Shield And Swords

Chapter 6—Different Glasses

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Original Title: Sword Art Online(ソードアート・オンライン)

Original Concept by: Kawahara Reki

written by: wrathie

Author's Notes: Here we go, one of the last... frenzied updates for the week.

I won't be able to keep up with this pace after this for a while at least.

Thank you, bowpurity for the beta as always!

..

On top of the Ant Queen, Sachi continued with what she had been doing before, stabbing into the unprotected head of the Ant Queen even as it tried to shake her off.

Sachi felt a little pity for the monsters, she had been told that it was okay to slay them as they regenerated themselves anyway, and as they were programmed monsters generated by SAO itself, it meant that even if they might be 'alive', they weren't quite alive like how they were.

But Sachi begged to differ, her experience with the wolf mobs as well as within the [Ant Hill] itself had made her question that. She had feared them for they had been programmed to attack them, but that wasn't true as well. It was true that some monsters did attack them when players were detected, but it could also be interpretative that they attacked because the players were intruding into their territory after all.

The passive monsters only attacked them because the players aggravated them after all. It was an absurd line of thought, especially for a player who had to kill to survive, but at the same time, it was also understandable from Sachi's point of view.

She was afraid of dying and had abandoned that fear of dying when she got used to the fear that she felt when she was facing her enemies. It was absurd, and it was also reality. While one could correlate pain with death, this was replaced with the thought and the fear that they would die because their HP bar, a figure that was calculated by the system, reached zero.

Was it real fear, or was it an irrational one? Sachi discovered that to her, it was real, the fear of dying was real however... it didn't quite match up to how she felt in battle itself. She might fear dying, but when in combat, she simply did not feel that she was 'dying' so to speak when she was being attacked. She knew instinctively that if she maintained her HP levels in a high enough level, and to keep it within the safety zone, she would never die, and that was why her fear of dying in battle, in SAO seemed irrational to her.

People still died, just like how the [Black Cats of the Full Moon] died, they died because they were overwhelmed by the monsters who were able to reduce their HP bars to zero. But what was the cause of their death? Was it because of the monsters? Were the monsters at fault for attacking them? Or was it simply because the system decreed that they would die in that scenario?

That... didn't make sense to Sachi after she went through those long hours of combat. It was wrong, because perhaps, in a way, they died because they lost to the irrational fear of dying through those numbers.

Their lives were tied to the numbers, and just like how Sachi had heard Kirito talk about how in a levelling game, the unfairness between higher-levelled players and their lower-levelled counter parts was simply numbers.

They were ruled by numbers, by how the system calculated the damage, how they took and delivered damage. This... was not death to Sachi.

The more Sachi fought, the more she experienced, and experimented, the more she was convinced of it. The [Black Cats of the Full Moon] died because they lost to the numbers of the system, the game, and was bound by their rules. It was irrational, it wasn't right, they should not fear the numbers that the system tried to dictate them to follow. Sword Art Online was a game with almost unlimited number of Sword Skills, and unlimited ways to use them. They had become accustomed to battling within the rules of what had been impressed on them just like how the monsters were.

It was... hard to wrap her mind around that concept... but it should have been easy, it should have been the first thing that one realized in this world.

This was supposed to be a game. It didn't hurt when she tripped, it didn't hurt when she accidentally held a sword in the wrong fashion, there was no pain, and even if there was food, and the need to relieve themselves... were they really, living, or were they really dying?

They were dying in a game that translated that death to reality. Sachi wasn't fighting monsters, real monsters would do their best to attack them at all cost, even if it might be trampling over others, even if they might hurt themselves in the process.

As this was a game, the system would want a balance fight, it would want to give the players a chance, if they were properly prepared and didn't go over their heads. The system was fair, and it helped them with their sword skills, it helped them when she followed the system, when everyone does.

Even the monsters too, they were like them, the players, they were fighting for their lives, and they followed the same example.

When the monsters died, they 'died', disintegrated into polygons just like how the players would when they 'died'.

Perhaps it wasn't wrong to call this a game, it was more serious than that for people would actually die in game.

Sachi was not knowledgeable in games, she rarely played them... and it was that lack of experience that made her want to simply shake her head in sadness.

Her fear was irrational after all, they weren't really fighting for their lives of their own accord. They were fighting for their lives with a system specifically designed to help them win, as well as to die.

..

