AN: Sorry for the delay everyone! Life has been hectic lately, and I
experienced a large amount of writer's block with this chapter. Not to
worry though! All the Aoshi, Rai, Tobira, and Kakera goodness is in this
chapter. ^_^ Not making any promises when the next chapter will be up, but
I'm hoping sometime next week. Thanks again to all who have reviewed, and
as to the one with the guess who Aoshi is... no comment! XD All will know
in time who the mysterious bishounen is. Anyway, read on, review, and
enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own anything from My Life as a Teenage Robot or from the .hack series. I only own the online personas of Kakera, Aoshi, Rai, and Tobira.
.hack//dimensions
Chapter 6: Monster Battle
A few hours later, Kakera walked out of the chaos gate into the water capital, Mac Anu. Even though she was now in the game, she appeared exhausted.
'That must have been the fastest it's ever taken me to do my homework before,' she thought to herself. 'Ugh, but it still took me almost four hours! I hope I can find Rai, Tobira, and Aoshi after all this.'
Kakera walked down the long brown stone lined street towards the river that ran down the center of the city. There were many players looking among the shops, but Kakera wasn't interested in that. She walked towards the edge of the water and sat down. Her feet dangled above the lapping waves and her reflection staring back at her.
"Ugh, what should I do?" moaned Kakera. "I don't know how I can contact the others now."
Kakera looked around, hoping for the site of a long green haired twin blade, or a little wavemaster with flaming red hair. She secretly wished for a sight of the black haired blademaster, but she pushed her thoughts against that. If Aoshi was around here, a million fan girls would be chasing him.
It turned out that none of these friendly faces did appear, so after about ten minutes, Kakera got up from her spot by the river. "I'll never find them if I just sit here," she muttered.
Kakera suddenly heard a 'beep beep' sound. She looked around her, wondering where it came from, but it appeared that no one had heard the sound as well.
"What the hell was that noise?" she asked to no one in particular.
"A newbie, I presume?" said a voice from behind her. Kakera turned to see a short heavy axeman, with long golden hair and red battle armor. She smirked at Kakera's helplessness. "What kind of sound did you hear?"
"Uh, it was just a small 'beep beep' noise. I'm not sure what it was," confessed the heavy blade.
"Sounds like you just got an email." The woman smiled. "It happens to the best of us when we're new. Just look in your menu, and you should be able to read it."
"Alright," said Kakera, and her eyes began moving as if reading something. "Thank goodness! It's from Aoshi. Now I can find him, Rai, and Tobira."
The woman's eyebrows rose a bit. "Ah, good. Well, I'll see you later!" The woman started walking away, but Kakera called back.
"Wait!" The heavy blade caught up with the short warrior in a quick run. "I just wanted to thank you. I really would be lost otherwise."
"It's no problem," replied the warrior. "Say, what's your name anyway?"
"I'm Kakera."
"Kakera... Well, seeya!" The heavy axeman disappeared almost instantly, and before Kakera could say another word, she was gone.
"Wait... I wanted to know your name." She sighed and started walking towards the chaos gate. "I better not worry about it. I have to meet up with Aoshi and the others. Now I have the name of the area, so it should be easy to find." She stepped in to the blue chaos gate and in a yellow light, disappeared from the root town.
**************************************************
"Hyah!" screamed Rai as he brought his blade down upon the neck of a worm creature. It was large, pink, and slimy, and was at least twice the size of Rai. It's mouth showed hundred of teeth, all reaching out towards the twin blade. Despite all this, it actually appeared that Rai was winning.
"Come on Rai!" encouraged Aoshi from the side lines. "Tobira, help him out with one of your spells!"
"Alright," said Tobira, reluctantly. He was some 30 feet from the creature, yet he was still completely frightened. The wavemaster raised his staff, still shaking, and pointed it towards the worm. Fire suddenly engulfed the creature, and Rai had to jump away at the last second to get out of the way of the blast.
"Watch it Tobira!" Rai yelled. He was about to yell at his little brother some more, when he noticed the worm suddenly stopped moving, and broke into thousands of bits of data.
"Tobira! You defeated it!" praised Aoshi.
"I won?" said the confused wavemaster. "I won!" he screamed triumphantly. "Woohoo! I won!" The little wavemaster started to run around, yelling and skipping in joy for his triumphant act.
"A little obsessive, don't you think?" commented Rai after he had walked over to where Aoshi stood.
"Hey, you gotta give the kid a break," said Aoshi. "That was the second monster he's ever defeated, and the first he hasn't run away from in fear today."
"Yeah, I guess you're right."
