Author's Note
Aaaaaand we're back with another update! Pretty quickly compared to my past timeframes, too…
By the way, something to take note of which is happening right now: Me and my beta, One More Guy are going back and revamping the opening ten chapters or so of this fic in order to get them up to par with the rest of it. Depending on when this chapter gets uploaded, the edits of chapter one may already be posted, so don't freak out if the word count doesn't add up to you, the new chapter one's gonna be a lot longer lol.
Also, there miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight be a summary rewrite coming this story's way. The current one is kinda really bad and old, so this has been a long time coming.
Also also, expect a cover art change sometime relatively soon. It'll be done by the same artist, and will have a lot of symbolism in it regarding the progression of Kiriko's character arc in Part II. Might take a couple chapters for it to be ready, but it'll probably be amazing when it's done.
Finally, this first chapter also marks the start of something of a recurring trend in Parts Two and Three of this fic: scenes featuring Johnny Black of Laughing Coffin as the narrative focal point. Through his eyes (technically third person but still from his perspective), you'll get to see a lot of the inner workings of Laughing Coffin and just the orange players in general, as well as see Johnny's own personal story unfold. I can't say much more without spoiling you, so I'm gonna stop here.
Get to reading and I'll see you at the bottom!
Gun Gale Online: The Swordswoman
Part Two, Chapter One: Moral Compass
"Kiriko, I'll be blunt with you…" he replied, seeming to ignore my remarks. "If you don't figure out a way to drive the PKers out within the next couple of weeks, you won't be able to, period."
"I've got a few ideas to get the ball rolling by now…" I replied with a pensive frown. "But I need an opening to not only get the attention of the clearers but also get them to take me seriously. As of right now, to them, I'm a nobody."
Johnny's eyes lit up, and then, ever so uncharacteristically of his serious side, he smiled. It quickly turned into an unsettling smirk before he began to speak. "I'm glad you asked. The perfect chance is coming up, and completely coincidentally, you made a key player for even just getting it started half an hour late."
Sinon hated this.
She hated them.
"Of course there's an audience... why did I even bother?" she muttered under her breath, just loud enough for the new arrival to hear it. She glared through the trees at the crowd of clearers that had gathered at the specified meeting place. "All of these people can die for all I care. Fucking hypocrites…"
Argo clicked her tongue in response.
"I didn't tell you they'd be here for a reason, you know. You're one of the only people who has actual experience with that zone, I couldn't afford to let the info you've scrounged up go to waste," the informant replied, voice deadpan. "… You know, Asuna's in that crowd too. Even her? You don't care if she dies too—"
"Especially her," Sinon snarled back. "It was one of her subordinates that…!"
She sighed, uncurling the fists she'd unconsciously balled up in response to Argo's words. This anger… Argo didn't need to deal with this right now on top of the own personal hell she must've been going through deep down, even if she didn't seem to be in agony right this moment.
"Easy there, Sinocchi. I know how you feel… but you know Asuna did everything she could to bring that same traitor down. She's not your enemy."
Argo's reply was calm and soothing.
Sinon couldn't even look in the info broker's direction. "No, maybe not. But she's not an ally either, and definitely not my friend anymore. Let's just get this over with so I can get on with my day… you already made me wait an extra half an hour as it is."
"Sorry about that. I met someone new who just moved into my neighborhood," Argo replied tentatively, her voice far more meek and demure than normal. "I've never seen or heard of her before, but… there's just something about her. Something nostalgic. While I was talking to her, I lost track of time…"
Argo wasn't outright saying it, but the implication was pretty clear. Sinon didn't have any hard evidence to support her conclusion, but she just knew. This person the info broker met… reminded her of Kiriko.
How nice for you, to be able to escape reality and return to the past by talking to a complete stranger.
"I don't care," the sniper lied, shaking her head to clear it of the malice she had no right to feel towards the girl standing next to her. "Are you gonna make me go up to the stage on my own, or are you coming with?"
"Do you want me up there with you?" Argo's pointed question came almost immediately. "You've been seeding a lot of hate towards these people… it wouldn't be a shock if some of that was directed at me, too."
Sinon sighed, closing her eyes as her brows furrowed to hide her emotions. "… Look. I don't want to be here at all. But that has nothing to do with you. You're the only one out of everyone here that I don't hate. And I'd also rather leave outright than go up on stage alone."
Sinon cast a sideways glance over at Argo, hoping she'd catch the hint.
"You certainly know how to make a girl feel special…" Argo murmured under her breath, her eyes drifting to the stage. "I'm showing up late to my own meeting, so their attention's going to be on me. That should take most of the pressure off you, yeah?"