Sachi couldn't relate to it, perhaps that's why she was afraid of it in the first place? How damage was calculated, how her actions would affect Sword Skills, how her stats would actually make her almost unkillable despite the Monsters obviously dealing her harm. It should hurt, it should have made her cry and quaver in fear when they attacked, but when Sachi looked at all of it from her point of view, from her understanding of the situation after fighting mindless for an entire night.

This... just made her sad, and tired. So she tried something different, she would fight like she was really fighting monsters.

So she fought as if every hit could result in her death. She could fail, she could make mistakes, but if she did, she told herself that it would hurt, that it would be painful, for it would only make her try harder to avoid that mistake. It was hard, and it might be silly, but it was something that she felt was better than the alternative.

Sachi, didn't want to lose to the system, to the irrational fear that she once had of the system. She couldn't move then, because she knew she would die when faced with so many monsters, and after learning about how they could be like them, how they reacted just like they would in their situation, to kill or be killed, Sachi found her friends death to be meaningless... as well as horrifying.

They hadn't lost to the monsters, they had lost to the system, and the monster.

Sachi, didn't want to lose to that, to that irrational and yet rational, predictable thing that had ruled her life in SAO without her realizing it. For it would be like if she died without meaning, without any reason whatsoever, on rules that was set for her.

She didn't want that, and so she continued stabbing on the unprotected head of the Ant Queen, forcing the system to recognize that even though unorthodox, even if it might never be accomplished before, she was indeed killing the monster in such a fashion. Sachi was sure that the designers of SAO would have imagine that this encounter would happen differently, where an entire party of players would surround the Ant Queen while dispatching the Ant horde, and subsequently cut it down even while the Ant Queen struggled to summon more of those Ants to defend her.

Instead, Sachi was slowly stabbing it to death in a critical weak point that she had created herself on top of the Ant Queen. As long as she continued holding on to it's antenna, the system would allow her to be shaken off that easily, and she could go on for as long as she wanted to. With, or without Sword Skills, Sachi would kill this Ant Queen in due time due to the system making it possible.

The other Ant monsters would not be able to attack her, or to even try to climb aboard to help their queen as it was thrashing about too wildly in it's struggle to dislodge her. It was like discovering a safe spot in the middle of a firing fight. There was no way for the Ant Queen to escape it's fate of being stabbed to death by Sachi, and perhaps the system acknowledged that as well for eventually, after it seemed like a lifetime, the Ant Queen finally had enough and slammed it's body down onto the ground, squashing a large number of the Ant horde that was supposed to defend her as well.

Sachi felt no pity, for even if they were might have similarities with the players, they were absolute prisoners of the system, the system that had cruelly enslaved them without them even realizing it.

..

'…'

Even as Sachi jumped from the Ant Queen's head as the Soldier Ants tried to swarm her again, she spotted her abandoned shield lying on the ground and she leapt for it, jumping from one ant to another before grabbing hold of it even as the Ant Queen reared it's head up to attack Sachi again. This time, the Ant Queen threw caution to the wind as she simply slammed her entire body down on her, and the mobbing Ant Monsters without hesitation even as Sachi scrambled to equip her shield properly to meet it's attack.

The system was learning from it's mistakes, but Sachi had been waiting for this moment. Or perhaps, it was just as she expected for she simply knelt down while raising both her shield and short sword above her protectively.

The Ant Queen, in it's rage, simply impaled itself on Sachi's short sword, dealing it a fatal wound with help from it's own momentum and weight despite having more than two HP bars remaining. The short sword was also lost as a result, the durability of the weapon finally decreasing to zero even as the Ant Queen disintegrated into polygons around her. Sachi on the other hand, remained damaged slightly due to her overall better stats, having a shield guarding against the attack and to top it off, having gotten rid of most of the other Ants due to them being collateral damage. The icing on the cake was that she even received the Last Attack Bonus from the Ant Queen.

Even as she raised her shield in front of her to guard herself while trying to equip a new short sword, Sachi took a quick note to see that her HP bar had just barely went into the Red zone despite taking on a field boss. Such... was the way of the system, the numbers that made it so unfair. Sachi started hating Kayaba Akihiko even more than before upon that realization.

That it was true, everything about this was meaningless... especially if the system couldn't even tell it was being tricked like this.

..

Besides the clicking and hissing sounds of the Ants still trying to attack them futilely, Klein and the [Fuurinkazan] was speechless at what they had witnessed in front of them. They couldn't believe it, no, they didn't want to believe that the frail looking girl, who had looked like she was going to faint herself was able to take down a Field Boss by herself like she had promised to do.

