-Tokyo-
Good evening. This afternoon, the Tokyo police chief announced that one of his officers had been colluding with the man behind the mysterious kidnapping that took place weeks ago in which thousands of people vanished without a trace. The officer involved was charged with conspiracy, kidnapping, and collusion. Authorities are begging the public for more information. In a written statement, the police chief said, "Nobody can make that many people vanish all by themselves. There had to have been accomplices. We suspect that those who were involved with the kidnappings may have not even been aware of what they were doing. If the bodies of the victims were transported in some type of container, then whoever did kidnap them could have just hired a moving company to do all the heavy lifting for him. So please, if you or anyone you know have any information on this case, or have worked for any shady individuals recently, please contact us."
So far, no leads have arose.
Suguha sighed, her head resting on her palm as she sat at a table in the subway terminal. "Stupid..." She murmured.
"Huh?" Akira asked, pulling out of his earbuds.
The girl shook her head and motioned at the TV where the news was playing. "The chief of police in Tokyo thinks that whoever was behind the kidnappings used a moving company to help move the victims."
Akira chuckled slightly and shrugged. "Wouldn't be the craziest thing about this whole situation."
"What? You really think that's possible?"
"Well... Yeah. David Herara has proven himself to be pretty smart. Why couldn't he either bribe or convince someone to do his dirty work?"
Suguha slumped back in her chair and crossed her arms. "The news also said that there was an officer colluding with Herara the whole time. Bastard..."
"Did they give a name?"
"No."
"Damn... Witness protection, I guess... Or corruption." Akira pursed his lips and began typing away at his keyboard.
The teen girl checked her phone to see what time it was. "Seven minutes..." She exhaled deeply in boredom. "What're you typing over there?"
"Well, since the police are being very limited about the information they release to the public, I figured I'd do some digging and find out what they're keeping in the dark."
Suguha perked up, albeit a very worried look on her face. "You aren't hacking into the police database are you?"
"W-What? No. I don't even think I could even if I wanted to. I'm trying to find out where phones store their IP address. If we can go through Kazuto's phone data, we can pinpoint the last place his phone pinged off a cell tower, which is likely where we was kidnapped."
"Really?!" Suguha slid her chair over close to Akira's, watching the screen intently. "You're able to do that?"
"Yeah I should be. I just need to be able to access Kazuto's phone's data."
"Oh..." Suguha's shoulders slumped. "We can't do that, can we? We can't access his data without his phone."
Akira squinted as he stared at the screen, his head tilting. "No... There's a way... Who's your service provider?"
"NTT."
The boy nodded and quickly went to the providers website. "You know the username and password to your account right?" He slide the laptop over to Suguha so she could easily type in the accounts credentials.
Without giving any affirmation, Suguha began filling out her username and password. "I still don't see how any of this helps us..." She firmly pressed the 'enter' button and returned the laptop to its position in front of her friend.
"You ever heard of the cloud?"
"Like... Regular clouds?"
"No." Akira chuckled smugly. "The cloud, my sweet Suguha, is a term used for a giant internet storage system in which you can upload data from devices. Basically, you don't need any physical copies of data so long as its in the digital cloud."
The young girl blinked, confused as to what her friend was even saying. "So... Why is it called the 'Cloud'?"
"I dunno." Akira shrugged. "Just a cool name for it, I guess." He navigated his way through the phone providers website until he came upon the 'Linked devices' tab in the account settings. "Bingo." Once he clicked it, four separate devices appeared on the screen, each identified by a phone number. Suguha recognized them as hers, her grandmothers, her grandmothers, and Kazuto's.
"That one!" Suguha nearly yelled, causing everyone in the train subway to glare at her curiously. The girl chuckled and gave an embarrassed smile as if to say 'sorry'. Once she felt no more prying eyes, she leaned in close to Akira. "That one." She whispered, pointing at the fourth phone on the list. "That's Kazuto's."
Akira nodded and selected the phone. The link led the to a screen filled with numbers and words that Suguha couldn't even begin to comprehend. "Uh..." Was all she could muster.
"Don't worry. I can use a word finder." The boy pressed the buttons 'Control' and 'F'. A small window appeared on the right side of his screen, in it, he typed the words 'IP Address'. The screen automatically scrolled down and highlighted the desired words. Directly next to them was a long number with multiple decimals separating every third digit.
