.hackGODDESS
by SmkViper
Proof readers/editors: Sehet Xaui, Greybolt, Gen, Cholene, Demon Angel Tsukai
Copyright
.hackGODDESS © 2003 SmkViper
Oh My Goddess! © Kosuke Fujishima
Japanese Language Version © Kodansha Ltd.
English Language Version © AnimEigo, Pioneer, Dark Horse
Project Dot Hack © Project Hack, Bandai, TV Tokyo, Comptiq
.hackGODDESS is a fan fiction work based off the
Oh My Goddess! and Project Dot Hack universes. It
is not affiliated with Kosuke Fukishima, Kodansha Ltd.,
or Project Hack. And resemblance to any person, living
or dead, is purely coincidental.
Author's notes:
Text in are a character's thoughts.
Chapter 6: The Nature of the Wavemaster
The following morning Skuld and Kenaz left for the closest hospital to check for any recent coma patients. After entering the lobby of the hospital, they walked up to the information desk and talked to the lady currently manning the desk.
"Excuse me, could you tell me if anyone was admitted to this hospital in a coma around this time?" asked Skuld, handing the lady a piece of paper with the date and time of Tsukasa's first log out attempt.
"I'm sorry, but unless you are a relative of the patient or from the police, I'm not allowed to give out that information," the lady replied with a forced smile.
"Oh c'mon, it's not like we're asking for all their personal information and medical records," insisted Kenaz.
"Sorry, I can't do that. Anything else I can help you with?"
"No, thanks for nothing," mumbled Skuld as she drug Kenaz out of the hospital. "Dang it! Why couldn't she just give me a yes or no answer! Grrr…c'mon Kenaz, let's go check out the other hospital on our list."
The other hospital proved to be just as helpful, however, and refused to provide any information to them as well.
"Well, that was a lot of work for nothing. I Guess we'll have to attempt a less 'orthodox' method of finding out," Kenaz said with a slight grin on his face.
"That program you were working on? Neither the police, nor Kami-sama would be particularly pleased with you if they caught you."
"I know, but I'm not going to write a program. I figure I can hack into the hospitals' database and find out the information that way. Compared to hacking Yggdrasil, this should be a piece of cake!"
"Yeah, but you got caught the last time you tried to hack Yggdrasil."
"Um…I guess I'll just have to be more careful then, won't I?" said Kenaz with a sheepish grin.
"Fine, whatever, maybe with my help we'll get by unnoticed, it's not like we have any other options at this point," replied Skuld with a sigh, shaking her head slightly.
They eventually make it back to the temple after stopping for lunch and go into Skuld's room to begin their project.
"I'll be right back, you go ahead and start setting up the stuff in here," said Kenaz while stepping outside the room. He came back a short while later with a second computer and several circuit boards and wires.
"What are all those for? We're just hacking a mortal database."
"I told you, I'm being extra careful," replied Kenaz as he took off the cover to Skuld's computer and started hooking things together. A short while later he was done. "Ok, we should be ready to go, just let me double check the connection…there, we're in."
"That was quick," said Skuld, a note of surprise in her voice.
"Of course, I'm as good with computers as you are with your mecha," he said with a grin.
Skuld blushed slightly at the complement, which went unnoticed by Kenaz, who was staring intently at the screen looking for the information they were seeking.
"Alright, bringing up the records of all the patients admitted on the day we're interested in…" Kenaz quickly typed away for several seconds before giving up and declaring that there was no one at that hospital that fit the criteria they were looking for.
Skuld sighed, "What about the second one?"
Kenaz typed away for a few more minutes while lines of text and records flashed by on the screen in front of him. "Looks like the second hospital isn't it either. Nothing matching what we are looking for. I guess we'll have to wait until we can talk to Bear and see if he found anything, though it is a slim chance that we would find him. There isn't any guarantee that he is even a Japanese player," said Kenaz while leaning back in his chair, looking disappointed.
"I think he is though, Bear didn't mention that Tsukasa's Japanese had any accent, and those auto-translation tools people use don't sound completely correct, which Bear or Mimiru would have definitely picked up on," replied Skuld.
"So? It just means he speaks Japanese well, doesn't mean he's actually accessing from there. I know there are only Japanese servers right now and the client hasn't been translated to any other language that I know of. But still, you know how some Americans and Europeans get when they want to play the latest role-playing game from Japan."
"I know, but there's still a good chance he's a Japanese player, let's just wait until we can find out from Bear."
"Alright, let me log out here and disconnect everything before someone gets suspicious…"
Just then the phone rings. Skuld and Kenaz could hear someone pick it up and Belldandy talking for a minute before calling for them.
"Skuld! Kenaz! The phone is for you!"
"Coming!" replied Kenaz. "Who would be calling us here?"
"Maybe it's your girlfriend in the heavens," Skuld said with a grin.
"Cut it out, you know I don't like anyone up there like that!"
"Hello?" said Skuld as she picked up the phone off the counter where Belldandy had left it.
"It is I," said a voice on the other end.
"K…k…Kami-sama! What a surprise! Um…what did you want to talk about?" said Skuld, sweating slightly as she wondered why HE would bother calling her.
