Disclaimer: .HACK//sign me no ownie
I wrote this fic because Mimiru is my favorite character in .hack and I felt that she was shunted off to the side for the later half of the show. I always felt that Mimiru had feelings for Tsukasa, so I wondered how Mimiru felt after Tsukasa started spending more time with Subaru than with her even though she was the first to bring Tsukasa out of her (his) shell.
The timeline for this fic is a month after the end of .HACK//sign and will be written in Mimiru's point of view for the most part. As Tsukasa is a girl in real-life and most of this fic takes place in reality Tsukasa will be referred to as a girl. I decided that Mimiru, Tsukasa, and Subaru are the real names of those people as opposed to a nickname like BT, Bear, and Krim.
Open Your Heart
Chapter One
Silent Life
Drip, drop. Rain hit the windows of my bedroom and slowly ran down the glass. Dark clouds of gloom hung in the sky. I sighed, how ironic that the weather would reflect my how feelings. I had been feeling down and gloomy for awhile now. I don't have any idea why. Hell, I had no reason to be depressed at all. Only a month ago we defeated the evil thing that had trapped Tsukasa in THE WORLD. My heart panged and I winced. My heart always seemed to hurt when I thought about Tsukasa. I wondered what Tsukasa was doing right now….maybe she's hanging out with Subaru. My heart suddenly felt like it was made of lead, damn I hated that feeling. It always happened when I thought about Subaru; but it felt the worst when I thought about Tsukasa and Subaru together…
I looked over at my computer. It had my head set and controller for THE WORLD sitting the desk. I hadn't logged on to the world for awhile. Not since we saved Tsukasa. I hadn't really felt like it since. Maybe it was because I didn't really have a reason to anymore. I think everyone is taking a break form THE WORLD after we were on it practically 24/7. I also had fallen behind in school because I was putting so much into Tsukasa's problem, so I used the time to catch up.
School…I looked over at my bedside clock. It was 7:30 AM; I had to start getting ready for school. My school was an average high school; nothing very fancy about it. I surprised I made it into high school. I'm pretty poor at academics. Some people can just under stand things after being only told about it once. Me on the other hand; I have to listen and take notes even if I'm not required to. Simply to understand what we are doing. But I am very good at our secondary classes like art and gym. I can draw and paint well and I am on the track and field team.
I slowly took off my pajamas and put on my school uniform. The uniform was the average sailor uniform: blue skirt and collar with a red bow. Then I began slowly making my way down to breakfast. I walked slowly down the stairs into our small kitchen. My mother, Izumi, was cooking eggs on the stove. "Morning dear." She greeted cheerfully.
"G'morning." I respond dully. I walked over and took out the cereal and poured myself a bowl; same routine everyday. "Where is dad?" I asked. I knew the answer but I asked anyway.
"He left for work an hour ago."
"I knew it…" I said softly to myself. Dad always for left work early, but God damn!! Never that early! He must be trying to get a stupid promotion or something. I hate him. He never spends anytime with me. Not even to show me of like his friends do their kids. Its probably because I'm stupid. I guess being on the track team isn't enough for him.
I shook my head. Stop thinking like that Mimiru! Don't depress yourself even more than you already are! I told my self firmly. I quickly finished off the rest of my cereal just as my mom sat down to eat hers.
"Your lunch is in the fridge." She told me. I nodded and got my lunch out of the fridge. I was only allowed to buy lunch once a week because Dad said it was a waste of money but Mom said I should be able to have it on Fridays as a treat. I took an umbrella out of the closet and grabbed my leather book-bag.
"Bye Mom! I'm going to school!" I called to her and without waiting for a response I left. I opened up the umbrella and began walking the eight blocks to school. At the second block I met up with my best friend Sadamoto Megumi. "Hello Megumi-Chan." I said as I walked up to her. She looked up from the book she was reading and smiled.
"Hello Mimiru-Chan." WE began to walk the rest of the way to school together like always. Megumi had shoulder length black hair that she usually wore in a French braid. She was tall and very attractive. Her parents were both CEO's of huge corporations and were home even less than my father. They expected her to always achieve the highest grades in the school; they wanted her to be perfect to be sure that she would get a high paying job in the future. "Hana says you have accessed THE WORLD in awhile. She was hoping that you two would be able to get through a high-level dungeon together."
"…I haven't been to THE WORLD for almost a month now." I responded.
"Seriously?! You used to be totally obsessed with it! Did your parents ground you from it?"
"No. I just haven't felt like it."
"I wonder if I had it I would even like it." She wondered aloud. Megumi's parents hadn't allowed her to get THE WORLD. They thought it would make her grades drop. I wondered if she ever felt left out because almost everyone in our entire school at least had THE WORLD. But just because they had it didn't necessarily mean they played it.
