.hack//Afterwards
By: NeoMoon
Rated: PG – 13
Part Two:
Tsukasa looked around the brightly lit restaurant apprehensively. She didn't know this place, she almost never ate out, and
if she did it was when her father was in a relatively good mood. She sighed and shook her head, trying her best to clear her
thoughts of her father, of her home and life away. Most importantly though was the small nagging feeling that maybe she was
wrong in trying to free herself all those months ago. Mimiru slid down in the seat across from her, and gently placed a
large tray full of wrapped hamburgers, and large sodas.
"I really didn't know what ya'd like, so I guessed." Mimiru said brightly as she shrugged her shoulders, then grabbed two of
the wrapped burgers. "Anyway," she started, as she unwrapped on of the burgers. "Why didn't you contact anyone sooner?"
Tsukasa looked down at the tray, staring at the two brown wrapped burgers, at the large paper cup, beads of condensation
rolling softly down its side. "I – I needed time I guess." She half whispered, as she took one of the two burgers and began
to unwrap it. "After I woke up, things seemed different. At first at least."
Mimiru watched her in silence, waiting for her friend – and yes, she thought Tsukasa was indeed a friend – to finish, but the
girl just sat their and ate her burger, and for a long time silence stretched between the two. Finally Mimiru couldn't take
it anymore; she wasn't for sitting here and moping. Before she even opened her mouth to speak Tsukasa had continued. "Dad,
he was so happy I was back, it amazed me," she smiled sadly, and Mimiru couldn't help but notice that the girl had a hunted
look in her eyes. Had she always had that? "He took me out and we brought all these new clothes." She smiled, and waved a
hand in front of her. "My body had decided it was about time for me to grow up." Mimiru couldn't help but smile at that
remark. "He would actually be interested in more then just my grades, wanting to know how my friends were, and how I was
doing in sports." She laughed. "It was great, and I had truly thought that everything was going to be good from then on."
Her smile grew a little said. "But I suppose I got just a little too happy."
Again the thought entered Mimiru's mind, the thought grew and started to form pictures that at first looked happy to her. A
faceless man, arm around Tsukasa's shoulder, gently arguing about clothes, of a man that sat at the dinner table listening
intently to his daughter's stories of school and just life. In all those small happy images though, the Tsukasa of her mind
still had that hunted look in her eyes, and Mimiru wondered just how much of the truth was shown in her images.
Tsukasa was still talking, that in itself amazed Mimiru, her Tsukasa never really spoke more then a few sentences. She liked
this new talkative Tsukasa, even if she did have a hunted look in her eyes. "I even got to see Subaru." She said happily.
And the sudden change in topic and voice told her, that Tsukasa was done speaking of painful things. "She's really, nice,
but kind of sad." Tsukasa took a bite out of her burger then continued. "At first I spent a lot of time with her, I even
took her to the aquarium." Mimiru looked up from her own burger shocked, and the smile on the young woman's face across from
her almost seemed to make that shock grow. Mimiru shook her head. No way!
Tsukasa continued. "But eventually school, and . . . other things got in the way and I lost contact with her." Tsukasa
sighed. "Really wish I could speak with her again though."
Mimiru only smiled and sipped on her drink, wondering what that almost faraway look on Tsukasa's face could mean.
* * * *
The girl jumped back into a flip easily, avoiding the large barbed club of the Desert Server's lizard beast. A large smile
crossed her face, as she adjusted her new neck choker, a magical item that she had found in, quite literary, the belly of a
beast. As she rubbed the metal of the choker, her vision changed slightly, and statistics, appeared around the lizard beast.
Her smile grew, only twenty life points left, and the XP he gave out would push her well above what she needed for a level
fifty.
Flipping her daggers so that their razor sharp points pointed inward she charged the giant beast, daftly avoiding his club as
it swung down at her, hitting the sand covered ground and sending up a great cloud of dust. He took her chance, jumping up
onto the large wooden club as the beast lifted it, using its own momentum to speed her down its length closer to the beast.
