Yay! A chapter 3! I did it, I made a story with more than two chapters, that means maybe this story will have an end! Or at least something other than a beginning.
I mean other than Duo of Darkness. If you haven't noticed, there's the thing recently with my stories where I make two chapters and drop it. (Sword Art Online: Angel does actually have a chapter two, I just haven't quite finished it)
I decided that I would be adding a few more countries to the world, but I'm still keeping the name because they are going to play rather minor roles.
I realize that Karu's recovery is ridiculously fast, even if the wounds were closed by a healing crystal, maybe a reason will show up in the future or maybe it's just 'cause realism isn't everything in a fanfiction which is set in a very not real world.
This chapter is 4 days later than it would otherwise have been for stupid camping trip reasons, not only did I not have access to computer or internet, I didn't even have a way to charge my phone so I couldn't even write on that. Okay, in all honesty, it's not like anyone cares since I have no semblance of a schedule anyway. Besides, the camping trip was kinda fun. I only hurt myself like 3 separate times, two of which were extremely stupid. I managed to cut myself with a tree, for example. And I was so stupid I ran down a hill and landed on a rock wrong, thus hurting my ankle.
After the camping trip, while waiting for my parents to pick me up from the house of the people who drove us there and back, while learning how to use a surf board with a sail, I managed to cut my foot. (I originally had a description, but decided that it was too much information and possibly stretched the 'T' rating of the story...
Okay, I'll quit whining now, it was cool overall.
My second problem is that I don't really feel like writing a story that chronologically makes any sense, I just have a few scenes in my head I want to write for pretty much all my stories, but I have no idea how to get there.
Note made after the others: Just bought Elder Scrolls Online, so don't expect many updates in the near future.
(1st person, Karu)
"Hey Kirito," I say.
"Yeah?"
"I'm bored."
"What am I supposed to do about it?"
"Let's go ask your father- no, uncle, if he knows anything about why we're so similar."
"Why now?"
"Because I'm bored and still haven't recovered enough for you to let me really do anything," I say.
"Still..." Kirito says.
"Still what?" I ask.
"You know he might be busy," Kirito says, changing the topic.
"In that case we'll wait. That's what we're doing anyway," I say.
"Fine. You need help?" Kirito asks.
"Seriously, I understand you're just trying to be nice and you're worried, but I don't need you to help me get up every single time," I say. "Besides, I've almost recovered."
"Sorry, I'm just worried about my friend who literally got stabbed. Twice." he says.
"Thats an exaggeration, I got stabbed once and cut on the side once," I say.
"Speaking of which, you never did tell me what happened between me passing out and me waking up. For example, how you got me into my house without attracting a lot of attention, since, you know, you'd be carrying an unconscious girl covered in a lot of blood?" I ask.
"Um... your window was open," he answers.
"Seriously..."
Kirito gets up and—despite my insistence that it was unnecessary—helps me up. And by helps me up, I mean grabs my hand and pulls me up without any cooperation from me.
"Geez Kirito..." I mutter.
We walk through the city towards the castle, idly noting that the few people about the place were slowly forming into a crowd. Someone pushing through the now forming crowd runs into me and knocks me over, causing a not insignificant amount of pain. He notices he did and stops, asking, "Are you alright? I'm so sorry."
Before Kirito can say something harsh to him—probably coming from his current over-protectiveness—, I say, "I'm alright."
Kirito pulls me up—this time with my cooperation—and shoots a glare at the man who apologizes once more and continues pushing through the crowd.
"Hey Kirito, do you know what this crowd is about?" I ask, dusting myself off.
"I have an idea, but let's go see," Kirito says. Well, technically he answered my question.
We slowly push through the crowd until we can see—which requires us to be basically at the very front since we aren't very tall—and see a chestnut haired, beautiful girl wearing a dress surrounded by 4 bodyguards dressed in shining white armor with the golden crest of the kingdom of Oykot on their chests. The girl in the middle wore a red and white dress, along with a small crown-ish thing that had a silver disk at the front which also bore the crest of the kingdom.
"Thought so," Kirito says.
"Who's she?" I ask. She was obviously someone important from Oykot, but more specifically.
"She's the princess of Oykot. The royal family of Oykot was specifically invited to my birthday, so they sent her as a representative. Father told me she'd be coming," Kirito says.
