Sword Art Online

After The Incident

Chapter 34 – The Ambush

~ALO major city safezone, Yui's POV~

I sighed a bit and hilted my sword as the wolf monsters me and my party had been fighting exploded from the aftermath of our battle. I was trying not to worry about papa and mama, so I had logged into ALO to blow off some steam, and try to distract myself from the topic, but up till now, it hadn't helped one bit. I was as worried as ever.

I sighed a bit as I sat down on a boulder and stretched my arms. My party friends came over and looked at me worriedly.

"Yui, are you okay?" one of my friends, Ryu, asked with worry in his voice "you seem down"

I looked at him with a sad smile. I hadn't really told him or the others about what my parents was going through, since I wanted to keep that thing private for the time being. But I didn't like lying to them.

"Yeah, I'm fine Ryu" I said with a smile "There's just something going on at home… And to respect my parent's privacy, I'd rather not talk about it…"

"I understand" Ryu said with an understanding nod.

I smiled up at him apologetically and nodded. He was about as old as my virtual body would make me seem to be, which would be around 10 to 12 years old, but he was much more considerate than any other 12 year old.

I sighed a bit and stood up from the boulder and stretched again as I looked over at my group.

"Alright, how much more do we need to grind for today?"

"Not much" Rias, our magic support, said with a confident smile "We only need to kill about 10 more of the pack wolfs before we can cash their drop items in and score in cold hard cash"

"Now you mention it," Ryu said with a wondering expression "Are we going to share the cash evenly?"

"Of course we ar-" I mumbled, but I was cut off by Rias.

"I think I deserve most of today's gold though" He mumbled with a pout "I did the most of the work after all"

"Huh!? What are you even talking about!?" Celia, our lancer yelled at the top of her lungs "You're only a supporter! I literally have to stay on the frontline the whole freaking time!"

I sighed a bit and shook my head as I let the others argue about the gold diversion as I walked off away from the group and out onto the grasslands nearby. I felt like being alone right now, so I lied down on the grasslands and tried to relax.

"Papa… Mama…" I mumbled quietly as I closed my eyes "Please, be okay…"

~The BoB tournament, Sinon's POV~

We were currently making our way through the thick jungle like area of the map, with Asuna in front, fully determined to reach the desert before Deathgun. I couldn't exactly see what the big hassle was, I had seen Kazuto's potential first hand. He was certainly no pro, but he wasn't a noob either. I was convinced that he was more than capable to take down Deathgun on his own.

The reason I was against grouping up was simple, a strategic one at that. If we grouped up we would only be an easier target to take down. Sure, we would have each other's backs like we had had up till that point, but we would still be three potential finalists at one place, easy to overrun and take down.

After about 20 minutes of non-stop running, we finally reached the cave we thought kazuto was residing, and carefully stepped inside. Or I was careful anyway. Asuna was a bit panicked, and walked faster and called out for her boyfriend desperately.

"Kazuto! Kazuto are you here!?"

"Heheh, so his name is Kazuto huh!?"

I froze a bit as I heard the new unfamiliar voice. Unlike Deathgun's voice this one didn't seem manipulated or robot-ish at all, so I knew it must have been natural. From the darkness from further inside the cave, the sound of something sliding across the ground soon caught my attention, and I put a hand on my pistol in case something would go horribly wrong.

Asuna and I quickly turned around to run out of the cave again, not wanting to be trapped in there by something, though we stopped in our tracks when we realized it was already too late. Two or three tough looking men was already standing at the cave entrance, blocking our escape. I growled a bit as I realized it had been a trap.

"What the hell do you want from us!?" I asked with an angry snarl.

"Oh that is quite simple actually" soon the man the voice had belonged to stepped out of the shadows "We just want you two to surrender to us, and forfeit the tournament!"

"What!? Why would we do that!?" Asuna snapped at him "Why would we do what you guys tells us!? What keeps us from putting a bullet in the forehead of each of you!?"

"Well, that's where the fun part comes in" The guy said with a sadistic chuckle "For you see, if you hurt me or any of my buddies here, this guy gets it"

I gasped a bit as the thing he had been holding in his grip was now tossed into view from the shadows. It was a lifeless Kirito, face-first in the ground. His clothes was dirty and bloody, and he seemed to have several wounds all over his face and body.

"KAZUTO!"

Asuna screamed at the sight and growled from panic and frustration. I growled angrily as Asuna and I drew our weapons, aiming at the four people who had trapped us.

"Why the hell are you targeting us specifically!?" Asuna demanded as she glared at the person holding Kirito in his collar.

"Quite simple" The man said with a self-satisfied smirk "Sugou has hired us. He wants you and this Kazuto guy gone from the game. We overheard how you were planning to grouping up here, so we decided to come here and wait for you. And look who walked right into our hands!"

