Chapter V: Memorial
The city of Arkham was just as drab and downcast as it had been for the past two weeks that Kirito had been logged into ETO. He had finally come to the conclusion that he was never going to see the sun in this world, perhaps it have never even been programmed into that game in the first place. Sure it stood to reason that a bright sunny day would clash with the horror ascetic of the game, but it was getting tiresome fast.
As they walked the dreary streets, Kirito could at least take pride in the fact that they were now equipped much more closely to what they were all accustomed.
He himself sported a black leather duster that had been imbued with a great deal of magical resistance. On his back were a pair of swords to suit his fighting style. One was a sturdy longsword he had picked up and the other was a magical blade with a gleaming pearl inset called The Sword of Re'Leigh; which granted underwater breathing as a bonus effect for some reason. Next to him, Asuna sported a tight red and white hardened leather armour set that reminded him a little of her time in the Knights of the Blood Oath. At her hip was, as always, her trusty rapier; this one though looked like it belonged in a royal court of some kind as it was covered in ornate gold filigree.
Flanking them were Klein and Liz walking in tandem and chatting quietly amongst themselves. Klein had been over the moon the previous day when they had finally gathered enough materials for Liz to forge him a Katana. There wasn't much in terms of eastern style armour, so Klein now looked more like a cowboy with a sword than an actual Samurai. Liz hefted an enchanted smithing hammer that also doubled as a decent beat stick in a fight; her armour however made her look like she had just stepped out of a machine shop.
Argo had acquired a pair of spring loaded Katars that were concealed inside her hooded brown jacket until she needed them. She also found some magical boots that reduced her weight by a substantial amount. With that effect Argo was practically able to run on walls, the downside however was this if she got hit with anything, she was sent flying like a rag doll. Fortunately, she was swift enough that it had only happened the one time it took them to realize that drawback.
Sinon had been less fortunate in the loot department as they had yet to locate her any kind of sniper rifle. Argo had confirmed that they were in fact in the game, just incredibly rare. For the moment, she made due with an old Whitworth rifle that had a telescopic sight. While it did look the part, Sinon insisted that it was a Marksman's rifle and not a true Sniper.
Lastly, Agent Nishyama had acquired a few magical items to aid in his spell-casting. Kirito was concerned over the fact that spells in this game cost the player part of their sanity meter, but Agent Nishiyama insisted that it was just a mechanic in the game and didn't actually effect a person's real world sanity.
All and all they felt that they were ready enough, come what may after the memorial. They could spend more time gearing up, but the longer they worked the less proportional their improvement would be, and they were still on the clock. Time was simply a luxury they simply could not afford.
"There it is." Argo stated, pointing towards a massive building at the end of the block.
The large church rose up well above the surrounding buildings. At its apex was a massive steeple with a large bell hanging inside. Now that he thought about it, Kirito recalled hearing bells chime at the top of every hour and wondered if this is where they came from.
An old balding NPC garbed in the robes of a western priest stood at the top of a long rise of stairs and beckoned a few other waiting players into the church. Kirito and Asuna followed suit, leading their party up the stairs and greeting the NPC.
"Good evening," the NPC greeted them. "I am Father Mitchell, do you have an invitation to this evening's events?"
Kirito looked back at a confused Argo who simply shrugged her shoulders.
"Uh... no," he replied. "We weren't told that we needed one."
"That's quite all right," Father Mitchell replied. "Please proceed through the door to your left."
The group nodded politely to the Father as they passed and made their way into the church proper.
Inside the main hall was a massive space with rows and rows of pews stretching out before them. On the right, people were milling about in a semi-organized fashion, either getting things together for the ceremony or consoling friends. Each of them wore some variation of dark aqua attire and Kirito realized quickly that these must all be the members of Eternal Quintessence.
On the left side of the room were a hodgepodge of different players in all kinds of different gear. They looked generally sullen, but few were visibly grieving like some of the players across from them.
Not knowing many players among the population yet, Kirito's party quietly took a vacant pew near the back and waited for the ceremony to begin. Over the next few minutes, most of the other guests also made their way to seats of their own, the venue was so lager though that Kirito's party still sat more-less by themselves.
