.HackRelapse
A .Hack fanfiction by Renfro Calhoun
Disclaimer: Project .Hack and attached concepts/characters do not belong to me.
Notes: Takes place during Outbreak. Parentheses indicate thoughts, and brackets indicate writing. Decided to redo that section; I'm still not happy with Miku's confrontation with Dean, junyortrakr hit it right on the head - she seemed to warm up to him a little fast. So I thought I'd give it another go.
What can I say? I'm a perfectionist. Well... okay, not exactly, but dammit I want my scenes to work! stomps foot
Chapter 7 - Reconcile
---------------------
His blue eyes opened, staring into the flat of his palm, massaging his forehead with the thumb and forefinger. The throbbing in his skull eased a little, and he slid his hand back up his head, smoothing the remnants of his hair.
"So, let me get this straight."
Across from him sat two men and one woman, their faces lit in a sickly pale glow from the sole hanging lamp of the interrogation room; between them and he, a solid wooden table, and behind them a one-way mirror concealing two observers and a mess of recording equipment.
Masamoto's weathered face bore an expression of exhaustion more than anger, which was given further credence with a deep sigh and a shake of his head. He turned to the first man - Ryo Sakuma; a tall, square-jawed man in his forties, head topped with short, thick hair and eyes which looked somewhere between nervous and excited. "These men broke into your house," he said, pointing a finger at Ryo.
He moved the finger to the woman next to him - Miku Kurasawa; average height, slender with soft features and long hair, yet a guarded look to her eyes that suggested she was secretive by nature. "To get your address," he continued.
And then to the second man - Dean Stollis; an American of moderate build, short black hair and vacant brown eyes, boyishly rounded features contrasting with a hint of stubble along his chin and lips. "And you showed up just in time to intervene."
Dean lowered his head. On the table, he idly pressed the index fingers of his hands together. "Well, I wouldn't say it was that nice and neat, but... that's basically it."
Masamoto gave Dean a hard stare. "So what were you trying to do, going in like that? Why didn't you or Ryo call us earlier?"
"I wanted to get..." Dean started, but held himself back, remembering that not everyone in the station - particularly those listening to the conversation - had given him carte blanche to investigate Cyber Connect. "Ryo emailed me and asked to speak in person, I didn't know anything about those guys until I showed up. Cell phone was dead, so I thought I'd go in and have a look around."
"One of 'em spotted me, and things got outta hand," he added with a shrug. "When I found out that they were going after her, I was worried the cops wouldn't get there fast enough." He suspected that Masamoto knew there was more to the story, but his version was true enough to tell it with a straight face.
The lieutenant frowned, but nodded slightly before turning to Ryo. "And why didn't YOU call, if you knew you were being watched?"
"I didn't, then." Ryo shook his head. "The van didn't show up until after I sent the email; all I saw was two guys in black coming up to the house. That's when I snuck out the back and tried to catch Dean."
"Hmm. And you, you said you were at the store. Did you know anything about this before you arrived?"
Miku sighed, a hint of annoyance in her voice. "No, nothing. I'd spoken with Mr. Stollis over the phone, and Be..." she caught herself, "Ryo I knew from 'The World'. I can't imagine why those men would've come to my place, though."
"Well, whatever it was, they wanted it bad enough to raid Sakuma's first to get your address." Saying this aloud caused a light to click in the back of Masamoto's mind. "Are you unlisted for any particular reason, Ms. Kurasawa?"
She shook her head. "A personal preference." She cleared her throat. "So, who were those men?"
Throwing a quick glance to the mirror, Masamoto shook his head. "We're... still not sure," he said, his voice notably weaker, hastier. "Three of them are in the hospital, but we do have a fourth in custody. We'll know soon enough; I'm going to see him as soon as we're done here."
"Does that mean we're free to go?" asked Dean.
A long, deep sigh preceded Masamoto's response. "Yes. Though your actions were somewhat reckless, we've deemed that the injuries you inflicted upon the men were in self-defense, and no innocents were harmed as a result. You're all free to go."
"Thank you."
Chairs scraped against tile as the three opposite Masamoto stood up, each politely pushing their chairs back in before heading for the door. As it clicked shut behind them, he buried his face back in his hands, fingers kneading his temples vigorously.
