Sword Art Online Light Novels
- Volume 1 Chapter 13---Chapter 19:
- You can see sword art online Volume 1 just :
Volume 1
Chapter 13
The newly opened living area on the 75th floor was a city reminiscent of ancient Rome. According to the map, its name was «Collinia». The entire city was already filled with activity, thanks to the large numbers of fighters and merchants that have settled in, as well as others who took no part in clearing the game but had come to sight-see. On top of all that, a rare special event would be held here today, so guests had been pouring out of the teleport gate since this morning.
The city was mostly constructed from square bricks of white limestone. One building stood out amongst its temple-like buildings and wide waterways; that was the huge coliseum which towered in front of the gate plaza. It was perfect for holding the duel between Heathcliff and me. But...
"Fire-breathing popcorn for ten Col a cup! Ten Col!"
"Cold black beer for sale~!"
Numerous merchants were selling their goods in front of the coliseum entrance; they were calling out to the long line of spectators and selling them strange looking refreshments.
"...This, what on earth is this...?"
Shocked by the sight unfolding before me, I could only ask Asuna, who was standing beside me.
"I-I don't know..."
"Hey, isn't that a KoB member selling the tickets!? How on earth did it turn into such a large event!?"
"I-I don't know..."
"Is this Heathcliff's real goal...?"
"No, I think that the head of finances, Daizen-san, is the one behind this. He wouldn't miss an opportunity like this."
As Asuna laughed, I sagged my shoulders and felt completely powerless.
"...Let's run away Asuna. We can go live in some small village on the 20th floor and plow fields."
"I'm fine with that, but..."
Asuna then added teasingly:
"You'll make a rea~lly bad name for yourself if you run away now."
"Damn-it..."
"Well, it's your own fault, isn't it? Ah... Daizen-san."
As I lifted my head, I saw a fat man who was waddling towards us; he was so wide that it was impossible to find a person less suited to wear the red-white uniform of the KoB.
With a wide smile covering his round face, he started talking to us:
"Thanks ta Kirito-san we're makin' lotsa money! If ya jus' did it once every month I'd be really thankful!"
"No way!!"
"Come, come, the waitin' room's over here. Come on, this way please."
I resigned myself to my fate and followed him. I didn't even care about what would happen anymore.
The waiting room was a small place that faced the arena. After Daizen escorted me to the entrance, he said something about adjusting the betting prices and disappeared. I didn't even have the energy to curse him anymore. From the waiting room, I could hear countless indistinct cheers outside. It seemed that the audience seating was already filled.
When only the two of us remained, Asuna grasped my palm with both her hands and spoke with a serious expression.
"...Even if it's a First Strike match, it'll be dangerous if you get directly hit by a strong critical strike. Especially since many of the leader's moves aren't even known, you should forfeit as soon as you feel something is wrong, understood? I'll never forgive you if you do something dangerous again like last time!"
"You should be worrying about Heathcliff more."
I smiled and tapped both of Asuna's shoulders.
As an announcement declared the start of the duel, the crowd gave off a thunderous roar. I pulled the two swords on my back out by a bit, and then slid them back into their scabbards with a *clang*. After that, I began to walk towards the square light hoop on the field.
The step seating that ringed the amphitheater was fully packed with people. My guess is that there were at least a thousand spectators. I could see Klein and Agil on the front rows, screaming dangerous things like "Dice him up" and "Kill him" .
I walked to the center of the arena before stopping. Then, a deep red silhouette emerged from the opposite waiting room, and the cheering became even more intense.
Unlike the normal Knights of the Blood uniform, which was red on white, Heathcliff wore a red surcoat that was the complete opposite. Although he was like me and wore almost no armor, he held a huge, pure-white, cross-shaped shield in his left hand, which had immediately caught my attention. His sword seemed to be sheathed within the shield, as I could see the cross-shaped handle protruding from its top.
Heathcliff walked casually until he stood right before me. He glanced at the crowd and then spoke with a bitter smile.
"I must apologize, Kirito-kun. I really had no idea that this was going to happen."
"I'm going to be asking for my share of the money."
"No... After this fight you'll be part of our guild. I'll be designating this duel as one of the guild's missions."
Heathcliff then erased his smile, and his brass colored eyes started giving off an overwhelming energy. Intimidated, I unconsciously took half a step back. In reality, we were probably lying down at places far away from each other, with only digital data being passed between us. But, I still felt something that could only be called killing intent.
My mind went into its battle state, and my eyes received Heathcliff's gaze head on. The loud cheering sounded as if it was moving further away. Before I realized it, my senses had already begun to quicken, and it felt like even the colors of the surroundings had changed.
Heathcliff turned his gaze and walked to a spot about ten meters away from me. He then raised his right hand and manipulated the menu screen that appeared without even glancing at it. A duel message appeared in front of me. I consented and set the mode to first strike.
The countdown started. I could barely hear the shouts around me now.
My blood began to pump faster. I vanquished the last remaining bits of hesitation and let loose my desire to fight. Then I drew my two swords at the same time from behind my back. My opponent wasn't someone I could win against unless I went all out from the beginning.
Heathcliff drew his thin, long sword from his shield, and then held it resolutely as he entered his combat stance.
He stood with his shield turned towards me and the right side of his body away from me. I couldn't feel any forced strength behind his stance. I realized that trying to predict his actions would only confuse me further, and decided to simply charge in immediately and attack with full power.
Even though neither of us glanced at the window, we both kicked off as soon as the «Duel» message appeared.
I lowered my stance as I ran; my body nearly scraping the floor as it glided in.
I twisted my body around right before reaching Heathcliff and swung the sword in my right hand upwards to the left. It was blocked by the cross-shaped shield and sent out a burst of sparks. But my attack was part of a two hit combo. Point one second after the first strike, my left sword slid in behind the shield. It was a Dual Blades dash-type skill «Double Circular».
The strike from the left was deflected by the long sword; its circular lighting effect stopped midway. Although it was disappointing, this move was just a signal for beginning the fight. Using the force of the sword skill, I widened the distance between us and then charged at my opponent again.
This time, Heathcliff countered by charging me with his shield. His right arm was hidden behind his huge cross-shaped shield, making it hard to see.
"Che!"
I dashed to my right in an attempt to evade his attack. I thought that if I stayed on Heathcliff's shield side, I would have enough time to react to his attacks even if I couldn't see the trajectory.
But then Heathcliff lifted his shield up horizontally.
"Haa!"
With this low shout, he executed a piercing attack with his shield. It came at me, leaving a trail of pure white light.
"Ahh!!"
I just managed to guard by crossing my two swords. The powerful impact rattled my entire body and sent me flying back by several meters. I dug my right sword into the ground to stop myself from falling over and then flipped in midair before landing.
It was unexpected, but it seemed that the shield itself could also be used as a weapon. It was similar to Dual Blades in a sense. I had originally thought that my overwhelming attack speed would allow me to win in a first strike duel; but it seemed that I was wrong.
Heathcliff dashed towards me, closing the distance between us and denying me of any time to recover. The sword with the cross-shaped hilt in his right hand pierced towards me at a speed that could rival Asuna the «Flash».
As the opponent started his combo attack, I could only use both of my swords to defend. Before the duel, Asuna had explained as much as she could about «Holy Sword»; but it seemed that cramming just wasn't enough. Therefore, I could only rely on split-second decisions to block the incoming blows.
After using my left sword to parry the last upward slash of his eight strike combo, I immediately attempted a one-hit sword skill, «Vorpal Strike», with my right.
"Hya...aaa!!"
With the metallic noise of a jet engine, the sword skill left a red trail of light before striking the center of his shield. It felt as if I had hit a stone wall; but my hands kept going to finish the strike.
*Claang!!* The sound of the impact rang out, and this time Heathcliff was pushed back. I couldn't completely pierce the shield, but I felt the feeling of having «penetrated» his defense. Heathcliff's HP had been reduced slightly, but not enough to decide the fight.
Heathcliff landed agilely and widened the distance between us.
"...Impressive reaction time."
"More like your defense is too perfect...!!"
I charged as I said this. Heathcliff also raised his sword and closed in on me.
We started trading blows at blinding speeds. My sword was blocked by his shield; his sword was deflected by mine. Various light trails of different colors appeared and faded continuously around us, while the sounds of our weapons clashing shook the arena floor. A minor blow made it through every once a while, and our HP decreased bit by bit. Even if both players failed to make a clean hit, one would win the moment their opponent's HP fell below 50%.
But I didn't care about that anymore. I felt myself accelerating in exhilaration, as this was the first time I had faced such a strong opponent since being trapped in SAO. Every time my senses sharpened, the speed of my attacks rose by another notch.
I still haven't reached my limit. I can still get faster. Follow me if you can, Heathcliff!!!
As I released every ounce of strength at my disposal, I drowned myself in the savage joy of swinging my swords. I was most probably laughing. While the exchange of sword blows intensified, the HP of both sides continued to decrease until they nearly reached the 50% area.
At that instant, Heathcliff's stoic face finally showed a flash of emotion.
What was it? Nervousness? I felt the speed of his blows decrease just a little.
"Haaaa!"
In that moment, I abandoned all defenses and launched an assault with both of my swords: «Starburst Stream». My blades rushed towards Heathcliff like the blazing flames of a solar prominence.
"Argh...!!"
Heathcliff raised his cross-shaped shield to guard. But I just ignored it and kept hacking away at him from the right, left, up, and down. Meanwhile, his responses became even slower.
—I can break through!!
I was certain that the last strike would breach his defense. With his shield overextended to the right, my attack from the left streaked in, drawing a trajectory of light. As long as this blow lands, his HP will definitely fall below the halfway mark, and I would win the—
Then, at this moment, my entire world shook.
"—!?"
How should I describe it? It was as if some of my time had been taken away from me.
For several tenths of a second, everything around me seemed to freeze; everything except Heathcliff. The shield that should have been on the right suddenly appeared on the left, as if I was watching a stop motion video, and blocked my sword.
"Wha—!?"
I was stunned for a fatal moment after the strong attack was blocked. There was no way that Heathcliff would have lost that chance.
The long sword in his right hand launched a one-hit skill, which came at me with a detestable accuracy that would surely decide the match. I fell into an unsightly heap. I could see the purple system message, which announced that the duel had ended, with the corner of my eye.
My battle state had disappeared. I simply laid there, my mind blank, even as the cheering registered in my head once again.
"Kirito-kun!!"
Asuna ran over and shook me back to my senses.
"Ah...yeah... I'm fine."
Asuna looked at my blank expression with worry.
I lost—?
I still couldn't believe it. Heathcliff's unearthly speed during those final moments had gone past the limits of a player— past the limits of any human. I even saw the polygons that made up his avatar distort for a moment because of the impossible speed.
As I sat on the ground, I raised my head and gazed at Heathcliff's face.
But the expression of the winner was angry for some reason. The red paladin glared at us with his metallic eyes, then turned around wordlessly and walked over to his waiting room amidst the thunderous cheering.
