Sword Art Online

Chapter 7

9 A.M.

Today's weather setting was slightly cloudy, and the morning mist that covered the city still hadn't cleared. The light that shone from outside was reflected off it, dyeing the surroundings in a lemon-yellow color.

According to the Aincrad calendar, it was the «Month of the Ash Tree», which meant that we were getting further into fall. The temperature was slightly cold, making this the most refreshing month of the year. But right now, I felt a little under the weather.

I was waiting for Asuna at the gate plaza in the living area of the 74th floor. I couldn't sleep last night for some reason, and all I did in my simple bed in Algade was toss about in one way or another. I think I managed to fall asleep a little past three in the morning. There were plenty of features in SAO that helped the player, but sadly a button that could make you fall asleep wasn't one of them.

Oddly enough, the opposite did exist. In the time-related options of the menu, there was something called «Alarm Clock» which forced the player to wake up from their sleep. Of course, the choice of going back to sleep again or not was entirely up to you, but I succeeded in gathering enough will-power to crawl out of my bed when the system woke me up at ten to nine.

Perhaps to the blessing of the lazier players, there was no need to wash or change in the game—although some of the stranger players seem to bathe on a daily basis. But since replicating a completely liquid environment was hard even for the NerveGear, it couldn't reproduce a real bath perfectly. After waking up a little too close to the meeting time, I put on all my equipment in twenty seconds and walked out of Algade's teleport gate with a slight sway out to where I, slightly annoyed by the lack of sleep, waited for her, but—

“She's late...”

The time was already ten past nine. Diligent gamers were appearing from the gate and walking towards the Labyrinth area one after another.

With nothing much to do, I looked at the labyrinth map and the completion rates of my skills, stats that I already knew mostly by heart.

Ahh, I wish I had a portable game console or something.

I was rendered speechless by that sudden thought. To want to play a game within a game, I was getting worse.

Should I just go back and sleep... I even started thinking. Another blue teleport effect appeared inside the gate for god knows how many times. I watched without much expectation. But then—

“Kyaaaaa! Please get out of the way—!”

“Ahhhhhh!?”

Usually players who teleported appeared on the ground, but this person appeared a meter off it and—flew through the air, heading straight for me.

“Huh, huh...!?”

Without any time to catch or dodge, we collided and fell to the ground in a single heap. I hit the back of my head on the stone ground, hard. If I wasn't inside of a settlement, a couple of dots from my HP would have been taken away.

This meant—that this idiot player had, most likely, jumped into the gate from the other side and appeared like that here. The thought flashed calmly though my mind. Still a bit dizzy, I raised my arm and grabbed the idiot on top of me in an attempt to push the person off.

“...Hmm?”

The feeling of something strange and full registered in my hand. I squeezed it twice, and three times to figure out what the springy and rich feeling in my hand was.

“K-Kya—!!”

Suddenly, a loud scream sounded in my ear and my head hit the ground again. At the same time, the weight lifted from my body.

In front of me, there was a female player that was sitting on the ground, wearing a red on white knight uniform and a knee-length miniskirt, with a silver-white rapier in her scabbard. And for some reason, she was glaring at me with an inexplicable anger evident in her eyes. Her face was experiencing the highest degree of the emotion effect and was red all the way to her ears, and her two arms were crossed protectively against her chest— ...Chest...?

I was immediately able to guess what I had been grabbing with my right hand. At the same time I realized, a little too late, the dangerous situation that I was in. All the ways to avoid dangerous situations that I had trained into my head had all but vanished. While opening and closing my right hand, not knowing what to do with it, I opened my mouth.

“H-Hey. Good morning, Asuna.”

The anger in her eyes seemed to flare brighter. Those were definitely the eyes of someone who was contemplating drawing their weapon.

I started inspecting the need for the «escape» option that had flashed to mind when the gate shined blue again. Asuna looked back with a surprised expression and got up quickly before hiding behind me.

“Eh...?”

