A/N: HA! Told you I would update soon! I kept my promise this time! HAhahahaha...!
I may be losing my mind now, it's probably best if we just start the chapter.
Enough is enough
Within all lives blood and fire
Passive soul no more
Save or Surrender
In hindsight, I could practically taste the irony.
Kayaba had promised us that if we defeated him, we would be allowed to go home, having surpassed his creation. That was all well and good- until I killed him, and SAO didn't come to an end.
The logout button was still missing. There was no general server announcement saying that the game was over. There wasn't even a 'Congratulations' sign in big bold letters over our heads that usually appeared whenever we took down a boss. There was just a lot of silence for a really long time. Not to mention that when we finally were roused enough to go seek answers, we felt as though we had all been collectively slugged in the stomach by the Cardinal System.
"Prerequisites for release not met?!" I screamed at the console of the Hollow Area. "Are you kidding me?! We killed Kayaba for Pete's sake, why the hell aren't we-?!"
Smack!
My face hit the floor, and I raised a thumbs-up over my head. "Thanks, whoever that was," I mumbled.
I was unsurprised to hear Saphira say, "You're welcome. Now if you're done freaking out like the rest of the Assault Team, we've got work to do."
"That's the point, though," Kirito said from next to Sinon and his sister as he stared at the data files Strea was decrypting. "SAO was designed to stop once Akihiko Kayaba was defeated. None of this should even exist anymore, now that he's dead… He is dead, right?" He aimed the last question at our residential AI companion, whose brow was furrowed in concentration.
"Hang on, there's a lot of stuff to go through," she murmured, her eyes twitching rapidly as she read as fast as she could. Pausing on one file, she said, "Okay, I got it. Heathcliff is definitely dead, and he definitely was Akihiko Kayaba. There's no doubt about that, the game has a GM account's termination listed at the same time that Mataras killed the commander."
"Then why are we still here?!" I demanded hotly, though I was wary of Saphira's suddenly-raised hand hovering behind my head.
"Because Kayaba got cocky, more or less," Strea sighed as she closed all the files that she had been poring over for the last two hours. "To put it simply, SAO was designed to stop once the most powerful player in the game was defeated. Up until earlier, that was Kayaba, due to his status as an immortal object. Once he deactivated that and the system's auto-assist-"
"Cheat codes," I scowled.
"-his level of strength had nothing on Saphira, who I can now confirm, is definitely the strongest player in SAO," Strea finished glumly. "In essence, because he was not the strongest player when he was defeated, his death does not fulfill that particular requisite."
"Wait," my sister said, her eyes going wide. "You're not saying that I have to-?"
"No, no!" Strea said quickly, relieving all of us. "You don't need to die to set everyone else free, not at all! It's not as simple as the Cardinal System just picking a new player as the final boss. There are prerequisites."
"Such as…?" Sinon asked impatiently.
"Well, the big one is that they have to have GM privileges," the AI answered after a moment of gathering her thoughts. "They also need to be significantly stronger than the Assault Team's current status quo. There's actually a boss avatar that Kayaba was supposed to use when he fought against us on the top floor, but normally, the death of either one of his accounts should have been enough to free you."
"So we're back at square one," I muttered. "I assume that this avatar is what we have to beat now?"
"A hostile AI with admin privileges…" Kiriha shuddered at the thought. "How do we know that it won't abuse those powers against us?"
"Because it's not active," Strea answered, startling all of us.
"Excuse me, what was that?" I asked her. "I thought every boss in SAO was considered 'active', even while they're just waiting for their rooms to be found."
"All but that one," she replied, looking troubled, which was almost enough to scare me on its own. "And that wouldn't worry me so much if I hadn't found something really bad just now."
"What's worse than us having to fight the final boss even though we beat Kayaba?" Saphira asked.
"The Cardinal System spawned a new Hollow right after Heathcliff's death," Strea deadpanned. "One that's even stronger than Saphira and Mataras put together, and with an ID and credentials that I don't have access to."
"Well… crap." Sinon's stunned face probably reflected my own, as well as the rest of our comrades. "Does this mean that-?"
"The Cardinal System is aware that I've been using this console to gain insider's info," Strea nodded glumly. "It's locked me out of sensitive information, but since I haven't really broken any rules, it's not going to delete me, or revoke my other privileges, so long as I play nice."
"Great, any other good news?" I asked sarcastically.
"There is one silver lining." When all of us looked expectantly toward Strea, she held up a finger and said, "The thing about SAO bosses? Their stats are locked in the moment that they are created. Whatever this Hollow is, it has its parameters are already set, which means that if we work hard enough, we could still surpass it."
"Anyone wanna take a guess as to who the Cardinal System based it off of?" Saphira asked with a frown before we could start planning our comeback. "You said that it was created right after Heathcliff was defeated, yeah?"
"That's right."
"…Would he have access to the files that detail my case?"
"…Yes, but I don't see what-"
"Kayaba saw me come back with you guys after the 74th boss fight," Saphira explained quickly, cutting off Strea. "Once he realized that I was the real Saphira, and not a Hollow, I'll bet that he got curious- he seemed to have a thing for plot twists, after all."
"True," I agreed.
"If he researched my death and resurrection, who's to say that he wouldn't have set up a replicated circumstance?" she asked us all.
"Oh, frack," Strea said as she clutched at her head. "He definitely could have programmed the Cardinal System to spawn his Hollow at the right moment in case something went wrong with his plan- he had unlimited authority in here, after all."
"That cheating bastard!" Kirito snarled, slamming his fist on the console, which taunted him with its immortal status. "So much for playing by the rules."
