Shattered Boundaries - Arc 4

Arc 4 of End War Online: Shattered Boundaries.

Chapter 19
January 7 th 

It was early morning and I wake up with a start. Beads of sweat dripped down my face as I find that I was hyperventilating. The sheets were all off me and I was only on boxers, but I still felt unnaturally hot… I must’ve been tossing around a lot during that dream… the same one. I sit up and let out a deep breath, forcing my breath down, my elbows resting on my legs. I keep having the same dream… it’s been acting up a bit more lately, after I had recaptured Samael… that voice I heard when we were in Void… I kept hearing it. It felt like… it almost felt like I knew the voice. Like it was something I recognized. I couldn’t place it, no matter how hard I tried.

Either way, I didn’t get a good feeling from it.

I turn on the fan at the far end of my bed to cool me off as my sweat dissipates off me. I look over to my laptop on the desk in my room, thinking about End War… and myself. There were still a lot of things I didn’t understand, and I knew I had to be careful. Looking at my father now… he had been through SAO… it made me wonder what he was like before that, and before he met my mother.

I sigh deeply, shaking my head and standing up, walking over and sitting down on the chair, opening up the laptop and kicking it out of sleep mode. I never actually turned off my laptop, I just kept it on the charger and closed it whenever I was done with it. Killed the hell out of the battery, but I always kept it hooked up to an outlet anyway, so I didn’t care much. Besides, it was a pretty high-end laptop, it could handle it.

I looked at recent news. Sure enough, most if not all headlines were about End War Online, even outside Japan. Worldwide news was all over this. Skimming through several news articles, I could see that people were getting understandably angry at Chronotek. Seemed that many people also hadn’t forgotten about SAO, and were bringing that up multiple times as evidence that the gaming industry in general has stepped over boundaries. However, defenders of Chronotek call back to the fact that it was a deranged game master who trapped everyone in SAO, whereas this incident was by no means Chronotek’s fault, besides the fact that their own security system failed, but how would anyone be able to predict that someone from inside the game was going to pull something like this? Hacking the systems from outside is near impossible, but from inside… you’re a lot closer to where you need to be. It doesn’t really take much.

As well as all the controversy around Chronotek, the gaming industry as a whole was getting railed. The same rabid feminists who say video games are misogynist or whatever were screeching about how video games are literally killing people now before being summarily ignored. More sound arguments held that the industry hadn’t learned from the SAO Incident, and raised concerns about the future of VRMMOs, and how corporations could protect users from outside and inside attacks. Of course, none of that was easy. VRMMO technology has been around for over 20 years now, but it was still a quickly growing field. The RiftGear is already out of date compared to other new models from Chronotek or other companies. It would take a ludicrous amount of money and labor for security to keep up with the actual technology.

Chronotek themselves have released multiple statements on the issue regarding security in VR technology, as well as the safety of the whole field. Of course there were risks involved; literally transporting consciousness into a server network wasn’t exactly a basic process. And the whole technology was first introduced by Chronotek a few years back as well. It’s the newest venture in VR technology, and just as with everything, profit took priority over safety. Chronotek, however, I trusted. They weren’t the same kind of greedy monopolistic douchebags that ran the industry from the late 2000s onward. They were working their asses off trying to resolve the issue, but from what those two representatives from the EWO team told me, they were probably not going to make much progress any time soon. I don’t want to say that I’m the only one who can end this, but… it’s been a few months already and they haven’t been having any luck with it… and as they said, likely the only way to reset the system is from the inside. Still had no clue how that could be done… my job right now was to hunt down the AEP. After they’re dealt with I can focus on the whole resetting the system thing.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Thinking about the whole fiasco about EWO in what is already being called the EWO Incident made me think back to SAO and my father’s involvement in it. He had killed people before, I already knew that… how many, I didn’t think I wanted to know. It just made me think… my father couldn’t have started out a player killer… something made him that way. Was the same thing going to happen to me…?

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I had contemplated taking my friend’s life before, if it came down to it. But to take the life of a complete stranger… I couldn’t decide if that was better or not… I mean, I wouldn’t know them, so it’s alright, right? But what’s their life compared to my friends? There’s no difference other than sentimental value to me. If it came down to saving the life of a friend or a stranger, I would surely choose to save my friend. Am I wrong to think so? I didn’t want to think about killing anyone in the first place. I didn’t want to be forced to do something like that… I couldn’t imagine how I’d be able to live with myself.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I’m distracted from my thoughts when I see a message icon appear in the top right corner of my screen. I open it up and see it’s from Octavia.

<p class="MsoNormal">''<span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Hi, Yamato. Do you want to hang out sometime today? I should be on by the time you get out of school. I realized we hadn’t had much time to do anything together what with everything going on with you… I just thought maybe we could do something to help get your mind off things. ''

<p class="MsoNormal">''<span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Message me back when you get the chance. ''

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">You know what? She was right. I hadn’t thought about it before, but we hadn’t had any time to hang out since all this started. We used to hang out a whole bunch in EWO before all this AEP business started up. Considering everything that’s been happening recently, I thought it might be a good idea to take a break… I wouldn’t want to get stressed out overworking myself.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I message her back.

