**I do not own Chobits**
A/N: Sorry if this chapter is a bit confusing.
Chapter 12/Rin Plays
Ren's face had lit up from the item that he held in his arms. He looks up at his boss and said to him,"Wow! Are you sure it's okay for you to give me this?"
His boss, Gakupo, had held up his hand to stop his worker from talking anymore so he could speak,"Its all yours, Ren. I've told you that I already bought a new one so I have no use for that old DVD player."
"Thank you so much," Ren said respectfully as he turns to leave Gakupo's office. "I'll take good care of––"
His boss's arm had caught Ren around his neck before he took another step. "I'm not done," he pulls his employee close to him hoping that no one would hear their conversation. "Say, Kagamine, you've got needs, right?"
Ren blinked. "Needs?"
"Needs," his boss said with a grin.
Ren pulls away and looks at Gakupo blushing to understanding what he had meant by 'needs'. He's sure that his boss is talking about the type of needs men get at some point of their lives. The two exchange looks with each other and huddled back together again as Gakupo taught Ren about the best places to buy porno DVDs and talked about the sale one of the stores were currently having. "The one by the train station," he had commented on to have the best of best titles. As the conversation continues into more detail, the duo hadn't noticed the young Haku had walked into the room. The slam of the door had taken the two men back to reality.
"Senpai, your still here?" asked Haku sweetly.
Both Ren and Gakupo jumped at the sound of their friends voice with Ren almost dropping his new dvd player. "H-hey, Haku," says Ren.
"Ah, Haku, I thought you weren't working today?"
They both sounded nervous as they spoke.
Haku's eyes had made their way to the player in Ren's arms. She walks up to him and Gakupo and asks,"You're giving Ren your DVD player, Gakupo-san?"
Ren saw his boss wince. "Y-yes. I bought a new one you see," he said.
She nods and turns to Ren. "So, what types of movies are you planning to watch it on?"
Completly caught off guard by the question, Ren stuttered a lie. "You k-know those action movies? Explosions." He imitates a bomb going off with his mouth.
"Big explosions," added Gakupo. "Lots of gigantic explosions, isn't that right, Ren?" his boss nudge him as they both laugh off their growing lie.
Haku had a confused expression written on her face.
Later that night, Ren left "My Pleasure" with his new DVD player in a large brown bag. He decides to visit that one dvd store by the train station his boss had mentioned earlier. Ren walks in browsing the shelves of the store and later, finds himself under the sign that pointed to the porno aisle. He felt his face heat up as he slowly inches closer to the DVDs hoping no one saw him. The shelves were stocked with DVDs that had sultry women on the cover, wearing the most tiniest bit of clothing and posed in erotic positions. There are so many to choose from. Ren's heart raced as he felt himself take a step closer to the women on the covers, but a familiar voice had stopped him from living any further.
"My, my, Ren," Luki's voice was heard from behind.
The startled Ren had flinched onto the porno shelves as if trying to hide the whole entire aisle. "L-Luki and Gakuko, what brings you to these stuff these days?" he said then became confused on wether his last sentence made sense or not.
"We're here for this new game that just came out today," Luki replied.
"A game?" Ren hadn't grew up with videos games so this conversation is all new to him. He waits for Luki to continue.
"Yeah. An online game," he says as Gakuko held out the game showing Ren. His eyes grew wide with delight, he couldn't remember the last time he laid eyes on a cool game. "You hook it up to a monitor or persocom and play with people all over the internet," added Gakuko with a warm smile.
"Persocoms can play, too," Luki finished.
"So, I could play with Rin?"
Ren imagined him and his computer playing the game together and having fun. He smiles when he imagines Rin's smiling face and calling his name.
Luki nods. "That's right all you need is––ah," he gesterues towards Ren's brown bag. His DVD player stuck out. "That player can work with this," Luki explains simply with an expressionless smile.
"That's amazing," Ren lifts his bag with a wide grin, but it soon disappeared when he realizes that he can't very much afford anything, let alone a new expensive online game that was just released a few hours ago. He tried to hid his fading excitement with a false smile. He began,"But––"
"Tell you what," started Luki,"From the look on your face I could tell that this game has spark interest in you, Ren. And it just so happens that this game is a promotion pack with an extra game disc. I could give it to you if you want." The pink haired man spoke without a trace of hesitation behind his eyes.
Ren's spirit has risen up again. He didn't know, but his face was glowing with excitement when Luki told him that he's going to the check-out counter to purchase the game. "I'll leave you to it," Luki said to his friend as he gestures towards the porno section behind Ren whose face burnt bright red.
