II

Brave New World

And with that, the hood, the robe and the gloves melted back into a deep blood-red. Liquid defied gravity and receded into the sky, and like that, Akihiko Kayaba was gone.

Sinon opened her eyes, trying to rub the bleariness away. Mildly annoyed that her alarm clock hadn't woken her up like it was supposed to, she rolled over lazily with half a mind to grab the damn thing, her palm instead striking the edge of a hard, wooden surface. The pin-pricking pain that followed shocked her fully awake. She sat up abruptly, holding a hand up to her eyes to block the sunlight streaming through the small window of her inn room. The girl scowled, ashamed that she'd forgotten her situation even for a moment.

The game was nothing, if not realistic.

Hell, if it was a weekday, she might've tried to shuffle to the bathroom to brush her teeth. Sinon's scowl deepened as she realized that there was a decent possibility that she'd forget how to complete such mundane tasks in the time it took to clear the game. It wasn't reassuring, to say the least.

Soon after Akihiko Kayaba had delivered his speech, the gathered players turned into an amorphous mob of motionless NPCs, most of them staring at the sky where the sole GM turned into a dark red ooze and disappeared into nothing. Personally, she had been one of the few people that hadn't panicked in light of the announcement; Sinon simply didn't have it in her to lose her cool under pressure.

After she'd witnessed the effects of the "Looking Glass" firsthand, Sinon had decided to keep her blue hair and prioritized exiting the plaza immediately; she didn't want or need to be in the middle of the impending storm. As expected, a few try-hard players (almost all of them being beta testers) took the initiative and ran to the fields outside the town, presumably to milk whatever EXP points they could out of the mobs there. Not being an avid RPG player herself, Sinon decided against said course of action. She had no equipment whatsoever and as such, fighting right out of the gate, so to speak, was simply not an option.

Finding herself downstairs in the inn's breakfast area, she noticed the NPC innkeeper throwing her a friendly wave. Sinon waved back before berating herself, realizing that she'd just waved to a computer program. She pushed through the single door and onto the street, her eyes widening a little upon seeing how busy it was. Despite herself, she couldn't help but shudder slightly as the sun warmed her skin. Judging by the long shadows, the various merchant stands cast along with the smell of dew in the air, it was still early in the morning. It was almost believable that she had actually stumbled out of her overbearing school life and into a medieval world of swords and steel. Almost.

Although, Sinon surmised with a dry smile, that was the point, wasn't it?

As she was not exactly one to stare in awe with her mouth agape, Sinon began to look through the wares of the different merchants. Her eyebrows furrowed and she found herself thoughtfully humming, trying to understand the difference between "Slash," "Puncture" and "Impact" damage.

The innkeeper had stopped serving breakfast just before she returned. A shame too, considering that Sinon hadn't eaten anything. While one didn't necessarily need to eat to sustain themselves in this world, the sensation of hunger would get stronger as time went by, should the player refuse to eat. Deciding she could always buy a meal later in the day, she returned to her room. Sinon had never really been materialistic, but she found the urge to examine her recent acquisitions, if not only to guarantee their quality.

And so, laid out on her bed, were a short sword forged from bronze and its simple black sheath, harshly reflecting the sunlight. Along with these, a basic, wooden hunter's bow she'd bought on impulse and a small quiver with about 15 arrows with dull, rough heads to match. Satisfied that she at least wouldn't be defenseless when she decided to leave the safety of the town, Sinon begun warming one of many plain buns she'd bought. She didn't like having to go into her reserve so quickly, but screw trying to ask the NPC for food. It would probably just give her some stupid quest.

Upon pulling the bun out of oven, Sinon tore a piece off it and tossed it into her mouth. Cream, she thought, it could definitely use some cream.

With a flick of the wrist, she opened her character profile. In the top right, the digital timer displayed "10:36 AM". The NPC wouldn't serve an actual lunch until around 1 PM, so if she wanted to go exploring, now it was a good time.

She swiftly picked up the weaponry she'd just purchased and walked towards the door. But as her hand grabbed the doorknob, she hesitated, recalling something she'd seen in the menu. Opening it again, she narrowed her eyes at the last option on the page: Pain Absorber. It had been greyed out, signalling that it, like the log-out button, were no longer functions of the game. Originally, of course, it had allowed players to control the level of pain they felt, from a light tickle to full-blown agony.

But she couldn't back down now. Even if pain was accurately simulated as well, surrendering would mean she had to stay here and cower until someone else cleared the game. She would have to be the damsel in distress.

The teen ground her teeth at that thought. She would never allow herself to stoop so low. So what if she was a complete novice? Learning the game was never meant to be easy anyway.

Her eyes shone with determination. She could do it after all.

