[Hello all this is SiegfriedXIII once more... with another new story. This time though it's something completely new and unheard of... to my knowledge. A .hack / / GU and Danmachi crossover. Now this will be my first .hack story as well as my first Danmachi story so I hope you'll go easy on me.
Anyways. What inspired this was my recent completion of Volumes 1-4 of .hack GU, as well as my currently watching the anime of Danmachi, wanna catch up on it as I haven't watched since season 1, which I know is utter heresy, so please don't tell Hestia-sama.
Shout out to Pathfinder097 who told me about the .hack games!
Anyways I hope you enjoy.
Disclaimer: I don't own .hack or Danmachi, I'm just a guy who fell in love with a beautiful game.
Data...
That's truely all he was.
Data created by a malevolent AI to seize control of The World, but upon his defeat at the hands of that boy... Kite, that was his name, his data was snatched up by the True Creators of The World, and used to create 8 weaker pieces of Data, The Epitaphs of Twilight.
A painful process that involve each individual number that made up his data being torn apart and reformed only to split apart again until there were 8.
He swore revenge on the Creators, and spent his years in darkness, until he heard him.
A player of The World, who bore the same title as himself, The Terror Of Death, who was also the same boy he had possessed 7 years prior, when he was whole.
He wanted power... for revenge, so he came... and gave it to him.
Together the two fought AIDA, a wannabe viral AI that sought to learn about humanity, which was a small surviving piece of the AI Morganna, his mother's, data.
As the two grew stronger together, he felt... something he had never before... complete.
But... when that man who held his piece, Corbanick The Rebirth, and an AIDA as an Arm, Ovan his partner had referred to him as, activated his Epitaph's namesake, The Rebirth, and reset The World, and nearly killed both him and his partner.
As his partner lay dying, his own data and Consciousness fading, that Rogue AI... Zelkova, hacked into his player and modified it.
And his partner had gained a new power one based on the connections he made with his friends... something that was completely different than the one he possessed.
He felt betrayed... unneeded... and so he went to leave his partner behind.
Only for his partner to reach out and pull him back, and in that moment... He and his partner.
Skeith and Haseo, became one, the true Terror of Death.
The new power and Skeith's Data merged, and a new form and skills were revealed.
Skeith and Haseo returned to the land of the living, as one, in a place known as the netslum, a place created by using the Data of The World inside of the network as a place for rogue AI's and Hackers to feel safe.
It was the perfect place for the Terror Of Death, both of them.
There they met with Zelkova, and they learned of the return of Cubia, and the start of the Third Network Crisis began.
With the help of their friends and their Epitaphs, which all returned to Skeith, they were able to completely destroy Cubia once and for all, and those known as the Lost Ones, players who fell into a coma because of AIDA and Cubia, began to wake up, all but Ovan.
After the battle, Haseo was forced to seal away Skeith, by Zelkova.
At first Skeith was hesitant, but he knew that if he were to remain free, Cubia would return, and so... to allow Haseo to be free of the hardships that Skeith had caused with his attempted destruction and conquering of The World, he allowed Zelkova to seal him.
Yes allowed, as powerful as Skeith was then he would have easily overwhelmed the Rogue AI, but he chose not to.
And so... nearly a year passed by, with Skeith trapped in the darkness once more, and he knew... Haseo had stopped coming to The World.
Then he felt him once more, along with... an AIDA, or rather an AIDA with human intelligence, whose Data was being used as a mediator between Skeith's power and Haseo.
And when the two returned together, with the AIDA data, the 8 Epitaphs that Skeith had tried, and failed, to truely return to his own Data, fused together and Skeith was whole once more, then He and Haseo reunited.
And their true form was unlocked, The 5th and final form.
Immediately upon reuniting the Avatar/Player duo went to free Ovan, it was then that Skeith learned of the Moralta, pieces of rogue data that devoured anything outside of the system parameters, meaning the Epitaphs, AI's and Modded player... like Haseo and Ovan.
Skeith was enraged at the being that he believed was a copycat of himself, only for Ovan to reveal that Moralta was pieces of The World's Data that sought to survive and save the world, and thought that eliminating the causes of the System Errors and Shutdowns would prevent that, but in the end Ovan and Haseo combined Skeith and Corbanick, Death and Rebirth, and Skeith was truely One once more.
They fought the amalgamation of data, and destroyed it.
But for Skeith this marked the end for him and Haseo's partnership. Skeith had only survived the Revision last time due to CC corp having taken his data, but now with them completely shutting down The World, he knew this was the end... for real this time.
And so... upon new years day... The World... ended.
But... he didn't want to die... he wanted to live on... Like Haseo would, he wanted to Live!
... but there was nothing he could do... all he could do now was sit in the darkness and wait for his data to corrupt, and he would finally die.
"How ironic... Me... Skeith! The Terror of Death... is afraid of dying... heh..." Skeith bitterly thought.
He could feel it his data finally corrupt and then... nothing.
The being floated along as it passed from world to world, Multiverse to Multiverse, Universe to Universe, 2D to 3D, from Real to Virtual.
Around it, there was only darkness.
When it heard something.
"How Ironic... Me... Skeith! The Terror of Death...is Afraid of dying... heh..."
The thought echoed through it's being.
"The Terror of Death? What an interesting Title..." The being thought as it sought of the owner of the aforementioned title.
What it found was mess of corroded data, it's physical form no longer distinguishable, merely static in the endless darkness around them.
The being reached out and touched the corroded data.
In a flash the being saw it's memories, what it had experienced, and was impressed and a little ashamed at how things ended up for Skeith.
So it decided to take pity on him and give the AI a second chance... at a real life.
The being snapped his fingers and Skeith's Data was fixed, it repeatedly flashed between it's Final Avatar form and the 5th form of Haseo, but the AI was unconscious.
The being then lifted it's arms up and in one a blade appeared, a scythe that seemed to repeatedly flicker into a serrated odachi, appeared.
The being gripped the Scythe/Odachi and used it to cut its arm, causing a golden liquid to spew forth.
The liquid formed a bubble around the Avatar, but the being knew that there was to much divinity in its blood to make this AI a demigod, so it flashed away and took the blood of the only being compatible with Skeith, Haseo or rather Ryou Misaki, only enough so that it could easily replicate the DNA structure.