It had been disturbing and terrifying to see her attacking the Ant Queen on top of it's head, and although it was effective, they simply did not believe that Sachi would be able to deal enough damage to destroy it that easily and they would have to stand in.

Instead, they were greeted with how that girl had cleanly killed it and claimed victory even as the now leaderless ants scuttled about mindlessly. The battle was over, the [Ant Hill] was cleared by Sachi, just like how she said she would.

'That... what the hell WAS that?!'

Dynamm finally managed to scream even as all of them blinked back to life from the outrageous scene they had just witnessed. Sachi, for her part, snapped out of it as well and looked strangely sheepish and resigned before a Soldier Ant advanced towards her, apparently not scuttling around like the rest of it's fellow Ants before Sachi noticed the stab wounds on it's face. It was the Soldier Ant that she had been attacking at the start of the battle with the Ant Queen.

Wordlessly, she raised her shield up and charged forward, intending to repeat the same actions that had allowed her to kill so many of it's kind. Only this time, as Sachi slammed her shield into the Ant, the shield shattered, it's durability reaching it's limits as well even as Sachi's eyes open wide in shock before the Ant's jaws closed in around her in the next instant, trapping her even as the Ant squeezed her within it's jaws, chipping away at Sachi's health.

Before Klein could do anything further, there was a flash of black that covered his vision for a moment that darted towards Sachi with inhuman speed. The Soldier Ant was defeated, killed before anyone could react and in front of Sachi, was the person she had been waiting for, the Black Swordsman, Kirito, looking extremely relieved and more than a little sheepish when Sachi just stared up at him in shock and in disbelief.

'…'

She mumbled something to Kirito even as a blush spread across her face at being hugged by Kirito all of a sudden. Klein on the other hand, wanted to kill something in both frustration and relief as he sat down in a hurry, cursing his own soft-heart even as he wondered how this request had cost him.

In the end, the guild [Fuurinkazan] hadn't made a loss due to the sheer number of gold that the Ants had dropped, and besides, they were able to witness the first legend of a girl that refused to yield to the system. Even if he had to endure ribbing from his members that he had yet another girl stolen in front of him.

..

'Welcome back, Kii-bou, Sachi-chan.'

Argo smiled in relief even as she gave teasing grins towards the members of [Fuurinkazan], who waved their hands tiredly back at Argo. She didn't know what had happened in Sachi's little adventure, but she knew that she was more than capable of getting the information from Sachi as well later on.

Now was the time for her to pay Klein back for taking the request from her after all.

'We're back, Argo...'

Kirito gave her a small smile even as Sachi nodded back, her eyes closing a few times in her tiredness even as Klein gave a long and exasperated sigh back in greeting.

'So we finished the request that you asked us for... how about our reward eh?'

'Of course, Argo the Rat always keeps her word. I've prepared some food for everyone in the Guild House. Don't worry, I asked a favor from a very good chef with A-class ingredients. Enjoy yourselves now.'

Argo knew she was going to feel the pain from this treat, but since everyone came back fine, it was worth it. Especially since there was only one A-Class Food ingredient on the table, but no one needed to know that, and technically she was saying the truth.

'Heh, glad to be of help. We got some stuff that you might be interested in too, but I guess a done deal is a done deal. Let's go in guys.'

Klein hung one arm over Kirito's shoulders before dragging the boy into the house, followed by the rest of the [Fuurinkazan]. The two girls that were left behind looked at each other briefly before Sachi bowed to Argo again, her eyes showing both relief as well as thanks for the help that she had rendered Kirito and her over the past two days.

'Thank you, Argo-san...'

'… Well, we're guild members aren't we, Sachi-chan? Well, let's get you cleaned up... and then we can join the other guys.'

Argo gave a long suffering sigh even as she pulled the tired Sachi with her upstairs to wash up.

..

Soaking in the bathtub together, the two girls were noticeably quiet, and even the normally mischievous Argo was unsure how to properly interact with the shy girl. Or perhaps ex-shy girl, for she carried herself different now. She was probably too tired to really be herself right now, and perhaps it was best to leave her alone till she settled her own thoughts.

Then again, it was also a very big stretch to have a 'celebration', seeing how her guild mates had all died and all. But there was no helping it, lives does go on... and if one allowed a small set-back to hamper their way forward, they would never be able to come out of this nightmare.

