A/N: I truly am sorry to be saying good-bye for these next few weeks. You guys are a blast to talk to, and I love hearing your thoughts on my work. I'm really going to miss that. But, before I go, here's the parting gift I promised you. Enjoy, and I'll see you in three weeks!
Into the Unknown
They touched down on the Valmese beach some miles away from the actual docks. The Shepherds' vessel was the only one to actually get to the beach, since they didn't want the rest of the army to put themselves at risk until the port was secured. Cordelia was doing a flyover, so in the meantime, Kazuto was sharpening his swords while he talked to Asuna.
"So what do you think the others are up to by now?" Kazuto asked his wife as he run a whetstone down the length of his blade. "Do you think they're worried about us?"
"Probably," Asuna nodded. "I wish there was at least a way for us to send a message to them somehow. I feel bad that we didn't tell them anything about your tech and attempt to bring Yui home to us."
"Me too," Kazuto sighed. "I know we'll get back someday, and there's always the saying 'Better to ask forgiveness than permission'. I think that they'll understand once we're able to explain everything in person."
"I hope so," Asuna replied. "I know Lizbeth is going to be pretty mad at us both."
"What?" Kazuto asked, pausing in his task. "Why would she be mad at me? I mean, you're her best friend, so wouldn't she end up venting at you?"
Asuna had to hide a smile at her husband's naïve question. Even after all this time, he still hadn't caught on to the fact that Lizbeth was still fixated on him, despite his real-world relationship with Asuna, and their in-game marriage. Even though she never openly pursued him, she had tried dropping subtle hints here and there, hoping to gain his attention. Of course, being the adorable dork that he was, Kazuto/Kirito was oblivious to these attempts.
And she trusted him. He had told her- in a rather embarrassed tone- about how he and Sinon had been in the same changing room and his subsequent reaction to when she took off her clothing. He had said that he wanted to be completely honest with her in regards to his interactions with Sinon, no matter how uncomfortable it got for him. At first she had been tempted to disbelieve him, but when the blue-haired sniper corroborated his story in a separate environment without Kirito's knowledge, she put aside her distrust and never doubted him again.
"You're probably right, but you know how Liz can be," Asuna finally replied to her husband's question. "She just gets mad over the smallest things sometimes."
"True," Kazuto said as he swung his sword back and forth a couple of time before sliding back in its sheath. "But I still miss all of them, you know?"
"Yeah," she sighed. "I like most of the people here, but there's nothing like having your old friends around you."
"Still… I have to wonder how Sugu's holding out," Kazuto wondered aloud as he stared at the blue sky. "I hope she doesn't get too worried." Asuna went to reply, but just then Cordelia swooped down to accidently interrupt them and report to Chrom.
"There's definitely a commotion over there," she said as soon as the two Aincrad survivors moved to join the conversation. "The Valmese are running down someone down: a woman, I think. She seemed to be hiding from them when I left, but it was hard to tell from the distance I was at."
"Well, Robin?" Chrom asked. "Kirito? What's our plan for today?" Robin gestured for Kazuto to take the lead, so all eyes swung to him. He fidgeted for a second, uncomfortable with being in the spotlight, but he managed to recover.
"Our first priority should be to save the woman," he said. "If she's an enemy of Valm, she could be an ally for us. But we need to draw off the other guards so that they all don't end up pinning her down at once. So we'll need two teams to pull this off.
"The first one will be a team consisting of Sumia, Cordelia, Asuna and myself, riding double. The second team should be led by Robin and Chrom against the bulk of their forces. But take care that none of the civilians get hurt."
"Agreed," Chrom nodded. "Your assistant has a good head on his shoulders," he said to Robin before moving to relay the orders to the rest of the Shepherds who were either idly chatting or maintaining their equipment.
Kirito held on tightly to Sumia as she banked a hard right to avoid an arrow coming from the rooftop. There were two archers, and Kirito knew that they needed to be taken out if the pegasi were to land safely. As Sumia leveled out, Kirito loosened his grip and said, "Sorry about that, Sumia! I hope Chrom doesn't mind me holding on like that!"
Sumia laughed a bit and called back, "As long as it's just to keep from falling off and you don't grab any higher, I think you're safe!" Heat flooding his face, Kirito shifted his grip to be lower on the queen's abdomen, earning him another laugh from her.
Turning to face Asuna and Cordelia, he shouted to be heard above the rushing wind. "Asuna! Get us an Arcfire spell going at those guys!"
"You got it!" she called back, pulling out a red tome. Glyphs whirled around her for a moment before she unleashed a flamethrower-looking spell at the archers, setting fire to the roof and forcing them to leap off the building. They were injured in the fall, and this was a good window for the four riders to dive down.
As they descended, Kirito drew his Elucidator in preparation to use it upon landing. He sensed, rather than saw, his wife doing the same thing with her rapier. They landed not too far from a pair of soldiers who had a woman backed against a corner. The two turned to face the new intruders, wielding heavy war spears.
