SAO progressive Alternative,

by Asahi_synthesis_36

Summary:

After the Skull reaper,boss of the 75 floor is beaten and that Kirito had defeated Kayaba. The players did not get freed and now have to advance to the floor 100

Notes:

Hi for those you read my 1st sao story. Here is an alternative turn of event. Here Akira didnt let Rin left the town of beginning Alone. This change the whole story since both survived till floor 75. Now here there story from there to the floor 100.

Chapter 1: Despair

At last I felt I gained control of my body again. The virtual one to be precise. The real one is still on a hospital bed, my vitals being watched by infirmaries and doctors, like 10 000 others. No, some of us are gone, from this world, and the other one too. 6161 survived. Wait, “ I hate sucking at math” i thought. I was forgetting the players we lost at floor 75. 14 died from the boss, a huge centipede-like skeleton named The skull reaper. Then my 2nd best friend, the black swordsman named Kirito, discovered that our symbol of hope, the commander of the Knight of blood oath ,was kayaba himself. The 2 fought for the future of Aincrad. Kayaba promised to free us all if Kirito won, which he did. So 15 deaths making 6147 survivors.

 

As I was working out the number of survivors, I started to feel a weight on my chest. Not the same as the paralysis effect, a weight I knew well. Then the scent of Jasmine reached my nose. Those sensations bring me back from the world of my mind, bring me back to the cruel reality I was in. Kirito had defeated Kayaba, the ruler of this world but the commander didn't keep his promise. We were still trapped inside this floating prison named Aincrad.

Suddenly many cries of despair and fear overrun the silence that was present in the room. My shirt also begins to be soaked by the tears of a girl. I gently raised my hand to caress the young girl's dark hair and whispered in her left ear.

Don’t worry Rin,I said. I’m here ! I’m here !

I didn’t know if those words truly comfort her but I could feel her head move to nod in agreement.
I continued to caress her hair. I recall to myself all we went through a trap in Aincrad, but the most important to me was back on the 7th floor of Aincrad, Lectio. After losing most of my money at the casino we had a small fight ending with us confessing what we felt for so long. Way before Aincrad. But they also discover how to turn off the ethics code. After a sleepless night, I proposed to her to become my wife.

She said yes. It's been a long time and u never thought of leaving her and it wasn't the hollow words of Kayaba that will change that. If it means staying in the city and stopping fighting then I would not mind. Being in the real world or Aincrad. Rin, of her real name Reina, she was my world and so it didn't matter where we were.

After a few seconds that felt like multiple minutes, I look forward, Kirito and his partner, Asuna, trying their best to calm the frontline group panic. It was one hour later, more calm, that the frontline raised their feet again, and walked to the next floor.

Chapter 2

Thank you sir ! Said a elderly woman's voice. As soon as she was over a window opened in my sight

QUEST COMPLETE
col earned: 3500 col
Exp earned: 4500
Reward: leather belt

 

I press the “ see information” icon for the Leather Belt.

Defense +10 / vitality +6

I closed the page and opened my character window to equip the belt.

I then heard a voice, a gentle voice and also soothing. Running to reach me, the dark haired girl with blue eyes was waving her hand cheerfully. Once she reached me, she came to a stop, pressing her hands on my shoulder. Raising on the tips of her toes, she kissed me. I close my eyes embracing the warmth of my beloved partner. The moment lasted for nearly 25 seconds but for me it felt like it was barely less than 1.

So you have finished your quests for today Aki ? Asked me my partner, Rin.

Her real name was Reina but in this game she called her avatar Rin. My real name was Akira but in-game, Manus. Well , to be fair, now most of my friends knew my real name and were calling me by it, except Rin, she decided to give me.the surname Aki.

Yes, I replied to her.

I opened my status window to look at my new level.

 

Oooh ! I said loudly. I have reached level 104.

What ? Replied Rin slightly offended. That is not fair, I am only level 101.

I looked at her and saw she was cutely pouting. Unable to hold back a laugh, I tried to cover my mouth with my hand which made Rin pout even more. I kissed her left cheek before taking her hand in mine.

Let me make up for it Rin. Let's find some quest we can do together. I said

She sighed before replying to me that it wouldn't be enough, that she needed a date to the new coffee shop that just opened on the North-West wide of Arc Sophia, the main city of the floor 76. As we walked I started to get lost in my mind again.

It's been a week already since we defeated the Skull Reaper and reached floor 76. And despite being only 1 week, so many things have already happened.

First of all, as we activate the floor 76 teleporter, all the players from the lower floor got sent to Arc Sophia, and the lower floors are now inaccessible.

Then the KOB guild( Knight of the blood oath) had a change of leadership with the commander gone, Heathcliff, real name Kayaba.

Also we realise the enemies on this floor are so strong the top player doesn't know what to do. Adding to this, most players are afraid and fell into despair again and stay in town.

And worst of all, our top player, the dual wielder Kirito is gone somewhere else and isn't on the frontline. Rin being in contact with Asuna could only gather that he was trying to help a player named Philia and so he wouldn't be there to find the labyrinth.

Aki ! AKIII !

The voice of Rin got me out of my thoughts once again.

Seriously ! You were lost again. Said Rin.

Sorry sorry !

It was the only thing I could say at the moment. It was true that I was getting lost in thoughts regularly for the last week. I was concerned for the state of the Frontline. If we were not going back into action soon, who knows how long our body in the real world would last.

The major problem was the 3 main guilds.

Kob was now switching to a new lead but the news of Kayaba being the past leader broke the trust the players had in them.

The DDA( Divine Dragon Alliance) who loved treasure hunting were sulking because of the loss of their previous HeadQuarter and their treasures.

Then the ALS(Aincrad Liberation Squad) was still suffering from their great loss on floor 25 and floor 74.

None of them act as they should. Well to be fair Asuna was doing her best but alone she can’t make it.

Dammit Kirito ! Where are you ? I whispered to myself.

We reached a stand serving some tortilla meals. Rin was looking at the menu, seemingly unable to make a choice. I looked at what hours it was and I saw the 13 o clock. No wonder she was getting hungry.

Hey Rin, can I ask you a question ?

What is it ? She replied without breaking eye contact with the menu.

How far did the frontline go on this floor ? I asked

 

Rin seems to have finally made her choice. I will take 2 extra spicy burritos, she said. She paid the npc. Took the 2 burritos, gave me one and we sat down on a bench on the fountain place. I took a bite on it and felt like my mouth was on fire but in Rin's case it didn't seem to bother her.

After she took a bite too, she started to answer my question.

Well it will depend, she started.
The great guild are still debating on how to proceed but DDA are the farther ahead , in the webbed Forest. For the lower level player, she continued, they are making a party and small guild and takes on the bees and boar close to the city. And the farther the small group did is barely 1 km before the Webbed forest. So the webbed forest is as far as the Frontline did go but it's on the opposite side of the labyrinth.

After she finished, she took another bite in her burrito.

And who is this small team ? I asked

You know them, Liz,Silica, Leafa and Sinon. Rin said.

 

I knew well only 2 of them Liz was my go to blacksmith. I trust her with my equipment as I would trust her with my life.

Silica the beast tamer is a player i and Rin have teamed up with a few times on Kirito recommendation.

For the other 2, i wasn’t sure to be able to recognise them

All I was certain of was that Leafa appeared 6 days ago and Sinon 5.

Seeing my confusion, Rin clarified things for me.

Leafa is the cheerful blonde fairy looking girl. She is also Kirito's sister. Sinon is a beautiful, shy and calm girl. Ah and she is the one who fell from the sky.

Ah i see , i said.

As I was eating my burrito I saw 2 young girls further ahead. One was a frail looking girl, not older than 7 years old. The other one who was holding as much as she could, the fragile girl, was no older than 10. She was wearing a short white robe and had long black hair. It took me a few to remember that I saw her before. She was once with Asuna.

WAIT ! I said loudly. It’s Yui !

Notes:

Thank you to you who read this story. I know this chapter can feel long due to lack of meaningful action. I felt like slowly setting where the state of events in Aincrad before going into the actions was the way to go.
I promise next chapter thing gonna start since the duo of Aki and Rin will need to leave town. See you at next chapter

Chapter 3: Canza's family

Notes:

Hey readers, its been a while. I am sorry for the wait, i got busy irl and was not sure anymore where to go with the first arc of the story but now we are going into it. I will try to be regulary posting 1 chapter per month or every 2 months. I hopr you will stay with me till the end. Thank you

I stood up and ran toward the young girl dressed in white. Behind me, my partner ate her burrito as fast as she could and ran to catch up. It took me only 10 seconds to close the distance between the child and me.

Hey! Yui ! I loudly said.

The young one turned her head back and greeted me with her usual kindness.

Hi Akira ! She said. Hi Rin.

Good morning Yui, my partner said. Where are your parents ?

 

The young girl took a while before answering.

Papa is helping someone in the hollow area and mama is with her guild. Yui said.

 

For Yui, when she said “papa” she meant Kirito and ,of course, “mama” meant Asuna. The day after we all reach Arc sophia, on the 76th floor of the floating Castle named Aincrad, Kirito and Asuna, our closest friends in this world, present Yui as their child. Of course she wasn’t truly theirs. In fact Yui was an AI,

Artificial
Intelligence

She was supposed to look after the players mental health but with how the first day of SAO happened, she had been prevented from helping the players. In the end, Kirito and Asuna found her and took her as their own child.

 

Ok, i started, i'm glad to see you Yui but who is that ?

I pointed with my finger toward the child Yui was holding up with her 2 arms. She was a young girl, at best 2 years younger than Yui. She had silver hair and she was very skinny. Skinny in a way she was looking sick. It was at this moment I saw a symbol above the silver haired girl. A ! Symbole. Now it was sure, Yui was holding an Non-Playable Character, in short, NPC.
I looked at my right where Rin stood. Our eyes locked with each other and without exchanging words, we agreed upon the next course of action.

Hey Yui, spoke Rin while looking back at Yui again. What is your friend's name ?

Renvyla, said the girl in white.

Ok. So , Renvyla, my name is Rin and here is my friend Akira. Would you mind letting us help you ?

I was still unused to calling myself Akira instead of Manus for the npc but Rin insisted that it was way better and that many people knew my name already, so hiding it was pointless. If i were to be honest to myself i was wondering if a part of what she said about preferring the name Akira over Manus simply didn't come from the bad experience she had fighting bosses named Manus.
First one in Dark soul and the second in Lies of P. As for the first, she gave up and asked me to do it for her. I could still remember her adorable pouting face. It was so cute that I had to take a picture and print it to carry it in my wallet. For the second case, she eventually did it after many hours. For the “pain” I put her through by making her play these games, she forced me to bring her out to a fancy restaurant.

 

After Rin talks with Renvyla, the young sick girl lifts her head slowly. It was less because she took her time but more like she had difficulty doing that. Renvyla simply nodded.

Now a “?” symbol appeared and an update to mine and Rin quest log appeared:

 

A Girl Wish:
Objective: Bring Renvyla home

 

As I just finished reading the quest log, Renvyla's mind seems to slip away from her fragile body. She was falling to the ground. As fast as I could, I switched positions with Yui to catch the young silver-haired girl. Suddenly a woman's voice called us with haste. The voice didn't seem to be from an old lady but there was a deepness that made me sure she was older than me and Rin, older by one or two decades.

The woman repeated herself but now with a bit of anger probably due to my lack of response.

“ Hurry up ! She is dying”

I understood immediately who she was speaking of. It was about the delicate and fragile young girl laying in my arms. So I lifted the child and held her close. I looked at the older woman who was wearing a maid outfit.

Rin was faster to say something than me who was still shocked by what was going on.

“ We follow you,” said my blue eyed partner.

The maid nodded and then started to run toward a smaller street of the market district. Me , Yui and Rin followed the lead of the newcomer who was also a Npc. We ran for 10 minutes without a break. Constantly switching from left to right and into different alleys. Thanks to the high strength and agility statistics I had, I could run nearly as fast as my dark haired friend and the maid herself despite carying Renvyla in my arms and Yui holding on my back like a cute koala.

At last we reached a huge fence gate. Behind it, there was a beautiful manor. Looking at it, I estimate the manor to be 4 floors high. The exterior walls were made of a beautiful white colored stone while the rooftop was made of red one. A cobblestone paving was linking the Fence to the manor and to the East side of the land.
There, I could see a magnificent poplar tree. A bit farther there was a small 3 stage high fountain made of marble. On top of it was a statue of a woman holding her baby in her arms.

When my friend and I reached the gate, the maid raised her right hand to signal us to stop. At each side of the fence door were heavy equipped guards. Large armor of steel covering most of their body. Only their faces with their large chin were visible. When we got closer, the guards raised their spear at us and with a loud voice, one of them asked us to identify ourselves.The maid, without a sign of panic or distress in her face, reached the pocket on the left side of the chest of her apron. She took out a thing resembling a stamp. From the side I was I couldn't make out the shape of it, nor what the symbol was . Without having too much time to imagine it, the maid showed the guards the stamp she was holding. The guards leaned forward to examine the object. After 30 seconds of wait , they straighten themselves.

Lady Furiko ! We are sorry we didn’t recognize you, said one of the guards.

 

No need for an apology. She replied with haste. Just open the gate, the young lady is dying.

Without losing any more seconds, the guards moved on the sides after unlocking the gigantic fence door. So our group, me, Rin and Yui, still holding onto my back,followed Furiko inside the manor.

I was wrong. This was what I realised once we got closer to Renvyla home. The manor had 5 floors and once we got inside, my friends and 1 were shocked by the majestic look of this place. It was such a luxurious place that it felt like it was a home out of a dream. On each side were door shaped holes that lead to other areas of the manor and further ahead in front of us, a stair enough big to let 10 people walk side by side. On top, the railing of the stairs were made of pure gold. We could see all of this because of the luster above use. There was also so much action going on, many maids or other servants running around and between the different rooms and some taking orders from Lady Furiko. The maid in chief, once done giving orders, told us to follow her to Renvyla's room. Of course it was on the fifth floor. Even if it was still a game, I felt tired with all that running and walking up all those stairs when we reached the floor with the bedroom of the young girl I had in my arms.
On the fifth floor, Furiko turned left in a corridor and then on the right and she opened a door that led us to Renvyla's bedroom. She asked me to lay down the silver-haired girl on her bed while she was going to get some medicine.

A huge process started. Lady Furiko mix many herbs with water, then add more herbs and water then mix it again, she then crush a nuts like item and mix the liquid inside with the rest of the mixture. The process continued for a whole other 5 minutes which I stopped trying to follow. Lady Furiko, finally done, got closer to the slender body of the sliver haired noble girl, lift her head slightly and made her drink the weird mixture.

With that done Lady Furiko told us to follow her again and this time, she led us to the second floor in a cozy room with a window view on the fountain I had noticed before.

My lady's pain should be relieved by now, said the maid calmly while looking at the window. But once this was said, she turned to face us, I could see the worry in her eyes. I turned to look at Rin to check if she was ok with what I wanted to do.
Without needing a word to understand each other, she nodded to tell me to proceed.
Before making a move, I let Yui off my back and gave a simple pat on her head and walked forward . Now less in a hurry, I took a closer look at Lady Furiko.
She was indeed an older woman, probably in her late twenties, she had golden hair with red locks and emerald like eyes. She had a captivating beauty that was not only coming from her look but the way she was standing , her piercing gaze and an aura of a leader. The young boy I was, suddenly got shy. How can I speak to someone like her ?

The shyness was born of fear. I felt like her presence was intimidating and that I had to be cautious of every word I say. Despite that, I managed to spit out a simple “ is there anything else we can do ?”

After saying this, a ! Appeared over her head signaling a quest progress.

Yes, Said the woman.

She then pointed to us a sofa and invited us to sit on it. As we started to go there , Lady Furiko raised her voice.

 

Mr. Herkon, she spoke.

A man immediately entered the room with a stuttering “yes mam”

The maid's voice lowered down a few levels, and in a more gentle but firm voice requested four cups of tea.

Huh, I would prefer coffee . I call out to the man named Herkon. But before being able to hear an answer from him I received a weak punch on my left ribs from Rin.

Don't be impolite. she said with a slight sign of despair and her other hand holding her face.

He will take tea too, sorry for that, said Rin.

Lady Furiko didn't say a word, she simply nodded and sat down on the couch while Herkon left the room.
We followed Furiko exemple and did the same.

The two place couch was quite small for the three of us but i had an idea. I told Yui to sat on Rin laps. The 2 girls agreed to that. Once sat, Rin started to play with Yui hair. I look at them with a gentle look. Seeing Rin like this made me think she would be a sweet and loving mom but also that it was cute how Rin and Yui got close since we reach the floor 76, she was like an aunt figure and sometime was the one looking over Yui when Kirito and Asuna were busy.

After this brief moment, Herkon came back with the cups of tea, for some reason mine was bigger than all the others. I made a pleading look at Rin to beg her to switch her cup with mine but her only response was to close her right eyes and stick out her tongue to mock me before laughing at my tragic fate.

Lady Furiko drank a few sips of what seemed ,for her, to be black tea. Done with that she put down her cup and straightened herself to look at us.

First off, she started with, what are your names ?

Me and Rin proceed as such but I bugged out for a moment, what would happen if Yui, who is still an AI, interacts with Furiko.

I'm Renvyla's friend, Yui ! Said the daughter of the two scariest individuals of the frontline.

Thank you ! Said Furiko, smiling. I'm so glad to hear that the little lady has a friend.

That word brought tears to the maid's eyes.
She wiped them with her left arm before continuing.

Sorry about that, she said. As far as your question sir Akira, yes there is something that you can do to help but it is a long story.

How long ? I asked

Suddenly I felt an intense gaze toward my person coming from my right
I slowly looked at the scary woman. It was so intense I could mostly see fire surrounding her while there was still Yui calmly sitting on her laps drinking her tea. Rin's eyes were silently telling me what she meant. “ Don’t make me repeat myself !”

Ok ok, nevermind, Lady Furiko please continue” i said.

As usual, like most NPC, Lady Furiko didn't comment on my and Rin's behavior, she simply continued where she was stopped.

The young lady is afflicted , like all the women in her family, by an old curse. Fifty centuries ago, the first Lady of the Canza family had two suitors. A beautiful and gentle farmer boy and the other was the Demon god who we lost record of his name. The demon god realise the first Lady of the Canza, Aligya, had inheritent of the blood of the goddess of life. In pursuit of power and make his bloodline rule over Aincrad he tried to seduce Aligya but failed. Despite what many would have thought, Lady Aligya chose the farmer boy. This decision was seen by the demon god as treason. In response, he cursed every women of the family and their descendants to not live older than 12.

Due to this cruel act. The goddess of love, still alive, sacrificed her own life for her daughter, she used all her power to create the garden of the golden roses. Each rose possess the power to invert the curse but after being taken, the rose and its power only last a day. Being impossible to keep them. It was decided that every time a women of the Canza family showed signs of the curse, a regiment was sent to collect a rose. This last and worked till one decade ago. The young lady mother have seen history repeat itself. She, herself, had to suitor, two noble men, Alector of the Erskin family, and Leon of the Alverich family.

 

The young lady mother chose the heir of the Alverich family. This put Erskin prince in such rage that he sent his own men to burn the garden of the golden rose. Of course he was executed for this crime. But this heinous act was only discovered when Renvyla’s mother had her first daughter. When the sign of the curse appeared and the soldiers were sent to the garden, nothing was left. The young lady mother had to bury her two years old baby. This left an impact on my master.

Lady Furiko took a pause. The last part was awfully hard to hear. No mother should see their children die. Knowing how Rin was sensible to this, i gently wipe the tears of her eyes and then pat her head. I made sure she knew i was here with her so everything would be fine. Once she was feeling better, I leaned and kissed her. Even if it was a bit embarrassing to do it in front of everyone. I know it was what Rin needed at this moment.

Please take your time Lady Furiko, it's ok with us, I reassure her.

The maid took a deep breath before proceeding to tell the next part of her story.

After the first child of my master died, she had 5 boys, the boys being not afflicted, it lightened my master's heart, but then came the young lady. We all thought my master wouldn't be able to bear to see the curse again but… when it started to appear, my master took her weapon and ran for the garden. It's been 6 days now. I fear the worst. I don't know if I can bury them both.

 

Furiko, not being able to hold back anymore, broke into tears. Yui stood up and walked to the maid. Yui took Furiko's hands and smiled at her.

Dont worry Furiko, spoke Yui. We will help you !

 

When we finally got out of the manor, after Furiko's detailed explanation, the sun was already high in the sky. It was surely around 6pm.

Wanna stop to eat something Rin, i asked

 

She quietly nodded before saying that we should discuss our plan of action we will take tomorrow. It was true that it was late at night so going out of Arc Sophia safe zone would be dangerous, but at the same time ,I was looking at the quest timer because yes, this quest had one. Of all the quests in Aincrad, those were the ones I liked the least, a timer always did put huge stress on me. But by a chance of fate, we had 14 days to complete it. So I still felt stressed but also that we had time to prepare ourselves correctly.

 

Ok, I said, Rin take the lead with Yui please, I will send a message to Kirito and Asuna to tell them she is eating out with us.

As we walked, Yui and Rin were walking in front and talking together,I opened my menu window. I then opened my list and chose Asuna and the option to send her a message. I wrote to her first for 2 reasons. I felt like a mother would tend to be more scared if they didn't find their children when the dad,Kirito, would be trying to reassure her. Second, she was the first name appearing on my friend list.

 

Hello Asu. Don’t worry. Yui is with me and Rin. Good evening.

 

My finger presses the word “send” before going to write the same message,mostly, to Kirito. At the moment the message for Kirito got sent, I received Asuna's reply.

Ok ! Thank you for telling me Akira. Take care of her pls.

