Chapter 2: Flip a Coin
December 12th, 2025
"Hey! Rythin! Over here!" And cue the music – it's like I can hear the bongos.
I blinked at the loud voice and pinpointed its location; as expected, the boisterous voice came from the female Imp lounging on a stone ledge beside a fountain. I was in Alne, the city at the base of the World Tree - it'd been a while since I was here, and I welcomed the chance to wander around the somewhat empty streets. I mean, NPCs and a few players still wandered around, but half (if not more) of the population had shifted to Yggdrasil City. I shook my head and waved casually to Ziria as I approached. "Hello, Ziria. Who's with us today?"
"Me," a male voice replied, and I looked over to see Koron, the Leprechaun blacksmith of the group. "The others are waiting at the dungeon entrance, Ziria just wanted to meet you personally."
I got along with the group, despite having killed all of them but Ziria in the past. In my defense, I was stressed for time, violently unstable, and they had tried to kill me first; they didn't hold it against me. "Okay, now that Rythin's here let's go!" Ziria cheered. Right, that's why I didn't group up with them very often - Ziria's enthusiasm and get-up-and-go attitude was a bit, er, draining. That, and they couldn't really afford my services that often, even with the 'I killed you all before' discount I gave some customers. I was expensive, what can I say? Comes with being one of the better mercenaries in the game.
Despite all that, I put on my best grin - I did enjoy partying with them, just not constantly - and summoned my wings. "Let's go, then, shall we?" In response, Ziria and Koron summoned their wings - Ziria's the bat-like wings of the Imps, and Koron the mechanical ones of the Leprechauns - and flew into the air. As we flew toward our destination, I angled slightly to be in formation next to Ziria. "So, boss lady, how's the guild doing?"
"Great!" Ziria shouted - though to be fair shouting was necessary, since wind and air resistance and all that meteorological jazz. "We got a few more people asking to join up. It's almost starting to get annoying."
"That's what you get for being a clearer guild," I told her. "People actually know who you are."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." She flashed me a toothy grin. "It's kinda awesome, though, y'know? I mean, before you showed up we were just this rag-tag bunch of bandits, and now we're some awesome guild." The Steel Hearts had been doing pretty well for themselves.
"So who's going on the dungeon raid today?" I asked. The dungeon in question was a challenging climb up a mountain to fight a Frost Ogre at the top; normally not a problem thanks to our wings, but the Frost Ogre was causing a bit of a ruckus - ruckus being a tactical term for 'big-ass blizzard' - that kept us from using our wings during the mission. It was like that mountain back in SAO that Kirito and Lisbeth had climbed that one time, only there wasn't a dragon and there wasn't a metal ingot that came out of the less toothy end.
"Of the guys you know, it's me, Koron, and Eryin," Ziria said. "So there's another five slots open. Most of the others are just new recruits we're trying to test out." She hummed in thought, but eventually just snapped her fingers at Koron. "Yo, Koron, who are the new recruits we're testing out today?"
"Ziria," Koron sighed, "how you became the guild leader is beyond me."
"Because I'm the brigade leader, obviously!" she said with a fist pump. "C'mon, out with it, or it's a penalty!" Obligingly, Koron rattled off a list of names and races; I was glad to hear we had an Undine coming along, since they tended to have higher magical resistances, and from what Koron told me when I asked him about their fighting, two were mostly mages. And I was focusing on fire magic at the moment - trying to get it as high as possible before shifting over - so that gave us at least three methods of hitting the weakness of most of the monsters, not counting any of the Sword Skills that had fire effects. All in all, we had myself - a Cait Sith dagger-user - as well as Ziria the rapier-using Imp, Koron the hammer-using Leprechaun, and Eryin the Pooka and her panpipes as the experienced members that had run the dungeon before.
As for the new kids, I examined them as we came down to land beside them and started putting names to faces. Asmodeus - weird name, one of the devils from the Ars Goetia - the Spriggan seemed to be going for the stealthy rogue-type; in addition to a spear that he currently had slung up on his back, which somehow wasn't catching on the hood of his feathered cloak, he used Illusion magic. He looked at me curiously from his seat on a rocky outcropping as the three of us landed, but just waved at his guild master and kept talking quietly with the woman sitting next to him. The woman was apparently named Uri, and she was a sword-and-shield Salamander warrior with the look of someone who knew how to use the blade. Sitting calmly and whittling away at a piece of wood was a thin player, and the dagger on his hip along with the less restricting clothing gave me the hint this was Mao. The Undine next to him, reading calmly, was therefore Raph.
"Hey, Ziria!" someone almost as personable as the guild leader called out, and I winced; there were two of them? Fan-fucking-tastic. That had to be Gain; Koron had warned me about him. He was a tank, which was good since Koron was really the only other beefy player in the party.
"Hiya, Rythin!" a female laughed, and I grinned as I recognized both Eryin's voice and the loud raucous laughter. "Is our fearless leader running you ragged?"
I waved. "Yo. And she's about as bad as usual." Koron nodded with a sigh. Poor guy – he probably had to deal with her day in and day out.
"Okay, troops, here's the thing. This is Rythin, he's our pal, he's going to be tagging along today's mission." It was like standing just outside the eye of Hurricane Ziria - with a little bit of effort, I could probably escape into peace and quiet, but where I was right now it was intense. "Anyway, you five are taking point. The other four - which is me, Eryin, Koron, and Rythin," she said, "are going to be hanging back, watching how you work together as a team and fight and stuff. Okay?"
Asmodeus nodded calmly. "Sounds like a good plan." He glanced at the other four, and they nodded; seems like they're a team already. Friends, joining the game together and entering a smaller guild so they can be their own little strike force in it, I guess. "We're ready."
The first part of the dungeon run went pretty smoothly - so much so that I didn't even need to do anything. Instead, Eryin and I had a small musical contest, where one of us would play a song and then the other would try to match it on their instrument of choices - I had the advantage when it came to fast changes between notes that had a large gap between them, because I could make chords with the strings of my lute, but her melodies were a lot more creative than mine. I just wasn't that good at improvisation, even with the amount of music I had somewhat memorized.
