[OOC] Profile Meme
Note: Really tl;dr and has spoilers for all three .hack//G.U. games and Roots.
[Character Name] Ryou Misaki/Haseo
[Canon] .hack//G.U.
[Point Taken from Canon] Right before Haseo wakes up in Net Slum Tartarga during .hack//G.U. Volume 3: Redemption. So right after he gets Xth Form. /o/
[Age] 17
[Gender] Male
[Sexual Orientation] Straight, mostly. Endrance is (hopefully) the only exception.
[Eye Color] Red (DON'T LET THE ICONS FOOL YOU)
[Hair Color] White
[Height] 5'8"
[Other] Has wave marks under both eyes and on his shoulders.
[Clothing] Like this. Yeah, it is a bit excessive. :| I swear I'll get him some normal-looking clothes at some point.
[Background] Ryou Misaki doesn't remember his first encounter with The World. He first discovered the popular online game when he was ten years old, several years after it was released. His character, Sora, was a Player Killer, someone who found joy in hunting other players and killing their PCs. During the events of .hack//SIGN, Sora is Data Drained and possessed by Skeith, the first of the 8 Phases of Morganna, and Ryou is thrown into a coma as a result. After Corbenik, the final Phase, is defeated in .hack//QUARANTINE, he awakens from this coma with no memories of what happened to him in The World. Ryou's parents hide this fact from him and in the end, he forgets having ever played.
Fast forward to the year 2017. After the events of Pluto Again, which caused internet-based distasters worldwide, and a fire that destroyed almost all of the data for the original The World in 2015, CyberConnect Corporation released the new Altimit Mine OS and The World R:2. As the original PC data from the first version of The World is unrecoverable, it drives away most of the player base, but it still remains the most popular MMORPG in the world. Ryou starts playing this new version and creates the PC Haseo, which unknowingly becomes the new host for the 1st Phase Epitaph, Skeith.
Haseo's first foray into The World is a rough one. Almost immediately upon logging in he is accosted by two players, Asta and IYOTEN. They bring him to an area with the idea that they will help him play the game, but once reaching the Beast Statue at the end they reveal their true natures as Player Killers and PK him on the spot. The PC Ovan arrives shortly after this and takes care of Haseo's assaulters, ressurecting him afterwards and telling him that there is something that only his character possesses and that he must become stronger.
Afterwards, Haseo meets Phyllo, a sage-like player who is well-known in The World R:2. Phyllo informs Haseo that Ovan has been trailing him ever since he first logged in. Confused, Haseo leaves for another area and is attacked by another two PKers, whom Shino, an acquaintance of Ovan's, scares off. She convinces Haseo to continue playing the game and extends an offer to him to join the guild, the Twilight Brigade. He declines initally, after learning that their goal is to locate the Key of the Twilight, as he is unsure of what it is. He later asks Phyllo about it, who tells him that the Key is a tool that can apparently change the rules within The World. Haseo meets with several former members of the Twilight Brigade, who warn him about Ovan and his true motives. Regardless, Haseo accepts an invitation from Shino to join the guild, as he has nothing better to do.
Shino shows Haseo one of the Lost Grounds, Hulle Granz Cathedral, and explains to him the lore behind Aura, the goddess who's statue used to be present in the cathedral. She also tells him of the various Lost Grounds scattered within the game, to which Ovan joins in and states that there are even areas within The World that the system admin cannot control. Later, Haseo's latent abilities as an Epitaph User manifest when he protects several guildmates from an anomaly that appears to be eating their PC data. The Twilight Brigade discovers A-shaped signs all over The World, and as they examine one at the Lost Ground Coite-Bodher Battlefield, Haseo and two others are suddenly transported to Arche Koeln Waterfall with no explanation. Thinking that it has something to do with the Key of the Twilight, they head to Hulle Granz Cathedral to investigate further.
The Twilight Brigade ends up going to war with another guild, TaN, who also seek the Key. Thinking that the Key is located in Coite-Bodher Battlefield, the two guilds end up fighting there and are somehow transported to the Inverted City Megin Fi, another Lost Ground that floats above Coite-Bodher Battlefield. There, Ovan is captured by TaN's guildmaster, Naobi, and the Twilight Brigade is left without a leader. Shino releases the information about his capture, and the illegal method used to do it, publicly, and TaN is disbanded as a result.
Later, Tabby, another one of the Twilight Brigade's members, confronts Haseo on how close he's become to Shino, remarking that he doesn't look at her the same way and that it makes her feel alone. Haseo avoids answering and Tabby is infuriated and leaves him behind, confused. He heads to Hulle Granz Cathedral and finds Shino there, her PC body changed. She tells him that this is an expression of her devotion and disbands the Twilight Brigade on the spot. Shino tells Haseo that she'll wait for Ovan to return alone until he reappears, and Haseo tells her that he'll wait with her.
After the disbanding of the Twilight Brigade, Haseo and Shino are left to wonder what exactly happened to Ovan. According to Shino she was unable to contact him in the real world, which worries them both greatly. Shino is then once again drawn to Hulle Granz Cathedral, where she comes across Tri-Edge and is PKed. Haseo arrives only shortly after the fact, discovering both Shino's dead PC and an A-shaped sign carved into the altar of the cathedral. He learns later from Phyllo, that in real life Shino was found unconcious and rushed to the hospital, and that PCs that are PKed by Tri-Edge become Lost Ones - people who are physically unable to return to the game. Haseo blames himself for not being there when Shino was attacked, as he believes that he could have saved her, but Phyllo tells him that even he wouldn't have had a chance against Tri-Edge. When questioned about why Shino was at Hulle Granz Cathedral in the first place, Phyllo then tells him that that was the field where Shino had first met Ovan. This causes Haseo to become enraged, as he then returns to the Cathedral and breaks down in front of the altar.