"Is Kenaz there with you?"
"Yes, he is," replied Skuld.
"Good, do you care to tell me what you have been doing for the past hour or so?"
"Um…we've been trying to do what you've told us. Researching the problem with The World like you asked."
"I don't remember giving you permission to hack into a mortal database, and a hospital at that," said Kami-sama, his voice growing slightly stern.
"Well, they wouldn't give us the information we asked for, and that information would help us a lot in finding a solution to Tsukasa's problem!" Skuld insisted, but sounding more like she was slightly whining.
"And you couldn't just call someone up here to get permission to use Yggdrasil to find out for you?"
"Um…well, we didn't think of that," replied Skuld meekly.
"Very well, next time you need some information you can't get normally, ask for permission first. But as punishment for breaking into a database and accessing private information I am going to restrict both your and Kenaz's license for one week."
"But…" argued Skuld, a look of panic starting to form on her face.
"I don't want an argument on this. Until one week is up, you and Kenaz will be unable to use your powers for anything other then mundane tasks like changing clothes unless you ask for permission from Belldandy, Urd or myself."
"Yes sir," she replied, looking defeated.
"I know you're eager to get to the bottom of this mystery but don't forget to ask next time you need some information instead of getting it illegally. You know that Yggdrasil can always get it for you," said Kami-sama, a hint of a smile in his voice.
"Yes sir, thank you."
"Goodbye then."
"Goodbye," Skuld said before hanging up the phone. "Well, it wasn't as bad as it could have been," said Skuld as she turned to Kenaz with a sad smile on her face. "We'll just have our power restricted for a week to the basic stuff. We just need to remember to ask permission next time."
"Yeah, that could have been a lot worse. We could have had our licenses suspended like your older sister has all the time," replied Kenaz with a slight smirk.
"I heard that!" called out Urd's voice.
"Anyway, let's get back online and see if Bear's found out anything yet," said Skuld, heading over to the computer they used to access The World.
A short while later both she and Kenaz were back in Mac Anu waiting for Bear who said he was on his way back from a dungeon he was exploring.
"Skuld! Kenaz! Over here!"
They looked and saw Mimiru waving at them as she ran over.
"Good thing I caught you before I logged out. So, any luck in finding Tsukasa in the real world?" Mimiru asked, slightly out of breath.
"Not really, we couldn't find anyone admitted with a coma around the time you gave us," replied Skuld sadly.
"That's too bad, looks like we're back to square one," said Mimiru with a sigh.
"Not exactly, Bear was also going to check out a few places for us and he's on his way to meet us here in a few minutes. Just had to finish up the dungeon he was working on. Do you want to wait for him with us?"
"Sorry, I can't. My mother has been bugging me to finish my homework before dinner tonight so I have to log off for an hour or two. I'll be back on later tonight, will you guys be around?"
"We should be," replied Skuld.
"Great, I'll see you guys later then!" said Mimiru before logging out.
A few minutes later Bear came walking up to them. "Sorry it took so long, the dungeon I was in was deeper then I thought."
"Don't worry about it, we didn't find anyone unfortunately. Were you able to find anything?" asked Kenaz hopefully.
"As a matter of fact, I did. Found a girl by the name of Miyuki Kamina who was admitted to a hospital in a coma roughly two hours before Tsukasa was supposedly unable to log out. They apparently found her passed out in her room in front of her computer, which was off at the time. Not an exact match in time and situation, but the closest I could find," replied Bear with a shrug of his shoulders.
"Thanks a lot Bear, any other information on her?" asked Skuld.
"Not really, hospitals only record so much information besides medical history."
"How did you get this information anyway? They turned us away when we asked," said Kenaz.
"I have my sources, and a few favors people owe me. How did you find out if there was anyone admitted if they turned you away? Especially since you're just kids."
"Hey, how do you know how old we are? We could be the same age as you, it's not like the avatars in the game look like us," said Skuld.
"Just call it an old man's intuition," Bear replied with a smile, "but you didn't answer my question."
"Well, Kenaz is pretty good with computers, but we got caught by our parents and grounded," said Skuld with a sheepish grin on her face.
"Ha ha ha ha! That's funny! You were able to get around the hospital's security and not get caught by them or the police and your parents caught you?"
"Yeah, it is kinda embarrassing…" replied Skuld. Except that our "parents" aren't exactly what someone would call normal parents. I suppose it was too much to expect to hide it from Kami-sama.
"Well, anyway, I'm going to try to trace down Mimiru and see if she can set up a meeting with Tsukasa so we can ask him about the girl I found," said Bear after he had finished laughing.
"Well, you just missed her, she had some homework to do before dinner and logged off for a bit, though she did say she would be online later," said Kenaz.
"Oh, alright, well I ate a little while ago so I think I'll go attempt to level up at another dungeon until she logs in. Maybe she'll want to help me out before we talk to Tsukasa."
"Well my older sister is calling us to dinner so we'll be offline for a bit. We'll try to catch you later tonight to see what you find out. Later!" said Skuld before she and Kenaz logged out.
