I do not own Kamen Rider Gaim or Sword Art Online. They belong to their respective creators and not me. I am only writing this for fun and not for any kind of profit. If you enjoy the story then please continue on with your support. If you don’t like it...well, I can’t please everyone. No flames please. They don’t contribute to to my writing like solid constructive criticism would.
Kamen Rider Gaim: Cyber World
By Ten-Faced Paladin
Chapter 5: Gamer Girls
Tobei Tachibana’s Apartment - November 25th 6:00 PM
“Would you like some tea, uh...Suguha-san?” asked Tobei awkwardly.
“Um...yes please,” the girl sitting in his living room nodded insecurely.
Tobei scratched the back of his neck as he headed to his kitchen to see if he could drag out his old tea seat. He only ever brought it out for his parents when they made their bi-monthly visits to bug him about why they weren’t grandparents or they didn’t have a daughter-in-law yet. So he hadn’t taken it out since the last time and he wasn’t really sure if he had any tea left or if it was still good.
Of course, all that potential embarrassment was enhanced by the fact that he had a teenage girl in his apartment. An admittedly cute one too. If any of his neighbours saw, it would only add further stigma to his name and get him branded as some kind of pervert. A guy nearing his thirties should not have teenage girls in his apartment unless they were related somehow! If her parents found she was there, they would likely try to sue or kill him for his role in SAO and their son’s current predicament.
‘That’s the crux of the issue isn’t it?’ Tobei thought to himself as he pulled out the set and put the kettle on. ‘Her brother’s trapped in SAO and you’re one of the programmers who got publicly outed, if only because you’re the only one who tried to do anything about it so far. She came to you for help and you’d better find some way to do that damn you!’
After the water heated and the tea was prepared, Tobei brought the set out for Suguha where he poured her a cup and handed it over to her, “Here. I hope it’s to your taste.”
“Thank you,” Suguha nodded before she took a sip. “It’s good.”
“Good to hear,” Tobei nodded. “Now, before we got any further I just need to know: how did you find out who I was and where to find me? I’ve been trying to lay low ever since this whole SAO mess started up.”
“Well…” Suguha mumbled. “One of my friends, she’s into those kinds of games. She’s kept track of SAO ever since the first test but she missed out on getting a copy. Ever since this all started she’s been keeping track of everything. Your name came up as the only person who the news has anything good to say so I asked her to help me find you.”
“Wow. I guess you really can find anything online,” Tobei scratched his cheek. “Okay, so you tracked me down so I can help you find your brother?”
“Yes!” Suguha nodded. “You...you have to be able to do something! You helped make the game, right? You added a bunch of stuff to save the players! Maybe you could find Onii-chan or maybe find a way to even get him out!”
‘Oh here comes the heartbreak,’ Tobei thought to himself sadly. “Suguha-san...When Akihito had us all creating Sword Art Online, he regulated everything. I mean, no one worked on anything except what they were assigned to and for all the money Argus was paying us to make this game no one wanted to ask questions which could get them kicked off the project. No one knows anything about how SAO works in its entirety. Hell, what pieces we do know are highly complicated even for us. Akihiko is ahead of his times and he’s put it into everything.”
Suguha wilted at the news, “But...you...you put…”
“I was able to put in the Kamen Rider systems is because I worked behind Akihiko’s back in some of the other departments that needed an extra hand,” Tobei replied. “But what he’s done with the Death Game protocols is something none of us ever touched on or even seen. I tried deleting it before the game went online and the I was only able to get rid of bits and pieces before the governing AI of the game replaced what I removed. Right now I doubt anything can be done since the government is more concerned about who to blame and all of the programmers are going underground since people are taking out their anger on them.
Suguha wilted further, staring down at the floor while her tea was forgotten. Her shoulders were trembling and she looked like she was about to cry. It made Tobei want to kick himself for making her that way when all she wanted was a little hope in finding and even rescuing her brother. He knew one or two things which could make her feel better, but at the same time the police in the cyber division would know what he was doing and make a stink over it. Still, it was for the sake of a worried girl’s piece of mind...
Realizing he might be looking at some jail time if things went wrong, Tobei sighed and looked to the girl, “Suguha-san...while I can’t get your brother out...I think I might be able to let you see him.”
Suguha gasped, looking up, “You can?”
Tobei nodded, standing up, “Yes. One of the things we put into SAO was a...I guess you could call it a camera function. Basically it allowed programmers to watch the players interact with the world. I personally thought it was a security function, a human eye on the lookout for criminal players or to record the good scenes for advertising. Now I figure Akihiko made it so he could keep up his god act over SAO.”
Gesturing Suguha to follow him, Tobei led the girl to his computer room which was stocked to the nines in top of the line equipment. He had a crazy amount of computing power for a private office and the only ones who had more were companies like Argus who could afford that many. He took a seat and began opening menus, logging onto the internet, and pulling up files and getting access to his Argus accounts. With the lawsuits and the chaos of discovering the death game, Tobei doubted that anyone had the presence of mind to delete his access. Hell, he doubted anyone knew he had even noticed he had quit.
Opening up his Argus Employee Account, he quickly opened up the Sword Art Online access grid and began looking through the commands. They were all still there, but he noticed that a whole bunch of employees were accessing the same files. Tobei figured that several employees in the project had handed over their access to authorities so that trusted programmers could try to get the people out of the game. Still, no one was using the camera functions. Likely no one wanted to witness an innocent person die in front of them like in some of those horror movies.
“Okay, here it is,” Tobei sighed, opening a map of Aincrad’s first floor. It looked like a satellite map like the weather service would provide, but there were orange and green dots littering the area, most of them clustering in the major cities.”
“What are those?” asked Suguha.
“The players,” Tobei answered. “The green ones are regular players, but the orange ones are players who broke the laws by attacking other players outside of a duel. Not surprised there are so many with the panic that probably happened when the Death Game started,”
“So, one of those is my brother?” asked Suguha hopefully.
“Yes, but there aren’t as many of them as I…” Tobei trailed off, fearing that some kind of mass slaughter had happened, but then noticed an indicator on the bottom corner which had the numbers 1 and 2 inside squares. “Oh, they got through to the Second Floor. Well that’s not bad at all.”
“I bet Onii-chan was there,” Suguha insisted. “He was one of the Beta Testers or whatever they’re called.”
“Was he?” Tobei raised an eyebrow. “Then we might have something. Do you know his online name or his email address?”
“I know his address,” Suguha nodded, reciting it by heart. She had to send Kirito messages now and then when she couldn’t talk to his face. It seemed email was one of the only ways to get real conversation out of him.
“Okay, here we go,” Tobei nodded, typing in the address into the player search function. Players who registered into SAO had to fill out a registration form which would allow Argus to send them notices about updates or special quests. If one had any bit of that information, they could find out what that particular player would get up to. So entering the information, it brought up a player profile of a young man who was only a bit older than Suguha. Next to it was a ‘live feed’ image as if a bird was watching the young man travelling along the rocky path of the Second Floor’s terrain. He was dressed in a long black coat with a tunic, pants, and a sword over his shoulder.
“Onii-chan!” Suguha gasped.
“This is him?” asked Tobei.
“That’s him!” Suguha nodded. “Is he okay? Where is he? What’s he doing?”
“Hold on, hold on, I’ll tell you,” Tobei sighed. He pulled up a readout of notable exploits the boy had undergone. “Okay, seems like he’s on the Second Floor and he was part of the raid group which took down the First Floor Boos. He’s completed a bunch of quests, and he’s not slowing down. Damn, this kid really knows how to play the game,” At the bottom of the list was another notice, one that Tobei was surprised to see. “Oh, so this kid’s the one who found my Gaim armor eh?
“Gaim?” Suguha questioned.
“One of my little additions so that the players stand a better chance at survival. Your brother has a SengokuDriver and a Lockseed. Also, he’s not the only one it seems.”
“Will it really make a difference?”
“A lot have died before the first floor was cleared,” he said grimly. “Your brother being in the possession of a SengokuDriver gives him a huge advantage to survive this. I wouldn't be surprised if he’s the one to end the game.”
“Do you think he can do it soon?” Suguha asked hopefully.
“Not soon,” Tobei shook his head. “It nearly took a month to clear the first floor even with using my Inves and Kamen Riders. Even if there will be more support now that the game isn’t impossible, it’ll still take a long time to clear the game. There are one hundred floors in total and each one will have a boss more powerful than anything before, and each one will have it’s own special trick that will make it harder to beat them. Your brother has a lot of work cut out for him if he intends to clear the game.”
Tobei also didn’t mention that he may face some powerful enemies from the other players. Orange players were the kinds of people who would jump other players and kill them before making off with their items. With how SAO worked, people would really die if Player Killers existed. But with desperation and denial no doubt going on, those kinds of people would just be more willing to go to the extremes or think they could do anything they wanted since no one could stop them.
“Oh…” Suguha mumbled.
Tobei scratched his head, “I know this isn’t much, but so long as I can keep getting into Argus’ systems and SAO, you’re welcome to come back and see how he’s doing.”
Suguha blinked, but then smiled, “Thanks,” She wiped her eyes, apparently having been tearing up in the past few moments. “So, you put those Kamen Rider things into the game to help people?”
“Yep,” Tobei closed the window and opened up another depicting 3-D images of the Kamen Riders Gaim, Baron, Gridon, and Ryugen. “I was making my own online game using Argus resources that were going into SAO, but when I found the Death Game I figured the players in SAO needed them more.”
“Are these the only ones?” asked the teenager, looking at the Gaim armor since she was told her brother had claimed it himself.
“No, I have more,” Tobei opened up more suits. One was black and the face was designed like a feudal footsoldier while another was a feminine pink. “I’ve been making up a lot of designs so that players for my game would have a wide variety to choose from.”
“Can you put them in?” asked Suguha, hoping that the more Riders there were the safer her brother and the people in the game would be.
“I could, but part of my problem is that the police are kind of keeping an eye on me and if I do something they may just end up arresting me,” Tobei sighed. “I may just end up getting in trouble by accessing Argus to show you what is going on with your brother.”
“Oh…” Suguha mumbled, but she remained firm. “That doesn’t matter! If you get in trouble I’l...I’ll...I’ll get my parents to hire some lawyers! I’ll petition the judge with all my friends! I’ll be witness to what you’re doing! I’ll take the stand in your defence!” The girl was becoming flushed from being so passionate, but it seemed that she was telling the truth about what she would do to convince the police he was trying to help.
