Level 100: Trost. Survey Corps Camp, Meeting Room.
A silence drifted through the room, the revelations of this meeting echoing through the minds of the clearing group members, though the reverberations of the decisions made would be felt far beyond their virtual heads.
"What do you think will be down there?!" Hange asked, getting a little ahead of herself in the excitement of possibly – finally – finding out. Kirito looked up, already having considered this in the back of his mind while the conversation had continued.
"I kinda don't want to get my hopes up, but I think-" He began, before being joined – in a far more thrilled tone – by Hange, whose enthusiasm got the better of her, "It could be the dungeon that allows us to complete SAO!"
Hange realised that she'd joined in, feeling a little embarrassed at her outburst. Levi looked across at the brat Kirito with a glare, making him shift in his seat, despite not knowing what he'd done wrong. However, the rest of those gathered at the table felt that their estimation sounded logical, and the fact they'd both separately thought of it convinced the group further. Each cautious to not hold their breath, but undeniably the morale of each and every individual was raised a little by this moment.
"You said you'd been expecting us, right?" Kimiko asked, thinking back to when they first met the four Squad Leaders; Erwin simply nodded, inviting Kimiko to continue. "How did you know we were coming?" Erwin smiled.
"I thought you might be wondering about that." He began, addressing her with a sense of nostalgia creeping into his tone. "That was another thing we found out from Eren, although that came a little later on; when he went up to room in the tower that you came from, he heard a loud voice, calling to him that reinforcements were on their way to support the Survey Corps. We knew nothing more than that – who, when, and so on – but we had hope."
"I assume that Akihiko Kayaba has been watching us closely then, we would've been on the penultimate floor at the time, probably nearly approaching the dungeon." Kimiko responded, assuming that Akihiko Kayaba had sent the message to the young boy, and was referring to the clearing group's advances.
"So..." Erwin affirmed, wanting to get back to the most important matter at hand, "Do you wish to form an Alliance between our Guilds?"
Level 100: Trost. Survey Corps Camp, Yard. (The Following Day)
Erwin stood at the front of the gathered players. To his sides stood his most trusted comrades, Levi, Hange and Mike; directly in front of them stood the remaining members of the Survey Corps, along with the trainees that had arrived just a few months ago. Behind them, the newest arrivals, who were still yet to be exposed to the true horrors of this land, despite experiencing other such terrors on previous Levels.
"Today is a day we have long awaited." Erwin bellowed to the crowd, able to project his voice impressively. "Today, we travel outside the Wall, no longer caged in like animals: but free! We will fight back, we will find our escape from this god-forsaken game, and we will return to our friends and family! We have lost many along the way," He tried to block out the barrage of deaths he'd witnessed in this land, "but in their names we will succeed!"
Levi glared scornfully at his leader's speech, feeling it inappropriate of him to skirt around the fact that they were walking towards near-certain death. 'We've had these kinds of numbers before...' he thought, 'and we've always been pegged back.' However, an over-enthusiastic voice snapped him out of his latest wave of intense pessimism.
"Penny for your thoughts?" Hange asked jokingly, the crowd having been dismissed to prepare themselves – physically and emotionally – and round up the horses ready to depart. Her eyes, as ever, shone from behind her glasses, sparkling in the morning sun. Levi looked to the Wall, obstructing much of the sky from view, and heaved a deep, long sigh.
"Just wondering how long we'll last before Eyebrows calls a retreat again." Levi lamented, remembering the names and faces of all those that they had lost over the last three years. Hange smirked as she always did when Levi referred to their leader as Eyebrows.
"I have a good feeling about this." Mike's tone was monotonous and disinterested; the other two hadn't even realised his presence until he spoke, and no sooner had he finished speaking, he was gone once more. However, while the clearing group leaders were wary of Mike – and Levi – due to their lack of forthcoming-ness and warmth, the Survey Corps members understood each other's minds like family.
Everyone had their reasons. Everyone had their secrets.
"I'll keep an eye on you out there," Hange called to Levi, who couldn't quite tell if she was joking or not, due to her ever-over-enthusiastic tone "I won't let you get hurt!"
