Chapter 9

A War in the Making

June 31, 2023

Dear Taka

If possible, can we meet on the island with the funnel shaped structural support, just north of Panareze. It's the one with the crescent moon floating above it. Something happened recently and I felt you were the best person to bring this subject up with. It's fine if you don't show, but I'd be really thankful if you did.

From Kirito

. . .

"This should be the right one, but where the hell is he…?" Taka muttered while swiping down with his two fingers, closing his menu.

Kirito had asked him out of the blue to meet him on floor 24. The message didn't give much context on why, but he still came. At first, he planned on ignoring it, but gave in, read it and went to the same floating island Kirito had mentioned.

So where is he?!

The island wasn't very big so spotting anyone shouldn't have been a big deal. But Kirito was nowhere in sight.

Just as he was about to give up and go back to the city, he heard a thud, like something falling from a tree. He turned as Kirito walked around a tree with a somber look on his face. The look was the only thing keeping Taka from using colorful language to ask what he wanted.

"Hey Taka. I see you came… Thanks." Kirito said as walked towards the edge of the island and sat down, letting his legs dangle over the side. His head hung low and bangs covered an obviously pained face.

Taka sensed the seriousness and sat down next to him. He partially turned his head to look at the black clad boy. His bangs still covered his eyes and his fists were clenched tightly. A deep frown was also present on his face.

They both kept silent for a little while, watching the sunset on the horizon of the aquatic floor. Normally Taka thrived for silence, but now the silence almost felt unbearable, with a strong emotion emitting from Kirito that was felt in the atmosphere around them.

Whatever Kirito wanted to talk about, it wasn't some everyday thing that he often heard from the boy from their encounters. No, it was something far from it.

"You're probably wondering why I asked you to come out here, huh?" Kirito began in a quiet voice, still looking down.

"No offense, but I honestly didn't expect you for you to even show up, but… I appreciate you coming on such short notice." He paused and let out a shaky breath.

"Since we met again during the first floor boss raid - in fact, since I first heard of the story surrounding you, I knew there was more to it than what meets the eye. The way you act, try and keep your distance from others as much as you can. It's certainly not hard to see that you've been through something."

Are you serious?! Another person?! First Lisbeth and now him?! Is it really that easy to see? Damn… Just keep it under control.

"And this has to do with what you want to tell me, how?"

Kirito took a deep breath and let it out before speaking in a grim tone.

"From what everyone knows about you and have pieced together, You lost someone or something you cared about - Or, at least the reason for taking lives was as close to justifiable as it can get."

Taka tensed up just like he did when Lisbeth was talking about the topic. Another person nearly hit it right on the spot. For Kirito's sake, he tried keeping his composure. But he felt himself losing that battle.

"Think whatever you want. Just get to the point already."

"Yeah… Sorry." Kirito took another shaky breath, lifting his head up and looking out at the entirety of floor 24.

"As the message said, something happened not too long ago. Something terrible."

Taka gave the boy his full attention at hearing that. Kirito took a long pause before grimacing.

"So you know how I ended up joining a guild, right?"

"Mhm."

"Yeah… It was a small guild called the Moonlit Black Cats. Other than me, there were five other members. Keita - the leader, Sachi, Tetsuo, Sasamaru and Ducker. For the short time I was a part of the guild, they became almost like family to me. Although I hid my level from them, I really enjoyed hanging around them."

It didn't take a smart person to guess where this was heading. Even so, Taka internally prayed that Kirito would say something different than he surmised. But something terrible? There's not many things it could be.

"One of the members - Sachi - was afraid of death. I felt myself growing closer to her and… I promised her I'd keep her safe. I told her I'd make sure she wouldn't die. She told me she felt at peace around me."

A brief smile made its way to his face, before darkening once again.

"One day, Keita went out to try and buy the guild our first home. While he did that, the rest of us went to the labyrinth on floor 27 to grind monsters so we could have some money to celebrate getting the new home."

He seemed to hesitate on his next words, as his mouth contorted and moved around like he was having trouble finding what to say. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his legs and hanging his head low again before speaking in somewhat of a strained voice.

"After a little while in the labyrinth, I noticed two hooded people following behind us. I had the group take multiple twists and turns to see if they were just normal players taking a similar path as us. But they followed us the whole way, getting closer and closer to us. I knew at that point that they weren't just there to grind or anything like that…"

"The group was starting to feel scared. Even though it was only two players, they were terrified of the fact that they could be orange players. At that point… I decided to do something about it. And… I can't tell you how much I-I regret what I did next."