<p class="MsoNormal">''<span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Yeah, sure, sounds great. ''<span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%; font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">---

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">The final bell rang and immediately everyone began packing up their things in preparation to go home. It really wasn’t required for me to still go to school at this point since most people were still trapped in-game. I’m surprised they didn’t close the school down altogether, but I guessed they didn’t want to have the teachers get paid leave. A whole lockdown of Japan’s school system might be more trouble than it was worth.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I finish packing my things and leave my classroom, noticing Naoto leave her own next to mine at the same time. She notices me as she closes the door and walks past me, allowing me to walk by her side as we headed down the hallway towards the stairs.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Hey.” I say. “Heading for the hospital?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“How’d you know?” She asks, turning her eyes to me without turning her head from forward.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“You have that look again.” I tell her plainly.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“What look?” She questions, this time turning her full attention to me.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“That whole brooding look you get.” I say as we make our way down the stairs.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“I don’t get broody!” She defends herself, feigning offense.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“You sort of do.” I say, making it down to the first landing and turning around to the next flight that led to the first floor. “How’s your old man doing anyway?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“He’s…” She pauses momentarily. “He’s still hanging in there. He’s not getting any worse but he’s not getting much better either.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Mind sharing what his condition is?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Lung cancer.” She says. “Late stage…”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“That’s bad I take it?” I wasn’t exactly an expert in the medical field. I’d need to ask Abigail about all that stuff whenever I actually get an interest in it, which would probably be never.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“The survival rate is about 8%” She said, stopping at the first landing when I was halfway down. I stop and look back up at her. “That’s double what it used to be… but it’s still not very promising…”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Oh…”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">She stands there for a bit, looking at the ground to her side. She sighed a long and low breath, lost in her thoughts.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“You worried about him?” I ask.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“I don’t know…” She responds. “I keep telling myself I don’t, but…”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Hm…” I turn back to looking down the stairs at the first floor, taking a few steps down before Naoto stops me.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Hey…” She begins. “Can… can you come with me to the hospital today? I, um… I could use the support…”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“You want me for support?” I look to her with a skeptical expression.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“I don’t have anyone else.” She says solemnly.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Way to settle for less…” I mutter underneath my breath. “I don’t think I’m the best when it comes to that sort of thing. In any case, I told a friend of mine I’d hang out with her today on EWO.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Her?” Naoto asks.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Yes, her.” I reply. “Why?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“I just… didn’t expect you to have any other girl friends.” She said. “Surprising…”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I knew that wasn’t the reason and that she had come up with that excuse on the spot, but I play along anyway, just because I couldn’t think of any real reason why she’d be jealous, but since when did women need a reason for anything?

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“I have friends.” I tell her, walking down the stairs. “Anyway, I’ll see you later.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Yeah, bye…”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">---

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Alyoop.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I hop down the last six steps to the first floor lobby of HQ, landing cleanly and straightening myself out. I walk over to the big couch and notice Lucy was on the couch, while Vixen was fiddling around with the teleporter. Lucy was tinkering with some electronics on the main table from the couch, clearly completely absorbed with whatever it was.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Hey, Lucy.” I say, startling her slightly as she had been pretty into her work.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Oh, hey, Yamato.” She said.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“You know where Octavia is?” I ask.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Over here.” I hear Octavia call from the other room.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Over there.” Lucy points to the direction of the sound without looking, getting back to whatever she was so involved with.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I pass by Vixen and look at what she was doing.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“We ever going to get that thing up and running?” I ask. “It’s kinda just been sitting there…”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Well the problem is these things aren’t really set up many other locations.” Vixen told me, looking up from her crouched position. “So there aren’t even that many places to go with it.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“That kind of sucks.” I say. “How new is this tech anyway?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“New enough for this to already be out of date.” She smiled. “Isn’t technology great?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“For some things.” I say, emulating feeling around my head for the RiftGear that was stuck on her face in real life. She got the picture, and her expression turned darker.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Well… we make the most with what we’re given.” She says. “Go on, hang out with your girlfriend.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Sure.” I say, leaving her to get back to her own work and heading into the other room where Octavia was waiting for me.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Hey, Yamato.” Octavia says from the kitchen. Looked like she was cleaning up a bit. The kitchen did have a tendency to be a little disorganized… I never used it, I just eat out everywhere. Not that I can’t cook, I do cook lunches for myself for school all the time, it’s just that in the game I had more money than any one man would ever need, so I might as well eat out all the time. It was mainly Blenheim that caused messes, and sometimes Jager when he decided he wanted to get a bit experimental with how he can get himself buzzed.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“You don’t have to clean all this shit up yourself, you know.” I tell her.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Well the other boys aren’t going to do it.” Octavia responds. “If someone doesn’t it’s never going to get done.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Just kick Blenheim’s shins.” I smirk, leaning on a wall. “Always works for me.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“I might.” Octavia chuckles, throwing a wet rag at me, which plasters itself onto my face. “But now that you’re here you might as well help.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Egh.” I take the rag from my face and shrug, walking over and deciding to get to work cleaning off the tabletops. Yeah there was a bunch of stuff stuck to the nice wood finish… nice job, Blenheim.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Speaking of Blenheim…” I say in a more serious tone. “How is he? He out of bed yet?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Yeah, he’s going around.” Octavia said, cleaning up the dishes. “As a matter of fact, Abigail can’t keep him in his bed. He hates it.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“I can figure.” I say. “I’d hate it too, not being able to do anything all day.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Don’t worry.” Octavia said. “As long as you got your right hand you’ll be just fine.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Shut your face.” I snap back at her, flicking some water from the rag into her face as she laughs.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I didn’t have a problem with her making comments like that. She was my best friend after all. She was also a bro… or would it be sis? She was a girl that I treated like I would a guy. We’d pick on each other all the time like that.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">We work for about 15 minutes more before we finish up.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“So where are we going?” I ask Octavia as we leave the kitchen.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Out to lunch I guess?” She says. “It’d be nice to talk with you a bit, catch up on recent events.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Sure.” I say as we head out.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">---

