Chapter 1:
Sinon, in position to fire straight at Kirito's heart, weakly shakes off the tension between them. Kirito, clearly cocky as all hell from his weak stance, stands there like an idiot, just waiting for one of the bullets to pierce his skin. Growing Frustrated, Sinon yells, "I'm going to hit you without fail!", then continues to miss with all her wasteful gunfire.
Watching intensely from the spectator room, Asuna gasps as Kirito is slightly grazed by one of the more trained shots. "I hope he's okay… Why's he even staying in one spot anyways? Shouldn't he be taking this terrible sniper down by now?" Trying to make sense of their friend's actions, Asuna's companions give their own reasons for why Kirito would do such a thing during the tournament. His cousin Leafa exclaims, "Maybe he's just tired of all the pressure this game has been putting on him lately. He just needs some rest is all." Interrupting the girl in the bright green soldier outfit, Lisbeth argues, "There's no way he's giving up on this fight. There must be something much stranger going on here."
Out of nowhere the opponents stop mid-fight. Sinon, tearing up on her way to speaking with Kirito, asks, "Does this battle mean anything to you?" Seeing the anti-climactic pause taking place, the crowd observing grows weary of the drama. One of the guys shouts, "Just get over with it already! We're all waiting here!" Not able to hear the crowd's sure unrest, the cloaked fighter replies, "Let's play a game then." Picking up an empty shell off the dusty battleground, the beta tester continues, "If you can shoot me before this bullet touches the ground, then you win. If I cover the ground to get close enough with a melee weapon, I win." Agreeing to the terms of their challenge, Sinon nods and takes aim at the man again. The crowd roars, "What does a test of timing have to do with anything? Just end this match already!"
Letting go of the sharp piece of metal, Kirito launches himself toward the woman, seemingly ready to slice through her. Excited, one of the men watching lets out a battle cry, "Huza! Destroy her with your lightsaber man!" After dodging round after round of Sinon's rifle, Kirito closes the distance and they come face to face. A kid in the back of the crowd pushing through the rest to see the finale disappointedly says, "Aw man…not this again." Inches away from the enemy, Kirito whispers, "I will not kill you. I refuse to do so." Then he hugs Sinon affectionately, forgetting about the audience, which is only waiting around still for another kill. A brute of a player blurts out in disgust, "You can never trust your opponent. What is this idiot doing now? This is no time for romance. This is war!" Afterwards, Kirito declares himself the winner of the showdown and asks his friend, "Would you mind surrendering? I don't like taking out girls." Seeing the exhausted woman blushing, the crowd goes wild with accusations of the kid being a total creep. "How dare she tell her such a thing? That is no way to treat a woman in her vulnerable position!"
Suddenly, she pushes herself off of him, exclaiming that she'll defeat him next time they meet in game. Seeing as the round had just unexpectedly finished, Asuna and her dearest friends stand there with mouths wide open. Asuna angrily states, "What the hell was that all about? We are married for god sake! Is this lady trying to steal him away from me now?" Next, Lizbeth says, "Well that was strange. I thought for sure he was going to finish her off, not flirt with her more. What's gotten into his rampant teenage mind these days?" Leafa then jumps into the conversation, "Yeah. Why can't he see who he truly loves? I mean you of course, Asuna!" Holding her face in her hands disapprovingly, Silica adds, "Geez. She's such a klutz. And I thought I had low self-esteem." The other people observing soon dissipate with a few impatient grunts and sighs.
Soon, the tournament is moved toward the final arena. All the remaining players fight to be the last one standing. With the crowd focused on the hot girl from earlier, Sinon stealthily takes out three of the lower ranking gunners. The spectators cheer in appreciation for her willingness to fight again, shaking away their doubts from earlier, eager to see all she might be capable of. With the crowd turning silent, Sinon turns around, expecting a lone spy to be following her. Right as she has her next target locked in her sights, Kirito appears In front of the muzzle, knocking the pistol out of her hand and throwing her to the ground. Staying on top of the woman, Kirito tells her to stay hidden.
Confused by the unneeded tension between these two supposed female lovers, the men and women alike yell at the screen, wishing for them to finally kill each other. Silica mutters under her breath, "What is up with that blue haired young woman? Did they fall in love this quickly again? She's going to be in for a big surprise once she finds out that's a guy she's with." Suspecting the scene to be that of betrayal between their usually uncontested relationship, Asuna shouts, "If only I could teleport in there and make that slut disappear for good…" Shocked by her friend's informal tone, Lizbeth responds with, "Oh, come on now. There could still be a perfectly good reason for all this whole mess, just you wait and see." Angry at the swordsmith's passive view, the guild leader opposes the innocent idea of Kirito and Sinon's encounters. "There's no reason for him to be acting this way around her. With my luck so far, what we'll see next is those two love birds making out in front of the hidden cameras for everyone to see!"