Author's Notes: Oh, man, oh, man! Is it just me, or are these chapters getting exponentially longer as I write them?

Anyway, here we are to Chapter Three. As for the usual disclaimer, I own neither Kingdom Hearts or .hack. Please support the official releases.

Δ Screaming Ruined Paradise

The area they had arrived in could best be described as a wasteland. Even with the stony, boring landscape going on and on for digital miles, Sora was excited. True, some of the monsters were kinda scary-looking at first, but he'd gotten over that quickly. He wasn't excited about how real the game looked, though. Well, he was a little, but that wasn't the main reason.

He could use the Keyblade in this game! In addition to that, the first Skill he had was Stun Impact, an old favorite of his when he'd first started adventuring. True, it was flashy, and it left him open for a few precious seconds in the real world, so he no longer used it. But this was game, so it was perfectly fine to do that! Since he'd waited to trigger the skill until the monster had glowing rings surrounding it, like Asta had suggested, he'd managed to pull of a "Rengeki", boosting his Morale Gauge quite a bit. Unfortunately, the stun effect hadn't lasted very long, but that was mostly due to the difference in levels between him and the monsters; since they'd been Level 5, and he'd only been Level 1, the stun duration had decreased proportionately to the difference in levels. On the bright side, he'd been fighting long enough that he was now Level 4, and his Job Level had increased to 2.

"I gotta say, I've been playing this game for quite a while, and I've never seen a Skill like that! Or a weapon like that, come to think of it. How'd you get it, Sora?" IYOTEN had asked him after seeing the Skill in action, walking behind Sora with Asta.

"Oh, I, ah, got it as part of a...contest. Came up with it myself!" It was a pretty bad lie, Sora realized, but it was better than telling the truth.

"Contest? How come I didn't hear anything about this contest?" Asta said, hands behind her head in an almost lazy pose as the three walked. As she and IYOTEN were walking behind Sora, he never saw the look Asta gave IYOTEN, nor the nod of his head and their sudden smiles. "Well, nevermind that. Say, how about we go show you something really unique about this area? Last one there is a rotten egg!" She laughed as she ran ahead of Sora, giving him a push to entice him to chase after. Grinning, Sora chased after her in the impromptu game of tag, laughing along as well. IYOTEN ran behind, a smile on his own face, but for a very different reason than Sora's.

Ryou let loose a sigh as he finally managed to make it back to his apartment from visiting Shino. He didn't even bother to check up on Sora. In most circumstances, the boy was a pretty good judge of character. Sora seemed incredibly laid-back, so he was probably asleep by now or something. Heading to his room, which he noticed hadn't been disturbed at all. A tiny, cruel part of him was disappointed at the lack of reason to kick his new, completely unwanted roommate out. Sighing, he put on his M2D and started up his computer. He was immediately notified of a new e-mail message. Quirking his brow slightly, he went to check what it was. The sender was simply listed as "Unavailable", which struck him as odd, give how he filtered his incoming e-mail to an extreme level. He was about to delete the message, when he saw the Subject Line, eye's widening slightly in shock.

Sender: Unavailable

Subject: Tri-Edge

There will be PKers at Δ Screaming Ruined Paradise today. I tell you this, not because you're a PKK, but because I'm fairly certain that they might just have information about Tri-Edge. They won't be there for long though, so you'd better hurry.

Oh, and if ya see anyone you recognize there, it might be in your best interest to help them out. Just saying.

Wasting no time, he went straight to Log In to The World, not even bothering to check the forums first like he usually did. The game couldn't load fast enough for him as he, or rather, his Player Character Haseo entered Mac Anu. Haseo stood at a height of 5'8", and had red eyes similar to Ryou; that was where the physical similarities ended. Haseo's hair was a stark white, and his black heavy armor looked like something more fitting for a demon than a human, with it's numerous spikes, the purple section of armor on his torso that looked disturbingly similar to skin, and the spine-like protrusion of his armor that started at the base of the neck and went down to just above his waist.

