Author's Notes: Now that the prologue is out of the way, we shall start our tale! Though this may be my first fic, I shall aspire to make it one of the best .hack fics there are on the web! Without further ado, let this chapter begin!
Disclaimer: Unless otherwise stated, I own nothing. If I owned .hack, I would be spending less time on those Naruto fighting games, and more time on an honest-to-God The World MMORPG...but without the whole "Ultimate AI" and "coma-inducing monsters" thing. Seriously guys, the Oculus Rift is a thing. We have the technology. We can create it. I am also completely unaffliated with both the University of Tokyo and Inage Senior High School in Chiba Prefecture.
Seventeen year old Riku Chikyu stifled a yawn as he listened to the Modern History professor drone on about the course subject for today. The silver-haired boy (who had to confirm multiple times, to his great frustration, that yes, it was his natural hair color) had arrived today at the University of Tokyo after his transfer had been approved last week. While he had only barely been above the grade requirement, he had still been accepted because of his impressive skills in tennis. Briefly and subtly glancing around the lecture hall, he noticed that, with a few notable exceptions, nearly everybody else was in a similar state as he was; that is, bored out of their minds. At least, that was how Riku appeared to look.
In truth, Riku found it all incredibly fascinating. Pluto's Kiss, the catastrophe on December 24, 2005, when almost all computers across the globe crashed simultaneously because of a virus created by, of all people, a ten-year-old. What followed were seventy-seven minutes of chaos as everything connected to the Internet shut down or malfunctioned, including traffic lights, cellular phones, flight controls, and even nuclear defense systems. After the chaos, the only computers that had survived were those from ALTIMIT, due to them being constructed in such a way that they were practically immune to all known computer viruses. Internet traffic was restricted to government or business use only for the next two years, and hacking became a capital crime internationally.
Five years later, there was Pluto Again, the Second Network Crisis. There wasn't much concrete information about how or why exactly it had happened, but it resulted in multiple blackouts, malfunctions, and even shutdowns of systems across Japan. There had also been a great number of people that while playing The World, the first online game released since Pluto's Kiss, had fallen into comas, but most people thought that these were rumors or simply coincidental. That was seven years ago. Since then, CC Corp had made the decision to shut down The World, and "revise" it into what it was today, The World R:2.
A sneeze a couple seats to his left broke the teen from his thoughts, followed by a hushed voice scolding the source of the sneeze.
"I told you it wasn't a good idea to play through that storm last night, Daichi," a young woman in her early 20s whispered, Akira Hayami, smirking ever so slightly.
"So, you'd let a little rain stop you playing from tennis, Akira?" the young man, Daichi Kuramochi, shot right back, also in a hushed whisper. Akira pouted and blushed, despite the fact that she was a good inch or two taller than Daichi, and probably had just as many years over him too. The sight caused Riku to chuckle lightly, earning a fierce glare from Akira.
"Something funny, punk?" A raised eyebrow was the only reaction she got. Sure, he was dressed kind of roguishly, what with the faded jeans, and the yellow tank top and vest, but that didn't make him a punk...right? He sighed as he tried to focus on the lecture again, for once in his life glad that those two weren't here as well; he was certain that he'd receive no mercy from them if they had heard that.
Yet now, his mind wandered to his two best friends, hoping that this wouldn't be too much for them. He chuckled again, this time to himself; throw a thousand or two mindless, heart-devouring abominations from the depths of darkness at them? Not a problem. The scenario they were in now? Well, Riku was just glad that he'd managed to end up in a college, unlike those two. Perks of being the eldest, I suppose, he thought with a smirk.
Sixteen year old Kairi Hikari suppressed yet another groan of frustration in the large courtyard at Inage Senior High School in Chiba Prefecture. That was the fifth guy that had tried to smooth talk her during lunch, and it had only been eight minutes. She hadn't even gotten to eat a single bite yet, for crying out loud! Normally, the "potential suitors"-as that's what the numerous jocks and preps liked to think they were-wouldn't be such an annoyance to her...except that it wasn't just during lunch that this had been happening.
