Sotarou

He slowly and blearily blinked his eyes open as he found himself lying on the ground of the forest... the fog permeating it was now gone. As he pushed himself up into a sitting position, he looked around. There was no sign of the fight he'd had with his grandfather... no signs of either his grandfather or father... did... did he just imagine everything...? Suddenly, a popup hit on the side of his HUD. <EXTRA SKILL GAINED: KATANA. NEW SWORD ART OBTAINED: CHICHI SHAZAI. WARNING: SKILL INSUFFICIENT TO USE SWORD ART. RANK 5 REQUIRED> So... he had gotten the skill needed to use

A long silence stretched between the three... Sotarou thought he'd forgotten a piece of the memory and it was halting until he did something... but then his grandfather spoke, assuaging his memories. "I always had a bad feeling about that woman..." Hanoi just chuckled. "Right, dad..." He stood up and sighed. He approached Kuzu, offering a hand. "I'm sorry..." Kuzu looked at the hand... then at his son... and just pulled him into a hug. "No, kiddo... I'm sorry... even if it was a bad relationship, you loved her... I should have trusted you..." Sotarou smiled, watching the interac

"Not quite nothing." Kuzu and Sotarou looked back as a third voice appeared... this time, it was Hanoi: Sotarou's father! "Dad!" "Hanoi..." Hanoi sighed, moving to Kuzu. "Father... I knew what you were up to the entire time..." Kuzu looked flabbergasted! "But... then... why didn't you say anything!?" "At the time... purely just out of anger... but later on, I realized you helped out a lot... even if you didn't mean to." Sotarou looked confused at his father. "What do you mean?" Hanoi sighed, sitting on the floor. "... I'm sorry I kept this from you, Kisuke...

As he struck, the image burst into wisps, scattering and remerging behind Sotarou. As he turned to ready his fight again, he realized: the memory had changed. It was a later memory... one from near the end of Kuzu's life... he stood in his dojo, looking at Sotarou with sorrowful eyes... "Back then... you were right... I ended like this myself..." Sotarou approached his grandfather, worry on his own face. "No... I shouldn't have-" "You had every right... every right to call me out back then... I was a fool... and a coward." "... why? Just... why?" "Why?" He gave a wry l

"You don't get to say that about her! You were the one who drove her away in the first place!" The anger was in full force... but he forced himself to focus and get back into stance. "I merely pointed out that she didn't belong. That she would cause nothing but disaster for this family! She was the one who decided to listen!" "And that makes it okay!? No wonder she left! No wonder father hates you! You're bitter, you're vindictive, you're a blight on this family! You deserve to die alone!" He rushed forward, the Bokken in his hands glowing as he performed a maneuver! Not just a norma

The continuing back and forth between Sotarou and Kuzu lasted quite a while. The normal sounds of what shoulda been wood on wood replaced by the clanging of steel on steel. Scraping of blades, ringing of ripostes, feet pattering against a padded floor. Each side had minor cuts by this point, but a decisive blow had not been seen by either side. Neither willing to give in. By this point however, it seemed the memory was on repeat... the fight had gotten predictable, where before his grandfather was always changing his style. He had to be hallucinating, obviously, but why was it not changing? Wa

A long pause began between the two... as the space around them seemed to shift... he was no longer in the forests of floor 22. He was in his family's dojo. But Sotarou wasn't focused on that. He was instead focused on the image of his grandfather in front of him. Memories of their training, the times he's been knocked down. Struck. Every loss a failure... but he had no plans on losing here. This was his world... Aincrad. No way he'd lose! "It won't be like all the previous times! I won't lose!" "Cocky attitude. Put your money where your mouth is, boy!" Kuzu stepped forward, taking a singl

That voice... no... no way in hell! He immediately stood up and turned, seeing a shadow in the mists approach... as it did, the features became more prominent. Older, gaunt face, shaved head, missing eyebrows, and he was soot-stained from head to toe. Kuzu Azumai: Kisuke's grandfather! Sotarou's eyes went wide! "Grandfather!? Wh- how are-" His grandfather wasted no time, taking a bokken and sweeping, causing Sotarou to fall to his side! "A weak stance! Has my son taught you nothing!?" Wait... he remembered this... his first instructions with his grandfather... the exact same mov

The info broker's words were cryptic... [To bring your skills in, you must bring your thoughts out. The forests on 22 can help. Go... and remember.] Cryptic... anyway, he made it here. Luckily. He was able to avoid most of the enemies and keep them from spotting him while he made his way up the floors. He made it to 22 and managed to find the forests... though he had gotten himself lost in the fog. "Great job, Kisuke... getting lost on a floor where everything could one-shot you... why did I let that broker convince me to do this...?" He sighed and continued to explore the mists...

