Jose's POV
I turned around, I thought I saw something. I could've sworn something was there, Koharu on the other hand looked concerned at me.
"You okay?" She asked, I lightly shook my head.
"It was nothing, thought I saw something, that's all." I assured her, we turned back to the general direction of the gate leading out of the town, I increased my walking speed by just a little bit. Something or someone was watching us, I know it, but whatever they are, they disappeared. I then heard a voice, it's my voice? But it sounds different.
"Armin!" I (?) yelled, then the scene changed suddenly, I was no longer in Urbus, I was no longer in SAO? I was on a rooftop, a little ways away was a large wall, with the light of day painting it a bright yellow. I looked at the buildings and they looked German-like, lightish red tiles and white walls, I heard another voice, a female one. It sounded like Koharu, but not her at the same time.
"Hey! Armin, you okay? Where's the rest of your squad?" I turned around due to the familiarity of the voice, only to see three people present. A blonde haired boy with blue eyes, he looked to be around my height, same with the boy with brown skin, black eyes, straight black hair and finally a girl with light grey eyes and thick black hair that is styled in pigtails, she looked to be the smallest in the group.
Furthermore they had identical uniforms, a light brown jacket with an emblem on their arms, it looked to be of two swords crossing, they also wore some kind of dark red waist cloth and white pants. On their hips were silver boxes with gas canisters on top, the boy with brown skin and girl with pigtails looked to be also holding a handle, the shape was similar to that of a sword.
"E-Eren….a-a-and." The blonde stutters, before he could say anything more, the boy with brown skin shoots his head up and looks in my direction, he gets in front of the blonde and pigtailed girl. He puts the sword-like handle inside the box and pulls out a sword with a curved edge. He does the same with the other, I step back out of instinct as I see that the boy was prepared to attack me at a moment's notice. I feel the hostility coming from the young boy.
"Jose?" I jump at Koharu's voice and I'm back in Urbus? I began to look around, trying to make sense of what occurred. Koharu looked at me worryingly. "You okay?" Is all she says, I just look at her, normally I would just give her a smile to reassure her, but I just stare at her blankly.
"Y-yeah," I responded, "I kinda blanked out that's all." I had to lie to her, as this was another thing I couldn't explain at all.
Koharu's POV
I rose an eyebrow at this, I knew for a fact that something was off. So I stepped forward towards Jose, and looked him in the eyes.
"You sure?" I questioned "because your body says so otherwise, you're tensed up." Jose stays silent for a bit longer. He scratches the back of his head awkwardly.
"Let's say I was, how can I say this without sounding like I'm crazy? ummm." I tilted my head, was it an embarrassing thing that happened IRL and he's remembering it? Or what is something else? He closes his eyes a bit as he says.
"I wasn't in Urbus." I just stood there silently.
"……" I can see Jose get visibly flustered by this.
"Great now you see me as a crazy person!" I giggle a bit.
"Not really." I began "it's just, maybe you hallucinated?"
"While being in a game?" He retorted "I doubt that's possible, at least from back in the beta and now." I shrug.
"You never know, maybe there's a hidden feature." I see Jose slightly cringed after me saying hidden feature, I don't know what made him do that.
Jose's POV
Hidden feature eh, there was only ONE "hidden feature" (if I could call it that) I knew and when I approached Argo about it days after the game released, let's say that it's something I WON'T use (or disable) any time soon.
Koharu's POV
He was standing there awkwardly, I then saw his face slowly turn red. I snap my fingers in front of him.
"What?" He exclaimed, it was certainly odd of him to space out.
"You kinda spaced out Jose." I simply respond, which causes Jose to sigh a bit.
"I did? I guess I blanked out." Is all he says before jabbing a thumb towards the gate of Urbus.
"Let's get going, the readers are likely getting bored by us just talking." He said in a sudden cheerful way that threw me off a bit.
"Y-yeah." I muttered in response.
Parched Plains (10 minutes after leaving Urbus).
"Hiyya!" I thrust my dagger at the Trembling Bull, and just like that, it bursted into small bright rectangles.
"17 down in total!" Jose shouted, I nodded and looked at my inventory.
"I got 6 horns!" I yelled "you?"
"I-I only got 3!" He stuttered, I flashed an evil smirk. We decided that whoever got the least amount of horns would pay for dinner.
