Welcome to Chapter Twenty-Three, everyone! After learning of his newfound feelings for Suguha, Ian struggles to treat her like a normal friend like before, and Kirito and Jaymes continue through the SAO Beta, unaware of their fireteam member's plight.

I am horrifically sorry for my big ass delay for the past month, but between a loss of internet, the fucking hurricane that stole my profile name, and a need to fix all of my shoddier chapters, I haven't had time to write anything new, although I was able to read through the Crimson Warrior Chronicles up until Abyss of The Shrine Maiden and get a lot of research in for my series.

On top of that, I ended up revealing that Ian ended up having a crush on Suguha on a whim, so now I gotta deal with the fallout from that choice along with everything else, which is terrible because I have no clue on how to do romance!

Anyways, let's get into this and hope it isn't a dumpster fire.

Allan's Residence, Kawagoe

Japan, Real World

August 29, 2022

Ian Becker

Ian didn't always play Destiny 2, and the fact was solidified when Bungie screwed the pooch on its eighteenth season and the upcoming DLC drop, he had in fact grew more distant from it and began to play other games, and even Allan had followed this example. And of course, if Allan was unimpressed with Destiny 2, that really said something.

However, the American didn't always play Halo in his spare time. At one point, he played older Call of Duty games extensively, going as far as to replay each campaign he already beat on the highest difficulty, and at another point he binge-played the Gears of War trilogy, but there were also points when he would go even further, playing games such as Titanfall 2, PlayerUnknown's BattleGrounds, or currently, Tom Clancy's The Division 2.

"Shit, this guy's tough!"

Currently, he was fighting in Dark Zone South, or as he liked to think of it, the warzone of the DZs, facing one of the Landmarks, which was under the elite PMC Black Tusk's control. Despite the amount of experience with cover-based shooters he had, as well as him having the (kinda overpowered) Umbra Initiative gear set talent active, he was facing a lot of trouble with the Landmark thanks to how tough the enemies were.

Of course, it didn't help that one thing was taking up most of his thought processes: his newfound feelings for Suguha.

Despite everything he did to try and prevent it, including attempted friendzoning, the obvious age gap, and the fact that his departure was inevitable, it was a very unideal thing to have, and of course he had to develop it. However, it was honestly hard not to fall for a cute, upbeat, and honest girl like her, especially since they spent so much time together, but still, it was such a pain in the ass— especially when it cost him a flawless DZ run.

"SON OF A BITCH!" he yelled when he was unceremoniously killed by a BTSU (Black Tusk Special Unit) Tank. Sighing, he chose the nearest DZ Checkpoint to respawn at and patiently waited for him to load in. However, he was left a tad bit salty, not because he was killed, but because his issue was plaguing his performance. If only he could stop worrying about how things could go wrong if he said anything to her, just pull her into a room with him, and—

Fucking hell... I need help with this shit.

Getting up from his seat, he resisted the urge to yell in fury and opened his window to try and get some fresh air circulating in his room, exhaling as the cool air hit his face. At the very least, some cold airflow would help clear his mind.

"I'm gonna have to talk to someone about it, though..." he murmured to himself, attempting to find a good course of action to use. Calling Nikki or Allan, who was on another business trip, and asking one of them for relationship advice was a death sentence in and of itself, thanks to how brutally he'd get teased over it, and he had no intention of eating a shinai to the face from Kazuto if he asked him. As far as he knew, Sophia had no info he could use, although she'd likely say "just be yourself, and it'll go well," and with all that in mind, he ended up on Jaymes, who he didn't even know IRL, but hopefully had good advice.

Looking at the calendar, he swore to himself as he remembered that a) Jaymes and Kazuto were playing the SAO Beta thanks to how close it was to ending (one week left), and that neither were able to talk to him and b) he hadn't spoken to them for days thanks to his issue, not to mention there was no guarantee that he had any girl advice for him. And of course Suguha herself wanted to spend lots of time with him to make sure he wasn't hating on himself again.

"Fuck, I really shot myself in the foot here." the boy swore to himself, picking up his shoes as the track "Cuty" from a mobile game he liked (which was also hella good for a mobile game) played from his phone, alerting him to a phone call from the same girl he was crushing on.

