Obsession
A certain bespectacled girl with thin, black hair lay on her back on her bed, staring listlessly at the white ceiling of her apartment.
Today was Saturday, a long awaited day off from school. Shino was glad for it, she just felt like life at her new school was a bit draining. Not that she was complaining, she definitely preferred this school to her old one, it's just that one person in particular drove her crazy: Kazuto Kirigaya.
Shino instantly grew irritated at the thought of her classmate. She had been trying to have a nice, relaxing day. Her clothes were proof of that, as she had chosen them more for function than style (an oversized, pale violet sweater and black shorts). But apparently, her efforts to unwind were fruitless, because now that she had thought his name, an angry monologue raced through her mind.
He was such a jerk! It's like she couldn't win with him. Whenever the school day would start and both of them would sit down in their usual desks, they had this weird routine of giving each other death glares before Kazuto would sit down in his desk, his back to her. From then on, they would either keep silent the whole day or start an argument, and whenever there was an argument there would never ever be a clear winner, because in the end they would get so angry that they would eventually go back to the silent treatment again. Why couldn't he ever just concede defeat? Why was it that she always had to be wrong? She certainly knew that he was never right himself! He was human.
And what was with him and his little harem? Scratch that, it wasn't little at all. It hadn't taken Shino long to realize that practically every girl in the school had a crush on him to some degree. What did those girls see in him anyway? And why was it that he was polite to them and treated them nicely? It really ticked Shino off whenever she would see girls either crowd his desk or ambush him in the hallway and strike up a conversation with him while they had these stupid, dreamy looks in their eyes. It ticked her off even more when he smiled like some charming prince and spoke to them briefly before walking away and brushing it off like it was nothing. What's with that? Why that phony façade? It was obviously a mask, she could see right through it. She saw through it on a daily basis as a matter-of-fact. He was nice to other people, but when he turned on, her the smile was gone and he glared at her with those eyes.
Dammit, those eyes! Those black voids that pierced into her with such intensity! It just riled her up even more!
The girl turned over on her side and grabbed her pillow from behind her head to squeeze it tightly, as if she could relieve her anger that way.
His eyes. They were so unnerving…and yet, strangely familiar. Shino had the odd feeling that she knew those eyes from somewhere, and that thought made her angrier.
Shino let out a huff, continuing to hug her pillow as she turned to lay on her back. Why was she thinking about him right now? She had planned on relaxing today and just playing Gun Gale Online, where it was like she was in her element, and Kazuto Kirigaya definitely did not need to be there.
With a resigned sigh, the ebony-haired girl firmly placed her pillow back behind her head and put her glasses on the shelf at her headboard. She needed to stop this and log-in, there was no way she would not be logging in today. She had a gig in an hour and she was getting paid a lot of credits when it was over.
The girl grabbed her AmuSphere and slipped it onto her head, staring through the glass visor for a few seconds until finally saying "Link Start."
With a flash of colors and her usual log-in routine, Shino now stood in the world known as Gun Gale Online. She glanced around at her surroundings, remembering that she had checked into an inn last time she was here. After a few seconds, Shino opened her item storage and got to work, changing from her casual wear into her usual green military combat gear. Before she left for her job, she made sure to look into the mirror on the wall. Pride welled up inside of her at the sight of the person standing in her place. There, with powder blue hair and violet eyes, stood the ever-strong sniper, Sinon.
There stood her idol.
Before long, Sinon was out the door, and making her way to the spot where she would meet up with her temporary squadron. It was a routine gathering, so Sinon didn't really pay attention as the others collaborated and straightened out last minute details. Instead, Sinon pulled her gun from her back and sat it between her legs, admiring it. She really thought it was amazing that she could look at it, hold it, and not have a mental breakdown.
Finally, the action began, and Sinon went to a nearby abandoned skyscraper and got into position. Her job was simple really; take out as many hostiles as she could at the most opportune and strategic moment. The usual. If they succeeded in taking out the enemy, she would receive a handsome percentage of the spoils.
As Sinon watched the enemy march across the desert through her scope, she eyed them warily, waiting for the right moment to pull the trigger. This was what she loved about this game. This is what she admired so much about her alter ego. Here, in this world, she was cool, calm, and collected. Nothing could get the best of her here.
And then she saw something through her scope that immediately threw that thought out the window.
Down on the ground, she saw someone among her targets. He was a young guy with short, jet black hair.
Without even thinking, Sinon aimed at his forehead and pulled the trigger. A red hole appeared where she had aimed and soon, the guy dissipated. Soon, everyone on the ground was scrambling as they tried to take out whoever had opened fire on them. But in the end, that was pointless. Sinon was shooting so fist, that by the time her prey saw the red prediction line aiming at them, Sinon pulled the trigger, wiping them out.
For some reason, thoughts of him invaded her mind. She didn't even know why. The first guy she saw hadn't even really resembled him all that much. But seeing him made her anger return, and now she imagined that every one of her targets was him as she unleashed her wrath.
Within the span of fifteen seconds, Sinon wiped out the enemy single-handedly.
Meanwhile, in the popular game known as Alfheim Online, a certain party of four was passing through Sylph territory, and they have just run across a hostile group of Salamanders.
The group of four was composed of all different races. There was a Gnome, another Salamander, a Sylph, and a Spriggan. The Gnome wielded a large ax while the other three brandished swords of some kind.
Each group stared each other down, ready for a fight.
They were about to spring into action when the Spriggan lunged forward with a hasty growl of "I got this."
His three companions stared, dumbfounded, as their comrade swung his large, black sword and engaged the enemy on his own, six to one. The hostile Salamanders attempted to get around him and go after his party, but the Spriggan angrily whipped his sword around and knocked them back into his range. His current style of fighting was reminiscent of a beast or some form of monster as he ferociously ripped through the players unfortunate enough to have his blade aimed at them.
The Salamander, who resembled a samurai, inched over to the Sylph next to him and asked form the corner of his mouth "Uh, Leafa, I know that Kirito tends to play solo, but this seems a little over the top. What's going on with him?"
The blonde sighed, her eyes trained on the Spriggan as he reduced three of the Salamanders to red flame with a violent slash. "I think that school is getting to him."
"What could possibly go on at school to get him this riled up?" The large Gnome asked.
Leafa just shrugged in response, not really wanting to divulge her brother's personal information without his permission, especially while they were online. She knew that Klein and Agil were just concerned, but she didn't want to offend her brother.
She had noticed recently that Kazuto came home agitated just about every day. It would seem like he was angry about something, but whenever she would ask him about it, he would just say that he was fine with a smile that was obviously forced.
A small smile off her own appeared on the girl's face as a thought struck her though.
His moodiness had started up soon after he had brought Shino Asada home for that project
A/N: I know this was a bit late, i had trouble deciding how to tackle this prompt. I had a few ideas, but it took me a while to come up with one that i was happy with. Well, the next one should be up within the next twenty-four hours, so look forward to it.
