.hack/FRAGMENT
Saya
version 12.0
A Trip Into the Past: Memories of a Twilight
new topic posted 1.14.06
"Oh, God, Erika…" the dark-haired teenager felt her mother's arms wrap around her small, slim frame. "I'm so glad you're alright." She felt something cool and wet soak through the thin hospital robe that she had woken up in when her eyes opened to the clean white room. A plastic mask was pressed against her mouth and she didn't need to look to the side to notice the IV sticking out of her arm. Erika was in the hospital…again. Back to this godforsaken place that she was always trying to forget about.
The girl tried to push her mother off of her but was too tired to will her limbs to move. Luckily, a nurse chose that moment to walk in and pull the teenager's mother off of her. "I'm fine, Mother. What happened?" she asked, trying to stop herself from laughing at the way her voice was muffled by the plastic.
"You passed out, sweetie," the nurse said considering how Erika's mother was crying too much to speak (although whether that was from happiness or disappointment is beyond me). "You've been out for the past few hours."
"Can you take this off?" Erika asked, it was clear enough that she meant the mask despite the fact that she made no indication as to what the object in question was.
The nurse shook her head, "Not until we get the doctor's okay, I'll call him down as soon as he's available." (How long that might be depends on the doctor, at least in my opinion…I've never had a particularly high opinion of doctors, nurses on the other hand I give a lot of credit to.)
A few days later, Erika's mother was doting on her adopted daughter more than usual (to the degree of crushing her from it). When the girl came home from school and threw her bag on top of her bed, causing it to groan underneath its incredible weight (I myself learned early on not to carry my books around, school only judges one kind of intelligence anyway), and sat on the chair in front of her computer. She was itching to get back online; her mother had tried as hard as she could manage to keep Erika too busy to touch the computer that now sat gathering dust in the corner of the teenager's room. But finally, it was the girl's chance. Nothing her mother said could take this time away from her…
She pulled the headpiece over her eyes and double-clicked on the icon that would transport her to 'The World.' A place where mysterious things happened…
As soon as she was logged on, the girl made certain to send an e-mail to three of the most knowledgeable players she knew (or really, two of the most knowledgeable players, the third just always came along for the ride). It didn't take long for her to receive their replies and before long the girl was sitting at a table in the café, debating with herself over what information she should tell them and what she should leave out.
Erika took a sip from the mug of hot chocolate sitting in front of her on the table that held room enough for four when the door opened and the characters for whom she had been waiting ever so impatiently walked in. "Erika!" Shugo yelled, waving his arms in the air as he caught sight of the girl.
"What was it that you needed to tell us?" Balmung asked curiously, he was an odd one (this coming from the girl who has friends like me…I can't believe I just called myself odd). There were times when he could be completely serious (and more than a little scary, sorry Balmung, but you creep me out sometimes) and then there were times when he could be so completely carefree and outgoing…
The three newcomers took their seats around the table and gave their orders to the poor terrified waitress, a PC, player character, that was among those who idolized the three heroes. Erika had finally settled on what information she would entrust with these strange people: how she, for a while at least, couldn't log out, everything short of telling them about the strange files she and Koto continually stumbled upon. "It isn't normal to not be able to logout, right?"
"What?" Shugo shouted, just as the poor waitress had come back with their orders.
Rena apologized to the girl for her brother, "I'm sorry about that," she said as she passed their plates on to her friends. "What do you mean? Everyone can log out of 'The World.'"
"Well, for a while I couldn't see the screen, I couldn't log out. Weird, right? I wanted to know if you guys knew anything about that…"
"Sorry, I've never heard of something like that happening before," Rena said apologetically.
But out of the corner of her eye, Erika saw Balmung's expression instantly change as he shook his brilliant white head. "No, I've heard of something like this. A Wave Master from a long time ago, before Kite and BlackRose ever entered the game." Kite and BlackRose, the original Dot Hackers… "I don't know whether to call him a he or a she now, since in the game it was a he and IRL a girl. But the name was Tsukasa, I think the girl still plays, but under a different character now."
"I've never heard of that!" Shugo said as he looked up from the plate of placed in front of him.
His sister shook her head, "You haven't heard of a lot of things, brother."
"Well, what happened?" The white clad Twin Blade asked curiously, maybe this would lead to some clues about what was going on.
The Blade Master appeared to be having difficulty remembering what it was that had happened to that poor Wave Master from oh-so-long-ago. "Well, everything I found out was from either Subaru or Crim, but what I heard was pretty strange. The Crimson Knights went after him for a little while, but apparently he had no memory of his past," (and apparently you decided on a gender for the kid, Balmung), "and his life IRL. He couldn't log out and he could bypass pretty much all the rules of the game. I think it was because of the Key of the Twilight."
The Key of the Twilight, eh? Maybe that was what those fragments were, pieces of the Key of the Twilight, whatever that was. So, what did that mean, that when she found all the pieces they'd turn into a key that would let her bypass all the rules? Pretty cool…
"What files?"
"Don't tell me I said all that out loud…" Erika groaned and smacked herself on the head. "I promised I wouldn't say anything about it to anyone. I am so horrible at keeping secrets" (that you are, my dear, but it causes no end of entertainment for people like me…).
Balmung smiled (darn, he and I were on the same wavelength, talk about scary), "Yeah, I'd have to say that you did."
"Well, what files are you talking about?" Shugo asked, he had already cleared his plate and was now eyeing the food that lay untouched on Balmung's.
The dark-haired teenager grimaced at her computer, well, what now? She had already let it slip, might as well tell them everything, right? "Well, a lot of strange things have been going on…you know that already. Hold on, let me start again. Do you remember when I heard that voice and my friend didn't?"
How could they forget? Or, really, how could Balmung and Rena forget…? "That isn't where the weirdness stops, though. I keep finding these weird files that only seem to unlock when I open them. The first time it was pretty cool, my friend and I saw this movie about creating a program named 'Sky' to replace one called 'Aura…'"
"Aura?" Rena asked, leaning closer to the center of the table in hopes of less people listening in on their already strange conversation.
"Well, that's what they said. Why, what is it?"
"More like 'Who is it?' you mean."
This time Shugo supplied the answer (hey, I'm just as surprised as anyone else out there, and if you're reading this Shugo, I meant that in the nicest way possible, really). "Aura's this program that takes the shape of a girl in the game. 'The World' pretty much relies on her existence," he and his companions exchanged dark looks that caused Erika a great deal of confusion, but something distracted the girl before she could say anything.
"Thanks you guys, you've helped me a lot, my mom's calling me so I have to go!" she stood up and made her way out the door of the small café, waving good-bye before she walked outside and disappeared.
"So, what do you say to a little file hunting?" Balmung asked, a smile playing on his lips. It had been a while since something this interesting had happened in the game and he was itching to get involved. A life of leisure did not suit him well at all…
The siblings smiled back, "I guess we'd better call in all our old friends," Rena said as the three of them stood up as well to make their way out of the café where they would be able to send e-mails to their old party.