Yet another chapter. I don't remember whether or not I've said it before, but there are 27 chapters in all, but as far as Readers go my last chapter only had one hit. So as I keep saying(Which you're probably tired off) Hits and reviews make me post faster.

Jugatsu appeared back in town with Remial and Azara. Remial managed to get up but Azara began to fade away. Remial said nothing and logged out. Jugatsu waited but that night Mac Anu still wasn't up and spent the remainder of the day as he usually did.

Austin came into his room after he had been at basketball practice for the day. He forgot to turn off his TV off as he left and walked over about to turn it off until the news story caught his attention.

"...is in the hospital and is hospitalized as being in a comatose state. Although no one witnessed anyone enter the house the body had suffered severe damage in the mid section. "She was playing a game called "The World" which gave the assaulter a chance to get the attack. No physical damage is shown so we don't know exactly what was used, the damage is with-in so we still have no clue as to how they attacked her."was what the detective working on the case had to say. In other news a cat was saved from a tree but this isn't a nor-"Austin turned the TV off.

He decided to go on his computer to see what Jugatsu and anyone else on was doing. He looked through his e-mail and there was nothing of importance. He then began to log on to "The World". He noticed some new posts on the BBS and decided to check them out. One particular post became noticed quickly. "Azara will be taking a break." He clicked onto it and read the first post on it. It said Azara had business to attend to and may not be on for awhile. Austin became curious about it so continued to read the next few posts which were also from an administrator. They said that Remial was going to be the next Game Administrator. Austin lived a bike ride away from the hospital so he decided to check it out. He walked downstairs and saw his mother on the couch.

"Mom, I'm gonna go for a ride on my bike,"Austin said walking out the door.

"Okay that's fine stay out of trouble,"she answered not turning away from the movie she was watching,"It's nice to see you outside instead of in your room for once."

Austin sighed at the remark and walked outside. He went around to the side of his house and pulled his bike from the shed, and began to ride towards the hospital.

Two hours later Austin came up on the hospital, he was out of breath and decided to get a drink from a nearby water fountain. The hospital was big as to be expected, completely white, and maybe 20 or so stories one would guess from the looks of it. The drive way to the main entrance was a small loop, visitors were asked to park in the back where there was a decent size lot, maybe about 30 or so cars could fit before it began to feel crowded. He noticed an ambulance leave out of what looked the garage, although he knew it was the emergency entrance. He locked his bike to a big oak tree and walked inside. It was around lunch time and most people would have visited or were visiting afterwards so the wait was short. Austin didn't know the name of the person in the comatose, so he had to start some smooth talking to get away with it. The receptionist called him up to the desk.

"Hello, one of my relatives came to the hospital recently. I never met them before but I overheard my mom talk about it over the phone. I believe I heard she was in a comatose state,"Austin said looking at the ground.

He remembered how the news story mentioned it was a female from what he heard so he made sure to mention something to show it was female. After a minute or so the receptionist gave Austin a card.

"Take the elevator over there up to the 18th floor, once you get out of the elevator go to the left and it should be one of the rooms on your right,"The lady said, patting Austin on the head.

He began to walk away feeling half insulted. He was 14 he wasn't a kid after all. He ignored it for now and walked to the room. He looked around making sure no one was around and looked a clipboard on the right of the door. He remembered hearing a mystery on a TV show that involved timing, and took place in a hospital. The clipboard would show the status or problem of the patient and as a doctor was called he come by and get the clipboard. After making sure no one was around again he took the clipboard down and began to look at it. The patients name was Christina. He paused and decided not to invade the privacy only check out what was important. He looked down towards the state and it had deep comatose, he then continued and noticed a note attached to the paper. He took it off to read it better. It said that there was no visible damage on the outside, but there was inside the mid section mainly around the lungs, stomach, and so on. There was also some slight damage caused in the cranial area.

"Why do they make it so complex to read,"Austin muttered putting it back as he found it,"Just say head or something."

He looked around one last time and went inside. The room only had one patient so he knew this must the Christina. He began to look around at all the the equipment. They were tracking everything, heartbeat, breathing rate, blood pressure, and various other things he couldn't tell what it was. He looked over at Christine. She looked so peaceful really, but he realized shortly, she looked just like Azara minus the armor and weapons. His theory was right people were falling into a coma from playing "The World", or it would be if he could confirm one thing.

