Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online, only the characters and the plot. I'm just abusing both the system and the characters Kawahara Reki made for my own amusement.
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This is awkward.
Kirito stepped away from the hug I enveloped him in, his puffy eyes refusing to meet mine. His expression momentarily surprised me; I hadn't thought this game was capable of emulating so many emotions at the same time.
Staring at the wooden boards beneath our feet, Kirito scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment. I rubbed my upper arm and stared at my fingers for the sake of having an excuse to avoid the uncertainty growing between us.
"Thank you," he said in a small voice. My mouth split into an awkward smile, a bit unsure how to reply to such sincerity.
"You're... welcome," I settled on saying, finally looking at his eyes. "Let's find a place to rest? We deserve it after what happened," I offered, finding an excuse in the shape of the «Fatigued» de-buff on the top right of my vision.
The teen's eyebrows furrowed, going silent in thought. Oh… was mentioning the incident with Coper too soon? Brushing aside a bad situation was second nature to me, which only managed to fill the air with an awkward tension.
To my absolute delight, Kirito nodded after breathing out, successfully bringing relief to my heart.
"Yeah... I agree. There's a lodging inn nearby. We shouldn't stay there for more than a day, though. We have to start the Main-quest Line in the next village. Tomorrow, if possible."
With that settled, we received our quest rewards from the NPC woman, which indeed were the infamous 1H swords, the «Anneal Blades». They were black and had no decorations on them. If you asked for a collector's opinion, they would answer that the weapon was too generic for archiving.
Kirito shook his head when I attempted to equip it, so I dropped my arm and followed him as he took lead once more. True to his words, we only had to walk past a few buildings to arrive to the inn.
The first thing that greeted us were the buzzing sounds of many jittery players. I hurried my steps when some of them challenged us with their eyes after taking notice of us, trying to reach the front desk without looking like I was running away in fear.
"Welcome! How may I help you?" a voice said from behind the wooden counter.
I barely contained a squeak from leaving my throat when the receptionist smiled at us. She was young and thin, with a cute face that glowed in kindness. Even with her petite stature, she gave off the feeling of an older sister rather than a young girl.
My muscles eased at her friendly-going tone, but that feeling quickly disappeared when I noticed the floating cursor above her head. That small icon almost made my heart stop, and I clutched the leather belt holding the shoulder pieces of my armour together.
How real had Kayaba Akihiko made this world? First was the feeling of everything around me, then the woman and her ill daughter, and now this. It was astonishingly uncomfortable.
"A room for two, please. Lowest price." Kirito slipped closer to me, as if noticing my brewing anxiety and fear. I was once again thankful for his steady presence.
The NPC nodded while going through a massive leather book, a quill between her fingers. "How many nights?"
"One," replied Kirito.
"That will be 10 Cols," she said, and her cheery tone alone managed to send chills down my spine. Kirito handed the required money to the woman before he took the key.
"I hope you'll have a pleasant night, honoured customers," the NPC said while bowing. I thanked her in a barely audible voice before I walked behind Kirito towards the stairs with shaky legs, eyes fixated on the creaking planks.
Feeling the intense stares drilling holes into our backs, I poked Kirito so he'd hurry up to our room, not feeling reserved with physical contact after the intense first day we had had.
He didn't need any more prompting to speed up his steps, and we soon found ourselves inside the cheap room he'd rented with the door securely locked behind us. I sighed in relief, my back to the door, the room's furniture fully visible to me.
There was an old nightstand between two beds that looked like it would get destroyed by the simplest touch, and the light was being blocked surprisingly well by a tattered curtain with faded colours. Kirito opened a door to my right, revealing a wooden shower that I was very uneager to use.
"I didn't expect anything more from a cheap room… but isn't this too cheap?" I said, looking disappointed.
"We'll have to get used to rooms like these for a while. We won't have enough Cols to buy new equipment and healing items if we spend it on luxury," he said, stretching with closed eyes. "I don't like it either, but it can't be helped."
"It can't be helped," I repeated, mulling over the words as I walked around the room, dusting off the sheets. That was a common phrase, wasn't it? A lot of people liked saying it, but I'd forgotten the implications of themー I shouldn't try to change everything at once. Baby steps, I thought.
"We should sleep to remove the fatigued status. Our armour can be repaired before we head out to «Tolbana»," Kirito said and I nodded in agreement.
"When are we going to need new weapons?" I threw myself on the bed I had just finished cleaning.
Kirito put his hand on his chin, thinking deeply before he said, "Third floor, assuming we don't find any better weapons before that."
I wasn't sure if waiting that long was a good idea or not, but the only reason Kirito and I had started that dangerous quest was because of the «Annual Blades», so I figured they were decent weapons. We had to be careful not to break them, though. I really didn't want to do that awful quest again, or any quest similar to it, really. It was an unrealistic wish, but I was allowed to dream at least this much until I'd be forced to do more gathering quests.
Sheepishly smiling while biting my lower lip, I tried gathering my courage. I turned my whole body to face Kirito when he seated himself on the opposite bed, looking displeased at the quality of the mattress. Or lack, thereof.
"I- uh… I'll need some help with handling the «Annual Blade»— I'm not forcing you though!" I quickly added, then fixated my gaze on the half eaten rug that was between the beds. "Sorry, I'm really asking a lot from you."
I balled my fists on the end of my off-white tunic, waiting for whatever words he'd tell me in the uncomfortable silence, but the hand that settled on top of my head made me recoil in shockー I hadn't expected Kirito to initiate physical contact.
"It's really fine, Heishi. I'm grateful you decided to join me," he said, his sincerity making me incapable of looking at his face.
Even if he said it was fine, I still didn't want him to slow down for some random stranger who he had nothing to do with. I didn't want to be a burden more than I was.
"...Could you help me become stronger? I don't want to hold you back anymore," I whispered, my sweat feeling icy against my back. It felt like I went back to junior-high, where even the slightest social interaction used to give me cold feet.
I should pull myself together. I was a University student, older than him! I glanced back at Kirito, finding a small amount of courage to face him. And to my utmost relief, he nodded with a slight smile. I let go of a breath I didn't know I was holding.
"Yeah, let's become stronger. Together."
A burst of happiness warmed up my chest, then my brain finally caught up with what had happened today. A weight settled on my shoulders as sudden exhaustion hit me, finally telling me I had endured enough, that I shouldn't force myself to appear like I was fine with nearly being murdered by a fellow player.
I sniffled and put a hand on my mouth to muffle my cries, tilting my head down so my brown bob-hair could hide my face as I stared at my leathered armour-skirt. I'd refused to show weakness in front of anyone when Kayaba Akihiko's announcement had changed our lives, and it wasn't any different now. I still refused to cry in front of strangers.
… But Kirito was now a friend, right? He wasn't a stranger anymore, but a teammate who had my back in this harsh new world, just like I had his. Someone I should fully trust, whose commands I would follow without any hesitation.
My survival in this surreal reality counted on this team, on him. I wanted to do my best to share that role someday and pay him back for taking me with him, for helping me.
So for the first time that day, I let myself cry. Both for what I had temporarily lost and because of what the future was unknowingly holding.
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A/N: I've decided that for this story, making long chapters could make it hard for the readers to digest. Plus, it's less fun for me when each chapter is more than 8k words.
I'll try making the chapters 1.5-3k words long for a while to see how it'll go for me. Otherwise, if I don't like it, I'll go back to making the normal size, which should be between 5k up to 10k words per chapter.
As usual, I hope you've enjoyed this chapter! It was a bit corny in some parts, but I honestly like cheesy dialogues/ thoughts.