Waking to Another Sky Ch5 bit – Accident

Asuna touched Kirigaya’s cheek as the glowing wounds vanished; looking into his eyes, then at his life bar. Nodded once. “Wait here. I’ll take care of this.”

Then she turned on Kuradeel. Who was still picking himself off the ground, babbling something about a training accident.

Daniel snorted. “That’s not going to work.”

Jack raised a surprised brow. Coming from their resident optimist, that was saying something… whoa.

Kuradeel had been fast enough to raise his sword.

He might as well have tried to fight a hurricane.

Asuna’s rapier was a flurry of light, driving Kuradeel back as his life bar sank like a rock, green to yellow to lurid red-

“I’m sorry!”

Throwing his sword aside, Kuradeel dropped to his knees, pleading. “I- I’ll leave the guild! You’ll never see me again-”

Asuna reversed her grip, prepared for a final stab.

Damn it. Jack cursed under his breath. You’d better do it, kid; he’s not going to hold to that, you know it-

Kuradeel shuddered. “I don’t want to die!”

Jack kept his gaze on the screen, but watched his team out of the corner of his eyes. He had a pretty good idea what Asuna was going to do. Did they?

The rapier stopped. Asuna shivered, obviously caught between what she knew Kuradeel had almost done and who she was.

Sick psycho bastard, Jack winced. He knew she couldn’t do it.

Kill in the heat of battle? Yeah. People could do that. Not everybody, not by a long shot; even people who’d been on the front lines for two years might hesitate. Kill to protect your family? Oh yeah. He’d rather face down a dozen militants with just a knife than one armed mother with her kids behind her. But her boyfriend was alive, and she was alive, and with the adrenaline wearing off… she couldn’t. Because deep down, Asuna was an honest, decent person. Like Daniel. Like Sam. And there were things she just could not do.

The rapier dropped out of line.

Oh hell. Ice formed in Jack’s gut. Kid, at least get his weapon away from him first!