Chapter 7 - Chapter 7

"My name is Kirito."

His clenched fingers dug into his gloves as he said those words. The feeling of dread once again struck him, the same feeling he had when he gave his name out to Asuna. But unlike with Asuna, there was a major difference in giving his name to Sinon.

'There's no way this girl doesn't know who I am.' Virtual sweat poured down the player's face. Every second that passed felt like a century. Her stare bore through him, tearing all of his confidence into pieces. His legs felt like jelly and seemed like they would collapse under him at any moment.

The girl turned away and scoffed. "Yeah right."

Kirito blinked. "Huh?" Her fist were balled up and she looked just about ready to swing on him.

Anger made its way to her face. "You heard me jackass!" Sinon yelled as her anger rose to new heights. "What!? Do you think this is a joke!?" The girl began stomping towards him, once again making Kirito backpedal away with his hands up in defense. "You must think you're a funny guy for saying that player's name, don't you?" She shoved the boy hard, his back hitting the wall of the tree. "Well the only one whose laughing is you!"

The black haired boy just stared back at her in surprise. "Why are you so angry at me?" He asked, completely perplexed. He was nervous because he thought she would flip out after she learned he was Kirito, not because she didn't believe him. "I'm not lying, I am Kirito." He said with more power in his voice.

"Don't give me that bullshit." She spat back at him, her hands returned to her hips. "Like Kirito would be some puny little kid like you." She said, jabbing her hand into his chest to emphasize his puniness.

Kirito felt himself get nudged back by her finger. His eye twitched. "Listen, I know I may not look all that much, but I am Kirito." He said in irritation. So what if he wasn't that big? He had plenty of time to grow. He was only fourteen. "Besides, in a world like this, physical appearances don't even matter. It's all about numbers and equipment."

Sinon crossed her arms over her chest. She glanced at the boy's gear again. 'His equipment does look way beyond anything else on these floors.' She didn't have the slightest clue where he got them, or how good they were. The only item she recognized was the «Anneal Blade» on his back, and those were suppose to be crazy hard to get a hold of. She shook her head. "No, I don't buy it." She said, irking him even more. "I'll give you credit for your equipment, but that's all." He tried to speak, but she interrupted him. "Besides, Kirito is probably just some coward barricading himself inside the «Town of Beginnings»."

That wasn't the first time he'd heard that. It was one of the biggest rumors circling the whole 'Kirito' conspiracy. Players usually thought one of three things. That Kirito was hiding away in the «Town of Beginnings», to afraid to fight or reveal himself, that he was plotting together with Kayaba, or that he was the one who led a group into beating the first floor boss. 'Thanks for that, Argo.'

He sighed, scratching the back of his head. "Look, were not getting anywhere. If this keeps up, we'll be here all day and the quest will be taken by someone else." He exaggerated. "So lets put an end to this now." The boy opened his menu up and pressed a tab, sending her a message.

You have been invited to a group. Would you like to join?

Yes No

The girl looked at him for a second. 'There's no way he can be Kirito, right? This has to be some kind of setup.' The black haired girl thought. Her finger hovered over the accept button in doubt, before begrudgingly pressing it. She watched as his name appeared under hers in the left field of her vision.

Kirito

Her eyes widened.

No way. This has to be some sort of mistake right? Were her eyes tricking her? There had to be some sort of spelling trick in his name right? Her eyes read the name over and over, looking for some kind of fault, but she couldn't find a single discrepancy. Her words were caught in her throat as she looked at the boy, who oddly enough, had a smirk on his face. Before she could even think of saying anything to him, the elven npc's decided to interject into their conversation.

"So you two have decided to team up!" The «Elven King» spoke loudly, clapping his hands together. "Excellent! We will pack up our things at once and ready ourselves for the expedition!" He gestured to the two doors at the entrance of the tree. "When you are ready to leave, please step outside of the tree." The king and the other elves walked out of the doors, leaving the two players alone inside of the tree.

A menu signifying the quest had been started appeared in front of Kirito, which he dismissed. "Well, shall we get going, Sinon?" He said, taking extra care to drag the pronunciation of her name out just to make fun of her.

The girl was now biting her lower lip, her face embarrassingly red. This guy knew every single button that pissed her off. The smirk on his face begged to be punched. "Y-Y-You." She growled. She tried to say more, but her words refused to leave her throat. She swiftly turned away from him once she felt tears brimming the corners of her eyes. 'I can't let him see me like this. He'll laugh.' She thought with grief, trying to pull herself together.

Kirito was about to tease her more before he stopped himself. He watched her turn around. Looking closely, he could see her body shake. His smirk dropped into a frown. 'Did I do something wrong?' He was just trying to get back at her. He could have done way worse than that. 'Unless...' He knew why she was upset now. He approached her. "You okay, Sinon?" He asked, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Get off me!" She suddenly turned around, knocking his hand away. "Where were you!?" She screamed at him. Kirito suddenly felt her push him hard against his chest. The push knocked him to the ground as he was too surprised to protect himself. "Why did you abandon us!? Weren't you suppose to help us get through this damn game!?" She fell to her knees, tears freely poured from her eyes. "Why?" She whispered.

He was careless. He was so focused on proving her wrong that he didn't consider all the possibilities on how she would react once she knew the truth. This kind of reaction was one of the ones he expected if a player ever found out his identity. She seemed so aggressive before. Even though he expected she'd react violently, he didn't know she would break down like this.

"I'm sorry." He didn't know what else to say. He thought he was prepared for something like this so he could somehow defuse it. Nope, actually experiencing someone reacting like this was way different than just expecting it.

Especially when it was a girl.

She sniffed. "No, I'm sorry." She apologized back, surprising him. "I shouldn't have pushed you down, or screamed at you." She tried looking at him, but her head refused to turn his way.

It was the same for Kirito, and his eyes refused to look at anything but the floor. "Its really that bad, huh?" He questioned softly. He tried not to think about it much. He knew that because it was a death game, 'Kirito' would be seen as a lifeline. What would you do in the face of death? Most people would do almost anything to stay alive. That's why people don't have qualms about letting others die to save themselves. Kirito thought back to the time he got his «Anneal Blade» when that player tried killing him. It pissed him off just thinking about it, but he understood that the player was just trying to increase his odds of survival.

Every SAO player knew who Kirito was, so when the death game began, many of them would rely on him to survive. So when he didn't appear, in some weird way, it was like he was throwing them to the wolves, leaving them for dead. Sinon's reaction proved this. She probably expected Kirito to help her and every other player in any way he could. When he didn't, she probably thought she was going to die. The weight of the game suddenly became a lot bigger for her. Even if she has beta knowledge, just one slip up and it could be over. Even if he wanted to, there was no way he could show himself to the public now. If her reaction was anything to go by, then he didn't want to know how a thousand other players would react.

She didn't answer him. They sat in silence for a moment before Sinon stood back up. She dried her eyes and crossed her arms. "Well, whatever. You have a lot of explaining to do, Kirito." She mimicked, dragging out his name. Kirito stared back at her dumbfounded before chuckling. Just like that, she was back to being a mouthy bitch.

The male player stood back up as well. "Sure, I'll explain as long as you don't push me again." He teased back, a cocky smile making its way to his face.

Her glare returned. "You're asking for it."

"Okay, okay!" He put his hands up. "I'll answer all your questions, but can we at least get out of here?" Their confrontation lasted way longer then it was suppose to. Any longer and he'd run the risk of other players showing up.

A small part of her wanted to refuse his request just to get back at him, but she also wanted to leave before anyone else entered «Zumfut». She shrugged. "Fine. I suppose you can talk as we go." She walked over to the door entrance. "Move it slow poke, I don't got all day." She jeered before exiting the tree. Kirito sweatdropped.

'Women.'

The crunching of leaves and the wheels of a carriage were the only sounds as they entered the forest. Both the «Elven King» and «Elven Queen» were inside the carriage, along with all of their supplies. Their four elven guards were stationed with one on each side and two in the back, while both Kirito and Sinon were in front. This was how the quest was supposed to be setup. They were placed in front of the carriage because that's where all the monsters would spawn. The king and queen obviously can't fight and the guards gave little to no help, only attacking when monsters got too close to the carriage.

