CH42: Sword of Memories
Kayaba simply chuckled in the face of everyone’s glares. “Well I would still be the leader of the guild if Kirito didn’t rat me out. Think of how many more people would be here now.”
“Think of how many people would be dead!” yelled Kirito, standing back up. “Dead because of their blind faith in you.” At his stance everyone else stood up and took their weapons in hand. AJ, instead of her Keyblade, brought her gauntlets back out.
Kayaba calmly raised his hand. “Let’s save the speeches for our final encounter, Kirito. I’m here on another matter.” Twilight and the others flinched when the man turned his iron gaze towards them. Twilight could feel the methodical analysis that he was giving her just with his eyes. It made her shiver.
“What?” she asked,readying her weapon.
Kayaba examined the weapon itself. “That weapon… It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it. I think the first time in person.”
Dash’s on her handle instinctively tightened. She quickly realized what he meant and she had no doubt that Twilight did too. “You mean since Spike was here.”
Kayaba nodded. “So you do know the boy. Since I was still preoccupied with building the guild back then, I only had the time to examine small sections of data. For the most part I watched the few documented errors that occurred within the game and events that I hadn’t accounted for that the cardinal system had to compromise on. Honestly, when it first come to my attention I was baffled. Especially when taking into account certain large scale changes that took place early on.”
Asuna’s eyes widened. “The forest?”
Kayaba nodded once more and closed his eyes. “Imagine it, magic appearing in a game not designed to handle it. Magic strong enough to alter the programming of an entire area. I very much wished to meet the person responsible. Unfortunately, he never came around.”
Opening his eyes he looked around at the five new girls. “But it seems that luck has graced me with a second chance.”
“So what?” yelled Dash. “Are you mad that we have the upperhand? News flash, every game has cheat codes, you know!”
“True, true,” he agreed. “And I’m not unfair. These things happen. However…” Lifting a hand, he flicked his wrist and opened his menu.
In that moment Kirito snapped and rushed at him, crossing the distance in less than a second. Both blades glowing he slammed them both down at Kayaba. To his dismay his blades passed right through him. Kayaba stared at him, still smiling peacefully and waiting out his onslaught. Only further angered, he swung his blades wildly tearing through the projection.
After a few more seconds he slowed and eventually stopped completely. “Damn you,” he hissed taking a few steps back.
“It’s alright, Kirito,” he whispered. “Our time will come. You’re so close already. Not to mention,” he glanced over at the girls and back to Kirito. “You have the tactical advantage. Certain magic attacks don’t correctly factor into damage algorithms, so the result is usually the highest amount a player can deal at one time.”
“Hell yeah!” cheered Dash.
“Plus we have these nifty shields!” added Pinkie.
“Yes… about that.” His menu still open, Kayaba began scrolling down a long list of options. “You see while I am alright with magic, preferring to treat them as cheat codes or special weapon abilities, there is something I quite can’t let go unfixed.” Pressing a button, notifications appeared in front of each of the girls. All of boxes said the same thing.
Rarity read her’s aloud. “‘Changed to mortal object?’ Whatever does that mean?”
She turned to see Asuna staring at them, eyes shrunk and hands covering her gaping mouth.
Twilight very quickly put the pieces together and gasped. “I think it means that we can be hurt now…” she muttered fearfully.
“Very astute,” nodded Kayaba. “I simply cannot allow that much of an advantage. Oh! But there is one more thing.”
With the press of another button, several dozen lines of code appeared around AJ’s gauntlets and began circling rapidly. “Wha- what’s happening?”
Hearing her cry of surprise Kirito spun to face her, only to reel in shock from the sight. Turning back to Kayaba he growled, teeth clenched in a rage. “What the hell are you doing?!”
Soon enough, the code vanished and both her gloves and greaves dimmed, becoming a slate grey instead of their normal glowing silver. She also found that they were lighter, almost featherweight, no longer could she feel the warmth of demon magic running through the mystic gauntlets, nor their usual weight.
She looked down at them, frozen in shock before turning a rock hard glare at Kayaba.
“Jackie,” called Twilight, a look of worry flashing across her face. “What just happened?”
“Ah… ah can’t feel Beowulf anymore,” she muttered. “I can’t feel any power from him! What the hell did you do?!” she screamed.
Kayaba’s grin grew wider. “You see, this game is called Sword Art Online, young miss. I can’t compromise the game's integrity by allowing such weapons like gauntlets and guns. Luckily, I’ve had ample time to observe your training and programme a way to negate your weapon’s otherworldly abilities. Your fists will do no damage while you wear them. I hope you can understand.”
