Welcome readers to my second SAO story. Where's the first one you ask (The Scope to My Heart)? Well, long story short, there are a few reasons why I put the whole story on hold for the whole freaking year. I'm really sorry for those who have been anticipating on that one, but several writing projects kept me busy, along with some writers block and my irl college work, which had been putting me in the occupied zone for a while. But don't worry, your follows, favorites and reviews really encouraged me, and I will try to write the second chapter as soon as possible.

Anyway, so about this one. I have been cooking this concept for a while, since the middle of March, but was thinking of how to develop it. A little spoiler ahead. The idea is basically a terminal ill VR player in the SAO universe. But what keeps me wondering is genre and type of stories I want to tell. I'm pretty sure there are hundreds of stories about characters playing through the death game out there. I don't criticize them, it's just that I don't want to tell the same story. That and the fact that the Mother Rosario's arc is not really expanded much, so I wanted to explore it a bit. Give it an untold story that people can be interested in. And I hope that this chapter sparks some interests within you.

For this fic, I'll try my best to stick to the canonical storyline, that at this time is still the Fairy Dance arc, so things like Sword Skills in ALO did not exist. But I may still make mistakes from time to time, so feel free to point that out for me. Also that elements in the canonical stories may contrast with this one.

So here's another take on SAO. I hope you enjoy and please if you have some time, please leave a review, and I'll see you guys in the next chapter.

Disclaimer: All original properties of SAO belong to their respective party.

EDIT: Alright screw it. It seems that my attempt to hide the disease ended up backfiring because people don't seem to be interested. So I'll just put it on out here

Chapter 1: One Year Before.

March 29, 2025

It was Friday. A normal Friday. The weather was a bit unusual today, full of clouds and no signs of sunlight anywhere, but it wasn't anything too extraordinary. But it did make my already miserable life more miserable

I slowly and clumsily opened the door leading to my apartment, my walking cane striding shakily in front of me. That small, claustrophobic apartment that I had gotten too used to. Having returned home from college, the trip was a lot more tiring than what I was used to. It had been like this for nearly a year, ever since that day. Going to college, studying what I thought wouldn't even have a point in learning anymore, returning home, playing games to pass the time, then going to sleep. The cycle kept repeating. The only occasional rock in the spinning cog was the occasional call to the nearest hospital for a medical check on my muscle strength. That was it.

Yeah, I have pretty much given up on life already. It had already been shortened by whoever knows how long, 2 years at most, and my expectations had been reduced to zero. Both publicly and personally. No one expected anything. And I didn't expect anything I either. The irony was beautiful and bitter, for how I used to be a very different person back then. The polar opposite of my present self. A boy who always dreamed, of an extraordinary life, of a fairy tale, of infamy and fame, and of esteem. Yeah, what normal kids would imagine. Now, that was only a shadow.

I dragged my limbs through the floor, stumbling over a chair next to my desk as I tried to reach for my bed, and for the red visor that I had been so attached to in my life. Up to now, it was probably the only reason I still existed. That still kept me motivated.

Virtual Reality

I remembered the first time I tried it. It was such a fascinating experience. I could never forget the smooth movement, and that there were no differences between moving there than moving in real life. There is now though. Everything felt…real. The boundaries were non-existent. Nothing could stop our imagination and creativity from soaring high. The experience was good enough for me to come and try again, and again at the testing compound. And then I decided to buy my own VR set and began diving into it myself. Who would have thought that I was now hanging onto it like a lifeline?

I sighed, as I picked up the visor, lied comfortably on my bed, having decided to skip dinner for the day. I would end up a little hungry tomorrow, but who cares. Today was important. Whilst trying to put my VR visor onto my head, I had to use a bit of strength to do so, just to lift that visor up to above my head level and place it firmly on my head. So I had become that weak huh? How long would I be able to keep this up?

The countdown began. I patiently waited, closing my eyes. And then.

