Player, Warrior, Hero
Original Name:Player
Summary:What if the day before Yuuki's death, on the 24th floor the same island where she met Asuna and died, she asks for Kirito to go there?
Disclaimer: I do not own anything. All content is based off of "Sword Art Online" and their owner's ideas and plots. All rights reserved and used without consent.
March 28 2026(A Day Before Yuuki's Death)
Kirito landed gracefully on the island, retracting his wings, as he approached the well known, small figure. Zekken, or also known as Konno Yuuki. Zekken turned around to face him, staring straight into his eyes. "Asuna's right. Do look as good as they do in game,"she muttered. It confused the heck out of Kirito, but that wasn't what his attention was focused on. Kirito spent a lot of his time talking to Asuna, and one of the things that had come up a lot recently was Konno Yuuki. Therefore, he knew that her health was deteriorating fast. Zekken in game was really no different. The same spirit, the same grin. But she was paler and a little more tired looking.
"Are you sure you're okay, Konno Yuuki-san?"he asked in concern. "Of course I'm fine. Or else the doctors wouldn't let me on. Plus, I want to hear you call me how Asuna says it. Like a parent or older sibling does. Yuuki,"she answered, waving off the concern. Scratching the back of his head with a sheepish grin, Kirito replied, "Sorry... Yuuki." "Thank you. I haven't felt anything paternal like you said it, or maternal like Asuna treats me since a long time ago,"Yuuki smiled, and then her voice drifted off.
"But anyways, that's not why I asked you to come here. I asked, because from what I've seen and heard, I know that I am probably the best player in ALO for a long, long time. Maybe even for the rest of time that ALO even exists. But you are not best when you are a player. You are best as a warrior. For my reality, because I know my life is expiring fast, can you duel me once, just so I know the limits of my power, when I die? It is the one wish I will ever ask of you, and one of the few wishes I have ever had. In fact, it'll probably be one of my last three wishes, if not last. Please, fight me in my reality,"Yuuki pleaded.
Kirito's face softened. "Wouldn't you rather live instead not having being defeated?"he asked.
"Would you have hesitated that fraction of a second if you never suspected I was a medicuboid patient?"Yuuki answered with a question. Kirito sighed, "Very well."
Calling up the menu with a familiar swipe, he equiped his second sword, Excalibur, a familiar weight now appearing on his back. After pressing a few buttons, a duel request pops up in front of Yuuki and without hesitation, she accepts. They fall into familiar ready stances, but this time, Kirito has excalibur in his left hand. Right arm, leg, hand, and sword forward, leaning on his right leg, while his left leg, arm, hand and sword were behind. "Same rules as the duel you had with Asuna,"Kirito declared. Yuuki nodded just as the countdown reached Zero. Both at incredible speeds charged at one another. Kirito swung from downwards up, and Yuuki easily deflected it, but she wasn't quite fast enough to anticipate Kirito swinging his sword down from above. Yuuki swung her sword up to block Kirito's blow, but it send a shock wave out that even they could feel reverberating in their bodies. Kirito brought his right sword back flicking away Yuuki's sword so she was vulnerable, but Yuuki swung back around with surprising speed, activating her sword, engulfing it in the pinkish purple light, blasting away with Mother's Rosario.
Yuuki stabs five times in a straight line from the top right to the bottom left. Then she jabbed five times. That formed an X, and finally, Yuuki tilted her body and stabs once again with all her strength directly at the intersection of the cross-shape created by the former ten strikes. That's how it should've happened. Instead, Kirito deflects the first 9 alternately, but wasn't fast enough for the tenth, which barely grazed him, but still declined his health bar quite a bit, almost into the yellow zone, and the finaly 11th stab, he deflected with an X cross of his swords, throwing him off balance just like Asuna was when Yuuki was about to finish her sword skill, leaving her arms flinginig out wide for perhaps three seconds, leaving all of her body vulnerable. That was all the time that it took for Kirito to activate a very familiar sword skill. Starbust Stream. In SAO a unique swordskill. In ALO, a new Original Sword Skill he had developed since Asuna had first met Yuuki.