Kirito and Asuna rushed forward at top speed, their swords glowing, Asuna's bright green, and Kirito's blue. The two soldiers swung and stabbed at the young adults, but they were ready as always.
Asuna wove her way past the man that stabbed at her and hit the weak spots in his armor with incredible speed, her Astra skill granting her such an ability. Kirito countered the blow with his Luna skill before spinning his body all the way around to strike at the surprised soldier's exposed neck.
"My, but that was incredible!" the woman they had saved exclaimed. "Many thanks to you both! Pray tell, are you with the Ylissean League?"
"Yeah," Kirito nodded. He indicated Sumia and Cordelia as they flew above, countering a trio of wyvern riders that had attempted to attack the two sword-users when they charged in to save the woman that they were now speaking to.
"The one on the white pegasus is actually Sumia-dono, Queen of Ylisse," Asuna added. She would have added more, but one of the riders made it past Cordelia's defenses and smashed his steed into hers. Wyverns were far sturdier than pegasi, so Cordelia's mount went down, fast and hard.
"Cordelia!" Asuna cried as her friend tried to rein in her wounded steed at the same time trying to fend off the rider that was now pursuing her with single-minded determination.
Just when it seemed that Cordelia was within the range of his axe, an arrow shot into the fray, hitting the enemy rider with incredible precision, right in the center of his forehead. Kirito and Asuna gaped at the sight- not even Virion was capable of such a shot, unless he was lucky. But he was stationed over with Chrom, so who had made that shot?
The answer came in a shocking-yet-welcome manner. A young woman stood on the roof next to them- the one that hadn't been set on fire- with a familiar smirk while she held another arrow already in place. Although it wasn't her usual light blue hair, Kirito would have recognized his old Bullet of Bullets partner, Sinon, anywhere.
"Asada!" Asuna cried, waving her hand excitedly. "It's so good to see you!"
"Yeah, well I wish we could have had the reunion under better circumstances, but I'll take what I can get," Shino called down as she shrugged. "How're you guys doing?"
"A little busy, but not much has changed," Kirito replied. "How about you?"
"Um…" Sumia's voice came from further down the alley. The all turned to see her tending to Cordelia's black pegasus with a staff. "Can we leave the reunion for later? We need to go rejoin the others."
"True," Kirito said, shaking his head. Looking up, he said, "Sinon? Can you shoot the people in red armor while we engage them on the ground here?"
"Sure, but you guys owe me an explanation when this is over," she said as she turned to draw another arrow.
"So do you," Kirito muttered under his breath. How in the world had Sinon come to this world? He turned back to the woman that they had rescued and said, "Sorry about that. Can you fight, ma'am?"
"Aye," she nodded. "But I lack a sword to do so. I lost it to these Valmese dogs."
"Here," Kirito said as he unsheathed his Dark Repulsor. "Take this one."
"'Tis a heavy blade, but I shall make do," the woman said. "I am Say'ri. I will be sure to thank you both properly when this encounter is over."
"Sure," Kirito nodded. "Let's give these jerks what they deserve!"
The battle didn't last for that long, and the only major worry was when Gaius was hit by a lance in the ribs. However, it was clear that he would be fine when Libra started using his staff on him. He immediately began complaining about how his candy was ruined by all the blood. Things were only made worse by Henry, who offered to eat the candy if Gaius didn't want to have it anymore.
Shino met up with Asuna and Kazuto after the battle was over and the dock was secured by the Ylissean Fleet. "So what are we all doing here?" she demanded.
"Well…" Kazuto said, sweating lightly. "I kinda tried to pull Yui out of ALO, and ended up sorta blasting us into another dimension or something like that… But how did you get here?"
"Well, you've been missing for a few hours, so the rest of the gang and I went to check out your room to see if you'd left any clues as to where you'd gone. It was actually kind of funny- Rika and Keiko thought that you both had run off to elope. Anyways, Andrew saw the mess and stuff, and he tried to turn on your computer. Next thing I know, there's this giant flash of light, and then I wake up just outside this town."
"How long ago did you get here?" Kazuto wondered aloud. Something sounded off to him about the story, but he couldn't quite place it.
"Just yesterday," Shino replied. "But tell me, what's the whole situation with the two armies going at it?" in response, Kazuto and Asuna told their friend everything that had happened in the past few weeks, starting from when they all woke up to their arrival in Valm.
"Wow…" Shino muttered. "Kids arriving from the future? I'd have a hard time believing it, but with everything that just happened, it doesn't seem that far-fetched."
"That's what we thought, too," Asuna agreed.
"Hey, Shino," Kazuto said with a slight frown. "Do you know what happened to everyone else?"
The archer shook her head. "I have no idea," she said. "But my best guess is that they ended up somewhere in this world, too. If so, I hope we can find them before they get into any kind of trouble."
