Second Shot

Chapter 12:

He Who Fights Alone . . .

"Yeah, I've talked to all of them but Taihaku," Kasumi Tomonari states, placing his cell phone between his ear and shoulder so he can heft a heavy cardboard box. "Most of them even agreed that while what he did was wrong, what Reiko did was too far." Tomonari sidles through a doorway and awkwardly approaches his desk. Bending at the knees so he can carefully slide the box onto the empty, flat furniture, he gives it a final push to make sure it's stable before adding, "It hurt him pretty bad. He hasn't logged back in since and won't even respond to our emails. Gaspard's been sending him PMs every day."

Tomonari pauses at that statement. For all the appearance he gave – no, that he cultivated – he knew what it was like to be in love, or at least think he was, and then have that ripped away. That pain faded to an ache for him, but it must still be raw for whoever the player is behind the current Haseo. The strange family dynamic that Haseo's new player had was something Tomonari couldn't quite wrap his head around, but he presumed it was much the same as his own difficulty.

Thankfully, instead of trailing off into that depressing line of thought, it reminds him of his conversation with Yata yesterday. "It doesn't help that Yata still wants him to awaken so we can go out hunting these bug monsters or whatever it is."

"What?" Misaki Ryou queries in a mildly shocked tone from the other side of the phone.

"He's not that picky," the player behind Kuhn adds. "Actually, I thought he was going to call you and try to get you to come back. You actually did awaken and save the world, after all. This guy can get a couple of the glowy lines, but he's never awakened yet."

A moment of silence passes on his cell phone as Kuhn's player opens a large box on the floor and starts sliding his computer tower out. Finally, Ryou responds. "I thought I made it clear to Yata. I'm not sure how ready I am to go back in. I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I was just a kid bent on fear and revenge back then. I wanted Shino back and I wanted everybody between me and her to suffer. I'm not that way anymore. I'm halfway through college now, and when this semester ends I was going to take a trip up to my girlfriend's and propose. I don't even know if I could summon Skeith anymore."

Ryou takes a deep breath and Tomonari senses he has more to say. "Hell, you were there at the online party last year. You more than most of them should understand. I want to move on with my life, Kuhn, not go back to the way things used to be. I almost lost a lot more than the year I spent getting Shino back."

"Yeah," Tomonari acknowledges sedately. It was a topic most people tip-toed around during the big online party, but Shino and Haseo's falling out was something most people knew about. The 26-year-old journalist-to-be takes a moment to pull the computer tower fully out of the box before checking the computer for damage or dust. "I feel even worse about the whole thing because I keep wondering if I could've said something else when he came to me for help. He's not a bad guy, Ryou, he's just got his issues. Sad thing is, I kinda got the impression that The World was the only thing he had. Unfortunately, despite the problems I had with the guy, Yata might be onto something and with Pi . . . Astrid—I mean Reiko—gone, he's got no one to turn to. I don't like asking you to come back, but you used to—"

"I used to rage around like a demon while I was trying to get back Shino. It was nine months, Kuhn," the original player behind Haseo says with a gravity that normally doesn't carry in his tone. "Nine months before I started to wake up enough to feel despair. Even if I got Shino back, she never had eyes for anyone but Ovan. It wasn't until the Holy Palace before I started to realize there was still something for me, and when Chika . . ."

Ryou's voice cracks, and it takes Tomonari a moment to remember Ryou's fiancee, the girl who used to play Alkaid before the two of them left The World for college. Tomonari opens another box with cables that he swears have tangled themselves, and then Ryou speaks again. "When Chika went into a coma, I contemplated jumping off the school rooftop."

Ryou takes a deep breath, and Tomonari suspects he's finally getting to the crux of why he's not coming back. "If I tried to go back to playing Haseo, you can be sure as hell that Chika's not going to sit back and do nothing. She'll start playing too, even though she never even had an Avatar. I almost lost Alkaid once, I am NOT going to lose her again."

Tomonari sets down the tangle of computer cords to devote his full attention to the conversation for a moment. "You're probably right, but if it's not you then it's gotta be him. Thing is, how do we convince him to come back?"

