The Path Unknown

8. A Rather Normal Day

     The morning came quick, without any sign of a coming dawn. The sun  was already high in the sky when Kirito and Asuna got up. Kage was still  sleeping on the couch. As far as he was worried, she was safe. He  didn't need to worry anymore. Plus, she already had an orange cursor,  there wouldn't be any conversation about player killing. He knew what  happened before, he was there for some of it. He took the PKers' health  and she finished them off. She took the sacrifice for him, that was more  than enough for him to give her his life.

  Kirito and Asuna,  unlike Kage, did not know where Michiko went. They scrambled around the  room, waking Kage in the process. Right before Kirito stepped out of the  door to go look outside, Kage called out to him.

  "Kirito, don't  worry about her. She went out to go refill her item stock. She was low  after the recent battle and felt the need to get more." He said, turing  back over.

  "Well, that's something good to know. Do you know about when she'll come back?" Kirito replied.

  "Eh, not really. I know she can take care of herself, though. I'm not worried about her cause she's up there in level now."

  "Okay, hopefully she'll come back soon. We have to all head up to the KOB headquarters."

  "NO!" Kage dropped of the couch and stood up, "Ahem... She can't go."

  "And why not?" Kirito raised an eyebrow.

    "From what she told me, she's had a couple of arguments between the  leader during the past two battles. She doesn't like him anymore and has  blocked all communications between them. I'll relay any information  needed to her." He started to equip his armor.

  "Okay then, I guess we'll head up now. You can leave a voice message here just in case she comes back before us."

    The three left for floor 55, leaving a voice message entity behind  for Michiko to listen to. Honestly, Kage didn't know when she'd be back.  Hopefully she wouldn't eradicate the guild. It would be good, but  taking out a whole guild would be bad for morale. They would have too  much attention on their hands and neither of them liked attention. She  would know, though, how to take care of this - hopefully.

They  got up to the 55th floor and made their way to the KOB headquarters.  There was time to spare, nothing to do. The next few hours had to waited  out before they could do anything. Kage started to think about Michiko.  She should be back home already, listening to the voice message they  left. She should be there, right? He wouldn't know. She may not have  changed much, but he knew how she took revenge. It would not be quick.  She left at midnight and it was already around midday. She should be  home already, or at least he hoped.

  *Back on floor 43*

    She walked away from the cave's entrance, holding the many weapons  in her hand that she scavenged from the bodies. She started her  scavenging of weaponry, only the lower class, though. There was one  higher class that she loved. Dual blades that came together at the hilt.  It fit her more than her current ones.

  Taking the first blade,  she highlighted the stat she wanted. Her level was low, so it only let  her choose one stat with only ten percent of it being added to the next  sword. It had to be worth it, Kage had a sword unlike any other. She  would save the higher class ones for him to do, so that the full stat  would be added to the blade she was so fond of now. She took the first  sword and slammed it into her dual blades, shattering it into tiny  pieces. The shards went to her blades and the stat was increased. She  knew this would take a while and she'd better get home before Kage  started to worry. She packed them up and started the teleport home. She  could work on them there without much worry from the one she now loved.