Some observant people will have noticed that I am making the dragon slayer
a pretty similar weapon to the soul edge, this is true, as a matter of fact
there are a few references to other things in this fic, try to spot them
all oh and .hack was released in England recently and I have acquired
it via my evil powers. If this is the last you hear of me for a while, I'm
either playing obsessively, or have fallen into a mysterious coma (which I
won't because if I do who will save orca?)
When Magus awoke it was to the stark white of a hospital room, he inhaled deeply and his nose was filled with the smell of disinfectant. It bothered him that the air carried no other scent, he never had liked hospitals, they were an unnatural environment to him. The sounds that greeted him upon his revival were also unnatural, the hum of electricity, the quiet beeps of various machines and the sounds of shallow breathing, he was not alone in this room. He tried to turn his head to see who else occupied the ward, but found he could not as he was held in place by solid restraints.
A nurse noticed his movements and hurried over to him. Magus could hear the scribbling of a pen against paper.
"Why am I tied down?" He asked the nurse, it sounded more like he was asking an opinion than making any kind of demand.
"Very sorry Mr Black, but after seeing what you did back there, the doctor didn't think it was wise to let you move freely, we thought you might still be..." she trailed off.
"Dangerous?" Magus finished for her "You have my word that I'm not a danger to you or to any other in this building, do you think you could release me? My joints ache from all this laying still."
The nurse hesitantly undid the restraints that immobilised Magus, gaining confidence as he made no move to attack her. When she was done he sat up and thanked her, swinging his protesting legs to dangle over the edge of the bed. He looked down in distaste, pure white pyjamas, any kind of restriction on his movement made Magus feel uneasy, but he would have to endure for now. A pen appeared in front of his face and he watched it move from side to side for a few moments before demanding to know what the nurse was doing.
"Oh just checking that everything is okay, your eyes seem to be focusing properly." The nurse made a few more scribbles on her clipboard. "Well you're fine now, I'll just tell the doctor you can be discharged, we hope to see you again soon."
Magus smiled inwardly, it was so nice of them to say that, considering the only reason for visiting the hospital would be because of receiving grievous injury. As the nurse left Magus had a better look round the ward, it appeared to be for serious cases only, there was a lot of emergency machinery on standby, an iron lung, a defibrillator and a dialysis machine were amongst those that Magus recognised. He twined a cable through his fingers, pretty old stuff, but still, they worked.
A sharp gasp reminded Magus that there was someone other than himself in the room. He turned to see them, even though he already knew who it was. The breathing was so familiar to him, he listened to the same soft breaths as he fell asleep each night.
As he suspected, the bed next to his own contained Mei. It saddened him to see her so. He had seen her sleep many times, and she had looked peaceful and happy. It was not so now. Now she seemed small and helpless and suddenly Magus missed her usual vitality. He remembered walking with her through the forest and seeing her childish fascination with every little thing. He remembered shared moments as recently as last night, as she nuzzled against him and curled up to sleep. But this was no sleep that she was in, her naturally pale skin was drained to the colour of ivory and there was an eerie stillness to her. A voice sounded sympathetically in Magus' ear.
"We're sorry, we can't seem to wake your girlfriend up, we fixed her ribs and she is sound of body, but this has all the classic signs of a coma I'm afraid."
The nurse had come back into the room, and Magus had been too deep in thought to notice, he even ignored her calling Mei his girlfriend.
"Does it hurt at all?" He asked "Does she feel any pain while she is like this?"
"I don't think she can feel anything right now." The nurses tone was apologetic "We still don't know much about comas. But it is widely believed that they can still hear you."
"I see."
"I'll leave you two alone, you're free to go anytime you wish Mr Black, but if you want to stay with your girlfriend for a while its perfectly alright."
"Thank you nurse, I think I'll stay with her, you never know, maybe she'll wake up for me."
The nurse nodded and left without a further word, and Magus was left alone in the oppressive hospital room, the only sounds were the beeps of the machines and Mei's gentle breathing.
"Is it true?" He asked her "Can you really hear me?" There was no response but he carried on talking anyway. "I'm sorry Mei, I really am, it was a foolish mistake to take you with me to the arena. I never even considered that you might get hurt and now look what happened." He clasped her small hand in his, it was limp and too cold. A tear crept unbidden to the corner of Magus' eye "I'm so sorry Mei, can you please forgive me?" There was no answer as a single tear strolled down Magus' cheek, he brushed it away and sat himself beside Mei on the bed "If you don't wake up, I will never forgive myself." He whispered "Never." And then he fell silent, just sitting there holding the hand of the fragile little girl he had grown to care for, and suddenly he regretted not holding her hand while she was awake.
