A/N: Now, this fan-fic isn't exactly one of mine. It used to belong to an author named furrballnerd. They're pretty talented. Unfortunately, they discontinued this fan-fic. Now I am hoping to finish it because I think the idea has a lot of promise.
This chapter is going to be a lot like the original version, except with some differences here and there to have it more styled towards my writing.
Like furballnerd, I saw the tail grab scene in the show and thought that it would be interesting to write a fan-fic based around it. I couldn't really come up with anything good enough to post about it though. I really think furrballnerd came up with a good idea. Now, I'm not sure if I'll be able to go in as good a direction as furrballnerd was planning on going, but I'm going to try my best.
Also, attention, I have a tumblr blog where I post stuff (ideas and questions and thoughts and more) about this account. So… Follow me? The name is "stygianhazardff"
Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online, and I really wish it was real.
Shino let out a small yelp at the sudden foreign feeling that jolted through her entire body. It was an odd sensation. She couldn't tell whether she wanted to moan or scream or whimper. She settled for mewling embarrassingly before turning to eye the reason for the feeling. Seeing a hand grasping her tail, she quickly figured out why the touch had felt so weird. She glanced up, following the arm up to its owner. Kazuto.
Kazuto merely grinned at her while holding onto her tail triumphantly.
Furiously, she turned around and swiped at him with serious intent to injure Kazuto. None of the others stopped her. That was good. She would have cut them down to get to Kazuto if she needed to.
Jumping back, Kazuto dodged each of her attacks with ease.
"If you do that again, I'll shove a fire arrow up your ass!" Shino yelled out, glaring at him with a look in her eyes with would have caused any other player to log out just to escape her. After a second, she turned back around to continue running down the stairs. "And then, after that, I'll do a lot worse to you."
"So scary…" Kazuto laughed, paying little mind to Ryōtarō commenting on his bravery from the back of the group.
Up in the front, neither Kazuto nor anyone else noticed the unsettled expression budding on Shino's face.
Kazuto closed the door to the room leading to a sleeping Yui and Asuna slowly and quietly before taking a step back. He yawned tiredly before smiling softly. There wasn't anything else better than being home with the family. He opened his menu and did a quick change into his normal home attire, which consisted of a simple pair of black cotton pants and a sleeveless black t-shirt. Other people always made fun of him for only owning black stuff, but he had to. It was practically his trademark. It wasn't for nothing that people called him the Black Swordsman.
Walking into the living room, Kazuto looked around. The place was a mess. He would need to do some cleaning later before Asuna found out. She hated it when this place got messy. He really didn't want to do it though. After the adventure earlier that day, which had taken far longer than he had expected, he was too tired to do much of anything. On the plus side, he now had the Holy Sword Excalibur. That was a major plus. He grinned stupidly at the thought of that gleaming, golden sword. He couldn't wait to test it out. Without thinking about it, he jumped onto the couch in excitement while thinking about using his new sword. A sudden gasp broke him out of his reverie to look over to his side.
"Huh?" Kazuto said in incomprehension as he stared into a familiar pair of wide, electric indigo eyes. "Sinon?"
Shino didn't respond. She remained completely still, with her knees pulled up to her chin and her arms wrapped around her legs as she stared blankly into space.
'Is she sleeping?' Kazuto though, eyeing her warily in case this was a trick to get him to let his guard down. He quickly discarded that thought though. He was pretty sure that Shino didn't sleep with her eyes open. The time he had stayed over at her house after the Gun Gale Online incident was proof enough of that, as well as the other few times he had seen her resting in the game. Still though, she wasn't dressed as she normally was. The outfit she was pretty homey. It looked a lot like what she had worn in the real world the night they had won the Bullet of Bullets tournament, although the color scheme was more in line with her avatar here. Regardless, it was probably because the game was just taking its time logging her off. All of their friends had a habit of logging off in Kazuto's and Asuna's house, after all.
Figuring that that was all it was, he was about to get up and walk away before she shivered slightly. It wasn't a lag issue, then. She was definitely still in the game. He took a closer look at her, realizing that this may be a bit more serious than he had originally thought.
Shino's eyes were completely devoid of life. They looked dull; it was a shade he couldn't remember ever seeing in them before. They always looked so alive. Well, except for that one time. That time when they were being hunted by Death Gun in Gun Gale Online.
"Sinon?" Kazuto said, a bit louder this time. Now he was getting a bit worried. "Are you ok, Sinon?" He reached out to touch shake her.
