I ran into a bit of a problem when writing mutation. Hey, hey what's with the bats?! I never said it was a big problem. Well the problem is technically about size. You see. My original plan for mutation made the chapter to short which lead me to believe I'd be attacked with bats. So I did the most sensible thing…I made Mutation and Outbreak into one big chapter!!!! Well enough chit chat and lets Jack in…huh wrong anime/game? Well then, denpa henkan, wave ride on! On air!...Still wrong? Okay then here we go! Put on your FMD's and log into The World! Right? Whew Finally.

Mutation + Outbreak

The bell tolled signaling the end of school for the day. It had been a full week sense the incident in the store. Ryou's eyes drifted to the seat next to his. Chika's seat. She was already gone. She seemed to be avoiding him this past week. Whenever he tried to speak to her she ignored him. Whenever he tried to call he got voice mail. Whenever he tried to pass a note to her in class she acted as if it never existed.

Ryou sighed to himself as he collected his things. His thoughts momentarily drifting back to his and Chika's little moment they shared before she left. He shook head trying to clear his mind of the thoughts. But who was he kidding, if not now then later. At some point he was going to think about that moment again. But he had to admit it her lips sure were nice. He shook his head and stared out the classroom widow and watched other students leaving the school in droves. But the one student he needed to see wasn't in that crowd. "Chika, where are you?"

Ryou turned to leave when suddenly he was met with a smiling girls face. "Hey Ryou!" she said as she waved at him from point blank. It was the crazy stalker girl with the tape. But here little friend wasn't with her.

"What do you want Mia?" Ryou spat. (I finally named the girl)

"Oh nothing, I just want you to walk me home…"

"No I have better things to do." Ryou replied in uncaring tone.

"And maybe we could stop in the park and you know hold each other" the girls continued obviously ignoring what he said. "Then maybe we could kiss under the setting sun and-"

"Shut up!" Ryou shouted silencing the girl. "Look I don't like you. You're annoying and you make me sick." He glared at her. (Sasuke Uchiha tribute!)

The girl just giggled it off "Ryou you're so funny" she placed a hand on his shoulder as she leaned close. Then she whispered "Don't forget what position you're in my little…Haseo" the way she said his characters name was low, almost like a moan. Quite frankly it freaked Ryou out. "Remember if you rub me the wrong way, well actually you can rub me wrongly a little" she giggled again. Ryou wanted to puke. "But in all seriousness you piss me off and this gets out." She waved the recorder in front of Ryou's face.

His eyes widened when he say the little black box. He made a grab for it but the girl moved it out of the wave and held it above his head. The girl wagged a finger on her free hand at him to show that he wasn't going to get it that easily. He gritted his teeth and glared at her before lightly backing off to look off to the side. He hadn't given up just yet. He was searching for anyway for him to be able to get that cursed box from her. His eyes momentarily drifted to a notebook left on a desk. He made a grab for it. With great speed he brought it up and used it to knock the recorder into the air. He pulled his arm back and shouted "Sparrow counter!" He couldn't resist. He swung his arm forward hitting the recorder sending it into the wall. It shattered upon impact.

The girl stared at the recorder that lay in a crumpled heap. A smirk was spread across Ryou's face as he walked out of the room. "Now all that leaves is talking to Chika…but where is she? Come on Ryou think! What does she like?" He said to himself trying to collect his thoughts. "Okay she likes ramen, comedy, books, she was the leader of her previous schools library council…I'm an idiot." He took off running down the hallway heading for the only lead he had to go on, the library. (A/N: do I sound like a stalker knowing all this stuff about her?)

Ryou pushed through the door with a loud crash and was greeted with a wave of shushes. He didn't care though. He gazed around the library and saw multiple students shuffling around with books. They were obviously members of his schools library club. He walked through the isles upon isles of books his gaze shifting to see if he could spot the girl he sought. Several shelves later he found her putting books that's rested on a cart back on the shelves. However she was having a little trouble trying to put a book on a shelf that was a little to high.

Ryou sighed as he walked over. He grabbed the book from her and placed it on the shelf. The girl turned to him with a smile, Ryou felt as if he was flying for that one moment. "Thanks…" the smile took a turn for the worst and down came crashing Ryou! "What do you want Ryou?"

