September 14th, 2025. ISL Ragnarok, Gun Gale Online. Inside a river, 18:35…
It was one of those deadly situations so typical of shonen manga.
The hero was caught in a seemingly impossible situation, about to 'die', with no way to escape…
So Kirito finally reacted, 'tugging' at his binds and breaking the steel-grip of the tendrils with laughable easiness before moving his head to one side, evading the gun's bullet while his other hand shot around him at hyper speeds.
He opened it and let go of the many spherical 'balls' of darkness that had come from the shotgun's shell at the same time he touched the river's floor. It all had happened in less than 2 seconds.
Death Gun, despite having red 'lenses' covering his eyes, visibly blinked.
That was when the gamer scowled, reared back his fist…and saw how a bullet hole appeared on the hooded player's head.
Then everything EXPLODED with brutal violence, the underwater detonation sending him careening back through the virtual liquid from the shock.
He had never thought about the annoyances of underwater-fighting, after all.
Up and above on the bridge, Sinon finally arrived and inspected the damage she had done with a small grimace. The side of the structure was all blackened and parts of it had fallen down from the explosion. It shouldn't have been possible for her weapon to do that, even with GGO's slightly lax attitude towards destructible structures, but she was sure that it had something to do with the fact that her…'acquaintance' had somehow cracked the edge of the road just in front of it.
Sighing deeply, she turned around. She regretted having just killed both Kirito and the sinister…THING together, but in her panicked state of mind from earlier, it had seemed like the best idea. Whatever that 'Death Gun' had done to Dyne and Pale Rider, she didn't want to see it happening to the caped boy too, so the best option had been…
The sudden sound of splashing water caught her attention, making her turn in shock in time to see the gamer jumping back on the bridge, shaking himself like a wet dog and sighing before deadpanning at her.
"Okay, I know I may not be in your 'friends list' right now, but did you really have to blow me up underwater? That sent me spinning everywhere all dizzy!"
"You…what…? I-I just hit you almost point blank with one of Hecate's explosive rounds! Those are enough to take down even a vehicle, how the hell are you unharmed?!"
"Ehm…well…"
Before Kirito could even try to make up a proper excuse, another sound froze both teens' minds dead on their tracks.
The sound of water splashing.
Heads shooting to the side, the 'Superhero' and the sniper watched in shock how a dust-like mass of blackness shot out of the water and spun together in what seemed like a small tornado or a cloud of sinister shadows, before it solidified again at reaching the shore, Death Gun's dark and, apparently, unharmed form STARING at them.
"Futile…you cannot stop me anymore, Kirito. No one can…" as he muttered those eerie words, the hooded being slowly vanished from sight again. "Now look as I turn this tournament into my playground…"
"…yeah, because that's not ominously cliché or anything." cursed the boy before turning to look at Sinon with an apologetic/worried look. "Hear, Sinon, sorry about this but I think our 'fight' will have to be postponed till later, okay? There is a dangerous psycho on the loose that can turn invisible and can seemingly regenerate from even being blown to pieces, so I need to go and stop him before anyone else gets hurt."
"Yes…I can see why THAT may be a problem." deadpanned the girl before slinging Hecate over her back. "Okay, lead the way and be sure to explain exactly what the hell is going on as we go."
"…what?" confusedly asked the boy before the sniper sent him an annoyed glare.
"I'm going with you, of course! That bastard is up to no good, and he made it personal the moment he tried to ruin this tournament!" turning around, the girl started to run towards the other side of the bridge, not even bothering to look back. "Now let's go!"
"Wait, wait, are you serious?! Didn't you see what just happened?!" demanded Kirito while easily matching her speed and staring at her in disbelief. "That guy can shot needle-tentacles from his body, is virtually unkillable AND can turn invisible! Not to mention, I'm pretty sure he somehow got Pale Rider's shotgun and used it as if it was another extension of his body…"
"All the more reason for me to help you then, right?" challenged Sinon while giving him a sideways look. "Hear, newbie, I have been playing this game for months and you for barely 2 days. You NEED me to get around here, and even if you could somehow discuss that I'm still going to go on with this…besides, as you say, that guy can turn invisible. What's stopping him from being staring at us and watching our every move right this instant?"
At that, the gamer blinked before looking uneasily around, the sniper doing the same as if she had suddenly realized the meaning of her own words.
"…you may be right; sticking together may be for the best."
"O-of course…" replied the blue-haired girl before coughing and looking back at him. "Now then, that explanation?"
Sighing, Kirito started to give her one.
It wouldn't really do him any good to keep the secret, now that she had seen firsthand what this 'Death Gun' could do…
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Keita wasn't exactly a prideful person, but a part of him had long accepted that, when situations like this arose, HE was the one who needed to be the voice of reason among their friends.
Namely, the 'Kirito did something stupid and all the girls were at the edge of murdering something or losing it completely'-kind of situations.
Asuna could be the official 'Second in Command' of the Association, but when she was also busy debating between strangling or worrying about her beloved Sensei, the ex-guild leader from the old Black Cats was the one who had to try and keep order.
Keyword: Try. He didn't have any wish to become the target of the girls' unstable emotions, so he just safely stood aside with the other boys while watching over everything, hoping things would eventually calm down, but ready to intervene if something truly got out of hand.
Oh, and also mentally cursing Kirito without end. Friends or not, he REALLY hated when the boy did something like this without thinking how the consequences would affect someone other than him…namely he and the other boys.
Talking about them, he noticed with a glance how Tetsuo and Sasamaru were standing close to one another and glancing uneasily at the pacing females, eyes shooting from time to time to the holo-screen, and that Ducker seemed to be muttering something to himself in a low voice.
Finally, a change in the clearly on edge group happened when their missing member entered the house again, Leafa having a serious look as everyone's eyes immediately shot her way.
Asuna didn't was any time in running to her side, speaking before anyone even had the time to open their mouths.
"So?"
"I called Kikuoka…san. He's Logging In right now and I told him to come here. The moment he does, we're going to demand some explanations about WHAT exactly did he ask Onii-chan to do."
"…and if he doesn't want to talk?" questioned Argo while playfully moving her claws, which Keita could have sworn hadn't been there a second ago.
"Then we will have to be a bit more 'forceful' with our questions." confirmed Asuna what everyone was thinking, a scary understanding coming from the gathered girls as they slowly nodded.
The boys present decided to wisely keep silent and not express their opinions on the matter.
"We-well, why don't we try to calm down a bit?" commented Tetsuo while looking at everyone, apparently eager for the murderous intent in the room to be reduced. "…hey, Ducker, what are you muttering about?! Perhaps some new joke?!"
