Chapter 15

"Hup!"

I groaned pushing Toru's foot up onto a higher ledge, she climbed up as she turned around and lent down a hand. I jumped and grabbed her arm as she pulled me up, struggling a little bit. I climbed up as we chuckled a bit, getting up from the ground and seeing the entrance to a cave dungeon.

"Alright, we're here Toru"

I said to her as she replied "We sure are", We then began walking across a ledge, slowly making our way to the other side. We both made it safe and sound as we jumped down and walked up to the entrance of the cave.

All of a sudden, I get a message notification, a wind chime sound. "What is it this time!" I was a little frustrated when I opened it and saw it was from Kirito. "what does he need this time?" I thought as I read his message in my head,

"Asuna and I are temporarily stationed at floor 22, you and Toru can come over and visit sometime"

I typed in "Sure, just give Toru and I some time and we'll head out" as it was sent to Kirito. He was quick to respond as he sent a Thumbs up sticker, I swiped the menu away as Toru asked "Floor 22? Isn't that the floor where we found that log cabin?".

"Yeah, but we didn't buy it since I was broke on COL."

I said to Toru as she nodded, saying "Oh, Right.." I then walked into the cave dungeon as Toru quickly followed behind saying "Don't leave me behind again!". After my quick dungeon session with Toru, we began heading to floor 22.

We reached floor 22, looking around at the level 44-52 Monsters as we headed towards some coordinates that were given to us. We walked as I held a compass that showed us coordinates. We used the compass while aimlessly walking in certain directions to find the location.

As we walked I felt my hand being grasped, I turned around to see Toru holding my hand as I turned back to see the coordinates. We walked out of the forest and to a beautiful lakeside. We were amazed at the location and where the log cabin was placed.

I began to walk on the wood carved pathway to the log cabin ahead, Toru followed behind me as she looked towards the woods once again. As she looked into the depths of the forest, I felt my hand have immense resistance.

I stopped to look at her as I saw her face was in utter confusion towards the forest, "What is it?" I asked her confusedly as I looked down at the forest. "I...I thought I saw a little kid walking through the forest..." She said, almost as if she felt scared about the thought of it. "You mean like the ghost incident?" I said as she gripped my hand hard.

"Ow ow ow!!"

I winced in pain as she looked at me and said "Asuna said for us to NOT bring that up!!". "I know I know!! but it's just something that doesn't seem possible!!" I said quickly, feeling the grip get ever so stronger every second.

"Kirin! Toru!!"

A voice shouted as we looked over as her death grip was loosened. I sighed in relief as I looked over, seeing was Kirito and Asuna at the top of the hill, waving to us, we waved back as my hand was still hurting. We walked to them as they took us to their log cabin, we walked in as we saw the interior was completely different from the interior the log cabin on floor 2 had.

"This is a beautiful place to stay."

I said as Toru agreed with me on that statement, Kirito and Asuna also agreed as Kirito said "Yeah, I'm surprised Heathcliff wanted us to stay here.". My surprised expression then shifted to a smirk as I said "Speaking of Heathcliff..." with everyone looking at me confused. A second later, Kirito then realized saying "Don't you dare-" as I brought up "WHAT'S WITH THE WHITE AND RED COAT!!".

"I...I can explain..."

Kirito said with one eyebrow twitching up and down, irritated. I burst out laughing as I couldn't hold in the laughter. I said loudly "KIRITO! THE BLACK SWORDSMAN!! WEARING THE POLAR OPPOSITE COLORS!! AHAHAHAH!!!". I fell to the floor dying from laughter as Kirito then shouted "I HAD NO CHOICE ALRIGHT! I WAS FORCED TO WEAR THIS DAMN COLOR SCHEME IT'S RIDICULOUS!!!"Asuna then commented "I think it looks great on you".

"Of course you think it does YOU WEAR IT ALL THE TIME ASUNA!!"

He shouted as Asuna, being sassy, replied "And?". This tipped Kirito's pent up anger to the breaking point as he shouted on the top of his lungs

"I'M THE FUCKING BLACK SWORDSMAN NOT A GODDAMN CRUSADER!! DO YOU KNOW HOW EMBARASSING IT IS TO HAVE A TITLE SUCH AS THE BLACK SWORDSMAN BUT YOU'RE WEARING FUCKING RED AND WHITE!!! IT'S THE POLAR FUCKING OPPOSITE OF THE TITLE!!!"

Kirito was taking heavy breaths in and out as I kept dying on the floor about it, Asuna just turned her attention to Toru and did sign language, saying "Do you just wanna go take a walk while the boys do their thing?".

Toru gave a thumbs up for her as they walked out on us, going to take a stroll around the lake. Meanwhile, Kirito and I began to calm down from our chaotic and out of character behavior. After 15-20 minutes, Asuna and Toru came back to the house to see Kirito and I were gone, "Where'd they go?" Asuna said, confused.

"I...don't know actually"

Toru, confused as well, walked over to their balcony. Toru opened it as Asuna walked over and saw that both of them were just talking. "Should we-" Asuna said as she was abruptly interrupted by Toru's hand covering her mouth as they both began eavesdropping on their conversation.

Kirito and I were chuckling a bit, as I asked him "what'd you do next?" as he replied "I fell and hit my head on the edge of a balcony". "Ouch! And this ties to the ghost story right?" I wanted to confirm it as he nodded saying "Yeah, turns out they're not ghosts, they used an exploit to use the death effects instead of the teleport effects by falling off a ledge and teleporting.". I was amazed at this as I said "Really?! You can do that?!!" as Kirito nodded.

We both chuckled again as Kirito asked "well what about you Kirin? I'm sure you have some really good stories to tell me" as I looked off at the artificial sun, setting down.

"Yeah, but... most of my stories aren't that great, Yours are amazing since they don't sound true"