Disclaimer: I don't own Sword Art Online
A/N: By the way, as of now, there will be no pairings in this story. I decided to not make Asuna and Kirito a couple, mostly because it's not really one of my favorites. I would have preferred something more like SinonxKirito. But I do like Asuna and Kirito as friends so they will meet and become friends at some point in the story.
Another reason for no couples/romance is because it is not a genre I write so I am not really good at it. So I will not butcher the couples by trying to write it.
The Path of a Beater
Chapter 1
Exhilarated.
That was how he would describe how he felt right now if he could only use one word. He felt so alive right now as he stood in the arena, a smirk plastered on his face as he stared at his opponent waiting for the match to start.
Just a month ago the closed beta test for the new game, Sword Art Online, had begun. They were halfway through the beta test, and just the other day they had reached the sixth floor. That had been an amazing feeling as his blade tore through the boss on the fifth floor and he got the Last Attack bonus. That was the third time he got it. He was pretty sure the other beta testers hated him for that, but he didn't really care. He was a solo player after all.
And now, just two days after making it to the sixth floor, they were in a fighting arena on this floor. They were having a player vs player tournament today. It was the final round, and Kirito finally got to face off against the player he wanted to fight all this time. He was a swordsman just like him and some said that he was probably one of the ones with the fastest reaction time in this game.
It excited Kirito. He could finally test himself against Redwing. Just how far could he go against one of the players considered to be one of the top best of SAO? He says one of the best because Kirito knew that he was also considered to be one of the best as well.
The players who had already lost or didn't participate and just wanted to watch were already sitting in the bleachers, eagerly waiting for the match to start. Kirito could see Ridwig, another top player and leader of a guild, sitting with some of his guild mates in the front row. Behind him he could hear another player calling out the bets for the fight and how much the pot was at.
Kirito closed his eyes and breathed out slowly. He forced himself to block out the sounds of the audience, to forget they were even there. All of his focus needed to be on the player in front of him. This was it. This was his only reality right now. It was just him and Redwing in Sword Art Online, fighting for the title of the best PvP in the beta test. Nothing else mattered right now.
When Kirito opened his eyes, he found the duel challenge from Redwing and accepted it before selecting a total loss duel. They would fight to the death. Once he did that, his hand tightened its grip on the one handed sword he used. A countdown of sixty seconds between them, but Kirito didn't notice.
The air was thick with anticipation while the crowd eagerly waited for the countdown to reach zero. Redwing fell into a stance with his sword pulled back in the air above his shoulder. Kirito fell down into his own stance with his left foot moving farther back than his right. He let his sword point towards the ground, almost looking like it was being held lazily. But anyone who has watched Kirito fight knew not to underestimate him just because he took a strange stance.
His breathing evened out and he locked his eyes onto Redwing, seeing nothing but him. It was like he was standing in a black void and the only thing he could see inside it was his target. And as for his hearing, the sound of the timer still counting down was the only sound that penetrated his ears. All he could feel was the slight wind hitting his face and the sword held tightly in his grip.
The timer hit zero.
Not a single moment was wasted.
The moment the words "DUEL" flashed between them, Kirito kicked off the ground and ran at Redwing, who kicked off at the same time.
They met in the middle.
Redwing's sword came flashing down in a diagonal slash while Kirito's came upwards in a diagonal slash. Their two blades met, and for a moment all that happened was a loud metallic sound ringing throughout the stadium with the two players frozen in place with their swords pushing against each other.
Only for a moment though, then both players were spinning around each other as they broke apart. Kirito fell into a half crouch afterwards, completely amazed at the power of Redwing's blow. His arm actually felt like it was tingling from the force of it alone.
Kirito quickly spun around, not rising from his half-crouch. As he spun, he turned his sword so the flat surface of it met Redwing's attack that was coming down on him. He put his hand on the blade to help resist the pressing down force from Redwing's attack. Either Redwing's recovery time was a lot faster than his or his attack was weaker than he thought and it did nothing to slow down his opponent. Whatever the case, Kirito was not going to focus on it right now.
