A/N: Hey readers. Here's the first Blazing Generations chapter of the new year. Hope you all enjoy it. Also, for those of you that haven't been reading Lost Stories, I recently got a commission done of Luna. It's currently the cover image for Lost Stories, but it's also on my deviantart page. Feel free to tell me your thoughts via PM, review, or even commenting on the image itself at deviantart. If you can't find it, let me know via PM and I'll be happy to give you a link.
Yuzuki had never really been the "popular type" growing up. She wasn't good at making friends, never knowing what to say to get people to like her.
But if there was one thing she liked, it was games. Unfortunately, she even flunked at that when it came to gossip. She would always end up picking up games too late, after kids would be done playing it and moved onto another game already. She didn't mind too much though. She had a loving family, and even though she didn't play as early as most, she loved playing the games she got. Especially ones in VR. Yuzuki simply figured she'd just wait and let time take its course before finding a friend naturally.
Then came the middle school camping trip.
It was a yearly thing for her school. For one week during late spring, they'd go out into the woods where there were cabins set up and do various activities, such as fishing and whatnot. Each cabin had two bedrooms with three beds each, one room for boys and one for girls. There was one rule that students could only be in the same cabin as others from their class. As with most activities like this, she was in the group of students that didn't already have a group, two other girls that seemed to be friends but didn't have a third to complete the trio.
Finally the morning came where it was her turn to make breakfast. She wasn't much of a cook, but she recalled how her mother had made miso soup for her often for breakfast. Perhaps the other kids in her cabin would like it too. It could be a conversation starter and perhaps a way for her to make a friend or two.
For the most part, it had gone well. Four out of the five students in the cabin with her had liked the soup, saying it was tasty. It was with the fifth student that things had gone differently than she had been expecting. A boy with messy red hair.
"Soup's nice and all, but I'm used to eating bread meals for breakfast." he said before looking at Yuzuki with a cheeky grin. "But then again, if I had a cute girl like you cooking for me every day, I wouldn't ever complain."
The other two girls rolled their eyes while one of the other boys hit the red haired kid in the shoulder. "Do you have to, Naoki? I don't want to get in trouble if the girls complain to the teacher about you being creepy."
As Naoki argued with the other boy, Yuzuki quickly turned around to hide her blush. Naoki hadn't noticed the red on her cheeks before she turned around, but the girls at the table did as grins came to both of their faces. It was time for a gossip session.
When night came, Yuzuki crawled into bed and prepared to go to sleep, but was awoken as her two roommates came to her bedside.
"Wanna have some girl talk, Yuzuki?" one of the girls asked.
"G-Girl talk?" Yuzuki asked with a stutter, surprised since she had never really had a "girl talk" before. But she couldn't back down from this. This might be her best chance at making some friends. She nodded her head. "Sure."
The three girls sat together on top of Yuzuki's bed. With her inexperience with midnight girl gossip, Yuzuki was understandably nervous. "So… what should we talk about?"
"How about the way you blushed at Naoki Gekido's comment?" one of them said.
Yuzuki's cheeks went red as a tomato at the sudden comment. "Wh-What are you talking about?"
"Don't deny it." the other girl said. "We saw you. You like him, don't you?"
"Well I… uh…" Yuzuki couldn't put up any act in front of the two girls. "Well I'm just not used to boys calling me 'cute'. Naoki's the first boy to say that to me."
"And?"
"And… I guess I like him…"
"Awwwww!" the two girls squealed together. One of them leaned towards Yuzuki. "Ok we are getting you two together."
"What?!" Yuzuki exclaimed, quickly covering up her mouth, afraid of waking up the others. "Really?" she asked in a whisper.
In response, the two girls gave Yuzuki a thumbs up. For the first time in her life Yuzuki was beginning to feel like she belonged. That she finally had her first real friends. It was a surprise that it had taken her falling for a boy to get it to happen though.
The rest of the week, Yuzuki and her newfound friends had worked on getting Naoki to talk more to Yuzuki. Unfortunately, each encounter ended in failure. There was the two of them fishing together, where she was about to speak up before a big fish snagged on her pole and had ended up being strong enough to yank her into the lake. She wasn't the only one getting wet in the failed attempts though. There was the time they were roasting marshmallows together, and Yuzuki had turned to him too fast, resulting in her piping hot marshmallow flying off its stick and onto Naoki's foot which ended in him running into the lake. She was sure the hiking excursion would work, but the moment had been ruined when Naoki had been distracted by some baby deer only for him and Yuzuki to get chased off by their overprotective mother.
