Disclamer: I don't own Bleach on Sword Art Online.
The Death Game
"What? Argo sold an information for you – for free?" Ichigo exclaimed. "She never sold something for free!"
"Well, she did sold me something," Kirito replied. "I bought the reason behind her whiskers." He cleared his throat as he was uncomfortable.
"What was it?" Rukia chimed in, ignoring Kirito's discomfort.
"Well…." Kirito hesitated a bit. "I can teach you the quest she taught me – it's the reason behind the whiskers. Do you want to do it?"
"Well, it is a quest, isn't it? It can't be bad." Ichigo replied.
That was the last conversation between the two beaters. Since he found out what the quest was, Ichigo had something to say to the owner of the «Coat of Midnight».
But, he didn't expected that Kirito will ask him a favor.
"A «Strengthening Fraud»?" Ichigo asked back.
"Yes. Asuna had one a few days ago, and it's partly my fault. I have some idea how he did it, but we need more proof."
"So, you're asking us to get the evidence? You know, both of us are angry about the quest you told us about." Rukia asked. She followed Ichigo to see the quest, and got the quest too…
"I know, I'm sorry about it. I went through the same quest. But this is something I must do." Kirito said.
"It's not something expected to be said from the 'evil beater'." Rukia said. "I'll do it, depending on what you want to do."
"Well, it's not something big…"
"I never agreed if I knew you'd ask me to do tailing." Ichigo said.
"Shut up. You just tagged along." Rukia responded.
"Will you do the argument at somewhere else?" The rapier user, Asuna, said. Kirito, who was looking at the two yelling/hissing, abruptly said.
"You know, you two look like a married couple."
"We are not lovers!" Ichigo and Rukia both shouted. "Her brother will kill me if we're something like that!" "Are you crazy? An Idiot like him?"
"Well, you did said that you started playing this game again because of her, right?" Kirito asked to Ichigo. The orange haired man nodded. "And how long did you know each other?" He asked again.
"Hm…it was about one month after the beginning of the semester, so mid-May, I guess…"
"And you said that Hikari had to leave because of personal matter. When was it?" Kirito asked as if he was interrogating Ichigo.
"Well, the last date I remember before falling in coma was October, but they say it was November – I know I slept for a month and it was December when I woke up. She only had time to say goodbye, so it was Second day of December."
"Wait, you were in coma for a month?" Asuna asked in surprise.
"And the day you met her again?" Kirito kept asking.
"About seventeen months after – mid-May."
"So, you had no contact with her for more than one year, and you two are still a good friend – it smells kinda fishy, you know." Kirito said his conclusion.
"Think whatever as you like." Ichigo said with the kind of tone saying 'I'm giving up'.
"Well, I think that's a yes to our question." Asuna said.
"Did you had dinner?" Kirito said, puting down the paper bag on the table. "The «Steamed bun of Taran». I never ate this on beta." He put the bag on the table. Ichigo picked up one and passed it to Rukia.
"What…is the filling?" Asuna asked curiously.
"Well, since this floor's theme is cow, so it is probably a beef. Speaking of, I heard that 'meat' in Kansai area equal to beef, so they call the steamed bun at Kanto area as pork steamed bun or so." Kirito answered.
"So? Is this Kanto or Kansai?" The rapier user asked him. Kirito couldn't answer to that question…
"Itatakimasu." Rukia bit the bun. As soon as she bit the bun….
"Whaaa!" Warm custard cream erupted from the hole, covering Rukia. "It's more like dessert than meal!" She exclaimed.
"If any of you knew what was inside the bun, I personally don't mind killing any of you…"
"Nope! This is first time I bought this! I absolutely didn't know anything about this!" Kirito said, noticing Rukia's words carry the real intent to kill…
"I never saw this item in the beta, either." Ichigo answered, knowing the worst it could happen is losing all of his memory. He took out a handkerchief and gave it to her. She took it without a word, and wiped out the custard cream.
"If we're going to tail somebody again, I'll make the dinner." Asuna said coldly.
"I'll expect that." Kirito said.
"Who said I'll make for you?"
The result of the stakeout could be failure…if it weren't for the last customer.
The man was from Lind's Guild, one of the Clearers. His weapon was one-handed long sword.
"The «Stout Brand»(1). " Ichigo said, recognizing the sword.
"Do you know the man?" Kirito asked Asuna, the only one who were at the field boss meeting.
"I think his name is Shivata or something." She answered.
"Shivata? Not Shibata?" Kirita asked.
