.hack/DELETION
A .hack fanfic by Timothy MeierStory by Tim Meier and Matt Burrell
Character Designs by Katy Robles Edited by Matt BurrellWritten by Tim Meier
Disclaimer: I do not own .hack, or any of it's characters, however, I do own this fanfic, so please don't steal it from me, thank you
Chapter Four.hack/VENGENCE
She's late! Tiro thought to himself. He had been waiting for an extra ten minutes for Riu, like usual. But still, he couldn't be happier. Riu was now his full-time partner in 'The World', and he was already at level 9 thanks to her. Of course she was level 11, but that didn't bother him; it just made her someone to look up to, like a big sister. He took a deep breath, and looked at the clear blue sky. It had been about one week since his ordeal with Ace, but that was behind him now. His mind started to wander as he listened to the flow of the river, and the conversations of others as they passed by. One in particular caught his attention:
"Hey, did you hear what happened to that hacker, Helba?"
"No dude, what happened?"
"Oh, man, she got arrested! It was, like, all over the news!"
"Arrested? How?"
"Well, they said that she was hacking into bank accounts and stealing money. She must've been real desperate man!"
"Whoa dude, that's crazy!"
A hacker? Arrested? Tiro thought, That's sad…She was probably just trying to make a living…
He sighed and looked down at the river before hearing a familiar voice behind him, "Hey, sorry to keep you waiting."
He smiled, turning around, "It's okay Riu."
Riu smiled back at him, "Are you ready to go? Only six more levels to go before Theta Server."
"Alright! Where are we going today?" He was excited about their next adventure, as usual.
She thought for a second, "Today were going to Delta, Dreaming Solitary Judgment. It's a level 7 area, so it'll be a piece of cake."
"Okay, then let's go!"
She chuckled slightly, "You're in a good mood today."
When they arrived at the gate, there was a rather large crowd in the square (It was Saturday). As the two shoved their way through the throng of people, Riu ran straight into another player, nearly causing her to fall. She was a rather mature looking LongArm who really stood out with her short violet hair, her emerald green eyes, and a blue, scar-like symbol that ran up her left cheek. Her spear had something strange on it; a long red scarf was tied to the end of it, right below the blade. Like the spear itself, the scarf was worn and frayed, like there was a history behind it. She seemed to be searching the crowd from her vantage point.
Riu walked up to her, "Excuse me. Are you okay?"
She looked at Riu, her eyes like daggers. "What makes you think anything is wrong? I'm just waiting for someone!"
Riu was startled by her sudden outburst of anger, "Geez, sorry! Come on Tiro, let's go." And when they were out of earshot, she added, "Bitch."
He nodded, looking back at the long arm again. He could feel her glare through the crowd. This doesn't feel right, he thought, it's like she intended for us to run into her. He walked to the chaos gate with Riu, hearing her speak the keywords.
"Delta, Dreamy Solitary Judgment." The two of them disappeared through the gate, not knowing what would await them.
((Delta, Dreamy Solitary Judgment))
After landing on the field, Tiro expected to see a giant cave or castle or something in the distance. But strangely, all he saw as they were running across the greenish desert was a giant alligator head. He paused for a second when he saw Riu approach it's mouth, "Hang on a second! Were not going in there, are we?"
"What do you think? This is the dungeon after all. It's just…the uh, dead monster type of dungeon…"
"Why didn't you tell me about these kind of dungeons?"
"You never asked…" Riu said, sliding down the monster's throat.
Tiro hesitated for a second, "Oh god, I'm going to regret this so much." Plugging his nose, he jumped in and slid down after her.
((Delta, Dreamy Solitary Judgment, B3))
He wasn't sure about Riu, but Tiro was positively miserable in this place. If it weren't for the fact that he was walking in disgusting old mucus, then it was the smell that was getting to him. Either way, he hated it in here. And on top of that, he had a really bad feeling that he couldn't shake since their encounter with the LongArm. He looked behind him as something caught his eye.
"Wait…Did you see that?"
She paused and looked at him, "What is it?"
