Disclaimer: I do not own .hack//SIGN.
A/n: Quitelacking: the reason I am using the name silver knight instead of ginkan, is because not all of the .hack//SIGN readers saw the Japanese version, and are more comfortable with Silver Knight, rather than Ginkan.
Gray: thanks for telling me about Sora, I will incorporate it in my story now. Also the reason why the world wasn't shut down will be explained in this chapter.
A few golden rings flashed in a swamp, and revealed a frowning Subaru. She looked around the place, and immediately spotted a few Crimson Knights catering to a Heavy Sword.
The Heavy Sword was a male with long brown hair, and green eyes. He had three red markings on his face; one on his forehead and one on each of his cheeks. He was dressed in nothing but a loincloth, and his body was completely red.
Subaru sucked in her breath and started walking over to where the players were standing.
"Lady Subaru?" One of the Knights said, as he knelt down. "We are glad you are here." The other Knights moved out of her way and did as the first one had.
"Are you alright?" Subaru asked the injured Heavy Sword.
"I'm alright, Lady Subaru," the Heavy Sword said, with a hint of a smile.
"What is your name?" Subaru asked.
"Just call me Shinkoro," he answered.
"Can you please tell me what happened?" She asked, as she sat down beside him.
"It happened kind of fast, but I'll tell you everything I can," Shinkoro nodded. "I stumbled into these pits by accident, I was actually trying to get into a dungeon on a completely different field.
"As soon as I arrived here, the first thing I tried to do was leave, but for some reason I couldn't transport myself out. It was as if a barrier was set here.
"And before I knew it, a huge lizard-like monster that I've never seen before, appeared out of nowhere."
"Out of nowhere?" Subaru asked, giving the man a suspicious look. "What do you mean by that? Monsters can only appear from portals. And why weren't you able to leave the fields?"
"That's the thing," Shinkoro continued. "I didn't see any portals. It was like poof, and it was there. And I really don't know why I couldn't leave. Like I said, I tried to. If I knew what was wrong I'd have probably done something to fix it."
"That is very odd," Subaru commented. "Please, continue," she urged.
"Well, I thought that it might have been a new addition to the game, so I started to fight it. The monster didn't seem to be very tough, so I eased up a little and let my guard down. And that when he…"
"That was when he attacked, and hurt you," Subaru finished.
"Exactly," Shinkoro stated. "I called for the Crimson Knights as soon as I could. I knew that you would want to know about this."
"May I ask you another question?" Subaru asked.
"Of course."
"Who are you in real life?"
"I am a twenty three year old police officer."
"A police officer?" Subaru cried. She seemed a little shocked by his answer, but shook it off pretty quick. "Then, does that mean?"
The man quickly shook his head. "No, this isn't an investigation. I am off duty now, and just wanted to play in a few dungeons."
"What do the police think of this situation?" A gruff voice from behind Subaru asked.
Subaru turned around and recognized the owner of the voice was a blond, female, Wave Master, wearing a Green and white robe, and carrying a long rod. The voice belonged to none other than her old acquaintance, BT. "What are you doing here?" she asked.
"I read the message boards, Subaru." She said coldly. "I just came here to offer my assistance."
Subaru immediately turned to the Crimson Knights. "This player's condition has already reached the message boards?"
"It appears so," BT said, as she knelt down by Subaru and Shinkoro. "So tell me, why haven't the police done anything about this whole fiasco yet? Why are they helping system administrations cover it up?"
The man immediately looked over at Subaru, as if asking her whether he should answer BT's question or not.
"It's okay," Subaru nodded.
"Well, I don't know too much about it, but I heard that it was a direct order from the WNS," Shinkoro said, with a serious tone. "The WNS is also helping system administrations cover up what happened. I believe that they're going to publicize the boy's death as a suicide."
"That's awful!" Subaru cried. "How could they tarnish the poor boys death like that!"
"Besides, everyone knows why the boy died by now," BT added.
"Everyone suspects why the boy died," Shinkoro corrected. "Everything that we read on the message boards are considered to be rumors. And I believe that the common person will believe the word of the police, system administrations, and the WNS over the words of a few players on the message boards."
"But why would they do such a thing?" Subaru asked, narrowing her eyes.
"Isn't it obvious, Subaru," BT said. "The World is a very popular game. If too much word of this would spread to the public ear, then the WNS would have no choice but to shut the game down."
