Rei hadn't waited but a few minutes before Aeki showed herself, storming into the alleyway like an angry admin would. One look at her face and Rei could already tell voices were about to shoot well above comfort levels.

"You came in contact with the virus?" It seemed to be stated more as a fact rather than a statement and Aeki seemed even to not expect a reply from Rei either. She immediately continued to speak as she made her way before Rei. "In any case, you made things so much worse than what it would have been..."

Rei glared back at her, his own not anywhere near as strong as hers. "Don't tell me that I made things worse. I-"

"--and no, it wasn't because you 'nearly killed that bug'." Aeki shot her glare back at Rei, as if anticipating his own words. "Because you further interacted with it, it might have gathered data, it might have found ways to infiltrate further into the system. Do you understand that if you got infected, it could mean a complete server crash?!"

Rei bit down on his lip, the wavemaster's words hitting him hard. Her words rung with truth, and he had to admit, he was acting a bit recklessly. But she couldn't have expected him to stay out of it!? Why was she yelling at him in the first place, he was actually trying to help! "Quit blaming everything on me! If it wasn't for your lousy eye on the game this wouldn't have happened in the first place! Why weren't you there to get rid of the bug when it appeared!? Why did you even lower the g**d***ed attack lock if you could have just accessed the system and deleted it!? Why did you have to involve everyone in the root town anyway?!" He pointed accusingly at any players that wandered nearby, instantly turning their attention away in an attempt not to get involved. "Not everything is my fault, d****t!"

Aeki looked determined to prove him wrong, pointing her figure at him. "Everything you did after you met it, bought a potion, sold a weapon, g*******t-saved could have spread the infection to the shops and to every other person who buys from it, spread into all saved game data, into the system's core--"

"But I didn't now did I?!" Rei shouted in mid sentence.

Aeki seemed to ignore him. "You could have destroyed the entire game if you continued! And all you care about is whether you killed a bug or not?!"

"At least I did something! Your d***ed flunkies weren't even able to keep it under control! They let her escape, at least I tried to do something!" He crossed his arms. "What kind of damage could she do anyway?! She didn't even do anything to me, I didn't get any weird glitches!" She should have worried more about Balmung, he was the player who actually looked like he was affected by her. "I don't even play the game that much anyway, it wouldn't have made any difference!"

His words seemed to fall on deaf ears, Aeki apparently still too excited to take in any of his words. "The player is the one who accesses every part of the game but a simple NPC can only do so much! It is about as dangerous as --"

"Alright Aeki that's enough."

With those simple four words, silence was immediately established within the alleyway. Even if it was only for a few seconds, Rei seemed slightly relieved for the momentary break. Aeki's menacing glare was lifted off of him, immediately turned toward an incoming player. Her anger seemed to be quickly replaced with a stiff formality, the same that she had approached him with at the beginning of the day. It was almost surprising that someone could change from intense anger to something so calm and controlled.

Rei turned his eyes to the newcomer, and was doubtful for a moment to believe that this guy was the player Aeki answered to. He looked to be a high leveled Blademaster, though his weapon seemed nowhere in sight. The white letters in the box that appeared in a small box over his head read Baralai. The blademaster turned his golden orbs to Rei, the grin on his face almost unreasonably wide. "Rei, huh? I heard you've been giving us a handful."

Rei turned his face away, the frown on his face deepening. So what if he was? He wouldn't have if the admin had stopped the bug before it got out of hand. Heck then the day would have been a lot better for both of 'em! But Rei felt more nervous about voicing his thoughts than he was in front of Aeki, even if she was more menacing than her superior.

"If it was about lowering the barrier, I'll say now that the virus was in need of immediate termination before contamination began." Aeki spoke up, her formality almost stifling.

Baralai seemed unfazed. "Oh? So where's it now?"

Rei caught Aeki's glare, and he turned away, grumbling. "Probably escaped to the field by now, sir."

And whose fault was that supposed to be? For all he knew, Aeki was about to explain the entire situation, putting him under blame. After all, he seemed to be the source of all her anguish today, despite the virus being the real problem behind it all. Most people nowadays sought out a close scapegoat instead of focusing on what was the real problem, and Rei suspected that Aeki was no different.

