I woke up laying down on my bed, seeing that the Nervegear Headset was on, I… I felt relieved as I unclipped the chin strap and took off the Headset. “Did…Did I find a way out..?” I thought as I sat up and saw my door open, “Mom..? Dad..?” I said out as I got up and investigated outside the door. I turned to see my hallway and began walking down that hallway, scared as I said “C’mon.. This isn’t funny anymore…” feeling that the hallway was just getting longer and longer. I then heard giggling and laughing echo as I saw my little brothers.

“Yin!!, Damian!!”

I shouted with the joy backing it up, running to them as they began backing up, seemingly frightened. I slowed down confused, reaching my hand out to see a bright light from behind, I turned around and saw a truck heading towards Damian and Yin. “DAMIAN! YIN!!” I shouted, jumping in the way, closing my eyes and bracing for impact. But the Truck phased through me, hitting Damian and Yin as I heard their crying and calls for help.

I opened my eyes to see that I was standing in a funeral home, I was in funeral clothes as I looked outside, seeing the rain pouring down and seeing the two caskets. “No…No No no…” I muttered as I bit my lower lip trying to conceal my tears. I turned my attention to my right to see my father shouting as my mother was crying from it, trying to stop him. My hands began to tremble again… I felt uneasy and scared once again, I looked down at my hands to see blood all over it.

My tears began to shed once more, muttering to myself “I…I was responsible…I…” as I felt a smack on my cheek, looking up to see my father standing in-front of me. “I..-” as I felt another smack, harder than last time as it left a small red mark. “Listen!-” I tried saying as I felt another one across my other cheek, feeling the hits being heavier and heavier.

I felt nothing else but pain, sadness, and guilt, Guilt that I carried for more than a couple years. I looked up ahead this time to see my younger brothers all bloodied up and with their injuries. With tears in my eyes I muttered “I…I’m so sorry…”. I fell to my knees crying saying “I’m so so sorry…” as I didn’t feel like I earned their apology. I then heard a voice saying “Wake up Kirin!” as I looked up at the voidless ceiling.

I then woke up in tears as I saw Toru worried and concerned saying “Are you alright Kirin!”. I layed there confused before asking her “How…How long was-” as she then hugged me and I stayed like that a bit confused, “You…You were sleep talking…Saying sorry alot too…” Toru said, concerned about me. I didn’t know how to respond, I put my arm around her back a bit as I patted her back saying “I…Thank you…Again…”, I laid there for a couple of minutes as I said “Am..I allowed to get out of bed?” as she just replied plainly “Just let me take this… You need this more than me…Alright…?”.

“Alright..Just this once”

I said quietly to her, smiling as the moon-lit sky shined down onto the floor. After about Thirty minutes of sitting there, Toru and I partied up to head out, late at night. “I got you this time, Toru” I told her as we walked holding hands, She nodded as we walked towards a dungeon that was nearby. Toru began to walk a bit faster as she kept up her pace with me, I looked at her as we both tried to hold in our laughter. We both broke out laughing together as Toru told me “First one there gets the loot!” as she let my hand go and began running. I ran behind shouting at her “HEY NO FAIR!!” as we laughed while running.

We arrived at the dungeon as we were both exhausted, waiting outside to catch our breath. We were sitting on the floor as I looked up at the night sky, somewhat cloudy this time as the time was 12:41. I stood up and looked at Toru saying to her “Are you ready to go?” Toru also got up after looking at me and replying “As ready as I’ll ever be” she said in Japanese as I was confused at what she said. She sighed and said “Yes, I’m ready” as I nodded and scratched the back of my head a bit nervously. “R-right” I said as we walked into the dungeon, our footsteps echoed throughout the hallway as we wore boots.

“Do you think people have already reached this dungeon yet Kirin-kun?”

Toru asked as I shook my head “No, but what has been achieved is your english getting better” I complimented her as she became flustered and looked away. I patted her head saying “I’m serious, I’m happy your english is improving.” as I held up the light for us to see. We walked up to a doorway as I was confused at why this was here, Toru was just as confused as she asked me “Did they have doors at the lower floors?” as I shook my head. “That’s odd.. Why would this dungeon have a door, now that I think about it I haven’t seen any dungeon monsters lately…” I thought to myself as we opened the doors.

I saw the stairway down as we walked down the stairway, feeling a bad aura around this dungeon. “It’s really quiet…Maybe someone had already gone through this…” I thought to myself as we kept walking, Our footsteps kept echoing as we stopped in-front of a large arena-like room. I looked at Toru as I handed her a Teleportation Crystal, saying “If something happens and we need to leave immediately, we’ll both teleport out.” as she nodded replying “Alright, I’m with you all the way” as we both took our steps into the arena.

