Of Mouse and Man
Phase 9— Meetings
..
Original Title: The World Only God Knows / 神のみぞ知るセカイ & Sword Art Online(ソードアート・オンライン)
Original Concept by: Tamiki Wakiki & Kawahara Reki
written by: wrathie
Author's Notes: A Crossover where Keima was not approached by the Weiss Capturing Squad and the Events of the Goddess Arc is non-existent.
Author's Notes: Thank you, bowpurity for the beta!
A few months later
Aincrad Level 23
'Thanks a bunch, Keima-kun. We'll be heading out then. Please, she'll be in your care then!'
The female player with the name Ikumi smiled at the other figure present before giving Keima a big grin while walking out of the main lobby with the members of Fuurinkanzen in tow. The raven haired female player had answered the call to join the above mentioned guild when they were out recruiting members who used hammers. That was the only weapon type that was missing from their guild and it would create a good base for them to recruit again for training purposes.
Of course Klein's own personal request to narrow the candidates to be girls was only muttered in private, in a sense Klein really lucked out as Ikumi was considered a rookie when she had first joined Fuurinkazen but the other members were more than willing to help the very friendly and hardworking girl get better.
It was rare for female players to be in the front lines or to actively be part of the clearers, but those that do were the cream of the crop. Like Fuse before her, Ikumi had been one of the unrefined gems that after a bit of hard work had became very good in fighting within SAO. Perhaps the only way women could get recognized within SAO was to be overwhelmingly strong? At least Argo bucked the trend as she had stayed the same way she was. Then again, Lisbeth too was another prominent hammer user who had kept her levels close enough to the front lines that she would take part in field raids from time to time.
Her primary weapon was the use of hammers, which delivered heavy crushing and blunt blows with each swing. They had a different style from swords or spears, relying more on straight overwhelming power in each of their blows.
It was also doubly amusing when Ikumi was a very petite girl despite her boundless energy. She had a healthy interest in sports and together with her natural tomboyish behavior, it made her a good fit for Fuurinkanzen in general.
..
Nezumi's job will never be quite done, and in this instance Keima found himself looking at the twin sister of Ikumi – Asami, the other figure that Ikumi had brought with her today.
The entire guild was heading out for a dungeon raid that might take a couple of days to finish and she had asked for Nezumi's help in taking care of her sister during the period.
It was a ridiculous request that Keima only accepted because Argo had told him to accept the request sternly, Argo had a soft spot for the twins that he was aware of, just not sure why.
The identical twins, Ikumi and Asami had never played MMORPGs before and they had gotten stuck in SAO along with the rest of the players. The more energetic but ironically the younger of the pair had been more than eager to try out the battle mechanics within SAO but had not done so before due to her more timid and reserved sister until the two of them had joined Fuurinkanzen.
It was one of the conditions would be that they would continue to look after her sister for her if she joined their guild.
The older twin, Asami had suffered terribly due to the ordeal and hardly left the room that the two of them had rented until a week after they were trapped within SAO. One of the conditions Ikumi made when they joined Fuurinkanzen would be that they would continue to look after her sister for her.
The changes within SAO had encouraged Ikumi to start heading out to fight the monsters and while Asami hadn't been as brave, she had started to at least come out of the shell and room that she had trapped herself and spent her time either taking care of the room or heading out to walk around the town a little - a great start from her previous actions.
At least until other players saw her and tried to ask her out, flirting lightly with her and later outright trying to forcefully pull her away till some members of Nezumi had stepped in and brought her back to Ikumi.
Asami was still ignorant and unfamiliar with most of the mechanics of SAO despite having the field guide there to help her.
Keima was right to say that if people did not wish to learn or adapt to SAO, there was nothing he could to get them started.
After a particularly traumatic situation, Asami had retreated to her shell again, leaving Ikumi stuck between a rock and a hard place until she joined Fuurinkanzen.
