Part two to chapter 11.
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No response.
"You think I don't see that green cursor above your head? You don't even have the hiding skill, do you?" Kirito waited for them to make a move. The boy had noticed their presence with his «Searching» skill near the climax of his battle with Kayaba. They didn't see the fight initiate, but they had witnessed Hero's murder. Kirito was curious to see if they would make a move or not as he looted his spoils, keeping his guard up and playing oblivious.
If they had run, he would have chased them down.
A threat to his security couldn't be allowed to get away.
He waited a bit more. It appeared as if they were hesitating; the potential tell of a coward. Right before Kirito was about to make a move of his own, the bushel shook violently as a person darted out towards him. "Hraaah!"
Kirito tilted his head and watched as a glowing sword narrowly miss him, the blue particles shimmering across his face. 'An offensive approach? Fine.'
Then it's a fight to the death.
Just as the blade finished its arc, Kirito pulled his sword hand back, fist glowing a light teal. Before his attacker could recuperate, his «Senda» martial art nailed them directly in the face. It was a basic lunging skill; a straight punch. When it connected, they flew backwards off their feet, rolling across the ground. With that one hit, they had lost a significant amount of health, bordering on entering the yellow zone.
The difference in strength between them was obvious. Kirito guessed they were only a level or two higher than the average player. He unsheathed his sword, watching them slowly stand back up. They let out another battle cry and charged him with the same sword skill. "Y-You jerk!"
'A girl?' Kirito acknowledged as he heard her voice and observed her form, catching her blade with his own. Their swords were locked, but it was clear who would win the clash. The girl pushed against his sword with all her might using both her hands, while Kirito only used a single one, not even bothering with a sword skill. Her «Horizontal» soon gave out and Kirito used the pommel of his «Anneal Blade» to smack her in the face.
"Gah-!" Her head reeled backwards, feet racing to keep themselves under her. Just as her head came back, Kirito angled his sword and swung hard. "Ack-!" She yelped as her weapon was flung out of her hand. The girl, dressed in basic equipment, fell back on her bottom. She looked up at the boy who raised his sword above his head, ready to bring it down on her. "NOOO!" She screamed out, shutting her eyes and holding her arms out in front of her in a weak attempt to defend herself. "PLEASE DON'T KILL MEEE!"
Kirito stood with his sword raised like a statue. He watched as her tears rained down, hiding her face behind trembling arms that she could barely keep up. He was going to kill her, buuuuuut...
...she is a girl. He would feel kind of bad merking some little girl out in the jungle like this. His sword limply fell to his side as an odd look crossed his face. "Uh... okay?"
His voice made her jump. Slowly, she raised her head and opened her crying eyes, peeking over her arms skeptically. "H-Huh?"
Kirito's eyes darted away from her, scratching his cheek. Although he had dealt with crying girls before, he'd never done well. His experience consoling Sinon hadn't been enough training. She looked younger than him, so he tried thinking back to when he had made Suguha upset.
An older brother calming his younger sister down... How'd that go again?
"There... there?" Kirito said, smiling awkwardly. Surely he was doing it right, right? He waved his hand at her in a friendly gesture, hoping it would get her to calm down.
The girl sniffled, her knees coming up to hide her face as she buried it in them. Her wet eyes looked up at him hesitatingly. "...What?"
He coughed again. "H-Hey look, uh... I'm not gonna kill you or anything...?" Kirito said as if he weren't exactly sure himself, slowly sheathing his blade.
She didn't buy it. Instead, she glared at the boy. "You liar! You're a murderer! You killed that man!" She scooted away from him closer towards the forested area, her eyes glancing at her fallen sword nearby.
"He was a bad guy. Why wouldn't I kill him?"
"Because murder is wrong! Ya shouldn't kill anyone!"
This was getting nowhere fast. The girl appeared to be rather stubborn and had a strong sense of justice. The type who always stuck to their values. Convincing her that he was a good guy after she'd witness him kill was gonna be tough, but he had to try.
"What if I told you the guy I killed was Akihiko Kayaba, the man who trapped us here in the first place?"
His words stunned her a bit, as if she'd been thrown for a loop. However, they were ineffective as she swiftly shook her head and glared once more. "You're a liar! That boy wasn't an old man! He was barely older than you are!"
'Oh yeah, I guess it did look that way.' Kirito had momentarily forgotten the fact that Kayaba, under the guise of Hero, appeared around the age of eighteen. That made things a whole lot more complicated.
Kirito didn't get a chance to rebut her before she dove for her discarded weapon. He couldn't help but feel a little annoyed. He had spared her after she begged for her life and still she insisted on fighting him. Still, a part of him also admired her tenacity. She had a fire in her that was tough to put out.
'What exactly does she plan to do?' If she believed that murder was bad, even killing bad guys, then what was she trying to do to him? She couldn't kill him, so what? Was she gonna beat him up? Maybe try to capture him?
Whatever the case, it was pointless. Kirito's hand began glowing the same blue as before, just in time for her to pick up her blade. As soon as she turned around to confront him, his fist slammed into her sword, right in the center. While he took minor damage from the cut to his hand, the sword was swiftly snapped in half, shattering into several fragments. She stood there dumbfounded, holding onto the remaining half of her sword before the remains proceeded to burst and dissipate from the world.