Mei's dreams were troubled and this time should couldn't wake up. She floated in unending darkness and wished desperately for this dream to be over, all she wanted was to wake up surrounded by the warmth and safety that Magus represented. A figure appeared in the darkness. As Mei began to pick out the features she also began to recognise this figure, it was herself! Wearing such a tacky green outfit, green was definitely not her colour. The other self didn't even greet her, it just immediately asked her questions
"Why do you like him anyway?"
Mei pondered this for a moment "I don't know, he's just so big and brave and strong, but really nice too."
"Nice? You think he is nice? He killed people for money, you were better off chasing butterflies."
Mei shook her head "He wouldn't do that anymore, he isn't like that at all, he's my big brave samurai come to save me from everything."
"Oh really? What was he saving you from when he took you to the arena? What was he saving you from when he left you behind to fight the dragon? He almost got you killed twice."
"But, but... He didn't mean too!"
"Don't you think that's worse? He wasn't even thinking about you, he's just another selfish man, take my advice, you're better off without him." The green clad Mei disappeared back into the darkness from whence she came.
"But, I need him." Mei said miserably "He's my samurai and I need him."
Crimson crashed down into his chair in front of the TV, he couldn't remember being so drained since his first day of boot camp training. Alice was similarly exhausted and lay flat on the floor welcoming the hard metal that cooled her skin. Tatsu was nowhere to be found, where could he have gotten to? Normally he was there waiting for Alice to return, usually because he was hungry. But Alice didn't have the energy to dwell up those thoughts. What currently consumed her thoughts was Magus, what had happened to him back there? She had met people who could intimidate with their overwhelming presence but Magus had inspired more than fear in her, he was a dread terror that she shuddered to think of, he had seemed so friendly before, so... normal.
"What happened to him Crimson?" She asked almost rhetorically "He seemed like a good man, at least as good a man as an assassin could be." She amended
"I think he is still a good man." Crimson weighed his words carefully "and not just for an assassin, he is a good person, better than many I've met."
"But what he did in the arena today" Alice's voice faltered just thinking about it.
"I think he is also a tortured man, it's not my business to pry into his past, but I think something terrible happened to him."
"Maybe, but you couldn't smell what I could, when he did all his strange floating and all that, he didn't smell like a person anymore, he just smelled of evil."
"He smelled of evil?"
"Its really hard to explain, he didn't even smell of something that was evil, like those sharks did. It was just the only thing I could smell about him was this horrible evilness. You couldn't hear what I did either."
"And that was?"
"When he spoke, there were all these whispers saying other things, he didn't say any of the things he said, but that was what we all heard."
"He didn't say any of the things he said?" Crimson sounded both puzzled and amused.
"It's really stupid I know, I should stop talking about it, it doesn't make any sense."
"No, it doesn't, but you keep thinking about it. When it makes sense you can tell me what you've figured out."
"I'll do that." Alice smiled "But I'm too tired to do any figuring, I just want to sleep."
Crimson nodded his agreement and waited a moment while Alice got changed into her sleeping garments, she was very insistent on her privacy and wouldn't remove so much as a sock in the presence of another. Just as Crimson was certain she was done changing and that he wouldn't be burned to a crisp for entering at an embarrassing moment, there was a knock on the door.
"If that's Tatsu, tell him I'm not going to cook today." Alice called from the bedroom.
But when Crimson opened the door it wasn't Tatsu, it was the government official from before. Crimson looked down at the shorter man.
"Yes? May I help you?" He asked coolly
Even this less than warm welcome failed to remove the small mans pomp
"Following your victory in the pit fights you have been awarded these items for your achievement." He produced a capsule from a pocket hidden in the folds of his clothing. "Good day to you ranger Crimson, best of luck in the fights to come."
Crimson closed the door on the small man and took the capsule to the table he pressed the button on the side of it and it disgorged its compressed contents, a few mates and fluids tumbled out, followed by a pair of assaults, a pole, a pair of knives, a reinforcing unit and a small pile of meseta. Crimson handed the assaults and the knives to his MAG and slotted the reinforcing unit into his armour, he was fairly certain that it was a marksman's arm. Madhu chirped its agreement. Alice could keep the pole, she had helped a lot in the fight and without her he would have been dead from that stab through his side. He also piously swore to give her a percentage of the meseta, but he still scooped all of it up and handed it to Madhu. He leaned the pole against the wall with Alice's other possessions and went to bed. Alice was already fast asleep before he got there.
