Disclaimer: I do not own .hack, or the songs I use in this piece.
Fate fell short this time,
Your smile fades in the summer...
Place your hand in mine;
I'll leave when I wanna
Feeling This - Blink 182
In towns, violence was considered a no-no. Considering her rendezvous with a certain peculiar murderer yesterday, Mimiru wouldn't take many chances for a few weeks. Consulting her member address list and a few other menus, she deducted that Tsukasa and/or Subaru had not logged on yet. And so she was atop the skyscraper roof of the Elf's Haven in Mac Anu, where the buildings were rectangular and solace was offered by scaling the walls near the Chaos Gate.
The sky traversed onward overhead, as if on some westward conquest, beckoning the ball of a sun to follow. It would not oblige for a few more hours.
Mimiru decided the aqueducts below were far too riotous for her; the running streams tinkled into unseen vents. Players avoided the makeshift rivers, not out of fear or anything of the sort, but rather out of disinterest--dismissing all but the essentials. (Unobservant...) Her heart was misplaced today, and she found breathing a bit of a chore.
Why and when did the cardiovascular organ become related to matters that should be confined strictly to the mind? Faerie tales and love-struck ninnies often made overzealous claims of breaking hearts or weighing them or freezing them, and other unconventional things like that.
She pivoted and paced about like a caged and impatient animal. She had saved her game earlier, as the nagging shadow of a threat lingered in the corridors of her mind--yes, knowing Sora, he would hunt her. (How unappealing.)
She bit her lip, thoughts straying to a violet-eyed fatale, and then with it, the blue-haired "angel" that always accompanied her.
"Dammit!" Mimiru swore, clutching her temple and crouching on the ground. "What the hell is wrong with me!?"
"Took the words right out of my mouth," a caustic voice sang behind her, but Mimiru could identify to whom it belonged without so much as a second glance. She allowed her fingers to slip gingerly off the sides of her face, and her nails--slightly long--traced infinitesimal patterns on the ground beneath her. It was a habit she had picked up as a child. "Of course, not in a method I'd opt for," Sora murmured silkily, "but amusing nonetheless. What are you doing?"
(Sora would later find himself asking her those four words close to every day... A symbolic sequence. Progressive in mentality, but he is still a boy.)
(And even with that, she is still a girl.)
"You can't kill me here," Mimiru murmured noncommittally, cherubic eyes gleaming with moisture. "You can wait 'till I get bored. I saved my game," she added defensively, scuttling a little farther away from him. As he did yesterday, the Twin Blade, body as skeletal and starved-looking as ever, plopped down onto the ground, not looking as malicious--but not as amiable. "Why are you following me? You know I don't like you at all," she said snidely.
"I'm here because..." Sora tapped his narrow chin with one finger, searching for a way to put it in words suitable for his magical persona. Ecstatic upon finding one, he clasped his hands together with an Evil Smile™. "'Oh, woe is me! Two girls are in hot pursuit of me, the almighty Tsukasa-kun! And since I am dating the crippled wheelchair girl, I must ask the even almightier Sora-sama to assist me in these dealings!'" Immediately, the euphoric expression fell from his face and was replaced by a spiritless narrowing of the eyes.
Mimiru subdued her smile, and the obnoxious giggle that would come consequentially upon learning Subaru was "crippled wheelchair girl". "Tsukasa...what?"
(She thought Tsukasa cared.)
"Actually, I just made that up." Mimiru's exuberance diminished, as indicated by the vanishing sparkle in her heather eyes. Her eyes strayed from Sora's--not as if they would have abided eye contact for long; they shifted to the delicate mold-collecting planks beneath her sitting form. The Twin Blade smiled secretively. Sora considered himself a puppeteer of sorts, dabbling in the art of manipulation--and Mimiru, coupled with her courtesy and intensified sense of mercy, was a marionette.
Mimiru was quiet for a moment. Then, voice steadfast and well-maintained, she mumbled something along the lines of, "That was mean..."
"I know." He felt no pity; his thin lips curl into a smirk, and the Twin Blade relaxed, straightening his legs and lying down on the floor. He flailed one hand in the air with much twirling of the fingers, beckoning Mimiru to do the same; she obliged, but not before placing a rather sizable distance between him and her.
"How long are you going to be hanging around me?" Mimiru asked offhandedly, lifting one arm from the floor to see how much of the sky she could seize.
"Most people would be honored to have a person such as myself in their presence, Mimiru-chan," Sora drawled suavely. His fingertips brushed strands of dark green from his eyes; upon receiving a clearer view of the sun, he shut them. He wasn't the type to relish bright lights, natural or no. "You're part of the minority." He examined his nails.
"Really," she replied, unable to think up a clever retort. "Don't you have energy to burn off? I want to be alone," she pleaded. "Go kill newbies or whatever. I need to be able to think to myself!"
Her voice had risen to a shrill tone unbeknownst to herself, and Sora cupped his ear with one hand. "What? Free country. Or root town. Whatever." A bemused smile followed. He did so love this game that he played...
That she hated.