Asmodeus and the other four worked together like a well-oiled engine; every movement by each of them was thought out, and they seemed to be taking formations without saying a word, formations that they had absolutely no right to be pulling off so smoothly without even a little bit of communication. They really were experienced at what they did; so much so, in fact, that it raised a few alarm bells in my head. I watched them a little more closely during several fights, and came to the inescapable conclusion - they were SAO survivors. There was no other way they could be moving so smoothly otherwise; their motions were just so used to how the virtual world worked that they had to have spent too much time playing otherwise. Even Eugene, the best (not-Kirito) fighter in the game, wasn't that smooth with his actions.
So, at the first Safe Zone - a base camp about a third of the way through the dungeon, with a few tents and a campfire with rocks for sitting around it and everything - I pulled Ziria aside. "Can I have a few minutes alone with your recruits?" I asked her quietly. "There's something I need to verify."
Something flashed in her eyes - if I had to guess, satisfaction at being right. It was an open secret by this point that I was an SAO survivor, since I didn't really make that big a deal about keeping it a secret. "Sure thing, Rythin," she said. "Yo, Eryin! Koron! Get over here!" she shouted suddenly. I winced; so much for subtlety. "Guild peoples meeting!"
Despite the shout, I drifted to where Asmodeus and the four others were sitting - even their seats around a campfire seemed easy, like they'd been practiced way too many times. "Rythin, was it?" Raph asked calmly as I approached. "I was wondering when you'd come by."
Let's see, should I play the game, or just cut to the chase? What kind of question was that, anyway? Always play the game. "I've been watching you five work together," I said. "Your movements and formations are very fluid. You must have had plenty of practice."
Asmodeus's lips quirked slightly. "We have, indeed." It was the first I'd heard him speak, and his voice was about as deep as I expected - slightly lower than the tenor I usually kept mine at. "As have you, from what the rumors say."
"Oh, come on, Deus," Uri said with a sigh, "Let's not beat around the bush." Tch. She obviously doesn't get it. A shame – Asmodeus seemed to know the game fairly well. "Yeah, we're from SAO, same as you." Not surprising they knew who I was - I was kinda well-known as the Tactician in the death game.
"The Tactician..." Mao mused, watching me. "They say you can see, well, attacks. Sword Skills and magic. Is it true?" In response, I triggered Future Step with a blink, watching their eyes widen as my eyes bled to a blood-red color.
"It's true," I said, and my voice was steady and low. "Future Step lets me see what the system assists."
"Neat," Gain said, staring at my eyes. "So the red eyes thing, that's what shows us if it's active?"
I grinned, turning it off. "It's like my signature or something."
After we broke camp, we started along the second segment of the dungeon run. Now that I knew for certain Asmodeus and his group were from SAO, I could rest easy; they wouldn't fall to enemies like this, and I told Ziria my observations. She nodded, watching them as they fought one of the bear-like enemies with mottled white fur. "I thought so. They reminded me of you, when they first came around and asked for a job."
"Of me? How so, exactly?"
"Like they were fighting a little more desperately than we were." She shrugged. "Like they didn't have a limit to how ruthless they could be when needed. Kinda like you when we, uh... attacked you in the forest." Koron had assured me, when they first hired me, that he had scolded Ziria thoroughly and that she had seemed contrite enough.
I nodded slowly. "It was a shame you chose to attack me, though I think things have worked out for the best, at any rate. Anyway, if you're looking for my recommendation, let them join. They work together very well, and you won't have any complaints from them so long as you let them keep their little squad together. By the looks of things they're professional about working alone or in a group, but they'll be more effective with people they know and trust."
Ziria shook her head with a grin. "I had a feeling you'd say that. I thought I hired you to say things that weren't obvious."
I just smiled slightly, not saying a word. Then, since it looked a little bit like the fighters needed my help, I started chanting, casting the spell I had memorized; when I finished the spell and snapped, the somatic component to my spells I had personalized, a small spark shot toward the bear and ignited its fur. Ignite was a simple spell that gave the Flame status effect, simple damage over time. Mao took the opportunity to slice at it with his dagger, Asmodeus standing in the back and chanting a spell to increase his evasiveness; Mao's dagger bit into the monster's neck as he slipped past its claws easily, killing it. He glanced at me. "Thanks for the assist."
"I just broke its pattern," I said with a wave. "You could have killed it by yourselves, I'm just feeling we can move on now."
And we did; we skipped past the second base camp and moved straight into the third part of the dungeon. The blizzard was getting even harder to fight in, and Asmodeus was kept busy casting Night Vision and other movement buffs every time they wore out. I stepped up my magic game, flinging bursts of flame and fireballs with abandon at the ice-based monsters even while Ziria was moving in and out, her rapier licking at the beast's weak spots. That's what made the dungeon so good for grinding; the jump in difficulty between segments was almost a straight line up. Less-skilled parties could hang out in the first segment, while talented fighters could blow through the first two areas and then fight to their hearts' content in the third and hardest part of the dungeon.
We eventually managed to fight our way through the regular mooks and made it to the top of the mountain; it was cold, freezing, and any other synonym for 'holy fuck I feel like my ears are ice'. The Frost Ogre was obligingly waiting for us in the center of the flat top of the mountain, and I cracked my knuckles. "Alright then, ladies, gentlemen, Ziria. Let's do this."
Not taking any offense at my offhand snark, Ziria grinned wolfishly, cracking her knuckles as well. "Any ideas, mister Tactician?"
