In the Case of Yuki Aihara

In the Case of Yuki Aihara is the second episode of .hack//Liminality. It focuses on the character Yuki Aihara and the Yokohama Incident.

Story
After tracing Tomonari Kasumi's Member Address list in Episode 1, Tokuoka decides to meet up with some of the people he was closest with in The World. He contacts Yuki Aihara, a high school girl from Yokohama who plays the character "Yukichin". They arrange to meet up with each other at the city's famous port area. However, some business with Mai Minase forces Tokuoka to delay the meeting by two hours, so Yuki goes to see a movie to pass the time.

In Tokyo, Mai looks up information on the development of The World and Fragment. She finds a page on Harald Hoerwick and realizes that he is the person she was looking for. Suddenly she hears the sound A in C Major; unnerved she calls Tokuoka. In the theater, Yuki continues watching the movie. Suddenly, the screen begins to flicker and a screen from The World flashes across the screen; the power goes out immediately afterwards. Meanwhile, on the highway outside of the city, Tokuoka answers Mai's call, wondering if the sound she heard means something. Suddenly he loses all reception on his cell phone, traffic stops in front of him and he looks ahead to see the entire port district of Yokohama covered in smoke. With traffic blocked off, Tokuoka abandons his car and begins running towards the port.

Trapped inside of the building, Yuki is nearly trampled by the crowd of people trying to escape. She is rescued by Kaoru Asaba, a strange woman who says she works in the building and knows a faster escape route. Wishing to get away from the crowd, Yuki begins to follow her. Back in Tokyo, Mai is contacted by another of Tomonari's friends, Kyoko Tohno, who plays the character "Kyo". She says that she's been unable to contact Yuki, and wants to know if Tokuoka is with her. When Mai reveals that she can't contact Tokuoka either and that they were both going to meet in Yokohama, Kyoko tells her about the events unfolding there. She tells Mai to remain in Tokyo and to keep trying to contact Tokuoka. In Yokohama, Tokuoka reaches the port, but finds it nearly completely deserted, and begins frantically searching for Yuki.

Back in the building, Yuki and Kaoru continue trying to escape. Yuki asks if the problem here could be related to The World, but Kaoru dismisses it, saying that the problems in The World are just an urban legend. After crawling through some air ducts they find an oven that was left on when the cooks evacuated the building, and come to the conclusion that a fire will start very shortly. With the emergency exits not working due to the power loss, they realize that a fire would kill most of the people in the building, who would be trapped inside. Yuki decides to go back and warn the other people but Kaoru stops her, telling her she has to think about herself first, and others later. Together they force open an elevator shaft and climb down the shaft to the first floor of the building where they are able to escape.

Outside the port area looks like a warzone. Kaoru says that it reminds her of what things were like following the Pluto's Kiss virus several years ago. Yuki wonders why she decided to save her, and Kaoru states that she's an acquaintance of Yuki's sister-in-law Miho. Since they are out of harm's way, the two part ways. Several hours later an exhausted Tokuoka finally manages to find Yuki, soon afterwards the power comes back on and Mai and Kyoko are able to get through on their cell phones. Mai reveals that her research turned up the name "Epitaph of Twilight", Yuki says that Kyoko is an expert on the Epitaph. She hands her cell phone over to Tokuoka so that he can talk to Kyoko.

Trivia

 * In Another Birth Vol. 2 it is revealed that BlackRose's father got caught up in the Yokohama disaster as well.