A/N: Greetings to all! My apologies for not having this chapter ready sooner, but it's been a rough couple of weeks for me, thanks in no small part to a surgery I had that went terribly wrong... It was almost impossible for me to walk for more than a week, and I constantly felt sick. Normally I;m the kind of guy who avoids taking painkillers if at all possible, but that was just not happening this time around- so needless to say, anything I ended up writing while taking my meds didn't really make much sense.
But I am back to good health now, and I am very excited to see what you all have to say about the newest installment in this epic!
Just as a side note, this is the first chapter in this story that does not feature a first-person narrative, as we are beginning to get the perspectives of the other players more consistently. That's not to say that the first-person style is done in this story, it will definitely return- just not for a little while. In any case, I'll stop it with my mini-novel of an author's note and let you guys get to the good part!
OP Song: The World (cover by Jonathan Young). Normally I'd prefer Nathan Sharp's version, but the lyrics from Young's cover make way more sense for Mataras' mentality at this point.
P.S. If you've been reading my Saiyan Tail story, you should know that there's a poll on my home page pertaining to it. Go check it out!
Rivers stained with red
Blood soaking the dead land
Water of life spilled
No longer does death disturb
The scarlet hands that wield it
Monsters, Tamed and Wild
Deep in the darkness of the Forest of Wandering, a scream rang throughout the trees.
The source of the cry was a small girl, who looked no older than twelve. She had light brown hair tied up into little pigtails and red eyes set above a small nose and mouth. Her armor consisted of a yellow battle-dress with a silver breastplate, and she was only armed with a dagger.
Her choice in weapon had proven largely useless against the three giant ape mobs that had just killed her only friend in Aincrad- a blue feathered dragon that had the ability to heal its familiar on command. Pina was her name, and without a thought for its own safety, the dragon had thrown itself into harm's way in order to protect its master one last time, sacrificing itself in the process.
The girl had managed to kill one of the apes in a frantic, helpless fury, but she had quickly been disarmed and stunned by the two remaining monsters. As she looked up at the giant club wielded by the beast that would end her life, she cursed her own arrogance for thinking that she could brave this forest alone.
She, a little girl who couldn't even handle a proper sword in battle. She, the Dragon Tamer, useful only as a mascot for more experienced players. She, the child that had led her only friend to their death. Why should I survive this?
Then there was a burst of wind and motion that blasted the two apes into billions of pieces in the blink of an eye. Silica blinked, and just like that, the two monsters were gone, replaced by a solitary figure that remained undefined through the tears in her eyes.
"Get out of this forest," they said in a rough tone. There was a couple of soft thumps, followed by her apparent rescuer saying, "Heal up, teleport out. This is no place for-"
The sound of a group crashing through the brush cut off the speaker, who made a sound of annoyance. "Dammit," he growled- for it was now clear that the newcomer was male, even though he was retreating into the shadows. "They never let up." Even as Silica wiped at her eyes, her rescuer ran off, leaving nothing behind but the memory of a flash of red at the corner of her vision.
"Who was…?" she mumbled. Looking down at her feet, she saw a couple of health potions and a blue teleport crystal lying in the grass, presumably tossed there for her use by the stranger. Why did he-?
Her wonderings were put on hold as a group of four people burst into the small, dark clearing. "Come on, he's-! Huh?" The new group halted in place as they beheld the little girl, who stared up at them with large, uncomprehending eyes. Their leader was a young man dressed in black, while the other three were girls that looked about the same age as him, each of them dressed and armed differently from one another.
"Hi," one of the girls said shyly. She was dressed in various shades of blue and armed with a dagger. "Are you lost?"
"Hey, he's getting away!" said another girl impatiently as she clenched a katana like she was trying to strangle it. She had long blonde hair and emerald eyes that complimented her green-and-white outfit. "We can't lose him now!"
"Kiriha, we can chase after him later," said the last member of their party, a young woman with long brown hair dressed in forest greens and brown. She had a spear in hand that she set down as she knelt in front of the girl that had been attacked. "Are you okay, miss?"
"Y-yes…" the girl sniffled. "But…" She looked over to where Pina had breathed her last, where only a single, glowing white feather remained.
"Hold on, is that-?" the boy started to ask, then hesitated. After a few seconds of indecision, he muttered, "Ah, well. He's long gone by now."
"We're giving up, just like that?!" the blond girl demanded.
"Sis, we lost him," the black-garbed swordsman sighed. "I just tried looking for him with my tracking skill, but he must have used a teleport crystal, cos the trail goes cold after that patch of trees." He pointed to indicate the group he was speaking of. "Even if we had caught up to him, he had a getaway plan."
"He always does," the first girl said softly.
"A-Are you all… looking for someone?" the small girl asked as she reached for one of the health potions, finally becoming aware again of just how low her health was.
The blond girl looked down at her and said, "Yeah. We were tracking a psychopath through this part of the woods, but we lost him about a half-hour back. He's wanted for dozens of murders and evading arrest for almost a half-year now."
"M-Murder?" the little girl squeaked nervously.
"Okay, cool it, Kiriha," the boy said a little more sternly. "This girl looks like she's been through enough without being even more scared by the thought of a red player running around."
"All right, fine, sorry," the blonde girl snorted. "Forgive me for being the only one who actually wants to catch him."
"You're not," the girl with the spear said with an annoyed look at her comrade.
Before Kiriha could utter a retort, the young man preempted them by asking the girl still sitting on the forest floor, "So, what happened to you?"
"I, uh…" the girl sniffed. "I was out with a party earlier… But then I got into an argument with them, and I… I left… Then Pina… my dragon… she sacrificed herself, and I… Oh, Pina…" She sniffled, the tears falling from her eyes freely as the enormity of her friend's absence began to crash down on her frail shoulders.
She felt a warm embrace cover her as one of the other players pulled her in gently. Then she heard the voice of the spear-wielder say, "We know what it's like to lose someone. …I'm sorry we couldn't save your friend."
"Well, unlike our losses, she might be able to recover from this one," the boy said as he sat down in the grass with them.
"What do you mean?" the first girl asked as the spear-user pulled back and sat on her legs.
"Do me a favor, Sachi," the boy replied. "Can you pick up that glowing feather over there?" The girl watched as the player in blue did as she was asked, prompting the boy to add, "Now see if it has a handle."
Sachi did so, and to their collective surprise, an item panel popped up at her prompting. "It says 'Pina's Heart'," she read aloud. "What does it mean?"
"Well, that depends," the boy replied as he looked at the little girl. "That feather, it belonged to your familiar, right? Pina?"
"Y-Yes," she answered. "But… What does that have to do with…?"
"Let's introduce ourselves, first," the boy said with a friendly smile. "I'm Kirito. This is my sister, Kiriha." He gestured to the blonde girl, who forced herself to relax and smile. "The one holding your familiar's heart is Sachi." The blue-garbed girl gave a timid smile and a small wave. "And the one that was doing the hugging is Rivka." The final member of their party gave the little girl a sad smile as she was introduced.
"I'm Silica," the little girl sniffed. "It's nice to meet all of you."
"Likewise, Silica," Kirito said. "Now, as I was saying before, it is possible to revive your familiar." Holding up a hand to forestall any questions the girl might ask, he added, "There's a place on floor forty-seven called 'The Hill of Memories'. According to a friend of mine, a flower grows there that can revive familiars."
"Really?!" Silica gasped excitedly, then immediately drooped again. "Floor forty-seven is way beyond my capabilities, though…"
"Couldn't we just go get the flower for her?" Sachi suggested, but Kirito immediately shook his head in the negative.
"Problem is that the flower only blooms in the presence of a beast tamer," he told them.
When everyone was quiet for a moment, Silica stood up and put the feather in her inventory while she said, "Actually, this information is more than what I need to get started. I may not be strong enough right now, but someday I can make it up to the Hill of Memories and get Pina back!" She dashed her eyes and smiled at them as best she could.
Kirito let out a sigh and said, "There's one little problem with that."
"The item can only be used to revive the familiar up to three days after death," Kiriha said, though not unkindly.
"Three…? Oh no…" Silica's eyes began to well up again.
Kirito drew in a breath to speak, but his sister grabbed him by the arm and dragged him away a few feet, muttering, "Wait just a second there, mister hero."
