>>/150447/
Huh, didn't know she was in Next Order too. 
Mirei is from Re:Digitize too, which is why she has references to knowing Rina. 

Or I could go with the JP version. I'm gonna guess that ones not broken.

Was going to say, I wonder what other game came out around the same time that could possibly have influence that story... But after looking it up, it came out a whole 2 weeks before the original .hack game. 
They're also both developed by Bandai, so...
Also why is it called 2003 in PAL when it released in 2002 in every region???