When Kazuto woke the next morning he was angry to find out that a local infobroker had slandered his and my name in the newspapers. They claimed we willingly and mercilessly let people die in the floor boss chamber.
There were a few comments about how we had saved countless others but the paper seemingly had added them as a late addition and they were small pieces.
I was happy to see one person who had spoken out was Asuna, Klein too had spoken in our defence and a man who went by Agil. Kazuto thinks he is the axe wielder from the first floor.
Knowing the best way to cheer up Kazuto would be to fight a horde of enemies, I led Kazuto out of the village. It was mid day by the time we took a break from the monster slaying.
Without warning Kazuto hugged me.
"Thank you Sugu. Just what I needed."
I tried and failed not to laugh. This caused him to hug me tighter and smile at me.
"You're such a battle junkie big brother."
The reaction I got to this statement was not whatI had expected. Kazuto loosened his grip on me and pushed me away slightly.
"I need to tell you something Sugu. let's head to that cafe in the village you wanted to try."
I didn't respond. I was wracking my brain trying to work out just what Kazuto wanted to tell me.
Floor two still being new meant no players had made it out this far and so the only people filling the cafe were NPC's.
"Suguha, I once told you that I found out some information I didn't know how to process. I think it is time to tell you what that is."
I could feel myself grow nervous and curious at what he had to say. Whatever it was had made Kazuto start avoiding me. I tried to calm myself by drinking some water the waiter had delivered.
"Kazuto you're worrying me"
"Suguha you're not really my sister. I hacked into the government database and found records of when my parents died. Your Mother is my Aunt that makes you my cousin not sister."
I had no clue what to expect but I had never imagined my brother would claim I am not his sister. I didn't want to believe it but I knew somehow this was not something he would lie about.
"So you're not my big brother but my cousin? I don't know what to say to that. You said you're parents died I am so sorry Kazuto"
I moved around the table to hug him. I temporarily forgot about him not being my brother. In all honesty it didn't matter that much to me he was still the same boy I know will protect me and let me help protect him.
For a long time we sat in complete silence, neither of us wanting to break the hug. After some time Kazuto spoke once more.
"I didn't know how I should feel about you or your Mother, my aunt. I felt like I had been lied to by not being told the truth. I understood that I was young but It felt like a part of me had been hidden from me. I wanted to hide from the truth and SAO gave me a way to do that."
"Do you not love me now I'm not your sister?"
I had no idea why this question seemed the most important to me but it had slipped out before I could stop it. Kazuto looked shocked by my question and did something he had not done since I was a kid. He kissed my forehead lightly.
"I will always love you Sugu That I can promise."
Upon hearing this I couldn't help the smile that graced my face. I hugged Kazuto tighter and Kissed his cheek.
"I'm sorry you had no one to talk to about that before but I am here if you want to talk to me, Kazuto."
We sat in silence for another long moment and ate some of the food that had been delivered to us. We spoke a little but the topics were not quite as heavy after that.
One thing kept running through my brain as we ate. He isn't my brother. I couldn't understand why I was so caught up on this but I felt happy, strange.
While in the cafe we heard an NPC talking about a martial arts skill and of course Kazuto wanted to check that out.
The quest was a long one and actually took us over three days to complete. We managed to gain a few levels as well as get the unique skill so It was incredibly productive.
Surprising both me and Kazuto, we met up with Asuna the day after. She seemed really happy to see us. This was rare since most people avoided us like we had the plague.
"Ohh perfect time running into you two" She exclaimed loudly causing a few people near to look at us.
We had been staying in the village while on floor two but the problem was it did not have a smith. This meant we had to go to the city to make repairs and attempt upgrades on our weapons.
"Shush Asuna please we don't need to be drawing attention to the fact we are here." Kazuto told her to pull her away from the crowded street.
"Kirito no need to drag her, she has legs." I said laughing and freeing Asuna from Kazuto's grasp.
"Sorry Kirito I do need your help though if you're willing."
Kazuto sighed out loud and I gently hit his arm.
"Be nice Kirito. What do you need Asuna?"
"I need needles from the Wind wasps. Unfortunately they are a rare drop but on the plus side they give quite good exp. Good chance to level while helping me out."
I could see Kazuto considering the options. We had been looking for a good way to level up some.
"I will go along with what you want Kirito." I said, always happy to follow his lead.
"But if you want my opinion we should help."
"Well I can't say no to you Leafa" He said as if I had twisted his arm.