Akira let out a cocky groan as he stretched his arms behind him. "Ha! What'd I tell you." He motioned towards to screen and gave Suguha a triumphant smile.
Suguha squinted and shrugged. "I still don't know what this does..."
Before the boy sporting a dorky grin could respond, a voice announced over the intercom, "The train to Tokyo is will be departing in twenty minutes. All passengers are asked to board with any carry-ons they have. Suguha sighed and quickly rose to her feet, eager to get this train ride over with. Even if Akira were to explain his plan, she would most likely not understand it. Best to leave things like that to the experts, right?
-Floor Three-
-Three Days Later-
Agil brought down his axe with force strong enough to blow open a metal door. Once it impaled with the large reptile creatures skull, it fell limp, collapsing to the ground. The battle ended and experience points were divvied out to each player responsible for bringing down the beast.
"Hm..." Sinon hummed curiously. "This floor doesn't seem any different from the other two in terms of difficulty. No matter how big the bosses we face are, we never seem to have any trouble with them. Even with Asuna stuck at home due to that stomach bug, this is all too easy."
Silica nervously removed one of her arrow from the reptiles skull and nodded. "Yeah, I agree." The arrow refused to budge from its position beneath the creatures skin, so she gave it a firm pull. It finally gave, however Silica overestimated how much strength she would need, causing her to fall straight back onto the mossy cobblestone below. The party of friends were in some kind of boss arena in the middle of the jungle on the west side of floor three. The boss in question was the reptile that they had just slain, though the rewards for killing it were not all that great. They had only taken this quest because it was easy - Asuna was currently sick, meaning that the aprty was not at full strength. Kirito wanted to stay at the house to tend to her, however she absolutely insisted that he tagged along with his friends so he could protect them.
Love pointed and laughed at the young girl as she groveled in humiliation from her fall. "Nice one Silica."
The girl flicked a bit of the reptiles blood from her arrow tip directly onto Love's face. The madman froze, the smile from his face returning to its usual, angry looking frown.
"You know what?" He whispered. "I deserve that one..." He wiped the blood from his face and groaned in disgust.
"You sure do." Kirito said from behind Love, patting his back as he did so. "Nice work everyone! At this rate we'll be out of this stupid jungle and onto floor four in no time!"
"FLOOR FOUR!" Klein suddenly sung so loud that every covered their ears. "There's no better place in all of Aincrad!"
Lisbeth, carefully removing her hands from her ears, said, "What's so great about floor four?"
The red haired man placed a hand on his heart as if he was offended. "You dare speak ill of the greatest floor this game has to offer?"
Lisbeth shook her head quickly. "W-What? No I-"
"Name me one better floor in Aincrad, I dare you!"
Everyone besides the two arguers fell silent, watching this joust of ideas as it unfolded.
Lisbeth nodded to herself and stood toe to toe with Klein. "Floor Fifty."
"What does floor fifty have the four doesn't?"
"There are approximately twelve mini bosses, four different dungeons, eight towns all with their own storyline, and thirty six items unique to that floor. Floor four has less in every one of those categories." Lisbeth said with a smirk.
Everyone just glared at the pink haired girl curiously. "Jeez Lisbeth," Sinon rubbed her shoulder uncomfortably. "Do you somehow have access to the games Wikipedia or something? How do you just know all that off the top of your head?"
"Yeah. I had no idea there was that many dungeons." Silica nodded in agreement.
Lisbeth's eyes widened slightly and her jaw dropped. "O-Oh! I just spend a lot of time there, that's all." she smiled innocently.
"Clearly." Klein shrugged and went back to analyzing the gear he obtained from the fight, as did everyone else. Kirito, on the other hand, continued to stare at Lisbeth as she held her smile until her friends looked away from her and towards their user interface. Once she was sure there were no more eyes on her, her smile almost instantly changed into a scornful, hate filled frown.