His Job was a rather unpopular one in the game; the Adept Rouge. The Adept Rouge class was unique, able to, after completing special quests known as "Job Extensions", wield weapons normally reserved to other Jobs. The could also wear any armor in the game. To keep the game balanced, Adept Rouges had certain restrictions as to what weapons they could wield. Relying on a point system, Adept Rogues would choose two or three classes to use the weapons of, within reason. After all, you couldn't just choose a game-breaking combination, such as to be a Harvest Cleric healer and a spell-slinging Shadow Warlock, while wearing heavy armor that wasn't normally available for those classes by default. They also learned their weapon Skills at a much slower rate than normal, so a Level 20 Steam Gunner would have more Skills than an Adept Rogue of the same level. Despite the slower learning rate, Adept Rogues that progressed far enough would have a much larger variety of Skills for use in combat. At the same time, however, their statistics-Physical Attack and whatnot-were at best, average. Most people saw the class as practically worthless, a jack-of-all-trades, but a master of none of them.

Haseo was not "most people." Without a word, Haseo turned toward the spinning Chaos Gate, then immediately went to the Field specified in the e-mail. The Adept Rogue would get the information he wanted, no matter the cost.

He didn't have to spend very long looking before he saw a sight quite common in The World below him and the plateau he stood upon; Player Killers, rounding up their prey. He noted that a fourth victim was being dragged over, but he couldn't make out who it was from his distance. He didn't waste anymore time watching the events he knew would unfold as he calmly, but briskly, began to walk off to confront his quarry, a sinister chuckle passing his lips.

It all had happened so fast, that he hadn't had time to resist. Sora had been chasing Asta around a corner, when she suddenly stuck her arm out, clothes-lining him and knocking him to the ground. Before he could shout at her after standing up, he found that he couldn't move; IYOTEN had him in an armlock. Despite his protests, he found himself being dragged by the two of them to a circle of other players; very mean-looking players. To his horror, there were three other players trapped within the ring. One was already on the ground; by the looks of things, he was dead.

A slim, dark-skinned woman in revealing purple armor was stalking towards the remaining two, tapping a malevolent, thorny sword in her hand. From an aesthetic view, Sora would have thought she was beautiful in her in way...until she swung at the other male, who still received a fatal blow even as he'd turned away to try and try and run. Finally snapping out of her fear-induced state, the single girl in the group of victims turned to run, thinking she'd spotted a gap...only to be shoved onto her rear by a fat, dark-skinned man with closed eyes and a massive turquoise sword, and a lanky, shirtless pale man that chuckled at her. "Good work Grein, Negimaru," the woman commended the respective PKers. The lanky one chuckled a bit more, while the fat one simply grunted in acknowledgement.

Sora wanted to look away, but as the girl was scooting away from the two that had blocked her off, her eyes found Sora's own. She spoke, fear riddling her voice and tears about to spring from her eyes. "Please help me..." She didn't notice the dark woman laughing as she approached her from behind until it was too late. "Ah-" Before she could continue, the woman swung her sword with an utterly delighted shout, decapitating the defenseless girl. There was a small part of Sora's mind that kept trying to remind him that this was just a game, that she hadn't really been killed. But it looked so real...

He didn't realize that IYOTEN had shoved him forward, saying something about them finding "another one", until he fell to the ground. The woman let out a laugh as she pressed her boot into the headless corpse. "Why...Why are you doing this?!" he found himself shouting.

The woman glared over her shoulder at him, then smiled maliciously. "Hah, what an idiot!" She went back to admiring her latest kill; she'd get to this new one soon enough. She pondered how she'd kill this one when she heard the faint sound of armor jingling, like someone was approaching them from behind. She ignored it, as did the other PKers. When she heard two consecutive grunts and a loud thud, every PK turned around, seeing that two of the PKs in the back were lying on top of each other on the ground, picking themselves up. A figure in dark armor was lowering his foot, so it was logical to assume that he had just kicked the rear-most PK. "Huh?" The woman was confused; who thought they had the balls to do this?