(You poor bastard... you have no idea what we've all been brought into.)
-
"Yeah, I'll call you. You sure you'll be all right?"
Ryo nodded. "I just need to clean up a little. Thanks for the help. How about you?"
"Car's fine; just some dents in the hood, busted side window. Nothing I can't drive to a shop myself."
"All right. Take care, Miku; Dean, you too."
With a wave, Ryo climbed into his idling car and sped off, tail lights boring holes into the darkness of the street. His exit left Dean alone with Miku, standing next to his own wounded vehicle before her house.
Eyeing the scars on the hood and passenger-side window, Dean groaned loudly. "I hate this city."
Arms folded across her chest, Miku leisurely strolled around the front of the vehicle. "I'd say it's not too fond of you either."
Dean looked up at his companion. His own troubles were forgotten as he recalled why he had come here in the first place. "Listen, I'm..." he began, his unease forcing him to pause for a moment. "Sorry, about what happened tonight."
"It's not your fault," she replied, though her eyes seemed to hold a different opinion.
Stepping past the front fender, Dean joined her. "Do you have any idea why they would come after you?"
She shook her head. "No... maybe because I told you about Seijiro, but that doesn't explain how they found out or why it would matter."
"Yeah, I don't get it either," Dean said with a frown. "These guys... they didn't seem to be from Cyber Connect, if you ask me. Almost military, I'd say, but that makes even less sense."
"Mmm."
A soft breeze floated along the street, tugging gently on their clothes and hair, carrying with it a few stray leaves and offering momentary respite from the humid, heavy night air. The noise from its passing served only to amplify the awkward silence to which they had fallen.
(So, now what?) he thought. (No more leads, no more ideas... just more damage done. What am I doing here, anyway?)
He turned and glanced up at the well-lit porch, standing in contrast to the darkened windows of the house. A stray bullet had lodged itself in the frame of the door, since pried away by crime scene personnel, with only a small black hole to mark its presence.
(All for nothing... she wasn't even here.) He sighed. (Well, no sense just standing here.) "I... should probably get going."
No response. He stepped around her and dug through his pockets; a ring of keys jingled merrily as he searched for the proper one. He slid it into the lock and gave it a turn, doing a double take as he realized the door wasn't locked, hadn't been since the police had arrived.
(Miracle it wasn't stolen,) he thought. (Least Tokyo has that over L.A.)
"Hey."
Dean stopped, glanced over at Miku, still standing before the car. Her eyes held a distant look as they gazed up at her house, her posture had become unsteady, almost timid - or at least, as close to timid as he believed her capable of being.
"Yeah?"
She turned back to him; a gust of wind caught locks of her hair, pushing them back over her shoulders, providing no barrier between her face and his. "They'll be back, won't they?"
A tiny dagger twisted itself into Dean's gut. "Probably," he said quietly. "This all has to do with 'The World'. Morganna, Harold, Seijiro, Aura... I don't know how, and I don't know why, but it's all about them."
"But what does that have to do with me?" she insisted, approaching the driver-side door. Her voice had a touch of acid to it, subtle annoyance entering her words.
"If you don't know, how the hell am I supposed to?" he shot back. "Christ, I don't even know what I'm doing here. Ever since I came to this city I've been chased, kidnapped, attacked and shot at - offline AND online." He turned away, leaned against his car, folded his arms on the roof and rested his chin on them. "Company goons following me everywhere, now these military spooks, all sorts of crazy shit happening in 'The WOrld', people dying."
Miku stood back, watching him carefully, deducing his honesty through his haggard and weary body language.
"All I know is that whatever-it-is in 'The World' - you saw it yourself, it wants to destroy 'The World'. And nobody can give me a straight answer as to why, or how it even came to be."
"Can you blame them?" she said. "Everyone you bring into this seems to end up in more trouble."
He turned, glared hard at her; she stood her ground, though her expression was trying hard to hide its frustration.
"This isn't about me," he said in a low voice. "Not this time. Those men followed me and Ryo earlier today at the Meiji shrine. They were after Ryo, not me. They went to his house, and then they came here looking for you." He pointed to her, accenting the statement. "You weren't brought into this, you're already neck deep in it."