Dash, seething in rage, briefly glanced down at her left hand.
“You... bastard!” cursed Kirito, his fist tightening around his blade. He wanted nothing more to swing them once again, even if he knew it would do no good. “They aren't players in this game, they don’t need to risk their lives.”
Kayaba closed his eyes and shook his head. “They made their choice when they entered this room. At this point the only thing that separates them and you is that they don’t have potions to instantly heal their wounds.”
Pinkie cheerfully began listing off on her fingers. “But we do have magic and flight and super strength and Keyblades and…”
Kayaba burst out laughing. “Semantics, my dear.” In a complete change of mood, Kayaba leveled a deadly glare at the entire group, his once peaceful smile became a smirk of malice that made everyone flinch back. “The point is, they’re as much involved now as you are. You seven here will either complete the game or die in these rooms. Either way, I wish you all the best of luck.”
“Oh… and Kirito,” his gaze locked back on to the boy in question, “I sincerely hope that sparing you back then was not a wasted investment.”
With that, his projection vanished, leaving the group staring at the space in stark silence.
As soon as it was clear he was gone, Dash turned to Twilight. “Hey, Twi do you think my Spi-”
“Shhh!” she hissed, cutting her off. Twilight glanced down at her friend’s hand and slowly shook her head. “Jackie, are you alright?” she called.
In a flash, AJ’s armour vanished from her body and sighed with a shrug. “Don’t you worry none. Ah’ll just use my natural weapons like ah was taught.”
“So what do we do now…?” asked Asuna, looking back at the girls.
Rarity frantically looked between her and Kirito, whose back was turned and his shoulders hunched over. “I… I don’t...”
“Look upward,” ordered Kirito. Everyone else’ head snapped to face him. ”Don’t tilt your heads and look upwards to the corner of your peripheral vision. See… see if you all have health stats.”
Hesitantly, the girls all angled their eyes upwards looking for what Kirito ordered them to look for.
Twilight answered first her eyes scanning the top of her vision. “I… I don’t see anything.”
“Tch! Damn,” he muttered. “That’s even worse.”
“Why?” asked Pinkie, grinning nervously. “We don’t have to worry about health bars.”
Kirito took a step, turning to them with a grim expression. “No, but it means that you’ll feel every blow.” Hearing this, Twilight’s hand instantly went to her stomach, and her mind went back to a distinct memory of almost being cut in half.
Kirito, still grimacing, began walking towards them. “From a physical standpoint, if we get hit, it’s only temporary, we’ll heal automatically. If we get limbs chopped off we’ll take blood damage, but it’s nothing a potion can’t heal. We won’t feel any of it. But… none of that goes the same for you all.”
Kirito stopped right in front of Twilight. “Call your ship,” he said, looking her straight in her eye.
His sudden order made Twilight pause, but she quickly recovered to give him her own determined look. “No.”
“Do it,” he repeated.
“No,” she replied. “We agreed to go with you and I wouldn’t be able to call myself a Keyblade wielder, none of us would, if we went back on our word.”
The corner of his eyes twitched and his gaze lowered, becoming more somber as he continued to stare her down. “But… you could die.”
“That may be true, darling, but so could you.” Kirito glanced over to see that Rarity and Dash had made their way over to them. Like Twilight, they were also staring at him resolutely.
“Yeah, man,” added Dash. “Plus, we go through this stuff all the time. It comes with the job,” she said, winking.
Pinkie popped up next to her and leaned on her shoulder. “Well if you think about it this would be the first time we really put our lives on the line.”
Dash frowned and shook her off. “Ignore her,” she said, walking closer and looking up at him. To his surprise she sternly prodded him in the chest. “Look, we practically ended a war in the first world we visited. So even if we leave you guys here to die, which we won’t, we’d still probably end up helping someone else and risking our lives then.”
She continued to prod him, forcing him to take a step back. “It’s just what we do! So don’t think you can go all protective of us. You wouldn’t tell Spike to leave… would you?” This got a flinch out of him. He opened his mouth to respond, but when nothing came out, he closed it and averted his gaze.
Dash nodded. “See then—”
“Yes.” Dash’s head stopped mid nod and she looked back up at him to see him still averting his gaze. “I would’ve told Spike to leave but... the thing is…” He locked eyes with Dash and, slowly, a smile grew on his face. She herself flinched when Kirito sat a hand on her head. “He wouldn’t listen either.”
