December 31st, 2022. Aincrad Standard Time: 2357. Current Highest Floor: 6

"Is a new year really that important for a need for a special celebration?"

Zenji "Atlas" Inari. For some reason, always gloomy and serious, and a bit weird. Not his fault though, he's genuinely caring. His choice of words though can backfire pretty often.

"Yes, Zenji. It's a requirement for us humans. Loosen up man, have some fun!"

Ryoma "Hiro" Azusagawa. Okay, hear me out. I'm not crazy, right? What are the chances that Kaede has a childhood best friend, and is an exact clone of Kenji? And his name is Ryoma, which is just another way to spell Ryu! Ryu and Ken, a popular rivalry in video gaming history. See?!

The girls had come back from Kaede's room, having earlier gone up there to have a private chat about who knows what. When they passed me, as I was leaning against the wall separating the lounge room and the stairs, I nodded at Kaede and she did the same.

"Uh, what?"

I looked up at the person in front of me. It was Kenji who had his eyebrows raised.

"Yes, my friend?"
"Don't give me that. You two wouldn't even look at each other, but just then, I saw a mutual nod. What's going on between you two?"
"I have absolutely not even in the slightest idea what you're talking about." I shrugged, giving off an innocent smile.

Ikuno had come out of nowhere, snatching his ear as she dragged him back to his spot on the couch. "Ken, you're out of your mind. Go back to your damn seat."

"Ow, be more gentle next time!"

The whole guild chuckled. "Hush! It's about to tick over!" Ikuno cried out. On the top left of the game UI, next to our health bars, was the time that always displayed. It was Aincrad's time zone, but Kayaba synced it up to Japan's. For obvious reasons.

We counted down together.

"3!"
"2!"
"1!"
"Happy New Year!"

Everyone shouted out, smiling at one another. Later that night, I relaxed in the bathhouse.

What could go wro-

"Really? This is the second time."

Goddamnit.

"Sorry, I'll leave." I took a single step, but Kaede was already in front of me.

"No, it's fine." She had her head lowered, avoiding eye contact. "Stay."

I went back to my corner, and Kaede leaned against the wall next to me.

She smiled. "You know, my parents never had time for me, so I always spent New Year's Eve with Ryoma and his parents. In hindsight, we did everything together, even wanting me to play SAO with him." Her smile quickly turning to a frown.

"So Ryoma took part in beta?"
"Yes. Same username."
"Ah, maybe I remember something. Kenji had his ass kicked by Ryoma one time in a duel. And then Kenji re-matched him and kicked his ass. And then they kept re-matching to see who was actually stronger."
"Yeah, I remember him mentioning about some pain in the ass coming at him in the game over and over at school. Now, look at them."
I chuckled. "Small world, I guess."
"What about your reason for playing this game?"

My reason?
Jesus.
Right, that...
It was not for the faint of heart. It was too much even for me, which is why it even is my reason. But I guess it was time for someone other than Kenji to know.

Taking a deep breath, I shut my eyes. "I wasn't going to log in to this game right away. But, only a week before launch, my parents had a major car accident that left the both of them in the hospital, being written off as brain-dead. I panicked and wanted to drown myself away from the pain by logging in. By the time SAO hit the news about being a death game, it was too late."

I could've stayed away from this game.
I should've.
Why didn't I?

She looked at me with a frown. "I-I'm sorry to hear that. And to think I acted the way I did when you had all that going on. I'm so sorry Hide." She pulled me into her arms.

"It's fine," I sighed. "There was no way for you to know, and besides, your reaction was understandable. You're trapped in an unfamiliar environment, forced to fight every day for your survival. Of course, you felt as though it didn't matter what you did."

Her frown flipped back up. "And that's why you created this guild, right?"

The lights shot on. It was Megumi who squealed at the sight of both of us.

In an instant, I was in the lounge room getting a scolding from Megumi. Kaede escaped to her room in embarrassment, I think. I mean, it was smart of her. Why would Megumi scold her?

I received a message from her.

Kei: have fun with Meg! :p

Fucking bitch.