"Link start…"

And I was already in that world. The world of fantasy, of magic, of fairies, of elves, and of life:

Alfheim Online

I was ready for another game session. Today I had to beat that boss in that dungeon. It had dragged me down for over a week now. And today was the final day before that event-only sword disappeared. This was my only chance. If I failed, who knows if the game developer would actually give the players another chance to get that thing again. I had to win. Even if it killed me dozens of times, I would come back. To put this blade deep onto his head.

I entered the main menu screen, in which I would have to choose to log into an existing character or to register a new character. Like always, I picked the former. And the figure of my long friend emerged. A better version of me, whom I had always wanted to become in the real world, but could not. A fairly thin young Sylph warrior, apparently near his twenties, with average height, fluffy white hair and unique pointy ears, wearing a set of steel light armor colored dark green. On his waist was a one-handed silver Swiss saber. Nothing else.

People might ask: "Why not carry a shield or anything?" I had once been a shield wielder, but after a while, I had decided against it. At that time, I was already building myself to focus on building up speed and agility, which is the reason why I chose Sylph as my race. And a speeder's style was the key to my decision. I am to use my maneuverability to dodge incoming attacks, outpace them and strike at vulnerable spots. A shield would simply slow me down. And as I level up, the shield gets heavier and heavier. It may be possible for those who also focus on building strength so that they could carry them, but not for me. I wanted to build my speed only, so my strength was only barely enough to satisfice. And so I ditched the shield and went only 1 handed. It was not the best fighting style, I would say, but it was effective to me.

The figure descended to me, as a small holographic panel appeared before me with a name: Hirano.

The name was actually my real name: Hirano Amari. I didn't think too much when I put in my real name as my avatar name. It was my name, my identity; eleven letters that distinguished me from everyone else in the world, and that people could relate to. It was the name that everything I have done was connected to, so I did not want to put a different alias. Sure there was the privacy issue, but I did not care. Anymore.

I chose my avatar, and a pillar of light engulfed me as I transformed into the man who was before me just a second ago. Seconds later emerged the world of Alfheim.

I arrived at where I left off a day ago. The town of Hien. It was small, perhaps only the size of a village, with red brick houses surrounding me with the login portal as the center. I wasted no time and immediately followed the path in which I have headed down so many times that I simply wasn't strangers to it anymore, heading for the dungeon that I was supposed to clear.

Arrived at the dark dungeon that extended deeply into the thin artificial mist, supported by a number of large pillars that lined the road to the lower level, I hacked my way through all the pitiful weaker monsters that wandered around hindering the ways of the new and inexperienced to the dungeon. It was then that I noticed something a little strange. The number of monsters was surprisingly not that many. It was strange to me because days before I fought like fifteen to twenty of them before descending to the lower area. Was someone here?

I went deeper and deeper, down to the second lower area, killing all in my path while ignoring the rest. Again, the same confusion occurred. And finally, I found myself at the third and lowest area. After this would be the boss. But here is when I had to be careful. The power of these monsters was powerful enough to kill me in three to four hits. I would need to try my best to avoid combat and head directly for the boss room as quickly as possible.

I crouched down on my knee, took stances and charged forward. The nearest monsters to me soon took notice of my presence, but before they could even reach me to deliver a strike, I dashed right past them. But not long after, my beeline rush was interrupted by another monster, a wight that wielded a huge staff for magic casting. He was right in my path. It was lucky for me, as I simply ram myself, along with my blade onto the thing, shattering him into millions of pieces while I did not lose much momentum. Another monster dead, I pressed on.

Then, another monster appeared in my path. Or rather, multiple monsters. Oh crap...This wasn't supposed to happen. Monsters would normally appear randomly in the specific area, but no monsters would be spawned next to the other. But here, I encountered three of them. Three giant skeletons, with heavy armor, shields, and swords. And I was charging straight at them!

There was little time. If I kept on charging, I would get blocked by their gigantic armor and then killed. There was no way I could break through it. So, with utmost haste, I grind my feet onto the ground, forcing myself to stop, halting right in front of the three skeletons. Before they could react, I jumped up and delivered a horizontal slash at the neck level. The saber made contact with one of the skeletons at its neck, severing his skulls from his body. The attack was lethal, and the skeletal warrior burst into red pieces.

