[AN: Yes, I know, XXI and XXV are very short. The other scenes are closer to normal size, though. With this release, we start to pave the way towards the conclusion of .hackOBLIVION and towards its sequel: .hackREBIRTH, with only five to ten more scenes until the transition is made]

XXI

A blonde girl slowly removes the headset from in front of her eyes with a sigh, looking concerned. He was so reckless, he thought himself invincible. Any warning only seemed to tempt him to challenge them more. She shook her head sadly.

Oh, Edo, she thought, I so hope nothing happens to you.

XXII

Mimiru cautiously surveyed her surroundings, sword in hand. There seemed to be nobody else in the forest of mushrooms, but with who she was dealing with you could never know. She heard a noise behind her and she quickly spun around to face where the sound had come from, but nothing was there. That's when, in a flash, a green-haired Twin Blade fell from the sky behind her and before Mimiru could react she had a sharp edge pressed to her throat while a playful voice taunted her.

"Guess who?"

"Sora" she answered, spitting the name.

"Oh, don't take that tone with me, Mimiru, we're old friends, aren't we?" he said playfully. Mimiru couldn't see his face but she was sure he was smirking.

Sora slowly removed the blade from her throat and she spun around to face him. Indeed, he was smirking.

"Can't you do a normal entrance for once?" she asked, irritated.

Sora shook his head and made a waving away motion with his hand. "Nah, it's not my style"

Mimiru sighed. She wanted to strangle the arrogant pig so much, but she had to stick what she had come for.

"I'm not here for pointless chatting" she said, "I need to talk to Helba"

"Helba, eh? I had heard rumors, but it seems it is true that our little Tsukasa is back to his old self," he said, with that smirk that made Mimiru wish she could take her sword to his head outside the game. "It's going to be difficult; I hear Helba is in jail for hacking into CC Corp and The World"

Mimiru clenched her fists and swore. There went another of the few possibilities of helping Tsukasa. She sighed and turned to walk away.

"Oh no you don't" Sora said behind her, "this has been very boring"

Mimiru looked back in puzzlement just to see the famous Player Killer extend his blades with a smirk.

"You better put up a fight worth my time" he said, and leapt. The clash of metal against metal rang throughout the mushroom forest.

XXIII

Subaru looked round at the Wavemaster sitting beside her. Mimiru had been right, he was strangely reminiscent of Tsukasa, yet quite different. He was bolder, more confident, maybe even too confident, but, beyond that, she noticed he was lost, and alone. The strange duplicity was made obvious when the conversation turned towards the real world.

"Everyone says Tokyo is the real world," he was saying, "and that this one is only a bunch of data on some computers, and it is true that the world I enter and exit is this one, that Tokyo seems to be the default…" there he trailed off and was silent.

"…but?" Subaru urged him to continue.

He sighed and leaned back onto the cliff face behind them, looking up at the clear sky.

"You say you don't feel this world, and do feel the other. Yet I feel this one much clearer than Tokyo, out there everything seems grey and muted."

Subaru looked at the strange character, wondering exactly who he was and what was happening to him. She had done some research, and the symbols on his cheek seemed to be the Ancient Greek letters Epsilon, Delta and Omega. She didn't know what they meant, though. She had mentioned this to him, but he had been as surprised as anyone else to learn that he had the letters on his face.

"That is… strange" she said, "and you say you don't need a computer terminal to enter The World?"

He nodded. "I've never used a computer terminal. I don't think I'd know how. Yet I can enter this world whenever I want"

She thought for a long moment and then decided to talk about what she had wanted to all along. "You were in Tokyo earlier today, weren't you?"

He looked sharply towards her. He looked surprised, almost scared, and she wondered why. "How do you know that?"

"You met a blue-haired girl in a wheelchair while you were there," she answered, "that was me"

The panicked expression slowly faded and he nodded.

"I wanted to know…" she asked, "how did you just disappear then?"

He shrugged and said, as if it was obvious: "People don't see me if I don't want them to"

After that, there was silence for a long time, while they both thought about what to say. Subaru wasn't very good at idle conversation, and Edo didn't seem to be either. Then, Edo turned towards her and said, slowly:

"You know…" he seemed to doubt, and paused.

She turned to look at him and smiled reassuringly. "Yes?"

"You… were beautiful in the real world, too"

XXIV

Many men and women in perfect suits were sitting around a grey table in a white room. No hint of emotion was present anywhere. All of them were dressed identically, with no personal touches to their appearance. All the men wore the same haircut, as did all the women. There were no hints of rank distinction between them. It seemed a reunion between them would be pointless, as they all seemed to think the same. Yet here they were.

"We have successfully instigated the formation of a new organization under the command of the character named Silver Knight," said one of them, addressing nobody in particular.

All the rest nodded their acknowledgement, and the person continued: "We have sent him screenshots of subject epsilon-delta-omega's virtual form and have commanded him to bind the character and then contact us."

"They will not be able to do that, subject epsilon-delta-omega's control over the data makes him near invincible to any player character," another person added.

The first speaker nodded, but said: "The mass amount of unusual player deaths will allow us to pinpoint the subject's location. That is all we require"

The rest of them nodded, it was a good plan.

XXV

The blonde woman smiled at the man in the perfect suit, silently mocking him. He looked at her in anger.

"Michiko, we will get you one day," he said, menacingly.

She just smiled at him and said. "You heard the judge, Takashi; I'm as innocent as a newborn child"

"Not for long… Helba"