I licked my lips and let myself fall into the half-aware state of bloodlust, swaying back and forth slightly. "Weak to fire, strong against water, weak to blunt and smash, strong to stab," I rattled off in almost a sing-song voice, my eyes fixed on the enemy. I wanted to draw my dagger and sink it in the thing's throat, but that couldn't happen yet, not yet, I had to wait. If I went in now I'd be dead before I could get close. Taking a breath, my gaze firmed. "Two squads. Squad one, Asmodeus and your four. Focus on melee damage and staying alive. Squad two, the others. Koron, you're acting as tank in the event we draw aggro, Ziria, you're our melee damager. Eryin, buff the party in general but our squad in particular. I'll be using fire spells, so anything to regenerate magic or buff my output would be great." I was deliberately being vague on Asmodeus's orders; he was clearly the leader of their group, not Ziria and not me, so letting him give the orders would work out far better than if I was telling them what to do individually. I hadn't missed the way the other four looked at him before following any of Ziria's orders; it might be a problem later on for the guild leader, but Ziria could figure it out. There was a reason her guild was called the Steel Hearts, after all, and it wasn't just because of their weaponry.
The Frost Ogre roared; the orders given, we leapt into battle.
December 13th, 2025
"Thanks for picking me up, Kazuto," I said.
"No problem," he replied. "It was more or less on the way, so you don't even have to pay for gas."
Eh... Damn, I had to choose between my greed and not being a dick to my best friend. "If we need a second day, I'm paying, okay?" There. Slightly greedy, but I'm not going to hurt Kazuto. Then again, Kikuoka's paying for everything, so whatever.
"Deal," he chuckled.
I spent the rest of the ride trying to calculate exactly how much I'd owe him for the ride if we needed to spend another day going to the hospital to play the game. Well, gas was this much, and his bike went for that many miles per gallon... The numbers floated in front of me in my mind's eye, and I twitched my fingers as I moved them around, multiplying and dividing and subtracting and adding. I didn't have a calculator on me, so I had to do it the dirty way; pull out the whole numbers first, then do the decimals after storing the first output to the left. Shift the decimal to the left and multiply, then add to the first output... I'd probably owe him enough that it wouldn't be negligible, though I'd need to ask for the mileage we traveled to and from the hospital.
Before long, though, we pulled up to our destination, the Toritsu Central Hospital, parking in one of the free spots. After the engine cut out, I let go of Kazuto's waist and hopped off of the bike. Normally, he'd use the sidecar, like when he was carting Sugu around from place to place, but he and I both agreed that it was a waste of time, not to mention how he was trying to keep it quiet from Sugu that we were transferring out. Well, as quiet as possible. Anyway, I was gay for Kazuto so I had no complaints holding on to him - that or I just didn't give a shit about physical contact with my friends and people I trusted. Either or, one of the two.
We walked to the room Kikuoka had pointed out - Kazuto seemed to know where he was going, so I just assumed this was the hospital he had woken up in. It was definitely closer to his house than it was to mine, so it didn't really surprise me that I had been in a different location. It just made it easier for me; I just had to follow my friend.
"I'm ninety-nine percent sure this is a hoax," Kazuto mused out loud. "You can't kill someone in the real world from the virtual one anymore."
I made a non-committal grunt. "I don't know," I said with a shrug. "Remember how that asshole was experimenting with mind control? Well, what if someone completely accidentally stumbled onto part of the secret? Wham, bam, thank you ma'am, we have ourselves a means - excessive stress to the mind, such as handling being shot, triggers a heart attack, they're dead. Besides, the dead players were pros, so there were bound to be people holding grudges. You know how it is with Trinity's enemies." Our list of enemies kept growing - Kana and I were keeping a running total, organized by name and cross-referenced by threat and concentration of profanity per message. Repeat offenders got a neat little star next to their name. I'm pretty sure that most of the angry messages were almost solely because I was a gigantic asshole, but some were probably because one of us killed them.
"I guess," he said, glancing at the piece of paper in his hand and then at the door number. "Did you listen to the guy's speech?"
"Excessive bass, rambling pretentiously about how he was Death Gun and going to carve his name into our hearts with fear or something like that?" I had listened to it the night before while doing my research into the game proper; Death Gun was just acting like the typical megalomaniac, and I didn't really see any reason to believe he actually possessed the power to kill through the game. But there was still that small doubt in the back of my mind; the theory I presented, the one about being able to cause a heart attack, was far-fetched. I mean, none of Sugou's research actually worked anyway, so it was a ridiculous stretch to think someone had managed to weaponize it to this extent. But still, Death Gun had shot the players and then they had died almost instantly after - and from what Kikuoka said, neither of the players had a history of heart disease.
"Yeah, that's the one."
"Nope." Kazuto just rolled his eyes, grinning. I was making light of the situation mostly because he seemed to be taking things so seriously. "Hey, it's no big deal," I said, leaning forward and stretching. "We just have to go into this game, poke around a bit, see if we can figure out what's going -" My eyes widened immensely. "We are going to be buddy cops oh gods this is the best thing!" I frowned suddenly. "Crap, now we have to decide who's who."
"I'm the world-weary vet," Kazuto said with a small grin.
"Deal. I wanted to be the excited, gung-ho rookie anyway. That one usually gets to shoot someone. Besides, you're better at games like this than me." We stopped outside room 7025, and Kazuto hesitated. I glanced at him, concern tingeing my voice. "You doing alright?"
He grimaced. "It's that one percent chance that this is real that bugs me. I just..." He shook his head and knocked before sliding the door open. "Hello? Anyone here?"
"Yep!" a cheerful female voice called out. I realized there were two beds set up in the room, one for each of us most likely, and a nurse standing in between them. She seemed normal enough - glasses, brown hair, yadda yadda yadda. Nothing that really stood out. "What's going on, Kirigaya?"
Kazuto was more or less frozen in the doorway. "M-miss Aki..." He bowed. "It's nice to see you again."
"It seems you know each other," I remarked as I stepped inside, shrugging off my coat.
"Sure do," the nurse said. "I'm Aki Natsuki, but you can just call me Aki. I watched Kirigaya while he slept." Because that's not creepy at all. Aki stepped over and casually squeezed Kazuto's butt; he yelped, and while I stared in amazement the nurse continued to touch my friend all over. Also, that came out wrong, bad brain. "Wow, looks like you've finally got some meat on you." She squeezed his biceps and smiled. "You could use some filling out, though. You sure you're eating right?"
"Yeah, I'm eating, I'm eating!"
