Sword Art Online: Back to Ones and Zero

by Latin Ramen

"Sometimes one can only see the futility of their own actions in hindsight". Looking back on his own struggles, all he can see is pointless suffering. This is the story of a boy, not a hero. A boy who has long since stopped fighting. Not all tales have happy endings, and in a game that traps 10,000 players in a fight for their lives, many are bound to end up with a "Game Over".

7. Chapter 7

3 Years: 162 Days: 13 Hours: 57 Minute: 9 Seconds Remaining

The boulders land and I'm somehow able to move again. In a swift motion, I unsheathe my sword and dash forward. It's the rest of my party's turn to be surprised now. Dynam and Dale have lost over half of their health which makes them a liability if we want the rest of us to get out alive. Johnny and PoH are looking at the shattered polygons that were once their friend with a dumbfounded look. I bring my sword down using a "Slant" skill. The fallen elf meets my strike with a standard curved sword block, but my superior strength stat overpowers him with a resounded clang and my sword cuts into the vital point on the side of his neck. The sound stirs the rest of my party back to life. Klein and Issin form a protective barrier around their fallen comrades while they get up and try to heal. Meanwhile, Iota, Johnny, and PoH rush up to help me.

With two elves streaking towards me I release a "Vorpal Strike". I shoot forward, precision directing my sword directly into the unguarded stomach of one elf. Attempting a rather risky skill chain I immediately adjust for a "Horizontal", simultaneously pulling my sword closer to my body and spinning 270 degrees. Although the chain itself works, my strike isn't perfect and it misses the soft spot on the neck and instead knocks the helmet off of my opponent. Realizing this, I attempt the much easier chain into a backward dodge. Glancing back, I notice another elf closing in from my back right. In the air, I twist my body in order to face the elf. Just in time, I manage to raise my sword to block. Then an arrow hits my shoulder. A feeling of numbness floods my arm in place of pain and I nearly drop my guard. Dodging to the side I disengage our swords and activate a horizontal skill, neatly slicing into the weak spot at the neck. Looking up with a quick glance, I see a row of archers standing on top of the pile of snow that blocks the pass. I took only a split second to wonder why there were bows in Sword Art Online.

"We need to take care of the archers!", I yell while thrusting my sword into another fallen elf's stomach. As I use every tool at my disposal to not only fight the massive number of oncoming elves but also dodge arrows, I glance around towards the rest of my party. All of them seem to be caught very off balance by the whole ordeal. Some of them seem very rattled; Klein and the rest of his recovering party can barely seem to hold their guard. On the opposite side of the spectrum, Johnny and PoH seem so enraged that they're leaving themselves with lots of exploitable openings. Even Iota seems to be upset, although not to the extent of the others. That means that at the moment I'm the only one fighting at full capacity. My emotions seem to be completely numb at the moment, which is allowing me to analyze the situation calmly, but once the adrenaline wears off, I doubt that will be the case. Currently, Johnny and PoH are about to be surrounded, so with a couple "Vorpal Strikes" targeted at other elves I manage to get myself over to them.

Fortunately, the elves agro is directed towards PoH and Johnny so a set of chained "Horizontal" skills allows me to take out a couple before their agro gets redirected. A couple of the elves turn to fight me and I bait them back with a small backward dodge. I attempt my "Vorpal Strike", spin and "Horizontal" combo again but the second skill doesn't catch and I feel myself lock up in movement lock. My opponent takes her opportunity to strike towards me, grazing me across the chest. When I unfreeze, I immediately drop down and sweep her legs out from under her. With a quick stab to the vital point, I once again turn to the rest of the field. A quick glance tells me that my darting around generally allowed me to escape agro. The elves seem to have been thinned out enough to try to deal with the archers. As I dash towards the pile of fallen snow, I remember that SAO has a climbing skill. Like most people, I've never even touched it, which makes me worried about my chances of getting up. However, the arrows are doing too much damage to be ignored. Using a "Vorpal Strike", I manage to reach the snow. Uses a combination of desperate scrambling and stabbing with my sword I manage to make it to the top, taking two arrows in the process.

