.hack/Jinsei to Shi

Disclaimer: I, Melvin, do not own anything related to the .hack/ series that may be found in this work of fiction, however, many of the characters are my own original creations and may not be used outside this fiction without my permission. If by some chance the names and characters are similar to that of copyrighted characters, it is merely a coincidence unless the characters that are copyrighted were copyrighted after the day I posted this story. It may still be a coincidence…but you never know.

Note: This story takes place before the PS2 Games and after .hack/SIGN.

June 12th, 2010 – 12:07pm

"What are you doing after school today?" I reached into my backpack and pulled out a bottle of Coca Cola – Classic - , distracted and resulted in my missing what Alana had said. I popped the cap off and gulped down the soda quickly, pulling it away and wiping off some of the pop the leaked away.

I responded quite idiotically with, "I'm sorry, what?" I slid the cap back on and set the bottle aside. I looked at her expression and could tell she was a little more than angry at me. I had a tendency to lose focus in the middle of conversation, always have. She clenched her first for a second but calmed down and her face became very passive. She did not lash out verbally but simply a nudge with her fist.

"Are you doing anything after school?"

"Not really. Did you want to do something?"

"Well, no. I was just curious, but, we could go on The World and party up. There's a dungeon I heard about in an e-mail. It's very difficult to get through but in the last level, there's some great treasure. I don't know how reliable the e-mail is but, it'd be cool to reach that prize."

"Sure, I guess but we should have at least two more people with us. If it's a very high level area then more people will be an asset."

"Why don't you come over to my place and we can play together."

"Sure. I brought my game-gear today because since it's pretty close to the end of the year, the teacher decided to allow all those who had completed their projects to just waste time doing whatever they wish."

We continued talking about random things up until the bell rung and we vacated the cafeteria, as did many of the other students. Few, whom have a free period, remained and continued their conversations. They were mostly seniors and usually stuck around the cafeteria or the library. The library gave them access to the computers as well as to The World. The school board had allowed for students to access The World during free periods and didn't mind.

The day ended soon, although it seemed to last forever, and we walked over to Alana's house, the trip took approximately 16 minutes from time of departure to arrival, excluding the time interval between the official time school ended and departure from the school. I had not visited Alana's house before. It was quite a surprise for me when she invited me at lunch, although, I always remained calm in a majority of situations. She grabbed onto my hand and guided me through her house, all the way to her room. It was a small room, well, not really small, more like…cozy. I stood by the entrance, looking around her room. I spotted posters of Anime on the wall, a small shelf with stacks of Manga and Anime DVD's. She had light blue wallpaper which flattered the rest of her room.

"Make yourself comfortable." She said, sitting down on the ground leaning up against her bed and pulled her computer closer to herself. I walked over and sat next to her, pulling from my backpack, The World game gear. I plugged in everything into the extra ports and Alana turned on the computer.

The World

We arrived in Mac Anu and separated, restocking and saving

Alana and I joined a party of three, making five in total, and we ventured down into a dungeon, I'm not sure where we were but I know it was a very difficult one. We got through the first few levels before we ran into very dangerous trouble. We encountered something so fierce, so powerful; it was unlike anything I had seen before. There was no record of a creature like that anywhere. We fought as hard as we could but in the end, Alana and I were the remaining two.

"We can't handle it. We better get out quickly." Pretty obvious, but we couldn't make it out without killing the monster. Alana cast Repth and head into the back while I tried to fend it off.

"I don't think we'll make it out alive." Even with her healing skill, I was slowly running out of health. "No matter what though, I'll keep on fighting." The ghosts of other players were no longer their. I wasn't sure what happened to them. After they die, their ghosts should still hang around until they get revived. I wasn't able to focus on that and still fight at the same time.

We fought for a while after but no matter how much we tried, we were both down to a single health point and an attack away from death.

"I guess that's it." I huffed, backing away towards the stairs to the level. "I've no regrets. You?"

"I have one, but it doesn't really matter now. We'll restart and I'll send an e-mail to the system administrators."

