Chapter 2

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN GENJI, BLEACH, .DOTHACK/G.U., OR RELATED PROPERTIES .Dot Hack is own by Bandai, Sony own Genji , and Tite Kubo owns Bleach. If I owned any of them, I would not be living in the middle of nowhere with a Penguin who has Split-Personality Disorder for a roommate.

Yata watched the fight again. He was intrigued by the team that had defeated the Yellow Devils so soundly. The Blade Brandier, Shinryu, didn't have seem to have anything special about him. He was a normal PC. It was the other two, Mizuchi and Skirayuki, who had the abnormal readings. Power similar to an Epitaph. His own Epitaph, Fydhel, was reacting to their images. They weren't even here, and he was reacting.

Yata watched as Mizuchi gave his orders to his team, and how the battle had played out. The three fought well as an integrated whole. He hoped that they proved useful. Their power would make a nice addition to Raven's ranks.

Hearing footsteps behind him, he turned to see who was here. Haseo, Pi, and Kuhn walked out into the open area between the door and the Serpents dais. He noticed Haseo's eyes tracking the fight on one screen which was set to replay it until he had fully analyzed it.

"Haseo. What are your thoughts on this team?" he asked. Haseo was a smart man, when he wasn't gripped by a berserker's battle-fury. His insight had helped Raven repeatedly. Plus, his Epitaph- Skeith, the Terror of Death- was the most powerful Yata had encountered.

"Solid. Their teamwork was excellent. When their tactics started to run dry, they adjusted flawlessly. They would prove most helpful if they agreed to work with us." stated Haseo without hesitation.

"Truly… I had come to the same conclusion. Their power is abnormal. I am going to continue watching them. If they continue to fight in the Arena, I want you three to watch them. If they are Epitaph Users, then we bring them in to have a chat."

"Of course, master Yata." said Pi.

In Lumina Cloth, the three friends were finishing up their business with the merchants. Their team, Team Reaper, had been doing very well in the Arena. After twelve fights, they were ten-and-two. Ichigo had been distracted during this last match.

He had seen three figures there, the same ones he had observed at the last five matches they had fought. So, he was determined to find out why they were stalking him and his team. Frankly, it was very aggravating.

Warping out of the combatants gate, Ichigo looked around. He spotted the three observers walking out of the spectator gate and veered off to confront them. Planting himself squarely in front of them, he said, "Okay. You three have been watching us like hawks. Why? You don't stare at the other teams like that. Spill."

Haseo was taken aback by the demand for information. He hadn't thought they were that obvious. There again, he also hadn't thought that he could even see them from the arena itself.

"What does it matter?" he asked Mizuchi arrogantly.

"It matters because it's creepy as hell. I want it to stop. Period. I hate stalkers, and you three are becoming some very fast." ground out Ichigo. He had to dodge a couple fan-girls in the real world. He didn't want to have to go through that here too.

"Frankly, you have no way to make us stop. You can't defeat us with your fighting skill. So, really, all you have is a bluff." stated Haseo confidently. After all, he had been fighting and surviving worse odds than this weakling, and he had Skeith as a fall-back option.

"Fine. Fight in the Arena. We win, you jackals take off. Deal?" offered Ichigo. If he needed to wipe the floor with them to get them off his back, so be it.

"Deal," said Haseo calmly, ignoring the protests of his partners. And so the stage was set. Moving to his team, Ichigo told them about what was happening. Rukia nodded, seeing the logic of Ichigo's actions. Keigo was happy they had another arena bout so soon. The recent loss had him down, and he figured that a quick win was just the ticket to perking him right up.

Registering the fight took no time at all. Warping back to the ready room, Ichigo looked at his friends and told them that he would deal with the steam gunner. Rukia was to target the grappler and Keigo was to try and take down the adept rogue. If one of them finished off their opponents, then they were to assist Rukia.

Tribal Grapplers had a lot of HP and good defense, so she'd probably need the help. Seeing them nod, Ichigo moved over to the gate and warped in to the arena to start the battle.