A quick glance reveals that my HP gauge is hovering just above thirty percent remaining. The elves now all have their arrows aimed at me and in a split-second decision I execute a low "Vorpal Strike", sending my sword into the archer's stomach, and carrying me far enough forward for two arrows to whiz right over the top of my head. Rolling forward I use a skill activated punch to send the next elf crashing into the one behind him, knocking both of them off the snow mound. However, in the short delay after my punch, an arrow hits my shoulder. I feel my grip on my sword loosening but I still manage to activate a "Vorpal Strike" that kills the next elf. Looking forward at the final archer I see him release an arrow, not at me but rather down below. Before I can do anything, it hits Dale in his lightly armored chest.

3 Years: 162 Days: 13 Hours: 51 Minute: 10 Seconds Remaining

[Player 7a2daab4-6105-4c3b-915d-5d940b9874e5 has died.]

Dale has a look of determination on his face right up until he shatters into polygons. Releasing the last bit of my energy I'm able to kill the final archer. I finally collapse under the weight of it all. Looking down the rest of my party finishes off the rest of the elves along with the fallen archers. It doesn't take long for everything to dissolve even further though.

PoH storms up to Klein's party, "This is all your fault! You four were all too under leveled and we had to focus on protecting you all instead of saving ourselves."

Iota quickly comes up, "Calm down PoH. You're just trying to blame them. That was a surprise attack, there's nothing we could have done about Xaxa. I know it hurts, but you can't be consumed by rage."

"To hell with that", PoH says, and he swings his sword down towards Klein's undefended back.

Johnny and Iota grab onto PoH to restrain his uncontrolled flailing.

"Stop it", I say, sounding just as defeated as I feel. "I saw the boulders coming, but...I couldn't do anything. I wanted to help, but..."

I trail off, feeling empty.

"You can't just keep blaming yourself Kirito", Iota says, levelly.

"In that case, this all the more your fault then!", PoH yells, not at me, but at Klein with renewed strength. "If Kirito didn't have to worry about saving your sorry asses, he could have helped Xaxa!" he continues.

"PoH, stop!", Johnny yells.

Then Klein turns around and looks up. I'll never forget his expression. The wannabe samurai's face had completely broken. Gone was the grinning, determined face I remembered. What replaced it was one of utter despair. His face was contorted in grief and tears ran down his face.

"Look, man", Klein says, trying to put on a brave face. "I know how it feels. You want to blame anyone but yourself and circumstance. But, you gotta understand, I lost a friend today too."

I suddenly remember Klein telling me how his party had all been close college friends. Klein lowers his head.

"I think I finally understand what you meant back on floor 2, Kirito."

PoH face trembles a little before he shouts, "I don't care! Just get away from me!"

The remainder of Klein's party didn't need to be told twice. They trudged away through the snow. As they left, the sunrise peaked its way over the top of the of the snow that had hidden the fallen elves' ambush. The wounds I thought I had closed feel raw once again. Diavel's death. And now Xaxa and Dale. I wallow in my own powerlessness and the tears start to stream down my face. I once again marvel at Kayaba's foresight. I guess only he knew that tears would be a necessary feature of Sword Art Online.

3 Years: 150 Days: 9 Hours: 39 Minute: 56 Seconds Remaining

Forcing down my emotions had become a regular habit of mine now. Iota's commented on it several times, but I think he understands that I'm not just going to get over this overnight as I did with Diavel's death. At least he's been trying to support me as well as he can. Even so, I can only ever really express myself when I'm alone. I feel like I did before the launch of SAO. Trapped in the darkness of my room. Unable to get off my bed. I wanted to believe that leaving the real world would change all that, but no matter what, the air of melancholy seems to follow me around. Today marks the day of the eight-floor boss raid. Almost everyone else is preparing, but I can't even bring myself to do that.

