A/N: Okay, here is the next one. I decided to let my hatred, my improper hatred, of Asuna go. So this will be causing some random changes.
NekoLazy: Yes, he is. If that makes you like him more, then you will love this chapter.
Chapter Six:
So, I left off on the last chapter with me wandering away from Asuna and Kirito, and towards the forest. Now, I know you're thinking that I am a total flutter brain, and that there is no way an intelligent human would forget something as important as his babysitter's first step towards love, and I didn't. For the most part. Well, let's be honest here, I actually found the whole idea of continuously stopping them from getting attracted to each other, completely boring. So I gave up before I even started. Besides, I'm not really interested in a fate like Klein's, or being constantly mistaken as one of the girls from Kirito's harem. So I have decided to be like Agil and only appear sometimes. And of course, what kind of luck do I have? What was that? I can't hear you. Ah, that's it. I have very bad luck.
"Where are you going, my Lady?" I stopped short, and glanced up from the ground. There was two men in cloaks standing in front of me. Shit was the only thing on my mind. Mostly because it seriously smelled.
"Oh, I was just wondering. But I'm not a lady, and I will, heh" I stood at my full height, which granted wasn't much, and gave them my creepiest smile. When I had been alive, besides scaring people by speaking of horrible things, I also tended to behave insane. It always creeps them out. You know why right? Let me go into philosopher mode here; The reason humans are uncomfortable around supernatural, or anything to do with the 'sixth sense', is because we don't understand nor can will we ever. It's that simple. The reason why people have been locked up for seeing things others don't, or hearing things, or behaving oddly, is not for their own good, but for ours. We, who only access ten percent of our brains, can't comprehend that there might be a deeper meaning to the voices in the head and so forth. So because of that, we obsess over it and obsess until it starts to haunt us, and then something harmless and simple becomes dangerous and complicated. So we lock away the things that have scared us, and teach others to fear it as well. Now things like insanity are taught as a fearful, and terrifying thing, before we even managed to figure out how to speak. As we grow older, we fall into this false security that we're safe, even though everyone is insane, and so when we are finally confronted with such a thing, it unsettles us to the point of losing our precious normalness that we grew up believing was safe. No one realizes this anymore. They act the crazy part out, but forget the deeper side to it. That's why it works so well with me. P.S. This is what happens when you literally spend four years in a dark room with nothing but books to keep you company. Literally, and I stress the literally part greatly.
"Kill you if you ever address me as such again." One of them snickered at me, and nudged the other.
"I have heard that there was a new white clad girl hanging around the black swordsman. Would that be you?" I huffed, and crossed my arms. Crazy moment just tossed out the window. And here I was having an internal dialogue about insanity, and then they just ignore me. But isn't it beautiful how fast rumours spread? I have been in SAO for a week, remember. One week.
"I have been with Kirito, but I'm not a girl." I was ignored. That seems to be the most popular of things, me being ignored.
"Do you think we should kill her? She might have some high skills, considering she has been with frontliners. Maybe we should just kidnap her." The other one laughed, well more like cackled evilly. See, here's another thing, if the people you're trying to act insane towards are insane, you don't get anywhere and just end up running around in circles.
"Kill her of course, we are a murder guild." I sighed, and they pulled out weapons.
"So, if we try to consider this wisely, you two being here must mean that your guild is in this forest, right? Or you're looking for, what do you call the players you kill? Prey? Victims?" Let's call the one on the left Sharol, and the other Rufula. Sharol charged at me, and swung his sword at my head. Kirito had taught me to aim lower on the body, because most people go high, so they won't have enough time to lower their sword before being hit. So I ducked under Sharol's weapon with ease. I pulled my sword out of my scabbard, and blocked Rufula's attack. Overhand, left block, advance, block, swipe, and so on. I will say this in all secrecy, Kirito was right when he said I shouldn't wonder alone. I got hit every third attack, and they did cause some damage, but my hits only worked every second. Which considering the numbers, I'm better, but there was two men I was fighting. I landed a good blow on Rufula's shoulder, and left a deep red mark.
"Hah! Bring it on." Sharol growled and me, and used a power hit to stab my stomach. I gasped in pain, yes pain, and grabbed the sword. He retched it from my belly, and sliced at my chest.
"Your life bar is almost gone, little girl. Though you did put up a good fight." I fell to the ground with a hand on my wound. Which is pointless. The two murdering losers grinned down at me, and Rufula lifted up his sword to deal the final blow. I closed my eyes, and waited. It started as a warm feeling coming from the wound in my abdomen, and then spread towards my head. As it reached my shoulder blades, it became ice cold, and I felt like someone was ripping my bones right out of my body.
