Waking to Another Sky Ch3 bit – Logout

~ crossovercreativechaos

Asuna, Janet thought, mouth dry as she focused on the pair of swordsmen standing in the midst of the fallen. Where’s Asuna?

One swordsman was a tall, blond man in elegant red armor whose shield and insignia echoed Asuna’s white battle garb. The other was Kirito….

She’d seen men who’d stared into hell before. Kirito was there.

He has Asuna’s sword.

But he could barely raise it, much less his black blade, shaking even as he tried to step forward. The blond’s eyes narrowed, just the slightest hint of a terrifying disdain–

No!

Kirito didn’t even fight as the blade sank home. He just looked… broken.

–You are dead.–

Silent words burning below the image, as Kirito’s avatar began to glow and shatter-

Stopped.

What the-?

You are dead still blazed. But Kirito stood, translucent as mist, Asuna’s rapier gripped in one spectral hand. Took one echoing step forward, hand lifting through sheer will….

The rapier punched through the red breastplate like butter.

The blond almost seemed to collapse over the blade, surprise on his face.

No, Janet realized, through the red haze that wanted to take over and make her break something. That wasn’t surprise. That was pure, shocked delight.

Kirito sighed. Smiled, in a way that twisted Janet’s heart. And shattered.

–Game cleared,- a computer-generated voice announced, as Agil stared in shock and Klein started screaming. –Logout authorized.-

The game flickered away, to Kayaba’s familiar desk. But the man sitting behind it….

27 thoughts on “Waking to Another Sky Ch3 bit – Logout”

  2. >That wasn’t surprise. That was pure, shocked delight.>
    That’s probably going to keep SG1 and Hammond up at night. Because such a reaction is not normal considering what just happened.

    They’ll be wondering: Why was Kayaba so happy about what Kirito pulled off?

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    1. And, if the Clearers see it, they’ll be wondering why he was shocked. Because they’ve already hypothesized that it was something he had planned.

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  3. Since you’ve implied (unless I’m mistaken) that all the players have been modified to have the ancient gene, does that mean that Kirito figured out how to use it?

    For that matter do you have any thoughts on who among the players naturally had the ancient gene?

    I’m also curious why Heathcliff was described as “a tall, blond man in elegant red armor whose shield and insignia echoed Asuna’s white battle garb” while Kirito was known to the watchers. Had Kayaba kept Heathcliff from showing up in the playback so far?

    Geez! I can hardly wait until i get the chance to read the whole chapter. Thank you for writing!

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    1. They wouldn’t have picked him out of the crowd as easily, because they haven’t seen him IRL with that face, and it is their first time watching.

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      1. Partially agree with that. However, Heathcliff features pretty heavily in a lot of things. Asuna was the Vice-Commander (maybe even generally accepted as being field commander), but Heathcliff was her Guild Leader. He was likely at all of the boss planning sessions after his guild was formed, and he was involved in the duel that got Kirito to join the knights.

        Not saying he Couldn’t have been removed from the playback if Kayaba was using small cuts showing the culture & major events, but if I was watching something like that I’d start wondering why I’d never seen (even tangentially) the Guild Leader Asuna was twic to. A bit suspicious.

        Granted, SG1 doesn’t have the time to get suspicous about what’s NOT being shown, so it’s a moot point.

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      3. He had a very hands off management style. The planning meetings shown may not have been ones he actively participated in. If he wasn’t actively participating, it might be harder to pick him out of whatever other Knights are present. If he was actively participating, even he should realize that showing that and the deaths from the boss fights to the SGC will just get them even more ticked off at him.

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    2. >Had Kayaba kept Heathcliff from showing up in the playback so far? >
      Entirely possible that Kayaba intentionally omitted his alter ego from showing up in the replay he set up for the SGC until this point.

      You might not have noticed it but the guy has something of a tendency for the dramatic.

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    3. Heathcliff doesn’t show up much in canon, so… SG-1 didn’t see him enough to pick him out in particular.

      And yes, the bunnies are currently saying that some special attacks do take some of those interesting genes to pull off. 😉

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      1. 10 chaos points to be spent at chaos mart. what you can buy.
        One ofnthose rings from a machine in the plastic bubbles. A whoopie cushion. 1 pun of mass destruction (higher level jokes cost more)

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  5. Now I can’t ever like Kayaba, but the part of me that is a writer can’t help but appreciate a masterfully crafted reveal (slow applause)
    Also, does anyone else get ‘Sith lord selecting new apprentices’ vibe off of Kayaba, or is that just me?

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  6. No, Janet realized, through the red haze that wanted to take over and make her break something.

    Yeah, he’s been inspiring that a lot lately.

    Why do I have the feeling that they are not going to like who they see sitting at that desk? Well, they already don’t like almost of this but I’m imagine they are going to like some of it even less.

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