Hello to all! Here we are with the 9th chapter of .hack/curse! YAY:D
Oh, by the way, this story has reached over 20,000 words! YAY!
If you're wondering why the last chapter was called Moss, it's because Senbou wears green, which is the color of moss.
And if you're wondering why this chapter is called Loch, it's because it involves lakes...kind of.
OK, I decided to use Minotaur and Kojiru in this chapter. I wasn't sure if Kojiru was intended to be male or female but the name made me think he was male.
Now, because I have nothing left to say, on with the fic!
CHAPTER 9
LOCH
A young boy robed in the color of spring leaves knelt before a woman.
"My Lady," he said to her, "I have done as you instructed."
"Excellent," said the woman. "With them out of the way, our conquest of The World is but a moment away."
"I await your orders, my Lady," said the boy.
"Fetch Doki for me," said the woman.
"As you wish."
The boy left and moments later another boy appeared, his garb blazing.
"What is it, my Lady?"
"Head to Theta, Soothing Geothermal Loch."
"As you wish."
Almost a week had passed, and still there was no new news about Senbou or any other Hackers of Hades. The group occupied their time by leveling up and were about to hit Level 14. They were tearing apart the internet for information, but still found nothing.
They sat in the hideout watching Grunties Say the Darndest Things when they heard a knock at the door. Michoru stood up to open it and a girl walked into their hideout.
"Hi!" she said to them. "I'm your next door neighbor."
"What, do you want a cup of sugar?" asked Suzaku, only to be smacked over the head by Magora.
"Actually, I was just going to ask if you knew about the hot springs."
"Hot springs?" asked Kenji, intrigued.
"Yeah," said the girl. "Theta, Soothing Geothermal Loch. I just came back, and it's really nice, even though you can't feel it."
Everyone stifled a laugh.
"I was just letting you know, so you could visit them when you have the time. They really take the stress off, you know?"
"Thanks, bye," said Magora as the girl left.
"So, you want to go?" Akazu asked his companions.
"Well, I have been needing some relaxation lately," said Kite.
"And they seem pleasant," said Magora.
The decision had been made. The party left the hideout and headed for the chaos gate.
They reached an area that had a small, oriental building with paper walls. There was a large paper screen in front of a path, but a hot spring could be seen through it. Trees grew everywhere, hidden by the steam that rose from the hot water.
"That must be the changing room," said Akazu, pointing to the small building.
"Welcome to the Hot Springs," said an NPC. "The girls' changing room is in the left part of the building. The boys' changing room is on the right side of the building. Girls, your hot spring is just behind this paper screen. Boys, your hot spring is behind that screen."
The NPC gestured at the different paper screens and the party split up and entered the changing rooms.
When the Michoru and Magora got to the hot spring, there were already some people there. First, there was the girl Hikari that they had met at the Grunty Ranch. On the other side of the spring, there was a girl silently staring at her knees, her black hair falling beneath the surface of the water.
"Oh! It's you guys!" said Hikari, looking up at them.
"Hello," said Magora, testing the water carefully with her toe before dropping into it.
"How have you been?" asked Michoru as she descended beneath the surface of the water.
"OK," said Hikari. "I finally raised an Iron Grunty instead of one of those damn noble ones."
"That's... good to hear," said Magora nervously.
As the boys approached their hot spring, they could see dark shapes in the steam. They entered the cloud of steam and saw a young boy with a scarred body sitting in the hot springs. His mid-back black hair sank beneath the surface, and his red eyes shone creepily. Across from him sat a boy with blue hair that covered his left eye who had red marks on his cheeks. Sitting next to him was a boy with short black hair and brown eyes.
"Hi," said Kite.
"Hi," said the boy with blue hair. "I'm Minotaur."
"I'm Kojiru," said the boy with short black hair.
"...Odysseus," said the boy sitting across from the other two.
Kite and the other boys introduced themselves, and Kite lay his staff on the edge of the spring and slid into the water. Suzaku did the same, and Akazu followed suit. Kenji finally entered the water.
"So, why'd you name your character Odysseus?" asked Kenji. "Are you Greek?"
"No," said Odysseus. "I had to read the Odyssey for school and liked it."
"What class are you?" asked Kenji.
"Gunner," said Odysseus.
"I've never heard of that," said Akazu.
"Event," said Odysseus.
He sank beneath the water, not wanting to speak any longer.
"Hey, you know what would be fun?" said Michoru.
"What?" asked Magora.
"Let's go spy on the guys!"
"I don't think that's a very good idea," said Hikari.
"Oh, come on!" said Michoru as she stood up. "If you don't want to go, I'll go by myself. But you know they're going to do the same thing!"
"I doubt it," said Magora.
"Hey, you know what would be fun?" said Suzaku.
"What?" asked Akazu.
"Let's go spy on the girls!"
"Are you kidding me?" said Kite. "They'd kill us if we got caught doing that!"
"Then we won't get caught," said Suzaku.
"...Stupid," said Odysseus, rising from beneath the surface.
"Come on!" said Suzaku. "You know you want to!"
"You're really sick," said Kojiru.
"Fine! Be that way!" said Suzaku, storming off.
"He's going to get his ass kicked," said Kenji dismissively as he lowered his head beneath the water.
"Is it really that bad?" asked Minotaur.
"You don't know what Michoru is like," said Kite.
