We arrived onto floor 9, looking around on the floor as it was more forest themed as we saw fireflies floating around. “So…This is our safezone?” I thought as I looked behind us, seeing the teleportation pad but no town for us to be in. The entire floor looked overgrown, as if nature had retaken the floor. Most of us wandered around the perimeter, looking at the enormous trees, giant roots that came out of the ground and the almost humid-like fog from the area. “Hey Toru, come look at this” I said to Toru, turning around to see that she was picking flowers, I walked towards her and said, “What kind of flowers are those?” Toru turned around quickly and stood up holding the flowers behind her.

“w-w-w-what are you talking about?”

She said looking away and being really obvious, I then asked her again “What kind of flowers are those” as she hastifully replied “I-I-I don’t have any” as the flowers were dropped into her pouch inventory. She removed her hands from behind her back as they were empty, she said with confidence “I don’t know what you’re talking about Kirin” as I sighed and acted like she didn’t have the flowers, “C’mon Toru we need to explore for a bit” I told her as we partied up again.

We began our exploration around this floor, walking through some really tall grass, getting over large and enormous roots, and fighting our way through sometimes. Toru and I climbed over a root and landed on our feets seeing more flowers and mushrooms beside it. I looked at her and said “Don’t pick the flowers this time” as I walked ahead, she pouted at me lightly hitting my shoulder blade saying “I won’t, like I said I didn’t pick up flowers earlier”.

We kept walking and exploring different routes to expand our map knowledge. Toru looked at my hand and tried to reach for it as I moved my hand a little closer to hers so she could hold it. She looked as she turned her attention to me, still facing forward as I told her “Don’t be like me and do things alone Toru, It’s not fun doing things by yourself”. She kept her eyes on me as Toru lightly gripped my hand with a small blush and a smile, she then replied “Kirin, Can we hold hands in the real world..?”.

I never thought about the outside world and its condition on keeping an eye on us, I was so focused on fighting that I had forgotten about everyone else outside of SAO. I hesitated to speak at first but eventually said “Sure, We can once we’re out of this madness”.

Toru smiled as she said “Arigato..”, I asked Toru “What are your thoughts on our relationship..?” as I felt like it was becoming a burden on my chest. Toru took a minute or two to think before she replied “Well.. I think this is the first time a guy didn’t think of me as another tomboy looking for attention…” as I just stayed silent. Toru went on to continue talking,

“In school, I was seen as the tomboy of my classroom. I did things that girls wouldn’t normally do and I stood up against guys picking on me or my friends… Eventually my friends despised me after getting into their new popular groups.. I became lonely..desperate…hated on…I tried to change my attitude to act like normal girls at my school. It worked…for about three weeks…”

We then made a turn walking down a pathway as fireflies flew past us. “I learned something in my school year…” Toru said as she added on with my ears still listening, “Happiness lasts when you devote yourself to it..and Sadness lasts forever..” as she began tearing up. Toru began to cry as we stopped walking, I turned around and hugged as she lightly began to hug back. I said to her “I’m sorry you had to bring that up..” in a guilty tone, she replied saying “N-No…I-It’s my fault..” she said with her face stuffed into my shoulder.

“It’s never your fault Toru, You didn’t do anything wrong. It was my fault for making you bring it up..”

I told her as I patted her back and her head, I held her hand as we began walking again, keeping a close eye on her this time. We began walking down the pathway as I looked at her and thought to myself “I’m…I’m really glad I have someone this close to me..” as I looked up at the sky with the treelines in the way. “It’s not everyday that a guy like me can be with a girl as beautiful as her…” I thought to myself as we kept walking and jumped over a bush, when we landed on the other side the ground cracked beneath us. “HOLD ON!!” I shouted as I held toru close, sliding down and falling down into a cave system.

We both landed with a hard thud onto the floor, I lifted my arm and asked her “Are you alright..?” as Toru nodded saying “Im okay..”. She crawled out as I got up and saw my health in yellow. I pulled out a health potion telling Toru to “Catch” , throwing her a health potion. Toru caught the potion as we both drank it, afterwards we looked around this cave system, walking together.

“We should look for a way out”

I told her as we kept walking and looking around, the more we walked the more we had questions about ourselves. “Kirin..” Toru said lightly as I turned my head slightly as I was listening to what she had to say, “Can I lead this time.?”. We heard her voice echo throughout the walls of the cave, sunlight was also bearing down in holes in the ground as we kept walking. “Sure, go first Toru” I told her as she walked ahead slightly and led our two-man walk.

