"Please, Kirito. I'll give you my heart, my life, everything… So open your eyes! Kirito!"
"Asuna, Jaymes, you, and I, we once did things together. And now that I'm back, you have to come back as well, Kirito!"
"You're supposed to be the hero, not me. So wake up, Kirito!"
"Big Brother."
"Kirito!"
"Now, Kirito…"
Kazuto wakes up in an empty classroom, his chair beside a bright window. For a moment, he drops back to sleep, but the voice calling his name wakes him up again, this time fully. "What? It was a dream?" He looks outside for a moment at the setting sun, then gets up. "Guess I'll go home." Grabbing his things, he walks out of the classroom through the empty school halls, the bustling city streets, and rides the train to his stop at Hon-Kawagoe. The entire time, he has a sinking feeling there's something he should be doing, but he can't put his finger on it. It bothers him as he walks out of the station to his neighborhood.
"In 2022, mankind finally built a full virtual environment…"
It's dark by the time he gets to his street, and the feeling has yet to pass. Maybe it is a homework assignment he hasn't done that's due soon. That makes sense since he had the feeling since he left his desk. He'll check once he gets--
"Kirito..." Kazuto blinks and turns to a dark alley, where he's sure he heard his alias echo from. Deep within it is a blue light, with a group of four people standing in front of it, their backs to him. One of them is a girl with short black hair, a blue and white dress, and a spear in her hand. She turns to the three with her, and Kazuto gasps sharply.
"Sachi?"
Koharu
Koharu blinks back tears as Eiji and Yuna disappear from the Underworld together. At the same time, the malice of PoH regains control over the Koreans and Chinese players, with one part submitting and the others resisting. This leads to infighting on their part, but it seems the result is favorable to PoH. Of course it leads to this, he orchestrated a year's worth of PKings in SAO, from the multiple attempts to hinder the Assault Team through infighting to making them killers themselves. Whenever there's death involved, he's behind it.
PoH then walks over and kneels beside Kirito. "Just you wait. I'll wake you up soon. If you keep lying there in a daze, everyone's going to die." Koharu reactively reaches for her dagger, but can't find the strength to draw it. She looks over to Asuna, who looks stricken between her desire to protect her beloved and those behind her. Koharu doesn't want to endanger the Underworlders either, but the only way to stop this madness is for her to stop PoH.
What would Jaymes do? Why is he not here when she needs him most? Why is he...
"Let's get stronger together. Let's live and beat this thing!"
"But… I'm just slowing you down."
"No, you're not. You'll be way stronger in no time. Besides… You're the only one I can trust here."
"Really… Well, okay." Koharu takes Jaymes' hand and stands up. His words back on the first night replay in her head, and in that moment her doubts about holding Jaymes back washes away. He wants her here with him despite being weak. Maybe...maybe he too is afraid, and being with her keeps him just as calm and collected as her being with him makes her feel anything is possible. She may be only able to offer him that for now, but one day, she'll be strong enough to give him a true partnership. They'll get stronger, for the both of them, together. On that thought, she smiles and laughs, still holding on to this hand. "Watch out, Jaymes! Cause I'll be stronger than you someday."
Jaymes smirks back. "I have little doubt about that."
Even since that fifth day in SAO, no, even before that, during the first time he met her, Jaymes has put his faith in Koharu. Not once did he think her weak, and even if he did, he never abandoned or cast her aside. If he believed her to be weak, he made her stronger than she was. Two years they spent together, two years they worked together and with others to return home, and for two years he continued fighting along with her as his strength. If he could do that while she was gone...then he's already with her in his absence. She may not be stronger than the boy she loves…
But she is his equal.
"Ga--!" Koharu wrenches her dagger from the guarding soldier's neck, his blood flying from his neck. Quickly she swings her dagger, creating an air blade that catches PoH off guard as he rises from Kirito's side and cuts his shoulder.
"Argh!" PoH grips his blood-shooting shoulder and turns angrily to Koharu, his anger evaporating to amusement as he faces the angered heroine. "Hehehe! Well, the kindred one doesn't look so kind anymore. You mean to fight me? Speaking of which, where is your beloved partner? Dead? Running away? Doesn't sound like him."
"I don't need him."
PoH angles his head like a confused puppy. "Huh? What was that?"
"I don't need him to fight you...because he is already with me!" Koharu reuses the same sword skill, PoH dodging it this time but it is all a ploy as Koharu springs forward and swings at PoH's chest. He steps back and brings his sword up, chuckling as he savors the sight of the Kindred Assassin's rage.
"Then I guess I'll start by killing you. Then you will have died twice at my hand." Koharu jumps back and the two combatants begin to circle each other. "But you can run and get the Silver Witch to fight in your place."
"Stop talking."
"Then I'll kill her too." Koharu engages again. their blades creating sparks of rage and enjoyment as they clash, then PoH grabs her arm and weapon and holds them against the ground. PoH then looks at the crowd again and smirks. "Then maybe I'll kill the pink-haired girl who, heh, he replaced you with. He found love with a lowly blacksmith. Oh, even better, he saved her from the one who killed you. How does that make you feel, to be cast aside so easily?"