After only a few minutes, a man who looked to be in his mid-twenties with short cut brown hair took to the podium at the front of the hall. He wore a set of hardened leather armour, dyed in the dark aqua colour of his guild with what looked like bronze or brass adornments on the ends. At his hip was an ornate, but well worn, handle of a sheathed cavalry sabre.
"Good evening." His voice was on the deeper side, but wavered slightly as he spoke. "I'd uhh... like to welcome you all this evening. For those who don't know me, I'm Sindoval, acting GM for Eternal Quintessence."
He looked out into the audience for a moment before bringing his gaze back down to the podium where it looked like he'd made himself some notes or something. "I'm umm... not the greatest at public speaking so please bare with me; that was always more of Azra's forte..." Sindoval stopped speaking for a moment, his eyes glazed over and distant before snapping back to the present. "but he's... uhh... not here anymore... as you all know."
Every time he stopped talking, the silence weighted heavily on the audience.
"I wanted to thank you all for being here for us; and them. Knowing that Azra and Astora were so well liked, even outside the guild, is a real testament to their character and their memory."
"I uhh... know that many of our members wanted to come up and speak about their time and memories with our leaders, so I'll... uhh.. turn the podium over to them now."
The next hour consisted of a dozen or so members of Eternal Quintessence coming up and speaking about their lost leaders. From what Kirito heard, they had truly been an amazing and charismatic pair. They had both been fairly new to VRMMO's, yet pulled together a fairly sizable and close knit group of friends and allies in rather short span of time.
When people spoke about Azra and Astora's relationship with each other, it reminded him more than a little about his relationship with Asuna. The thought scared him as well though; if whatever was behind this had turned two people so close against each other, what did that mean for his party?
Sindoval eventually returned to the stage, his eyes now a little red. Kirito suspected that the new guild master had been crying a little during the numerous emotional speeches.
"Again, I uhh... wanted to thank you all for coming, but we don't want to keep you any longer than need be. Please stay and reminisce if you would like, or uhh... head out as you see fit."
The crowd finally stood up and stretched their legs. The two sides of the room slowly started meshing together with players talking about all sorts of things. A few left, but most stayed to be part of the crowd.
"Now's our chance." Agent Nishiyama stated. "We should spread out and see what we can learn."
"Kirito and I will take Sindoval." Asuna stated.
"Sounds good," Nishiyama agreed. "Argo and I will take the guests as we've had a bit more experience with the other players. Sinon, Klein and Liz will take the other members of Eternal Quintessence."
As the group spread out, Asuna and Kirito made their way through the crowd until they came upon Eternal Quintessence's reluctant new leader. Kirito stopped just short, not sure exactly how to break the ice, but Asuna pressed on. As the person currently speaking with Sindoval stepped away, Asuna stepped in.
"We're very sorry for your loss." Asuna offered by way of greeting.
"Thank you," Sindoval replied. "I'm both happy and sad to see how many people this brought out." He paused for a moment, a questioning look on his face. "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid that I don't recall either of you."
"I'm Asuna," she said extending her hand. As Sindoval shook it she also added, "and this is my partner, Kirito."
Sindoval let go of her hand but his arm froze halfway back to his body. "Wait... Asuna and Kirito, THE Asuna and Kirito, from SAO?"
Asuna couldn't help but blush a little at being recognized by name alone. "Yes, that's us," she admitted. "I guess our reputation precedes us."
"Of course it does!" as Sindoval spoke, a light slowly returned to his eyes that they hadn't seen during the proceedings. "My cousin's an SAO survivor, I can't thank you both enough for helping him return home safely. I'm surprised that Azra and Astora never mentioned that they knew you, they knew I'm a huge fan."
"We weren't actually," Asuna admitted. "Though from all the stories we heard today, I certainly wish that we had been. We heard about your event through the grapevine and having gone through this many times ourselves, we wanted to come and offer our condolences."
"That means a lot, I'm sure it will to the others as well; especially Tetsu."
"Tetsu?" Asuna asked. Though Argo had already told her who Tetsu was, Sindoval didn't know that.
