1455 AST
Somewhere in the 74th Floor Labyrinth.
“Tsk!”
A girl in an elaborate combination of a formal evening dress and full armor angrily clicked her tongue. Her golden locks flew rapidly through the air as she accelerated through the corridors of the dungeon, her hand tightly clenched around the standard she always brought with her.
“Don’t put too much strain on your beautiful face, Helen-chan.” A guy followed her from behind, walking steadily in comparison to the girl’s impatient gait. His expression conveyed none of the anguish the girl had on her face and his expression didn’t change a bit even with his rather disrespectful quip. His build was covered by a brown leather jacket and a greatsword was strapped to his back, where he carried it around like it was nothing. Under the leather jacket, gleams of steel can be seen, highlighting the armor he wore.
“Shut it, Kurogami,” the girl, Helen, cursed. “An emergency summons from the Second herself isn’t something we can just ignore. What on earth happened for them to start a boss raid without a proper meeting!?”
“Aah, but last time this happened, they were able to handle themselves quite well,” he shrugged. “I mean, you saw it, too, Helen-chan.” He then continued, “Of course, I have complete faith that they can handle this one as well. Although, I will agree with you in terms of the recklessness of our superiors in starting a boss raid without proper prior preparations. Considering they never sent out such a summon like this before, we can probably assume something went wrong so it should be our top priority to help them quickly.”
Helen irately chewed her lip as she muttered, “You think I don’t know that.” After a few more minutes of running, the two, plus some other members of their guild, finally arrived in the great foyer before the boss room. The area was left untouched with the doors of the boss room still being wide open. Just outside of the room were a group of soldiers from «The Army» which confused Helen slightly. “Um… Nautilus-san, what’s going on here?”
“Ah, Helen-chan,” he replied, looking up from his guard of the soldiers. “It’s a bit complicated but this is part of the reason for your emergency summons.”
“Nautilus-san, is Ayanami-sama alright?” Kurogami immediately barged with a question of most importance to him: the whereabouts of his goddess. He was concerned, both as a guildmate and as a fanatic. As the leading representative of his “group”, he felt the absolute responsibility to inquire of her safety.
Nautilus nodded before using his chin to point in the direction of the boss room. Helen took no time and bolted past Nautilus, only leaving her subordinates with the passing command of assisting Nautilus with the soldiers. “Kazu-kun!” she shouted.
Seeing the confirmation from Nautilus, Kurogami shifted his gaze to the men following him and crossed his arms. “Alright, boys. You heard that; as usual, we’re going to assist Ayanami-sama but try to help our fellow guildmates. All I can say is, don’t die, because you won’t be able to listen to Ayanami-sama ever again. Got it?”
“... Wait, is that—” While he was in the middle of passing out the last of his healing potions, Suzaku stopped upon noticing the flag that was essentially synonymous to the «Clearers». He yelled, “Hey! You guys have healing potions, right!? We're all pretty low!”
“Suzaku-san!” Helen replied. “Oh, thank goodness! If you’re alright, Kazu-kun should be fine too.” She opened her inventory and summoned a whole batch of potions. “I’m sorry but since the summons were so sudden, I was unable to grab any crystals.”
“We've pooled ours together so far although what you’ve brought definitely helps…” Suzaku then processed the first half of her statement and stood up with visible annoyance. “Hey, wait a second! The hell's that supposed to mean!? Are you saying I'm weaker?!”
“Yes.”
“Helen-dono, what perfect timing,” Tohka said, smoothly cutting through Suzaku’s rage. “However, I do regret to inform you that we’ve already managed to win… albeit…”
Helen noted Tohka’s trailing voice before she looked at Kirito on the ground. “Kazu-kun!?” She made for Kirito but before she got close, she found a bright sword thrust under her chin.
“Take a single step closer and your head will fly.” That steely voice came from the one everyone called a goddess. Asuna, who was already aware of this change, could only suffer in silence as she suddenly found herself next to a bomb. At that moment, a terrible second personality surfaced, an amalgamation of primal emotions, both good and evil. All of the emotions that she forced herself to keep bottled up inside so that she could continuously smile for her fans churned within her and for the girl known as Ayanami Shiratsuyu, this was enough to trigger the dissociative identity disorder present in her blood; the overwhelming blackness that can be found firmly locked away within her heart was enough to make even the most seasoned of psychiatrists stagger.
Nevertheless, Helen found the courage to step forward and just as Shiranami had said, she swung her sword fully intending to remove Helen’s head. What stopped her sword from doing so was the blade of her fan. Kurogami stepped in and managed to block Shiranami’s lethal swing from decapitating her own friend, preventing a tragedy from occurring. “Ayanami-sama, please get a hold of yourself… she isn’t an enemy.”
