Sword Art Online
After The Incident
Chapter 23 – The BoB Tournament
I looked around me in amazed wonder as Asuna, Sinon and I, made our way into an open plaza. All around us glimmering billboards shone greatly, young women everywhere was standing outside every store in revealing clothes, and was advertising for all kinds of clothes, armor and weapons. Booming megaphones blasted from every street corner, telling us to try out their new weapon collection.
"The best weapons for every need!"
"Want a stat increase?! You have to try this sick new armor!"
"Are you ready!? The BoB Tournament is about to start!"
Several times I was even called out directly, men and women alike trying to pull me along and try their new weapons.
There was even one time where a young woman NPC, programmed to look about 17 or 18 of age, pulled me along to her shop and tried convincing me to buy a new weapon. And let´s just say she was using some questionable sales method, involving pressing herself up against me and offering herself to me if I bought the weapon, much to Asuna´s dislike, and much to Sinon´s amusement.
About 20 minutes, and several painful hits in the back of my head, later, we finally arrived at the weapon shop Sinon had been talking about. She smirked a bit as she turned around and looked back at us as she stood by the entrance to the shop.
Asuna was walking in front of me, her arms crossed across her chest and a pout on her lips as she stepped up beside Sinon and looked back at me with an angry huff.
"Come on Kirito! We don´t have all day!" Asuna said with a glare as she looked at me from a distance.
"I´m coming, I´m coming" I mumbled as I rubbed my sore cheek, where several red hand marks had been planted.
I sighed softly as I stepped up to the girls with an expression that much matched the one of a kicked puppy. Sinon smirked a bit as she stepped forward and made the automatic doors slide aside, walking in to reveal a giant center filled with various booths, shops and spaces with gambling slots and machines, where you could win anything from money, to weapons, to sales coupons for the nearby restaurant.
Sinon smiled softly as she led us through the buzzling crowd, waving hello to several men and women her age, as she headed straight for a gambling spot in the far back. I stared at what I at the time thought was some kind of shooting ranch, but when we got closer I realized it was some kind of gambling game.
"Sinon, what is this?" I asked curiously as we stepped up to the decent crowd around the game space.
"It´s one of the most popular games in the gambling arcade" Sinon said with a smirk "You run down that lane while trying to avoid that NPS´s bullets. If you manage to get all the way up to him, and tap him on the shoulder, all the cash that earlier players have cashed in goes to you"
I widened my eyes a bit and looked up at the counter above the NPC´s head.
"25 million!?" I gasped in stunned silence, staring up at the blaring billboard "How many players have tried this?!"
"I don´t know, but it´s a lot of money" Sinon said with a smirk "If you want to try, go ahead and try. I´m just warning you, at the end of the lane, sometimes you have to react within half a second"
"Then how do you know where he´s going to shoot?" Asuna asked curiously as she pulled a lock of her hair behind her ear.
"There´s a system in this game, called bullet prediction lines" Sinon said as she began explaining the game system "When a bullet is fired and you know where the player firing is, a line appears where the bullet is going to fly. It´s your goal to avoid those lines. I´ve tried myself several times, but I never succeeded"
"Sounds promising" Asuna said with a sarcastic giggle "Well, it doesn´t hurt to try"
She smirked confidently and walked up to the podium to cash in her offering. The NPC in the end of the lane sprung to life, immediately starting to try and intimidate her.
"I´m gonna crush you!"
As soon as Asuna stepped up on the plate, irritated or excited whispering emanated thrugh the open space around the game.
"Huh? The noob is going to try?" One man in the corner mumbled to a friend "Hmph, she´ll never even make it to the ten yard line"
"Nah, she´s done for man" Another whispered "She doesn´t know what she´s in for"
Asuna blocked out their bad attempts at distracting her though, and
As soon as the gates to the lane opened, Asuna began sprinting down the thin lane. She didn´t have much space to move around on, so she had to be vigilant, fast, and her reaction time had to be exceptional.
