Sword Art Online

After The Incident

Chapter 35 – Red XaXa's Revenge

~The Cave, Kirito's POV~

I groaned quietly and sighed as I lied down on the decently warm floor of the cave. Asuna and Sinon had told me to rest as much as possible, to get back to full health as soon as I possibly could. I was still a bit salty that those guys had managed to overpower me, but there wasn't much to be done in that case. It was four against one, I couldn't possibly have won.

I sighed quietly and closed my eyes. Asuna had come to the rescue, again. Sinon had even helped, though she barely knew me or Asuna at all. Though she was our friend, we hadn't met that long ago. I couldn't believe how much trust she put in us from the get-go.

I smiled quietly and put my arms under my head to support my body pose and began to relax more and more. I felt how my breathing slowed, and a nice feeling of the air I pulled into my lungs reaching all the way out into my body. I was getting refreshed in some sort of sense.

I felt kind of bad to have to rely so much on those two, but it couldn't be helped. First of all, I could barely move when they found me. Second of all, Asuna would have gotten pissed if she found out I was trying to fight my battles alone again.

I always felt a bit nervous when she would fight alongside me, though also reassured. Of course those were natural feelings, with everything we've been through together. I just hoped nothing bad would happen to us.

As I was about to doze off and get some sleep, I heard a yell from outside. It was one of the girls.

I growled in a panic and drew my sword and pistol as I rushed outside. When I reached the outdoors, I widened my eyes a bit. It was Deathgun again! He had located us! He was at this moment fighting off Sinon with a hand pistol in one hand, while holding up my girlfriend by the hair in the other, desperately trying to keep the both of them under control at the same time.

A flare of anger sparked inside me as I saw how he treated Asuna, and I yelled at the top of my lungs as I sprinted forward, my sword raised, ready to slice at him and end it right here, right now. I growled and swung. Missed. He easily dodged and threw Asuna in the sand, stepping backwards with a dark chuckle as he swung his cape, revealing one hell of an arsenal underneath it.

It wasn't enough with him having a sniper on his back, and a pistol by the hip apparently. Underneath his cape it seemed that he was hiding an arsenal of medium and large sized weapons, each one being better equipment than I had ever seen. His equipment was all based on either stealth or quick movement from what I could tell, so it would get extremely tough to kill him.

I growled aggressively and swung at him again and again, but he kept dodging every single swing, chuckling delighted as he toyed around with me. His arrogance only made me more pissed off and more aggressive, so I kept swinging faster, faster, FASTER! Faster all the time. A whirlwind of dust and sand began to whirl around us, as we fought against one another.

As I was pushed back by a simple shove from Deathgun, Asuna and Sinon each covered one of my flanks, jumping out towards him and emptying their magazines in a wave of bullets in an attempt to take our tough opponent down. No use however, as he simply dodged every single bullet, and suddenly disappeared.

I widened my eyes and looked left and right on each of the two girls, but they just looked back at me with a confused expression. Suddenly I felt a stinging irritation in the right side of my back, and it was then I realized that the tip of a plasma sword was sticking out of my chest.

I felt over onto my legs and spit up virtual dark red blood, coughing aggressively as I fell down. The girls soon noticed it and attacked Deathgun again, but he simply vanished again, soon reappearing in front of us with a dark laughter. He looked at us and huffed arrogantly.

"You guys are out of shape" He said with a chuckle "This new equipment is so much better than the usual stuff I use"

"I guess you've gotten an upgrade then" Sinon growled irritated as she and Asuna helped me back on my legs.

I clutched a hand to my new wound and growled at him. Damn he was fast. Really fast. He seemed to be impossible to beat.

"You coward" I mumbled quietly "What do you want with me!?"

"Simple" he said with another dark undertone "I have a boss who's interest in removing you from the market"

"Another hitman from Sugou!?" I widened my eyes and growled "How many has he managed to get into the tournament anyway!?"

"Bitch please" Deathgun said with a laugh "Like Sugou needs proper entrance. He has the resources to hack us way into the tournament"

"H-How does the maintenance team allow this!?" Asuna asked in shock "They should have been alarmed if that was the case"

"Don't you think," Deathgun said as he crossed his arms "if Sugou can hack us into the game, he can also ban the maintenance users? This game is his, as long as you three still exist in here"

"Dammit…" I mumbled quietly "He wants to kill us off without anyone knowing. Less evidence, less witnesses"

"Ohh! We got a smart one huh!?" Deathgun said daringly as he pulled out a pair of plasma swords "Time to finish you off for good"

I couldn't say for sure, but I had a feeling he was smirking behind that mask of his. He was so sure he was going to win that he would only use plasma swords against me at this duel of ours. I growled angrily and drew my own plasma sword, ready to take him on.