Kirito sighed in angst. Although the quest didn't give out much help, he wasn't worried. What bothered him was the girl he was walking next to. They'd been traveling for ten minutes and they were clearly a good distance away from «Zumfut», so why hasn't she spoken up and asked anything yet? His hands were firmly stuffed into his pockets while he walked, her silence making him feel more and more uncomfortable. 'Well, might as well get this over with.'

He cleared his throat. "Monsters won't start spawning in on us for another ten minutes. Now would be the time to ask your questions." Kirito advised, trying to act as nonchalant as possible. He didn't want her to think he was worried about what she was going to ask. He also wanted to pretend their confrontation back in the tree didn't happen. He looked over at Sinon who seemed lost in thought. She was walking slowly with her hands kept steady at her sides. He had to force himself to keep eye contact with her once she looked at him.

"I know." She said, causing him to raise an eyebrow. "I did a ton of research and info gathering back before the game began." She let out a half-hearted laugh. "I guess all that studying is actually paying off now that my life is on the line..." She trailed off as she turned away from him, a strained smile on her face. Kirito turned away as well, intrigued from what she said.

'So, she spent a lot of time researching about SAO too.' It wasn't all that surprising that people would look up information after the beta test ended. Most beta testers probably weren't able to stop thinking about SAO after how much fun they experienced in VR. There were dozens of forums with many of beta's talking and sharing info with one another The more dedicated fans like himself would spend every second they had looking up new info and come up with their own strategies they could use. Judging by the look on her face, she was probably one of those people who were dedicated.

The boy began to chuckle. "Wow Sinon, I didn't take you to be such a hardcore gamer." Suddenly, pressure began to ease off his shoulders as he felt a lot more comfortable knowing that she was just as big of a nerd as he was.

The girl glared at him, a red tinge on her cheeks. "Oh shut it." She jerked her head away so he wouldn't see her embarrassment. 'Is he making fun of me!' Damn him! As if he has any right to talk! She swiftly turned back. "Yeah? And how did you get all of your gear huh? Oh don't tell me, you got lucky and just so happened to come across it!?" She shot back at him.

He waved a hand back dismissively. "Nah, I knew where to find it." He said, not even attempting to fabricate a story. She would probably pick up on it if he did anyway. "But I didn't think that would be the question you wanted to ask me."

His subtle reminder made her eyebrows raise and her scowl fade. She looked down at her feet. "It wasn't." She paused, once again being lost in thought. Kirito waited patiently for her to speak. The girl huffed. "I guess, now that the time is here to ask them, I suddenly can't remember what they are." She kicked a small rock away, the sounds of it shattering into game particles were heard in the distance. "Or maybe it's because I have so many questions, I don't know where to begin."

Another moment of silence passed between them. The wheels of the carriage filled Kirito's ears and he decided to look back at it. The npcs would pretty much be silent for the whole trip. They would give out a compliment after they defeated a group of mobs, but that was it. All they had to do was follow the dirt path they were on and they would eventually be led out of the forest. He turned back to Sinon before sighing once more. 'Here goes nothing.' He thought, bracing himself for what he was going to say.

"Well, I bet you're wondering where I've been all this time, right?" He said, more as a statement than a question. Sinon looked at him in surprise, not expecting him to speak up. He shrugged her off. "Don't look at me like that. I already said I'd answer your questions." The black haired girl didn't expect his sudden change in behavior, but it didn't really matter.

"Okay then." She started, feeling more audacious. "Where have you been all this time?" She repeated him. "I'm sure you've heard people asking for you to appear, but you never did. Care to explain why?" She was very interested to hear what he had to say about that. It's not like he didn't know. The search for Kirito was so widespread, everyone in SAO must've heard of him by now. Even the players who didn't know him were quickly informed all about the so called 'professional gamer' that was trapped with them.

She placed her hands back on her hips, the gesture seemingly a habit of hers. "Don't think about lying and saying you don't know either." She lectured him. From the tone and look on her face, he could tell she wasn't in the mood for jokes.

'Well there goes that idea.' He thought plainly. Maybe if the game offered some sort of lying skill? He shook his head. 'Alright then, no more games. Just the straight up truth and nothing more.' His eyes narrowed, his confidence now empowering him. "You want to know where I was?" He questioned once more. Feeling obliged to respond, Sinon nodded her head. He stared at the dirt road as her gaze fell to him. "I was here, playing the game." He said simply.

A huge question mark shot off in Sinon's head. 'What's that supposed to mean?' Seriously, he couldn't make that response any more vague if he tried. The girl growled. "Your gonna have to do a much better job then just, 'I was playing the game.' Quit messin' around." She mocked, holding her fingers up to make quotations around his words.

The male player scoffed. "Yeah yeah." He grunted back. He looked up to the sky, letting the forest breeze graze his face. "I mean, I've been stuck here too. It's not like I got a free pass away from death. If I die in here, then I die." He told her. "I'm not wasting away in the «Town of Beginnings», nor am I in a conspiracy with Akihiko Kayaba." The boy finally turned back and looked her in the eyes. "I'm just a normal player. Like you, and everyone else trapped in this game."

The look in his eyes spoke volumes and she could feel how honest he was being. There were plenty of rumors circling Kirito, many of them bad. Even Sinon herself speculated that some of them could be true. But she knew now. He wasn't lying to her. He was just another player trapped inside the death game. Her eyes had unknowingly widened before she quickly blinked, her face falling back into it's usual frown. "Okay, but that doesn't explain everything."

Kirito looked back to the dirt path. "What do you wanna know?" He asked.

The female instantly spoke up. "Why didn't you come out?" She fired at him, irritation pouring from her. "You just said yourself you've been stuck in here, so why hasn't anyone heard from you?"

He voice had a lot more passion in it than it had before. Thinking about that made his body shift uncomfortably. He let out a breath he didn't know he held. "I suppose its the same reason why you're alone." He calmly spoke, flipping the question on her. Sinon's eyebrow shot up, clearly not understanding him. He paused in thought, picking his next choice of words carefully. "Earlier, you said you were alone, right?" She nodded back at him, still not understanding. "And I guess that means you don't usually party up with other people, right?" Another confused nod came his way. The boy kept pushing on. "Why is that? Isn't it safer to fight with other players? Why come out here all on your own? Why not team up with other people if there are clear advantages in doing so?"

She felt annoyed. Why was he asking all these questions!? She angrily faced him. "I dont know! Because I wanted to play by myself!" She yelled at him. Why couldn't he just tell her!? Kirito stared into her eyes. What? Isn't her gonna say anything? "Why are you staring at me like that!?"

He softly shook his head. "Think about your original question and what you just told me. Then you'll know" He hinted. His comment made her seethe in rage. That's it? Now it's all a big mystery?

Sinon scoffed back at him. "Whatever." She seriously hated how this guy liked to mess with her. Even in a situation like this, he could still find a way to piss her off. She pushed back her anger and did what he asked. 'He asked why I play on my own, and I responded that I chose to play by myself because I wanted to.' It was true. After the death game was announced, she was hoping that Kirito would show up and help players like her get through the game. When he didn't, she had an odd, empty feeling in her heart. Even so, she decided to venture out into the game on her own. She was offered by many male players to join up with them, but she turned them all down. 'I didn't team up with them because they were all big perverts.' She grimaced, disgusted from the thought. 'Still, even if they were normal people, I probably wouldn't of stuck around for long. Most of the time, I'd rather fight a battle by myself than join a group.' There was no way she could trust them with her life. She didn't want them to put their trust in her either.

To this day, she still wasn't completely sure why she had thought that. It wasn't like she was trying to be mean. Just, when it comes down to it, she would rather be alone than in a party or guild. Sinon suddenly remembered what Kirito said. 'Think about your original question and what you just told me.' Her eyes widened.

Kirito watched as realization hit her. "It seems you figured it out now." He deduced. "We're similar in that way, you and I. Call it a gaming preference." He suggested, a small smile crossing his face. "I've always been a solo player in every game I've played, including SAO."

"..." She couldn't find words to respond to him, but she understood exactly what he was saying. Some people, like herself, prefer to play on their own. It didn't really matter if it was safer to team up or not. She was confident in her abilities and wouldn't dare take on anything out of her league. She was perfectly fine on her own. In fact, the only reason she wanted to team up on the quest with Kirito was because she wanted it to be done faster, not because of safety precautions. The reason Kirito hid himself was because he knew his fame would gravitate players towards him. "I-I..." She stuttered, unable to find words. The boy next to her patiently waited for her to speak. "I... didn't... expect that." Her words trapped themselves in her throat again.