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">So we got lunch.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">It was a place more in the city than Abernelle’s, but not too crowded like the bigger chains you’d find deeper into Halfen. It was Octavia’s favorite, a place called Fleurir. You could guess by the name that it was a restaurant for French cuisine, though it had some items that conformed to the less refined palate as well, in the case that you weren’t French.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Even though I wasn’t, I’d been to France enough times to acquire a taste for certain things, and even knew how to speak French, so I fit in surprisingly well at a French restaurant for a Japanese person.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Bienvenue.” <span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">The waiter said as he came up to our table and put the menus down in front of us. “My name is Jean, and I’ll be taking care of you today. We have lovely terrine and bisque specials today. If you’re interested, details are on the front page of the menu. Can I start you out with a drink?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Sweet tea, please.” Octavia spoke first. “No lemon.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">The waiter turned to me.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Just water.” I say in French. “No lemon.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">He seemed slightly surprised that I was quite fluent in his language, but smiled and nodded.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“I’ll be right out with your drinks.” He says, walking away.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I open up the menu and take a look at what they had. I already knew what I was going to get: just salmon, but I always looked through the menu of any restaurant to see what else they had.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">A few seconds of silence passed before Octavia spoke up.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Oh, I forgot to mention.” She said. “I can log out.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“You what?!” I almost jump out of my seat, causing a small disturbance in the restaurant. “Since when?!”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Since the lock in?” Octavia hushed me. “With all that was going on with you I never got a chance to mention… but yes, I can log out, just like you.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I sigh and sink back into my seat. Octavia noticed and giggled.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Were you worried about me?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Well of course I was!” I say. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“You’re such a sweetheart.” Octavia said with a gentle smile, using a single finger to flick my bangs up a little playfully. I lean back in my seat and cross my arms, pouting and looking the other way.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Should’ve said so sooner…” I mutter.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Sorry, sorry.” She said. “So, how’s school going?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“It’s going.” I say. “Don’t really know why considering half the school is absent due to the lock-in. Figured they’d close down by now.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Getting good grades?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“What are you, my mom?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Just wondering.” She said, putting an elbow on the table and resting her cheek in her palm. “You check world headlines?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Early this morning, actually.” I say. “Everywhere you go you see news about the lock-in. People are comparing it to the SAO Incident.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“It’s actually worse than the SAO Incident…” Octavia said, sighing lightly. “At least in SAO only around 20 thousand people were trapped… millions of people play EWO.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Not so many people have died yet, though.” I mention.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Enough have to get the media into a frenzy…” Octavia leaned back in her seat, stretching her arms out and yawning. “Though SAO was still pretty bad… my mom was a survivor of it.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Huh?” I turn to look at her. “Seriously?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Mhm.” She nodded. “Says she worked in a guild called… Pendragon Court… I think?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Pendragon Court…” I heard that name before… I couldn’t recall where…

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Wait, no, I remember. When I was looking up the SAO Incident before, I read that the Blade Master worked for a guild called Pendragon Court… could dad have met Octavia’s mother from that?