"…I could have sworn that I just saw someone…"
"Are you sure? I haven't seen anyone ever since we got here."
He sighed, "This place must be getting to me."
"Yeah, let's just get the Gott Statue and get out of here." Riu led him west from the large square room, into the treasure room.
((Delta, Dreamy Solitary Judgment, B4, Gott Statue))
"Well this is great! All that trouble for a stupid pair of Mountain Boots! What a goddamn waste of time!" Riu was really upset about the item from the statue.
Tiro wasn't as upset about it. Actually, he was quite relieved, "Well, at least we can leave now."
Riu calmed down a bit, "You're right. Okay, use the Sprite Ocarina."
He raised his eyebrows in confusion, "…What do you mean?"
Riu's eyes widened, "You have them…right?"
"No…I thought you had them."
"When did I say that I would have them?"
"Before we came here. You said, 'I'll get the Sprite Ocarinas, then we'll meet at the bridge.' You said it yourself!"
"No! I said, 'Now get the Sprite Ocarinas.' You heard me wrong!"
Tiro had lost all hope of leaving anytime soon, "So what now?"
"Well, now I guess we have to walk out."
He sighed, afraid she would say that, "Wonderful."
The two of them walked out of the statue room, back into the L shaped corridor that they came through earlier. What else can go wrong? His question was answered when suddenly, two projectiles pierced his right arm and left leg. Being pushed back against the wall, he saw a shaft lodged into his arm. It appeared to be an arrow, one had gone completely through his leg and now lay on the ground. He screamed in shock as blood gushed out of his wounds. Riu yanked his arm to pull him back behind the corner, out of their attacker's line of fire.
"Riu," he screamed, "What's going on?"
"Quiet!" she said in a stern, yet quiet tone. Holding him behind the corner, she spoke to find an answer to his question, "Whoever this is, knock it off! You had better get out of here!"
The female archer called her bluff, "I know that you are no match for me. Just let me have the WaveMaster and I'll leave you unharmed. If not, then I will have to deem you 'expendable'."
Riu clenched her teeth, "What do you want with him?"
"I have my reasons." She said, almost robotically.
Riu paused for a second, taking a deep breath. She knew that she might not be able to defend him, but drew her blades nonetheless. "You'll have to get through me first!" She jumped out from behind the corner, shocked at who she saw, "You…you followed us?"
She smirked, approaching her, "Like I said…I was waiting for someone."
"Stay back," Riu threatened, "I'm warning you!"
"I can see it in your eyes…you know that I must be at least level 25 to use arrows." She held out her spear, pointing it at Riu, "I don't want to use this on you, and I know that you wouldn't want that either. So just give me the WaveMaster and walk away."
Riu held her swords in front of her, praying for the strength to protect her friend, "Tiro is my friend, and I will die defending him if I have to!"
"That wont be necessary!" a powerful voice echoed through the corridor, from behind the assassin.
Without turning around, she said, "This is none of your business. Get lost!"
He spoke again, "Let the kids go Myin!"
As she turned around, her eyes opened wide. She saw a BladeMaster with long, charcoal colored hair. He was wearing a dark crimson red trench coat with black street clothes underneath, strange attire for a BladeMaster. She spoke again, the strength from her voice now gone, "How do you…know my name?"
He answered, his voice the same quiet-yet-powerful tone as before, "I know a lot about you. Your name is Myin, and you've been playing 'The World' for two years. You consider yourself an assassin; you kill other players for money. You are at level 35, mainly because you spend more time killing players than you do monsters, and that scarf on your spear belonged to someone very important to you…"
She couldn't take it anymore, "Enough! Who the hell are you anyway?"
"I am…" He paused for a second, "…nobody."
"Damn right you're nobody!" She dashed at him, thrusting her spear at his throat.
Riu would always remember what she saw next. In one graceful move that seemed to defy the very laws of physics, the charcoal-haired man spun on his heel, dodging Myin's attack, unsheathed his sword, a traditional-looking katana, flipped the blade around, and, with surprising force, brought the blunt end of the blade down on base of Myin's skull, knocking her out in one hit.
