.hack/FRAGMENT

Saya

version 19.0

Falling Upward Toward the Sky

new topic posted 5.28.06

Now it's my turn to tell our story, please treat me nicely. My name's Amaya and like I said, I'll be the one writing next. I haven't been in the story for quite a while, how upsetting. But the fact that I'm narrating this time means that it's also time I'm finally back again. Oops, I guess I shouldn't have said that. Don't tell Koto, she'd be angry with me if she knew I was giving a spoiler at the beginning of the post.

Oh, and just because I've already given a little spoiler, here's another one: your next author is one who seems to be untrusting and has all the appearances of someone to fear, but is really just a big teddy bear.

"What are you doing?" Claire yelled after the few moments it took for the scene to register in her mind. "I let you out of our prison area and immediately you two are going to fight each other? If you PK her, I'm going to delete your character and block your access to the game!" She turned on Death who did not appear fazed by her shouting and decided to plug a finger into his ear as he leaned against his weapon, the point of which was now dug deeply into the sand.

Erika ran to where both her friends stood and waved her hands frantically, her black blades disappearing. "It isn't what it looks like, Claire. It was Sky, she was here!" The blonde opened her mouth to speak, but before the thought could form into words, she stopped and her eyes became dull. "Is she checking her e-mail?"

The boy smiled inwardly and shook his head, pulling his finger out of his ear and flinging off whatever it was that may have caught in his virtual nail. He interestedly inspected his nail for any remaining residue before speaking, "I have to say, you have interesting taste in friends. Myself included, of course. Who have I met so far? The hacker…" he ticked them off on his sufficiently clean fingers, "I've heard of the legendary Rena, Shugo and Balmung," they apparently got one finger combined, "and now the neurotic founder of the Twilight Brigade…"

Suddenly coming back to herself in 'The World,' Claire slammed her fist against the back of the boy's head. "Neurotic?" She said, smiling grimly and cracking her knuckles. "Be careful what you say, I am one of the 'neurotic founders of the Twilight Brigade' after all…" she turned her attention to the other girl, who was staring wide-eyed at both of her friends. Somehow it seemed as if Death's presence brought out a side of a person's personality that they didn't normally seem to show. "I just got an e-mail for Twilight Brigade business. An area's just been hit by a virus."

The dark Long Arm pulled himself up off the ground and dusted the light sand off his black attire, his eyebrows raised as his only sign of showing interest. Erika on the other hand, looked wholeheartedly interested. "I guess we've made Sky angry. What do we do now? Is the area blocked off? I mean, I know someone who could get us in…"

"Who do you think you're talking to?" Claire said, stretching her arms out in front of her and cracking her knuckles again, but in a different way this time. "Neurotic Twilight Brigade, remember?" Was she not going to let the 'neurotic' thing die down? "Exclusive access comes with founding the only police force in the game.

"Let me just contact Amaya, she said something about having found an interesting new Long Arm weapon that she didn't want to get rid of." Death's eyebrows lifted until they were hidden, more so than usual, beneath his long dark bangs. A weapon, that was certainly one of the few ways to catch his interest. Leave it to Claire to already have something like that figured out.

A few moments later, the brown-clad Wave Master made her way towards the small group from a distance, which looked longer due to the heat's haze. She was slow about it, there was and is no such thing as a fast-moving Wave Master, and had just climbed her way over the last dune when she slumped over onto her staff. "What's so urgent, Claire?" she asked, still having not noticed the two others.

"Amaya, this is Death, the Player Killer I was complaining to you about the other day…"

The boy swept a graceful bow, a smile playing on his naturally dark lips, "I'm glad to know I was giving the Twilight Brigade a run for its money."

The blonde smiled back, "Yes, you have. But that doesn't matter now. We could really do with that weapon you found the other day, Amaya."

Amaya shook her head vigorously and refused to take out her weapon, straightening up and holding her hand in front of Claire's face. "Stop and go back, please. You want me to give a weapon to a Player Killer?"

Claire nodded and without any other questions, Amaya rifled through her items and pulled out a Long Arm weapon that was black like the all the other weapons around it: Claire's sword, Amaya's staff, and Erika's twin blades. It left a trail behind it as it moved through the air and the boy's almost satanic grin was reflected in weapon's onyx blade as it took it gently from the girl's hand and spun it to test it out. "It's a good weapon," it was the highest compliment he was willing to give.

"Now that we have all that settled," the Twin Blade said, soundlessly tapping her bare feet impatiently against the sand, "can we get going? I want to figure out what Sky is up to, and what exactly she is."

The blonde nodded and the party of four disappeared in rings of golden light as they gated out to a different area.

But they certainly were not expecting what they were greeted with when they arrived: an apparently perfectly normal area but for the fact that the group was now surrounded once again by members of the Twilight Brigade with the red-headed twins standing in front, their arms hooked together as they leaned against one another.

"Claire! What are you doing with the convicts?" they asked in unison.

The girl tossed her blonde hair over her shoulder and the weapon she had taken out just before gating into this area had disappeared while the others, who had also taken out their weapons, did the same. "I received an e-mail that this area had a virus, I was just about to close it…"

"We just got a message saying that the convicts would be escaping to this place. It was signed 'Sky.' The name sounded shady, we even ran a check with the CC Corp system but we couldn't find anything. We thought we'd check it out any way…"

"Sky!" Erika shouted and tried to step forward but her way was blocked by the sharp points of blades pointed at her stomach. "Sky contacted you! What's her problem with us?" Was it with 'us,' though, or just with her? The Twin Blade was getting the feeling that this Sky character was only targeting her. But why?

Claire shooed the confused looking Twilight Brigade members slightly more out of her way and continued her conversation with the twin characters as if Erika had not interrupted. "Sky…I see, so this must have been a set-up. I suppose that means I'm beginning to look like a threat to whoever this 'Sky' person is. Well then, I'll just make myself more of a threat. The Twilight Brigade's been fun, but it's time I did a little bit of investigation on my own. I guess I'll see you around."

"What are you saying, Claire?"

"I'm quitting the Twilight Brigade…"