"Now, back to the chaos gate. Let's see what would be a good place to go level at…" said Bear as he made his choice and warped to the field.
After dinner Kenaz and Skuld went back to the computer running the game.
"You know, now that we have the name of the person Bear found, we should try tracing the connection to see if that coma was caused by the game," commented Kenaz.
"Good idea, but we should call heaven and get permission first."
"Oh, right, forgot about that."
Kenaz went over to the phone and dialed heaven. After a few rings a disturbingly familiar voice answered.
"Why hello there, you've reached Yggdrasil's control center, how can I serve you today?"
"Urd! What are you doing answering the phone?" asked Kenaz, shocked.
"Hey, I work too you know!" replied Urd, sounding indignant.
"You could have fooled me with how much you lounge around down here."
"You keep insulting me and I won't help you out," said Urd, sounding slightly threatening.
"Fine, fine, look, we're trying to trace someone through the internet and need Yggdrasil's help," said Kenaz.
"What, you can't do this with your own computer?"
"Well, we could if we were trying to just trace connections. But we're trying to trace someone's spirit connection."
"Why would someone's spirit be in the inter…oh wait, you're researching that issue with The World, right?" asked Urd.
"Yeah, we think that we might have located someone in the real world who might be trapped in the game and we want to trace it to make sure."
"Alright, I think I can help you with that, on one condition."
"What's that," asked Kenaz nervously. I hope it isn't anything perverted, but knowing her…
"Why Kenaz, don't you trust me?" asked Urd seductively.
"Um…I'm not answering that question."
"Humph, be that way. Anyway, you have to agree to take Skuld on a date." Even though Kenaz couldn't see Urd, he could hear the grin in her voice.
"WHAAAT?!"
"You heard me, take Skuld on a date. A real one, with dinner and a movie, not to some auto parts store."
"Are you kidding? What makes you think I would want to do that?"
"I saw the way you were acting around her at the beach; you can't fool me that easily. After all, I am the love goddess," said Urd with a flourish.
"Fine, I agree, now will you let us use Yggdrasil?" Kenaz replied, trying to sound annoyed, but not quite succeeding. He had to admit that the idea of taking Skuld out was rather appealing.
"Of course, and I'll be watching you to make sure you keep up your end of the deal."
"Gee, thanks, just what I need."
"What was that? I don't think I heard you."
"N…nothing! Thank you Urd."
"You're welcome, now get to work, you have a person to find," said Urd before hanging up the phone.
Kenaz walked back into the room where Skuld was waiting with a slight blush on his cheeks. "We have permission to use Yggdrasil to search, so let's get started."
"Are you ok? You look slightly flushed," asked Skuld.
"I…I'm fine, c'mon we have a person to find," replied Kenaz, turning his head away slightly to hide his face from her.
After several minutes they were able to trace Miyuki's spirit trail to a computer terminal and the servers that ran The World, but there it became disrupted and they were unable to locate the player it was attached to.
"Well, we know she's still in The World somehow, but something's preventing us from looking any further," said Kenaz, sounding puzzled. "That's really odd, mortals shouldn't be able to disrupt a spirit trace like this."
"Maybe there's someone else that doesn't want us tracing it. Could it be a demon?"
"I suppose, though I don't see why they would. Anyway, we're not going to get any more this way, looks like we're stuck."
"Maybe, but we might be able to trace it the other way" asked Skuld.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, if we can't get from the person to the character, maybe we can go from the character back to the person. I can write a small program that will attach to the character data in game and trace the path for us," said Skuld.
"How long would that take you? We should meet up with Bear soon to see if he had a chance to speak to Tsukasa yet," replied Kenaz.
"Shouldn't take me any longer then fifteen or twenty minutes with your help. I already have a program we could modify so we won't be starting from scratch." Skuld sounded excited with the prospect of finally being of some use to help track down Tsukasa's player.
"Alright, let's get started."
Skuld and Kenaz spent the next fifteen minutes modifying one of Skuld's programs to do a reverse trace on Tsukasa and appear as a small item in The World that they could clip on Tsukasa's clothes, hopefully without him noticing. Once finished, they logged back into The World and paged Bear. He showed up a few minutes later with Mimiru and BT in tow.
"So, did you have a chance to talk to Tsukasa?" asked Skuld.
"Yeah, we did, though he claims he's a guy. Since I don't see any reason to disbelieve him I am guessing we have the wrong person. Though it might be a good idea to keep an eye on Miyuki just in case she is related to the things going on."
"That's disappointing, is there any chance we can talk to Tsukasa soon?" replied Kenaz.
"Maybe, I heard about a Heavy Blade character who supposedly has the same sort of monster that Tsukasa has following him," said BT. "Mimiru already sent a message to Tsukasa asking him to meet her and Bear there tomorrow since he will probably want to investigate the rumor."
"Sounds like a good idea, would you mind if we tagged along?" asked Skuld.
"Not at all," replied Bear, "though BT won't be able to make it so it will just be you guys, me and Mimiru."
"That's fine, so where do we go?"
"Here let me send you the field keywords and time we're meeting," said Mimiru.
