.hack//G.U.: The Staircase to Nowhere

***.hack//G.U.: The Staircase to Nowhere*** is an Alternate Universe fanfiction by DarkMira6639 begun early in 2008.

One day, Ryou Misaki finds a mirror that lets him to talk to someone in his head who claims to be his Epitaph. It isn't long before he finds out about parallel worlds and that there are other Epitaph users like him. But things don't remain safe for long as fighting among the users break out and, for some reason, everyone feels the need to single him out...

Comes recommended on the Fanfic Recs page.

Tropes used in *.hack//G.U.: The Staircase to Nowhere* include:
* An Arm and a Leg: Haseo loses one of each during his fight with Atoli. Sakaki grows them back.
* Bigger on the Inside: Haseo and Atoli go into a house that turns out to be this.
* Brainwashed: Endurance takes control of Atoli at one point during their fight.
* Break the Cutie: Atoli.
* CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable: Subverted in that when Kaoru is administered CPR he doesn't just recover, but is barely kept alive long enough for help to come. Even then, he almost doesn't make it anyway. Though the one doing the breathing part has a massive crush on him, so perhaps that bit was played straight...
* Defeat Means Friendship: So far, everyone Haseo has beaten has been more than happy to help him out.
* Delayed Reaction: It's not a comical example, but it takes some time for Haseo to realize that if Morganna gave birth to him, then he isn't even related to his parents.
* Diary: Atoli writes in one.
* Dreaming of Things to Come: A dream Atoli has appears to be prophetic.
* Driven to Suicide: Haseo's friend Chika was bullied so severally that she threw herself in front of a moving car all the while asking him to forgive her.
* Face Death with Dignity: Atoli chooses to risk dying while rescuing Haseo instead of betraying him for Endurance.

> **Atoli**: I would rather die.
>
>

* Fatal Flaw: Each of the Epitaph users has one physical/mental flaw that can spell the end for them in the Goddess Morganna's war; Haseo has his photophobia (his sensitivity to light), Atoli's fear of being alone, Endrance's weak lungs, and Kuhn's color blindness.
* Flashback Nightmare: Haseo has a dream where a friend of his commits suicide right in front of him. He admits that it's a memory.
* Heroic Albino: Haseo.
* I Know Your True Name: If an Epitaph user learns the true name of another Epitaph User, he/she can control their fellow user and make them do anything.
* Master of Illusion: Atoli and Shino's town was a massive illusion for Haseo.
* More Than Mind Control: Ovan does this to Atoli.
* The Multiverse: Each Epitaph user grew up on a different world and they can travel from one to another. Haseo's most resembles our own (and so far seems to be the most technologically advanced).
* Parental Abandonment: Both of Haseo's parents have died, leaving him with an evil stepmother and stepsister to boot.
* Parental Favoritism: Haseo's stepsister is favored by his stepmother. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Haseo is the favorite of Morganna, who created the Epitaphs and their users.
* Psychic Link: The Epitaphs and their users communicate by thought.
* Red Eyes, Take Warning: Subverted due to Haseo's Heroic Albino status. It's just genetics.
* Speak in Unison: Haseo and Skeith do this when they are perfectly synchronized.
* Split Personality: Saku and Bo.
* Transformation Sequence: Each user goes through this when releasing their Epitaphs.
* Transformation Trinket: Epitaphs and users transform and communicate using a hand mirror.
* Wicked Stepmother: Haseo was saddled with one of these.