Silence passes for a few moments before Ryou says, "I have an idea. . ."

Kenji bellows as he snaps his hands down, the padded staff representing a yari slamming into the mat. He follows with a rearward jab that is seamlessly transformed into a rising swing, the faux-yari slashing upwards in a move drawn from naginata-jutsu. The butt of the staff swings out to his left to fend off a glancing blow before Kenji suddenly switches direction and executes a wide, powerful sweep. Proper kobujutsu never taught him to make such wide, flashy moves, but it was one of his most effective moves as Haseo in The World and remains a habit he can't break.

The padded faux-yari of his senpai stabbing straight into his stomach knocks Kenji off his feet. His opponent peaceably strides forward, his weapon sliding down into a relaxed grip. "Arakawa-kouhai, I know that you've got a good deal of real-world experience from Kyoto, but you need to remember the core tenants of martial arts. You'd be much farther on this if you'd come more often than when your parole officer found out you were getting into fights. Control your emotions—"

Instead of politely listening, or using one of the rising motions that the school might have taught, Kenji propels himself to his feet with a kip-up and powers his padded faux-yari in a vertical chop at his mentor, who has to put considerable strength into the block but still manages to fully halt the attack. Kenji snaps back and throws his yari into motion. "I didn't join one of the namby-pamby schools of 'martial arts' for touchy-feely philosophy," he retorts as he is again deflected, falls back a step, and smoothly advances on a new perceived weakness in his mentor's defenses. "If I wanted philosophy, I'd avow myself to be a better Buddhist. I came here instead to learn real martial arts. Yamada-senpai."

Yamada frowns, the politeness of his reference dulled by the way it was tacked on almost as an afterthought. "You came here because your parole board judged you to need something to help you achieve balance. You've got almost no control over your anger beyond hiding it, Arakawa, and if you don't do anything it'll consume you like a fire consumes even the mightiest castle."

Their padded yaris clash in a rapid exchange of thrust, slash, and parry that continues for several seconds before both withdraw, breathing heavily. "What if anger is all that I have? How can I throw away what I am?"

His pocket tablet resonates with The Far Side of the Steep Mountains and Kenji groans from his indoor hammock. He looks blearily through the room and spots his old alarm clock, clearly displaying the time at 16:10. Ugh, can't people let a caterer catch some sleep? I don't have your hours!

Despite his internal grumblings, the ringtone is one for people he doesn't know. If it's not Takeda, then it might be somebody he'd want to talk to. Letting out a sigh and rubbing one arm to assuage the bruises from his kobujutsu session, he picks it up and answers the phone function. "Arakawa Kenji."

"Misaki Ryou. In some senses I'm your predecessor."

Kenji blinks, then holds out his pocket tablet to look at it. Nothing looks unusual, besides the words coming through it. Nerves still frayed from Astrid's stupid stunt on Friday, getting into a fight at the cooking school on Saturday and his parole officer harassing him the rest of the day until he finally started going back to the martial art studio . . . his week was a long sequence of aggravations piling up. Kenji can feel his blood pressure rising. All of that, then the eighteen-hour job yesterday, and now it's continuing today? Fighting to keep his temper under control, he snaps, "Is this some sort of a prank?"

"Ah," the voice on the other end of the line states. "I thought they'd explained a few things to you before Pi's stunt." A moment of silence passes, but Kenji can hear the breathing of somebody who is wrestling with distaste. "I was Haseo."

Kenji freezes, unable to decide what this means. He hadn't been able to go back to The World. Going on two weeks, and without that outlet for aggression and simple social contact, Kenji knew that his temper was unraveling . . . his life feeling like it's closing in. He wants to go back, desperately, but after Astrid's little fire storm and the looks he saw on his friends' faces, he can't even go past the log-in screen. Fingers pressing into his pocket tablet with an ominous creak, Kenji goes through a long breath, noticing the patience Ryou is giving him to finish it. "That door isn't open to me anymore."

A moment passes as Ryou collects his thoughts, then he begins simply. "You may want to sit down. I want to ask you to do something, but first I have quite a few things you need to know . . ."