Without knowing why, I stood up as well. The gate shined brighter when a newcomer appeared in the middle of it. This time, the player had both feet on the ground.

As the light faded, I recognized the person inside, and the impressive white cape with a red symbol on it.

The man, who wore a KoB uniform and carried a sword that seemed to be a little overly decorated, was the long haired bodyguard who had been following Asuna around yesterday. His name was Kuradeel or something.

Kuradeel's frown grew deeper as he saw Asuna behind me. He didn't look all that old. He would only be around his early twenties, but the wrinkles on his face made him look older. He clenched his teeth so hard that we could almost hear it and then spoke with a barely concealed anger.

“A...Asuna-sama, you shouldn't be acting on your own like this...!”

As I heard the voice that bordered on hysterical, I thought This is going to get complicated and pulled in my shoulders. With his heavily lidded eyes glowering, Kuradeel spoke again.

“Now, Asuna-sama, let's return to HQ.”

“No. I'm not even on duty today! ...And Kuradeel, why were you standing in front of my house so early in the morning?”

Asuna replied angrily behind me.

“Fufu, I knew that something like this would occur, so I've been going to Selmburg to watch your house since a month ago.”

I could only be surprised at Kuradeel's proud answer. Asuna froze too. After a long silence, she asked with a forced voice.

“That...That's not part of the leader's orders is it...?”

“My duty is to escort you, Asuna-sama. Watching your house is included in...”

“What do you mean included, idiot!”

Kuradeel walked over, his expression becoming even more angry and annoyed, then pushed me out of the way and grabbed Asuna's hand.

“You don't seem to understand. Please don't be like this... Now, let's go back to HQ.”

Asuna appeared to have been frightened by the voice that seemed to hide something barely concealed behind it. She threw an imploring look my way.

To tell the truth, I was wondering whether to run away like I always did until that point. But the moment I saw Asuna's eyes, my hand started moving by itself. I grabbed Kuradeel's right arm, the one that was grabbing Asuna, and increased the strength in my hand until just before the crime prevention code would be invoked.

“Sorry, but I'm borrowing your sub-captain for today.”

The line sounded stupid even to my ears, but I couldn't back down now. Kuradeel, who had been purposefully ignoring me until now, scrunched his face up and pulled his hand away.

“You...!”

He screamed in a voice that seemed to rasp. Even if the system overstated expressions, there was still something that seemed strange behind his voice.

“I'll guarantee Asuna's safety. It's not like we're going to fight a boss today. You can return to HQ by yourself.”

“D...Don't kid with me!! Do you think a pathetic player like you can protect Asuna-sama!!”

“Better than you can, most likely.”

“Y-You insolent fool...! I-If you can talk big, I suppose you're prepared to back it up...?”

Kuradeel, his face now white, called the menu screen with his right hand and manipulated it quickly.

Soon a semi-transparent system message appeared in front of me. I could guess what it is before I even read it.

[A 1-on-1 duel has been requested by Kuradeel. Do you accept?]

Below the expressionlessly shining letters were the Yes/No buttons and a number of other options. I glanced sideways at Asuna. She couldn't see the message but seemed to have guessed what was going on. I thought that she would try and stop me, but surprisingly she nodded slightly with a rigid expression.

“...Is it okay? Won't this pose a problem in the guild...?”

Asuna answered my whispered question with one of her own.

“It's fine. I'll report this to the leader myself.”

I nodded in reply, then pressed Yes and chose the «First Strike Mode» from the options.

This was a duel that could be won either by landing the first clean hit or by reducing the opponent's HP to half. The message changed to [You have accepted the 1-on-1 duel with Kuradeel], and a countdown of 60 seconds appeared below it. The moment that number reached zero, the HP protection system that was in effect within the town would be momentarily withdrawn, and he and I would be able to cross swords until one of us won.

Kuradeel seemed to have made his own interpretation of Asuna's consent.

“Please watch, Asuna-sama! I will prove that there is no one better than I to escort you!”

