Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online, nor do I own the works of H.P. Lovecraft.
Chapter 14: Battle of Seduction
The five-minute break in the Clash of Queens tournament quickly came and went, and the surviving players in Bracket B were quickly teleported away to the venues of their respective battles. The beam from Sinon's teleport pad had set her down in the dead underground city of K'n-yan. Sinon was quite pleased that the city had been selected as her battlefield, for she knew the dungeon like the back of her hand from her time in the Order of Yig and thus knew the best places to launch her arrows from. Despite having a sort of home field advantage though, Sinon found that she was very nervous about the battle that was to come due to whom she was up against. Though the archer denied the claims that Nytokris and Nakuru were one and the same, there was a part of Sinon that wondered if perhaps the accusations were true. After all, the voices of Nakuru and Nytokris were practically identical to one another. Sinon hoped very much though that the accusations of Asuna and the others were untrue, because she wasn't sure if she could take the idea of Nakuru being the monster that everyone said Nytokris was.
A few moments later, another beam of blue light came down and struck the ground a few feet from where Sinon was standing. The beam of light quickly faded to reveal Sinon's silver-haired opponent.
Nytokris looked across the field towards the fairy archer and chucked. "Hello, dear Sinon. It really is delightful to see you again."
"Are we supposed to know each other?" Sinon asked.
"Oh come now, my pet. Surly you can figure out who I am." Nytokris replied with a playful smirk. "I'm well aware of how different I look, but trust me. You and I have been very close."
Sinon was very unsettled by how Nytokris insisted that they knew each other. The implication made it seem even more like Nytokris might actually be Nakuru. Yet Sinon just couldn't believe it. For one thing, she had never told Nakuru about her virtual life in ALO. Sinon hadn't even told Nakuru about her time in GGO. The fairy archer was so distracted that she hardly noticed that the timer for the fight had appeared. When the timer beeped to signal the start of the battle, Sinon snapped back to reality and prepared to move.
Before the blunette could raise her hood though, Nytokris dashed over with incredible speed, took hold of the archer's face, and planted a very firm and passionate kiss on Sinon's lips. Sinon was left so totally stunned that she didn't try to push Nytokris away.
After a few moments, Nytokris pulled away and licked her lips. "Delicious. It's a real shame that I'm going to have to do away with you now."
As soon as Nytokris began to reach for her sword, Sinon came back to reality and jumped back before her opponent could slash her in the stomach. Once a safe distance away, Sinon pulled up the hood of her enchanted coat and became totally invisible. The fairy archer dashed past Nytokris and went into a small stone hut with a peculiar hexagonal shape. The inside of the hut contained only a few pieces of ancient furniture. Safe inside her hiding place, a very flustered Sinon tried very hard to compose herself but was having an almost impossible time doing so. She couldn't believe that Nytokris… that perhaps Nakuru… had kissed her like that. What really threw Sinon for a loop though was that she found she had actually enjoyed the kiss very much.
Outside, Nytokris remained standing where she was and chuckled. "Planning to attack me from the shadows, eh? Go ahead and try. Don't be surprised though if I'm much harder to take down than your usual prey."
Sinon couldn't help but noticed just how much Nytokris's voice sounded like Nakuru's. The sound of the imp woman's voice was throwing off the fairy archer's voice even more. Sinon at last managed to focus though and switched on her ability to see portals at different angles in space. The reason that Sinon had chosen that particular stone hut wasn't simply because it was a convenient hiding spot, it was because the different corners of the hut gave her multiple portals from which to fire her arrows though. In moments, Sinon could see multiple small holes in space that showed Nytokris from different angles and distances, almost as if she were watching her opponent through multiple cameras.
Taking a deep breath, Sinon fired an arrow up through a portal at a corner on her left where the roof of the hut met the walls. Seconds later, that same arrow sailed through the air up from a spot where the foundation of another hut across the street met the ground and went towards the back of Nytokris's head. At the last second though, Nytokris turned around and knocked the arrow away with her sword. Though startled that the imp woman was able to block the attack, Sinon quickly fired another arrow, this time at a spot where the wall on her right met the ground. The second arrow seemed to come out the window of a neighboring hut and came at Nytokris from her left, but the silver-haired swordswoman quickly turned and blocked the arrow with her sword just as she had done before.