In the end, Yuzuki had failed in getting more time to talk with the boy that had called her cute. But it hadn't all been bad. Her exchanges with Naoki had gotten girls to talk with her out of curiosity. Finally, Yuzuki had others she could call friends. It had been weird at first, but Yuzuki got used to the attention pretty quickly and fit in with the other girls.
But although she had friends, Yuzuki still couldn't get her mind off of Naoki. She tried to get some time with him, but the red haired boy always seemed to be trying to flirt with some other girl.
'I just wish he would talk that way to me, and only me.' Yuzuki thought to herself.
By the end of the school year, Yuzuki had failed to get Naoki to notice her at all. When their first year of high school had come, Yuzuki was no longer in the same class as Naoki so it had been harder to find him in the school. But she would still catch glimpses of him in the hall. His dreamy face and messy red hair. She could never figure out how to approach him though. She wondered if he even remembered her and their time during the camping trip.
Left with no other options, Yuzuki had decided to go to her mother for advice. She had always been able to confide in her in the past.
"In love with a boy from school, huh?" her mother said. "Ah, that brings me back to my younger days too. Oh sweet memories."
"What should I do mom?" Yuzuki asked. "How did you and dad fall in love?"
A reminiscent smile could be seen on her mother's face. "Well I do love your father very much Yuzuki, that much will always be true. But my first crush came back in high school. There was a boy I was head over heels for, but I didn't confess my feelings soon enough. By the time I did, I found out he was already dating another girl. That is my biggest regret." Her mother looked her daughter in the eyes. "Listen closely dear. If you want something that you can have, don't hesitate. You have to go and grab it by the neck before someone else can grab it. If you love this boy that much then you have to pursue your love."
Her mother had never led her astray in the past, and Yuzuki doubted she would this time. She went into a detailed search, trying to find out everything she could about Naoki, including his likes and dislikes. She had heard he was a fan of VR games, which was good since it would give them something in common. But she didn't know which games he played. She continued her research until she had one day overheard him mention a game he frequented to a friend in the halls. Alfheim Online
Yuzuki had nearly jumped for joy when she had heard this. She herself was a big fan of ALO, playing the game quite often. But there was still the question of his handle, and she had little hope that she'd be lucky enough to hear him blurt that out in the halls. So she took her search to the virtual world of fairies.
Finding one player out of the thousands on the Japanese server of ALO was like finding a needle in a haystack though. Failure after failure stacked up in front of Yuzuki to the point where she was on the verge of giving up.
That was when it happened.
"Seriously Naoki, you've gotta stop flirting with every girl you see."
Yuzuki turned her head and saw two players walking together through the streets of Arun. One was a male Sylph with blonde hair. The other was a Salamander that Yuzuki almost mistook as having the same hair as Naoki's until she realized that almost all Salamander's had red hair.
"Come on Tetsuya, I was THIS close!" the Salamander said.
"What you were close to was getting a slap to the face." Tetsuya told him.
'Could it really be…' Yuzuki asked herself. Why hadn't she thought of it? The first thing she should have done with her search was look for players named Naoki. And his mannerisms seemed so similar. She couldn't just let him get away with such a rare chance in front of her. She kept her distance as she followed the two players.
Eventually the player named Naoki split up from his friend, saying that he was going to do some hunting. Yuzuki followed after him, taking to the sky. After a bit of flying, she finally saw him land in a field.
It was now or never. Yuzuki gulped before she landed and walked up to the Salamander teen. Her mother had told if she really wanted something and she could have it, to grab it by the neck.
She may have taken the advice a bit too literally though.
Strea let out a yell as she slashed her sword through a monster, causing it to shatter away. The female Gnome wiped the sweat from her forehead. "Man, soloing in the fields sure is exhausting. Makes me wonder how dad was able to do it so often in SAO." she said.
Sadly, Yui was too busy to go online today. But even without her sister that didn't mean Strea couldn't have some fun and go hunting herself.