His voice was beginning to break and his balled up fists tightened even more.

"All of a sudden, the hooded players charged us. I told everyone else to run somewhere safe and teleport out of there while I stayed back to keep the people following us at bay. T-They ran up ahead somewhere out of sight. The two people came to a stop once they got close to me. Their weapons w-were drawn at this point, pointed at me. They only inched closer, smiling and ignoring my questions as I slowly backed away. After a minute, they suddenly turned around and r-ran off."

"I-I had no idea what they wanted or why they were following us. Until it hit me… T-They were just stalling me."

Kirito rubbed the back of hand across his face,

removing the tears that were building up in the corner of his eyes.

"I ran. I ran as f-fast as I could to where they went. B-But I was too late." A choked sob escaped his throat as he rubbed eyes with his hand again.

"Ducker and S-Sasamaru were already gone. Tetsuo died right after I made it t-there. H-He died by poisoning. A-And Sachi… All h-her gear was gone and s-she was laying on the ground. She nearly had z-zero HP. And she also h-had the poison debuff."

Taka found himself holding his breath. He was having trouble keeping up with Kirito's words as he felt a lump in his throat.

"I t-tried to heal her. I tried to run as fast as I could. I-I couldn't make it in t-time… S-She died right in front me! I p-promised her I'd protect her! But I couldn't d-do that!"

The tears were falling freely down his face now. His voice was full of pain and guilt.

"When Keita h-heard what happened and found I was lying about m-my level… He killed himself! He jumped off the edge of Aincrad r-right in front of me!"

"It's all my f-fault! I played r-right into their h-hands! I-I should've had them teleport out r-right there! I should've d-done something different! Anything!"

"It should've been me… They didn't deserve it…"

Taka was at a loss for words. While trying to suppress a slowly building nauseous feeling and take in Kirito's words, he found himself unable to speak.

Kirito sobbed quietly as the setting sun casted a orange glow on them and the entire landscape.

Taka now knew the reason why Kirito had called him - out of all people here - He knew exactly how the boy was feeling. The pain from losing people dear to you. The guilt of believing you failed them. It was all too familiar.

"I-I don't know what exactly happened t-to you Taka, but how did you move past it…?"

I… I don't know what to say. I can't…

Taka never once shared anything about what happened that night. In fact, he tried his hardest to keep it bottled up inside of him. It seemed like an impossible task and there was no way he could talk about it. For Kirito though…

"I… I've never really gotten past it." Taka paused as Kirito lifted his head with widened eyes. He wasn't at all expecting to hear a response like that.

"It's not your fault they died. If you believe otherwise, it's often the situations' influence that makes your mind believe that."

I guess there's a difference between us in that regard. I'm at fault in my situation while in Kirito's, it's not one bit his fault. Taka mused, unaware that he and the boy are indeed similar in this way.

"N-No! You don't get it! If I hadn't fallen for their scheme! If I was smarter! Faster! S-Stronger! I could've saved them! They wouldn't be dead… If I never would've joined them, t-they'd be alive."

Aside from Kirito's silent sobbing, it got quiet. Taka didn't know how to comfort him or help him after that. What happened to him was too similar to what happened to Taka. The same thing Kirito wanted help with was something he hadn't even begun to heal from yet.

I don't know. Kirito came to the wrong person. I'm still just a broken, lost person. But I do wanna help, I just don't know how.

"S-Sorry Taka… For wasting your time." Kirito began, as he pulled himself completely back onto the island and stood up. "I-I need to fix this problem on my own…"

His words seemed to have multiple meanings to them. Taka could see it for a split second, until they passed over him completely as he watched Kirito pull out a teleport crystal. Kirito said a location that he couldn't make out and teleported away, leaving Taka who felt lost at the moment.

Kirito's words seemed muted to Taka. His body felt paralyzed and his darkened heart hurt even more.

He wanted to help the boy, but couldn't. Nothing could come to mind and he walked away. Kirito was under the wrath of the guilt and pain that Taka had suffered through for months. Someone like Kirito shouldn't have to go through that.

XXXXXX

July 5, 2023

The Igneous Arachnid let out a shrill cry as it's underbelly was sliced into. It stumbled for only a second before it began to fall to the side. It only fell about half way before exploding into tiny particles.

