "Yes," he said with a hint of nervous formality. "Are you friends of Akira?"

The two practicing girls stopped their game to gather around him. "Yeah, she said you might show up soon." The ref smiled and brushed back a few bangs of her short hair. She motioned to the clubhouse beyond the court fence, adding, "Akira is changing, she'll be right back."

"Ah, good." Hiro cleared his throat and valiantly to shed his nervousness at having three girls standing around him. "On time for once!" he said in joking self-deprecation, discomfort escaping with his words. The girls giggled in near-unison, and Hiro felt the unease pop right back.

"I'm Risa," said the ref, who then gestured to her friends. "This is Shouko and Yuuko. It's nice to finally meet you!"

"Yeah, Akira hasn't told us that much about you," said the long-haired Shouko, a faint and inquisitive smile on her lips. "We didn't even know she played The World for a while."

"Or that she had any male friends," the brown-haired Yuuko quipped, then coughed as Shouko elbowed her gently in the gut. Throwing a hurt look at her taller friend, she muttered, "Well, it's true!"

Shouko rolled her eyes in dismissal, then turned her attention back to Hiro. "Anyway, she hasn't told us much, apart from who to look for."

She didn't tell me to expect her friends, either, Hiro thought, swallowing discreetly. Despite himself, he started to relax a bit. Briefly he pictured the girls as a token bickering trio from some poorly-written dating sim game - not that Hiro had ever played one, or at least none that he would admit to. "It's nice to meet you all, too. Akira didn't tell me much either, except about her brother Kazu."

He wanted the words back as soon as he said them, fearing they had all been kept in the dark about Kazu's coma, or the extent of the problems with The World. He fought down a sigh of relief as Risa nodded in acknowledgment.

"It's terrible, isn't it?" said Risa, her face falling. "She tried so hard to keep up appearances at school and everything."

"She still was the top player on the team," said Yuuko. "I don't know how she did it with her brother in the hospital."

Hiro nodded grimly, reminded intimately of his own struggle to save Yasuhiko. "She's strong... stronger than even she knows," he mused. With a careful pause, he added, "I knew her through the game, and she was just like that online. All determined and strong on the outside..."

The girls murmured in agreement, silently finishing his sentence.

"So, you play The World, too?" asked Shouko, changing the subject.

"Yeah, a little," was Hiro's reply, a deliberate understatement. "My friend Yasuhiko introduced me to the game, and I met Akira not long after."

"I play as well, I'm a Wavemaster. Who do you play as?" Shouko blinked, then tilted her head slightly to her left. "If you don't mind, I mean."

Hiro's mind scrambled for a believable line to stall with, reluctant to cash in on in-game fame; he found none at the ready. "I... uh, well, I'm Kite, a Twin Blade."

"Ahh, that sounds familiar," said Shouko. "I think I've heard of you before."

"Y-yeah, I played a lot for a while," said Hiroshi, racking his brain for a way to explain what he and his friends went through. He wrung his hands together, squeezing sweaty palms against trembling fingers. "W-we, uh, we went through a few events together... me and Black... I mean, Akira."

"She sounds like she's rather fond of you," said Risa with a knowing giggle, clearly implying there was a lot more to the story.

"And after all the work we put into hooking her up with Hagiya," Yuuko grumbled with a shake of her head, resting her racket over her shoulder.

Hiro tried mightily not to jump to any conclusions, but it was in vain. Faint tendrils of jealousy wound their way into him, and it showed, albeit barely. He wasn't sure whether the name-drop had been intentional or not, but it was more than enough to bring some color to his cheeks and ears.

Shouko rammed her elbow into Yuuko's side again, shooting her fellow dating sim triplet a stern look.

"Hey, it wasn't only my idea!" Yuuko whined, recoiling from Shouko's sudden strike and nursing her injury.

Risa snorted and met Hiro's questioning stare, noting the confusion in his eyes. "A while back this guy asked her out, and someone," she glanced at her cohorts for emphasis, "had the brilliant idea to help them get together."

Hiro was glad Risa hadn't waited to answer his unspoken question, nervous enough by the mere presence of Akira's friends. "So... what happened?" he asked instead. The logical part of his brain reasoned that their plan had gone off the rails at some point. Akira wouldn't go for this sort of thing without a fight.

"She honestly never seemed interested," said Yuuko. "At the time we just thought it was because of her brother. But sometimes she'd act like she had someone else on her mind."