A few seconds later the keywords showed up in Skuld's e-mail.
"Alright we'll see you guys tomorrow then, have a good night," said Skuld as she and Kenaz logged out.
"Why didn't you tell them about the tracer program, Skuld?" asked Kenaz once they had removed the headsets.
"If we did they would want to know how we made it and got it into the game, and you know we can't tell them that," replied Skuld. "Besides, we don't want to attract any more attention to ourselves then necessary as our characters aren't technically legal."
"Yeah, you're right. Well, tomorrow we'll find out who Tsukasa really is hopefully," said Kenaz. "Oh, and another thing, what are you doing Friday night?"
"Um, let me think for a sec…nope not doing anything, why?"
"Well…would you…um…would you like to go to dinner and a movie afterwards with me?" asked Kenaz nervously.
"Are you asking me out on a date?" asked Skuld, surprise and slight embarrassment evident on her face.
"Um…yeah, I guess so. So do you want to go? We can go to an ice cream shop afterwards too."
"I think I can go with you," said Skuld, a small smile on her face.
"You can? That's great, um what time should I pick you up?"
"Huh? We live in the same house dummy," said Skuld, looking amused.
"We do? Oh yeah, right…well…um…hey look it's getting late, we should be heading to bed."
"Well, goodnight then Kenaz."
"Goodnight Skuld."
They both got up and went to their respective rooms. Soon after Skuld closed her door she heard what sounded like a shout of triumph coming from Kenaz's room which brought a smile to her face as she got ready for bed.
"About time you got up the nerve to ask her, so what if I had to give him a little push," said Urd slyly as she quietly shut the door to her room where she had been keeping an eye on them.
The following day, Kenaz lost the coin toss to Skuld and had to man his computer while Skuld, Belldandy, and Keiichi logged into The World to talk to Tsukasa and plant the tracer that Skuld had created.
"Man, why did I get stuck doing this," he asked Skuld once she logged in.
"Because, either you or I have to run this program when the tracer is placed, and you lost the coin toss."
"Doesn't make me feel any better about it…" muttered Kenaz to himself. "Whenever you guys are ready."
"We're teleporting to the field now," replied Belldandy. "We will let you know when to start."
"Well, I don't see anyone in the field right now," said Keiichi, "maybe they warped in at a different location, let's go take a look around."
After a few minutes of searching the field and fighting a few random monsters that they happened to stumble upon, Skuld received a message from Mimiru.
"Hey guys, Mimiru says that she and Bear have arrived, but they don't see anything either. They want us to meet them to help look," said Skuld.
"That's odd, we've covered a good portion of the field and haven't found anyone, do you suppose that Heavy Blade isn't coming?" asked Keiichi.
"Maybe there never was a Heavy Blade in the first place…" said Belldandy.
"What do you mean Bell?"
"Maybe the rumor was spread deliberately; the Crimson Knights did put out a wanted notice for Tsukasa. Maybe someone is trying to trick Tsukasa into coming here to be captured?"
"You might be right! I'm sending a tell to Bear and Mimiru about this," said Skuld quickly. "Let's run to the meeting place quickly!"
After a few seconds Skuld received a reply back.
"Oh no! We were right! Bear and Mimiru tried to warn Tsukasa, but he came anyway and he's now being attacked by the Crimson Knights!"
Skuld, Belldandy and Keiichi ran off towards Bear and Mimiru's position as fast as they could. When they got there, there was nothing but dead and wounded Crimson Knights scattered around the snowy ground, and no Tsukasa. Bear, Mimiru, and Subaru were there as well and it looked like Bear and Mimiru were arguing with Subaru.
"I swear I had nothing to do with this attack!" insisted Subaru, a little more loudly then she would have liked. "However, I did want to talk to Tsukasa since he attacked four players a few days ago with his guardian and killed them. He has also been breaking other rules of The World recently."
"That doesn't mean you can apprehend him like this!" replied Mimiru angrily.
"He was a criminal who was breaking the rules of the game and had to be detained," said Silver Knight, sternly.
"Silver Knight!" said Subaru sharply. "I will talk to you about this later." She turned to Mimiru and said in a softer voice, "I am sorry, but I do have a few questions to ask Tsukasa and then we will release him if he hasn't done anything wrong, I promise."
"Excuse me," interrupted Skuld, "would you mind if we talked to him as well?"
"I don't see why not, feel free to talk to him when I'm done, here's where we sent him," replied Subaru, sending the area keywords to Skuld.
"Thank you very much," said Belldandy, bowing slightly, "is there anything we can do in the meantime? Some of these players look rather beat up."
"If you wouldn't mind, I could use your help healing them."
"Of course not, I'll get started right away," replied Belldandy with a smile.
"Kenaz, looks like we're going to have to wait on that program, Tsukasa got captured by the Crimson Knights and we won't get to see him for a few, so we're logging out for lunch as soon as Belldandy is finished helping the Crimson Knights here," said Skuld.
"Alright, I'll start something for lunch, later."
