Sword Art Online: New Reality (REWRITTEN)

Chapter 12 - Beautiful World, Cruel Circumstances

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.