Kirito—!
As the landscape entered and faded from her gaze in a warplike manner, Shiranami screamed in her mind, praying for the Black Swordsman’s safety. At her side was her comrade-in-arms, her rival in love, and her closest friend. The two girls said nothing as they ran like the wind, their feet hardly touching the ground beneath them as they made full use of a high-speed movement technique granted to them by an extremely rare skill mod that is only discovered and obtained by completing the ?Martial Arts? combat skill and achieving at least 900 proficiency in the ?Meditation? extra skill. Dubbed ?Reduced Earth?, it is the same martial skill said to be used by warlords during the Sengoku period by such famed warriors as Okita Souji.
The two girls engaged in no combat whatsoever as they immediately sprinted past all possible opponents although one Lesser Sandcrawler that was wedged in the canyon and blocked access was immediately killed by a combination of the one-two ?Vertical Arc? from Shiranami and the six-part ?Acceleration Burst? from Asuna. In essentially no time at all, both girls descended from the canyon’s entrance to Kirito’s location; with her eyes being sharper than Asuna’s, Shiranami caught sight of Kuradeel’s blade in Kirito’s body. Immediately, Asuna gulped, shuddering in response to the tactile rise in bloodlust. She’s… swapped.
Shiranami did not stop as she drew Venetinova from her waist and wound up her arm, folding it in and twisting her waist slightly to her right. The crimson light of Vorpal Strike roared into existence as she let herself be carried away by the system, her single-minded thrust sailing directly into Kuradeel’s abdomen and blowing him back. Due to the skill’s power and how Shiranami held her sword perpendicularly to the ground, the expanded range of her sword gouged into Kirito’s abdomen, dropping his already low health even further. This was nothing worth panicking over as Asuna arrived a mere instant later and while initially fumbling the crystal, she was able to heal Kirito with no issues.
With that line of thought finished, Shiranami focused her full attention on the non-human splotch in front of her. Her blackened gaze terrified Kuradeel who stammered, “Ass-Assistant Second Shiranami, it isn’t what you think. I-I mean… this is just a trial… yes, a trial that had gone wrong—” That line was not even allowed to be finished as five rays of blackness cut through the bright late morning hours—beginning from the off-side waist, sword parallel to the ground, a vertical rising cut immediately followed by a falling cut paired with a diagonally rising cut in addition to a reversed falling cut before stepping back and performing a sharp forward thrust. This was the intermediate five-part one-handed straight sword-category heavy combo attack, ?Still Weight?.
The non-human splotch blocked the first two attacks but was unable to prevent the next three from cutting into his body. Her beautiful heterochromatic eyes stained ebony with inky acrimony, Shiranami only responded with a silent glare at the wounded man. Terrified at her gaze, he stamped out his fear by raising his voice and renewing his attacks, “That’s enough from you, bitch… Hah! This is perfect. You’ll be joining them soon enou—” This too was ingloriously cut off by a six-part combo blazing persimmon—beginning with her right-handed sword raised over her left shoulder, a diagonal falling cut paired with a rising cut to form three vertices, a diagonal falling cut paired with a rising cut in the opposite direction to the first pair to form the remaining two vertices, followed by a horizontal slash to connecting the last and first vertices to finish illustrating the five-pointed star, ending with a counter-clockwise rotation into a powerful thrust. This was the intermediate one-handed straight sword-category light combo attack, the six-part ?Starry Corona?.
The same result played out as the non-human splotch failed to defend against the frenzied idol’s onslaught. Fear had finally set in, and Kuradeel’s wild swings weren’t even coming close to landing. His HP bar dropped lower and lower, and when it was about to shift from yellow to red, he finally dropped his sword and raised his hands in surrender. “A-all right, all right! I’m sorry; it was all my fault!” He cowered on the ground. “I’ll leave the guild! You’ll never see me again, I swear! Just don’t—” The silently demented idol mutely listened to his piteous wails… and paid them no regards. Slowly, she raised her prized sword, then spun it in the palm of her hand to point it downward. Her slender arm clenched and rose several inches, preparing to thrust it directly into the small of Kuradeel’s back as he hunched prostrate on the ground. The murderer emitted an even higher-pitched scream. “Eeeek! I don’t wanna die!”