"Aw, come on!" he protested.
Once they were out of casual earshot, she stopped dragging him and hissed, "We don't have time to help her! We've already got two jobs on our plate, or have you already forgotten?"
"I know that, but the second job is kind of a bust at this point," Kirito said with a grimace. "We can help this girl and still achieve our primary objective."
"You can't be thinking of dragging her into the middle of something like this!" Kiriha gasped. "She could get hurt, or-"
"We'll give her a teleport crystal and some of Sachi's spare armor to be safe," Kirito said calmly. "We can handle anything- and anyone- on floor forty-seven."
"What if he attacks her?"
Kirito's mouth set in a thin line as he replied, "He doesn't attack kids, especially ones with green cursors. We know that much. And if he does attack, we'll fight him off. We're ready for him this time."
"…Fine," Kiriha growled. "But I don't like this."
"Just be nice to her for a couple of days," her brother grinned. "We can go back to hunting him down another day."
"Yeah, yeah," the blonde girl huffed. "Worse comes to worse and he escapes until we clear the game, we know his real-life info. We can just turn him in to the cops when we get out." With that, she walked away, completely missing the sad, haunted look that had come over her brother.
"Yeah," he mumbled. "There is that, I guess."
They fashioned Silica with a set of gear and a dagger that Sachi used to use. When she offered them some col in compensation, they declined it, Kirito electing to tell her that they had business on floor forty-seven anyway, so it would be little enough trouble for them.
After that, they added the younger girl to their party and made their way back to town. The plan was to take a few rooms at the inn for the night and make their way up to floor forty-seven the next morning. Silica even had a place of preference that served some pretty tasty desserts, which of course got Kirito's attention quite nicely.
"Always thinking with his stomach," Kiriha muttered as her brother led the way with Silica through the streets.
"Well, at least that makes it easy to tell what he's thinking when he gets that blank look in his eyes," Sachi said with a smile. "That, or what new sword he's going after in the field."
Kiriha looked like she was going to reply to that, but then they heard some raised voices coming from up the road. Frowning a little, Kiriha gripped the pommel of her katana and moved up to stand just behind Kirito and Silica.
They saw a couple of what looked like mid-level players, both boys that could probably found next to the word 'nerd' in the dictionary. One of them was saying, "We got worried when you didn't come back all day!" His words were addressed to Silica.
"How's about you party up with us?" asked the other hopefully.
Seeing the look of discomfort on Silica's face, Kiriha scoffed and stepped forward, saying, "Sorry, but your geek squad is gonna have to wait for another day to team up with this kid. She's with us for the time being."
"Y-Yeah," Silica nodded in a timid agreement. "Sorry guys- maybe another time." With that, the group pushed past the two glowering players. Once they were out of earshot, Silica mumbled, "Sorry about that. Everyone seems to want me to play mascot for their parties, just cos I'm a Dragon Tamer…"
"Pfft, sweetie, I doubt it's just because of Pina," Kiriha chuckled as she patted Silica on the head, ruffling her hair up a little bit, much like the way Kirito would do to her. "You're pretty cute- and in a game where ninety percent of the population are ugly guys that've probably never interacted with a real girl before, it's only to be expected."
"Hey, wait," Kirito frowned. "You can't be saying that I'm-"
"I know what I said," Kiriha said smugly.
"Well then, I guess you're right about me never interacting with a real girl IRL, too," he shot back with his own smirk.
"Why, you-!"
"Guys," Rivka interrupted quietly. "We've got company." She jerked her head behind her, where a small party led by a red-headed woman dressed in black was approaching them at a slightly faster pace than a normal stroll.
Once again, Kiriha's hand flew to her sword's handle as they turned to face the newcomers. Kirito held out a finger to signal for her to stay put- for now. He lowered his arm just as the woman reached them, a smile that screamed all kinds of fake plastered on her face.
"Well, hello Silica, dear," she said in a low, sultry voice. "I see you made it through the forest all right." Arching a slender eyebrow, she added, "But where's your little dragon friend?"
"Pina died… trying to save me," Silica sniffed. Firming her chin up, she met the woman's eyes with her own and declared, "But I'm gonna get her back!"
"Oh?" the redhead smirked. "Then I suppose you'll be heading up to the Hill of Memories? I'm just wondering how something so frail as you would ever be able to get such a rare item on your own."
"She's a lot tougher than she looks," Kirito said with a friendly smile on his face as he laid an arm on Silica's shoulders. "She can do it." The expression seemed docile enough, but Kiriha knew her brother well enough to see the dangerous gleam in his eyes, a warning to anyone astute enough to notice it.
The other woman didn't seem to be one of those people, because she let out a poorly contained scoff and asked, "So what are you, her bodyguard?"
"Just some friends of hers', looking to help out," Kiriha replied, a smile every bit as fake as the newcomer's fixed on her mouth. "And you are?"
"I'm Rosalia," the woman declared, as if it were something to be in awe of. "Surely you've heard of me?"
"I've heard of a 'Rose' in a whorehouse down on floor eighteen," Kiriha shot back, her smile growing in authenticity and condescension in equal proportions. "You look like you could work there."
Rosalia's face immediately colored crimson, and her party bristled indignantly. "You-!" she began as she started forward, but Kirito stepped between them, his hand on his sword.
"I really wouldn't," he said in the same polite tone that he had been using, his own smile still in place. All around them, people were whispering and pointing, some of them calling for a duel to occur.
"Hmph," Rosalia snorted angrily as she turned on her heel and walked away, followed quickly by her cronies. Kirito's group turned back in the opposite direction, herding Silica along with them without a word to the people around them.
However, in the softest voice possible, Sachi dared to ask Kiriha, "Do you think she fell for it?"
"Hook, line, and sinker," the blond girl replied with a twinkle in her emerald eyes. "Now we just need to reel her in."
The group was sitting down to dinner, with Silica currently laughing at a story being told by Kiriha, her brother looking decidedly uncomfortable. "Wait, wait," the little girl said through her tears. "So you're telling me that he actually had you confused for Sachi?!"
"In my defense, they looked pretty similar from behind," the swordsman in black mumbled while Sachi giggled and leaned her head on his shoulder.
"You two look nothing alike, though!" Silica laughed. "How did you possibly-?!"
"I actually used to have hair and eyes pretty similar to Sachi," Kiriha grinned, enjoying her brother's discomfort. "But after that little incident, I decided to change my eyes to green and get some hair extensions before dying it blond."
"I do happen to agree with Kirito, it was kinda hard to tell you two apart for a while there," Rivka said in defense of their leader.
"I have a katana, she uses daggers!" Kiriha giggled. "And we were even wearing different colored clothes!"
"It had been a long day!" Kirito complained. Slamming his head into the table, he mumbled, "Leave me alone."
"Kirito, we've both forgiven you," Sachi laughed softly as she patted him on the back. "Besides, it's not like you did anything that bad."
"I hugged my sister from behind and started talking about plans for our date for almost a minute before I realized it wasn't you," he groaned, his voice slightly muffled by the planks. "How is that not bad?"
"Well, I got a brand-new way of embarrassing you, so I'm happy with how things turned out," Kiriha said with a malicious gleam in her eyes.
"And I wound up going on a very nice first date, even if it was delayed for a little bit," Sachi said as she squeezed Kirito's shoulders.
"A little bit longer, you mean," Rivka said after swallowing a mouthful of cheesecake. "For crying out loud, I was wondering if he was ever going to ask you out."
"Kill me," Kirito begged. "Somebody take a sword and shove it in my heart. Because that would less painful that this conversation right here."
After dinner, they all gathered in the room that Kirito would be taking for the night to discuss their plans for reaching the pneuma flower. The boy pulled out a holographic globe that would display the complete map of any floor that he had the data for. Of course, he hadn't mapped the entirety of the forty-seventh floor himself, but he had been able to trade for pieces of the map that he was missing through info brokers and other front-liners, like Klein and Argo.
Silica had evidently never seen one before, because her face lit up like a little kid at Christmas when the hologram came to life above the table at which they were all seated, casting a cool blue-green glow across the room. Kirito grinned at her delight, then accessed the zoom function on the map, showing them a more detailed image of the main city, with a path leading out of the western gate.