Sensing cracks in her facade, and anger starting to choose words for him, Dean cooled his approach. "Look... I believe that you don't know why they're after you, but that doesn't change the fact that they are. The cops said they'd patrol this area, we'll know as soon as they do who those guys were, and that'll be something. All we can do now is wait."
Miku turned away in a huff, sighed loudly. "I've never liked waiting..."
Leaning against his car again, Dean replied, "Yeah... me neither." Before silence could again come between them he added, "Like I said, I'm sorry about all this - the mess and everything. I... well, maybe it was kinda my fault, I mean you weren't even here and I think they were leaving..."
He stopped when she raised a hand dismissively. "No... no, you were right, it's... not that simple. They came here regardless, I was lucky."
He half-smiled. "Not a bad thing to be. Just wish I didn't dirty up the place in the process."
She visibly relaxed, throwing a look over her shoulder, a slight smirk on her lips. "The feeling is mutual."
"Look, if you think of anything or find out something, give me a call, okay? I want to solve this just as much as you."
A slow, controlled nod. She faced him once more and asked the eternally rhetorical question. "Can I ask you a question?"
"Fire away."
She cleared her throat. "Why are you doing this, anyway?"
He took a long pull of air through his nose, held it in his lungs; his eyes closed, his face relaxed to an almost meditative trance. After several seconds, he released his breath, opened his eyes, alight with a degree of honesty that Miku found mildly unsettling.
"That's a good question," he answered softly. Hearing her snort, he continued, "Look, I don't want you to think I'm one of these banzai action nutjobs that do this kind of thing for fun, like in the movies or something. I've got a few things to answer for in my life, sure; if Ryo told you anything, then you know what I'm talking about." His head tilted slightly, and he reached up to rub the back of his neck. "But it's more than that; I've tried, but I just can't walk away from this, knowing something bad's coming down the pike and not doing anything about that."
"Somebody - somebody human - is responsible for this, and people are getting hurt. Killed even. Maybe it's Seijiro, I... I don't know for sure, but I gotta find out. I know I'm new at this, but it's just how I feel."
She raised an eyebrow. "New at this?"
Dean fidgeted. "Yeah. How much did Ryo tell you?"
"About why you're here, the contract to steal from Cyber Connect and all that. And that you used to be a cop."
"Right," said Dean. "Well, that's all true... I just started this detective stuff a year ago. Can count the number of jobs I've had on one hand," he admitted with a hint of shyness, looking away from Miku.
She chuckled, faintly. "A newbie, huh?" she asked, the tension eased somewhat from the change of subject.
"Yeah, pretty much." He shrugged. "Not too many people hire a crooked cop." Turning away, he added, "Heh, Bogart made this crap look so much easier..."
"Bogart?" Another raised eyebrow.
"Oh, dad loved Bogart; kinda rubbed off on me. The guy had class, y'know? Made it seem a whole lot more glamorous. I tell you, if I knew being a PI meant all this work, I'd have dropped it before I could even print up business cards," said Dean with obvious aggrandizement. His movements became looser, less mechanical and more casual.
The statement forced another chuckle past Miku's lips - less the content than how Dean had said it - and she found herself wanting to smile, despite the circumstances surrounding them.
"Which reminds me," he continued, digging into his pants pocket and producing a wallet. The leather creaked as he flipped it open and produced a small card, his name printed on it in big bold letters alongside his number and email address. He held the card out for her inspection, and she took it from his fingers with an amused expression on her face.
"You do this yourself?" she asked with a smirk.
"Oh, god no. I'm all thumbs with that; they were on sale at Kinko's last week."
"Just a geek with a gun, hmm?" With a flick of her wrist, she brought the card flush against her palm, looking up to stare at Dean expectantly.
"All right, all right, I should probably get out of your hair. See ya, Miku."
She nodded and waved to him, stepping out of the way as Dean climbed into his car and brought the engine to life. Lights flickered on and tires began to roll as he changed gears, pulling away from the curb and speeding off into the darkness, quickly vanishing from view.
Miku's eyes followed the tail lights, her smile coming out of hiding.
