Beater

CHAPTER 7- Murder In The Safe Zone

U/N
____

I shuffled myself down the leather booth seat, Kirito followed suit, gently bumping his hand against my knee, sending butterflies raging through my stomach.

Asuna silently sunk into her seat infront of us... it was seriously awkward.

I fiddled my thumbs awkwardly, waiting for someone to say something. Im not sure why there was this uneasy tension all of a sudden, we were all friends after all but I suppose the time apart has caused some damage.

"Well, anyway..." Asuna finally broke the silence. "thank you for today,"

"Why?" Kirito shot back, looking over at me as if I had the answers and I shrugged.

"For keeping an eye on me" she clarified.

"Oh sure," Kirito mumbled, I forced my elbow into his side, he winced slightly before glaring at me. I glared back whispering a quiet "be nice," and he rolled his eyes.

"No problem," I smiled at her. These 2 really don't get along.

"The towns are supposed to be safe zones and unless you've agreed to a duel a player can't attack or kill you. But when you're asleep you're vulnerable." She shifted uncomfortably in her place, a certain solemness lingered in her voice.

"Yh now we've got Player Killers who can cheat the duel system. Duels are normally tests of strength not a fight to the death." I quickly interjected, I was just as concerned as anyone about this new twisted development in the game it felt as though we were never going to be safe. "but even if you duel in a safe zone your hp is still gonna go down based on the damage you take, right?" Kirito nodded.

"All a sleep PK-er has to do is manipulate a sleeping players finger to click the ok button, the duel begins like normal but the sleep PK-ers doing all the attacking, god knows how many times it's happened... so anyways thank you," She clenched her fists together, and a subtle pink tint rose to her cheeks as she looked away from us.

"Uh, sure anytime," Kirito blurted out, I let out a soft laugh at Kiritos inability to comprehend asunas sincerity. They were always at eachothers throats so clearly they didn't know how to react when the other was being nice.

"You'd do the same for us," the awkward silence returned. As I opened my mouth to end the insufferable tensions, a scream tore through the air.

As if sharing the same brain, we all jumped from our seats in an instance, following the blood curdling sound.

As we emerged in the plaza we began looking around, Asuna gasped loudly, tugging my arm as she pushed through the crowd, Kirito followed closely behind, "stay close Y/N," he grabbed my arm in worry and I looked back at him with an understanding stare.

I turned back and that's when I saw it. A body. A man was hanging, impaled by a large spear,outside the church. We watched him struggle for his life not knowing what to do.

I've seen too many deaths in my time but this, this wasn't possible, we were in a safe zone. I couldn't bare to look at the boy. I turned away, placing my hands over my mouth, eyes widened with pain for him. Kirito wrapped an arm around me, pulling me into his chest, trying his best to shield me from the sight. Asuna pushed through the crowd. We followed her quickly. Before we could do anything his body exploded into brilliant shards. Kiritos head jolted up.