Shortly after this, Haseo learns about the event, the Forest of Pain. He decides to use this chance to prove his strength, so he enters it, along with the guildmaster of Icolo, Taihaku. Both Haseo and Taihaku reach the center of the field, where they discover the Harald AI (an artifical intelligence based on the creator of The World, Harald Hoerwick). The Harald AI questions both players about what they thought of his daughter, Aura. Haseo responds that he doesn't know, nor does he care about his daughter, so Harald shoots him with a bolt of black lightning which forcibly upgraded him to his final Adept Rogue form.
It is after this that Haseo decides to use this power to attempt to do his own version of good within The World. He becomes a Player Killer Killer, or PKKer, and ruthlessly hunts down PKers as he searches for Tri-Edge. At one point he manages to defeat a hundred PKers at once, earning him the title, the Terror of Death, and a reputation that precedes him wherever he goes. This continues on for over six months, as he attempts to gather information and become stronger. Because of this, he draws attention to himself from many figureheads in The World, including Sakaki, one of the generals from the pacifist guild, Moon Tree. Sakaki confronts Haseo, along with his subordinate Atoli, who bears a striking resemblance to Shino.
While there, he ends up receiving a message from the currently missing Ovan. Haseo follows this message to Arche Koeln Waterfall, where he meets Ovan and demands to know where he had gone all this time. Ovan evades Haseo's questioning and tells him that Tri-Edge will reappear where Shino was attacked. He promises to meet Haseo there so that they could defeat him together, but upon arrival Haseo is assaulted by the PKer and is Data Drained. This reformats his computer, reverts his PC to level one, and causes him to lose all of his member addresses, e-mails, items, and equipment.
Upon returning to The World, Haseo attempts to follow Ovan through the Delta Server Root Town, Eternal City Mac Anu, but is stopped by two other players, Silabus and Gaspard, who are members of the a guild called Canard, specially made to help new players. They mistake Haseo for a newbie and force him to follow them to a field to "learn how to play the game". They are followed by Bordeaux, a PKer who was PKed by Haseo back when he was level 100, who tries to attack them once they reach the Beast Statue in the field. This causes a strange power to build up inside Haseo, which is halted when a player named Pi comes to save all of them. She explains to Haseo that he has a dangerous power hidden within his PC, and offers her help, but Haseo refuses, calling Pi an "old hag" and completely brushing her off.
When he returns to town he bumps into Atoli, who attempts to explain to him the teachings of Moon Tree. She gives him her member address and they explore a field, finding a sign on the back of the Beast Temple that looks similar to the one he discovered when he found Shino. They investigate and are warped to one of the Lost Grounds, Dead World of Indieglut Lugh. There they have their first glimpse of Endrance, and are attacked by an Artificially Intelligent Data Anomaly - or AIDA for short. Haseo and Atoli are then rescued by a player named Kuhn, who then gives Haseo a key to the guild Raven and tells him to go there. Haseo does, and comes across Pi again, as well as the guildmaster Yata (who used to play TaN's guildmaster, Naobi). Yata explains that Raven is just a front for an organization called G.U. and offers to help Haseo find Tri-Edge in exchange for him investigating the AIDA for the guild.
Shortly after this, Haseo runs across Silabus and Gaspard once more while in Mac Anu, and they make him run their guild shop for them. While working he meets Bo, the younger brother half of the player Sakubo, and becomes friends with him by giving him a discount on an item. Pi and Kuhn invite Haseo to a field to make him practice summoning his Avatar. He is unable to do so, and returns to town to Silabus and Gaspard, who ask him to become Canard's guildmaster. He grudgingly accepts, even though it's against his nature.
After all this happens, CC Corp releases the news that the Omega Server Root Town, Warring City Lumina Cloth, has reopened for Arena battles. Haseo, Silabus, and Gaspard all attend the title match of the Demon Palace tournament, where they witness Endrance defeat the player Alkaid. Haseo is able to see that Endrance has an Avatar himself and after the match, storms outside to confront him. There he meets with Saku, the older sister half of Sakubo, who is a huge fan of Endrance. Endrance tells Haseo that although he may have an Avatar, he has no power, to which Haseo retorts that he will be the one to defeat him in the Arena. Silabus agrees to join Haseo for their three-person team, but suggests they try and find a healer to be their third. Haseo instantly thinks of Atoli, and decides to reluctantly convince her to join them.
Meanwhile, Silabus posts a message to The World's forums asking for a third party member, and a player named "Sakura" replies. Sakura is actually the PKer Bordeaux looking for revenge. She accosts them in the field they had planned to meet in, but is eventually driven off by Atoli, Matsu and Sakaki from Moon Tree. Atoli then joins Haseo and Silabus and they begin to participate in Arena battles to up their rankings and eventually qualify for the Demon Palace tournament.
While in the qualifying rounds, Haseo meets Antares, an old friend of Phyllo's. Antares acts as a mentor to Haseo, giving him advice an pushing him to become stronger. During the first round of the actual tournament, Haseo's Avatar, Skeith, awakens. Pi explains to Haseo that using his Avatar against other PCs is dangerous, and takes him to an area to help him train and control it. While there, they are attacked by AIDA and Pi becomes infected. Haseo is forced to Data Drain her Avatar, Tarvos, to save her.
