Chapter 45: Alone
2023 July 03. Aincrad, Floor 31, Boss Room, 22:02, Aincrad Standard Time
Once again Asuna found herself, KoB, and the other clearing guilds stacking up outside the entrance to the latest boss room. The Labyrinth had reportedly been hard to crack this time around. Progress diminished by enemies that demonstrated more intelligent prowess than many of even the most advanced players had encountered before.
Asuna stood midway up the steps leading to the entrance of the Boss Room, Heathcliff stood at the top. She scanned the crowd of players looking for him. It would have been nothing for him to slip unnoticed behind everyone at the last minute. After panning her vision back and forth several times, she couldn't spot Kirito.
Her disappointment saddened the part of her still somehow expecting him to show up. The part of her still in denial. Yet at the same time, another part of her was in acceptance. She fought back coming to tears.
"Absent again, hmm? Two in a row is a little odd." Heathcliff seemed to have noticed Kirito's lack of presence as well. Asuna's action prompted him to say something to her.
Asuna turned and looked up at him. "It would seem so." She shortly said. She refrained from explaining to him what might have happened. 'He's not stupid. He'll figure it out.' Asuna thought to herself.
Heathcliff pushed open the doors. His action caused the silent murmur of the guilds to quiet. Like orderly sheep following a shepherd, the clearing party followed Heathcliff into the Boss Room.
Asuna tiredly walked into her bedroom, falling into the bed. She mustered the strength to unequip her gear, using the "lazy" method of the menu to do so. She managed to equip her nightwear outfit, exiting the menu and closing her eyes, letting out a sigh.
The boss had been egregiously difficult. Not since Floor 22 had the Clearing Teams seen a boss employ such raw and crude violence. The losses sustained by other smaller Guilds were innumerable. She figured some would never be able to rebuild, the surviving member's "careers" effectively over. 'Who would want to continue after most of their guildmates were massacred in front of them?' She thought to herself.
KoB had made it off lucky, relatively speaking. Each squad save for Asuna's had incurred one or two losses. While she was saddened by their deaths, she was fortunate in that she didn't know any of her Guildmates killed personally all that well. That saving grace kept Asuna from being totally swept up by sorrow, given the past couple of day's unfoldings. They felt like drops in the bucket to her.
'Am I…' Asuna was suddenly disturbed by her feelings. 'I should be in tears over them as well, right?' Asuna thought to herself. 'They don't…They don't compare.' It wasn't that Asuna didn't care, she simply had no more to give.
She lay on the spot she fell into on her bed, not bothering to pull up her sheets or blankets. Asuna quickly drifted off to sleep, completely emotionally and physically drained.
2023 July 04. Aincrad, Floor 25, Master's Hall, Old Granzam, Giltstein. 09:30, Aincrad Standard Time
Asuna's menu appeared above her sleeping head, hovering. A soft *beeping* noise gradually got louder. The noise eventually amplified, waking Asuna up. She slowly turned her head and dismissed her alarm, checking the time as well.
"09:20"
'I might be late…' Asuna thought to herself as she let out a sigh. She sat up and stretched her arms upward. Asuna walked over to the bathroom. Running warm water through the tap, she equipped her gear. She briefly contemplated foregoing the breast plate and her metallic bracers, but concluded that full gear would be more formal.
She splashed the water onto her face, and adjusted her hair. Not that it would make a difference as the System took care of making everything look perfect. She even noticed the blood on her breastplate from the previous night was gone, as though nothing had ever happened.
She turned off the tap and departed her bedroom.
Asuna entered Heathcliff's "office". Old Granzam provided its Guild Master with a luxurious room meant for conducting official business. Heathcliff spent most of his days here, Save for when he was leading a clearing team against a boss.
Murmurs had spurred across the playerbase of Heathcliff's feats in battle. His legend spawning from the fact that no player, not even Asuna, had ever seen his health drop into the yellow region: 60%. The man's imposing presence was complimented by full, primarily crimson red plate armor, and a shield he wielded in his dominant left hand, a simple one-handed sword in his right. His long, greyish-brown hair extended just past his shoulders, in no particular style, highlighted his light-grey eyes.
Heathcliff, although not known for his damage output, was more than capable of putting up a fight versus both player and enemy alike. His magnificent, unbreakable technique and talent in more defensive arts had earned himself the title "Immortal Object" among the playerbase.
It was a title Heathcliff rejected. Or at the very least, would never refer to himself as.
"You wanted to see me, sir?" Asuna prompted.
"Yes. Good morning Vice Commander." Heathcliff calmly replied.
"Is everything alright?"
"Yes, it's nothing too serious. I will be absent for the next week. Effective today."
"OK…" Asuna's demeanor skipped in her reply. Such a sudden announcement took her by surprise. While Heathcliff had taken "vacations" before, he was usually courteous enough to announce it in advance to at least Asuna. Usually Godfree as well.
"Is this alright?" Heathcliff asked, as if to beg a protest out of Asuna.