"You're on buddy" I mumbled with a frown "Just know I'm going to kick your ass!"

I said that, but I wasn't sure whether or not that was a bluff at this point.

Asuna gripped my arm in her hand as if to hold me back, and she looked into my eyes with a shocked expression.

"Kazuto! Are you insane!? You'll die!" Her eyes watered as she stared at me "You're only at half of your HP too! I forbid you to battle him!"

I frowned quietly and closed my eyes as I looked away from her. I was beginning to doubt whether or not I could actually beat the guy. I had to admit it was a stupid idea to fight him in my current condition, but I could always run away if I was about to die.

"Sorry Asuna" I squeezed her tight in a hug and closed my eyes "But I have a feeling that he has valuable info for us. If I beat him, we could find out where Sugou is"

With this I pulled away from her and stepped back towards Deathgun. Asuna was about to protest and pull me back towards her, but suddenly a rainbow like aura with a diameter of about 10 meters surrounded me and Deathgun, appearing right behind me so Asuna barely missed me.

I widened my eyes and twirled around, hammering my fists onto the barrier. I was only lunged backwards however, and lost about 10 HP. I growled and got back onto my feet, starring angrily at Deathgun.

"What have you done!?" I yelled at him as the grip at my plasma sword tightened.

"No fun in running away right?" He said with a sadistic chuckle "Now, come at me, and let me finally finish this!"

I growled angrily and rushed forward in attack, slashing in a downwards strike. It was a predictable attack, and Deathgun parried it with ease, though this was a part of my strategy.

When he was distracted parrying my slash I ducked downwards and kicked at his feet. He was surprised but only for a second as he jumped backwards, just barely managing to dodge my trip. I growled a bit from frustration. It wouldn't be that easy.

I rushed forward with another strike, he parried, I striked again, over and over and over again, faster all the time. In the middle of our battle he swiftly grabbed my arm by the wrist and held it upwards, completely exposing my chest and abdomen.

I frowned a little in confusion as he turned off his plasma sword, twirling around so it's bottom was exposed to me. I widened my eyes when I realized a huge and razor sharp stinger jumped out from the bottom of the saber.

He chuckled quietly as he then lifted my entire body off the ground and repeated to stab me over and over again with the stinger, in my chest, my arms, my legs, my abdomen, everywhere. I couldn't feel pain, which was a relieve, but I could only watch in terror as my health bar slowly, but surely, disappeared into the bottom grid.

Somewhere behind me I could hear how Asuna and Sinon was desperately trying to break through the barrier, only getting hurt and losing their HP in return. I growled a little from strain as I twisted my body in a weird manner, putting Deathgun off balance. This gave me the opening to kick him across his chin, making him let go of my arm and we both dropped to the ground.

I was getting weaker with each point of HP lost, and Deathgun got to his feet much quicker than me. When I finally got to my feet I barely had strength left to stand, and I was panting in exhaustion as I stared at my opponent in weak anger.

I hissed quietly from desperation and looked back at Asuna and Sinon. Maybe this really was it? No, I couldn't think like that. If I did, the battle was already lost. I had to keep trying. I couldn't give up.

I took a look around at my battlefield and widened my eyes when I finally realized a way to beat him. Yes, that was it. A couple of rocks and boulders was standing in our battlefield, giving us slight cover space if we needed it. Though that was not what I wanted to use them for.

"Hey Deathgun, can I ask you something?" I said with a soft smile.

He seemed a bit surprised by my sudden question and attitude when he clearly had me on the ropes. Though he simply shrugged his shoulders and complied to my wish.

"As you wish, though make it quick" he mumbled irritated as he crossed his arms over his metal chest.

"What kind of gun are you using?" I asked shortly "Beam or bullet?"

"huh!?" Now he was surprised for real, though I didn't blame him "Why the hell does that matter!?"

"Cause you see!" I said with a small chuckle as I took aim at the boulder "If you use bullets, they bounce back!"

I aimed and used the prediction lines to figure out a path for the bullet. I smirked and pulled the trigger, and soon the bullet used it's surroundings to swish all around Deathgun, making him twirl around himself in confusion in an attempt to keep an eye on it, and at the same time dodge it.

I smirked as I got another precious opening and dashed forward, jumping into the air as I activated my sword.

"hhhhhaAAARRRRGGGHHH!"

A swing of a sword, the sound of metal against metal. It felt like time stood still. In one moment it had seemed like I had actually hit him. I widened my eyes as fragments of metal flew everywhere around both me and him, and I landed on the ground with a grunt.