The monster hovered above us, its shadow engulfing the corner we hid in. It slowly moved its arms into positions and in an instant, slimy spike from its arms sprouted and cut through our bodies with ease. I looked down at my character's body, beginning with the feet, I began to turn a dark shade of grey. Something wasn't right though. Usually, after a character dies, the game would restart and load the data from the last time I saved but not this time. I attempted to do a hard-reboot, meaning I restart externally, but I couldn't move my arms or take off the visor.

"Can you reboot the computer?" I asked Alana but she couldn't say anything. She was stuck in the same predicament I was.

I struggled as hard as I could but when I felt I made even a little progress, I was sent a small shock that managed to knock me out. Everything went black and it's like I knew everything going on around me, I just couldn't move or see. Hours passed before I regained some of my senses. It was strange all that I felt. I could smell fresh air like atop a hill and I sensed a great wave of air pass around me like a gust of cold wind. My senses returned soon after, my body weak for some reason. I was able to move my limbs but very slowly and not with much energy. I slowly opened my eyes and looked upwards to see a very bright blue sky with passing clouds shifting gradually from one side to the other.

"Nani…nani…nani…" I mumbled to myself. Suddenly, I was unable to recall many past memories. I searched my mind and found images of fighting with a woman, sometimes with many people. "Sora-chan…" That was it, wasn't it? Her name I mean. But…who was I? I don't remember a name. I don't remember anything from my life, but this game, I knew all about it oddly enough. I found it frustrating to recall what wasn't there.

"Boku wa dare nan darou?" (Who am I?) I whispered into the wind before something crawled over my face. It was kind of piggish, although not quite. It reminded me of a pig but as it began moving and played around, I found it to be more like a dog.

"Kimi wa…dare?" (Who are you?)I poked the little dog-pig for a little before it growled a little and ran off. I suddenly found myself completely aware of my surroundings for the first time. I was on a cliff or something that resembled a cliff, several small buildings and there were bridges connecting land. Not only that but the place was bustling with people. I approached a man holding a staff and I noticed that he was dressed quite strangely like a magician, only, a slight more effeminate. A male Wave Master.

"Ano ne, sore wa doko ni imasu ka?" (Um…where is this place?) The man looked strangely at me but quickly changed to an expression struck with inspiration. For several moments he paused without another word but then, he responded.

"Dun Loireag." He smiled and left quite abruptly. I found it queer how it took him so long to respond to a simple question but as I recalled my last few words, it appeared I was no longer speaking English but Japanese instead. Strange.

I spoke to a few other people and managed to pick up fluent English but from time to time, I found myself speaking bits of Japanese. It never seemed to be a problem before. After what seemed like twelve hours of my life, I returned to where I had woken up only to find someone sitting where I was. It was a girl and she was lying down on the ground with her staff beside her. I sat down next to her and turned upwards.

"What are you looking at?" She sat up straight and looked at me with interest. She gave me a soft nudge on my arm and lay back down.

"Takumi-kun, what happened?"

"I'm sorry, who?"

"Takumi, don't play dumb."

"I think you must have the wrong person. I'm not Takumi…well… I'm not sure who I am but I don't think I'm Takumi."

"Stop it. This isn't funny. Everything feels strange. I can't log out, I can't move my real body but I can feel everything in this world."

"…" I thought for a second. She was in a similar situation to me. She acts as if she knows me. So maybe she does. "Are you…Sora?"

"Of course I am! Who else would I be?"

"And I'm…Takumi?"

"Yes! What is the matter with you all of a sudden?"

"I'm having a slight case of amnesia but I am exactly as you are, within the game."

"Do you seriously not remember?"

"I'm sorry. It's not something I would lie about."

"There was a similar event a while back. A young girl who was playing The World had fallen in a coma and her character, Tsukasa, was unable to log out. According to the report submitted to the CC Corp, the character could feel everything within the game. If that was true, something similar may have happened to us."

"That sounds highly unlikely. First off, this is a mere game. How could we be trapped in the game?"

"I'm not sure…but to quote Sherlock Holmes, 'When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.' What happened back then must have happened to us now."

"What do we do, then?"

"Let's find out all we can about the history of the World as well as what happened with the player-character, Tsukasa."