.Hack//ZERO SE:2001
SE:2001[edit]
“Sir Orca, Sir Balmung!”
A petite Wavemaster wearing round-rimmed glasses jumped up and down with excitement.
“Two swordsmen, one with wings and one with muscles. I knew who you were immediately.”
“Oh, thank you.”
Orca blinked in a fit of confusion.
“It’s nice to meet you. My name is Alph.” She bowed and introduced herself. “Sorry. I hadn’t expected to meet you both in person, so I’m a little excited!”
Alph raised a hand to her mouth.
Balmung shot a look at Orca that stressed he couldn’t handle this type of person.
But the girl called Alph may have seen through his attempt to leave Orca behind as his scapegoat, because she quickly stepped closer to Balmung instead.
“I think I owe you an apology, Sir Balmung.”
“Wha-?”
A startled noise escaped Balmung that was entirely unbecoming of a Descendant of Fianna.
“I kind of used to post some mean things about you on the event boards.”
“O-oh……”
Balmung spoke with uncertainty. When you win all the time, there will of course be those who become jealous of your achievements just as there will be those that root for you to succeed. But that much was expected, so he had never paid much attention to the gossip surrounding himself.
“You remember, don’t you?”
Alph got closer again.
“Yeah……”
With the tip of her hat just under Balmung’s nose, Alph leapt for joy.
“Hurray! That makes me so happy!”
It didn’t really matter much to him, but seeing Alph so ecstatic over it left Balmung at a loss for words.
“So again, I’m very sorry about what I’ve said.” Alph bowed deeply to Balmung, then craned her neck to look up at him from below. “Can you forgive me?”
“Uh- sure… I mean, it’s not really…”
Out of the corner of his eye, Balmung saw Orca standing there with a perfectly blank expression on his character’s face.
But he was certain that was just a façade, and behind the computer screen, he was probably laughing his ass off.
“So, um…”
Hoping to escape this situation, Balmung tried to get the conversation back under control.
“Are you two just observing today?” But Alph just continued with her own inquiries anyways. “Or were you curious, too?”
Orca raised an eyebrow.
“Curious about what?”
Orca quickly looked up what event those round-rimmed glasses came from. ‘Lightless Impenetrable Ruins’ had been where it took place. They weren’t especially useful items, so they tended to get traded around a lot to the people that liked to use them as a fashion item.
“Well, about the ghost, right?”
“Ghost…?”
Alph looked back at Orca questioningly as her repeated her own words.
“Well, ghost stories are really popular right now, aren’t they?”
“I hadn’t realized ghosts could fall in or out of style.”
Alph laughed loudly again. This time however, it sounded a bit forced.
“You’re a funny guy, Sir Orca.”
“……Well, thank you.”
“The ghost was a PC who looked like a young girl, and it’s said that players who see her are either blessed with good luck, or cursed with bad luck.”
“Right,”
They had heard the stories about her, too, of course.
Where she appeared was completely random, she could show up in a Fire Field, or she could be found in a Womb Dungeon.
But if you tried to talk to her, she wouldn’t respond to you. She just appeared and then disappeared.
It was rumored to be the prologue for a major event being planned by CC Corp., or that it was just a bug, but even the rumors themselves were tenuous at best. And that was because the sightings were few and far between, leaving little intrigue for people to get hooked onto.
Most of the sightings were probably just from people who had heard about the initial rumors.
If it were the prologue to an event, there was no way that CC Corp. would implement it in such a roundabout way. But if it were a bug, then it should have been resolved by now.
“There’s a story from just before the server outage. Do you really not know about it?”
“Really? That thing, a ghost?”
Orca questioned Alph again and looked briefly to Balmung.
And Balmung shook his head. This was the first he’d heard of it, too.
“We’ve learned she has a name. It’s Aura.”
“Latin?”
Balmung tried to participate in the conversation.
“Wow! You really know a lot, don’t you? That’s Sir Balmung for you.”
