megafan505: Hello everyone! Like I said I have absolutely nothing else to do during my winter break so I am already doing this next chapter! I was able to get up the second chapter of a fic before I got any reviews . . . I am really working fast. I still have no reviews . . . Well, I once again do not have anything to add for this author's not so here's the disclaimer.
Disclaimer: I do not own .hack/ or any of its characters. I only own Akira, Taro, and Natsume, along with minor characters which I created. The memory fragment scene derives from Salorstar165's fic entitled HackLegend of the Twilight Angel.
.hack/Chosen
By megafan505
Chapter 3: The Third Gift
"So did you have any dreams last night?" Akira asked Natsume. The two of them had decided to walk to school that morning to talk about what happened yesterday. "You know," he continued, "Any visions about the rings or Celestia?" Akira was hoping that the powers that the rings gave them would be available to them when they were asleep. For once he was actually right.
Natsume nodded, "Well it wasn't really about Celestia or the rings," she said as the two of them turned the corner, "But I saw us in a battle with another Data Bug thing. We had another person with us though. I still couldn't see who it was though. But there was another hacker there, it wasn't Haruko, I could tell that much but I still couldn't see who it was." She looked at her ring and held it above her head into the sunlight. It shone with a brilliant light.
Akira did the same thing and it did shine a bit but not as much. "I guess your powers derive from the sun," he said putting his hand in his pocket. That was kind of obvious, after all Celestia did say it was the Ring of the Golden Sun. They turned another corner and where nearing the school, "Well like I said. My feeling told me we need to let the others just come to us, and I'm the one who was given the Gift of the Mind."
As they got into the school's yard, they saw one figure standing there. It was Taro. "You're ok!" he shouted as he ran up to the two of them and embraced them in his arms, "I'm so glad nothing happened to you guys. So what happened?" He looked down at the hands of the two, "Whoa! Matching rings, you guys are really getting serious about your relationship huh?" He began to jab Akira in the side a bit and Natsume blushed.
"I told you we'd be fine," Akira said once Taro stopped nudging him, "And no, we are not at that point in our relationship yet, we got these rings from, er well. Yesterday we went to the store and Natsume saw these rings. She made me try them on with her and then they got stuck, so then we had to buy them and they still won't come off." Taro reached for Akira's ring and started to tug on it.
"Wow, you're right those things are on tight," he said wiping his brow, "So what happened at the area? Where there any like super big monsters that tried to attack you guys or something? Was the place still funny looking?"
Natsume looked down at the ground, "Well there was this one," then she stopped. Akira was nudging her and shaking his head. He knew she was going to tell him what really happened.
"The area still looked kind of funny," Akira explained, "But there was nothing that was really freaky about it. It just seemed mostly like a normal area." He didn't want to get Taro involved in this. If Taro did get into this and he hadn't been chosen by Celestia then really bad things could happen. "Nothing was strange at all. We looked through the whole dungeon."
Taro looked over at Natsume and then back over to Akira, "Ok what's up with you guys?" he asked, "You're both acting really weird!"
"Nothing, we're just tired," Akira lied, "We were up all night trying to see if there were any leads. You know, to see if anyone saw Arios or something." He paused for a moment and looked over at Natsume. "Hey Taro, could you wait for me in class?" he asked, "Natsume and I need to talk."
A slightly perverted grin came across Taro's face. "Ok," he said and snickered, "Don't you two do anything bad now!" As he began to run off Akira picked up a stick and threw it at him, "OW!" Taro ignored it and walked into the building snickering and rubbing the back of his head.
"Akira, I don't want to lie to Taro," Natsume said with a saddened look on her face, "He's our friend, he deserves to know what happened."
"I know, I want to tell him the truth too," Akira said shaking his head, "But we can't it could be dangerous." He pulled out what looked like a PDA, "Look," he said scrolling down to an option that said news. He touched the pad with the stylus pen and the screen opened.