A slight twinkling sound echoing through the area caused Aoshi and Rai to look behind them. They both smiled to see the friendly face walking out of the yellow portal.
"Glad to see you could make it Kakera," said Aoshi, still smiling.
"So you managed to finish all that homework?" asked Rai.
"Of course!" piped Kakera. "It took me awhile, but I finally got it done."
"Excellent! Now you can join in the party Aoshi, Tobira, and I formed. Tobira and I have already gained two levels each while you were gone."
"Ah! That means now you're all stronger than me!"
"Bit of a change, huh?" joked Rai.
"I'm gonna assume that Kakera is the strongest of your little group in the real world then?" asked the blademaster.
"Uh, well, I guess you could say that," confessed Kakera, sticking her arm behind her head. 'I don't want you to know the truth for awhile though Aoshi,' she thought.
"Um, if you gained two levels Rai," quickly said the heavy blade, trying to change the subject. "Then how come Aoshi didn't gain two as well?"
"Well, I'm at a much higher level than you guys," answered Aoshi. "If I fight low level monsters, I will get a lot less experience than the rest of you. So while Rai and Tobira may have gained, say, 350 experience points, I may have only received 1 or so."
"Whoa, big difference."
"Exactly. That little catch was added into the game so that high leveled players would not gain levels at a much faster speed than lower leveled players. If they are stronger, they can defeat more monsters faster, thus gaining experience quickly. Instead, I have to fight a high leveled monster to gain as much experience as Rai and Tobira did."
"Just how high a level are you anyway?" asked Rai in a curious voice.
"Um, well." Aoshi blushed a bit. "Level 57."
"What?" cried Rai. "How did you get that high a level?"
"A lot of practice playing and many long hours. Once you get the hang of the game, you'll be surprised how much you can play and how quickly you will become strong."
"Oh, I hope so."
Kakera had drifted into her own thoughts again during the conversation. 'Level 57...' she thought. 'He really is strong. Oh, I hope he decides to stay with our group. But he may get bored with playing with such low level players. I'll just have to gain levels as quickly as possible!'
"Come on!" cried Kakera in a determined voice. "Let's fight some monsters already!" The blade master drew her large blade, with triangle marks shining in the sun, and lifted it over her shoulder. She started running with great speed towards the nearest spinning yellow gate.
"Wait Kakera!" yelled Rai after her. "You forgot to get added to our party!" He started to run after her, but Aoshi put a hand on his shoulder to hold him back.
"Let's see how she does on her own," he said, his voice slightly mystified. Rai gave Aoshi a gaze of wonderment, then turned back towards the sight of Kakera running into battle.
The heavy blade shot past Tobira, who was still dancing about. The little wavemaster stopped and looked at Kakera as she shot past. He smiled and started cheering for his friend, in hope that she too would defeat a monster.
Kakera reached the spinning monster portal, and gazed up at it with determined eyes. The portal started spinning faster and faster, until it disparaged in a flash of light, a little ping the only memory of existence. In its place appeared a large moth monster. It had a grey body, large pink wings, and a fuzzy pink area in the middle where its wings were coming from. Two small brown antennae grew from the top of its head. A few brown sickly arms stuck out from its body as well. It was a little larger than Kakera, and was now hovering a few feet in front of her, readying itself for the girl's first move.
"A stinking bug?" laughed Kakera. "I can take care of that in my sleep." She raised up her sword over her shoulder, and eyed the creature. "I'll just get it out of the way and get the experience!" With a battle yell she ran towards the insect, her sword raised. She brought down the blade upon the torso of the beast, but it moved out of the way a split second before the blow could hit.
"Huh?" said Kakera, stopping in her tracks. "Why didn't it hit?"
"Kakera! Look out!" cried Tobira, shaking his staff.
"What...." Kakera was cut off as the moth struck her in the back in a dive, knocking Kakera to the ground. The moth flew up again, and circled, preparing another attack.
"Ow!" moaned the wounded heavy blade, raising her body from the dirt. She shook her head to get the dirt off of her face, and looked up at the monster. "Ugh, how am I supposed to hit it now?"
"Kakera!" called Aoshi, as he ran up next to Tobira. "That moth is a flying creature, so it can move quickly and get out of your range. You're going to have to use the targeting system on it."
"How can I.... ah!" Kakera dived out of the way as the moth came down again towards her. It continued to fly upwards again as Kakera landed on her back.
"Just look in your menu," explained Aoshi. "You can set it to target the monster, so you'll have a better chance of hitting it."
