Sword Art Online: The Chronicles of Drake Knight (Beginning Arc)
A/N: I've got announcements:
a) I will be changing the date of the event to a different day (specifically, Friday March 19th) because plot reasons you'll see in the next announcement. I'll have to edit out the fact that it's going to say that it's "Canada Day" on March 21st instead of July 1st :P (Addition, I'm going to re-write it eventually, I'm too busy either doing homework or writing this.)
b) I'm going to be introducing a character that we all like to call Sinon, or Shino (Whichever you prefer). In this however, she decided to conveniently live in the same town where Drakey boy lives. Also, she's a universal translator cliché, so she can speak fluent English.
c) I do not live in Orillia, Ontario. I just picked that location because it's at least in the same province as where I actually live. :D
d) I was looking for random names to use, and I came across a very interesting male name. "Heathcliff" takes the number 991th spot on the list I used.
e) I'm actually going to try a new writing style. First off, mini paragraphs (aren't new) will be at the beginning of each chapter, but more importantly is I will try to write in a 3rd person PoV with mind reading powers. Also, I will give a new type of introduction (as you will see with Shino), which describes an important event in their life that will take significance in the chapter/story. I find it easier to do that than to fit it somewhere in the chapter.
Anyways, enjoy this chapter!
Chapter 2: Shino Asada
Why did it have to happen? Why, out of all people, did they have to die? I would've rather been the one to be killed that day. I don't even know how they found out what I know… is there something I said? No, it couldn't be. They have to be planning something for me, but what? I don't even know if I can go much further anyhow, they just killed the two most important people in my life. There's nothing left for me in this life… or is there?
Date: Monday April 5th, 2021 6:30 AM
Focus: Drake Knight
Drake woke up, panting. He's just had another nightmare about that day. It's been over 2 weeks since that day. 2 weeks since those two men barged into his apartment and killed his parents. He wanted to die during the first few days after they were murdered, but he took their last words into his mind. He was going to avenge them, to put his own mind at ease. He had finally recovered from the depression that was swallowing him, and managed to go outside for the first time in a while. However, he knew he was going to have to do more than that. He took a deep breath to ease his heart rate down to a stable level. 'I thing I should try to go back to school, it's been some time.' he thought to himself. He got out of bed and started to get dressed. After the day, Emily's family took me in as their own and were working out all the paperwork. To say the least, he was very thankful for them. They also understood his circumstances, and gave me as much time as I wanted to grieve for his loss. Now, he felt he was ready to return to school.
2 Hours Later.
Drake walked into class and got a warm welcome back from all of his friends from his homeroom class. 'I wish Emily was in this class', he thought. "Hey, what's up!" David, who was one of Drake's friends said. "You hanging in there?"
"Yeah, somehow mate," He replied in a bit of a depressed tone. "just don't ask about what happened."
"Alright dude, but if you ever need anything, I'll be here."
Another friend of his, Jay, said, "Yo, Drake? You heard the rumors about the transfer student in our school? I heard she killed someone."
It took him a minute to responded, "You said it's a rumor? Then treat it as a rumor, and nothing more." He always get pissed off at rumors, and this was no exception. "What's her name?"
"Her name is Asada Shino, and she's from Japan. I heard she's transferring here for about a year or so. She's the girl sitting in the back left corner there." David told Drake.
"Alright, I'm going to talk to her later. I want to get this rumor cleared up." Drake told them. 'To be honest, I'm not quite sure how I'm going to ask her, but by the sounds of it, it was a pretty nasty and serious rumor'.
[Asada Shino, Grade 9, Age 15
Temporary Transfer Student in Orillia High School
Event(s) of most significance;
Feb 03, 2008
Involved in car accident at age 2, resulting in the death of her father. After wards, her mother was traumatized by the incident, and was very fragile emotionally.
Dec 15, 2016
Escaped convict holds up post office, attempts to kill Shino after Shino tried to defend someone. Shino gains possession of the firearm used, and shoots the convict several times. Self defense shooting, no charges pressed. Shino's mother gave up on Shino and forced her away.]
11:30 AM
The lunch bell rang, so Shino got out of her second period class. 'It's about to become absolute hell for me,' she thought to herself. 'No one cares about me, all they can think about is what I did in the past.'
Shino was walking down the hallway of the school when she was stopped by a group that called themselves her "Friends". 'Great, we're going to go through this again.' This group to her were just a bunch of kids who needed to boost their ego and self esteem, so they found their way to do that by bullying Shino.
"Hey, what's up Shino!" One calling herself Patricia yelled out. "Listen, we need some money for lunch, would you be ever so kind and lend us some?"
