Disclaimer: I don't own Sword Art Online
The Path of a Beater
Chapter 2
"Congratulations!"
Kirito blankly stared at the party in front of him that was taking place on the sixth floor of Aincrad. If he knew it was going to be this big of a party to celebrate the end of the PvP tournament and the winner, he would have never logged back in and done some work on improving his computer which he has been putting off in favor of playing SAO. But now, he sees that it would have been a lot better than being around all of these people. He wasn't good in social situations.
"Come on, Kirito. Cheers." A grinning player said as he wrapped an arm around Kirito's neck and lifted up his silver goblet.
"I hope you get blasted with a harassment warning." Kirito said, lifting his own goblet in greeting back.
"That's not a cheer at all." Henrik said, but he did get the message and released Kirito's neck and backed up from him. He stood a couple feet away from Kirito now, looking down at the shorter player with narrowed dark green eyes. He also had short orange hair with slightly long bangs that would normally fall over his eyes if he didn't have his black bandanna wrapped around his head. His armor consisted of black and red chest plates and bracers with white gloves under them. On the back of his bracers was the symbol of his guild which was a roaring dragon. Below his armor was a short sleeve red shirt and with it he wore gray pants which were tucked into his black boots. His two handed sword rested in a sheath at his side. "And here I was trying to be all friendly today too."
Kirito shot him a glare. "I have nothing to say to anyone from the Dragon's Kings guild." In a big contrast to Henrik, Kirito was dressed in black pants which were tucked into his black boots. The top of his body consisted of a light blue shirt with a silver metal chest plate, which was the only armor he wore. He wore a black jacket over it and black fingerless gloves. The one handed sword he used was strapped onto his back. Tucked snuggly in the back of his belt was a set of throwing picks.
Throwing picks required a blade throwing skill which was something he didn't consider ever using, but Argo introduced him to throwing picks, at a price of course. He decided to give them a try, and found them rather weak for injuring enemies. Though weak for injuring, he did find some uses for them. Once such use was them being a distraction in his fights. It was easy to conceal such a small weapon on his person so it was easy to whip one out in a fight to distract his opponent.
"Redwing did say you figured it out. Being as skilled as you are, I'm not surprised you did." Henrik replied, soundly almost apologetically. "But we needed the money."
"Oh yeah?" Kirito scoffed. "What is so important that you needed a large sum of money so soon?"
Henrik looked around at the party to make sure no one was paying special attention to them before he leaned down closer to Kirito and said quietly, "We're preparing to hit the sixth floor boss with only our guild. We need the money to get new armor and upgrade our weapons for it."
The mercenary looked sharply at Henrik. A raid on the sixth floor boss without any of the other guilds to help? Was the Dragon's Kings guild full of insane idiots? There was no point in doing something so insane. Unless…Kirito looked towards where Redwing, the leader of Dragon's Kings, and Ridwig, the leader of the Holy Knights Allegiance, were arguing about who had the strongest guild in Aincrad.
That would definitely be it. Ever since the third floor where the quest to make a guild became available, those two have been at each other's throat about being better than the other. They were constantly dueling each other for the title of the strongest among them, and now they were fighting about having the strongest guild. For example, Ridwig and his party completed the quest first and became the Holy Knights Allegiance. Redwing decided to one up him by becoming the leader of the Dragon's Kings when his party completed the quest.
And ever since then, it has felt like a guild war between them. They were constantly recruiting people for their guilds. They needed to be the strongest, biggest guild apparently. The last Kirito heard, which was a week ago, the Holy Knights Allegiance had 124 people in their guild while Dragon's Kings had 100 people. Considering there were only 1000 players in the beta test, Kirito found those numbers to be outstanding, but of course, it wasn't enough for those two.
No doubt going after a floor boss alone was Redwing idea of proving that his guild was the strongest.
"That's some good info, Henrik." Kirito said, giving the other player his full attention once more as a steely glint entered his eyes. "Who's to say I won't sell it to some info brokers or even directly to the Holy Knights Allegiance? I'm sure I can make a lot of money with such info."
"Come on, Kirito." Henrik said as he took a sip of his drink. "I told you that in confidence of our friendship."
"What friendship is that?" Kirito retorted. "As far as I'm concerned, Dragon's Kings is on the blacklist."
