[Balmung] .hack//Refuge [1]

I groaned when the hated sound of my alarm clock as it went off at exactly 4:30 in the morning. I had three hours to get ready... Two was enough.

But I couldn't go back to sleep for some reason. So, I decided to get in the shower early.

The warm water of the shower just made me sleepier.

"Miyoko! Are you awake?!" my dad's voice boomed from the living room.

"Barely," I replied to myself and finished my shower. I grabbed the towel that was on the bathroom counter and wrapped it around my body, then walked into my room.

"Hey, babe," she said as I turned to face her. I gasped and jumped slightly.

"What're you doing here so early, Aimi?"

Hioshi Aimi, my 18-year-old lesbian best friend, had climbed through my window. She’s very pretty: long blonde hair, bright blue eyes. Ever since first grade, she’s been my bodyguard. She doesn’t look buff, but she’s a very good fighter.

Even though she was only a year older than me, she was much more mature and logical than I. But, like everyone else, she could have her childish moments.

She laughed and poked my bed. "Ah, I'unno. Just bored, I guess. I woke up at three and couldn't get back to sleep. So, I got ready and came over here."

I pulled out my normal bra and my sports bra. "And do my parents know you're here? Or your parents?"

As I brushed through my long black hair, I watched as my black eyes moved up and down, examining the reflection of myself through the mirror.

"Nope. I left a note for my parents and crawled through your window."

I glanced back at her after I put my bra on. "Came through my window in a skirt?"

"Like I had a choice. You know we have to wear these ugly uniforms."

My gaze went to my school uniform that was sitting on the back of my computer chair. She was right; it was ugly.

Brown shoes, knee-length white socks, plaid skirt, office-like top that buttoned down the middle with a pocket right on the left side, and a girly bow in the middle of all that.

I sighed and put on my underwear. "Let's just ditch today or something."

Aimi shook her head. "Nope. I still remember what you said a few weeks ago."

I glanced at her with curiosity and asked, "What'd I say?"

"You told me that you're not going to be as shy as you were last year and that you're actually going to get a boyfriend for the year."

"Oh, yeah."

I had trouble getting the uniform on, so Aimi helped me. Hers fit her perfectly, but mine was a little big. She said I'd grow into it.

On the way out, I hugged my 20-year-old brother, Ryota. He and my parents, Daisuke and Naoko, wished me good luck. Aska, my loud miniature pincher, nipped at my ankles. I figured she was wishing me good luck, too.

She drove me to school since I didn't have my own car yet. I almost fell asleep on the way, so I guess the start of my first day wasn't exactly like I wanted it to be.

"Hey, babe. You awake?"

"Not really."

I opened the car door and got out. Well, more like falling out.

"God, Miyoko... You must be tired," Aimi said as she took my arm so I didn't fall over on my face. I slipped my backpack on my back and we walked towards the hated school.

I was happy when I found out that I had two classes with Aimi. P.E. and Math.

Luckily, P.E. was the last class of the day.

"Oh my gosh...," Aimi muttered as we walked into the girls' changing room. Most of the girls only had their sports bras and underwear on.

There were three girls in the corner that looked like they were freshmen. They might've been older, though.

One had short light brown hair that almost reached her shoulders. She seemed nervous to change.

The girl that was sitting down on the floor and putting her shoes on had even shorter hair. It was a very pretty brown-ish color.

And the last girl had long wavy blonde hair. She seemed like the very quiet type of girl. She looked old enough to be a senior.

"Never seen them before," Aimi whispered and nudged my arm gently. My gaze moved to the other side of the room.

Three seniors stood in a corner with their arms crossed over their chests. They all looked mean and snobby.

The tallest girl had long black hair. She was glaring at almost every other girl in the room, including Aimi and I.

The girl that was leaned against the wall had blonde hair that was in two pig-tails on both sides of her head. Every now and then, she would roll her eyes and look toward the lockers.

And the last girl had short brown hair that curled at her shoulders. I watched her mumble a few words to the other girls and they smirked.

"Start any crap with us and I'll kill them," Aimi mumbled and led me away from them. We picked two lockers that were right next to each other.

After changing, Aimi and I looked at ourselves in the mirror. Our P.E. uniforms were ugly, too.

White knee-length socks, brown shoes, white skirt, and a white shirt that had red stripes on it and it had our school name printed on the back in red.

"Well, I guess they're okay," I mumbled as I turned around.

"Eh," Aimi replied and shrugged.

After all the girls finished changing, everyone walked out into the gym and stood in a line. A few minutes later, the guys came out and joined us.