During the tournament, an event opens up to allow Adept Rogues to Job Extend. Haseo participates and Job Extends to his second form and gains the use of broadswords. In the final match of the tournament, his team faces off against a team of Kuhn, Pi, and Antares. Frustrated that they share the same goal yet they are in his way, Haseo becomes enraged and summons Skeith. Kuhn summons his Avatar, Magus, in retaliation, and in the end is Data Drained as well. This puts Haseo and his team into the title round of the tournament. They battle Endrance, who had been using his Avatar to win battles. Haseo defeats Endrance and Data Drains his Avatar, Macha, who had become infected with AIDA that had taken the form of his cat that had died.
After the tournament ends, a victory celebration is held on Hy Brasail, a "Lost Ground" accessed from Mac Anu that is used for such events. While at the party, Atoli becomes mad at Haseo and storms off on her on. Later, Yata contacts Haseo and tells him to come to Raven. There he is told that Atoli is also an Epitaph PC and had gotten sucked into a Tri-edge sign and teleported away. Haseo, Pi, and Kuhn go after her, and end up in a strange white room full of lockers. There they find Tri-Edge, and defeat him, and as Haseo makes up with Atoli the doors to the lockers open and a new type of AIDA come streaming out. They penetrate Atoli's PC and infect her, then return to the lockers as quickly as they had emerged. Atoli collapses, and Haseo screams her name.
Returning to Raven after this, Atoli comes to and it's revealed that her Epitaph had been stolen and that she both cannot speak and her arm had become numb. They all decide to log off to take a break, but when attempting to do so, realize they are unable to and are effectively stuck inside the game. Yata explains that they have been transferred to a server created by AIDA and that every player currently logged into The World are unable to log out. They all decide to ask the guildmaster of Moon Tree, Zelkova, for his thoughts on the situation. Shortly after this, Haseo runs across Ovan once more, who explains that there is something called the Operations Folder, and that if they entered it they could solve the problem of everyone logging out.
Haseo and company do resolve this and log out soon after. Atoli emails Haseo and asks him to meet up with her - it turns out that she has been diagnosed with Doll Syndrome, a real-life side effect to one being infected with AIDA. Haseo realizes that AIDA is spreading throughout The World faster everyday. Shortly after this, Alkaid sends Haseo a message. She is concerned about one of the members of her guild, Sirius, and how he's been acting strangely. They attend a match at the Holy Palace tournament and it becomes apparent that he has also been infected with AIDA. Haseo enters the tournament, along with Atoli and Alkaid, to attempt to save Sirius.
As they fight through matches, it becomes increasingly apparent that Alkaid is harboring feelings for Haseo, even though he does not realize this right away. He does notice, however, that there is increased tension between the two girls in his party, but brushes it off as if it were nothing. At one point, Haseo is able to Job Extend once more and get his third and final form, Flick Reaper, and he is able to use scythes in battle. Halfway through the tournament, tragedy befalls Haseo once more - Alkaid is PKed by an AIDA-infected Bordeaux, and she becomes a Lost One as a result. Now down one party member, Haseo heeds Alkaid's final words to find Endrance and ask him for help. Haseo locates Endrance where he and Atoli had first discovered him, in Indieglut Lugh. He is unresponsive and shuts Haseo out. Saku appears and blames Haseo for ruining Endrance's life, and summons her Avatar, Gorre, to fight him. Haseo is able to Data Drain Gorre and talk Endrance out of his stupor, gaining a powerful ally and somewhat creepy stalker/potential love interest.
Continuing the tournament, the newly formed team of Haseo, Atoli, and Endrance are able to advance to the end and take on Sirius. They defeat him and as a result, Atoli's Epitaph is returned to her. It becomes apparent afterwards that Sirius' actions were not of his own accord, but were composed by Sakaki of Moon Tree. Sakaki then uses Atoli to PK Zelkova and take over Moon Tree's @Home and turn it into an AIDA server. Haseo and the other members of G.U. (which now include Sakubo and Endrance) fight their way through the @Home and rescue Atoli, only after fighting her Avatar, Innis, and Data Draining it.
Sakaki manages to escape and Haseo and G.U. follows him to the Lost Ground, Briona Gwydion the Dragonbein Range. There, they defeat him, and Ovan appears soon after as a result. He reveals to Haseo that he is the Tri-Edge that PKed Shino, and that he was the one who orchestrated all of Sakaki's plans. Ovan then PKs Pi and Atoli, and Haseo attack, enraged. Their match ends in a draw, however, as Haseo isn't powerful enough to defeat Ovan.
After logging out, Haseo receives an email asking all the members of G.U. to meet at Raven's @Home. There they discover that Sakaki has been given control of G.U. by CC Corp and that Yata has gone missing in real life. Sakaki uses his new powers as a system administrator to host another tournament populated entirely by PKs and allow PKing in root towns on both the Omega and Sigma servers. During this tournament, Haseo faces off against many of the PKs he had killed before, including Asta and IYOTEN, who were the ones who first PKed him when he started playing, and other players such as Antares and Matsu from Moon Tree. He even fights Endrance and Sakubo, along with Icolo's guildmaster Taihaku, who had seeming joined Sakaki's cause, but later revealed that they were doing it to gain information as Endrance could never side against Haseo.
Zelkova returns, and apparently has high intel on The World's inner workings. He helps Haseo plot to overthrow Sakaki, and they do, returning The World and G.U. back to proper working order. Pi reports that she still hasn't found Yata and reveals that he is the final Epitaph PC. They go after Yata in the game and confront him as he is having a break down, and Haseo is forced to battle and Data Drain his Avatar, Fidchell.