Fuck.

Picking it up, he quickly answered it as to not keep the caller waiting and put the phone up to his ear.

"Hello?"

"Heyo, Ian-san!" Suguha greeted from her end of the call. "It's been a couple of days since we last spoke. Is something on your mind?"

"Um, yeah, I was just thinking."

"About what?"

Willing himself to not let anything slip, he soon gave a response, unable to leave his crush hanging by not responding.

"Stuff. You up for some practice?"

"You bet! When will you be here?"

Looking at the clock, which read 3:42 P.M., he quickly calculated the time it'd take for him to get to the Kirigaya Residence on his new bike and replied.

"About fifteen minutes on the bike."

"I'll see you then. Sayonara!"

"Sayonara."

As the line was cut, the boy simply exhaled to himself. Hopefully whatever weirdness he felt around her would get beaten out of him.

Kazuto "Kirito" Kirigaya

Floor 04, Sword Art Online Beta

"Doesn't matter how many times we come here, there's always a bunch of sand getting stuck in our damn clothes..."

Kirito shook his head as Jaymes complained about the desert canyon of the fourth floor in the SAO Beta, his clothes having copious amounts of sand stuck in them, because of course the NerveGear had to replicate that tidbit of detail. Either way, despite how hot it was, the veteran gamer didn't let that bother him, instead choosing to focus on his task: helping some noobs get past the fourth floor.

"So, what's next?" one of the noobs asked.

"Given that the best thing to do is wait until you're strong enough to handle the floor boss, it's best if we just go around and get you level up." Kirito replied evenly.

"Got it."

"On top of that, monsters typically don't spawn in the field on this floor, and given that there's essentially a 'grace period' where mobs don't spawn for thirty minutes, the only place we'll be finding mobs are the dungeons." Jaymes added.

"So other than that, the floor's pretty much safe?"

The older beta testers laughed in response to the naïve question, knowing just how wrong that was.

"Nah, player killers like to camp out this floor, using the terrain and weather to ambush unaware players and take their shit." the darker-skinned veteran told them.

"Which means we'll have to be on our guard— unless you wanna get respawned at Black Iron Palace without your hard-earned loot."

The black-haired swordsman could have sworn one of the noobs swallowed fearfully, to his humor.

"Don't worry, we won't let the big bad PKers get y'all." Jaymes reassured, patting the shoulder of the one who gulped in fear. As they crossed through the sandy canyons, Kirito could only wonder what Ian was currently doing.

Ian Becker

Kawagoe, Japan

Crossing the familiar threshold of the Kirigaya Residence, Ian sighed to himself as he laid eyes on Suguha, who was warming up for their upcoming spars in the front yard. She was clad in her white and blue robes as always, but something made her seem more eye-catching than usual, he noted.

It's probably because I'm crushing on her now... he grumbled in his head as he approached her, putting on a happy face when she laid eyes on him.

"Oh, there you are!" the black-haired girl called out, ceasing her actions to greet him.

"Hey, there, Suguha!"

Checking his watch, the boy was glad to see that he was on time, making his way to Suguha and subconsciously shifting the straps on his backpack, which contained a drawing of their little friend group (Ian, Sophia, Suguha, and Kazuto) he drew for her, before he opened it up and retrieved the framed picture before handing it to her.

"Oh, another one?" Suguha asked curiously, accepting his gift to inspect it. And judging her look of awe, he once again managed to wow her.

"You like it?"

"I love it! Arigato, Ian-san!"

As the younger girl hugged him tightly, Ian made it a point to not think about the soft flesh that was pressing into his chest, instead looking at her cutely-thankful expression with a fond look of his own.

"You wanna hang it up before we spar, or after?" the American asked, if only to distract himself from the bear hug.

"Uhh, let's put it up first. You gotta get changed, anyways."

"Yeah."

After hanging his drawing up beside the picture of the Kirigaya Residence, the two got changed for kendo (with Ian now having his own robes for it, although they looked a lot like Kazuto's robes) and were now geared up and facing each other, their weapons held in front of them.

"So... how do you think this'll go?" the American asked.

"I dunno. A couple months ago, I would've said I'd kick your butt, but that's not exactly the case now."

