Greetings, Naintarlow here with the third prompt for KArgo week this time, the theme is secrets.
I gotta be honest, I am mostly using KArgo at this point to just write out my AU ideas to see how they would be received and it wouldn't be me if I hadn't found a way to make it even harder for me to get things done in time.
Well not much else needs to be said. Please enjoy this 'small' prompt and I would appreciate it if you could leave a review so I can know if you guys like it or not.
With this done, onto the story.
Day 3 Prompt: Secrets
"Kazuto what are you doing?" Suguha asked her brother, her eyes narrowing in suspicion.
Her brother, as much as she genuinely loved him, was without a doubt a strange boy, even judged by the standards of the boys of their age. He was a loner, a shut-in gamer who was content in staring at his monitor all day and barely speaking two words to his family. Let alone a girlfriend, he would have no friends if this went on and he didn't appear to be in any hurry to change his habits.
She longed for the days of their earlier years when they trained together in the family dojo and spent almost all the time together, before suddenly he pulled away from her, started playing games constantly, and just became a stranger to her.
She couldn't even figure out what went through his head at times, particularly at that moment.
Her dear brother was leaning on the door of the bathroom, or rather he was lying on it as he tried to become one with it, his arms thrust to the side as if preventing it from being opened. Which was strange, since it was only the two of them at home.
It was not the only strange thing about him and his appearance. His normally disheveled hair was even more messy than usual, a feat that she didn't know could be even possible. He was also sweating like crazy, and his head was so red he resembled a tomato. Maybe he got a fever?
Much to her confusion, the deer caught in headlights expression on his face turned into a clearly forced, awkward smile. He raised a hand as if to greet her, before suddenly slamming it into the door, his smile cracking as he continued to act as if someone was trying to come through that door.
"Morning Sugu." he greeted her, his voice cracking either from puberty or just sheer awkwardness.
Given the fact that she couldn't remember the last time her brother actually left his room before noon and greeted her, instead of ignoring her or just simply murmuring some kind of nonsense, she had to guess it was the latter.
It left her rather awkward herself, not knowing if it was a one-time-only thing, or her brother was really trying to reach out or at least act more cordial towards his own family. In that case, she wasn't even sure that acting like her usual self would scare him away or would it make him wary and cause him to lash out. And here she was comparing Kirito to a wild animal and for some reason, the comparison fitted him a bit too well.
It was a rather sad state of affairs, almost as much as her brother still having just a high enough voice to pass off as a girl, despite being fourteen years old.
On the plus side when he was younger he looked really cute in dresses, despite his protests, and judging from his thin frame and still overly effeminate face, he could probably still turn quite a few heads. If only he wasn't such a prude.
Lamenting the loss of seeing Kazuto in a dress, she scrutinized her brother, noting how suspicious he acted. Looking at his face a bit closer, it was clear that he barely got enough sleep, not surprising considering he tended to play until dawn sometimes.
In the end, she decided on a simple reason for all of this, a conclusion every little sister came to at least once in their lives, regarding their older brothers.
"You are a weirdo," she said, shaking her head in a slight disappointment. With the rate her brother was going, she wouldn't be surprised if he regressed into a complete hikikomori in the near future.
She turned away and grabbed her bag containing her shinai and other kendo supplies. After that, she started to go toward the front door but as a thought came to her, she turned back to her brother. To her utmost disappointment, he was still in that awkward and idiotic-looking pose, with that caricature of a smile on his face.
"I'm going to practice. Lunch is on the counter, Mom will be back just before dinner, and I will be home a little earlier. I left a checklist on the fridge, please go and buy groceries for dinner. Not like you do much anyway." she added offhandedly, not noticing the slight frown her brother was sending her.
It was one thing to not like his interest, *cough* obsession *cough* when it comes to gaming, but was it really necessary to insult it to his face? She did know there were several teenagers his age or even older who were able to sustain themselves with what his sister labeled a hobby at best. It might be another matter that he was not fortunate enough for something like that but his point still stood.
