It is foolish to fear what we have yet to see and know.
- Itachi Uchiha
Hello, it's Kirito again. I don't know why Leads is making me tell you the rest of this part in our case of the Safe Zone PK case but, anyways I'm going to pick up right where she left off.
Yolko's murder once again flashed before my eyes. Leads was kneeling near the window crying. I was still at the window as well, leaning out and looking at the ground. I took a breath of anger as I looked around the area outside. I saw a cloaked figure standing on the rooftops a short distance away. The figure turned and began to run across the rooftops. The only thing I knew is that I wasn't going to allow the murderer to get away this time.
"I'm going after him," I said just loud enough for them to hear.
Before Leafa or Venus could even say anything, I leapt out the window and somehow managed to land on the rooftop across from the building we were in. I began jumping from rooftop to rooftop, trying to catch up to the murderer, with my hand on the handle of my sword, just in case I needed it. As I ran on the rooftop adjacent to the one he was on, he looked over his shoulder at me.
I got a good look at the attacker's lower face. I could tell that he had light-colored skin. Before I could draw my sword or even command him to stop running, he pulled out a blue teleporting crystal.
"Damn!" I cursed with anger.
In an effort to stop him, I threw some of my throwing knives at him, but only to have them blocked by some kind of dark purple shield.
Where the hell does he think he's going?!
The bells in town began to toll as he teleported away, leaving me in anger.
"Shit," I muttered as I fell backwards, landing on my butt on the rooftop.
My eyes stung and for some reason, I wanted to cry. I pulled my knees to my chest and cupped my hands over my mouth and nose. I willed myself not to cry. I sat there for God knows how long, just thinking about the fact that I had failed again to protect someone.
I finally got up and headed back towards the inn that Leafa and Venus were at watching Schmitt. When I opened the door to the room and was already getting berated by Leafa.
"You idiot!" she exclaimed as she slapped me across the cheek. "Why did you just run off like that?! You can't just do that!"
I didn't say anything. She let out a sigh in response.
"Well? What happened?" Venus asked.
I shut the door behind me.
"I lost him. He teleported off somewhere. The system is supposed to protect players inside the Inns. I thought if anywhere, she'd be safe here! Damn it!"
I banged my fist on the wall, causing a purple tag, labeled "Immortal Object" to appear. Meanwhile, Schmitt was freaking out. He may have been crying and he certainly wasn't talking. Or, so I thought.
"That robe was Griselda's," he finally said.
The three of us looked at him with shock. He began shaking as he continued to speak.
"That was Griselda's ghost. She's come back to get revenge on us! Think about it... Only a ghost can PK someone in a Safe Zone!"
He began to laugh hysterically.
"That wasn't a ghost," I said.
Leafa turned to look at me.
"Someone's using the system to kill. That's the only way these murders could have happened in a Safe Zone! I know it!"
She didn't say anything at first as I looked down at the floor and shuddered.
"Kirito? What's wrong?"
I looked up at her and was surprised to see a worried expression on her face. I let out a sigh as I wiped a single tear from my cheek.
"Nothing. Are we done here?"
She turned to look back at Schmitt, who did nothing but laugh and cry. She then turned back to me.
"I guess so. But let's make sure he settled in before we go, okay?"
I nodded.
"You guys ahead outside I'll do it," Venus said to me and Leafa.
Me and Leafa turned around and walked out through the door before she could have the chance to protest. I was in a bad mood after Yolko's murder. It was reminding me too much of how we lost most of the Moonlit Black Cats.
I knew that Venus sensed something was wrong, but me and Leafa didn't want to talk about it. Speaking of Venus, she was just now coming out the door herself.
"Okay, out with it," She said to us once the door was closed.
"Huh?" me and Leafa asked, turning to look at her.
She rolled her eyes.
"I know that something's on your guy's minds. So, what's wrong?"
We both looked down.
"I've just had a thought. And I'm not sure what you'd say..."
"Just spit it out,"
I frowned before speaking.