"Shut up!" Koharu reaches out with her sword hand and pushes PoH away. He's trying to toy with her, but...maybe it did get to her just a bit. How did it make her feel to learn that Jaymes continued living and found another love, yes it hurt her to know it, but it isn't his fault nor is it Lisbeth's. Still… Koharu even bats an eye towards Lisbeth before refocusing on the fight.
"Or them," PoH says as he points to Kureha, Zeliska, Itsuki, and Rei. "To learn that the same hero of SAO is the captain of the squadron who has been on us in GGO, the same one that saved the game itself, and even encountered poor XaXa and almost died thinking he was calling them out." Koharu tries to shut him up again, but PoH continues as he fights. "New friends, new guild, new partner...and you come back expecting he'll bring you back into the fold? You're no better than this boy on the ground, a relic of someone's past. Nothing more of a reminder to him of a hell filled with death." He kicks Koharu in the gut and slashes her right shoulder, causing her to cry out as she drops to the ground. "Now tell me, how does all of it make you feel? Who do you think you are to him?"
"I..."
"Hmm?"
"I may...not be anything to him anymore. I lost all of that rightfully years ago. But even so… He told me one thing I'll never forget. It was never about being partners or lovers with him, but someone like you would never understand…"
PoH scoffs. "Understand what?"
Koharu glares at PoH as her knife glows green. "What it is like for someone as weak as me to have someone else tell you that you can be strong, even stronger than he is! Integral Existence!" PoH gasps as Koharu darts forward, slashing him rapidly five times with her preferred sword skill in SAO. Channeling Lunaria's power, she grabs PoH's face. His face suddenly fills with horror, as if Lunaria's power is making him visit a nightmare. She catches flashes of a young PoH living in America under poor conditions with his hateful mother, a father who asks him to donate a kidney to save his Japanese son and seeing his half-brother in recovery and the hatred that began there. The news that SAO, only released in Japan, had trapped 10,000 of its inhabitants. The acquisition of a NerveGear, the moment he dropped into SAO, and the desire he wished as the 'Prince of Hell'. Horrified, Koharu steps back, but the raging PoH doesn't miss a beat as he swings his cleaver with a weird power, disarming Koharu and knocking her to the ground.
"What did you do to me… Tch, doesn't matter." Koharu is picked up and PoH holds his weapon by her neck. "Now like I said, I'll start with you...and you smile? Accepting your death?"
"...Flash."
Asuna
"I know you can stand, Asuna... Now stand, Asuna, to protect what you love."
With a great scream, Asuna grabs her sword and conjures a sword skill. PoH catches on to Koharu's words at the last second, nimbly moving his head out the way of Asuna's charged attack at the cost of releasing Koharu. At the same time, he tries attacking Asuna, but she eyes the ground and uses a bit of her power to trip him. The headache she receives annoys her but it does not stop her as she pivots on her heel and attacks again. PoH turns again in time and blocks Asuna's attack.
As he smirks, Asuna asks the burning question on her mind. "What is it you want?"
"Is it obvious? The one in black. Ever since I tried and failed to kill him on floor five in Aincrad, he's been the only thing I want."
"Why do you hate Kirito so much? What did he ever do to you?"
"Hate? No, I hate the one in red, but I thought you, of all people, would understand how much I love that guy. In a world full of scumbags, he's the only guy I could believe in unconditionally. Never breaking down, no matter how much I tormented him, never getting corrupted, no matter how much I tempted him. He has always given me hope and joy. That's why it's unforgivable that he ended up like this when I wasn't around. I'm going to wake him no matter what. And whatever it takes to do that… I don't care who, or how many thousands, or tens of thousands, I'll kill them!" Malice fills the air around Asuna and Koharu, but the swordswoman doesn't falter. "Hope? Joy? Because of what you did, how much did Kirito...how much…" Wait a moment, this isn't normal. This power that's pressing her back…
"I figured out how this world works, too. All the spilled blood and lost lives here are converted into energy. Back in Aincrad, the stats of my Mate-Chopper would go down every time it killed a monster, and the stats would go up if it slashed a player. Look. Here in the Underworld, it's naturally powering up by absorbing human life. On this battlefield, all the lives you people took are swirling around, as well as the lives of the Japanese fighters they took. If everyone starts killing each other, it will flood this place with a lot more life. And once I've absorbed all of the life, I'm going to kill every artificial Fluctlight in this world. All those monsters in the land of darkness and the humans in the Human Empire. If I do that much, it should wake him up. If he is the Black Swordsman I believe in. Don't worry, I won't kill you yet. I'll start with her, then the Crimson Warrior. I'm just going to make sure you can't interfere anymore. You need to witness it. Him waking up, only to die in my arms!" Asuna is brought to her knees as PoH's Mate-Chopper starts to break Stacia's sword.
"It's all right. I'll always be by your side."