In the Arena, after warping onto the display stands to be showcased for the crowd, Ichigo stared at Haseo, who looked back arrogantly. As soon as the buzzer announced that the match was underway, Ichigo charged. But, he didn't charge at Haseo, like they had expected. He made a break for Kuhn, while Haseo was attacked by the Blade Brandier. The Tribal Grappler in tails and an almost indecent outfit was targeted with a blast of fire magic.

Kuhn managed to get his gunblade up in time to block most of Ichigo's attack, but he was still blasted off his feet. Heh, his weapon is too small to block me totally, thought Ichigo. Moving up, he saw Kuhn charging his shot and brought up his own defense. It impacted on the blade of the sword. Pushing onward, Ichigo saw his opponent's guard was lowered just enough. "Shell Breaker!" he yelled, activating his special attack. Kuhn's eyes widened a bit as the attack slammed him to the ground.

Pushing his attack, trying to defeat Kuhn quickly so he could help his allies, Ichigo was determined. And so focused that he didn't see the greatsword wielding Haseo move over to him and swing the sword.

He felt it though. Being blasted back away from the severely injured Kuhn, Ichigo saw Rukia blast Pi with an earth attack, dropping boulders on her, leaving her bruised and bleeding from the savage abuse being heaped her way.

Keigo was almost down, though. He rushed past Ichigo, relentless in his persecution. Flashing his sword in a blinding attack pattern, his savage assault finished Kuhn off. Before Rukia could send a healing spell his way, Haseo stepped up and swung his huge sword in a diagonal cut, leaving the broken body to disappear from where it had fallen.

Ichigo couldn't do anything for Keigo, so he decided to take the heat off Rukia for a bit. Given that Pi was desperately trying to break through Rukia's guard, and Rukia was maneuvering to present her enemies back to Ichigo, it couldn't be easier. His sword cleaved into her side, leaving an ugly wound before he spun around, using the force of his admittedly humongous sword's swing to add more power to the next attack. It finished the job, leaving Pi to fall to the ground on her knees, then slumping forward to lay face-down before her body faded away.

Rukia, meanwhile, had not been idle. She was busy resurrecting Keigo, who reappeared beside her, completely fine. Ichigo turned to look at Haseo. He had a shocked look on his face, as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

Smirking a bit, Ichigo said "I don't think you can hold off all three of us. Looks like you lose!" as he raised his sword to charge.

Haseo looked sour for a second, then he got a maniacal grin on his face. He then started saying "Come on. Come on! I'm right… HERE!" As he was saying this, he was glowing a bit, and strange design's appeared over his character's graphic. He bent over, as if in sudden pain, then screamed "SKEEEEEEIIIIIITH!!". Once he had screamed this out, a huge black area erupted out of his body, and Haseo was gone. In his place was a huge skeletal figure with a scythe and an evil look on it's face. It looked down at the three shocked fighters.

"Time to DIE! GRAHHHH!" screamed the monster as it blasted forward, raising the scythe in preparation to chopping them in half. He swung the blade downward, expecting the blade to meet no resistance as it severed their lives from them. The figures raised an ineffectual defense, in the vain hope of stopping this insane strength.

Silence echoed.

Skeith was shocked. His attack had been stopped, by nothing! No one was strong enough to stop his attack like that, not even another Epitaph! So what had happened? Skeith backed off and shrank down, becoming Haseo once again as the black field faded away.

Team Reaper was shocked. Looking at Haseo, they all demanded to know what the hell that was. That was freaky. Haseo just held up his hands and said to meet him in Mac Anu if they wanted answers. With that, he forfeited the match and warped out. Ichigo looked at his team, who looked back with extremely puzzled looks. With a small shrug, Ichigo warped out, not bothering to listen to the announcer rambling on about their victory.

In the Serpent of Lore, Yata watched in astonishment as Ichigo's defense stopped the attack by Skeith. It was definitely unusual. To his certain knowledge, such a thing had never happened before. He heard the private message from Haseo telling him that they were coming to Raven to talk, so he would have some warning.

He appreciated the advance warning. He prepared his teaching files for ease of use, and waited.