"I was just thinking about how earlier today I thought it was possible for a bug that would allow PKing in Safe Zones,"
"And?"
"I came to the realization that Kayaba wouldn't allow a bug like that to exist within his game," I said.
"Why?"
"Because, as crazy as it is for Kayaba to lock ten thousand people in this game and wait for someone, if it just the last player standing to beat the final boss to game, I don't think he'd allow something to unfairly kill players. It doesn't make any sense. Kayaba may be crazy, but I don't think he's evil like that. It's not a bug. I think we're dealing with something else entirely," Leafa said
She just looked at us.
"What?" we both asked.
She finally shrugged.
"Who knows? Maybe you're right, maybe you're wrong,"
She walked ahead of me without another word about it.
"Come on, let's go,"
I turned towards Leafa who just shrugged her shoulders and we then relunctantly ran to catch up with her.
Later
Venus, Leafa, and I sat on a park bench in silence, before she spoke.
"I don't know what to think. Was that black-robed figure Griselda's ghost?"
She sat up straighter.
"After seeing two people die mysteriously, I'm starting to think it's possible,"
I shook my head in disagreement.
"No. That definitely wasn't a ghost,"
She turned to look at me.
"Hmm?"
"I bet my life on it. Why would a ghost need a Teleport Crystal?"
I looked up as a thought suddenly came to my mind.
"Teleport Crystal..."
She continued to look at me.
"What is it? You have something on your mind, don't you?"
I stayed silent for a few seconds.
"On second thought, it's probably nothing,"
She stayed silent for a few seconds after that as well.
"Hmm," She grunted at last, before turning to look away from me.
Several more minutes of silence passed, before Leafa opened her inventory and handed me something.
"Here," She said.
I let out a grunt of surprise as I looked at her holding something bundled up in purple paper, with her giving me an expectant look.
"What, is that for me?"
She frowned back at me.
"Well, what do you think I'm doing? Showing it off? Are you going to take it or what?"
I hesitantly reached out and took the bundle from her.
"Uh, okay, thanks. Thank you,"
I unwrapped it, revealing itself to be a sandwich, with meat, cheese and assorted vegetables, like lettuce.
She handed on to Venus one as well who thanked her.
"Better eat it fast, before it disappears." She spoke as I brought the sandwich close to my mouth. "Its durability is almost at zero,"
I looked at her.
"Oh, uh, right!"
I bit into the sandwich as she suggested and found a pleasant surprise. It tasted great. Like really great! I was kind of surprised that Leafa was capable of making a sandwich taste this good.
Well, she never really has cooked or made stuff for us, so we never really got the chance to. Usually we just fended for ourselves or ate at cafés in Safe Zones.
"It's delicious," I said as she unwrapped her sandwich.
I chomped back down on the sandwich as she began to eat hers.
"When the heck did you find time to pick this up?" I asked, even though I was convinced that she had made it herself.
"I had a feeling we wouldn't have time for lunch today. So this morning, I packed one for us. Hurry up at eat it, okay?"
I continued to eat.
"Where'd you buy these, anyway?" I asked
"I didn't buy them," she replied.
I stopped myself from taking another bite from the sandwich.
"Huh?"
"I made it," She said as I turned my head to look at her. "Yes, I can cook so can Asuna so what?" She asked
I murmured to myself, trying to figure out the appropriate thing to say. I finally gulped before speaking.
"Wow, I-I don't even know what to say. I mean, if you're looking for a second career, you and Asuna make a killing selling these!"
I started chuckling to myself. Not even a few seconds later, Leafa stomped her foot on the ground, scaring the crap out of me. She scared me so much that I fumbled with my sandwich, before it fell on the ground, and unfortunately, since its durability was so low, it shattered once it touched the grass. I just stared at the spot in disbelief.
"Guess you should have been eating instead of talking," Venus said.
I fell onto the ground, onto my hands and knees. I would have spoken, but a thought came to my mind. Something to do with how my sandwich shattered. I was now convinced that the murders just weren't quite what they seemed.