Instead, he pushed his foot harder into the ground and then flew up. As he did, he snapped his wrist with as much force as he could to push Redwing's sword away from him. He then twisted his wrist around to hold his sword backwards and slashed it forward like that, but Redwing jumped back, just narrowly avoiding Kirito's blade.
Kirito spun his sword in his hand to fix his grip then charged at Redwing, who fixed his own grip and lunged at Kirito. They met in the center and their swords clashed against each other again. They broke apart and clashed again.
Kirito gritted his teeth as he felt his foot sliding back from the power behind the attack. Refusing to lose to this power, Kirito pushed down harder on the ground and once he found his footing, he pushed back harder against Redwing's sword. They were locked in a deadlock, so close to one another. Their eyes met and both of them smirked at each other.
And in the next moment, their swords were scraping against the sharp edges of each other as they both escaped in opposite directions.
The two swordsmen turned to face each other as they fell into stances and stared at one another for one…two…
Kirito's eyes caught sight of Redwing's foot moving.
…three…four…
Redwing's sword fell into the familiar position for a "Rage spike."
…five…six…
Ridwing's sword began to glow blue.
…seven…eight…
Kirito moved his sword to "vertical" to counter.
…nine…ten….
Kirito felt his skill beginning to activate.
…eleven…twelve…seconds
Redwing moved first, but Kirito was only half a second behind him.
They met in the center again. Redwing's sword came charging forward while Kirito's came down from the sky for a slash. Both of them twisted their feet around to dodge the other's attack.
A tearing sound met Kirito's ears and with it came the uncomfortable feeling in his nerves that told him he was hit. But he didn't stop his momentum. He continued forward, determined to hit Redwing with his sword. They spun around each other but Kirito's blade still slashed through Redwing's cheek, leaving a virtual orange gash there.
They were then passed each other, backs to each other. Kirito looked down at his left arm to see an orange virtual gash in his upper arm and a cut in his jacket. "Tch," He grumbled as he pulled at the cut in his jacket.
Kirito turned back around to face Redwing, who spun around as well. The orange gash on his cheek made Kirito smirk in satisfaction. He got in a hit, but it wasn't enough to defeat Redwing. Well, that was fine, it was more fun this way.
Without wasting a moment, the two players lunged at each other again. Kirito's eyes caught sight of Redwing's swing coming down and quickly sidestepped it and lunged forward with his sword. Redwing immediately blocked it and pushed forward again. His sword moved so fast that Kirito barely managed to block it in time.
After that came a rain of blows and blocks from both players. They were moving so fast that it was getting hard for the audience to see. The sounds of metal clashing, the sight of sparks flashing in the air from their swords' collisions, and the sight of torn fabric floating down to the ground before they burst into polygons was all that told the players that hits were being made.
Kirito felt the pressure. Redwing was a formidable opponent. He was fast and strong and his sword held great strength in it. But Kirito's sword was also powerful. He was by no means weak. So whenever he felt himself being pushed back, Kirito doubled his effort to forcing them into a lock then pushed Redwing back as well. His body was tingling all over with the uncomfortable feeling running through his nerves from the attacks that hit him.
But he would not falter from that uncomfortable feeling alone. His eyes followed everything. He watched Redwing's sword. He watched Redwing's eyes. He watched his feet. He watched anything that would tell him what Redwing was planning to do. His eyes shifted between them so fast it was amazing he was even able to block the sword that was coming to impale him.
But he was far from perfect. Which is why after he pushed Redwing's sword to the side to avoid being impaled, his own sword started to come in for an upwards slash and he missed it. He missed seeing Redwing twist his wrist after getting it pushed to the side. And he missed seeing the sword come in for a diagonal slash from the ground. It wasn't until he saw a glint of the sword the realized his folly. His sword just scraped against Redwing's side and was starting to pull up towards his chest when Kirito felt Redwing's sword hit his lower left side. He felt the uncomfortable, horrible feeling of the sword dragging up through his body to his right side. As the attack finished, Kirito's sword was ripped from Redwing's own chest before it could finish the attack as Kirito was thrown backwards, a blue light ripping from his chest from the sword skill.