Sinon began to fire her arrows in a quick succession through several different portals, but somehow Nytokris was able to spin around just in time to block each arrow with her sword. It wasn't simply that Nytokris was just too fast. Sinon soon realized that somehow the imp woman was able to predict just where each of her arrows was coming from. Despite this, Sinon continued to fire off more arrows, trying to be as random as possible with the portals she picked to try and throw her opponent off. Despite the archer's efforts though, Nytokris was still able to block every single one of her arrows. Eventually Sinon's quiver began to run low. With one of the five arrows she had left, the archer fired her attack from a corner where two of the walls met behind her on her left.
The arrow came out from the window of a hut directly behind Nytokris, but at the last second Nytokris turned around and caught the projectile with her left hand. Smirking, Nytokris snapped the arrow in half.
"It's been fun, dearest, but I'm sure that you've almost run out of arrows by now." Nytokris remarked. "What's say we go ahead and end this?"
Sinon quickly readied another arrow and decided to fire it through the doorway of the hut. She had a straight shot at Nytokris from where she was standing. Before Sinon could open fire though, Nytokris swiftly put away her sword and threw a dagger through the doorway of the hut. The knife struck Sinon in the stomach and caused her HP gauge to take a slight drop. The loss of HP was nothing though, because soon after being hit Sinon found that her body was totally frozen. On her heads-up display, Sinon saw the icon for paralysis appear next to her HP gauge.
"I knew where you were hiding the whole time, my pet." Nytokris spoke as she approached the doorway to the hut. "You were in such a hurry to make it into this little shack that you failed to conceal your footsteps. Invisibility only prevents your opponents from seeing you, not hearing you."
After entering the hut, Nytokris felt around and eventually found the edge of Sinon's hood. Once the silver-haired imp pulled the hood down, Sinon became completely visible.
"If you're wondering why you're paralyzed, the dagger I struck you with was treated with a rare toxin called Gorgon's Tears." Nytokris continued. "It leaves the victim's body frozen like a statue for at least ten minutes. In other words, you're totally at my mercy. But I'm not going to finish you off just yet. First I want to have a little fun."
With that, Nytokris around the frozen archer and got behind her. A second later, Sinon felt Nytokris's right hand touch her thigh and grab onto her rear. At the same time, the archer could feel Nytorkis's hot breath on the back of her neck. The imp woman then began to kiss and suck on a very sensitive spot on Sinon's neck, causing a moan of pleasure to escape her throat. Sinon couldn't help but think about all the times Nakuru had helped to adjust her form in archery class. What was happening to Sinon at that moment was almost the same, only more passionate. In that moment, Sinon found herself hoping that Nakuru really was Nytokris.
Just as it seemed like Nytokris was about to grope Sinon's chest, the silver-haired imp pulled away and sighed. "Well, I suppose I should finish you off now. We are in the middle of a tournament battle after all."
Nytorkis drew her sword again and began to strike Sinon multiple times in the back. In just over a minute, Sinon's HP dropped to zero and her body was reduced to a ball of flames. From Sinon's perspective, everything had gone grey and a small timer had appeared before her eyes.
Nytokris moved around so that Sinon could look at her. "I really enjoyed this little encounter of our, my pet. If you want to have even more fun, come and find me."
With that, Nytokris walked out of the stone hut as the timer in front of Sinon's eyes ticked away. Once the timer hit zero, Sinon was pulled away through a tunnel of light.
After passing through the tunnel of light, Shino's eyes snapped open to find the ceiling of her darkened bedroom. The dark-haired girl slipped off the amusphere she was wearing and slowly sat up on her bed, feeling totally confused about everything that had just happened to her. Shino not only still had no idea about whether or not Nakuru and Nytokris were the same person, it also seemed like she was attracted to Nakuru sexually; perhaps even had romantic feelings for her. Of course the very idea of that left Shino with a still even larger question. Was she attracted to other girls?
