.hack//G.U.+ Volume 2 by Tatsuya Hamazaki and Yuzuka Morita

Haseo, now in possession of the Avatar "Terror of Death" battles Endrance for the title in the Arena and discovers, upon the defeat of Endrance, that the AIDA are controlling their users by manipulating their memories of loved ones. For Endrance's player, it was his cat, Mia. Although he's not quite sure what to do with this information, Haseo finds that his defeat of Endrance but his player into a coma, just like the rest of the Lost Ones that Haseo is fighting to bring back.

However, as Haseo, Pi and Yata work out what Tri-Edge is after, he pulls another trick on the whole server, leaving everyone inside unable to log out, trapping them in the game. As the players panic, Pi and Yata try to reverse the trick, but are unable. Haseo, learning that the AIDA probably did this, takes off after Tri-Edge to try and draw him out. He issues a challenge to Tri-Edge to meet him at the Arch Koeln Waterfall, but the only person who shows up is a woman named Bordeaux.

She can't see the Avatars, but doesn't want to say how she got the power of an AIDA. Haseo forces the story out of her. After being beaten by Haseo, she wanted to beat him. She recieved an e-mail with an unknown sender who told her there was an item that could help her. She wanted it, and a throwaway level 1 character delivered her a healing potion. But when she used it... she could feel the effects like a drug. That's how she became infected.

Meanwhile the players are still freaking out and are now getting short of sleep. Some of them want to take out the others, but a player named Sakaki is trying to keep the peace, along with her guild. She meets Haseo and tells him the Atoli recieved a message from him to meet her somewhere. Haseo denies sending the message, but returns to Pi and Yata to trace her. He learns she is not in the world... but there is no sign of her logging out, so she must be lost.

Haseo, Pi and Kuhn return to where her avatar was last and have an encounter with another old friend of Haseo's, Ovan. Ovan also has an Avatar, the Rebirth, whose weapon contains information from the CC Corp's old servers. He says that this part of the world has been shunted to a server run by an AIDA, who has been observing them, observing humanity. Haseo realizes that Yata has known how to reverse the problem all along. But when the area they are in begins disappearing, Haseo realizes that Tri-Edge has come to call and eagerly leaps into battle against him, along with Kuhn and Ovan. But Tri-Edge simply disappears.

The three return to the G.U. Operations area where Kuhn and Yata argue about why Yata didn't simply reverse the operation and free all the players. Finally, fed up with Yata's manipulations, Kuhn leaves to protect the players in his own way. As Yata prepares to reverse the trick that got them into the AIDA server, Haseo's friend Shino wakes up a bit, not knowing where she is, but seeing that it is very, very dark.

In this second installation of .hack//G.U.+, not much really happens. Characters argue about what they are going to do, and yes, the biggest thing that happens is that the players on the server cannot log out. Some information is gained, but slowly, and the big confrontation between Haeso and Tri-Edge is hinted at, but never really comes off. We still have no idea why the AIDA are studying the humans in the game or what it all means as yet. But there is a third volume coming...

Honstly, if I hadn't gotten this and the third volume at the same time, I don't think I would have bothered buying #3. It's like Shakespeare's line about the rantings of an idiot "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing". At most, it's 90% filler and not really worth the money.