AN: I'm back. And to commemorate my backiness, the next chapter of dot hack dimensions is here! (Real version of the title won't work anymore on here. -- Oh well..) Anyway, good chapter too, as it is... dun dun dun revealing Aoshi's real life form! Heehee, if you people haven't figured out who it was already, which I assume most of you have. Still.. huggles Aoshi-kun doll Anyway, here is the next chapter. Enjoy muchly all!
Disclaimer: I do not own anything from My Life as a Teenage Robot or .hack. I do own the online personas of Kakera, Aoshi, Rai, Tobira, Jamie, Taka, Akumu and Youkai.
.hackdimensions
Chapter 11: Discovery
Two hours later...
"Ugh... what?" Jenny slowly opened her eyes. The ceiling stared back as her as she
tried to remember what was going on. "What... happened?" she whispered, trying to sit up.
"Stay still for a few minutes dear," said Mrs. Wakeman. "Now that your neural systems are back online, I can finally do some more tests on you."
"Tests?" Jenny sat up quickly, disregarding her mother's words. "What do you mean tests? What the hell happened?"
"I'm not sure as of yet. Only I came upstairs when your computer time was up and you were lying on the floor powered off. I couldn't get you back online until just now." Mrs. Wakeman stared down at the teenage robot. "Does this have something to do with that game?"
"The game?" Jenny thought back to what had been happening. 'I was running from Taka, and was distracted by those monsters. Then I saw Aoshi, and....' She stopped thinking, startled.
"What is it?" asked Mrs. Wakeman.
"Nothing, nothing." The teenage robot shook her head. 'I can't let her know I think it was because I was killed in the game,' she thought, 'or she'll never let me play it again.'
"At the moment I'm suspecting it's some sort of virus, probably from some monster you fought recently," said Mrs. Wakeman. "Remember when that cluster thing got in your system?"
"Ugh, yeah," shuddered Jenny. "That thing had me looking like an ape overnight." 'A virus? Hmm, from Taka?'
"Ah well, it looks like it's done its damage for now, thankfully. Although I will have you staying home from school tomorrow to run some more tests."
"Uh, okay," said Jenny. "Tomorrow is Friday anyway, so thatmakes it a three day weekend for me." She grinned at the thought of playing the World for a whole three days.
"And when I'm not doing tests, there are a few things that need to be done around the house as long as you are home."
"Urgh, figures," whispered Jenny.
"What was that?" asked Mrs. Wakeman.
"Nothing, nothing! Umm, can I call Brad first though? To let him know I won't be there tomorrow and he can get my books and things." 'And so I can let him know what the hell happened. A virus had something to do with me being killed, and I need to find out what it was.'
"Sure dear, of course. Just hurry it up; I would like to do a couple more tests before you go offline for the night."
The next morning...
Brad walked to school, still thinking about what Jenny had told him. 'A virus from Jenny being killed?' he thought. 'Was that just from Jenny dying, or was it from Taka? Aoshi suspected Taka, but how would he know about anything like that? Unless he's made some viruses himself...' Brad shook his head. "No," he whispered. "Aoshi cares too much about her to do something like that. And still, Taka had that thing because Jenny's with him. How far will these fan girls go to get to Aoshi? And how many people are they willing to hurt?"
Brad sighed and looked up to the school ahead. The mobs of people talking about the World were at it again it seemed. Talks of treasure, monsters, and leveling up seemed all over Tremorton High these days, but Brad didn't mind. "It is a cool game," he said to himself, looking at all the hot girls discussing some quest they took part in. Before making a move to go chat it up with them, Brad saw someone sulking on the steps in the corner of his eye.
"Huh?" He looked up to see Sheldon, arms around his knees and head in his lap, shaking slightly as if crying. "I wonder what's wrong with him?" Brad glanced at the girls again. "Urgh..." He turned and started walking towards Sheldon. 'Ugh, I'm too nice. He's probably sulking about something having to do with Jenny anyway, like how she isn't here or something. Well, might as well see what' wrong."
"Yo, Sheldon?" said Brad, sitting down next to the kid. "You okay?"
Sheldon shook his head. He lifted up his head and wiped away tears with the back of his sleeve. "I'm... I'm fine," he said. "Just... worried."
"Worried?" asked Brad. "About what?"
