Koumori

I sat on my butt as I watched the creature cock it's head at me. I wasn't afraid of it, but I just couldn't believe what I was seeing. I'd never seen anything like that in SAO. It slowly started walking towards me before it stopped in front of my foot and started lightly hitting it. I laughed at the little thing as it messed around. "You're harmless aren't you?" I leaned forward and picked it up off the ground as I stood myself. It didn't put up a fight, just hung there, so I figured I was good. I took of running in the direct I came, I had to find Ebony and show her what I found. Wait, Ebony! I had totally lost her! Did she get tired of looking for me and went back to the town? I picked up the pace and started calling for her. "Ebony! Hey, Eb! Eb!" It took me a little bit before I faintly saw her sitting against a tree. She had a sour look on her face, she was probably annoyed at me leaving.i ran up to the tree and stopped in front of the girl to catch my breath. "Hey, look what I found!" I said to her as I held the "Ewok" up for her to see. "Oh, uh, sorry for using a nickname. It kinda just came out." 

"Really? Well let's change that then." I said to her with a wink. I liked helping people level up plus I had fallen behind myself it seemed like all my friends were blowing past me. She titled her head and looked at me quizzically at what I said next. She looked at me a little bit and started grinning before she answered. I returned her grin with one of my own and comically pointed at her. "Hey don't get any funny ideas, I see you smiling. You think I'm joking?"

(sorry, tree work again)

Vayrin put her sword away and started walking towards me. I could tell the exact moment that she recognized me as her expression changed pretty noticeably. She came right up to me with a smile and asked what I was doing there. A smile huh? I guess she wasn't angry about what had happened earlier. It didn't seem like a fake smile so she must've been happy to see me. However, it would probably be wise to not bring up the conversation in question. I smiled back at her before I answered. "Nothing really, just thought I'd check it out. What about you? Looked like you were having a heck of a time just now." I laughed a little bit as I scratched my head. I had a habit of doing that with people I knew. I was glad to have run in to her. Not only because it would give me a chance to make up for what happened last time but because she would rescue me from my boredom. I smiled a little at the third reason I was happy to see her. "Glad it was you who I ran into actually. That means I don't have to deal with someone else thinking I'm a girl. Haha, long story..."

As the sun began to set I had made my way out into the prairies. The flat landscape was filled with nothing. Yeah that's right, nothing. I didn't even see any players walking around. Was I the only one there? That's what I was thinking until I heard the sound of shouting carrier by the wind. It sounded like the voice of a girl, a girl around my age. I tried to find the source of the voice and I found what I was looking for way off in the distance. The figure that I was was practicing moves on the air, no doubt testing out some new skills. The person I was looking at look vaguely familiar so I decided I'd go take a closer look. When I got closer I knew immediately who I was looking at. If recognize that purple anywhere, it was Vayrin. It dawned on me that after our last encounter she might not be all that happy to see me but I felt like I was already past the point of no return so I continued forward. I'd try to be lighthearted when I spoke to her so she'd know I had no hard feelings. She hadn't seen me walk towards her, her back was to me the whole time, so I had the element of surprise. I wasn't exactly on top of her, probably still about 40 feet away. She might not recognize me at first. Oh well, I'd call out anyway. "Hey, what did that air ever do to you?" I yelled with a smile. 

Ebony followed me into the bushes and began searching for the illusive plant as well. I drifted further and further in as my efforts continued to yield no results. After what seemed like a few hours (and probably was), I had drifted away from Ebony and she was no longer in my sight. I considered going to look for her but figured looking in two places at once was probably better. I absentmindedly continued searching through the foliage until my hand touched something strange. It felt almost..furry? I reached out and grabbed it with my hand, pulling whatever it was out of the bush. After some effort, I held up by the tail what looked to be a ball of fur. Curiously, I brought the thing closer to my face to get a better look but froze when I saw eyes looking back at me. Wait, eyes! I quickly dropped whatever it was onto the ground and shuffled backwards. I watched as the creature unrolled itself and looked up at me. It was a small thing, probably about 2 feet tall or less, and was covered head to toe in brown fur. I'm sad to admit that I was a little too startled by its appearance and pointed at it and yelled. "Ahh! Ewok!"