The fatigue from fighting non-stop for the last two or so hours had finally caught up to her. Sinon's grip on the bronze sword she held had loosened quite a bit, though she seemed to be having better luck with the sword that way. With a quick sweep of her hand, Sinon subconsciously attempted to wipe her forehead from sweat, her hand coming away completely dry.

After taking a deep breath, she prepared for another [Horizontal]. In other words, a side-to-side sword slash. The execution was rather sloppy, as her slash was poorly timed, but the boar she'd struck with it let out a pained screech before dissipating. She sheathed her sword, rolling her shoulder under the uncomfortable beginner-class breastplate.

As she walked into a clearing in the forest she'd found herself in, Sinon lost herself in thought. She wouldn't have been surprised if she'd gotten lost wandering the fields outside the Town of Beginnings half-grinding, half-exploring. Sword Art Online truly was massive—for the time she'd spent out there, she was still seeing new forests, lakes and paths all around her. In fact, she—

SMACK!

Shocked, Sinon flew for a foot before landing on her back, heaving all the air from her lungs. Her attention elsewhere, a boar had seen her, stopped, charged and hit the girl; all without her noticing. Luckily, charging itself was more of a crowd control effect than anything. However, they also had follow-up attacks on downed enemies that did do quite a lot of damage—something Sinon wasn't sure she could take head on.

The boar approached quickly, its tusks suddenly seeming sharpened to a fine point. With some rough calculating, she was safe to assume the boar wouldn't kill her instantly if she managed to stop it. She moved her arms to divert as much of the force from the boar's tusks coming down towards her as possible instead of the riskier move of trying to roll aside and get nailed by the monster. The downside was that it would hurt. A lot.

Sinon ground her teeth as the one tusk she'd failed to grab dug into her forearm, constantly draining health. The sensation of the tusk drilling into her arm overloaded her senses, making her almost scream in agony. Her right hand loosened, unable to ignore the pain. She was losing control over her body.

Damn it... it hurts...

She looked at her injured forearm where small, red-coloured polygons were dropping from the wound, right before disappearing. The tusk had broken through the avatar's skin, piercing about a centimeter and a half into her arm.

Her right hand near-immediately released the boar and desperately grasped for her sheathed sword. The boar didn't miss that opportunity and begun swiveling its head, trying to pierce the girl's body again with the now-freed tusk.

"Shit!" she exclaimed, the monster lowering its head.

Her hand reached the sheath, pulling out the bronze sword. If her attack was too slow, Sinon knew that the boar would pierce her body, doing dangerously high amounts of damage.

Please, please, please...

With all the strength she could muster, she shut her eyes tight and bet her life on that single attack. Her hand drove her sword deep inside the boar's neck, meeting surprisingly little resistance.

When she hesitantly opened her eyes again, the monster had already burst into millions of turquoise-coloured polygons. She'd survived the attack!

She immediately turned to look at her wounded forearm. It still hurt, but at least she was alive. Refilling her HP bar would close the wound completely anyway.

The teen let out a sigh of relief. Apparently, one strike in the neck was enough to kill a boar. Mentally noting it, she used her other hand to get up. She slowly made it, when she realized someone else was there as well.

The cyan-haired teen found herself looking at a boy clad in mostly basic armor, with a seemingly decent-level black coat. Said boy's hair almost obscured his eyes as he studied the rewards screen before him. He had an aura of discipline emanating off him; his eyes were akin to an eagle's, his hand professionally and swiftly sheathing the weapon.

Startled, Sinon said nothing. Was he the one who saved her? It had seemed too good to be true that one thrust to the neck could've killed the boar.

Seemingly confirming that he'd received the drop he'd wanted, he yelled out. "Finally! Jesus Christ!"

Sinon yelped as he startled her; she hadn't exactly recovered from her recent ordeal.

"Sorry, I got a little excited." The swordsman hovered his gaze over her. He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, a wry smile on his face.

Sinon mumbled a barely audible thanks, still unable to comprehend how lucky she had been just now.

The boy continued, oblivious to Sinon's silence. "What are you doing all the way out here? You look like a nice girl…"

This landed him sorely on Sinon's blacklist. A vein pulsed on her forehead, instantly pushing the image of a brave swordsman aside.

"Are you saying that I can't fend for myself because I'm a girl?"

He visibly deflated. "That's not what I meant!"

"Then what did you mean?" Her voice came out with a little more malice than she'd intended, visibly taking the black-clad boy aback.

"I just meant, you remind me of... someone important." The boy trailed off and made a face, as if tasting something sour.

What kind of guy is he to just say something like that without batting an eye? Sinon's light blush was lost to the redness on her cheeks from the residual pain of the boar's earlier assault.

