Keku screamed across the hall, readying the Elucidator for a stab that would continue through and past Asuna. Then suddenly, all at once, he froze, completely and utterly still, clothes, face and even his eyes dead still, as if someone had just pushed the pause button.
There were confused noises from the clearing group. Then a green flash of light lit up the hall briefly and a man with a green cloak, straw blond hair and green fairy wings teleported in front of Keku. There was a golden crown perched on his head.
Asuna lifted her rapier and scowled.
Asuna sat next to Kazuto's hospital bed, holding one of his hands and staring at his pale face. His face had shrunk back, and his ebony hair was much longer than it had been in SAO, but it was still, undeniably her lover. The Black Swordsman of Aincrad, the clearer of the dreadful game, still comatose, still trapped with the NervGear on his head.
"Now now Asuna-chan, don't you want know what has happened to our Black Swordsman?" He seemed to mock, gesturing to the frozen Kirito. Asuna narrowed her eyes and lowered her rapier, but not sheathing it.
The man smiled.
"Oberon, the Fairy King, at your service." He bent into a mock bow, a broad grin still plastered on his face. When no one said anything, he straitened. "Head programmer at RECT Progress, and I am in charge, and the creator of, 'The Prince'." He smiled maliciously, gesturing at the immobile boss/player.
Asuna sat at her lover's side, staring at his form, the dreadful grey helmet fastened around his head, ready to destroy his brain at a moments notice. The door creaked and opened, Asuna surging to her feet to see the visitor. A middle aged man stood in the doorway and raised both his hands in a 'calm down' gesture. Asuna noticed the man as Sugou Noboyuki, the man in charge of RECT Progress's virtual division. A employee of her father, who her family had been dropping not so subtle hints that he was a 'ideal person' for her..
Like most VRMMO players, his avatar looked nothing like his real world self, but his manner of speaking was exactly the same, the arrogance in his voice even more pronounced in the virtual world where he was ruler.
"Sugou…" Asuna warned, her eyes narrowing.
"Why don't we start by lowering our weapons? Now that our… Mutual friend is docile, there isn't a real need for them, is there?" He said, smirking.
"These aren't for Kirito-kun." Asuna growled, not moving from where she stood, rapier drawn back, the tip unwaveringly pointed at the green-clad king. Cline placed a hand on her shoulder, a silent message to back off. She stowed the weapon at her hip, her eyes never leaving the still-smirking faerie king. The rest of the party silently sheathed their weapons as well, still silent.
"So…" The man clapped his hands, trailing off. "You want to know what happened to Keku-kun?" Asuna stared. "Ah yes, so you may want to know, that is wasn't just Kirigaya-kun that didn't wake up from SAO. He is only one of the 423 players that are still comatose. We used these minds to experiment with, and create the {Sensation Authority System}. Or in layman's terms… Emotion control system." Asuna's face was a mask, but the others in the group all gaped at the faerie king.
He opened up his menu then two more, finally opening up a single white screen that held hundreds of little buttons and a single slider than ran down the edge of the panel.
"You want us to believe that this thing can change people's emotions? I don't think you're entirely sane if you are deluding yourself like that." Cline said, clearly skeptical about the entire thing. Sugou deftly manipulated the panel. Finally a blue confirmation button appeared and he smirked at Cline, pressing his hand to it.
Cline immediately broke into a fit of giggles, a broad smile splitting his face. He fell backwards and literally rolled on the ground in a almost foetal position, hands covering his smiling face.
Asuna gazed on in horrified fascination, before turning back to Sugou and screaming.
"Stop it! You've made your point!" Sugou raised an eyebrow at her, then lifted his hand from the button.
Cline stopped rolling and giggling and stood up, bristling. He glared at Sugou like he was the vilest person that ever lived. Asuna stepped forward.
"Ok, you've made your point. Now what does this have to do with Kazuto-kun?" Sugou smirked again.
Don't you think that Keku-kun is acting to strange? There's noo waay that Kirito-kun would try and attack his beautiful wife Asuna-chan.
I have seen into his memories."
The group stared, Sinon quietly trying her best to piece together what she knew.
"Wh… What the hell d-you mean?" Cline stuttered out. Shell Shocked at the revelation. Seen into his memories? Was that even possible? Sinon frowned.
"No. Seeing into the memories of this… person" she gestured at Keku "is impossible, because the NervGear only reads the triggers from the nerves in the back of the neck. it can't possibly read the actual thoughts and emotions of the brain." Sugou seemed surprised at Sinon, then smiled, slightly strained.
"Well, yes, what Sinon-chi says is true, and our system isn't actually seeing into memories of the subject. But Kirito was a special case. You see, because there was actually a spectator system in place for Aincrad, which means we can play the events of SAO in high definition, so ridiculously high in fact that you actually can't tell it is any different than being in SAO."
Asuna suddenly went very, very, very red. Sugou glanced at her, a massive grin on his face.
"So what we did was played the events of SAO from Kirito's eyes. Any time he was in a battle with players, we subjected him to massive levels of ecstasy, joy and similar emotions, to essentially make him addicted to PvP."
The room seemed to dip into another level of shocked silence.