Haseo then tracks down Ovan, which eventually brings him to The Creator's Room, a Lost Ground that is unable to be monitored by CC Corp. He finds Ovan's younger sister, Aina, there, and discovers Ovan's true goals. As Aina was the first PC to become infected by AIDA, Ovan had been trying to find a way to get rid of it. The only way to do so was to use the power of his Epitaph, The Rebirth, to reset the internet and completely wipe the data. Ovan had been using Haseo and training him to become stronger, so he could fully bring out the potential of Rebirth. Haseo then battles Ovan, Data Draining his Avatar, Corbenik, and causing the internet to reset. The result causes a data surge that almost completely destroys Haseo's PC and throws him to a barren area in between servers. There he falls unconcious and is confronted by Skeith in his mind, eventually coming to accept him and gaining the Xth Form. He blacks out once more and...
This is the point where he wakes up in Somarium.
[Personality] On the outside, Haseo is an extremely cold and uncaring individual. He isn't afraid to speak his mind and doesn't care if he upsets someone doing so. He's a total bastard, really. Or at least, he used to be.
When he first started playing The World R:2, Haseo had the same optimism that every new player had. He was naive, and would believe anything he was told. Only after he started really playing that he started acting stand-offish and cold to other players. The only affection he ever showed was to his Twilight Brigade guildmate, Shino, whom he had a crush on.
After Shino was PKed by Tri-Edge, he went through a period of immense grief that he quickly turned into a desire for revenge, and a bloodthirsty hunt for her PKer. Nothing else mattered to him but reviving Shino. Because of this he completely shut anyone out who tried to talk to him, unless they had information about Tri-Edge. This gained him a reputation that drove people away. His attitude went even more downhill after being Data Drained and reverted to level one by the infamous PKer. He was, to put it bluntly, bitchy, and didn't want anything to do with anyone. Ever. Unless they were Ovan.
This all was until he met a Harvest Cleric named Atoli, who's PC looked exactly like Shino's, albeit with a swapped colour palatte. He is initially dismissive of her and her ideas, but over time comes to accept them as he grows closer to her. It's through Atoli that he becomes able to open up and trust other people and actually make friends, and by the time of the third game it's highly suggested that he likes her even moreso than Shino.
[Specialties/Abilities] Haseo is what's known as an Adept Rogue, a character class defined by the fact that the player is able to pick two or three different weapon classes to have mastery over. Because of this, the Adept Rogue is considered a "Jack of All Trades; Master of None" as it is impossibly to fully master every weapon class they have chosen. As Haseo's previous weapon classes were the Twin Blade, Edge Punisher, and Flick Reaper, he is able to use dual swords, two-handed broadswords, and scythes with extreme proficiency.
All character PCs learn skills called Weapon Arts, which are based on the class they have chosen when they build their character. As Haseo is an Adept Rogue, he is able to learn arts from more than one class. Rengeki is a skill that is used as a combo finisher, as it's a powerered-up version of a regular Weapon Art. In addition, all characters, regardless of class, are able to learn basic Spell Arts. There are also three different party-based special attacks called Awakenings that every PC has access to. Beast Awakening and Demon Awakening are stat enhancing states only, for physical and magic attacks respectively, and Divine Awakening is just a single attack that does a large amount of damage to a group of enemies. Of course, since these only work if there was some sort of "party" system, they won't work in Somarium.
Haseo's current form, the Xth Form, is a hacked PC he obtains by contacting his Avatar, Skeith, and with some outside tampering from Helba Zelkova. Because of this, he has abilites that are not normally available to regular PCs. His class, the Dual Gunner, doesn't exist within The World's system parameters. Some of the abilites exclusive to the Xth Form include a secondary follow-up attack to any Rengeki skill using the dual gun weapons, and the Avatar Awakening, where Haseo is able to Data Drain an enemy and inflict massive damage upon them. Uh, obviously since the people in Somarium aren't data, Data Drain doesn't exist. >_>
Normally when Haseo uses his Avatar to attack others, it takes on the form of a giant monster that is invisible to normal players. Instead of using the game's idea of an Avatar, I've decided to go with the novel's interpretation which has them appear as extremely powerful weapons (the Lost Weapons that appear in game, actually). In that canon too, these weapons are invisible to normal players, but for Somarium's sake you guys will be able to see it. :D;
In terms of what weapons he'll have with him in Somarium, they will be:
Lit Honeysuckle - Dual Swords
Heine's Shadow - Broadsword
Shadowy Death - Scythe (Lost Weapon)
DG-X - Dual Guns
I'll make another post detailing his attacks. This is getting too tl;dr already. :|
[Affection] Unless your name is Shino/Atoli/Ovan Haseo will probably not like you in that way. That said, if he warms up to you enough you could be considered as a potential love interest, but 99% of the time he'll just want to be friends. This goes for both girls and guys.
[Fighting] Haseo's a pretty good fighter. And by pretty good I mean he's the champion of the Demon, Holy, and Sage Palace tournaments and was able to take on 100 PKers at once. So yeah, he's strong. Even though he's not as anger-prone as before, chances are if he doesn't like you, he'll probably want to kick your ass at some point.
[Other Facts] It's very likely that Haseo will think that's become one of the Lost Ones when he comes to Somarium. You know, the whole not being able to log out and such? Yeeeah. So uh, he'll be kind of panicky. And by kind of I mean really. Ahaha. Haha. Ha.