We looked around, armed up and our adrenaline pumping through our virtual bodies. “Too quiet..” I muttered as I stepped onto a pressure plate, hearing mechanical whirling. We were alerted as I instinctively pushed Toru out of the way and knocked towards the entrance rolling and caught myself before falling off. “AH! TORU HELP!!” I shouted out as she looked over, seeing me over the edge and barely hanging on. “I’m Coming!!” she shouted as she began running towards me, stepping onto another pressure plate that lets down stone bridges, opening up several doorways.

Toru helped me up as I was exhaling hard from it, “Aragato..” I said to her as she nodded and turned her attention to incoming Miner Dwarfs. She saw two jump to them as she socked one on the face and I kicked one away, both of them falling down into the bottomless pit. We both got up and saw the horde of monsters, I looked at Toru saying “Get the crystal now!!” as she got behind me and pulled out the crystal. I readied my sword and started swinging the sword a bit frantically, trying to keep our distance between us as far as possible.

“Toru! Anytime now!!”

I shouted as Toru shouted back “I’m trying! The Crystal’s not working!!” I then swung my sword against a jumping Dwarf, cutting its chest and shattering it when it hit the floor. I backed up more as we were backed up to a corner of the room. “Shit! We need to go now!!” I shouted as the crystal then began glowing, “Alright! We’re ready to go!!” she shouted as I grabbed her arm, we both then face planted at Frieven’s smooth stone tiles.

Both of us were a bit frightened as she sat up saying “W-what was that dungeon…” as I looked and sat up, quietly saying to her “We’ll talk about it in the inn.. We’re kind of causing a scene here…”. She looked around as people were looking at us as we both got up and walked over to the Inn. I was sitting on the bed as Toru was pacing back and forward, she then asked me again “What was that? No other dungeon had done that”. I looked at her and sighed saying “That’s our first trap in a dungeon..” as I waved hand gestures around. “A dungeon trap?” She said as she sighed and sat down in a chair, I looked and told her “It’s alright, it happens alright, It just… Scared me for a second”. I looked away because I didn’t want to admit my insecurity with the Teleportation crystals, she looked at me and was somewhat reminded of something.

“Oh right, Kirin-kun, I need to tell you something”

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I looked confused as she then explained to me,

“Argo had given me some information that There’s a guild called Titan’s hand going around and trying to have solo players get items for them in exchange for some items back. But the players that had taken their offer hadn’t come back from Titan’s Hand. I thought it would be a good idea to tell you before I forget about it completely.”

“Oh is that so?”

I told her as I took some thought about it as I asked Toru “Do you know their levels?” as she shook her head. “Argo said it would cost a whole lot more COL to get that kind of info” Toru said straight up as I sighed and replied “Thanks for the info Toru”. I then patted her head and smiled telling her “We should rest, we have a long day ahead of us” as she nodded, we both headed to sleep in two different rooms to have our privacy.

“HAAH!!”

I shouted as I swung my sword and destroyed a Ravenous Ent, I looked at it shatter as I saw the time, “8:00.. It’s already morning then..” I thought as I sheath my sword and started to head back. “Titans hand huh… I wonder why their clients disappear..” as I walked and bumped into a woman, just slightly taller than me as she had red hair, black and red clothes and wore what looked like combat boots. “Sorry” I said as I kept walking.

“Hey you there!”

A voice shouted out as I stopped and turned back, seeing that the mysterious woman was talking to me. “Yeah you, c’mere for a second” she said in an irritated tone as I walked over confused. “Do you know who you just bumped into? At least show some respect for the leader of a guild!” she said in an egotistical and prideful tone as I sighed, seemingly bored and said “Alright cut the act…” as she smirked.

“Aren’t you the one to figure out things easily..”

She said as her guild members came out of the treelines and bushes, hearing them chuckle and snicker. “That’s a high leveled coat you got there, pipsqueak” she said as she grabbed onto my jacket and felt the material, smiling at the high quality. “Boss drop.. I knew it, We’re going to have so much goodies from you” she said again as I chuckled a bit, she looked at me with an eyebrow raised as I said “Sorry, it’s just funny that you wanna pry off my stuff from my body.”.

“What was that?!!”

She raised her tone as I repeated “It’s just funny that your guild is aiming for one solo player” as I had a smug smile on my face. She grew irritated saying “Boys! Make sure you get his drops for me!” as she backed up and her group ran in. They started swinging their Skill arts as they phased through my body and began chipping my health down.

My health chipped down before popping back into place in mere seconds, Their exhaustion got the better of them after a couple of minutes of mindless swinging. “What’s gotten into you guys! Why is he still standing!!” She shouted frustrated at them and their situation, an exhausted member then said “We’ve thrown everything at him.., his…his health hasn’t been moving everytime we get a glimpse at his health…”

“What!?!”

The leader shouted once more as she stomped her feet and took out her spear, I just chuckled at their attempt. “What’s so funny!!” She angrily shouted as I then said to them “This Guild, Titans Hand is formed of low level scoundrel PKers? Give me a break.” as she let out her frustration by lunging her spear towards me. I sidestepped it as I smirked at her, mocking her.