The being then fused the human Blood with the bubble of golden Ichor, before it snapped its fingers and the two liquids converged onto the Data and formed a true flesh and blood body, complete with the clothing and equipment the body had as game character.
Weapons? Check. Powers? Also Check and more.
Now all that was left was to make the former AI part of his Familia, and make his Falna self-updating.
"Seeing as I won't be around to that world as often as the Primordial personification of Death."
The being thought before it snapped its fingers again and the black dot like markings on Skeith's body glowed and a light gray coffin with skull and an X of a Scythe and an Odachi, of the same color appeared in the central dot, the one directly over the heart, and then Runes of many unknowable origins wrote themselves onto the other dots and lines on Skeith's body, before they all, but the skull, faded away into the black.
With that done the being used it's Scythe/Odachi to open up a portal to a different world, one where Gods and Humanity lived side by side.
Light burst forth from the portal which briefly woke Skeith.
It was only for an instant, but Skeith before he passed out once more, looked at the being who had resurrected him.
It was male... yet not... it's form continued to shift between humanoid, skeletal, and a creature in a straight jacket that had what looked like coffins for wings, and a skull-like mask, in it's hands was a Scythe that flickered into an Odachi.
Skeith's eyes widened as he saw the being, or rather what it mouthed.
"From this point on Skeith... you will live on... as my son... the son of Thanatos, the Primordial of Death. Be well... my son." the newly revealed Thanatos mouthed to the former AI before, everything went dark for the Epitaph of Death.
The Sparrow tilted it's head as it gazed at the boy fast asleep in a crater in the forest.
It had been on it's way to its nest when it spotted the human, who smelled of divinity and death.
The bird, curious about the boy, got close to the boy and pecked at the boy's cheek to see if he was alive.
Skeith groaned as he awoke, and rolled over in an attempt to return to sleep.
"Hrnngh... five more minutes..." Skeith groaned out.
"Wait..." Skeith thought as he came to a sudden realization.
"I'M ALIVE!?" Skeith shouted as he jolted into a seated position, scaring away the poor curious sparrow.
Skeith quickly looked around him and saw the forest.
He looked at the Sun as it peeked from behind the heavy tree brush, only to cover his eyes with his hands at the blinding sight.
It was then he noticed his hands, they were pale... human... and familiar.
Skeith looked around frantically to find something to see his face, when he noticed the large sword with eight segmented red blades attached to a chain and black sword hilt.
He quickly brought the blade to his face and gasped at the face he saw...
"Haseo..." Skeith breathed out.
"What... what happened to me... why do I look like Haseo?" Skeith wondered.
It was then he remembered.
The end of The World, his slow and painful data corruption and then the being, Thanatos... who brought him back to life as human... as his son.
Skeith did know what to feel... he was happy that he was alive... but he missed Haseo and his friends. He was also confused as to why Thanatos brought him back to life, and as to how he became human.
Skeith was so deep in thought that he didn't notice that the trees around him had started to shake.
He didn't notice until he felt something small bump into him.
"Oof!" A small voice grunted as the owner fell on their rear.
Skeith snapped out of his thoughts when the small being fell down.
He looked down and saw a small girl.
She was young, from what Skeith could tell, around... 15 years old?
With short blond hair and green eyes.
Skeith was startled to notice that the girl looked like Atoli, the Epitaph user of his Deceit aspect, (and the mutual love interest of Haseo)
The only difference was the girls clothes.
They were torn and dirty, most like from running away from what whatever was chasing her.
The girl stared up at Skeith with... fear?
Was she afraid of him? Why? They had never met before.
The girl then noticed the sword in his hand and her eyes widened, in hope.
The girl then spoke.
"Please sir! Please Save my Village!"
"Huh?" Skeith blinked.
"Monsters attacked us. Please sir! I'll do anything! Just save them!" The girl begged on he knees.
"Ummm...?" Skeith wasn't sure what to say to that.
Good thing he didn't need to, as a hulking figure stormed out of the forest, a giant club in it's hands.
Skeith quickly grabbed the girl and jumped back.
Good thing too, as when the club struck the ground it shattered under the impact.
"That strength... I'm glad I dodged. With my new human body I would have been killed instantly!" Skeith shouted in his mind.
"Oi kid?" Skeith said as he kept his eye on the monster.
"Yes?" The girl asked terrified.
"Is this one of the things that attacked your village?" Skeith asked.
"Mhmm..." The girl whimpered out.
Skeith examined the beast.
It was large and heavily muscled, with one large eye in the center of it's head, and crooked teeth.
The cyclops was swinging around it's club breaking anything that could be used as a hiding place.
Smart, or at least enough to know where prey could hide... but that was trouble for Skeith and the girl. Soon enough it would find them, there was only one option left.
"Fight..." Skeith decided.
"Alright... I'll try and get rid of this thing, you stay and Hide, then we'll talk. Ok?" Skeith asked.
The girl whimpered her affirmations, and tried to hide her shaking.
Skeith paused, before he put on a smile for the girl, then he patted her head.
"Hey... don't worry I'll get you out of this safe and sound, ok?" Skeith said.
The girl stopped shaking and nodded.
"Good girl... now I'll be back." Skeith said as he stood from their hiding place.
"Jeez I guess you really rubbed off on me eh Haseo?" Skeith asked, as he silently got into the stance he and Haseo used when they fought.
Sword held in his right arm, blade outwards, pointing to the right, parallel to the dirt, his legs spread out, and his left arm crossed in front of his torso which was bent slightly forward.
[Play: Sasuke vs Itachi battle theme]
"Alright then... Let's Go!" Skeith mentally shouted as he leapt at the monster.
The cyclops noticed the sudden movement and turned only to be forced to block a long segmented crimson blade, with it's club.
Skeith clicked his teeth in annoyance at his failed sneak attack, but then jumped to the left and slashed with his blade, leaving a long gash on the monsters arm.
The monster roared in pain, and with speed that belied it heavily muscled form, swung it's club at the one who injured.
Skeith unprepared for that, barely had enough time to bring his sword up to hastily block the blow, but ended up getting sent flying into a nearby tree.
Skeith landed on the ground with the wind knocked out of him.
The monster slowly approached, seeming so savor it's victory.
"D-damn!" Skeith thought through the pain.
The cyclops was about to grab him only for a pebble to hit it on the head, which made it pause to look at the thrower.