"Don't be like that. Besides, if you sell the info, then we won't be able to hire you for the raid." Henrik pointed out.
"Oh?" Kirito asked, raising his goblet to his lips with a smirk. "And here I thought Dragon's Kings were going to fight the boss with just their guild."
"Without the strongest mercenary?" Henrik asked in mock horror. "Why, we would be insane!"
Kirito snorted. "The fact that you want to attempt this is insane."
"No, we have plenty of strong players in our guild. I'm not sure if we have enough players who are strong enough for us to win, but it is definitely better than if a certain mercenary decides to solo a boss." Henrik shot a pointed look at Kirito.
"I never did that!" Kirito protested annoyed, glaring at the third in command of Dragon's Kings.
"But I bet you thought of trying it." Henrik replied with a knowing smirk that aggravated Kirito to no ends. "Just think of the fame that would come with being able to solo a boss."
Kirito snarled silently. He would never admit it, but the idea had crossed his mind. The challenge of it sounded awesome. "How insane do you think I am, Henrik?"
"Fourth floor boss fight, you jumped into the air and slammed your feet into a pillar to use as a launching point for when you charged at the boss and got the last attack bonus." Henrik answered dryly. "I don't know why we let you into the raids with how you always steal the last attack bonus."
"To be fair," Kirito held up a finger. "I've only gotten that three times."
"Out of five boss raids!" Henrik retorted.
Kirito shrugged and took a long drink of his beverage. It was a special type of wine that would raise agility by two points. He wasn't sure who brought it or where they got it, but he wanted to know where they found such a thing. Maybe the reason he never heard of it before was because it was found on this floor. He would have to look around later.
"You're earning yourself a bad reputation." Henrik said, shaking his head.
Kirito gave him an unconcerned look and wandered away from the swordsman. He didn't particularly care about angering the other players because he was stealing the last attack bonus. There were 100 bosses in Aincrad. They've only completed 5% of the game if they were going by floors. That 5% wasn't a lot so him stealing the last attack bonus from three of the bosses seemed so insignificant. Instead of focusing on the last attack bonus of the past floors, they should be more concerned about the rare item from the higher floor bosses.
Or maybe they were focused on those higher boss raids and were planning ways to keep him from getting them since he was getting well known for stealing the last attack.
This thought made Kirito send a subtle look towards the guilds that were gathered for the after party of the PvP tournament. He wondered if he should start fearing for his life at this point or wait until he noticed anything suspicious. Or maybe he would even most likely psyche himself out first.
"Kii-bou!"
Kirito almost screamed in surprise. So focused on the guilds that just might be planning his demise, he forgot to pay attention to his surroundings.
Just managing to keep the scream from escaping his lips, since it would not be cool of the PvP tournament winner to be screaming like a scaredy-cat, Kirito looked over his shoulder to see Argo stepping out from the shadows of a building. Geez, no wonder he didn't notice her despite his focus being elsewhere. Not only was she hiding in the shadows, Kirito knew she had a very high hiding skill. He didn't know how high, but he knew it was high. Like how Kirito chose to be a solo player who acts as a mercenary, Argo was a solo player, though she sometimes joined parties if it benefitted her, and an information broker. Her hiding skill assisted her in her job of gathering info, whether it be from being out in the field or spying on players. She was sneaky like that. Players could be sitting in a corner booth in a tavern talking about secrets and if they weren't careful, Argo could be hiding nearby listening to them to get any good info.
Though she did this, she never told anyone what info she had. She might spread rumors to get interested players to come to her to buy the info, but that was as far as her marketing of info went. Though, of course, she did it in a way that people didn't know the rumor begins with her. But Kirito knew. Kirito knew the truth of her rumors and skills as an info broker. After all, they would sometimes work closely together so he learned a lot.
"I told you not to call me that, Argo." Kirito said, but Argo just grinned at him with her red eyes shining with mirth. She had shoulder length dark brown hair with half of it pulled back into a ponytail. Covering each of her pale cheeks were three maroon whiskers which only just appeared a couple a weeks ago. Unlike most girl players that Kirito met, she didn't wear a skirt. Instead she chose to where gray pants with a light green tunic and a black belt wrapped around her waist. She had on black leather fingerless gloves and a simple pair of black shoes. Her arms and the lower part of her legs were covered in bandages. Hanging from the left side of her waist was her weapon of choice which were claws and on the right side of her belt was a set of throwing picks. Resting over her nimble form was a tan cloak which had the hood up to cover her face.