"Are you crying?" Leafa suddenly asked.
"Shh!" I grunted as I put pointed my arm towards her.
I continued to think, before I accepted my theory.
"No way!" I said, surprising both Venus and Leafa a bit. "That's right! That's it!"
"What's it? What did you just figure out?"
"I... No, wait. We never saw a thing! We just thought we did! But we were seeing something else!"
Leafa sounded surprised.
"I was right! The game doesn't allow killing inside a Safe Zone! There's no weapon or exploit!"
"What are you talking about?" Venus asked.
"Kains and Yolko weren't really murdered! They just made it look like they were!"
"Huh?"
"They're still alive! They have to be! I realized it when my sandwich shattered! The spear or dagger was never directly touching them! It was embedded in their armor or clothes!"
"Wait, they're alive?!"
"Yep, they're alive." I said as I sat back down on the bench. "Both of them."
Venud sounded confused.
"B-But..."
I decided to explain myself a little better.
"Inside a Safe Zone, a player's HP doesn't deplete on its own. But a durability of an object does. Just like that sandwich Leafa gave me," I said.
"What?"
"That day, the spear was sticking out of Kains' armor. It wasn't draining his HP though. It was draining the durability of his armor."
"But then, his body didn't disintegrate!"
"Yep, it was just his armor. Nothing else. And at the precise second his armor's durability expired, poof. Kains used a crystal to teleport out of his armor,"
She just looked at me with no response, so I continued.
"Sure, it looks a lot like what happens when a player dies in the game, only he didn't die,"
"Then what happened to Yolko?"
She sounded confused as she spoke.
"Well, the dagger must have been rigged to her back. It must have been all planned out from the beginning,"
She frowned a bit, as if the statement troubled her.
"But... we would have seen it!" she insisted.
"Only if she turned around though. Remember, she never turned her back to us, not even once. She kept an eye on her equipment's durability level while she was talking. When it got down to zero, all she had to do was act like she got hit by a dagger thrown from outside the window,"
"Who was the person in the black robe you chased?"
"It wasn't Grimlock, I'm pretty sure of that. But Kains... He and Yolko were in it together from the beginning. They had to have been. They figure out how they could use this method to fake their own deaths. Getting people to think they were murdered in a Safe Zone was a calculated twist,"
Leafa chimed in at this point with what she had apparently learned from what I had said.
"Everything they did was designed to draw out the person behind Griselda's murder. And to expose him as well. The only way to find out for sure was by faking their deaths and creating an illusionary avenger,"
"And Schmitt was the one person they had picked for it, probably since the beginning,"
A few moments of silence passed between us before I spoke again.
"Hey, you still have Yolko on your friend list, don't you?" I asked Leafa.
She looked up before opening her menu and friend list. She scrolled through it for a few seconds.
"Right now, she's in the field on Floor Nineteen. It looks like she's on a small hill, just outside of town," she said.
"I see,"
She turned her head to face me again.
"That's it, then. I guess they can handle it from here. I mean, our job's pretty much done now, wouldn't you say?"
A small smile appeared on her face, a rare thing to see, and she nodded.
"Mmm-Hmm,"
Later
Before we both called it a night, Venus, Leafa, and I decided to go to a café for a quick cup of tea. As I stared down at my tea, the sudden realization came to my mind.
"We ended up playing right into Yolko's hands, didn't we?" I asked. "You know what? I don't really mind,"
"Yeah, me neither," Venus said.
"Same here," Leafa said.
I sat there in silence, looking to my right with a small smile on my face.
"Hey," Venus voice brought me out of the daze that I was in.
"Hmm?" I grunted as I turned my head to look at her.
"Your in a guild what would you do if you got a really rare item,"
I leaned back in my chair as I sighed.
That's a tough question to answer, I thought. If I were still a solo player, I'd keep it for my myself. However I'm in a guild so I not sure what I would do.
I eventually reached a verdict.
