Author's note: Just something to tell you readers- this chapter is going to be the opposite of the first chapter. There is going to be extensive explanations and summarization and will not include as much dialogue as the previous one. The point of this chapter is to set a steady foundation for the following chapters. I promise that the next few chapters will be more character based and action packed.
Chapter 2: Coping with the Madness
Academy City's top officials were stressed out of their minds due to how a good amount of the city's students were trapped within the SAO game. The students of the city represented a significant asset to the esper development curriculum. The loss of an esper; especially a high level esper was very troublesome.
It was also a panic filled nightmare for even the students not affected by SAO. Families called their children at Academy City making sure they were still in the real world. Whenever a child would not pick up their phone, the parents would always assume the worse. As a result, they would afterwards call the officials of Academy City, screaming their heads off. Sometimes the worst was not always realized because in most cases of unanswered calls, the child either had their cell phone turned on silent the entire day or some other reason.
However for some parents, the horror portrayed on the media became a reality to them. Out of the thousands upon thousands of students that wanted to buy SAO, only five hundred copies were available to Academy City. That meant that there were about five hundred students that were under a deep slumber.
On the first day, five students were already dead because their friends or roommates thought it was safe to remove the nerve gear. Those students were lower leveled espers, so the officials were not too "concerned."
Lots of attention was immediately turned towards Academy City since they were leading the world in scientific advancements. Everybody was expecting Academy City to come up with a quick and safe solution to return back those trapped in the nerve gear, but it was simply not as simple as everybody thought.
The most skilled electromasters, telepaths, and a variety of other espers formed in a group to become the solution. Electromasters were supposed to be skilled in hacking, but the best electricity hacker was unfortunately under the grips of SAO. The first task the city took was taking all of the students under the Nerve Gear and placing them in special hospital facilities. Their brain wave patterns would be monitored constantly, which was data that doctors used to analyze. However their brainwaves did not show any abnormal pattern. There was only the sleeping brain wave pattern that could be seen from the data, which was to be expected since the students were in deep slumber.
Next, level 4 telepaths tried to delve into the minds of the victims but that idea went cold. Whenever a telepath would go into the mind of a victim, there was nothing useful; it was as if they were entering a blank mind.
The technology of Academy City was indeed the best, and one of the main reasons was because of the process of trial and error. With any breakthrough, a copious amount of experimenting was necessary. This was like the drug market, in which drugs were tested on animals. If the animal died then the scientist would note that mistake and try to avoid it. Were the officials really going to do trial and error with this situation? If there were any errors, it would immediately result in death. After all, testing done on humans was already a contentious issue.
They would also need to have a supply of victims to be the test subjects. The officials reached out to the parents of the victims, asking for their permission to use their child for testing methods to bring them back to reality.
It took a while before a few parents consented to the City's request. The parents were forced to sign a waiver, stating that they would not sue the city for money if anything went wrong with their child.
The first child that was experimented on was a fifteen year old boy named Eric. Eric was brought from the hospital to a research facility where lots of different scientists and electromasters were present.
After a careful analysis of the data, scientists decided to leave it up to the electromasters to do whatever they could – that's where things went horribly wrong.
A skilled electromaster approached Eric and tried to hack into his nerve gear with the aid of a few other devices. A split second later the boy's brain showed no activity. He was dead.
Next test subject: a thirteen year old girl named Amii. Another electromaster attempted to disable the Nerve Gear safely. The method failed immediately
The next three trials the researchers decided to opt for a more practical method, teleportation. A high leveled teleporter is capable of teleporting themselves and other objects instantly. This seemed like the next logical solution because if the nerve gear was removed instantly in a split second, then the gear would probably not have enough time to fry the victim's brain. That was the scenario that scientists were hoping would work.
However things looked grim again since every attempt to instantly teleport the nerve gear off the victim's head was still met with death. It seemed that the microsecond the nerve gear was removed from somebody; their brain would still become dead. There seemed to be no probable speed in which the helmet could be removed and not affect a victim's brain. Academy City's top ranked teleporters could not crack this case as well.