"Eh, not a what. More of a who."
"Oh, thought so." Brad relaxed. "About why Jenny's not here today?"
"Huh?" Sheldon shook his head. "Uh, I didn't even notice. Why isn't she here?"
'Not notice?' thought Brad. 'Something must really be wrong then.'
"Well," began Brad. "Last night, I was playing the World with her. We were just hanging out in this one area, when this crazy girl showed up."
Sheldon raised his eyebrows and nodded.
"Anyway, she threw some weird bomb thingy at me, and it paralyzed my character. Then, she started chasing Jenny, trying to kill her."
"What?" whispered Sheldon.
"Really weird, I know," continued Brad. "Anyway, I didn't get to see what was happening until Aoshi showed up and got me out of that bomb. Then..." Brad stopped as he saw Sheldon begin to shake. "Yo, are you alright?"
"Is she okay?" asked Sheldon quickly. He grabbed Brad's arms and asked again, "Is she okay?"
Brad stopped and stared as the realization came over him. "Aoshi," he whispered.
Sheldon dropped his arms and turned away. "Please, just tell me if Jenny is okay. If Taka hurt her..."
"Jenny's fine," replied Brad quickly. "She was unconscious, or whatever the robot equivalent is, for a couple hours. She's just home today so her mom can give her a few more checks and have her do some hard labor. But Sheldon... Why didn't you tell us?"
Sheldon shook his head. "I didn't know... who any of you were. I should have figured it out." He looked up and smiled, small tears in his eyes. "Rai and Tobira, of course they're you and Tuck, who else would act like that. And Kakera..." He sighed. "God, I fell in love with Jenny all over again."
"Hey, she fell in love with you too," said Brad quietly.
"Huh? She..."
Brad laughed. "Man, wasn't it obvious enough? All she ever does is talk about Aoshi or think about him. I mean, the way she acts around you, don't you notice?"
Sheldon shrugged. "A little, but I don't notice as much when I'm him. All girls act the same around my character anyway."
"All?" Brad raised his eyebrows. "Jeez, I gotta borrow that character off you some time."
"Brad?" said Sheldon quietly. "Please don't tell her."
"Huh?"
"Please don't tell her who I am. I... I want to tell her myself, at the right time. If she knew who Aoshi really was, well, I doubt she'd ever talk to me again."
Brad paused, then simply said, "Okay."
"You will?" said Sheldon, slightly surprised.
"Hey, Kakera didn't want anyone else to know she was a robot in real life, so why can't I keep your secret too? Besides, I've seen how you act around Kakera, and well, I feel a whole lot better knowing who it is now that she's dealing with."
"Thanks Brad."
"One question though Sheldon."
"Yeah?"
"Why were you so worried about a virus if you didn't know it was Jenny and not another human?"
Sheldon sighed. "Well, viruses don't always affect computers and robots. Uh... Have you ever heard of deadly flash?"
Brad nodded. "Some huge virus that wiped out a ton of computers and stuff, nearly caused humanity to collapse in a way."
"Well, there was more than that that happened. It also caused the deaths of seven people."
"How could a virus do that?"
Sheldon shook his head and turned away from Brad. "I'm not exactly sure how. It varies. But it did kill seven, one of which was my mother."
Brad was shocked. "No wonder you were so worried about Kakera."
Sheldon nodded. "I lost my mother. I don't want to lose anyone else ever again."
Silence enveloped the pair. They both stared down at the ground, the sound of chattering students about them.
"Sheldon," said Brad, breaking the silence.
"Hmm?"
"I just want to say thank you for all that you've done for us in the World. Heh, if you hadn't of saved us from that dragon in that first area we were in, well, I don't know what would have happened."
"Heh," laughed Sheldon. "Well, it was pretty funny that you picked that level of all of them. You know, a lot of the, how can I put it, less intelligent newbies go to that area."
"Hey! What are you trying to say?" yelled Brad, jumping to his feet.
Sheldon grinned back. "Oh, nothing."
"Urgh, you know, if I didn't already know how tough your character was I'd kick your ass in the World right now."
The bell rang, and students began breaking up their groups to head into the building. Brad and Sheldon followed the others in.
"Well, if you were really smart," said Sheldon, "you would have beaten me up on the spot right there!" He then ran off down the hall to his homeroom.