Chapter 14
"Wha...? What is that!?"
"What do you mean? You know what this is. Now come on, get up!"
The things that Asuna had forced me into were my new clothes. Although it had the same design as the coat I used to wear, it was also blindingly white. There were two small crosses on each of my cuffs and a large one on my back; all three of them were dyed in bright red. It was, beyond any doubt, a KoB uniform.
"...I-I said I wanted something plain..."
"This is already pretty plain. Yeah, it suits you!!"
I sank into the rocking chair as all strength left my body. I was still living on the second floor of Agil's shop. The place had already become my disaster shelter, so the pitiable shopkeeper could only sleep on a simple bed on the first floor. The only reason he hadn't chased me out was because Asuna came every other day to help out with the shop. It was the best advertising opportunity he could get.
As I groaned in my chair, Asuna came and sat down on the armrest, which had become her designated spot. She rocked the chair with a smile, as if my current predicament was amusing to her, and then clapped her hands together as if she had thought of something.
"Ah, we better say our greetings properly. As a member of the guild, I hope we can get along well."
As she suddenly bowed, I straightened my back to reply.
"I-I hope we get along too... but then again, I'm just a normal member while you're the sub-leader, so..."
I swept my right forefinger down Asuna's spine.
"I won't be able to do things like this anymore—"
"Kyaa!"
With this scream, my superior jumped up and struck her subordinate's head. Then she walked over to the opposite chair and sat down; her face pouting.
Under the lazy sunlight of late autumn, we went into a short and peaceful lull.
My loss in the duel against Heathcliff had passed two days ago. As I wasn't someone who would go back on his word, I joined the Knights of the Blood as I had agreed with Heathcliff. The guild gave me two days to prepare, so starting tomorrow I would be following their orders to explore the 75th floor labyrinth.
Joining a guild, huh—
Asuna glanced at me as she heard my quiet sigh.
"...You got mixed up in all this because of me."
"Nah, it's fine. It's a good opportunity for me. I was starting to feel the limits of solo playing anyway..."
"It's a relief to hear you say that... Hey, Kirito-kun..."
Asuna's hazelnut eyes looked directly at me.
"Can you tell me why you avoid guilds... avoid people...? I don't think it's merely because you're a beta tester or a unique skill user, because you are a very kind person."
I shifted my gaze downwards and slowly rocked my chair.
"...A long time ago... over a year actually, I once joined a guild...."
The words came out so easily that it surprised me. Maybe it was because Asuna's gaze felt like it would be able to melt the pain that spiked through me every time I thought about this.
"I was offered a spot after I met and helped them by chance in a labyrinth area... It was a small guild with only six members, including me, and it had an interesting name: «Black Cats of the Full Moon»."
Asuna smiled lightly.
"The leader was a good person. He was a two-handed stave user called Keita. He always thought of the guild members first in any situation, so everyone trusted him deeply. He told me that he was on the lookout for a forward, since most of the members used longer-ranged two-handed weapons...
To tell the truth, their levels were all much lower than mine. No, I should say that I had leveled too much.
If I had told him my level, Keita would have thought otherwise about inviting me. But I had been getting tired of going into the Labyrinths alone day after day, and the family-like atmosphere of the «Black Cats» had made me envious. It felt like they were real-life friends, as the conversations they had with each other lacked any of the awkwardness and distance that was usually evident in online conversations between players; that had deeply appealed to me as well.
Frankly, I had no right to desire for the care of others. I had lost that right when I decided to become a solo player and selfishly leveled only for myself. But I had quelled my inner voices and joined the guild, hiding both my level and my beta-tester past.
Keita asked me if I could train one of their spear users into a sword-and-shield user. Because then there would be three forwards, including myself, and the guild would make a balanced party.
The spear user who he had entrusted to me was a quiet girl with shoulder-length black hair named Sachi. When we were introduced, she said, with an embarrassed smile, that despite being a long-time gamer, she hadn't been able to make many friends due to her personality. Whenever there were no guild activities, I had hung out with her and taught her how to use her single-handed sword.
Sachi and I were similar in a lot of ways. We were both socially awkward, preferred to wall ourselves in, and yet feared loneliness.
Then one day, she suddenly told me that she was afraid of dying, that she was so scared of this game of death that she didn't want to go out and train.
In response to her divulgence, I could only say 'I won't let you die'. I couldn't say anything else to her since I was still trying to hide my level. After she heard my response, she cried for a bit before forcing out a smile.
On another day, some time later, the five of us, all of the guild excluding Keita, went into a labyrinth. Keita didn't come with us because he had gone to bargain for a house to use as our HQ with the money that we had managed to save up.
Although the labyrinth we went to had already been cleared, there were still unexplored areas within it. One of the members discovered a treasure chest when we were preparing to leave. I recommended leaving it alone, as we were close to the front lines so the monsters had high levels. Furthermore, I didn't trust the trap dismantling skills of the members. But since only Sachi and I opposed opening the treasure chest, we lost 3 to 2 on the vote.
It was an alarm trap, one of the worst types of traps. As soon as we opened the chest, an ear-splitting alarm sounded, and monsters began to pour in from every entrance to the room. We immediately attempted to escape by teleporting.
But the trap was twofold. The room was an Anti-Crystal Area— our crystals didn't work.
There were simply too many monsters to hold back. The other members fell into complete confusion and ran around aimlessly. I tried to cut a path open by using the high class sword skills that I had been hiding up until now, but the panicked members didn't make it out in time. One by one, their HP fell to zero, and they screamed before bursting into tiny fragments. I thought that I could at least save Sachi and swung my sword endlessly.
But it was too late. I saw Sachi reaching out towards me with her hand while a monster cut her down mercilessly. Her eyes were still trusting even as she shattered like a glass statue and disappeared. She had trusted and relied on me until the very end; but because my words were weak and shallow, they had become nothing more than an empty promise, a lie.
Keita had been waiting for us in the inn that had served as our temporary base with the new HQ keys in his hands. After returning to the inn by myself, I explained to Keita what had happened. He had listened wordlessly until I finished, then asked me:
'How did you survive?'
Then I revealed my real level and that I had been a beta tester.
Keita had glared at me as if I was something disgusting, then said one thing.
'—A beater like you didn't have any right to join us.'
Those words had stabbed through me as if they were a steel sword."
"...What happened... to that person...?"
"He committed suicide."
Asuna's body shuddered on the chair.
"He jumped off the edge of the floor. Most probably cursing me... to the very end..."
I felt my throat contract. As I recounted these memories that I had sealed deep inside my heart, the painful emotions of back then returned with perfect clarity. I gritted my teeth. Although I wanted to reach out to Asuna for comfort, a voice in my mind whispered, "You have no right to do so", which left me with only the option of tightly clenching my fists.
"I had killed them. If I didn't hide the fact that I was a beta tester, I would have been able to persuade them to leave the chest alone. It was me... I'm the one who had killed Keita... and Sachi..."
With my eyes wide open, I forced these words out of my gritted teeth.
Asuna suddenly stood up, took two steps towards me, and caressed my face with both her hands. She pulled her beautiful face closer to mine with a warm smile.
"I won't die."
She said it in a whisper, yet the voice was very clear. I felt the strength leave my tensed body.
"Because, I'm... I'm somebody who'll protect you."
After saying this, Asuna brought my head to her chest and embraced it. I felt a soft and warm darkness cover me.
As I closed my eyes, my mind reached over the dark veil of my memories and saw the faces of the Black Cat members; they were all sitting at the Inn's counter, bathed in an orange glow.
I cannot be forgiven. I can never pay the price for my wrongdoings.
Yet despite this, the faces that remained in my memories seemed to be smiling.
On the next day, I put on my blindingly white coat and left with Asuna for Grandum on the 55th floor.
Starting today, I would begin my work as a Knights of the Blood guild member. However, in contrast to the usual five-person party, Asuna took advantage of her power and allowed us to form a two-person party; so in reality, it was no different from yesterday.
But the orders that awaited us at the guild HQ were totally unexpected.
"Training...?"
"Yes. We will make a party of four and go through the Labyrinth Area in the 55th floor until we reach the living area of the 56th floor."
The man who said this was one of the four other men who were present at the table when I had talked with Heathcliff. He was a huge man with thick blond curls and looked like an axe wielder.
"Wait, Godfree! Kirito-kun is going to..."
As Asuna started arguing, Godfree raised one eyebrow and responded in a confident, if not presumptuous, voice.
"Even the sub-leader must adhere to the rules. I don't mind the party he joins for exploration. But as the commander of the vanguard, I must test his capabilities. Even if he is a unique skill user, we don't actually know if he'll be of any use to us."
"W-With Kirito-kun's strength, there's no way he'll be an inconvenience..."
I calmed the agitated Asuna down before speaking:
"If you want to see, then I'll show you. But I don't want to waste time in such a low-level labyrinth. Would rushing through it in one run be alright with you?"
Godfree closed his mouth with an expression of displeasure. Then he left after saying:
"Assemble at the west city gate in thirty minutes."
"What kind of attitude is that!?"
Asuna kicked the steel pillar with her boots in indignation.
"I'm sorry, Kirito-kun. Maybe it would have been better if we had run away..."
"If we did that, all the members of the guild would collectively curse me to death."
I smiled and hit Asuna's head playfully.
"Uuuu, I thought that we would be together today... Should I go along with you...?"
"I'll be back soon. Just wait here."
"Yeah... Be careful..."
Asuna nodded reluctantly. After waving my hand towards her, I walked out of the HQ.
But when I arrived at the appointed location —the west gate of Grandum— I saw something even more shocking.
Next to Godfree stood the person who I least wanted to see in this world — Kuradeel.
Chapter 15
“...What is this?”
I asked Godfree quietly.
“Hmm, I already know what happened between you two. But since you're comrades within the same guild from now on, I thought this would be a good opportunity to work out the bad blood between you two.”
As I watched Godfree laugh with his head up in the air, Kuradeel slowly walked towards me.
“...”
I tensed and prepared to react to any situation. Even though we were in a safe area, there was no telling what he might do.
But against all my expectations, Kuradeel suddenly bowed. He then muttered in a barely-audible voice under his long hair.
“I'm... sorry for causing you trouble last time...”
This time I was genuinely shocked. My jaw dropped in amazement and I was left wordless.
“I won't act so rudely again... I hope you will forgive me...”
I couldn't see his expression under his long, greasy hair.
“Ah... yeah...”
As I forced myself to nod, I wondered what in the world had happened. Did he get a personality altering surgery or something?
“Yes, yes. Well, that's all taken care of now!!”
Godfree gave another hearty laugh. I felt really suspicious; Kuradeel must be up to something, but I couldn't guess from looking at his lowered head. In contrast to its overstated emotions, SAO had a hard time portraying subtle expressions. I could only accept his apology for now, but I reminded myself not to let my guard down.