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Did she mention anyone called the Blade Master?” I ask her.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Yeah…” Octavia said, looking at me quizzically. “She said that guy was probably the only reason she survived… how do you know?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“He’s my father…” I say.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“No way…” She said, eyes wide. “So… wait, that’s how they met? My mother and your father?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“She probably met my mother that way too.” I say. “SAO is how both my parents met as well…”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Wow… I never knew.” Octavia put a hand up to her chin in thought, but upon noticing my solemn expression, spoke up. “Something up?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I look up to her from my lap and sigh.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“I don’t know.” I sigh, looking out the window. “It’s just that… my father… I don’t really think I know him.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Why’s that?” She asked.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“He was a survivor of the SAO Incident.” I explain. “Despite this he kept this from me my entire life for whatever reason. We also train in kenjutsu from time to time and his methods… well they changed recently. Formerly we’d practice using bokken, wooden sword. That’s how it should be. But recently… he’s taken to sparring with real blades… and fighting to kill.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“What?” Octavia sounded confused. “Fighting to kill? What’s that mean? Your dad wouldn’t actually try to kill you, would he?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Came close a few times.” I say. “I never realized it before… when we used to spar with bokken, he’d seem pretty normal… he’d be calm and relaxed… but the instant his hands grip a real blade… something about him changes. There’s something about his style that changes. His more aggressive, but still incredibly collected and precise… his movements seem impossible, and he seems to know his moves ten steps in advance… he reads his opponents like a book. It’s a side of him that I’ve never seen before… it feels… it feels terrifying.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Octavia stays silent, thinking about my words.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“That’s not the most of my concerns either…” I say. I hold my hand out, looking into my palm. “It happens to me too.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Octavia gasps lightly, looking to me worriedly.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“When I hold a real blade… something about me changes. I can feel the blade… almost like it’s alive… like it’s guiding me in my movements. It feels so strange… like I become a completely different person… like I’m transported to some different world. I’m worried that I may not really know myself either…”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Your drinks.” I hear the waiter say as he comes by and puts both our beverages in front of us. “Are we ready to order?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I sigh and look out the window as Octavia took her order, her voice becoming white noise as I’m lost in my own thoughts again. The more I thought about it the more I got this uneasy feeling about it all… I didn’t really know who my father was. The person he was all my life was drastically different than the person he actually is… and I don’t think I was any different. I was something other than what I made myself to be… and I had no idea what that was.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Monsieur?” <span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I hear the waiter say, snapping me out of it and bringing me back to attention.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Oh… um…” I collect my present thoughts. “Salmon, please. Full.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Would you like any sides?” He asked.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Scallops.” I say. “And some croissants too.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">The waiter nods and leaves once again to place our orders.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“You seem more out of it than normal…” Octavia noticed.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“As opposed to acceptably out of it?” I ask.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“I’m being serious, Yamato.” She snapped. “I’m worried about you.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“I can handle myself…” I say, looking back out the window.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Octavia huffed and crossed her arms.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“You’re too stubborn for you own good, you know that?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“You’ve only told me that like a million times by now, so it can’t be a lie.” I reply. “It’s just a whole bunch of shit has been going on lately… seems like everywhere there’s trouble I’m right in the middle of it…”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I sink down further into my seat.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“I don’t know what these people want with me, but if they’re willing to trap everyone in the game and inadvertently kill millions of people just to keep me here then it can’t be good.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Well you’re not trapped.” Octavia commented. “You could just leave, they wouldn’t be able to do much about that.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“You really think I’d leave everyone to die? Especially when I’m probably one of the few people who can actually solve this?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Can’t just leave it up to the developers?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“The developers themselves said it can only be resolved from inside.” I cross my arms. “Two of them talked with me recently; told me that they can’t do jack from outside. The only way to regain control of the system is from inside.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“And how can that be done?” Octavia asked.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Fuck if I know… but we need to get to figuring that out fast.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I take another look outside.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“It looks like people adjusted well to being trapped, though…” I note. “I’m surprised there wasn’t mass panic or anything.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Some people did flip out a bit.” Octavia informed me. “But on the whole I think people are thinking that the whole thing will be fixed soon.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“I don’t think they understand exactly how severe the situation is.” I tell her.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Well how could they?” Octavia asked. “Besides, it’s probably better if people stay ignorant, just to keep the people calm about it.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“They’ll figure out eventually.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Not if we fix it quick.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“You really think it’s going to be that easy?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“I’m trying to be optimistic.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Optimism is just lying to people’s faces.” I say pessimistically. “I doubt we’re going to be able to beat these guys so easily.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“I know, but…” Octavia looked the other way, her head low.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I’m sure she knew just how dangerous it was. She wasn’t the type for denial. But still… she was scared. I could tell. And why wouldn’t she be? We could easily die in this world and we’d never see our reality ever again. It was a frightening thought… I was Nephilim, sure, but if I died it wouldn’t be any different than anyone else. I had to be careful, too. I didn’t want to die just yet.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Don’t worry.” I tell her to try to cheer her up. “I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“That’s not it, dumbass!” She snaps back, a bit of red coming to her cheeks. “I can take care of myself!”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">A brief silence passed before she spoke up again.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“But… thanks.” She admits, a little embarrassed. “That… I feel better…”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I offer a soft smile as the waiter came by again, bringing us our meals.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Bon appétit.” <span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">He said. “I’ll come by in a little bit to see how you’re doing.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">With that, he left us to our meals.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">And in case you were thinking, because you probably are, it’s not like that. Octavia and I have been friends since childhood, so of course I care deeply about her. The reason why she was so flustered was because she was a bit prideful and was embarrassed when I told her I’d protect her. She’s a bit like that. She likes to handle things herself and sometimes gets agitated when people defend her, even if it’s me… but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t appreciate it.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I get to it pretty quickly, digging right into my salmon. If there was one thing I loved, it was salmon. It was my favorite kind of seafood, and one of my favorite foods in general. Hang around me long enough and you’ll get to noticing how much I liked the stuff.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“That all you ever get?” Octavia asks over her own meal, which looked to be some sort of terrine. “Just salmon?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“I like salmon.” I say, taking another bite.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“A little too much, maybe.” She chuckles.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I shrug, taking a last bite before moving in on the scallops, setting my sights on the croissants as my next target.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Oh…” I say after a brief silence, suddenly remembering something. “Isn’t your birthday next month?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Aw, how sweet of you to remember, Yamato.” Octavia smiled widely. “Yes it is. I’ll be 18.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Hm, finally legal, huh?” I smirk.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“What’s that supposed to mean?” Octavia crossed her arms.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Nothing at all.” I look back down to my meal and get back to eating, ignoring the look she was giving me.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Oh?” Octavia suddenly wore a wicked grin as she leaned over the table to me. “Are you suggesting what I think you’re suggesting?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Don’t start.” I tell her.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“I didn’t think you were into foreign girls… though you are pretty cute, you know…”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“I’m trying to eat, here.” I attempted to ignore her, but her teasing me like this didn’t fail to put a bit of red on my face.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Just a month longer, Yamato…” She smiled mischievously at me. “You can give me a special birthday present.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Stop talking.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Heh…” Octavia sat back down, laughing lightly at the thought. “It’s alright. I know you’re not interested in girls.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“It’s not that I’m not interested in girls.” I tell her plainly. “It’s just that I’m not interested in having a relationship with one.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Isn’t that the same thing?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“No, it’s not.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Even if it’s me…?” She gave me a face that feigned pleading. She was so full of it.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Even if it’s you.” I say.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“You’re so mean, Yamato.” She took a sip of her drink. “Don’t you get lonely?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“No.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Liar.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Shut up.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">To tell the truth, I did get a bit lonely from time to time. It’d happen to anyone, really. I’ve never really been in a real relationship with a girl before, and from time to time when I saw others holding hands or holding each other my heart would drop a bit… though over years I’ve grown to be able to ignore it until it goes away… it was true, though, I really wasn’t interested in pursuing something like that right now. I had more important things to worry about… especially now…