Floor Three, despite all the bad things I had to say about floor two, was actually my least visited floor by far. I couldn't remember the last time I had bee here. The village towns and wide prairies didn't really jump out at me. The lack of verticality made the place seem pretty plain. Pretty ironic considering the whole game was about going up. I had made my way into the town and was currently dangling my feet off of someone's roof. I was sure they wouldn't mind. I looked into the distance as I let the wind blow into my hair. That was the one thing that was great about SAO no matter the floor. For some reason I loved the feeling of the wind on my face. Maybe it helped remind me that I was really alive. I let my mind drift and eventually I considered how boring my day would end up being. There wasn't really much to do on floor 3 so unless something jumped up in front of me I doubted I'd be doing much. 

Taking with Vayrin

Ebony followed me into the forest and we contemplated what to do. She suggested that maybe we should fight some mobs to find the item but I wasn't really in the mood for that. I'd rather just look around and hope to come across something. "You can look for an enemy if you'd like but I'm just gonna start searching." With that I leaped forward and into the brush. I figured that the ground near bushes would be a good place to start. But I knew better than to get my hopes up. My history with finding mats should tell me that my chances of finding anything were abysmal. If only I knew what I was looking for. 

(It's been so long I forgot where I was going with this. I'll remember)

"Oh, I'm level 18. I've been at it a bit longer than you guys so it's not like I'm super amazing or anything." Red and Ayumu were both very low level. So low level in fact that I could practically kill them with a poke. Obviously I wouldn't do that. I don't kill and I never will. Before I could notice Red zipped past me and screamed for a race to the town. I grinned devilishly; did he forget I was level 18? I got into a starting stance and pushed off from the ground. My advanced level and skill stack kicked in and I moved like lightning across the field. I pasted Red without any effort, probably leaving a gust of wind behind, and reached the town gate before he knew what hit him. I smiled and waived. "Sorry bud. Speed is my specialty."

Elul shyly replied that she enjoyed playing in the snow and reading. I could get behind that, although reading wasn't my favorite past time. Unless it was manga, I could read the crap out of that. I raised an eyebrow at the book she mentioned. Just the name gave me the full picture of what the book was probably about. "Pendragon, huh? I usually just read manga so I've never heard of that one. Maybe when we get out of here I'll check it out. You seem like you have good taste." I said smiling at her. I watched as she sighed to herself, no doubt thinking about how being trapped here put a damper on her plans. She looked back up and spoke once more about her interests. Ha, videogames, coulda guessed. "Ahh video games. I shoulda stuck to the old fashioned consoles, coulda avoided this mess. Oh well, can't change that now." It was my turn to sign as I reflected on my curiosity being what landed me here. "Revolutionary technology" they said, "will change the face of gaming" they said. Yeah well what they didn't say was that it would trap us lucky souls in a virtual world for God knows how long. I adjusted my position and leaned back in my chair, the front legs in the air as I balanced myself. I took a sip of the tea to wash down my thoughts before I looked to Elul once more. "Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be someone else, just for a day?"

(Sorry...)

The group that had gathered off to the side began making their way over to us. I didn't know why until I saw that the guy in the lead was someone I knew. Noboyuki came up to me with a smile and asked how I was doing. "Same as always. How about you? How have you been progressing?" Jut after him came a character with a vibe I couldn't help but feel was strange. First he told the girl off for checking out her hair before turning his attention to me and the other guy. The way he spoke only furthered my assumption. When he said his name a light bulb went off in my head. He was the guy that Elul told me about, her friend that we joked I should stay clear of. I could definitely see what she was talking about. This guy was certainly interesting. He extended his hand and complimented me on my flip. Before I could grab it the other guy took it so I just replied. "You're the Whit? I've heard a lot about you. Thanks for the compliment."

Well this is what I came up with based on my "make the nervegear/amusphere into a girl" idea. I went with the later so this is Amu-chan. This is just a first run at it so if there are any suggestions or ideas feel free to throw them out :)

(originally she was wearing a baggy sweatshirt, don't know why I changed it)

I think I've got an idea in mind. Is it okay if I just post a sketch for consideration instead of jumping the gun and going all out with a colored piece?

Time flew at such an accelerated rate that it seemed like whole hours and events had been skipped entirely. Maybe I was hit on the head? It was late when the three of us finished our job and brushed ourselves off. The owner told us we were free to go so we started our goodbyes. Shizuka and Greg seemed anxious to get going, I wondered why. "See ya Shizuka. It was fun, hope we meet again soon." We waved as she left and Greg said his goodbyes as well. I smiled and slapped him on the shoulder. "Sorry, bro. Maybe I can play Cupid some other time." Greg walked off as well, leaving me alone. I took in a breath and started off down the field. It was a long day. 

