Chapter 8 RED REDEMPTION
Everyone was in shock. They had just seen a player die right in front of them. Not for the first time of course, but this was the first time the death was one a member of those present had been directly responsible for. One of them had just killed a person.
Shampoo dropped her sword, the metal clanging against the stone floor. "I... I didn't... I wasn't..."
Ranma immediately put his hands on her shoulders and made her look into his eyes. "Shampoo, it wasn't your fault. He tried to kill you from behind. And if not you he would have done that to anyone. You were just defending yourself."
The swishing sound of arrows overhead caught their attention, cutting off anything else. Everyone looked up and saw arrows embedded in one wall and holes in the leather curtains, like someone had shot at them from the outside but missed badly.
"I think Kuno's trying to get our attention." Nabiki remarked.
"I've have enough of that guy." Akane muttered, looking towards the door. "We got to get rid of him or else he might send others for us."
"One thing first, Akane." Nabiki stated. "Kuno doesn't know we own this place yet. Whatever you do, don't give him any reason to believe we'll come back here."
"Yeah, I wouldn't want the big goon learning where we live either." Ranma added.
Akane nodded and stepped outside, allowing her to see where they had actually ended up. Right outside their new base was a stone porch with stone ledges, save for a small gap that connected to a rope bridge. Apparently the reason there was a bridge was because the base itself was built into the side of a canyon, sticking out a little bit but definitely in the canyon rather than above it. The gorge itself wasn't huge but too big to cross without a brief or climbing down and up the walls, with no end to the chasm in sight. The bottom was mostly dry and filled with sagebrush, but apparently some of the water from the interior well was spilling out through an underground chute and draining out directly under the base itself, starting a small river inside the canyon.
On the other side of the canyon was Kuno's group, standing there as if waiting to be followed. The archers were ready to fire again. Kuno stood by the bridge but not on it, and he could clearly see who had come out from this distance.
"I will speak only to Akane Tendo and no one else." He announced loudly.
Akane frowned. 'He's up to something. What does he want?' Looking at the swordsman who loved himself a little too much, she got an idea. "Wait one moment Kuno." She then walked back into the base. "Guys, I'm going to try something a bit... stupid. Trust me on this, and wait for the right moment to get me out of it." She said while pulling out an inventory menu.
"What are you thinking Akane?" Kasumi asked, speaking for everyone.
"Klein, do you still have that cactus juice from earlier?" The youngest member of the group asked, ignoring the question.
"The one with the warning? Yeah, why?" Klein asked.
"Can I borrow it? I think it might come in handy." Akane claimed. Klein shrugged and took out the item from his inventory and handed it to her where she soon pocketed it.
"Akane, what are you up to?" Nabiki pressed.
"I'm going to speak to Kuno, and hopefully see what he's trying to do." Akane explained, walking back out before anyone could stop her. But before she left, the others saw a dagger appear in her hands.
"You don't think she's going to...?" Kasumi asked but couldn't finish.
No one gave her an answer.
The short-haired girl started to walk across the bridge, stopping just before the halfway point. "Kuno, I'm here, but I'm not going any further. If you have anything to say to me you will come here."
Kuno smiled and stepped on the bridge. "Be ready in case the others try to attack me men." Kuno said before going too far. They nodded and kept watch for the the enemy guild hiding inside the stone shelter.
Kuno soon met Akane halfway across the bridge. "My dear Akane-"
"Stop right there Kuno." Akane immediately said, preventing him from getting more than three meters close to her. "Now, what do you want?"
"My dear Akane, I beg of you, leave Ranma and come with me. I can keep you safe, just like I've been keeping others safe." Kuno requested.
Akane withheld a sigh. "What will you do if I refuse?" She asked when she finally spoke to him.
"Then I will save you by force."
'You mean kidnap me.' Akane said to herself, trying to hide her frown. "In that case why should I bother resisting?" She asked rhetorically.
Kuno blinked. "You mean you'll consent to come with me?"
"It would be futile to refuse, especially given how you're so much more powerful than I am." She started. 'Ugh I feel sick just saying this.' She mentally groaned. "But Kuno, you look a bit bothered by the heat."
"A little heat isn't going to stop the Blue Thunder of Nerima." He boosted.
"Still, I think you could use something. Here, let me give you a drink as a gesture of my appreciation for you taking me away from Ranma." She pulled up her menu and took a small drink out of her inventory.
"A gift from you Akane?" Kuno asked, feeling happy enough to shed a tear. "I gratefully accept and enjoy what is surely sweeter than the nectar of the gods because you graced it with your lovely hands." He said as she gave it to him.
'Ugh, and you're a guild leader?' Akane groaned again. "Enjoy."
Kuno took a guzzle. "This tastes terrific. What is it?"
"Cactus juice."
Moments later Kuno's eyes dilated and his legs quivered. The programming attached to the cactus juice was directing his Nervegear into inducing odd sensations in his brain, similar to how alcoholic drinks came with programs designed to simulate the sensation of drunkenness. Only in this case, it was more like being drugged.
"What is wrong with me?" Kuno asked, down on his knees and clutching the rope of the bridge to stay up. His vision was blurred and wavy like he was looking at things underwater, with colors changing randomly. And he was starting to feel more unbalanced, like he couldn't tell which way was up anymore, and it was making him want to vomit.
"What's the matter Kuno? Drink something that didn't agree with you?" Akane asked knowingly, getting her dagger ready and tightly grabbing one of the rope handles of the bridge. "Now goodbye idiot."
She lashed out with the knife, but not at Kuno. Her intended target had always been the rope itself, hoping that it wasn't an immortal object. If it was, if she couldn't cut it, this plan of hers was doomed to fail.