It was the same as Starburst stream in SAO except much, much faster. As fast as Kirito could go. The first hit is a horizontal swing from left to right with the right sword, then an uppercut. Both of these, Yuuki manages to block. Barely. Then Kirito jumps up and slashes the Yuuki with both swords from left to right while spinning, twice. He lands facing the Yuuki and slashes an X from top to bottom, before inversely slashing the X again, which Yuuki now anticipates, and were able to block both X's. Kirito leaps at the Yuuki and makes two diagonal slashes. Afterwards, the he reversed his grip on the two swords and slashes another X, does a barrel-roll maneuver while slashing at Yuuki, like a corkscrew. Slashing another two X's at the target, and then he then makes a diagonal slash with the right sword, and then spins left and uses this momentum to deal a horizontal slash with the left sword. At a very high speed, he makes an uppercu; then another with the left sword, a downward slash, then a downward diagonal slash, spins and repeats the previous attack, and thrusts the right-handed sword out. The final slash is a forceful downward lunge with the left sword.
All in all, Yuuki managed to block about 50% of these hits, leaving her with a red health bar. However, this OSS, also left Kirito quite vulnerable in that split second delay in which he finished the sword skill. Kirito blocked her swing by twisting around and backwards, buying him a second, which is all he needs to bring his right sword up, pushing Yuuki's sword up as well, and left sword forward towards Yuuki's body. But pulls back with an effort, in the same position which he was when he finally killed The Gleam Eyes, except his left sword never hit its target.
From the shock wave, Yuuki stumbles back and lands on her bottom, before wiping a hand to her brow. She seemed significantly more tired than before the duel. Sheathing his swords, Kirito's eyes widened, and he asked, "Are you okay?"
Yuuki waved him off answering, "I am more tired than usual, but that is expected after a fight of this proportion." Kirito and nodded, but he still seemed concerned.
Out of nowhere, clapping sounded from behind. Yuuki and Kirito whipped around, Yuuki jumping to her feet, to see Kayaba, or rather, what remained of him, that he had been able to upload onto the net. "Who are you?"Yuuki asked, at the same time which Kirito grumbled, "What do we owe you this visit, Kayaba?"
"It is quite intriguing to see one one hero who defeated my world almost loose against somebody other than me,"Kayaba answered, although it didn't offer much of an explanation. Today, Kayaba was dressed as his avatar in SAO was, clad in red and white armor, with his shield and sword on his arms. "I presume you are Konno Yuuki-san. It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Akihiko Kayaba, creator of Sword Art Online. I would be honored to duel you,"Kayaba explained further, mostly for Yuuki's sake.
Yuuki looked at Kirito questioningly. He did not look back at Yuuki, but kept staring into Kayaba's eyes, just like Kayaba did his. Neither man blinked. "I must admit it is quite interesting that he would show up in a time like this. It doesn't necessarily mean good. It means something will happen soon, something important. Kayaba wouldn't descend from his place monitoring the whole web wherever the real Kayaba uploaded him to for no reason. But I do admit Kayaba is a fearful opponent. Even Asuna and I together barely defeated him. And we both died defeating him,"Kirito said, stating the facts only.
Yuuki took it in before cracking a smile, "You mean like me dying? That only confirms I'm about to die. Not like I didn't already know. Kayaba, if I had another month, I'd tell you another day, in the future I would do it. But I don't want to defeat you. It would serve no purpose. I dueled Asuna because I wanted to end something. The Sleeping Knights. I wanted to duel Kirito because I wanted to end something as well. I don't wish to start anything with you. You are a player like me. You made playing your life. Asuna and Kirito are warriors. They played for their lives, and eventually for others. That is the difference between a player and a warrior. A hero."
Yuuki, and Kayaba, were players. Asuna is a warrior. Kirito is a hero. That was the difference, and that was the difference between the wills, which was what made all the difference in the end. No matter if it was when Kirito was fighting with Kayaba, or Sugou. The players, the warriors, and the heroes.
Draft 2: 1/17/16
Yuuki is one of the only characters(well... she is the only character to be exact) which I was I really felt for in Season 2. She was essentially one of the best parts of SAO Season 2. Except Asuna, Kirito, Leafa, Lisbeth, Klein, Agil... I think you get the point .Anyways, it really bugs me when Kirito isn't best, although logically he can't be the best everywhere, the thing I caught up on was that they said at the beginning of Mother's Rosary that Kirito would never try his hardest unless it became reality, and at the end it said Yuuki was the best player. So I thought, perhaps it meant that Kirito could beat Yuukii. Just not when he was playing. Obviously, this has been heavily edited, thanks to a guest's comment. The guest was named Joey's Raticate, and I really, really tried to shorten the fighting. So. Yeah.