But then the other two acted. They were not distracted by their companion's death and quickly attacked him with their own sword slashes. I saw it coming, so I jumped back to dodge. But then the two skeletons pressed onward, not allowing me to make a run. They were fast, faster than normal skeletons, despite their heavy armors.

I was in a pretty bad spot, as the two approaching skeletons were limiting my ability to move anywhere but backward. I was planning to make a run for it, try and make some distance and ignore them. But before any of that could take place, the screeching sound behind me alerted me to my mistake. I turned around and saw a huge fat zombie trying to lash out at me. I quickly retaliated and killed it off, but then the two skeletons caught up to me, ready to strike.

God damn it. I'm dead…

So it's a restart, huh? What a colossal waste of my time.

It was a price for actually playing the glass-cannon kind of play style. If you got hit, you're pretty much fucked. I didn't actually mess up this time though. I did not expect three skeletons to gather in one spot. That was definitely abnormal. I could only think of one reasonable explanation for this…

SLASH!

Someone was here…

I was ready to be killed, but it turned out that I wasn't. When I came to realize it, one skeleton was already gone, replaced by shattered fragments of its former self. The other skeleton did deliver its strike, but it wasn't enough to kill me. It did, however, took a portion of my health away.

Seizing my chance, I retaliated and unleashed my sword skills on the skeleton, slashing repeated on the armor and then finally a final stab, punching through it, onto his bone body, draining its health and ended its life.

As the skeleton cracked into shards, I soon realized something. Someone. I was right. Someone was here. The first impression was purple, presumably an Imp player. And as the shards began to disperse, I soon got a glimpse of this person who had perhaps just saved me. Before me was a beautiful young slim girl, with a long purplish-black hair. She wore an obsidian armor, glimmered by the shards of the skeletons reflecting upon it, along with a knee-length skirt, a pair of majestic armbands, all in purple. She also wore a headband, red in majority, but there were slight visuals of yellows. Her face was smug, cheerful, yet appearing polite as she turned her pretty delicate ruby-red eyes to face me. Then, she spoke.

"Onii-san. Are you alright?"

A little stunned, I sheathed my sword before answering.

"Y-Yes, I'm fine." I scratched my head a bit, as I replied. "Are you the one who just saved me?"

"Yup." She gave a V sign with her two fingers, as she smirked. "I was hiding behind that pillar when you suddenly jumped out of nowhere and got trapped by those skeletons."

I pondered a little with what she said. "So you were the reasons why those skeletons were grouping up together?"

It was her turn to scratch her head. She sounded a bit silly. "Yeahh. I was trying to pass through these weak monsters to get to the boss quickly but turns out they weren't so weak after all. So I had to cast a cloaking spell on myself so that they wouldn't notice me and left. But then I saw you, so I decided to help." But then she pouted a bit. "At least you could have given me a thank."

"Oh yeah, where are my manners? Thanks for your help back there…uhh…what's your name?" I asked.

"I'm Yuuki. Nice to meet you." She replied, offering me her hands, and I took it gently. Her hand was a bit small, compared to mine, even though I was not a burly guy myself. She appeared to be significantly younger than me, probably still in high school, and looked a little fragile. But her shakes boasted with insurmountable confidence. She did not seem to be bothered by the aspect of meeting a strange person.

"It is a pleasure to meet you. I'm Hirano." I gave her my name in exchange, as we let go of each other's hand. "So you're going to take on this boss by yourself? Or do you have guildmates with you?"

"Nah. For boss raids, we are usually together, but today my guys are busy IRL, so I am the only participating member." She replied, her eyes turned upward, her hand again back behind her head

"It's the last day you know."

"Yeah, but I can't help it. Most of my guildmates are having their medical checks, while a few had important family issues, so they couldn't be here." She sounded a bit down, but soft and gentle.

Medical check?

It really felt commonplace to the likes of me. But the word that perked my curiosity was the word 'most'. Were they all friends from the same hospital or clinic? Most likely, since they were away on the same day. Not that I know how large Yuuki's guild was, but it was the most reasonable explanation. But I didn't want to press on the question. It may not be comfortable saying it right here.

"How about you? You're alone as well?" She asked as I nodded.

