Sword Art Online

After The Incident

Chapter 37 – The Tortured's Revenge

~GGO main city, spawn point. Kirito's POV~

I opened my eyes slowly as I felt the ground materialize below my feet. I looked around me and smiled a little in relief when I saw Asuna standing a bit to my left, having a small smile at her lips as she looked back at me. I smiled and reached over to take her hand.

"We're so close now Asuna" I mumbled quietly as I squeezed her hand a little "As soon as we've caught that bastard, we can finally begin to relax"

"I know, I look forward to it" She nodded and sighed "Too bad we have to go back to school when we're done here. I think we could both really use a vacation"

"I look forward to that" I said with a chuckle "I think we should stay home though. I feel like we've been ignoring our friends lately"

"Yeah, I know they're frustrated they're not allowed to help" Asuna said with a small sigh "Liz seemed a bit frustrated back at the hospital actually, did you realize that?"

"Yeah, she seemed down about something" I mumbled, rubbing my chin in thought "She seemed desperate to tell us something too, though that is just a feeling from me at this point"

"Hmm, I didn't see that" Asuna mumbled thoughtfully "There's no reason to dwell on that right now though. We should focus more on The Parasite for now you know"

"Yeah, I know, you're right" I mumbled with a sigh "It's frustrating how much we need to go through though"

Asuna smiled a little and nodded before standing a bit closer to me.

"It's worth it if it's for you though"

"You are buttering me up too much" I said with red cheeks and a chuckle "But, I feel the same way about you, you know that right?"

"Of course I do hun" She said with a smile as she squeezed my hand "You wouldn't be willing to go through all of this if it weren't for my sake. You've told me yourself, right?"

"That's true, though I want to make sure you know"

"I know hun. I know"

She said this as she leaned up and kissed my cheek, and I blushed quietly and hummed in satisfaction as she pressed her lips onto my cheek.

"You are the sweetest woman I know"

"And you are the sweetest guy. Let's protect each other when we finally confront this bastard, okay?"

"Sounds like a plan"

Just as we promised each other that, Sinon approached us from further down the street, with Kyouji trailing after her with a small smile.

"It seems we should come back later Kyouji" Sinon said with a teaseful smirk "Love is in the air"

"Shut up Sinon" I said with a glare "Am I not allowed to love my girlfriend?"

"Of course, I just didn't know you'd planned to glue her to your body"

She jabbed at how close we we're physically, but I didn't care at that moment. I was starting to get tired of everything that my girlfriend and I had been going through in the last one and a half year, and I was beginning to lone for some closeness with my girlfriend, which was the reason I snapped back at Sinon a bit more harshly than I intended.

Though luckily, she didn't take offend to my snapping, but simply shrugged and laughed the situation off.

"Alright, serious time guys" Kyouji said with a serious expression "Sugou's hideout is in the slums of this city. We have to hurry if we want to catch him before he flees"

Everyone nodded at him in seriousness and began walking. I frowned quietly as we moved through the buzzling streets, people congratulating Asuna from left and right of winning the BoB tournament. I really wished for them to leave us alone though, since we really didn't have time for this in the first place. Though that does not mean I didn't appreciate their congratulations.

When we finally reached the slum part of the city, we could instantly feel how the atmosphere around us changed into something creepy. The surroundings quickly got darker, dirtier, and even the background music of the game turned into dark and creepy violin tunes.

When we walked through the slum streets, dark and creepy glares was sent our ways from players and CPU's alike, and I could instantly feel how a rush of cold run down my spine just at the thought of what could possibly be going on around these parts of town.

Soon we reached a bit more open plaza of the slums, and Kyouji turned around to stop us in our tracks.

"Alright guys, there's only a few more streets until we're there" Kyouji mumbled "Weapons at the ready. Even I don't know how much my boss is capable of, so who knows what might happen"

I nodded quietly and pulled out my sword and pistol. It was true, that since Sugou could hack the game currently, no one knew what he could possibly be capable of. If he was able to physically and psychologically scar me back in ALO, who knew what he would do to me and my friends if we pressed his buttons in the wrong way?

I frowned and looked around at the others to see if they were ready, and when they nodded we began to walk down the street once again. After a while we finally approached the hideout, and I could physically feel how the anger in my stomach rise as I saw the source of all of my pain and suffering, stand casually and chatting with a man in a suit outside a tall building. Sogou was in my line of sight.

