Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online or Mataras the Red Swordsman. Sword Art Online is owned by Reki Kawahara, and Mataras the Red Swordsman is owned by Mataras the Author.
Chapter 3 Sachi and The Moonlit Black Cats
"Heres to us; The Moonlit Black Cats! And to the four men that saved our lives!" a player with yellow hair called, as he lifted his cup, "Kirito, Diabel, Mataras, and Akira!" His teammates are composed of three boys, and one girl, all took a toast, while Akira smiled at their enthusiasm, Kirito, and Mataras both shifted unconfortaly. The two weren't used to the attention.
Who could blame them really, the four swordsmen saved this guild of five from being killed after some grinding earlier that day. The five brought the group to the inn that they stayed at on Floor eleven called, Taft. The leader of the group was named, Keita, and decided to thank the four for rescuing them by buying dinner for them tonight. This lead to where they were now, being praised by people they just met, and having dinner at the inn, with said group.
"Thank you, everyone." said Diabel as he smiled. He seemed fine with the attention, but Akira knew that he was as nervous as Kirito, and Mataras.
"The way that you all saved us… I really thought we were going to die out there…" The only girl of the guild, turn to wipe away a tear from her cheek before she turned to face them. She was a shy looking young lady, her name was Sachi, Keita then leaned in to ask the group something.
"Umm,… I don't know if this is right for me to ask this question but what level are you guys at? he asked. When Akira was about to tell the truth of their levels being level 40.
"Level 20…" muttered Kirito, as this shocked Akira, and Diabel, while Mataras nearly spat out his drink, causing to start coughing.
Keita didn't seem to notice their reactions as he continued, "Wow, your that level? You guys are just about the same as us then! And its just been the four of you?" he asked.
"Keita, levels don't matter at the moment, we're just people talking, and meeting, games with leveling systems are difficult because you don't talk to people that are a similar level to you, I should know, I've experienced that stuff in other MMO's." said Akira.
Keita then rubbed his head, and said, "Hey, I was wondering… see, Tetsuo here is the only guy we can have on the front lines of our guild right now, I was thinking about having Sachi here switch from the spear to the sword and shield, so she can join him." his hand patting Sachi's head.
"Well, that would be a mistake," spoke Mataras, everyone soon glanced at him, while Sachi gave a look at him showing that her pride was hurt, "Not the part of her being on the front lines, more with her using a shield, they'll slow you down, and can get in the way. Look at Akira, Kirito, and myself." he said as he opened up his access menu to the inventory, and manifested a sword he had gotten earlier today, and gave it to Sachi, which she accepted.
"We would be honored if the four of you would join our guild." concluded Keita
Akira, and the others turned to Kirito, they elected leader of their group, he seemed to be to weighed with the options, and so was Mataras, in fact all of them were trying to decide.
"I'll join, as long as I team up with Sachi." said Mataras, and needless to say, this was a huge shock to Kirito, he figured that a swordsman like him, who dressed in red, wouldn't hang out with players that were lower level than him, so, hearing that was interested in joining the guild was a big surprise for him.
"I'll join too, I believe we'll make great team mates." said Diabel. This wasn't much of a surprise, Diabel was known to help out other players that were at a lower level, just like Akira. Even he decided to join, much to Kirito's shock. He decided to to talk to the guys outside for a bit, and excused themselves saying they'll be right back.
When the group was out of earshock, Kirito was, in a way, not to happy with Mataras' choice of joining the guild. "What do you think you're doing?!" he asked in a panicked rage. "I thought you said that you don't like being around people in this game!"
"I should ask you the same thing, lying to them about our levels." Mataras said dryly, with Diabel nodding in agreement.
"So care to explain that Kirito." spoke up Akira.
"Well, I figured if they found out our real levels, they probably peg us as Beaters and not want us around anymore." Kirito explained even with a sigh, he really wasn't sure about this.
"What about you, Mataras? Why are interested in joining?" Akira asked, now Mataras knew he had to come clean on this one.
"Fine," Mataras said with a heavy sigh. "I normally don't hang around incompetent people, but these guys are different. They seem more determined to be better people. As for Sachi, she reminds me of someone I knew, someone I failed to protect long ago." The others saw that was getting upset about the subject, and decided to not ask anymore.