"I am mostly by myself anyway. I did have a few friends that I usually have as companies, but this dungeon isn't at their level yet. They don't play that much."

"They must be busy people, eh?"

My gaze headed for the ground briefly.

"More like I have a bit of free time on hand," I replied, as I looked back at her. "To be honest, this dungeon's level is excess for me, but it was worth a shot."

"So we're aiming for the same prize eh? Hey, how about we work together to get it?"

I raised my eyebrows at the prospect. I placed my fingers on my chin. A cooperation, huh? It was certainly good for obtaining the prize since two is obviously better than one. However, the thing was: there was only one prize. You could not split the sword into two. How were we going to solve the question of who would be getting the sword after we have obtained it?

"There's only one sword right?" Before I could speak, Yuuki kept on. "We'll get it first, and we'll compete for it? A duel to see who is more worthy of the sword. I mean, you're trying to beat the boss single-handed right? You must be a very good player to actually dream of doing that."

I chuckled a bit. "Well, I'm basically a speeder, basically trying to dodge incoming attacks. That's my only strength really. Remove that and I am basically helpless, even against a lower level boss."

"Still!" She pressed on, her cheery attitude still bright as ever. "However you see it, you are definitely capable of defeating this one. You are alone, I am without a company. So why not join forces? It is better this way right?"

Hmm…

Logically, she was right. Well, whatever…

"Ok, that works."

"Yay! It is a deal then!" She happily extended her hands again, this time for a different reason, as I shook it, a little reluctant this time.

And with that, we were ready for the boss encounter. Before us were only a handful of monsters, so both of us took them down easily. Before we enter the boss room, each of us took a few moments. To rest, physically and mentally.

"Are you ready, Hirano-san?" She turned to ask, once she was ready

"Just a moment. I'll have to heal first." I replied, as I opened the menu panel and gave myself a healing potion. The skeleton earlier surely did a lot of damage, and I did not want to enter the boss room not fully healed. "Ok, I'm ready now."

"Let's go!" Yuuki shouted out as she led the way, approaching the boss room's door. Then she placed her two hands onto one of the doors, which was pretty much as ten times as tall as her, and pushed it. It was an odd scene, a young petite girl trying to force open a door that probably would have weighed tons if in real life. But that was simply just a command to the game to tell that there were players who wished to challenge the boss and that the door should be opened.

As a gesture only, I joined her, trying to push the door open. Shortly after, they did. Immediately, I could feel the haunting stench wrapping its fingers around me, as I stepped into the dark room. It wasn't a bad smell per say, but it sent chills down me. The ground I stood on as I took my steps into the room, it felt like dirt. The room was completely pitch black, with the only source of light creeping savagely through the entrance that we just took, which soon closed, completely trapping us inside. This was common, however, since the battle would either end with you dead or the boss turned into tiny little pieces and dispersed into thin air.

The air grew heavier bit by bit, despite me, and probably Yuuki as well, having known who we would be facing already. My heart was beating faster with every second. The ground was shaking, at first a bit, then it grew to become a small tremor that shook our feet to the bones. It was all too clear. He's here.

Before me, the ground began to rise. A purple aura of energy leaked through the cracks of the earth, threatening to damage any players who happened to be nearby. Then something emerged. A brown head of a horse peeked out, its eyes were burning. The horse continued to emerge from the ground, its size three times as large as me, revealing a rein attached to his mouth, a saddle and then finally, a man riding on it. The man donned a set of armor, hidden behind a layer of leather jacket. On his waist was a huge sword, long, thin and deadly. His top…was nothing. He had no heads. But he would soon have one.

The boss of this floor, detailed as the leader of a failed army, his heads taken by his enemies, his soldiers fallen dead on the battlefield, but his thirst vengeance never died, never accepts to rot along with his fallen body. And here he was, preparing to cut down anyone who breached the sovereignty of his battlefield. Three health bars appeared before him, as his hands moved to unsheathe his blades. A mighty screeching sound slashed the air, as the purple energy surrounded him, enveloping his body, through his body, and into his collar. Soon, the energy took the shape of a white-bearded, white-haired man, with the purplish flame covering the spiritual energy. And finally, the name emerged near the health bar:

Demonlord Eachtar.