Riu just stood there, amazed at his skill. She slowly approached him, relieved that someone was actually there to help them. She spoke to him for the first time, "Aren't you going to finish her off?"
"No…but that would be quite poetic; the assassin being assassinated." He paused for a minute, before pulling something out of his item pouch, handing the so needed item to her, "Here, take this…"
She slowly took the Sprite Ocarina, "…Thank you…"
He stood, walking over to Tiro, examining him, "He's hurt pretty bad.." He walked unhurriedly over to Myin's collapsed form and dumped the contents of a small leather pouch, which was tied to her waist, on the ground. He rummaged through the small pile and, finding what he was looking for, returned to Tiro. "Here," he said putting a small bottle of Health Drink to Tiro's lips, "drink this." The WaveMaster gulped down the pale green fluid. "Okay now on the count of three, I'm going to pull out the arrow." He said gripping the arrow's shaft. "One, two…" he yanked hard, freeing the arrow from Tiro's shoulder. Tiro screamed at the top of his lungs. Strings of flesh dangled from the barbed arrowhead. "Health Drinks alone wont help him." He said, tossing the arrow aside, "We need to take him back to town to treat him."
She nodded slowly, not knowing what to say. She finally spoke, her voice barely coming out, "Where can we do that?"
Ghost finished his examination, feeling it safe to pick him up, "I have a place in Mac Anu, but if we don't get there soon, it might be too late."
All the voices Tiro could hear were beginning to slur together as the room faded to black.
((Aqua Capitol, Mac Anu, Player Housing))
The apartment door slid open as the charcoal haired man carried, more like dragged, Tiro in. Riu followed the two in and gazed around the apartment as she slid the door shut behind her. The place was so…barren wasn't really the word, but that's pretty much what it was. Most players used their hard-earned property as glorified shrines to themselves, coating the walls withal their awards, prizes, and so on. Not this place. No awards adorned the plain, hardwood walls, and it still had the basic, stock furniture, which consisted of a low, lacquered wooden table, tatami mats, and some blankets shoved against one wall, instead of the luxurious couches, plush easy-chairs, and exotic rugs that were all the rage nowadays. They say someone's personality is reflected in the way they live…
"Hey!" the charcoal haired man said, snapping Riu out of her daze. "Look after him for a second, will you?"
"Uh, yeah sure." Riu said, but he had already disappeared into the adjacent room. She knelt down beside Tiro and placed her hand on his forehead. He was drenched in sweat and his face was flushed, the leg wound having become infected.
"Hey Tiro." she said softly. It was no use though. Tiro had passed out again halfway between the Chaos Gate and the apartment. A clattering noise arose from the next room, reminding her of their savior. Who is this guy? Riu thought, and why did he save us?
"Excuse me." The charcoal haired man said. Riu was apparently in his way.
"Hmm? Oh, I'm sorry!" she scooted back against a wall, trying to stay out of the way. He had removed his trench coat and was now wearing a black, sleeveless shirt. An intricate tattoo of an Asian dragon wound down his left shoulder, ending halfway dawn his forearm. For some reason, Riu figured he was very muscular, but now she saw that he looked more like a track runner than a bodybuilder. He knelt down beside Tiro, rolled up his pant leg, and inspected the torn flesh just above his kneecap. He then drew a bottle of clear liquid, labeled "Disinfectant" from a box of supplies he brought out from the other room. He uncorked the bottle and poured some of its contents onto the wound. The liquid made a hissing noise as it cleansed the infection from Tiro's system. Within seconds, his fever dropped back to normal. The charcoal haired man then took out a needle and thread and began to sew up the gaping hole in Tiro's leg. Where are your manners? Riu thought, silently scolding herself.
"Excuse me Mr. uh…"
"It's Ghost." He said in a smooth voice that deceived his somewhat rugged appearance.
What a generic name "Ghost, huh? Well um," she stammered "Thank you so much for your help but we don't have much money to pay you back with…"
"Don't worry about it." Ghost said. "It's nothing."
"Oh…" Awkwardsilenceawkwardsilenceawkwardsilence.