"Got it," replied the wounded heavy blade as she reached for her sword. She jumped up and eyed the moth, circling above. "So I just check the menu and... there!" She raised her sword again, but now Kakera was more determined then ever. Her eyes were on the monster's every move, never leaving its sight. Suddenly, the moth dove again, straight at Kakera. With a slight movement of her arms, Kakera swung the blade directly in contact with the moth as it was about to attack her in the back of her head. The creature cried out in a tremendous squeal, and burst into bits of data.
With a sigh, Kakera dropped the blade and landed on the ground on her tush. Aoshi, Tobira, and Rai ran over, all eager to give congratulations to their comrade.
"That was amazing Kakera!" said the eager Tobira. "You got it in one hit!"
"Awesome!" exclaimed Rai. "Must have been a critical hit!"
Kakera was happy to hear the words of her two best friends, but she was most eager to hear what Aoshi had to say. She turned to look at him, and saw he had a huge smile on his face. His eyes seemed to be gleaming. Was he proud of her? Or was it....
"PING!"
Kakera broke away her gaze and looked up above her head. Blue letters said her experience had risen, but there was a golden one as well. It said "Level Up!"
"Alright Kakera!" yelled Tobira with glee. "You got enough experience for a level up already!"
"Thanks Tobira," said Jenny, sounding slightly dazed from all the excitement. "But I wouldn't have been able to do it if Aoshi hadn't of told me about the targeting."
"No," cut in Aoshi, his voice sounding full of joy. "You did it all yourself Kakera. The targeting system only goes so far. To land a shot like that, you had to keep all your energy and focus on the monster, which you did. That was amazing."
Kakera was speechless. Aoshi had thought she was amazing. "Thanks," she whispered, staring at him.
There was an awkward moment of silent where Aoshi and Kakera were gazing at each other, when Rai broke it.
"Uh, guys," Rai said. "Tobira and I have to go; our dad limited our online time after what happened last night.
"Oh man!" yelled Tobira, enraged. "I wanted to go level up some more!"
"Don't worry Tobira," said Aoshi, breaking his gaze with Kakera. "You can always do more tomorrow."
"True..."
"Kakera, do you have to go to?" asked Aoshi.
"Nnno," stammered the heavy blade. "I finished all my homework; I can stay on for a little while longer."
"Alright, then I'll see you two tomorrow!" said Rai.
"Seeya!" said Tobira.
As the yellow portal appeared and whisked the brothers away, Rai stared back at Kakera, worry on his face. 'I hope you know what you're doing Jenny,' he thought.
Then, they were gone, leaving Aoshi and Kakera alone in the area.
All alone.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything from My Life as a Teenage Robot or from the .hack series. I only own the online personas of Kakera, Aoshi, Rai, and Tobira.
.hack//dimensions
Chapter 6: Monster Battle
A few hours later, Kakera walked out of the chaos gate into the water capital, Mac Anu. Even though she was now in the game, she appeared exhausted.
'That must have been the fastest it's ever taken me to do my homework before,' she thought to herself. 'Ugh, but it still took me almost four hours! I hope I can find Rai, Tobira, and Aoshi after all this.'
Kakera walked down the long brown stone lined street towards the river that ran down the center of the city. There were many players looking among the shops, but Kakera wasn't interested in that. She walked towards the edge of the water and sat down. Her feet dangled above the lapping waves and her reflection staring back at her.
"Ugh, what should I do?" moaned Kakera. "I don't know how I can contact the others now."
Kakera looked around, hoping for the site of a long green haired twin blade, or a little wavemaster with flaming red hair. She secretly wished for a sight of the black haired blademaster, but she pushed her thoughts against that. If Aoshi was around here, a million fan girls would be chasing him.
It turned out that none of these friendly faces did appear, so after about ten minutes, Kakera got up from her spot by the river. "I'll never find them if I just sit here," she muttered.
Kakera suddenly heard a 'beep beep' sound. She looked around her, wondering where it came from, but it appeared that no one had heard the sound as well.
"What the hell was that noise?" she asked to no one in particular.
"A newbie, I presume?" said a voice from behind her. Kakera turned to see a short heavy axeman, with long golden hair and red battle armor. She smirked at Kakera's helplessness. "What kind of sound did you hear?"
"Uh, it was just a small 'beep beep' noise. I'm not sure what it was," confessed the heavy blade.
"Sounds like you just got an email." The woman smiled. "It happens to the best of us when we're new. Just look in your menu, and you should be able to read it."
"Alright," said Kakera, and her eyes began moving as if reading something. "Thank goodness! It's from Aoshi. Now I can find him, Rai, and Tobira."