With a slash of the rein, the headless horseman ordered his steed forward, the purplish flames reigning on their body, like a train locomotive, charging at the two players. I held my blade firmly, as both of us timed our moves perfectly. And we both dodged to our lefts and rights respectively, just as the horse gallop through. The boss knew he had missed, so he slowed down, and got ready for another charge.

I recovered from the dodge and saw Yuuki, who was not too far away from me, suddenly giving me a nod. Her face was serious. This was our first time fighting each other, but she probably had assumed that I knew what I had to do. And I sure did. Before this headless horseman could prepare another charge, I had already committed my own charge. Zooming into him, closing the distance as quickly as possible, I delivered a slash that resembled the X letter to the horse's head before ending it with a flat on horizontal strike. With that, I immediately ran sideways, so as to avoid any possible counter-attacks, and letting Yuuki the space to attack. And she did it with a vengeance. She also charged and stopped right in front of the horseman. And with a shout, her grip on her blades tightened, as she delivered a barrage of jousts onto the spot where I had just hit.

The joint attack was so immense that the horse had to stand up with on its two back legs, the neighs of pain echoed throughout the room. But its health bars were still in its first. It would be a long fight.

After the attack, I kept up with the motto that I developed during my game session: 'Be fast, find the weakness and exploit it'. So I wheeled around the demon, charged back at him while his horse was still standing on its legs, and delivered a single slash to his waist, before evasively wheeled away. This would cycle for a few times, slowly draining the health of this fiend. While I was doing this, Yuuki would attack with her powerful sword combos to distract the demon, allowing me to effectively close my distance without being intercepted.

From first glance, it may seem that we were actually a pretty good team, but then, right after my attack, the boss seemed to get angered (I did not know if it was a computerized trick or that it really did get angry) by our constant harassment, and immediately lashed out, slashing his sword up and down. Because of that, Yuuki had to abandon her assault. As a result, the demon was not distracted, and could turn his attention towards me,

I was still on course to harass him. I was intending to slash through his back, but the thing suddenly turned to face me. Purplish flames escaped the horse's mouth like a flamethrower. If they were capable of human emotions, they were definitely angry.

"Oh no no no. I have to change course now."

Just as the thought zip through my mind, the demon unleashed a burst of energy that forced me to stop my advance. If I came any closer, I would be hit. And to me, any hits could be fatal. Not allowing any time, the horseman quickly approached me, his sword over his head. A screech was ensured, and the blade mercilessly struck. Its first contact was my Swiss saber, as I quickly raised my blade to meet his. One hand, then supported by the other. It was nowhere enough to counter his ridiculous strength. I knew if I hold up any longer, I would be dead, so I quickly redirected his sword with mine, and quickly took a side step, allowing his blade to strike the ground. But still, the impact was already enough that it drained me a bit of my health.

But the danger wasn't just that. The demon quickly lifted his sword from the ground and prepared for another slash. Crap! I had to parry this. Or I'll be dead!

Suddenly, I heard a shout coming from my side

"Hirano-san!"

And then, I could sense a sword jousting from behind. Its target, the demon's sword. Yuuki's timing was perfect. The tip of her blade hit right at the side of the demon's blade, pushing it a little to the side, missing my torso by a matter of inches.

"Quickly, while he is distracted!" She shouted to me.

With a nod, I jumped at the opportunity and showed-off my own sword combo, something that I learned and carried with me into the game. From my memories, I swung my sword. It really felt smooth. And powerful. The feeling when your arms, legs, and torsos moved with such ferocity and power as the blade struck the demon. It felt…real…and human…

Once the maneuver was complete, I quickly ran away from the demon, whilst Yuuki was dealing with the demon's next attack herself. We were back on track.

A while later, the boss eventually lost half of his second health bar. That meant half of his health in total. Pretty much according to command, the aura of purplish energy appeared to strengthen, more furious, more intense and more tremendous. And then it expanded, covering us both, dealing a small bit of damage to us, whilst its real purpose was below the ground.