"He was a friend of Azra and Astora IRL and one of our founding members, he was even questing with them the day before it happened. Honestly, I think that he blames himself for not seeing the signs, though I suppose we all blame ourselves a little." Sindoval paused for a moment, his eyes seeming to slide off Asuna and focus elsewhere. "He's sitting by himself in the upper balconies he uhh... didn't really want to talk to anyone today... but I think he really needs to."
"Well, we can see what we can do."
As Asuna and Kirito turned to leave, Sindoval called after them.
"How... how do you deal with it all?" he asked.
Asuna turned back to regard the new guild master. In his eyes, she could see the haze that had clouded them throughout the night had returned in earnest.
"It's not so simple an answer that I can easily put it into words." Asuna admitted. "The people you've lost will never leave you completely. While that can be very painful at times, it is also the means that they are able to remain in this world to some extent. They live on within you; in how you choose to honour and remember them."
Kirito smiled warmly at her words. Asuna tended not to open up too much about those they had lost, perhaps his own Stoic attitude was partially to blame now that he though about it. Still, he felt good to see her talk about it to someone in need.
"Thanks," Sindoval said wearily. "I'm not sure that it makes me feel any better, but still... thanks."
"Anytime." she replied before taking Kirito in search of Tetsu.
The pair slowly made their way through the crowd towards a spiral staircase that led to the upper balconies. All around them there was a sense of sorrowful camaraderie that had only been seen once since their escape from SAO.
"That was well said." Kirito told her as they ascended to the upper floor.
"I merely spoke from the heart."
"You always do."
Kirito couldn't see the smile on Asuna's face as they stepped onto the top floor, but in the way her shoulders shifted a little and her posture changed ever so slightly, he was sure it was there.
The top section of the church was dark, lit only by the glow radiating up from the floor below. At first it looked deserted, but their keen eyes quickly spotted a figure sitting alone at a pew in the back. Slowly Asuna and Kirito approached the shadowy figure when a mumble barely registered over the din making it's way up from the floor below.
"Go away."
"You're Tetsu right?" Asuna asked gently.
"I said go away!" He shouted and threw something at her.
Her sharp reflexes caught the object without issue and revealed it to be a small pebble, likely just laying around within arms reach.
"Hey!" Kirito exclaimed, "I get that you're upset, but that was uncalled for!"
"Your presence was uncalled for." he shot back.
"Look, we just wanted to-"
"My best friends just offed themselves and nothing you can do or say will change that. So spare me the goddamned pity party and go the hell away!"
Kirito looked at Asuna's uncertain face, they weren't going to get anywhere like this. He sighed heavily. Government secrets be damned, he was going to get to the bottom of this before anyone else got killed.
"They may have been murdered." Kirito revealed.
Silence filled the top floor of the church; its presence so oppressive that it even seemed to drown out the din from the floor below.
"I said-"
"I heard you." Tetsu shot back, cutting him off. Slowly, purposefully, Tetsu rose to his feet.
A thick cowl covered most of his face, leaving just enough room for his piercing stare to lock onto Kirito. If looks could kill, the death glare he directed at Kirito would have levelled several small cities and it reminded Kirito rather uncomfortably of Morte.
"You think this is funny? Some kind of sick joke perhaps? Where do you get off pulling shit like this? I knew them both IRL, I spoke to the police, I know what really happened; so don't give me that goddamned bullshit!"
"I can prove it." was all Kirito could say in response; but could he even do so? Most of what he knew was hear-say from Agent Nishiyama; all of that did add up with what was going on, but it was hardly concrete proof. Tetsu had at least paused at Kirito's brash statement so it was now or never.
"Tell me if any of this sounds familiar," Kirito began. "They were normal gamers, good people, but after accessing the Innsmouth zone, they began to change. Little things at first, but then they became more and more irrational, violent even. It would be especially obvious to a close friend such as you. Then when they seemed like they would reach their breaking point... they killed each other."
Tetsu stared straight ahead at a complete loss for words.
Asuna looked to her partner nervously. What would Agent Nishiyama do if he found out that Kirito had just blatantly told a stranger everything? Was Agent Shirai monitoring what they were doing from the outside? Did they already know? I suppose there's nothing I can do about it now. She thought to herself and decided to let Kirito play this how he wanted.
