Chapter 18

Author's Note: Sorry this chapter took so long. I stumbled onto some emulated Yu-Gi-Oh games on my computer, and…I'm having fun. So much fun. So much Dark World. So much. (And it's 5D's, so it's before Dark World became cheap trash!) Plus, y'know, I started college. So that's…that's happening.

October 29th 2024

I got back into Liz's shop, rubbing a sore shoulder. Some of the fight's I'd had with the new Floor 75 mobs were absolutely brutal. A new class of enemy could summon others to its aid, so if you weren't careful, you'd have a whole horde coming down on your head. One of them landed a decent shot on my shoulder blade, and, even though I'd used a healing crystal, it still ached.

"Liz? I'm home!" I shouted as the door closed behind me.

No response. "Liz?" Still nothing.

I looked behind me, checking the open sign. It was already flipped to "closed". The only reason I'd been able to get in was because I was cleared for entry. That was weird. I'd come back early because of the shoulder, so she shouldn't be closing for another hour. I shrugged.

I unequipped the rest of my gear as I scaled the stairs up to our room. The bedroom was empty, and the lights were off. However, the curtains were closed, and there were a few candles lit around the room. I only dimly took this in, however, stumbling over to the bed and shoving my head in my pillow. I was hoping to get to sleep before my shoulder seriously started to hurt, but that was interrupted when I heard the other side of the bed creak.

"I didn't expect you home for at least another hour."

"Getting a barbed sword stabbed through your upper back kinda screws with your inner clock."

"It shouldn't hurt. Game doesn't allow for pain."

"Yeah, but it's like it's asleep. Pins and needles and such."

There was a pause.

"…You want a massage, or something?"

I raised my head out of the pillow, and raised my eyebrow. "Seriously?"

She shrugged and scooted onto the bed more. "You're not saying no."

I moved closer to the center of the bed, so she'd have access without getting off the bed. "Why not?" I opened my menu off to the side, unequipping my shirt. I could hear her chuckle, then shift her weight, straddling my lower back. She started rubbing her hands where my shoulder meets my neck, and it instantly started feeling better. "Jesus, woman. You've been holding out on me."

She laughed. "I've been told I have magic hands."

I groaned as she moved lower, working on the muscles next to my shoulder blade. "God, they weren't kidding. Ever wish you never had to move ever again?"

I could hear her smile through her next words. "Funny you say that…"

"Oh, I know that voice. What have you been planning?"

"Well, there's this place on Floor 54. Someone already owns it, but he rents it out. It's in one giant safe zone outside town, and I thought it'd be a good spot for…a vacation."

I could tell she expected me to shoot down the idea, and say the front lines needed me, or some equally noble bullshit. But honestly…I needed the break.

"Yeah, sounds perfect. We could both use a breather."

"Wait, seriously?"

"Sure, it's a great idea."

It was her turn to groan this time. "I spent so much time figuring out how to convince you of that." I laughed. "Seriously! I bought candles! I got dinner! And all it took was a damn shoulder rub?"

(X)

October 30th 2024

It was a simple place, from the outside anyway. A small cabin in the middle of the woods, sitting by a large lake. I'd seen a thousand of the things, but it'd never occurred to me to buy one. The place in Lindas had way more space, and there was no way Liz'd be able to run a shop from the remote location. But it was a perfect vacation spot.

The inside was all done up. The bed inside was comfier than the one I had in the real world, and the bookshelves were stocked. Funny thing, they weren't just randomly generated. A few of the people from the town of Beginnings had taken to rewriting their favorite books from memory, and the idea really kicked off with the photographic memory crowd. The view from the back of the cabin was glorious, but it was the hammock that tied it all together. We spent most of the first day just lounging in it.

I'd somehow been tricked into getting in the thing first, to stabilize it, she claimed.

I think it was just so she could watch me squirm.

The thing was a bitch to get into. At first, I just tried to sit on it, like you would a chair. It slipped out from under me, and I fell right on my ass. Then I tried a sideways leap, so I'd just land laying down. I missed the thing entirely, landed on my ass, and nearly rolled into the lake. The third time, I tried to pin it with a hand and a knee, to keep the fabric spread while I tried to sit in it. I managed to get the other knee in position, before it slipped out from under me, and I fell, banging up my…well, everything.

Liz, of course, was laughing her ass off the entire time.

I eventually figured out how to sit in it properly, (not before another few failed attempts, of course) and Liz climbed in on top of me, resting her head on my chest. We looked out over the lake, as the sun dipped lower on the horizon. I slowly dipped one of my legs over the side of the hammock, and started lightly rocking us.