Still, he said nothing as he watched her walk away and felt the regret of his younger self's stupid choices. They might have not been siblings by blood but they were just that in all other ways. Why did his younger self have to go and be a little shit and fuck everything up? Now he was stuck with a sister that barely acknowledged his existence and he knew there was nothing to do about it.
As he finally heard the front gate close, he let out a sigh and stepped away from the bathroom door, his shoulders dropping. His relationship with his sister was just one in the large pile of troubles that he recently had to face.
"This is my life now. Regrets, annoying headaches, and something from the wet dream of a shut-in otaku, just without the good parts. Just what did I do in a previous life that this is what I deserve?" he asked from heaven's, silently pleading for someone to come and ease his suffering.
"Who knows?" he stiffened as the door opened behind him and a high, definitely female voice answered."Probably seduced a goddess unintentionally, maybe a demon lord or two. Or even got them pregnant then died and left them with the kids?"
The owner of the voice definitely laughed now as she continued and Kazuto's expression could only fall the more she talked.
"You already look like the dense kind of harem protagonists who would unknowingly charm girls left and right and not even notice them basically stalking him. After all, you are a bad little playboy aren't you, Cap-ta-in," she said, deliberately drawing out the last word, in a sensual voice that almost made him shiver, especially as he felt a hot breath at his left ear, his face instantly reddening.
He hurriedly took a step forward and coughed into his hand to try to hide his embarrassment. Then took a couple of deep breaths, trying to calm his racing heart while pointedly trying to ignore the female presence behind him.
Honestly, it felt too much for him. He was a shut-in gamer whose main interactions consisted of shouting at toxic gamers, shouting at others while being a toxic gamer, and having online debates about the most non-sense things for hours with people he never met before.
Human interactions were something quite foreign for him, save for what little he had with his family. It stands to reason he would be quite unused to it, and that's even before the female gender was pulled into the equation.
The only regular contact he had with females his age was his sister and the silent, distrustful, and judging eyes sent at him by his classmates at school. And trust him, the woman currently pestering him was neither silent nor any of the other things, nor his little sister.
Therefore it was pretty understandable that he quickly got enough of her rather friendly teasing.
"Cut it out already. And I told you to stop calling me...that..." he whirled around, righteous indignation in his eyes but he trailed off as his expression slackened and his mouth hung open.
From the direction of the now open bathroom door, a generous amount of steam came rolling out. Evidently, a large amount of hot water was used up to make such a dense mist of water, and by the large amount, he meant most of it. And to make it worse, it would undoubtedly be blamed on him, banning him from having hot baths for at least a month.
The mere thought of such an atrocious punishment brought despair to his soul. A man had very few basic needs but those should never be part of the punishment of any kind. Those needs were food to eat, water to drink, a roof to sleep below, electricity to keep his computer going, and hot baths to soak in. Taking any of those away was paramount to a war crime in his eyes.
Yet no matter, he will cry for the loss of warm water later, at the moment all thoughts of that nature went out of his head. The reason? The naked body of a female standing in front of him.
His eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as his mouth hung open and a certain natural reaction was occurring in his lower region. Unable to help himself, despite knowing that in any other situation and maybe even in this one, it would mean certain death but he couldn't stop his eyes from giving the girl in front of him a proper look.
The steam coming out of the bathroom obscured his view slightly, just to offer her a very small sense of modesty but other than that it was useless. Despite almost conveniently obscuring her privates, Kazuto knew without a doubt that she had no clothes on and didn't even try to hide herself.
The steam revealed a petite figure, slightly shorter than him. His eyes were transfixed on her form as he slowly, very slowly tried to pull his eyes up.
Sleek, toned legs captured his attention almost immediately. She was toned just right. Not overly muscly but there was a firmness to her whole body, a sort of solid feel to it, that was obvious even from a distance.
