Zajcica

Yoink, mine now!

Yuki's grimace was difficult to hide when Morgan explained his situation to her. It sounded the same as hers to a degree, though, maybe that was a little harsh. It was an exciting concept to explore a virtual reality world as if it was a real one, but no one could have expected that they would all be living the next few years in premise that was comparable to a prison in some people's eyes.

"I came over because you seemed like you could use someone to talk to. In all honesty, I think everyone could use someone to lend their ear to. Another reason I came to talk was because I like meeting new people. Was wanting to add as many people as possible to my friends list and just have as many friends as possible to help get stronger together. The stronger I get, the more I can do to help everyone get out of here, and help myself get out of here as soon as possible!" The bright smile of hers was almost unwavering. No matter what harsh comment Morgan had for her, she always seemed to find a way to smile through it.

@Morgan

The situation became detached pretty quickly. How had she ended up walking out of the safe zone without realizing it? Air-headed was a pretty good way to describe her and she was only realizing that more and more as she continued her path in this game. As the major threat appeared seemingly out of nowhere, the tank instinctively moved to block the attack, but Cordelia was faster than her. That beast's attacks probably would have grounded her, anyway, but she's jumped in front of some pretty dangerous attacks to protect others before. Her skin tingled with the thought of Ghidorah's breath attack nearly removing her glorious pink mane.

The ditz of a girl, Rosary, took shelter behind a boulder clear of the battle being fought with wood to steel. Yuki retreated as well, just not as urgently as the other low level player. Worrying for someone like Cordelia was irrelevant because she could tell the higher leveled player had a since of compassion like herself. She would not have jumped in front of an attack like that which she could not have survived. She was strong and it not only reflected in her actions as a person, but in her experience as a player.

"Tsuyoi." Her Japanese tongue slipped as she watched the white haired woman plunge her katana into the field bosses spine.

@Cordelia

House Name: 美誇人の荘園 (Translates to "Mikoto no Shouen" - "Mikoto Manor")
Location: Floor 22, just outside the safe zone of Coral.
Description: A massive, Japanese-style mansion on the outskirts of Coral. Through the thicket of pink cherry blossom leaves, one can find it surrounded by a stone wall keeping unwanted fiends from attacking. It is also home of (Soon to be) Yuki Izakaya, a Japanese Grill run by the home owner Yuki Mikoto. The building is shaped like an L from a bird's eye view, the walls around the plot are shaped in a square surrounding the building. Just outside the building is small garden containing a pond that spawns fish inside. 
Plot Size: Estate
Rooms: 6 (Bedroom, Basic Kitchen, Dining Room, Basic Workshop, Fishing Pond, Slime Farm)(All rooms are currently only assigned to Yuki.)
Room Upgrade(s): None.
Total Cost: 25+ Tier Donation Reward

Rooms Pictures:

The branches rising from the ground coiled around the bunny girl's leg. It scratched up one of her socks: Heresy! This was one of her favorite outfits, not that it would be difficult to fix or anything. The hefty axe gleamed off the sun and severed the branches connecting Yuki's leg to the ground.

"Muda da." The pink-haired bunny girl laughed following up behind Mari. "I'm not that easy to put down, silly tree!"

Her axe ripped through the air, and again, she obviously wasn't used to the stupid things minuscule reach. She was really beginning to miss her lance as the axe tore into the dirt in front of the huge tree's roots. She sighed and flashed Mari a smile.

"My accuracy still leaves something to be desired, hunh?" She laughed and backed up a bit to ensure that the tree wouldn't catch her with a lucky follow-up attack.

Miss!

IAn underground floor? How interesting! It was extremely unexpected to see one of the levels buried completely under the dirt. Yuki wondered if there was a way to climb up to the surface, or if there was even a surface to this floor. This was one of the highest unlocked floors that front liners had made it to, so it was too dangerous to venture out of the safe zone, but she was only traveling to the floors safe zones to investigate them. To find out what sort of power levels she should be on when she makes it here and overall just take in the scenery.

Her sight seeing was interrupted by a loud crash a few meters away. A woman had crashed in front of another girl right on her face. They were both players, indicated by their green cursors. Would it be too impudent to introduce herself to people nearing front line levels, let alone front liners themselves. She wasn't a fan girl or anything, just did want to bother them. Either way, she swallowed her nervousness and walked over to them both.