It was the girl!
She threw another rock, one slightly larger, and it his the cyclops in it's eye.
The monster roared in pain, as it rubbed it's eye until it could see again, then it snarled and stomped over to the girl who squeaked and tripped onto her rear.
"N-No!" Skeith shouted as he fought to get up.
The monster continued to stomp at the girl who scrambled backwards.
"Come on! Get. Up!" Skeith mentally shouted as he managed to barely lift himself up with his arms.
The girl scrambled backwards until her back hit something hard... a tree.
She paled as she realized she was trapped, while the monster grinned maliciously.
"Come on Dammit!" Skeith thought before he audibly shouted. "Move!"
And then something burst within him.
The monster grinned as it reached the little brat that threw a rock at its eye.
Said brat closed it's own and prepare to be eaten.
But just as it grabbed the girl it felt a shift in the air, that made it pause.
The air... was heavy with a feeling of dread, and one other presence, one so cold it was like death itself was glaring and judging the monster, and found it lacking.
The monster turned to the source and saw the human it had immobilized staggering to his feet, sword clutched in hand, and both arms limp at his side as he was hunched over, strange markings glowed as they hovered on his body.
Said blade flickered for a second.
The Cyclops ignore it though when it saw the boy's eyes, they were cold, the pressure of imminent death practically oozed from them.
The monster out of uncharacteristic fear and raw instinct lifted and threw its club at the boy.
Only for it to be cut to bits instantly.
The Cyclops hadn't seen the boy move, but suddenly he was there, girl in hand, yet the Cyclops' own was still holding the girl.
The cyclops felt something wet drip onto its foot.
It looked and saw a pure red liquid... blood.
It looked at it's hand... or rather where it used to be.
It screamed as pain finally reached it's brain.
But it was silenced when the red sword was placed in front of it's jaw.
With its wielder now behind the monster.
"Terror of Death." Skeith spoke the name of the weapon that shared the name title as himself.
Suddenly the sword flickered once more but when it did so it's form changed into a Scythe and stayed that way. The blade was then yanked into it's jaw and the top half of it's head was sliced cleanly off.
But dispite this the monster's core wouldn't allow it to die in piece as it felt the pain of its head being cut off from the jaw.
Skeith noticed this and spoke again, "The Machinator."
The scythe then flickered into a pair of blue and red swords, blue in the right hand red in the left.
He held them out to the side before he vanished only to reappear behind the monster.
Red and blue line then slashed through the air, cutting the monster into little pieces... but it still wasn't dead.
Skeith backed up and then spoke one more time.
"The Rebirth..."
The Twin blades flickered into a Giant sky blue cannon with a large orb at the back end.
The barrel of the cannon glowed with energy and a large ball of plasma formed at the muzzle only to then shoot at the still floating remains of the Cyclops, completely turning it to dust, leaving only a large purple crystal core behind.
The cannon then flickered back into the segmented sword, which Skeith swung down and the blades split into a chain sword, only for him to rest the hilt on the back of his right shoulder, the segmented blades then reconnected into a single blade.
[End song]
Skeith panted as the burst of power and adrenaline faded.
He then held his palm out in shock at the sudden use of his powers, albeit weakened, but a small smile made it's way to his face, as he clenched his palm into a fist.
"I'm... Right here." Skeith uttered the familiar words that held meaning to both him and his former partner.
Skeith turned to the girl, who stared at him in awe.
The girl then tried to get up but her knees refused to move.
"So... kid? Are the monsters that attacked you village all like that?" Skeith asked.
The girl shook her head.
"No... the rest are a lot weaker than that one." She said.
"Ok? So why was the stronger monster chasing after you like that?" Skeith asked.
"I... I um... threw a rock at it's to distract it, before it could eat my mother." The girl said.
Skeith rose a brow.
"While I'm sure they appreciate that, as I sure do don't you think that was a little rash? And why a rock and not a knife or something?" Skeith asked.
"W-well... Rocks were all I could find at the time, and I couldn't sit back amd do nothing!" The girl said.
"Right... well for the current situation you handled it well." Skeith said, mostly to not start a debate, as he saw from watching Haseo on how stubborn women could be.
"But I think it's about time we get moving. We still need to save your village." Skeith said.
"... waaah! I forgot about that!" The girl said.
"What an airhead..." Skeith thought.
"Well kid lets get going." Skeith said.
"And my name's not 'kid' it's Shino!" The girl said as she leads the way.
Skeith did a spittake at that.
"Whoa! What are the odds?" Skeith thought as he wiped the spit from his face.
"Shino, Kid it doesn't matter what I call you right now, we need to hurry up." Skeith snarked to the girl.
"Oh Right! This way!" Shino then started running, with Skeith close behind her.
The two ran through the forest for about five minutes before they arrived at the burning remains of the village
Yet the lack of a scent of blood tipped Skeith off that the villagers were alive, most of them anyways.
Skeith told Shino what he noticed which noticeably brightened her up.
"Now go hide somewhere, and if you need to find a knife or something, rocks aren't gonna cut it this time, got that?" Skeith said.
Shino nodded before she hopped into a nearby open window, of one of the few still standing buildings.
"Now that that's taken care of... let's find out where the Villagers are, along with the monsters." Skeith muttered to himself.
The former AI, crept from charred remains to more charred remains of different totaled buildings, stopping at times to search the rubble for any possible human life.
Eventually he head laughter ahead, and ducked behind a nearby ruined bulding.
He peeked his head out and what he saw made his new blood boil.
The monsters had gathered up the humans at what looked like the town square, and were now making the men to fight each other to the death, while some would violate the women, while the children were tied up to a log over a large bonfire, which thankfully wasn't lit yet.
The monsters themselves weren't anything special to look at, just 5 pig looking men, a couple lizard men, and about a dozen goblins.
"Is this all of them? Thought there'd be more... but still I won't be able to take them out all at once. I need to think of something... Maybe I could pick them off at a distance?" Skeith wondered.
"No... I don't have a ranged weapon besides Rebirth and that's just overkill." Skeith thought.
Then it hit him.
"The DG-X I should still have those In the inventory... if I still have an inventory that is..." Skeith realized.
He then pulled his hands behind his back and called for the dual guns to appear.
In a small flash of light a pair of white Pistols with yellow scythe like energy blades appeared in his hands, but unlike in The World, his segmented blade, Gate of Ouroboros (Ouroboros for short), didn't disappear and remained attached to his back.