"His girlfriend's meals probably helped," I said absently. Kazuto was still a little off-balance by the way she had calmly groped him - though I guess if she was the one taking care of him while he was in SAO she was doing things way more personal on a daily basis. Though thinking about Asuna I think her bribe is ending soon, so I'm going to start losing out on those delicious sandwiches. Maybe there's another bit of information I can use to wheedle some more sandwiches out of her...
"Wait a minute," Kazuto said suddenly, "what are you doing here?"
"Your friend in the suit and glasses told me about your mission," she replied as she hugged Kazuto, making him grunt slightly. "He said something about going into a virtual network and doing some reconnaissance, something like that. I can't believe he'd ask you or..." She trailed off, staring at me. "You know, I don't think we've been introduced. I don't know your name!"
I grinned slightly. "You've been too busy groping my friend. My name is Nick Weyr, ma'am. Nice to meet you."
Aki smiled and reached out, tilting my head to the left and right before touching my shoulders. I flinched away, taking a few steps back, and she smiled. "Oh, don't be like that. C'mon, let me take a look at you."
"Better do what she says," Kazuto sighed. "She won't give up until she's examined you."
I grimaced, but stood still; she squeezed my arms and shoulders, tapping my side occasionally. "Wow, you're doing great for someone that was in SAO." How did she... Oh, right, the whole 'looking really gaunt still' thing. There were still small signs, even a year after we escaped; putting that much weight back on was difficult, especially with my activities. That, or Kikuoka told her about our situation. One of the two.
"Martial arts," I said calmly as she poked at my back. Then she squeezed my butt, and I whirled around, snapping, "Do you mind?!" I hate it when people invade my private space, and that region and its counterpart in front were especially private zones of no-touchy. I was still kinda weird about it even around Kana, so there was no way in hell I was letting this random person touch me there.
"Oops, sorry," she said. "Kirigaya never seems to mind, though."
"That's because you never listened to me and I gave up trying," Kazuto said with a sigh.
"Anyway, your suit friend found out I was in charge of your rehab, Kirigaya, and so he asked me to keep an eye on your monitors while you dive." Aki grinned. "They took me off my normal shift and everything. The head nurse wasn't happy, but what could she do about it? The government wants something, they're going to get it." I picked my bed and sat down, relaxing with a sigh. Trust Kikuoka to screw everybody else's day up just to get what he wants. Almost admirable, in a way. She held her hand out to Kazuto. "Well, Kirigaya, I guess you and me are back together again, huh?"
After a second, he shook her hand. "Yeah. Thanks for being here." He frowned. "Uh, so it's just us today, no Kikuoka?"
"You really think that guy would leave his cushy desk chair to come stare at two motionless bodies for several hours?" I drawled.
"Good point."
"He did ask me to give you two a message, though," Aki said as she reached into a pocket of her uniform. "Here it is." 'It' being a folded piece of paper.
I sat up, curious, and moved to read over Kazuto's shoulder. "'Email your reports to me at the usual address'," I read. "'Your fees and expenses will be paid when you finish the mission, so please don't forget to send me an invoice.'" Then I glanced at the postscript - 'P.S. Even though there's a pretty nurse in the room, you're still on the clock. Try to keep those hormones of yours under control.' - and chuckled. "That part of the message was for you only," I told Kazuto. He just crushed the message into a small little ball as quickly as possible before shoving it into his pocket, his cheeks slightly red.
"Um," Kazuto said, "If it's okay, we should probably connect to the network now." I shrugged and sat down on the bed again, pulling my AmuSphere out of the carrying bag I had brought with me and plugging it in.
"Everything's set up," Aki said as she moved over to her station and started getting things out. "Okay, boys, strip!"
"Wh- Why!" Kazuto exclaimed. In the meantime, I was taking my shirt off without really caring. Kazuto was my friend and so I didn't care, and Aki was beneath my interest. Basically, my nudity taboo was more or less non-existent.
"For the electrodes?" Aki said, a smile in her voice. She giggled. "Oh, don't be shy. I've seen all your goodies before. But not yours, Nick." She winked at me, and I just stared at her impassively. Kazuto, however, placed his hands in front of his crotch.
"Actually," he said, "can I just take off my shirt?"
Aki sighed. Wait, did she actually want to see Kazuto naked? Huh. That kid was a godsdamn magnet for anything with two X chromosomes, though I don't know why I'm surprised at this point. She made a sullen noise of agreement, and Kazuto sighed. "Miss Aki, I'm ready," I said as I laid down on the bed I had chosen.
She came over and carefully applied the electrodes to my chest - three on each side of my torso - and arms while Kazuto took off his shirt and got ready for his electrodes. "There," she said once she was finished with me. "You're all set." Strange; she hadn't cared about the scar in the slightest. It was like she had seen scars of that magnitude before and just got used to seeing them. Hmm... Eh, she's a nurse, and apparently a physical therapy nurse. Most likely nothing.
I nodded and put the AmuSphere on, lying down and getting comfortable. I wouldn't feel any discomfort in the virtual world, but coming back would be a different matter, especially if I lost circulation in something. I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths, forming my shields to my heartbeat. After I was ready, I said, "Link start!"
The world fell away into a burst of color, and I felt weightless; as the system check ran its course, making sure everything was hooked up correctly, I wondered how this game was going to hold up. I mean, I was - without hubris - one of the better players in ALO; most SAO survivors that had fought in the front lines at some point or another and survived were just an order of magnitude better fighters than those without that kind of experience. Life and death is a hard teacher but a good one, after all.
I was deposited into a loading screen of sorts, where I could see the world I was entering; it seemed smoky, for lack of a better term. Like the air was thicker or something. I grimaced; was I going to have to deal with this smog the entire time I was here? At least it wasn't too bad. Kinda like having the water-breathing spell active during that underwater quest, where the air was kinda thick but still breathable. At least I wouldn't drown if the buff ran out, so small favors, silver linings, so on and so forth. A small message notified me that my appearance was going to be chosen randomly from a selection of male avatars, so I didn't have any sort of customization options available to me. A shame, really; I would have liked to make sure I didn't look absolutely ridiculous. Still, I probably wouldn't look too bad.
