Chapter 13: A Place Called Home
"David?" the girl with jet black hair turns to me as she speaks, an inquisitive look in her eyes.
"Yes?" I ask, puzzled by the sudden questioning. We have stopped walking on a path through a forest on one of the lower floors. The leaves are swirled into the mix of bright and beautiful colours of yesteryear's autumn and the grains of sand from the track seems to curl around my toes, begging me to fling my foot up and send them flying to places they've never been before. I'm wearing dark jeans and a baggy grey t-shirt, the clothes I Dived into SAO with.
"Can I ask you a question?" she asks me, a badly suppressed nervousness clinging to her voice. Her eyes, usually a dazzling blue bright with confidence have retained their colour but seem to be without their usual spark. It's this detail that helps me pinpoint what moment in time this dream is set in.
Ah, this conversation.
"By all means, go ahead." I smile brightly at her, just like I did back then. This seems to make her more comfortable, although I guess that's due to my own interpretation of that day and my memories of her in general. I remember some determination returning to her eyes, I remember her taking a slightly-adorable deep breath, and I remember that as her face was bathed in sunlight and the leaves fell around her I wanted time to stop and for her to remain like that forever.
That's how you view the past. Little gaps of memory; the spaces in between naught but wish fulfilment..
What comes now, though, is something I know happened. It would be impossible to forget anything about it.
"Why did you follow me and Layn into Aincrad? You lied about connecting when everyone else did, didn't you?" Her tone is somewhat accusatory; but more so confused than irritated. Her fists are clenched in the same way they were the day she confronted her mother about selling that old piano to help pay for the tuition costs of cram school . She's standing with her arms crossed, her left foot forward, and her head aimed upwards in a way that makes her look a tad bit snobby.
I take my hand, grab her forehead in my palm, and tilt her head down a little. The motion makes her blush for a split second but then she swats my hand away clumsily.
"Woah wha-" she starts.
"I'm sorry, you just do this-thing. Every time something someone does gets on your nerves you get into this...stance." I explain as quickly as I can. "It's like 'Gossip Girl Bitching Out Stance, GO!' and then it just gets worse from there. What I did was just a pre-emptive strike."
The girl with jet black hair stares me in shock and then bursts out laughing. Her laughter rings out along with calls of birds in the forest around us, leaving me at a loss for words. I intended that to be snarky enough to cut the conversation short, not to amuse her.
"Hey, what's so funny?" I ask her.
"How do you know Gossip Girl? That's an ancient show for girls." She puts emphasis on the last word, teasing me. Despite my best efforts to change this part of the memory, the me from one year ago blushes so I do too.
"Sheesh, my mom forced me to watch it. No big deal." I look away as I answer, more than a little humiliated at this slip up.
"Your parents, huh..." I can see where there is going, but I can't stop it "...Why?"
"Why did I follow you two in, or why did I lie about when I entered?" I attempt to deflect the question with another one.
"Both." She looks worried now, which is the last thing I want to see. I decide to be straightforward and just get it over with instead of dragging it out.
"I lied about when I Dived because I knew you and Layn would call me a complete idiot for diving in knowing the risks." I do my best to make it sound logical, but it still comes out as somewhat pathetic.
"You are a complete idiot, idiot! You could have stayed on the other side with your family!" She's smiling again now, her irritation overwhelmed by her apparent satisfaction with my answer. There's still some tension though, and I realize she wants me to answer the other half of her question.
"Arissa..."
I didn't follow you and Layn in. You were the only thing I thought of when I dived.
If you died in here and I had stayed outside, I'd have never forgiven myself.
I love you.
That's all the truth.
"...I followed the two of you in because as much as I like my family, I feel more comfortable around you two. That is, more at home."
That's a half truth; that is, it's true but that alone wouldn't have been enough for me to dive. I could have said so much more, but those are the only words that came out.
"Ah...I see." Arissa looks away, a hardly noticeable grin on her face. She turns around and starts walking, and for a brief moment I consider breaking down and screaming my lungs out until everything I want to say has drowned the chirping of the birds out.
