Yo guys, sorry about the lack of activity on Fanfic. I literally have no excuses this time other than I was being super lazy lol…
Anyways, here's another story that I've been wanting to write for a while but couldn't be arsed to do so…Until now of course.
Enjoy.
Kurosaki Ichigo.
When you here that name, what comes to mind?
An orange haired teenager? The son of the doctor in your local clinic? A Shinigami capable of levelling entire cities, mountain ranges and more with a single swing of a blade? If you answered any of those things listed above, you'd have been correct.
But as of right now Kurosaki Ichigo wasn't anything as fancy as a 'God Of death'. He had long since relinquished that title and stepped down to a humble human, going about his daily business.
It had been 17 months since Ichigo had lost his powers, life seemed to drag on and on for him. He didn't quite know why he felt this way but, a part of his very being yearned to fight and go back to how things were.
But alas, that obviously was just a pipe dream and he knew it…
Walking down the cobble stone pavement of his front yard he sighed and tucked a few strands of loose hair behind his ear.
'I should really get a haircut.' Thought Ichigo as he fiddle with a bit of his fringe.
Ichigo had a bit of a growth spurt during the last year and a half, it was as if he had returned to what he looked like during his Dangai training.
Standing at an impressive 6ft 1inches Ichigo towered over most of his friends, except for Chad of course. There was no way in hell he'd ever beat that towering titan in height. Ichigo had also reluctantly agreed to keep his hair longer- shoulder length in fact. Most of his friends said it suited him better, especially Keigo who was rather insistent about it.
Chuckling him to himself at his friend's antics he reached for the door knob and let himself in to his house.
"FATHER'S RETURN HOME KICK OF LOVE!" When Ichigo heard this several tick marks instantly made their way on to his face. Ichigo swung his bag round his shoulders straight at Isshin's head knocking him straight in the wall leaving a human sized imprint.
"Ichigo my boy! Is that anyway to treat your father who vary generously brought you the next gen gaming system so that you will stop being a giant depressed loser!?"Yelled Isshin seemingly unaffected by Ichigo's attack.
"Who the hell are you calling a loser you senile old fart!" Ichigo yelled back at his crazy dad.
Deciding to ignore his son's fit of anger Isshin pointed towards Ichigo's room.
"I put everything up in your room so have some fun my boy! Also it's an MMORPG Type game with a little spin on it if you will, you used to love playing RPG's when you were a kid. Couldn't get enough of them!" Isshin laughed whole heartedly. "I'll be in the clinic of you need me for anything"
And with that Isshin made his merry way back to the kitchen whilst praising himself for being an awesome father.
Sighing for what seemed like the hundredth time today, Ichigo picked his bag up and lazily made his way up the stairs.
'Knowing the old fart he probably got some perverted game or something…' Ichigo thought in annoyance.
Opening his room door, Ichigo kicked his shoes off and tucked them under his bed. Sliding his wardrobe door opening Ichigo picked a loose fitting white top with fifteen red stripes on it and some pyjama shorts.
After he had changed, Ichigo took a quick glance around his room. After a few moments his eyes landed on something under his bed. It was a medium sized box that went up to his knees.
'What the heck? Isn't this supposed to be some game? Why does it need such a big box?' thought Ichigo with a puzzled looked.
'Alright might as well see what goat chin got me'
Ripping the parcel tape clean of from the top, Ichigo took out the polystyrene cases that protected the innards of the box.
Rummaging through the box for a few seconds, Ichigo pulled out what seemed to be a helmet of some sorts.
"What the hell is this?"
Confused as to what to do, Ichigo reached for the instruction manual reading it thoroughly making sure to absorb as much as he could before he placed it on his shelf for later reference.
'Alright apparently this is the Beta version of the game and I'm one of the thousand beta testers that get to play the game for 1 month before everyone else since it's a Close beta.'
Skimming through more of the manual he soon found out that it was a VMMORPG Game, where you were fully immersed into a completely different world. Now this caught Ichigo of guard.
'So when the old fart said it had a little spin on it, this is what he meant?'
Quickly grasping the mechanics of how to start the game up he booted his computer up and inserted his 'Nerve gear' into a socket in the wall.
"So, the body calibration step first I guess?"