With great difficulty, he tore his eyes away from those tantalizing thighs but instantly regretted it as even more temptation lay upward. A slim waist and a flat stomach with the barest hint of a forming six-pack awaited him, just before his eyes landed on a pair of breasts.
They weren't overly big but also couldn't be called small either. The perfect word would be modest for them along with perky and firm. He imagined that they could fit in his hands just perfectly, though he had no evidence to back up this claim. A treacherous part of his brain was more than ready to find out.
As if responding to his thoughts, his hands twitched, and he forced himself to look even further up, to avoid making an even bigger fool of himself or do something that he might regret forever.
Thankfully the steam still obscured the important parts but only just slightly, so he could pretend he wasn't a virgin who saw his first pair of real tits in his life.
He finally reached her face and the almost ear-to-ear Cheshire grin she wore told him that she was aware of his wandering eyes. Her usually messy, blonde hair was still wet and clung to her face in an almost graceful way, and brown eyes were watching him with amusement. The picture was complete with the barely visible set of three drawn whiskers on each side of her face.
She stood there, with her hands on her hips, her, well everything in full display, without the slightest hint of shame. It was a picture that burned forever into his brain and probably will be the fuel of quite a few dreams of his in the near future.
"What's the matter, Captain?" she said that accursed word again, the slight accent in her voice making it sound way more sensual and intimate than it should have been. "See something you like?" she asked, leaning forward and using her arms to press her blossom together, making him pay attention to it regardless of his intentions.
It was at this very precise moment that the remaining wisps of steam finally dissipated, allowing him to get an unobscured, full view of the naked girl posing in front of him. And as expected his brain finally reached a critical state of overheating.
Not to mention all that blood that suddenly tried to teleport from his brain to his lower half with the speed of light. It was inevitable that he would lose this fight against his body.
"Captain?" the woman in front of him slowly lost her grin as she looked at him worryingly, her eyes sparkling in an interesting way.
Her demeanor no longer was of a vixen ready to pounce on him and drain him of certain bodily fluids but rather a housewife worriedly looking after him. The effect could only have been stronger if she wore a single apron over her naked body, to deal a critical blow. Still even this was too much for his brain.
Suddenly his blood surged forward and with the strength of a flood that could not be stopped by anything made by man or nature, like a geyser it erupted from his nose, his head forced up from the sudden pressure, while his ears literally emitted a pair of steams.
"Ca-captain?" the worry much more genuine in her voice, the girl reached out and caught him by the neck of his shirt, able to hold him up, showing much more strength than her frame would suggest, pulling him back with a touch more, causing his limp head to land in between her breasts.
"Naked Moe is too powerful!" he mumbled out in a half-awake daze before the sudden blood loss registered and he lost his consciousness, collapsing fully on the naked girl in front of him.
-0-
Slowly crawling back his way into consciousness, Kazuto let out a groan as the first sensation he was assaulted with was the headache that had tormented him for two days now.
After that, the first thing he noticed was that instead of lying on the cold, hard ground, he was resting on a soft mattress, probably his bed. What was of a little more importance was that his head was lying on the softest pillow he ever had the pleasure to lay his head-on. It was also warm, to the point that it immediately pulled his mind back to a half-asleep state.
Without even thinking about what he might be lying on, he sleepily turned and buried his face into that soft pillow, a wonderful sensation assaulting his senses. The firm yet also soft pillow gave way, allowing his head to rest comfortably in the middle. It was warm and inviting, making him think that it was more like he was sleeping on an actual person than an inanimate object and it smelled like fresh lavender. Just like the body wash Suguha just bought for herself.
Wait a minute.
In his mind, a sound akin to a record screeching was heard as his half-awake came to a rather unfortunate realization. His body froze, locked in place, out of a mix of nervous appreciation and fear of the retribution that awaited him if his hunch was right.
He willed his body not to move a muscle, not even a single twitch was allowed as he tried to assess the situation as calmly as possible, taking everything in.
