SAO FB: Scars

Understanding Everything

"So much for the tutorial," Kato spoke while observing his surroundings.

"Hey, Kirito," Asuna mentioned. "Doesn't this area seem familiar? It feels like Aincrad."

As Kato looked around the arena, he felt a sense of familiarity with it. The inner arena had been the Floor Boss arena for Floor 74. There were columns lined with lit torches. The outer area was more akin to Floor 75's Floor Boss Arena.

"Do you think we're in New Aincrad? Inside of ALO?" Kirito asked.

"That's a whole game away," Kato refuted. "If we were transported to ALO, we would have passed through the logout screen and our personal login areas. Besides, I wouldn't have this pistol."

"Kato is correct," Yui affirmed. "Currently, everyone is still logged into Cross Edge."

"So then there's an SAO stage?" Asuna asked.

"From the looks of it, yes. Also, where's our opponent? Usually, they're across from us."

Kato thumbed the safety on the pistol to fire and closed his eyes. He still felt a sense of uneasiness. As he imagined the arena, he imagined the positions of everyone in the area. He heard the sound of footsteps behind him. Kato turned around and shot a bullet near the feet of the attacker. They jumped over the trio and revealed themselves in the light. Kato raised the pistol and centered his sights on the attacker. They wore a red hood and scarf with yellow accents. She had a black shirt, gloves, and pants with various red and yellow accents.

"Who are you?" Kirito asked.

"You are all offenders!" a female voice cried out.

She unsheathed a unique red-purple sword with blades on both ends of a central hilt. Asuna, Kirito, and Kato stood there with Kato having a finger on the trigger. She started to run towards Kato. Kato shot a few bullets toward her position before extending the blade of the sword. The opponent brought both swords down onto the blade. Kato strained to keep the swords from hitting his body. He slowly brought the gun to his side and shot a single bullet into the opponent's abdomen. They fell back and a red spot appeared where the bullet was shot. Kato retracted the sword and started to fire toward the opponent. He started to get into striking range with his sword. As they deflected the bullets, Kato extended the sword again and went for another sword skill. They blocked the blade with Kato and the opponent staring each other down. He peered past the red hood and saw a pair of purple eyes and white hair.

"Switch out!" Kato shouted.

Kirito flanked the opponent and unsheathed his swords. Kato kicked them in the gut to stun her. She stepped back while Kirito raised his swords and started his dash toward the enemy. Kato jumped back while Kirito faced their opponent. Kato quickly exchanged the magazines in the Glock while Asuna moved in to support Kirito.

"She's not holding back anything," Kato thought while watching her duel Asuna. "She's got some miles inside of her."

"I can't believe you're working with them!" she shouted while thrusting the sword past Asuna.

Asuna called, "What do you mean working with someone? Who would we be working with?"

Asuna locked blades with the attacker and yelled at Kato to switch out. Kato jumped into the fray and shot a few bullets toward his opponent. This caused her to push Asuna away and deflect the bullets. He faked a sword attack from above and slashed toward her gut. The tip of the sword grazed her side and a small red gash appeared where the sword made contact. She hastily countered the blow with a slash to Kato's left. Kato quickly pushed himself forwards and pushed his left arm into her right elbow, halting the attack.