"It's so beautiful, isn't it?"

"Not as beautiful as you."

"Don't be so cheesy."

"I'm not. I could live in a damp dark hole, as long as it was with you."

"Well, I'd hate to live in a hole," she said jokingly. "I at least need a bubble bath once in a while." She thought for a moment. "Now that I think about it, I now know what I'm going to do when we get out of here."

"That sounds nice," I replied. "Mind some company?"

"But of course," she said with a grin. "How else am I going to keep it warm?"

We both laughed, and the sun finally touched the lake. "Of course, there is a chance we don't make it," she said out of the blue.

"Don't talk like that, Liz," I said, brushing some of the hair out of her face. I gave her a stern look, and said, "I told you I'd always protect you."

She smiled sadly. "Yeah, but I'm not talking about getting killed in here, I just mean…Life. I mean, we've been in here two years, and we're only three-quarters of the way through. We can't live on life support forever." She laughed suddenly. "How fucked up would it be if I got skin cancer because someone left a curtain open?" She grinned. "I burn easily, you know."

I wasn't laughing. "That's not funny, Rika," I said, switching to her real name.

She smiled again. "I really hate it when you're brooding. I've always preferred Seth to the Reaper."

"They're both me."

"No, they're not. Sometimes, I look at you, and I can just tell you're out of it. That you're not thinking about what's going on in this game. You're thinking about…that damn list of yours." At this point her face was screwed up in a glare, but the emotional overclock software was forcing tears to well up in her eyes. "You let strangers tell you their deepest secrets, and…You never even bother asking mine."

"Because…Because I…" To be honest, it was because I didn't want to acknowledge that she could die. It was easy to look at a thousand strangers and know they were only mortal, but…we always picture the ones we care about…the ones we love as being timeless. Immortal. I could've explained that to her, but that wouldn't do any good for how she was feeling, and would only get refuted. So, instead, I looked her dead in the eye, and said, "Okay. Tell me."

I didn't bother getting out my memo. I knew, no matter what, those next few moments would be sculpted into my memory forever.

She looked taken aback when I agreed, but quickly composed herself. "I guess…If I don't make it out, I'd want my parents to know that I was happy, at least. With you. And…" she said, smiling slightly. "I'd want you to be happy again. I wouldn't want you to dwell on me forever. Even if you had to…find someone else-."

I cupped her chin, bringing her lips to mine, effectively silencing her. We broke apart, and no one spoke. It'd gone dark, and there was a sense of peace. All was right.

And then she sneezed, startling me. My leg, still slowly rocking us, instinctively flexed, flinging the hammock to the side and dropping us onto the floor.

(X)

October 31st, 2024

I woke up to a message from Kirito dinging in my inbox. I groggily rubbed my eyes to wake me up, then read it.

"Dude. There is something you HAVE to see."

I checked the time. It was 7 in the morning.

"It's 7 in the morning." Hey, don't judge. I was a teenage gamer. You were lucky if I got up before 10.

"Congratulations. You can tell time."

"What is so important that you have to interrupt my vacation?"

"Something so weird, I'm allowing you to interrupt my vacation! I've sent you the map data, so get down here. Asuna says bring Liz!" I opened the attachment, and a waypoint added itself to a place on floor 22. I groaned and sat up.

Kirito could be ignored, and I'd be forgiven on a good day. But if Asuna was trying to contact Liz, and I didn't facilitate the message, I'd never hear the end of it.

"Liz. Wake up," I said, rubbing her shoulder. She hummed, opened her eyes, and then glanced up to her clock.

"It's 7 in the morning," she said drowsily. I chuckled.

"Don't tell me, tell Asuna. We're supposed to meet her and Kirito somewhere on 22."

(X)

They were standing outside a cabin not too dissimilar to our own, both Kirito and Asuna dressed in casual clothes. They looked slightly nervous as we approached up a narrow, winding path.

"Alright, we're here, Kirito," I called, coming to a stop just in front of them. "This better be important."

"Seth, Liz," Asuna said, taking Kirito's hand in hers. "We'd like you to meet…Yui."

Kirito turned his head to the front door of the house and called "It's okay. You can come out."

On instinct more than anything, I'd flipped my hood back up, but I completely forgot about that when she stepped out.

It was a kid.

An honest-to-God 5 year old girl stepped out of their cabin.

I stood there, eyes widened in shock for a few seconds, and, though I couldn't see her, I think Liz was doing the same.

Suddenly, the girl's eyes lit up, and she froze, like a deer in headlights.

The tension in the air hung for a few seconds.

And then the girl turned, and sprinted back inside.

