[Music above is my favourite SAO 'Swordland' cover. Music isn't mine. Not sure if it work though
(So, the first part will be from the manga, just that I edited slightly.)
Kirito POV
Location: Floor 50. Algade
It has been 2 years since we were all trapped in the Game World. Each player has started searching for their own way of life. Imprisoned within this world, we once again obtain the feeling of 'living'. That is, the existence of hunger and the necessity of sleep.
In Aincrad, there exist markets to supply players with the food and equipment needed to beat the game. Located on the 50th Floor, Algade, is the biggest market district in all of Aincrad due to the many players roaming here.
Some players have formed Guilds with the goal of beating the game. Although few in numbers, some players chose to become the Merchant class. There are also those who become a solo, or fight in a pair due to the effectiveness of mobility alone.
Most off those who survived this death game, live their lives in the market district.
As I was about to enter an acquaintance's shop, I heard him said,
"Thank you for your patronage! Come again!" As a player came out of his store.
"Hey Agil, still going about your business as shamelessly as usual." I greeted jokingly. Agil is a merchant, although he sometimes helps in raids as a tank class.
"Yo, Kirito!" Agil greeted back. "Our shop's motto is to buy cheap, sell cheap."
"The last one sounds suspicious." Agil usually buys things cheap, but sells things expensive.
"Don't go slandering my name, brother. So, what can I help you today?"
"I also came here to sell something." I told him.
"You're a regular client, so I won't try any tricks." He said, looking at the goods I was planning to sell. "Oi oi... Isn't this an S-Rank item? 'Ragout Rabbit Meat'... It's my first time seeing it as well. Kirito, it's not like you need any money right? Haven't you considered just eating this yourself?"
Eating is just about one of the only pleasure in SAO. But even if you got your hand on a rare ingredient, you need to find someone with high enough cooking skills. Not many players got that high enough cooking skill yet since people rarely use the limited skill slots for the cooking skill. That is why the chances of eating a good meal in SAO is extremely low.
"I did, but-"
"Kirito-kun!" I was cut off by Asuna who greeted me.
"Chef acquired!" I said, grabbing her hand, "I'll trust your skills."
"What?" She looked at me confused. Suddenly, a glare was directed at me. I saw a creepy looking guy next to her glaring at me. Judging by the uniform, they are from the same guild.
"What a rare sight, Asuna. For you to come to a rubbish heap like this." I quickly let go of her hand.
"Rubbish heap?" Agil muttered. Noticing Agil, she greeted him with a bright smile. Turning back to me, she said.
"The next boss battle is coming up. So I came to see if you were alive. What else?"
"You already registered me in your friends list. You should be able to tell without coming here right?" I said bluntly.
"You see, the reason I came here was to-" I cut her off since I had something else in mind.
"By the way, how high is your cooking skill?"
"Huh? Cooking skill? I maxed that out last week." When she said that, a smile crossed my face.
"Perfect timing. I'll trust your skills." I told her, showing her the item, which made her widened ner eyes in surprise.
"An S-Rank ingredient!?"
"If you cook this for me, I'll give you a-"
"A third."
"What?"
"Gimme a third. A. Third."
"O-okay." I said, slightly intimidated by her expression. Turning back to Agil, I told him. "Sorry. I'll cancel the trade."
"That's fine but..." Agil said. "We're friends right? Let me have a taste..."
"I'll write an 800 words essay on my impression of it for you." I gave him a thumbs up.
"You're kidding me!!" He dramatically cried out with his arm outstretched.
"I will serve it at your place. I mean, you have Sachi there right? Makes things less suspicious." Asuna told me. "Since I doubt you will have cooking appliances at your place, I will bring mine along."
Turning to Kuradeel, she ordered. "That's enough for today. I will be fine on my own."
"Asuna-sama! Coming into the slums was bad enough. But you shouldn't be going with someone who is as suspicious as him to his place!" Kuradeel pointed an accusing finger at me.
"Disregarding his background, his skills are questionable. He's probably 10 levels above you."
"Wh-What are you saying!?" Kuradeel spluttered. "How could I be inferior to this guy...!?" After a moment, he turned to me and yelled. "I see! You must be one of those Beaters!"
