A/N: Ha haa...I updated this rather soon, didn't I? Sorry, I'm already stuck on chapter four (in my journal). Seriously, this was one of the more...yuckier chapters. I had to look up a bunch of stuff, which I hope is accurate enough, but I think in the end, the chapter ended up okay. Oh, yes, I tend to want about alternate universes and such...it's just how I'm going to make Haseo react when he goes inside the original game of The World...how the characters will react to him, and him to them. Well, I could always ask people and brainstorm, but I'm not quite there yet...I'll tell a bit more on Chapter 3. Also, Ryou's background...some of that I picked up from .hack//wiki. It said that Ryou lived alone, and no mention of his mother...so, I used that absence to add a bit of emotion for the older Ryou. Well, hope you enjoy and respond well. If you have any questions too, I don't mind at all answering them. :)
Chapter 2
The final bell at last rang, and Ryou quickly remembered about meeting Angel at the entrance of the school. While he was at his locker, putting away his unneeded textbooks, however...
"RYOU!!!"
With a yelp of surprise, Ryou turned to see Orino smiling triumphantly in front of his. Ryou groaned, sickened. "Geez, Orino..."
"You talk to the new girl yet, like I told you to?"
"As a matter of fact, I was just going to meet with her now..."
"So, what's her name?" Orino asked eagerly.
"Angel Walker."
"Really? Angel Walker..." Orino echoed the name aloud dreamily. "I wish I had a chance to meet her."
"She's at the entrance doors waiting for me."
"Oh, I know that, but I have a tennis tournament today..." Orino quickly looked at his wrist watch and his eyes widened. "...which means I gotta go RIGHT NOW!" He began running off, shouting, "Don't forget to tell her I said hi, okay?!"
Ryou sighed as he grabbed he finished unpacking unneeded things and walked towards the front of the entrance of the school, where Angel was waiting patiently in one corner, seemingly to be deep in thought. As soon as she saw him, however, all traces of thoughtfulness escaped her features and she resumed her seriousness once again. "Ready to go?"
"Yeah, let's go." As they began walking out of the building, Ryou quickly added, "By the way, Orino Yamamoto gives you his greetings and hopes you enjoy school here." Ryou immediantly wished that, wherever he was, Orino would sneeze, so that Ryou could get back at him...ah, sweet revenge...
"Oh, a friend of yours?"
"Well...not exactly. I haven't really run into him quite as frequently until recently."
"Hm. Well, I think it's nice of him to come by your way often."
"Nice of him?" Ryou asked, as they hit the corner of the school, connecting to a neighborhood of apartment and houses; a small suburb within the city.
"I saw you at lunch. No one seems to sit near you. Why?" Ryou shrugged. It felt to him as if Angel was continuously interrogating him of his own personal life again. "Does Orino-san have lunch with you?" Angel continued to question.
"Well, no, he mostly goes off to a local restaurant with other students in his grade, then comes back around when the next period is about to begin."
"Oh, you can do that?"
"As long as you can make it back before you're tardy."
"He could take you then, couldn't he? That way you could go with one another."
Ryou shrugged. "It's...it's not that simple...I mean, Orino wouldn't...well, I couldn't..." He sighed. "I just can't. Let's leave it at that..."
Angel looked at him thoughtfully. "Well...maybe, sometime soon, you can ask Orino-san to take you to lunch...it's only a suggestion, though. I would never force you out if you didn't want..." Angel looked back in front of her. "...You seemed lonely, though...even if you didn't show it, I could tell. You're so lonely, you're used to it."
"So, what do you want to tell me?" Ryou asked quickly, hoping to change the subject. He was not used to others telling him to step out of his own comfort zone by mere repetitive conversation.
"I'll show you when we reach your home," Angel answered simply. Ryou glanced back at her. Show me...? Show me what...? he wondered.
The rest of the walk was quiet, and it seemed like hours to Ryou when it had only been minutes before they reached his home. He reached under the doormat and took out the house keys and unlocked the door to the house. As Angel entered, she looked around, studying the rooms. It seemed rather dark, which did not surprise her, and it was mostly clean, with several papers lying here and there. Besides the people who had just entered, the house seemed void of any other life.
"You live here alone?"
"I guess you could say that," Ryou replied simply as he tossed his backpack on the couch. "My dad lives on the other side of town, so that he can take better care of the company."
"He owns a company?"
"Yeah, and runs it himself, too. That's why he's so busy all the time and has to live nearby it. But he pays for my education, so you can see why I'm in that private school. 'The best of the best is for us, the Misaki,' he says. He pays the bills, too. But I got a job last year at the local grocery store, so I'm able to buy my own food with that money, sometimes. If I really want or need something, I'm always able to phone him about it. That's how I was able to get The World R:2."
"What about your mother?"
"My...mother?" Ryou's voiced cracked.
"Yes."
"...She's...she's..."
"Divorced? Away?" Angel began suggesting words. "At wo--"
"Dead," Ryou managed to whisper. "She's dead."
"Oh..." Angel whispered. "I'm sorry..." She felt sympathy and remorse for Ryou at once.
Ryou shrugged, trying to wipe away hidden pain with simple gestures. "I'm getting by. What do you want to show me?"
Angel nodded and reached into her knapsack, pulling out a CD case and turned on Ryou's computer. Ryou took a quick glance at the CD and saw that it was labled PROTOTYPE.While it was booting up, Angel turned to Ryou. "Ryou...you have heard about the original version of The World, right?"
"Yes. I also heard that most of the data for The World was destroyed, so they quickly created and presented a substitute, called The World R:2, and it quickly became popular, am I right?"
"Right."
"So...what does that have to do with anything?"
Angel sighed. "Well...seven years ago, there was a growing number of incidents through playing in the original game, resulting in many coma cases..."