Beside her, Negimaru's eyes widened as he raised a shaking finger to point at the newcomer. He had somehow managed to look even paler than normal. "The Terror of Death!" he gasped in absolute horror as the some of them looked confused.

All of the blood drained from IYOTEN's face as he realized just who this was. The very same boy that he and Asta had PKed on his first day playing. It was ironic that, in a way, this lead to what he was now. "IT'S HASEO! THE PKK!" he shrieked in horror as he inadvertently drew the attention of the Terror of Death to him and Asta.

"What?!" the woman let out a gasp. Haseo grinned like he was the Devil himself, for he may as well have been to the PKers, as he reached behind him to draw his twin blades in a flash of light. In a move that was too fast for Sora to even see, Haseo had dashed past Asta and IYOTEN each, striking them both down in about two seconds. The next two he'd dashed two lasted a couple seconds longer as they attempted to strike him at the same time, but Haseo deflected them both with no effort and killed them in a single hit as well. He dashed for the woman next, who appeared poised to strike, but instead opted to block his next series of strikes, her eyes wide in terror. Flipping backwards in an attempt to get away from him, the woman found it was pointless when he dashed right after her, so much pressure being placed on his dagger against her sword that sparks were flying off.

It seemed that he would break through when a battlecry came from above, Negimaru being the source as he along with Grein sought to smash Haseo into the ground. Flipping away seconds before the impact, Haseo slid backwards, right into the middle of ten PKers. The grin never left his face as he sheathed his daggers and with an slight grunt of effort pulled out a wickedly sharp scythe. Swinging it around him, he instantly killed five while launching the other half into the air. He then proceeded to leap after them, swinging the scythe around once more. He landed back in a crouch, their bodies following after him.

Negimaru charged Haseo from his right, managing through sheer dumb luck to take him by surprise and knock his scythe away. Having successfully disarmed him, he gloated with a laugh, instead of pressing the attack. Yet Haseo was still smiling. A sound of confusion escaped him as Haseo simply raised his palm right in front of his face, light coalescing with in it. Unleashing the Lei Zas Light spell, Negimaru was sent flying away, a cloud of dirt signalling his collision with a mountain.

A grunt of effort behind him alerted Haseo to Grein attempting to crush him with his sword. He leaped a fair distance away, but was followed by a surprisingly fast Grein, who prepared to take another swing at him. Haseo seemed to deliberately wait for him to reach the peak of his swing, before he smirked and dodging again. As soon as he'd landed he reached over his shoulder and pulled out his own broadsword; a massive black blade with what appeared to Sora to be stationary teeth on both edges of the blade. Sora was immediately proven his assumption wrong as the teeth began rotating like a chainsaw, sparks flying from the tip laying on the ground. Grein took another roaring leap at Haseo, the two foes broadswords colliding with each other. Grein's eyes and mouth shot open in silent shock as he quickly realized that Haseo's chain-sword was cutting through the blade of his own. He had no time to react as Haseo suddenly broke the stand off, then slashed up and down to finish him off.

The woman began charging at Haseo, despite being the only PK left. The Blade Brandier swung her sword, Spider's Karma, and managed to get in a lucky swing between the teeth, jamming the chain-sword. A brief power struggle ensued that the woman promptly lost, Haseo easily overpowering her and sending her flying with a swing. She ended up landing a few yards away, a brief shriek escaping her as she flew through the air. She made an attempt to get back up from her position on her knees., but realized she was far to weak to do so. It was over; Haseo had won.