The blade severed the rope, forcing one side of the bridge to drop down. Thanks to her planning Akane was supporting herself with the side that was still stable, but Kuno wasn't so lucky especially with his current state of disorder and vertigo, and gave into gravity, saved only by a lucky grab for the ropes holding the planks in place.
"Boss!" Members of Kuno's guild yelled in concern from their post, wanting to rescue him but unable to do so effectively. Right now it was too risky for any of them to get on the bridge too.
"Should we fire at her?" One of the archers asked.
"Can you do that without hitting him?" One of the sword-wielders asked back.
"Akane, what are you doing?" Kuno asked, hanging for dear life. He didn't dare look down in his current state of mind and see whether or not the fall was one he could survive.
"Giving you what I hope is a hint you can't ignore you dumbass." She answered, cutting the remaining support rope and balancing the bridge, making it bounce for a bit. Still holding on tightly, she moved to cut the ropes supporting the planks.
"Stop this! You'll kill us both!" Kuno pleaded. Normally he might consider them dying together to be a great romantic event, but faced with the reality he could only be afraid. And more for himself than for her. So naturally he tried to climb back onto the bridge, trusting his sense of touch to tell him what his eyes were distorting.
"Only if you're a worse swimmer than me in this game Kuno." Akane stated, cutting the third rope and leaving just one left. "Kuno, can you actually understand what I'm saying?" She asked to do one last test.
"Y... yes, I can't see you that well but I can hear you fine." He answered, trying not to show fear.
"Good, then for once in your life listen to me and listen good." The youngest Tendo said, twirling her dagger for a moment. "I don't love you, I never did love you, I never will love you, and I felt this way about you long before Ranma ever showed up. Get your head out of your ass and stop thinking you are who every man wants to be and every woman wants to be with."
"But you do love me." Kuno claimed.
"Then why am I doing this?" She asked, putting the blade of the dagger under the bridge, showing one good move would sever it and the bridge would be gone. Arrows were fired finally now that the archers felt they could aim better, missing her but it was clear they would try again. "As fun as this is, time to end it." She cut the rope, and the bridge fell to both sides of the canyon, with Kuno on one side and Akane on the other.
Akane wasn't afraid since she knew from the beginning that this would happen, but fear was the only thing strengthening Kuno's grip on the ropes. Both clanged against the cliffsides and Kuno briefly lost his grip, and fell for a short bit, saved by grabbing the stone wall of the canyon.
"Boss! We'll get you back up here!" Some of the guild members yelled to him, climbing down the damaged bridge to reach him.
"Be quick! I don't know how much longer I can do this!" He yelled back, his vision blurring to the point he could barely see shapes anymore, just colors. And the urge to vomit was still there.
Some of the archers shot at Akane, either to hurt her or cut the ropes she was climbing up. Akane used the planks like a ladder, and winced when she got an arrow in the shoulder, but she didn't stop climbing and soon reached the top. Not bothering to look back she went back into the base and pulled out the arrow.
"That should hold off Kuno and keep them from coming back here for a while." She said, hand pressing on her virtual wound.
"What did you do?" Kasumi asked, immediately checking up on her sister.
"I wrecked the bridge so they can't get here. I figure we can just repair it if we need to."
"So how are we going to get out?" Nabiki asked.
"We still have our crystals right? We can teleport home." Akane offered.
"Before we do that, maybe we should explore the entire interior of this base so we know if there are other ways in or out." Ukyo suggested.
"That would be the best idea if you ask me." Klein agreed.
Hours later it was nighttime and Kasumi was working at making dinner from stuff in their inventory.
"So far this place has nine rooms including this one but they're completely bare. Five on this floor and four on the second level. There's no doors out, but the hallway leading to the well does lead back to the desert." Klein told everyone after they were finished checking out the base.
"So we don't have much to work with here, but we can do anything." Akane commented.
"I wonder how much it would cost to buy furniture." Nabiki thought.
"It would be a good idea to do some quests and earn more in case." Ukyo said. "Even though that means walking around this desert more."
"Not fond of the environment are you?" Dynamm pointed out, noting that all this time on this floor Ukyo had been unhappy.
"I grew up near the sea. Desert is as out of my element as I can get."
"So you probably won't be spending much time here." Akane thought out loud.
"Not on my own at least." The chef replied.
"You okay Shampoo?" Kasumi asked, noticing that the Amazon hadn't said a word for hours.
"Guys, after we eat, I need you to follow me." She said.
"Where?" The group asked.
"The Town of Beginnings."
"What?" Everyone gasped. "The Town of Beginnings?"
"Why? We haven't been there since the first day of the game." Ranma asked.
"Us too. Most players who left haven't bothered going back." Klein added.
"Why do you want to go back now?" Akane asked.
"I don't, but it's the nearest teleport point to where I need to go." Shampoo explained. "As you know, when one player attacks another player their cursor turns orange. There are a few exceptions to this, but that's the general idea. Of course, over time the cursor will return to normal, usually a couple of days, but repeated attacks will result in the cursor staying orange. But when you kill another player who had a green cursor, your own becomes red. And it doesn't go away in just a couple of days."
"How long does it last?" Ukyo asked.
"I don't remember, but I do recall someone saying in the beta forums it could be permanent. Even if that's wrong, it's something I need to do something about. With my Beater status I've got enough of a social stigma here, being clearly labeled a murderer too will not help us. Not to mention there are some features that red players aren't allowed to have access to. Like some quests and safe zones. Most villages in the game are programmed to forbid red players from entering."
"Which means your ability to travel with the rest of us will be difficult, especially between floors." Kasumi noted.
