Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online.

Chapter 12: Those Who Mourn Adonis

"I may not be able to inflict any real harm on you in this game, but I can at least make it so that you suffer a crushing defeat right here in this tournament!" Lotus declared before chanting another spell and firing another barrage of shuriken at Leafa.

Leafa instantly dashed off to her left as the bladed projectiles flew towards her and managed to avoid getting hit. Soon after, the blonde came at Lotus from the side and attempted to slash her with her sword, but at the last second the green-haired girl turned and blocked the attack with her own blade. Afterward, Lotus slashed her sword at the blonde's stomach, but Leafa managed to jump back at the last second to avoid taking the hit. Leafa fell back to a spot on Lotus's left still on the very edge of the island and chanted a spell to fire another cluster of energy projectiles at her opponent. Lotus responded by firing another cluster of energy shuriken and both attacks collided, resulting in a massive explosion.

As the smoke cleared, Leafa raised her sword and prepared for Lotus's counterattack. She hoped that Lotus was no longer able to use the wind shuriken spell after that last attack, as she knew for a fact that the spell used up a good chunk of MP. In fact, Leafa was depending on Lotus not being able to use the spell again. As much as she didn't like the idea, Leafa realized that there was probably only one way left for her to win her battle at this point.

"You should just make it easy on yourself and surrender now." Lotus told her. "At this point, there's no way you can win against me."

"Looks Lotus! I understand how you feel!" Leafa told her. "I still feel devastated that Donis is gone. Even though he wasn't real, even though he was pretending to be someone else, I still fell deeply in love with him. But I'm trying to move on! It's hard. It still hurts that he's gone, but I've been trying to move on! You need to do the same."

"…You have no idea what're talking about." Lotus responded in a low voice. "You don't know just how much Lord Donis meant to me! He was the only man who ever loved me! The only one who ever gave a damn that I existed! I've always been alone IRL. Every guy I would ever become interested in either had someone else already or never noticed that I existed. But Lord Donis… he was different. He told me that he valued me… that I was special to him. And now that he's gone, there's no one left who cares about me! You're partly to blame that my Donis was taken from me, so now you're going to pay for it!"

With that, Lotus charged across the battlefield towards Leafa with the blade of her sword pointed right at her. Just as Lotus was about to strike though, Leafa moved to her right and caused her opponent to charge right off the edge of the island. Lotus hit the lava, and in less than a second her HP gauge crashed to zero. Soon after, the green-haired girl's body became a ball of green flames that floated above the island. Leafa let out a heavy sigh. Her plan to win the match had worked, though she wasn't at all happy about it.

Leafa looked sadly at the ball of flames. "I'm sorry I had to end it this way… but you didn't leave me any other choice. You need help, Lotus. And I really hope that you get it."

Just as the ball of flames started to fade to nothing, the holographic timer above the battlefield vanished and was replaced by a message declaring Leafa the winner. Soon after, a beam of blue light came down from above and teleported Leafa out of the lava cavern.

Though Leafa's battle with Lotus had ended, Asuna's battle against Sakyua continued to rage on. While their swords continued to clash as the timer for the fight ticked away, each of them had managed to land a cut on the other. While Sakuya still had the edge over Asuna in speed, Asuna's power and skill were making up the difference. It was true that Sakuya was a skilled fighter, but Asuna had been in countless battles from her time trapped in SAO. Towards the end of the time left on the clock, Sakuya ended up slashing Asuna across the back and took her HP into the red zone. Immediately afterward though, Asuna turned on her heel and stabbed Sakuya four times in the stomach, taking the dark-haired sylph's HP into the red zone as well.

After both of them had taken a hit, Asuna and Sakuya fell back to take a breath. There was a little less than two minutes left on the timer for the fight.

"You're really putting up a good fight." Sakuya praised. "If you don't mind my asking though, why are you trying so hard in this tournament?"

"…There's someone in this tournament who I have to fight." Asun answered. "Someone who insulted the memory of a very dear friend of mine. I need to fight her to in order to get back at her for what she said."

"I get it. So it's a matter of honor for you." Sakuya observed. "For me though, this tournament is my chance to prove that I'm just as skilled a fighter as some of the best players in this game. I may be the leader of the sylphs, but a lot of people tend to take my abilities in battle a bit lightly. This tournament is my chance to show everyone that I'm more than just a leader and a strategist. And to do that, the best way is for me to beat someone like you."

"Then bring it on!" Asuna dared.

With that, Sakuya charged in with her sword raise and attempted to slash Asuna across the chest. The blunette was prepared for the attack though and quickly managed to block it. Their swords then continued to clash with the sounds of metal on metal ringing acros the beach. Then, with only a few seconds left on the clock, Asuna found an opening and struck Sakuya three times in the chest with her rapier. Sakuya's HP became nothing more than a red sliver only half a second before the clock for the battle hit zero. Soon after, the timer vanished and a holographic message declaring Asuna the winner appeared in the air above the beach.

Sakuya let out a heavy sigh. "Well… guess I just wasn't good enough this time."

"Don't be so hard on yourself. You gave me a real challenge." Asuna told her. "That fight could've gone either way. After seeing how this battle went, I'm sure that everyone in this game will really start to respect you as a fighter."

"…Thanks." Sakuya replied with a small smile. "It was an honor facing you, Berserk Healer."

"Same here." Asuna replied.

Soon after, two beams of blue light came down from the sky and struck Asuna and Sakuya. In seconds, the two fighters were teleported off the island.