"The guy had an invincible shield that blocked pretty much every attack, plus a sword that could probably cut through wolverine claws, forget the Cardinal's auto-assist," I added, though I was just as steamed as he was, if not more. "The guy hasn't been playing fair ever since he started this game- not even when he was supposed to be on our side."
"Says the guy that keeps an entire secret world to himself for EXP farming," Kiriha muttered just loud enough for me to hear.
"Kiriha, I will rip your arms off and feed them to Larry the Unquenchable."
"…What?"
"Larry is a dungeon boss in the Graceleaf Bay Area," Sinon told the other girl. "We beat him so often that he sort of became a joke to us, and Mataras just started calling him Larry, though he would never tell me why that name in particular."
"Larry?" Saphira deadpanned at me. "Really? You're beating that dead horse?"
"It's a gem of the internet, and you know it!" I shot back.
"It's terrible, and you know it!"
"We're going to be stuck in here for another whole year listening to them argue, aren't we?" Kirito sighed as he turned to Sinon, who was smiling slightly.
"Better than being dead, at least."
"I'm still weighing my options," Kiriha quipped.
"You think you have it rough?" I muttered as I walked past Kirito's sister. "Most of SAO's population still wants me dead, and for those that don't, it's just gonna be awkward."
"Awkward, why?"
"We all did our emotional goodbyes, remember?" Saphira explained as we stepped onto the portal stone. "That includes him. Now people know that he's still capable of feeling the warm fuzzies."
"I think I hear a volcano in the Lava Zone calling my name…"
"Oh, no you don't!"
For safeties' sake, Kirito and Kiriha went to report our findings to the rest of the Assault Team, on the off-chance that they might want to kill me now that I had nothing over them. I was too tired and drained to argue, so the rest of us rejoined our guild mates at the house on floor sixty-five. I had Strea explain the situation to the other girls while I went up to the study room to be alone.
Slamming the door shut behind me, I slumped into the chair that sat in front of the desk and promptly slammed my head into the wood- repeatedly. "Stupid, useless, empty brain!" I shouted into the unresponsive furniture. "Of course- slam! -he had a backup plan! He's Kayaba- slam! -inventor of the NerveGear, and virtual reality itself! Blam! His world, his rules! But no! You think that just because you've got an extra trick up your sleeve, you've got every ace card in the deck!" This time my head smacked the wood hard enough to alert me to its 'immortal' status.
Even that made me angrier- it reminded me of the tyrant that I should have defeated. It was a reminder that despite all of my schemes and machinations, I was still being held captive in SAO, just like everyone else. It told me that I was just as much of a victim of the game as I had been the day that I logged in.
"I'm surprised that the place isn't a mess with how mad you looked."
Rivka's voice startled me into sitting up straight and turning around to see her standing in the doorway, a red bundle in her arms. She seemed to hesitate before she asked, "Do you need some time alone?"
I drew in a deep breath before I slowly exhaled, "Believe it or not, I learned some measures of self-control from Strea when I was off being crazy. And the books in here haven't done anything wrong- why should I take out my frustrations on them?"
A slightly crooked smile creased her face as she started walking toward me with the words, "Sorry. I still remember the guy that would punch walls when things didn't look too good."
I gave her a dry chuckle at that. "Probably better than stabbing people, though, right?" Inwardly I was worried that I was about to get an earful for my actions when I chose to fight Kayaba, but it seemed like she was calm enough at the moment.
"Definitely." As she reached the desk, she held out the red bundle to me, causing me to raise an eyebrow.
"What's that for?" I asked her, though I suspected I knew.
"You should have this back," she answered. "You may have changed a lot in the last couple of years, but I know you're not in the habit of hanging onto items just for the sake of it. When it comes to items, you're kind of a minimalist. You have in your inventory, what, maybe thirty items other than the ones that you have equipped? And I'm betting that the majority of them are backup equipment, crystals, and potions."
"You know, I'm really surprised that you're not beating me over the head for fighting Kayaba when I did," I replied. "It's kind of scary, if I'm being honest."
"You're dodging the question."
"Your point being?"
"My point is that if you've been carrying this around without any intention of wearing it, it must mean an awful lot to you," my old friend told me as she laid the familiar fabric on the table in front of me.
For a moment, I just stared at the cloak in silence, but I eventually asked, "What makes you think that I never had any intention to wear it?"
"I noticed how long it took you to find it in your menu," she answered. "If it was one of your pieces, it would have been easy to grab. That, and I used my appraisal skill on it. It's a really good piece, but it can't be upgraded anymore, which means that the stats it has now are the best it can get. Still, it's a much better cloak than my old one."
"Then you should keep it," I told her without looking up. "It's better than it just sitting in my inventory, collecting virtual dust."
"Not if it means as much to you as I think it does," Rivka said stubbornly. "Crimson has been dead for months now, and you still have his cloak… Why?" I closed my mouth firmly, my lips pressed into a thin line as I stared out the window, away from her and the cloak.
"I'm not going until you tell me something, Michael." From the tone that she used, as well as the fact that she had used my real name, I knew that she was serious.
And I'm too tired to argue with anyone else today, I thought wearily as I slowly turned my head to look up at my friend, her arms crossed and her mouth set in a slight scowl. Clenching my hands tightly, I said slowly, "This… is the only thing I have left of Crimson. Everything else was lost when PoH killed him."
"How do you have it?" she prompted. "If it was in his inventory, shouldn't it have been destroyed when he died?"
"It would have, if he'd been wearing it at the time," I murmured as my mind flew back to the day before the Laughing Coffin raid. "Looking back on it, I think he somehow knew that he wasn't going to make it out of that battle alive, even if we didn't kill Kayaba and end SAO that day."
