November 30, 2021. Tokyo, Japan.
"Kyyyyooooooouuuu-kun!" the voice of the girl who called my name was none other than Anzu. I felt the eyes of my peers all leer in my direction. I brought my neck down as if to hide my head. I put down my pencil and closed my notebook already knowing Sensei was most likely going to kick me out. Anzu busted through the should-be locked door standing with one hand at her hip and her head cocked onto her shoulder, almost winking at me. Sensei cleared his throat, "Yes, Kyou-kun, why don't you join your friend outside of class?". I sighed sadly and packed my belongings and walked to the door without making any eye contact. God she's so embarrassing; just waltzing into my class in the middle of a lecture like that. The door closed behind us and I heard the unmistakable sound of the door locking. Anzu cheerfully laughed and playfully punched my arms and chest.
"I'm glad he kicked you out..." she looked into my eyes flirtatiously, "...Kyou-kun." She looked so seductive it was actually affecting my ability to think. "C'mon!" she announced a bit too loudly while tugging both my hands in her direction, bringing me to the stairwell. She let the door close all the way before she began speaking again. "O.K.! Now we're alone," she smiled while saying this, "You should take me on a date."
"A date? Where? How?" A date? She's just so random sometimes but...She's cute. She's adorable, shit.
"Yes, a date. To the roof."
"The roof?"
"The roof."
"Really?"
"Oh yeah." She grabbed me by the collar and lifted herself to her tip-toes. She pulled me down closer to her face, close enough that she was too close to actually see well. "And you better make it super romantic too." She pressed her lips to mine softly while closing her eyes. My eyes followed hers and I let my hands find her waist as she placed her hands on my neck and cheek.
"AH-HEM." We jumped back, surprised. I recognized the voice immediately. Suzuki.
Anzu was flustered and cheeks burned an obvious ribbon-red. "Oh, hey Suzuki-san!" she said with an unbelievable calmness. Suzuki pushed her glasses onto her nose and stepped out into the hallway without glancing at me. Well that wasn't awkward.
"Jesus I hate her. She's so rude and just so full of herself it's disgusting," Anzu complained.
"Anzu it's alright, Suzuki-san is just y'know, trying hard to convince herself she's better than everyone else probably because she knows she really isn't." Anzu's eyes widened and mouth opened slightly. What? She even tilted her head to the side. "What? What is it? Did I say something profound or...?" Her expression changed dramatically into a teary-eyed happiness.
"You said my name without any honorifics!" she yelled while flinging herself onto me. Wow, yeah she's right... I thought about it for a while and my thoughts were cut off by a content "Mmm" sound coming from Anzu. I closed my eyes cheerfully wrapping my arms around her. "So about that date!" she flew back from my arms and grabbed my right hand with both of hers, again. She led me up four long flights of stairs and opened the door to the roof once we arrived. I felt relived when I saw that it was empty of any peers or classmates. Relived? Why am I relived? "C'mon Kyou-kun," Anzu said beaming brighter than a beacon.
"Yeah, yeah," I said while half running to catch up with her. She leaned against the fence and that made me a bit nervous but I decided it's no use worrying about stuff like that. She looked down at the tennis court and started humming. "Who're 'ya looking for?"
"My cousin, Ogma."
"Y'know, I already know Ogma is your cousin; I've met the guy before." She paid no attention and jumped slightly announcing that she had found him. She pointed down in his direction and I soon found him also.
"Ogma!" she yelled out. Ogma had a tennis racket cocked back, ready to swing at the in-coming ball but upon hearing his name, turned and was hit square in the side of his face. He dramatically fell to the ground and grabbed the ball then threw it in our direction, but it barely managed to get halfway up the building. He was yelling but I couldn't really hear him. Anzu laughed, extremely entertained.
"How're him and his girlfriend? What was her name again, uhm..."
"They broke up."
"Oh."
She looked serious for a moment and I must've too because when she did look my way she suddenly looked worried. I made a face that said "No, no I'm fine" and she smiled wide with just her thin lips.
