Chapter 5 – promises

I woke up with a sharp pain in my side; I looked up and saw Kirito glaring at me

"Did you really need to kick me?"

"…." He still had an angry face on, so I couldn't help stop myself and said

"You mad bro?"

Then he answered in the most sarcastic tone I have ever heard in my life

"What gave you that idea? Why should I be mad? I mean, I just got here after being hunting monster for more than 20 hours, and find my roommate sleeping in the floor while a girl that I don't know is using both beds. How could I possibly be mad?"

"In my defense she used low-level tactics to make me sleep in the floor….You could sleep in my new bed, is better than what it looks like"

"Just….just move…"

Now I had lost my new bed and also I had to wait until Aria wake up, isn't that just nice? She said that she was naked…. Maybe a little peek won't do any harm….NO! If you do that she will with no doubt send you to jail, also how the hell is she naked? Doesn't the system prevent you from being naked? I will have to ask her about that and many other things….

It was now 10.00 A.M; nearly 6 hours since Kirito arrived and 6 hours since I am awake, Aria woke up and looked at me, I was just getting out of the shower so I was only wearing my pants. Even if you can block the smell of the sweat, it feels pretty good to have a shower after a difficult day.

She blushed and her eyes turned down, then she looked up again and coughed out a nervous laugh. After that she asked me

"What time is it?"

"It is 10 a.m already, and my friend came back at 4 a.m so if you look down to where I slept you can see him, proving that I didn't lie when I said that I had rented the place with a friend"

"uhu…. turn around so I can put on something before getting up"

I nodded, and turned around although the thought of peeking crossed my mind more than once; I was able to control myself. God knows what she would have done.

"Now I'm going to take a shower…" she went into the bathroom and shouted from inside "Don't you dare to peep!"

I scratched the back of my head and then sighted "Don't worry; I will go buy something to eat" Why does she thinks so bad of me, I mean the idea did cross my mind, but I haven't done anything till now!

I looked down to Kirito, he was still sleeping. It's kind of amazing that he didn't wake up.

I left the house, went to the nearest shop and bought a light breakfast; during the way back I heard some guys talking about the current number of deaths in SAO. That made me thinks about my brother. What is he doing right now? How is he? Is he worried about me? Is he trying to hack into SAO right now?

Will I see him again?

I sat down in a bench for about 10 minutes, and after thinking about it I came to a conclusion. He MUST be doing his best in order to help me, so I MUST do my best as well. I MUST survive.

I got up and started to walk back to the house. I entered and heard Aria shouting, I went to the door leading to the room that we were using but before opening it...

"SHUT UP YOU PERVERT!"

"AH! hey, hey! careful!" *CRASH* "AH! that was dangerous!"

When I heard that I knew things were bad, for a moment I thought about leaving again and coming back in an hour or so but then I thought about Kirito, he would probably be dead by then and Aria would have become the first PK of SAO. That wasn't good so I took one big breath and opened the door.

Something flied and missed my head for about 2 cm. That made me froze for a second, when I regained myself I processed what I was seeing. Aria was covering herself with a towel and had her throwing nails in hand; Kirito was on the floor just in front of me. He looked at me and instantaneously got behind me.

I looked behind me and saw one of Aria´s throwing nails in the wall. So that was what nearly hit me in the head. A cold sweat went down my spine.

I said with a forcedly calm voice "A-Aria, what happened? Why is that on the wall? And why is Kirito shivering behind me?"

"THAT PERV! HE WENT IN TO THE BATHROOM WHEN I WAS GETTING OUT OF THE SHOWER!" she shouted and prepared to throw another nail.

"B-but I didn't know she was there, it is your fault Yami!" Kirito shouted from behind me

I whispered to Kirito "Hey Einstein, I'm on your side" Then I looked at Aria "Now, now let's calm ourselves and take a deep breath"

"He is right; please don't throw anything else at me…." Kirito said with a low voice, I swear he was pleading

Aria gave him a short side-glance and then said with a cold voice.

