This was just gonna be a prologue... it really was. But then it got longer and longer and longer and... hoo boy.

Anyway, finished slurpin up that IMOQ story, had a fic idea, decided to write the first chapter for it! This is my first time writing the IMOQ characters so... I hope I did alright! There's more to come (obviously), and... yeah!

Also, since most characters didn't have names, I gave em some. I tried to make it clear who was who, but to make it clear I'll include a list at the end of names and who they go to. Shoutout to my friend Rachel bc I yoinked a one or two names she uses lol.

Asahi Kuramochi tapped his finger against the coffee shop's table, staring out the window with a frown. It'd been forever since he'd last logged into The World, the only real connection he kept to it being the friends he had made. Few of them, if any, still played the game, but the .hackers friendships weren't soon to fade.

In fact, Asahi had went out of his way to try and invite everyone he could to meet up when Sanjuro emailed him saying he was planning on visiting Japan again. It would be nice for all of them to meet at once, share stories and laughs… But then he'd gotten another email, just a few days away from the planned event.

An email from Helba.

Helba, the only person he had no clue about in the real world. Not a name, an age, or even a gender… She was the one he heard from the least, practically disappearing once Asahi had stopped playing The World. It had been hard not to be shocked when her name appeared in his email list.

And the email from the hacker didn't help the shock any, either. As calm as Helba's email sounded, the anxiety that surrounded the idea of the Phases not being as gone as Asahi and the others had thought was great. And that was indeed what the email contained.

The data was still there, even active when Helba had decided to look into The World again, the email had stated. It was something that would be worth looking into, she had claimed, leaving a list of tasks she was asking Asahi to take care of.

He'd found himself hovering his hands over the keyboard for a while, thoughts rushing through his head, before he agreed to doing what was listed. The phases had been dangerous, Asahi had gone against each of them at one point, and it couldn't simply be ignored…

And so he'd followed Helba's instruction list to a tee. Going to a specific location at a specific time where a person he didn't quite see the face of (were they Helba, he had wondered for a moment, though it was just a possible it was someone else) handed him files. He'd glanced them over, as Helba had said he was free to do.

They were small files, covering the information Helba was able to pull out of The World about player characters that seemed to have some link or another to the Wave's activity within R:2. Seeing names like Piros and Natsume among them had worried him, but that would be something to deal with today.

He looked down at the files, piled in front of him. The next piece of the email had told him to read it aloud to the others when he was able to get them all sitting around him. It would explain what was happening and instruct the others to help Asahi try and speak to all these people, see if they could glean anything about the activity from them.

Asahi was sure they'd be willing to help, but he felt bad about dropping this all onto them when they were supposed to be meeting to have some fun.

"This is just unfair…" Things had been so calm, past the wave of anxiety that had crashed over him at the news of a possible third Network Crisis, and this? This was somehow much much worse. Like everything they had done was for nothing…

"Kite…?" A soft voice made him turn to look at the owner of the voice. "Ah, I mean… Asahi…"

Kaoru Ichinose, the player behind Elk, seemed to be the first one to make it there. He looked healthier than the last time Asahi had seen him, shortly after a fire had destroyed R:1. He hadn't been doing amazingly then, so it was nice to see the change.

"Nice to see you again, Kaoru." He smiled and pat the seat next to him. "Take a seat!"

Kaoru nodded, sliding into a seat near Asahi, at the small table next to the one he sat at that could hold six. "It's nice to see you again, as well… Are you feeling alright?"

"I'm fine!" Asahi gave him a somewhat forced smile. "Don't worry about it, there's just some… stuff I need to talk about when everyone gets here."

"...I see." He nodded, arms crossed. "I wonder when everyone else will make it…"

"Hopefully soon…" He tapped his finger against the table again. "I don't wanna start worrying that someone won't make it."

"Well… a few are coming this way at the moment." Kaoru pointed towards Reiko Honda, the player behind Rachel and Nuke Usagimaru, who still insisted his PC name was his real name as well. Asahi wasn't quite sure he believed it, but it wasn't worth worry about.

"Hey there, Asahi!" Reiko gave a nod as she slipped into a seat at yet another smaller table, Nuke sitting next to her. "I was afraid we weren't gonna make it in time, but it looks like we're early."