"Hello!" the human PC waves, voice just barely below shouting. Despite the din of player activity in the crowded player marketplace of Breg Epona, the volume would normally be unnecessary given the selective filtering of the chat feature and the GUI interface. The failure of these to immediately get the rotund beastman's attention only rankles the Partizan named Karl. The long-haired PC of indeterminate youth puts his hands on his hips, the black of his faintly tunic-like garb standing out from the generally bright character designs of the crowds around him. "You were supposed to be ready for my latest shipment!"

"I'm sorry," Gaspard bows sheepishly in the shop stall. "I've been kinda distracted. Running Canard's shop was my favorite part of the game for so long. Negotiating and the whole exchange used to be so exciting, but the past week I've been so concerned about Haseo that I can't really focus." The beastman deflates with a sigh and his fellow Canard guildmate rolls his eyes.

"Listen, I know you're the senior guild . . . person, but neither of us can do anything if he doesn't log back in." Karl raises his hands to emphasize his point. "For right now, here's the latest from my inventory. The last wanna-be-arena-champions at least picked an interesting area."

Gaspard selects five of the eight items, sending the remainder back. He tries to smile at the fact that Karl's mild gesture and the shoulderless design makes it look like he's reaching out in prayer, but the observation that used to draw a chuckle now barely makes his mouth quirk in the real world. "Well, you were never that interested in the arena." Gaspard sighs again. "I'm sorry, I just keep coming back to Friday. I was so shocked that I think Haseo thought I was mad, and when Kaede took off he must've thought he was surrounded by people who hated him."

"Yeah," Karl says dismissively. A modestly new player and only a couple weeks in the guild Canard, all of this politics between older players is something he doesn't even know enough to speculate on despite being on enough to be an admitted online addict. "I'll bring the kid on a tour if he comes back."

Blue rings fall around a new player in Mac Anu, and the moderately tall beastman PC stretches in time with his human player working kinks out of his neck. The kitsune with blue-streaked fur gives a brief shudder that jostles his twin tails. Without even paying attention to main view he follows the mini map to the NPC shops, quickly exhausting his starting funds.

An hour later, he returns to the Chaos Gate and looks over the stream of players coming and going, looking for a green-garbed one in particular. His attention wanders as he takes in the intricate detail of the room around him, this being his first time actually visiting Mac Anu. The sunken area around the Chaos Gate actually looks like it has real, flowing water, and if he didn't know better he'd almost think he could smell the odor of hard water flowing through old stonework.

One girl, a skinny, human-type PC wearing a large purple hat with four rubies in the corners, notices his curious examination of the area and steps forward. "Hi. Me and my partner noticed that it looks like you're new. If you'd like, we'd be honored to show you around."

Author's Notes: Kobujutsu, also known as Kobudou, translates roughly to "old way of martial arts" and is much more firmly steeped in the practical aspects of martial arts. In other words, its focus is much more rigidly on the combat aspects, and not on the warm and fuzzies of "philosophical" martial arts practiced by some today. Unlike many modern forms, it lacks the emphasis on one set of stances or weapons (or lack thereof), utilizing a wide variety of movements and weapons of choice. I figured it would be the only one that Kenji wouldn't dismiss out of hand. I couldn't think of a convenient way to put it in English, but Japanese has an extensive enough lexicon that his disdain for philosophy would be obvious if this story was in that language. Whether it would be clear that he's just like anybody else who disdains something he's never tried I'm not as sure of, but cest la vi.

For those unfamiliar with the terms, "senpai" means roughly "mentor" but is also used to refer to any senior position, such as a high school freshman calling a junior Senpai. "Kouhai" refers to a junior.

The Far Side of the Steep Mountains isn't a unique reference to Japanese art, but it refers more specifically here to the opening theme to .Hack/GU Volume 2. It just happens to be my favorite opening of the trilogy, though with Fukuda Chikayo's compositions in the games it's hard to pick a favourite.

Update 18 September: The conversation between Haseo and Kuhn has been expanded. My original plan was to get into the true reason for Haseo's standing out later, but the story decided it wanted to get moving in a different direction and I never realized that I hadn't put in that rather critical piece of information until a friend asked me about it.