"No, not really, I was just trying to calculate the absurd possibilities of Kirito actually getting a girl worried over him in a game where seemingly 95% of the players are male and that he hadn't even been playing for 2 hours!" confusedly commented the Imp, sadly not noticing the panicking eyes of his friends as he raised his head. "How does he even…do…?"
Ducker was suddenly aware of the empty stares every girl in the room was giving him, which forced the boy to suffocate a terrified squeak.
Luckily for him, the door chose that moment to open and let a certain bespectacled Undine enter the room, looking around in confusion
"Uhm, hi everyone. Did you want to talk with…?"
Chrysheight, Kikuoka Seijirou's ALO avatar, hadn't even finished his phrase before releasing a scream of shock as several shurikens flew through the air and hit the door around his frame, making him freeze in place. Then, a darkness-covered Gram stopped an inch from his neck, Strea's sinister red eyes staring at him from beyond the black haze that Darkness Blade gave her. The shining tip of a spear ready to extend itself followed shortly after, courtesy of a scowling Sachi, and a calm-looking Philia casually stood to his side; hand over the shining hilt of her sheathed katana.
Behind them, Asuna, Leafa, and Argo stood (Swords and claws openly visible), Silica a bit on the background while idly 'playing' with more shurikens on her hands, Pina yawning from over her head as he stared at the frozen government agent with a face that seemed to said 'You fucked up, man'.
"Hello there, Kikuoka-san." smiled the blonde Sylph, making emphasis on using the man's real name as a way to let him know how serious (Or pissed) they currently were. "We have some questions for you, about my brother, and we would REALLY like that you answered all of them truthfully."
"Indeed. Otherwise, you may find that there is quite an interesting number of 'unpleasant' things one can experience in the virtual world despite being unable to feel any pain…" added Asuna with an equally 'cheerful' tone.
"Also, why the fact that HP doesn't go down in a Safe Zone it's not always a good thing." finished Argo while staring at the man like an especially evil cat (…rat?) about to play with its prey.
Quickly panicking, Chrysheight sent a pleading gaze to the only persons that still seemed to have some sanity in the room: Keita and the other boys.
The males of the UHA just exchanged a glance before sending a sympathetic look at the bespectacled Undine, then sitting with Yui (Who was now in human form) to keep watching over the holo-screen in case Kirito showed up again.
That would be but the first of many times Kikuoka Seijirou would curse his job in the upcoming year.
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The respectably-sized city on the center of Ragnarok Island was extremely detailed and quite an awesome representation of what many otakus would call a typical post-apocalyptic or Zombie Apocalypse setting.
Kirito could accept it was cool, but he was more of a Fantasy-type guy, so he wasn't as impressed as most people would have been, even as he and a silent but wide-eyed Sinon hid behind a ruined wall, the boy staring at his satellite-radar as it showed him the current localization of all the BoB's participants, as it did every 15 minutes.
The gamer could see quite a few massive holes with such a system being used for a tournament like this, especially taking into account the sheer size of the island and that it was intended for only one participant to remain standing, but decided not to point that out in favor of looking over the names of the players closest to him and his impromptu partner with a confused frown.
"…so, you are here to stop a serial killer under a petition from a government officer."
"More or less. But don't go around saying that, I don't want you arrested because of it or something." nodded the boy while touching one of the glowing dots and looking over the name of the player.
"…a serial killer who can kill people for real from the virtual world…"
"That's impossible, no matter how you look at it." cut her off Kirito while looking over more names in the few seconds of satellite-scan he still had left. "While I do accept that Death Gun can do SOMETHING to people in the real world, you can't KILL anyone from the virtual world. It was only possible in SAO because of the Nerve Gears and a specially hidden order in the code; it's impossible for the current AmuSpheres to do anything like that."
"…yeah, let's not forget the bit about you being a survivor of Sword Art Online." muttered Sinon while staring again at the caped boy. "And…you're supposed to stop him and uncover whatever, uhm, 'scam' he's using to make everyone believe he can harm someone from this world…"
"Oh no, he most certainly CAN harm them in some way." commented Kirito as if it wasn't a big deal. "That's why I want to stop him as soon as I can; any potential non-lethal victims in this tournament are in maybe more danger than the ones he's actually planning to 'kill'…"
"Wait, what?! But you just said it was…!"
"I said it was impossible to kill someone from here, I never said you couldn't HARM them. It's very possible to cause real damage to someone in reality from a virtual world. In fact, I myself know this firsthand." looking up, the black-haired boy remembered how Sugou had ended pretty much paralytic for life after taking one of his punches back in ALO when the 'Pain Absorber' was set to 0…which was a clear sign that you couldn't really be KILLED from anything done in virtual reality, because otherwise, his punch wouldn't have left even a memory of the bastard. "But I don't know HOW he is doing that either, because the only way I know cannot be used in any of the current VRMMOs out there, and even if it could, the method could only be accessed by an admin…"
"…just WHO the fucking hell are you?!" finally shouted the clearly distressed sniper. "Some kind of virtual cop or super spy?!"
"Nah. I'm just a Gamer playing Hero for fun." idly commented Kirito before standing up, eyes narrowed. "And now I'm sure there is something I'm missing here…hey, Sinon, remember when I asked you which players in the tournament were new compared to the last time?"
"…yes, I remember." deadpanned the girl when it was clear she wasn't going to an answer that made more sense from the boy. "Why?"
"Because there is one I can't find anywhere, and I have been going around the island to be in very different and almost opposite points of it the 3 times the satellite has passed overheard till now. The one whose name is some foreign word, but not in English, something close to that…"
"…Sterben?" asked the sniper after a bit of difficulty remembering. "Now that you said it…that MAKES sense. I mean, Sterben means 'to die' in German…wait, did you just said you went around the ENTIRE island in the 15 minutes intervals?"
"Yeah, I ran from place to place." waved it off the boy while thinking deeply about the implications of what Sinon had just said, even as she once again stared disbelievingly at him. "Hmm…I think everything is starting to come together…good thinking with that, by the way, Sinon. I totally suck at other languages except for English, and that last one only recently…"
"It's…not a big deal. I have a friend that's the son of a doctor, and the word is apparently a medical term usually used when a patient dies…" muttered the blue-haired girl before blinking and frowning. "…well, now we know that. So, what's the plan?"
"We have a couple of players nearby…the closest one is someone called 'Musketeer X'. I'm going to go and see if Death Gun is anywhere around he directly, you cover me with your rifle from somewhere high, okay?"