Taka ignored the pop up window letting him know that he defeated the monster and collapsed into a sitting position on the ground, dropping his sword and panting. He pushed himself back to lean on a large rock outcropping. His breathing was ragged and heavy and multiple orange splotches covered his body from the hits he took.

After wearily scanning the area for monsters or players, he pulled down his face mask, as the volcanic landscape left it difficult to breathe with the constant smoke and ash that was a result of the continuous eruptions.

After taking out a healing potion and emptying it of its contents, he leaned his head back against the rock, worn out from the intense amount of grinding he had been doing. He was beyond tired, but wasn't planning on stopping anytime soon.

The areas where he had received damage left him feeling all bruised up. Not a pleasant feeling, but definitely beats real world pain. He was definitely appreciative of the pain absorber.

As he thought, Taka took the chance to shut his heavy eyelids, and calm down his breathing to a normal pace.

Ever since Kirito had told him about the horrible attack on his guild and walked away, Taka felt even more guilt well up in his mind. He felt like he'd failed another person.

Because of the numerous times he and Kirito had been put together, it seemed to make Taka subconsciously protective over the boy, even if he didn't see it that way. To make the guilt worse, Kirito hadn't responded to any of the PM's Taka had sent. Even Argo hasn't been able to reach him.

Taka heaved out a long sigh and rubbed his right hand down his face. Afterwards, he reopened his eyes and went to stand up. His muscles ached, but he didn't care. He bent down, retrieved his sword and continued on the path while pulling his face mask back up.

The area he was heading into was still uncharted territory. As a fighter on the frontlines, you're tasked with mapping any area you explore that hasn't been marked on the maps yet and sharing the info with the rest of the assault team.

Sharing of data such as that was as far as Taka was willing to go with working with others outside of raids. Even still, he'd often share the info with someone like Asuna, who would in turn share it with the rest of the assault team.

But working together was the only way out of the death game, so it wasn't a bother to him that much. He'd help in that sense at much as he could.

Hmmm… This might be a safer route to the labyrinth. Taka speculated, as he found himself on a new pathway that lay on top of a ridge that overlooked a vast lake of lava, with molten rock cascading down the sides of the mountains, like lava waterfalls.

On the right side of the pathway, or opposite of the ridge was the base of a small volcano. At least, small compared to the others. These damn things are massive.

Traversing the pathway was slightly difficult since small cracks lined most of the area. The small cracks had lava slowly flowing through them, leading to the edge of the ridge and spewing out down below.

Once Taka made it about halfway through the ridge, he halted and spun around. His tracking skill alerted him to a newly spawned igneous arachnid that wasted no time in charging him with its large pincers primed and ready to strike.

His health was still regening from the last fight, so he knew he had to be cautious with the thing. He got into his stance as the oversized lava rock spider was about to close the distance. Until…

"HIAYH!"

In a flash, a short cloaked figure dashed along the speeding spider and sliced all four of its left legs clean off with her claws - a unique weapon of choice. The arachnid tipped over due to loss of appendages and in another flash, the cloaked figure leapt forward and dug both claws into the head of the behemoth, eight legged monster.

The igneous arachnid exploded into particles a second later. The cloaked figure turned on her heel, a grin already spread on her face as she walked closer to Taka. He sheathed his sword as she began to speak.

"Hey there Ghosty!" Argo greeted before stopping in front of Taka. Her face contorted into a grimace. "Jeez… Ya look like hell. How long has it been since you've taken a proper break?!"

"Doesn't matter. I'm fine." He replied in a flat tone. " What are you doing here?"

The short girls grin evaporated into a concerned expression. A small sigh left her mouth as she pulled the cloak down to reveal her auburn hair.

"I'm worried… Worried about both Kii-bou and you."

Without a word, Taka abruptly turned on his heel and began back down the path he was traversing before the arachnid spawned. Argo jogged up next to him, an even more concerned look on her face.

"Kii-bou's not taking the incident well at all. He hasn't answered any of his PM's and I'm not able to see his location on the friends list. So… I'm having no better luck than you are."

He kept silent and kept his focus ahead of him as he walked.

"And I know this whole thing is weighing heavy on you as well. With everything you already had going on - and Kirito's situation on top of that making it worse - it's hurting you. A lot."