"This is where our trip starts," he explained. "The path is actually easy to follow, but it's guarded by some pretty high-level monsters. That's why most people avoid the spot- even the assault team didn't try to farm there initially, the monsters were so tough."
"Are they really that bad?" the little girl quailed.
"Ever play a video game from the Mario series?" Kirito asked.
"Yeah, my dad loves those," Silica nodded.
"Remember a monster that looked like a red-and-white flower with sharp teeth and vines for arms?" Rivka added. "Spit fire sometimes?"
"Yes…" Silica said, paling.
"Like that, except bigger and scarier," Kiriha told her. "Also, they look like normal plants at first glance."
"Eep!" Silica squeaked.
"Hey, at least they don't spit fire," Rivka reminded them.
"That doesn't-"
"Shh!" Kirito suddenly demanded, standing up so fast that he nearly knocked his chair over. Without further preamble, he dashed to the door and flung it open just in time to have a knife flash past his face and bury itself in the door. Despite the fact that they were in a safe zone, it made him flinch and take an involuntary step back.
"Whoa!" Kiriha yelped. "You okay?!"
"Yeah, missed me," he breathed as he looked into the hallway, where he heard the sounds of a struggle taking place.
What he saw confirmed his suspicions, but still managed to surprise him. There, in a dark red hood, was Mataras, wrestling with a black-caped player with an orange cursor. There was a few explosions of purple sparks as they traded blows that were rendered ineffective by the safe zone, but the boy in red still seemed to have the upper hand.
"What's going on?" Kiriha demanded as she equipped her katana, but Kirito immediately waved her back. "What?!"
"Stay here, keep Silica safe in case there's any more," he ordered as he shut the door. "I'll deal with this." Yanking the knife out of the door, he shouted at the two unruly intruders, "Hey! One of you dropped something!" With that, he hurled the blade at the two of them, causing the one in black to involuntarily flinch, which gave Mataras the upper hand.
Hooking his arm around the other man, the boy in red held him in a chokehold that awkwardly pinned his target's right arm against his own body- rendering him unable to use his menu, and thus escape his confinement by activating the system's anti-harassment function.
Mataras met Kirito's eyes before smiling wolfishly and waggling a blue crystal in his hand that his former comrade had not noticed before, due to the fast-paced brawl. He reached out a hand and said, "Wait, don't-!"
"Teleport, Hollow Area Control," the other boy declared. Then he was gone in a puff of blue light and sparks.
Kirito stood there, perplexed and frustrated. Multiple questions flew through his mind at once, among them being, Was he spying on us, and that guy caught him? Maybe it was the other way around? And what was that hollow control he was talking about?
The thief struggled viciously against the iron grip around his neck, but to no avail. It wasn't that he needed to breathe, but he knew what was in store for him. Every orange and red player knew about the swordsman in the crimson cloak, and what he did to players like them. He was not about to go down without a fight, certainly not in a chokehold if he had any say in the matter.
He was getting ready for another round of struggling when he was released and subsequently kicked square in the back, sending him sprawling on a floor made of a material that he did not recognize. It was like a dark blue gem, but with what looked like yellow lines of computer code running through it. Far as he could see, the material became more transparent once it began at the walls, and curved up toward the ceiling, where the lines of code all congealed into a swirling orb at the epicenter.
"Stay down if you know what's good for you," his kidnapper told him roughly.
Instead of doing what he was told, though, the thief shot to his feet and made to turn and finally get a good look at his abductor. What he saw surprised him. "You?" he gaped, before he was struck in the back again, leaving him a mess on the floor once again.
"Close, but no," a similar, yet rougher voice said from where he had been struck.
The man grunted as he got to his knees, trying to see his kidnapper more clearly again. This time, the young man knelt to be nearly eye level with him, cocking his head at him as though he were a curious insect. "This is the guy?" he asked the other speaker. "Thane, was it?"
"The one that got away, yeah," the darker voice answered, followed by the sound of a sword being drawn. "Time for his crimes to catch up with him."
"I know you…" Thane growled as he looked the boy with the blood-red cloak in the eyes. "You're that crazy kid that killed my partners that time way back."
"The first of many to fall to the blade of Mataras," his kidnapper chuckled. "There's just one little issue with the way you're seeing all of this- I'm not the one who killed your friends."
"Are you stupid or crazy?!" Thane demanded, trying to get to his feet again, but feeling the blade of a sword pressed into his back halted him in place. Still, he growled out, "I saw it with my own eyes. You killed all of them!"
"Shall I, or would you like to do the honors?" his kidnapper grinned up at someone behind Thane.
"I've been waiting quite some time for this encounter, so I believe I'll be the one doing the explanations," the other speaker replied, followed by the sword being removed from between his shoulder blades. However, the reminders of what would happen if he struggled were still fresh in his mind, so he decided to remain docile- for the moment.
"All right then," the boy in red grinned. Looking over to his left, he asked, "Miss Sinon, if you would…?" There was a slight rasping sound, then he said, "Thank you."
"What was that?" Thane couldn't help but ask.
"That, you slimy little sewer rat," answered the second speaker as he came into view, "was the sound of an arrow being aimed at your head by one of my compatriots." Thane's eyes widened in horror as the other man came to stand by his kidnapper, saying, "Apparently this game does utilize bows and arrows, but only as a unique skill exclusive to Miss Sinon."
"And I'm pretty damn good at using it," a girl's low-pitched voice said threateningly. "So if you even twitch, I'll turn you into a pincushion."
Her threat hardly registered with Thane, busy as he was trying to comprehend what his eyes were telling him. "How are you…?" he tried, but could not finish. "What is…?"
"Let's just say that we share identical goals and leave it at that," the second speaker said, his silver eyes gleaming dangerously as he aimed a crimson sword at Thane from within the folds of a bright red cloak. "What matters right now is that you, Thane of Titan's Hand, have failed Aincrad."
"How have I done that?" Thane retorted, despite himself. "What crime have I committed that gives you the right to play judge, jury, and executioner?"
"You have stolen from and killed fellow players in this floating castle," the man in the bright red answered.
His companion in maroon red added, "And if it weighs in on your conscience any more, you should know that the attack you and your friends wagered on Mataras and his former partner is more or less what sent us down this path."
"How is what you do any different from what I've done?!" Thane demanded.
"We kill not to further ourselves through this life, but to prevent people like you from taking what does not belong to you," the second speaker replied. "Now face your death with whatever amount of dignity you can scrap up."
And the crimson swords fell.
"And you just let him go?!" Kiriha demanded furiously. "Is that why you shut me in here when you went to fight that crazy-?!"
"It's more complex than that!" Kirito interrupted her. The two of them were in his room as to avoid fighting in front of Silica, who was being showed the plan by Sachi and Rivka back in her room.
"What's so complex about the fact that he was right in front of you, and you let him get away?!" the blond Kirigaya demanded.
"He was able to disarm and kidnap someone while in a safe zone without triggering the system's anti-harassment function," Kirito snapped. "And as much as that worries me, there is one positive to this outcome."
Kiriha was preparing a thorough tongue-lashing for her brother when his last statement caught her off-guard. "I'm listening," she said, though a frown remained fixed to her face.
"I heard the name of the place that he was escaping to," Kirito grinned confidently.
"You're sure?" Kiriha asked dubiously. "Because the last time we thought we found his home base, it just turned out to be a warehouse with paint doodles on the walls!"
"He meant to lead us there," Kirito replied. "He was messing with us."
"What makes you think that this time is any different?" his sister demanded. "He's probably just setting up another way to make us look like idiots. Not very hard in your case, but, eh."
"Hey!" her brother said, affronted. "I do have a reason for why I think this is the real deal, unless you think I'm too dumb to pick up a clue?" When she didn't answer him immediately, he added, "That wasn't rhetorical!"
"I know, I'm just trying to figure out if you are smart enough for that," she answered.
"Rrgh…" he growled.
"All right, might as well see if there's something we can salvage from this fiasco," she muttered. "How d'ya know he slipped up on the name of his home base?"