"God's skill unlocked, three levels unlocked." I peeked open my eyes at the sound of a new voice, only to see whiteness, but I heard Sharol and Rufula laughing.
"Is this some kind of joke? Are you trying to scare us?" I blinked a couple of times, and the world started taking shape, both the Laughing Coffin members were staring down at me with smirks, so I did the polite thing and smiled back. The pain slowly slipped out of my body, and I stood up with a quiet groan. I hung my arms and head, much like a zombie, and tilted my head to the side until my hair fell away from one eye so I could stare at them. Rufula took a nervous step away from me, and lowered his cleaver a little bit.
"W-what's she doing?" I felt amazingly light, and then noticed that I was floating in the air, with a white halo-ish thing glowing around me, like in that scene in Lord of the Rings, when Gandalf came back as how Saruman should have been, and he was glowing and shit, that's what I felt like I looked like anyway. One of my hands slowly lifted and pointed at them.
"God's Skill: God's Blade." The voice was completely emotionless, and slightly scary sounding, but at the same time it sounded like it belonged to a little boy of ten. Something warm started spreading across my back, and down my arms. Then balls of light shaped like daggers shot past me and stabbed Rufula. I stared at him, now with multiple holes through his torso, arms, and legs, and then looked at Sharol, who was staring back at me with horror. He dropped his blade, and ran away from me. This time the puppet master who was controlling my limbs lifted my other arm and then brought my hands together.
"God's Skill: Bringer of Death." My hands shot apart, and to the side, while a large whitish golden sun formed in front of me. It grew to about the size of a beach ball, and then fired without a single sound. I watched, borderline horrified, as it quickly gained on Sharol before finally hitting his body. At first nothing happened, except for Sharol stumbling when my beach balled sized white sun hit him, and then freezing. After a few more seconds he clutched his chest, and his body started to glow. It started off evenly placed, and then it started cracking though his skin in some places, where in others it seemed to boil out of him. And then he melted. You know how in this game when people die, they sort of shatter like glass? Well, Sharol melted into nothing, and Rufula was lying in front of me as a bloody mess. No pieces flying off into the sky, no shattering sound, nothing. Just normal actual deaths. Like, as if I killed them IRL and not in a video game.
"Why aren't I surprised that the disturbances where you?" My, still controlled by a puppet master, body turned around sharply, and my hand lifted once again. Bach was standing a few feet away, casually leaning on a tree like he did not just watch me murder two people.
"State your purpose." Bach raised an eyebrow at me, and I silently screamed at him to get me free.
"I am the guardian of this body." My body relaxed a little bit, and my hand lowered to a safer height.
"Then I leave him to you." The puppet master finally let my body go, and I fell to the ground in one large heap. My HP bar started beeping again, but I just stared up at the sky. Staring at nature always had a calming effect on me. Snow falling, rain, waves crashing on something, clouds, grass everything. And I kind of needed a calming influence at the moment. Bach sighed, and nudged me with his shoe.
"Up and at'em, Princess. There are more of them coming. Why don't you try a mental attack this time, and not a physical one. His Majesty both knows you can't do it." He used a healing crystal on me, and grinned. I sighed, and pushed myself off the ground. I'll have to think about the bodies on the ground later. By the time I made it to my feet, which did take some time, Bach had once again disappeared, and I was in the middle of a half-circle of cult worshippers. They all stared in open shock at Rufula's dead body, and at the puddle that was once Sharol. Of course it was in admiration, and not silent horror like what I was secretly experiencing. Nobody would ever believe you if you told them that though, so it would be pointless. How about this, we agree to not say anything about my urge to throw up, or my guilty screams in my head? Or we agree to all agree even if you want to disagree about agreeing, or even disagree about agreeing to agree. Cough cough, moving onward.
"What's this? Di-did you kill them?" I tilted my head to the side, and smiled happily. Then slowly walked over to Sharol's body, and did something, (without even thinking about it, I was in psycho mode.) that I regret to this day. I dragged my fingers down one of the larger wounds on his torso, and then stared at my bloody fingers before stroking my cheek with them.
"Fufufufu. They didn't want to play with me. I only wanted to play house." I touched my forefinger to my thumb, and placed them over my eye, getting my face more bloody in the process.
"Do you, want to," I ran my other hand down the same wound, and grinned as evilly as possible up at the main group.