"What makes you say that?"
"It was something he said before we went to bed the night before." I drummed my fingers on the table, still not wanting to touch the cloak. "He had just had Erika make a new cloak for him, so he didn't need his old one anymore. But instead of selling it to an NPC for col, he came up to me and told me to keep it handy for him." I laughed, just as I had back then at the thought. "I told him to waste his own inventory space on sentimentality, but he insisted that I keep ahold of it, as a backup for my gear, even though our new cloaks were far better in quality."
"He wanted to leave something of himself behind for you, just in case," Rivka said softly. "It was a goodbye gift, right?"
"Yeah," I said tiredly. "Even when I lost my memory, I felt weirdly attached to the piece, which-as you know- isn't like me. Normally I would have sold it without a second thought, but something in my subconscious wouldn't let me. But like I said, if it can help you, I would rather you wear it. It'll be like he's still fighting alongside me, keeping the people that I care about safe." So saying, I picked up the garment and held it out for her to take. "He was always the best at covering my blind spots. Please, have it."
Reluctantly, she took the garment back from me and stepped away from the desk so that I could stand. "Are you sure?" she asked as I made to walk past her, thinking that it might be more relaxing to practice my archery.
"Of course I'm sure," I said as I paused in the doorway. Turning back to look at her, I allowed myself to add, "I already told you- that cloak looks good on you." Without waiting for a response, I exited the study, already opening my menu to procure my bow and arrows.
"Smooth, Bro."
"Ack!" My sister's unexpected appearance and words startled me enough that I wound up tumbling down the stairs and ended up as an irritated heap on the ground floor.
"Sinon's right; you're slipping."
"I'm gonna slip my hand upside your head if you do that again!"
Kirito and Kiriha came back close to the time that dinner was getting ready, which I had provided for by hunting some fish down on floor sixty. Sachi was applying some kind tartar sauce equivalent to the meat when the two siblings walked into the dining room, both of them looking absolutely exhausted.
"Papa!" Yui exclaimed as she ran to hug the black-haired youth. He seemed to recover some of his energy as he smiled at her and picked her up in a loving embrace. "Uncle caught us fish for dinner, Papa!"
"Uncle?" I repeated with a bewildered inflection. "You told her to call me-?"
"Of course we did," Sachi said with a cheerful grin. "We're all family here, so it's only right that she calls you her 'uncle'." Yui was still unaware of her status as an MHCP, so for now it was up to all of us to keep her from having an identity crisis- something that Strea assured us would be anything but good for her.
"I dunno that I'm a good-"
"He caught fish, huh?" Kirito interrupted as he set Yui on his hip. "How'd he do that? Last I checked, he doesn't have a fishing rod."
"Why use a rod when you can use a bow?" Sinon snickered, bringing a grin to my face as we fist-bumped.
Kirito blinked at me a couple of times before he asked, "You shoot the fish?"
"Problem?" I asked him, my earlier qualm more or less forgotten.
"That's not how the system was designed!" he answered. "If you wanna eat fish, you're supposed to hunt 'em according to the rules of the game!"
"Clearly it is in the rules of the game, otherwise I couldn't have done it. Besides, the principal is the same, and you can get edible meat from lots of mobs out in the field."
"How is it the same?!"
"You sit by the water, wait for the opportune moment, and then hook your dinner," I said with a shrug. "You just use bait and fishing line- which by the way, I hear you're not very good at- and I put an arrow in its eye."
Kirito glared at his sister, who affected an innocent air. "I wonder who could've told you about my fishing exploits…"
"That implies that you actually caught something," she giggled, setting most of the table to laughing. "Can't talk about anything if there's nothing to tell."
"Papa, is that why we didn't have fish back at the house?" Kirito looked stricken at his adoptive daughter, which just got us all laughing even harder.
After the table was set and the food was laid out, we fell to talking in smaller clusters. During this time, Kirito informed me that the meeting with the rest of the Assault Team had been tiring, but a lot less hostile than he had expected.
"Godfrey took over as the new leader of the KOB," he told me, which I honestly wasn't surprised by.
"He's kind of stubborn, but he's a good enough leader," I mused aloud.
"That's assuming that there will be a guild left to lead," Kiriha cut in, intriguing me.
"What do you mean?"
"People might not really even care about you at all, anymore," Kirito said, surprising me even further. "Now Kayaba's guild is getting a lot of shade thrown at 'em because he was their leader and no one ever suspected anything."
"Or so they say," Kiriha said pointedly.
"The others in the KOB are clean," I assured them, now having an understanding of their suspicions. "Trust me, before I had Strea erase her memory files after we found who he was the first time, we looked into everybody in that guild. None of them had any ties to Kayaba or Argus."
The pair of siblings relaxed at that, and Kirito went on to say, "Well, the long and short of the meeting is that the Assault Team is gonna keep doing what it can to beat the game. Hopefully by the time we get to the top floor, we'll all be powerful enough to beat this new Hollow, whatever it is."
"You didn't tell the Assault Team about the Hollow Area, did you?" I asked as I felt my eyebrows draw toward one another.
"No, though I'd be lying if I didn't wonder why we aren't telling them," Kiriha answered with a similar face. "What's the point, now? Kayaba knew that you were using it, and he didn't do anything to stop you. What's to stop us from arming the Assault Team with gear from the place?"
"The fact that we're probably the only guild in SAO that can handle its dangers," I began. "Without a guide or unique skills, anyone else that goes in there would be toast in less than an hour- you know that. Not to mention that once they saw the admin console, there's gonna be some idiot out there that'll try something clever and either get himself deleted, or the rest of us locked out of the place for the rest of the game. Maybe not those circumstances exactly, but you get what I'm saying."