"I see," I say.
"Let's go," Kirito says, pulling me through the crowd in the direction of the castle, somehow managing to move faster than the princess of Oykot.
"Her name's Asuna, by the way."
"I'll remember that. So where are we going?" I ask.
"We're- or I'm, going to welcome her, you can come with me or just wait," Kirito answers.
"Wow, you're almost acting like a prince," I tease.
"You're encouraging," Kirito says sarcastically.
As we reach the castle, Kirito and I walk inside, avoiding any attention because literally everyone except us, the princess, and her guards was focusing on the beautiful teen who was the princess of Oykot. This included the gate guards who probably didn't even notice us walking in.
"So how do you plan to welcome her?" I ask.
"Well, I'll walk out and say 'welcome to Aincrad,' then bow, obviously," Kirito says.
"She's already in Aincrad," I deadpan.
"Okay, 'welcome to the Ruby Palace of Aincrad,' then," Kirito says.
"I guess that's good enough. You're the prince, you decide," I say.
"If that's the case, why did you correct me the first time?" he asks.
"Dunno," I say.
"Sometimes you make no sense to me," Kirito mutters.
"I sometimes make no sense to myself as well," I answer.
As the princess approaches the gate, Kirito walks into the center of the road with me stopping next to him a little to the side.
"Welcome, Princess Asuna of Oykot, to the Ruby Palace of Aincrad," he says and bows. I bow as well and wince slightly as the mostly healed wounds in my stomach and side complain. Unfortunately, it doesn't escape Kirito's notice and he whispers, "Almost recovered, huh?"
I scowl slightly and whisper, "Shut up."
(Asuna)
"Welcome, Princess Asuna of Oykot, to the Ruby Palace of Aincrad," spoke a black haired boy who had stepped into the middle of the road just inside the walls of the castle. I knew the place was called the 'Ruby Palace,' but I didn't expect the top of the castle to literally be made of ruby...
The boy bows, along with the girl who had walked out with him. The two looked like they were probably siblings, both wore almost all black, and both carried swords.
The girl seemed to wince ever so slightly as she bowed, which was followed by a short sentence from the boy, said too quietly to be heard. The girl scowls slightly and says something equally inaudible.
Who are they? They're not dressed in any sort of uniform, as it doesn't have the crest of Aincrad anywhere on it or anything of the like, yet they're allowed to carry swords within the palace. Well, I get the feeling I'll find out soon enough.
"Thank you," I say with a slight curtsey.
I continue walking forward and the boy speaks once more, "Please, visitors are not allowed weapons within the palace. Your weapons will be returned to you once you leave the castle."
My guards look at me, asking me what to do. "You may go explore the city," I say.
"Are you sure it's safe for you to be alone?" the leader of the guards asks quietly.
"You would be unarmed either way," I say.
"Alright, please be careful Princess," the guard says, reluctantly agreeing.
The four guards bow to me and leave.
I walk through the gate and the boy—still not introduced—says, "Please, follow us."
How were they so sure I didn't have any weapons? Either they didn't really care and it was formality—which was unlikely—or they were confident enough in however they checked.
I walk through the gate and follow them through the courtyard and into the castle. After taking a few turns the boy knocks on a door and someone dressed in what looked to be servant attire opened the door.
"Please take Princess Asuna to her room." Then, turning to me, he says, "Please follow her, she'll take you to your room. If you have any questions about where things are, feel free to ask her." With that the two turn to leave.
They still haven't introduced themselves.
"Excuse me," I say.
"Yes?" he asks.
"What are your names?" I ask.
"I'm Kazuto and this is Karu," he says, gesturing to the girl next to him.
Kazuto... isn't that the princes's name? He looks too young though, as the prince is supposed to be nearly 16 and these two both look around 14, so maybe it's just someone with the same name. Well, I'll meet the prince soon enough and then I'll find out if it is him.
(Karu)
"Are you sure you're alright?" Kirito asks.
"Yes. I. Am. Sure," I say.
"Alright, alright," Kirito says.
"This is getting seriously old. Come on. If I wasn't okay, you'd be able to tell so when you know that there isn't anything actually wrong, quit asking," I say in a harsh, irritated tone.
"Sorry..." Kirito says with a somewhat hurt—though he was trying to hide it—expression.