"Kyou-kun," I grunted, telling her to continue, "Do you think we'll get married?"
"Anzu-chan..." She looked at me with her eyebrows frowning.
"Never mind. That was a stupid thing to say." She stepped away from me shaking her head back and forth vigorously.
I grabbed her hand and kissed her forehead, attempting to be comforting.
"We'll get married if, and only if, we both believe that we'll be happy together for the rest of our lives. I can't see the future, but when I'm with you and look at you it feels like you are my future." After finishing that sentence I felt beyond stupid. That was so lame and, God, what a-
"I'm in love with you, Kyou." My eyes stung and and knees felt weak.
"I'm in love with you, too, Anzu."
July 11, 2023. Floor 20.
A faint orange light flickered against my irritated eyelids. Everything at once came to me; I smelled the damp dirt and grass that I felt my sore, aching body laying against. My ears were ringing and heard a cracking of wood and twigs being burnt. A body was laying beside mine, warm, and by the sound of a feminine soft breathing, asleep. I sighed, and ended up yawning, realizing how exhausted I really am. I feel out of my body, and just want to go home.
Home? Where is home now? What is Gray n' Waste to me without my friends, without Horn? My eyes burned and I gritted my teeth so that my gums felt icy pains. My throat hurt and wouldn't let me scream, but I wanted to so badly. I kept my eyes open long enough, putting up with the pain to look to my side, to whoever the girl was that was beside me.
I only saw the top of her head but from what I could tell she was my age. Her hair was neat and clean and I could even faintly smell it. Her hair was a blonde-red that looked natural. I slide my body back, trying to keep her head from falling as I moved. Her head went from my chest, to my stomach, and I realized I didn't really think this through, because no matter what her head is going to have to drop. I tried holding her head with both of my hands and as I did this, I quickly became nervous to wake her. I continued to slide backwards, as her head dropped to my thigh. My cheeks reddened as I saw how embarrassing this position is. She moved suddenly, pulling herself forward and yawning once. She was in a complete sitting position, then turned only the top half of her body in my direction. She looked surprise when she noticed me, but her expression quickly changed to a pleasant smile.
"You're finally awake huh?" She tilted her head and closed her eyes, adding them to her smile.
"You were asleep longer than me!" I protested.
She shook her head, telling me that I'm incorrect.
"I found you alseep, silly." She scratched her head and looked down, then rubbed her shoulders with each of her opposite hands.
Found me? Found me where? Whenever I blacked out?
"Who are you? Where did you find me? Why did you pick me up? What is-"
"C'mon stop with all the questions!"
My face turned sour and my speech stopped in its tracks. "Right now you'd be dead if I hadn't treated your poisoned wound." I gave her a puzzled expression. "The sword stab through your stomach. Yeah, anyway, whoever gave you that had a poisoned blade and you're lucky I had a high-level antidote on me because otherwise you'd be dead." She crossed her arms pouting.
"Thank you." I avoided making eye contact and did my best not to sound ungrateful.
"My name's Tomoyo. When addressing me please call me Tomoyo-san," she said pushing her thumbs together. A few moments went by without us saying anything, scratching our heads, just laying around.
Tomoyo opened her menu and pulled out a savory looking sandwich. She proceeded to bite into it making a few noises of pleasure. My mouth watered at the sight and I tried to look away but my stomach complained loud enough for her to hear. She raised an eyebrow with one eye closed then held up her sandwich at me. I only looked at her, unsure of whether or not I should take a bite or two. She continued to hold it out to me despite my unresponsiveness. She lifted herself up and walked over to where I was sitting, sat herself right beside me, and held the sandwich in my face.