"He's right, Sugu," Kirito said as he poked at his fish with his fork. "The best way that we can get weapons and armor out to other guilds is through Philia, Argo, and Agil. They've both got the contacts to make sure that the right people can get ahold of the equipment that we bring back."
"The right people?"
"The stuff that we're armed with is powerful," I reminded her as I went to tug on my cloak, only to remember that I had taken it off for the evening meal. "My point is that if some dumbass on the front lines gets it in his head that one of these fancy capes makes him Superman, he's gonna go and get himself killed."
"You don't have much faith in humanity, do you?" Kiriha asked me with a dry tone. "I was hoping that was just a Red Swordsman thing."
"I've never put much stock in the decency of others, but my time as Aincrad's most wanted pretty much sealed it."
"Mataras…"
"The Hollow Area stays closed to the public," I said as I waved Kirito's warning look aside. "For now, at least. Maybe we'll take some people that we can trust eventually, but it's too chancy right now, if everyone is as jumpy as you say that they are. Tensions are high because of Kayaba, and suddenly people start materializing new gear and weapons? Not a good recipe for a healthy alliance."
"Again, he makes a good point, though I wish you'd be a little less fatalistic about it," Kirito complained.
"Tell you what, Kirito, the day that I wake up in the real world to find myself not in chains and awaiting death row, that's the day I'll consider optimism as a viable use of my time."
One Month Later…
Funny enough, Kirito's prediction about the Assault Team's attitude toward me pretty much came true after the events with the Skull Reaper and my subsequent duel with Kayaba. Whether it was just because they were tired of harassing me without the desired results, or I had earned some level of respect from them by killing the man that had trapped us, or some other reason that I couldn't understand, they stopped objecting to my presence at meetings and field raids. It was both a relief and unsettling to be treated as an equal among people that had spent the majority of the last two years hating me and what I stood for, but I had gotten what I wanted. Now we could focus on clearing the last floors of the game and securing our ticket out of SAO.
Unless the Cardinal System does another ass-pull and just keeps us locked in here until we die, I thought after a meeting with Agil. I had been escorting Rivka and Philia, as they had been bartering with the man over some new items that they had found in the Hollow Area, leaving me mostly to my own thoughts as I waited for their transaction to be completed.
Once they had settled on a price, we headed out, intending to rejoin the rest of our guild back home, having spent most of the day training in the Hollow Area. Twice a week we would spend the day in the secret world, while the other days we would contribute to exploring the dungeons of Aincrad. This reduced the rate at which we levelled up considerably- at least for those of us used to living in the testing grounds- but since our level was far above the average Assault Team member, we decided that it would be a better investment of our time to be clearing the floors from here on.
"Good exchange?" I asked the two of them as we walked through the streets of Algade.
"Good enough," Philia answered. "You know me- I always prefer the thrill of the hunt to arguing how much it's really worth with the merchants."
"He plays the part of a penny-pincher pretty well, but the deal he gave us was more than fair," Rivka confirmed. "Thanks for coming with us."
"My pleasure," I answered with a smile. "Been a while since I did trading with an actual person without having to constantly look over my shoulder."
"You didn't even do the trading," Philia reminded me.
"Well, Crimson usually handled the transactions, anyway," I shrugged. "He was better at playing nice with unsuspecting merchants."
"You mean with everybody?"
"Merchants are part of 'everybody', aren't they?"
"Are we all set for the next boss raid?" Rivka asked to head off any more arguing between Philia and me.
"The usual guilds are all lined up," I nodded. "I have to say, Klein's done a pretty good job at acting as a mediator since we killed Kayaba." In the absence of the calm-yet-commanding presence that Heathcliff had possessed, the leader of the Fuurinkazan guild had surprised many of us by stepping up to the role of keeping the meetings in order, especially given how distrusting everyone was of the KOB right now. He never acted as though anyone outside of his guild answered to him, but his friendly nature and the respect that he had garnered in his time as front-line player certainly did him credit during these trying weeks. Time would tell if he could maintain a hold on the fragile alliance, but if he did lose control, it certainly wouldn't be for a lack of trying on his part.
"He's a pretty likeable guy," Philia said, echoing my internal sentiments.
"I think it also gives the troops a morale boost that we've been able to clear the last three floors in just four weeks, too," Rivka pointed out as we passed by an NPC family. "Every floor is getting consistently smaller in terms of square mileage ever since we beat the Skull Reaper."
"Doesn't hurt that the bosses aren't quite as difficult as that thing either," Philia agreed with a shudder. Everyone in the Black Cats shared her sentiment- many of us still woke up from the clutches of a nightmare with the image of that horrible beast fresh in our minds.
Fortunately, Strea had been able to put her skills as a mental healthcare program to good use in counseling us on how to cope with the fears that those memories dredged up. What was really surprising, though, was that a few days after we beat the seventy-fifth boss, Kirito and Sachi found that Yui's memories had been restored, along with an awareness of her prime directive to help the players of Aincrad. Apparently Kayaba had been good on his word for one thing- according to the data logs that Strea had pulled, he had given an administrator's order to the Cardinal System to let the MHCP's go free. She registered a total of seven other programs that had been released, but she was uncertain as to where they would appear in Aincrad.
After learning these things, Yui still remained largely attached to the couple that had adopted her, and expressed her gratitude for their kindness, but she also now her own personal mission.