Shizuka made her way back over to us in the clothes she got from the NPC, they fit her strangely well. She kneeled down next to us and began picking cabbages as she tried to start a conversation. I waited as Greg answered before I made any comments myself. "Nothing new really. I've been taking it slow, not really any big adventures to talk about. Maybe I should get back on that." The task at hand was getting old quickly. I had no idea how long he expected us to pick these cabbages, but it was probably too long. I decided I'd have a little fun. I looked to see where the man was and saw that he wasn't looking in our direction. Next to him was another one of his cabbage carts, on that one was empty. I picked up a cabbage and quickly hurled it at the cart. The impact sent the thing rolling forward and it picked up speed as it flew down the hill. "Bullseye". Before he had I chance to see it, I used my incredible speed to run up and grab the cabbage that I threw and brought it back to where we were working. 

Red nervously asked me to be their guide, to which I smiled. "Why not? I like to help if I can." When I spoke to him I noticed his attention was on the girl next to me. I could tell he was thinking about her in the "woah she's pretty hot" way. Sure enough he made a miserable attempt at hitting on her. If he said that anymore awkwardly I think I would've felt embarrassed too. But hey, who doesn't want nice hair and eyes? I looked to Ayumi and saw her face turn red, obviously she wasn't expecting that either. She thought about what to say for a second before telling Red it was okay. She even tried to throw a complement back at him. I smiled as I watched the two go from strangers to, well, two people who don't know what to say to each other very quickly. Ayumi broke the silence quickly though and said we should start moving. Good idea. "Right, let's head back to town then. I know her place like the back of my hand." I said, waiving over my shoulder as I walked. 

(Sorry for not advancing the plot, I'm about to go to bed and I'm super tired)

"You'll get there eventually" Shizuka and Greg both happily agreed to quest with each other after my suggestion. They must've already been thinking the same thing. After a bit more walking we finally arrived at the fields. Honestly, I was a little underwhelmed. I didn't know what I was expecting, but the field of green cabbage wasn't exactly awe inspiring. I frowned as the NPC started laughing in our faces and suggested we get to work. The designers of this game really knew how to make some annoying NPCs. Before we got started Shizuka went and asked for a change of clothes. I didn't know what she was worried about, they couldn't really get ruined in this game. She went off and told Greg and I to start without her. I rolled up my sleeves and got ready to work when Greg came up and asked me what I said. "I meant I'm going to help you, like that suggestion I just made. But maybe next time I'll make it more obvious." I said with a wink as I started to get the cabbages. 

I walked with the cabbage guy as I half listened to Shizuka and Greg catch up. From what I head Shizuka was doing pretty well for herself. Up to level 8 and already in a respectable guild. A far cry from the girl I found on that bench. Greg seemed impressed too but assured her he hadn't been slacking off, but he wanted to get back into questing. A devilish smile spread on my face. I looked over my shoulder to speak to them. "Hey why don't you guys quest together? Theyre better when you do them with a friend." I turned back around to look forward and let the two of them talk that over. I heard Shizuka ask about my level and debated whether or not to tell her before I said anything. "I'm level 18 right now. I've been taking it easy lately." We kept walking towards the fields. I had no idea how far away they were but guessed it couldn't take more than a few more minutes. unfortunatly the sun was high in the sky. We'd probably be baking when we started to work. I really should try and not demolish cabbage carts in the future. 

"Oh alright. I hope it wasn't something too important then." She took a sip of her drink before she became lost in thought again. I could tell by the way she quickly shook her head like she was trying to erase something from her head. This girl was funny. Everything was on the surface with her. It was kind of refreshing in a way. Most people I meant were reserved and tried to not give much away. Maybe being readable was a characteristic of shy people. I too took a sip of my tea as I waited for her. It was pretty good actually. Not the best I'd had but not half bad by Aincrad standards. I chuckled a bit when she asked me what I do for fun. "Well I used to stay to myself and not do much but being in here has changed me somehow. Now I take the chance to do crazy stuff like that whenever I can. It's more enjoyable in here if you can keep finding new things to do. I recommend snowball fights, they're pretty fun." I took another sip of tea with a content look on my face. "What about you?"

