Ok, you know the drill, I only own my OC's…
--------------------------------------
--------------------------------------
Δ Stalking His Feeling
Hyphen sat contemplating the recent events that had transpired in The World. "If players like that one twinblade use the high level servers… I think I'll go back to Mac Anu and work my way up…" he said with a slight sigh.
"I wouldn't worry about which server you play on," a voice said, walking up behind him and sitting down, "because you know…" She stood back up and readied her blades, finishing with malice dripping off every word, "I never let my mark get away!"
"You're crazy, get away! What the hell did I ever do to you!?" he gasped, jumping four feet away and turning to her. Ever cautious, he had his menu open and the cursor was targeting a speed charm.
"You skipped out on our fight, that's what!" she lunged at him. By reflex his finger tapped the button, activating the speed charm in a split second. And with that bit of aid he managed to make the chaos gate before his hp was completely depleted. His heart raced as he tapped in the first 3 words he could think of, 'stalking…his…feeling!' With that he was gone. "You won't make a fool of me twice!!" Unison yelled with rabid ferocity, as she followed him and gated to the same area.
------------
Koji sat through another boring math class, the time slowly creeping by. Finally it was time for gym! Today was a special day for him in gym, the girls' gym class would be just across the fence. Not that Koji was waiting to see the girls in their gym clothes, no that wasn't it at all… ok maybe a little, but he had bigger reasons to wait for this day. But now wasn't the time to be worrying about it, he had to change into his own uniform or he'd be late for class.
Today was the day that his class would be tested on the oval track, all period he would be running. The test was to see how long you could go before finally collapsing, and how many times you stopped to catch your breath along the way.
After some warm-ups, the test had begun. He wouldn't fail the test just for his plan to succeed, but he wouldn't go for any records either. Koji ran for a good solid 5 minutes, then he stopped to take a few breaths, looking out past the fence as he did. The girl's class it seemed was doing flexed arm hangs again, that brought back some ironic memories in him. "Hey quite starin' out there and get back to runnin'. It ain't good to tempt yerself like that!" the gym teacher yelled from across the track.
"Oh! Sorry sir I was just taking a breather!" he yelled back a bit startled. Running some more he watched as the other class lined up and took turns doing each of the various exercises, including the arm hangs. The lines progressed further and further until he could finally see the target of his plot, just coming into view at the edge of the fence.
A few more laps, and he was looking intently, waiting for just the chance he needed. Suddenly something caught his shoulders roughly and he fell to the ground hard. Dizzily he heard the gym teacher saying, "Kid, yer pushin' yer luck, you nearly ran straight inta that building there. Thatta been real messy, kid. Maybe you been runnin' too long today, go sit somewhere 'til ya get yer senses back."
Embarrassing, but a blessing in disguise, he could go sit by the fence and watch from there. Soon he'd finish his goal. He watched intently as she came ever closer. With the line leading along the fence, he would have the perfect opportunity soon.
--------------
As they reached closer and closer to the dreaded obstacle course of her discontent, the girl in front of her turned saying, "Hey Oguro, that guy's been staring at you all this time." As she grew nearer and nearer to the one she'd pointed out, she slowly began to realize who it was.
He was now no more than about a foot away, separated by the fence. He turned and looked directly at her, and she practically screamed, "It's you again!" The intense glare he received, coupled with the loud accusation, startled him to the point of scrambling away to the other end of the field.
Sighing to himself he said, "Well that was a bust, I guess I'll try after class today…" Gym class ended slowly, but time seemed to speed up as his nerves began to grate on what happened earlier. Now it was nearly study period, the last one of the day. He could slip out easily enough, and he knew where she would be, but it didn't work so well. By the time he had mustered his courage enough to attempt his plan again, the final bell rang.
'One last chance!' he thought, "I have to get to her before she goes home!" He shoved his things in his bag and tore out of the school. Looking nervously around, he couldn't seem to spot her through all the masses of students leaving the building. But wait! No, there she was, taking her time, not rushing. She would be alone soon at this pace. "Perfect!" he said sprinting toward her.