"Look, I--"
"Is there a problem?" he half-snapped abrasively, allowing his hands to slide from their position on the back of his head to his sides. He looked like a rag doll if seen from a bird's-eye view: limp, and lifeless. No; lifeless was an erroneous term to describe Sora. If his body wasn't sharp and quick to take action, his tongue was. Lifeless was not a word in Sora's mental dictionary. As if proving it to himself, he elevated his legs, his body forming a nearly flawless right angle; Sora sprang to his feet. "Tada!"
When she didn't applaud him on his amazing accomplishment, Sora only smirked and walked to the edge of the building. The distance between the Elf's Haven tavern and item depository seemed insanely close...The faint tapping of metal against wood alerted him to Mimiru's presence somewhere behind him. "If you're going to push me, go ahead and do it." Incandescent eyes dared her to shove him.
With a grin baleful enough to match Sora's trademarked one, Mimiru was only too happy to gratify his challenge. She propelled her palms into Sora's back.
And he fell.
Gravity is, if anything, stronger in The World--perhaps it's the fact that all characters are physically adept, and there must be some compensation. The gaunt Twin Blade with his spindly arms and legs dropped like a fly that had made a very brutal impact with a windshield. He showed no signs of distress. Players' heads suddenly shot up, very aware of a black-clad presence that was about to be a bloody mass of dead on the ground--
Despite anyone's hopes or despairs, Sora landed, knees bent and hands outstretched, as if welcoming a smaller presence--a puppy or similar--into his arms. It was not a klutzy fall, God forbid; if one had obscenely good vision, or had some sort of play-by-play installed in their goggles, Sora had, in midair, twisted himself about in a very catlike way, applying little weight on his ankles before collision with the stone-brick path. (Remarkable control.) And then, in a whirling dervish of seconds after he touched down on the ground, he vaulted into the air again.
(He was going to try to make it onto the roof of the building across the Elf's Haven--the potions shop.)
The fashion in which he jumped appeared to be an ode to how comic book heroes or the occasional manga character would fly, often with a billowing cape following--arms fastened to sides, body straight as an arrow.
Sora was not going to make it.
His arms, gangling with lean muscle mass, shot from his sides. His fingers curled desperately around the roof's edge, and there he dangled, players below staring above in a mix of amazement and wonder. ("What the hell is he doing!?"/"He's really strong..."/"Damn, that is cool!"/"What a showoff...") Other people decided to mind their own business. That was wise, and yet uneventful.
The Twin Blade assumed an apathetic look as he flew into the air again, applying force to his fingertips; like a ballerina performing a final effervescent twirl-and-leap, he landed, knees sinking to absorb the impact, on the roof of the potion shop.
Roaring applause rippled over Mac Anu, as did appreciative whistles and whoops. Ah, he did so love the appreciation of his many talents...
A thought flickered in his mind, the metaphorical imitation of a light bulb being switched on. He spun around to face Elf's Haven, a gleeful expression crossing his face. "Mimiruuuuuu~?" Sora sang sweetly into the streets. The Heavy Blade on the roof blinked. Sora's hawkish vision could spot the faintest hint of a smile on her lips; Mimiru allowed herself a soft chuckle at his antics. Like a kid. He paused before lifting one arm up in an inviting wave.
"Need help?"
Mimiru reflected the possible consequences of attempting the jump herself before turning a faint shade of pink. "Who said I wanted to join you?" she shot back, though unable to fight the gentle arc of her lips. Sora flashed her his patented Evil Smile™ before clearing the distance with another jump. Her eyebrows tilted downward slightly in repugnance--an expression the Twin Blade was becoming familiar with very fast. "You could've just done that. Showoff."
He shrugged in response and maneuvered behind her nimbly. "Ready?"
"Why are you hanging around me?" Mimiru asked again as a pair of gloved hands wrapped around her firm stomach. Sora inched backwards, glancing over his shoulder on occasion to ensure that he wouldn't go rolling off the side of the building. He didn't answer; unlike their meeting back at the fields of pristine ice, his breath was no longer warm, but rather wintry. "Is Tsukasa really worried about me?" A hint of hope.
The Twin Blade did not dignify that question with an answer, expression hardening--but Mimiru couldn't see it. She focused on struggling instead, having recently noted where Sora was planning to dump her.
He grinned again, eyes flickering with malice. "Hold on tight."
He sailed into the air, pressing the tanned Heavy Blade against him and ignoring her vivid language.
And Mimiru plunged head-first into the water.
Mimiru was the first and only to surface. (You can't quite drown in The World, but the rivers in Mac Anu were probably the only and most fun way of dying in a root town.) Sora sat on the pavement, the lanky fighter dry as a bone in a skeleton and looking happier then most clams could hope to be. A cheesy smile was grafted on his usually snide expression, and he drummed his fingers on the ground to a rhythm playing only in his mind. The Heavy Blade blinked repeatedly, hovering in the open-air aqueduct, and feeling as close to wet as her goggles could elicit in all her soaked digital glory. Then she leered at him, eyes glowering a challenge. Little bastard--
"Tsukasa-kun and the blue haired lady are in Chosen Hopeless Sunny Demon. Why don't you go stalk them?" he said airily, waving one arm in the air. But Mimiru glared some more and scoffed.
"Like I care."
"Whatever you say~" And with a tilde flourish ending his statement, the Twin Blade disappeared; adamant to prove that she was not any kind of stalker, Mimiru scoffed again and headed to the Chaos Gate. She needed to level up...or...something.