"Argo, you must know something." I said, following her as she walked down the road.
"I'm sorry; I don't have any information on where it is." She replied.
"Argo do you know what's at stake here? If I find it, I can buy my freedom. Things can go back to the way they were before Laughing Coffin."
"How do you even know that PoH will keep his word?"
"I don't, be if he doesn't, I'll take the stone back."
"What even made you want to do this?"
"The holidays and thinking about Sugu."
Argo sighed. "Fine, I'll do some more digging."
"Thank you."
"Just don't get your hopes up." She said, walking away.
'Never do.' I said to myself.
I was exhausted and didn't feel like walking home, so I sat in the snow against a tree. Yawning, I equipped Sachi's invisibility cloak, Shiva gave me for Christmas and fell asleep. The next morning I went down to the Village, and when I got there I saw a small group of warriors standing around.
"Hey, Kirito. What brings you here?" Jax said, as I walked up to the group of warriors. Jax was one of Shiva's captains
"I came to chat with Shiva. What's going on here?"
"The boss asked me to gather a small group. He's inside with someone."
I passed Jax and walked into the building. Shiva was kneeling next to a terrified girl.
"You're safe now, sweetie." He said to the girl. Shiva looked over at me. "Ki, what are you doing?"
"I wanted to ask you something. What's happening here?"
Shiva signaled me to talk in private and walked over to the other side of the room.
"She's an escapee. She managed to get away from one of Creacher's guys, nicknamed The Stalker."
"You know, you never did tell me how all of this got started. How you know Creacher, how his guild is harassing players."
"They harass players by forcing them to turn off their ethic codes."
"Ethic code?"
"Censorship."
"So what are you going to do? I'm guessing you want to find him."
"Working on that now."
"So how'd the girl get here?"
"When she escaped, she bumped into one of my guys. And he brought her here."
There was silence for a moment as I realized the bags under his eyes.
"You look like hell." I said, with chuckle.
"Could say the same thing to you. Not sleeping well?"
"Rarely. Only slept a few hour last night."
We walked back over to the girl. I noticed the sword on the table and picked it up.
"This is a fine blade you've got here. A swordbreaker, if I'm not mistaken."
"Yeah, it's a sword breaker. It's been very useful so far." The girl said.
Shiva grabbed the dagger from me, holding it in his usual zatoichi style.
"This is a pretty decent weapon, granted you know how to use it. If only I could apply its effects to my Shadowbane."
"Speaking of which. Is that a new sword?"
"Yeah, Cutter got it for me for Christmas."
One of Shiva's men walked into the building and knelt down.
"Milord, I couldn't find him. I looked everywhere." He said.
"Damn… Go get some rest." Shiva said.
The kneeling man stood up and exited the building.
"What now?" I said.
"Now we try to find a new to track him down." Shiva said.
"We could lay a trap."
"Yeah, but what could we use for bait?"
Shiva and I both looked at the girl.
"No, no way." She said.
"It could work." I said, ignoring her.
"We just need a plan." Shiva said, also ignoring her.
"Are you two listening to me?"
"Usually I wouldn't put a civilian in danger, but Stalker needs to be caught." He turned to the girl. "Nothing will happen to you. You have my word, and I always keep my word." Shiva said, giving the swordbreaker back to the girl.
"So how do we draw him out?" I asked.
"Hmm, I could have the person who found her, walk around the floor, and maybe he'll see them and try to figure out where she is." Shiva said.
"Do you think that will work?"
"I have a feeling it will."
Shiva then left to go explain the plan to the others. I sat down and started to work on a few alchemy potions. The girl sat down next to me.
"What's the plan exactly?" She said, nervously.
"Well, if I know Shiva, Him and I and go into town and watch you from a distance, while the rest of the group hides in the shadows around the town. In case he tries to escape." I said.
I reached across the table to grab and ingredient, causing my sleeve to ride up my arm, revealing my tattoo.
"So, his has members of Laughing Coffin on his payroll?" She said.
Realizing she saw the tattoo, I pulled my sleeve down and continued working.
"I'm not on his payroll. Shiva helped me when I needed it most. He's a good friend."
There was a silence as I finished brewing my potions.
"So, how'd you come into contact with this 'Stalker'?" I asked. "What's the story here?"
"He saved me a few months ago. In a sense we started dating, and after a while he started checking up on me about every 30 minutes."
"Classic possessive boyfriend. The only reason he'd approach you is probably because he thought he could manipulate you."
"Manipulate me? He didn't manipulate me."
"Did you fall for him because he save you? Did you do whatever he told you to do? You're submissive, plain and simple. He had you eating out of the palm of his hand."
The girls face turned red, and she went for her dagger.
"If you draw that blade, I'll take your head." I said, without looking up. "This is exactly what I'm talking about. You're easily manipulated."
"I hate you." She muttered under her breath.
"To be honest, I couldn't care less about your opinion of me."
Shiva walked back into the building.
"So, what's the plan?" The dame asked.
"The three of us will go into town, and wait for him to show."
"Here guys, take this." I said handing them the poison I brewed.
"What is it?" Shiva said.
