SAO

Fuurinkazan

Chapter 2

A/N

Hello people, if you are reading this hello again, I am still a banana, so I really can't tell if you are reading this…

But seriously, hopefully I'm really going to be starting the Au-ness properly here, so on with the show.

Disclaimer: Sword Art Online is owned by Reki Kawahara

Kirito was ashamed to be happy about his decision, his earlier annoyance at bringing the other players with him actually seemed to have paid off as with the help of the group that were with him. The low level monsters that inhabited that floor stood no chance against their combined might.

"So where are we going exactly?" Dale asked with a weary expression on his face, they had been walking for a good three hours by now, so Kirito turned to him.

"We're going to a town called Horunka, the reason why we are going there is because I know of a quest that I need to complete, and it also has a shop. The place itself is just up this hill." Kirito said patiently, now having explained to each of the Fuurinkazan by now. He supposed that bringing Klein's friends along had been a good choice, they had been telling him funny stories about Klein and generally talking. Kirito not being much of a social guy took a while to really start talking but he supposed it was fun when he did. However, a big and obvious down side to partying with Klein and Co was the big hit on his EXP gain from killing monsters, as they were in a party they gained quite a lot of EXP from killing the various enemies in their way, but Kirito had a feeling that playing solo may be better for everyone. However, he quickly squashed that thought for now and crested the hill that they were walking up and saw Horunka Village. As he remembered, it was nowhere near the size of the Town of Beginnings, since that had been built to accommodate all ten thousand players. In fact Horunka had the grand total of ten buildings. Kirito suggested that Klein and the others go to the weapon shop and then take the rest of the night off. After friending everyone in return for them taking the night off, (Kirito was still not sure how that worked,) he headed for the shop, after purchasing a leather coat for the decent defence boost. Kirito headed for the two story building that contained the quest 'Secret Medicine of the Forest' as he entered the first sign that the quest was still were it was in the beta was the sense of sickly-ness that hung in the air. Soon an NPC woman that Kirito had previously nicknamed Missus walked up to Kirito.

"Good evening journeying swordsman. You must be tired, I do wish to offer you some food, but I do not have any at the moment. All I can give is a single cup of water or so." The Woman said wearily, without missing a beat Kirito answered with clear enunciation, so the system would recognise his words.

"That will be fine." Kirito said, really he could have just agreed, but he played along, the NPC woman poured Kirito a cup of water, and placed it on the table. Kirito nodded and sat down, and quickly downed the water. With a small smile the NPC woman turned back to the pot and began stirring it.

When Kirito had first been here he had been confused about the woman saying there was no food while the cauldron was bubbling away above the fire, but Kirito now knew that there was medicine from the local village in it. After waiting a small cough could be heard in the next room, and the woman's shoulders had deflated in despair, a few seconds later a glowing gold question mark appeared above her head. The sign of the quest's activation, pausing for a moment he checked how he word his next question.

"Is something troubling you?" He asked the NPC, Kirito knew that, that was one of the money possible phrases, of those that could be used to accept quests. However, that was the one he was the most comfortable with, slowly the woman turning to face Kirito the question mark pulsed slowly.

"Actually, journeying swordsman, my daughter…"

Kirito allowed himself to tune out since he already knew all this: Her daughter was affected by a terrible illness that was completely unaffected by the medicine form the market. (The contents of the pot.) And there was no other way to cure her daughter aside from making her drink medicine procured from the ovules of predatory plants inhabiting the western part of the forest. The problem being that plants of that particular type were extremely dangerous and on top of that those which actually bloomed were rarely seen resulting in her complete inability to obtain any. Hence if a swordsman were able to fetch it in her stead, she would gladly offer a long sword that had been handed down her family as an expression of gratitude.

That had been the general gist of her speech, Kirito had to hand it to Kayaba's team, they could really create a quest to get you behind. However, even though Kirito already knew her speech, the quest would not progress if he had not heard it do the end. What made the story worse were the dry coughs her daughter made all the way through the story. Once the woman had finished Kirito stood and nodded at the woman and rushed out of the house.

-0-

As Kirito walked deeper into the forest having already killed several Nepents he heard a stiff clapping sound, he turned around, slightly startled by the noise, he unsheathed his sword.

"Hey." The person said stepping into the dying sunlight, revealing his serious features. However, instead of being an NPC, like Kirito expected it was another player.

"S-Sorry for startling you like that. I should have called out from the start" the boy said.

"…No me too… Sorry for the overreaction."