Mei floated in the darkness, her mind dwelling upon the things she had said to herself. Was it really alright for her to like Magus? He didn't seem to like her back in quite the same way. Was it okay to like someone even if they didn't like you? She wished someone would help her find the answer. As if responding to her will a figure formed out of the darkness. This one wasn't another Mei, it was too tall, but its taste in clothing wasn't much better than the Mei in green's, they were wearing a red and black dress that flowed down to their ankles, Mei regarded them critically.
"You know that dress isn't quite your colour or style."
The man looked down at himself with obvious amusement playing across his face "Yes I could do with a new dress, but I would much rather that you called it a robe."
"Sorry" Mei blushed at her mistake "I thought your robe was a dress, it does look a bit like one."
"I suppose it does" The man agreed "Tea?" He produced a steaming cup of herbal tea, seemingly from nowhere.
"I don't sit down to drink with strangers."
"Come now, if I was a stranger then I couldn't be here, after all, how could someone you've never met be inside your mind?"
"This is in my mind?" Mei asked "It's really empty in here."
The man could not hold back his laughter as Mei burned with embarrassment at her statement. "No no Mei, this isn't all that there is to your mind, this is just an empty corner of it. Do you wish to see your mind as it really is?"
Mei nodded enthusiastically and the man smiled at her, he waved his hand and the darkness parted. Suddenly there were images flickering by, too fast to recognise, there were also sounds to accompany them, noises that were jumbled together in a meaningless disharmony of words sounds and thoughts. Mei screwed her eyes shut and clamped her hands over her ears, but to no avail. After a few moments she begged Matherson to make it stop, and so he did, with a casual wave of his hand the images disappeared and the terrible noise ceased. Mei was again plunged into darkness.
"All of that is going on in my head?" She asked incredulously "All at the same time?"
"Yes indeed, those are your thoughts as and when they occur to you."
"But that's not possible, if my mind was doing that all the time everyday I wouldn't be able to think of anything at all, I couldn't understand any of those things."
"The mind of a human being is truly a remarkable thing, yours even more so."
"What do you mean by that?"
"I'm not allowed to tell you, it would be against the rules."
"What rules?"
"I'm not allowed to tell you that either." Matherson smiled at her "Tea?"
This time Mei did accept his offer of tea, it had been a long while since she had had any, for some reason Magus never brought any, and with his strict ruling on caffeine she doubted he would let her have any anyway. The two forces sat in silence for a while sipping at their tea and Mei could feel the days stresses fading away. She drained her cup to the dregs and set it down on a floor that strictly speaking didn't exist.
"If you can't tell me anything, then why are you here?" She asked Matherson pointedly
"I'm not too certain myself, but I have been told to watch over you and a few others."
"Told by who?" Mei sighed before Matherson could answer "I suppose you aren't allowed to tell me."
"That's right, I'm sorry to keep you in the dark, but there are rules that have to be followed."
"Is there anything you can tell me?"
Matherson appeared to think deeply on this one "Light makes darkness, a pair exists but it doesn't always exist. Reincarnation goes forever."
"I already know that!" Mei complained "You're the one who told me, and it still doesn't make any sense at all."
"And none of the images or sounds made sense did they? But your mind still uses them and it still works."
"Do you enjoy being mean to me like this?"
"No I would much rather tell you everything, but if I broke the rules then that would make me no better than the other side."
"The other side?"
Matherson lifted his hand to his mouth in a pantomime expression of having made a mistake "Oh dear, I think that might have broke a rule."
"You won't get in trouble for it." Mei said confidently "nobody can hear what you say because you're only speaking in my mind."
Matherson shook his head "That's not quite true Mei, no matter where you are, somebody is watching you, there will be repercussions even for such a tiny bit of information, but I shall face the consequences, I believe it is worth it."
"But you've hardly told me anything at all." Mei protested
"True, I only hope it is enough." Matherson gave one last cryptic smile and began to fade back into the nothingness that he had appeared from.
"Wait, you have to tell me what it means, you're in trouble already, it would only make it a little bit worse." Mei reached out in an attempt to seize the hem of Matherson's robe, but even as her hand closed around it, it became as insubstantial as mist and her hand passed through it."
"Don't forget Mei, reincarnation goes forever." With these parting words Matherson vanished completely, the only sign that he had ever been there in the first place were the two china cups that he left behind.
Mei Wrapped her arms around her knees, it was suddenly colder than it had been.