We walked out of a cave into another system that had a huge hole above us, with the sunlight beaming down through the hole. At the center of it was a rusty sword and scythe embedded into the ground, Toru and I walked up to it to see the rusty sword and scythe. I placed my hand on the scythe and slid my hand across its handle “Is this a prop?” I asked Toru as she replied “I don’t know, are weapons able to be embedded into things?”.

I shook my head in confusion as I explained “Our weapons don’t really embed into things, certain weapons can be like axes and daggers..” as I thought of something to do. I swiped my hand down and unequipped my sword, vanishing from my back and the strap vanishing as well, I gripped the rusty scythe with both hands on its handle and took a couple of deep breaths.

“Kirin, what are you doing?”

Toru asked as I replied “Have..you heard of Excalibur from…France!” struggling to pull out the scythe from the stone. “No, I took only american history, not european” Toru replied up-front as I said “It was rhetorical Toru!”. I kept struggling to pull out the scythe as I gasped for air for a bit, stopping my attempt for a while. Toru looked at the sword as she gripped the sword and tried to pull it out. “C’mon!!” Toru shouted as she was pulling on the sword hard, her hands then slipped off as she fell backwards and landed on her back.

“Are you alright Toru!”

I said in a small panic as she replied “I’m okay!” as I sighed before looking at the sword. I let go of the scythe’s handle and walked over to the sword, I grabbed the handle with both hands and began my attempt at pulling it out. I was stunned that the sword was easier to pull out as I pulled out the sword without any restraint. The rust then fell off the sword as the sword gleamed a bit, I looked at its sea blue coloration as it looked like it had a fragrance built within the sword.

A Textbox then popped up saying “Acquired Item: Ryujin/Sujin” as I tapped the red X button and looked at the sword. “Ryujin and Sujin? Like the deities?” I thought to myself as I swung the sword with one hand, trying to get the feeling for it. “It’s rather light for a sword that was stuck in a rock” I thought again as I looked over at Toru who had gotten up already. I looked back at the sword and tapped it, opening up its stats.

Sujin

ATK: 71

DUR: 66

AGI: 85

WGT: 105

Requirements: 1H sword proficiency at LVL 15

I looked at its stats and saw it was a very powerful sword, but I was more interested in the sword's requirements. “Requirements?” I thought to myself confused as I gripped the sword with both hands, the handle was just long enough for two hands to grab onto it as a bright light came from the sword. Toru and I closed our swords and braced ourselves as if something was gonna explode, The light then faded away as I held two swords in my hands.

A Textbox opened up again saying “Acquired Item: Sujin and Ryujin” as underneath that text another one said “Acquired Skill: Dual Wield”. My brain went numb for a second looking at the Dual Wield text as I tapped the red X and the box went away. “Dual…Wield..?” I thought to myself dumbfounded at the realization as I shook my head a bit. “Is everything alright Kirin?” Toru asked me as I nodded saying “Yeah, Just amazed that’s all..”. I looked at the other sword as it was red and scaly, its handle looked like scales as the sword was a bright red with a yellow tint on the edges. I tapped it as I saw the name was “Ryujin” and it had the same stats as Sujin had.

“So these are based on the two Deities..” I thought to myself as I closed the stats box and swung the two swords around for a bit, feeling very weird using two swords. “How can someone use two swords..?” I thought as I tried to sheath both swords, missing entirely as I wasn’t used to sheathing two swords. “Oh come on..” I muttered as Toru laughed a bit saying “Here, let me help”.

Toru grabbed my hand and guided my hand to sliding the swords into the right place. “Thanks Toru” I said to her as she smiled saying “No problem, let’s go” as we began heading out. We stopped again as I switched my skill from Dual Wield to 1H sword, Toru asked “Why are you switching it?” as I told her “Well It feels very weird to use two swords in a fight, It’s probably on me maybe.” as we began walking back out again.

We saw a slope at the end as we ran towards it and walked up the downward slope, after climbing it for a while we reached the top to the surface, when we poked our heads out we saw a beautiful sunset over the horizon. We got up and out of the ditch as we stood up, looking down was a very high drop as we kept our attention away from the drop. “You don’t get to see this everyday..” I told Toru as she nodded, saying “Yeah.. Everytime I see the sunset, I’m just reminded that this is a video game…But this feels more than just a video game now…”.

I sighed as I held her hand, she looked down at our hands as she looked back at the sunset saying “What if.. We just live here..” Toru said as I looked at her. “Hear me out… We all need to leave but… At the same time, I don’t want to leave.. My life has been exciting everyday.. I don’t want that excitement to leave..” she said as I just stared at her a bit surprised, I smiled a bit as I replied “Yeah, I don't want it to end either, but all good things must come to an end at one point too..”.