[Character Name] Ryou Misaki/Haseo
[Canon] .hack//G.U.
[Point Taken from Canon] Right before Haseo wakes up in Net Slum Tartarga during .hack//G.U. Volume 3: Redemption. So right after he gets Xth Form. /o/
[Age] 17
[Gender] Male
[Sexual Orientation] Straight, mostly. Endrance is (hopefully) the only exception.
[Eye Color] Red (DON'T LET THE ICONS FOOL YOU)
[Hair Color] White
[Height] 5'8"
[Other] Has wave marks under both eyes and on his shoulders.
[Clothing] Like this. Yeah, it is a bit excessive. :| I swear I'll get him some normal-looking clothes at some point.
[Background] Ryou Misaki doesn't remember his first encounter with The World. He first discovered the popular online game when he was ten years old, several years after it was released. His character, Sora, was a Player Killer, someone who found joy in hunting other players and killing their PCs. During the events of .hack//SIGN, Sora is Data Drained and possessed by Skeith, the first of the 8 Phases of Morganna, and Ryou is thrown into a coma as a result. After Corbenik, the final Phase, is defeated in .hack//QUARANTINE, he awakens from this coma with no memories of what happened to him in The World. Ryou's parents hide this fact from him and in the end, he forgets having ever played.
Fast forward to the year 2017. After the events of Pluto Again, which caused internet-based distasters worldwide, and a fire that destroyed almost all of the data for the original The World in 2015, CyberConnect Corporation released the new Altimit Mine OS and The World R:2. As the original PC data from the first version of The World is unrecoverable, it drives away most of the player base, but it still remains the most popular MMORPG in the world. Ryou starts playing this new version and creates the PC Haseo, which unknowingly becomes the new host for the 1st Phase Epitaph, Skeith.
Haseo's first foray into The World is a rough one. Almost immediately upon logging in he is accosted by two players, Asta and IYOTEN. They bring him to an area with the idea that they will help him play the game, but once reaching the Beast Statue at the end they reveal their true natures as Player Killers and PK him on the spot. The PC Ovan arrives shortly after this and takes care of Haseo's assaulters, ressurecting him afterwards and telling him that there is something that only his character possesses and that he must become stronger.
Afterwards, Haseo meets Phyllo, a sage-like player who is well-known in The World R:2. Phyllo informs Haseo that Ovan has been trailing him ever since he first logged in. Confused, Haseo leaves for another area and is attacked by another two PKers, whom Shino, an acquaintance of Ovan's, scares off. She convinces Haseo to continue playing the game and extends an offer to him to join the guild, the Twilight Brigade. He declines initally, after learning that their goal is to locate the Key of the Twilight, as he is unsure of what it is. He later asks Phyllo about it, who tells him that the Key is a tool that can apparently change the rules within The World. Haseo meets with several former members of the Twilight Brigade, who warn him about Ovan and his true motives. Regardless, Haseo accepts an invitation from Shino to join the guild, as he has nothing better to do.
Shino shows Haseo one of the Lost Grounds, Hulle Granz Cathedral, and explains to him the lore behind Aura, the goddess who's statue used to be present in the cathedral. She also tells him of the various Lost Grounds scattered within the game, to which Ovan joins in and states that there are even areas within The World that the system admin cannot control. Later, Haseo's latent abilities as an Epitaph User manifest when he protects several guildmates from an anomaly that appears to be eating their PC data. The Twilight Brigade discovers A-shaped signs all over The World, and as they examine one at the Lost Ground Coite-Bodher Battlefield, Haseo and two others are suddenly transported to Arche Koeln Waterfall with no explanation. Thinking that it has something to do with the Key of the Twilight, they head to Hulle Granz Cathedral to investigate further.
The Twilight Brigade ends up going to war with another guild, TaN, who also seek the Key. Thinking that the Key is located in Coite-Bodher Battlefield, the two guilds end up fighting there and are somehow transported to the Inverted City Megin Fi, another Lost Ground that floats above Coite-Bodher Battlefield. There, Ovan is captured by TaN's guildmaster, Naobi, and the Twilight Brigade is left without a leader. Shino releases the information about his capture, and the illegal method used to do it, publicly, and TaN is disbanded as a result.
Later, Tabby, another one of the Twilight Brigade's members, confronts Haseo on how close he's become to Shino, remarking that he doesn't look at her the same way and that it makes her feel alone. Haseo avoids answering and Tabby is infuriated and leaves him behind, confused. He heads to Hulle Granz Cathedral and finds Shino there, her PC body changed. She tells him that this is an expression of her devotion and disbands the Twilight Brigade on the spot. Shino tells Haseo that she'll wait for Ovan to return alone until he reappears, and Haseo tells her that he'll wait with her.
After the disbanding of the Twilight Brigade, Haseo and Shino are left to wonder what exactly happened to Ovan. According to Shino she was unable to contact him in the real world, which worries them both greatly. Shino is then once again drawn to Hulle Granz Cathedral, where she comes across Tri-Edge and is PKed. Haseo arrives only shortly after the fact, discovering both Shino's dead PC and an A-shaped sign carved into the altar of the cathedral. He learns later from Phyllo, that in real life Shino was found unconcious and rushed to the hospital, and that PCs that are PKed by Tri-Edge become Lost Ones - people who are physically unable to return to the game. Haseo blames himself for not being there when Shino was attacked, as he believes that he could have saved her, but Phyllo tells him that even he wouldn't have had a chance against Tri-Edge. When questioned about why Shino was at Hulle Granz Cathedral in the first place, Phyllo then tells him that that was the field where Shino had first met Ovan. This causes Haseo to become enraged, as he then returns to the Cathedral and breaks down in front of the altar.