"Play with me?" I stoody from the body, and held myself dramatically.
"I am so lonely here. Nobody ever wants to play with me, so I kill them all. Should I kill them? But I want to! I want to hear the same screams this one made, those high pitched ones, filled with pain!" I placed a hand over my mouth to stifle my giggling. My mind trick worked on most of them, but there was this one guy, right in front of me who didn't look bothered in the least. Most people, even those as insane as the person I was acting out, still have the tiniest bit of sanity left in them. And that's what keeps them from ruling the world. Part of their conscience feels guilt, and so stops them from doing things that would completely push them over the edge. That's why even though theses idiots were all murderers, they still stepped back from me in horror. That's why mind games like these work on just about anybody. Unless they are completely insane, or that they are made of stone. I met a guy like that once…. But that's a story for another time.
The man who didn't react to my act, summoned his weapon, a long thick saber, and pointed it at me. I pulled my sword out of the dirt next to me, where it had fallen in my puppet moment, and held it lazily above my head.
"Are we playing now? Can we? I want to play house, you be the family, and I'll play as the good little neighbor who always comes over for tea. Then I'll kill you all and use your body parts to make my food. I am running low on ingredients." Another guy pulled out a cleaver, and inched towards the undaunted one.
"I don't think we should fit this guy, ZaZa. She's not right in the head, and if she was able to do this to our top members. She would take out most of us." My smile twitched, and I gripped my sword tighter. I remember ZaZa. The reason why I remember is simple. He is one out of two characters from the whole story that I actually thought were interesting. Shinkawa Shouichi, and Shino Asada. Sinon, because she was smoking hot, and super talented, not to mention she didn't turn all sweet after falling in love. And Shouichi because, well, I don't know. His story, and his brother's sort of stuck with me.
"ZaZa? The Red eyed ZaZa, one of the top members of Laughing Coffin. I know you." I dropped my head, and let my sword also droop. He, unlike all the others, wasn't scared by my psychotic mind game, so I have to try my unexplainable intel on him instead.
"I can see you." I grinned at him again, and started my new game.
"You're Shinkawa Shouichi, you have a little brother named Kyoji, and your father is a doctor, but you're a sickly and frail child, aren't you Shou-kun? Little Kyo-kun has to take over instead of you, because you're worthless. Is that why you follow Poh so avidly? Because only in games where everything is lies, will you be able to hope for anything above the lowest level of patheticness. I know all about you, Shou-kun, I see it all." I stopped talking and grabbed at my stomach and forced myself to laugh loudly. ZaZa was shaking, and half the men that had surrounded me were gone.
"I know all about you, Schmitt, Caynz, Yolko, Poh, and even Atsushi Kanemoto. I want to play house now, will you play with me, Shou-kun, Johnny-kun? It's showtime, after all." ZaZa visibly winced when I used Poh's catchphrase, and stepped back from me.
"Sorry to disappoint you, but we have a previous engagement." They turned to leave, but the genuine crazy side of my brain called out to them.
"Oh? You going after Kirito, and Asuna? Or is it Caynz and Yolko from the Golden Apple Guild? Hired by Grimlock?" Atsushi, A.K.A. Johnny Black, glanced back at me from the corner of his eye.
"Next time we meet, I'll make sure to get all the answers about your intel, Bedlam's Undertaker ." I waved, in a overly zealous manner at them, and didn't stop till I couldn't see or hear them. I used one of the skills Kirito showed me how to use, and scanned the area to see if the really left, before collapsing to my knees. Bedlam's Undertaker? What the actual fugly crackers? I shook my head, and stood. I almost fell again, but caught myself, and made my way over to the closest tree. I lifted up my hand to call up my menu, but my hand was shaking too hard for it to work.
"Guess I'll have to walk back to town. It's not safe here." I gripped my sword tighter, and growled. Bedlam? Seriously? I'm a freaking angel, and he gave me a nickname after the most notorious Insane Asylum of all time, then dared to add on Undertaker. Like I would ever work there, it's not even being used anymore, on top of that, I never even left the United States of America! I get that I was going for mental scarring, but that was just mean. An image of Sharol melting popped into my head, and my stomach twisted. I clamped a hand over my mouth to keep from puking, but that too didn't work, and a few seconds later I found myself leaning against a tree for support, and a steady stream of half digested food with a ton of stomach acid and blood mixed in, came rocketing out from my mouth and splattered all over the place. I have a very poor gag reflex, by the way. So hearing someone gag, or even smelling puke, can easily make me puke as well. Something everyone who ever knew me hated.