"It looks like you got some good info from Henrik." Argo said, getting right to the point.
Kirito just sighed in reply. So she saw them, but wasn't hiding close enough by to listen in on them. "And now you want to pay me for the info, is that how it is? Which one of us is the information broker again?"
"Don't be like that, Kii-bou. This is how information gets spread." Argo replied dismissively. "So how much are you willing to sell the info for?"
Kirito's finger tapped against the edge of the top of his goblet as he thought about that. He could sell the information and get some good money for it. Or he could keep the info to himself and the Dragon's Kings would hire him to help them with the raid where he could get paid and maybe get some great items in return. Then again, that could be a lie about hiring him for it and they already angered him earlier today. This could be some nice revenge. Sell the info, spread rumors about it, then have the Holy Knight's Allegiance pay Argo for the information and get a nice show in return. He wondered if Redwing and Ridwig would attempt to murder each other again.
It was such a hard choice. This is what he gets for having no true loyalty to anyone. He was only loyal to those who hired him for a job, and after the job was over, he was back to being on his own. This meant that when he was in situations like this, he never knew just who he should screw over, and it was so hard to tell where he would get the most benefit. Clearly, this was Henrik's fault for giving him the info in the first place. He would have to hit him later.
It was easy for Argo. All she had to do was sell information or sometimes buy information she wanted, like this time. Other times, she found the information during her adventures through Aincrad or from spying. What she cared about was the money. Nothing else was of a concern to her.
But for Kirito it was. While any player could hire him for a job, if he screwed over his "employers" too hard or too many times, they would stop hiring him. And the Holy Knights Allegiance and Dragon's Kings were his biggest employers. It just goes to figures that they are also enemies. It put him in a tight spot when he had information like he did now.
And he couldn't lose his employers! Henrik called him the strongest mercenary, but there were other mercenaries in the game. If he pissed off his biggest employers, it would lead to them focusing more on hiring other solo player mercenaries and it would destroy his reputation. The smaller guilds would hear about his reputation and would not hire him even for a simple job like scouting for them in dungeons or fields.
And if he told Argo, she could sell the info to the Holy Knights Allegiance. And if the Dragon's Kings found out that the Holy Knights Allegiance found out about their plans, they would buy info from Argo to find out how they knew and they would discover it was him who told. And that was why Argo was known as the Rat. She really had no problem selling any type of information, which is why players had to be careful when dealing with her.
"Kii-bou?"
Kirito's brow twitched a bit. "I know nothing!" He said quickly before drowning the rest of the drink and running off in the other direction, not even slowly down as he slammed his goblet on a table that was set up for the party.
"He's gone." Argo said surprised, blinking for a moment before turning away to gather any information she could. She didn't care if it was a party. Information gathering came first.
Kirito sharply turned down an alley and ran away from the bright lights and loud voices. The shadows of the alley took over his form, hiding him from sight of anyone who might be watching.
When he got a safe distance from the party, though he had no idea of why he was running from it, Kirito slowed to a stop and opened his menu. His eyes glanced over the time to see it was five thirty. Normally he wouldn't care about the time, but his mother told him that she would be home early tonight and he wanted to make her dinner. She tried to come home early at least one day a week to spend time with her kids. And because she worked so hard all day, he wanted to make it easy for her and prepare dinner. She shouldn't have to make dinner after working hard all day.
And though he wasn't great at cooking, he knew enough about the basics to be able to make something simple for her. It was something he learned to do since his mother was always working late and his dad wasn't home often because he traveled a lot for his job. In that situation, the best thing to do was learn how to cook.
So without further ado, Kirito hit logout and his vision went black. A few seconds later, he found himself blinking and staring up at his bedroom ceiling. Once again, he got up and put away his Nervegear.
As he was jogging downstairs, his eyes glanced over at the front door to see that his sister's shoes were gone, which meant she was still at kendo practice. She would most likely be home in an hour, so that meant he didn't have the risk of running into her. Not that it really mattered. When they were in the same room, they hardly spoke anyway.