After the three of them had finished making sure everyone was healed up after the battle they logged out and sat down to lunch.
by SmkViper
Proof readers/editors: Sehet Xaui, Greybolt, Gen, Cholene, Demon Angel Tsukai
Copyright
.hackGODDESS © 2003 SmkViper
Oh My Goddess! © Kosuke Fujishima
Japanese Language Version © Kodansha Ltd.
English Language Version © AnimEigo, Pioneer, Dark Horse
Project Dot Hack © Project Hack, Bandai, TV Tokyo, Comptiq
.hackGODDESS is a fan fiction work based off the
Oh My Goddess! and Project Dot Hack universes. It
is not affiliated with Kosuke Fukishima, Kodansha Ltd.,
or Project Hack. And resemblance to any person, living
or dead, is purely coincidental.
Author's notes:
Text in are a character's thoughts.
Chapter 6: The Nature of the Wavemaster
The following morning Skuld and Kenaz left for the closest hospital to check for any recent coma patients. After entering the lobby of the hospital, they walked up to the information desk and talked to the lady currently manning the desk.
"Excuse me, could you tell me if anyone was admitted to this hospital in a coma around this time?" asked Skuld, handing the lady a piece of paper with the date and time of Tsukasa's first log out attempt.
"I'm sorry, but unless you are a relative of the patient or from the police, I'm not allowed to give out that information," the lady replied with a forced smile.
"Oh c'mon, it's not like we're asking for all their personal information and medical records," insisted Kenaz.
"Sorry, I can't do that. Anything else I can help you with?"
"No, thanks for nothing," mumbled Skuld as she drug Kenaz out of the hospital. "Dang it! Why couldn't she just give me a yes or no answer! Grrr…c'mon Kenaz, let's go check out the other hospital on our list."
The other hospital proved to be just as helpful, however, and refused to provide any information to them as well.
"Well, that was a lot of work for nothing. I Guess we'll have to attempt a less 'orthodox' method of finding out," Kenaz said with a slight grin on his face.
"That program you were working on? Neither the police, nor Kami-sama would be particularly pleased with you if they caught you."
"I know, but I'm not going to write a program. I figure I can hack into the hospitals' database and find out the information that way. Compared to hacking Yggdrasil, this should be a piece of cake!"
"Yeah, but you got caught the last time you tried to hack Yggdrasil."
"Um…I guess I'll just have to be more careful then, won't I?" said Kenaz with a sheepish grin.
"Fine, whatever, maybe with my help we'll get by unnoticed, it's not like we have any other options at this point," replied Skuld with a sigh, shaking her head slightly.
They eventually make it back to the temple after stopping for lunch and go into Skuld's room to begin their project.
"I'll be right back, you go ahead and start setting up the stuff in here," said Kenaz while stepping outside the room. He came back a short while later with a second computer and several circuit boards and wires.
"What are all those for? We're just hacking a mortal database."
"I told you, I'm being extra careful," replied Kenaz as he took off the cover to Skuld's computer and started hooking things together. A short while later he was done. "Ok, we should be ready to go, just let me double check the connection…there, we're in."
"That was quick," said Skuld, a note of surprise in her voice.
"Of course, I'm as good with computers as you are with your mecha," he said with a grin.
Skuld blushed slightly at the complement, which went unnoticed by Kenaz, who was staring intently at the screen looking for the information they were seeking.
"Alright, bringing up the records of all the patients admitted on the day we're interested in…" Kenaz quickly typed away for several seconds before giving up and declaring that there was no one at that hospital that fit the criteria they were looking for.
Skuld sighed, "What about the second one?"
Kenaz typed away for a few more minutes while lines of text and records flashed by on the screen in front of him. "Looks like the second hospital isn't it either. Nothing matching what we are looking for. I guess we'll have to wait until we can talk to Bear and see if he found anything, though it is a slim chance that we would find him. There isn't any guarantee that he is even a Japanese player," said Kenaz while leaning back in his chair, looking disappointed.
"I think he is though, Bear didn't mention that Tsukasa's Japanese had any accent, and those auto-translation tools people use don't sound completely correct, which Bear or Mimiru would have definitely picked up on," replied Skuld.
"So? It just means he speaks Japanese well, doesn't mean he's actually accessing from there. I know there are only Japanese servers right now and the client hasn't been translated to any other language that I know of. But still, you know how some Americans and Europeans get when they want to play the latest role-playing game from Japan."
"I know, but there's still a good chance he's a Japanese player, let's just wait until we can find out from Bear."
"Alright, let me log out here and disconnect everything before someone gets suspicious…"
Just then the phone rings. Skuld and Kenaz could hear someone pick it up and Belldandy talking for a minute before calling for them.
"Skuld! Kenaz! The phone is for you!"
"Coming!" replied Kenaz. "Who would be calling us here?"
"Maybe it's your girlfriend in the heavens," Skuld said with a grin.
"Cut it out, you know I don't like anyone up there like that!"
"Hello?" said Skuld as she picked up the phone off the counter where Belldandy had left it.
"It is I," said a voice on the other end.
"K…k…Kami-sama! What a surprise! Um…what did you want to talk about?" said Skuld, sweating slightly as she wondered why HE would bother calling her.