This was Argo's own philosophy and perhaps she had drawn or Sachi had been inspired by it, for it suited what Sachi had done. Kirito had perhaps recovered or hadn't been as affected as Sachi had feared, but it could have been a close thing. But the fact remained, Kirito was taking everything much better than the worse case scenario that Sachi had feared, he hadn't broken down, and he was still moving forward.

That was good, for that meant that Kirito was just as strong as the two of them had thought he to be. Perhaps the only sad thing about this entire two days, besides the death of the [Cats of the Full Moon], was how Sachi had lost her innocence.

She had seen people die, she had been forced to face her fears and had taken it to herself to change herself, to be strong, and who knows to what extent Sachi had done to do just that. What had Sachi thought, what she had agonized about, what she had gone through in order to overcome those fears and whether she was successful did not matter.

For she has taken the first step, and she was no longer the sheltered person that she was before. Over the course of perhaps 24 hours, the old Sachi was dead, replaced by the new one in front of her.

Argo's worries was whether Sachi herself accepted it, whether she could identify herself with it, and whether she could live with it, knowing that she had to make that decision, and whether that decision was the right one.

Only Sachi could decide that for herself, and that was why Argo jumped a little when Sachi spoke up.

'Argo-san...'

'Yes, Sachi-chan? But we're guild mates now, and you're the Guild leader, so call me Argo! Like how I would call you Sachi-chan~ That okay?'

Argo grinned mischievously, and she gave a smile to Sachi when she looked up from her own reflection in the water to look at Argo directly.

'Argo... -san... could you... tell me more about Sword Art Online? More... about Aincrad. I... I want to know more, about how... everything works.'

'Eh.. That's fine, but shouldn't you know all about it? You've lived in here for quite a while though.'

Argo's confusion was deepened when Sachi shook her head as she sat up even straighter, and the sight of more of Sachi's petite body being shown to her was enough to cause Argo to blink in embarrassment as well as jealousy. Sachi wasn't the most endowed or was one with the best figure, but she had quite a decent one, with curves at the right places, protrusions in the right areas that wasn't too small or too vulgar. Skin being flawless was a side effect of the game being made this way, so that didn't count. But there was no mistaking that Sachi was quite an attractive girl and Argo found herself staring before frowning at Sachi.

'You don't understand? We're in Aincrad... and if I don't know what you are referring to, I can't tell you anything.'

Argo sighed, but then she choked when Sachi repeated her request.

'I want to know everything, the legends, the stories, the monsters, the levels, the rumours... everything.'

'T-That's going to cost yo-! I mean, I mean, really? Everything? Isn't there something specific that you want to know?'

Argo spluttered even as she reacted instinctively to a request for information. The deal she made with Sachi to join the guild was looking like a very regrettable deal. Even if Sachi had brought back a considerable amount of gold due to her time in the [Ant Hill], more than enough to cover her expenses for the Chef that had prepared the food for them, it was looking like a very horrible deal all over again.

'Then... I want to know more about the mechanics, how things worked... How we fight, what the monsters are, what they do, everything you have, Argo.'

Sachi replied slowly and purposefully even as Argo continued to stare at her.

'Why? Why would you want to know that, Sachi-chan?'

'Because I want to be sure... I want to be sure, that this is a game.'

'What are you talking about, this isn't a game, Sachi-chan! Your friends the-'

Argo stopped before she stepped on a landmine, but Sachi's response made her eyes widen again as Sachi shook her head.

'No, this is a game. My friends, they died because of a game. I need to know, Argo-san... please... help me.'

..

'So, what do you think about what your girlfriend did, Kirito?'

Klein sounded like he was joking, but his expression was dead serious as he leaned back on one of the couch in the guildhouse. His fellow guild members, those who had seen what Sachi had achieved as well was capable of nodded their heads in agreement to Klein's words.

That girl was either crazy, or was simply paying no heed to her life by doing those actions. Sure, she had gotten out of this alive, but it was simply because they were much higher level than the Ant Queen and the other monsters of the [Ant Hill].

Kirito, for his part, looked confused before he looked troubled while running a hand through his hair. He had arrived at where the members of the [Fuurinkazan] had been blocking and guarding the choke-point in record time after simply running past most of the monsters who tried to attack her.

He had been in time to see Sachi's last attack, an improvised but very effective attack that had sheared off the boss's two HP bar easily. Although a part of him wanted to applaud Sachi's methods in defeating the Field Boss like that, he had been more than confused and disturbed by the change in Sachi's behaviour after only one day.

