The Survival Logs || Sword Art Online Fanfic

PK Pandemonia Arc: Chapter 74 - The Witch who wields Swords

For now, to have a meeting with Kira again would mean having to be forced to wait at her signal. Even so, for her to try to reach out to me without being suspected of her betrayal would be considerably difficult.

Of course, there might be a chance that our affiliations with each other would just be seen as insignificant by Tori or any of the Council members, but if I wanted to avoid them having even a moment of suspicion of that, I would make sure that our relationship would stay non-existent in the first place.

And that was definitely what Kira would be trying to do now. As long as she chooses the right circumstances to reach out to me again, I wouldn't mind meeting her at whichever timing she desired.

Or, we could add each other into our friend lists. That works too, provided it was simply a one-way communication channel from her to me. I made a mental note to tell her that in our next meeting.

I kept the record crystal with the picture of Katalysis back into my inventory, and stood up from my bed. Tekion was working away at his anvil while I was deep in thought.

"Leaving me to be in quarantine again?" His eyes were still glued to the sword he was working on, though he still could spare some focus to leave a sarcastic remark while I headed for the door.

"Can't keep Raku waiting." I hoped my simple and sound reply would keep his rebuttals at bay. Interestingly, it worked.

Tekion switched to a more serious topic. "About the replacement that you're planning....."

"Mmm. You said the material drop has to be at least A-class."

"Otherwise you'll end up in a vicious cycle. B-class or below definitely won't cut it, but I'm not expecting you to bring in S-class stuff either."

"I'll see what I can find out there."

I left the discussion at that. That topic might be high on my priority list, but it wasn't right on top. I exited the room to see Rakuno already leaning onto the door of her room, apparently waiting for me.

Her usual hand waves and greetings were easy to get used to. Though, it seemed that attempting to resist the urge to return back a greeting of my own always ends up in futility.

I'd thought that exchanging greetings in this world nowadays, no matter how subtle, would seem cringe, without any meaning. It was, to me, simply a way to release one's ego.

I would never have tolerated it. Inflated egos, I mean. Putting up fronts, asserting superiority over others, self-praises and brags.....these were examples of popping a balloon that was already begging itself to be popped.

In the first place, I had never wanted those kinds of people to fill their balloons at all.

Rakuno shouldn't have been an exception. But it seems that she doesn't pop her balloon whenever she fills it.

She deflates it gently instead.

And that was what had gradually gotten me to accept her, even though I hadn't really realized it until now.

"Raku."

"Yes?"

"Today.....would you teach me how to really wield a sword?"

"Sure! No prob--Ha?"

"I mean it."

"H--H--HAAAAAAAA???!!!!!"

I didn't expect her reaction to my request to be that absurd.

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21 February 2024