Chapter two
Error: Kirito Overdrive
When I woke up, seeing the worried expressions of two beautiful girls, one of whom had tears in her emerald eyes, I felt awful.
I got up, eyeing the message a few meters away. [[Last attack bonus]]? What's that about—ugh! I looked down, noting the marks, still red on my left side, seemingly made from huge claws. Then it clicked.
"Baka Kiri-kun! Why? Why did you save me again?!" Kamiko yelled, forcing an expensive potion's liquids down my throat, revitalizing my HP back to full. Her tear-filled eyes struck a chord in my soul. I felt horrible for upsetting her, especially now that I knew of her secret affections for me.
"Again? But aren't you the [[Queen of Claws]]? The second strongest player from the beta by far?" Argo questioned Kamiko.
"That's just it, though, Argo. I was the second strongest by far, but by far went both ways. I could never match Kiri-kun's strength when we were clearing floors together, and every time we fought a boss or field boss, he would end up saving me. It got so frustrating. I felt so weak. So I tried to get stronger, to reach his level, but no matter how hard I tried, he was always a few steps ahead of me. Even when I reached the same level as him in the game, his fighting ability far surpassed mine," She finished, tearing up again.
"Hey now, I didn't save you all the time because I thought you were weak. I saved you all the time because you were, and still are, very important to me." I said comfortingly, pulling her into a hug and whispering the last part into her ear.
"Mou, Kiri-kun, you're making me do it again," She said, smiling. I wiped away her tears and said, "Now, let's see what that LA bonus is!"
"Is it claws? I hope it's claws!" Argo said happily, eager to see the powerful [[Wolf King Claws]] from the beta, assuming the claws were what dropped.
I looked at the Congratulations Window, touched the accept bonus button, only to be shocked to find that two items were there. "[[Wolf King Claws (Ancient)]] and [[Wolf King Einshander (Unique).]] I got a blade to replace [[Tree Cutter]]!" I exclaimed, ecstatic.
"I get the claws, right, Ki-Bou?" Argo happily said in a sing-song voice. She had stars in her eyes, and I felt kinda bad for her, being so desperate.
I materialized the claws in my hand, using the 'make into object' option, and said, "Here, catch," throwing them to Kamiko. "You can have those on two conditions. One, never tell anyone about my dual blades skill. Two, accept this." I said, pulling up a window and sending a friend request, doing my best to ignore Argo's dramatic wail.
"Kiri-kun, thank you so much! I promise that I'll get stronger so that you won't have to save me anymore, and so that I'll finally be able to walk beside you as your equal," she exclaimed. She then equipped the claws, walked over to me, and pressed her lips against my cheek, saying, "Arigatou, sayonara," before she left without me even noticing.
"Aw, is our protagonist love-struck? I'm jealous!" Argo teased.
I didn't notice, too distracted by Kamiko's choice of words to say goodbye.
"Arigatou, sayonara." Where did I hear that…? NO! NOT AGAIN! "SACHI!"
I screamed the name that appeared with a dying face, unwilling to let that moment happen again. Then, the moment vanished from my consciousness just as quickly as it came.
"Sachi? Who's that? Is she one of the girls you seduced with your love charm?" Argo asked teasingly. Then her expression hardened. "No, seriously, are you okay? That scream seemed totally frantic, as if someone's life was on the line."
"I-it's nothing, I just zoned out there for a second." I said tiredly, just wanting to go home and take a rest. Home, meaning the house I bought as a quest reward.
"Great, then let's go do some more lev—"
"Teleport: [[Zweistadt]]!" I exclaimed, using a [[Teleport Crystal]] to get away from Argo and her inevitable teasing, should I lose a significant amount of health…or Kami-sama forbid she got bored.
Arriving in town, I had to walk a little ways away, out to the countryside and to my house, so I decided to take a leisurely walk through the streets.
At this time of night they were relatively empty, save for the occasional player walking to an inn or the very few people going out of the city, presumably beta-testers knowing how to survive at night. Is that… Silica?
"Oi, Silica! How are you?" I asked, walking over to meet her. Being the only child I knew in this game who could hold her own against a [[Dire Wolf]], we made good friends. If not for her size, her long light brown hair tied into large pigtails would make her relatively easy to spot, compared to the bland appearances of most of the players.
"Kirito-san! I'm doing well, thank you. I'm a little tired, but I'm not complaining. How are you faring? I guess not much better than I, what with your tattered clothes," She said, smiling innocently. "By the way, why is there lipstick on your cheek?"
"W-what the? How did that..?" Oh, right, that. Well, at least it's just Silica who saw it, I thought while rubbing my right cheek.
"Mou, Kirito-san, you could've at least told me you had a girlfriend," Silica said flatly, as if too annoyed to show emotion. Why would that be?
"Well, whatever! Who am I to ask about your personal life?" she said cheerily, leaving me to try to defend my case.
"Wait, Silica! It's not like that! I just met a really close friend from the outside world, that's all that happened," I said frantically.
I hoped my reputation didn't get shattered for this, despite the little white lie I told her as a way to defend myself. It's true that we knew each other, but only from our beta-testing days.