After a moment, he snickered, “Hell, what’s so scary about a jail cell? If my suit programs can save lives then who cares where I end up?” Turning back to his computer, he flexed his fingers before starting to type and open more windows. “I custom made my computer so I could work from home just in case something came up. Let’s drop some new toys into SAO. Just speak for me at my hearing and we’ll call it even.”
“You got it!” Suguha smiled.
(LINE BREAK)
Aincrad - Second Floor: Urbus November 30th 10: 23 AM
Asuna heaved a sigh as she sat at one of the restaurants that populated Urbus. It was a big city that was situated in the midst of a crater. The scenery was rocky, hilly, and mountainous, which seemed to be the norm for the entire floor as far as she could see. It wasn’t a bad town, although the NPCs there seemed to be dressed in slightly warmer clothes and were of a hardier stock since they lived in a rougher region than the NPCs on the first floor.
Unfortunately, that went with the mobs too. They all consisted of ox and bull-like monsters to some variations. They all had a few annoying commonalities, mainly the higher strength, enhanced toughness, and a rapid charge attack. It was much more difficult to fight them than any other monster on the first floor, even the kobolds that were living in the dungeon. It made progressing through the floor more difficult than on the previous floor. Asuna herself had been nearly trampled more than once trying to fight those monsters. She had barely nicked any of the unknown territory of the floor before a fight with a monster forced her to return to Urbus to recover.
Urbus was quickly getting populated. Plenty of the people who were too afraid to explore the first floor and were sticking to the city were eager for a change of scenery. Several were setting up shop so they could sell to the Clearers. Everyone was in a good mood, seeing the Clearers as something akin to heroes instead of a pack of suicidal morons. Asuna just thought they were being fickle, having denounced the Clearers until they began to succeed. She had to deal with people like that enough times back in the real world.
Word spread fast about the Kamen Rider suits. Asuna heard rumors from people moving up from Starting City that whole raid groups were diving into Helheim Forest to try and find the strange NPC that was reported to hand out the Drivers that could change players into Kamen Riders. A lot of the Clearers who were forming parties were also trying to find the Kamen Riders so they could get them to join up and help them clear everything. As far as Asuna knew, all of the Riders vanished to do their own thing after the portal in Urbus. Klein and his friends went off to explore the Second Floor, Kirito and Sinon did the same, and Agil was firmly following a merchant path by selling more Lockseeds to people.
She wondered what Kirito and Sinon were doing now. They had suggested she join a party so she wouldn’t be all alone. Despite the fact the Orange Samurai and Green Gunslinger being solo players, Asuna still had them on her friends list. She’d chat with them now and then, but with the adventures they were on, they sometimes could get spotty with replying. Still, at least she knew they were doing fine.
Still, after three days of trying to get out into the Second Floor she was finding herself languishing behind the city walls and watching bored people play Inves Games. She was barely getting any experience from the few monster she managed to kill. Well, it was good experience but with only one or two kills it didn’t exactly fill her EXP Bar at a rocket pace. She needed something to help equalize her inexperience with the monsters until she could get her levels up.
“I need more Inves,” Asuna sighed, coming to the conclusion. She only had her Momo-chan and he was just too small to compete with the rest of the monsters in Aincrad. Compete in Inves Games yes, but not in the life-or-death battles that Asuna would be finding herself in several times over. Asuna’s problem was that she was nearly flat broke. She spent all of her money on weapons, accessories to boost her stats, and clothing to better protect her. Her room and board budget was all she had left and she couldn’t compromise that. Lockseeds could get expensive, especially the higher-tier kinds she would need to have battle partners. She’d have to grind for a whole day or more with the monsters below to be able to pay for one of those A-Class Lockseeds.
‘This is so ironic,’ Asuna sighed to herself. Back home she was rolling in money but in Aincrad she had driven herself to bankruptcy. Well, at this point since coming to Aincrad she found that pride had to take second place to other things so she could just ask Kirito or Sinon for a loan and…
“Oh!” Asuna gasped as an idea came to her. Pulling up her messaging system, she listed Kirito and Sinon as the recipients and wrote her message.
To: Kirito, Sinon
From: Asuna
Subject: Helheim Forest
Hello!
I’ve hit a bit of a slump here on the Second Floor and I can’t improve enough to get anywhere. I was hoping that one of you could tell me where a portal to Helheim Forest could be found? I’m hoping to pluck some Lockseeds both for personal use and to raise some funding for even better weapons and armor. Any tips or information about the place would be appreciated.
“There,” Asuna nodded, hitting the send button and letting the message fly. It was getting closer to lunchtime so she hoped that Kirito and Sinon were someplace taking a break and could reply quickly. So she closed her menu and went back to the last of the food she had bought for herself. Dire financial straights or not, she wasn’t going to let it ruin her appetite!
Swallowing some more of the <<Beef Dinner>> she bought, her notification lit up telling her she got a message. Excited, she opened it and began to read.
To: Asuna
From: Kirito
Subject: Re: Helheim Forest
Well, I guess you’re at a high enough level now. I know one portal to Helheim Forest. It’s in a clearing inside of the Forest of Beginnings. You can only find it if you go off the beaten path where the wolf mobs show up. I’d say about fifty feet from the path when you’re well out of eyesight from the nearby village. You really can’t miss it. Be careful though, wild Inves are aggressive and if you have Lockseeds on you they will home in on you to try and take it. Throw Lockseed Flowers to distract them. Also, Sword Skills only do a fraction of the usual damage on them so avoid a fight unless you can’t, then just aim for high damage areas to try and maximize what you can.
“Okay,” Asuna nodded, filing the information into her mind. She wasn’t in the mood to fight wild Inves anyway. She saw that Sinon had replied as well so she opened the message to see what her other friend had to say.
To: Asuna
From: Sinon
Subject: Re: Helheim Forest
If you want to go to Helheim Forest then you have to be really careful Asuna. The portal I know is hidden inside a rock formation at Origin Lake. It sticks out like a sore thumb. The Inves there aren’t all small and loveable like your pet Momo. They are big and have attitude. Don’t bring in Lockseeds unless they’re in your inventory and not on you anywhere. They can sniff them out and will do anything for them. Sword Skills don’t work on them that well either so if it’s an Inves Warrior then prepare for a lengthy fight, but anything stronger or more numerous then you’re better off just running away. Lockseed Flowers grow all over the place, they’re purple bell-shaped flowers. Just pluck them and they’ll turn into Lockseeds after a short time. Oh, NEVER open a Lockseed inside Helheim, it’s like one big beacon for all of them according to Klein.
“Okay, that’s more informative that Kirito’s,” Asuna nodded. She knew Lockseeds grew on trees inside of Helheim, but she hadn’t known how to recognize them now that she thought about it. She just assumed that they were right there as the metal objects she knew Lockseeds to be. She would have to stock up and make sure that all of her weapons were at their peak durability along with any healing items she could get to make sure she got out of Helheim in case things got crazy.
“Okay, I’ve got shopping to do!” she nodded. She would have to break out her food budget but hopefully she’d make it up with Lockseeds.
(LINE BREAK)
Aincrad - First Floor: Origin Lake November 30th 3:30 PM
Making her shopping run, what little she could get, Asuna teleported to the First Floor and headed out to <<Origin Lake>>. It wasn’t an incredible distance away, but she still felt like she had lost some time in just getting to the lake Still, she managed to reach the lake and like Sinon had said, the pile of boulders stuck out like a sore thumb. Climbing around them, she found the opening that Sinon had hinted at and with a little bit of shuffling, she managed to slip through. A short trip through a tunnel later and she found the zipper opening that would let people into Helheim Forest.
“Here goes nothing,” Asuna mumbled to herself. Taking a breath, she stepped through. The air swiftly changed from the musty inside of a tunnel to the slightly wet misty air of Helheim Forest. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust, but soon she was able to appreciate the bizarre beauty that was Helheim.
“Wow,” she admired. Sword Art Online was full of scenic beauty in its own right, but something about Helheim just felt otherworldly. The flowers and other small plants felt strange and the fog gave everything an air of mystery. The purple flowers growing over all of the trees were also adding to the feeling of being somewhere unnatural. She couldn’t help but wander through the groupings of trees so she could see everything that Helheim Forest could offer in terms of aesthetics.
“Wait...purple flowers,” Asuna blinked. The Lockseeds! She was so entranced by Helheim Forest she had almost forgotten about why she had even gone there in the first place. Trotting up to one of the trees covered in the desirable purple flowers, she delicately pulled one off of the vine. She thought it looked rather pretty until it flashed, transforming into a Mature Lockseed. The front was marked with a pink peach, looking downright luminescent in the foggy, murky, air.
“Cute!” Asuna smiled. Oh she was never going to sell this one! Slipping the Peach Lockseed into her inventory, she turned to collect more Lockseeds, letting them transform into their mature forms before placing them in her inventory for safekeeping. “Kirito and Sinon made this place out to be downright dangerous when they came through. It seems pretty quiet if you ask me.”
Asuna wasn’t quite familiar with popular media, being raised as the daughter of a successful businessman. She was focused more on her education and other means of entertainment with her friends like chatting and a passing interest in video games, which was how she ended up in SAO in the first place. So she didn’t know about how she was effectively jinxing herself by making such a statement.
More shocking though was that the jinx she made for herself didn’t immediately happen. Instead, Asuna actually began humming a small tune to herself as she plucked several Lockseeds for herself. No Inves seemed to know she was there, no desperate group looking for Lockseeds thought to try and steal from her, and not even some shadowy villain appeared to enact some menacing plan with Asuna accidentally caught in the middle either by accident or design. she just had a peaceful time harvesting the Lockseeds she intended to sell to Agil. Were it the real world, one may assume it was just good luck but in SAO one might have thought Tobei made it that cute girls had an advantage in Helheim Forest.
Up on the Second Floor and in Starting City, Agil, Klein, and Kirito felt like they had been cheated somehow and weren’t sure why.
Asuna had yet to meet the mysterious NPC responsible for the Riders' acquisition of their Drivers, although she didn’t enter Helheim to meet her. She had come for Lockseeds and as she continued to gather highly demanded items, she heard movement. Stopping her humming, she turned to see what had made the noise while grasping her rapier. Her eyes widened as she spotted a group of adult-sized Inves Warriors in the distance. They were fortunately too preoccupied with eating Lockseed Flowers, but that could change pretty soon once they realized her presence.
"OK, time to go," she said to herself as she turned to leave only to accidentally trip upon a root. “Oof!”
A red Inves Warrior grunted and looked up. It easily spotted Asuna thanks to her white and red clothes before screeching. The remaining three Inves Warriors perked up and likewise saw Asuna. Unfortunately, Asuna had been clutching a Lockseed Flower as she began to run and it chose that exact moment to transform into a Donguri Lockseed. It caused all four of the Inves to perk up and begin charging wildly, each of them hoping to be the one to get the Lockseed first.