As I was about to close my menu window, I suddenly walked into the main place of Arc Sophia fountain. Before I was able to do anything, I tripped and fell into it. Now wet from head to toe, I look around to finally see Yui and Rin laughing a bit further. I realised they saw me not paying attention and set me up to let me fall here.

Seriously Rin ? I asked

Sorry sorry, she replied, but it was too funny.

I wish I could stay mad but seeing her and Yui laugh, I couldn't resist a smile. Being able to see Rin happy and enjoying her life was more than I could ask for.

After another 10 minutes, we finally reached the restaurant called the 4 stars of heaven. We got inside and the captivating smell of the kitchen reached us and dragged us further into the build. An NPC walked to us, made the usual welcome speech that every NPC waiter does, then pointed to a table for the 3 of us.

We all sat down.
Yui and Rin on one side, me on the other, and we took and started to read the menu. Seeing all there was in it, I asked Rin, who did eat there before with Liz and the little Silica, how it worked here. She replied fast but in an efficient way that we have 4 orders per person to make, entrance, main meal, dessert and drink.

As I was looking at the variety of food I could gather, I saw the young girl, sitting on the seat in front of me, acting agitated. It was obvious why, she was probably too shy to order food since it was someone other than her parents that were paying and everytime me and Rin looked after her, she was eating my home made meal.

As I was about to tell Yui she could order whatever she wanted, I remembered that me and Rin agreed to act like our money in this world was one account. So talk with each other before buying something. But before I could say anything to her, she asked me if it was ok to let Yui take whatever she wanted. I, of course, did not object.

Rin took

Pea soup at 100 col
Rabbit and carrots stew at 250 col
Strawberry cheese cake at 250 col
And a glass of water at 20 col

 

Yui, her, order

A plate of green grape with cheese cut in cube at 70 col
Extra spicy tacos at 270 col
2 honey pies at 100 col each
And an apple and grape juice for 30 col

As for me

A chicken soup for 75 col
A spinach and strawberry salad for 120
col
A black forest cake for 270 col
And a peach juice for 60 col.

 

Once the order was given to the NPC waiter and we paid our 1715 cols, our food arrived in less than 5 minutes. We enjoyed our entry and main meal before proceeding to discuss our plan while eating our dessert.

So, I started, with what Furiko told us, we know that the Garden was beyond the smithing ores mines and that they are on the west side of the city.

Yui, while shallowing her first honey pie, simply nodded.

And if, I continued while also putting down a map on the table, read the map Furiko gave us correctly, is 10 km away from the farthest point the frontline did reach ?

This time it was Rin who nodded as she ate her strawberry cheesecake.

So, i started again, tomorrow at 6, me and Rin will leave….

As I was about to continue to explain my plan, Yui interrupted me after she took the last bite of her second honey pie.

No ! I am coming with you. She said with determination.

 

Wait ! Wait ! You can’t, it is dangerous outside, you can die.

 

I know ! But Renvyla is my friend, so i will go.

 

The young girl slightly raised her fist to show that she won't accept refusal. I knew she would try to reach the garden by herself if we didn't go with her. So, without having a choice, I accept.

Ok fine but you gonna need to listen to all we say and stay close to us.

As Yui agreed, I gave her a teleport crystal to use as an emergency escape.

After this matter was solved, I explained my plan again.

I will attract the enemies to see what their pattern is and let Rin kill them with her two handed sword. Well, this was before i had to change it because Rin decided to tell me ,just now, that since the bug occurred on the 75 floor and the reset of our data, she exchanged her two hands sword for a one hand sword and a shield.

So new plan, Rin gets the enemies aggro and uses her shield to stay alive while forcing the enemies to show us their attack pattern.

Once all was settled, we bought Yui one cookie and a glass of milk before me and Rin left the restaurant and got to our inn. Yui to her own with her parents.

In our room, Rin equipped her own stuff to show it to me.

She now had a classic for the 76 floor merchant's steel sword with a great shield shining in blue. She was wearing plate armor in the color blue. Under the armor , I could see the white robe she was wearing, one similar to Asu’s kob outfit. At last, in an elegant style, her black hair beautifully tied together in a half up with a blue ribbon.

 

Her style was beautiful and captivating, a true beauty worthy of being called a princess.
Which contrary to me who was simply wearing a black coat with shoulder protection and some on around both my wrist. And didn't really work my brown hair too well, I was just letting them as they were. And ofc no part of my outfit was matching my brown eyes in contrast to Rin with her blue eyes.

 

But I didn't mind this at the moment.

Rin noticed I seemed worried.

 

Hey Aki, she said as she put her right hand on my cheek. Are you ok ?

 

I looked at her, not being able to hold back anymore, all i could do is yell

ASUNA GONNA KILL US !!!

Chapter 4

Notes:

Well i updated faster than i thought i would.

Well of course if i write all i want to for Akira and Rin by one chapter by month we will still be here for the next 20 yrs hehe. So gotta be faster

The sun was rising in the sky and its light delicately shone upon the ethereal beauty of the young black haired girl sleeping in a Queen size bed. Her eyes slowly opened.
As she sat up in her bed. While she stretched her arms, her mouth let out a small yawn. She then jumps out of her bed and changes her outfit from the slightly red see-through nightjacket with black suspender to a casual everyday skirt with a red shirt. She opened her menu to tie her hair the same as usual with her blue ribbon, a gift from Asuna at her last birthday. Ready, she left the bedroom to go into the kitchen where her partner Akira was waiting.

 

A man was standing in the kitchen. Not a lot of sound could be heard. At this moment, only the sound of a knife slicing tomatoes was possible to hear. Akira was there preparing lunch for today's mission. He knew that it would take some hours before they could come back to Arc Sophia, if they could come back at all on the same day.

So to be ready, he not only woke up early to prepare Rin’s breakfast, but his ,Rin and Yui lunch. Of course many ingredients from the real world were not to be found or had the same name in Aincrad but not to make it too complex Akira was going with what he had. So for lunch, he prepared a pasta salad with bacon, sliced tomatoes, cucumber and green pepper. He also boiled eggs before cutting them in quarters and cheese in cubes. To make it less dry, he used seasoning that in the real world would be called mayonnaise. It was when he added the last ingredient, the sliced tomatoes, that he heard the bedroom door open. He stopped what he was doing and looked back with a radiant smile.

Good morning Rin !

Good morning Aki

The man walked to take her in his arms and give her a fast kiss. He then got back to where he was but instead of finishing what he was doing, he took a plate that was next to the cutting board. On it there was porridge with slices of bananas, a peanut butter toast with an orange juice.

He served it to the girl he shared his life with. He assured her he already ate, then he finished the preparation for the lunch. The last step was to put it in a bowl and send that bowl in his inventory.

As he was doing this, the girl ate her breakfast. Once done, Akira gave her a coffee with 3 milk and 4 sugars since she didn’t really like coffee but it was more for the energy boost. Akira, him, took 1 milk with 2 sugars. He joined Rin by sitting down at the table. It was only 5h30, they had 30 minutes before it was time to start the quest, one that they didn’t know yet, but was way bigger than they thought and with more danger than they ever faced.

 

…………………..

 

Ok we are all here, I said.

It was 6 in the morning and the 3 of us,Rin Yui and me were now outside the city wall. As we were taking our leave, Rin, this time, sent a message to Asuna to warn her we will spend the day with Yui. Of course she didn’t mention the part of leaving the safety of the town. We also made Yui, again, promise to listen to us to avoid accidents. This morning, when I was drinking my delicious coffee that wasn’t tea, I discussed the Yui problem with Rin. At all costs, I was planning to bring Yui back, even if it meant losing my life. I knew how meaningful that white dress child was to my friends. Of course Rin wasn’t pleased with that idea but knew I wouldn't change my mind , so she accepted it.

 

we made our walking formation to be this

 

Rin(now a shielder)

 

Yui(no defense) and Akira(attacker)

This way, when we will encounter enemies, Rin wiIl shield us and if enemies pass her, I will strike them down, and it didn’t take long before we had our first encounter.

It wasn’t long after we started our journey that we made our first encounter.

They were red hornet enemies. A type that was easy to deal with when you had the experience of the frontline. Which surprised me that a group like Silica one, a group that isn't experienced with frontline but still are strong players, had difficulties dealing with those enemies. Worst, it seems like the frontliner too had a hard time. But it didn’t matter at this moment, I had a plan and its most important point was the security of Yui.

Without losing a second, I grabbed Yui with my left arm and lifted her to keep her close to me as I drew my sword with my right hand.

Rin now ! I signal my partner. Those words woke her from her frozen state. She drew her sword and shield and positioned herself into a defensive mode. I couldn’t hold back my sigh. Since we got trapped in Aincrad, Rin was always waiting for my orders before taking an action in battle. For the good but mainly the worst. When she announced her change of battle style, I believed she was starting to trust in herself and her own abilities. It seems I was wrong. I still need to use my brain for both our bodies.

 

As I gave my orders to Rin to stay in defense to attract the enemies, I observed the hornets name and attack pattern.

 

CORRUPTED RED HORNET LVL 98

After a few minutes of my partner forcing the hornet to attack in vain, I understood that the attack of this variant was the same as the normal one but faster.
Their basic attack consisted of a combo of 5 consecutive piercing attacks , now 8, or a special attack that was turning very fast around a player to make them dizzy before using a poison stunning dart on them. Usually, the hornets could only use that attack every 2 minutes but it seems the corrupted version could half the delay.

Ok, I thought, we need to find an efficient way to deal with them. As I was boiling my brain in search for the perfect answer, it finally came.

 

Rin, I called her, come back !

Instantly when the last word came out of my mouth, she pushed herself back with her feet and as i thought, the hornet flew at full speed to catch Rin. Still holding Yui, I pushed myself forward and with the use of the swordskill horizontal, I slashed the hornet that was coming. Both our hands busy, me with Yui and Rin with her shield, we gently knock each other's swords as a victory sign.

 

I put down Yui and gave her a pat on the head, before speaking to Rin.

 

New match plan, get their attention, once they do their spin attack come back so i can strike them down !

All she said was an ok before leaping toward the 2 red hornets coming at us. Close to them she let herself lose speed by sliding on the ground making dirty flying everywhere. And finally at the perfect range, she violently smashed the flying insects with her shield. With the agro taken,amazing as always, Rin deflected every attack, waiting for the right moment. 10 seconds, it was all it needed before the first flying monster activated its spinning move. Following the plan, the prettiest swordswoman jumped back as I made my move to kill the first red stinger, this time with the swordskill vertical. We repeated the same process to eliminate the second hornet, this time I was the one in the frontline. It was over after an additional 10 seconds. We continued our journey under the praise of the little Yui. From there, we faced no real challenge and if my calculation were right we would arrive at the mines 30 minutes earlier.

 

We finally reached the area before the mines after dealing with at least 164 hornets and probably 30 boars, who were easier to deal with. As we walked to the mines I saw someone in red and white garbs, probably a member of the kob.

I leaned toward my partner ears and whispered,

It seems our info was mistaken !

I believe they might have reached further yesterday or this morning !

You’re sure ?

Hey how dare you ?

Rin pouted her cheeks in frustration as we closed up the distance with the kob player that was greeting us.

 

Hey ! Good morning Kirito.

Huh ? Sorry but i am not Kirito, i am Akira

You can’t fool me Kirito, said the kob player while laughing.

 

But I am telling you that I am not Kirito !

 

You wear black !

 

And ? Do you see me holding 2 swords ?

 

You could just not have it out !

 

What ? Are you real ? Look here, does she look like Asuna to you ?
You know the lightning flash ! YOUR BOSS !

 

The kob player seemed confused and looked at me for a few seconds.

 

Well no, she isn’t Asuna.

 

See ? That’s what I'm saying.

 

Yeah ! She is not pretty enough to be Asuna, but you are Kirito,
You wear black, you’re on the frontline, and you have a new girl wrap around your arms everyday. You are Kirito, that's for sure !

 

Ok me, ignore that comment about her beauty, focus on what matters.

 

DEAR LORD KIRITO, I thought, what kind of reputation do you have? I turned to look at my partner to seek help but she was laughing so much I got scared she might not be able to breathe, so I turned toward Yui who was mumbling about how Kirito is cheating on mama. Defeated, I accept my fate to be Kirito for this day.

Anyway,I said, why are you all waiting here ?

The kob player took off his helmet before speaking again. I could now see his face and try to remember him to be sure to avoid him in the future. He had greenish hair that fell under his shoulder and his black eyes were giving me a vibe of aggression. Note to myself, to NEVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, make him angry at me.

 

Hey Kirito ! Are you listening ?

 

Oh sorry I got lost. Sorry.

Ok… as i was saying, i sent a recon team into the mines, when they came back their hp were nearly all depleted and worst, one comrade is still in it. This is why I called for your help.

My help ?

 

Geez, how an idiot like you is the top player is beyond me. Anyway we are in the same guild and you are the strongest player we have. So can you please go in it.
All reward found is yours.

 

Don't worry, we will, said Rin before I could reply.

After we received information on those we should seek, Rin took Yui's hand and started to walk to our next destination. As she turned back she made a face before calling “me” to follow her.

 

Hurry up “ KI-RI-TO” !

 

Ok, it's decided, next time I see Kirito, he will definitely have to pay me some top tier steak or I won't forgive him.

 

…. 7h45 in the morning ….

 

Is everyone ready ?

I asked the 2 girls who were with me.

To answer my question, my partner lifted up her lantern.

Great then lets start and don’t forget the key word of the day, CAUTION.

Yes ! Yes ! You've been telling it for 10 minutes already. Said Rin exasparate.

Well sorry for caring that much ! I replied to her casualness.

Yui, still with us, was laughing to tears seeing mine and Rin couple bickering.

Well anyway, we will proceed as such, we will walk in line, me first, Yui second and Rin to close it. Understood ?

The 2 nodded and so we were ready to explore the mines.

As we explored the left wing of the mines, I noticed how much the walls around us were shining in a wonderful glowing green light. My first thought was to guess what the ores were and the stats they could upgrade, dexterity ? Or agility ? If it was the latter instead of the former then it would be interesting to come back to get what I need for some of my current equipment.

I was suddenly brought back to reality by the voice of the young girl behind me.

Akira, Rin, do you still believe they are alive ?

Yui was referring to the players we were looking for. It was a normal question to ask. It has been a while since those 3 disappeared, and in a dungeon nonetheless. But if that Kob player was leading an exploration team, then he was not stupid so he surely checked his friend list to see if their names were still appearing.

 

Well Yui, I think that yes there is a chance that they are.

 

Akira is right. We just need to find them soon.

 

As if her hope came back, Yui proclaimed that she would find them. We continued to walk until our first intersection. There we got our first hint as to where the players were. On the right path,lying on the ground, was a teleporting crystal.

 

Is that, said Rin a tele…

 

I cut her halfway through her sentence. There was no time to speak. If there was a teleporting crystal here, it meant someone tried to run away and probably failed…

Wait Akira !

 

It wasn’t the voice of my partner, but Yui’s voice. I slowed down in an instant, a blade coming to my throat. As fast as I could, I moved my head to the left. From the corner of my eyes, I saw the blade being as close as husband and wife to my neck. Ready on my feet, I used the wall to gain high and jump to the right to avoid the second hit of the swordskill coming at me. The attack over, I took 3 steps back before drawing my sword.

Close to me, lurking in the dark was a burned-skin lizardman. The most dangerous of that type. I gave a look back to see how Rin and Yui were doing. Unfortunately, another lizardman was coming out of the shadow, only visible by its red cursor. Too far away to go to help Rin, all i could do was to count while i was dealing with my own opponent.

 

Yui, stay close to Rin. Rin,Yui safety is essential, I said.

Understood, Yui take this, said the blue knight.

 

Asuna’s daughter took Rin’s lantern in her hands allowing the knight to take her shield for battle.

For a few seconds, silence was all that could be heard but it had been broken by the clashing of metals.

The battle did not last long, most of the pattern attack with the sword from the lizardman was similar to others enemies with the same kind of weapon, curve sword, but what occurred to be the real challenge, was the fire ball the lizardman could shoot and their darker skin allowing them to hide in lightless spot. But with great strength, experience and a few swords swordskill such as sonic leap, horizontal and slant, we manage to gain victory.

 

Akira you moron, yelled Rin. I know you want to help them but you can’t do it if you're dead.

She dropped her sword and shield and ran toward me, buried her face in my chest while giving me some weak punches with her fists.

 

I gently stroked her hairs as the lavender smell of them reached my nose.

 

Don’t worry Rin, I said. I’m just worried. I am not a good person, what matters to me is having as many fighters alive so we can make you get out of here as soon as possible.

 

Rin didn’t said a word, she stayed there for 5 minutes, 5 minutes during which I got heavily scolded by Kirito’s daughter.

 

After that, we resume our progression until we meet a young purple haired man deeper in the mines. He was mumbling to himself. I closed the distance with him to start a discussion.

Excuse me, are you Elemar ? Or maybe Varys ? I asked, I knew it couldn't be Kala since the man in front of me was a man.

 

The purple haired man stopped talking to look at me, for some reason, there was something in his eyes that made me think that even if he was a member of the kob, he could not be trusted but as for now, the trio made of me, Rin and Yui, were here to help the lost KOB players.

 

Oh ! You guys must be the rescue team ? You are just in time, I was about to go get back my friends

Go get back ? , said Rin.

Yes yes, said the purple haired man, they are stuck hiding in the dungeon boss room.

 

THE BOSS ROOM ? I said in panic, we need to go get them now.

 

As I was about to rush again, Yui took my hand and held me back. I understood with her gaze that she was telling me to not jump into action again, for Rin sake. I took a deep breath before looking at the purple haired man, to ask again what his name was, and what he could tell us about the boss.

 

Varys has explained to us what we would encounter. The boss was a blind 12 feet tall, burned-skin lizardman with a nodachi. Like the small lizardmen from this dungeon, the field boss had fire attacks, multi targets fire balls one and an AOE fire circle. Being a unique monster, it had 2 HP gauge. From what Varys could remember, his teammate, Elemer and Kala were hidden in both corners of the boss room, behind some rocks.

With this information, my current team, now having a new member, a mace user, made up a plan. Varys would stay at the entrance of the boss room, ready to help his friends in their escape or give us support if the rescue mission failed. As for Rin, she would sneak on the left side of the room to go seek Kala while I would go, with Yui,on the right for Elemer.

Once at the entrance and we all were ready, we put our plan into action. I was the first to make a move, preferring being the one in danger than Yui or Rin, I took my first few steps in the boss room. As a safety measure, I crouched to reduce the sound of my steps. I gave a fast look to the boss, seeing the general lizardman up close was impressive. It was the tallest one I've seen since being trapped in Aincrad. Having made sure the boss didn’t notice me, I gave Rin a hand sign to start her own part. At the same time, I extend my left arm to give my hand to Yui to then pull her back to. I placed her before me and told her that I was right behind her so she didn’t worry. She gave me a whispered yes before starting to walk carefully to our destination. Holding our breath, we continued our sneak attempt to not trigger the boss but suddenly, the giant lizardman started to move. It walked a few steps, its sword ready to strike someone down. Seeing the boss move, I made a quick hand sign to the person at the other extremity of the room. Understanding what my close fist meant, Rin stopped her progression and waited for my next command.

It seems the closer we get to the boss, the harder it would be to not be heard. While the boss was “looking” around, more like trying to hear us, many thoughts flew through my mind.

Can we do it ?
Are the players still alive ?
What if the boss hears us before we can save anyone ?
How can we make sure we are fine ?
Seriously, the metallic clink is stressing me !
Wait ! Metallic clink ?.

 

I looked at my far away partner, I noticed that she still had her full armor, sword and shield. This sight brang to me an idea. I opened my menu window, this time not going to the friend list since Rin name would be far too away since I classed my friends name by alphabetic order, and chose to open my matrimonial sub window. There I could reach Rin’s name faster and send her a message.

Reduce weight = reduce sound
Take off armor shield

As I was about to press send I heard an extremely loud scream. This immediately activated the boss and its 2 hp gauge appeared under his name.

Kuraishi the Lizard samouraï level 125

 

No way, I exclaimed, level 125.

 

I barely just reached level 105 and Rin level 102.
We can’t win against that, I thought.

 

EVERYONE RETREAT !

At my signal, my two friends and I ran as fast as we could to the exit. We were around the middle of the boss room. It was possible for us to get out of it safely but I saw something that infuriated me but for some reason did not surprise me. Varys was closing the room gate before we could get out. Once close, we would be stuck inside. Using my agility, I increased my speed but nevertheless, I didn't reach Varys in time. The gate closed under my nose. If only I had been 1 second faster, but now wasn’t the time to blame myself for putting Rin and Yui in danger, I need to find a solution.

 

Varys, what is the meaning of this ?

 

The gate was see-through so I locked my eyes in his, trying to discern the truth. All I found was despair and regret.

 

So-so sorry, he told me if I did not get you trapped he would kill my friends.

 

What ? What are you talking about ?

 

As I said those words, a man lurking in the shadow appeared behind Varys, the lack of light made it impossible to see their face but the shadow was wearing a black poncho with a hood on. The presumed mastermind was dragging 2 players like they were some bag of potatoes.

The man started to laugh, a laugh so horrible I swear I could feel my real body blood turn to ice. The man in black ignored me and turned toward Varys.

 

Good work mate, here your friends.

The mastermind threw both players' avatar on the ground before leaving the scene laughing. I could not immediately make out why he threw the body but soon enough I understood it. He made a sound to attract enemies.

 

Shit

 

I looked back and saw that Rin was struggling to fight off the boss. What can i do ?

My eyes were switching from Rin to the group of 3 players. My anger was still here for trapping us but I could not deny they had been manipulated. I would not be able to live with myself if I let them die.

