Sword Art Online (an SAO Fan-Fiction) *EDITED*

SAO chapter 3

I groaned and flipped over, again awakened by the message box beeping in my ear. It was as good as an alarm clock, and again it was way too early. I clicked on it and a message popped up. There were some minor delays, today's dungeon clearing is off-Tomoyo. I wondered, not for the first time, at what unholy hour of the morning that boy woke up at every day. I closed my eyes and fell back on the bed, prepared to go back to sleep and wake up at a reasonable hour. 

After catching up on sleep, I realized that I had nothing to do. Falis was going out on a lunch date with her another member of the guild, and Tomoyo was apparently busy, so I had no one to hand out with. Welcome to boredom, population: Me apparently. After eating breakfast, I came to the conclusion that I, since I had nothing better to do, that I should go out to the overworld and do a bit of field hunting. The dungeon, alone, was way too dangerous.

I walked out to the fields by my house and saw the one of the KoB members from the the Exhibition yesterday fighting the bears that spawned here. I gripped my battle-axe tightly and stormed to the left, towards another group. I growled as I sliced through the ranks. I took a blow to the shoulder that made me sprawl onto the turf and lose about a good chunk of HP. I didn't panic, panic killed sword skills and focus, and besides, I was a high level, I had more than enough health to last. I was about to jump up when a red and white streak blew past the bear and it disappeared into crystal.

 The young man straightened up and sheathed his sword. I jumped up and held my weapon out in front of me protectively, then I realized that he was probably not going to kill me, if he'd just helped me, and put the axe down. 

"Are you all right?" he asked, holding out his hand. I took it, trying to ignore the fact that I'd almost sliced him. "My name is Yuuta, a pleasure to meet you," he said.

"That was a pretty good fight yesterday," I said. 

"You mean the exhibition? I lost it, but it was still pretty fun. Oh, I never got your name," He looked at me expectantly. 

"Oh, I'm-" I began. 

There was a roar, and another group of bears spawned. 

He cursed "We're on the spawn point! Ah well, you ready?" I nodded and held my ax at the ready.  

We both ran at the beast, slicing as many as possible, one hit my axe away, I drew my hunting dagger and stabbed it in the chest, rearing back and regaining my balance. I sheathed my knife and continued attacking. He was a pretty good fighter, as well, and between the both of us we were done in a no time at all. 

"Thank you," I said straightening and putting my ax up for the  third time. I turned "Let's try this again, I'm Hideko," I held out my hand, and Yuuta shook it. "I'm about done, and the spawns seem to be pretty aggressive today, may I walk you back?" Yuuta asked. 

I contemplated. I hadn't been here long, but all things considered, It wasn't very smart to come here alone in the first place. "Alright, you can accompany me," I agreed.

We struck up a conversation on the way back, and he seemed pretty knowledgeable. When I questioned him, he told me that he used to be an information broker, before deciding to take a more direct approach in the freedom effort. I decided to try my luck. 

"Say, I'm looking for someone, do you know anyone named Keita?" I asked. 

His eyes widened. "Oh! I remember hearing about that actually!" he said, suddenly animated. "Really?" I asked, perking up with interest. 

I hadn't been expecting anything, but he actually knew something. It was like mining for copper and finding gold! "Tell me everything you know!" I asked, trying to hide how desperate I was.