I don't own ".Hack"
If
you
want
to
know
Balmung's
secret
say
"Aye!"
Too
bad,
I'm
not
telling!
At
least
not
for
a
while…
Chapter 8 "A Friend To The Rescue."
A
huge
bird,
the
size
of
a
giant
airplane
soared
over
us.
Maha
kept
pulling
me
away,
but
I
couldn't
leave
Sasha
here
by
herself.
"Sasha!"
I
called
to
her,
"Come
on,
we
have
to
get
out
of
here."
"I
bet
I
could
get
a
lot
of
rare
goodies
from
this
thing"
she
just
stood
there
looking
up
at
the
humongous
bird.
Then
it
elevated
into
the
sky.
"Sasha,
now
is
your
chance,
get
out
of
there!"
"I
can
take
it,
don't
worry…"
She
took
her
stance.
The
bird
faced
the
area
where
Sasha
was
standing,
and
raced
towards
the
ground
with
incredible
speed.
I
ran
to
her,
but
I
was
too
late.
"Sir
Balmung…"
Magi
walked
up
to
Balmung
who
was
standing
on
top
of
a
building
in
Delta.
"What
is
it,
Magi?"
Balmung
turned
towards
him.
"As
you
can
see
there
are
monsters
attacking
inside
the
towns…
would
you
have
anything
to
do
with
this?"
Magi
said
fixing
his
hair.
"…"
"Sir,
you
can
not
just
come
up
with
different
events,
without
telling
anyone,
I
mean
we
already
have
24
players-"
Magi
was
cut
off.
"It's
not
my
fault
they
didn't
read
the
BBS
board."
Magi
sighed,
"Anyways…
there
is
a
problem"
he
was
cut
off
again.
"Kid,
who
are
you
to
lecture
me
on
how
I
should
run
the
game?"
"But
sir…"
Magi
cleared
his
thought,
"it's
about…
her."
"Aura?
Has
she
awakened?"
"Not
exactly…
but
she
has
killed
one
of
the
players."
Balmung
looked
away,
"Tsukasa…"
"Huh?"
Magi
walked
up
to
the
rail
of
the
roof
and
looked
down,
"So
you
know…
who
the
chosen
one
is.
You
know
about
Kurumi…"
A cold shiver ran down Balmung's spine, and he teleported out not saying a word .
Monster defeated
"Kurumi…?"
A
familiar
figure
with
a
friendly
voice
stood
over
me
and
Sasha.
"Nn"
I
sat
up
rubbing
my
head,
I
must
have
fallen
really
hard
for
my
vision
to
be
so
blurry.
Then
everything
came
into
focus,
"M-Murakami?
What
happened?"
He
crouched
down
and
put
his
hand
on
my
shoulder.
"You
were
attacked…"
he
said
it
so
simply
for
it
to
be
true.
Then
I
remembered
a
little,
"The
flying
monster!"
I
looked
at
Sasha
who
was
unconscious
laying
beside
me.
I
looked
around
there
was
stone
wall
around
me,
"Am
I
in
a
cave?"
Also,
Maha
was
nowhere
to
be
found.
Then
all
of
my
memory
came
back
to
me.
'Slap!'
"Murakami,
you
betrayed
me!"
My
eyes
began
to
tear.
He
tried
to
calm
me
down,
"No…
it
wasn't
me!
I
can
explain
everything…"
"Like
hell
you
can!
I
saw
it,
I
saw
it
all!"
I
jumped
up
and
my
head
hit
on
something
cold
and
hard.
I
passed
out.
"Thanks,
but
please
take
care
of
the
other
Wave
Master."
"But,
how
can
I
trust
you
with
Kurumi?"
I
was
still
unconscious,
but
I
could
hear
voices,
two
of
them.
I
could
recognize
one,
it
belonged
to
Murakami.
Another
one
sounded
somewhere
in
between
a
deep,
mature
man's
voice
and
a
voice
of
a
boy
in
his
late-teen
years.