It was just not in her nature to sit back and let others do her work for her, she had always been a hands-on person and she wanted to go out to contribute to the cause. Her sister was also not a burden to her. They were family but it was very difficult for her to contribute and be there for her sister at the same time.
Hence her request to Nezumi was two-fold, one was to actually help her locate a guild that she could join permanently to raise her skills and secondly, the guild had to be friendly enough to accept her shy sister within their rank as well.
It didn't take too much for Keima to decide that Fuurinkanzen was the best guild for them. He had briefly considered Kirito's group, but since they weren't an actual guild, he had decided that it was best they didn't. As kind as a girl Asuna was and as good as it would be to have Asami be with a group of girls, Kirito's group kept to themselves. Besides, Kirito and Fuse kept up a very tough training schedule between the three of them.
Keima had met all the members of Fuurinkanzen and they were a group of good individuals. Their leader's obsession with flirting with every female he met aside, they were trustworthy individuals who were as friendly as one could be in a world of strangers within Aincrad.
It was really a no brainer and it had turned out exactly like what he had predicted when the twins joined Fuurinkanzen. Ikumi had gotten her cake and was able to eat it too as she had been able to hit it off well with her guild members and to grow both in level and in skills.
Asami on the other hand was more reserved, apparently she still had problems with strangers of the opposite sex but had warmed up after seeing the goofy and cheerful way the members of Fuurinkanzen went about their lives in Aincrad. They took good care of her and was very protective to boot, causing Ikumi to lament once that Asami had gotten a ton load of bigger brothers but she still had to keep all of them in line.
According to Ikumi, her timid sister had gotten an interest in housekeeping and cooking while the others were out in the field. They would normally leave a member of the guild behind to keep an eye and to accompany Asami but in this particular dungeon raid, they needed all the members to join as there were still areas left to be mapped and one couldn't be too careful with SAO.
..
'Why don't you take a seat over there, Asami? You could read some of the books and newsletters that we have over there.'
Argo broke the silence with a role of her eyes and she led the timid girl to the couch instead of just sitting in front of an empthy desk. Leaving her there, Argo dropped a pile of reading materials on the small table in front of her. It was silly for them to take babysitting duties for a girl that was about their age but they had accepted this request and Argo was going to make Keima at least try to at least help Asami out.
It had been a busy few months, they were now on the 23rd floor and they hadn't lost a single person in their boss raids so far. The Capturing God and his abilities had been stretched to the max with the discovery of even more unknown skills like the [katana] and the [martial arts] skills that had to be unlocked or learnt from NPCs. If they weren't stretched as thin as they were in trying to coordinate efforts with the clearers and the other two support guilds, Keima would wish to do another sweep of the other floors up till now to see if they had missed out any quests, or if there were any new quests that were unlocked due to their progress. That said, the number of clearers had increased, but the ration of support to clearers were still heavily skewed to the support side.
It did not help that Atelier was starting to rival the Merchant Guild as many players started taking interest in other crafts like making casual clothes instead of making better armour for the players. There were also player shops that made hair dyes, customized potions and even restaurants! Not that Keima minded, SAO was the ideal and Aincrad allowed players to do anything. The system was evolving too, the affluence system had been tweaked greatly to keep the NPC shops competitive with the player shops.
The latest recruitment drive had increased their numbers by a significant amount, but most of the players were only suited to be messengers to contact other members of Nezumi on new happenings and not the scouts that they desperately need to map the areas in Aincrad. Perhaps with some training... they could, but it took courage and experience to be a scout as well.
It was an understatement to say that Aincrad was huge, so it was difficult to keep up the frantic and fast pace in which Nezumi could distribute and analyse information through the large guild to the other players of Aincrad. They got the job done, but discoveries were taking longer, and Keima knew that they were limitations. Perhaps they needed to regroup Nezumi and to stop himself from micro-managing?
If the Capturing God relinquished some of his roles to analyse the situation full-time, the pace of discovery might pick up again. But it was also the truth to say that new information and updates were popping up hourly, and that was the fact of the situation – there were just too much stuff going on all over Aincrad.
