AN: Quick little note, bare with me this chapter. It's not an eventful chapter but it is important to the story. Also, soz for the 3 day delay lol. Thanks for reading, enjoy!
(I DO NOT own SAO or it's characters! SAO and it's characters are all owned by Reki Kawahara)
"Asuna, do you remember who the main boss on the 100th floor of Aincrad was?" Kazuto asked her. The fact that she didn't reply immediately told him that she was already too shocked to talk for the time being.
"One more question." Kazuto said with a strange struggle "How are we suppose to get to the 100th floor if we don't have any floors to climb?" He asked. He briefly thought about New Aincrad that was now floating above the world of Alfheim but that one was programmed in a way that changed all the bosses so there was no point in trying that.
"I'll tell you how." Kikuoka said "Recently, while investigating the Kayaba case, our data team discovered something that Kayaba was obviously trying to keep hidden. They discovered the original seed code for Sword Art Online." Kazuto was once again shocked. "They've already transferred the seed code to the world seed and we'll get the go ahead to start this mission once you agree to help us. I'll give you the rest of the small details if or when you do. And don't worry, we'll let your friends go with you two on this mission." Kikuoka stood up and extended his hand towards Kazuto. "So, will you help us find Kayaba?"
"I promised myself that I would rid my mind of that game forever. I wanted to forget it ever happened. Honestly, the thought of the game, let alone going back into it, makes me feel sick to my stomach." Kazuto said this with his head down, but as he lifted his head back up he shouted "But if it's for the greater good, if my actions mean that less people have to die in this world, then sign me up!" Kazuto grabbed Kikuoka's hand and he lifted Kazuto up out of his chair. Asuna heaved a sigh.
"Typical Kirito, agreeing to something without discussing it with me at all" She then put her hands on her hips "But if Kirito's going back into SAO then I won't hesitate to jump in after him! Sign me up too!" Kazuto quickly smiled at his in-game wife and looked back at Kikuoka.
"Now, tell me everything that I need to know."
As both Kazuto and Asuna walked back to his house, they reflected on the long conversation they had with Kikuoka.
"So, it starts in 2 days and it starts at approximately 12pm. So we all have to be in Alfheim any time before then." Kazuto reminded
"Right, and they've altered the seed code so that death in the game does not mean death in real life. However, the seed code refused to give us no death consequences. So, without accidentally ruining the seed code, they managed to get away with players only losing all their equipment when they die." Asuna added
"Exactly, at least losing your equipment is better than losing your life." Kazuto said as he remembered that four thousand people lost their lives in the SAO incident. "It's definitely going to be difficult to explain this all to everyone else." He said with a sigh as he unlocked the door to his house, when he walked into the living room, he got quite the surprise. Apparently, someone had already invited everyone over to his house. This included Rika Shinozaki a.k.a Lisbeth, Keiko Ayano a.k.a Silica, Ryotaro Tsuboi a.k.a Klein and Andrew Gilbert Mills a.k.a Agil as well as his sister Suguha who is known as Leafa in-game. But that wasn't the reason he was so surprised. "HOW DO ALL OF YOU KNOW WHERE I LIVE!" He shouted.
"Don't worry, I told them all to come here so that we could tell them all at the same time. Asada said she'll be here shortly because she decided to drop by the mental health hospital to check on her old friend." Asuna informed him.
"Oh good idea, that's quite convenient." Kazuto said to her. However, he wasn't a fan of knowing that he'd have to explain to them everthing that Kikuoka had told him. Ten or so minutes later, after Shino Asada (a.k.a Sinon) had arrived, Asuna and Kazuto explained every detail about the mission. Aside from Asada and Suguha, everyone's jaw was on the ground.
"Y-you're telling us that we have to go back into that hellhole?!" Ryotaro shouted in a whirlwind of emotions
"I'll be honest, I really don't like the idea of being in SAO again" Keiko said shyly
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure everyone here has had enough SAO for a lifetime" Rika said with a sad expression.
"Look guys, I'm not forcing you to come with me, I'm not even asking. I'm just telling you what I'm doing and you can't stop me. As long as perma-death isn't a thing and I can still logout then I'm diving straight back into SAO without hesitation, because I'm doing it for the greater good. People will be able to live their lives even if they have an illness of some kind if I manage to pull this off. I'm not doing it for the credit either, I'm not asking for some ill patient to think of me every time they open their eyes each morning. As long as that's what happen's then i'll go through hell and back as many times as it takes to make that dream of theirs a possibility." Kazuto hadn't noticed it, but one by one everyone in the room stood up during his rolling speech and put on confident expressions. "So I'm not forcing, nor am I asking you to come with me. But if you aren't, I kindly ask you to go home right now." He looked around and not a single muscle moved. "So, are you with me then?"
