God of Gaming // SAO x Male Reader x Hoyoverse Harem

Chapter 31: The Lawrence and The Crane

A/N: Alright, second chapter in the batch, this one is quite long, sitting at just above 20,000 words. We get a couple of sneak peaks at future plot points and the introduction of yet another new character.

Anyway, please enjoy :)

It hurt. The pain was unlike anything she could have ever described, a raw, searing ache that pulsed through her entire body. If someone had asked her to explain it, she wouldn't have been able to. It just hurt, everywhere, all at once.

She thought she'd prepared herself, bracing for the inevitable blow, but nothing could have readied her for this. It was so much worse than she had imagined. The emotional weight pressed down on her, suffocating and relentless.

Her hands curled into fists, clutching the fabric of her dress tightly. Her knuckles turned white as she stared diagonally towards you from her place in the back seat.

You were angry—even without the sharp edge of her sister's perceptiveness, she knew. She could feel it radiating off you like heat from a flame. And still, despite the fury, despite everything, she couldn't help but think how beautiful you were. You always had been, but now there was something different, something sharper and more radiant about you.

Was it because of Yoimiya? Was she the reason you seemed to shine so brightly now? The thought gnawed at her, clawing deeper into the already festering wound in her heart. Every time the question echoed in her mind, the pain grew a little sharper, a little more unbearable. This wasn't just jealousy—this was a deeper, more vicious kind of hurt.

Her lips trembled as she fought back tears, and she closed her eyes, hoping to shut you out completely. If she couldn't see you, maybe the agony would fade. If she couldn't hear your voice, maybe she wouldn't have to bear the sound of words that weren't meant for her.

But the silence inside her mind only made things worse. In trying to block out the world around her, she unwittingly invited the past to flood in, to pull her back to the moment when everything had shattered.

...

Her heart pounded in her chest like a drumbeat, a frantic rhythm that matched the echo of her footsteps as they reverberated down the endless hospital corridors. Each turn felt perilous, her feet slipping briefly as she rounded a corner too quickly, but she caught herself and pressed on, refusing to lose even a second.

The beeping of heart monitors and the quiet murmur of doctors and patients newly roused from their digitally induced comas filled the air, a chaotic backdrop to her desperate sprint. She wove through the throng of medical staff, her vision beginning to blur as her pulse roared in her ears, drowning out all other sounds. Every beat, every breath, brought her closer to where she needed to be.

Finally, she skidded to a halt, her hand latching onto the cold handle of the hospital room door. She threw it open with such force that it crashed against the wall, threatening to rebound, but she was already inside before it had the chance.

Guinevere: Yoimiya!!

Her voice cracked with desperation as she rushed forward, yanking the privacy curtain aside. The harsh rustle of fabric seemed to echo through the room, but what greeted her on the other side made her freeze. Her eyes widened, first in shock and then in overwhelming relief.

Yoimiya sat upright in her hospital bed, gazing out of the window with a lazy, distant expression as if unaware of the storm of emotions flooding the room. The nonchalance in her posture was a stark contrast to Guinevere's frenzied heart.

Tears welled in Guinevere's eyes, her vision growing even more blurred, but this time from emotion. Her lips quivered as her breath hitched, unable to contain the tidal wave of feelings that crashed over her. Relief washed over her in waves, and she couldn't help but let the tears fall, her body trembling as she stood frozen in place, staring at Yoimiya—alive, whole, and there.