"You done?" Kirito asked, knocking her out of her stupor. She took a step back, regaining her look of fear. He raised his hands up placatingly. "Chill out. I'm not gonna hurt you." Or at least, he hoped he wouldn't have to. If he couldn't convince her to relax and trust him and his words, he wouldn't have any other choice.
Despite his calming words, she retreated further back, putting some distance between them. She wanted to run now that she was defenseless. She didn't, knowing now that it was futile. After their last two exchanges, she knew she couldn't compete. It was frustrating and she grit her teeth, but there was nothing she could do.
The girl bit her lip, nausea filling her white face. The gravity of her helpless situation was beginning to sink in. "T-Then what are ya gonna do?"
Kill her.
Kirito waved her off. "Let me think for a moment..."
She sat their watching him, nervously shuffling around. The silence was suffocating. The girl felt like she could barely breathe. Her attention turned to their surroundings, hoping to find that one key moment to slip away. She wanted to move, but like a deer in headlights, she was too scared to even try.
If there was a hero in this world, she prayed for them to appear.
"Aha!" The boy suddenly exclaimed, snapping his fingers. The girl nearly leaped out of her skin as he did. She watched him in confusion and growing fear as he opened up his menu and flung through it. Her heart was beating so fast, it rang throughout her ear drums.
This was it. Either he'd let her go or finish her. Mentally, she began saying her goodbyes and that she would soon join her sister and mother. For what it was worth, she believed her short life was a good one.
The moment he pulled something out, she instinctively shut her eyes, flinching away.
"Hello? You there?" The boy called, waving his hand. "You lagging?"
Her eyes slowly opened back up. In his hands was a golden sword decorated with blue gems, sheathed inside a scabbard with the same color scheme and shine.
"Look at its stats." Kirito held it out to her.
And here he thought he'd never find a real use for Excalibur. He'd banished it not five minutes ago and it was already coming in clutch.
It already recognized its master...
The young girl looked at the sword with conflicted emotions. "W-why?"
Kirito rolled his eyes. "I'm not the bad guy you think I am. Let me prove it." He held the weapon out for her to grasp. When he had put it away in his inventory earlier, it didn't have the sheathe. The Cardinal System designated him the weapon's sheathe automatically after he looted it.
She peered at the blade strangely, still not understanding him. Kirito wouldn't let her hold it, just in case she still wanted to fight. He instead gestured for her to tap on it to pull up the item window.
Her eyes scanned over it wearily. After awhile, she only looked more befuddled. "Um... what am I supposed to be looking at?"
"Seriously? Do I have to spell it out for you?" Kirito got the inclination that like Asuna once was, this girl was a complete noob. He watched her scan over the menu again just as puzzled as before and sighed.
He should have expected this. Her equipment was a dead give away that she was new to these kinds of games, or maybe just VR in general.
"Remember what I said before? I said the person I killed was Akihiko Kayaba. Now look at the sword's stats. Aren't they really strong?"
"Really, really strong." She nodded hesitatingly, a tiny bit of awe leaking from her voice.
Was that the all too familiar sound of a sword junkie admiring the craftsmanship of a blade?
No, he'd better not get sidetracked.
"Right. Now, think about it objectively. This sword is really powerful. If it were gonna drop somewhere, it would be somewhere on the upper floors. Are you following along?" Kirito asked her, trying to explain it as simply as possible.
Another hesitant nod.
Kirito nodded back. He actually didn't believe it would drop anywhere, but he didn't wanna make this any more complicated. "Okay so, if it's supposed to drop on a higher floor, why is it here on floor six?"
Awaiting an answer, he was disappointed when he didn't receive one. She didn't get the memo, so he had to gesture for her to respond, watching the gears slowly turn behind her eyes.
On second thought, this wasn't as good of an idea as he thought.
"Um... because he found it?"
Kirito smacked his forehead, barely refraining from calling her a name. "No... because he cheated."
"Cheated?"
"Yeah, think about it from Akihiko Kayaba's point-of-view. You trapped ten thousand players in your death game, so now what? Are you just gonna sit back and watch them fumble around in the world you created?" Kirito posed, placing Excalibur back in his inventory. "Or, would you join them and play? What would you do?"
"What would I do..?" The short girl muttered to herself. She came up with her answer quickly. "Of course I wouldn't play! Why would I choose to play a game where I could die!?"
Kirito shook his head." Remember, your looking at it from Kayaba's perspective. Since you created the game, you can cheat all you want. If you die in the game, you won't die in real life."
Her face morphed into one of understanding. "Oh... then I guess I would play!" She said, her eyes widening in realization.
"That's right, and that's exactly what Kayaba did." Kirito replied with another nod. Having another idea, he reopened his inventory and equipped Excalibur. As he did, the girl reverted back to her fearful disposition. "I'm not going to attack you. I just want to show you." Kirito withdrew the golden sword, its light hummed lowly and shined off the shrubbery and grass nearby. It appeared stronger in his hands than it had Kayaba's. "You read that the sword had different effects, right?"
