SAO: The Eroge

Chapter 4: Scene 3: Black Kitties aren't Bad Luck!

Scene 3: Black Kitties aren't always Bad Luck!

April 8th, 2023. 20th Floor, Aincrad. Forest near a Field Dungeon, 10:30...

The young girl known as Sachi within the virtual world didn't know what they had been thinking, going out there when they weren't properly prepared for it.

Then again, maybe she was also to blame, having accepted to come with her friends out into the field despite how she felt about it all. The mix of guilt and having run out of excuses combined with the fear of Keita and the others leaving her behind after he declared they were going to train and become part of the Front Lines.

Of course, this was not the first time she felt like that. She was the shyest person in her class, the only girl in the computer club, the one that was never good at games at all but still stuck with her friends because she didn't want to feel left out...it seemed as if her life was fated to always be like that, really.

Likewise, she was terrified of fighting since they got there, hence why she had the lowest level, and also why she was fighting with a spear despite not being particularly good at it, to take advantage of the weapon's long range and 'stay away from the monsters'.

And now, because of that, she was falling to the ground as her spear slipped from her hands, and a horse-sized praying mantis was about to kill her. Joy.

Even as all she could do was scream and cover her face, Sachi couldn't help but think about the unfairness of it all, the most childish part of her lamenting real life wasn't like the fairytales her mother would tell her about when she was a kid. Nothing bad happened to the good people in them, and she liked to think she had been a good girl all her life (Mostly because she would never be brave enough to do anything 'bad', really).

If life was like a fairytale, this would be the moment when an unexpected miracle would save her life, like the burning vision of that sword executing a 'Horizontal' Skill...wait, what?

"Eh...?" gasped the dark-haired girl while looking up in shock at a ragged cloak fluttering just before her, the figure under it finishing the monster she had been struggling against as if it was no big deal.

Then, without any fanfare, he moved, faster and with more grace than anyone she had ever seen before, rushing against the foes each of her friends was fighting against and dispatching them in seconds, Sword Skills longer and most complex than she knew existed being unleashed, leaving not only her but also the four boys that formed the rest of her guild in awe.

Meanwhile, as the last of the (In his eyes) trash mobs was brutally murdered, Kirito sighed as he lowered his blade, turning around to regard the 5 wide-eyed players he had just saved, offering them his best attempt at a shaky smile.

Certainly, when he had (Miraculously) managed to convince the girls of letting him do a quick trip down there to the 20th Floor (With the current Front Line being at the 28th one), encountering what looked like a bunch of noobs about to die because they were in over their heads in the middle of a field wasn't what he was expecting.

Then again, nothing seemed to go quite like he was expecting in his life since he got trapped in that accursed Death Game...or maybe from a month before that, to be precise, and...the looks they were giving him were honestly starting to creep him out, so it would probably be better if he said something.

"So, uhm...are you all okay?"

As they snapped out of their stupor and the tallest of them closed in with a joyous smile, Kirito wondered why he felt as if maybe he should have just walked away...