The boy, whose features gave off a first impression of seriousness, widened his faltering smile, and made some sort of gesture, bringing the fingers of his right hand up to around his right eye. He then quickly lowered his hand in embarrassment immediately after. He defiantly wore glasses in the real world Kirito decided.

"Congrats on your level up earlier. That was pretty quick."

"It's not that fast… -And if you are going to say that, you're fast too. I thought it would be two or free more hours or more before anyone would reach this forest."

"I thought I would be the first to arrive too. The path here is rather confusing after all." The boy laughed, the instant he said this, Kirito realised something, they were the same in one crucial aspect, they were both Beta testers, and like Kirito he must have gone through endless attempts of trial and error, to amass a trove of knowledge and experience. The small paths and ways of escape not shown on the map. The locations of Towns and Villages, the stock shops keep. The price and specifications of the stock sold there. The activation requirements of quests and how to clear them. The spawn areas of monsters, their powers, and also their weaknesses-

It was due to the information that he, Klein and the others had gotten to this point alive, if he was a complete newbie Kirito was sure he would still be in the starting city. The same could be said for the boy to Kirito's front, there was no doubt the one-handed swordsman with hair slightly longer than his had been through the experience of the beta test just like him. Not just how he knew the best place to farm the Nepents, but even the way he stood, it showed a familiarity with the original VR engine used by SAO. This guess was soon supported by the boy's next question.

"You're doing it too, right? The 'Secret Medicine of the Forest' quest." He asked seeing no more reason to hesitate, Kirito nodded.

"Yeah I am." He said, as Kirito said this, the boy grinned and adjusted the phantom glasses.

"It is an indispensable quest to one-handed sword users after all. When you get the 'Anneal Blade' reward it's good all the way up to the third floors labyrinth." He said with a nod

"The appearance isn't much to talk about though, that weapon." Kirito joked, the boy then let out a bright laugh, after a short pause the boy looked Kirito dead in the eyes.

"This is a rare chance, so how about working together on the quest?" He asked

"Eh… But I believe this is an individual only quest though." Kirito responded, however the boy gave a smile like he had anticipated Kirito's response.

"Well that may be true, but the rate of a Nepent with a flower will increase if the normal ones are hunted down as much as possible. Pushing that to the extreme, as a pair is much more effective."

Just as Kirito was about to nod he stiffened, wondering if he should be teaming up with someone else while he was with Klein and his friends. However, the boy took Kirito's hesitation the wrong way and quickly added; "No it's fine, you don't have to feel obligated to form a party, you were the first person here so, of course, I'll concede the first item to you. If we continue at the boosted rate, the second will definitely drop soon after, so if you'll stick with me till then."

"Yeah… Sure Kirito said" Nodding his assent, the boy laughed and stepped towards Kirito and offered his hand.

"That's good to hear; well then I'll stick with you for the time being. I'm Coper"

"Watch my back, name's Kirito" He said,

"All right, let's go."

-0-

It had been a good hour since Coper and Kirito had teamed up and both had reached level three, but the end was in sight as a Nepent with a flower attached spawned. The boys both ran at the Nepent with a silent war cry swinging their blades forward. However right before they connected, Kirito restrained Coper with his left hand, Coper shot Kirito a look demanding why, Kirito pointed behind the flowered Nepent at a second one in the tree, after straining his eyes Coper realised what Kirito was pointing at, another Nepent with a circular something above it. However as it stepped closer, Kirito regarded it in horror; hanging from the end of the other Nepent was a spherical ball around twenty centimetres in diameter. It was a fruit, if the fruit was even grazed it would burst releasing noxious fumes that would bring swarms of rampaging Nepents down on top of them far more than either of the two beta players could deal with. However, the longer they waited, the closer the Nepents got to each other. Kirito was at a loss, he thought that there was indeed a possibility of killing the Nepent without touching the fruit. However, it was not definite, so as with the possible outcome of impending death, Kirito decided patience would be the correct outcome. Although, even this was not a good plan, as Kirito had heard a rumour that the flower would quickly mature into a fruit if not obtained quickly.

"Let's go. I'll draw the fruit's attention, you go after the flower, kill it quick." Coper said breaking Kirito out of his thoughts.

"Ok," Kirito agreed, the two boys ran toward their targets, Kirito running at the quest item dropper, and Coper at the Trap.

Even if it is a rare monster with a tiny spawn chance, it's stats, were barely different and so, just like the others, Kirito destroyed it with a blue sword skill and a few follow up slashes. As the beast exploded into polygons, a blue ball fell off it and hit the ground with a soft plop, Kirito bend down and plucked the fist sized orb off the ground. After this I need a break Kirito decided.

