A/N: IMPORTANT: I took the funny chapters and put them as a goofy spin off, there will still be humor here cuz I can't write without humor but this side of the story will have more seriousness than I had before. Like an actual story instead of confusingly bouncing around. It just bothered me how disorganized the story was, so chapters like the original chapter two and three will be in the spin off which I plan to add another chapter to soon. Sorry I'm so late, ENJOY!

Chapter 2: Cat Nap

The woods were silent, there were no birds singing, no bugs echoing their noise about the trees…nothing. Not even a breeze. It was almost as if time itself had just stopped for a moment.

Perhaps it was due to the death hanging in the air, but a forest full of living beings should long since be used to such a notion.

Maybe it was the unnaturalness of the boy lying in the leaves with a bullet through his head, death clouding over him but not hanging on him…

Or maybe it was the cat, one that didn't feel right to those who were even aware of its existence, a rare occurrence on its own. The very same cat that just sat next to the boy's head as if it was waiting for something to happen…

Hours ticked by in the silence, it almost seemed like it would drag on forever…

But then a pained groan sounded throughout the forest as finally, against all laws of nature, the boy moved.

"What-" Kirito began questioning as he slowly sat up, but abruptly cut himself off as he clutched his head, wincing in pain. Never in his entire life had he experienced such a horrible head ache. It was almost as if someone had went and-

Shot him in the head.

He gasped as his head whipped left then right taking in his current surroundings, yelping in panic when he found the dead older man's body lying right next to him.

How in the hell's name was he alive?!

To add to the panic he discovered that the majority of half his face was caked in his own blood, his hair clumped up with the red liquid, and on the ground where he had been lying was a drying puddle.

But absolutely no wound.

His forehead was free of holes, the only sign he had ever been shot at all was the dried blood and pounding head ache. That and he certainly remembered it, clear as day.

It didn't make sense.

None of it made sense.

His hand landed on something hard and cold as he shifted to his knees, peering down his breath caught in his throat as he picked up the bullet, cold, silver, and coated in dried blood. His fingers trembled as the realization dawned on him that this bullet should still be buried in his head.

Not that he was ungrateful, but he just didn't understand….how was he alive?

The cat watched the boy panic, watched him stumble about in confusion for a moment before making its presence known with a simple "Meow" and the response it received was immediate.

The boy jumped inhumanly high from being startled so, quickly whirling around to face the cat when his feet were once again on solid ground.

The two just stared at each other in silence, before once again Kirito was the one to brake it, "What the hell are you?!" he screamed as he glared at the cat. It was sincerely starting to freak him out.

But of course a cat cannot speak, and so the cat merely tilted its head as if it was slightly confused before trotting off in the direction of the road.

"What the- Hey wait!" Kirito called as he raced after the cat, though not without horrible stumbling and a few face plants here and there. He couldn't seem to walk right at all.

Silently he wondered how long he had laid there in the woods. He really hadn't a clue, but he figured it must have been long enough when the road appeared in sight.

It was late just as it was when he was shot-killed? That still confused him. Being late as it was he could very clearly see the flashing lights off the many police cars lining the road.

He was nearly scared to death by the mad barking of a big German Shepard, presumably a search dog, as it eyed the distraught boy almost madly. Stumbling backwards and landing on his butt Kirito stared in alarm till a shrill whistle caused the dog to go obediently silent.

"Hey it's the boy! We found the boy, he's alive!" A voice called, it was only till the man was in front of Kirito waving a flashlight in his eyes did he realize he was a police officer.

"Good, you don't seem to have a concussion…do you have any injuries? You're covered in blood." The man questioned as he helped Kirito up off the ground and kept a steady hold of his arm, for that Kirito was grateful…he could barely walk a straight line at the moment. His sight, smell, and hearing were all so off kilter it was throwing him off.

Kirito merely shook his head as an answer, "The blood isn't mine." He lied. The officer merely shot him a briefly alarmed glance as he continued to lead him through a mass chaotic mess of activity, police officers and search dogs almost seemed to be everywhere.

"I see… We've been searching for you for two days, your mother called when you didn't show up and we found your bike along this road." The man continued to explain, stopping at one of the police cars and opened the door to the passenger seat, allowing Kirito to sit and rest with his feet hanging out the door.

The officer leaned on the open door, "Can you tell us what happened?" He questioned after speaking on a walkie-talkie to alert all the other police of him being found, before Kirito even opened his mouth to reply another man had joined them.

"Kirigaya Kazuto?" the other man questioned, Kirito just nodded his head. "Thank god, your mother has been calling us non-stop. I swear she's driving the whole police force up the wall."

"Uh…" Kirito really didn't know what to say to that other than the fact that yeah…it sounded like something his aunt Midori would do.

"I'm Captain Eiji, this officer here who found you is Hiro."

"Nice to meet you, alive I might add." The man Hiro joked. Kirito didn't find it very funny.

"Hiro, could you go contact his family? Tell them we found their son. Also if you can find some water or something, I think the boy could use that, he probably hasn't had anything in the last two days he's been missing." The Captain started as Kirito frowned, why not just ask him? He'll never understand people, if it was him he would just ask, he was never one to beat around the bush…unless of course doing so might allow him to avoid Asuna's wrath.