The point stopped as though it had hit an invisible wall—the crazed idol’s body was visibly trembling. Even from here, Kirito could feel the internal battle between Shiranami’s hesitation, rage, and fear. Even when lost in the throes of insanity, Kirito could understand that this girl in front of him was nothing more than a normal girl. As far as he knew, Shiranami had never taken the life of another player; killing a player in Sword Art Online meant the death of that player in real life, too. PK was an extremely familiar term to online gamers, but it obfuscated the truth—here, it was actual murder.
That’s right, Shiranami. Stop. You can’t do this. Yet, at the same time, a contradiction arose within. No, don’t hesitate! He’s hoping you’ll stay your hand!
An instant later, Kirito’s fears came true. “Hyaaaa!!” Kuradeel sprang up from his begging position, his sword flashing as he screamed.
With a metallic clang, the sword flew out of Shiranami’s hand. “Wha—?” Shiranami yelped and lost her balance, falling onto her rear end. Kuradeel’s sword glinted over her head. “Not very smart, Assistant Second!” he screamed, unhinged. Kuradeel swung the sword downward without hesitation, trailing deep red light, evidence of the two-handed straight sword-category heavy single attack, ?Avalanche?.
““Raaagh!””
Two distinct shouts tore through Kuradeel’s attack as a blade of midnight pierced through the body of his sword, shattering it into pixelating pieces—only for a sudden impact to Kuradeel’s chest to blow him back into the canyon walls. However, the one who spoke was not the boy who threw the punch. “He was careful to not completely break your sternum apart, so you better be ready to repay that kindness with answers, freakshow…”
“Man, I wanted to say that…” Kirito muttered but quickly rearranged his thought process as he knew this was no time for jokes. “Now, talk.”
As Kirito spoke, Suzaku sauntered over to Kuradeel and raised a crystal to his face with visible rage barely contained in his cloaked face. “Heal.” The crystal fragmenting at Suzaku’s command, Kuradeel felt his wounds vanish as his HP returned to full before the young bird of prey pulled out a dagger from his inventory and slammed it into the PKer’s leg, triggering a paralysis condition. “Where’s PoH and his circus?”
Suzaku’s voice—far from being the gentle tone he normally takes—came out as a venomous lick akin to a growl as his hand grabbed the man’s collar before slamming him deeper into the wall and raising him into the air, his palm digging into the man’s throat. He did this all with just a single hand, relying on his overpowered strength stat to increase his threat to Kuradeel; this would be the first time Kirito and the others have seen the Shadow-Clad Raven in person and it became very clear to the others just how familiar he was with this kind of action.
His significant other, the rose-haired girl, remained in the background as while she had accompanied him out of obligation, this was something out of her element; instead, she and Asuna wordlessly agreed to keep watch to ensure the enhanced interrogation occurring behind them was to remain uninterrupted. As for the maddened idol, she neatly retrieved her sword and hung around behind Kirito who moved to hug her, attempting to calm her down. With his arms wrapped around the trembling idol, he added, “Did that man hire you to kill me? Or was this an independent action?”
Even when being held in a chokehold, Kuradeel managed to cough out, “Ha, ha, as if your head is worth his atten—”
As he began his retort, Suzaku brought back his free hand which began to glow a navy blue before suddenly piercing the tortured man’s shoulder. “Here’s what happens if you don’t give us answers: I start with your limbs.” His enraged tone carried through as he ripped his hand free from Kuradeel’s arm, leaving a massive chunk missing from the appendage; this evoked an image that was far more disturbing than it should be despite the lack of blood or gore before the missing data removed the remaining sections of Kuradeel’s arm. “Am I clear?”
Now suffering from the ?Amputation? debuff, Kuradeel gritted his teeth. “I’m not answering shit, you stinkin’ brat—”
Pulling him from the wall and lifting him over head, Suzaku spiked him in the ground like a volleyball before immediately striking his face with his foot as he drew his sword. “Where is—” In a flash, his blade impaled his leg, just above the knee and violently pierced the ground, pinning Kuradeel in place. “—POH?!”