"I need to find the other programs like me, and help them come to terms with what happened so that we can all reach out to the players of SAO," she had told them over dinner one night. "Don't worry, Mama, Papa. I'm still going to be with you every day, but Uncle Mataras is right that you have a duty to the other trapped players to clear the game, and that means that you can't spend all of your time with me, even though I wish we could. But that also means that I can fulfill my purpose and help others, like you do."
"But what if someone tries to hurt you?" Sachi asked worriedly. Crimes against NPC's weren't common, but they did happen.
"Don't worry, Mama," Yui said with a sweet smile. "I'm an immortal object, so nobody can actually hurt me, even if they tried."
"I could also put a word out through the grapevine," I volunteered as I walked past the trio, having come out of the library with a new book in my hands.
"What word is that?" Kirito asked me dubiously.
"Simple, really," I said with a devilish smile as I stopped a few paces away from them. "Anybody tries to hurt my friend's kid, and they'll have to deal with the Fifth Commandment."
"I thought you didn't kill people anymore?"
"Doesn't mean I can't be very intimidating," I replied. "I have put people in the Black Iron Palace, too. I only killed red players, but that doesn't mean I turned a blind eye to the yellow ones."
"Why the sudden interest in protecting our little girl?" Sachi asked me with a teasing sort of smile. "You said you don't do well with kids."
"I don't," I answered with a shrug. "But I care about you guys, and by extension, your adoptive daughter."
"Thanks, Uncle!"
"Not your uncle," I grumbled under my breath.
Before I could walk away, Kirito said, "You've said that we're brothers in arms. Pretty sure that makes you her uncle."
"At the very best, I'm that one friend that you never introduce to your family," I shot back over my shoulder. "Maybe it'd be safe to call us war buddies."
"Whatever you say, Brother," Sachi laughed softly, causing me to quicken my pace so that they would see no hint of the red that was creeping into my face.
"Bye, Uncle!"
"You ever thought about adding Rivka to your battle group?"
I raised an eyebrow at my sister as she whirled Deathcalibur around her body, miming attacks that she would use against a mid-sized monster. "What brought that on?" I asked her. "It's not like we've been partnered together often in the field. Doesn't make any sense to throw off the rhythm of the party when we've got our methods pretty well established." We were in the backyard, practicing our sword skills while we waited for Strea and Yui to arrive for dinner.
"It makes sense when you recognize the fact that you've been passing your oldest friend over for pretty much every new party member that comes along," Saphira shot back as she stabbed her blade into the ground and turned to look at me directly. "Me, Sinon, and Strea, I get it. But then you added Yuuki to your squad- mostly because Philia didn't want to work with you, and Kirito wanted to do Even Stevens, yes- and now you've got Rain on your team."
A frown creased my face as I said through gritted teeth, "Rivka has been working with the other Cats for more than a year now, and their patterns are well-established. My team is used to more unorthodox methods, so it makes sense for Rain to join us."
"Bro, how dense are you?" Saphira muttered. "It's not about who can switch in with the best timing or whose sword skills can complement each other's the best. It's about the fact that she misses spending time with you like you used to. You can't keep-"
"Lemme stop you right there," I said sternly, which caused her to scowl at being interrupted. "Everything we do from now on has to be about clearing the game. There isn't room for anything else in our lives. And I'm getting tired of your not-so-subtle efforts to push me into her arms, got it?" Done with my piece, I turned on my heel to walk away, only to stop when Saphira spoke again.
"I know you turned pretty bitter over the last couple of years, and I never really expected you to change that part of yourself; at least, not for a long time," she said with a slight growl in her throat. "But I never took you for a coward."
I felt my back stiffen and my hands clench as her words scored a deep strike into my mind. "Excuse you?" I asked as I turned back toward her, seeing her folded arms and ominous scowl etched into her face.
"You heard me just fine," she said firmly. "You're a coward, Michael. No matter how many people you've beaten, no matter how many bosses you've fought, no matter how many times you've put your life on the line, you're a coward at your core. You always run away from the people that put their hearts in your hands, because you're afraid of giving yours' in return."
I went red in the face, anger swelling inside of me. "I put my trust in the Cats, and when I was at my lowest point, Keita blamed me for the deaths of his friends, and the others branded me a murderer! Kiriha even tried to kill me! And you know what Rivka- my oldest and supposedly dearest friend- did?! She just stood by and did nothing, said nothing! She let me walk away without a word!"
"Would you have listened?!" Saphira stormed.
"I don't know, but if anyone had a shot at bringing me back to my senses at that moment, it was her!" I roared, not caring if anyone else heard at that point. I was past the point of anger- I was downright furious at my sister. "She had my heart in her hands, and she let it go! If she let me down then, why wouldn't she do it again?!"
"Of course she'll let you down!" Saphira hollered, matching my volume as her blue eyes flashed dangerously. "Just like you've let her down, who knows how many times?! She made a mistake, that's human! To love is to risk betrayal and pain, just as it is to forgive! Have you seriously forgotten that?!" Never, in our entire lives had we gotten into an exchange this heated, and while it was unsettling in the extreme, I refused to give ground.
"I don't have to justify my reasoning to you, or to anybody!" I snarled. "My choices are my own!"
"If that's how you want to live your life, you're just gonna end up as a bitter old man that dies in an empty house, with nothing to your name but every memory that you regret," Saphira spat. "I'd like to think that Mom and Dad raised you better than this, but maybe we all missed something while we were growing up together. You're gutless, Michael, and it makes me sick that we share blood if you can actually care so little about your friends that you don't trust them because of a betrayal made in ignorance." Before I could make a reply, she set her jaw and rushed at me, shouting, "You make me SICK!" Her fist connected with the air in front of my jaw, sending me flying across the grass, away from the house.