A few seconds later, I arrived in the game proper in a flash of light. I looked around; I was standing in some sort of pavilion made of concrete, a raised platform. Steps led down to a road with what appeared to be cast-iron fences, players with their faces cast in iron, and some holographic triangular projections hawking different wares. In my HUD I could see my name and health in the bottom right, and what appeared to be the temperature and some sort of distance counter in the bottom left. I cracked my neck and stretched; everything moved the way I expected. It seemed a lot more serious than ALO, though I guess it's fair; the point of this game is more or less slaughtering the opponent rather than getting better yourself.
I moved off of the pavilion to the reflective surface right behind me; naturally, the makers included a mirrored area behind the spawn so that the new players could examine their new appearance. It was very convenient. Anyway, just by my movement alone I could tell my height was more or less the same as my ALO avatar - about my real height - which was good, because my movements weren't thrown off. Examining my appearance closely, I didn't really have any complaints; my hair was shorter than in real life and a slightly darker brown - almost black, really. Some of it hung over my forehead, and there was a dark red streak down the center and shifting to the left. The hair in the back reached my neck; for some reason, I was getting a lion's mane vibe. It was pretty neat. In addition to that, my skin was slightly darker than real life, and there was a scar over my left eye. I grinned, and realized my eye teeth were sharper than they were in real life; the leonine look just got more and more pronounced. I assumed that the simple white jacket and grey pants I was wearing was my default equipment, and nodded in satisfaction. It could be worse, I guess. Better, too, but definitely worse.
"Hey, that's the M8200 model!" a guy said, popping up over my shoulder. It was with a supreme act of will that I restrained myself from whirling and punching him in the face, but I was only able to hold the reaction down to a startled oath and a jump backwards. The guy had one of those weird flappy hats and goggles, and he did not give me the feeling of someone normal. "That one's pretty rare! One mega credit for the account. C'mon, help me out here!"
I blinked, jaw dropped. "Uh...uh-uh," I managed to get out. Then, my eyes narrowed. "Now get away from me." He was invading my personal space and the viper was not taking too kindly to it; my eyes narrowed as I automatically started finding ways to hurt and kill the man in front of me.
"Sheesh, no need to get nasty about it," the guy said, slinking away. If my conversion factor was right, the mega credit would have been worth like one million credits, which was in turn worth like... uh, get rid of the zeroes... It would have been worth a lot of real money.
There was another flash of light, and I grinned. Oh, good, Kirito was here. When the light cleared, though, I blinked in confusion. That... That was Kirito? He was... shorter than expected. And with longer hair. Then he turned around, and my eyes widened; it took literally every ounce of self-restraint that I had to not collapse on the ground with laughter. Even still, when he tugged at a strand of long black hair in confusion I had to bite my lip to avoid bursting out in laughter. Shit, I might actually have an aneurysm if this keeps up. Poor, poor, Kirito. "Rythin?" he asked, and I nodded cautiously before nodding at the reflective surface beside me. With a worried look on his face, he looked at his reflection. "Holy crap!" With his startled yelp, I finally lost my battle against the laughter and started howling with merriment, sinking to the ground as my knees gave out under me.
Kirito had to be the - I'm assuming here - prettiest boy I'd ever seen - if I didn't know better, I would have sworn the player standing in front of me was a girl. I mean, long black hair that reached the waist, a beautiful face that rivalled Asuna's, and a slender body? Yeah, the character in front of me was more or less a girl, minus the, well, required secondary sexual characteristics. Kirito tried to brush some of his bangs out of his face, with no luck, and sighed. "I wish I looked a little more soldier-ish..." His voice set me off again; even his voice was higher-pitched, closer to a girl's contralto than the tenor he usually had.
Holy shit, this was actually starting to hurt. Like, my stomach was starting to complain that I was laughing too hard. That, and I think I was starting to see spots from oxygen deprivation.
"Holy bazongas!" Oh, it's that other idiot again. "That's the F1300 model, isn't it!" Kirito whirled around, pressing himself up against the wall - his hair fluttered in the air, and I think at some point during this conversation I couldn't see because I was laughing too hard. "That avatar's so rare I've only heard about one until now. I want it! I'll give you two mega credits for your account." Hey, dick, my account is worth just as much as... Pfft, I can't even look at him without losing my shit. "C'mon, lady, what do you say?"
"L-lady?" Dear gods, his voice! Then he gasped and patted his chest frantically, setting me off into another gale of laughter. I was laughing so hard that I was starting to gasp for air, barely able to fill my lungs before the hilarity caught me again. Reassured he didn't have breasts, Kirito sighed in relief. "Eh, hate to break it to you, guy, but I'm a guy, too."
"Holy crap!" the guy shouted, grabbing Kirito's shoulder. "Then that means you got the M9000 model!" He held up his hand. "I'll give you four, no, five for it! Sell it to me! C'mon!" My laughter had transitioned to the point of being inaudible a long time ago as I was barely managing to take in enough oxygen to survive, let alone actually laugh. My laughing was more or less my throat, lungs, and stomach spasming and wow that's a really weird way to think of laughter.
"Sorry, but this isn't a default avatar." Oh gods, Kirito, stop talking, I can't breathe. "It's a converted one. I can't exchange it for cash." At least try to talk in a lower voice. Please. For Argo and Asuna's sake, if nothing else - I'm pretty sure my girlfriend would be sad if I died here. For that matter, what would my readings look like?
"Aw, that sucks... You and the other guy..." The dude in the aviator hat - I think it's an aviator's hat? I was a bit distracted by the extremely effeminate Kirito - slumped, disappointed.
"Yeah, well, later." Kirito stalked toward me, glaring angrily - which did not have such a great effect on me, and I burst into a new round of laughter, somehow managing to not collapse. "Are you done?"
"Hey, if you ever change your mind, give me the first bid!" the guy shouted. Irritated, Kirito snorted.