Everything fell apart before my eyes. As it turns out I hadn't jumped over just one player but two. Off to the side some guy had tripped from overexcitement and got the entire square laughing. Another guy quickly tried to cover for him while yet another gave him water of all things. I couldn't stay too focused on them because the girl that I vaulted over began yelling at me for not paying attention. My smile turned into a look of confusion as I tried to take in the absolute debacle that was unfolding. I turned to the girl and offered her a calm look. "I'm sorry I didn't even know you were there. I was too distracted when he walked out in front of me." I said pointing to the player that had become the epicenter of an epidemic. I gave a sour look when she turned to the guy and said again that I needed to look where I was going. "I was. If I wasn't we'd all be playing twister on the pavement." The male player looked to me and apologized, at least he wasn't freaking out. "Nah it's okay. You don't usually expect to be hit by lunatics on skateboards." I dropped the board on the ground and kicked it aside. The girl had started to fix her hair in a shop window and the other group of players were still trying to collect themselves. Why did I always find myself in such big messes?

As always, I was in the town of beginnings. Obviously that's an exaggeration, but that's what I think everytime I come back. The amount of time I spend here is ungodly. This particular time, I decided I'd figure out another stupid thing to do. After much searching, I was able to find something that resembled closely enough a skateboard. I ripped the handle off the cart and pushed off down the street. I wasn't the best skateboarder in the real world, but I was a natural in SAO. I had no troubled maneuvering through people as I zipped down the Main Street. It was when I came up on the main square that I ran into trouble. A player emerged from an alley way directly in front of me and didn't notice I was coming. From the looks of him he hadn't done anything in SAO yet so he was defenseless. "Oh man" I grunted to myself. I pushed of against the ground rapidly to increase my speed to as much as I could. When I got closer to the player I leaped with all my might. I did a flip through the air over his head as my board slid right between his legs. I landed perfectly on it on the other side and quickly turned into a stop. I kicked the board up into my hand and smiled. "Sorry about that, didn't see you."

I just sat there watching Elul. After i finished talking she started to just stare ahead and not say a word. I could see by her face that she was in deep thought about something. It must've been what I was worried about. She probably picked up on my stuttering and was trying to figure out what it was for. Neither of us said anything, the only movement was of Elul's eyes. When the waitress brought our cups she seemed to snap out of it and grab a cup. I was unsettled by the whole thing. Even weirder was that she continued to not say anything. "Are you alright? It looked like you were just thinking really hard about something."

The Greg guy practically jumped out of his shoes when he processed what I said. He whispered back to me pleadingly. "Like you're holding a sign." I smiled as he begged me to keep it between the two of us. "Don't worry I won't tell her, but I can't promise I won't make things a little more interesting." I was interrupted by the cabbage guy as he started to chew us, me, out. He was rightfully mad that I destroyed his stock and demanded that we work it off. Shizuka stepped up and did all the talking, telling him we'd work in his fields for the day. I whispered to Greg one more time before I walked over to the once cart. "Don't worry I'll only help you out." I walked up to Shizuka and thanked her. "You didn't have to help me out, I'm kinda the only one to blame, but thanks. We better get going then." I turned to the NCP and he nodded and began leading the way. 

"I'll keep that in mind." I could hear the sadness in her voice when she talked about her sister. She must've blamed herself for getting her sister into this mess. "Hey you get what you pay for" I made the mistake of trying to comfort people before. Saying nice words and acting sorry only makes it worse. I find that people respond better to humor. It makes them laugh and takes their mind off of whatever they were sad about. The waitress returned and have us our drinks. I took a sip of mine as Elul went on. My face turned red when she mentioned finding someone I like. "Someone I l-like? Well uh....of you meant like friends. Yeah haha I've met plenty. I have a few really close ones." I was ashamed that I got flustered when she brought up a person I liked. Obviously my mind drifted towards the love aspect of that saying and immediately thought of Glory. I was glad I came to my senses before I made too much of a fool of myself. 

"Oh don't worry. It wasn't a problem, you're really light. No trouble at all." I listened with a smile as she went on about her friend that went on a sugar fueled rampage. By the way she talked about him it sounded like they were pretty close. "Sounds like a pretty fun guy. I don't know if I should want to meet him or steer clear of him." We were interrupted by the waitresses arrival and both order green teas. When she left I resumed. "So your sisters here too. I don't even have a sister, you're pretty lucky to come in here with someone you know so well."