Sword Art Online: Side Stories

Shiina recalled her wolves to her side. "Well then...maybe I should just sit out for this one. I-I'll learn more by watching you, Minato." Nodding, Minato took a few more steps backwards. "Alright...then Kuroi..it's just you and me. Since this is training...and in town our health bars won't move even if we damage each other, I'll let you make the first move."

 

Kuroi swiped open the menu and quickly equipped his armor. His street clothes morphed into his usual armor. A knee length blue coat with a silk vest and white shirt along with dark blue slacks tucked into black knee high boots. On his right arm, an arm guard.

Ready, Kuroi lowered into battle stance, feet shoulder width apart, right hand ready to draw his katana. Kuroi nudged his katana out of its sheath using his thumb. His right hand fluidly pulled the katana out, the metal ringing melodiously. He gripped it with both hands. He took a deep breath and ran at Minato. "HRAAAGH!!!" He roared, a blood lust flashing in his eyes. He took a swipe at Minato, giggling like a little girl as his inner sadistic personality surfaced. Before he brought his sword down on Minato's shoulder, he giggled, "Die for me~"

 

Minato moved at the last second on purpose, letting Kuroi's katana fall harmlessly down on empty air. "Hm, something told me you'd be a reckless fighter... I'd reprimand you if I didn't think you could do better, Kuroi." Minato hopped back a step and spoke to Shiina without taking his eyes off Kuroi, "You want to always keep a level head when fighting an opponent that's more skilled than you. Sticking to offense or remaining on defense won't give you an edge against someone who's fought in more battles than you have. Having a healthy dose of both will keep your opponent on his toes. Especially with your skill set, Shiina. A full on attack from you will always put your opponent in a defensive position, but switching to defense when they're expecting an attack will throw off any plan they might have created for a counterattack."

 

"Tch." Kuroi gripped his katana, knuckles whitening. Minato's words enraged Kuroi even more.

Wait, his calmer side said. Kuroi closed his eyes, finding himself in darkness. Another him was standing across from him. "You gotta calm down." his other said. "You're not gonna beat him if you don't relax and clear your head."

"Shut up." Kuroi sneered. He had shut that side of himself out, for fear of getting hurt again.

Kuroi opened his eyes, light flooding his vision. His eyes adjusted to the sunlight. "HRAAAGH!!" He ran at Minato again, ready to thrust his katana into his opponent's leg.

 

A kunai slid down Minato's sleeve and deflected the katana away from his leg. "I thought so... You don't have any control over your rage do you? You should learn to maintain control even when in a training match." Twirling as he moved around Kuroi, he elbowed him lightly in the back and sighed, "I didn't think I'd have so much trouble teaching another person... Especially...when they don't..." he flicked the rounded end of his kunai against Kuroi's cluster of nerves in his right elbow, creating the numbing sensation in his right arm, "Listen to what's being taught."

 

Kuroi clutched his arm in pain, his hand slowly numbing. He willed his hand not to drop his sword, clenching his teeth.

Hey! His other self shouted again. Kuroi closed his eyes. Once again, he was in the darkness. His other self stood in front of him again. That's no good. Nice Kuroi scolded. He crossed his arms and wagged his index finger at Kuroi.

"But, if I'm not strong enough..." Kuroi started, but his other's hand reached out and put his finger on his lips, silencing Kuroi.

Nu uh uh~ If you want to win, we're going to have to work as one. His other self held out his hand, beckoning Kuroi to take it.

Kuroi hesitated, but he was right. He was going to have to accept his other self. Together, he can fight with his own strength and his other's calmness. "Alright." Kuroi took his hand.

Nice Kuroi pulled his own body into a hug and he rejoined Kuroi.

Kuroi opened his eyes. He felt different. Whole. He looked at his feet, focusing on the detail of his boots as he collected his thoughts while his hand clenched and unclenched the hilt of his katana. Kuroi took a deep breath and let it out. He was ready.

He raised his katana and pointed it at Minato. Activating his special ability, Aoi Honoo, he swiped his blade down to his side in a fluid motion as blue flames engulfed the steel. His stats spiked and he rushed at Minato once again, but with a different demeanor. He felt confident, but not too much. Calm, but still wanted to win.