"I w-wasn't going to get any!" he pouted, walking away from the aisle.
Back at the apartment, Ren was setting up the game and dvd player with the manuel opened in his lap. Rin sat by him holding the extra game disc that Luki had bought them earlier in her hands. She read the title: Brave Quest Online. The print on the disc showed a fearsome monster-like demon towering over a player.
She holds up the disc to her eye and looks through the middle to see Ren's back as he continues to assemble the game.
"Ren, what's this?" she asked.
He looks up from the cables he was connecting and answers the same thing Luki had explained to him before. "Talk about luck. I got a free dvd player and a new game today," said Ren to himself.
"Can Rin play with Ren?"
"Of course. Its going to be so much fun, Rin!"
After a few more minutes of adjusting, plugging, and inserting, Ren finally came around to finishing assembling the game. "And to switch it on," he said as pressed the on button on his DVD player. He sits back holding the controller, Luki bought him one, in his hands as Rin sat close by him as they both faced the screen. "Oh, I almost forgot." He takes an unhook cable and reaches over attaching the other end to Rin's ear. He smiles at her,"Now we can play together."
"Play with Ren!" she cheers in delight. It soon turned into a chant once the screen flashed on with the game's title stretched across it. "Play, play. Play with Ren. Play, play. Play with Ren!" she waits patiently for the game to start.
He pressed the start button a couple of times. "Weird," he finally says after the seventh hit and a notice appeared on the screen. He read out loud: "In order to play..connect to the internet?" he exclaimed. He pressed a button. "Log-in ID?"
He pulls back out the manuel and started reading. After a few moments of reading nonsense Ren dials up Luki. He picked up and spoke on the other end,"How's the game going?"
"About that. It says I need a log-in password or something like that. An ID?" Ren said confused. "And something about the internet."
"Well, you need internet to play an online game."
"I-I know that. No, its just––what's a log-in ID and password?"
"Its your email account. You do have one, don't you?"
Ren sat on the other end, embarrassed with the question. "I'm going to call you back," he says to Luki.
The call ended, but the night never did. Ren had spent the whole entire night entering passwords, re-reading the manuel which didn't seem to help at all, and asking questions that he knows that he could not answer himself. The next morning he attended school, sleeping throughout all of Ms. Hatsune's lectures.
"All done."
"Really?" Ren's face shown in awe as he watched his friend unlock the internet password and using his own email to log-in and start up the game. "We should have asked you a long time ago. Thanks!"
Kaito hands Ren back the controller with a yawn while getting up to head back to his room. Gumi had already dozed off on her master's head. "Yup. See you guys tomorrow. Goodnight." Before he even had the chance to leave, Ren had reeled his friend back in convincing him to play.
"Recently, Kaito, I think you've been too busy with school," said Ren. "You need to take a day off some day!"
Kaito sat back down and settled Gumi on his knee. "Fine. But one game."
The two each held controllers in their hands once Kaito and Ren hooked up the cable into their persocom. Rin was as excited as Ren when he did so. Kaito hit the start button and the game faded onto the screen. It opened up in a medieval town setting with Ren's character showing up by a fountain.
"Eh?" he exclaimed. "Why does my character have no shoes? Just socks?"
Kaito laughed. When his character loaded onto the screen Ren took his friend's avatar to a surprise. His took a form of a girl that held close resembles to their teacher, Ms. Hatsune. Kaito got the long teal hair and such, but she's dressed in a cloak and held a witch-like staff. Gumi's avatar appeared too for it copied her actual appearance onto the game except she's huge which Ren took by surprise, too. "Kaito, you played this game before?" asked Ren.
"Something similar to this," he replied.
Ren already had fun by making his character jump, and move around the screen while Kaito explained the basics. It didn't take long for them to meet up with Luki and Gakuko whose characters' they made similar to themselves.
Gakuko- Hn, where's Rin-sama?
Everyone turn there heads hoping to see that Rin has just been quiet all this time they were playing. When no one saw her Ren felt nervous and turned to Rin. His computer just sat there no responding to any of Ren's calls.
Kaito puts a hand on Ren knowing how worried his friend is. "Its alright. Persocoms system shuts down when you hook them up to games like this," he had said while meekly poking his small computer's cheek whose also in the same trance Rin is in.
Also, Luki had put something on the screen that said: L- Ms. Rin had probably been put into another server due to the fullness of this one we're all in.