"Let me get this straight. You hopped into the bath, thinking it was okay when there was a girl in there?! And you even hugged her, touching your naked bodies?! What else did you do, have sex?!"
"Megumi, I already told you. She told me to stay, and she instigated the hug!"
"Doesn't matter! Have some respect for yourself, pervert!"
"The lights were off! I couldn't see her even if I wanted to!"
"And?! You could've had some night vision effect that she didn't know about!"
"I told you already, such thing doesn't exist!"
"Lies! Lies! Lies!"
"Okay, please calm down. You're going to wake the whole guild up. We will get nowhere at this rate. Why don't we talk it out like civil people?" I offered.

She crossed her arms before looking away and grunting. "Fine. But you try anything and I'll slice you." She sat down beside me.

I chuckled. "Relax. I mean, youcantbecauseitsasafezone, but take a deep breath in, and a deep breath out."

She complied, having ignored my snarky remark.

"See. Feel much better?"
"Ye- I'm not done scolding you, mister."
"But see, there's nothing to scold me on. Remember Ikuno? How we slept a night together?"
"Yes..."
"She told you and Kaede how respectful I was sleeping with her that night, yes?"
"Yes..."
"See? That's all the proof you need."
"Okay. I see your point... But I raise you-"
"Good. Now I'm going to sleep. Goodnight."

I gave her a cheeky smirk to mess with her before standing up and going up to my room, clocking in for the night.

The morning of when I came downstairs to the lounge room, everyone was normal. I guess Megumi believed me and didn't tell anyone about what she saw. Damn, she took little out of my smirk, it seemed.

The day was pretty stale, as I had nothing lined up. Ryoma, however, came up with the idea of a leaderboard system in our guild. We displayed in glory for everyone to see on the wall leading to the kitchen. How it works is each member is ranked on the board relative to their combat prowess compared to the others. Now, to go up a rank, the person must challenge the person above. Should they win in a duel, they move up a rank, while the loser takes the challenger's place. The only rule? You can't turn down a challenge.

Initially, we decided that the ranking proceeded as followed. It took quite a lot of convincing that I should start at the top. Mostly due to Kaede.

1. Me
2. Kaede
3. Ikuno
4. Kenji
5. Ryoma
6. Megumi
7. Zenji

A day proceeding the creation of the leaderboard, results were what I expected within my guild. Kaede and I would trade places, with Kaede having the better of me in a lot of our duels. Everyone else constantly shuffled the next five places, with Megumi having the most time spent at the bottom of the leaderboard.

Our swords clashed, and we stared each other right in the eye. We pushed forward, intending to knock the other off-balance, but I knew my opponent wasn't giving up their ground easily. We both jumped back when the clash was going nowhere, to which they reacted by charging up a sword skill. Yellow, it glowed. Vertical Arc.

'You're done for,' I thought to myself, as the post motion delay after blocking both swipes would for sure give me the victory. When my opponent jumped into my space to carry out the sword skill, I held my sword out with both hands, pointing it northwest to block the first strike.

Wait, the way they were holding the sword did not look like Vertical Arc. The skill connected, my sword instead flew into the air, landing just shy of my foot and planting itself into the grass.

I thought of Vertical Arc, but the sword skill Disarm had the same colour. I didn't look at the position of the sword. My killer had thrust their sword into my chest as we stared at each other.

A celebratory screen came up above our heads, along with a picture of the both of us.

Winner! Kei | Game time: 1:21

She pulled the sword out of my chest and slid it into her scabbard. "You couldn't have put up a better fight?"

I smirked and leaned forward to yank my sword out, moving it in front of me, resting my hands on its handle as a sort of walking cane. "Did you just learn Disarm so you could beat me in one duel with it?"

"Maybe, maybe not," she smirked back, "don't push yourself, it's okay to stay at second."
"Alright. Okay, okay. Don't get too cocky. You've earned this one, but I'll come for that first place anytime soon."
"Really?"

She kept shifting between staring directly into my eyes and to my feet.

"Eh?"

I looked down. I slammed my damn sword into my foot. I facepalmed as I pulled my sword out and just slid it back into its scabbard. Kaede was giggling to herself but had a hand to cover her devilish smile. As if it made it any better.

"Hide! Kaede!"

Neither of us thought twice as we ran back into the guild hall to the sound of yelling. It was Ikuno, holding out a newspaper. I stared, puzzled, at it, reading it.

SAO had reached 2,000 casualties.