"I still think her was wearing a dress." She whispered quietly to herself. There was no need for her to whisper, she could have screamed it at the top of her lungs, there was nobody around to hear. Tatsu awoke in a strange room. Weapons adorned the walls and the floor was bare, how could he have possibly gone to sleep without even a pillow beneath his head? He rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling. As his mind adjusted to its new state of consciousness he remembered where he was. Chimpus' hotel room. He had slept on the living room floor because Chimpus had point blank refused to share his chambers with another man. There wasn't even a good reason for him to stay here, he could have walked back to his own room. Except he probably wouldn't have made it, the events of yesterday had left him bone tired and it would have badly damaged his reputation to be seen sleeping in the hallway. Damn that Chimpus, if only he could have been reasonable for once.
Tatsu had thought about Alice's harsh words to him and had decided that the best course of action was to apologise to Chimpus so that the two of them could prove to Alice that they weren't irrational jerks, and that it had all been a misunderstanding. Chimpus hadn't clicked to this line of thinking.
"Oh it's you, come to beg my forgiveness and admit that you don't deserve to compete with me for Alice's attentions?" Chimpus' tone was deeply mocking and thoroughly irritating. But Tatsu had gritted his teeth and forced himself to be civil.
"No as a matter of fact I did not. I came to say I was sorry for how I acted the other day, and to tell you that you should also be sorry for behaving in such a way in front of a lady."
"Behaving in what way? I did nothing at all, it was you who forced the fight."
"Can it you moron." Tatsu's wish to be civil were rapidly evaporating as a result of his boiling temper "What happened was as much your fault as it was mine, and before we forget who exactly was it that got a fireball full in the face?"
"Piss off, the only reason she didn't hit you was because you'd cry like a sissy bitch."
"Oh, abuse, the forte of the nitwit, why can't you just accept my apology and then have nothing else to do with me?"
"First off you beat me in combat, then you systematically point out exactly what I was doing wrong in my romantic affairs, and then you compete with me for the attention of the one girl that immediately sprang to my mind as being right for me."
"I beat you because you suck at fighting, a two year old could have told you where you were going wrong with your love life, and you're pursuing what is in effect a high school crush, I don't see why I even thought I could talk to you like you were a rational human being, you're a loser Chimpus, deal with it."
"That's it Tatsu, you and me, duel to the death, one hour from now."
In Tatsu's opinion that was taking it a bit too far, but it was an honourably issued challenge and therefore he could not back down, he just hoped to god that Alice never found out about it.
Tatsu arrived at the training room on time and ready for battle, Chimpus was also there. Tatsu had drawn his buster and assumed a battle stance without a word. Chimpus drew his gigush in a flamboyant manner that had failed to impress.
"Is that compensating for something?" Tatsu asked to try and make Chimpus angry, angry people made mistakes. But there hadn't been any mistakes at all. Not throughout the entire match, it may have been that the two of them were evenly matched, or it may have been that they weren't seriously trying to kill one another. But either way the match had dragged on and on with only superficial damage being taken by either fighter. Eventually they had agreed upon a cease fire, as both of them were too exhausted to continue. After two solid hours of fighting, they discovered that they didn't hate each other nearly as much as they thought they did, and as it was now nigh on midnight Chimpus had courteously offered Tatsu a place to spend the night.
Tatsu now walked down the hallways strongly regretting his acceptance of the hospitality, no dinner, no bed, no TV. What exactly did Chimpus do for entertainment anyway? It was not too hard to guess by his taste in décor, who the hell would consider weapons practice to be a method of relaxation? But no matter, Tatsu was nearly home now. He amended that, he was nearly back at the hotel room. Strange how he thought of it as more of a home than the vast quarters that he had inherited from his aunt. Maybe he just preferred the closeness of it all, one could feel very lonely in such huge rooms.
The first thing he noticed upon his return was that everything was tidy. This was odd, Crimson had been home for a whole night and everything was still in its rightful place. Wait that wasn't quite true, there was a pole leaning on the wall. Tatsu sighed, weapons went on the right of MAGs not the left, he moved the offending article six inches to the right. There, perfect. A sudden thought struck him, if the place was still tidy, that meant that Crimson couldn't possibly be here. He turned out of the door and hurried on his way to the hospital, he hoped Crimson wasn't too badly hurt.
-.-.-.-
No more info on mysterious cloaked person, sorry, they are pretty damned mysterious. And no further mention of Psilo and company, yet again there was going to be, but I think 4000 words is long enough for a chapter. I have got hella far in .hackinfection and may complete it in a mind- bendingly short time, aww now I have to wait for the next one, or go for 100% completion, that would take a while. Oh and major PSO related discovery, the J-sword is not the most powerful weapon I own! As a matter of fact my 50% hit efficient, fully ground, legit L&K14 combats deal a lot more damage in total I have since declared that all other weapons are weak, considering they cannot deal over 4000 points of damage before a monster gets within striking distance.
