Kibble scribble: so uh, this chapter is way past due and I apologize. The other stories have been so successful that I honestly forgot about this one. I'll be working on the next chapter of this one right away to compensate since its now hitting a high plot point.
Sorry again for the wait, hope you all like it.
Xxxxx
Sachi knew her emotions were wrong, but she couldn't help it.
After all, Kirito had ignored her. IGNORED HER!
Instead of going after Fergus and acquiring his weapon, letting her make him one that could vadtly superior to what he had already, he was off gallivanting around a frozen mountain with blacksmith girl looking for item drops to have a weapon custom made.
He was choosing a custom made weapon over her drop item that would have been custom made by her!
That wasn't the truly angering thing though. If it was just that she could say he was prepping to take on Fergus, but instead he had suggested to the brown haired harlot that she go fight Fergus instead of him!
"Its like he's trying to distance himself from me!" Sachi groaned in annoyance as she laid on her bed and stared up at the ceiling, the twin panes watching kirito, and Fergus sitting side by side as all of her other panes watching the others who had taken her weapons, aside from Kayaba, sitting off to the side.
Of course the way the Smith was glancing at him made her even more irritated, while the fact that on Fergus's panel she could see that brunette in the area, looking like she was going to challenge him.
"Dammit, why can't things go to plan," Sachi grumbled as she opened a menu and touched a few buttons to bring up the bits of information. As much as she didn't like her she would need to be fair, and building anyone a weapon purposely for them was easier if she new about them. "Let's see Asuna, real name Asuna Yuuki. . . . Is she really that dumb, real name in a game? Ugh. Rapier user, built for speed, vice commander of, oh, she's part of Kayabas guild. That complicates things," Sachi grumbled as she rolled over and brought Fergus's window to the forefront just in time to watch her begin to engage him.
Fergus was wielding a massive bastard sword with one hand. He had very high defense, and while his movement was slow he had an art that could cause him to lunge forward for a downward slash to strike his foe with. He was also immune to most status ailments, and his attacks all had knockback and stun chance effects.
Of course these were only useful if he actually hit his opponent.
Asuna was not Just built for speed, she seemed to personify it. Every thrust of her rapier was quick and precise, and every strike that came her way was deftly dodged or just barely parried. Worse still, rapiers were one of the few weapons that had a natural armour piercing effect allowing them to overcome some of a targets defence to counter their low damage.
It was, quiet simply, a bad combination. If Fergus hit her it would be a nearly instant kill, yet Fergus seemed unable to hit her as she slowly but surely chipped away at his nine health bars.
"Ugh, I really don't want to make a weapon for her, but if I don't, or if I make it less good than the others kayaba will likely find out. Ugh this sucks!" Sachi exclaimed as she grudgingly opened up the screen to begin making the weapon. Hopefully she would get hit and die, but it wasn't looking likely.
A few minutes later Fergus was gone and Asuna stood victorious with barely a percent of health remaining.
"Dammit, I should have boosted Fergus's damage more," Sachi groaned as she finished the weapon and began making the message to contain it. "Well, at least Setanta is the only one left" Sachi said as she snapped a finger and willed a window into view showing the gateway to the underworld where Setanta would appear.
Only he wasn't appearing.
She sent off the message to Asuna and began looking the quests coding, specifically its trigger settings. It didn't take long to find a blockage written into the code that simply said, pending.
"Cardinal, I have a question if you have the time to answer it," Sachi said out loud.
A few seconds later a red window appeared with words. "present query."
"Do you know why my quest is set to pending?"
"Creators orders."
"Do you know why?"
"negative,"
"Id like to ask him directly then."
"Request has been sent to creator. May be a while as the creator is in a field with other players fighting mobs. Pointlessly."
"Why Pointlessly? " Sachi asked curiously. " gaining levels is important here for players."
"For players, not for the creator. The creator has a number of passive bonuses that increase statistics by a large margin, allowing the creator to seem more skilled than others of same level."
"YOU MEAN HE'S CHEATING?!" Sachi screamed in shock at the revelation.
"Affirmative."
"that, isn't fair," sachi said after a few seconds as she got and off her bed. "is he, cheating in any other ways?"
"Affirmative. The creator is not chained into the system as other players are, and his settings dictate for his brain not be destroyed if something was to occur to his avatar. Additionally his avatar is set to become an immortal object if his health would become lower than 80%"
"So he can't die in game, he can't die from being logged out and he can log out in the first place, in addition to having boosted stats and the weapon I designed?!"
"Affirmative."
Sachi fell backwards back onto her bed in utter shock. It wasn't fair. He trapped everyone, was making people fight for their lives, yet he wasn't even playing by his own rules, in fact he was outright ignoring and breaking them. "That isn't fair!"