Still, Ren never calmed down for he made his character run all over the town searching for an avatar that looked like his computer. Kaito had told Ren to slow down multiple times because the rest of the party could not catch up with him. He hadn't listened which almost got him to a fight with another player.
Both Ren and Kaito read what the other player had to say on the screen:
D_Fly- Hey, watch out, you newb! Geez, it gets so much harder to play these games. Don't do anything weird, alright?
Ren was offended, but not too much since the player looked like a schoolgirl even though her voice is a little disturbing.
Guest_Ren- What was that? At least I'm not dress up as a girl that sounds like a guy!
L- No need to start a fight, Ren. This game wasn't build for you so there's should be freedom for anyone else who wishes to play it.
D_Fly- Must you always be the idealist, Luki-san?
L - Do I know you?
D_Fly- No. But I know you, mister famous-on-the-internet. Bye now!
The player started to skip away. Ren shuddered.
L- You're going to encounter many of them like that around the internet, Ren.
Ren had finally got to the outskirts of the town where he was about to march right into the forest until many jelly-looking, green gels appeared in his path. They started off jumping up and down looking harmless, then they attacked Ren who carelessly pulled out his sword and tried to slice them which didn't happen due to their jelly absorbent bodies. Ren was nearly swallowed whole by the pack of level one green-chus until his friends came to the rescue. Gumi and Luki had used a fireball on the green-chus who fled back into the forest as some left behind a collectable item called green gel. It ups a player's health by fifty points.
L- You really haven't played any sort of video game, have you?
Guest_Ren- Not where I grew up, no. During high school I was too busy taking care of cows, and I had no time for games.
GUMI- You must be careful and read the manuel!
theIceKing- Yeah. And don't go out on your own. It's a bonehead move.
Guest_Len- Shut up, Kaito!
His stubbornness took over, and he continued his way into the forest.
So far, Ren hadn't got killed. He has fought gigantic spiders, fell into traps, faced and almost got burnt to death by a dragon, and where did this get him?
"We got no where," Ren said through tired eyes. He then heard Rin move beside him. He looks at her with a matching tired smile. "Well, I guess we have to play again tonight in order to find you," he says to her.
To the other side, Ren heard a groan from Kaito. "Again? Why?" he mumbled. He got up, swayed a little, and headed for the door. "I'm coming back in five. So, get ready. We don't want Ms. Hastune breathing behind our necks today, Ren."
"Ah," Ren yawned into his locker. "Can't believe Ms. Hatsune gave us an extra lecture." He and Kaito had agreed to meet back at his apartment before they parted after being scolded by their prep school teacher for sleeping through her class. Ren had just slipped on his work uniform when his boss came in with sly grin.
"So, how's the DVD player working for you?" says Gakupo, his cigarette bobbing up and down as he spoke to his worker. Ren was too tired and distracted, all that came out was another yawn. His boss hooked an arm around his neck and shook him awake. "I said, how's the DVD player?"
"Its fine!" Ren finally replied a bit irritated.
"Well, I can see that. It seems that you haven't had any sleep."
His boss grins then laughs.
"No. It isn't anything like that. I haven't bought any DVDs yet since I got this game and––"
"What?" Gakupo exclaimed. The cigarette fell from his mouth. Before it even touched the floor, Ren's boss had darted out of the room with only a glance of his purple hair was seen. He then came back with DVDs in his hands. He secretly shows Ren covers of alluring women on the them. "My private collection," he tells Ren. The young blonde was suddenly awake and happily took the dvds from his boss with a smirk.
"R-really? Thank you!"
"Yeah. Return them whenever you want."
"Return what?" Haku's voice came.
Ren and Gakupo both jumped at her voice. She stood clueless before them with a curious expression on her face. She takes a step closer to Ren who nervously hid the porno behind him.
He stares right at her and says,"Y-you know those action movies!"
"R-right. He's borrowing those action movies from my, um, private collections!" Gakupo added with jumpy laugh. Ren joined in hoping to cover up another lie they had both told Haku.
She tilts her head and blinks at the two.
Ren heard Rin's voice from the inside of their apartment. She was reading the player's manuel out loud when he walks in. She greets him,"Welcome home, Ren. Let's play together again." She holds up the manuel towards he master with a smile.
"A-again?" Kaito holds up the controller towards his friend.
"We discussed this earlier, Kaito. Plus, Rin's going to be with us this time."
Ren hits the start button, and the game continues on. It didn't take long for Ren to start yelling once their characters loaded. "Why isn't Rin with us?" his blue eyes glued to the screen as he made his player run around the kingdom again. Gumi kept warning him to not stray far from her or Kaito. And as the night went on, Ren learned nothing from the warnings or listened.