Perhaps it was time to start siphoning and deciding to prioritize the information that was being received? Argo certainly felt that way but she also knew that Keima would never accept it. He wanted to see the entire picture or he might miss something. At least that's his reasoning was when Argo raised that to him.
In a sense that made sense, the bigger the organisation and the bigger the situation – the more things were lost within transit. The last thing Keima wanted was to miss an important but yet small piece that could change the entire context of the situation.
'And you, Keima, you are going to help Asami-chan. Spend some time with her for pete's sake, you know the girl has a crush on you, right? She's never been uncomfortable around you at all, not like some of the other guys... Poor Arthur...'
Argo whispered to him while Keima simply didn't react much to what was going on besides raising an eyebrow at her. A crush, on him? He barely knew anything about the female player named Asami, and he was pretty sure the same goes for her as they had barely spoken to each other so far up till now. Even if he was the go-between for her sister and Fuurinkanzen, that was just an exchange that had happened a few months back.
Unfortunately, Keima was genre-savvy enough to also know that what Argo saying was true. The raven-haired twin had somewhat of a crush on him even though it didn't really make sense to him why that was so. He should probably find out now and he cleared his throat, before sending a mail to Argo while in the midst of sending instructions.
The Rat didn't even blink when the message popped up on her interface and she quickly excused herself, which was odd. Keima would have thought that she'll tease him a little for this. Then again, she was the one who had forced him to accept their request. It was a personal one directed to Keima and Argo and normally, no one would even dare to make a personal request. Logically, Keima could have asked one of his other guild members to look after Asami. They had several other leaders within Nezumi, Arthur in charge of accounts for example was a good choice or perhaps even Micah who was head of the scouting division. Maybe Takami of the Aincrad Times? Why should it be the two leaders who had to look after a single female player. Besides, even Argo considered those leaders as friends, though it was something Keima did not agree with.
They were acquaintances, allies and not friends. Friends would mean that they cared for each other and wanted to be part of each other's lives. Not so for Keima – he did not believe that they wished him to be a part of their lives so easily.
He was their commander, at least for the support guilds, and not a friend. He shouldn't be one. Really.
..
'Asami.'
Keima spoke softly to the timid girl as she looked up to stare at him. It was an unnerving stare for she did not blink much as she tried to put all her attention on him before she smiled.
'Yes, Keima-san? I'm... I'm grateful for you in letting me stay with you...'
Asami admitted while blushing, she knew that it was childish of her but she just jumped at the chance to spend some time with Keima.
'It's not a bother at all.'
Keima's face did not betray the fact that it was a bother, it really was but he was the Capturing God, a master at controlling his emotions and delivering the right lines, especially in the ideal.
'I'm glad... I don't wish to be a bother, and I know it's incredibly childish of me to wish to stay with someone else... I'm not a child after all, but...'
Keima waited patiently for Asami, the raven-haired girl grimacing before admitting that she didn't have any friends in Aincrad.
'I've always relied on Ikumi-chan and everyone in Fuurinkanzen, even Klein-san... he's funny and nice but... without them, I just... can't stand it. I... don't wish to be alone.'
Asami continued with a blush, unsure why she was blabbering all this to the person she might have a crush on but Keima did not comment, nor did he press any judgement to her besides giving her a small nod and sitting down beside her on the couch.
'It's odd, isn't it? I... I think... Keima-san knows... that I …'
Asami wasn't able to continue, she simply looked down and wondered what she should say next that would not embarrass herself further.
'You're not suitable to be in Aincrad... You shouldn't be here.'
Keima spoke suddenly, softly too as Asami's head jerked up in surprise. She didn't expect him to say anything at all, much less comment on the truth. Hearing that from him made something in her hurt, and she knew it must be her heart.
'Not everyone likes the ideal, nor can everyone accept it... You're one of the few that shouldn't be here at all, Asami. Why, did you play SAO in the first place?'