----------
Natsume looked up from her pile of books, she'd dropped them on her way out, saw him dashing at her. Startled, she couldn't think where to run so she took a deep breath and planted her feet firmly on the ground. She would have to stand up to him. When he was only about 2 meters away she yelled, "Stop stalking me! I don't know what you're trying to do here, but I won't let you!"
"Wait, wait!" he said, waving his hands in front of him. "I'm not stalking you, My name is Koji, Ito Koji. I was only… um, I was going to—" he tried to explain.
"To what!? Don't think you can trick me!" she interrupted. "No, I'm not trying to trick you! I just wanted to…err… I wanted to ask you if you would like to go somewhere with me…" came his reply. It was obvious by his tone that she'd shattered his nerve completely. Too nerve-wracked from the whole ordeal, he ran home before she could respond.
Back in front of the school, Natsume stood stone-ridden in confusion for a moment. "Oguro Natsume… what have you done this time…" she said idly to herself, before starting home.
----------
Back at the field, Hyphen the blademaster was having the fight of his life, or rather running from it. He knew he was no match for the obviously abnormal powers of his twinblade foe. "Can't we make a deal or something!?" he said scrambling round the dungeon-like field map, looking desperately for the dungeon itself, hoping he could lose her within the many maps of it.
Finally, rounding the corner, he spotted the entrance and ran straight down it. Using another speed charm he dashed through room after room, killing as he went, stopping in a random place on the middle floor. "She'll never expect me to stay around here, most people would run to the lowest level and get trapped…" he said breathing a slow sigh of relief.
"She's a lot smarter than you think…" Unison said with a malicious grin. He was scared out of his mind now. "How the hell did you get here so fast!?" he sputtered. Dashing around the room he managed a quick escape, and used a sprite ocarina item to quickly gate out of the area.
----------
Natsume logged in somewhat confused about what to do next. Noticing Blackrose was online she sent a quick flashmail. Seconds later she and Moonstone had appeared at Lia Fail's chaos gate. "Oh, is he coming along too…?" Natsume questioned, hinting that she had something private to talk about.
"Don't worry about him, he's really a good listener. Not to mention I couldn't get him to say one damn word throughout the whole dungeon…" she replied adding slight annoyance in at the last part. Moonstone simply looked on, making a barely audible grunt of acknowledgment. Golden rings spiraled down beside the chaos gate one more time and Kite was now walking forward slowly.
"H-hey guys, what's going on?" he asked, still a bit nervous from before. "We were about to go into the dungeon…" Moonstone answered, startling Blackrose. Kite was somewhat surprised as well, if Moonstone answered it must be important. "Ok then, have fun guys…" he said walking off to find something else to do.
"Wow, you really know how to drive a point!" Blackrose chimed in. However to this the only response was, "…mm…" With that, Blackrose sighed, chose some keywords, and they gated out. Seconds after they gated, Kite switched to Σ server, hoping to solo a dungeon without too much strain.
----------
Hyphen had been dashing for his life all over each server for almost 3 hours now. Gating to Σ's Fort Ough, he spotted someone just about to gate out and asked, "H-hey sorry to barge in, but you mind if I party with you for a while!?" Having already typed in the keywords Kite replied, "I suppose," forming the party, they were off to Σ Lonely Confused Messenger.
They had only just arrived when a feminine voice stopped Hyphen in his tracks yelling, "Where the hell do you think you're going huh!?" Kite looked on as a female player chased down another on a grunty. "You're awful jumpy, is the field level a bit high for you here?" he said looking, back at his newest comrade.
"Heh heh, no, sorry it's nothing. Lets go to the dungeon before someone swipes the treasure?" he dismissed, realizing that this must be a semi-popular field today. "Actually to tell the truth someone's been chasing me; a PK. I wouldn't be surprised if she was as strong as the infamous player killer of Carmina Gadelica was in his day." Hyphen explained, "She's been chasing me for two days now. She's relentless… But anyway let's go get some treasure!"