The eighth floor consists of a forest of massive trees, far bigger than any of the previous floors. The trunks are all at least as wide as I am tall and the canopy brushes up against the bottom of the ninth floor. The surface of the floor is covered almost completely by water and to traverse it, you have to use man-made suspension bridges or climb across branches. Naturally, that makes falling into the water below fairly common. There are ladders positioned on various trees so usually after a quick swim you can be on your way again. However, on my way to the boss raid today one of the planks fell out from underneath me and I fell into the water. I swam to the partially submerged base of one of the trees and I've been sitting there for a while now.

Through the dense canopy, shafts of light illuminate the trunks of the massive trees, as well as the ever-present layer of moisture in the air. The visual engine of Sword Art Online only shows a player's full detail if they look directly at something to reduce the strain on the server, but if you look at one of the shafts of light you can see the mist swirling. Well, I guess all I'm doing at the moment is complimenting Kayaba, but it's still astounding.

I'm jolted from my musing by a large splash. The funny thing is that because of that splash I could tell that the water wasn't rendered all that perfectly. Everything looked too uniform and perfect to truly be a liquid. I started chuckling at the imperfection I just found. Thinking back, I remember the water on the fourth floor being similar. In other words, just too perfect.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up wise guy, you obviously fell down here too."

Looking up I see a figure I recognize swimming towards me.

"Asuna?"

"Yeah", she replies, making it to the tree base where I'm sitting. "What, do you make a habit of sitting down here so you laugh at people when they fall down?"

"Not even close", I say, flatly. "I actually just realized that the SAO engine has problems rendering water."

"Is that really worth laughing about? You're even more boring than I thought."

"Hey..."

"Oh please, you're always shouting off pretentious things about blame, and the only thing I've ever seen you do is fight virtual monsters and sit alone in a restaurant."

"In my defense, I'm only really responding to everyone hating me."

"Sure. But my point is that you're all trying to assign too much meaning to this game. It's nothing more than a death trap made to turn us on each other."

"Really, I do seem to remember you yelling at me for not doing anything about Diavel or the players who died on floor four."

"H-hey I was just in shock. And besides I wasn't really blaming you, I just wanted you to take clearing the game more seriously, and then you had to go and yell at me."

This goes on for a bit, while Asuna gets more and more flustered.

"I guess we're really all the same."

"Excuse me", Asuna say, looking offended.

"We're all just a bunch of pretenders. I played this game because I wanted to escape. You try to act superior but really you can get just as addled when someone calls you out. People refuse to accept their own weaknesses."

Asuna has a deadpan expression on her face.

"Okay Socrates,", she said snorting.

"Really, that's your response?"

"You're just trying to assign meaning to this death trap because that makes you feel better."

"Oh, we're playing that game, are we. Then you're just arguing with me because you can't accept the fact that you're wrong."

"Why you little-"

"Not that I want to interrupt...whatever is happening down there", a deep voice booms out prompting up both to look up to the top of the rope ladder we were supposed to be climbing up, "But we have a boss fight we really have to get to."

I recognize the face of Agil looking down at us. Asuna seemingly gets more flustered.

"Well anyway, you need to stop making such a big deal out of things", she says before promptly beginning to climb the rope ladder.

"Yeah, just as soon as I stop getting held responsible for people dying."

"What was that?!"

"Nothing, just keep climbing!", I yell, grabbing onto the rope ladder.

When we get to the top, I see the rest of Asuna's party snickering at her.

"Shutty!", she yells at them.

I chuckle a bit to myself and start climbing my way to a sturdier branch on the other side of the tree.

"Hey, where are you going", Agil calls out to me. "The path to the dungeon is this way. You've never missed a raid before, aren't you coming?"

"Shortcut", I yell back, precariously walking across a branch.

"Now you're just showing off", Asuna yells. "You falling is a perfect example of why I yelled at you after the fourth-floor raid."

"Oh really", I say turning around and smirking while walking backward, "I do recall you falling as well, on far less difficult terrain!"