Realizing how harsh I'd been about asking him to not constantly make sure I'm okay a add, "Sorry, I didn't mean to be so harsh."
"It's okay, you're probably right anyway," Kirito says.
"If I wasn't okay I wouldn't be able to hide it from you, even if I wanted to," I say with a smile.
"So what do you want to do?" I ask.
"If you think you're recovered enough, we can do some sword practice. Given that someones probably going to try to kill me at the party, it's quite likely you might end up in that kind of situation again, so you should be ready," Kirito says.
"We can do something light. The reason I lost was because I lost track of one I thought I had disabled though, so we can start with something light. What I really need is to practice fighting multiple opponents, since when I just train against you, I'm not getting any practice with that," I say.
"You have a point. Maybe we can get some of the guards training to help us out," Kirito says.
"Sure, but not for too long because I still get tired very quickly," I say.
"Yeah, that will take a while to fully recover from with how much blood you lost," Kirito says somewhat sadly.
"Maybe I'll just have to lean on you sometimes. You wouldn't mind, would you?" I tease.
Kirito does his best to ignore my teasing and says, "Do you want to go sit down?"
"I don't get tired that quickly, I meant in the context of physical activity, not walking at a slow pace for a few minutes," I say.
"Heh heh, yeah..." Kirito says, rubbing the back of his neck.
"So anyway, let's get to training," I say.
"So... *pant* damn... *pant* tired... *pant*" I say between breaths as I lean over with my hands on my knees.
"Do you want some water or something?" Kirito asks.
"Sure," I say, having recovered my breath just a little.
I sit down against the wall of the arena and breathe deeply.
"Here you go," Kirito says, handing me a leather sack of water which was plugged with a crock.
"Thanks," I say, gulping it down rather quickly, even managing to spill some on myself, earning a slight laugh from Kirito.
"Better?" Kirito asks.
"Yeah, I think that's enough for today though. I'm tired, not just out of breath," I say.
"Okay. I'm surprised that took as long as it did, given that even I'm starting to get a little tired and I'm in great shape," Kirito says.
"Anyway, you did great," he says, handing me some sort of pastry.
"Wow. When'd you have time to get that?" I ask.
"A little while back, while you were practicing. If you're really focused on something, I can sneak past even you," he says.
"Oh. Well, thanks. Now that there's food right in front of me, I'm suddenly very hungry," I say, my stomach growling to prove my point. I feel my face heat up slightly and Kirito chuckles a bit.
I pout and Kirito says, "You act so adorable sometimes," while rustling my hair a bit.
"Now you're just treating me like a little kid," I say while blushing slightly at his comment.
"Sorry, I think the constant worrying about you is doing that," Kirito says, removing his hand from my head.
I sigh. It's not like I really mind, it's just... Just what? Embarrassing, I guess.
"Are you just gonna look at that food all day?" Kirito asks, moving the conversation away from its current path.
"Sorry. Thanks for the food," I say and bite the rather tasty pastry. I gotta say, if there's one upside—and it is just one... I guess being cared for a bunch and having an excuse not to do anything could be one, depending on who you are—to losing a bunch of blood, it's that I get to eat lots of sweets.
Kirito looks at me and smiles as I quickly eat the food.
(Asuna)
"Shouldn't he be preparing or something?" I ask Suguha, the princess of Aincrad.
"Go ahead and try to get him to, the moment you look away, he'll be gone," she answers.
"And it annoys me how despite always preparing last minute, he still manages to be perfectly prepares anyway."
"How do they not get tired? This is like the 6th day in a row they've been at it."
"Beats me."
"Wasn't she supposed to have been seriously injured recently?"
"She was. That's exactly why they are training so much, I think."
"That's very fast rec- Oh, where are they going?"
"Who knows," she answers.
"Trying to keep track of them is hopeless, all the servants supposed to 'look after' Kazuto consistently fail," she complains.
I'm envious. I'm lucky if I even get to leave the castle without getting in trouble afterwards.
"Sometimes I feel they're more like siblings than Kazuto and I am, definitely closer," she says with a hint of sadness in her voice.
Prince Kazuto of Aincrad is completely different from me, by my parents' standards, he'd definitely not pass as a prince.
Maybe I should just... not return home. No no no, I can't do that. Besides, if I stay here, mother and father might think I was kidnapped or something and it might cause trouble between Aincrad and Oykot, which would be exactly opposite to the reason I came here.