This was a lot of time, the point when I die. The reason would be clear in just a second. From below the ground, a hand suddenly popped up. A rotten hand. Then many more appeared, in everywhere in the battle area. The hand then used the ground below as base and emerged that could haunt a child for the rest of his life. From the ground emerged dozens of soldiers, risen from the dead, their flesh still decaying, their body still retained the weapons and armors from their livings. Of course, they were only computer generated figures, but it looked so real. That you could feel it was right there.

"Kyah!"

It was right there, next to you, ready to drag you onto the ground.

A yell from Yuuki alerted me, as I could notice hands popping up around me. One of which grabbed onto my legs, in which I quickly slashed, amputated it. And from what I may suspect, they had grabbed onto my young partner as well. And damned me if I was wrong. Yuuki was trying to get her legs free of the zombie's hands but was struggling. I could see the situation pretty bad for her, so I rushed to her position. With a few swords plays, I cut through all the arms that were grabbing hold onto her, allowing her to flee the area without further damage.

"Thanks! Man, those zombies are so annoying!" She said as we both moved to the rear of the arena.

It should be fairly easy to deal with those arms, but this time probably because she was near the demon, so she had more to worry about than just those creepy hands.

"I mean this is usually the point when I die, so I share your view," I said. "Say, have you gotten through this point of the level?"

"I, I mean we have, up until the final health bar. Then the boss's attack speed got faster, and we died." She replied.

"Hmm. So do you have any sort of plans for this one?"

"I do actually. But it involves three or more players combined. A magic user and two assault players."

"Do you use magic?" I asked as she shook her head, firmly and decisively.

"Nah ah. Just some personal ones like cloaking, but it doesn't work in the boss environment. Do you?"

"No…Not even one." I replied. "If we don't have any magic or buffs, and this is a flight restrictive environment, how do you think we are going to get through this one?"

"Hmm…" She gave a long hum, her hands pinching her chin again and again. "Ah! I have an idea!"

"What is it?"

"The Demonlord at this current period of time will mainly let his soldiers fight, so his stats are not as high. He only regains the stats once all his minions are dead. So…" She raised her blade and pointed towards a few of these zombies. "If we can somehow round them up in one place, we can practically ignore them and attack the demon instead!"

"Soo…" I kind of get what she was saying, but wanted to confirm. "You're saying that the reason why we struggle is that we are attacking both the demon and his minions. So instead we should rally those minions and just let them chase us, while we hit on the demon?"

"Yup!" She nodded profusely. "We're fast, those zombies are slow. It will do it. No question!"

Yeah…the soundness of the plan did speak to me. Logically, it should be viable. Practically, well…no time for practical analysis. The zombies were approaching. No freaking way we could sit cozily and talk about how practical it was. We would just have to take this into our own hands.

"Let's do it!" I gave her an approval as we both got ready.

"Good luck!" She gave me a thumbs-up.

We were on our feet, and with a coordinated hand-signal, both of us dashed away.

I ran in the opposite direction as Yuuki, zigzagging around, booing those undead warriors. Fancy words aside, I was basically moving as fast as possible and stick my face as close as possible to those brainless dudes, so that their attention was drawn towards me. I knew that the game had coded them to chase after the nearest living player, so I simply just have to draw their attention, and they would follow me like ants. Swiftly, I zoomed across the map, being more careful not to repeat that mistake with the skeletons. I did not necessarily get too close.

Once I reached probably the rear of the map, I quickly spotted Yuuki on the other rear, as she shot me a wave, and a signal to head for a common meeting point. Wasting no minutes, I headed there. Our distance closed. Once there, we simply waited as the zombies sluggishly drag their wretched body across the battle arena.

"Ok, once they're near, we'll charge," I whispered to her, right before she gave me a nod as a response.

"Don't aim for the horse. The body takes more damage." She also added as I took note.

No signals this time. The zombies would be our call. As they were mindlessly trying to bog us down, we were tactically communicating. Once the moment was right, we both sped away, rushing at the demon, away from the zombies. I was at the right of the demon, while Yuuki tried to keep up with my great speed at the left. Neared, I devoted my techniques, my skills, my power, everything I had into my blade.