Sinon sighed. "I don't think I'd be able to look any of them in the eye, pressure or no pressure. The BOA members in particular…"
"Well, if all you need is someone to stand up there with you, I can fill the part."
A confident, resonant voice spoke out from behind the two of them. Sinon whipped her head around to face the player bold enough to intrude on their conversation, only to be met with a calm, poised smile and clear, expressive teal eyes that seemed to shimmer in the afternoon sun like the ocean waves. Her shoulder-length, wavy blonde hair seemed to shine like the sun itself, almost blindingly so, as it shone in relief around her face like a golden picture frame. Combined with the medieval-esque armor and sheathed sword at her left waist, these elements gave the tall girl an ethereal presence and beauty that few people Sinon had ever met could match, no matter how hard they tried to.
But more than any other quality this girl possessed…
Those eyes… that look in her eyes is…
"Wha— even with «Burst Vision», I couldn't follow that attack! How are you so fast?!" Sinon blurted out incredulously, staring at her raven-haired partner in a mix of incredulousness and fear.
I can't believe I used to think I could beat her… just how far ahead of me is she going to make it?
The short girl before her switched her photon swords off, hooked them back on her belt, and turned around to face Sinon with a confident gaze, full of self-assurance and pride in her display.
"It's something I found out about just last night, as I was experimenting with my new skills I'd recorded before going turning in for the day," she replied, her grin widening as the look in her eyes intensified. "Skills recorded with the Burst System active retain the Burst speed multiplier and Agility-based damage amp even when you're using them without Bursting. And since that's true, I can stack the normal Burst System on top of those skills to make them even faster and stronger! The only reason you could even remotely tell I used a skill is because the one I picked has a thousand and 24 hits."
Sinon could barely even process this. "A thousand…?!"
"The skill's name is GigaStrike. It's a bit of a play on gigabyte," the girl replied, her smile faltering for a moment. "But that's not important. What matters most is the ability to stack Burst layers in general. I call it… Double Burst!"
"You okay?" the girl asked, stepping closer and leaning in to closer inspect Sinon. The sniper promptly shrunk away, the spell broken and her personal space in jeopardy.
Does this girl not understand how boundaries work? The hell is her problem?!
The girl's curious stare became a lighthearted grin as she stood back up straight and watched Sinon squirm. "You spaced out for a couple seconds there. Sure you're good to host a meeting like that? I can take over if you want. I probably know more about the Murder Zone than you do at this point."
First the lack of respect for personal space, then the insult to her composure, and now she even doubted the sniper's knowledge of a zone she'd been spending every waking moment in for weeks on end? This girl… she really pissed Sinon off. More and more with each new thing she said, even.
All the while, that unmistakably familiar look in her eyes remained consistent.
"You know, Kamiko," Argo's voice spoke out, breaking Sinon out of her growing glare to see the info broker step over to the girl blatantly smiling at her. "You didn't tell me you were coming to this meeting too…"
"There's just something about her. Something nostalgic."
That's when it clicked. Sinon had no idea why she was here, but this must've been the person Argo had been talking about. There was only one problem with this. This girl definitely reminded her of Kiriko…
In all the wrong ways.
"To be honest, I didn't even know it was happening until like five minutes ago, really," this girl named Kamiko replied, saluting Argo with a peace sign. "But then a friend told me it was happening, and since I have a ton of intel and experience with zone 24, I thought I'd pop in for a bit and lend a hand with the strategies and preparations."
Argo didn't look convinced. Reading into it, she looked mildly annoyed more than anything else. "Not that I'm in any place to refuse more information like that, but everyone here's already pretty restless. Including this one."
The info broker waved a hand over in Sinon's direction. Sinon? Restless? In this moment? Try pissed!
"I don't know how they're going to take a nameless girl's advice."
Kamiko nodded along for a bit. "I'd be inclined to agree with you, if not for a certain key factor. My equipment speaks for itself. It's a perfect Valkyrie Set. That's a pretty big deal among the clearers, from what I'm aware, considering it's stupidly powerful and all."
Argo's mouth opened with a quick response, but it died the moment Kamiko's smile widened.
Did the info broker just… go speechless…?
"Rich and powerful," Argo mumbled under her breath, her narrow gaze dropping. "I hope your aim isn't shooting for becoming the face of the frontlines. Once you step up like that, you'll be going from a nameless player to a target every orange player in the game is gunning for."
"I'd prefer to remain out of the limelight, but no matter what, my aim is to clear the game," Kamiko answered, face going from smug to deadly serious in a rapid transition. "Whatever happens to me on that path, I will endure. I'm not gonna slow down just because things get tough for me."
For a solitary moment, Sinon's mind projected the image of the love she'd lost onto the face of this intrusive stranger. A moment was all it took for the emotions she held in check to be here to crash over her in waves.