“Ho? A filthy bottom-feeder like you assumes you have the right to block my sword?” She carefully entrusted Kirito’s head to Asuna’s lap (evidence that she is still trying to hold herself back despite having lost herself) and stood up before her eyes, blazing with black anger, flashed. Her sword cut at Kurogami, a much faster strike than what she had unleashed earlier against Helen.
Kurogami didn’t anticipate seeing this side of his idol, channeling her anger blindly towards those that came close; her strikes are something he could still see, however. Once again, he blocked Shiranami’s strike with his greatsword, causing sparks to fly between the two blades. “Pardon my rudeness, but I have to stop my idol from ruining her own life.”
“Tsk, disgusting,” she spat. She took a step back and placed her sword on her shoulder, gathering azure light to its blade.
“Shiranami!”
“Shiranami-san!”
Both Suzaku and Tohka immediately grabbed Shiranami, Suzaku grasping her free hand and sword arm while Tohka hugged the girl’s waist. “Snap out of it, Shiranami!” Suzaku yelled.
“Fucking let go of me, you piece of shit!” She wrestled against the grip of both Suzaku and Tohka but to no avail.
“Shiranami-san!” Tohka begged. “Come back to your senses!”
“‘Come back’?” she scoffed. “I am perfectly sane. Now let go of me so I can fucking murder that manwhore for thinking he can touch my sword.”
A few moments passed and Suzaku finished sorting through the events so far. It then hit him all at once, a new grimace forming as he let go of Shiranami and walked over to where Kirito lay before pulling out a healing item to revitalize him.
“C'mon bro, I have a question for you, so wake up!” Suzaku's tone turned markedly more frustrated, only to become a genuine well of anger. The high of an epic battle wore off, now all that was left was a gnawing feeling inside his core that needed to be answered.
Confused, Tohka tightened her grip on Shiranami’s waist while Shiranami struggled further. “Let go, already! And you, damn interloper! I was gonna wake him up! With a kiss to die for!”
What should I even do now, huh? Kurogami thought to himself as he blankly stared at the bunch and flipped through his options. Sure, he considered himself to be one of the most recognizable of her fans out there but it’s not like he had anything to say when it comes to spats between his idol and her circle of actual friends. He was nothing compared to them; he was simply just a speck of dust. At the very least, his current best option seemed to just watch the events unfold, otherwise, he will certainly find himself as mincemeat.
As Shiranami’s rant continued, Suzaku groaned, palming his forehead and letting out a quiet scream of frustration before suddenly reaching down and grabbing the collar of his friend, forcing him up. “Kazuto, get up right now. I used one of my best healing items on you so stop pretending to be asleep!”
Truth be told, Kirito was more or less conscious the whole time, however, between his exhaustion and low health, he barely had enough leeway to attempt to listen to whatever was going on around him but thanks to the potions he’d been fed and the crystal Suzaku had used, his health bar finally crawled back up to full health. He was forced out of his grogginess when his collar was yanked, complaining, “Ow… Bro, I just got healed up; can you not try damaging me again?”
“How long?” Suzaku stared down at his friend, his rage manifesting in his relentlessly strong white-knuckled grip on Kirito’s collar. “With a skill that strong, a geek like you would've studied it for all that it was worth and with your gear as a top Clearer and Solo Player, you would've absolutely known how powerful you were!” Without warning, he threw him back towards the point where Corvatz had died. His anger refusing to abate, he continued, “Even if he was a moron, he didn't deserve that! Even if his men were insane for following him, they didn't need to die! Seems like you would do anything to not be in the spotlight, right, Kazuto!?” Within him, a hideous amalgamation of his own failure, a dreadful urge to vent his frustration, and a feeling of betrayal churned, dyeing his thought process black. Suzaku had once told Kirito and Asuna about the darkness he carries within him and when the two of them had accepted him for who he was, he was joyful, however, at this moment, a part of him simply couldn’t help but feel horribly pained that his friend had not given him the same amount of trust that he had given him by telling him about his darkness.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Kirito honestly did nothing as he took Suzaku’s irate shouts; he did nothing to fight back even when he was thrown. If anything, he fully thought he deserved this but at the same time, he couldn’t accept that his friend was being this unhinged. Kirito got up, closed the distance, and landed a right hook on Suzaku’s face. “What would you know!? You hide yourself in that damn cloak of yours most of the time! That skill… I didn’t want it! I didn’t need it yet it chose me as its wielder! I didn’t need anything more to weigh me down, dammit!”