Up, down, up, down-left, dodge.

I used every single moment I had before the boss could retaliate against me and that I had to dodge. And once the boss had finished his attacks, the cycle repeated. On the other side, I could notice Yuuki. She was also ferociously hitting the demon with her sword techniques. Her long hair danced in sync with her elegant sword plays; they swirled, waved with her motions. She was amazingly good in swordsmanship, though it did not follow any particular sword style, not that I knew about. Her motions, the movements of her head, chest, hips, and limbs seemed more effortless. It was like she was not actually sword fighting…but rather dancing, and her opponent, the demon, was her dancing partner. You could say that her movements were all dependent on what her opponent would do. She would either move out of the way of her enemy's strike, parry it with utter grace and counter-attack with the strength that came not from brute strength, but from speed and refinement.

It would go on like that for a while, with Yuuki drawing most of the boss's attention, so that I had more time hitting on him, and both of us striking as quickly as possible before the zombies caught up to us. And then suddenly, the second health bar on the boss was depleted. The demon gave one large and menacing roar, as the purple energy aura began to surround him once again.

"His speed's up! Keep up the pace!" Yuuki yelled out

"HAAAH!"

With a shout, I slammed my blade onto his body, again like times before, cutting through his wicked flesh like a knife through butter, leaving in my trails only the red white mark that was defined in the game system as wounds. Rinse, repeat. I did that time again and again and again, as the boss's HP was slowly and tiresomely drained. It somehow appealed to me that he not just increased attack speed, but defenses as well. My attack was significantly weaker than before. Still, I was very lucky today. If this was actually what the boss was capable of, I would have been hopelessly humbled. If not for Yuuki, who was combining the effort to quench his life points while, more importantly, drawing the demon's attention for most of the time for me to strike. To be honest, if it weren't for her, I would never have gotten that sword.

And then, after countless attacks and endless tensions, the demon's health point reached zero. The horse the demon was sitting on seemed to lose its power, or perhaps its will, to stand, as the weakened animal finally broke, collapsing on the dirt-ground below. The flame of energy surrounding the demon began to waver, while the soldiers also fell dead while still trying to catch up to the two players. For the demon himself, his head, which had been fueled by the purplish energy for the whole battle, slowly began to disperse, as the flames weakened. Ultimately, the head disappeared, and the lifeless body collapsed along with the horse. The rest of the corpse then, like usual, turned into tiny little shards and also faded into oblivion…

I fell on one knee, my saber stabbing the ground, trying my best to stabilize my breathing. A long, tough battle, but I did it. No, we did it. It was all thanks to Yuuki…

I looked up at her. She was a bit silent, her breathing was audible. The movement of her chest and throat could also be seen pretty clearly from my position. She must be as tired as I do. Make sense, since she did more work that I do. But then…

"We did it, Hirano-san! We've beaten it!" She immediately went back to being the cheerful, energetic girl that struck the first impression on me. She was bouncing around in the arena in great delight; her hands were punching the air repeatedly. She was probably not believing what both she and I had accomplished.

I couldn't help but chuckle a bit. She was being very cute and endearing, and most importantly happy. I had no doubt. That smile on her face…

"Well, we did it…" I gave a rather tired and perhaps a little mood-killing response, but she didn't seem to care. She immediately rushed to my side as I stood up, her face beamed with delight and gratitude.

"Thank you Hirano-san! I'd lost my hope when I learned that my guildmates were away today, but you're a miracle today! Thank you so much!"

I was a little flustered, not sure how to respond to that. Her energy was a bit too much to keep up. But thankfully, before the whole situation turned awkward, something appeared in front of me. A silver panel saying:

Congratulations! You have beaten the dungeon boss!

Here is your prize: Obsidian Crusader (x1)

Obsidian Crusader. This must be the weapon.

Before I obtain the weapon, I looked briefly at the stats of the given weapon. My jaw nearly dropped. One-handed sword skill requirement: 700. I barely was able to wield that one. It was surely worthy of a boss dungeon drop.