"She's nice and all, but when she gets pissed off something usually breaks," said Akazu.
Suzaku ran in the direction of the girls' hot spring.
The other guys will be missing out, he thought as he began to anticipate what he would find when he got to the hot spring. Wrapped in his thoughts, he didn't notice the tall figure in front of him and crashed headlong into something soft. He fell backwards and looked up at a female silhouette. When he focused in on it, he noticed the orange hair, the silver moon on the forehead.
Oh, shit.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" screamed Michoru as she stared down at Suzaku.
"I could ask you the same thing," said Suzaku, standing up.
Michoru turned a shade of crimson.
"Uh, I..." she said, trying to come up with an excuse. "I... I... uh, um, I was...trying to find a bathroom!"
"There aren't any bathrooms in The World, Michoru," said Suzaku. "We're the only ones that need them."
"Oh, yeah," said Michoru. "I was..."
"Just admit it," said Suzaku. "You were going to spy on us."
"It's not like you were planning on doing something else!" cried Michoru, turning even redder.
"Oh, right..." said Suzaku, now also turning red.
There was a long, awkward silence.
"Well, I'd best be going," said Suzaku.
"Me too," said Michoru, and they ran in opposite directions.
"Ah," said Magora, "this is so relaxing.
"I know," said Hikari.
Magora stood up and picked up the wooden bucket, scooping up some water with it. She poured the hot water over her head.
"That's good," said Suzaku to himself from the bushes. "Now, just move the towel..."
Suddenly, something caught his leg and he fell over, making loud crashing noises. The girls were alert and looked at the bushes.
"Who's there?" cried Magora into the bushes.
Suzaku remained silent. Maybe they would think he was a stray grunty. Hikari stood up and walked over to the bushes, holding her towel to her side suspiciously. She looked into the bushes and saw Suzaku sitting there.
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING HERE?" she screamed.
"Uh, I was checking to make sure you weren't attacked!" he lied. "Job well done! Continue relaxing now!"
He stood up to leave, but she grabbed Suzaku's shoulder..
"YOU'RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE!" she screamed, her nails digging into Suzaku's shoulder.
"What are you going to do with me?" he asked fearfully.
"Magora," said Hikari. "Give me my swords, please."
"Oh, shit."
Odysseus suddenly stood up.
"Enemies," he said.
Shocked, everyone stood up and looked around.
"I don't see anyone," said Kenji.
Odysseus grabbed his gun from the edge of the hot spring and shot it into the bushes with a loud crack. The boys ran to where he fired and found the dead body of a rabbit with a bleeding bullet hole in it's head.
"Dude!" screamed Kite. "That is just wrong!"
"Apologies," said Odysseus. "Unintended consequence. Purposeful miss to shock tracker."
"What?" asked Kojiru, who had no idea what the robot kid was saying. Minotaur tapped his shoulder and pointed to the space of ground next to the rabbit. Michoru was sitting there, curled up in a shocked little ball pointing at the dead rabbit.
"You killed the bunny," she said.
Suddenly, everyone realized what she had been doing. There was a brief pause as everyone thought about what to do. Akazu spoke up first.
"I am going to kick your ass."
A woman in blue sat on a chair, a boy in green before her.
"Lucky Doki," said the boy in green. "He gets to go to the hot springs. How come I never get to go to the hot springs?"
"Ugh, shut up!" said the woman in blue. "I'm sick of your whining! You always say how much you wish you could do something and never take any steps towards doing it!"
The boy in green rolled his eyes and was about to leave when a man in yellow appeared.
"Senbou," said the man in yellow. "You've failed. We've just received reports from Doki that the bracelet holders are still alive."
"I must tell you something," said Odysseus.
"What is it?" asked Kite.
"Odysseus is not my name. I am Doki, one of the Seven Hackers of Hades, and the embodiment of all fury!"
The boys stared in shock.
"You..." said Kenji. "You deceived us!"
"Yes, well I have orders to destroy you," said Doki, bored. "So come, the Machinator: Gorre!"
He grabbed a red sphere from next to his gun and raised it in the air. Before them appeared two great, stone slabs with glowing orange eyes and huge, sharp teeth.
"Buh-bye!" said Doki, gating out.
"We can take it!" said Akazu aggressively.
"No!" said Kite. "We have to run! We can fight it later!"
"Fine..."
"Michoru!" cried Kenji. "Go get Magora and Suzaku and make sure they run!"
"All right!" said Michoru.
She ran away to get the others and Kite held out his bracelet. He shot the air before him and the three were warped away.
"Well, great," said Suzaku when they returned to the hideout. "Just tap dancing great."
"Yeah," said Kite. "But at least, now we know that every Hacker of Hades controls one of the Eight Phases that the .hackers defeated."
"Senbou controls Skeith," said Akazu.
"And Doki controls Gorre," finished Magora.
"But, that can't be it," said Michoru.
"Why not?" asked Kenji.
"Because," said Michoru, "there were Eight Phases: Skeith, Innis, Magus, Fidchell, Gorre, Macha, Tarvos and Corbenik. But Doki and Senbou both said that there were only seven Hackers of Hades."
"It just means that they have a leader," said Magora. "Someone more powerful than any of them."
WHOA! EXCITING! My next chapter's going to be really good, I feel it! So keep reading!