"Yeah, I caught her daydreaming a few times," Shouko chimed in. "She had this faraway look to her, sometimes she even smiled, apparently at nothing."

His thoughts did a sharp 180. "R-really?" he asked incredulously, his mind way ahead of him and painting a charming picture of Akira lost in thought; a schoolgirl with a dreamy smile, gazing longingly at the window. A small smile grew onto his face, lingering doubts and fears almost instantly squelched.

Risa chuckled softly. "In hindsight, it makes sense. She already had somebody, didn't she?"

Hiro's blush hadn't gone away, though now the color was welcome. "Well... y-yeah," he shyly admitted, prompting a chorus of girlish giggling from his audience.

"So when did you two start going out?" Yuuko noisily asked, drawing no rebuke from her elbow-happy partner. "Were you the guy she was going to meet on Valentine's Day last year?"

"Oh yeah!" Shouko snapped her fingers. "I know she got chocolate for somebody that day..."

Hiroshi all but wilted beneath their amused inquiries, but was saved before he could open his mouth by a voice from the court gate. "Hey! There you are!"

All four turned to see Akira approach, dressed in plain shorts and a purple t-shirt, racket sheathed in one hand and satchel over her shoulder. Though she smiled, the arch in her brow suggested she was less than pleased with her friends' obvious grilling of Hiro; to say nothing of what either party might say about her in her absence.

Still, the good-natured grins back at her told her that no harm had been done. "We were just getting acquainted," said Risa.

"So this is who you've been hiding from us!" Yuuko grinned.

"Yeah, yeah," Akira said dismissively, standing next to Hiro. "It's kinda complicated."

To say the least, thought Hiro. Swallowing, he spoke up and said, "Anyway, I'm ready when you are."

She brightened immediately. "Great! Shall we?" she asked, motioning for him to follow.

"It was nice to meet you all," said Hiro, politely, if awkwardly, disengaging from the small group of girls. "Take care!"

The three cheerfully bade farewell to Akira and Hiroshi, waving as they headed for the exit.

"Sorry about the wait," said Akira, leading Hiro through the gate. The tone of her voice hinted she was sorrier about leaving him at the mercy of her inquisitive friends.

"It's no problem," he assured her. "I didn't know your friends played The World, too."

Akira shrugged a shoulder, adjusting her satchel. "Just Shouko. She and I didn't know each other in-game until after everything was over."

"I see," Hiro nodded. As they headed for a nearby bike rack, he said, "I didn't tell them too much, just that we met in the game."

Her cheer had faded rapidly, and she nodded with a vaguely grim cast to her face. "Yuuko helped me with some parts of the Epitaph. She didn't play the game, but I told her about it, and we both agreed... well..."

"You didn't want to endanger anybody else," said Hiro.

Akira knelt down to unlock the chain, which linked her bike to the rack. "Yeah," she murmured. "Exactly."

The girl pulled off her bag and dropped it in the bike's basket, and slowly walked it out of the rack. With Hiro at her side she started away from the tennis courts, across the street and through a wide alley. "I had a hard enough time believing myself what was happening. Even if they believed me... well, you know what I mean." She half-smiled at Hiroshi, who fell back as she weaved her bike around a stack of old wooden pallets. "I had no idea what to say about you, or us for that matter."

Inside, Hiro jumped a bit at her use of 'us'. "What did you tell them?" he asked, remembering what the girls had said earlier.

She laughed lightly, guiding her bike towards the next street over. "I told them, 'look for the cute, quiet one.'"

"I'm home!"

Akira's pronouncement did not go unheard. An older woman's voice cheerily replied, "Welcome back!" from beyond an open doorway down the hall. Slipping out of her shoes, she led Hiro further into the cozy apartment and through to the kitchen.

Behind a marble island stood Mrs. Hayami, a petite woman deftly paring a potato with a knife. She welcomed her daughter with anod, then took notice of Hiroshi. Setting the knife down, she wiped her hands on a nearby napkin and straightened out her plain, earth-toned housedress.

"You must be Hiroshi, right?" she asked with a welcoming smile. "It's nice to meet you."

Hiro squelched his nervousness and bowed his head in greeting. "Nice to meet you too, ma'am."

"Misato is fine, thank you," Mrs. Hayami replied with an answering nod. "Dinner should be ready in about half an hour. Oh, Akira, your brother's sleeping over at one of his friends' tonight, and I don't think he fed Hana before he left. Could you make sure she's okay?"