The sword user frowned. Learning this had obviously thrown her off. "I understand." He knew what she was trying to say. If he was a normal player, then what he said wouldn't have mattered much to anyone, but because he was THEE Kirito, it changed everything. He was suppose to be a figure that you could look up to, a role model. Of course everyone would try to team up with him, even those who didn't like teaming up. It was like playing on the side of a hacker in an online competitive match. You instantly win. But now the image she'd painted of him had been completely flipped around. It must have really shocked her to hear that he refused to team up with anyone. "Hey..." He mumbled out, catching her attention. She looked over to him. "You played RAIZE, didn't you?" He asked her gently.

The girl's eyes widened tremendously, her mouth falling open. "H-How did y-you know?"

Kirito chuckled. "It was just a speculation, but thanks for confirming it for me." His words made her cheeks light up, and she quickly moved her scarf to cover her cheeks. "I'm just teasing you." He said, making Sinon cover her face even more. "I knew from the emotion you showed earlier, when you asked where I'd been all this time." She lightly jumped from that. Her scarf was covering her entire face at this point, making him scratch the back of his head.

Damn. Even he was feeling embarrassed for her.

He cleared his throat, his face also burning. "W-Well uh, normally you would be mad at me for not revealing myself, but you were uh.." He looked away from the girl. "You were too... emotional?" He quietly spoke, sounding more as a question than not. He was embarrassed, but he had to ask. He turned back. "Did... you know me in RAIZE?"

Sinon tightly clutched the scarf around her neck. She couldn't answer that. No way. She would die from embarrassment if Kirito found out that she was actually a fan of his. "I-I-"

"Look out! Up ahead!" One of the elven guards yelled out to them as the carriage came to a stop. The two players turned forward and watched as monsters spawned in front of them. It was the first batch of mobs of the quest. There were five «Forest Goblin» and three «Forest Spider» in front of them. On the single player route, there are way less monsters that spawn in, the most at one time being five. Because they were going on the fast route and that there were two of them, the quest decided to throw more monsters their way.

Kirito swiftly withdrew his blade, the question he had asked now long forgotten. "Get ready Sino-" His eyes raised as he looked at her. Said girl had already drawn her spear and had taken a combat stance.

She gave him a small glance. "Take care of the goblins, I'll get the spiders." She commanded, once again surprising him. He didn't have anymore time to think as the monsters began approaching them at a fast speed.

He sprinted off to intercept them. "Hah!" He grunted, beheading the goblin at the head of the pack. He sprinted through all of them and beheaded the last goblin, it's head spiraling away before shattering against a tree. The remaining goblins and three spiders turned around to aggro on him, as he was the closest target. One of the goblins darted out towards him, it's hands up and ready to scratch at him. The «Forest Goblin» didn't have any weapons, but their nails were sharp. They only attacked with their hands. Having greater reach, Kirito used «Lunge» to stab the goblin in the head, killing it before it could get close. As it shattered into pieces, Kirito saw Sinon's spear pierce through one of the spiders. She struck it straight in the middle, it's weak spot. The creature screeched before it died, the girl readying her weapon towards another eight-legged creature.

'I see her plan now.' The male player assessed as he parried a goblin before slicing the other through the stomach. At first he thought she wanted to fight the spiders because there were less of them, but he realized that wasn't it at all. Her weapon was better suited for fighting spiders, while his was for goblins. He could get up and close to goblins, blocking and slashing with ease, as they were roughly the same height as humans. Spiders however, were much more difficult. A «One-Handed Sword» user would have to bend low, inadvertently making a sloppy swing which would give the spider the advantage. A player who uses «Polearms», however, could just aim their spear lower, easily defeating it.

The boy smirked. 'Not a bad plan. Not bad at all.' He thought, slicing down the last goblin. He turned around and watched as she stabbed the last spider, killing it. 'She may have a bad attitude, but she has good skills, and intuition.' She was a good player, much better then he initially gave her credit for.

"Marvelous!" The «Elven Queen» applauded from the carriage, she and her husband clapping at them. "You both did wonderful!"

The king scratched his beard. "Indeed they did." He gave the two players a friendly smile. "Please continue to protect us! Our journey is a long one!"

Kirito sighed. "The first of many repetitive compliments." He mumbled under his breath, already experiencing it before. He flicked his sword and sheathed it, approaching his spear-wielding partner. "Nice job. I didn't expect skill like that to come from someone as mouthy as you." He joked, poking fun at her.

The girl grunted back, her weapon also returning to her back. "Is that messed up comment suppose to be a compliment?" She crossed her arms and looked away. "Hmph. If I didn't know any better, I would say that you're insulting me to compensate for your own crappy sword skills." She aimed a cocky smile towards him. "I didn't think that was all the grand 'Kirito' had. If you keep fighting like that, you'll never keep up with me." She taunted as she marched forward, continuing their quest.

She completely walked past him in stride, the grin on her face eating into his skin. His eyebrow twitched. "What are you talking about? I'm the one who fought five enemies, you only fought three." He tried rebutting, quickly following after her. The wheels from the carriage began to move again and the guards simply followed suit.

Sinon turned her head back to him. "Yeah, only because I told you to, and you listened just like a little dog." She laughed at him, pretending to stifle herself with her hand. A vein on the boy's head bulged as she infuriated him to no end. She knew she was angering him, but it was just too easy.

'And fun.' The girl thought, a small, genuine smile hidden away from the boy. Never in all her life did she think she would be casually talking face-to-face with the famous gamer Kirito, or tease him for that matter. 'He's way different then I ever expected.' She thought he'd at least be an adult, but judging from his frail and wimpy frame, he was probably around her age.

Her thoughts were interrupted from the angered player behind her. "Yeah? We'll see how that tough attitude holds up later in the quest. We still have a long way to go, so don't complain to me when I'm saving the day and your screaming like a little girl." He sighed. It wasn't much, but it was the best insult he could come up with. What could he say? He wasn't all that used to communicating with others, even online. 'Still, the quest will start to get harder and harder. I'll have to keep an eye on her. From what I've assessed, she's pretty good. Guess we'll just see.' He thought, catching up to the girl.

Sinon didn't respond to his weak comeback. She closed her eyes and let herself bask in the sunlight that poked through the trees overhead. It was early morning. Even though it was a virtual world, it was still nice to feel the sunrise and the wind blowing.

Kirito noticed her silence and her calm demeanor, but deciding not to comment on it. He'd let her be for now. The male took in his surroundings and the girl he was standing beside. Strangely, right now, he didn't hate her all that much. In fact, he kind of enjoyed her company as they walked together. His hands were back inside his pockets, still ready in case an enemy decided to appear. He wouldn't know when that would be now that they'd fought the first group of monsters, but they shouldn't be hard to fight for at least a good while. 'I got nothing to worry about. I'm level 24.' He added in the back of his mind, a small smile gracing his face.

Thinking about his level, he thought about hers. 'I wonder how strong she is?' If she was a beta tester and could get to «Zumfut» as fast as she did, then clearly she wasn't a noob. Easily over level 10. 'Maybe, 12? Or 13?' If he didn't fight two floor bosses, he would be five or six levels at most above her. He shrugged his shoulders. 'I'm not gonna ask her, it's kind of rude after all.' More importantly, if he did ask her, there was a high chance she would ask about his level. He definitely didn't want her doing that.

He enjoyed the silence for a little more before deciding to speak up. He was sure there would be more moments of silence, but you couldn't spend the whole trip without some conversation, right? "I wonder if anyone made it to «Zumfut» yet." He said, the question invading his mind.

His voice knocked Sinon out of her thoughts. "Huh? Oh. Well, yeah. I would guess so." She responded, not expecting him to try and make small talk. Was he perhaps flirting with her? The thought made her blush. 'So stupid, he's just trying to make things less awkward.' She reprimanded herself, covering her mouth with her scarf.

Kirito noticed the action. "Is something wrong? You're covering your face."

"No! Shut up, idiot!" She quickly yelled before turning away, still holding the scarf over her cheeks.

The sword user sighed. "Geez, sorry for nothing, I guess." He mumbled, just loud enough for her to hear.

She turned back around to him with a scowl. "And stop doing that!"

"Doing what?" He sighed back.