Back when he was ten and he first made the decision to distance himself from her, it was hard to do. But it was even harder for Suguha who had no idea why he was pushing her away and being so cold all of a sudden. That made her try to apologize in the beginning because she thought she did something wrong, despite Kazuto assuring her that she didn't do anything wrong. Though his constant pushing her away to put distant between them probably didn't help her believe that. She always tried to get close to him in the first few months, but when all her attempts failed, she stopped bothering him.
It left an uncomfortable rift between them which is why Kazuto disliked being in a room with her. They usually ate dinner together, but it was always silent and tense, even more so when it was just the two of them and it was like that most nights. The small conversations that took place were just how things were and if anything was going on. Kazuto tended to eat dinner quickly then head to his room until Suguha was done. They took turns doing the dishes so when it was his night to do them, he would always come back down when he heard her bedroom close or if the sound from the tv reached his ears.
Shaking those thoughts away, Kazuto continued on his way to the kitchen to get dinner ready.
Soon, as he found himself preparing a meal he knew his mother loved, Kazuto lost himself in his work. He was so concentrated on his task, he never heard the door opened and never noticed the footsteps approaching him. It wasn't until he felt an arm snaking around his chest and a kiss being placed on his temple that Kazuto noticed anything. He jumped in surprise and looked over to see his mom grinning at him.
"W-welcome home." Kazuto said surprised.
"This smells good." Midori, Kazuto's mother, said as she backed away from her surprised son. She was a very beautiful woman with long black hair which she kept pulled back in a bun with a few short bangs framing her face. Her black eyes held a mischievous glint in them, much like Kazuto's when he teased people. A tender loving smile stretched across her face, as one usually did when she saw her children.
"Well, it's your favorite."
"And one of the better things you are good at making." Midori replied.
Kazuto huffed. "Well, it's not like I have a teacher here to teach me how to better my cooking."
Midori laughed and ruffled Kazuto's hair. "Sorry I'm not around to spend time teaching you."
"It's alright. If you were around more often to cook, I wouldn't even be concerned with learning how." Kazuto replied, giving his mother a small smile.
"Always looking on the bright side, aren't you?" Midori asked as she went over to the cabinet and took out some plates and glasses. She placed them on the table before going to get the silverware.
Kazuto casually glanced over to watch and paused with a frown. "There are only two plates and glasses. What about Suguha?"
Midori sighed and gave her a son a frown. "You spend more time at home then I do, so you should know. If only you talked to her more."
Kazuto looked back at the pots on the stove with a frown. His mother knew what he was doing, despite not being home much. He would have to call it mother's intuition. She didn't like what he was doing and tried to talk to him about, but Kazuto just couldn't listen to her. Midori decided to stop after a while and give him time to figure it out on his own.
"Her friend's birthday is today so after kendo practice they were going to her house for a sleepover party." Midori explained.
"Oh," Kazuto replied, feeling a bit down. That was a difference between him and Suguha. While he was reserved and antisocial, she was a social butterfly. While he didn't really have friends, she had a lot. While he played games all day, she was out at practice or with friends. They really had nothing in common which made it easy to distant himself from her. Though that was the case, it did make him lonely to not really have any friends. He had some acquaintances at school, but that was it for his social interactions. The only purpose of his cell phone was to keep in contact with his parents and sister, not that he really needed it as he rarely went out.
"So that means you get your mom all to yourself tonight." Midori teased.
Kazuto gave her a smile. He was by no means a mommy's boy, but he really did love his mother. Unlike Suguha, he had a lot in common with her since they both loved computers and that Midori was a gamer when she was younger. Being a former gamer, Kazuto was able to enthusiastically talk to her about his games. And then there was the secret of his real parents. Since his dad was hardly home and Suguha knew nothing of the truth, he was only able to broach the topic with her or his godfather. Though because his godfather was busy with his team working on the beta test and fixing bugs, there wasn't much time to meet with him.
It didn't really matter though since it wasn't often that he did broach that topic. A part of him didn't want to know. It felt like that if he asked and learned more about his real parents, it would make him even more distant from his family. When he first learned the truth, he felt like such an outsider intruding on this family. He didn't want to be an outsider. He loved his family so much and wanted to be loved like one of the family, which was why he tried to avoid asking about his birth parents. Knowing anymore about them would feel like pushing away the family that took him in after his birth parents were killed.
"Hey," Midori pinched Kazuto's cheek. "What's with that sudden frown?"
