Yoitowauri No Ma No Tatakai Chapter 4: Integration
The next morning, Kirito woke up hoping this was all a dream. Unfortunately, it was as real as it got. He was greeted by the sight of new people he hasn't seen before around a dorm room. He felt tired, but scared, so he tried to move up, until a voice sent a chill down his spine.
"So you're awake, huh?"
He stopped for a moment, holding for dear life. He turned around slowly to be sort of relieved to see that it's wasn't anything monstrous, just another human.
"I knew I wasn't the only one with worry."
Kirito looked at this guy. He sat down on his bed, hunching over, looking at Kiritos face. He had hair so white it almost matched his skin. He was also emotionless, his face never changing with a blank stare. He had bruises and cuts all over him and his clothes were ripped and torn. His fingernails were also jet black.
"Uh... Hi." Kirito said softly but in fear
"So, what's your name?" The guy said, tilting his head to the right.
"My name is Kirito, what's yours?" Kirito said, a lot calmer.
"Ken Kaneki. Are you the famous gamer Kirito?" Kaneki said, turning his head back.
"What? Famous?" Kirito said, looking at him as he also sat on the edge of his bed.
"Yeah, why wouldn't you be?" Kaneki said, lifting himself up. "You beat two games that were deemed unbeatable and you've saved over 1'000 lives."
Kirito was a bit taken aback by this. Yes, he did save a lot of lives, but 1'000? Kirito felt proud of himself and relaxed. He smiled a bit and steadied himself on the bed. "Well, I'm glad I did something good."
"Good? It was amazing thing you did.' Kaneki said a little sternly leaning foward, offering a hand shake. Kirito accepted and smiled. So did the emotionless Kaneki.
"So, where are we?" Kirito said, looking around at the silver room they were in.
"From what I know, we're in a place called Kibo protecting the people of it. We're supposed to be the main heroes of this story." Kaneki said, leaning to him. "I don't know who's idea this was and when we're going back, so I think we'll just wait it out until they let us out."
"Why not just leave, we're able to, right?" Kirito questioned, obviously without any knowledge of this place.
Kaneki stood up and walked to the window and opened it, pointing to the space around them. "We'll swim a good few million light years back to Earth holding our breaths without food or water. Kibo is not our next door neighbor. From what I gathered, we're a galaxy called the Hoag's Object. It's very complex about science but I think someone here might know."
"And indeed I do." Another voice spoke at the door. The two of them turned around in shock, but were then we relieved with their sight. It was a man they saw helping them last night. He wore a white lab coat and black, polished shoes. He had black glasses and was quite small, around 5'4, but he looks at least 30 years old. He held two binders in his left arm.
"I'm sorry, I don't know you? Who are you?" Kaneki questioned, standing beside Kirito, crossing his arms.
"Oh, apologies. I forgot to introduce myself." He said, pushing up his glasses. "My name is Dr. Richard Lemings Wayne, or Ricky for short. I helped the people in the office evaluate your reports. They're all in these binders. I've come here to take two of the people in your dorm. Do you happen to know where "Yukine Sekki" and "Monobear" could be?"
They both shook their heads. Richard had a prancing around before taking two beds, one with a teddy bear, one half white, one half black and a blond, young boy.
"We need them for research. And I know you have a couple of questions on where you are or who we are." Ricky said "So, I'll answer them. You see, Kibo is a planet approximately 600 million light years away from Earth. We've been working on establishing a connection with the planet for a good few years now until me and my colleagues found not only a receiver to contact the people of Kibo on Earth, but a time controller. We've been under great threat by these dark forces so we have emigrated over 200 Billion people across different galaxies and planets, hoping to keep our life cycle going. Aproximately 1 Billion people from Kibo live on Earth. This is why we need to have a receiver set up, to send reinforcements in case of an emergency. You do know about a baby boom right? When a sudden growth of babies happens in an area. Well, it wasn't nessecarily babies that were being born, it was the addition of people from Kibo that either were families already or being newborn. Who knows? Maybe a close relative of yours may have originated from Kibo? Also, don't worry too much about time. Remember that time controller I was talking about earlier. Well, it's still in Alpha but we've managed to slow down time by every 1 month in Kibo time to equal 1 day Earth time. Pretty neat, huh? Well, we're also conducting experiments to make artificial shape-shifting weapons like Mr. Yukine here. They're called regalias and only work if a god wields one. To put it simply, they're practically ghosts gone weapons. Except, we want to minus the ghost part and make robots that do that. Just imagine, your favorite Rubix Cube becoming a Pistol whenever you need to defend yourself. From what I've gathered, your world doesn't have many medical advances, suffering small diseases to us like cancer and paralysis. We've made these advances many years ago we give free treatments because we're not struggling for gathering supplies. Anyway, I think I've got to go, your going to be tested in training to see what we need to improve later day. It's been a pleasure talking with you, Kaneki and Kirito. I hope we get to know each other. Oh, and another thing before I leave, be careful with the people who are training you today. Their split personalities but can be very dangerous. The younger one, and surprisingly the taller one, is a brass, egotistic guy but can be demotivated very easily, so be nice to him unless you want to deal with the brother. He's lazy, but can pack one hell of a punch. So, all and all, be nice to them and let them do what they do, OK? See you around."
