When Our Blades Cross (A Sword Art Online Story)

Moving On

Having been forced to wait for the sake of the quest, Silica, Michael, and Gosen all regrouped outside the dungeon. The bright light hurt Gosen's eyes even in a virtual setting, though it figures that would be the effect of being inside for the majority of time in the real world. He squinted and covered his eyes with one of his arms.

Michael stretched, "Well that was less than I expected."

Gosen gave him an odd glance, "What are you talking about? It's not exactly over yet... though I do find it strange, this game putting time restrictions on a quest." He paused, crossing his arms, thinking.

He gave a small glance to the girl beside him, she was looking at him, probably wondering what he was thinking. "I think you're just overthinking it. It's not like this hasn't happened before in other games." Silica was probably referring to SAO with that remark, Gosen assumed, but even so it was a rare occurrence.

"Yeah, man! We just have to trust the dev's designing, ya know?" Michael said, his optimism brimming through with a big grin. Gosen shrugged, giving in to his friends for the time being. "But what should we do from now until then is the question..."

"Hmm... Hold on, let me check something real quick," Silica said. She had her menu opened and was scrolling through her friends list. Gosen and Michael shared a confused look. "Ah! Kirito and Asuna are online!" She said, smiling suddenly.

He groaned internally--he couldn't understand why she liked them so much, even after SAO ended and he's been around them a little more, something stopped him from wanting to be around them too much. The most he'd ever talked to them in the real world was when he was talking to Kirito at the end of the party; other than that he was rather silent when hanging around them, usually only sticking around for Silica, Michael, or in rare cases, Kazuhiko.

Anyone who knew him in SAO knew he never did well around the majority of the front lines; despite how young he was, he had major confidence in his capabilities. It was a complete 180 from his personality in the real world. There was a small silence before his response. "What about it?" Gosen says, trying to sound as indifferent as possible.

Michael gave him a sideways glance before Silica nodded saying, "We should go meet up with them!"

"I was afraid you'd say that..." Gosen mumbled to himself, preparing himself mentally.

The girl's cat-like ears twitched and she looked at him, a tint of confusion in her red eyes. "Do you not want to?"

He froze like a deer in headlights, realizing that he'd actually said that aloud. "E-eh... No, I'm fine with it," He said.

"Then let's get going!" Michael shouted, launching himself off the ground with green wings sprouting out of his back. He'd been up for a few seconds before he slowly descended again. "Hey... where exactly are we meeting them?" He asked with an awkward laugh.

Gosen gave a heavy sigh, "Idiot."

After laughing for a few seconds, "I'm pretty sure it's somewhere on the first floor of New Aincrad..." Silica said, not sounding one-hundred percent confident in her answer.

"Wait, you don't even know where we need to go?" Gosen said, giving a critical look.

"H-hey, give me a break..." She averted her eyes, embarrassed, and pulled up her messages and started typing.

"When I woke up this morning, I didn't expect to be doing a fetch quest..." He said, but through his tone it sounded more like a joke than anything. Michael and Silica both laughed at his remark, although he was confused as to how it was funny.

"Oh, come on, Gosen! It's not like we're doing anything until the timer is up anyway," Michael said, still grinning like a child receiving a toy they'd wanted for months. "At least wait until we've started to complain!"