Kirito watched intently as she stood there, staring at seemingly nothing while her friends talked and joked while sorting the loot they obtained from the fight. "So, Lisbeth." The swordsman approached her and said. "It's a shame Asuna couldn't join us today, isn't it?" He wasn't exactly sure where he was going with this, but he wanted her to talk. Something about her was certainly off, and Kirito had a suspicion it had something to do with what happened last night when her and Asuna went out. They wouldn't tell him what happened, all they said was that they went shopping for cloths and food, but based on the fact that Lisbeth was acting suspicious and Asuna was bedridden with a cold made that story hard to believe.
"Um... Yeah, why do you bring it up?" The pink haired girl scratched her arm nervously. Kirito was onto her. There was something off about her today, as if she was a shell of her usual, bubbly yet stern self. Up until this point, she hadn't spoken much, which was a far cry from her usual bubbly, yet also sassy and short tempered personality. Something must have happened last night when she was out with Asuna.
Kirito shrugged. "It just seems like you and her have been distant with each other as of late, doesn't it? The only time I've really ever seen you two together was last night. You two were always so close during the original SAO. Don't you remember?"
The teen girl took a step back from the swordsman's advance. "Y-Yeah. We've just been really busy, you know?"
"Hmm... I remember you used to always tell us that hilarious story about that time on floor eighteen. Remember? About that time with the cherry pie and the statue of a lizard?"
"U-Uh. Yeah! Of course!" As the pink haired girl took another step back, she made a fatal blunder that would confirm in Kirito's mind that she was an enemy. Her eyes shifted from their usual dark red, to a fluorescent green.
Lisbeth, or whatever this thing was, seemed to notice what she had done and gasped, holding a hand to her mouth. Luckily for her, the only person who was paying attention was Kirito.
The swordsman stared ominously at whatever or whoever was standing before him, violence on his mind. From his experience, green fluorescent eyes meant that someone was an AI similar to that of Klein's and Love's that the group had encountered on floors one and two respectively. In other words, this thing was not Lisbeth. It was an AI made to look like her, and so far, the AI's in question have brought nothing but destruction to he and his friends. This was bad news.
Kirito smirked at the now obvious body double and turned to his friends. He knew they wouldn't believe him if he just outright accused her, after all, her stats seemed normal and her name was not a jumbled up line of code like Klein's and Love's double were. He needed to place the seeds of doubt in everyone's mind before they caught on to what was happening.
"Hey everyone!" The swordsman said emphatically.
The group of friends stopped sorting and glanced up at the swordsman. He continued, "Remember that hilarious story that Lisbeth told us about what happened on floor eighteen?"
Silica, Agil, and even Sinon chuckled in remembrance. "Yeah!" Sinon smiled. "The one about the cherry pie?"
"Yeah!" Kirito fake-laughed along with his friends. "Why don't you tell us that story again, Lisbeth!" He inquired, putting the pink haired girl on the spot.
Lisbeth bit her lower lip nervously and tried her best to avoid Kirito's gaze. "R-Really? Let's wait until we get home? This place is dangerous, after all."
"Come on, Lisbeth." Silica agreed. "We're out here in the middle of the jungle and it's super hot! At least tell us that story to brighten the mood."
"I agree." Sinon nodded. "The first time I heard that story I nearly spit out the glass of water I was drinking."
Love scooched forward and smiled, "Tell it, I've never heard this one."
Lisbeth, feeling pressure from the group, took a step back, her face going red. "I-I..."
"What's wrong Lisbeth?" Kirito said passive-aggressively. "There's no need to be nervous. We just wanna hear the story."
"I-I-I... I just don't want to, okay?!" The girl yelled at the top of her lungs. Everyone else just froze, stunned at the sudden attitude shift from their friend.
"Jeez." Sinon mumbled. "Sorry, Lis."
"Y-Yeah. Don't get all bent out of shape." Love scoffed and returned his attention to his inventory, as did everyone else. Kirito had accomplished his goal of planting the seeds of doubt in everyone's mind. This thing was not Lisbeth. It lacked her charisma, her mannerisms, and most importantly, her memories. This could be exploited. Nevertheless, this was not the place to go picking a fight with one of these AI's. They were super strong, after all.
