Sword Art Online

After The Incident

Chapter 49 – I'll Be There For You

~At Klein's Apartment, Liz's POV~

"Klein! Oi Klein! You okay in there, buddy?"

I kept knocking at the door a few more times. I might have been standing out here for a couple minutes, knocking the night away, but still, no answer. I was getting worried at this point, and I tried the door handle. Huh? It was still open despite the fact that he was fulldiving? How has he not been robbed of all his possessions yet? It's not like he can get up and stop anyone trying to hurt him when he's fulldiving.

"Yo Klein! Your door is still open, dude!"

I stepped inside and looked around in worry. Where the hell had he gone to?

"Klein? You there?"

I was getting worried now. His entryway was dark, and I didn't see any light on the way inside his apartment. His entire living room was dark as well, the only light emanating from the room being the small red and green lights of the main console of his amusphere, indicating that it was still on, but most likely in its pre-game menu state.

When I entered further into the living room and looked left, I could see a faint light from what I guessed was the bathroom. I could hear a weird noise from there.

"Klein?"

I hurried out there and burst through the door, though once I saw what was inside, I could barely even contain my laughter.

There he was, leaning his entire body over the toilet, and emptying his stomach's contents into it, a retching noise coming from deep within of the pits of his stomach. I couldn't help but jab at him playfully.

"Oh no!" Should I hold back your hair?"

I quickly gained sympathy of him though, and knelt down beside him, patting his back soothingly.

"L-Liz? What the hell are you doing here?" He asked in-between his retches.

"I'm here to check up on you, idiot" I said with a soft voice "You do this to yourself every time, dude! When do you learn?"

"Heh, I ask myself that question every damn day" He chuckled weakly as he took a piece of toilet paper and wiped a bit of puke away from his bottom lip. "At least I can't get addicted to virtual booze"

I helped him up and into the living room, before helping him onto the couch and tucking him into a blanket.

"I don't think I've ever seen you so sick, Klein" I mumbled, a slight concern actually hitting me "You sure these adventures are good for you?"

"They should have said something on the game case about nausea following alcohol" he pouts "They never once mentioned that you could get sick from in-game drunken trips"

"First off, the clear warning that the fulldive system leaves temporary effects on your mind should make that obvious" I said with a slight scold "Secondly, I can already tell you didn't read the manual. It mentions alcohol intake on several pages of the manual"

"Whatever, smartass" he mumbled with a roll of his eyes "Point is, I am never doing this to myself again"

"Somehow, I don't believe that" I chuckled and jabbed his arm lightly "How's the nausea?"

"Getting better. The worst was over after about 5 minutes, so I'll be fine" He mumbled as he wiped his lips and looked up at me "You got that worried about me huh?"

I could see a distinct smirk play on his lips and I chuckled quietly as I punched his shoulder.

"Nah, the others just asked me to check up on you" I said as I looked down at him on the couch, looking more dead than alive.

That was of course only half the truth. Of course I was worried about him. He was my friend after all. But I wasn't about to tell him that. If he knew that he actually worried me, I wouldn't hear the end of his teasing for weeks.

I slowly helped him get comfortable in the couch and smiled sympathetically as I stood up.

"Need anything? A pain killer?" I asked softly as he slowly laid down.

"Nah, it's fine. I just need some water and plenty of rest" he mumbled.

I nodded and quickly walked into his kitchen, which honestly wasn't more than just a kitchen top and a few cupboards separating it and his living room, before I began rolling through each one to find a glass. After a few moments I finally found one and quickly filled it with water from the sink before I went back and gave it to him.

"You're being awfully considerate today Liz" He said with a smirk and a chuckle as he downed the water.

"Oi, you saying I'm not normally considerate?" I pouted as I puffed out my cheek.

"No. Just saying you usually laugh at me rather than show concern when I screw up" He said with another happy smirk "You falling for me or something?"

"Yeah sure, I'm falling for a drunkard overworked 24 year old, who plays video games when he's not at work, and complains about how many women flock around his virtual friend"

"Okay, that was harsh" He said with a pout, receiving a laugh in return.