"Because I can't find it on my map," Kirito replied seriously. Before his sister could berate him, he held up a hand to signal for quiet while he continued, saying, "I know, none of us have a complete map of Aincrad, but we know just about every major town and city, right? Any place with a designation should sound familiar to us, since we've been the ones doing a lot of the clearing, you know?"
"Okay…" Kiriha replied, still not entirely sure what her brother was driving at, but now curious to see what his point would be.
"The name of the place he teleported to is apparently called 'Hollow Area Control'," the raven-haired boy said. "Ever heard of it?"
"No," Kiriha said with a slight frown. "What's a hollow area?"
"Dunno yet, but now that we have a name, we can put Argo and some of the other info brokers that the assault team employs on digging up some leads," Kirito shrugged. "It has to be somewhere in Aincrad, otherwise he wouldn't be able to teleport there."
"And he couldn't have used a fake name, either," Kiriha muttered, slowly warming to the idea that maybe Mataras had finally made a mistake that would allow them to get the jump on him. For months he had always managed to stay several steps ahead of them, but now… "Maybe we can finally set a trap for the skinny bastard," she grinned crookedly.
"There is just one thing that's still bugging me," Kirito added as an afterthought, causing his sister to shoot him a baleful glance.
"What now?" she complained.
"Well, he's a red player- he has been since Christmas, as far as we know," Kirito replied, missing her look of annoyance. "Normally if he'd killed someone, he would be considered just an orange player after a few days."
"Yeah, but if you keep killing enough people with green cursors, you get permanently stuck with a red marker," Kiriha shrugged. "What's your point?" After a few weeks of orange and red players going missing, Mataras had apparently expanded his agenda to include people that assisted player-killers and thieves, even if the game had them labelled as innocent.
"Well, orange players aren't allowed to interact with town NPC's because they're considered criminals by the game," her brother answered. "Red players are treated pretty much like mobs by the system- NPC's will try to kill them on sight if they wander into town. It's very difficult for a red player to get into a crowded town like this one without being noticed."
Now Kiriha began to understand. "So, wait…" she began, her green eyes narrowing. "How is it that the most infamous red player in SAO made it into a hotel in the middle of a busy town without being noticed by either the players of the NPC's?"
"That's what really worries me," Kirito muttered. "If he's figuring out ways to circumnavigate the game's defense systems, we're going to have an even harder time catching him than I imagined."
"So, what's next in this grand scheme of yours?" Mataras' female companion asked him as she slung her bow over her shoulder. She brushed some of her short brown hair out of her eyes with an annoyed huff after the bowstring had caught on it. Her white-and-green light armor reflected the shifting light as she moved closer to the swordsmen.
"Simple," Crimson grinned casually. "We replace Thane in Titan's Hand, lead them into the trap that Kirito and friends are no doubt planning, then we go to work."
"From what you've told me about Kirito and your former teammates, they don't seem like the type of people to get a little girl caught up in this kind of situation," Sinon said with a frown. "I thought they walked the high road and all that."
"They do," Mataras answered. "Kirito will see to it that this kid has a way to get out of danger the moment it becomes too much. He's confident that the Cats can handle Titan's Hand, with or without dangling the pneuma flower in front of them. This just makes things easier for him."
"And us," Crimson snickered. "Speaking of which, how many are going with me this time?"
"How many of us are ready?" Mataras' question was aimed at another young woman, whose face was hidden by a veil of lavender hair as she peered closely at a screen hovering over the console she was typing at. It was an admin's console made up of the same strange blue material that surrounded them, save that the yellow lines on its face were more solid than the ones and zeroes flowing all around them.
"Well, we've got Thane's replacement ready at camp," the girl answered in a sweet, lilting voice, as if she hadn't a care in the world. "Other than him, the others are all out in the field, getting materials for those upgrades we needed."
"Oh, right," Crimson said sheepishly. "Then… I guess we send the new guy to fill out his roll, me in disguise as to avoid drawing suspicion from the townsfolk, and…" Here, he looked at Sinon and asked, "Are you up to frolicking in some flowers?"
"I'm gonna forget you said that," the archer muttered. "But to answer your question, yes, I'm comfortable enough with my bow now to provide support against other players."
"I'll join you when it comes time for the ambush," Mataras declared, surprising his comrades.
"Are we sure we want to play that card now?" Crimson asked cautiously. "We should save that for an emergency, right?"
"Well, according to you, Kirito probably heard the name of the place we come to in order to escape them," Mataras said frostily. "It's not much, but knowing those four, even a lead so small might lead them here. We need something to throw them off, confuse them- even scare them."
"It'll only buy us time," Crimson replied, folding his arms. "I'm not saying I'm against the idea, but I do want to make sure we aren't doing this rashly. For all we know, it could make them even more determined to figure us out."
"It will, in the end," Mataras nodded, surprising the others again. "But the delay and the doubts that this play will create will only make them behave more recklessly, until they give up out of sheer frustration, or we complete our goal- whichever comes first."
"By the way, still having trouble finding those guys," Strea said as she straightened up and skipped over to join the trio, an innocent smile on her face and a twinkle in her rose-pink eyes. "I'll keep trying, boss."
"No rush yet," Mataras shrugged indifferently. "There's still plenty of orange guilds to go before we hit the prize ruby. And in any case, I'm done discussing this. It's time we let them know a little bit more about our mystery."
"Can I come with you for this one?" the lavender-haired girl asked in a childish voice that made Crimson chuckle and hang his head.
"Can't risk it yet," Mataras said with a negative shake of his head. "Once we find Laughing Coffin, you may come on as many of these hunts as you wish. But for now, we need you here."
"Aw…" she pouted as she stalked away.
"How does someone so smart…?" Crimson began.
"Act so childish?" Sinon finished for him with a raised eyebrow. "She is quite the contradiction, that girl."
"Cut the chatter," Mataras ordered. "We have work to do." Raising his voice so that he could be heard across the chamber, he said, "Strea, get Thane's replacement up here! Sinon and Crimson need to get him into position!"
The next morning, Silica and her new friends were up and about by nine o' clock, Standard Aincrad Time. They stepped out onto the forty-seventh floor, immediately taken by the bright colors of the early spring flowers.
"There weren't this many when we cleared the floor back in December," Rivka commented as she and Silica moved to examine some of the flowers near the portal gate. "It's really pretty here."
"It's been a few weeks since I've been here, but you're right," Kirito commented as he, Sachi, and Kiriha followed the pair.
"When did you- oh," Kiriha muttered with a dry expression as she noticed that her brother and Sachi were holding hands with silly grins on their faces. "Of course."
"Well, there is a reason they call this the lovers' floor," Sachi giggled, though her face reddened a little as the words left her mouth. Kirito by comparison went absolutely scarlet.
The smaller girl did have a point, though. Everywhere the party looked, there was one couple or another- some of them were NPC's programmed to add to the atmosphere, but the majority of them were players.
"Come on," Kiriha muttered, a little perturbed by how distracted everyone seemed to be getting. "We've got a long way to go, and last I checked, we've only got a little more than two days to revive the dragon."
"Wait, is the quest gonna take that long?" Silica asked as she straightened up and looked at the blond girl worriedly.
"No, not at all," Rivka said reassuringly as she patted Silica on the shoulder. "She's just a little impatient."
"We are on a schedule," Kiriha huffed. "In case you haven't forgotten, there's supposed to be a raid at the end of this week that we need to be present for. And the longer we spend down here, the shorter amount of time we have to prep for it."
"We know, we know," Kirito said as he patted his sister on the head, much to her further irritation. "Let's get a move on, gang. Daylight's a-wasting."
With that, they began to head out of town, only pausing briefly when Sachi accidentally bumped into a slim girl with short brown hair, who stumbled a little from the contact. "Oh, sorry," Sachi said with an apologetic gesture.
"No, no," the other girl replied with a charming smile. "My fault, not watching where I'm going." She held up a small book as she added, "I'm always reading when I should be paying attention to where I'm going. Feels like the only way I can read enough, though."
"Don't worry about it," Kirito said with a friendly grin. "Enjoy your book, miss. We'll won't bother you any further." So saying, they parted ways after a polite dip of their heads toward one another.
"That was weird," Kiriha muttered once they were past the town gates.