There was a moment of silence as Dash’s face rapidly reddened before she quickly knocked his hand away and turned her back to him. “W-well then come on! We’re all rested now. Let’s get going.” As she walked away, Kirito glanced down at the black blade in his right hand.
~~~
Flipping through the air, Kirito tried his best to recover from the knockback he had just suffered. “Damn it!” he cursed, crashing into the ground, the snow doing nothing to prevent the fall damage.
Sitting up, he peered through the blizzard to see two figures in the distance, one vastly larger than the other. Stabbing his blue handled broadsword into the ground he brought himself to his feet. Feeling the chill he took a second to adjust his white furred black snow coat before he rushed back into the fray.
“You still kicking?” asked Spike, seeing Kirito re-enter the fight. Now age 13, the boy stood tall against the hidden boss.
“Spike, we can’t beat this on our own!” he called, looking up at the bear-like snow monster towering before them. It’s blue eyes pierced through the haze of the snow storm.
Spike scoffed. “No way! You said that he’s half dead. Let’s finish him off.”
The bear leaned down on all fours and took a wide swipe at the two with hands topped with diamond hard ice claws. Both boys hopped high into the air. While Kirito hopped backwards, Spike leapt forwards and delivered a two bladed slash to the monster’s neck. Letting out a scream, it knocked Spike further away.
“Spike, you’re being reckless,” lectured Kirito, standing over Spike’s fallen body. Holding out a hand, he helped him up. “Both of us are hurt and exhausted. Not to mention you aren't wearing any protection. I’m almost certain that you’re freezing.”
Standing up, Spike wiped the snow of of his bare arms and his sleeveless flame emblem shirt. “I’m fine. The snow doesn't really bother me for some reason. Probably something to do with being a half dragon.” Ignoring Kirito’s perplexed look, Spike dashed forward. “Come on!”
“Wait!” he replied, running after him. The monster, not keen on letting them get any closer, opened its maw, filled with razor sharp teeth, and let out a fierce breath of ice.
“Flare!” Pointing his Keyblades forward, Spike shot out a condensed ball of fire that exploded when it it the breath attack. The resulting shockwave blew both Spike and the beast backwards.
Digging his Keyblades into the ground Spike fell to one knee and struggled to catch his breath. “Switch!” he yelled to Kirito, huffing wearily.
Kirito ran up to him and looked down at his battered form. “Spike you’re doing too much. Let’s just go!”
“No!” he argued, his head still down. “I… I can’t run. If I do then I…” Spike shook his head and stared up at him. “Hurry up before it recovers!”
Kirito leered down at the boy then glanced up at where the monster would have been. Even if the snow shrouded it, the beast’s health bar was clear as day. Thanks to the last attack it was almost dead. One more attack should do it. Giving Spike one more glance, Kirito sucked his teeth and ran towards the monster.
Letting out a battle cry, his blade began glowing a bright blue. Then, tearing through the haze of evaporated ice, the bear slashed down at him with both of it’s claws. With split second timing, Kirito switched from attack to defence and blacked both strikes with his blade.
However, the attack was too much and his blade shattered completely. Kirito was sent flying back.
Watching Kirito soar past him, Spike growled at the beast and picked himself back up. “Damn it!” he cursed, rushing it. The bear swiped at him with one claw that he deftly hopped over. Using its arm as a stepping stone, Spike flipped onto it’s back. Channeling his magic, both of his blades caught fire as he stabbed both of them into the monster’s behind. With a cry of effort, Spike let his magic flare and an explosion of flames erupted from where he stabbed it.
Immediately, the beast shattered into a thousand shimmering bits and Spike fell into the snow. Huffing deep breaths, Spike continued to lie there until he heard the crunching sounds of Kirito walking up to him.
Spike, smirking, gave him a victorious thumbs up, but faltered when his gaze met Kirito’s stern expression.
Sighing, Kirito grabbed his hand and took out a square blue crystal. “We’re gonna talk about this. Teleport: 22nd floor.
In a flash of blue, both boys disappeared.
As the flash wore off, Spike opened his eyes to see a large tree looming over him. As he tried to sit up, he flinched from the pain. Working through it he sat up enough to lean against the base of the trunk. Kirito himself sat next to him. “I just lost a perfectly good blade because of you.”
“This tree…” he muttered.
Kirito opened his menu and scrolled to his equipment section. “Yeah it’s the one we used to hang out at before you disappeared.” Pressing a button, his snow coat shimmered out and was replaced with his current grey lined black trench coat. “Then you show up after almost a year and drag me to to a secret boss area on the 50th floor. What the hell man, we could’ve died.”