My hesitation in this moment caused a real disaster, the boss had spawned mobs that were running toward Yui after the boss manage to push Rin away from her, and Rin, her was in a stun effect after using the hit swordskill slant to kill the single mobs that were close to her. Worst of all, the boss was preparing a fire ball attack in Rin's direction.
What could i do ?

At this moment everything felt so out of control. If I don't help Varys and his friends, they will die, but if I do help them it's Yui and Rin who will. If i help Rin, Yui and Vary group die. If I save Yui, Rin and Varys' group die. It felt like time had slowed down.

 

Think ! Think ! Think you fucking worhtless piece of shit . I said to myself.

It was my fault if everyone was in danger, I didn't notice Varys' distress that led him to betray us. I hadn't been stern enough to force Yui to stay in the city and the worst, if i didn’t exist, Rin would have never enter Sao.

 

All those thoughts overflowed my mind. Yes it is true, it is my fault. This is why I need to do something, no matter the cost to myself.

With my resolve arose, I felt a fire inside me to push forward. I quickly took 3 teleporting crystals from my belt pocket and threw them, at Varys, through the space in the gate without looking back.
I then drew my sword and took the stance to use vorpal strike. My left hand raised in front of me, using it as a sort of aiming system, my body sideways, my left foot forward and my right foot behind. Vorpal strike, a sword skill that makes the player fly forward to deal massive damage. It was one of my favorite swordskill but I knew it wouldn't be enough in this case. I remembered something Kirito told me about the canceling of swordskill during an animation. A hard process but very useful when done correctly. I never tried before, maybe it was a mistake to try now, but i had to try. The red glow on my sword grew bigger and bigger as I waited for the perfect moment. Then the boss shot its fireball.

NOW ! I let my body start to fly but as soon as I felt my body gaining speed, I let my sword go and I used my feet to push myself away. Nor in Rin directly or what i was aiming, the fireball, but to Yui. I flew closer to her and once my feet were on the ground again, I slid around Yui, wrapping her body around mine, becoming her shell.

 

I heard 2 sound

Swoosh and slash.

The first one was my sword striking the fireball at its core to make it disappear and the latter was my body tanking the damage in Yui place. I saw my hp falling down quickly .

100% , 90%, 80%, 70%, 60%, 40%, 20%, 15,%

It finally stopped at 10%.

My body should have been stun by the use of a swordskill, but using kirito teaching and my own imagination, I managed to keep my attack going while cancelling the effect on my body. At the moment I was about to get hit again, Rin, free from her immobility, had caught up to me and using a horizontal square she dealt with all the lower level lizardmen.

Thank you Rin !

 

Soon after I said that, the boss got up again. What I did not notice before is that my sword did not just cut the fireball, it flew to pierce the boss's right eye. Back on its feet the boss was getting ready to run at us.

I looked at Rin hp, 30%

No it was not acceptable. I refused to let it go lower.

RIN GO HEAL !

before she could say anything else or stop me i ran toward to bos at full

 

I dodge the 4 fireballs the samouraï threw at me. On my way , I picked up my sword which was lying on the floor, now striking with its sword, the lizardman Nodachi met my sword in and torrentious sound

 

9%

 

Using all my strength, I pushed back the monster who was trying to take away my Rin.

 

DOWN

I dodge the second strike narrowly, a bit of my hair was cut

8%

RIGHT

The third strike perfectly dodged, I activated the 1 hit swordskill slant.

A brownish light surrounded my sword. I slashed upward the arm of the giant lizard with all my strength. Dismembered off its main arm, having lost its weapon, the black skin monster made a terrific roar of anger. The boss used my stun period to spin on himself to hit me with its tail.

7%

Fast.. I need to… I NEED TO FIGHT
Back on my feet once more, I slash horizontally the monster torso.

I NEED TO JUMP

 

The boss, surely losing patience fighting a simple human whose life was almost run out, activated its strongest, The Aoe fire circle.

 

I used an evasive backflip to back away as far as I could but I was a bit too slow. A part of my night colored coat caught fire..

 

5%

 

I know i should be scared at this moment, if i die here i would die . I know that, but I also know if I ran away now, I would lose Rin, she would die. The one who has always been by my side. The one who gave me the strength to fight in this world, the girl whose smile has cast away my nightmare. In this moment I finally understood, she is my life, always has been and always will be.

I cannot let her die, I cannot lose her because this outcome is the true meaning of death, there is no life without her.

 

AAAAAAAAARRGGGH

 

I roared back at the boss showing it I do not fear it.

The boss ran at me once more.

This time I will destroy its legs.

I started to run too but before reaching the boss I let myself fall on my knees, sliding on my way. I swung my sword right to left at the same time I got up.

Damaging its legs enough, the lizard fell down. I ran around it to deal multiple strikes to its throat.

The boss hp was falling down quickly until it was almost over but the boss didn’t said its last words.

 

While getting up, the samouraï used its remaining arm , punching the valiant swordsman.

 

At this moment, both the monster and the human hp were at the same

 

2%

 

As the boss was getting ready to unleash one last fireball, the swordsman, still in the air, put his sword on his shoulder, a beautiful green light surround it and then the swordsman body flew to the boss who responds to this with its last fireball

 

1%

 

This was what was left of the man whose love for a girl was beyond what appearance was showing.Cutting through a fireball once more, the man didn’ t stop its trajectory and came at the boss. The sword plunged itself in the head of the Lizardman. As the man's body fell down to the ground, the monster body vanished in an explosion of blue polygone.

 

This battle of life and death ended and the last sound the swordsman named Akira could hear was the voice of the Woman called Rin, calling his name.

Chapter 5

Notes:

Hey guys, a new week a new chapter... WAIT 2 ?

YES, since chapter 6 is way shorter i release it today too. Hope you enjoy your read

My body felt so heavy, I thought, I also felt a huge need to rest. This battle tired me out but I had no time to actually take it easy yet. I needed to check on Rin. Knowing her past, I was sure all this fire was scaring her and that was why she was calling my name. Using my hands, I pushed myself to get up, I sheathed my sword and finally walked back to Rin. Arriving near her, I saw that Rin was on her knees, her beautiful face covered in tears. I kneeled before her to wipe her tears away.

Its ok Rin ! I said. You don’t have to worry, the fire is gone and I'm here.

YOU THINK IT’S ABOUT THE FIRE YOU IDIOT ?

Rin started to yell at me as she grabbed me by the collar. She locked her eyes into mine so severely, it was like her own soul was staring at mine.

 

Why ? Why do you still do that ? Why do you always put yourself in danger ?

She buried her head into my chest so hard that I fell over. As I was now lying on the ground and Rin’s tears were soaking my clothes, I realised that at this moment she wasn’t scared because of the fire but because of me being close to leaving this world and our own one too.

 

What would i do if you are gone, Said the black haired girl. Please, please, I beg you, never do that again.

 

I wished I could promise her, but I knew it would make it worse if i did to one day break it. I know deep down giving my life for her wasn’t something i could change, this feeling will always be there but there was one thing i could do.

Rin, I said as I stroked her hair with my left hand, don’t worry,I will try my best from now on.

 

She nodded between 2 sobs. Rin, with tears still coming from her eyes, grabbed my hair with her hands before delicately laid her lips on mine. This kiss had a salty taste, probably due to Rin tears. We stood there for a long time. After that, Rin was still on top of me. I opened my Window, it was 11h30 in the morning.

Hey little princess, I whispered in her ear, it’s time to go.

Once she was on her knees, I gently caressed Rin's right cheek. I softly kissed her forehead before helping her stand up. I smiled at her, to reassure her once more. She wiped her last tear before smiling back at me.

 

Ok, yes, time to go, Aki. Stay here, I will search for the exit.

Rin took her sword and shield before leaving the boss room by a secret door that once the boss was defeated.

 

I sighed a bit, seeing my hp was still at 1%, I decided to use a greater healing crystal to fully restore my life. Multiple green dots covered me to give me life back. Suddenly, Yui whose been silent for a while now, came to me, her eyes fierce of the fire of anger.

Akira, you are hiding something.

Huh ! what do you mean Yui ?

You may be able to lie to Rin but not me. I am Aincrad Mental Health Program. I can see it. Your mental stability was falling down quickly when you were fighting.

Sorry Yui, but you are wrong. Anyway let's go , Rin is waiting for us.

 

I cannot force you to talk, Yui said, shaking her head, but you will need to speak to someone before somebody pays the price. Secrets only hurt people and I don't want you or Rin to be hurt.

 

…….Let’s go Yui !

 

Ok…. , said the child, tears in her eyes. Sorry !

 

Soon after we left the boss room, Yui and I caught up to Rin. She was standing in front of a giant quartz door double the size of the Samourai Lizard I fought 30 minutes ago.

Hey Rin ! What are you doing ?

Well, do you see this ?

 

she pointed to me, in an another direction, to a corridor similar to the one we walked into the last few hours.

 

This is the exit but I believe this door led to a treasure room, I just don’t know how to open it.

 

Hummm, how do we open it ? Lost in my thoughts trying to figure it out, Yui approached the door to examined it.

Look, Akira ! There is a keyhole right here !

 

I joined Yui to observe the door.

 

Oh ! You are right !

 

Maybe the boss have drop a key.

 

Oh ! you are brilliant Yui.

 

I patted the little girl's head.

 

Ok let me check thatn

 

I opened my menu and selected my inventory. Looking through it by scrolling down all the items I finally found something.

Samourai Treasure Room Iron Key

Oh ! That must be it. I materialise the key into my hand. The 3 of us looked at it then at the door in excitement.

Go Aki ! Open the door. said Rin while jumping from excitement. I could see her breast bounce so much I had to look away as my face turned red. To hide my shyness, I insert the key into the door pinhole. I rotated the key in full circle 6 times before I heard the lock being opened. I put my hands on the door, soon joined by Yui and Rin. To the count of 5, all 3 pushed at full strength the gigantic door. Inside, we saw an incalculable amount of gold coins and 2 chests. The moment our feet touched the inside of the treasure room, a window appeared for me and probably Rin.

 

FORTUNE OF OLD SAMOURAI LORD

75 000 cols

Ok Close window
I pressed the Ok button to accept and receive the boss reward.

 

Hey Rin, go take the chest on the right, I'm taking the left one.

Ok but you remember that we share our inventory right ? said Rin giggling

Of course I remember.

That was what I replied but for a second I did indeed forget and I did not want to admit it to Rin.
I shaked my head before going for the chest. After making sure it was safe,I opened it.
Inside, there were 2 items, the dragon skin belt and the sea pendant.

I checked the stats of the 2 rewards I got. The belt was giving a +15 in agility and +20 in strength. As it was perfect for me, I replaced my iron belt equipment by the dragon skin 1 since the former was just giving +10 in agility. For the pendant, instead of a bonus in statistics, it had a battle effect bonus: Players using a shield see their chance of deviating an attack with their shield raised by 5%.
Well, I thought, I don't use a shield but Rin does. I got up and walked to see what my partner got from her chest but I saw her not moving, she was in a kind of frozen state, not due to a game effect but by fear. I walked faster and kneeled next to her. I looked at her opened window and saw what was causing this.

Firesteel sword: strength + 80 vitality +50 accuracy + 15 special effect: fire damage nullification.

Fire, that was what scared her so much. I took the initiative to take her hand to make her close the window to cast away the “fire”. I wrapped her around my arms to calm her down. Soon enough, Yui joined, pressing her forehead against Rin’s one. Calmed down, Rin tried to apologize but Yui and i made her understand that she had nothing to say sorry for. Ready to leave, I stopped Rin, telling her we had one thing left to do here. Surprised, she listened to me as i told her to show me her back and close her eyes. I made the pendant appeared in my hand and with the other, I moved Rin’s hair. I passed the jewelry around my partner's neck. She opened her eyes and looked at it.

Thank You Aki !

Now we are all done. I said after giving her a kiss on her neck.

 

We took our leave.

Akira, Akira, Said Yui, can you hold me? I am a bit tired.

I lifted the young girl up and put her on my shoulders.
Let’s get going and once we are out, we are gonna eat.

The two girls whooped a YEAH !

 

Ah yes, finally this felt so good, I exclaimed as the rays of sun hit my skin.
So glad we finally left the mines.

 

Still hating close space Aki ?

 

Yeah, it makes me feel like I cannot breathe anymore.

 

I sighed of relief, as someone who is claustrophobic, the exit of the mines was hell itself, the narrow tunnel was getting smaller and smaller as we progressed through it. Near the end, the space was nearly the size of Yui’s body. Rin and I had to remove a lot of our equipment. Me i add to get rid off my sword and black coat, Rin, her armor, her shield, her sword, the robe she wear under the armor and even with only a small shirt and having put on a pair of pants, to cover the bottom part of her body, she was barely able to pass through. Unfortunately, something she could not unequip was too big.

 

But it was over now. Rin and I could put our stuff back on ourselves.

Ok, i said, Let’s find a place to rest and eat.

Ok, I can't wait, Akira, said Yui.

 

Rin laughed at the sight of the little girl barely hiding her glutton side.

Like father like daughter, she added.

 

Rin and I continued to laugh as we walked to find a resting spot. We soon enough found one.

We were close to our destination, the garden of golden roses. It was at the top of the mountain we just reached the foot of.

Covered in a multitude of colorful flowers, our group sat on the grass. I materialised a huge bowl in which was the meal I had prepared this morning. Then I did the same to get 3 cups, the apple juice, a grape one, and a tablecloth. I put the tablecloth on the ground and set up our pic-nic. I called for the 2 girls, who left to play in the flowers, to come back to eat.

Oh ! Akira did mommy do this ? said Yui, talking of the table linen.

Yes she did, food is me.

 

Rin was the one to open the bowl, she looked a bit confused by what was inside.

What is this Aki ?

An old family recipe, pasta salad, it got all it needed to make it fresh and hearty. Taking out, at last, smaller bowls with a cutlery set, I served everyone a generous portion of the colorful salad.

Yui what juice do you want ?

 

Apple juice please.

 

Here you go, little sweety.

 

Grape for you Rin ?

 

Yes, Thank you Aki.

 

No problem

 

We took our time to eat and when we were done, it was 12h30, and I started to feel my mind slipping away.

 

Rin, i said, we gonna stay here for a little while, i think i need to rest.

 

Aki, Rin said with worry, are you alright ? You have healed your hp right ? You don't have any status effects ?

No , no, I reassured her, I just woke up a few hours before you, so I'm probably sleepy. I just need a nap.

 

Hum, ok if you say so.

 

Hey Yui, i said, i will rest a bit, you can go back to play if you want, just stay in Rin sight please.

 

Ok, replied with joy the little girl

I layed down on the grass and closed my eyes but before I could fall asleep I heard Rin whisper in my ears.

 

You know, when you are with Yui, you look and sound like a dad.

 

Really ? i asked.

 

You know,I can make you a dad, she told me sensually.

 

My face turned bright red and I turned myself in the opposite direction of Rin. She laughed a little bit before saying a tender and comforting

 

Sleep well Aki.

 

I fell asleep in the next 5 minutes.

Chapter 6

My body couldn’t move, It was like my knees were glued to the rough and cold asphalt. I couldn’t look away. My sight locked into THAT, as my mind was slipping away from the horror next to me. My ears are ringing from the shock that just occurred. It is my fault, was the only thing my mind could think off as the pain started to rewrite my very soul.

In the far distance, I was hearing a loud, rising, cacophonic sound, it was like a wailing siren. But I also heard a woman's voice I did not know.

Are you ok ? Let me check you.

 

But I couldn't reply, my body still couldn’t move. This was my fault. Nothing could change that, it was now written in history

 

Every sensation of my body suddenly disappeared, leaving only the fresh,warm and thick liquid covering a part of my face and all my hands. There was also the coldness of my falling tears. This was my fault.

 

…………………………..

 

I immediately woke up. Sitting up in an instant, I started to look around me to see myself being in Aincrad. It was a nightmare…. It's been a while. I searched around to find my partner but she was nowhere to be seen. Of course… I am alone… That is why it came back….

I stand up, stretch myself a little bit.

 

I guess I have to wait for them to come back. I waited 10 minutes before they finally came back.

 

Good afternoon, Akira. Said Yui

 

Good afternoon to you too Yui, i replied

 

Then I greeted Rin with a warm hug.

 

Hi to you too little princess.

 

Rested well ? she asked.

 

Yes !

 

I knew it was a lie, but if she learns the truth, I fear she will leave me…..

 

Not suspicious of anything, Rin gave me the signal they were all ready to leave and so we started our ascension to reach the garden.

Chapter 7

Notes:

Chapter 7 is here, i think its PROGRESSING well for arc 1🤭
Hope you enjoy this chapter that contain an unfortunate turn of event . Hehe

The ascension was, for now at least, quite easy. Most of it was working in a similar pattern. We walked the stairs to a cave, went through it by fighting the skeletons, bats and spiders enemies, and reached the next set of stairs, Repeat. This was our climbing routine.

Ok, everyone ready ? This is the fifth cave.

I am more than ready, said Rin with confidence that made her so attractive.

 

Everyone, be cautious, I feel like this floor's enemies will be harder, said Yui.
We all nodded to each other and we entered the new cave. The layout of this dungeon was smaller than the previous one but like Yui said, the difficulty would be raised by a lot for sure.

We were in a room with a few skeletons and bats. We engage the fight as fast as we could and with our first priority, the safety of us all. The bats were as big as me and were fighting us in a hand to hand combat of sorts. As the bats were to a close range, the bowmen skeletons were shooting at us. This was a rough battle as we had to dodge arrows while dealing with the bats. But after a tedious 10 minutes, we managed to do it. The victory of my partner,Rin, and I opened to us 2 new paths, one on the left and the other on the right leading to a single room.. In each room, we found a single named enemy, 2 hp gauge for both. Their attack pattern being the same as the enemies of the first room, we dealt with them faster.

Beating those 2 small bosses gave us 2 keys.

 

Any idea where to use them Aki ?

 

Well, we had to gain them from 2 different rooms, but both were connected to the first one. So maybe we can go back there ?

 

Sounds like a plan. And you Yui, you have an idea ?

 

I think Akira is right.

 

Then let’s go, I said

 

We got back into the first room but we met nothingness. The room was still empty.

Hey Rin, can you go back into the left room please ? I asked her this since we left the right one

 

Sure but do you have in mind ?

 

Well maybe we have to get the keys in the correct room.

 

As i told her that, i gave her the Bat key, the one we got from the Right room. As for me, I kept the Skeleton key, which we got from the left room.

 

Oh I see, she replied, You want to bring the keys in the opposite room in which we got them.

 

Exactly. I dont know if it will do anything but i think it is worth a try.

 

I agree with that, said Yui. We need to find the solution fast, I don't want Renvyla to die.

 

The young girl's face darken itself. There was some fear in her expression. Despite knowing Renvyla 's life would end when the players beat Aincrad, Yui could not stop herself from being worried.

 

Don’t worry Yui, said Rin, we won’t fail.

 

My partner took Yui's hand and smiled at her to reassure the child, then they left the first room. I took my way too but in the opposite direction.

 

I was now alone in the room where we fought the giant bat. Ok where can i use the key, i asked myself. I walked around a lot, examining every inch of the room in search of an answer but there was no keyhole to find. I sat down discouraged.

What do we need to do ? I let out.

 

I looked up at the roof above my head being lost in thoughts. Ok, there is nothing here. I will go back to meet up with Rin.

As I said that, my eyes turned toward the exit and I finally saw something.

 

How did I miss that ?

I quickly got up. And reach the center of the room. Still looking at the roof, I realise that above us, in a wall next to the entrance, was a lightspot. It didn't look as if the sun was getting in, but as the light was purposely. I decided to still go with my original plan but this time using the lightspot.

Ok Akira, what can link a key to light ?

 

I made many theories as fast as I could.

Did we need to defeat the bosses in the light ? No no, if it was that we wouldn't have gotten the keys.

 

Do we need a range attack to destroy the light ? Doubtful since there are nearly no range attack skills in Sao. At the moment the only one I could think of was Nezha but it was long ago since I saw him and I did not have time to contact him. And I did not have him in my friend list.

 

Maybe there are some mirrors somewhere and we can redirect the light to reach a spot ?

 

I made a quick check up and saw none.

 

Maybe I need to fake a shadow with the light ? It could be possible to do a bat but a skeleton ?.

 

AH WAIT !

 

I just remembered that the keys were shaped like the bosses we got them from. I took out the skeleton key and raised it above my head and into the light. The light struck the key and created a skeleton shaped shadow on the floor. As soon as it appeared, the ground started to shake but there was still nothing in the room. I sprinted back to the entrance to see if something had changed.

 

Akira are you alright ?

 

A woman was yelling at me from farther away. It was Rin.

 

Yes i am, Wait where you are i’m coming.

 

Once I finally reached the first room, Yui and Rin were waiting for me but their eyes weren't looking in my direction but at a bat statue. It wasn't there before.

Ok, I get it, I said.

I explained the best I could to Rin what i did so she could do the same. After 3 minutes, the ground shaked again and a skeleton statue appeared. Rin ran back to us and we, at the same time, inserted our key into the right statue, skeleton with skeleton, bat with bat, and turned it simultaneously.

The huge door slowly opened to let us through. We left the cave and after getting out, we met the last stairs to reach the top of the mountain.

 

No way ! How much more stairs ? Asked Rin

 

Yui replied, from what I can estimate, 597.

 

Completely beaten, Rin let her body fall down and she stopped moving.

Akiraaaaaaa ? Aki ? Little Aki ?

 

Hurh, yes Rin ?

 

Can you carry me ?

 

……..

 

Pretty please ?

 

Rin looked at me with those puppy eyes. She knows I can't refuse her when she does it. I walked back a few stairs, got down to pass my right arm around her back, and my left one around her thighs.

One, two, three, GO !

Carrying her like the day we got married, I started the ascension of all those stairs.