"Is Kenaz there with you?"
"Yes, he is," replied Skuld.
"Good, do you care to tell me what you have been doing for the past hour or so?"
"Um…we've been trying to do what you've told us. Researching the problem with The World like you asked."
"I don't remember giving you permission to hack into a mortal database, and a hospital at that," said Kami-sama, his voice growing slightly stern.
"Well, they wouldn't give us the information we asked for, and that information would help us a lot in finding a solution to Tsukasa's problem!" Skuld insisted, but sounding more like she was slightly whining.
"And you couldn't just call someone up here to get permission to use Yggdrasil to find out for you?"
"Um…well, we didn't think of that," replied Skuld meekly.
"Very well, next time you need some information you can't get normally, ask for permission first. But as punishment for breaking into a database and accessing private information I am going to restrict both your and Kenaz's license for one week."
"But…" argued Skuld, a look of panic starting to form on her face.
"I don't want an argument on this. Until one week is up, you and Kenaz will be unable to use your powers for anything other then mundane tasks like changing clothes unless you ask for permission from Belldandy, Urd or myself."
"Yes sir," she replied, looking defeated.
"I know you're eager to get to the bottom of this mystery but don't forget to ask next time you need some information instead of getting it illegally. You know that Yggdrasil can always get it for you," said Kami-sama, a hint of a smile in his voice.
"Yes sir, thank you."
"Goodbye then."
"Goodbye," Skuld said before hanging up the phone. "Well, it wasn't as bad as it could have been," said Skuld as she turned to Kenaz with a sad smile on her face. "We'll just have our power restricted for a week to the basic stuff. We just need to remember to ask permission next time."
"Yeah, that could have been a lot worse. We could have had our licenses suspended like your older sister has all the time," replied Kenaz with a slight smirk.
"I heard that!" called out Urd's voice.
"Anyway, let's get back online and see if Bear's found out anything yet," said Skuld, heading over to the computer they used to access The World.
A short while later both she and Kenaz were back in Mac Anu waiting for Bear who said he was on his way back from a dungeon he was exploring.
"Skuld! Kenaz! Over here!"
They looked and saw Mimiru waving at them as she ran over.
"Good thing I caught you before I logged out. So, any luck in finding Tsukasa in the real world?" Mimiru asked, slightly out of breath.
"Not really, we couldn't find anyone admitted with a coma around the time you gave us," replied Skuld sadly.
"That's too bad, looks like we're back to square one," said Mimiru with a sigh.
"Not exactly, Bear was also going to check out a few places for us and he's on his way to meet us here in a few minutes. Just had to finish up the dungeon he was working on. Do you want to wait for him with us?"
"Sorry, I can't. My mother has been bugging me to finish my homework before dinner tonight so I have to log off for an hour or two. I'll be back on later tonight, will you guys be around?"
"We should be," replied Skuld.
"Great, I'll see you guys later then!" said Mimiru before logging out.
A few minutes later Bear came walking up to them. "Sorry it took so long, the dungeon I was in was deeper then I thought."
"Don't worry about it, we didn't find anyone unfortunately. Were you able to find anything?" asked Kenaz hopefully.
"As a matter of fact, I did. Found a girl by the name of Miyuki Kamina who was admitted to a hospital in a coma roughly two hours before Tsukasa was supposedly unable to log out. They apparently found her passed out in her room in front of her computer, which was off at the time. Not an exact match in time and situation, but the closest I could find," replied Bear with a shrug of his shoulders.
"Thanks a lot Bear, any other information on her?" asked Skuld.
"Not really, hospitals only record so much information besides medical history."
"How did you get this information anyway? They turned us away when we asked," said Kenaz.
"I have my sources, and a few favors people owe me. How did you find out if there was anyone admitted if they turned you away? Especially since you're just kids."
"Hey, how do you know how old we are? We could be the same age as you, it's not like the avatars in the game look like us," said Skuld.
"Just call it an old man's intuition," Bear replied with a smile, "but you didn't answer my question."
"Well, Kenaz is pretty good with computers, but we got caught by our parents and grounded," said Skuld with a sheepish grin on her face.
"Ha ha ha ha! That's funny! You were able to get around the hospital's security and not get caught by them or the police and your parents caught you?"
"Yeah, it is kinda embarrassing…" replied Skuld. Except that our "parents" aren't exactly what someone would call normal parents. I suppose it was too much to expect to hide it from Kami-sama.
"Well, anyway, I'm going to try to trace down Mimiru and see if she can set up a meeting with Tsukasa so we can ask him about the girl I found," said Bear after he had finished laughing.
"Well, you just missed her, she had some homework to do before dinner and logged off for a bit, though she did say she would be online later," said Kenaz.
"Oh, alright, well I ate a little while ago so I think I'll go attempt to level up at another dungeon until she logs in. Maybe she'll want to help me out before we talk to Tsukasa."
"Well my older sister is calling us to dinner so we'll be offline for a bit. We'll try to catch you later tonight to see what you find out. Later!" said Skuld before she and Kenaz logged out.