"I really don't know." I said as I let out a sigh. "If it were just me, it would be an easy decision to make. But it's not just me. If it were an item that enhanced attack speed, agility or anything like that, I would give it to Sachi, or Silica, but if it were strength or damage enhancement based, I'd be torn between keeping it for myself or giving it to Sachi, Asuna, or Leafa," I said.
"Now I know why your guild sticks with you,"
We sat there in silence for a while until she spoke again.
"Well, if you're at all curious, in The Knights of the Blood Oath, the one who gets the kill gets to keep the item. Those are the rules we have to play by. You know how in SAO, if a player gets a drop, no one knows unless that person reports it? Our way, no one can hoard stuff because we've worked out who gets what ahead of time."
She took a breath before speaking again.
"Also, the rules The Knights play by gives the concept of marriage in this world real meaning. Think about it. If you marry, you have to share your item storage. If you're single, you can hide whatever you want. But you know, when you're married, you can't hide it anymore."
She leaned forward and cupped her hands close to her face.
"I think sharing storage with the person you're married to is wonderfully pragmatic." She continued. "At the same time, I think it's very romantic."
I sat there as a waitress came by to collect our plates and cups.
"Hey." I said.
"Yeah, what?"
As the waitress cleaned up, I spoke. I asked something that in hindsight, I should have realized was a stupid thing to ask.
"So, how many times you been married anyway?"
She really didn't like my question. Now I knew why The Knights of the Blood Oath called her "Vengeful Venus". In no time at all, she had let out an angry grunt, grabbed her fork and was leaning across the table, with her arm extended and all four points of the fork digging into the skin of my face. I let out a scream as I fell over in my chair.
"Wait, I didn't mean it like that!" I exclaimed as I held the spot where I had been lightly stabbed with a fork. "Just give me a second to explain!"
She didn't give me the chance as she stared down at me with a disapproving glare.
"How else could you have meant it, you idiot?!" she exclaimed as she slammed her fork back down onto the table.
"Do you three need to be escorted out of here?" the waitress asked, suddenly appearing right next to us.
Venus looked at the waitress, with a smile on her face, which suffice to say, surprised me.
"No, I apologize. It seems my friend just never knows when to keep his mouth shut. He won't cause any more problems, I promise," she said.
The waitress looked down at me as I face turned red from embarrassment and anger. Venus looked down at me as well, with a frown on her face, before looking back at the waitress with a cheery look.
"Don't worry, we'll go ahead and leave now," she said.
The waitress looked back down at me.
"Please do," She said at last as she walked past me.
Leafa looked back down at me with a frown as she helped me up.
"Um, thanks," I said.
"You're an idiot," she said.
"Come on. Let's go before we make a scene." Venus spoke as she walked past us.
"Um, we had already made a scene!"
She didn't say anything as we walked towards the exit of the café. Once we were outside, we sat down on a bench not too far away from the café.
"Okay, I'm going to give you a chance," She said.
"What?"
She flashed me an angry, disapproving glance.
"I'm going to give you a second chance to explain what you meant just now!"
I made a hurry in an attempt to do so.
"You were talking about how it's romantic and plastic and..."
She interrupted me before I could say anything else.
"I did not say that, you ass!" she exclaimed as she slugged me in the shoulder.
"Agh!"
I just looked at her with a nervous gaze after that.
"What I said was: "romantic and pragmatic"! For your information, the word pragmatic means practical! My God!"
"You think marriage in SAO is... practical?"
"Of course! If you're married, everything's out in the open, you know, because of common storage?"
I let out a light gasp as what she had just said brought me to another realization.
"What?" she asked in an irritated voice.
I brought my fist to my chin as I thought.
"That's it. Common storage,"
I turned my head to look at Venus.
"Okay, say your spouse dies. What happens to the items?"
She looked confused, but nonetheless it looked as though she were thinking. Or trying to, at least.
"Huh?" she asked in a small voice at last.
"Item storage is shared, right? So, when one person dies, what happens to their stuff?"
She looked down for a few seconds.
