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Chapter 1: Beginning
Part 1

Darkness. Various sounds. Talking, maybe? And more, I think. Wait…I…I am…?

Opening one silver eye, the boy looked out onto the world before him. A bright, white light ahead, and the floor casts a reflection of himself. Wincing and squinting, he climbs to his feet, which he notices, are modeled a midnight blue. Turning his head and examining the everlasting white, he then looks down at his body.

His feet appear bare, but as though a second skin of midnight blue is stretched up to his waist, with a cascading lighter blue network of squares and rectangles. On his ankles seem to be silver shackles. His upper body, cut off from the lower by a silver belt integrated into his suit, is a looser fitting material of slightly lighter midnight blue than his lower body, but darker than the diamonds designed around it. It appears like a shirt with jagged edges is branched from top to his belt .On the very center of his chest is a silver-lined gem of purest sky blue. The sleeves are jagged as well, and branch off slightly past his shoulders. These shoulders, it seemed, were modeled with silver integrated pads spurting out a bit, and then leading down to the same midnight blue skin, down just above his elbow. From there is seems that his arms are bare, spare for silver links at his wrists. The backs of his hands have been fitted with semicircles of the midnight blue.

The sounds are getting louder now, and seem to be coming from right next to him. Staring down at his reflection, he takes a look at his face. His face appears sleek, coming from the neck of the shirt, and his eyes are exactly the same shade of silver as part of his armor. His hair, however, seems to be in two sections. A midnight blue section falling in front of his forehead and covering his ears, being split in a jagged line into messy, silver hair that goes down to the back of his spine. A thin-lined network of black lines slowly leads from his eyes down his cheeks, more prominent on his right cheek.

A voice echoes out through the noise, casting the other sounds into whispers. The voice claims, obviously targeted at the boy, NOW, CHILD, YOUR LEGACY CAN BEGIN.

Suddenly, new visuals exploded outward from the boy. A tiled floor, also white, as well as a pale blue horizon. Suddenly, as if reimaging into existence, bodies appears, all of different size and color. The noise became instantly louder, and he recognized them for what they were: voices, and coming from all around. The people were alike to him, the same, but each one unique and individual. They all had someplace to be, something to do. But they all knew where they were. Unlike me… thought the boy. He heard a shuffle amidst the voices, followed by a shout and rapid footsteps, growing louder each second. He closed his eyes and focused on the sound, and found it incredibly easy for him to hone in on it.

”Hurry up, he’s over here!”

“I’m coming, I’m coming! God, Kaeri...”

“Hi there!...Hello?”

Opening his eyes, the boy realized the source had approached him. Looking out, he saw a girl facing him. She was modeled with a light blue and lavender. She was barely shorter than him, but seemed smarter than her age. He face, he noticed, was attractive, with lavender hair falling over her shoulders, and covering her eyes a bit. Her eyes, however, were a shiny blue. She was smiling, and, he noticed, she had similar patterns on her cheeks; however, they were purple triangles.

“H...hello...” he said, his voice seeming to echo inside his own head.

“Oh good, your not senile!” she said, smiling and turning to her friend, a boy, a head shorter than the first boy, but with light blue and white-clad coverings. His hair was a whitish-blue, and had blue marking traveling up one side of his face. He nodded when the girl asked him something inaudible. He stood in front of her, wielding a strange, metal device. He ran it over the other boy’s body, and after a few seconds, a small beep was heard coming from the device. “Well, that’s different.”

“Hm?” The girl made a small sound, and turned back to her companion, when she had previously just been staring at the boy. “What is it, Xado?”

“He doesn’t register...but he’s here...so...Hm.” Xado said. Staring at the boy before him from head to toe, he shrugged and said, “Well, this doesn’t list him as a member. So we can act and assume he is, in fact, a Viral. Acting on that, we must do the right thing for Savoiz, and delete him.” The metal instrument he had previously been handling was replaced in a flash of light with an oddly shaped white rod with a blue gem at the tip.

“Excuse me...?” asked the boy, looking from the girl, still smiling, to the boy labeled Xado. Looking at his hand, the boy had a confused look on his face.

“Oh, right, should’ve asked first...What’s your name?” the girl asked.

Without thinking, the boy responded quickly with, “Hiroku.” Looking surprised, he instantly looked into his own mind. How do I know that, and nothing else?

