Kirito's head hurt.
Heck, his entire body simply ached.
It was normal for him to be among the unlucky. His friends ran along the same lines, but at least they cared a slight bit.
He grimaced slightly, not exactly wanting to open his eyes, even under the presence of a sweet pine smell similar to the one that had been encased in his memory. There were other things as well. Horses, sweat, gunpowder. Some strange gas that he couldn't quite place, but similar to sulfur. The noises that accompanied these surprisingly familiar scents were slightly out of place. Rolling wagon wheels against dirt and horses hooves explained the throbbing in his head, the subtle racket of things clattering slightly around him every time they reached a small rut of bump in the road. Heavy breathing and quiet voices were heard, murmuring things he couldn't quiet make out. The clanking of metal sounding boxes accompanied this, and the familiar clang of a sword in it's sheath.
He didn't really want to know were he was, or what was happening, but he knew that if he was going to figure it out, he would have to open his eyes at some point.
So, he did.
His eyes were met with the bright golden glare of sunlight, stinging his pupils until he had to close them again.
It was mid-day. He knew that.
He opened his eyes again to find it easier to stare at the bright blue, nearly cloudless sky above. His hearing began to clear slightly, allowing him to make out some of the small whisperings. The closest few seemed to be taking place in a conversation of about five, two girls and three boys.
"-those ears! They look almost like Eren when he's a Titan!" A feminine, and overly excited voice said.
"I don't like them." Another voice replied, this one more gruff, and deeper.
"Of course you don't, we found them outside wall Rose." The same, excited voice said from earlier, though her attitude seemed slightly less hyper.
"Don't worry, we'll take the necessary measures to ensure safety." It was another male voice, but he seemed slightly bigger, if at all, and the person in charge of the group.
"Necessary measures?" A third male voice grunted. He seemed annoyed, but also of a high command within the group. "Could you elaborate, please?"
"Was that sarcasm Corporal?" The second female voice asked. You could clearly hear the smile in her voice.
"Tch." The man - the Corporal - replied haughtily.
The other three chuckled.
After a long pause, the first girl began to speak again. "I want to figure out if their wings actually work. Good thing we got them out in time! I dunno what I would've done with myself if we'd lost them. This is an amazing discovery! The scientific community will absolutely adore me after this!" She beamed.
He blinked. It suddenly dawned upon him that there was no health bar in the corner of his vision. He jolted up, suddenly aware of the screeching of metal against metal and the sword balanced under his chin. He froze, his dark eyes wandering up the blade to see the wielder, a short, angry looking man with a cravat balanced under his chin. His narrow, blue eyes were staring at Kirito with the same hidden curiosity.
He swallowed. The man seemed perfectly calm and focused on him, weary of any sudden movements. He wasn't about to throw a punch at the guy though. Not with the weapon at his throat.
"Who are you?" The man asked, the same, annoyed tone rippling through it.
His mouth gaped open and closed like a fish, unsure how to form words.
"Who are you?" The man asked again, shifting the sword slightly closer to his throat.
"Ki-Kirito." He stammered softly, chin up to avoid his throat hitting the metal object as he spoke.
"Hello Kirito!"
Kirito's line of sight moved away from the man and towards a tall, peppy brown haired woman. She had a pair of goggles on her face, her hair pulled into a high and messy pony-tail, spare strands framing her narrow face. She was beaming at him, almost as if she was about to jump off of her horse and give him a full glance over.
"Put the sword down Levi, your scaring him!" He was surprised as a third female joined the conversation. Her amber eyes locked in on the man, silently scolding him. He grunted, re-sheathing the sword in one of the two large metal boxes balancing from a leather belt on his waist. She let out a quiet 'humph' before pulling a stray strand of red hair away from her face.
Another woman laughed at her reaction, seemingly the one teasing the Corporal from earlier. She had short, man styled blonde hair which curled on her forehead. She was leaning back in the saddle slightly, causing the man next to her to smile. He was also blonde, with a goatee and mustache completing his gruff look. The final man remained silent, blue eyes trained on the road ahead. As well as the previous two, he was blonde, his hair slicked back on each side. He looked similar to some American tourists would look like when they came to visit Japan. Save for the eyebrows. Kirito had no idea what was going on there.
Kirito glanced around uncomfortably before slouching down once again. It took him a few moments to realize that Yui's head was in his lap. He paused. He reached out a hand to stroke the bangs away from her face, but then stopped when he saw them tied together, a long rope securing his bonds to the side of the wagon.
Looks like he wasn't going to fly away.
He paused again. Wait, he had wings!?
He glanced behind him, seeing a pair of familiar, narrow, bug-like, grey wings hanging from his upper back, peering from between the two scabbards he had there. The scabbards were empty.
He suddenly felt very exposed without the familiar weight of the two swords on his back, but he was sure that they had to be around nearby. Somewhere.
He redirected his attention to Yui. She seemed undisturbed by the wagon's movement, angelic with her light pink fairy wings and the childish pink dress she always wore. He smiled softly. Was Asuna here too? He glanced around, spotting Asuna just next to him. She too was sleeping peacefully, though she didn't look like the blue haired fairy from the game. She still had her red hair, even though she wore the blue and white dress and the blue wings were curled peacefully behind her back. He placed a gentle kiss on her forehead, causing her to stir slightly, but not wake. He also noted that Sylvia, Agil and Klien were there as well. Peena, Sylvia's little dragon, was nowhere in sight.
