⚔️ Sword-crossed Lovers: Kirisuna ⚔️

⚔️Chapter 1: Little Red⚔️

The speed at which everyone seemed to settle in was baffling to kirito. Just a week ago he and the rest of the 10,000 players of SAO were trapped in the death game, and people were already starting to slip back into their usual routines. He supposed it was a good thing. The first few days, a lot of the players hid themselves away in taverns and inns, isolating themselves and wallowing. The sooner more players recovered, the sooner they could be prepared to find and defeat the boss.

Things seemed to be almost back to normal; as normal as it could be. Even there on the first floor, there was already somewhat of a celebrity among the players. Kirito had only heard mutterings of her around taverns here and there. Apparently a rather pretty redheaded player was wiping the mob fields clean every day, morning to night. They even gave the girl her own sort of celebrity title. "Little Red."

It was all good and dandy. There was bound to be naturally skilled players even there on floor 1. Kirito didn't pay much mind to it and continued grinding. Perhaps he'd meet her when they finally found the boss room.

-

They were about a month in and talk of the first floor celebrity "Little Red" had skyrocketed. She was the talk of just about every town. From what Kirito heard, her sword skills were incredible and it was impossible to get into a party with her.

This time it was...less good and dandy. Kirito was extremely confused. He figured with a player so skilled and popular running around the one floor available to players so far, Kirito would have seen her at least ONCE. Sure, the lowest floor was the largest but it's almost been a month. There's only so many places to go, and with the teleport crystals it didn't take that long to travel between towns.

The days dragged on and while Kirito didn't go out of his way to search for her ( he wasn't a creep ), he made sure to keep an eye out for a redhead with a rapier with plenty of attention on her. No matter where he went, however, she was nowhere to be seen. At least until he spotted one player sweeping through a small group of wolves outside one of the higher level towns.

No red hair visible and he couldn't necessarily tell if the player was a woman. He was too far away to see if they were wearing pants and a belt and holster or leggings and a skirt. The player was wearing a hood. They could be anybody. But Kirito hadn't seen another player move so nimbly with their sword until just then.

Then it hit him.

Little Red.

Little red riding hood.

The player was wearing a red freaking hood.

He was still wanting to doubt himself but the player's skill alone seemed like enough to tell it was her. Still he tried to shake off the feeling of stupidity and returned to town for the day.

-

A month had passed since they day 10,00 players were trapped in the death game called SAO. 2,000 Players had died and they had yet to clear the first floor. Even so, a ray of hope began shining when Kirito and a handful of other players heard the words "We found the boss room."

A player named Diavel went over strategies to get into the boss room and defeat the boss with as little damage as possible. The only real problem arose when the blue-headed jerk said to party up.

'God d*mmit.'

Kirito was a solo player. He didn't party up. People wasn't his whole shabang. Nope. Nuh uh. He refu-

He spotted a worn out red hood out of the corner of his eye. To his left, the hooded player from before was sitting far off from the others, seemingly trying to blend in as much as possible. He still couldn't tell for sure if the player was female since armor wasn't gender locked but the leggings in SAO were not made to accommodate the male body so they might as well be gender locked.

They were alone, he was alone...AND partying up could offer the chance to find out if they were actually the first floor celebrity he had heard so much about.

'Bingo.'

Kirito took a deep breath and quickly scooted himself over to the player, quickly catching a small glimpse of ginger bangs under their cloak.

" You got left out too huh? " He started, leaning slightly to try to spot their hair again.

" Not even...I wasn't left out. It's just, everyone seems like they're already friends. " Definitely a girl player.

'Time to party up.'

He took a deep breath.

" So you're solo too. You wanna form a party with me? "

The girl turned to face him better and Kirito's first anxiety riddled thought was that maybe he had somehow upset her.

" Y-you heard what the guy just said. " He explained. " We can't beat the boss on our own. "

She continued to stare him down.

" And it would only be for this fight. " He added.

She continued to stare him down.

'Sh*t'

Kirito was about to back off when the hooded girl gave a small nod. He let out a relieved breath and opened his menu to send her a party invite. The girl eyed the invite box for a few seconds before hitting "Accept." Her info immediately popped up under his in the upper left corner of his vision.

Asuna.

She was really high leveled, just a couple below him. He was almost positive now that this girl was the first floor celebrity.

"Ahem."

Kirito realized he was still staring in her direction.

" Sorry, sorry. I lose focus a lot. " He lied...kind of. Asuna nodded and they sat in a short awkward silence until Diavel dismissed everyone. Kirito filed out with the others, trailing behind Asuna when he heard a couple other players start whispering frantically.

" See, see? I told you she'd be here. "

" Oh crap, look dude that's her. Little Red, remember? "

Kirito immediately looked at Asuna to see her reaction. She immediately cursed under her breath and darted around between the exiting crowd to get away. That's when a shrill shout cut it's way through the crowd's muttering.

" ASUNAAAAA! " A girl with short pink hair and freckles shoved her way through the crowd. Asuna turned and spotted her...that was when she really started running. Pink girl seemed more than happy to give chase.

" PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE JUST ONE LOOK AT YOUR RAPIER!? " Pink girl was waving her hands at this point as though Asuna hadn't noticed her and was sprinting away for no apparent reason.

Yep. She was the first floor celebrity alright. Little Red.