'Yeah, some "Friends". They're a bunch of pricks, and they have me by the imaginary balls.' Shino thought for a second, but then bluntly replied, "No. I'm not going to give you anymore money."
"Hahaha," The group laughed as they surrounded Shino. "Wrong answer." The one called Victoria told her, now standing in front of her. Victoria raised up her hand in front of Shino, and made a gun shape with her finger.
'No, not this!' Shino thought to herself, as she started to see a nightmarish image of the criminal she felt she murdered in cold blood. 'Oh god, why! Why was it me?!' She collapsed onto her knees on the ground, as she was in the midst of a panic attack. Shino had a panic attack every time she saw anything that at least resembled a gun, and it was horrible to say the least.
"Now have you learned…" Patricia started to say, but she was cut off by a sudden shout. "Hey, what are you girls doing?" The voice questioned.
Victoria spoke up against the new voice, "Oh, Drake? You should stay back, this person murdered someone!"
The voice, now known to belong to Drake, thought for a second, but then questioned, "Do murderers have panic attacks like she's having? How about you do a fact check before you just go up to someone you don't like because of something you THINK they did, and triggering a panic attack on them. It's in-humane, to say the least."
Patricia then said, "Hey, we shouldn't get on Drake's bad side. Let's go."
Everyone left the area except for Drake and Shino. The only sound that you could hear was the wind blowing through an open window near by. Shino finally broke the silence, "You hear to bully me too?"
Drake replied to her, "No, actually, I wanted to ask you something, but I probably don't even need to anymore. Who does that kind of shit to someone who's most likely innocent?"
She was still fairly frozen from the attack. 'Why is he being so nice? What if I told him what happened, will he treat me like everyone else treats me?'
Drake sighed in a fairly depressed tone, but then he started talking. "Both of my parents were murdered right in front of me about 2 weeks ago, so I think I can tell the difference between a proper murderer, and someone who was involved in an accident. Would you mind telling me your story?"
'I've never told anyone about that day, should I tell him?' Shino thought to herself as she sighed. 'Alright, here it goes.' "Alright, I'm Asada Shino, last name first." Drake could hear how nervous she was. "It was December 15th, 2016 when we were in a post office. There was recently news on an escaped convict holding up multiple convenience stores nearby, but no one ever thought he would hold up a post office in the first place. We were waiting to send some Christmas mail when all of a suddenly, he barged in and held up the clerks. My mother tried to intervene, but she was knocked out of the way while the robber pointed the gun at her, shouting at her. That's when I attacked the criminal by impulse. He lost his balance and I fell against a wall. The gun ended up landing in front of me, so I picked it up. The criminal was screaming at me to let it go before lunging at me, but I shot him in the chest once. He then tried to attack me again, but I shot him twice more, the final bullet hitting him in the head. At the time, I didn't realize what I did until I looked at my mother, but she just stared at me in absolute shock and horror. That's when I realized what I had just done, so I looked back over to see a pool of blood creep over to me. That's when I got absolutely terrified, and hid my face into my legs. The police got there, and the tellers explained the entire situation. They practically had to carry me out of there because I was absolutely frozen in panic. After that, my mother didn't want anything to do with me, and I was constantly bullied in school. My uncle was the only person to really take care of me. I then decided to move here, as I knew a lot of English, and wanted to see if anything would change if I moved countries. Turns out, that did fuck all, and now I'm just getting bullied here as well. Sometimes, I just want to take my own life."
"You shouldn't resort to that option. Ever." Drake said after Shino finished. "Listen, I don't trust people very much anymore, in fact, I have a greater loyalty to logic and reasoning than I do to anyone or anything else on this planet. However, I do trust your word because I'm not an idiot. You didn't murder that guy, you saved everyone else in the building, including yourself. That's only reasonable." Drake finished that as he sat beside Shino. "Don't let the past slow you down, just focus on the future. That's the sort of message I got from my parent's death."
Shino leaned on Drake's shoulder. "Do you mind if I do this?"
Drake replied softly to her, "Yeah, I understand."
"Listen, what do you want to do in the future?"
"Well, I'm trying to research Virtual Reality technology. I believe that if I can unlock the potential to fully immerse one into the 'Virtual Realm', that it will advance humanity by several decades. You could train surgeons, construction workers, and even a soldier's reaction, although I want to avoid the last one. You can fly, you can fight, hell, you can do whatever you want in the Virtual Realm. The one thing I want to focus on the most however is the ability to copy a human consciousness into the net, and then programming it to take control of a machine, so that people don't have to suffer the kind of pain that I'm suffering right now."