She sprinted down the small space, avoiding bullet´s left and right. The NPC began getting nervous and fired bullet after bullet, sometimes three at a time, and I could see a drop of sweat rolling down his face. He reloaded and completely emptied his magazine in his revolver, but Asuna slid under the barrage of bullets, and smirked slightly as she made it the last bit, and gently tapped the cowboy on his right shoulder.
The NPC, and the crowd around the game, stood in stunned silence. The crowd stared at Asuna as she threw her hair back over her back, smiling gently at the cowboy NPC, which was still staring at her in utter disbelief.
"NOOOOOOooOoooooo"
The NPC screamed loudly in defeat as the billboard above him swung aside, and opened up for a giant safe behind it. The safe sprung open and let it´s contents sprawl onto the floor everywhere around the NPC and Asuna, being millions and millions of brightly gleaming gold coins.
Asuna smirked confidently as she snapped her fingers and made the gold coins disappear and cash into her personal avatar storage. She turned her back to the NPC and headed back down the lane, and the NPC sprung back from his defeated crouch down position, and began intimidating anyone who dared to play his game like nothing had ever happened.
I smiled silently and chuckled slightly as Asuna walked up to us. I high fived her and laughed a little as Asuna, Sinon and I, turned and left the arcade, the other players gawking at us, their chins basically resting at the floor as they watched us leave in stunned silence.
"I have to say, I´m impressed Yuuki," Sinon said with a proud smirk "it´s clear to see that you´re used to reacting fast. How did you do it?"
"Well, I don´t know" Asuna said with a shrug "I guess I´m used to reacting quickly. I come straight from games like ALO and SAO after all"
"WHAT!?" Sinon gasped a bit and widened her eyes "You´re one of the original 10.000 SAO players?"
Asuna widened her eyes a bit and clasped her hands onto her mouth as she realized her mistake, but the secret was out. Asuna had mistakenly let Sinon know that she was one of the original SAO victims.
"U-Uhm I uh no uhm…" Asuna became flustered, her cheeks burning a bit in embarrassment and panic.
Sinon frowned a bit as she glared over at me with an angry expression. She must have realized that we had held secrets from her, by depending on Asuna´s reaction to her surprised outburst.
"Does that mean you´re an SAO victim too?" She asked sharply, glaring holes at me.
I flinched a bit at her stern glare and silently nodded as answer.
"I knew I had heard that name before" Sinon said with a wondering expression "You´re the guy who cleared the game, and saved the remaining players, right?"
"U-Uhh, right" I mumbled silently, not able to think about anything else to say.
"Who are you people?" Sinon asked as she frowned in seriousness "Talk to me guys!"
"I-I´m sorry Sinon, but…" I mumbled as I took a quick glance over at Asuna "but we can´t tell you until we´re certain we can trust you"
"Hmph, fine, let me prove myself then" Sinon huffed a bit as she opened her menu "The qualification tournament for the BoB is starting in about 2 hours. If I make it to the finals and win, it will prove that I am nothing but a humble gamer. That should be enough proof right?"
"I don´t know about that, but" I mumbled as I scratched my cheek insecurely "I guess it´s the only way for you to prove yourself"
"That´s settled then" Sinon said with a huff as she crossed her arms over her chest "You guys should enter too. That way I can get back at you for keeping secrets from me"
"Wait, what!?" I mumbled in surprise "You expect us to know how to use a gun!?"
"Yeah, you ARE playing Gun Gale Online" Sinon said with a chuckle "And with all that money Asuna won, you should be more than capable to get some amazing weapons and armory"
"B-B-But I have never even touched a gun!" I yelled in distress "Give me a sword and i´ll slash up anything, but I have absolutely no training with a gun what so ever"
"Huh? A sword you say?" Sinon said with a surprised expression, which turned to a smirk "Then I might have a solution for you. Follow me, there´s a weapon shop right nearby"
"H-Huh?"
I looked back at Asuna and she shrugged, smiling a little as she began to follow Sinon down the street.
"Are you coming or what?" She said with a smirk as she hurried me along.