"You saw me… you own me at least 100.000 col"

"That's too much…" Said Kirito in his low voice

"You stay quiet!" She shouted to Kirito. Then she sent the nails in her hand toward Kirito. He was behind me so I had to jump to the left in order to dodge, but he didn't have time to jump so he did the most epic thing I have seen. He did the freaking matrix movement without falling.

"That was too dangerous Aria! He can't pay you and you know it! But what if I, in his place, give you some interesting information in exchange; you said that you were an information broker after all…"

"I'm hearing you…" she said coldly

"What are you going to tell her? I already explained that I didn't know she was here" Kirito whispered to me a bit nervous, he obviously feared the chance of Aria attacking again.

"Look and learn" I answered to Kirito, and then I looked Aria in the eyes "would you want to know about some beta testers? There are two in this room… would you guess who are them?" Sorry Kirito, but right now is that or keep suffering the wrath of the Aria.

At that Aria´s eyes focused on me

"You can't be a beta tester, you are too reckless… but that means that the perv"

Now her eyes were focused on Kirito, who was looking at me with a worried expression

"Now, now, his name is Kirito and if that information didn't satisfied you, I will tell you something even more amazing" now I was smiling and Aria leaned forward, she was calm now, the armageddon was stopped "you will pass the day with me"

"Oh… like a date?" Kirito chuckled after saying that, he seems to have noticed that it was safe now, but instead of thanking me he decided to tease me. Such a great guy….

Hearing that Aria blushed and coughed out a nervous laugh then she looked down and started playing with her fingers

"W-well, since you own me…I su-suppose you can take me out a-and buy me something"

"Eh? Eh! N-not like that, I mean that I have some questions to you…." She looked angry now

Never, ever say something to a woman and then take it back, the results are NO GOOD

Thanks you brother for you infinite wisdom! "B-but if you want I suppose we can go for a stroll" Her face relaxed and she blushed again, then she entered the bathroom again.

Kirito was smiling, without a doubt he was laughing his ass off at this display, then he started talking

"Since you two are in so good terms I will be taking my leave- but please Yami, could you keep *that* as a secret… lately, some people have been attacking the people like me, saying that it is our fault that so many people have died…." He frowned after saying that, it was obvious that he didn't like to be called responsible for those deaths.

"Sorry, I didn't have any other idea to calm Aria"

She came out of the bathroom; probably she heard our conversation because she said "Yeah… nearly 1400 people have died already, in only two weeks"

"How is that you know that Aria?" I asked curious

"Didn't you say it yourself? I am an information broker, things like that are basic stuff" she was obviously proud of her information.

"Then could you do me a job...? I want to know how many of those people were like us"

Kirito asked that, he was serious; probably he wanted to know if the beta testers were actually monopolizing the game or if they had died as well.

"It will cost you a lot; that kind of information isn't easy to come by. But don't worry I'm the best. You can pay me when I get the information though"

"Here... please contact me when you have the info; anyway I will be going…. Nice to meet you"

Kirito left the room. I wondered how would Aria contact him, then I realized that they registered each other as friends

"Umm- we should get going"

"Y-yeah, let's go to the starting city Yami"

We walked for an hour, during our trip to the starting city I played a little game with Aria, she would ask me something and after answering I would do the same

"is there any scythe as weapon in SAO?" I still had the hope that it existed as a weapon, after all what was more awesome than a freaking scythe

"Don't know, maybe in a few floors I can answer you that; your eyes, do you use some contact lent or dyed them?" she asked back

"Natural, is called heterochromia iridum; how the hell am I supposed to dye my eyes?"

"There is a npc in the starting city to change your hair and eye colors; Heterochromia huh? That's pretty cool; how did you meet Kirito?

"In a forest, I helped him with some mobs and we ended up making a party; what is the first floor boss?"

"Please buy Argo´s first floor boss guide book; how old are you?"

"14; the last one wasn't an answer please be serious"

"Eh? But I´m being serious, you just keep asking things about the game, that´s too boring"

"It doesn't have to be fun" I grinned "Who is Argo?"

"I´m Argo; where are we going to go for our date?"