Asuna groaned and shook her head, but quickly got her senses back. Looking back, she saw the charging Inves and gasped. Getting to her feet, she began running through the forest again. While she was running, she quickly found that because of her wandering in admiration of the scenery she had lost where the portal out of Helheim was. Cursing herself, she just picked a direction and ran for her life. The Inves weren’t dissuaded as they continued to race after her, intent on devouring the Lockseed she still had clenched in her hand.
The coiled plants slapped at her body as she ran, dodging around several Lockseed Trees as she went. One Inves Warrior she wouldn’t mind taking on, but four of them with a resistance to Sword Skills and she knew she would have low chances of winning or even surviving. She knew better than to try anything suicidal now that she had her will to live once again. She would just keep running from the Inves Warriors until she either lost them or found a portal back to Aincrad. She wasn’t going to let the monsters kill her!
Diving into undergrowth to try and throw the Inves Warriors off, she scrambled through the branches which smacked her face and body. Pushing herself forward, she burst out of the brush, but a stray branch caught her leg and she collapsed onto the ground, her face sticking into the grass. “Ow…”
“Woah! Hey boys a cutie just landed in our laps!”
Asuna recognized that tone. She had heard it plenty enough. Guys who just wanted to check out and hit on a pretty face. Looking up, she saw a bunch of guys who wore <<Bandit Coats>> and seemed to have bandoliers made of vines with Mature Lockseeds hanging from them. She had stumbled onto a party making a raid on Helheim for Lockseeds and possibly for a SengokuDriver of their own. They were guys who seemed to be a little older than her, and pretty much looked like the thugs her brother taught her to avoid.
“Well hello there,” one thug grinned, a scruffy-looking boy with a headband. “Looks like you got a little spooked by something out there honey.”
“Was it a scary animal? Don’t worry, we’ll protect you babe!” another thug grinned lecherously, obviously staring at Asuna’s bare legs.
“All you have to do to thank us is fork over all of your Lockseeds,” the leader, a boy with awful dyed blonde hair snickered. His snicker then turned downright perverted. “Or maybe you can turn off those <<Ethics Codes>> and reward us for our generosity a different way.”
Asuna scowled at the group of perverted thugs. It was no secret by far that for the most part SAO was populated by guys. There was a very noticeable gender disbalance and since Kayaba Akihiko used his little mirror trick, a bunch of the presumed cute girls turned out to be guys trying to live out secret fantasies of some kind. Add that only a portion of the girls who were real girls weren’t in the looks range of ‘total nerd’ and actually cute and it was plain to see why someone like Asuna being found on her own would be considered a boon to such a group of thugs. As for the <<Ethics Codes>>, they were the reason why no girl had gotten sexually harassed or worse since the game began. They were a program which banned players from taking part in illicit activities like smoking or sex. Of course, they could be shut off by the player if they needed to do something like smoke but when it came to sexual activities all players involved had to have their codes turned off. In other words, the thugs could make moves on Asuna all they wanted, but if she didn’t have her <<Ethics Codes>> turned off they couldn’t even touch her in such a way without the system stopping them and marking them as an Orange Player.
“Listen!” Asuna frowned, getting up. “We can’t stay here! We have to go!”
“Woah, eager to get started huh? Cool by us!”
“No you pervert!” Asuna growled. Did these boys have nothing but sex on the brain? What the heck was wrong with them? “A bunch if Inves Warriors are chasing me! We need to run and-!”
That was as far as Asuna got before the four Inves Warriors she was trying to warn the raid group about burst through the foliage. They were wild and hungry. One of them spotted the Lockseeds attached to the raid groups’ bandoliers and screeched to signal the others. There was food before them, ripe for the taking. All interest in Asuna was dropped as the Inves Warriors charged at the raid group who had way more Lockseeds on them than just the one lower-class one Asuna had in her hand.
A savage fight broke out, the raid party caught completely off guard by the Inves Warriors and were slow to the draw. One or two of them took bad blows on the onset, knocking them down before the Inves tried to get the Lockseeds from their bodies. Swords were drawn and Sword Skills were unleashed, but Asuna observed that the attacks didn’t do as much damage as they normally would have done. She grit her teeth as she witnessed the carnage, ‘Just like Kirito and Sinon said. Since the Inves weren’t originally part of Sword Art Online,our attacks and weapons affect them differently! If we want to win against these numbers, we need something from Helheim to hurt them!’
“AHHHHHH!”
Asuna looked around, at first thinking that one of the perverted thugs was screaming like a small child, but her horror mounted when she saw that it wasn’t a thug screaming in such a way, but an actual small child screaming! He seemed like he was only eleven or so and was running from a Green Inves Warrior but he was being weighed down by an absurd number of packs and other equipment. The thugs were obviously using him as a pack mule while they worked in Helheim, but now that things had gone bad they were ignoring him to save their own hides. It was serving to be a hindrance to the boy since the Green Inves Warrior was easily catching up to him, already anticipating the Lockseeds that the boy had for his team.
“Look out!” She cried, running to the child’s aid. Charging up a <<Thrust>> with her rapier, she stabbed out and caught the Inves in the shoulder region, making it stumble backwards from the force and angle of the blow. Seeing the monster down for the moment, she turned to the child who was already on the brink of tears from being of terrified by the monster. Asuna was at his side in an instant, “What are you doing out here? This is no place for a child!”
The small boy was unable to speak, managing only to get out stutters and sniffles from it all. Asuna threw a glare at the thugs, some of which had already run away and leaving their comrades to the mercy of the Inves after their Lockseeds. At the moment, she was all for just picking up the child and running for a portal out of Helheim and leaving the jerks to rot. Still, her morals just wouldn’t allow her to let people die when she could do something about it. So lifting her sword once again, she charged with the best Sword Skill she had at the attacking Inves Warriors.
“HYAH!” She lashed with another blow, striking a Blue Inves Warrior and knocking it back. It didn’t do much damage, but it did knock them away. She charged up her quickest skills one after the other to strike the Warriors back. They didn’t do a lot of damage, but the strikes did force the Inves back from their intended targets. As the Inves Warriors fell back, they began recovering and looked to see Asuna standing in front of the remaining down thugs and their child pack mule. Her rapier was poised and ready to strike.
“The rest of you run!” she shouted to the thugs. “Go before you get themselves killed!”
“Don’t need to tell us twice!” one of the thugs grunted before he and his remaining friends took off running. Asuna didn’t really think any of them would stay. Now she would be able to run off and hopefully get away from the Inves and find a way-!
“Onee-chan!”
Asuna gasped and glanced back, seeing the little pack mule on his knees and gaping openly. Asuna’s heart clenched when she saw the child, either too afraid to move or didn’t want to leave her behind. Either way, he was going to be a target for the Inves if she tried to run. With how small he was and how much stuff he was loaded down by, he was just waiting to be picked off by an Inves! There was no way she could run now, not without leaving him behind!
“GRAH!”
Asuna’s attention was snapped back to her battle when an Inves Warrior strike her with a swip, causing her to stumble and land on her back in a heap. The Donguri Lockseed fell from her hand where a Blue Inves Warrior leaped on it ahead of the others, gobbling it up like a piece of candy. Vines soon covered it and in a flash, the foliage fell away to reveal a Deer Inves standing up with a screech. The bellow caused the other Inves Warriors to run away, afraid of their former comrade.
Asuna groaned, touching the glowing red lines which cut across her torso. It dropped a good portion of her HP. Not incredibly bad, but worrisome just the same. She also didn’t have doubts that the Deer Inves was significantly stronger than the Inves Warriors. She’d seen the difference enough times in Inves Games players would play when they were bored. Still, she couldn’t leave that boy behind!
“You will die if you continue this way.”
Asuna perked up, looking for the source of the voice that had spoken to her. The Deer Inves seemed to be stunned by the voice, looking around and hissing as if expecting something to emerge and attack it. Asuna pulled herself up to her knees, unsure why the monster had just suddenly stopped and who had spoken to her. The small boy likewise was confused as to who was speaking.
The bushes, the trees, and even the grass seemed to somehow part before a woman in white entered the clearing. She had blonde hair and eyes which were two different colours, easily catching Asuna’s notice. What else she noticed was that she lacked any indication of being a player. That meant she was an NPC. But then the only NPC said to inhabit this forest of Lockseeds was...the mysterious girl supplying players with SengokuDrivers.
“You have been deemed worthy,” said the girl as she approached Asuna. She then took the brunette’s hand and placed in it a SengokuDriver. “This power is yours. However, once you use it then your fate is sealed and you will be locked in a conflict. You must never falter and fight to the bitter end. Do you possess that resolve?”
Asuna frowned, but nodded, “I maybe didn’t at first, but I do now!” Standing up, she pulled the SengokuDriver out of the girl’s hand before turning to face the Deer Inves again. Glancing at the premium item, she brought it to her waist and allowed it to latch on. The blank indicator on the side then flashed, creating the side profile of a pink helmet which was smooth but decorated with gold vines framing the face. The visible eye was narrow and feminine with a rainbow color to it. A glimpse of a red stone could also be seen on the forehead as well. It was also decorated behind the profile almost like a folding fan which had vine-like designs cascading over it with a pink light illuminating everything.
Asuna then opened her inventory to the Lockseeds she had collected. She had a nice collection, but most of them were seeds and she knew that fruit-based Lockseeds summoned stronger Inves than the seed-based one. So she felt using a fruit-based Lockseed in a SengokuDriver would give her a stronger suit. Materializing the Lockseed, she hit the button to unlock it.
“PEACH!”
A flash of pink light from above created the form of a large metal pink beach which shimmered as if it were polished to perfection or had that natural sheen like Chinese silk. It rested on its top with the narrow bottom pointing in the air with two green leaves near the base.
“Henshin!” Asuna called, snapping the Peach Lockseed into place on her SengokuDriver.
“LOCK ON!”
The belt began letting out a sound similar to the one Sinon’s used. Asuna then hit the sword switch and cut open the peach. Like other Lockseed, the top half looked like the inside of a peach but the bottom half held a metal chain the likes which Shaolin monks would use. The ends were larger and coloured magenta with the bases being decorated with peach sides.
“HAI! PEACH ARMS! KURUKURU, WITH PIERCING BEAUTY!”