It took a few seconds to realize that Baralai had made his way close to him and that his eyes were inspecting Rei's skin, like he was searching for something. Rei sweated a bit, having a great urge to step away but was unsure if he would offend this admin as he was sure he would have offended Aeki. The blademaster's hand rose up and fell upon Rei's head, a stroke of crimson spreading across the Heavyblade's face. W-what the hell!?

"So what about this kid? He doesn't look like a newb."

"He came in contact with the virus. I'm holding him for Quarantine Inspection. Which reminds me--"

Baralai quickly interjected. "I'll tell him."

"But sir-"

"No, no, go explore a dungeon. Train the Long Arms. Drink sake, whatever. I've got this covered."

"That's something you'd do, sir."

The atmosphere seemed unusually tense, Rei standing behind Baralai rather awkwardly as the two quickly gave their goodbyes. Rei really had no idea what this admin was about to do to him. Suspend his account? Ban his IP address? Or yell more? He probably would have preferred any of the first two than the last. He was already fed up with yelling, especially after talking with Aeki.

"Man! She's gotta lighten up! You'd think working with someone for two years and counting would let you seem 'em smile, just once!"

Rei gave Baralai a look of disbelief, sweat drops trickling down his cheek in the traditional emoticon built into the game. This was an admin in charge of Fragment? How did he even get accepted in the job? Was the failure to eliminate the bug quick enough because of him? Rei wouldn't have been surprised if it was.

Baralai seemed to notice Rei's expression, quickly changing back onto the topic. "...Ah, right. We've got to take your skin and lock your account for a week or so. So you'll probably have to log out. We'll send you a PM when you can come back. "

Rei raised one hand, covering his forehead in an expression of sudden fatigue. He could feel his heart sinking deep into his stomach. The first day he's back and he causes enough trouble to have his skin locked. He knew that he shouldn't have gotten so involved, but it was just one NPC and it wasn't supposed to be drawn out for so long!

Baralai continued, ignoring Rei's gestures. "You don't look like the virus got you, but who knows? Aeki'll kill me if I let this one slide, especially seeing how she glared at me today."

Rei let out a sigh, finally crossing his arms. He was starting to get a headache staying on for so long already. "Fine fine. But you're not going to find anything." He turned his violet eyes to the blademaster, feeling impelled to tell the admin. "You should probably check the blademaster Balmung. He was the only one that the NPC really came in direct contact with." He closed his eyes, muttering to himself and immediately logged off.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Almost as soon as Rei had logged off, another voice rung out across the alleyway, drawing the attention of every player in the vicinity. "BARALAAAAAI!!!"

A Twin Blade came running from the Chaos Gate, apparently having warped in from a different server. He was nearly the same height as he blademaster he was searching for, though his skin, like the blademaster, was not one of the standard skins offered by the game. He was covered simply with a black shirt, one zipper down the middle and his arms left bare. It was marked with a few thick white lines that stretched from his waist to his side, connecting to form a pentagon. His pants were of a dark red hue, stretching down to his knees before being tucked into a pair of leather boots. Strapped against his lower back by two belts were his weapons, two kodachi-like weapons seated in their sheathes. His hazel colored hair was cropped just past his chin, his bangs falling over his eyes. His grey scarf and headband trailed behind him as he ran, his sapphire eyes glowing with a spark of irritation. He skidded to a stop before he pointed one gauntlet clad finger at him, his voice blaring out as if the distance between then hadn't been closed at all.

"WHAT THE H*** IS WRONG WITH YOU!? WHAT REASON DID YOU DISABLE THE ATTACK-LOCK FOR NOW?! WERE YOU EVEN THINKING OF A REASON WHEN YOU DISABLED IT?! AND DON'T TELL ME THAT IT WAS YOUR ASSISTANT THAT DID IT BECAUSE SHE SEEMS TO BE THE ONLY SANE ONE IN YOUR DIVISION!"