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">But fuck that subject right off.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Has anyone gotten any closer to tracking down these AEP jerkoffs?” I ask.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Lucy’s been working with Renskr intelligence but so far we haven’t turned up anything…” Octavia informed me. “Honestly, there really isn’t much to work with. The only times we’ve been able to nail them down is when they wanted us to. Now that they’ve done back into hiding we haven’t been able to scrape up anything really concrete on them.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Slippery bastards…” I mutter.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I hated this. The fact that they were just toying with us, with me, scheming and planning and tricking us into doing whatever they wanted. It felt like we were all on their strings. And now that they’ve had their fun they’ve vanished without a trace, only to reappear later whenever it’s convenient for them. Whoever they were, they were dangerous, that was for sure… but even moreso they were all cockheads.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“But… forget about all that shit.” I say. “We’re having a day off, right?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Yeah, you’re right.” Octavia agrees and takes another bite of her meal. “So… are you getting good grades?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“You already asked that.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“You never answered.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I sigh and roll my eyes.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">---

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">After lunch, Octavia and I spent a bit more time together roaming around the city before we headed back to HQ. We got back in the evening, and by then everyone else was back at HQ. Walker was working with Lucy and Vixen on intel in the main room, discussing it amongst themselves. It wasn’t anything I was concerned with; I didn’t do intel, I just complete the contracts that come from the intel. Jager was in the kitchen, getting another drink, and I assume Abigail was still in the infirmary as always. Blenheim was probably there as well.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Hey, you two.” Walker says when he looks up from his business.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Ah, tovarich!” Jager cheers, pouring himself some vodka that I could smell from across the room. “Care to have a drink?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“You know I don’t drink, Jager.” I say. “And even if I did I’m pretty sure the stuff you drink would kill me.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Hah… true, I’m quite a bit more experienced with taming this beast.” He lets out a cheerful laugh and goes to pour his drink, stopping partway and shrugging before taking a swig directly from the bottle instead.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“I’m gonna go see Blenheim.” I tell Octavia.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Yeah, alright.” She nodded. “He should be in the infirmary.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Figured.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I give her a small wave goodbye and head down the hall to Abigail’s office. Along the way I was thinking on how I’d confront Blenheim… I mean, I almost killed the guy. What was I supposed to say? That I was sorry? It’s not like apologizing was going to take it back. I was tempted to just give up and go up to my room, but I forced my legs to keep walking even when the rest of me wanted so desperately to turn the other way.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I got to Abigail’s door and stopped before I opened it. I was still thinking on what I should say… I was afraid to open the door and face him. Just before I mustered up the courage, however, the door opened on its own. There stood Blenheim. He immediately took notice of me and grimaced.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Hey…” I say a little hesitantly.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Hey…” He said dryly.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">He was on his feet, but he was still bandaged up from his injury. He looked fine enough to go out and about now, but he was far from being cleared for active duty again… it’d probably be another month or two before he’d be able to get back into the action. It must really pain the guy to still be stuck lying around doing nothing while everyone else was out doing stuff, especially tracking down the AEP.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Blenheim pushed his way past me and began walking down the hall. I followed closely behind.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“You doing okay?” I ask. “Not dying… or anything…?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Could probably afford to choose my words a bit carefully here…

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“No.” He says plainly, not looking back to me.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">He seemed a lot more distant now… like we were complete strangers… I really couldn’t blame him. I mean, I did almost murder him. I don’t think simply apologizing was going to be much consolation for him.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Blenheim, come on.” I say. “I didn’t mean it.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Is that supposed to make it better?” He said in a cold tone.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Hey, don’t get pissed at me.” I retort. “I told you I didn’t think it was a good idea but you insisted.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Oh, so it’s all my fault, then?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Don’t put words in my mouth.” I tell him.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">He scoffs and keeps walking.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Come on, dammit.” I pull up alongside him. “What the hell do you want from me, huh?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“I don’t want anything from you!” He snaps, stopping to turn to me. “You almost killed me!”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“It wasn’t my damn fault!” I shout back. “How was I supposed to know that would happen?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Just leave me alone, Yamato!” He yells, storming off down the hall and leaving me.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“For fuck’s sake…” I sigh and rub the back of my neck.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Don’t take it too hard.” Abigail said as she came up behind me. “He’s been pretty on edge since the whole incident… you aren’t the only one he’s struck out on. He’ll feel better when he can get back out in the field.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“I hope so…” I genuinely felt worried for Blenheim. He was one of my closest friends and now… well he was pissed as hell at me for reasons that I couldn’t help. There was probably nothing I could really do right now. I’d just have to give it time, I guess…

