sao the grim reaper

chapter 9: Hiroshi vs heathcliff

Hiroshi POV:

We've arrived back at the aincrad liberation force headquarters to report to heathcliff and when we entered the door heathcliff looked at us with a stern expression mainly at kibaou. He than asked kibaou "so kibaou care to explain why you are the only survivor even though you thought you and your party of only 40 or so people were ready for the boss and could take it out on your own." Kibaou than started saying excuses and told heathcliff "well everyone wasn't strong enough and I could have defeated the boss if my party were all stronger." Heathcliff than looked mad at kibaou and told him with venom in his voice "you are no longer aloud to join any party to take on the next floor boss and you are to help other players with any tasks that is not related to fighting monsters or the first floor boss and also you must give up your beste equipment and items as punishment." Okay heathcliff is going to far I get he made a mistake but people make mistakes all the time that's why not everyone is perfect and even though someone makes a mistake they can elanr from it. And even though I don't like kibaou I pity him. I than told heathcliff in an angry tone because he is just making me so angry right now "that's going to far, helping other players and being not allowed to participate in killing monster or helping out with floor bosses I can understand but taking his best equipment. That's wrong we players work hard for that stuff and now that I think about it why do you act like the one in charge here when you haven't even participated in any boss fights and only gave out orders to us i think that's unfair because we riske our lives fighting the floor bosses while you are here just sitting and giving orders to us." I practily yelled all that at him and glared at him. While everyone was shocked by my outburst Heathcliff looked unfazed and said to me "well you ask why I am the leader I believe that's quite obvious I am the oldest one here correct me if I'm wrong and have the most wisdom and why I am not in the front lines you ask well here's a question for you, what would happen if someone who was a leader of some people got killed than who are the followers supposed to follow than." I than took Deep breaths and calmed down I than thought of something and told heathcliff "okay fine than how about this heathcliff I challenge you to a first strike duel and if I win than you must listen to us more and help us out on the front lines and if you win than I'll worn talk about it anymore and let you do things your way." Heathcliff for the first time looked surprised at my offer he than smirked and said "very well we shall duel in the coliseum on the 75th floor." I than stopped and thinked wait a second how did he know we already got to the 75th floor let alone there being a coliseum on the floor. He than sad as if reading my mind "you wonder how I know you already made it to the 75th floor let's just say I have a good player helping me and who scouted out the next floor already. yuno come on in." I than jumped and so did everyone else at seeing yuno appear in the door way. She than walked towards heathcliff and stood next to him. I laughed and told yuno "seriously is this your way of getting me back by helping heathcliff out over us." She nodded and told me with even anger in her voice "I could care less about you all. heathcliff promised to help me avenge my family. Using his connection that only I know about." Before she could finish heathcliff cut her off and told her "remember what I said no one can know my identity. Or mt real name." Okay that's definitely suspicious I asked with skepticism "yuno care to finish that." She stayed silent at heathcliffs glare

I than thought of an idea and told heathcliff "okay I got an addition to the deal if I win you will not only listen to us and participate on the front lines but you will also tell us your real identity." Heathcliff told me "do I get anything in addition." I than smirked at heathcliff and told him "yeah if I lose I will obey your every command basically making me like yuno over there. In being your assistant." Heathcliff thought about it and said to me "okay you have a deal. We shall meet on the 75th coliseum In about 10 minutes. I will give you some time to prep yourself cause your gonna need it against me." I nodded and shook hands with him. I than told everyone "let's go." Everyone left with me except for yuno. as soon as we were out of the headquarters everyone started bombarding me with questions and speaking over each other I couldn't understand anyone so I told everyone "chill out guys one at a time. Silica you start." Silica practily yelled at me "are you out of your mind Hiro why would you accept to those conditions if you lose than you'll be his servant pretty much. And I don't want that to happen to you." She said that last part while tearing up. I sighed and told silica "Im sorry but I just couldn't sit around anymore and let heathcliff get away with anything else he has gone to far. And imma make sure I teach him a lesson. So plz don't cry." I wiped her tears away Kirito than approached me and told me "you do know it's gonna be a tough fight even when I fought him I could barely hold my own not just that he seems to switch from offense to defense with his weapon the liberator. So your gonna have to catch him off guard somehow and take him out like that." I nodded and kibaou approached me and told me with a apologetic look "hey so I maybe overreacted a little and I'm sorry for calling you a demon. You are a good guy especially since you saved me from the punishment. So your okay In my book."