At the Chaos Gate in Mac Anu, Ichigo, Rukia, and Keigo saw the three stalkers waiting for them. Gesturing for them to lead the way, Team Reaper followed Haseo's group to the mercenary district where the Guilds building was.

Pi turned to Ichigo and handed him a small card which, once he accepted it, glowed briefly and then merged with his hand. He looked quizzically at Pi, who explained that it was a temporary gate pass to let them into Raven's Home.

Ichigo nodded. He had heard that special gate passes were required for certain guilds. It seemed that Raven was one of them. Moving into the building, he saw an open space with a grunty surrounded by three couches in the middle. Off against the left wall was a short set of stairs leading to a doorway allowing one to enter deeper into the building.

Following Haseo's lead, they all trooped down the hallway into a dimly illuminated room. Once they were all there, a light flared and Yata descended from above on a floating platform. Ichigo clapped mockingly. Yata quirked an eyebrow at him. Ichigo just shook his head and crossed his arms.

"Welcome to the Serpent of Lore. My name is Yata. I am the guildmaster of guild called Raven. We have invited you here to answer some of your questions."

"Great. So the show with the floating platform was just for our benefit? I feel special," snarked Ichigo. He oomphed as Rukia jabbed him in the side with her elbow. Even in 'The World' she had sharp elbows. Kuhn and Haseo laughed.

"Looks like it's a lost cause, trying to overawe these guys, chief. Might as well move on into the briefing, eh?" asked Kuhn. He was impressed they could brush Yata off like that. Most people would be intimidated by him and the Serpent.

"Indeed. Well, to the point. You have seen Haseo's avatar. It's name is Skeith. It is what we refer to as an Epitaph. Basically, an Epitaph is a sentient program that merges with a player's character data. Once that happens, a player is capable of a variety of things. We don't know why the Epitaphs do this, and we don't know how they choose the host character, but there it is. It seems you three have Avatars of your own. So, that means that you will be working for me." he finished up with a smirk.

Ichigo glared back. "Sentient programs? Avatars? Sure. And I'm the queen of England. Now then, since this is obviously a waste of time and I hate dealing with liars, we'll be leaving now." he said, turning to the exit.

"Bzt, wrong answer, boy. And until we finish up, you are not leaving," said Yata, pressing a button on his console. As soon as he did this, there was an ominous clanging sound from the doors and the hallway. Ichigo watched in shock as several huge metal doors clanged down, completely cutting off any hope of escape.

Ichigo turned slowly. Yata and the rest were taken aback by the sight of a normal person who had mysteriously sprouted two glowing red eyes in place of his own. He growled low in his throat, supremely pissed. "I said we're leaving, and you try and stop me. Well, that's okay. I guess you'd rather die, instead," Ichigo said, his voice gone deep and gravelly, "Okay I can do that. Now, who dies first?"

Haseo stepped forward and brought out Skeith once again. He hoped that the mysterious power that stopped him before was gone. He watched in curiosity as his opponent closed his eyes and said, "Wake up, Shinigami. It's time to fight." Haseo watched in shock as a burst of power erupted around him. A pillar shot up from the youth, emerald green in color. Twisting and turning like a snake, it solidified into a giant celestial dragon with demonic red eyes. Growling a bit, it floated there.

Rukia was in total shock. Where had Ichigo received that power? Had it come from this game, or did he have it all along? She watched as her boyfriend seemed to flicker in and out of the dragon-shape.

Yata was in shock. It was huge! Bigger than Skeith or Fydhel by far… He hoped that Skeith wouldn't get eaten or something. Annoying as he was, Haseo was a loyal subordinate.

"You have awoken me from my slumber," rumbled the dragon. "You have threatened my host, and for this, you will be chastised, Skeith."

Haseo was shocked. This creature knew his Avatars name? "Who are you? How do you know me?" demanded Skeith.

"So, you have forgotten me, Skeith? Well. I will remind you then. I am Shinigami, the Reaper of Souls. You have strayed, Skeith. I will show you the proper path once again." said the dragon