"Oi," Her thick Japanese accent stood out to the both of them. "Daijobuka? You took a pretty bad tumble there, even if we can't really feel all that much pain." Yuki offered them both a wave and a smile.

@Cordelia @Rosary

Yuki took a deep breath. The dragon's breath was hot and smelled awful. A sigh of relief escaped her lips as it exploded into data and disappeared from this digital world until it inevitably would respawn and someone else would feel it's fury, or vise versa in Life's perspective. Once things calmed down, Life's voice pulled her back into reality.

"You feeling ok?" His charming smile reassured her that he was fine as well. Even with her cape burned up from the dragon's fire, she gave no hint of wavering.

"Of course! I did my job so you could do yours and everything worked out. I never actually believed that I would use one of those dingy potions, but I guess I was wrong. I'm just glad to see that you are unharmed. I wouldn't know how to feel if someone in my party died because I was a bad tank." She smiled at Life to reassure that she was okay and flashed him a thumbs up. "Not like I could die with someone as cool as you backing me up! Now, on to the next! She marched to take the lead back to the teleporter in the main city.

Yuki waved down Mari, Life and Mac. It was nice to see some familiar faces in this event, though she didn't know Mac as well as she did Life or Mari. She offered all them a smile until she noticed them exchanging bunny-attire. Was it an Easter thing? Either way, she had a good vanity set of clothes for this.

"Oi! Are we all being bunnies for this event? Oh! I have just the thing for this. Armor enhancements seem to be disabled for this event anyways so it shouldn't matter if I remove it. She replaced Mac's armor in her inventory with her clothing. Something that looked like a cosplay for a maid girl with bunny ears. "You look cute like that, by the way, Mari!"

She was about to continue that conversation before the player who was leading the defense was smacked by a long wooden tendril. The player was slammed into a stone pillar and was unconscious but not dead. Thankfully, one of the other players had told one of her guild-mates to make sure that she was alright and safe - or no, he ran past her and left her alone cracked in the stone just below where she impacted. What a coward. That other player seemed to lead the charge. She was fine with that, being the most inexperienced player here. Best not to step on anyone's toes.

"Nee, no time to being gawking, unless we wanna end up like her." She pointed over to the paralyzed Zandra, who was sat there stuck in place. "Kakkugou!"

The axe was twice as heavy as her spear, making it difficult to get used to at first. She followed up on an attack as Raidou made his, cleaving the axe towards the huge ent. The blade of the weapon only met the dirt as she fell short of actually hitting it.

"Kusou... This weapon isn't as easy to wield as my lance." She mumbled to herself.

It was hard to stay positive around someone like this. She wondered at first why she would save her if she really didn't care about helping other that much, but then she remembered that it was just for completion of the same quest she was doing. It was annoying her a bit, but she did her best to keep calm.

"I thank you for the warning, but if I chose to do what you are trying to do, you wont stop me. However, that isn't my plan. I have chose to join the front lines when I get to that level and help them clear this game so that we all can go home. If I die there, at least I can die knowing I did something and not just withering away in the Town of Beginnings for the rest of my digital life.

The pinkette put a hand on her hip and gave her another smile. She was attempting her best to help others see the best in themselves through her own actions, but being an idol wasn't something that was easy to accomplish. Not everyone would like the person she was.

@Hidden

Yuki slipped back to stay clear of the next fire breath attack. If she hadn't raised her shield, she would have been burned to a crisp from that attack. Thankfully her armor protected her from burns. She pulled one of the potions that she had in her inventory out and looked at the bottle she had held on to since she first arrived in the game. It couldn't get poisoned after years of no use, could it? With that thought in mind, she hesitated slightly, but inevitably, she popped the cork off the bottle and chugged it down. The HP bar gradually went up as she chugged it down and soon her self-healing kicked in. Back up to a beautiful green bar, the paladin grinned.

"Yoshi! All good now." A grin reformed on her face, until she noticed the flames on her cape still burning her up. She quickly snuffed them out. "Let's finish this scaly bastard then!" She grabbed her lance back up and stood back at his side, giving him a quick glance as she stepped up.

