Floor 10 - Chapter 2 - Mixed Signals

There were very rare occasions when Klein felt a great deal of sympathy for Kibaou and Lind - he had to deal with problematic guild members too, after all. Actually, that was a slight exaggeration... it was a problematic member, not a plurality of them. Sometimes, he wondered if Jet had left Strea with him as punishment for something, but had settled on it being more likely that Strea was a lone wolf by nature.

The thing was, he didn't blame her for going off on her own. Fuurinkazen were a very tight knit group, having been unofficially formed well before SAO, back when Klein had - by his own admission - way too much spare time on his hands. Unfortunately, this tight knit nature would inevitably have made it difficult for a newcomer to get involved in anything they did. Strea had only been really present for a few of their social events and for the boss battles, and outside of that, went off to do her own thing.

Even when he'd tried to talk her into coming out on a quest with them, outside of the exceptional ones, she'd shrugged her shoulders and told him she'd see. In other words... no. The experience of his teenage years had taught him that much around women, that the words ''I'll see'' mean ''No, but I can't say that.''. Strea though, she was... he thought of the words to describe her, and once a series of profanities had flashed past, the word he settled on was ''unique''.

In the time he had spent with her, she was often moody, impatient, and ill tempered when she was sober... but somehow, after a few drinks, he felt he saw the person she truly was. She'd told him about her mother and father, and a number of her dad's stories, making him sound like a war hero in the process. She'd told him about the places she'd visited, and how she felt like she'd lost a piece of her humanity every time, but only kept going because she felt she had nothing else. She'd even kissed him on New Year's Day, and told him not to listen to her sometimes...

The less said about what both had woken up to the next morning, the better. Neither of them had mustered the courage to speak about it, and he had a bad feeling that would continue to be the case for a while...

All of which gives a pretty good summary of why he was struggling to explain anything about Strea to Thinker. He could barely make hide nor hair of it to himself, let alone explain it to someone else!

''She's... quite something.'' He settled on that to explain Strea. It wasn't wrong... just very ambiguous. Like her, in other words, he thought to himself, before deciding to ask Thinker a few questions about his partner. ''So, Thinker... this Yulier chick, you two, you know, or...''

''Oh definitely not! She's my lieutenant, it wouldn't be proper...'' He answered, with a look that Klein picked up on. That of someone trying to convince themselves of their own words...

''Anyway, where'd you say you reckoned she was?''

''Ah yes, we got separated over... here.'' Thinker pointed to a small ravine that led further down into the forest. That would explain how they'd gotten split up, chances were that she'd fell down the ravine, and was now wandering the forest. A forest full of mobs that they had no idea what to expect from.

''So you think she's in the forest?''

''It's possible. I have the utmost faith in her though, and I know she's still alive, her status indicator is still present.''

''Then we'll go find her.'' Klein gave his best impression of an action hero as he spoke.

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Some time had passed, and between the two guild leaders, they'd certainly cleared a fair share of the Black Guardians. Something stood out to both leaders though, their innate gamer senses telling them that the vastly reduced number of mobs showing up had to be an indicator that someone had come through here very recently. Klein was the first to speak up, voicing his thoughts ''It's not just me that thinks we've had it easy now, is it?''

''I'd say you may have a point. The Black Guardians seem to not be spawning as frequently now as they did when we entered.'' Thinker agreed, before putting his spear away. The peaceful air of the forest was soon broken by voice that was very familiar to Klein..

''And I refuse to let it be in vain!'' Klein sighed. Of course Strea would be at the epicentre of any trouble... though, he was somewhat concerned. She never really raised her voice unless she was extremely angry, or upset at something, at least in his experience. So what was going on over there?

The two looked at each other, and soon began sprinting towards the danger, weapons at the ready...

...Not that they were needed.

Breaking through the treeline, the leaders noticed that the situation was completely under control, as the last of the Black Guardians died a rather unceremonious death at Yulier's hands, whilst Strea heaved her sword onto her back. In a rather uncharacteristic display of emotions, from what Klein had seen earlier, Thinker shouted out to Yulier, and raced over to her. Yeah she was only his lieutenant, Klein thought to himself...