At the last second the monster noticed her and swung his club fiercely, trying to make her lose her balance, trying to make
her fall. She smiled at its effort, then jumped off the club high into the air, her body covered by the blinding desert sun,
then effortlessly, as the lizard beast searched the sky for her, landed on his back and quickly scurried up onto his head and
drove her daggers into the beast's eyes.
The creature howled in pain, and before she could jump off vanished into thin air, to go where ever it was that defeated
creatures went, leaving the girl alone, and in midair. With a stifled scream the girl fell and hit the ground hard.
A hand reached down to her, and whispering a small, embarrassed thank you the girl took the hand was helped up. "Are you
A20?" The owner of the hand asked, as she brushed herself off and looked up, her eyes growing wide as she saw the tall dark
haired man that stood before her, his loose red clothes blowing softly in the desert wind.
Finally after a long time, A20 nodded.
* * * *
It was so dark in there, so cold and empty, and it had been like that for a long time. He had never wanted to open this door
again, never wanted to see this now empty room, and remember when it had been full of child's toys, and the boy that he loved
so dear. That was the past though, that was in a different lifetime, a time when he took advantage of such things, when he
thought that that boy would still be there. Still playing with his toys and his games, while he locked himself away in his
study trying to meet the next deadline, trying to squeeze the next chapter out of a mind that was too far gone, to spent from
the years of endless writing. For a time the boy was there, and so was the boy's mother, his wife. And even though, he knew
his small study and the old word processor better then he did them, he thought that all was well. Then one day he walked out
of his study, and into darkness. He went to the boy's room, and he was gone, at the time he had thought that the boy had
gone out to play, but that seemed odd to him, the boy was only four, maybe five.
So he walked though his home, a large apartment in the trendy section of San Francisco, and searched for his wife. In the
living room he saw a picture on the end table of a tall lanky boy, maybe ten or eleven, a large smile on his face, and a
baseball bat in his hand. His eyes grew as he lifted the picture, this was the boy, but so much older then he remembered
him, and baseball! The man smiled, he remembered when the boy was so small that he could hardly walk, he picked the
troublesome baby up, and lay him on his chest as he watched the game on television, those had been the days before San
Francisco, before trendy apartments or an extremely well paying contract with a big publisher. Tears came to his eyes, how
long had he spent in that study, how much had he missed.
Hours passed, and then days, and he waited, never stepping foot into the study, or out of the apartment, he took to drinking
as he waited, hoping that it would blur away the time. It didn't help though, it never helped.
He shook his head, clearing his mind of the past, he shouldn't worry about the past, his ex-wife was good, the money she sent
her was enough to make a good living of off, and his son. He smiled sadly; his son was a different story.
He stood there for a little while longer, then turned away, shutting the door to the dark and empty room behind him, and
hoped that maybe soon it wouldn't be dark and empty.
He passed his study, it's door wide open, the soft glow from his computer shone out into the dark hallway. He ignored it,
time enough for the new book later, time enough for "The World."
Slowly a man many know of as "Bear" walked out of his apartment, locking the heavy oaken door behind him, and went to see the
lawyer he knew he might need very soon.
* * * *
Mimiru peeked around the corner and smiled. "Hi mom!" She said cheerfully and stepped the rest of the way into her house's
small living room, dragging Tsukasa in with her.
Mimiru's mother looked up from the television and offered both girls a warm smile. "Hi yourself." She said warmly, and
started to get up, but Mimiru raced over and gently pushed her back down.
"Mom, you know full well what the doctors said." Mimiru exclaimed with an over dramatic sigh. "You really shouldn't even be
sitting, what if you throw your back out again?"
Her mother smiled up at her, and patted her hand before pushing it gently away. "I know, I know." Her mother shook her
head. "I just hate be cooped up in here." She sighed then looked over to Tsukasa who was shyly edging her way over toward
Mimiru; her eyes looked firmly on the rough carpet. "And who's your friend? You never bring anyone home with you." Her
mother sighed. "Not even a boy."
Tsukasa started to laugh. "Mom!" Mimiru screamed turning bright red.