"It's nothing." Kazuto replied, smiling once more as he shook the thoughts about what his parents were like away. "Anyway, the food's done."
With the food served, Kazuto sat across from his mother at the table and dug into his food. Dinner was silent for a few minutes with only the sounds of their forks and knives scraping against their plates.
"Kazuto," Midori said, breaking the silence that fell over them. "It's been almost four years, and yet you've only asked about your parents three times since you told us you knew."
Kazuto jerked so violently in his seat in surprise that his hand hit his glass and knocked it over, spilling juice all over the table. Ignoring the mess, he lifted his eyes to his mother's. "W-w-why are you bringing them up all a sudden? Where did that even come from?!" He asked shocked, eyes wide.
"You were thinking about them while you were making dinner." Midori replied calmly. "Am I right?"
"That mother intuition again?" Kazuto mumbled, looking back down at his plate. His mother just always seemed to know what was wrong with her children. Despite the fact that she wasn't even home often.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
All that could be heard was the steady drip of juice falling from the table into a puddle on the ground as silent fell between the two for a moment.
Kazuto moved his eyes to look at the spilled juice to watch it drip off the table. "…It's alright." He replied quietly. "I don't ask because I really don't need to know anything about them. I mean, they died when I was young, didn't they? You and Dad are the ones who raised me."
"You really don't want to know about them?" Midori asked with a frown as she took in her adoptive son with a sad look in her eyes.
"Their names were Keiko and Hiroki Sato. Keiko was your younger sister by a few years. Hiroki was a gamer you became friends with online and you two chose to meet in real life. You didn't want to go alone so you dragged Keiko along and somehow, she hit it off with Hiroki and they steadily fell in love. At the same time, Keiko was finishing high school before going to major in journalism at college, while Hiroki went on to work in game designs at Argus with Aki-nii-san." Kazuto replied, and in the process almost hit himself when he realized he used that nickname for Kayaba-san. His threat of taking SAO beta from him really screwed with his mind. Sighing, he stood up to get a towel to clean up his spilled juice. "They fell in love and Hiroki proposed after only two years of dating. What more do I need to know?"
Midori watched as Kazuto soaked up the spilled juice with the towel. She reached forward and stalled his hand, making the teenager look up at her in surprise. "They're your real parents. Don't you ever feel like you want to know more about them?"
"What's the point?" Kazuto asked, staring into his mother's eyes. "If I learn about them, won't it just make me wish they were alive so I could know them and be with them?" His eyes shifted away to avoid her eyes. "That desperate longing for something I can't have is…." He trailed off and shook his head. "And…"
Midori, as perceptive as ever, sighed. "And it would also make you feel more distant from us, is that it? Kazuto, you have no reason to feel like that. I may not have given birth to you, but you are still my son. I always raised you as my son because that is I what I saw you as and I raised you to see me as your mother. Knowing about your real parents won't change the fact that you're my son and I'm your mother. It will give you a chance to learn more about our family. If you never learn about them, you'll regret it. They are the ones who brought you into this world."
"Things are fine the way they are." Kazuto replied, pulling his hand away from his mother's and going back to cleaning up the mess.
"Kazuto."
"I'll think about it, okay?" Kazuto said tiredly. He just wanted this conversation over and out of his mind. "I'll think about wanting to know more."
Midori stared at her son for a moment longer before nodding and sitting back as Kazuto moved to the floor to clean up the puddle. That was all she could ask of him. She didn't want to push him on this, but she just felt that he deserved to know more about the people who brought him into this world. If it was her, she would want to know about her parents. Then again, she didn't know what it was like to grow up not knowing that she was an orphan and then suddenly finding out the truth.
Once Kazuto finished cleaning up the juice and getting himself a new drink, he sat back down at the table and continued eating his dinner. This time, he kept his eyes locked on his plate. He wasn't mad at his mom for bringing it up. He actually figured she would one day when he didn't ask her any questions.
And now that she had, he had to figure out what he wanted. She brought up a good point. He didn't ask because he didn't want to feel more distant. Knowing anymore about his real parents would bring the feeling of being a stranger to this family back full force. It took months for him to decrease that feeling to a level where he still talked to them. He was scared of feeling like that completely again which is why he avoided the topic of Hiroki and Keiko Sato. But that was just running away from the truth, and isn't that what Aki-nii-san did when he avoided Kazuto for seven years? He finally took action to visit Kazuto a little over a month again. If he could man up and face the truth and Kazuto, shouldn't he try as well? Shouldn't he try to learn who he was born as and to who?