- End of Chapter 7
A .Hack fanfiction by Renfro Calhoun
Disclaimer: Project .Hack and attached concepts/characters do not belong to me.
Notes: Takes place during Outbreak. Parentheses indicate thoughts, and brackets indicate writing. Decided to redo that section; I'm still not happy with Miku's confrontation with Dean, junyortrakr hit it right on the head - she seemed to warm up to him a little fast. So I thought I'd give it another go.
What can I say? I'm a perfectionist. Well... okay, not exactly, but dammit I want my scenes to work! stomps foot
Chapter 7 - Reconcile
---------------------
His blue eyes opened, staring into the flat of his palm, massaging his forehead with the thumb and forefinger. The throbbing in his skull eased a little, and he slid his hand back up his head, smoothing the remnants of his hair.
"So, let me get this straight."
Across from him sat two men and one woman, their faces lit in a sickly pale glow from the sole hanging lamp of the interrogation room; between them and he, a solid wooden table, and behind them a one-way mirror concealing two observers and a mess of recording equipment.
Masamoto's weathered face bore an expression of exhaustion more than anger, which was given further credence with a deep sigh and a shake of his head. He turned to the first man - Ryo Sakuma; a tall, square-jawed man in his forties, head topped with short, thick hair and eyes which looked somewhere between nervous and excited. "These men broke into your house," he said, pointing a finger at Ryo.
He moved the finger to the woman next to him - Miku Kurasawa; average height, slender with soft features and long hair, yet a guarded look to her eyes that suggested she was secretive by nature. "To get your address," he continued.
And then to the second man - Dean Stollis; an American of moderate build, short black hair and vacant brown eyes, boyishly rounded features contrasting with a hint of stubble along his chin and lips. "And you showed up just in time to intervene."
Dean lowered his head. On the table, he idly pressed the index fingers of his hands together. "Well, I wouldn't say it was that nice and neat, but... that's basically it."
Masamoto gave Dean a hard stare. "So what were you trying to do, going in like that? Why didn't you or Ryo call us earlier?"
"I wanted to get..." Dean started, but held himself back, remembering that not everyone in the station - particularly those listening to the conversation - had given him carte blanche to investigate Cyber Connect. "Ryo emailed me and asked to speak in person, I didn't know anything about those guys until I showed up. Cell phone was dead, so I thought I'd go in and have a look around."
"One of 'em spotted me, and things got outta hand," he added with a shrug. "When I found out that they were going after her, I was worried the cops wouldn't get there fast enough." He suspected that Masamoto knew there was more to the story, but his version was true enough to tell it with a straight face.
The lieutenant frowned, but nodded slightly before turning to Ryo. "And why didn't YOU call, if you knew you were being watched?"
"I didn't, then." Ryo shook his head. "The van didn't show up until after I sent the email; all I saw was two guys in black coming up to the house. That's when I snuck out the back and tried to catch Dean."
"Hmm. And you, you said you were at the store. Did you know anything about this before you arrived?"
Miku sighed, a hint of annoyance in her voice. "No, nothing. I'd spoken with Mr. Stollis over the phone, and Be..." she caught herself, "Ryo I knew from 'The World'. I can't imagine why those men would've come to my place, though."
"Well, whatever it was, they wanted it bad enough to raid Sakuma's first to get your address." Saying this aloud caused a light to click in the back of Masamoto's mind. "Are you unlisted for any particular reason, Ms. Kurasawa?"
She shook her head. "A personal preference." She cleared her throat. "So, who were those men?"
Throwing a quick glance to the mirror, Masamoto shook his head. "We're... still not sure," he said, his voice notably weaker, hastier. "Three of them are in the hospital, but we do have a fourth in custody. We'll know soon enough; I'm going to see him as soon as we're done here."
"Does that mean we're free to go?" asked Dean.
A long, deep sigh preceded Masamoto's response. "Yes. Though your actions were somewhat reckless, we've deemed that the injuries you inflicted upon the men were in self-defense, and no innocents were harmed as a result. You're all free to go."
"Thank you."
Chairs scraped against tile as the three opposite Masamoto stood up, each politely pushing their chairs back in before heading for the door. As it clicked shut behind them, he buried his face back in his hands, fingers kneading his temples vigorously.