The Peach Arms then dropped and landed on Asuna’s shoulders, covering her with the protective suit. It was coloured pink and hugged her form, the front and back of her waist sporting a loincloth-like fold of fabric with slits on the sides and short sleeves barely clearing her shoulders. The sides of the cloth was lined in gold and a line of gold came from her neck, vanishing under her right arm. The fabric had a collar, giving the entire fabric suit the image of a Cheongsam. Her biceps and thighs were covered in black fabric while her forearms and hands were covered in pink gloves with gold wrists. Her legs up to her knees were covered with high heel boots which had gold around her ankles and her knees, a pink circle on the centre of the kneecaps.
Inside of the metal peach, Asuna’s head was covered with the helmet that her belt depicted. Then a deep pink/red helmet attachment landed on her head, having two peach-like attachments on either side with gold ribbon on the bases and hanging down to her ears. It made her helmet look like she was sporting the Chinese ox horn style of hair. When the attachment was on, the eyes of the helmet turned deep passionate red.
The metal peach itself then snapped into four pieces, unfolding into the protective steel armor. The two sides twisted over her shoulders to follow the curves of her shoulders before the curved up slightly, making them look like a shawl. The back panel folded in half and attached to her back. The front finally folded down and attached to her chest, looking like a rounded pink breastplate for a woman, accenting her curves and gold on the edges. The upper portion of the peach rested on her stomach with gold lines running across it like the straps of bustier. A final splash of pink power completed the change, bringing the chain weapon into the female Rider’s hand.
“S-sugoi!” the boy gasped, seeing Asuna’s transformation.
Asuna herself looked over her hands, shocked and a little euphoric as she felt the power of the suit running through her. Looking at her hands, a window opened in front of her to declare what she had received.
<<You have received Kamen Rider Jotome armor!>>
<<You have received Peach Arms armor!>>
<<You have received Momokusari!>>
“Pray you chose well, Kamen Rider Jotome,” the NPC spoke before she walked into the underbrush once more and vanished. Her vanishing seemed to have brought the Deer Inves out of its funk and it became aggressive towards Jotome and the small child once again. It screeched and charged for the both of them. Jotome reacted quickly, and released all but the end of the chain before she swung wide, letting the weighted end smash into the Inves’ face and cause it to stumble.
Jotome marveled as she continued to swing the Momokusari, allowing the momentum to keep going. Her suit was actually like an assist system, telling her how to use her strange weapon! All she had to do was set herself up like a Sword Skill and she could use the chain! Granted she had to follow through with the entire move herself but the system helped her make the right steps to make sure that she didn’t end up hurting herself at least.
The Deer Inves growled and charged a second time. Jotome took up the challenge and clasped the Momokusari around the middle and spun on the spot, allowing both weighted ends to spin through the air. She swung over and over, taking swipes at the Deer Inves. The ends struck the monster, causing red pixels to fly through the air as the damage took. Still, the Inves wasn’t pleased with being battered with so many little blows.
With a snarl, the monster leaped into the air and dover over the strikes which Jotome was using to try and bring it down. The beast came from above and landed on Jotome, knocking her onto her back with the beast standing above her. The Inves dove down to try and bite her, but Jotome lifted her weapon up, using the chain links to press against the Inves’ neck, preventing it from getting closer lest it cut off its own breathing. Thinking quickly, Jotome braced her foot against the Inves’ chest before kicking it off. Her space claimed, Jotome hopped to her feet as the Deer Inves reclaimed it’s own.
“I’m through playing this game!” Jotome snapped. Spinning the Momokusari again, she swung it wide once again. This time, it struck the Inves and actually wrapped around it before the peach decorations on the base of the end latched onto the other links, keeping them closed. The Deer Inves grunted and began to struggle. Jotome gave a fierce pull on the chain and with the strength the suit afforded her, pulled the Inves at her which she kicked in the face with her high heels, launching it off again. Another pull brought it back for another kick, which launched it off and smashed it into a tree before it dropped to the ground.
The Deer Inves snarled and managed to stand before it gave a sharp tug and freed itself from the Momokusari. Another snarl and it began leaping about the area, bouncing off of the trees like a deer would prance as it ran from predators. Jotome pulled her chain back and attempted to strike the Inves out of the air, but it kept bouncing and hopping, proving to be more agile than she was.A final hop from the beast closed the distance between them before it headbutted her, its anters smashing into her face and knocking her back. A swift kick from its legs sent her skidding backwards across the dirt.
Jotome grunted, her vision blurry for a moment before her senses returned. Absently, like a reflex, she checked her HP bar and was pleasantly surprised to see that despite the hard hits the Inves had only done moderate damage, the kind she’d usually see when she fought a monster that was at her level. The armor’s protective abilities would certainly useful when she had to go up against the Inves or other powerful monsters.
“Onee-chan!”
Jotome shook her head a second time before her vision filled with the young boy that had been witnessing the entire fight thus far.
“I’m okay,” Jotome smiled under her helmet, patting the boy on the head as she got up. “But you have to get back! This isn’t safe for someone like you!”
“But! But!” the boy mumbled.
“Go!” Jotome ordered, pointing to the brush where he could hide. The boy reluctantly obeyed, allowing the pink Rider to focus her attention back on the Inves. She pulled the Momokusari back to her body and a single swing brought momentum back to it. The Inves wasn’t impressed and prepared for another lunge.
The pair stood off against one another, both knowing that the other was out to kill them. The silence didn’t survive long before the Deer Inves charged with a flying leap once again. This time, Jotome didn’t try to retaliate, but dove into a roll underneath the leaping monster. As the Deer Inves came down, Jotome got to her feet before swinging the Momokusari at the beast. She didn’t aim for damage, but for a capture. In that, she succeeded as the Momokusari wrapped around the Deer Inves’ neck. It tried to grab the chain, but the links weren’t finished wrapping and the monster’s hand was caught as well. Pinned, the beast choked as it tried to free itself, but Jotome merely tugged to steal some of its breath and keep it docile.
“This ends!” Jotome snapped, hitting the sword lever on her belt.
“HAI! PEACH SQUASH!”
A pulse of pink power began in Jotome’s hand before it travelled down the Momokusari and struck the Deer Inves. It flashed before growing into a large peach made of energy which kept the monster pinned. More systems in the suit pointed Asuna to what she had to do and she ran at the beast. After a few steps, she leaped into the air and spun before extending her right foot and coming down on the Inves in an axe kick. Her leg flashed with pink emerge before she struck, slicing the peach in half and the Inves with it before the monster exploded, throwing blue pixels everywhere. Jotome landed in a crouch as a victory window appeared in front of her, highlighting what she got out of the fight.
“Wait a minute!” she gasped, standing up when she saw the results. “That can’t be right!”
And thus Asuna learned the curse of using the suits in SAO: the experience drain effect. All the experience she could have received from the fight was reduced to a fraction of what it was supposed to be. That meant she needed to use the suit during emergencies. For quests and grinds that weren’t so life-threatening, she would have to forego the suit or she would fall behind in EXP as a consequence.
“Onee-chan! Onee-chan!”
Jotome looked and saw the young boy running towards her, looking quite excited now that all of the danger had passed. He leaped at the pink Rider and hugged her around the waist, causing her to huff from the unexpected impact. Still, as the boy babbled about how cool she was, she pat his head while she tried to get him to calm down.
“Hey, it wasn’t a problem,” she beamed, although her mask wouldn’t let her show it. “Now, let’s get out of here before more hungry Inves come looking for us?”
“Okay!” the boy nodded quickly. Taking Jotome’s hand, he and the lady Kamen Rider headed away from the clearing for a portal out of Helheim and to somewhere a little safer.
(LINE BREAK)
Tobei Tachibana’s Apartment - December 2nd 9:45 AM
Tobei sighed as he took his cup of coffee, reading over results of the day to day activities of the players in SAO. Some players had died, but the number of fatalities had diminished dramatically. So far 1500 people had died. Tobei felt each one and he could only hope his armors and his Inves managed to help keep the number as low as it was.
Closing the map screen, he opened up his profile pictures on the Kamen Riders he had managed to get into the game. He was surprised that Jotome had been claimed so quickly after he had inserted it into the game but he was happy for it. Kurokage hadn’t been claimed yet and he had just inserted Sakyubasu and Kerubimu the previous night so he expected no one to have found them yet.
Although plenty of players dove headfirst into the Helheim Forest, Tobei had programmed a certain trick into the NPC which would hand out SengokuDrivers. Because SAO had psychological observation programs, Tobei tapped his NPC activation parameters to them. The NPC would observe the players and when one of them would show qualities of a person who wanted to protect the players, beat the game, or risk themselves to save the lives of others she would appear and give them a driver. Which one they received depended on which Lockseeds they had. If they had a Lockseed corresponding to a specific suit then they’d get the Driver. If they didn’t, the NPC wouldn’t give them one. Tobei may have wanted to give the players what they needed to survive, but he wasn’t going to hand them out to just anyone and everyone. He needed to know that the players would use them to get everyone out of the damn death trap.
He had to admit, getting the recording of the Riders fighting Illfang was downright awesome. If not for the fact someone died during the fight Tobei would have watched it over and over again for pure fun instead of trying to see how he could make the suits better and possibly look for suitable candidates to use them.
*KNOCK! KNOCK!*
Tobei sighed as he heard the knock on his door. He could already guess who it may have been since he had been expecting it for a few days since Suguha convinced him to keep trying to use his Inves and Riders to help the other players. The police had to have noticed if they had their cyber crimes division going over everything to try and help the players, if not the government’s best computer experts doing the same thing. Tobei hadn’t exactly been subtle when he applied more changes to Helheim Forest.
Resigning himself, Tobei got up and walked to meet his fate at the door.
(LINE BREAK)
Aincrad - Second Floor: Urbus December 2nd
“Okay! Ichi, Nii, San! Go!”
In the centre plaza of Urbus, an impromptu show had begun. On a <<Performer’s Mat>> were three Inves Warriors, each of a different colour, who were doing a dance routine of all things before the red and green Warriors moved next to each other with the blue one hopping onto the shoulders of his comrades. All three lifted their arms in victory before leaping into the air, rolling into balls, and landing with squeaks on the mat.
The crowd instantly at it up, clapping with cheers and calls for more. One person stood at the side, lapping up the praise with a smile and a grin as she received a notice that she had been given Col in small amounts from various different players. The receiver was in fact a small girl who couldn’t have been older than thirteen, too young to be the average player of Sword Art Online. Still, she was there.
She stood of average build and hadn’t quite developed her womanly attributes as of yet. She had brown hair tied into a pair of ponytails with red ribbon and had brown eyes with sparkled with enthusiasm and energy. She wore a red jacket with a simple protective breastplate and black pants with brown boots. All she wore were cheap wares which anyone could get and only offered a moderate amount of protection.