Kirito hit the ground as the light disappeared, leaving behind a long orange virtual gash on his chest as Kirito rolled across the ground, sword slipping from his grasp. Breathing heavily, Kirito struggled to push himself up with his trembling arms. He noticed his health bar falling into the yellow. Coughing, Kirito forced himself back to his feet, barely pausing to snatch up his sword.
Still struggling to breath, Kirito grabbed his chest where the attack hit. He could still fell that sword pulling through his body. No pain was felt, but the other sensations in the game were amazing. The creator, Akihiko Kayaba, was a genius to be able to create something like this.
Kirito lowered his hand from his chest and refocused his attention on Redwing who was charging at him. He quickly sidestepped an attack before bringing up his foot and slamming it into Redwing's side to throw him off balance. As far as Kirito knew, there was no martial arts skill in this game, but players still used their limbs to fight if only to throw off their target a bit.
And it usually worked since they never expected such moves. As Redwing stumbled, Kirito's sword glowed blue with the sword skill and it flew forward to pierce him in the stomach. Kirito pressed on forward as he watched Redwing's health fall from 65% down to 60%. And it didn't stop there. With his sword still shoved into Redwing's stomach, his health would continue to drop, but obviously no sane player would let that continue to happen.
Redwing pushed a hand against Kirito's shoulder to shove him away, but Kirito refused to leave and continued to push his sword farther into Redwing's stomach. But when he saw Redwing's sword coming down, Kirito quickly jumped backwards, sword being yanked from Redwing's stomach as he did that.
When he was a safe distance away, Kirito looked at his health to see himself at 56%, then he looked up to see Redwing's HP gauge to be down to 55%. Kirito gritted his teeth. Still more than half of his health to go. It would be so much easier to just cut him in half and be done with it, but there was no way Redwing would allow such an attack to happen.
Kirito jumped back into the fight and came down from the air with his sword swinging down. It collided with Redwing's and for a moment they stared at each other before Redwing's powerful swing sent Kirito flying back through the air. He flipped in the air and landed in a crouch before he shot back up and charged at Redwing. As he got closer, he suddenly slid on the ground and under Redwing's legs, surprising the player who was unable to stop his attack.
Now behind Redwing, Kirito pushed himself up, spinning as he did and bringing up his sword up for a "vertical slash." His blade ripped through Redwing's back, leaving a nice long, deep virtual gash. Kirito didn't watch how much Redwing's HP depleted from that attack. Instead he jumped back and put his sword in the position for "vertical arc."
Redwing stumbled for a moment before he spun around to face Kirito.
Kirito shot forward. As he reached Redwing, he noticed his movements to be slower than usual. Eyes narrowing, Kirito shifted his attention to Redwing's face to notice a smirk there and the resignation in those eyes.
Kirito's sword slashed down from Redwing's left shoulder to his right side. His sword then pulled through from the body and reached towards the ground. With the system assist, Kirito felt his wrist readjust as the sword came up to hit Redwing's right side and reach up to the middle of his chest to make a "V." His sword ripped free as Redwing got thrown back. The blue "V" glowed bright blue, showcasing the sign for victory before Redwing's body burst into polygons.
The only one left standing in the arena was Kirito, who arms, chest, and legs were covered in orange virtual gashes with his sword glinting in the sunlight.
But Kirito didn't rejoice. He won the PvP tournament, but there was no longer any excitement or exhilarated thrill for him. Instead, there was nothing but anger in replace of it. His arm automatically swung down his sword the way he usually did as he completed a battle before he slid the sword back into the sheath on his back.
His eyes barely looked at his health to see it was at 50%. He didn't bother to drink a health potion. All he did was spin around and march out of the stadium, seething with absolute anger. Knowing that SAO exaggerated emotions, he would not be surprised if steam was coming off of him with the amount of anger he felt.