"Did you think you'd be late?" Asahi tilted his head to the side.

"This guy over here is startin' to get real popular with some people and can't keep himself from crackin' jokes." Reiko gestured towards Nuke. "I had to drag him here."

"I'm not that bad!" Nuke shook his head. "And Nuke Usagimaru can't just leave a fan hanging when they want to talk!"

Reiko gave him a look. "When you got plans, yes you can."

"Come on now you guys, no reason to argue…" Asahi held up a hand and gave an awkward laugh. "I'm just glad you guys made it early if that's the case!"

"See, Asahi gets it." Nuke frowned at Reiko. "You should be more understanding."

"Oh come on, you-"

"I walk up and all I hear is arguing!" Akira Hayami, who had been Asahi's partner when they used their Kite and BlackRose PCs, approached, hand on her head. "I forgot things could get like this around you, Asahi…"

"Akira…!" He waved as she moved to sit right across from him. "Glad you could make it."

Her face went pink as she looked away. "W… well it's not like I could ignore a chance to hang out with you and everyone else…!"

"I'm really glad to hear that." He smiled at her, eyes closing for a moment. Seeing someone who'd been by his side through most of the events made him feel a little less nervous about dropping what Helba had told him onto them…

The only people who could make it even better with Akira already here would be…

"There you are, Asahi!" He opened his eyes and the smile became a grin at the sound of his friend's voice.

There they were, Yasuhiko Shimizu and Sora Amano, Orca of the Azure Sky and Balmung of the Azure Skies, showing up together. Those guys, along with Akira, always made him feel just a little safer…

"Yasuhiko, Sora!" He smiled at them as they slid into the seats on either side of him, Yasuhiko closer to Kaoru and Sora closer to Reiko. "I'm glad you guys could make it!"

"Yeah, I'm glad too… I had to call Sora for a ride, I woke up so late…" Yasuhiko sighed, shaking his head. "I'm never riding on a motorcycle again!"

"Was it that bad…?" Sora frowned, arms crossed in confusion. "Asahi enjoyed it when I took him on rides."

"Yasuhiko might be more of a scaredy-cat than me when it comes to things like that." Asahi half-whispered, half-spoke, shooting his best friend a grin as he spoke to Sora.

"Hey…!"

"Come on, I'm just joking Yasuhiko!" Asahi continued to grin as he turned to him.

"Wow! I didn't realize Asahi teased his friends like that in real life, too!" The voice of Mayumi Kurokawa, who Asahi better remembered as Mistral, hit his ears as the woman slid into a chair across from Sora.

With her was Takumi Hino, always shocking to see, sliding into the chair across from Yasuhiko. Asahi wondered if Takumi would ever not be a shock… Maybe when he was as old and wrinkled as his player character Wiseman had been… He hadn't known what to think when he first learned the teenager was ten way back when, and it was still not sitting quite right.

"Would it not make sense for Asahi to interact with the real world the same way he did with online games, then?" He spoke up, looking at Mayumi with his head tilted slightly to the side. "People like Asahi are usually more in-tune with his online persona than most, after all."

"I'm not sure if that's a compliment or not…" Asahi scratched his cheek and laughed a bit. That was to be expected with Takumi, he supposed.

"Take it how you'd like…" Takumi looked Asahi over, eyes resting on the files in front of him. "What are those?"

"Ohhhh!" Mayumi noticed them as well, leaning over the table to try and get a better look. "Can I see?"

"N… not yet! I'll tell everyone what they are in a minute… After everyone else gets here." He slapped his hands over them with a nervous laugh. "Shouldn't be long now… I-in fact, there's Ryoko now!"

Indeed, there was Ryoko Terajima, looking quite wide-eyed at everything. If Asahi had to guess, she was probably still pretty new to the world. Seeing as how overly protective her father had sounded from her emails back in 2010 and from the one (terrifying) meeting he'd had with him… Asahi wasn't that surprised.

"Oh, hello, everyone." She approached and gave a small bow before sliding into a seat at the table where Reiko and Nuke sat. "I'm sorry for not getting here earlier, I was lost…"

"It's not like you're that late, so don't worry about it." Akira shook her head, waving a hand in the air. "There's still some others who aren't here yet… Like Natsume and Moonstone."