"Now, back to the chaos gate. Let's see what would be a good place to go level at…" said Bear as he made his choice and warped to the field.
After dinner Kenaz and Skuld went back to the computer running the game.
"You know, now that we have the name of the person Bear found, we should try tracing the connection to see if that coma was caused by the game," commented Kenaz.
"Good idea, but we should call heaven and get permission first."
"Oh, right, forgot about that."
Kenaz went over to the phone and dialed heaven. After a few rings a disturbingly familiar voice answered.
"Why hello there, you've reached Yggdrasil's control center, how can I serve you today?"
"Urd! What are you doing answering the phone?" asked Kenaz, shocked.
"Hey, I work too you know!" replied Urd, sounding indignant.
"You could have fooled me with how much you lounge around down here."
"You keep insulting me and I won't help you out," said Urd, sounding slightly threatening.
"Fine, fine, look, we're trying to trace someone through the internet and need Yggdrasil's help," said Kenaz.
"What, you can't do this with your own computer?"
"Well, we could if we were trying to just trace connections. But we're trying to trace someone's spirit connection."
"Why would someone's spirit be in the inter…oh wait, you're researching that issue with The World, right?" asked Urd.
"Yeah, we think that we might have located someone in the real world who might be trapped in the game and we want to trace it to make sure."
"Alright, I think I can help you with that, on one condition."
"What's that," asked Kenaz nervously. I hope it isn't anything perverted, but knowing her…
"Why Kenaz, don't you trust me?" asked Urd seductively.
"Um…I'm not answering that question."
"Humph, be that way. Anyway, you have to agree to take Skuld on a date." Even though Kenaz couldn't see Urd, he could hear the grin in her voice.
"WHAAAT?!"
"You heard me, take Skuld on a date. A real one, with dinner and a movie, not to some auto parts store."
"Are you kidding? What makes you think I would want to do that?"
"I saw the way you were acting around her at the beach; you can't fool me that easily. After all, I am the love goddess," said Urd with a flourish.
"Fine, I agree, now will you let us use Yggdrasil?" Kenaz replied, trying to sound annoyed, but not quite succeeding. He had to admit that the idea of taking Skuld out was rather appealing.
"Of course, and I'll be watching you to make sure you keep up your end of the deal."
"Gee, thanks, just what I need."
"What was that? I don't think I heard you."
"N…nothing! Thank you Urd."
"You're welcome, now get to work, you have a person to find," said Urd before hanging up the phone.
Kenaz walked back into the room where Skuld was waiting with a slight blush on his cheeks. "We have permission to use Yggdrasil to search, so let's get started."
"Are you ok? You look slightly flushed," asked Skuld.
"I…I'm fine, c'mon we have a person to find," replied Kenaz, turning his head away slightly to hide his face from her.
After several minutes they were able to trace Miyuki's spirit trail to a computer terminal and the servers that ran The World, but there it became disrupted and they were unable to locate the player it was attached to.
"Well, we know she's still in The World somehow, but something's preventing us from looking any further," said Kenaz, sounding puzzled. "That's really odd, mortals shouldn't be able to disrupt a spirit trace like this."
"Maybe there's someone else that doesn't want us tracing it. Could it be a demon?"
"I suppose, though I don't see why they would. Anyway, we're not going to get any more this way, looks like we're stuck."
"Maybe, but we might be able to trace it the other way" asked Skuld.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, if we can't get from the person to the character, maybe we can go from the character back to the person. I can write a small program that will attach to the character data in game and trace the path for us," said Skuld.
"How long would that take you? We should meet up with Bear soon to see if he had a chance to speak to Tsukasa yet," replied Kenaz.
"Shouldn't take me any longer then fifteen or twenty minutes with your help. I already have a program we could modify so we won't be starting from scratch." Skuld sounded excited with the prospect of finally being of some use to help track down Tsukasa's player.
"Alright, let's get started."
Skuld and Kenaz spent the next fifteen minutes modifying one of Skuld's programs to do a reverse trace on Tsukasa and appear as a small item in The World that they could clip on Tsukasa's clothes, hopefully without him noticing. Once finished, they logged back into The World and paged Bear. He showed up a few minutes later with Mimiru and BT in tow.
"So, did you have a chance to talk to Tsukasa?" asked Skuld.
"Yeah, we did, though he claims he's a guy. Since I don't see any reason to disbelieve him I am guessing we have the wrong person. Though it might be a good idea to keep an eye on Miyuki just in case she is related to the things going on."
"That's disappointing, is there any chance we can talk to Tsukasa soon?" replied Kenaz.
"Maybe, I heard about a Heavy Blade character who supposedly has the same sort of monster that Tsukasa has following him," said BT. "Mimiru already sent a message to Tsukasa asking him to meet her and Bear there tomorrow since he will probably want to investigate the rumor."
"Sounds like a good idea, would you mind if we tagged along?" asked Skuld.
"Not at all," replied Bear, "though BT won't be able to make it so it will just be you guys, me and Mimiru."
"That's fine, so where do we go?"
"Here let me send you the field keywords and time we're meeting," said Mimiru.