"…no problem." informed Sinon after staring several seconds at the gamer's face. "I can do that from the building on the other side of the street. Now get moving. The faster we defeat this bastard, the faster we can have our fight."
"Of courseeee…whatever you say." sighed Kirito before shooting forward through the street and disappearing in seconds, running as fast as a car. The sniper STARED after him for a couple of moments before shaking her head, softly whispering something and starting to run towards the building she had mentioned before.
It wasn't lost to her, as much as the boy had tried to hide it, that he was actively trying to keep her away from the battle using her status as a sniper as an excuse. A part of her felt outraged by this, because she knew she was strong enough to be perfectly capable of fighting without having to hide if she so wanted…and another part of her felt slightly relieved and grateful to the boy.
No matter how strong she thought herself to be, she knew that she still wasn't 'really' strong. Not like her heroine…or how that boy dressed as a comic's superhero seemed to be.
And after having watched that…THING that was 'Death Gun', despite Kirito's assurances he was just another perfectly normal human like them under the avatar, a part of her couldn't help but feel a deadly uneasiness at the mere presence of the…
Not even blinking, the blue-haired girl unslung Hecate from her back and shot to the side, blowing the head of the invisible player and forcing his headless body to materialize. Luckily, she was quick to jump behind cover as it raised a hand that quickly sprouted a black shotgun and started to calmly unleash its projectiles against her, with deadly accuracy.
The sniper could appreciate and be surprised by how good shooter Death Gun was, despite the small issue of currently lacking a head.
"…that was annoying." darkly declared the dark one as his head and hood finished regenerating from the unholy mass of darkness that seemed to make up his body, his red lenses/eyes shining again when they fixed back on their place. "Can I ask HOW did you know I was there?"
"I was trying to make it look all the while as if I was actually worried about you being invisible, in case you were actually spying on us, bastard!" shouted the girl while changing twice the type of cartridges inside her Hecate before gripping down on her fear to become one with the weapon. "I have night vision on my visor. I saw you the moment I started running down the street."
"Oh…figures that bastard would somehow end up getting close to some stupidly skilled bitch the second he set foot on a virtual world." spat the killer with annoyance, much to the sniper's utter confusion. "Well, that doesn't really matter…It won't change the fact that I'm going to enjoy seeing his face when I tell him how I killed you, before finally humiliating and defeating him."
"Really? Sounds to me like you're just a sore loser with a grudge and too much power…" continued Sinon before steadying herself, ready to aim and shot in just an instant.
"And you sound way too cocky for someone who has seen what I can do." Death Gun's voice echoed through the entire street as if it was a dark sentence, his eyes seeming to shine stronger as his body seeming to 'ripple' for an instant. "If you can really see me with that night vision of yours…what else have you SEEN?"
At that question, Sinon instinctively turned her gaze towards the wall she was behind of, which was actually thin enough for her to see through, thanks to her visor, and towards the humanoid thing.
On her vision, his 'body', unlike that of any other avatars she had seen, even Kirito's, was as 'cold' and dead as the rocks and metal that formed the ruined city around her. The only things emitting some sort of weird 'heat' were several strange 'dots' spread over his body that…
The blue-haired girl frowned. Weren't there more of those shiny things on his body a second ago…?
The sound of a gun being cocked just behind her made her freeze, her gaze shooting backward just as an estoc-tipped tendril threw Hecate out of her hands.
There, standing before her, was Death Gun, aiming straight at her head with the same black gun from earlier. Which was impossible, because she had clearly seen the killer standing behind her a second ago.
Dread started to fill her at the impossible realization. There were…two of them?
"No-no way…"
"For a weakling like you, maybe. For me, not." sentenced the hooded being before caressing the gun's trigger with his finger. "Say goodbye, Sinon."
The girl, however, was too busy staring with DREAD at the gun on his hand to hear him, her whole existence seeming to be consumed by it in a way that she had never experienced in that world.
Because it was a Type 54 'Black Star'. The only gun she could say she knew better than her own Hecate, that she had known since even before getting into GGO. The same one that had obsessed and terrified her for years.
It was the same handgun that man had used, so many years ago, in that postal office. The same one she had taken away from him. The same one with which she, barely a child at the time, had killed him.
If there was one thing in the world that could summarize and concentrate all the fears of Asada Shino, the girl that existed behind Sinon's face, was that weapon.
Death Gun, for his part, looked in amusement how the girl started to shake and dry-heave, seemingly about to suffer a mental breakdown or a panic attack. He enjoyed seeing the terror on the faces of the poor and pathetic weaklings before they died, but this was almost hilarious.
The sniper, for her part, suddenly felt like a scared little girl staring at a monster about to devour her. She wanted to cry, to call for her mother to save her, for someone to come and help her…
It all stopped the moment her hand closed around the 'hilt' she carried at her hip. Her eyes widened, the memory of a figure wielding a bamboo sword offering her hand to her shooting through her mind and then, for some reason, also that of the strange but kind boy dressed in black and white.
She was still weak….but she wasn't a scared girl that cowered in fright from a hand gesture. Not anymore. Endou and her friends no longer scared her, the older girls having started to actively avoid her since they saw her carrying her bokken around. The voices of the people in her school no longer hurt her or made her feel apathetic like they had done for so long.
Her enemy may be a monster…but it was still a simple man, in the end. A man wielding a gun.
And she always carried a weapon that could beat any gun…
SHHHWINK!
"What in the hell?!" shouted the killer as the lightsaber ignited and his hand was cut away from the sheer surprise, the Black Star flying away with it.
…even the gun from her worst nightmares!
"UAAAAAAHH!" roared Sinon before slashing wildly through him, starting to run towards the fallen Hecate even as Death Gun's bisected body began to twist and reform. The sound of a weapon being raised made her look briefly to one side and confirmed her worst fears: There was another Death Gun there, the first one she had seen, raising an arm that had sprouted a machinegun her way…
And it was suddenly crushed by the descending fist of a boy clad in white and black, the ground cracking and the earth shaking through the entire area at his 'landing'. Kirito quickly stood up, blurring out of existence before scooping her on his arms the moment she got a hold of her trusted rifle and JUMPING, both of them soaring through the sky and over the nearest ruined skyscraper.
Sinon allowed herself a second of awe and shock before turning towards the gamer. He seemed about to say something before she quickly interrupted him, pointing down with her lightsaber as she shouted.
"There are two of them!"
"No, there aren't!" replied Kirito as he glared down, watching as, much to the sniper's shock, both Death Guns suddenly seemed to 'shot' towards one another the moment they finished regenerating, blurring into an unique mass of darkness before starting to 'run' forward after them, the body quickly recovering a more 'humanoid' form. "It's only one!"
