Sword Art Online - Fairy Dance

Chapter 2

A huge moon hung in the cloudless sky, the forest below shaded blue-green in the moon's light.

ALfheim's night is very short, but there's still some time before dawn. Normally, such a dark forest would be a cause for concern, but it's that same darkness which makes retreat possible.

Lyfa, hidden in the shadow of a giant tree, raised her head to look at the starry sky. For the moment, there doen't seem to be any ominous presences in the sky. Lowering her voice as much as possible, she spoke to her nearby teammate, "When your wings recover, we'll take off immediately. Prepare yourself."

"Ah— but I'm still dizzy..."

Her partner answered in a very reluctant tone.

"You're still feeling sick? Don't you feel embarrassed? You ought to get used to it."

"Even if you say that, scary things are still scary..."

Lyfa sighed with frustration.

Squatting next to the tree was a teenage player named Recon, also Lyfa's friend in real life. They had started playing ALO —ALfheim ONLINE— together. In other words, he and Lyfa have played this game for almost a year. However, no matter how much time passes, Recon was still unable to overcome the feeling of vertigo while flying. In ALO, strength in air combat is the only measurement that matters, but after only one or two scuffles, he would already be exhausted. This made him somewhat unreliable.

Even though Recon was like this, Lyfa didn't hate that part of him. Or rather, it was more like she just couldn't ignore this "little brother" of hers. His appearance often exposed a delicate body with bobbed yellow-green hair, long ears which hung down toward the ground, and an expression that made you think he was just about to burst into tears. Although it was randomly generated, his appearance in game bore a close resemblance to reality. When Lyfa first saw him in game, she couldn't help but break into laughter.

For Recon as well, Lyfa looked too much like her real appearance. As a Sylph, she had well-defined, very neat eyebrows, beautiful eyes, and a slightly large-boned body for a member of her race.

Originally she had wanted a character that would be considered more «Graceful». Her current appearance was not only in keeping with this desire, but could also be considered extremely cute. However, she could be considered fortunate. Many people were not so lucky, and in order to be satisfied with their appearance they chose to pay additional fees to reconstruct their character. Compared to these people, Lyfa had absolutely nothing to complain about.

The additional payment did not affect a character's performance at all, but Recon had played around with his eyes until they matched his sense of aesthetics; he'd thought their balance was off.

Lyfa held Recon's equipped Blest Armor from the back and pulled. Looked at his four transparent wings surrounded by a thin green phosphorescence, indicating that he could fly again.

"Well, you can fly again. It's time to fly out of this forest."

"Eh ~ we'll definitely get chased again. Let's rest for a bit. Rest~"

"Naive!! There's only one Salamander there who's any good. If we're careful, we won't be seen. Neither of us can afford another air battle, so just bite the bullet and fly!"

"Ohh..."

Recon reluctantly answered, holding his left hand up in the air. A translucent joystick —the remote control used for flight— appeared in his hand. The front-end held a small ball; this was ALO's assisted flight controller. As Recon pulled the controller toward himself, four wings extended to the sides, growing brighter as they lengthened.