So my covid test came back negative. I'm still coughing, but APPARENTLY I'm fine enough to go back to work. I'm sad now. This also means that Kyou suffered last chapter (and this chapter, haha) for no reason, but shhhh, he doesn't need to know that XD

You might have noticed the set-up for Kyou maybe romancing Klein, even though Nanako specifically told him in chapter…three?—that she wasn't interested. Yes, I'm a little wishy-washy. No, I'm not changing my label. Klein's attractive and deserves some love; I can't help that! Anyway, I'm not sure if anything's gonna happen there, and if it does it's not gonna become the main focus like it somehow did in Playing by Ear. Because damn, that one really got out of control.

Might I also point out Nanako and Kyou's differences, besides the obvious physical ones? Their attitudes are different, even if their memories overlap. Sooooooo maaaaybe Kyou's not aromantic. (He's definitely ace though; not changing that for anything) Such is the nature of dreams. I might be kicking a dead horse at this point, but I dream I'm different orientations all the time? So it doesn't strike me as odd that Nanakyou might too?

Enough of that, though. Back to the story!

Chapter 19: The Hidden Room

I woke up the next morning (in Aincrad, anyway) with a dilemma: hide away from the Moonlit Black Cats until I'm Nanako again, or reintroduce myself as Kyou and hope they don't figure out who Kirito and I really are.

The former would be difficult, what with my tendency to appear wherever Kirito is when I "log in," but the latter was just as risky. The Moonlit Black Cats were good people, but I had this terrible feeling that they wouldn't react well to finding out we were the Beater and the cheater. It felt like that deja vu I'd get sometimes, usually with major events. If last night's epiphany was any indication, something had happened in the anime to give me this feeling.

I wondered if I should tell Kirito about the whole anime thing. It's not as if I already didn't seem crazy enough, and I didn't like keeping secrets. On the other hand, I'm not sure anyone would take well to knowing they were fictional somewhere.

Man, if Nanako remembered everything, how had she, er, I, done it this whole time?

In the end, I had to trust my instincts, and they were saying to lay low. It's not as if I was feeling that great anyway.

Of course, that whole plan went to hell when Kirito sent me a message.

[Hey, Kyou, you doing alright? The guild's finally saved up enough money for their own house, so Keita's going to go buy it today. Ducker and the others want to hunt in the 27th floor labyrinth. I tried to stop them, but it looks like they're too optimistic to be stopped. I'd appreciate the backup, if you could meet us there? We can explain everything later.]

Augh, there went my rest day.

Enough wallowing, though; the message had been sent an hour ago. The deja-doom was back, and I had a feeling that whatever happened, we wouldn't be with the guild much longer.

Sighing, I checked my friends list to see Kirito's location. Okay, I could make that. I'd just go backwards through the boss room and the labyrinth and meet them, easy peasy.

I had a bad feeling about this.

Making generous use of Sprint, I caught up with the rest of the guild right as they opened a hidden room. My dizziness had nothing on my panic, so I managed to remain upright on my journey with only a bit of trouble.

"Wait!" I shouted as I approached. Tetsuo, Sasamaru, and Ducker were already jogging through the newly revealed doorway, while Sachi and Kirito hesitated outside.

"What, so you can get the loot once we leave?" Ducker turned around to face me, walking backwards as he scoffed. I jolted in surprise at his attitude—what had made him so distrustful? He was normally so optimistic! "My trap-detection isn't picking up anything, so…" he turned back and strode up to the lonely chest in the middle of the room before I was close enough to stop him.

"Ducker, don't—" Kirito tried to back me up—he'd seen me this desperate before, back when I'd tried to save Diabel, so he knew this was life or death—but it was too late; Ducker had opened the chest.

I pushed Kirito through the doorway, jumping through myself, before the door closed where we had just been. Sachi was closed outside the room, having stopped just short of the door due to my yelling. The now-closed room darkened to an angry red hue, before lighting up again as multitudes of enemy mobs spawned in.

This was everything I had imagined and worse.

Even though Sachi was outside, she was still alone out there; hopefully she had the sense to teleport back to town instead of waiting for us.

Speaking of teleporting…

"Teleport: Taft!" Ducker cried, holding up a blue teleport crystal.

Nothing happened.

"A crystal nullification zone!" Kirito realized, his own panic growing. He attacked the nearest enemies with wild abandon, knowing the only way out of this was through the bodies of our enemies. The others weren't going to last long without our intervention.

Not that I was going to last long, either, in my current, unbalanced condition. But I didn't have much of a choice, did I?

I jumped between Ducker and the mobs about to kill him, preventing his near-instant death at the cost of a large portion of my own health. I retaliated with a chain of Horizontals, getting the group of mobs down in three hits as opposed to Kirito's one. Just as the post-motion delay kicked in I tossed Bloop to Ducker; since chaining caused a longer delay before I could move again, I wouldn't be able to defend him for a few precious seconds. Bloop could give him some health to improve his odds during that time.