"That's is supposed to be a surprise" Actually I don't know but she doesn't need to know that "how old are you?"

"How rude! Asking that to a girl" Aria processed to hit me in the arm

"Please, refrain yourself from hitting me" I was completely ignored

"Well-since you asked so nice, I´ll tell you…. I´m 14 too"

"That's an interesting coincidence; what´s your name?

"Aria"

"No, your real name"

"Too personal, also it is my turn! Do you have a girlfriend?"

What the heck is with that question? "No, never had the courage to ask a girl out, but I'm just 14 so I think is ok; relationships are overrated…."

"That's just an excuse"

"Then, do you have a boyfriend?"

"Don't need one"

"That's just an excuse" She ignored me again

"What about a brother do you have one? Or maybe you have a sister?"

That question made me remember about my brother again; is he worried about me? What is he doing now? Is he blaming himself? Ah…he would be angry if he knew that I'm being such a gloomy person "…."

"Ah… sorry, I shouldn't ask about that... I'm really sorry, I got carried away…" Aria´s voice was low, she was truly sorry

"It's okay…. I do have a brother, we get along pretty well- in fact he was a beta tester, but he didn't like SAO so he gave me his SAO account after the beta was over…."

"I see…"

I wanted to change the topic so I asked without thinking of the consequences "My turn; which are your 3 sizes?"

She hit me so hard that I nearly fainted, I'm sure that not even the monster from yesterday was so strong

"YOU ARE NO BETTER THAN KIRITO"

"That hurt…. let me change the question please; where can I buy a flute?"

"You play the flute?

"The transverse flute or side-blown flute, whatever you can to call it"

"Well, the third floor has many shops with musical instruments, so you may find one there"

"So I have to survive until then…." When I said that, Aria stopped walking and looked me to the eyes

"Promise me that you will survive until the end"

"Eh?" why is she all serious now?

"Promise it" She was still looking into my eyes, which made me blush a bit, I answered with the hope that she would stop looking at me

"Of course I will, I still have things to do"

"You swear to survive?"

"Y-yeah… why do you want me to survive anyway?

"You are the first true friend that I have made here, and…."

"Don't forget Kirito, he is shy and socially awkward but he is actually a good guy… but what is the other reason?"

Aria blushed a bit and looked away "that's a secret"

We kept walking for a bit in silence but then I remembered something that I wanted to ask since yesterday.

"hey... last night you told me that you were naked in the bed" For what I knew, the only moment you could be naked was when taking a shower

"Y-yeah... what about it!" she shouted while blushing a bit

"I was wondering, how did you do it. From what I know that is impossible unless you are taking a shower"

"Ah... well, in then sys-its a secret!" She shouted again

"bu-"

"shut up! lets just keep going!"

When we arrived to the starting city, we went to some shops; Aria made me bought her many things and I probably used all the money that I had got from the chests of yesterday, yet I didn't care; it had been a long time since I enjoyed my free time.

When I was with Kirito it was either kill monsters, hearing npc stories to get a quest or traveling from place to place; so my date with Aria was refreshing, when the sun fall down I kept her company till she found a place and rented it.

"I suppose this is good bye…."

"Yes, I certainly had a good time so I suppose I will let you and Kirito out of the hook this time"

"ahahah, thanks you…."

"…."

"Aria… can I add you to my friend´s list? Not as a customer to your job… but as a friend" I scratched the back of my head while I said that, I was really nervous, it was like asking for her phone number

"…idiot, I thought you would never ask! You certainly don't have guts when talking to a girl" a huge smile appeared in her face and then she accepted my #friend request#

"Well then, see you soon-if you ever need something or have another interesting quest don't doubt in calling me! After all I have a lot of free time…"

That was true, Kirito was really harsh when leveling- I already was level 7 and the strongest monster in the first floor was level 6, so right now I got nearly no experience from the monsters and without Kirito to make me train, I had a lot of free time.

"Sure!"

"Well then…bye"

"Bye"

I walked over to the inn, and rented a room-normally I would have searched for a better place but right now I was tired, VERY TIRED….