"Coma cases..." Ryou echoed softly.
"Yes, all through the technique known as Data Drain performed by the 8 Phases...the one of the Phases is the Avatar I know you control and are familiar with."
"Skeith..."
"That's right. However, you can control Skeith, mainly because Skeith's data, when found along with the other phases, was put into special PCs, allowing certain people...people like you...to be able to control them and use their power. During those incidents, it was quite the opposite, as the Phases were controlled by some dark force within the game..."
"So...what does this have to do with me?" Ryou asked, his voice growing quieter.
"Quite a bit, actually," Angel answered. "Aren't you surprised that you would be chosen out of who knows how many people to control Skeith? Do you think that some how you are connected? I have a gut feeling that you are...and I'll show you, a little bit at a time, on why we think Skeith chose you. The answers we may find by this may be either closer or farther from the truth...but, the people who are deeply involved with running The World and solving its bizarre mysteries will be dying to know and continue researching until they can find even more answers, wouldn't you think so?"
"Why do I need to know all this?"
"You don't, not really. However, wouldn't you feel better if you recovered all of those lost memories, the ones you lost when you lay inside the hospital, seven years ago?" Ryou's eyes widened in shock. "Yes, Ryou...you were one of the coma victims. You were especially affected when you woke up and had little recollection on what had happened."
"Angel...how do you know all of this? Just what are you anyway?!"
Angel smiled. "My specific origins, I can scarcely remember myself. We moved around a lot, even when I was younger. My father is the head and works on a side branch of the CC Corp, which few people outside the company even know about. He has trained me in this department ever since I was very young, although this is my very first real assignment...my test. My chance to actually be able to work with my father and help with our goal of the CC Corp branch. Our goal is clear: To help individuals that have been affected by The World. That is why I am here."
"You're here to help me?"
Angel nodded. "To help recover the lost memories. There is a specific individual in The World that you may or may not remember, but I want you, as Haseo, to befriend him and learn about him for a while. You see, he is the missing link to your past...these meetings I want you to share with him will be the first of three stages, which may or may not happen at the same time, and I will show you all three before my test, hopefully, is finished successfully."
"Who is he?"
"That, I won't tell you. I want you to be surprised," Angel said, smiling. "When you do approach him and other characters, you should know that these are AIs we have made through fragments of character data we were able to find and save. We were able to make it so that interaction and conversation would be realistic, as it makes them appear they have their old feelings and personalities. This way, you will learn about the people interacted with you before the incident."
"How is this person the missing link to myself?"
"I just told you that you were a coma victim, and that you did play The World when you were younger. The AI you will meet is your past character."
"Do I even want to know about all this?"
Angel only continued smiling gently, like a mother to a young child. "Well, I think that, deep down, you may want to know the answers." Angel took the CD containing the prototype data for The World, and installed it. "Also, to make sure this experiment goes smoothly, we will temporarily freeze your account on The World R:2, so any business you want to tell your friends, you will have to do that tonight."
Ryou's eyes widened. "You mean...I can't play it anymore?"
"Not until this is over. You can still email them, though, for updates. I will copy Haseo's data into the prototype, so that you will be able to move around in the original World and so that nothing becomes suspicious for others. Well, I never said they couldn't 'think', now did I? They can attack you, if you're not careful, you know. But if we work this out carefully, Haseo will be just appear to be a normal Twin Blade to them," Angel finished. "Anymore questions?"
Anymore questions...? Ryou had many questions, hundreds of questions, combined well with his doubts, and they all sped past his mind at one time. Would he recognize anyone at all? How exactly would this help him? Was it really worth it? Couldn't he just back out of it? But Ryou knew, deep down, that he would really never be satisfied if he denied this chance...the chance to actually see the events that changed his life forever...the answers mysteries that remained unbound that he so wished to hold again and be satisfied...yes, he couldn't back out. Haseo wouldn't back out; he would accept this challenge.
"No...no more questions. I'm prepared to see this past World and what really happened to me," Ryou announced.
Angel nodded. "Of course, it will have to be tomorrow after school. That way there will be more time to prepare."
"Yes, and more time to tell the others I won't be on."
"Right," Angel nodded. "I'll leave the CD in the hard drive for you to use tomorrow, Ryou-san. As I've said before, please finish any business you need to take care of any business before tomorrow. I'm not sure myself how this will work out, but I think that the more you take your time and your progress improves at a steady rate, the closer you'll be to be able to finish this project successfully."
Ryou glanced at her questioningly. "Angel...are you some kind of hacker?"
Angel chuckled, amused. "Well...I don't think I'm that good, yet. I've had the basic computer training from my father; you know, designing, coding, all that good stuff. I'm not sure whether or not I could consider myself a hacker. I'm a decent enough computer programmer, I guess. I'm still very young and I still have a long ways to go, so...in time we'll see." Angel stood up. "Well, I'll let you take control of your computer now, Ryou-san. It's getting late; it always amazed me how quickly time flies when you're having fun...or at least an interesting conversation, like this one." She headed towards the door muttering, "I need to get home before it gets too dark...Mom will freak..." As she opened the front door, she looked once more at Ryou. "Remember this, Ryou-san: Life is a like a jigsaw puzzle. Some people are able to successfully fill in all the pieces correctly and quickly, some others it takes more time but they are able to manage, and some people have a terrible time finding all the pieces. In this puzzle, I am only the provider and giver; it is up to you to fill in all the spots you miss." With that said, Angel left.
Ryou studied her words for a while, then quickly went to work by informing members of his party that he would be absent...and he would only tell the ones he truly trusted what was really going on. I just hope they realize that I'm actually going to visit my past for a while, Ryou thought, and fill in all the pieces, a little bit at a time.