"If you're talking about Griselda and Grimlock... Hmm, if one of them died..."
"Everything would go to the surviving spouse, right?" I interjected.
She gave me a look of disapproval.
"Hey, don't interrupt my thought process, okay? But, yeah, you have a point! If everything goes to the spouse, then the ring in Griselda's storage..."
She's right, I'm an ass. I interrupted her again.
"Should be sitting in Grimlock's storage, not the killer's! My guess is it's been sitting there this whole time!"
She didn't seem to be affected by the fact that I interrupted her again.
"It was never stolen in the first place!" Leafa said.
"No, it was stolen." I said insistently. "It doesn't matter; it's still there. Grimlock was basically stealing it as soon as he put his plan into action!"
She let out a gasp as she continued to look at me. That's when the bad feeling hit me.
I turned towards Leafa. "Where did you say she was at?" I urgently asked.
She looked at me with confusion.
"She was in a field on Floor Nineteen the last time I checked. Why?"
"Is she still there?!" I practically shouted at her.
She was taken back by how I reacted but opened up her friend list nonetheless. She eventually nodded and looked back at me.
"Yeah, she's still there,"
I let out a sigh as leaned over and put my head into my hands.
"No, no, no. Not good, not good," I muttered to myself.
"Kirito?" Leafa said my name with worry.
My head bolted back up and I faced her once more.
"I have a bad feeling! I think she could be in danger!"
Both Venus and Leafa gave me a look of confusion.
"I-I-I... I have to go rent a horse!" I said as I got up in a hurry.
"Hey, ease up! What are you talking about?" Leafa said m
I turned to face them.
"I think Yolko is in danger! I'm going to go after her!"
"But what about us?! What are we supposed to do?!"
"Just track my location! And Leafa get the rest of the guild to come help, if you can get ahold of them!"
"You better not get yourself killed or I will find away to kill you in the afterlife!" Leafa shouted at me.
I ignored her and kept running. I just hoped that I wasn't too late.
Later - Nineteenth Floor: Cross Hill
I rode my rented horse through Cross Hill as fast as he would go. According to Asuna's intel, I had to be getting pretty close. Finally, after a minute or so of riding, I began to see what looked like four or five players in the distance.
Unfortunately, however, it seemed that I pushed the horse too hard. As soon as we got close to them, he reared up and bucked me off. I landed right on my behind.
"Ow! Damn! I really need to work on that skill," I muttered to myself.
I got up from my spot on the ground.
"Looks like I made it just in time," I said.
I felt like I didn't need the horse at this point, so I slapped it on it's hindquarters, sending it back the way we had come. I began to approach the group, which comprised of Yolko and Kains, I think, and three people that seemed to be a part of Laughing Coffin.
"Now what? I got thirty players from the Assault Team coming. You guys want to stay and fight 'em?"
The guy that seemed to be the leader of the three let out an angry growl. I drew my sword.
"Or, you could try to fight me. I think I've earned it. Take your pick,"
They stood motionless, as did I. We all stayed silent as we stared at each other for what seemed like several minutes. Eventually one of them snapped their fingers and all of them sheathed their swords, which surprised me. Yolko fell to her knees in front of Kains as this happened.
What were they doing?
"Come on," The leader said in a low voice as be started to walk past me.
His boys did the same and I turned my head to watch them go. They kept walking until the disappeared into the fog ahead. Once they were gone, I sheathed my sword as I sighed. I looked over my shoulder at Kains and Yolko.
"Nice to see you alive again, Yolko," I said.
She looked down at the ground with guilt.
"You won't believe me, but after it was over, I was going to tell you the truth," She said before looking up at me. "I am sorry that we had to trick you to help us out,"
A small smile appeared on my face as I looked back at them. Just then, Schmitt spoke from his place on the ground. In fact, I was just now noticing him.
"Hey Kirito, thank you for saving me," He said as he got up on knee. "But how did you figure it out? How would you know that those three would attack us here?"
"I didn't figure anything out. I was acting on a hunch, is all," I said.