"I don't know what you're talking about." He replied dismissively. "I already said I'm fine. Now please leave me alone."

Argo let out a quick sigh. A thought came to her mind that maybe she should leave him be. But that was quickly washed away. She cared for the boy a lot and hated the fact that he lived with intense pain day in and day out.

Although she had no certain proof of what caused it except for the stories, it was written all over him. She wasn't gonna give up so easily on trying to help him.

"Taka…" she began in a small, worry filled voice. "Please, you're exhausted and hurting. Just listen to me."

Her words did nothing. He continued at the same pace without so much as a glance in her direction.

"I only wanna help you! So please, damn it, listen to me!" She said as her tone slowly started morphing into a stern one.

Once again, he paid her no heed as they entered a rocky corridor, with either wall towering high up. The small lava cracks in the ground gave the corridor an orange glow since light from the sun was dimmed from the smoke and ash in the sky.

With no signs of listening to her, Argo took a deep breath and hopped in front of Taka, quickly wrapping her arms around the boy. He halted and looked down at the girl who's forehead was pressed against his chest.

He raised his arms - not expecting her to hug him - and kept them raised in the air.

"Argo, w-what are you-"

"Please. Just listen to me." The words came out in almost a low squeak, muffled by Taka's chest. "You're pushing yourself too hard. You're exhausted and in need of proper rest."

He sighed. "Once again, I'm fine."

"Taka, please just stop… It's not fine and you know it. I… I hate seeing you this way…" she said in a just audible whisper.

"You go out and fight non-stop, exhausting yourself horribly. It might be a good way to not focus on the pain, but that's all it's good at. I worry sick every time you do this. Your only human, so there's no telling if it'll be your last."

The way Argo was acting wasn't totally different to how he's normally seen her. She really seemed worried about him. Taka let out a sharp exhale through his nose before wrapping his right arm around her back and his left on top of her head.

"Please don't push yourself like this. Don't push yourself past your limit. And I know you try your best to steer clear of others, but you can always go to someone when you're hurting. People care about you and wouldn't hesitate to help when you're in need."

"Argo… I…" I can't, I don't wanna let anyone get close to me. It's only bound to cause pain in the long run. Taka found himself wanting to say, but for some reason wouldn't come out.

"Please Taka… At least acknowledge that you aren't alone. I can't even begin to imagine what's going on inside you, but know that others truly care for you."

But that's what I'm afraid of. Once again, his thoughts remained only in his mind. Maybe it's due to the fact that he knows she's right deep down?

"Plus… I'm sure you wouldn't wanna worry Lisbeth." She added on in a teasing tone.

"What?" Taka looked down as she looked up at him with a smirk growing on her face.

"Don't think I didn't do some digging after you told me about what happened. You were stuck with a pretty girl for almost twenty four hours and you were practically swooning while on the topic."

"No I wasn't." Taka responded flatly, despite the warmth he was feeling in his cheeks.

The day after he and Lisbeth beat the secret dungeon, he informed Argo on what went down. Although he left Lisbeth's name out of the explanation, Argo must've grown curious. Sometimes it sucks when someone has access to information about nearly every player…

"Mmmhmm, sure you weren't." She said teasingly. "Ya know what, why don't you go see her. I'm sure your sword is low on durability and she is your exclusive blacksmith now."

"Argo… How do you- actually, don't even tell me."

She let out a small giggle. "You should be well aware that I have eyes and ears everywhere" she jested with a smirk.

"Now!" She blurted out, breaking away from the hug and putting on an authoritative face. "Don't make me say it again. Take a break and stop pushing yourself over the limit. And while you're at it, go see your girlfriend and get your gear repaired."

Taka let out an exasperated sigh and shook his head at her remark. This damn woman…

"Fine… And…" he paused and turned his head to right, looking at nothing in particular. "Thank you."

"No problem Ghosty. But you owe me - for worrying me to death. I expect you to show me your face."

"Not gonna happen." Taka said immediately, while turning his head back.

"Okay then. There is another way you can pay me." A suggestive smirk grew on her face.

Taka slowly shook his head. "You never give up, do you?"

She brought her hand to her face to stifle a giggle. "Guess we have that in common. Now, enough of the chitter chatter, go see your girlfriend." She ordered with a smirk while doing a 'shoo' motion with her hands.

"Yeah yeah… And she's not my girlfriend." He brought out a teleport crystal as she began to speak up again.