(You poor bastard... you have no idea what we've all been brought into.)
-
"Yeah, I'll call you. You sure you'll be all right?"
Ryo nodded. "I just need to clean up a little. Thanks for the help. How about you?"
"Car's fine; just some dents in the hood, busted side window. Nothing I can't drive to a shop myself."
"All right. Take care, Miku; Dean, you too."
With a wave, Ryo climbed into his idling car and sped off, tail lights boring holes into the darkness of the street. His exit left Dean alone with Miku, standing next to his own wounded vehicle before her house.
Eyeing the scars on the hood and passenger-side window, Dean groaned loudly. "I hate this city."
Arms folded across her chest, Miku leisurely strolled around the front of the vehicle. "I'd say it's not too fond of you either."
Dean looked up at his companion. His own troubles were forgotten as he recalled why he had come here in the first place. "Listen, I'm..." he began, his unease forcing him to pause for a moment. "Sorry, about what happened tonight."
"It's not your fault," she replied, though her eyes seemed to hold a different opinion.
Stepping past the front fender, Dean joined her. "Do you have any idea why they would come after you?"
She shook her head. "No... maybe because I told you about Seijiro, but that doesn't explain how they found out or why it would matter."
"Yeah, I don't get it either," Dean said with a frown. "These guys... they didn't seem to be from Cyber Connect, if you ask me. Almost military, I'd say, but that makes even less sense."
"Mmm."
A soft breeze floated along the street, tugging gently on their clothes and hair, carrying with it a few stray leaves and offering momentary respite from the humid, heavy night air. The noise from its passing served only to amplify the awkward silence to which they had fallen.
(So, now what?) he thought. (No more leads, no more ideas... just more damage done. What am I doing here, anyway?)
He turned and glanced up at the well-lit porch, standing in contrast to the darkened windows of the house. A stray bullet had lodged itself in the frame of the door, since pried away by crime scene personnel, with only a small black hole to mark its presence.
(All for nothing... she wasn't even here.) He sighed. (Well, no sense just standing here.) "I... should probably get going."
No response. He stepped around her and dug through his pockets; a ring of keys jingled merrily as he searched for the proper one. He slid it into the lock and gave it a turn, doing a double take as he realized the door wasn't locked, hadn't been since the police had arrived.
(Miracle it wasn't stolen,) he thought. (Least Tokyo has that over L.A.)
"Hey."
Dean stopped, glanced over at Miku, still standing before the car. Her eyes held a distant look as they gazed up at her house, her posture had become unsteady, almost timid - or at least, as close to timid as he believed her capable of being.
"Yeah?"
She turned back to him; a gust of wind caught locks of her hair, pushing them back over her shoulders, providing no barrier between her face and his. "They'll be back, won't they?"
A tiny dagger twisted itself into Dean's gut. "Probably," he said quietly. "This all has to do with 'The World'. Morganna, Harold, Seijiro, Aura... I don't know how, and I don't know why, but it's all about them."
"But what does that have to do with me?" she insisted, approaching the driver-side door. Her voice had a touch of acid to it, subtle annoyance entering her words.
"If you don't know, how the hell am I supposed to?" he shot back. "Christ, I don't even know what I'm doing here. Ever since I came to this city I've been chased, kidnapped, attacked and shot at - offline AND online." He turned away, leaned against his car, folded his arms on the roof and rested his chin on them. "Company goons following me everywhere, now these military spooks, all sorts of crazy shit happening in 'The WOrld', people dying."
Miku stood back, watching him carefully, deducing his honesty through his haggard and weary body language.
"All I know is that whatever-it-is in 'The World' - you saw it yourself, it wants to destroy 'The World'. And nobody can give me a straight answer as to why, or how it even came to be."
"Can you blame them?" she said. "Everyone you bring into this seems to end up in more trouble."
He turned, glared hard at her; she stood her ground, though her expression was trying hard to hide its frustration.
"This isn't about me," he said in a low voice. "Not this time. Those men followed me and Ryo earlier today at the Meiji shrine. They were after Ryo, not me. They went to his house, and then they came here looking for you." He pointed to her, accenting the statement. "You weren't brought into this, you're already neck deep in it."