Asuna reappeared on the teleport pad inside the crystal stadium. As she looked around, the blunette saw that most of the Bracket A competitors had returned from their respective battles. Asuna assumed that those who had not returned had been PK'd at the end of the battle. Asuna soon spotted Leafa sitting by herself in the corner with a sad look on her face. Out of concern, Asuna went over to see how the blonde was doing.

"Hey there, Leafa." Asuna spoke, getting the blonde sylph's attention. "You okay? Don't tell me you lost."

"Uh, no. I made it to the next round." Leafa answered. "It was just kind of a rough fight. Oh! I caught the end of your battle with Sakuya, by the way. You did really well."

"Thanks." Asuna replied. "Are you sure you're okay, Leafa?"

"I'm fine. Really." Leafa assured her. "I'm just a little wiped out, that's all."

"Well, looks like both of you have made it to the next round." A familiar voice interrupted. Asuna and Leafa looked to see Sakuya approaching them. "I wish you both the best of luck."

"Thanks." Asuna replied.

"You did really well out there, Lady Sakuya." Leafa told her. "That battle outfit of yours is really something else."

"You could get one of those for yourself too, you know." Sakuya told the blonde. "Getting the materials together for it is hard, but it's well worth it."

Suddenly a beam of blue light shot up from the floor of the chamber and Lydia reappeared. "Congratulations to everyone from the first bracket who made it to the next round! Well, that wraps up our tournament for today. Tomorrow we'll be holding the first and second rounds for the Bracket B players. Until next time, I suggest that those of your still fighting in the tournament take the night rest, 'cause you're probably going to need it. This is your MC, Lydia singing off."

With that, Lydia vanished with another flash of blue light. Most of the tournament players began to file out of the stadium. Nytokris passed by Asuna's little group and flashed her an arrogant sneer before heading for the door.

"That's the player known as Nytokris, right?" Sakuya asked. "I've been hearing some pretty nasty rumors about that woman."

"A lot of those rumors are probably true." Leafa responded. "Asuna, one of us has to take Nytokris down. I know that beating her in a tournament may not actually mean much, but…"

"I know." Asuna spoke before Leafa could finish. "Nytokris has a lot to answer for."

"Yes, well… I think I better log out." Sakuya decided. "It's been a very long day. Again, good luck to both of you."

"I think I better log out too." Leafa decided as Sakuya left. "That battle took a lot out of me."

"Yeah. Take it easy, Leafa." Asuna replied. "I'm guessing the tournament's only going to get harder from here."

"I'll say. Especially for you." Leafa told her. "You do know that you'll be up against Lisbeth in the next round, right?"

Asuna's eyes widened a bit. "Wow! Really? That's… that's something I wasn't expecting."

"Well, with practically all of us girls entering, chances were good that something like this was going to happen." Leafa pointed out. "You know… if we both manage to make it past the next round, we'll be fighting each other in the semifinals."

"Yeah… you're right." Asuna realized. "Well… if that happens, I guess we'll both just have to give it our best. No holding back, right?"

"Right." Leafa replied. "Well… see ya."

"Yeah." Asuna replied. "See ya."

Shortly returning to the real world, Sugu left her room and went downstairs for a bite to eat. She had ended up skipping lunch earlier before logging in to take part in the tournament. When Sugu arrived in the kitchen, she saw Kazuto waiting in front of the counter.

"Hey…" Kazuto spoke. "I saw most of your fight in the tournament. You okay?"

"I'm fine." Sugu answered. "I'm a little surprised that you were watching me though. I thought you would've been watching Asuna's match."

"I was." Kazuto admitted. "And I was able to catch the end of it too. But when Klein told me whom you were up against, I couldn't help but watch. That was a pretty rough fight, huh?"

"I really didn't want to end it that way." Leafa told him. "What bothers me more is how broken up Lotus was over Donis. I imagine that there are probably a lot of other girls in ALO who took his loss just as hard. After all… I'm one of them."

"You know… we've never really talked about how things ended between you and Donis." Kirito spoke as he leaned against the counter. "I mean… after we took him out, you hardly spoke to me at all. Guess I can't blame you though."

Sugu smiled and shook her head. "Kazuto, I don't blame you for what happened with Donis. And as for my feelings for you… I know that we'll never be anything more than family to each other. That's something I accepted a long time ago. Sure, part of the reason I fell for Donis in the first place was because he looked like you, but it wasn't as like I was pretending that you and I had become a couple. You and Donis were alike in a lot of ways, but he was also very different from you too."

"In what way?" Kazuto asked.

"Well, for one thing he was a lot more charming." Sugu answered.

"Not sure how well to take that." Kazuto spoke, half jokingly. "But you're sure you don't have any problems with me because of him?"

"Trust me. The two of us are fine." Sugu assured him. "Really, the past month I've been mourning the person who I thought Donis was, not my relationship with you. The hard thing has been that NPC or not, Donis was pretending to be someone he wasn't. It's been hard, but I've accepted that Donis was never truly the man I fell in love with."

"Well… okay." Kazuto replied as he moved over and put a hand on Sugu's shoulder. "Just remember that I'm always here if you ever need me. Now, how 'bout I make dinner? I'm sure you're starving after the fight you had."

"Thanks." Sugu replied. "That'd be great."

Author's Note: I apologize for this chapter being a bit on the short side, especially where the battle scenes were concerned. This was actually kind of a hard chapter for me to write, and frankly I haven't been quite at my best with the way this week has been going.

Please review and let me know what you think.