I looked back at the two behind me.
"Hey, Yolko, Kains, level with me. You asked Grimlock to make the spear and the knife, didn't you?"
They both looked at each other, before turning to look at me.
"We did, but he was against our plan from the beginning. All he wanted was for Griselda to rest in peace," Yolko said.
"He did forge the weapons for us, but only after we got down on our knees and begged him," Kains chimed in.
I just looked at them.
"I'm sorry, but he had a different reason for not liking your plan. Griselda had nothing to do with it,"
They both looked confused.
"Huh?" they asked in unison.
"He thought faking PKs in a Safe Zone was going to draw a lot of attention. He didn't want to take the risk of someone snooping for answers,"
They still looked surprised. I turned to look away from them.
"We found out the whole thing about a half hour ago,"
They both continued to look at me.
"It was Grimlock?" Kains asked. "Then those were his instructions. And he killed Griselda, too?"
"No, I doubt he was the one who actually killed her," I said. "Although, I'm pretty sure he went and found himself a red player to do it for him,"
Schmitt gasped with shock as he continued to look at me.
"My God," Yolko spoke up. "But if he really did have her killed, why would he go through all that trouble to help us out?"
"You explained your plan to him in detail, didn't you?"
Yolko sat up straighter.
"Your plan was the perfect chance for him to bury the Ring Incident and any witnesses once and for all. All he'd have to do is sit back and wait for you, Schmitt and Kains to get together. You'd be sitting ducks,"
"That's it," Schmitt spoke. "That's why. They knew we'd be here because he hired them!"
"Yeah. My guess is it was probably the same bunch he hired to kill Griselda,"
"Om my God." Yolko spoke with a sad look in her eyes.
She fell over a bit and Kains caught her in his arms.
"Found him!" a voice said from behind me.
I turned around to see Venus and Leafa along with Sachi, Silica, and Asuna walking towards me, escorting a man in a hat and glasses our way. Before I could speak, Ausuna beat me to it.
"Well, it looks like the cavalry has arrived," she said as she walked up to me.
She gave me a strange look.
"What's that mark on your face?"
I gave her a strange look in return as I felt my face and after a second or two, felt a small mark on my cheek.
Oh, man! The mark where Venua stabbed me is still there, isn't it?
I let out a sigh.
"Venus stabbed me with a fork."
"Why?" Sachi asked with confusion.
I noticed Venus flashing me a deadly look. I looked back at them.
"Um, I said something stupid."
"And?" Venus asked.
I sighed.
"And I won't say it ever again,"
"Anything else?" she asked.
"And I'm very sorry,"
She smiled with satisfaction. Asuna continued to look at me.
"What exactly did you say?" she asked.
I looked over at Venus, to see that she was frowning. I looked back at Asuna.
"It doesn't matter,"
I snuck a glance at Venus, to see that she was smiling again. I directed my attention to the man in the hat and glasses.
"What about that guy?" I asked her. "Who is this?"
"Who do you think he is?" she asked. "This is Grimlock,"
"Damn it, guys. I told you to track my location! Not to go looking for Grimlock!"
An angry look appeared on her face.
"We did then on our way here we ran into him. He didn't put up much of a fight," Leafa said.
"Okay, okay, you did you capture him?"
"Kirito, if what you said is true, then Grimlock very well may be the culprit!"
"Um, okay..."
I was speaking, when Asuna interrupted me.
"Okay, can we get to the point, please?"
I let out a sigh.
"Right. Leafa?"
She nodded before speaking.
"If you guys want to know more, why don't you ask him yourself?"
"Hello," Grimlock replied. "Long time, no see, Comrades,"
"I can't believe it..." Yolko said. "Did you... Did you really plan this? How could you, Grimlock?! Answer me! Why did you kill Griselda?! Was it money?! Was the money so important to you that you'd kill your own wife?!"
"Hmm, money? Did you say money?" he asked.
They all looked up at him with shock and all he did was chuckle to himself. His smile disappeared as he straightened up.
