[dothack] Ryou Misaki would like you to go the hell away.

[Cosgrove]

So, was looking through stuff I've had in boxes and came across my .hack// stuff. And I remembered how much I freaking loved the GU trilogy and that I had stuff I was writing. Unfortunately, I also remembered a lot of my stuff went up in smoke when my old computer horribly died.

But, I saw the .hack section and feel oddly nostalgic so I figured I'd throw something together for the hell of it. This is the prologue, if you could call it that.

----------------------------

Ryou Misaki sighed as he checked his email. Once again he'd gotten the 'Promise' greeting carded emailed to him by Aura. For the hundredth time. His finger hovered over the 'delete' button and after quickly checking to see if there any other important emails, he logged out.

Pulling off his M2D, he looked over at the clock before letting his head drop and hit his desk. His eyes unconsciously turned towards the window which, up until two weeks ago, had been open to give a nice view of the area.

For all that you could from an apartment in Tokyo, anyway.

However, that, along with his quiet lifestyle had been easily destroyed. Hell, he couldn't even enjoy playing 'Haseo' anymore.

Not since that party.

At the time, it had seemed like a great idea. Yata had organized for everyone involved in the AIDA Incident in The World R:2 to get together so he could celebrate their accomplishments. As far as CC Corp was officially concerned, however, it was simply a prize for the winners of a contest.

Everyone had attended, even Endrance's hikkikomori player Kaoru Ichinose. Takumi Hino, Yata, had thanked them for all that they did, and everyone introduced themselves. Ryou, not much for introductions, had allowed himself to be pointed out by process of elimination.

It wasn't as if he didn't have social skills, but he was more interested in seeing who was who without having having anyone know who he was. Except Shino, but they had met before, after all.

It had seemed fun at the time, and he'd gotten to talk to everyone he know as people and not just as other Player Characters. He joked and talked with them and then after exchanging a good number of phone numbers, had called it a night when it had started to get late.

And things started to get weird.

 

[Deathwings]

Ryou Misaki would like you to go the hell away.

Let me guess, he's got a bunch of girl stalking him in the real world now, doesn't he ? :snigger:

 

[grant]

Ryou Misaki would like you to go the hell away.

.Hack. So much nostalgia, so little time.

 

[Tsuki_CB]

Ryou Misaki would like you to go the hell away.

Oh man this is gonna be awesome.

 

[armedlord]

Ryou Misaki would like you to go the hell away.

...I remember that Stalker Pi snippet a long while back in this forum made by you...

If I could, I'd pay actual dollars for this continuing. As it is, I can only applaud and give thanks for what only be an amusing time.

 

[Cosgrove]

Hey, good to see you all. Sorry for delay, but things popped up in my life. Regardless, here's a bit more.

----

It had begun with a new neighbor.

She wasn't unfamiliar to him.

No, it was more that she was very familiar to him.

She was someone he'd never be able to forget. Not after all the tears he'd shed for her. Not after all the blood he'd shed for her.

No, he'd never be able to forget the Shino-shaped hole that had been cut into his heart on that day.

Even though it was all over, sometimes he would still awaken in the middle of the night sweaty and fearful that it had all been just a dream. He still had to correct himself from his daily hospital visit to a room that no longer had a patient.

So when he'd returned home from school, it was to his surprise that he noticed that the hallway of the apartment next to his, which had always been empty, was filled with cardboard boxes.

And then the door had opened and she walked out, right back into his life.

Shino Nanao.

There were so many feelings concerning the girl in front of him that Ryou couldn't honestly say what he felt about her He'd spent so much time focused on this girl, so sure life couldn't possibly move on without her.

And then, when she'd recovered and all but vanished once more, it had been to his surprise that it did.

The lonely, angry and unsure boy who'd based his life around that girl had moved on, replaced by a content young man sure of himself and surrounded by friends.

So all he had been able to do was stare awkwardly as Shino's eyes widened in surprise before a small smile graced her face. Before he knew it, he'd helped her move her boxes and had made small talk with her, all the while he had felt like a stranger was wearing his body.

He remembered how hard he'd tried to impress her when they'd met in real life. How he'd tried to be something that would impress her. How he was focused only on her and how she made his heart skip. And now... it seemed like that young man over six months ago was someone else.

It wasn't that she wasn't pretty. She was quite beautiful, to be honest. And it wasn't that it wasn't pleasant talking to her, but it made him realize just how little he'd tried to get to know this girl in front of him when both of them had been in the wake of Ovan's disappearance.

And he had realized that until he addressed that elephant in the room, nothing would change between them despite the fact that they had both changed. The two from the Twilight Brigade, whose lives it most affected, still needed that closure.

"It's nice, being able to talk like this again. Even though AIDA's gone, sometimes I wonder if it all hadn't been a dream. A wonderful, terrible dream.

"...But then I'm glad, even though Ovan's gone, that it wasn't."

His face flushed red as he felt her eyes on him and he shamefully averted his eyes, clutching his hands together. "...Sorry, but that's the best way I can put it. I don't mean I'm glad that you-"

He had trailed off as he felt her hand gently rest on his and he looked up to see her smiling softly at him. "I understand, Ryou. After all, as I said before, though it was like a dream, I was watching.

"I saw you as Haseo, struggling not only for my sake but for also the sake of the friends you made in your journey. I saw your triumphs and the trials you endured and I was able to understand not just Ovan a little more... but you as well."

Her hand had grasped his a little more tightly before she had gotten up to look out the window behind her.

"I do have to apologize to you, Ryou. Back then, I don't think I was fair to you. All I was doing was looking at Ovan."

I had stared at her back, illuminated in the golden light of the early evening and felt nostalgic, almost like it was back to the the days of the Twilight Brigade. "How did you feel about him? ...Ovan, that is."

There had been a tenseness that entered her posture before she sighed and released it, still looking out the window. "I don't really know anymore, but I had thought that that so long as he was there I'd be able to find my place in the world. He was always so strong and warm, but also so very sad. I had hoped to become his hope... but that was a long time ago. I'll never forget him, but..."

My heart had felt like it stopped at she turned back towards me, that gentle smile on her face that I'd only ever seen through a computer screen had seemed otherworldly in the the evening's golden light.

"...I think I've moved on."

And everything had come rushing back to me. Every feeling I'd had for this girl. And it seemed like an eternity that I stared at her before my phone had gone off, breaking the enchantment placed on that moment.

And even though I'd wanted to stay there, life had its responsibilities and we called it a night. There were still things unsaid between us, but we had time now.

So as I headed off to the convenience store where I had been called in to work, I was seen off by Shino with a brilliant smile. My heart had been full of many things, but I had been in a great mood.

Right up until I was kidnapped by a red convertible.

 

[bzzt3421]

Ryou Misaki would like you to go the hell away.

And here I was thinking that kidnappers had to use a van.

 

[grant]

Ryou Misaki would like you to go the hell away.

A car? Sends the list of possible culprits down.

 

[TC_Hazard]

Ryou Misaki would like you to go the hell away.

At the end you shift from third to first person.

Other than that it looks pretty good.

 

[A Curious Stranger]

Ryou Misaki would like you to go the hell away.

A car? Sends the list of possible culprits down.

A convertible can only mean Pi.

 

[Cosgrove]

Ryou Misaki would like you to go the hell away.

Indeed.

And the next part, along with a corrected version of the last, are on the way but I've just gotten over being assaulted by the worst stomach-flu-bug that I've ever had which had put me to bed and unable to care about writing until just today.