.hack/Morganna's End rewrite
Chapter 6
Helba felt herself before she sat down in her usual chair. "So, Renny, what did you see?" The male turned to her, sitting in a slouch. His attire showed he had no plans of going to work that day, he worked as a manager at a large company by day mostly. Most nights he was logged into the world.
"Well, from what I could see, I didn't see much of a direct link. Morganna knew a backway into Tania's net slum. It seemed that Tania knew about it, however hard that is to believe. We never were anywhere that spoke of any interest for any offensive choice. Mizuru told me that Miho and himself know 'where' Morganna hides."
"I don't believe it is good to know where Morganna hides. Any strange behavior during the incident?"
"Well, she seemed rather surprised at the sword that merged with her staff. We had no oppurtunity to look at what it now looks like. Who gave that sword anyway?"
"Aura."
"Makes sense. Well, that's all I know. Should I stay longer?" He yawned, but looked also distracted by emotions that had never really surfaced before.
"Are you thinking about something?"
"Well, it's more of what Tania must be going through. She has it the hardest, but I can't even imagine what she must be going through. I can only imagine a fraction of her actual situation."
"So can I. You don't love her...do you?"
"I might have, but those feelings are gone." She nodded to Renny, who began to leave to the elevator. She watched as it left up, leaving her alone with all the other workers.
At a local arcade
Tania stared at the machine Mizuru was pointing her to, something she had never ever tried. "Are you sure I won't be spotted here?" She looked nervously at the machine, it said 'Dance Dance Revolution.' There was a metal pad in front of her, a screen in front of it. On the pad were four buttons that held arrow keys. A lone metal bar stood behind it.
"Come on, you said you wanted to have fun." Miho said with a slight chuckle, almost as if looking forward to seeing the always withdrawn Tania try to loosen up. She didn't know that such an incident would actually loosen her policy a little.
"Okay..." She shakily walked on the pad, placing coins in the slot. A male voice then began to talk to her, telling her to choose a difficulty. Not having ever played this machine's game, she chose easy. The voice then told her to choose a song. There were certainly a lot to choose from, and she just ended up choosing a random one. She then began to press the arrows softly, but soon she saw the arrows beginning to fly up. She then proceded to fall down, which recieved a lot of laughter. "I knew I wasn't going to do it right..." She held her head down for a moment, feeling a hand on her shoulder. Mizuru had been standing behind the bar, to keep her steady.
"Go on, try again. Miho just bit off the heads the people watching you." She sighed and stood up again, replacing coins in the machine. She chose easy again, and chose a different song. She let her legs move a little bit longer, seeing she was beginning to get the game slightly right.
Helba's workplace
The elevator landed, which made Helba's head look up. Kureno had appeared in the elevator, and he looked to find the woman he had been looking for. "Helba?"
"Sorry about that, I sort of dozed off. Ready to go?"
"Yeah."
Tania's apartment
Tania was dead out beat, her body was aching more than it had last night. She sat against her couch, it felt comfortable after all the movement they had made her do. "That was...somewhat...fun..." She said, making Mizuru and Miho have a satisfied smile.
"Well, it is the first time you actually had any real loose fun."
"I ache."
"That happens, at least you're learning something out of this." Miho's smile was almost too devious, they had probably been planning to do this to prove a point. However, a knock was at the door before any sort of sarcastic joke could be heard. Opening the door, it revealed Kureno and Helba.
"Can we come in?"
"Yeah, have I got a story for you Helba." Mizuru said as Kureno proceded to the living room. Mizuru and Miho turned to Helba with laughs and smiles almost as devious as themselves. "You know how we said we'd get Tania to loosen up?"
"You mean with that Dance Dance Revolution game?"
"Yeah."
"What about it?" Miho's body almost wanted to roll on the floor with what she was going to tell the hacker.
"She said she wanted to do something 'fun.'"
"You didn't..." Her eyes were in disbelief.
"We did, and it was classic! She fell over the first few times, but by the time she finished, she was a pro at easy." Helba began to laugh, she wished she had pictures of what the two had seen.
"Well, I guess it's a good way to loosen up anyone." While this conversation continued, Kureno was having a laugh at how Tania explained the same situation. It certainly was something that took a little tension away for awhile, for now.