"What, that someone is that devoted to reading?" Rivka inquired. "Michael used to do that, though it got him into trouble more than once because he would read when he was supposed to be studying in class."
"No, not that," Kiriha sighed with a roll of her eyes, though she chose to ignore the fact that Rivka was bringing up the number one most wanted man in Aincrad as if he were just another person. "I was talking about the girl herself."
"I didn't see anything weird about her," Kirito commented.
"That's because you're oblivious when it comes to the fairer gender, bro," Kiriha smirked, though expression quickly faded. "No, what I found weird was that she was walking around alone."
"What's so weird about that?" Sachi inquired. "There aren't many solo players on these floors, it's true, but there are some."
"Not here," Kiriha asserted, her brow bending downward. "Not on the floor that looks like a Valentine's Day card."
Her last words drew silence out of the others for a few minutes before Kirito shrugged and said, "Maybe she was on her way to meet someone. Besides, she seemed nice enough. What're you so worried about?" He seemed content with that explanation, as did the others, so Kiriha chose not to argue.
Still, she couldn't shake the feeling that something was off about that girl…
"Targets identified," Sinon murmured to the young man in the blue hoodie, who was looking intently at a patch of red roses by one of the roads that ran through the town. "Everything is proceeding according to plan."
"Awesome," Crimson grinned as he cocked his head at a quartet of white lilies. "Hey, do you think Strea would like it if I brought some of these back for her?" He looked up at Sinon expectantly, only to be met with a disapproving scowl. "Yeesh, sorry I asked," the black-haired boy muttered.
"We're here about to tangle with some of the deadliest players in SAO, and you're smelling the roses," she growled at him. "Stay on target."
"Pfft, our part doesn't come until later," he scoffed. "Thane's replacement- er, Thor, I guess we're calling him? Anyway, he said he'll lead Titan's hand down this path when it's time to head to the ambush site."
"How is he gonna get the orange players through here without them being noticed?" she inquired.
"Well, he's gonna bring the green players this way while the others set up in the trees ahead of them," Crimson explained as he stood up. "He managed to convince their leader that they're better off travelling in smaller groups to avoid detection."
"Nice," Sinon nodded, mollified. Then the frown was back as Crimson picked up a few flowers and added them to his inventory. "Really?" she asked him flatly.
"What?" he asked innocently. "Strea seems like she gets lonely, staying in the control room most of the time. I thought maybe something from outdoors would help cheer her up."
"You are insufferable," Sinon growled. "Next time, I want to team up with Mataras."
"Well, that doesn't really work, cos-"
"Yeah, yeah, I know," she snapped. "He can't come into towns without being the subject of a witch hunt. I just wish I could have somebody to talk to so I can stave off the boredom until it's time to go."
"You can talk to me," Crimson offered with a friendly grin.
"Not the same thing," Sinon replied tartly. "You're not a-" She stopped herself short, but when she turned to see Crimson's dejected expression, she knew the damage was already done. Despite herself, she couldn't help but feel bad for him, which led to her saying, "Wait, I didn't mean-"
"But you did," he interrupted with a dull tone. "I get it." Turning away, he trudged over to the nearest bench and sighed, "I'll just sit here quietly, then."
"Now you're being a little overdramatic," she said accusingly.
"Well, look at my life and tell me what part of it isn't a drama," he retorted. "If it can even be called that…"
The quest for the pneuma flower went exceedingly smooth for the Cats and their new friend. The mobs were easy enough for such high-level players to deal with, but they also let Silica get in a few hits to increase her confidence and build up her EXP. Despite there being lots of the plant monsters out in the field dungeon, they made great time.
During one of the stretches without any monsters popping up, Silica turned around and- while walking backwards- decided to ask, "So, how do you all work so well together?"
"We haven't always," Kirito chuckled. "Took some time for us all to learn how to work together the way we do now. I started out this game with the intention of being a solo player, but then I wound up helping out these guys cos I know them IRL." He pointed a thumb at Rivka and Kiriha as he spoke.
"So, miss Sachi got added to your party later on?" Silica inquired as she looked at the mild-mannered player.
"Well, kind of," she nodded. "I actually was part of a guild, the Moonlit Black Cats, which ended up taking in Kirito and his friends."
"You were part of it?" Silica asked, confused as she peered closer at the health bars in the upper left corner of her vision. "But my readout says that you're still part of a guild… with a black cat… and a crescent moon?" She reaffixed her gaze on the other players, who all looked a little uncomfortable now.
"Well, the truth is…" Kirito began, then stopped, unsure of how to proceed.
"We're all that's left of the guild," Rivka told the little girl. "Most of those that were lost to us wound up being victims of a dungeon trap back on floor 27. The guild's original leader was… killed by a red player. Another of our original party was killed in a boss raid, before we even met the other cats."
"And as for the other guy…" Kiriha began, only to be stopped by a warning glare from her brother. So she simply said, "We lost touch with one other person we knew IRL."
"What happened to him?" Silica asked with a hint of sadness in her crimson eyes.
"Well, he and his sister were a part of my original party," Kirito explained. "Them and Rivka are… were close friends in the real world. But when we lost a few of our friends in the ambush on floor 27, Saphira was one of the ones that didn't make it."
"She died saving my life," Sachi added quietly. "If it weren't for her, I wouldn't be here right now."
"Unfortunately, her brother, Mataras, did not take to her death very well," Rivka said softly, a forlorn look in her eyes. "We haven't seen him since that day."
"I'm so sorry to hear all that," Silica apologized. "That sounds awful."
"I'm just determined not to lose any more people than I already have," Kirito told her. "Which is why I, at least, wanna help you get Pina back. We might have lost our friends, but that doesn't mean that you should have to lose yours."
That was the last they spoke of the Cats' bloody history for the remainder of their quest.
In fact, not much speaking happened until they were on their way back, the pneuma flower stored safely in Silica's inventory. They were about halfway across a small bridge under which a river flowed when Kirito held out a hand in front of the others, his face incredibly stern. "Whoever's hiding, come on out, now," he called, his voice ringing through the trees as he projected an aura of command that had been lacking until then.
There was no movement for a few moments, but eventually, a familiar figure sauntered out from behind one of the trees that lined the path. "Well, well," Rosalia smirked as she came into plain view at the foot of the bridge. "You're quite the clever one, aren't you? It takes an impressive detection skill to pierce through my stealth."
"Not that impressive," Kiriha snickered, causing her brother to turn a pained gaze on her.
"Really?" he asked.
"Sorry," she answered, looking like she didn't mean it.
At this, Rosalia tapped the butt of her spear on the paved ground, saying, "All right, children, let's all play nice. Seeing as you're all back with happy faces, I'd wager a guess that you found the pneuma flower, right?" Without waiting for a proper answer, her voice hardened as she demanded, "Now hand it over before someone gets hurt."
"Huh?" Silica squeaked.
"I don't think so," Kiriha said confidently as she put a hand on her katana's sheath. "Your days of you and your orange guild picking on other players is over with, Rosalia."
"Or do you prefer to be addressed as the leader of Titan's Hand?" Kirito inquired. "We know you sent someone to eavesdrop on us last night."
"Oh?" Rosalia quirked her brow and tilted her head slightly, curious. "You figured me out, huh? Impressive."
"B-But her cursor is green!" Silica pointed out, indicating the emerald rhombus hovering over the woman's head. "How is she part of a criminal guild, much less in charge of it?"
"Easy," Rivka informed her. "The green player joins up with a party, finds out if they have anything worth stealing, then leads them into a trap for the grunts who do the dirty work."
"That's horrible!" the red-eyed girl cried.
"Betcha anything she was setting up the rest of your party from yesterday to be her guild's next hit," Kiriha said grimly, her eyes never straying from Rosalia. "And of course, once she found out you were after a rare item, it would be too good an opportunity for somebody like her to pass up."
Here Rosalia frowned slightly. "If you knew that much about my plans in advance, why would you risk bringing a child here?" she asked suspiciously. "For that matter, how is it that you know so much about me?"
"A few reasons," Kirito shrugged. "For starters, I'll ask if you remember a particular crime your guild committed ten days ago. Does the name 'Silver Flags' mean anything to you? Let me jog your memory, just in case." His scowl deepening, the young leader of the guild said, "You killed four members, but their leader survived."