"Yeah. That's right." I admitted.
"Asuna-sama! Those selfish guys don't care about anything else as long as they are alright!" He shouted.
"I order you as vice-leader. Leave for today!" She roared, making him fall silent. Turning to me, she said. "Let's go."
Timeskip
After Asuna cooked the Ragout Rabbit for the three of us, Her, Sachi and I, I asked.
"So why were you finding me for?"
"About that, I want you to party up with us for the boss fight."
"Us? Who?"
"You will find out when you come." Looking at Sachi, she nodded in agreement.
"Alright, he will party with you for the boss fight."
"You sure about that? Do you want to come along?" Asuna asked Sachi bewildered.
"Thanks for the offer, but I have something else to do tomorrow anyways." Sachi said with a smile.
"I see."
"Do I not get a say in this?" I complained.
"No." Sachi instantly shut me down.
Kiyotaka POV
It was 9 am in the morning. I was waiting for at the 74th teleporter waiting for Asuna to come. She's late. All of a sudden, light blinded me for a moment as someone teleported here.
"Ahh! M-Move!!" A feminine screamed as she fell on top of me, making the world turn black.
I brought up my hands to lift the person up from me, but felt something soft. I squeezed it multiple of times. What is this? Soft. Feels like... a bowl of ramen... squeeze more. I continued squeezing, trying to find out what it was since I couldn't see.
"Kyaaa!!! You baka!!!" The voice screamed, punching me into the wall. I rubbed my head, and looked at my attacker. Asuna was covering her chest area. I mimicked my previous action, then I found out what I did. Oops.
"...Morning Asuna." I said putting up my hand in greeting. I can't seem to forget the feeling though. The softness...
"No time!" She quickly hid behind me just as another light shone. After that, a creepy looking guy, who by the way looks creepier than Tsukishiro- one of my father's subordinate, appeared.
"Asuna-sama... come. Please follow me back to the guild headquarters. Just doing what you please make it quite troublesome for me..." Kuradeel said, his eyes darkening as he spotted me.
"I don't want to. Today isn't even guild activity day." She retorted, hiding behind me. "Speaking of which, why are you in front of my house so early in the morning?!" That is creepy...
"Heh. I knew something like this would happen... so I took up morning watch in Salemburg a month ago." Kuradeel explained.
"That wasn't assigned by the guild master, right?"
"My mission was to protect Asuna-sama. This obviously includes monitoring you house."
"N-No way that's part of it, stupid!"
"Don't say any more of that nonsense. Come! Follow me back to the Headquarters!" Kuradeel reached out his hand to grabbed Asuna, but I grabbed it before he could.
"I'm borrowing your vice-commander for today. I'll take responsibility for protecting her. You can go back to the Headquarters yourself."
"Don't screw with me!" He shouted. "How can a nobody like you take responsibility for breaking Asuna-sama? I am from the famous <Knights of Blood> guild."
"Don't worry, I will do a better job than you."
"You brat... Now that it's come to that, you should have realized that you need to prove yourself!" Kuradeel said as he sent me a challenge.
Crowds began to form. How troublesome... I looked at Asuna and asked her,
"Is this okay? This won't cause you any trouble in the guild, right?"
"No problem, I'll just report this to the guild leader." She replied. Analyzing Kuradeel, something slightly hidden on him caught my eye.
"By the way Asuna, call your guild leader here for a bit. There's something he should know." She looked at me puzzled, but did what I told anyways.
<Terms: A clean hit or reducing the opponents to 50% HP.> I accepted it.
"Please watch carefully, Asuna-sama!" Kuradeel announced as he summoned his blade. He has a good weapon. But the way he held it is sloppy. "This is to prove that there is nobody who can protect you better than I!"
I summoned my scythe.
<Start!>
I closed in the gap. In SAO, when two weapons clash, the lighter one will rebound. But, if a strong attack is delivered to a weapon's weak point, the standard rule does not apply. This is- Weapon break.
I slashed my scythe at the weapon's weak point, shattering it. If a sword had so many delicate ornaments embedded in it... there must be a weak point somewhere- just as I thought.