The last member arrived after a while, and then we set off for the labyrinth. Just as I began to step into my pace, Godfree stopped me with a gruff voice:
“Wait... Today's training will be done under the most realistic circumstances. I want to see how well you deal with dangerous situations, so I will be taking all of your crystals.”
“...Even our teleport crystals?”
Godfree only nodded in response. I hesitated. Crystals, especially teleport crystals, were the last safety net in this death game. I had never been without them. I was about to refuse, but a problem here might put Asuna in a problematic situation, so I decided to hold back my words.
Seeing as Kuradeel and the other member handed over their crystals obediently, I had no choice but to follow. Godfree even carefully checked my inventory afterwards.
“Hmm, good. Then let's go!”
At Godfree's order, we walked out of Grandum and journeyed towards the Labyrinth Area that we could see to the far west.
The 55th floor training area was a desolate wasteland almost devoid of vegetation. I wanted to finish the training quickly, so I suggested running all the way to the labyrinth, but it was rejected by a single wave of Godfree's hand. It was most probably because he had focused on raising his strength stats and disregarded his dexterity. I could only give up and continue to tread through the endless wilderness.
We ran into monsters a couple of times. But when it came to this, I had no time to wait patiently for Godfree's orders, so I simply cut them down right away.
Eventually, after making it past a number of tall, rocky mountains, the gray limestone of the labyrinth finally came into view...
“Okay, we're taking a break here!”
After Godfree announced this in his gruff voice, the party stopped.
“...”
I wanted to just rush through the labyrinth; but since I figured it'd be overruled even if I brought it up, I simply sighed and sat down on a rock. It was already nearly midday.
“I'll hand the food out.”
Godfree then called up four leather pouches and threw them to the members. I caught mine with one hand and opened it without any expectations. Inside were a water bottle and some hard bread that were sold at NPC stores.
I opened the bottle and swallowed a mouthful while cursing my bad luck; I would be eating Asuna's handmade sandwiches right now if everything had gone as we had planned.
Then, I suddenly noticed that Kuradeel was sitting on a distant rock. He hadn't even touched his pouch, and those eyes beneath his long hair glanced darkly in our direction.
What on earth was he looking at...?
A cold feeling abruptly passed through my body. He was waiting for something. That something... It most probably—
I immediately threw the bottle away and tried to spit the liquid out of my mouth.
But it was too late. Strength suddenly left my body and I collapsed. The HP bar came up at the edge of my vision; it was surrounded by a green line that wasn't usually there.
There was no mistaking it; it was a paralysis poison.
When I looked around, I discovered that Godfree and the other member were also writhing on the ground. I immediately reached inside my pouch with my left forearm, but this only intensified my panic. I had already handed all my antidote crystals and teleport crystals to Godfree. I still had a potion, but it didn't have any effect on paralysis.
“Ku...kukuku...”
Shrill laughter reached my ears. As he sat on the rock, Kuradeel held his stomach with both hands and bent over in laughter. His heavily lidded eyes revealed the crazed ecstasy that I remembered all too well.
“Waha! Haha! Hyahahahaha!!”
He guffawed towards the skies, seemingly unable to control himself. Godfree stared at him with a stupefied expression.
“What...? What is this...? Wasn't the water... prepared by... you, Kuradeel...”
“Godfree! Quick, use an antidote crystal!!”
After hearing my shout, Godfree finally began to rummage through the pouch at his side.
“Hya—!!”
With a strange scream, Kuradeel jumped off his rock and kicked aside Godfree's left hand with his boot. A green crystal rolled out of Godfree's hand. Kuradeel picked it up, then stuck his hand in Godfree's pouch, took out the remaining crystals, and put them into his own pouch.
Everything was over.
“Kuradeel... What, what are you doing...? Is this some sort of... training exercise?”
“Re—tard!!”
Kuradeel said as he kicked Godfree, who still didn't understand the situation and muttered these stupid things, in the mouth.
“Argh!”
Godfree's HP went down a little, and at the same time Kuradeel's cursor changed from yellow to the orange color of criminal status. But this didn't change anything. There was no way that someone would pass by on a floor that had already been cleared.
“Godfree-san, I always thought you were an idiot, but I never imagined that you were this hopeless. Is even your brain made out of muscle?”
Kuradeel's sharp laughter echoed across the wastelands.
“There are still a lot of things that I want to say to you... but it wouldn't do to waste my time with appetizers...”
Kuradeel drew his two-handed sword as he spoke. He raised it high into the air and stretched out his thin body. Sunlight reflected off the thick blade as he waved it about.
“W-Wait, Kuradeel! You... What...What are you saying...? Isn't...Isn't this training...?”
“Just shut up and die.”
Kuradeel spat out and swung his sword down without mercy. A heavy and dull noise sounded, and Godfree's HP greatly decreased.
Godfree finally grasped the seriousness of the situation and started screaming. But it was already too late.
Twice, thrice, the sword came down with a merciless glint, and Godfree's HP reduced noticeably with each swing. Then, when it reached the red area, Kuradeel stopped.
Just as I thought that he wouldn't commit murder no matter how crazy he was, Kuradeel reversed his grip on the sword and slowly pushed it into Godfree. As Godfree's HP went down bit by bit, Kuradeel began to press his entire weight against the sword.
“Aaaaaaaahhh!!”
“Hyahahahaha!!”
While Godfree's wailing became louder, Kuradeel began mixing in a strange scream of his own. The sword dug into Godfree's body slowly and his HP reduced at a steady pace—
While the other member and I watched silently, Kuradeel's sword penetrated completely through Godfree, and his HP bar reached zero at the same time. Godfree most probably didn't understand what was going on even as his body shattered into countless shards.
Kuradeel slowly pulled his sword out of the ground, then spun his head around like a clockwork doll and looked at the other member.
“Ah!! Ahhh!!”
With these short screams, the member flailed around in an attempt to escape. Kuradeel then started walking towards him in odd steps.
“...I have nothing against you... But according to my scenario, only I can return alive...”
He raised his sword while muttering to himself.
“Aaaahh!”
“You wanna hear~? You see, our party—”
He swung it down; his ears deaf to the member's screams.
“Was ambushed in the wilderness by a large group of PKers—.”
Another swing.
“We fought bravely, but all three had died—.”
And another.
“I was the only one remaining, but I drove back the criminals and managed to stay alive before returning to HQ—.”
After the fourth attack, the member's HP vanished. A sound effect that sent shivers down my body resonated. But Kuradeel looked as if he had heard the voice of a goddess. He stood there, in the middle of the explosion of shards, and listened to it with a blissful expression on his face.
It wasn't his first time...
I was sure of this. His cursor may have turned to the orange color of criminals' only moments ago, but there were plenty of despicable ways to kill people without triggering it. However, understanding this fact now didn't solve anything.
Finally, Kuradeel turned to look my way, with an uncontrollable mirth spreading across his face. He slowly walked towards me, his sword making an unbearable noise as he dragged it along the ground.
“Hey.”
He crouched down next to me, who was still sprawled on the ground, and said in a whisper.
“Because of an idiot like you, I had to kill two completely innocent people.”
“You seem quite happy about it though.”
I responded as I looked desperately for a way out of this situation. The only thing that moved was my mouth and my left arm. Because the paralysis condition kept one from opening the menu window, it also forbade the player from sending any messages. Even though I knew it wouldn't do me much good, I struggled to move my left hand, which was inside Kuradeel's blind spot, while I continued to talk.
“Why did a person like you join the KoB? A criminal guild would have suited you better.”
“Keh, why are you asking something so obvious? It's because of that girl.”
He said this with his raspy voice and licked his lips. When I realized that he was talking about Asuna my blood began to boil.
“You damn bastard...!”
“Woah, why are you glaring at me like that? It's just a game isn't it...? Don't worry. I'll look after your precious sub-leader for you. After all, I have a lot of useful items.”
Kuradeel picked up the poisoned water bottle and then shook it to produce some splashing sounds. Then he gave an awkward wink and kept talking.
“And you just said something very interesting, that a criminal guild would suit me more.”
“...Well, it's just the truth.”
“I was complimenting you. You're pretty sharp.”
“Kekekeke.”
Kuradeel seemed to be considering something as he laughed. Then, he suddenly unequipped the gauntlet on his left arm. He rolled up the white sleeves of his undershirt and turned his bare forearm so that I could see its underside.
“...!!”
When I saw what was there— my breath suddenly stopped. It was a tattoo. The image was a manga-like caricature of an ink-black coffin. A mouth and a pair of eyes formed a grin atop the coffin lid; the white bones of a skeletal arm reached out from inside.
“That... emblem is... «Laughing Coffin»?”
I asked in a dry voice. Kuradeel gave a smile and nodded in response.
«Laughing Coffin» used to be the biggest and worst PK guild in Aincrad. They were headed by a cold, sly leader and experimented endlessly with new methods of killing people; in the end, the number of players it had killed went into the triple digit figures.
The players once attempted to solve the issue through negotiations, but every messenger had been killed immediately. We couldn't even understand why they PKed, since it only lessened the chances of clearing the game, and because of this we couldn't talk with them properly. Not too long ago, the players who aimed to clear the game had formed a subjugation group that rivaled the boss-killing groups, and finally destroyed their guild after several long and bloody battles.
Asuna and I were in the group too. But the information had leaked somewhere, and the PKers were prepared and waiting for us. In my frenzy to protect my comrades, I ended up taking the lives of two Laughing Coffin members by accident.
“Is this... for revenge? You're a survivor from the Laughing Coffin?”
I asked with my cracking voice. Kuradeel virtually spat out his answer:
“Heh, no way. Why would I do something as stupid as that? I joined the Laughing Coffin only recently, and only in spirit anyways. I learned this paralysis technique from them... Ah, that's bothersome.”
He stood up with an almost machine-like movement and raised his sword up again.
“Well, we've talked for long enough. The poison should wear off soon, so I should finish this now. I've been dreaming of this moment... ever since that duel...”
Fire burned in his eyes, which were opened so wide they became circles. His smiling mouth had stuck its tongue out, and he even raised his heels to stand tiptoed as he prepared to swing his sword down.
Just before he moved, I tossed the throwing pick in my left hand using only my wrist. Although I aimed for the face where the damage was greatest, the accuracy penalty from paralysis caused the steel pick to miss and pierce into Kuradeel's left arm. Kuradeel's HP reduced by only a small amount, while I fell into a completely hopeless situation.
“...That hurt...”
Kuradeel wrinkled his brow and curved his lips upwards, then stabbed my right arm with the tip of his sword. He then twisted it twice, then thrice.
“Argh...!”
Although I didn't feel any pain, an unpleasant feeling of being stimulated in the nerves passed through my entire body alongside the strong paralysis effect. Every time the blade dug into my arm, my HP decreased slowly but steadily.
Still there...? Was the poison's effect still not going away...?”
I gritted my teeth and waited for the moment my body would be freed. The duration of paralysis differed based on the strength of the poison, but most paralyzing poisons wore off in five or so minutes.