"Good luck with that. You are the one who has glasses." And with that, Levi strode off to prepare his horse.
Level 100: Trost. Survey Corps Camp, Stable 3.
Sasha stroked the soft fur on the head of her chesnut horse, who she'd named Romeo after her real-life German Shepherd. She found stroking the virtual animal to be quite soothing, although she could still feel a nervous fit slowly building in the pit of her stomach; not only for her own wellbeing, but for the wellbeing – physically and mentally – of the new arrivals. One in particular, of course, had caught her eye.
She began to stroll around the side of the horse in order to get Romeo's saddle, but caught the edge of her foot on an uneven brick on the floor; she didn't have a hope at balancing, though in her furious attempts she did manage to hover for a few seconds, before plummeting face-first towards the slabbed floor: she shut her eyes and squealed.
But she did not land.
She opened her eyes, scrunching her nose in surprise, her face a metre or so away from the floor. She could feel a pair of strained arms tightly holding her waist, and looked up to see that those arms were, in fact, those that belonged to Klein. She let out a small gasp, her virtual body suddenly feeling an abnormal heat and numbness as she began to blush.
"Strong as I may be," Klein murmured in a strained voice, smiling over his gritted teeth at his own humour, "it'd be handy... if you stood up a little." With that, Sasha suddenly remembered the situation she'd temporarily left behind for a hazy whirlwind of emotion, straightening herself up; however, while he eased his grip a little – thanks to her now being able to support her own body – Klein wasn't so quick to release her from his embrace. Until she looked up at him.
Her big, beige eyes gazed into his own, instantly tearing away any confidence he felt, giving him butterflies in his virtual stomach and causing him to feel a little hot under the collar; he began to blush and instantly released his grip on Sasha's hips; she noticed, and threw herself into a tight hug, her head comfortably resting on his chest beneath his ever-more blushing head; his cheeks were now a similar colour to his headband. Both were greatly happy at this, desperate for this moment to continue on, despite the inescapable fact they were on a ticking timer that was getting ever-lower by the second.
"Thank you very much Klein." Sasha whispered, her voice muffled slightly by her close embrace with the taller player. She began to notice, as the embrace continued, that the contours of his body were well matched to those of her own, offering warmth and comfort from the horrors of the world the currently resided in. Both of their blushes began to fade as they realised that they could soon get very used to this, had the situation been different. Their blushes soon returned as they heard footsteps approaching into the stable; the two quickly shuffled apart, both feeling a sudden emptiness and coldness at losing each others' touch. Squad Leader Hange entered the stable, joining them as the only people in the vicinity.
"Hange!" Both called out, startled to the extent of resembling rabbits stuck in proverbial headlights. Hange simply giggled at the two, understanding by the scuffle of feet and bemused, blushing faces staring at her sheepishly what had been going on.
"As you were... unless you'd feel too shy!" She exclaimed jokingly, causing both players' blushes to intensify several times over. She smiled warmly at them, showing genuine happiness for the growing fondness they'd been experiencing since Klein's arrival. Hange had always liked Sasha and wanted the best for her; she was a kind girl, but Hange had noticed she was not the quickest to make friends over the past few months. She only wished that she could also experience such affection in this cruel world.
Sorry if this was too shippy for you, I feel like Sasha & Klein would be a really nice pairing and would be a cute couple; if you don't like it, don't worry! It's not gonna be all over every chapter, but it's something I wanted to experiment with writing and have really enjoyed so far. Hopefully now we've finished all the introductions and meetings we can FINALLY get to the action, which - if you've been waiting for - well, so have I! Next chapter is gonna be fun but probably won't be as quick as this because it's gonna be action-y and that inevitably takes a little while to write!
Fish on stick: Not at all buddy! As I said, I'm always happy to receive feedback, I just wanted to let you know where I was coming from! To be honest, having Shadis train them would make sense and it's a good shout, I just chose to focus on the three (hence I'm not writing much about Mike either, he's neither here nor there for me) in terms of the flashbacks, which we'll get to some more in the future. Thanks for reading and reviewing as always, I hope you enjoy :)