"Hey!" yelled back Brad. "You just watch it!" The red haired boy laughed and walked towards his own homeroom. 'Heh, at least the kid has a sense of humor. Still, I wonder what he goes through with his mom gone and all. I won't tell Jenny the truth, but still, even if she did know who he was, I don't think it would change a thing.'
"A little to the left dear," said Mrs. Wakeman to her daughter. Jenny and her mother were down in the basement of their home. The scientist had finished her tests on Jenny, and was now moving in to the hard labor part of the robot's day home.
"Is this alright then?" asked Jenny, moving a large piece of computer equipment.
"Ah, much better." Mrs. Wakeman scanned the room. "Yes, I've needed to rearrange things down here for a long while. Now then, should we start on my secondary laboratory?"
"Mom! I've been helping all day or I've been having tests done by you. Can I please have a break already?"
"Well.... Alright. But I would like to get my secondary laboratory cleaned out tonight."
"Yeah yeah, sure Mom," hurried Jenny. "I'll help you a little later. Gotta go!" Jenny jetted out of the room, leaving Mrs. Wakeman alone in the dust.
"Honestly, that girl has no sense of priority," said Mrs. Wakeman. "Ah well, time to go polish some bolts!"
Jenny wasted no time in getting to her room and starting up her computer. "Finally," she said to herself. "I can get back in 'The World'. Hopefully I can talk to Aoshi; I hope he isn't too worried about me." The robot was about to click the login button, when she saw the email icon flashing on the screen.
"Huh?" She quickly opened it to reveal a message from Aoshi.
"'Dear Kakera,'" read Jenny. "'Please contact me as soon as you get back online. I may know what your attacker is up to. I'll be waiting in the Highland City Dun Loireag, root town of the Theta server. You can transfer to that server at the Chaos Gate. Hoping you are alright, Aoshi.' Oh! I gotta hurry over there." Jenny clicked the login button quickly, and placed on her headset to journey into the World.
"Ah, good to be back," said Kakera, walking out of the chaos gate into Mac Anu. "Now just to figure out how to get to the other server." She turned back to the spinning blue gate and checked through the menu options. "Ah! Theta server, root town Dun Loireag. Here we go!" In a yellow light, she was gone.
"Theta server huh?" said Jamie, hidden among the shadows. "Either she was smart enough to try and hide from Taka, or Aoshi is trying to help her. Hmm, well Akumu and Youkai will be interested to hear this. Now that we know she's on another server, it will be much easier for Taka to track the bitch down." The heavy axeman giggled, and then disappeared into the shadows again, going to find her leaders.
A moment later, Kakera arrived at the new server. The heavy blade stepped out of the chaos gate to gaze at what lay before her.
Dun Loireag was much different from Mac Anu. For one thing, the sky was a bright blue, with mountains to be seen in the distant horizon. There was no city per say, but a few scattered separate stores, which Kakera assumed to be item and weapon shops. Sure enough, there was Aoshi, along with Rai, leaning against the side of one of the buildings.
"Hey!" greeted Kakera, running over to her friends. "Well, I'm back."
"Glad to hear it," replied Rai, grinning.
"Thank god you're alright," said Aoshi, trying to keep a smile, but worry still shown in his eyes. "Di- Did anything happen to you?"
"Uh..." Kakera pondered a moment, then shook her head. "My computer turned off for a couple hours and wouldn't turn back on, but aside from that I'm fine..."
"That's good," replied Aoshi, the blademaster obviously relieved. "But your computer dying like that... Hmm, must have been a virus caused by Taka."
Kakera nodded. "That's what I thought. But what can we do about it?"
"I'm not sure, but at the moment the most we can do is stay away from that twin blade. My guess is that she hasn't given up yet, and she'll be back with a bigger virus the next time. Who knows what that might do?"
Kakera shuddered. 'More than you would ever know Aoshi,' she thought. 'This virus was bad enough with knocking my body offline for two hours.'
"Hey," said Kakera, glancing about. "Where is Tobira?"
"Oh, he's over in the grunty pen," said Rai.
"Grunty?" Kakera was puzzled. "Is that some kind of monster?"
"Heheh," laughed Aoshi. "Look's like we'll have to show her Rai."