"Then, every memory he showed a positive emotional response to on the first run though, on the second viewing we subjected him to massive amounts of negative emotions, fear, anxiety, hurt…" His grin seemed to split his face. "And you three were all featured in those memories. Cline, he always regretted leaving you on the first day, but now all he has is indifference, Leafa-chan, he saved a girl called Silica from certain death, afterwards giving her armour and weapons, just because you reminded him of you, and Asuna… he really did love you with all his soul… But now his heart is broken with hatred and charred with sorrow."
Asuna stared.
Cline stared
Leafa stared
Sinon was shocked, and didn't quite understand, but still stared.
"You… You… You FUCKING BASTAD!" Asuna screamed, the words tearing from her throat seeming to elicit a deep primal response in Sugou, who backed up, suddenly defensive. She screeched like a avenging valkyrie, murderous intent radiating from her body as she drew her rapier and tore towards Sugou, in a move that lived up to and past her moniker as the flash. She smashed into the Faerie King, who was tossed the length of the hall like a rag doll, angry red marks covering his body that indicated rapier strikes. Cline blinked.
Asuna walked slowly down the hall, her fringe covering her eyes, rapier out and by her side.
Sugou was navigating through his menu with the air of a desperate man, slumped up against the far wall as he was. He glanced up as Asuna came closer and then pressed down on a button in his menu.
The scream from Kirito started off like it hadn't even stopped, and he continued to dash toward Leafa Sinon and Cline. He didn't even seem to register the lack of Asuna as he smashed into Cline, both swords impaled in his stomach. Cline exploded.
Keku lifted the Dart Repulser in the air, shadows blanketing the iridescent green blade. He swept it down, the darkness leaping like a arc of lightning from the blade into Leafa. She screamed as she was thrown back, hitting the wall with a sickening smack, violet energy sizzling across her body. She too exploded into polygons.
Sinon whipped out her sidearm and fired three times at the boss. Keku whipped around, ducking under the first and blocking the other two lightning quick with Elucidator. From his crouch he shot forwards and slashed her from shoulder to hip with Dark Repulser. He followed up with Elucidator in a horizontal slash, his momentum spinning him around and using both swords in a slash that cleaved her body into three sections, exploding afterwards.
Keku stood still for a moment, swords up, before his shoulders slouched and the blades scraped on the rough hewn-stone floor. Asuna merely stood where she was, head down, tears streaming down her face. Keku turned to her.
Suddenly, Asuna's outline fizzled, growing blurry, before she glowed a bright blue and disappeared. Sugou stood and closed the Force Teleport System Menu. He opened another menu and he disappeared, leaving Keku in the dungeon, roughly hew from black stone with massive ceilings and featureless walls. He dropped his swords, the blades clattering against the floor, before he slumped to his knees, then to his hands staring at the unrealistic stone.
Asuna was crying again.
She tended to do it a lot when things had come to Kirito and his comatose state, but after the affairs of the previous night, she had logged off and all but broken down right then and there, lying on her bed, Amusphere still on her head. She had spent hours crying, and then her tears had run out, and she spent more just sobbing. She hadn't come down stairs for dinner, she hadn't responded to her brother and mother calling to her, and she hadn't slept a wink that night.
She had turned off her phone and had eventually powered off the Full Dive Headgear, not responding to any outside input. Eventually, her parents had used a master key to open her door and had called a ambulance, the paramedics rushing her to a hospital when she continued to refuse to acknowledge them.
She was diagnosed with a catatonic stupor.
Voila! There you have Chapter 5 of my most popular story to date! Hope you liked it, next chapter should be out within the fortnight.
Which Segways nicely into what I have to say now:
SUMMER HOLIDAYS! YAY!
For those of you that don't live in Australia and don't know the term system for us, here's how it works: Term 1: 9 Weeks. T1 Holidays, 2 Weeks. T2, 9 Weeks, Mid-year holidays, 3W. T3 10W. T3 Holidays 2W. T4 9W. End of year holidays: 2 Months.
If you didn't bother to read all that, I essentially have two months of pretty much video games and FanFic. So I have a LOT more time to write.
…
STORY LOGIC SECTION:
FEAR CONDITIONING: So, just to clear things up a bit, the Emotion Control system that Sugou used on Keku is a bit like a much, much more powerful form of Hijacking from the hunger games. As it is using direct emotions and footage that can't be told apart from the normal game. Essentially, a very powerful fear conditioning, which means to associate fear with a specific noise or other such things. In this situation, it is PvP combat with positive emotions, and his friends with negative, including fear. This is a real thing and can be done on any sentient life that has a Amygdala in it's brain.
CATATONIC STUPOR: A catatonic stupor is a completely unresponsive state, where the patient shows no evidence of absent or decreased consciousness. This is also very real and often associated with Post Traumatic Stress disorder and depression.
And finally, it you have read my AN up to here or just skipped to this line, here's a little tidbit: The storyline for Keku is almost exactly one of the 7 basic plots, not that I knew that when I conceived this idea. Now, whether it is a Rebirth or Tragedy is something for me to know and you to wonder!
Hijacking
Basic Plot