"It wasn't for the money. I had to. No matter what, I had to kill her while we were still stuck in this world. I had to kill her while she was still my life. And also, because she was my wife in the real world,"
Everyone except me, Leafa, Venus, Yolko, and Kains gasped with shock. Even Schmitt seemed surprised.
"In a way, she was the perfect wife. Ideal, so pretty, submissive. The whole time we were together, we never had a single fight. But when we were trapped in here, in this world, she changed. In here, I was the one who was afraid, terrified of playing this death game. But she looked so much happier here, more alive than she did in the real world. There was nothing I could do about it. She changed. The Yuko I loved was gone,"
I grit my teeth in an effort to keep from speaking. I was beginning to be disgusted by Grimlock and his story. But nevertheless, I continued to listen.
"Gone! But then I realized that I didn't have to live with the way she was, murder was legal in this game! If I couldn't have the Yuko I loved back, I'd settle for the memory of her!"
There was a crazed look in Grimlock's eyes. A look that I didn't like.
"And who could blame me?" he finished speaking.
"That's why you did it?" I asked with shock, not being able to contain my thoughts any longer. "That's the reason you killed your wife?"
He didn't seem phased by what I said. In fact, I didn't think that anyone could get through to him.
"It's reason enough. And someday, you'll understand, too. Once you've found love, believe me, you'll do anything to keep it,"
I felt unnerved by what he said. That's when Asuna spoke up as she sheathed her rapier.
"You're wrong Grimlock. You've got it all wrong,"
She walked ahead of him and stopped near me.
"You didn't love Griselda. That's not what you felt!" she spoke before violently turning to face him. "You stopped loving her when you became selfish and possessive!"
Grimlock gasped with shock in response and his eyes widened. He looked down and fell to his knees. It sounded like he was going to cry. I was then taken by surprise when Kains and Yolko walked past all of us. Schmitt followed.
"Everyone, we appreciate your help," Kains spoke. "But I think this is our problem to deal with now,"
"Okay," I said.
Silica spoke up.
"Are you sure you'll guys be alright?"
"Positive." Kains replied as he and Schmitt forced Grimlock to get up.
Yolko followed them but turned and bowed to us before leaving. Everyone bowed back, so I decided to take there example. We all watched as they walked off.
"So, now what?" Sachi asked.
Before any of us could answer, the sun began to rise. I let out a yawn and stretched.
"Hey," Venus said next to me. "Say it was one of you guys, and you married someone, and later on you found out about a different side to them that you didn't know about, how would you feel?"
Sachi, Leafa, Silica, Asuna and I all looked at each other, trying to come up with answers.
"I guess it depends on what that side is." Silica spoke first.
I didn't answer at first.
"I guess that I was lucky?"
Asuna let out a grunt as surprise. She looked at me.
"Um, because, I mean, if you marry someone that means you like what you already know about them, doesn't it? And if you discover something you didn't know about them before and fell in love with that, too, then, that would be awesome?"
She eventually looked away from me.
"Right. Good answer." She spoke before turning to look at me. "What about you, Sachi?"
Sachi didn't answer.
"Sachi?" Asuna asked as she turned to face her.
She gave Asuna a small smile.
"I don't really have an answer," She said.
"Anyways," Venus said as she turned to walk away. "Anyway, I'm hungry after all this. I didn't really get to finish my dinner.
I nodded.
"Oh, yeah, I guess you didn't."
She turned to everyone else
"I'm going to go get something to eat. Do you guys want to come along? Kirito?"
I debated on whether or not I wanted to go out with Venus again, and risk being poked with a fork again. That a haven't been around any of the other guild members except for Leafa. I eventually sighed. Asuna began to walk forward, with Sachi, Leafa, and Silica following her and that's when I noticed something. I quickly stepped forward and grabbed Asuna's forearm.
"Hey, wait!" I said.
She turned back, flashing me a glare.
"Now what?" she asked.