Sato. That name meant he was born Kazuto Sato. When he was adopted by his aunt and uncle, his name was changed to Kazuto Kirigaya. He became a Kirigaya and that was that, but then he asked his mom what Keiko and Hiroki did for a living. He was actually surprised to learn that his dad was a gamer like him and that he loved it enough to become a game designer. Growing up with Midori, who is a computer systems magazine editor, he fell in love with computers and found MMORPG. It made him wonder if his love for gaming also came from his dad as well as Midori's influence.
Then there was his mother. She was a journalist. She loved interviewing people and writing articles about it. Unlike Midori and Hiroki, she didn't really play games but through dating Hiroki, she started to look at games and learned a bit about them. Through that influence, Keiko actually did some journalist work with gaming magazines. It wasn't her main focus, but apparently in college she interned at MMO weekly for a semester. That was the extent to what he knew about her journalist career. He never learned what company she went to after college. It would be funny if she stuck with a gaming magazine company though.
It felt like with all these gamers around that he was destined to be a gamer himself.
When dinner was finally over, Kazuto put his plate in the sink and looked up at his mom to see her smiling at him. He felt sweat trickle down his brow as he stared steadily back. Nothing good could come from that look.
"I remember, Kazuto." Midori said with a teasing lilt in her voice.
Kazuto raised a brow. "Remembered what?"
"Aki-nii-san?" Midori asked.
At the nickname for his godfather, Kazuto's face flushed deeply. "He…I…Akihiko-san was threatening to take away my chance to be a beta tester if I didn't use that nickname again!"
Midori broke into laughter. Her son really was a game addict. She liked gaming, but she was never serious and became the strongest players like Hiroki always tried for. From the way Kazuto played, she was sure he aimed to be a top player as well. Such a simple threat about taking SAO away from him would make him do anything to make sure he didn't lose it.
"I remember Keiko saying once that they tried to explain to you that you should call him Uncle or something along those lines, but when they tried to teach you that, you started screaming and yelling that they were mean and how you wanted your 'Aki-nii-san.' Midori said with a teasing grin as her son's blush deepened.
Was he really that attached to Akihiko-san when he was a toddler?
Kazuto shook his head and went to move when he paused and knocked his knuckles against the counter as he stared at his mother. She just mentioned Keiko and the look in her eyes when she did…was that a look of longing mixed with guilt?
"What's wrong?" Midori asked confused as she looked back at him.
"Do…do you miss Keiko?" Kazuto asked with the slightest hesitation. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he felt his heartbeat start to pick up. He just asked that question. He just breached the topic of his parents. Why would he do that?! He didn't want to know the truth.
Midori looked at him in confusion, but a sad smile formed. "I will always miss her. She was too young to die."
"And Hiroki?" Kazuto continued without really wanting to. "You were close to him too, right?"
Midori nodded, and though she looked sad, she also looked at him with a loving expression. "I was and I always miss him, but I see them both all the time as well."
Black eyes stared back at her dark gray eyes in confusion. Didn't Akihiko-san mention something similar?
Standing up from the table, Midori walked towards the counter until she was standing in front of Kazuto. She leaned over and pressed her forehead against his and gently cupped the back of his neck with her gentle, warm hand. "You are so much like them. You look just like Keiko from the soft black hair to big, gentle black eyes that sparkle with mischief to that innocent, sweet smile which can turn into a smirk so similar to Hiroki's. You are their legacy. With you here, it feels like I see them all the time in you." She gave a wry smirk. "Or maybe their spirits are lingering to watch over their precious son as he grows into a fine young man."
Kazuto gave a small smile. "It sounds like I look mostly like Keiko. What about my dad? Do you see him in me at all, other than the smirk?"
"Hmm," Midori hummed thoughtfully. "Your kind heart, love of gaming, and strength."
"Strength?" Kazuto repeated confused. "What do you mean by that? I'm not strong."
"Strength doesn't always refer to power or being physically strong." Midori replied. She stared into her son's eyes for a moment longer, taking in how much they reminded her of Keiko's, before she stepped back. "Even if you don't want to know about them, there is something I want to show you."
"What?"