Shortly after this, Haseo learns about the event, the Forest of Pain. He decides to use this chance to prove his strength, so he enters it, along with the guildmaster of Icolo, Taihaku. Both Haseo and Taihaku reach the center of the field, where they discover the Harald AI (an artifical intelligence based on the creator of The World, Harald Hoerwick). The Harald AI questions both players about what they thought of his daughter, Aura. Haseo responds that he doesn't know, nor does he care about his daughter, so Harald shoots him with a bolt of black lightning which forcibly upgraded him to his final Adept Rogue form.
It is after this that Haseo decides to use this power to attempt to do his own version of good within The World. He becomes a Player Killer Killer, or PKKer, and ruthlessly hunts down PKers as he searches for Tri-Edge. At one point he manages to defeat a hundred PKers at once, earning him the title, the Terror of Death, and a reputation that precedes him wherever he goes. This continues on for over six months, as he attempts to gather information and become stronger. Because of this, he draws attention to himself from many figureheads in The World, including Sakaki, one of the generals from the pacifist guild, Moon Tree. Sakaki confronts Haseo, along with his subordinate Atoli, who bears a striking resemblance to Shino.
While there, he ends up receiving a message from the currently missing Ovan. Haseo follows this message to Arche Koeln Waterfall, where he meets Ovan and demands to know where he had gone all this time. Ovan evades Haseo's questioning and tells him that Tri-Edge will reappear where Shino was attacked. He promises to meet Haseo there so that they could defeat him together, but upon arrival Haseo is assaulted by the PKer and is Data Drained. This reformats his computer, reverts his PC to level one, and causes him to lose all of his member addresses, e-mails, items, and equipment.
Upon returning to The World, Haseo attempts to follow Ovan through the Delta Server Root Town, Eternal City Mac Anu, but is stopped by two other players, Silabus and Gaspard, who are members of the a guild called Canard, specially made to help new players. They mistake Haseo for a newbie and force him to follow them to a field to "learn how to play the game". They are followed by Bordeaux, a PKer who was PKed by Haseo back when he was level 100, who tries to attack them once they reach the Beast Statue in the field. This causes a strange power to build up inside Haseo, which is halted when a player named Pi comes to save all of them. She explains to Haseo that he has a dangerous power hidden within his PC, and offers her help, but Haseo refuses, calling Pi an "old hag" and completely brushing her off.
When he returns to town he bumps into Atoli, who attempts to explain to him the teachings of Moon Tree. She gives him her member address and they explore a field, finding a sign on the back of the Beast Temple that looks similar to the one he discovered when he found Shino. They investigate and are warped to one of the Lost Grounds, Dead World of Indieglut Lugh. There they have their first glimpse of Endrance, and are attacked by an Artificially Intelligent Data Anomaly - or AIDA for short. Haseo and Atoli are then rescued by a player named Kuhn, who then gives Haseo a key to the guild Raven and tells him to go there. Haseo does, and comes across Pi again, as well as the guildmaster Yata (who used to play TaN's guildmaster, Naobi). Yata explains that Raven is just a front for an organization called G.U. and offers to help Haseo find Tri-Edge in exchange for him investigating the AIDA for the guild.
Shortly after this, Haseo runs across Silabus and Gaspard once more while in Mac Anu, and they make him run their guild shop for them. While working he meets Bo, the younger brother half of the player Sakubo, and becomes friends with him by giving him a discount on an item. Pi and Kuhn invite Haseo to a field to make him practice summoning his Avatar. He is unable to do so, and returns to town to Silabus and Gaspard, who ask him to become Canard's guildmaster. He grudgingly accepts, even though it's against his nature.
After all this happens, CC Corp releases the news that the Omega Server Root Town, Warring City Lumina Cloth, has reopened for Arena battles. Haseo, Silabus, and Gaspard all attend the title match of the Demon Palace tournament, where they witness Endrance defeat the player Alkaid. Haseo is able to see that Endrance has an Avatar himself and after the match, storms outside to confront him. There he meets with Saku, the older sister half of Sakubo, who is a huge fan of Endrance. Endrance tells Haseo that although he may have an Avatar, he has no power, to which Haseo retorts that he will be the one to defeat him in the Arena. Silabus agrees to join Haseo for their three-person team, but suggests they try and find a healer to be their third. Haseo instantly thinks of Atoli, and decides to reluctantly convince her to join them.
Meanwhile, Silabus posts a message to The World's forums asking for a third party member, and a player named "Sakura" replies. Sakura is actually the PKer Bordeaux looking for revenge. She accosts them in the field they had planned to meet in, but is eventually driven off by Atoli, Matsu and Sakaki from Moon Tree. Atoli then joins Haseo and Silabus and they begin to participate in Arena battles to up their rankings and eventually qualify for the Demon Palace tournament.
While in the qualifying rounds, Haseo meets Antares, an old friend of Phyllo's. Antares acts as a mentor to Haseo, giving him advice an pushing him to become stronger. During the first round of the actual tournament, Haseo's Avatar, Skeith, awakens. Pi explains to Haseo that using his Avatar against other PCs is dangerous, and takes him to an area to help him train and control it. While there, they are attacked by AIDA and Pi becomes infected. Haseo is forced to Data Drain her Avatar, Tarvos, to save her.