He shouted with an expression that barely concealed his delight, drawing his huge two-handed sword from his waist, and positioning himself with a clanking sound.

I made sure that Asuna had moved further away before I drew my one-handed sword from my back. As one would expect from a member of a famous guild, his sword looked much better than mine.

It wasn't just the size difference between a one-handed and a two-handed sword, but that while my sword was a simple and practical weapon, his had been fully decorated by a top class craftsman.

As we stood about five meters apart, waiting for the countdown to finish, people started crowding around us.

It wasn't all that strange. This was a gate plaza in the middle of a town, and both of us were pretty well-known players.

“The solo player Kirito and a KoB member are having a duel!”

As someone shouted that, cheers could be heard from here and there. Since duels were usually for comparing your skills to a friend's, all of the spectators cheered and whistled, ignorant to the situation that had led up to this.

But as the timer counted down, all of this started to fade away. I felt a cold thread pass through my body like when I was fighting a monster. I focused in order to read the atmosphere around Kuradeel, who was looking about here and there with glances of annoyance, and examined his stance and the way his feet moved.

Humans were far more liable to show certain habits when they were about to use a skill. Whether it was a charging or defending skill, or if it would start low from the ground or from high up, if their body revealed this kind of information, then it became a critical weakness.

Kuradeel's sword was leaning a bit back from the middle of his body and his lower body was bent down. It was clearly a sign that he was going to use a high aiming charge-type attack. Of course, it could have been a feint. I myself was actually posing with my sword in a low and relaxed posture, giving the impression that my first attack was going to be a weak blow to his lower body. You could only rely on your experience and “feel” when searching for feints.

As the countdown went down to single digits, I closed the window. I couldn't even hear the noise around me anymore.

I saw Kuradeel, who had been rapidly switching his gaze from me to the window and then back, go still as his muscles tensed. The word [DUEL!!] appeared in the space between us, and I jumped. Sparks flew from the sole of my boot, and the air whistled by as my shoulder cut through it.

Not even a moment had passed before Kuradeel's body began to move as well. But there was an expression of surprise on his face, since I had shattered his expectations of a low, defend-type attack skill and charged.

Kuradeel's first attack was, as I had guessed, a high hitting two-handed sword charge skill: «Avalanche». If the guard was too weak, the defender might be able to block the blow but wouldn't be able to counterattack straight away due to the impact; meanwhile, the player who used it would be able to buy time to ready his stance again, since the charge widened the distance between them. It was a very good high level skill. Well, at least against monsters.

I, who had already read what Kuradeel was going to do, chose the charge-type skill «Sonic Leap». If we both kept charging, our skills would collide.

If we were to look at only the strength of the skill, his was stronger, and the game would favor the heavier skill if two attacks collided. In this case my sword would be deflected, and his skill would hit me, weakened but still enough to end the duel. But I wasn't after Kuradeel himself.

The space between us narrowed quickly. But my perception had been quickened as well, and it felt like time had slowed down. I wasn't sure if this was a result of the system, or if it was an ability that humans naturally had. All I knew was that I could see all of his movements.

The sword, which was leaning backwards, started giving off an orange light as it sped towards me. His stats must have been pretty high, as one would expect from the best guild, since the time it took for the skill to start was shorter than I expected.

The brightly shining blade rushed in. If I hit that skill straight on, there was no doubt that I'd receive enough damage to end the duel. Kuradeel's face showed his ecstasy at his apparent victory. But—

My sword, with its head-start, moved a little quicker, drawing a slanted green trajectory and hitting his sword just before it ended its attack. The game calculated the damage dealt by my sword, producing a huge spark.

Another result of two weapons colliding was «Arms Blast»4. It only had a chance of happening when a weapon received a heavy blow to a weak part of its structure.

But I was certain that it would break. Weapons with too much decoration had low durability.

Just as expected—with an ear-wrenching sound—Kuradeel's two-handed blade broke. There was an effect like an explosion.