Party:
@Life: [H:3]Health: 518/560 | Energy: 28/56 (-14 SA Iai) | Damage: 14 | Evasion: 3 | Accuracy: 3 | Mitigation: 12
@Zajcica: [H:3] Health: 138/200 (+55 HP) | Energy: 38/40 | DMG: 2 | EVA: 0 | MIT: 27 | ACC: 0 | Thorns: 18 | Regen: 5

Enemies:
 1. Ghidorah - the Opal Hatchling: MIT: 40 - ACC: 1 - EVA: 1 - DMG: 70 - Thorns: 14 STUNNED
  HP: 82/215

Yuki gasped quietly as she saw Life jump into the fight. Maybe he thought he could just destroy the dragon in a single attack, but the elves didn't go down without a fight. I sword ran through her back, the already tight grip on her lance became even more tense.

"Life-kun!" The elves were quickly dispersed with by his katana, nothing she wouldn't expect from her partner. A slight growl escaped her words as she she rushed the Opal Dragon. "OI! You, stupid over grown lizard! I am you're opponent now! Seiya!" Fire consumed Yuki as she advanced on the lizard-like beast. Even after taking the full brunt of the dragon's fire breath, Yuki's cape singed and was set ablaze. She was only able to protect some of her head with her shield to prevent her hair from being burned off. Her lance flashed through the air and jammed the lizard's jaw into the top of it's mouth.

"I-Itatata..." She whispered under her breath backing off a bit. Her health bar got dangerously close to half. Her heart skipped a beat when she noticed. If she took another hit like that, she might actually die. Her cape was still lit aflame, but it seemed she was mostly worried about her health bar dipping ten times further in a single turn than all the damage she had taken in the entire game so far. Life could easily see the discomfort in her expression, she was scared after talking all that [censored].

Party:
@Life: [H:2]Health: 532/560 | Energy: 42/56 | Damage: 14 | Evasion: 3 | Accuracy: 3 | Mitigation: 12
@Zajcica: [H:3] Health: 138/200 (70-27= 48; -14 Thorns Damage) | Energy: 38/40 (Pierce: 2EN) | DMG: 2 | EVA: 0 | MIT: 27 | ACC: 0 | Thorns: 18 | Regen: 5

Enemies:
1. Ghidorah - the Opal Hatchling: MIT: 40 - ACC: 1 - EVA: 1 - DMG: 70 - Thorns: 14 
 HP: 196/215 (-2 x 2 Damage from Yuki, reduced to 1; -18 Thorns)

Yuki sat quietly as Morgan announced his want for some European food she had not heard of before. When the bartender looked at him just as perplexed as she did, he shrugged it off and gulped down his drink some more.

"Alright, so what is a guy like you doing with a copy of Sword Art Online? To you, I would think this game is nothing but useless junk to keep kids entertained. And now you're stuck inside it until its finished or we all die." She tried to put it as lightly as possible. "Ore wa Yuki-. I mean, My name is Yuki. Nice to meet you sir." She said with her signature smile and slight welcoming bow. When her introduction was finished, she continued to eat her sandwich. It reminded her that she needed to finish the Cooking quest so she could start making her own food that actually tasted good.

@Morgan

Yuki gulped as she stood back to her feet, leaving her weapon on the ground for now. It was obvious how scared she was of this girl, but she tried to keep her cool. The hooded woman wasn't anything like Mari, though, that wasn't any reason to judge her just by the crystal over her head. Yuki smiled to Hidden.

"Destroying Laughing Coffin, hunh? That sounds noble, at least! I commend you for wanting to take action against something so vile even if it puts your own image to shame. Her tone changed pretty quickly. She still wasn't entirely sure if she was out of the clear with her adversary, but she wanted to appease her for her misconception. "I could have outlasted that boss with potions that I have and my thorns would have killed it eventually. You came to kill the boss and beat the quest then? Glad I got a hit on it so I could get the completion. Ore wa Yuki-desu. Yoroshiku!" She introduced herself. "I'm a bit of a weaker player right now, but how would you feel about registering each other in our friends lists? Maybe I could help you defeat Laughing Coffin somehow!" She gave the other girl a happy smile and a thumbs up.