Her name was Ayano Keiko A.K.A. Silica and she was quickly becoming known as the Inves Tamer among her audience members.
Silica was one of the many younger players who had become trapped in SAO after going online. Although he had some idea of how to actually play, which was more than many of the younger players, she wasn’t old enough to be taken seriously by the older players who were forming parties and trying to clear the game. So all of her initial attempts to form up in parties were met with refusal or outright mocking.
So Silica was ushered to the church in <<Starting City>> where all of the younger players were collected to be cared for by a woman named Sasha. She was nice, and Silica wouldn’t say a bad word against her but for a new teenager like Silica surrounded by younger kids the church was hardly the place she wanted to be. For at least a little while, she and some of the other older kids would party up and go grind the mobs to bring in income for Sasha to use for supplies and other things the kids would need while they were trapped in SAO. It was monotonous though, and Silica wanted to explore more of Aincrad and do something about their situation so they could all get out and go back to their families. Silica herself deeply missed her parents and her pet cat Pina.
She saw her opportunity in the Lockseeds and the Inves they summoned. The kids took to them like candy, most of them having been avid Pokemon players and saw a chance to do the same with the Inves. Silica on the other hand saw it as her chance to prove that she could be useful in a Party even if she was on the younger side of all the players.
So she pooled her money together and bought three Lockseeds, all three of them being Himawari Lockseeds and she summoned her Inves. She named them Ichi (Red), Nii (Blue), and San (Green) and immediately began to train them. Since they were small, they didn’t have much combat potential in helping out against mobs or other things but Silica wanted to show that she had skills in taming Inves. So she trained her three partners in performances and dances she thought up before setting out into the city and showing off her routines. She managed to make some decent money on her shows, but so far no one seemed interested in partying up with her for any exciting adventures.
“Thank you, thank you!” Silica smiled with a bow, her three Inves doing the same. “You’ve all been a wonderful audience! Please come back this afternoon for another exciting show of Silica the Inves Tamer!”
The crowd dispersed, some of them giving Col to Silica for her Inves’ performance. One of them asked to marry him, but she quickly turned him down. She was thirteen for crying out loud! Once the crowd was finished and she collected her donations, she gave each of her Inves a pat on the head before sending them back to Helheim Forest.
“Whew! Time for lunch!” Silica smiled to herself.
Silica moved to the shopping district of Urbus where players and NPCs alike were promoting their wares and trying to make some money. She passed by one particular stall which sold clothes and there she saw a long red jacket with gold decorations on it hanging, waiting to be plucked. Silica tapped it with long familiarity and saw how much the item cost. Well outside the cash she had on her at the moment. She couldn’t even afford the dagger which was on sale next to the jacket.
“Mnnn…” the small girl mumbled but then heaved a sigh before moving on. She quickly found one of the local restaurants and sat herself down. An NPC waitress came and took her order before leaving to get it prepared. If there was one thing that Silica didn’t like about SAO, it was how cooking by NPC took as long as it normally would in the real world. Still, her meal came soon enough and after paying for it, she happily began chomping down on her meat and potatoes.
“I wonder if its this yummy in the real world,” she wondered to herself as she ate.
“Oh man! We’re going to be rolling in the dough!”
Silica blinked and glanced over as she popped some small potatoes into her mouth. Over at another table were a group of older players who seemed to be as thick as thieves, leaning into each other. It was hard to see from her angle, but Silica was sure that she could see a small pile of Lockseeds worth a ridiculous amount of Col if the bright colors she spotted were any indication.
“Yeah We’ll be able to outdo that gaijin on the first floor and corner the market on Lockseeds for ourselves! We’ve got our own private portal to Helheim!”
Silica blinked and were it not her mouth filled with potatoes, she would have gasped. She then remembered herself and tried to look like she hadn’t just overheard some of the biggest news to hit the Second Floor since it was actually opened. She didn’t want to ruin the chance for gossip or being able to profit off of something.
“Shhh!” hissed another member of the group. “You want to blow this for us! We got lucky when we found it and if someone knows where to look we could end up losing the edge!”
“Right, right,” the other member sighed. “But who would have guessed that a portal to Helheim is under the city in that <<Worm Tunnel>> Dungeon? We went for a quest and we got something way better in the end!”
“Yeah, but we got lucky,” reminded the leader. “That portals in a secret room behind the serpent bones room and we wouldn’t have found it if Needles hadn’t tripped and fallen into the thing’s mouth.”
“You guys could have helped me instead of laughing at me so much,” said member grumbled.
“Eh, you got us a personal portal to Helheim so we’re all going to get very rich and with our own army of Inves to back us up in anything we do!” the leader grinned. “I’d like to see those Army guys on the first floor stop us then!”
The group cheered and celebrated with drinks as Silica took in what she had heard. As far as she knew, portals to Helheim Forest were really hard to find and only a few people knew where they were even on the First Floor. Even among the people who knew where they were, only a small group would really try to get in so they could get more Lockseeds. It was supposed to be really dangerous and the wild Inves were supposedly nearly immune to Sword Skills. That particular point was moot to Silica since she didn’t know many Sword Skills in the first place but the point remained the same.
Lots of the kids back at the church loved to play Inves Games or raised their Inves like beloved pets. However, Lockseeds were hard to come by with Sasha’s budget and sometimes it was tough to get money even for food or clothes because of how the mobs were claimed by players wanting to advance. Being able to go to Helheim and get Lockseeds to sell would be huge for the kids, or even giving some as gifts for the kids who don’t have Inves would make a difference.
Silica knew what she had to do.
Wolfing down the rest of her meal, she took off running for the edge of the city. She actually knew an entrance to the <<Worm Tunnel>>. Everyone knew of an entrance since it was one of the first available quests on the Second Floor and the NPCs made sure everyone knew it. Not many people took advantage of it since no one wanted to risk it until they got to a higher level to match the other monsters on the floor, which Silica heard were pretty tough compared to the ones on the First Floor.
Equipping one of her dagger, Silica emerged to one of the tunnels leading to the dungeon which burrowed into the crater lining of the city. It was roped off and had NPC guards watching it. They wouldn’t do anything unless someone got to it unarmed or were an orange player. So she strode past the guards without an issue and began hopping down the stairs into the <<Worm Tunnel>>. Landing at the bottom, she saw the main room lit up with torches and both connecting hallways well-lit, meaning that they had been explored already.
“Okay, those guys went to a snake bone or something so they already explored it,” Silica reasoned to herself. “That means that any traps or monsters would already be taken care of by now...I hope.”
Steeling herself, Silica chose a hallway and began to explore the dungeon. She took care to avoid any unlit hallways, meaning that they had been unexplored and could still hold traps or monsters just waiting to jump a player. She had to keep checking her map so she didn’t get too lost, thanking the fact that her personal map of the area updated with every spot she visited so she knew where she had been. Once or twice she had to fight some <<Giant Bats>> but her level was high enough to ensure she managed to get away the winner. One time she did spot some kind of giant worm lounging in one room and she had to find a way around without getting its attention. Thankfully her small stature allowed her a higher stealth skill since she was lighter and smaller, thus harder to see and hear so long as she was careful.
Eventually Silica found the room she was looking for. It was a big room with the far end having some kind of fossilized giant snake stuck in the wall with the head sticking out and with the mouth wide open. Some of the rocks on the ground made a shifty path to the mouth, but it looked so rough and uneven it could be mistaken as simply part of the scenery.
“Okay. Here goes!” Silica hyped herself up before crossing the room and beginning to climb up the large rocks. It took time and effort since she wasn’t as big as the usual players that would enter the dungeon themselves and she was on her own. Still, with a bit of creative climbing and a bit of luck Silica managed to pull herself up to the mouth of the fossilized snake. The bottom jaw was solid and now that she was in front of the jaw, she could see a tunnel at the far back which no one would be able to see unless they climbed up to the snake in the first place.
Despite shivers she got at seeing the jaws of the snake looming over her, Silica continued. Walking down the skull’s throat she saw the tunnel yawn into a sort of slide. With no other recourse, Silica hopped onto the smooth rock and began her slide down the tunnel. She couldn’t help but whoop with excitement as she did so, laughing as she made wide corners and tight turns. All too soon, the ride ended when ilica crashed into a pile of sand at the bottom of her ride.
“Ow,” she mumbled between coughs. Patting the sand off of her clothes, she stood up to see where she landed. The room was lit up, meaning that it had been explored and some pots were in the corners of the room which could hide minor items. At the far end of the room where perhaps a treasure chest would be found was instead a wide open zipper which opened up into a misty forest.
“Yes!” Silica cheered. “I found it! Those guys were right!” Laughing, she dashed to the portal and easily stepped through into Helheim Forest. “Oh wow!” As young as she was, she could still get distracted by cute and beautiful thing even in the middle of a death game like SAO. She was so entranced, she didn’t snap out of it until a bird’s cry made her gasp.
“Oh, right! Lockseeds, Lockseeds, where are the Lockseeds?” Silica furiously reminded herself as she began looking around for the mysterious items. Approaching one of the trees, she took notice of the purple flowers. Again thinking they were pretty, she lifted one up to try and sniff it only for the stem to break and the flower to fall into her hand. “Ah, oh no!”
Silica fretted over the flower she feared she ruined, a habit from when her mother scolded her for crushing one of the flowers in her garden by accident. She even tried to attach the flower back to the tree, but with obviously no success. After several moments of that, the flower suddenly flashed, much to Silica’s shock, and when it died down she was even further shocked to see a new Lockseed in her hands. It was just like the Himawari Lockseeds she had in her inventory, but the front was marked with a pair of cherries with their green stems connected and a leaf on top.
“No way…” she gasped in surprise. “You mean...these flowers...are all Lockseeds?”
She looked around rapidly before plucking another flower. After a few moments, it transformed and became a Pineapple Lockseed, “Oh wow!”
Seeing her initial guess as correct, Silica began happily plucking as many flowers as she could get her hands on. Sometimes she’d wait just to see what kind she had gotten since seeing the change itself was rather fun in her opinion. A lot of the ones she found were seed-based, but that was more than good enough since lots of the kids at the church used seed-based Lockseeds and she didn’t want a bunch of the kids to start pushing around the others just because they had a better Lockseed than the others.
Soon her inventory was full, with little space left for anything else, bringing a smile to her face “There we go.” The amount of Lockseeds she had would be more than enough to bring some relief for the other kids at the church. “These will make a lot of people happy.”