Lightly chuckling, Ian focused on the stance his friend had taken, her blueish black eyes focused on him as she held her shinai in front of her, ready to strike at him. Likewise, his shinai was in a similar position, but his stance was more defensive, as he was well-versed with his teacher's preferrence for being on the offensive.

A single, tense minute passed before at last, Suguha got sick of waiting and shot forward like a bullet, her blade nearly striking him had it not been for the well-timed parry he performed. Dashing to the side, he swung his shinai in a horizontal arc, only to get blocked and have his weapon knocked back. Fortunately, he turned that reversed momentum on his opponent and swung again, forcing her to block him again.

Disengaging, he jumped back and prepared to attack again, omly to be interrupted when the younger Kirigaya struck, landing a hit in his shoulder and making him grunt in minor pain before he got her back, jabbing at her shoulder with the tip of his shinai.

Dodging another attack from the black-haired girl, the American lunged forward with a two-hit attack, missing the first hit but landing the second one in her padded midsection, blocking a retaliatory strike a second later with a hurried repositioning of his blade.

Lunging forwards, Ian was unlucky enough to end up locking blades with Suguha, forcing him to push against her with every bit of strength he had, but seeing as she was a lot stronger than him, he knew he would eventually fail to hold her back and be overwhelmed, but if he used his head...

With a strategy in mind, he quickly disengaged, sidestepped to his opponent's left, and struck at her, causing her to turn to block it— and subsequently lose her footing.

"AAAHH!"

In her efforts to stay upright as she fell, she grabbed onto Ian's arm to try and stabilize herself, but only served to pull him down with her, resulting in the two dropping their weapons and tumbling to the floor in a tangled mess.

His head in a daze, the boy groaned as he tried to gather his thoughts, only to be caught off-guard by the equally dazed girl under him, her chest rising and falling with every breath and her eyes focused on him with a shocked intensity. It only then occured to him that if they didn't have their head protection on (which included a facemask to keep the face intact,) then they would have likely accidentally kissed, which for some reason didn't bother him all that much.

Still, it didn't take away from the fact that he was laid on top of her, his hands planted on either side of her head and their faces so close they could feel the other's breath hitting their faces, not to mention the fact that the younger girl's chest was lightly touching his with every breath, the sensation blocked by his protective gear but still present. On top of that, he couldn't help but notice how her pinkish lips parted ever so much or how her cheeks were tinted wiyh a healthy blush, which made her look so cute it made him want to kiss her.

"Um... this is awkward..." Suguha muttered quietly, snapping Ian out of his trance and causing his head to dart around as if he was looking for anyone else nearby.

"Right..."

Getting off of her, the American helped her up to her feet and picked his shinai up, but the embarrassing (and in some cases, lewd) thoughts in his mind didn't cease, causing him to sigh to himself and decide to stop sparring, lest another accident like that happened.

"Hey, wanna take a break?" he suggested, looking towards the door at the backyard.

"Um, sure..."

Ugh, at least Kazuto doesn't have to deal with this shit.

Kazuto "Kirito" Kirigaya

Floor 04, Sword Art Online Beta

After a half-hour of wandering around the desert canyons of the Fourth Floor and completing two of the dungeons in it, it finally happened; player killers were following them to ambush them.

They had done a good enough job hiding that they were concealed from even Jaymes, but Kirito had put a substantial amount of his points into his Searching Skill, and as a result he had easily seen the four orange-cursored players in dark cloaks creeping along behind them, causing him to warn Jaymes about them.

"Got it. Hang on, do I really need to reallocate my points into Searching?" the warrior asked.

"I guess...? Just follow my lead and act like nothing's wrong."

He nodded, and Kirito led him and the other players into a small, vaguely circular area in the blasted desert canyon, where the PKers had no choice but to engage them in combat, and soon, that's what they did, darting forth to try and attack the lower leveled players— only to get blocked off by the two better swordsmen in the group.

"Nice try, asshole." Jaymes told them, striking the first PKer with his sword after blocking his attack with his shield, stunning him lightly before he swung at him, utilizing Sharp Nail to capitalize on the assailant's lack of defense, nearly killing him outright thanks to his higher level. Switching targets, he landed a blow at his other enemy's legs and sliced his leg clean off, causing him to fall to the ground and allow the warrior to curbstomp his head in, the dead PKer bursting into blue polygons.

