megafan505: Hello one and all! I told you this next chapter would be up soon didn't I? Oh well, again sorry for the first chapter being so long. I personally thought that it was a bit slow paced. In this chapter I'll have a couple of people from Magical Girl Pretty Sammy-Chan's "Log On!" as cameos but they will be in more chapters as important characters. Anyway, I don't have much to say for my author's note so I might as well get on with the fic.
Disclaimer: I don't own .hack/ or any of the places in this story. The characters Prisma, Iam, Orizo, and others who are cameos in this chapter belong to Magical Girl Pretty Sammy-Chan. I only own several characters in this fic which include Akira and Natsume.
.hack/Chosen
By megafan505
Chapter 2: The Celestial Bands
The next day started just as Akira had thought it would. Everyone was talking about "The World," which was extremely predictable. Akira sighed and reached in his bag to take out his sketchbook. He felt through the bag and realized it wasn't there. "I left it by my computer," he muttered to himself, "I'm such an idiot."
"Were you in that event?"
"I can't find the Spiral Edge anywhere!"
"Hey Akira what's your level?"
Akira turned around and looked over to where the question came from. "Don't bother," another person said, "Akira hates video games remember? There's no way he would play 'The World'!"
Akira looked at the ground for a moment then looked up, "Well, actually, I kind of do," he looked around the room and saw nearly everyone staring at him except a few people talking in the corner. "What?" he asked and afterwards he really wished that he hadn't. All of a sudden he was pummeled with questions.
"What class are you?"
"What's your username?"
"What level are you?"
"Do you have a Grunty?"
"How many people do you have on your friend list? Can I be on it?"
Out of all the questions he was only really able to make out the last one. All of the other people were asking questions at the same time. "Well, I just started playing yesterday, I only have two people on my friend list." He leaned back in his chair, "The first one is Natsume, her account is Nabuko though."
"You mean your girlfriend?"
"Oh, you guys are fighting side by side? That's so romantic!"
"So who's the other person on your list?"
Akira blushed and began to twiddle his thumbs, "Well I don't know who they are in real life," he said turning back to the person asking the question, "He's a Twin Blade, his character's name is Roat."
"YAMANO!" a voice from the other side of the room came. A boy made his way through they crowd and it was just who Akira thought it would be, Taro.
Now the truth was out, Akira Hayabusa, hater of video games, played "The World." The worst part about it now was Taro wouldn't stop talking about it. He followed Akira wherever he went talking about "The World." The entire day was spent by Akira once again getting in trouble because of Taro. 'Why can't he get it?' Akira thought to himself, 'Is Taro really that dense?' Deep down Akira knew that Taro meant well but he was just way too obsessed with "The World." He needed something else to do but what?
When it came to lunch Akira and Taro went to sit down with Natsume, "I brought a friend," Akira said setting down his food, "This is Taro Kishinuma, the new kid." They both sat down and Natsume smiled.
"Nice to meet you Kishinuma-san," she said opening up her box lunch, "I'm Natsume Ichiya." "So Akira, are we still on for 4:00 today?"
"You better be on! After you guys left yesterday I had nothing to do any more!" Taro shouted. A confused look came over Natsume's face
"Oh right, um Natsume," Akira said scratching the back of his head, "Um, yeah, Taro plays 'The World' too. Er, yeah . . . he's Roat."
The next thing anybody knew Taro had a red hand-shaped mark on the side of his face, "You jerk!" Natsume shouted trying to whack Taro again. Taro stood up and started to run off, "Get back here! I'm not through with you!" She got up and began to chase after him. "You were so rude to me and Akira-chan yesterday!"
"I'm sorry, please don't hurt me!" he shouted while running from her. Akira sighed and walked over to where Natsume was holding Taro down.
"Natsume calm down," Akira said grabbing her by the back of her shirt. Normally in the real world Natsume was always so happy and calm. If ever she was angry at anyone, she would usually let it go unless of course someone messed with her friends. Natsume was extremely protective of any and all of her friends. If anyone did something to harm them either physically or emotionally she would go into a state of rage.
"If you mess with my friends, I will mess with your physical well being!" she shouted to Taro. Finally she calmed down and the three of them sat down back at the table. Taro, however, was as far away from Natsume as he could possibly be. He had found a reason to respect her, mostly out of fear.
"Once again I am very sorry," Taro apologized again, "Had I known that those characters were you two I wouldn't have been so, what's the word I'm looking for?"
"So rude, so evil?" Natsume asked trying to fill in Taro's sentence for him, "So much of a jerk?" Akira put a hand on her shoulder and she sighed. "I'm sorry I slapped you but you deserved it," she said and Taro nodded in response, "Look, I can tell you love the game a lot but you need to work on your netiquette. You have to realize that you can't be rude to people like that. It's just like in real life." An image came into Akira's head. If Taro were more like real life in the game then he would follow random people around talking about areas and weapons and Grunties. But since it would be actually in "The World" then it wouldn't be too big a problem.