Reeling from the punch, Suzaku wobbled backward a few steps before regaining his balance. In reply, he growled, “I never once hid from you, Kazuto, I never hid who or what I am. You think it’s bad that you have access to this incredible power? You're a Clearer, for Christ’s sake, someone who willingly puts their life on the line to crawl to the top!” Pointing up the stairs to the massive doors that led to the next floor, Suzaku continued, glaring at him with a gaze that clearly expressed his disgust. “You’re not someone who’s gonna ‘retreat to a widdle home with your girlfriend’ and wait for someone else to beat this stupid game! Don’t pretend that that kind of power is a curse! It doesn't work like that! You work your ass off to get stronger, get better skills, and better gear but when an insanely strong skill like that chooses you, you get mad!?" As he continued his speech, his tone gradually grew more and more heated; he couldn’t understand why Kirito would reject power in a game like this. It was simply inane.
Kirito glanced over to where Suzaku was pointing. “I am aware of my role as a Clearer,” he said. “However, that skill would ostracize me! I would know… They would still be here…!”
Suzaku’s eyebrow twitched as he started walking. “… They'd ostracize you? Since when did you of all people care about being popular? I know better than anyone what it means to be ostracized! Death isn't a reasonable alternative.” Without warning, Suzaku brought his fist up and struck his friend, knocking him off his feet. “Wielding a skill like that has plenty of weight! Maybe that idiot Corvatz would've listened to us if he knew you had that skill! Maybe his men would've fought him more if someone as strong as you insisted!” His anger refused to abate as he grabbed his friend’s collar once more, forcing him on his feet and slamming him against the wall of the boss room. His last sentence was punctuated with him raising his free hand and swinging it toward Kirito’s face; in response, Kirito, who had grunted in annoyance at being smashed against the wall, raised his own fist to slug Suzaku back.
Alas, it would never reach him as Tomoe suddenly appeared, swiftly grabbing Suzaku’s arm and pinning his other to his side. At the same time, Shiranami, having somehow escaped from Tohka’s hold, apparated beside Kirito and also restraining him. “That’s enough, Shinya.”
“I would like you to stop as well, Kirito,” Shiranami said. Tohka mumbled to herself in abject horror at how Shiranami had effortlessly escaped from her hold as she stared at her arms which now held nothing but air.
“Let me go, dammit! This is different!” Suzaku actively struggled against Tomoe’s grip and tried to throttle Kirito anyway; he also attempted to grab his sword while still being held by Tomoe.
Tomoe, however, didn’t let go; her iron grip hasn’t changed since their school days. “I will be compelled to use excessive force if you continue resisting. Shinya, calm down. You know very well that Kazuto would have a very good reason for hiding that skill.”
“I will agree,” Shiranami added. “For a skill of that strength, it has to be a «Unique Skill» like Yuna’s and Silica’s. Such a powerful skill could and would upset the balance within the «Clearers».” She glared at Kirito who silently averted his gaze, which more or less told Shiranami all she needed to know.
“And?” As Suzaku stopped resisting, he glared at the others with an unprecedented rage filling his soul. “Who cares how people take it? It doesn't matter if the «Clearers» get pissy; all that matters is that he had a weapon of unparalleled power and treated the rest of us like we’re a bunch of kids who didn't need to know anything! He didn’t trust any of us enough to leave us with the knowledge that he had one of SAO’s trump cards!” For Suzaku, it wasn't the fact he didn't know that made him angry; it was the simple fact Kirito didn’t trust anyone, even his so-called friends. In any other situation, he would've been ecstatic to see his friend with such a powerhouse ability.
“Tomoe-san, can I knock him out?” Shiranami asked.
Tomoe looked at her two students with pity as she sighed. “This really isn’t going anywhere.”
“I came here because I heard that a raid had begun with less than ten people and what do I find?” A deep gruff voice belonging to an aging man pierced through the ears of those present in the room. His heavy armor clinked against each other as he marched over from the entrance of the boss room. “Two children, bickering as if they were on a school playground.”
After a brief moment, Suzaku used the unified focus on the new person to break from Tomoe's iron grip and stood away from the others as his cloak hid his body. “And you are?”
“Yuu-san, please forgive them,” Tomoe asked. “They are indeed children, as you say. This one’s simply unstable; he cannot accept that his friend betrayed his trust.”
“Ah, Yuu-san, I do apologize for that unseemly display,” Shiranami added, letting go of Kirito. Kirito merely grunted under his breath as he rubbed his wrists.
“If even the Snow White Songstress insists, then I shall question you no further,” the aging man who was called Yuu replied. “I would assume that since the children are fighting amongst themselves, the raid was successfully completed?”