Perhaps influenced by Suzaku’s rage, a streak of anger sparked from Kirito’s eyes as he too drew his trusted black blade and stabbed Kuradeel’s other leg. “I’m asking too, asshole. That man wasn’t there when we destroyed his guild. Where is he?”
If he could be still considered sane, then this would be when Kuradeel can no longer be called such as despite being subject to such torture, he still had the audacity to exclaim, “Nowhere within reach of you schoolkids!”
“Well, you’re in luck—I saved your right arm for last,” Suzaku whispered, eviscerating said arm with another dagger to refresh the Paralysis condition and puppeteering it to open his menu before checking his message history. “Now, let’s see what the big bad man had to say.” Pulling out another pink crystal, Suzaku refreshed his victim’s HP as his limbs began to regrow, the effects of the healing crystal overriding the Amputation debuff’s three-minute duration. He began to take notes of the relevant information from Kuradeel’s message history.
Glancing over his friend’s shoulder, Kirito took stock of the messages himself. I knew it. Only one correspondence from PoH. “Don’t screw this up”...? Is this referring to his attempt on my life? A quick skim over the rest of the messages did not reveal any other incriminatory information so Kirito heaved a disappointed huff.
“Great, of all the people in Laughing Coffin… we got its biggest loser,” Suzaku sighed to himself, as he finished organizing Kuradeel’s messages and pulled his sword out of his body. He then yanked him up by the hood. “You’re going straight to prison.” Kneeling down, he whispered once more, just loud enough for Kuradeel and Kirito to hear. “Your friends lasted a hell of a lot longer than you, but at least they were worth killing. You’re not worth the trouble to a raven like me.”
“Shall I finish him off then?” Having stayed silent after Kirito had released her to deliver his own greetings, the idol drew her sword and immediately, a saintlike aura enveloped her blade as she thrust forward three times, tracing the vertices of an upside-down triangle, indicative of the three-part one-handed straight sword-category light attack, ?Light Ray?.
After the first two strikes pierced Kuradeel’s body, Suzaku used his blade to deflect the third into the ground before dragging Kuradeel away from Shiranami. “I get it, but you need to calm down. He’s gonna live. We don’t know if there are any other moles in major guilds like him. He may be willing to talk later on.”
As for Kirito, he reacted a beat late and moved to restrain Shiranami’s arms. “Shiranami, stop. You are the last person I or Suzaku want to have blood on their hands. Let us guys do the evil things.”
“I was gonna say ‘leave it to the one with the most experience’ but sure, send feminism back to the 50’s…” Suzaku snarked aloud, pulling Kuradeel off with a small smile before setting his hand on Kirito’s shoulder. “Hey, you’ve waited long enough—give them an answer.” He motioned to Asuna and Shiranami with his head before he approached Tohka. “Let’s take this freakshow to jail; they’ve been through enough already.”
“—Thanks,” Kirito mumbled in reply, smoothly ignoring his nerdy friend’s reference to the American women’s rights movement. Reassembling his thoughts, he mulled over his friend’s words; truly, this incident drove it home—that Kirito needed to give the girls who love him a clear answer to their affections. It was at the same time he resolved to clarify his thoughts for the girls that Shiranami sank limply into his arms. “Whoa there,” he whispered.
Asuna briskly returned to Kirito’s side. “It happens every time.” She then turned to Tohka and thanked her. “I’m grateful for your assistance, Tohka-san.”
“It was nothing, Asuna-san,” she denied. “It was all him anyway. If you’ll excuse me, I will be ensuring he does not make any… detours while escorting our prisoner.”
“Trust me, I'm not gonna let him think about him getting such a pleasure…”
??————- ?????? ————-??
As Suzaku left, Kirito waited patiently for the sleeping beauty to awaken. When she did, she groggily wondered about where she was and upon seeing Kirito, threw her arms around him and wept. Kirito spent the next ten or so minutes calming her down, insisting that he was just fine and that the perpetrator is currently being brought to justice. Asuna merely looked on apologetically. Once she had become serene, Kirito closed his eyes, resetting himself. He then began, “Asuna. Shiranami. I’d like to have a talk with you.”
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The two girls glanced at each other, their cheeks slightly coloring as they understood the implication behind his statement. Asuna nodded, “Okay. Should I call the others?”
