|||||||||||||||||||| - Why She Is Hiding in the Other Man's Eyes
Every night in my bed, for the last 99 days, I have dreamed of climbing a castle. The castle is made of pure black steel. Each floor is stacked, one on top of another, supported by four massive pillars. On each floor, there exists an environment similar to those found in nature. Forests dotted with ponds and lakes, frozen wastelands where only a few can survive, and deserts pushing people to their limits.
The extreme floor was rare, but challenging to navigate. It set a precedent for what was to come next.
They say the journey matters more than the destination. I would agree, but with a heavy heart.
The castle I dreamed of climbing was Aincrad, but not set within the newer, safer Alfheim Online. My dreams were set within the horror of Sword Art Online, every single one stricken with blood.
As much as the horror tugged at my heart and mind to quit dreaming, I couldn’t stop to deny the beauty of the journey that Sword Art Online had taken me through. The scars that had taken form on my figure–both literally and metaphorically–crafted me into the person that currently stood before a massive, spiraling staircase.
The staircase spiraled slowly, but the width of the stairs made it appear much more frightening than I thought before I approached. Each step was sized uniformly from the pillar to the spiraling edge on the left, ensuring one’s safe travel upon every facet of the castle.
Obsidian step by obsidian step, I made my way up the staircase. It was well over a one-hundred foot climb on these steps alone, but that was nothing in comparison to the sheer mass that was the castle of Aincrad. Every staircase I had conquered up to this point was the same height and took just under three minutes to climb. Time didn’t necessarily matter, not here, anyway.
Just ten feet from the top, I saw red rays of light shining through an open hole above me. I also saw clouds–the first instance of sky beyond looking out to the horizon. It was at this moment that I finally knew, even though I had only dreamed of it, I had made it to Aincrad’s pinnacle. The ultimatum of the castle was built on 100 layers stacked like a cake. And now, I was there.
I climbed for another twenty steps and looked to the direction the light was coming from.
What I saw far in front of me was nothing short of immense beauty.
Large square stones paved a pathway straight ahead with stone bridges every three hundred feet. Flower beds, ten feet by twenty feet were spaced just five feet apart, spanning a flat, perfectly cut grassland. A radius of oak trees just a kilometer away. And the most apparent thing of all: a tall castle. But this was no conventional castle, either. This castle was very familiar to me, but not because I knew it. This castle–no, palace, was red with its structure divided up into circles connected by pillars with a conical shape.
This was the Ruby Palace: the pinnacle of Sword Art Online. My eyes had now become glued to the bright red palace that scattered the sunlight. I could feel a fire in my eyes, not of light, but desire to conquer it. But ultimately, I know I couldn’t.
“Impressive, isn’t it?” I heard a voice not too dissimilar to my own call out behind me. I turned around in response and discovered the appearance of someone also similar. Short black hair, red eyes with a fire of desire, and a red cape swaying in the winds.
The man walked up to me, bearing striking resemblance.
To myself.
"Yeah… Who knew this was up here the whole time?"
"Kayaba, obviously." The man scoffed, then gave me a hearty pat on the back.
"C'mon, it's time."
"-ake up!... Trey, it's time to wake up!"
My eyes immediately snapped open to the sight of Suguha's puffed cheeks. It took me a moment to realize what had happened since my dream ended…or morphed into her voice.
"What? No time to salivate in joy? C'mon…" I teased lightly, sitting up with the sheets falling off of my midriff. Suguha saw me without a shirt and immediately headed for the door.
"Kazuto's downstairs, don't make him wait!.."
I sat in silence for a moment before I coughed out an "okay" in response.
Before I knew it, I was downstairs with a jacket, pants, and toque all in the same color–red–and headed for my brother, impatiently tapping his foot.
“Thomas.”
“Dude, we have a solid five hours ‘till the tourney! We’ll head to the dive, but I’m getting a bite before we jack in, alright?”
Kazuto groaned loudly at my desire for food before an operation this critical. We had this dynamic even back in SAO: I wanted food, but Kazu always wanted to just get something done, then get food.
Either way, we were soon enough headed towards the hospital once again for the second, and hopefully final dive into this sticky situation.
Shino pulled the bag up onto her back and thanked the small shop owner. She had just bought a cup of yogurt. She was expecting it to be her meal before taking part in the Bullet of Bullets as Sinon.
She had aspirations for this big battle set on an island from ages past, on ISL Ragnarok. She had been there once before, but now she had a challenge to look forwards to, but before that…
"Asada~! Aaaasadaaaa!"
Her name was called from an alley directly connected to the street market, but mostly obfuscated from view.
Shino knew in an instant she shouldn't gone this far from home just for a cup of yogurt. Either way, she couldn't fight it now, and stepped into the alleyway, hoping to get it all over with.
"Asada! So good to see you…" Endou's voice leered at Shino in an attempt to threaten her. Shino almost immediately knew what Endou was trying to pry from Shino: money.
"I know what you want," Shino stated, not letting Endou get another word in. "And I'm not letting you get it."