Kuradeel pulled out his sword and then stabbed my left leg. The unpleasant feeling of being paralyzed rushed through my entire body once again, and the system calculated the damage mercilessly.
“Well...? How is it...? How does it feel to know that you're going to die soon...? Tell me... would you...?”
Kuradeel said this in an almost whisper as he stared intently at my face.
“Say something squirt... Cry and scream that you don't want to die...”
My HP fell below the halfway line and turned yellow. The paralysis still wasn't gone yet. My whole body grew colder, as if death was enveloping me with freezing air, its chill slowly crawling up from my feet.
I had seen many players die in SAO. They all had the same expression on their faces as they shattered into countless fragments and disappeared; it was always the same simple expression of pondering, one that asked, "Am I really going to just die like this?"
It was most probably because, deep within our hearts, none of us wanted to accept the absolute rule of the game. We simply didn't want to believe that death in the game meant an actual death.
We all held a hopeful speculation, that "Maybe we'll just return to the real world when our HP reaches zero and we disappear." Of course, you had to personally die to find out what would actually happen. If you think about it like that, then death would be one of the ways to escape this game—
“Hey, hey, say something. I'm really killing you here.”
Kuradeel pulled his sword out of my leg and stabbed my stomach this time. My HP decreased significantly and went into the red danger area. But it felt like this didn't concern me, as if it was all happening in another faraway world. Even as I was being tortured by the sword, my mind was embarking down a dark path, as if a heavy and thick cloth was gradually covering it.
But then— a strong fear suddenly clenched my heart.
Asuna. If I disappeared and left her in this world, Asuna would fall into Kuradeel's hands and endure the same pain as me. That possibility formed an unbearable pain which shocked me back into consciousness.
“Kaaaah!!”
I opened my eyes, grabbed the sword that was buried in my stomach, and started pulling it out with all the strength I had. I had only about ten percent of my HP left. Kuradeel then shouted in surprise:
“Huh...? Huh? What's this, you're scared of dying?”
“Yeah... I... can't die yet...”
“Heh!! Hyahaha!! That's more like it!!”
Kuradeel laughed like a freakish bird and put his weight behind the sword. I strained against it with one hand. The system performed a set of complicated calculations based on my and Kuradeel's strength and determined the result.
The final result— the sword started coming down again, slowly but steadily. I was filled with fear and despair.
Was this the end?
Was I going to die? Leaving Asuna in this insane world?
I resisted the gradually closing sword and the despair that reached out from within me.
“Die—!! Diiieeeee—!!”
Kuradeel screamed in a shrill voice.
The killing intent that took the form of a dully shining sword came down centimeter by centimeter. Then finally, the sword tip reached my body— and slowly dug in...
At this moment, a gust of wind blew.
It was a gust of deep red and pure white wind.
“Huh...!?”
With this exclamation of surprise, the murderer and his sword were thrown high into the air. I stared speechlessly at the silhouette of the person who had appeared.
“...I'm not late... I'm not late... Thank God... I'm not late...”
Her trembling voice sounded sweeter than the flapping wings of an angel. Her lips trembled violently as she collapsed onto her knees and looked at me.
“Alive... You're alive, right, Kirito-kun...?”
“...Yeah... I'm still alive...”
My voice sounded so weak that it surprised me. Asuna nodded once and took out a pink crystal from her pouch, then put her left hand on my chest and shouted.
“Heal!”
The crystal broke and my HP bar filled up in an instant. After confirming my recovery, Asuna whispered to me:
“...Wait here. I'll take care of this quickly...”
Asuna then stood up, drew her rapier elegantly, and started walking.
Her target Kuradeel was still preparing to pick himself off the ground. When he saw the person that was walking towards him his eyes grew wide.
“A-Asuna-sama... H-How did you get here...? T-This, is, training, yes, there was an accident in the middle of training...”
Kuradeel bounced back up as if he had springs and attempted to form an excuse with his nervous voice. But before he could finish, Asuna's right hand flashed and the tip of her sword tore Kuradeel's mouth. She didn't become a criminal since her opponent already had an orange cursor.
“Ahh!!”
Kuradeel covered his mouth with his hand, leaned backwards, and froze for a moment. Then, as he righted himself, his eyes were full of a familiar anger.
“You bitch... That went way too far... Heh, well it's fine. I'll just take care of you as well...”
But he stopped mid-sentence; Asuna had started attacking fiercely as soon as she fixed her grip on her sword. Her rapier drew countless lines of light as it slashed and stabbed towards Kuradeel at unbelievable speeds. Even I couldn't see the trajectory of her sword, and I was several levels above her. I just watched as the angel swung her sword almost as if she was dancing.
It was beautiful. Asuna pushed her opponent back expressionlessly, her long chestnut hair flowing while sparks of anger enveloped her entire body; it was indescribably beautiful.
“Ah!! Kaaaa!!”
Kuradeel had already begun panicking, his sword swung about wildly without even landing a scratch on Asuna. As his HP decreased noticeably from the yellow zone to the red danger area, Kuradeel finally threw his sword aside and screamed with both of his arms held up in the air.
“O-Okay!! Okay!! I'm sorry!!”
He then went to his knees and begged.
“I-I'll leave the guild! I won't appear in front of you two ever again!! So—”
Asuna silently listened to his cries.
She raised her sword slowly and reversed her grip. Her thin arm tensed with nervousness, and then went up another couple of centimeters as it prepared to stab through Kuradeel. At that moment the murderer screamed even more loudly.
“Heeeek! I-I don't want to die—!!”
The sword stopped as if it hit an invisible wall. Her thin body began to shake violently.
I could fully feel Asuna's inner conflict, both her fear and her anger.
By what I knew, she had never killed anyone in this game. Since when a player is killed in this world they also die in the real world, PKing in this network game is equivalent to actual murder.
—Yeah. Stop, Asuna. You shouldn't do that.
As I screamed this to myself, I also thought of the complete opposite at the same time.
—No, don't hesitate. That's what he's after.
My prediction became reality 0.1 seconds later.
“Ahahahaha!”
I wasn't sure when Kuradeel had picked his sword back up, but he suddenly swung it upwards with a scream.
Asuna's rapier made a clanging sound and flew out of her right hand.
“Ah...!?”
As Asuna exclaimed and lost her balance, a metallic shine flashed above her head.
“Sub-leader, you're still faaaaaaaaaaaarr too naive!!”
With a shriek filled with madness, Kuradeel swung his sword down without hesitation, drawing a dark red line of light.
“Ahhhhhhh!!”
This time, I was the one who had screamed. I kicked off from the ground with my right foot, which had just recovered from the paralysis, and flew a couple of meters before pushing Asuna aside with my right hand while blocking Kuradeel's sword with my left.
*Thump*.
With this unpleasant sound, my left arm was severed from the elbow down. The body part loss icon flashed below the HP bar. While bloody red lines of light flowed from the cut on my left arm, my right hand straightened its fingers and—
I stabbed my hand into the gap between Kuradeel's thick armor. It glowed yellow as it buried itself deep within Kuradeel's stomach.
I had successfully countered with the point-blank range skill «Embracer», which immediately eliminated the last 20% of Kuradeel's HP. His gaunt body shivered violently beside me, then completely lost all strength and sagged.
As his great sword fell onto the ground and clanged, he whispered into my ear:
“You... murderer...”
He sneered in a "kuku" sound.
Kuradeel's entire body shattered into numerous glass fragments. I was pushed back by the chill force of the dissipating polygons and fell backwards.
For a while, my exhausted, frozen mind registered only the sound of wind blowing.
Then I heard irregular footsteps stepping on the gravel. When I turned my gaze, I could see a fragile looking figure walking towards me with a hollow expression.
Asuna walked shakily towards me with her head lowered, and then collapsed to her knees in front of me like a puppet with its strings cut. Although she reached out towards me with her right hand, she suddenly pulled it back before it could reach me.
“...I'm sorry... Because of me... It's all because of me...”
Asuna forced this out with a shaking voice and a grief-stricken expression. Tears rolled down from her large eyes and fell to the ground like sparkling gems. I barely managed to say something short with my dry throat:
“Asuna...”
“I'm sorry... I... won't... meet Kirito-kun... a...again.”
I exerted myself to right my body back up, which was finally regaining its normal senses. My body was still filled with an unpleasant feeling because of the devastating damage I took, but I hugged Asuna with both my right arm and my crippled left arm. Then, I covered her beautiful, cherry-colored lips with mine.
“...!”
Asuna went rigid and tried to push me away, but I held her small body tightly with all the strength I had. It was without a doubt something that went against the manner violation prevention code. Right now a system message should have appeared in front of Asuna, and if she pressed OK, I would be immediately teleported to the prison area of the Black Iron Castle.
But my arms showed no signs of loosening up. As I left Asuna's lips, I passed her cheeks before burying my face in the curve of her neck. Then I whispered:
“My life belongs to you, Asuna. So I'll use it for you. I'll stay with you until the end.”
I pulled Asuna in closer with the left arm that had the body part loss status imposed on it for three minutes. Asuna took a trembling breath and then whispered in response:
“...I-I'll protect you as well. I'll protect you forever. So...”
She wasn't able to continue talking. So I listened to Asuna's sobbing with our arms held tightly around each other.
The warmth of our bodies began to melt my frozen heart bit by bit.
Chapter 16
Asuna told me that she had been monitoring the map while waiting for me in Grandum.
The moment Godfree's signal disappeared, she ran out of the city and had crossed the five kilometers that took us an hour to cover in just five minutes. When I pointed out that it was a figure which exceeded the dexterity stat limits, she answered with a slight smile:
“It's the power of love.”
After we returned to the guild HQ, we told Heathcliff what happened and asked him if we could temporarily leave the guild. When Asuna explained her reason as "distrust of the guild," Heathcliff thought in silence for a while, but gave us permission nevertheless. Then, he said one last thing with a mysterious smile on his face:
“But you'll return to the battlefield soon enough.”
By the time we left the HQ, it was already evening. We held each others' hands and walked together to the teleport gate plaza.
Neither of us said a word.
As we walked amongst the black shadows of the iron towers and the orange light that came from outside the floating castle, I wondered just where Kuradeel's hate had come from.
There were quite a number of people who enjoyed committing crimes in this world. From thieves and robbers to the cold-blooded murderers of «Laughing Coffin» like Kuradeel; rumors claim that the number of criminal players already exceeded a thousand. People thought of them as natural occurrences like monsters now.
But when I thought about it, I still felt that they were a very strange group. It should be obvious to everyone that harming other players was an act that would undoubtedly hurt the chances of clearing the game. In other words, it meant that they didn't want to leave this game.
Yet after meeting Kuradeel, I didn't think this applied to him. He didn't help or obstruct the clearing of the game; he had merely stopped thinking. Neither reminiscing the past nor looking forward to the future, he simply tried to fulfill his endless desires, which resulted in the growth of his vile intentions—
Then what about me? I couldn't confidently say that I was seriously focused on clearing the game. It would be more accurate to claim that I habitually explored labyrinths only for experience points. If I fought only to strengthen myself, to feel the pleasure of superiority, then somewhere deep down within myself, did I also not want this world to end—?