"Sure. C'mon Hiro, let me show you Hana."

The boy silently agreed, falling back in line behind Akira as she led him out of the kitchen. He briefly entertained thoughts of Akira grabbing him by the hand and guiding him, her being the more aggressive one. The pair quickly made their way down a short hall, around a corner, and through the doorway to her brother's room.

Fumikazu's bedroom didn't strike Hiro as too different from his own, plus a few baseball posters and a more expensive-looking computer. He milled around the room for a moment as Akira dug through her brother's open closet, and Hiro lightly ran a thumb over a stack of DVDs. He took note of a slight crack in the case for The World, suggesting overuse.

"Here we go," said Akira as she pulled out a small tupperware box. Picking out a small treat, she sat down on the bed and turned towards the drawer at its foot. Gesturing to a sizable glass case, she added, "We've had Hana for a while. She actually used to sleep with me when we first got her."

She poked her hand in the case, and a large furry mound in the corner unfurled itself and lazily waddled towards her. The tan-colored rodent sniffed questioningly at her fingers before gingerly accepting the snack. Seemingly content, Hana affectionately brushed against Akira's fingers for a moment before wandering out of reach. "Kazu was home more often, though, so we let him take care of her."

Hiro smiled and bent down next to the case, lightly tapping the case and waving to the guinea pig. "She's cute."

Akira gave a soft laugh. "Yeah. I had to watch her while Kazu was in the hospital, and I think he kinda spoils her. Even now she tends to paw at the glass when he walks by." Her smile fell a hair. "Kinda like she still thinks he's going to disappear."

Hiroshi nodded, and sighed quietly through his nose. He watched as Hana tore into the snack, and Akira joined him. After a minute or so of silence, Akira suddenly said, "I was kinda thinking about it on the way home. It's been over a year, and we're all still tied up in this. All still... scarred by this."

"Yeah. It's easy to sound tough and say stuff like 'it'll be okay,' but you don't really know." Hiro swallowed. "It's... it's hard."

The girl glanced up at him, and she'd never seemed so small to Hiro. "I couldn't tell my parents what really happened to Kazu. I couldn't tell my friends what I was really doing. And I couldn't tell you about what had happened, even after you told me."

"Hard to keep standing," Hiro muttered. "Hard to hide it all."

The two said nothing else, Hiro's eyes on her, Akira's dropping to the floor. Scratches came from the cage as Hana chewed at her treat, punctuating the silence.

The boy was lost. He knew he should say something, anything. He'd seen this scene before in offline games, in movies, in books; moment of silence, good guy says something uplifting or inspiring, his friends agree one by one, they get the strength to carry on. End scene, cut to next part of the story. It was all so simple, so easy to keep standing.

A faint crack came from the cage, Hana splitting the treat in half with her teeth. Both players turned and watched, studying the carefree rodent.

The hero reached, and found nothing else to say.

"You're still like that sometimes, huh? Clamming up when you should say something?" she asked, just enough of a bounce to her tune to suggest playfulness.

Hiro broke eye contact and shook his head. He slowly sat down next to Akira on the bed, staring straight ahead and suddenly self-conscious. "Well, I listen better than I talk. And you always had more to say anyway."

"Hmm. That's true." Out of nowhere, her eyebrow arched up. Mocking offense, she asked, "Hey, are you saying I talk too much?"

He didn't catch the tone and shot his companion a strange look, then quickly raised a hand in defense. "What? N-no, no, that's not it, I just..."

A sly look from the girl cut him off, letting him in on the joke. "I'm kidding, Hiro, relax." She teasingly rapped a fist against his arm. "Mostly kidding. You do need to learn a thing or two about how to make a lady feel better."

Hiroshi lightened up, still caught off his guard. He smiled back, relieved that at least one of them had managed to pick the other up. "Well... least I didn't keep the lady waiting this time."

Akira laughed, showing teeth and turning away from Hiro. "No, no you didn't."

Quiet moment again. Hiro knew the opportunity was right there in front of him. It couldn't have been more obvious, and yet his heart pounded at the thought of even trying. Not a speech, but a gesture.

Akira started when she felt his arm go around her back and gently clasp her opposite shoulder. The boy's grip was anything but sure, his hand tentative. She didn't meet his face, but guessed that it was writ with anticipation and fear. Though her smile faded, she let out a ghost of a contented sigh, and without words she found her arm sliding behind him in return.