Klein thought about his next action momentarily, and settled for just calling to her. Whatever happened next would be awkward regardless. ''Strea!''

Strea audibly sighed, and turned around, a look of smugness on her face, and a look of ''I'd rather be anywhere but here'' in her eyes. ''Klein.''

''I'm glad you're okay. Haven't seen you about for a few days?''

''Of course I'm fine.'' She snapped back at him. ''Why wouldn't I be?''

''Just asking, ya know. You don't need to bite my head off...'' Strea muttered something unintelligible under her breath and stormed off, making sure to push past Klein as she did so.

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Sometimes, Strea felt as if she should've punched someone by now. Between her brother and his idiotic hero complex, her idiotic guild leader, and the myriad of other idiots she'd dealt with in Aincrad, it was actually a miracle in her eyes that no one had a black eye yet. She hadn't needed help from any of them, and yet here they were, trying to make her look as if she were a child that needed constant supervision... ''Not that I need help with that.'' she bitterly thought to herself.

As she'd stormed off, it appeared that Yulier had followed her, for some reason. Well, that guaranteed that Klein wasn't too far behind then ''I'll go out on a limb here, and assume you two have some prior history?'' she asked.

''You know when you do something completely stupid, and you never want to confront it, because you know it'll dig up some other mess you tried to bury years ago?'' Yulier stared blankly at her, before her expression contorted, trying to understand what Strea was asking. ''Okay, yeah, we have prior. New Years, I woke up in bed with him, after both of us got blackout drunk, and I don't want to talk about it.''

''It sounds like you need to, even if you don't want to. Storming off at the slightest provocation does make you look a little childish...''

''It's not just that, I know he means well, but the whole trying to make sure I'm safe thing, can you believe I have to tell him where I'm going at the start of every day?'' She asked, a long of frustration present on her face.

''A little bit, yes. We tend to ask our members to do the same thing, it just means we know where they are in an emergency.'' Yulier admitted, as Strea deflated into her shoulders, ready to admit defeat.

''I know that I'm stuck in a catch 22, too. If I tell him that what happened meant nothing, then I look like a complete slag who only wanted to get her leg over. If I tell him it did mean something, I know he'll confess his love or something for me, and I am not ready for that...'' Strea laughed, but it was clear that she found no mirth in the situation.

''Can I offer my thoughts on the situation?'' Yulier asked, her tone offering no indicator of what she wanted to say.

''Sure.''

''Both of you need to sit down and talk about it, because at the current rate, it will spiral out of control if you don't.'' Yulier stated bluntly, realising that was the easiest way to get through to the woman in front of her.

''You really don't mince your words, do you?'' Strea laughed again, smirking in amusement.

''I find people don't trust you if you speak as if you've swallowed a dictionary.'' Yulier smiled back, as Strea burst out laughing again at the thought of her siblings, before a darker thought appeared.

''Either that, or they trust you too much...'' The tone that Strea stated that with made Yulier think she had a specific person in mind, but considering she already knew a fair bit more about her than most, she felt it was better not to pry. Without so much as a word from either woman, the walk back through the forest felt more than a little bit awkward, as both thought about their current situations, with only Strea occasionally sighing in irritation at something in her head to cut through the silence...

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Walking back through the treeline, it was obvious to Klein that Strea was conflicted. He'd known that for a while, but the look on her face was a dead giveaway - somewhere between irritated and saddened, if he had to guess. Deciding to try and break through to her a little bit, he chose to start the conversation

''Strea, I'm sorry. I realise I probably come across a bit of an-'' He attempted to apologise.

''If it's anyone's fault, it's mine.'' She shut him down fast, before continuing, ''I've spent so long thinking its me, myself and I, that I'm not really sure how well I can actually work in a group anymore... and you definitely don't deserve all the insults I throw at you.''

