Sword Art Online
After The Incident
Chapter 36 – Red XaXa's Retribution
~Kirito's POV, BoB tournament~
I widened my eyes as Kyouji rushed forward and slashed at me relentlessly. His aggression towards me and what I had done could be felt in every blow, every slash and stab into my defenses being harder and harder. I was barely even able to hold onto my plasma sword as he unleashed barrage after barrage of deadly attacks towards me.
I couldn't keep up and I constantly either slipped or was knocked back, and several times he even knocked me onto the barrier. When I was then launched back towards Kyouji, he would slam me back against the barrier, almost making me a human ping-pong ball. To top it all off, every time I hit the hard wall of the barrier, I lost 10 HP every time I was launched back, even if I managed to block Kyouji's attacks.
I frowned and duck to dodge his next vertical attack. It took him off guard and I managed to somersault out of the trap he had set for me, and I shot a few shots at his back as he was still recovering from the earlier shots. This knocked him a bit off balance and I rushed forward and slashed him across the back.
He grunted and growled as he spun around, not giving me a chance to continue my attack. He slashed at me and I dodged, before slashing at him again. He crossed his swords over his chest and blocked, my blade only inches from stealing his nose from his face.
We both grunted and hissed at each other as we pushed our swords against each other, trying to break the other's defense and put one of us off balance. I was a tiny bit stronger than him though, as he had put most of his stat points into AGI. I managed to push him backwards far enough and then break the pushing, giving him a few quick stabs to the gut followed by a foot in his knee.
He fell to one leg and looked up at me with an aggressive scowl, but before I could finish him off with a downwards slash he rolled out of the way, slashing away at the tendon in my left foot. I grunted from slight pain and fell backwards, and crawled away from him. Damn, it had seemed like I was able to finish him off.
I crawled away and desperately clawed my weapons close to me as I tried to stand back up, but there was no hope. I could no longer use my left leg, due to my injury. I hissed and backed against a rock, looking over at Kyouji from afar. He smirked and laughed manically as he stared over at me with a content expression.
"Finally I got you" he spit through his front teeth "Time to say goodbye"
I frowned quietly and looked down at the injury in my foot. Damn, this really was it. It was highly unlikely that I could beat him now. I couldn't even use one of my legs.
"Kyouji, you do know that if you finish him off now, you might as well turn yourself in to the police, right?"
Sinon suddenly spoke up with a cold tone in her voice, and both me and Kyouji looked at her in surprise.
"huh?! What the hell are you talking about?"
"You may have forgotten, but…" Sinon said with a heavy sigh "the new update of GGO let's any player record his or her battles… If you kill him, I have video evidence"
He growled angrily as he stared at Sinon.
"Sinon, why are you doing this!?" he asks pleadingly "I'm doing this to get rid of a threat! Who knows who he might kill!?"
"Kyouji, you're in denial!" Sinon retaliated "If your brother truly was that stone cold in the games as you say he was, who's saying Kirito didn't act in defense!?"
"Shut up!" He screamed, denying everything "That's not true! My brother would never kill! He wasn't cold! He didn't deserve to die!"
"Even so, do you think Kirito should have just let him kill him!?" Sinon yelled "He has people who love him as well! Should they just live on knowing someone killed him as well!?"
"Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!" he screamed loudly, holding his head "My brother did not deserve to die! Kirito was the one taking him from me!"
"Kyouji, listen to me" Sinon frowned as she stared holes into Kyouji "Kazuto has a family too. If he had died, he had had a lot of people he would leave behind. They would also feel all the emotions you went through. Do you really want someone else to go through that?"
He sobbed quietly and fell to his knees, and I quickly moved away from him in case he would explode in anger or something.
"No.. I don't want that…" He whispered quietly, his emotions finally getting to him "Alright, I won't kill him…"
He snapped his fingers with a regretful huff and soon the barrier around me and him disappeared. Asuna sprinted in and hung herself around my neck by her arms. I swung my arms around her and hugged her protectively. I was relieved I was able to hold her in my arms again.
"I was so worried…" She mumbled quietly, before turning towards Kyouji with an angry huff "I'm going to kill you, you bastard!"
She raised herself off the ground and drew her weapons, stomping towards Kyouji in a rage. He whimpered quietly, Asuna's temper bending even the strongest man, but as Asuna was about to blow him full of lead, Sinon stepped in-between them and blocked her away.
"Sinon!? What the hell are you doing!?" she yelled at her angrily "This bastard almost killed Kazuto!"
"That might be true, but we need him" She frowned back at Kyouji "As much as I want to kick his ass too, he might know where your target is. He might help us get to Sugou!"
