(Rewriting) Akashi Seijurou, the Emperor of Sword Art Online

Chapter IV

Unlike most of the days in SAO, today was unexceptionally cloudy. The always glimmering tree leaves and flower petals were gloomy and shielded off by the shadows of the cloud. Even the townsquare which was frequently packed with people have been deserted.

Today was New Year's Eve.

Instead of fun and joy that was supposed to be felt in this time of year, players of SAO just wasn't put up for this kind of celebration at the moment. Not when everyone was grieving about their lives in the real world - the world where they all wished to return to.

"I'm bored..." snapped Levi in all of a sudden when his members were all sitting around waiting for the day to end. He was waving his cape around the room as he sat on the sofa with an annoyed look on his face. He wasn't looking unhappy like all the others in the room. Well, except for Ki and Sei who seem to look cool and composed all the time.

"Well, nobody's in the mood to do anything," said June. "Not when it's New Year's Eve."

"That's the thing. It's New Year's Eve. There's supposed to be excitement, not a dead zombie march down the streets." The man said as he stood up and headed towards the door.

"Where're you going?" asked the Leader.

"Tch, to get some fresh air. Unlike you people, I want to enjoy my New Year's Eve." And with that, Levi disappeared behind the door.

Sei didn't want to get involved with another argument where the other members start complaining about Levi's attitude as always, so he quickly left the room unannounced. He was already heading out towards the door when someone called out to him from behind.

"Where do you think you're going?" asked Atsuran with a kind smile plastered on his face. He had the kindest look you could ever find from anyone in the world, but Sei knew how fierce he could be when he gets angry. They've been friends for a while anyway. It was all thanks to Levi's talk that made him change his mind about being in a party. It turned out better than he'd thought.

"Well, I was thinking of restocking my inventory. Just incase I run out of potions during a fight."

"Oh, let me join you. We can head to the market together." Atsuran said while scrolling through his inventory noticing that he was lacking of some items as well. He walked ahead of Sei when the latter followed behind him.

The market wasn't packed with people today, and it was a delight for the boys. They took all the time they had to browse through all the available stalls for their best purchase. Sei for once had found one item to his liking, which was a violin. He hadn't thought that he would ever find something like that in SAO, but since now that he did, he might be able to get something that could remind him of home.

"Why a violin?" asked Atsuran. He was squatting down by the boy when he made his bargain with the NPC. The violin look surprisingly well made.

"A reminder."

Atsuran saw Sei's eyes soften at the sight of his new possession before placing the instrument on his left shoulder. The boy held the bow at shoulder's length and started bowing the strings. A beautiful and pleasant melody was played.

"Perfect." Sei nodded before handling his money to the shopkeeper. "Thank you very much, sir."

"Thank you too. And please have a nice day," replied the NPC with a wrinkled smile on his face.

Sei left the stall walking ahead with the violin safely tucked in his inventory storage, with Atsuran trailing behind him smiling at the young boy. When Sei had turned to look and noticed that smile, he asked, "why are you smiling?"

"Nothing... It just never occurred to me that you knew how to play the violin..."

"Well, I was trained by my father to...-"

...

"Seijurou, I'm expecting you to do better than this."

"Yes, Father."

...

"Sei?" Atsuran's voice snapped Sei back from his trance. For a moment there he had remembered some unpleasant memories.

Moments later, when Atsuran had decided not to pry any further into Sei's life, he and the boy have decided to return to the inn before sunset.

On their way home, they saw a crowd gathered by the center of the garden as they were passing by. There were music coming from the center of the crowd. Sei and Atsuran curiously made their way through the people by squeezing through to see what was happening in the middle.

There was a flutist and a girl dancing around on the fountain. The people surrounding them were clapping and humming a tune that was played by the flutist. It seemed to Sei, they were having fun.

"Glad to see you two have decided to show up," said a voice behind the two. It turns out to be Levi standing there with his arms crossed enjoying the show. The music was rather lively and Sei had the most urge to join the play.

Then, Atsuran nudged the boy forward. "Show me how you play that thing you just bought."

"I don't think I should-?" his sentence was cut off when someone pulled him into the circle of dance. The lady dancer must have find it amusing to have a child as her partner.

But before Sei was fast enough to react to the shock, he was shoved by the lady to another partner to dance. He and his new partner stopped on their tracks the second they bang into each other. This new person must have been the victim to the crowd as well because Sei could sense discomfort from her eyes.

"Sei?"

Sei realised that the girl looking back at him was someone familiar to him as she had called his name so casually. "Ki!"

"Haha... Looks like we're both caught up in something crazy," laughed Ki fixing her messy skirt from all the spinning just now.

"It does seem like it."

In less than a minute, the crowd around them have started dancing among themselves. It became so lively with the main lady dancer dragging everyone to their feet.

Even Levi was stuck with her as she tries spin the man around. It took a while for the lady to realise that he actually had two left feet before she quietly ushered Levi to aside and apologized to him. Afterwards, she spun herself back into the centre of attraction for more fun. Atsuran was smiling brightly at the crowd as he started clapping with the music. He was already being caught up by the crowd to dance.

"Are you going to dance with me?" asked Ki. "Or you'd rather observe the fun from a side."

"Dancing sounds nice."

Sei grabbed hold of his partner's hand and waist, then started dancing.

It was eventually one happy day after all.

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