"How?" Tetsu finally managed. "How the hell do you know all that? It wasn't exact, but it was damn close... Just who the hell are you two?"
"We know it because your friends weren't the first, though we are trying to make them the last. Something has been effecting the minds of the people playing this game and we're going to put a stop to it. My name is Kirito and this is my partner Asuna, we've dealt with this kind of thing before."
"Wait... THE Kirito and Asuna, from SAO?"
"Does everyone in this game know who we are?" Kirito groaned.
"Word spreads fast online, even if the government tries to keep a lid on it. You two are practically legends to most gamers at this point." Tetsu revealed. "Wait, so are you saying that something like SAO is happening here?"
"Not exactly," Asuna chimed in. "As I'm sure you're aware, you are still perfectly capable of logging out of ETO. We don't know exactly what's been going on yet, only that it's already cost a dozen people their lives. We just wanted to speak to you about what happened to your GM's so we can stop this from happening again."
After a moment Tetsu's harsh eyes finally softened and he spoke. "I'm sorry... for how I treated you both." He took a deep breath and stood straight up, a new fire now burning behind his eyes. "How can I help?"
"Sindoval mentioned that you had been questing with them soon before it happened and that you knew them IRL. Can you just start by telling us everything that you remember, both in ETO and out."
"Well everything seemed normal until, as you pointed out, we got to Innsmouth."
Tetsu's eyes glazed over as he began to recall the events, his voice shook slightly and his hands trembled. Asuna felt terribly uncomfortable forcing this young man to relive something so traumatic so soon, but they had to know what was going on.
"After Azra, Astora and I got past The Reaper, we were overjoyed to finally access the last zone in the game. It feels weird to be so excited about going there, the actual town itself was so drab and dilapidated that there was this almost ethereal sense of wrongness about it. I'm not sure how the game designers accomplished that, but we all felt it. It added up with the lore too as after doing a handful of quests we discovered that most of the population of the town are actually very high level monsters in disguise."
"We had just acquired a few quests to seek out a dungeon on a small island off the cost when I had to log due to an issue IRL. Azra and Astora decided to continue on without me; they doubted they could clear the dungeon with just two, but they wanted to see something that few players, if any, had seen before. That was the last I saw of them in game."
"After I took care of my personal business, I checked up on them. They were still logged in and in the dungeon. I'm not sure how long you've been playing ETO, but here, you can't message in or out of dungeons so I assumed they were still just sneaking around and exploring it all. However, they missed their usual log out time and played well into the early morning, which was very unlike them."
"When they did finally log out, they both messaged me... and that's when I knew something was terribly wrong." Tetsu looked down at the floor, he couldn't keep the tears from falling from his eyes. "They were furious with each other, over what it was hard to tell; all the texts I got were rambling and incoherent. They tried to get me to pick sides, something that I never would have imagined from either of them. Then... nothing."
"They didn't log in the next day and didn't return any of my calls or texts. The day after that, I received a call from the police... Azra and I were childhood friends and he had been a bit estranged from his family, so I was his emergency contact." Tetsu paused for a moment, as if he needed to summon the courage to continue his tale.
"The police told me..." Tetsu covered his face with the sleeve of his robe, as if trying to shield himself from he memory. "I'll spare you the details and just say the police told me that they killed each other. I didn't believe it... they wouldn't... they couldn't... some stupid fight never would have done that to them. But I had to come in and see the bodies for identification... and it was true."
"I'm sorry," Asuna said as she put her hand on Tetsu's shoulder. "I know that wasn't easy."
"Did... did it help?" he managed while wiping away tears.
"Well it does give us a lead," Kirito noted. "Before we just knew that something was effecting players in Innsmouth; from your story though, it seems like this dungeon is the first place to start looking."
Tetsu nodded but didn't say anything else.
"If you don't mind, I do have one more question for you." Kirito said.
"Yeah... sure. Can't be worse than the last one right?"
"What do you know about The Reaper, what was it like to fight them? All the information we've come across is shoddy at best and we're going to need to get past them to get to Innsmouth."