Her mother waved her hand dismissively, and looked over at Tsukasa. "I just like to tease her, its very funny." Mimiru
growled, making her mother laugh. "She's a very good girl though." Mimiru's mother smiled, then looked Tsukasa up and down,
her light eyes lingering to long on the long bandage that covered her cheek. "Now then who are you?"
Tsukasa looked at everything but Mimiru's mother. "I – I'm Tsukasa, I'm a friend of Mimiru from The . . ."
Mimiru cut in before Tsukasa could finish. "The Winter Dance committee."
Mimiru's mother's eyes brightened and Mimiru could tell Tsukasa was staring at her; she looked over at the other girl and
offered her a reassuring smile. "Well that's so wonderfully!" Her mother exclaimed. "It's so good to see young people
taking apart in school, and such instead of wasting their brains on that stupid game." Her mother pointed a finger at
Mimiru. "Now aren't you glad I made you join that "stupid committee" as you called it?" She pointed at Tsukasa. "You even
made a friend."
"Yes Mom." Mimiru said rather dryly then grabbed Tsukasa's arm. "Tsukasa's gonna stay over, we gotta few things ta talk
about for the dance." And with that Mimiru quickly hurried out of the room, dragging Tsukasa – who was waving to Mimiru's
mother – out with her.
* * * *
Tsukino had been playing "The World" for over three years, he was considered one of the highest levels none special
character's he had faced even the great Player Killer, Sora once and had lived. All his armor was shielded by special
magic's, his sword glowed brightly whenever he was about to enter into a dangerous Zone, and he held one of the fragments of
the rare King item. In fact, he thought with a smile as he leaned against the wall of this new dungeon. The rare King item
was the reason he was here.
Tsukino leaned away from the wall, peeking his head down the corridor, narrowing his eyes, and searching for any traps or
creature icons. He smiled, and rested back against the wall, everything looked fine. Slowly he took his sword from its
scabbard. His face was dimly lit by the sword's faint blue/green light, and his eyes narrowed as he looked down the other
end of the tunnel, the way he had just come from. There was nothing their.
Again he leaned forward and looked around the corner, down the other corridor he had just surveyed, again nothing. Tsukino
chewed his lip, as he looked his sword up and down. Hoping and praying that the hacked sword he'd spent real money on was
not failing him.
* * * *
Behind Tsukino, down the way he had just come something moved quickly, quietly through the darkness, not caring or knowing of
the young warrior that leaned against the wall ahead of it, all that mattered was that she run and be safe, nothing else
mattered.
* * * *
Tsukino was still staring at the sword when a faintly glowing white ghost soared by him, he looked up and stared at the
creature, his eyes growing wide as he realized it was not a creature at all, but a woman, a beautiful woman. She turned her
head and looked at him, her mouth moved, but he heard no voice, and he was bad at reading lips.
A moment later he was still staring, but the ghostly woman was gone, and now the corridor, in fact the whole dungeon was
erupting in noise. Dust fell around him as the noise grew closer, and soon the ceiling itself was falling. Tsukino looked
down at his hacked sword, it was glowing a fierce blue, screaming at him to run, and then he knew what the ghostly woman had
said. Run.
He turned to run back down the way he had come, but something blocked his way, something large, larger then he had ever seen.
Tsukino breathed in deeply, he knew he had lost his chance to run. All he had left was to fight, and he knew he would lose.
* * * *
Subaru sat quietly on the edge of the lake, her feet floating in its cool water. See leaned back and looked up at the night
sky of "The World" and smiled contently. She couldn't believe that almost a year ago she'd sworn this place off, it was so
peaceful here, well at least when you found the right place, which was quite easy for her to do. After all even though the
Knights had been disbanded she still had some of her connections with the Administers, and they always told her where the
least populated playing fields where.
"Comfy?" A familiar voice asked from behind her.
Subaru tilted her head back away from the stars and smiled. "Hello Krim." She said quietly. "Would you like to talk?"
Her oldest friend and mentor nodded, and Subaru was soon, standing, walking with him through the tall grassed field that led
to the isolated lake. "So," Subaru started her hands behind her back as they walked. "What do you want to talk about?" She
looked over at him and smiled. "You've raised some eyebrows with your cryptic e-mails, and BBS posts you know."