I kept dodging her attacks as I asked him “Say, what’s your name?” trying to get information out of her as she shouted “You don’t deserve to know my name!!” as she kept swinging and thrusting her spear at me. “WHY CAN’T YOU STAND STILL!!” she shouted as she thrusted her spear at me, as I sidestepped and her spear thrust itself into a tree, embedding it. “OH COME ON!!” She shouted as She struggled to pull it out.

“You wanna know why you're not doing any damage or not hitting me at all tuff love?”

I told her as I then looked at her group that were exhausted and looked at her, “Listen here Rosalia, Titans hand is nothing more than a joke to me” as she took a shocked pause as she looked at me with a bit of fear. “H-How did you..-” she stuttered as I interrupted her sentence, saying “I have friends that I can contact.. Don’t think your name will be any privacy..” with a small smile.

I sighed in a little bit of a relief as three of her men slashed at me with their Skills as my health chipped down slightly but immediately recovered within a couple of seconds. All of them were shocked as I looked and sighed a bit, “Cat’s out of the bag now” I said as I then explained to the guild “You’re all weak, your proficiency weaponry, and gear are weak, If you want a real weapon then here. I got one” as I pulled out my sword.

“Quit your High horse talk dipshit!”

Rosalia shouted as I looked and said “Oh well, we have a volunteer” as she pulled out her spear and aimed it towards me. I looked at her spear and said “Cute spear” mocking her as she angrily threw out a volley of attacks, I deflected the ones coming at me as she threw a thrusting shot towards my abdomen.

Rosalia pierced my abdomen with her spear, the head of the spear shooting outward from my back as I stood my ground. She smirked as she thought she landed a good blow, I chuckled again as my health regenerate quickly again. I grabbed the handle and slowly pulled Rosalia towards me, her eyes were filled with fear as I looked at her and said “Let’s try mine..”. I rammed my sword into her abdomen, dropping her health to low red immediately.

“W-wait..-”

Rosalia tried muttering as I pulled the sword out and swiftly decapitated her head. Rosalia’s head dropped to the floor as it shattered into polygons, along with the spear and her body as well. I turned around to look at the other Titan’s Hand members as I told them.

“Tell your fellow PK groups to fear the man nicknamed the Reaper…If not then I’ll come for them if they make it onto my list…”

the other players ran away from fear as I waited for them to leave, I sighed as I patted my abdomen saying “That hurt, but not as much as Toru’s dropkick” as I just remembered about Toru. “OH SHIT TORU!” I shouted as I ran the other way, running back to Frieven. “CRAP CRAP CRAPPP!!!” I thought as I ran all the way back to Frieven, quickly looking around for Toru. “AH NO! SHES GONNA DROPKICK ME AGAIN!!” I thought frantically as my train of thought continued “QUICK KIRIN WHERE WOULD TORU-” as my train of thought was quickly cut off.

“THERE YOU ARE!!!”

Toru shouted in anger as she drop-kicked my side this time, feeling like my left ribs just shattered into dust. I was flung to the other side, crashing into the ground and crashing into a pillar that was nearby a blacksmith shop. A Purple hexagonal text showed up saying “Immortal Object” as I sighed and got back up. I looked at Toru dusting off my clothes as she pouted me and turned her attention away from me, crossing her arms. I thought to myself “Damn, just because I was up early doesn’t mean you have to go full anti-social on me..” as I walked over to Toru.

“C’mon don’t be mad Toru”

I said to her trying to cheer her up as she looked at me and shouted “YOU WERE UP SINCE FOUR IN THE MORNING KIRIN!!” as I felt somewhat guilty getting my levels up before her. “Yeah…Well you see..-” as she grabbed my ear and dragged me out of Frieven shouting in Japanese “I’ll teach you to wake up on TIME not EARLY!!!”. I was crying through the entire trip as I had my ear being pulled on by Toru, I couldn’t really have an opinion as we had planned two days before to spend time together.

We stopped at a new dungeon as I rubbed my ear, she looked at me and looked away still angry, I looked at her as I leaned down a bit and kissed her cheek. Her face turned red as she tried to brush it off saying “W-well, are we going in or not..?” as she headed in first. I watched her for a bit as I followed in behind her, telling her “yeah, I’m coming” as behind her frustration was a bit of tough love. As we walked into the dungeon I took some time to reflect on my life from before SAO and currently experiencing SAO.

“If…If I haven’t seen this game on Youtube… I don’t think my life would have turned out as good as the one I’m currently in… Sword Art Online or SAO… It…It really opened my eyes to new opportunities… Being part of a somewhat stable relationship… Having friends that trust me… and…Finally being able to move on… I…I wish to move on not just by myself…But with my friends…they’re more like family to me now…”