A few seconds later the keywords showed up in Skuld's e-mail.
"Alright we'll see you guys tomorrow then, have a good night," said Skuld as she and Kenaz logged out.
"Why didn't you tell them about the tracer program, Skuld?" asked Kenaz once they had removed the headsets.
"If we did they would want to know how we made it and got it into the game, and you know we can't tell them that," replied Skuld. "Besides, we don't want to attract any more attention to ourselves then necessary as our characters aren't technically legal."
"Yeah, you're right. Well, tomorrow we'll find out who Tsukasa really is hopefully," said Kenaz. "Oh, and another thing, what are you doing Friday night?"
"Um, let me think for a sec…nope not doing anything, why?"
"Well…would you…um…would you like to go to dinner and a movie afterwards with me?" asked Kenaz nervously.
"Are you asking me out on a date?" asked Skuld, surprise and slight embarrassment evident on her face.
"Um…yeah, I guess so. So do you want to go? We can go to an ice cream shop afterwards too."
"I think I can go with you," said Skuld, a small smile on her face.
"You can? That's great, um what time should I pick you up?"
"Huh? We live in the same house dummy," said Skuld, looking amused.
"We do? Oh yeah, right…well…um…hey look it's getting late, we should be heading to bed."
"Well, goodnight then Kenaz."
"Goodnight Skuld."
They both got up and went to their respective rooms. Soon after Skuld closed her door she heard what sounded like a shout of triumph coming from Kenaz's room which brought a smile to her face as she got ready for bed.
"About time you got up the nerve to ask her, so what if I had to give him a little push," said Urd slyly as she quietly shut the door to her room where she had been keeping an eye on them.
The following day, Kenaz lost the coin toss to Skuld and had to man his computer while Skuld, Belldandy, and Keiichi logged into The World to talk to Tsukasa and plant the tracer that Skuld had created.
"Man, why did I get stuck doing this," he asked Skuld once she logged in.
"Because, either you or I have to run this program when the tracer is placed, and you lost the coin toss."
"Doesn't make me feel any better about it…" muttered Kenaz to himself. "Whenever you guys are ready."
"We're teleporting to the field now," replied Belldandy. "We will let you know when to start."
"Well, I don't see anyone in the field right now," said Keiichi, "maybe they warped in at a different location, let's go take a look around."
After a few minutes of searching the field and fighting a few random monsters that they happened to stumble upon, Skuld received a message from Mimiru.
"Hey guys, Mimiru says that she and Bear have arrived, but they don't see anything either. They want us to meet them to help look," said Skuld.
"That's odd, we've covered a good portion of the field and haven't found anyone, do you suppose that Heavy Blade isn't coming?" asked Keiichi.
"Maybe there never was a Heavy Blade in the first place…" said Belldandy.
"What do you mean Bell?"
"Maybe the rumor was spread deliberately; the Crimson Knights did put out a wanted notice for Tsukasa. Maybe someone is trying to trick Tsukasa into coming here to be captured?"
"You might be right! I'm sending a tell to Bear and Mimiru about this," said Skuld quickly. "Let's run to the meeting place quickly!"
After a few seconds Skuld received a reply back.
"Oh no! We were right! Bear and Mimiru tried to warn Tsukasa, but he came anyway and he's now being attacked by the Crimson Knights!"
Skuld, Belldandy and Keiichi ran off towards Bear and Mimiru's position as fast as they could. When they got there, there was nothing but dead and wounded Crimson Knights scattered around the snowy ground, and no Tsukasa. Bear, Mimiru, and Subaru were there as well and it looked like Bear and Mimiru were arguing with Subaru.
"I swear I had nothing to do with this attack!" insisted Subaru, a little more loudly then she would have liked. "However, I did want to talk to Tsukasa since he attacked four players a few days ago with his guardian and killed them. He has also been breaking other rules of The World recently."
"That doesn't mean you can apprehend him like this!" replied Mimiru angrily.
"He was a criminal who was breaking the rules of the game and had to be detained," said Silver Knight, sternly.
"Silver Knight!" said Subaru sharply. "I will talk to you about this later." She turned to Mimiru and said in a softer voice, "I am sorry, but I do have a few questions to ask Tsukasa and then we will release him if he hasn't done anything wrong, I promise."
"Excuse me," interrupted Skuld, "would you mind if we talked to him as well?"
"I don't see why not, feel free to talk to him when I'm done, here's where we sent him," replied Subaru, sending the area keywords to Skuld.
"Thank you very much," said Belldandy, bowing slightly, "is there anything we can do in the meantime? Some of these players look rather beat up."
"If you wouldn't mind, I could use your help healing them."
"Of course not, I'll get started right away," replied Belldandy with a smile.
"Kenaz, looks like we're going to have to wait on that program, Tsukasa got captured by the Crimson Knights and we won't get to see him for a few, so we're logging out for lunch as soon as Belldandy is finished helping the Crimson Knights here," said Skuld.
"Alright, I'll start something for lunch, later."
After the three of them had finished making sure everyone was healed up after the battle they logged out and sat down to lunch.