Krim smiled down at her, and she could feel her face flush, would she ever fully get over these stupid feelings. "About two
hours ago, a young Canadian girl was found comatose in her bedroom." He said, his voice hard. "According to the report I
hacked, she was still wearing the headset when they found her."
Subaru nodded, she too had recently started to look into these coma cases, and all of them seemed to involve people who were
playing in "The World" at the time. "Krim, I don't understand." Subaru said as she looked back at the night sky. "I know
these cases are bad, and I know there is some danger, a true danger now lose in "The World" but why are you involved, you
always did your best to keep the real world and the game separate."
Krim nodded. "That was before the game started to affect the real world."
Subaru nodded, she understood perfectly. "So what now?"
Krim looked at the night sky. "There's only one person who can answer that, and she might not be willing."
Subaru stopped dead in her tracks, and looked down at the ground. "Don't do that to her." She whispered. "This place has
hurt her so much already, don't drag her back."
Krim turned to look at her. "She's already back Subaru, I saw her last night on the cliffs." Subaru looked up at him, and
he smiled. "Although you may not be able to recognize her anymore."
Subaru was about to speak when she noticed something in the distance racing toward them, something that glowed faintly white,
like in the messages. Krim stared at her for a moment, then turned, obviously seeing the shock that was frozen on her face.
A second of tense silence fell over "The World," and then Krim screamed. "RUN!"
End .hack//Afterwards Part Two.
Author's notes:
Not much to say, I hope you all are enjoying this story, and I most definitely hope that I'm doing the world of .hack some
justice in my writings and not totally fumbling it. All I got to say is all of you writers and readers out there who have
played the first two games are luckily! I'll just be picking them up right before I release this (Parts 1 and 2 were written
while I was still far away from any place that would sell these games), and I hope though what I've read of the games (not
much) that I'm doing good.
Anyway thank you everyone once again for reading, and look forward to part 3 coming out sooner or later (after all I am
writing 3 other fan fictions one of them being another .hack), and please review, it really brightens up the writer's day.
Peace Out!
NeoMoon ^_^*
By: NeoMoon
Rated: PG – 13
Part Two:
Tsukasa looked around the brightly lit restaurant apprehensively. She didn't know this place, she almost never ate out, and
if she did it was when her father was in a relatively good mood. She sighed and shook her head, trying her best to clear her
thoughts of her father, of her home and life away. Most importantly though was the small nagging feeling that maybe she was
wrong in trying to free herself all those months ago. Mimiru slid down in the seat across from her, and gently placed a
large tray full of wrapped hamburgers, and large sodas.
"I really didn't know what ya'd like, so I guessed." Mimiru said brightly as she shrugged her shoulders, then grabbed two of
the wrapped burgers. "Anyway," she started, as she unwrapped on of the burgers. "Why didn't you contact anyone sooner?"
Tsukasa looked down at the tray, staring at the two brown wrapped burgers, at the large paper cup, beads of condensation
rolling softly down its side. "I – I needed time I guess." She half whispered, as she took one of the two burgers and began
to unwrap it. "After I woke up, things seemed different. At first at least."
Mimiru watched her in silence, waiting for her friend – and yes, she thought Tsukasa was indeed a friend – to finish, but the
girl just sat their and ate her burger, and for a long time silence stretched between the two. Finally Mimiru couldn't take
it anymore; she wasn't for sitting here and moping. Before she even opened her mouth to speak Tsukasa had continued. "Dad,
he was so happy I was back, it amazed me," she smiled sadly, and Mimiru couldn't help but notice that the girl had a hunted
look in her eyes. Had she always had that? "He took me out and we brought all these new clothes." She smiled, and waved a
hand in front of her. "My body had decided it was about time for me to grow up." Mimiru couldn't help but smile at that
remark. "He would actually be interested in more then just my grades, wanting to know how my friends were, and how I was
doing in sports." She laughed. "It was great, and I had truly thought that everything was going to be good from then on."
Her smile grew a little said. "But I suppose I got just a little too happy."
