The day was raining, the clouds looming over the dark city much like the way a child hides a dark secret. Unlike the other days, the rain had begun to flood the grounds and a flood warning had been issued. That was the way it was in the Kyushu area. By now, the down pour was heavy enough to reduce visibility to zero. No cars were out. No signs could be read. No life could be seen for miles.

Yet two figures stood outside in the streets, nearly knee high in rain water. They were dressed for the weather: coated from head to toe in heavy garments suited for repelling water. They had brought umbrellas, yet it only served to still the inevitable the way the rain fell. The hydrangeas today pierced the dark veil of rain with their vibrant red, different from the light pink they usually bore. It was there the two figures met under black umbrellas. They spoke rather briefly, muttering only necessary words.

"Press has called it the Deadly Flash."

"How many dead?"

"Seven."

"Do they know...?"

"Not yet."

"Not even the Moderators? Players?"

"No. So far, it was labeled as a World Wide issue."

"And our culprit?"

"To the sharks."

"Good. Keep it that way."

Then handed between the two was an envelope sealed by plastic for the sole purpose of keeping the rain out.

"The names of those seven who have gone... MIA since the Deadly Flash incident."

The man who received the envelope looked it over for a moment, running the gloved hands over the plastic sheen then looked to his partner with the vaguest hints of a grin, sadistic in all dimensions. "If it isn't going to be the rain to get it, it will be the fire." They carried on no more words, the conversation ended and within minutes, the streets were lifeless again.

Nothing but the hydrangeas there to retell the story. An incident lost with the rain. All they said with their vibrant pedals were washed away with the streaming water. The child returned to his dark secret, and locked it away with the flick of a match. And so it continued to rain.

And rain...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The girl flinched upon hearing Rei's voice boom over her head. She immediately jerked back, eyes wide and plastered upon the tall man's face. Or rather, her eyes fell upon Rei's enormous sword mounted on his back. The blade itself was almost as tall as she was, its width boasting ungodly strength.

"You're pretty well made for an AI... Are you supposed to be another event or something?"

In that awkward position she remained, eyes wide with bewilderment. Yet inside, she felt something swelling, climbing up through her throat and then it exploded in a series of words that fell out of her mouth. "Please click on whatever it is that you want more informa--eep!"

Her hand flew up to her mouth, instantly blocking out whatever words that were trapped inside. She glared at Rei, squeaking through her hands. "What--What were you doing?! You didn't do anyth--" Again her robotic voice exploded in her mouth. "If you have no more questions, press the 'x' button on the upper right hand--AHH!!"

The girl's hand clasped around her mouth again, eyes burning in literal flames. It was the characteristic buttons that any person could press when expressing the designed emotions yet this expression seemed much more lifelike than simple pixels could ever offer. With her free hand, she held it forward and flashing into existence was another box similar to that of the box that appeared before Rei. Yet it held not the same elements as Rei's. Rather, it contained a list of computer language, riddled with commands and slashes, dots, anything that Microsoft would have labeled as a misspelling with its squiggly red underline. The information in the box scrolled upwards rapidly. To the girl the information was absorbed upon glance, something inhuman.

Finally, with a simple gesture of her free hand, the scrolling stopped. She spoke through her hand. "There it friggin' is!" She raised her other hand, fingers rolled into a fist. She shrieked nothing less of a war cry and swung her fist right through the program. As if displayed through some fantasy world game, the letters on the box flowed with her hand, as if she were actually touching them. With a violent motion, the letters were flung right off of the box, appearing on the real life world as white characters, letters sprawled into the open air. They vanished as soon as they were ejected from the page and the girl's skin, once again, froze for a moment, flickering madly until it came to a halt.

The girl finally removed her hand from her mouth, breathing a sigh of relief. "That's bracketIbracket SO bracketslashIbracket much better... Uh... Well crap..." She let growled internally for a moment and instantly set to typing some more commands out on the screen although the keyboard wasn't present. She seemed completely oblivious of Rei's presence, although he was the sole initiator of the moment.

After a moment of silence and the sound of clicking buttons, the girl finally looked up, eyes landing on Rei. All motion froze and she just stared blankly, her expression quickly shifting into bewilderment.

She stood like that for minutes on end in that awkward silence, hand suspended upon thin air. Finally, the girl screamed on the top of her lungs, twisting her body to look as if she were about to run. "PEDOPHILE!! PERVERT!! GAAAHH!! STAY AWAY FROM MEEE CREEPY OLD MAN!!" It looked as if her screaming served only to attract attention and drive Rei away from embarassment than from any true harrassment.

Her screaming was enough to draw attention from all surrounding members, newbies, oldbies, moderators and present administrators alike. Yet amongst all that screaming, the girl hadn't moved an inch. She looked down with enough time to notice that her legs didn't move. Her skin looked as if it wasn't straining at all. The girl gasped again, pulling her command box closer to her, whispering furiously just enough so that people around could hear her. "Damn admin didn't program her to move!! What kind of person doesn’t' let NPC's walk?!"

She glared at Rei again and commenced screaming; now typing with furious speed on the command box. "DON'T HURT ME!! GET AWAY!!!!"