Was she expecting one of the other answers? Did she want to hear that?
Before I can say anything the girl spins on her heels and cuts me short with one of her usual smiles, making my mind go blank before I can say any more.
"If that's why you dived, I'm okay with that. Home is where the heart is after all, and I can't think of better places to have it than with the three of us." She states this so cheerfully that I can't help but smile.
"Yeah, I guess." She grins at my half-assed response and once again turns to begins power-walking down the path to where Layn is waiting for both of us. I take a deep breath and decide to enjoy this patch of the forest for a few seconds longer, so I turn back to take a look around.
That's when I saw it for the first time.
For a split second I catch sight of a face in between the trees. Two slits of eyes matched with a sinister grin, a sick and twisted contortion of the mouth filled with nothing but malice. I only brush over it briefly, and when my eyes snap back to what I saw it is gone. I turn to run towards the others, but to my horror the dream has already started to collapse. The entire forest is disintegrating into those awful crystal shards, the multi-coloured autumn leaves turning to a monotony of blue and shattering after a few seconds. The sand track and the ground around me also begins to break in places and what remains of the flora is rising up around me as if drops of water had decided to climb back to their respective clouds. Darkness sinks in wherever the dream has already been crushed and a sickening laughter takes place of the calls of the shattered birds. I smash through what's left of a tree with a striking resemblance to an oak and it practically evaporates as I go through it. At the end of the path, Layn has already disappeared. I sprint to Arissa, whose neck has just started to vanish. She turns to me, a head floating in the air, and looks at me with pity. Everything else is gone now, there is only darkness and her head floating before me. As those perfect lips begin to shatter the words which she would use months after the trek though the forest and that would return to me time and time again slip forth.
"Well, it looks like this is it. I'm so sorry, David."
Her blue irises are the last thing to shard up, and, like the memory, shatter into a thousand little pieces.
I open my eyes slowly to the brightly lit room around me. Despite having many hours of sleep, I actually feel less rested after that dream. With a groan, I turn my head to the side, and find myself faced with a mirror. My dark chocolate eyes have no bags under them only because it's not simulated as I'm fairly certain that my physical body; no doubt stuck in a random hospital on an uncomfortable bed, has a shopping trip's worth above its cheeks. I haven't been sleeping well recently.
I wonder why?
The NPC house I've been staying in is large, comfortable, and reasonably priced as I'm renting the entire second floor. For a house on the 34th floor it's a pretty solid deal. I'm thirteen floors behind the current front line on the 47th so I'm able to catch up to them within a month if I really want to. The only problem is that the 34th is another damn snow floor, so I'm freezing my ass off again. This is justifiable by the fact that this floor is practically deserted and the rent is dirt cheap, but nevertheless I'm starting to wonder whether I'm playing a part in constantly finding myself in the snowier regions of Aincrad. I chose to teleport to this floor, after all.
It would seem I'm naturally drawn to the biting cold and to unsympathetic environments.
I recall my time journeying with Jade, the emerald-eyed blonde whose lack of compassion and kindness was only eclipsed by her ability to get angry. I consider my time journeying with her, the amount of times I was hit for no good reason, the amount of col I lost, the bullshit excuses she used to get her way, and the amount of stress she put me through. All in all, it's beneficial to economic and emotional health that I'm no longer travelling with her, I conclude.
Then I consider how many times I've considered all of this within the last month, week, or even the last twenty four hours to be honest and how many times I've pondered on what would have happened if I had stayed and waited like she had asked me to and how many times I had convinced myself I did the right thing despite an ever lasting feeling of regret for running away from my problems again instead of facing them head on. In conclusion, there's probably more to it than the my mental stability or my wallet's health bar.
Perhaps I do enjoy all things frigid and uncaring.
With a sigh, I lift myself out of my bed and pull down my inventory bar. The date and time stares me in the face, mocking me as it always does with its ugly little numbers that yell: "You've spent another day in this cage, you worthless piece of shit orange."