"Yeah, Akira's right." He gave Ryoko a smile. "You're not late or anything if everyone else isn't here yet, so don't worry about it."

Ryoko returned his smile, looking between him and Akira. "Thank you… I've never been in a coffee shop like this before, so I was afraid I was still lost…"

People who grew up rich could be really sheltered, huh? Asahi felt especially bad about pulling her and Takumi into this… One was so young and the other so naive to the world… But no! He needed to stick with this now. Takumi and Mayumi had noticed the files, after all, there was no way out of it.

"Well, this is a normal old coffee shop… So now you know if anyone invites you out to one in the future!" He gave a laugh as he scratched his cheek.

"Oh…! That's true." She nodded, pleased with the information. "Maybe eventually I'll be able to navigate streets without getting lost or confused by the buildings…"

Good luck, Ryoko…

Before anyone had much of a chance to say anything else, the door opened and loud footsteps alerted everyone to the arrival of Hiroshi Matsuyama, the player behind Piros. Behind him, surprisingly, was Natsume Oguro. Did the two of them hang out a lot…? That made the files with the PC names nearly identical to their old ones even more worrying...

"Hello everyone." Natsume gave a small wave and smile before sitting across from Kaoru while Hiroshi moved to sit next to her.

"He of fair eyes! Everyone! It's so wonderful to see you all!" Hiroshi's voice was as loud and boisterous as ever. A reminder as to why Asahi usually liked to meet him in places that weren't as quiet as small little coffee shops like this.

"It looks like we're towards the end of everyone showing up, huh…" Natsume looked around, scratching her cheek. "I wasn't expecting to be so late."

"Perhaps today would have been the day for your stalking, if you wanted to be sooner." Hiroshi shrugged. "I couldn't have made it earlier, as I do have a child to take care of at home!"

"I've told you before, I've never stalked anyone!" Natsume frowned at him. "First you go telling that boy that and now you say it in front of anyone… Really, you need to think about what you say more!"

Asahi blinked a few times. "Stalking…? That makes no sense." Natsume didn't seem like a stalker, if he was being honest. And he happened to run into her and have chats with her often enough that he couldn't see her as having time for stalking!

Hiroshi just gave him a sympathetic look at that. "Oh, he of fair eyes…"

"W...what?" Asahi frowned, he didn't get it…

"There you all are!" Yuu Matsuoka, who still registered as just Marlo sometimes when Asahi only heard his voice, approached and threw himself into the seat next to Kaoru, who was now staring at his phone and typing away at what seemed to be an email. "Can you guys stick out anymore?"

"I don't think we could when Piros is already here!" Mayumi let out a giggle as she turned to look at the other table. "I mean- Oh! Moonstone!"

There was Kenta Yamamoto, just as quiet as his online persona of Moonstone, sitting next to Ryoko. Had he come in when Marlo had or had he gotten there before? It was honestly hard for Asahi to tell.

"Glad you two could make it." He smiled, turning his head to look between both of them. "I'll be honest, you two were some of the ones I was most worried about having to cancel…"

Yuu frowned at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing bad!" Asahi shook his head. "I just know you two are really busy…" And also a bit grumpy in Yuu's case…

"Mmm…" Kenta nodded, arms crossed. "Had to… fit my training in on the way here…"

"Glad you could do it…" Man, Asahi was starting to remember how odd some of his .hacker friends could be.

Speaking of odd, the next to arrive seemed to be Kyoko Fujioka. She looked at the group, giving a short wave in reply to Asahi's, before walking over to a table where three women were sitting, an extra chair empty.

"Let me borrow this chair." She spoke so frankly and the women merely nodded, one of them even blushing. He guessed Gardenia wasn't the only one who charmed women, huh…? "Thanks."

She dragged the chair up to the side of the table Natsume and company had settled down at, arms crossed as she sat. "Are we missing anyone?"