Since we were in a safe zone, my health took no actual damage, but the feeling of getting knocked off my feet by a girl that was half a foot shorter than me was certainly an unpleasant one. It was even more jarring when I felt my body slam into the fence that lined our property, driving the air out of my virtual lungs and dropping me as a mess onto the soft grass.
"Okay…" I growled under my breath as I staggered to my feet and dusted myself off. I could see her stalking toward me with her hands bunched up into fists, and the wrath of a storm on her face. Drawing in a deep breath, I called out to her, "You get that one freebie! Do it again, and I'm hitting back!"
"Good!" she shouted. "Gives me an excuse to keep punching your stupid face, you faithless jerk!"
"Okay, if that's how it's gonna be…!" I seethed, well past my tolerance level for the day. "Bring it, kid!"
At this time, the other Cats were standing on the back porch, watching what had to be the most intense fistfight that any of them had ever witnessed. They had all been drawn out by the shouting, although no one knew what exactly had been said, just that it begged belief that it was Mataras and Saphira that were this angry with one another.
"Should we, like… do something?" Yuuki asked worriedly.
"I remember fighting Mataras a lot last year," Kirito said with a negative shake of his head. "They're not good memories."
"Yeah, he's a handful enough on his own, forget whatever Saphira turned into while she was in the Hollow Area," Kiriha agreed. "I'm not getting in the middle of that."
"Any idea what could have happened to make them act like that?" Rain asked with a grimace as Saphira grabbed Mataras by his right leg and started using it to body slam him multiple places around her while she shouted various profanities at the boy.
"I've never seen Saphira that upset," Rivka said with a slow shake of her head. "He must have said something pretty bad to get her so worked up."
"He looks just as mad," Sinon pointed out as she peered closer at the two combatants. "The last time I saw him that pissed was when a red player made a crack about his sister being dead. Normally he didn't scare me, even when we operated as the Fifth Commandment, but that was one of the exceptions." Even as she spoke, Mataras managed to extricate himself from Saphira's grip and plant a solid kick into her abdomen, sending her reeling.
"Yui, Strea?" Kirito asked the girls as they observed the fight with silent eyes. They had just arrived from one of the lower floors, on a search for one of the MHCP's that would be wandering Aincrad by now.
"Based on what I can tell about humans- siblings in particular- this is a fight that has been some time in the making," Yui answered first. "There seem to be a lot of pent-up emotions behind their movements, so I doubt that this is a typical argument for them."
"You got that right," Strea nodded. "Those two love each other as much as any siblings should, and they get on super well most of the time. And I've never seen Mataras fight so hard against someone he considers a friend."
"He fought us super hard most of the time!" Kiriha protested.
"You weren't exactly on his friend list at the time."
"So, we've established that this is not normal behavior," Sinon said dryly. "What next, counselors? Do we step in, or do we let 'em finish things themselves?"
"I think a single mediator would be a good thing in this instant," Yui nodded. "But who do you think that we should send, Strea? You know them better than I do."
"Well, if we're gonna get them to stop arguing, we need to send in someone that's either strong enough to overpower them, or someone that they just wouldn't attack," the tall girl answered thoughtfully.
"Yeah, uh… There is no one in this guild strong enough to outmuscle the two of them," Kiriha said flatly. "Yuuki might be faster than the both of them, but that's not gonna do her any good in a contest of brute strength. I almost wanna have Sinon shoot 'em with paralysis arrows, but we're in a safe zone." Now Mataras had his sister in a headlock, muffling her furious shouts with his sleeve.
"I'll go," Rivka asserted as she started heading down the steps into the grass.
"Uh, are you sure about this?" Silica called after her. "They're both a lot stronger than you!"
"Let her go," Sinon said as she laid a hand on the younger girl's shoulder. "She's probably the only one out of us that can get through to the both of them."
"I thought Mataras trusted you more than anybody?" Sachi asked as Rivka passed out of casual earshot.
"That's true, but something tells me that this'll require a lot more than just his trust to solve," she sighed deeply. "That, and she's a lot braver than me for volunteering to get in the middle of a brawl between those two."
"You done?" I growled as I held Saphira in headlock, straining to maintain my grip on her, despite her violent thrashings. "I got no problem holding you here until you cool off."
"You're the one that needs to cool off!"
"You threw the first punch!"
"And… I'll throw the last one!" With that, she heaved downward while kicking my knee out, sending me crashing to the grass, and giving her the opportunity to apply pressure to my right arm in what would have been an excruciating wrist lock behind my back, had we been in the real world. Even with the pain absorbers, the sensation coming out of my arm was not a pleasant one.
"Say you're a scumbag," she panted. "Then get over yourself and apologize to her."
"I've done all the apologizing I need to do!" I spat back. "The Cats forgave me, and come to think of it, I thought that you had, too!"
"New crimes, new atonements!" she hissed as she fought to keep my arm from moving. Seeing as she had the superior STR stat, things were not going my way. "One 'sorry' doesn't cover everything that you're ever gonna do wrong! Besides, it's pretty clear now that you haven't extended that same gift to your friends, who are more than deserving of it! Be a man and own up to your mistakes!"
"I'd rather eat my sword!"
"I can arrange that!"
"What is going on with you two?!"
Both Saphira and I stopped where we were, as if we had just been caught out doing something bad by our mother, a truly formidable woman. As one, our eyes flicked over to see Rivka standing a few yards away, her arms on her hips and her face set in a scowl. When neither of us answered her, she let out a huff and added, "I know you two have basically turned into different people than you were when we all logged in together, but this is ridiculous. You two are all that you have left in the real world, so what in the name of every reality is making you two act like a couple of brats fighting over the same toy?"