«8th day of the Month of The Holly, 2023», 5:34AM
Or, in a time I can bother to understand.
8th of December, 2023. 5:34AM.
Fuck.
Although I've kept my level quota decent by slaughtering dozens of mobs in the hardest part of this floors abandoned dungeon, I'm probably back into the average front liner range by now. It's been more than a month since I jumped through the portal in Aradu and I still haven't left this floor. If it wasn't for Argo mentioning something the next step being on the 49th floor then I'd be shit out of luck as far as losing my orange status goes. When I think about it, she also mentioned getting extra help from some people to help me with that, but I can handle that on my own. I should tell her that. I've proven that much, I think, with my fight in the plaza against that damn bandit. I still can't believe there's a next phase to it. Argo told me the King gave another lengthy speech before assigning the next objective, and I'll take her word for it as I haven't heard from anyone else from my questing "group" since that day.
Maybe you should have stayed.
No. They left me out there to fight on your own and I nearly died. There's no excusing or justifying that. I complete the next phase of the quest and them I'm gone far away from anyone who knows who I was and that's the end of that. Even Jade can't give a good enough excuse to have me forgive her.
But first...
There is one important thing about today that I had almost forgotten about. I have a person to meet on the 35th floor, inside the forest of wandering. An old acquain-I suppose you could say friend- of mine, in fact, although I'm not sure if he'd enjoy hearing that word from me due to our most recent encounter. I dress myself in dark, cheap gear and equip a cheap «Heavy Steel One-Handed Sword» I brought ages ago as my primary weapon, hiding the Heaven Splitter inside my inventory. Where I'm going, you do not want to look rich, recognizable, or worthy of attention.
It takes only fifteen minutes walking to get to the dungeon; I chose the place I'm staying in largely for its proximity to the stairs leading to the next floor. I then proceed to navigate through a path I've memorized but never really used over the last month. Once I trudge through the long-abandoned boss room I find myself climbing up to the next floor. If I remember correctly, this was either the first or second floor I didn't take a part in clearing in. The fight on the 25th really screwed everything up for everyone. But I have climbed these stairs before, of course, oranges don't get to teleport often.
I push open the doors of the 35th floor and find myself in the «Forest Of Wandering», a very beautiful and enchanting location, the perfect place for a bunch of low level players to get killed as they go here for sightseeing and ignore the dangers. They then are ever-so surprised when the dangers don't ignore them and they get themselves completely surrounded by mobs. Truly, if you're too low level to be here and you find yourself getting stomped by «Drunken Apes», you deserve to lose a few heal crystals and your tele-crystals. Pretty does not equal safe in Aincrad. That statement applies to people as much as locations.
I;on the other hand, need not worry about this. I'm high enough level to sweep this area and I've dealt with a mix of beauty and beast plenty within the last few months. The few mobs I encounter while following the directions sent to me meet their end at the end of my crap-tier sword, and before I know it I'm coming up to a large clearing in the forest. As I break through the last bit of the tree line, I see the scene before me unfold for the first time in months upon months.
Ah, part of me really missed this.
The glade's green grass glistens from the light of the early morning sun as scores of boots tread tentatively on the field, their owners looking curiously onto the row upon row of rag-tag shops and stalls that have been set up in the clearing. I can see around three dozen player vendors yelling vigorously in the hopes that their produce will be purchased by the onlooking crowds, and on one corner it seems a few have set up cafes and restaurants; all looking oddly adequate amidst the vivid verdure of the forest. Here, cunningly concealed by a wall of trees and terrifying NPCs, is the current location of bimonthly market fair for all orange players, the «Gathering».
Wow, it's really grown since last time I came.