Suddenly, it felt as if the iron plate beneath my feet had begun to sink. I stopped walking and tightened my grip on Asuna's right hand, which I had been hanging onto.
"...?"
Asuna tilted her head and looked at me. I lowered my head and spoke as if I was talking to myself:
“...No matter what happens... I'll make sure that you... return to that world...”
“...”
This time Asuna tightened her grip.
“When the time comes, we'll go back together.”
She revealed a smile as she finished.
We had arrived at the teleport gate plaza without realizing it. Only a few players were walking about in the area, huddling against the cold wind that foretold the coming of winter.
I turned to look directly at Asuna.
I thought that the warmth which radiated from her strong will was the only light that guided me towards the right direction.
"Asuna... Tonight... I want to be with you..."
I said this without thinking.
I didn't want to be away from her. The close encounter had induced a terrifying fear of death that I had never felt before, one that couldn't be shaken off even now.
I would definitely have nightmares if I slept alone tonight. I would dream of that person's insanity, his sword digging into me, and the feeling of stabbing my right hand into him; I was sure of it.
Asuna stared at me with wide eyes, as if she understood the reason behind my request—
Then, with her cheeks blushing red, she nodded slightly.
Asuna's house in Salemburg, which I was visiting for the second time, was still luxuriously decorated; yet this time it greeted me with a comfortable warmness. The objects that were distributed around the place displayed the owner's outstanding taste. But despite this, Asuna said:
“U-Uwa— it's so messy here. I haven't been back here much these days and...”
With a "hehe" laugh, she smiled sheepishly and quickly cleaned up the scattered items.
“I'll make dinner quickly. Just read the paper or something and wait.”
“Ah, okay.”
I sank into the sofa after watching Asuna remove her battle gear, put on an apron, and disappear into the kitchen. Then I picked up the large newspaper that was on the table. Although we call it a newspaper, it's merely a collection of rumors from those players who traded information. But since this world lacked forms of entertainment, the newspaper became a precious source of media with many subscribers. The paper only had four pages, and I only glanced casually at the first page before tossing it aside out of irritation. This was because the title page headline was the duel between Heathcliff and me.
[New skill Dual Blades user crushed by Holy Sword]
Beneath the headline was a picture of me sprawled out on the ground before Heathcliff, taken through the use of Record Crystals. One could say that I had only added another page to the undefeated legend of Heathcliff.
Well, maybe they would stop bothering me as much if their expectations of my skill drops... I helped myself find an easily acceptable excuse. Then, as I started to look through my inventory list, an enticing aroma wafted out of the kitchen.
The dinner entrée was a steak made out of a cow-like monster's meat and served with Asuna's special soy sauce. Although the ingredients' rank wasn't that high, the flavoring was simply perfect. Asuna watched me with a wide smile as I stuffed the meat into my mouth.
As we sat across from each other on the sofa and drank tea after finishing dinner, Asuna became quite talkative for some reason. She spoke endlessly about topics like which brand of weapons she liked and which floors had famous sightseeing locations.
At first I listened to her with surprise, but then Asuna suddenly fell silent, which caused me to get worried. She sat absolutely still and stared at her teacup as if she was trying to find something. Her expression was extremely serious, almost as if she was preparing for a fight.
“...Hey, what's wrong...”
But before I could finish speaking, Asuna clanked her teacup loudly onto the table, then shot up from her seat and announced:
“...Okay!”
She walked over to the window sill, touched the wall to open the Room Control Menu, and suddenly turned off all the lights. Darkness covered the room immediately; my scan skill's support ability automatically kicked in and replaced my normal sight with night-vision mode.
The room was dyed in a dim blue light, and Asuna was shining white from the lampposts' light which came in from the windows. Although I was confused by her behavior, her beauty still caused me to hold my breath.
Her long hair that seemed dark blue, her slender, white arms and legs that stretched out from under her tunic, they all reflected the weak light and looked like they were glowing.
Asuna silently stood by the window sill for a while. I couldn't see her expression very well because she had lowered her head. She also held her right hand against her chest and seemed to be hesitating about something.
Just as I was about to ask what was going on, Asuna began to move her left hand. Her thumb and forefinger moved through the air, and a menu window appeared with an accompanying sound effect.
In the blue-tinted darkness, Asuna's fingers moved across the glowing purple menu window. It appeared that she was manipulating the left menu, which controlled the player's equipment.
As soon as I thought that, the knee-high stockings that Asuna was wearing disappeared, and the elegant curves of her legs were laid bare before my eyes. Her fingers moved again, and this time her short, one-piece robe was taken off. I couldn't help but open my mouth wide and bulged my eyes until they were round; my mind had fallen into a complete stop.
Asuna was now wearing only her underwear. Small white cloths which barely managed to cover her chest and waist.
“D-Don't look... this way....”
She said, her small voice trembling. But even though she said this, I still couldn't shift my eyes away.
Asuna tried to cover her chest with her hands as she wavered; but after she raised her head and looked straight at me, she lowered her arms gracefully.
I received a shock that felt as if my soul had left my body and could only watch her with a blank expression.
The word "Beautiful" didn't even begin to describe her. Her skin that was tinged with blue light particles was soft and sleek. Her hair seemed as if it was made from the finest silk. Her breasts curved so perfectly that it appeared, ironically, as if no graphic engine in existence could generate it. The curvature of her legs that started at her slim waist made one think of the gracefulness of a wild animal.
It was impossible to believe that her appearance was only a 3D rendered image. If I were to describe it, it was like a sculpture made by God with life blown into it.
The data collected by the Nerve Gear from the calibration step of player registration determined the body tone of the players' avatars. With that in mind, one would call the existence of such a perfect body a miracle.
I kept staring at her almost bare body as if my soul had left my body. If Asuna hadn't covered herself with both arms and opened her mouth to speak, I would have kept standing like that even an hour later.
Asuna's face was so red that I could tell even in the blue-tinted darkness of the room. She lowered her head and spoke:
“K-Kirito-kun, take your clothes off too.... It's em-embarrassing for me to be like this by myself.”
After hearing that, I finally realized the meaning behind Asuna's actions.
In other words, she took what I said— that I wanted to spend the night with her, in a deeper sense than what I meant.
As soon as I understood that, I also fell into an endlessly deep panic. As a result, I committed the worst mistake in my whole life up until now.
“Err... No, you see, I just thought...that it would be good, if we stayed to— together in a room tonight...”
“Eh...?”
As I responded stupidly with my honest thoughts, it was Asuna who froze with her mouth wide open this time. Then, an expression of intense anger and embarrassment spread across her face.
“You... You...”
Her clenched right fist revealed an almost visible killing intent.
“Idiot—!!”
Asuna's fist, which had accelerated to a speed that utilized all of her dexterity stats, was stopped just barely before striking my face by the Crime Prevention Code and released a loud noise and a spray of purple sparks instead.
“A-Ahh—! Wait!! I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Forget what I said!”
I tried to explain while frantically waving my hands about to Asuna, who was about to throw her second punch without paying any attention to me.
“I'm sorry, I was wrong!! Bu...But, anyway, can you... like... actually d-do it...? In SAO...?”
Asuna dropped her attacking stance and was a bit taken aback, although still furious. Then she asked:
“You, you mean you don't know...?”
“No, I don't...”
Then, Asuna's expression changed suddenly from one of anger to one of embarrassment, before she explained in a small voice:
“...That is... In the options menu, all the way on the bottom... there's an option called «Ethic Code Off».”
It was the first time I had ever heard of such a thing. I'm sure this wasn't available during the beta test, nor was it mentioned in the manual. To think that this was another price that I had to pay for playing as a solo player and not having any interest except fighting.
But this information raised a new question that I couldn't help but think about. Since I still hadn't fully recovered my ability to think straight, I unintentionally said it out loud:
“...Have... Have you ever done it before...?”
Once again, Asuna's iron fist erupted in sparks right before my face.
"O-Of course not, you idiot—!! I just heard about it from the other girls in the guild!!"
I hurried to kneel down on the ground before her and apologized endlessly. It took several minutes before I finally managed to calm her down.
A single candle atop the table stayed burning; its thin rays of light made Asuna's skin glow faintly as she slept in my arms. I ran a finger gently down her white back; the warm and smooth feeling that traveled up from my fingertips was absolutely intoxicating.
Asuna slowly opened her eyes and looked towards me. She blinked twice and then smiled.
“Sorry. Did I wake you?”
“Yeah. I had a strange dream. One about the real world...”
She continued to smile as she rubbed her face against my chest.
“In the dream, I wondered if entering Aincrad and meeting you had all been a dream, and I was really afraid. It's a relief... that it wasn't all a dream."
“You're a real strange one. Don't you want to go back?”
“Of course I want to. I want to go back, but I don't want everything that has happened here to disappear. Although... it took us a while... but these two years are precious to me. I'm sure of that now.”
Asuna suddenly switched to a serious expression and grabbed my right hand, which I had placed on her shoulder, then brought it to her chest and hugged it tightly.
“...I'm really sorry, Kirito-kun. I should... I should have resolved it myself...”
I breathed in and then exhaled deeply.
“No... Kuradeel's target, the person who made him that way, was me. It was my fight.”
I nodded slowly while looking into Asuna's eyes.
Tears formed in her hazelnut eyes as Asuna silently pressed her lips against the hand she was holding. I could feel their soft movement.
“I'll also... bear it with you. Every burden that you have, I'll carry them with you. I promise. I'll definitely protect you from now on...”
This was—
The line that I couldn't say even once up until now. Yet in this moment, my lips trembled, and I could hear the sounds unveiling themselves from my throat, from my very soul.
“Me too.”
A very thin voice reverberated across the air.
“I'll protect you too.”
Although these were simple words, I had said them in such a pathetically quiet and unreliable manner. I smiled bitterly as I held up Asuna's hand and said:
“Asuna... You really are strong. You're far stronger than me..."
After hearing that, Asuna blinked several times and then smiled.
"No, I'm not. I usually hide behind other people in the real world. Even this game wasn't something that I bought."
She laughed as if she had just thought of something.
“It was something that my older brother bought, but he had to suddenly leave for business; so I got to play with it on the game's opening day. He was really disappointed about that. He must be really angry now that I've occupied it for two years.”
I thought that Asuna was even unluckier to have come here in his stead, but I just nodded.
“...You'd better get back quickly and apologize.”
“Yeah... I'll have to try harder...”
But Asuna trailed off weakly as she said this, casting her eyes downward as if she was afraid of something and then moving her entire body closer to me.
“Umm... Kirito-kun, I know this is contradicting what I just said... but can we leave the front-lines for a bit?”
“Hmm...?”
“I'm scared somehow... We finally managed to convey our feelings, so I feel like something bad will happen again if we go to the front-lines straight away... Maybe I'm just a little tired.”