He was lying on his bed, face first, that was a fact. The next one was the 'pillow' he was sleeping on rather than between. It was warm, firm, and soft at the same time, holding his head in a not that stronghold after he tried burying his head in. He put his hands on it, giving it a firm squeeze, and was further surprised by its texture. It felt less like a pillow, more like firm muscle, not overly bulky but definitely there.
His nose was full of the smell of fresh lavender, just like the body wash Suguha bought and a certain somebody must have used before he passed out on them. Also, the soft breaths above his head and the barely suppressed giggling painted a picture that he didn't want to face. Unfortunately, it wasn't the end of his troubles.
Because while his mind was busy over-analyzing every piece of information and somehow denying reality, his body remained in autopilot and before he noticed it, his hands slowly inched upward, until they grasped a rather handful of the 'pillow', muscle and flesh rippling under his hands as he gave them a firm grasp, eliciting a sharp breath above him and the hold over his head momentarily tightening.
The final nail in the coffin was the rather breathy voice above him.
"Isn't that too early for us, Captain? Going all the way in." the voice tried to sound shy but there was enough excitement, yearning, and lust in it that the notion was completely destroyed before it even formed."We only knew each other for a few days. I don't know If I am ready for such a large change."
Gulping, he slowly raised his head from the grip of what he now recognized as glorious and firm thighs. He pointedly ignored the uncovered womanhood glistening in front of him, though recorded the fact for himself that his apparent companion preferred to go commando.
Finally, he came up for air, so to speak and his eyesight immediately noticed the boobs above him but because he had more pressing matters at hand and they were fully clothed this time, his eyes quickly went further up and met with definitely amused eyes of the woman whose thighs he was just sandwiched between.
"I might be a bit inexperienced but please take care of me, Captain-sama," she said, sounding like a shy maiden finally giving in, though the effect was ruined by the sly look on her face. Even then, to his virgin heart, the effect was instantaneous.
People say that anime and manga exaggerate emotions and there is no way people are that impressive. He would have liked to bring up the example of blood bursting from his nose and literally launching him from his bed, at that very moment as counter-evidence for that.
A few minutes later, he finally climbed back to the conscious plane once again, this time thankfully not finding himself in a position that would cause a third fainting by loss of blood.
"Man, you are way too easy to fluster, Captain." the woman, currently sitting at his desk and holding her sides, was laughing hysterically, errant tears escaping her eyes."And those adorable expressions of yours, I simply can't get enough of them."
"I told you to stop calling me that, Argo." he addressed the young woman with a hint of annoyance in his voice, decidedly trying not to look directly at her. The embarrassment would be too much for him. "Call me Kirigaya or Kazuto if you have to. Much less awkward than you calling me captain for nothing."
"Nah," she replied casually before she began to amuse herself by rotating herself around with his chair.
He observed her from the corner of his eyes, a hand held in front of his nose, in case she flashed something at him intentionally or unintentionally. He didn't want a third repeat of him passing out.
She was clothed this time. Well clothed if it meant that she was wearing one of his older shirts, that with the height difference between them was enough to cover most of her body. It was a simple grey shirt with the logo of the Galactic Republic from Star Wars on it.
No matter how you looked at it, she looked real, like a regular teenage girl, fooling around. Aside from her whiskers, there was nothing strange about her appearance, but that could be explained as make-up. She acted like a normal girl if a bit shameless and way too teasing for his heart. She looked real, acted real, felt like real (as the memory resurfaced he quickly had to cover his nose), and was real in every possible aspect of the world.
Then why was it, that when looking at her, all he could think of was that she wasn't supposed to be real?
That might sound a little confusing, so it would be better if he went back a little in time, to a few days ago when his life still made sense.
His name was Kirigaya Kazuto, an avid gamer. He regularly played many games on many different platforms, from tower defense games on mobile, to complex strategy games on his pc or even stepping into the budding VR industry occasionally.
