Walking down the bricked road streets of Town of Beginnings, holding bags of a few items. Like food, cloths items, and potions, it felt like hours had gone by, but in truth, she had only walked for about one hour. Until she reached the Plaza and she didn't really notice the others players around her while remembering the first day of this death game and it's now been a week since then.
She sighed before looking up at the game sky, her face looked sad beyond a few words while saying quietly to herself "Mom...Dad...Don't worry we'll be back, promise...". She continued on her way back to the Inn that her, her brother and cousin were staying at. She bumped into someone and without any thought, she said "I'm sorry" and continued on her way. Once at the Inn bumps into another person and sends her on her butt "dang it, this is the second time today I bump into someone...", "oh shoot I'm so sorry about that. Here let me help you up, huh Hinata?" said a familiar voice to Hinata, she looked up to the owner of the voice and saw "Klein?" they stare at each other for a few before Hinata took ahold on Kleins' reached out hand "thank you, Klein and again sorry for bumping into you, for the second time..." she chuckled Klein shook his head "Nah don't think about, I was just on my way to meet up with some of my friends. We were thinking of working to start up our own guild", "a guild?" she asked still holding her bag of items as she tilted her head in curiosity.
Klein blinked twice "you've never heard of guilds before?" he asked looking a bit confused at her, she nodded "yeah despite I've played RPG's before, I've never stumble upon the idea of making your own guild?" then Klein would explain that he and friends been a guild in different game before SAO and wanted to make another one but they wanted to know how the guild system worked in SAO.
After the explanation, he asked her if it were if they could hang out even if it were for a little bit. Hinata was cautious about it but he assured her that he wanted to get to know her even if they didn't know each other that well. She felt like with how honest he was with her, she didn't have to be worried about if he was going to kill her, it was like he had this gentle warmth about him and his goofy smile. They agreed to hang out together around the time in the afternoon just before the sun would set. They would wave goodbye to each other as Hinata would proceed to get into the inn where her brother and Asuna was waiting "sorry that I made you guys wait" she said to them as she walked over "Nah it's fine Hinata, we weren't waiting that long, right Asuna?" Makoto asked Asuna as he looked over at her, she nodded and replied; "yeah, so it's fine, Hinata.".
Hinata got the items out of the bag "this should be everything to keep us going for some time, are you sure that you don't wanna join us?" she looked at Asuna, she looked down and answered quietly "yeah I'm sure..." Hinata was a bit sadden by Asuna's choice she wasn't mad about it, she put her hands on top of Asuna's, smiled gently at her and said; "just remember Asuna, if there anything you need help with, just message Makoto or me, okay?" Asuna looked at Hinata a surprised but smiled back to her and nodded "sure thing, Hinata". Her brother and she would go out to the field to level up some more which seemed to go smoothly until they heard a pair of voices screaming, they looked at each other and nodded before turning their heads to the directions of the voices and ran to give a helping hand "Makoto if those players are low level we gotta beat whatever monster, that's attacking them!" yelled Hinata to her brother as they were running "yeah but remember to stay behind me, Hinata since your levels are still lower than mine so we gotta be careful!" that being true, Makoto had been leveling like a little crazy, his level was 26Lvl. and hers were barely anywhere near 26, being 22Lvl.
But despite her level, she can stand her ground for some time before doing what her brother has told her, "Makoto is really going all in, just to protect me and everyone else..." she thought as they ran. Upon getting there they saw two players, a boy, and a girl. They were being attacked by a tiny hoard of monsters, they were doing their best to stand their ground but Hinata could have sworn she heard there being said; "we got to do something or we are dead, Asagawa!" that name sounded familiar to the twins but now was not the time ideally think of the past right now, for right now it was time to fight, to survive.