During the tournament, an event opens up to allow Adept Rogues to Job Extend. Haseo participates and Job Extends to his second form and gains the use of broadswords. In the final match of the tournament, his team faces off against a team of Kuhn, Pi, and Antares. Frustrated that they share the same goal yet they are in his way, Haseo becomes enraged and summons Skeith. Kuhn summons his Avatar, Magus, in retaliation, and in the end is Data Drained as well. This puts Haseo and his team into the title round of the tournament. They battle Endrance, who had been using his Avatar to win battles. Haseo defeats Endrance and Data Drains his Avatar, Macha, who had become infected with AIDA that had taken the form of his cat that had died.
After the tournament ends, a victory celebration is held on Hy Brasail, a "Lost Ground" accessed from Mac Anu that is used for such events. While at the party, Atoli becomes mad at Haseo and storms off on her on. Later, Yata contacts Haseo and tells him to come to Raven. There he is told that Atoli is also an Epitaph PC and had gotten sucked into a Tri-edge sign and teleported away. Haseo, Pi, and Kuhn go after her, and end up in a strange white room full of lockers. There they find Tri-Edge, and defeat him, and as Haseo makes up with Atoli the doors to the lockers open and a new type of AIDA come streaming out. They penetrate Atoli's PC and infect her, then return to the lockers as quickly as they had emerged. Atoli collapses, and Haseo screams her name.
Returning to Raven after this, Atoli comes to and it's revealed that her Epitaph had been stolen and that she both cannot speak and her arm had become numb. They all decide to log off to take a break, but when attempting to do so, realize they are unable to and are effectively stuck inside the game. Yata explains that they have been transferred to a server created by AIDA and that every player currently logged into The World are unable to log out. They all decide to ask the guildmaster of Moon Tree, Zelkova, for his thoughts on the situation. Shortly after this, Haseo runs across Ovan once more, who explains that there is something called the Operations Folder, and that if they entered it they could solve the problem of everyone logging out.
Haseo and company do resolve this and log out soon after. Atoli emails Haseo and asks him to meet up with her - it turns out that she has been diagnosed with Doll Syndrome, a real-life side effect to one being infected with AIDA. Haseo realizes that AIDA is spreading throughout The World faster everyday. Shortly after this, Alkaid sends Haseo a message. She is concerned about one of the members of her guild, Sirius, and how he's been acting strangely. They attend a match at the Holy Palace tournament and it becomes apparent that he has also been infected with AIDA. Haseo enters the tournament, along with Atoli and Alkaid, to attempt to save Sirius.
As they fight through matches, it becomes increasingly apparent that Alkaid is harboring feelings for Haseo, even though he does not realize this right away. He does notice, however, that there is increased tension between the two girls in his party, but brushes it off as if it were nothing. At one point, Haseo is able to Job Extend once more and get his third and final form, Flick Reaper, and he is able to use scythes in battle. Halfway through the tournament, tragedy befalls Haseo once more - Alkaid is PKed by an AIDA-infected Bordeaux, and she becomes a Lost One as a result. Now down one party member, Haseo heeds Alkaid's final words to find Endrance and ask him for help. Haseo locates Endrance where he and Atoli had first discovered him, in Indieglut Lugh. He is unresponsive and shuts Haseo out. Saku appears and blames Haseo for ruining Endrance's life, and summons her Avatar, Gorre, to fight him. Haseo is able to Data Drain Gorre and talk Endrance out of his stupor, gaining a powerful ally and somewhat creepy stalker/potential love interest.
Continuing the tournament, the newly formed team of Haseo, Atoli, and Endrance are able to advance to the end and take on Sirius. They defeat him and as a result, Atoli's Epitaph is returned to her. It becomes apparent afterwards that Sirius' actions were not of his own accord, but were composed by Sakaki of Moon Tree. Sakaki then uses Atoli to PK Zelkova and take over Moon Tree's @Home and turn it into an AIDA server. Haseo and the other members of G.U. (which now include Sakubo and Endrance) fight their way through the @Home and rescue Atoli, only after fighting her Avatar, Innis, and Data Draining it.
Sakaki manages to escape and Haseo and G.U. follows him to the Lost Ground, Briona Gwydion the Dragonbein Range. There, they defeat him, and Ovan appears soon after as a result. He reveals to Haseo that he is the Tri-Edge that PKed Shino, and that he was the one who orchestrated all of Sakaki's plans. Ovan then PKs Pi and Atoli, and Haseo attack, enraged. Their match ends in a draw, however, as Haseo isn't powerful enough to defeat Ovan.
After logging out, Haseo receives an email asking all the members of G.U. to meet at Raven's @Home. There they discover that Sakaki has been given control of G.U. by CC Corp and that Yata has gone missing in real life. Sakaki uses his new powers as a system administrator to host another tournament populated entirely by PKs and allow PKing in root towns on both the Omega and Sigma servers. During this tournament, Haseo faces off against many of the PKs he had killed before, including Asta and IYOTEN, who were the ones who first PKed him when he started playing, and other players such as Antares and Matsu from Moon Tree. He even fights Endrance and Sakubo, along with Icolo's guildmaster Taihaku, who had seeming joined Sakaki's cause, but later revealed that they were doing it to gain information as Endrance could never side against Haseo.
Zelkova returns, and apparently has high intel on The World's inner workings. He helps Haseo plot to overthrow Sakaki, and they do, returning The World and G.U. back to proper working order. Pi reports that she still hasn't found Yata and reveals that he is the final Epitaph PC. They go after Yata in the game and confront him as he is having a break down, and Haseo is forced to battle and Data Drain his Avatar, Fidchell.