Despite being in her alter personality, Shiranami spoke respectfully, proof that even when lost in the throes of madness, she still treats her elders with the utmost deference. “It is as you say. While battered, we have fortuitously weathered the raid on our own.”
“We children actually handled the majority of the problem, for your information…” Suzaku's tone let a fair amount of annoyance bleed through, as he turned away and approached the stairwell to the next floor; clearly, he had no intention of letting Kirito open it himself.
Shiranami shot a withering glare at Suzaku’s back, fully intending to scare him with the force of her stare. She then suddenly wobbled on her feet. “Oh…”
With that mutter, she collapsed and didn’t hit the floor thanks to Kirito’s quick reflexes; having caught her, he asked, “What the hell was that?”
Yuu crossed his arms, his armored hands scraping against his chestplate. “I’ve heard rumors but… I see, that dastardly black glare must have been her dissociative identity disorder.”
Asuna’s eyes widened as she asked, “How did you know, Yuu-san?”
“Oh, I simply just have the relevant knowledge,” he said, waving the issue off. “In any case, with that quarrel complete, we should go ahead and open the gate to the next floor and report to the rest of the «Clearers» of what happened here today… although in deference to those of you here, I think it would be best if we left that for tomorrow. I’m sure you are all tired.”
“I’m wide awake, thank you very much,” Suzaku grumbled. “I'll send notice when I arrive in the first city on the floor.” He stomped away from the scene, shooting a glare at Kirito who was piggybacking the unconscious Shiranami; Kirito himself simply averted his gaze.
“Ah…!” Tohka chased after her boyfriend’s retreating back. She looked back and forth between her significant other and his best friend, cursing her inability to help bridge the divide between them. However, she did know she could do one thing to help ease Suzaku’s anger. She pulled on his arm to turn him around and she, after a single moment’s hesitation, brought her lips to his.
“Mmh?!” Suzaku voicelessly yelped, an expression of shock crossing his face. After she broke away, he stared, unsure of how to react before electing to simply sigh. He knew that Tohka was a very reserved girl and public displays of affection weren’t how she worked so realizing that she had gone that far in the first place was enough to bring some clarity to his mind. “… Fine, I suppose I can leave it for tomorrow.” Blushing slightly, he hid his face in his hood and turned back around.
“Young love truly is a fantastical thing,” Yuu sighed. “That young lass reminds me of the wife I left in the real world…”
“Indeed, his behavior sometimes reminds me of my husband’s occasional childish antics,” Tomoe nodded.
“Oy, what do you mean childish!?” Klein protested. “That aside, I’m gonna want a proper explanation for what you did against the boss, Kiri-no-ji!”
“I promise I will…” Kirito replied. “It’s the least I can do for betraying everyone’s trust.”
“In any case, we should retire for the day,” Asuna said. “In lieu of Shira-chan, how about you stay at my house for the night?”
“… You have a house?” Kirito blinked.
“Ye-Yeah…? It’s in «Selmburg» on the sixty-first floor.”
Kirito glanced at the unconscious Shiranami. “Yeah, alright. I’ll stop by your house.”
“So, I know this is nice and all… but we definitely gotta deal with the ALF members that knew Corvatz was suicidal and came running to help." Suzaku rather bluntly commented, looking out of the door and noticing the noise as he took a step forward.
Klein held up his hand. “Nah, let me handle this. You and Kirito fought the hardest today. You may say that you’re not tired but that’s just the adrenaline talking.”
“Indeed,” Tomoe added. “Shinya, you have to rest. School nurse’s orders. We’ll handle the ALF.”
“He died on my watch, it's fine.” He looked back at his friends, doing as Kazuto said; Hiding behind his cloak.
“Shinya, don’t make me put you to sleep myself. You of all people should know that rest is important, right?”
Suzaku's eyes lowered, mixing shame and exhaustion as he gave a small nod. “… Yeah but that doesn't change the facts and I'd rather not lie about the first boss death in the last 20 floors.” A brief moment passed as Suzaku stood on this, only for him to stare directly at Kirito with his annoyance returning. “I wasn't strong enough to keep an idiot safe.”
“Shinya… That…” … wasn’t your fault. The rest of the sentence failed to leave Kirito’s lips. Instead, as a reply, Tomoe wordlessly approached Suzaku and gently flicked him on the forehead, with enough force so as not to cause him pain but with enough skill to rattle his brain enough to knock him unconscious. Tohka watched and caught him before he fell, silently thanking their school nurse. Kirito also could do nothing other than watch; he then sighed. “We’ll take your advice and retire for the day. I’m very sorry to push this onto you but can I ask you to handle the cleanup, Sensei, Klein?”