Finally at the top after 40 minutes, I put down Rin. Immediately after, my legs stopped working and I fell down exhausted.

 

It was pretty easy and fun, said Rin.

 

Are you kidding me ?

Hehe, Absolutely !

 

The blue eyed girl started to laugh but was stopped as a body fell in front of us. It was a middle aged woman with silver hair. She got up quite fast and when she saw us she ran toward our group.

RUN ! She yelled at us.

After she passed us, I got up and made a fast head sign to Rin and Yui to follow the mysterious woman. We all ran together until we reached a place with a giant rock.

Hide behind it, she called to us.

 

We joined her. Once we were safe I took a quick look around us.

We indeed were in a garden but like we were warned, no herbs nor flowers were still alive. My second look got to the mysterious woman. I looked at her hair then her face. Her facial traits were similar to Renvyla.

Wait, Miss. Are you Renvyla's mother ? I asked.

Her eyes opened wide as she turned to us.

 

How do you know my daughter’s name ? She hastily ask.

 

I am her friend. Said the little girl.

 

Renvyla’s mother seemed confused. I try to quickly explain to her the situation. How we met Renvyla and Furiko but also why we were here.

I see, she just said.

In that case, I am Vylania, widow of the Canza family and Renvyla’s mother.

 

The silver haired woman shook mine and Rin's hand. For Yui, she hugged her and thanked her for befriending her daughter. After the greeting, Vylania turned to check if the thing she ran from was close. Once she was sure it was not. She explained to us the situation she was in. Most of the garden is completely burned to ashes. There are nearly 0 flowers left. NEARLY. Vylania saw what seemed to be one but she could not get close to it since a giant eye appeared and stunned her before attacking. That is when she fell down near us and made us run away.

 

The eye she was speaking of was probably the final boss of the quest and what we now knew about it was not much.

It's an eye, it can stun us and if it achieves that, it will attack. A bit lost in thoughts, I was brought back to reality by Rin.

 

Yes ?

Vylania asks if we will help her get to the flower.

 

Oh !

 

I looked straight the woman eyes and said

 

Vylania, we will help you.

 

We were all sitting down now. All of us were trying to find a solution to deal with the boss. Well being honest it was more me alone. Rin still seemed to not trust herself enough, Yui is still a child and Vylania is the quest npc so i doubted she would give us the solution.

Vylania, do you know how the stun works ? Is it when it looks at us or is something happening before ?

 

Hummm … I think the pupil turned red.

 

Thank you.

 

I got up to look at the field. No cover. Ok i think i have a plan, i thought to myself.

 

Listen everyone, I might have the solution.
Vylania you stay here keeping an eye on Yui while me and Rin will fight the eye.

 

But how do you plan for us to get close ?

 

Your shield, we're gonna focus on dodging the attack of the eye and when the eye turns red, we will cover behind your shield.

Ooh ! That’s genius. Ok i am ready.

 

Vylania seemed to hesitate at first to accept the plan but finally accepted.

 

Rin and I took our leave of the safe spot. Soon enough we saw the giant eye.

RIGHT EYES OF THE DEMONGOD

Strangely enough, I could not see any hp gauge.

 

Rin something is wrong, we need to be even more cautious than usual.

 

Got it.

 

We started to run at the boss and in return, the boss started to attack us with the tentacles.

The 5 came to me , the other 5 were trying to attack Rin.

 

I zigzag my way to dodge every tentacle. The attacks were so fast that the last one brushed me and took 5% of my health point.

 

Rin the eye turns red. I yelled.

 

In a quick step she jumped in front of me and raised her shield.

 

We heard a loud “ GONG” sound but nothing happened to us. This was surely the sound effect of the stunning attack.

 

Rin, I think we can continue now.

 

Ok, let's go.

 

We proceed to continue our run. This time, the tentacles divided themselves in 2 ,each.

20 tentacles then attacked us. I sheathed my sword trying to cut those i could and dodge the others. Unfortunately, 2 of them pierced my body, dropping my HP below 70%.

At the same moment, I heard a scream. I turned back to see Rin being struck so hard her body flew away and crashed down. The multiples hit she got and the crash took her HP at 55%.

 

Shit. Rin, I'm coming !

As i said that, i turned to look at the boss to be sure no more tentacles were coming but before i could react, the pupil turned red. I felt my body being stuck in place, like it was turning to stone. This meant I was about to be struck.

My mind focuses on Rin and the possibility that she could be hit and die. I need to do something. This in my mind. I focus all of my mind into moving my body. It was tiring. I was doing my best but i was barely moving but giving in all my will power, i suddenly could move again. While taking many steps back, I cut many tentacles. Of course some did hit me. 3 to be precise. 45% hp is what I had left. Once done with this attack, I ran back to Rin dodging a new strike of tentacles. This time I managed to not get touched. Reaching Rin, I took her hand to get her back on her feet.

 

Aki are…..

 

No time Rin, your shield.

 

I had to cut her mid sentence to make her protect us from the stun effect.

 

“Gong”

 

Aki, what do we do now ?

 

We heal ourselves then we change plans.

 

Got it.

 

We both quickly drank a hp potion to restore our life.

 

New plan i distract the tentacles, you focus on reaching the boss. Once it turns red, we still hide behind your shield.

 

Are you sure ?

 

Ready, set, GO !

 

I took a few steps to be in front of Rin. I tried my best to cut through all of the tentacles while my partner was running to reach the boss. Rin was going fast, so fast she was getting closer to the boss. I had to catch up to her soon. I ran as fast as I could but the stun attack occured. My body turned to stone again.
I saw tentacles coming for me but as quickly as she got close to the boss, my partner had turned back to come shield me.

 

Thank you Rin !

 

We are partner Aki, that’s part of the job.

 

Once the stun was over. We proceed to the same strat. This time, Rin reached the boss and used the sword skill that lights her sword in green, sonic leap. She launched her body forward to go cut the boss but her sword passed through the boss as it was a mirage and a rough and hoarse voice yelled at us.

Curse you small and insignificant humans.

 

And the eye disappeared.

 

Wait what just happened ? Asked my partner.

 

I think we weren't meant to beat the boss, but make it go away.

 

So we won ?

 

I think yes.

 

Rin cheered and jumped into my arms.

 

VICTORY HUG.

 

I hugged her back before we both left to go get Vylania and Yui.

 

No, no,no,no,no,no.

That was Vylania's words when we brought her back and she saw the flower. The single rose left wasn't gold, it was silver, but to save Renvyla’s life, Vylania needed a gold rose petal.

Vylania fell on her knees. She grabbed the silver rose hoping it would turn to gold once it was taken out of the ground but it stayed the same color. Renvyla’s mother burst into tears and scream of agony.

 

There was no saving Renvyla.

Chapter 8

Notes:

Its a special day today. So a chapter is releasing.

I did not know what to say. Seeing a mother's tears is more heartbreaking than I could ever imagine. How do you comfort a woman who might lose her kid?

Yui was the first one to act. She walked to face Vylania. The mother raises her head to look at the little girl. The white dressed child surrounds the grieving mother's head with her tiny arms. Yui was embracing Vylania, maybe in a way to make the tears go away, to give her back some strength to fight again, the strength to find another solution.

 

Sorry.. sorry..

It’s ok Vylania, we understand. We will give you some space. Talk to us when you are ready, I said.

 

Rin and I gave Vylania some space while Yui decided to stay with her.

 

We walked some distance away. After we stopped, I turned to look at Rin. She was holding her tears. This story was hitting close to home for her, as she is a child who lost her mother at a very young age.

 

I told her she did not need to hide her pain as I gently embraced her. I caress her hair before laying my hand on her cheek.

 

I love you Rin.

 

I gave her a fast kiss.

 

Sorry, she replied, I just feel like crying a lot recently.

 

Well, I'm partially responsible for that so..

 

Only partially ?

 

Ok, yeah it is all on me.

 

I heard her laugh a bit before stopping the embrace and wiping her tears.

Soon after Vylania and Yui joined us again.

 

Doing a bit better Vylania ? I asked

 

Slightly. Yui convinced me there might be something to do with the silver rose.

 

Yeah, that's possible. Good call Yui.

 

She made a proud smile that was the cutest of all she did so far.

 

Ok everyone we need to go now if we want to go back to Arc sophia as soon as possible, we have at least 1 hour of stairs to walk down .

 

Stairs ? Asked Vylania

 

Huh ! Yeah, the huge amount of stairs, the few dungeons. It is gonna take some time.

 

Vylania looked at me like I was insane. She then turned to my partner.

 

Is he stupid ? Why does he want to take the stairs ?

 

For a second I was so shocked by the insult that was just thrown at me.

 

Follow me, She said.

 

Our group took the opposite direction from the stairs and we reached a small structure.

 

An elevator ?

 

Oh right, said Rin, there was one.

 

What do you mean there is an elevator ?

 

Well, when you were napping I looked around for flowers with Yui and I found one.

 

Why did you not say anything before ?

 

….. I forgot…

 

She awkwardly laughed at her mistake.
While my mind was still stuck on this revelation.

 

There was an elevator…

 

We all go into the thing we should have used from the start. After 5 minutes we were back at the feet of the mountain.

After we all got out of the elevator, I turned back once to look at it again and thought

Rin… just why ?

 

The way back was faster than the way to come. Mainly because this time we have a third fighter, Vylania. Vylania and I took care of the front line while Rin was protecting Yui.

 

We reached the city at night. 8 pm to be precise. Immediately as we were back, Vylania left us to go see her daughter and to do research on the silver rose, her problem wasn’t fixed yet, her daughter was still in danger.

 

Unfortunately for me, the most dangerous woman in all Aincrad had me now as her target. Asuna the Lightning Flash. Of course it made sense since me and Rin had brought Yui outside of the safe zone.

For some reason, I could feel the heat of Asuna anger before she even found us.

 

A-KI-RA !

 

When I heard my name, I gulped. That’s it i’m dead, i thought, before recalling that Asuna and Rin are very close friends so she would surely help me explain but there was also Yui to help me.

 

In a matter of seconds, the furious, yet still beautiful ,woman had reached me and grabbed me by the collar. Her eyes were throwing poisonous daggers at me.

If i had to say it in game term, the poison debuff would be

 

Feeling of guilt and shame level 5:
Players affected by it want to lay in a corner and cry out of shame for the next 24 hours.

Also , seeing Asuna like this reminds me of something my father has said about women.

 

Women are more beautiful than summer sunny beach, than winter after the white snow covers earth, more beautiful than autumn and its myriad of colors. But they are also, when angry, the fury of lions, a devastating storm. A force of light.

 

Yes, now I understood what my dad meant and that my only way to survive this would be with the help of another woman.

A-KI-RA, what did you do ?

 

Wait, Asuna ! We can explain.

 

We ?

 

I glanced over my shoulder to find Rin, but she had disappeared. She ran away leaving me behind. I guess she is also scared of the lightning flash.

I then try to find Yui, but she also ran away.

 

Ok , Asuna, let me guess. I gonna die ?

 

…YES….

 

It was now midnight. I was finally able to go back home after 3 hours of being scolded. It has only stopped because Yui finally came back and saved me by explaining everything to Asuna. A bit too much. I did not feel like Yui needed to explain my near death moment trying to protect her. But after hearing that, Asuna calmed down and thanked me for keeping Yui safe but I had to take better care of myself. Asuna hugged me before letting me go.

I could not blame Asuna to be honest. She has all the rights to be angry. Ironically, it is during my scolding session I realised, in a quest to avoid having a mother lose her child. We almost made another one lose hers.

 

After I closed the door, a figure walked into the main room.

 

Hey ! Sorry about earlier Aki.

 

It is fine, don’t worry.

 

Hum, ok. Well I hate to ask this after leaving you behind. BUUUUUUUTT, im hungry.

 

I couldn’t hold back a laugh of how ridiculously cute she was.

Fine, fine ! I said. What about pancakes ?

Oh yes please, you make the best one.

 

I quickly unequipped my coat and sword to walked to the kitchen. I materialised all i need
Bowl, whisk,eggs, flour, milk and salt.
To go with the pancakes, I cut some strawberries.

After 15 minutes, i served to Rin her plate of pancakes with strawberries covered with a chocolate syrup. We ate while appreciating the silence of the night before going to bed. As usual, to keep in her mind that the real world is where she is really from. Rin took off my shirt, as someone would in the real world, every night. We laid down on the bed letting ourselves fall into sleep. Rin was the first to go. I joined her 5 minutes later after I received a message from Kirito thanking me for keeping Yui safe but also to meet everyone at the main place tomorrow at 11 am to discuss and prepare for the boss battle.

It was a good idea. Floor 76 took long enough, we needed to clear it to continue to show to everyone that one day we will end this world.

Chapter 9

I will meet you there.

 

Those were the last words my beautiful partner said before leaving this morning to go buy Hp potion for the boss battle we would participate in today. As for me, I was already going to the meeting place to talk with Kirito and Asuna about the informations we had about the Floor Boss.

 

I knew I had 10 minutes to walk between where I lived with Rin and the meeting place, which was close to Liz's new shop.

I thought about using that time to remember the last day's events. More precisely, if there were any hints I could remember surrounding the mysterious black-hooded man.

First of all, how could he know we were coming ? At what hours we would pass by and where we were going ?

This could be explained simply by knowing the frontline was separated into 2 search teams. One for the forest ,me and Rin did pass by while going to the mountains, and of course the mountains. Since both were on the same way it would make sense to prepare a trap on that side of the map. But now the question still came back in a full circle. How did the hooded man know to be prepared in the cave leading to the mountains ? Why not the forest ?

Could it have been pure luck ?
Something in me was telling me that it could not be. Pk(player killer) in SAO were really smart to find new ways to take people's lives. So luck was out of the question.

Could the hooded man be spying on us for a while ?

I immediately rejected that idea. It was impossible for a Red player to enter the city and knowing he had attacked players, it was sure he had a red cursor. An ally maybe ? This seems to be more logical.

 

Now a new question appeared in my mind. Then who ?

Wait ! The man who had the KOB armor. It could be him. But if yes, are his other teammates into the plan ? Or is he a traitor ?

 

Too many questions on who did this were floating in my mind. I put them on hold for the moment to think on other aspects of this mystery.

And I can ask Kirito about KOB stuff later.

I made a stop at my favorite Pink haired girl shop. Liz welcomed me with a warm hug and a teasy “ oh my isnt that a zombie ?”

We laughed a bit before she started to work again. She had a few commissions already and would only be ready to work on my and Rin’s sword after. Knowing her, it would only take 10 minutes. I let her know it was fine by me and I sat on a chair in the shop.

I closed my eyes to let my mind slip away and go back into my detective mode.

Who did it could not be answered yet.
Which meant the Why also was unanswerable.

Then who was the target ?

 

Could it be Me or Rin ? Either of those answers would mean the other is also in danger. But as far as i knew, Rin had no enemies. Me on the other hand….

Well i had many. Over 20 names came to my mind but I could not see them as the culprit because most of them were simply named as enemies for being rivals in completing some quest and well for dating Rin and I doubt those boys are crazy enough to kill someone over a girl….i hope. The last one I thought who could try to kill me, was dead long ago on the 7th floor.

Then it only meant one thing, neither me or Rin were the targets.

Ok Akira think hard, who could it be then ?

 

DONE, said Liz

This stopped my thought process in an instant. I stood up and complimented Liz on the wonderful work she always does.

Hey Akira, I heard you encountered a Pk yesterday ?

Yeah I did and to be honest, I have no idea who it can be. I’m stuck wondering about that since it happened.

 

Well, since I am a real Clue genius, I will help. Try to remember all the details, even the one that seems insignificant.

 

My mind blocked on the word “clue” . My eyes blink many times looking at Liz.

 

Clue, the board game ? You don’t know it ? I played many times with my parents when I was a kid.

 

Ah ! I think I've heard of it. Well to be honest, my family wasn’t the kind to play games together.

 

Oh ? Well, let's play when we get back to the real world. We can invite Silica and Rin.

 

Sounds like a plan to me.

 

I waved my hand to Liz before leaving her shop. The same moment the door shut, something came back to my mind.

 

The KOB player thought I was Kirito.

 

At that moment I had 2 possible clues that were adding up.

The culprit and the target.

The problem was that I could not remember how that player looked. I send a quick message to Rin in hope she does.

She replied to me in 30 seconds.

Young,probably our age, red hair, spiky haircut. Badly shaved beard. Grey eyes. Using a curved sword.

I thank her in my mind before walking faster. I needed to find Kirito. Someone wanted him dead and I have a lead.

 

AKIRA !

 

The moment I arrived at the meeting place, the short girl with side- swept bangs ran toward me.

Morning Silica, how are you ?

 

Well, huh…

 

I saw some red covering Silica cheeks.

 

It’s ok Silica. Tell me, what is going on ?

 

The young girl stumbled on her words, probably feeling too shy. Silica was soon joined by a girl with a blonde ponytail and a short haired girl.

 

Heyo Kiki, said Leafa.

Hurg. Leafa i already told you, find a better nickname.

 

Hey, if I can't use it with Kirito, I will use it with you.

 

Fine…. Anyway, do you know what is going on with Silica?

 

This time Sinon spoke up.

 

She just came to tell you we signed up to Asuna to be paired in a team with you.

 

Oh ! Really ? If that is fine with you all I see no problem in that.

 

We are gonna do our best even if we are weaker, said Silica.

 

I have all faith in your capacity, so don’t worry Silica, you are always welcome in my teams.

 

OUR, said a girl behind me.

 

Oh hi Rin, greeted the girls.

 

Rin came to pinch my cheek and make me correct myself.

 

Fine, fine, our team. I said.

 

The 4 girls started laughing loudly.

 

Anyway, I asked, do any of you know where Kirito is ?
I have an urgent matter that requires him.

 

Big brother is over there talking with Fuurikazan, i think its about Klein leading team C.

 

Thank you Leafa, will pay you back.

 

Hehe, then you will buy me a cake from the Heavens.

 

Wait, isn't that the bakery where pie costs a lot of cols ?

 

Yup, 70 000 for the cheapest !

 

BUT THAT COST MORE THAN RIN WEDDING RING. WHY DOES IT COST THIS MUCH ?

 

Hehe, i don’t know but you can’t walk back on your words.

 

….. Fine, I will take you there tomorrow.

 

Yeahhh, yelled Leafa.

 

I left the 4 girls and my savings for tomorrow behind.

 

Hey, Kirito ! I called him.

He turned back and waved his hand to me.
After a few more steps, I reached him and Klein.

 

Sorry to interrupt you 2 , Klein,but I have something I need to discuss with Kirito.

 

It's all fine Akira, we have finished here.

 

Great, then see you later Klein.

 

You too Akira.

 

Kirito and I walked a bit further before we started talking.

 

So what is going on, Akira ?

 

Well, first off, sorry for the Yui situation of Yesterday. Second, I might have info about the boss. Third, I would need to talk to someone from the KOB.

 

For yesterday, I think Asuna scared you enough so you know not to do it again.
For the rest go on.

 

I then explained to Kirito about the final boss of the quest, but also the hooded-man situation.

Hearing there a new PK outside seemed to displease Kirito, but what made him look a bit more angry was that he could not recall any KOB player matching the description I made.

 

Thank you for speaking with me about this.
I will give Asuna what you told me about the boss. For the player you search, I think it will be better to talk with Asuna, but it might take a while. She doesn’t have a lot of free time since she's now the leader of KOB and leads the frontline.

 

Yeah I get that, tell her to message me when she has free time. Meanwhile, stay vigilant Kirito, someone is trying to hurt you.

 

Kirito nodded.

We shared a brotherly embrace before we both walked different ways.

 

I joined the group again, Rin,Silica,Leafa and Sinon.

Soon, Asuna appeared and with a strong voice, she called us all.

 

Thank you all for coming here today. Yesterday we found the boss room in the labyrinth. It has been a real challenge with danger at every corner. This is proof that the boss waiting for us will be very dangerous. Also no quest so far has given us trustworthy info about the boss and its skills. All we have is maybe. This is why, if you wish, you are all free to leave and not participate in the Boss Raid.

 

After Asuna had finished her speech, many players had left the meeting place, reducing our number of frontliners from 70 to 30.

 

Thanks to everyone who stayed. Here is all the information I can give.

The boss might be called, The Demon God Eye. As its name says, it will be a giant eye that will attack with tentacles. There is also a skill that the boss will use to stun you then target you. It can be prevented by not looking at it when the pupil turns red.

Like usual, the boss will have minions, mobs that will fight with it.
So we will need to make teams to send into the battle with a role to complete.
Teams A will , with Team B, focus on the boss while Team C and Team D will take care of the mobs. I, Asuna, will lead team A , Oritumaka will lead Team B. Klein and Akira will lead Team C and D. Remember. Do not be reckless, stay at your post. We don’t want to lose anyone.

 

Nearly everyone raised their fist in the air. Others were clapping for Asuna. Some others were yelling, We are going to get out of here soon, and a few, Asuna , please marry me, from some men.

 

Once everyone had calmed down and the teams were now fully created and ready. We all left for the boss.

 

SILICA, SINON, GO HELP HIM. I ordered them. The battle had started for 1 hour, there was no escaping the room, no door nor crystal and 3 players were dead already.

Samus, Link and Paracelcus.

 

The problem we encountered was not what we expected. The boss was indeed the eye Rin and I fought, but this time, It was floating very high in the room. So high that even Nezha with his unique long range attack could not reach it. On top, instead of simply glowing in red, the eye was marking a huge area of the room in red. If you were in a red zone, you were getting stun and attacked.

I was sure that Asuna knew it too, this battle was lasting for too long and soon our focus would go down and more and more Frontliner would die.

We need to find a way to bring down the boss.

 

AKIRA, yelled Leafa, new minions.

GOTCHA.