When Magus awoke it was to the stark white of a hospital room, he inhaled deeply and his nose was filled with the smell of disinfectant. It bothered him that the air carried no other scent, he never had liked hospitals, they were an unnatural environment to him. The sounds that greeted him upon his revival were also unnatural, the hum of electricity, the quiet beeps of various machines and the sounds of shallow breathing, he was not alone in this room. He tried to turn his head to see who else occupied the ward, but found he could not as he was held in place by solid restraints.
A nurse noticed his movements and hurried over to him. Magus could hear the scribbling of a pen against paper.
"Why am I tied down?" He asked the nurse, it sounded more like he was asking an opinion than making any kind of demand.
"Very sorry Mr Black, but after seeing what you did back there, the doctor didn't think it was wise to let you move freely, we thought you might still be..." she trailed off.
"Dangerous?" Magus finished for her "You have my word that I'm not a danger to you or to any other in this building, do you think you could release me? My joints ache from all this laying still."
The nurse hesitantly undid the restraints that immobilised Magus, gaining confidence as he made no move to attack her. When she was done he sat up and thanked her, swinging his protesting legs to dangle over the edge of the bed. He looked down in distaste, pure white pyjamas, any kind of restriction on his movement made Magus feel uneasy, but he would have to endure for now. A pen appeared in front of his face and he watched it move from side to side for a few moments before demanding to know what the nurse was doing.
"Oh just checking that everything is okay, your eyes seem to be focusing properly." The nurse made a few more scribbles on her clipboard. "Well you're fine now, I'll just tell the doctor you can be discharged, we hope to see you again soon."
Magus smiled inwardly, it was so nice of them to say that, considering the only reason for visiting the hospital would be because of receiving grievous injury. As the nurse left Magus had a better look round the ward, it appeared to be for serious cases only, there was a lot of emergency machinery on standby, an iron lung, a defibrillator and a dialysis machine were amongst those that Magus recognised. He twined a cable through his fingers, pretty old stuff, but still, they worked.
A sharp gasp reminded Magus that there was someone other than himself in the room. He turned to see them, even though he already knew who it was. The breathing was so familiar to him, he listened to the same soft breaths as he fell asleep each night.
As he suspected, the bed next to his own contained Mei. It saddened him to see her so. He had seen her sleep many times, and she had looked peaceful and happy. It was not so now. Now she seemed small and helpless and suddenly Magus missed her usual vitality. He remembered walking with her through the forest and seeing her childish fascination with every little thing. He remembered shared moments as recently as last night, as she nuzzled against him and curled up to sleep. But this was no sleep that she was in, her naturally pale skin was drained to the colour of ivory and there was an eerie stillness to her. A voice sounded sympathetically in Magus' ear.
"We're sorry, we can't seem to wake your girlfriend up, we fixed her ribs and she is sound of body, but this has all the classic signs of a coma I'm afraid."
The nurse had come back into the room, and Magus had been too deep in thought to notice, he even ignored her calling Mei his girlfriend.
"Does it hurt at all?" He asked "Does she feel any pain while she is like this?"
"I don't think she can feel anything right now." The nurses tone was apologetic "We still don't know much about comas. But it is widely believed that they can still hear you."
"I see."
"I'll leave you two alone, you're free to go anytime you wish Mr Black, but if you want to stay with your girlfriend for a while its perfectly alright."
"Thank you nurse, I think I'll stay with her, you never know, maybe she'll wake up for me."
The nurse nodded and left without a further word, and Magus was left alone in the oppressive hospital room, the only sounds were the beeps of the machines and Mei's gentle breathing.
"Is it true?" He asked her "Can you really hear me?" There was no response but he carried on talking anyway. "I'm sorry Mei, I really am, it was a foolish mistake to take you with me to the arena. I never even considered that you might get hurt and now look what happened." He clasped her small hand in his, it was limp and too cold. A tear crept unbidden to the corner of Magus' eye "I'm so sorry Mei, can you please forgive me?" There was no answer as a single tear strolled down Magus' cheek, he brushed it away and sat himself beside Mei on the bed "If you don't wake up, I will never forgive myself." He whispered "Never." And then he fell silent, just sitting there holding the hand of the fragile little girl he had grown to care for, and suddenly he regretted not holding her hand while she was awake.