Spike’s gaze fell and the reality of his actions finally dawned on him. “Sorry,” he muttered. “I got called back.”
Kirito looked over at him, head tilted in curiosity. “Back? Back to your home world?”
He shrugged. “Just back, for more training I guess.”
“Yeah, you’ve gotten stronger,” said Kirito. “But you’ve also gotten more reckless. What’s wrong? You aren’t nearly as obnoxiously cheery as you used to be.”
Spike sighed and leaned his head on the trunk, his gaze now directed up at the leaves above him. “Nah, I haven’t changed at all and that’s the problem. Remember when I told you about my friends under this tree?” Kirito nodded. “Well good news, I finally remembered one of them. Bad news… I’m still too weak to do anything about it. They’re out there, I can feel it. Now the only thing I can think about is being strong enough to hold onto that one memory. I’m afraid I might lose it though. I know I need to be able to survive long enough to meet them again. But lately, I’m not so sure I’ll be able to with the power I have.”
Spike flinched when he felt Kirito sit a hand on his shoulder. He followed the arm back to Kirito himself who was giving him a patient and understanding smile. “I get it,” he said, nodding. Moving his hand, he too gazed up through the branches at at the sky. “I do. The need to stay alive to hold onto a memory. Though… I almost lost that need.” His smile fell until it became a melancholic expression. Coupled with the distant look in his eye, Spike could tell that something big happened.
Before he could ask, Kirito began again. “A little while after you left, I joined a guild. The Moonlit Black Cats. They were a low level guild that wanted my help to get stronger. There was one girl in particular. Her name was Sachi and she wanted nothing more than to become strong. But even so, she was fiercely afraid of dying. So, I promised to protect her. I promised not to let her die.”
“What happened to her?” asked Spike.
He let out a hollow chuckle. “What do you think?” he said simply. “In a trap room, there was an ambush and I watched them all shatter. Then I watched the leader committed suicide when I told him.”
Spike gasped, his eyes wide in shock. Kirito let out another hollow chuckle as his expression grew more and more grim. “I blamed myself. I failed. So I moped around a bit until I heard of a special item that could revive the dead. That turned out to be a bust. I remember thinking about killing myself until I found a message Sachi left telling me not to blame myself. She told me to survive.”
His face brightened and he turned to face Spike, meeting his eyes dead on. “After that I spent more time on the lower floors, training people to be stronger. I talked to others who also saw people die, and recorded their stories. I made a new promise, one I don’t intend to break. I’m gonna survive and leave this place, and I’m going to keep the memories of all those who died in this game. I’m going to remember their efforts and take them with me to the outside world.”
Kirito reached out and placed a fist on Spike’s chest, smiling widely as he did so. “You’re plenty strong right now, and I know that you’ll just get stronger. So don’t worry, memories aren't that hard to keep track of once you’ve got a hold of them. Just keep your heart strong and your sword sharp and you’ll see them again.”
Spike stared down at his arm for a few second before giving him a smirk on his own. Reaching out, he placed a fist against his chest. “Thanks man, sorry about your blade.”
Kirito leaned back on the tree and opened his menu. “Nah, don’t worry about it. I got the last hit bonus from that secret boss.”
Spike burst out laughing. “Probably something to do with the fact that I’m not actually a part of this game.” Spike leaned over and stuck his head over Kirito’s shoulder. “What is it?”
Only slightly uncomfortable with the boys spiky hair in his face, Kirito pressed the sword icon. In a blue shimmer, a long one handed pitch black blade appeared in his grip alongside a small screen. The sword had a black hilt connected to a bladed hand guard that drops down and jutted out on one side.
“So… awesome!” commented Spike with a starry eyed expression. Slowly his eyes trailed up the length of the weapon. He paused just under the tip of the blade and stared at the small silver cross placed there.
Kirito himself was also slack jawed as he checked screen in front of the blade. “This is amazing. Check out these stats. This is a rare demonic weapon.”
“Looks like you didn’t need that old sword after all,” said Spike, chuckling and nudging him playfully. “What’s this one called?”
Kirito looked to the top of the screen in front him. “It’s called... Elucidator.”
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6709087 lol seriously? I thought it was hilarious. Not to mention that with that latest episode I think it actually has better character development then the original show.
Either way, this chapter is actually pretty old, I just decided to remove the password and publish it.
Yay update
I do like SAO and all but I'm honestly getting tired of SAO an i'm more curious about what's going on with spike
Yay new chapter and more Spike!