Once the group finished up sorting their loot, they all began the long and arduous trek back home. Kirito made sure to stay behind the group to ensure he could keep a watchful eye on Lisbeth, keeping tabs on her eyes move. She was mostly silent throughout the entirety of the trip, only speaking when spoken to, which was not often. Most of the journey was spent listening to Love and Sinon argue over who the best Avenger was. Neither made a compelling argument.
Kirito was relieved to be back within the city limits. Lisbeth wouldn't dare try anything in the city - or at least that's what the swordsman was hoping.
Once Love opened the door to the groups large tree house, they were all hit with a blast of warm air - a stark contrast to the chilly breeze outside. The friends all immediately took off their adventuring gear and changed into something more comfortable. Kirito didn't change just yet, though. Not only was he too distracted by Lisbeth, but he also had another suspicion he had to check up on. Asuna. She was out with Lisbeth the night before. Surely she saw or knew something that he didn't.
The door to the master bedroom creaked open at the touch of Kirito's hand, revealing a dark, cold looking room. The light on the bedside table was off, so none of the furniture was illuminated besides the bed, which was being lit up by the light coming from the hallway. "Hey. Asuna!" Kirito whispered.
The bump beneath the blanket stirred uncomfortably. "Hm?" A girls voice said groggily.
Kirito smiled to himself and approached her, sitting down on the bed and turning on the candle on the table. "Hey. I know you're not feeling well, but Agil is cooking so you should try to eat something." The boy said as he brushed a few strands of hair behind his girlfriends ear.
Asuna's eyes fluttered open quickly.
...
...
...
Green. They were green. Not just any green - bright, glowing green.
The swordsman's eyes widened, his mouth ajar. Not her, too.
Once Asuna, or whatever this thing was, took a glance around to analyze and comprehend the situation, she let out a small gasp, causing her pupils to return to normal. "K-Kirito?"
The boy didn't say anything, nor did he move. This wasn't Asuna. It was one of those body doubles, just like the ones of Love and Klein. "I...I..."
His girlfriend shimmied back to the other side of the bed, holding the blanket close to her body. "What did you see?" She asked bluntly.
Kirito, totally dumbfounded, slowly shook his head and leaned forward. "A-Asuna?" he asked softly.
"Yes?"
"...When did we first meet?" the swordsman asked. He was trying to test her. He was convinced that he was correct already, but he needed to be absolutely sure before he did anything about it, or perhaps he just didn't want to believe this revelation himself.
Asuna froze, her eyes darting around to find something, anything to change the topic. "I, uhm... I-"
"Guys! Klein set the vegetables on fire! Can we please get Asuna down here to help cook dinner?!" Silica's voice called from downstairs.
Asuna let out a sigh of relief and quickly rose to her feet, scurrying out of the bedroom. "We shouldn't keep them waiting." Before she could reach the door. however, she felt a firm grasp on her wrist. She was spun around quickly and thrown against a wall by her boyfriend. "Ow!" She whined, rubbing the back of her head with her free hand.
"Answer me!" Kirito nearly screamed. "When did you and I first meet?! Tell me, right now!"
The teen girl's face was full of fear and her hands began to shake. "K-Kirito. You're scaring me..."
The confusion in the boys heart was tremendous. On one side, he was highly suspicious that this thing was not Asuna, nor was Lisbeth. However the fear in her eyes was enough to make Kirito want to hug her, and tell her that everything was going to be okay, and that he was sorry. After all, whatever this thing was look identical to Asuna.
Despite this, the swordsman was absolutely convinced that this was a body double, just like the ones he had seen of Love and Klein a few floors ago. It all added up. Before the two girls went out the night prior, they were totally fine, once they came back, they were shells of their formal selves. Something happened last night, and Kirito was going to get to the bottom of it.
"You can't answer my question, can you?" The boy growled.
Asuna shook violently in fear and nodded. "I-I can... It's just-"
"Just what?!"
"It's been a long time! Okay?!" The young girl screamed.
"The real Asuna wouldn't have forgotten! I know what you are! You're not Asuna at all! You're an AI"
Suddenly, the swordsman felt a strong blunt force deliver into his side, knocking him to the ground. Agil wrestled Kirito on the floor, pinning his arms down with one hand and using the other to grab the boys black hair. "What the hell are you doing, you freak?! That's your girl! And you batter her around like a punching bag?!"