This situation happened time and time again: Endou threatened Shino for money that she didn't intend to give to her. The start and current point of these robberies was nothing short of a long story, starting even before Shino was a tween.
Shino had chosen to take the route of being strong with her choice of words on this occasion, but she knew it was fruitless.
"Oh~? The little bitch wants to play tough this time? Hey, what are you doing here!?"
Endou's eyes had leaped from Shino's figure to just right of her. The face pummeled by makeup burned with anger at someone who didn't look Japanese.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
"What, a man can't walk past a holdup without getting chastised?" The man on the left spoke in a clearly-joking monotone. The man's hair was as black as night, his eyes were red like blood, and his outfit was entirely red.
"I mean, your tactic clearly isn't working. Your supposed 'bitch' hasn't given up a thing." The man began to walk up towards, briefly inspecting Shino before locking eyes with Endou. For the brief moment that the man looked at Shino, she thought that she knew the eyes that man wore. She had never seen irises with such vivid color in that hue. There could be one person, but that was incredibly unlikely. Coincidence, even.
"Why you-!" Endou hissed and readied her left fist, clenching it tight enough to pop her fingers.
She lifted her hand, pulled back, and swung, but her face was caught into a look of terror as he looked up at him. It took Shino a moment to find out what happened, and discovered Endou's arm twisted just past three-quarters of a rotation to the man's right.
He knew clearly where the point was between feeling the twisting and feeling pain, and slowly started to twist farther, one minor rotation at a time.
Endou's eyes and vocals trembled as the man leaned down to her height and stared directly in her eyes.
"Here's what's gonna happen," he began in a dark monotone. Endou had finally decided to realize she had a free hand open and sent another fist flying at his left cheek. It stopped just a foot before making contact, and was twisted the same as her other arm, but in the opposite direction.
Then he continued.
"You're gonna delta from this alleyway, find a better spot to hang out, and never come back. Understand?"
Endou nodded with fierce fear, sweat beading down the side of her neck.
“Good,” the man let go of her arms. “Now get the hell outta here.”
Endou and her group quickly scurried out of the alleyway. Shino haden’t noticed while the man was confronting Endou, but the rest of her group had slowly grown more stressed as the man kept her at bay from doing anything to Shino.
She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t impressed, not to mention thankful of his action taken with force.
Just a week ago, Endou and her group had been scared off from a simple, “Over here, Officer! In the alley,” from her one and only friend: Kyouji Shinkawa.
The man looked back at Shino and asked, "They didn't take anything from you, right?"
Shino shook her head. "Not this time, at least," she replied quietly, pulling her muffler up just a little bit higher.
"Well, here's a word of advice: pick your alleyways wisely,” he said blatantly. In fairness, he made a good point. But before Shino knew it, the man turned on his heel and continued in the direction he was going in.
The wood vinyl door slid to the right after I pressed my keycard against the reader. Kazuto had been in the hospital for hours prior, idling around as if he were trying to find something to do in a blank room.
Upon my arrival–announced by the gentle woosh of the sliding door–Kazuto looked at me through watery eyes. This was a rare sight to see from him, let alone before something so massive like the BoB tourney.
“What pinched you this time?” I semi-sarcastically asked. It was a bad choice.
“Don’t even, Trey..” His eyes looked back to the floor under his head and I saw a tear run down his nose and onto the tiles underneath.
“Kazu,” I sighed, approaching him from his left and planting myself on the bed. “What’s up? You’re clearly not okay.”
Kazuto glanced at me before looking back down and breathed in a sigh.
“I… I couldn’t sleep… What happened yesterday, it…”
“Hurt you?” I completed his sentence, to his surprise.
“You weren’t yourself on the way over here, bro. I knew something was eating at you, something that hadn’t came back in a long time.”
“You’re not wrong,” he said painfully, pulling a meaningless grin at the floor before losing it. “After you left the server, I had to talk to Yui to get myself to sleep. But, now today, sitting here… I can’t remember them…”
“Remember who?”
“The people I killed…” Kazuto’s voice was frozen in pain. I knew not to cut into the wound that Sword Art Online had created. But now was to time to stitch it back together for him, even if it meant mine grew ever larger.
“You’re not alone. We both did things we didn’t like to do. I robbed people, but you pulled me out of it. If it weren’t for what you did, I’d be dead. Same goes for the people you saved by killing those Laughing Coffin members and putting them in their place. But now…”
My voice trailed off and my eyes drifted to the left, looking out of the window.
“Now we do what we can to make this right.” I finished, looking at Kazuto again with a placide look. He knew every fiber of my being was lifting him back up so I could stay in the limelight.
“Truthfully? I say we grab the hottest iron we can find, storm into the tournament finale, and cut our own path to ending Laughing Coffin’s existence. We do this together, Kazuto. We promised.”
I reached out a hand and grabbed his wrist so that his hand could interlock with my wrist, like a brother's bond.
"Yeah… we promised…" Kazuto looked up at me and grabbed a hold of my arm, pulling a grin on his lips like he always does.