Shampoo nodded. "Yes, but luckily I do remember reading about a way to go back to being green. And that's what I need to do. You might as well come with me so you know how to find it if anyone of you become red players later."
"And so we can help you out if there's someone unfriendly already there." Nabiki added.
"That too."
"What has happened to my brother?" Kodachi asked when Kuno's group returned to the place where the siblings had their guild currently located. It looked like an Indian palace made of marble situated atop a mountain in the southeastern side of Floor Four, with a long set of stairs going up to it. It was rather exhausting to get to, but that meant it was difficult for intruders to get to as well.
"He was drugged Kodachi. He spoke to a girl on Floor Six that gave him something and it's impaired his vision and coordination." One of the members of the guild told the gymnast, who was essentially the second-in-command to the group known as Glorious Storm. While he did the others who had gone with Kuno were helping him get to his personal chambers.
Kodachi gasped. "How is his Health?"
"Stable. Whatever drug he was given didn't affect his HP, but he did nearly die because of the experience."
Kodachi frowned. "Who drugged him?"
"It was someone he called Akane Tendo. I'm assuming that was her real life name, we have no idea what her game name is."
Kodachi's frown deepened and she clenched her fist. "That low class tramp who's been trying to take my Ranma away from me now stoops to poisoning my dear brother?'
"Did you see to it this harlot suffered for her act?" She asked.
"We could not. She got to the opposite side of a canyon and we could not find a way across. Plus we believed bringing Tatewaki back here to our medics was a bigger priority."
"Once my brother is returned to normal, I want there to be a search for this woman who nearly killed him. She will not get away with this, regardless of his infatuation with her." Kodachi declared, a gleam passing across her eyes when she finished.
The two guilds appeared in the main plaza of Town of Beginnings at around 9:05 PM. Some resident players were out for night strolls and looked at them, but paid them no mind and continued on their way.
"This feels a lot better." Nabiki said, pulling up her inventory and taking out her wolf pelt again, putting it back on.
"I can still picture the red cloak guy in the sky, right about there." Ukyo said, pointing towards the spot where Kayaba had made his big announcement on the day of Sword Art Online's launch.
"At least you were right about this town allowing red players entry." Kasumi said to Shampoo. "Though we should get out quickly before anyone notices your cursor. And try to avoid the local guild."
"Why?" Issin asked.
"One less distraction."
The streets of the town were less crowded than the last time they were there, but there were still those out simply enjoying the night. There were even some kids out having fun, couldn't be older than ten, and while kids weren't originally supposed to play the game, there had been nothing that actually prevented them from logging in.
'Poor kids, I wonder how they feel being separated from their families because of this game.' Kasumi thought, seeing them smiling but suspecting they were all missing their parents. Maybe a few had logged in with their parents, but it was just as likely some had logged in alone.
"Hold it." Two guys dressed in the armor of the Aincrad Liberation Army said, walking up and stopping the two guilds. They aimed their spears at Shampoo. "You're under arrest red player."
"On what grounds?" Ranma challenged.
"She's got a red cursor. That's all the grounds we need." One of the soldiers declared.
Ranma grabbed the two spears and shoved them against the soldiers. Taking advantage of their brief state of unbalance, he lunged forward and punched them both in the gut. Luckily since this was taking place in a safe zone, no damage could be delivered and thus his own cursor didn't change color.
The soldiers fell on their rears, not feeling pain thanks to their armor but Ranma wasn't trying to hurt them. "Let's go." He said.
"Hold it. We cannot let a murderer go free." One soldier said, trying to get up. Wearing armor tended to make getting up harder.
The Aincrad Wrecking Crew and Furinkazan guilds didn't bother responding, merely heading to the gates in a hurry. The soldiers likely wouldn't be able to catch them, but they would be able to contact others in their party.
With luck they managed to reach a gate and leave the village without being caught. Shampoo pulled up a map. "Alright, I think what I need is in the western part of Floor One."
"But we only really explored the east side." Ranma pointed out.
"Hence why I think it's on the west." The Amazon explained.
"No problem, we spent most of our time on the west side here." Klein claimed. "We can show you guys around."
"Then lead the way." Shampoo asked.
"What are you looking for?" Kasumi asked.
Up ahead, a wolf suddenly manifested on their path and charged at them.
"I got this." Klein said, running ahead with his sword ready. Once the wolf got close enough, he used one of his favorite attacks and killed it easily, getting no reward but a small amount of XP and Col.
"Monsters on this floor aren't going to give us a challenge anymore." Harry One said as their path took them into a forest, with no one making an effort to go around it. There was no reason for any of them to be afraid of Aincrad forests anymore.
"So what are you looking for again Shampoo?" Kasumi repeated.
"I'm not really sure what exactly it looks like. I just know it's supposed to be available on on Floor One and can make it so red players can become green ones again. We referred to it as the Redemption Quest, but I don't think anyone had a clear answer regarding how exactly to find it or what to expect from it. It was kind of obscure in the beta test, like the game designers didn't want us to find it."
"Why would they do that?" Dynamm asked.
"Well back in the beta tests they were laid out as single player from what I heard. A person in single player mode can't exactly PK anyone so there'd be no point to a redemption quest." Klein suggested.
"Is it real?" Ranma asked.
"I don't know, but I'm willing to find out."
"And if it isn't?" Ukyo asked.
"Then we'll go home and I'll just have to wait this out."
"I spotted a red cursor player within the city not long ago." One of the members of the Aincrad Liberation Army said when he was within the guild base, a building known as the Black Iron Palace. "They aren't alone but the other players all have green cursors."
He was talking to several of the lower level members who were eager to raise their levels. "What does the red player look like?"