The bastard chuckled softly as he lifted Kazuto's lifeless body up in his collar, and shook him a little before tossing

"He's trying to get rid of us…" Asuna snarled angrily "He knows we're coming for him. I swear I will kill at least two of you before I fall myself!"

"hahaha, go ahead and try lady" one of the older men said with a laugh "No matter what happens, you're both dead. Just give it up"

I growled angrily as I took a look around me, and at the situation we were currently in. My intuition had been correct. We were outnumbered and outmatched. Not only were there more opponents than allies, but our opponents had much more incredible firepower than we had, with higher stats and power. That Sugou bastard must have paid his way to most of their equipment.

I slowly shifted my stance so I could get a bit closer to Asuna.

"This is bad Asuna" I mumbled quietly "Any ideas?"

"Plenty, just close your eyes on my command" She mumbled in response.

I looked at her a bit surprised. Despite the cruel situation we were both in, she seemed rather calm and collected. Maybe she did have a plan.

I decided her ability to choose the right decision in the right moment, and nodded at her, just as who I guessed was the leader, called us out.

"Hey! No whispering! Get on your knees, and keep your arms up!"

I growled a bit as I did what the enemy said, but looked up at Asuna surprised as I saw her still standing like she was frozen in place. The leader of the squad growled from impatience.

"Hey, are you deaf or what lady!?" he growled as he stepped towards Asuna aggressively, about to grap at her "I told you to get-!"

He didn't get any longer with his threat. Before he could even finish his sentence Asuna had tossed him over her shoulder, and into the hard stone ground of the cave. The other three was so shocked, since the man was a lot bigger and heavier than her, that she could even pull that self defense move off, that it took some time before they even managed to snap out of it.

When they did though, it was already too late. Asuna had already reached into her belt and pushed the button of a flashbang grenade, tossing it into the middle of the group before closing her eyes and covering your ears.

"NOW SINON!"

I did as she had instructed me. I smirked a bit as I heard the muffled sound of a loud bang and screams from the men, even though I had covered my ears it was still plain to hear. I chuckled a bit and opened my eyes again before pulling my pistol and wasting the three opponents by the entrance to the cave, before finishing off the guy on the ground with a bullet to the forehead.

"No reason to waste ammo on you" I mumbled quietly as I put my pistol back in my belt.

I frowned a bit as I looked over at Asuna, who had picked Kazuto off the ground, and put him to rest against the cold stone wall of the cave. He was still out cold, and heavily hurt, but he seemed to be able to survive if we could just keep him out of danger.

"How is he doing Asuna?" I mumbled quietly as I looked at him.

"He doesn't have that much health left" She mumbled quietly "only about 30 percent or something"

"This is not good" I mumbled quietly "Health does regenerate over time, but instead of healing instantly like in any FPS game, he only regenerates about 10 percent every 20 minutes"

"So 1 percent every 2 minutes" Asuna mumbled quietly and worriedly.

"I'm afraid so" I mumbled in response with a sigh as I looked out through the cave opening "The sun is beginning to set. We should protect him until he wakes up to protect himself"

"Sounds like a plan" Asuna mumbled quietly as she looked over at Kazuto with a worried expression.

I sighed a bit and turned towards the cave opening.

"Maybe we should keep guard or something?" I mumbled quietly as I looked at her over my shoulder "This cave is our best bet of a shelter and we need to stand on guard"

"Good idea" Asuna mumbled quietly as she stood up from her crouched down position "I'll take the first watch"

"Huh!? Wouldn't you much rather be with your boyfriend?" I asked surprised "Normally you can barely stay outside of a three feet radius of him, at least of what I have seen"

"S-Shut up. That's not true" She mumbled embarrassed as her ears turned red "I can't do much for him right now anyway, so might as well try and think about something else"

"Sounds… Reasonable at least" I mumbled quietly as I thought to myself 'Wouldn't staring into space make you think more about it though?'

"Alright, I'm going outside" Asuna said with a sad smile as she patted my shoulder as she passed "Let me know if he wakes up or something, okay?"

"Sure thing" I mumbled quietly, looking after her until she was out of sight.

I looked over at Kazuto with a sigh, and went over to sit beside him. If everything he had told me was true, he had sure as hell been through a lot. It was quite unbelievable what he had told me. I had a hard time believing that humanity could scoop to so low standards for their morale and dignity. Sugou had even tortured the poor guy.

I felt my fists ball up and my frown deepening as I thought about that slimy snake. I couldn't believe how you could get so evil. What had Kazuto done to deserve being treated like that?! The pain he must have had been growing through had to be immense.

At that moment, I looked out of the stone cave to look at the sun, which was currently setting behind the tall sand dunes of the desert outside. I sighed quietly as I watched the spectacular sight. I had always had a certain pull to these kinds of worlds. They seemed beautiful in my eyes, and each game held a unique and different adventure all of their own.