Their weapons clashed and hit the monsters, pushing them back they road at us. They quickly helped the players back on to their feet "don't worry, we got you guys covered" said Hinata as she quickly held her sword, ready to strick the monsters again. The player, who they heard being called Asagawa looked at Hinata as if she had seen her before. Hinata covered the left side while her brother covered the right side, the monsters numbers dwindled as well as a bit of Hinata and Makoto's HP bar, Makoto called "Hinata get back!" out to his sister to step back and let him handle the remaining ones while Hinata took the two players a good distance away from the monsters. And before they knew it, Makoto had come back and over to them "here, heal up" said Hinata handing her brother an HP potion, before he took a sip of the potion he looked at the two players with a serious look in his eyes, the guy looked back at Makoto almost like he wanted to punch Makoto in the face "do you two have any idea on what could have happened if we didn't show up?", "like I care dude. We can handle this game, our selves!" the boy shouted back. Makoto would be in an argument all the way back into town until the girl called out to the boy "Touma, that's enough!", "Asagawa, I told you in here my name is Touya!". The girl, Asagawa walked up to the boy, Touma and slapped him across his face "if Hinata and her brother, Makoto hadn't come and saved us we would have been dead! Is that hard to understand!" Asagawa shouted looking Touma straight in the face with tears rolling down her cheeks, and right there it was if a light bulb lit up in her head, Hinata knew who the girl was "Aki...? Aki Asagawa?" Aki turned to look Hinata in the face and nodded firmly yet gently "yeah it's me, your biggest bully of the past, but I...actually wanted to talk to you about how I, some of our classmates and Touma treated you back then...".
They all found a set of benches to sit on and they apologize for what they did in the past, well Touma was a little bit reluctant to apologize but he did anyway. Aki looked over at Hinata "Hey Hinata, I'm sorry for all the things I did back in Middle and High school it was really mean of me to pick on you...I guess I was just a bit jealous as all...", Hinata tilted her head and asked "how?", Aki sighed before looking up at the in-game sky "jealous on your relationship with your brother Makoto and how happy your family is...Compared to mine...yours is happy, always there for each other and there for other people too..." it was true because, in the real world, Aki family was distant either working many hours and coming home late or just coming home and sitting there not talking to each other nor to Aki, which resulted in Aki moving in with her Grandmother on her mother's side. "Aki...once we get out of here we'll try and fix everything with your family, I promise..." Hinata said with a smile growing on her lips.
"By the way what time is it?" asked Hinata looking over at her brother, Makoto looking at the sky "I'm guessing around 5 o'clock..." he looked back to his sister and asked, "why?" Hinata frantically getting up from her seat on the bench "I gotta get going, I'm meeting up with someone!?" she said she ran off in the direction of the town square, where most of the players would be meeting up with each other. Aki walked up to Makoto while looking in the direction Hinata was running on "do you have any idea who she is meeting up with?" Makoto chuckled a little bit before placing his hands on his hips "I might have one but I know she'll tell me about him and her feelings for him when the time is right..." as he said that he had a gentle and proud smile on his face and as a breeze blew by. And Hinata ran as fast she could, even though she and Klein didn't specifically set a time to meet just that it would be around the time in the afternoon just before the sun would set. "Just barely made it..." said Hinata as she had reached the center point of the town square trying to catch her breath, having placed both of her hands on her knees hunching over as soon as she looked back up, she could see a few pairs of happy couples which had her own heart beat just a bit faster just on thought of Klein and her being a couple like everyone else...
Meanwhile, in a field looking area, that looked like it had a few fences forming a road people could walk on, was Klein and his friends talking about the information they got about forming a guild "okay we all agree on Klein to be our guild leader once we reach the 3rd floor? say Aye" said Klein's closets friend going by the in-game name "Dynamm", a guy who would wear his bandana fully around his head hiding his short hair under there, and with four sounding "Aye's!", Klein chuckled and thanking his friends to name him as their leader before looking at the color of the sky "Oh shoot!? Sorry guys, I'll see you back at the inn!? I'm meeting up with someone!?" he said as he lightly ran off while hearing replies from his friends like "you got it, boss!" and "see ya!" with one of them saying "got a date or something~", as he tripped a bit before setting off in a sprint his cheeks getting a bit flushed and he thought "seriously she is just a girl and nothing much...she is a cute looking girl...n-no don't think of Hinata like that!?" , upon getting to the end of the street that leads to the town square, catching his breath real quick before looking around for Hinata and his eyes fell upon and familiar red ribbon and he lightly jogged over to her "Hey Hinata, I hope I didn't make you wait for too long.." he apologized.