At the time, most of his attention was focused on a rather simple gacha game, called Sword Art Impact. It is supposed to be a sort of prequel to the upcoming game, the NerveGear first full game, Sword Art Online, mostly to introduce the lore and the setting.
It was something done on a whim, while he waited for the newest expansion of Star Wars The Old Republic Online to finish updating after an excruciatingly long wait. It was just supposed to be something to pass the time.
Then before he knew it, he had already put more than ten thousand yen into the game by the time finally earned his first legendary character.
And boy was it worth it.
He got one of the rarest characters currently available, Argo the Rat. She was a petite girl with whiskers on her face, most of her body and face blocked by the cloak and hood she wore. She was a martial artist, a barehanded fighter, and boy, she could deal some damage alright.
She also had a ton of useful passives, thanks to her background as an info broker, she instantly became his favorite character. She looked cute too to boot.
All was right when he finally went to bed. He got a super cute character, justifying the rather large amount of money that he threw away, especially because it was with his mom's credit card, SWTORO's newest expansion was finally live and he felt like the king of the virtual world.
Then he woke up the next morning and he found a half-dressed girl with whiskers on her face sleeping coddled next to him, a mischievous smile on her face even while asleep. Worse, she was using his chest as a pillow, not even allowing him a chance to slip out and gather his thoughts.
Well if nothing else, at least he could say that he made a rather good pillow.
And while he was in a constant struggle between freaking out and believing it was all a dream and going along with it, the girl opened her eyes. They eyed each other for a second, which might as well have lasted for an eternity, before his newfound bed partner let out a cute yawn, stretching backward and giving him more than an ample look at her cleavage.
"See something you like, Cap-ta-in?" she basically purred when she noticed him staring at her, his expression a curious mix of awe, wonder, and the slow realization that this was way too realistic for a dream.
That was how it started, the very first time he passed out thanks to her merciless teasing and the day his life changed forever. If it was some manga, anime, or third-tier fanfiction it would be the start of an adventure that would end up with him like a dense harem protagonist, in the middle of a harem that he wasn't even aware existed.
Sadly, reality did not work with such convenient storylines.
Instead, all he got was a beauty who delighted in teasing him mercilessly, whose idea of a good time was usually to suplex something, anything, even him and he had to hide her existence from his family. Otherwise either he would be sent off to an asylum or the girl who was sharing a room with him would probably end up in some kind of government laboratory, unspeakable things done to her, while she moaned out in pain.
He blamed it on all the doujins he read, because of them he couldn't even think of her being used as a laboratory specimen without his mind conjuring up misleading scenarios one after another. And he blamed his good heart and conscience for doing his best to keep her away from that fate.
"This is my life now," he mumbled to himself in a self-decrypting laugh as he felt gloom cover his whole form.
He barely managed to hide Argo's existence for the last four days and he knew that his family was getting suspicious, what with all the extra portions of food he had to get to the information broker. It didn't help that the girl's favorite hobbies were eating and working out, other than buying and selling information, none of which very useful to remain unnoticed.
He managed to distract her with the introduction of the internet and his various games. Of course, the downside was that he couldn't even log in to his games for three consecutive days.
His soul as a gamer cried out but he could do nothing. It was better than letting Argo go out of the house, especially since she still believed Tokyo to be nothing more than a simple settlement and that monsters awaited her outside the safe zone.
He didn't want to know what she would deem as a floor boss but knew it wouldn't end well.
He was shaken out of his rather depressing thoughts as he felt a pair of hands slowly wrap themselves around his shoulder and he felt a warm body on his back. He was barely able to hold back a shudder and he didn't know if it was because of the surprise or the rather nice feeling of being held.
"Why the long face, Kazuto?" her voice breathed into his ear, sounding so sensual and worried at the same time."You shouldn't let sad thoughts bring you down. After all, you have me at your side. No matter what the world throws at us, we will be victorious."