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“So how’d your date with Octavia go?” Abigail asked to change the subject.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“It wasn’t a date.” I say plainly.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Sure it wasn’t.” Abigail said sarcastically.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Whatever, lady.” I shrug off her implications, not letting her comments get to me. “Why are you so interested, anyway?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“No real reason.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Whatever you say.” I shrug. “You have a boyfriend yet?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“No… why?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Want to go somewhere sometime?” I ask.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Wh-what?” She stammers a bit, but quickly catches on that I’m just messing with her. “Geez, save it for Octavia, Yamato.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“I already told you I’m not going out with her.” I smile mischievously. “I’m still single too, you know.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">She pushes me into the wall with a bit of playful force.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Ow…” I rub my shoulder. “That hurt only slightly…”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I head out into the main room where Walker, Lucy, and Vixen were working on whatever, hopping onto the couch and stretching myself out.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Whatcha working on?” I ask, not too terribly interested but bored enough to ask anyway.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Working on a new lead…” Lucy explained.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Making any actual progress?” I ask.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Slowly.” Vixen said. “Right? Slowly?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“It’s not a complete standstill.” Lucy quipped.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Hm… alright.” I say, lying down on the couch. “Anything I can use?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“I think it’s probably best if you took a break, Yamato.” Walker said. “It’s going to be a bit before we have anything really solid so in the meantime you can afford to kick back a bit.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“You sure about that?” I ask.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“It’s not like these AEP guys are going anywhere soon.” He told me. “They’re probably going to stay hidden for as long as we’re looking for them until they come up with something else.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“So, what, we just sit on our asses?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Not much else we can do, Yamato.” Walker sighs and shakes his head. “We’re doing our best here.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“You don’t need to worry too much, Yamato.” Lucy assured. “We have plenty of time. Following the pattern these guys have been making they won’t be making any major moves anytime soon, especially with how hard we’ve been cracking down on them.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“I’d rather get this done and over with as soon as possible.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“That’s what we’re working on.” Walker told me. “In the meantime, you might want to work on yourself. You still haven’t completely mastered your new abilities yet, so you should use the free time you have to train and improve so when the time comes you’ll be prepared to take action.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Yeah, I guess…” I cross my arms. “I just hate the idea of waiting around doing nothing…”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Have at least some patience, Yamato.” Vixen said. “You can meet up with Callahan and the other two Nephilim in the meantime to help hone yourself, if not just to give you something to do.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Yeah, yeah, alright, I hear you.” I sigh and stand up, heading back to my room. “Later, though. It’s about my dinner time.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Alright.” Walker waved me off. “See you later.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“You coming back on tomorrow?” Octavia called when I was halfway up the stairs.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Probably.” I respond. “Like Walker said I’ll need to be as strong as I can be when the time comes, so I got a lot of work to do.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I head back up into my room, and once there, I log out.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">---

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I yawn lightly as I put my RiftGear onto my nightstand and roll out of my bed just as my mother steps in.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Oh, just in time.” She smiled. “Dinner’s just about done. It’s strange how you have such good timing with that, you know.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Son’s intuition?” I shrug.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Sure.” She laughs, leaving to prepare the rest of dinner.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I stretch my entire body out, before heading out of my room and into the dining room, where mom was laying down plates and bowls. I look over into the living room and see Claire and her partner Maggie watching TV together. Looked like they’d be dining with us as well. An odd thing, however, is that I didn’t see dad.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Hey, where’s dad at?” I ask mom, who had just finished laying down the plates and utensils.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Doctor’s.” She replied. “He got into another coughing fit and I kicked him out of the house until he went and got himself checked out.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“You should’ve seen him, too, Yamato.” Claire called. “He was practically kicking and screaming as she pushed him out the door.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“He hates the doctor.” Mom chuckled lightly. “Hates hospitals even more. But I wasn’t taking no for an answer, not this time. Your father can be a real child sometimes…”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Is it getting worse?” I ask as I sat down at the table. “Do we even know what’s going on with him?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“I thought he was just coming down with a pretty bad cold, but other than the cough he’s fine… he doesn’t have a fever or stuffed nose or anything else… it’s just the cough as well as some minor breathing problems that come and go… it’s strange… I’ve never seen anything like this and I’m a nurse myself.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Couldn’t just diagnose him here?” I ask.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“I’m a nurse, but I thought it best he go somewhere they have some actual hardware.” She shrugged. “There’s only so much I can tell from home.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“And even that’s a lot…”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Like how she can tell if you have a fever just by how flushed your face is?” Claire said as she and Maggie took their own seats next to each other.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Or how she can feel muscle cramps just by sliding her hand over the area?” I add.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Or how she knows when you’re congested by feeling your back when you cough?” She comments.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Please, please.” Mom held her hands up, smiling with her eyes closed. “We all know your mother’s awesome. She’s one hell of a cook, too.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">She brought out the food and set a few trays down on the table for us to pick out our own meals from. I filled my bowl with rice with plenty of soy sauce, and stuffed by plate with sauced chicken and a few ganmodoki. I pick up my chopsticks and start digging in, ignoring most vital points of Japanese etiquette as I usually did. Didn’t matter much to anyone in the house, it’s not like I did this when we ate out.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“So how long has dad been gone?” I ask.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“About an hour and half now.” Mom replied. “Might be back soon. He called and told me we could start eating without him in case he wasn’t home by then.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Hrm…” I shrug as I swallow a healthy mouthful of rice.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Apparently mom noticed my less than content expression because I sure as hell didn’t.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Something wrong?” She asks, making me realize that I had been scowling slightly at the thought of my own father.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Oh…” I lower my chopsticks, looking to the ground, not really wanting to explain my predicament right now. “It’s nothing.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“You know I can tell when you’re lying too.” Mom points at me with her chopsticks. “Come on, spill it.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“It’s not something that I feel comfortable discussing over dinner.” I say. “Besides, it’s not that important.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Hm…” My mother gave me a sharp look, but she’s interrupted when the front door opens.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“I’ve returned.” Dad says as he kicks off his shoes and hangs up his coat, stepping into the dining room. “Oh, just started, huh?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Yeah, you’re just in time.” Claire said. “Grab a bowl and a plate.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Don’t mind if I dooo.” Dad slid towards the plates and bowls, grabbing himself one of each as well as a pair of chopsticks, sitting down on his cushion at the table.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“So what’d the doctor say?” Mom asked him.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“About as much as you’d expect…” He sighs. “He couldn’t tell what was going on either. He said he wanted me to come in next week so he can run some actual tests…”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“You’re going, right?” Mom raises an eyebrow.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“You’re going to force me even if I say no.” He gives her a look.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Good.” Mom smiles contently and goes back to her meal.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I look to my father silently as he started eating his dinner… it surprised me, actually… I only now really noticed, but my father had impeccable table etiquette… he sat straight up, cross-legged, he held his chopsticks perfectly… he almost looked like he was some kind of emperor from way back when… he wasn’t even in his hakama, either. I don’t know… when we sparred together he seemed… no… no, he was the same. I was thinking about how primal and aggressive he was when we fought, but that wasn’t the case at all. I only now realized that he wasn’t being aggressive at all… he was being patient, observant, precise… I was just leaving so many openings for him to capitalize on. He wasn’t moving in on me so much because he was bring vicious in his attacks, he was fighting like that because I myself was letting him…