Doing as the manual had instructed him, he patted every part of his body down as high density waves washed over his body taking in all his details.
Flicking the power switch on with a quick movement of his thumb, he proceeded to take up a resting position on his bed.
'Here goes nothing.' thought Ichigo to himself.
"Link Start!"
And with that Ichigo felt his entire body being pulled downwards until he suddenly stopped in a vast white plain of emptiness.
Five circles made their way onto his screen calibrating his five senses it seemed, shortly after it asked him to choose a language setting.
Opting for his native tongue Ichigo picked Japanese. As soon as he pressed enter a create account menu appeared.
'Email, username and password.'
"And, done." With that he pressed enter on his virtual keyboard.
A character design menu showed, indicating what he wanted his character to look like. Opting to go for his normal appearance to get this over and done with he pressed enter and saved the avatar as a pre-set.
As soon as he pressed next a message popped up in front of him saying 'Welcome To Sword Art Online!' before blue streams of light roared past him, materializing him into the virtual world.
Blinking a couple of times, Ichigo regained his bearings and looked around…And to his shock he found himself in a breath taking world.
The sights were amazing, he could see mountains over the horizon and see some weird lizard creatures flying overhead. He could smell the smoke coming from the black smith stores as they melted steal down to create fine swords.
He could even feel a soft breeze sweep over him tickling his skin.
"This, is amazing, I'd have never thought a world like this could exist." Ichigo said out loud in what seemed to be pure delight, like a child in a candy store for the first time.
'If I know my RPG's then I should have some basic starting gear on already and some cash to get a better weapon at the very least.'
True to his knowledge he was equipped with the standard starting gear and had what seemed to be a simple long sword.
Opening up his menu he found the NPC tracker and made his way to the blacksmith and tailor. Buying the most expensive sword he could at his current level which was named the 'Kuro Iai Ken' which was a Katana type sword that gave an extra skill you could master, 'The Art of Drawing' Which was the Iai bit in the sword.
"Better start grinding I suppose." Thought Ichigo as he started to sprint of to the nearest field. He was a bit wobbly at first but he soon found it easier and easier to run until it felt normal for him again.
Scouting the area Ichigo saw some wild boars a few meters in front of him eating some grass.
Pulling his sword out of his sheath Ichigo noted that it was very light, too light for his liking. He liked the heaviness that his Zangetsu provided and was rather used to it too.
'Whatever, this will have to do for now.' And with that he rushed forward arcing his arm backwards readying himself to cut the boar in half, but before he could swing the ex-substitute Shinigami felt a tingling sensation build up in his arm as if he was being empowered by some unknown force.
Then it hit him like a ton of bricks.
'So certain movements and gestures in combination to each other allow you to use skill?' He thought to himself with a smirk plastered onto his face.
'Let's see what this baby can do!'
Bring his arm forward in a fluid motion his blade erupted into a bright blue colour strengthening his attack, allowing his blade to slide through the digital flesh of the boar with ease.
The orange haired teen felt a rush of excitement and great satisfaction come from slaying that MOB, it was the same feeling he got when slaying Hollows and sparring with other Shinigami.
'I could get used to this.' Thought Ichigo with a confident smirk on his face.
For the next few hours Ichigo had been killing MOBs left, right and centre. Without even knowing it he had made his way to a higher level area and was slaughtering everything. He was level one at the start of day, now he was boasting a level nineteen. He had found that thanks to all the life and death situations he had thrust into his reflexes and senses were heighten to inhuman levels.
This allowed him to easily dodge multiple mobs at once and even make it so that the skill delay for each skill he had didn't even matter, as long as he added his own skill patterns to the mix he could create an extremely fluid combination of attacks.
'This feels awesome!' Ichigo mentally yelled, slicing up another 'Green Fang Wyvern.'
After Ichigo hit level twenty he began wondering around the forest aimlessly hoping to find something to do.
Surveying the area he noticed a cavern of some sort. The entrance was heavily layered with damp moss and there were a few insects scuttling about.
'I wonder where this leads too.' deciding to take a risk, Ichigo ventured into the mouth of the cave weaving in and out of Stalagmites. After a few minutes of walking he stopped at a rather large stone door.
A system message appeared onto his screen which read-
"Warning Boss Battle!"