"Go sit down. I'll be back in a moment." Midori replied.
Kazuto sat on the couch in the living room and watched as his mom disappeared. He listened carefully to hear her footsteps heading upstairs before sighing and turning his eyes to the ceiling. Strength, huh? If strength did not mean physically strong, then what did it mean? What else could strength mean if not that? The only place he was strong was in SAO and that really didn't mean much. Kirito was strong in the virtual world, but Kazuto was weak in the real world. So what strength did his mother see in him?
"Here it is."
The teenager blinked and took notice of his mother as she sat down by him with a photo album.
Midori opened it and pushed half of it onto Kazuto's lap. Looking down, Kazuto found himself staring at a picture of a wedding. The bride and groom he didn't know, but the maid of honor he recognized as Midori. Seeing that and considering what they were just discussing, Kazuto's mind already processed what this was and looked back up at his mom. "This is…my parents' wedding?"
Midori nodded and pointed to the groom. Unlike Midori and Keiko, he had dark brown hair with bright green eyes. He was tall, but not overly so and only stood about a head taller than the bride. "Hiroki Sato." Her finger drifted to the bride who wore a beautiful wedding kimono that was white with a pink sash around her waist. Laying over it was an uchikake that trailed along the floor. Her black hair was pulled back into a bun with a few strands loose in the front to frame her gentle face which housed a pair of kind black eyes and a sweet smile. "The newly named Keiko Sato."
Surprising even himself, Kazuto found himself enraptured with the picture of his parents' wedding. This was them. These were the two people who gave life to him. They brought him into this world.
Just by looking at them, he felt like he could sense the love they had for each other just through this single picture. They were staring so deeply into each other's eyes that it looked like they saw one another as being the only people alive.
"They were only married for eight months before Keiko became pregnant with you." Midori said as she turned a few pages to stop on one of Keiko in a hospital bed with Hiroki sitting on the edge of the bed and holding Kazuto, who was just born. Keiko was looking down with fond love at her newborn son. "About two months before your birth, she put her college life on hold and didn't go back to school until you were almost a year old. She went back to college after that to continue getting her major in journalism."
Kazuto stared at the picture for a moment longer, taking in all he could of his parents before looking back up at his mother with a frown. "You know…" He said slowly, almost as if he didn't want to ask. He could always stop right now and forget this conversation. Or he could continue to dive into the truth he was scared to know. "You never told me how they died." And apparently his mouth was going to speak for him before his brain could decide what he wanted. Maybe this is what his heart wanted? Despite the fear pounding through him, maybe he really did want the truth.
"I have." Midori replied almost instantly.
Kazuto shook his head. "No, you just said they were killed in an accident. That doesn't explain what happened."
Midori stared at her son before looking away with a frown and a distant look in her eyes as she remembered that phone call she received from the police seven years ago. It wasn't a moment she liked to relive, and one she hoped to never have to. Of all things Kazuto could have asked about, he had to ask about this. "Keiko and Hiroki both worked a lot and they would leave you with me since I was on leave from work at the time. Honestly, I had no intention of going back to work since I wanted to raise Suguha. But your parents, they both worked so much, but they always made sure that one of them was able to pick you up by six and take you home. It was work and taking care of you for them. Not that they ever had a problem with it." She looked back at Kazuto with a gentle smile. "They loved you more than anything. But then I thought they both deserved some time for just themselves so when you were six, I convinced them both to take time for a date. Having kids doesn't give parents much time to themselves so I wanted them to have that rare chance."
"They dropped you off here and left for their date." Midori continued, closing her eyes and sighing softly. "Later that night, they picked you up and were going home when they were killed. A drunk driver was swerving all over the road and ran a red light. Hiroki had no time to react and a collision occurred." Midori paused for a moment and looked conflicted about something, like there was something she wanted to add. Her eyes glanced at Kazuto then away before she finally said, "The only survivor of the collision was you."
Kazuto stared at Midori, eyes wide and a frown resting on his face. His parents were killed by a drunk driver? Why was he even on the road if he had been drinking?! "I see." He said softly, turning his head to stare at the blank tv. "I was in the car?" He lifted a hand to his eyes and rested it there. "I don't…I was six, so shouldn't I still remember something like this? Why can't I recall this? On that note, why can't I remember my parents' faces at all? I should have memories of them….shouldn't I?"
