The Seventh Case

Chapter 9

Asuna wandered aimlessly through what appeared to be a wasteland. She was openly overwhelmed by the situation. The cries and disbelieving complaints of the rest of the people in the spot threw her off even more. The woman who bore the pride of holding her calm at the strongest of pressures had cracked. She curled into a ball and let her tears flow freely. For the first time in her life, she felt desperate.

"Kazuto, where are you?", she whined to herself. She hated herself for being weak when it mattered the most. Ever since she woke up, she started to hunt for him. Even before she realised, he had taken over a small part of her heart.

She had planned their first date perfectly. Using one of her various spies, Asuna did a background check on Kazuto. As she had expected, he was true to his words. What hit her most was the affection the orphans had for him. Their eyes jumped in mirth each time they called him Sensei or Kazu-nii, and only an idiot of a legendary level would not be able to see the brotherly love they had for him. Even some of the younger nuns had a few good words about the man. Perhaps that was the time she had lost a part of her heart to him.

"Help me, Nii-san. What should I do?", she asked hopelessly staring at the beautiful night sky. At that moment she realised how weak she was. All those trophies she received for fencing were worth trash when she could not face the huge challenge in front of her. She hated herself for being so weak.

"Have you lost someone?", a woman perhaps a couple of years older to her asked Asuna. She nodded with a weak smile. She could not bring her voice to answer the other woman, but the latter understood her plight.

"I don't know where you were picked off, or what happened to you. I too have lost someone - my younger brother. I have heard from some information dealer that there is another sector of people on the opposite side of Aincrad. He claims that he has played this game in a NerveGear before and until the twentieth floor, the boss gates can be accessed by two doors on the opposite sides of Aincrad. So, my wild guess is that out of the approximately eighteen thousand people stuck here, we have been split into two halves", she explained with a smile.

"Is that person really important to you?", she asked even though she knew the answer.

"He is my fiance", she stated with a watery smile. The woman smiled sadly and pulled out a locket from her neck. She opened it to show a picture of herself and a small boy who could not have been older than seven.

"Just fight. Fight for that someone who is dear to you. I am sure he will be fighting for you as well. I will be fighting for my wish to see my brother once again. I bid you well", she smiled and walked away from Asuna.

She was right. Kazuto would be fighting for her on the other side. She was not lazy or hopeless enough to be a damsel in distress. She was going to fight her way to the top even if it meant that she would be putting herself in harm's way almost everyday.

Elsewhere

"Look, everyone! We have received a small hand from Kayaba. Just to give us a small headstart, he has given us the location to the first boss. Thankfully, the boss' location has not been altered. My name is Diavel, and I am a beta tester of SAO. I know about his movements, and I hope none of those have been altered", a man with dark sea blue hair introduced himself in a small arena. There were a few people present in the arena - the ones who were brave enough to start fighting immediately.

"Some of us beta testers have received a sort of a guide book specifying the differences from the game and this reality. This does not seem like a NerveGear based game as I do not feel light. I feel heavy - like this body is real. So my guess is, this is AR or Augmented Reality. Back to the point, unlike SAO, the players cannot randomly attack bosses. Each month, we will receive a message saying the boss' gates will be open. We can only attack the boss on that day for a stipulated time, not even the entire day. The dungeon bosses and bosses of timed events however may be accessed any time", he said and began to gaze at the rest of the details. Diavel shrugged his shoulders. "The rest of them are basically the same rules as that of SAO. PKing will earn a red marker and thus would disable the player from entering public places and towns, guild rules, party rules and that's it"