Unfortunately here is what scientists concluded after ten trials: When an electromaster or any machine attempted to access the nerve gear, the nerve gear would immediately fry the victim's brain. Any attempt to remove the helmet, no matter how quickly or carefully was met with failure. This was a cruel failsafe Kayaba put in his invention. He was doing whatever it took to make sure that no external methods could revive back those taken by SAO.
After hearing about each failed attempt from Academy City, there were no longer any parents that wished to have their child be part of the experiments. The media and tons of reporters flocked to Academy City, attempting to scoop up any interesting story they could.
They did find an interesting fact that besmirched the good name of Academy City. Apparently the officials only asked the parents of level zero victims to have their child become test subjects. No student who was at least a level one was considered to be part of the experiments. This pretty much showed the message that Academy City "only cared about those who had esper potential".
Once that news came to public ears, there was a reaction of outrage from the media, political leaders, and parents. Quite a few level zero students became very angry and demanded that their parents withdraw them from Academy City's school system.
Nobody knows how that information was leaked out. Rumor has it that some researchers were heavily bribed. Usually Academy City had a way of doing underhanded and sneaky things, but with so much attention on them, they could not afford to be caught with more scandal.
However once they found out that some of the students within the facility were dying on their own, that gave the city a loophole for their experiments. In a highly clandestine fashion, the level zero victims could be taken to a secret facility and be tested on. If that victim died, all that needed to be done was to bring that dead person back to their facility and report that they were "discovered to be dead that day."
This method, though looked like a promising solution of obtaining test subjects, also had major flaws. It would seem awfully suspicious if the only students "found dead" were all level zeroes. The city could have tried to cover its tracks by testing on level ones and above, but those were the valuable assets that they wanted to bring back. There were quite a bit of level threes in the group of victims, but they were definitely off limits. The greatest losses of espers within Academy City were the twenty six level fours and one level five.
Tokiwadai had a total of seven students that fell into the deep slumber. There were actually ten girls who had purchased SAO, but only seven of them used it on the first day it came out. Out of those seven girls, there were four level threes (including Asuna), two level fours, and one level five.
They wanted to make sure there was a 100% way of bringing back the victims before trying to bring back the Railgun. Misaka Mikoto was the only level five that was affected, which was a deep tragedy. She was the person that all the officials wanted back the most for obvious reasons. If it were up to them, they would sacrifice all of the level zeroes just for her sake.
Academy City was already under the hot seat, being accused of structuring an unfair hierarchy of priority for students; in which level zeroes received the least priority. They were now trying to amend their mistakes by heavily compensating the families that agreed to let their children be part of the previous experiments. Unfortunately money cannot always solve issues. Reporters were interested on how many of the victims were level zeroes, ones etc… but that information was heavily classified.
The city was desperately hard at work attempting to repair its reputation. Even though it boasted the best research facilities, all trails lead to a dead end. Kayaba had outsmarted them all.
There were some elite squads consisting tracking type espers sent to hunt down Kayaba. That too had no luck.
Officials were especially angry at how one man was outsmarting the manpower of Academy City. If Kayaba was watching the madness ensuing, he probably would have been grinning with pride.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
-Back to the world of SAO-
Misaka Mikoto and Asuna used some of their Col to stay inside an inn at a relatively quiet town. The two girls made sure to leave the starting town in order to avoid the chaos that ensued there. They knew that without a system of government or control, anarchy was sure to happen.
It was about a week later and they were anticipating any news from the outside world. Mikoto had spent most of her time believing that Academy City would surely find a solution to bring them out of this dreadful nightmare. Surely the city would not just stand and watch as their precious espers were taken away from them. Since she was their valued level five, they were probably doing the best they could. If they did lose her, they lost a significant representative for the city.
Mikoto was not giving up hope at all.