"To tell you the truth," Kite said, as they trudged toward the dungeon's entrance, "Your PC doesn't really seem to fit your personality." The idle chat was obviously beginning to wear down the blademaster's tension. "Well, it wasn't mine initially, I sort of ended up with it through a process of elimination," Hyphen explained.
"You see, I asked a group of friends to help me out with my character, thinking they could perhaps get me some equipment or level me up while I was busy. But in the end they all just fought over my character's visual aspect, until I stepped in and used a bit of advice from all of them… And I ended up with this odd combination of heavy metal musician, shaman, and a few bits of a legend added in," he explained.
He pointed to the odd wave symbols on his shirt, the general raggedness of his clothes, and the overall character design, resembling that of Balmung slightly. "But in the end I like it well enough, we've been through some good times, this PC and I," he trailed off some.
Now in the dungeon they continued to chat idly about random things, just beginning to get acquainted. Eventually the conversation shifted to Kite's inability to express his feelings in the way he'd wanted to. "The way I see it, you should just walk up and state it how it is, don't sweat it till you've said it, ya know?" he continued. "Basically, unless you want her to think you're playing some kind of head game, or you want her to figure it out herself (trust me, that never happens the way you want it to) you should simply explain it quickly without thinking. Its less difficult if you don't think about it, since you won't be worrying, ya know?" he stated his point.
"Hmm, I could try that, but every time I get near her, something bad happens. Last time I tried, she thought I was stalking her…" Kite responded, explaining the events of the previous few hours. "Ah, that's rough, but maybe I'm not the best person to talk to about this, I'm not exactly the most popular guy in my school, none the less with the fairer ones…" Hyphen said with a slight dread, as though he was remembering something awful. "Ah, but cheer up, she plays on here too, didn't you say? So catch up to her later and tell her here! Sure its less personal, but this is an amazing game, and if you never get your chance, you'll never know what could've been. To me not knowing is worse than the fear of rejection." Hyphen consoled. "You've just gotta do what you can while you can do it!" he said, busying himself with a monster.
"Because life is short right?" a voice decidedly not Kite's spoke up. Finishing the monster in an instant he turned to see a very dead Kite and a very angry Unison—an angry Unison quickly approaching! This was bad, she was in the center of the room moving ever closer, and he was in a corner.
His heart was racing, fear and adrenaline mixed and mingled in his veins. I is said that in times of increased stress, time moves more slowly, if this was the case then Unison was even faster than he realized. She was sprinting full tilt now. As her blade was about to crash into his chest, by some unlikely chance he was able to raise his sword to parry it. There was the slightest of pauses as her blade's edge met his. A pause followed immediately by her dagger sliding through his sword as though it wasn't there at all.
He ducked out of the way and began running only to find himself trapped in the corner adjacent. "NO MORE GAMES!!" Unison shouted, leaping across the distance, closing the gap in an instant. Her edge was positioned above her head so as to bring it down with the inertia of the fall into him. Hyphen's sword clashed to the floor with a loud noise. 'Well… I'm gonna die either way… What could it hurt?' he thought to himself silently.
As Unison fell ever closer to death-strike proximity, Hyphen raised his head and met her lips with his. She was taken off guard by this spontaneous act. She landed on her feet with her arms at her sides. Neither of her weapons had scored a hit. Unfortunately she regained herself quickly. She finished him off with a normal attack. As he fell limp to the dungeon floor she turned her back contemplating the recent event. There was a flash of golden rings and she was gone.