"Look, we're all nervous, Kirito." said Akira, "I'm nervous to, but hanging with these guys, just might help to not be so lonely anymore. Their having a good time, we should do the same." Diabel nodded in agreement as they waited to hear from the other two.
Kirito, and Mataras had known Akira to be a voice of reason, but never have seen him more honest than ever with this suggestion, pleasing them.
"Alright, then." Kirito finally said with a sigh, "You win, I've been outvoted. Let's join them." This decision was definite approval for the group as they headed back to the inn.
Akira smiled at the group as he gave the reply, "We're in, all of us."
"Alright!" cried Keita, as the group cheers in joy at the welcome of their newest members.
The next morning, Akira heard the HUD as he awoke, and equipped himself in his current outfit, an azure coat, with a light blue shirt, with deep dark blue pants, and armed with a one-handed longsword, the blade was called, Thunder Saber. He placed the blade on his back in a horizontal position, the blade was made to balance all three specks for the user. The blade was also well balanced, and he liked it.
He soon received a message from Mataras saying that he was training her to use a sword on floor 7 today. Akira couldn't help but smile at the girl's bravery, while Kirito, Diabel, and himself went with the boys to grind on the fields.
Sachi really surprised everyone with how she quickly managed her sword a lot better than her spear, and the guild gradually grew in level, the original five were soon reach the beaters, and Akira, who was currently at level 39.
The group even snuck off a bit to join the assault team for the floor 27's boss raid, even caught up on their own training regime, and not pick off their status.
The four would occasionally run into Asuna, who would treat them with a smile, but also a frosty attitude.
The group also ran into a friend of Kirito's, who he met on the day of the launch, named Klein, who formed a guild called Furinkazan.
One evening, Akira was on his way back to the inn, when he received a message from Keita, 'Akira, Sachi has run off, and we can't find her. We need your help. Please let me know if you find her. Keita' just as Akira started to enable his tracker mode, another message appeared. 'Akira, I got this, you go on back the Inn. See you in a bit. Mataras' Akira only smiled at this message sent from his friend, Mataras. Seems fair enough, those two were really getting close, almost like their siblings, he thought.
Akira was sitting at his window in his room later that evening, and looked up at the stars, "Mom, it's been a while since I mentioned these, I hope your listening." he sighed, "Today, my friends and I have joined a small guild called the Moonlit Black Cats. The group is led by a young man named Keita, he has a really big ambition, he dreams that his guild will be their when it's all over, and we can all go home."
He paused, "Their are other members as well, there names are Tesuo, Ducker, Sasamaru, and Sachi. They're really nice people, in fact, they remind of all the times we were together at times before I got trapped here." he grinned, "I hope that they all make it, Mataras and Sachi seemed to have formed a bond as if they were siblings IRL. I miss you, and hope to see you soon.
The next morning, the guild members squeezed into a small room for a private conference, "Listen up everyone, after all all our hard grinding, we now have more than 200,000 col in the guild reserves." Keita said, and the group cheered at the news.
"Hey, we can get a house with that amount, what do you think?" said Ducker.
"Or we can upgrade Sachi's equipment." added Sasamaru
Keita was weighing on the choices, it seemed both options were good, "What do you think, Sachi?", he asked.
Sachi shook her head as she replied, "I'm fine with what I've got."
"And what about you four, which idea do you wanna go with?" asked Tetsuo. He saw Akira sitting on a wall.
"I'm good for a house, it's better than paying rent here at the inn." said Akira, as Diabel, and Kirito nodded in agreement.
"I'm good with a house, as long as it's not on Floor one. I don't wanna deal with those Army guys that run the floor down their." suggested Mataras.
"Alrighty then, I'll set out in a bit to do some house shopping." Keita grinned, as he smiled with his guild mates.
The guild went out to the plaza, and Keita stepped onto the warp gate, "I'm off everyone. Take care!" He said to his guild mates as he stepped onto the transport gate. "Teleport! Yoza!" and soon vanished in a blue glow toward his destination.