"I'm sorry," Taro said with his face toward the ground, "I don't mean to be that way it's just," He paused for a moment and looked up at Natsume. "Well back in Tokyo I didn't really have any friends, a few couple before I came here I started to play 'The World'." Akira and Natsume moved in closer with interest. "At first," Taro continued, "There was nobody wanted to go to an area or dungeon with me, but then I met this one guy, his name was Arios. He went with me to a newbie area, kind of like the one we went to yesterday. After we cleared all the portals, we headed down to the dungeon. Once we got to the bottom he went into the last room without me. When I finally went into the room he was gone . . . "
"Maybe he just used a Sprite Ocarina," Natsume said, "And went back up to the field area."
Taro shook his head, "No, I checked, we were still in a party," he said then put his hands to his head, "I was so stupid! I was too busy gathering up the items in that room that I didn't even notice his life gauge going down! But the weird part was, he was just gone, not a ghost or anything, just gone." He stopped for a few seconds. Akira could have sworn he saw a tear coming from Taro's eyes, "Before I left the dungeon started to change," Taro continued, "It was like the parts of the computer code were missing. There were orange blotches all over the place and little 1s and 0s all over. I kept e-mailing Arios to see if he was ok but he never responded to any of them. After that day I stopped playing 'The World' until I moved here."
Everyone grew quite for a while then Natsume asked, "What was the name of the area?" Akira and Taro looked at her strangely, "We're going to check that area out tonight."
"Are you crazy!" Taro shouted. He crossed his arms and sighed, "Well if you want to get yourselves killed fine by me but keep me out of it. It was Δ Bursting Passed Over Aqua Field." Taro's voice grew softer, "Please don't go. I don't want something to happen to you guys like Arios."
Akira looked straight at Taro, "Don't worry," he said, "Nothing bad is going to happen. After all, how bad of a monster could possibly be in a level one area?"
"Well don't count me in," Taro said with a sad but slightly angry tone of voice, "If something happens to you two then I am not responsible for it! Go and get yourselves killed!" He grew silent for a moment, "Please, as your guys' friend I'm asking you don't go."
The bell rang and Akira and Natsume stood up. Taro still sat on the table, his head facing down. Natsume made her way into the school while Akira put his hand on Taro's shoulder. "We'll be fine," he said, "I promise." He turned around and started to walk in, "You better get to your next class," he added.
The rest of the school day was oddly peaceful. Akira didn't get in trouble at all because Taro didn't talk to him at all. He must have been in deep thought. For some reason the only thing in Akira's mind was the picture of that girl he drew. He couldn't help but think about her. Strangely, when he tried to think about, "The World" his thoughts of her grew stronger. After school he went straight home. He didn't stop for anything. They had to figure out what had happened. He couldn't help but feel a little scared.
When he got him he immediately ran up to his room and booted up his computer. He had two new e-mails. The first was from Natsume:
Title: Meet
Hey Yamano!
Let's meet in Mac Anu and then we'll go check out the area. See you then!
Nabuko
The second one was from Taro and it read:
Title: Please don't
Hey, Akira
You don't have to go there. It could be dangerous. You and Natsume could get in serious trouble. Please don't go.
Taro
Akira decided to respond to the last one:
Title: Re: Please don't
Taro
I told you don't worry. We'll be fine.
Akira
Akira sent the e-mail and then hesitantly picked up the headset. He put it on and logged onto "The World." He ended up in Mac Anu since that was the server that he was in when he logged out the day before. "Ready to go?" a voice from behind asked. He turned around and it was Nabuko. He knew it would be her but he was hoping that Roat would be there too.
Yamano nodded and sent Nabuko a party invite, "I guess Roat won't be joining us huh?" Akira sighed and walked over to the Chaos Gate. He looked back one last time, hoping that Roat would be there but he wasn't.
Nabuko followed him up to the Chaos Gate, "Bursting Passed Over Aqua Field!" they shouted then they jumped into it.
"Let the fun begin."
They ended up in and area that was a lot like the one they went to the day before only there were two distinct differences. The first difference was that there were windmills in this area instead of forts. The other difference was far more noticeable however. All over there were orange blotches and there were little data streams floating in the air. If you looked up you would see huge gaping holes in the sky and every few moments the area around them seemed to abruptly vibrate, just as if a jolt of static electricity suddenly went through the part of "The World" which was controlling this certain area. "What happened to this place?" Nabuko asked with a look of shock on her face. Even Yamano stood frozen even though he didn't know whether an area in "The World" was supposed to look like this or not. Finally Nabuko moved, "All right, let's get going. Roat said that Arios disappeared in the dungeon so that's where we'll check first."