"Ho-how the fuck…?!" started Sinon before suddenly falling silent again as the hooded killer jumped an unreal distance and crashed against the side of the building they were about to land on, more of those tendrils, that she know realized were being formed from the same thing that made up his body…his 'avatar', sprouting from him and starting to drag him upwards, like a spider from hell, as his unholy crimson gaze seemed to pierce both their souls.
"KIRITOOOO!" roared Death Gun with an inhuman voice, two machine guns sprouting from his shoulders and unleashing a rain of bullets over them, forcing the caped boy to spin through the air to protect her from the deadly attack. "DIEEEEE!"
The moment the bullets hit his cape and back, the black-haired boy's eyes widened and the sniper stared at him in horror as they fell towards the building's roof, especially at seeing him wince several times.
But he seemed to get over whatever THAT had been in just an instant, landing feet-first in the last second and sprinting to the edge of the building before jumping down, just in time for their chaser to reach the cracked roof and turn his hand into an honest-to-God bazooka, firing at the falling pair.
Sinon felt the virtual hairs on her neck stand on end when the whistling black missile barely missed them, exploding in the air several hundred meters forward, and came to a sudden realization just before Kirito created another crater on the ground.
He wasn't fighting back because he was protecting her.
"Let me go!" shouted the blue-haired girl the moment they landed, the gamer looking at her in surprise. "You go and fight him, I will get out of the way myself!"
"But…!"
"Shut up and do as I said, idiot!" screamed the sniper before jumping out of his arms herself and starting to run away…in time for several shotgun-shots to crash against the shocked Kirito's head, sending him tumbling to the ground even as Sinon grit her teeth and forced herself to keep running. "FUCK!"
"…well, doesn't matter. I will go after her after I'm done with you…Kirito." darkly muttered Death Gun even as the caped boy shook his head and stood up, glaring at him.
"You…how the hell are you doing THAT…whoever you are?"
There was a moment of utter silence.
Then, the hooded being released a maniacal and VERY angry laugh as his mantle 'unfolded' like the wings of a mutant butterfly, weapons of all kinds and sizes half-emerging from it as they all aimed towards the blinking gamer.
"Why don't you taste it firsthand, you bastard?!" roared Death Gun before opening fire with the most horrible and brutal cacophony of overlapping gunfire anyone in Gun Gale Online had ever heard before.
Kirito raised his hands in front of his face by instinct, taking the barrage head-on as he was blasted backward by the unholy amount of bullets and the occasional missile.
Every time one of them impacted him, he could 'see' strange flashes of light shooting through the edge of his vision for a brief instant, as if something was being projected into his very brain before stopping against a barrier it couldn't get through…but the sheer amount of it all was starting to make him feel dizzy, his head starting to 'hurt'…
In the real world, the nurse known as Aki stared with a mix of shock and worry as the machines hooked to the boy to watch over his life signs suddenly started to go wild, his breathing and pulse starting to skyrocket.
"This…is this how he is doing it?! But…what IS this…? And God, why is everything starting to…feel so weird…?"
His HP wasn't decreasing, not even an inch, despite taking enough firepower to level that entire block of the city…and yet, every second that passed, the caped boy could feel as if something was starting to fill his brain with cotton, as if the things around him were starting to blur and his mind to slip far away in a buzzing…
"HEY, IDIOT! JUMP!"
A small part of his brain, used to obey when an angry and screaming female shouted something to him with a small bit of worry, obeying (Despite knowing it usually would end up badly for him), Kirito jumped to the side and out of the direct path the endless barrage of weapons was shooting at, landing face-first on the back of a roaring buggy driven by none other than Sinon, denting the metal of the machine and barely taking a hold of it as the girl quickly swerved wildly to the side and forced the virtual machine to its limits as they sped down the road, away from the onslaught and the screams of rage coming from the madman.
"Head…killing me…feels like…I have a drum on my brain…" moaned the black-haired boy while weakly trying to sit upright on the vehicle.
"Thank God, that means you're not dying or anything!" shouted the sniper with genuine relief on her voice, glancing back for an instant as the gamer shook his head several times. "Wha-what happened back there?! Yo-you took…all of THAT head-on and not even your clothes seem to have any damage!"
"Couldn't hurt me…not here, at least." growled Kirito while trying to somehow stop the throbbing headache he was feeling.
His strength…it was still there. And his invincibility too, if the fact his avatar was still in one piece was anything to go by…but whatever Death Gun's weapon did apparently could target his only 'weak point', the only thing that was still as normal as 'Kazuto' when he was 'Kirito'.
His mind.
The boy's eyes shot open, realization hitting him and the pain moving to a second plane at the same time he realized something was echoing madly behind them. Turning his head back at the same time Sinon's did, he watched something that was both bizarre and terrifying.
Death Gun was chasing after then…having become some sort of mechanic-centaur hybrid, his lower robot-horse body galloping over the ruined streets as he raised his arms their way, more weapons' barrels emerging from his shoulders at the same time these morphed.
"You can't ESCAPE FROM ME!"
Kirito was reminded that GGO was a game set on a post-apocalyptic FUTURE when several ray guns and laser weapons finished forming, Sinon's scream of frustration and fear ringing on his head even as he stood up at inhuman speed, barely keeping himself on the vehicle as he shouted.
"SINON, GET US OUT OF HERE!" the boy's hands blurred as he used his bare fists to intercept the incoming laser beams, the sniper gaping in shock as she saw the gamer's hands somehow outrun the many shafts of deadly light that would have impacted directly with her back or head otherwise. "Head towards the desert, we have to lost him for a moment!"
"Ho-how?!" answered the blue-haired girl with a shout on her own as she took a mad curve around the street, almost losing control of the vehicle. "He's chasing us as if he was some kind of mythological abomination with fucking optical weapons, and I doubt you can keep taking his shots forever with whatever he's doing to you!"
"I will just have to use some magic, then!"
"Did his shots make you lose your mind or something?! There is no magic in this game!"
"MINE is! Now, accelerate!" replied the boy before turning around just as they took another wild curve, taking more than a dozen laser shots as he raised his and reared back his arm. "I CAST FIST!"
Feeling the skull-splitting headache worsening, Kirito PUNCHED.
Death Gun had enough time to look shocked before the aftershocks of the attack cracked the entire street and collapsed the already ruined buildings around, sending the screaming killer backward through a wave of rubble and displaced air, cursing the gamer's name all the while.