He then dragged the trolleys containing Yukine and Monobear away. The faint noise of wheels on a floor could be heard in the distance. They both decided to rest before the day but the sound of metal clashing together could be heard. It got closer and closer before the noise could be heard outside their room. Suddenly, the door swung open.
"Gooooooood Mooooorning Specials!" A loud and proud voice proclaimed. They turned around to see who it was. It was the people they were warned about this morning. The taller one wore a bright red scarf, a white army uniform with many medals on his left breast and black boots. He had brown hair and hazel eyes. He was at least a little bit taller than Tsukiyama. Beside him to his right was his brother. He wore casual clothes, a blue hoodie and white shirt with black shorts. He had a smile on his face with his black hair and blue eyes as well. He wore white trainers and was around the height of Kirito. The taller one then began to clatter two metal pans together in music. There was suddenly a loud groan erupting in the room and the room beside theirs. The taller then began to dance around the room. Kaneki chuckled at this sight. He and Kirito stood up to be greeted with even more new faces, loads more. They each walked in pairs of 3. Kirito had met up with even more new people. One, with dark red hair and was tall and another, was a little bit shorter than him.
"So, what's your guys names?" Kirito said, looking up at them.
They both looked down at them as one looked in curiosity, one looked in awe.
"Are you Kirito? Black Swordsman? Sword Art Online defeater?" The guy with the red hair said, looking down at Kirito.
"Yes, I am." Kirito spoke, nodding his head.
"Oh god, it is you!" The guy said, turning to Kirito, getting into his personal space while not knowing he's flustered.
"Yeah, I'm famous, I know, but what's your name?" Kirito said, taking a step back.
"Oh, I'm Sora, one half of the famous MMO Players, Blank!" Sora said, broadening himself.
"Blank, huh?" Kirito wondered. "I've heard how great you were."
"Well, isn't that swell?" The other guy said looking over. Kirito and Sora looked up at him.
"What's your name?" Kirito asked, looking at him.
"Sorey. It's nice to meet you." Sorey said, smiling.
"Well, has anyone else came with yous?" Kirito asked, looking ahead.
"Yes, my sister Shiro and my Dear Stephanie, just look for a girl with blue hair and another with red." Sora spoke.
"And my friend Mikleo. He's with me." Sorey said. "Just look for a boy with light blue hair. Have you came with anyone Kirito?"
"I think Asuna, my girlfriend is here." Kirito said, trying to look to scan the crowds.
"The Asuna?! The Knight of the Blood oath leader?!" Sora spoke in astonishment. "Wow! This is a great day!"
"Yeah..." Kirito said, a little bit in worry. The rest of the way to the training room was filled with a bit of silence and small talk about hobbies and likes. They soon were lead into an blue aerobics gym where they all formed a line. Suddenly, the two people from earlier lined up at the top.
"Hello Specials! Me and my brother today will be doing some tests for you. For you information, I am Anadale! The great and tall, but younger, brother! Then there is my lazy excuse of a brother, Helvin. He's lazy and boring so he's not to fun."
"Heya." Helvin said, doing a salute signature with two of his fingers.
"So, the tests today will consist of 5 main components, strength, agility, cardio, speed and reflexes. These will determine where you will be in our team in the battle. We will begin in a couple of minutes, so ready yourselves! Good luck everybody!"
A few minutes after, the tests begun. The first one, was a dummy that calculated the force of something hitting it. They were needed to hit the dummy 10 times with full strength. The stats came very evenly but the third place went to Kirito, second was Blanc and first was Kaneki. Next up was the agility course, testing them by doing a test where they were clocked how fast they could complete an obstacle course containing cliffs to climb, gaps to jump, anything really. The results came in as Yato was third, Asuna was second and Mikasa was first. Next up was the cardio test. In this test, they had to drag two full trashbags of cement from one marked area to another. The result then came back with Tsukiyama in third, Mikasa in second and Mikleo in first. Next was the speed test a racing course while carrying a backpack of weapons on their back. Third was Kaneki, second was Asuna and first was Kirito. Last but not least was the relfexes challenge. In this one, Helvin and Anadale would throw tennis balls at people and see how many they can dodge without being hit. Sorey was third, Kirito was second and first was Kaneki. They then took a break before being called back in for the results.