"Wait a minute,"Austin began to realize,"With the VR headset it uses the brainwaves or whatever to control the character. She was damaged in the head according the paper outside, along with her stomach area. If she fought Dusk and died then that would explain the damage. But it's only been about two or three days since the last Dusk encounter, did she really fight him?"

Austin stopped because he heard a noise coming from outside. He looked around looking for a place to hide and snuck up behind the door. The person then opened the door and missed Austin like planned. The doctor walked in and began to look at the equipment and was taking notes it looked like. Austin then slipped around the door which was left open luckily.

After returning home from the hospital he had to eat dinner. It was torture as he wanted to ask Jugatsu about any encounters with Dusk or Azara. He was eating macaroni and cheese so it wasn't all bad. After he finished he got something to drink and rushed back upstairs to his room. He started up Altimit yet again and logged on to "The World".

Skyld then resumed to send a message to Jugatsu asking to meet him by the Chaos Gate. He walked over and sat down by one of the poles.

"This is what the fifth day Jugatsu's been stuck here?"Skyld said to himself while waiting.

Jugatsu warped in from the Chaos Gate, he decided to get some training in.

"You needed to ask me something?"Jugatsu asked.

Skyld nodded.

"Did Azara by any chance have to fight Dusk and lose?"Skyld asked.

"Yeah, how did you know?"Jugatsu replied.

"If Dusk kills someone in the game they go into a coma in the real world..."Skyld replied.

He then resumed to explain what happened in the real world.

"Azara was the only one?"Jugatsu asked afterwards.

Skyld looked at him puzzled, then nodded.

"Then that means Remial made it at least That must mean..."Jugatsu stopped.

He then began to look around. They may have been enemies but they were still living beings. Skyld was able to peace together most of it on his own. Plus there was something Jugatsu wanted to keep hidden so he remained silent.

"Unfortunately I can't stay on long, I only had enough time to come on here to ask about this. Tomorrow I should have plenty of time though,"Skyld said.

Jugatsu gave him his peace sign, which was more like half way raising his hand and only having some fingers up. Skyld then logged out. Jugatsu turned around about to walk to the grunty farm for the day. It helped him keep track of the days since the other usually say something about logging for the day. He got a few steps but heard someone call his name.

"That was an interesting amount of information,"Zero said.

He jumped down from the top of pole where Skyld and Jugatsu were just talking.

"You were eavesdropping?"Jugatsu asked startled.

Zero nodded.

"Don't worry I'm a trader. I get information and give you some in return,"Zero said, he was grinning,"So besides the incident with Dusk, that I now know of, it seems CC Corp is in a panic. If this got out that it was something in the game caused this they would be ruined. However, this should be expected from a company that's greedy for money. Then again most are..just some more then others. That's why-"
"Cut to the point I don't want to hear you opinions on economics,"Jugatsu interrupted.
"Heh, fine fine. As I'm sure you know there are two AIs one is Dusk who is quite the celebrity at the moment, then the other is Dawn. While Dusk causes destruction Dawn seems to fix these problems...some of them anyways. I came upon this tablet it didn't seem as part of the game. I was investigating the map where the two players were attacked. Theta something or other, anyways my data got disrupted for a moment and a message appeared. Dusk seeks the twilight, but then dawn pushes it right behind dusk so he cannot find it,"Zero said.

"What? You think it has something to do with the AIs?"Jugatsu answered, wondering his opinion.

"What I think doesn't matter, what I gave you does,"Zero countered the question.

He waved good bye as he walked away, but suddenly stopped then turned around.

"When you get something else to tell me I have some really good info you may need!"Zero shouted.

He then laughed and resumed to walk away.

"He's too weird..."Jugatsu said and began to head once again towards the grunty farm.

Not much of an in-game chapter, not really too great, but then again...meh. Anyways for the hell of it I might as well restate, for no apparant reason, I do not own .hack, "The World", or rights to any of them, however, I do own the characters in the story and the plot. Reviews encouraged.