"Oh, you're on", she says clambering up branches.

It's funny actually, once you know who a person really is, they're fairly predictable.

"Wait, Asuna, I put all my stats into a strength build", Agil shouts. "I don't know if the branches are going to support my weight."

I laugh to myself as Asuna, Agil and the rest of their party clambers after me. I feel glad that the air of melancholy has been lifted off of me. Nimbly, I climb across the branch and I remember why I like VRMMOs in the first place. Maybe it is a method to escape, but really, what's so wr0ng with thAt.

3 Years: 136 Days: 2 Hours: 31 Minute: 31 Seconds Remaining

With the Elven War nearing its end I was wondering how Kayaba would handle what he built up to be a massive battle. Especially since it didn't make sense for all of the game's players to be there at once. If the game had been released to the public, I would have expected the whole war to be a series of instanced event that way any and all players could play through the campaign. However, SAO is rather unique by comparison to normal MMOs. The campaign seems to evolve over time, not unlike a single player RPG. However, considering SAO's MMO nature, these two elements don't really work together. The way I saw it, the game was leading up to a climactic one-time event, which would suck for the players who weren't of a high enough level to participate yet, but would make sense considering how the game was designed to work as close to real life as possible. Kayaba ended up going in a slightly different direction with the end of the elven war and instead set it up more like a limited time event. As soon as the clearing group reached the ninth floor the war kicked into full gear. Battles were set up as instanced events that players could take on as quests based on their player levels. As long as the player was strong enough to complete the quest that starts the campaign back on floor 3, they were able to participate. Additionally, there were certain criteria that had to be met in order for the battle to be considered a win for either side, like getting the other side to retreat or completing an objective. The event ends once one side gets over one hundred wins and at least twenty-five more wins than the other. Just the other day the dark elves side cleared those criteria. We currently have 142 wins compared to the forest elves' 113. What this means is that we'll be able to initiate the final fight in the war. Overall it just gives us more options in how we attack.

Currently, we're in the middle of a planning cut scene. Our plan is to attack after dark using a massive force tonight. Over the past two days, the dark elves have been mobilizing our forces and moving them toward floor nine. Everything will be in position for tonight's attack. While the elves will be doing the majority of the fighting, player parties can sign up for roles in the upcoming battle. This ranges from fighting in the central battle to forces aiming to distract by starting fights on other floor and an advance force who will avoid the main battle in favor of trying to sneak their way into the forest elves' castle. My party falls into the latter group.

"So, we're going to head to the eastern side and uses ladders to scale the wall and gain access to the castle. We're then to kill as many of the remaining able-bodied fighters as we can from within the walls", Iota says.

Kayaba sure went the lengths to make this final battle interesting and complicated. The variety of roles and options for attack are astounding. Anything from siege warfare to ditching the battle and operating a stealth mission instead was an option. Hell, there was even an option to lure the other side's leaders into a trap under the pretense of a diplomatic solution and then kill or take said leaders hostage.

"We've been grinding up our speed and stealth in preparation", PoH says, referring to himself and Johnny. We haven't really discussed what happened on the seventh floor and I'm happy keeping it like that. My talk with Asuna was surprisingly pleasant and uplifting and ever since I've been able to push down the complicated mess that was the fallen elves' ambush.

"So have we", I reply.

"We should be ready, then", Iota says.

We proceed to exit the dark elves' castle which served as the location of the final war meeting. The third floor is somewhat segmented by large raised rocky ridges and the castle is built right up against one of them. Much like the eighth and ninth floor, the third floor's general theme is a forest. A good portion of all three floors are covered in woods, but in contrast to the massive, spaced out trees on the eighth floor, the third and ninth have much more reasonably sized forests. From there, the major difference between the two is that the third use a coniferous forest while the ninth uses a deciduous. Additionally, in place of the ridges and rocky outcroppings of the third floor the ninth has a multitude of lake lakes, which feed waterfalls that fill the floor below with water. Making our way to the central courtyard of the castle, our group teleports to the main settlement on the ninth floor.