Emboldened, Hiro tightened his grip, sending back a bit of the strength she gave him. As she tilted her head to lean on his shoulder, he swore he heard her whisper, "That's better."

"It looks delicious, thank you," Hiro said politely as the steaming beef roast was placed before him.

Misato smiled at him, then reached for her husband's plate. Kaneko Hayami gladly offered it to her, and he seemed more interested in the gravy-coated meal than his daughter's new friend-that-happened-to-be-a-boy. The introduction was somewhat awkward; Akira deliberately danced around "the B word," and Hiro hadn't yet decided if that was cause for relief or annoyance.

From the hallway, Hiro could faintly hear the TV in one of the bedrooms. Akira explained that her youngest brother, Kouta, had come down with a fever and would be eating later. Just as well, since Hiro was having enough trouble striking up conversation.

Sensing his discomfort, Misato sliced off a portion for her own plate and sat down. "So, Akira says you're attending Asahi Senior High now?"

Hiroshi, about to pick up his knife and fork, stopped to clear his throat. "Ah, yes. This was my first year there."

Kaneko nodded to him, starting to saw through his own helping of roast. "Akira's just finishing up there."

"Right, entrance exams are coming up, aren't they?" Hiro asked.

Akira made a noise through her full mouth, quickly chewing a chunk of roast. "Two days. I've been studying hard when I can, I really like the campus."

Misato gently drove her fork into a pile of mashed potatoes. "Didn't a couple of their alumni compete in Wimbledon last year?"

"Just one, but yeah, they have a pretty famous tennis program," Akira nodded. Giving a discreet but meaningful look to Hiro, she added, "And the college isn't too far away."

The boy hid a grin, the comment clearly meant for him. "That's good. Two days, huh?"

"As long as you're not buried in that game again," said Misato with a good-natured chuckle.

"I know, mom, it's fine," Akira answered halfheartedly.

Smacking his lips from a sip of water, Kaneko added to his wife's remarks. "You do have to be careful, you know. You never know who you're really dealing with online. And didn't that game have something to do with that thing last year?"

"Right, that police operation downtown." Misato turned to Hiroshi. "I know you two weren't involved, but you still had us worried when it came up on the news."

A sudden image of a man with a machine gun stopped Hiroshi short amidst a pull from his own glass, and he coughed as water splashed down the wrong pipe. "Excuse me," he said between coughs, carefully setting his glass down. "Sorry, I just..."

Misato started to reach across the table. "Are you okay?"

Akira gave her partner a worried look, but he waved off the concern. "Yeah... yeah, I'm fine," he said, glancing back at Akira. I keep forgetting we didn't tell them about... that.

"Good," said Kaneko. "Anyway, I don't mean to sound old-fashioned, I know how popular The World is. You just have to strike a balance."

Hiroshi smiled, clearing his throat to remove the last bits of water. "You're right, Mr. Hayami. It is all about balance, isn't it?"

The older man nodded to him. "True enough. And you don't need to be so formal, Kaneko is fine. I suppose there's some good in The World if the two of you met through it."

If only you knew the half of it, Hiro thought, and a quick look at Akira suggested she was thinking the same thing.

"It has its moments," Akira said.

"Actually, do you mind if I use your bathroom for a moment?" Hiro asked.

"Not at all." Kaneko motioned towards the entrance to the kitchen. "Around the corner to your left, down past the bedrooms."

"Thank you." Hiroshi pushed away from the table and made his exit, slipping around the kitchen archway and into the hall. He could hear Kouta flipping channels as he passed the room, the TV jumping haphazardly from children's programming to a baseball game to the evening news.

A brief snippet of news caught his attention, and experience, alongside movies, had taught him to listen in. "...unclear how the fight started, but eyewitnesses saw a single man fleeing the scene shortly afterward. Although a few patrons were injured, no serious injuries have been reported."

Hiro poked his head back around the bedroom door, taking a quick peek at the TV. Where was this?

He caught a brief shot of a broken bar window, with police apparently questioning some of the people milling about. "A security camera at a neighboring convenience store caught an image of the man crossing the parking lot. He is described as white, in his late 30's..." the TV winked as it changed channels again, the building replaced with a soda advertisement.

Hiroshi shook his head and turned towards the bathroom again. After a moment's thought he silently said No, that can't be him... can it?

-

From: C.
To: I.
Subj: Blades

The blades have shown an interest in poetry. My exclusion from the recital is documented. I'll ensure that they see act two.

- Seaen