"Oh yeah, the losers with no money," Rosalia said offhandedly as she twirled her hair around her finger.
"That man went out to find the front-liners, begging anyone he met to help avenge his dead comrades," Rivka snapped at the smug woman. "With tears in his eyes, he finally came to us, begging for somebody to bring you to justice. But he doesn't want you dead- he wants you to go to prison for what you did. Do you have any idea what you did to him? How he felt?"
"Can't say that I do," Rosalia shrugged, still maintaining a carefree attitude. "Only idiots take this seriously. There's no solid proof that death here means you're dead IRL. Anyway- it's time you all started worrying about yourselves." With that, she clicked her fingers, and a group of seven men appeared, all of them armed and laughing at the anticipation of the hunt.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Kirito said as he drew his own sword, Kiriha following suit while Sachi and Rivka moved Silica back a few paces. "See, there's one other reason we were able to figure you guys out."
"Word on the info brokers' grapevine is that a certain someone has been hunting you guys for a few days," Kiriha announced. "And he's a lot scarier than we are."
"What are you talking about?" Rosalia snorted derisively. "Are you just trying to buy time and save your worthless necks?"
"Oh wow, they don't even know they've been targeted," Kiriha pretended to wince. "Yikes."
Her manner was so casual, so unworried, that Rosalia couldn't help a worm of doubt from entering her mind. "Who's hunting us?" she demanded angrily.
"Well, we know him by a different name, but I'm sure you've heard of the Red Swordsman by now?" Kirito asked her coolly. "He got ahold of one of your guys last night, the one listening in on our conversation at the inn."
That name had an instantaneous effect on the orange guild. Most of them tensed up, went pale, blanched, or did all three. Even Rosalia looked rattled. "H-He goes after people way more dangerous than us," she stammered. "Why would he-?"
"Look, let's cut to the chase," Kirito interrupted as he held up a large blue crystal, easily twice the size of a normal teleportation crystal. "You've got three options. This crystal is programmed to go directly to a cell that's waiting for you in the Black Iron Palace, which has recently been augmented with guards from the ALF. You won't be getting out of there until this game is over with."
"Pass," Rosalia growled.
"Well, option two is you attempt to fight us, fail hilariously, and then go to jail anyway," Kiriha grinned, her emerald eyes flashing dangerously with reflected light from her katana.
"The third option is you fight us, some of you get lucky enough to escape, and then you're home free," Kirito said flatly. Before Rosalia could give an answer, he added, "Of course, then you'll have to be on the run from the Red Swordsman, who isn't going to offer you a path that lets you choose whether you live or die."
"Well, tempting as that all is, you're overlooking one little piece of the puzzle," Rosalia replied as she pointed her spear at the boy. "My informant made it back to me, alive and well. If the Red Swordsman had really gotten ahold of him, he'd be dead by now, wouldn't he?"
"Y'know, for someone who supposedly believes that death here doesn't mean anything, you do seem awfully concerned with the possibility that the big bad in red is coming to get you," a familiar voice said just before a throwing dart knocked the corridor crystal out of Kirito's hand, causing him to swear and look in the direction that the projectile had come from, Kiriha's gaze following the same path. They quickly spotted the young man in a dark red cloak, grinning confidently as he twirled another throwing dart around his fingers.
"Okay, people, whose ready to hear your real options?" he called out in a louder voice. "Surrender or run? If you choose the second, I can promise that you'll only die tired."
"Mataras!" Rivka called out, her eyes wide as he cocked his head up at her. "Don't do this!" As she spoke, she moved a couple of paces away from Sachi, who looked very somber at the new turn of events.
"What?" their former friend asked, his crooked grin widening. "This?" Moving so fast that his arm was only a blur, he hurled a trio of darts at the members of Titan's hand, each of them striking their targets in the neck and paralyzing them on the spot. The three men went down like sacks of potatoes, each of them grunting from the impact.
Before he could do it again, a small throwing knife took him in the chest, causing him to fall over backwards and let out an audible oof as he went down. "What the…?" he grunted. "Wait, how did this happen? Poison knife surprise attacks are my thing!"
Rivka looked over at Sachi with shock, her face grim, her arm outstretched, and her cursor now orange. "Sorry, Rivka," she murmured. "But we can't let him keep doing what he's been doing."
"I wasn't going to-!"
"Save it, we've got incoming!" Kirito announced as the other members of Titan's Hand began to charge at them, one of them heading over to the downed Mataras, a spear in hand. "Sachi, make sure they don't- huh?!"
Several things happened at once that took a few moments to fully process. First, a handful of arrows spat out of the branches of the tree that Rosalia had been hiding behind, striking the criminal players in the nape of their necks with startling accuracy, sending them all tumbling to the paved ground, with the exception of Rosalia. They must have been poisoned like the darts, because none of the men seemed capable of getting up after going down. Second, there was a sound of metal striking flesh just before Sachi fell to the ground, paralyzed by another toxic dart. Rivka found herself in the same position less than a second later, followed by Kirito and his sister. Lastly, Mataras jumped to his feet, good as new, while the Titan's Hand member stood to his side amicably, his expression completely neutral.
"What the hell just happened?!" Kiriha seethed.
"Rosalia of Titan's Hand," a familiar voice growled as the owner stepped over the limp forms of the Black Cats while Silica pressed herself against the wall, trembling with terror. "You have failed Aincrad."
"Y-You!" Rosalia cried out as the Red Swordsman stood between her and his former comrades. "B-but you were…" She looked over to see an identical player standing next to Thane, grinning as he unsheathed his own sword. The only differences between the two were the shades of red and their icons, the one on the bridge marked by a red cursor, and his doppelganger with a green. "What is this?!" she screamed.
"There's two of him…?" Kirito grunted as he strained against the effects of the paralysis to see the scene unfolding before them. "How is that possible?"
"Does he have a secret twin brother?" Kiriha growled.
"No!"
"Then does he have a fan club where he can recruit new partners in crime?!"
"We're not partners," the young man in the maroon red answered casually. "You might call us… kindred spirits."
"Shut up, all of you," Mataras with the bright red cloak ordered. Turning to face his duplicate, he added, "Let's get to work, Crimson. The poison doesn't last forever."
"Fine, fine," the other boy shrugged. "You heard him, Sinon! Time's not on our side."
"I got it," a girl's voice called down before another familiar figure dropped out of the branches onto the road.
"What the…?" Kirito gaped, his eyes wide. "You're that girl from before!" Indeed it was the player that had bumped into Sachi earlier in the day, only now she commanded a much more intimidating aura than the bookworm they had encountered.
"And you're all idiots that can't see a trap about to be sprung," Sinon replied tartly to Kirito's declaration. With that, she grabbed up a dagger from a leg sheathe and proceeded to stab the nearest criminal repeatedly, ignoring his sobs of protest as she did. "Shut up," she growled. "If you didn't want to die, you shouldn't have been taking the lives of others."
"Mataras, please stop this!" Rivka cried out desperately as Crimson began to go to work on an axe man, methodically skewering him with a flaming sword. What was even stranger was the fact that the Titan's Hand member standing by his side began to do the same thing, his face completely blank as he did.
"Th-Thane!" Rosalia snapped in a quaking voice. "Why did you sell us out?! How dare you betray me?!" The entire time, she had been frozen with shock and terror, but now she finally found her voice.
"Actually, Thane here is just doing his civil duty to atone for the wrongs you had your little gang commit," Crimson said as finished off his first target, ignoring the dying man's screams. Silica shuddered and looked away, curling up into a ball on the bridge, too frightened to do anything at all.
Mataras was now standing before Rosalia, looking at her with dull, uninterested eyes. "You made a mistake taking Thane on as a member of your guild," he hissed in a tone that made her skin crawl. "See, I've been tracking him for some time now, and he wound up leading me right to you, one of the few murder guilds left on my list."
"Why him?" she asked, her breath coming out heavily as she kept an eye on the ruby red sword he held in his hand.
"You might say that he and his comrades are the reason for the Red Swordsman coming to be," Mataras answered as he flicked his sword up to hover mere millimeters from Rosalia's neck. "They were my first kills, you see. I could hardly leave the job unfinished, right?"