If only Mikoto could have her esper powers with her right now… she was betting that she could use her power to hack into the system and free everybody. The young electromaster definitely had no idea about how Academy City's electromasters failed to stop the Nerve Gear. Every hour when she was awake, she would try to create sparks her hand and the result was always the same… her esper powers definitely did not apply in this world.
One troublesome aspect Mikoto noticed was how Asuna often cried and feel utterly helpless. For the first week Asuna was having a very difficult time accepting the grave reality of the situation. Mikoto had this sense of misery seeing her usually cheerful friend look so down trodden. For that week, Asuna would just stay in bed and wrap herself in a blanket.
Mikoto did the best she could to comfort her friend. The electromaster knew that she could not shed tears, she had to be the strong one. As a level five of Academy City, she had to be the one to pull her act together first.
After the week of misery and unmet hopes, the Railgun approached Asuna and had her sword out.
"Let's go and practice our sword skills. If we are going to stay in this world, might as well adapt to it."
Mikoto was hoping that doing some physical tasks that required a lot of thinking would take their minds off their current predicament.
Asuna just nodded and accessed the window menu to bring out her rapier.
The two girls found an open space and began looking through the manual on the list of skills they would need to practice. Mikoto discovered that there were four types of skill properties: thrust, slash, pierce and blunt. The system would assist the players in these movements but it was up to the player to improve on these skills.
They managed to find a practice target, a boar.
Mikoto kept on trying to chase after the boar swinging her sword ridiculously and trying to do several strikes. However her attempts were not met with good results since the boar was able to dodge her attacks.
"From what I learned before, we have to do the right motion input." Asuna formed stance with her sword. "Activate a sword skill…" Her rapier had a bright green glow. "Then let it out!"
The rapier ran towards the boar with her sword and gave a mighty thrust. Since she went so quickly, the afterimages of the green light from the sword could be visible.
"Amazing…" Mikoto stared as the boar was immediately defeated.
"Now you try!"
Mikoto smiled to herself, seeing Asuna's former liveliness becoming restored. Perhaps sword training was the best mechanism to cope with their situation.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
It had been a week since they practiced their sword skills, they were still rusty on it. Mikoto was used to fighting by either throwing her electricity or manipulating it in some unique way or form. Her real world fighting skills gave her an advantage when it came to reacting to dangerous situations in SAO. She also had experience using a sword since she could manipulate iron sand to form the shape of a sword. The main difference between an iron sand sword and her broadsword was that the iron sand felt a lot lighter and that it was capable of changing its shape.
She was able to apply her skills of using an iron sand sword to a regular sword, which made it easier for her to practice and get the hang of things. As a result, she was faster at learning new skills than Asuna. Even though she was faster at learning, Asuna was overall better at executing the skills.
Mikoto and Asuna would help each other out every now and then, teaching each other new tricks or short cuts. It took another week later until the two of them felt confident enough to duel with each other. Their first duel was a timed battle that would last for one minute.
Mikoto and Asuna are neck to neck for the first thirty seconds, dealing equal damage to each other. Mikoto was good on her defense and strong strikes but Asuna dominated with her speed, reaction and retaliation. In the end, it was actually a tie between the two girls.
"Asuna, I never knew you could fight like that." Mikoto nods with approval.
"I've been practicing while you're asleep. Every night I only get about 2 to 3 hours of sleep." Asuna admitted while rubbing the back of her head nervously.
"Such dedication…" Mikoto stared in amazement. "Then again as expected of a senpai, you are supposed to be wiser than me."
"You are definitely amazing too Misaka-san, as expected of Tokiwadai's Ace." Asuna smiled. "If this was a duel back in Academy City I would instantly lose."
"It's because your esper power isn't meant for fighting at all. I am envious of what you can do."
"The grass is always greener on the other side. Your power is way cooler since you use it to fight against thugs."
"Your ability can help more people than I can. Sometimes my classmates are excited to be injured just so they can be healed by you in the nursery. I heard that any types of regenerative esper ability are hard to measure, so you might be stronger than your statistics say."
"I'm not one of the best healers. There are some girls who could fix a person's sprained ankle in less than a minute and that's a task that would take me three minutes minimum."