Kazuto chuckled at that. "Knowing them, I'd say the chances of them staying out of trouble is pretty low."
"True," Asuna agreed.
"So, you said that you managed to pull Yui out?" Shino asked. Like all the other ALO players in their party, she found Yui to be an adorable and charming little girl. "Is she okay?"
"She's better than okay," Kazuto grinned. "Our little pride and joy is actually one of our best spell casters after only a few weeks of practicing magic, and she's a real whiz at healing, too. We're very proud of her."
"Excuse me?" a new voice interrupted. They all turned to see Robin approaching them with warm smile. "Kirito, Asuna? Are you acquainted with this lady?"
"Yeah," Kazuto nodded. "Shino is actually from our world. But like me, she usually goes by a different name when she's on an adventure: Sinon."
"Welcome to the Ylissean League," Robin said with a small bow. "Any friend of Kirito's is a friend of the Shepherds, and a friend of mine."
"Um… Thanks?" Shino said, turning to the others with a look that said, Who is this guy?"
"Sinon, this is Robin, the Grandmaster tactician of the militia that we've joined since we came here. We told you a little bit about him, remember?"
"Oh, yeah," she said with a slight smirk. "This is the guy that set the ocean on fire, huh?"
"I am, though I am not necessarily proud of what I did," Robin nodded. "But tell me, Sinon. Are you interested in joining the Shepherds? I saw your work with a bow, and we would love to have you in our militia."
"Seems like you have a pretty big militia," she replied, using her head to indicate the legion of ships at their command. "More like an army."
"That is the army," Robin replied patiently. "The people you saw fighting in the market today, though? They're the Shepherds, Ylisse's finest. A strange group, mind you, but each one considers the other to be part of a large family."
"A family, huh?" Shino said to herself.
"Sorry, did you say something?" Robin asked.
"It's nothing," Shino replied. "But if Asuna and Kirito are here, I think that this is probably the best place for me to be, at least for now. I'll join you."
"Welcome to the Shepherds," Robin said as he extended his hand. After a moment of awkward silence and an encouraging nod from Kazuto, she tentatively reached out and shook the offered hand.
"Welcome to the unknown," the Black Swordsman added.
"So now out task of search and rescue is twofold," Robin said as he wrote down some notes in his personal notebook. "First the paradox-children, and now your friends from Aincrad."
"Yeah," Kazuto nodded. "I can try and get Libra and Tharja to get their images from my mind and get you a drawing of each person that probably came through."
"Sounds good to me," Robin said. He noticed Kazuto smiling to himself as he said that. Seeing it, Robin put down his book carefully and said, "Kirito? You do know that our mission to defeat the Conqueror still has to come first. We can't abandon our quest at the first sign that one of your friends might be here or there."
"I know, but can't I wish for things to work out?" Kazuto sighed.
Robin shook his head and said, "I didn't mean to cause offense, Kirito. I just had a similar conversation with Lucina a few days ago when it sounded like one of her friends might be in the area. She was unhappy, but I was able to eventually talk her out of charging off on her own, which could lead to trouble."
"I appreciate the concern, Robin," Kirito replied. "But maybe we should focus more on the next stage of our assault against the empire?"
"Right!" Robin said as he turned to pull out another map from the shelf that held a number of scrolls. "According to Say'ri, our next target will be a place called the Mila tree, where we need to rescue a manakete named Lady Tiki."
"What's so special about her?" Kazuto wondered.
"She's the daughter of Naga, so if she possesses even a fraction of her mother's power…" Robin waited for Kazuto to finish the sentence.
"She could be a valuable ally," Kazuto nodded. "So why not just send a few men to go get her at double time with light supplies while the rest of the Shepherds and the League push on ahead to the capital?"
"Big problem with that," Robin said with a shake of his head. "If Say'ri's intelligence is correct, the Voice- Lady Tiki- is being held prisoner at the top of the tree itself."
"That has to be a big tree," Kazuto muttered.
"According to our newest ally, its roots are miles wide, as are the branches," Robin chuckled humorlessly. "We'll have our work cut out for us, trying to get across terrain like that."
"Fighting a battle on a tree?" Kazuto muttered. "Wouldn't be my first time, although this time I don't have my wings… Damn, this is gonna be tough."
"But not impossible," Robin replied. "We just need to plan things out carefully. I'll send a few of our agents ahead to gather as much information about the tree and the men that guard it. At least that way we don't walk in completely blind."
"Okay," Kazuto nodded. "Let's see what we can do while we can, even if it's just with a map and a few preliminary reports." Unfortunately, Kazuto's wife had to fall asleep without him beside her for the first time in weeks, as work kept both the tacticians up late.
And so I leave you to wonder this question: who made it to the world of Fire Emblem? Who didn't? And more importantly, where is everybody?
Have fun trying to figure it out!