The thirteen-year old was brought out of her happy thoughts by the sounds of branches breaking. Looking around, she tried to see what was making the noise. For all the good things that Helheim Forest brought, she had heard that it was a pretty dangerous place that no one should mess with by themselves. She was taking a huge risk by being there by herself after all. To that end, she decided that it was time she leave before one of the wild Inves who weren’t so inclined to be friendly with her
She panted slightly as she ran in the direction she was sure that she had come from. All of Helheim looked the same so she was a little unsure if she was heading in the right direction.
“Come on, come on, come on,” Silica murmured to herself. “Where did that portal go?”
“Hey! Who are you?”
Silica flinched and turned to see several players walking towards her through the trees. She easily recognized them as the group which had been in the restaurant. None of them looked particularly pleased at the sight of her.
“Ulp!” Silica gulped.
“And just how the heck did you get here?” asked the leader of the group, frowning at her.
“I...I…” Silica sputtered, backing up as they advanced on her. “...Came through a portal?”
“She used our portal!” accused another of the group. “She’s taking our Lockseeds!”
“I am not!” Silica snapped back. “It’s your guys’ fault for talking so loud about it and...oops.”
“So you were overhearing us,” the leader of the group hissed. “Well, we can’t have that. Not when we’ve got claim to some of the strongest items in SAO.” Reaching into his jacket, he brought out a Motsubokkuri Lockseed before unlocking it and throwing it aside. The group became tense and began backing away, much to Silica’s confusion.
She got her answer when a bunch of Inves Warriors began leaping into the area, snarling and drooling as they dashed for them and the Lockseed which was lying on the ground. The group of older players were already running, leaving Silica alone with the approaching Inves. The young girl screamed and ran away from the clearing, leaving a few of the Inves to fight over which of them got the opened Lockseed. The remaining three Inves, rather than brawl over the one piece of food began to chase after Silica for the Cherry Lockseed she had in one of her pockets
“Ahhhhh!” she creamed, dashing away from the trio of Inves. She didn’t really pay attention to her surroundings so she had no real idea where she had gone just yet. Her mind was more focused on just getting away from the three wild Inves intent on killing her for food. The scenery passed like a blur, Silica only looking ahead to avoid running into something while the Inves kept their eyes on her. They were hungry and she was afraid, causing both sides to cast aside small details like where they were or what was around them.
Silica dashed into a small clearing, finding a lagoon with a babbling spring in the centre of it all. Panting, she rested her hands on her knees and tried to get her breath back. Looking up, she didn’t see any of the Inves Warriors following her. “Did I lose them?”
“For now.”
“Ahh!” Silica screamed, falling on her butt. Looking around, she saw near the back of the spring sitting on some of the stack of rocks was a girl in white with blonde hair. Her eyes were two different colours which caused Silica to stare at her, that and be slightly envious of how pretty she was.
“Your fate stands at a crossroads, and it shall be your choice which way you shall go,” the girl spoke.
“Huh?” Silica blinked, confused.
The girl didn’t reply as she stood up and approached Silica. Reaching behind her back, she produced a black belt buckle with an indentation in the middle and a sword on the side. When she was close enough, she held it out for Silica.
“For me?” asked the girl. The NPC girl nodded and Silica took the item for herself.
<<You have received a SengokuDriver!>>
“Owah!” Silica gasped. She knew what the item was! It was one of those super-rare items that could only be found in Helheim Forest! Wearing one allowed people to fight off strong Inves and use Lockseeds as weapons! She never thought that she would have been able to get one for herself!
Wait… “Um...how do I use it?”
Her notice screen blinked out and brought up a new window which offered an explanation to how to use the SengokuDriver which had been given to her. As distracted as she was by reading the description, she didn’t notice the girl walking away from the spring and vanishing into the forest. Scrolling to the bottom of the description, she did take notice when the three Inves Warriors managed to track her down and begin to approach.
“Ack!” Silica cried out, almost falling into the water as she was surprised by the trio. Managing to reclaim her balance, she faced off against the three Inves Warriors. Having the secret weapon of Helheim did wonders for her confidence and she wasn’t going to let the three monsters terrorize her anymore. “Okay! Time to take you guys down!”
She lifted the SengokuDriver up and placed it at her waist. The yellow belt wrapped around her and secured into place, even if it looked a little oversized on her. The blank panel on the left side lit up with a round moon with traditional cloud designs on it. The helmet at the forefront of the panel had a semicircle visor which was rainbow coloured, but the grow was pointed in the centre with the deep forest green helmet with a blue hexagonal stone in the centre. The mouthplate was brown with silver X’s on the front, like a collar closed up around the wearer’s mouth. When the belt was secured, Silica lifted the closest Lockseed she had and opened it.
“CHERRY!”
A green/red flash appeared above Silica’s head which formed into a metal pair of cherries connected with green stems and a green lead on top. When it appeared, Silica slapped the Lockseed into place into the centre and locked it into place.
“LOCK ON!”
The belt began to let off a war trumpet noise as the Cherry Arms began to lower slowly, waiting for the command to come down. An order Silica provided by pressing the sword-like handle and chopped open the Cherry Lockseed, the top half looking like the inside cherries while the bottom half had inside of it a green and brown crossbow with a cherry-tipped arrow loaded into it.
“COME ON! CHERRY ARMS! LOCK AND LOADED, ROLL OUT!”
The Cherry Arms landed on Silica’s head, and the suit formed around her but her body swiftly changed to that of someone more mature, who the suit was able to fit better than before. The body of her suit was deep green with the collar being silver. The shoulders were also green with rectangular ends to the sleeves and silver biceps. Her arm guards and gloves were brown, looking like leather gloves. Around her waist was the SengokuDriver and below t ended her top which was like a tunic and had rectangular ends. Her thighs were covered in silver fabric and her legs from the knees and below were protected by brown boots with green accents on the feet, calves, and knees to blend in with the forest scenery. The Cherry Arms then flashed and began disassembling. The front of the cherries folded onto her chest, fitting with her knew physique. The right side of the Cherry Arms twisted around to cover her shoulder perfectly while the back sections folded onto her back. Lastly, the stems folded under the leaf as it landed on her left shoulder, forming a flat shoulder plate. Her head was concealed by the helmet from the belt, but the Arms gave it a red hood which covered a portion of her helmet and concealed part of the hexagonal gem, making it thinner and her eyes a bright red. A flash caused the crossbow in her Lockseed to appear on her arm.
“Woah!” Silica gasped as a sense of vertigo overcame her, being in a suddenly taller and curvier body. Glancing down at herself, she almost squealed in glee, “I have boobs!”
Her moment of elation was interrupted when a notice window appeared in front of her.
<< You have received Kamen Rider Kerubimu armor!>>
<<You have received Cherry Arms armor!>>
<<You have received CherryBolter!>>
“Cool!” the newly dubbed Kerubimu grinned in delight. Her attention then turned to the three approaching Inves Warriors who weren’t intimidated by her in the process. So she decided to put her new suit through its paces. Bracing herself, she took aim at the Inves with her CherryBolter and began firing the arrows. Her aim was true as they flew, smashing into each of the Inves before exploding and knocking the monsters back.
Stopping her assault, Kerubimu giggled and clapped her hands at seeing the results, “Awesome! This is so easy now!”
The Inves were far from pleased by the resistance and charged directly at the girl. Kerubimu reacted quickly and hopped out of the way of an attack and kicked at the Inves, knocking it aside before she ducked under another attack. Crawling away, she got to her feet and landed an uppercut to the chin of the Inves who came for a third strike. As it stumbled back, she fired several arrows into its chest, the explosions sending it sailing back into a Lockseed Tree. he then quickly spun around and fired at the remaining two Inves, blowing both back from the strikes.
That was when the third Inve Warrior came up from behind and struck Kerubimu across the back. She yelped from the trike and some of her HP dropped in front of her eyes. She twisted around and slugged the Inves, but the distraction allowed the other two Inves to recover themselves and charge for her once again.
“Back off!” Kerubimu snapped, shooting at the two. However, still being wobbly from the strike compromised her aim and the arrows exploded behind the Inves. It caused them to stumble slightly, but they kept the charge. The female Rider ducked under a blow of the first Inves and slugged the second before dodging around them and trying to get some space between herself and the trio. Stumbling over some of the rocks, she almost lost her footing but despite having her height changing somewhat dramatically she had a good handle on her balance. Spinning around, she saw the Inves coming at her.
“Well…let’s try this!” Kerubimu mumbled, hitting the sword handle on her Driver.
“COME ON! CHERRY SQUASH!”
Kerubimu took aim at the Inves as the tip of her arrow began to glow, creating a large energy cherry at the end. Taking aim, she took the shot and send an oversized sphere of energy at the three. The arrow struck and the cherry grew to encompass all three of them before exploding with sprays of red energy and likewise causing the three Inves to explode and end the fight in one fell swoop.
“Yes!” Kerubimu cheered, hopping up and down. “I did it! I did it!” So deep in her celebration, she didn’t take the time to see the victory screen and the fact that she only received a fraction of the EXP that she should have for fighting off three difficult monsters like the Inves. Looking herself over once again, she couldn’t help but giggle about her advanced body all over again, “Oh man, everyone is going to think this is so cool! The church kids are going to be so jealous!”
Her next performance was going to be killer!
(LINE BREAK)
Tobei Tachibana’s Apartment December 2nd 9: 30 PM
‘How...did this happen?’ Tobei asked himself.
When that fateful knock came to his door, he had been expecting it to be the police there to haul him in for accessing SAO like he did. He was expecting to be grilled by interrogators all over again about what he had been up to. He had been expecting to be thrown in a jail cell for a day or two before being brought up on some charges and then being scolded by his lawyer for doing something so stupid.
Yet what he was expecting was a far cry from what actually happened.
What had happened was a group of teenage girls had invaded his apartment. They were lead by Suguha and apparently they were all related to people who were playing SAO. They all wanted to see how their cousins, brothers, or sisters were doing. As he accessed word Art Online once again, he kept bringing up files on his Kamen Riders and who had the systems. Suguha seemed especially proud that her brother had been the first and was held in high regard according to the forums the players created. Several of the girls were tech enthusiasts and asked all sorts of questions about the construction of SAO and how it was put together.
They had insisted on seeing the fight with the first floor boss and Tobei had to oblige them. He did edit out the scene where that one blue fellow got killed. Suguha began cheering loudly along with her friends as they saw that Kirito boy and then the other Riders take up the fight against Illfang after the Boss proved to have been changed from the Beta Test. Suguha was of course the most vocal out of all of them since it had been her brother who lead the charge.