“Please.” In response to Kirito’s approval, Shiranami opened her menu and sent a message to Silica and Helen while Asuna paged the wandering Nirrnir. The Black Swordsman stood up and stretched. “You want to get a bite to eat outside or should we stick to your homecooking?”
“You’re treading on a minefield, Kirito-kun,” Asuna warned although she merely giggled. “I’m fine either way.”
“Well, I’ll proceed to teleport from that minefield and choose to eat at your house.”
“Very good,” Asuna giggled. “Nirrnir-sama has replied—she’s on her way.”
“Same for Silica-chan and Helen-paisen.” At that, Kirito nodded before retrieving his items from the shared guild inventory; they were originally in Godfrey’s inventory but upon his death, his items were all returned to the guild inventory in a separate category.
Picking up the blue Teleport Crystal, he held out his hand to the two girls who initially tilted their hands in confusion but were drawn to Kirito’s warm smile. They took his hand before Kirito held up the crystal, commanding, “Teleport: Selmburg.” The trio were encased in blue light as they were transported to the sixty-first floor where Asuna’s residence lay. Though it was only early afternoon when they arrived, the sky above Selmburg was filled with clouds, darkening what would normally be a very sunny day. Kirito did not pay attention to the weather above him, however, as he expertly retraced his steps to Asuna’s abode all the while keeping his grip on the two girls’ hands regardless of the attention he was receiving.
He only let go after arriving at the front door and opened it for them. “After you.” The two girls giggled at this sudden gentlemanly display but obediently filed inside; Kirito then shut the door behind them. Just before he did, however, he shot a scathing glance behind him as he had sensed someone tailing him. That person immediately ran away but not before Kirito caught a glimpse of their uniform and greatsword. That’s… the Kurogami guy? Great, I think I should advise Asuna and the others to throw up some wards around this house.
As they waited for the rest of the girls to assemble, Shiranami and Asuna began working on a rather belated lunch as it was already nearing one in the afternoon. Kirito silently sat on the sofa, riffling through the newspaper compiled by ?MMO Today?, a former guild that forms one half of the ?Aincrad Liberation Force?; before the merge, they served as SAO’s most prolific journalism guild and despite the consolidation into the ALF, some members of the new guild still perform their journalism duties, gathering information themselves or obtaining it from independent brokers. Although, to be completely truthful, calling it a newspaper was a bit disingenuous.
It was really just a collection of stories cobbled together by players who made a living gathering information and selling it as “news” but with no real form of entertainment in Aincrad, this was a precious bit of media, and more than a few players bought subscriptions. Kirito picked up the four-page paper, gazed absently at the front, then threw it aside in disgust. The cover-page story was an article about his duel with Heathcliff, with the garish headline, DUAL BLADES WIELDER UNVEILED, MERCILESSLY CRUSHED BY HOLY SWORD. The article even had an accompanying and extremely helpful picture of him—taken with a special recording crystal—lying prostrate before the triumphant Heathcliff. Kirito grumbled, All I’d done was help add another entry to his legend… yet, on the other hand, if this cemented the public’s opinion that I was no big deal, I could deflect attention away from myself.
Kirito’s train of thought was cut short when he began to smell a wonderful fragrance wafting in from the kitchen. Lunch was a high-class full course meal, courtesy of the five-Michelin-starred chefs, Asuna and Shiranami. It began with three appetizers—a paté de foie gras terrine with gif compote served with freshly toasted brioche, oysters on a half-shell with mignonette, and a beet salad paired with a hearty melting of goat cheese. The main course was a perfectly seared salt-and-pepper ribeye steak covered with red wine-based reduction sauce that carries hints of beef stock and shallots—all accompanied by a plate of truffle mashed potatoes and sautéed asparagus spears. All of this was topped off by a mouth-watering chocolate fondant with raspberry coulis.
Kirito smiled, “You girls really outdid yourselves once again. Where did you even find all of these ingredients?”
“Adohira-san cut us a deal some time ago,” Asuna said. “She figured you were going to—”
“Stoooop!” Shiranami yelped. “Let him say it!”