"The doctors said it is most likely dissociative amnesia. The car accident was so traumatizing for you that you purposely blocked out those memories of it and all memories of your parents. You repressed all your memories of everything that involved them, which includes Suguha, Akihiko, Minetaka, and me, all to escape the traumatizing truth. With your memories repressed and Suguha being too young to understand and having spent so much time with you, neither of you knew you weren't real siblings. She always believed you two to be siblings because you were here so much, practically every day." Midori explained softly as she brushed a bit of Kirito's bangs aside gently. "With all the pictures we have of you two together, it just solidified that fact to her."
Midori sighed and wrapped her arms around her son and pulled him into her chest. "Since I am your godmother and Keiko was my sister, I took you in. Akihiko agreed it was for the best since he was so busy with his career. I stayed out of work a while longer to make sure you were doing well, but with two kids to raise, I decided to get back on the career track."
"I see." Kazuto said again as his hands curled around the edge of the seat cushion tightly. "Were you ever going to tell me any of this?"
Midori opened her black eyes and leveled them on Kazuto, who was still looking at the tv, despite it being off. "We were going to tell you the truth about not being our real son. We just never expected you to find out at ten." She sighed. "As for the truth of their death, I never wanted to tell you, but I also always knew you would ask about how they died one day. If you never asked, I was never going to tell. For all this, I am sorry, Kazuto."
Kazuto looked over at her in surprise. She was apologizing? For what? For not wanting to tell him the truth?
"It's my fault." Midori said softly as Kazuto stared at her, captivated by her words. "If I didn't convince Keiko and Hiroki to take a night to themselves and go out on a date that night while they left you with me, they wouldn't have been killed. You could have all been at home, safe and sound."
She felt it was her fault? Kazuto blinked and took in his mother with a frown. "It wasn't your fault. You had no idea something like that would happen." He protested. "It could never be your fault. It was that drunk driver's fault. You can't blame yourself for wanting your sister and her husband to take a day for themselves." He turned to face her fully, wearing a sad, but calming smile. "Don't blame yourself for something you couldn't predict happening. No one is at fault for the actions of others. I don't blame you, Mom."
Midori looked back with a sad smile, tears filling her eyes but she did her best to keep them from falling. She leaned forward and kissed her son's forehead. "Thank you." She whispered. "I love you, Kazuto." 'You have no idea how much those words mean to me. Thank you.'
Kazuto gave a small smile back before he got up and made his way back upstairs to his room.
As soon as he got to his room, he shut the door behind him and fell against it, head bowed. His parents, huh? He didn't want to go into them, but somehow he did. And now he knew. A drunk driver was the reason he lost his birth parents. It almost killed him. It did kill his parents. His teeth gritted in frustration and tears pricked at his eyes. They were lost to him because of the recklessness of one person.
Why did he have to ask about them? Now he knew…he knew how he lost them. He knew he had missing memories. He had memories of his parents, but he couldn't remember any of them! All he knew of his real parents were repressed because he was a coward. He was too scared to face the truth and now he has lost the memories of the people who brought him into this world and were the first to love him.
He wanted to know them. He wanedt to see them, speak to them. His father was a game designer. Kazuto wanted to talk about games all day with him. His mother gave birth to him, put her life on hold just for him. He wanted to feel the warmth and love of her arms around him. Were they like his adoptive mother's arm? Did they feel warm and protective?
To know this much about his real parents, he never desired this. Knowing this much just made him want to have them back in his life. It was an impossibility which was why he never desired to know this much. Now his heart was screaming out in pain for his real parents.
This reality….he couldn't face it anymore. He needed an escape.
Black eyes cracked open to see his Nervegear, the only thing that was his escape from the pain of reality.
A/N: ….Sorry, the main focus of this was supposed to be SAO. But I wanted to bring in some interaction between Kazuto and his aunt/mom. It went a bit too far though. I know Kazuto's mom was actually older than Midori, but I changed it to work with Hiroki and Akihiko being friends before he died. Also, I had Kazuto's parents die when he was a bit older for a reason. Mostly to do with Akihiko.
But the next chapter is all about SAO. I said the next chapter would be the last one about the beta test, but I have most of written and it isn't done yet, but it already has over 12,000 words. I might have to split it up into two chapters. In which case, there are two more chapters of the beta test to go.