"I don't mind if you switch to another weapon and keep going... But this is enough proof right?"
"...!!" Kuradeel gritted his teeth. I turned my back to him as I turned to talk to Asuna.
"Let's go." Kuradeel suddenly summoned a dagger and charged at me. I slashed my scythe upwards, making his dagger fly. As expected... now, for the final touch...
At that moment, Heathcliff, the KoB guild leader appeared and saw the scene.
"Kuradeel, what did you-" I cut him off.
"Kuradeel, trying to PK like that is dishonorable. But, since you aren't from KoB, it's predictable." Hearing that, everyone froze, and whispers could be heard.
"What do you mean?" Heathcliff asked.
"Look at him, and you will know why." When he heard that, Heathcliff turned and looked at Kuradeel. His eye's widened at the sight.
Exposed for everyone to see, was the Laughing Coffin tattoo.
"N-No. T-This is." Kuradeel started and tried to make excuses.
"Kuradeel, come with me NOW!" Heathcliff ordered. "We are going to discuss your punishment for being a traitor."
With that, Kuradeel got in his feet and reluctantly got on is feet, glaring at me murderously as he was hauled away. It wasn't just him. I know that there was another member in the crowd looking at what happened, but I left him alone since he was not here to fight. Whispers in the crowd could be heard.
"A scythe user?"
"Who is he?"
"Never seen that guy before."
Hearing the comments from the crowd, Asuna pulled me by my arm. "I have to introduce you to someone."
Pulling me along, we went to a more secluded area, where a player dressed in black stood.
"Sorry for the wait, Kirito-kun. We ran into some trouble." She called out to him.
"Yeah, I know. I was watching the fight."
"Let me introduce you two." Gesturing to Kirito, she told me. "Kiyotaka-kun, this is Kirito, also known as the 'Black swordsman'." Gesturing at me, she turned to Kirito. "And Kirito-kun, he is Kiyotaka-kun, also known as the 'Reaper of the Shadows'."
Kirito held out his hand, which I shook.
"So you're the Reaper, huh? You fight like an expert. Do you practice something?"
"Piano and Calligraphy." The two players looked at me deadpanned at my answer, with their faces saying. Seriously...?
"Never mind that. It's nice to meet you."
"...Yeah. Nice to meet you too."
"So, shall we get going?" Asuna asked.
"Sure." I replied. Once I said that, Asuna pulled me by my arm.
"Now let's go have some fun."
With that, we began our adventure to the 74th Floor boss.
Timeskip
We have just reached outside the boss's room after fighting a ton of mobs.
"Whew. You seriously are powerful, Kiyotaka, to be able to defeat the most mobs without breaking into sweat." Kirito complimented. "I could barely keep up."
"...It's nothing much." I told him.
"We should have a duel next time to see who's stronger."
"That's a great idea!" Asuna exclaimed, her eyes sparkling. "A match between two of some of the best players would be a sight to see!"
"But-" I was cut off by Kirito.
"We're here. The Boss Room." He announced. "Even though the Boss level monsters can't leave the room they're guarding... We should still prepare a teleportation item just in case."
"All right." Asuna complied, pulling one out of her inventory.
"All right, I'm opening the door."
Once the door was fully open, torches on either side of the room lit up in blue flames. Our eyes were slowly drawn towards the huge figure.
"RUUUUAAAARRRR!!!" The Gleam Eyes let out an earthshaking roar. It held a giant broadsword. It's head looks slightly like a battering ram, with razor sharp teeth. It's body a huge muscular blue body, and a snake tail. Summoning my scythe, I said.
"Let's do this." However, I received no reply. Looking back, the only thing I saw was dust trails.
"Huh?"
When I found them, they were sitting on the floor out of breath.
"We're gonna have a hard time beating that." Asuna said.
"Yeah. All we saw was that it held a great sword, but it probably also has special abilities. Our best bet is to gather strong vanguards and switch frequently. I'd suggest getting 10 shield wielders."
"Shield wielders huh?" Asuna muttered, looking at Kirito suspiciously.
"...Something wrong?" I asked as I approached them.