"You know what, that hellhole doesn't sound so bad after all." Ryotaro said as he arched his arms and clenched his fists in agreement.
"Kirito's right, I say we give Aincrad the beating that it deserves" Keiko said as she jumped in happiness
"I won't mind going back at all, as long as I am know I'm going to safely come back to my wife." Andrew said as he gave a heafty laugh
"I wasn't apart of the original SAO incident, but it sounds like fun to see what all you guys went through. Without the threat of perma-death that is." Asada said with a smile. Suguha agreed with the nod of her head. Kazuto looked around at all of his friends. Friends who would follow him to hell and back. He allowed a confident expression to appear on his face.
"I'll see you guys in Alfheim then."
After finishing explaining everything to his friends, Kazuto walked out the living room where everyone was and headed upstairs to his bedroom. Once he was in his bedroom, he locked the door behind him and attempted to walk towards but fell. His head and arms made it on his bed but his body floated above the floor of his bedroom as his knees took all the impact. After putting up such a front in front of everyone, his façade finally gave and he broke down on his bed. The thought of being back in the real Aincrad made him feel all sorts of painful emotions that he didn't want to feel. Nausea, Anger, Fear, Despair, Sadness, Pain, Disgust, Distrust. All these and more had exploded inside him and he felt worse than he had ever felt before. He tried his hardest to persuade his emotions that there was no threat of dying this time but the trauma that SAO had left him with was too much to bare and he passed out from the suffering. When he woke up the next day, he was relieved to know that the eruption of emotions that came to him last night was nowhere to be found. He didn't feel a thing. "I guess letting it all out in one go really is a big help." He said as he opened his curtain a bit to look at the sun. "Guess I'll be seeing very few of that for a while." He closed his curtain and left his room to have a quick shower. He knew that today was the last day that he had that was completely free because after midday tomorrow, he'd be on a government mission 24/7 until it was complete. So he decided to go game-free today. "Ah, what should I do first today?" He said to himself, but his thoughts were interrupted by someone knocking on the bathroom door.
"K-Kazuto? Is that you? Since when did you start waking up so early?" The voice of someone waiting to have a shower belonged to Suguha.
"I'm just drying off, I'll be out in a second." Kazuto said. After he was done changing, he started to open the door but the moment he turned the knob, Suguha pretty much broke into the bathroom at the speed of sound and kicked Kazuto out before he could even see her. She then slammed the door shut. All of that happened before Kazuto's brain had even registered what had happened. "What the heck was that all about Sugu?!" He yelled in confusion.
"S-sorry, you rarely ever get up this early so…I usually go down to bathroom with no clothes on." She said shyly. Kazuto decided that their current conversation was now over and went to leave the house.
"Oh well, I'll see you later Sugu." He got no reply as he went to open the door. But when he opened it, there was a man standing in the middle of the doorway. It took Kazuto less than a second to realise who it was. "What is it now, Kikuoka?" Kikuoka spoke as he let himself into the house and sped towards the living room. Leaving Kazuto confused in the doorway.
"I'm terribly sorry to barge in like this" he said as he sat down "But I accidentally left out some vital information for you when we talked at that café." Kazuto thought he should've been surprised by this but for some reason, he wasn't.
"And you call yourself a government officer." Kazuto said with a sigh. "What could you have possibly missed out." Kikuoka readjusted the glasses on his face before speaking.
"You will be using the NerveGear for this mission." Hearing this, Kazuto flinched.
"Hang on a minute! Why can't we use the AmuSphere?!." He asked with his voice considerably raised
"Because." Kikuoka paused very briefly before continuing "If you use the NerveGear, my data team will be able to talk to you from the real world. For some reason, the AmuSphere and everything after it don't have this thing called an ExoLinker. It uses brainwaves to send text messages to the in-game chat box. Meaning that we can talk to each of you individually via chat if you use the NerveGear."
"This just keeps getting better and better" Kazuto thought sarcastically as the distress on his face started to become clear. "We can't catch a break, can we." Kazuto said out loud. He intended it to be a rhetorical question but Kikuoka answered it anyway.