Many small winged demons appeared once more in the boss room. Our team took care of them faster than before. Our teamwork was increasing rapidly and we were becoming more efficient. But it would not be enough.

We need to find a solution. I looked around to see if there was something we could do.

 

RED, This warning came from Asuna.

All the players, getting more scared of this death trap, start to run in a safe spot.

 

Unfortunately , while running around, a bulky tank, from the Dragon Knight Brigade, had pushed out of his way another player. The player fell down on her back and before she could get up, the area around her turned Red. The player was now stun.

 

KLEIN, WITH ME !

GOT IT !

Together, Klein and I manage to reach the stun player. We surrounded her, sword ready to slash down every tentacle coming our way. Without needing words. My temporary partner and I manage to work together to protect each other but also the player. Once the combo of attacks was over,I sheathed my sword and took in my arms the girl. I started to run, Klein protecting my back.

 

What is your name ? I asked.

Co- Cocoa,.

 

Pleasure to meet you, Cocoa.

 

We finally ran far enough so the boss could not attack us anymore.

 

The status effect on Cocoa is gone, I let her down to join her team.

 

I gave a quick glance toward the player responsible for endangering Cocoa.

 

TEAM B, GO BACK IN BATTLE, said their leader

 

Many Players ran past me to go back to fight again.

I walked to Asuna to talk with her.

 

Hey Asuna, we need a solution fast, we cannot survive much longer.

 

I know… but you still can’t touch the boss.

 

Yeah, this is why we need to bring it down. Any ideas ?

 

She shook her head.

No, I don't see any.

 

We both stayed silent, looking around to find a solution.

 

However, this time I finally saw something.

 

Look Asuna, up there.

 

She looked at where I pointed with my finger.

 

Ballista ?

 

Yes, I'm sure it is what we need to use.

 

Yeah but how do you plan to reach it ?

 

Good question. Wait there.

 

There was a small hole on the bottom of the wall, small but big enough to let a body pass.

 

You're a genius Akira, said Asuna jumping in my arms. Go for it, I will give the command of your team to Klein.

 

Got it.

 

I started to run as fast as I could toward the wall. Before reaching it, I threw myself down to slide in the hole and reach the other side.

 

I quickly got up and took a fast glance around. Perfect, i thought.

 

Right in front of me was a crack in the other wall. I ran to it and used the crack to start to climb. Arriving halfway to the top, there wasn't any hole anymore,so I used my feet and hands to push myself and jump on what should have been the ceiling.

I grabbed what was still holding and climbed it.

I walked further away as a part of the ceiling fell down.

 

That was close, I said while sighing. I then started to walk carefully on the timber that was connecting this room with the boss one. I was hearing below me the players of Team B still trying to touch the Demon God Eye.

 

RED, yelled Kirito.

 

I looked around to see where it was.

Most of all the zone I was in was now red. I stepped back to get some cover in the previous room but I heard a loud cracking sound. With only one last option left, I ran to reach the ballista before my body got stun or fell down, bringing a failure that would lead to everyone's death.

I started to run as fast I could while I was hearing what was behind me falling.

With no time left for both for the red zone, as I did not run fast enough. I jumped the farthest I could. The pillar with the ballista was a safe zone. So I was praying for my luck. But as usual it was that great. I managed to grab myself on the pillar but one of my toes did get touched by the stun.

 

I knew how it worked. It was life. My body was slowly turning into stone. So I had time left before it reached my hands.

With no intention of giving up, I started to climb the pillar with only my hands pulling my body up. But it was starting to get harder. Since the tentacles were targeting me and I was too high to be protected by anyone.

At every hit by the boss, the pillar structure was getting weaker. Soon enough it would break and the ballista would fall down and the shock would for sure destroy it.

I tried to be faster but I started to feel the stun reaching my shoulders.

I finally reached the top as my elbows were turning to stone. The moment I grabbed the ballista, the pillar broke down.

 

Now in free fall. I used the weight of my body to lift up my new weapon and target the boss. The stun effect started to reach my hands, I had just enough time to activate the ballista who shot and touched the Demon God eye.

Having no strength left, my hands let go of the ballista. The boss was now falling with me but contrary to it, someone catched me to save my life.

 

Thank you Agil.

 

No problem,Akira

I put me down.

Rin, silica and the rest of my team came to get me away from the front line while I recovered.

After 3 minutes. I could move again. I joined the battle at my usual post.

The boss , now down, it was easier and it only took 20 more minutes to kill it. Of course Kirito got the last attack bonus once more.

 

Once the CONGRATULATION title appeared. We all cheered for our victory.

 

It's on my said Klein.

I can close my Inn for tonight, said Agil

 

I will cook us something, add Asuna.

 

Kirito tapped my shoulder, Good Job today Akira.

 

Thank you Kirito.

 

Hey, said Silica, why don't you and Rin join us.

 

That would be lovely, said Rin.

 

What do you think Aki, asked Rin.

 

As I was about to tell her it was an amazing idea, I received a message from Furiko.

 

Come back NOW, urgent !

Chapter 10

Furiko and her master, Lady Vylania, explained to me one of the most important traditions in the Canza family. The father, or a man from the family, carries the child to an autel where the mom, in a beautiful white and long dress, dances and sings to bless the soul of the children.

 

However, there were no men left in the family. They all died in a war against Erskin, the man who gave the order to burn the golden roses garden, so Lady Vylania asked me to play the part on which Renvyla's father should have. I wanted to refuse. I did not want this burden but the deepness of the suffering in her eyes made me unable to do so. So I started to walk the path to the Ceremonial Autel with Renvyla's lifeless body in my arms.

At this moment, I did not know if it was my imagination or the sensor of nervegear but I could feel how cold her body was.

I cannot cry. I cannot shed a tear, I had to be strong for everyone here. On the left side of the garden in the backyard of the Canza family house was Rin with her eyes clouded by tears. On the right was Yui loudly crying in Asuna’s arm while Kirito tried to ease her pain with his support and love.

Further ahead, Lady Vylania, in the white garment. She was waiting for me to bring her deceased child to bless her soul and pray it reaches the afterlife peacefully.

I stopped for a moment to look at the child's face. Her face was so pretty she was looking like a doll but this beauty was only making the cruelty of life even more stronger.

Why would life claim the life of a child so young ?

 

I have been asking myself this question for years now.

 

As i took an another step, i recall was Furiko told me, what Renvyla last words were,

 

Where is mommy ?

 

I felt new scars being added to my fragile heart. I knew that one day I would break but I did not know when it would be.

I took another step, this time it was the cruelest realisation that came to my mind and tried to shatter my very soul.

 

No matter how much I try, I always fail to protect the one I care about, to protect who is truly important to me. Just like back then.

I finally reached the Autel. I laid down Renvyla. I whispered in her ear,

Sorry… sorry !

A part of me knew she was just an npc, that she wasn't a real human in flesh but it didn't matter because suffering is not only a thing humans share with each other, compassion, love, hatred and pain, all of this could be given to what surrounds us.

I walked back to let the mother have her last moment with her daughter.

After an elegant and graceful dance, Lady Vylania took from a table next to the autel a pendant with her family crest. She put it on her daughter's dead and cold body.

 

My sweet and beautiful Renvyla, sorry for not being a better mother.

 

Renvyla's body broke into hundreds of blue diamonds, then flew at me, covering my whole body before leaving toward the sky but the feeling of them on my skin stayed like ashes burning my body with shame.

Shame of being weak and useless, of being a failure.

Notes:

And that was it for floor 76. I really hope you did enjoy it. This chapter was so hard to write because just like surely many if you i wish Renvyla would have lived but fate as decide otherwise.

Now i will leave for a bit to prepare the story of floor 77 and i know you wonder what it will be about and to be honest, it is elementary my dear Watsons.🫡

Chapter 11

Notes:

We are back in Aincrad to see what will happen to Akira and Rin on the floor 77, but before, Akira have to keep his words to Leafa

I woke up as the ray of the sun gently touched my skin. I slowly opened my eyes before getting up and ready for today.

I look at Rin before looking at my menu clock. It was 9 in the morning. I thought it was better to get prepared. I was supposed to meet with Kirito’s sister, Leafa, to keep my word and buy her one of the very expensive cakes. I quickly equip my clothes and armor. Before leaving this house. I decided to let my partner sleep. It was only 2 days since we had participated in Renvyla’s funeral and she barely could sleep the first night and even if we received the notification of QUEST COMPLETE, Rin was feeling like she had only failed.

I could not blame her for that, I was feeling the same, a pain I wished I never would have to carry again but i was there again.

I shook my head to cast away those thoughts. Today is a new day. In the morning I have my meeting with Leafa and in the afternoon me and Rin need to go see Lady Furiko. Strangely enough, we received a new message from her. Something is apparently going on.

After a couple of deep breaths, I took my leave. I walked in the direction of the Heavens Bakery. I realised by looking around that the town was less lively than usual but it was surely because the players were now visiting the floor 77 town.

After a good 45 minutes of walking, I finally reached the bakery but Leafa was nowhere to be seen, which was strange. I always thought girls were typically early when meeting with a boy, that was why I arrived early too. So I quickly checked my message and saw that she would be a bit late. I replied to her with a simple ok. From there, I had to wait for her. I decided to take my time and go to the coffee shop close by the bakery.

The coffee shop was quite special since it had some outdoor seating. I took one of them and waited for the bartender to come take my order. After 5 minutes, a Npc dressed as a maid came to me. Her maid outfit was captivating. It was a mix of traditional dress for a maid but with a modern change. The skirt of her uniform didn't go all the way down but stopped at half of her thighs. She top had for some reasons an open space around the cleavage. Finally, the maid dress was not in the usual black and white but in a midnight blue and white. I slightly blushed at the sight of this as my mind replaced the Npc face with Rin’ one.

Der sir ?

Oh yes ! Sorry, I said. I will take a medium size ice caramel latte with froth cream on top, sprinkle with cinnamon.

 

Perfect Sir, your order will arrive soon.

After she left, I tried to get my focus back but my mind was still stuck on how hot Rin would look like in that maid outfit. Maybe I should ask her to be my maid for my next birthday, I thought.

Just like the maid said, my coffee arrived pretty fast. I thank the npc before taking my first sip. As usual the mix of the bitter taste of the coffee was great to wake up but not the best. This was why I always preferred it when it was toned down. That was why I asked for the caramel, its rich and soft buttery taste was mixing well with the bitter while the complexity of the cinnamon with its sugary and spicy aroma made the whole perfect. And of course the froth cream, I always love it, because everytime i drank some, a part of it stayed around my mouth and said “ oh oh oh” like I was a young Santa Claus.

 

Leafa finally arrived at 10h20. When I saw her, I felt my cheek getting hotter and probably more red. Leafa was wearing a pretty emerald green and with a white ribbon holding it in her back. The dress was covering a lot from her but her back was exposed which was surprisely quite attractive. She also had undone her usual ponytail to let her long blond hair fall down under her shoulder.

Unable to control my thoughts, I let my mouth slip a wow to which Leafa react with becoming red due to blushing.

Huh,..well, let's get inside Leafa.

Yes. No time to waste, heavenly cake waiting for me, said Leafa drooling.

 

I laughed at this sight as it reminded me of Kirito a few months ago when I bought him an A rank class steak. It seems the saying, like mother like daughter, could also be like brother like sister.

 

As we got inside the bakery, Leafa was humming and practically dancing with joy which reminded me that she was younger than me. Which was so impressive the show of courage she put on when she found a way to get into Aincrad, knowing it is a dead game, to meet her brother again and help him. I only realised now how impressive and an admirable person she was. Deep down a part of me wished I could be as great as her.

We sat down at a 2 place table, as we were now facing each other, I realised how close to a date this could look like and so a part of me was worried, not that it could make Rin angry, but make her jealous that she wouldn’t be the one going on a date with Leafa.

 

I once more shook my head to bring clarity to my mind.

Hey Leafa !

Yes Akira ?

Since my words mean something, you can order whatever you want.

Really ?

Yes

REALLY ?

huh, yeah i just said..

 

YOUUUPPII !

 

Leafa took less than second to order the Great Natural Chocolate Cake.
The highest priced bakery of the shop. I made a sign to the NPC that I was the one to pay. The payment window appeared and I saw a price so scary I thought dying now would be way better.

10000000 cols ????

 

Well I will definitely never buy anything here. I proceed to make my wallet, so to speak, WAY WAY WAY less heavier.
Soon after, Leafa 's overpriced cake arrived. She dug into it to have her first bite. Suddenly her face twisted into disgust. She struggled to shallow her bite but once she did, her face slowly got deformed by the expressions she was making. Something was wrong, very wrong. I hurried to the NPC to ask for a glass of water and bring it back to Leafa.

She drank it all in one sip.

It tastes horrible, it is worse than Kirito cooking, how is it possible, yelled Leafa.

Miss, is there something wrong with the cake ? Asked the Npc

Leafa immediately replied, Yes, what kind of chocolate did you use ?

Natural, like the name of the dishes say.

I felt like I needed to make an intervention. Sorry, but what do you mean by natural ?

It comes from the same source as our milk, Bayaga the cow.

Ok so what from the cow is the natural chocolate, i asked

 

Her excretory product of course, said the NPC.

 

I turned to look at Leafa's face, her eyes were now hollow as if her soul left her body.

Me , I couldn't hold back a laugh so loud and strong I felt on the ground.

Just for this, I had no regrets about having spent 1000000 cols, because now I had something I will never forget and to tell Kirito about.

Chapter 12

Notes:

Hi everyone, sorry for not posting last week, work is starting to get busy and so is harder to write so this is why i couldn't release a chapter last week. Now that is past, i can finally release it, yes on sunday instead of wednesday or thursday. I hope i can manage 2 chapter this week to catch up but i cannot promise.

Well, i surprised myself by thinking this, but thank you Kayaba, not feeling the physical pain in SAO is a blessing, otherwise the powerful slap Leafa gave me would have hurt. Hurt like hell, there is a reason that at this moment, as i am leaving the bakery, i have a huge red hand mark on my face. Leafa’s hand.

I stayed behind as I saw a furious Leafa walking away. I cannot blame her, she unknowingly ate poop and I laughed at it. She is right to be angry, but it is still funny and I do not regret a single thing that has happened. I know she asked me to forget about that but sorry Leafa, it is something I will tell my future children and grandchildren.

But focus now Akira, i told myself, the day was just starting and we had things to do.
First , I had to meet Rin. I gently rubbed my cheek before going to Rin and the meeting spot at the Main place fountain. I opened my player menu and sent her a message to signal I was on my way. The second I closed the player window, I took my leave.

I arrived 20 minutes later at the spot since I took the longer way to buy to Rin her favorite cinnamon bun.

Aki.. you are late, said the pouting girl as she turned to face me.

At this moment I couldn't speak anymore, I was frozen by the beauty of my partner with her casual dress.

She was wearing a sleeveless white dress that was falling down to cover half of her eyes catching thighs. It was held by very thin suspenders that were showing her beautiful shoulders. To make the dress more catchy, there was a beautiful red ribbon around her waist. The cherry on the top, Rin had let her hair down, which was very rare for her.

 

So pretty, I barely manage to say.

What ? Replied Rin as her cheek turned red

 

Ah sorry I was just frozen by how beautiful you were.

 

Rin's face turned even more red, with her hand she grabbed her hair and tried to cover her face like she was trying to hide her redness.

 

Praising me won’t make me less mad, she whispered.

 

Yeah.. but do this can ? I asked while showing her the cinnamon bun I bought her.

 

YESSSS ! she yelled. Rin furiously grabbed it from my hand and started to devour it. I laughed at this sight. Really, I thought, when she comes for sweet food, she is more of a glutton than Kirito.

Osh, shis shosh goom. Said Rin with a huge portion of the bun on her mouth.

What's our first stop ? I asked Rin, and no speaking with food in your mouth YOUNG GIRL, i also teased her.

 

Rin swallowed in a second the bite she had before speaking.

First we need to go see Lizzie. She said she has something for me, then we need to meet Furiko, she sent us a message last night asking to see us.

Mmmm… I wonder why Furiko wants to see us !

Moby fopa west ?

 

Rin…..

 

She swallowed her new bite she had before speaking.

 

What ? It is not my fault if you speak to me while I'm eating my precious bun, she said before taking another bite.

I let her finish before asking my new question, so I started with, not a good morning ?

 

No, my husband didn’t make me my tea.

 

Huh, well, I left early and I am sure Furiko will prepare us some.

 

Not the same, it isn't one that my husband made tea.

 

She continued to cutely pout trying to make an angry face. I hold a laugh to not upset her more.

 

Ok ! Ok ! Sorry, i will make it up to you i promised, i told her before we started to walk to Liz shop. It was only then I realised something, Lizzie ? I guess Liz has a new nickname, last week it was only Liz, and the one before was Bethbeth. I hope Rin is gonna need to settle for one because I'm starting to struggle to follow up with her.

On our way to Liz blacksmith shop, I told Rin the fabulous love story of Leafa and the natural chocolate cake. After hearing it, she laughed with me for a few minutes. After we discussed why we received a message from Furiko, to our understanding, the quest was over, once Renvyla’s funeral was done, we got the notification of the quest completed and received cols and exp. We also couldn’t see how the quest could continue after Renvyla's death. The quest was called a girl's wish. The girl was dead. We decided to drop the question and wait to ask Furiko directly.

 

Finally we arrived at our friend's shop, we were about to enter but i stopped Rin.

Wait you have something here, I said pointing to her cheek. She had some crumbs of her cinnamon bun she had just eaten. Rin tried to wipe them with her hand but after 2 tries I stopped her.

 

I will do it,I said. I put my hand on the clean cheek and brought Rin's face closer to me. I gently put my lips on the cheek with the crumbs and with a quick movement of my tongue, I took the crumbs in my mouth to eat them.
I walked back a little bit to admire Rin's face.

She was frozen in place, her face like a tomato again. She then looked at me with her captivating blue eyes.

No fair, Said Rin, it was my bun.

I stared back at her. I had to control myself because seeing her like this, so cute and beautiful, was making me want to just undress and make love to her. But we weren’t at home so I could not.

It isn't fair for me, I mumble.

Hey Rin, can I ask what makes you this happy ? Your mind seem to be more free today

 

Yeah, well it’s been a while since we had any moment to rest since our battle on the 75th floor.

 

She stopped there and entered Liz's shop. I followed her but was more in my thoughts than reality now. It was true, since then we were so busy we never had a real moment to rest nor to have a real moment only the 2 of us. It wasn’t like our couple was having a hard time, but I felt like something was missing. Yes, it is decided, I will ask Rin for us to take a break from doing Quest and progression in Aincrad for a few days, that way, we can go on dates and have some time for us two alone. Well, after we help Furiko.

Hey you two, welcome us Liz with her usual attire.

Lizzie ! Exclaim Rin.

 

The 2 girls hugged each other for a few seconds before backing up

Happy to see you Rin.

 

Same Lizzie, so how are you doing ?

 

Well, a bit tired since I have to raise back my smithing level but I'm close to being back to the maximum level.

 

Oh that’s awesome !

 

It will truly help us, I said to enter the conversation. Thank you for all you do Liz.

 

Ahaha, no need for that. Anyway, Rin told me you two would be busy so I will be fast.

 

After saying this, Liz took something out of her inventory, an ore but it wasn’t like any ore I ever saw in Aincrad.

 

I present to you the fabulous Demonspirit ore. Kirito found it while exploring the Hollow area.

 

Oooh ! Right, i said. Kirito has been there a lot recently, I still haven't found the time to talk with him about it.

 

Yeah he is, Asuna gets worried a lot, added Rin.

 

On that, continued Liz, this ore allows a blacksmith to upgrade to a new type of weapon or armor and greatly upgrade the stats.

 

Amazing, I said with excitement. If it is true we should find a way to get as many as possible.

 

Yeah, I thought of that with Kirito, but once we check its drop rate we kind of forget about it.

 

What is it ? Asked Rin

 

0.0001%

 

WHAT ? Said Rin and I as if we were one.

 

How is Kirito always so lucky i said

 

You are so right, just look, he is the one who is with Asuna, not me. Added Rin.

We continued to complain for a few minutes until we could calm down. After that Liz explained to us how she wanted to try the ore on Rin shield. We both were taken by surprise but agreed to let her try.

Rin then took her shield and gave it to Liz, we then followed her to her workplace in her shop, she activated her forge, put the shield, let it have what should be the melt effect in the game, then did the same with the ore. Once done she put the shield on her work table, then added the ore on top of Rin’s shield. She ended her work by giving a few taps on the ore and shield. It then started to glow and stopped. A new shield was now in front of her. Liz then used her finger to open the stats window of Rin’s new shield.

 

The demon’s blessed shield

Defense + 275, strength +180, vitality +100 damage reduction of normal attack 90% *special skill: if she shield is hold with both hand, damage reduction is raised to 100% and 70% against swordskills

 

Lizzie, that is incredible, thank you so much.

 

Once again, Rin took Liz in her arms and held her close.

 

It is a majestic piece Liz, I said.

 

After receiving Liz's gift, Rin and I left to go see Furiko. After all what happened today, it was now nearly 12h when we finally arrived at the Canza’s manor. However, this time there were no guards at the entrance. Something was strange but I paid it no mind because it didn’t feel like it was a huge problem. We continued our way to the door and there, Rin knocked on it 4 times. For a short moment, we didn’t heard anyone, but after around 1 minutes, a loud voice came from inside,

 

Don’t worry, I'm coming.

 

I recognize this voice as Furiko's. She finally opened the doors and let us inside.
Once there, Rin and I looked around the manor, both of us were shocked by what we were seeing. As one,once again, we asked Furiko.

 

WHAT HAPPENED HERE ?