Kirito didn't hear the cheers from the fight. All he heard was the raging, rapid heartbeat in his ears that came from anger and adrenaline left over from the fight. He raced through the city on the sixth floor, not stopping once. He easily navigated around shops and players as he raced to the teleport gate.
The moment his feet hit it, he shouted, "Teleport: Town of Beginnings!"
A blue sphere wrapped around him and he vanished from the sixth floor a second later. Almost immediately, he appeared on the teleport gate in the starting city of Aincrad.
Kirito jumped down from teleport gate plaza and ran through the town. Having been here enough times in the past month, he knew the fastest and shortest way to get to his destination. He weaved through players and NPCs, effortlessly not hitting anyone or anything.
With how fast he was moving, it didn't take him long to reach his destination: the Black Iron Palace.
"What the hell was that?" Kirito demanded as he stepped into the Chamber of Resurrection, glaring at the newly revived Redwing. After a player got killed, they had to wait a few minutes before being revived in the Chamber of Resurrection on the first floor.
Redwing looked over at Kirito with a raised brow. "Did you not even stick around for your celebration?"
"What is there to celebrate?" Kirito demanded angrily. "That last moment in the fight, you deliberately slowed your reaction and let me hit you! It's not a win I want when my opponent freely gives it to me! Don't you dare look down on me like that, Redwing! I wanted a fair fight where I got to test my skills. I didn't want a win handed out to me on a silver platter." His hands closed into tights fists at his sides as he glared at the other player. "So why? Why the hell did you throw the fight? Do you believe me to be so weak that I could only win if you threw the fight?"
Redwing turned to face Kirito fully. "On the contrary, Kirito. I would have to be a fool to look down on you."
"Then why?" Kirito growled.
"My guild betted against me in the fight, and the fight had a huge surge of money going into it. It would be a very nice prize for us. And if they bet on me, there was a chance I would lose and we would lose all the money we bet. We wagered I had a sixty-five percent chance of beating you so to keep from losing all the money we decided to put down on the bet, we bet on you." Redwing explained.
"And you," Kirito said, whole body trembling with uncontrolled rage. "You threw the fight for such a greedy reason! After all," He sneered angrily. "It's just a single match in a virtual game. It means nothing! That's what you think, isn't it?" His hand flew up to grab the hilt of his sword. He wanted to kill this man. But then he remembered there were in a safe zone and growled as he dropped his hand. "Disrespectful! That is what you made our fight out to be!"
With that said, Kirito spun around and swiped his hand down to open his menu. He immediately hit logout and when a new screen popped up asking if he wanted to logout, he paused and looked back over Redwing. For a moment it looked like he was going to speak, but it passed and his finger slammed into the circle.
*Kazuto's Room*
Back in his room, Kazuto Kirigaya ripped off his Nervegear in anger. The thirteen year old has never felt such a strong mix anger and humiliation before. How dare Redwing and his guild manipulate their fight like that just so they could earn some quick cash? It made the whole situation feel dishonorable.
Kazuto put his Nervegear away after getting off his bed. He went back over to it to look at the game for SAO. A smirk graced his face as he thought about the game. Ever since he started playing a month ago, he couldn't get enough of it. The feeling of swinging a sword, of moving his body while he fought, was absolutely incredible. It was nothing like kendo when he practiced years ago. This feeling was completely different. It was an amazing experience.
His smirk turned into a scowl. Except for dealing with the players. He didn't have a problem with them. They were good acquaintances for an antisocial loner like him, but he didn't like being looked down upon in his duels with them. He hated having his wins handed to him like Redwing did. How was he supposed to be happy about his achievement of defeating him if it wasn't a real win? The simple answer was that he couldn't.
He dropped the game onto his bed and left his bedroom. Walking down the hall to the bathroom, he moved as silently as he could so his sister wouldn't hear him up and about. By no means did he hate his little sister, but he just couldn't be around her anymore. It was almost four years ago when he found out that his sister wasn't his sister and his parents weren't his parents. And no one had bothered to tell him this truth. He had to find out by logging into the national registry where he found his erased records. It was a huge blow to him to find out that what he always believed was a lie.