"O-Of course, sir." Asuna snapped up and replied. "If I may ask, where are you going?" Asuna attempted to satiate her curiosity.
"There's someone I need to be with. To go see." Heathcliff calmly replied, although his manner implied he'd rather not be asked that question.
"I understand." Asuna confirmed. 'Does he have a wife or girlfriend or something? Someone he came here with...someone he was trapped in here with?' Asuna began thinking to herself. Somehow the thought of Heathcliff having someone he deeply cared about in Aincrad was warming to Asuna. It humanized the typically stoic, emotionless Guild Leader.
"You have my full confidence and expectation that progression will continue." Heathcliff continued. "I will judge your progress and re-evaluate if needed upon my return."
The words struck Asuna. Heathcliff had left before, but things were usually put on hold while he was absent. 'Of course he expects progress' She thought to herself. An overwhelming sense of doubt began to overtake Asuna, as she felt what was seemingly the weight of the world drop onto her shoulders. 'Any other time this might have been fine…' she thought to herself. 'But with Kirito...and what happened last night…' Asuna wasn't sure she could continue moving forward on her own. To be responsible for so many lives…
"Any questions or objections, Vice Commander?" Heathcliff finally asked.
"O-Of course not, sir." Asuna replied.
"Good. Dismissed." Heathcliff concluded.
Asuna exited Heathcliff's "office", and returned to her room.
Asuna exhaled a long breath as she soaked in the bath, and laid back, resting upon the wall of the tub. Her hair was tied up in a bun, save for two long streams of hair from the front that extended down to her body, just past her breasts. Her legs were extended, the tub of sufficient length to allow her to stretch out.
With her exhale, she once again felt an overwhelming weight pushed upon her. 'The next week…' she thought to herself. Despite her knowing she had the support of all of her guildmates, she didn't feel a particular connection to any of them. Why Heathcliff chose her, Asuna, who was still a teenage girl, to be Vice Commander was beyond her. 'I want to be a teenager still…' Asuna thought to herself.
Perhaps it a sign of immaturity, Asuna didn't want this extra responsibility, yet it was thrust on her. Nor did she want the full responsibility of the guild albeit for a week. She couldn't quite remember how she got to be vice-commander, nor why she didn't say no.
Asuna once again began thinking back to Christmas Eve. The night she had spent with Kirito.
"Want to be stupid teenagers?" Asuna thought back. On one hand she couldn't believe she had actually said that, and she giggled to herself. Yet...it perfectly encompassed her feelings right now, and even then.
That night with Kirito was the closest thing she had experienced to what she thought to be a "normal" life. One she had craved so much in the real world, and one she felt was taken from her when she became trapped in this deathly world.
As she was reminiscing, a wave of bitter resentment began to wash over Asuna. She suddenly felt angry and frustrated. Angry at the world. Angry at her entrapment. Angry at Heathcliff for leaving. Angry at herself for not being able to reject responsibility that she was becoming to resent. Angry at herself for being so stubborn and insisting on fighting her way through. And finally...angry at Kirito.
'He...he left me here. All alone.' She would feel better about Heathcliff leaving if Kirito was there. She couldn't describe the feeling even now, but whenever Kirito was around during a bossfight, it gave her some sort of reassurance. Some sort of confidence…
'H-he...He left me...This world...H-he escaped it…' Asuna's anger began to take on sorrow, morphing into this bitter-mourning emotion that swept across Asuna. Before she knew it, she was sobbing.
Tears began washing down her cheeks. They continued down her neck, over her collarbone and down a brief portion of her chest before mixing with her bathwater.
2023 July 13. Aincrad, Floor 25, Master's Hall, Old Granzam, Giltstein. 12:00, Aincrad Standard Time
"To put it frankly, I'm disappointed, Miss Vice Commander." Heathcliff declared in a monotone voice.
"S-sorry, sir." Asuna replied. Heathcliff's reaction wasn't a surprise to Asuna. In his absence Floor clearing had proceeded at a snail's pace. Asuna attributed it to her inexperience in such a leadership role.
"I expected at least another Floor. Are there any...abnormalities preventing you from having cleared the next step?"
"No."
"I thought not. Clear the Floor tomorrow."
"Yes sir. Will you be returning to the frontlines?" Asuna asked.
"No. Dismissed." Heathcliff curtly concluded.
2023 July 14. Aincrad, Floor 32, Boss Room, 23:00, Aincrad Standard Time
Asuna stood at the top of the stairs of the boss room. 14 hours of fighting later, the clearing party had made it. And perhaps their greatest challenge yet lay before them. Asuna took one last scan across the crowd. Exhausted yes, but exhaustion at this stage was a mere illusion imposed by the game. Panning back and forth...she wasn't sure what she was expecting.
'He's really gone then...I'm alone.' She concluded to herself.
Asuna shoved it all away, and drew her Rapier. The sound of her weapon unsheathing silenced the other players.
"Let's begin." Asuna projected her voice, ordering the crowd below, and pushing open the doors to the boss room.