“I concur,” came a peppy voice’s addition. Kirito sighed, turning his head to the direction of the foyer and beheld the arrival of the three other girls significant to his life. The one who spoke was someone he knew personally from the real world, a returnee who was born in Japan but grew up for roughly six years in France before coming home to live in her birthplace. She was one of his classmates and the only one in his class to pay him—the preteen Kazuto—any attention; for what it’s worth, Kirito himself at that age was hardly someone the average person would interact with. To Helen—or at the time she met Kirito, Marie—Kirito was a reclusive guiding light. She saw him for more than just his demeanor and became aware of the saintly magnanimity within. “Have you finally decided to man up, Kazu-kun~?”
“Haha, I do suppose that from your perspective, it can be seen as me finally manning up,” Kirito concurred.
“Oh? Has my servant begun his transformation into a demon lord of the night?” quipped an elegant childish voice. Behind Helen came Nirrnir, who despite her status as an NPC, had become one of Kirito’s closest friends, confidantes, and lovers. Originating from the Volupta Grand Casino of Floor 7, she was formerly its grandmaster, overseeing all of its operations, both daytime and under-the-table. Kirito wished to release her from such a stifling position and successfully convinced the closeted vampire to follow him after the events of the boss raid of that floor. Ever since then, Kirito has become Nirrnir’s servant and Nirrnir has become Kirito’s mistress—an arrangement Kirito finds no fault in as he admittedly would like to keep playing the dashing knight to Nirrnir’s beautiful lady.
“If you would like me to, Nirrnir-sama, I wouldn’t mind.”
“Awawa, Kirito-san, I don’t think I can handle it if you become a demon lord of the night…!” That paradoxically childish yet mature voice came from perhaps the most diminutive of Kirito’s beloved women. Her name was Silica, often praised by the Clearers by such epithets like Grand Potions Master and Lady Mythic Beastmaster, yet if those same Clearers knew her origin story, they wouldn’t give her such profound nicknames. However, Kirito knew—he knew very well. After all, if they didn’t have that encounter on Floor 8, their paths would have never intersected. To Kirito, Silica was a girl he was obligated to protect and was obligated to let go once her wings had grown yet despite those wings having already grown in, Kirito realized that he couldn’t bring himself to let her go and neither does Silica herself wish to leave Kirito’s side.
“I’ll be extra gentle with you, Silica, don’t worry,” he chuckled, half-jokingly.
“Now, hold on a minute, don’t move the discussion in that direction without us!” Shiranami complained.
“I do apologize, Shiranami-hime,” Nirrnir stated. “I couldn’t help but declare my thoughts in my excitement to hear what Kirito has to say.”
“Well, before then, let’s dig in!” Helen cheerily sang. “Asuna and Shiranami, you’ve outdone yourselves yet again! What the heck kind of scrumptious meal is this!?”
“The ingredients were all procured by Adohira-san,” Shiranami explained. “She cut us a great deal a few days back, saying that they were congratulatory.” She turned to her cooking compatriot. “Hey, Asuna, do you think Adohira-san predicted this development coming?”
“Perhaps? Adohira has always been sensitive to this sort of thing,” Asuna shrugged. “I would say that she most certainly did not expect Kirito to almost be a victim of PK.”
“Did Suzaku arrive to help out?” Silica chimed in, worry creeping into her voice.
Kirito got up from his seat and ruffled Silica’s hair. “Thanks to you, I made it out just fine. Suzaku really was a lifesaver.”
“Oh, thank goodness… I didn’t know what to feel when Tohka-san asked me to friend Suzaku. He’s so weird, always being dressed up in that creepy cape of his.”
Kirito bit back a laugh as he returned to his seat. “Well, don’t say that to his face—he is absolutely not going to appreciate it.” In fact, he could already imagine in his mind’s eye his friend, Not all of us feel like being a super popstar, Mythic Beast Tamer! “Well, let’s put dunking on Suzaku aside and dig in. I’d hate to waste Asuna and Shiranami’s cooking by letting it sit for too long.” Kirito put his hands together and led the whole table in the pre-meal greeting. Once that was done, he began immediately attacking steak only for Asuna to slap his hand.
“Hey! At least start with the appetizers!” she scolded. “Aya-chan made them all, you know?”
“Oh, yeah, you’re right,” Kirito said. “Sorry, I’ll eat them in order.”
