Chapter Seven

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Images of Asuna appeared before me. Then, Cirdan and Rita started to surface in the images. A pair of arms wrapped around me from behind, snapping me out of my deep rage. I looked at my HP bar and noticed that I had the [[Bleeding]] status condition with my remaining life rapidly draining out. Just before my HP drained to zero, the [[Bleeding]] condition disappeared, leaving me with a mere 3 HP out of 1550. I looked at Cirdan's HP bar and noticed that he was in the red as well.

I surveyed our surroundings, finding nothing but rubble and two level-up signs, both addressed to me.

"What happened? Where are Kibaou and his group?" I said drowsily.

"I evacuated them out safely when you started decimating those giant crabs. What were those, anyway?" Rita inquired nervously.

"Those were field bosses, [[Kraken's Crabs]]. They multiply when you kill them without hitting all of their eyes in one slash. That slash has to be a one-hit-kill; otherwise, you'll never be able to kill them." I blinked, "Wait, did I do all that? Then…did I attack you guys?"

"Yeah, you did."

"Yeah, you did," Cirdan said bluntly.

"I personally don't think it was your fault, though. You seemed to be in some sort of blood rage, and the look in your eyes said that you weren't even conscious. It's like you just snapped when you saw Asuna get hurt," Cirdan confirmed my suspicions.

Asuna is too important to me.

"The weird thing is that you didn't attack her even once while in that state. I wish you would snap for me some time," Rita teased, mock pouting.

"So, we're the only ones here, right? We'd better get out of here before one respawns." I said, trying to get out of Asuna's grip.

"No, not until you're healed!" Asuna said firmly.

"Well, would you look at that, he's healing on his own! What the heck, man, where did you get that?" Cirdan asked, noticing my [[Battle Healing]] skill as it took effect.

"My [[Battle Healing]] skill. I've been leveling it up by mapping out the boss dungeon, constantly putting myself at risk of death…right now it regenerates 320 HP every ten seconds. I should be fine, I'm more worried about you guys."

"I have [[Battle Healing]] myself, so I'll be fine, don't worry. As for those two, Rita's probably fine, and… Asuna, was it? Anyway, she's been in the red ever since she got struck by one of the [[Kraken's Crabs]]."

"Asuna, that's right! Are you okay?" I inquired.

"I'm fine, Kirito-kun. I'll just have a potion," Asuna said reassuringly.

"I must have missed something."

Heathcliff. I forgot about him. It's a good thing he didn't see what happened. I feel like something terrible would happen if he did.

"Heathcliff, why didn't you get here sooner? Seriously, you left all the fighting to us! Well, really just to Kirito," Rita exclaimed, annoyed.

"So you were holding back more than I thought. Well, I will take my leave," Heathcliff said, walking away from the alcove filled with blood.

Wait, blood?

"Does anyone else see the blood on the ground everywhere?" I asked nervously.

If this game is simulating blood now, then it might freak out the clearing party, deterring them from trying to beat the game. This is bad.

"Well, all the blood came from you. Even when we got struck, no blood came out. I think it was just your skill," Cirdan said contemplatively.

"That was no skill. That was a system error." I have no idea how, but I know that this would never be a skill.

"Well, whatever it is, I certainly wouldn't recommend doing it again." Cirdan said harshly.

"I agree."

Coming out of the cave, I remembered why we went there in the first place. "Cirdan, we need to go. I'm fully healed, so I'll be fine. Girls, this is where we part ways."

"What?! But Kirito-kun—" Asuna started frantically.

"Don't worry, he'll be okay. He is Kirito, after all," Rita said gently, putting a soothing hand on Asuna's shoulder.

Cirdan started dragging me down the trail that lead to the NPC that gave out the Phibbius quest, saying, "See you girls later! We've got a few quests just waiting to be completed."

"O-one more thing!" Asuna started. "Who won?"

As Cirdan stopped dragging me, I smirked. My answer left Asuna fuming and Cirdan snickering.

"It's a secret."

As we neared the quest house, Cirdan started asking questions that I had hoped would go unasked.

"So, seriously, who won?"

"Well… okay, I'll tell you. He wanted me to say that I won, but that wasn't the case." I said, though immediately interrupted.

"YOU LOST?!"

"No, I…tied," I whispered in his ear.

"That's my Kirito, never a single loss!"

"Would you keep it down? There's someone here," I whispered.

Whoever is following us, they're doing a pretty good job. Somehow, Cirdan can't sense them, and he always had the ability to sense things like that. Wait a second, that's— "Kamiko, what are you doing?"

A red-eyed rabbit jumped through the brush in front of me, running for dear life. Suddenly, a throwing pick lodged in the rabbit's throat, shattering it into hundreds of polygons, as it was too small to hit the thousand mark.