The school loomed ahead of us, students with umbrellas filled the front yard. We walked into the school and shook the rain off the umbrellas out the door. "Mimiru-Chan!" Two voices called and I looked around. A girl with short hair and glasses and another girl with a long ponytail coming off the back of her head ran up to me and hid behind my back. It was Eika (the one with the ponytail) and Hana (the one with the glasses).
"Uh…What's up guys?" I tried to look at them.
"Watanabe is being a perv again!" Hana yelled.
"We need you to kick his ass like usual!" Eika explained. I sighed. Watanabe Ichiro was the class pervert. He had been flipping skirts since fourth grade and grabbing breasts/groping since sixth. The girls in my class decided that it was my job to beat the crap out of him when he did something perverted. I had gotten the job when I kicked him in the shins after flipping my skirt in fourth grade.
"Not today. I'm not in the mood." I explained to them bleakly. They looked a bit shocked and a little disappointed.
"B-but he-he needs to be punished!" Hana attemped to convince me. I shook my head.
"I can't. But I'll do it double hard when he does it again though. I swear." I turned around headed off to my home classroom and sat down at my desk. Everyone was talking to their friends and class mates or doing their before school jobs before the bell rang. I took out the notes I took yesterday and began reading over them. Soon the class began to sit at there desks and got ready before our first teacher, Honda-Sensei, came in. When she did our Class Representative, Nonaka Chiharu, took over and the school routine began.
"Stand!" She commanded. The class did. "Bow!" As I bowed I could see a bit of the track. It was muddy and full of puddles. "And Sit!" Honda-Sensei began today's math lesson with her usual 'math is very important to your future' speech. It is going to be a long day I thought bitterly to myself.
As the day moved on the rain did not clear up and kept on pouring down. There was defiantly not going to be practice to today. The day dragged and my classes sucked more than they usually did. Even the classes I liked like Home Economics weren't any fun. Finally the day ended.
"Its finally over, thank god." I sighed as a put my shoes. "You gonna walk home with me?" I asked Megumi. She shook her head.
"No, I have math club today. Sorry."
"No its okay. I see you tomorrow then?" She nodded. "Bye." I said. She waved. I opened my umbrella and went on my way. Maybe I'll log on to THE WORLD today. I thought. Maybe Tsukasa will be on too…but then again so could Subaru or Sora. What? Why the hell do I care weather Subaru is on? I don't even know Subaru that well come to think. She always seemed all nicey-nice. I stopped as an urge overcame me, I was about five blocks from home.
I wanted to run, needed to run. I let down my umbrella and used the buckles on my book bag to strap it onto the book bag. I crouched down into the starting position. "It's Toyaguchi Mimiru at the starting line!" I commentated for myself. "She is the one who will decide whether her team goes home with the championship or not! Ready, set, GO!" I took off as fast as I could go. My feet pounded the sidewalk as I hurtled forward. The raindrops hit my face so hard that they stung a little bit. I wouldn't stop; I loved this feeling. I enjoyed every second of it. I stumbled to a stop before my house, panting. I was soaking wet from taking down my umbrella but I felt a sense of achievement. If that had been timed I think I would have been my previous record for that distance. I walked into my house my happiness was interrupted by my mother.
"Mimiru! You're soaked!" She snapped at me. Then she noticed the umbrella strapped to my book bag. "Why didn't you use your umbrella?!"
"I did!" I protested. "I just set it down so I could run!"
"Save running for the track!" She scolded. "Now run yourself a bath so you don't catch a cold." I nodded and walked up the stairs to my bathroom. It was my bathroom bcause my parents had one in their room, so I decided that this one was mine. I walked in and started the water. I set my book bag on the small table that stood beside the bathtub and stripped off my wet clothes. I hung them on the on the towel rack to dry a bit. Then I lowered myself in to the luxurious warm water. I leaned my back against the backend of the tub and proceeded to enjoy myself. Then an obnoxious ringing interrupted my relaxation. It was my cell phone. I fished it out of my book bag. The caller ID identified as Unknown Caller. Maybe it was Watanabe; he was calling me all last week asking for a date. I answered the call; I was gonna chew him out so bad...
"Watanabe, you stupid jackass! I wouldn't go out with you if you were the last guy on earth!"
"Uh…" The person on the other end made a small confused noise; it sounded like a girl? "Is this Toyaguchi Mimiru?"
"The one and only."
"Um…This is Nakata Tsukasa. You know, Tsukasa from THE WORLD?"
~end Chapter One
Well the is the first chapter of Open Your Heart, welcome! It would be really nice if you would review because it lets me know that people are reading this. Constructive criticism is welcomed, flames are not. This is my first .HACK fic so please be gentle!!