"Nngh...I'm surprised; I didn't think you'd be that strong." She spoke as Haseo calmly approached her. She was speaking loud enough for Sora to hear as well. "I guess this means that the rumor about you killing one hundred PKers at once wasn't a lie after all!" Sora's jaw dropped at this; a hundred? At the same time?! That was incredibly impressive. Haseo had finally made it towards the woman, glaring at her. "H-Hey, come on, don't look at me like that." to Sora, it almost sounded like she regretted what she'd done, which confused him a bit. The woman continued speaking. "Here, lemme apologize. Just take it easy, calm down, and..." she grabbed her sword and swung at him in a rage "DIE!"

The sound of metal impacting flesh clanged through the area. A figure was sent flying backwards through the air, landing right next to Sora. Their sword landed beside them with the point buried into the ground. The woman made to stand up again, but had barely gotten to her knees when she gasped as she found Haseo's sword positioned right beneath her neck. Averting her eyes, the woman made an annoyed sound. Haseo spoke for the first time, and for some reason his voice was very familiar to Sora. "Do you know 'Tri-Edge'?"

"What did you say?" The woman sounded a bit confused.

"He's a legendary PK, shrouded in blue fire. They say players that get killed by him never come back to the game," he explained. Sora's eyes widened at this.

"Huh?! Oh, come on now!" She brushed the sword away from her, finally standing up as she tried not to laugh. "Don't tell me you actually believe that crap! Those old forum fairtales." She began leaning forward, in an attempt to get in Haseo's face. "So, you think you can go up against me, the great Bordeaux, and just walk away like nothing hap-" Bordeaux never got to finish her sentence as she found the chain-sword uncomfortably close to her neck once again. As the blades began spinning, Bordeaux flinched back in fear. Sora, having been to Bordeaux's right, got a clear view of Haseo's absolutely livid face as worked his blade and killed her in the exact same way that she'd had killed the girl earlier.

As Bordeaux's headless corpse flopped to the earth with a thud, Haseo scoffed as he stared at it. "Yeah, I think I can." He began turning, ready to head back to the Root Town, when he spotted the figure who looked so much like his roommate staring at him with wide eyes; fear, awe, gratitude, all of that and more? The thoughts behind those eyes were not what was on Ryou's mind. What was on his mind was Oh, shit, I'm going to look like a complete psycho to him. For some insane reason, that actually bothered Ryou, and he did not have a clue why! Opening his mouth to speak, he posed a question to the figure, "Sora?"

Sora tilted his head, point a finger at himself. "Yeah, that's my name, but...who are you?"

Haseo had to stop himself from shouting 'Oh, nobody in particular, just your roommate who just so happens to kill Player Killers by decapitation sometimes!' He instead let out a sigh. This was good; Sora didn't recognize him. Why this was good, Ryou couldn't wrap his head around, but he decided to focus on the matter at hand; namely, Sora. "What, you didn't see that whole fight where I saved your ass?" His tone was mocking, even cruel, given that Sora flinched a bit at the harshness of Haseo's words. A tiny part of Haseo felt bad; he immediately suppressed the feeling. He walked over and, putting a hand on the boy's shoulder and let loose...was that a chuckle? Sora didn't have time to wonder, as the two of them were surrounded by a soft blue light, encasing them as they were warped back to the Root Town.

Author's Notes: *A in C Minor*

Phew! That took a while! Some of you might have noticed that this chapter has been more-or-less completely redone. The reason for this is that, upon further inspection and thought, I realized that I had been pacing the story WAY too fast with the original version of this chapter. I was originally going to drop a hint in the e-mail Haseo received as to WHO he had received it from, but that'd probably spoil too much, for those of you who didn't read the old version. For those of you that did, disregard it. Oh, and if you tell ANYONE.

I will find you.

For those of you who haven't played G.U. and would like a bit of a reference as to how the fight went, look up "dotHack GU Vol. 1 Rebirth Cutscene 005". It's entitled "The Terror of Death" and was uploaded by the user OptimisticPessimist. Or you could, y'know, go buy the game.

No omake this time, because my creative juices are all dried at the moment.