"All right! Listen up! For those of you freshmen, my name is Koura. Since today is only the first day, you'll get to pick whatever you want to do. Just stay in the gym," Captain Koura said then walked into her office. She was the P.E. teacher and tennis coach.

Aimi and I ended up sitting against a wall by ourselves. The two girls that looked like freshmen and the one that looked like a senior were playing tennis. The other three snobby girls were leaned against the opposite wall, glaring at everyone once again.

"You should come over to my house after school today," Aimi suddenly said. "I want to show you a game I'm addicted to."

"What's it called?"

"The World. You can create your own character, class, and you can talk to people from around the world."

I shrugged slightly. "An RPG?"

"Mm-hm."

"Not really my kind of game..."

Aimi laughed and said, "Trust me, once you play it, you won't ever want to put it down. It's like... internet crack. One try and you're addicted to it."

I sighed. "All right. I'll try it. But, I don't get addicted to stuff as easily as you do."

She smirked. "We'll see about that."

Aimi drove home quickly; she was eager to put me in The World.

"Okay. Few hints before you actually start the game. The two most famous players in the game are Orca of the Azure Sea and Balmung of the Azure Sky. Th--"

"Why are they the most famous players?"

"Well, in the game before this one, Fragment, there was an event that a lot of players were scared to do. The event was called One Sin. In the event, players had to defeat a monster called One Sin. Most people thought it was impossible to kill, so that's why they didn't try. But Balmung and Orca teamed up and defeated it together, earning the titles of the Descendants of Fianna. The prize also came with a character upgrade, but Orca didn't want it for some reason, so he gave it to Balmung. And now, Balmung has these uber awesome wings on his back that no other players can get."

"Sounds like a bunch of crap," I mumbled as I gazed out the window. Aimi laughed.

"Say that in the game and a bunch of rabid Balmung fan-girls will come after you."

I glanced at her. "Have you ever actually seen Orca and Balmung?"

"Well, no."

"Then how do you know that story's true?"

"Well, before you actually log into the game, there's a link called the BBS. It's like a message board for everyone to talk about different topics. Someone started a dumb rumor that the real life Balmung hacked into his character's data and got the wings a few months ago. Balmung read it and said how he actually got them. But, he rarely posts on the BBS."

"Sounds like a conceited jerk."

"Not really. He helps out newbies a lot when they're lost or confused."

I shook my head slightly and rolled my eyes. Still didn't want to run into him.

"Mom! I'm home!" Aimi called as she walked into her house. I trailed in behind her.

"Hi, Aimi! Oh, and hi Miyoko!" her mother called back as she glanced at us from the kitchen. Aimi and I headed straight for her room.

Her room was larger than mine, so I liked it a lot.

"All right. Sit down here and I'll start it up," Aimi said and patted her computer chair with her hand. I put my backpack by her bed and sat down. She pulled up a chair that was in the corner and placed it by me. "Okay, put this on."

She placed a visor-like thing on my eyes and I touched it. "What's this?"

"An FMD, which is short for Face Mount Display. This lets you see first person."

She placed a controller in my hands and something popped up in front of my eyes.

"The World. Okay, go down to the last option," Aimi told me. I grabbed the mouse and moved the pointer down to the last option, which was "new character."

A new screen came up and a girl with a thin bra and undies stood in darkness. She was bald, too.

"Is this my character?!" I snapped. Aimi laughed.

"Not yet, silly. You get to customize her."

"Oh."

I dragged the pointer over to the "class" option, and then read off the six different classes out loud.

"Twinblade, Heavyblade, Wavemaster, Blademaster, Longarm, and Axeman."

"Mm-hm. Twinblades move faster than any other classes and they use two blades instead of one. Heavyblades carry large swords on their backs that do lots of damage to monsters. Wavemasters are best with magic and healing, so they carry wands and staffs. Blademasters carry thin blades and they can swing them quickly. Balmung and Orca are both Blademasters. Longarms have long spears and stab their enemies. And Axemen carry huge axes that do more damage than any other class, but they also move the slowest."

I bit my lower lip and thought over it for a little bit. "I either want to be a Twinblade or a Wavemaster."

"Well, I think that if you're a Wavemaster, you make more friends since lots of people are always looking for healers."

I sighed and picked the Wavemaster option. Now, I had to pick a hair style and color for her.

I picked short yellow hair and made her eyes yellow, also. The skin color ended up being light, like mine, with dark yellow markings on her face, stomach, and arms.