"It was a woman, young and likely one of the teenage players. The most notable trait about her was purple hair."
"Purple hair?" One of the assembled players asked. "Did she have two buns on her head but mostly had her hair down?"
"Yes, she did. Do you know this player?"
"Yes, I've seen her before. I would like to be a part of the group to go find her." The player asked.
One of the others laughed. "You? Eagle Eye, you're the weakest one of us here."
"I must be part of this. I have a score to settle." The one called Eagle Eye insisted.
"C'mon, let the new meat have a go. Give him something better than a boar to fight." One of the guild members suggested.
"Anyone else wish to come along?" The one rallying the group asked, receiving some takers.
"If I remember correctly, it should be around here." Klein said as Furinkazan led the Aincrad Wrecking Crew along the slope of a mountain.
"Can't you just pull up a map and find it that way?" Nabiki asked, a map screen in front of her looking for anything in the vicinity.
"We try not to be dependent on maps, learning more from a feel of the land. Map screens can be a dead giveaway to some field monsters and potential PK-ers at night." Klein replied, speaking from experience.
"What are we even looking for anyway?" Akane asked.
"This place we couldn't enter before." Klein answered. "It said on the door 'Red Redemption' and refused to budge. Maybe only someone with a red cursor can get inside."
"Good enough for me." Shampoo said.
"'Red Redemption'?" Ranma repeated. "Kinda obvious don't you think?"
"Well there are a hundred floors in Aincrad and each is filled with dozens of features and quests. Odds are the game designers were more creative with some parts more than others." Nabiki theorized.
Time went by, and in the darkest parts of the night they came to a stop.
"Shouldn't we camp here and call it a night?" Dale asked. "Maybe we'll have a better chance finding it during the day."
"Not a bad idea." Ukyo said while yawning loudly, getting tired.
"Feel free to do that. I'm going to keep looking." Shampoo said, the weary tone of her voice betraying her resolve.
"Get some sleep Shampoo. Aren't you more likely to do better in this quest if you don't spend half of it yawning?" Kasumi asked. Not in the mood to challenge her, Shampoo relented. "Alright, get some rest. I'm going to message Tofu to let him know we're going to be camping tonight so he doesn't wait up for us."
"Shouldn't we have done that before we even came to Floor One?" Akane asked.
"Yes, but we kind of had other things on our minds back then." Kasumi replied, pulling up her menu and soon typed in a message to the final member of their guild. "Who's going to take the first watch?"
"I'll do it." Klein volunteered.
The group of players from the Aincrad Liberation Army that went out to seek the red cursor player ended up consisting of eight players total. Not knowing where to look, they split up into two teams of four and went off to search.
"So, what did you mean when you said you had personal business with the red player?" One of the members of a team searching northwest of Town of Beginnings asked. He was called Kenji, and he was one of the first members of the guild back when it was still forming. He looked like a high school senior, give or take a year, with pale brown hair that looked too plain to be described any other way, copper brown eyes, and had the kind of face that made him look like he was about to give you a present. He was dressed in the standard grey armor that the Army had made its trademark attire by now and carried a trident.
"Let's just say the red player and I have a past." The other member of the group, Eagle Eye, replied. He was the newest member of the guild and by far the weakest and lowest in level. To the others, he appeared to be a Beginner who got tired of sitting around the Town of Beginnings and joined the guild to pass the time. He looked a bit younger than Kenji, but he had long silvery hair kept back in a low ponytail, azure blue eyes, and often looked like he was trying to be charming. Unlike his partner he wore a green and brown bandit's outfit, claiming that a suit of armor would only hinder him in his preferred form of combat.
"Did she try to kill you once?" Kenji asked, looking around once he heard a noise.
"No, she did something worse. She completely abandoned me when all this started." Eagle Eye hissed. "By the way, that was just an owl you heard."
"So on Log-In Day she just ditched you in Town of Beginnings?" Kenji asked, using the title most players had given the first day of the game.
Eagle Eye nodded. "Yes, and it even started before that. You see, she had told myself and several others online about the game and her experiences when testing it out-"
"So she's a Beater?" Kenji asked.
The dark-haired player nodded. "Yeah, but back in the real world, everyone who got to test it talked about it to others."
"Wait, are you a Beater too Eagle Eye?" Kenji asked, looking slightly hostile now.
"No, I never got that chance. But I heard her talk about it at her job. She worked at a restaurant and sometimes she'd speak to some customers about the game if they knew anything about it. Once in a while I got a chance to join in. I said as soon as I got a copy I'd like to see her in it, and she said that was no problem. Yet when it came time, she blew me off to go be with some other players."
"Maybe she just forgot." Kenji suggested, stepping over a fallen log.
Eagle Eye shook his head. "No, that's impossible. I came to her before the official launch and told her I was ready. You know what she said? She told me she had already promised to show it to some friends first and I'd have to wait until later if I wanted to play the game with her. When I managed to log in on my own, I couldn't find her at all."
"So when you say you have personal business, what you mean is you tried to use the game as a way to woo some cute girl you saw at a restaurant but she stood you up instead and you feel she owes you something for it." Kenji stated.
"Not just that. The reason she stood me up was to be with this jerk. Around town this idiot seems to get all the girls and I mean all of them. Leaving none for the rest of us. Many guys like myself wish he'd get taken down several pegs. Most are just too afraid to do anything, but here in this game he's not as tough as he used to be."
"I guess I can understand. Around my own school there were some guys who seemed to get all the girls too and made the rest of us look like losers. Who wouldn't want to occasionally dethrone them?" Kenji asked. "You think they're together somewhere here?"
"My guess is yes, and when I find either, I'm going to give them both a piece of my mind." Eagle Eye threatened.