Likewise, Kirito was tangoeing with his own two PKers, although since these ones were higher level, it was a bit harder to deal with them, but the black-haired swordsman didn't mind it, utilizing what he did learn from kendo on top of his experience in the game, accrued from twenty-odd days of constant beta testing, to fight off the PKers he ended up with, evading and blocking their attacks with ease and landing light hits on them, although they would have been more harmful had the hostile players not been well-versed in evasion like he was.

Thankfully, Jaymes slammed into one of them with a shield bash, allowing Kirito to use Sonic Leap on him, cleanly severing his head with the Sword Skill. As he was animation-locked, his ally defended him from the other PKer until he regained control in his avatar, darting around and impaling the last hostile on his sword, twisting his blade for that extra bit of damage and pulling it upwards, splitting the player apart in a shower of sparks.

Good thing SAO lacked blood effects, because it would have been messy enough to make DOOM proud.

"And that is how you kick the asses of a gang of PKers." Jaymes told the wide-eyed noobs as the combat rewards screen appeared.

"Yup. Speaking of, you guys alright?" Kirito asked, earning nods from all of the noobs.

"That was awesome!" one of them replied.

"You kicked ass!"

"Eh, they were kinda dumb, you know." he told them modestly. "Anyways, we've still got a lot of work ahead of us, so let's go!"

As the party of six went along the path, the two higher-leveled beta testers couldn't help but wonder about Possum, or more specifically, why he'd been radio silent for the past three days.

Ian Becker

Kawagoe, Japan

Why the fuck did I have to do that?!

Riding back to Allan's house on his bike, Ian raged at himself in his head for how royally he had fucked up what could have the perfect way to make things normal between him and Suguha. But, after falling on top of her in the dojo, the two had been so embarrassed that they weren't able to do anything but sit on the porch with their backs to each other until he had to go home, and now, he was scared that she was too embarrassed to talk to him at any point after that.

"Great fucking job, asshole!" he yelled at himself, stopping his bike lest he crashed into something, then getting off as the house in question came into view.

Walking into the yard and setting his bike beside the wooden fence, he sighed and attempted to calm himself down. However, he was unable to do so, and as such, when he got through the door and shut it, he immediately punched the wall behind it, allowing his anger to get the better of him as he cursed himself out.

Wait, why am I letting myself get so pissed? he asked himself once he got a grip on himself, though, slumping down into a heap against the wall. Fuck, I've really had a decline this month...

Sighing to himself in defeat, he got up and marched up to his room, collapsing onto his bed without even shutting the door and closing his eyes.

Gah, what do I do...?

After about a half-hour of laying there, he quietly pondered the idea of talking to Nikki about it, as he didn't want to bother Sophia and Jaymes was too busy in the SAO Beta, and unlike the first time, he actually decided on it. Picking up his phone, he slowly called her and waited for her to reply, and it was only after ten seconds passed that she answered.

"Hello?"

"Nikki, I've got a problem..."

Do you know how long this chapter took to complete? Two whole months! That's what happens when I lose internet and can't write for months!

Anyways, we're now seven chapters away from completing this story, and after that, I will a) go on a GFL roll and write more chapters for Beginning/start GFL: War or b) start Origin Story's sequel, which of course takes place in Aincrad. Either way, I unfortunately don't feel like continuing my Red vs Blue fanfics (althohgh I may rewrite them,) and my RWBY project is doing not so great, because of course I have to write for RWBY, the fandom with over 30,000 stories for it. Anyways, between SAO and GFL, I've got my hands full.

I will be hosting a poll on my profile deciding the fate of Becker's love life in Origin Story, as I'm having trouble deciding that on my own, so please help me make a decision.

Finally, when I can post fanart again, there will be a distinct difference between SAO Becker (who has a facial structure similar to Kirito to indicate a less mature demeanor) and GFL Becker (who has a facial structure similar to Kikuoka to represent his war-torn and mature demeanor,) as the two universes have a completely different theme. There's a reason GFL Healing Chapter exists, you know.

Anyways, I'll see you at Chapter Twenty-Four!