Sinon STARED. It was just their luck that they were already out of the city and entering to the desert area of Ragnarok Island itself because, otherwise, they would have crashed against something without a doubt, as the sniper apparently refused to tear her gaze away from the panting boy.
"…I need to stop doing that. It gets old, and it's probably a clear sign I'm losing it…"
"…what." simply stated the blue-haired girl, not really as a question.
"Yeah, just…need a moment to catch my breath…let this headache go away, it's something wrong with my body in the real world…Don't worry, it's nothing serious. Ca-can we get…somewhere to hide…?"
Nodding dumbly, Sinon turned around and kept driving the buggy towards the depths of the desert.
Back on the outskirts of the post-apocalyptic city…several crimson-red marble-like things emerged from the rubble of the destroyed street.
The spherical objects hovered in the air for an instant before unholy blackness shot from the mountains of debris under them, surrounding the 'cores' in a cloud of what seemed like liquid shadows, which quickly solidified into one dark and sinister being.
"You can run, Kirito…" muttered Death Gun as his body started to…'break', as if purposefully reforming itself that way. "But it won't change anything. By the end of this day…DEATH will fill this joke of a 'tournament'."
And with that ominous declaration, the now 3 shadowy figures shot forward, each one in different directions.
Their prey wouldn't be able to escape his power.
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Shocked silence filled the rented house in Yggdrasil City after Chrysheight finished telling everything to the members of the United Heroes Association.
Finally, the silence was broken by a certain Sylph girl, who seemed to be trying her best to control herself.
"S-so…let me get this straight. You asked Onii-chan to…go and investigate a serial killer, who has somehow already put people in the hospital and KILLED others, with unknown means, while claiming that he's somehow doing it all from the virtual world?"
"…yes?" 'answered' the bespectacled Undine with a nervous tone.
"Okay, let's leave aside the legal and moral problems about an adult government officer directly and actively involving a minor in something like this and ARE YOU FUCKING RETARDED?!" roared Asuna while finally losing control of her own temper, stepping past the still shocked other girls to raise her fellow fairy by the neck, showing the clear difference in stats when she did so without effort. "You're freaking lucky this isn't SAO, you incompetent excuse of an adult, because if not then I would be having serious troubles to not consider just throwing you through the window all the way down to Alne!"
Giving that this, in fact, WASN'T Sword Art Online, Chrysheight put two and two together a bit late and he couldn't do anything to not be sent crashing through a window and falling from the World Tree.
He was too busy screaming in shock and panic to remember he could fly.
Back in the house, everyone was staring in silence at the panting and growling form of the Dual Wielder, the blue-haired Undine turning to them and raising an eyebrow, even as a slightly embarrassed blush crept up her face.
"…what?"
"Asuna-san…sugoi." whispered Silica with stars in her eyes.
"I guess you really don't mess with the Mighty Flash." commented Philia while shaking her head.
"That…wasn't really productive, Aa-chan, but hell if it wasn't very satisfying." declared Argo while turning around. "So…anyone else has anything useful to contribute to the last revelation?"
"I recorded it all." helpfully informed Yui, though she was staring with concern at the screen, some of the members of the group doing the same and seeing how, on the distance from the view showing two players trying to shoot down each other, part of the city seemed to collapse, stopping both players as they turned to stare in confusion.
"Good thinking, Yui-nee, but we can worry about blackmailing that guy later!" shouted Strea before looking worriedly at the group. "Everyone, we need to…!"
"I'm going." announced Leafa while opening her menu, everyone looking at her in surprise. "I don't care if I can't help him right now, I can at least be at Onii-chan's side in the real world while this is going on!"
"You're right, I'm going too!" announced Asuna as the Sylph vanished, quickly Logging Out too.
The rest of the UHA exchanged a glance for a moment before looking at their AI members, who just smiled back sadly.
"Go." said Yui with a firm nod. "We will call you as soon as you're out…and will tell you if they show anything else." finished the little girl while pointing at the screen.
"...thanks." Sachi's words reflected a part of what everyone really wanted to say; even as they quickly opened their menus.
"It's going to be 'fun' explaining this one to my family…" commented Argo with a tired smile.
"I-I will just tell my parents it's an emergency with a friend, that should do it!" shouted her fellow Caith Sith in answer while and her dragon pet vanished.
"Well, I'm just glad of living not far from there." sighed Philia even as her virtual body went away.
"Guys, wait out of your homes, I will get you all and we can head there as fast as we can!" informed Keita while looking at his fellow ex-Black Cats.
"…to get first and make sure the girls don't kill Kirito for doing this shit behind our backs?" asked Sasamaru with a raised eyebrow.
"Exactly."
"…and what about when he gets out of there?" questioned Tetsuo with a somewhat nervous tone.
"…then he will have to face the consequences of his actions." solemnly declared the Leprechaun before Logging Out, the other boys following cue.
They respected the black-haired boy a lot, but not enough to try and stop the worry/fury of the girls when he was up and running again.
Strea and Yui, meanwhile, turned their worried sights to the screen…in time to see both Players that were being shown fall down as shots of darkness went through their heads, the virtual sisters taking a step back as the sinister form of Death Gun landed between their writhing bodies.
Once again, that sinister sensation of 'familiarity' made both of them shiver. And it wasn't coming from Xaxa, no, it came…from something else.
Something both of them were unable to properly recall, but still filled their minds with an unnatural fear…
["None can escape my judgment. Death Gun will end you all…pathetic fools."]
"Kirito…" muttered Strea with an unusual uneasiness filling her heart.
Yui, for her part, looked down as she clasped her hands together, as if trying to banish the dark sensation that looking at the hooded 'player' gave her and that reminded her of long-forgotten darkness and silence…
"Papa…please, be safe…"
In the real world, even as she rode her trusted and clearly distressed bicycle as fast as she could, Kirigaya Suguha thought the same thing.
0000000000000000
In the vast desert of Ragnarok Island, there were several caves that, incidentally, protected anyone hiding in them from the satellite scan that revealed other players' positions.
It was something that came really in handy for Sinon and Kirito to hide while recovering, their buggy having run out of fuel casually at the entrance of one of such caves, but, as the gamer pointed out, it was also yet another stupid thing that the moderators of the game should have taken into account when planning this tournament: Anyone smart enough to notice this could just hide until almost no enemies remained, and if they timed it right they could easily evade what Sinon had said about the danger of a grenade being thrown in their faces, like using a vehicle to get into the desert just after the last satellite scan had been activated, then arriving and hiding before the next scan happened, essentially having 'disappeared' from the radar of their rivals.
