.hack/FRAGMENT
Saya
version 20.0
A Golden Skeleton Key
new topic posted 6.11.06
That annoying little brat's hint has to have been the stupidest thing I have ever heard coming out of her mouth. Considering how she will probably be reading this, however, I know I shouldn't be saying that. But considering how often I have to smile and act nicely around her because of Erika, I think I have the right to complain every once in a while.
In case you haven't guessed it already, I'm Death. It feels so odd to have to introduce myself over half-way through a story in which I am already introduced. But, that's the way things work and I did promise my little play-mate (aka: Koto) and Erika. Koto makes such a wonderful little toy, she gets worked up so easily. It provides endless entertainment.
Ah, I'm sorry, I seem to have lost the entire point of this 'forward.' I've introduced myself; check. I've rambled for a good amount of space; check. I think that's it. If I was to continue the stories of my entertaining little charades, I would have to continue until I died, or until my tongue shriveled up like a prune and fell off.
Koto sat in the café, waiting for her friend while taking occasional sips of hot chocolate, her brown eyes never leaving the door and her head snapping every time she heard the ringing bells that signaled another person walking in or walking out. Finally, the white-clad teenager pushed open the door, her sky blue eyes scanning the room until they fell upon her friend. The Twin Blade gave the other girl a slight wave before pulling an empty chair from a nearby table to where her friend was sitting.
The brunette slammed her mug so hard against the table that hot chocolate splashed onto the table and onto her clothes which an instant later were clean again. She didn't feel a thing, though Erika winced when the steaming liquid made contact with her pale skin. "I haven't heard from you lately, Koto. What's up?"
"Just wanted to catch up with an old friend," the Heavy Blade said with a smile that faded a few moments later when her brown eyes glared at the other girl. "I hope you realize I wasn't being serious. I've been off the game for a while trying to gather any useful information I could find on the whole 'Sky' issue."
"And?"
"And, I did find out a little. You know who Aura was, right?" Though the white-clad girl had already nodded her head in reply, the brunette continued as if she hadn't noticed, which wasn't exactly unlikely. "She was more than a program; the heart of the game. They said that sometimes, in times of crisis, Aura would give to a select player something called the 'Key of the Twilight.' I couldn't find any information on it, but everything I did find links back to your other friends. Shugo, Rena, Balmung…even my mom, but when I tried asking they wouldn't tell me anything." She frowned and continued, "Anyway, that's fairly irrelevant to our situation, I just thought it was interesting. Aura disappeared when they took the game offline a few years back but in order to put it back online, CC Corp realized they needed her to keep the game stable. So they made Sky as a temporary replacement for Aura until they could find her again, though it's pretty obvious none of that went as planned.
"I think what you're finding are the fragments of Aura, the keys to finding her, or maybe even pieces of the Key of the Twilight. And Sky wants to stop you because finding Aura would mean that she would become dispensable and CC Corp would delete her."
Erika felt almost bad for the girl whose image she had seen in the sky and whose voice had echoed in her head so many times. Almost; she remembered the angry look that was so often on the girl's face and the times that they had fallen in to traps or their lives, in the game, had been threatened. "So? Now what? Do we keep looking? Should we tell CC Corp?"
Koto shook her head, her brown eyes widening at the mention of the law-makers of the game. Good point: if Erika handed them the information, she'd have to hand them her sources, and that would endanger her friend. Never a good idea, exposing a hacker (I've done it once).
"Alright, no CC Corp. But that still doesn't answer the other questions. What should we do?"
The brunette smiled and waved her finger in front of the other girl's bright blue eyes, causing the Twin Blade to cross them awkwardly. "Don't doubt my greatness," Koto said haughtily, much the way she did many things. "I think it's you that Sky is after, so normally I'd tell you to choose what we're doing. But since I don't really trust you with my well-being, and if you grovel before my astounding wonderfulness, I might reconsider and give you some advice." A glare from the other girl was answer enough, "Alright, fine. Ruin all my fun. I also managed to find a new lead on a possible file fragment. Interested?"
