Broken. (SAO fanfiction)

Chapter eight

I took the sight in, thinking again of Aincrad and how much I just wanted to get out of this world and live happily again. Haruto stopped as we finally approached a spot that rolled into an almost sloping shape that lead down to a small log cabin that lay resting underneath the shade of a big tree.
      "Down there." He started, pointing at it. "That's where I live, come, follow me."
       "Alright, thank you." Asuna sniffled. We both followed him as he hurried eagerly towards his cute cottage home. Wow. Why can't every person be this generous? Screw the guys back at that village! Asuna looked slowly down at her sleeve which looked like it had been burnt with a torch or something. She gave me a look.
        "What if..." She whispered "he sees this and gets scared...a-and throws us out again?"
       "We'll have to just wait and see... maybe he'll help us find out what's really happening to you." I whispered back. Asuna nodded and smiled hopefully as we headed down the hill. As we went my legs moved faster and faster, almost making me fall over. Asuna grinned as I hollered as we approached the cottage. Haruto was waiting for us kindly and he invited us inside. It was a simple home, with a table in the middle, like Garin's home, a small staircase (of only about six steps) and a door that was placed smartly in the back.
     "It's a very cute place to live." Asuna remarked as she looked around.
      "You think so?" Haruto said "I'm quite in love with the nature of this world..." he mused slowly, getting a bit off track. He then clasped his hands together and smiled.
"Now, would you two travelers want any lunch?" He beamed "you're going to need it!"
"Hm? Oh, y-yes sir." Asuna said.
"I assume you're out to find the Virus, am I right?" Haruto nodded.
"Is it that obvious? We were told it was rather uncommon..." I asked
"It is, yet I've never seen anyone appear around here unless they were traveling to that dungeon." Haruto replied. "I usually had to walk to the nearest village to get my fair share of social interaction."
"You act like you've lived here forever, yet..." I trailed off.
"Well, my friend, that's because I've died twice..." Haruto said calmly.
"What?" Asuna gave me a confused look. "How does that even work?"
"Well, firstly in Aincrad when I was relatively new to the game, I was killed by silly dire wolves." Haruto said as he opened up his inventory and a few neatly wrapped packages appeared on the table. "I got revived though, after maybe about three or four months, of course, that was when there were more viruses..." he hurried into a back room and help up his finger "one second!" He zoomed back into the room with one more chair and set it up next to the table.
"I died this time because I, myself and my guild, was trying to find a sacred item, but the protector of the area we were searching in got us first. I'm sure only two of us died though." He said. "Go on, unwrap the packages, they're fresh." Asuna got up and sat herself down on one of the chairs contentedly. I followed after a few seconds and unwrapped the neat package I was glorified to see a delicious looking sandwich in the middle of it. I shoved it down gratefully as Haruto kept explaining, kicking back with his feet propped up on the table.
"Just out of curiosity, have you ever tried to fight a virus?" Asuna asked after Haruto had finished.
"No. I've known some people that have though, they were traveling like you through these hillsides, quite a while back." Haruto replied as he looked straight at her. "Say, that brings me to another point, that mark on your arm..."
"He noticed..." I whispered to Asuna.
"Yeah, no kidding!" Asuna barked back. She then lowered her voice to a more cautious level. "What do we do?"
"Uh...errr..." I slowly turned back to face Haruto who was waiting patiently.
"D-do you know anything about it?" I asked.
"Yeah, sure, that's the mark of Terecia. I dunno where the name comes from." Haruto began. "But, it's supposed to appear to mark someone off as a 'not possible subject'"
"What's that supposed to mean?" I grumbled.
"I can see why you might be worried. It looks bad, but the bright side is the Virus can never possess you again."
          "Woah, we weren't even aware it had possessed her once!!" I remarked, shocked.
"The Virus probably took over your body, but wasn't powerful enough to control it, and marked you off." Haruto explained.
"W-wait a minute..." I stammered. "Does that mean...what I saw...wasn't a dream?"
"Huh?"
Asuna looked at me.
"You mean what you told me you saw early this morning?" She asked.
"I saw you being shattered...I thought it might've been the wolves...but maybe it was the virus taken over your body..."
         "Maybe..." Asuna said softly. "That's freaky though."
         "It's not necessarily a bad thing at all though." Haruto tried "If you're planning to go to beat the virus, you know what you're up against."
          "C-can you tell us anything...um...about the news of a little girl being taken?" Asuna asked. I looked down and layed back against my chair.
           "A little girl....hmmm." Haruto thought, his hand on his chin. "I rarely get the news unless I travel into the village, but yes, I did hear of that."
            "What happened?"
           "Well, I think, this virus may be one of the weakest of the bunch, meaning it cannot take the bodies of those bigger than it, like you, Asuna. So it takes children...or even anything that looks like a child for that matter." Haruto said. I glanced straight at Asuna and I knew she was thinking about Yui, just as I was. But we also knew we couldn't let our hearts interfere.