One of the girls had brought her laptop and asked for a copy of the fight so she could show other who were worried about their loved ones in SAO. The idea was to show them that the players were progressing and weren’t just waddling around waiting to be rescued. They were surviving and trying to get everyone out of the game.
He didn’t want to, but that puppy dog eye trick those girls knew made his will crumble completely.
So at the moment he was watching his his guests gush over how cool the male Riders were and how good-looking they were, even the one foreign fellow. They even seemed to think the one female Rider was someone to be looked up to.
‘Teenagers,’ Tobei thought, rolling his eyes as the girls continued to gush over the playback of the Boss fight.
(LINE BREAK)
Aincrad - Second Floor: Urbus December 2nd 9:45 PM
Eyes followed her wherever she went and she knew it. Her breasts bounced with every step she took and she knew it. Her hips swayed sensuously and of course she knew it. She was a walking wet dream to the people of SAO and she damn well know it.
Rosalia was sexy and she of course knew it.
Rosalia was a woman in her twenties with red hair she kept in a messy bun at the back with a fringe covering her right eye on the front. She had clear, soft skin, sensuous lips, and smoky eyes. Her figure was a perfect hourglass and she had nicely sized boobs and hips perfect for getting a man’s attention. She knew her weapons and the nerds and lonely men of SAO never knew what hit them.
Rosalia wasn’t much of a gamer. Living in Tokyo she couldn’t help but dabble in an arcade game now and then, but she was usually more focused on her next night of partying and getting a hot guy to spend the night with. With her kind of looks, she was used to getting absolutely anything she wanted and she wanted to keep the gravy train rolling. She was still in her early twenties, plenty of time to find a sugar daddy before she had to settle down with some rich old guy looking for a trophy wife. So she was just drifting along and having fun while her parents thought she was working a respectable job as a secretary when in fact she was a hair’s breadth away from being fired if she hadn’t slept with her supervisor. That woman wasn’t half bad to be honest and Rosalia had to consider giving her a spin again.
Being between boyfriends, Rosalia had lifted a copy of Sword Art Online and a NerveGear from her ex since their breakup hadn’t exactly been pleasant. She caught him cheating and even if she was doing the same she had to maintain the image of a jilted lover. Curious about what all the nerds in her workplace were going on about, she plugged in and decided to see what the big deal was. Then came the revelation that they were all trapped in the game and couldn’t get out until someone got to the top floor and beat the last boss. She wasn’t one hundred percent sure if all that Death Game stuff was true, but she wasn’t about to put her perfect ass on the line to try and save a bunch of other geeks and nerds.
When the <<Mirrors>> went out, it was more of a boon to Rosalia than anything else. It reconfigured her avatar to look the way she really did, which was more of a bonus since her avatar was only so-so in looks. Add the fact that a big portion of the supposed females in the game were actually weirdo men with fetishes, or geeky girls, a woman of her looks and figure was sitting on a gold mine. With almost every male there being some kind of geek or desperate man, she was virtually unrivaled.
So Rosalia got to work. She may not have been book smart like the geeks, but she knew social nature as well as sexuality. She busted her ass to get her sewing and similar skills up and for show got her own battle skills on the rise. Once they were high enough, she was able to modify clothing into forms much more suited for her taste and showed off a whole lot of what she had to offer any guy who had the guts to talk to her.
She was currently donned in a single dress which she had modified to have slits up the sides and was painted red with black accents to go with her hair. The cleavage was barred to all and the sleeves were black and clung tightly to her live arms. Her legs had silk stockings covering them, a material she conned out of a guy who beat some spider quest, and she even managed to find a stall with make-up so she could doll up her face perfectly. Just to show she fit in with the geeks, she carried a simple spear with her. Normally she wasn’t able to make such sexy clothes, but once she turned off the ethics protocols she had a dull wardrobe of sexy clothes she could make.
“Hm,” she pouted sensuously, standing at a crossroads and planting a hand on her hip. She took care to make her boobs jiggle just so any potential marks would notice her. “Now where can a girl get a drink around here?”
Plenty of guys looked, but being geeks they didn’t have the guts to try and approach her. She shrugged, their loss. She continued on to one of the local watering holes where someone set up shop and stepped inside. Things were in full swing and plenty of guys were there getting drunk, or whatever came close to it in SAO. Walking through the door, all eyes turned to her and she couldn’t help but smirk slightly as she moved to approach the bar. The bartender knew her and she could see the pity in his eyes for whatever poor sap she would go home with that night.
“My usual,” she purred, manifesting some Col to pay, one of the few things she herself paid for.
“Just be gentle with the suckers tonight,” the bartender, a player, replied. “Most of them are just kids.”
“Oh I don’t bite unless asked to,” Rosalia smiled.
Receiving her drink, Rosalia left to mingle with the other players at the bar and see which one of them would be her mark for the night. Plenty of tough burly-looking guys were there who were obviously Clearers, but the not-so obvious clearers were fellows wearing better-looking armor, better weapons, and all-around looked better dressed. Of course, hooking up with the Clearers could be tricky since she would have to sell herself to more than one person and if one saw through her then they would all shoot her down. Sometimes the risk could be worth it since they had premium items which could mean she would live longer if they were in her hands.
Marking which of the men in the room were Clearers, she continued her rounds to see if there was anything of interest that night. Some of the men made passes at her, but she usually brushed them off since they were drunk or didn’t have anything of interest to her. She kept her eye on the prize at all times and that meant weapons, items, and Col which would be the key to survival.
“Wow! I can’t believe you found a real SengokuDriver!”
“I know! That NPC just came out of nowhere and gave it to me! Talk about lucky!”
Rosalia stiffened as she heard that word. Ever since the Second Floor opened up, players, had been talking about Kamen Riders and all of the items that they had at their beck and call. Lockseeds were the big ticket items and Rosalia even had one of her own, a Lemon Lockseed she plucked during a short trip to Helheim Forests which she quickly ended when Inves showed up, ditching her party in the process. She hadn’t heard from them since.
If there was an item more sought after than Lockseeds, it was SengokuDrivers. They were what allowed players to down a powerful suit of armor which boosted all of their stats and gave them weapons which normally weren’t allowed or used in SAO. In that particular case, anyone who had a Driver could breeze through the ranks and not have to risk their necks in anything short of a boss fight. That or they could end up selling a SengokuDriver to the Clearers for a ridiculous amount of cash.
‘Jackpot!’ the seductress thought giddily to herself.
Looking for the one who had spoken, Rosalia noticed a group of players sitting at a table. They looked a little shabby, meaning that they were likely dungeon crawlers or something to that extent. They certainly weren’t Clearers which would make her job easier. They also looked like teenagers and they were all boys, giving her a distinct edge over them all. Hormones made the job ever so much easier. Still, how to best integrate herself? They’d never believe a hot woman would just want to get to know a bunch of nerds like them. Maybe if she laid on the charm of a different sort.
Gulping down her drink, she tossed the glass away before adjusting her step to look loopy and pretended to stumble a little. Approaching the table of the group, she pretended to trip and stumbled onto the one who had the item she was looking for. She timed her landing so that her breasts landed first, pillowing on the young man’s neck.
“Oops! Whoopsie!” Rosalia giggled drunkenly. “Sorry about that!”
The group of boys all blushed and stared at her, especially the young man whose head was just cushioned between her pride and joy as she stood up. She did take care to lean over so her cleavage was on full display. She almost giggled when she saw one of the teens break out into a bloody nose.
“Ah...ah...It’s okay…” the young man gulped. “N-no harm done!”
“Oooh, you’re so nice!” Rosalia giggled again. Still playing drunk, she leaned in closer to act as if she was trying to see him clearly. “Heeeeeey, you’re pretty darn cute! Wanna buy me a drink? I can make it worth your while!”
The young man blushed brightly as another of his comrades burst into a nosebleed. “Habba habba habba!”
“Oh you! Hubba bubba? That’s the oldest line ever!” Rosalia tittered, secretly amused by how she was blowing the geek’s mind and she hadn’t even done anything yet. Seeing her chance, she hopped into his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck. “You’re just lucky I like classics boy! Now let’s open a tab!”
He broke into a nosebleed.
Perfect!
(TIME BREAK)
Rosalia yawned as she stood in the room she and her mark rented for the night, fixing her hair in the mirror. It was pitch black outside with little moonlight to offer any light through the window. Her mark was sound asleep and she had just gotten dressed after the few hours of passion that they had gone through. Although the game allowed clothes to be donned perfectly, she just had to adjust her breasts to make sure they were comfortable out of habit.
She played her game perfectly and lured her mark into a room where he shut down his ethics protocols and they had their wicked way with each other. Well, she had to put more effort into it since he was half-wasted, but oh so willing. She wanted to at least claim she provided something in return for what she was about to do.
“Perfect,” she smiled, seeing her lipstick back to normal.
Turning to her mark, she silently approached his bed and lifted up his hand. After making sure he wasn’t going to wake up, she pointed out his index finger and poked it into the air a certain distance from his face near what she hoped was the corner of his vision. Her guess proved true as a menu opened up in front of him. Using his hand, Rosalia manipulated the menu until it was scrolling his inventory and landed on the item she was looking for: <<SengokuDriver>>
Smirking, Rosalia hit the <<Materialize>> command, allowing the belt to appear in a small flash. She caught it before it could fall onto his chest and gently sat down his hand. Her task complete, she sauntered out of the room and down the hall towards the exit of the inn where she could make her silent getaway. Stepping out into the cool midnight air, she gave herself a stretch and a pat on the back for a job well-done.
“Like taking candy from a baby,” she grinned, walking towards the town square. She lifted the SengokuDriver once again, “Now what to do with you? Do I keep you and make sure I’m all but invincible or do I sell you and live in the lap of luxury? Decisions, decisions.”
“Hey! You slut!”
Rosalia blinked and looked over her shoulder and blanched slightly, “Oh crap.” Bursting from the inn were the remaining members of her target’s party and all of them looked rather pissed. They even had their weapons drawn on her. “Um, yes?”
“Don’t play innocent you slut!” one member shouted. “I saw you leaving with Jonesy’s SengokuDriver!”
“Tsk!” Rosalia frowned. What a slip up to make just when she got likely one of the best items in the game! She should have just dropped it into her inventory before leaving. Sighing, she dropped her ditzy seduction persona and took her normal one. “So you got me. Now what are you going to do about it? You can’t seriously be thinking to hit a girl are you?”
“Damn straight we are!” yelled one member, lifting a mace.
Now Rosalia was getting nervous, knowing if they attacked her she would go down hard and fast. Still, she had some cards left to play, “Now, now. You know about AREA. The only way you could hurt me is if you challenge me to a duel and there’s no way I’d ever accept.”