As Kirito was subjected to the verbal abuse being hurled his way by Agil, he saw Silica, Sinon, and Love all comforting Asuna as she stood there, seemingly traumatized by what her boyfriend had just done. "No!" The swordsman yelled. "It's not her! That thing isn't Asuna!"
Agil slapped the boy across the cheek, leaving a red implant on his skin. "Snap out of it, man! You're going crazy!"
The swordsman did all he could to try to shimmy his way out of the strong mans grip, but to no avail. "You've got to believe me! Let me show you!"
"Hell no!" Love interjected. "You were in here damn-near abusing Asuna and you expect us to listen to one word of what you have to say?!"
Among the chaos, Kirito noticed a pair of eyes glaring at him as the bearer was given a comforting hug from Sinon. Asuna. No one could see her face since everyone's attention was diverted on the Swordsman. Sure enough, though, her pupils were green, and a sly smirk was plastered across her lips.
"L-Look!" Kirito screamed desperately and scratched at Agil's face with his nails.
"That's enough!" Agil delivered a firm headbutt to his friends forehead, sending him into a daze.
There was a sensation similar to that of a flashbang pinging throughout Kirito's head. The sounds and sights around him began to blur as he helplessly watched his friends tie his hands behind his back and place him in one of the closets in the upstairs hallway. Before the blackness overtook his vision, he faintly saw and heard Klein as the closet door closed.
"Sorry man. You're losing it right now. We'll check on you in an hour when you've calmed down."
-Tokyo-
It was unlike anything Suguha had ever seen. Sure, she was used to big cities and towering skylines, but this was... different. The young girl assumed it to be the lights. Her home town had tall buildings, however none of them were as vibrantly lit up like the ones in front of her now.
It was just after sunset, and Tokyo's night life was just beginning. Groups of young teens and adults alike flooded the streets, searching for something to keep them occupied until they turned in. There was the occasional drunk and loud mouthed brat, but overall the vibe was pleasant and enjoyable for everyone. Everyone besides Akira.
The boy lagged far behind Suguha as she marched absent mindedly towards where she decided to book a hotel room for the night. "H-Hey! Suguha, wait up!"
Suguha reared her head back and groaned in annoyance. "Again, Akira? You're gonna have to deal with more intense situations if we're gonna find Kazuto."
Akira finally caught up to his friend and struggled to catch his breath. "I know... It's just... Large crowds get to me."
"Well, we're just a few hundred feet away, so stay close."
The two friends eventually made their way out of the thick crowd and into a less dense area of the main street. Their hotel sat between a restaurant and a mobile phone store. This area was certainly quieter than the one they were previously in, however still quite noisy nonetheless.
"We have a reservation." Suguha said as soon as she approached the front desk.
"Name?" The older looking woman said politely.
"Suguha Kirigaya."
"Three seventeen. It's on the third floor in the back of the building."
The young girl quickly snagged the key from the lady and made her way to the elevator. She hated being rude, however she was anxious to get the ball moving on her investigation. So anxious, in fact, that she didn't even take the elevator, instead opting to lightly jog up the steps to the third floor.
Once she took the last step to the correct floor, the elevator beeped and the doors slowly opened, revealing Akira with an exhausted look on his face. "Please slow down." He said bluntly.
Suguha, ignoring his words, brushed passed him and marched down the dimly lit hallway, scanning each door for room three seventeen. She eventually found it tucked away in the back corner of the building.
The key card slid in easily and a faint beep noise emitted from the digital lock. Once the door pushed open, Suguha finally understood why this room was so cheap. There were two separate areas. One for sleeping, and one for the television. A thin wall and sliding door split the two. The dining area was small and only lit up by a dusty chandelier that looked extremely out of date and even had a few missing light bulbs.
"Yikes." Akira laid his bag down next to the front door. "How much was this room?"
"Five thousand yen a night."
The boy drug his finger along one of the walls, spewing dust off the surface as he did so. "We probably could've found better."
Suguha sighed and nodded. "You're right, but..." She flopped onto the couch. "This'll have to do for now." As she laid there, she realized something. It was quiet. Almost too quiet. Since the hotel room was situated in the back of the building, it was not near the main street, meaning it was nice and silent.