Klien yawned.
"Hey man, what's going-" He paused, going wide eyed as the familiar sword blade found it's place near his neck. "...on..."
"Name." The man from earlier demanded.
"The name's Klien." Klien stated, brushing away the sword with the tips of his fingers, even though his hands were also held back after a few inches, which did't seem to faze him. The other man's brown eyes landed on Kirito after a few moments, causing him to grin.
"Oh, hey Kirito. Seems like we got ourselves in- ah... another situation, eh?"
"Hey Klien." Kirito responded simply.
"Hey... why the long face?" He asked, glancing around his surroundings slightly.
"I don't know what's going on." Kirito said, his face falling. "Look at the corner of your scree- no, wait. Just look in the upper corner." He finished with a sigh.
He watched as the older man's eyes went to the upper right corner of his vision. They grew wide.
"Wait! Wait! Holy crap man!" Klien exclaimed, starting to tug at his wrists.
"Klien."
"We're gonna freakin' die here and no one's gonna know!"
"Klien."
"Where's my sword? Who took my sword? Kirito, where're yours!?"
"Klien."
"Where are we!? Where are we going? Please tell me we're not already dead! Why isn't this a video game!? Why do we still have wings!?"
"Klien..."
"Whhhhyyyy meeeee? Why is it always meeeee!?"
"Klien..."
"We're gonna freakin' dieeeeee..."
"Klien, will you just shut up already!?"
Silence fell over the wagon train, Klein frozen, one foot on the side of the wagon as if he was about to try and pull his hand out of the rope. Their captors seemed amused. The brown haired woman with goggles was scribbling notes down, which was the only noise other than the wagon, the horses and birds high above.
"Sorry man." Klien siad softly. "I overreacted, huh?"
A small grin grew on Kirito's face. "Like that one time, when we first started SAO and a boar ran into you, and you started crying like you'd really been hit?"
Klien laughed. "Yeah, like that."
The woman from earlier began laughing again.
"I dunno about you Mike, but I like 'em!" She elbowed the man next to her, the same gruff one she'd caused smile earlier. He grunted with dissaprooval.
"Oh, stop being such a buzzkill."
"Yeah, Moblit!" The brown haired woman joined in.
The group rode on in silence for a while.
In that period of time Agil woke up as well, just as confused as the other two, but didn't over-react, but laughed when Kirito explained Klien's reaction, while the said man turned slightly red and tried to laugh it off. Silica awoke as well, distraught to find her dragon Peena nowhere in sight, and was nearly scared witless by Corporal Levi's sword being shoved towards her neck as her name was demanded. In fact, she had started crying, causing him to be scolded once again by the red haired woman.
The sun was growing low over the horizon, and a large wall was growing near in the distance when Yui finally woke up.
"Daddy?" She had said softly.
Kirito had sat up from his slouched position against the side of the wagon, peering down into a pair of wide, dark brown eyes. Kirito immeadetly grabbed her and pressed her head against his chest, letting out a sigh of relief. He then glanced at the Corporal, who had been about to grab his weapon. They made eye contact, Kirito's eyes narrowing as if to say, 'over my dead body'.
"Daddy? Daddy what's wrong?"
"Nothing, Yui. It's just fine."
Yui had sighed, letting herself be held by him, her tiny hand curling into his chest.
The Corporal's hand had fallen away from it's weapon, watching with interest.
"Where's mommy?" Yui asked softly, titling her head to look back up at him.
"Mommy's over here." He siad, pointing next to him.
"Oh." Yui whispered, giggling. "Is mommy napping?"
"Yeah." Kirito said, hugging her again.
"Hey, Kirito, isn't that the kid you told us about?" Klien asked, nodding towards her.
Kirito nodded in response, allowing Yui to look around and see who was speaking. She shyly waved, causing Klein to smile. She shyed away, still smiling a bit, playing with Kirito's coat.
"She's cute! Silica beamed. "Hello Yui!"
"Hi..." Yui whispered back, looking at Silica's wings enviously.
"My name's Silica." Silica said, leaning forward.
"I like your wings..." Yui said.
"I like yours too. They're so pretty!"
Yui smiled. "Thank you."
Asuna stirred slightly, before sitting up and stretching. Then she paused. And then she looked around.
"Kirito!" She exclaimed as her eyes landed on him. "Oh Yui! Oh, thank god you're okay..."
"Mommy!" Yui exclaimed, beaming.
Asuna hugged her in a similar why to Kirito. The Corporal didn't make a movement as he watched them.
"Asuna." Kirito grinned.
"Hey, Kirito." She answered, and then leaned in to plant a kiss on his cheek. She looked at him questioningly. "Do you know what's happening?"
"No idea." Agil intervined. "But it looks like we're going somewhere."
In front of them a large wall loomed, seemingly high enough to touch the small amount of clouds that hung in the sky. They all stared in awe at the enourmous structure whitch stretched from what seemed like either end of the earth. A large gate enterance with the carved face of a very elegant woman loomed overhead. Smaller groups of horsemen rode in behind them, some wounded.
"I wonder why they're bleeding." Silica whispered as they began to pass under the gate.
"Titans."
Everyone looked at the man who had spoken. It was the blonde, American looking man who they'd assumed had been in charge.
"Titans?" Silica asked softly.
"Let's just say that we're lucky we didn't run into any." The man replied stately.