"Yeah… Sanjuro still isn't here." Akira sat back in her chair with a sigh. "And he's the reason we all decided to get together! I hope his plane wasn't delayed or something…"

"I'm sure he'll be here soon enough…" At least, Asahi hoped. He could see the way Takumi was eyeing the files and really didn't want to risk the teen getting curious enough to try and grab them right out from under him…

Please let the last one of them get here soon…

As if his silent plea was heard, in walked Jason Parker, also known as Sanjuro from The World. It was always interesting seeing him walk into a room filled with non-Americans, Asahi had to think. He really did stand out as he dragged a chair from an empty table over to where Ryoko and company sat in order to make room for himself.

"Sorry I was so late. I thought my luggage had been lost…" He let out a sigh, hand on his head. "Lucky for me, it just got mixed up with someone else's…"

"Well, that's good! I'm glad you didn't lose everything." Asahi gave him a smile.

"That is good, though if anything was lost, please tell me and I should be able to ask my father to lend you enough money to buy replacements for during your vacation." Ryoko spoke up, clearly trying to be helpful.

"N… no, it's fine. It's all there." Too bad Jason had heard from Asahi about just how scary Ryoko's father could be.

"So! The celebration can begin, right?" Akira stretched her hands above her head with a smile. "We just all need to, uh, go order coffee… Guess we should've all done that when we walked in."

"Well, actually…" Asahi swallowed hard. "Maybe we should get coffee after I explain the files and what they're for."

"I agree, I'm quite curious…" Takumi looked at him. "Please, go ahead."

"Alright, well…" Asahi pulled out his phone, pulling up the email from Helba. "Helba emailed me and asked me to fill you all in on what's going on with these files and with The World…"

Everyone seemed interested then, leaning a bit closer as Asahi scrolled down to the message from Helba. After one more glance around the room, he began reading the message from her to everyone else.

"Greetings, everyone. I'm sure you're wondering why you're hearing from me for the first time in so long. I've sent each of you small emails in regards to today, though this message through Kite is to ensure you all know the full story." He looked around, everyone still listening intently. Alright…

"Upon looking into the game we all know as The World after many of us have long moved on to other prospects, I have discovered something unnerving. It seems the Wave is not only not destroyed, but active. On a level nowhere near as safe as when the player character Mia was recovered."

"Mia…" Kaoru held a hand to his chest at the name, though otherwise didn't seem too affected. Asahi figured it was because of how important Mia was to him, but who knew…

"Please, continue." Takumi looked at him, nearly unfazed compared to everyone else at the table, almost as if he was expecting it. "I would like to hear the rest of her message."

Asahi nodded before continuing. "I was able to pull some data on PCs that may or may not have information on why the Cursed Wave is so active, despite our efforts. While I will continue to do what I can on my end, I had a feeling this would interest many, if not all of you. I have left almost all the files worth anything with Kite, who I am entrusting to hand out to all of you, should you be interested in hunting down the PCs to speak with them…"

"The Wave… isn't as gone as we thought…" Akira sat back in her seat, trying to come to grips with the situation as she stared at the cieling. "Could that be why there was all that news about people falling into comas while playing online games recently…?"

"It seems likely to me…" Yasuhiko shuddered. "Just thinking about something like that happening again… I need to help do something about it."

"As do I." Sora nodded. "We can't ignore this!"

Everyone else made noises of agreement, save Kaoru and Takumi. Asahi was about to worry when Takumi finally spoke up. "This should be interesting… Give me a file."

"Well…" Asahi looked at where he was sitting. "Um… Actually, I think it might be easier if everyone just randomly comes and grabs one. We can always switch them around after that and I can read the last bit of email from Helba…"

With that, he moved the files away from him and spread them on the table. As everyone (even Kaoru, who hadn't noted that he wanted to help yet) began reaching for them, Asahi grabbed one as well and opened it up.

Haseo… Former PKK known as the Terror of Death.

Well that left a sour taste in his mouth… But he guessed it was better he got someone like this than Yasuhiko. He didn't suspect seeing the title that they associated with Skeith would be very good for his friend.

When everyone had a file, three remained. Asahi frowned, would he need to handle these as well-

"Um… There seems to be an issue." Piros spoke up, holding out the file for the character "Natsume". "Could I not just ask her whatever needs to be asked now?"