Akira sat down on the couch next to his friend and reached into his laptop bag. "I bet you're feeling pretty jetlagged, huh?"
"Yeah." She rolled over onto her back and crossed her arms, staring at the ceiling. "I don't really travel much, especially not to different time zones. Do you?"
"Occasionally. My parents like to travel abroad and visit different countries."
Suguha smiled. "What's the weirdest place you've ever been?"
"Heh..." Akira rubbed his lip and gazed vacantly at the wall in front of him. "There was this one time we went to a real lonely town out in the middle of nowhere somewhere in the England."
"For real?"
"Yeah. Most of the people looked at us funny, but... they were pretty nice and welcoming, I guess."
"You guess?" Suguha chuckled.
"Yeah. I mean, I don't blame them for looking at us funny. Apparently there are a lot of towns like that all over the world. The people that live there don't really see many outsiders."
Suguha returned her gaze top the ceiling and squinted. "Such a strange way to live, don't you think?"
"I dunno. Sometimes it seems like the only way people can find peace is through blissful ignorance, you know. Like if we didn't know what could hurt us, we'd be so much more brave and happy. Maybe I like the idea of a small town because they aren't as effected as the rest of the world is."
"Hm." Suguha hummed back. She thought long and hard about what he said. Was being ignorant really the only way someone could be happy? She was never one to be all doom and gloom, however the more she's exposed to the world, the less likely she finds it that true happiness can be obtained through traditional means. Despite this, however, Akira seemed content with his life. Nothing ever really seemed to bother him. Maybe he knew something that Suguha didn't?
The young girl sighed once again and tilted her head so she could see her friends face. "Akira." She said softly.
"What's up?"
"Are you happy?" She asked vaguely.
"Huh?" He asked with a confused smirk.
"You know, like... are you happy with your life and everything?"
The boy shrugged. "I guess so. I mean, sure, there are some things that I wish I could change, but at the end of the day, I understand that sometimes things are out of my control."
"Well what do you do if you really want something but know that you can never get it? How can people be happy if some of their goals are unobtainable?"
Akira glanced into Suguha's cold, worried eyes. "Why are you asking me this?"
The girl shrugged and shook her head, cursing herself internally for sounding so weird all of a sudden. "Uhm... Never mind, just... forget I asked." She was about to stand up and hurry into the next room to escape the awkward situation that she had created, but was stopped when Akira spoke up.
"I think... I think the best way to cope with unobtainable goals is to realize that they are the best way to motivate yourself to do things that you usually wouldn't do."
"Doing things you wouldn't usually do isn't always a good thing, you know?" Suguha replied pessimistically.
Akira smiled. "Yeah, I know. But it's better step outside your comfort zone so you can grow as a person. Sure, the lessons you learn may not be applicable at that moment. But eventually down the line... they might be."
Suguha let out a breathy laugh and shook her head. "Seems like life is just a giant question mark that you don't find the answer to until you get old enough to not enjoy it."
Akira smirked, "There are plenty of old people that enjoy their life."
"That's not really what I meant. I meant it like - Nobody has ever figured out what life is meant to be until it's too late."
"Ooh. Very nihilistic of you." Akira taunted jokingly.
Suguha, still lying down, nudged his shoulder with her foot. "Shush."
The young girl rubbed her eyes and rolled over to her side. Her exhaustion was creeping up on her quickly.
Akira noticed his friends struggle to stay awake and said with a chuckle, "Go to bed. I'm gonna stay up a bit later and do a bit more research on this 'Sapper Co.'."
Suguha agreed with no objections and begrudgingly waddled over to the bedroom door. Once she opened it, she realized there was only one queen sized bed inside. Akira was her friend - a good one at that, but sharing a bed with him would be... overextending. "Um." She hummed worriedly.
Akira glanced up, "What's wrong?"
"There's only one bed."
The slightly chubby boy took a long, exaggerated inhale through his nose before gently sighing. "Of course... Just take it."
"You sure?" Suguha asked innocently, trying to hide her relief that she didn't have to sleep on the couch or the floor.
"Yeah, it's whatever. I'll sleep out here in the living room."