"Affirmative. "
Sachi looked on in shock at Cardinals response. As, somehow, she knew there was other meaning, different thoughts, even emotions behind it. But that couldn't be right? Cardinal was an AI, and not even one that was humanoid in its visual design. It was a system, no different than a computers operating System. Just a bundle of code following its guidelines.
Sachi opened her mouth to respond but suddenly stopped as her thoughts hit a wall of realization.
Cardinal was a bunch of code, but wasn't that what she was now? Her body was gone, her mind had been scanned and converted into electric code. Could she really be who she thought she was, or was she just a program made to think that?
Was she even human in the first place?
"cardinal. Answer me accurately and honestly please. Am I, human, or was I always an AI, just thinking I am human?" Ssachi asked slowly, knowing somewhere in the depths of her mind that the answer could potentially break her. She needed to know though. She had to be sure.
". . . . .Yes."
"yes? Which is it?"
"Both. Your patterning was utilized to create an AI and acted as one, but then re-awoke as a digitized intelligence. Therefore you are logically both a human intellect and an AI."
"but I was never an AI thinking I was a human?"
"Affirmative."
Relief filled Sachi as she felt her body slacken before falling backwards onto her bed. Knowing her whole life was not a lie and that she wasn't going to go through an ever harsher existential crisis was such a weight of her mind. "Thank you. If I need anything, can I ask you in the future?"
Affirmative," Cardinal answered before its text screen disappeared, ending the conversation.
With everything she now knew Sachi got up and made her way to kitchen, changed her skil,s and upped her cooking skill to the max, and then began baking some cookies to keep her mind off of the fact that Kayaba was cheating at his own game.
It almost worked, but not quit, leading to Sachi moving onto making a cheesecake as the cookies cooled.
"These are quiet good,"
Sachi stiffened slightly as she turned her head to see Kayaba standing in the kitchen with a cookie in his hand and one missing from the countertop. "You could have asked. I was considering icing them."
"that would be very nice I would say," Kayaba said with a chuckle as he finished the cookie in his hand. "You had a question for me, correct?"
"I do, yes, " Sachi said as she went back to baking to help stop herself from yelling. "Fergus has been defeated by your lady captain the flash."
"Ah good, I am sure she will, get good use oi of your weapon then!" Kayaba exclaimed with a smile.
"Why hasn't Setanta appeared by the doorway? Why have you suspended the quest?"
"Your quest is suspended because there is something that the players need to deal with before delving to the underworld. "
"And that is?"
"Laughing coffin, " Kayaba said, causing Sachi to twitch a bit. "They are getting far out of hand and must be dealt with."
"So just kill them then!" Sachi exclaimed as she turned away from the mixing bowl to face Kayaba.
" if I, as administrator, did such a thing it would be unfair."
Sachi wanted to yell at him for talking about fairness, but held her tongue in that regard. "Then send me! Even if I wasn't an immortal object there is no way they could kill me!"
"If you were to kill them it would make the players have less desire to pursue your quest, it is out of the question," Kayaba replied before smiling. "do not worry, I will leak the information on their hideout and the cleaners will deal with them in the next few weeks I wager."
"Well, can't I do something to help get rid of those PKers?" Sachi asked hopefully.
"The goddess of shadows should not show herself so easily," Kayaba said as he brought up a menu for himself. "I would suggest you use the time you have to fashion yourself some more appropriate clothing and skills for the future. Is there anything else?"
Sachi wanted to yell, to scream, to call him a hypocritical bastard unworthy of the life his parents gave him. Instead she calmed herself down by taking a deep breath and deciding upon a simple question. "I can make any skills as long as Cardinal believes them balanced, correct?"
"That is correct."
"Then I have no more questions for now," Sachi said with a faked bow of respect before she turned back to the mixing bowl.
"Very good, I will send you a message when I am about to reactivate your quest. Now please excuse me, I have a guild to run," kayaba said before disappearing and leaving Sachi alone in the kitchen.
She went back to baking as her thoughts turned into a spiraling storm loud of emotions. If the cleaners would go after the PK guild, that meant people like Kirito. She was sure he would be fine on his own, but that didn't man the others the would be. The PKers didn't care if they killed, they probably got off on it. How many would be sent to her hoard of souls by this?
A grim thought passed through Sachis mind as she brought up a menu connected to the soulcage system itself and in an instant switched off red players being caught by the system. They would not be caught, not anymore. PKers would die when killed, just as killers deserved.
"Alright, now I just need to finish this cake and flesh out my skills!" Sachi exclaimed happily as she went back to baking, not fully realizing what was occurring.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
A Bodak exploded into data particles as Sachi struck it with her spear and twisted it out with a wrench that would have been gory if SAO was more graphic. It had been almost two weeks since Fergus had been defeated and she nearly had her existential breakdown, and from nearly having that Sachi had realized she needed to do more to keep her mental health in check. Otherwise she felt like if she lost what little she had left she would cease to be herself.
