When Games become too Real
Chapter One
The new Player looked around and grinned. He had the playing field all to himself this afternoon. A quick glance at his Player Skin affirmed that he was indeed in The World; he wore robes of black and red, with silver highlights. On top of his head he wore a hat that was embellished with silver and rubies. In his hand he carried his Wavemaster Staff, and that too was silver with a ruby set.
"You certainly have a flair for black, red, and silver, don't you?" a voice suddenly asked, from behind. The new Player's expression deadpanned.
"Hullo, Sora." the new Player muttered, dryly, as the Player Killer moved in front of him so that now they were facing one another.
"Hello, Hito! Good to see you too! Where have you been these past couple of days?" Sora asked, as he leaned towards the young Wavemaster.
"Does it really matter? I'm here now." Hito said, looking a tad bit irritated with the green-haired Player.
"So you are! Well, I must be going! I have some people I need to meet!" Sora said, before moving on to the next server.
"Geez, that guy is weird! You'd think he doesn't have anything better to do than bother other Players!" Hito muttered, as he started walking towards his server's dungeon.
"He doesn't." a girl's voice said, getting a quick 'huh?!' from Hito. He whirled around to see a female Heavyblade sitting there watching him.
"Who're you?" Hito asked, curiously.
"My name's Mimiru. I'd heard that there was a mysterious Wavemaster here and came to find out who it was. Though I wasn't expecting to see a newbie here." Mimiru said, as Hito's eyebrow twitched in response to being called a 'newbie'.
"Then who were you expecting to find, if you weren't looking for me?" Hito asked, putting aside his irritation for the moment.
"I was looking for a Wavemaster named Tsukasa." Mimiru said, sounding a little disappointed.
"Well, my name is Hitodama, but those who know my PC just call me Hito for short." Hito stated, giving Mimiru a concerned look with his wine colored eyes.
"Well, I'm sorry to have bothered you, Hitodama. I guess I'd better get going." Mimiru said, as she prepared to leave the server.
"Hey, wait." Hitodama said, as he took a few steps after her. Mimiru paused, then turned and looked at him.
"Yeah? What do you want?" Mimiru asked.
"Maybe I could help you look for Tsukasa. Two pairs of eyes are better than one, ne?" Hito asked, with a smile.
"Yeah, maybe you could help me. C'mon. A friend of mine is waiting in Mac Anu." Mimiru said, as she moved to the next server, and Hito started to follow her. Then, just as he had moved into the space between servers, the pain of a thousand hot knives hit him. It seared through his entire being, and left him screaming. When he materialized again in Mac Anu, he was on his back with Mimiru and a concerned man with blue and white tattoos looking down at him.
"W-what happened?" Hito asked, shakily, as he sat up, holding his aching head as he did so.
"You tell me. You were fine back there in the server field, but when you got here, you were collapsed on the ground." Mimiru said, as she helped the Wavemaster to his feet.
"Try logging out." The man said, calmly.
"What? Why?" Hito asked.
"Just do it. I've got a bad feeling about this." The man murmured. Hito reluctantly did as he was told and tried to log out. His face paled when he realized something.
"I can't see my terminal! It was there just a second ago!" Hito yelped, as he looked frantically at the man and Mimiru.
"Calm down. We'll figure out what's happened, and try to help you in any way we can." The man said, as he put a comforting hand on the Wavemaster's shoulder. Hito took a deep breath and nodded; panicking would get him nowhere.
Meanwhile, in Aura's realm, Tsukasa sat on the edge of the bed, trying to figure out what was going on.
"Tsukasa." A woman's voice whispered. Tsukasa jumped, took up his staff, and stood waiting for a fight. His gaze was met by Maha, who gave him a rather hurt look.
"What do you want?" Tsukasa asked, warily.
"My poor little Tsukasa. Do you distrust me that much? And here I thought I could make you happy." The woman's voice said, sounding upset, even though Tsukasa knew she wasn't.
"What are you talking about? Why would I want anything from you?!" Tsukasa asked, defensively.
"My poor little boy. And to think I have gotten you someone to play with so you won't be lonely anymore, and you don't even want him! I guess I should just get rid of him, then." The voice purred, with a deadly undertone hidden in it. Tsukasa's eyes widened.
"You've trapped someone else here?! Why?!" Tsukasa asked, horrified that his 'mother' could do such a thing.
"Because I love you, Tsukasa. Isn't that what any mother would do for her child?" the voice asked, with false gentleness.
"No! That is not! It isn't!" Tsukasa shouted, as he disappeared from view, heading for Mac Anu. He didn't hear the sinister giggle of the woman's voice, nor did he see the look of despair on Maha's face, but he did sense that something dire was about to happen.
Hito turned when he sensed something appear behind him, and gasped at what he saw. There, floating in the air before him, was a glowing, barbell shaped 'thing'.
"Bear…………!" Mimiru whispered, in fear, as the man unsheathed his sword.
"What is that thing?!" Hito asked, as he gaped at the thing in wide-eyed fear.
"We've encountered this thing before. I want you and Mimiru to get behind me. When I tell you to run, you run for the nearest Chaos Gate. Got it?" Bear asked, sternly. Hito and Mimiru nodded, as they got behind the other Heavyblade and prepared to escape. But, before they could do anything, someone shouted, and all three Players looked up to see where the shout had come from.
"Move it!" a silver-haired Wavemaster shouted, as he dove from midair and knocked all three of the hapless players into the canal. With a disappointed sounding groan, the 'thing' disappeared again.
"Well, Tsukasa, that certainly was an entrance." Mimiru muttered, looking like a drenched cat as she glared at the other Wavemaster. Tsukasa gave her a sheepish look.
"I had to do something! The guardian would have attacked you if you'd started running!" Tsukasa rebuked.
"We'll have enough time for this discussion when we get out of the canal. We're blocking traffic." Bear stated, as he pointed out the boats and their impatient looking punters and passengers. With sputtered apologies to the people in the boats, the three younger Players scrambled back onto the side of the canal, while Bear tiredly hoisted himself up after them.
"You know, the canal isn't for swimming in." an amused voice teased.
"Hello to you too, BT." Bear muttered, as he stood back up and gave the female Wavemaster an unreadable look.
"That was quite a save, Tsukasa. But how did you manage it?" Mimiru asked, curiously.
"Which part? The swooping in like Superman part, or the Bowling for Players part?" Hito asked, with some sarcasm in his voice.
"Well….I…..uh………..I have no idea how I ended up in the air instead of on the ground." Tsukasa said, cringing when both Mimiru and Hito face-faulted.
"Never mind, then. By the way, my Player name is Hitodama. You can call me Hito for short." Hito said, extending a hand to Tsukasa in greeting. Tsukasa gave him a curious look, then shook the other Wavemaster's hand.
"I'm called Tsukasa." Tsukasa said, smiling slightly when an honestly friendly grin appeared on Hito's face.
"So you're the one Mimiru was looking for! I guess that means we won't have to search the whole World for you, now!" Hito said.
"No, I guess not." Tsukasa said, softly. Unbeknownst to any of them, Maha was sitting on the roof of one of the buildings, watching. With a sad, silent sigh, he jumped off and disappeared, leaving not a trace of himself behind.
Author's Note!
This is my second attempt at a purely .hack//SIGN fanfic. This will be an AU fic, so please don't complain about some characters being incorrect. Other than that, I hope this chapter was all right, and I am sorry for coming off sounding annoyed.
Gemini