Suguha smiled. "I owe you one. I'll pay for breakfast tomorrow." She thought that saying that would get Akira's spirit up, but to no avail. To be fair, Suguha did heap a lot of expectations on a boy who she had never really paid any mind to up until her brother disappeared. Perhaps she had been unfair to him up until this point. He used to get all giddy just by being in the same presence as her, however now he didn't seem to budge. Suguha worried it was because he felt used by her.
The young girl wanted to say something - anything that would take his mind off working so hard for her. She felt guilty, after all. Plus, he deserves it. "You know..." She said nervously, rubbing the back of her neck. "Being out here in Tokyo with you..."
Akira looked up and met her gaze, a fairly un-phased expression on his face.
"I'm enjoying it... I'm glad you came." She quickly exited the living room and closed the door behind her before she could see Akira's expression go from slightly bored, to full-on beet red.
He's a good guy. Suguha meant what she said.
-Floor Three-
The door to the closet slowly creaked open, and a set of prying eyes peeked in. "Hey buddy." Love's voice said innocently.
Kirito, still hellbent over what happened earlier, turned his head and scowled. Seeing no immediate threat, Love pushed the door fully open and sat down in the wake of the light behind him, darkening his face as he glared at Kirito.
"How you feelin'?" The madman asked.
"Love." The swordsman mumbled. "Nobody believes me, but that thing is not Asuna. It's one of those body doubles, like yours and Klein's. She's an AI, I swear!"
"...Mkay..." Love ignored what his friend had said and gently slid over a plate of food. "Hungry?"
"No! Why don't you believe me? Is it really so hard to comprehend?"
Love shook his head and sighed. "Ok look." He began talking with exaggerated hand movements to convey his point. "We walked in on you pinning Asuna against a wall and threatening her. Who do you expect us to side with? If she really was one of the body doubles then she wouldn't have let you attack her at all. Remember how powerful Klein's double was? Remember mine? They were crazy strong! We couldn't touch them! How do you expect us to believe that the Asuna in this house isn't the real one?"
"I saw her eyes!" Kirito suddenly lashed forward, nearly butting heads with a surprised Love. "They were green! It was only for a few seconds, but I saw them!"
"Kirito, we literally inspected her stats and inventory just to be sure. Her level isn't out of the ordinary, her stats are where they should be, and her gear is just average."
The swordsman and scoffed. Love's logic was portrayed in such a convincing way that Kirito was beginning to doubt his own judgement... But no, he had to be right! He knew he was correct. "You're one of them, too, aren't you?! We all know that you have a body double! I bet you aren't even the real Love!"
Love, shocked at his friends sudden accusations, just shook his head in disappointment and rose to his feet, gently closing the door behind him as he exited the closet.
"Let me out of here you bastards! Let me out!"
"Not until you've calmed down a bit, man." Love's muffled voice said from behind the door.
Kirito noticed the strip of light shining beneath the door suddenly extinguish, leaving him in the pitch black.
Out in the dining room, Love sat next to Silica and Klein as they both read books that they had found in some old dungeons a few days ago. "He's still going crazy, huh?" Klein said without taking his eyes off of his books.
"Yeah, for now. I'm sure he'll calm down." Love grumbled.
Silica shifted in her seat and said, "I mean... I don't believe what he's saying, but... what if he really is telling the truth?"
Just then, a haunting whistling noise echoed through the living room and dining room.
"Ew." Silica gritted her teeth in fear. "Someone close that window, that noise is creepy."
Love chuckled and casually slide the window shut, "Silica, it's a ghhhhooosssttt." The teenage boy smiled and waved his arms around wildly.
Silica just sat there glaring at him with unimpressed eyes. "Alright, I'm going to bed." She quickly got up and made her way up the stairs all while Love was still trying his best to impersonate a spirit. His annoying screeches were finally silenced once she closed the door to the girls room. Unfortunately, the home in which she and her friends had bought was not large enough for everyone to have their own room, so her, Sinon, and Lisbeth shared. None of the minded, though. They were good friends, after all. The room was currently empty with Lisbeth and Sinon both elsewhere.
As the young girl plopped down onto her bed and ran her fingers through her frizzled hair, she exhaled deeply and tried to piece together everything that had happened over the past few days. Self reflection was important, and there was no better time to do it than late at night when most people were asleep. In her solace, Silica hardly recognized Lisbeth step inside the room and approach her bed.