Ignoring my question, she said to Kirito. "You're hiding something aren't you." Kirito's expression changed for a moment in surprise.
"W-Where'd that come from?"
"I mean it's strange. The greatest merit of using a one handed sword is being able to use a shield, isn't it? However, I've never seen you use a shield. Not even once." She explained. "In my case, the speed of my rapier would drop, and some people don't use them because it would ruin their fashion sense."
When she said that, Kirito tensed up and looked away. "You haven't used that sword that Liz made either." Another sword? Does that mean he also have that unique skill? Asuna narrowed her eyes at Kirito. "Very suspicious..."
After a tense atmosphere for ten seconds, Asuna broke the ice. "Well, whatever. Asking about your skills is impolite of me." When she said that, Kirito let out a sigh of relief. "Anyways, it's gotten pretty late, so let's have lunch." She said, opening her inventory. "Kiyotaka-kun, why don't you sit down?" She asked, patting the floor beside her.
After I sat down beside her, she took out a picnic basket filled with sandwiches,
"I-Is it homemade?" Kirito asked, his hand wiggling slightly to take the sandwich.
"Yep." Asuna answered. "Make sure you take of your gloves before eating." She told us as she handed us a sandwich each. Are you my mum? (In another universe, Harukaa-san felt a disturbance in the force.)
"Thanks for the food." I thanked her while Kirito stuffed the sandwich into his mouth.
"Delicious! But what's this flavor?" He asked. Taking a bite into it, I answered.
"It's soy sauce." Before I looked at Asuna. "It must have taken a lot of experiments to get this, based on the spices here in Aincrad."
"Yep, that's right." Lucky for me, Asuna isn't the type to blackmail someone after eating her food, so I can eat without worried. (Unlike a certain black-haired girl *cough**cough*)
"If you sold this, you could make a fortune!" Kirito said.
"You think so?"
"You could." I confirmed, before looking at Asuna. "But I'd hate to have my portion sold off." I could bet that Asuna's cooking will be the best food I've ever tasted.
In ANHS
A certain first-year black haired girl felt a sudden rush of anger for who knows what reason. (In this story, I made Kiyo 14 when he was ordered to play SAO. I'm lazy to change the beginning of the story with Ryuuen and Albert, so I probably will change it after I complete this story.)
"I have a feeling that I want to stab someone with a compass." She growled. "Someone must be comparing me with some low-life."
Back in SAO
I felt a chill went up my spine. What's this sense of danger? I was brought back to reality when Asuna started laughing. Cute.
"Thinking with your stomach? Jeez." She turned away, but she turned her head a little and said bashfully, her cheeks slightly red. "If I feel like it, I could make for you again."
Deciding to tease her a bit, I placed my hand to her forehead. "Why is your face red? Strange, you don't feel like you have a fever."
"Ah mou! You're doing that on purpose aren't you." She glared at me beet red. Cute.
In ANHS
"Ahh mouuuuu!!" A certain blonde hair girl in her room said. "Why did I feel someone is using my Ah mou! And what's this feeling of jealousy! Where's my eggplant!" (What was unknown was that all the Keis felt the same, especially those that are dating Ayanokouji XD)
Back in SAO
People started entering the place. Making the two stand up in alert, while I just looked at the approaching figures.
"Oh man. I'm beat." The leader of the approaching group, Klein, complained.
"Let's take a break."
"Sounds good." Klein's guild mates were chatting tiredly with one another. Klein looked up and saw Kirito.
"Oh, if it isn't Kirito!" Klein called out. "It's been a while." He walked towards us.
"So you're still alive, Klein?" Kirito said in disinterest.
"I see you're still bad with words as usual." Klein laughed. Before he scanned us. "Huh? What's a solo player like you partying with-" He caught sight of Asuna and fell quiet, stunned by her beauty.
"Umm... I'm sure you know each other from the boss fight, but I'm going to introduce you anyways. He's Klein, from the guild Fuurinkazan, and she's Asuna from KoB, and the last one is-" he saw that Klein was still gawking at Asuna. "Hey, say something. Are you lagging?"