"AHHHH! SOMEBODY HELP ME!"
The sudden shout caused Strea to turn her head towards where she had heard the voice. She quickly ran up the nearby hill and looked down at the scene going on below. The scene being Naoki getting attacked by a female Undine.
"Yeesh, another bad rejection. He must have found one with a real temper." Strea muttered to herself, assuming the Undine was another girl Naoki had hit on.
Little did Strea know that the exact opposite was what was really happening.
When he came out to hunt in the fields, a sucker kick to the head was not what Naoki had been expecting. At first he had thought it was Rin pissed at him for some reason again. But when he looked up and saw that it was instead an ivory haired Undine with a longsword at her waist, he knew it was something much worse.
"Come on Naoki. Show me that manly strength of yours." the Undine said as she held him down.
"For the millionth time, I don't even know who you are!"
"My apologies. My name is…" Yuzuki quickly stopped herself from blurting out her real name, knowing revealing something like that so soon would ruin everything. She corrected herself by saying her in-game name. "You can call me Yukina."
"Well it's very nice to meet you Yukina, now GET OFF ME!"
Their encounter only got weirder for the Salamander as he suddenly felt Yukina stroke his hair. "Your hair's so soft."
"Thank you. I use a special conditioner- LEAVE ME ALONE!"
"You see, your real problem here is you leave too many openings with your stance."
"How is kicking my ass suddenly turning into a lecture for fighting?!" Naoki asked. "What the hell do you want from me anyway?!"
"Oh Naoki…" Yukina said in a romantic tone. "I'm just proving to you I'm worthy of you."
At this, Naoki suddenly froze. 'You've got to be kidding me.' he thought to himself. 'Every freaking time! Why is it always the crazy ones that end up wanting me?!'
As Naoki struggled to get the girl off him, his eyes caught sight of someone standing on top of a nearby hill. He quickly made out the figure as Strea, who was actually sitting down and eating a snack, while using a recording crystal to tape all of this.
"Strea! What do you think you're doing?! Help me!" Naoki pleaded.
Yukina turned her head to see who Naoki was talking to. Her expression turned into a glare at the onlooker. "Excuse me! My future boyfriend and I are trying to have a romantic moment! I'd appreciate if you gave us some privacy!"
"Don't give us privacy! For the love of god, please do not give us privacy!" Naoki begged. "Strea, help!"
To the Salamander's dismay however, Strea got up and grabbed the recording crystal, waving goodbye to the duo. "See you later loverboy! Looks like you found a real keeper!"
"Strea, don't you dare-" His plea fell on deaf ears as Strea brought out her wings and took to the sky.
With the onlooker gone, Yukina went back to stroking Naoki's hair. "Now where were we, my love?"
Naoki's screams gradually got quieter as Strea fled from the scene. 'Sorry Naoki. But I'm not getting into it with someone crazy like her.'
-The next day-
"I can't believe you just left me with her!" Naoki yelled at Strea. "It took me over an hour to get away from that psycho!"
Naoki yelled this at Strea as he and his friends were gathered together at Yui and Strea's house in the town of Coral in New Aincrad. There, Strea decided to show everyone Naoki's encounter with the mystery Undine named Yukina. Rin couldn't help but chuckle a bit at how easily Naoki was getting his butt handed to him.
"Look not that I approve of Strea recording your misery for her own amusement, but maybe it was a good thing she recorded this." Yui pointed out. "Perhaps you can show this to the GMs and they can penalize that Yukina player."
"I doubt it." Naoki groaned. "As long as it isn't sexual harassment, the GMs tend to stay away from problems between players. Perhaps they'd pay more attention to it if I was a girl. Freaking sexism."
"Well girls are the target most of the time for this kind of stuff." Rin argued. "Besides, it'd be kind of hypocritical for you to complain after all the girls you've freaked out by flirting with them."
Naoki grumbled something under his breath but couldn't argue against Rin's point. Lilly sighed and shook her head. "Well has anything else happened since then? Did that girl find you today at all in ALO?"
"No, but I found the freakiest thing in my locker at school." Naoki told them. "A love letter. From Yukina."
The eyes of his friends widened as they heard this. "Hang on! Yukina goes to your school?!" Tetsuya exclaimed.
