Her Mission To Save Them All || Sword Art Online Fanfic

Chapter 48

26th September 2019

This chapter is extremely late, know. It also may be disjointed and make no sense whatsoever. This was a really important chapter for the arc and whatever I wrote didn't seem to be good enough. But I got it out, so that's all that matters.

POV: Kayoko

It's the last image I'll ever see: the yawning smile of a young boy silhouetted in the glare of the sun on my eyelids, the hair covering my face the wrong colour. I close off my senses, awaiting a blow that does not come.

It's the first image I'll ever see: the clash of a wickedly edged scythe against a curved axe, the widening in the eyes of the young boy, the way he folds against the ground and fragments into crystals both beautiful and tragic.

I feel the pixels scatter onto me like glitter. I swear I inhale them in the sharp breath I take inwards.

Clean, quick, deadly; a life taken, snatched before my eyes.

And yet, my heart feels lighter, freer than it was. It is almost like relief until I feel the tears curve a path down my face. They hit the dirt as I double over and press my head between my knees. I whisper, my lips ghosting the shapes of the words. "I'm not yet safe."

The gold of my ring shines in in the dark, a calling beacon to redirect me to the path I stepped onto. I clench my fingers over it as I raise my head to greet Shi. His pale eyes are carefully guarded. Something shines beneath what he tries to suppress in the tightening of his fingers between the chains of his scythe.

Rather than me turning my gaze away from his, I stare up at him. I don't know whether it's because of the wet remains of the tears on my face, but he refuses to look at me. The silence falls over the city as the heat of the sun settles to a soft sunset.

When I stand up, it shatters the illusion of the silence we once held, my boots skidding across the dirt. "Let's go."

Shi only nods, continuing to wrap the chain around his knuckles. The loops create a red row of criss-cross of marks across his skin before he unwinds it again, the metal swinging slightly as each section drops onto the ground below. He takes the end of the chain and wraps it around his middle until the blade of the scythe suspends in the air.

I skirt around the rocks once more until the shadow of the outer wall looms above me. Craning my neck further upwards, I can make out the shifting figures of guards as they pass the spot where I press myself against the stone. Above them, the cruel spiking of city spires pierce the sky.

My gaze shifts to Shi, who nods again. His hands quickly find holds in the rock, seemingly an attempt to avoid me. Widening eyes, the glint of the scythe, crystals. I find my own grip and tighten, using the pull of my muscles as I drag myself upwards to push the thoughts away.

It's a dangerous balance of replacing one thought with another. Counting the guards rather than the number of lives carved into my back. Fixing my gaze to the next hold rather than to the fragments of fear that threaten to overwhelm my vision. Listening to the scraping of rock against skin and not the slight whisper of death that repeats, over and over.

With each push, I fight against the panic reaching for me. My mission becomes a chant in my blood. Vaguely, I see Shi's figure slip over the rim of the wall, the only beacon of him in the newly descended darkness his white hair. I press my body further into the rock and count the remaining time until the guard shifts again.

The current guard of this section stands slightly to my left as he looks over the rocks below and the canyon paths beyond, little flares of light indicating the parties in search for the escapees. The numbers lose their meaning in my head the longer I run over them, my mind turning to concentrate on the pain of in my arms, my legs, my heart.