I growled angrily and pulled back in my pistol to load it and get it ready, before storming up to Sugou and gribbed his collar, slamming him against a nearby building's wall.

"You are so dead you son of a bitch!" I hissed into his ear as I pressed my gun into the small space behind his jawbone, making him whimper in pain. I was so blinded with rage that I barely even noticed the others walking up on either side of me.

"Give me one reason not to splatter your brain-matter on this damn wall!" I shouted into his ear, blinded with my bloodthirsty want for revenge.

"I have no reason" Sugou said with a whimpering chuckle "Give in to your emotions, go ahead. Let loose the darkness within you"

I had a really hard time not killing this guy off instantly. He was basically trying to sound like a damn NPC, when I confronted him. He didn't take me seriously at all, and he didn't think that I could hurt him, which was pretty true in this situation. No one knew what I was going to do to him when we got out of the game though, not even myself at this point.

I pulled him away from the wall and threw him to the street, before looking over at Asuna and Sinon.

"Alright guys, I need you to look out after Sugou as I log out" I mumbled, getting ready to do so "I need to inform the police that we have him within our custody"

"Alright, we'll look out for him" Sinon said and frowned down at Sugou with disgust in her expression.

I quickly logged out and called Kikouka, the head of Sword Art Online Victims Rescue Unit, to tell him that we had finally caught Sugou. He sounded quite delighted, and told us that he would force a log out for both me, Asuna and Sugou, very soon.

I logged back into the game, and a horrible sight met me. I widened my eyes as I saw Sugou standing above Sinon, who was sprawled across the brick street as Sugou himself held a machine-gun against her, while the man he had been talking to kept Asuna pinned in a corner. Somehow, in the less than 2 minutes I had been gone, they had managed to overwhelm the girls and immobilize them both.

He smirked and turned around to face me, an insane look across his face as he dashed forward in a flash and slammed me towards a wall across the street, resulting in all of the air of my lungs quickly.

"Hehe, you are weak you little insignificant bastard" he mumbled with a smirk as he tried crushing my throat with his arm "I will go with you, on one condition,"

I could barely even respond him as he held an arm against my Adam's apple.

"W-What is… That?"

"Beat me one on one, and I will log out voluntarily."

"What keeps me from forcing you to log out?" I grumbled and tried to force him off of me to breathe "The police is onto you, you know…"

"Oh well, I have an answer for that too" He said with another smirk "If you guys force me to log out, every last player online now, is dead."

I widened my eyes as I heard that. I hadn't realized he might even have hacking capability to harm other people than Asuna, and myself. But now that I thought about it, if he was able to hack our accounts so only we and his henchmen would be in the BoB tournament, what held him from hacking every last player in GGO, and kill them if necessary?

"You bastard…" I growled as I tried to kick free of his grip "You won't get away with this."

"Well, that might be true, but" He said with a sadistic smile "At least, if I go to jail after this, at least I will have the satisfaction of knowing I will have taken you down with me"

"You're sick dude" I grumbled as he finally let go of my throat, letting me breathe.

I coughed a few time as precious air finally began filling my lungs again, and I glared up at him as I got back to my feet.

"Kazuto, you're not serious here, are you?" Asuna asked as she hurried over to me to get me away from Sugou "You don't seriously want to accept his duel, right?"

"Asuna, I have no choice!" I looked at Asuna in desperation "If I don't do this, innocent people will die because of it! I can't run away anymore! I have to confront him!"

Asuna frowned quietly and gripped my arm to pull me away to get some privacy. As Sinon and Kyouji tried to follow after us, Sugou pointed his weapons at them with a smirk.

"Don't you dare. Kazuto needs to convince his nagging girlfriend to let me kill him"

I growled angrily at his words and wanted to turn around and decapitate his head right then and there, but I strengthened my resolve and let me be pulled a bit further down the alley to let Asuna try to talk some sense into me, which I at this point was determined to not let happen.

I pulled her towards me and cupped her face in my hands.

"Asuna, listen to me" I whispered as I looked deep into her eyes.

I could see in her facial expression that she knew that I was right, and that frustrated her beyond recognition. She had always wanted to be by my side, to help me fight my battles, but at this time, if I wanted to save everyone from that psychopath, if I wanted just the slightest chance at a normal life, I had to take him on alone. And I had to admit that the thought scared me.

"Asuna, you have to let me do this" I mumbled as I held her close to me "if I don't do this, innocent people are going to die. They've done nothing wrong."

