Sword Art Online: Forgotten Edition

Fragment 42 - Serious Discussion

A Few Days Later
Floor 65 — Doloria Centre

Defeating the floor 64 boss was not easy for the front liners, in fact, it might've been one of their toughest yet. Luckily there were no casualties thanks to everyone's teamwork.

The Shadow Legion, dubbed by Kirito, consisted of Haru, Musashi, Hero, and Volt on their mission to locate the red guilds and red players. During their time on the 64th floor, they definitely had their fair share of fighting them whether they liked it or not, and it was definitely the latter.

Ever since Haru's berserk incident, Musashi advised him to stay in the safe zones and to not leave at all unless he was accompanied but someone. He reluctantly listened, and everything has been going well according to Asuna who Musashi asked to monitor him while the others did their own thing.

During those few days he didn't seem to have any symptoms from before, nor did they experience anymore ambushes. It was a good sign. But regardless of what it was, there was something about the whole thing that irked the others and it prompted them to hold discussions under Haru's nose.

Floor 65 — Sunshine INN

Shutting the door to their room, leaving the sleeping Haru behind, Hero tiptoed away then rendezvoused with Musashi, Volt, and Asuna who were waiting in the lobby.

"He's asleep," the blonde haired boy confirmed as he took a seat with the rest.

"Okay, good. We can continue our conversation we left off of the other day," Musashi started with a serious expression on her face, "we've pretty much concluded that those gauntlets aren't normal. Something about them is affecting Haru, and for all we know it could get worse. We can't have him use those again."

"But you saw how they just equipped themselves onto his arms the other day. Even if he doesn't use them, they'll just somehow spawn on him," Hero brought up a point that they were all wary of, except Asuna.

"Wait, the gauntlets equipped themselves? You guys didn't mention that before. All I heard was that he went crazy with them on. How is that even possible?" their friend had a confused look on her face.

"It's hard to believe if that's part of the game's design... Haru that entire time was just like a whole different person," Hero put a hand on his chin and closed his eye, "a weapon that literally leeches life and restores another...what the hell kind of mechanic is that, especially in a death game like this..."

Musashi shook her head, "Let's not go too into depth with this. I know one thing for sure and it's the fact that the red guilds caught wind of his gauntlets, even though it was never publicly released."

The rest nodded their heads.

"Our goal is to figure out who or what the hell is behind this, but we can't do this alone. Asuna, I'm sorry to keep asking you of this, but I want you to keep monitoring Haru so he doesn't do anything stupid. This is also the perfect time for the Shadow Legion to finally do their job," Musashi finished.

Irked by the name "Shadow Legion," Volt's eye twitched as she finally spoke up, "Do we have to have such a cringe name?"

"Cringe? I think it's pretty cool!" Hero was the first to retort.

"Shut up, you chuunibyou maniac! Of course YOU would think it's cool! Couldn't we just have a normal name...like a play on the three musketeers or something?"

"NO! Now THAT is cringe! Your naming sense is terrible! I can see why your name is Volt," Hero scoffed.

Not taking his insult so lightly, Volt grabbed his collar and pulled him down to eye level with her, "Don't go making fun of this name, I'll have you know this name is dedicated to the fastest man alive!"

"F-Fastest man..." Hero's words were stuck in his throat.

"With a 100m dash of 9.58 seconds, a 200-meter dash of 19.19 seconds, he's known as the fastest
man alive!" Volt reiterated with passion for the first time.

Musashi was racking her brain trying to remember the name of that particular individual that she'd heard before, then it hit her, "Usa*n Bolt?".

"EXACTLY! Usa*n Bolt—Hm? B-Bolt?" Volt titled her head.

"Yeah, that's his name, you said your name is derived after him though, so technically your spelling is wrong," Musashi corrected her.

"Eh—" she stared at her name. B-Bolt...not Volt...it's a 'B' not a 'V'?!

She dropped to the ground with a defeated expression, "No way..."

"Tough luck. Man, I've never seen her go through so many emotions before...that's a first," Hero stood over her with a small grin on his face while fixing his collar.

Having a laugh, Musashi looked at the time, "Okay, it's getting late. It's best if we continue our excursions tomorrow for more hints or clues. And we cannot let Haru catch wind of this either, else he's going to want to join in and we can't let him do that." They all nodded their heads in unison.

"Good night."