“Mhm, no problem,” Tomoe nodded.
“In that case, I shall assist in that effort,” Yuu chimed in.
“Much obliged, Yuu-dono.”
With that, the disaster that was the unplanned raid on the seventy-fourth floor drew to a close.
»»————- ♡♡♡♡♡♡ ————-««
Sixteenth Day of the Month of the Ash Tree, 2032.
1020 AST.
Asuna’s abode, located in Selmburg, the main settlement of the 61st Floor.
She was asleep.
Like any other person who had spent a good portion of an hour the previous day on extreme exercises, otherwise known as the seventh-fourth floor boss battle, Shiranami was snoozing away, however, the girl’s internal clock was already telling her that she had gravely overslept. Tossing in the sheets, she finally managed to sit up groggily and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. She then took notice of the time in her display and shot out of her bed while cursing. Crap, I seriously overslept! To make matters worse, she also noticed that she had fallen asleep in her guild uniform, having not even bothered to bathe the previous night. “Jeez, no wonder I felt like something was sticky…” she lamented. “Wait… I forgot. We don’t sweat in virtual reality.” She laughed at her own stupidity. “Well, I guess I’ll go and change… I wonder if the commander will be angry if I visit him out of uniform today…”
Meanwhile, a certain onyx-haired boy had just about the worst timing one can have. Having woken up around three minutes earlier, he had exited his own room (Asuna’s room to be more specific since she insisted that he sleep with her) to go to the bathroom. Still experiencing the effects of sleep inertia, his mind was muddled as he turned the knob to the guest room Shiranami was sleeping in thinking it was the lavatory. The handle turned and he walked inside and the sight that met his eyes immediately snapped him awake. “U-Umm…” he stammered.
The room’s occupant was currently in the middle of changing so it should be expected that she had nothing on at the moment aside from a cute pair of white lace underwear. Her rather modest chest had enough meat to bounce alluringly in the morning light (which was decent enough to at least partially block her breasts from view). For a second, nobody moved; Shiranami’s hand was still hovering in the air from having pressed the unequip button to remove her uniform just seconds earlier. Slowly, her face reddened. This snapped Kirito out of his stupor and his hands flew to his face stuttering, “So-So-Sorry!”
Shiranami’s embarrassment boiled over as she shouted, “Just turn around already!”
His own face red as a beet, Kirito immediately swiveled around his hands held in an ‘I surrender’ gesture. “Go-Got it!” He felt immediately guilty for his crime of peeping on a girl changing. He thought back to when he had walked in on his sister… He vigorously shook his head. No, she isn’t Suguha! This isn’t a case of family! This is most definitely a crime. This is a crime, this is a crime…
While he was facing away, the steam rising around Shiranami’s face softened as she fiddled around again with her menu; a green sleeveless T-shirt under a purple cardigan and a pair of blue denim jeans complete with a leather belt so she could tie the scabbard of her sword to her jeans just in case she needed to fight monsters. As she had the «Sewing» skill, all of her casual clothes were handcrafted. She crossed her arms and said, “Yo-You can turn around now.”
In response, Kirito didn’t dare move, at least at first; he simply turned his eyes to his right where a mirror set in the corner of an office-like work desk reflected large portions of the room, including the location where she was standing. For some reason—for some betwitching reason, the excellent figure of Shiranami’s body was further intensified by the clothes she wore. It was as if the fabric (although, the unfortunate actuality of them being pixels damaged the surrealism) was woven using the silk of the gods and worn by a princess of the gods herself. “U-Umm…” he said as he slowly turned around, not sure if he should believe his eyes. “Uh…”
“Wh-What?” she said. She put her left hand over her chest and her right hand over her lower regions. “Your lecherous stare is unwarranted…”
“Sorry!” Kirito immediately broke his stare and looked towards the ground.
“It-It’s fine…” she mumbled. “A-Anyways, why did you come into my room in the first place?”
“Uh…” he said. “I was searching for the bathroom and since I just woke up, I chose the wrong room…” He then shook his hands and his head repeatedly as he added, “It was not on purpose, I swear! I didn’t mean to peek at you changing…”
“You’re not a morning person then…” she concluded before shrugging. “Come on, I’ll show you the bathroom.” She walked over to Kirito and grabbed his hand, dragging him out of the room and down the second-floor hallway to the end where the bathroom was located; she then unceremoniously shoved inside before shutting the door and sighing. “Ugh, I wasn’t ready for this…” She shook her head as she decided to turn her thoughts to the previous day.