The officer nodded his head before heading off to do what he's been told. The Captain turned to Kirito and smiled kindly before asking, "Do you know what happened to you?"

Kirito was silent for a moment as he mentally decided what was ok to tell and what he should lie about. "My bike broke down; I had been walking for hours…I saw a truck. I went to ask for a ride and found two men dragging a body. I tried to run but I must have been knocked out or something because I don't remember, I woke up next to the body in a random clearing…I think they thought I was dead."

Kirito knew the story was edgy but it was also mostly true, just with some parts of it missing. His biggest concern was all his blood, but he really didn't know how to explain that seeing as he had no injuries, and there was no way an injury that could cause that much blood loss could heal on its own in two days.

In fact with that kind of blood loss he was pretty sure he should be dead, but well that was one in many reasons on the growing list of 'should be dead' as far as he was concerned.

The man stared at him for long moment before speaking again, "If you could, do you think you could lead us back to the body?"

Kirito shook his head no, the only reason he found the road so easily was because the freaky cat…which now that he thought about it; where the heck did it go?

Eiji sighed, "Alright, well at least we know about it…I'll just have to tell the search team to keep at it." He continued.

"Captain, I contacted his family. However I couldn't find any water or food for the kid." Hiro called as he returned, standing next to the man with a phone in hand.

The Captain merely sighed, "Did you tell them to meet us at the hospital?"

"Yes sir."

"Good, let's get this kid checked out." Eiji finished with a nod in the direction of Kirito.

Kirito shook his head in annoyance, "I don't need to go to a hospital." He replied stubbornly, what if they find something unexplainable about him? Something weird? He did just get shot in the head two days ago and woke up with nothing but a massive head ache and disorientation.

Though now that he thought about it, he was also really hungry and somewhat thirsty…two whole days lying on the forest floor dead or at least very close to it, can really make a person hungry.

"Look kid, its better safe than sorry. Besides this is just procedure, your covered in blood, you look like you been through hell, and you don't even know what happened to you. You're going to the hospital."

Kirito groaned in annoyance as the man gestured for him to sit all the way in the car and shut the door behind him, he wasn't stupid. He was completely aware that no matter what he said he wasn't going to be able to avoid a trip to the hospital. At least they weren't making him ride in an ambulance, which would have been uncomfortable seeing as he's perfectly functional.

He just really hoped they didn't find anything disturbing.

The ride to the hospital had been by far the worst ride of his entire life.

Every noise seemed ten times louder, every smell thousands of times more pungent or noticeable, and his sight was at a level of unbearable awareness with everything seemingly brighter…but not in a good way, it was in a way that just hurt to look at anything.

All his senses were peaked to a point of unnatural, something that was making him incredibly uncomfortable.

At the speed they were going things should have been hard to focus on for more than a second if at all, however instead everything was in perfect clarity. It was like they were driving down the roads at the pace of a snail for all the detail he could discern.

Oh how his headache just grew and grew.

But then he got to the hospital, and he found he had never before wanted to be out of a building as much as he wanted out of that one. The air didn't just smell like a hospital anymore, to him it smelled like blood, and so many other disgusting smells he could describe…but really didn't want to.

He really really wanted out, but he was only ushered in further by all the alarmed nurses, he was after all still covered in blood.

The check up and tests all seemed to last for an eternity to the poor boy as he sat there trying to cut the world off, if only to spare his throbbing head.

Unfortunately that just made the doctors and nurses decide to take more tests just to make sure that his head was fine.

When the blood tests came through the doctors became confused but then declared that the machine was 'just getting old'.

When Kirito questioned them on the matter the answer he received made his heart drop to his stomach.

"Your blood almost looks like a cat's on the results." They joked, yet somehow Kirito had the feeling that the machine had nothing to do with those results.

After the many long hours past and they finally deemed him alright, he was led out to the waiting room. They claimed his family and friends were there causing up a racket because they had wanted to see him right away. He wasn't surprised by the matter one bit.

The minute he set foot into the room he was tackled, quickly he lost track of how many times he was hugged or by who the hugging came from. He was beyond exhausted from the whole affair.

Though he certainly became aware again when he found himself in Asuna's arms, it was like an instant reaction, everything about her seemed to wash away all his worries and stress. He felt so safe again.

Getting shot in the head seemed to damage his comfort and confidence more than his body. He was sure he was liable to be suffering trauma from the whole thing.

"Sorry, I missed our date." He mumbled in her neck, the place he had instantly buried his face once her arms had wrapped around him securely.

"That's what you're concerned about?!" She yelped suddenly, causing him to wince.

"You dummy! We thought you were dead!" she continued, pushing him out enough so she could look at his face.

Dead…he should be…he thinks he's supposed to be. He really couldn't make heads or tails of anything…

"Sorry." He whispered in response as she pulled him back in her arms again, he could practically feel his energy draining from his body.

He was so very tired.

"We were so worried!" he heard another voice call, he thought it was his aunt but at this point he didn't have the energy left to figure it out.

That's when his knees gave out.