Lycoris

"I am an unwanted child. Even God doesn't want me."

- Lycoris

Lycoris (リコリス) is a Wandering AI and was a major influence on the player Kazushi Watarai.

Appearance
Lycoris appears as a small silver haired girl dressed in a red robe. Her hair is decorated with crimson ribbons, the same color as the flower that shares her name. Her dress is marked with an infinity symbol, proof of her role as an Aura prototype.

Personality
Despite her appearance, Lycoris is extremely intelligent. She is aware of concepts and theories that no normal girl would know about. Despite this she usually acts like a small child. She is very much aware of Morganna's presence in the system and is resigned to her fate as a failed AI.

.hack//AI buster
Lycoris is first encountered by Albireo in Hulle Granz Cathedral. He attempts to delete her, but she escapes by segmenting her data into multiple sections, which are released throughout the system. Not one to give up Albireo manages to locate a fragment of her data after receiving a mysterious e-mail pinpointing her location. However the fragment he finds is only a small portion of Lycoris, and he is forced to go through a series of quests in order to restore her completely.

The last piece he finds is her memory. After giving it to her in the Cathedral, Lycoris regains her memory and realizes that she had been rescued by the very person who had tried to delete her. Albireo tries to delete her again, but Lycoris teleports him to a secret area within The World. There she tells him about the Morganna program, and how as a Vagrant AI her very existence is a threat to Morganna. She goes on to say that she is a useless piece of data, as she cannot become Aura. She gives Albireo a piece of data that allows him to bypass her data encryption, saying that she's tired of running away. She then allows Albireo to delete her. However a small piece of her remains in The World, as lycoris flowers mysteriously appear throughout the fields of The World following her deletion.

Wotan's Spear
After Albireo is data drained by Macha, he has a vision of a Lycoris flower. It is possible that some remnant of Lycoris protected him from falling into a complete coma.

.hack//Legend of the Twilight (manga)
When Zefie is threatened by Kamui, she asked the debugger "Are you going to delete me again" implying Albireo's encounter with Lycoris, an encounter which neither Zefie nor Kamui had not been present for, implying Zefie carried traces of Lycoris' memory. A fragment of Lycoris's data makes an appearance at Net Slum where she asks Shugo and friends if they are looking for "The End," to which they answer yes. Zefie then proceeds to delete Lycoris and put her data to rest. The only remnant of her left is a Lycoris flower, which Zefie takes. The flower appears in her hand towards the end of the novel, in which Aura and Zefie wave a happy goodbye to the reader.

.hack//Link
See also
 * Lycoris (LINK)

Trivia

 * Lycoris is the Greek word for "Twilight".
 * Lycoris's hairstyle is based on the horns of an Axolotl or a "Wooper Looper", as the albino variety is referred to in Japan.