The girl pointed at him. "That!" She claimed. "You keep sighing all the damn time! It's so annoying!" She lectured him, once again jamming her finger into his chest.

'This again?' He grimaced. Now that he actually thought about it, he remembered the time when Asuna said something similar to him. "Come on, it's not that bad, is it?"

"It is! It's really annoying!" She crossed her arms back under her chest. "Boys are so stupid." She muttered out of her scarf.

Kirito looked down to her arms and noticed her rather impressive chest being pushed up. He quickly looked away. 'Shit! I don't wanna know what she'd do if she caught me looking at her chest!' He thought a little panicked. The boy shook away those thoughts, coughing into a hand. "Yeah? Well deal with it." He said back. He was about to sigh again before catching himself. 'I'm not always gonna be able to stop my sigh.' He thought, having to now inwardly sigh at his bad luck. Not even a minute ago they seemed cool, now she was pissed off at him for no real reason.

'Maybe I can change the subject?' He couldn't leave it on another bad foot, he had to try again. It would be bad if he pissed her off and she went and ratted him out to everyone. No way was that gonna fly, though. Kirito cleared his throat. "S-"

"Look out!" An elven guard shouted from behind them, the carriage again coming to a halt. His voice died into a sigh, ignoring Sinon's tantrum. He swiftly took out his sword, gripping it with both hands and holding it out directly in front of him. "Here we go again."

This time, there were six goblins in front of them, but not a single spider. 'An easy fight.' They both thought. The monsters during the quest spawn in randomly. Like a normal quest, they get consecutively harder. The game will throw a limited amount of monsters at you, and once you've reached a certain point in the quest, it will begin to spawn harder ones.

Sinon also withdrew her spear and positioned herself to fight. The stance she was using surprised Kirito. 'I didn't notice it earlier, but that's a martial artist stance.' Not the game skill, but real martial arts. The girl was holding her spear next to her abdomen. Her right hand clenched the bottom of it while her left gripped the middle. Her legs were also bent, ready to use her weapon on an approaching enemy. He learned a whole lot about martial arts when he was younger, the one he ever actually trained in was kendo. Still, even if he didn't know much about other branches of martial arts, he had the knowledge to recognize the traditional stance she used.

'I'll comment on it later.' He thought, rushing out in front of her. They'd already established from the last fight that it was better for him to be in front, and her in the back. He can defend enemies off easily up close and she can attack from a longer distance. Two goblins rushed at the boy, but he easily knocked them away. Turning around, he finished them off with «Horizonal», bisecting them both through their midsections. Another goblin tried flanking his back, but he was able to use his left hand to activate «Hammerfist», pushing the goblin into Sinon's spear and killing it.

The other three charged at the players. Kirito was able to move again after a short cool down and quickly ran behind them. Using the same tactic as the last fight, he aimed for the last goblin and cut it's head off with another «Horizonal». One of the goblins turned around towards him, while another sprinted on at Sinon. His sword skill shortly stunned him enough for the goblin to get closer. It reached for him, only to get a boot to it's face. The goblin looked dazed, before turning around and running away.

"Shoot." He mumbled under his breath. He accidentally kicked it into Sinon's direction, making it aggro onto her instead of him. He watched as she finished the other goblin off with a «Thrust», a basic sword skill for «Polearms». The goblin ran up to attack her stunned body. It's running was slow and Kirito easily caught up to it. He lifted his sword over his head to finish it off, only to see a glowing red fist punch it in the face. The goblin's head rocketed back before it's body shattered into light particles.

Kirito's mouth fell open. 'Wait.. was that..' He thought in shock.

The girl in front of him huffed, putting her spear away. "Nice one, you almost got me hit." She said, sarcasm filling her voice to the brim.

The boy in black shook his head. "Wait a second, you have «Martial Arts»?" He questioned. The girl in question was looking at one of her hands, checking if she broke a nail. 'As if they could break!' He thought in irritation.

Sinon looked up at him plainly. "Of course I can use «Martial Arts». Any well-rounded player would know where to find it." She put her hand down, obviously not finding a scratch on it. "All you have to do is ask Argo for the location and she'll sell it to you for 1,000 col." She sighed, running a hand through her hair. "See, now you got me sighing, stupid."

Kirito's eyebrows narrowed. Argo the Rat... Once again, she'd done something that tremendously irked him. He released a heavy breath as he sheathed his weapon, calming himself. The boy had already expected her to do that. He was one hundred percent sure she would. After all, any chance to make 1,000 col just for some information at this stage of the game was a steal. Still wasn't great to hear that she went ahead and did it, though. 'Argo the Rat...' He thought as the two players began to walk again, the npcs behind them applauding their skill. Personally, he believed that the two of them didn't click at all. Argo on the other hand, would tell you another story with complete certainty, too. Even after being constantly told she was annoying to him, she went ahead and pursued their relationship anyway. 'She always finds a new way to get under my skin.' Argo loved to do that, too. She was the type of girl who would always get what she wanted, one way or another. A social butterfly, the complete opposite of a guy like him. It wasn't so surprising that Sinon knew her, she probably had every beta tester on her friends list. Heck, by now she probably had every single player in Aincrad added. 'Everyone but me.' He thought grimly.

If there was one person in this death game who he absolutely had to protect his true identity from, it was her. He had no doubt in his mind that if she knew, everyone would know within the next hour. 'That girl would sell anyone out for the right price...' Even with all their differences, Kirito didn't exactly hate the info broker. That didn't mean he had to like her either. Her method was actually smart. She could make tons of col by selling useful information that would help people survive. Looking at it like that, she would probably become a better asset to the people than he ever could. Kirito doubted she would receive any kind of major hate for her entire stay in SAO. In a way, she did "step up" to help players who didn't know what they were doing, even though it was a secondary goal as she wanted to make money.

He felt himself cringe at the thought. Argo sort of inadvertently took the role he was suppose to fill. Sure, she couldn't lead anyone and her fighting skills weren't the best, her weapon of choice being a single claw. Even so, she knew a ton of information. He didn't like how she played the game, but he was glad she was around to give out a helping hand where he refused to.

A snarky voice interrupted his thoughts. "Seriously, how clumsy could you be? Can you at least try not to get me killed in battle? If I'm gonna die, I want it to be on my own terms, not because of some loser teammate." Sinon berated him, her tone sounding way less harmful than it suggested.

The boy spared her a glance before looking back to the ground. 'She's just teasing me.' Probably in an attempt to get under his skin again. It wasn't gonna work this time. "Yeah alright, I'll take these fights a little more serious." He said, calmly blowing her off. The black haired girl huffed at him before turning away. He returned to thinking. 'I'm not all that used to my strength yet.' He thought, fighting down a chuckle. At level 24, he shouldn't have to use sword skills against these monsters. They were all roughly level 10. They would get stronger down the road, but even then he could easily overpower them. 'Maybe I'm just used to fighting bosses?' He joked. Currently, bosses should be the only challenge he would come across. 'That, and of course the mobs in the hidden dungeon.' Kirito reminded himself. He would have to go back there and grind off on them. The boy had already outleveled everything on this floor and the next, it wouldn't do any good wasting time grinding away for useless xp on anything here. 'I guess after this quest, I'll snatch a few food quest and go back down to the dungeon.'

Kirito was hit with a small epiphany. He turned to Sinon. "So, what are your plans after this quest." He asked, feeling rather proud about his question. Discussing future plans is a great conversation starter.

The female player looked towards him. "I don't know. I haven't really thought about it." She replied back. Kirito's elation began to diminish. That's it? His shoulders begin to slump. "Well, I guess I have to search for a new spear. This one just isn't cutting it anymore." She spoke, gesturing to the long weapon on her back.

His shoulders perked back up. "Really? The spear on your back looks nice. I figured it would be powerful enough to last you at least a couple of floors." He looked back to her weapon of choice. It seemed to be a fine polearm, the wood perfectly smooth with nice etchings drawn into it and the blade tip was a shiny steel. "What's wrong with it?"

Sinon's usual frown deepened. "It's called an «Ornate Spear»." She explained, looking back at her weapon with disdain. "It looks nice and all, but it's actually terrible. The attack's on it are fine, but the durability sucks. I've had to use all of it's enhancements on durability just to keep it from breaking." She complained.