"All right, all right I´m coming" I said in a hurry as I hurried after them.
After about a minute of walking, we already arrived at the shop Sinon had been talking about. As we walked in, shelfs was neatly placed and arranged to either show off a certain weapon, or weapon type. Snipers, machine guns, pistols, shotguns. Everything the heart could lust for was neatly set up in each of its own glass display, for everyone´s eyes to goggle at.
In the back of the store, Sinon finally stopped and turned around to look at me and Asuna as she proudly showed one of the weapons the game was most famous about, and even so, me and Asuna knew absolutely nothing of it.
Several lightsabers adorned the walls and glass cases, carefully placed on well formed metal displays for everyone´s wonder. Their blades hummed silently as they laid there, silently shining their blade´s light, which was every color you could think of, from red, to blue, to green, to yellow. Whatever your favorite color might be, they had it.
I widened my eyes and smiled widely as I adorned the shimmering blades, like the huge nerd I was. As I approached the glass display, a pop up menu appeared in front of me, revealing three options. I could either buy the sword immediately, try a demo version, or cancel my buy. I pondered for a bit before deciding to try out the sword for a moment.
I pressed the demo button and immediately, the sword´s hilt materialized in my hands. I smiled a little at the sword´s heavy weight, and tried doing my most basic sword skill from SAO, the 4 swing combo. It felt fantastic. It was almost like The Elucidator was back in my hands. I pressed the button and made the blade disappear with a whoosh, before I made the item dematerialize once again.
"So? How did it feel Kirito?" Sinon asked with a smile "Confident enough to try a gun now?"
"One thing´s for certain, I´m buying this sword" I said with a smirk as I borrowed some of Asuna´s prize money and bought the sword.
"You can´t survive only with a plasma sword though" Sinon said with a smile "You´ll have to get a gun!"
"Ok, but can we at least try with something small?" I mumbled, the girls chuckling softly at my insecurity.
I pouted a bit and stuffed my hands into my pockets as I followed Sinon and Asuna to a nearby shooting range.
I looked down the about 20 to 30 meters long lane. The target dummy at the end of the lane seemed incomprehensively small from here, and I gulped nervously as I looked over at Sinon with an insecure expression.
"H-How am I supposed to hit that!?" I yelled in distraught as I pointed at the target dummy "I could never hit that!"
"Don´t worry you pansy" Sinon said with a chuckle as she pressed a button "We´re pulling it in a little longer for you, so calm down"
"B-But still…" I mumbled as I stared at the small handgun currently resided on the table in front of us.
"Just calm down and listen" Sinon said with an hurried huff "We don´t have that much time before the qualifying round, so we have to be quick"
"Fine, let´s get it out of our system" I mumbled with a huff as I picked up the gun "Now, tell me how to work this damn thing"
"Right" Sinon said with a satisfied smirk Try looking down the gun"
I did as requested, and widened a bit as I saw a retracting and expanding zone on my HUD.
"Now, you see that zone, right?" Sinon said and I nodded in response "This is the zone where the bullet is most likely to pass. It extends and retracts according to your heartbeat. The slower or faster the heartbeat, the slower or faster the bullet zone"
"Got it" I mumbled silently "So it appears over where I´m aiming, am I right?"
"Right" Sinon said with a nod "As long as you keep yourself calm, you should be able to hit your target"
"Good, now, let´s see here" I mumbled silently as Sinon walked to the booth beside mine, to teach Asuna the same things she had just taught me.
I took a couple of deep breaths as I began aiming with my gun again, towards the dummy´s head, which was currently about 10 meters away. I took another deep breath, then held it, before aiming intensely at the dummy.
It felt like the world around me disappeared. Every noise was blocked and faded out as well. The only thing I could hear was the silent sound of my own breathing and heartbeat. I pulled the trigger, and…
The bullet went straight through the forehead of the dummy.
Sinon widened her eyes and turned herself towards me, stunned silently from the sight I had created.
"H-How… How did you…?" She mumbled in stunned silence, then finally manage to break her voice "HOW THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT!?"