Her clothes were my favorite part of the whole thing. She had a blue top that cut off right under her chest. The top had yellow markings, too. The pants were baggy and they cut off at her knees. I made them look like the top. And I didn't even bother with the shoes; I made her go barefoot.

"Okay! Now you just need to give her a name and she can take her first steps into The World!" Aimi said happily.

"Hm..." I thought for a few minutes. "Katashi."

"Katashi?! That's a guy name, though!"

"Oh well."

I typed in the name and hit the enter button. Something new came onto the screen.

Aqua Capital Mac Anu

"This is the main Root Town for newbies," Aimi said from behind me. My eyes went wide at the beautiful town.

It reminded me of the old days, if you know what I'm talking about. Even the background music reminded me of it.

As I walked around, trying to get used to the controls, I watched people run by with lots of different weapons.

"Press start," Aimi said and I did. "This is the menu. You can go into your items from here and check your character's stats."

I went down to the "items" icon and pressed on it.

"Potion x5?"

"That means you have 5 potions, an item that heals your health points."

I exited my items and moved down to the "status" icon. A picture of Katashi appeared and a lot of numbers and words appeared next to her.

"That's your level at the bottom right hand corner. Since you just started, you're at level one. The highest level you can go to is 99. I don’t know why CC Corp. put it like that. It’s sort of a drag. Every time you defeat a monster, you get EXP, which advances you closer to your next level," Aimi said.

“CC Corp.?”

“The company that made the game.”

"Oh. What level are you on?"

She chuckled nervously. "Only 20. I haven't played it for awhile so I'm still kind of weak."

I exited the menu and moved toward some kind of huge golden circle.

"That's the Chaos Gate. It lets you go to areas that have monsters in it and different Root Towns. But, the other Root Towns are shut down right now."

"How do you go to areas?"

"Walk closer to it."

I did and a new menu came up. Three words and a weird symbol were at the top.

"Delta... Part A... Part B... Part C?" I asked.

"Yeah. This Root Town is the Delta server and the parts are area keywords. Like... here, lemme have the controller."

I handed her the controller and watched words fill the parts.

"Bursting, Passed Over, Aqua Field," Aimi said out loud.

"Why those words?"

"Because this area is for newbies."

"Oh."

She handed the controller back to me and golden rings surrounded Katashi. A black menu with some words appeared.

Delta: Bursting, Passed Over, Aqua Field

A few seconds later, Katashi was in a beautiful field.

"Oh my...," I mumbled as I rotated the camera view around.

I jumped slightly when more golden rings appeared next to me. Aimi gasped when the full character came into view.

"It's..."

Whoever it was turned to me and smiled slightly.

"Hello," he said.

"Um... hi," I replied awkwardly. I wasn't quite used to talking into the FMD.

I heard the roll of the chair wheels on the wooden floor next to me squeak loudly. I glanced over at Aimi, peeking over the FMD.

"IT'S BALMUNG OF THE AZURE SKY!" she screamed loudly and jumped around. I looked back to the player.

So this guy was Balmung. Aimi was right, his wings were uber awesome.

He had white hair that spiked backwards in the back. His bangs almost reached over his green-ish eyes and they seemed to sway to one side.

He wore silver and blue armor. The silver part covered his torso and the blue parts covered his legs, arms, and feet.

Balmung chuckled. "Well, whoever's next to you must be another fan."

"She is...," I replied and grabbed her hand. "Calm down," I whispered.

Aimi sat back down in the chair and took a big breath. "I'm okay."

I turned back to Balmung, who was looking at my strangely.

"What?" I asked.

"Your clothes are very, uh... vivid," he replied and looked away. I laughed.

"They're my favorite colors."

"Weird," Aimi mumbled. I glanced at her again and noticed she was looking at the clock. "Balmung's not usually online at this time. Ask him why he's online."

"No! That could be personal!" I replied, forgetting that I was also talking into the FMD.

"What could be personal?" Balmung asked doubtfully. I gasped and bit my lower lip. He couldn't get mad if I asked him something like that, right?

"My friend wants to know why you're online at this time," I replied meekly.

"Oh, well, that's not very personal. I was just going to look at some peculiar monsters here and I'm just killing time before I have to go to work," he replied and glanced over at a strange hole-like thing in the ground. Then, he chuckled. "Why are you online?"

"Actually, I didn't even want to play. She made me. It's my first day on this game."

Balmung smiled widely. "If you want me to, I'll show you around the dungeon and teach you how to fight monsters."

Aimi gasped loudly. "You're so lucky."

I took off the FMD and turned to her. "I still say he's conceited."