"You boys ready?" Aki asked, standing between our beds, looking back and forth between us. After an affirmative nod, we both relaxed our bodies, and collectively called out;
"Link Start!"
"Are you ready, Glocken?" A high pitched voice called out over a city-wide sound system. On multiple screens, a girl in neon hyperpop clothing pointed at a virtual camera, as if pointing to an audience. A cheer came shortly after, which sounded like it had just under one million voices behind it.
"Are you really ready?! Because this show is gonna be: Crazy! As! Hell!" The cheers were even louder as she bounced in rhythm with her words.
"In thirty minutes, thirty players are gonna shoot each other in the fuckin' heads to see which player is the best in Gun Gale Online!" Said another girl on the screen in hyperpop attire of a different color. In just the swipe of a finger, the tab that the stream was displaying a in-game view of a player’s perspective was deleted. The browser automatically opened another tab–a forum dedicated as the, “Death Gun Information Repository,” with "Death Gun” colored in red.
The eyes connected to the finger, hand, and arm suddenly stopped once a little window popped up on the bottom right of the wide display. It read, “Get ready” in Japanese lettering. Then another window, “It’s showtime.” After sending back a brief reply, the browser was closed, and folder containing a short list of image and text files was opened.
The images were of characters taken at odd angles, but still enough to capture their face and general look. In the folder were the addresses of three males and a female that hadn’t been touched or modified since October. They contained a man in a full-face mask, another man with a large sombrero like an old mexican ganger, and another man doused in red light. Directly next to the image of the red haired and eyed man was another person: the only female on the list.
After inspecting the images and touching the monitor where the girl’s face sat, the computer and monitor were individually turned off and the man left the seat of the chair. Then, he lied down on a bed with a device made of dual rings on his head, and spoke a command to begin a link onto the other side.
Flashing lights whizzed by and an avatar materialized in the back of a club. Music was blasting the concrete walls with intense pressure. It was a miracle this weren’t his real ears.
Without giving it another thought, the avatar began to slide through crowds, being oddly mindful of those who were dancing. Purple and blue light reflected off many surfaces, making a cascade of light that bled out towards the thick crowded streets outside. It was immaculate cover. That, and the City Hall was just 15 minutes away. Absolutely nothing was going to stop Death Gun from performing his best–except for a pesky red haired swordsman that knew better than to leave default options enabled.
Katana Zero (Powernerd Remix)
“Woo! Dance, Zenith!” Leona called out to me, bouncing with the beat of intense dance music. I took to standing on the side of the crowd, drinking an alcoholized beer float.
“I’ll pass. Maybe next time.”
“Booo! You’re no fun, old man!”
No fun my ass. We were located in the CCD Glocken City Hall which had been transformed overnight into a club. Surrounding a dance floor were 30 glass cylinders on platforms that contained beautiful women in airated water.
To say that the sights that I saw were surreal would be understating it: this was a materialized dream. The way the dancer’s bodies moved in the water was like watching a lava lamp. Unpredictable, but so, so beautiful.
My train of thought was completely shut off from pursuing more about the women in the tubes as I heard an ear-splitting hyperpop vocalist call out to the club.
“It’s that tiiiime~! You know what happens now!”
As the girl in hyperpop attire stood in frame of multiple holographic screens. Multiple men cheered at the alluring figure under the outfit, but they knew they would never be heard.
“Get ready, combatants! The Bullet of Bullets Final Match starts in just thirty seconds! Line up at your pods!” Shots upon shots were sent into the ceiling of the club, causing multiple purple windows to show where bullets struck. I simply scoffed at the wasteful use of ammo and began to make my way to one of the pods.
Upon my arrival to the pod, it became evident that stairs connected the lifted glass tube to the floor. Once I placed my foot on one of the steps, the water was immediately drained from it. The female inside quickly dropped to her feet and turned around, locking her eyes onto me.
In her eyes, bits of code quickly executed, and she quickly approached me down the stairs.
“So, you’re second time participant Zenith, I hear? My my, what a strange allure you have~.”
Once she reached my step, she leaned in close with a voice like a perfectly tuned guitar.
“Don’t be one to disappoint~.”
As she stepped away, I stepped up and entered the circular platform. It was just big enough to fit my body if I had just my wrists pointing out.
“Alright, players!” The hyperpop girl’s voice rang out as the glass tube from before slowly shut itself down on me. At the same time, droplets of water began pouring down on my head, and neon beams of light shot up from the floor below me.
“Here’s our most likely competitors to win!”
I didn’t bother looking up. The only thing on my mind at the moment was scanning around and attempting to spot Death Gun. All the other 29 tubes had been lowered down at this point, with the bottoms sealed from the outside world. Mine closed tight as I spotted a tube that was shut but with no player inside… It boggled my mind for a moment as I tried to consider the possibility before being taken right back out of it by a high pitched voice.
“Are you ready?”
A cheer made primarily of men bellowed in my ears.
“ARE YOU REALLY FUCKIN’ READAYE?!”
An even louder cheer.
“THEN HERE WE GOOOOOOOOO!!!”
Then everything faded to blue, then black, then…
forest.