I sluggishly accepted the sandwich and once it was in my grasp I felt like I was looking at the food of the Gods. The bread was browned and the sauce was nearly dripping from between the two slices. There were chunks of potatoes and I-don't-know-what but it looked so good. I realized I was starring at it instead of eating whenever Tomoyo cleared her throat, so I took a bite. I chewed. Then I swallowed. But there was a problem, it didn't have flavor. It was substance. Minus the flavor. I felt punched in the face with disappointment. "What? What's wrong?" Tomoyo asked me sounding sincerely curious. I didn't really respond, I just shrugged. From the corner of my eye I could see her nodding. "Yeah I bought it earlier and the chef I bought it from isn't really good with flavor; he makes it looks pretty, though."
I fell backwards, trying to look cool in front of her, but it didn't exactly work out because instead of landing on the bedroll my head hit a rock. My health dropped two points and I just felt so awful and uncool. She giggled at me and asked if I needed medical attention. I assured her that it takes more than just a rock to kill me, but at this point I'm not even sure about that anymore. "What's your name?" Tomoyo asked me. Wow I haven't even told her my name yet, I thought.
"My name's Kyou. You can call me whatever you like when you address me." She nodded and smiled while saying my name a few times over.
"I like it! It rolls off the tongue easily," she said smiling. I thought that was a weird thing to say but, whatever. "So," she began, "Kyou-kun, what were you doing last that you remember?" She pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs. Her eyes peeked out at me cautiously.
I took a moment, sighed and reviewed every detail in my head before beginning, making sure I'll be able to explain without getting too moved or upset.
"You probably noticed the color of my cursor," she nodded, "Well orange players can't live safely within the town because constant fear of death thanks to the army. Or to be more specific, the Aincrad Liberation Army. Orange players pretty much have two, well, three options. One, become a solo player, two, die at the Army's hand, or three, form a congregation of sort. I chose option three and joined a group called Gray n' Waste. We weren't too picky with who we recruited. We had a 'don't ask don't tell' policy so I have no idea why any of the guys were oranged. But out of all the people I met there, everyone swore they were innocent, so, I'd like to believe that. I'd rather not get into why I'm orange, to be honest," I looked over at her to make eye contact because I'm really bad at keeping it, but she was looking off in the distance, just nodding her head at an extremely slow pace.
"Gray n' Waste quickly became a home to me. I made a few friends, but when they turned green they either went back to the towns or became something we called Coasters. Coasters were people that were ex-oranges and would help us survive by supplying and trading goods with us. They were our friends, I guess you could say. One day my, uh," I cleared my throat and fought back a sudden urge to cry, "my dad and I were walking to meet with the Coasters but there was a double agent in our party that was a higher ranking member for the ALA. He killed about ten of us, including my dad. He left me for dead. But, you found me. And now I'm here, telling you all this." I looked back at her again. She was still curled up holding herself, but this time her head was resting against he knees and she was silent.
"Tomoyo? Are you alight?" She threw her arms around me, sending me backwards, hitting my head against that same rock. Her cheek pressed against mine and I felt tears dropping down on me. She sniffled her nose over and over and just laid there on top of me. I wrapped both my arms around her, hugging her to me.
"I'm so sorry," she said, "I'm so sorry." I ran my fingers through her short, redish hair, and closed my eyes. "I've been so lonely, Kyou-kun, I'm glad I saved you." My eyes watered and nose felt clouded.
"Don't say stupid things like that," I ordered, trying not to cry. She agreed but didn't get up off of me. Instead she made herself more comfortable changing her position so half her body was on me and met her fingers in mine, taking my hand.
"Kyou-kun, can we go back to sleep?"
"Are we in a safe area?"
"Yeah, of course."
"Then, yeah."
She's so warm against me. She smells so nice, and feels so soft. I turned my head so we were able to see each other. She offered me a soft and tired smile. I returned it back, as she closed her eyes. I'll protect you. I'll be strong for you.
Her breathing slowed and her breathes were short and quiet. Her features were so much softer now that she was asleep. Her cheeks were thin and eyes were like almonds. Her lips were full and nose was short. I smiled whenever I noticed a small freckle just above the left corner of her mouth, and tried to focus on the details in her face. How long has it been since I've held someone like this? The image of Anzu burned in my mind, and I let myself cry until I could fall asleep.