From where I stand it looks like anywhere hundred or two hundred people have come to the «Forest of Wandering», visibly more than double the amount I remember being there on the 19th floor four months ago. I didn't go to the last «Gathering» due to my slight issue with Mors' guild at the time, but I imagine it had grown then too. It's only natural that these events grow bigger, though. The «Gathering»s are purely player organized and news of them is spread by word of mouth, so as long as people keep giving the new locations to their friends and compatriots then people will come on mass. People also come here because they don't have a choice. Although the merchants and a few of the players here are green, the vast majority are orange players. The entire function of the «Gathering» is to allow merchants who'd like to sell items to orange players to have one central, safe event to do it at, and to allow those who are orange to buy what they need to buy from merchants at a slightly less absurd price than they'd usually rip us off for. This black market is expensive, but the prices aren't as terrible as they would be if you brought from a travelling vendor like I did when I acquired my main white and blue sets of gear.
Little bastard ripped me off. Oh well, I needed the gear badly and it wasn't my money.
Remembering the deal with the slimy little merchant and the money I used for my gear reminds me of why I came here in the first place, and in a hurry I begin to pull up my messaging centre. Before I can reach my friends list a hand grabs my shoulder with a firm grip.
"Huh?" I turn my head in confusion towards whoever is behind me and get to witness the metal gauntlet colliding against the side of my face. The punch sends me into a spin but I quickly plant my feet and regain my balance, lifting my head back up to face my attacker.
Standing before me is a man of about my height; a tall figure with light brown hair and blue, friendly eyes. If not for his idiotic, mischievous grin and the orange cursor above his head he'd easily be mistaken for a charismatic leader, but I know better. The shield-bearer before and the man who just punched me is none other than Insigah, the very definition of an easygoing "fuck-it-all" cynic and without a shadow of the doubt my best living friend in this game.
"What the hell was that for?! And how the hell did you recognize me?" is the first thing I say to this best friend of mine, rage burning in my eyes.
"Don't you remember? When you were fighting Mors' guild you wrecked me with a «Meteor Strike» or some other fancy kung-fu crap you learned on the first few floors. I swear, my eyes practically rolled back into my head, it was awful! Kinda like your choice in disguises, only you would think dressing up like Emperor Palpatine makes you inconspicuous." As Insigah always does when he's not being serious, he acts the scene out as he describes it, emulating a shoulder smash when he mentions the move, waving his arms at "kung-fu" and rolling his eyes back when he describes it happening.
Glad to see you haven't changed, although the fact that you're referencing a movie that's like 50 years old is kinda creepy.
They say 70% of all human communication is with body language. In Insigah's case it's probably 50% verbal and 150% body language. He talks a lot more than the average person does.
"Maybe if you had learned the "kung-fu crap" you wouldn't throw such messy sucker-punches and you'd actually fight like a man. With honour and all those other things you've probably never heard of." I say this with a challenging tone, but this is just the usual back-and-forth between Insigah and I. We get along relatively well.
"Hearing the word 'honour' from a guy who used a glitch in the combat system to catch a spear mid strike and stab his friend with it is a little rich." He states with a smirk.
"Albeit, his friend who was trying to kill him." I retort.
"Why, kill him? No. It was naught but a duel, dear Klaes!" He replies in a overly-enthusiastic and almost-serious tone.
"A duel? It was one versus, what, seven?" I'm sheerly stupefied by his statement. Surely even his humour has its limits. I nearly died, for crap's sakes, you don't joke about that.
"A true knight does not look at trivial matters such as numbers or odds." He states proudly, bringing his hand to his chest plate in some sort of mock-salute. Although I know he's pulling my leg, the gesture worryingly reminds me of the a certain purple guild a bit too much.
"There aren't any real knights in Aincrad, just because a game's weapons are medieval doesn't mean the players should act like they've gone back hundreds of years into the past."
Although quite a few do. Ew.
"Now, now, Klaes. Aren't you one of those types? You called Mors a peasant, after all."
"I did?"
What, when?
"White knight, huh? So be it. On guard, peasant!" Insigah makes his voice sound as heroic as possible as he waves his right arm in front of him, getting into a pretend version of the shield-less one handed sword stance I always set up in. It's then that I remember the short conversation Mors and I had before he sent his guild forth to kill me.
