Sword Art Online; Sheik's Story

Taking a Break

About halfway to the world tree, me and Leafa had run into some monsters. Small fry, really, which we took out pretty easily. We smile at each other, and give the other a high five. Leafa then looks at her wings. "We should land and take a rest for a while. Our wings won't hold out for much longer." She says.

I nod, and start to descend to the ground with Leafa next to me. I re-equip my cloak to cover my half naked body, and sit down. "So, what now?" I ask.

"Why don't we take shifts logging out?" Leafa suggested.

"Take shifts? Why?" I asked again.

"Well, when you log out in neutral territory, your body stays where it is. Like an AFK situation. So, if I log out first, you can defend my AFK body while I'm gone, and vice visa." She explained.

"Oh, makes sense. Okay. I'll be here then." I nod.

"Okay, thanks a bunch." Leafa smiles, and logs out, her body going limp next to me.

"Hmm... What to do while I wait?" I wonder as I stare at the sky.

While I space out, Yui comes out of my pocket. "Mommy, tell me what you do in your world." She demands.

"What I do? In my world?" I asked to clarify.

"Mhm!" Yui responds with an eager nod.

"Well, I'm a model. Do you know what a model is?" I asked.

"I think...they try on and present new clothes, right?" She answers.

"Yup, that's right. My parents are fashion designers, so they usually have me model for their works. I guess that's the reason I dress the way I do irl." I explain. "And in games too. Haha." I let out a small giggle, as does Yui.

"What about daddy?" She asked.

"Kazu-kun? I don't know what he does. I just know he's a gamer, and can hack to a certain degree. As for a job, I don't know." I explain.

"Oh, I see." She nods.

While me and Yui talk, I hear a message notification. It was probably for Leafa since I didn't have any friends here, so I just ignored it until she gets back. While waiting, I started twirling my knife around in one hand as I chewed on a stick snack I got from a vendor in Sylvain. It was pretty spicy, which helped my focus with my knife twirling. This also seemed to impress Yui a great deal.

After another few minutes or so, Leafa logged back in, and sat up straight. "I'm back. What did I miss?" She asked.

"Nothing much." I said, holding the pink stick in my mouth.

"What's that?" She asked.

"This? I picked it up in Sylvain. I dunno what it is, but it's tasty." I tell her, and hold it up. "Wanna try?" I ask, holding back a grin.

She slowly takes the small stick from my hand, and puts her lips around it. After tasting it, her whole face went red, and she started coughing from the spice.

"Pfft! Hahahahaha!" I start laughing at her reaction while rolling on the grass. "Oh shit! I wasn't expecting that! Aha! Ahahaha!!" I laugh as my sides start hurting. Once I calm down, I sit up. "Okay, I'm gonna log out myself now. Watch my body good, okay?" I say with a grin.

"Just go before I hurt you...!" Leafa groans as I exit the game.

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Once I wake up in the real world, I start stretching, and go downstairs for a glass of water. My maid was in the kitchen preparing tonight's dinner, and she greets me with a polite bow. I bow back, and exit with my water.

I plop myself on my special armchair that my dad bought for me and open a reading app I have on my phone for a bit of reading as I drank. The story I was reading was about a girl living in a rural village in a valley, a world with magic being a normal thing. She becomes part of a knight squad, and makes friends with another boy in a different squad who doesn't have magic. I only realized recently that it was a fan fiction, but it was still unique enough to stand out, and was a pleasant read.

After reading one chapter and finishing my water, I return to the kitchen to put my water glass away, and then head back up to my room on the fifth floor of the house. I usually jog up and down the stairs for cardiac exercises. Once I get to my bed, I lay down and boot up ALfheim again. "Link start." I say as I dive back into the video game.

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I wake up in my avatar body, and stretch again. "I'm back." I say.

"Hey welcome back. You sure took your sweet time." Leafa greeted me.

"I got too immersed in my reading." I say as I stand up. "Oh yeah, I forgot to mention this, but you you got a message from someone." I tell her.

Leafa looks confused, and checks her message board. "It's from Recon." She states, and proceeds to read it out loud. "I was right. Watch out for S. Recon."

"Who the hell is "S"?" I asked.

"No idea... Oh well. Let's get moving again." She says as she closes the message.

"Okay. Where to from here?" I asked.

"If we want to head to the World Tree from here, we need to head into that mountain's cave system and pass through Undine Territory. The mountain is too high to fly over, see? So through the caves is the only way through." She says.

"Can't we go around?" I asked.

"We could, but that's a long way around. If you're really in a hurry, the caves are the fastest way through." She explained.

"Okay then. Let's pick up the pace and make up for our lost time." I say as I fly upward. "You coming?!" I shout.

"Y-Yeah! Coming!" She replies, and follows my lead as we continue our trip to the massive World Tree.