She shakes her head "no you didn't, I thought I was the one who made you wait" she chuckled rubbing the back of her neck, a tiny blush grew on her cheeks, Klein found it cute to see her like that and he couldn't help but smile at her and well a blush on his own. "So are you ready to hang out with me?" he asked, Hinata nodded "yeah, just out of my own curiosity where are we going or heading to?" tilting her a bit to the right making Klein's cheeks getting a bit flushed before he chuckled "well how about we buy something to eat and find a place to..watch the sunset" his cheek got more as he scratched his cheek and looked away a bit, Hinata felt her heart skip a bit before replying "sure, that sounds like a good idea, Klein" and gave him a smile. They went to a stall getting some sandwiches and some sort of juice, there was still time for them to get to a spot to sit at and watch the sunset "this spot seems nice enough for us, Hinata" he said turning to look at her, "yeah, it really seems like a good place. Nice spot you found, Klein" she nodded and smiled a bit at him, he chuckled while rubbing the back of his neck.
They both sat there talking about how guilds are made and they talked about normal things they do or did in the real world "so Hinata what do you do out sided of this game?" he asked while taking a bite of his sandwich, she was a bit nervous in telling about her fathers company to anyone. "Well... I work for my father at his company...", "oh a rich girl, you probably live in a big house and can get whatever you wa-", "since my father wants me to take over for him at the company..." she interrupted Klein from finishing his sentence, the tone in her voice sounded a bit sad. She continued "and I do want too...it's just...", "you want to be seen like everyone else, right?" he asked, his voice sounded both concerns and a bit sadness not for himself but Hinata. She turned her head to face him, so she could hear what else he had to say "well in the short time we have known each other, I've seen a kind natured girl, who cares about any and everyone. And there is still more sides of you, for me to get know..." he blushed a bit before continuing "If we still can hang out like this...".
Hinata was taken aback, a bit even if it feels like that it's going to fast for her and that they've only known each other for a week, she just couldn't let still warm feeling in her chest that he is giving her. She gently smiled at him "of course, Klein. I would love to hang out with you whenever we got the time to" a breeze blew by and had Hinata's hair floated in the wind, her hair shown as the suns rays hit her hair as it seemed like time had stopped for the both of them and the leaves in the tree whistled. Klein looked at her as he could hear his heart beat faster, his cheeks got a bit more flushed and he said "that makes me happy hear that Hinata..." as he smiled back to her.
As they were walking back to town, their hands lightly touched each other and both of their cheeks blushed. Being a bit shy, Hinata glanced at Klein while saying "I don't mind holding hands with you, Klein...", "o-okay..." he stuttered, cheeks flushed as they wrapped their fingers together and held each other's hands, they would while walking smile at each other. Even if they were quiet, upon getting to the inn where Hinata and her brother were staying at "well this is my stop" she looked at Klein "you are staying at a different inn in town, right?" she asked and he nodded "yeah me and my friends have to share rooms with each other but there is nothing with it. I'm used to sharing a room with one of my friends since we went to the same school for a long time...". They let go of each other's hands "w-well I should probably get going inside, my big brother is waiting for me..." said Hinata and Klein rubbing the back of his neck while stuttering "y-yeah we wouldn't want to keep him waiting" he laughed as he turned around to get to the inn he was staying at, as he started to walk he said "I'll see you around, Hinata...".
Before he could turn the little corner, a friend request popped "what the?" he turned around and saw Hinata smiling gently at him and in front of her was the menu with the screen saying "Friend Request Sent", "let's stay in touch, Klein" said Hinata while having both of her hands placed on her chest, her cheeks having tiny tint of pink to them. Klein blushed a bit while trying to find his words, taking a deep breath before pushing the yes "accept" button and looked at her, smiling at her and trying to look cool in front of her "I'd really like that, Hinata" they both laughed in unison and said their goodbyes. As Hinata got inside of the inn, she was meet with her brother, arms crossed "so are you two now dating?" he asked, "pft?! wha!? n-no...I don't know...all I know is that my heart beats faster when I'm around him..." she looked at Makoto to which he sighed "well those are one of the signs, Hina. Now let's get to bed, we got a lot of leveling in the morning with Aki and Touma" she nodded. At the same moment, she received a message from Asuna, asking if she could join them in their leveling schedule, Makoto replied to Asuna and gave her the coordinates of where they were going to train at.
Makoto showed Hinata to her Inn room, saying goodnight to each other, Hinata changed into a relaxed outfit and sat down on the bed, opening her menu up and began to write a message to Klein, hoping he will have a good night and sleep well. Getting a reply nothing more than a few seconds after she sent it to him and in the reply, he called her "my lady" which made her heart skip a beat, closing her menu, getting under the blanket and going to sleep with a smile on her face. Hoping for a brighter day in the coming morning.