Skeith grinned at that.
"Great now I can take them out from afar and hit any that get too close." Skeith thought.
He also checked to see if he had the Items Haseo had gathered, both healing, and attack, and that was a yes.
"Alright let's get this show on the road." Skeith thought as he held up eight white stones, these stone contained the spell Lei Zas, a light spell perfect of most monsters.
Skeith then loaded the stones into his twin Guns.
Once loaded he then proceeded to peek around his cover and aim his guns at the goblins
As fast as he could he pulled rapidly the trigger until each stone was shot out and the spell took effect as the stones glowed with mana and multiple beams of light shot out of all eight stones, which completely destroyed the goblin group.
Afterwards Skeith placed his guns back into the inventory and readied his blade, for the oncoming hoard.
The lizardmen were the quickest to arrive, only for one of them to be bisected by Ouroboros.
It's body went poof which surprised Skeith enough for the other lizardman to take advantage of it, and swing it's tail at him.
Skeith barely managed to dodge in time, and retaliated with a swift slice of his sword, making it poof.
The pigmen were almost there so Skeith got into a thrusting stance, and Ouroboros glowed with orange energy, and began to vibrate.
When the Vibration happened Skeith immediately thrust his blade at one of the Pigs, which was immediately impaled by the chain sword, and then poofed away.
The other four pigs then slowed down, but one got stupid and tried to rush Skeith, who retaliated with a flurry of slashes followed by the segments of his sword shooting out at the pigs body and impaling it repeatedly.
Needless to say it poofed after that.
So far Skeith was disappointed... after his fight with the Cyclops he had set a high standard for the monsters but these were just downright pathetic, they probably were underlings of the cyclops who is dead.
What Skeith didn't know was that a Cyclops was a level three monster, by adventure ranking, and that it usually takes at least 10 level 2 Adventurers to kill one of them, then they split the exp. equally.
However Skeith had, at level 1 (by Falna standards) killed one single handedly, the exp. was more than enough to shoot him up to the peak of level 2, and improve his already high stats, which was why the monsters seemed so weak.
Anyways, Skeith, having had enough with these weak monsters, placed his sword on his back and summoned a certain pair of swords.
Their name was Empty Skies, these blades were used by Azure Kite, a being made by Aura to protect her, his data was based off the very boy that had beaten Skeith many years ago.
Skeith held them in a reverse grip and suddenly two more blades suddenly split from the central blade, on each sword, forming a sort of fork.
"Ok... not gonna lie but that was kinda cool." Skeith said before he charged the remaining pigs and performed a three hit combo on one, which made it poof.
Then he jumped away and returned his twin blade and summoned a different weapon.
Silad, the greatsword that was given to Haseo by the former emperor of the sage tournament, upon being dethroned by Haseo.
Skeith charged again then swung the sword up sending both remaining pigs into the air.
Skeith then, in a split second switched out again but this time with a Scythe, and not just any Scythe, his own Scythe.
Shadowy Death, the true form of the Tickling Death, a Scythe that was created from Skeith's weapon Data.
Skeith jumped with his scythe and spun around slicing one of the Pigs in half, making it poof, while the other was sent flying into a building.
Skeith then switched weapons again to his Dual Guns, and perfomed Judgment, a triple shot filled with magic energy.
The force of the bullets tore through the remaining pig, poofing it.
Around him, all that was left was the crystal cores of the monsters.
Skeith returned the guns to the inventory a final time, just in time for Shino to appear out of thin air.
"Woah! That was amazing! You took them out so fast!" The girl cheered with a skip of her feet.
Skeith rubbed the back of his head, with an embarrassed chuckle.
He wasn't used to that kind of attention, being originally a sentient AI that's only desire was to get revenge and become whole, he didn't really even have what could be called a personality, back then.
Of course that had changed when he first met, or rather reunited with, Haseo, and experienced what his former User experienced, and in time grew a personality identical to Haseo himself.
"Shouldn't we check on the Villagers?" Skeith asked.
Shino paused.
"... OH! THAT'S RIGHT... I forgot." Shino said.
"Such an airhead..." Skeith thought.
The girl then zoomed away to untie and check on the Villagers.
"Jeez that girl, She's like all of Haseo's love interests rolled into one... Looks like Atoli... Is named Shino... has the personality of Tabby... what next the stubbornness of Alkaide?" Skeith sweatdropped at the energetic airhead of a girl.
Skeith watched as he watched Shino free the Villagers.
The women embraced their significant other and cried. The children cried in relief at being saved. The elderly just looked on, grateful.
Skeith new he wasn't needed right now, but he would need to know where in the the world he was, so he went over to a nearby building, removed his sword and stabbed it into the ground.
He then leaned against the long segmented blade of Ouroboros, with his middle back against the cross guard, and closed his eyes to wait.
Unknown to Skeith one elderly man inspected their savior.
He was young, around 17 years old, with silvery white hair that spiked in the back, he wore a black trenchcoat with sliver trim and markings and Black and white bracers on his arms with fingerless gloves. He was Shirtless, showing off a rather impressive set of abdominal muscles and pale skin, but his torso was covered in black dot like markings with lines and single gray coffin with a black skull/scythe/Odachi on the dot over his heart, even the boy's face had two lines running down his eyes. His other articles of clothing were black with silver trim pants and armored greaves.
The old man then eyed the blade he was leaning against. A wide and long bladed longsword with a segmented blade with some odd letters on each segment and a black sword hilt.
As a former blacksmith of the Hephaestus family, and as a member of the Crozzo clan, he could recognize good quality weaponry, but this blade... it wasn't made of any metal he knew of, it was as if it was made of energy that was turned to steel.
There was only one thing he could think of for this blade to be... a Divine Weapon, something created by a God from a portion of their power.
Hephaestus has one herself, the hammer she uses to personally make weapons.
The old man decided that the young man had waited long enough, and left the weeping villagers, who Shino was trying to cheer up, bless her young soul, to approach the young man.
Skeith peeked open one of eyes when he heard the approaching footsteps.
What he saw was an old man, bald with a bushy mustache, the man walked with bronze ball grip cane that had runic markings on it.
"Hello young man, and thank you for saving our village. My name is Wulfric Crozzo, I'm the current head of the village, I thank you on their behave." Wulfric said with a grandfatherly smile.