Klein bowed ninety degrees, facing the ground and held out his hand. "G-Good afternoon! K-Klein, 24 years old, single, looking for a girlfr-" He was cut off by Kirito, who punched him in the crotch, making Klein fall backwards.
"Leader!" All his guild members cried out, before they surrounded Kirito and Asuna. Before they said "Aren't you Asuna-san?" They started pushing each other to get to her, only to be blocked by Kirito.
"Sorry about that." Kirito turned to look at the both of us. "They're not bad guys, so aside from their leaders face..." Before he could finish, Klein stomped on his foot, making him yelp in pain.
"Y-You!" Kirito glared at Klein.
"Call it payback." Klein grinned. Before he looked at me. "Who's he by the way."
"Oh. He is Kiyotaka, also known as the famous 'Reaper of the Shadows'." Kirito said, making them all stop.
"That Reaper?"
"That's him?" They started chattering. I let out a sigh.
"... Nice to meet you."
"Y-yeah." Klein said, slightly intimidated. Footsteps could be heard as raiders from the Army guild walked towards us. After we gave him the mapped area due to him demanding it, they left for the boss.
"...We should follow them." I said. "They will be dead if we don't get there soon."
Everyone nodded, and we went after the raiders. Looking into the room, it was a losing battle. Knights were being tossed around, and some of them were killed.
The leader of the raid party was tossed in front of us. "Impossible..." Was his last words.
The boss, the Gleam Eyes was about to use a breath attack when-
"Noooooo!!" Asuna screamed as she unleashed <Star Splash> on it.
Asuna's reckless strike hit the back of the demon while its attention was elsewhere. But its HP hardly decreased at all.
The Gleam Eyes roared, then turned around and swung its broad sword downwards. Asuna immediately sidestepped to dodge, but she couldn't evade it completely and was knocked down by the shockwave. The second strike then swung towards her without hesitation.
I dashed between Asuna and the blade. My scythe barely managed to deflect the attack in time. Then, I felt an impact across my whole body as the shockwave hit me. As sparks flew off the our blades, the demon's sword hit the floor only a few centimeters away from Asuna. It dug a huge hole into the ground with an explosion-like sound effect.
"Get back." I told her. When she did, I dodge, the boss's breath attack, before closing the gap and slashed his leg. As I did, it tried to stomp on me, but I slide behind it before slashing it with <Burning slash>, making it roar in pain. As it was caught off guard, I delivered a 100% punch.
"Rocket punch!" I said letting myself indulge in a bit of childishness, sending a punch combined with a martial arts skill, punching it hard into the wall. The Gleam Eyes' techniques were basically two-handed sword skills. But they were slightly customized, which made them impossible to read. To deal with it, I have to rely more on my instinct. Barely deflecting another attack, I called out to Kirito.
"Switch." The two indulged in a one on one fight before it seemed like Kirito was losing.
Kirito Pov
I concentrated fully on defending with sidesteps and parries. But its attacks were monstrously powerful and chipped away at my HP with every passing swing.
"Argh!!"
Eventually, one of its strikes accurately hit my body. I felt its stunning impact, and my HP decreased immensely.
My equipment and skills were far from those of a tank. If I kept this up, it would only lead to my death. The fear of dying sent a chill down my body. I couldn't even try to escape anymore.
There was only one thing that I could do. I would have to go against it with everything I had as a damage dealer.
"Klein, Asuna, Kiyotaka! Buy me 10 seconds!" I shouted and swung my sword hard to block the demon's blow and make a break point. Then, I flung myself to the ground and rolled away.
Kiyotaka POV
He dodged just as the three of us attacked. Asuna thrusted her rapier at the Gleam Eyes before he sweated her away like she was a fly. Klein was knocked away from the force of its broadsword, but it gave me time to close in on the boss. I used <Whirlwind Slash> Which sliced it 10 times, dealing significant damage.
I dodged its breath attack but was punched backwards while I was in midair from dodging, which took out quite a lot of health. The snake tail tried attacking me, but I dodge and grabbed it by its head with my hand clamping over its mouth to close it and threw the Gleam Eyes across the room.
As it was down, I used <Drain Slash> Which helped me recover my HP back to full.