"Difference of opinion," I grumbled, my voice slightly muffled by the grass.
"No, really?" our old friend said, her voice practically dripping with sarcasm. "I never could have guessed that."
"My brother's an unapologetic smartass, and I was trying to get him to do a little self-reflection," Saphira said in a flat tone. "Apparently, it didn't take."
"Yeah, cos I'm not in the habit of taking anything from someone when they're trying to beat me over the head, unless it's Sensei."
"Saphira, let him up, please," I heard Rivka sigh. "It's kind of a big thing to ask someone to voluntarily do something as civilized as self-reflection when you're keeping his face pressed into the floor."
"I don't really care if he does it of his own accord." I felt my sister shrug, causing me to narrow my eyes in irritation. "He needs to take a serious look at how he treats his friends, and I don't plan on letting him up until he's cooled off and taken what I've said seriously."
"Okay, what did you tell him that he objected to harshly to?"
"Seriously?" I grunted, not liking where this conversation was going. "Get off me."
"I told him that he should take a good look at how he's been treating the Cats- you in particular- since he came back," Saphira answered.
"…And you thought that beating him over the head was the way to go about it?" Rivka asked dubiously.
"Thank you."
"Shut up, you. I've got half a mind to tell her everything that you just told me."
I snorted derisively at that. "Go ahead," I told her. "I doubt there's much you can say to lower her expectations of me."
"Both of you, stop it!" Rivka said sharply, drawing our attention back to her. Her face had twisted into an expression of sadness as she said, "Nothing should be setting you against each other like this. You're blood, and that's forever. Friends can be made and driven apart over the course of our lives, but family is something you can't replace. Victoria, why would he listen to you when you've started treating him like everyone else did while he was Aincrad's most wanted?"
"To be fair, I don't listen to people, even if I'm not on a massive killing spree," I commented when my sister stayed silent.
"Michael, you've always listened to your sister when you've started getting out of hand," Rivka said before I could get another word in. "I always thought it was measure of how much you respected her, and how wise it was for you to accept someone else's opinion that was so different from yours'. It made you a better person; or do you think that you're a better man than you were when we logged in two years ago?"
Neither Saphira nor I said anything for several moments. I was still angry at being manhandled and told off so rudely by my sister, and I'm guessing that she was still pretty steamed at me for dismissing her advice so candidly. Neither of us could really refute what our old friend was saying, but both of us were so stubborn that we'd rather remain quiet than admit that we could have been in the wrong.
When more than three minutes had passed without any movement or words from any of us, Rivka sighed again and said, "You only have each other." With that, she turned around and walked away, apparently having nothing more to add.
As she did, I grumbled, "We probably look ridiculous."
"Yeah…"
"We're also gonna have to apologize to everyone for making a huge scene."
"I know."
"You sure you can handle that?" I asked with a smirk. "I can give you some pointers, seeing as I'm the one that's had to apologize pretty often over the last few months."
"I'll figure it out," Saphira said as she released me and sat down in the grass while I rolled into a sitting position that faced her. As our eyes met, she said in a subdued tone, "I meant what I said, you know."
"About you being revolted by me?"
"…No," she admitted. "I once told you that I could never despise you, no matter what you did, and that still holds, even if you drive me absolutely insane with how stupid and stubborn you can be. But you do owe Reiko an apology, at the very least. I meant every bit of that part. Even if you don't return her feelings- which I know you do- she's still the girl that stood by your side all throughout the years where we were shunned for being outsiders. She deserves better than to be passed over for some other girl that bats her eyelashes at you."
I reddened at that, but I managed to keep my temper reined in, just barely. "That's not why I put Rain on my team, and you know it," I said in a low tone. "Sis, look at things from my perspective, just for a minute. What if I did trade one of my squad for Rivka, and then one of them got killed because we didn't know each other's patterns well enough in battle to protect our comrades? How would I live with myself, knowing that I caused their death, especially if it was Reiko?"
"So shielding your heart from getting hurt has nothing to do with it?" she asked pointedly.
I scowled a little and muttered, "Of course it does. Sue me for engaging in a little self-preservation, even if it's not my primary motivation."
"Okay, tell me if I get anything wrong," she began as she crossed her legs in front of her. "You think that you're headed for prison when we get out, right? That's why you won't let yourself be attached to Reiko in a romantic interest, right? Nothing else?"
"Other than the fact that I'm a complete lunatic with a soul stained black from the amount of blood that I've spilled?" I replied sardonically. "If I thought I had a future outside of SAO, of course I'd let myself reciprocate her feelings."
"Then you shouldn't have anything to worry about," my sister said simply. "Outside of the game, there's no way to prove that you did anything."
"Pretty sure I do have something to worry about. Kiriha told us that they could track our movements in the game when she dived in, remember?" I countered readily. "Then there's the fact that there are more than a hundred eyewitnesses that could- and probably will- ID me as the Red Swordsman when we get back to the real world."
"I still think you're in the clear," Saphira said confidently, causing me to narrow my eyes at her suspiciously.
"Okay, for argument's sake, let's say there is a way for me to come out of this without getting the death sentence," I muttered. "How does that even happen?"
"Simple," my sister said with a flat grin. "Laughing Coffin happened."
"…What?"
"If anybody was going to get executed for murder, it would've been those guys," she pointed out. "You might have killed the most people, followed by Sinon and Crimson, but neither you nor your partner have been killed by someone from the outside yet. Ever wonder why that is?"
"Not really."
