Saburou

"Well, I guess the PC body may be different, but the body's still the same."

- Saburou

Saburou (三郎) is a character that appears in .hack//Roots. She has some sort of connection to Pi, who she takes orders from.

Appearance
Saburou appears as a woman dressed in loose fitting green armor. She keeps her long green hair tied up in a large hat. In the rare event that she is forced into combat she has multiple weapons with which to defend herself, all of which she wields with deadly skill.

Personality
Saburou has a fairly laid back personality. She prefers to sit back and relax, only paying attention to things that interest her. Though she's a fairly powerful character she prefers to let others do the work for her, taking advantage of their hard work to achieve her own goals. Despite her lazy nature she is a skilled manipulator, and is usually able to talk her way out of almost any situation. Due to her skills at dealing with people she is frequently used by Pi to make contact with people on Pi's behalf.

Basic Info
In the real world, Saburou is a 24-year-old male. He gets by as an online stock trader, but barely makes ends meet. His way of speech and male name within the game betray his assertion that he is a girl in the real world, and simply acts like a boy because many boys act like girls in the game.

.hack//Roots
Saburou was originally a Black Ops Agent for the guild TaN. Though never named, Saburou likely fought against the Twilight Brigade during TaN's move to capture Ovan. Following this event, TaN was disbanded and all members of the Black Ops were suspended. However, Pi used her powers as a system administrator to recover Saburou's account, giving her a new PC Body in the process. As repayment her new character was expected to work for Pi, in the same way her old character had worked for Ender.

Saburou's first assignment was to follow the movements of Tabby who was suspected of being an Epitaph User. Though much more interested in Haseo; Saburou took the assignment and began keeping tabs on Tabby's character. Later after realizing her mistake Pi reassigned her to follow Haseo. She followed him to the Forest of Pain, a strange event area filled with powerful monsters. Though Haseo resented her presence she traveled with him for a short time, keeping him healed as he fought through the event. After the pair ran into Taihaku she began to follow him instead, as she wanted to see the end of the event. Taihaku resented her presence and eventually abandoned her, leaving her lost in the forest.

Pi soon contacted her, asking to know why she wasn't with Haseo. This was unnerving to Saburou, who was unaware of Pi's status as an administrator. Realizing that she was only being used as a pawn Saburou decided to quit the event. But not before tracking down Haseo and giving him several rare items, as well as her member address. She then left the event, where she was met by an angry Pi.

Pi demanded to know why she had left. Saburou responded that Ender, Pi, or whoever she really was had been lying to her. She would not allow herself to be used in the same way Ender and Naobi had used TaN. With that said Saburou left, quitting her job as Pi's associate.

Later, Pi tracked her down and demanded that she turn over her PC body, as it was needed to help unlock a "power only Haseo possessed". Refusing her, Saburou said she'd do it herself. She followed Haseo to a field, and was surprised to see that his character had been changed. Having grown much more powerful from the Forest of Pain. Despite this Saburou challenged him to a fight, promising information about Tri-Edge if she was defeated. Though she was using a powerful CC Corp created character, Haseo was able to easily defeat her. Later, she attempted to give her PC Body back to Pi, but was turned down as Pi no longer needed it. Taking this as "the cost of her freedom" Saburou began to follow her own goals, the first of which involved watching Haseo from a distance.

A short time later, she met with Tabby and talked with her about Haseo. After hearing about Shino, and how Haseo was trying to find a cure for her Saburou realized that he was much more interesting than she had thought. She asked Tabby what she had been doing for Shino. Which caused Tabby to realize that she hadn't been doing anything at all. Saburou then traveled to the Hulle Granz Cathedral, a place that Haseo was known to frequent. There, she saw Haseo enter the cathedral and watched in horror as he was data drained by Tri-Edge.

She remained at the cathedral until Tohta entered, when he asked what had happened, Saburou simply said that Haseo had been deleted. When Haseo finally returned to The World, Saburou was again approached by Tohta, who asked her what she was going to do. She simply said that she was going to continue watching Haseo, as she found him interesting. Realizing that Haseo would still have friends after he left, Tohta told Saburou that he was going to leave Haseo to her. Saburou then followed Haseo to a field, where she told him that she was expecting him to work hard in the future. It is unknown what happened to her after this, but it's assumed she continued watching Haseo from a distance.

.hack//LINK: Twilight Knights

 * See Saburou (LINK)

Trivia

 * "Saburou" is a male name.
 * Saburou frequently uses strange analogies when she speaks, a source of great confusion and frustration to others.
 * A former player of The World; all of Saburou's characters have had the same name.
 * In .hack GU Volume 4, Tabby can be found in Mac Anu wondering what happened to Saburou via a text bubble when passing by her. This is the first mention of the character since Roots.

Saburou