The fact that the caped boy was willing to point out and argue about the apparently many 'fails' the design of GGO's most famous event had filled the sniper with relief, though. It meant that he wasn't feeling as bad as he had looked before.
Glancing towards him at that thought, Sinon saw how he was sitting cross-legged against one of the cave's walls; eyes closed as he took deep breaths and seemed to think about something.
"…you SURE you're okay?" asked the blue-haired girl once again, unable to stop the question despite she repeatedly telling herself he was strong enough to know such things.
"Yeah, don't worry…I just needed to calm down." sighed Kirito while opening his eyes and staring at the ceiling. "Seeing as I'm no longer feeling like crap I guess my body is no longer at the edge of suffering an epilepsy attack…"
"You were what?!" shouted the sniper while her attention shot towards him again, mouth and eyes wide open.
"Uh, yes, that…almost happened. I just needed to test out one last thing about that bastard, so I let him hit me head-on to see if what I felt when the first bullets he got me with when I was carrying you were a fluke or some…"
"Wait, let me get this straight!" almost snarled Sinon while standing up and angrily marching towards the caped boy, who blinked at her. "You're saying you let him hit you with the equivalent in artillery to a fucking army, knowing he COULD have put you into a coma or worse, just to test a fucking theory?!"
"…that's exactly what I just said, no need to scream it out." laughed the gamer with an awkward smile, but he was truly surprised when he felt the girl grab him by the shoulders and glare down at him, despite the fact that, if he so wanted, she would be unable to even move him an inch.
"What the hell is wrong with you?! First, you put yourself at risk to save me from that…monster, then you go and face him directly for such a retarded reason?! When you said you could have just dodged his attack?!"
"Actually, I could have easily weaved through that entire barrage of projectiles, if I had been trying for real." shrugged the caped boy while Sinon stared at him in disbelief. "As I said, it allowed me to put the final piece in the puzzle that is this 'Death Gun'."
"But WHY?! Why would you do such a stupid thing?! Weren't you worried you could die or something?!"
"…to be honest…no. I wasn't." the boy's casual and simple acceptance of that fact made the sniper let go of him, staring towards the gamer's blank face as if she was just seeing him for the first time.
Kirito, for his part, felt…odd. It hadn't taken any effort for him to accept that…and he realized with shock that it not only was the truth, but that he didn't feel anything about it.
"…fuck. It's getting worse than I thought."
"….what?" whispered Sinon, surprised when the boy's shoulders sagged and his gaze fell down.
"I'm becoming…too detached from…myself. I thought I had managed to get that under control, but I guess that with all that happened this week I just…"
"I don't understand…you think you're…losing yourself?"
"In a way. To be honest, sometimes I stare at a mirror and I can't recognize the one staring back anymore. Since SAO started…I have changed. In a lot of ways. Most of them are good, I guess, but some…" the boy raised his fist, looking silently at the white glove that covered it. "…sometimes it becomes difficult, to remember that I'm just…a teenager. Sometimes I forget that I'm not really…this."
"Strong?" questioned the sniper with a mix of worry and confusion, which only grew when the caped boy released a bitter chuckle.
"Yes…in a way. TOO strong." the boy turned to stare at her and, suddenly, Sinon felt SMALL, so small that she realized that, in the grand scheme of things, in the world, the galaxy, the Universe and beyond, she and her problems DIDN'T matter in the slightest, all of it seemingly reflected in the gamer's empty orbs. "In the beginning, I was scared. But then I…got used to it. To jump beyond the clouds without any effort. To outrun things that imagination can barely understand with just a step. To take head-on enough power to crush a world and shrug it off like it was nothing. To raise my fist…and know that I can end it all."
In that instant, Sinon could SEE it. That, if he so wanted, the unimpressive-looking boy with the girly avatar in front of her…could destroy it all, just by swinging his fist. He was stronger than anything she had ever imagined…
…but he simply looked sad and bitter, against everything she had thought strength would bring.
"Kirito…"
"You know that the real problem of being the Strongest is?" interrupted the black-haired boy, turning to stare at the empty inside of the cave, a small mutant lizard crawling over a wall. "It's not getting bored of it…but that you can stop caring about everything else. That, if you're not careful…you will lose something too precious and important."
Something that Saitama had once said suddenly came to the boy's mind. Part of the words that he had told Fubuki, Blizzard of Hell, the first time they met.
"There's a lot of incredibly strong bad guys in the world. Those who oppose them are called Heroes. Even if they are alone."
In a way, those words came from experience. Because until meeting Genos, the Caped Baldy had been alone.
Utterly alone…but he didn't mind. He was so empty it didn't matter to him.
Because he had lost his ability to relate with the rest of humanity when he became the One Punch-Man.
In a way, he hadn't suffered from that because of many reasons. He KNEW he was just a normal boy in reality. And he had his friends at his side, which had shown him the joy of life and reminded him what family was like. Just like Saitama had slowly become less bored about everything since he started to meet his own group of friends, even if there still was no real challenge that could stand against him.
But sometimes…he truly forgot the difference. Between Kazuto and Kirito. The line dividing his 'two selves' became thinner the most he used his 'power', his mind slowly stopping to bother remembering they weren't the same one. Because in a way they WERE.
His problems with Suguha and Asuna these last days probably hadn't helped, he realized. He had been so eager to try and forget about it, under the excuse of wanting to let things calm down a bit, that he had jumped at this whole Death Gun business without caring of how depressed he was, just to be Kirito and 'play the hero'.
Because he couldn't stop, and he knew it. Kazuto couldn't stop being Kirito, but Kirito always had problems remembering he was Kazuto, especially when he was alone, like right now. And it was his fault, of course. If he had stopped what had happened with Asuna and Suguha before, then maybe…
"Man…I'm really messed up. I'm extremely worried about what happened with my best friend and my little sister, but I don't give a fuck about the serial killer with the 'superpowers' that could potentially kill me…it's almost funny, in a very distorted way…"
An unexpected hug broke him out of his self-depression, making him look in shock at how the trembling Sinon clung to him. He could feel the sadness and the fear coming from her as if they were an invisible wave.
"Stop, please…snap out of it." pleaded the sniper while trying not to cry. "I don't…I don't want to feel so small…"
It was absurd, the blue-haired girl realized, even as her mouth started moving almost against her will, telling her own story. She was the killer. She was the one who had shot a man with his own gun several times before even being 10 years old, who had nightmares with the agonic face of that robber and the terrified one of her mother, who was unable to stop seeing blood in her hands for months…
And yet, when she stared at the eyes of that boy, she felt the sudden urge to call herself an idiot. To snap out at the world and cut it all down, leaving nothing behind except emptiness.