They ran over to the dungeon which was only a few feet away from them. Oddly there were no magic portals around in the field. It may have been a glitch but that was all right. The last thing they needed was something to keep them away from the dungeon. As soon as they got into the dungeon there were two treasure chests. One was normal and the other one was a Risky Treasure. They ignored it and went on to the next room which was a corridor. They slowly walked up to the cross path and saw a girl to the left of them. She was all dressed in white with pale skin and hair the same color. "Hello," Nabuko said, "Are you lost?" All of a sudden from behind her a giant monster appeared. It had a broken ring attached to the top of its head and held a red staff. It was in the shape of a tall human but it had no face or feet. It looked as though it were made of stone and on its chest it had a symbol that looked like a yellow and red eye. It began to chase after the girl down the corridor where Yamano and Nabuko were standing. The two of them braced themselves but the girl and the monster just passed through them, like ghosts. "What the," Nabuko said but she was interrupted by a voice in the direction they came from.
"Was that thing chasing her?" a Twin Blade dressed in grey asked. He had two triangular marks on his cheeks and had blue-green hair.
"Yeah," a Blademaster next to him responded. His voice was much deeper and his hair was a sort of dirty blonde color. Most of his body was painted the same color as the Twin Blade's hair, "But something like that," he continued, "On this level." After he finished that statement, the both of them just faded away.
"What was that Nabuko?" Akira asked standing there in shock, "Did they just disappear?"
Nabuko shook her head, "I've heard rumors about this before but I never thought they could be real." She stood there with the same look that she had when they first arrived in the area. "According to rumors they saw ghost figures, but these guys seem more like someone's memory that's been broken up and stuck here." A flat, round object slowly floated to the ground. Nabuko picked it up. In her inventory it read M:DC. "I've never heard of an item like this." When she tried to use it, a garbled message appeared before her. She put it in her pack, "We might need this later."
Akira turned to the side of the corridor where the girl had been chased by the strange monster had chased the girl, "Come on let's go and see if she's ok," he said as he ran to the other room. They entered the room. It had a couple of treasure chests and a few barrels but the girl and the monster were nowhere to be found. "She's gone, she looked so much like her," Akira muttered under his breath.
They left the room and continued through the dungeon. It was awfully small because before they knew it they were on the second and final level. They entered a room which appeared as a small square on the map, so it must have been the Gott Statue altar. But after they entered it violet smoke began to radiate from it. Everything went black and then suddenly they were in on a distorted platform. "What is this place?" Nabuko asked.
"Do you like it?" a voice came from nowhere. Suddenly the air around them seemed to vibrate and a rift of some sort opened up. It became bigger and looked like some type of shadowy hole. A Blademaster girl walked out of it. She had red hair and it was tied up in a bun. She had on a long grey kimono and her sword was strapped to her back. "I didn't make it though. I just found it." She floated slowly to the ground, "The name's Haruko and I have a proposition." Nabuko and Yamano glared at her, they didn't trust her. "You know what, I don't like this place as much anymore." She moved her hands around and giant spikes appeared from the ground. She moved her hand behind her back and created a chair out of stone, "That's much better," she said going to sit down in her new addition to the area.
"You're a hacker!" shouted Nabuko, "You're a cheat player!"
Haruko smirked, "Actually I like to think that I have surpassed being a player, I hack for fun!" She pulled out her sword and put it to Nabuko's neck, "Now, as for my proposition, I want you two to join me."
Akira put his spear up to Haruko's back, "If you dare to harm her, even to take on Hit Point off of her gauge I swear that it will be the last thing you ever do."
"Aw, protecting your true love!" Haruko mocked, "How sweet!" She jumped back over to her chair and sat down. "But really, it's so much fun being a hacker, watch this!" She held up her hand and a giant green and black circle appeared on the ground. "Now arise Data Bug!" From the circle a giant moth-like creature emerged.
"That's a Deadly Moth!" Nabuko shouted. It was a Deadly Moth but there was something different about it. It was covered in green particles and small bits of data were flowing from it. Nabuko looked at the life gauge it was garbled just like the message that she saw when she tried to use the M:DC. "What is that thing?" Yamano charged at it and started to strike it with his spear. Nabuko followed him.
"It doesn't matter, you can't do anything to stop it," Haruko said as they kept striking the monster. The Deadly Moth flew a little higher and then struck them both. They fell on the ground, their life gauges depleted.
Yamano floated through thick darkness. He could see nothing except for Nabuko. He wanted to say something but every time he opened his mouth the only thing that came out was, "I am dead." Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, a bright light appeared, distant first but grew bigger and bigger. Yamano couldn't think at or talk at all but if he had he would have realized that the light became the girl. The one that he drew in his sketchbook. She reached out her hand and suddenly Yamano could move again, "You," he said, "You're that girl." The girl moved over to Nabuko and touched her as well.