Mei's dreams were troubled and this time should couldn't wake up. She floated in unending darkness and wished desperately for this dream to be over, all she wanted was to wake up surrounded by the warmth and safety that Magus represented. A figure appeared in the darkness. As Mei began to pick out the features she also began to recognise this figure, it was herself! Wearing such a tacky green outfit, green was definitely not her colour. The other self didn't even greet her, it just immediately asked her questions
"Why do you like him anyway?"
Mei pondered this for a moment "I don't know, he's just so big and brave and strong, but really nice too."
"Nice? You think he is nice? He killed people for money, you were better off chasing butterflies."
Mei shook her head "He wouldn't do that anymore, he isn't like that at all, he's my big brave samurai come to save me from everything."
"Oh really? What was he saving you from when he took you to the arena? What was he saving you from when he left you behind to fight the dragon? He almost got you killed twice."
"But, but... He didn't mean too!"
"Don't you think that's worse? He wasn't even thinking about you, he's just another selfish man, take my advice, you're better off without him." The green clad Mei disappeared back into the darkness from whence she came.
"But, I need him." Mei said miserably "He's my samurai and I need him."
Crimson crashed down into his chair in front of the TV, he couldn't remember being so drained since his first day of boot camp training. Alice was similarly exhausted and lay flat on the floor welcoming the hard metal that cooled her skin. Tatsu was nowhere to be found, where could he have gotten to? Normally he was there waiting for Alice to return, usually because he was hungry. But Alice didn't have the energy to dwell up those thoughts. What currently consumed her thoughts was Magus, what had happened to him back there? She had met people who could intimidate with their overwhelming presence but Magus had inspired more than fear in her, he was a dread terror that she shuddered to think of, he had seemed so friendly before, so... normal.
"What happened to him Crimson?" She asked almost rhetorically "He seemed like a good man, at least as good a man as an assassin could be." She amended
"I think he is still a good man." Crimson weighed his words carefully "and not just for an assassin, he is a good person, better than many I've met."
"But what he did in the arena today" Alice's voice faltered just thinking about it.
"I think he is also a tortured man, it's not my business to pry into his past, but I think something terrible happened to him."
"Maybe, but you couldn't smell what I could, when he did all his strange floating and all that, he didn't smell like a person anymore, he just smelled of evil."
"He smelled of evil?"
"Its really hard to explain, he didn't even smell of something that was evil, like those sharks did. It was just the only thing I could smell about him was this horrible evilness. You couldn't hear what I did either."
"And that was?"
"When he spoke, there were all these whispers saying other things, he didn't say any of the things he said, but that was what we all heard."
"He didn't say any of the things he said?" Crimson sounded both puzzled and amused.
"It's really stupid I know, I should stop talking about it, it doesn't make any sense."
"No, it doesn't, but you keep thinking about it. When it makes sense you can tell me what you've figured out."
"I'll do that." Alice smiled "But I'm too tired to do any figuring, I just want to sleep."
Crimson nodded his agreement and waited a moment while Alice got changed into her sleeping garments, she was very insistent on her privacy and wouldn't remove so much as a sock in the presence of another. Just as Crimson was certain she was done changing and that he wouldn't be burned to a crisp for entering at an embarrassing moment, there was a knock on the door.
"If that's Tatsu, tell him I'm not going to cook today." Alice called from the bedroom.
But when Crimson opened the door it wasn't Tatsu, it was the government official from before. Crimson looked down at the shorter man.
"Yes? May I help you?" He asked coolly
Even this less than warm welcome failed to remove the small mans pomp
"Following your victory in the pit fights you have been awarded these items for your achievement." He produced a capsule from a pocket hidden in the folds of his clothing. "Good day to you ranger Crimson, best of luck in the fights to come."
Crimson closed the door on the small man and took the capsule to the table he pressed the button on the side of it and it disgorged its compressed contents, a few mates and fluids tumbled out, followed by a pair of assaults, a pole, a pair of knives, a reinforcing unit and a small pile of meseta. Crimson handed the assaults and the knives to his MAG and slotted the reinforcing unit into his armour, he was fairly certain that it was a marksman's arm. Madhu chirped its agreement. Alice could keep the pole, she had helped a lot in the fight and without her he would have been dead from that stab through his side. He also piously swore to give her a percentage of the meseta, but he still scooped all of it up and handed it to Madhu. He leaned the pole against the wall with Alice's other possessions and went to bed. Alice was already fast asleep before he got there.