I brushed Asuna's hair back silently and nodded so meekly that I surprised even myself.
“Yeah, you're right... I'm, a bit tired too...”
Even if the numbers didn't change, the battles that we fought day after day accumulated plenty of fatigue that couldn't be seen. That's especially the case for situations as extreme as today's. Even a strong bow will break if one pulled on it excessively. We definitely needed a break.
I felt the impulse that drove me to fight relentlessly drift further away. Right now, I only wanted to deepen the bond between the two of us.
I wrapped my arms around Asuna, then buried my face in her silky hair and spoke:
"On the northwestern part of the 22nd floor, amongst the forests and lakes... there's a small village. It's a good place with no monsters. They sell a few cottages there. The two of us can move there together... and then... "
Asuna looked at me as I stopped talking.
“Then...?”
I managed to move my frozen tongue and kept talking.
"...Let's, let's get married."
The perfect smile that Asuna showed me that moment, I would never forget it for the rest of my life.
“Okay...”
She nodded slightly as a large teardrop ran down her red cheeks.
Chapter 17
There were four types of relationships that two players could have within the SAO system.
First was two people who didn't really know each other. The second was friends. People who had listed each other as friends could send short messages to each other no matter where they were. They could also search for each other's locations by map.
The third was guild comrades. Apart from the above benefits, they also gained a slight increase in their stats when they partied with members of the same guild. However, they had to give up a bit of the Col they earned as a sort of tax to the guild.
Up until now, Asuna and I were friends and members of the same guild, despite the fact that we were taking a break from the guild. But we had decided to enter the last type of relationship.
Marriage— although getting married was very simple. Once one person sent the proposal message and the other person accepted it, then they were married. But the difference between marriage and friends or guild members was incomparably different.
Marriage in SAO meant the sharing of all information and items. One could see the other's stat window at will, and even their inventory windows had fused into one. In others words, it was entrusting one's most important safety nets to their partners. In Aincrad, where betrayals and fraud were common, few went as far as marriage even amongst the closest couples. Of course, another important reason was because of the extremely unbalanced male-female ratio.
The 22nd floor was one of the most sparsely populated areas in Aincrad. Since it was one of the lower floors, it was especially large; but most of it was taken up by the forests and the numerous lakes that were scattered around the area; therefore, the living area was so small that it could be called a hamlet. Monsters seldom appeared on the field, and since the difficulty level of the labyrinth was exceptionally low, the level was cleared in three days and most players didn't remember much of it.
Asuna and I decided to buy a small, round cottage within the woods on the 22nd floor to live in. Even though it was small, it still cost a considerable amount of money to buy a house within SAO. Asuna offered to sell her house in Salemburg, but I was strongly against it, because selling such a perfectly furnished house would be far too regrettable. So in the end, we gathered all of our rare items and sold them with the help of Agil, which managed to provide just enough money to buy the house.
Although Agil said with a sad expression that we could use the second floor of his shop if we wanted, I thought that spending a newly-wed life within a merchant shop was far too tragic. Furthermore, I didn't even want to imagine what would happen once the fact that the all-famous Asuna had gotten married became known. I thought that we should be able to spend our days peacefully on the sparsely populated 22nd floor.
“Uwa— What a beautiful view!”
Asuna leaned forward, out of the window in our bedroom; although it was called the bedroom, there were only two rooms in the entire house.
The scenery outside really was breathtaking. This was near the edge of Aincrad, so one could see the glittering lakes, the green forest, and the wide-open skies all at once. Because we usually lived with a stone ceiling about one hundred meters above us, the open skies gave us an inexplicable feeling of freedom.
“Just don't fall off while you're looking at the scenery.”
I stopped organizing the household items and wrapped my arms around Asuna. This woman was now my wife— as I thought that, the warmth of bright sunlight in the winter, the marvelous feeling of wonder, as well as the surprise of how far we had gone all rushed me at once.
Until I became trapped in this game, I was just a kid who went to school and then back home without any goal in life. But now, the real world had become a faraway past.
If— If this game was cleared, we would be able to return to the real world... that was what all the players, including Asuna and I, wished for. But I couldn't help feeling anxious whenever I thought about it. I unconsciously began to apply strength to my arms that were around Asuna.
“It hurts, Kirito-kun... Is something wrong...?”
“S-Sorry... Hey, Asuna...”
For a moment I stopped talking, but I had to finish asking.
“...Our relationship, is it only in-game...? Is it going to disappear once we return to the other world...?”
“I'm going to be angry, Kirito-kun.”
Asuna turned around and looked at me with her eyes full of emotion.
“Even if this was just a normal game rather than this strange situation, I still wouldn't like another person so casually.”
She squeezed my cheeks with both her hands, and then said:
"I learned something here, and that was to keep trying and never give up. If we make it back to the real world, I'll definitely come find Kirito-kun again, and I'll still like you."
How many times have I marveled at Asuna's honest and strong heart? Or maybe mine was just too weak.
But even if I was the weak one, it was still all right. I had forgotten for such a long time how comfortable it was to depend on someone else and have them depend on me. I didn't know how long we would be able to stay here, but at least we were away from the battlefield during this period of time—
I let my thoughts wander and concentrated my feelings on the softness and the sweet smell that filled my arms.
Chapter 18
The float attached to the fishing line hadn't moved even once. Drowsiness invaded my consciousness as I watched the dancing sunlight reflected off the sparkling water ripples of the lake.
I made a huge yawn and pulled up the fishing line. Only an empty silver hook on the end shined in the light; the bait that I had put on it was gone.
Over ten days had passed since we moved to the 22nd floor. In order to gather food each day, I had erased my two-handed sword skill, which I trained briefly in a long time ago, and exchanged it for the fishing skill. I began to imitate Taikoubou [1] in fishing. But for some reason, I just couldn't catch anything. The training score had just passed 600, so I didn't expect any big catches, but I thought that I should have at least caught something by now. Instead, I simply spent day after day wasting the cases of bait that I bought in the village.
"Gah, this is so annoying..."
I muttered my complaints, tossed the fishing tackle aside, and then threw myself onto the ground. The wind that rushed over the water was icy cold, but the overcoat that Asuna had made me with her sewing skills kept me warm. Asuna was still in the middle of training that skill, thus the coat wasn't as good as clothing from the NPC stores. But since it was useable and kept me warm, there weren't any problems.
It was now «The month of the Cypress» in Aincrad, which meant it was November back in Japan. Although it was almost winter, fishing in SAO didn't have anything to do with seasons. Maybe it was simply because I had used up all my luck on getting my beautiful wife.
As my thoughts reached this, my entire being was filled with happiness, and a wide smile spread across my face. Then suddenly, a voice reached my ears.
"How did you do?"
I leapt up in surprise and saw a man standing there as I turned around.
He was wrapped in thick clothing, including a hat with ear flaps, and had fishing tackle in his hands just like me. But the surprising part was his age. No matter how I looked at it, he seemed at least fifty years old. The eyes behind metal framed glasses showed the age of a senior. Amongst the hardcore game addicts of SAO, it was extremely rare to see someone so old. Actually, I had never even seen one before. Maybe—?
“I'm not an NPC.”
He smiled bitterly as if he had read my thoughts, and then slowly descended down the slope.
“S-Sorry. I was just wondering...”
“No, it's fine. It's understandable. I'm most probably the oldest player here.”
His healthy body rocked as he gave a hearty "Wa-ha-ha" laugh.
“Excuse me.”
He said as he sat down next to me. He took out a bait case from his hip, then awkwardly opened a pop-up menu, retrieved his fishing rod, and put the bait on it.
“My name is Nishida. I'm a fisherman here. In Japan, I worked as the head of maintenance for a company called the Tohto Broadband Connection. I'm sorry but I don't have my business cards with me.”
He laughed again.
“Ah...”
I could mostly guess the reason for why he was in this game. Tohto was a network operator company that had been cooperating with Argus. They were responsible for taking care of the network that linked to the SAO servers.
“I'm Kirito. I moved here from the upper levels a while ago. Nishida oji-san... must have been... maintaining the SAO network connection...?”
“I was in charge of it.”
Nishida said as he nodded. I looked at him with a complicated feeling. This meant that the man had become entangled in everything here because of his job.
"Haha, my superiors said there was no need to log on, but I can't be fully at ease until I see my work with my own eyes, and because of an old man's worries, I became like this."
He swung his rod with an amazingly smooth motion as he said this, and one could tell that he had the professional mastery of a skilled fisherman. He also seemed to like talking, as he kept on going without waiting for a response from me:
"Other than me, there are around twenty to thirty other old men who ended up here due to various reasons. Most of them are living safely in Starting City, but I enjoy this far more than simply eating three meals a day."
He lifted his fishing rod a little.
"I searched endlessly for good rivers and lakes, and finally came up all the way to a place like this."
“Oh, really... Well, there are almost no monsters on this floor.”
Nishida just smiled at what I said without answering. Then he asked me:
“Well, are there any good spots on the upper floors?”
He asked.
“Hmmm... Well, the 61st floor was entirely a lake, well, more like a sea, and they say one could catch huge fish there.”
“Ohh! I better go there sometime.”
At this time, the float of his fishing rod began to quickly sink. Nishida wasted no time in pulling it in. It seemed that his fishing skill level was pretty high, as well as his actual ability to fish.
“Woah, it's huge!”
As I strained to lean forward, Nishida calmly reeled in the fishing line and quickly pulled up the shimmering blue fish. The fish flapped in his hands a few times and then vanished into his inventory.
“Amazing...!”
Nishida gave an embarrassed smile as he raised his head to reply:
“It's nothing. All you need to do here is raise your fishing skill.”
Then he added while scratching his head:
“But, even if I can catch them, I still didn't know how to cook them properly... I wanted to eat sashimi or grilled fish, but I can't do anything without soy sauce.”
“Ah... Yeah...”
I hesitated for a moment. We had moved here to avoid other people, but I figured that this person wouldn't really be interested in rumors and gossips.
“...I know of something that tasted a lot like soy sauce...”
“What!?”
Nishida leaned closer with his eyes shining behind his glasses.
As Asuna greeted my return and saw Nishida, her eyes went wide with surprise, but then she smiled and said:
“Welcome back. A guest?”
“Yeah, this is Nishida oji-san, a fisherman. And—”
My voice trailed off as I turned towards Nishida and was unsure of how to introduce Asuna. Then, Asuna smiled at the old fisherman and introduced herself:
“I'm his wife, Asuna. Welcome to our home.”
She nodded confidently.
Nishida was staring at Asuna with his mouth open. Asuna was dressed in a plain long skirt, a hemp shirt with an apron, and a headscarf on top. She looked very different from the imposing warrior image of her as a KoB member, but her beauty didn't change.
After blinking several times, Nishida finally came to his senses and said:
“Ah, ahh, I apologize. I was mesmerized for a moment. I'm Nishida. Sorry for intruding upon you like this...”