If his parents weren't his real parents, then who was? What happened to them? Who were the people he was living with? So many questions had filled up his mind after he found out. His ten year old mind at the time just froze in shock before all those questions assaulted him. It led him to asking his parents if it was true.
And it was.
The life he grew up in was a lie and he didn't want to know it. The perfect family they appeared to be was a lie. They weren't his real parents or his real sister. It just burned him so much to know it was a lie that he started to push away from them. He quit kendo, which forced Suguha to train twice as hard to cover for him. To escape the reality of his family being a lie, he got into online gaming. At least online no one knew anyone or anything about anyone. It was the world he fell in love with because he could escape the confusion and hurt he felt from discovering the truth. Over time, it just became so much easier to jump into his games to escape the pain than to work on trying to figure out how he should feel about not being a real son of his family. He didn't want to think about it which is why he pushed them away.
Though he still loved them so much. They were his aunt, uncle, and cousin. He grew up with them as his parents and sister. That wouldn't change. What did change was his relationship with Suguha became more distant and strained because he wasn't sure how to act around her anymore. She had no idea of the truth so he was at a complete lost.
Kazuto pushed open the bathroom door and came to a stop in front of the mirror. He stared at his reflection from his slightly long black hair which was slightly messy from wearing the Nervegear for hours to his black eyes. Then there was his face which looked so delicate, with so little masculinity in it. He ran a finger over his chin with a frown. It was definitely strange to see his face after being in SAO for hours and having a different face. In SAO, his avatar had a much more masculine face with narrowed ice blue eyes and spiky black hair. [1] To keep from being hindered in the game, his avatar's height was very close to his real life height. It was only a few inches taller than him right now. Despite the height of a teenager, the avatar definitely looked much older than the thirteen year old he really was.
The virtual world was a world where he could be someone that he wasn't. He was strong there, one of the strongest players in SAO. That strength was something he took great pride in. His speed, power, strength…it was all something that he loved. It wasn't like the real world. The virtual world was home to Kirito, who was so strong. He could be someone who he wasn't in the real world.
And yet, people took it for granted. It's just a game. It's just a single match. The whole idea was disrespectful. As a hard core gamer, as Kirito who lived there, he couldn't stand it when people looked down on the world. It's just game so why shouldn't he throw a fight if it means a big loot was coming into the guild?
Kazuto scoffed at that very notion. His honor as a swordsman and a player in SAO were ripped away from him when Redwing stopped fighting back. That was no win, not to him anyway.
He bowed his face over the sink and started to splash water over his eyes. He washed away the drowsiness he felt from playing for hours. Playing SAO was mentally exhausting, especially when he spent so much time fighting. He had to watch closely to how his opponents fought and counter their moves. It was tiring to focus his eyes for so long.
Once he felt more awake, he dried his face and left the bathroom.
After making himself a sandwich for a late lunch and eating it quickly, Kazuto went back to his bedroom. As he entered, he noticed a light flashing on his monitor and went over to his desk which housed the three connected monitors that were powered by the computer he made when he was in elementary school.
He sat down in his computer chair as he turned his monitors on. His screens flickered to life a second later. As they came to life, a window popped up with "SAO" in the center of it and in the background was a screen shot of Aincrad shown from a distance. Under "SAO" was a message saying that he got a private message from a player who was logged into the game. If he wanted to read and answer, then he would have to input his username and password in the appropriate boxes below.
This was an interesting feature that the beta testers found from the game. If someone sent a private message in the game, it was received in the game. But if the player who the message was for wasn't logged in, it was possible to receive the message on a computer as long as the player set it up to be possible. A lot of beta testers, to his knowledge, did do this. It was a convenient way to stay in contact and to send messages about raids if one wanted to get involved, or in Kirito's case, if someone wanted to hire him for a raid. He didn't join guilds or parties because he was a solo player that acted as a mercenary. So it was real convenient for him to set up the messaging system outside the game so if he wasn't logged in because he was studying or some other rare reason, he could receive them here. The messages he got were usually to ask him to join a raid group for a boss fight, scout out a dungeon for a raid group, or he was getting a message from Argo or any other info brokers about someone wanting to buy something from him or they had info for him that he wanted but he had to log in to get it so they could get paid for it.