Kirito was still feeling the effects of what had happened yesterday, and had taken all of it very hard. Keita's death especially so, since he had taken his life in front of him. Kirito had been allowed to grieve on his own last night, and it had helped him to settle his emotions down. Sachi on the other hand, hadn't, as far as he could tell, Sachi had just went off by herself to train. Argo told him that Sachi did that to help him, because she didn't want to be a burden any further. Kirito didn't want anything to happen to Sachi, and he admitted that his grief and sadness had been swept aside the moment he learnt that Sachi was perhaps in danger. That had taken his first priority, and not for the first time, he wondered that his feelings for Sachi was simply greater than what he wanted to admit.

For it was those feelings that had allowed him to save Sachi, perhaps at the cost of their friend's lives. It was silly, and perhaps wishful thinking to think that he could have done more in that situation. But the moment the alarm trap was rang, Kirito knew it was helpless and he had instinctively covered Sachi. Perhaps that wasn't true. Perhaps when he had sensed danger, he had wanted to protect Sachi instinctively, hence saving her life.

His guilt came from hiding his truth from them, hence indirectly resulting in the loss of their lives when they took a huge risk to farm in a more dangerous area then they were prepared or ready for. There was no safety zone for the lower levelled members of the [Black Cats of the Full Moon] unlike him, who was more than ready to face the dungeon, even alone by himself.

But the Sachi he remembered was not the Sachi that he had seen face the Ant Queen by herself, almost mechanically as she set-up the final killing blow for the field boss without any hesitation. It... reminded him of how he was like before, when he was a solo player after being criticized for not helping out as much as she could during the Boss Battle at the 25th floor. How the people had commented him on being able to kill the humanoid monsters too easily, and wondered whether he would be able to cut down a player just as easily as well.

Monsters and players, they were different after all, and Kirito could never kill a player that easily. But Kirito finally understood what those players meant when they whispered to each other. Sachi, she looked like she would be more than capable to kill a player with that steely look in her eyes.

..

'… I don't know, Klein...'

Kirito finally admitted, causing his friend to elbow him playfully in reflex.

'So not even saying that she isn't your girlfriend eh? You player you. But at least with you out of the market, I might have a chance now.'

'Oi, you're admitting that you don't have a chance now, Klein?'

Even as Klein spluttered and swore at his guild mates, who was laughing at his expense, Kirito could only blush while shaking his head.

'… I don't know what she feels about me.'

'Oi oi, she obviously got the hots for you.'

Dynamm grinned even as he commented crudely, Harry One plunging yet another knife into Klein even as he said that she wasn't the only one.

'That aside, Kirito... was she always like that? She wasn't like that before, right?'

As Klein shook off the jabs at his own attractiveness, he turned serious again as Kirito shook his head.

'No, she's... she was never good as a forward. Even if we had trained a little, and she was getting better... She never went out alone... and would never engage the monsters first.'

Kirito admitted even as Dynamm shook his head while telling him about what Sachi had been doing as the temporary forward for their team.

'She... stabbed them man! As in really stabbed! She didn't even use Sword Skills half the time, she just... stabbed it. And stabbed it again, she just kept stabbing it like it was overcooked MEAT! It was... It was scary man!'

Dynamm shuddered while Kirito simply looked confused and Klein took the boy out of his misery by saying that Sachi was a very scary individual to them.

'She... Sorry man, I just have one thing to say. Sachi... she scares the hell out of us man.'

Klein wasn't going to tell Kirito that he thought her girlfriend was mad or crazy, he knew what discretion was. Besides, Klein didn't want Sachi after him, even if she was definitely cute girl. But it was also unmistakable that none of them wanted to face her in a duel. Sachi would no doubt be a great asset to any party, what with her being more than capable to hold a mob's attention, but how she despatched of her foes was... for lack of a better word, disturbing.

'Sachi... does?'

Kirito looked genuinely confused even as Klein and the rest sighed before he patted his shoulders.

'For once, I'm glad I'm not in your shoes man!'

Klein chuckled at the clueless expression on his head, both relieved and happy that his friend was at least his usual dense self as always.

Author's Notes: The next chapter should be the end of the first arc, now it's time to make things interesting. So, if you'll give me comments on this arc in general, I'll be very glad.

And once again, the story that I prefer to write about isn't as popular as the other one, which I'm kinda, well, not regretting, but lost some drive for. But I'll keep on chugging, so let's start the reviews flowing, shall we? Aha~