Asuna hissed from anger and put her weapons away as she glared at Kyouji with a look that could kill.
"if he tries anything, he's dead" She warned the both of them as she turned to walk back towards me "Here, let me help you up"
If it wasn't for her helpful demeanor I would have been scared of her intense anger, though that thought quickly vanished as she helped me back to my feet, slinging my arm around her shoulders as she supported my body weight. I smiled quietly as she helped over to sit against a small formation of boulders.
I groaned quietly as I pulled my leg up under me and looked at the wound in my tendon in my ankle. I could see how the wound was healing pixel after pixel, though it would still take a while before I could walk.
"Well, we'll have to wait here until Kazuto is healed" Asuna said with an angry frown "We can't really get anywhere if he can't stand straight"
I felt a bit guilty, though her anger was mostly pointed at Kyouji.
I was a bit of dead weight right now, though it wasn't really a matter of time right now. Even if we wanted to pursue Sugou we would need to win the BoB tournament first if we wanted to pursue him in here. I could only assume that he hadn't participated in the tournament himself, which would be a pretty stupid move if he planned to trap us in here.
I looked up at Asuna and Sinon with a smile. It was wonderful to know that no matter how much of a down weight I was, they would always be there to protect me. No matter of a dead weight I would be, they would never leave me. Though in Asuna's case I had known it for a long time, it was wonderful to know that I had gained a new ally in Sinon, who would do the same for her friends as Asuna would for me.
After we had gotten all of this mess cleared up, I would make sure to introduce her to my friends.
After about half an hour my ankle and other wounds were mostly healed, to the point where I could actually stand on my feet. I smiled a bit and stretched as the moon began to rise over the desert, making it biting cold rather than burning hot. I wrapped my coat a bit tighter around myself to protect mself from the warmth.
"Alright, what's next?" Asuna asked with a serious frown.
"Well, Sugou has of course not entered the tournament" Kyouji said with a frown "So we have to get out of the tournament if we want to get after him"
"That makes a lot of sense" I mumbled quietly "alright, first, we'll go after the other players. Then, if we all survived until then, we'll meet in the city zone of the map. From then on we'll figure out what to do"
"Sounds like a plan" Sinon said "Do we split up, or?"
"If we do we can cover more ground" Kyouji said with a his arms crossed over his chest "But if we stay together we have a greater chance of survival"
"I think we should stick together" Asuna mumbled with a serious expression "Even if Sugou tries to flee he will run straight into the police's hands"
"Huh? Really?" I looked at her surprised. What did she mean by that?
"Well, they didn't tell you Kazuto, but," Asuna said with a smile "Remember when you talked to the head of SAO security a couple of days ago?"
"yeah, he told me they had found Sugou's hideout"
"That's right. But what he only told me is that, in case Sugou would flee from GGO, they had surrounded his hideout. Even if he tries to flee, he'll run straight into custody"
"Man, why wouldn't he tell me such an important detail?!" I mumbled irritatedly "All that worry of him fleeing for nothing"
"He told me he had forgotten"
"God dammit"
I couldn't help but facepalm at his bad memory, but I sighed and decided to let it slide.
"Whatever, let's just get going guys" I mumbled, trying to change the subject as the others chuckled at my misfortune "I don't want to stay in here anymore than I want to"
"Agreed, let's get out of here" Asuna said worriedly "When is the next satellite coming?"
"In about 20 minutes" Sinon said with a frown "Though last time I checked, there was about 11 players left, and three players right nearby to the southeast of here"
"Since we're four here, maybe we should target those three" Sinon said with a strategizing expression "And if they're not even in a team, we can take each of them out easily"
"That sounds like a good idea actually" I said with a wry smile "This will be so much easier if we team up against the rest of the competitors"
"Alright, let's head Southeast then" Kyouji mumbled as he reloaded the weapons he had used against me earlier "It would be even better if we attacked them when they were fighting. You know, put them off guard"
"Alright, let's discuss that when we actually arrive there" Sinon said with an irritated expression.
It seemed she was raring to go, and to be honest, I was tired to just stand around and do nothing as well. I wanted to get going as much as she did.
She punched kyouji's arm irritated, our rambling being the reason and him being the nearest target, but he simply responded with a chuckle and a rub of her hair, which, given her personality, of course resulted in a deep blush from her, before we set out towards the Southeast.
~Sugou's POV, Hideout in major city~
"Dammit. That damn sellout"
I threw the monitor across the room. Kyouji that little bastard. He had sold me out to those assholes.