Haseo then tracks down Ovan, which eventually brings him to The Creator's Room, a Lost Ground that is unable to be monitored by CC Corp. He finds Ovan's younger sister, Aina, there, and discovers Ovan's true goals. As Aina was the first PC to become infected by AIDA, Ovan had been trying to find a way to get rid of it. The only way to do so was to use the power of his Epitaph, The Rebirth, to reset the internet and completely wipe the data. Ovan had been using Haseo and training him to become stronger, so he could fully bring out the potential of Rebirth. Haseo then battles Ovan, Data Draining his Avatar, Corbenik, and causing the internet to reset. The result causes a data surge that almost completely destroys Haseo's PC and throws him to a barren area in between servers. There he falls unconcious and is confronted by Skeith in his mind, eventually coming to accept him and gaining the Xth Form. He blacks out once more and...
This is the point where he wakes up in Somarium.
[Personality] On the outside, Haseo is an extremely cold and uncaring individual. He isn't afraid to speak his mind and doesn't care if he upsets someone doing so. He's a total bastard, really. Or at least, he used to be.
When he first started playing The World R:2, Haseo had the same optimism that every new player had. He was naive, and would believe anything he was told. Only after he started really playing that he started acting stand-offish and cold to other players. The only affection he ever showed was to his Twilight Brigade guildmate, Shino, whom he had a crush on.
After Shino was PKed by Tri-Edge, he went through a period of immense grief that he quickly turned into a desire for revenge, and a bloodthirsty hunt for her PKer. Nothing else mattered to him but reviving Shino. Because of this he completely shut anyone out who tried to talk to him, unless they had information about Tri-Edge. This gained him a reputation that drove people away. His attitude went even more downhill after being Data Drained and reverted to level one by the infamous PKer. He was, to put it bluntly, bitchy, and didn't want anything to do with anyone. Ever. Unless they were Ovan.
This all was until he met a Harvest Cleric named Atoli, who's PC looked exactly like Shino's, albeit with a swapped colour palatte. He is initially dismissive of her and her ideas, but over time comes to accept them as he grows closer to her. It's through Atoli that he becomes able to open up and trust other people and actually make friends, and by the time of the third game it's highly suggested that he likes her even moreso than Shino.
[Specialties/Abilities] Haseo is what's known as an Adept Rogue, a character class defined by the fact that the player is able to pick two or three different weapon classes to have mastery over. Because of this, the Adept Rogue is considered a "Jack of All Trades; Master of None" as it is impossibly to fully master every weapon class they have chosen. As Haseo's previous weapon classes were the Twin Blade, Edge Punisher, and Flick Reaper, he is able to use dual swords, two-handed broadswords, and scythes with extreme proficiency.
All character PCs learn skills called Weapon Arts, which are based on the class they have chosen when they build their character. As Haseo is an Adept Rogue, he is able to learn arts from more than one class. Rengeki is a skill that is used as a combo finisher, as it's a powerered-up version of a regular Weapon Art. In addition, all characters, regardless of class, are able to learn basic Spell Arts. There are also three different party-based special attacks called Awakenings that every PC has access to. Beast Awakening and Demon Awakening are stat enhancing states only, for physical and magic attacks respectively, and Divine Awakening is just a single attack that does a large amount of damage to a group of enemies. Of course, since these only work if there was some sort of "party" system, they won't work in Somarium.
Haseo's current form, the Xth Form, is a hacked PC he obtains by contacting his Avatar, Skeith, and with some outside tampering from Helba Zelkova. Because of this, he has abilites that are not normally available to regular PCs. His class, the Dual Gunner, doesn't exist within The World's system parameters. Some of the abilites exclusive to the Xth Form include a secondary follow-up attack to any Rengeki skill using the dual gun weapons, and the Avatar Awakening, where Haseo is able to Data Drain an enemy and inflict massive damage upon them. Uh, obviously since the people in Somarium aren't data, Data Drain doesn't exist. >_>
Normally when Haseo uses his Avatar to attack others, it takes on the form of a giant monster that is invisible to normal players. Instead of using the game's idea of an Avatar, I've decided to go with the novel's interpretation which has them appear as extremely powerful weapons (the Lost Weapons that appear in game, actually). In that canon too, these weapons are invisible to normal players, but for Somarium's sake you guys will be able to see it. :D;
In terms of what weapons he'll have with him in Somarium, they will be:
Lit Honeysuckle - Dual Swords
Heine's Shadow - Broadsword
Shadowy Death - Scythe (Lost Weapon)
DG-X - Dual Guns
I'll make another post detailing his attacks. This is getting too tl;dr already. :|
[Affection] Unless your name is Shino/Atoli/Ovan Haseo will probably not like you in that way. That said, if he warms up to you enough you could be considered as a potential love interest, but 99% of the time he'll just want to be friends. This goes for both girls and guys.
[Fighting] Haseo's a pretty good fighter. And by pretty good I mean he's the champion of the Demon, Holy, and Sage Palace tournaments and was able to take on 100 PKers at once. So yeah, he's strong. Even though he's not as anger-prone as before, chances are if he doesn't like you, he'll probably want to kick your ass at some point.
[Other Facts] It's very likely that Haseo will think that's become one of the Lost Ones when he comes to Somarium. You know, the whole not being able to log out and such? Yeeeah. So uh, he'll be kind of panicky. And by kind of I mean really. Ahaha. Haha. Ha.