The second his hand touched hers, she flinched and pushed herself away from him. Shino's eyes blinked quickly as she turned to stare in shock at his hand. After looking up and noticing him, her eyes grew even wider and she pushed herself to the far edge of the couch. Once she was at the edge, she leaned back more, as if trying to push herself through the couch just to get away from him.
"Are you ok?" Kazuto asked, now definitely worried about his friend. He wasn't sure what could have brought this reaction out of nowhere. "Do you need he-"
"D-don't…" Shino gasped out, interrupting him. "Don't touch me. Please…"
"Huh?" Kazuto let his hand freeze in-between them. He didn't try to touch her, but he didn't pull it back either. He let it hand uselessly between them.
"Just leave me alone, Kirito." Shino said brokenly, turning to look away from him. Her eyes grew a bit shinier as she stared at the floor interestedly.
'Did I do something wrong?' Kazuto thought, thinking back to everything that they had done today. Nothing really came to mind though.
Disregarding her earlier plea, he reached out to pat her on her shoulder to try to comfort her.
Big mistake.
In an instant, Shino lashed out at him angrily. Her hand slapped his without any restraint.
"I thought I told to not touch me!" Shino yelled out irately. She glared at him, harder than she had back in the dungeon. "How can you not even understand that?!"
Taken aback, Kazuto simply inched back a bit in shock. "I…"
"You just don't get it, do you?!" Shino continued. "I told you to leave me alone! And you… You just don't understand." Her eyes grew shinier as she continued to glare at him until slowly, her eyes watered over and slow tears started to fall down her face.
Unsure of what to do or say, Kazuto just looked at her blankly in shock. This wasn't the Shino he was used to. Even at her worst, she had never seemed this broken before.
"You just go around, all carefree and joking," Shino said, angrily trying to wipe away her tears. "You don't even realize the effect you have on everyone you meet."
"What are you talking about?" Kazuto questioned. Obviously, he had done something to upset her. He didn't know what, but it must have been really bad and really stupid to affect Shino so much. And that hurt the most. Under no circumstances did he ever want to cause pain for someone who fought alongside him; especially someone who also trusted and believed in him. "Please tell me what I did."
"You…" Shino started.
"I…?" Kazuto said, trying to encourage her to continue.
"You… grabbed my tail." Shino finished nervously. Her face slowly started to turn red as she thought back to that moment in the dungeon. That feeling. Her tail twitched nervously at the reminder.
'I grabbed your tail?" Kazuto repeated, not fully understanding the point. That didn't seem enough to warrant this sort of reaction from Shino. It had just been a joke.
"Think about my life," Shino said dully, not looking at Kazuto as she started bringing up her past. "I killed someone when I was just a kid. I was traumatized for so long because of it. I still sort of am. And for all of those years… everyone shunned me. I was a murderer. What kind of kid would want to be around a murderer?"
Kazuto just stared at Shino in shock. He hadn't thought that it had been that bad for her. He had thought assumed that there must have been someone there for her as a kid when he had first found out about her history; like a therapist or some adult alongside a friend or two to help her out. But to have had absolutely no one around? Not even his messed up life in Sword Art Online was that bad. He was at least a teenager during that incident. But Shino had been a child during hers. To not have anyone around to help afterwards was just too painful to think about.
"Kirito…" Shino murmured, giving up on trying to wipe her tears away. It didn't look like she was going to be able to stop anytime soon. "I've never been touched before."
"What?" Kazuto asked. Surely, he must have misheard her. There was no way that he could have heard her correctly.
"You heard me." Shino said, not wanting to repeat that painful admission.
"But we hugged in Gun Gale Online, didn't we?" Kazuto asked, thinking back. Actually, he had no memory of her being touched by anyone at all when the group hung out. Not even a pat on the back or a handshake.
"I can barely remember that," Shino admitted. "I mean, I remember feeling relieved. But that's all. I don't remember feeling you back then. I was too shaken up to take it in. Plus, our lives were on the line. I figured it was just a one-time thing."
"Ah." Kazuto had to give her that one. It was a pretty logical conclusion. And now he felt like an even bigger asshole than before. It was no wonder why Shino was angry at him.
Kazuto scooted a bit closer, slowly as to not startle Shino. He stopped when he was just a foot away. Mindfully, he rested his hands in his lap as he stared at her.
Shino eyed him warily.
