Author's Note: I once again apologize in advance for the short length of this chapter. In retrospect, I should've just tacked this this chapter onto the last one, but it is what it is I guess.
Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online.
Chapter 16: Illusion of Love
The rain was pouring down as Asuna sat in a chair by the window in the living room of her family's mansion reading a book. Her parents were gone for the week, so Asuna had the house practically to herself besides the presence of a few servants. It was actually the first time in a couple months that Asuna had gotten the chance to read a book that wasn't a textbook. Between her schoolwork and training to clear the dungeon of Floor 75 of New Aincrad, Asuan hadn't had the chance to read simply for pleasure. Plus the book was proving to be a good distraction from what was happening to ALO.
Ever since her and Kazuto's meeting with Kikuoka the previous afternoon, Asuna had been dreading the idea that ALO might have to be completely reset to correct the damage from the computer virus. That virtual world was a very special place for Asuna. It was where she shared a home with Kazuto and Yui, and where she had gone on adventures with Yuuki. If ALO did indeed have to be reset, everything that had been achieved in that world would simply disappear. There were some things in that world that could be reclaimed. Asuna and Kazuto could reclaim their cabin in New Aincrad and eventually Kazuto could reclaim Excalibur. But other things like the guild of The Sleeping Knights defeating a floor boss on their own and perhaps even the sword skill Asuna had inherited from Yuuki, all of that would be gone forever, all because some selfish hacker wanted to try and twist the game to suit his own vision. As there was nothing she could do at the moment to stop the problem, Asuna had chosen to try and keep her mind off of it.
Asuna had only gotten three pages into the third chapter of her book when the housekeeper walked into the room. "Ms. Asuna. A friend is here to see you."
The housekeeper stepped aside to allow Rika to enter the room. The brown-haired girl was soaking wet as if she had been walking through the rain for hours without an umbrella.
"Rika! What happened?" Asuna asked, standing up from her chair.
The second the housekeeper left the room, Rika once again broke down in tears. Asuna quickly went over to her and guided her over to the couch. After Rika had finally managed to compose herself, she told Asuna about what happened with Donis. She told her about how she and Donis had been seeing each other in the game on a fairly regular basis and how the relationship had quickly become physical. Rika also mentioned that Donis had been secretly seeing Sinon as well.
"I can't believe how I could've been such an idiot." Rika declared after finishing her story. "You even warned me about doing to sort of thing and I just dove in anyway."
"I'm really sorry, Rika." Asuna told her. "I… I wish there was something I could do for you. Um… if you want, you can stay the night here."
"Thanks…" Rika replied. "I just… I really thought Donis was in love with me, you know? I thought we had something special. I guess I should've listened to you when you told me how sketchy you and Kirito thought he was."
"You really fell hard for Donis, didn't you?" Asuna realized.
"It… it wasn't like I wanted to marry him or anything, but… yeah. I guess I did." Rika admitted. "He was like Kirito, but… way more charming. Maybe… maybe the only reason I was in love with Donis was because he was so much like Kirito. You do know that I did have a bit of a thing for him."
"Yeah. I can understand that." Asuna replied.
"You're a really lucky girl, you know that?" Rika told her. "You're rich, and you've got the perfect guy."
Asuna chuckled a bit. "I wouldn't exactly call Kirito perfect, but I know what you mean."
"At least what you have with Kirito is real." Rika pointed out. "In the end, this whole time what I had with Donis was all a lie."
At that moment, the housekeeper reentered the room. "Ms. Asuna, you have another friend who's come here to see you."
The housekeeper stepped aside and Shino walked into the room. The dark-haired girl wasn't nearly as wet as Rika was, but she had clearly come to the house without an umbrella.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Rika asked angrily as the housekeeper left.
"I want to talk to you." Shino told her. "I thought you might end up coming here to cry on Asuna's shoulder."
"That's because she's a hell of a better friend than you are!" Rika shot back. "How could you stab me in the back like that?"
"Dammit! Donis stabbed me in the back too!" Shino told her. "I was just in the dark about him sleeping around with other girls in the game just as you were! I… I thought he and I… had something."