After all, what was the point of the strength she had sought so much if you could still be so honestly sad and depressed from problems that seemed so small in comparison to hers?
"…I wanted to be strong. Strong enough to forget it all, to never fear the guns again…" whispered the sniper while shaking, the silent Hero staring down at her. "I thought I was making progress…that I was about to reach that goal. But then, I saw that thing…Death Gun. And now, you…both of you are Strong, stronger than anything I have ever seen…but he's a monster and you…you seem to not care about your strength, seem to think it's only a good excuse to not care if you put your life at risk…" suddenly staring up, Sinon glared at Kirito through tear-stained eyes, her visor up on her forehead and her voice filling with both anger and sadness. "What is the meaning of Strength?! What good is for if you can still be so sad with it?! Has everything I have done till now…been for nothing?! Have I just been chasing a stupid delu…?!"
Kirito put his hand over her head. The blue-haired girl fell silent, still staring angrily at him as she tried to hold back a sob. Slowly, the boy in black and white got out of her weak embrace and let go of her head, before taking her right hand between his and raising it between them, shocking the sniper.
With a strange mix of calm and tenderness, he closed her small hand into a fist.
"…Sinon…what do you see here?"
"A…fist?"
"I see a solution to almost every problem…and, at the same time, a reminder that not everything can be solved with just one punch." quietly muttered the gamer before letting go of her hand, which stayed there as the blue-haired girl stared at it. "Strength it's an ambiguous concept. It has many meanings and even more interpretations…but I can tell you one absolute thing about it. Strength doesn't really matter…what matters is what you DO with it. No matter how much you have or if you have nothing at all. No matter if you feel you're very small…if you choose wisely, you can always make a difference. That lunatic out there, Death Gun…he uses his strength to hurt people. To make others fear him because it amuses him. It makes him feel 'important'. He kills people because he thinks is fun…and I'm going to stop him because I CAN'T stand that. Because stopping him is the right thing to do." suddenly, something seemed to ignite behind Kirito's eyes, a fire he had forgotten for a moment and that suddenly came back with vengeance. "Because that's what a Hero does. And no matter how I feel about it, how childish it sounds or how irritating it can be sometimes, no matter how many problems come my way because of it…that's what I will keep doing. Because I chose to use my strength for the sake of the people that are important to me and of those who deserve it."
"…you really believe every single word you just said." whispered Sinon in awe, even as the boy chuckled softly and walked to her side, softly patting her head.
"Well…you just reminded me what it means to be human, I guess. My problems will always be smaller than those of someone else. I'm just a normal teenager out of here, after all." smiling down at the sniper, the gamer felt that same sensation he had felt when they held hands the first time running down his arm, but this time much warmer. "You are strong, Sinon. In more ways than one, even if you don't believe it. Now then, what will you do with that strength?"
The blue-haired girl was keenly aware that her face was burning red, but she refused to let her gaze move from her raised fist.
For an instant…she truly felt she could just punch away all her fears with it.
Acting on impulse, she once again buried her face on the boy's chest, partly to hide her blush…and partly because she didn't want to face the holo-camera that had suddenly sneaked into the cave. Surprised, Kirito softly hugged and whispered soothing words to her, as if thinking she was about to have another breakdown. She almost felt tempted to tell him about the camera, but decided against it and concentrated just in calming down.
Besides, it wasn't as if the boy didn't want anyone specific to see this scene, right?
In the real world, in a certain hospital, nurse Aki was nervously sweatdropping as she felt the temperature of the room drop for an unknown reason, looking over the several teenagers that had come into the private room out of nowhere and had started to ask about the condition of the young Kirigaya. She was keenly aware that, while all the females were staring at the screen with twitching eyebrows, the four boys that had arrived first and stood around the logged gamer's bed slowly inched away from him.
Back on the cave in Ragnarok Island, a much more calmed Sinon finally let go of Kirito, thankful that the camera had gone away, apparently not finding a boy and a girl hugging inside a cave to be too much interesting compared to what was currently happening elsewhere.
"…okay then. What's the plan, Hero?"
"Well, I have figured out how Death Gun is doing his 'trick'." declared the boy while looking towards the cave's entrance. "He's…somehow using some kind of 'virus' to mess with the FullDive perception of the people he shoots and using that to make them suffer epilepsy attacks."
"Ho…how the fuck does that works?!"
"Do you know the basics of the FullDive technology? The current AmuSpheres, like the old Nerve Gears did, 'intercept' the signals that the brain sends to the body to allow us to interact with the virtual world. All we see, taste, hear, touch and smell here are just signals that are being sent to our brains…and Death Gun somehow has found a way to 'hack' the one that messes with the signal that goes to our eyes." explained the boy while touching the side of his right eye as he did so. "My guess is that my 'special circumstances' lessen the effect to almost nothing, but anyone else that gets shot slowly has everything they see replaced by a certain pattern of flashing light, which causes seizures and eventually ends up with them falling into a coma. That's why that cowboy guy from before seemed to be trying to rip off his eyes. And that's why he aims at the head first, the whole 'darkness' thing is all just for show, but that way the virus expands faster."
"That's…is that really possible?" asked the shocked sniper with a tiny voice.
"The bit about the light causing those epilepsy attacks? Yes, it is, anyone who knows a bit about anime story can tell you that. As for the fact that he somehow is DOING this…that's what really seems impossible for me. Then again, he also shouldn't have an avatar that has fucking Melzalgald's powers…"
"Mesawhat powers?"
"That's ANOTHER long story we don't have time for, but I can tell you that he can essentially shape-shift his whole body in absurdly scary ways, has absurd strength and agility, it's nigh-immortal and may be able to fly…"
"May?" inquired Sinon even as her mind tried to cope with the absurd but probably true claims.
"He hasn't been doing it yet, so he either is trying to surprise us or can't do it…in fact…" frowning for a moment, the caped boy turned back towards the musing blue-haired girl. "Are there…robot horses in this world?"
"…as a matter of fact, yes, there are…but I want you to know that even I think that's pretty stupid!" quickly clarified the sniper while crossing her arms.
"Oh…well, that explains it. Any 'complex' shape-shifting is beyond him. Don't ask me how, but I think his avatar can replicate the shape and function of anything which data he has 'absorbed'." commented Kirito while starting to walk towards the cave's entrance. "Would explain how he started using a copy of Pale Rider's shotgun just after it fell 'inside' him…Okay, this only leaves the most pressing matters: His 'murders'."