"Uh huh. Well anyway, see ya Ghosty!" She said, waving her hand.

"See ya." He replied, nodding. "Teleport Bareden Harbor."

Taka disappeared with a flash of light. A second later, Argo's smirk fell into a frown. She opened up her menu and went to the friends list tab. After scrolling, she stopped once she reached Kirito and clicked on his name.

His location was still off. The sight caused Argo to let out a sad sigh.

"Where are you Kii-bou…?"

XXXXXX

Asuna sat in her office located within the KoB headquarters. The building was only a large farmhouse, but it didn't alter the fact that the guild held the title of 'the strongest guild in Aincrad'.

She shuffled through various papers on her desk, scanning over the text and setting them in a neat stack once she finished.

As the second in command, she worked hard on and off the battlefield. The guild was always scouting for new recruits, so paperwork that had to be done was constantly flowing into her hands.

She didn't mind, but an extensive amount of paperwork with the clearing effort going on was definitely a hefty amount on her shoulders. But since the guild is still fairly new to the scene, it's what's to be expected.

As she looked over the last few remaining papers, she let out a sigh of relief. Setting the papers down in the stack, she closed her eyes and put her arms back, stretching in her chair. As she finished stretching, the noise indicator letting her know she received a message ringed in her ear.

"Hopefully it's Vin…" she muttered to herself. She opened her message tab and clicked on the message that was indeed from Vin.

Dear Asuna

Another group of players killed - floor 19 - 3 dead - 1 survivor

Survivor gave the usual story. Ambush, poison and loot being taken before death.

Will report back to HQ once we finish helping the survivor.

From Vin

. . .

Asuna let out a long sigh, covering her eyes with her hands and resting her elbows on the wooden top of the desk.

"Damn it…" she whispered to herself.

Her mood instantly dropped upon hearing the report. It was the second one within a week. And something needs to be done, soon. She thought as she stood up from her seat and began for the door to the office.

She left the room and walked the halls, greeting her guild mates who were either stationed or at the HQ for the moment. One she reached the main foyer, she opened the door opposite of the front entrance and entered the room.

Two people sat at the conference table in the middle of the room. "Commander, I need to speak with you." She said in a quick manner.

Commander Heathcliff, whose armor was unequipped at the moment sat at the far end of the conference room table, speaking with one of the KoB officers. He held his hand to the officer, letting him know to put a hold on talking for the moment and directed his attention at his second in command.

"Yes Asuna?"

"May we speak as soon as you have time?" She paused as he raised a brow. "It's urgent."

He nodded and turned to the officer. "Excuse me, but can we resume the talk another time?"

"Yes sir." The officer said, as he stood up and walked to the door, leaving the room.

"Shall we take this to my office?" Heathcliff asked.

"Anywhere is fine sir."

"Alright then."

He stood up and walked to the door, motioning Asuna to follow. They walked up the stairs that were located in a room connected to the left of the foyer. At the top, they walked to a door that overlooked the foyer. A guard rail lined the edge.

Heathcliff opened the door to reveal a large office with a desk, and a chair sat in front of the desk in the middle of the room.

To the right of the room was a fireplace with a classical looking painting hung above it. To the left was a line of bookshelves and a tan colored globe on a stand in front of the shelves.

Heathcliff took a seat behind the desk and Asuna sat in the chair in front of it. He rested his arms on the desk and clasped his hands together before speaking.

"I assume this is about your assigned squad?" He asked knowingly.

"Yes, squad leader Vin just gave me a report. It's… Another incident happened."

Heathcliff frowned and closed his eyes. "Not another one…" he muttered to himself.

Asuna nodded somberly and sighed. "Three were killed and there was one survivor. Vin's helping the survivor out as we speak. Maybe he can get info on the players who attacked them."

Heathcliff reopened his eyes. "Let us hope. This is the second attack in one week. I fear it'll only get worse from here on out."

"I fear that as well. If we don't do something about it sooner or later, it might affect the clearing effort"

"Yes, I'm beginning to come to that conclusion as well. As it gets harder and harder the higher we go, it'll only be a nightmare with orange players growing in numbers."

"Yeah… Although I don't see a feasible way to deal with them without slowing down the clearing effort. To have parties out looking for and apprehending the orange players would mean less players on the front lines."

Heathcliff nodded. "Yes, which is why for the moment, we're going to wait to see how the situation plays out. There is a chance it'll start to burn out. So, in the meantime we're going to start planning for, and considering the worst."