"Maybe that would be best," Subaru said. "If players are getting hurt in the games, then maybe we should have it shut down. At least until we can get to the bottom of this."
"That is not an option," Shinkoro spoke up. "Like your friend said, this is a very popular game. Millions, upon millions of people play it all over the world. If the WNS would one day, just shut it off, for whatever reason, it would lead to chaos. People would start rioting on the streets, destroying property, and even more lives would be lost in the process. It might even lead to a direct attack on the WNS headquarters."
"He's right, Lady Subaru," One of the Crimson Knights behind them said. "All of the other players that were attacked and hurt in real life, have denied the whole thing to the police. Although we definitely know that it was the game that hurt them, their official quotes are: 'I slipped and fell', or 'I fell off my bike'. No one wants to admit the truth, because they fear that it will lead the shutting down of the world. The game is just too popular."
Subaru sighed and nodded. "You are right," she said. She turned back to Shinkoro. "Is there anything else you can tell us about the monster? Any characteristics that might discriminate it from other monsters in this game?"
Shinkoro thought for a moment and then shook his head. "I'm sorry lady Subaru, but looking for a aberration in the monster was not on my priorities list at the time. I was concentrating more on defeating it. One again I am sorry."
Subaru slowly nodded and got back up. "It's okay, I suggest you have a doctor inspect your wounds." She turned to the Crimson Knights. "Help him log out. I will join you shortly, first I need to talk to BT."
Both of the Knights nodded and took Shinkoro into town.
"Something very odd is going on again," BT stated as soon as the Knights left with Shinkoro. "How can players feel pain, if this is just a game?"
"I see where you're going with this," Subaru said. "I have received an E-mail from Tsukasa. She is just as surprised by this as the rest of us are."
"So she doesn't know what's going on either, huh?"
"It's to be expected, she hasn't logged on since she was first able to log out."
"It's to be expected," BT commented. "What if she won't be able to log out again?"
"It's not that," Subaru shook her head. "She just told me that she doesn't need to go to the world in order to have fun. She is just as happy in real life."
"So I take it that you two have met in real life then?"
Subaru nodded.
"I think it would be best for her to come back in."
"Why?" Subaru asked. "Do you think that Morganna is behind all of this?"
"I don't know, but she has experienced something like this before, maybe this has something to with the Key of the Twilight?"
"I E-mailed Tsukasa asking her to come and meet me in the world tomorrow."
"What was her reply?"
"I didn't get one yet."
BT stood there for a moment lost on thought. "Well, since there's nothing else I can do here, I might as well go back to reality. I'll E-mail Tsukasa, Bear, and Mimiru as soon as I log out. I'll tell all of them to meet in Mac Anu tomorrow." She was immediately surrounded by a few golden rings, which made her disappear.
"I hope we can end this soon," Subaru said to her self.
A subway train stopped and opened its doors, and out of it came a forty-four year old man wearing a black jacket and blue jeans. His hair was dark brown and his eyes were blue. In the game this person is known to everyone as Bear.
"The information I received back there wasn't nearly enough to even begin," Bear said to himself. "The police said that his death could have resulted from many different occurrences, but I have a feeling that they were definitely trying to cover something up." He sighed. "I can't believe that they'd simply lie to the public about this! Although, it does make the most sense. Besides, no one would really believe that a game could kill a person. Tsukasa, Subaru, Mimiru, BT, Sora, and I are the only ones who saw what the world is truly capable of achieving."
He walked up the stairs seemingly lost in thought. He was wondering the entire time, whether he should continue his pursuit in the real world, or give it up and try to dig something up in the game.
"If I go inside the game, all I might get are rumors at best. Subaru will be straight with me, but I can't quote her, otherwise I'd get her in trouble with the system administrations.
"However, if I stay out here in the real world, the chances of me getting a straight answer from the police, WNS, or the system administrations are slim to none. Plus if I go in the game, I might run into some of those monsters that are able to hurt players." He reached the streets and signaled for a cab. One stopped right by him and second after he raised his hand. Bear, opened the door and slowly climbed inside, told the driver where to go and then leaned back in his seat. "It's not much of a plan," he sighed. "But at the moment, it's all I've got."
A monster with the head on a crocodile and the body of a gorilla roared at the top of its lungs, while it drew out a long sword. It ran forwards and slashed what appeared to be a girl.