Bringing up the topic of the real world was something they both avoided for a while, but eventually they were able to become more open about it. Sometimes they would bring up the funny moments they had back at Tokiwadai, most of them including Kuroko's ridiculous shenanigans.
Mikoto could never let go of the guilt of leaving Kuroko back at Academy City. Even though Kuroko was always trying to do something perverted to the young electromaster, Kuroko was a very valued friend and young sister figure. She felt they were definitely like sisters since they had their fair share of bickering and getting on each other's nerves (almost always Kuroko's fault); yet at the same time appreciate each other's company. She couldn't even imagine how much sorrow the teleporter must be feeling, especially discovering Mikoto's sleeping figure that had no hope of being revived.
Mikoto was very glad to be hearing Asuna talking so seriously about SAO instead of mopping around about their terrible reality. If the only way out of here was by clearing all 100 floors, it would probably be a long time until somebody did that. To her, she felt the best way to cope with their situation is by adapting to this world and surviving the best they can. She could see in Asuna's eyes how determined Asuna was to get out of SAO quickly.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Mikoto was naturally observant, so she was able to easily notice the change in her friend's behavior. While Asuna was able to regain her cheerful self, she became more serious at the same time. As every day progressed, Asuna became stronger and faster. Mikoto eventually was falling behind her friend's skills which motivated her to practice more. The Railgun got into the habit of sleeping only 2-3 hours a night as well since she would train alongside with Asuna.
In order to have enough Col for lodge fees and food expenses, the two girls worked together on quests and monster slaying. They agreed to split the amount of Col they got for trading items and to take turns collecting the rare or special objects.
A month later, the two of them became pretty decent sword fighters. Their training scores were able to increase very nicely along with their EXP. Even though constantly repeating the same move over and over again was tedious, it was necessary to increase training scores and the results were always worth the effort.
In one of their duels, a one hit rule; it took about two minutes before Asuna dealt a hit to Mikoto. The long haired girl was only able to hit Mikoto after spending a lot of time trying to find her friend's opening.
"Great job, you're becoming almost as fast as me haha -almost." Asuna pants heavily. "You have such good defense that you're gradually forcing me to have faster sword strikes."
"If you practice some more, you'll probably become the fastest player in SAO." Mikoto slumps to the ground, her back now on the ground. Her eyes were towards the blue skies that had a few puffy clouds.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Mikoto and Asuna were now in the busy town market area, where there were all kinds of NPC shops available for players to purchase items from. It was always bustling at this hour, especially at the restaurants since nobody was really taking the time to develop the cooking skill. The two girls were able to earn enough Col to have sufficient funds for food so they were looking for a place to eat out at. Usually they just bought pieces of bread to eat, but they wanted to do some splurging today.
"There is one strange thing that I've noticed in SAO." Asuna utters.
"What is it?" Mikoto looks at her friend curiously.
"I've hardly seen any girls around here… sometimes I feel like you and me are the only females around."
The Railgun raises her eyes interested.
"That is true. Gaming is more of a guy hobby so I would think that's the reason. Out of all of the players here, there's probably only been one or two occasions when I saw another girl around."
"I guess it's an interesting change in atmosphere. Coming from Tokiwadai, you and I are accustomed to a setting full of females... especially at the School Garden."
"Don't tell me you're going to become boy crazy now." Mikoto chuckles.
"No-no way! I don't casually like just any guy. I have high standards!" Asuna defends herself.
"With your looks, you'll have an easy time stealing the hearts of men."
Your chest size also helps too - Was something else Mikoto wanted to say, but decided it was best to be unsaid.
"You've never brought up the topic of boys before…" Asuna has a wide grin as if she had something big on her mind. "Do you have interesting guy in your life so far? I bet Tokiwadai's Ace should have no problem with the boys back at Academy City."
"Because of my status people are sometimes afraid of me, and to answer your question: no I have not met any guy who has caught my interest." Suddenly an image of a certain spikey haired boy popped into her mind. Mikoto gave a small yelp when she thought about him and her cheeks turned a faint pink shade.