"I'm sorry," Kazuto said suddenly, bowing apologetically. "I should have known better… I'm really sorry, Sinon."
"It's fine…" Shino said, looking away from him again.
"It's not," Kazuto refuted her. He had to make up for his mistake somehow. After a moment, he came up with an idea that he hoped would work. "I mean… look. I think maybe you just need to practice with someone. Preferably with someone you can trust. Then you can work your way up from there. It may take a while, bu-"
"It wouldn't." Shino interrupted breathlessly.
"Eh?" Kazuto blinked in shock. That was unexpected, but not entirely unwelcome. "Are you sure? That's great!"
"Not really…" Shino said sullenly, suddenly realizing the dilemma with that idea. It was a pretty big one too.
"What do you mean?" Kazuto asked.
"Tch," Shino chuckled humorlessly. "You really don't see it, do you?"
"See what?" Kazuto said, scratching his head in confusion.
"You look at them, but you don't see them," Shino said depressingly. "They're just there. I can't tell how I should feel about that. But then again, I guess it doesn't really matter. Not in the end."
"Um, do you mind filling me in here?" Kazuto asked, completely lost as to what Shino was talking about.
"There's probably some I don't even know about," Shino mused out loud, not really hearing Kazuto's question. "All I know of is Liz, Silica, and even your own freaking sister…"
"Cousin." Kazuto corrected her needlessly.
"They're all just so hopelessly in love with you." Shino finished softly.
Kazuto wanted to yell out in shock at that revelation, but he couldn't. His whole body was just frozen. He stared at her in disbelief.
"But you don't care," Shino said dispiritingly. "You have Asuna, after all. Why would you care that every one of them…" She trailed off and took a deep breath before continuing. "Why would you care that every one of us would do just about anything to have you look at us like you look at her? To have you care for us like you care for her? We would give up our friendship, our games, anything just to be able to hold hands with our hero…"
Kazuto gulped, his mouth suddenly feeling dry. Shino's words were hitting him like sticks and stones. Despite wanting to protest against what she was saying, he couldn't. One by one, memories of the past flew through his head. She was right. It was so obvious if he looked for it. But he never did. With his eyes set on Asuna, he had never really noticed nor cared about the others around him. Or at least, he didn't show as much consideration as he should have. And now with Shino, he was…
"I'm just going to log out now." Shino said, seeing that Kazuto wasn't going to reply. She was actually ok with that. It would be better for her to not hear a false reassurance from him. Not right now.
"Wait!" Kazuto reached out to stop her, but stopped just short of grabbing her hand.
Luckily, it was enough to still Shino's movement. She stopped reaching for the log out button in favor of looking at Kazuto's hand, which was less than an inch from hers.
"Wait," Kazuto repeated, a bit more firmly this time. "I… let me help you, Sinon. Please."
"What?" Shino looked up to look at Kazuto vulnerably.
"You said you had someone in mind to practice… touching with," Kazuto said, trying to speak carefully. This was both to put Shino at ease and to make sure that Asuna and Yui wouldn't wake up from their slumber. "You had me in mind, right?" That sounded kind of wrong, but it needed to be said. He had to do something for her.
Shino merely nodded slowly.
"Then let me help you," Kazuto turned his hand over so his palm was facing upwards. "I mean, that is, if you still want me to."
After a quick moment of deliberation as Shino stared at Kazuto's hand, she nodded again.
"Are you sure?" Kazuto questioned, wanting to be sure that this was what Shino wanted. If it was, he would do it. She was his precious friend, after all.
"Y-yes." Shino said, her voice cracking nervously.
Kazuto pulled his hand back and waited. It would be better if Shino made the first move.
"Give me your hands." Shino mumbled quietly, holding her hands out hesitantly.
Slowly, Kazuto reached out towards her hands. As soon as his were close enough, she reached out and took them in her own. Then, instead of holding them like he had expected, she pulled them towards her to wrap them around her shoulders. Kazuto could feel his face heating up as he felt her for the first time since the time in the cave.
As soon as his hands were in place, she let go and slowly brought her hands up to his shoulders. After grabbing them, she pulled him closer, or maybe she pulled herself closer to him. It was hard to tell. Regardless, within seconds, both of them could now feel each other's breaths on their skin.
"Are you ok?" Kazuto asked after a moment.
Shino's breathing was deep, quick, and ragged. Not at all how it should have sounded. It sounded like she was about to break down again.
"Sinon?" Kazuto asked again, starting to pull away.
