Sword Art Online - Alternative Reality

The Insane Blade CHP. 4

When I woke up again, sunlight was already pouring through the window. Shutting off the alarm I had set, I stretched as I sat up and looked around the room. It was 7 in the morning, and although we had set our meetup for 7:30, Kirito was already up typing away at his keyboard again with a small smile on his face, but it seemed like he wasn't able to get any proper sleep after all. Hopping out of the bed, Kirito looked up at me and his familiar old-brother smile appeared.

"Morning Silica."

"Good morning Kirito...um, did you sleep well?"

"Yeah, I'm good to go. It might be a bit earlier, but how about we head down for breakfast so we can go through the dungeon a bit sooner?"

"Yeah, that sounds great!"

Saying that he would see me downstairs while I got ready, Kirito waved at me as he left the room, and although he had lied about having slept well, I couldn't deny that there was a bit of an extra 'umph' to his steps. Changing into the gear that he had given me and swinging around the heavier dagger, I ran down after him, determined that at least for today, I'd do anything I could to keep his mood up.

After a quick breakfast of eggs, some weird bacon, some strange pancake/cheesecake mix, and another eye-popping drink (some sort of chocolate shake), we left the inn and walked over to the teleport gate. There were still quite a few people around just idly standing around and chatting away, waiting for the rest of their party to assemble so they could go out hunting. I returned the greetings to the few who called me out, inwardly relieved when we finally went up to the main town of the 47th floor, Flora.

"Wow...it's so pretty!"

"Yep, it's called the flower floor for a reason."

With an enormous fountain with elegant decorations in the center, a large and diverse array of flower gardens were scattered across the main plaza of the town. Running over to the closest one and crouching down to get a better look at a strange white and red rose, I saw a few bee-like creatures fly around the flowers, working tirelessly to pollinate them.

"Wow...they're so cute!"

As I continued to watch the bees fly around, I looked around the plaza to find several groups of players scattered across the benches, happily chatting and laughing. They were-

C-couples!?

Feeling the heat begin to build up in my neck, I turned towards Kirito in a fluster, but before I could say anything, I saw that he was staring off towards the southern exit. His face was mostly hidden from me, but I could make out a small grin from his profile. Standing upright and moving over to his side, I squinted down the path to see some sort of forest off in the distance.

"What's over there Kirito?"

"Hm? Ah, that path leads to a pretty popular flower field. It's a safe zone, so even though it's outside the town, no mobs show up..."

He continued to gaze off towards the distant forest and nodded his head, as if he had just confirmed something to himself, before moving over towards the eastern exit, telling me to follow him. After looking at the forest for a bit longer, I recalled that he had also marked that area with some sort of marker on his map. Kirito didn't seem like the type of person to enjoy hanging around flower fields, but he didn't seem to fit a 'normal' description in the first place...

Chasing after the figure that was entirely clad in black, we soon reached a bridge that led outside of the town zone. It was then that Kirito handed me a large blue crystal.

"Here, I don't think it'll be necessary, but keep this on hand just in case. If you ever feel like it's too dangerous or if I say so, use it to teleport to any town, got it?"