Rika could see the tears rolling down Shino's cheeks. It became clear to her in that moment that Shino was telling the truth. Donis had ended up hurting them both.
"Boy. We're a real pair, aren't we?" Rika remarked with a rather dark chuckle. "You and I both got taken in by a pretty face."
"A pretty face that wasn't even a real one." Shino added. "I don't think I was head-over-heels in love with Donis the way you seemed to be, but… there was definitely a spark between us. I thought that maybe one day our relationship could move beyond the game. There's no way in hell that'll happen now."
"I bet Donis is some overweight sleazebag in real life." Rika assumed. "He's a talented one, since he was able to get ahold of Kirito's avatar data, but still… I wonder how many other girls Donis has done this too."
"Selene seemed to think that he had been getting it on with every girl in the guild." Shino recalled. "And since everyone in the guild except Donis is a girl, then…"
"Wow! That asshole must have a lot of free time and one hell of a stamina stat." Rika remarked.
"Wait. When you guys said every girl in the guild, you don't meet Suguha too, do you?" Asuna suddenly asked.
"Oh god! You're right!" Rika realized. "That totally didn't occur to me."
"Well… Kirito's Suguha's brother though, right?" Shino pointed out. "I mean… there's no way that she and Donis would…"
"Suguha and Kirito are only cousins." Asuna informed her. "And well… let's just say I have a pretty good idea about how she's felt about Kirito for a long time."
"Oh god!" Shino exclaimed. "Now I really wanna kill that bastard."
"You'll have to get behind me." Rika told her. "The next time I see Donis's face, I'm gonna tear it off him."
The housekeeper entered the room yet again. "Pardon me, Ms. Asuna. But another friend has come by to visit. You seem to be very popular today."
With that, the housekeeper left and Kazuto walked into the room. Upon seeing the dark-haired gamer's face, Rika scooped up a small flowerpot that was on the coffee table in front of the couch and threw it at him. Kazuto managed to duck out of the way before the small vase could hit him in the face.
"You have a lot of nerve showing your face here, you asshole!" Rika shouted.
"Rika, calm down!" Asuna told her. "That's not Donis, it's Kirito!"
"What the hell's going on?" a confused an understandably frightened Kazuto asked.
"Uh… sorry, Kirito." Rika told him upon coming to her senses. "This isn't a good place for you to be right now."
"Yeah. You should probably get lost." Shino told him. "Right now it's taking everything I have not to punch that face of yours."
"But, uh… I have something kinda important to talk to Asuna about." Kazuto informed them.
"Kirito, go wait in the other room for a little bit." Asuna requested. "These two need a little bit of space right now."
Kazuto had been waiting in the mansion's dining room for about twenty minutes since his volatile encounter with Rika and the others. He didn't know exactly what was going on, but after he had gotten over his initial terror he had recalled Asuna mentioning something about Donis and deduced that whatever was going on had to do with his virtual doppelganger.
At long last, Asuna finally came into the room. "Sorry about all that."
"What's going on?" Kazuto asked. "Why'd Rika just try to take my head off back there?"
"In a minute." Asuna told him. "Now, what's so important that you had to come over here?"
"Uh, right. I got a call from Kikuoka a few minutes ago." Kazuto explained. "He told me that things with the ALO server seem to have gotten worse. Some kind of timer appeared on the system and seems to be counting down to midnight tonight. It seems the timer showed up yesterday afternoon, but he only just found out about it a little bit ago."
"What's the timer counting down to?" Asuna asked.
"Nobody knows." Kazuto answered gravely. "But… Kikuoka told me that depending on what the timer activates, the staff may have no choice but to reset the game."
"Can't they stop it?" a suddenly alarmed Asun asked.
"They're trying, but so far no luck." Kazuto replied. "I was thinking that we could log back in and try to figure out how to stop it on our end. Not that I have any clue where to begin."
"So this is it." Asuna spoke. "The ALO we know could end up disappearing tonight."