Even with my low attack stat, I was making much better headway than the rest of the guild (sans Kirito, whom I could never hope to beat), but despite my high defense the enemy was making pretty good headway against me, as well. Luckily, Battle Healing was as OP as ever, allowing my health to drop much more slowly than it would have without it.

No one else (again, sans Kirito) could really say the same.

Tetsuo was the first to fall, as I was too busy defending Ducker to get to him in time. God, what use was speed if I couldn't even move fast enough to save anyone?! Wasn't Tetsuo supposed to be defense-based? How was he the first to go?!

The shattering of Tetsuo's avatar distracted Sasamaru, causing him to miss seeing an attack headed his way. Being more attack-based than his fallen compatriot, he was downed in one hit before Kirito or I could do anything to stop it.

Kirito cried out in rage, doubling down in his homicidal monster-extermination.

I had a feeling my vision would have been going dark even without the tears clouding it, as I was beginning to sway in my defensive stance, but said tears of frustration and sorrow certainly weren't making things any better. Finally released from the post-sword-skill freeze, I was just in time to deflect one mob's blade while taking a hit from another mob's rocky, whip-like arm. I was thrown to the ground, momentarily stunned. My vision blacked out for a second before coming back, the dizziness doubling in that time.

When was this going to end?

Kirito made it back to me and Ducker. Bloop was using all of his agility to jump between friend and foe, giving and taking health as he went. It was a dangerous game to play, as I feared that despite his rapid growth he could still be killed in one hit from enemies this close to the front lines.

Was I really willing to potentially sacrifice Bloop's life for Ducker's? If I recalled him back to my left hand he'd be much safer, but his usefulness would be gone from the fight. On the other hand, Ducker was a real person, while Bloop was just an AI. But if Bloop died now, he'd be just as dead as anyone else; floor 47 was a long, long ways off.

My decision ended up being made for me; Bloop misjudged an attack from a rock-elemental, getting thrown into the far wall.

"BLOOP!" I yelled. Without a second thought and only a glance at Kirito to let him know what I was doing, I entrusted Ducker's safety to him and went after my indigo blob.

Ducking, weaving, and slicing through enemy mobs as I went, I sprinted drunkenly across the room. I was definitely gaining aggro, but all I cared about was saving Bloop.

Somehow, when I got to him he was still alive and in one piece, albeit at very low health. Did potions work on tamed monsters? I quickly knelt, bumping into the wall in my haste, and gave him a potion (because crystals didn't work here), along with a couple blueberries for good measure. One of them had to work.

"Alright, back on my hand, buddy. Good work." I held out my hand once I was sure he was going to make it and he hopped on, oozing between my fingers for grip.

It was at that time that the rock elementals caught up with me, and it was back to the fight. I was in the low yellow health now, Battle Healing being just too slow to keep up with the ridiculous number of enemies and hits I was taking. Luckily, it seemed Kirito really was making headway, as the crowd of monsters was thinning.

But it wasn't enough.

As I neared Kirito and Ducker the latter cried out, having been hit from behind.

"Ducker!" I cried, but it was no use; he had already been hit, and as such his remaining health plummeted.

"No!" Kirito killed the monster that had landed the finishing blow just as Ducker shattered, his last expression one of fear.

So much for saving anyone…

But there were still more mobs, and us, and only one group would be surviving this battle.

Eventually, the door opened. I could hardly see straight, let alone stand, so I was sitting in a corner while Kirito checked to see if the coast was clear.

"It's clear, Kyou. Let's go." He sounded dead inside. I couldn't blame him.

"Coming," I mumbled. Using the wall to lean on, I shakily got up and made my way to the exit.

Once I was out of the trap room, Kirito materialized a blue crystal from his menu. "We can teleport out, now." He stared blankly at the crystal, likely blaming himself for the events of today.

I went to sling an arm around him, both to steady myself physically and steady him emotionally, but ended up basically falling on the smaller swordsman.

"Oop, sorry Kirito," I apologized. "This happened at the worst possible time…there's a pandemic going around irl, and I caught it."

Kirito didn't answer. "Teleport: Taft," He said instead, disappearing.

Without Kirito holding me up I stumbled before righting myself. Thank goodness I could materialize things from my inventory without accessing my men—oh wait, that was Nanako. Dang.

Clumsily making my way through my menu, I found a spare teleport crystal and materialized it the long way. "Teleport: Taft."

As I dissolved into a ray of light, I wondered: How were we going to explain this to Keita?

A/N: You might be able to tell, but I had a hard time deciding whether or not to save Ducker simply because it would have been nice to save ONE PERSON who ended up trapped in that room. Make the deaths seem a tad more unbiased from the plot-focused characters. But, in the end (with some input from my friends), I ultimately decided that he had to die. I'm still trying to figure out if I'm okay with that; he'd definitely be interesting to write after causing his friends' deaths by deliberately not heeding Kirito and Kyou's warnings and triggering the trap. But then again, isn't it karma that he died for that same reason?

Also yes, Kyou chose Bloop over Ducker. In his defense, it wasn't a conscious decision; he saw Bloop was in danger and acted without thinking. But that's still going to sting later.