Alph applauded Balmung for his input, but he just pulled his head down between his shoulders like a turtle hiding in its shell.
“I believe it originally meant a breath, or gentle breeze, but it could also be used to mean an ill omen.”
And when he added onto his comment, Alph was so excited that she was practically jumping for joy.
“Bingo! You win a sitting cushion.”
“I- this isn’t a game show!”
Balmung was becoming increasingly frustrated. He didn’t think there were any in-game items designed as sitting cushions, but Alph’s enthusiasm made him hesitate.
“Who did you hear that name from?”
Orca asked Alph a question while realizing that his appearance really stuck out in this group.
“Well…”
“Well……”
There was a clear difference between how Alph was treating Orca and Balmung. Oddly, it felt like she was taking Orca less seriously.
“I heard about it the usual way, I guess. My friend told me about her.”
“I haven’t seen any posts about it on the forums.”
“You shouldn’t be looking for information on the forums. Nobody trusts what gets posted there.”
“Yes, well… I suppose.”
Orca faltered, and Balmung shot him a labored look.
“Did you think you could trace it all back to its roots? The information is constantly changing. it’s better to get information from the source.”
“May I ask you something?”
Balmung nervously raised his hand, hoping to use the moment to pose a question.
“Yes, of course Sir Balmung.”
“To us, your testimony is still hearsay – so who is the source?”
“It happened to a friend.”
“A friend of yours?”
“Not ‘mine’, of Alph.”
Balmung felt his temples throbbing.
“A friend of… Alph’s?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“So your saying that y- that Alph’s friend actually saw the ghost?”
Alph nodded confidently, her glasses slipping down to the tip of her nose.
“Can you tell us about this person.”
“Uh…” When Orca made that request of her, Alph’s expression seemed to darken just a bit. “I don’t really like the idea of giving out personal information to strangers.”
Orca wanted to point out that she was the one who had approached them, but held himself back. Perhaps she meant that it was her friend who didn’t know about the Descendants of Fianna.
“Oh! I have an idea!”
Suddenly, Alph clapped her hands together as she seemed to make some kind of decision.
Orca and Balmung had no way of knowing it, but they were being used by Alph.
“I’ll ask Carl to meet in person, and let you know when she responds.”
Alph was beaming with pride over her plan.
However, when she saw that she was not getting the reaction she expected, her expression slipped into curiosity.
“Is there a problem with that?”
“No……” Orca had to force himself to speak again. “It’s probably a good idea. I’ll agree to this plan. And so will Bal.”
“Right, of course.”
Balmung regained his composure and gave a stiff nod.
“Then, may I have your member addresses to get in touch?”
Alph tilted her head and giggled.
“What about us?”
Orca jabbed at Balmung with his elbow for asking that.
“As I said, I don’t like giving out personal information to strangers.”
Orca could see Balmung’s cheek start to twitch, but after a moment, he relented to hand over his member address.
“Alright, then. I’ll be in touch.”
“Thank you. It was a pleasure to meet you.”
Alph bowed and turned her back to them.
“Oh, right!”
Orca and Balmung had just relaxed when it seemed the conversation was over, but they immediately tensed back up when she spoke again.
“I spend a lot of time with Sieg.” Orca and Balmung both blinked dumbly. “So, if you really need to get in touch with me, you can ask him. You do know Sieg, don’t you?”
Orca groaned inwardly as he interpreted those words.
“I hope I can introduce you officially soon.”
Balmung could no longer run away.
“Who is Sieg?”
Alph raised an eyebrow at his question.
“You really don’t know? Are you sure?”
“……Sorry.”
Feeling pressured by Alph’s presence, Balmung couldn’t help but apologize.
“It’s alright, I was thinking that might be the case. Even still, please contact Sieg.”
After a forceful and direct reminder, Alph returned to the Root Town. Her exit had been just as abrupt and overwhelming as her entrance.
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