Skeith stared silently at the old man.
"I'm Skeith, Nice to meet you." He said neutrally.
"No surname?" Wulfric asked.
Skeith paused at that.
He had never needed one so he didn't bother to come up with one.
After a split second the image of his mother appeared before him.
"Morganna, Skeith Morganna..." Skeith said.
"Hmm? An interesting name." The old man said with a sceptical eye.
"Well I never bothered to tell anyone where I'm from, I'm mostly known by my Title." Skeith said.
"Oh? A title? What would that be?" The old man probed.
Skeith hesitated for a second before he spoke. "The Terror of Death."
The old man's eyes shot up at the nickname.
"Pray tell how was it you earned that title." The old man asked warily in case the boy was a threat.
Skeith hesitated again... before he decide to answer.
"I slayed one hundred murderers, in a single night... while I was on a quest for revenge against one specific murderer." Skeith said, giving an abridged version of how Haseo earned his title.
The old man took a step back at that.
"D-did you ever get your revenge?" The old man asked, just in case the boy had tracked the murderer to his village.
"Yes... and no... As it turned out the murder was a man who was there at the wrong place and time, and the real murderer was a close friend, a teacher... and a brother to me, however he did the things he did to obtain something to wake up his sister who was in a Coma." Skeith said using the emotion from his time with Haseo.
The old man sighed in relief at that.
"I see, well then what brings you to our neck of the wood, my boy?" Wulfric asked.
"..." Skeith did really know the answer to that himself.
Then he remembered the words of that Being... Thanatos, and how he called Skeith his son.
"My... uh... father sent me here, quite suddenly, using magic, I woke up in a crater in the forest when Shino came and found me, while being chased by the Cyclops. I killed it and we made our way here." Skeith said.
"Magic you say? I've never heard of anybody Teleporting using magic before, except the Gods of course, but ever since they started living amongst humanity, they've stopped doing that entirely." Wulfric said.
That caught Skeith's interest but judged to not say anything as it looked to be common knowledge.
"Yeah... do you happen to know where I am?" Skeith asked.
"Oh Yes you are in Murakami village, about two week distance south of Orario." Wulfric said.
"I see..." Skeith said.
So he really was in a different world than his own.
"MR. SAVIOR!" A familiar shout tore him from his thoughts only to notice he was surrounded by the Villagers, as Shino latched onto his arm.
"H-hey!?" Skeith said as he attempted to free his arm.
"The Villagers wanted to say thank you! So I wanted to introduce you." Shino said.
Shino then turned to the crowd and spoke.
"Everyone this is...um... uh..." Shino then turned red as she turned to Skeith.
"Um... what was your name again?" Shino tehee'd.
The entire crowd along with Skeith sweatdropped.
"She's such an airhead!" was their collective thought.
Skeith sighed at the girl's antics.
"It's Skeith, Skeith Morganna." He said, with a hand on his hip and a twitch of the eye.
"Oh...!" Shino said, then she turned to the crowd.
"Yeah what he said!" Shino said, which caused the crowd to trip.
Wulfric chuckled at their antics, before he cleared his throat.
"Ahem! Alright everyone... as you know... our village is totalled... this place is no longer able to be safely inhabited, the remains and the blood will attract more monsters so we need a place to go for the time being, some place safe. That being said! We'll be going to Orario! Lady Hephaestus still has my family's old manor in her custody we will be staying there." Wulfric said to the crowd.
The old man then turned to Skeith.
"Young man. Would you please aid us on our journey to Orario? We could use the protection, from monsters, bandits and the like." Wulfric asked.
Skeith blinked at that, it was unexpected.
"Well... I guess I don't have much of a choice seeing as I don't really know exactly where I am, and I don't really have anywhere else to go... might as well help out I guess." Skeith said as he rubbed the back of head.
The crowd burst into a fit of cheers, mostly the children who wanted to speak more with their savior.
Skeith was then glomphed, by the energetic Shino, and ended falling over.
"Yay! Now I get to go to Orario and hang out with my new friend!" Shino said.
"H-Hey! Lemme go! Get off of me!" Skeith said with pink in his cheek.
"No! Never!" Shino said cackling maniacally.
The villagers all laughed at new duo's antics.
Skeith, dispite himself couldn't help but chuckle.
But still he thought exasperatedly "What have I gotten myself into?"
For the rest of the day Villagers salvaged whatever personal belonging they could, and used the wagons, that were somehow untouched dispite the carnage, and loaded them up with what they could find and what could possibly be valuable.
But that took longer than expected so they all gathered in the remains of the town hall, which was only slightly in shambles, to sleep for the night, they would have a long journey ahead of them come tomorrow.
But Skeith for now couldn't sleep, not after the day he'd had.
First he gets turned into a human, with Haseo's face as his own.
Next he gets adopted by some unkown being, probably a god from what the old man said about them living with humanity.
He then gets thrown into a completely different world, where he awoke only to fight a Cyclops and a small gang of monsters, to save a girl who looked like Atoli, acted like Tabby and was named Shino! Oh and save her village too.
So instead of sleeping he decided to go outside to the balcony, where he was currently leaned up against the balcony fence railing, staring up at the full moon.
Suddenly he heard light footsteps.
He turned to the source to see Shino in a pink nightgown, looking at him, her arms held down in front of her, hands clasped. With a light blush and a smile on her face, but it looked shaken.
"Hey? Couldn't Sleep?" She asked, a lot calmer than normal.
"Nah... not after the day we've had." Skeith said with a shrug.
"Yeah..." Shino said lightly.
Skeith rose a brow at her reserved actions.
"You Ok?" Skeith asked.
Shino hesitated but eventually spoke.
"I-I wanted to thank you... for saving me... and the others. Even when we don't know each other..." Shino said.
Skeith nodded a bit.
"So that's it huh? She's definitely like those three... always putting on a brave face to hide their worries, for others sake." Skeith thought to himself.
"Don't mention it. It wasn't a big deal, I couldn't just leave you to get eaten by that Cyclops. Besides... even if you and I just met, you remind me of a few friends I used to have." Skeith said.
While Skeith had never spoken to the trio of girls personally he was always there when Haseo spoke to them, he felt what he felt when he spoke to them, same when around Alkaide.
"Friends?" Shino asked.