He slashed and stabbed at Minato in a flurry of strokes, his sword dancing in the air, flawlessly. The speed at which his sword moved made it almost invisible, except for the blue flames tracing the path of his sword.

OOC: So Kuroi accepted his inner self (like in Persona). Originally he was really weak, but this sadistic side emerged to keep himself safe.

 

Minato noted the change in Kuroi and flipped backwards, keeping a constant distance between him and Kuroi. His blue eyes followed the path of his blade. Predicting each swing Kuroi made based on the last, Minato successfully dodged a majority of the strikes. Those that slipped past his predictions and lack of defense inflicted the normal knock back. "Good, Kuroi." Ducking and moving out of the way of Kuroi's destructive path, Minato put a greater distance between them and relaxed, "Very impressive. I think that's well enough training. Shiina...did you learn something from Kuroi?" Shiina nodded and whistled, "Wow! Minato, you're so fast!" Minato's expression turned into incredulity, "That's...not what I meant. Not me, Shiina...Kuroi. Did you learn anything from watching Kuroi." She turned her gaze to Kuroi, "Oh...well of course. Kuroi did reeeeeally well. I'm amazed anyone could fight like that. I...I didn't get to see your match in the tournament, but I wish I had. You fought Star and Masaru..." her expression fell, "I don't think I could've fought them...I could barely fight Masa-" She bit her tongue but it was too late. "You fought Ryu? I wish someone had told me he'd be there...I definately would've entered." Shiina looked up at her blond friend, "You know Masamune? Or...what did you call him?" "Ryu...he was my friend in the real world. I haven't spoken to him since...since he started committing crimes and well...I kinda got married." "Uh...what?" Shiina hopped to her feet, "You're married?" Minato smiled, "Sure am. My son just turned six, actually."

 

The sun came up. The fake light piercing into the room where Star and Masaru slept. Star slowly opened her eyes to see her and Masaru holding hands near their chests. A red pigment fell across her face As she let go, jumping out of bed. Normally she would have slapped a man for doing this, but it was accidental and she did feel for the boy. He hopefully didn't notice that they were was what she thought.
Heading towards the kitchen, she began to prep some food. With the flick of her wrist on the drop menu, she selected the ingredients and let them transform into something edible. "The smell of the food will wake him up surely." She grabbed some food and changed into her armor. "We're going to have to get an early start."

 

Masaru stirred on the bed and cracked an eye open when he saw the psoition he and Star were in and star's reaction, he wasn't hoenstly surprised by this as he had to keep his guard up most of the time in case of a attack in the Inn and teh smell of food, well, digitially recreated stirred him from his sleep completely as hsi brain was registering it's surroundings, he wasn't much of immeidate person, his brain would automatically go on autopilot for breakfast and eat until after 10-20 minutes or so, his body will wake and he'd be his normal self as he yawned and sat at the dining table.

"Morning, what's for breakfast?" he asked a bit sleepily, using a hand to cove rhis mouth from a yawm about to escape, this wasn't the warrior who fought on the front-lines constantly but just a normal everyday youth.

 

Star threw food over to Masaru. "Specialty of mine. Found a way to recreate the taste of Bacon. Th rest is normal food that we see eaten commonly." Slightly irritated she was about his morning self. Tad lazy and unresponsive. No one was perfect though. "Hurry up and eat. We're heading out soon. I'll be at the gate." She closed the door behind her setting a special lock. Only people could go out, not in.
The town was very silent. It would normally be 6 a.m. in Japan and most of the people here were youth. Teens tend to sleep in let alone wake up early. Arriving at the gate, a girl walked out of the gate. and stared deeply at Star.
"Hikari Hoshi. My my this is a surprise."
Star looked in confusion. "Have we met?"
"No. If we had met before, you surely would be dead. Lucky for you there is no bounty on your head."
"Who are you?"
"I am the witch people speak of. The one that turned down PoH. I am the fire assassin, Inferna." Her tongue licked her lips.
Star had heard rumors of this girl. She murdered plenty of players just to get a prize in the end. The story goes she kills whomever she targets. Only two have survived the encounter with her. Both of the survivors were of Laughing Coffin: PoH and Masamune. "Why are you here...?"
"I am on business. Was hired to kill someone."
"Who is your target?"
"I cannot say, Mrs Starlight. That would ruin my job."
"Makes sense. I won't keep you any longer. I have a mission to attend to anyway."
"So be it girl." Inferan walked off to go and hunt for her prey. She whispered to herself slightly "Some men are just too jealous."
Star's hands were trembling. The girl was one of the strongest in Aincrad. Most had a right to fear her. Star went to stand by the gate, with her eyes bulging from the encounter.