"This is it", Johnny says, "Been looking forward to this for a while."

"Yeah, I've been interested in seeing how Kayaba wraps up the story."

"Geez, Kirito", PoH says, "I was kidding at first, but now I actually think you're some sort of Kayaba scholar."

"Sorry, I was a fan of his work before we got caught up in this mess, so I like to try and figure out what he was thinking while making this game."

"Whatever floats your boat, I guess", Johnny remarks. "I'm more excited about this massive battle though. You don't see large-scale MMO battles like this very often."

"Definitely", Iota replies.

Currently, we're following a small river by moonlight that brings us pretty close to the castle. We stashed our ladders further away in hopes that they wouldn't be discovered. In another frustrating Kayaba design choice, player's inventories have a size and weight restriction, meaning that we can't store ladders in them like some games allow.

"There they are", Iota says, pointing to our hidden means of climbing.

After a few more paces we reach the ladders.

"Alright, the main force should be engaging soon. We should wait for maybe fifteen minutes after that to give the castle some time to clear out", Iota states.

"Agreed", PoH replies.

It seems that Iota and PoH became the dominant decision-making body for our party. Whenever something comes up Johnny's usually happy to go along with everyone and I'm probably too busy contemplating things like why Kayaba choose to include a specific species of butterfly into SAO or something equally ridiculous. I guess that means I don't weigh into most of the decisions we make. I smile and chastise myself for a moment.

"All right, just got a message that the main force has engaged."

Hopefully, the parties that are attacking forest elf forces on other floors diverted a fair number of players and elven NPCs. In that case, they would have to send out more of their available forces, leaving the castle mostly unguarded.

After waiting for a while, we pick up our ladders and head towards the castle walls. Choosing a more shadowed portion of the structure, we begin to prop up or ladders and climb up the outer wall. The pathway on top is lit by evenly spaced torches. Looking back and forth none of us see any guards. After descending into the main grounds from one of the guard towers, we slink across a courtyard and into the main structure of the wall. We encounter our first elves in the form of a group of elves who are running out to begin fighting. We manage to surprise them by hiding in the more shadowed portions of the castle. We kill all of them with a little bit of effort and proceed to climb our way further into the castle. Eventually, we come across a room that been filled with wounded soldiers who are being tended to by some elves who appear to be nurses. The entire room lets out a gasp when we enter.

"P-please don't kill us mercenaries", the nurses beg us.

We examine the room for a moment before speaking.

"We should kill them", PoH says, "Who knows when they'll be able to reenter the fight."

He's right, technically these NPCs could be healed by way of potion and return to the battlefield. However, while logical, PoH's statement just seems doesn't right.

"But, they're defenseless", I reply, "We should just leave them. Besides our mission is pretty time sensitive."

"True, but on the other hand, these people are witnesses that could expose us", Iota says.

"It just doesn't feel right", I say.

"Since when have you had problems killing elves", Johnny counters.

I stay silent for a moment before Iota replies.

"Well, I guess you're right about the time constraint. Let's just get a move on."

I'm glad Iota was able to read how uncomfortable I was.

"Fine, I guess", PoH replies.

We run out of the room and start moving towards the top of one of the castle's inner wall. I can't help thinking about the room of elves. Why would Kayaba have even included it into the game? The potions could just as easily be used on the battlefield itself. There are some more serious injuries in SAO like amputations that need more time to heal, and while some of the elves definitely seemed to have sustained those types of wounds, many of other's injuries were relatively minor.

After a second, I realize that I was unconsciously treating the NPCs like humans, and to a degree, so were the rest of my party. They were assuming that the elves would take the most logical approach as humans without even considering whether they were programmed to do that or not. Deep down I have yet another feeling that Kayaba is trying to tell us something.