Chapter 13

Notes:

I DID IT, WITH BARELY NO FREE TIME, HERE A NEW CHAP

 

Ah and its prob the longest so far. Pace is slower for this floor because i believe it to be a good contrast with the last floor. Hope you all still enjoy it. Next week gonna be busy and my weekend will be too with the comic con so maybe there wont be a new chap next week. Sorry about that.

Furiko stayed silent and looked down. A deep sorrow twisting her beautiful and mature face. My partner walked to her and wrapped her arms around Furiko. As I felt it would be awkward for a young man to hug a mature lady in front of his girlfriend, I let Rin deal with taking care of our NPC friend. I take a look around the entrance, but also the living room on the left side.

In the entrance, the family's portrait has been thrown to the ground, and very likely also walked on. The many candlesticks were lying on the floor, the flame must have been put out after because I could see the damage the fire had done to the carpet. Half of it was burned. I could still smell the fire mix with a smoky plastic-like scent. I slightly turned on the left to reach the living room. The table in its center was broken in half as if a heavy weight was thrown on it. The couch near the table was mauled in pieces, probably from the use of knives. To end my observation, the few wooden tables and chairs that the room once had were destroyed, so much that to walk in the room someone would have to be cautious to not trip on the parts that were everywhere.

I got back to where Rin and Furiko were. There, Rin gave me a head sign to signal to me that Furiko needed more time. Understanding it, I decided to let them be.

We will wait for you in the kitchen, said Rin.

I watched them walk away. Once they were out of my eyes, something in me pushed me to walk to a specific room. So without being able to control myself, I climbed the stairs. Every step made me feel like my body was heavier. But for an unknown reason, I was getting scared. Like my heart didnt wanna go but my body wasn't listening. Surprising as it also was, I knew by heart where the room was despite only going there twice. On the fifth floor, I turned left in a corridor and then on the right. At last, I was facing a bedroom door. I raised my shaking hand toward the round handle. I closed my eyes, took many deep breaths but my body was still shaking and my heart was in a panic state. But, once again, even if my heart was yelling to me to not open the door, my body refused to listen. I grabbed the handle, turned it to the right before pushing the door. I finally entered the bedroom, I looked around and saw no one. I knew that's how it would be but I wished it would not be. But she wasn’t in her room, of course, Renvyla would never be here again.

I looked around a second time, this time to make sure neither Furiko nor Rin was there. This confirmed, my vision became blurry. The tears covered my eyes completely. I carefully step toward the empty small bed. Everything was like it was when I left the room last time, the pillow still had the shape of a little head while the white sheet was crumpled. The yellow blanket was on the bottom left corner, nearly falling down. I gently touch the sheet and caress it. As strange as it was, since Renvyla is a NPC, it was like I could still smell the perfume of flowers she had. It was without doubt my imagination. My brain was just doing all it could to try to mimic her presence, like a form of denial. A way to refuse what happened. A few drops of my tears falling on Renvyla’s bed is what woke me up from my trance. I wiped the tears from my face before whispering a very last goodbye to the little girl I couldn't save and leave.

On my way back I noticed a door which had a little light, probably from a candle, coming from the space between the flooring and the door. Thinking it surely is Vylania. I knocked at the door 3 times then I waited for an answer. I've met only silence. Not even the sound of feet hitting the ground as someone walks.

“Guess no one is here” i told myself

I ,once more, took the stairs. Back at the entrance, I walked toward the dinner room since I needed to pass through it to reach the kitchen. No light was in the dinner room and after the first few steps, I heard a crunching sound and I felt something shattering under my feet. Instead of continuing to walk in this dark room, I opened my inventory and searched for an item I got back on floor 65. A glowing stick.
Once I found it, I materialized it in my hand and shook it. A red light started to illuminate the dinner room. The light did not make it possible to see every detail of the surroundings but just enough to know that this room too seemed to have been destroyed. Before asking myself questions on how it could and what happened, I realized the fastest way to have the answers would be from Furiko. So I continued on my way to the kitchen trying to avoid many plates on the ground.

 

The kitchen was also a mess but at this point it started to feel normal so i didn’t bother more with that. On the other side of the kitchen, I noticed Rin and Furiko. Rin was lying there, her back on the wall as there were no chairs, Furiko on her part was preparing tea. She was in the process of making the infusion. As a coffee drinker, I was more familiar with the process of infusing coffee but I remembered how grandma Suzu was doing every time we were visiting her. You need to put the leaves in the tea pot first, add hot, boiling, water after and let it rest for a few minutes to allow the leaves to infuse to water. The third step was to serve the tea. The last one, which I could never do, was to enjoy it. Too bad for me I guess.

 

“ Oh you are back Sir Akira, sorry that i cannot serve you coffee, we don’t have any for now ” Said Furiko

 

“ Tea is fine, Furiko, “ I replied to her.

 

In truth, I really do not like tea but it wasn’t the moment to say it, something wrong was happening, the house was in a disastrous state and Furiko was still taking time to greet us and make us tea. It was the minimum to accept her kindness.

Furiko poured into 3 wooden cups the tea she made. She then gives a cup to Rin and i. She then took the last one for herself. We stayed in silence for a few seconds, time we all used to take a few sips of our beverage. At last our NPC friend started to talk.

“ I suppose I should start with what happened to the manor “ said Furiko

Rin and I simply nodded and were focused on Furiko's face to catch every word that would came.out of her mouth.

“ After Lady Renvyla’s death, Lady Vylania has fired everyone, as such, every person working for the Canza’s family left. At first I just thought my lady wanted to be alone so I left to buy the groceries and some supplies. However, when I came back I heard mayhem inside the house. I rushed in to only see Lady Vylania crying and tearing down everything in the house. I tried to calm her but she was pushing me away yelling “ he took my daughters”.
At the end what stopped her was tiredness. She fell down, completely worn out.”

 

Furiko stopped talking, she grabbed a tissue from one of her pockets and started to wipe away her tears. She then continued.

“ Since that moment, she never leaves her room and she doesn’t talk anymore. But that wasn’t why I contacted you.”

“ What was the reason then ? “ asked Rin

“ You 2 are fighters and had open access to the 77 floor of Aincrad. In the city of Triberia the Canza’s family own an orphanage. There we were taking care of children in need but of course we lost contact when the access to the upper level floors were lost.” explained Furiko

“ But now you gained the contact back “ I spoke for the first time since Furiko explanation.

“ Yes, “ Furiko nodded. “ And here is the problem. The children have started to disappear"

 

The city of Triberia was built in an architecture reminiscent of the city of Florence, or to be precise, the one I saw in some old video games. However there were a few differences. Starting with the color scheme. Instead of being the color of sand with orange, the bricks were all white while the roofs were all in a shade of green called frost green. In the center of the city was a giant floating circular structure looking like it was made to observe the city from above. It was on it that the main teleporter for this floor was. Now in the city, Rin and I were following Furiko who was guiding us to the Canza’ family orphanage. By walking around, I notice more similarities with the city of Florence, like some buildings having a not symmetric rectangular shaped tower.

 

“ Hey look Aki” said Rin pointing at me other floating pieces of land with houses on them. I noticed one that looked like the Canza’s manor but smaller and with less floor and with a red ceiling which was opposing the rest of the city.

 

“ Furiko, is this the orphanage?” I asked.

“Yes Sir Akira,” said Furiko, “ I will show you the way to get there.”

We continued to follow Furiko to a quite big cylinder shaped space made of glass. It was big enough to get up to 5 people and not the size of Rin, who was slightly smaller than me, but 5 people with the physique of Agil. Once inside the cylinder, Furiko pulled out of her pocket a tiny pendant forged to form the canza’s family emblem. Furiko put the pendant into a hole of the same shape which seemed to have activated a mechanism. The glass cylinder was an elevator. It started to go higher to reach the floating land on which our destination was.

 

There the door opened and a tall man wearing a black suit was waiting. Since I realised the quest would be about solving a case, I set my mind to remember every detail I could. So I used my mind to make a photo of the man who greeted us and saved it into an imaginary folder.

Man, around 40, no facial hair, brown eyes, BALD.

 

The kid in me suddenly went to accuse him for simply being bald, remembering what a friend and I were saying about bald people long ago.

 

Bald people lost their hair because they ugly evil people

 

I had to control myself to not smile at realizing how kids are something stupid. How i was stupid but this got cast away when the face of my friend appeared in my mind. But no time to be angry about the past.

 

“ Hi Miss Furiko, i’m glad to meet you” said the hairless man

 

“ The feeling is mutual Director Andrews.” Answered back Furiko.

With that fast exchange of words, I added information to the folder for the bald man.

Name: Andrews
Profession: Director of the orphanage

“ I would guess you are there for the kids who have disappeared ? “ said the director.

 

“ Yes, but I won't be able to make the investigation myself, this is why I brought close friends.” Furiko said, pointing at us.

The eyes of the Director stopped on us, he looked at us head to toes. A strange feeling got inside my heart and my body shivered. It was like my body was telling me something was off with this man. After what felt like a huge minute, he finally spoke again.

 

“ I see, very well then. Follow me”

 

The 3 of us followed the Director. I didn’t understand why Furiko was still with us after she said she did not have the time but her presence was reassuring

The director started to make us walk around
Showing us how beautiful the orphanage building was, where the garden is while never letting us talk. He then showed us the fountain that was on the field and told us its story.

I looked at Furiko who was staying silent and only looking at Andrews, listening to every word he was saying, the same could be said about Rin. Personally I was starting to lose patience.

“ Director “ I calmly tried to say but I was ignored.

 

“ Oh and let me show you the old stable. We still have a few horses. I’m sure it will please you.” Said the Director.

Seeing that he seemed to not have heard me, I repeated myself.

“ Sorry Direc….” I spoke before being stopped by the Director's voice.

 

“ This way !” Andrews said.

 

Ok now i am pissed, VERY PISSED. He is doing this on purpose and I am alone to notice it since the 2 girls by my side were not saying anything. I guess I have to step up my game, I thought.

 

“ HEY EGG FACE ! I AM TALKING TO YOU !” I said.

“ Aki ? What are you doing ?” Asked Rin

“ Sir Akira, is everything alright?” Asked Furiko.

Both looked at me in shock but at this moment i could not explain to them.

“ Lady Furiko,” the director started, “ it seems your friend doesn't know the concept of respect.”

The older man looked directly in my eyes trying to scare me off but I stared back into his eyes with so much ferocity that someone could believe I was trying to burn the old man's soul.

 

“ Oh my, I am so sorry.” I said sarcastically.

All of us stayed in silence a couple of seconds before I spoke again.

“ We do not have time for a cute sightseeing tour. Children are in danger.”

 

I stayed silent for a couple of seconds then I said.

 

“ Bring us to the orphanage now !” I insisted

 

“Very well ! “ said the director coldly.

He changed direction to lead us to the orphanage.

On our way there, Rin upped her walk speed to match mine. Once this was done, she whispered to me.

“ Aki, what was that ?” She asked, “ You insulted him.”

“ I know, but something felt wrong. Like as if he was trying to buy time.” I whispered back.

 

She looked at me worried.

“ Are you sure we can do it ?” my partner asked.

“ Well i aint as bad as you are at Clue, so yeah I believe I have a chance.” I said

“ Ah ! How dare you ? You know I did win at Clue” she replied.

“ Yeah, like 1 match out of many hundred” I reminded her.

“ It’s still a victory!” said Rin, pouting and giving me gentle punches on my arm.

Unable to not laugh. I made a promise to Rin, one which would make her pout ever more.

“ Fine ! Fine ! So once we are back in the real world I will let you win so you can cheer for 2 victories out of hundreds.” After saying that, I accelerated to distance myself with Rin and I could swear she was pouting so much I was hearing it.

We finally reached the orphanage and that made me realise how big the floating piece of land we were on was vast. So vast that I felt like the culprit could be anywhere and the children hide out of sight. But it wasn’t the time for dark thoughts.

 

“ We have arrived,” the Director signals to us. “ How do you want to proceed ?” Andrews asked us.

“ Huh, well what about showing us where the last kid disappeared !” Said Rin.

“Sounds wonderful to me.” added Furiko.

 

They both looked at me waiting to see my reaction. I nodded to them showing that I agree with their decision.

“ Right ! Then let’s start with the kitchen” said the Director.

As we were getting closer to the door, I was hearing a lot of sound. Once the door was opened, in our very sight, a middle aged woman in an attire similar to Furiko was cleaning the room. A maid was touching the crime scene.

 

“ Stop right there” I yelled but the maid continued her work without caring about me. I got closer and spoke with a firmer voice.
“ stop what you are doing right now”.

This time the maid reacted. She walked a few steps back and started to cry constantly and saying “ I'm sorry ! I’m sorry !.”

 

“Do you plan to terrorise all my personal Sir Akira ?” asked the Director as he walked toward the maid. “ It’s ok Miss Aya.

 

“ Sir Akira,” started Furiko, “ can I ask why you act as such ?”

Speaking quieter, I explained to Furiko why I stopped the cleaning. Reason being that if the room is all clean, the possibilities of finding clues or any lead to the investigation could vanish. As i said this a realisation came to my mind, lightening the bulb in my brain. I gave a quick glance at the Director.

“Something to say Sir Akira ?” The egg-faced man asked.

For a split second, I could swear his eyes tried to avoid mine. Like if he had something to hide. A second bulb lit up in my mind.

Could he have ordered the maid to clean up the kitchen while he stalled us outside ?

 

This thought also vanished as soon as it came to let another one come.

 

Isn’t that too easy ?

 

I took a deep breath before asking the director if there is a room where all the orphanage personnel can be sent, him included. He mentioned to us the old ball room since before being an orphanage this manor was the first house of the canza’s family.

 

“Perfect, Rin can you bring everyone there please ?” i asked of her.

 

“ okay ! “ she joyfully replied.

 

Then I turned toward Furiko to ask her to stay and keep an eye on all the personnel until tomorrow since it was getting late and Rin and I had nowhere to sleep. She agreed and added she would prepare a room for my partner and I. After thanking her, I joined Rin into bringing everyone into the old ball room and to explain the situation. Before leaving to go back to Arc Sophia on the 76 floor, Furiko gave us a similar pendant that she used to activate the elevator since it is the only way to access the orphanage.

 

…….

 

“ I AM SO HUNGRY” said my partner loudly as she was wrapped around my arm.

 

“ Well yeah, this is WHY i was trying to tell you but you did all the underwear shops of Triberia and forced me to watch you try them all.” I replied.

 

“Hey, as far as i know you enjoyed it” replied my partner

 

“...... ok true but it aint my point, what i’m trying to say is that you made us arrive back to Arc Sophia so late.” I replied with a bit of shame.

 

“It ain't so late”,she said back at me before looking at the hour on her player menu” it is just …….midnight…”

“ Don’t expect me to cook at this hour,” I sharply said.

 

“ BUT I AM HUNGRYYYYYYYYYYYY” Yelled my partner so loudly that the few players around started to look at us weirdly.

 

I quickly took her hand and walked away from the unwanted attention.

 

“ You are such a child when you are hungry” i said

 

“ I do that because I know you will spoil me rotten if I do.” she replied back.

 

This remark insulted me slightly because of how true it was. So much that at this moment I was taking her to a restaurant so she could eat.

Dammit Rin, you won again, I thought.

I entered a restaurant name , Délice de la mer. Being honest, I didn't even know what language it was and of course what it meant, but I was sure it wouldn’t be like the fake bakery I had visited with Leafa. Inside it, I was going for an empty table when I noticed that close to us was a table with 2 people. A beautiful girl with chestnut hair and a handsome boy with black hair, he was of course wearing all black just like me. It was impossible to mistake them as we knew who they were.

 

“ Asuna, Kirito !” Exclaim Rin.

 

“ Rin !” Greet Asuna back.

 

Asuna got up to hug my partner before saying hi to me too. Kirito joined our greeting before inviting us to eat all together. The four of us sat down at the table and started to talk about our day and what we are doing. This fastly got a weird turn since it was now a discussion between Asuna and Kirito only. It was like Rin and I weren't there anymore. We tried to get noticed back but all I could get from them was Asuna explaining the type of restaurant it was. A French name restaurant selling sea food. The couple in front of us immediately got back so they talked about how they cannot find a moment to be together and relax which reminded me of Rin and i.

Even as our food arrived at the table, Kirito and Asuna,sharing together a plate of sushi, couldn’t even eat since they were truly lost in their own world.

Since they were there first, Asuna and Kirito food arrived first, so while waiting for my lobster with a baked potato, Rin took the crabs with roasted vegetables. I looked at what sushi my friends had ordered.

 

On the plate were 4 spicy salmon maki, 6 shrimp nigiri and 4 avocado hosomaki.

Looking at this, I started to feel my hunger but suddenly I received a message from Rin ?!

Confused, I opened it to look at what she had sent me.

Hey Aki, what do you think we can do to help them ?

 

I don’t know Rin, I got distracted by the food.

 

And you call me a child when hungry ? Anyway they repeat themselves every 5 minutes. Just listen.

 

Following my partner's advice, I closed my eyes to not get distracted by the sushi again and I focused on what Kirito and Asuna were saying. Both are complaining of lacking moments with the other while each apologizes believing it is their own fault. Kirito for helping that girl from the hollow area, Philia, Asuna for being overwhelmed by her guild duty. After 5 minutes of listening to them, I opened back my menu and sent a new message to Rin.

 

I dunno what we can do, Asuna duty is very important and not easy to have a break and Kirito cannot abandon someone in need.

 

Agreed, but i feel bad for Asuna, it is worse that from her perspective, Kirito is spending his time with another girl….

 

Rin… you say that because you wish you were the one spending time with a pretty girl..

 

Ok… true but that aint my point Aki.

 

Xd. Anyway I might have an idea.

 

Oh ? Please Aki, tell me.

 

Ok ! Ok ! Our quest is in a safe zone. I don’t believe we're gonna need hp potion or teleport crystal, so what about sharing what we have with Kirito ? This way he can progress faster in the Hollow Area.

 

AKI YOU ARE A GENIUS ! But what about Asuna ?

 

My partner, in her last message, was pointing out a real problem. I thought about it again and again. Maybe after Kirito is done with the Hollow Area ? No, no, it would mean even longer before they can have a break. Then, maybe what ? I continued to think about it to the point that our food arrived. I took the plates from the NPC waiter and gave one to Rin.

 

“Thank you for your help Aki”

 

With those words, a brilliant idea came to my mind.

“ Rin, your a genius, i love you so much” i said

 

I saw Rin's cheeks blushing a little but I paid it no mind. I opened my menu and sent her a message.

 

HELP . That is the solution, Asuna needs some help to restructure the KOB, once done it is gonna be easier to make time.

 

Omg Aki, you are the genius. But are you sure you can make our quest yourself ?

 

Yes don’t worry

 

Under the table, Rin took my hand into hers. We shared a look of confidence before turning back to face Kirito and Asuna to say as one

“We can help “

 

Asuna and Kirito stopped talking and looked at us confused.

 

“ Oh we are so sorry, we forgot you were there” said Asuna.

 

I waved my free hand as a sign that meant “ it’s fine” . I then explained our idea to our friends. At first, they were surprised but also felt bad that we were about to give them so much, in terms of items of course but also time. But Rin and I had already made our decision. We would help.

After multiple thank you from both Kirito and Asuna, all 4 of us enjoyed our meal while talking about the progress on the 77 floor. A frontline group had already found the boss room. Now it was the information chase that was happening. We also discuss our plan to meet on the other side once this death game is defeated. After we were done eating, we split to go to sleep. As usual, Rin took off my shirt like we would to feel like there is still hope and not forget the real world. Both tired we fell on the bed nearly falling asleep immediately but before it happened I told Rin what came to my mind earlier today and that our dinner with Kirito and Asuna made me certain.

 

“ Rin, after this quest, let’s take a day or 2, only for us.”

“ Yes Aki” she said yawning “ i miss those time too”

 

Our eyes closed, our mind falling asleep while our Virtual bodies were clinging on each other trying to feel the warmth of the other real body.

Chapter 14

On the left side of our bedroom, there was a tiny rectangular window. As the one sleeping on the left side of the bed, I was usually woken up by the shining rays of the sun. However, this morning was different. The light of the burning red start made of informatic data wasn’t what woke me up. No, it was a strange taste inside my mouth. Something I couldn't identify but it was horrid. Before even opening my eyes, I grabbed with my right hand the thing that was going inside my mouth. The texture was soft like sewing thread. This contradiction from how my sense of taste and touch not agreeing forced me to open my eyes. The first thing I saw was Rin with her head lying on my chest. From her mouth, a trickle of saliva was coming out on my naked chest. She was breathing at a regular pace. As usual, Rin was the prettiest even if she was sleeping and her hair was a mess.

 

Wait ! HAIR ? I thought.

I quickly looked at what my right hand was holding. In it, a thread of my partner's hair was slightly wet and humid from being into my mouth. I felt like my dinner from last night suddenly tried to escape from my mouth but I put my hand over my mouth and swallowed it.

“ Ok I need something to take away that taste.” I thought.

 

But before doing that, i opened the menu window to look at what hour it was. The clock showed 7h03. If we were back into the real world, I would most definitely think it was too early, but we were in Aincrad now, a giant virtual prison taking the form of a game set inside a floating castle. Not only that, but every minute here was minutes lost from our life in the real world. Of course I do not mean that as if our life in Aincrad is a loss, but the more time we spend here, the higher the chance our body won't survive in the real world but also many moments or memories are lost. Because we are all separate from our friends and family. I am thinking of Kirito, Asuna, Leafa, Sinon, all the others and of course Rin, all those moments with their family they cannot get. As for me, I have a hard time caring about that, it is more like what I had was Rin. My parents weren’t what most would call loving parents. On the contrary, they probably had cheers and threw a party when they learned about the Aincrad accident and that i was stuck in. Wouldn’t be too different from all those times they said I ruined their life. Being fully honest, I am pretty sure the reason I am still alive is because it was Grandma Suzu who was at my parent’s house.