I turned around and began walking away from the cliff as I turned around to see that Toru was still standing there. I looked at her standing there as leaves began falling and the wind began to pick up. I stared at astonishment as I swiped my hand down, taking out a crystal from my inventory and taking a picture with it. Toru turned around confused as she asked “Did you just take a picture?”

I shook my head saying “no, you can’t take pictures in SAO” as she sighed briefly saying “thank god, I thought you actually took a photo” as she smiled and led the way again. I looked at her walk as I looked down at my crystal and held it close. “She's really beautiful mom… I wish you were here to see her…” as I heard Toru call for me.

“Coming Toru! I got sidetracked!”

I shouted as I put my crystal away, running over to her and headed back towards the safezone. When we got back to the safezone, we were out of breath and dying on the floor as we walked farther than usual, Sato showed up and kneeled down to us saying “Stamina potion you two?” as he handed us two aquamarine potions. “Thanks Sato.. You’re the best y’know..” I told him tired as I chugged my potion, Toru did the same as Sato replied “I know, it’s the reason why I’m here”. Sato stood back up as he said “I’m needed somewhere else now, Good to see you guys again” as Sato waved and we waved back. We then see that Sato ran over to Neo, who was waiting for him by a tree that was nearby.

“Hey isn’t that the girl who tried to stab you?”

I told Toru as she looked and nodded saying “yeah, I guess it is her, but why is she with sato?” as I didn’t know as well. They walked off as we got up from the ground. “Do you think we’d see them again?” Toru said as I got back up onto my feet, I shook my head saying “I don’t think so, he’s gone already”. Toru also got back up to her feet as we headed off to a small shop nearby.

I stood at the side as Toru was looking through sections and sections of clothes. I looked up at the sky again and saw the light through the treelines once more, I then turned my attention towards Toru. She was done searching through the multiple sections of clothes, “Do I look great in this one?” She asked me as I looked at her and saw her shirt was a bit oversized, I sighed briefly before saying “Yeah, but it’s oversized.”. Toru then began to giggle a bit, saying “Well yeah, I wanted it in your size”, I blushed a bit before quickly turning my head away.

After we looked through the clothes section, We began walking through what felt like festival stands, a bunch of NPCs in stalls that sold things. Multiple players were around so it was crowded and very loud for us. We walked out of the festival-like stalls with a couple of items in hand. Toru was eating corn on a cob as I carried a couple more things in my hand for her. “I feel so much at home now” Toru told me as we both sat down on a rock, She then added on “I never realized how much I missed home after Two months here..” as she looked at her corn on a cob.

I sat there as she took a bite out of it, I stayed silent letting her talk it out as she talked for about an hour or so. After her talk, Toru fell asleep on my shoulder 6 minutes later, eating all of her food within that hour. I sat there looking at her, unable to say anything to her confidently, I then looked away and at the ground. “Why…Why can’t I speak to her like I would normally do…” I muttered to myself as a voice from nowhere said “Leave her outside of the safezone…Let the PKers get her…” I stood up quickly and pulled my sword out.

Toru woke up when I moved as she looked at me a little dazed groaning “mmmn… What is it Kirin…” as I looked around quickly and a bit uneasy. Toru stood up and put her hand on my shoulder saying “Kirin..You’re scaring me a bit..” rubbing her eye. I took a deep breath and sighed it out as I looked at her saying “Maybe I’m just tired…we’ll stop back down at floor 2” as she smiled.

“There’s my Kirin”

Toru said smiling, holding my hand as we walked to the teleportation pad. we stood on it as I said “Kamdet City”, teleporting all the way down to floor 2 in Kamdet City. Once we teleported down there, we walked over to my Log cabin as it was tidy as he left it, with Rina’s crystal still on the table. I looked at it as I picked it up and set it on top of the fireplace. Toru went first into our bedroom that we were staying in.

“This is a big bedroom!!”

Toru said excitedly, I nodded and told her “We’ll be sleeping here for tonight” as she jumped in excitement as well. Nightfall came shortly after as Toru was fast asleep and I was laying down in my bed and looking at the ceiling. I looked to the side to see Toru as we were forced to sleep in the same bed for the first time. I turned to my side as I thought to myself “Everything will be okay tomorrow…” slowly falling asleep in the process.

But from the darkest corners of the room, a voice said out again “Kirin…You will face the biggest failure of your life…And I…Will take over…” as I felt a chill down my spine sleeping. The voice then said out again

“Cherish the things that you have, for your moral compass, your sanity, and your morale, will all snap. When that happens… Kirin the Reaper… will be the real Reaper…”

[End of Volume 1 / New Reality Arc]