It took me a while, but I finally made my way to the town, and just in time to watch a guy hang himself, and some chick faint. That's when I lost it. I swayed before sinking to the ground with a thump. No I didn't faint, I just sort of, fainted while staying conscience. Like how people daydream. Multiple people stepped on me when they all started dispersing, and one guy even told me to get off my ass. I just glared at him, and he scurried away like the rat he resembled. As you can see, I wasn't in the most sunny attitude then.
"Prince? What are you doing on the ground?" I lifted myself onto my elbows, with much effort, and grimaced. I had forgotten about the blood all over my face, and hands, and the smell of puke that was hovering around me. In case you're wondering, and I know you are, my hair came out of this perfectly. Not a single drop of blood or vomit to be seen anywhere near my hair, and it was still perfectly brushed into the ponytail I had put it in earlier, out of boredom of course. I take no pleasure in playing with my hair.
"Oh, Kirito. I don't feel well. Is it possible to get sick in a video game? Games sure have progressed since my time. Or maybe it's cause I'm dead?" Kirito looked me over with a frown, and placed his hands on mis hips.
"I leave you alone for a few hours and you cover yourself in some red paint? Were you that bored without me?" Asuna, who was standing behind Kirito, snickered at me. Oh, that's right. People don't bleed here. So there's no way he would think this was blood. I touched my cheek, and stared at my red fingertips. The blood had already dried, and was now starting to flake off, and turn a muddy red colour. It didn't really look like it belonged in a body anymore.
"Kirito, I don't want to be here anymore. Can I go back?" He quirked an eyebrow at me, and Asuna copied his action.
"Prince, what are you talking about? You shouldn't need Kirito's permission to go home, unless," Asuna trailed off as she glanced over at Kirito. I sighed. I can't behave like this, it doesn't fit my personality. I pushed aside the whirlwind of feeling I was experiencing, and smiled mischiefly up at them.
"Hah, I was just joking around. Boredom really does have a weird effect on the human brain. So, what's going on?" Kirito tapped his chin, and looked me over once more, before telling me about how he was eating with Asuna when they heard a scream, and rushed to the town square only to find the guy had already been killed. Both of them were handling the situation rather well, and even pointed out a girl with dark brown hair and gentle eyes standing several feet from us.
"That's Yolko, I'm hoping she might know more about what's going on here." I waved over at her, and stood from the ground. I dusted off my butt, and then folded my hands behind my head. So, the murder in the safe zone has begun.
We managed to convince Yolko to join us in a hotel that had a restaurant on the ground floor, it was actually my persuasive skills in the work there. She explained that she thought it was about the rare item her ex guild, Golden Apple, had found
"We all agreed to let our guild leader, Griselda, keep ahold of it until we sell it. But someone killed her, and now her ghost has come back to kill us!" I scoffed, silently. Because if it wasn't silent Asuna would have smacked me through a wall. She got awfully comfortable with Kirito, awfully fast….. Che…
"There were five of us in total, Griselda our leader, her husband, Grimlock, they were even married in real life you know. Then there was me, Caynz, and Schmitt. Schmitt has joined the DDA, and Caynz, Caynz was the one in the square. We were meeting up, all three of us. But Schmitt ran off after seeing Caynz, di-die." I sighed once again, and looked out the window next to us. I so wanted to just pop in and say 'Hey! It's Grimlock, he's the murderer, and here's what happened and this guy's not dead either! Let's move on!' But I got this sneaking suspicion that I might suffer from that. Although I think Asuna knew something was up, because she kept looking at me. After that we made our way up stair, and I got to sit with Yolko while Asuna and Kirito hunted down Schmitt. I pretended to go check on them, so Yolko could stab herself in the back, heh heh, and then sat back down on a chair with a groan.
"You seem tired. I didn't know that was possible in game." I glanced at her with one eye, and frowned.
"Why are you going to such lengths to find her killer? What if it was just a orange player looking for easy prey?" Yolko shook her head.
"That's not possible, no one outside of the guild knew when she left or where she was selling the ring. We've spent six months looking for them, and now we're finally closing down. It can't be C-Caynz, because he's dead. And it's not me, and it can't be Grimlock because he was her husband. That leaves Schmitt." I let out a puff of air, and closed my eye.
