Klein(SAO)x Reader

Chapter Twenty-Four

The walls around me are pitch black, and my shout of surprise is suppressed as my face is disappearing as fast as I've ever flown. Asuna and Kirito are normal as they watch Klein, Lefa, Yui and I are chiseled away by the program ALO runs off of, and right before I'm completely gone, I see a man in green waltzing towards Asuna, glancing over his shoulder at me as darkness envelopes my vision. As soon as I know it, I'm back standing in front of the Tree next to Klein and Lefa, but Yui is nowhere to be found. 

"Klein! Are you okay?" I exclaim, snapping out of the daze of fear and confusion, and turn to him. He blinks a few times, then scans the front of the Tree. I pat him on the shoulder, and he faces me, a flustered and confused gleam shining in his amber eyes. 

"Y-yeah. Are you? Do you know what just happened?" I sense these inquiries are the beginnings of many difficult questions, so I rest my hand on his shoulder, peering up through the thick branches overhead, which are much higher up than I remember them. 

"I don't, but I think the admin or that man probably has us teleported us out of the cage and below so he can do and say what he wants without us hearing or knowing." I murmur, remembering the height limit, and summoning my wings so I can get closer to the Tree. Launching myself to the boundary, I leave a surprised Klein and Lefa behind, skidding to a stop when I collide with the barrier. Pushing myself up against the invisible force, I press my face to the glass-like substance, trying to get a good look at the branches. I hear two sets of wings settle next to me, but I don't take my eyes off the shining surface of the golden bars, which are enclosed around a small, dark box. 

"What are you doing? The barrier won't let you any closer." Lefa points out, making me scowl a bit deeper. Narrowing my eyes against the sun sending its rays almost directly towards me, I try to focus on the Tree, then, plucking myself from the surface, I dart over to the Tree, trying to touch it to feel any entrances. Lefa calls something out to me, but I can't hear her over the wind, so I continue on. Suddenly, I'm flung back as if by an invisible hand, spinning and twirling in the air, waving my arms frantically to regain my balance. I eventually stop spiraling, hovering back to my feet.

"Whoa! What in the--I think I'm gonna be sick." I exclaim, hand on my stomach.

"I tried to warn you that there was a barrier around the Tree! But nooo! Just ignore me!" Lefa shouts, flying over to me, Klein trailing.

"Oh, so that's what that sound was," I mutter after my stomach starts to feel stable again. "Sorry, I was focused on the Tree."

"Whatever." Lefa huffs, crossing her arms. 

"Guys, we need to focus on what to do. If that guy wanted to get us away but keep Kirito and Asuna, then they might be in big trouble. Yui told Kirito that door wasn't meant to be opened by players, so he might block Kirito from the game for doing pretty much the impossible." Klein interrupts, sounding relaxed and thoughtful. I decide to put on my detective's face, looking on the situation as if it were a complicated case no one else could solve.

So, that man had the power to teleport us away from the Tree, meaning he has a very high status in this game, such as admin, or even creator. Maybe he's that king Oberon that Yukki told me about. Yeah, that makes sense. So, the king wants Asuna and Kirito to stay, but Klein, Lefa, Yui and I to leave, even though we came with Kirito through the door, eliminating the possibility of Kirito being in trouble for opening the gate. Then there's the fact of him blocking Kirito from the game. There's a fifty-fifty chance that he might or might not cut him off from ALO, but I'm really leaning towards might not. As a game owner or developer, you want more players, meaning you want to avoid kicking players off the network. Back to the Asuna case, why would he be keeping her in a cage? Kirito said Asuna isn't able to log off, so that means he wants Asuna to stay disabled for as long as he can. But it only takes a few days, or maybe even a week for people to begin to find out what you're doing, including detectives even higher in skill than I am. He must have some reason to keep her there. Wait, wasn't there a lab on the way to Asuna's cage? So if I can remember what was in there... Weren't there pictures of brains in there, on the stands? That means he would be monitoring somethings brain. They were blue, with spots of color splashing onto them... So would he be trying to influence emotions? From what I experienced when I was blind in SAO, colors demonstrated emotions, so would it be the same in ALO?