"Yeah three in particular, to be honest it's scary on how much you remind me of them." Skeith said.
"Huh? What do you mean?" The girl asked.
"Well... their names were Atoli, Tabby... and coincidentally, Shino." Skeith said as he looked up to the moon, lost in memories.
"Woah! What a coincidence! So? What were they like?" Shino asked.
"Well... Atoli... she was a girl with confidence issues, growing up she was always called uncool, stupid, and unwanted, and it took it's toll on her everyday, all she wanted was for someone to look at her, and see her for her." Skeith said.
"Oh? And how do I remind you of her?" Shino asked.
"... You both look exactly Identical... your hair, length and color... and your eyes green... and lonely." Skeith said.
Shino couldn't say anything to that.
"And as for Tabbi... well you both have a natural air headedness, (Shino: Hey!) but are both genuine and only act like an air head to lighten the mood... for others sake... and your own... a trait that was shared by all three of the girls I knew."
Shino, while miffed about the airhead comments, was flattered by the genuine comment and paused at his realization of her acting.
"And finally... Shino... she was... kind, almost Ethereal in a way, she and Atoli were also Identical in appearance but Shino had purple hair and violet eyes with a tear drop mark under her left eye. She... was kind to almost everyone who knew her, and that was what drew us to her..." Skeith said, getting lost in the memories he obtained by fully merging with Haseo, as he stared up at the moon.
Shino notice a slight change in tone as Skeith spoke about her, and she stared at him for a few seconds without responding, which Skeith seemed to notice as he looked at her from the corner of his eye.
"Hmm?... Well I don't know, but it looks to me like you're just popular with the girls." Shino teased to hide her embarrassment, at being caught staring.
"...I... guess?" Skeith said not catching the tease.
After that the two fell silent for a few minutes.
Skeith just staring at the moon, and Shino staring at him.
"So... Skeith?" Shino began.
"Hmm?" Said Former AI responded.
"Umm... have you thought about what you plan to do in Orario?" Shino asked to break the silence.
"Old man Wulfric told be a bit about it... so I'll probably become an Adventurer or something." Skeith said.
Shino's face lit up.
"Oh really!? I was thinking about joining up too! How about we form a pair when we join up?" Shino asked excitedly.
Skeith was initially going to refuse but one look at Shino's wide eyed puppy eyed stare and he crumbled.
"Damn... guess I can't make fun of Haseo for the time he caved to Atoli that one time..." Skeith thought.
"Yeah... yeah, alright we can be a party of two." Skeith sighed.
"Yay!" Shino cheered, her fists to the sky.
"Shhh! They're trying to sleep!" Skeith hissed.
Shino placed her hands over her mouth and nodded.
"Anyways... you should probably get to sleep. I'll do the same in a bit." Skeith said, gesturing to a pile of blankets he had brought with him, for himself.
"Ok. I'll head to bed then, goodnight Skeith." Shino said before she turned and left.
Skeith returned to watching the moon, for a few more minutes before he decided to turn in and went to his blankets to sleep.
It took a few minutes to get comfortable on the hardwood of the balcony, but eventually he managed to fall asleep.
Unbeknownst to him as soon as he fell a sleep a figure overshadowed the moonlight.
Meanwhile in Orario's Tower of Babel, Ouranos was tapping his throne anxiously.
He had felt the power of his nephew Thanatos, the son of Nyx and Erebus and progenitoi of the domain/concept of death.
But it seemed off... different than Thanatos himself, like the domain of death was held in another's grasp.
And that scared him.
Thanatos was already more powerful than any of the other progenitoi combined, (except for Chaos of course but he was to busy watching the Multiverse, like it was Saturday night Anime on Toonami, to care) Death was inevitable after all. And the Deity could easily slaughter them all. Now imagine if there were TWO him!!
Ouranos was about to use his divinity to search for the source, to hopefully put an end to it before it got too powerful, when a cold chill ran up his spine, as a presence leaned itself up against the arm of his throne, and an arm was draped along his shoulders.
"Ouranos! Good to see you! How's my favorite uncle doing?" The presence said in a eerily chipper voice that sent chills of panic down his spine.
"T-Thanatos! To what do I owe the p-pleasure of this Visit." The normally nigh emotionless god stuttered in the presence that was both Death's origin and incarnation.
"Oh well you see I was in the neighborhood after dropping off my new son, and decided to pay a visit! So~... didja miss me!?" Thanatos said with a knowing grin.
"S-son? But Thanatos? I thought you were incapable of creating life?" Ouranos asked confused.
"Bah! Please! I am the origin of the concept of death, if I say something dies it does!" Thanatos to further prove his point by pointing at a nearby guard, who promptly died.
"And if I say it doesn't? It doesn't." Again Thanatos pointed at the corpse on the floor and in an instant it reanimated, completely alive, the guard immediately ran away in tears.
"But you already knew that. Didn't you Uncle Ouranos? And that's what makes you so terrified of me. Isn't it." Thanatos said with a savage grin, as he reached out with his remaining hand and grabbed the jaw of Ouranos and forced him to look at Thanatos.
His current look was that of his human other, Minato Arisatou, the boy who he had been sealed into for a time, before they separated after the boy became the seal that held back Nyx, Thanatos' own mother, from entering that world and destroying humanity.
Speaking of his mother, he's going to have to buy her one helluva mother's day gift for her to forgive him. But hey it was worth it, she was trying to encroach on his domain, and that wasn't cool, even if she was his mother.
Anyways, he had grown fond of the boy who held the Universe in the palm of his hand for a single instant, so he decided to stick with his form when meeting others, except when in between traveling worlds, then he had to be his true form, otherwise it would rip that humanoid form apart. Sure he could remake it but it was to much of a hassle.
Thanatos's silver eyes bore into the shivering progenitoi of the sky.
"Now that I have your attention..." Thanatos said in a serious tone. "I have a warning for you. Touch my son and you die, screaming. If he wants to fight and maybe die in the Dungeon that's fine, that's his choice, however... if you personally or indirectly send out any of the other gods to harass him. I will destroy this entire world, none will be safe from my wrath, be they innocent or guilty, all shall perish. Do! You! Understand?!" Thanatos promised/asked, his Persona form flickered to existence, but a crimson and black liquid seeped from the eye sockets, and jaw of his skull-like mask.