"Oh, okay, sorry about that, Kirito-san. I kind of overreacted," Silica said apologetically, her eyes pleading to me for forgiveness. I felt bad for unwittingly offending her in some way.
"It's okay, Silica… Ah! I've got to get home! My sleep eagerly awaits me!" I said while running off.
The field too quiet for a time like this. It's eleven o'clock, and there are no mobs in sight. Strange. I thought, very confused, until I saw what looked to be a skilled high-level cloaked player, fighting five mid-level mobs. She had already trained her [[One Handed Sword]] skill enough to use a rapier, and handled it gracefully while delivering a fair amount of damage with her skills.
"Hey, that's pretty impressive, congrats." I said after seeing the cloaked figure defeat the last mob in sight. "You got a little shaky towards the end, so I recommend you put some stat points into Constitution, or CON. Other than that, you were amazing!" I said, congratulating the player.
"What does it matter? I defeated it, and I got the EXP from it, and that's all that matters, right?" a beautiful voice said, completely void of emotion. Ah, so she must be one of the players who took it the hardest. Still, at least she isn't being suicidal.
"I disagree, but we'll save that topic for later. Now, if you don't mind me asking, what level are you?" I tried to be casual, inwardly seething that she didn't even care about her own personal safety.
"Level nine," She said flatly, as if she didn't even care that she probably had the highest level, barring Argo, Kamiko, and I, in the game.
"What?! Then you should be able to one-hit-kill those mobs. They're only level five. How are you using your [[stat points]]?" I asked incredulously. Then suspicion hit.
"…Are you even using your stat points?"
"Are you doubting my strength? But no, I've been wondering how to do that," She replied coldly.
"No wonder. All right, I'm going to show you only once, okay? But first, let's return to my house and get something to eat. I'm guessing you're hungry, right?" I said, hoping that she'd accept. After all, I wanted to save as many lives as possible in this death game. Even though I…
"Okay, but answer me this. Why are you helping me? What does it matter to you?" the cloaked girl asked sadly.
"Because I care. I care for you, my friends, and everyone else still alive in this game. If I could, I would revive the people in this game somehow, because I care about them just as much. Now, let's go to my place and get some food, and then we'll talk about making you a little stronger." I spoke with conviction, determined to clear this game as soon as possible so that no more players have to die in vain.
"Okay."
Though the walk back to my house had passed by relatively uneventfully, a few mobs still spawned, and were quickly dispatched by me. Once we got to the house, however, the cloaked girl gasped at the sight before her, as if she was facing a boss all by herself.
The house's huge exterior had a Roman style, with pillars on every corner, and walls covered with a marble layer on the outside. As we walked in, she merely stood there, seemingly shocked, though I couldn't see her face due to the hood of her cloak. The interior had a fountain in the middle of a very big living room, which sadly had no furniture as I only had enough money to buy the house and what came with it. The living room had three spiral staircases, the first, second, and third leading to the kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom, respectively.
"Now, why don't you come up to the kitchen, and we'll talk there?" I inquired. I had no idea why I acted so kind to this girl, but something about her just… drew me in.
We walked up the staircase to the left, which led to the kitchen. We sat down in the chairs opposite each other, neither of us saying anything for a good fifteen seconds. I finally took the initiative to speak after it became clear that she would stay irritatingly silent.
"So, let's get down to our first order of business, shall we? I'm going to teach you how to invest stat points, to make you stronger. You're level nine, and players get three stat points every time they level up, so you should have twenty four stat points. Now, open your menu, and click on stats. You see the abbreviations with numbers next to them, there in the lower center of the screen?" I asked, pausing after each step to let her do what I instructed.
"STR13, DEX24, and CON11?" she asked uncertainly, sounding unbelievably cute when matched with her voice.
"Yeah. Now see the Add Button to the right of those? Touch that, and then plus signs will appear next to each abbreviation. Hit a plus sign to increase that stat's number by one. I recommend doing the hybrid build, which for you your rapier is +2 DEX, and +1 CONevery time you level up. That means that this time you should put +16 into DEX, and put +8 into CON. When you're done, hit the Apply Button, which is where the Add Button used to be. Go ahead, try it." I said nonchalantly, hoping that she would understand well enough to do it successfully.
Once I noticed her execute it perfectly on the first try, I felt thoroughly impressed. "Good job."
"Really? It wasn't that hard," she said, but I could sense a distinct amount of both pride and embarrassment. It almost made me want to laugh, but it did manage to make me smile like an idiot.
"Now that that's over, what say we get some food? I'm starving!" I said to cover up my reason for my moronic smile. But even though I used that particular line as a cover up, I couldn't deny my starvation. My growling stomach agreed with me.
"Hahaha. But really, you don't have to—" "But I do. You're the guest of honor, and that means when you're hungry, you eat. Don't tell me you're not hungry, because I can easily tell that you are," I said kindly.
"Really? Thank you," she said, and I could somehow feel her smiling under her hood.