"Well, the tests have came in. We do need to do some alterations to the final squad sooo... Sh... She... Shero, S... Sow... Sowah? Brother, I can't read their names! Read them, please!" Anadale exclaimed, handing the paper to Helvin.
"Ok, so Shiro, Sora, Stephanie, Naegi, Sayaka, come with me." Helvin said, leading them to another room.
"Very well, everyone else, follow me! Your training starts today with the Grand Anadale!" Anadale proclaimed, his finger wagging high over a sea of encouragement
"Agh, damn it Sora and Shiro, you left me behind!" Stephanie thought as she ran down the darkened hallway, oblivious to her surroundings. "Why now of all times that I need them! Wait until I find them!"
She kept rambling to herself, slowly making her way down the hallway. She came to a set of giant oak wooden doors. She pushed it open, hoping for the best although, she was caught off guard.
She was greeted with a poorly lit room, only the light of candles surrounding her. A single, untouched white altar also laid in front of her with multiple benches opposite of it. She was also entranced by the sound of the music playing. She slowly walked around the altar to see a man using an organ. He sported an odd, but charming purple hairstyle. He wore a purple suit with flowery patterns on it with a red shirt on him as well. She was taken aback from this sight as it seemed so out of place for such a morbid place like this. A few minutes later, the organ slowly faded out. The man then arose and said.
"Funny, I... never thought you would listen."
She kept her posture, trying to look not scared from him but she was slowly moving back however. She then finally mustered the courage to say something.
"Are you ap... apart of the Special?"
"Why, dear..." He said, flicking his head and hair behind him. "I thought you would never ask."
She seemed a little bit more relaxed, approaching him slowly, her hands close to her chest.
"So, you must be the dear Stephanie Dora I've heard about." Tsukiyama said, up righting himself.
"How... How do you..?" Stephanie questioned in disbelief, looking at him astonished
"Your good friends Sora and Shiro helped with that." Tsukiyama said, looking into her eyes. "You see, Stephanie, I already knew who you really are. I've been born with a weird but useful flaw. Almost like an animal, I have a nose for scents. So, I've gathered your scent, the sweet scent of innocence and worry. You've been through things we shouldn't know about. I can tell that. Something seems to be wrong just from your scent. What is it?"
Stephanie was now fully in shocked, she didn't know he could know this much information from a scent, but, it must be true because Sora and Shiro wouldn't say this to him, would they? She was now curious about him and decided to tell him what happened.
"Well, I was originally the heir to the throne in my kingdom of Elkia, until Sora and Shiro came along. You see, in my world, its rules are determined by games. The proposistion and opposistion must give equal based prizes to who won. I lost to an Elfian person who took over my kingdom until they arrived. They were very helpful in getting the kingdom back just we had one problem, they wouldn't give it back, and instead, ruled my kingdom. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind the position I'm in at the moment, just... it feels weird, so out of place. I'm also forced to be in love with Sora due to a pledge I have to uphold. At the moment, I don't know how to feel... At some points, he's the man of my dreams but then again, he treats me like a punching back and shows no real affection for me. I'm not sure about him, I've only known him for so long. He's... unpredictable. I want someone who I know and I get, that's the person I would like to be with."
Tsukiyama was... impressed she opened up her true feelings. He took a step back and sincerely smiled. "Well, you're a very honest person are you? Well, I've my own problems. You see, despite being born into a wealthy family, I have mental problems. I tend to have over-obsessive obsessions. I pound on something that I like and don't let it go. It tends to give me a negative outlook from other people. Its been a great burden for myself. I'm... disappointed I was born like that. Its led me into situations I'd preferably forget about. I'm not perfect. No one is built to be the perfect one. I've learned that from many people. It's easy to spot flaws of people, but, we don't criticize them, do we? Well, some people do... but, what importance do they have? If they laugh at your flaws, laugh at theirs, you're not going to die. People look down on me even though I rank above them and it's all because of a psychological problem. What goal are you trying to achieve to make fun of a problem that's unsolvable? Why do people go out of their way to poke fun at people? It's easier to smile than it is to scream, so why force yourself? My grandfather told me those words when I was younger and the reason I'm not a nervous wreck is because I follow those words. I'm happy I still follow them today."
Tsukiyama head hung low during that conversation, obviously as a symbol of doubt. The two stood there in silence, both looking away from each other. A sudden shout rang across the almost empty chapel.
"Steph! Where are you?" Sora shouted, looking around his hands around his mouth to make his shouts louder.