What the fuck am I doing…? Quit imagining things. She's not coming back. This person… it's not right to use them as a stand-in just because they're similar.
Sinon's partner was dead. There was no replacing her. And she'd be surrounded, yet also completely alone until she rejoined Kiriko in the next life. That was just reality.
"W-well…" Argo broke up Sinon's thoughts with a somewhat shaken tone. "I know I can't stop you, but… be careful. I don't want to watch another one like you end up like her."
Did Argo and this Kamiko girl… talk about Kiriko?
"There's a lot of things I've been entrusted with…" Kamiko replied, closing her eyes for a moment as a thoughtful frown made its way onto her face. "Hopes, dreams, and dying wishes were just the beginning."
When her eyes opened again, Sinon saw unshakable self-confidence in them… but something else stood out to her more. She saw pain. The kind that never faded away, hidden just under the surface.
"I won't fail." In that moment, Kamiko's words sounded almost absolute.
What is the source of her confidence…? Kiriko, the strongest player the game had ever seen, still failed in the end. What makes her think she'll be any different?
It didn't really matter. Confidence or not, reality would prove her wrong soon enough.
"Welcome back, Mister Black," the smug voice of the new third in command of «Laughing Coffin» called out as Johnny made his way through the entrance of their base.
The Murder Legion's ace didn't have the energy to deal with this insane fuckwit. He needed to find his rock and recharge for a bit before he could play his part here. Convincing Kiriko to crash the assault team meeting as he did took a lot out of him… that bitch had become insufferable since she faked her death.
"Boss wants to see you, you know," the cocky fuck wouldn't let up today, would he? "Seems you're going to be needed to take down the «Angel of Death» in the upcoming operation. We've finally figured out who she is, after all."
"Fuck if I care, «Trickster»," Johnny spat out Yamata's nickname as if it were venom. "You know the position I'm in right now. Now get out of my sight, rat."
Johnny continued walking through the long corridor of the dungeon that led to the boss door, intending to make a beeline for his rendezvous point. PoH could wait. He needed some time to himself with his rock or he was liable to snap at someone.
But Yamata didn't seem to care right at that moment. He walked ahead of Johnny and stood in his way with a big shit-eating grin on his face. "Yes, yes. You're ever so diligent about repaying your debts, whatever they are. But what about collecting on them? It's my understanding that this Izumi girl you're so fixated on owes you quite a lot."
Johnny froze for just an instant before his glare became nasty. "Quit patronizing me and get to your point, psychotic fuckstick. I don't have the patience for you right now."
It was then that Yamata's upturned eyes underwent a change which signified him getting serious for once. The black eyes suddenly lit up to a vibrant purple that glowed in the darkness all around them, three black comma-like markings surrounding the pupil now the only part of his irises that remained their original color. He'd activated his favorite new toy, the «Eye of Hypnotism» Extra Skill.
Seemed whatever he wanted to say next, he didn't want anyone to overhear. He wouldn't bust out those eyes unless he wanted to say it via an illusion.
Johnny had a bad, bad feeling about this.
"I wonder what would happen if the boss were to learn how much this Izumi girl's been slacking off? And how you've been enabling her the whole time—"
Johnny's sword slashed through the phantasm of Yamata created by the Eye of Hypnotism before activating his own ocular Extra Skill to make it disappear altogether, showing him the Real Yamata just a meter or two behind the fake one's remains.
His vision flashed red, and he could feel his anger's energy filling the entire room with his presence, causing the entire castle dungeon to shake to its very core for just an instant. He calmed down just enough to quell the shakes before they gave away his position and sent people streaming in.
"I want you to listen closely, you son of a bitch," he spat out, the anger in his voice almost giving the tension in the air physical form. "Anyone who says or does anything to compromise Izumi will die. You are no exception. I'll cut you down in cold blood before you can even blink those special eyes of yours. So don't think you can try to manipulate me like you did to gain the boss's favor if you value your life, got it?"
Yamata looked taken aback for a moment. It was only an instant, but Johnny saw the fear creeping up on his face. But then he was back to his usual smug prick self. It started and ended before most people would be able to catch it happening. But that tiny fraction of a second was enough to show the Ace of Laughing Coffin that this bitch still knew who was on top between them.
"Oooh, how frightening you are! So mad that you take the phrase 'seeing red' to another level entirely, even!" Yamata replied with a condescending round of slow applause. "Your «Eye of Insight» even turned red instead of violet!"
Johnny's anger flared and the building began to shake again, this tremor even stronger than before. The ceiling above them was even starting to crack from the pressure, with dust and tiny fragments falling to the ground around them every so often.
