.hack//SIGN Fan Fiction ❯ Of Friendship ❯ Chapter 6

Of Friendship Chapter 6

~*~

A/N: Back again! Like I said before, this will hopefully cover the rest of episode 2! I don't know how much I'll use Cody, Derek, and Savanna though...

Update: Sorry about the lag on this chapter!

Matakishi Hirata-San: Thanks.

Blossom_Girl: Thanks to you too.

~*~

Disclaimer: I own all original characters. Bandai owns the rest.

~*~

Orca and Teria stood in front of the gates leading to the dungeon. After giving Teria a basic run through of some stuff Bear hadn't shown her the previous day, they had cleared out the field. Now, they were ready for the dungeon. It was a low level dungeon, only at a level 3, just because of Teria. Orca had done most of the fighting so far, as he was far more experienced than Teria.

"Ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be!"

The two marched through the gates and made it to the first portal. As the portal opened to reveal three monsters, Teria gripped her axe tighter. She had gone to a level two dungeon the previous day with Savanna and Cody to build up a little more, and the two had done all of the fighting. Now that she was with Orca, she knew he'd let her fight some of the monsters.

From the portal came three small monsters. One goblin that was dressed in robes, and two other goblins that weren't dressed. Not knowing which was to go, she waited for some orders.

"Reisa, get the robe-covered one!" Orca ordered, slamming after one of the other goblins.

Complying, Teria ran after the robe-covered goblin and cornered him within ten seconds. She hacked away at him, quickly defeating it. Orca soon joined her, and they continued on through the dungeon.

Just when Teria thought this dungeon would never end, it finally did at the fifth floor. They went into the Gott Statue room to claim the items that were there. Not that it was really worth it, seeing as Teria already had much better items than what she received.

"Keep them," Orca said when Teria offered him the items. "Sell them or trade them off."

"I guess," Teria replied.

The two warped out of the dungeon with a Sprite Ocarina, and they quickly left the field. When they got back to the town, Orca left, saying he needed to meet with Balmung. Teria saved her game, and then went to sell some stuff.

Once she had gotten her virtual money, she headed back to the main walkway, totally failing to notice the Crimson Knights. Looking up on the bridge, she spotted Bear and Mimiru.

"Hi you two!" Teria smiled.

"Should you be down with the Crimson Knights?" Mimiru asked.

"What? Oh, maybe, but... What are you two planning on doing?" Teria asked.

"Speaking of doing something, I got an e-mail from that wavemaster. He wants to..." Mimiru started.

"Wants to what, Mimiru?" Bear asked her.

"He wants to meet me, but he wants to meet me in Dun Loireag."

"Which means he has somehow left THIS server," Bear realized.

"I... want to go with you, but do you think Subaru will...?" Teria wondered.

"E-mail her later and explain that you were hanging out with us," Mimiru immediately said.

"Okay, let's go!" Teria smiled, and nodded.

The group headed for the Chaos Gate and warped over to Dun Loireag. Mimiru entered the keywords and they warped over to where Tsukasa was.

Apparently they were early, but not by much. Almost immediately after they had warped in, so had Tsukasa. There was a flash of lightning in the background, and then the roll of thunder.

"Hi there," Mimiru said cheerfully.

"Why'd you have to bring them along?" Tsukasa sighed.

"Well, you didn't tell me to come alone," Mimiru pointed out.

"If you want, we'll leave," Bear smiled.

"Hey, I want to stay and hear this out!" Teria complained.

"Bear, Reisa, you are fine here!" Mimiru mumbled.

Tsukasa frowned when Mimiru said that.

"Did you see today's board?" Mimiru asked.

"No, I didn't," Tsukasa replied.

"You know you need log out in able to see the board," Bear said.

"Yeah, well, who cares about that stuff anyways!"

Teria stared at him, or more, and the space behind him. Besides the pouring rain, she could make out a dungeon in the background.

"So, what sort of music do you listen to while you are in front of your terminal?" Teria asked the boy. "Unless...?" Tsukasa grinned. "Are you even in front of a terminal?"

"That's right, I'm not in front of a computer terminal," Tsukasa smiled.

