Ch. 27

(POV:Neko)

I woke up the next morning tired and groggy. It took me a second to realize that I was at my desk rather than my bed. My software stated last edit made at 3 in the morning. Why was I up that late? Then I remembered what I had been thinking about. What was with Nemu yesterday? What was with that declaration she made? Why couldn't I understand what was going on? I could always read Nemu like a book, but now I couldn't. But then, I couldn't even read myself right now. And what about that other girl? If I ran into her today I would probably run again. I was quite terrified of her actions yesterday. Decided would be for the best if I just laid low. I got up and was in the middle of breakfast when Nemu stumbled in, looking tired as could be and ready to tip over any second. I somehow managed to get her to a chair, then gave her a glass of water, after which she woke up completely and began to chatter as usual. She made no comment about the events of yesterday, to which I was fine to comply. After we decided to go to a reef a few miles north of where we had been yesterday, we cleaned up and headed out. This particular reef was the largest in the country. We spent the entire day out in the water, only coming in for lunch and to check in with Nemu's parents. We were sitting on the beach, watching the sunset, when she showed up.

"HARRY!" shouted a girls voice, rapidly getting closer. I didn't even turn to check. I just bolted. Nemu was up in an instant, keeping pace as I vaulted over the beach fence and into the hotel. From there I ran up the stairs three at a time. I could hear the girl still pounding up the stairs behind us. I pointed at a door on the 5th floor to Nemu, then pointed to her. She nodded in understanding. She slowed down slightly, while I sped up. I was ahead one flight when Nemu practically ripped the door from it's hinges, hurtled through, and down the hall. I continued to run up, as my soft soled shoes made no sound. The girl barreled after Nemu, thinking that I had stayed with her, and the door closed behind me with a click. I ran up the stairs, reaching the 8th floor where our rooms were, and quickly hid in my room. Nemu finally made it back about 15 minutes later.

"You should have seen the look on her face when I came to a stop at the 3rd floor. She couldn't believe that you had disappeared." said Nemu with a laugh.

"Honestly, what is her problem." I said.

"I don't know, but it will be over tomorrow." replied Nemu. That was right. We were leaving the next day.

(POV:Neko)

The next day we headed back to Nemu's house in the countryside. It was an uneventful day, consisting of me unpacking and checking the network for viruses. I had taken the network offline to be safe, but I had to block 2 viruses almost immediately once I brought it back online. After that I took a nap for about an hour before Nemu woke me up, saying that we needed to go greet the new neighbors. I worked out with Nemu towards a house at the edge of town. Nemu filled me in, telling me that the family that was moving in had bought the house not even 3 hours ago, and that the entire town was wondering what these people were like. However, as we stood at the edge of the crowd, we saw something that made us both freeze in shock. Because, standing a few feet in front of us, was that girl.

"Shit." muttered Nemu, as I thought something similar. What the hell was with this girl? Then she saw me. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. SHIT. I ran. That day I learned that I had parkour skills similar to the experts. Unfortunately, this girl WAS an expert. Within an hour, I got more exercise than I did normally in a week. The town was rather confused about why I was running, and why she was chasing, at least until her parents explained the situation to them. Thankfully, Clark stepped in to help me out. He somehow managed to confuse the girl long enough for me to hide in my room. I then logged on to ALO, where I disabled the auto-disconnect, then spent the rest of the day sleeping.

(POV:Neko)

I woke up to someone shaking my arm. It was Nemu.

"Oi. Sleepy head. Wake up." said Nemu. I sat up.

"What's up?" I asked Nemu.

"You need to talk to someone." she said. She didn't look like she wanted me to, but I guessed parental authority played a part.

"All right. But in-game. That way I can run if need be." I said. Nemu smiled.

"You very well may. I will let her know." Nemu then logged out. A few minutes later, she showed up again.

"She is at the world tree now." Said Nemu.

Nodding, we took off together and spat out of Aincrad at full speed. We then headed straight down, charging the tree as a single unit. Snapping out our wings at the last possible second, we decreased speed just enough to skid-land on the ground without breaking our legs, and came to a halt about a 150 meters from where a lone girl stood in front of the world tree. We crossed this distance in a matter of seconds, skidding to a halt for a second time in front of the girl. Although similar, the girl's character was different from her real life person. But then, it was an ALO model, not an SAO, so that was to be expected. The girl's face was one of surprise,although this was to be expected for we had just crossed 150 meters in 7 seconds.

"What do you need?" I asked. She recovered from her shock, and then promptly tried to bear-hug me. However, I still had my wings out, so I was able to sidestep hard left, so much so that it seemed that I had simply teleported. As her arms closed on empty space, she had a look of shock on her face, when she was sent hurtling backwards by Nemu's short range martial art attack. She laid there, stunned for a minute, before getting up, this time a little ways away. Not that she was out of attack range. Nemu's max attack range was 10 meters.

"That hurt, Harry." said the girl.

"Sorry, but I would rather not be hugged by a stranger." I replied.

"I'm not a stranger!" she blurted.

"Hmm, someone who I don't even know a name of. Not a stranger? Gimme a break." I replied, in a tone that brokered no argument.

"And as for your declaration from earlier, I am sorry, but I am fine without. Goodbye." With that, I took off, shooting away like a rocket, Nemu close behind. I knew that the situation was far from resolved, but for now, I sensed that I would not have any issues with her. And until Nemu's problem was fixed, I couldn't spare her anytime. Now, it was time to face Mr. Raku.

Author's Note: SORRY! I am SO sorry for the huge gap in posts. I am not home right now, so writing time had gone poof, and so does the uploads. Anyway, I am working on something to add on top of the updates to say sorry. Thanks to MayonataKarasu for the review(Even if it's just praise). Thanks for reading!

EDIT: 20:15 6/10/15 (UTC) Added POV Alerts