@Hidden

Yuki's uneven breath continued as he spoke. She wanted to push him away and tell him to shut up, saying that it wouldn't be that simple, but he knew that. Instead, she closed her eyes and imagined his situation. Her family didn't need her to survive like Life's father might need him. The crying continued shortly before her breath final stabilized and calmed enough to speak reasonably.

"G-Gomenasai.. I got heated, I didn't mean to be rude like that. Yurushite onegashimasu." She sniffling and wiping some of the tears off her face. "I think two years of doing absolutely nothing really crushed my spirit and I didn't want to believe it. I am trying to better myself, and I intend on seeing the people I love again. That much is certain. Thank you for putting up with my attitude Life." She said resting her head against his head. This position made Yuki's stomach flutter yet again, but she somewhat enjoyed it. It took a moment of silence before she let go of him and tried to put on her usual smile.

"R-Right then, I'm leading the way, so let's continue with our endeavor!" She turned on her heel, again, and continued the path to the dragon. They weren't far now, and the dragon wouldn't stand a chance against them.

@Life

Yuki quietly mumbled to herself as Life tried to appease her a bit. She was aggravated and pretty embarrassed all together, but she did her best to keep herself calm when she spoke back to him.

"I care not if you wouldn't have noticed otherwise.." She said in the nicest tone possible. "Anyone could be easily fooled by my appearance if you hadn't known beforehand. Many people I know in real life knew. I've been shamed by more than half my classmates or have lost friends just because of my life choices. It's not something that I can bring up easily in conversation anymore. It is something I should stress about." She tromped a little ahead of him, trying not to show her embarrassment, even if it is echoed in her voice.

"Mari did exactly what I wish everyone in the world would do with it. Dismiss it and move on as if it didn't change anything. I might still have the one thing that makes me a man, but that does not mean I'm not who I want to be. I only want people to take that information, throw it in the trash and view me as I am. As the girl I want to be. That's why I need my family's support, but they're not here!" She cried a little in her words. "I have no idea what to do without them! I only started playing this stupid game to end it one way or another! If I died I could be free of the pain of not having them in my life, but if I do die I'll have been taking their hope and love in vain! What do I even do?!" Tears streamed down her cheeks as she screamed her dilemma to a complete stranger. "Isolation without my family is driving me crazy! I miss my sister so much! My mom would know what I should be doing and my dad is probably worried so sick he's crying over my comatose body! How am I supposed to feel about all that?!"

She turned to Life, tears stained her face. She sniffed loudly as she cried and her face was bright red. "What can I do besides cry and hope to survive?!"

@Life

Yuki was a bit quiet to that remark. Mari had been pretty harsh to her just as this man was when they first met, but she was good at making friends for the most part, or at least she thought she was. She took a seat across the way from him, taking in the unfamiliar accent. She knew it was European, but other than that she couldn't finger it exactly.

He made fun of her for not drinking alcohol in a tavern, also using the word 'adult' as if she wasn't one herself. That annoyed her a bit, but she would have to over look it.

"I might not be old, but I am an adult myself. I am 24 of age and legally allowed to drink. I've met some abusive drinkers in the real world and I promised my family that would stay away from things like that. It's no different here, even if the intoxication effect can't be attained. Plus the way I see it, a tavern is just as well suited to find something to eat." She argued to the best of her ability and took a bite of her sandwich.

@Morgan

Floor 19. Yuki hadn't gone this high since the last event, but she had gotten a message in her requests asking for assistance. Events were supposed to give players more experience than quests, so it wouldn't hurt to participate in as many as she could. She teleported to Ralberg, the main settlement, and made her way to the Aincrad Trading Post. From what she knew, it was a player guild that offered heavy benefits to players wanted to focus mostly on their crafts. It didn't take her long to rush to the location. Most people knew where the head quarters was, so she asked some passerby players for directions until one of them gave a good description.

When she entered the quests location, she was prompted to select a weapon. There was no option to keep your current weapon, so she would have to choose something here. She closed her eyes and pushed whichever option she got with her finger. Her beautiful lance disappeared and a beautiful gold trimmed battleaxe appeared in her hands. It was easily twofold heavier than her one handed lance, but it would work.

She approached the doors to the ATP and met up with the players who had beat her there.