Nabuko got up and the girl moved back slightly, "You have been chosen," she said reaching out her hands, "Like so many before you." They didn't know why but Yamano and Nabuko held out their hands as well. The girl touched Nabuko's right ring finger and a ring made of gold appeared on it. On one side of the ring there was a carving of the sun and on the other side of an eye. "To you," the girl continued, "I give the Ring of the Golden Sun and the Gift of the Eye." She then touched Yamano's finger as well, but this time a silver ring appeared. On one side it had the image of a crescent moon and on the other the image of a circle spreading outward, "And to you I give the Ring of the Silver Moon and the Gift of the Mind." She put down her arms and backed off more, "Together you have the power but alone you shall fall," she said. Behind her the images of people appeared. One image was the Twin Blade they saw in the dungeon and a boy who looked just like him but smaller. There were others they hadn't seen before such as a Long Arm girl with violet hair and a Twin Blade boy with white hair. On their hands they had what seemed like hand guards but the boy had it on his left hand and it was blue while the girl had a red one on her right finger. There was a Wavemaster who had grey hair and some type of cat player wearing a pointed hat behind him. Alongside the girl there was the girl in white from the dungeon and two others. One of the girls looked just like the one in white but she had black hair and wore black clothes as well. The final girl looked younger then the others. She was dressed in red and had short white hair.
"But who are you?" Yamano asked holding out his hand, "And why did you give us these rings?"
The girl just stood there for a moment, "Celestia," she said and then finally faded off. The darkness faded away along with her. Slowly the area where they were before returned, nothing had changed about it. It was like when the Deadly Moth killed them they were sent to a place outside of time.
"It can't be," Haruko said looking there in shock, "You should both be dead! How can you still alive!" She stood up, "Attack them my Data Bug!"
Yamano and Nabuko started to attack the Data Bug again. After a while something happened. A green orb appeared around it and then it shattered. "Nabuko do you know what to do?" Yamano asked and Nabuko nodded.
"I don't really know but I can see it," she said to him, "It's like a vision showing me what to do. How about you?"
"Well, I can't see it but I just know," he said smiling, "So let's do it then!"
They both held out their hands and the rings began to glow. "Sun and Moon Data Drain!" they both shouted at the same time. A beam appeared from the rings and hit the Data Bug. The green flakes fell to the ground and the data particles flew off.
"My beautiful Data Bug!" shouted Haruko, "You two will pay for this!" She turned around and another shadow rift opened. She jumped in and the rift closed. Yamano and Nabuko attacked the monster. It was now a normal Deadly Moth. It fell to the ground and faded away.
A Level Up message appeared above Yamano's head. "Hey I leveled up!" he held out the peace sign. He looked over at Nabuko. She was looking at the ring.
"What is this thing?" she asked Yamano.
"I don't know," he said looking at his own, "But something tells me that this was meant to happen. I also feel that there are others who are chosen, but we can't look for them, they just have to come to us."
Nabuko closed her eyes, a vision was coming to her, "I see a battle, about eleven people on our side and eleven on their's. But I can't see who they are, they're blurred." Nabuko opened her eyes and put her arm by her side. The area they were in began to fade away and they were in Mac Anu again standing right in front of the Chaos Gate.
"Well, I guess there's nothing we can do now," Yamano said as he disbanded the party, "Well I'll see you tomorrow." He made the peace sign and logged out.
Akira took off the headset and sighed, "What was all of that about." He put his hands behind his head and leaned back in his chair but then he felt something on his hand. "What?" He looked at his hand and he was still wearing the ring. His eyes grew wide, "How is this here?" he asked himself as he tried to pull it off but it wouldn't budge. He looked at his computer. The picture of Celestia was the same except for one thing. The rings were gone. In their place there were now two bracelets. His cell phone rang, "Hello?"
"Akira!" it was Natsume, "The ring it's"
"I know," he said putting down the drawing, "It's weird I have it on too."
"But what does this mean?" she asked in a frantic tone of voice, "How do we know what this Celestia person's intentions are?"
"I don't know. I guess the Gift of the Mind only works in the game," he joked, "I guess we just have to trust her. Don't worry. Everything will be all right. I'll see you tomorrow." He hung up the phone. It was now 6:00. Still, early but for some reason Akira was tired. He had already done his homework in school so he just lay down on his bed and slowly drifted off to sleep.
At first for some reason he dreamed of his family, about his parents and his little brother and sister. He was at home with them but then the room faded away. There was nothing just darkness and the sound of Celestia's voice, "You have been chosen," her solemn voice said, "Like so many before you." The rest of the night he dreamed of nothing.
megafan505: Well that's the end of the second chapter. Wow I'm working fast . . . I was thinking I wouldn't be done with this until the end of the week . . . Oh well, please review!