Her Mission To Save Them All || Sword Art Online Fanfic

Chapter 61

POV: Kayoko

Compared to the heat of the actual floor, the 74th dungeon is cool as we step inside, the space unusually empty for being the latest labyrinth to be unlocked. I reach up to lower the hood from my face, shaking the strands of my hair free from where they've been tucked inside. Without the fabric occurring my vision, I can make out more in the dark - the rugged stone walls and the towering pillars holding the awaiting floor above us.

"This place is just as I remember it," Shi says, glancing around space, emptied by other players of any enemies that might block our path. "Nice to know Kayaba really made use of the copy and paste function."

"I would like you to design 100 unique dungeons as well as unique floors."

"I would like to try and see you convince me to do that," he replies, his voice dry.

"You could create the most technologically advanced system, earn lots of money, fame, fans, sell tonnes of copies, hone your skills, be the first person in history to ever experience VR and share it with the world."

"Or, I could trap 10,000 people in a death game. Kill tonnes of people. That sounds fun, doesn't it?"

"Stop. I get it. SAO is bad, despite the good things about it." I snap back. Then blink. It's been over a year since my uncle's betrayal - as real as the scenery around me is fake - but I still find myself speaking like this. I guess it's hard to change your perception of someone you've known your whole life, who you've been told to love as your family, even if the evidence of them being the opposite is right in front of your face.

I hate it. I wish I could just erase everything.

Shi raises his eyebrow, opening his mouth to say something back when Yuha shoots him a sharp look. "You still speak in defence of someone you will eventually have to kill?" He says it anyway, like he has to. Like he can't keep silent.

I walk a couple of steps, fully intending to avoid answering the question but pause. If I think that if I were in Shi's position and I didn't know the answer to a question, I know it would be endlessly frustrating. I don't want to be like my uncle in that aspect. Everyone deserves an answer.

"You don't know him like I do." I say quietly, struggling to put the words together so they make sense to someone other than myself. "If you had seen the way he created this game - not like a madman but like it was art - then you would know."

"He is a madman, Kira." Shi gestures around, his voice rising, echoing almost so loudly that I swear it could bring the ceiling and the next floor down on us. "Look around, look at what he was creating. Would you really call death art?"

"No," I try to reply levelly but my voice betrays me, cracking slightly. "No, of course it's not. But there has to be a bigger reason behind this all. There has to be."

"That's why you're hunting him down? Not for revenge or to save other players' lives but for answers?! And what if there is an answer? Will you really be happy then?"

There's a silence so loud I think it might swallow me whole. I think, maybe, that Shi's right. The truth is ripping into me, tearing me apart. "You know that's not why I'm doing it. You know-"

"Do I know, Kira?" He asks. "Do you even know yourself?"

"I-" My mind is entirely blank, all the things I've become certain of clawed away from me. When I look up to meet his eyes, I find that I have no reply to satisfy the anger burning in them. He lets out a noise in frustration and it's purely animistic, ringing in my ears long after.

"We're in a dangerous area." Yuha reminds us, walking forward to where the circle of light thins into a path, the second safe area a halo of light in the distance. "We should save this conversation for later."