Koyuki's POV
A few days later, I was walking down the street when my phone rang a notification. Hearing that, I picked it up and looked at it in the lock screen. It was a text message, from a contact name I never had before. Curious, I opened it and read the message. The message is:
"Stranger, please help me. I may not last long in this game called Sword Arts Online. Please…save me. If I die, I'll protect you. Also, do this task for me: bring Kirito-kun and his friends back to normal. Please!
Shin Kitagawa."
Upon reading the entire thing, I was shocked and wanting to join my friends with their spirit guardians, I decided to accept it.
So, I texted back:
"Hello, my name is Furutani Koyuki. Yes, I accepted your request. You can count on me. Thank you!"
After that, I sent it, only for a flash of light to flash before my eyes for a few seconds, blinding me temporarily. "Hey! My eyes!"
Third person POV
After the flash of light subsided, Koyuki felt nothing at first, but then, the spirit of a dead player with dark orange, spiky hair and green eyes came out of her. "Hello there! Thank you for accepting my request," that person, Shin Kitagawa, greeted her happily. Upon hearing and seeing him, Koyuki was surprised. "That's you, Shin-kun?"
Shin Kitagawa was charming, yet introverted, nerdy, and protective, and had a happy-going style of nature and personality.
"Ya, that's me!" Shin smiled at her, before touching her forehead with the index finger of his left hand. "Also, I have something to give you as a token of my gratitude to you for helping me, Koyuki-chan."
Another flash of light blinded her for a couple of moments. After that, the system hologram screen appeared and informed her that her stats had been mysteriously boosted. Her current level is now at Level 40. Koyuki was surprised, but after hearing from her friends about their experience of having the benefits of having spirit guardians, she became positive with confident. She then looked at Shin. "Thank you so much for that."
"No problem, my friend," Shin happily replied back. "So, shall we begin our life as spirit guardian and vessel?"
With confidence, Koyuki nodded.
And so, both of them walked together hand in hand without any romantic elements between them.
At the same time, the Elite Players had detected that Koyuki's stats had been boosted mysteriously, much to their shocked chagrin. The game's creator Akihito was now conflicted by this strange phenomenon. That person was even more conflicted by the so-called ghost logins by players who had died in the game. These dead players are the ones who were the spirit guardians of those who accepted their requests.