I nodded and than natsuki approached me and punched me in the gut and even though you can't inflict pain on other players in the safe zone I could imagine it would have hurt bad. She than told me "you are dumb Hiro. just make sure you kick his butt and embarrass him." I laughed lightly and nodded towards her I than realized it is almost time to head to the arena and meet heathcliff. I told everyone "well guys it's almost time to meet heathcliff. And I got to say something to silica so can you give me and silica some privacy." With that everyone nodded and left towards the coliseum where I'll be dueling heathcliff. I than told silica who was still tearing up a bit "silica listen to me I don't plan on losing to heathcliff I plan on embarrassing him and between you and me I have a feeling finding out who he is will lead us to a way out of the game. so please trust me and wait for me okay. I love you Keiko." When I said her real name she teared up even more and told me while giggling "stupid I do trust you. And I love you to Hiroshi." I than told silica one last thing "say when we do get outta here lets get married as soon as I turn 19 and you turn 18 cause let's be real we're still considered minors so we couldn't even probably get married now anyways." Silica than looked like she was the happiest in the world and said to me while running to hug me "I agree let's get married in real life. We also got to find a way to bring back yui to." I nodded of course I haven't forgotten about her. I clutched the necklace that held yuis files and said to silica while handing her the necklace "keep this safe alright till after the fight." Silica nodded. Yui I promise we will find a way to bring you and we can than be together as a family once again. We stayed hugging for a little bit. Than I told silica "it's time." She nodded and she let go of me and we both headed towards the coliseum on the next floor. Heathcliff you better be ready.

I made it to the opposing entrance of the coliseum and entered and when I did I wasn't expecting the whole coliseum seats to be completely filled I than saw heathcliff and His weapon which was a sword and shield. so I should try and get the sword out of his hand and than attack him like that. We stood a few feet away from each other and waited for the countdown 3...2...1... Start. He dashed towards me and ready to pierce me but before he did I activated my skill the duel wielding dagger and deflected his Peirce with my two daggers and than dodged outta the way and ran towards him and slashed at him relentlessly and he used his shield to block each attack dang that shield is getting in my way. Alright than let's try that new skill I got. I used the skill dagger transformation and my daggers combined into a double edge short sword with blades at both the top and bottom. I than used my special dagger skill that this new transformation apparently came with and it was called circle of death and when I activated it the blades started spinning really fast where ist almost invisible I than threw it at heathcliff shield and that broke his guard and made him have an opening straight for his stomach I than dashed and realized that my weapon came back to me using this skill I than detransformed them into my normal separate dagger and slashed him using my reaper x slash dagger skill which ended up hitting him straight in the stomach and that signified the end of the duel. And me as the winner. I was panting and was exhausted but happy that I won I looked around and saw the crowd was stunned but than a seconyalter they started cheering. And I saw silica and them in The crowd than waved at them. I than noticed there expressions turn from Happy to horrified I than realized why because I was stabbed using heathcliff sword By heathcliff himself. This is bad my hp was draining fast and I was about to black out but i refuse to give in I than took my blades with as much strength as I could muster and slashed his head before my hp depleted completely while telling him "see you in hell Heathcliff." Than he disappeared instantly while I was also about to disappear and when I was about to disappear I heard voices yelling out my name one in particular stood out to me and I could tell it was silica's voice. So I told silica in my head. I'm sorry I couldn't keep our promise. And with that I saw nothingness.

Silica pov:

Yes Hiroshi won against heathcliff I was about to rushed down there towards him but than saw something horrifying in an instant he was stabbed by heathcliff my heart dropped at the sight and I was stunned wait that shouldn't be possible you can't attack player's inside of the safe zone especially when your not currently in a duel so how was he able to attack Hiroshi while I was thinking this I noticed Hiroshi was dying even though I couldn't see his health bar I could tell he was but than unexpectedly he brought up his two daggers and slashed heathcliff head and beheaded him and while heathcliff body disappeared and so did his sword that was inside Hiroshi's stomach Hiroshi was turning into particles I could tell he was in pain I than yelled out to him "Hiroshi!!!!!!" And than he disappeared into nothingness.

Yeah guys like I said there is gonna be two more chapters left after this Which the first one will be pretty much continuing this cliffhanger and than the chapter after that will be the epilogue of the aincrad arc and than we're gonna start the alfheim arc. Now with that I bid you all a good day/night wherever you are.