Asuna notices the sudden change in composure from the electromaster and grins even wider.
"So you do have somebody special? Is there a secret love interest back at Academy City?"
"I-It's not like that at all!" Mikoto awkwardly smiled. A sweat drop escaped from her forehead.
"Don't lie to your senpai. So tell me about him."
"There is no him, no guy at all!" If this was back in Academy City, electrical sparks would be appearing around the electromaster.
"Fine fine, I'll find out the truth one way or another." Asuna winks.
The two girls found a small café and sat outdoors. They ordered relatively cheap items such as tea and sandwiches.
Asuna was sipping her tea and suddenly her ears pick up some interesting talk at the nearby café tables.
"Oh my goodness, there's girls here! It's been so long since I've seen such cute ones."
"If I had to choose one, I would go for the long haired beauty."
"What about the short haired girl?"
"She's cute, but no as beautiful as her friend."
"We should invite them to party with us."
Asuna smirks amused.
"You don't seem annoyed how those idiots are talking to us like that?" Mikoto looked irritated. "They're talking as if we're pieces of meat."
"Believe it or not, I had this type of attention back at my old middle school. Every time I would walk down the hallway or be spotted outside of school, the guys around me would whisper things about me."
The Railgun raised her eyes in interested hearing about this. She did not know too much about Asuna's past since she felt it would be too personal of a topic to bring up.
"At one point it did get annoying when I realized that any guy who wanted to become friends with me always had ulterior motives." Asuna sighed. "The girls didn't like me since I was always attracting so much attention from the boys and teachers. It was a bit of a difficult time of my life… I was very lucky to be able to transfer into Tokiwadai, especially since the exams for transferring students are harder than the ones for incoming first years."
Mikoto was shocked to hear how Asuna truly felt lonely back at her old school. She assumed that Asuna was a popular person back at her old school and the main reason for her transfer was to develop her esper power.
"Thank goodness SAO has a very strict punishment for those who try to harass other members. I'll be sure to look out for you as well." Mikoto gave Asuna an assured smile.
"I'm supposed to be the one looking after my kouhai, not the other way around."
Mikoto looks around and sees that there really was a majority of males around. Some of the males passing by took a split second or so to stare at the two girls sitting at the café.
After they were done, Mikoto and Asuna decided to head to the town square to discuss with other players how they were going to take down the first floor boss. They both bought some hooded capes to put on themselves. Mikoto was not sure why Asuna suggested they buy the hoods but she hypothesized a reason – because if the two of them chickened out from the boss raid mission, nobody would be able to recall their faces.
At the meeting Mikoto and Asuna were definitely the only females present.
"Thank you for coming here everybody!" A voice boomed out. The one speaking was a blue haired male who was wearing bronze armor, carried a long sword on his waist and a shield on his back.
"I am Diabel and I consider my profession to be Knight!"
A few chuckles came from the audience. Mikoto knew there was no job class that existed in SAO.
Diabel was able to captivate everybody with his enthusiasm. It seemed he was either experienced with public speaking or was just a natural.
"We have to show everybody that this death game can be cleared! Just recently my party and I found the boss room and the boss's name is llfang the Kobold Lord."
This comment with met with cheers and claps. Diabel certainly knew how to motivate others with his words. While the blue haired knight was speaking, he was interrupted by a cactus headed male named Kibaou.
Kibaou immediately began his introduction by complaining how Beta testers should give up their items because they are lowly cheaters. Some voices in the crowd were agreeing with Kibaou's words but Mikoto felt disgusted by the cactus head's accusations.
She clenched her fists tightly.
It's not like they those Beta testers have to take care of us. Even if they know all of the shortcuts do not make them at all responsible for anybody's death.
Fortunately an axe user name Agil was able to stop Kibaou ranting and let Diabel speak again. Diabel took out the player's guide and began discussing the characteristics of the boss such as how 12 sentinels appear when one of the boss' four HP bars is depleted.