The - I hesitate to even think of him as a boy at this point - stepped around me, making sure I couldn't see him. My main source of hilarity gone, I managed to somehow get myself under control to the point that I was able to stop laughing, panting as I desperately drew in the oxygen I needed. "Holy shit," I managed to gasp, wincing as I gingerly pressed at my sore side. "Kirito, don't take this the wrong way, but if I were into girls you'd be a very dangerous trap."
"I hate you." The soft voice made me snicker, but so long as I didn't actually look at him I'd be okay. "C'mon, let's look around. See if we can figure out how to get a name for ourselves."
"To attract Death Gun's attention," I said, nodding in comprehension. "Bullet of Bullets, maybe?" Kirito nodded, and I grinned. This is going to be fun. "Lead on, Kirito." Then, I immediately regretted that. Still, I needed to become desensitized to his appearance, and this was the fastest way to do it.
We wandered through the alleys, staring at the sky and the various shapes and promotions there. Every time Kirito paused to study something, though, every male player in about a three yard radius started whistling and catcalling; this invariably drove Kirito to stalk forward, mortally offended, while I followed at a leisurely pace with a smirk on my face. Occasionally, one of the braver players would try to get in my way, but all I had to do was glare at the bastard and he'd quickly rethink his decision. Sometimes, being able to silently promise a painful death to anyone stupid enough to touch Kirito could come in handy. I mean, yeah, they'd all think I was escorting a beautiful lady, possibly her boyfriend, but that just made it funnier when Kirito glanced at me only to grimace and speed up slightly.
As we walked around, though, it quickly became painfully obvious that we needed to split up or we'd never find the main place to buy weapons and armor and sign up for the tournament. At a branch, I went left while he went right; after a few seconds, I couldn't see him anymore - but I could hear the whistling from where he had been. At least I could trace him that way, I guess.
About ten minutes later, I was walking down an alleyway when I saw a trio of typical tough-guy looking players. The ones with bulging muscles, black leather vests, and large guns that just made it look like they were compensating for something - that kind of tough guy. More interestingly, they seemed to be bothering a female player; she was looking kinda bored in the way that said she could handle herself but didn't feel like dealing with these people, and I was about to walk past and ignore it. After all, it's rude to interrupt people when they're working, and it's not like I know much of anything about human courtship rituals. Everything I know, I had to learn from Kirito, Asuna, and Argo; of course, that didn't really cover this situation. If this had been a business deal, then I might have had solid ground to stand on. Then I heard what the lead player said. "So I made this neat knife out of the starship metal. You wanna know how?"
"Please, spare me," the woman said. I took a closer look, my interest attracted by mention of a knife in this gun game, and saw why they were trying to impress her. By which I mean that she had customized equipment, so obviously was a high-ranking player. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if she was in the Bullet of Bullets herself. Though, if I had to guess the male players were more interested in her appearance - long white hair, a red miniskirt, and a dark red top that left very, very little to the imagination.
"Oh, c'mon," the guy said. "I put a lot of time into this."
"Excuse me," I said, cutting in, "but I believe the lady indicated she wasn't interested."
"And who the hell are you?" the guy snarled, turning to me. The woman glanced at me, obviously unimpressed by my entrance. She probably thought I was going to use the 'rescue' as an icebreaker. Heh. I was going to use it to break something, but it probably wouldn't be ice.
"Just a random passerby," I said. "One that's very interested in that knife you claim to have."
He smirked. "I get it. You're a new player, right? And you want to impress the lady." I just shrugged, letting him think what he wanted. Sure, let's roll with that. You're wrong on very many levels, you idiot, but if being wrong would goad you into falling for the trap, then so much the better. At my shrug, the woman snorted and looked off into the distance. "See this?" He patted a sheathed weapon on his hip, and I felt a small smirk creep onto my face as I recognized a knife sheath. Yes, I very much want that. "Took me two weeks to make since I had to carve it from a solid chunk of metal." Interesting. So you couldn't just buy a knife here? Well, I guess it made sense, since this was called Gun Gale Online, presumably for a reason. He leaned in close to me. "Now beat it."
"Your knife." My voice was calm and flat. "I want it. Give it to me."
"Hu-uh?" He laughed in my face. "Why should I do that?"
I chuckled calmly. "I'm not asking you to just give it to me." Well, I had, but I didn't really expect him to just hand it over. "How about a wager?"
"A wager?" Yes, little fishy, take the nice bait. There's no hook here, nope.
I grinned, my eyes gleaming with avarice. "I'll explain. Do you have a bullet on you? A single bullet will do." He nodded at one of his cronies and the guy produced a small handgun before cocking the chamber or whatever the correct gun-related term is, ejecting whatever bullet had been there previously and catching it. The man tossed it to me, and I caught it carefully. "Excellent. The goal of the game is to be the first to grab the bullet after it hits the ground. I'll drop it when you tell me to, so that there's less surprise for either of us. As for rules..." I grinned sharply. "We start a certain distance apart and can't cross a line. Other than that, no outside interference and that's it." I tossed the bullet in the air with a small flourish, catching it again and flashing my opponent a predatory grin. "The wager is your knife for my avatar."
He snorted. "So why should I want your av, noob?"
"Because it's a converted account," I said. "And because I was offered a mega credit for it earlier, and because..." I leaned close to him and whispered, "Because I'm an SAO survivor." Something complicated flashed in his eyes, though he eventually settled on greed. I grinned slightly; the fish was on the hook. Now it was time to reel him in. "Think about the fame you could have," I purred softly. "You, the proud owner of an SAO survivor's account. You, able to claim to have survived the death game and have the proof to back it up."
I knew he was sold on the thought when he leaned back, crossing his arms. "You have a deal," he ground out.
I nodded. "Very well, then. If you could give your knife to the lady?"
"So why am I getting involved in a testosterone match?" she asked, raising an eyebrow as my opponent stripped off his knife and offered it to her. Despite her words, she took it, glancing at it before returning to lounge against the wall.
"Because while I'm an honorable player," I said with a mocking half-bow, "I can't trust that these fine gentlemen won't renege on the deal when I win." Heh. Honorable.