The headline read, "Girl Falls Into Coma While Playing 'The World'"
"Look," he said pointing to a line toward the bottom, "It says that this is the second person it happened to. The other one was a guy in his twenties from Kyoto. I don't know why, but I have a feeling that the Data Bugs are connected to this, and since there was one in the area where Arios disappeared then that might mean that Arios is in a coma." Both Natsume and Akira grew silent, "Let's talk about this on 'The World' later," Akira said as he walked into the building. Natsume followed close behind.
The first half of the day was quite uneventful. Right before lunch though something happened, "Hey that's a cool ring," a girl said to Akira, "Where did you get it."
A boy followed her, "You know what, I think I saw Natsume wearing one just like that!"
Soon Akira was surrounded by a ton of people asking questions just like yesterday.
"You guys are getting really serious huh?"
"Did you buy that for her? Oh that's so romantic!"
"You sure are in love with her!"
Akira began to blush. He had to think of something to make sure he wasn't completely humiliated, "Well actually, we got them in an event in 'The World'," he said. Technically he wasn't lying. After all, Celestia did give it to them in "The World." "We won them in the game and they sent us some rings in real life." Luckily no one asked anything more after that. But Taro heard it all. Akira had just revealed the fact that he had been lying.
"We need to talk," Taro said as the two of them left the room, "But we need to talk with Natsume too." They walked out to the courtyard and saw Natsume sitting in her usual spot. Waiting for them on a bench. She waved to them and they sat down. "Ok, what gives?" Taro asked, "You told me you guys got these rings from the store but you just told the entire class that you guys got them in an event in 'The World'."
Natsume turned to Akira with a somewhat angry and yet disappointed look. Akira sighed, "Ok, the truth is that we got them in 'The World'." He didn't really lie to him but he felt that Taro wasn't ready to handle the whole truth.
"So why didn't you guys just tell me that then?" Taro asked with a grin on his face, "Man, now I really wish I had been on yesterday. Well I guess it was my fault, being all paranoid of that area. So, we gonna go on tonight?"
"Sure," Natsume said as she nodded, "We can level up some more. Akira is at level three already so we're almost all at the same level." Akira nodded in confirmation. They opened their lunches and began to eat. The rest of lunch was peaceful. Nothing else really happened.
After school Akira went straight home and sat down in the living room. His parents and siblings, Chihiro and Sota, were watching television. Normally the shop would be open but it was a Friday. They were only open until noon. A news bulletin came up on the television. "This is a breaking news update," the woman on the TV, "Yesterday in Osaka a girl fell into a comatose state while playing the popular online game known as, 'The World.' CC Corporation claims that it has nothing to do with the actual game and that the comas are being caused by an overdue amount of stress that happens to come out during the game. They are currently looking into the game to see if there are any bugs or glitches which may enhance this stress."
Akira got up and started to walk up the stairs, "I'm going to my room."
"So you can call up Natsume?" Sota asked mockingly.
"Shut up twerp," Akira said as he disappeared up the walkway. Akira sat down and turned on his computer. He had one new e-mail from someone named Kalen. His picture identification on the e-mail was that of a man, still young though, with shaggy, black hair. He had a visor of some sort on and around his shoulders you could see the part of what looked like a black coat. The email read:
Subject: Welcome
Greetings,
It seems that you have been chosen among many to bear the Ring of the Silver Moon. This is a great power and you must use it wisely. Now that you walk this path our destinies, as well as many others', are now intertwined. You also left this behind.
Kalen
Attached to the e-mail was an item. When it appeared on Akira's screen it was in the shape of a hexagon and had the letter R engraved on it. In yellow text it read, "You have received: Virus Core R."
"What is this?" Akira asked himself. He decided to ignore it for now and log on to "The World."
When Yamano arrived in Mac Anu he didn't see any of the others. He decided to go and check the boards to see if there were any leads on the coma victims. He found one that was entitled "Help!"
Subject: Help!
Author: Tarlia
My friend and I were in a dungeon and this really weird monster appeared. It was all covered in this green flaky stuff and its Hit Points were strange. We were both killed but my friend fell into a coma! Someone help! The dungeon we were at was Δ Hidden Oblivious Widow.
There was one other new message on the board that was entitled "Missing"
Subject: Missing
Author: Elk
I'm looking for my friend named Mia. I can't find her anywhere on "The World," but every time I check my friend list status it says she's on. If anyone sees her could you please tell me?