Sensing cracks in her facade, and anger starting to choose words for him, Dean cooled his approach. "Look... I believe that you don't know why they're after you, but that doesn't change the fact that they are. The cops said they'd patrol this area, we'll know as soon as they do who those guys were, and that'll be something. All we can do now is wait."
Miku turned away in a huff, sighed loudly. "I've never liked waiting..."
Leaning against his car again, Dean replied, "Yeah... me neither." Before silence could again come between them he added, "Like I said, I'm sorry about all this - the mess and everything. I... well, maybe it was kinda my fault, I mean you weren't even here and I think they were leaving..."
He stopped when she raised a hand dismissively. "No... no, you were right, it's... not that simple. They came here regardless, I was lucky."
He half-smiled. "Not a bad thing to be. Just wish I didn't dirty up the place in the process."
She visibly relaxed, throwing a look over her shoulder, a slight smirk on her lips. "The feeling is mutual."
"Look, if you think of anything or find out something, give me a call, okay? I want to solve this just as much as you."
A slow, controlled nod. She faced him once more and asked the eternally rhetorical question. "Can I ask you a question?"
"Fire away."
She cleared her throat. "Why are you doing this, anyway?"
He took a long pull of air through his nose, held it in his lungs; his eyes closed, his face relaxed to an almost meditative trance. After several seconds, he released his breath, opened his eyes, alight with a degree of honesty that Miku found mildly unsettling.
"That's a good question," he answered softly. Hearing her snort, he continued, "Look, I don't want you to think I'm one of these banzai action nutjobs that do this kind of thing for fun, like in the movies or something. I've got a few things to answer for in my life, sure; if Ryo told you anything, then you know what I'm talking about." His head tilted slightly, and he reached up to rub the back of his neck. "But it's more than that; I've tried, but I just can't walk away from this, knowing something bad's coming down the pike and not doing anything about that."
"Somebody - somebody human - is responsible for this, and people are getting hurt. Killed even. Maybe it's Seijiro, I... I don't know for sure, but I gotta find out. I know I'm new at this, but it's just how I feel."
She raised an eyebrow. "New at this?"
Dean fidgeted. "Yeah. How much did Ryo tell you?"
"About why you're here, the contract to steal from Cyber Connect and all that. And that you used to be a cop."
"Right," said Dean. "Well, that's all true... I just started this detective stuff a year ago. Can count the number of jobs I've had on one hand," he admitted with a hint of shyness, looking away from Miku.
She chuckled, faintly. "A newbie, huh?" she asked, the tension eased somewhat from the change of subject.
"Yeah, pretty much." He shrugged. "Not too many people hire a crooked cop." Turning away, he added, "Heh, Bogart made this crap look so much easier..."
"Bogart?" Another raised eyebrow.
"Oh, dad loved Bogart; kinda rubbed off on me. The guy had class, y'know? Made it seem a whole lot more glamorous. I tell you, if I knew being a PI meant all this work, I'd have dropped it before I could even print up business cards," said Dean with obvious aggrandizement. His movements became looser, less mechanical and more casual.
The statement forced another chuckle past Miku's lips - less the content than how Dean had said it - and she found herself wanting to smile, despite the circumstances surrounding them.
"Which reminds me," he continued, digging into his pants pocket and producing a wallet. The leather creaked as he flipped it open and produced a small card, his name printed on it in big bold letters alongside his number and email address. He held the card out for her inspection, and she took it from his fingers with an amused expression on her face.
"You do this yourself?" she asked with a smirk.
"Oh, god no. I'm all thumbs with that; they were on sale at Kinko's last week."
"Just a geek with a gun, hmm?" With a flick of her wrist, she brought the card flush against her palm, looking up to stare at Dean expectantly.
"All right, all right, I should probably get out of your hair. See ya, Miku."
She nodded and waved to him, stepping out of the way as Dean climbed into his car and brought the engine to life. Lights flickered on and tires began to roll as he changed gears, pulling away from the curb and speeding off into the darkness, quickly vanishing from view.
Miku's eyes followed the tail lights, her smile coming out of hiding.
- End of Chapter 7