It had been happening all day, ever since the principal had announced over the P. A. this morning that they would be having the honor of a "real princess" joining their ranks. At the rate this had been happening, it seemed like half of the school's boys-and even a few girls too-had come up to her, offering to "show her a good time". Each and every time, she forced a sweet smile and politely said "No thank you." If I ever find out who decided that THAT was going to be my cover story, I am going to become their worst nightmare, she thought to herself.
Picking up her tray, she silently walked away from her perpetually crowded table to find somewhere she could eat in peace, some of her unwanted fanclub and suitors following her despite this. She was about to give up completely when she spotted a dark-haired girl her age sitting against the fence, knees against her chest, looking up at the sky with a melancholy smile on her face. Hearing a snippet from one of the more popular girls behind her about "that ugly ditz", Kairi frowned, set her tray down a bit more forcefully than was needed, and walked towards the girl. She glanced upwards briefly in the direction the girl was staring and saw a flock of white doves; there must have been a wedding nearby, for there to be so many of them.
Having finally arrived, she took a seat next to the girl's right, noticing that she had closed her eyes and her head was no longer staring upwards, instead resting on her knees. For a brief moment, Kairi thought the dark-haired girl had fallen asleep, when she suddenly spoke in a hushed, somber voice to herself. "I wish I could be like them. I wonder how it would feel...to fly away and be free? To get away from my small life…my small world."
Kairi smiled a little, remembering a conversation that Riku had with someone else some time ago. "But part of one that's much bigger," her tone was also hushed, yet it was almost reverent. The other girl's eyes snapped open with a gasp, heading whipping up in surprise as she looked at Kairi, seated next to her in a very un-princess-like manner, legs crossed lazily over themselves and arms behind her head as she leaned against the fence, gazing at the cloudless sky wistfully. Kairi turned her head to look at the girl, a radiant smile on her lips as she extended her hand. "Hey there! My name's Kairi. Kairi Hikari. What's your's?" The dark haired girl looked nervously from the Kairi's face, to her hand, and back to her face again. Tentatively, she took the offered hand and shook it, answering Kairi's question with a slight stammer.
"Ch-Chigusa. Chigusa Kusaka."
As the two returned to watching the sky for the rest of lunch, Kairi grinned broadly. I wonder...how he is doing?
Seventeen year old Ryou Misaki sighed as he stared out the window. Eight months. Eight long, grueling months since Ovan had disappeared, and the Twilight Brigade had fallen apart. Eight months since Shino had fallen into a coma after being PKed-Player Killed-by the mysterious Tri-Edge in the online game The World. Eight months...and he still had no new information on the culprit. Nothing about his stats. Nothing about his location or hang-outs. Absolutely nothing. He was no closer to saving Shino than he had been when he'd started, and it was driving him insane! "Damn you, Tri-Edge," he muttered, staring out the window with a glare.
He was ripped from his thoughts as he heard the stern rapping of his teacher's ruler against the blackboard before him, "Quit daydreaming Misaki, and answer the question!" Another sigh slipped past Ryou's lips as he stood up to do so. This teacher never learned, did he? He cleared his throat to answer the question that he hadn't heard; he had read ahead, so he still knew the answer anyway, as usual. He wasn't top of the class at his private school for no reason, after all. Besides, it was a Friday. Class was almost over anyway, with only half an hour remaining. To top it all off, the school had, in an odd moment of generosity, deigned for the next month to be a month off for the students and teachers; for all intents and purposes, this would be Ryou's last day for a while. He opened his mouth to speak...only for the classroom door to slam open, interrupting him before he could even answer the question.
The culprit stood there, panting like he'd just run a relay race by himself. He was tanned, looking like he'd come from somewhere a lot more tropical than Tokyo. His hair was a chocolate brown, and seemed to point all over the place without the use of hair gel. All over his school bag dangled, of all things, keychains; big ones, little ones, ornate ones, plain ones, metal, plastic, and even one that looked to be made of wood! And then there were his eyes; as blue as the sky on a cloudless day. Ryou found everything about this young boy oddly familiar, but he just couldn't pin down why. The newcomer spoke, and for some reason his overly cheerful tone pissed a part of Ryou off to no end.
"Sorry I'm late! I...kind of slept in a little. Junior year transfer student Sora Asahi, ready for class!"
Author's Notes: And the actors have entered the stage!