"I could do the same with mine…" Natsume seemed to have the Piros the 3rd file. "I don't think either of us would be against telling you and Helba what she needs."

"O-oh…! Then you guys can probably do that, uh…" He grabbed two random files and passed them their way. "Take care of these instead, then?"

That still left one extra… Which Takumi grabbed. "If you don't mind, I have plenty of time to do things like play The World, so I'll be taking an extra one."

"Yeah, that's fine…"

He nodded and everyone began looking over their files with mumbles and 'ahs', a few of them passing and trading them around. A few of them refusing to do so, as they seemed to think they could handle who they had well…

"So, the rest of the email…" Akira looked at him after a moment. "What does it say?"

"Oh, yeah…" Asahi returned his attention to his phone. "Those who agree and take a file or two will be noted by Asahi. Once I know who will be assisting in this task, I will send you emails detailing what I need from you, as well as gifts to make accessing The World possible."

"So you can just say it's all of us, right?" Rachel looked at her file again. "Do you need to include who we're gonna be askin' questions or does that not matter?"

"I'm… Not sure, actually." Asahi opened a note app on his phone. "So maybe I should write it all down."

"Well… Akira showed her file to him. "I guess I'm looking for a PC named Atoli."

"Oh, huh. I'm looking for one named Shino and it looks like they have the same model…" Yasuhiko blinked a few times, looking between Akira's file and his own. "What a coincidence that two people with the same model might know what's going on…"

"That is odd…" But Asahi guessed not out of the question. For now, he'd just type down the names and worry about any oddities later.

"As for me, I have a PC called Aina…" Sora seemed to be reading over his file intently. "Such an odd hiatus…"

"I have someone named Sakubo!" Mayumi tilted her head to the side as she read the file. "...Some of the stuff about them is kinda odd, though…"

"Oh!" Hiroshi laughed. "I know this Kuhn through the boy with good eyes! This task will be simple!"

Asahi nodded, typing them down quickly. Everyone else was still looking at their files so he was expecting it to take a moment when Kaoru finally spoke up.

"Uh… I have Endrance…" He seemed to be typing away at another email.

...And as he seemed to press send, Takumi's phone went off. He glanced at Asahi and Kaoru as he checked it. "I have the PCs known as Yata and Pi."

Asahi noticed the smile on his face as he sent a reply to what he'd just gotten. Was it an email from Kaoru…? If it was, why didn't they just talk about whatever they needed to talk about right here and now? It didn't make sense and it didn't sit well with him…

Natsume spoke up next, with a small gasp. "Oh! Alkaid, isn't she a former Demon Palace Emperor…? I should be able to find her…"

"This PC Gaspard seems like he might be harder to find, but I'll do my best…" Jason flipped through the file. "So short, I hope I don't run right over him…"

"Bordeaux… This says she's a PK… I suppose it shouldn't be too hard to hunt someone like that down." Kyoko closed her file, looking towards the coffee line. Looked like she was ready to move on until Helba emailed her…

Kenta grunted. "Matsu… Former PK…"

"Alright… These sound like quite the range of types…" Asahi was sorta confused. What all did they have in common that led Helba to thinking they might have knowledge about the Phases?

"I got some old man-looking PC, Antares…" Reiko looked at Takumi. "Wonder if he'll be ten, too."

"And I got a Kaede…" Nuke squinted at the page. "Something about a Moon Tree…?"

"Tabby…" Yuu was clearly not pleased with what he'd gotten in the draw of the files. "She looks like she's gonna be a headache…"

"And I have a…" Ryoko looked closely at the file. "Silabus. He's apparently very helpful to noobs…"

"Alright." Asahi added the file pair to the list and put his phone back into his pocket. "Now… let's actually get some coffee, yeah?"

List of the names I decided, either with the help of ideas on the wiki, ideas from pals, or that I slapped out on paper myself:

Kite - Asahi Kuramochi
Balmung - Sora Amano
Orca - Yasuhiko Shimizu (clearly only the last name, but thought I should include it)
Sanjuro - Jason Parker
Gardenia - Kyoko Fujioka
Moonstone - Kenta Yamamoto
Rachel - Reiko Honda
Marlo - Yuu Matsuoka