"Yui?" Kirito called, jumping up the steps. "Yui, what's wrong?"

I was still frozen, blinking. Why the fuck was there a kid here? Most of the kids under 12 had just stayed in Beginnings, either with their families or one of several "orphanages" set up around the town. So what was a kid doing all the way up on floor 22? 'I gotta hear this story…'

I climbed in after him as Asuna and Liz began speaking.

Kirito was crouched next to one of the beds, obviously speaking to the girl, who was hiding under it. "Yui, what's going on with you? Those two are friends."

"I'm hiding from the scary guy!" came the high-pitched cry from under the bed.

Oh, fuck, I forgot I'd had my hood up. I opened my menu, unequipping my jacket, and revealing the dark red t-shirt underneath. I moved closer to Kirito, and crouched next to him. I heard shuffling as she tried to scoot back, but I lowered myself until I could see under it.

"Yui, is it? I'm just a normal guy, look. Scary guy's gone."

I saw a pair of shiny brown eyes looking back from the darkness. They darted to the left and right, as if checking to see if I was lying. Then she focused back on me, and her eyes narrowed. "What's wrong with your eyes?"

The question hit me like a ton of bricks. I hadn't been asked that since…Since I was her age, really. After that, no one bothered to ask, they just knew me as "that weird kid". And in here…either they didn't know or they didn't care.

"I've, uh…I've had it since I was a kid. Since I was born, really." I glanced down to the floorboards, trying to focus on the ant crawling across the wood instead of…literally everything else.

There was a beat.

A tinkle of laughter came from under the bed, and her head poked out. "Well, it looks cool!" she shouted.

I forced a smile, meeting her eyes. "Yeah, it's…it's pretty cool."

Kirito was looking across at me, a small smile on his face, and an eyebrow raised. "Hey, Yui," he said, turning his head. "Why don't you go out to Mommy, and meet Liz?"

"Okay!" she said, scrambling out from under the bed and running outside.

He looked back at me, but my gaze was now a mix of confusion and condescension. "You have some explaining to do."

(X)

"So let me get this straight. Not only did you find a 5 year old girl in the middle of the woods, not only does she have amnesia, but you told her that you're her parents."

"Y'know, now that you say it out loud, it does sound a tad weird."

"Oh, just a tad?"

"Look, I get it. But what would you have done? Just left her there?"

"Of course not, but…Jesus, man. I leave you alone for a week and a half, and you marry Asuna and adopt a kid."

"Yeah…It's been a weird few weeks."

"You know you can't keep her, right?"

"Why not?" I struggled not to slap him.

"Because she's not actually your kid! Out there is some mother and father worried sick about her, and she doesn't even know it!"

"You don't think I haven't thought of that? But what am I supposed to do? Walk up to an orphanage and say 'Hey! Did you lose a kid?'"

"I don't see why not. If you two are stuck here taking care of a kid, it'll be that much longer until we get out of this game!"

Neither of us spoke for several tense seconds. Then he clenched his fists, and looked back up at me, as if expecting a fight.

"Asuna have been discussing it. We're going down to Beginnings in a bit. You two can come if you want. Yui might feel better in the city if there were more people she knows."

"Yeah, alright. Not like I had a romantic vacation planned or anything."

"Funny. It's still major Army territory down there, so make sure you have all your gear ready. I'll go tell Asuna."

(X)

Spawning out of the teleport gate was…weird. The gate was in the center of the first town. The last time I'd been here…It was the first day. Just seeing the gap in the scaffolding that surrounded the courtyard, I could easily picture it with the giant robed figure floating there. Telling us we were trapped.

I shook my head slightly to clear my thoughts, as Kirito spoke up. "Well, Beginnings is huge, so we'd better start. I say we head to the central market. Any objections?" None were voiced.

As we walked the alleys and markets, Asuna struck up a conversation. "How many people do you think live here?" she asked.

"Last I checked, there were about 6,000 of us left," I said, staring down a passerby who had been eying the five of us. He quickly glanced away.

"And about a third of those, Army included, live here. So…2000?" speculated Kirito.

"Yeah, but…It's nearly empty," Liz said.

She wasn't wrong. Excluding the merchants, the only people I'd seen was an Army recruiter at the teleport gate, and our unwanted watcher. I was pondering this when a voice rang clearly from a nearby alleyway.

"Leave those children alone!"

Half a second later, we were all running towards the voice. Others spoke up.

"Hey, look! It's that day-care bitch!"

"We've been waiting for you."

"Let them go!" shouted the first voice.

"You make it sound like we're doing something illegal! We're just teaching them how things work around here. Making sure they pay their way. That's all part of the Army's job, ma'am."

