.hack//SIGN Fan Fiction / .hack//LIMINALITY Fan Fiction / .hack//Legend Of Twilight Bracelet Fan Fiction ❯ Episode Three: .hack//Liberty ❯ Half Pain ( Chapter 10 )

Chapter Ten- Half-Pain- The Real World

 

Ryo was the first on the scene. He opened Jeremie's door, walked into his office, and found him contently asleep. He checked his rhythmic movements and vibrations. He smiled as he carried him to his bed. Tsukasa and Emily burst inside.

“Is he comatose?” Tsukasa asked.

“No. He overdid it, fighting the Knights. From what we can figure, there were about fifty. His ability directly affects him in this world.”

“You mean, he has his ability?”

“Not entirely. He is realizing what it is, however.”

“You know what it is?” Emily asked.

“Yes, however I can not say what it is. Helba's orders.”

“Really. So, when will he wake up?”

“Give him an hour.” Ryo ushered them out of Jeremie's room. “Emily, contact Helba. Tell her he's all right.” Emily nodded. Ryo looked at the clock. It was already two in the morning. They had been fighting and meeting for four hours. He sighed.

“Everyone, after that, go to sleep. Jeremie'll probably sleep through the night.” Ryo left a note on Jeremie's office desk. He walked out of the room and closed the door, smiling at the plan he had set into place earlier that evening.

`Four hours' he thought.

 

One hour later Jeremie arose. He felt his head.

“It hurts.” He sat up slowly. “That hurts even worse.” He stood up, aided with the crutch. Someone, Ryo likely, had carried him from his office to his bed. He opened the office door, remembering he had a drink in there. He grabbed the drink off his desk.

“What's this?” He asked, seeing the note Ryo had left. He read it and smiled. He then took a sip of his drink.

“Lukewarm Coke.” He looked at the clock. It was three in the morning. He stretched and looked down at the crutch.

“I don't need you anymore.” He said as he unhooked it from his arm. He took a tentative step forward, and was greeted with pain. He groaned.

“It hurts, but it is bearable.” He sighed. “This is penance.” Ryo coughed softly.

“Penance for what?” Jeremie stiffened then relaxed.

“No good deed goes unpunished.”

“Ah. Is that an absolute truth?” Ryo asked, curious. Jeremie laughed.

“It's a moral code of mine. Call it part of Murphy's Law.”

“If anything can go wrong, it will?” Ryo asked.

“I've been using it to my advantage against the Horsemen, using the unknown skills. Now there's only mine, and it has yet to take form.” He looked at his hands. “Equivalent Exchange. I have gained so much, yet lost so much. It's only a matter of time when I lose some more. However, that isn't the case at the moment.” He looked at his right arm and flexed it, before slamming it onto the wall. Ryo stared at that, then at Jeremie's face, which showed no pain. “You know, when all that stuff was happening, I lost feeling in my right arm?” Ryo looked shocked.

“You can't feel anything?” Jeremie shook his head. “That's no good.” Jeremie laughed as he picked up the note.

“It's just a liability, being human. Now this note, what does it mean?”

“It's a test.” Jeremie looked at it as he read it out-loud.

“'I thought what I'd do was I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes.'” Jeremie looked at Ryo. “The test is?”

“Name the book it comes from. You have twenty minutes.”

“Catcher in the Rye.” Jeremie said, almost immediately. Ryo was shocked.

“How did you know that?”

“It's a pretty common phrase. It's also one of my favorites. It's also in a show that I watch. A hacker, the Laughing Man, uses a logo with that phrase around it to hide his identity.” Ryo was still shocked.

“Regardless, that is superb. That does it, you will be an excellent understudy. You, well, do know it could take a while to complete your training?” Jeremie nodded. “Good. Get some sleep. We'll start later this week.”

“Okay.” Jeremie said. Ryo smiled.

Jeremie reminded Ryo of his own son: carefree, yet seemingly laid down with baggage. He was different from his son, yet so much the same. He smiled as he left the room.

Jeremie sighed.

“That was slightly scary.” He looked onto the network message board. There was a message from Jeeves to Ryo concerning a phone call. Tsukasa had written Emily about a sleepover of some sort. Emily wrote him to ask him to reply when he woke up. He sighed and decided to put that one off. He would just see her. But, she would be mad. He typed in `Awake at Three Thirty- Jeremie.'

He pulled his shirt off and cried out in pain when his wounds protested the stretching. He reached into his desk for a pain pill. He popped it into his mouth as he unzipped his pants. He sighed.

What was his life going to be like now? He didn't want to continue to have pain. He didn't want to continue to feel bitterness. He wanted joy, complete joy. He felt odd that he was this detached from his old family. He hoped Emily was doing as well as he was. He stepped out of his pants and took them and his shirt into the bathroom, along with a book he was going to start reading. He didn't worry about closing the door to the bathroom. Tsukasa and Emily knew well enough to stay out of his room. And Ryo, well, Ryo had already seen him nude. But, then again, so had Emily. And Tsukasa. And Mai. And Junichiro. That was more people than was at his birth, he was sure.

He tried to remember some of his childhood. He couldn't remember much, just a girl in a hallway that was filled with blood. He also remembered extreme pain all throughout his body. He sighed. He tried to think of better things, like the house he was in.

He slipped out of his boxers and turned the water on. He sat on a couch that was positioned in the bathroom right in front of the bath. He waited for it to fill as he opened his book.

“It is a sin to write this,” he started to read. He looked at the bath a few minutes later and got in.

 

He stayed for half an hour, trying to get all the aches he had minimized. The bath, along with the painkiller, worked its magic. Jeremie put the book down and stepped out of the bath. He pulled the plug, dried off and went to the sink to brush his teeth, dry his hair out a little, and to apply deodorant. He turned from the mirror, his towel in his hair, and walked into his room.

Sitting on his bed was two teenage boys.