"He said his name was Shivata." Asuna answered. (2)
The weapon smith – according to Kirito and Asuna, Nezha – put down the sword, and reached to the sack behind him…
"He'll do it!" Rukia exclaimed.
The next step was same as they described – the smith hit the sword for nine times, and at the tenth time –
The Sword broke.
"The left hand – it shined a bit." Rukia said with a serious expression that Kirito never saw on her face.
"You noticed it, huh?" Ichigo said. Kirito was bit surprised, since they only saw the brazier, and they caught it at first time without telling the importance.
"What will you do?" Asuna asked Kirito, who planned all of the plans they had.
If any of them reveal the Strengthening Fraud to that Shivata guy, he can get his favorite sword again – on the other hand, it could cause the first Player kill in the game.
"Why… why the «Legend Braves» are doing such a thing? How can they made it possible?" Kirito muttered. "Why? If they have plan, they can do it."
"What he mean is 'how they actually had courage to do it?', I guess." Ichigo said. "When they plan, it's mostly work when everything goes right into the plan. In real life, there's high chance that something will go wrong."
"Because they imagines, maybe they passed the hurdle."Asuna said. Everyone looked at her for explanation.
"If you ignore about the ethical hurdle, the only thing that it matter is the fact that life is dangerous if anyone know about it, isn't it? If they can reflect the attack outside the safe zone, that is. The six…no, five «Legend Braves» are probably not far from it." Asuna said.
"Hey…stop…..if the guys there are strong enough to ignore the front lines…it already means…" Kirito couldn't finish his words.
"They are same as the ruler of the world." Ichigo finished.
"Hey, does any of you know something about that carpet?" It was Rukia who broke the silence.
"What carpet?" Ichigo asked his partner in this world.
"The carpet that Nezha guy have. I know that it have ability to delay time for the decaying of an item, but I never knew you can store items in that." She said. That one comment rang a bell in the two beater's head.
"See and count the time it took!" Kirito said, moving his item panel to the left – where his left hand will touch if laid free. He dropped his sword to the storage window, and tapped it again. The Anneal Blade appeared again.
"How's it?" Kirito asked. Asuna shook her head.
"The phenomenon is similar, but the speed is definitely faster on his case." Rukia said. She definitely knew if Nezha did anything like that.
"The effect, you have two different ones. That blacksmith only had once, and it was faster." Ichigo agreed.
"…You don't think that the fraud is his own intention, do you?" Asuna asked Kirito, who was thinking about something.
"Eh?"
"When I asked him yesterday, he said 'Did you come for the new weapon? Or repairing?' , as if he didn't wanted to do strengthening…." Asuna said. The two shinigamis who didn't saw the scene had chance to know about it with more details.
"Yes….that must be it….So that's why he made a awkward face when we requested a strengthening." Kirito said.
"In my opinion, I'll prefer if they say that the fraud is just our delusion. But if the people of the guild abandon him and let the angry players get him…." Asuna muttered. A small sound interrupted her, and a mark appeared on Kirito's still opened window.
"Excuse me," He tapped the mark and a window appeared with a message. It was from Argo the Rat. It was the information Kirito asked her – all about the members of the «Legend Braves». Roland – whose name was from French, as everybody expected, Beowulf – the legend from Danes, Cú Chulainn from Celtic legend, and for last – the blacksmith Nezha.
"Eh….?" "Really?" "What?" "There's different way to read it?" Was the four people's reaction to his name's origin.
"But the members definitely called him 'Nezuha'!"
With that, Kirito finally realized how Nezha did the trick.
"So, you gave him that rare item you got during the hunt?" Ichigo asked Kirito on the way to the Floor boss. "If I am remembering correctly, that thing's expensive, isn't it?"
"Yes, but I'm sure that I won't use it." Kirito said. "Nezha – no, Nata – (3)had to use a long distance weapon if he really want to play this game."
"Well, someone took three days for the quest." Asuna said. It was a rare item – he only got one during the entire hunting. Also, the player needed a certain skill in order to use it…
"Well, one more person and it could be a full raid party." Ichigo said.
It was ten days after the second floor was open, and everyone was excited because the unbeatable was beaten.
"He will come to the third floor's raid party. That weapon can be strong by how he use it."
"….By the way, Kirito Kun." Asuna said. "I don't think we have to worry about someone else's party."
"Ah….yes. We have to think about our own party…" Ichigo answered.
"Even if Lind-san said he would make party right before the entering the boss room, there's three blue teams, three green teams, and one for «Legend Braves» and Agil-san's. It make's eight parties."Asuna said. She was right – the raid party is made of eight parties, and each party can have up to 6 people. There was no serious demerit if one's not on the raid party, but they can't see the player's HP and vice versa.