"Alright, switch!" Kirito yelled. Deflecting the boss' broadsword, I leapt backwards while Kirito closed in on the Gleam Eyes, summoning his second sword. So he really has it huh? The 'Dual Wield' unique skill.
Kirito POV
"Alright, switch!!"
I didn't miss the opportunity and charged straight at the enemy. The demon quickly recovered from the short stunning effect and raised its sword high up into the air. Kiyotaka expertly blocked the demon's blade as it came down from a flame-like trajectory. Then, I reached behind my back with my left hand and grabbed the handle of the new sword. I drew it and struck in one smooth movement. The demon's HP reduced noticeably as the first clean hit registered.
"Kwuaaaaa!"
The demon roared with rage and attempted another downward strike. This time, I crossed my two swords and blocked it completely. As its stance became unbalanced, I decided to break free from my defending streak and launched a combo attack.
My right sword slashed horizontally towards the demon's midsection. My left sword followed immediately to cut vertically into its body. Right, left, then right again. I swung my swords as if the nerves in my brain were going into overdrive. The sounds of metal clashing resounded loudly one after another as white lights flared through the air.
This was the extra skill that I had been hiding, «Dual Blades», and the technique I was using was its high-class sword skill «Starburst Stream», a sixteen-hit combo attack.
"Ahhhhh!!"
Paying no attention to the few hits that the demon's sword managed to block, I kept on screaming as I hacked away relentlessly with my swords. My eyes heated up, and my vision saw only the demon. Although the demon's sword still struck my body every so often, its impact felt like it was happening in some faraway world. Meanwhile, adrenaline continued to rush through my body, and my brain waves spiked every time my swords hit their mark.
Faster, faster. The rhythm of my swings already exceeded twice the normal speed, but it still felt slow to my heightened senses. I continued my attack at a pace that seemed to overtake even the system's assistance. Have to go faster.
"...Ahhhhhhhhh!!"
With this shout I launched the last of my sixteen strikes, which penetrated The Gleam Eyes' chest.
"Kkaaaaaaahh!!"
When my senses returned, I realized that I wasn't the only one screaming. The huge demon was roaring towards the ceiling as massive breaths streamed out of its mouth and nose.
Then its body froze, and as soon as I noticed that-
The Gleam Eyes shattered into countless blue shards. Fragments of blue light rained down across the room.
It's...finished...?
Feeling dizzy from the aftereffects of the battle, I habitually swung both of my swords once more before simultaneously sheathing them into the scabbards that lay crossed on my back. I immediately checked my HP. There was a red line with only a few dots left. As I stared at my HP without care, I suddenly felt strength leave my body and collapsed onto the floor without a sound.
My vision faded out into blackness.
3rd POV
"Starburst Stream!" He roared, and slashed at the boss 16 times, but was also dealt a lot of damage. In the end, he still won, but with a tiny sliver of health left. When he collapsed, Kiyotaka used the healing potion to help him recover.
"You've done well." Kiyotaka told him. "The boss has been defeated thanks to you."
"Thanks. What about the others?" He asked.
"They are fine, Klein and the others are just helping to heal them."
"I see."
"Can you walk? You must be tired. I could get Klein to bring you back." He offered Kirito.
"It's fine. Man... Sachi will kill me when I get back home."They both got up and saw Klein approach. He seemed a little apologetic for disturbing us, but started speaking nevertheless.
"We've finished healing all the remaining Army members, but Cobert and two of his men had already died..."
"...Yeah. It's the first time since the sixty-seventh floor that someone died during a boss fight..." Looks like the raiders have been doing pretty well after I left from the front-lines huh... Kiyotaka thought.
"That wasn't even a fight. That idiot Cobert... You can't do anything if you're dead..."
Klein spat out. Then he took a deep breath, shook his head, and asked Kirito in an attempt to change the mood.
"But back to the topic, what the hell was that just then!?"
"...I really have to explain it to you?" Kirito asked hesitantly.
"Of course! I've never seen something like that before!"
Kiyotaka noticed that aside from Asuna, everyone in the room was looking at Kirito, waiting for his answer.