"Y-Yeah?"
Kirito bent his knees, raising the sword out in front of him with a single hand. "This isn't going to damage you, so don't worry. Just look at what happens." Kirito then raised the sword high, performing the action to activate the first effect.
With a holy-like sound, the sword began to glow much brighter. Blindingly so. Its golden hue turned almost white, spreading throughout the whole clearing.
The brown haired girl yelped in surprise and covered her eyes. "W-Woah! What are you doing?!" She exclaimed, once again in awe. "I can't see a thing!"
Wasn't she in complete fear a moment ago? Now she sounded rather excited. Kirito couldn't exactly blame her. He too was in awe of the sword's power, even if it was totally cheating.
Kirito was over level twenty, meaning he fit the requirement to activate the effect. Blindness only affected enemies, not the user. This also meant players in his party could avoid it as well.
Upon activating it, Kirito came to the conclusion that Kayaba hadn't reached level twenty. If he had, the man would have certainly used it. Instead, what made the man strong enough to tank his hits was his busted equipment.
The girl blinked multiple times as the light died down, trying to get rid of the spots in her vision. "That... that was that blindy thingy, wasn't it?"
He nodded back in confirmation. "Yeah, and there's supposed to be four other abilities it gets later. Not only does it have those, but the sword also levels up along with the user. Do you see how strong it is compared to other weapons? Kind of suspicious, don't you think?"
Hearing his words, her hype quickly faded as she mulled them over. "I guess that makes since... still, what if your wrong? What if that ain't him?" She asked, still denying his logic.
"It was him. Who else would it be?"
"I dunno! What if he just gave that sword to someone! Then you woulda killed an innocent person!"
She may seem about as smart as a box of bricks, but she could use a fair amount of logic when it involved a person's life.
Rather than refute her, Kirito turned away somberly. "Better him than me..."
"H-Huh?"
He turned back to the short girl, looking into her dark brown eyes. "I'm sorry... but if I didn't kill him, he would have killed me," Kirito said sounding regretful, as if he could barely contain himself.
Her eyes widened in surprise. "H-He woulda killed you?"
"...You weren't there for the entire fight, were you?" Kirito asked, a look of realization crossing his face.
"N-No, I wasn't..." She paused for a moment, in deep thought. She drew lines in her head, connecting the dots before looking back at him in shock. "He attacked you?!"
"Yes..." Kirito said, turning away from the girl once more.
What the girl didn't know was that he was lying through his teeth. He knew that she wasn't there for the entire fight, so he could use that to his advantage. If she knew that he was the one who initiated the fight, then she would have a harder time siding with him. Kirito had definitive proof when Hero mentioned his Defiance equipment. However, that was only proof for him, not the girl or anyone else. While the sword painted a bad picture for Hero, it wasn't conclusive proof.
Playing off her ignorance, he was able to paint himself as the victim, not the aggressor. He was the one who got attacked, not the other way around. All he had to do was manipulate the story and fake some emotions and she'd believe him.
So what if it was a little fib? He was still the one in the right regardless. As they say, the victors are the one who write history.
"...He attacked me because I managed to figure out his identity."
"Really?! How?!" She shouted in surprise.
Kirito looked at her with a pitiful smile. "You may not believe me, but I saw him heal himself using a command."
She looked at him weirdly. "A command? What is that?"
"It was an admin command and it isn't something normal players like us can do. Admins are basically people who run and operate the game. Rather than play normally like us, they get special privileges to do their job. Kayaba's avatar had those special privileges and he used them to heal while he was fighting."
"Oh... I think I get it..." She paused momentarily before another thought popped up. "But then why didn't he heal while ya two were fighting?
"I was trying to keep him from doing that. I kept punching and kicking his face, doing whatever I could to stop him from doing that or worse."
Her eyes lit up. "Oh! So that's why you were hitting 'em like that!"
"Mhm." Kirito nodded. He looked upwards and pointed to the incorporeal diamond floating over his head. "Unfortunately, I ended up becoming an orange player."
"...Is that bad?"
"It is." He confirmed. "It means that, at least for now, I'm a criminal who can't access towns."
She gasped in disbelief. "A criminal?! But he attacked ya! Why would ya become a criminal?!"
"Because I was the one who dealt damage first." Another look of confusion reached her eyes, so he continued. "It doesn't matter who attacks who first. What matters is who hit who first. I blocked his attack, and since I'm the one who technically struck him first, I'm regarded as the criminal."
"But that's not fair!"
Kirito shrugged. "Maybe not, but that's how it works. Outside of a duel, a green player cannot deal damage to another green player without turning into a criminal." The boy stretched his arms overhead, taking a few steps towards the forest. "Anyway, now you know I'm not a bad guy. In the first place, I would've killed you if I were."
The girl followed him, rubbing her right arm sheepishly. "I guess you're right... I'm sorry for attacking ya."
"Dont worry about it. If anything, I should be sorry for destroying your weapon."
She blinked. "Uh... guess ya did." She laughed sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head.
"...You don't have another, do you?"
Her shoulders slumped. "No..."
He felt a little bad for her, but she did start it.