Hello fan-fictioners, if that's a word. This is my first story in a while, but I think I'm a better writer since last time. Try this story out and review please! I love reading reviews, positive, negative, I don't care just please review. Anyway, I don't own anything related to Sword Art Online and its main cast. I own only my creations and their back-stories. I know this chapter is small, but according to people who keep reading, it's better after the first chapter. Have fun!

Chapter 1: Green from Coming Red

Kirito's POV

I am a coward. That is all I could think to myself. I can't believe that I gave up a deal with Kayaba saying that'd he'd free us if I beat him. I couldn't get the what ifs out of my head. What if I had accepted and won. Everyone, including Asuna, Klein, Agil, and the others would have been free of this nightmare. We'd be waking up in different hospitals, and the only thing we'd have to worry about is finding each other and celebrating. But, instead I said "no" to Kayaba's offer. I am such a coward.

"Kirito, you are not a coward," said the orange-haired girl in front of me. That's Asuna, my in-game, and hopefully, eventually, in the real world, wife. I must have been thinking out loud because she said that as if I've been repeating myself. Asuna said, "You decided to lay off the duel with Kayaba just to make sure you were going to be prepared, to the last detail, to beat him." I answered, "I know, but if I had accepted the duel with him, and won, everyone would be out of this game and we could actually meet in real life."

I sagged down even more into the chair I was sitting on, showing my despair. "Look, if you want to mope around all day, that's fine with me, but since you can't change the past, wouldn't starting to prepare for the eventual match with Kayaba just make more sense. Also, no one blames you for backing out of a fight with no guarantee of victory," Asuna told me. That cheered me up a bit, but I still felt a little down.

Then, she stood up and equipped her armor. "Okay, then," she said, "if I can't convince you to stop being depressed, I'll force you. Get up, equip your armor and weapons and we'll go to level 73 to train a little." I answered, "Okay," and equipped my Coat of Midnight and Elucidator. We went to level 73 and stayed there for a while. It was a forest area on the floor. Some of the monsters to fight were dark ents and giant versions of wild animals. This was the tame part of this floor, which is what Asuna said we should start in.

My mind was definitely clearing up and I didn't feel so down anymore. I was chopping through monsters when suddenly, I heard something. I froze after killing the last monster and signaled Asuna to do the same. After a small amount of time, we heard rustling in the bushes. It must be a red player. I thought that anyway. The bush was big enough to hide a human and the entire bush rustled. I grabbed Asuna's arm and dragged her away. I was not in the mood to deal with a red player.

We ran for thirty minutes until she yelled at me, "SLOW DOWN!" I did so thinking, how many times did she scream that before I noticed? We stopped running and she asked me, "Why are we running? Kayaba said that the 'dual wield' skill goes to the strongest player. Since you have that skill, that declares you the 'Strongest Player.' Why did we run?" I told her, "I'm not in the mood to fight PKs and I had a bad gut feeling."

"You were right to," a voice said. Then, a teenage boy jumped down to the ground and faced us. He had brown hair and hazel eyes. "In the state you're in, you couldn't beat me if you tried," he said. "What do you mean?" I asked. He smirked and then, before I knew it, he snuck behind me, grabbed Asuna, and injected her with something. He took his scythe and held the blade to her neck. I don't know why Asuna didn't move because she could easily escape if she tried.

"I injected her with a paralysis potion. It's her weakness. Take away her speed, and what do you have?" he said. I wanted to hit him so badly, but his scythe looked high enough in level to kill Asuna in one neck cut. "Why are you doing this?" I asked. He answered, "To snap you out of this mood you've been having. You see, you have no physical weakness. I mean, you leave the head open, but that's probably just to lure the enemy to attack there, isn't it?" How did he know that? "So you see," he continued, "Your mental weaknesses are the obvious way to go, and now that you can't even accept a single fact, you can't protect those. This girl, Asuna, she is your biggest mental weakness, which you have left to rot out in the street all because of your self-loathing. Snap out of it!"

Then, something sparked in me. Don't know what happened, but I moved as fast as I could and pushed the scythe away from him. I looked into his eyes to see his reaction, but he just smiled and pointed to the space above his head. I didn't understand why because as soon as I looked back from where he pointed, he was gone. I grabbed Asuna and brought her to the ground. I kept thinking as I gave Asuna the paralyze-heal crystal. What was he doing? Why did he point above his head? Then, I figured it out.

As soon as she recovered, Asuna asked "What do you think that was about?" I answered her, "I don't know, but there's something that bothers me about him?" She asked, "Why? What's wrong?" I told her, "That player, his cursor was green."

So how is it? Good? Bad? Suspenseful? Boring? Please give me feedback, and tell me what to do better or with more focus. Review as much as you can, please!