"But sir, once again, how do you plan on stopping them without severely slowing down the clearing effort - if it comes to that?"

"For the time being, I have a loose idea on how we can deal with that. But as I said, let's wait a little bit longer before we make definite decisions. For now, only worry about observing the problem and seeing how it develops."

Asuna's lips parted for a split second before closing again. After a few seconds of thought, she sighed and nodded.

"Okay. But how many more people have to die before we take action…?" She asked in a small voice.

Heathcliff grimaced and averted his gaze to the spot in front of him on his desk. "I know. It pains me as well that innocent people will possibly be falling victim to the orange players. But waiting for the opportune moment is more ideal than starting now."

Asuna exhaled through her nose. "I know, it's just…"

"Asuna, don't worry." He said, bringing his focus back to her. "If it gets worse, we'll be ready to put an end to it."

Asuna nodded before standing up. "Thank you for your time sir. I'll be heading back to my office now."

"Anytime, and I'm glad we had this conversation. I want nothing more than to put an end to this problem once and for all."

Asuna bowed before leaving the room. Once the door shut, she let out a long sigh and rubbed her temples as she started for the stairs. Even though Heathcliff had a point, the thought of not acting sooner didn't sit well with her.

She thought about it the whole way back to her office. She unconsciously slammed the door behind her and strode over to her seat behind the desk, sitting down and resting her arms on the table. After a moment, she laid her head down on her arms.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it…" she whispered harshly to herself.

She kept her head resting on her arms for quite a while. The thoughts of innocent players losing their life to a monster was bad enough. Losing their life to another player with no justifiable reason as to why only tripled it.

But going in now and trying to stop it would have a high chance of ending badly. With hardly any information and the possibility of it ending on its own made the more ideal option the one Heathcliff suggested.

Even though it's our best option, I'm having such a hard time accepting it. Please god, don't let this continue. We've lost countless already to those horrible orange players,

With a sigh, Asuna picked her head up, a somber frown displayed on her face. Not thinking entirely straight, she swiped two fingers down, bringing up her player menu and navigated to the friends list tab.

She scrolled down, scanning the names of the multitude of players she had added.

Heathcliff… Nautilus… Argo… Lisbeth… Taka… Godfree… Kirit-

"Kirito…" she whispered longingly.

Her finger hovered over his name, unsure of what to do. Seeing his name brought back memories of the time they spent together before the Knights of the Blood Oath were formed.

The memories brought a small smile to her face. It was refreshing to see his name again, since it'd been so long since they last saw each other. At least, outside of boss raids.

She tapped his name, with the thought of seeing where he may be. But instead of showing his location like it should've, it showed that he had his location disabled for her.

She arched a brow, a bit of worry leaking into her mind. It wasn't like him to do something like that. At most, he'd be unresponsive for a small bit while he was farming dungeons, but he's never ever turned off his location.

"Hmm…"

She tapped the private message icon.

Dear Kirito

Hey, it's been a while since we last saw each other outside of boss raids. I hope you're doing okay, since I saw that you turned off your location.

From Asuna

. . .

She hesitated to send the message for a moment, a bit of embarrassment creeping into her. Although, she had no idea why she was feeling embarrassed. It took a moment of contemplation before she finally sent the message.

For some reason unbeknownst to her, it seemed to take a lot out of her. She leaned back in her chair and hung her head back, looking up at the ceiling.

She began to wonder where Kirito was at, and what he could be doing at the moment. She knows how strong the boy is so a majority of herself believed that he was fine. But a small bit herself told her otherwise.

It seemed unlikely that she would be able to shake the thought off. Every time she told herself that he was definitely, for sure fine, the small bit of worry would always underline the reassurance.

"Please… Just be okay Kirito."

A/N

Man, so this chapter's coming out a little later than I would've liked. A huge assortment of things factored together and I found myself struggling to write this chapter. Not to mention I ended up rewriting about half the thing at one point.

Also, flashback sequences will be dotted around the story. It's a better way to show backstory than having the character explain it in my opinion.

So The Moonlit Black Cats incident scene was obviously changed. I ended up rewriting that part a bunch, as nothing sat too well with me. Even the finished product isn't the best if you ask me. Tips on anything I can do to make it better would be much appreciated.

Anyway, have a great day/night and stay safe!