"Sorry for the wait!" Kirito shouted to Coper as he approached him, as he did this he dropped the Ovule into his belt pouch and ran several steps forward, for some strange reason a feeling of dread gnawed away at Kirito's stomach, Coper turned to Kirito his eyes narrowed, in distrust, or was it pity. Strongly fending off the Nepent's next attack he looked at Kirito again.

"Sorry Kirito." And with that Coper, delivered a strong slash to the Nepent's fruit causing it to burst.

The Nepent gave a high pitched screech, a sound Kirito had heard once before in the beta test, as he had been killing Nepent's he had cut a fruit, death had followed, the Nepent Coper had slashed exploded into polygons but the damage had been done.

"Wh-Why." Kirito stuttered; he knew this had not been an accident. The beta tester who Kirito had fought beside for a good hour looked at him and shrugged.

"Sorry." He said again, as he said this Nepents appeared from all sides, there must have been a good thirty or forty in total, pausing briefly to send Klein a good bye. Kirito, steeled himself for the inevitable, he hefted his blade. Had Coper finally cracked from the pressure and decided to give up, is that why he had cut the fruit. As this thought ran through Kirito's head, Coper made a break for the thicker trees, did he intend to try and escape? Kirito thought, why now? Kirito's eyes widened as Coper dived into a thicket. His avatar was soon covered, but as Kirito's detection skill was higher than his hiding, Kirito saw his plan, he was hiding, this left a bitter taste in Kirito's mouth, Coper wasn't trying to flee, after a failed suicide attempt, he was trying to have the monster's kill him. Kirito understood; he intended to steal the Ovule. However Kirito felt no anger towards him, only a bitter satisfaction.

"Coper, you didn't know about it did you?!" Kirito yelled, "This must be the first time you took up the hiding skill, it may be useful, but it's not bullet proof, against monsters that rely on senses other than sight, it's useless, monsters such as the Little Nepent!"

After a second of silence the calm broke, ten or so Nepents fell upon the thicket Coper was in. With a scream and a burst of polygons, Coper was dead, feeling a sense of total calm, Kirito ran at the main body of the Nepents. Kirito was slashing and weaving desperately, but his luck quickly ran out as he tripped over an exposed tree root. Kirito closed his eyes, he waited for death, however instead of this he heard the sound of glass breaking, Kirito's eyes opened, and he gazed at the best sight ever, Klein and his friends falling on the Nepents. Since they had the element of surprise they quickly reached Kirito. He looked up and saw a smirking Klein as the group quickly formed a ring around Kirito.

"Come on buddy, don't go I was dying on us." Dale laughed killing another Nepent.

"I take it the quest went badly?" Klein asked Kirito who had now joined the circle of people now fighting slowly through the Nepents.

"Yeah, it did..." Kirito said his eyes cast downward.

"Kirito, I have no idea how, you're feeling right now, buddy, but at the moment you need to pull yourself together, we're all losing health rapidly, so fight now, mope later." Klein said gruffly, while insensitive, the words appeared to strike, a cord within Kirito as he quickly mobilized.

"Kunimittz, Dynamm and Klein, to the front with me form a point, Issin, Harry guard the rear." To Kirito's surprise they moved without question and in that formation, they easily fought the rest of the way to the edge of the Nepents, and made a desperate dash into town, by now it was night time with the moon shining brightly overhead.

"You guys turn into bed, I just need to finish the quest."

"Kirito, are you all right buddy?" Klein asked worriedly

"Yeah, just go to bed." Kirito said tiredly, Klein nodded and walked off towards the inn while Kirito headed towards the quest house. Kirito gave a small smile as he noticed players in the plaza of the village.

"So it begins." He announced dramatically to himself, he then turned down an alleyway into the inner portions of the village. The house that Kirito was headed for was lit by a light flickering in one of the windows. Out of habit Kirito used the door knocker before opening the door, the missus was by the stove stirring it carefully and the little gold exclamation mark floated above her head to denote an active quest. Kirito approached her and took out the spoil that had lost another player his life and nearly cost him his own and handed it to the old woman. The woman's face lit up at the sight and Kirito raised an eyebrow at the realism of it, she babbled words of gratitude as she placed the ovule carefully in the pot and the quest log which hung lightly to the left of Kirito's vision.

With a smile the woman walked over to a large wooden chest on the south side of the room and opened the lid, golden light seemed to pour out and Kirito swore he heard a familiar sound. From inside the woman took a long sword in a red scabbard, the sword while looking slightly worn gave of a feel of so much more potent than the starting gear. She held out the sword still paying Kirito words of gratitude.