Klein's shift ended, and the next one to take up the night watch was Nabiki because she currently had the best Night Vision skill out of her group. Rather than stay in one place and just watch for danger, she decided to patrol around the campsite, carefully moving between the trees and hiding behind the bushes, staying as much out of sight as possible. The cursor and health bar around each player was often a dead giveaway at night. forcing all players to avoid simply relying on the cover of darkness.
'So far there aren't any animals in the area, but they're not the concern here.' She thought, keeping an eye out for other players, primarily those from the Army or Kuno's guild that might have somehow followed them back here. But considering that they had been spotted by some members of the Army, members that seemed to follow the Neriman habit of 'Judge first ask questions never', those guys were currently her biggest concern if they chose to chase her guild down.
'So apparently a red cursor automatically means guilty of murder in the first degree. No self-defense, no accident, just plain and simple PK-ing for the fun of it. Man the legal system in this world sucks.' Nabiki thought. 'Scratch that, I don't think it even exists. We're so focused on getting the game over with and not dying in the process, I don't think anyone has really considered how to make this place livable until then. We're fighting off death and boredom, but leaving ourselves vulnerable to barbarianism. Someone should...'
Nabiki stopped herself when the thought fully came to her, causing her to develop her trademark victory smirk. 'Yeah, I should do that when this is all over. It won't be easy, but if I cover my bases and act fast enough, I believe this will work beautifully.'
She had to halt her current train of thought when she heard some noises. Taking cover in some bushes, she was on alert for any threats.
The noise was heard again and since she was paying more attention now she could tell it sounded like two things crashing together for a moment. Moving on all fours she silently crawled closer, her pelt making her look at first glance like a wolf on the prowl.
'I'm glad I've been working on my stealth for a while, and now might be a great opportunity to try and improve it some more.' She thought, eager to see what she could do on her own. 'There's no job system in SAO, but if there was I think my skill set would lean more towards the role of assassin. Being sneaky, unseen, spying on others and hitting them with quick strikes, that's perfect for me. Though I hope I never have to actually kill anyone with these skills.'
The crashing sound was heard again, making her pause for a moment. She also heard some grunts following it.
'What roles would fit the others? Hmm... with her sword and shield, I'd say Kasumi is a knight, as weird as that is to say. Ranma and Shampoo are both martial artists but Shampoo has some knight skills as well. Ranma on his own is or could be more like a tank player.'
For those unaware, a tank player was someone who focused their strengths more toward defense and endurance. They were front line players, fighting alongside the knights just as effectively, however their primary purpose was to take hits from the enemy and withstand them, allowing their teammates more opportunity to retaliate safely.
Fighting in the front lines while also getting the opposition to pay more attention to him, thus giving his allies a chance to strike back while the enemy was preoccupied, that was very fitting for Ranma in a game like this.
'Akane and Ukyo, with their weapon preferences and fighting styles, they're not quite knights or tanks. The only role term in gaming that comes to mind for me is barbarian. Someone who puts more emphasis on offense than defense. It sounds to me like those two are still undetermined, so they're adaptable for other roles we might need later. Such as tracker, craftsman, beast tamer, or something.'
'Speaking of roles we might need, Tofu probably could have been a supporting role, like a healer or archer. Maybe even a bandit or rogue, if he wanted to be more active. But no, he's still our healer, but his primary role is now fort-keeper or whatever the official gaming term is. Guess it's not that different than how he was back in Nerima, but it's not exactly as helpful here.'
Nabiki got to an edge in the forest, with a small open area exposed filled with grass and scattered rocks on a landscape that went horizontal for a bit then sloped up the rest of the mountain. Here she saw two animals attacking each other. Both looked like American bighorn sheep, but they possessed four curled horns instead of two and were colored like snow leopards, and they were butting heads like such animals do. The icons that helped players identify field monsters labeled them as Kabuto Sheep.
'Well, at least it's not something dangerous.' The mercenary though, seeing the sheep ready to butt heads again. 'Here's my chance.'
The two sheep came at each other, and just before their horns collided again Nabiki dashed forward, a dagger in her right hand that was glowing from a sword skill of hers. The sheep noticed her but it was too late for them to change their current actions. Nabiki struck the one closest to her, her dagger cutting down the side of the sheep's body from front to back leaving a pixelated gash. It collapsed and looked like it was in pain, but it wasn't dead yet, Health depleted to the red but still there.
The uninjured one took the opportunity to try and attack the mercenary. She jumped away doing a backflip without even thinking about it.
"Damn, don't think I could ever do that in real life." She muttered proudly, sheathing her dagger and pulling out a short sword. She started charging up a sword skill again, but the Kabuto Sheep came back at her before she had anticipated, so she jumped up above it.
Up in the air, Nabiki pivoted incredibly acrobatically and made herself upside down, holding the sword close to her while pointing down directly at the sheep. On instinct she thrust the sword down and practically dived at it, impaling the field monster in the back. This time, the sheep died instantly and dispersed quickly.
Nabiki landed on her feet crouched down, not even aware how she turned back right side up. "Whoa, that was a new one. Did I just unlock a new skill?"
A screen appeared before here. "Level up. LVL 16. EXP Gained 350. Col Gained 285."
"Neat." She said, pulling up and tapping her skill menu to inquire more about the move. One on her list had a pound sign next to it, implicating that it was a recent acquisition, so she tapped it for information. "Hmm... Upper Assassination. An attack from above a target that doubles your Attack power for that one move but lowers your Defense for thirty seconds afterwards. Alright, have to be carefu-"
"I saw a flash over this way." An unknown male voice could be heard, making her silence herself.
