.HACKEVA
Author's notes: well, after such an outstanding responses, who am I to disappoint everyone? I have decided to come back to fanfiction writing, at least until HackEVA is finished. I have a few half-formed ideas for other fics, but that's down the track a bit.
In any case, I hope everyone enjoys reading this as I enjoy writing it.
CHAPTER THREE: BLUE ONI
A cold gust of wind blew through the night.
Like a troublesome child, it rattled loose windows and whipped around small branches in the trees. It blew on, and as it passed a derelict apartment building on the edge of the city, it caused a door to slam closed. As the breeze swept off into the night, the door slowly creaked open again.
The occupant of the small, dank apartment room ignored the sound, as she was safe in the knowledge that anybody stupid enough to try and gain access uninvited would deserve everything they got for their troubles.
She instead sat motionless in front of a computer screen, a set of goggles over her face, completely absorbed in the game known as 'The World'.
"That is an unacceptable offer. That item is worth half that which you wish to sell it to me for."
The young thief barely missed a beat as he again tried to peddle the next-to-worthless obsidian amulet to the Wavemaster. However, the way she stared at him with those bright red eyes was… unnatural.
"Half? I think not. This took me three hours of painstaking searching to find it in the depths of a high-level dungeon. This is a bargain."
Blue Oni curled her upper lip slightly, an expression that she would not have allowed herself in the real world. "Then you wasted your time."
Without saying another word, she turned, walked a few paces away, then teleported away.
The thief sighed. Sighting another worthy candidate, an inexperienced-looking spearman, he put the Wavemaster out of his mind as he composed himself for the con.
Blue Oni reappeared next to the gate in the courtyard of Teriax city, nearly landing directly on top of another player. As he was bumped aside, he tripped on a crack in the pavement, and barely prevented himself from losing balance.
Blue Oni looked at him, and offered him a hand to steady himself.
"Heh, sorry about that, Wavemaster. I just logged on, and was having a bit of server trouble."
"Your apology is accepted."
The young man looked curiously at her, taking in the details of her face. Frowning slightly in concentration, "Have we met before? You look very familiar." He asked.
"Perhaps in the real world, but I doubt it. I know very few people." She responded. Usually, she wouldn't have even paid attention to him.
A strange look came over his face, like he though something was funny, but didn't want to laugh. "Well, we've met here now. My name is Shadow. How do you do?"
Blue Oni blinked in surprise. Usually, people in the world were ruder than they would normally be, because they did not see a point in being polite. This man, however, seemed to be the epitome of a gentleman. She would humour him.
" I am well. My name is Blue Oni."
He grinned. Pulling something out from his backpack, he handed I to her.
"I am not interested in buying this item from you." She said coldly, and held it out, trying to give it back.
"Nah, keep it. Not doing me any good, is it? You can have it."
Her jaw dropped slightly, but she quickly reigned in her surprise. One unwritten rule in the world seemed to be 'everything is for sale, but nothing is for free.'
However, she accepted the gift. It would be rude to give it back, after all.
"Thank-you."
The young fighter grinned again. "Feel like cleaning out a dungeon sometime?"
Blue Oni considered a moment then looked at her clock.
"I do not have time tonight." As Shadow face-faulted, she amended, "but tomorrow will be fine."
Shadow's ever-present grin again lit up his face. "Great! Say, seven o'clock here?"
"That is acceptable." With that, she turned back to the gate, and logged out, leaving the warrior alone. His smile quickly faded from his mouth.
"This is getting weird. That girl looked just like Rei… but didn't act like her." He thought about it for a moment. "Much."
Back in the apartment, Rei took off her goggles, and shut down her computer. Resting the virtual-reality visor on the top of her computer screen, she closed her eyes with a sigh. While she had begun to open up with her feelings slightly over the past few years, having a normal conversation with anyone was difficult and tiring. She still preferred to keep to herself, but that young warrior in The World, Shadow, reminded her of Shinji. Just the pure niceness in his voice, not wanting anything out of her like everyone else. Even her creators, who had told her that she was loved, turned out to only want her for a purpose, the discard her.
Shinji, though, he was different. Only he could get her to smile, and only he had ever shown genuine care for her well-being.
Yes, Rei concluded, Shadow reminded her of Shinji.
Standing up, she stretched and walked over to her bed. Lying down, she fell asleep almost instantly.
Author's Notes: yeah, I know. It's another short chapter. There are two reasons for them. First, I am way to damn bum lazy to write longer ones. Second, it gives everyone time to tell me what they think about how I am going. I know for a fact that it is far easier to make changes to a small chapter than a large one.
Anyways, I'll leave this for a bit, and I'll write my next chapter… umm… when I get around to it… meh.
Oh, by the way…for any die-hard .hack fans, I'll say right here and now: most of the items and places are not from the show. This is an EVA fic.