“… You okay, Kazu-kun?” Helen asked worriedly. “You aren’t usually this obedient.”
“Hold that thought,” he replied after serving himself a helping of the three appetizers Shiranami had prepared. “Brace your hips because I’m coming for them.”
“Oh my~” Helen snickered, a cheeky smile shooting across her face. “I’m not sure you could handle me though~”
“Dirty jokes have no place at the table for the time being,” Nirrnir chided. “At least clear your plate before you prepare yourself.”
“Nirrnir-sama, would you like a new plate?” A tall woman dressed in Chinese-styled finery bowed next to the dining vampire and offered this question. Her silver hair was affixed to either side of her head in paired gossamer loops and her light grey eyes flashed with an astute sophistication as she awaited a reply.
“You may remain at ease, Pina. Although, this meal is definitely missing something. Would you ask your colleague if she has any aged alcohol that would fit well with this meal?”
“Hime, may I have permission?” At Silica’s side stood another tall woman dressed in a different manner of Chinese-styled finery. Her left arm emitted a low heat as it seemingly burned red, the same shade as her crimson hair streaked silver near its tips.
“Hmm… I’ll allow it.”
The red-armed woman nodded and opened her amber eyes before producing a large bottle and six wineglasses out of thin air. She placed one in front of her mistress first, saying, “For you, Hime.” She then went around the table depositing glasses at every seat. Upon making a full rotation, she began pouring wine, again beginning with her mistress. “I hope this wine suits your palate, Hime, Nirrnir-sama, and Hime’s beloved people.”
“Speaking of which, where’s Akibi?” Kirito asked.
“She’s off doing her own thing,” Silica shrugged. “She insisted that as she is the most recent addition to my servant pool, she must do extra work to make up for the time she was not at my side.”
“Please forgive the White Ruler, Hime,” Pina pleaded. “She has always been like this even in the era when we were at full strength.”
“I’ve been meaning to ask,” Shiranami said between bites. “What exactly does ‘the era when we were at full strength’ mean?”
“It relates to the permanently active quest in my activity log,” Silica began. “On Floor 12, I tamed a ?Feathered Little Dragon? who would eventually be my Pina. Upon reading her information, a quest notification appeared for ?Cardinal Mythology?. The details were revealed to me over time but I essentially have to find the Four Cardinal Beasts—the Azure Monarch, the Vermillion Sovereign, the White Ruler, and the Black Majesty. I still have yet to find the Black Majesty but Pina, Kururi, and Akibi are the Azure Monarch, the Vermillion Sovereign, and the White Ruler, respectively. They only were able to regain those titles after I used ?Evolution? on them.”
“I seem to remember you telling me that the Four Cardinal Beasts were protectors of the earth until they mysteriously lost their powers concurrently with the Great Separation,” Asuna thought aloud.
“Yeah, that’s the one—the event that formed this floating castle. It was directly alluded to in both Pina’s and the questline’s flavor text. More information was revealed through Kururi and Akibi’s flavor text but I still don’t have the complete picture. I’d assume I’d need to find the Black Majesty for that.”
“Well, anyway, let’s put all that talk aside.” Kirito had finished his meal and got up; he walked around the table, collecting the dirty dishes as the girls had also more or less finished their portions as well. Chuckling upon seeing the girls begin attacking the Mont-Blanc confectionary that served as their dessert, he headed into the kitchen where he began to wash the tableware.
“Is the world going to end tomorrow? Kazu-kun, doing the dishes!?” Helen exclaimed between mouthfuls.
“I’ll have you know that I did the housework back in real life when my parents weren’t home!” he yelled back, his gaze remaining fixed on his work.
“That’s news to me!” At that, the girls joined in to add to Helen’s cheer, although only Helen meant her laughter to be malicious. Kirito sighed internally, reminding himself to be extra hard on her later—he’ll let her have this much for the time being. It was the least he could do for her efforts in saving him from loneliness before they were trapped in this accursed game. That’s all in the past. From now on, I’m ensuring that we venture forward together. With that thought, he finished his dishes before heading back to the table.