Kamiko said angrily, "You almost let it get away from me, you little—" Then, embarrassed, Kamiko said, "—Kiri-kun? Sorry about yelling at you. I've been trying to get ingredients for our dinner tonight."

"It's fine. Anyway, isn't that the rare rabbit that gives A-rank ingredients or higher?" I inquired.

"Yeah, but it looks like I only got a A-rank, sadly. Anyway, what are you guys doing here? I don't suppose you're just enjoying the scenery," Kamiko said, with a dark glint in her eyes.

Oh, Kami-sama, she knows what we were doing! Hopefully, Cirdan won't—

"We were completing the Phibbius quest. We already defeated him, so we're going to collect the reward right now."

"Cirdan you baka—"

"YOU DID WHAT?! You seriously took on a boss on your own?! Are you guys CRAZY?!" Kamiko screamed at us.

In the beta, she wouldn't let me go into any boss fights without at least two other people. That is, until we were the only ones still on the front lines because we started moving too fast for the others to keep up.

"Calm down. We're fine, See? Never in a million years would any of us die."

Lies. I know I'll die eventually. I can't say that to anyone.

After picking up the quest reward, Cirdan, Kamiko and I headed to the NPC that gave out the [[Touch of Gold]] quest. With our combined rewards from the Phibbius quest, we had just enough Col to complete it and earn Cirdan the reward.

"So, you got [[Battle Healing]], huh? How high did you level it?" Cirdan asked nonchalantly.

"Around 540 out of 1000, why? Wait, don't tell me…" I started, trailing off in shock.

"I just maxed it last week!"

"How high is your [[Cooking Skill]]?" I said.

Please be high enough, please be high enough, PLEASE be high enough to cook—

"I just maxed it last week!" Asuna said proudly.

"… Kirito, hey, Kirito!" Cirdan said, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"W-wha…? Oh, Cirdan! What happened? Is everyone okay?"

"Everyone except you. Seriously, you just spaced out on us! You looked like you were dying of hunger and were about to cry at the same time."

"I-I'm fine, just remembering something sad. It's gone now, so I'll be fine."

What the heck was that?

"Are you sure you're okay?" Kamiko asked, receiving a nod in return. "All right, then."

"Well, we're here," I said with a small smile, relieved that I wouldn't be the center of attention anymore.

The NPC was a middle-aged man living out in the woods, trying unsuccessfully to make it big in the farming industry. He needed the money because his daughter recently contracted a deadly illness. He had already bought the expensive medicine required to cure it, and the medicine was to be delivered by horse. He needed to pay the deliveryman on arrival but he didn't have enough money. The medicine cost eighty five thousand Col, and we gave him eighty thousand. The NPC said he'd pay the rest.

As Cirdan started conversing with the NPC to complete the quest, I took the liberty to PM Argo about the quest boss.

"Argo, I need you to spread the word about something. Don't ask for anything in return, because I think enabling you to save hundreds of lives is good enough. Here is the message I want you to spread:

"There is a quest boss, known as [[Phibbius the Frog King]], and neither he nor his cave are to be approached. He nearly took out the [[Black Beater]], and was only defeated by sheer luck. There is also a field boss in this cave, known as the [[Kraken's Crab]], that nearly took out half of the clearing party as well as heavily injuring the [[Black Beater]] and his party."

Thanks,

-Kirito"

I never in a million years would've expected her to reply in less than ten seconds, yet somehow she did.

That's impossible! How the HECK is she able to type that fast?!

What I read next truly shocked me.

"I was actually in the middle of typing you a message asking about what happened in that cave. (Asuna said something about it, but I wanted to hear it from you.) Anyway, I'll still do it, but I want a full description of the battles you went through. I don't want this as payment, but as a friend who's concerned for her best friend in the WHOLE world of SAO!

-Argo"

I furiously typed out a reply, begrudgingly retelling everything I could remember. Of course, I left out the part about the field boss, seeing as I can't remember much of anything about it, and I left out the duel I had with Heathcliff.

A few hours later, we were back at my house, about to part ways.

I don't want to be alone with Kamiko right now. She might kill me for fighting the quest boss almost solo. What should I do? …Aha!

Calmly, I said, "Hey Cirdan, would you like to stay at my place for a while?" giving Cirdan a pleading look that got the meaning across very well, judging by the look in his eyes.

"Why me, and not the girls?" he said, trying to push out a cover-up reason from me to avoid suspicion.

"Because girls take really long baths. Plus, if one comes, they all come. I only have two beds and a couch, you know." I replied, giving him a look that said more needed to be talked about.

"All right, thanks!"

By the time we had finished dinner, I had finished formulating what to say to Cirdan.

This is gonna be hard.