"Well thank you Leafa" Asuna responded happily and started walking away from us.
"Don't you want to join our party before you wander off." Kazuto asked, laughing slightly. Asuna glared at him for a moment before walking back up to him.
"That might be a good idea." She conceded.
After adding Asuna to the party she started laughing. I was completely baffled not understanding why she started laughing. I looked at Kazuto but he seemed just as confused.
"I'm sorry, I was just remembering the first time we formed a party. I can't believe I didn't see your names and health bars up there."
"I didn't believe you didn't" I said looking up at her name.
"It's not exactly tiny."
"If we are done laughing at me we should head out. I bet you can't kill 50 today." Asuna said challengingly. I laughed a little knowing Kazuto would rise to the challenge.
In the end it wasn't possible for Kazuto to kill fifty on his own. Asuna was working very hard to make sure he fell below that quota. Of course I was killing them too, making it harder for Kazuto to reach the magic fifty.
Because Kazuto had not managed to kill the required fifty Asuna and I ganged up on him making him pay for dinner in the city.
"I know a great place to get some shortcake. How about we get Kirito to buy us some."
I liked the shortcake well enough and agreed and so Asuna led us to get some shortcake. The shortcake was really really good and I was very happy Asuna had shown us this place.
The conversation was lighthearted as we spoke about what we had been up to this past week. About halfway through eating the three of us all received a message. The third floor had been found and we would be meeting to discuss how to beat it.
When we arrived at the meeting we got many funny looks from people who wished we had not turned up. A few started questioning why we had shown up with Asuna again, wondering if she had joined our party permanently.
We chose to ignore the chatter that followed us and went to stand with Klein and his friends. When we interrupted they had been talking about forming a guild. Apparently to formally create a guild you needed to complete a pre requisite on floor three.
"Kirito!" Klein exclaimed happily seeing Kirito and I arrive. Before Kirito could say anything however Klein noticed Asuna.
"Hi there I'm Klein 22 single."
Whatever he was going to continue with was silenced when a man with a large shield called everyone to attention. I didn't recognise him from the first floor but he looked middle aged.
Apparently his group had found the boss room so he took charge talking about what the boss looked like and what we knew from the beta testers.
While no one openly tried to get us out of the talks I noticed a few people watching us. Kazuto was either completely unaware or did not care that we were being observed.
The fight was scheduled for a few days so people could adequately prepare for the fight ahead. Not wanting to talk to anyone here, Kazuto and I left pretty fast.
The fight for the second floor boss was quite a tough one. I was nearly badly injured when I failed to notice the boss charging a powerful lightning attack.
The man named Agil had knocked me aside apologising if he hurt me, which he had not. The fight went on for over forty minutes and while it wasn't too difficult when you learned the attack patterns no one was particularly powerful yet.
When the fight ended I was shocked to see a pop up window appear in my field of view. I had been attacking pretty hastily when I saw it was close to being defeated but I couldn't believe I got the last attack bonus.
Kazuto hugged me and congratulated me on my item. A few others who had been attacking it at the same time were looking around trying to work out who had got the last hit. I quickly closed the window so no one would know I won the drop.
A few people who were sure they should have gotten the drop were causing quite the commotion so Kazuto and I started to leave. We were surprised to see Agil, Asuna and Argo follow us into the teleport.
While Kazuto was not one for parties we found a nice inn and had a small party to celebrate our win.
Once everyone had left Kazuto asked what I had received as my drop. I was confused for a moment before remembering that I had the last attack bonus.
I equipped my new sword and showed Kazuto. It looked like a one handed Katana but the hilt had enough space to two hand it if I required, it was perfect.
Kazuto let out a loud whistle and smiled at me.
"It's a great weapon for you Sugu. Suits you really well."
Even though it was getting late I couldn't help my excitement at getting a unique weapon. I dragged Kazuto out towards the fields.
We spent the next hour fighting our way through trash mobs outside of the town. The new sword was amazing, not too heavy and not so light it was useless. I wanted to upgrade it right away but didn't know who I could trust to do a good job with my new baby.
When we got back to the inn and had changed into our nightwear. I asked Kazuto if he knew any good crafters.
"I was talking to Agil before the raid and he said that there is a skilled blacksmith on the second floor currently working out of an inn. I don't know how good she is but it was enough to catch Agil's attention."
"Could you maybe ask Argo If she knows where I can find this smith? I really want to start working on my sword."
"I will message her now. You know you could add her and message her yourself."