Mei floated in the darkness, her mind dwelling upon the things she had said to herself. Was it really alright for her to like Magus? He didn't seem to like her back in quite the same way. Was it okay to like someone even if they didn't like you? She wished someone would help her find the answer. As if responding to her will a figure formed out of the darkness. This one wasn't another Mei, it was too tall, but its taste in clothing wasn't much better than the Mei in green's, they were wearing a red and black dress that flowed down to their ankles, Mei regarded them critically.
"You know that dress isn't quite your colour or style."
The man looked down at himself with obvious amusement playing across his face "Yes I could do with a new dress, but I would much rather that you called it a robe."
"Sorry" Mei blushed at her mistake "I thought your robe was a dress, it does look a bit like one."
"I suppose it does" The man agreed "Tea?" He produced a steaming cup of herbal tea, seemingly from nowhere.
"I don't sit down to drink with strangers."
"Come now, if I was a stranger then I couldn't be here, after all, how could someone you've never met be inside your mind?"
"This is in my mind?" Mei asked "It's really empty in here."
The man could not hold back his laughter as Mei burned with embarrassment at her statement. "No no Mei, this isn't all that there is to your mind, this is just an empty corner of it. Do you wish to see your mind as it really is?"
Mei nodded enthusiastically and the man smiled at her, he waved his hand and the darkness parted. Suddenly there were images flickering by, too fast to recognise, there were also sounds to accompany them, noises that were jumbled together in a meaningless disharmony of words sounds and thoughts. Mei screwed her eyes shut and clamped her hands over her ears, but to no avail. After a few moments she begged Matherson to make it stop, and so he did, with a casual wave of his hand the images disappeared and the terrible noise ceased. Mei was again plunged into darkness.
"All of that is going on in my head?" She asked incredulously "All at the same time?"
"Yes indeed, those are your thoughts as and when they occur to you."
"But that's not possible, if my mind was doing that all the time everyday I wouldn't be able to think of anything at all, I couldn't understand any of those things."
"The mind of a human being is truly a remarkable thing, yours even more so."
"What do you mean by that?"
"I'm not allowed to tell you, it would be against the rules."
"What rules?"
"I'm not allowed to tell you that either." Matherson smiled at her "Tea?"
This time Mei did accept his offer of tea, it had been a long while since she had had any, for some reason Magus never brought any, and with his strict ruling on caffeine she doubted he would let her have any anyway. The two forces sat in silence for a while sipping at their tea and Mei could feel the days stresses fading away. She drained her cup to the dregs and set it down on a floor that strictly speaking didn't exist.
"If you can't tell me anything, then why are you here?" She asked Matherson pointedly
"I'm not too certain myself, but I have been told to watch over you and a few others."
"Told by who?" Mei sighed before Matherson could answer "I suppose you aren't allowed to tell me."
"That's right, I'm sorry to keep you in the dark, but there are rules that have to be followed."
"Is there anything you can tell me?"
Matherson appeared to think deeply on this one "Light makes darkness, a pair exists but it doesn't always exist. Reincarnation goes forever."
"I already know that!" Mei complained "You're the one who told me, and it still doesn't make any sense at all."
"And none of the images or sounds made sense did they? But your mind still uses them and it still works."
"Do you enjoy being mean to me like this?"
"No I would much rather tell you everything, but if I broke the rules then that would make me no better than the other side."
"The other side?"
Matherson lifted his hand to his mouth in a pantomime expression of having made a mistake "Oh dear, I think that might have broke a rule."
"You won't get in trouble for it." Mei said confidently "nobody can hear what you say because you're only speaking in my mind."
Matherson shook his head "That's not quite true Mei, no matter where you are, somebody is watching you, there will be repercussions even for such a tiny bit of information, but I shall face the consequences, I believe it is worth it."
"But you've hardly told me anything at all." Mei protested
"True, I only hope it is enough." Matherson gave one last cryptic smile and began to fade back into the nothingness that he had appeared from.
"Wait, you have to tell me what it means, you're in trouble already, it would only make it a little bit worse." Mei reached out in an attempt to seize the hem of Matherson's robe, but even as her hand closed around it, it became as insubstantial as mist and her hand passed through it."
"Don't forget Mei, reincarnation goes forever." With these parting words Matherson vanished completely, the only sign that he had ever been there in the first place were the two china cups that he left behind.
Mei Wrapped her arms around her knees, it was suddenly colder than it had been.