From the sound of it, she really didn't like her weapon. 'I wouldn't like mine either if it broke so easily. I'd rather have a stupid looking weapon that's powerful than a fancy looking weapon that's garbage.' Kirito thought. He never understood how some people think. Some gamers would actually choose looks over power. Even if it was the most powerful weapon in the game, if it was ugly, they wouldn't use it. 'That's so stupid.' Thinking about people who played like that actually pissed him off to no end. What's the point of playing a game just to look good? You play to be powerful! He would never understand that kind of logic...

The girl player sighed. "You're suppose to be a pro, right? Know a place where I can get a new spear?" She asked. Her question almost sounded like she was taunting his 'pro gamer' status.

Kirito smirked anyway. "Of course." He began. "On the eastern side of floor four, there's a monster called the «Scuttle Crab». It hides itself in the rocky terrain of the east, using the rocks as a disguise. They are pretty big for crabs and they have good defensive abilities because of their shell. Their weak point is their mouth that gets exposed once they go in for an attack. Because they are short, it would be easy for a spear user like you to fight them." He lectured her, his smile growing as he explained. "They use their claws to snap at the player, and they have a second attack that lets them spit harmful bubbles from their mouths. It's best to strike them before they pull off the bubble attack though."

Sinon stared at the boy who looked passionate as he spoke. "Because it's one of the stronger monsters on the floor, they have good drop tables. The rarest item they drop is the «Three-Pronged Spear», a one in five hundred chance to get." He continued. "The weapon has three steel blades as it's tip, which they bend outward from each other to form the weapon. The shaft of the spear is grey, and there is a circular pattern inscribed in the middle of the spear." He stuck a finger out. "Oh and there is also a small sharp point at the other end of the spear, kind of like a spike. I'm not sure if it can be used to attack, though." He finished, looking her in the eyes. "Did you get all of that, Sinon?"

Said girl looked stunned. She blinked a few times. "Wow, so you really do know a lot about the game. Guess they don't call you a pro for nothing." She said, making the boy blush. He wasn't sure if she was complimenting him or not, but her words did give him a funny feeling in his stomach. "So, giving you the benefit of the doubt, just how good is this spear?" She questioned. "Oh and if I find out your lying to me-"

"I wouldn't!" Kirito quickly held his hands up to cut her off. He wouldn't lie over something like this, especially now that she had some serious baggage on him. She sighed before nodding, gesturing for him to continue. He coughed into a hand. "Right. The «Three-Pronged Spear», as far as I know, is pretty powerful." He said, continuing where he left off. "As far as durability goes, it should have a little more than my «Anneal Blade»." He thumbed back towards his sword. "Which is pretty good." He added, using the same hand to scratch his head. "Uh, it's not as strong as my sword though, as spears are typically weaker than swords." He told her, smiling awkwardly. "But it's got long range and handles well. It can also be strengthened by +10 like my sword, too. I also heard it comes with a small defense bonus. Strange for a weapon to have, but my guess is that it has that because of the defensive type monster it comes from."

Her eyebrow raised. "A defense bonus on a weapon? I didn't know weapons could get bonuses like that." Weapons were purely for offensive purposes, so having any type of defensive bonus was rare. "I've never heard of something like that." Sinon glared at the boy. "Are you sure your not pulling my leg?" She threatened.

His hands came back up. "I'm not! Honest!" Kirito blinked as the girl huffed and turned away. "I'm not all that surprised you didn't know about it. The spear isn't that popular because the monster can be annoying to fight. Not many quests require it to be killed, either. Still, you did say you did a lot of research. I assumed a spear user like yourself would've known it." He said genuinely. Not a hint of teasing or sarcasm was in his voice.

She blushed angrily. "I couldn't spend all my time looking up information! I had other stuff to do too, you know!"

"R-Right." He forced out a chuckle, trying to calm her down. "Well, if you doubt me, I guess you can just go and ask Argo about it. I'm sure she'll tell you." He suggested. His eyes quickly widened. "But you cannot tell her a single thing about me! Not even pretend!" He stepped in front of her and clapped his hands together, stopping her in place. "She'll ruin me! Please!" He begged her, lowering his head.

Sinon looked surprised at his sudden action before laughing, actually laughing. "I didn't expect the almighty 'Kirito' to be scared of a small rat!" She laughed at him, air quoting his name again. She patted him several times on the shoulder. "Don't worry about it. As long as you answer all of my questions, I'll let you go." She smiled at him, a smile that made his heart skip.

'Wow.' Could all girls do that? Because Sinon could be really pretty when she wanted to. His thoughts returned to her words. "There's more?" Kirito sulked. He knew in the back of his mind that she had more questions for him, but he still wanted to prolong answering them.

Her smile changed into a devious smirk. "Oh yeah. Don't think your gonna get out of them, either." The girl's grip on his shoulder tightened, giving the poor boy a forlorn feeling.

Kirito sighed. "Okay, fine." He replied as the girl let go of him. "But I still got some questions for you, too. Like earlier when we were fighting." He said, his own question returning to him. Kirito placed his hands in his coat pockets and they began on their walk again. "The stance you used, it reminded me of a martial artist." He tilted his head at her. "Did you used to practice a form of bōjutsu in real life?"

A moment of surprise appeared on Sinon. "I didn't expect you would notice something like that." She commented, a small bit of praise leaking from her. She waved a hand at him. "No, I didn't actually do any real training. I knew I was going to use a spear in the game, so to help me out with fighting, I decided to look up some basic techniques experts in bōjutsu use." She gave him a small smile. "I'm impressed you caught something like that."

A small blush grazed his cheeks. He looked away. "Well, back in the beta I met a few spear users. They were all pretty clumsy with their weapon, as spears or staffs are harder to hold properly than most other weapons. Watching you do it so well, I could only assume." He said back. "I guess I did recognize the stance you used, too." He added, scratching the back of his head.

She gained a mischievous look. "Recognized huh?" She said, causing Kirito to look back at her. "While were on the topic, I noticed you were taking what looked like a kendo stance. So what, did you take kendo in real life?" She prodded, her eyes playfully narrowing.

Kirito blinked. "Wait." His eyes widened. "I've been taking a kendo stance?" He asked in shock. The girl slowly nodded.

"Wait, you didn't know you were?"

It had been a long time since he had trained in kendo. So long, in fact he almost never thought about it. Kendo was something that he had done and moved on from. Even so, he still remembered how he would hold a shinai. He didn't realize that he'd still remembered all the katas he had trained in by heart, as if he had never stopped training. A pained smile made it's way to Kirito's face. "Yeah, I did do kendo. It was a long time ago. I guess I took the traditional kendo stance without even noticing it. I guess its because I'm using a sword and all." He said, a massive wave of memories poured back from the depths of his mind.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts. "Oh well, I suppose that doesn't matter now. Although I never expected I'd ever use kendo in a real life situation." He laughed at how ironic it was. At times, he really hated kendo, but now it could be the very thing that could save his life. Kirito tapped the sword on his back. "Even though the situation is pretty surreal."

Sinon looked at the sword he gestured to and felt herself smile. The situation they were in was beyond scary, but even beyond that was how ridiculous it sounded. Who actually gets trapped in a video game of all places? The whole thing sounds like it came straight out of an anime! "Yeah, your right." She laughed back. After thinking about it like that, it kind of made her feel a little better. Sure it was scary, but damn was it stupid.

Their moment was cut short as monsters spawned in front of them once again. They both drew their weapons out in record pace and readied themselves. Kirito, however, felt a small pang of sadness in the back of his mind, taking a glance at the girl. 'I wished we could talk some more instead of fighting mobs.' He surprised himself again. He wanted nothing to do with the black-headed harpy the first time he met her, but now he was truly enjoying her company, even with her annoying flaws. Particularly her bitchy attitude, he might add.

Kirito thought about the girl he met earlier in his playthrough, Asuna. They were similar in a few ways, but also vastly different. He never expected he would once again enjoy being around someone else after he met Asuna. Another girl, no less. 'Or maybe it's because they're both girls?' He sweatdropped.

"Kirito!" Sinon's yell snapped him back to the battle. "Come on, take out the ones on the ground, I'll get the archer's in the tree!" She commanded back as she took off.