"I'm afraid I can't be much help there as I didn't actually fight him. Azra, Astora, and I all used high sneak skills to evade detection to sneak past him while the rest of the guild fought. I never even laid eyes on The Reaper. If you want information like that, you'll have to talk to Sindoval, he lead the attack on The Reaper. All I know is that they got their asses handed to them."
"Thanks, we'll make sure to talk to him about it," Asuna noted. "We won't bother you any more."
"Wait, hold up." Tetsu nearly shouted as they turned to leave. "Here." he said.
Kirito and Asuna both had a small window pop up. Accept friend request: Tetsu?
"If you find anything out, anything at all, please let me know. I... I have to know what really happened to them, who or what was really behind it."
"Or course," Kirito said as he hit the accept icon. "And thanks again."
As Kirito and Asuna descended the stairs, Asuna finally gave voice to something she had been wondering. "Hey, I noticed that you didn't tell him not to talk about anything we said."
"Yeah... I thought about it, but I figured he'd have the same reservations that I do, and since we may need his help later I didn't want to burn any bridges. Besides, I don't think he'll tell anyone and risk tipping off whoever is behind this; he wants this solved as badly as we do, if not more so."
Asuna stopped halfway down the steps and grabbed Kirito's shoulder, pulling him to a halt as well.
"What reservations?" she asked.
"This whole cloak and dagger routine." he admitted. "Look, I know we've got to catch whoever is behind this, and that we can't risk tipping them off, you're right, you're all right. But even so, what if this had gone public earlier? Would Azra and Astora have stopped playing? Would they still be alive? I bet that's the first thing that Tetsu would have wondered if we'd told him we had to keep quiet."
"I know it's hard, but if we tip off whoever is behind this, they could escape and do even more damage elsewhere."
"I know, I know. It's the right decision, but it doesn't make me feel any better about it."
Asuna gently squeezed Kirito's shoulder. "Come on," she said. "The sooner we solve this, the sooner this world can go back to normal."
"Right." Kirito agreed and the pair made their way back down to the main floor.
The crowd had dissipated a bit in their absence, but there were still quite a few people milling about. As they looked about the room they saw the other members of their party casually chatting with the guests, gathering what info they could, except for Argo who was nowhere to be seen. It took a moment, but they soon found Sindoval still speaking with guests.
A few seconds after they got to him, Sindoval noticed them and quickly said goodbye to the players he was speaking with.
"Did you have any luck with Tetsu?" he asked.
"I think so," Asuna said. "It'll take him a long time to heal, but I think he's on the right track."
The smile that the had briefly seen earlier returned to Sindoval face when he heard her words. "Thank you both so much. With everything in disarray many of our members have been turning to Tetsu, but he has been rather... terse with them. It means a lot to me that you tried to help, and even more that you may have been able to do so. If you ever need a favour, I'm your man."
"It's funny you should say that," Kirito noted, "because we do."
Sindoval gave a genuine chuckle. "Wow, most people would wait a full ten seconds before calling in a favour."
"We're sorry," Asuna said. "We know this is a bad time, we can talk to you later."
"It's okay, don't worry." Sindoval insisted. "I was just trying to be funny, I guess I don't really have my sense of humour back yet. What do you need?"
"Tetsu mentioned in passing that you'd fought The Reaper. What was it like?" Kirito asked.
"You're thinking of taking on that psycho? Your funeral." Sindoval sighed. "There are lots of people who think he's some kind of AI designed to just wreck anyone trying to get to Innsmouth, but he's not."
"What makes you say that?"
"They way he fought; there's no way that was an AI. It was a person sure as sure, a very skilled person but a person none the less."
"Wait, so you think he's just another player?" Asuna asked.
"No, he's not just another player, he's a damn cheater."
Kirito couldn't help but be stung by the words a little bit, he remembered the exact same allegation being thrown at him when he took the fall for the other beta testers on the first floor on Aincrad. "What makes you say that?" he asked.
"He's good for sure, I could see his natural talent in the way he played, but it was far beyond what it should have been. The way he moved, reacted, the crazy gear he had, no one in the game has gotten anywhere close to as far as he has. There's no way he got that far on his own, especially guild-less since there was no guild title listed under his name."