"Look like I'm gonna win!" I proudly say, as Jose's shoulders drop, but then he has a devilish smirk.
"But whoever has the most hoofs has to give it to Kibaou." My mouth wide open in disbelief, I completely forgot that it was the case.
"Dammit!" I yelled out in frustration as Jose burst out laughing. Then I shoot back a look at him.
"Either way!" I began "you still have to pay okay?" Jose rolls his eyes at me out of amusement, I giggle a bit, despite us being in a place where death is possible when we're outside the safe zone, we can still chat about random things, laugh and make jokes. I guess that's why I've stuck with Jose, because he brings in those peaceful and humorous moments, that and he's the only friend I have in SAO.
"I got 4 now!" Jose exclaims, I didn't know he got another in the middle of my thoughts, but regardless I smiled as brightly as the setting sun that painted the savanna a darker shade of yellow, which made the scene even more peaceful. Jose looked towards the setting sun, which made his dark hair a little brighter, showing the curls he had on the top of his head just a BIT more. I walked a little closer to Jose and I stood right beside him, taking in the sight of the beautiful, virtual sun.
After we were done looking at the sun, grateful that our retinas couldn't be damaged by the sun, we headed back to Urbus as I had to give the hoofs to Kibaou.
Urbus, December 4th 2022, 8:30 PM
As I prepared myself to give the hoofs to Kibaou, I heard a voice, it was so faint, yet close by.
"To be honest, you looked like the loneliest creature in the walls." It was my voice? It sounded so much like it, but not at the same time.
"Koharu?" Jose said in a concerned tone "you okay?" I nodded a bit.
"Yeah." I muttered "kinda letting the whole giving Kibaou the 10 hoofs set in, as I kinda don't want to do it." Jose shrugs, being a jerk about it.
"Well that's what you get for getting the most hoofs, Koharu." I rolled my eyes as I continued to walk, but I see a familiar cactus haired man.
"Speak of the devil and they shall appear." Jose muttered as Kibaou walked up to the two of us.
"I assume you got the hoofs." Kibaou bashfully asked. Jose nods and glances at me and I sigh out of sheer annoyance as I open my player window and tap on the tab [Trade] and it opened a separate window, with two names "Jose" and "Kibaou." I click on Kibaou's name and give him the hoofs.
"Thank you, and as a reward here." He opened up his player window and gave me 4,000 cor, he did the same for Jose.
"Glad to help you out." Is all Jose says as Kibaou simply scratches the back of his head, seemingly embarrassed.
"Don't mention it, kay?" Kibaou silently muttered as he walked away from us. How odd, maybe he isn't so much of a bad guy, but that still doesn't excuse what he did back at floor one. After a few seconds of waiting, Jose speaks up.
"Alright time for me to pay for dinner." I simply nodded as I stared at him, he wasn't really angry, I kinda expected him to be annoyed, but he isn't.
"Y-yeah." I said. I follow him deeper into the town, and we stop at a small diner northwest of the gate of town. As we entered it was the standard set up, a counter at the front entrance, a bar like set up 30 or so feet away from us and 10 tables that are meant for 4 people.
"Welcome to Gathens Diner, how can we help you?" Is what the waitress NPC says.
"Table for two please." Jose answered, the NPC nodded and guided us to a seat, which was in the middle of dinner. After sitting us down, I ordered my food and so did Jose.
"And now we wait." Jose says as he rests his head on his hand.
"……."
"……."
Jose's POV
The air around us felt rather……stiff, just like it was in the blacksmith shop. In all honesty I didn't mind, considering we had to help Kibaou and it took us a while to get all 10 hoofs, while it seemed like the orange haired man wasn't too bad.
I felt my eyes grow heavy, I felt an odd warmth. Before my head would fall onto the table, Koharu snapped her fingers in front of me.
"Huh?" Koharu shakes her head in amusement.
"Tired?" She asked, I nodded slowly, while yes, you can theoretically force yourself to stay awake, but that would bring in a few issues, the main one being that debuffs will appear and thus hinder your performance in a fight and in turn have the possibility of killing you.
"When we're done eating, I'm going to sleep." I say, my tiredness being all to clear, Koharu nods.
"Okay." I stared at the table and the old wooden texture, it looked all too real, this is all just 1's and 0's, code that has set limits…..right?
"Here you go, travelers." The NPC waitress says we both accepted, as Koharu ate her food in a fairly quick manner, I slowly ate and pondered on how everything is in the real world.