Hearing about how that information came from beta testers, Mikoto felt that she could hold no grudge against them.
"Now start forming parties everybody. A party can be up to six members." The blue haired knight announces.
Mikoto looked at the crowd and mentally counted how many people there were. It looked like there would be one party with only three members which most likely was going to include her and Asuna. A dark haired boy scooted over towards Mikoto and Asuna.
"So you two got left out too?" Was the first thing he said to the pair of girls.
"It's just that everybody else knows each other…" Asuna replies. However the long haired girl said that without the usual warmth in her voice- which Mikoto found odd.
"How about the three of us form a party?"
The boy sent the party invitation to the two girls and they accepted. After Mikoto pressed 'OK' she could see two small HP bars appear on the side of her visual screen. Under each HP bar was a name. There was ASUNA and the second one belonged to the boy named KIRITO.
Diabel assigned the other six member parties their task and finally got to the three member party. Mikoto's party was only to make sure that none of the sentinels remained, in other words – they were told that they were not needed to take part in the boss fight.
Mikoto felt a bit irritated at what their blue haired leader told them but she decided to accept what was assigned. If Diabel knew of Asuna's true strength he would have definitely reconsidered their assigned task.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"Switch!" Kirito shouted out.
Asuna complied with his request and jumped back, letting Kirito rush forward and take down the sentinel. Mikoto was occupied with fighting against another sentinel monster. She uses her broadsword to block against the monster's attack and pushes against it, making the monster falter back.
Mikoto jumps backwards and Asuna charges forward, replacing Mikoto's position. The concept of switch was explained by Kirito earlier. The two girls were clearly clueless about MMO games but Kirito was patient with them. This was the first time she and Asuna interacted with a guy within SAO and thankfully he was a helpful one.
While the black haired boy was fighting against his opponent, Mikoto watched in awe at his abilities. His strikes, blocks, and reaction speed were really impressive. His skills suggested that he has been devoted to fighting against the monsters on the frontlines.
"Switch!" The boy calls out to Mikoto.
Mikoto is able to take advantage of how Kirito was able to throw off the sentinel's balance and finds an opening. She activates the slant sword skill and her sword begins to glow a bright blue. The system was now guiding her maneuver, allowing her to defeat her target easily. The point of switching was to confuse the enemy about its opponents' timing.
Meanwhile Diabel was able to give orders to the rest of the parties, telling them when exactly they should switch or block. He was definitely prepared and his orders were effective. Mikoto was wondering how the blue haired knight was able to know so much about the Kobold Lord's attack algorithm and timing. Was he that perceptive on the boss's abilities?
Eventually all of the sentinels were wiped out thanks to Mikoto, Asuna and Kirito and about the same time, the boss's HP bar went to the red zone.
Mikoto remembered how Diabel mentioned when the HP of the Kobold Lord goes to the red zone, the boss relinquishes its large axe and takes out a talwar. She was not familiar with weapons so she no idea what a talwar really looks like.
The plan now was to take down the boss as a team but suddenly she hears Diabel telling everybody to stay put as he rushes towards the boss. The Kobold Lord was a huge and hulking monster. Its red eyes looked like it could send chills down everybody's back and its menacing sharp teeth were even more frightening.
Mikoto couldn't help but wonder – why was Diabel deviating from their original plan?
She takes a quick glance around the boss room and her attention is immediately caught by Kirito's look of pure horror. It was as if he saw a ghost.
Why was the calm Kirito now so agitated? Mikoto was starting to feel worried as well.
"Jump back as far as you can!" The black haired boy shouts out, but it was clear Diabel did not hear what was shouted.
Just as Diabel was about to perform a sword skill, the Kobold Lord jumps up, bouncing off the pillars in the room and rockets towards Diabel with a strike of its sharp weapon. Diabel flies out of the way like a rag doll after boss hits him again.