"Come on Klein, you know I'm not serious" I said as I nudged his side "Just keep working man. Didn't you talk about your boss talking to you about a promotion last week?"

He rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Yeah, but he hasn't really mentioned it since" He mumbled as he leaned back in the couch "And even so, it's not all that much of an upgrade. Plus, I'll have to work an hour extra on my shifts"

"When did you become such a pessimist?" I chuckled softly.

"Ever since Kirito scared the crap out of me with that crazy dungeon" Klein laughed back "Seriously though, I could have sworn I saw a giant centipede or something in the dark"

"Don't tell me you're afraid of bugs after everything we've been through" I giggled, punching his shoulder playfully "You seemed so brave at the raid of The Skull Reaper"

"Heh, that was more adrenaline than bravery" He mumbled softly "And how do you know that? You weren't at the raid"

"I know but…" I blushed a little. I didn't want to admit it "I had hidden a broadcast crystal in your pocket without you seeing it"

"Wait, huh!?" He yelled in surprise.

"You remember how you and Agil met up at my smithy for maintenance before the raid?" I asked shyly "When I took your armor out for maintenance, I made sure to hide a broadcast crystal in your breastpocket before coming back out with it."

A large smirk began growing on his lips and now it was his turn to jab my rips playfully.

"Ooh, someone is worried about their friend!" He cooed, obviously enjoying the shy look on my face "You don't have to worry about me anymore though. The death game is over and even Sugou is gone now. Everything is back to normal."

He leaned back in the couch with a sigh, leaning both his arms on the couch back in a relaxing manner. He had a point. Everything did seem to be back to normal, but then again, how many times had it seemed like that by now, only to be snatched away right before our eyes?

"I know Klein, just…" I ran my thumb over my hand in growing nervousness "You know full well how things seemingly keeps coming back to bite our asses"

"Hey, Rika…"

I widened my eyes a little. He usually never called me by my actual name.

"I just want you to know that… uhm…" A blush ran over his cheeks.

Was that embarrassment I saw!? No bashful smirk, not a goofy grin, but an expression of nervous embarrassment!? This was so unlike Klein that I was likely to believe that he was still drunk off his ass.

"Yeah?" I asked softly.

"I just want you to know uhm… That I'm here if you need me"

I cocked my head to the side slightly in confusion. What did he mean?

"What I'm trying to say is that I'll be there for you should you need me. And that I'll always help you with whatever…"

Now my face began to flush. Why did he make it sound like he was confessing or something!? Plus, he was way too old for me… Right?

"Uhh yeah, of course. Hehe, you too man" I chuckled bashfully, looking away "I-I mean, we've always been there for each other in the time of need."

"R-Right" He looked away and cleared his throat "S-So I think I'll go get some rest. Hopefully I've sobered up by tomorrow morning"

I was snapped out of my embarrassed trance and nodded quickly, setting myself out of the way so Klein could move past me. He did so, and walked through the hallway, before casting a glance back at me over his shoulder.

"Stay safe on your way home, alright?"

I nodded and smiled.

"I'll check up on you again tomorrow" I said softly, putting my hands in my jacket pocket so I didn't have to figure out what to do with them.

To this he nodded, walked into his bedroom, and closed the door behind him.

I sighed and nodded to myself, before walking out of his apartment, closing the door behind me with a soft click.

What had happened in there? What was that between the two of them?

These thoughts left me more confused than ever as I left the apartment complex, hurrying home to join back up with the rest of the gang in ALO.

~The following morning, Kazuto's POV~

That morning I was woken up by the ringtone of my phone, having received a text from Sinon. Quickly opening up my phone, the text read:

"From Asada Shino

Hey Kazuto. Can we meet up? I have something important to ask you. Or I guess you could say I need your help with something. Anyway, do you have time today?"

I frowned quietly at the vagueness of the text, but shrugged and pulled on a t-shirt, before following it up with a text of my own.

"Sure, can we meet somewhere halfway?"

Almost no time went by before the answer came.

"Let's meet at the shopping plaza in town in an hour or so. Sound good?"

I quickly send her a reply and jumped into the shower. An hour is more than enough for me to get ready and get to the plaza on time.

