Tanabata Night

"A perfect version of The World might well be unattainable."

- Balmung

Tanabata Night (七夕の夜) is the fourth episode of .hack//Legend of the Twilight.

Story
Keeping his promise to Balmung, Sanjuro takes Shugo on a rigorous training program through various fields in Theta Server. Though Shugo's fighting skills leave a lot to be desired, with Sanjuro's help he slowly begins to improve his combat techniques. Returning to Dun Loireag they are met by Rena who scolds Shugo for spending so much time with Sanjuro. Shugo tells her that he needs Sanjuro's training if he's ever going to become a hero, but agrees to play more with his sister. The three travel to Mac Anu where they notice a new event posting advertising the "Night of the Weaver Festival Event". Rena remembers that it's Tanabata Night, and concludes that this event is how The World is planning to celebrate the holiday. Shugo is confused about what Tanabata night is all about, and Rena gets angry at him for not knowing about such a romantic holiday. Suddenly a player on a nearby boat leaps in front of Shugo. Introducing himself as Komiyan III he laughs at Shugo's ignorance. Listening to his laugh Shugo recognizes him as Komiyama, a boy from his school. After discovering Shugo's real life identity Komiyan notices Rena. Having had a crush on her when she attended his school, he begins hitting on her causing Shugo to punch him in the face. Shugo tells Rena that he's decided to sign up for the event, and goes off to find the rest of his friends.

Outside of a dungeon Balmung meets with his assistant Reki. He tells Reki that he'll be in charge of the Weaver Festival event, since he plans on entering as a player. When Reki asks why Balmung says that sometimes normal players can find things administrators cannot. He tells Reki that a few days ago a member of the system maintenance team fell into a coma while debugging. Reki says that's impossible, since security measures put in place four years ago should have kept something like that from occurring. Balmung reminds him that nothing, not even The World is perfect.

Shugo warps into Δ Distant Azure River the location of the Weaver Festival. He meets up with Mireille who shows off her rare yukata. Rena, Ouka, and Hotaru arrive shortly afterwards, also dressed in yukatas. Together they head to a special area where they write down wishes and tie them to a tree. Shugo tries to peek at Rena's wish but she quickly covers it up to keep him from reading it. After tying their wishes to the branches of the tree they are interrupted by Komiyan, who proceeds to anger the entire party. Looking at his wish Shugo notices that it's for a pair of Rena's socks. Crushing his wish he swears to protect Rena from him. At the event grounds Shugo and his party find a crowd gathered around a brightly lit stage. Reki appears and explains the event. According to the legend the two lovers Orihime and Kengyu can only meet once a year on Tanabata night, when they can cross the Milky Way that separates them in the sky. In honor of the legend one randomly selected female player will be selected as Orihime and taken across a special river field. The rest of the players, representing Kengyu will have to race across the river in order to reach her. As prizes the girl chosen and the player who reaches her will have the wish they wrote down granted, or rewarded with a free year's subscription to The World if that wish cannot be fulfilled in-game. That said Reki summons the girl chosen as Orihime, who is none other than Rena!

Balmung, hidden among the other players in the crowd is surprised. The selection process was random, yet Rena was the one selected. He wonders if it was just a coincidence, or if it's a sign of something more. Meanwhile, Shugo swears to reach the other side of the river first. Both of their thoughts are interrupted when the event starts. The race across the river has begun!

Komiyan takes an early lead, riding his Grunty Oscar across the river. However Ouka quickly catches up as she leaps across the heads of the competitors in her wolf form. Both of them are stopped when Mireille casts a powerful ice spell and freezes the river, as well as everybody in it. Using a rare set of ice skates she glides into first place. But Ouka soon ruins her plan, using her strength, Ouka shatters the ice with a single hit. Standing on an ice floe both Ouka and Mireille begin fighting with each other, allowing Komiyan to retake the lead. Meanwhile Shugo is forced to backtrack and help Hotaru, who is unable to swim.

Confident, Komiyan swims towards Rena. But suddenly a shark type monster leaps out of the water and begins to attack him. Ouka and Mireille recognize it as a rare event monster and stop fighting, drawn by the lure or rare items and a strong opponent. They both hit it with their strongest attacks, but are surprised to see they have no effect. Watching from the sidelines, Balmung and Sanjuro realize they need to act and leap into combat. However even their strong attacks are useless. The monster begins swimming towards the stage, catching Komiyan in its wake. Seeing Rena in danger, Shugo leaps into action and hits the monster with Data Drain. Komiyan is hit as well, and both him and the monster are transformed into little fish. Balmung and Shugo leap onto the stage to check on Rena. Much to his surprise, Reki declares Balmung as the first person to reach the stage and the winner of the race. This entitles him to a kiss from Rena. Shocked, Shugo can only watch as his sister prepares to kiss Balmung. However after rechecking the logs, Reki realizes that Shugo was the actual winner, beating Balmung by a fraction of a second. Shoving Balmung off the stage he declares Shugo the winner. Embarrassed Rena prepares to kiss Shugo instead, but at the last second the field suddenly goes staticy. Concerned that his event his been corrupted Balmung orders the event canceled and tells all of the participants to log out. Before logging out Rena asks Shugo what his wish was, but he tells her that it's a secret. Unknown to both of them, their wishes were the same. To live together with their parents again.

Trivia

 * Shugo loses his tooth in this episode after he gets hit in the head by Two Goblins while training with Sanjuro.
 * Mireille, Ouka, and Hotaru's wishes were for a rare item, a strong monster, and for Baby Grunty to grow up strong.
 * Tanabata, the holiday this episode was about.