 

Masaru ate his bacon and nodded, checking his items afterwards and went out to meet Star at the Gate, changing into his armour and saw Star's expression and stance, it seemed something terrified her when he headed over, it couldn't of been the mission since she didn't shake from mentioning it, heck she suggested it herself.

"Something bothering you Star?" He asked her in a concerned tone, if she acted like this, they had to be a reason and it could very well affect the quest they planned to set out on, after all, nowadays, you had to go out of town pretty much with confidence and a plan if you planned on living and not be killed as your own live was at stake.

 

Star was never one to lie. Nor could she ever not tell Masaru of all people the truth. "I just ran into Inferna. I thought I was her target. She said otherwise though." She shook her head. No reason to freak out about it. The encounter was just mind boggling. She didn't fear Masamune, maybe because of her guilt, but he didn't torture for pleasure either. "Lets go to Floor 51 now." She opened the gate and warped to the floor.
The air was warm and dry. The entire floor put an emphasis on hot envirements. The city itself was an oasis in the middle of the desert. "Lets start heading out to the volcano. I want to get the ore as soon as possible."

 

Masaru nodded, he heard of Inferna through the forums or updates on the virtual newspapers, but not much was known about her since most Players who meet her and become her target, don't live, she was a rouge PKer and not a part of any Guild so he heard, but Laughing Coffin is the most prominent PK guild out there.

"Right, we'll head off in the direction of this Volcano, I also want to do some weaker spawn battles, I want to see what my new Skill is capable of since Absorption Slash is no longer in place, this also means I can't just accept a stab and attack at close range since the damage won't be returned upon the activation of the SKill." He said to her.

 

Star nodded in agreement. It took a few hours but they had finally reached the volcano's outskirts. It was much more hot then the desert was and the sky had been blackened from the ash spewing out. Fire Gnolls were everywhere. They met you no harm if you out leveled them by 25 levels which most players could. They were only level 42. and had low defense. The attack was moderate and the HP was higher than even level 60 monsters. "Well, work your magic with the skill, Masaru. Then we can head into the entrance where the Golem's live."

 

Masaru nodded and drawn out Dream Eater before opening the Skill Menu for the <<Phantom Blades>> skill and pressed it and the sword glowed in a dull yellow before spiltting a carbon copy of the sword he held in his other hand, he noted the attack power, it raise slightly but no doubt, wielding two swords meant more available attacks to deal with but also, prividing a ncie defnense to block from both sides or occupy a weapon and keep it pinned while the other blade was available.

"Two Swords huh, this is certainly a Unique way to fight." He said to himself, two swords meant you needed to be ambidexitrous, luckily, he practiced with his left hand about as much with his right while fighting as to be abel to block from any angle.

"Let's go." He charged forward at a Fire Gnoll and sliced it in the back and it's HP obivously took a major hit, even though it's HP neared the 60 Monster level, it's defense was balanced to say the least, but they were Level 42, he was Level 70, much farther than 25 levels higher to be safe and noted other skills appearing with the abilty and he jumping back and blocked a Gnoll's attack and pushed it back.

"Snake Bite!" He called out as his swords glowed blue to indicate the skill's activation he stabbed foward, stabbing the Fnool in the chest before driving the second blade into it, diminishing it's health rapidly and shattered into pixels, giving him small EXP and Col in exchange and he looked at the other skills the this strange style had, it had Double Circular and Snake Bite, a 2-hit combo register while there was Starburst Stream, a 16 hit combo and The Eclipse at 27 hit combo, obivously the longer the combo, the more cooldown time it required, plus his skillset had a new status of Two-Handed Style at <<001>>.