"You've done nothing wrong either," Asuna mumbled as she looked up at me, teary-eyed "You've never done anything but love and protect the people around you… This is not fair…"

"I know hun… I know"

I could only stand there and hold around her to comfort her for now. I felt so guilty because of all the worry I had had to put her through. But, if I could finally manage to bring Sugou to his knees, it would finally be over. Then I could finally focus on my future with my girlfriend, what I wanted to do with myself, and I could finally focus on loving the people around me.

All of those things had felt like a distant dream the last 2 years or so. I felt like I could never get to love Asuna, not when Sugou kept haunting me in the back of my mind. I knew I loved her, but all those wonderful feelings was cut short as soon as Sugou returned to my dreams, my thoughts or even in real life. He had haunted me and my family for too long, and it was finally time to pay him back.

I smiled and took Asuna's hands in mine, squeezing them a little before giving her a small kiss on her forehead.

"I'll see you on the other side, okay?" I mumbled quietly as I leaned my forehead against hers.

She smiled and hummed "Yes" In response, a single tiny tear rolling down her cheek as we embraced, possibly for the last time.

I knew Sugou wanted to kill me, that much had been clear for a long time now. What I couldn't comprehend was how a man could get as evil as he had been to me and my family. He had done nothing but threaten his way to the top, and now that someone denied him something he wanted, he had hurt so many people to get what he wanted.

I can't say that I didn't want to kill him badly as well. All the pain and suffering he had inflicted on me and my family, had began to make me feel absolute hatred towards him, make me want to kill him just as badly as he wanted to kill me. to be completely honest I had rather seen him in the ground than in jail, but to protect my future and the happiness of the people I loved, I knew that wasn't possible.

I was going to fight though. To fight for my girlfriend, for my family, for my friends. For the happy future I wanted to secure, for the safety of Yui, Asuna and both our families. I was going to protect them, rather than bring them danger.

I was going to finish it. Once and for all.

I looked over at Sugou with a frown as I approached him. I stood right opposite of him, my head maybe reaching the top of his chest. It irritated me that he was bigger than me, which might be an advantage for him if he manage to pin me down or something of the sort.

"Alright Nobuyuki, choose an area I can beat you in"

I hadn't meant to talk smack to him, but to be honest, I didn't care. I just wanted to get it over with.

"Hehe, you seem confident you little bastard" He said with a smirk as he looked down at me "Alright, brace yourself. This is the last time you see your precious girlfriend"

I took one last glance back at Asuna, and sent her a smile, before a beam of light teleported me and Sugou to the designated area, the area where we would seal each other's fates.

As we arrived at the area after about 20 seconds of loading, me and Sugou stood in the middle of something that resembled a ruin of an ancient Egyptian city, hieroglyphs adorning the wall and huge pillars holding up whatever was left of the old sandstone buildings. We took a final glance at each other before sprinting forward with each our own battlecry.

I growled and drew my plasma sword, and at the same time Sugou drew a pair of his own black swords, swinging them towards my head. I widened my eyes a bit and ducked before kicking at his legs, in response he jumped and tried to slash downwards at me with his swords. I only just managed to roll out of the way, a small lock of hair cut off and lying where I was lying only a few milliseconds ago.

I twirled around in a circle and pulled my pistol, quickly emptying the magazine at him. He smirked and simply deflected the bullets with his sword, like it was the easiest thing in the world. I feared that he wouldn't be that easy, but I didn't want to think it as possible.

"Hmph, you're not too shabby Kirigaya" he said with a smirk "Of course, you have basically no chance to beat me with these amazing stats I have"

"Hmph, we'll see about that Nobuyuki" I said with a frown ""I'll show you my will to protect the world from a psychopath like you!"

I dashed forward again and reloaded my gun, aiming to the best of my abilities. This was the final battle. And I was sure as hell not going to lose it.

A/N

I can't believe it, but somehow, I got through this week's chapter of After The Incident. Because of a writer's block I could barely even write Monday and Tuesday. I'm getting slobby XD

Anyway, thank you guys. I am so grateful to all of you, since now we have hit a 100 followers on After The Incident. It's incredible how far we've managed to get together, and I can't express enough how much it means to me to open up my computer, go on this website, and find so many warm and praising messages that guys take time out of your schedule to leave. Seriously, thank you so much.

I hope we can continue this much longer into the future. See you next week guys.