Upon the hand being placed on his head, he grimaced a bit... a familiar gesture... but that was back in the real world... he took a steadying breath as she did that... "Well, be that as it may... let's keep looking around. One more check around. I've kinda held you up for enough time." Sotarou took another few more minutes checking this spawn area for potential targets... but nothing showed up at all. It was a rather draining experience... but such as it was, he decided then it would be a good time to just head back. "Yeah, not gonna find anything today. Let's just head back to Aruyt and

"Sota-kun." Sotarou tensed a small bit at that again... luckily, he'd already made his cut, so he wouldn't get distracted by that... he just cleared his throat as he swung the blade to clear it before sheathing it back in its scabbard. He then got the notice... <RECEIVED: 75 Col, 1 Material, <<T1 Uncommon Consumable 220459b>> FROM KYLISSIA> He smiled and accepted the items before turning to Kylissia herself after steadying himself again from being knocked mentally by her words... "The strongest of Samurai in history have been able to cleave solid metals by honi

Sotarou just stood up, dusting himself off of the dirt covering his outfit. He took a calming breath, recovering from the wind being knocked out of him. He looked at the loot gained curiously and smiled a bit. "Well, seems easy enough to divide the spoils there. Even split seem okay to you? We each get one of the consumables, the Col can be split 50/50, and then since I get my own materials anyway, you can take those if you want them. Otherwise, one for each of us. Does that sound okay?" Discussing this topic seems to have helped him to forget the earlier thoughts that were hitting his mind li

Sotarou heard the words that Kylissia had spoken... but they only barely registered in his head as he kept thinking about scenarios and whatnot, why this girl out of everyone decided to come with him in the first place... was he singled out...? He'd heard of women like this in the real world, older women who prey on the younger guys... cougars, they were called...? But everything he'd heard, they were MUCH older... Kylissia couldn't be much older than... what... early 30s? Late 20s? Certainly older than him, but definitely not those 50+ year cougars. So probably not that... but then... why...?

It wasn't so much her calling him Sota-kun as much as the WAY she said it... something about it... Sotarou felt a little... off by it. He hadn't really thought much about girls growing up, his responsibilities were always on the forefront of his mind. But since coming to this place, those responsibilities were more in the back of his mind, reminders of his dog, of his dad, of the forge back home... and yet here he was now, those thoughts pushed back and all he could think to say was "I-I'm okay! Perfectly fine! Just... y-you threw me off a bit there... calling me Sota-kun..." He seemed a fair

"Sota-kun~" Sotarou literally faltered just as Kylissia woulda finished the wolf off! Had she not finished it off, he likely woulda been dog chow from how hard he had froze from that nickname! "Wh-wha..." His previous hardened demeanor and dour mood gave way to embarrassment apparent, complete with a bright flush on his face. "O-o-okay, then...!" This... was something he wasn't used to having happen to him. Girls never really paid attention to him in school, so... what was Kylissia thinking here...? Did she like him...? His embarrassment was increasing more and more by the second as

The wolves came. And they both hit pretty decently. He winced, but they were hits his armor was well equipped to handle. He quickly turned to let the most of the bite force be a scrape than a chomp. "Not today, pups." He quickly sheathed his blade as he finished his turn away from the wolves. "And another turn. Mangetsu!" The Fuko spin he'd done, his natural turn away from the wolves was the exact opposite, which he leaned into said spin, letting his blade turn and attempt to cleave into the two remaining wolves. The first hit this fight left both these wolves decent marred by the damage of

Sotarou just looked weirdly at Kylissia as the pair began their trek to another area of the floor. "Uhh... did you already forget I was looking specifically for a Wolf or Dire Wolf-like creature to pair with? The whole leaving Koba behind in the real world thing...?" He just sighs. "It's fine if you forgot... we've all been in here for ages now... and it's difficult even, for me, to remember the real world... we've just been doing everything in here and gotten so used to it... I wonder... if we ever get out of here, will we keep forgetting we're in the real world and trying to pull up our menu