After my bath I smiled and sent my usual "Good Morning" and "Have a nice day" texts to Asuna, before running downstairs to grab myself some breakfast and heading out.

The early morning train was usually packed, but that morning, everything was quiet and deserted. The various transport proposals of 2021 had made transport so much easier around the area and in town, since it made transport by car and bike that much more popular with lowered car and gas prices.

This had made deserted trains much more common, though they were still rare at this time of day since people were all rushing to go to work.

As a result, I got to get my own train car all to myself. This also gave me time to rethink all of yesterday's events in my head. Watching Klein freak out about the various possible monsters in my dungeon was fun, albeit a little evil. I was never the sadistic type, but watching him squirm brought a certain excitement up in me.

The entire day had been perfect. From the dungeon, to the bar, to… That proposal. Asuna had been so cute… I could barely even manage a word last night. I must have looked like such a dumbass.

These thoughts humored me to no end, and only managed to convince me that even more fantastic memories were to come in the future, as I finally arrived at the right station after about 10 minutes of silent train driving, and stepped onto the platform, before heading towards the plaza where Shino and I had agreed to meet up.

I had to wonder though, just what was she up to? The text had been strangely vague, so vague in fact that I didn't even know what I was actually going to the plaza for. I just needed to help Shino out with something.

A thought crossed my mind.

'Now that I think about it deeper…' I thought to myself 'This probably has something to do with Kyouji'

A smirk danced on my lips and I chuckled to myself, a hundred percent certain I had figured it out already. Shino was only ever this vague when it had something to do with Kyouji. Her relationship with him was still a fair amount of new to her, and she still wasn't used to it, making her blush and fall silent whenever focus fell onto the two of them being together.

She had tried to threaten me with shooting me in my, shall we say, "Weak point" if I didn't stop teasing her about how cute she and Kyouji were together. Little did she know I still had video and photos of the two of them snuggling up to each other in the couch of The Dicey Café.

I chuckled again to myself and looked through the crowd, having arrived at the plaza, and hoping to find Shino somewhere. As a complete contradiction to the empty and quiet train, the plaza and the surrounding area was buzzing with people.

Because of my loner/nerd/gamer way of going through life before SAO, I never really got used to the outside world very well. I still had to squint with my eyes every now and then when I went out, probably because I got too used to the dull confines of my room beforehand.

I never really noticed it back then, probably because my computer and my games managed to distract me from the fact, but looking back at myself from ten years ago, I was actually kind of a lonely kid. Not that many friends, barely talked to my sister, never went outside my house.

"Man, I was pathetic…" I mumbled to myself.

Right when I said this, a voice called out from behind me.

"Are you just gonna stand there and zone out all day, or are you actually here to be useful?"

I spun around and smiled as I finally saw Shino, dawning her usual dark clothing, white undershirt and red tie.

"Oh hey Shino" I smiled a little and faced her with the rest of my body "So, what did you need help for?"

"W-Well…"

Her cheeks darkened several shades and her usual calm and composed manner was replaced with one of nervous shyness.

"I need some dating advice..."

A/N

Hey guys! Welcome back (FINALLY), and thank you so much for reading this much awaited chapter of After The Incident!

Holy crap, have I missed you guys! It's been way too long since I updated this story last time, and for this I am sorry. Life has been so hectic lately, and I've only recently managed to get back into things.

But I promise, I will upload on this and many other stories I've put on hiatus, much more in the future!

I know you guys have been excited for this update, and I hope this chapter did it justice, if only somewhat. I promise it won't take nearly as long for the next update to come!

I plan to upload new chapters for this story, along with RWBY: The Strength of Revenge, SAO: A Forbidden Love, and Corpse Party: Do I Want To Move On?

I am also considering to upload chapters for stories such as Pokémon Highschool and SAO: Worldwide, but I will be considering those two stories side projects for now, and they probably won't be uploaded as frequently as everything else.

And even if my muse is back, I don't know if I can keep a set schedule. Real life just keeps getting in the way, you know? ;)

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed and I will see you all next time.

Keep reading!