Compensation

"Meeting someone is God's doing, but parting is what humans do themselves"

- Moto Hagio

Compensation is the tenth episode of .hack//SIGN.

Story
The episode begins in Carmina Gadelica, where Bear is having a conversation with a Wavemaster (his son), who requests 500,000 yen (roughly $5000 in the dub) to buy a car. By chance, Tsukasa spots them, and the Wavemaster leaves, confident that he will get his way.

Bear begins chatting with Tsukasa, and suggests he go out and try doing different things rather than just idly wasting time. In the middle of this, Tsukasa suddenly calls Bear selfish and leaves him. He returns to his hidden area and wonders what he needs to do and who the girl floating on the bed is.

At Dun Loireag, Mimiru spends some time with Bear since Tsukasa seems to have stood her up. When Mimiru says that they were to meet at Carmina Gadelica, Bear talks about meeting him there and asks Mimiru to see if she can talk to him about it. Mimiru responds that it wouldn't be right for her to fix what he caused. She then talks about how she had planned to form a party with Tsukasa and tells Bear about an e-mail from Helba.

BT goes over the e-mail sent from Helba, but Bear is preoccupied with many thoughts concerning his family. BT believes that Bear is treating the game as a way to accomplish things he couldn't in real life, and that his attitude toward Tsukasa is like he's being the father he couldn't be in real life. She also says that she plans on meeting with Crim for personal reasons. In her later meeting with Crim, she poses the theory of a "God" of The World and tries to get him to agree with contacting her in the real world.

Tsukasa decides to try to contact Subaru, but Silver Knight refuses his request despite Subaru's desire to meet with him. He later meets with Mimiru, who forgives him for not joining her party, but also tells him that it's a waste not to go out and do something in The World.

Bear meets with Subaru and discusses his doubts about whether he can deal with Tsukasa. Subaru tells him that it's best that he shows concern while not worrying so much about the motive behind it; that it's better than not showing he cares at all. When Bear meets Tsukasa again, he decides to talk about himself, and although Tsukasa repeats his statement about him being selfish, he decides to walk alongside him and listen to his ramblings.