Kirito didn’t rejoin the seated girls and instead, felt that it would be better if he did this while standing. “Okay. The reason why I called you all here is because…” Kirito trailed off there as he thought about which words would be best—then, he shook his head. This isn’t like me to hesitate like this. It’s simple— “I love you. I love all of you. You might think of this as a cheap excuse or something but my emotions aren’t that complicated. All of you are precious to me—I hold affection for you all equally and it’s not something I can change. It would hurt my pride to have you all confess to me first so I decided to just steel my nerves.” Kirito opened his menu and scrolled through the options. I never thought I’d use this but… He opened the Marriage sub-menu and sent proposals to the five present girls.
“It does say it right there on those menus but I should also give voice to it. Asuna. Helen. Nirrnir. Silica. Shiranami. Will you marry me?”
??————- ?????? ————-??
At around the same time as Kirito’s proposal, a lone man wandered the streets of Selmburg, his countenance pale as a ghost. Trying and failing to get his thoughts in order, he recalled the moment which sent his mind into a whirlpool—the Black Swordsman waving in the Snow White Songstress into the house before shooting him a dirty glare. Of course, it was perhaps to be expected as this man, whom Kirito identified as Kurogami, sub-leader of Team C of the Knights of the Blood, was spying on them from the brush, away from any other prying eyes. The Black Swordsman noticing him immediately had Kurogami fleeing but he could not stop his demons from compelling him to return to the house, in time to witness the Black Swordsman’s proposal.
This was fine, of course; SAO’s top Clearer is free to marry whoever he wishes. Yet, Kurogami felt white hot rage build up inside of him as his (and his comrades’) Snow White Songstress was included. Chewing his nails, he fled with his first thoughts being, Ah, so it’s finally that time—the day that I never expected would come so soon. I suppose I just did not think about it thoroughly—my own fault, really. Kurogami was the leader of the unofficial guild-like entity Choir of Angels. It was essentially an exclusive members-only fanclub of Ayanami Shiratsuyu, otherwise known in SAO as Shiranami and Snow White Songstress. Their only ironclad rule was that they would show their love and affection for her from the sidelines, their hearts frozen in place to prevent any other untoward emotions from developing.
And yet…
This dedication was rewarded with naught but pain.
Akin to a briar of prickling thorns, it was nothing short of a bitter betrayal.
Are you telling me that all that time that I spent—that we spent—dedicating ourselves to her was worth nothing? Were our existences of such irrelevance that she could ignore us and fawn over that man? How awful. How disgustingly awful. Awful. Awful. Awful. Kurogami slammed his fist into the wall, the sudden jolt halting his self-deprecating spiral into madness. “No, that’s not what I should be cursing… How did this even come to be? Who would be more important to that personage? Us who have spent more time admiring and supporting her wherever she went or that man who showed her less dedication than us but treated her as another person?” Kurogami laughed to himself. “The answer is very clear.”
Glaring into the setting sky above him, he shouted, “It should be us! No one else deserved that time of hers she dedicated! What is the meaning of this?! Was it not enough?! We were the ones who helped her rise to the top! We were always with her from the beginning!!! This is not what should have been!” Upon stopping to catch a breath, he cursed under his breath before slapping himself across the face. “No, dammit, that’s not it. Were we not dedicated to her as an idol—in both the literal sense and figurative sense? We saw her as something greater than a human—a goddess in human skin. God, I’m fucking disgusted with myself. How could we do that to her?”
Once more, he began dragging himself away and further out of sight as he noticed through his skills that he had gathered attention and he would rather not encounter such things while mourning his and his comrades’ stupidity. Still, he continued muttering to himself. “Of course then. It was only a matter of time for her to fall in love with someone… Someone who treated her not as an idolized concept but as a person who’s greatest similarity is the fact that she too walks this earth. We who treated her as a beautiful bird in a cage and he who destroyed that cage himself.” His feet soon stopped at the edge of the lake outside of town. As he stared into his reflection in the water, he declared with finality, “I’m sorry. We truly have failed you. Even if I try to force myself to forget this mistake, I know that I will forever remember it. It will be my life’s greatest shame. Of course, I should be glad for her! This is what makes her happy! Is that not what we stand for?” Of course, his reflection did not answer and upon realizing this fact, Kurogami threw himself into the water. Upon resurfacing, he cursed, “Fuck. I guess I’m going to have to report this. What the hell should I say though?”