Again the thought entered Mimiru's mind, the thought grew and started to form pictures that at first looked happy to her. A
faceless man, arm around Tsukasa's shoulder, gently arguing about clothes, of a man that sat at the dinner table listening
intently to his daughter's stories of school and just life. In all those small happy images though, the Tsukasa of her mind
still had that hunted look in her eyes, and Mimiru wondered just how much of the truth was shown in her images.
Tsukasa was still talking, that in itself amazed Mimiru, her Tsukasa never really spoke more then a few sentences. She liked
this new talkative Tsukasa, even if she did have a hunted look in her eyes. "I even got to see Subaru." She said happily.
And the sudden change in topic and voice told her, that Tsukasa was done speaking of painful things. "She's really, nice,
but kind of sad." Tsukasa took a bite out of her burger then continued. "At first I spent a lot of time with her, I even
took her to the aquarium." Mimiru looked up from her own burger shocked, and the smile on the young woman's face across from
her almost seemed to make that shock grow. Mimiru shook her head. No way!
Tsukasa continued. "But eventually school, and . . . other things got in the way and I lost contact with her." Tsukasa
sighed. "Really wish I could speak with her again though."
Mimiru only smiled and sipped on her drink, wondering what that almost faraway look on Tsukasa's face could mean.
* * * *
The girl jumped back into a flip easily, avoiding the large barbed club of the Desert Server's lizard beast. A large smile
crossed her face, as she adjusted her new neck choker, a magical item that she had found in, quite literary, the belly of a
beast. As she rubbed the metal of the choker, her vision changed slightly, and statistics, appeared around the lizard beast.
Her smile grew, only twenty life points left, and the XP he gave out would push her well above what she needed for a level
fifty.
Flipping her daggers so that their razor sharp points pointed inward she charged the giant beast, daftly avoiding his club as
it swung down at her, hitting the sand covered ground and sending up a great cloud of dust. He took her chance, jumping up
onto the large wooden club as the beast lifted it, using its own momentum to speed her down its length closer to the beast.
At the last second the monster noticed her and swung his club fiercely, trying to make her lose her balance, trying to make
her fall. She smiled at its effort, then jumped off the club high into the air, her body covered by the blinding desert sun,
then effortlessly, as the lizard beast searched the sky for her, landed on his back and quickly scurried up onto his head and
drove her daggers into the beast's eyes.
The creature howled in pain, and before she could jump off vanished into thin air, to go where ever it was that defeated
creatures went, leaving the girl alone, and in midair. With a stifled scream the girl fell and hit the ground hard.
A hand reached down to her, and whispering a small, embarrassed thank you the girl took the hand was helped up. "Are you
A20?" The owner of the hand asked, as she brushed herself off and looked up, her eyes growing wide as she saw the tall dark
haired man that stood before her, his loose red clothes blowing softly in the desert wind.
Finally after a long time, A20 nodded.
* * * *
It was so dark in there, so cold and empty, and it had been like that for a long time. He had never wanted to open this door
again, never wanted to see this now empty room, and remember when it had been full of child's toys, and the boy that he loved
so dear. That was the past though, that was in a different lifetime, a time when he took advantage of such things, when he
thought that that boy would still be there. Still playing with his toys and his games, while he locked himself away in his
study trying to meet the next deadline, trying to squeeze the next chapter out of a mind that was too far gone, to spent from
the years of endless writing. For a time the boy was there, and so was the boy's mother, his wife. And even though, he knew
his small study and the old word processor better then he did them, he thought that all was well. Then one day he walked out
of his study, and into darkness. He went to the boy's room, and he was gone, at the time he had thought that the boy had
gone out to play, but that seemed odd to him, the boy was only four, maybe five.
So he walked though his home, a large apartment in the trendy section of San Francisco, and searched for his wife. In the
living room he saw a picture on the end table of a tall lanky boy, maybe ten or eleven, a large smile on his face, and a
baseball bat in his hand. His eyes grew as he lifted the picture, this was the boy, but so much older then he remembered
him, and baseball! The man smiled, he remembered when the boy was so small that he could hardly walk, he picked the
troublesome baby up, and lay him on his chest as he watched the game on television, those had been the days before San
Francisco, before trendy apartments or an extremely well paying contract with a big publisher. Tears came to his eyes, how
long had he spent in that study, how much had he missed.