Archers? Already? He looked up at the direction she ran to and sure enough, there were three «Forest Goblin Archer» sitting there with their bows pointed at them. Instead of normal goblins that use their long nails to fight, these used bows and hid up on tree branches. A wooden arrow shot at him which he narrowly ducked under. He looked in front of him to see three spiders and three normal goblins. A spider leaped at him, easily being sliced in two with his sword, the blade coming back and batting a goblin away. Kirito turned back to Sinon.

The spear user jumped as high as she could at the tree and pushed her spear upwards, the bladed tip just barely able to get stuck inside the tree. The girl then used the momentum from her jump and flipped herself upright onto the branch. Kirito felt his mouth fall. Never had he seen a spear user move so fluently, or amazingly. He thought he was the only person who used that move. 'I wonder if I look that cool when I do that.' The boy thought as he reminisced his fight with Baran. Kirito was quite literally knocked out of his thoughts when a spider barreled into his chest, pushing him back.

The boy grunted as his health bar slowly dropped. 'Come on, focus! She can handle herself.' He didn't know why he kept wanting to watch Sinon, but he restrained himself and stabbed the spider through it's midsection. One of the goblins ran at him with it's hands out, losing both of them and it's head. The remaining spider was dispatched as well with a kick and a slice. Kirito turned around at the last goblin which had tried to sneak up on him. "HAH!" He yelled, grabbing the sword with both hands and heavily striking it through. The goblin flew back and harshly slammed into a tree, shattering into glass-like particles.

Sinon, meanwhile, had just killed the third and final archer before a massive force crashed into the tree she was on. Her eyes widened as she lost her footing and fell off the branch, her spear falling out of her hands.

Kirito heard her yelp and watched her fall out of the tree. "Sinon!" He dropped his sword and held his hands out to catch her falling body. The girl yelped once more as she delicately landed in his arms. She looked up at the boy who caught her. "Are you okay?" He asked.

She lightly nodded back in embarrassment. "Y-Yeah." She said quietly. 'Wait, what's that?' She thought as she felt something firm touching her butt. Her gaze lowered down towards the feeling and saw that it was a hand, that was connected to an arm. Kirito followed her gaze and his eyes too had landed on his hand.

All of his thoughts had faded away as he focused in on his grip. 'What is this feeling?' He slowly tried to process the sensation his hand felt. 'It's... soft.' Kirito's hand unconsciously squeezed the clothed flesh that filled it, his body feeling very hot.

And very good.

"KYAAAAAAAA!" The yell could be heard for miles as Sinon's scream pierced the male player's ears. Kirito was harshly snapped out of his trance as a foot came flying at his face. Kirito gasped in fear and tossed the girl away, her boot missing the boy's face by millimeters. Sinon landed on the ground roughly and looked up at him. Her entire face red and full of embarrassment. "Y-You!" She screeched as her body shook in rage. Kirito's throat was too dry to speak and he felt a dark pit build up inside of him.

He was in for it now.

"Amazing work, adventurers!" The «Elven King» spoken from inside of the loaded carriage. "We should be out of the forest soon. Please keep it up!" Kirito spared the npc a small glance before his eyes latched back onto the still fuming female ahead of him.

He could hear the stomps that crashed into the ground under her and he looked down to see small footprints of Sinon's feet in the dirt. 'I really messed up.' The boy sweatdropped, holding back a sigh so he wouldn't anger her any further. 'And right as we were starting to get along, too.' His head hung in guilt and shame. The girl had commanded him to stay at a ten feet distance so he couldn't sexually harass her again. He truly did feel bad about taking pleasure in the action. He apologized profusely but she wasn't having any of it. It had been over half an hour since he'd done it, but she still hadn't forgiven him. 'Least I can say I grabbed a girl's ass.' The sadden player thought in attempt to cheer himself up. That's something he never thought he would be able to do, least in the virtual world, anyway.

'Wait, does it even count if it's not in the real world?' Kirito speculated. True she was a real girl, but she technically had a virtual body. Even though the body she currently has should mimic her real one perfectly, it still wasn't actually a real body. Kirito had to bite his tongue to prevent him from sighing once again. It was starting to become a bad habit.

The male player pocketed his hands and slowly picked his head up from the ground. No use beating himself up about it now. If she was going to forgive him, it would have to be on her own, nothing he could do would really change that. He took in Sinon's figure once more. The girl had calmed down a bit from her initial onslaught. For a second he thought she was going to turn into an orange player. Hell, the anger she'd shown could easily qualify her for a red cursor. Watching her walk, his eyes slowly fell down onto her rear end. He had a perfect view of it, and the way she was walking accentuated the way it bounced up and down. The hormonal teen felt himself getting lost in the sight before him...

...

.K...

..Kir...

"Hey Kirito!"

"Huh?" The boy's head snapped up at lightning speed as Sinon stopped and turned back to look at him.

"Didn't you hear what I said?" She questioned back in annoyance. The spear user walked back and stood in front of him. Her aura was intimidating as always with her hands on her hips, making him take a small step back. "I said we're reaching near the exit soon, so be ready, alright?" She huffed out with an almost forceful tone.

Kirito swallowed. "Right. I was spacing out earlier, sorry." He apologized to her, tension filling his voice. His apology was deemed acceptable as the black haired girl nodded and turned around, once again taking the lead. "Wait." Kirito called out, making her stop. "Does that mean you-"

"Oh geez." Kirito winced as she harshly spoke back. Clearly he shouldn't have said anything. Her sigh rang in his ears as she rubbed her head in vexation. "Whatever, it's fine." She quickly stared a hole into him. "But don't even think about doing it again. Not even on accident, you got it?"

He took another step back. "Yes ma'am!" He nodded back vehemently. Sinon stared at him for a few more seconds before scoffing and walking away. Kirito sighed, taking notice that she didn't comment on it this time. 'It seems everything is back to normal now.' She still seemed frustrated, but that seemed to be the typical Sinon behavior.

She was right though. They were reaching near the end of the quest, which meant they were coming up on a stronger enemy.

Specifically, the mini boss.

Instead of the usual ugly, greenish «Forest Goblin» that they've fought countless of times, the mini boss would be the «Forest Troll». The troll was also green and ugly, but he was way bulkier than the goblins. He was taller and also carried a big, wooden club as it's weapon. The monster was slow, but quite powerful. In fact, the troll was probably the strongest mini boss on the current floor and the previous ones. The reason for that was obvious. The higher the risk you take, the bigger the pay off, and this quest wasn't just going to hand over a powerful, exclusive sword without some form of challenge.

Kirito decided to speak his mind and sped up to stand next to her. "I'm sure you've done your research and know that a mini boss will be spawning in soon." Sinon silently nodded back, a small spark of worry crossed her eyes. "Don't worry, I've fought this guy before and he is easy to outmaneuver." His words didn't seem to help much as she still appeared to be a little nervous.

'There's got to be a way for me to help her out.' He thought with a soft hum. This was probably the first time she'd fight a boss with her life on the line. It wasn't a real boss, but with only two people, it could prove to be dangerous. Players usually form a full party of six to take one down. 'Well, I'm way too powerful to be even remotely worried. Still, it's not like I can tell her that.' What could he do to help calm her nerves? Kirito's eyes lit up and he smirked at her. "What, don't tell me your gonna back down now?" Sinon's eyes shot up at him as he began to walk in front of her. "Chicken, I suppose I'll have to hold your hand. Just keep quiet and stay out of the way." He spoke back, waving her off as if she were useless.

The girl's face lit up a furious red. "WHAT'D YOU JUST SAY!" Kirito was barely able to avoid the spear tip that headed for his face. "I DARE YOU TO SAY THAT AGAIN!"

Kirito backed up from the fiery girl. "Hey chill out! I was just trying to help!"

This pissed her off even more. "HELP! HOW!?" She marched up to him, aiming her spear for another strike at his head.

"Well, your not nervous anymore, right!?" He spoke out fast. The girl's feet froze right in there tracks. Kirito watched her face morph from anger into surprise. He decided to speak again. "You were worried about the mini boss, right?" He asked her.

Sinon slowly let her spear fall to her side and looked down. "Yeah." She said, barely above a whisper.

The boy smiled at her. "Trust me, it'll be okay." He eased. "Besides, if anything bad does happen, I'll protect you, promise." Sinon looked at him again in shock. Kirito cockily placed his hands on his hips, chest pumped. "Who am I kidding, I'm Kirito! We got nothing to worry about!" He laughed with complete and absolute confidence in himself.