"Well, that was satisfying. I'm gonna go take a bath," Kamiko said happily, walking off.

"All right Cirdan, I need your help. Since you're the only strong player in this game who I can rely on for this, I need you to do it," I said.

Taking a deep breath, I continued. "When the clearing group gets to the second floor boss room entrance, I want you to make sure that no one enters the boss room for five minutes. In that time, I'll go in by myself and see what kind of boss it is. I'm not sure if they've changed the bosses entirely, or if they just changed things like weapons and attack patterns, so I want to analyze everything before everyone else gets into trouble. When five minutes have passed, you can let everyone in and I'll tell them everything they need to know to beat it. I'll PM you if I figure out the base patterns sooner. If I'm not anywhere around the room after you guys get in there, then I'll probably be dead. If that is the case, then I want you to lead them to victory."

"You're insane, you know that? But you've saved my butt twice in the past day alone, so I owe you. But I swear, if you die on me, I will never forgive you," Cirdan said.

"Who're you talking to? Anyway, thanks." I brought up my fist and he met it with his own.

I probably will die, with my new fear. Even so, on the off chance that I live, I don't want anyone else's life to vanish like Diabel's. Not now, not ever again.

When I woke up on my shared bed with Kamiko the next morning, I realized something.

I made it through the night without Kamiko trying to kill me! YES! Wait, how did she get into my bed?

When I got downstairs to the living area, Cirdan immediately blasted me with a question that made my blood run cold.

"Hey Kirito, want to go questing?"

I was on edge. We walked through the woods, my senses on overdrive the whole way. I jumped like a coward every time a mob spawned, the previous day's events still fresh in my mind.

I wasn't scared of the mobs. I was scared of myself.

"Relax. We're only going to do that [[Iron Man]] quest, so it'll be fine. No one will be in any danger," Cirdan said, reassuring me.

"You know me well, Cirdan."

But not well enough. That wasn't the point.

The [[Iron Man]] quest was a particularly hard one to complete. You had to get hit twenty-five times without your HP falling into the yellow zone. In the beta, I failed miserably.

Cirdan was the only player I knew in the beta who didn't humiliate himself trying to complete that quest, and I knew a lot of players in the beta.

"Well, I'm off to do the quest. You can wait for me in the shopping district," Cirdan said.

His perceptiveness surprised me. How did he know? I never told him that I can't watch people using weapons anymore. Maybe he knows me a little too well.

After the incident one day prior, I had been left severely traumatized. Weapons now scared me. I knew that I had to use them to survive, but I had hurt people with them. I had almost killed someone. I didn't even want to see a weapon, let alone use one. And yet I still intended to overcome my fear and be the first to enter the boss room. I didn't want anyone to get killed fighting the boss, but to stop this, I had to put my own life on the line.

The shopping district did nothing to ease my stress. I had gotten lost in the weapons half of the district. That's right. Half of the entire shopping district of [[Ciudad Tercera]] had been filled with NPCs selling weapons.

This is torture! Why did this have to happen to me?

"Hey, Ki-Bou! How's it going? I'm loving the claws you got me," Argo said, appearing out of nowhere, waving at me with clawed hands.

"AAH!" I screamed frantically.

Even being near harmless weapons like claws scare me now!? I'm hopeless.

"The heck was that? Are you okay, Ki-Bou?"

"I'm fine…I'm fine," I said, taking a deep breath.

"Here, why don't we go somewhere and chat. You know, see what's wrong? I'm genuinely concerned about you sometimes, you know."

Something's up with her. She's never this nice.

We were at the inn in which she stayed during the time she wasn't out brokering. When we got there, she immediately started with, "Okay, just tell me what's up. Right. Now."

"*sigh*, all right. There were some things I didn't tell you yesterday."

"Such as…?"

"After we beat the quest boss, Kibaou and his group showed up, trying to get into the very room that we almost died in. We started arguing. Then, a large muscular man with red-tinted leather armor appeared, saying they should be able to do what they want, even if it was stupid. Then I got into an argument with him, and we decided to settle it with a duel."

"That doesn't explain why you seem to be afraid of weapons," Argo said, annoyed.

"I'm not done yet. As I was saying, we went to a secluded area so no one could watch us fight. After a very close battle, I just barely won. We spent a long time searching for everyone we left behind, but we couldn't find them anywhere. Then, he said something that reminded me of the field boss that lived in the cave."

"You mean the [[Kraken's Crabs]]? The ones that multiply? Wow. So you're saying that they were…"

"Yeah… Kibaou's entire group was knocked out cold, but none died, miraculously. My friends were surrounded by more than fifteen of the beasts. I told them the beasts' weakness was their eyes, and they did fairly well, save for Asuna," I continued.