We reach the top of the second major wall of the castle. This one does seem to be guarded, but not very well, and we managed to dispatch the elves with relative ease. Even so, somehow it just feels a little off now. I take a brief moment to look out over the battlefield. The plan for the main force was to head directly for the front gate. The being that, the area in front of the front gate is relatively open compared to the gnarled forests that surround it on the other sides, leaving more room to fight. Something seems wrong though. The entire battlefield is a mess. After a bit of closer inspection, I can tell why.

"Fallen elves", I say, clenching my fists.

My entire party whips around and looks over the battlefield. Both fallen elves and forest elves alike are being massacred the fallen elves. Although their force in comparatively smaller, they're having no problem dispatching of their opponents. Looking out over the battlefield, I see elf after elf shattering into polygons. It's not just the elves either. I see players shattering as well.

"We have to go help them", I say.

Everyone in my party nods and we quickly retrace our steps with reckless abandon. The most skilled players were sent to infiltrate the castle, meaning that our most talented players are not part of the main battle. Whether a small group of four players will be able to make much of a difference, I don't know. But maybe the real reason we ran out to the battlefield was due to an unspoken agreement that we an ax to grind with the fallen elves. Even if the fallen elves weren't our true enemies, they represented the system and person who was. Either way, hopefully, other groups will follow our lead.

Suddenly, we notice another group of people. Jackson and Matrix's party. Jackson looks mildly surprised to see us. If I remember correctly, he chose to side with the forest elves. After a moment, he speaks.

"Look, whatever qualms we have we need to put them aside for now. There are people out there dying. Will, you help us?", Jackson asks.

"Of course", I say.

It's amazing how quickly the conversation was over. It occurs to me that just like I had told Asuna, maybe we weren't all that different. We both had our weaknesses, and we both cared about the people who were close to us, and we both knew when we had to act. Maybe we were unsure sometimes, but all of us had the power to alter the course of the battle. Especially together. We may never get along, but in the end, that was okay.

Together our two parties charged into the massive battle. It quickly became clear why the fallen elves were winning. Their weapons and armor were more advanced than anything the players or elves had access to. They also seemed to be heavily enhanced. Normally, I could use my superior strength to overpower the elves, making killing them easier. But now I had to rely completely on skill. I took every chance to chain skills together. Martial to a sword and back again. Not only did I have to save myself, but I also had to stop the people around me for dying. Even if there was nothing, I could do about Diavel or Xaxa or Dale, I could act now to save more people. As I dodged in and out, precision aiming every attack and movement, I finally understood what Asuna meant. Even if you couldn't save everyone, that doesn't mean you shouldn't try. I thrust my sword into the neck of one elf and I twisted to hit another with a "Horizontal" skill. I used the double strikes of "X-Slash" to stun my opponents. I dropped down to knock elves feet out from under them. Right in the middle of fighting, I noticed a certain purple haired dark elf. Kizmel. A moment later she noticed me.

"Kirito!", she said. "I thought you were on an advance team."

"I was", I replied, "But we noticed the mess that was going on down here", I duck under a sword, "and decided to lend a hand."

Kizmel smiled, "I can't thank you enough for all the help you've given us with the fallen elves. Let's fight on!"

I continue to dodge in and out of my opponents, happy that my skills were finally being used for something. Maybe it was a game, but when it came down to it, I was still saving lives. I thought back to our beginnings with the dark elves. Even though I know that Kizmel and the rest are just NPCs, they all act so much like people that it's hard to treat them as anything else. As this massive quest went on, I slowly began to realize that even though I had only chosen to side with the dark elves because I liked the loot better, now I truly wanted to save them.

After a moment, I ended up fighting back to back with Jackson. I twisted my sword to deliver a "Slant" skill to keep a fallen elf off of Jackson's back.

"Nice hit!", he shouted.

For a while, we ended up fighting with each other. We save a group from a particularly strong fallen elf and then brought down a few more. The tide begins to turn as more of the parties that were still in the castle slowly began to return to the battle. Even some of the elves who were in the infirmary.