He scratched his head and laughed.
Asuna applied all of her impressive cooking skills on the huge fish that Nishida had caught, and brought it onto the table after turning it into sashimi and grilled fish with soy sauce as a seasoning. As the aroma of the handmade soy sauce wafted through the house, Nishida widened his nostrils with a look of delight on his face.
It tasted more like a yellowtail with just the right amount of oil rather than a freshwater fish. According to Nishida, you needed to have at least 950 points in fishing to be able to catch it. After a brief conversation, the three of us focused on eating with our chopsticks.
The plates were empty within the blink of an eye, and Nishida sighed with an expression of bliss as he held a cup of hot tea in his hands.
“...Ah, that was very satisfying. Thank you. To think that soy sauce actually exists in this world...”
“Oh, it's handmade. You can take some back with you if you like it.”
Asuna retrieved a small bottle from the kitchen and handed it over to Nishida. I thought that it was a good idea not to tell him the recipe. Asuna then smiled and said to the grateful Nishida:
"Don't worry about it; you also brought us such a good fish."
She then continued:
“Kirito-kun never caught anything.”
At this sudden attack, I simply sipped on my tea in silence before responding:
“The lakes in this area are all too hard.”
“No, not really. It's only the lake that Kirito-san was fishing in.”
“Eh...”
What Nishida said made me fall speechless. Asuna grabbed her stomach and began to laugh without stop.
“Why did they set it like that...?”
“Well actually, in that lake...”
Nishida lowered his voice before continuing, so Asuna and I leaned forward.
“I think the local god lives there.”
“Local god?”
As Asuna and I echoed each other, Nishida smiled, pushed back his glasses, and then kept talking:
“In the village item shop, there is one bait that's much more expensive than the others. I was curious about its capabilities, so I decided to buy it once to try out.”
I swallowed instinctively.
“But I couldn't catch anything with that bait. After trying it out in various locations, I finally thought of taking a shot at that high-difficulty lake.”
“Did, did you catch something...?”
“Well, something took the bait.”
Nishida nodded deeply, and then his expression became one of regret:
“But I couldn't pull it out with my strength and ended up losing my fishing rod to it. I only managed to see its shadow during the last moments. It wasn't just huge; one could call it a monster, but in a different sense from the ones that appeared in the fields.”
He spread his arms wide apart. This was probably the reason behind his meaningful smile when I said, "There are almost no monsters on this floor."
“Uwa, I want to see it!”
Asuna exclaimed as her eyes sparkled. Then, Nishida caught my gaze and said:
“So I have a proposal— Do you have confidence in your strength stats Kirito-san...?”
“Well, it should be alright...”
“Then how about we fish for it together?! I'll hold it until it bites and then leave the rest to you.”
“Hmm, so we'll «Switch» while fishing... Would that be possible...?”
I tilted my head to the side.
“Let's try it, Kirito-kun! It sounds interesting!”
Asuna said this with "excitement" written all over her face. But, it was true that I was also quite interested.
“Then let's have a go at it.”
As I answered, a smile spread across Nishida's face.
"That's the spirit, wa-ha-ha."
That night.
After exclaiming, "Coldcold," Asuna crawled into the bed, then pushed her body against mine and made a sound of satisfaction. She blinked sleepily and then smiled as if she had just thought of something.
“...There are so many different people here.”
“He was interesting, wasn't he?”
“Yeah.”
Asuna then suddenly removed her smile and muttered:
“Up until now, I had only fought on the upper floors. I had completely forgotten that there were people who lived normal lives...”
“I don't mean that we're special; but since we're on a high enough level to fight on the front-lines, I suppose it also means that we have an obligation to them.”
“...I had never thought about it like that... I always felt that becoming stronger was just a way to survive.”
“I think that a lot of people are going to be counting on you from now on. Of course, that includes me.”
“...Except, with my personality, hearing these kind of expectations only makes me want to run away.”
“Oh you.”
As Asuna pouted in dissatisfaction, I stroked her hair and hoped for this life to continue for a while longer. For Nishida and the other players, we have to return to the front-lines at some point. But at least for now—
Based on the messages that Agil and Klein had sent me, I knew that they were having a hard time trying to clear the 75th floor. However, I believed from the bottom of my heart, that the most important thing to me right now was this life with Asuna.
Chapter 19
Three days later, Nishida informed us in the morning that he was going to fish for the local god. Around thirty people would be there to watch, as it seemed that he had told his fishermen friends about this.
"This is troublesome. Asuna... What should we do?"
"Hm~mmm..."
To tell the truth, we weren't all that happy about this. We had come here to hide from the gossipers and Asuna's fans, so we were a little hesitant about appearing before so many people.
"How about this?!"
Asuna gathered her hair and pushed it up. Then she covered her face up to her eyes with a huge scarf. She didn't stop there and pressed some buttons on her menu window to put on a plain overcoat.
"Y-Yeah. Pretty good. You look like a proper farmer's wife."
"...Is that, a compliment?"
"Of course. In my case, they're not going to recognize me as long as I don't equip battle gear."
Before the sun even rose, I walked out of the house with Asuna, who was carrying our picnic basket. She could have just called it out when we got there, but she insisted that it was part of the disguise.
Today was warm for an early winter day. After walking through the forest of huge pine trees for a while, we could finally see the sparkling water between the trunks. A lot of people had already gathered there. As I approached nervously, a familiar stout figure waved to us as he laughed.
"Wa-ha-ha, it's a relief that we have such great weather today!"
"Hello, Nishida oji-san."
Asuna and I nodded our heads. He told us that the assembly of people here from various age groups were all members of a fishing guild that Nishida ran. We greeted everyone nervously, but it seemed nobody recognized Asuna.
Putting that aside, Nishida oji-san was far more active than I imagined. He must have been a good team leader within his company. The atmosphere was already spirited, as the group had been holding a fishing competition before our arrival.
"Eh~ so, today's main event will finally be starting!"
Nishida loudly announced this as he walked towards us with a long fishing rod in his hand, and the spectators cheered in excitement. I looked at the fishing rod he was carrying, my eyes tracing down the pole without much thought before the item at its end surprised me.
It was a lizard, an abnormally large one at that. It was as long as an adult's forearm. Its poisonous-looking red and black skin shone as if to emphasize its freshness.
"Hiiiii—"
Asuna noticed it even later than I did, and her expression froze as she took several steps back from it. If this was the bait, then what we were trying to catch must be unbelievable.
But before I had any time to ask, Nishida turned towards the lake and raised his fishing rod. With a short shout, he swung it in an impressive form, and the huge lizard drew an arc in midair before falling into the water with a large splash.
Fishing required almost no waiting time within SAO. Once you put the bait in the water, either a fish took the bite within a few dozen seconds, or you lost the bait. We swallowed involuntarily as we watched as the line sank into the water.
After just a few moments, the fishing rod twitched several times. But Nishida didn't even move an inch.
"It's, it's here Nishida-san!"
"It's still too early!"
Behind Nishida's glasses, the two eyes that usually belonged to a good-natured grandfather were shining with light. Nishida continued to watch the end of the rod without moving as it twitched.
Then the rod jerked harder.
"Now!"
Nishida strained his small body backwards and pulled the rod using his whole body. I could tell the rope was really tight just by looking at it, which also gave off a twanging sound effect.
"It took the bait!! I'll entrust the rest to you!!"
I cautiously pulled the rod that Nishida had handed over, but it didn't even budge one bit. It felt as if the fish hook had caught onto something embedded into the ground. I looked back at Nishida, worried if the fish had really bitten, and then within the blink of an eye—
The rope started pulling into the water with a burst of power.
"Ahhh!"
I quickly dug my feet into the ground and pulled it up again. The strength-applied gauge quickly went past the normal mode.
"I-Is it okay to strain this?"
I asked Nishida as I worried about the durability of the fishing pole.
"It's of the highest quality! You can pull on it all you want!"
Nishida nodded, his face already red from excitement. I corrected my grip on the rod and then pulled with all my strength. The fishing rod bent around the middle and became a huge U.
As each player levels up, they can choose to raise either strength or dexterity. Axe-users such as Agil would opt for strength, while rapier-users like Asuna would focus on their dexterity. Although I was a normal sword user and raised both of them, my personal preferences prioritized dexterity somewhat more than strength.
But I seemed to be winning this tug of war, most probably because my level itself was so high. I slowly stepped backwards, steadily forcing the huge thing out of the water.
"Ah, I can see it!!"
Asuna leaned over the water and pointed to it. I was leaning backwards and further away from the lake so I couldn't check. The spectators got louder and rushed forward to look into the water, which quickly deepened as it left the shore. I couldn't suppress my curiosity and focused all of my strength to tug at the fishing rod.
"...?"
Suddenly, something startled all the spectators that had been leaning over the water. Each one of them took a few steps back.
"What's wrong...?"
Before I even finished talking, they all turned around and ran away. Even Asuna and Nishida ran past me from either side with white faces. I was about to look back towards them when— the weight lifted from my hands and I fell down on my backside.
Ah, did the rope snap!?
As I thought that, I threw the rod away and ran towards the lake. At that moment, the glittering water surface of the lake suddenly surged upwards.
"Eh—!?"
I froze on the spot with my eyes wide open, and at this moment I heard Asuna's faraway voice:
"Kirito-ku——n, it's dangerous——!!!"
When I turned around, I saw Asuna, Nishida, and everyone else had already gotten up the embankment that rose from the edge of the lake, which was quite far away from me. I could hear the water splashing loudly behind me as I finally began to understand the situation. Then, with a feeling of uneasiness, I turned back around.
The fish was standing.
To be more precise, the creature was like a Coelacanth , a cross between fish and reptiles, except this one leaned more towards the reptile side. It stood there on the grass with its six powerful legs and looked down upon me as water streamed off it like waterfalls.
I said "looked down" because this thing was at least two meters tall. Its mouth, which seemed like it could swallow a cow whole, was positioned just a bit higher than my head with a familiar looking lizard leg sticking out of it.
From either side of this ancient colossal fish's head, two basketball-sized eyes met with those of my own. A yellow cursor appeared automatically to mark it as a monster.
Nishida had told us that the local god of this lake was a monster in a different sense from those that appeared in the fields.
How was it different? This thing was a monster in every sense of the word.
I forced a smile and took a couple of steps backwards. Then I turned around and scrambled off. The huge fish behind me gave a thunderous roar and then started following me with steps that shook the ground.
I pushed my dexterity stats to the limit and ran as if I was flying. I reached Asuna within a few seconds and complained loudly:
"Th-Th-That was unfair! Running away by yourself!!"
"Uwa, thisisn'tthetimetobesayingthatKirito-kun!"
I turned around and saw the huge fish running towards us with an impressive speed despite its sheer size.
"Ooh, it's running on the ground... So it's a dipnoan[3]...?"
"Kirito-san, this isn't the time to be saying pointless things like that!! We should run away quickly!!"