There was no doubt in Shino's mind that she was attracted to boys. She had at one time had a large crush on Kirito that began after their shared experience in GGO, and Shino could not deny that the sexual relationship she once had with Donis had been amazing. Yet as she thought back to other moments of her life, particularly when she had first met Kirito, Shino had to admit that she had found Kirito's very feminine avatar in GGO to be pretty attractive. There had also been a few other times earlier in her past when Shino had found certain other girls to be especially cute. Plus Shino couldn't deny that the kiss Nytokris had planted on her right when their battle had started felt simply amazing.
Shino pondered these feelings for several more moments before flopping back onto the bed to look at the ceiling. As she stared up at the ceiling, Shino began to turn the events of her battle with Nytokris over and over in her mind, particularly about the kiss and about what Nytokris did to her towards the end. Shino played those moments over and over again in her mind, and as she did so her hand drifted down and slipped under her black shorts and into her panties. As Shino slowly began to probe herself, the image of Nytokris kissing her in the stone hut was replaced by an image of Nakuru trying to correct her form in archery club. Shino started to imagine that it was Nakuru's hand probing her womanhood instead of her own, and within minutes she was hit by a fairly strong orgasm.
After coming down from her high, Shino removed her hand and sighed heavily, draping her left arm over her eyes. It did seem like she truly had an attraction to Nakuru, though there was still a strong part of her that was uncertain about these feelings. Suddenly the smart phone lying on Shino's nightstand began to ring. Sinon groaned and picked the phone up to see just who was calling. Upon seeing Nakuru's name displayed on the Caller I.D., Shino gasped and sat straight up on the bed.
Shino took a deep breath and hit the button to answer the call before putting the phone to her ear. "Hi Nakuru! What's up?"
"You okay Shino?" Nakuru's voice asked over the line. "You sound a little off."
"It's, um… it's nothing. You just kinda caught me in the middle of something." Shino answered. "It's no big deal though."
"Oh. Well, I just wanted to make sure that we were still on for dinner here in a few hours." Nakuru responded.
"Oh… right!" Shino recalled. "I almost forgot. Um, we're eating at the usual place, right?"
"Yep. Nothing fancy." Nakuru confirmed. "I'll see you there in three, okay?"
"Yeah. I'll be there." Shinon answered. "Later."
With that, Shino hung up the phone and let out a deep sigh. She had totally forgotten about her dinner plans with Nakuru earlier, and now after having this revelation about Nakuru she found that she was very nervous about the evening. Shino felt certain that it was going to be a very awkward dinner, to say the least. In fact, Shino felt like she might end up doing something that could totally screw up her friendship with Nakuru. As the dark-haired girl tried to figure out what to do though, Shino recalled how one of the other students in archery club had once told her how she thought Nakuru was hot for her with the way she would help Shino adjust her form during practice.
Shino really began to wonder if perhaps Nakuru was also attracted to her physically. After all, there were a few times when it seemed like Nakuru would use those little "adjustments" during practice to try and cop a feel. Plus is Nakuru really was Nytokris… of course there was no way at the moment for Shino to tell if those two really were the same person. She had to admit that it was totally possible to Nakuru to have logged out of ALO right after their battle to give her that call, considering how the tournament was set up. Yet there was still no definitive way for Shino to tell just who Nytokris was in real life, even though Nytokris had implied that they both knew each other very well.
After a few moments, Shino pushed the question about Nakuru's possible online alter ego from her mind and worked on the more urgent matter of getting ready for her dinner date. Shino turned on the lights in her room and spend the next few hours before the dinner going through every piece of clothing in her closet to try and find the perfect outfit. Eventually she settled on a long-sleeved navy blue shirt with a short tan skirt that really showed off her legs. Satisfied with her appearance, Shino finally headed out the door to meet with Nakuru. As she walked out the door, Shino found that she felt more nervous than she had ever felt before in her life.
Shino's dinner with Nakuru had been very casual, but the whole time Shino felt quite nervous. She also couldn't help but take in everything about Nakuru's appearance during the whole dinner. Nakuru had such shiny luxurious brown hair, and Shino couldn't help but get lost in Nakuru's deep grey eyes. Plus, because of the light-green V-neck shirt that Nakuru was wearing under the black leather jacket she had on, Shino found herself looking at the other girl's cleavage more than a couple of times. In short, Shino found Nakuru to be one of the most beautiful women she had ever laid eyes on.