"So miss…"
"Riu."
"Yeah, so, what'd you do to get put on Myin's Death List?"
"Actually, she seemed to only be after Tiro."
"This guy, right?" Ghost said, pointing a bloody finger at the WaveMaster in question.
"Yeah, that's him."
"Alright, so what'd he do?"
Riu pondered this for a second, and then she started to look very angry "It was probably that worthless asshole, Ace." She said with more than a hint of contempt in her voice.
"Boyfriend?"
"Yes, er, no, well was…kinda."
"Kinda?" Tiro twitched in his sleep. Again. "God, I wish he'd stop doing that." Ghost said, pausing from his doctor-work.
"Yeah, we never actually met in the real world. But now that I look at it he was always kind of a dick."
"So Why'd you break up?"
"He thought I was cheating on him with Tiro."
"Were you?"
"No! Of course not! He was just possessive and insecure like that. I wound up having to break his arm."
"Hell hath no fury like a woman's scorn."
For some reason, Riu found that hilarious.
"So how'd you come across this guy?" Ghost asked, referring to Tiro.
"I don't know. We just sort of ran into each other." She started to laugh. "Actually, I caught him trying to talk to the Chaos Gate. It was hilarious. He had his arms out like this," she said, stretching her arms out. "and he said something like 'Take me to an easy field, Chaos Gate!'"
"Guess he never read the Player's Manual." Ghost smirked. "Leg's done." he said, taking out a roll of gauze and wrapping Tiro's leg up. Ghost then turned his attention to Tiro's shredded shoulder. He tried to remove Tiro's shirt, but the dried blood caused the shirt to stick to Tiro's chest. After several minutes of careful peeling, Ghost finally got the shirt off without reopening the wound. Myin's barbed arrow had done its job admirably, tearing open much of the shoulder and collarbone area. Ghost once again produced the bottle of disinfectant and went to work.
"So," Ghost said, trying to restart the stalled conversation, "where you from?"
"Huh?" Riu said, surprised that this guy could be so calm amidst such gore "Oh, um, Oregon"
"No kidding, I live in Oregon too. You near Bend?"
"Portland."
"Ah." he said, nodding "Never been there. I've only lived here for, like, a year and a half. Used to live in San Diego, though. Liked it a lot better there."
'A year and a half?' Riu thought, 'That was when…' "That was around the time of the HyperNet super-crash. I heard a lot of people left southern California after that."
"I had a much better reason to leave." Ghost murmured to nobody in particular. Upon hearing this, the pieces began to fall into place in her head. 'There's no way…'
"Are you…" she said weakly "the Angel?"
Ghost's hands froze in place. "If the Angel in particular is named Ireul, than yes. Or at least I was. I don't go by that name anymore."
'Oh my God,' Riu thought, 'I'm sitting in the same room as Ireul, The Angel of Terror. The greatest hacker of the 21st century.'
"My name is Ghost now." he said as if he could read her mind.
"You're the one who took down HyperNet!" Riu exclaimed. "You're a legend!" Ghost sighed. He had gained great fame within the hacker community with the destruction of HyperNet, considered to be the most secure and infallible computer network ever created.
"Two million. That's how much I was paid. Two million dollars to obliterate HyperNet. And you know what? I did a damn good job. HyperNet was decimated beyond repair. But my glory came at a cost. Do you know how many people worked for HyperNet?"
"…"
"One point five million. One million, five hundred thousand men and women. People with families and children to support. That was one point five million people unemployed within a one-month span. Do you have any idea what that can do to an economy? That's two million plus people living on unemployment and welfare checks." He paused "Suicide rates jumped 400 percent after that. And I can't help thinking that I was at least partially responsible; that I caused their pain and misery. It was then I realized that hacking wasn't this cool, stylish profession that everyone made it out to be. It's…never mind." Ghost turned back around and began working on Tiro's shoulder again.
'I never knew.' Riu thought. Within the past few years, people have romanticized hackers, like Al Pacino gangsters and John Wayne cowboys before that. Riu, like most other people, envisioned hackers as dashing outlaws, rebellious desperados living on the fringes of society, doing what they could to stick it to The Man. But now she saw just how skewed her view was.