He contemplated if she was simply teasing him, as usual, but she sounded so sincere and worried for him that he couldn't help but dismiss that line of thought. His brain was crying out in alarm, a girl, a female member of the homo sapiens was currently embracing him, yet he found himself relaxing and completely ignoring said brain.
For a moment this whole thing didn't feel like a bad dream which he couldn't wake up to. In the arms of the girl, who was supposed to be nothing more than a video game character, he felt safe, felt like there was a light at the end of this impossibly long tunnel.
Then as if summoned to destroy that small piece of nirvana that he found himself in, the ring of the front door started to ring.
It was as if the whole world decided to suddenly turn around and collapse. His relaxed posture turned to tense, as the small hope that began to blossom in his heart was crushed by the sudden dose of reality. The tunnel turned into a never-ending abyss that threatened to swallow him forever.
He froze before suddenly jumping out of Argo's arms, his mind whirling furiously. Who could it be? Couldn't be his mother or sister, both of them wouldn't be back for a long while and they had keys to the house. They wouldn't ring the bell. But who else could it be?
The government? Did they already find out about Argo and are here to take her away? But why would they bother with simply knocking if they could send in a dozen or two commandos? Or do things like those only happen in movies and games? But his entire life was based on games, what else could he believe if not in them?
Maybe it wasn't the government. If Argo, a character from a mobile game came out into the real world, could other characters also do that? Maybe they are here for their friend? Or worse could one of the monsters from the game also come out and come here to attack her? Even worse, could a floor boss have shown up?
Well at least that would make for a hilarious image, someone like Illfang the Kobold Lord squatting in front of their front door and impatiently ringing the doorbell.
Argo, unnoticed by him, turned rather serious as she stood almost protectively over his mumbling form, slowly edging toward the window and using the window that looked down in the direction of the front door, to get a clear picture of who might be there.
Then she let out a boisterous laugh, the sound sounding even more loud as the bell stopped ringing and shattered the silence that tried to settle in its absence. It had Kazuto yelping in surprise, looking at the whiskered girl worriedly and a bit warily.
"I have to say I underestimated this floor's inhabitants. They brought my order even faster than the fastest couriers on the ninth floor. And those elves are supposed to be the fastest messengers in all of Aincrad." she said with a rather cheery mode, all tension disappearing from her body as she started walking out of the room.
"What?" he asked, feeling an odd mixture of flabbergasted and completely clueless as the girl almost walked out of his bedroom with almost nothing but his t-shirt on her.
"Well we can't go into battle without training for it and this safe zone offers little in terms of training. So I thought I would raise your level with the equipment I found in this store. With this, the monsters of this floor will have no problem with me watching your back." she admitted proudly, even going as far as to give him a thumbs up.
Meanwhile, Kazuto felt his breath hitch as all the worried thoughts and possible scenarios just collapsed on themselves, leaving him in a stupor. His brain worked overtime trying to understand the irony of a video game character ordering stuff on the internet.
For some reason, the punchline of the joke continued to elude him.
"Wait what did you order? Better yet, how did you pay for it?" he asked as his clouded mind slowly began to work once again after he failed to wake up from this rather bizarre dream that he was having for days now.
"With this magic card of course," she said, holding up a credit card that he must have left at his desk at some point. "I didn't know that any magical artifact still existed after the Great Separation but it is a genuine article. And very powerful to boot. I don't think we will hurt for much cor, Captain:" she added, nodding to herself as if resolving something.
He felt the blood drain slowly from him as he watched Argo wave that card carelessly. His mom's credit card to be exact.
He fell to his knees, a cold feeling slowly spreading through his chest as he imagined his mother's face whenever checked her account.
"Eh, Captain? What's going on?" Argo's worried voice was barely registered by him as he was slowly drowned by the thoughts of possible punishments."It looks as if your soul is leaving your body. Don't tell me...is it a new astral attack?"
This was his life now. Trying to keep the existence of his gacha waifu, who appeared in the real world, a secret, while also trying to solve the apparent mystery of why this happened in the first place. Was he really ready for it?