"I highly doubt any other problems will come your way from now on. That was the only thing I left out. I'm sure of it. All we have to do is link our computers to the wireless ExoLinker installed in your NerveGear and we'll be able to talk to you and you should be able to reply. That is all." Kikuoka said as he stood back up. As he walked past Kazuto to leave though, he whispered something "Enjoy today while it lasts." He then walked out of the house and disappeared. Kazuto wanted desperately to ask him what he said but by the time he had comprehended it, Kikuoka was nowhere to be seen. Kazuto decided to go off on his merry way, hoping that it would free his mind of yet another thing to think about. He drove his motorbike around town until he made up his mind on what to do. Eventually, he decided to ride to the beach as it was probably the best place to get as much sun as possible before spending a whole heap of time stuck in his room again. When he arrived, he noticed that he wasn't the only one who had that idea. Both Rika and Keiko were there playing volleyball and Asada was sleeping on the sand. For some reason, seeing them there too made him feel slightly more at ease. Rika called out to him once she noticed.
"Hey! Kirito! Nice of you to join us!" She shouted, causing Kazuto to sigh faintly. After hearing her, Keiko turned around and waved at Kazuto who waved back. Asada, who was sleeping with a book covering her face, woke up and waved at him as well. After politely turning down the offer to pay Volleyball, he went and sat down next to Asada. She looked at him and smiled but the smile that Kazuto returned was pretty much shouting 'Please ask me if something is wrong.' To Kazuto's relief, she took the bait.
"Something's bothering you, isn't it?" She asked him as she sat up more straight.
"More than just one thing." Kazuto said with a sigh. "Kikuoka came to me again just now and told me that there was one piece of information that he left out in our original conversation."
"Oh? And what's that?" Asada asked as the flame of curiosity started burning inside her.
"Well…I'd rather tell everyone at the same time." He paused for a second but forced himself to continue before he was ready. "Kikuoka told me that the new SAO is not compatible with the AmuSphere."
"Really? That's odd. But, how will we play it then?" She asked as she put a hand to her chin.
"They told me that the new SAO will only work on the NerveGear system." Kazuto forced out. He kind of braced himself as he expected her to be shocked beyond belief. But that's not what he got at all.
"Is that so? Then I guess I'll finally know what it's like to wear one then." Kazuto was extremely surprised by the calm reaction he got until he realised that she was not one of the ten thousand people who got stuck in the original SAO. After that, he and Asada agreed to play Volleyball with Rika and Keiko. Needless to say it was almost a complete shutout.
"I can't believe we lost so badly." Kazuto said as he accompanied the girls to the bus stop.
"Hey, at least we managed one point." Asada said, trying to cheer him up.
"Come on Kirito, what did you expect? Me and Keiko play sports all the time and both of you barely do any sports at all. Our win was kind of inevitable." Rika said confidently, Kazuto agreed with her but he still thought he should've done better. When they arrived at the bus stop, so did the bus. So, after waving them off and watching the bus go off down the road, Kazuto got back on his motorbike. But before he drove off, he took one long look at the setting sun.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" He said to himself before realising that a tear had allowed itself to fall from his eye. "Damn, guess I still have some tears left somehow." He wiped away the tear and drove back to his home, where an impatient Suguha was waiting for him.
"You could have at least told me that you weren't going to be in the house all day." Suguha berated him as he entered through the front door.
"I'm sorry Sugu. Truth is, I only decided to go somewhere after I had left. Plus, I left my phone here so…" His voice trailed off because he couldn't continue his lie any farther without giving it away. It's not like it was a complete lie though.
"So that's your excuse, is it?" And of course, Suguha saw right through it. She reached into his back pocket and pulled out his phone. Kazuto couldn't do anything except smile awkwardly. "I swear, sometimes you are impossible. Where were you this whole time." Kazuto had nothing he could try except for the truth. So he surrendered.
"I was at the beach with Rika, Asada and Keiko." He said with a defeated sigh.
"What?!" She suddenly yelled with a red face. However, she tried to save herself by continuing "T-then why didn't you invite everyone else s-so we could all enjoy it." She said with her face still red.
"Y'know, that would've been a good idea." Kazuto said obliviously. "Well, I'm going to my room to do some…Research on some stuff. Call me when dinners ready." Kazuto immediately realised how suspicious the line he had just spoken sounded so he bolted up the stairs before Suguha could question him. It was true that he did want to look at stuff on his computer (No, not that kind of stuff you perv) but the first thing he did when he got in his room was sit on his chair and think. He thought about whether to tell everyone else about the NerveGear thing or not. "There's a chance that Asada told Rika and Keiko while on the bus." He thought. "Plus, even if I do want to tell them, it might be too late by now." Kazuto thought as he looked out his curtain and saw the sun had almost completely disappeared to below the horizon. "To be honest, it doesn't matter. They'll find out anyway right?" He said as he put his headphones on and got lost in his computer screen.