The second message didn't really concern Yamano but the monster from the first one must have been a data bug. There's nothing else it could possibly be. "So the comas are related to the Data Bugs after all," Akira muttered under his voice, "Which means that Arios must have been that man from Kyoto."
"Hey Yamano!" he heard a voice from behind him shouting. He turned around to see Roat and Nabuko running toward him. "Sorry we're late," Nabuko said, "I got this really weird e-mail from a guy named Kalen."
"You got one too?" Yamano asked her.
Roat had a puzzled look on his face, "Who's this Kalen guy?" he asked. Roat didn't get an e-mail from Kalen because he didn't get a gift from Celestia. He had no idea what they were talking about.
"Er . . . he's a system admin. He was in charge of the event that we won the rings from," Yamano lied, "So where are we gonna go to?"
"We're going to Δ Hidden Oblivious Widow!" Roat shouted.
"But that's where that girl went into a coma at!" Nabuko said to Roat. She knew that she and Akira would have to go and check it out but she didn't want anything to happen to Roat. "Are you crazy? We can't go there. It could be dangerous!"
"I said the same thing about that other area yesterday," Roat said shrugging, "Nothing happened to you guys did it? What should make this place any different?"
Yamano sighed and huddled up with Nabuko. "I think we should let him come," he whispered to her.
"What?" she asked, "But what about the Data Bug? He's still just a normal player! What if something happens?"
"I know, I know," Yamano said then sighed, "But you said that in your vision you saw us fighting a Data Bug with another person. Besides, we were normal players yesterday and we were struck dead. Look, after all that happened we were still fine." Nabuko sighed. She knew that she wouldn't be able to win this argument. She kind of felt that Roat might be the next chosen person anyway.
"Hey guys," Roat said tapping Yamano on the shoulder, "What are you talking about?"
"Nothing," he said walking in the direction of the Chaos Gate, "Come on let's get going. It's supposed to be a level three area and a water element."
Nabuko and Roat followed him, "It's about time," Roat said.
"Hidden Oblivious Widow!" they shouted and then jumped into the Chaos Gate.
"Their other friend is back now. Good, I was hoping they'd bring someone else to play with."
The gold rings floated to the ground. They were in an area covered in snow. As far as the eye could see there was no life except for a few Cordyceps. They couldn't see any Magic Portals close by but the map showed that the dungeon was nearby. Nabuko walked over to the Cordyceps and put them in her pack. "I have to make my Grunty grow big and strong!" she said in a cheerful tone of voice that lifted everyone's spirits. There didn't seem to be much wrong with this area so they headed for the dungeon. On the way there they ran into about two magic portals. Only a couple of Deadly Moths came out of them. They were really easy to beat and were nothing compared to the Data Bug versions.
They walked into the dungeon. Roat pulled a Fairy Orb out of his pack and threw it to the ground. "Ok," he said looking at the map, "There are three floors here." They continued down into the dungeon and fought through a few more magic portals. "So, what are those rings supposed to do?" Roat asked as they got farther down in the dungeon, "I mean why would you get them in an event if they didn't have some kind of special effect?"
Nabuko and Yamano stood still for a moment. They didn't have anything they could think of telling him. "Well, actually," Yamano said hesitantly, "I don't think they have any special effect. Maybe they're just for decoration. After all, haven't some of the other administrators done events like that?"
"Only Balmung," Roat responded, "He's kind of weird, but cool. Most of the girl players in 'The World' go crazy for him. There are rumors saying that he used to be with the .hackers!"
"The .hackers?" Yamano asked, "Who are they?"
"You've never heard of the .hackers?" Roat asked. Nabuko looked at Yamano strangely, "They're legends in 'The World!' Supposedly, they solved the final mystery of 'The World.' After that no one was allowed to use their avatars. Until one day two kids won a contest and they were able to use the avatars of the first two members of the .hackers. A Twin Blade named Kite and a Heavy Blade named Blackrose. Not much is known about what happened to the .hackers though. Balmung became a system admin. Some people say that Kite and many of the others still play 'The World', but not many people see them."