"Well, no way to prevent it now" I tried to console myself and regain my cold façade "I have no other place to run to. Might as well just meet them head on"
"Huh?" my assistant looked up at me with a start "That seems much unlike of you sir. To face them that is"
I couldn't help but feel a little offended at this, but for once I let it slide. He was too insignificant anyway to get mad over.
"Well, just take a look at this" I said with a smirk as I opened my maxed out weapon cabinet "I have the firepower to take them, plus the stats. And besides, if everything goes south, I can just hack my way out of the game. Simple as that"
My assistant looked at me insecurely but I didn't care. He didn't matter. The only thing that did matter was my own safety.
I began to gear up, grabbing some of the best equipment I could find, before looking over at my assistant again.
"So? Are you coming or what?"
He jumped a bit and nodded quickly before following me to the outside door. Time to face the danger I guess.
I smirked quietly as we stood at the main entrance to our hideout. If they were looking forward to die, I would gladly grant them all that wish. My only goal was to make my way back into the Yuuki family. Even if I had to create false evidence of market cheating against Asuna's father, or physically threaten them with my weapons, the means wasn't important.
Their many millions would be mine, even if I had to steal them right out of their puny little hands. I didn't even care about that bitch to Asuna anymore. She could die somewhere for all I cared. If I had to threaten to kill her to get what I wanted, I would do it.
My goal would come true, no matter the cost. But first, I had to get the biggest obstacle out of the way. Kazuto Kirigaya. No matter what I had done to get him out of the way for the past two years, he would either get back at me, or escape death somehow. But not this time.
If I didn't manage to kill him this time, he would get me arrested. I already knew that my hideout in the real world was surrounded, so this was my last chance. One of us would lose.
And I would make sure it wouldn't be me.
~An hour later, The jungle zone, Kazuto's POV~
"Alright, as far as I can see here" I mumbled as my group and I gathered around the virtual map from the overhead satellite "We are now the last four players in the tournament"
"Seems like it" Sinon said with a nervous frown "So, how do we do this? Do we just kill each other off?"
"It would almost seem like it, right?" I mumbled quietly as I looked around at the three others "It would save both time and energy if we simply killed each other out"
"Well, I'll go first then" Kyouji said as he stepped forward towards Sinon, his arms out to the sides "Go on Sinon, finish me off"
She was taking a bit aback as she stared at Kyouji for a moment.
"Huh? Why you?" She asked surprised as she pulled out her pistol.
"I need to pay back for attacking you guys so violently" he mumbled with an apologetic smile "I guess letting you pump me full of lead is a decent start, hmm?"
"I think I deserve that honor more than Sinon does" Asuna said with a glare as she pulled out her weapons as well "You DID, try to kill MY boyfriend after all"
"U-Uhm, Asuna-san, no reason to be aggressive" he said with a wry smile, his nervousness visibly painted in his expression.
"No reason huh!? Here, let me give you one!"
Before any of us could even blink she had put a bullet between his eyes and his character collapsed, dead. E and Sinon quickly fell silent before Sinon pulled her pistol to her neck and pulled her tricker. The sound of the bullet made me jump slightly in my tracks from surprise. I guess she wanted to end herself before the vicious side of Asuna could get a grip on her.
Me and Asuna stood for a moment and watched Sinon's lifeless body, before taking a frightened look on each other. We soon broke off into laughter though and fell into a tight embrace with each other.
"To be honest, I think Sinon deserved the title of winner" I mumbled with a smile "She had really hoped to win the tournament too"
"I guess she chickened out at the last second" Asuna said with a sly smirk "but now it's only you and I left"
She raised her weapon a bit, a feeble look on her face.
"I don't really feel great having to shoot you" I mumbled quietly.
"Well, there is a single way we can end this at the same time" She said with a smile "Sinon taught me this little trick earlier. Here, give me your hand"
I wondered what the hell she was doing? I just shrugged and gave her my hand as she asked, before she pressed something round down into it and pressed a button on it. I widened my eyes as I realized what it was, and I almost fell on my rear. It was a grenade!?
"W-Woah, what the, w-WARGH!"
As I stumbled around with the grenade between my hands like an idiot, Asuna giggled and threw her arms around me before kissing me deeply, freezing my movements. I hesitated a bit before smiling and wrapping my own arms around her, and kissing her back before a blinding light surrounded us.
And everything disappeared in dark.
A/N
Hey guys, I hope you liked this weeks chapter!
I really want to thank you guys for your support really. Not only has "A Forbidden Love" received more support on a chapter than anything else I've ever done before, but I'm also noticing that we've almost reached a hundred followers and almost just as many favorites on "After The Incident"
I can't believe we've come this far, and it's all thanks to you guys. You are amazing, and I don't know if I had continued this if it wasn't for you.
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See you next week guys! Peace out!