Oh, I did say that.
"Heat of the moment, Insigah." I attempt to excuse myself.
"It still counts." He says, and just like that it's over.
"Fair enough, you win." I give up with a sigh, and Insigah grins back at me. Then I hear laughter coming from behind him. Curiously, I look past his shoulder to see a short girl with black hair and brown eyes laughing herself crimson. Strangely enough the color cursor floating above her head is green, not orange like most of the players here. I shoot Insigah a "who the hell is this?" look, but he just smiles back at me.
"C'mon, let's go get some drinks. The cafe on the corners is pumping out its best stuff because it's the last day. We can catch up there." He states before I can ask anything else.
"Okay, sure."
The Criminally Copious Coffee Cup Cafe has the same hustle and bustle cafes in populated cities would. A waiter or two are sprinting between tables to get everyone's orders, a cook desperately works to produce the food and drinks, and col flows into the place like river-water into the ocean; normal, really. The major difference is that while most player owned shops in the cities have the NPCs doing the dirty work, the nature of these places force the players to do all the work. This makes for a far more interesting experience as things like tips actually come into play, making it feel a lot more human. The front-liners can say what they want about Orange players, we are probably closer to the real world than they are with their constant drive towards the 100th floor. We certainly live closer to being kicked out of Aincrad, albeit not in a way most would enjoy.
"Two cappuccinos, a double espresso, and four loafs of sweet bread?" The waiter states our order as if it's a question, obviously wanting to check before he hands us someone else's food. Starting a fight in a cafe's unlikely, but considering that this place turns into a bar later during the day it's fair enough that he's become used to checking the orders. The only difference between bar fights between Orange players in SAO and bar fights in real life is the presence of lethal weaponry and the lack of punishment for using them. This occasionally turns out to be a crucial difference, as one can imagine.
"Yep, that's us!" Mira, the girl Insigah is travelling with, responds so cheerfully it worries me. The waiter smiles at her, places our orders on the table as carefully as he possibly can considering he's probably investing every single point of his AGI into moving this fast, and scurries off to deal with the next order.
"Damn, they're busy." I remark.
"Yep, they're busy bees, that's for sure!" Mira adds on with so much joy I almost feel nauseous. Insigah smiles at her for a few seconds, and then turns to me.
"Over the last two events, the «Gathering» has gotten huge. It's pretty amazing to see all these orange players in one place at a time, I must admit." He smirks before he continues "Then again, if you ,the reigning king of all things anti-social, show up then I'm surprised that we haven't reached the thousands yet."
Harr. Harr. I'm not that bad, Insigah.
I'm about to retort when Mira steps in for me. It's a beautiful thing when a girl that is supposed to be on your friend's side makes him look like a dunce.
"Hey, weren't you travelling completely alone until just a little while back, hmm?" Mira pokes Insigah in the cheeks and I see him flush slightly red. It's a rare sight to see him flustered, so I enjoy watching him suffer as he comes up with an answer.
"That was merely a temporary break from socializing. Even extroverts need their alone time, my dear." Insigah explains with his usual evasive, hilarious bullshit.
"Temporary my ass. You'd been a loner for what, a month?" Mira crosses her arms and stares at Insigah with a mischievous grin, and when he looks away again I finally get it. When this girl introduced herself and when she dealt with the waiter I was slightly put off by her bubbly crap, but in a way she's the same as Jade. Jade has a beautiful exterior that hides her true self, Mira has her bubbly attitude that hides a girl sharp enough to keep up with Insigah. As I watch Insigah fail to properly retort and Mira counter, I begin to wonder...
Did Jade and I look like this?
"If you don't mind me asking, how'd you guys meet?" I cut off their banter, genuinely curious. They turn to me in shock, as if I just said something taboo.
"W-woah, watch how you phrase that question, Klaes." Insigah stutters, something he never does, waving his hands in front of his face. Mira looks equally taken aback.
"What?" I don't get it.