"You should," she chuckled. "The people on the outside can't risk doing any data mining without the possibility of killing everybody at once, since Kayaba probably put some kind of kill-switch in place. They can't definitively prove that it was you that did it, and they never can. Even if people were willing to testify against you, that's all that a court could work with. All the data in SAO is gonna be deleted when we beat it, remember?"
"Again, there's a lot of people that could testify to my crimes," I said stubbornly. "The amount of testimony alone would be enough to convict me."
"True, but…" She hesitated for a moment before she asked, "Would you trust me if I said I had a plan?"
I looked her dead in the eyes and answered, "I always trust you- even when you drive me absolutely insane."
"Then let me take Strea to the Hollow Area tomorrow," my sister said quietly. "I'll see to it that you get your happily ever after, mark my words."
I quirked an eyebrow up and asked, "Is this plan contingent on me asking Reiko out?"
"Not at all," Saphira replied as she got to her feet. "But you should apologize to her."
Before she could leave, I said, "Wait. Why are you so determined to see that I go free?" Not pausing to let her answer just yet, I added, "Mom and Dad always taught us that a punishment should fit the crime committed. That's the creed that I lived by as the Red Swordsman, and I still believe that it should be applied, even if it's on a less extreme scale. Why are you set on doing otherwise?"
"You're my brother," she answered without looking over her shoulder. "And just like it's your job to look out for me, it's mine to safeguard you; screw the rest of the world."
I blinked a few times before I said, "That might just be the nicest thing you've ever said to me- and that's saying something."
"Doesn't make you any less of a jerk," she snorted as she started walking away at a brisk pace.
"Wait!" I called out. "What's your plan?! How am I gonna get out of here without a death penalty?!" Somewhat to my irritation, the only response she would give was to toss a slightly eerie smile over her shoulder before she got out of earshot.
Grumbling to myself, I started rehearsing the apology that I knew I owed Reiko. Someday I am going to be on the right side of the argument, I vowed to myself. Would that happen anytime soon? Probably not…
The next day, Saphira and Strea walked out of a teleportation glow and walked straight towards the admin console in the center of the Hollow Area Control Room. "So, what're we doing here?" the AI asked her companion. "And why's it just us?"
"We're here to help my brother," Saphira declared seriously. "And we're alone because I don't think that the others would approve of what I want you to do."
Strea looked alarmed now. "What do you want me to do?" she asked nervously.
"Strea, would you say that Mataras is still your primary patient?" Saphira asked calmly, showing no signs of having registered her friend's nervousness.
"…Yes? His mental health has improved greatly as of late, but he's not what I'd call recovered." Strea fidgeted in place, her apprehension continuing to grow. "Why do you ask?"
"I don't want to kill anyone, so don't worry about that," Saphira told her, causing the lavender-haired girl to sigh with relief.
"Okay, I think I can work with that," Strea said. "What do you want me to do?"
"I need you to set up a sort of Trojan that will trigger once the game ends," Saphira stated. "If we do this right, we can secure my brother's freedom at the same time as the rest of Aincrad."
"I can't infect the Cardinal System!" Strea exclaimed, her panic right back at where it had risen to. "I'll be deleted on the spot, and I still want to help clear the game!"
"Calm down," Saphira urged. "You won't be deleted, I promise. I talked to Sachi about some hypotheticals in computer programming, and I'm confident that what I have in mind will work, even with the Cardinal System."
"…You're sure?"
"The Cardinal's defenses won't activate until there is a present threat to its CPU, just like any other anti-malware software," Saphira nodded. "Check the data, see if I'm wrong. If I'm not, though, I'll fill you in on the rest of my idea."
Strea regarded the other girl with a mixture of curiosity and suspicion, but she did as she was told. Once she had access to the files she needed, she nodded to herself and looked back at Saphira. "Okay," she said slowly. "What's your idea?"
Saphira told her.
Strea's eyes widened before her face split with a smile, followed by laughter and the words, "That's brilliant! I wish I'd have thought of it myself! I'll get to work on writing the code, and I'll see if I can't get some of the other MHCP's to help us! The more admin accounts that sign off on this, the less likely that the Cardinal System is to flag it as invasive and reject it. You're a genius, Saphira!"
With another whoop of delight, Strea dashed around the console and wrapped up the smaller girl in a crushing hug. As Saphira felt her virtual bones begin to pop, she forced out a smile as she thought, You always protected me, even when everyone else stood against you, Michael… Now I'll do the same. I won't let you surrender your life, even if it means I have to save you from every other player in this game.
Mataras: What are you up to?
Saphira: That is my little secret.
Mataras: ...This is revenge for all of the cliffhangers I've left you on, isn't it?
Kirito: Not so funny when it's the other way around, is it?
Mataras: What? Do you know what she's planning?
Kirito: ...Well, no.
Mataras: HA!
Asuna: You seem like you're in a good mood, despite the situation outside.
Mataras: Well, I did just get a new computer that works much better than my old one, so I've been writing up a storm as I take this thing out on a test run.
Kirito: That much, huh? If that's the case, when do we get a new chapter for this story?
Mataras: Max three weeks, again. I know it only took my one week for this one, but I do have other projects that I am working on, and they deserve attention, too. Also, as I've said many times before, quality takes time to produce.
Saphira: Toot your own horn, much?
Mataras: Touche. I'll let the readers decide what's good.
Kirito: Next time- Pressure Points.
Saphira: Ooh, ominous.
Asuna: Be sure to check out Mataras' other long-running story, Saiyan Tail, as well as his newest project, Your Hero Academia! ...Wait, why am I advertising for stories that don't feature us?!
Mataras: You hardly featured in this one!
Kirito: ...Starburst Stream!
Mataras: Too soon?