"Long time no see, you four." Agil said. "I heard you two became partners?" He asked to Kirito and Asuna.
"It's not like being partner. It's temporary truce." Asuna said.
"Speaking of, Agil-san, do you have place for another member at your party?"
"Well, about that, two of my party members couldn't come to the raid party. They have something like cold – I never knew that one could have cold in the game." He added.
"Well, it is possible. By the way, are you okay with the beta testers in your group?" Kirito – the friendlier one between the two beaters- asked.
"Well, there's not much who call you two as…..umm, What was it? Beater? Yes, beater. Not everyone hate you as beaters – there's even some nicknames for you two." Agil said. It was something that those two never heard before – mainly because they tried not to get in touch with most players.
"What is it?" Kirito asked.
"The 'Man in black' or 'Blacky' for you,"-Agil pointed Kirito-"And 'sanseki'(6) or –"
"Thank you for the offer." Ichigo cut off the bald man's word – he was afraid that Agil would say anything related to his activity in the real life. There was low chance that he actually say that, but he didn't like nicknames mainly because the nickname he had in the real life.
"Thank you for the offer again. I'm sure the Blacky appreciate it, too." Asuna followed.
"Hey…I have to use that nickname?" Kirito asked Asuna.
"Well, Isn't Blacky means the one who read the lines for the actors when they forgot, is it? I think it's a good nickname for you."
"I…is it so?...But that's not the point!" Kirito exclaimed to Asuna bit late.
"If you want me to call you Kirito-kun, I don't mind calling you like that."
"That's not the point either!"
"Well, it seems like I don't have to worry about the switching point-you two are good at matching times." Agil said with a laugh. He reached his hand to Asuna and Kirito – Ichigo and Rukia went somewhere else when they were arguing.
Two men came out in front of the boss room. One had his hair like horns, and the another had blue hair, full of silvery armor. Kibaou and Lind.
"Eek..Is it double- leader again?" Asuna squeaked a bit.
"There should be only one leader by the system, isn't it?" was Agil's reply.
"Since it's time, we will plan about the parties in the raid! My name is Lind, and I'm the leader of this boss battle!" Lind said cheerily – His tone was same as Diabel, before he was killed in the first floor boss battle….
"It was just a coin toss, though." Kibaou said with a bit of dissatisfaction. A number of people laughed.
"We could get here, the second floor boss room in ten days because of you top players! If you lend me that power, I'm sure we can beat the boss! Let's go to the third floor today!" All the ones who didn't laughed at Kibaou's comment agreed.
"Okay, then let's make parties! Among the 8 parties, A, B, and C, is our «Devine Dragon Alliance», D, E, and F is Kibaou's «Aincrad Liberation Corps», G is the Roland's «Legend Braves» which will attend the boss from now, and the H is…" Lind turned to the place where Agil and everyone is, and stiffened a bit. He continued as if nothing happened.
"Is the remaining peoples. Now, as for the roles, A to F took the attack for the boss monsters, while the other took care of the other monsters in the room…" Roland from the «Legend Braves» interrupted his words.
"Would you stop it for a moment?"
It was a member from the «Legend Braves», Roland.
"We came here to hunt the boss monster, not just minor mobs." Ichigo couldn't help but think about time when he call the Gillians just minor Hollows, but the other Shinigamis assigned to the Karakura ran away whenever they saw one. The most players outside the raid party won't dare call any monster in the boss room as a minor…
Most of the raid members muttered to themselves – mostly about the guild being too prideful. Even if it was almost sure that most of the guild member's level would be bit lower than the mean of the raid party, the looks of good items showed a kind of aura saying that it will be dangerous if anyone stand against them.
"…..Okay. Than G will be in the boss team." Lind said.
"By the information on the market, there is only one side monster and it does not reappear. Is it okay to ask to the H?" Agil raised his hand to say something.
"They say there's only one, but it is not just a minor monster, it's at least middle to boss level. There's no proof that it will be only one. It's a hard burden with just a one party."
"Yes, we have no intention of repeating the tragedy of first floor. If there's anything different from the information, we will retreat and make a new plan. Okay?" Lind answered.
"Now, Let's go!" With that one comment, everyone cheered.
"He's coming!" Kirito yelled.
The monster – Toras? – yelled and striked his hammer. The skill only for the monsters - «Numbing Impact».
"One full powered attack!" With that, all the members attacked the cow-man.
"….It's possible!" Asuna yelled while attacking the monster.