"Oi! I'm here to help! She called out. She assumed that since this was taking place on a high level floor that most people here would know each other and she would be the only stranger in leagues. "My level is pretty low, but I should be fine. Hope I can do more than sit around and look useless." She laughed nervously scratching the back of her head.

Yuki's eyebrows strained a bit in that brooding response. It was clear to Life that something he said really ticked her off. She stopped in front of him, making him stop in front of her.

"Everyone has something to live for, dummy." Oddly enough, voice seemed to get deeper the more her tone became serious. " Questioning existence is something we should all do at some point in our lives, but I don't think this world has any rhyme or reason to it. Beyond that, you are living now, here in this world. As is the remaining players here. We are living for the people in the real world. For the people who want to see our smiles again, for the people who's smile we want to see again. Questioning whether or not you have a reason in the digital world, or in the real world for that matter, is taking away all the faith those around you are putting into you. If I believe something as stupid as fate, I would still be living with the depression of being..." She stopped there. Too many times she came close to revealing her secret to others. Was it really something she should even hide? Mari was fine with it, and even encouraged it. She pondered it.

"Life. I lied to you a little earlier when admitted feelings for you. The conversation before we fought the last floor's dragon was actually leading up to something a little more important to me than that. If I believed in fate, I don't think I would be where I was, but I changed my path with my own decisions and became a girl. I chose not to live a life with disappointment in myself because I felt out of place in my own body. If I can change something as stable as my own gender or sex you can find solace in something to keep you going, or forgive yourself for a troubled past. Now stop questioning something like this and let's get stronger so we can see our friends and families smiles again."

She didn't wait on a response from him, turning on her heel and continuing her way towards the dragon. Really she didn't want to show the worry on her face of how he would react to her biggest secret, but still she knew he would have something to say in a moment.

@Life

Spending some time relaxing was just what Yuki needed after a few weeks of grinding. She sat in the tavern, eating a sandwich and drinking some juice. With her menu pulled up, she was planning what her next move was going to be. There were rumors of a quest that would help her harsh weather conditions away. That sounded like an essential skill to have for anyone really, not just a tank. She closed her eyes and sighed.

A man sat across the room from her. He was a player, indicated by the cursor, everyone else she could see was an NPC. He was drinking alcohol from the looks of it. From what she remembered, however, it was impossible to get intoxicated from the drink. What was he doing here? Maybe it would be a good idea to go talk with him. Though he was older that most of the people she had met in SAO, but she wasn't scared to meet new people.

She picked up her plate and walked over to him. "Sumimasen, may I take a seat with you? My friends are all busy right now and I have no one to speak to." Her voice came out a little hushed and nervous.

@Morgan

The green grass of the first floor was so expansive. Mobs ran wild around, spawning in and out of virtual reality, coming and going as quickly their existence allowed. Maybe that was the same way as the material spawn nodes, which is why she had decided to stand around and wait if the spawn node happened to grace her with another blessing yet again.

Several moments later, a little node popped out of the ground. If this were a manga, she would have been depicted with a sweat drop over her head. Quickly she reached down and plucked the node from it's cozy spawn point before it went as quickly as it came. It made so much sense now. Better player probably know some spawn locations of where materials can be gathered and her dumb ass was running around trying to look in the stupidest spots for them. Lesson learned.

Her quest updated. Time to return to the kitchen with her ingredients in tow and learn how to cook from the NPC.

She rose from her squatting position only to look back down and find the node had spawned a new set of materials just as she had backpacked the ones just before it. It was somewhat shocking that an event like that could happen. Materials likely had a random counter on nodes to discourage camping on them, or the nodes were placed randomly around the map. She reached back down and pocketed the extra set of materials for herself. Watching the node's empty spot, quietly hoping another set of materials would just rise out of the ground for her and make this easy.

Waiting her for a moment wouldn't hurt her. What sort of things would be good to put on her menu when she got her shop made? Bentos, snacks and desserts and big yummy Japanese traditional feasts? It was only limited to her imagination. She would have to make Mari some Mochi filled onigiri so she would stop judging her already.

The grass rose up to her knees, which didn't seem too high with her height. Floral smog polluted her nose enough to make her rub it out with her arm. She wasn't much of a flower girl anyway, she preferred gifts meant to last and ones that meant something more to the receiver.