"Damn, he's really that good?" Kirito asked.
"Better. He was so fast we could barely keep track of him. We managed a few glancing blows we he dove into larger groups to cut multiple players down at once, but having had more time to think about the fight, I think he knew he was going to take those hits and knew it was worth taking out those players for. I was one of the last to go down and his health was barely below eighty percent when he got me."
"I guess it makes sense why no one has been able to get decent video of him."
"That's not surprising; when he hits you... it's like a force of nature. He targeted our healers and support players first with astounding efficiency. It threw our whole raid into disarray and he took apart the remaining groups pretty easily."
Kirito and Asuna exchanged glances, they knew this was going to be hard, but at least they had a bit more information on their target now.
"So what guild are you going with?"
"Oh, we don't have a guild; so it's just our party,"
Sindoval started blankly at them for a moment, unable to believe the words he just heard. He couldn't help but let out a small laugh when what he heard finally registered in full. "Wow, I would never have expected to actually laugh today. No offence, but I give your party thirty seconds, tops." He looked between their dead serious faces and his humour washed away for a moment. "Though I suppose that if anyone is going to be able to pull something like that off, it's going to be the heroes of Aincrad. I'd offer the assistance of Eternal Quintessence to help, but we're not really in any shape to raid right now."
"Another time perhaps." Asuna replied with a smile.
"Count on it." Sindoval agreed. "Best of luck to you both, you're going to need it."
"Thanks." Kirito said as he waved Sindoval a casual goodbye.
He and Asuna slowly weaved through the crowds, both of their minds already focused on tactics and strategy for combating The Reaper. With their mission accomplished, at least for the moment, they slowly picked up the rest of their party who were finishing up their own queries and made their way back out into the city of Arkham.
The party made their way north to a place called Velma's Diner where they could discus everything in peace and quiet. It was a small but well kept little restaurant that Argo had found out about. The walls were simple stained wood and the domed lights overhead left a soft warm yellow glow about the place. Despite the diner seeming like a dive from the outside, anything that touched food was immaculately polished to the point of reflection. It was one of the few places in ETO world that Kirito didn't feel overwhelmed by the dreary ambiance.
The party had shared their findings on the walk over to the diner, but hadn't done any solid planning. Most of what the others heard matched up with everything Asuna and Kirito had leaned, so they at least had a bit more of a picture of what they were up against.
"So," Agent Nishiyama said as he passed out a round of drinks, "what's your take on The Reaper. We'll have to take him out of the picture before we can do anything about Innsmouth."
"Well protecting you should be out first priority." Asuna noted. "If he is consistent in targeting healers and support members first, he'll take you out then move on to Liz before coming after the rest of us."
"Given that it's safe to assume this guy is way stronger than us on an individual level, focusing our defence in one spot does seem like the best plan." Kirito agreed.
"True, but it could be just as dangerous to put all of our eggs in one basket" Sinon noted. "We still don't know everything that this guy is capable of, if he surprises us with a massive AoE that we can't counter, then it's over just like that."
"So what do you suggest instead?" Agent Nishiyama asked.
"Something similar, still using you as the focal point. Even without a sniper rifle, I can still cover a fair range and you all know I'm the best shot around. I'll hang back with a spotter, Argo would probably be best, and cover you while you try to draw him into a direct confrontation."
"That could work," Asuna agreed. "However, if he's as fast as everyone says, once your position is made, we may not be able to pull back and cover you in time."
"I know, but I'm hoping that our party comp will help us there."
"How so?" Asked Klein. "We're still a man down."
"Exactly. He'll see a party that's missing a member, if he thinks that there is someone out there he can't see, it may give him enough pause for you to cover me in that event."
"That's a pretty big if." Liz pointed out.
"Look, no plan is going to be foolproof. I think we all know the odds are pretty stacked against us going into this in the first place, I'm just trying to even them a little."
"I like Sinon's plan and I don't mind playing the bait." Agent Nishiyama said. "Our limited numbers give us limited options, so unless anyone has a better plan, I say that's the one we go with."
No one at the table disagreed.
"Prefect. Now, onto The Reaper himself. I know it's going to be hard to judge how best to fight him without actually doing so, but is there any edge we can gleam from what little we've learned?"