"Oh shut up." She replied as she sped up to walk on pace with the narcissist. "You may be a pro gamer, but I've got skills too." They both smirked at each other. "But, thank you." She mumbled, just loud enough for him to hear.

Kirito didn't comment, letting her words go up in the air. 'I can't believe I said all of that to her.' He thought back on his words. 'I said I would protect her without even thinking about it.' He was surprised at how cool he sounded. What's more, he wasn't even embarrassed by it. 'Strange, maybe this game is changing me.' He didn't mind that change. Hell, if he could talk to girls, then he was all for it.

He decided to think about that later and focused more on the present. "Okay, let's talk about strategy."

Sinon glanced back to him. "Yeah, good call." She said. "Well, you have experience fighting him. Got a plan?" She asked.

'Well, I originally had a plan to fight him by myself, but I can't really tell her that.' Kirito sweatdropped. This should be fine though. With both of their builds, there was a pretty simple strategy that could work between them. "Yeah. Since I use a sword, I will be taking front guard and block most of his attacks, as well as lure his attention away from you. Since you have better reach with your spear, you'll hang back until there is an opening and strike with a sword skill." He explained as he too mulled it over. It was basic, but there was no need to make a complicated strategy so early in the game.

Slender fingers grazed the wood of her spear as she listened. "Not a bad plan. It's simple, but very effective." If they were to go through with it, she would be doing most of the damage. Her gaze loomed at the weapon on her back, momentarily doubting it's strength. "Yeah let's do it." Sinon said with more confidence than before. She knew her stats were strong enough to deal damage to the boss. She spent every damned day in this game trying to get as powerful as she could. There was no way she would let this monster get the better of her.

A smug look crossed Kirito's face. "Yeah, easy for you to say, as I'll be doing most of the work."

Her eye twitched. Just as she opened her mouth to retort, a bright flash of blue light blinded her. "Ah, what th-"

"Get behind me Sinon!" He commanded as he stood in front of her, his sword drawn faster than she could blink. Sinon was able to peek over the side of Kirito's head and at the creature.

«Forest Troll»

"So that's him, huh?" She questioned, drawing her spear. He was bigger than she thought, easily standing ten feet tall. 'Damn, it's even uglier than those goblins!' She thought as she looked at the vile creature. The troll looked at their group before giving a massive roar as it's name and two health bars appeared over it's head. The npcs behind them began to scamper in fear as they tried to hide from the monster.

"Let's go Sinon! We have to rush it fast!" Kirito spoke as he darted ahead. If they were fast, they could get a solid hit in before the monster could even defend itself.

"R-Right!" She hesitated before following the boy, spear held out in front ready to thrust with a skill. Kirito rushed the beast as quick as he could, watching the troll use both of it's hands to raise the club over it's head.

He'd seen that move before. 'First move is an overhead strike!' The male player tilted his body right as the club was swung down hard, narrowly missing him. He activated the sword skill «Diagonal» and cleanly sliced through the troll from shoulder to waist. It let out a screech as Kirito maneuvered his sword to smack it's weapon away. "Now, switch!" He commanded.

Sinon lunged forward with her spear positioned at the monster's stomach. The weapon lit up a light blue as her own sword skill «Thrust» was activated. She grunted as the pole arm pierced into the beast's flesh with precision accuracy, completely tearing through it and out of its back. Another large roar came from the monster as it lifted the club again, this time going for a side smash. Sinon gasped. 'I got too close!' She wanted to do a lot of damage and overstepped her range. She was now in sword range, rather than spear range.

"HAH!" Sharp steel collided into heavy wood as the troll's club and Kirito's sword clashed. "Step back! I'll make another opening!" He yelled over the sound of his weapon grinding into the troll's wooden club. The girl quickly obeyed him and spaced herself from the two. She gripped her spear tightly, feeling embarrassed and angry that she was already getting carried away at the start of the fight. "Switch!" Kirito yelled back, using it's own weapon to knock it off balance.

Once again, She positioned her spear to use «Thrust» once more, aiming the spear head at the troll's face. The tip thrust directly into its eye, another loud roar bellowing from the beast. This time, she was ready and jumped back as soon as her weapon had hit its mark. She refused to be a burden in this fight.

Kirito jumped in front of the girl, preparing for another clash with the troll. Sinon watched as the boy held off the club that had swung down on him. 'How in the world is he able to hold off its attack?' Parrying was one thing, but he stopped the club dead in its tracks with his own sword. He said the «Forest Troll» was very slow, but hit hard. She could feel how strong the monster was every time Kirito blocked it from the vibrations their clash made through the ground. 'He really is a strong player.' She shook her head and charged her weapon with another sword skill. Now wasn't the time to get caught up in her head. She jabbed the beast again and backed off. "Switch!" She called as Kirito took her place with his blade ready to defend. This cycle continued until Sinon had drained the monster to it's last bar of health, the color turning from yellow to red.

"Get ready for its spin attack!" Kirito called out. Both players jumped away as the «Forest Troll» began to spin in rapid circles with it's club held out. They each ran behind a different tree as the troll went on a rampage. This was it's last attack. A spin move that continuously swung the club around it's body until it hit something. The trick was to lure the monster to a tree where it would smack into it and stop, giving them an opening.

However, the beast had other plans. Instead of going for the players, it went for the carriage they were protecting. "SHIT!" Kirito yelled and darted from the tree. If it destroyed the carriage or killed the elves they would fail the quest!

Sinon gasped as she helplessly watched the troll head for the npcs. 'What do I do!?' She panicked. She couldn't stop that thing even if she tried! 'Please Kirito, do something!' Kirito ran in front of the carriage and turned on his heel. He let out a loud yell as he launched off the ground back at the troll. Sinon's eyes widened. 'He's taking it head on!?' He may have been able to stop it before, but this was insane! Without another second to even blink, the girl watched as he collided with the mini boss, a loud smack ringing the entire area. Her mouth fell open as she could do nothing but stare in shock as the giant's attack was stopped instantly.

True to what she saw, the boy held his sword on top of the troll's club, stopping the horizontal spin with a single vertical strike. "Hit it Sinon!" The beast realizing it had been stopped, began to yank the club with all it's might in an attempt to get itself free. The girl stared at them, shaken with shock before blinking it away. She gave a battle yell of her own as she hit the beast with her sword skill, plunging the weapon through its back and out its stomach. The red bar of health above the trolls head dwindled away until nothing remained. With one last cry, it shattered into millions of particles.

"Thank you so much!" The «Elven King» said as he bowed gratefully to the players. "With this, we can make our way home!" He shouted out. The other elves looked just as grateful and bowed behind their king.

"Yes, we are in your debt, adventurers." The «Elven Queen» stated, rising from her bow. "Please, allow us to thank you by taking these." She held out a paper scroll parchment towards the two, Kirito recognizing it immediately. Inside the scroll was a message and signature of the queen which could be exchanged to redeem the «Queen's Knightsword» on floor nine.

The king also held out his own scroll, which would redeem the «King's Knightsword». "Please, each of you, take one." He smiled as the two elves held out their own scrolls.

Sinon let out an exhausted breath. "Its about time. That quest felt like forever." She stretched her arms over her head. "I'm renting an inn as soon as I get back to «Zumfut»."

The boy next to her rolled his eyes. It wasn't like her muscles could get strained in this world. Although you could feel some sort of weariness by fighting and using skills, you couldn't actually feel physical exhaustion inside the game. People usually mistook mental exhaustion as physical in here. He let out a yawn into his glove, the day's activities finally getting to him. The quest was about as long as he'd expected, just a little over an hour. "Yeah, I guess it was a hard quest." He lied. If anything the quest was boring. Escort quests tend to have that effect. If he were in front of his computer, he probably would have passed out by now.

The girl scoffed. "Oh really? It was a hard quest?" She said sarcastically. "Right. Says the guy who can stop a mini boss with a single blow."

Kirito flinched as he felt her eyes bore into him. He looked away with a nervous smile on his face. "Yeah, must of been dumb luck. Don't know how I did th-"

"Oh shut it you damn liar." She cut him off. "I'll do ya a favor and won't ask, but that doesn't mean you can lie to my face like that!" She stomped towards him.