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I was subconsciously staring right at him for probably half a minute or so, because I only realized that I was when he looked up from his meal and our eyes locked just for an instant… I swear to God I felt a chill go up my spine when in that instant I saw deeper than I had before… I look away quickly and go back to my meal, pretending I never saw anything… he knew, though, I knew he did. However, he didn’t say anything about it, and simply got back to his dinner.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">What the hell was going on… there were so many facets to him that I didn’t understand. My mind kept racing back over that question. Who was he, really? He was my father… that was the only thing I knew for sure. Other than that he was a complete mystery to me. It really worried me how I’d been living with someone all my life and not once noticed that he was a completely different person than who I thought he was.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Yamato.” Dad said suddenly, startling me slightly. “Why don’t you and I have a little match after dinner?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Um… why?” I ask hesitantly.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“I don’t know.” He shrugs. “We haven’t really done it in a while.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Claire adopted a worried expression, but said nothing about it to either of us, most likely realizing it was probably better to stay out of it.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“You sure you’re good for that?” Mom asks.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Don’t worry so much, sweetheart.” Dad smiled. “The doctor didn’t say it was life-threatening or anything.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Well… alright, if you say so.” Mom’s lowered her shoulders slightly. “Just don’t push yourself too hard, alright?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“You worry too much.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">---

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I had finished dinner and silently cleaned off my plate and bowl before I headed over to the dojo to wait for dad to finish up his meal. Knowing how he eats it wouldn’t take long, even with his table etiquette.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I spend my time alone in the dojo with Amaterasu, just holding the sword… staring at it meaningfully, like any second now it was going to just tell me everything I needed to know. But no, that was silly… swords don’t talk. At least, not like that they don’t… I still found it strange how they could speak at all in their own way. It seemed something supernatural… since when have swords been able to do anything like that? It was completely ludicrous. If I told anyone on the street about it they’d probably have me locked up in an asylum somewhere… but it was true. I’ve experienced it. It’s not something that can be explained properly… I can’t so simply elaborate on how a sword can communicate with me… it’s not like they’re sentient or anything like that… but they still have their own stories… I guess I was just one of the few people who could actually listen.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Yamato.” I hear my father say behind me, pulling me from my thoughts and turning my attention to him.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I stand up on my feet as he picks up his own blade from the shelf.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“We’re going out.” He says.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Out?” I repeat. “Where?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“The shrine.” He replies. “I think this time we should spar in the pool.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“What difference would that make?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“You’d be surprised.” He smiled. “C’mon.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">We go back inside, heading to the front door, putting on our shoes and heading out.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“We’ll be back.” Dad called to mom.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Don’t be too long.” She called back.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">With that, we left the house.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">---