This time it was Nishida who shouted in fear. The dozens of spectators were in a state of shock from the situation, and quite a few of them were sitting on the ground with blank expressions.
"Kirito-kun, did you bring your weapons?"
Asuna said as she brought her head right next to mine. Yeah, it would be pretty hard to get everybody ordered enough to escape in this sort of situation—
"Sorry, I didn't..."
"Oh well, I don't have any choice then..."
Asuna shook her head as she turned to face the huge fish that was nearing us. She quickly manipulated the menu with a sure hand.
As Nishida and the other spectators watched with surprise, Asuna took off her overcoat and scarf with her back to us. Her chestnut hair danced wildly in the wind as it reflected the sunlight.
Although she wore only a grass-colored long skirt and a shirt of hemp cloth, a rapier shone at the left side of her hip like a mirror. She drew it with her right hand, and the sword gave a clear ringing noise as she waited resolutely for the huge fish to come.
Nishida, who was standing beside me, finally got back to his senses and shook my arm while shouting:
"Kirito-san! Your, your wife is in danger!!"
"No, we can just let her handle this."
"What are you saying!? I-If that's what you're going to say, then I'll..."
He snatched a fishing rod from a nearby companion and prepared to rush to Asuna with a tragic expression on his face. I had to quickly stop this old fisherman.
The gigantic fish didn't slow down one bit. It opened its huge mouth, which was lined with countless sharp teeth, and threw its entire body at Asuna as if trying to swallow her whole. Asuna turned the left side of her body away from the fish while her right hand flew out with a silver-white light streaming behind it.
A blinding flash of light erupted from the fish's mouth with an explosive sound effect. The fish was thrown high into the air, but Asuna hadn't even moved from her spot.
Although the sheer size of the monster induced fear, I had guessed that its level couldn't be very high. There was no way that a monster from such a low floor, especially one from a fishing-related event, could be that strong. After all, SAO was a game that kept to the normal pattern of online games.
The fish fell onto the ground with a crash, its HP greatly reduced by Asuna's attack. Then, Asuna mercilessly launched into a chain of consecutive attacks worthy of her title «Flash».
Nishida and the other spectators watched wordlessly as Asuna activated one skill after another while she stepped gracefully as if dancing. Was it Asuna's beauty or her strength that mesmerized them? I thought that it was probably both.
As Asuna swung her sword with a presence that overwhelmed everything around her, she saw that her opponent's HP had gone into the red zone and jumped back to widen the distance between them. After landing, she went straight into a charge attack. She dashed towards the fish, leaving a trail of light behind her as if she was a comet. It was one of the highest level rapier skills: «Flashing Penetrator».
With a sound effect similar to a sonic boom, the comet penetrated the fish from its mouth to its tail. As Asuna skidded to a stop, the huge monster behind her fragmented into numerous bits of light and scattered. There was a loud smashing sound which created a huge ripple on the lake's surface.
Asuna sheathed her rapier with a *clink* and walked nonchalantly over to us. Nishida and the other fishermen were left with their mouths gaping wide open, unable to even move.
"Hey, good job."
"It's not fair, making me fight by myself. You're buying lunch next time."
"Our money is shared data now."
"Oh, right..."
As Asuna and I went on with our relaxed conversation, Nishida finally managed to blink and open his mouth.
"...Ah, that was surprising... Madam, you, you're really strong. This might be a bit rude, but how high is your level...?"
Asuna and I looked at each other. Staying on this topic for too long might be dangerous for us.
"Be-Before that, look, the fish dropped an item."
Asuna pressed a couple of things on the window and a silver fishing rod appeared in her hands. Since an event monster had dropped it, it was most likely an unsellable rare item.
"Oh, ooh, this is!?"
Nishida received the fishing rod with sparkling eyes. All the spectators became interested in this as well. Just as I thought that we had managed to safely avert this crisis...
"Are...Are you Asuna from the Knights of the Blood...?"
A young player took several steps closer to Asuna and stared intently at her face. Then his face brightened.
"Yeah, you are! I've even got a picture!!"
"Ah..."
Asuna forced a smile and took a few steps back. The spectators then doubled their excitement.
"It's, it's an honor! To be able to see Asuna-san fighting so close up... Oh yeah! Can, can you give me an autogra..."
The young man suddenly stopped talking and then shifted his gaze between Asuna and me a few times. He finally muttered with a surprised expression:
"Are...Are you two... married...?"
It was now my turn to force a smile. As both of us stood there with unnatural smiles plastered on, shouts of anguish rose up all around us. Only Nishida continued to blink without any idea of what was going on.
Our secret honeymoon ended like this after only two weeks. But maybe we should consider ourselves lucky to take part in such a fun event at the end.
That night, we received a message from Heathcliff, requesting us to take part in fighting the 75th floor boss.
The next morning.
As I sat on the edge of the bed and stared at the ground, Asuna, who had finished getting ready, walked over to me while the iron soles of her boots clanked against the ground.
"Hey, you can't be like this forever."
"But it's only been two weeks."
I replied childishly and raised my head. But I couldn't deny that looking at Asuna in her white-red knight uniform for the first time in a while was very attractive.
Seeing as we had temporarily left the guild, we could decline the request. But the last line of the message, that "some people had already died," laid heavily on our minds.
"Well, we should at least go listen to what's going on. Come on, it's already time!"
As she tapped me on the back, I finally stood up with reluctance and opened the equipment screen. Since we weren't part of the guild right now, I put on my familiar black leather coat and a minimalistic set of armor, then slung my two swords onto my back with the scabbards crossing each other. The heavy weight on my back felt like they were complaining about being left in the inventory for so long. With a quick movement, I drew them slightly and then sheathed them again; a high and clear metallic sound rang through the room.
"Yeah. This appearance suits you best."
Asuna smiled and hung onto my right arm. I looked back and bade farewell to our new home, which we were going to be away from for a while.
"...Let's get this over with quickly and then come back."
"Yeah!"
We looked at each other and nodded. Then we opened the door and stepped outside into the cold winter air.
At the gate plaza of the 22nd floor, we found Nishida waiting for us with a fishing rod in his hand. We had told only him the time when we were going to leave.
"Could we talk for a bit?"
I nodded to Nishida's request, and the three of us sat down next to each other on a bench in the plaza. Nishida started talking slowly as he stared up towards the upper floors.
"To tell the truth... until today, stories about how people were fighting to clear the game on the upper floors sounded like they came from another world... Perhaps I had already given up on the thought of leaving this place."
Asuna and I listened to him silently.
"I think you already know this, but the IT industry progresses almost daily. I had started this career when I was young, so I was able to keep up with the industry back then. But now I had been out of the field for about two years, I figured it would be impossible for me to catch up now. Since I don't know whether I could return to my old job or not, or if I would be treated as a hindrance and simply tossed away, I thought that it would be better for me to keep fishing here—
He stopped talking and formed a smile on his old, wrinkled face. I didn't know what to say. I suppose I couldn't even imagine all the things he lost when he became imprisoned in SAO.
"I also—"
Asuna suddenly started talking.
"Until half a year ago, I also thought about those sorts of things and cried by myself every night. As each day passed here, it felt as if everything: my friends, my family, going to college, everything related to the real world was being ruined. I always dreamed of the other world when I slept... I thought that all I could do was to get stronger quickly, to clear this game faster, and the only way to do so was to fanatically train my weapon skills."
I looked at Asuna in surprise. Although I never paid much attention to others before... but I never felt anything like this from her during all our interactions. Well, this wouldn't be the first time that I had guessed someone's personality wrong...
Asuna caught my gaze and smiled briefly before continuing:
"But on a day about half a year ago, after I had just teleported to the city on the front-lines, I saw someone taking a nap on the grass of the plaza. He looked as if he was at a pretty high level, so I got angry and said, 'If you have time to kill here, go into the dungeon and try to clear some more of it...!'"
Then she covered her mouth with her hand and laughed.
"Then that person unexpectedly replied, 'It's the best season in Aincrad, and the weather setting is really good too. It would be a shame to go into the dungeon on a day like this.' Then he gestured to the space next to him and said, 'Why don't you take a nap as well?' He was so rude."
Asuna stopped smiling; her eyes became distant before she continued:
"But what he said surprised me. I realized that 'this person was actually living properly within this world.' He didn't mind losing days in the real world and instead focused on experiencing each day within this world. I discovered that there were actually people like this, so I sent away the other guild members and tried laying down next to him. Because the wind felt so good... just the right warmth for people, I fell asleep. I didn't have any nightmares that time. It was probably the first time I had such a good sleep since coming to this world. By the time I woke up, it was already in the afternoon, and that person was looking at me impatiently. That person was him..."
As she finished, Asuna tightly grasped my hand. I felt extremely embarrassed. I did sort of remember something like that, but...
"Sorry, Asuna... I didn't mean anything that deep by it; I just wanted to take a nap..."
"I knew that even if you didn't tell me!"
Asuna pouted, then she turned back towards Nishida with a smiling face before continuing:
"From that day on... I went to sleep thinking of him, and as a result the nightmares went away. I found out where his hometown was and would set aside some time to go see him every once in a while... Then I began to look forward to the coming of each day... When I realized that I was in love, I was so happy and swore to treasure this emotion. That was the first time when I thought that coming to this world was a great thing..."
Asuna lowered her head, rubbing her eyes with her gloved hands, and then took a deep breath.
"Kirito-kun is the meaning behind the two years of my life spent here. He is also the proof that I'm alive and the reason for looking forward to tomorrow. I had put on the Nerve Gear and come to this world in order to meet him. Nishida oji-san... It might not be my place to say this, but I think you've definitely achieved something within this world. There is no doubt that this is a virtual world, that everything we see and touch is an imitation created from data. But to us, our hearts do exist within this reality. If that's true, then everything we're experiencing here should also be true."
Nishida blinked continuously and nodded several times. His eyes were moist behind his glasses. I was also trying my best to hold back my tears.
It was me, I thought. I was the one who was saved when I couldn't find the reason for being alive, whether when I was in the real world or after I came to this one.
"...Yes. Yes, you're right..."
Nishida looked up at the sky again and spoke.
"What I have heard here is also a priceless experience. Having caught a five meter fish is also one... It seems that my life here hasn't been meaningless. It was not meaningless at all."
Nishida nodded once and then stood up.
"Ah, it seems that I've taken up too much of your time. I firmly believe that if people like you are fighting to free us, then we should all be able to return to the real world soon... Although there's nothing that I can do to help, I could at least encourage you and cheer you on."
Nishida held our hands and shook them.
"We'll come back. Please keep us company when we do."
As I promised with my index finger, Nishida nodded with a huge smile as tears streamed down his face.
We firmly shook hands with Nishida and then walked over to the teleport gate. As we entered the space that shimmered like an illusion, Asuna and I looked at each other and then opened our mouths at the same time:
"Teleport— Grandum!"
The blue light that started to cover our vision erased the image of Nishida as he kept waving at us.
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