"You sure it wasn't a field monster?" Another male voice added.
"No, but you want to pass up the chance to look?"
'Time for me to scram.' Nabiki thought, darting off as quickly yet quietly as she could. When she got into the foliage she got on the ground and crawled instead, making it harder to track her in case they had such skills. 'It would be so much easier to remain stealthy if they were NPCs.'
Two people came into the clearing, with her unable to see them but still able to hear. "Someone wounded this field monster but didn't finish it off."
"They had to have heard you then Kenji."
Nabiki arched an eyebrow. 'That voice, it's a little... familiar.'
"Might as well finish it off. We could get some meat out of it." Kenji said, putting the virtual animal out of its misery and getting some rewards from the kill.
'I better create a distraction so I can get out of here faster.' Nabiki thought, grabbing a rock and throwing it away from herself and the clearing. It clanged against a tree and then the ground.
"This way." The still unidentified but familiar voice said, followed by rustling of two men moving toward the sound.
'If I had to guess, I'd say it looks like the Army is sending people after Shampoo. If we don't find this redemption quest soon, we might be better off staying away from Floor One for a few days until they stop looking.' Nabiki told herself, taking the opportunity to move quicker. After a moment to make sure she was in the clear, she got up and hustled back to camp on foot.
"Wake up everyone, we've got threats in the area." She said at a moderate volume, adding in the effort to shake some sleepers awake starting with Kasumi.
"What is it?" Kasumi asked as she yawned and rubbed her eyes.
"Someone's looking for us, and unless we move now, they'll find us." Nabiki clarified, moving to wake up the others too. Kasumi got up and helped her, and in no time both groups were awake.
"We need to either get to the next town quickly, or find this redemption place just as quickly." Ukyo noted, not liking the idea that someone was hunting them down. Especially when she could be sleeping after a long day in a sweltering desert.
"They're going to expect us to go to the next town. So we should keep going where we came here for in the first place." Klein claimed.
Dynamm decided to take the risk of alerting their pursuers and pulled up a map screen. "The map says there's a building here by a cliff. We have to go left and do a little careful climbing here."
"We have to climb a cliff?" Akane asked. "Isn't doing that at night with no gear extremely dangerous?"
"If I remember correctly, we won't have to." Dynamm added, putting away the map and heading left, with the others following.
After a while the forest thinned out and they saw a cliffside. And as expected they were at the bottom of one, but there was a ledge carved in allowing them to go up, albeit on a narrow path.
"Oh yeah, we have to go up this route." Klein recalled. "Careful though, there were a lot of falling rocks the last time we did this."
"Why did you go up this route again?" Kasumi asked, looking at the cliffside and already feeling a bit of hysterical vertigo.
"To see what was at the top. What else?" Klein answered. "We'll go first if that will make you feel better."
"How will we get down?" Akane asked. "Is there another path?"
"Give us a break, we haven't been here in months, we can't remember every detail." Harry One said. "But we can get down the same way if we have to."
Nonetheless, the Furinkazan guild went up first, one player at a time. All of them stayed close to the cliff wall and occasionally looked up, some even holding up shields above their heads. Shampoo was the first of her guild to follow, and the rest followed her.
A rumbling sound made everyone freeze and it was sheer luck that the rock that came down hit Kasumi's shield instead of one of the exposed players.
"That sounded like it would have hurt." Ranma mentioned, as the sound of the collision did sound painful.
"No more than some of the hits you've gotten before Ranma." Akane lightly joked.
"Yeah, but I'd rather not have that old trend start up again here."
More rocks fell as they continued up the path, especially as the slope increased. The shield users started moving their shields to cover the others, but some of them still ended up taking hits and losing some Health, but nothing they couldn't recover from. The headaches would likely remain longer than the damage to their HP.
"We're here." Klein announced when they got to the top, which was just a small outcropping on the side of the mountain. The only features here were two trees and an abandoned cabin. The windows were broken and the roof had a hole in it, clearly not a place any player would call home without some renovations.
"You sure this is the place?" Ranma asked.
"Yeah, I mean this looks like it needs to be repaired to be called a piece of crap." Ukyo added.
Klein and Shampoo moved to the front of the cabin, seeing a faded door with the words 'Red Redemption' painted on it in chipped red paint. "Yep this is the place we saw." Klein said.
"Give it a try Shampoo." Nabiki said.
The Chinese Amazon went to the door, seeing a broken handle. Testing it, she put her hand on it and turned.
There was an unlocking sound and the door swung open inward.
"So we were right. It will open for red players but not others." Klein said.
"Good luck Shampoo." Ranma told her to give her some encouragement.
With a smile and a nod, Shampoo gave her friends a last look then went inside the cabin.
The room looked like any normal single room cabin in the woods, with spider webs, peeled and stained wood, holes in the walls that rats likely used, and rotten furniture. The weirdest thing were five portraits on the wall next to each other and all were painted completely black. Above the frames was a banner pinned to the wall.
'Only when your face isn't here'
Shampoo arched an eyebrow at those words. 'What could that mean?'
Behind her she heard the sound of a door closing, but when she looked behind her the door was still open. She couldn't see anyone, but it was likely they weren't going to spend all their time just standing in front of the cabin when they could get some more rest in. Looking around the interior, she saw there was a door at the back.
Carefully, she opened the door and looked inside. On the other side there was a hallway. 'Strange, the cabin doesn't look this big from the outside. Then again it's not uncommon for game scenery to have disproportionate interiors and exteriors.' She went down the hall, eyes peeled for any signs of what she was supposed to do.
The hallway came to a junction, splitting left and right like a T. Neither gave her any hints as to which one she was supposed to go down first or if there even was an order to this.