"Answer my question, dickweed!" He shouted, closing the gap in an instant and pointing his sword at Yamata's throat. "Are we clear? Or do I need to make you learn the difference between us the hard way?!"
Yamata flinched back, but if this were a real fight, his head would've been sent rolling by now, so even if his initial reaction was almost instant, it hardly mattered. A bead of sweat rolling down his forehead, Yamata retracted his special eyes and backed away, holding his hands up in the air.
As the tremors all around them ceased, Yamata turned around, hands still in the air, and began to walk away. "Don't worry, I'll let you keep your pet…" He turned back just enough so that Johnny could see his condescending smirk. "So long as you let me have mine when the time comes, that is."
With that, Yamata turned tail and left the room entirely.
Johnny wanted to go wild and kill this bastard for the pet comment alone, but he sheathed his sword and retracted his eyes in turn. He needed to be careful. If boss learned his ace killed one of their elites, he'd inevitably investigate the incident. And if he did that, he was liable to find what Johnny had been hiding, which would make the act of silencing Yamata then and there pointless.
He took a deep breath and walked towards the stairs at the end of the hall. Now he needed to meet with his rock… with Izumi even more than he did before.
Orange. Orange cursors everywhere.
"Did you hear? Word is Yamata figured out who the Angel of Death is!"
There was a time when seeing nothing but orange players except during missions and battles was the norm for Johnny Black.
"Yeah, I heard. I fucking told you it was Sinon! You wouldn't believe me until the Trickster came in saying it, fucking hypocrite!"
But after spending so much time coming to meet Kiriko and give her reports during his spare time, he'd had to come to terms with something that Izumi had been telling him the whole time, but he'd just never seen until confronted with every last detail himself.
"Hey, just relax. PoH is gonna send either Yamata or Johnny after her and that'll be that. Problem solved!"
Even if this constant influx of orange cursors had become normal to him… even if he saw nothing wrong with it… the world Kayaba had tasked the playerbase with clearing on launch day didn't share his perspective.
"Dude, he just walked by us! You trying to diss the guy right to his face?"
In Johnny's philosophy, criminals would always exist in any setting close enough to reality. VR was no exception to this. Orange players made up almost a tenth of the original playerbase, the vast majority of them murderers who wanted to play the game for the PvP it promised them on the box, no matter the consequences. Johnny himself had probably killed more people than anyone else in the game, and he didn't even have a valid reason for almost any of the blood on his hands.
"My deepest apologies, Vice Commander Johnny Black, sir! I meant no disrespect!" one of the orange players he passed on the way to his room called out to him from behind.
But the system, the green players, and sometimes even the other orange players generally expected you to do the "right thing." If you didn't, all three might punish you accordingly.
Johnny turned around just enough so they could see his face before dismissing them with a casual wave. "Only people driven mad by ego actually care about that title shit. More importantly, you two are leaving the sleeping hall with an objective in mind, right? Watch out for the Angel of Death."
But the green players and orange players tended to have different definitions of what the "right thing" actually was. And the system's judgment was different from both of theirs. While avoiding punishment from one source, you might incite it from another.
"Is it just me, or is Johnny… softer on us these days?"
Hey, Izumi. Is what I'm doing now really the "right thing?"
"Dude, he can probably still hear us even if you whisper…!"
Or am I still stumbling in the dark without a moral compass of my own?
"I'll have to ask her when I get back…" Johnny decided, mumbling the words to himself so quietly that he knew they wouldn't be heard.
Author's Note
So, what did you think of the Johnny segments? They won't necessarily happen every single chapter, but they will be a pretty consistent feature of this story's middle stages, so best get used to having them around for a while. Dunno how familiar you guys are with Naruto, but if I were to equate GGO SW characters to Naruto characters, Johnny would be this series' Sasuke in Shippuden. Basically, the deuteragonist and Kiriko's main rival.
Also, speaking of Naruto, anyone else notice I implemented two Sharingan references in this chapter? Namely, the ocular extra skills, Johnny's Eye of Insight and Yamata's Eye of Hypnotism. These skills are what the most prominent traits of Naruto's Sharingan are, but separated from each other and portrayed as opposite sides of the same coin which counter each other. I plan for the references to the Sharingan to extend as far as the Eternal Mangekyou (though how acquiring the Eternal Mangekyou works and what doing so does has been changed), but an important distinction to make is that there will be NO SUSANO'O NONSENSE in my versions of Mangekyou and Eternal Mangekyou. These characters are already fuckin' strong enough without that literal plot armor bullshit going on, especially considering how broken the individual Mangekyou techniques are on their own, and the Susano'o kind of throws scaling out the window, which I don't want to do.
Anyway, expect me to pop up relatively frequently with updates to this thing for the foreseeable future.
See you next time!