"And she knows my identity IRL. This is the worst." Naoki groaned. "I can't even go to the school with this cause I have no idea who Yukina even is IRL."
"Man, this girl really is head over heels for you." Rin said.
"Bet we could get your multitude of cousins to do something." Strea joked.
"Are you crazy? I am not dealing with whatever aftermath is going to result if I get my cousins involved." Naoki told her. "I swear everyone on my mom's side of the family is almost as crazy as this Yukina girl."
"U-Um…" Sayaka's voice caused her friends to all glance in her direction. "M-Maybe you could pretend you have a girlfriend already Naoki. Like you did with that person that was stalking me once."
"Hmmm… That's not a bad idea." Naoki said as he contemplated it. "But who would I get to pretend to be my girlfriend?" He glanced towards Rin, who feverishly shook her head.
"Not in a million years." she told him.
"Lilly?"
"Absolutely not."
"Yui?"
"No way. I'm not risking people seeing us like that and spreading rumors." the Spriggan girl said.
"Ugh…" Naoki moaned as he sank in the chair he was sitting on.
"N-Naoki…" Sayaka said. "P-Perhaps… I c-could be your pretend g-g-g-g-girlfriend."
Rin's eyes widened while Yui's narrowed, wondering what the Undine girl was thinking offering herself like that. As everyone looked towards Naoki for an answer, the Salamander shook his head. "No thanks Sayaka. I don't want to trouble you with something like that."
"Yet he'll trouble just about anyone else." Rin muttered under her breath.
"B-But… But…"
"Look Sayaka, I appreciate that you want to help me but it probably wouldn't be very convincing." Naoki told her. "With all your stuttering, you'd fall apart if Yukina asked any questions."
"But I…"
"Don't worry about it. I'll manage somehow." Naoki assured her. "Now then, who else is there. Hey, maybe that idol friend of yours can help, Lilly. You said she plays ALO, right."
"Once, and I don't even think she owns an Amu Sphere." Lilly told him. "Besides, I'm not asking her to do something like that."
"Darn, another bust." Naoki sighed. "Well if nothing else works out I guess you might have to be my pretend girlfriend after all Saya-" He paused as he saw a tear fall from the Undine's face, catching the attention of everyone there. "Sayaka?"
"YOU'RE A STUPID JERK, NAOKI GEKIDO!" Sayaka shouted out. Before anyone could get a word in, she ran out of the house, crying in tears.
"Sayaka?!" Rin exclaimed, quickly running after her, followed by Tetsuya and Lilly. "Hey wait! Sayaka!"
Naoki blinked in surprise, trying to process what had just happened. "What was that about?"
"You really are dense, aren't you Naoki?" Yui sighed.
"What?"
"Forget it." Yui got up from her seat and headed for the door. "I'm gonna go look for Sayaka with the others."
As the Spriggan girl left the house along with her sister, Naoki was left alone as he tried to wonder what was going on with his Undine friend.
'Geez, one Undine is acting like some crazy stalker and another one is just acting plain weird. What is it with me and them?'
Sayaka sat against a tree in the woods of Floor 22. She curled up and cried into her arms, tears flowing out of her eyes like a waterfall.
"Sayaka!" a shout from Rin came. "Sayaka, where are you?!"
"Did you check your Friend's List?" Lilly asked.
"Yeah, but all it says is that she's still in Coral. I can't tell her exact location with it."
Sayaka got up and ran further into the woods, desperate to get away so her friends wouldn't have to see her like this. The orange light of the afternoon sky blanketed the woods as she went deeper and deeper. Eventually the calls from her friends could no longer be heard. She got message after message from them with windows popping up, but Sayaka ignored each of them.
As she ran, the Undine girl tripped over a tree root and fell to the ground. She didn't even have the strength to get back up. She cried as she laid on the ground.
'Why?! Why does he only see me as a way out?!' Sayaka asked herself. 'Why… Why can't he see how I feel about him?'
A/N: Lots of drama, eh? Well next chapter will have plenty of it too. What does everyone think of Yuzuki so far?
On another note, my winter break is sadly almost over so I'll be starting up college again. But I'll be sure to keep up my usual update schedule for this fic.