"You killed those men to protect me and you!" Sachi called out. "Don't sink any lower than you already have! You can still come back!"
Mataras snorted derisively and replied over his shoulder, "Once you've taken a life, your hands are forever stained. It doesn't matter how many good or bad things you do after that, you will always be a killer. Might as well make that mean something." Flames began to dance across the crimson blade, making Rosalia go rigid with terror. She knew what was coming next.
As he had been speaking, Thane, Sinon, and Crimson had quickly made short work of the rest of Titan's Hand. Now, the four of them stood in a rough diamond formation around the doomed woman. "This is the land of blade and skill," Crimson began, slicing off her feet at the ankles and sending her down to meet the ground face-first. "Your trespasses will no longer be overlooked."
"Stop it!" Rivka pleaded, but they all ignored her.
"Hear us, for we are the Fifth Commandment," Sinon added, firing an arrow into Rosalia's head that stuck through to the pavement, pinning her in place. Just for good measure, she stuck her through with another pair of arrows that kept her hands and arms in place. "We now lay thee waste with our weapons, and absolve your blight from this place."
"This isn't justice!" Kirito strained to be heard over Rosalia's cries for help, her pitiful offering to serve the implacable scepters of death looming over her, all to no avail.
"We burn thee," Mataras snarled as his dark eyes flashed silver. As his blazing sword sped downward, he screamed, "Shatter!" With that, Rosalia died, her final cry burned into the minds of the Black Cats and their young friend.
Breathing heavily, Mataras turned toward his former comrades, his eyes filled with hatred and madness. "Remember this the next time you or any of the assault team tries to poach my prey out from under me," he said in a voice that sounded more bestial than human. "I am always five steps ahead of you."
"You're a coward!" Kiriha shouted furiously. "You don't have the guts to fight us, so you use poison to keep us down until you've made your escape! So much for being the most feared swordsman in Aincrad!"
"Pragmatism is not cowardice," Mataras replied with a mocking smile as he strode toward them. However, he paused after a thought seemed to strike him, for he turned and said to his comrades, "No loose ends." A chill ran through the Cats' avatars.
No loose ends? Kirito thought, terrified as the Red Swordsman resumed walking toward them, alone. Has he really gone so far that he'd kill us?
What happened next was almost worse than Mataras killing them. Crimson and Sinon exchanged a brief glance, then swiftly executed Thane on the spot, the orange player making not one sound of protest as they hacked and stabbed at him until he exploded into shining pieces. Seeing the looks of horror and revulsion on the faces of the assault team members, Mataras knelt in front of Kirito and smiled a cruel smile.
"Why?" Kirito managed to croak while Kiriha looked like she was trying to set Mataras on fire with her eyes alone.
"Because he was an orange player that I didn't need anymore, just to name one reason," his former friend answered quietly, but no less threatening for it. "As for the others… well, I'll let you drive yourselves mad trying to figure it out." With that, he clapped Kirito on the shoulder, moved to retrieve the corridor crystal that had been dropped, and then stood up, swiftly going to rejoin his new team.
"An orange player that you don't need, huh?!" Kiriha shouted after him while Rivka and Sachi dissolved into crying messes, with Silica not faring any better. "And what happens when your new friends aren't any use to you?! You gonna do the same thing to them?!"
To their surprise, Crimson laughed while the girl called Sinon smirked knowingly at them. "Of course not," Mataras snorted dismissively. "I don't kill my friends."
Before anyone could come up with a response to that, Crimson held up a teleport crystal and said, "Teleport: Hollow Area Control!" Then they vanished in a burst of blue and white light.
As they disappeared, Kiriha let out a wordless scream of frustration before yelling, "What the hell just happened?!"
It was all Kirito could do to answer in a defeated tone, "He's playing a different game than we are."
Back at the control center, Strea looked up from where she was playing with a little orange-and-red dragon as the sound of wind chimes announced the return of her friends. "Hi, guys!" she said cheerily. "How'd it go?"
"Everything went according to plan," Crimson grinned as he opened up his menu and began scrolling through it. "We killed the bad guys and scared the bejabbers out of the Cats. Plus we wasted Thane's Hollow, so the system shouldn't have an issue with his status now."
"Perfect!" Strea said with another bright smile.
"How did Litrosh behave?" Mataras asked as he held out an arm to the dragon in the room, which quickly flew up to land on his shoulder.
"He's been very good," the lavender-haired girl chirped. "He really likes playing 'tag', but it's really hard to catch him since he can fly and I can't…" She giggled, embarrassed.
"Well, since you don't get to go outside much, I figured you would like some of these," Crimson said as he finally selected some items out of his inventory and materialized them in his hands. "Here you go."
"Aw, they're beautiful!" Strea cooed as she accepted a bundle of flowers that Crimson had picked for her. "Thank you, Crimson!" With that, she seized him up in a very tight, one-handed hug that he struggled to escape.
"Okay, just don't break me in half!" he groaned.
"Don't be a baby, you can't feel pain," Mataras told him as he and Sinon walked past the pair.
"You wanna trade places, test that theory?!" his counterpart groaned.
"I don't think so."
As he and Sinon walked over to the admin's console, he put away his blade in his inventory and tossed aside his red cloak with a deep sigh. Hearing it, Sinon asked, "Are you alright?"
"I was wondering if what Kiriha said might have you worried," he admitted as he turned to face her.
"No," the archer said immediately, and with such conviction that the Red Swordsman believed her. "You showed me how to make peace with my past, Mataras. I owe you beyond words for that. And I know you recognize me as a kindred spirit, so no, I don't doubt in you, or our cause. It's something that I'm glad to be a part of, really."
"That does ease my concerns," he nodded to her gratefully. "I rely on you, as you know. Were it not for you, the only company I would be able to keep would be the Hollows."
"Speaking of which, doesn't it seem like Crimson is…" she hesitated, unsure of how to finish her sentence.
"Evolving?" Mataras guessed, at which she nodded in agreement. "I thought so as well. Not only has he been learning from me, he's living longer than most of them do. He's becoming less my Hollow, and more… himself?"
"I suppose the only way we could learn if this is an anomaly or just what happens when they live for long enough in the presence of their sources would be if we found find mine," Sinon suggested.
"Maybe…" Mataras muttered, his expression thoughtful. "I'll have Strea keep an eye out for a Hollow matching your description."
"Hey, boss!" Strea called out from across the room, where Crimson was staggering away from her. "I almost forgot! There was a weird new Hollow that came looking for you at camp!"
"Huh?" Crimson, Sinon, and Mataras all frowned and looked at the girl with bewildered expressions. "Looking for me?" the Red Swordsman asked. "That's not… That shouldn't be possible. Not unless we programmed it to… You said it was a new one?" As he spoke, he and the others moved closer to the tall girl.
"Yeah-huh," Strea nodded eagerly, apparently unfazed by all the incredulous looks she had received. "She's really cute, too!"
"Okay…" Crimson said as he turned to look at Mataras. "Can you think of any reason for why this might happen?"
"No," Mataras said after a moment of thought. "This makes no sense to me at all."
"What now?" Kiriha asked as she paced in front of pair of chairs that were currently occupied by Sachi and Kirito.
Rivka was upstairs, taking care of Silica- the poor little girl had been badly rattled from her experience of Mataras' brutality. Pina had been revived, which helped the young player a little bit, but for the most part she had remained withdrawn and trembling.
After the poison had worn off, the Cats had decided to bring the Dragon Tamer to their home so she would have a safe place to recuperate. Not to mention that since Sachi had injured a green player, her own cursor would be orange for a couple of days, so she wouldn't be able to go back to the town where they had rented rooms the night before.
"I don't know yet," Kirito sighed in response to his sister's inquiry, his head resting in his hands. "He was impossible to catch before, but now he's got a crew helping him. I don't see how we can get to him now."
"That was more than a crew," Sachi said quietly, yet firmly. "Those people… they look up to him, admire him. The look in that girl's eyes… she admires him the way that I used to. And that other boy, the one that looked like him…"
"They called him 'Crimson'," Kirito recalled. "What's his story? Does he revere Mataras so much that he made himself look like him?"
