.hack/FRAGMENT

Saya

version 5.0

Forbidden Zone

new topic posted 10.24.05

"Darn it, Koto!" Erika slammed her fist against the desk as she checked her e-mail once more to make certain that she had the coordinates for the area her friend had asked to meet were correct (of course they were correct, I take that as a personal insult). The teenager sent a mail to the other player, asking about the area.

Within a matter of seconds she received a reply (I pride myself in my typing ability, and my writing ability, and my ability in the game, and my…the list goes on forever, I'm a very talented person). "Of course those were the right coordinates. Meet me in front of the Chaos Gate, Mac Anu as usual."

Erika sighed and logged onto the world once more to find the brunette already waiting for her, leaning against the large sword common to her character's class. "I forgot that you can't get in…" the Heavy Blade said, not even the slightest bit apologetically (it wasn't as if I had anything to apologize for).

The white-haired Twin Blade shook her head, "Then why in the world," (bad pun), "did you ask me to meet you there if we can't get in?"

Koto clicked her tongue and waved a finger in front of her friend's face, "I said you can't get in. I can. My…uh…acquaintance IRL told me about the area and how to get in."

"If it's blocked off, it's that way for a reason!"

"Fool!" the other player shook her head and her next words were spoken as if she was explaining the obvious to a small child who didn't understand it yet (I swear, that was what it felt like). "No one ever becomes famous by just playing by the rules. If you want excitement you've got to bend them a little, and besides, it isn't as if we're breaking them, just bending. Bending…"

Erika smiled, "Oh yeah? We're going into an area that's blocked off. I think that accounts for blatantly breaking the rules," she stressed those last few words but the other teenager merely shrugged having already lost interest in the discussion at hand. "Fine, start a party so I can come with you."

Koto smiled, she knew it was only a matter of time before the Twin Blade saw things her way and within a few seconds they were in a party together and the brunette was playing around with the Chaos Gate in ways that Erika didn't even bother trying to understand.

When the two girls appeared on the field surrounded by spirals of golden light that evaporated they immediately went into defensive positions. "It's a good thing we've both been leveling up," Koto said, but her voice was fuzzy and the area faded in and out of focus around them. "What a weird place…"

Yeah, weird indeed; it was like that one area where Erika had heard the strange voice what seemed like so long ago but was in reality only a few months back. "You aren't welcome here anymore," it was the voice the Twin Blade had been waiting for the moment the area started fizzing (for lack of a better term). She immediately looked over at Koto, but her friend didn't seem to have heard it, or if she had she was pretending she hadn't. Erika didn't bother to say anything; she assumed it would only result in the same answer she had received last time. Instead, she chose to ignore it, store it in her memory. She would ask Shugo and Rena about it later.

Just as the screen fizzed, the background music for fights started playing, echoing in Erika's ears. Both girls turned around to find where the monster was, it wasn't too difficult to find. But it was different from anything they had ever seen before. It was an ordinary monster, but streams of data were coming off of it (or maybe they were gathering towards it?) and there were patches of purple that in all likelihood should not have been there. Erika ran towards it and spun around so that her blades slashed through the monster's 'skin' over and over.

But every time the girl opened a wound, it closed up in the blink of an eye. Finally realizing that she was having no effect on it, the Twin Blade jumped back and watched as Koto continued to hack away at the beast (what can I say, I'm persistent). From where she stood, Erika used healing spells on her friend until the monster the Heavy Blade was attacking suddenly vanished.

"Where the hell did it go?" Koto shouted, since her other party member had gone a good distance away.

The Twin Blade shrugged her shoulders and tossed her long white hair over her shoulders. "No clue!" she shouted back, but before she could finish the screen started going black. Erika switched her field of vision from first person so that she could see what happened. The monster had appeared behind her character and ran her through the stomach with its long talons.

It was the first time Erika would be dying in the game, at least it was a new experience and Koto could always bring her back. Even though the girl was greatly disappointed with the fact that she would be losing all those experience points…the colors on the computer's screen started to swirl and meld like a broken kaleidoscope and suddenly the area came into focus again. Strange…

The girl looked around, the monster was evaporating and her character was completely fine. What was going on? Koto ran up to her and the Heavy Blade's eyes held the same question. Erika changed her view back to her preferred first person to watch the monster evaporate into clumps of data that floated into the air and slowly disappeared. "Thanks for resurrecting me," the Twin Blade said, checking her experience points and preparing to mourn over the loss of them.

"What are you talking about? I didn't do anything, I just saw that thing kill you and I came over here because I was out of range to use my items but then you just came back into focus that that thing started screaming. And now it's gone…" her face was thoughtful when she was finished. Which was a good thing in this case because Erika had a lot to think about as well: that voice, and now this? Why was it that strange things always seemed to happen to her when she was with Koto? Was it the other player that was doing this? No, from the surprise on the other girl's face it didn't seem so.

A message appeared on Erika's screen…a file with a strange name (one that was much too long to remember, not that I cared to at the time). "Weird…I just got this completely random file…" the Twin Blade's voice trailed off as the girl typed away at her computer in an attempt to read it, but it refused to open for her.

"Really…? That's odd," a thoughtful expression once again crossed Koto's face but it disappeared in a matter of moments. "Maybe we should head back," back to Mac Anu (or the 'City of the Sea' as Erika likes to call it). Together the two girls exited the strange area and entered an even stranger one, or so it seemed.

The city they entered was in chaos; people were running in every which way, including NPC's, it was rare to see non-player characters out of the shops and running on the streets. A few characters stood atop the bridge in the distance while others stood on a fleet of gondolas that littered the water flowing beneath it. They were too far away, though, for either Erika or Koto to see their features clearly, but it was obvious who they were.

"Twilight Brigade…" Koto murmured, her voice venomous (hey, if you knew them the way I do then you'd understand why I hate them).

The tone of the Heavy Blade's voice caused someone to stop and stare; most people did not hold such contempt for the keepers of the law in 'The World.' "Um, what's going on?" Erika decided to try and take the poor stranger's attention away from her strange friend's reaction. The blue-eyed teenager would ask about it later, but now was not the time.

The other player's eyes remained suspiciously on Koto when he answered, "CC Corp's evacuating the game. From the sound of it, they lost an important file." Luckily, the player ran off toward the Chaos Gate before he got the chance to see the suspicious look exchanged between the two girls.

"Give me the thing we found," the brunette couldn't say 'file' for fear of being overheard. As quickly as she could, so as to have less of a chance of finding out, Erika handed the file over. "I'll contact you as soon as I figure out what's on this."

"What? Shouldn't we give it back?"

"Not until we find out why it's so important first. If we found it, it means we were meant to…" Or at least, Erika was.