Sword Art Online: Phantom Reaper || SAO OC

23 - Hint From The Past

August 6th 2025 - 6:32am

"Niko, c'mon man you're gonna be late!" Garrett yelled as he stood in front of Niko's bedroom door. He knocked a few times but got no response.

"Okay dude, if you don't say anything I'm coming in, okay?"

A few seconds of silence later Garrett put his hand on the door knob and gently opened the door. The room was dim, with the only light peaking through the curtains. Niko sat on the floor with his hands crossed and a far off look on his face. He had bloodshot eyes and was shaking slightly.

Garrett walked up next to him and crouched down. "You had another nightmare?"

Niko didn't respond, but his petrified silence was enough of an answer. "The same one about Reko?" this time Niko weakly shook his head.

"You wanna talk about it?" Niko sat quietly, unable to bring himself to talk about it. It was one of those nights where he dreamt he was back in SAO. He had killed someone and was being hunted down by a large group of people.

"I guess that's a no. That's okay, but if I were you I'd skip out on school today. Just rest up."

"No... I'm gonna be-"

"Just. Take. A. Break. You push yourself too hard." Garrett nudged Niko who sighed and nodded.

Garrett got up and walked over to the door, but before he could leave the room he stopped and looked back at his brother. "Hey Niko,"

Niko looked up at him with a timid expression on his face and Garrett continued speaking "Why don't you ever talk about that game you were stuck in?"

Niko a deep breath to steady his voice "It's hard. So much happened back then."

"Was it all bad?"

Niko shook his head in response to Garrett's question "It's just... I don't think you'd get it."

"Try me." Garrett sat on the bed next to where Niko was.

Niko closed his eyes for a moment, trying to think of where to start. "I... I've killed people there. Some of those 6000 deaths were by my hand."

Garrett remained silent for a little bit taking in what he'd just heard. "Knowing you, if you did it on purpose then you had a reason, didn't you?"

Niko shrugged his shoulders and slumped over. "I don't think that's an excuse."

"You're right, it's not." Garrett slid off the bed onto his knees next to Niko. "You know, I've killed too."

Niko looked at his brother wide-eyed unable to believe what he'd just said. "You were in the military... I don't think it's the same as what I did."

"You think so...? We were sent to dispatch a hostage situation on a ship. There were about ten criminals there holding the ship's crew prisoner. We tried to resolve it peacefully but they had other plans. Those guys resisted and - against my better judgment - I shot three down, and none of them survived."

The usually cheerful Garrett had a serious, almost stoic look on his face as he told his story. His fists were clenched and his shoulders were stiff and tense. Despite his build and appearance, Garrett was usually cheery. Niko was surprised to see him like this - so uncharacteristically solemn.

"My point is this: what I did that day saved several lives. It wasn't easy, but I had to make that decision to save those people."

Garrett stood up and lightly ruffled Niko's already messy hair "I believe you're a good person. So if you did something like that, it's because you felt like you had  to do something, even if it led to someone losing their life."