"Don't be ridiculous. It's obviously Grimlock. And you know that, that's why you and Caynz came up with that silly, yet really smart idea. It really is smart, Yolko." She took a nervous step away from me, and towards the window. Then Kirito and Asuna returned with Schmitt. The talked some more, not like I listened, and then, just before Yolko fell out the window, she looked right at me. It wasn't a franticly scared look, like the ones she had been wearing since the others came back, no. It was a death glare. Don't you dare say anything, Prince. Don't you dare. That's what I got from her eyes before she fell, and then shattered. After that, Schmitt lost all his wits, and freaked out big time. Kirito tried to chase down the cloaked figure, while Asuna tried to calm down the big buffoon, but he ended up running away from her. But I didn't really notice. I just, I just wasn't feeling it anymore. I was just super sleepy, and just a wee bit overwhelmed with everything. About time, my body really is bad at staying in tune with everything else. It was finally realizing where we were, and what was going on. Its exhausting, let me tell you. Everyday some new thing popped up, or something extreme happened. So much information was being stuffing into my head in such a short time, so it's not surprising that I just went limp on everything, right? Just like a spoiled brat who's trying to escape their parent's grip, and go limp on them to make it more difficult. Except that's not me…
Well, anyway. After Kirito returned, he and Asuna started talking about what had happened, but again I paid little attention. Which was noticed, finally.
"Hey, Prince, are you alright? You've been acting strange all afternoon, no make that day." I shrugged my shoulders, but otherwise, didn't even move.
"What happened, after you left Asuna?" Another shrug.
"Shouldn't you be worrying about the kill in a safe zone? That's a pretty big deal, you know." I opened one eye to glance over at the soon to be lovers. They were silently staring back, but then Asuna turned away from me.
"Come on, she's right. Let's leave her here, and go figure this thing out. I think I have an idea or two." I sort of wanted to strangle the stupid asian, I say asian because I honestly have no idea what her hair colour is called, but it's not like it would do anything. I lifted a hand, and waved lazily at them.
"Bye then. Bring me back a pie." Kirito ignored us both, and sat down in front of me.
"I'll meet you downstairs, Asuna. I want to talk with Prince." She huffed, and left. Leaving me alone with the black swordsman.
"So, Prince, what happened after you left Asuna?" I shrugged again.
"Why do you even care? It's not like we're sworn brothers or anything. We haven't even known each other very long."
"But, I, for some unknown reason, consider you a very valuable friend. You remind me of my little sister, in a way." Isn't that what he said to Silica? Whatever.
"Fine. I wandered off into the woods, and came across two members of Laughing Coffin. We fought, and I almost died, but some weird AI, or bug, took over my body and used unknown skills to kill them off. They died actual deaths, not a game death, Kirito. They cried out in pain, real pain, and bled real blood. Then after they both died, their bodies remained there, as if it was in real life. Not in a game. Then more showed up, and I mentally scarred them all into running away, but earned myself the name Bedlam's Undertaker in the process. Then I had to crawl myself back here, with my hands and face covered in the blood of the people I just murderer." At least, that's what I almost said. But I stopped myself. Kirito had enough problems to deal with, especially for someone so young. He is the hero of this story after all, and it won't be ending anytime soon. What I actually said was that I got in a fight with an NPC and a whole bunch of people made fun of me, and I was pouting. And he took that with no hesitation at all, kind of makes you wonder what the hell kind of impressions I leave on others.
"Alright, you sound kind of down, so I'll leave you here, and go out with Asuna. I'll be back later, alright? And Prince, try to be more careful next time? This isn't a game. At least not a safe one." I sighed, and shook my head.
"Get out of here Kirito." He laughed, and then left me. I followed his example, and laughed. What a world what a world, as the Wicked Witch once said.
END OF CHAPTER SIX.
A/N: I have no regrets. Except maybe publishing the first chapter on a whim, and not writing the entire thing out, before posting it. If you want to hear my excuse, it's that I really don't want to rewatch the entire show, so I can get it all correct. I really just don't understand how some people can do that, but then again. I don't have motivation for anything. Except maybe sleeping. Well, review please, I would enjoy it. And I apologize for making my current two followers wait so long.
IMPORTANT NOTICE! BECAUSE I SERIOUSLY DON'T WANT TO WRITE OUT EACH EPISODE, PRINCE AND KIRITO WON'T BE TOGETHER MOST OF THE TIME NOW. THIS IS A STORY ABOUT TED/PRINCE, AND NOT ABOUT KIRITO. IN FACT, SAO IS MORE OF A SIDE STORY, SORRY IF YOU WANTED SOMETHING ELSE.