Of course Shino's attraction to Nakuru simply wasn't physical. Nakuru was kind, smart, and almost always seemed to have an answer to whatever problem Shino was facing. Shino wasn't sure if she was head over heels in love with Nakuru, but she couldn't deny that she clearly saw Nakuru as more than just another friend. The new issue though was that now that Shino's true feelings for Nakuru had come to the surface, she found she was afraid that Nakuru wouldn't feel the same way that she did. During the whole dinner, Shino found herself suddenly wishing that Nakuru and Nytokris really were, because that would at least mean that Nakuru did have the same feelings for her.
Eventually dinner came to an end, and Shino headed out to the street corner with Nakuru. As they reached the intersection, Nakuru began to talk about something else but Shino wasn't listening. She was once again too busy just drinking in the way Nakuru looked and spoke that she didn't hear what Nakuru was actually saying.
"Shino!" Nakuru spoke once they reached the street corner, snapping the dark-haired girl to reality. "Are you even listening to me?"
"Uh, sorry." Shino responded. "I've… I've got a lot on my mind, I guess."
Nakuru let out a heavy sigh. "Dammit Shino. You haven't been listening to a single thing I've been saying all night! What's wrong with you, anyway?"
"Well, I…" Shino began.
"You know what? Forget it!" Nakuru interrupted. "I had something pretty important to tell you tonight, but I can see that you're not at all interested. Let's just call it…"
Before Nakuru could finish, Shino grabbed her by the arm, and then moved in and kissed her hard on the lips. When Shino finally broke away, Nakuru just stood there with a stunned expression. Shino quickly realized that she had probably just made a huge mistake.
"I…I'm sorry!" Shino told her as she face turned bright red. "I don't know what got into me! I just… I just didn't want you to leave, so…"
Before Shino could finish, Nakuru suddenly pulled her close and returned her earlier kiss. The kiss soon deepened, and their tongues had started to grind against one another as Nakuru pushed Shino against the wall of the building they had been standing by. When they broke for air, Nakuru began to attack Shino's neck with her lips, quickly finding a very sensitive area that caused Shino to moan with pleasure.
"N… Na… Nakuru!" Shino managed to call out.
Upon hearing her name, Nakuru came back to her senses and pulled away. "Uh… wow! Sorry about that. I guess when you kissed me before, the dam just kinda burst."
Shino blinked in surprised. "What… what do you mean?"
"This is what I wanted to talk with you about, Shino." Nakuru began as she took a deep breath. "I've had a crush on you ever since I first laid eyes on you. Everything about you is just so cute. And as we've been spending more and more time together, my feelings for you have just been getting stronger. I've tried holding myself back, but it's just been getting harder and harder for me. I decided that I had to tell you how I felt, even though it might ruin this friendship we have."
"So… you really are attracted to me?" Shino asked.
"Yeah, a lot." Nakuru confirmed. "And I'm sorry if I got a little too 'hands-on' with you during club practice."
"Uh, it's fine. Don't worry about it." Shino told her. "Obviously I feel the same way. So, um… have you ever been involved with any other girls before?"
"I was in a couple of other relationships with girls at my old school, but they both fizzled out." Nakuru answered. "But you, Shino… to be honest, I'm pretty surprised. I mean you had an ex-boyfriend, so I figured that you wouldn't be at all interested in me in… that way. In fact I can't really believe things are really turning out like this."
"Well… there is one way for both of us to be sure how we both feel for each other." Shino began. "Wanna come over to my apartment? I live alone, you know."
"Oh… wow!" Nakuru exclaimed. "Are… are you being serious right now?"
"Totally." Shino answered.
"Okay, but… are you sure you want to take things this far?" Nakuru asked. "I mean we don't have to move so fast, you know."
"I know, but there are some things I need to be sure about." Shino told Nakuru as she took her hand. "So come on. Let's see how we really feel about each other."
Author's Note: I will admit that I felt a little bit out of my comfort zone a few times while writing this chapter. I'd like to take this moment to apologize if this chapter was not my best work. Otherwise, I hope everyone reading enjoyed it.
Please review and let me know what you think.