When Kirito first set it up, he wasn't sure if he would like it or ever use it. But it was easy to set up so he did, and he found that he really enjoyed using it. It allowed him to always stay connected to SAO. Whether he was out or somewhere else in the house, he could always get on as long as he had his phone with him so he would always be connected to SAO. It was a lot more convenient and safer than giving players inside the game their e-mail addresses. The less info he had to give these strangers, the better.
Deciding it was worth it to check the message out, Kazuto entered his username and password before hitting enter. Once he did that, the display changed to his friend list in the game. The list was already down to the R section with Redwing's name glowing orange to show the message was from him. A green circle to the right of his name was there to show that he was logged in.
If he was logged in, but in a dungeon, the circle would be red. If he was logged out, it would be black. When they were in dungeons, messages couldn't be received or sent which was why the alert was there. It was even possible to receive messages from people not on his friend list, but only if he went to his settings and allowed outside messages from strangers to come through, which he did not.
A scowl immediately set onto Kazuto's face when he red Redwing's name. What more could he possible want? Clicking on Redwing's name, a message immediately popped up in another window.
Hey Kirito,
Log back in. We can't have the party to celebrate your win without you there.
I'll make it up to you. We can have another duel before the beta test ends.
Redwing
Kazuto rolled his eyes and went to close the message when his computer beeped and a new message icon began blinking. He closed Redwing's message and found that the new message icon was also blinking by Redwing's name in his friend's list.
Kirito, man,
LOG BACK ON! I seriously think Ridwig will murder me if you don't return for the party. He seems to think I did something which made you leave without celebrating your win!
I swear I will make up the disrespect I made you feel if you get your ass back here soon.
Kazuto rolled his eyes. Ridwig should kill him. It will be an entertaining show at least. Those two sure were strange. Half the time he couldn't understand if they liked each other or not. They were either at each other's throat or acting like the best of friends.
As he was contemplating the weirdness of those two, he got another message alert. This caused his friend list to automatically scroll down to Ridwig's name since the message came from him. He clicked on it and the window with the message popped open.
Return to Aincrad at once or I will make your life a living hell the next time I see you.
Kazuto sweat dropped. There was no doubt in his mind that Ridwig was the one who sent that message. Ridwig was a good player and pretty cool, but he could be pretty demanding at time. He seemed to enjoy acting like he was in complete control of him. Kazuto knew Ridwig acted like that to him because it annoyed the hell out of him. Ridwig knew not to push it too far because when he did it would end up with him having a sword in his stomach. Kazuto really didn't care if he got stuck as an orange player for a couple days because of it. It was always worth it to see Ridwig's expression when he did and after that Ridwig would push his commanding attitude back and adopt his calm, cool personality for a few days. Then it would start all over again.
Kazuto leaned back in his chair and folded his arms behind his head. Now, what should he do? Should he listen to Ridwig and return to the game or should he ignore him just to annoy him which will cause another one of their conflicts where Kirito just might attack him again.
His eyes drifted to his bedroom door. He was actually bored and partially logged out to eat something and partially because he was furious with Redwing. Besides, he didn't want to chance running into Suguha. He still didn't know how to approach her after what he found out four years ago.
Returning to Aincrad it was then.
A/N: [1] I changed the appearance of Kirito's avatar from the one he had in the first episode.
I actually want to do a lot on the beta test, but it is not the point of this story so it will only be a few chapters about it. Probably only two more.
I remember Kirito mentioning to Leafa before that he used to think like other gamers and didn't have a problem committing crimes in games or anything else so I figured this could be one of those things. He doesn't change his gaming attitude until the SAO death game.
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