"This is nothing like I imagined." She said to herself.
"Same here."
Shampoo gave a surprised shriek and jumped, turning around and trying to throw a punch out of habit.
"Whoa whoa it's us Shampoo!" Ranma said, ducking under the punch.
"Airen?" Shampoo asked, seeing the rest of her guild in the hall. "I thought you guys were staying outside. And wait, how could you even get in here in the first place?"
"I guess because you never closed the door. There was nothing there to stop us." Ukyo claimed. "Plus we heard something in the area and thought this might be a good place to wait them out."
"The others are going to hold them off for us. They insisted" Kasumi added.
"O... kay..." Shampoo said, finding that rather weird, but there was no real point in arguing it. 'Wait, I can't see their health bars. Why? Is this a glitch or something?'
"What do you do now?" Ukyo asked.
"Well, I have no idea where to go. This is too vague. I almost wonder if the program for it is incomplete." Shampoo admitted.
"Maybe you should just pick a path and go from there instead of overthink it." Akane suggested.
Shampoo shrugged. "Might as well." Looking at the forked hallway again, she wasted no time. "Left, because why not?"
The hallway remained bare, although at this point there did seem to be some damage to the walls. Like there had been a fire in there at some point but not bad enough to make the place collapse on itself. The hall ended at another door, with a message written on it.
'Forgiveness is not without cost.'
Shampoo blinked. 'Is this place just full of riddles to shame the player or something?' She put her hand on the handle and tried to open, but it wouldn't budge even after a few tries. "It's locked."
"Let's try the other way. That might have the key." Ranma suggested.
Shampoo nodded and turned, but the hallway was replaced with a large room. "Whoa, when did the scenery change?"
"What do you mean? Nothing's changed." Nabiki told her.
"Yes it has. This was a hallway." Shampoo insisted. "There's no way you couldn't have noticed this."
"You sure you're not imagining things?" Kasumi asked.
'Maybe it's programmed to be confusing. A quest of this nature probably isn't intended to be easy or else having a red cursor will be someday seen as a mere inconvenience.' Shampoo thought, resigning to the change. 'But how could they not notice? That's not normal.'
There were twelve doors in the room including the one Shampoo had been trying to open just moments ago. Everyone except Shampoo started walking to separate doors, but once they took a step each one was standing atop a glowing red circle for a moment.
"What the heck?" Akane asked, moving to jump away but red chains emerged from the ground and wrapped around her ankles and wrists. The same happened for everyone else, binding them in place in close proximity to each other. Shampoo was the only one lacking any chains.
When the glow left the floor, the doors opened all at once. Standing at the entrances were armed men, two in each doorway, who immediately rushed at them.
Shampoo pulled out her sword and moved forward. "Can you guys still fight?" She asked her guildmates.
"I can't reach for my weapons." Ukyo said, panicking. The chains greatly restricted her arm's movements.
"I can't either." Kasumi added, sword handle just outside her restrained hand's reach.
Shampoo wanted to tell them something reassuring, but she had to focus on defending them while she could. The attackers were clearly going to go after the helpless players, and since she was the only one free to fight at full capacity she couldn't waste time telling them anything that they were likely telling themselves already.
The Chinese Amazon went for any and all ambushers she could, slicing at them with her sword. She didn't stay focused on any one single target long enough to do any sword skills or addition damage, preferring to keep them away from her guild mates while they continued to try and get free.
As they struggled Kasumi lost her balance and fell on her side, bumping into Ukyo and knocking her over too. With a pained groan the quiet housekeeper saw something come over her, and looked up to see two men with swords pointing down. She tried to roll, but the chain halted her on her shoulder and the two men proceeded to stab her repeatedly, her screaming in pain the entire time.
Shampoo's eyes nearly popped out of her head and she nearly dropped her sword when she saw the oldest Tendo daughter disperse in a flurry of particles.
"KASUMI!" Akane and Nabiki shouted in horror, dropping their guards inadvertently. This gave one of the other attackers a chance to stab Akane in the back, making her cry out too and rather quickly disperse in player death.
Ukyo was able to get back on her knees and tried to block one of the swords with her chains. This worked, but the sword didn't retract. Rather it slid across the chain to bypass it and stab the chef where her neck met her collar bone. Her death was almost immediate.
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Shampoo hollered in fury as she decapitated one of the attackers and moved to bisect the next that entered her vision. She wasn't sure when she had started lashing out with sheer savagery, but seeing her guild mates, the people she now called friends, die like this, it was time to take the words 'Obstacles is for killing' very literally.
Nabiki and Ranma tried to defend themselves with their chains, the mercenary still trying to reach for her short sword. Ranma conversely tried fighting back despite the chains, resulting in him getting a few hits and reduced Health, but at the same time it was making it harder for the attackers to get any actual lethal hits on him.
One of the attackers tried to cut off Nabiki's head, but she ducked before the blade could touch her neck. The head of her wolf pelt got its ears clipped though. But when she was down an attacker from behind stabbed her in the left leg, forcing her to lose balance and collapse.
"Help!" Nabiki begged, seeing the first attacker drive his sword into her chest.
Shampoo stopped her assalt and tried to get to her, only to see Nabiki get deleted as well, leaving only her and Ranma left, and Ranma looked like a few more hits would kill him too. She wasn't much better off, her Health was very low but still in the yellow.
"Hold off everyone." A new voice called out, and all the attackers pulled back but stayed close to Ranma. A figure stepped forward and pulled away a hood, revealing Kuno's face.
"You? How did you get here?" Shampoo asked, not expecting this.
"Not important. What is important is that your guild pays for killing one of my men."