Hours passed, and then days, and he waited, never stepping foot into the study, or out of the apartment, he took to drinking
as he waited, hoping that it would blur away the time. It didn't help though, it never helped.
He shook his head, clearing his mind of the past, he shouldn't worry about the past, his ex-wife was good, the money she sent
her was enough to make a good living of off, and his son. He smiled sadly; his son was a different story.
He stood there for a little while longer, then turned away, shutting the door to the dark and empty room behind him, and
hoped that maybe soon it wouldn't be dark and empty.
He passed his study, it's door wide open, the soft glow from his computer shone out into the dark hallway. He ignored it,
time enough for the new book later, time enough for "The World."
Slowly a man many know of as "Bear" walked out of his apartment, locking the heavy oaken door behind him, and went to see the
lawyer he knew he might need very soon.
* * * *
Mimiru peeked around the corner and smiled. "Hi mom!" She said cheerfully and stepped the rest of the way into her house's
small living room, dragging Tsukasa in with her.
Mimiru's mother looked up from the television and offered both girls a warm smile. "Hi yourself." She said warmly, and
started to get up, but Mimiru raced over and gently pushed her back down.
"Mom, you know full well what the doctors said." Mimiru exclaimed with an over dramatic sigh. "You really shouldn't even be
sitting, what if you throw your back out again?"
Her mother smiled up at her, and patted her hand before pushing it gently away. "I know, I know." Her mother shook her
head. "I just hate be cooped up in here." She sighed then looked over to Tsukasa who was shyly edging her way over toward
Mimiru; her eyes looked firmly on the rough carpet. "And who's your friend? You never bring anyone home with you." Her
mother sighed. "Not even a boy."
Tsukasa started to laugh. "Mom!" Mimiru screamed turning bright red.
Her mother waved her hand dismissively, and looked over at Tsukasa. "I just like to tease her, its very funny." Mimiru
growled, making her mother laugh. "She's a very good girl though." Mimiru's mother smiled, then looked Tsukasa up and down,
her light eyes lingering to long on the long bandage that covered her cheek. "Now then who are you?"
Tsukasa looked at everything but Mimiru's mother. "I – I'm Tsukasa, I'm a friend of Mimiru from The . . ."
Mimiru cut in before Tsukasa could finish. "The Winter Dance committee."
Mimiru's mother's eyes brightened and Mimiru could tell Tsukasa was staring at her; she looked over at the other girl and
offered her a reassuring smile. "Well that's so wonderfully!" Her mother exclaimed. "It's so good to see young people
taking apart in school, and such instead of wasting their brains on that stupid game." Her mother pointed a finger at
Mimiru. "Now aren't you glad I made you join that "stupid committee" as you called it?" She pointed at Tsukasa. "You even
made a friend."
"Yes Mom." Mimiru said rather dryly then grabbed Tsukasa's arm. "Tsukasa's gonna stay over, we gotta few things ta talk
about for the dance." And with that Mimiru quickly hurried out of the room, dragging Tsukasa – who was waving to Mimiru's
mother – out with her.
* * * *
Tsukino had been playing "The World" for over three years, he was considered one of the highest levels none special
character's he had faced even the great Player Killer, Sora once and had lived. All his armor was shielded by special
magic's, his sword glowed brightly whenever he was about to enter into a dangerous Zone, and he held one of the fragments of
the rare King item. In fact, he thought with a smile as he leaned against the wall of this new dungeon. The rare King item
was the reason he was here.
Tsukino leaned away from the wall, peeking his head down the corridor, narrowing his eyes, and searching for any traps or
creature icons. He smiled, and rested back against the wall, everything looked fine. Slowly he took his sword from its
scabbard. His face was dimly lit by the sword's faint blue/green light, and his eyes narrowed as he looked down the other
end of the tunnel, the way he had just come from. There was nothing their.
Again he leaned forward and looked around the corner, down the other corridor he had just surveyed, again nothing. Tsukino
chewed his lip, as he looked his sword up and down. Hoping and praying that the hacked sword he'd spent real money on was
not failing him.