"Remind me why they had to come along?" Koto grumbled to the white-haired girl, looking back at the group standing behind them at the bottom of the sand dune.
It was a strange group: the dark player killer with a good-hearted smile on his lips and waving at the two girls that where looking back at him, the Wave Master who stood slightly apart from the other two and often shot them uncomfortable glances, and the blonde former leader of the Twilight Brigade who stood good-naturedly beside the only boy. "Because they're my friends, and they're online. Besides, you don't even know Claire and Amaya and you're already assuming you won't like them."
Koto looked thoughtfully toward the sky before counting her points off on her fingers. "That guy is the most annoying person in the world. That girl," meaning Amaya, "will probably be the second-most annoying, I hate people like that, and the other one," meaning Claire, "is a member of the Twilight Brigade. When you're running from someone for long enough, you learn to recognize them easily."
"You're judging," Erika said to the brunette before calling down to the rest of her friends to join them. "Guys: this is Koto. Koto, this is Amaya," Erika waved her hand in the Wave Master's direction, "and this is Claire," she said, finally introducing the blonde who bowed slightly. "Since you all pretty much know each other: Death is the player killer, Claire was one of the founders of the Twilight Brigade, and Koto here is a hacker and daughter of Helba…"
The Heavy Blade smacked the white-haired girl in the back of her head. "Do you have to tell everyone?"
"But your reactions are too much fun," Death answered with a smile and received a glare in response. "And that was the expected response…" The brunette probably would have hit him, too, if she hadn't known that the boy was a Player Killer to be reckoned with.
But Erika had stopped paying attention after her not-quite-so-well-deserved smack in the head. She heard a faint whispering in her head, a voice she recognized well but would never usually help her in any way. "Guys, maybe we should get out of here…" The looks she received in response told her that only two out of the other four understood: Koto and Death. "I hear her…Sky; she's telling us to go…that way," she said, pointing slightly to her left.
"Then that's where we're going," Koto shouted, her weapon appearing out of mid-air in her hands while the others did the same. "If that's where Sky wants us to go, then there must be a clue or something."
"Or a trap…" Claire muttered, but the excited brunette could not hear her and the group followed the Heavy Blade until they realized that she had no idea where she was going. Then, they followed the white-clad Twin Blade who was the only one who could hear Sky's voice.
A glowing blue treasure chest stood atop a sand dune with the wind swirling around only it and nothing else. "Like I said…a trap…" the blonde said with a satisfied grin. Not that her being right benefited anyone, considering the circumstances.
Amaya shuffled through her items, "I'll get it," she said and the treasure chest immediately turned brown. She walked up to where the chest stood, but the wind knocked her back toward the group.
"Or maybe you won't," the Heavy Blade laughed and tried to get through as well. She, too was thrown backwards. "That kind of hurts…" she announced.
Death smiled, "Oh really? I never would have imagined. I guess it's my turn to go?" he asked. Without waiting for the answer he knew would have been coming anyway, the boy climbed up the hill only to be tossed back.
Claire smiled mysteriously, "I'm going to save my character the trouble of losing HP and just make the assumption that Erika is the only one who will be able to get through the storm. Would you do the honors, Erika?"
The white-haired girl mumbled something incoherently under her breath, the point of which was clearly transmitted. She closed her eyes and stumbled up the dune, preparing herself for the impact that she knew would be coming. She only made a different impact than she had been expecting. "Oof…" she had walked straight into the chest which was much larger than ordinary ones, standing high enough to have hit the middle of her stomach.
She turned around to look at her friends, but could not see them through the blowing sands. Instead, she took a deep breath and pulled open the chest; a file appeared in her inventory and when she opened it she began to glow and the wind evaporated. "Great, this is a useless file, I can control the weather!"
The others laughed to mask their disappointment and disappeared.
Note: That isn't really what the file does, that's just Erika's limited experience with it. Trust me, it'll do something else that should be revealed in the next chapter.