How was everyone? What happened while we were gone? Will we adjust to our new life here? and if we return, how many things will be different?
I look back at the bowl of stew with steak on the side, this is all fake…..right? But even then the taste is real.
"This is soooo good!" Koharu exclaims. I chuckle a bit.
"This is just D class food item Koharu." I responded. to that Koharu opens her mouth in complete and utter shock.
"What?!" She yells, as she quickly covers her mouth and looks around, she sighs in relief with the fact that there were no other players. I chuckled as Koharu blushed out of embarrassment.
"No one's around." I smugly respond, Koharu shoots a glare at me.
"Shut up!" She says and I muffled my laughter, but I kept it in.
"Regardless, let's just eat and find an inn to sleep in." I said, after the banter was done, I immediately went back to eating.
After that was done, we both left the restaurant and headed towards a nearby Inn. We were able to rent a room for a few nights. Luckily, there were 2 beds. We both changed out of our current armor and into more comfortable clothing. For me, it was just my normal dark green shirt (without my steel breastplate) and switching out my black pants with dark gray baggy pants. Koharu's pajamas (I guess) was a sleeveless version of her dark magenta shirt and black poofy shorts.
As I lay down on my bed, I looked at my hand once more, this is all fake….right? This a fake world and yet.
"It feels real." I silently muttered, I turned my head to see if I accidentally woke up Koharu, luckily I didn't. I let out a bitter chuckle.
"I'm thinking about this long after the game started?" I say, maybe it was due to what transpired during the boss, or how Koharu said I hallucinated or even what occurred over a month ago.
The next day, December 5th, 2022, 5:30 AM
I slowly cracked my eyes open, with the sun shining in our room, I looked at my clock at the bottom left of my vision and when I saw December 5th I groaned a bit.
"12 more days." I muttered, after I said that I heard Koharu groan tiredly.
"Huh?" Is all Koharu says as she slowly gets off her bed, I just shake my head.
"It was nothing Koharu, just muttering to myself." I responded "let's get going kay?" Koharu nods tiredly as I look away.
12 more days until that day.
After we got dressed into our normal gear, we went out of the safe zone.
(20 minutes later)
"Switch!" Koharu yelled, she leapt back as I ran towards the Trembling Cow and my Anneal Blade glowed a pale blue as I swung vertically at the horned beast. It roared and bursted into polygons.
"Rooooor!" Another cow was coming towards my direction, I rest my blade on my shoulder, I knelt down as I heard the sword skill activate. A small smile emerged in my face, my body launched forward as I slash in a downward motion, the cow had a small yellow effect above its head.
"Koharu! Switch!" I yelled.
"Got it." She responded, I leapt back as I see the black blade of Koharu's dagger glow pink as she slashed at it in X shape, the horned monster bursted into polygons. Koharu turned to face me and smiled, she smiled back at me and we just stand there…..gazing into our eyes, it felt awkward, my face was probably very red and Koharu's was red as well, and yet it felt soothing, like gentle waves at the beach.
"Ahhhhhhhhhh!" A scream rings through my ears as I shoot my head to where it originated from, I almost instantly began to run to where the scream was, Koharu following suite.
Alright 4th chapter is out, and fairly short in all honesty, and that's due to me thinking that ending it here, in all honesty this chapter could've been much much longer and have everything to transpire all the way to the floor two boss, but I realized that would be a little too long for this chapter, hope you all understand.
Anyway, interesting things have been set up, that's all I will say.
Reply time!
tl34lt12: thanks, I'm trying my best to show both Jose and Koharu's developing friendship and general awkwardness, but also their fondness towards each, hope this chapter shows that and not being too romantic, then again I have something planned for that in and around Christ- opps spoke too much. Anyway, funnily enough I found that Koharu fan page by pure coincidence, and I guess that's somewhat comforting that other Integral Factor fic's take a while to upload, and I have full intentions to continue this to the end, I already dug a hole when I started this fic, might as well dig through the core. (unless something major happens that stops my uploads all together, then I'll definitely make an update to all ongoing fics.)
Welp that's it I guess, have any of you guys played Astral Chain and watched Mobile Suit Gundam Iron-Blooded Orphans? They're kinda cool not gonna lie.
I should get on to working on the next chapter of Soldier's Diary.