The woman's eyebrows rose a bit. "Ah, good. Well, I'll see you later!" The woman started walking away, but Kakera called back.
"Wait!" The heavy blade caught up with the short warrior in a quick run. "I just wanted to thank you. I really would be lost otherwise."
"It's no problem," replied the warrior. "Say, what's your name anyway?"
"I'm Kakera."
"Kakera... Well, seeya!" The heavy axeman disappeared almost instantly, and before Kakera could say another word, she was gone.
"Wait... I wanted to know your name." She sighed and started walking towards the chaos gate. "I better not worry about it. I have to meet up with Aoshi and the others. Now I have the name of the area, so it should be easy to find." She stepped in to the blue chaos gate and in a yellow light, disappeared from the root town.
**************************************************
"Hyah!" screamed Rai as he brought his blade down upon the neck of a worm creature. It was large, pink, and slimy, and was at least twice the size of Rai. It's mouth showed hundred of teeth, all reaching out towards the twin blade. Despite all this, it actually appeared that Rai was winning.
"Come on Rai!" encouraged Aoshi from the side lines. "Tobira, help him out with one of your spells!"
"Alright," said Tobira, reluctantly. He was some 30 feet from the creature, yet he was still completely frightened. The wavemaster raised his staff, still shaking, and pointed it towards the worm. Fire suddenly engulfed the creature, and Rai had to jump away at the last second to get out of the way of the blast.
"Watch it Tobira!" Rai yelled. He was about to yell at his little brother some more, when he noticed the worm suddenly stopped moving, and broke into thousands of bits of data.
"Tobira! You defeated it!" praised Aoshi.
"I won?" said the confused wavemaster. "I won!" he screamed triumphantly. "Woohoo! I won!" The little wavemaster started to run around, yelling and skipping in joy for his triumphant act.
"A little obsessive, don't you think?" commented Rai after he had walked over to where Aoshi stood.
"Hey, you gotta give the kid a break," said Aoshi. "That was the second monster he's ever defeated, and the first he hasn't run away from in fear today."
"Yeah, I guess you're right."
A slight twinkling sound echoing through the area caused Aoshi and Rai to look behind them. They both smiled to see the friendly face walking out of the yellow portal.
"Glad to see you could make it Kakera," said Aoshi, still smiling.
"So you managed to finish all that homework?" asked Rai.
"Of course!" piped Kakera. "It took me awhile, but I finally got it done."
"Excellent! Now you can join in the party Aoshi, Tobira, and I formed. Tobira and I have already gained two levels each while you were gone."
"Ah! That means now you're all stronger than me!"
"Bit of a change, huh?" joked Rai.
"I'm gonna assume that Kakera is the strongest of your little group in the real world then?" asked the blademaster.
"Uh, well, I guess you could say that," confessed Kakera, sticking her arm behind her head. 'I don't want you to know the truth for awhile though Aoshi,' she thought.
"Um, if you gained two levels Rai," quickly said the heavy blade, trying to change the subject. "Then how come Aoshi didn't gain two as well?"
"Well, I'm at a much higher level than you guys," answered Aoshi. "If I fight low level monsters, I will get a lot less experience than the rest of you. So while Rai and Tobira may have gained, say, 350 experience points, I may have only received 1 or so."
"Whoa, big difference."
"Exactly. That little catch was added into the game so that high leveled players would not gain levels at a much faster speed than lower leveled players. If they are stronger, they can defeat more monsters faster, thus gaining experience quickly. Instead, I have to fight a high leveled monster to gain as much experience as Rai and Tobira did."
"Just how high a level are you anyway?" asked Rai in a curious voice.
"Um, well." Aoshi blushed a bit. "Level 57."
"What?" cried Rai. "How did you get that high a level?"
"A lot of practice playing and many long hours. Once you get the hang of the game, you'll be surprised how much you can play and how quickly you will become strong."
"Oh, I hope so."
Kakera had drifted into her own thoughts again during the conversation. 'Level 57...' she thought. 'He really is strong. Oh, I hope he decides to stay with our group. But he may get bored with playing with such low level players. I'll just have to gain levels as quickly as possible!'
"Come on!" cried Kakera in a determined voice. "Let's fight some monsters already!" The blade master drew her large blade, with triangle marks shining in the sun, and lifted it over her shoulder. She started running with great speed towards the nearest spinning yellow gate.
"Wait Kakera!" yelled Rai after her. "You forgot to get added to our party!" He started to run after her, but Aoshi put a hand on his shoulder to hold him back.
"Let's see how she does on her own," he said, his voice slightly mystified. Rai gave Aoshi a gaze of wonderment, then turned back towards the sight of Kakera running into battle.
