The Lightning Flash

Chapter 19: A Father's Sins Pt. 2

Darkness.  Time alone with her thoughts.  Two things that Shino despised more than anything. Yet, she was forced to deal with both of these while she sat in a dark room, awaiting to be spawned into her first Bullet of Bullets match. As she sat there, all she could do was wonder if all of the training she had done the last couple of weeks would be enough to help her win? She knew that Asuna and Kazuto were both capable of winning but she didn't have the same faith in herself.  Sure, she had made significant progress in being able to hold her Hecate sniper rifle but she questioned whether it was enough to win a full-fledged one on one skirmish? On top of that, a familiar face kept resurfacing inside of her mind, ever since entering the dark room.  It was the same face that always haunted her mind when she was in the dark...the face of the man she had killed to protect her mother.  No matter how many times she was told that it was in self-defense...no matter how many times she was told that she did the right thing, she couldn't force herself to believe it.  She took someone's life.  That man she shot...his life was over and there was no way for him to get it back and...it was her fault.  What if he had a partner or...worse...what if he had a family?  Shino hadn't even considered these things when she had shot him.  The only thing that was on her mind, at the time, was protecting her mother by any means possible.  It was only now, that these thoughts decided to rear their ugly heads and they wouldn't go away, no matter how badly she wanted them to. 

"H-How...will I ever know if what I did was the right thing?" asked Shino to herself, sadly.

Her body began to be enveloped in blue light until she was no longer in the pitch-dark room and, instead, was in a completely different location.

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Is this a city? asked Shino, internally, looking around at her surroundings which consisted of damaged cars, destroyed sidewalks and crumbled buildings.  I've visited a couple of abandoned cities like this with myself and the others but...this one doesn't look familiar.  I can't help but wonder if the creators of GGO created special environments just for these tournament matches? Actually, that would make sense.  If we were just spawned into random points on the map, then what would prevent other players, who aren't participating in the tournament, from getting involved? 

Unfortunately, one thing that Shino noticed was that she was on the side of the abandoned city, where most of the buildings were barely anything more than mere rubble.  None of them seemed like, particularly, good places to use as a sniper's nest.  However, in front of her, she observed that there were a couple of tall buildings that would be ideal for a sniper.

"If only I had spawned on the other side, by those buildings," complained Shino, already taking notice of her poor luck.  "Well, complaining about it isn't going to do me any good.  I better get walking and just hope that I don't run into my opponent, along the way.  I guess if I do, I still have my photon saber." 

Shino still wasn't on the same level as Asuna or Kazuto when it came to melee combat but she did believe she had gotten better, in comparison to her starting point.  Shino began the long walk towards the other side of the small city, where the tall buildings were and couldn't prevent herself from getting lost in her own thoughts while she did so. 

I wonder what kind of opponent I'm facing? Could they be a melee build?  Eh, I doubt it. Most players in this game use guns since that's pretty much the main draw of it.  Makes sense since if players wanted melee combat, they would just hop onto Aincrad Online, instead. Although, some players, like Kirito and Asuna, who are extremely familiar with melee builds, might choose to do the same in this VR world.  If I end up facing someone like this, should I use my sniper against them or my saber?  To be honest, I don't know if I'm confident enough to engage in a one-on-one melee fight against an opponent but using a sniper rifle seems like it wouldn't be very effective.  Here's just hoping that I don't end up fighting a...