Teria gasped, as did Bear and Mimiru. There was a large flash of lightning in the background, followed by a loud rumble of thunder. She could see Tsukasa's shadow clearly now, the eminent lines of a male wavemaster outlined perfectly.

"The World... and all of its wonders. This is my world now, you see." Another flash and rumble.

"Don't be ridiculous!" Mimiru shouted.

"If you moved in the normal way, there'd be no way to move without running into the Crimson Knights guarding the gate," Bear explained. "How can you move between the servers without the use of the Chaos Gate? It just isn't possible!"

"Because, I received the power," Tsukasa smirked.

"From who?" Teria asked, surprised.

"Well..." Tsukasa started.

"Is that what defeated Silver Knight?" Teria shouted.

"That was a different power."

"Different?" Teria wondered, taken aback. "But, you ARE the one that defeated him.

"Yeah. It was me."

"How'd you do it?" Mimiru mumbled. "What kind of power can be used to defeat an opponent so that he's actually physically hurt in the real world!?"

"What?" a surprised Tsukasa asked.

"Silver Knight was found unconscious in front of a terminal monitor. He awoke with amnesia and doesn't remember ANYTHING!" Teria explained to Tsukasa.

"Impossible!" Tsukasa said.

"There isn't anyway to tell if it is true or not, but now they have to find you," Teria explained. "They won't rest until they find you, Tsukasa." She was starting to hate this boy. And she had two choices now. Tell him that he has to come with her to the Crimson Knights or... just leave him be for someone else to find him.

"We can't even prove that you aren't in front of your monitor," Bear pointed out. "They are reaching out to other players via the board to obtain your information. They are closing in on you. The Crimson Knights won't leave you alone."

"So, now what are you going to do?" Mimiru asked slowly.

"I'm not going to do anything now. There is nothing I CAN do," Tsukasa sighed.

"But... why!?" Mimiru shouted at him.

Tsukasa started walking away, turning his back to the group.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have called you at all. Just forgot about it."

Mimiru started after him.

"Oh, I get it. Running away again, huh? Well, you'll be surrounded by the knights soon enough," Mimiru smirked.

"No worries. My guardian will protect me."

"So," Teria said. "That's what defeated Silver Knight for you. But... what about his player huh!? Someone losing consciousness and suffering from amnesia isn't all right! It just isn't right at all!"

"What am I supposed to do about it!?" Tsukasa shouted back, looked down at the ground, and then started running away from them.

"Wait!" Mimiru shouted after him, running after the boy.

There was a strange disturbance in the air between Tsukasa and Mimiru. Teria frowned as she and Bear stared as a barbell-shaped yellowish monster appeared there. In the middle there was what looked like a ring.

"Mimiru! Get away from there!" Teria shouted on instinct.

"What the?" Mimiru asked herself.

Tsukasa stopped in his spot and looked around as his Guardian, it seemed, appeared there. Mimiru started backing away from it.

"Is this...?" Mimiru started.

"If that's the guardian, than I'm not impressed!" Bear said.

The left side of the guardian shot a strange tentacle-like thing at Mimiru, and the other girl dodged it by rolling onto the ground.

"Don't hurt her... Please, don't hurt her," Tsukasa mumbled under his breath.

Mimiru pulled herself up again as another tentacle aimed at where she was lying. She ran back to where Teria was standing.

"Hey, if that's your guardian, then call it back! We are not your enemy!" Bear yelled.

"I know that! I know that. But..." Tsukasa replied.

Bear ran forward and both Teria and Mimiru gasped and got wide-eyed.

"NO!" Tsukasa shouted as the man ran toward the beast.

A tentacle shot out at Bear, and Mimiru back up right into Teria. Teria just stood there in shock. However, suddenly...

A small, cat-like hand was held out in front of the tentacle, and in front of Bear who fell to the ground, sword no longer in his hand. The tentacle stopped, and the owner of the hand, a child-size cat on two legs, floated up in front of the ring. The cat disappeared, along with the guardian.

Bear got up on his feet and moved over to the other two girls. Tsukasa left them, and they warped back to the root town. Teria quickly waved goodbye to the other two and signed out, too shocked to do anything else.

~*~

A/N: Finally got it down! I hope you enjoyed it!

To both sites I post this out: Please, please, please review and let me know what you think, any suggestions, anything!