The woman studied me for a while, her lips pursed. "You're putting a lot on the line here," she said finally. "I'm interested."
"I enjoy gambling," I said with a shrug. "It keeps things interesting."
The man and I took positions, each of us facing the other behind a line in the street. The guy crouched, taking a position that would let him lunge forward as soon as the bullet hit the ground. For my part, I simply drew one leg up and balanced, ignoring the snickers of the other players. I knew what I was doing. This was going to be interesting, seeing how this played out - if I fucked up, well then, I'd be in a lot of trouble. But I had a feeling I'd be just fine, since I was me. Again, not hubris - just being aware of my own abilities.
"Drop it!"
At the guy's shout, I obliged; I released the bullet, and it dropped toward the ground almost slowly. I took a deep breath and tensed up, watching my target carefully. I needed to time this perfectly, or I'd miss my mark - and my entire strategy relied on hitting the mark. My heartbeat started to race, the shields weakening slightly, and I felt my lips curl back to bare my teeth. The viper's rage filled me, and I felt my body shiver with energy. Yes... I should be just fine.
The bullet hit the ground with the dull ring of metal against stone, and we both moved at the same time. The man lunged forward, arm outstretched and grasping for the bouncing piece of metal - and I just lashed out with my foot. With a meaty thud, the metal toe of my boot slammed into the man's face an instant before he reached the bullet, and his neck snapped back with the force of my kick. He went sprawling, and I had plenty of time to just stroll over and pick up the bullet absently. "Game, set, match," I said, dropping the bullet on his prone form. "I'll be taking the knife. Thanks so very much for playing." I could stand to be a little nicer to the guy, but he had lost and I had won.
Snarling at me, the guy scrambled to his feet. "Cheating bastard," he snapped.
"I don't think so," I hissed calmly - and dangerously. My shields were still down, and the viper was hissing loudly in my ears. "I specifically stated that the only rules were starting outside the line and no outside interference. Nothing prohibited physical intervention between the players." Translation: I never said I couldn't kick you in the face and you never said I couldn't kick you in the face, so shut up and deal. I held my hand out to the silver-haired woman expectantly. "Knife, please?"
With a smile, she handed it to me. "That was very impressive. Still a risky gamble, though."
I smirked. "See, the thing is? I never gamble." It was a deliberate exaggeration, but it did get her to laugh slightly. As I strapped the knife and sheath to my right forearm, I was grabbed and spun around roughly. "Can I help you?" I drawled, looking at the three players.
"Asshole!" the leader spat. "Give me my knife back!"
With a sudden glare and the rasp of steel, my new knife was suddenly at his throat, pricking it gently. "That so?" I growled. "You want to try taking it from me?" I couldn't actually hurt him in the town, but terrifying him wasn't out of the question. Any idiot with half a brain would be able to sense the bloodlust from that simple question. By the way the woman shifted behind me, drawing to the side away from me, I knew she could feel it.
"N-no..." the guy muttered, drawing away from the knifepoint in a hurry. "K-keep the knife, prick! Piece of shit!" He and his buddies split, getting away as fast as possible.
"So now tell me how you really feel," I said, rolling my eyes. With a small sigh of something almost like regret, I sheathed the knife again and placed my finger against my pulse, forcing myself to regain my calm and rebuild the shields; I tried to keep the bloodlust linked to my pulse, building the shields around that, so when my pulse was calm I was calm. With a final deep breath, my pulse was back to normal and I turned to the woman. "So. I'm looking for where to sign up for the Bullet of Bullets. Would you mind showing me the way?"
The woman studied me for a bit before grimacing. "I have a boyfriend," she said.
That's not an answer to my... Oh, right, she probably thinks I was trying to hit on her. The fact that I avoided looking at her face, keeping my eyes around her neck line, probably didn't help. I hated looking at people. It made the viper more eager. I'd managed to get around that by only looking at their face from my peripheral vision, but it did mean my eyes usually strayed a bit south when speaking; either that, or they usually ended up wondering why I was staring at a point just behind their ear. "And I have a girlfriend," I said. "Now that we've mutually and independently assured I'm not trying to hit on, flirt with, or otherwise impress you, would you mind showing me the way to where to sign up for the Bullet of Bullets?"
Surprisingly, the woman laughed. "Hey, you're alright. My name's Musketeer X, but you can call me Musketeer or just X if you want." She shrugged, turning and starting to walk. "I was about to go sign up myself, so you're welcome to tag along."
With a shrug, I started following her. "I'm Rythin. Nice to meet you, X."
As we walked, Musketeer X struck up a conversation. "So, you're pretty obviously new to this game. What made you switch over?"
I shrugged, running my hand over a cast-iron fence overlooking a road with cars and trucks driving along. "I've been playing fantasy games, mostly. You know, swords, magic, high-fantasy kind of stuff."
"Switching from fantasy to this dump? That's a huge shift," Musketeer X sighed.
"Tell me about it," I groaned. "I never realized air could be this thick before. And it stinks, good lord."
Musketeer X smiled. "You get used to it, eventually. Why'd you switch?"
I glanced at her. "A change of pace, mostly," I said. "The other VR games I've played have all had some element of fantasy to them, so guns and cyberpunk was the obvious choice." I chuckled. "My friend and I just converted our accounts today, figured we'd try out the tournament." Wonder if Kirito managed to find his way? Knowing him, he's probably lost. Either that or some random stranger took pity on him based on his appearance alone and is showing him around.
"The BoB tournament is pretty hardcore, you know. Pretty much every pro in the game is going to be trying to win the thing," Musketeer X told me. "A little strange that you're going to start off with it. Do you even have armor?"
"My only equipment so far is what I spawned with and the knife." I wasn't sure how many of my skills from ALO would transfer appropriately, but if it came to it I knew how to fight even without Sword Skills.
"Great," she sighed. "You got guts, though, Rythin. How about this - after we sign up, I'll show you to the market. I mean, you might not be able to buy anything... How much money do you have, anyway?"
I swiped open my menu and studied the readout. "Says here I just have 1000 credits." At her wince, I chuckled. "That's... not enough, is it."