"I think that's a good path," Shino said, still leaning on Drake's shoulder. "I believe that humanity is already advancing at an astonishing rate, but advancing it even faster? I didn't think that was possible."
Drake responded to the last statement, "Even I didn't think it was, but then I thought for a while when I was shutting myself in. Every piece of technology that gets invented effects everything else in the world. The internet, for example, has completely revolutionized the world as we know it, and has connected us in ways humanity never even thought was possible. Virtual Reality could connect us even more by allowing you to interact with a person physically while being half a world apart from each other. I heard that a company by the name of Argus is leading development of this technology in Japan, where you come from, but I'll need to dig into it a bit more."
"Actually, they already have the technology. They ran a test, and it proved to be successful in immersing someone into a 'full dive' stasis. Right now, they're mass-producing a helmet that can do that and are going to market it in Japan. I think it's called 'NervGear', but I could be mistaken."
"Damn, that's neat. I'm still going to see what I can manage to develop myself though. It's going to be pretty interesting to say the least."
Shino asked Drake, "Listen, Drake, you're not going to be like everyone else, are you? I mean, I've got no body that helps me out, and I can't deal with anymore loss."
"Shino, I'm not like those 'other' people. I don't bully or hurt people. Plus, I kinda want to get to know you a bit. You actually seem like a nice person."
'Oh my god, did he just say that?' Shino thought to herself. 'I must be dead or dreaming, right?' Shino pinched herself to prove her thought. "Um, what are you doing Shino? You think you're dreaming?"
"Yeah, that's the first time since the incident that anyone's actually said they want to get to know me."
"I guess I can understand that. Listen, there's still enough time, you want to grab a cup of coffee at Tom Hootans?" (Yes, Tom Hootans because I'm original and creative!)
'Wow, Drake offered to take me out for a coffee? Damn, maybe he actually doesn't care about what I did.' Shino thought, and replied, "Yeah, sure. At least I didn't give my money to those ego-centric assholes."
"They're a bunch of pathetic wankers." Drake said as he got up and offered Shino his hand. "Here, I'll help you up."
"Are you flirting with me?"
"Hell no, I just help the damsel in distress."
Drake helped Shino get up when Drake's phone buzzed in his pocket. (Yes, phone's still exist in this time period, even though it's predicted that within a decade from 2016 that cellphones will be a thing of the past.) "Wait, what the hell? Let me check this out." Drake turned the display on, and saw the following headline.
[Murderers of Ann and Jayden Knight Suspected to be Corporate Hit Men]
"In the latest investigation of the murders of Ann Knight and Jayden Knight, the murderers are suspected to be hit men for hire on the deep web. While it is unclear who the hit men were, or who hired them, it is safe to say that it was done on corporate terms."
[Continued on next page]
Drake turned the display off and slipped his phone in his pocket. He stood there for a moment. "MOTHER FUCKER!" He screamed as he plowed his left fist into a locker on his right.
Shino was a bit scared, "Shit, what is it?"
Drake was panting hard as he pulled his fist from the locker. "They were killed by fucking hit men hired by a fucking corporation. Listen, do you want to skip school with me for the rest of the day? I need time to breath, and you seem to be able to make me relax for some reason." He was clutching his left hand with his right.
"Yeah, it's been a long day. Will you clear everything up about me tomorrow?"
"Of course. You have my word."
They both grabbed their stuff and left the school. They started heading to the coffee shop. "Hey Drake, I have something you can wrap around your hand if you need it."
Drake looked at Shino and said, "Sure, that sounds good. I kinda regret slamming my fist into a locker like that because it hurts like hell." He looked at his own hand and noticed a decent amount of blood, swelling, and bruising on his knuckles. Shino grabbed a roll of gauze wrap and gave it to Drake. "Thanks Shino." Drake wrapped his hand with the gauze, and they continued on.
'No, I should be thanking you.'
End of Chapter.
A/N: I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. I'm ending it there because why not? I have an important announcement.
My English teacher is S.T.R.I.C.T as hell! He's basically the one kind of teacher I wanted to avoid getting, but got in the first place. I apologize if it takes an extra week to complete a chapter, but that would be because I got a metric ass-ton of homework to do, so I'm going to have to prioritize that over, well, something I'm REALLY ENJOYING! ;-;
I really hope you enjoy the different 3rd person writing style, I actually find it easier to write in a 3rd person perspective.
Anyways, that's all, see you sometime in the next two weeks (preferably one week), please consider leaving a review. If there is anything wrong with my writing style that you don't like, please tell me what it is and how I can improve upon it. Anyways, TwinDrake out!