"You're going to kill us all just because I accidentally killed one of yours? Aren't you supposed to be a man of honor?" Shampoo countered.
Kuno looked like he could not be more indifferent to her. "This is a game, not the real world. Honor is no longer a factor here."
"And why did you let your guildmates kill Akane?" Shampoo added to test his reaction.
"She chose Saotome over me. If they wish to be together, I will permit their union only in death."
Still glaring hatefully, Shampoo wiped her eyes, only then realizing she had been crying for a bit as well. "I hated what I did. I still do. I know I once talked about killing people like it was nothing, but it's not. I'm sorry that I killed a member of your guild, but you've gone too far."
"I disagree." Kuno said, pulling up his sword so he could finish off Ranma himself.
Once the sword went up, Shampoo went forward. The moment felt like it took forever for her, each pause between each footstep an eternity shoved into a fraction of a second, and she barely even registered the attacker that tried to intercept her. Her sword clashed with his and she freed one hand to add in a punch to his face, never ceasing her attempt to get to Kuno. In her focus to do so she didn't let go of her sword so she wouldn't be distracted by the interceptor.
The Chinese Amazon jumped at the kendo club captain, fist pumped and ready to slug him with all her game-permitted might. Kuno saw her and brought his sword down, changing the angle of its descent to hit or deflect her first.
The sword hit the shield Shampoo currently had on her back, and normally it would be deflected off. However, the shield cleaved and the sword embedded itself in the purple-haired girl's back. The impact made her halt with only momentum keeping her going, and she collapsed on top before she could land a hit on Kuno.
As she saw her own Health bar drop closer and closer to zero, she looked to Ranma who could only gaze at her with fear. Eyes watering for a moment, she closed them and tried to smile.
"I love you Airen."
Her Health reached zero, and a message appeared before her.
QUEST COMPLETED
'What the...?' She asked, seeing a flash of light. 'I died, didn't I?'
The light faded, and she found herself inside a different room. In fact, it was the same room she saw when she entered the cabin in the first place. The only difference was that one of the all black portraits now showed Shampoo herself, smiling with her hands on her hips and the word 'Redeemed' embroidered on a plaque.
"Wait, it's over? I got it done?" She asked, confused as hell. Looking at her own stats she saw her Health was completely full and when she cautiously checked her team stats they all registered as alive. The map showed they were still outside the cabin along with Klein's guild.
"So that was all some kind of mind trick? Everything was just in my head?" She asked herself. "I'm in a virtual reality simulation where everything I perceive is because of a machine and program stimulating my senses, and I can still hallucinate? Boy, the people who made this game really went all out."
Getting up off the floor, she went to the door and walked out, seeing her guild, her friends, still alive and unharmed. Seeing them, she started crying in relief.
"Hey Shampoo, you done already?" Nabiki asked, the first to see her.
Everyone else looked to her when they heard this.
"She must be. Her cursor's green now." Kasumi noted, pointing to the icon above the Chinese Amazon's head.
"Great, now we know what to do if this problem ever comes up in the future." Klein said. "Though we ought to not tell just anyone. We don't want those who do player-killing for fun getting any ideas."
"Good thinking. Though I think this is going to get leaked out sooner or later." Nabiki commented.
"You okay Shampoo?" Akane asked, seeing the girl was still crying and she didn't look like she could stop.
"I..." Shampoo started, trying to keep herself composed but she was failing. Then all of a sudden, she rushed forward and quickly engulfed Ranma in a hug, letting herself cry openly now. The pigtailed teen had no idea what to do and just stood there, with everyone watching.
"What's got her so worked up?" Issin asked.
"My guess is this quest isn't just some treasure hunt or monster slaying. It's called the redemption quest, you probably have to deal with something very emotional in there." Kasumi suggested.
"What do you say we head home now?" Akane suggested.
"That sounds good." Uyko agreed with a nod.
"You're not going anywhere." Someone announced, and everyone got defensive.
From out of the forest emerged Kenji, hoisting his trident in his left hand and a net in his right. "I'm under orders to capture the red player and bring them to the Town of Beginnings to stand for trial."
Nabiki frowned and stepped forward. "Listen buddy, this is our problem and the Liberation Army has nothing to do with this. So get lost."
"Yeah. Besides she's not a red player anymore." Ranma added.
"Sorry folks I'm just doing my job. It's not my place to decide whether or not she's going to be punished for murder." Kenji stated.
"And what gave the Army the right to pass judgment on the rest of us?" Klein challenged, with his friends nodding.
Kenji sighed. "Look guys, I don't get involved with politics. Let's just go back to town and get this over with."
Everyone pulled out their weapons. Ranma got Shampoo to let go though and he instead took up a stance.
"How dumb do you think we are? You expect us to believe you actually came here alone?" Klein asked. "Where's your support?"
Another man came out of the forest,. "I just wanted to verify some identities first." The silver-haired man looked over the gathered groups, his gaze looking rather unfriendly when he saw Ranma but lightened up when he stared at Shampoo. "Hello again Shampoo. Miss me?"
The Chinese Amazon's eyes widened for a split second. 'I know that voice, but that's impossible. He can't be here.'
"Who the heck are you?" Ranma asked aggressively.
"What, don't you recognize me anymore Saotome?" The silver-haired teen asked. "It's me, Mousse."
AN: I don't want to hear anyone tell me this is not how the cursor system worked in SAO canon. You think I never looked that up? This is just how it works in THIS story. Besides, the idea that a red player can find a way to become green again can add an extra element to the story. Imagine how much deadlier the Laughing Coffin guild could be if they knew it was easier to disguise themselves and sneak into places PK-ers are prohibited from getting to by the game.