That was news to Klein. Other than calling him a ''Cassanova wannabe'', she hadn't really insulted him otherwise, had she? ''Uhh, what insults?''

''Oh right, I don't say those out loud usually.'' Strea gave an innocent smile towards him, ''But yeah. You try your best with the guild... and then you have to put up with me.''

''If you think the problem is that you struggle to work with ours, then we'll all help you out.'' Klein placed a hand on Strea's shoulder, an action which, were it anyone else, would be grounds to lose the arm, but now? She'd accept it... ''But right now, we've got a quest to complete!'' He snapped back to ''Samurai Mode'', as she called it.

''We have?'' Strea asked. As far as she was aware, her ''quest'' was simply to help gather information for Argo, not an actual quest.

''We need to head back over to the Bamboo Shrine to start it though.''

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The walk back to the Shrine was uneventful, except for the two pairs filling each other in on what they'd learned so far, and vice versa. They now knew how to deal with the mobs efficiently - leave Strea to fight them off, and cover her. There was a reason she was the powerhouse of Fuurinkazen after all, even if she was never with them.

Back at the entrance to the Shrine though, a small, cloaked figure was stood there waiting... ''Ah, ya finished tha' job then?''

''Here's what I've got.'' A message was shown to Argo, and then sent to her.

''Brill. Here's ya reward then.'' 3000 Col, nothing to sniff her nose up at. ''I 'ssume ya wanna do the story quest, right?'' A nod from Strea, and Argo continued, ''Well, the quest starts wit' an NPC accusin' the envoy of the snake god on this floor of kidnappin' his daughter. Accordin' to the father, his daughter had bin hearin' the snake god's voice fer a while, an' was in considerable pain. One day, he caught 'er whisperin' to a white snake in the garden, an' offerin' ta help it... Concerned fer her safety, he locked her in her room, an' kept watch. Next mornin', though? Gone. He checked the garden, an' saw what he thought were big snake tracks... which is why he figures the snake snatched 'er.''

''So it probably wasn't the snake then.'' Strea asked, although the way she asked sounded suspiciously like a statement, rather than a question.

''Can't say, that's fer ya to find out...'' Argo gave a small grin, before her expression soured. ''The quest is ta bring back his daughter, but it always left a bitter taste in the tester's mouths...''

''Let me guess, it's not bringing her back alive...''

''In the beta, ya went inta th' cave she was been held in, and all that was left was a sleeve.'' Klein looked back at Strea, and noted her expression becoming more sorrowful, giving him a sense that she'd seen something like this before...

''No way to save her then?''

''Not in the beta, at least. Tho' we kinda ran outta time by that point.'' Argo admitted, remembering the last day of the beta. ''Anyway, outta vengeance, th' dad hired a certain samurai who just so happens ta have a grudge 'gainst the Lord of Senja Castle, and that was where we got up ta in the beta. If I had ta guess tho', I'd say her death was a scripted event right from the beginnin'.''

''Except this time around, the daughter's still alive. She's hiding in the cave, but she refuses to be helped. The guys are all there, taking their shot to get her out the cave...''

''Any luck?'' Strea asked, slightly optimistic... if only because there were five of them. Surely between five of them, they could talk a girl out of a cave, right?

''Uhh, not yet.'' Well, that taught her to be optimistic. ''Oh, wait! She's left the cave... and fled in the opposite direction.'' Even Klein looked mildly annoyed at that outcome, whilst Strea snickered into her hand. ''They're tailing her, but we should probably get a move on. Argo, can you tell Thinker and Yulier here we've gone?''

''Go an' save the princess, samurai Klein...'' Argo's grin made clear just how hilarious she was finding the situation, as Klein and Strea took off to find the girl..

{Author's Comments}

Another short chapter this week, as the week has been... somewhat hectic. Finding out you've got into University does tend to do that.

As always, if you're enjoying the story, or want to leave any feedback, leave a review or a send me a PM, follow and favourite etc.

Signing off,

Midland 2541.