"Eh?" I mumbled silently, surprised by her sudden yelling "W-What have I done!?"
"Y-You hit the dummy´s head!" She yelled in response, the others in the range looking on in curious amusement "No noob has ever done that on the first try!"
"H-Hey! Don´t call me a noob!" I yelled, taking slight offense to that "I-I´m the black swordsman dammit! I ain´t no noob!"
"WHHAAAAATTT!?"
I looked around in wonder as the rest of the range suddenly erupted in excited yelling. Everyone suddenly came running, crowding around the three of us. I had suddenly realized that, out of slight offended anger, I had yelled out my true gaming identity to the public.
"Oh damn…" I mumbled silently as the crowd grew bigger and bigger.
"Is it really you, black swordsman-sama!?"
"I´m a huge fan of yours! Where the hell have you been!?"
"P-Please!? Can I have an autograph!?"
The crowd grew even bigger, and eventually, there was a man made mass all around me and Asuna´s booths. I tried calming down the hoard the best I could, but they just kept coming. At one point, I even think I saw a camera blitz or two.
Suddenly, through the mass, a feminine hand grabbed my collar and pulled me through the massive mass, away from the crowd. I sighed a little from happiness as I realized it was Asuna, who was pulling me along by the hand as we hurried down the hall, and into a nearby phone booth.
As Asuna and I pressed ourselves against each other to fit in the phone booth that was normally only designed for one person, we could hear how the crowd of adoring fans rushed just by.
"Where the hell did he go!?"
"We have to find him! I still haven´t gotten my autograph!"
"Maybe he went down this alley!"
The sound of heavy footsteps soon began disappearing down the street, and I chuckled softly as I looked at Asuna with a smile.
"Whoops" I said in a teaseful tone.
We both soon burst out laughing, finding this situation amusing.
"That was so funny" Asuna mumbled as she tried silencing her laughs, failing miserably.
"Yeah, it was" I mumbled softly, brushing away a tear that had been wailing up in the corner of my eye from laughing "And now we´re like this, crammed inside a phone booth!"
"Y-Yeah, we are.." Asuna mumbled with a slight blush on her cheeks "I think I like being this close to my boyfriend though?"
"Oh? You do?" I asked with a smile and a raised eyebrow "Would you mind if we stayed like this for a while longer then?"
"Not at all" Asuna said with a smirk as she leaned against me "So, what are we going to do?"
"I can think of something" I said with a smile as I leaned against her as well, about to kiss her lips, when-
"Are you guys going to stay in there forever?"
Suddenly a familiar voice emanated from outside the phone booth, and we quickly separated as we realized Sinon was standing right outside, and peaking in from the small window higher up on the booth wall. We scrambled outside in a rush, and fixed our clothes, Asuna quick to glare at Sinon and come up with accusations.
"S-Sinon!" She yelled loudly as she pointed at her sharply "You could have said something you know! Pervert!"
"Well, I did, didn´t I?" Sinon replied with her usual calm manner, accompanied by a smirk "Come on, the qualifying round is beginning in less than 10 minutes"
And with that she turned on her heel and began sprinting down the street, her scarf waving after her. Asuna and I exchanged a quick glance at each other, and shared a sigh, before we sprinted after her in a rush.
"H-Hey! Wait up!"
And with that, we hurried down the street, chasing someone who, in the future, would be one of our biggest rivals to date.
A/N
Hey guys! Hope you guys enjoyed this little filler chapter I put in!
Yeah I know, fillers are stupid, but every once in a while, you got to have some fluffy nonsense in any kind of fanfic!
And also, I have something to ask of you guys.
I´m considering making a Tumblr page, where I can post short stories every now and again.
Do you guys like the idea, or should I stick to doing fanfics on this page?
I have leaved a poll for you guys on my account page, so go check it out if you have the time. Your feedback is always appreciated. I will leave it there for, shall we say, the next three months? Sound good to you guys? Great!
Again, thank you guys so much for reading, and see you next time!