The two of them were newbies, having never played any MMORPGs before and although her sister Ikumi had adapted to it very easily, Asami hadn't. Keima was not going to mince his words, the timid girl in front of him wasn't suited for this stressful environment. He should send her to the orphanage to take care of the other children – yeah, that was a good plan. Why didn't he think about this before? It would be a safe place with lots of things to do to help her not think about the future.
'I... I have a confession to make, Keima-san.'
Keima raised an eyebrow at Asami's reply. The younger woman had spent quite some time thinking about her answer till her reply and she had apparently mustered the courage at long last, for a confession? Argo had been right, but this wasn't the right time for a confession, at least, just yet.
'I am listening.'
'… I was the one to ask Ikumi-chan to ask you for help.'
That has nothing to do with his question, right?
'Oh...? And why is that? If I can ask of course...'
'I... I had hoped to see a person, Keima-san. He shared the same name as you.'
A person with the player name Keima? Was that it? He looked nothing like what he actually looked like in the real due to him not using the mirror key item from before. The odds were slim that the two of them were the same person in the real though, what was the luck of that happening?
'I, I persuaded Ikumi-chan to get SAO because I wanted to know more about the video-games that the person liked. I knew that he'll be playing SAO, everyone is and... I was hoping that I can get closer to him by playing SAO, so I can understand him... I-It's... stupid, right?'
'No, it isn't.'
Keima answered softly while Asami looked up in confusion. Was he just trying to make her feel better? Or did he really mean what he said? She... wasn't sure as Keima had a conflicting look on his face. The Capturing God could see the ending here, it was just too easy.
'You like that boy, don't you, Asami? If you don't mind, would you tell me his name?'
Asami froze this time, her cheeks flushing before she nodded her head while looking down.
'Y-Yes, I do... His name is Katsuragi Keima-kun, he's in my class... we're in classmates and we never talked with each other. ... It's silly... I don't even have the courage to speak to him yet, I... don't even think he even know who I am... A-Ah, what am I doing, I... I'm sorry for telling you all this!'
Asami flushed harder when she realized what she was doing, simply put she was telling the person that she might have a crush on about her other crush. It was all so confusing really that she did not know why she did that.
Keima-san was an incredible person after all and it was hard not to look up to him after all that he has done for all of them. He looked very handsome too and Asami liked the way he handled all the people that came to see him or tried to hold a conversation with him through PMs.
They barely knew each other, or at least Keima did not know her. Asami had tried her best to know as much as she could about him through her guild leader, Klein. It had started off as admiration but it had changed to something else when she first saw Keima-san in the person. His actions were familiar, a little too familiar to the other person she had a crush on and in the end, she couldn't help but feel something for him as well. Even she was surprised. After all her emotions, all it took was meeting him a few times before her heart changed its thought to someone else. To be frank, she was really disappointed with herself and her resolve. Hadn't she told herself that she would change herself and to find the courage to talk to Keima-kun after all? Guess she was weaker than she thought...
'I... think I have that effect on other people. Who'd ever thought that I would have...'
Keima answered softly after Asami's confession and was it just her, or did Keima-san looked a little different. A little... gentler somehow?
'Do you feel better now, Asami?'
'I... I think I do... I do... yes, thank you, Keima-san.'
Asami did looked more relaxed now after sharing with Keima something she only told her twin sister, something that her twin sister had tried hard to make her tell Keima-san in the first place. And she did! Just being able to do it made her feel extremely excited and brave, to the point that she was able to reach over to give him a small kiss on the cheek as thanks before she realized it. She had been planning that move for ages too!
'I-I! I.. erm, T-Thank you, Keima-san!'
Before she could pass out at the sheer audacity of her actions, Asami stood up and left the office in a hurry before Keima could stop her. Not that he wanted to, the Capturing God was mentally calculating the odds that he would meet someone from his own class, who had a crush on him and was lucky or perhaps silly enough to look and latch on a single player out of ten thousand individuals to confess to, and got the right person in the end.