"Chika, you really should frown. You look much cuter when you smile." Ryou simply smiled as he said this.

A small hint of crimson reached her cheeks "that besides the point! Now why are you here?" She yelled a little to loudly seeing as she was the quieted by a mass of shushes.

"It's the same thing as a week ago. I want to talk to you." Ryou replied.

"I'm sorry but I have club business to attend to" she then turned back to putting away books.

Ryou sighed before taking a book off the cart. "Then I guess I'll just have to join the library club then." He said in an attitude that was both up beat and remorseful.

"Like…" she was shushed again but this time only by Ryou because he could tell what was coming next was going to be loud. "Like hell you are" she said in a low whisper."

"If you at least hear me out I won't"

"Got to hell!" she shouted/whispered before she checked the cart to see if any other books belonged in the current area they were in.

Ryou just sighed before he walked over to here and placed his arms around her waist getting a surprised gasp to escape her lips. "Please just hear me out and I'll go."

She turned to face him "if I didn't believe you one week ago so what makes you think I'll believe you-mph" the rest of her words were lost seeing how Ryou had pressed their lips together. He broke it "I already told you, I've lost you way to much. This time I'm not legging go."

Before Chika even had time to protest he pressed their lips together. But this time it was much deeper. Her mind was swimming as her eyes fluttered shut. Her legs felt weak under her, if not for the fact that she was bracing her self against the cart they'd have easily ended up on the floor. Thought after thought seemed to fade from her mind. Only two thoughts now remained. One was screamed to forgive him while the other screamed knee him in the groin and walk away.

Within seconds her mind was made up. Placing her hands on his cheeks he forced them to part. She looked up at Ryou who seemed to have a mixed expression as he waited for her response. "Ryou I-" she stopped when the sudden sound of someone clearing their throat.

The pair turned to the side to see the boy and girl from before standing there. Moment killed. "I'm sorry were we interrupting something?"

"Yes!" they both said in unison.

The boy went on to continue as he reached into his pocket "Well that doesn't matter anymore because you see-"

Ryou smirked "Look Ikki you're guns shooting blanks now. I smashed that stupid recorder of yours." The boy pulled out a phone "so why don't you just leave us the heck alone…huh" he stared at the phone to see a video playing of his and Chika's little meeting in the hallway where they both could be heard referring to the other by their online names.

"So you were actually serious" Chika said as she looked up at Ryou. She gave a weak laugh as she scratched the back of her head. "Sorry."

This time Mia cleared her throat. "I think you're forgetting who is in control here." She pulled out her own phone "I press this button and this video goes out to my friends."

"And if I press this one, the video goes out to my friends." The boy smirked.

"So if you don't want spam mail from everyone once the word gets out" the girl made her way over to Ryou. "So why don't you and I-Ahh!!!" The girl let out a small yell as she felt a tug on her hair.

Strands of the girl's hair were firmly grasped in Chika's hand. "How about Ryou and I stay and you two leave." She then gave the girls hair a tug to toss her back over with the boy.

The girl scoffed as she looked at the two. "Such a weakling. Just because he's the terror of death in The World doesn't mean he can scare anyone here!"

"Look whose talking miss blackmail!" Chika stamped her foot as she yelled. Once again she was shushed.

"What about you! The so called mighty ex-leader of the demon palace siding with the one that defeated her in combat. Hell you even fell in love with him! What are you hoping that he'll give you the title or share it with you?"

Chika's eye brow twitched. There was one thing that you never try to tarnish that belonged to Chika. It was one of the things she held dear. It was her honor. Question it and she'd kick you ass whether in The World's arena or in the real world. (Fact) "I'll kick your ass!" She lunged at the girl, who flinched. But Chika never made contact seeing how Ryou was holding her back to the point it looked like she was just kicking, punching and screaming at the air.

"Calm down" Ryou said as he held her before gently kissing her cheek which made her calm down almost completely for she still glared at the pair as she growled.

"They seem to have no will to cooperate" the boy said as he sighed.

The girl clicked her tongue as she stared at the two. "Whatever. Let's get this over with," the both punched the send button. As chime rang in the air signaling the that the message had been sent.