"I got it!" He yelled, once again at the woman's mercy. The angry girl crossed her arms and huffed, shrugging away. Kirito processed what she had said and a tiny smile appeared on his face. "Thank you." He said genuinely. If she were anyone else, she would have asked him a million questions about his level and stats, his skills, and everything else. He was truly lucky it was her that he ran into and not another player. "I'll put my trust into you. Don't let me down." He said in a joking, but serious manner. Sinon quickly covered her face with her scarf, lest he see that he made her blush, and nodded back at him. She would keep his secret.

Kirito took a step forward, approaching the female elf. "I guess I'll take the queen's scroll, if that's cool with you." He said, looking back at Sinon. He wasn't really giving her an option. He WAS taking the queen's scroll, he was just making it clear.

She nodded back at him. "Yeah, sure. I don't mind." Sinon replied with a shrug. "I'm only doing this quest for money anyway."

"Wait, seriously?" Kirito asked. Why in the world would you do a quest for a sword and not keep i- Oh, right. Spear user. "Well then, I guess it doesn't really matter which sword you get. They both would sell roughly at the same price." He told her as she nodded once more. He conceded with a sigh. "It's a shame you don't use a sword. That weapon is killer. Definitely better than your spear."

"I already know that." She bit back, mildly annoyed he insulted her weapon. It may not be that good, but she still worked for it! "That is precisely why I went out of my way to get it. I knew if I got the sword, I could sell it for a major amount of col." She gave him a smirk that caught him by surprise. "That «Anneal Blade» of yours can sell for a good thirty-thousand. The «King's Knightsword» is easily triple that." She said proudly, her hands returning to her hips.

He raised an eyebrow at the girl. "Not bad." He complimented, actually impressed. Everything she said was dead on. If you found the right buyer, the «Anneal Blade» could sell for thirty-thousand col easily. With extra upgrades, it could sell for a good forty-thousand. It was the best sword for the «One-Handed Sword» skill until at least the fifth floor. Gaining access to the «King's Knightsword» on floor nine, a weapon that has stats way beyond the «Anneal Blade» would easily gain the seller at least a six digit profit. "Quite the plan, considering you booked it to «Zumfut» immediately after the announcement went off."

Sinon smiled. "Yeah. My heart dropped when I heard it. I was inside the dungeon looking for the boss doors so I could sell the info and luckily came across it..." Her voice died down. 'Wait a second.' She thought. When she made it to the third floor, she was in the midst of running to «Zumfut» when she noticed the warp gate wasn't opened. 'That means the only way you can currently enter the third floor is by walking through the boss doors.' She didn't see a single soul when she stepped inside «Zumfut». In fact, the only person she had seen on this entire trip was Kirito.

Her eyes widened. 'N-No... No way... That's impossible... absurd.' She thought, in absolute shock. Kirito looked at the girl in confusion as her voice died away and she suddenly froze up.

"Um, Sinon?" He said, waving a hand in front of her face. Was this chick even breathing? "Hello?" He asked. beginning to get worried.

Her eyes slowly moved towards him until the two of them made eye contact. "It was you." She began, Kirito now giving her an even stranger look. "You beat the second floor boss by yourself, didn't you." She finished.

Kirito's eyes widened fast, before he quickly hid his surprise. He looked away and scratched his cheek. "Guess there isn't a need to hide it from you. Yeah I did." He looked back at her. He watched her stand still, completely stunned from his words. He called out, but she was lost in a world of her own. He quickly approached her and grabbed her shoulders. "Sinon!" He shook her, the girl finally blinking as he shook her shock away. He got closer to her, their noses nearly touching as he looked her in the eyes. "Now that you know this, you can't tell anyone." His eyes turned sharp. "I mean it."

She recoiled from him, the look in his eyes scaring her. "Y-Yeah, I won't. I-I promised, didn't I?" She told him. His gaze smoothed and he withdrew his grip from her shoulders. She let out a heavy breath. 'He can be scary when he wants to be.' She thought. Just the thought of those eyes piercing her made her shiver. 'Still, with his situation. I guess he has to be like that.' She pitied him when she thought about it. He was trapped in a spot that was impossible to get out of. The only choice he had was to hide. "I won't betray you."

The firmness in her voice almost made him blush. He quickly fought it down and smiled. "Thank you, and sorry for grabbing you like that." He meant what he said, but there was still a small bit of doubt in the back of his head. He couldn't fully trust her yet. 'We'll just have to see what happens.' His thoughts trailed off.

Only other choice he had was to kill her.

Didn't want to have to resort to that just yet, though.

Sinon nodded. "It's okay, I understand." She replied back calmly, surprising him. After what he just did, he thought she would start bitchin' at him again. She turned back to the elves who were still in the same position, holding their scrolls out. They sat there unblinking, waiting for the player to make their move, as if time had frozen them in place. "Npc's are kind of creepy." She commented, making Kirito chuckle. "Well, let's finish this quest."

"Yeah." They each both walked up to their respective choice and took the scrolls.

Quest Complete!

Kirito looked down as his menu popped up with the quest rewards. A small smile graced him as he saw the certificate that would grant him his upcoming sword. "I can't wait till floor nine." He accidentally spoke aloud, his excitement escaping him.

The black haired girl just laughed. "I know what you mean. I have a hundred thousand col sitting in my inventory and I can't do a thing with it." The two chuckled some more as the elves went and left them alone at the outskirts of the forest. It was pretty fun joking around with each other like this. Excluding the rambunctious Argo, it had been awhile since Sinon actually had a conversation with someone. That certain someone being the only player who knew more about SAO then Argo did. She kind of wished it wouldn't have to end.

Then she had an idea.

"Hey Kirito." She muttered out as her scarf made its way to cover the lower half of her face.

"Yeah?"

She gulped. Was this a good idea? She wouldn't know unless she tried. "Add me."

Kirito blinked. "What?" He asked. "Could you say that again, I couldn't here yo-

"I SAID ADD ME!" She yelled, her scarf falling to her neck as her blush was freely shown to the world. The girl quickly opened her menu and flew through the directory as she searched for a specific option. Kirito watched as a friend request appeared in front of him. "Well!?" She began tapping her foot impatiently in wait of his reply, each second feeling like minutes.

The male player blinked at her and the request. It was probably best he didn't keep her waiting. He pressed the blue circle, accepting it. The girl huffed and crossed her arms, cheeks still burning from embarrassment. Kirito looked at her flushed face and couldn't help but grin. He wouldn't tease her this time. "I guess this means were friends now." He said, the word still feeling foreign on his tongue.

Friends

This would be the second one he made inside here and honestly, he hoped it would be the last. He no longer considered Argo a friend, and he was sure she felt the same. She was probably super pissed off at him. He did delete her and everyone else he knew off his friends list. If she got word of his identity, she would sell him out without a second thought. 'I do sort of miss her though.' Her wild antics, while annoying, were unique and sometimes fun. Kirito shook his head. 'Forget about her, she'll be fine on her own.' In terms of intellect, she was second only to him. She would also help players out if they needed it, albeit with a price. He had nothing to worry about.

He took in Sinon's form. Both she and Asuna seemed like good people who would stay quiet about him. They were also fun to talk with. Asuna, the nice but strict girl, and Sinon, the snarky gamer girl. It was also a plus that they both had ungodly amounts of beauty. With Asuna's breasts and Sinon's as-

Kirito coughed. "W-Well, I hope we can be good friends." He said. Sinon glanced at him and nodded. She wanted to be good friends too. He opened his mouth to say more, but was interrupted by a message.

Message

Asuna:

"Kirito! Did you hear the news! The second floor was beaten just like the first! Everyone is talking about it!"

The boy sighed as he read her message, feeling Déjà vu. "Whose that?" The spear user asked, glancing at his message screen in curiosity and surprise. "I didn't know you had friends." She then glared at him. "I thought you were a solo player?"

The girl began to jab her finger into his chest again. Kirito held his arms up "I am!" He sighed as she looked at him expectantly. "It was sort of circumstance that I added them. Sort of like yours, I didn't really have a choice." That wasn't true, if he wanted he could have just left Asuna in the forest without telling her anything. Sinon doesn't know that, though.

Sinon sighed. "Fine then." She said as she stepped away from him. A small look of concern appeared on her face. "Are they trustworthy?"

Her question surprised Kirito. Was she really that concerned about his secret? He gave her a nod. "I think they are. They've known me for about a week and nothing's happened. She nodded back, satisfied with his answer. "Looking out for me already?" He teased.

"Why you!"