The door slammed, and Asuna dashed out into the dark night, her long hair streaming out behind her, contrasting with the aquamarine shadows around her. She continued to run; to where she didn't know. Though she did feel immensely disappointed, her eyes were surprisingly dry and empty of tears. Earlier she had an argument with her boyfriend-well, ex boyfriend, Kirigaya Kazuto. Even though they had been together for many years in SAO, he didn't feel that their relationship was working out anymore. Their interactions before then had become increasingly awkward, as Asuna and Kazuto's schedules did not line up very well and both of them, not being very outgoing or sociable, didn't have much more to say to each other. They did still enjoy one another's company, but their relationship felt platonic. Asuna really had loved Kazuto, and she knew he felt the same. But as many relationships do, theirs eventually died out.
Before she realized, Asuna was standing in front of her own house. It glowed warmly in the chilly summer night air. Her gaze softened. Somehow, she ended up going to a place where she could at least find solace in videogames. She pulled out her keys and entered her house. Asuna quickly slipped off her shoes and ran to her room. Positioning herself comfortably on her bed, she slipped on her Amusphere and started it up.
Once she had signed on to ALO, she was immediately greeted with a message from Yuuki, her Imp friend. Asuna opened the message in a few quick taps.
Hi, Asuna! What's up? It said.
Hey, Yuuki...Today has not been a good day for me. She responded.
Oh…I see. Do you want to talk about it? If you do, let's meet up at the cafe by the World Tree.
The Undine typed a quick affirmation and flew off to meet Yuuki.
"So...What happened?" Yuuki prompted her as soon as they found a free table. The cafe was rather busy, as usual. Many players chatted animatedly with their guildies and friends.
"I guess I should have seen it coming, but Kirito broke up with me earlier today." Asuna spoke sadly. "I know we've been distant lately, but I didn't think he'd be the one to break it off. I really do wish we were still just as close as ever…"
Something flickered in Yuuki's eyes as she listened intently. "You guys have always been pretty close, though. Are you still interested in him romantically?"
"Well, not really. I find that weird, though. After all, I used to love him so much…"
"Then I think you'll be fine. You guys can still be friends, anyway. No use dwelling on why you feel different!"
"I suppose you're right…" Asuna smiled. The younger girl always had a way of cheering her up, even when she never said anything special- or anything at all. Her positive attitude covered up her painful past, but that was how she responded to her troubles.
"C'mon, Asuna, let's go do that quest that you haven't finished yet!" Yuuki grabbed her blue-haired friend's hand and cheerfully pulled her out of the cafe. The two girls then warped to the field where the raid boss would be spawning soon.
Asuna and Yuuki stood on a wide expanse of grass, devoid of trees. A murky lake sat in the middle, bordered by overgrown cat tails and other aquatic plants. The field boss was nowhere to be seen. Curious, Asuna knelt by the lake, wondering if, perhaps the field boss lived below the surface. Sure enough, a scaly head shot out from the brackish water, displacing much of the liquid from the lake. "Watch out!" Yuuki shouted, pulling Asuna away from the edge of the lake. The Undine fell backwards into the Imp, causing both to land in a rather awkward and uncomfortable position. Their faces flushed before Asuna quickly moved off of Yuuki and they both got up, turning to focus their attention on the field boss. The two faced a emerald green serpent with gigantic flippers and menacing eyes. The serpent's name displayed as 'Loch Neid'.
A loud roar resonated from deep within the Loch Neid as it reared its head. Yuuki winced and covered her ears. "Man, that thing sounds like a band of fog horns..."
Asuna laughed, "Yeah, but it's probably much more deadly."
The Undine quickly casted a defense spell on both her comrade and herself. Yuuki attempted to fly up and perform an aerial attack on the serpent, but it swiveled it's head to face her and fired a stream of high pressure water, which she narrowly avoided. Meanwhile, Asuna had also opted to aerial tactics, as she would not be able to reach the serpent in the middle of the lake otherwise.
"Go for it's eyes and neck! It has less defenses there," the purple haired swordswoman called out.
"Alright!" Asuna proceeded to launch lightning-fast stabs towards the Loch Neid's eyes. Diving and swooping, the two gradually chipped down the lake dwelling serpent's hitpoints.
Once the serpent's health fell into the red, it executed a dive and splashed a wave of water at Asuna. She was too slow to avoid the huge airborne mass of water. Like a blade, it knocked her from the sky and she fell to the ground, half of her health gone.
"Asuna..!" Yuuki darted a look back to check if she was badly injured, before gripping her sword tightly and performing her 11-hit sword skill, Mother's Rosario, on the serpent as it re-emerged from the lake.
The Loch Neid's HP drained completely and it shattered into many digitized fragments, which rained down, slipping back into the lake's dark waters. Asuna got up slowly as a bell chimed to indicate their defeat of the raid boss and the completion of her quest. The two were rewarded with copious amounts of gold and experience points.
"Good work!" Yuuki grinned, giving Asuna a thumbs up.
"Sorry for not being that helpful..." Asuna said sheepishly. She was a berserker-healer, but her damage and attacks were limited.
"It's fine. I like you a lo- I mean, I like your fighting style a lot." The Imp's lame attempt to cover up her words did not go unnoticed by Asuna. Yuuki rarely stuttered or slipped up when speaking, and she heard her words loud and clear.
"Wait, did you just-?" Asuna questioned.
"No, no! It's nothing. Forget what I said," Yuuki hastily replied.
Suddenly a 'ping' sound went off from Asuna's alerts. She had been online for many hours, and her mom would be home soon. Her mom would be unhappy if she knew Asuna had been playing video games instead of studying or going to bed. "Oh, shoot, it's late. I have to go. See you later, Yuuki."
She gave a quick wave and logged off.
Asuna slid off her AmuSphere with a sigh. What was going on with Yuuki?
A/N: There's a reference to Mabinogi's field boss, Neid (which is also probably a reference to the Loch Ness monster) in here, if you noticed. Sorry if the line spacing is weird, I'm not very clear on how lines should be formatted when showing dialogue. I will be continuing this, but probably only for a chapter or two.