Meanwhile, in a black abyss. Footsteps are heard coming from everywhere. It is a world where light does not exist. A world that no one would want to be in. However, in this world, a boy stands tall. A boy who has cried his last tear and laughed his last laugh. This boy who walks the abyss, stops and turns to see a familiar darkness turn into a flicker of something he forgot existed.
"How many years has it been."
As Kazuto woke up from his deep slumber, he took a moment to collect himself.
"This is it. In three and a half hours, I'll be back in the real Aincrad." He said peacefully to himself. Before getting out of bed, Kazuto checked his phone and as expected, he had messages from everyone excluding Asada and Suguha.
"I Though you said that you told us everything, How could you leave out information like that, I wasn't happy when I found out you know." That was pretty much the gist of what everyone said to him.
"Looks like they did find out." Kazuto said with a sigh of relief, getting out of his bed in the process. Kazuto looked at his computer as he got changed and remembered what he had searched up the night before. He headed downstairs to see that Suguha had already made herself breakfast and was lazily sitting on the couch watching the television. "Y'know, I'd give an award to someone if they could look more lazy than you right now." He said with a quiet laugh. But she didn't make a comeback, she didn't even say anything. "S-Sugu?"
"Kazuto…I'm a little scared." She said quietly
"Hey, what's there to be scared about, there's no perma-death this time so it won't be as terrifying as before. Plus, I will be there to make sure nothing happens to anyone." He said trying to cheer her up.
"It's not that. Well, it's not just that." She admitted. "It's the NerveGear. After seeing what it did to you, I'm…I'm starting to have second thoughts."
"It's not going to do that again." Kazuto said with a slightly awkward smile "It's just like any old system, there's nothing to worry about." Suguha then turned to Kazuto and gave him a surprise.
"How can you say that! How can you talk about it like it's just another normal system after it trapped you and threatened to kill you every day for 2 whole years! You, of all people, should be the one who's scared to use it again!" She shouted as she started to tear up. She dropped her head before continuing "How are you not afraid? Where do you get your courage from?"
"Look Sugu, To tell you the truth, I'm absolutely terrified." Kazuto regrettably admitted. Suguha's head jerked upward in surprise. "I'm afraid too. I'm afraid to go back into that world. I'm afraid to put the NerveGear back on. And I'm especially afraid of dying. Even though perma-death is no longer a thing, it's a bad habit of SAO players to fear death no matter what game they play. Especially if it's SAO." Suguha looked at him with eyes of both admiration and sympathy as he spoke "So yeah, I know how you feel." They both stayed where they were for a few seconds until Suguha broke down a little and jumped into Kazuto, who held her in a hug. They hugged in silence for a couple of minutes until Suguha broke it.
"I-I'm sorry about this, Kazuto. I just…wanted someone to embrace." She said shyly.
"Don't be, I'm your cousin, right? I'll always be there to embrace you when you need it." He said as he lightly tightened his embrace, causing her to blush. Moments later, a knock on the door that broke the moment between the two could be heard and Kazuto, to avoid any awkwardness between them, quickly ran to the door to answer it. Upon opening the door, Kazuto saw all of his friends who were carrying what seemed to be stuff for a picnic.
"Hey Kirito, all of us have decided to go out on a picnic since we still have two and a half hours before we need to log in and we were wondering if you and Suguha wanted to join us?" Asuna asked cheerfully.
"Yeah, c'mon man! If you don't come then who'll sit with me and watch good looking babes go by." Ryotaro said as he barged in front of Asuna. He then leaned in and whispered to Kazuto "I would ask Agil but he's too protective of his love for his wife to do that." Kazuto stuttered a bit at Ryotaro's comment but happily agreed to go along anyway.
"I'll catch up with you all shortly, there's just one quick thing I need to finish doing." Kazuto admitted.
Hello all, thanks for reading this uneventful but important chapter. I can promise you that either chapter 3 or 4 will be when they finally dive. On another note, i have a question:
Should i make these chapters short, long or medium(sort of like it is now)?
All answers are much appreciated, the answer that has the most votes by the time the next chapter is uploaded will be the new chapter length for the rest of the story. Once again, Thanks for reading!