A/N: Hey. I know. It's been a while. I needed to work on my other projects, and then there's school, and really, what the heck does 33% mean? So enigmatic. I had a hard time figuring out what to write for this chapter, so writer's block also contributes. But at least i was able to get something. Probably isn't the best, but whatever, there are still literally 89 more chapters for me to make it up. Anyway, enjoy, and i want to also give thanks to my good friend Maria Penner for giving me some ideas. That helped a lot.
33%
Kazuto wasn't sure if he fully understood Shino. He really was doubting it. He knew her in two different worlds as two different people: Shino Asada in the real world and Sinon the sniper in GGO. In some ways, however, these two could easily be seen as the same person.
As Shino Asada, she was the quiet one that kept to herself. She was course, hard to approach, and just downright mysterious. It was difficult to see, but Kazuto could tell she was hurting. It was blatantly obvious since that day on the roof that something was haunting her. For how long, he wasn't sure. Maybe her whole life.
Sinon was the badass sniper who went off alone unless she was offered a job. She was calm and always kept her cool in the worst of situations. With her skill and reputation, she seemed intimidating, but was actually pretty nice and liked to help people. She was strong, and seemed to only want to get stronger.
Kazuto had to admire her though, both a Sinon and Shino Asada. It may be more obvious with Sinon, but Shino was a strong person. In the real world, Shino was able to keep whatever was haunting her to herself, and she was doing a pretty good job. She was hiding it, handling it on her own, and then building her strength in GGO.
But it was almost as if she wasn't trying as hard in the real world as she was in GGO.
In the real world, she was giving maybe 33% of her effort. Most of the time, she seemed to just be enduring it and not dealing with it. She was just closing herself off, barely even trying to open up to anyone. At least she was better about it since she and Kazuto had talked. Now, she was nicer around him.
Then, in GGO, Shino seemed to give everything her all. She would come up with a battle plan and then stick with it until she either died or won out. It was just a game, a game with a currency system, but even so, she took it seriously and lived it to the fullest. But even then, she seemed to close herself off ever so slightly… maybe 33%.
Building strength to get over a trauma was not a bad idea. But doing it alone was.
She seemed to be pretty fond of Kirito though… as a girl. They hung out a lot, and Sinon seemed to talk with her new friend more than anyone else. Kazuto felt a little guilty about leading her to believe that he was a girl, but it was too late to introduce himself correctly now, and anyway he didn't know how to break it to her. That doesn't exactly come up in a conversation.
Oh and by the way, I'm actually a guy!
Kazuto could not imagine himself surviving that. Sinon, and Shino for that matter, was far too intimidating to have him think otherwise.
For instance, just recently, they had worked a job together where they had been hired to take out a squadron of other players. Kirito had been doing pretty well. He wasn't dead for one thing, and that was good considering he had only recently joined GGO. He learned how to play pretty quickly as well, which he took some pride in since he practically grew up on videogames. He had done a little too well, in fact, taking out the majority of the targets on his own by using a light sword in a firearms-dominant reality.
He had just finished the last one, flourishing his weapon before putting it behind his back out of habit.
He just stood there for a second, as if he were waiting. "…Not again." He sighed, before turning off his weapon and clipping it to his belt. He really wasn't used to having to turn your sword off.
The boy stretched, trying to remember where Sinon had been the last time he saw her. He turned around and faced the skyscraper in the distance. After looking at it for a second, he paused, his eyes squinting as he noticed that there was still gunfire going on. The weird thing was that it was being directed at the building. He looked up into the many broken windows and just caught sight of a shock of powder blue.
Sinon was up there, sniping what looked to be a guy with a minigun.
Suddenly, Sinon jumped out of the skyscraper, got her leg shot off, and shot her enemy at point blank range from the air. After all of that seeming to go by in slow motion, the sniper hit the ground and rolled, landing on her hands and knee with her gun under her. To top it all off, her opponent exploded right behind her.
Kirito's eyes widened at the sight, and he just stood there, watching.
Badass to the core.
The boy gulped nervously. Sinon wasn't just scary, she was powerful, and that got him thinking:
What are the chances of my survival when she finds out who I am?
…Not even 33%.
A/N: Heh. Also a little attempted humor... Which probably sucked too. Anyway, the next chapter should be up sooner. Please review!
