Chapter 1
It was November 5th, 2023, A meeting was held and hosted by KoB. We were all there as I stayed outside, looking at the chasm of the cave systems. We held the floor at floor 60 to make privacy for ourselves. I had a face mask on, the strap on the mask was slightly worn a bit from the countless battles I endured.
My Indicator was green for the time being as KoB was uneased with my presence at the meeting location. I began to eavesdrop on two KoB members whispering to each other, "Why is he here..? Shouldn't he be up at the newer floors..?" One of the KoB members whispered to the other, as they kept talking. I sighed and looked at them saying "If you have something to say, say it to my face".
Both of them jumped a bit as they looked at me and shook their heads saying "W-W-We weren't saying anything! Please forgive us!" as they bowed hastefully. "Don't bow at me please, It's not like you two are gonna hurt me either way.." I told them as I sighed and turned my attention away from them.
"It's already one year... about to be two..."
I thought to myself, I sighed once more but a bit heavily this time as I felt dizzy. I stumbled forward a bit before catching myself and balancing myself to stay up, my vision began to haze as the two KoB members outside came to my aid after I dropped to the floor.
"Kirin?! Kirin!! Get the others now!!"
One of their voices said as my ears toned it out and everything went silent.
I opened my eyes to hear a machine running in the background, the sound of a monitor. I heard beeps every couple of seconds as the heartbeat was at a slowed state, the beeping then began to beep faster. I waited as I heard mutters and tuned out the commotion from the voidless area. "I'm...Tired..." I said as I heard crying from the void again. I wanted to tune it out from my mind but it wasn't tuning out, I looked to my side as I saw what looked like myself in a medical bed...
I saw the nervegear still on my head, I forced myself to get up and walked a bit sloppily towards the replication. I put my hand on the bed as it felt very soft. The fabric felt soft and comfy. I saw a bright light behind me, hearing a voice from it saying "Haruka Makoto, come towards the light" as the voice sounded like my late-mothers'.
Her silhouette then came from the light as I slowly walked over towards the light, "You can rest now son..." Her voice said in a calming way as she opened her arms. "Yeah...I am tired..." I thought as a hand grabbed onto my shoulder, I was then stopped and I turned around.
The hand came from my mental image of Sato. He began to speak but nothing came out of his mouth, I had to figure out what he was trying to say. I looked at him and said "Please...Just let me sleep Sato..." pulling my shoulder from his hand and walking towards the light again.
I was mere moments from walking into the light and embracing my late-mothers' arms as I felt the weight on my shoulders lifted off. I felt...relieved for a moment...before thinking about the life I am leaving behind. I stopped myself from walking into her arms as I looked back at the void-like opening. "What's wrong dear?" She said as I looked up at her and said "I...I don't think it's time for me to leave...".
"You don't need to worry about them...They're strong and independent..."
She said once more as she put her hand on my cheek saying "Haruka...You've done enough for this world...". I took more thought as it didn't make sense to me, I put my hand on her wrist before softly pushing it off saying "I didn't do anything...I was stuck in a world by force...I'm sorry...mom..." before backing up and back into the void. The light faded away as her voice said one last time "I'm proud of you..." as the light faded away completely.
I shedded a tear for the first time in a year as I dropped into the void. As I fell I flipped myself around as I landed, water rippled beneath my feet. I then stood up as I looked up at a bright blue light, hearing something at the end of it, I then reached out to it.
"Kirin!!!"
A voice shouted as I moved my head a bit before opening my eyes back up in SAO, I saw that the person shouting my name was Toru, she was in tears as she hugged me saying "Thank god you're okay..." in Japanese as I replied "Sorry.." in Japanese as well.
Sato, Kirito, and Asuna sighed in relief as Kirito got a message from Klein. "What is it Kirito?" Asuna said to Kirito as he swiped the message away and closed his menu, telling Asuna "Fuurinkazan found a hidden dungeon underneath floor 62's village.". "We're going with you guys" Sato said as Kirito however shook his head saying "No, you guys should look over Kirin for now, make sure he's in a stable condition."
Sato said in a harsher tone, "Hey! It doesn't mean you have to do everything yourself!!" as Kirito began walking away. Asuna followed behind him as Sato followed behind Kirito, just a bit farther.
I hugged Toru with one arm, saying to her "Thanks...for everything Toru...". She hugged a little tighter and firmly replying, "We're a team now, We do things together...", she loosened up her grip slightly as I smiled a bit. After 5 minutes Toru and I went back up to floor 62, we walked into an Inn as we crashed at the place for the day. Toru and I slept comfortably with each other by now as I was wide awake, Toru slept like a baby since she was a heavy sleeper. I turned myself to look at the ceiling, I sat up at the side of the bed as I swiped my hand down to open my menu.
I then sat up on my side of the bed, clicked a couple of buttons as I wanted to see my stats, seeing that it showed up as a textbox with an arrow from the previous menu.
Name: Kirin
HP: 28,411
LVL: 85
EXP: 82,309/731,488
STR: 3,810
VIT: 4,009
AGI: 3,107
DEX: 2,871
LUK: 1,301