"The first member was a Twin Blade?" Yamano asked.
Nabuko knew this but she never thought anything of it, "Do you know what he looked like Roat?"
Roat put his hand to his chin in thought, "Well I never saw him myself but I think he wore red clothes with yellow symbols on it. He also had two red triangles on his cheeks and wore a red hat. His hair was kind of a blue-green color."
"Nabuko do you think that could have been him?" Yamano whispered to her.
"It might have been," she answered. The boy they saw in the memory fragment wore grey clothes, but other then that the description fit him perfectly.
They continued down into the third floor and found the Gott Statue room. There was a Yellow Candy, and two Silver Scarabs. "See, I told you there was nothing wrong with this area," Roat said turning to the two of them, "You guys were just overreacting!"
A confused look came over Yamano's face. "Yeah, I guess it's ok." There was something wrong. According to the boards this place was infected, but nothing was strange about it since they got there. "I just don't get it," he muttered under his breath. They walked out of the room into a Y shaped corridor. Suddenly, orange blotches appeared on the wall and data bits began to float around in the area.
"What the hell is this?" Roat asked. His eyes grew wide as he looked around the area, "This is just like how the other place was." His hands fell limp at his side and all of a sudden a jolt of static went through the area.
Suddenly an image appeared in the middle of the corridor. It was an image of two girl players. One of them was a Heavy Blade. She wore green body armor that went from her shoulders down to her knees. She had black hair that was in a ponytail. The other girl had on a long blue skirt and a shirt that covered up right until the point it reached her navel. She had blonde hair and a set of two small angel wings on her back. At first she held an axe but then it suddenly changed into a set of Twin Blade weapons. "What the heck?" Nabuko asked herself. She had never seen someone's class change. The two girls looked like they were on the bridge in Mac Anu.
The two girls were leaning on the side rail of the bridge and were talking. "I guess you had an adventure without me," the Heavy Blade said looking directly at the Twin Blade and smiling, "Ryo-oki . . . I've been stuck here for a week . . . "
The Twin Blade who was apparently named Ryo-oki turned to the Heavy Blade. "I know . . . " she responded solemnly.
"Is everyone giving you a hard time at school?" the Heavy Blade asked Ryo-oki with care. The two of them must have known each other in real life.
"Yeah . . . " Ryo-oki said, "They are . . . "
The Heavy Blade looked down directly off of the side of the bridge to where the water would have been, "That's horrible," she said as the two of them slowly faded away.
"What was that?" Roat asked, "How can someone get stuck in 'The World?'"
A flat, round object, just like the one they saw yesterday floated to the ground. Yamano and Nabuko ran over to pick it up. When they got it a message appeared which read, "You now have: M:RB"
Roat just stood where he was in shock, "That's not supposed to happen in 'The World,'" he said just staring in the direction of where the memory fragment had just been played. "That couldn't have been an event, that was just too weird," he said turning his view to Yamano and Nabuko, "You guys lied to me didn't you. Something did happen yesterday. Tell me what happened."
Yamano looked ahead. The room on the other side of the corridor now had violet fog flowing from the doorway. He sighed and turned back to Roat, "Well," he said shaking his head, "It seems you're about to find out." He began to run toward the door and Nabuko followed close behind him. Yamano looked back, Roat was still standing in the same place, "Well are you coming or what?" Roat nodded and the three of them went through the door together, all at the exact same time.
"So you finally made it here huh?" a voice from out of nowhere called out, "Honestly I thought you weren't going to come at all, but now that you all are here I can start to have some real fun." A shadow rift opened up and a Heavy Axeman stepped out. He was a slender figure and had light body armor on. It seemed more like the outfit of a Twin Blade. He had a blue scarf on and a gray cape. He wore a light green cap and the rest of his outfit was the same color as well. He held a large blue axe in one of his arms and supported it over his shoulder. "Welcome, my name is Atemis and I will be your slayer tonight."
"Yamano, this is what my vision was, I can see it clearly," Nabuko said turning her head towards him, "So that must mean that you're with Haruko!"