"Looks like after this is all said and done, I'll focus on mastering this but I think i'll keep this Skill hidden from the public, otherwise, people would think I cheated or something." He thought to himself as he returned to Star, the second Dream Eater vanishing in a flash of light, the skill only remained active during battle.

 

the duel weidling ability. There must've been a downside however. The power of the two must be dropped by at least half for each sword to function correctly. That would be the only logical way to keep the technique balanced. Now if it were two separate swords, it would be different, but there would never be a powerful ability like that in this game for certain. "Interesting ability there Masaru. Many would be jealous of that one. Don't worry. Your secret is safe with me."
The two entered the cavern to the volcano's heart. It was like any other dungeon with tricks and traps and very linear passage ways. Then.. the two had found the large battle ground. The golems would certainly appear before them here. Once they reached a certain point, the ground and ceiling began to glow orange, it was as if the lava had surrounded the battle area they were in. The first golem appeared. It had the name of Magnarock. It was a level 65 hand combat creature. Mid HP, High Attack, High Defense, and low Agility. Hitting it would certainly not be a problem, however, if you were to be hit, it could be fatal. The second Golem entered the room. It was unlike its brother. High agility, mid defense, low attack, and high HP. It was called Golerot. The positive was it had bad attacks, but the speed made up for it in that. "What's the plan of attack Masaru?"

 

Masaru looked at the Golems, the first one, Magnarock was a LV65 with high attack and defense, making it a powerhouse but it's downsides were in fact low Agility and mid-level HP so it would take a while for it to keep up with speedy Players, but the blow oculd be a devastating one if connected properly while Golerot was focused on speed but had bad coordination but high Hp, in any case, they ocvered each other's weaknesses quite firmly, but if oen came down, they'd be open.

"Can't get them both provoked and focus their attenion on one person, that's practically suicidal unless you were overleveled and confident in your skills..." he thought and spoke. "We beat Golerat first, it's speed will hinder and block us at every turn we try to attack it's brother whose slow on the uptake, so we can use space to get around.if you see Magnarock approaching, retreat from his advance, however if we get cornered by them, we spilt off and use their bodies as leverage to get out of there." he suggested, it would be a huge risk to use his newfound Skill sinc ehe barely started using it, he'd use it if the situation is really bad.

 

"Right. I don't think i can use my special skill on these guys either. I doubt it'll do enough damage." She would instead use her normal sword. Her AGL was higher then the Golerat. That was the hope at least. While she distracted him, Masaru could strike with full attack strength. She charged, the speed at which she ran was intense. Rivalry to Asuna of the Blood Alliance. No on could be as fast as Asuna though. Her sword sliced at the golem. As expected it blocked. "Switch!"

 

Masaru nodded and heard the cry of <<Switch>> from Star and charged forward as he leapt upon it's arm and charged up a skill. "Rage Spike!" he said as the skill activated with him leaping at the Golem with an upward strike, a weak basic movebut if you were high leveled, it'll deal quite a bit of damage and he landed on the ground. "Howling Octave!" As he chained another skill, giving five highs peed continous thrusrts before cutting down, up and finally performign another uppercut, an 8-hit combo at that.

"Switch!" He said, blocking a attack from a Golem as it attempted to crush him and hsi HP took a bit of minor damage.

 

After having a somewhat awkward night with Ittoki, she went back to the shop and fell asleep on the second floor. Before sunrise, a message indicator interrupted her speed."Dammit! Who the hell messages this early in the morning?!" She sat up and angrily opened her message, reading it and then staring at the message in shock."Masamune...needs help...?" Without wasting another minute, she quickly equipped her battle clothing and ran out of her store, closing the store with a message that said 'Closed for sudden notice. Will be back soon.' She ran all the way to the warp gate."Dammit...what happened now? Hang on Masamune..."She teleported to the floor where the message was sent from.