"I still think her was wearing a dress." She whispered quietly to herself. There was no need for her to whisper, she could have screamed it at the top of her lungs, there was nobody around to hear. Tatsu awoke in a strange room. Weapons adorned the walls and the floor was bare, how could he have possibly gone to sleep without even a pillow beneath his head? He rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling. As his mind adjusted to its new state of consciousness he remembered where he was. Chimpus' hotel room. He had slept on the living room floor because Chimpus had point blank refused to share his chambers with another man. There wasn't even a good reason for him to stay here, he could have walked back to his own room. Except he probably wouldn't have made it, the events of yesterday had left him bone tired and it would have badly damaged his reputation to be seen sleeping in the hallway. Damn that Chimpus, if only he could have been reasonable for once.
Tatsu had thought about Alice's harsh words to him and had decided that the best course of action was to apologise to Chimpus so that the two of them could prove to Alice that they weren't irrational jerks, and that it had all been a misunderstanding. Chimpus hadn't clicked to this line of thinking.
"Oh it's you, come to beg my forgiveness and admit that you don't deserve to compete with me for Alice's attentions?" Chimpus' tone was deeply mocking and thoroughly irritating. But Tatsu had gritted his teeth and forced himself to be civil.
"No as a matter of fact I did not. I came to say I was sorry for how I acted the other day, and to tell you that you should also be sorry for behaving in such a way in front of a lady."
"Behaving in what way? I did nothing at all, it was you who forced the fight."
"Can it you moron." Tatsu's wish to be civil were rapidly evaporating as a result of his boiling temper "What happened was as much your fault as it was mine, and before we forget who exactly was it that got a fireball full in the face?"
"Piss off, the only reason she didn't hit you was because you'd cry like a sissy bitch."
"Oh, abuse, the forte of the nitwit, why can't you just accept my apology and then have nothing else to do with me?"
"First off you beat me in combat, then you systematically point out exactly what I was doing wrong in my romantic affairs, and then you compete with me for the attention of the one girl that immediately sprang to my mind as being right for me."
"I beat you because you suck at fighting, a two year old could have told you where you were going wrong with your love life, and you're pursuing what is in effect a high school crush, I don't see why I even thought I could talk to you like you were a rational human being, you're a loser Chimpus, deal with it."
"That's it Tatsu, you and me, duel to the death, one hour from now."
In Tatsu's opinion that was taking it a bit too far, but it was an honourably issued challenge and therefore he could not back down, he just hoped to god that Alice never found out about it.
Tatsu arrived at the training room on time and ready for battle, Chimpus was also there. Tatsu had drawn his buster and assumed a battle stance without a word. Chimpus drew his gigush in a flamboyant manner that had failed to impress.
"Is that compensating for something?" Tatsu asked to try and make Chimpus angry, angry people made mistakes. But there hadn't been any mistakes at all. Not throughout the entire match, it may have been that the two of them were evenly matched, or it may have been that they weren't seriously trying to kill one another. But either way the match had dragged on and on with only superficial damage being taken by either fighter. Eventually they had agreed upon a cease fire, as both of them were too exhausted to continue. After two solid hours of fighting, they discovered that they didn't hate each other nearly as much as they thought they did, and as it was now nigh on midnight Chimpus had courteously offered Tatsu a place to spend the night.
Tatsu now walked down the hallways strongly regretting his acceptance of the hospitality, no dinner, no bed, no TV. What exactly did Chimpus do for entertainment anyway? It was not too hard to guess by his taste in décor, who the hell would consider weapons practice to be a method of relaxation? But no matter, Tatsu was nearly home now. He amended that, he was nearly back at the hotel room. Strange how he thought of it as more of a home than the vast quarters that he had inherited from his aunt. Maybe he just preferred the closeness of it all, one could feel very lonely in such huge rooms.
The first thing he noticed upon his return was that everything was tidy. This was odd, Crimson had been home for a whole night and everything was still in its rightful place. Wait that wasn't quite true, there was a pole leaning on the wall. Tatsu sighed, weapons went on the right of MAGs not the left, he moved the offending article six inches to the right. There, perfect. A sudden thought struck him, if the place was still tidy, that meant that Crimson couldn't possibly be here. He turned out of the door and hurried on his way to the hospital, he hoped Crimson wasn't too badly hurt.
-.-.-.-
No more info on mysterious cloaked person, sorry, they are pretty damned mysterious. And no further mention of Psilo and company, yet again there was going to be, but I think 4000 words is long enough for a chapter. I have got hella far in .hackinfection and may complete it in a mind- bendingly short time, aww now I have to wait for the next one, or go for 100% completion, that would take a while. Oh and major PSO related discovery, the J-sword is not the most powerful weapon I own! As a matter of fact my 50% hit efficient, fully ground, legit L&K14 combats deal a lot more damage in total I have since declared that all other weapons are weak, considering they cannot deal over 4000 points of damage before a monster gets within striking distance.