"No, I don't think so," Kiriha said with a negative shake of her head. "There's something really weird about him. He doesn't just look like Mataras- the way he sounded, the way he moved, it was like… like…"
"How Mataras used to act before he killed those guys," Kirito realized aloud. "But… how can there be two of him? That's impossible!"
"Yet somehow the Red Swordsman did it," Kiriha growled. "But I don't care what kind of tricks he's pulling out of his cape- I'm not giving up until I see him rotting in a cell for the rest of his miserable life."
When the boy that would become the Red Swordsman had initially run away, he found himself in a strange forest, strange even by SAO's standards, filled with monsters far stronger than he had ever encountered before. Worse, he did not recognize the map he saw whenever he pulled it up, nor did his teleport crystals even work. He nearly died several times in the first few hours of being there, but someone came to his rescue.
Strea had shown up alongside Crimson, who had also been calling himself Mataras at the time, which severely confused and disoriented the young man until Strea managed to get them to a safe zone where she was able to explain what was happening.
She told Mataras that while he was still trapped in Sword Art Online, a glitch in the system had sent him to a place that existed outside of Aincrad, a realm known as the 'Hollow Area'. Apparently its purpose was to test weapons and items that had yet to be released in Aincrad, using relatively primitive AI based on players' info- usually dead ones, or people of exceptional skill.
After bringing them to the control area, Strea was able to use the admin's console to show them that Mataras' Hollow had been generated shortly before his first kill, so until the real Mataras told him, the replica had no recollection of the event that took Saphira's life- only scattered memories from Michael's mind from across his lifetime. He also seemed rather single-minded in nature, determined to throw himself at any mob that he encountered with little regard as to whether or not he survived.
Strea explained that this was due to the Cardinal system's programming regarding the Hollow Area and its residents, but Mataras had already realized the benefits of having a partner just as strong and skilled as he was, so he and Strea set about using the admin's console to alter his Hollow's secondary functions so that he would be more amicable to suggestions from his 'source'.
As for Strea herself and why Mataras was willing to trust her so quickly- other than the fact that she had saved his life- it turned out that the girl was actually a Mental Healthcare Program, an advanced AI that bordered on being sentient, and a far cry from the intelligence and functionality of the Hollow programs that inhabited the area. She had been sent by the system to address his state of intense mental anguish at the loss of his sister and pretty much every friend that he had made in SAO, even if the latter had been because of his own choices. Her very existence was meant to help him reach mental stability once again, whatever it took. Knowing this, he managed to convince her that the best way for him to achieve a measure of inner peace would be to rid the virtual world of people that would kill others out of a sick sense of pleasure or a desire to further their own personal status or wealth.
She took some convincing, as she was meant to help people, not hurt them, but he pointed out that if he was her subject of interest, then it would be better for her to focus on what he needed for now. After that, she became more willing to work with him, and helped him to not only reprogram his Hollow and bestow him with the new handle, 'Crimson', but also to recruit other Hollows to his cause.
Crimson was the only AI that he went out into Aincrad with- Strea was able to grant them teleportation access between the two realms- but the other Hollows were instrumental in not only gathering materials needed to survive in such a hostile territory, but one was a blacksmith, one was a crafter, and another was a seamstress. This meant that Mataras could have new weapons forged custom, any clothes he needed or wanted, and a wealth of other handy items he could have never gotten in Aincrad- not until they reached much higher floors, first, anyway. So far they had gathered only a little more than a dozen Hollows out of the hundreds that wandered the Hollow Area to their cause, not wanting to risk alerting the Cardinal that someone might be using them to their own ends.
Plus, Strea had been granted administrative privileges by the system, which was why she could use the console freely at the control area. For some reason, her access regarding Aincrad itself was mostly blocked, but she could do a lot of things in the Hollow Area without the Cardinal system outing her as a counterproductive/destructive program, which would lead to her deletion. With such a threat in mind, it was for this reason that Strea never interfered with the genesis and initial programming of the Hollow AI.
"So if we didn't do anything to mess with a Hollow's programming, why is it looking for me instead of looking for mobs to kill?" Mataras muttered thoughtfully as he and the others strode through their camp, set up inside of a safe zone near a crumbling temple buried deep within the woods.
"Maybe it's someone you or Crimson killed?" Sinon suggested. "If their source's memories of you were strong enough, maybe they've identified you as the thing that they're supposed to kill."
"Unlikely," Strea grinned as she skipped alongside them, holding her flowers. "But I guess it's not impossible. She doesn't seem like the type, though."
"How would you know her intentions?" Crimson asked curiously.
"Oh, a girl just knows about certain things," Strea said with a mischievous smirk.
"Right…"
"Oh!" the lavender-haired AI exclaimed as she stopped skipping and pointed at a slight figure talking to the seamstress, their hand gently stroking a winter coat of a deep blue color. "That's her!"
Mataras and Crimson both stopped in their tracks, their faces paling to the color of snow. "Uh-oh…" the Hollow muttered, snapping his gaze to look over at Mataras, who was still as a statue. "This is gonna get… emotional."
"Who is that?" Sinon asked Crimson.
"A ghost," he replied hoarsely as the newcomer turned to regard them from a distance.
"Wha-?"
"Hello, Brother," Saphira said as she strode across the campground to stand three paces away from Mataras. "I've missed you."
It was nearly midnight when Kirito and Sachi were alone in front of the fireplace in their house. She was nestling her head against his shoulder tiredly when her brow furrowed, her ears picking up on a slight rustling sound. "Kirito?" she asked as she lifted her head off his shoulder.
"Mmm?" he mumbled drowsily. "What's up?"
"I think you've got something in the collar of your jacket," she told him.
This woke him up enough to see him sitting up straight with a frown on his own face. Scrabbling with his fingers, he picked at the underside of his collar until he encountered something other than the fabric of his black-and-blue jacket. It felt like…
"Paper?" Sachi asked as he pulled out a small white slip that looked as though it had been folded several times. "Where did this-?"
"Mataras," Kirito said, his eyes wide as he moved quickly to unfold the paper. "Just before he left, he patted me on the shoulder. I honestly thought he was doing it to taunt me, since I couldn't move…" His voice trailed off as he finished unfolding the scrap of parchment and began to read the words written on it.
"What does it say?" Sachi asked, no longer feeling tired.
"It's… coordinates," the raven-haired boy said. "For a meeting place. Says, 'When the time comes, and you need me, leave a dagger in the tree at this location. I will see it, and I will meet you. But be warned- if you bring anyone other than Sachi with you, I will not appear. You and she are the only ones I trust to keep your heads about you when we next meet'."
"He sounds awfully confident that we'll need his help for something in the future," Sachi said as Kirito refolded the paper. Looking up at him seriously, she asked, "What are you going to do?"
"…I'm going to let him play his hand," Kirito said at length. "Then the instant that he lowers his guard, even by the smallest margin, I'm going to make sure that he receives justice for his crimes."
Kirito: Wow. Okay, uh...
Asuna: We have a lot of questions.
Mataras: Well, I'll probably tell you to wait for the story to explain things, but go ahead.
Asuna: Kirito and Sachi...?
Mataras: Are dating, yes.
Kirito: That seems kinda... random? I mean, the way it just pooped out of nowhere?
Mataras: Seriously? Did you even read your guys' original story?
Asuna: ...Fair enough, but I thought you were more into explaining things than Kawahara.
Mataras: Flashbacks.
Kirito: Oh. Wait, why is Sinon in this story so soon?! And Strea?! They're not supposed to appear until floor 76!
Mataras: All to be explained later.
Asuna: What about Philia? Will she be appearing early?
Mataras: See above.
Kirito: Fine. How did you not get killed by the first mob that showed up in the Hollow Area?
Mataras: The way I see it is that the Hollow Area evolves the further up that the players go in Aincrad, so the mobs wouldn't be as difficult to deal with initially as they were in the game, Hollow Fragment.
Asuna: Last question... Why did you help Silica? Was it because she's a little kid, or was it because of her dragon?
Mataras: That'll be explained later.
Kirito: Of course... Wait, I got one more!
Mataras: Make it fast.
Kirito: Have you been quoting 'Arrow' whenever you've-
Mataras: Next time on Shattered Fragment- Realm of the Impossible.
Asuna: I knew it!