“Oh, we don’t have to challenge you!” snickered the leader of the group. As one, he and the others all revealed Lockseeds they had in their hands, making Rosalia pale. They unlocked the trinkets, opening portals to Helheim which several Inves Warriors leaped out of. From another portal dropped a Tiger Inves which snarled alongside the others.
Rosalia gulped, now losing her previous confidence. Fighting Inves was dangerous since they seemed to have a resistance to Sword Skills and she knew better than to fight in a battle she was sure to lose.
“Now hand over the SengokuDriver!” the leader of the group snapped. “We won’t turn Orange for attacking you with an Inves so when we take you down, no one will be the wiser!”
Now Rosalia was becoming afraid. She had seen plenty of players looking particularly ruthless and she did not like the looks in the groups’ eyes when they demanded the Driver she held. Wasn’t she dealing with college kids or something? They looked like they honestly wanted to kill her so long as they got the Driver back!
“Hey, come on,” she tried pleading. “This is just a game, okay? It’s not like you guys can’t find another one, right?”
“You honestly think this is all a game? It’s our lives on the line here!” the leader snapped. “Get her!”
The Inves all bellowed and charged towards Rosalia with their claws raised in preparation for a kill. Rosalia screamed and frantically charged an <<Arc>> Sword Skill which allowed her to swing her spear in a wide arc. She managed to clip several of the Inves and knock them back, but the Tiger Inves ignored the blow and swatted her in the side, knocking her away and taking out some of her HP as she landed on the ground.
“Gn!” Rosalia grimaced, feeling the echo of pain from the attack. Pulling up to her knees, she saw the Inves approaching her. Now very afraid since this was the first time she had been wounded in a battle, she tried to crawl away from the Inves. In doing so, her fingers landed on the SengokuDriver she had stolen. Only staring at it for a moment, her smile returned to her lips and she got back to her feet with it clenched in her hand, leaving her spear on the ground.
“Well,” she huffed, wiping some spit from her chin. Since you all want to play this way, I suppose I’ll just have to oblige won’t I?” She lifted up the SengokuDriver and perhaps just to mock the group further she gave the edge of the device a sensuous kiss before bringing it to her waist, allowing the belt to wrap around her. The blank panel on the side was suddenly decorated with a lion-dog near the top with it’s mane spreading over the background. The helmet in front of the mane was golden with a silver tiara wrapped around the head with a red stone in the centre. The mouthplate looked like it was a silver veil covering her features which was connected to the gold helmet. Finally the eyes were two narrow eyepieces which were almond-shaped and had a rainbow sheen.
Now the SengokuDriver was locked onto her, preventing others from using it. However, that didn’t mean these guys would stop until they got the item back. Now it was a matter of pride. Of course the SengokuDriver was just a fancy belt without a Lockseed. Fortunately for her, she had one. Picking up her Lemon Lockseed, he held it up for the enraged group before trailing it down her cleavage and almost purring as she hit the switch, “Henshin.”
“LEMON!”
A zipper appeared above Rosalia’s head and opened, letting a glowing metal lemon drop from above, almost shining in the night. It stood on one end, the opposite pointing up into the air. Taking the Lockseed, Rosalia inserted it into the Driver and locked it into place.
“LOCK ON!”
A guitar riff began to play as the lemon slowly dropped lower towards her. Still smirking, she let her fingers trace sensuously across the Cutting Blade before she pushed it. The Lockseed split open, revealing the topside to be the inside of a lemon while the bottom half had a halberd with a lemon slice-shaped blade.
“LEMON ARMS! MISS SEDUCTION!”
The Lemon Arms dropped onto Rosalia’s shoulders and her body was wrapped in energy before coming out in her new armor. Her torso was silver around the abdomen with gold lines running up to her bust area which was concealed in silver that stretched from shoulder to shoulder. Her collarbone area was golden and her neck had a silver choker on it. Her arms were mainly white gloves which reached to her shoulders, and diamond patterns ran down her arms revealing protective gold fabric underneath and her golden fingers were revealed. From the waist down she sported a dress that reached her ankles, but it was thin and slits were on the sides, revealing thigh high golden high heel boots which had silver diamonds running down the sides and silver at the edges at the top. A silver stripe on her upper section of her thigh gave the illusion of a garter belt which in other circumstances would have driven the teens wild.
Inside of the Lemon Arms, Rosalia’s head was covered by the helmet depicted on her Driver. From there, a yellow helmet attachment landed on her, giving her a pair of horns which pointed down and rested on her shoulders, shaped almost like lemon slices, but also gave the image of the hair a European noblewoman would have. Her eyes then turned bright yellow to show the attachment was connected.
The Lemon Arms then split open. The front panel split in half and folded together to connect to her chest, the armor being yellow and having a white edge around her collar. The sides likewise folded as the sides folded underneath the curved tops which connected to her shoulders, making the image of the puffy sleeves of a European dress. The top and back of the Lemon Arms folded into a compact panel on her back. A flash brought out the Lemalberd to her hand, a large two-handed weapon. It was as long as she was tall and the axe blade was large enough to cut through a limb in one swipe. The back had a short blade and a tall spike was on top.
“Oh dear, now what will we do?” Rosalia giggled as she saw a window appear in front of her.
<< You have received Kamen Rider Sakyubasu armor!>>
<<You have received Lemon Arms armor!>>
<<You have received Lemalberd!>>
“Sakyubasu? Oh I like that!” the Lemon Rider giggled before she looked down on the Inves. “Now, shall we begin?”
The Inves didn’t need an order from their fuming leader and made for the next attack. Sakyubasu huffed and picked up her weapon in both hands before making a wide swing. She caught three of the Inves Warriors and knocked them back with wide gashes in their torsos from the strike. The Tiger Inves approached again and she blocked the strike before twisting around the monster and striking it in the side with the back of the blade, digging in deep. Pulling the blade out, she kicked the Tiger Inves back before thrusting with the spike on top of the weapon and nailing an Inves Warrior square in the chest. She pulled back and swung wide again, catching the last Inves Warrior in the head, bisect its head and causing it to go up in blue pixels.
“Ha! Next?” the lady Rider taunted, gesturing to the other Inves.
An Inves Warrior lashed out at her, which she blocked with the pole section of her weapon before kicking it in the face. She followed up with a jab from the tip of her weapon, piercing it through and causing a considerable amount of damage. The other Inves Warriors made a mad charge for the woman, ready to tear her asunder. Sakyubasu giggled and spun once again. Her weapon cut through the air and with each spin, she cut through one of the Warriors with a flash of yellow which caused them to collapse and explode. Stopping, she hefted her weapon overhead and smashed it down on top of the last Inves Warrior, blowing it up like the others.
The Tiger Inves bellowed and charged, slashing wildly at the gold Rider. The strikes hit her chest, knocking her back with showers of red sparks which dropped her HP bar a little more. She almost lost her balance, but the Tiger Inves saw the opportunity and charged forward with another slash, knocking her flat on her back with her weapon next to her.
“Ow!” she cried out. Grunting, she sat up and grasped for her weapon, “Why you-!”
“That’s right boy!” the leader of the group laughed. “Kill her so we can reset the Driver!”
“Oh I’m not dying today!” Sakyubasu snapped at the boy before she stood up and hit the handle of her weapon twice.
“LEMON AU LAIT!”
Sakyubasu hefted her Lemalberd over her shoulder before she began to spin it, swinging it overhead over and over again. Each time the weapon began to glow brighter and brighter and the energy collected into a large lemon slice large enough to break down a house. With a scream of exertion, she swung wide and cut through the Inves once, but kept spinning and struck it two more times before the energy faded. Were in not for all objects that weren’t items in SAO being classed as <<Immortal Objects>> the buildings around her would have been destroyed. As it was, the Tiger Inves screamed and fell backwards before exploding in blue pixels.
Coming to a stop, Sakyubasu hefted her weapon over her shoulder and looked back at the group of stunned adventurers, “Is that all?” Suddenly, the Lockseeds used to summon the Inves flew out of the groups’ hands and into Sakyubasu’s awaiting hands. “Ah, so these are my spoils? You shouldn’t have.”
Several of the teenagers yelped before running away, leaving the leader to growl angrily before he did the same. The lemon Rider giggled before flipping her Lockseed shut and removing it, causing the armor to dissolve back to wherever it went.
“Well, that was more fun than I thought it would be,” Rosalia giggled as she turned to walk away, adjusting the SengokuDriver so it hung sexily on her hips. She also looked at the new Lockseeds she had claimed before putting them away. With the SengokuDriver, she now had a tool she could use to claim more Lockseeds. No longer would she have to trick some guy into bed with her then steal his stuff while he was asleep. Now she could keep up with the top players herself! “Looks like you’re my new best friend,” she said to her Lemon Lockseed before giving it a kiss.
(LINE BREAK)
Tobei Tachibana’s Apartment December 3rd 9: 45 AM
“Gugh,” one tired computer programmer groaned as he waited for his computer to boot up. Last night had been tiring for him, having to entertain and put up with several teenage girls as they gushed over computer players and how awesome they were. Suguha was especially defensive whenever her friends had gotten chummy about how cute her brother looked. It made his parents’ visits seem absolutely tame in comparison. He was never so tired after they dropped by.
A pleasant ringing alerted him that his computer was online and working. Ignoring the tiredness of his limbs, he opened his email and looked for any new messages. He spotted one coming from a name of Suguha, making it obvious who sent it. Snickering at the antics of the schoolgirl who came into his life, he opened it to see what it was about.
To: Tobei Tachibana
From: Suguha
Topic: Check this out!
Guess what? My friend decided to show the world what’s happening with the players in SAO and also what you’ve been doing to try and help them so she posted the video on her blog! It’s gone viral! Everyone wants to see! My parents were so thankful to see Onii-chan is okay but they are worried about him fighting so much so they have a mixed opinion towards you. Here’s a link to the blog so you can read the comments!
It took all of the control Tobei had not to spit out the coffee he was drinking when he saw Suguha’s message. He furiously prayed that it was just a bad joke or spam of some sort. Clicking on the provided link, his heart sank when he saw Illfang the Kobold Lord getting up to fight the raid party that had come to challenge him.
“Oh crap,” he groaned. “The cops are going to fry me.”
To Be Continued...
A/N: The Peach Lockseed, Momokusari, and the activation chant was a creation of Malunis and can be seen on his Deviantart page. I saw it and just couldn't keep it from appearing in this fic. Go check out his page if you want to see it.
No comments:
Post a Comment