Sword Art Online; Sheik's Story

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Waking up from the NerveGear once again at about 11 PM, I find a random Sugu-Chan and Kazu-Kun standing over me. I sit up, and they move away slowly. "Well? How did it go?" Kazu-Kun asked.

"I got her...! And I had some fun while I was at it!" I smile. "Uh, but what are you guys doing here?" I asked.

"Heh. You should ask Sugu that question. She was the one who wanted to check up on you." Kazu-Kun rats out his own sister (well, cousin actually), making her blush.

"Hehe... Thank you, Sugu-Chan. Oh, but I shouldn't stay long. I...—"

"Yeah. We should go. We can meet her together." Kazu-Kun nods. "Will you be coming too, Sugu?" He asked.

"Oh! Uh, no. I think I'll head home. After all, I wouldn't want to get in the way of your guys' reunion with her...!" Sugu-Chan says.

"Okay then. We understand. Thanks again, Sugu-Chan, for everything you've helped me with." I smile.

She returns my smile, and watches us as we leave for the hospital.

"Woah, I didn't know you could drive." Kazu-Kun says.

"Yeah. I actually got my license not too long ago. My parents have been paying a lot of money to get me the best education possible, so once I finished my GED test, I took a driving test. I'm a quick learner." I smile as we drive our way over to the hospital once again.

And once we got there... It was pretty chill. The place was empty. Like, don't they have night shift nurses working late hours to make sure the patients are okay? Sounds a little lazy to me. Anyway, we met up with Sinon, or Shino-san, and reintroduced ourselves to each other. For real this time. After that, we had to leave. We didn't want any doctors getting alarmed by us late night visitors who didn't ask permission to enter in the first place, so we are technically trespassing.

What? You thought I was gonna say Sugou randomly showed up and attacked us? Hah! I wouldn't be surprised if he died of a heart attack after what I had done with him. Look, I know I've been trying to reform from murdering, and I have been going to therapy via "Better Help" to help with any lingering guilt I still hold from SAO. But he deserved it! Ugh, okay, now it sounds like I'm reverting back to how I used to be... And I definitely don't want to be murderer, whether it's virtual or not. It would damage my modeling career.

Uh. Oh look! Sugou isn't dead! And he came armed with a knife to try and kill me! Kazu-Kun stands between me and him in an attempt to protect me, but when charged at, I quickly try to push him out of the way to make sure he doesn't hurt him. As a knife fighting expert, I should have the upper hand. Should being the keyword. But Sugou wasn't attacking with any kind of finesse. His swings were erratic and mostly unpredictable. Thankfully I've also taken self defense classes at a young age, so I know my way around a fight, and what to do against an armed assailant.

"You took everything from me...!! So I'm going to kill you!!" He shouts as he tries to stab me.

Using what I know, I managed to grab his wrist and twist it, forcing him to drop the weapon, and then I pull and push him onto the ground with his attacking arm in the air and his other free hand pinned to his back and his face to the pavement of the parking lot. "Kazu-Kun! Call the police!" I call.

"R-Right!" Kazu-Kun nods and whips out his phone to call the authorities.

"Seriously... How petty can you get? Even if you did manage to kill me, then what? You'd still be arrested for first degree murder, with Kazu-Kun as a witness because of how close he is. And with your arrest and criminal charges, do you really think your company can make a comeback from that?!" I asked him.

"Heheheh... Yeah right... Like you're one to talk, Death by Twilight...!! I know who you really are!! You're a murderer just like me!!" He shouts with a laugh. "As if you'll be excused for what you did! You killed more than me, after all!! And once this information goes public, you'll be arrested just like I was!! Everyone in all the families that you've stolen someone from will be against you! You'll be ruined...! RUINED I TELL YOU!!"

I swap my hand pinning his arm with my foot, and grab the knife that was on the ground. "You wanna say that again, asshole...?!" I growl and hold the knife to the back of his neck. "Because I can replicate what I did to you in ALO right here, right now...!!"

"Hehehehahaha...! Yes...! Do it then! Show the world your true self!! DO IT!!!"

At my limit, I raise the knife in my hand with gritted teeth, and getting ready to bring it down.

"Sheik don't!!" Kazu-Kun shouts, making me stop just barely touching his skin.

My knife arm was shaking. Violently. I wanted to stab him. I wanted to kill him and silence him so badly. But going against what I wanted, I tossed the knife as far away from me and him as possible and continued to hold him in place.

"Unlike you, I don't ruin people for fun...!" I growl as I heard police sirens arriving to the scene. With that, he was taken away.

Sugou pleaded innocent, and claimed that I had tortured him, which was true. And because of that, I was also taken into custody and was asked what led me to do such an act. I explained everything. The keeping captive and rape of Sinon, the experimentation on human brains to manipulate people's feelings, and plenty of other of the shady practices of REKT Progress. A further investigation was called, but after hearing of it, Sugou admitted to what he did, and pleaded guilty. Of course, I didn't get off easy myself. For my torture charges, I was convicted. However, thanks to a certain man by the name of Seijiro Kikuoka, whom I met in the hospital after waking up from SAO. He is a member of the Ministry of Internal Affair's Telecommunications Bureau. Thanks to his help, I only got away with a two month house arrest and the promise that any of my previous virtual world actions are kept under wraps, in exchange for a few future favors and rehabilitation. Of course, not wanting to get my parents fashion company and my modeling career to go downhill, I agreed eagerly.

After the whole thing is resolved, and my house arrest lifted, life returns to what it was as normal. Modeling, school, more modeling, then gaming. Kazu-Kun had decided to join in on the ALfheim train, bought the game and an Amusphere (well, technically I helped him buy it), then converted his previous data from SAO to ALO so he wouldn't have to start from scratch, as did Sinon. In fact, Kirito's whole friend group joined the game.

Oh. And there was one more thing that I had forgot to mention. Before I logged out of ALO to meet Sinon, I was confronted by Akihiko Kayaba. Or...his ghost...? I have no idea how or why or what he was doing there to be perfectly honest. Something about scanning his brain into the Cardinal System, the engine that SAO and ALO run on? I dunno. Anyway, we talked briefly, and at the end, he gave me some kind of golden glowing egg called "The Seed". I'm not sure about all the details, after all game creation isn't one of my strong suits, but apparently this Seed can be used to create any number of Full Dive games. Pretty incredible for an egg. Anyway, I handed it off to Kazu-Kun, who in turn handed it to Tiffany, who then suggested we just make it public use for anyone to use if they wanted. And from that Seed, many more Virtual Worlds were created in the span of two months all over the world! It was insane!

And using that Seed, Kazu-Kun took the liberty to implement Aincrad into ALO! To, you know, play the game as it was meant to be played. As a game. No IRL death. Nothing crazy. It would also add extra challenges since the World Tree had been cleared. And the only person listed on who cleared it was me. So...needless to say, I became a bit of a celebrity in ALO.

Well, that should be everything... So far, anyway. There are plenty more adventures to go through. And I hope you'll be here with me when I go on them.

To be continued...