"And it's not that you're a girl, it's just I don't see much of anyone out this far—boy OR girl." He gestured around him with an open hand. Sinon noticed the acute lack of other players around them; she couldn't even hear the sounds of fighting in the forest around her anymore.

"Well, at any rate... Thanks for saving me." Sinon mumbled, looking at the ground. She was rather embarrassed to have had to rely on someone else for her own safety.

"Pardon?" The black-haired boy asked, a curious look on his face.

Feeling annoyance building up inside her, Sinon took a deep breath. "Thanks for saving me… uh, Kirito." She squinted at his health bar to see his username.

"Ah, no worries. Those things are a pain anyway. Sinon, correct?"

Sinon nodded.

"I guess I'll be seeing you around then. Later!" He turned and threw a wave over his shoulder before walking out of the clearing and disappearing into the forest.

It was then Sinon decided that she didn't actually dislike Kirito—something she tended to do with most boys. This wasn't to say that she liked him either, of course. But she'd at least give him a chance.

The next time she saw Kirito was about a week later. Sinon had been walking through the main street of the first floor's last town. She'd recognized him nearly instantly. His ruffled black hair, his almost lazy, casual walk; things that reminded her of her father, a thought that made her chest ache like her ribs had been bruised. Furthermore, nobody wore a black coat like that on one of the warmest floors in the middle of the day.

Sinon warded off a sigh. Nobody but him, I guess.

No boy she'd ever known from school acted like he did. She realized that she'd begun to see males in a sort of dichotomy. They were either goofy and—it almost made her wince to think it—useless, or hopelessly serious and cold. Kirito didn't seem like either. Of course, if she were to actually have a conversation about it, she'd never say something like that.

Sinon blinked, realizing she was about six inches away from the taller boy in front of her, his eyebrows raised in surprise. She quickly stepped back in surprise, throwing her hands out a little to push him away.

"Jeez, sorry." Kirito muttered. He brightened his voice as he continued, teasing her. "Although, you were the one that almost walked into me."

Sinon took her previous thought back; Kirito was starting to lean towards the goofy side. Though, she supposed she should've apologized.

"No, I'm sorry. I forgot to watch where I was going." She spoke clearly, but quietly.

Kirito chuckled a little. "Don't worry about it. Speaking of forgetting, I'm actually back here to gather some supplies for a quest. I guess I kinda just got lost in thought walking around." It seemed like he was done talking, but he made no move to walk past her.

"Don't let me keep you from that, then." Sinon said politely, stepping to the side and striding forwards, intent on exploring the first floor's dungeon.

At least, that's what she tried to do. Before she could take even half a step forward, his hand shot out and grabbed her wrist.

"I really have no clue how to ask this of you... But could you party up with me for this? Klein is busy with his guild, and—"

"Kirito," Sinon began, cutting off his rambling, "Who's Klein?"

"That's not important," he began again, quickly. "It's just that I have nobody else to ask and I..." He slowed, taking a breath. "I need help. Will you come?" He frowned, scrutinizing Sinon's face for any sign of a reaction.

The surprises just kept coming with him. It wasn't that she didn't want to go to see how he fought, but… accompanying someone who's barely acquaintance on her own?

"A-ah. I see… Well, I'm pretty busy grinding myself so I—"

"No worries, I get it." Kirito sighed lightly. "Seems I'll have to try and solo it then…"

Upon seeing the dejected look on his face, Sinon decided to continue, trying to at least save some face after her lame excuse. "Is it really worth trying that?"

"Well," He scratched his cheek, "Supposedly, each party member receives a special weapon of almost any kind. It's assumed to be a pretty hard mission, but I don't think the spawn rates and types of mobs change, regardless of the party's size."

That caught Sinon's interest. "How long would you need to complete a run? Alone, of course."

Kirito glanced at his quest notification window for a second. "Maybe an hour?"

Sinon hummed aloud. "If that's the case, then I should be able to make some time… Alright, I'll join you."

At least it wasn't so damned hot anymore. Sinon was somewhat of an indoors kind of person, and preferred an air-conditioned setting to a sun-dried one. However, unlike in the real world, she didn't have the luxury to choose where she spent most of her time.

Still, this was one of the last things she expected. They stood on the same floor, but the scenery had completely changed. A light layer of frost and fallen pine needles crunched under her feet as she and Kirito walked silently through the evergreen forest. The sun shone surprisingly brightly for what time it was, casting long shadows through the sparse, low-hanging branches of the pine trees.

Sinon had once seen a picture where a man had been sunburnt on the bottom of his face, just from being out in the snow for too long. She'd never really understood how something like that was possible, living in one of the warmer areas of Japan. Now, though, even with only a thin layer of frost reflecting the sunlight back at her, leaving spots in her vision, she understood.