* * * *
Behind Tsukino, down the way he had just come something moved quickly, quietly through the darkness, not caring or knowing of
the young warrior that leaned against the wall ahead of it, all that mattered was that she run and be safe, nothing else
mattered.
* * * *
Tsukino was still staring at the sword when a faintly glowing white ghost soared by him, he looked up and stared at the
creature, his eyes growing wide as he realized it was not a creature at all, but a woman, a beautiful woman. She turned her
head and looked at him, her mouth moved, but he heard no voice, and he was bad at reading lips.
A moment later he was still staring, but the ghostly woman was gone, and now the corridor, in fact the whole dungeon was
erupting in noise. Dust fell around him as the noise grew closer, and soon the ceiling itself was falling. Tsukino looked
down at his hacked sword, it was glowing a fierce blue, screaming at him to run, and then he knew what the ghostly woman had
said. Run.
He turned to run back down the way he had come, but something blocked his way, something large, larger then he had ever seen.
Tsukino breathed in deeply, he knew he had lost his chance to run. All he had left was to fight, and he knew he would lose.
* * * *
Subaru sat quietly on the edge of the lake, her feet floating in its cool water. See leaned back and looked up at the night
sky of "The World" and smiled contently. She couldn't believe that almost a year ago she'd sworn this place off, it was so
peaceful here, well at least when you found the right place, which was quite easy for her to do. After all even though the
Knights had been disbanded she still had some of her connections with the Administers, and they always told her where the
least populated playing fields where.
"Comfy?" A familiar voice asked from behind her.
Subaru tilted her head back away from the stars and smiled. "Hello Krim." She said quietly. "Would you like to talk?"
Her oldest friend and mentor nodded, and Subaru was soon, standing, walking with him through the tall grassed field that led
to the isolated lake. "So," Subaru started her hands behind her back as they walked. "What do you want to talk about?" She
looked over at him and smiled. "You've raised some eyebrows with your cryptic e-mails, and BBS posts you know."
Krim smiled down at her, and she could feel her face flush, would she ever fully get over these stupid feelings. "About two
hours ago, a young Canadian girl was found comatose in her bedroom." He said, his voice hard. "According to the report I
hacked, she was still wearing the headset when they found her."
Subaru nodded, she too had recently started to look into these coma cases, and all of them seemed to involve people who were
playing in "The World" at the time. "Krim, I don't understand." Subaru said as she looked back at the night sky. "I know
these cases are bad, and I know there is some danger, a true danger now lose in "The World" but why are you involved, you
always did your best to keep the real world and the game separate."
Krim nodded. "That was before the game started to affect the real world."
Subaru nodded, she understood perfectly. "So what now?"
Krim looked at the night sky. "There's only one person who can answer that, and she might not be willing."
Subaru stopped dead in her tracks, and looked down at the ground. "Don't do that to her." She whispered. "This place has
hurt her so much already, don't drag her back."
Krim turned to look at her. "She's already back Subaru, I saw her last night on the cliffs." Subaru looked up at him, and
he smiled. "Although you may not be able to recognize her anymore."
Subaru was about to speak when she noticed something in the distance racing toward them, something that glowed faintly white,
like in the messages. Krim stared at her for a moment, then turned, obviously seeing the shock that was frozen on her face.
A second of tense silence fell over "The World," and then Krim screamed. "RUN!"
End .hack//Afterwards Part Two.
Author's notes:
Not much to say, I hope you all are enjoying this story, and I most definitely hope that I'm doing the world of .hack some
justice in my writings and not totally fumbling it. All I got to say is all of you writers and readers out there who have
played the first two games are luckily! I'll just be picking them up right before I release this (Parts 1 and 2 were written
while I was still far away from any place that would sell these games), and I hope though what I've read of the games (not
much) that I'm doing good.
Anyway thank you everyone once again for reading, and look forward to part 3 coming out sooner or later (after all I am
writing 3 other fan fictions one of them being another .hack), and please review, it really brightens up the writer's day.
Peace Out!
NeoMoon ^_^*