Mikoto gasped at the horrible scene that she just witnessed. She felt her body shaking uncontrollably. After all of the extensive planning done, why was the leader suddenly taken down? Mikoto gripped harder onto her sword and tried to calm her nerves down. This was not the first time she was in the face of danger, but at least back at reality she had the ability of a powerful level five. The current situation was much different because she lacked her electromaster ability and she never had to face against a fearsome monster.
I have to continue onwards. Even if I don't have my Railgun anymore that doesn't mean I am completely helpless. It's not my power that makes me strong, it's my confidence and will. My power in this world comes from my sword. My sword is my only way of ever getting out of this world and protecting those I care about.
When Mikoto was able to gather her strength again, she notices Kirito and Asuna charging forth towards the Kobold Lord. The short haired girl stood watching the two of them working together like a well-oiled machine. The timings for their switches were effective in damaging the boss' HP.
Asuna's hooded cape got ripped when she was able to barely dodge the boss's attack. Mikoto was thankful that Kirito was able to warn Asuna just in time.
The Railgun looks around the room and some tell how some of the males were entranced by her beauty.
The timings for their switches were effective in damaging the boss' HP.
However the boss had the upper hand when it was able to knock back Kirito and Asuna. Mikoto was about to jump in to counter the boss's strike upon her two party members but Agil beat her to it.
Mikoto along with the other parties surrounded the boss, attempting to hack at it. However the boss was able to overwhelm everybody's attacks.
At the right timing, Kirito intervenes in. His sword shines a bright color and he continues his fight with the fearsome monster. His fast paced sword strikes were incredibly effective. Soon the boss is thrown to the ground and Kirito calls for Asuna to help him finish off the monster. The duo continues with their magnificent teamwork as shown earlier. Kirito's war cry clearly resounds while he deals the final strike against the gigantic boss. The boss's body breaks into a thousand polygons, which meant the fight was over.
All of the party members begin cheering out loud as soon as the CONGRATULATIONS was displayed. Agil, Asuna and Mikoto approached the panting Kirito to congratulate him.
"You were amazing." Mikoto smiles. "Thank you so much for your hard work."
"Er yeah no problem…" Kirito nods.
However the happy atmosphere was over when Kibaou began accusing Kirito of knowing all of the boss techniques. That meant one thing: Kirito was a beta tester. Soon enough the 'hang the beta testers' attitude came back in the group.
Everybody began staring at each other suspiciously, wondering if there were any other hidden beta testers among them.
A cackle broke out from an individual. Everybody turned their attention towards that individual, discovering that it was Kirito. Kirito's demeanor had completely transformed. He had a dark aura around him and spoke in an ominous fashion.
"That's right, I'm a beater." Kirito said a frightening manner that made everybody clear out of his way.
Mikoto was shocked. How could somebody as helpful as Kirito be a cheating beta tester? She was not resentful towards his beta experience.
She was wondering why he would declare himself a beater so proudly in front of everybody.
The entire room became eerily silent while Kirito approached the large doorways to the second floor. Asuna ran after the boy and stopped him and a minute later Kirito departed everybody.
Mikoto goes over to Asuna's side.
"I really don't think he's a bad guy at all…" The long haired girl said softly, staring at the doorway that was just opened
"Exactly what I was thinking." Mikoto stares in the same direction Asuna was. The Railgun wondered if they wound run into that black coated swordsman in the near future.
Author's note: I hope the first part of the story wasn't a complete snore fest since it was just full of explanations. Thank you very much for the reviews, especially those that gave constructive criticism, I am doing my best to address your concerns. To those who still believe that Academy City can easily find a way to revive the Nerve Gear victims – what fun would it be if there was such an easy solution? Remember in fanfiction, anything can happen.
You probably noticed that this chapter was in Mikoto's perspective compared to how the first chapter was in Asuna's POV. I thought it seemed like an interesting idea just to switch up the perspectives every now and then. The author of the SAO light novels does that pretty often.
Future chapters won't be entirely correlating with the anime. Since this is a crossover story, I'll be putting some creative adventures in between such as describing what occurs in the floors not elaborated in the anime.