"Thanks." Kirito murmured and took the blade, Kirito instantly felt the weight and that familiar balance that had not been present with the small sword he had been using, it was quite a bit heavier, he estimated about one-point five times heavier. That would be good if he was ever forced into PVP he mused, the added weight could be beneficial. However, the thing that made Kirito the happiest was having the sword he had used in the Beta returned to him, it had served him well this Anneal Blade. The quest complete message hovered before his vision and experience points were added to his total, and his level reached four. When Kirito had first received the Anneal Blade in the Beta he had gone hunting Large Nepents, creatures that dwelled deep in the forest to the west. However, he did not really feel up to it, a player had lost his life fighting them monsters, while yes he had betrayed him and nearly cost Kirito his life, but it was still sad that he had to die. So Kirito placed his new weapon in his storage and sat down on one of the nearby chairs with a heavy thud. As the quest had been completed the woman would not even offer him a glass of water Kirito thought to himself with a sigh, then the Woman took a wooden cup and filled it with the contents from the stove then holding the cup with significantly more care then she had held the Anneal Blade. She walked with the cup through a door, without any real reason Kirito got up and walked through the door after her. He was surprised that he could get through, as in the Beta test the door had been locked shut by the system. With a shrug Kirito walked further in, through the door was a small bedroom furnished with a dresser, a bed and a single small chair. Lying on the bed was a small girl who couldn't have been more than seven or eight years of age. Even by the moonlight Kirito could see how pale the girl was, her neck was thin and the shoulders that the sheet failed to cover were bony.

After realising her Mother was in the room the girl opened her eyes slightly, then she noticed Kirito who stood as still as he could, the girls colourless lips formed a faint smile.

The girl's Mother gently reached out and propped the girl up, suddenly the girl was seized by a coughing fit, that shook her violently, Kirito checked above her head half expecting to see a player cursor seeing the realism of the girl, but no she was an NPC as her tag indicated and her name was Agatha.

"Agatha dear, here, the travelling swordsman got some medicine for you from the forest. If you drink this, you'll get better for sure." The woman said kindly, she carefully held out the wooden cup to the girl to take

"…Okay." Agatha said in a cute tone and took the cup in her small hands and gulped it down, a slight tinge of red appeared on Agatha's face and held the empty cup for her Mother to take, after she took it, Agatha turned to face Kirito and gave him small grin.

"Thank you big Brother." She said sweetly, Kirito suddenly remembered another little girl who used to talk to him like that. In the distant past his 'Sister' Suguhu had caught a cold and was forced to stay in bed. His 'Father' was as usual appointed overseas and his 'Mother' was away on a business trip, hence he was in charge of looking after Suguhu for two hours. That was when Kirito had been in Primary school… He couldn't even remember what year he had been in. Honestly Kirito had thought of that task as bothersome, but he didn't leave her alone while he played, he wiped away sweat from her brow and changed the ice pack on her forehead. After he had done that the girl had meekly asked for ginger tea. He had reluctantly called his mother to ask for the recipe. It was only ginger extract and honey dissolver in water a simple process, but to Kirito when he was young and had never done that sort of thing it was a momentous task. So after burning himself with the boiling water several times and grating his fingers on the grater he eventually took the mug to Suguhu's bedside. That little girl who was normally quick with the sarcasm looked at him with a meek face-

Kirito involuntarily groaned, he wanted to get to know Suguhu again, he wanted to heal the divide that had formed between them. Kirito was shocked by the power of the emotions running through him and he stumbled causing himself to have to catch a hold of Agatha's bed to steady himself. He needed to see her again, and the rest of his family. However, at that moment that was impossible due to the electric fields the NerveGear emitted severing his consciousness from the real world and imprisoning him in this god forsaken game.

While holding back the sobs that threatened to spill over Kirito realised just what this world meant, that if he did not get to the top of Aincrad, he would never be able to see them again, hiding his face in the bed sheets, he clenched his teeth tight as his body trembled. However, there were no tears; he didn't even know if he could cry.

"… What's the matter, big Brother?" Agatha asked as a soft palm nervously touched Kirito's head, she gently stroked his hair until he burned out and fell asleep.

A/N

Thanks for reading, that was a difficult chapter to write and I had to borrow heavily from the light novel. However I persevered.

A quick thanks to Stevjej who is the excellent beta-reader for this fic, thanks.

If you are wondering where the next chapter of either From Battlefield to Classroom or Edward Van Hohenheim is, never fear, my schedule shall soon be posted on by bio. Now I bid you adeu.