Looking For Something Real (Sword Art Online)

25. Halloween

Chapter 25- October 31st 2025 "Halloween"

Tokyo

It still felt so odd to be dressed up as my SAO avatar in the real world, especially when I was walking to the Dicey Café. I could feel people watching me as I walked past with my long, dark green coat flapping in the wind and a chest plate gleaming. Alongside me walked Silica, who was wearing a long blue coat and cat ears glued to the top of a headband, looking just like her ALO avatar. Minus a small blue dragon of course.

This had all been Agil's idea, or rather his wife's. In America it was a big event where people would dress up as horror characters and eat lots of sweets or something. In Japan however it was more of an excuse for the cosplayers to go out on the town and drink in bars. Somehow for our group this had evolved into dressing up as our avatars.

For some of us it would prove to be difficult, even if we used our SAO avatars, the clothing was quite different from what we would wear IRL.

I had got off light since Rika had made me a chest plate out of a plastic container which almost looked identical to the plate I had while in SAO, complete with the gouge marks from the second time I had met Liz. She must have got a kick out of adding that detail.

Finding a coat that looked similar had proved troublesome though, luckily I had found one similar enough in a cosplay shop.

Kirito wouldn't have a problem, I was pretty sure I'd even seen him wear a jacket similar to his one from ALO. Then again given his fondness for black it was likely that it was just a pattern of his entire wardrobe.

Liz and Suguha would have the biggest troubles though, since their avatars even had different hair. I knew that Rika had bought some temporary hair dye for the occasion and seemed to be going all out on making her costume, not that she would let me see it.

"You'll just have to wait like everyone else!" she had told me sternly when I had asked to get a peek. She had even refused to walk with me or Silica to Agil's Café. I guess it made sense that Rika was taking such care in making something that she was proud of.

We finally arrived at the Café and saw Kirito's bike already propped up against the wall. Silica and I headed inside and was greeted by Klein, Agil, Asuna and Kirito. Klein let out a long whistle and spoke "Damn, that brings back some memories, how the hell did you get a chest piece anyway?"

"Oh, Liz made it for me" I replied feeling embarrassment grow.

"Speaking of Liz, where is she?" Asuna pouted.

"She's being stubborn about us all seeing her costume at the same time, I think she must be really proud of it" I explained.

As expected Kirito just wore a long black coat and trousers, not quite the same as either of his avatars but certainly passable.

Agil had a long sleeved green jacket on but was missing any armour. He had however put some white markings on his face in order to match his ALO avatars Gnome markings.

Klein seemed to have put in about as much effort as Kirito, wearing a long, red kimono and his signature bandana which he never seemed to take off, either IRL or in game.

Asuna had decided to recreate her ALO character and wore her characters signature white and blue colours, although she hadn't gone as far as Rika was going to and still had her chestnut hair colour.

Suguha arrived soon after, and she had put in the most effort of all of us so far. Sugu had arrived in a revealing green dress and lace leggings. However the most impressive aspect of her appearance was the blonde wig that she had bought. How she found one that exactly matched her avatars hairstyle was a mystery.

It was already quite late and I was getting concerned so decided to text Rika.

Hey Liz, you still coming tonight? Everyone else is here already

She replied pretty soon after.

Relax hero, I'm on my way. You cant rush perfection!

As promised Rika arrived soon after and we all let out a gasp as she walked in. It was just like seeing Lisbeth in SAO all over again. The dress, boots, gloves and even the hair were all identical. If I was nitpicking I would point out that her eyes weren't pink and her boobs were a little bigger than back then, but they were the only imperfections.

I stood speechless as she walked through the door and threw her arms in the air. "HI GUYS!" She shouted as everyone gasped at her.

"Wow Liz, your outfit is so cool!" Suguha said in a high voice.

"I know right, I spent days getting it just right." Rika beamed. She always loved receiving praise for her work and it was always well deserved.

Rika made her way to me beaming a smile. "What do you think hero?" she asked with a wink.

Rather than speak and give away that I was struggling to find words, I grabbed Rika by the waist and gave her a hard kiss.

"Jeez guys get a room!" I heard Klein shout in the background.

Rika took a step back and inspected my costume with a hand on her chin. "Not bad, but your boots and coat are wrong... and you definitely didn't have that much muscle back then" she said with a cheeky smile.

"Well you're boobs weren't as big back then so..." I stopped mid-sentence, I couldn't believe I just said that. I could feel the blood rushing to my cheeks.

Luckily Rika burst out laughing. "So been looking have you hero?" she said in a sultry yet giggly voice.

I'm in this deep now, might as well keep digging. I thought to myself. "Well of course I have, you can't miss them!"

Rika laughed some more and slapped me on the shoulder making me smile in return, although my embarrassment remained. "Oh god Tyzn, that's priceless" she giggled. "I love you, you big dummy."

Now with everyone present Agil began to bring food through from the kitchen. We had all pitched in to get a big meal, full of some of the unhealthiest foods we could get.

Unsurprisingly Rika went all in on the sweet food, scoffing down cake after pastry. I was quite content with the fries though, there wasn't much in the way of American foods that I liked, but fries were by far one of the tastiest things on the planet.

It felt like the evening was over in a flash as we all said goodbye to each other and began to make our way home. We walked along with me holding one of Rika's hands and Silica holding her other. Silica skipped along chuckling to us about how much fun she'd had while Rika let out repeated moans.

"Told you to pace yourself." I said to Rika with a cheeky smile on my face.

"Leave me alone! You two should know what happens when someone puts that much junk food in front of me." Rika pouted as she walked along between us.

"Hey don't blame us! It's you that can't control yourself." Silica retorted just getting a disapproving grunt from Rika in return.

"Well you can come for a run with me tomorrow if you like, gotta burn off all these calories after all." I said to the girls.

"What!? Are you trying to kill me?" Rika blurted out making me and Silica laugh.

A/N: So the next three chapters get pretty smutty. 

If you're not a fan of that I'm gonna put indications in the chapter where that content begins and ends since they also contain quite a bit of fluff.

I know of at least one IRL friend that has been looking forward to these chapters though :P