"It's a paralysis poison, stronger than the one I normally use. Its effects and duration are enhanced. Just in case we need to use it against the stalker."
Shiva gave me a look.
"What, you didn't know I was a skilled alchemist?"
We left for one of the towns on a higher floor. Once inside, Shiva stayed by the teleportation gate, while I shadowed the girl from afar. An hour later, my ring stopped working, forcing me to follow from the rooftops.
"My guy just disappeared. He will be coming shortly." Shiva messaged.
'Something's off. Shiva wouldn't sacrifice one of his own to catch someone.'
After a few minutes, someone walked alongside our damsel, something reflective in his hand.
'It's funny how the mind can forget things, when there's a blade pressed against you back.'
I informed Shiva; as the dame panicked and tried to run. She ran towards one of the exits out of town.
'What are you doing? Don't run to the Area, he can kill you there.' I yelled in my head while following her. 'Wait.'
I waited until he was just about to run out of the town's safe zone and threw a pick at him, but missed. I jumped off the building and ran up to him; once I was close I removed his hand with his sword.
"Is this the guy?" I asked.
"Yeah, that's him." She replied.
Shiva came up behind us.
"Make sure he isn't being tracked."
I used his untouched hand, opened his menu and deleted anyone that could be used to track him.
"All right, let's get back." Shiva said, pulling a crystal out.
We teleported back to the village, where the stalker was tied to a chair in one of the rooms.
"Kirito, I want you to do the Interrogation. After all, you have a knack for it."
"Sure thing boss."
After a few minutes, Shiva and I walked into the room.
He had a sadistic smile on his face, a lot like Johnny's or Xa's.
"Ahh, gentlemen, I was starting to get lonely."
Shiva punched him in the stomach
"Start talking." He said.
"What's the point? You know I won't break."
Shiva glanced at me. I drew my sword and stabbed our prisoner.
"Tell us where your boss is. Where is Creacher?"
We beat him for two hours, went through almost all our healing crystals and got nothing out of him.
"Why do you insist on doing this? You taught me how to resist Interrogation. Remember?"
'The hell is he talking about?'
"Honestly, if you and Sarah hadn't flipped out, then the boss wouldn't be in control and none of this would have happened."
Shiva clenched his fist.
"If you think about it Ben, all of this is your fault."
Shiva punched him three times and finished with Suigetsu, before walking out of the room.
"Shiva, what's going on? How does he know you?" I said.
"It's nothing." He replied.
"It doesn't look like nothing... This has something to do with why you're so intent on taking down Creacher, isn't?"
"Yes."
"What happened?"
Shiva sighed as he sat down at the bar. "The guild that Creacher leads used to belong to me. It started off small, me, Creacher, Cutter and a few others. Around the middle of March, we ran into three people we knew from the real world, who just lost their guild. We allowed them to join us, until they wanted to leave. A month later, I was approached by one of the survivors who was looking for his girlfriend, Emily. I found her standing on the railing over the abyss under Aincrad, and that's when I learned what Creacher did, right before she jumped."
"What did he do?"
"He raped her for two months, and no one knew. After I found out, I went to confront him, but by then he managed to turn some of the guild against me. Luckily, Cutter and a few others sided with me, but we were still outnumbered and forced to flee. We ran, went completely off the radar and we found this place. It was here I formed the warriors of Sinanju, a guild whose sole purpose is to destroy monsters like Creacher, and protect players."
"Damn. I can see why you hate him so much."
"What's worse is he used to be a close friend."
"Do you know the Stalker?"
"No, he must be a new member. Creacher might have told him about me."
"Boss! We've got a problem. It's the Stalker." Cutter said, barging into the room.
We followed Cutter into the interrogation room; Stalker was nowhere to be seen.
"What the hell happened?" I said.
"Someone came in here, attacked two of our guys and killed Stalker. We have a witness who survived, says it was one of us.
Shiva clenched his fist and barged out of the building.
"Men! Find the traitor and bring him to me!" Shiva yelled.
"Boss, I promise you we will find the betrayer." Cutter said.
Shiva walked to his quarters, probably to blow off some steam. When I walked in, he threw a chair at the wall.
"Did you know I originally didn't want this room." He said. "I was perfectly fine with taking the smallest room we had, but Cutter insisted that I had to take this one."
"Shiva, is there anything I can do to help?" I asked.
"No, you've done so much already. We'll take care of things here."
I started to walk out the door.
"Kirito, earlier you said you wanted to talk about something."
"I'm looking for the resurrection stone from the Christmas event. PoH says if I bring it to him, he'll release me."
"And you believe him? He is pure evil."
"Of course not, but I have to believe that there is a chance."
"So what? You want me to help you find the stone? Isn't with the DDA?"
"It is, but that's not what I want. If I die, I want you tell Sugu everything. Tell her what happened to me. Promise me."
"I promise."
I left the village and headed home and that feeling returned. I opened my menu and equipped Sachi's cloak, once again.
'Time for me to face my own stalker.'
I knelt down, listening to my surroundings. I heard snow crunching behind me, and moved towards its location. On the ground behind the tree, was a little girl with black hair and a white dress.