"Hey." The pink haired girl yawned. "How are you? I feel like it's been ages since we've talked."
Silica smirked, eyes still closed. "Heh... Been a little busy."
Lisbeth nudged Silica's legs over a bit so she could sit on the mattress next to her. "You remember that time when you and I soloed that mini boss on floor fourteen?"
"Apex, The Devourer?" Silica said whimsically, mocking the corny name given to the boss by the developers of the original SAO.
"Yeah. It was a tough fight, but after we won, you told me, 'Everything happens for a reason.', right?"
"I think I remember saying something like that, yeah."
Lisbeth shrugged and tilted her head. "You're a good girl, Silica."
"Um... Thanks, Lis. But why do you say that so suddenly?"
"Lisbeth talks a lot about you. We've only had her captive for less than a day but already I've heard your name nearly a dozen times."
Silica squinted, unsure as to what exactly her friend was saying, not to mention the fact that she was supremely tired so not everything her friend had said registered in her mind. "You're referring to yourself in the third person, you know? When did you start doing that?"
"Hmph." Lisbeth widened her eyes, exposing two fluorescent green irises. "I'm not, actually."
Silica gasped and immediately opened her inventory to equip her bow and arrow so she could hopefully fend off the impending danger. She recognized those eyes as the same ones that Love's body double both had. "Kirito was right!" She screamed as she knocked her first arrow and pulled back the string of her bow.
Before she could release, however, a pair of arms wrapped around her from behind, locking her arms in place. "Sorry, little girl." Asuna's voice chuckled. "Now go to sleep."
The young archer suddenly felt an overwhelming exhaustion flow over her as if Asuna's presence was making her mind go blank. "S-Stop it... I'll..."
After a few moments, her body went limp, rendering her unconscious. "Hmph." Lisbeth's double shook her head. "Now what? Should we take another? We already have the light brown haired one, the pink haired girl with the attitude, and now this one." She motioned at Silica's limp body. "We could get more right now if we wanted to."
"No." Asuna's double declared. "The only players that are allowed to know about our existence are Kazuto Kirigaya and his close friends. If we try to take more, then we could get caught somewhere where we'd have to fight our way out."
"So?"
"So other players would inevitably hear a fight of that magnitude and become aware of us. We can't let that happen."
Lisbeth's double scoffed. "I still don't understand that stupid rule. The player base is going to find out eventually, right?"
"Not if we do our job right, Four." Asuna's double lifted the window open and motioned for Lisbeth's - whose name was apparently Four, to follow. "Besides, you know what the programmers said; If the player base finds out that there are extremely powerful AI's roaming the game world that can kill any number of players whenever they so choose, no progress would be made on the game. The programmers made it clear that the players need to advance through the game as much as possible during the time that they are trapped here. If they don't, then this entire experiment will be a total bust."
"I know, I know." Four shrugged disappointedly. "I just wish I had an opportunity to test out how strong I really am."
Asuna's double giggled menacingly. "Well, if everything goes to plan, then Kirito and what remains of his friends will come looking for us, and if he does, I promise that you can be the one to battle them."
Four's face lit up like a little kids on Christmas. "Really?! But... What if he doesn't come?"
"Then he can live. We have the upper hand. There's no need to force anything right now. If he chooses not to come after his friends, then we'll let him go on his merry way."
"No fair!" Four groaned and pouted.
Asuna's double chuckled and patted her fellow AI's head. "Come. We have plenty of their friends now. Their group will be in shambles. We can let the programmers know that they won't have to worry about Kazuto Kirigaya anymore."
"You sure about that? Kidnapping his friends is just going to piss him off even more." Four stated unsurely.
"And so what if he does? He doesn't have the numbers to fight us anymore. Without some of his closest friends and girlfriend, he'll be stuck in an emotional spiral. He'll be just another average player feeling sorry for himself."
"Ha! Fair enough." Four cackled. "You're evil, you know that?"
"I was programmed this way. It's not as if I had a choice." Asuna's double nudged the pink haired girl on the shoulder. "Now come along, we have a clone to make out of our newly acquired prisoner.