"Yeah, her weapon is a pierce-type, isn't it? Anyway, what happened next?"

"She…got struck. She almost died. Before she fell to the ground, she said two words. Those two words have been driving me insane since the first time I heard them, and I don't know why. 'Arigatou, Sayonara.' I don't get it, but every time I hear it, something inside me snaps, and I see a girl's face.

"Ooh, is it true love?"

Just ignore her, just ignore her.

"After that, I just remember my vision turning red, and things happening that I still can't make much sense of. I…I just remember killing things that looked like monsters, hearing the sounds of blades clashing, and…" It suddenly got hard to continue.

"And…?" Argo could sense my discomfort.

"Three humanoid beings came into my line of sight. I started fighting them. One of them yelled at me, which sounded like a jet engine to my ears, which were hypersensitive at the time due to whatever came over me. So I targeted the being—whom I later found out was Cirdan—knocked his weapon into the air, and started a combo that would've probably been fatal. But another one blocked the combo with her katana, and yelled at me like Cirdan had, so I started to fight her. She turned out to be Rita, Aria's sister.

"Before I could land a hit, the third one grabbed me from behind, snapping me out of my rage. That was obviously Asuna, as she was the only one left with me.

"I… I almost killed them. I was almost a murderer. I… can't be around weapons right now. They can be used to kill someone." I finished, taking deep breaths.

I'm about to cry. I can't cry in front of Argo, she'll spread the news.

"It's okay, Kirito. You'll be fine. I'm not very good at things like this, but I can try to comfort you."

"Argo…" Thanks, Argo.

"Well, that was quite the story, Kirito."

I looked up to find a tall, red-haired man with a rugged face and red armor.

"… Klein…how long have you been here?" I asked dully.

Why…? Just why?

"Since the [[Kraken's Crabs]]. I'm sorry you had to go through that, but come on! You're the strongest man in the whole of SAO! You can't quit n—"

"I'M NOT QUITTING! I need some time to get over it, that's all." I was livid. I saw a tiny hint of red in my vision.

My breath hitched.

"It…it happened again. I saw red. Why me…?"

"Whoa, that's crazy! We have to help you learn to control it. I don't wanna be on the receiving end of your rage," Klein said.

What an idiot. I'm in emotional trauma here, and he wants to make me fight the source head on? Wait… that could be a good idea if we structure it right.

"All right. I'll take you up on that. We'll beat this fear out of me, and at the same time, I'll learn to control my rage. Bring it on, Klein."

A/N: Important!

Sorry about the wait. Now I'll take the liberty to address some of the issues people have found with this fic.

#1: Kirito is NOT as overpowered as some of you think he is. If you want to see overpowered, you should take a look at the main character (the blond one) from the anime "Problem Children are Coming from Another World, Aren't They?" Kirito isn't a man of steel. He has his flaws, and his soul can be hurt, just like anyone else's (which has been shown in my fic AND in the show).

#2: Yes, the [[Blood Rage]] made Kirito seem a little OOC, but that's the point. He's supposed to lose sight of himself when in that state. With the whole "Urusai" thing, ALL of his senses become heightened to extreme levels, (Except for physical pain) so his sense of hearing was too high for him to appropriately handle someone yelling at him.

#3: (This isn't a significant issue, but I still want to address it.) Some people want a harem and some don't. I got kinda confused, and that led me to this idea:

Once I get to the Sachi arc (or the Black Cats arc, whichever you prefer to call it), I'm going to split the storyline up into three different paths.

-Path One: The regular (Kirisuna) path, which will be continued under the original title.

-Path Two: The Sachi path, which will focus on the relationship between Kirito and Sachi as the second genre, instead of focusing on Kirisuna. This storyline will be called Black Cats Revival, or BCR.

-Path Three: The Harem path. I haven't forgotten you harem lovers out there! You know who you are. (Pretty obvious what this storyline's second genre is about.)

All the paths will follow the same general storyline. The biggest difference among them will be the pairings.

Also, let me know in a PM if you want me to start working on the harem path early (the Sachi path has to start at the Sachi arc for obvious reasons), since that path can branch out at any point (meaning almost ANY chapter).

And finally, about this chapter's title. I translated some text into hex values, and used the translation as the title! (Hex values are the same codes that an action replay uses to hack Nintendo gaming systems. I'm not sure if AR uses the same codes universally.) The translated title adds to the whole "ERROR" feel, doesn't it? If you're interested in finding out what it means, then take out the apostrophe s and the space, ant then put the number 20 in and enter it into a hex-to-text converter.

PS: I now have a Facebook page! Check it out for story updates. My profile name is "Null's Fanfiction."

Now I get to say my parting phrase for the first time in forever! Yay!

May happiness be with you,

OMG