"I'm going to try to follow them. You asking got me curious. Feel free to come with me, but we're probably going through the forest," Suguha says and descends the stairs to the arena.
Seriously? No wa- Actually, that does sound somewhat interesting.
"You say that they constantly slip away from anyone who tries to keep track of them though," I point out.
"Oh they'll probably slip away, but maybe not," she answers.
"Alright, I'll come with you," I say.
"How the hell do they keep this pace continuously, uphill, through a forest, while injured, without looking slightly tired!?" I ask, about ready to collapse.
"Because of that continuous training," Suguha says, less tired than me but also unable to keep up.
I start to speak but Suguha cuts me off, "We lost them."
"Huh!? When?" I ask, having recovered a bit.
"The moment we looked at each other to talk, probably," she answers.
"Well, we can trying heading str-"
"They probably knew we were following them the whole time, which means they wouldn't be heading in a straight line to their destination, let's just turn back," she says.
"Well, at least it was a good workout," I say.
"Must suck to be proper princess," Suguha says.
"Huh?" I ask. You're righter than you even realize.
"I mean, your physical shape is just terrible and you probably have to sit through some kind of boring manners classes all day. You haven't even been trained to use a sword at all," she says. You're more right than you think about that.
"You have?" I ask, latching onto the last part.
"Yes. While it's a far less practical style than what Kirito came up with for himself, and is teaching Karu, I'm one of the best at it. It's a tournament style designed to look very nice and be enjoyable to watch, but it's still much better than nothing," she answers.
"Alright, let's head back," I say.
(Karu)
"I think we lost them," I say.
"I'm surprised how persistent they were. Asuna looked like she was about ready to collapse," Kirito replies.
"Anyway, let's head wherever it is you have in mind so you can show me already," I say.
"Right, it's actually not far from here," Kirito says and leads me to a clearing on the very top of the large hill with a beautiful green, flowery meadow with an underground spring coming up in the middle out of a rock formation, forming a natural fountain.
"Wow, this place is beautiful," I mutter, feeling the sudden urge to just roll in the soft, green grass a bit.
"I know, right," Kirito says.
I jump on Kirito, surprising us and causing us both to fall to the ground. We roll over each other, both trying to end on top, and eventually come to a stop with Kirito on top of me.
Kirito falls off of me to the side and lies on his back, both of us laughing without restraint.
Eventually we get up and I ask, "So what was it you wanted to show me? Though I guess it wouldn't be surprising if this was it."
"Right," Kirito says and takes a few steps away from me, drawing his sword.
He holds to the side in position for a horizontal swing from left to right.
His sword glows bright, beautiful blue and flashes from left to right in a clean, perfect swing, leaving behind a trail of blue behind it. A sword skill. Used by only very few master swordsmen who've spent long perfecting their swordsmanship.
"Wow," I say slowly.
"You try it."
"Eh!?" I ask surprised.
"Here, I'll help you. Draw your sword," Kirito says.
I draw my sword.
"Now get in as close to the exact same position as I was in as you can."
I do as told and rather unsurprisingly, nothing happens.
Kirito walks behind me and grabs my hand, moving it a little.
The sword starts to glow blue and seemingly move on it's own. Surprised I stop the sword and the light vanishes.
"Don't fight it, go with it. Try again," Kirito says, stepping back.
I put the sword in the same position and the sword glows blue once more, this time I follow the sword and execute a similar swing to the one Kirito just showed, but it was slower and less clean and the light not as brilliant and beautiful.
"Nice! I'll show you some more in a bit, but practice that first," Kirito says.
"Okay."
"This gets tiring very quickly," I say, lying on my back in the grass, resting, after less than an hour of practice.
"Yeah. If you look at how quickly and powerfully the sword moves though, it's not that surprising," Kirito says, sitting next to me.
Sorry for the abrupt ending, but I felt the sudden urge to write something else yet again, and decided that it would be better to post something abruptly cut off than wait an extra however long it takes.
Please review and tell me what you think, useful criticism or just compliments (insults are technically criticism) to make me feel less like some sort of closet dweller anime fan (just kidding, I don't feel like that at all, I have plenty of things I do aside from anime, mostly programming and video games... plenty... yeah, I basically never leave my computer)