"Ok…" Murakami agreed. "Murakami, what are you agreeing to? Please don't leave me…" Then the voices became more distant, and I couldn't hear a thing. Once again I was floating in a lake, surrounded with bright light. Although this time it was different somehow… In the distance I saw a girl, she was wearing a light white dress. Her skin was pale, almost white, and her hair had an unusual color that was kind of hard to describe with words.
"Where
am
I?"
Even
though
I
was
thinking
to
myself,
everything
I
thought
came
out
in
words,
"Who
are
you?"
The
girl
in
white
faced
me,
"I
am
Aura…
don't
worry
Kurumi,
you
are
not
dead.
And
since
you
will
awaken
soon,
know
that
we
will
meet
again!"
"Aura!" I gasped waking up. Music played around me, and wind blew though my hair. I looked around. I was just outside of the Delta server, MacAnu. But I seemed to be floating in the air above water, then I realized that I was on a boat.
"So
you
are
finally
awake…"
I
looked
up,
"B-Balmung?"
He
put
me
down,
and
smiled
patting
my
head.
"You've
slept
for
about
two
days
now…"
He
chuckled.
"WHAT?
You
mean
I
missed
my
exams!"
Right
as
the
boat
stopped,
I
ran
onto
the
shore.
"Whoa,
whoa…
I
was
only
kidding,
calm
down."
This
was
so
unlike
Balmung.
"So
then
how
long?"
I
used
his
favorite
emotion.
I
typed
in
/lookhard> .
He
walked
off
the
boat,
and
led
me
towards
a
big
clock
tower.
"There,"
He
pointed
up,
"it's
only
9:58
pm…"
Then
he
started
to
walk
away.
"You
will
be
ok,
right?"
he
turned
around
right
as
he
reached
the
Chaos
Gate,
"If
you
need
anything
you'll
find
me
in
Lambda
server,
but
you
can
go
there
only
after
you've
reached
level
20,
so
try
not
to
get
yourself
killed."
I nodded, and he teleported through the gate. "Was this really the Balmung who I met before?" The clock stroke ten and I decided to log off and get some rest before my exam tomorrow. Still I couldn't shake off the feeling that today Balmung acted somewhat like Saigi.
I took off my FMD and became immersed in darkness. I looked to my roommate's side of the dorm. He was asleep on his bed with a history book and notes for tomorrow's exam. I walked up to him, and put away his notes. "What was I thinking? How could he possibly be Balmung? He was studying all night…"
"Okimi…"
He
mumbled
my
name
as
I
pulled
a
blanket
over
him.
I
smiled,
and
started
walking
towards
my
bed,
when
I
noticed
that
his
computer
was
on.
Knowing
Saigi,
he
wouldn't
waste
electricity,
and
would
always
turn
off
his
computer,
not
just
the
monitor.
I
sat
down
at
his
desk,
and
turned
on
his
monitor.
My heart was pounding loud. Saigi never would let me touch his computer, and right now I was scared that he would wake up while I am surfing his files. I heard a rustle behind me, and turned around.
I sighed in relief to find him still sleeping. I cautiously skimmed the files on his desktop, and came across an interesting file, "The World's secrets" I know that he has been playing the game, but I couldn't imagine why would someone have a folder specifically for the game, and why would it say secret if it really was a secret. Inside the folder it was like a labyrinth, on file led into another, and that one branched off into three separate files, and so on.
"Hey!
What
are
you
doing?"
I
heard
Saigi's
voice,
and
turned
around.
Lucky
for
me
he
was
still
asleep.
I
never
realized
that
he
talked
in
his
sleep.
Still,
I
got
off
his
computer,
turned
it
off
and
went
to
catch
some
sleep
before
the
history
exam
tomorrow.
Please review and tell me what you think! Pirre the Pharaoh of Nagging, they DO have phoenix down in .Hack! I looked it up! HA! IN YOUR FACE!