"Be careful! It use the numbing skills when it's HP goes lower that one third! And there is possibility of using unknown skill like at the first floor!" Kirito yelled as a warning.
Five minutes after the battle started – there was no one seriously damaged so far from the team H – even though it didn't mean anything serious. The monster they were dealing with wasn't the boss.
"Duck!" One of the players from the main party yelled. They moved out from the boss monster's own skill - «Numbing Detonation». The skill cause stun, which last more than numbing. The boss monster - «Baran the General Toras», prepared another Detonation.
A player who bend his body to get his spear get another hit. This time, there was a light green light around his body – Paralysis. The bad part of the numbing skill was that – if you got hit for two times in a row, you got paralyzed. Even the lowest paralysis took 5 minutes to heal oneself – it was a clear death if you don't use any healing items.
"The main party is weaker than I thought." Agil muttered.
"But there's no one seriously damaged. It is possible…" Kirito answered.
"But won't it be harder to retreat if there's more people plralyzed?" Asuna asked with worried tone.
"That is a definite possibility." Rukia answered. "It may be better to retreat once and make a new plan."
"I agree, but…" Kirito looked to the main party. If he yelled to them, it could make distraction to them.
"We can stand with 5 people at this part." Agil answered. Kirito nodded and attack the monster for once, and ran to the main party – and said something to Lind. Even it was far, Ichigo could clearly see Lind nodded. Kirito ran back to the team H.
"How did it go?" Someone yelled to him.
"He say that he will retreat if there's one more paralyzed player!" Kirito yelled.
"Than just kill this one and join the main!" Agil yelled to cheer up everybody.
"OK!"
"Not head, the butt! It comes in diagonal line!"
The pace of the team H was great. They were surprised by the yelling at the main party – but soon realized that it was a cheer.
"Thank god, there's no big difference between beta." Asuna said.
"Yes…From the first floor, we could have found out that the weapon changed to katana. But in this floor, the General is almost exactly same as beta…Why?" Kirito asked Asuna, who paled a bit.
"No…it's nothing. It's just that…the first floor boss was Lord, but it's General here…"
At that moment, the room shook with a loud noise. When Kirito and Asuna looked at the source of the noise – the graphic was cracking, just like any other object pop up…
The biggest Toras they ever saw appeared in front of their eyes, with the name-
«Asterious the Toras King».
"Everyone, full power attack!"
With that one cry, everyone got back to the reality in front of them.
Someone used the skill «Thrust» to the forehead. Most of the Toras living in the second floor's weakness was just there, between the horns. Most of the times, players didn't have to attack there, but at time like this, that was the only possibility.
Kirito used «Horizontal». It didn't attacked the side mob itself, but it did stopped the hammer of it. At that moment, the team H attacked the monster – even Kirito, who was in delay for using sword skill, used a Martial art skill he got by Argo's information.
"It have no delay if you use different kind of sword skill?" Ichigo muttered to himself. Maybe, the Martial art could be handy…
The monster in front of them broke up as a polygon. There was a last attack mark on Kirito's window, but he ran to the rain without looking at it.
"Let's go, Kirito-kun!" Asuna said with a tone about to cry.
"Asuna, you should…" Ichigo could easily guess what he wanted to say – what Rukia said when she had to go Soul Society as a criminal.
"Let's go." Asuna said again – Kirito just nodded.
"Go right and take down the Baran first. If the King attack before we reach there, go as far as we can."
"Ok!"
The members of Team H ran toward the general. It was in berserk mode, and using the «Numbing Detonation» over and over. It's HP was red, though.
Kirito jumped when he thought he was near the Baran, and the used the sword skill «Sonic Leap». He accelerated once more and attacked the monster. The HP left was only two points –
Ichigo used the basic katana skill, «Iai». With that, the Baran dissolved, too.
The team H turned to the King – and saw the king was holding his breath till his chest. It meant only one thing – breath attack, and Asuna was directly on the path of the attack.
"Asuna, duck to left!" Kirito yelled with his all might.
When she was about to kick the floor to jump to the left, the King puffed out the attack. It was Electric type attack – which have extra ability to…
'Damn it.' Ichigo thought as he realized he was paralyzed. He slowly moved his hand to pocket in his hip to bring out a potion. He looked to Rukia to check if she ducked it – fortunately she did.
Most of the players were paralyzed – it seemed that the only thing left for Lind was to retreat…
Ichigo got up. His paralyze wasn't fully healed, but it was enough to duck any moves if needed.