"What did you do with the money?" Riu was almost afraid to ask.
"I gave it back. I gave all my ill-gained fortunes back to the people whose very lives I stole. Every cent I made hacking and making others miserable I gave back to the people. The only problem is, you…you cant buy back people's lives. That's why I chose to help you. That maybe, in some small way, I can atone for the things I've done wrong." Ghost finished applying the last layer of gauze in silence. "Done." Ghost said. Tiro's arm now lay in a makeshift sling. He drew a cloth from the box and wiped his hands off, turning the towel into a collage of crimson streaks. He then hefted up the unconscious WaveMaster and carried him into another room, more like an area sectioned off by screens, where he laid him on a heavy futon. Ghost returned to the main room, quietly sliding the paper screen shut behind him. Riu was still sitting on the floor, but she now held her hand in the air. Misinterpreting her gesture, Ghost took her hand, pulling her to her feet. Riu giggled at the ex-hacker's confusion. He obviously didn't understand the "international" sign for wanting to swap Flash Mail addresses.
"No, like this." She whispered, holding her hand, palm up, underneath his down turned hand. A faint glow emanated from the space between their hands as a small orb of light passed from Riu's palm to Ghost. For a second, she could see his list of friends' addresses. The list was empty.
"There." she said, "I gave you both of our addresses. Now you can contact us anytime." And for the first time that day, Ghost smiled.
Tiro's eyes slowly slid open. Where was he? Dungeon, assassin, arrows, charcoal haired guy, Chaos Gate, Mac Anu…he couldn't remember anything after that. He tried to prop himself up, but he couldn't move his right arm. He looked down to find that it was in a sling. That explained a lot. He gazed around the room. Not much to look at, a whopping two walls, the futon which he was currently occupying, and two paper screens that were filtering in a soft light from another room. His neatly folded shirt was at the foot of the bed, the hole created by Myin's arrow sewn up and the once crimson blood stain scrubbed out to a light rusty color. He rolled out of bed, the thick bandage on his leg hindering his movement. He hobbled over to the foot of the bed, and with some difficulty, donned his shirt. He then limped out to the main room where he saw Riu wrapped up in a heavy blanket on the floor, asleep.
"She never logged out, you know." Tiro nearly jumped out of his skin. He spun around to find Ghost sitting cross-legged, propped up against the wall. "You've been out for almost eight hours."
Tiro scratched his head. "Really? What time is it?"
"About 2:30 A.M. Pacific Standard Time." Ghost yawned.
"Thank you for helping me, er, us, but I don't even know your na…"
"Ghost."
"Oh. What about Riu?"
"What about her? She refused to log out until you woke up, but I think she's asleep now. That's a real friend you have."
"Yes, she was very kind to me when I first started playing. Shouldn't you wake her up?"
"Actually, I thought it would be more fitting if you did the honor." Tiro made his way over to Riu and clumsily kneeled down.
"Hey Riu, wake up." He said, gently nudging her. Her eyes slowly opened, but instantly recognized the person who woke her up.
"Oh Tiro! Thank God you're okay!" She cried as she embraced him. Ghost smiled at their reunion. However, Riu saw what time it was and decided that they had to go.
"You sure you don't need help to the Chaos Gate?" Ghost asked, for Tiro was leaning rather heavily on Riu's shoulder, but they both politely declined. "Be sure to get to a hospital next time you log in. You don't want to become crippled, do you?" Then, almost as an afterthought, "Here, you're probably going to need this." Ghost said, tossing Tiro his jewel studded cap and WaveMaster staff.
"You two can use this place whenever you need it. The password for the door is :."
"?" Riu said "Isn't it spelled wrong?"
"No," Ghost smirked "I'll explain the story to you sometime."
"Thanks, we owe you one." Tiro said as the door slid shut. Ghost was once again alone in his apartment. He sighed.
"Hell of a day."
As the two slowly made their way down the hall, Riu whispered, "You won't believe who that guy really was."