Ichigo's eyes widened after reading the message out loud to himself.
"So this is the boss battle that leads to the higher floors?" Ichigo had found an 'Information Broker' as she liked to call herself, named Argo, in one of the towns further in the game, she told him about the more advanced things about the game, like how there were one hundred floors to clear and each one got progressively harder.
Also how there were rare bosses and event that dropped incredibly rare items that you could sell for a fortune or keep to become stronger. Of course as Ichigo suspected that information didn't come for free, he had to pay 500 gold for it. Which wasn't too much at all for him since he had been farming for quite a while. Jokes on her right?
Pushing the door open with some force our orange haired swordsmen made his way to the centre of the chamber. Where he was greeted by a thundering roar.
The entire chamber burst into light to reveal its contents.
"Ok…So the boss to the first floor is some giant fat ass pig thing?" Ichigo deadpanned.
As if responding to Ichigo's jibe the boss let out yet another hollering roar nearly knocking Ichigo clean of his feat.
The boss leapt forward with its giant butcher knife poised ready to take a chunk out of Ichigo's body.
The former Vizard regained his bearings and tried to block the incoming attack, only to be brushed aside like some fly.
'Shit…I won't be able to overpower this boss at all, need to think up a different way of handling it.'
The spikey haired teen then began to think up a quick solution whilst dodging all the attacks that came his way.
"That's it!" Ichigo yelled out loud. "If I can't block uglies attacks then all I have to do is dodge them and counterattack with pure speed!" Now with a rekindled light in his eyes burning brighter than before, the beta tester burst forward with newfound speed, making quick clean cuts all across the boss's body.
Zigzagging and retreating when Necessary to make sure he didn't take any damage at all. Like hell he'd let this boss win this fight!
"Sweet! The boss is at its final bar of HP!"
With a quick sprint forward Ichigo got ready to attack the boss with all his might- but then, suddenly the boss threw its oversized butcher knife to the side, and out of thin air spawned a completely different weapon.
This one was far sleeker and had two spiked tips on it, ready to skewer him at any moment.
"Damn! His attack pattern changed too! Just when I was getting the hang of things too!" Ichigo cursed out loud. The boss had suddenly gotten a whole lot faster and stronger bouncing of the pillars that were plotted randomly in the chamber and then crashing down on him with immense force.
Springing at Ichigo from the ceiling the boss managed to inflict a devastating blow onto Ichigo's chest leaving a deep gash across it.
'Calm down…I've dealt with even harsher situations in the past…' Ichigo told himself as he closed his eyes in concentration. 'That's right compared to those times, where my life was seriously endanger…'
"THIS IS NOTHING!"
Poising his blade forward with one hand, Ichigo mustered up all the strength he had left and bolted forward in a flash. Bringing his free had forward whilst swinging his sword wielding hand round to his back, he jumped up as high as he could, bringing his blade back around with lethal force.
The boss seemed to anticipate the attack and readied its blade to block the incoming attack, But to its shock Ichigo's blade sliced right through it, and through its entire body carving the titanic beast in half- shattering it into thousands of many small pieces.
Dropping to the ground in a very unfashionable manner, in other words, landing flat on his arse. "That's gonna leave a mark…" Thought Ichigo as he nursed his sore rear-end before dusting himself off.
"Congratulations! You have got the last attack bonus!" Read the system message that opened up on Ichigo's screen.
"The Coat of Midnight?" Read Ichigo as he equipped the item. "Doesn't look to bad on me, and the stats seem pretty nice. Extra hiding skill stats will help out quite a bit higher up"
"Well, I better get the hell outa here before ugly re-spawns or something." And with that Ichigo jumped to his feet and made his way to the 2nd floor.
Being the first person there made Ichigo feel quite satisfied but on the other hand there was literally no one on the 2nd floor, so it felt like a barren waste land…
"You can come out now." Ichigo said loudly, making sure he was heard.
"Aww, you found me out." Came a female voice from behind him. Turning around Ichigo finally got to see who is little stalker friend was.
She seemed to be around about the same age as him. She had long black hair that reached down to her waist, vibrant violet eyes and a soft heart shaped face. Taking in her features, Ichigo noticed she was rather pretty…for a stalker anyway.
