Between 2 Worlds (SAO Fanfic)

Chapter 9 ~Nina~

~2 Months Later~

I was sitting in a plaza, there were rows after rows of stairs made of stone. I was listening to a man named Diabel, players were having a meeting on how to defeat the first floor boss.

"Okay, let's get started people!" He started, he had blue hair that was long and had really good armor for the start of this game. I was wearing my cloak since it was still pretty early in-game.

"Thank you for responding to my summons today. My name is Diabel. My job is... in my own mind, I like to think I'm a 'knight.'" He said, I remand silent as other players started laughing and complaining about Diabel calling himself a 'knight'. I liked the guy. He had a good sense of humor in a bad way.

"Today, our party discovered the boss room at the top of the tower. We need to defeat the boss, reach the second floor, and tell everyone waiting in the Town of Beginnings that it is possible to beat this game. And that's the duty of every one of us here now! Isn't that right, everybody?" He smiled and everybody clapped and cheered, I ended up clapping myself, getting a little bit excited for defeating the boss.

"Okay! Then without further delay, I'd like to get this boss-raid meeting started. First, I want you to team up into parties of six. A conventional party has no chance against a Floor Boss. We'll need to form a raid group using multiple parties." I looked around and everybody apparently seemed to be with a group of people. I saw Mia amidst the crowd and went to her. I haven't seen her in a long time. I wonder how she's holding up. I scooted over to her and we teamed up with another 4 boys by the name of Ethan, Connor, Greg, and Jay. They were all the same level as Mia who was apparently lvl 23. I was lvl 42 so I didn't expose my levels. I was a little bit of a hacker, I did ALOT of research during the Beta test.

"Okay, are you about done forming your parties? Then-" A orange spiky haired man interrupted Diabel saying,

"Hold up a second! My name's Kibaou. There's something I wanna say before we take on the boss." Kibaou said getting off the from the stairs and standing I front of Diabel.

( *Blue* is Diabel *Orange* is Kibaou, *Purple* is Agil.)

*Orange* "Some of you here need to apologize to the 2,000 who have died so far!"

*Blue* "Kibaou, these people you're referring to... do you mean the ex-beta testers, perhaps?"

*Orange* "Of course I do!"

*Orange* "On the day this stupid game started, the beta guys ditched us beginners, and they all disappeared." Kibaou said, I clenched my fists at this. Mia put her hand on my shoulder to calm me down since she saw my clenched fists.

*Orange* "They took all the good hunting spots and easy quests for themselves, so they were the only ones getting stronger." This May have been slightly true, but I was only doing what a normal person would do! They would've done the same thing. I also helped in some sort of way.

*Orange* "And since then, they've just ignored the rest of us. There's got to be some of them here! Guys who were beta testers! We should make them get on their knees and apologize, and give up all the items and money they've hoarded. As party members, we can't trust them with our lives, and they can't trust us!" This was an insult to so many people in the crowd who are beta testers. I tried my best to keep my cool, and not rip his bright orange hair off.

*Purple* "Can I say something?" A large black man said from the crowd. He had a purple shirt on, and some beefy armor.

*Purple* "My name is Agil. Kibaou, let me get this straight... You're saying that because the ex-beta testers didn't take care of them, many beginners died. That they should take responsibility, apologize, and provide compensation."

*Orange* "Y-Yeah."

*Purple* "You received this guidebook too, didn't you? It was provided for free at the item store, after all." He said plainly, his head tilted to the side while asking this.

*Orange* "Sure, I got it... So what if I did?" He replied rather annoyed.

*Purple* "It was the ex-beta testers who were distributing these." Everybody's eyes in the crowd widened. Mostly the non-beta testers. Since I was in on this project I already knew.

"Seriously?" "Wow." And many other things could be heard.

*Blue* "All right." Diabel said, making Agil and Kibaou sit back down.

(I'm gonna stop doing the blue and orange now)

"Okay, can we resume the meeting now? As for information on the boss...Actually, the latest edition of that guidebook was just issued. According to it, the boss's name is Illfang the Kobold Lord. Also, he has an entourage known as the Ruin Kobold Sentinels. The boss is armed with an axe and a buckler. He has 4 health bars, and when one is in the red, he switches to a curved sword-type weapon called a Talwar. His attack pattern changes too." Diabel finished. The crowd was now a mix of scared, determination and in awe.

"This concludes the briefing. Lastly, regarding item distribution, money will automatically be divided equally EXP goes to the party that defeats the monster, and whoever receives the item keeps it. Any objections?" The crowd was silent, waiting for Diabel to finish.

"Okay, we leave tomorrow, at 10 in the morning. All right... dismissed!" And with that everybody started getting up and either walking or using their warp crystals. I looked around and saw Kirito with this girl who had on a cloak aswell, but one a little different than mine.

"Mia! Look it's Kirito!" I whisper yelled.

"Who's Kirito?" Ethan asked, adjusting his bandana on his head. He had long brown hair, wore a blue bandana, was wearing ocean blue strap armor with a shoulder pad on his left shoulder. He wasn't afraid to show his armor.

"Yeah, who is he?" Connor chimed in, he was pretty much Ethan's side kick. He was tall, but a little chubby. He wore tight red armor that strapped from both sides, his hair was slightly curly and brown. He also had 2 pieces of leg armor and a shoulder pad on his right arm.

"He saved our lives 2 months back. I was on the verge of dying and Nina wasn't in any condition to take me back alone. Then Kirito came to help us get back to town so I would regenerate health." Mia explained. She was now wearing a purple top with white details on the sides she had a skirt on with the same design, while wearing armor on her shoulders that curled out at the ends.

"Wow, he must be a really nice guy then." Jay said. He has black hair and wears good armor, but it's just not as detailed as everybody else's.

"Yeah, I probably would've just left you guys there." Greg said. He was a bit younger than all of us, he looked about 15 or 16 years old. He had dirty blond hair and a bowl cut. He had a really big nose and has the humor of a 12 year old. His armor isn't the best, but it does do him some good.

"Well that's nice." I replied, unamused. He started giggling and laughing. Oh yeah, he also has a REALLY high pitched voice. I turned around to see if Kirito was still there but he was just warping out. I ran to him and yelled "WAIT!" He turned around but he just warped out when he saw me.

"Awww..." I put my hand down and pulled my hood back up over my head since it fell.

"Whoa, your hair is blue?" Ethan asked, amazed by it.

"Yeah, why? It's blue all the time." I said back.

"Well, I've just never really seen anybody with that kind if hair." I glared at him like he was some kind of maniac, he backed off so I stopped glaring.

"What do you look like underneath that? I mean, like your cloak." Connor asked. I looked down, obviously not wanting to say, but he didn't get it.

"I don't really want to show. You'll see in battle anyways." I said still looking at the floor. I looked up and pulled Down my hood. I decided to tie my bangs back because it kept getting into my face during battle.

"I'm gonna head back to town," I said while pulling out my crystal.

"I'll see you guys at 10:00 tomorrow." I waved to the boys and Mia, they all said there farewells as I warped out of the plaza.