Sword Art Online: X

Game Over - X

I opened my eyes. I was floating in a golden sky. Or, more accurately, I was standing on a clear platform in said golden sky.

"The fuck? Is this heaven?" I muttered to myself under my breath.

Then I noticed my open menu: Object deletion 9% complete.

"No, heaven doesn't have a loading screen. I'm still in the game, aren't I? Either that or I'm in the other place for killing so many people."

I noticed Asuna nearby.

"Oh, hey. You're here too." I commented, causing her to flinch and turn around.

"X... Your HP was drained too?" Asuna murmured, "I hope Kirito was able to take down Kayaba."

Oh, right. She died before I had that episode, so she doesn't know my connection to Nii-san.

"Yeah, I should probably tell you something..." I muttered, "Sorry if I sound mellowed out, I'm just incredibly tired of all this."

Asuna tilted her head as a gesture of confusion, "What do you mean?"

I took a deep breath and exhaled deeply, "My real name... Is Kayaba Hibiki. I remember who I am now."

I watched as Asuna's eyes widened, and continued, "Yeah, I know. My older brother is the creator of this death game. When I found out that he was making a death game, my mind forced itself to delete all of my memories associated with my family. That's why I didn't recognize Sachi. It's why I helped test the game."

I sat down and looked into the sky, "So many people died because of my brother, and what did I do? Kill more people. I'm a fucking murderer."

Asuna grabbed me by the shoulder, "You're not a murderer, X. If you didn't do what you did, many more people would've died or suffered."

"If I didn't help test the game, these deaths could've been prevented! If I just... didn't force myself to forget everything, then I could've stopped him! I'm a murderer. A liar, and a coward." I yelled, "I killed everything in my way because I didn't want to die. I didn't want others to die, but death is a part of the natural cycle of life-and-death. I convinced myself that I didn't need others to die, but in reality, I just wanted to get rid of threats that could've killed me."

I dropped down and sat heavily on the ground.

Asuna sighed, "I don't know how to help you, X, but I can promise you that no-one holds any of this against you, alright? I don't, and I'm sure no-one else will, either."

"Can you really guarantee that? Humanity has the ability to lie for a reason. For all I know, you could also be lying. I'm not a mind reader, I can't read minds. How can I be sure that you're not lying?" I muttered.

Easy answer, right? I can't.

"X, people's actions speak louder than their words. I can't prove it to you with my words, but I can prove it to you with my actions. I'm sure everyone else can and will, too."

I stared into Asuna's amber eyes, and I combed back my braided black bangs.

"That's assuming we can even survive this. Our HP got drained. There's no way we can survive, is there?" I asked.

Suddenly, Kirito appeared out of thin air.

Goddammit.

"Well, I guess that makes three of us, huh?" I asked him.

He stared at the both of us in shock, "You guys are still alive?"

I scoffed, "No, this is the ghost of Asuna and X haunting you, and you are trapped in an eternal limbo for what you have done."

He gave me a blank stare.

"Of course we're still alive! Probably not for long, though!" I groaned in frustration, "We're all kinda considered dead by the game!"

"You should survive, most likely. The NerveGear doesn't kill you until your avatar is fully deleted, hence that progress bar, and since Kirito beat the game, all SAO players should be released."

I looked towards the source of the voice, and found my older brother standing there, "Nii-san."

He stared back, "Hibiki."

Kirito stepped forwards, "Why did you do it? Why did you create the game?"

"Well, Aincrad has been a product of my imagination for a long while, and I wanted to bring it to life. As for the permadeath, well, in a game, you shouldn't get any do-overs. Once you die, you're gone forever. It's like that in real life, so I made it like that in the game." He answered, without much of a reaction, "I never actually intended for Hibiki to even play this game, but since he wiped his own memory, I had no choice but to watch over him in the game."

Okay, that's bullshit. 

"Don't you start with the 'evil-man-but-good-brother' bullshit with me, Akihiko, you know what you did, and so do I. You fully intended for thousands of people to die playing this game." I growled, using his first name for a change instead of simply 'Nii-san'.

He sighed, "Believe what you want, but not all of humanity is as cruel as I was. You'd do well to remember that."

And with those words, he disappeared.

I sighed, "Well, prepare to get ejected back into the physical world. Let's re-introduce ourselves with our real names this time. Hi, I'm Kayaba Hibiki. Who are you two?"

Kirito smiled, "I'm Kirigaya Kazuto."

Asuna stared at us, "Yuuki Asuna."

Prompting us to stare right back.

"You... You used your actual name?" I asked, "That's incredibly unsafe, you know. Then again, Sachi isn't much better, since that actually is her real name too, but still."

Asuna laughed sheepishly, "Well, I don't really have much experience with video games in general, my mom hates them."

I nodded, understandable.

Suddenly, a bright light filled the space.

"Well, I'll see you two on the other side." I waved as the light consumed me.

...

I opened my eyes, "Well, back in the physical world. I need to get this information to the police, stat."

I tried to get up, but two years of inactivity has really affected my body. My braided locks were even longer than before, and I was incredibly skinny.

I heard a crash from outside the room, along with a voice: "Asuna... Need to find... Asuna..."

A/N: Sorry I was dead for a week, I had to go off to a school camp.

Anyways, that's the SAO arc done for this story, hope y'all enjoyed.

If you did, consider voting and following for more. Peace out, everybody. Goodbye.

Timeless_95, signing out.