"We don't know that for sure." Kazuto told her. "Now… what the heck's going on with Rika and Shino?"
"Well… it turns out they had been seeing Donis in the game." Asuna explained. "Romantically, I mean."
"Wait, they were seeing him together?" a stunned Kazuto asked.
"No. Donis had been sleeping with them both secretly." Asuna answered. "Neither of them knew about it until today. That's why they're not ticked off at you right now, but at your face."
"That bastard!" Kazuto cursed as his hands clenched into fists. "How long has this been going on?"
"For quite awhile, from the sound of it." Asuna answered. "And there's more. I'm not really sure how to tell you this, but… Rika and Shino are pretty sure that Donis has been sleeping around with every girl in that guild of his. Which means that he and…"
"You mean… with Sugu?" a horrified Kazuto asked.
"Well… we're not sure, but…" Asuna began.
Before Asuna could finish her sentence, Kazuto whirled around shouting and knocked away a glass vase that was on top of the dining room table. Asuna yelped as the glass vessel crashed and shattered against the side of the wall.
"That son of a bitch!" Kazuto cursed. "I may not be able to get to him in the real world, but while there's still an ALO I'm gonna log back in there and cut his damn head off!"
"Kirito!" Asuna called as he stormed out of the room, but he was nothing she could do to stop him.
Klein waited in a small village in ALO for Kirito to show up. He had gotten a call from his young friend a few minutes ago in the real world, where Kirito had told him about what Donis had been doing with Leafa and the others. Kirito had told Klein that he was going to hunt Donis down in the game and kill him and asked for his help. Klein agreed to help, as he was almost as outraged by Donis's actions as Kirito was. At long last, Kirito flew down from the star-filled sky and landed before Klein with Yui perched on his shoulder.
"Thanks for coming." Kirito told him.
"No problem, man." Klein told him. "I don't mind helping you kick Donis's ass in the game one bit. Surrounding yourself with pretty ladies is one thing, but sleeping around with them is a step too far in my book. So, any idea where we can find your sleazy twin?"
Before Kirito could answer, Asuna came down from the sky with Siune. Lisbeth and Sinon landed next to them soon after.
"What're you guys doing here?" Kirito asked.
"Trying to keep you from doing anything too crazy?" Asuna answered. "I get how you feel Kirito, but I don't want you doing anything too extreme."
"As for me and Sinon, we're here to help you castrate that son of a bitch." Lisbeth informed him.
"Just try not to look directly at us." Sinon told the black swordsman.
"Actually, I'm glad all of your are here." Kirito admitted. "I could probably use all the help I can get if I'm going to get to Donis."
"Why? Where do you think he is?" Asuna asked.
"When I spoke to him alone that one time at his guild's headquarters, he told me he was trying to get to an area of the game called the Plateau of Leng." Kirito explained. "He said that the portal to that area was somewhere down in N'kai."
"I remember telling him about Leng from what I read in the Necronomicon." Sinon recalled. "He seemed very interested in the place."
"When we beat Tsathoggua, a door opened up in his boss room opened up to reveal another room." Kirito explained. "Donis and Sugu went into that room just before the rest of us were teleported out. I think that room probably leads to the portal to Leng."
"So wait. You're saying that you're planning to go into Tsathoggua's boss room to try and get to Leng?" Asuna deduced.
"Pretty much." Kirito confirmed. "And I'm pretty sure that Donis is in Leng right now."
"You're probably right, man. But what if we have to fight that Tsathoggua thing again to get there?" Klein pointed out. "That thing could've re-spawned since we fought it."
"It took Donis's help to defeat Tsathoggua in the first place." Siune reminded him. "If Tsathoggua has re-spawned, we'd probably need a raiding party as big as the one used on Floor 75 to beat him."
"It's a chance we're just gonna have to take." Kirito told them. "I'm taking Donis down even if I have to fight someone as strong as Kayaba again to get to him!"
Author's Note: We're getting much closer to the climax of this story. There's still a little ways to go, but it won't be long before the epic showdown between Kirito and Donis.
Please review and let me know what you think.