Now then, a bit of background info to some of names. First, Riku's last name, "Chikyu", is Japanese for "earth". Kairi's last name, "Hikari", is "light", obviously. As for Sora's last name, "Asahi" means "rising sun". Why choose that last name? Well, there are two reasons; first, the rock cover of "Simple and Clean" is commonly referred to as "Hikari-Rising Sun Mix". The second reason is that I didn't want Sora's last name to be the cliched "Hikari" of nearly every single other Kingdom Hearts story I've seen where Sora has a last name. Because cliches, unlike tropes, are not fun at all.
As for Daichi Kuramochi, the person behind the player Kite from the original .hack quadrilogy, I referred to the .hack wiki and my own judgement. You see, in the original four games, you entered the "real name" of Kite, and you could also change the character's name so that it wasn't even Kite! "Kuramochi" was the surname in pretty much all the concept art, but the proposed first names were quite different, going from "Kaito" (also Japanese for "Kite", to Yutaka, to Daichi OR Riku. So, why Daichi? Well, here's a bit of story time for those who aren't familiar with .hack!
In the original version of The World, known nowadays as "R:1", there was a monster that was deemed "unbeatable", called "The One Sin". Despite this supposed invincibility, two players known as Orca and Balmung managed to figure out how to beat The One Sin, and did so. For doing this, they became known as the "Descendants of Fianna", and were given the titles of "Balmung of the Azure Sky" and "Orca of the Azure Sea". In addition, Balmung, having struck the killing blow on The One Sin, was granted wings upon his character, a feature that no one else had in the game. Now, I won't go into the details of the first four .hack games, but Daichi means "land" in Japanese. "Riku" does as well, but we already have one, so...
Akira Hayami was the player behind BlackRose, Kite's first companion and ally in his quest, and yes, the two of them have been in a relationship for the seven years after the events of the quadrilogy...even though she is two years older than Daichi. The second person that the "armored boy" met in his dream was BlackRose, and the first person was Orca. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the last person was Kite.
Now then, I shall present you with...an Omake!
Omake #1: Goofy, Please.
Goofy felt awfully proud of himself. Master Yen Sid had given him a task the other day; to come up with cover stories for Sora, Riku, and Kairi. Sora hadn't been too hard; a fairly ordinary boy, pretty average in every way. No need to arouse suspicion when there was no need to, right? Riku seemed like the type to play tennis, and he certainly seemed like he'd be able to pass as smart enough to be in college, so there had been that. As for Kairi, he'd had to think for a while, but eventually he settled on what (to him) was the perfect cover; the princess of a small but powerful foreign kingdom, adopted and hidden away for her own safety! After all, Yen Sid had told him that sometimes, the best lies were ones that told the truth. He'd said that seemed pretty paladoxical ("Paradoxical!" Donald had shouted.), but then again, who was he to question Yen Sid?
He was currently carrying a few crates of honey and syrup, to store them for later consumption. Normally, a task such as this would be designated to the brooms, but they wouldn't be able to handle the weight of the sticky, jarred foodstuffs. He was walking towards the stairs leading down to storage, when he spotted a banana peel a foot or so away from the bottom of the stairs, waiting for some poor fool to slip on it and tumble down the stairs! Glowering at the peel, he scolded the offending object. "Ooooh, no! I've tripped on enough banana peels in my life! Yer not foolin' me!" With the utmost care and caution, the Head of Disney Castle's Knights daintily stepped over the peel...and promptly slipped in a water puddle leftover from last night's storm.
In a rare moment of quick thinking, he grabbed the edges of the door frame to prevent him from falling to his doom. Once he regained his footing, he wiped the sweat from his brow in relief...and then he realized that he'd let go of all the syrup and honey he'd been carrying. A loud crash was heard at the bottom of the stairs, followed by the loud, angry screeching of one Donald Duck, who had been down there fetching some jam. "Gawrsh, sorry about that Donald! I'll be right there to help ya out!" He relinquished his grip on the door frame, taking a step back to valiantly come to Donald's assistance...and slipped on the very same banana peel that he'd been trying to avoid in the first place, sending him tumbling down the stairs anyway.
"YAAAAAHOOHOOHOOOOOYYY!"