I sighed again as I looked back over at the figure of my new friend. I hoped that once this was all over, we could all go have a proper adventure, one that couldn't put us in any real danger. Asuna and kazuto were the only people I had socialized with, besides Shinkawa, in years, and I wanted to keep them close to me. They had made me smile, which I had found quite hard to do lately to be honest.

I was suddenly ripped out of my thoughts as the lifeless Kirito began to stir back to life, his hands shaking a bit and his breath falling into a shallow moan.

"O-Oh! He's waking up!" I mumbled in surprise, as I stood back up to get Asuna.

I jock-ran outside to fetch Asuna and smiled as I finally reached her.

"I think your boyfriend is waking up" I said with a smile as I clapped her shoulder "Come on in"

The smile that brightened on Asuna's face was a special one to be sure, one I was sure only lovers could have for one another. My thoughts drifted back to Shinkawa briefly, but I shook my head to clear it and ran back inside the cave with Asuna in tow.

She sat down on her legs beside her sleeping black armoured knight, and looked at him with an expression that was a mix between intense worry and intense relief. A small smile grew on her lips as Kirito's eyes stirred open, and he weakly looked up at his girlfriend, a smile growing on his face as he realized who he was looking at.

"Hey…" he mumbled quietly as Asuna took his hand in hers, helping him sit up properly "how long was I out for?"

I wasn't quite sure if he sounded weak or just plain tired, but either way, it was clear that he was exhausted. How hard had he fought those brutes anyway?

"After we found you, about 20 minutes" Asuna mumbled quietly as she planted a kiss on his cheek "Why didn't you just run?"

"I was overwhelmed" He said with a bitter chuckle "Assholes attacked me from behind and knocked me out with a hard blow to the back of the head"

"It doesn't hurt does it?"

"Feels a little irritated, but otherwise it's fine" Kirito said with a reassuring smile "Thanks for your concern Asuna"

I smiled a little at the sweet scene.

"Now, Kirito, we need to fill you in on some things" I said with a smile.

He looked at me quizzingly before I proceeded to explain to him everything we had gone through to save him, plus how we were going to wait here till his HP bar was back to full health, which could still be within the next hour or so. When I finished explaining he nodded understandingly and sighed quietly.

"Guess you guys are stuck with me, huh?"

Asuna frowned a bit at this statement and grabbed Kirito's hand tightly in hers, starring straight into hi eyes without letting him escape.

"You are never a burden, do you understand?"

I looked at her a bit surprised. She had rarely used such a strong tone around me, and she didn't strike me as the type to be strict. Though right now I was looking at a girl that was filled with fire-like determination, a determination said to cheer up her boyfriend, and let him know he could never be a problem for her.

Even he seemed a bit taken aback by her sudden strict manner of speech, and he was about to speak up and protest, when Asuna continued.

"Never a burden" She said, now with a certain gentleness in her voice "We support and help each other out in tough times, right? So stop calling yourself a problem okay?"

Kazuto seemed extremely surprised by the sudden pep-talk, so surprised in fact that he had to have a moment to process everything he had been told. Unable to say anything, he blinked a few times before simply nodding, apparently not finding the ability to speak from surprise just yet.

Asuna's smile grew a bit more and she planted another kiss on his cheek.

"Good" She mumbled, before sitting to his right.

I sat on the other side of him, and smiled silently as I tried to break the silence.

"Alright Kazuto, you need to be as calm as possible now" I said to him "The lower your pulse rate is, the quicker you heal. Just concentrate on relaxing for now, okay?"

"Okay, I'll do that" he mumbled quietly "but what if we are attacked when I'm still healing? SHouldn't I help you guys fight or anything?"

"Nah, we got this" Asuna said with a teaseful expression "We clearly can't depend on your fighting skills since you took such a beating, so letting you help us would only slow us down~"

"Hey! That's not true!" Kazuto burst out in huffy protest "I bet I could kill twice as many as the both of you and still remain unscratched!"

"Sure hun, sure" Asuna said even more teasingly.

We all laughed and fell into conversation, patiently waiting for anything to happen. I have to admit though that I couldn't help but shoot a few glances at the cave entrance. The tournament wasn't over yet and far as we knew, at least Kirito was in danger.

We had to stay on our game. No one could tell what might happen.

A/N

Hey guys! There you have it! Another chapter complete!

I hope you guys are excited for what I have in store for you, cause I sure as hell is excited for how you guys will welcome my new story idea. Won't post it just yet though, still have to perfect the choices. Yes, you heard right, choices.

Cause if you guys go into my new twitter account right now, you will find a twitter poll that ask you which anime I should do a story on next. Sword Art Online, Corpse Party, or even a third option!

Be sure to leave it in the reviews and the twitter comments which anime you want me to do a story about. I'll be happy to listen to your suggestions!

Here's the link: /ddm_writing2/status/696308167614062592

This is Dragondemolition, signing out!