(SAO x Reader) Sword Art Online: Incendiary Chaos

Chapter 1

The sky, a striking blood red, was slowly reverting back to normal now as the ghostly figure in the sky faded away gently. Everyone was still staring at the exact same spot, even as he left. The message was given, and it shook us to the core.

Some suddenly burst into tears and screams. Other collapsed to the ground in shock. Lisbeth, who now had brown hair due to the mirror item, was a member of the ladder group. I moved to help her up and looked to Kirito.

"...What are you gonna do?" I asked, trying to stay calm.

"I guess... I'll go out on my own." He said, fearing his own lack of communication skills.

"...Right." I said with a nod. "Take care of yourself."

Kirito nodded back before giving me a, "You too." And running off. I turned and helped Lisbeth to her feet.

"Lisbeth. It's not safe here. Come with me." I said as I began to quickly walk, with her hand gripped in mine. She blushed quite a bit at this but didn't stop me. I couldn't realize what I was doing at the time, but at least it took her mind off of fear.

The two of us stopped off in an alleyway and began to pant. It looked like the game had a stamina system of some sort. That, or we were hyperventilating from our situation.

No one was around us for a while. This alleyway was so decrepit it looked more like a decal between two buildings. So past maybe a few people, only I knew about this.

Speaking of a few people... "Argo? Is that you?" I said through my pants of exhaustion.

I heard quiet snickering from the shade of the alleyway. "I'm surprised you caught me." A girl with deep yellow eyes popped up from seemingly nowhere. She had a sly grin on her face as well, with a hint of blonde hair coming from the small hood she was wearing.

"...You seem rather calm about all this." I said with a sigh of exhaustion.

"Calm? Oh, trust me. I'm definitely panicking a bit. But I would say that screaming and running doesn't suit me all that much, right?"

"Heh... I suppose you're right." I stood up, finally feeling a bit rested from all that running around. "Lisbeth. This is a friend of mine and Kirito's. Her name is Argo."

"O-oh. Nice to meet you..." She said, still shaken from the situation.

Argo seemed to notice this and let out a sigh. "So your name is Lisbeth? Well listen, we aren't gonna get out of this game by sulking, right?"

Lisbeth seemed mildly surprised by her statement. "...How can you be so calm?" She asked, seemingly about ready to burst into tears.

Argo let out a light chuckle, "Didn't I say? I'm not calm. I'm the most scared I've ever been right now. But, wouldn't you say that panicking is a bit unproductive now? It's all about the profit!" She said jokingly, trying to hide her shaking hands, which only her and I noticed in the first place.

Lisbeth paused for a moment, still seemingly very scared. However, she steadied herself and took a deep breath. "R-right... you're right." She said. I heaved a sigh of relief. Thankfully, Argo was pretty good when it came to social skills. So calming Lisbeth down was an easy task for her.

"Oh, right. Chevalier, it was Kirito who told me that I should help you guys out. Just thought I'd let you know." She said with a smile in my direction.

"I-It was Kirito?" I said. He was always doing favors for me, despite me never really repaying him back for them. I scratched my cheek a bit. "Darn. Guess I owe him another favor then, huh?" I said with a chuckle.

"This Kirito... He seems like a nice guy. Why'd he just run off earlier like that?" Lisbeth asked.

That was a difficult to answer question. While both Argo and I knew what the explanation to her inquiry was, it was also a bit of a matter that Kirito should resolve on his own. I looked over to Argo, who shook her head. I nodded with a sigh and scratched my head a bit.

"That's... something personal on his side. Sorry." I said, feeling a bit awkward in this situation.

"Ah... O-Ok..." She said.

"...Well, why don't we get a house for now?" I said, letting the awkwardness of the situation drain out.

"I guess you're right... A place to stay would probably be good." Lisbeth said. "We'll probably be settling for an inn right now, right?"

"Yeah. I don't think there's a way that we could get an actual house right now, even if we pooled together our funds." Argo said. "Why don't we get going?" She was already walking out of the alleyway. Lisbeth and I quickly followed her.

...

We found a place that was simply called "inn" according to the sign outside. Argo said she didn't need to join our room, but I kind of insisted.

Because of this, we rented a room with two beds. Argo and Lisbeth would be sharing one. We made our way up and to our delight, the room was rather spacious. It had two beds as promised, a bathroom (no shower though), and a small desk.

"This isn't bad for 150 col." Argo said. "Maybe we got lucky."

"Well, anyways, we're gonna need to get more gold tomorrow. We each spent half of our 100 col that we start with." I said as I looked through my menu.

"Don't worry too much about funds for the rest of today. I can spot you." Argo said.

Lisbeth turned to Argo, "Oh, did you take some quests before we got stuck in this game?"

"Nah, that's not it," I said, butting in. "She's an information broker. Her nickname is Argo the rat." I grinned just saying the name.

"O-oh..." Lisbeth was certainly surprised by this information. Argo just gave the same sly grin she always had on.

I let out a sigh and closed my menu that I was sorting through. "Well, I think it's about time that we get some shuteye. A lot has happened today and we should get some rest." I said, genuinely feeling tired as night neared around the corner of this virtual world.

Lisbeth and Argo did the same, getting into the bed on the other side of the room. I quickly fell asleep, quite stressed from what had happened today. But the others were wide awake.

"...Hey Argo?" Lisbeth whispered.

It took her a moment to speak, "...Can't sleep either huh?" She responded. "Wanna talk for a while?"

"...Mmm..." She said with a nod.

"Got it... How are you feeling?" Argo asked.

"...Sad."

"Yeah, I suppose that's a given."

There was a moment of silence between the two, as they lay down facing away from each other.

"...So how do you know Chevalier?" Lisbeth asked, finally finding another conversation topic.

"Oh, Chevalier? I met them online in a chat room." Argo said.

"T-them?" Lisbeth asked, confused by the pronouns.

"Ah, Yeah... I'm kinda bothered by this, but I have no idea what gender Chevalier is." She said with a quiet sigh. "And I've known them for about 2 years now." 

"What? Two years and you don't even know what gender he- er, they are?" Lisbeth said with a grin. 

"Yep," Argo said with a light chuckle. "Funny, ain't it? I'm an information broker, and I don't even know the gender of my friend of two years." 

Lisbeth giggled a bit herself. "Yeah... that is pretty funny!" 

"...I think I'm about ready to fall asleep." Argo said after a small moment of silence.

"Yeah... I am too. This was a fun chat." Lisbeth responded with a smile. "Goodnight." 

"Goodnight..." Argo said before both of them closed their eyes and began to doze off.