I pretended to pout hearing his response and settled into my bed. For a little while now Kazuto had started working out before sleep and I found myself unable to stop watching him when he did it.
As he saw me looking at him he smirked at me.
"You know this could help you too Sugu"
When I woke up the next morning Kazuto told me Argo had a guess who the blacksmith was. I was surprised to learn that the smith, if Argo found the right one, was a female named Lizbeth.
After eating breakfast we teleported to floor two after heading to the inn Argo had suggested we start our search. We saw a girl, she looked to be around Kazuto's age.
She was a cute girl and I was surprised that she was apparently a really good blacksmith. She seemed to see us looking at her and came over to us.
"Hi I'm Lizbeth. I don't suppose you have come here to make use of my services?"
I smiled at the girl named Lizbeth and pulled out my sword.
"Well that depends if you think you have the skill to upgrade this for me"
I tried to respond in a cheeky but friendly tone and she seemed to smile hearing my response. She gave me a confident smile.
"I can definitely upgrade your weapon. I am highly skilled if I say so myself."
"Why don't you start by working on this just so I know you're good at your craft." Kazuto asked her to hand over his sword.
If she was offended that Kazuto didn't trust her with my new baby she did not say so or show it. She took his sword and smiled.
"I can do that. A repair or upgrade?" Kazuto had tried and failed to upgrade his sword a few times since getting it to a plus three but the attempts had failed.
"You think you can upgrade it?" Kazuto asked, looking impressed.
"I will need to see if I have the materials on hand to upgrade it but If I don't we can go and collect them? But I think I can."
I liked Lizbeth's confidence and smiled happily at Kazuto. With a smith that could upgrade his weapon further we would be able to take on stronger enemies and level faster.
Lisbeth started looking at Kazuto's sword. After a few moments she informed us that she would need to get some metal. It wasn't hard to get but she would feel better if we went with her so she could gather a lot of resources while there.
I knew Kazuto really wanted to go level up today so I felt bad suggesting that he take a day off but before I could voice my opinion he had agreed and added Lizbeth to our party.
It turned out Lizbeth was a skilled mace user. On the way to the mine she wanted to go to she showed her skill by fighting mobs with us.
"Shame you're a smith by trade. I'd love to keep you in our party." Ii told her as we took a break to eat some food and get a drink.
My comment made Lizbeth blush slightly but she looked happy hearing that she was capable.
When we arrived in the mine I was happy to see salamander type enemies and not Golem type. The last mine Kazuto and I went to had rock golems and they were a nightmare on weapon durability.
While Kazuto and I fought off the Salamander enemies Lizbeth was hard at work mining the ores around the area and humming a tune while she worked.
After about an hour Lizbeth's inventory was stacked and she was ready to leave. We decided that we would save our teleport crystal and walk back.
Once back in the town Lisbeth took Kazuto's sword once more and started diligently working. It was quite odd seeing her pull out random smith equipment into the street.
When she had finished she handed the sword to Kazuto she had a blazing smile on her face. Once Kazuto had the weapon he understood why she had succeeded in upgrading the weapon.
Upon seeing the success Lizbeth had had I handed over my new sword to her. She smiled happily seeing that I now trusted her with my weapon.
After upgrading it to a plus two she handed it back.
"That's the best I can do right now I'm afraid. I just don't know where to find the other materials yet. They could be on floor three or four. I need to explore floor three to find out.
"Can you give me a moment to speak to Kirito?" I asked Lizbeth.
She didn't understand the question but nodded her consent.
I moved over to Kazuto and smiled at him.
"I wanna invite Lizbeth to explore floor three with us. I like her and she is pretty good with her weapon. She doesn't seem to have a problem with us either."
I could see Kazuto thinking over my request. It wasn't like he hated people, most people just hated us. After considering it for a few more moments he spoke.
"She is capable and I like her too. We can ask her."
I smiled and Hugged Kazuto tightly. I had been conditioning him to like my hugs more since we came here. After hugging me back we walked over to Lizbeth.
"We would like you to stay in our party, If you would like."
I told Lizbeth, smiling at her.
"We have yet to explore floor three and you would be a great help to us you're very skilled and we could explore for materials."
Kazuto added, looking at her. She seemed to consider our request. Looking at the empty street she seemingly decided.
"Well I don't think I am going to get many customers right now so I would love to join you guys if you are sure you want me."
After Lizbeth had packed up her gear we headed to the teleporter in the centre of town. Once back on floor three Lizbeth placed most of her items in her inn storage for safe keeping.