"…please, tell me you have a 'logic' explanation for that too." pleaded Sinon while grabbing the handle of her Kagemitsu G4 with a nervous look.
"I do…but you may not like it." turning to her, the gamer suddenly seemed darkly serious, which made the girl freeze. "He has help in the real world, one or maybe more accomplices. Regardless of the one we're facing right now, 'Death Gun' is, in fact, a group of people. I had my suspicions since I saw the info of his first two actual 'killings', then something clicked when we were in the Governor's Office, but actually facing and talking with him let me discover it: The guy has been using his invisibility trick to spy on the people who went there to register and that actually put their real-world information and addresses to get the BoB's special prizes. They tried to use their trick to make it seem that they 'chose' who died and who didn't, but now that I know the whole thing, the guys who died lived all alone and in low-security apartments. I don't know how or what method they use, but they must have found a way of entering in their homes and killing them like that. They don't even really need to 'coordinate' their timing, they just need to wait for the person to start convulsing after the Death Gun in here shoots him and they will know when to kill them for real…an incredibly complicated, horrible and twisted plan. Just what one would expect of that Laughing Coffin lunatic…whatever the hell his name was."
"…are you SURE you're not some kind of super detective in reality?" questioned the sniper while deadpanning at him. "Because I'm pretty sure no one sane would have deduced all of that."
"Nah, I have just played too many videogames. And also been stuck in one for 2 years. Your mind accepts craziness much more easily when you have gone through what I have." looking at her once again, Kirito pointed towards the setting sun while putting on a determined expression. "Well then, are you ready for this?"
"…you're not going to try and make me back out?" raising an eyebrow, Sinon seemed almost surprised by that. "I would have sworn that was your intention when saying all of that crazy explanation."
"Nah, I know it wouldn't have stopped you. I have learned to not try and force a strong girl to not do what she's set on doing." crashing his closed fists, the caped boy suddenly seemed very fired up. "Well, let's go out there and beat the carp out of all the remaining players!"
"…what?" flatly said the blue-haired girl while blinking.
"Yeah, it will be for the best! I mean, if we get them out of the tournament, then Death Gun can't harm them! Then, when no one but us remains, we finish him off!"
"Didn't you say he was nigh-immortal or something?"
"The keyword being 'nigh'. If it's as I think, and I'm started to get used to it being that way when crazy shit like this happens, then he will have a bunch of 'marbles' inside his body that he can move around as if he was telekinetic." grinning at seeing the girl's shocked face, the gamer nodded her way. "Guess you know what I am talking about? If we destroy them, we end him."
"…then maybe this isn't as crazy hopeless as I thought." answered Sinon with a challenging smile before putting her visor back over her eyes. "I assume the plan is to charge him head-on and hope for the best?"
"Not exactly…I mean, yeah, that's pretty much what it's going to come down to, but we also have the advantage of knowing his greatest weakness." announced Kirito while closing his eyes.
"And that is…?"
"Same as mine. That behind all the sinister alien-based powers and spooky madness…he's still a normal human." the boy sent a cocky grin towards the blue-haired girl. "But my avatar doesn't mess up with that, while I'm sure his does. Big time."
"…I'm pretty sure you understand how that goes better than me, so I guess I will have to trust your word." shaking her head, the sniper put her powered-down lightsaber back on her hip's side before looking forward. "You ready for this, Mr. Hero?"
"I'm always ready." replied the caped boy before raising his fist. "Let's do this, Sinon."
"Yes. Let's." several moments of silence passed between them. "By the way, tell me you planned something for us getting around that don't include you carrying me like a princess again."
"Ehm…"
"…I'm SO kicking your ass when this is over." sighed Sinon before glaring at him, though with no real heat behind it even as she unslung Hecate from her back. "So…how high can you jump again?"
His eyes illuminating in understanding, Kirito once again smiled with confidence.
"Plenty."
And with that, the Hero and the Sniper shot forward, ready to save people…by blowing them up before someone else did.
Some people often complain when they can't do anything but watch events unfold, unable to interact with them or just thinking it would be too difficult to do so.
This was a human concept and contradiction that It still had troubles grasping. Too illogic, after all.
The Entity was getting plenty of understanding by watching the events it had set in motion on the many screens.
It's dual-colored gaze stopping over one in specific, it was in time to see how Yamikaze, GGO's fastest player, ran at full speed while shooting and trying to kill the grim and demonic-looking form of Death Gun in his 'centaur' form. Xaxa, for his part, simply turned his hands into a machine gun and a shotgun before starting to fire back, the insanely fast player doing his best to dodge the shots.
That was another human concept the Entity still had a bit of difficulty grasping. After all, the killer could easily end the machinegun-user by unleashing just a bit more of the 'powers' it had gifted to him…but Shinkawa Shouichi enjoyed the feeling of despair and suffering on his victims. The feeling that crushing them while they still thought they had a chance of 'escaping' gave him.
The only one he would unleash Death Gun's full powers against was HIM.
Moving its gaze, the Entity saw how his other two 'bodies' were currently standing in different rooftops around the edges of the ruined city, currently unmoving. That was to be expected, of course. Despite its best efforts to replicate 'Melzalgald' into the virtual avatar, the man behind it was still a normal human. He had needed months just to get used to the feeling of 'dividing' his body, let alone control two at a time. Dividing into three not only proved that his hate towards HIM was pushing him over the edge, but also that Xaxa would most likely ignore its 'gentle' warnings about what would happen to him if he pushed his 'powers' beyond his limits.
Just like the Entity had planned. Humans like him were too predictable, after all.
Turning his amber/emerald eyes once again, the inhuman being stopped, finally seeing what it had been looking for.
A boy clad in black and white, carrying a blue-haired girl with a massive rifle as they shot through the air, the girl apparently aiming at something…
Even as the form of the few remaining players, more than a kilometer away, flew backward from the sudden high-caliber bullet blowing up his chest, the Entity let a smile form under its silver mask.
The time for the final phase of its 'experiment' was finally about to begin.
Now then, would Kirito be able to beat Death Gun, like he always did? Or would Shouichi 'defeat' Kazuto and kill Sinon thanks to the 'powers' he had been given?
Such questions were what made it so interesting for It to pretend to be Human.
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NEXT EPISODE PREVIEW!
"Time to do this. It's not the time to hesitate, to think about my worries, my fears or what ifs…I have a duty to accomplish. I have someone to protect here, and others that are waiting for me. So let's do this, Death Gun! Next time on 'One Punch-Gamer': 'Battle under the Moonlight!' I hope you're ready to pay for your crimes…whoever the hell your name is-!"
END OF THE PREVIEW!