Missing

"Because you are... Ovan's future."

- Shino

Missing is the tenth episode of .hack//Roots.

Story
Ovan begins to ascend the inside of Inverted City Megin Fi. Reaching the top he finds a large door decorated with the image of a dragon. Upon opening it he discovers a small balcony, looking out onto a beautiful mountain range. Meanwhile the rest of the Twilight Brigade struggle to hold off Ender and the rest of TaN's Black Ops unit. Haseo says that even though things look bad, they'll still win if they can hold them off long enough for Ovan to reach the Key of the Twilight. At the top of the Lost Ground Ovan sends a message to Shino, it simply says that he's about to enter the door, and that she's now in command. With that, he steps into the gateway.

Instantly the door slams shut behind him, and Naobi appears, floating in front of the balcony. Ovan says that his suspicions were correct, everything up to this point had been nothing but a trap. Naobi admits that is true, and taunts Ovan that all he had to do was dangle the Key of the Twilight in front of him to set up this trap. Ovan reminds him, that he was the one who originally told him about the Key of the Twilight, saying that it appeared in the previous version as both a Legendary Bracelet and an Ultimate AI. Naobi responds that while he did tell Ovan about those things, he also told him that both of them ceased to exist when the game was upgraded to the current revision. Smiling, Ovan says that even so he couldn't help searching for it, and refuses to reply when Naobi asks him why he was so interested in hunting it.

Meanwhile Sakisaka begins to grow anxious. He asks Shino why Ovan is taking so long. Shino tells Haseo to go after Ovan, and that the rest of the Brigade can keep buying him time. When Haseo asks why he's the one who has to go, Shino tells him that he is the one who is most important for Ovan's plans. Following her orders, Haseo springs up the stairs after Ovan. Shortly after he leaves, Ender receives a message. She tells the Black Ops to progress to Phase 3, and all of them retreat from the fight.

Back at the balcony, Ovan takes a defensive stance. Naobi tells him that resistance is pointless, since he already sealed off all of his combat abilities. Ovan asks Naobi what he plans to do, and Naobi says that he's interested in Ovan's PC data. He points out that the data inside of his character is larger than an entire field and that he's interested in seeing what lies inside of it. Trapping Ovan inside of a glowing box, he reaches into his character and begins pulling out data, before teleporting away with him. Moments later Haseo arrives at the top of the city, only to find it a dead end. The doorway that used to exist there is gone, and only ruins remain. He frantically begins looking for Ovan.

Much later, B set meets with Phyllo in Mac Anu. She talks about the rumors that have begun spreading about the Twilight Brigade, and how they were successful in finding the Key of the Twilight. She admits how silly she finds them, since as one of the people present during the fight she knows for certain that the Brigade never found the Key, and that on top of that their leader Ovan disappeared. Phyllo says that even so, some good did come out of it. Information about TaN's Black Ops were made public, and now every user in The World knows that TaN has a dark side.

At the Brigade's @Home Sakisaka questions Haseo about what he found at the top of the Lost Ground. Haseo says that he should know, the entire Brigade searched the area from top to bottom and found no sign of Ovan or the Key of the Twilight. Sakisaka wonders if maybe Ovan didn't find the Key, and ran off with it alone, but the rest of the members disagree with him. Shino tells him that they just have to be patient.

Later, Haseo travels to the Arche Koeln Waterfall. Noticing Shino there, he asks her if she'd had any luck contacting Ovan in the real world. She says that he hasn't been answering any of her calls, its as if he just vanished into thin air. Walking towards Haseo, she tells him that she has to do her best for the Brigade in Ovan's absence. Much to Haseo's surprise she leans against him. She asks him if she can stay in this position for awhile. Haseo tells her that she can.

At the data center in TaN's @Home Tawaraya finds himself swamped with requests for information. He tells his subordinates to try and make it look like the fight between TaN and the Brigade was a quest. Suddenly TaN receives a strange message, a request for a meeting from Shino. Tawaraya decides to meet with her, but is unable to help her when she demands that Ovan be returned to her. Tawaraya says that she's speaking nonsense, but is shocked when Shino produces evidence of how TaN illegally captured Ovan. Shino says that Naobi was probably just using TaN and Tawaraya as pawns, and that she'll wait 12 hours before publicly releasing the information. If Ovan isn't returned to her by then, she'll use the information to destroy TaN. Angry, Tawaraya returns to TaN's data center and demands that Naobi be found immediately.

In a field, Haseo meets with Gord. Gord tells him that they both have a lot in common. Both of them found their place in The World through Ovan. Haseo reminds him that his goal was to defeat Ovan, not to work for him, but Gord says that in the end even if their methods were different, their target was the same. Meanwhile the 12 hour mark passes without Ovan's return, and Shino discloses her information.

At a secret location Ender meets with Naobi. She tells him that Shino's actions have effectively destroyed TaN. Naobi says that he expected something like that from Ovan, but that it doesn't matter. Neither he nor Ender have a use for TaN, or even their current characters any more. He continues his observation of Ovan, who is also trapped there.

Trivia

 * The place where Naobi and Ender meet at the end of the episode is the Serpent of Lore, the headquarters of Project G.U. in The World.