"It is if you want to start out just grinding monsters for money," she said. "And if you don't want to pay real money..." She trailed off, and I shook my head. I could have just put it on Kikuoka's bill, but a small part of me rebelled against the pay-to-win strategy. I was good enough to win by my own merits, not by how much money I could give to the developers. They were already getting the monthly subscription, and that was enough for me. "So the best way for you to get money fast enough is gambling. It's unreliable, but the fastest way to get money."
"Out of curiosity," I said, "why are you telling me this? BoB's a tournament, so it would be in your best interest to..." I blinked, narrowing my eyes. "...fill the ranks with as weak players as possible, so that you have an easier time. Is that it?"
Musketeer X just laughed and shook her head. "It's because you interest me," she said. "I mean, not many people would risk losing their converted avatar just for a knife. I want to see what else you're capable of." She grinned, glancing at me. "And the best way to do that is go up against you in the BoB." I didn't reply, instead just looking forward with a small smile on my face. "So that I have some time to think about it, what's your stats look like?"
I swiped open my menu again and tapped a few buttons, searching around the menu and familiarizing myself with it. "Apparently, AGI primary and DEX secondary? Third in STR and the others are just kinda whatever." My stats were, thanks primarily to my time in Aincrad, high enough that I had a fairly good spread, though because of my fighting style - knife work and martial arts, emphasis on movement - I had focused primarily on agility and dexterity. Strength was more just a bonus thanks to blending the martial arts with my knife work.
"AGI?" Musketeer X grimaced. "You've got a bit of a problem, then."
I frowned. "Because the metagame's shifted toward strength builds, right? New guns have a high strength requirement and so people that focused on agility for whatever reasons they had started to fall behind." At least, that's what the research had turned up; XeXeeD had actually been talking about that when he had been killed by Death Gun. The guy had been laughing about it, but from what I could tell XeXeeD had suggested players put their points into agility, while he put his into strength. So when the metagame shifted, he was better off. Actually pretty smart, though he got killed for his troubles.
"Exactly," she said. "Without enough strength, you won't be able to use the bigger guns." I just shrugged, not entirely concerned. I didn't even have enough money to buy armor, let alone guns and whatever else I'd need. Eh, not a huge deal - I wasn't really planning on using guns, anyway. I just didn't like them; they were too impersonal. All I had to do was point and pull the trigger - the bullet did the rest, and that was where the fun was. I wanted to feel the resistance of my knife cutting through flesh, but with a gun all I could feel was the recoil of the hunk of cold metal. That wasn't fun at all.
Eventually, we reached what Musketeer X called the Governor's Office - apparently, it was the center of this city, which was called SBC Glocken - a large open space where players could gather to form squads and prepare for hunts and the like. Holograms where everywhere, and there was a large display in the center of the entrance hall touting the Bullet of Bullets 3. As I followed Musketeer X, I was a little surprised to see how many people were wearing some form of mask or glasses. Well, I guess it makes sense, since from what little I'd seen there were a lot of dry, sandy places where having the eyes protected would help out. Can't see, can't fire a gun - can't fire a gun, get shot down. Musketeer X led me to the right side of the hall and approached what she told me were the registration booths. I entered one and tapped the screen; to my surprise, it asked me for real-life information like my address, and whether I wanted a virtual prize or a real-world one. It did say that entering false information was acceptable, but I wouldn't be able to receive top prizes. "Hey, X?" I asked, leaning out and looking over.
"Yeah?"
"Why would I need to enter my real address and stuff like that?"
Musketeer X leaned out to look at me, her silver hair hanging over her eyes before she blew it out of her face in irritation. "If you do well in the BoB, you get prizes. You don't have to fill in the information if you don't want to, but that just means you don't get a cool real-world prize if you do well. I think in-game prizes are dyes or rare equipment, and real-world rewards are model guns."
Shrugging, I turned and filled in my information, not seeing a good reason to lie. I always enjoyed cool prizes; besides, what I got - if anything - might just be my souvenir from this particular mission. I mean, I kept the NerveGear from being stuck in Aincrad, fighting for my life daily, and the knife scar from being cut by Sugou. If this mission went south - and things did seem to head that way with alarming regularity - I'd want a souvenir. "All done," I announced as I tapped the submission button at the bottom and stepped back from the registration booth. Another screen appeared, telling me the application was successful and showing a tournament ladder. "Apparently I'm in J block."
"I am, too," Musketeer X said, raising her arms over her head and stretching. "What side?"
"Left."
"I'm on the right." Her eyes gleamed. "We get to meet up in the finals. If you make it that far, that is. Good."
I raised an eyebrow. "Why would that be any better than fighting earlier?"
She gestured for me to follow as she started walking out of the Governor's Office. "Well, the thing about the BoB prelims is that both the winner and the runner-up get entered into the tournament itself. The finals is more just a chance for the two to show off." She grinned and tossed her hair. "I'm going to make it to the finals. I just wonder if you will."
"Don't underestimate me," I said calmly. "I may just surprise you."
"We'll see, Rythin," she said with a laugh. "Don't let me down."
My usual small grin widened into a smirk, and I chuckled. "Just watch me."
In my mind, Ziria's theme song is Oi Oi from the Haruhi Suzumiya soundtrack. Also, this is now Nightblade canon that Ziria and the Steel Hearts are really the SOS Brigade and company in a world where Haruhi is sufficiently distracted by the wonders of VRMMO games to really warp reality too much. Try to guess who Koron and Eryin represent! And if you want, the others – there's Greg the male Gnome fighter, Asami the female Undine fighter, and Yin the female Undine mage.
As for GGO, Rythin might be a little bit overconfident right now, but who can blame him? He doesn't really know how the game works at the moment. Plus he's one of the better players in ALO, so he's more or less stopped having a challenge. Plus, the confidence has become another layer of protection for his lack of ego - he brags while knowing that it's a lie.
Why yes, Rythin is a rather unreliable narrator, why do you ask?
Many thanks to everyone that favorited, followed, or reviewed.