“Ah, excellent!” The girl replied. “Well, Hiroku, I’m Kaeri, by the way. If you ever have any questions, just ask me.” She turned, along with her partner, and began to walk away.

“W-wait!” he cried. Turning back, she stared at him and asked, “Yes?”

“Who...and where...am I?”

I |\| f 3 ( + 3 D
Chapter 1: Beginning
Part 2

“Who are you?” Kaeri asked.

“Where are you?” Xado asked.

“Yeah…I don’t know where I am, or who I am...or, what I am. What is this? Cloth? Armor?” asked Hiroku, motioning towards his appearance.

“Well, don’t you know? This is Savoiz.” Xado said, waving his arm around. “How did you join without first going through the tutorial?”

“Join? Tutorial? What...?” Hiroku murmured.

“Well, maybe you overlooked that part...Lots of people skip it anyway, much easier once you’re in...” Kaeri said.

“Yeah, but forgetting who you are isn’t something common.” Xado said. Both Xado and Kaeri examined Hiroku from all angles. “Maybe...there was a data loss upon transfer?” Xado inquired.

“On a total memory scale?!” Kaeri shouted. Some passerby’s looked at them, but paid no extended mind. “But he remembers his name. That’s something...”

Xado held up his hand, and, with the snap of his fingers, faint outlines of rectangles made with blue lined shimmered into visual. Then, a larger blue rectangle stayed, surrounded by a few fading smaller ones. The prominent rectangle, from Hiroku’s point of view, had backwards text of rectangular letters. For the minute that Xado was searching, Hiroku and Kaeri were exchanging glances. Xado’s appearance changed, and then he began whispering to Kaeri. Closing his eyes, Hiroku focused on their voices, and shut every other sound out.

[i]“...nothing on the public database, so I dug deeper, but I found something more interesting. It’s said that The Doc had a son. His son’s name was Hiroku, and he disappeared around the same time that The Doc did.”

“Well, kid-“ Xado’s voice sounded louder, meaning he was now addressing Hiroku, so Hiroku opened his eyes, “-I guess we’ll have to teach you the Basics. Kaeri, meet me in the Training Area, okay?”

“Okay, Xado.” answered Kaeri, smiling at Hiroku, then Xado. Xado closed his eyes, and in after a moment he disappeared in a flash of blue light. A look of shock passed over Hiroku’s face, but then, after looking at Kaeri’s face, he calmed down. “How...did that happen...?” he asked.

“Well, it’s called Traveling. You just...Oh, right. You’ve never Traveled before. I guess I’d better guide you. Here, take my hand.” Kaeri said, and held her hand out. Slowly taking it, Hiroku noticed that hers was soft and smooth, and neatly manicured with purple polish. Closing her eyes, Kaeri made the same, thoughtful expression Xado made, and suddenly Hiroku felt the ground beneath him get thicker, than disappear entirely, along with the scenery. After a few seconds of nothingness, Hiroku felt hard ground beneath him, then all around him. Opening his eyes, he realized he fell upon arrival. Looking around, it was the same, white-tiled, blue horizoned area as the previous location. This, however, was empty and somewhat eerily quieter. All of a sudden, as if melting upwards from the ground, appeared a strange being, pure white, with a red star at its center. Brandishing long, white blades at the end of each arm, it waved them in the direction of Hiroku.

“Wagh!” shouted Hiroku, slowly backing away. “What...IS that?!” he yelled.

The creature growled and began slashing at Hiroku. Shouting at Kaeri, he ran in the opposite direction. Kaeri shouted back, “It’s a Slacksher! You just need to beat it and you’ll get a Level Boost!”

“WHAT?! How am I supposed to ‘beat him’?!” he yelled, avoiding various slashes.

“Just...well...hmm...” Kaeri began, and then looked confused, and then shouted at Hiroku, “Well, you’ll know how to beat it, just touch the gem on your chest.”

Making a desperate dodge, Hiroku then placed his palm upon the blue gem on his chest. Instantly, his mind flooded with recognition, and he placed his arm out towards the Slacksher. His hand had changed into a black-white networked criss-crossing along his arm, and after a second it faded, and the brace on his arm had extended a silver blade roughly the length of his hand to his elbow, but pointed towards the Slacksher. Now, Hiroku’s eye’s shone a menacing gold. “You like swordplay, eh, cretin? Prepare for a schooling...” announced Hiroku, who proceeded to slash at the white body, and after a number of hits, it vanished in a flash of blue light and scattered blue rectangles.