"Yuuki…" A white light envelopes Asuna and wings spread from her back. PoH looks down in surprise, and, to be honest, Asuna doesn't have much of a clue as to what has happened.
"Asuna!" She looks over to Lisbeth, who cheers her and Koharu on with the others. "You both can do it, Asuna!"
"Asuna!"
"Get up, Asuna!"
"Asuna… Beat him, for all of us."
Asuna drops her head. "I won't lose...to someone like you, who only knows how to hate… I will never lose!" With a great swing, Asuna knocks back PoH and stands up. As she glares at PoH, she focuses her attention on the girl sitting on the ground. "He's wrong...every word that came out of his mouth was wrong. Yes, he moved on in love and life. Yes, he made new friends and found new partners. But not once did he, did we think of you as a relic of our past. When I saw you earlier, I saw the first girl I considered to be my sister. The memory of the other girl I thought of as my sister and lost spurs me on now!"
Her sword glowing purple, the mark of her beloved sword skill. Feeling Yuuki guide her, Asuna strikes, becoming a literal flash as she strikes PoH with unmatched speed. As he gasps, she thrusts into him twice, then flips over him and slashes his back. Sending him into the air, Asuna cuts into him five times then shoots up into the air, coming down on PoH like a shooting star for the tenth hit. He lands on the ground with a powerful impact, rolling like a misused doll as Asuna swoops down for the final thrust of Mother Rosario. That strike sends him back into the air, coming down towards the wall of the ruins and being buried underneath debris. Asuna's wings break apart as she lands, staring at the circling feather and the girl between them. "Thank you, Yuuki."
"Asuna!" Asuna turns as Koharu runs over and points at where PoH is. "He's gathering resources again!" In a hurry, the speedier Asuna runs toward the glowing red light, but as she comes to the edge of the debris, PoH walks out of the cloud, his life somehow preserved despite his wounds by Mate-Chopper's absorption.
Koharu catches up and gasps. "H-How?"
"My allies! This is the true nature of the Japanese! These spineless traitors and the dirty Japanese… Kill every last one of them!" PoH's Incarnation explodes and darkens the sky, so intense that even, far away, it can be sensed. With the wave of his cleaver, PoH sends his forces in, but they ignore Koharu and Asuna entirely. Asuna loses sight of Koharu and is pushed to the ground, and as she tries to get up, she shares a glimpse with Kirito and reaches out to him as he does her.
"Kirito..."
Meanwhile…
Subtilizer looks at his severed right arm, a reminder of the desperate attack by Sinon and Jaymes. It may not have gotten the intended effect, but they did hurt him. All he has left is his sword, but it is no matter. The both of them should have wasted enough energy and be unable to pursue him any further. Now no one stands in his way between himself and Alice.
"Master." Subtilizer turns her head and looks over his shoulder at a girl with tan skin, grey hair, and wears black and blue armor on her upper body and matching heeled boots. She looks at him with a mix of happiness and sadness, "'Master,'" she called him… Oh, how could he forget who calls him such an annoying title?
"Lievre."
"Master!" Lievre steps over and hugs Subtilizer. "I was worried about you! They… They said terrible things about you, that you'd abandoned me after the attack on the city, that you would never come back for me. But I believed we'd meet again, and here we are!"
"Is that so," Subtilizer says as he gently pushes Lievre off him, "and let me guess, Jaymes and Sinon's squad took you in, didn't they, after resealing you in your pod?"
LIevre blinks in confusion. "Resealed… Wait, was you… You did visit me! But why… Why didn't you…"
"You should have listened to the boy. He's a Master too, so he knows the truth. Unlike him, I don't need anything that doesn't have a soul." Lievre gasps but doesn't get a word out as Subtilizer raises his hand and chokes Lievre.
"M-Master?"
"You were nothing more than a tool, Lievre. A means to an end...and you failed in that end. So, as far as I see it, you're not worthy of being mine."
"But...you said…I was special…"
"There's no one special except the delicious soul named Alice. You...have no soul." Subtilizer releases his grip and watches as Lievre falls to the earth below. Taking his eyes off her descent, he continues looking forward. Momentarily. Alice and her soul will be his at last...
Koharu's named skill is one of her dagger skills from Integral Factor, but the actual skill name is...kinda lame compare to the subtitle of Koharu on that skill, so I decided to go with Integral Existence instead of Dark Edge.
Last chapter, Medina's Release Recollection, Scarlet, was introduced. I based it off of the moment in Alicization Lycoris in which she was drawn to the second phase of the final battle against Administrator in the Main Visualizer by her ancestors. In simple terms, its one's memories and connections given form. She has a strong familial connection, that's her whole story, so that connection gave rise to her ancestors fighting with her. In a way, you can think of it as somewhat similar to Eugeo and Yuuki with Kirito and Asuna on a bigger scale.
Five chapters remaining in this story, I'm 98% satisfied with the ending, maybe tack on a little more, but the transition to what's next is done. Can't wait to share more.