"The problem is that most of what we've heard is guesswork and conjecture at best." Asuna stated. "No one really knows anything about this guy, or if he even is a guy."
The group shared a few defeated stares on the subject, he was still a complete mystery.
"I do know one thing." Kirito noted.
All the eyes at the table turned to him in unison.
"Now, to be fair, this is based on the assumption that Sindoval's read of him being a player is true, but from the way Sindoval spoke about The Reaper, I'm inclined to believe that it is."
"Go on." Agent Nishiyama prompted.
"If The Reaper is in fact another player, and is not cheating the system in any way, they would have to be full time. It's the only thing that makes sense, the only way they could have shot so far ahead of so many hardcore gamers in the fairly short lifetime of this game in the Japan."
The rest of the group nodded as they started to see the foundation he was laying.
"But that begs the question as to why." Asuna said.
"Exactly. Aside from wondering why anyone would full time in a world this bleak, what's The Reaper's motive? What does he gain by taking on all of these players day in and day out?"
"Could just be fore the kicks." Sinon noted. "I've met a lot of PKers who just what to see how big of a challenge they can overcome, how many people the can best. Blocking off the final zone could be his way of funnelling all the top players together and forcing them all to take him on."
"That's true," Agent Nishiyama noted. "The high skill cap of ETO does make it the perfect game for that mentality and style of play. Still, I have a hard time thinking that they are unconnected to everything that been happening in Innsmouth. I think it's more likely that he's a guardian to keep people from seeing what's really going on."
"There is another possibility." Argo stated, finally joining the conversation.
"And that is?" Agent Nishiyama asked.
"Well, so far as we can tell, everything bad that's been happening to players has been happening in Innsmouth and this player is perverting thousands of other players from accessing the zone. What if he's aware of the same thing we are and is trying to keep people away?"
Everyone at the table stared at Argo wide eyed. None of them had thought of that possibility since Agent Nishiyama had noted that The Reaper was their first lead.
"We should try to capture The Reaper instead of defeating him." Argo suggested.
"That's crazy." Agent Nishiyama scoffed. "The fight is going to be hard enough as it is. Taking him alive instead of just beating him and moving on adds another layer of complexity to an already incredibly complicated fight. People's lives are at stake here, we can't afford to take chances or pull our punches."
"But he may have information that we need." Argo countered. "A lack of information can get you killed just as easily as a blade or a bow."
"Okay, hold up." Aunsa very nearly needed to shout to get between their rising voices. "You both make a valid point. I propose that if at all possible we try to disable him, but if he proves too much then we take him out and move on. All agreed?"
The table nodded their heads in unison with the exception of Agent Nishiyama. "I still think that it's too big of a risk," he stated bluntly. "That being said, I brought you all on for your skills and expertise. If you think that you're all capable of this, I will go along with it. Just remember that if we lose, that's more time wasted and a higher chance that someone else will pay the price."
"We're well aware." Asuna stated. "This isn't the first time we've had to make tough calls with lives hanging in the balance. We're ready for this."
"Very well." Agent Nishiyama ceded. "It's clear I cannot dissuade you."
With a quick swig, Agent Nishiyama downed the last of his drink and acceded his menu. "It's getting late and we all have a hell of a fight waiting of us tomorrow, you'd all better rest up. We meet back at the lab at nine AM sharp and take this Reaper down."
"Or capture him." Argo put in.
"Or that." Agent Nishiyama agreed before logging out.
A few moments later the rest of them followed suit, all worried to some degree about the coming battle in the morning.
Hello everyone, glad you could join me once more for the latest chapter. :)
Not too much to say on this one, but as always and thoughts and critiques are more than welcome. I've cut out and re-structured a lot form what I had originally planned to do with this story and I am a little worried that I may not be seeing the forest for the trees as far as general pace and structure go.
I am really excited to get to the next chapter so I'm hoping I'll be able to get it written up a little sooner than usual. When I was first conceptualising this story, the fight with The Reaper was basically the first thing I put together and I'm stoked to finally be able to write it.
Anyhow, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and I'll get you the next one as soon as I can.