The Black Swordsman

Chapter 4: The Thing I Love Most About You

700 Days into SAO:

There weren't many times in my life where I felt happy. Even before I got trapped in SAO, I was a pretty gloomy kid. I would just hold up in my room all day and play video games by myself trying to escape from the real world that I hated so much. I didn't have any friends. I didn't participate in sports or any after school activities. I went to school...didn't say a word to anyone...got bullied, occasionally, and then came home and locked myself in my room to play video games. It was a pathetic fucking life, absent of any happiness.

I was staring up at the ceiling of Asuna and I's log cabin, lying on my back in our king-sized bed that we shared. Asuna had fallen asleep while being on top of me and her head was resting on my bare chest.

What I'm feeling right now...could it actually be...genuine happiness? I thought to myself. It almost feels...weird. I'm trapped in a video game world where I could die at any moment but, despite that, I feel happier right now than I ever have in the real world.

I glanced down at Asuna, who was fast asleep and smiled.

It must be her. Asuna...she's my happiness.

*

*

*

Present:

I forced my eyes open, both of which had dark bags under them. I stared at the ceiling of my room in the real world. I heard a knock on my door and my sister's voice telling me that it was time for school. I rolled onto my side, pathetically, and debated whether or not I even wanted to attend school, today. I knew, deep down, that I didn't really have a choice in the matter but the last thing that I wanted to do was go to that place...without Asuna. Hell, I didn't feel like doing anything until she woke up. Life without her...was absolutely pointless.

*

*

*

The government had this "great idea" to build a new school, specifically for all of the SAO survivors to keep a close eye on us. In addition to attending our normal classes, all of us had to get continual psychiatric evaluations and many of us had to attend therapy sessions because of the trauma we had experienced in SAO. Luckily for me, I was able to hide a lot of the sadness and trauma I was feeling and didn't have to attend any of the stupid therapy sessions. They would have been a waste of time, anyways. Nothing they could have said would have made me feel remotely better. It wasn't like they could force Asuna to wake up. The only thing that they could do was prescribe me a bunch of fucking pills and try to get me to forget about Asuna. They would want me to move on from her but how could I? Asuna was everything to me...she was the only person that I had ever met, who was able to bring me a shed of fucking happiness. Forgetting her would only make me feel worse.

I walked through the hallways of the SAO survivors' school with my head hung low, avoiding eye contact with any of the other students. The last thing that I wanted was one of them to talk to me. Even though, I did my best to ignore them, I could still hear the other students talking about me as I walked by them.

"Damn, isn't that the Black Swordsman? He was the best player in SAO, right? He doesn't look like much in the real world."

"He was nothing but an overpowered piece of shit in SAO. All he did was make the rest of us look bad."

"The guy doesn't look like he's eaten anything in days. It's kind of sad."

I tried not to let their conversations bother me but, before I could reach my classroom, a boy my age got in my way, preventing me from going any further. He was both taller and more muscular than me and he had his arms folded across his chest.