"Youmadeitsoundlikewearetogether." Mira blurts out as quickly as she possibly can.
"You're not?"
Bullshit. I've never seen Insigah this red.
"No!" They both say in unison, now with both their cheeks crimson. They look at each-other after saying that in a "wait, are you sure?" kind of way and then quickly focus on consuming their cappuccinos and bread. I follow suit and take a lazy bite out of the sweet bread before me. It's almost as "sweet" as watching those two squirm in front of me as they await for me to change the subject, and equally delicious.
Young love is such dumb love. Call it what you want, it was still enough
"So—"
"Wait, Nick, have we introduced him to James yet?" Mira ever so rudely cuts me off, but it's not that or the fact that she said "we" which surprises me, it's the fact she called Insigah by his first name, something I only got the privilege of knowing after being his friend for ages.
"You've told each other your real names, eh?" I cut in and swiftly reach for a sip of my espresso. The two stumble for excuses and words to escape their flushed cheeks, but I raise my hand up and put down my coffee before they can speak.
"I'll rephrase my question. Why'd you start travelling together?" I ask. Seemingly more satisfied with this subject than the topic of their intimacy, they begin to recount how they met. The fact that they were finishing each other's sentences was enough to make me feel nauseous, and as much as Insigah's a great guy and Mira seems like a really cool girl I could feel myself spinning on and on as the third wheel until they finished their damn story.
"So Jack, your brother, ran into the «Forest of Wandering», got terribly lost, and you went in to save him. Then a huge group of «Drunken Apes» jumped you guys and Insi—my bad, Nick jumped in and saved you both when he was coming back from the first day of the «Gathering». Is that right?" Mira, seemingly oblivious to Insigah cringing at my use of his true name, nodded happily. I open my mouth to drop another bombshell, but it seems Insigah has got his anti-aircraft up.
"What about you, Klaes, what happened to that girl you saved?" Insigah's faces changes from teasing to guilty when he sees my reaction to Jade being mentioned. I can see he's about to apologize
"Don't worry about it. She's fine. We only traveled together for a few days and then went separate ways. I can see he's about to drop it, but Mira cuts in.
"Yeah, but how close were you two?" Mira asks, curiously.
"Huh?" I respond in the only way I know how.
"You can know someone for years and be merely and acquaintance. You can know someone for a week and fall in love. It doesn't matter how long you've known someone, what matters is what you did together in the time you had." Mira says this passionately, and I can't help but notice her eyes flicker towards Insigah when she mentions knowing someone for a week. Still, this point catches me off guard.
"Uh... We were kinda close I guess." I answer her question.
That's about it.
At the awkward silence, Mira decides to drop it too.
"Anyway, Klaes, about why I called you here" Insigah starts
"Sure, go shoot." I agree, eager to change the subject.
"I just wanted to warn you in person. There's a new big orange guild that might be starting up, end of this month. You might want to join." At the mention of this, Mira phases out of the conversation and starts to drink coffee. Perhaps she realizes this is a thing between orange players and that, as nice as she is, her opinion is not wanted on this topic.
Hell no.
"I don't know dude...you know how I am with guilds." I answer, my reluctance clear. The fact I stabbed my last guild leader to death is a pretty clear indicator of how I deal with teamwork.
"Look, Klaes, Mors was a dick and whatever he got was coming to him either way. This new guild? They might actually change things."
"Change what?" I'm skeptical at best.
"How orange players stand in Sword Art Online, whether we're respected or not, everything. There are three very powerful players organizing it. The leader in particular has some very...new ideas as to how we should live our lives here." For a cynic, Insigah's being unnervingly optimisitic. Has the woman gotten to your head?
"Alright, how about you? Are you joining it too?" I ask. Insigah looks over at Mirah, and then back over his shoulder to where a boy with a green cursor is running in the grass, playing tag with the two or three other under fourteen players who were likely dragged in here by their orange parents.
So that's Jack, huh.
"Probably not." Insigah answers honestly, genuine guilt on his face.
Don't worry, I get it. People to take care of.