"What do you think of the word fate, Yuki?" Her companions voice broke her thoughts. A weird question, but she had asked weirder. Fate? A word that Yuki knew from her English lessons, but wasn't entirely familiar with.

"That's the word that means the same as 'destiny' correct?" She asked before beginning her explanation. "Fate, the development of events beyond a person's control? Honestly, I think its a bunch of bull. There might be some things we can't control in our lives, but that doesn't mean it was set up for us. We can always make our own actions and change our future if we put enough effort into it. Take me stumbling into you for example. Maybe it was 'fated' that you and I met. The universe thinks maybe we were meant to meet and become friends, but one of us could have easily destroyed that foundation by walking away. Why do you ask?"

The paladin continued her lead down the cobblestone path, walking backwards to look her companion in the eyes as she spoke about what she assumed was a serious topic. After all, you don't ask deep questions so randomly to someone you just met... Oh wait, she had done that. Well, you don't do it without being a serious matter!

@Life

A worried strain came across the paladins face. It didn't come across as respectful as she imagined it would. What she had said really upset the other player, which was the last thing she wanted to do to any player, green crystal or no. Mari had warned her about other players with orange crystals floating above their heads, even herself. Yuki wasn't scared to die defending a person to her last breath, but as hooded figure's words grew even more irritated, she could tell she really struck a nerve. She circled Yuki slowly as she spoke until she made a full circle, explaining her 'master plan' but she was pretty sure it was all in sardonic jest. The knife quickly thrust to her neck made her flinch heavily. She wanted to destroy Laughing Coffin? Why did seem that all orange players she met actually had better intentions than some of the green ones?

The tiny blade was taken away from her neck. The paladin sighed heavily in relief that this wouldn't be the last face got to see. The lance she carried was dug into the ground next to her and her shield placed next to it as she got on her knees and bowed her head to the dirt, the smell of slightly crisped grass wafted into her nose. Her muffled voice was raised to ensure Hidden could hear her apology.

"My deepest apologizes. I did not mean to suspect you in that fashion. I have met other orange players and they all seemed nice enough to people to trust, I should not have judged you any more than I had the others. I had only in mind that if I was going to be attacked and I had my chance, I would not go down without fighting. Please forgive my reckless approach to this situation." Her head remained on the floor until she got a response from the other girl, or until she walked off. " I deeply appreciate your help in my time of need. I could have easily died to that boss monster without someones help.

@Hidden

Yuki sighed in relief as the boss exploded into data. Hopefully there weren't many more bosses and enemies like that terrifying creature. Video games that she had played before had similar types of beasts, but it wasn't hardly as terrifying as it was in virtual reality. Her attention returned to the hooded player.

"Arigatou, you came just in time to get credit for killing the bo-" The hooded figure had an orange crystal floating above her head. Yuki choked on her words when she noticed and her grip grew tighter on her lance. After watching the girl destroy that tiger on her own, she was sure she could not defend herself from the dagger that she wielded. The grimace could be noticed by the hooded woman. "I assume you came only because you wanted to collect the quest like I did?"

Her voice was shaken. The serious demeanor she was aiming for failed to come out as intended. It was obvious that she was either still shaken up by the Byakko's appearance, or by the fact that she had just met another orange player this early in her SAO career.

"Or, did you have ulterior motives?"

@Hidden

Yuki took the lead, opening the door to the tavern and letting Life out behind her. She equipped her weapon, the massive lance gleamed of the sun that barely poked through the trees. She looked at Life while they walked towards the quest destination and gave him another one of her cheeky smiles. 

"Nee, Life. I think I'll be much better in combat now. While we took a break in the tavern, I found out that could realign my skill points for Col. Now instead of having a Rank in Straight Swords, I can more effectively use my lance." She looked down at the golden-trimmed white lance. "This weapon will protect me and my friends. It's a great weapon and is most effective when I can actually hit critical attacks. I will use it to protect anyone that stands behind me."

Her smile continued. Her tone convinced that she truly believed that she could protect anyone. She needed to work on a lot before she could join the front lines, but that was at least 40 levels away. One day she'll reach that strength.

@Life