"I seriously can't believe we're getting a house of our own!" grinned Sasamaru
Ducker smirked at him, and chuckled, "Careful buddy, your starting to sound like an old man already!"
"Hey listen, I have an idea. While Keita is out looking for a house, why don't we save up more col for some additional things?" suggested Tetsuo.
Sachi seemed to like the idea, "Yeah, then we can get furniture for the house!" she smiled
"Let's head up to floor 27, what do you say?" Ducker asked with an enthusiastic smirk.
"Wait a minute, guys. That doesn't sound like a good idea to head up there. Don't you think we should should stick with our usual hunting grounds?" said Akira, he seemed really nervous about the location.
Kirito seemed to nod his head in agreement, "Yeah, I've read on the papers that the floor is really dangerous, and filled with nasty traps that can spring up if your not careful." he said.
Diabel nodded, "That's right, I've read about it to, and the assault team had just started to deem the place safe for players to go hunting there." he said worried.
"Relax, we'll be just fine!" smirked Sasamaru, as he stepped up to the warp gate. "Besides, we've been working to get ourselves stronger to eventually be on the front lines, plus we get a lot more col, and level up a lot easier." he said.
The four swordsman knew that the floor wasn't something to deal with, even at their level, floor 27 was recently opened up, and still considered dangerous, sadly, Diabel sighed and sadly gave in, "All right, we'll go, but I want all of us to pair up into groups, safety in numbers. And whatever you do, don't separate from your partner, no matter what." he said.
Ducker only rolled his as they warped out saying, "Okay mom, whatever you say."
It turned out to the beaters surprise, the Black Cats actually did very well against the monsters on Floor 27. The group wandered deeper, and deeper into the dungeon, Mataras, and Diabel were in the back, The Cats in the middle, and Akira, and Kirito in the front.
It was around 4:00 pm when Kirito called the group to a halt, "I think that'll do for today, let's head back and return the Inn. I'm sure Keita has found a house for all of us to at by now." he said.
However, Ducker had surprised everyone with a skill of his in treasure hunting, he found a false wall which lead into an empty room with a treasure chest in the middle.
"Hang on, Ducker, that could be a trap." said Akira, but unfortunately, to his horror, Ducker had opened the chest.
"You IDIOT!" roared Mataras, as he and the others immediately charged in. The words made things much worse, as an alarm went off and the room went red, the chest vanished and the door was sealing up, and to if things couldn't get any worse than that Dwarf-like monsters, and Golems appeared all around the room.
"Everyone! Use your Teleport Crystals!" shouted Kirito as they the petrified group snapped out of it.
Ducker grabbed his first, and shouted "Teleport! Taft!" but the gem wasn't responding, he tried again, but the result was the same.
Akira soon realized what happened, and cried, "It's a trap!"
"Why didn't any of you listen to Akira?" growled Mataras as he drew his sword, along with the others, his anger was at Ducker "You do realize that you just sent us all to our deaths at record speed!"
"Nah, these guys don't look so tough!" Tetsuo then charged in and swung his at one of the golems, but the creature was still alive and struck back hitting Tetsuo into the ground as the Dwrves used their pick axes to stab Tetsuo constantly, over and over again, as Tetsuo shouted in pain, until he death. His scream would haunt Akira in his nightmares for as long as he lived.
Ducker to avenge his friend, even when Diabel tried to stop him, "No! Don't separate from each other!" Too late, Ducker was hit in the back, and then clobbered in the front by a golem. Sasamaru was the last boy to be killed by the golems as his HP dropped to zero.
Mataras, and Kirito bursted out in a rage, seeing the death of their friends caused them to go into the monsters, separating from the group.
Diavel, and Akira stayed near Sachi, watching from three directions, however, Sachi was shaking in fear, and who could blame her? After seeing seeing her real life computer club members get torn to shreds like that, her resolve was cracking. This made her fail to notice a golem coming up behind her as, Akira and Diabel, were separated from Sachi from the monsters swarming around the the two.
"Sachi!" Kirito yelled, but he was too far away, he'd never reach her in time, and the golems and dwarves kept getting in his way.