He was standing with his back to me, standing completely still. Soon I saw the face mask he had worn fall down into the sand, it's edges glowing a bright orange from heat. He fell to his knees in shock, and I thought I had killed him, but he simply breathed quietly, trying to overcome his shock. I had only managed to cut off the mask fading his face.

Though at least now, I could at least have a look at the guy that had chased me for some time. His avatar looked a little older than mine, someone who was maybe 18 or 19. He had a few grey hairs sticking out from the metal imprisonment of his mask, and he had light brown eyes.

I was slightly startled and jumped a bit in place when I suddenly heard Sinon shout from the other end of the barrier.

"HUH!? Kyouji!?"

The tall man simply sighed and hanged his plasma sword on his belt, and crossed his eyes over his chest.

"Damn…" he mumbled quietly and regrettably "You weren't supposed to see me like this, Shino"

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING, WORKING FOR SUGOU!?" She asked furiously "Don't you know how dangerous he is!?"

"Of course I know!" the man, apparently named Kyouji, said with anger in his voice "But this little shit is dangerous as well!"

He said this as he pointed an accusing finger at me.

"Do you even know how many he's killed!?"

She fell quiet and I looked back at her, wanting to see how she would react.

"I don't believe you!" She yelled.

She banged her hands onto the barrier, not even caring that each hit was reducing her HP.

"How do you even know Kazuto, huh!?" She yelled accusingly.

"HE KILLED MY BROTHER SHINO!"

I widened my eyes quietly and looked up at him shocked. I had only ever killed in SAO, and that list of people was short, and caused by self defense. Included on the list was several members of The Laughing Coffin, Heathcliff, and Kuradeel, and as far as I knew, none of them had siblings. But of course I never knew any of those people personally, so I wouldn't know.

"I see you seem a little confused Kazuto" The man said with an angry huff "Let me remind you of the genius that was Red Eyed XaXa, my brother, Shouichi"

Again, I widened my eyes in shock. I never knew Red Eyes XaXa, the leader of The Laughing Coffin, had a brother.

"W-What? Kyouji, you have a brother?" Sinon asked in confused shock "how does that fit into any of this!?"

"Well, you see Shino," He said as he glared at me and Asuna angrily "That bastard killed him by his own blade. Three years ago, in SAO"

He closed his eyes as if he was reminding himself of the event before he continued his story.

"He was a good guy in the real world, truly he was" Kyouji mumbled with a frown "He never picked fights with me, or our parents. He always appreciated what others did for him.

But when he was trapped in SAO, something changed. You see, my parents had never told me anything about it, but I knew it none the less. He had a serious medical condition, a Multiple personality Disorder, MPD.

He would rarely ever let his condition show in the real world. To everyone around him, he seemed like a perfectly normal high school boy with a perfectly normal life.

But when he went online to play, when he emerged himself in games, he became a completely different person. He went from kind and caring, to coldblooded and bloodthirsty. The first time I played with him, I could barely contain my shock from this drastic change.

But in the back of my mind I still loved him. I only ever interacted with the kind brother I knew, the brother I considered the real one. The cold person he was online, boiled down to only being an avatar.

And I knew he didn't do anything like that on purpose. Even when the doctors told me he had killed several people in SAO, I still hung on to hope. To have my brother back was the only thing I ever wanted. I didn't want to remember him as a cruel murderer.

But then that dreadful day came. His heart monitor suddenly began beeping faster and faster, until the beeping had no pause. I knew that he had been killed, but not by who.

So after the players escaped, I dug into whatever history code I could find from the game, and I found several video files from the day that the Knights of The Blood raided my brother's and his guild's hideout. He and two of his friends were killed, all three by the tip of Kirito's blade.

Those video files made me resolute. I became determined to find my brother's killer, and get revenge. Up until recently, when Sugou approached me, I just thought a proper beating would be enough. But he quickly convinced me to kill Kirito, for both of our interests"

I didn't want to admit it, but I kind of knew what Kyouji was talking about. I had had those kinds of feelings before as well, whenever Sugou would seem to enter our lives again. I had wanted to hurt and kill him so bad for hurting Asuna, and my friends and family. I felt like a small part of the sympathetic me died every time I had those kinds of thoughts.

None of us said anything for the longest time, before Kyouji decided to continue.

"I'm sorry you had to find out this way Shino" he mumbled as he glared at me "But now, before I regret anything, I will finish what I came here to do"

And with those final words he charged forward with a roar, determined to finish what he had started.

A/N

AAAAaaand, there you guys go. Another chapter complete.

It got kind of dark in the end huh? How do you guys feel about me twisting Red XaXa's back story that way? Was it a good idea, or is it worthy of the trashcan?

Please let me know in the review section. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

See you guys next week!