Reminded of those painful memories, I took multiple deep breaths to make sure once Rin woke up, she wouldn’t have to see me sad since she, to this day, doesn’t know about my parents.

My menu window was still open. I saw it was now 7h05. It was when Rin slowly started to wake up. She slowly got on her knees before yawning while stretching her arms.
I was now captivated by the beauty of my partner and the shape of her body being visible because of her see through blue nightjacket. The beauty of her delicate fingers partially hiding her opened mouth, her slightly red charming lips, to her attractive chest, the small abs taking the attention to her tummy and her generous naked thighs.

“Yeah, Klein was right, I am a lucky bastard”. I thought as I felt my cheeks turning red and being hot.

 

“Morning Aki” tried to say Rin before being interrupted by her cute sneeze.

 

I chuckled a laugh before replying back. “Good morning Rin.”

Still halfly awake, Rin asked me why I was not already gone to the Orphanage.

 

“ Well, a little girl need her morning tea” i answered

“ You are laughing of me” she said pouting

 

“Yes !” I teasingly replied to her in hope she pouted more since she is adorable when she does.

After that, we both started to prepare ourselves for the busy day that will come for us. Like yesterday, the way we dressed was opposed. Rin equipped a casual fit made of long black thighs sock with a red skirt and black shirt. Me, I chose my usual black coat. To make sure Rin day would be amazing, I quickly prepared a cup of tea that she drank in a few sips.

We left our room at 7h30. Walking hand in hand as the gentle fresh wind of morning caresses our faces, we appreciate each other's company in silence knowing we would probably not see each other for a few days.

 

“ Hey”, started Rin, “ are you sure you don’t need me for this quest ?” She asked.

 

“ Yes, and don’t worry, if I have any trouble I will contact you, or if I need your fabulous CLUE player skill,” I said jokingly.

“ Aki, you are such a meanie,” she replied.

“ Sorry ! Sorry !”, I said laughing, “ But yes, if I need anything, you will know”

 

“ You better do that,” she said with authority and pointing a finger at me.

 

Soon after we reached the current KOB Headquarter, Rin kissed me on the cheek before walking to the door. This was when something came back to my mind. The mysterious case of the black hooded man and the strange Member of Asuna guild. Realising I completely forgot to ask Asuna about it last night.

 

“ Rin, wait.” I called to her.

 

“ Hum, something wrong Aki ?” She asked.

 

“ Yeah, when you can, ask Asuna when it is possible to have a meeting, I have something to ask of her.” I explained.

 

“ Will do, see you soon” she ended our conversation.

She opened the door before looking back at me to give me a blown kiss as she winked in a seductive manner.

 

My only thought at this moment was

“ I freaking love her”

……..

 

The blue light that was surrounding me finally disappeared to show me the majestic view of the city on floor 77. Like yesterday, the exception is that at this moment I was alone at this moment, I took the stairs down to reach the city. Barely a few minutes after I started walking inside the Florence inspired city, the clock of 8h of the morning rang. My first thought was to directly go to meet Furiko and start my investigation but my stomach made another decision and signaled it to me with loud rumbling.

“I guess I will have breakfast stop,” I told myself.

 

I decided that deviating from the route I know would be a bad idea, so I would look for a food stand on my way. If I don’t, then I will have to go through the day without food. I started to look at every building in hope to find a place that sells food but all I saw was blacksmith, tailor, herbologist, property to buy, public bath and so on.

 

I sigh feeling my hungriness getting stronger. I put my hand on my stomach and whispered to is
“ Don’t worry little boy, I will find something for you.”

I continued to walk until I reached the elevator that would bring me to the orphanage. It was there that I saw, a few meters from it, a food stand.

“ Oh finally” I yelled internally.

I ran toward the stand to go buy something. I was crazy to believe I could last the day without a meal. The stand reached, I looked at the menu to see what I could buy. I didn’t understand the names of the food the place was selling but by observing it and recalling the name of the restaurant Rin and I went to last night and from what Asuna told me, I assumed it was French. The menu for the meal was quite limited, precisely 3 options and I knew only 2 words.

Sandwich aux oeufs et morceau de bacon avec chocolatine : 350 cols

Wrap au poulet et riz avec crudités variés: 400 cols

 

Sandwich tranche de jambon et fromage brie avec frites: 380 cols

 

I made the choice to go with the cheapest option. That way, even if i don’t like it that much, it would have cost less. After that, I looked at the beverage options.

 

Latte beurre de pomme: 120 cols

Latte glacé à la citrouille épicé: 130 cols

Café régulier: 30 cols( 5 cols par ajout)

Jus d’orange: 70 cols

Jus de pomme: 70 cols

 

There were 2 words I recognized on the list, well 1 but it was repeated twice, latte, so coffee. Like previously, I chose the cheapest option but from the latte. I gave my order to the Npc man in charge of the stand. After doing so, I sat down at a bench close by. Putting my hand on my chin and closing my eyes, I focused on what I could remember from my first visit to the orphanage and what I had noticed.

Starting with my suspects. In second place, I have the maid named Aya. There isn't much right now except she was cleaning the main scene of crime which could lead to the destruction of evidence but even there, she might just have followed an order.

The main suspect at the moment was of course the director Andrews and his actions that slowed us down in reaching the orphanage. If I hadn't taken action, we could have arrived and the maid could have cleaned the kitchen. But once again, something was off,

“ It wouldn’t be this easy” I thought. “ The first potential suspect can’t be the culprit right ? That quest would suck if it was the case.”

 

My mind turned into a circle around this paradox, yes it can be him but would the game be that obvious ?

Even the look I was sure to have seen on the director when I suspect him to have slowed us down is way too obvious. Unable to progress with the little information I had, I chose to temporarily give up thinking about it and to wait to progress further. So I opened my eyes and saw the stand NPC waving at me. I got up, took my food and latte and got into the elevator to the orphanage.

I used the pendant Furiko gave me to activate the mechanism like she herself did yesterday. While the elevator was going up, I quickly ate my food. Having seen it, I now knew what the name
Sandwich aux oeufs et bacon meant.

Oeufs was surely the name for eggs which were accompanied by bacon. So it was a great mix, the tenderness of the bread and eggs with the crunchyness of the bacon that was mixed in multiple small pieces. As for the latte, the taste was so great.

It was of course coffee but on top of it was a delicious froth cream with a grout of butter that had the taste of apple. It was a heavenly mix of wonderful flavour to get into my mouth as I took the first sip.

The bitterness of the coffee was attenuated by the sweetness of the cream and the apple butter and the creamy texture of the cream with the hot liquid was refreshing while getting me warm. As the elevator continued to get me up and as I drank my coffee, I tried to guess how the apple butter could be made.

What came to my mind was that I would need to boil apples with lime juice, then
Mash the apples and ,I guess ,add some spice. Then to reach a buttery texture, I believed I would need to boil the mash apple for a certain time and after, let it rest while mixing once in a while. Now what i would need was the quantity and time but i was confident in deduction on how to recreate the apple butter.

 

The elevator finally reached the floating island on which the orphanage was built on. As I walked toward it, I decided that for the first day I would just observe everyone and how their day is going and ask some questions to the director. Not being held away by the bald man, I arrived quicker than last time to my destination. I knocked at the door to signal my arrival. As I was waiting for someone, surely Furiko, to open the door, I checked what hour it was.

8h17.

I closed my window when I could hear some creaking noise coming from the door. Behind it, a mature woman in a maid outfit was standing .

“Good morning Sir Akira.” said Furiko calmly.

“Morning, Furiko.” I replied back.

“ Lady Rin is not here today ?” Asked Furiko as she let me inside.

“She is helping a friend right now” i said

 

“ Oh, I see ! Well I will be on my way, the Director is still in the ball room, everyone else has started the day and their work.” She confessed to me before leaving to go back to the mansion on the 76 floor of Aincrad.

I closed the door behind her and took the way to the ball room. The ball room door was closed but I could hear inside, someone playing piano. I took a deep breath and shook my head.

“ Ok Akira, you need to be careful of every detail from now on” I told myself.

 

I knocked 3 times on the ball room door and then waited for an answer.

“ Come in,” said the person inside.

I opened the door and slowly got inside. The room wasn’t like I had imagined it,

The imposing chandelier over my head had no light coming from it. There was no place to sit except one, in the top right corner of the room where the piano was standing with the director playing it. There was also a lot of dust everywhere. So much that even with a tiny bit of light coming from the sun through the window partially covered by a curtain, it was clearly visible. Clearly this room hasn’t been used in a long time. In months if it isn’t in years. The only outstanding things here were the few pillows and sleeping bags. But this was clearly there to allow the personnel to sleep. With nothing more to see here, it was time to meet the director. I went to see him as fast as I could.

“ Sir Akira, how can I help you today ?” said the director after stopping playing but without looking at him.

“ I have a few questions for you, then I would like to observe how things go in the orphanage.” I told him.

 

“Very well, proceed” he said before getting up to face me. “But I have to go buy food and other furniture today so I don't have a lot of time, it would be appreciated if you can do this quickly.”

I nodded to let him know I understood. Now, what came to my mind was what questions to ask. Due to limited time, i wanted to limit myself to 3 questions but which would be the best was what was bothering me. Should I ask if he saw anything suspicious with his employees ? Is there something that links all the lost children together ? Is there any other way than the elevator to get here even if I already got told it was ? When the children disappeared ? So many questions and so little time. “But Akira you have no time to waste," I remind myself.

“Director Andrews, can you tell me when the children disappeared ?” i asked

“Hum, I don't really know, we don’t really have a regular record of the children's presence since the only way to leave the island is with the elevator key.” replied the director.

 

“Very well ! Then, have there been any of your employees with suspicious behavior recently ?” I asked as my second question.

 

“ I ain’t so sure what you mean by suspicious behavior. Anyway i don’t have much time left” He answered me.

 

Well it doesn’t seem my questions are helping me, I thought. My last one has to be better.

 

“ Outside of the 3 last disappearances, have there been any prior accidents ?” I lastly asked.

 

“ No. Those 3 are the only accidents that have occurred. Now if you excuse me, I have things to do and no time for useless questions” the director replied.

 

I took mental notes of all the director told me before replying to him,” I understand, have a nice day.”

 

I watched the director leave before doing the same.

“Ok Akira, now it’s time to observe the daily occupation of everyone.” I said to myself.

 

As soon as I left the ball room to join the corridor, I received a message. With a movement of my hand, I opened my player window and pressed the option to see my friend list. For now, Rin's name was at the top since she was the one who sent me a message. Once it would be read her name would go down again because the friend list is classed by alphabetic order. I pressed with my finger on the letter symbol next to Rin's name to open our conversation and read what she sent me.

 

Hi Aki ! How is the investigation going ? Also Asuna said she will meet you as soon as the floor boss is done.

 

I sent back to her a short reply to thank her and tell that ,for now ,the investigation is going slowly. I then closed my window. Noticing the maid I met yesterday. I decided to go talk to her and ask her a few questions even if it meant interrupting her task. I walked to her while she was cleaning dust on some wood furniture. I was getting closer to the maid named Aya but she didn’t notice me yet so I gently tapped my fingers on her shoulder.

 

“Sorry Aya, can I talk with you ?” I asked

The maid got startled by my sudden apparition. She told me while stuttering in fear

“ Ye-ye-ye-yes Si-si-si-sir Aki-ki-kira ?”

Something felt strange to me. It was like there was a too much aspect to her stuttering, like she was faking it to give off a “ i’m a girl so i am weak “ vibe.
Which made no sense to me since most girls i know are plenty strong, Rin came to my mind but also the Kob leader Asuna. But not letting this detail stop me, I asked if she knew where the rest of the personnel were. She continued to stutter so much while giving me the answer, she ended up getting on my nerves. Every new sentence she was saying made her stuttering feel more and more fake. It was only after 15 very long minutes that I had every information I wanted.

The orphanage had a schedule they repeated every day which made it possible to know where everyone was at what hours.

 

So knowing this and that it must be close to 9 now, I decided to continue my day by meeting the gardener. His job at the orphanage was to cultivate the flowers and herbs that would be used to make medicine for the children, those responsibilities led him to be often outside, so that’s where I went.

The garden was behind the orphanage. It was made of multiple sections shaped in squares. Each of them had different flowers or herbs so the garden was eye- catching with its myriad of colors. Next to each square there was a big basket to put the herbs that were ready to be taken out of the ground. Lying on his knees, on the side of one of the squares, was the gardener. I walk to him to present myself.

 

“ Hi, my name is Akira,” I said.

 

The gardener looked at me from under his straw hat before getting up on his feet. He greeted me by extending his hand to shake mine.

“ Me, it's Corvac,” he said.

 

“ Nice to meet you Corvac. As you must have heard, I am here to investigate the lost children. I was hoping you could help me. “ I told him.

 

“ I would really love to help you but I am always in the garden or in the small storage house. So I kind of never see the kids.” He admitted to me.” Now if you excuse me, i have to pick up the vegetables, they will be used today”

 

“Huh well i had other question, like how your work , well work, also where all the foods and herbs go” i said

 

The gardener stared at me for a few seconds before smiling back.

“ Well don’t you think it is better if i show you ?” He asked

 

He invited me with his hand to join his morning work. There I realised how hard physically his job was, even if there was no way to feel real physical tiredness in Aincrad. Spending most of the time on our knees to look at what herbs or vegetables are ready to be taken out then separate them all in a basket. It was a long and very repetitive task that got me bored and made me want to leave. So when it was time to stop and bring the basket to the kitchen, I was relieved it was about to be over. However, the back entrance to the kitchen was far away from the garden. We had to walk all the way to the left side of the orphanage to then turn to continue to walk until we reached the door. With the many baskets me and Corvac, the gardener, had filled, we repeated the same action 12 times. On the last one, I noticed a square with some weird looking plant that had no leaves.

“ Hey Corvac, what are those ?” I asked.

 

“Oh just some plant, i will picked the up later and bring them to the kitchen storage room with the others harvest. “ he replied

 

I simply replied an ok before continuing to bring the last basket to the kitchen.

 

“ Thank you for the hand Akira,” Said Corvac

 

We shook hands one last time before he left. I took some well deserved breath to relax my mind when I got interrupted by someone coming inside the storage room of the kitchen.

“Oh, I didn't know someone was here” Said the man who just got inside.

“ Hi, i am” i started before being interrupted

“ I know who you are and I will just say, no I didn't see anything. I have other things to do than watch children when I am cooking breakfast. Does this help ?” He said

“ Well, if i may” i started but got interrupted once more.

 

“No, now get out of my kitchen” the cook yelled at me.

 

Shocked by that reaction, I left the kitchen in a hurry.

 

“What the hell is wrong with him?” I thought.

Deciding to move one from the cook and to come back later, I walked a bit until I found a chair. Taking a break, I sat down and opened my player menu. The first thing I chose to do was to check the hour. It was 12h. It is when I notice the sudden chaotic noise of voice and running. A bunch of joyful children ran past me to go into the kitchen.

“Oh right !” I thought “ it is lunch time”

This thought was followed by another one.

“ Wait, I still didn’t ask which children were missing”

 

“……………….”

 

With fast movements of my fingers, I opened my friends list, searched for Rin, selected to send her a message and typed down.

URGENT, CALL ME AN IDIOT”

 

I then waited for her reply until it came.

Huh ? You are an idiot ?

 

I know thank you

 

I closed my menu and ran to go find the director who was surely back from the city.
I searched for him in every room in the orphanage until I found him playing piano again in the ball room. It took me so long it was then nearly 14h. I quickly repeated my morning actions to get the answers I forgot to get from the director.

 

The 3 lost children were 1 boy and 2 girls.
Harold, Colianor and Merilda. Merilda was the more recent one.

 

With these information I forgot to get this morning., I ran again, this time to reach the classroom since the teacher was the only one left I needed to talk to. The classroom was at the opposite side of the ball room and since it was 14h in 1 minute and class started at 14h. With the advantage of my great speed due to my high agility stats, I ran as fast as I could. So what should have taken me 3 minutes, was done in 1.

I arrived at the same time as the children. Not focusing on them, I walked toward the teacher to tell him I will be watching his class today and that after that I will have a few questions for him.

Not wanting to slow down the class more
I hide myself in one of the classroom corners.

 

“ Welcome back everyone. We will be taking attendance again.” Started the teacher.

 

Something immediately felt wrong about him. His voice was not severe, but aggressive, the way he watched over the kids wasn’t with authority, but with rage. I knew very well those eyes so a part of me turned into a protective mode. I knew I wasn't in danger, but I was scared for the children.

 

“ Lyvia ?”

“ Here “

“Kevin ?”

“Here”

“Ophelia ?”

“Here”

 

This process continued until the teacher arrived at the last name of his list of 12 names.

 

“Cal ? Cal ? CAL ?”

 

The teacher looked up and saw the boy. The young blonde hair kid was sleeping on his desk. I started to rapidly walk toward him to protect him out of fear of what the teacher would do and as i fear, the teacher was on the move.

“ CAAAL, YOU WORTHLESS LITTLE SHIT” yelled the teacher as he took a bat from behind his desk.

The young boy suddenly woke up scared. The teacher was getting closer to him, the bat raised in the air. The teacher was ready to swing it at the boy's body but I intercepted it as the bat was going down.

“ Huh ?” said the teacher in confusion.

 

I grabbed the bat so hard that I ended up breaking it. After my display of strength, fear appeared in the teacher's eyes. At the moment, I couldn't control my anger, a fire was burning inside me, a fire ignited by the memories of my past. There was no way I would let any children go through what I did. So I stared directly into the teacher eyes as i said

“ As long as I am here, they are all under my protection. If you dare touch any of them, even simply one hair, I swear I will make you regret it.”

 

The teacher was trembling like a sheet put outside to dry but got hit by a strong wind.

He looked around before saying

“ Class dismissed”

 

I waited for all the kids to leave the room. Once they were all gone, the teacher tried to justify himself.

“ Listen, you have to understand that if we don’t do this, they will never learn to obey us, to be grateful for all we do for them”

 

My rage reached a new level. I grabbed the man by the collar and with one hand lift him up

 

“ Kids aren't supposed to be grateful, they aren’t supposed to beg you for food or a bed. They are supposed to eat, laugh and play. They are supposed to take care of you filthy rat "I threw at it before continuing. “ Now what happened with Merilda ? ANSWER ME !”

 

“ I don’t know, I swear, she was there in afternoon class. After it was over I didn't go to dinner. I worked to correct their test paper. I swear , please let me go” said the teacher as he was breaking into tears.

 

I wanted to punch and hurt him, but Rin's face suddenly appeared in my mind. “ She wouldn’t want me to be like this,” I thought to myself. I dropped down the teacher who immediately got up to run away. I looked at my hand with which I grabbed the teacher. It was trembling. I closed my eyes trying to calm me down, but the face of my own father was now the only thing I could see. I started to whisper as a prayer “ pls dad go away”. Even if i was 17, the voice i heard wasn’t mine from today, but mine from when i was 4. A second thing came to my mind, when I realised how important it was, the face of my dad was cast away.

 

“ Wait, if Merilda was in her afternoon class, and she disappeared after then can the cook prepare breakfast at dinner time ?”

 

My eyes suddenly opened wide. I was certain now, one of them was lying, and the one who did would get me closer to the truth but that will be for tomorrow. Now I will go see Corvac again. I am still curious about the weird plants. I left the classroom and took the direction of the garden once more, ignoring everyone on my way.

I arrived there a few minutes later but there was no one.

“Weird” I thought.

I started to look around for Corvac. I checked around every square to see if he would be there but he wasn’t.

 

“ Well I guess he is gone” I said to myself.

 

But I suddenly remembered the storage house he claimed to spend in.

“ Maybe he is there” came to my mind.

 

Having nothing to lose to check, I walked there. I, once again called out his name but I got no response, so I knocked on the door hoping he was there.

 

“ Please Corvac, the plant looked cool. I wanna know what it is” I begged in my mind.

But again, no response. I decided to give up and turned back but after my first step, I heard a crunchy sound. Looking down, I saw one of the cool plants I wanted to ask Corvac about.

 

“ What are you doing here ?” I asked in a whisper.

I got on one knee to take the plant in my hand. The plant was now broken, and at closer range, I realised it wasn’t a plant, but a green root.

What are those, was the question that came to my mind. And why so close to the storage house. Corvac said he always brings what he gets to the kitchen storage, not the garden one. I looked back one last time to the building in the garden. Maybe because I was now more focused on searching for something, I saw another of those weird branches on the ground close to the door. I dropped the broken one to get the still intact branch. My eyebrow frowned as I was getting more suspicious now of Corvac. But I couldn't go too fast in making a decision. So what to do ? I thought.

“OH ! I’m a genius, "I yelled.

I remembered I had in my inventory one of those photo crystals Agil gave me last year for my birthday. He gave me 5 and said to use them to freeze in time the precious moment I will have with Rin. 4 of them were already used.

“Sorry Agil ! Sorry Rin !” I said internally as I materialised the item. Now having it in hand, I used it to take a photo of the branch. Once done, the photo got into my inventory. Knowing it was possible to send some items with a message to a friend, I opened my friend list, which I seemed to have done often today, and searched for the only person who could help me right now. I pressed to send her a message in which I linked the photo I just took.

 

Sorry to bother you, but can you find what this is and what it does ? Will pay you. Don’t worry Argo.

 

This done, I put the root into my inventory and walked back to the orphanage. While i made a to do list for tomorrow in my head:

Interrogate the teacher

Interrogate the cook

Spy Corvac

 

My stomach started to make a cry of help. I could perfectly understand it.

“PLEASE FEED ME”

 

“Alright ! Alright "I thought to myself. “ I can sneak into the kitchen, take a bit of food and get to bed”

 

Without losing more time, I did this since I felt that the next day would be busy.