Sachi noticed at that moment as the golem raised its arm, but they were not alone that day, Mataras noticed too, and did the thing he could do to save her, he took his sword and threw it into a spinning bladed wheel, and sliced of the golems arm right off. seeing the sword on the wall, gave her enough courage and strength, to strike back at the with a sword skill, and turn the creature into pixels. Seeing this improved her resolve as she started to fight off her opponents. Akira, an Diabel made back to Sachi, and Mataras rushed over, making sure not to get hit, and got his sword. The four then went over to Kirito, as they fought their way through the monsters.
When the doors to the dungeons finally opened, the group walked out and instantly made for the exit, afterwards when they were out, they slumped down at the side of the entrance, completely exhausted. Mataras, handed out potions to the group as their health was in the red zone. They hoped to get some time to recover, but it happened, as soon as they settled down. Just then a message appeared from Keita, revealing he got them a house, and wondered what happened to Tetsuo, Ducker, and Sasamaru. "I'll tell Keita.", said Mataras.
"I'll go with you." Diabel replied, literally leaning on the pillar.
"Thanks", was all Kirito could say, and Akira only nodded.
"Thanks for saving me." Sachi said as they got back on their feet.
"Why thank us," Kirito said, it's our fault your friends are gone. If we had told you the truth from the beginning…"
"I know how strong you guys really are." Sachi interrupted, leaving the group stunned.
"You knew," asked Mataras, "How did you know?"
Sachi blushed in embarrassment as she replied, "I snack a peek at Mataras' status while he was accessing his menu the other night after he found under the bridge. I'm sorry." she smiled as she continued, "I'm pretty sure you had your reasons for hiding your levels."
Mataras smiled, "I'm sure your familiar with the term, "Beater" the one used for the former beta-testers." he asked
She nodded as Kirito spoke up, "I'm the first official Beater, to take the name. These three were kind of wrapped up in it." he said.
"We didn't tell because we felt you wouldn't want us around anymore." Diabel added
"It's alright. You did all that you could, we should've listened to you. So don't blame yourselves for what happened." Sachi replied trying to cheer them up. This left the four stunned, she understood them, and forgave them. No one didn't see Mataras hide his eyes, keeping tears from coming out.
The group then headed to the Teleport gate and headed to Keita's location. "Teleport, Yoza." said Akira.
"You're Beaters?" asked Keita, about ready to get explode in rage.
"We're really sorry we didn't tell you the truth, Keita. We were worried that you wouldn't want us around if you knew the truth." Akira said as he had his head bowed
"You killed them! The moment that you joined our guild, you sealed their deaths!" Keita yelled as he ran off.
He rushed up onto the railing, overlooking the skies of Aincrad, and started to climb up. "Wait! No! Stop! Don't do it!" Kirito cried out. Sachi tried to grab Keita's foot, but had just missed him as he fell into the clouds and disappeared from view. A moment later, they soon saw polygons floating away into the sky. Sachi broke down in tears, as Mataras comforted her, the four looked down mourning what had happened. They had killed them.
The group sat down in a room in one of Taft's inn that night, "Sachi, I'm so sorry for what happened." Akira said, apologizing to Sachi.
She smiled weakly, "It's not your fault, it's Kayaba whose at fault here. He trapped us here in the first place." Sachi responded.
"Agreed, and I promise you this, I'll make sure that he pays for what he's down, and cut him to ribbons." Mataras said as he hold her hands closely.
"We all want a piece of him too, Mat." Kirito nodded, he had a glum loo on his face.
"And we won't stop until Kayaba pays for his crimes." Diabel finished, as he looked out to the window.
Lauren: Hey sweetie, promise me that you'll stop Kayaba.
Akira: You can count on it.
Kirito: Now were down to only five members again.
Sachi: We should rebuild the guild, but only selective choice, we can't go around randomly.
Kirito: Agreed, I don't want any complete strangers joining, it'll feel weird.
Lauren: Well you guys felt uncomfortable when you guys first joined.
Mataras: Got to have a point there.
Author: Next time on The Azure Swordsman: The Lost Fragment. Chapter 4 Silica, and the Siblings-In-Arms.
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