However, about a second before the blade could even touch her, she seemed to have disappeared.
The monster shook his head and started looking around the area, obviously trying to find the girl it was trying to attack.
"Yoo hoo," a voice came from behind the monster.
The monster immediately turned around and swung his sword at the place where the sound came from, but once again, his target disappeared.
Then before the monster could even regain proper stance, it felt a hand on its shoulder.
"Monsters here are so weak," the owner of the hand said. Immediately she applied pressure with that hand and used it to flip over the monster. As soon as she was right on top of him, she took out her huge sword and with one slice, cut the monster in two.
The girl who slew the monster, smiled a bit and put her sword away in a sheath behind her. This girl had short brown hair, her entire body was orange except for two small paintings on her cheeks and she was wearing leather. Everyone knew her as Mimiru.
"That was almost too easy," Mimiru said to herself. "How could a person end up getting killed in this field. Even a newbie should be able to take care of these bums." She sighed and sat down on the grass. "I've been here for hours and still have no clue what happened to that kid. I fought every monster here, asked every person here, went inside every dungeon here, and still don't have a clue what happened.
"It's as if the monster was waiting for the kid to be completely alone before he made his move. But that doesn't make any sense. Monsters appear from portals that a player gets too close too, they don't follow players around. It's just not in their programming.
"Of course, if this is something similar to what happened to Tsukasa, it doesn't really have to make sense.
"Still, last time, no one really got killed, much less by a dopy old monster." Her eyes widened. "An E-mail? From BT?
"Meet at Mac Anu tomorrow, Subaru, Tsukasa, Bear, Silver Knight, and I will be there to discuss the boy's death.
"Why not? It'll be good to see the whole gang again."
"Tsukasa," a strange voice called out.
"Tsukasa," it called out again.
Tsukasa slowly opened her eyes and began to look around. For some reason, she wasn't the least bit surprised that she wasn't lying in her bed, like she was supposed to be. Nor was she surprised at the place she was at, which wasn't even her house. Instead she was in a large field surrounded by many trees, and flowers. The grass underneath her feet was as green as it could be. For some reason she felt familiar standing here in this place, as if she'd been here before.
She started taking a few steps in a random direction, when once again, the voice called out to her. "Tsukasa," it called. "Follow my voice."
Tsukasa started walking in the direction which the voice called, stopping every now and then to listen for it again. The voice called out a few more times, each time from a different area, causing Tsukasa to turn in different directions. She finally stopped walking when she reached the entrance to a dungeon. It was then, that she finally realized where she was.
"Okay," she said to herself. "Might as well go inside."
No sooner than when she took her first step inside a portal appeared in front of her.
Tsukasa gave a small smirk. "A monster, huh," She was about to get her magic staff ready to fight, when she noticed that she didn't have it with her. Her eyes widened as she looked down at herself and realized that she looked exactly the same as she did in the real world.
She quickly turned around hoping to escape before the monster would appear, but as soon as she turned around, she noticed that the entrance from which she entered had disappeared.
She narrowed her eyes as she turned back to the portal expecting to see a monster there in its place. However, there was none there. Instead of a monster, there was a platform on which lay a small tablet. Tsukasa walked closer to it. She looked down at it, wondering what it was.
"Take it," the voice said.
Not knowing exactly what she was doing, Tsukasa picked up the tablet with both hands. As soon as she did, it began to shine a brilliant light. Tsukasa had to close her eyes in order to protect them from the blinding rays of the tablet.
After a few seconds, Tsukasa felt that it was over, and believed it safe to open her eyes again. Slowly, she opened her right eye, followed by her left and began to survey her position.
Oddly enough, she was no longer in the dungeon. She wasn't even in the game for that matter. She was back in her apartment.
"Odd," she said to herself. She looked at the clock hanging on the wall and realized that it was three o'clock in the morning. She then looked down at herself and realized that she was still in her night gown. "What a weird dream," she said to herself.
She was about to move around when she felt she was holding something in her hands. She looked down and realized it was the headset used to enter the world. "Why am I holding this?" She looked up and realized that the computer screen was on. "Was I in the game just now?" she wondered.
She looked down at the headset, and then back up to the screen. "So," she said to herself, putting on a real determined look. "They want me back in there, huh?"
She grabbed a chair and started accessing the world. She put the headset on, and clicked on the icon to start the game. "Well, let's see why!"