He looked to his side – Agil was moving the paralyzed player out of the King's attack range. Judging by the cloth of the player, it must be Kirito. He moved his sight to the head of the boss – and Ichigo found what he was looking.
A weapon attacked the King, and it moved a bit behind where it was standing.
"That guy…?!"
It was easy to see the surprise on everyone's face it was not because he came in just before retreat, but because he was just a weaponsmith a few days before. It was Nezha.
"Why…?" Someone muttered. The part he skipped must be "A blacksmith like him is here?". Kirito, Asuna and some other player was surprised, too – not because of why, but because of the fact that he mastered the Argo's quest just in three days.
The leader of the guild «Legend Braves» started to say something, but he shut up himself.
"I'll lead the boss, so renew the line!" Nezha said.
He ran to the King. Even though the king's speed was slow, slow enough for Nezha to move, His breath attack was more than enough to damage him…
"A…Agil….Tell him about the breath…" Kirito brought out the words he wanted to say – but it was just than the Asterious attacked.
"He…actually know when the breath will come out?!" Rukia muttered to herself.
"They say that the boss's eyes gleams just before he use the breath attack." A familiar voice – of someone who should not be there – said. Ichigo turned; It was Argo the mouse.
"What are you doing? You recovered from the paralysis." Argo snapped at Kirito, who was still lying. He slowly stood up.
"Hey, long time no see, you horn head." Argo said to the sub leader, Kibaou. She got right into the topic.
"If you're going to keep attack the boss right now, I'll sell the information for free – only this time."
Kibaou and Lind thought for a moment, and they agreed.
"Okay….Attack! Team A and D to front!" Lind restarted the attack.
The two party made of Tankers go front – and almost disturbed the Nezha, who was still distracting the King.
"Nezha!" Kirito yelled.
The
ex-weaponmaker grabbed the Chakram and ran to the back of the raid party. The weapon Chakram was almost the only weapon which was used in SAO – it was not hard why it was a rare item. Kirito gave it to him with the condition of erasing the weapon making skill.
Nezha fixed the way he held his weapon. A yellow light came off from the chakram, and with that, it flew directly to the boss.
"It…just feel like a dream…" Nezha said. "Kirito-san, I'm Okay, so support the main team!"
"Then, please take care of the breath attacks!" With that, Kirito and Asuna ran to the Asterious. Ichigo and Rukia was already in the battle.
"Why you two are this late?" Ichigo asked to the couple who just came.
"Nothing, really. Just a word or two with Nezha." Kirito said.
"Well, it's a good thing that he will quit the fraud from now." Asuna replied. "I think I'll have to accept if it contribute to going upward…"
"You two said you didn't made a team, right?" Agil abruptly asked Kirito and Asuna.
"We didn't." Asuna said with a finishing tone.
"Do you think we should say something?" Rukia muttered to Ichigo.
"Just shut up." Was his only reply.
"Now, Asuna!" Kirito yelled. The two shinigami who read the flow of the battle jumped at almost same time.
Four weapons – one one-hand sword, one rapier, and two katanas- used a sword skill each. «Shooting Star» from the rapier user, «Sonic Leap» from the black beater, and two «Iai» - and with that final attack, the king dissolved into polygons.
"Congratulation." A English word was Agil's greeting about beating the king.
"You guys worked great, but the real winner of this battle is him." He turned to Nezha.
"Definitely. If he didn't came, at least ten people would have died."
"It was all because you gave me this, Kirito san." Nezha said. "Your last sword skill was amazing."
Kirito turned to the main party. "I think it's okay for you to be there." He said to Nezha, pointing his guilds.
"No…I still have one more thing to do."
Ichigo could only think one thing.
"Well, I hate political stuff or something like that, so we will leave first." He said, grabbing Rukia's arm.
"How did it go?" Ichigo asked to Kirito, who just came up.
"Well, the members gave their armors and weapons to the victims." Kirito said.
"It's a definitely good thing for them, right?" Rukia asked. Ichigo just nodded.
"Hey, are you going to do that Elf quest?" Kirito asked. Asuna, was the one who replied.
"There's something like that in this game?"
"Yes, and if I remember correctly, they have baths in their camp-"
"Shut up and just lead me there!"
(1) stout brand is the kind of sword the author wrote in here, but I couldn't find the real spelling.
(2) it was something about writing about it. I don't really underestood what it was about, too;
(3)something about the way reading again; if you want to know better at that, try wikipedia.
Sorry for the readers who waited for this chapter. I had so much to do.
And one more thing to apologize – I can't update this as fast as before since my school started last week. I will try to update at least a month though.
Sorry for the late update again.