.hack//AI Buster - Volume 2 - Chapter 5.3

.: 3 :.

"Whar is the one thing there are not two of in The World?" it repeated, its wings fluttering.

I concluded that this was a game event. I looked back at the Japanese text. Rereading the riddle, I realized it was asking me to name something unique in T he World. Unfortunately, I'd only been playing for five minutes. How would I know?

The fairy giggled and posed the riddle again.

"I don't know," I answered in my best Japanese.

It kept circling through the air and repeating the riddle. Finally, I ran away.

I pushed my way through a mob of characters onto the crowded street and ran across the bridge that arched over the canal. I stopped at the top of the arch and turned to see the fairy right before my eyes. It circled my head and continued giggling, repeating its riddle, "What is the one thing there are not two of in The World?"

"Please help me!" I pleaded in English, but everyone ignored me.

I felt helpless. T his game was just too much.

"What's wrong? Are you in trouble?" someone asked in English. I must have been muttering aloud for someone to actually cake notice.

I turned and saw a character standing at the foot of the bridge holding a samurai sword. I recognized his class as a Heavy BLade. His character wore an eye patch.

"I can help you if you wane;' he continued In English.

"You understand me?"

"Of course. I'm American." He laughed.

"Really?" Me, too!"

"My name is Sanjuro Sunaarashi."

I introduced myself and then he asked, "Are you logged in from the US.?"

"Yes! Boston."

"Great town." He smiled.

"Do you live there too?"

"No. But 1 visited a long time ago. The lobsters were delicious. We don't get too many fresh lobsters in South Dakota. You know, where Mount Rushmore is located."

"Oh yeah, where the presidents' faces are carved in the mountain!" I laughed.

It's fascinating how people bond over their commonalities when traveling, even if we were only tourists on the net. Already, I was warming up to Sanjuro.

"So what's the problem?" he asked.

I told him everything that had happened since I first logged in.

Sanjuro nodded as he listened. Then he asked, "Is the fairy still here? Can you see it?"

I was confused since the fairy was flittering around me the whole time we talked.

"Can't you see it? It's right in from of me." I said.

"Hm ... Let's go somewhere that isn't so noisy," Sanjuro suggested.

Since our chat could be heard by other people crossing the bridge, we moved down to the riverbed.

"You can't see this, Sanjuro?" I asked, surprised.

"No. I can't."

"But it's here! I'm pointing at it!"

"I believe you. 1t's probably a special event that only you can see." Sanjuro sat down on the riverbed. I didn't know the command for sitting down, so I remained standing.

"Only I can see it? How is that possible?" I watched the fairy flutter about, enraptured.

"This is an online game, so things are different from the real world. I don't doubt your story. Legends say that only innocent children can see fairies anyway!"

As he looked at a gondola drifting by, Sanjuro laughed out loud.

"I'm thirteen," I said. "Fairies wouldn't come to me at my age."

"Thirteen?! Is your voice altered?"

I heard that you could alter your voice using specific software. In cyberspace, you could change your voice, your age, your body type, or even your gender. The thick, manly voice of the samurai could actually be coming out of a cheerleader or a polite business executive. You never knew whom you were really dealing with.

"You said the fairy posed a riddle, right?"

"Yes."

"I've never heard of an event like that before." Sanjuro thought for a moment, then asked, "What did the fairy say to you?"

I went back to my chat log and repeated the riddle in Japanese.

He sighed and pondered aloud, "I wonder if it's referring to the gaming World? 'One thing that isn't two' means it's something unique."

"Do you have a guess?"

"Maybe it's a limited special event or a unique monster such as The One Sin?"

"The One Sin?"

"A pair of characters known as the Descendants of Fianna defeated a unique monster that could only be fought and beaten once."

"I'll try that answer."

I typed in The One Sin in katakana.

"No, no," the fairy giggled and shook its head.

"That wasn't it."

"I see. Ask if there are any hints?" Sanjuro said.

"Little fairy, I would like a hint," I said in Japanese.

"Hint, hint!The hint is that everyone has it!" The fairy somersaulted through the air leaving a trail of glitter in its wake.

I was even more confused. If it was one of a kind, how could everyone have it?

"What did it say?"

"The hint is that everyone has it."

I opened and scanned through my item list. However, as a newbie to the game, I couldn't possibly have something unique.

"An item in The World that everyone has, but there aren't two of, huh?"

"Isn't it weird? How can everyone own something unique?"

Sanjuro suddenly laughed. "You don't need to answer it now. The fairy will probably follow you as you continue the game, so let's go."

"What?"

"Let's go out in the field. You've never been out before, right?" He didn't wait for a response and then led me away.

After crossing the bridge, we reached an open area where a large mirror-like circle spun around and around. It was in the same place I started when I logged in.

"This is a Chaos Gate. It transports you anywhere in The World. You can go from a town to another area, or to other servers," he explained. "You can pick an area to go to by choosing a combination of three keywords."

I opened the Chaos Gate menu.

"Try choosing these three keywords." Sanjuro suggested a location and the Chaos Gate reacted, swallowing my avatar in a ring of light.