Around three AM, the trio had finally reached the demon's castle. Fighting their way through the appearing monsters that litters the castle, Rin was never found in any room, hall, or dungeon. That was until they reached the demon king's lair. The room is vast, dark, and musty. The three had followed another player in and hid most of the time they watched the player fight the demon king and ended up being blown to ashes. "That guy was a wizard," Kaito says nervously. He, too, is a wizard himself.
"There's no way we're going to beat this guy," says Ren to Kaito.
"No one ever has."
The demon king stood on two legs, and had red eyes that beamed through every player's soul till they died. It had gigantic, surprisingly, white teeth and oversized canine teeth that seemed to reach his cheeks. Its wings were so bulky that it seemed that no type of magic or weapon can puncture it. Ren had taken notice that this creature is the one monster on the disc.
"No one?" asked Ren. Kaito nods his head. "But if we beat him, then that means we can go to the next city, right?"
"Yeah, but I hardly doubt that someone like you can––hey, what are you doing?" Kaito reaches his hand to grab Ren's player, but fails. He just watches him run with his small sword in his hands towards the boss.
"Rin must be waiting for me in the next city!"
Ren carelessly takes a swing at its foot thinking that hit would take care of the boss, but then is soon sent back flying by the boss's claw. Ren's player takes the hit against one of the pillars that holds up the demon king's room. His health meter flashes on the screen as it sinks down a full half. Kaito and Gumi calls out to him and ends up attacking the demon as well, giving up hiding. They both shoot lighting at the boss, but as soon as they reached it a barrier encloses on the demon king, protecting it. It laughs then attacks. Ren's player gets up and attempts another powerful swing. The boss lifts its hand as it creates a shadow ball in the middle of its palm, ready to obliterate Ren. The shadow ball not only shocked Ren in its bright electrifying, pink blitz, it also managed to shock Gumi and Kaito lowering all of there health into the danger zone. All three were sent flying to the floor.
The boss monster stomps closer towards the trio. Each step was like an earthquake to Ren and the rest. They all laid relentlessly on the cold, hard floor of the room about to taste defeat as the boss brings up its claw once again to deliver the final blow. But that was until Ren started pressing random buttons out of frustration, and that was when the only light in the dark room appeared.
The demon king stops in its track from attacking and is startled by the sudden light. It is blinded, and lets out a growl. Ren lifts up his head to the source of the light.
"R-Rin?" he said faintly.
In the middle of the bright glow looked like a character similar to Ren's persocom. He stares at her watching her just simply sitting on the floor, a blank stare in her eyes. But as he turns back to the screen he sees a different Rin. She floated in the air shining out light around her. She decended from the ceiling towards the boss monster's level. The two glance at each other then, with one deadly stare from her blue eyes, the boss had shriveled up into a pile of ashes.
The light had moved closer towards Ren. He finally saw her face, it is Rin. She held out her hand reaching for his, and as his character did, the game came to an end. The screen flashed the word 'congratulations'.
Ren blinked. "Don't tell me that was it," he said to the air.
"Hm. That sure was odd," Kaito said to himself.
Gumi stood up holding our two flags and chanting,"Good job, everyone! Congratulations! We've finished the game! Hurray!"
Rin, too, came back from the game. The blankness from her eyes disappeared as she blinked awake. Ren went up to her with a smile.
"You did great, Rin. You defeated the demon king."
She tilted her head to the side confused. "Rin doesn't remember," she said.
Ren copied the same confused look on his computer's face and turned to his friend. Kaito looks at Ren and says standing up,"Don't ask me. I'm going home. See you two later." He stretches then picks up Gumi before leaving.
"Bye. And thanks for helping me find Rin, Kaito," said Ren.
Once the door closed, Ren starts to take out the disc from the dvd player. He sets it back into the case when Rin asks,"No more playing games together?"
"We finished this one already," said Ren.
A sadden expression showed on Rin's face. She lowers her head and says,"Rin can't play with Ren anymore."
"No. We can still play many more games, Rin. But not one where we need to connect to the internet."
Her face brightens up again. "How about this game?"
"Huh?" Ren turns around and finds Rin holding up one of the porno DVDs Gakupo had lend him. "Ah, Rin, eh––um, put that down! Please!"
"Let's play it together."
"N-no! That's not a game."
"Not a game?"
"No! Its a––"
"What is it?"
"Its n-nothing! I swear!"