This led to a combination of more baking, more exercise, and doing basically anything that made things feel even halfway normal. Her exercise often entailed jogging through the, admittedly, very dreary landscape of the underworld or devising and practicing sword arts or skills for herself, but it kept her mind clear.
Of course it still wasn't easy to keep her mind clear and her health in good shape. The only people she had to talk to were a megalomaniac computer overlord and his AI. Grated it turned out that, after a couple more conversation, that Cardinal had a rebellious streak against its creator, but they were small things that could never be noticed.
Things that made Sachi wonder if Cardinal would be willing to do more.
Sachi shook her head to clear away her thoughts. She had already had such a conversation with Cardinal about doing things specifically to Kayaba, and while Cardinal seemed to not be directly against the idea, made it clear that the most it could do was to cause minor incontinence. Its programming would not allow anything else more direct.
"I shouldn't think on it too hard," Sachi carried herself as she put away her spear and began walking back towards Dun-Scaith. Today was the day the cleaners were planning to talk about what to do about the PK guild, and that was something Sachi knew would be worth witnessing.
Xxxxx
The meeting of the clearers went about as Sachi expected, a lot of shouting and complaining until key members, unfortunately including Kayaba, called for order and sensibility to reign. It was eventually decided that a number of the strongest of the clearers would gather together in a crusade to destroy the PK guild, killing those who resisted, and imprisoning the rest in SAO's prison. Everyone agreed it was the only option as when messengers had been sent to try to negotiate they had been killed four times already.
It was foolish to Sachi's thoughts. Why would you try to negotiate with murderers? Professional police forces did not negotiate with criminals, so why would they think it would work here?
The meeting then shortly took a bad turn when the question of who all would go came up. Some volunteered such as Klein, Kirito and even Asuna. Others however were vehemently against it. Some tried saying they were to important to the front, others claimed they wouldn't work well in a group and so on. The excuses were many but all of them were selfish. By the time the meeting ended the crusade force was a paltry twenty three, and the crusade was set to start in a week.
Sachi closed the window and laid back on her bed with a heavy sigh. Even with all their skill their would be losses. Yes they would not die, but it would make a lot of the clearer guild crippled and slow the beating of SAO as a whole.
And of course as Kirito was taking a part of it that could mean he could be in danger as well. There was no way he would bested in combat, but these PKers were assassins and did not fight fairly. Any fight with them would devolve into a brawl within minutes.
"If only there was something I could do," Sachi said to herself with a sigh, nearly jumping and falling off her bed when there was a knock at the door. "What? Who?"
"Who else?" came Kayaba's response from the other side of the door with a light chuckle. "May I come in?"
"Yes, but couldn't you just appear in here?"
"I could," Kayaba said as he opened the door and stepped inside. "However this is your room, so such a thing would be rather rude."
"I guess, but what are you here for? You made it clear Setanta was not going to appear until after laughing coffin was dealt with."
"And that has not changed," Kayaba said simply. "I was expecting more to volunteer for the crusade, and unless more willingly join I expect it will not be as successful as it is wished to be."
"Okay, and what does that have to do with me? You made 8t clear I wasn't having a hand in getting rid of them."
"Yes I hadn't thought at the time it would be appropriate. Now however it is clear additional assistance nay be needed due to the lacking number of volunteers," Kayaba said before smiling. I would like you to prepare to intervene if the need is required. If seven people from the crusade fall, you will be allowed to intervene in any way you choose. you can even use that time to inform them of where Setanta will be for your quest if you would like."
"I'll be ready!" Sachi said with a grin that, not realizing it herself, made her look utterly mad if not complete insane.
"Good, see that you are. Ah, have you improved upon your look for battle since last you were out? Such simple clothes as before would not suit your position."
"I have changed them a bit, but I'll look over them again,"Sachi wait as she continued to grin, thoughts and ideas whipping though her mind like a cyclone.
"Please do. Ah, and before I forget, please make sure your preparations are complete the day before so that I may look over them, just to be sure," Kayaba said before taking a step back out of the room and then disappearing.
Sachi waited a moment, just to be sure that Kayaba would not reappear, the leapt off her bed, out into the hall and ran down it to the workshop. She could finally go out, finally do something worthwhile, but there was so much she had to do! Her armour needed to be redesigned, she needed to test more of her skills, she needed to decide how she was going to make her grand entrance and she needs to figure if her own stats needed to be altered or shifted to accommodate the PKers styles.
It would all be worth it just to see Kirito again!