I pointed to what I saw and all five of them turned. Standing by the tree at Griselda's grave, was a female player in a dark cloak. She had short dark hair, with a clip in it, as well as light skin and green eyes. We all looked at the figure in shock. She smiled at us, but I was still a bit unnerved. One second, she was there, the next, she wasn't. Venus finally broke the silence.
"Um, did we just see a ghost?"
I turned to face her.
"I think so,"
I was convinced that we had just seen the ghost of Griselda.
"Hey, Kirito," Venus spoke. "Do you guys want to friend me?"
I looked at her and she looked back.
I just stared at her.
"But we hate each other," I said.
She rolled her eyes.
"Come on, Kirito. I really don't think that I hate any of the members in your guild. Sure, we say a lot of things about each other, we yell a lot and I may hit you every once and a while, but..."
"At least once every day," I interjected.
She frowned as she glared at me.
"Every once and a while, but at the end of the day, I do really like you and you guild mates as friend material. You guys aren't that bad to be around,"
I continued to stare at her.
"I just don't understand why..."
She interrupted me by punching me in the arm. But she punched me in a playful way. And it surprised me when I saw the smile on her face. She seemed genuinely happy right now, opposed to the usual "Angry Venus" that we all had come to know.
"Just friend me, okay?" she said, continuing to smile at me. "I'm not implying that we have to start hanging out, but I'd like to know where you guys are and how to get to you if I ever need your help, or if I ever want to talk to you guys!"
I continued to stare at her, before I finally sighed. The friend request menu popped up in front of my face. My finger hovered over the accept button, before I finally pressed "accept". I looked up at Venus, who still had a smile on her face. Then, she did something that surprised me. She stepped forward, grabbed hold of my cheek and pinched down.
"See? That wasn't so hard now, was it?" she asked in a teasing tone.
I didn't like how she was pinching me.
"Okay, okay! Cut it out!" I muttered as I pushed her hand away.
She just stared back at me with the same smile on her face. I eventually cleared my throat and interrupted her stare.
"Alright, can we get back to the front lines soon, please? I want to get back to work,"
They all had expressions of confusion on their faces.
"What?" I asked.
Asuna spoke first.
"Why do you want to get back to work so bad?"
"Yeah, Kirito. What's up with that?" Leafa asked next.
"Well, I uh..." I began to speak as I scratched the back of my neck.
"Kirito?" Sachi asked.
"I just... I just want to get back to the real world," I said at last.
"We all want to go back." Silica said.
"Yeah, so what makes your case so special?" Asuna asked.
"Me and Leafa have a family back in the real world and in some way I still blame myself for getting Leafa in this place,"
"Kirito?" Sachi asked with concern.
I looked down, but I didn't cry.
"I avoided Leafa for the longest time and she thought that the only way she would get close to me again was to dive in here,"
No one said a word. I looked back up at them, to see that all of them had looks of sympathy on their faces, even Venus.
Before I knew it, Leafa was hugging me. I was surprised because I hadn't expected this. Eventually, I did my best to hug her back.
"I never blamed you Oni-chan I wanted to be here now more then ever. You would be all alone in here," she said.
I then did something I haven't done since the death of the Moonlight Black Cats I cried. I cried into Leafa's shoulder for the longest time.
Eventually I stopped crying and removed my self from Leafa. "Feel better?" she asked. I nodded my head.
"Well with that out of the way we should get going," Venus said. We all nodded our heads in agreement.
"Hey Kirito I'll race you back to town, Leafa said as she took off running.
"Hey, no head starts, I said as I took off after. As I ran I could hear the others talking.
"They really are related aren't they," Venus said.
"That they are Venus," Asuna said. "That they are,"
And finally done. Sorry for not finishing this sooner, but I really didn't have the motivation to write this particular story. I've start several others that you may have read if not give them a read and let me know what you think. Anyways next on Sword Art Online: Twin Blades we will meet Lisabeth and Kirito will get his Dark Repulser. I really can't think of a different name so I'm going with the traditional title. Temperature of the Heart - Asuna.