Rai grinned at his friends. "Heehee, follow me." The group starting walking down the dirt paths, heading past all the shops and buildings. Players were everywhere, but none seemed to notice Aoshi.
"Aoshi, why aren't there any fan girls here?" asked Kakera.
"Well, there are some around," replied the blademaster. "But since I spend the majority of my time in newbie areas in the Delta server, people on this server don't know me as much. The areas on this server are at a higher level than the one you were in."
"Wait, how many servers are there?"
"Quite a few. But for now you'd better just stay in these two servers. Once you're all at a higher level, I'll take you to some more."
The group stopped as they came to what appeared to be a barn and pen. A NPC in the corner was smiling, and Kakera could see Tobira leaning over something, his staff lying on the ground next to him.
"What the..." said Kakera. Then she screamed as she spotted what was in the wavemaster's arms.
Tobira turned to show a little pig like creature in his arms. It had a little furry brown body and small stubby tail. Its head had a small mouth and nostrils with a lighter brown around its mouth. Its bright green eyes stared back at Kakera, the few black hairs on its head falling over its face.
"Hey, Kakera, check it out!" said Tobira excitedly. "This is my new friend Poketto!"
"What is that thing, and why did you name it Pocket in Japanese?"
"It's a grunty," replied the little wavemaster. "And it's name is Poketto cause it was the first cool sounding name that I found in the dictionary." Tobira huggled his little grunty. "Say hi to Kakera, Poketto."
"Gru?" said the little grunty. "Gru gru gru!" The creature jumped out of Tobira's hands and landed on Kakera's breast plate. It licked Kakera in the face with its giant tongue, then jumped back into Tobira's lap.
"Yuck!" yelled Kakera, wiping the grunty germs off her face. "Ugh, why did he do that?"
Rai and Aoshi laughed at the heavy blade. "It's just saying it likes you," said Rai through the laughter.
"You're a good little grunty, aren't you Pocky?" said Tobira, hugging the grunty again.
"Now he's a chocolate covered biscuit?" asked Kakera, confused.
"Nope, I just decided to call him Pocky, it's short for Poketto. Besides, he looks a little like a chocolate covered biscuit."
"Gru gru," said Pocky, jumping on top of Tobira's head. The little grunty immediately curled up and fell asleep.
"Heehee, well I guess it is a little cute," said Kakera. "Weird, but cute."
"They get a little weirder when they grow up," commented Aoshi. "I raised one once when I first came to Don Loireg. But I haven't uh, how would you say it, had the guts to try again."
Kakera raised her eyebrows at her friend. "What do you mean?"
"Oh, mon ami!" cried a French sounding voice from behind them.
"That's what I mean," said Aoshi, hiding his face. The rest of the group turned to see a giant grunty running towards them. About the size of Kakera, the grunty looked like it could be ridden on. Curly blonde hair lay on its head, and its fur seemed to look like a vest, pants, and fluffy scarf. The obviously French grunty ran up and nuzzled Aoshi.
"Oh, mon ami, how I have missed you!" it said. "Have you come to visit me?"
"Ugh, sure Noble Grunty," replied Aoshi, trying to keep calm. "Uh, guys, this is Noble Grunty. It's a full grown adult."
"Yes, I have become a fine gentleman because of Aoshi. Oh, mon ami, have you come to travel together with me?"
"Actually Noble Grunty, we were just about to go..."
"Ah, I see mon ami. Well, be sure to come visit me again soon!" The grunty looked towards the others and nodded. "Yes, I hope to see you all again soon. Goodbye mon ami!" The grunty immediately turned and walked away, trying to walk as dignified as possible.
"What the hell was that?" asked Rai, gaping at the strange creature.
"That," said Aoshi, "Is what happens when you raise a grunty wrong. In all the servers that you can raise grunties, there are three that they can become when they grow up. Two cool ones, or a Noble Grunty." Aoshi shuddered. "And that's why I refuse to raise another grunty."
Kakera laughed. "Poor Aoshi, the one thing he can't do right in the World."
"Hey! You don't have to point it out!"
Kakera simply giggled. "Have to point out something now, don't I?"
"Urgh..."
"Hey, can we go to an area already?" said Tobira, breaking the flirting between Kakera and Aoshi.
"Oh, right," said Aoshi. "Come on, I know a nice area that should be a good challenge for you all."