Chapter 15

I was in my bed, I could not find a way to sleep last night, the images and feeling of what happened 3 days ago was still in my mind. My failure as a brother, the warm crimson red, and the coldness of death. But something was growing inside me. A horrible feeling, hatred. Hate was the only feeling I could feel at the moment. Hatred toward adults. I knew everyone would tell me it's normal for a 4 year old to be angry at their parents so I could not talk to anyone. But I hate them. Adults are the worst, they truly are cruel and ugly monsters. I hated them so much. The man responsible for what happened 3 days ago, but also my mother and father but especially my father.

 

Thinking about him, I realised it was better to get up to be ready. I had to cook his breakfast before he get angry and beat me up again.

 

I jumped out of my bed and quietly walked to my wardrobe to not wake up my father too early because if i do, i would say get beaten. I opened it as slowly as I could and took a simple white shirt with a pair of jeans. At last I put my socks on. I walked to the door of my bedroom scared of what my parents would do to me today especially since the last few days.

Well, my father is doing all the deeds, my mom is laughing at me and praising my father after.

The door made a soft creaking sound as I opened it. Instinctively, I closed my eyes and listened if I had woken up my dad. A sleepy grunt sound came from the living room.

“Ok,” I told myself,” he is still asleep.”

I then continued my way toward the living room since the kitchen was right next to it.
I slowly walked there, trying to not make any sound and hoping all the tools I would need to cook the breakfast would not be too high. If some are, I will need to move a chair and that would likely wake my father.

I continued my path to the kitchen when a sudden strong scent came to my nose and made me want to puke. The horrible scent of alcohol made me feel sick but I held inside what wanted to come out.

Once I reached the kitchen, I saw ,in the living room, a man sleeping on the sofa, a bottle of beer in his hand while 3 more were on the ground. I ignored it and got ready to cook breakfast. I opened the fridge, took a few eggs out of it and the butter. I silently closed the fridge and started my search for the pan. I looked around to find it but it was nowhere to be seen. In despair, I looked where I didn't want to. Above one of the storage cabinets. Since I always cook and I am too small to get there, I knew one of them, mom or dad, had put it too high on purpose. With caution, I started to push off the chair from the kitchen to help me get some height. Little by little, often looking at the living room, I managed to push the chair where I needed it. I climbed on it in hope it was enough to reach the pan. Unfortunately I was still too small. I quickly looked at my father still sleeping on the sofa.

 

“ I have no other option” I thought to myself.

 

I started to stand on my tiptoes to get a bit more height and get the pan but I was still too small. I was barely touching the handle. I continued to do my best to try to reach it.

“ please a little bit more.” I was praying to myself as the pan started to move slightly.

Realising it would not work. I took my last option left. I jumped to try to grab the pan. I managed to touch it but unfortunately my grip wasn’t strong enough. The pan fell down and hit the floor in a loud bang.

“ YOU LITTLE SHIT” yelled my father who just got woke up

 

He got up off the sofa, nearly falling down since he was probably still under the effect of alcohol. But despite this, he started to walk aggressively and fast toward me.

Frozen by fear, my body could not move anymore. So, as I was still standing on the chair, dad pushed with his feet the chair to make me fall on the ground. My head hurt and so my back, the shock brought me back the ability to move. I tried to get back up but when I saw my father coming at me again, I knew I would get beat up. Not wanting to see that again, I closed my eyes.

 

I woke up again in a hurry, my heart beating so fast it could explode. I instinctively touched my face to check if there was blood. But after I touched my face and looked at my hands, there was nothing. This brought me back to reality. I was not with my parents anymore, I wasn't 4 too. I was 17 and stuck in Aincrad. Even if it was a death game, knowing Rin was close by, was for me way less scary. I was less afraid of death than my own parents…..

My heart slowly started to go back to a more regular beat and I helped it by taking long and deep breaths.

Once this is done, I decide to open my player menu to check what hours it was.

22h30 was on my screen.

I got to bed at 22h, which meant I could only sleep for 30 minutes. I was about to close my window when I noticed I received a message. Curious as who it could be, I opened the dedicated page for the message. It was Argo. I clicked to see what she wanted from me. I read quite fast what she replied to me. To be precise 3 times.

The first time refreshed my memory. I contacted her first for information.

The second to really register what she was telling me.

The last one, I had to since it shocked me. I was not expecting this revelation and it started to worry me

 

"Those plants are used to make potions, these ones are for a sleeping Poison, it works the same as the paralysis one. A"

Chapter 16

Notes:

With this chapter, follow Akira as he get closer to the truth behind the orphanage and its secret. Hope you enjoy

I walked back and forth from one side of my room to the other, unable to think of anything else than what Argo sent me. This whole thing started to make no sense, to be confusing. There were hints all over the place but each hint led to a different suspect.

The director trying to stop us from getting inside at first

The maid cleaning the place where the child was last seen

The unwillingness to cooperate from the cook

The violent behavior of teacher toward the kids

 

The poisonous plant from the gardener.

 

In my confusion and inability to progress, I saw myself going to contact Rin for help but when I was about to press the send button, I stopped. I remembered that I told her I could do it. That she didn’t have to worry. Sending a message of help would do exactly that and it was also late in the night. I walked around too much trying to wrap my head around the new info Argo brought me that it was already 23.

 

“ What should I do ?” I asked myself.

I closed my eyes to try to calm my mind. Many times I knew I had to do this simply because a calm mind thinks better to find the good course of actions to take. After a few minutes of having my eyes shut and taking deep and relaxing breaths, the image of the teacher going to physically assault one of the kids came to me. The thought of seeing any of them injured was scaring me.

 

“ I have to go faster,” I decided.

 

My decision was made, I deleted the message i wanted to send to Rin. This done, I equipped some items I had in my inventory, more precisely, the night veil armor, contrary to my usual coat, The Moon-Knight Prince coat, that give me amazing boost in attack and strength and dexterity stat at the cost of my defence, the one i equipped now was boosting my hiding skill, with my efficiently being currently at 657, with the veil i was now at 857. I was looking at the boost as a security measure I would need since I promised Rin to try my best to be more cautious. The veil was equipped, I felt the light weighted cloth on my body and my head. I was now ready to go. I first thought of taking the door but for some reason I felt like it was too obvious that if I wanted to sneak around at night, what I was about to do, I would take the door. So i decided i would not, i instead walked to the window, silently opened it trying to not make a sound and i then passed one leg through it after the other ,i finally let myself drop from it.

 

I fell down from the second floor, accidentally receptioning my fall with my butt. For a second I was about to say “ouch” but I remembered that we Aincrad so I could not feel the pain and Rin wasn’t there so my pride was also safe. I got up on my feet to start to walk to the gardener's safe house. As for now, the sleeping plant was the strangest thing I had found yet. Of course, it came to my mind that it could be for medicinal reasons but if it was the case, the basket would have been sent to the kitchen like the gardener told me. Everything he gets from the garden goes to the kitchen. With this information, it made no sense I would find some lying around close to the safe house. This was indeed suspicious to me.

The great thing about being up at night was that I didn't meet anyone from the orphanage, so I arrived there quite fast and without any problem. Now, the real challenge was how would I go inside the safe house. Like before, the door was locked so I couldn't get inside through the door. Thinking back about how I got out of my room, I started to look around the safe house for a possible window that could let me in but in vain.

“ Ok Akira, think, we have to get inside,” I said to myself.

Suddenly I remembered I had the lockpicking skill. I quickly opened my item window and selected my lockpicking tools. Then I got back to the door and kneeled down. Before starting, I used my night vision to quickly look around to make sure there was no one to see me. Reassured, I started to use my skill to unlock the door. At the moment, I had 7 hooks, 7 attempts, to get the door to open.

My first attempt was worse than a failure, i broke the hook trying to insert it in the lock.

The second one was slightly better, I managed to get inside the lock but when I searched where I would need to use the hook, it broke again.

This continued until I had one hook left.

“ Dammit Akira, just do it” i said

 

After using my last hook, the sound similar as when someone uses a key resonates into my ears. As if those words I told myself were magical, my last attempt ended with a success.

 

I got up , looked around again then turned the handle and opened the door. I quickly got inside. There I was barely seeing anything even with my night vision but I managed to find a lamp I could light up. Without losing a second, I lit the lamp and then the interior of the small safe house was seeable. The place was quite small, there were a few gardening tools, a few unused lamps, some books about plants, a table with a few papers on it, the same table I took the lamp from and a few baskets. I hesitated between checking the papers or the baskets first but I ultimately chose the baskets. There were 3 of them, the first one I opened was empty, contrary to the second and third one. In both there were these weird looking plants, more like roots. From my inventory, I materialize the root I found earlier and compare it to the one in the baskets. It was indeed the same. The gardener didn’t bring them to the kitchen yet, he had hidden them. Also, if those were made to create sleeping poison, depending on the quantity needed to make it, there were enough to make a huge amount. Maybe even enough to poison everyone currently living at the orphanage.

 

“Ok this is bad, very bad,” I thought.

I had a feeling that the culprit was about to fasten his plan, probably because I was there. Since supposition ain't what will lead me to the truth, I turned back to reach the table. I read the first letter that was on it, instead of being folded like the others, this letter was open, probably because it was the most recent one. I quickly read its content. Every word made my eyes widen more.

 

“ My dear friend, I know safety was our main rule to follow, but with that boy investigating the orphanage and how the children disappeared, we will soon be discovered. I need you to get as many Darksand roots. Enough to make that annoying nosy little detective sleep and all the children. We need to act tomorrow night, we can’t stay any longer.”

 

After I read the letter I froze in surprise.

“ They are two ?” I said.

This realization shocked me. I didn’t expect this to happen. I wasn’t searching for one kidnapper, but two. It was obvious now that the gardener was one of them but who could be the second one ?

As far as i knew, everyone was still suspicious so who should i target now ?

The director ? He led the place, and so knew everyone so how come he didn’t suspect the gardener ? Is it because they are working together ?

The cook ? It's the only one I know who seems to have a relationship with the gardener so could they have planned this together ?

 

There is still the teacher but his violent behavior wouldn’t fit with the safety rule the 2 kidnappers want to follow. Or is it because he failed to do so and that I saw it make him want to accelerate their plan ?

 

I then remembered the maid was still strange and could be the gardener ally but something else came to my mind. If she was only following orders, then it was a way to cover the track and make her take the blame. Giving the order to clean the kitchen could only come from the cook or the director, could this be a sign it was between these two ?

 

“ Oh shit Akira,” I yelled at myself, “ You are so dumb.”

I realised that the crime scene was in the kitchen, precisely in the dining room.
I made sure the maid didn't clean it but I still didn’t investigate it. I also recalled that yesterday, the kids got their lunch and had to go back to the classroom to eat since the dining room is still a mess.

 

It was decided, my next stop will be the dining room. I turned off the flame of my lamp before silently leaving the safe house. I remembered the path to reach the kitchen from behind since I helped the gardener last morning. So without any doubt, I quietly ran to the kitchen back door. Still cautious, I often was looking around to be sure there was no one but this time I thought I saw something moving from an upper floor window. I immediately stopped to look more carefully. The second look I gave to the window was different, there was nothing even when I squinted my eyes.

“Strange.” I thought.

I started to have a bad feeling. A feeling someone or something was observing me. My heart started to beat faster as I continued my way to the kitchen. I arrived a few minutes after and once again the door was locked.

“ Why didn’t I think of this sooner?” I blame myself.

“ I don't have enough hook left to lockpick the door. So what should I do ? “ I asked myself.

I walked around a little bit trying to find a solution. There didn’t seem to be any door unlocked so no way to get back inside. Which made sense to lock a building at night. I got back from where I started my night investigation and sat on the ground thinking on what to do next when I heard the sound of wood hitting a wall. I got up and looked above me, that was where the sound came from.

“Of course,” I said with excitement.

I didn’t use a door to come out, I used the window. So I just have to get through it again.
I walked a few steps back to look carefully at how I would get back up since I jumped from the upper floor. At first it seemed like there was not a single way to get up. Dishearten, I was about to give up when I remembered something I could use.
Back on the third floor of Aincrad, Rin and I had to build a little boat to progress on that very floor. After we cleared it, Rin wanted to keep the anchor we had as a token to remember our boat we couldn’t keep with us. Now me and Rin were married, so we shared the same inventory, allowing me to have the anchor with me. As I was searching for it in my item list, I let my mind wander in the sea of my memories. We had named the boat the Black Pearl. It reminded us of the first movie we watched together, only the 2 of us. At that time we were around 12 but I still remembered that after watching the first movie we had started the second one only to fall asleep on each other. In a way, I guess, it could be called our first unofficial date.

 

After being back from the past, I had the anchor in my hand, a rope still attached to it. I positioned my feet to prepare myself for a perfect throw. I also had to wait for the good moment to not break the window when I would throw the anchor. I waited and waited until the wind pushed the window to be fully opened.

“ Now” I yelled internally to myself.

I threw the anchor as high as I could hoping it would get it stuck on the sill. This time, luck was on my side since I achieved my goal on my first try. I pulled the rope a little bit to check if the anchor was stuck enough to support my weight. It didn’t move. Now sure I could climb, I started by pulling myself up , followed by placing my feet on the wall. After that I continued to climb until I reached the window and got back inside. Once back inside, I took back the anchor into my inventory and quietly reached my bedroom door. This one wasn’t locked. After I opened it, I looked at both sides of the corridor before getting out. I slowly closed the door to not make any sound then I walked to the stairs and went to the kitchen.

As I was going there, I started to notice some sound, like something big was moving around the manor. Realising i need to get more cautious, i crouched down so the sound i would produce while walking would be lower. Instead of taking what would be 5 minutes for me if I didn't need to be this slow, I arrived at the dining room in 20 minutes. All the slow walking and checking every corridor and door for safety really slowed me down but once here, I knew it would be a great advancement in my investigation.

 

Last time , with how the cook made me leave fast, I couldn't realise how messy it was . A chair was down like someone was on it and fell down backward, there was still a bowl ,with a bit of liquid in it, slightly away from the chair with a spoon. I walked to the bowl and took it to smell the liquid that was in it. The scent was very hard to notice and was the same as the root I have found.

“ Good thing I found the root first” I thought.

If it was the opposite, I would probably not have known it was poison or even not made the link between those 2 clues.

It was now clear to me, I had to check the kitchen and see if there was something that would show the guiltiness of the cook. As I got up on my feet I noticed something strange on the floor, it was marks. Something or someone, like a child, has been dragged. I followed the marks until I reached the fireplace of the dining room.

 

“ Wait, it seems there is a path here,” I thought, realizing the dragging marks continued into the fireplace. I started to look at every little thing around the hearth. I ended up noticing a brick that had the q strange symbol on it. It looked like a horned beast. Something inside me was pushing it to press .

I suddenly heard a thud. I quickly turned back to see a shadow coming inside the dining room. As fast as I could I snuck under the table and crawled to go back to the door at the same time the mysterious shadow was going to the kitchen. I tried to look at who it was but in vain. When the shadow was close I was holding my breath to not be noticed. Finally at the door, I snuck outside wanting to go back to my room but when I was about to get on the stairs, I noticed another shadow at the top of them turning its back on me. I tried to quickly turn back but I tripped on my own legs and fell down. My body crashing on the ground created a loud bang that immediately signaled my presence to the 2 shadows.

 

I got up as fast as I could and started to run away into the corridor on the left side of the stairs. I couldn’t run at full speed since I was inside but I managed to get distance between the 2 shadows and me.

I slowed down a bit once I was about to reach the end of the path. When I wanted to breathe, the door on the right side, at the very end of the corridor, opened. In panic, I looked around to find an escape. The only one was the door on my left side.
I quickly opened it and closed it as silently as I could.

 

“ A third shadow ? I thought there were only 2 culprit” was the first thing that came to my mind.

Like a computer, I ran a fast analysis of the orphanage map in my head. As I thought, there was no other way to get in front of me. The room the third shadow came out from had only one access. The door itself. So it was indeed a third shadow and not one of the other 2 who took a shortcut. After I processed this information, I started to hear the shadows voice behind the door.

 

“ Hey, did you see anyone coming this way ?” Said a man voice.

 

There was a few seconds of silence before a second manly voice spoke.

 

“ Could he have hid ? “

 

“ Let’s go back,” said the first voice,” You go check my place.”

I started to hear 2 people walking away.
Scared that the room one of the voices mentioned was the one i was in. I fast walk to the desk in the room and snuck under it. Soon enough, like I was afraid of, the door opened. The third shadow was coming inside to check if I was here and unfortunately I was. Over the floor, I could see the shadow of the person that was here. It looked like a small person but what got my attention was that the person seemed to have something on their head but it didn’t look like a hat.

The sound of the steps appeared to be getting closer. As a last resort, I turned my head to face the wooden structure of the desk and held my breath. I knew the shadow was coming and there was nothing I could do but only hope the veil plus my hiding skill would protect me. I heard the sound of a hand being put on the top of the desk. I waited for about a minute. It was when I was about to not be able to hold my breath any longer that I heard the door close. I came out of my sneaking spot and took many breaths to try to calm my heart.

 

“Ok, I need to get back to my room,” I told myself.

As I was about to leave, I noticed 2 strange things inside the room: on the shelves, there were many books but only one had a silver cover. Secondly, on the desk there were papers that seemed to be documents about the kids. Even though I wanted to leave, a feeling inside me pushed me to stay. I started to look at the papers. It was indeed about the child's identity, there were around 50 documents. 50 different kids. Something felt off to me, I didn't recall seeing that many kids neither at the dining room last lunch, nor in the classroom. At best, I could only recall around 12. Something else came to my mind.

 

“ Wait, all those papers, am I in the director room ? But didn’t he say they don’t keep records of the kids ?” I thought.

 

Getting confused, I dropped the papers there and walked to the book. After I took it, I blew all the dust away. The silver cover book had a strange name. I didn’t immediately make the connection with what Furiko told me and Rin once.

The book was called “ The rise of the Goddess of Life”

 

“ Right, didn't the first of Renvyla family have divine blood ? “ I asked myself to force my memory to come back.

The book seemed important but I couldn't read it now. I had to go back to the safety of my room. I put the book in my inventory and quietly left what I presume to be the director room. I manage to get back to my bedroom without encountering any of the shadows.

Chapter 17

“A long, long time ago, in an Aincrad n*-*y done, in a time when its creation was counted in centuries instead of millennia, was a young girl named *i-ia. Despite being an orphan, the young child always had a smile on her beautiful face. However, never once has she been ad*#-ed. It was due to her mischievousness. She was making sure every parents that were coming for a child would pick one of her friends.

That why everyone loved her so much
She was the orphanage's little sunray. Living her life wanting to give all her h*_*# to the whole world.

She continued to grow and grow until she became an adult. Now that her childhood was over, she needed to leave the orphanage but she didn’t. She refused to leave the other c-*l*÷en alone. So she asked to work here. Milia devoted all her life to the orphanage until she became the *#-**tor herself.

She was taking time to teach to every child that was in her custody, to play with them, care for them and find someone to adopt them. She soon became the woman everyone loved and that every *#- wanted. Every time she was roaming the city she captured everyone's eyes. There was something ethereal about Milia that no one could explain. They all believed she was something more than h-#** but she was one. She was *-#*n. It was what made her so extraordinary.

 

Her pure heart ended up reaching beyond the city and the world Milia knew. The Demon God heard of her. Of her *ove she was spreading around, giving it freely. In a desire to mock her, he wanted to destroy the source of her strength. Milia's wonderful heart. And so, the Demon God named ●@×@~●T~ disguised himself as a human and walked to the city Milia lived in. His goal was to gain her trust, to make her his wife to then trapped her away and forced her to see everyone she cherished die.

 

Days became weeks and weeks became months. The Demon God's attempt to seduce Milia failed again and again and again. Those months became years, years of failure that was fueling the rage of ●@×@~●T~. So long has passed that Milia has grown older. She was reaching her 40s and she was still devoting herself to the orphanage. She even had adopted herself an irresistibly cute blonde little girl named Alygya. Seeing Milia too focused on taking care of children and not paying attention to any man, even him, the Demon God lost his temper, his patience running out. Making himself known, showing who he truly was, he threatened Milia, he wanted from her to give him a child or he would send his most loyal servants. Obviously she refused but this angered the Demon even more. For him it was proof she couldn’t give love to everyone. Milia was a liar. And so he sent them. The most loyal servants he had.

There was The Right Hand, a strong and powerful ◇^!¤€# in shiny fire red armor.

The Butcher, a -●○r looking monster who was eating humans alive.

At last, the S¤@+es¤!×t!ng $p!d€r. A manipulating demon who could hide within a human crowd.

All 3 started their way to destroy the city.

Everyone fled away leaving behind their home. Even the staff of the orphanage, they ran away leaving all the children behind. It was of course not possible to stop the attack. So it made sense that everyone ran. But Milia was still slightly sad. The people she trusted left without helping the kids. Despite her sadness, she was still smiling. She asks her child, Aligya, now a 15 years old teen, to take the children away. Milia gave her daughter a key to an old manor. Milia explained to Aligya that she found her parents' old home., The key was the one for that home.
Milia kissed her daughter one last time on the forehead before walking away.
Aligya listened to her mom, she took every last children with her and ran away to safety.

For a long time, Aligya didn’t believe she deserved a mother, even more Milia has her mother. But it was after that day she realised it was never about being deserving or not. A true mother's love is given completely and without asking anything in return. It was when Aligya started to be able to have her mom's name. She wore it like a badge of honor and proudness. She was Milia's daughter,

She was Aligya Canza.

 

As for Milia, to this day still, no one knows what happened to Milia on that tragic day except that she was never seen again.”

 

I closed the book after my reading. A lot of it was difficult to get since there words that were lost but I truly believe what I read was enough. I now knew what was happening at the orphanage and to the children.