Ouranos could only whimper as he nodded in pure terror.
Suddenly Thanatos was back to his normal state, chipper smile once again in place.
"Good! Now if you'll exuse me, I have places to be, souls to reap, you know how it is right? Oh what am I saying of course you don't, you're not Death." Thanatos said with an edge at the end.
Ouranos whimpered as the Deity disappeared into the Abyss.
Ouranos calmed down and took a deep breath, before he spoke.
"Yeah you better run!" Ouranos said weakly.
Suddenly Thanatos' head popped out of the Abyss.
"What was that sorry couldn't quite hear you?" Thanatos said, knowing full well what was said.
"Nothing! Nothing at all!" Ouranos squeaked.
"You sure?" Thanatos asked, which Ouranos quickly nodded frantically to him.
"Ok then. Oh before I forget! Say hi to Auntie Gaia for me, and tell her "No Kronos can't play with my Scythe again. Not after last time." You remember right Ouranos?" Thanatos said with a cheeky grin.
Ouranos shivered at the memory, being cut into millions of pieces with the Scythe used by Death itself, was not a fun experience, and definitely not one he would want a repeat of, took him forever to find all the pieces. He also understood the hidden threat within the seemingly "harmless" message.
Ouranos nodded immediately.
"Righty-o then! Time for me to go, for real this time. Laters!" Thanatos said before his head disappeared into the Abyss with a cartoonish "pop".
Ouranos sank back into his throne, which suddenly seemed bigger than normal, but he knew that was how he always felt when he met with Thanatos, or his parents for that matter.
Ouranos decided he needed a rest after his ordeal and closed his eyes, and immediately passed out due to the adrenaline leabing his body.
His last thought was "Why me?"
The next morning Skeith woke to a warm, soft, sensation, against his face, and his arm wrapped around something, and two long objects holding his legs
He cracked open his eyes only to see... pink?
Skeith paled at that... then he slowly looked up to see the face of Shino, eyes closed, her cheeks a light pink, and lightly pressed into his hair and forehead.
"Why?! What!? When!? Why!? Did I already say why!?" Skeith mentally panicked.
Skeith then tried to slowly move his arm.
"Mmm?" Shino lightly moaned at the removal of the source of heat, and unconsciously snuggled closer to the great source of heat infront of her, I.e Skeith.
"Fuck!!!" Skeith mentally shouted as Shino then wrapped her arms around him.
Skeith then noticed that Shino's eyes began to open and panicked and closed his own, to give the illusion of him sleeping.
Shino opened her eyes to see silverish white hair against her cheek, and immediately turned bright red as she noticed their rather intimate position and also noticed Skeith had his eyes closed
Slowly she released herself from her hold on Skeith and quietly sat up, only to slip on the morning dew that blanketed the balcony flooring, and landed on top of Skeith, who opened his eyes at the sudden contact only to be met by Shino's green eyes merely inches from his own.
Both turned red yet neither moved, that is until the sound of footsteps approached from inside the building.
"Wake up mister Skeith! It's time to go!" a young voice shouted as they flung open the front door only to see the blushing pair on opposite sides of the porch.
Shino twirling a piece of her hair and Skeith pretending to do some stretches.
"...What are you two doing?" The voice, a young boy of 8 asked confused.
"Nothing!" They both shout out at the boy, who flew back into the building as a gust of wind from their shout overtook him.
Skeith then raced to the door and shut it.
"Well... that just happened..." Skeith panted out.
"Mhmm..." Shino agreed.
"So... there a reason you were here?" Skeith asked.
"O-oh well! Y-you see... after I went back in to go sleep, I was still having trouble so I went back out to see if you were still awake, but you were already asleep, so... I decided to maybe ... join you out here?" Shino said embarrassed.
"... that explains why I woke up with you holding me..." Skeith said.
"You were awake!?" Shino said with an even bigger blush.
"Yeah... but I didn't know what to do, and you were about to wake up... so I kinda ...pretended ... to still be asleep." Skeith said sheepishly.
Shino's face let off a huge puff of steams, while she pouted angrily/cutely at the boy, who scratched the back of his head and slowly backed away from her, only to end up with his back against the rail of the balcony.
Shino took a deep breath and-
"KYYAAAA~"
Skeith was sent flying of the balcony due to the shockwave from the scream, and the shock in general.
"Wah! Oomph!" Skeith grunted as he fell onto the soil beneath the balcony.
Skeith laid there for a few moments before he muttered, "The lungs on that girl. They'll be the death of me!" Skeith said in shock.
A chuckle came from above him, and Skeith gor to his feet to look at the source.
It was Wulfric.
"Indeed, her lungs are legendary for this village, she once screamed so loud that it caused a few trees to collapse in the forest, their still there to this day, we think it might be some sort of sound based wind magic." Wulfric chuckled.
Skeith idly remembered passing by a few trees that were upended and looked like they had been that way for a while.
"Wind magic huh?" Skeith mused.
Looks like there's more to Shino than he thought.
"I guess we should look for someone to teach her magic then? When we get to this Orario place, I mean." Skeith said.
Wulfric made a worried look, which Skeith saw.
"What's wrong?" Skeith asked.
"Nothing... it's just that. Finding someone to teach her is going to be expensive, and I'll have to come out of retirement amd rejoin my old famila in order to pay for the villagers to stay afloat, I don't think we'll hve the funds available to send her to learn magic." Wulfric said, solemnly.
Skeith nodded in understanding, however he knew Shino planned to be an Adventurer alongside him.
He told this fact to Wulfric who wasn't fazed.
"I'm not really surprised she wants to join the Adventurers guild, she always was the adventurous one of her generation, the rest were content being Smiths or Farmers. But her? No she wanted to fight monsters." Wulfric sighed.
Skeith couldn't help but chuckle.
"Well as if by some twist of fate, she now has that opportunity." Skeith chuckled at his words, his eyes closed.
Wulfric also chuckled a bit, before he turned his gaze to the boy.
"Look out for her would you? Keep her safe. She the only other family I've got since the rest of my line passed, she's like a granddaughter to me, and the only other Crozzo I know of is currently in my old famila." Wulfric said.
Skeith peeked out of his left eye at the man.
"You didn't even need to ask. I would look out for her anyways, she's the first person I've met since coming to this village, and has welcomed me despite not knowing me, I'll repay that kindness with my own." Skeith said.