"Ah, Miseour Sora. She's here." Tsukiyama spoke with a proud and loud voice.
Sora and Shiro both emerged from a large wooden doors to see them both, standing on the altar beside an organ. They walked over to them and went in front of them.
"Thanks, Tsukiyama. We've probably wouldn't of found her if it wasn't for you." Sora spoke, letting out a sigh of relief.
"No problem, miseour. I'm happy to be at your acquaintance." Tsukiyama said, slightly bowing.
"Hey, Steph, tell us next time when your going to go missing." Sora jokingly said, his hands on his hips.
Stephanie pouted and crossed her arms in annoyance. Tsukiyama giggled at this jester. A few seconds later, the three of them walked out. Tsukiyama waved at them, wishing them well. The door slammed shut and Tsukiyama turned back around to the organ and sat down.
"That aroma... It's amazing. I want it!' Tsukiyama thought, clenching his hands into fists. "But... I should be careful, I don't want to give a weird vibe, or disappoint Sora."
Tsukiyama sat their for a few mintues, looking at the keys of the organ. He pondered and pondered but couldn't think of anything. What was he to do to get Stephanie in his grasp from Sora?
"Hard man at work, Jeowsh?" Jeimi jokingly said, looking up from his phone.
"Shut up, you can't say much." Jeowsh said, flicking his blonde fringe behind him carrying stacks of papers in his hand. "You're a general in this army and your doing crap all!"
Jeimi chuckled, looking back at his phone texting, spinning around in his chair. "Alright, bonehead, I'll start trying." He then spun in his chair and checked the cabinets beside his computer. He took a particular file out and searched through it.
"So... you sure this is the right guy?" Jeowsh said, leaning against Jeimi's chair. His blue eyes relfecting of the glare of Jeimi's computer.
"Yep." Jeimi said, looking through the file. "DNA and CCTV scans all link this guy to being the causes of the ship crashing."
"Really? He doesn't look even similar to a person from the dark forces." Jeowsh said, tilting his head to the side.
"That's because he isn't." Jeimi said, turning his face to face Jeowsh. Jeowsh was a bit taken a back at what he said. "Well, not neccesarily. You see, he is working for them. But, he's not a genetic warrior for them. Obviously trying to mimic what we've done with the Specials."
"Huh, Interesting." Jeowsh said, a pen and a clipboard with paper in his hands. "Alright, I need some personal information. Name?"
"Yuutaiti Fueguchi." Jeimi said sternly, reading off the list.
"Birth Date?" Jeowsh said, concentrating on his writing.
"January 29th 2009."
"Gender?"
"Male."
"Height and weight?"
"5'5, 109 Pounds."
"Medical Conditions?"
"No known ones."
"Any relations to the Specials?"
"Brother of an acquaintance of Touka Kirishima, Ken Kaneki and Tsukiyama Shuu."
"Any different race/races?"
"Ghoul. Similar to Ken Kaneki."
"Any particular traits?"
"Murderous, strong, dual-kagune, wears mask which appears to be pentagons and squares on it."
"Appearance?"
"Brown hair, red eyes, mostly wears torn apart ragedy black t-shirt and ripped jeans. The passport photos of him have been printed out. Attach them to the sheet."
Jeowsh jotted these notes very fastly, not taking his eyes of the paper once until it was finished. He then took the pictures and attached them onto the clipboard. He stored it away into his trolley he brought with him.
"Well, I think that's about everything as far as I know. Any other reports on Strawman?"
"Yeah. We've probably found out our reason he's working for the Dark Forces." Jeimi said, opening up windows of information about the person. "Turns out he's something called 'beater hungry'."
"Beater hungry? 'The hell is that?" Jeowsh questioned, turning to Jeimi sitting there.
"Well, a beater is the term given to the beta tester who abused their knowledge of the game Sword Art Online in the way of making themselves powerful. Surprisingly, he wasn't actually a beta tester, so he established a group which sent out information to the players of SAO. Unfortunately, he had better intentions to make it bad. When someone is beater hungry, he abuses the information he's learned but he's not a beta tester. He's became a sort of cult leader. His rule was if someone didn't give him useful information, they would be executed, regardless of what they did. Supposedly, he killed over 800 people in a year." Jeimi said, reciting his knowledge.
"Disgusting..." Jeowsh said, looking away to his trolley, getting ready to leave, putting folders and sheets of paper in his trolley.
"Yeah, and Jeowsh, before you leave, tell the Specials to be ready in the morning, I want to train them in the morning." Jeimi said, leaning his head backwards
Jeowsh nodded and walked out of the room. Jeimi sat their for a bit, wondering how this could've been someone from the dark forces. He pondered for a while, wondering about it.