"You know", Jackson said between breaths, "Maybe my initial opinion of you wasn't wrong at all. Maybe you're alright after all."

3 Years: 136 Days: 0 Hours: 9 Minute: 18 Seconds Remaining

He didn't notice the blade coming straight for him. It pierced his back with a sound of finality. The back I was supposed to be covering. A quick glance at his health bar told me all I needed to know.

3 Years: 136 Days: 0 Hours: 9 Minute: 17 Seconds Remaining

I quickly dispatched of the elf.

3 Years: 136 Days: 0 Hours: 9 Minute: 16 Seconds Remaining

Jackson watched his health bar deplete.

3 Years: 136 Days: 0 Hours: 9 Minute: 15 Seconds Remaining

"Maybe you were right. You shouldn't be blamed for something you don't have any control over."

3 Years: 136 Days: 0 Hours: 9 Minute: 14 Seconds Remaining

[Player 364097b2-596f-4165-862d-5d419f6bd992 has died.]

Everything around me seemed to change. Maybe we were winning, but it was never without a cost. Forest elves shatter a few feet to my left. A dark elf shattered a few feet to my right. A fallen elf shattered a few feet behind me. And a player, no a person, shattered right in front of me.

I had no choice but to keep fighting. The adrenaline that had kept me alive earlier was gone. The same adrenaline that had kept me alive while fighting Illfang. The same adrenaline that fueled my vengeance when I couldn't save Xaxa, or Dale. It was all gone now. Nothing but the feelings I had tried for so long to push down remained.

3 Years: 136 Days: 0 Hours: 6 Minute: 31 Seconds Remaining

I kept fighting to distract myself. Anything to keep what I kept bottled up inside from spilling out.

3 Years: 136 Days: 0 Hours: /? Minute: ?- Seconds Remaining

Every time I cut down an opponent it stung. A much bigger and intimidating fallen elf appeared. Must be some sort of boss. The rest of us rushed forward.

3 Years: -/- Days: - Hours: ?/ Minute: ?+ Seconds Remaining

A strike against him.

{} Years: +/- Days: ?_+ Hours: ? Minute: +? Seconds Remaining

A strike against me.

/ Years: +/\ Days: / Hours: \/ Minute: ? Seconds Remaining

Please stop.

/ Y3ars: +/\ dAys: / H0urs: \/ M!nute: ? S3conds R3main1ng

Why do you do this to me.

/ Y3Ars: +/\ dAys: / H0Urs: \/ M!nUt3: ? S3conds R3mA1n1ng

Kayaba.

0 Years: 0 Days: 0 Hours: 0 Minute: 0 Seconds Remaining

Kanamoto Atsushi.

0 Years: 0 Days: 0 Hours: 0 Minute: 0 Seconds Remaining

I guess my story was never meant to be happy. It was never meant to end properly. Even if I picked myself up again. It will always lead back to this.

/ Y3Ars: +/\ dAys: / H0Urs: \/ M!nUt3: ? S3conds R3mA1n1ng

AaAaaaAaaAh, WHY?!

/ Y3rs: +/\ dAs: / H0Us: \/ !nUt: ? S3c0ds RmA1n1n

/ 3rs: +/\ ds: / H0s: \/ !nUt: ? S3c0ds RA1n1n

0 Years: 0 Days: 0 Hours: 0 Minute: 0 Seconds Remaining

I'm sorry. Let's try this again. I suppose this story isn't quite over yet.

3 Years: 135 Days: 23 Hours: 22 Minute: 9 Seconds Remaining

"You can't blame yourself, Kirito."

"It's not your fault."

"You did everything you could."

Iota was there. So were Johnny and PoH. Asuna and Agil were too. Even Matrix was trying to help me. But I couldn't take it. It was my fault. I couldn't do anything. I was nothing more than a piece of shit. I couldn't even do what my parents tried to do. I mean my real parents. And they died trying. Why is it that when I'm surrounded by people, I feel the most alone?