We passed by each other in mid-air and landed at where the other had jumped. The broken half of his sword spun in mid-air, reflecting the sunlight, before it imbedded itself into the stone ground between us. After that, both the broken half and the half remaining in Kuradeel's hands shattered into countless polygon fragments.

Silence overtook the plaza for a while. All of the spectators were frozen with their mouths wide open. But after I landed, stood up, and habitually swung my sword from left to right, they started cheering.

“Awesome!”

“Was he actually aiming for that!?”

As I heard everyone starting to critique the short fight, I sighed. Even if it was a single skill, revealing even one card from my hand wasn't something to be happy about.

With the sword in my hand, I started walking over to where Kuradeel was sitting with his back turned. That back, covered by the white cape, was shaking violently. After loudly sheathing my sword on purpose, I said in a small voice.

“If you want to come again with a new weapon, I'll fight you again... But this is enough, right?”

Kuradeel didn't even try to look at me. He shook with both hands on the ground as if he was sick. But soon, he said with an almost creaky voice, «I resign». He could have just said « » or «»5 in Japanese.

Immediately afterwards, a row of purple lines appeared exactly where it had first shown when the fight started, this time proclaiming the end of the duel and the victor. Another cheer resounded, and then Kuradeel stood up shakily and shouted at the spectators.

“What are you looking at!? Get lost!”

Then he turned slowly towards me.

“You... I'm going to kill you... I'll definitely kill you...”

I couldn't deny that I was a little freaked out by those eyes.

Emotions in SAO felt a little overstated, but even with that, the hate that burned in Kuradeel's heavily lidded eyes were scarier than any monster's.

Somebody slid to my side as I stood there in surprise.

“Kuradeel, I order you as the sub-leader of the Knights of the Blood. I relieve you from the position of bodyguard. Go back to HQ and remain there until further orders.”

Asuna's words and expression were both cold. But I felt the distress behind them and unconsciously put my hand on her shoulder. Asuna leaned her stiffly tensed body a bit.

“...Wh...What...this...”

This sound barely reached our ears. The rest, most probably a string of swearing, were lost in his mouth. Kuradeel glared at us. There was no doubt that he was thinking about attacking us with his reserve weapon, even though he knew that the crime prevention code would stop him.

But he just barely managed to restrain himself and took out a teleport crystal from inside his coat.

He raised it, gripping it so hard that I thought it was going to break, and he muttered “Teleport... Granzam.” He was glaring at us with hate even as his body disappeared in a flurry of blue light.

As the light disappeared, a bitter silence spread across the plaza. The spectators seemed stunned by Kuradeel's rage but soon left in their small groups. Asuna and I were eventually the only ones left.

What should I say? That thought went round and round in my head, but since I'd been living by myself for two years, nothing useful came to mind. I didn't even feel like making sure if I did the right thing.

Then finally, Asuna stepped away and started speaking with a fragile voice.

“...Sorry. I got you mixed up in this.”

“No...I'm fine, but will you be okay?”

Shaking her head slowly, the sub-leader of the greatest guild gave a spirited but weak smile.

“Yeah, I think that I'm to blame as well for enforcing the rules on everyone so harshly in order to clear the game quicker...”

“I think... that you can't do anything about that. If they didn't have somebody like you, the pace would be much slower. Well, that's not really something a lazy solo player like me should be saying... Ah, I didn't mean that.”

I didn't even know what I was trying to say anymore, so I started saying anything that came off the top of my head.

“...So, nobody would be able to say anything about, you... taking a breather with somebody as thoughtless as me.”

To this, Asuna blinked a few times with a confused expression, then she smiled somewhat bitterly and softened her face.

“...Well, I'll say thanks. Then I'll enjoy today as much as I can. I'll entrust you with the position of forward.”

She turned energetically and started walking down the road that led out of the town.

“What? Hey! Forward is supposed to be taken in turns!”

Even as I complained, I let out a sigh of relief and followed the softly waving chestnut-brown hair.