"...It's an extra skill: 'Dual Blades'."
Expressions of amazement rose throughout Klein's party and the survivors from the Army.
All weapon skills had to be learned in a certain order depending on their type. Take swords for an example, you had to train the one-handed straight sword skill quite a bit before «Rapier» and «Two-Handed Sword» appeared on the list. Naturally, Klein was interested, and he urged Kirito to tell the rest.
"The conditions that have to be met are?"
"I'd have told everyone if I knew that."
As Kirito shook his head, Klein sighed and muttered.
"You're right..."
Weapon skills that didn't have clear conditions for appearing are called extra skills. They were sometimes even called random conditions. Most of the ten-plus extra skills that had been found up until now, had at least ten people who used each of them. The only exceptions were Kiyotaka's, although his wasn't known, 'Death Scythe' and 'Dual Blades', and one other man's extra skill. Until now, that is.
They both had hidden the existence of their unique skills up until now, but from today, the news that there was the second unique skill user who is Kirito, would spread throughout the world. There was no way he could hide it after using it in front of so many people.
"I'm disappointed Kirito. You didn't even tell me that you had such an awesome skill."
"I would have told you if I knew the conditions for its appearance. But I really couldn't figure out how it happened."
He answered Klein's complaint with a shrug.
There wasn't a shred of lie in what I said. Kirito thought. About a year ago, I opened my skills window one day and found the name 'Dual Blades' just sitting there. Since then, I only trained it when there was nobody around. Even after I nearly mastered it, I rarely used it against monsters unless it was an emergency. Aside from using it to protect myself in a crisis, I simply didn't like this kind of skill due to the attention it draws. I even thought that it would be better if another Dual Blades user appeared-
He scratched the area around his ear and muttered.
"...if it became known that I had such a rare skill, not only would people pester me for information...it might attract other kinds of problems too..."
Klein nodded. "Online gamers get jealous easily. I wouldn't since I'm an understanding guy, but there sure are plenty of envious people." Since he did not know anything about the outside world, Kiyotaka stayed silent as Klein bent over and thumped Kirito on the shoulder, then turned around and walked towards the survivors of «The Army».
"Hey, you guys, do you think you'll be able to make it back to HQ by yourselves?"
One of them nodded at Klein's question. He was a boy who looked like he was in his teens.
"OK. Tell your superiors what happened here today and that they shouldn't do something this stupid again."
"Yes. ...and, err...thank you."
"Thank them over there."
Klein pointed in at Kirito, Kiyotaka and Asuna. The players from the army stood up shakily, turned towards them and bowed deeply before walking out of the room. Once they reached the passageway, they used their crystals to teleport out one after another.
After the blue lights faded, Klein put his hands on his hips and started speaking.
"Well, let's see... We're going to continue onto the seventy-fifth floor and open the gate there. How 'bout you? You're the man of the day, so do you want to do it?" He asked Kirito.
"No, I'll leave it to you. I'm totally wiped."
"If that's the case... be careful on your way back." Klein nodded and then signaled to his teammates. The six walked over to the huge door in the corner of the room. Behind it should be the stairs to the next floor. The katana-wielder stopped in front of the door and turned around.
"Hey... Kirito. Y'know when you jumped in to save those Army members..."
"...what about it?"
"I was...well, really glad. That's all I have to say. See ya around sometime."
Kirito didn't get what he was trying to say and tilted his head, in which Klein gave him a thumbs-up, then opened the door and disappeared through it with his party.
Kiyotaka POV
After some small talk so that Kirito could get some rest, we head back. Looks like tomorrow is going to be troublesome, especially since I exposed myself while fighting Kuradeel... And to add on that I partied with the newly identified Unique skill user. Goodbye Peaceful life-chan... At least I still have Exciting life-chan.
A/N
How'd you find the chapter. Was it alright? Hope you enjoyed.
Next chapter will be Kirito vs Heathcliff and Kiyotaka vs Heahcliff. Maybe I should add Kirito vs Kiyotaka into next chapter, too. Should I have Asuna go out with Kiyo at next chapter?
Peaceful life-chan got NTRed by Exciting life-chan XD
Thanks for reading!