I clicked the OK button on the panel, and the sword slowly began to materialize in front of me. The sword lengthened at about half of my height only, and was two-edged, with a sharp tip at one end of the blade. The sword boasted obsidian color and a unique design, with the section above the hilt shaped like a few diamonds place on top of each other. On the side of the blade, also above the hilt, similar design patterns were also apparent, but in gold. The hilt, on the other hand, was more or less simple. No fancy ornaments, just a black straight cylindrical hilt.

The blade slowly descended, and finally landed on my two palms. Despite the short length of the blade, it carried a significant amount of weight. 700 values of skill's worth. I placed my hand on the hilt and swung it around a few times. Yup, no doubt. This was surely a powerful blade.

Then, I looked at Yuuki. She was observing me curiously. Or more likely she was observing the blade curiously. Now that the boss fight was over, we were going to have to fight each other to determine the ownership of this weapon. That was what we agreed on earlier, but…

I just didn't feel like doing it anymore…

Observing the blade again, I sighed. Things were really bothering me. Truthfully, I really wanted this weapon. I had worked for a week for this weapon, trying my hardest despite odds trying to obtain the weapon. But now that I had achieved it with Yuuki here, for some reasons, I just didn't feel like the weapon deserved to be with me. Maybe because for the whole battle, Yuuki was probably the one doing the most work out there. She probably had dished out more damage than I do. She also undeniably helped to keep the demon distracted so that I could do my job properly. That she was the one who deserved the Obsidian Crusader more than me. Or maybe…

"Here."

Or maybe because I thought that the blade wouldn't do much good for a dying man like me…

"Eh?" Yuuki's eyes widened, looking confused.

"Take it. It's yours." I forced a smile, hoping to just get this over with, but the inevitable question could not be dodged.

"W-Why? I thought you want it too?" She asked.

"Yeah, but I don't think I'm gonna be able to beat you anyway, so…" I lied my way through. Maybe I was actually right, but I was actually not telling the real reason.

"Hey…don't be so pessimistic. I saw you fighting that demon back there, you were great! Believe me, you may even surprise yourself."

Surprise me?

I chuckled bitterly.

"Nah. I saw you fight that thing too. You surely did more work than I do." I pushed the sword into her hands. Heavily I sighed.

"Besides, I just didn't want to anymore…"

I just let my mind slipped. And those words seemed to cut somehow. Yuuki probably had noticed it. That pathetic and defeated look on my face. It was funny, I should've been happy instead since this was our victory, but instead, I wore a face like I just got my ass kicked. She was silent herself, her eyes were looking around, seemingly unable to answer me.

But at least she held onto the blade. Seemed like my words got through somehow, though I probably had left questions in her mind. But it was fine by me. I might never meet her again anyway, and the sword would serve its new owners better. Hopefully.

"Anyway, it has been a great experience so far. I'll see you again, hopefully."

I said my goodbyes and was about to turn away and leave.

"Wait!"

Yuuki suddenly called me, stopping me in my tracks. I turned myself around, only to see the young Imp a little hesitant. A light pink hue seemed to formulate on her cheeks, as she scratched her hair once again. She tried to laugh but wasn't enough to hide the fact that she didn't know what to say.

"D-Do you want to have a drink then? Just to celebrate our victory. I mean, we still work together back there. I just want to thank you for your help…"

There were little reservations while she was saying that, but at the end, she gave me a smile. It made it harder to say no. I mean I found little point in associating with someone else now. But that smile and cheerfulness, for some reasons, I felt attracted. It really felt like I would have done something wrong if I refused.

I looked down at the floor a few times, the grip on my sword loosened. It wouldn't hurt, right?

"Sure, no problem."

I know. The fight sequence sucks. I just don't write close quarter combat fights that well. But this is probably the only few fights written in this story, as this is a more emotion-oriented story, so please bear with me.

If you ask me, the Obsidian Crusader is actually Yuuki's sword that is used in canon. I do not know exactly if it has a different name in the books or anything, so correct me if I'm wrong.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed. Please comment on what you think if you have time, what I should improve on so that I can work on it in later chapters. I'll see you guys later!