--------------------------------------
Three figures appeared at the chaos gate walking through the allyway of Lia Fail. "Wow, that was some story, you should write soap operas Natsume." the tanned heavyblade said, "but seriously, why not give it a shot?" Natsume was silent for a moment, finally saying, "Well…I kind of…I kind of like someone else a little bit…"
"Ohhhh I see… You like Kite don't-cha?" Blackrose responded using the command for a wink. Natsume jumped a little in her chair, yelping, "I—!" Moonstone had a sudden flashback to one of the dungeons he had invited Kite to. He remembered vividly how Kite had teased him about the item they had gone to get for Aquamarine. He remembered that he didn't like it very much. Moonstone took a step forward knocking Blackrose to the ground with one hand. Before she could even protest the rough treatment he spoke.
"Just tell him," he said. Natsume, who was puzzled, remained silent for the time. "Rather, tell them both. Explain to Kite. You should do it today… and tell the boy at your school you are not available." Blackrose, still on the floor, with mouth wide open, exclaimed, "You talked again!" Moonstone simply stood there, and finally 'Moonstone:…' appeared in the chat window.
--------------------------------------
There was a chime and the 'New FlashMail' icon began flashing. "Come to Lia Fail…" Kite read aloud. "Moonstone?" he puzzled.
--------------------------------------
A similar occurrence met with Blackrose. She read the message to herself, 'Leave.' Glaring at Moonstone she yelled, "Wh-wh-wh-what!? Who do you think you are, ordering me around!?" Another FlashMail indicator jingled into existence.
'Please leave.'
Blackrose mailed back this time, "What's with you! You can't just order me around like that! Why the hell should I leave?" Golden rings spun down near the chaos gate and Moonstone logged out immediately. As Kite got his barings straight he looked at the small grunty farm in front of him for a moment. Blackrose suddenly understood and logged out as well.
Natsume was too busy contemplating Moonstone's words to even notice the recent events. It was only when Kite approached saying 'hi' that she snapped out of the stupor. "K-Kite! I—uhh, I have something I need to tell you…" she nervously responded. Kite waited for more on the subject, but was surprised when he heard a loud crash and some beeping and yelling. In an instant she'd disappeared. "Hmmhh…" Kite mused and decided, "I guess I'll logout and check my e-mail or something."
--------------------------------------
Hyphen sat staring out at the scenery of Dun Loireag mumbling to himself. "I wonder if that woman will leave me alone now that she's finally gotten to PK me…" he sat with his chin in his hand, leaned against his knees. "I'll bet she never leaves me alone, not after what I pulled…" he continued.
"You may be right you know." a voice sounded from slightly behind him to the left. His heart skipped a beat and proceeded to jackhammer his ribcage. He was in a bad position, while seated he couldn't activate items or run away very quickly. If he stood up to run, she'd kill him. If he stayed, she'd kill him. What happened next completely floored him. "You really surprised me back then." she said, as he finally turned to look at her. She was seated close-by him in a similar fashion to his own. 'Funny, when she's not trying to kill me she looks almost serene' he thought to himself. "You know, I can't figure it out. What would make one do what you did, in a situation like that one? You don't make any sense. I don't understand you." she continued.
He was silent for a moment, and when it looked as though he was safe he stood up to sneak away. "Hey," she called, and he nearly jumped out of his chair. He turned cautiously expecting to be staring down the flat of her dagger, but she'd only just then stood up. She walked over to him saying, "I don't get you, and I refuse to accept that." She leaned closer to him and said, "So how about we go somewhere until I do get you?" Everything about what she said sounded like a bad idea. Innocent, but trap-worthy. Yet somehow he couldn't help but feel a little off centered. He was both terrified, and excited. It was like he was dealing with a split personality. Like something had changed, but she was still easily the strongest and most dangerous character he had ever seen. 'If I don't go she'll probably hunt me down again…oh, man…' he reasoned to himself. Sighing just deep enough to release some of the tension, but not so much as to be noticeably opposed, he said, "Alright… Where to?"
--------------------------------------
--------------------------------------
Ok so that's the long awaited chapter 2, please for the love of god, REVIEW! Anyway, chapter 3 may take just as long or longer to write up… I got massive writer's block from the day after I posted chapter one till just recently… Hope you enjoyed it.