Seriously, what were the odds? That was just incalculable and Keima found himself giving up with a small frown on his face.
'… I didn't ask for her real name, did I?'
No matter, he would know when they clear the game. There was just no way he was going to give her the chance to figure out that he was Katsuragi Keima in the real. Even if he did find it a little flattering and odd that someone was able to look past the person that he was like real, like what Meizun did.
No matter, it really didn't matter after all.
A few weeks later
Aincrad Level 26
'So how is Asami-chan doing? Is she doing well at the orphanage?'
Asuna, The Flash, who had made a name for herself in the clearer group with her fast and fancy footwork, smiled at her guest, Ikumi-chan. Ikumi had a nickname of her own as well – Ikumi The Gallant. It was also kind of ironic seeing that Klein had wanted that title but Ikumi had gotten it after she had somehow gotten popular with the female players after rescuing a group of them out on a dungeon raid by herself after getting separated the others of Fuurinkanzen by accident.
Ikumi was a player who used hammers and requiring very little speed and to top that off, she wore heavy armour that made her look like a knight. In Asuna's eyes, it was just overkill really. She was very friendly too and those few facts combined would have caused an explosion of female recruits to Fuurinkanzen if not for Klein, in a fit of clarity or denial, decided that team balance was more important than having a potential harem in Fuurinkanzen. Especially when the harem did not belong to him and to the only female player in the guild. It was a guy thing, really.
'She really likes it there! The kids there are so adorable and Sasha-san says that she's a big help. She's smiling a lot more too now... I'm really glad that Keima-kun recommended her to help out there.'
Ikumi smiled wistfully and happily back to Asuna as the two of them took a sip of the tea that Asuna prepared.
'That's good to hear, Asami-chan is really a gentle girl, it's like what Keima-san said, she could really help out there, I wish we could move them to another floor more often though. We could bring the kids around, there's a lot of sights to see.'
'Mm... True, true... but anyway, how's Fuse-chan? Is she still training hard with Kirito-kun?'
'Yes, she is... She's catching up to Kirito-kun now, she's really good with the two-handed sword.'
'She's not using the [kantana] skill is she? She uses a different type of style, similar to Kirito-kun's style. At least, that's what I hear from Argo-san. I'm not that good with the mechanics and all. Klein-kun is really good with it though, he's really strong.'
'Well he's the guild leader after all, even if he's a silly and can't get any girl to like him... But he's strong, really.'
Ikumi scratched her head while Asuna laughed. She admitted to the other girl that she wasn't good with her built as well, it was all Nezumi's help that she optimized her build.
'Me too, I got Keima-kun's help with it. Without it I won't know what to do. And the guys really helped me in the early levels. Can you believe I'm like within 5 levels of the clearer group? That's amazing! I never thought I'll get this far.'
Ikumi cheered happily while Asuna nodded back, giving her congratulations as well.
'I'm happy for you, Ikumi-chan. We should go now, we have to see how did the meeting ended, right? Can't believe we actually got everyone to come this time. This new guild, it's really something else...'
'Yep, we got a new group this time. The Knights of the Blood, right? The leader... he kinda looks a little old...'
Ikumi gossiped while Asuna laughed before blushing and nudging Ikumi with a frown.
'Don't say that, Heathcliff-san is a very strong player. Even Kirito-kun says so.'
'I know, I know! But it's funny how he came out of nowhere, huh? I mean, he didn't even take part in any of the raids so far and he just upped and showed everyone in the last boss raid. He must have found some secret training technique.'
Ikumi wondered out loud but Asuna gave her a dry look.
'A secret training technique that Argo-san and Keima-san can't find out or publish to the rest? Really?'
'Good point, there's nothing that Keima-kun or Argo-chan can't find out... maybe I can get some of Kirito-kun's sleeping photos for you, Asuna!'
'W-Whaat? N-No, why would I want that?'
Author's Notes: IRL is really difficult!