"Well, in a sense yes. Actually we're mortal enemies but we've been brought together for a similar cause," Atemis said with a smirk on his face, "Did you like my little trick? I made that girl post that thing on the boards about her friend going into a coma. I knew that would get you two to come here but I didn't know you'd bring a friend. That's all right though, more sacrificial blood to spill in the name of the Twilight Dragon."
"Twilight Dragon?" Roat asked, "What's that?"
"Don't worry, you don't need to know," Atemis said holding out one of his hands, "After all, all three of you are about to die right here. Now my Data Bug, in the name of the Twilight Dragon I command you to arise!" A green and black circle appeared on the ground, just as it had when Haruko summoned a Data Bug. This time it appeared in the form of a crab.
"It's a Snip Snap," Nabuko said looking directly at it. The only one of them who seemed afraid was Roat. That was probably due to the fact that he hadn't seen a Data Bug before. It looked horrible to him. It was a monster corrupted beyond belief with green specks attached to it like some kind of fungus.
"That thing is a monstrosity," Roat said looking at it, "And its Hit Points are all strange. I can't read it. Is this some glitch on my computer?"
"No," Yamano said as he began to charge at it, "Roat just keep attacking it. It might not seem to do much but just trust me. Nabuko, you focus on healing the two of us, you have the most healing items. If you can, try to hit it with a couple of Fire element spells."
Both Nabuko and Roat nodded. Roat didn't really feel like he should trust Yamano after he had lied to him so much, but he had a slight feeling that Yamano was trying to look out for what was best for him. At the moment it didn't seem like there was anything else he could possibly do anyway.
Finally, a green orb appeared around the monster and broke. An evil grin went across Atemis's face. "You ready Nabuko?" Akira asked holding out his hand.
Nabuko nodded, "Ready." She put her hand on his.
"Sun and Moon Data Drain!" they shouted. A beam of light surged forward and struck the monster then dissipated.
"What happened?" Nabuko asked, "Why didn't it work?"
"Like I said, you won't be leaving this dungeon anytime soon," Atemis said holding up his axe and slicing a new shadow rift, "Well I would love to stay to see your demise, but I have more important things to take care of. Bye-bye now." He stepped through the shadow rift and it closed behind him.
"Two alone will not be able to destroy this threat," a familiar voice said from behind them. All three of them looked behind them and saw Celestia. "Roat, come forth." Roat walked toward her and asked no questions, even though he had so many. Celestia reached out and touched Roat's wrist. A yellow light appeared around it and when it faded away there was a bracelet there, "I give to you the Bronze Bracelet of Mercury and the Gift of Many Tongues. You have been chosen just as many others, including your two friends who are present. Now go forth and use this new power."
Roat bowed his head slightly, "Thank you," he said as Celestia slowly vanished. He looked the bracelet over for a second. It was made completely of bronze metal. On one side of the bracelet it had the symbol of Mercury on it. On the other side there were three triangles forming a triforce. "I think I know what to do now," Roat said holding out the bracelet, "I can hear a voice telling me what to do."
Yamano and Nabuko held out their hands as well, "Sun, Moon, Mercury, Data Drain!" the shouted, each one of them saying their own planetary force. Three beams shot forward and merged into one. It struck the Data Bug and it reverted to its normal form. After that it was easy to defeat. They all leveled up. Yamano and Roat got to level four and Nabuko got to level five.
"I think," Roat said after it was all done, "I think that my bracelet is talking to me. It's like I can understand what its inner life is saying or something. I can hear voices coming from your rings too. They're telling me what happened to you guys yesterday."
Nabuko and Yamano moved closer to him, "I'm sorry we lied to you," Yamano said solemnly.
"That's alright," Roat said rubbing the back of his head, "I understand."
"So, should we log out now?" Nabuko asked.
"Wait a second," Yamano said, spotting something in the middle of the room. It was just like the thing that Kalem had sent to him, but this one had the letter V engraved on it. "Another one. I wonder what it's for." Nabuko pulled out a Sprite Ocarina and the three of them gated out.
"Where am I?"
"Don't worry, you'll be seeing some of your old friends very soon."
megafan505: Well, that's it for now. I think I'll start working on the next chapter already . . . See ya all later!