"It's no problem. Actually, someone on my friends list constantly sends me food that his friend cooks, and I'm having a hard time keeping up with it all, so you'll be doing me a favor," I said calmly, hoping she didn't see the cover-up I'd just made. I've actually been practicing my [[Cooking Skill]] because I get so many raw ingredients from mobs. I'd gotten it to about one hundred - nothing to brag about, but still not bad.
I finally get to test out my cooking on someone. Let's hope I've done well enough to please her. I blinked. Wait a second, why do I care?
About an hour later, we were both stuffed. I had been carefully watching her body language to see if she liked it, and I truly couldn't tell.
"You're a good cook. Thanks," the cloaked figure said, muttering the last part out of embarrassment.
"Beats what you can get from shops and mob drops, doesn't it? Wait a second, how the heck did you know it was me? I know for sure I didn't tell you," I said warily. I didn't know how she did it, but she caught on to my little lie.
"You were watching me the entire time with a nervous expression, as if you were scared of my opinion on the food. You had absolutely no need to be, though. *Yawn* Do you mind if I stay here tonight? I have no money to pay for another night at the inn, and I'm really tired after that great meal," she said nervously, as if afraid that I would kick her out.
"No, I don't mind at all. There's just one problem" I said nervously, blushing slightly. This wasn't going to be easy to say at all.
"What's the problem? Oh, wait. Do you really mean that…?" she started, embarrassed.
"Y-yeah… there's only one bed, and I didn't have enough money to buy any other furniture, so if you want to stay here, we'll have to share the bed. Ah-ah don't worry though, the bed's really big, so we probably won't end up touching each other or doing anything else." I said carefully, afraid of possibly being stabbed in an anti-pervert rage.
"O-okay, but at least tell me your name," she said quietly, starting to manipulate her equipment. I absolutely, positively had to stop her.
"N-no no no, you've got it wrong! I won't do anything! I just wanted to warn you that I only have one bed," I said, effectively stopping her from unequipping her clothes. "My name's Kirito, by the way."
"Oh, okay… Kirito. B-by the way, c-could I please call you Kirito-kun…? I'm sorry, I just met you…"
"Sure, why not, as long as you don't call me just 'guy', 'boy', or a foul name, I'm fine with it," I yawned. "I'm tired, what say we go to bed?"
We went down the stairs, then walked to the spiral staircase on the far right and went up it. I led her a short way down a hallway and we entered the only room at the end of it. I led her through the darkness to the bed, at which I pulled down the covers, allowing her to get in. I then walked around to the other side of the bed and, my clothes still on, slipped into the other side of the covers.
"Just so we're clear, I won't do anything, okay? Now, goodnight." I said gently, quickly quieting myself to allow her to go to sleep peacefully.
Three hours later, I still couldn't fall asleep. Busy thinking about the previous night's events, I noticed the time. Great, two in the morning. But wow, last night was crazy. So many strange things happened that it's really hard to believe that this isn't all just a big dream. I grew to level thirteen, met up with my best friend from the beta, saved her from a field boss, teleported to town, met up with Silica, and then I even let a complete stranger stay in my house, just because she had potential!
Speaking of her, she's still wearing that cloak, isn't she? I wonder what her face looks like under that hood I thought, moving my hand up to remove the hood of her cloak, before quickly deciding against it and swiftly retracting my shaking hand. No! I told her I wouldn't do anything! I can't break her trust. I mentally scolded myself.
With that, I felt my body grow tired, the previous day's events finally catching up with me. My eyes grew heavy and I said one last thing to myself before I let myself drift off to sleep.
"Wait for me, Sugu. I'll come back to the real world, and then I'll be nicer. Nothing will get in my way. I'll clear this game for you, Suguha."
A/N: Sooo, how'd you like the second chapter of my story? Love it? Hate it? Well, review and tell me what you think. Your kind reviews feed the hungry homeless plot bunnies that I take in from time to time, so please, have the kindness to give those helpless starving plot bunnies something to quell their appetites.
I know that I contradicted myself when I said he wouldn't get into a party or guild immediately, seeing as he partied with Argo. As I see it though, when he teleported by himself to the town I dubbed Zweistadt, it disbanded the party.
I really pushed it up to that T-rating, didn't I? Well, I needed some kind of Kirsuna fanservice that wouldn't mess up the plot outline I have.
Speaking of the plot, I'm completely open to suggestions concerning things that aren't part of the outline I have planned. Send me an idea, and I'll gladly try to incorporate it into the story.
By the way, you can check my profile to see how close I am to finishing the next chapter of this story.
Constructive criticism will be taken seriously, and flamers will be ignored.
May happiness be with you,
OMG
PS: Sorry, I guess I forgot to explain some plot holes. See, the beginning is set so that the entire SAO world is reset. The reason that he remembered everything is that in the void, his memories were preserved, but then when the world got completely reset, the void (which contained his memories) was forced into his subconscious.
Now, onto another plot hole. Time did indeed rewind for the entire world, and because of that, and his gifts, the timeline will be severely altered. And because of this, some of the characters will seem out of character for a while. Hopefully I'll get the characters back on track soon enough.