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Chapter 5

Floating Castle Aincrad, 50th floor.

May 28th, 2024. 5:00 AM

Kirito woke up from his internal alarm to the darkness he has become accustomed to for the last six months. As he got up, his hands opened and manipulated his menu with practiced ease, barely even glancing at it while a yawn escaped his mouth. Feeling the weight of the sword on his back, Elucidator, as it was the last thing equipped, he closed his menu as he stepped out of his modest home into the pre-dawn light of Algade, the main city of the 50th floor of Aincrad.

Stretching his arms up and stifling another yawn, he took off towards a familiar player-run shop nearby. As he approached it, he saw the sign in the window being turned around to declare that it was now open for business. A moment later he pushed the door open and was greeted by his friend Agil with a wave and a booming "Hey! Been a few days!"

Barely even acknowledging the greeting, he opened up a trade window to offload his payload of mats, cooking ingredients, weapons and armor from his daily grinding to replace them with as many potions, healing crystals, and antidote crystals as the towering shopkeeper had on hand, receiving the rest in col for any food and gear repairs he might need before heading out to repeat the cycle yet again.

Agil looked down at him, concern in his features as he asked "You still doing the same thing over and over, huh? Even despite everything that's happened since then?"

Kirito looked up at him, his dulled, almost lifeless eyes hinted a spark of anger momentarily at the words that tried provoking something, anything, besides the hollow emptiness they now reflected.

"It's all I can do to keep going" Kirito coldly responded. "My promise to get everyone out is all I have left."

As soon as the trade was finalized, Kirito walked out of the shop without even a goodbye to the only human contact he ever had anymore before running off to finish resupplying his potions, crystals and any food he would need for the next three days, stopping by an NPC blacksmith to repair his gear, and then made his way to the teleport gate near the center of town. He reappeared on the 66th floor, the current front lines to begin his daily grind of mapping and clearing the dungeon to help expedite the freedom of the 11,874 people still trapped in this death game.

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For the umpteenth time, The Black Swordsman stumbled his way back to his house on the 50th floor after almost three days of virtually nonstop fighting, luckily without being seen given it was almost 1 AM and the streets and alleyways were basically deserted, with the exception of the odd NPC here and there. As he neared the front door to his house however, his eyes were averted to something almost blindingly white sitting beside it despite the dark of night. He approached slowly, knowing what, or more precisely who, it was, praying she was asleep. As he went to open the door, a hand shot out, grabbing his wrist, dispelling any hope he had of avoiding the situation altogether.

"So what brings someone of your standing out here to a dump like this?" Kirito asked without emotion, not even looking at who grabbed his wrist.

Standing up to her full height, her long chestnut hair cascaded down her back as the Knights of the Blood Oath uniform she wore almost shone despite the lack of light in their immediate surroundings and her eyes seemed to burn with anger at Kirito's current lack of care about anything.

"A mutual friend thought you might need an intervention of sorts before you completely lose yourself to both this game and Kayaba" Asuna replied just as coldly as Kirito had to Agil three days earlier. "Both of you do" she added.

He flinched at the last part, knowing who she meant. "You might think that, but I'm just fine the way I am now" he said, still refusing to look at her. "Besides, no one has had any luck finding her in almost a year after what happened to the Moonlit Black Cats, and any interaction she still has with anyone is between at least three intermediaries so she can't be tracked down. Trust me, I've tried to do just that for almost a year now without success" he muttered, not wanting to speak his darkest fears into existence. "Plus with what happened a few months ago, this is what i deser--"

The slap he received from Asuna actually sent him flying back several feet before landing on his back and tumbling a few more feet before being stopped by a nearby building, the familiar purple hexagon with the words "Immortal Object" appearing just behind and above his head.

Asuna stood over him with her hands on her hips as she yelled "Idiot! What happened to the Moonlit Black Cats was neither her fault nor yours!" She folded her arms in front of herself as she looked away and huffed "Honestly! Something has to give before you both kill yourselves over something that neither of you could have changed! Just look at yourself! You can barely stand up as it is!"

True to her word, Kirito was struggling just to gather his legs under himself. Finally looking directly at her for the first time, he icily replied "What happened to the Black Cats aside, what I'm talking about is even worse. And for your information, I'm just fine, thank you!" As he tried to brush past her, he barely made it three steps before stumbling and finally falling face first onto the ground, passed out cold.

"Honestly..." she huffed again before picking him up, and throwing him over her shoulder, made her way to Agil's shop/house.