"That's right. Everyone has to pay taxes around here!"

"Ginn! Cain! Mina! Are you alright?" cried the first voice.

"Miss Sasha! Help!"

"Just give them your money, and it'll be okay," shouted the first voice, sounding defeated.

"We tried, but they say it isn't good enough."

"It's common knowledge that you parasites owe a lot in back taxes."

"So I'll need you to give us everything you have. Including your armor. Every last piece."

"Get…Get out of the way!"

The town of Beginnings was like a maze. It sounded like the voices were coming from everywhere at once, and the NPC's were no help.

Finally, we took a right turn, and came upon the scene. 5 Army grunts were standing in front of a woman, her hand on her belt. From the sounds of crying behind them, they were standing in front of children. Kirito started to put down Yui, but I put a hand on his shoulder. "No way. These ones are mine."

I walked down the alleyway, the pavement making sure every footstep rang loud and clear. I opened my menu and equipped my scythe. I gestured for the woman to move out of the way, and she stepped, tentatively at first, around me, then ran to join the others.

One of them laughed. "You must be new in town, buddy. Because we're with the Aincrad Liberation Force, and you do not mess with us!" He drew his sword as he said this, waving it around clumsily.

"Cute," came the gravelly voice from under my hood. "I'm the Reaper."

The effect was immediate. The one holding the sword took a step back, and the others glanced at each other. Before they all broke out laughing.

"The Reaper? You mean the front-liner? Please! Why would he ever come down here?"

I seized the moment while their guard was down.

I leapt forward and dropped low, spinning my scythe and sweeping the legs out from under the guy in front. I continued the spin as I rose, catching one of them with the blade. The knockback effect kicked in, launching him up and into the wall. He landed hard, and didn't get back up.

One of them tried to strike me from my right, but I threw my scythe to the side, blocking the strike. I slammed the edge of my scythe onto the ground, pushing off it, and using it to propel myself forward into a drop kick. My feet hit him dead center in the chest, and he hit the wall. I landed, and the fourth one lunged at me, but a quick spin drew my blade across his chest, sending him flying back.

The final one was readying his shield, but I lunged forward, so the blunt edge of my blade was aimed at his head. He ducked, and it passed cleanly over his head. He stood back up, grinning, but, realizing something, the grin fell from his face. He tried to duck again, but I tugged on my scythe and the blade hit him in the back of the head, sending him flying forward onto his face.

The first one, the one I'd knocked down, had gotten up, and was preparing to charge me, but I was ready. He rushed forward, and I brought my scythe down onto his neck. He flinched, but it appeared that I'd missed. The pole of the scythe had impacted on his neck, not the blade. He grinned, thinking I'd fucked up. That was rectified when I rolled under him, dragging my scythe along for the ride. I jumped backward, landing firmly on his upper back, the blade of my scythe now pressed very close to his neck.

"Swear."

"S-Swear what?" he stuttered, trying to edge away from the blade, but the foot at the base of his neck keeping him from doing so. He was starting to tremble under the added weight. I'd have to make this quick.

"Swear on your life that you will never bother these people again."

"I-I swear!"

"Good."

I moved my scythe slightly, catching the point on a sturdy-looking buckle of his armor. I rolled forward, roaring with the effort as I flung him over my head, then slammed him into the ground. I rose, breathing heavily, and spun my scythe back into its sheath.

"God, that felt good."

There was a beat.

I gestured to the kids. "C'mon. These idiots won't hurt you anymore." One of them was struggling to get up, but the rest were still on shock. "Don't forget your gear."

They didn't move, and the smile fell from my face. I'd almost forgotten; I was dealing with children. What happened less than an hour ago when Yui just saw me with my hood up?! Let alone what these kids thought of me. Probably that-

"That was awesome!" shouted one of the boys.

All three of them rushed forward. "I've never seen anything like that," said the other boy.

"Yeah, that was so cool," said the girl.

I turned back to Kirito and gave him a help me look. He gave me a You're on your own wave, and began conversing with the woman.

(X)

November 1st, 2024

The day-care was about as clean, organized, and quiet as you'd expect from a house full of kids. That is to say, it was filthy, disheveled and the noise level was off the charts, but it felt like a community.

We ended up having to stay the night, since it was nearly noon when we'd arrived at Kirito's cabin, and being well into the afternoon when we found Sasha. After we escorted them back to the day care, the story that I'd taken on 5 army grunts somehow transformed into me storming the Black Iron castle and rescuing Sasha and the children from the dungeons, fighting off the entire Army in the process. By the time Sasha had gotten them to stop asking me for details about a fight that never happened and sent them to bed, it was well into the night, so we opted to just stay there. Thank God for Kirito's endless supply of sleeping bags.