"Tell you what, I'll consider it." I answer honestly back. If this thing on the 49th floor fails and I don't get back to green status, I'll need a guild sooner or later. I'll need a place, a people to call home eventually. For a split second the idea of telling Insigah about the the orange status quest comes to mind, but then I realize he has two green players counting on him. Then I remember that he got his orange status because the mob he was fighting dodged and he accidentally crit hit another player in the head. Basically, he deserves and needs redemption more than I do. If he takes up the quest, I won't be able to make myself stop him.
Sorry, can't happen, I need this.
"Thanks, man. I think you'd be great with them." Oblivious to my inner conflict, he grins at me. It seems getting someone who counts on him has made him slightly more mature. I wonder if the same applies to me. The image of me handing Jade underwear in the middle of a bustling desert city comes to mind and I nearly choke with laughter on the coffee I'm drinking.
Nope. I know for a fact that doesn't work for me.
"Anyway," Mira starts, "it's the last day of this. You want to go all enjoy it, we can introduce you to Jack if you want."
"Sure, that sounds nice." I nod my head to her as I get up. Insigah foots the bill for us and tips the waiter, a gesture I appreciate considering my recent spending sprees. The idea of shopping around here doesn't sound that bad, after all, I need to repair the Heaven Splitter and some new gear would be appreciated if I can find any up to par.
"Well, let's start on the north side once we get Jack, there's pretty good ar—"
CLANG CLANG CLANG
A bell tolls from outside of the clearing, a few hundred meters into the forest on the West side.
Suddenly, the glade is filled with merchants rolling up their gear. The Criminally Copious Coffee Cup Cafe is being taken apart and put into storage within seconds, and it appears the waiters and cook have teleported out. All around us merchants are scrambling to pack up their stuff into their carpets. Orange players are equipping heavy weaponry and already I can see a defensive line has been set up at the west side's entrance. A few players have started screaming, but it seems the others are trying to shut them up.
"Nick! Nick! What the fuck is going on?" I yell to Insigah over the madness. He emerges from the crowd with Mira's hand clasped in one of his and her younger brother, Jack's in his other. His usually cheery demeanor is gone, and I can tell shit's about to hit the fan before he even says anything. He sighs, equipping his shield and sword, and spits the words out.
"It's a raid. A few dozen players."
So what? We have at least a hundred.
"If it's a few dozen, we can take em." I state confidently.
"Klaes. The DDA's among them." He states it in such monotony that the words take a minute to register before they jolt me.
"WHAT?!"
The DDA's known for being dubious in their practices, but mounting a raid against orange players is a little too risky, no?
I turn to the West entrance in disbelief but surely enough in the distance is a sea of grey armour, marching towards us relentlessly. However, that's not what makes me draw my sword, my heart beat increasing rapidly. Hidden between the lines of the DDA and the rag tag raiders which have joined up to take the Gathering down, there is an unmistakable patch of Purple armour in the middle of the group. At least ten of them.
The TKA. Prodotes' True Knights of Aincrad.
Shit.
NOTE FROM AUTHOR:
Dialogue heavy chapter. I liked writing it though because I finally got to expand slightly on the idea of Orange players having their own culture/society inside of Aincrad, something that was briefly mentioned in the light novels but never really expanded upon. Although this fanfic is called "Living Orange" I haven't had that much of a chance to display this, only really arbitrarily mention it through Klaes' narration. It was exciting to be able to really expand on the ideas put forth as far as how orange players live for the first time. I'll be trying to do this more often as the story progresses, but this will always be Klaes' own personal journey. Anyone's who has read the novels or paid attention during the anime likely knows which lovely guild Insigah is referring to, but if you don't stay tuned because they'll play a rather small but extremely important part in the story.
As far as next chapter goes, expect a bit of an action fest. I apologize for this becoming a trend recently but after this chapter I hope you'll have had a nice break from swordplay and such. Then again, considering how long it takes me to update the chapters you all probably get a nice long break from anything I do. My bad.