"I'm fine!" Shino said, shaking her head. She took a deep breath before appearing to calm down, if only slightly. After a moment, she spoke up. "Now move your hands to my back."
'Her back?' Kazuto thought, looking at her before realizing what she had meant. Slowly, he moved his hands off of her shoulders and down her back until they rested about midway down her back.
Shino's breathing picked up for a second before she got herself under control again. It was a lot quicker than before, which was a good sign. "Lower." She muttered.
Kazuto looked down at her head before obeying, moving his hands lower until they were right above her waist. He swallowed nervously. Shino was just as soft as he remembered. And being this close to her now, he couldn't help but start to view her as a woman. A very beautiful, very soft, and very curvy woman.
"Lower." Shino said again, this time more firmly than before.
Once again, Kazuto obliged her. This time, he move his hands until his little fingers were resting against her waist. This time, he made sure to avoid her tail at all costs. He stopped there.
Both of them waited. They weren't sure for what, but neither of them said or did anything for a few minutes besides breathe.
"L-" Shino leaned her head against his chest nervously before continuing. "Lower."
"Sinon…" Kazuto said uncomfortably. This was now officially going past friendship if he did this. He wanted to say stop, but the word wouldn't leave his mouth. His mouth just opened and closed silently.
"Lower." Shino repeated herself.
Wordlessly, Kazuto moved his hands lower until they were pressing down on her ass with the weight of a feather. He tried to ignore the exhilaration that was coursing through his veins, but he couldn't. The feeling of her hot breath against his neck was breaking his concentration.
Kazuto was sure that Shino could feel his heart racing.
Time passed slowly. At some point, Kazuto could swear that she had logged out due to how still she was being. Only the sound of her deep breathing convinced him otherwise. His eyes were beginning to close. Honestly, he was at his limit here. It was hard to tell if it was because of the dungeon, how late it was, or this situation; but right now his mind just couldn't handle any more. Right as he was about to open his mouth to say something, Shino moved.
Pushing herself forward, Shino leaned against Kazuto with all of her weight, causing him to lose his balance and fall backwards. Shino fell down on top of him. Instead of picking herself up, she wrapped her arms fully around him. She leaned up slightly so she could look at him.
Kazuto stared back, anything he was about to say was quickly silenced by Shino's next action.
Without warning, Shino leaned up and kissed him quickly. Chastely.
It was so fast that Kazuto could have said that it hadn't really happened. But it did. His lips were on fire. He could feel it. There was no mistake.
"S-Sinon!" Kazuto's voice failed him. He should have said that this was wrong. He was with Asuna. Shino and he were only friends. They needed to stop. But as he looked at Shino's broken expression, he just couldn't say anything. He wanted to say something, anything. Desperately. But right now, there was nothing he could say. Or maybe there was nothing he wanted to say.
"Please…" Shino whispered brokenly, begging him with her eyes.
'I…' Kazuto thought, moving up deliberately.
"Kirito…" Shino licked her lips welcomingly.
'I am so sorry, Asuna.' Kazuto thought as his lips touched Shino's.
OMAKE
Kazuto hummed thoughtfully as he stared at the screen in front of him. This was a crucial moment here. It was a matter of life or death. The difference between being worshiped or being ridiculed. Arguably, it was both the best and the worst part of almost any video game.
The dreaded… The feared… The hated… Picking of your name.
"Shit…" Kazuto muttered.
After a few hours, he decided to just go with his default name in most games. Kirito, because his name was Kirigiya Kazoto. Kirito. It was definitely better than like, 90% of the online population's usernames. Thankful for being done, he quickly clicked the next button. Then his eyebrow twitched angrily.
And here was his second worst foe of all time… Character Customization.
"This is going to take a while…" Kazuto sighed.
Needless to say, the several hours he had then spent creating a kickass avatar was quickly wasted due to a magic mirror item delivered to him a short time later by the Kami of Sword Art Online, Kayaba Akihiko.
Due to that, at the same time, Akihiko gained himself a very bitter enemy.
A/N: Holy shit… I did it. I'm pretty proud of myself for working through this. Although, I need to repeat myself here, the original idea and concept was all furrballnerds.
I'm a bit unsure of where I will go from here… But I will DEFINITELY think of something. I have several ideas. But still, by all means, feel free to give me yours too in the review section.
Again, reminder, please feel free to follow "stygianhazardff" on tumblr for updates/thoughts about my fan-fiction stuff.