All stood quiet before the sound of a low humming sound could be heard. It was as if something was vibrating. Ryou and Chika both pulled out their phones to see that they had quite a few new messages and their numbers just continued to increase. They both selected a message and opened it. One of Ryou's messages read:

Hey Ryou, didn't peg you as one to play the world. Why don't you drop me a party request sometime. I wanna see if you are really as good as the legends say. And who's the girl? She's kinda cute.

Chika blushed slightly when she saw the end of the message. She turned to hers which read:

C-Chika-chan I didn't know you were behind the character archenemy Alkaid. To think the person I looked up was the very same person I swore I must defeat. Just because you found a new guy doesn't mean I'll give you my precious Silabus!!!

Chika had already figured out who this person was. There was a girl in her old class that tried to change herself to be more like her. To think that girl was the same girl that partied with her and Silabus. (Fact: before Alkaid became the palace emperor she was really good friends with Silabus and they originally planned to win the crown together. But they were joined by a new character who fell in love with Silabus. They constantly fought but I don't think Chika ever realized the reason. At some point Silabus was pked by Borduexe who revealed that the girl was once a member of kestrel which led to a falling out. Apparently they never realized the were classmates and the girl was the same girl that looked up to Chika.)

"So what's this about you and Silabus?" Ryou asked slightly annoyed by the fact he didn't know about her past with Silabus and the fact that Silabus was such a kick ass player that teamed up with Alkaid! (No wonder he kicks so much ass in the games)

"Nothing" Chika said waving it off.

Suddenly out of the blue a horde of students surrounded the two and pulled them apart. They had only come for one thing. Member addresses.

The next few days continued on as any other week. Except for the fact that Ryou aka Haseo had to deal with a load of parting with other player of The World. Plus due to Chika still not being able to log back in he was forced to take on her half of the quest. He was absolutely fed up with it. There was only one way to get them to stop this madness. He sent an E-mail to CCcorp. But he knew they'd never believe he was blackmailed into this so he had to disguise it as something. That was a few days ago. He was now talking on the phone with the one person who wouldn't have actually mind partying with, Chika. "Don't worry I have a plan." He said to her as he checked through his email. More like checking off completed quest with others.

"Are you sure you'll be fine? I mean you have been taking on a lot of quest." She sounded a little depressed that she couldn't help out. "I'm trying to convince my parents I'm fine but I don't think its working."

"Hopefully this will be resolved soon. Don't worry I know that as long as I have your support I'll be fine."

Even though he couldn't tell he knew that Chika was blushing on the other side of the line. "I know, I know. It's because I'm your empress." She let out a playful giggle.

"Wow."

"Wow what?" she questioned.

"Never thought you'd be one to giggle."

"Hey even though I'm one of the toughest characters in The World I'm still just a pure and innocent girl at heart."

Ryou knew it was better to not contradict her or he'd end up with a phone down his throat. He looked over his mail and noticed that he had a new message. The sender was CCcorp. He smirked as he read the letter. "Chika, our problems will be over a lot sooner than I thought.

TBC

Me: I came off as a total stalker in this one.

Mireille (daughter of Mistral from the original .hackers): Perv alert! My rare item tells me a perv is near by.

Me: do you and your items wanna end up in a lake?

Mireille: well then you shouldn't have stalked the poor girl!

Me: I didn't! It's called wikipedia.

Mireille: I don't know. I mean you're know a lot about her!

Me: leave now or I'll have balmung schedule another event

Mireille: No not that! Not after the last time.

Me: well anyway on a side note the next chapter is the final one…maybe. I didn't want to do three more chapters (guess the names) but they are technically a side story. But then again they could be good. Or they could be bad. I'll leave it to you fans to decide. Not narrator do your thing!

Narrator: I don't get paid enough for this. Well next time on Meeting you on the other side the answer to their prayers has arrived. A massive letter has been sent to all players of the world! This will either make or break the pairs chance at freedom. What is it that could possibly end this madness? A massive online battle royal!!! When all else fails you open a can of whoop ass! But can Haseo do it alone? For he must face every single player that shows for the event. No breaks, no items, no mercy. You'll find all this out in quarantine, possibly the final chapter in this series! Gonna burn some muscle! I mean see you on the next log in!