Sotarou nodded to Kylissia's words. "Hence my focusing. And I can fell a tree no problem, but again. You said it yourself, it's all about precision. My strike was off-center, which damaged the tree. A weapon can be a tool if you know it inside and out." He holds the Katana out in front of him, examining it in earnest. "I know all my blades, because I craft them myself. Both Sokuchi here, as well as Raikiri. I know Sokuchi can handle the stresses of striking a tree. Raikiri wouldn't have the precision to handle such a feat." He takes one last look around the area a bit. "Well, seems luck is out

Sotarou gave a nod to Kylissia. "Fair enough, I suppose." At the same time, he was already going between the trees to find a good one to turn into Material. Can't be too big it might not work, but can't be too small that it would literally give nothing. After finding a smaller tree whose truck was about twice as thick as his forearm, he nodded. He took a few steps back from the tree and got into his horse stance. He took a breath... he had all the time in the world... no danger... no fear... no worry... his heartbeat was slowing back to a normal pace... resting heart rate... he could feel it..

"Are you alright? You're not too rattled, are you?" Sotarou gave a sigh as he sheathed his Katana again. He gave Kylissia a nod. "I'm alright... just... this was the annoyance I had dealt with the last time I had done this solo. Just me and the enemies all missing each other over and over again... dragged on forever... it was kinda why I asked you to come with. I didn't know your armor had Thorns, though. So that definitely helped to speed things up. But you do seem to have trouble holding aggro. I could make you a weapon to help with that, if you'd like." He took a calming breath afterwa

Sotarou was still not reliable with the Quick Change system, but he figured it was an important tool! So Raikiri, before it could fully start glowing for the sword skill, swapped once more into the familiar Sokuchi. It then began to glow and Sotarou attempted ONCE AGAIN to strike at this wolf! Drawing the blade out of its sheathe for another skill, he called the name again: "Hakaze!" But for SOME REASON... some divine, all-seeing viewer from above decided that this wolf wouldn't die by our hands directly... because it had been bashing itself into Kylissia's thorns damage, which was the only th

The wolf spun like crazy with Kylissia's last attack! Hopefully it being dizzy would help with Sotarou's strike! Another technique is called out to the strike: "Hakaze!" A pair of strikes lashed out at the wolf... but Sotarou did have a little more frustration as to the fact of each of us missing like crazy... this was getting out of hand now... he then had a memory from his childhood, one where his dad was teaching him proper techniques to wield a Katana... he remembered being hit in the head with the wooden blade, and his father chastised him about being too reckless! Wild swings would just

Sotarou witnessed this woman take out one of the remaining wolves... and he took the dialogue moment to try and get a sneaky hit in from behind. "Hakaze!" The blade went forward and thrust fast and hard towards a vital spot on the wolf. His aim was nice and true... but the wolf just barely noticed and dodged out of the way of his attack! "Oh come on! This is getting ridiculous! I've only hit twice today! Do I need to swap back to my Sokuchi...? Probably better to start with Raikiri, then swap to Sokuchi after... I'm still figuring out sword-swapping..." He just grumbled as he lamented his

"Sotarou, look out!" Too late, as the quick wolf was speedy and hungry! And it landed a very clean blow against Sotarou's arm! He managed to pull it free from the grasp, but it left a pretty neat gash! Luckily, his armor was plated enough to avoid losing the arm entirely! "Damn! Not cool! Bad puppy!" Sotarou quickly sheathed his blade, it disappearing before a separate blade manifested right where the original had been. (( Quick Swap Effect Used: Sokuchi exchanged for Raikiri )) He grabbed the new blade, jumping into the air and right in between the two remaining wolves! "Aaaaarrrrgh! Man

"Sotarou, I've got their attention, strike them now!" He didn't need to be told twice! Grasping the blade while still sheathed on his hip, his low horse stance was poised to strike! Dashing forward and unsheathing his blade in one fluid motion, a huge gust of wind erupted from the blade and almost looked like smaller blades forming a cone to slash all the wolves in front of him, leaving Kylissia intact! "Iai Style: Tenka Goken!" The blades pierced cleanly through the first two Roaring Wolves, however the remaining two managed to dodge just out of the attack's range! Their howling was