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The first thing Kirito noticed as he woke up was the almost blinding light. As he tried to think of where he was as he sat up, a hand covering his eyes, he was met with an eerily familiar voice he hadn't heard in forever.

"So yer finally awake. Took ya long enough, Ki-boy"

He froze, disbelievingly looking over at the table which sat a sight for sore eyes that he drank in with them, barely daring to blink, hoping that she wouldn't vanish like a mirage in the desert if he did.

"If I had known it was this bad, I would've done somethin' sooner" Argo commented. "I mean, ya look like hell."

That was the moment any light that was evident in his eyes disappeared and were replaced with the almost lifeless orbs he had been seen with for the last few months. As he looked away while getting off the bed, he hollowly replied "It's my penance for what happened. And I'm glad to see that you're not dead. I couldn't bring myself to check the Monument of Life after you disappeared" as he opened his menu to re-equip his sword and made his way to the stairs leading down to the door. "Need to catch up on the dungeon clearing I missed so far. Later."

As he reached for the handle to open the door, it appeared to open of its own accord until he saw the chestnut haired fencer on the other side.

"Oh. I was just coming to check on you. Glad to see you're already up!" she greeted him.

"Well now that you know I'm okay, I've got some dungeon clearing to catch up on" he coolly stated, waiting for her to move out of the way.

"I think that can wait a bit" any cheerful emotion she had was wiped away instantly. As she took a stance to ensure that he couldn't get past her without effort, she continued "Anyone can see you're anything but okay and we all want to know why you're trying to throw your life away and keep everyone as far away as possible."

"So you want to stall everyone trapped here from getting out that much sooner just because you think I need help?" Kirito's voice was slowly rising in anger. "Just how selfish are you planning on being!?"

What came next, he didn't expect at all.

While glaring daggers at Asuna, he was unceremoniously swung around and felt his upper body being dragged down until his face was mere millimeters away from Argo's. As her eyes flashed with anger mixed with tears starting to form, she all but growled "I plan on bein' selfish enough ta figure out what happened ta my boyfriend ta make him act like he's got nothin' ta live for! That an' doin' everything in my power ta make up fer bein' th' shittiest girlfriend in this an' any other world to my best friend that deserves so much better than me!"

As she let go of his shirt, unable to stop the tears from falling and shaking uncontrollably, it was all Kirito could do to not reach out and hug her as tightly as he could. Instead, he just looked down and away from her as he quietly said "Being away from someone like me is the best thing you could have done. All I'll do is get you all killed if you keep hanging around me."

Again, he was turned around and this time it was Asuna's turn to grab his shirt and pull him to her face as she all but but screamed "So you think we're defenseless under-levelled girls just because you're around!? What makes you such an expert on whether or not we can handle ourselves!?"

...

"BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT HAPPENED TO SILICA!!!" Kirito burst out, unable to hold his silence anymore.

Stunned into silence herself, she let go of his shirt as he backed into and slid down the nearest wall, bawling uncontrollably with the first true emotions he had shown in months. Argo immediately knelt down and pulled his head down to her, letting him cry his heart out on her chest while she slowly stroked his hair back. As she locked eyes with Asuna, she gave the tiniest nod before the fencer, dubbed The Lightning Flash by the other members of her guild, disappeared down the stairs.

An unknown amount of time later, as his sobs died down significantly, she helped him up and moved back to the bed, Argo sitting on the side as Kirito used her lap like a pillow, tears still falling as she continued to stroke his hair slowly, tears quietly falling from her own closed eyes as she cursed her own cowardice and whatever it may have caused.

She only opened her eyes when Agil, who was so quiet she never heard him enter the room, moved the table to in front of them and placed two chairs across from the bed as Asuna walked back in, a pot of tea and an assortment of foodstuffs in either hand before placing them at the center of the table.

As they sat down after placing some cups and plates on the table, Kirito finally gathered the strength to sit up, and with great difficulty, willed himself to stop the waterworks that were still going strong at this point. They divvied up the food between themselves as they took turns pouring their own drinks and started the meal in complete silence.

Just before finishing off their impromptu lunch (as it was just past noon by now), Agil broke the silence by saying "So I'm just gonna cut to the chase. What all happened in the last year to cause all this?"

Kirito and Argo looked at each other before he nodded and she answered "That's... probly gonna take a while ta explain..."

A/N: I apologize for a shorter chapter than normal. I figured it would be a better stopping point now than make a super long chapter out of what happened. It won't be for nothing though as they tell their stories and why they are the way they are now because the status quo isn't working anymore. See you all next time!