Speaking of one of the warmer areas, her lungs had never felt so free. Back in town, the air felt heavy and damp, as if it drained energy from her with each breath. Here, she breathed without effort, drawing crisp, cool air and letting out small white clouds.

"So?" Sinon spoke, breaking the silence.

"So what?" Kirito responded, lazily.

"We've been walking for a while now. Are you sure this is the right way?"

"Well, not particularly." Kirito turned and walked backwards before her, his hands clasped behind his neck. Sinon's jaw almost dropped at the unexpected honesty of his answer.

"But," He continued, "Nobody's been out here to map this area yet, so if it isn't, I'm not exactly the one to blame."

He muttered something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like "And if they haven't moved it…"

Kirito spun on his heel and once again resumed walking forwards, his coat billowing out around his calves, hands returning to his sides.

Sinon rolled her eyes. They'd emerged from the teleport gate into a rather small town—no, village. The quest they'd been assigned had only tasked them to investigate another village, deep in the Mountain Pass area of the first floor.

If she knew anything about games, vagueness like that was never a good sign.

What the NPC had been able to say told Kirito and Sinon that the settlement had been ransacked by bandits, and needed help in the rebuilding process. As if on cue, the two teenagers came to the edge of the forest, the clock tower of a small village peeking over the hill before them. A trail of smoke wafted through the sky and Sinon surmised that it probably wasn't from a chimney.

Her suspicions were confirmed when they fully crested the hill. The breeze that blew the hair away from her face also carried the heavy scent of wood smoke, obviously from the still-smoldering remnants of a small section of the village that had been burned. The rest of the village wasn't any better off; Sinon saw a number of collapsed roofs and crumbling walls.

Their next fifteen minutes were consumed searching for signs of survivors. Sifting through piles of rubble hadn't exactly been on her bucket list, though it did well to distract Sinon from the uncomfortable silence between her and the boy in black next to her. She bit her lip, hoping Kirito would say something to break it. He didn't.

Well, not until she sneezed, anyway. Kirito turned to her and rose an eyebrow, raising a silent question. In turn, Sinon looked down at her choice of dress.

She felt her face heat, though she was glad she could blame it on the cold weather. "What? I didn't know it would be actually cold!" She hissed, adding in a glare for effect.

Kirito chuckled, opening his inventory. A moment later, he held a fur cloak, moving to fasten it around her shoulders. Instead, Sinon took the cloak from his outstretched hand and threw it around her shoulders herself.

She mumbled something under her breath, though it produced more of a steam puff than it did a sound.

"You're welco— hmm…" Kirito frowned, his hand under a chunk of stone. When he pulled it out, it was holding a small bound journal. "This might be useful." He thought aloud.

Sinon bobbed her head in a slight nod, and the pair sat in the frost. Ignoring the seeping cold, Kirito opened the journal, noting the neat handwriting.

October 4th

It keeps getting worse. I can't fathom what kind of vile demon would create such a disease. It's almost as if it has a mind of its own, countering every kind of medicine we can procure.

Furthermore, no other town we've sent word to has heard of it. As much as it pains me to say, Father won't last much longer. I fear for my own safety, but alas, there is nowhere I can go.

Sinon looked up from the journal to see Kirito's brow furrowed.

At least half of the town has grown ill. Tenzo says to have faith, but I'm losing all hope. Is there anything that can save us?

"Shit." Kirito breathed, seemingly finishing the entry at the same time Sinon had. "It's different."

"What's different?" Sinon questioned, getting up.

Kirito's eyes remained on the journal, as if scrutinizing every letter. "The quest. It's changed— I'm sorry. It might take longer than an hour."

"I—" She opened her mouth to speak, but suddenly couldn't find her breath. She became vaguely aware of a numb, cold sensation centered in the middle of her back. Then, her world exploded in pain.

A/N: Yeah, it's been quite a long time, eh? My motivation to write is usually pretty sporadic; it comes and it goes, but once I start something I'll at least try to finish it. I think this is the chapter I've spent editing for the longest; it took about a week and a half, and I couldn't have done it without the help of my good friend One More Guy. He actually ended up adding a few paragraphs here and there, so you have him to thank for the extra length. I know I should post longer chapters considering my long absences, but hey. At least they're not year-long.

So I've got some news: Don't Fear the Dark has been taken up by StriderM8, who will upload the next chapter soon. I'm pretty sure he'll do better than me, actually; I've never been good at uploading on a schedule. He's a lot more active and his writing is pretty solid! I can't wait to see where he takes it.

What else? I always feel like I have more to say in these author's notes, but I can never think of anything. Chapter 3 should come before the end of the year, and hopefully a lot sooner than that. I've already started on it, after all.

Until next time,

-TheSilentSwordsman