There were about 20 of them in the room the next morning, all eating their breakfasts. Two of them, a boy and a girl were fighting over a loaf of bread, and another one was showing off his juice box for an unknown reason. Liz and I were passing theories back and forth.

"Maybe it's got a puzzle on the back, or something? Like a cereal box?"

"Or maybe we're just thinking too big. Maybe he just likes the juice."

Well, in that case, it's probably grape juice," I said, eyeing him as he took another gleeful sip.

"No way, apple juice is way better."

"Excuse you, grape is clearly superior."

Kirito coughed. We'd been getting a little loud, and, clearly, adults, let alone front-liners, were not meant to argue about which fruit juice was superior.

"So…There's a lot of them, aren't there?" said Kirito.

"Oh, yeah," said the woman now known as Sasha. She had short brown hair and green eyes behind a pair of smart glasses. "It's like this pretty much every day." I raised my eyebrows. She couldn't have been much older than me, and if I had to deal with 20 kids every day…Let's just say I wouldn't deal with 20 kids every day.

"Speaking of which, you've never seen Yui in here before?" asked Kirito.

"No, never. I mean, there are loads of these places scattered around town, so she might have stayed at one of them. But not here. I mean, I walk through the town every day to see if anyone needs help. I could ask around then, if you want. Otherwise, sorry. I can't help."

"Back to square one," said Asuna, looking downtrodden.

Suddenly, there was a knocking on the massive front doors of the church. When we answered it, a white haired woman in a green cloak was there.

"Sorry to bother you," she said, bowing. "I'm Yulier."

"And you're with the Army, correct?" asked Asuna, eying her green cloak.

"If this is about yesterday, those goons had it coming," said Liz defensively.

"God, no," she said. "In fact, I'm here to thank," she eyed all of us, her eyes settling on me, "you. The Reaper, correct?" I nodded. I was reserving judgement. If she was against those guys from yesterday, she had at least some sort of sense. But she was in the Army, so that kind of counterbalanced it. "But you're all front-liner's, so I came to ask your help."

(X)

After letting her in, Sasha made tea for all of us as Yulier spoke.

"When the Army was first started, we…Or I should say, our leader Thinker, didn't want it to be the dictatorial regime it's become. At first, we just wanted to share information and food with as many players as possible."

"But the Guild grew too large," I said plainly.

"Yes," she admitted. "And after a few power struggles, one man became very powerful. Kibaou. Kibaou and his group became stronger and stronger, monopolizing all the best monster spawn points, and becoming the only ones of the first floor who could effectively power-level. They've been out of control for over a year now, extorting people for 'taxes'. It became pretty obvious they no longer cared about clearing the game, and that made a lot of people mad. He had to do something to retain his dignity, so he sent his highest-level players to command the front lines."

"Corvats," said Asuna.

"Kibaou was denounced after sending them to that massacre, and we started the process of dismissing him from the guild. Desperate, he resorted to drastic measures, and set a trap for Thinker. Thinker's been stranded inside a deep dungeon!"

"He can't teleport out?" asked Kirito, but Yulier shook her head.

"Don't tell me the idiot's unarmed," I said warningly, but she gave a sad smile.

"He's far too trusting. He believed Kibaou when he said he wanted to talk, unarmed. That was three days ago."

"He's been gone three days?" said Liz incredulously. "Why hasn't he just tried legging it?"

"The dungeon is the highest level we've seen so far. He can't get out of there on his own. As his second-in-command, it is my responsibility to help him. But my level isn't high enough to reach him. It's ironic, isn't it?" she said, looking up at me. "That I'm begging fighters to help save a life?"

"That is not irony," said Yui from the corner of the table. Everyone turned to look at her, confused. "A better example of irony is…" she thought for a moment. "That your leader's name is Thinker, yet he seems to be a bit of an idiot." Everyone seemed to be shocked, but I broke the silence by laughing.

"Kirito, I take it back," I said, wiping tears from the corners of my eyes. "This kid is the best."

Author's Note: That's a wrap for today, children. The next chapter won't be very long, so I should have that out before the end of September. And don't you worry. It shall be very heartbreaking. Now, I actually wanted to talk to those of you who actually read these about another story idea that I had. Well, really it's more of a writing exercise, and if you're interested, you can PM me for the details. But, basically the thing is…I need OC's. And lots of them. So yeah, PM me with ideas, please don't leave them in reviews as they will be ignored. Hope you guys liked this chapter, and I'll see you guys next time.