Wulfric smiled, and was about to speak when the rest of the villagers came out of the town hall, refreshed and ready for the trip to Orario.
Wulfric nodded to Skeith, concluding their conversation, before he made his way to the crowd.
"Ahem! Now everyone I hope you're well rested because as soon as we load up we'll be on the move to Orario." Wulfric said to the crowd, who all nod.
"Alright everybody load up!" Wulfric said with a dramatic shout.
"OUH!" The crowd shouted excitedly.
The crowd immediately began to disperse to load up their sleeping utilities into the carts, where they would stay until they arrived in Orario.
Skeith just watched awkwardly as the Villagers went about their business.
"Skeith! Over here." The familiar voice of Shino said to get his attention.
She stood in the back of a covered wagon, that was pulled by two chocolate brown horses. She waved him over, so he went to the wagon, and hopped in.
"What's up?" He asked.
"Nothing. Just wanted to show you the wagon, this is the only one with free space, so you'll be riding with us!" Shino said, gesturing to Wulfric, who sat across from the girl. Said old man waved to Skeith, who nodded back.
There was another girl there, short, petite, with long magenta hair, tied in twin tails, her eyes stormy gray and half lidded, barely any emotion shown in them. Skeith didn't mind though.
Skeith nodded to the girl as well, to he polite, she returned the gesture before pulling out a book and began to read.
"Minerva! Don't be rude! Introduce yourself!" Shino said to the girl.
"No that's fine. She doesn't have to. Seeing as I now know her name anyways." Skeith said, to diffuse the girl.
Minerva peeked up from her book and blinked, an almost greatful look in her eyes, before they returned to the book.
"Mou! Still it's rude." Shino pouted.
Skeith just sighed.
Wulfric chuckled at their antics.
(*knock-knock*)
"Hmm? Yes?" Wulfric called out.
"Mayor Crozzo. We're all ready to depart." A tall farmer looking man said.
Skeith blinked.
"That was fast." Skeith muttered.
Shino lightly giggled at his reaction.
Wulfric lightly chuckled as well, before he addressed the man.
"Alright then let us be off." Wulfric said.
The farmer man then walked around to the front of the covered wagon, and took the reins.
The wagon, after the man settled in to his seat, with a quick "Hyah!" lurched into motion.
Shino soon became very excited, as she began to talk.
"Oh Skeith I can't wait to see Orario. I've never been there. I've heard stories but how do I know if they're all true? Oh the excitement is killing me!" Shino rapidly continued on an on.
It took all of Skeith's brainpower to keep up with the girl.
Meanwhile Wulfric and Minerva sat there, the former chuckling as Skeith began to get flustered from the girl talking so much.
The later was more focused on her book, but would occasionally look up to gaze at Skeith in curiosity.
"OH! Ican'twaittogettoOrario!" Shino said extremely excitedly, her arms held in the air.
[A/N: Hello! and finally done, this took so long to write. I hope you enjoyed it, I know there are a few lore things about .hack that I most likely missed, but I've only played .hack/ GU and seen the anime that features Haseo.
So forgive me If I got somethings wrong.
Also let me know how I did with Thanatos, I originally was just going to not have him show up after he revived Skeith, but I got to thinking... wouldn't Ouranos sense the powers of his Nephew on Skeith should they ever meet, and if so... what would stop him from killing Skeith to prevent another Thanatos from ever rising. So there needed to be a deterrent for that. This is where Thanatos himself comes to play. Using scare tactics in a friendly manner, while subtly, and not so subtly threatening the lives of every creature in Orario. This is to show how Dark he is, but he is doing it for his new son's, who he has shared his blood with, life should Ouranos attempt to carry out his plan. Basically saying "you touch him, they die. And it'll be your fault."
Now I'm sure I'm going to get shit for making Thanatos look like Minato, but I've already explained that he was sealed within the boy, like in P3 canon, but was released when Minato became the Seal to stop Nyx. I even gave a reason as to why Thanatos cooperated with Minato, Nyx was encroaching on another Primordial's domain, with is a BIG no no for their kind, so she got what was coming to her.
Remember I go thick on the Multiverse for my stories, I even referenced Chaos, and his watching it on his TV, which btw happened in another story of mine.
Also I mentioned magic right? Well... the magic from .hack/ GU... frankly it sucks. The only good spells are the healing... and even then they still suck.
So... I plan to use the Spells from the Persona series, for magic, with him having a high affinity for Mudo, and some other curse abilities, of course he would use other spells, which would actually be used alongside the different forms of Ouroboros, but Curses would be his main element due to his nature as a being of death.
Also Skeith's Avatar form will change! Before his rebirth into a demigod, his form was like the one from V4, but due to his connection with Thanatos, it has... mutated into a form similar to Thanatos' Persona form.
Basically it's Haseo's v4 human form, but the normal Avatar size, the clothing (minus armor pieces which stay the same colors) and bare chest is all black with silver dots and lines (The same ones that are on his normal human form but reverse colored), with the Skull mask of Thanatos covering his head, the clown mask will be gone and three red eyes will be seen, but the actual face will be covered by the same abyssal cloth that covers Thanatos'. The Skull with also have Skeith's circle horns with crownlike spikes on it, essentially turning his horns into a psuedo crown.
His weapon will also be... well the plazma Scythe is the same, but he also has black Mudo energy in the shape of an Odachi as a left hand weapon. Plus his Blade wings will have coffins as guards (vertically, with the hilt and blade coming out of either end of the coffins.)
Sounds cool right? But don't worry he's still got a ways to go before he can safely use his Avatar form. In his current state, he would probably die if he tried, at most, and end up in a short coma at least, mostly due to his level not being high enough to take the stress. I might do partial manifestations of his Skeith for, like arms, or a "visage of death" (when Killer intent is applied and a vision of a monster appears behind or in place of the character) which would he less costly on his body, but that would still be a while, and probably for certain combat types/times (such as High speed movement.) It might even manifest as a psuedo Persona, but that's a bit might.
Also no Minerva is not a goddess, just a mortal who is named after the goddess, but she will have a part to play in future arcs.
And before anyone says anything! Yes the bike from .hack/ GU is in his inventory. But it has no power, so he can't use it...yet. (this is what I referred to by high speed movement.)
Anyways I hope you enjoyed, and I look forward to the next chapter.