The heavy blade shot past Tobira, who was still dancing about. The little wavemaster stopped and looked at Kakera as she shot past. He smiled and started cheering for his friend, in hope that she too would defeat a monster.
Kakera reached the spinning monster portal, and gazed up at it with determined eyes. The portal started spinning faster and faster, until it disparaged in a flash of light, a little ping the only memory of existence. In its place appeared a large moth monster. It had a grey body, large pink wings, and a fuzzy pink area in the middle where its wings were coming from. Two small brown antennae grew from the top of its head. A few brown sickly arms stuck out from its body as well. It was a little larger than Kakera, and was now hovering a few feet in front of her, readying itself for the girl's first move.
"A stinking bug?" laughed Kakera. "I can take care of that in my sleep." She raised up her sword over her shoulder, and eyed the creature. "I'll just get it out of the way and get the experience!" With a battle yell she ran towards the insect, her sword raised. She brought down the blade upon the torso of the beast, but it moved out of the way a split second before the blow could hit.
"Huh?" said Kakera, stopping in her tracks. "Why didn't it hit?"
"Kakera! Look out!" cried Tobira, shaking his staff.
"What...." Kakera was cut off as the moth struck her in the back in a dive, knocking Kakera to the ground. The moth flew up again, and circled, preparing another attack.
"Ow!" moaned the wounded heavy blade, raising her body from the dirt. She shook her head to get the dirt off of her face, and looked up at the monster. "Ugh, how am I supposed to hit it now?"
"Kakera!" called Aoshi, as he ran up next to Tobira. "That moth is a flying creature, so it can move quickly and get out of your range. You're going to have to use the targeting system on it."
"How can I.... ah!" Kakera dived out of the way as the moth came down again towards her. It continued to fly upwards again as Kakera landed on her back.
"Just look in your menu," explained Aoshi. "You can set it to target the monster, so you'll have a better chance of hitting it."
"Got it," replied the wounded heavy blade as she reached for her sword. She jumped up and eyed the moth, circling above. "So I just check the menu and... there!" She raised her sword again, but now Kakera was more determined then ever. Her eyes were on the monster's every move, never leaving its sight. Suddenly, the moth dove again, straight at Kakera. With a slight movement of her arms, Kakera swung the blade directly in contact with the moth as it was about to attack her in the back of her head. The creature cried out in a tremendous squeal, and burst into bits of data.
With a sigh, Kakera dropped the blade and landed on the ground on her tush. Aoshi, Tobira, and Rai ran over, all eager to give congratulations to their comrade.
"That was amazing Kakera!" said the eager Tobira. "You got it in one hit!"
"Awesome!" exclaimed Rai. "Must have been a critical hit!"
Kakera was happy to hear the words of her two best friends, but she was most eager to hear what Aoshi had to say. She turned to look at him, and saw he had a huge smile on his face. His eyes seemed to be gleaming. Was he proud of her? Or was it....
"PING!"
Kakera broke away her gaze and looked up above her head. Blue letters said her experience had risen, but there was a golden one as well. It said "Level Up!"
"Alright Kakera!" yelled Tobira with glee. "You got enough experience for a level up already!"
"Thanks Tobira," said Jenny, sounding slightly dazed from all the excitement. "But I wouldn't have been able to do it if Aoshi hadn't of told me about the targeting."
"No," cut in Aoshi, his voice sounding full of joy. "You did it all yourself Kakera. The targeting system only goes so far. To land a shot like that, you had to keep all your energy and focus on the monster, which you did. That was amazing."
Kakera was speechless. Aoshi had thought she was amazing. "Thanks," she whispered, staring at him.
There was an awkward moment of silent where Aoshi and Kakera were gazing at each other, when Rai broke it.
"Uh, guys," Rai said. "Tobira and I have to go; our dad limited our online time after what happened last night.
"Oh man!" yelled Tobira, enraged. "I wanted to go level up some more!"
"Don't worry Tobira," said Aoshi, breaking his gaze with Kakera. "You can always do more tomorrow."
"True..."
"Kakera, do you have to go to?" asked Aoshi.
"Nnno," stammered the heavy blade. "I finished all my homework; I can stay on for a little while longer."
"Alright, then I'll see you two tomorrow!" said Rai.
"Seeya!" said Tobira.
As the yellow portal appeared and whisked the brothers away, Rai stared back at Kakera, worry on his face. 'I hope you know what you're doing Jenny,' he thought.
Then, they were gone, leaving Aoshi and Kakera alone in the area.
All alone.