"You know, the cape I got doesn't just enhance my hiding skills, it also boosts my perception skills too. Too bad for you miss" Ichigo replied with a small grin. "Mind telling me why you were following me?"
"I just happened to see you walking into that boss cave is all, and I decided to follow you." She replied with a cheeky smile.
"So you were watching from the side-lines as I fought the boss on my own…And nearly died might I add." Ichigo deadpanned.
"Yep!" Was her simple answer, causing Ichigo to sweat drop at her antics.
"Jeez you could have helped you know…"
"Well I was too busy admiring your awesome swordsmen skills! Also it didn't seem like you needed much help since you managed to beat it" Causing a few tic marks to form on Ichigo's brow
"Anyway! My name is Mitsuki nice to meet you Ichigo!"
"How do you know my name?" Ichigo asked with slightly wide eyes. "Don't tell me...You stalked me to the point where you found out where I live and what my name is!?"
A red blush of embarrassment washed over Mitsuki's face as she started to deny his accusations. Whilst Ichigo burst into laughing, holding his stomach with both arms.
"Hey you're making fun of me aren't you?!"
"Well done captain obvious!" Ichigo retorted in between a few chuckles. Causing Mitsuki to pout at him with a glare.
"For you information you can see everybody's name next to the HP Bar!" She exclaimed with a 'Humph!'
True to her words Ichigo noticed next to her HP bar was her name.
"So there you have it Strawberry-kun!" She said sticking her tongue out at him.
"My name isn't strawberry!" The ex-substitute yelled at the top of his voice, his face completely red.
"Hahaha! Your face is all red like a strawberry though!" She laughed sprinting backwards as Ichigo chased her down with a mock murderous look on his face.
"Come back here so I can feed you to that boss I just fought!"
"No way Strawberry-kun~!"
Just like that an entire month had past, Ichigo and Mitsuki had become really good friends during that time, they decided to become a sort of team, clearing each floor one by one without any help from the other beta testers. Well considering that most the beta testers were still 'noobs' at the game, they probably couldn't have helped out much anyway.
The pair had managed to clear up to floor eleven which was a huge feet, they even got a message from the developers of SAO personally asking them to help out with the game, seeing if they could balance certain things or fix any bugs.
During that month Ichigo had become quite a famous person in the SAO community being the highest level beta tester, and having soloed the boss at the 11th floor since Mitsuki couldn't make it due to reasons unknown.
Everyone around Ichigo noticed a drastic change in him, he was keeping up with his studies, talking to his friends more and even letting the occasional smile slip.
Even his father stopped calling him an emo, which took a load of Ichigo's back.
But now, like all good things the beta was over, and Ichigo was back to his boring life.
Sitting on the sofa watching T.V
'Man I really miss playing SAO…' Though Ichigo as he sank further down into his sofa.
Isshin who was in the same room reading the newspaper noticed his son's depressed emotions.
"My boy, you do realise that the beta testers are automatically entitled to a free exclusive copy of Sword Art Online, don't you?" Isshin told him with a playful grin watching his son's reaction.
"Wait, seriously?!" Ichigo yelled shooting up from the coach. "Err, I mean…Yeah that's pretty cool I guess…" Ichigo corrected himself trying to sound unimpressed. But secretly pumping his fist into the air.
"Wuahaha! No need to be shy my boy, we all know how much you love that game!" Isshin said roaring with laughter. "You won't have to wait too long, one month I hear. Then you can play SAO to you hearts content!"
With a small smile on his face Ichigo got up and decided to finish up on some homework, or at least try to. His mind was racing through a thousand things a second. What's the official version of SAO going to be like? Will it be completely revamped or will they keep something's the same.
He couldn't stop the small smile that crept onto his face just thinking about these things.
Well, for now Ichigo was stuck doing every students worst nightmare…
Homework.
'Man, this is gonna take a while'
For those of you wondering, I'm putting 'Strawberry Kiss a School Odyssey' on hiatus.
The reason is, because the manga kinda just randomly finished…Which got me a little mad since it was like 24 chapters long .
It had so much potential but oh well…
Anyway
Leave a quick review if you will, each review motivates me greatly!
Until next time guys.
ForsakenHate signing out.