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">We arrived at the shrine in short order, climbing the steps before descending some more to the lake. To my surprise, I see Aunt Sakura there, looking over the water. It shouldn’t really surprise me, though. I mean, she did have her own bed roll here.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Sakura.” Dad called as we approached. “Still here, huh?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Oh, hello, you two.” She smiled. “Yes, still here… I just really like staring out over the water, you know?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Dad looks out towards the water as well.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Yeah.” He agrees. “It’s pretty.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I look over the water as well. They were both right… a night like this, the moon was full and the water was so still it looked like glass, perfectly reflecting the light of the moon and the stars above. We were in a smaller part of the city so the light pollution was lower here. It let us see more stars in the sky than in the more urban areas. You look up and you’d see thousands of them. You could look down at the water and see the same image in perfect detail with how still the water was.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“What’s with the swords?” Sakura asked us when she noticed our weapons.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Oh. Just decided to take Yamato out here to spar for a bit.” He said. “Hope you don’t mind if we intrude on the view.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Oh, no, it’s fine.” Sakura smiled. “I’d like to see how far Yamato has come in his training.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">My father looks to me.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“You ready?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I give a shrug.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“I guess.” I say casually.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">My father leads me into the shallow pool, our steps rippling the shallow water and distorting the image of the sky above. We stood a distance from each other. I draw my blade, tossing the scabbard into the grass at the shore, and grip my blade with both hands. My father doesn’t unsheathe his blade, as was expected. He simply stood there motionless with the sword in his left hand, ready to draw faster than lightning. It had been a while since we did this, so I didn’t really know how I’d do… might’ve gotten a little rusty from malpractice. We stayed there, staring each other down for long enough for the water around us to settle back down to its glass-like appearance. The light from the moon beamed both down and up at us, perfectly illuminating the stage for us. A breeze rolled in, and I dashed forward. My father did as well, faster than I did, and quickly drew his blade, slashing out at me. I parry the blow and try to use the momentum of the strike to launch my own strike, but as usual my father was a step ahead of me, and he easily redirected the swing below him, leaving me wide open for an attack of his own. I barely manage to jump back in time to dodge the blade and distance myself from him.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Damn… his age definitely wasn’t letting him down. He was in his forties and he could outpace any fit, athletic twenty year old. That put me at a disadvantage… I didn’t know how to accrue that much speed in the same short time frame as he did. Maybe if I paid attention I could learn something…

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I decide to do that, and go at him again. I make a swipe, paying attention to his footwork. I noticed how he shifted his weight away from me as he evaded the attack, simultaneously dodging and gathering momentum for his own strike. He was on one foot as he twisted his leg around and behind him, throwing himself into a spin that he could use to strike. I was so focused on his footwork, however, that I almost fail to notice the blade coming at me from behind, and I have to brace my blade behind me to block the strike, before slashing at the pool, kicking up some water which launched his way, distracting him just enough for me to back off.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Heh…” My father smirks as he sheathes his blade. “You’re starting to get it… but you can’t quite keep track of both my movement and my attack, can you?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Well how do you expect me to keep track of everything at once?” I ask.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Don’t think about it.” He instructed. “Just feel. Let your senses do the work for you instead of processing it all yourself.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“That doesn’t help much…”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I sigh and ready myself again. Just feel, huh…? Like… like that one time before… when those stealth ops from the AEP were surrounding us… Lucy was hurt… I don’t remember details, but I can remember what I did… I… I felt them. I couldn’t see the enemy so I felt them instead. I didn’t process the information consciously, it just came to me on its own… how did I do that…?

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I take a deep breath and let it out slowly, closing my eyes and taking a stance. The instant I open my eyes, he’s on me. I brace my blade in front of me to block a flurry of incoming strikes before ducking under another, throwing an attack of my own his way. He evades the strike but I press the attack, throwing myself forward with a burst of speed that allowed me to gain extra momentum to slash upwards. He’s forced to block the strike, redirecting the blade over his head and allowing him to spin around to slash at me. I let go of my sword, catching it backhanded and crouching, putting my blade between me and his, letting it slide over me. With the blade backhanded, it allowed me an opening to hit him even mid-counter. I land a solid kick to his stomach which causes him to stagger back, before I quickly spin my blade back forward and make another quick slash, leaning forward and one leg off the ground, twisting around to get extra range on the strike. He’s forced to put his blade above his head to block the blow, but it was a pretty strong strike that forced his blade down a bit as my free foot hit the ground in a perfect stance that preserved my balance. I take the opportunity to duck under his guard and make a slash at him and manages to nick his arm only slightly, before I step forward to make an upwards diagonal slash.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">He sees this coming, however, and suddenly my blade is bounced back, leaving me open to a counterattack which he capitalizes on, making a slash that I have to push my body back in order to avoid, putting me off balance and allowing him to launch a furious offensive that allowed me no time to fully recover my guard. He moves up and swiftly disarms me with an attack that forced my blade out of my hand and sent it spinning high into the air. Now completely defenseless, I’m forced to back off quickly as he continues his onslaught. I’m nicked a few times throughout, but for the most part I dodge each of his attacks. He wasn’t letting up, though, and he was pushing me back towards the shore, towards where I had tossed the scabbard to my sword. I wasn’t going to be able to keep up dodging like this much longer… I then catch a sharp glare in my eye that momentarily distracts me. I glance up just for a moment and notice my blade coming down, reflecting the moonlight at me. A split second later, I see my father also get momentarily distracted by the light reflecting off the blade and directly into his eyes. That allowed me just the window I needed to flip back and kick the flat of his blade upwards, throwing his guard open and allowing me to pick up my scabbard from the ground, and in the recovery, catch my blade as it fell down. I spin with the momentum and sheath my blade, throwing all my weight forward to launch myself towards my father. I draw the blade faster than I could see, nailing him right through his guard, cutting along his right shoulder and slicing his cheek. He spins and backs off, feeling the injuries. They weren’t too bad, though they were bleeding. He looks to me with a confident smile as I step back into the pool, blade in one hand and scabbard in the other. I hear Sakura gasp lightly when I sheathed my blade and readied myself to draw.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Don’t think about it… feel… feel the surroundings… feel my opponent… don’t think about any of it… just let it all come…

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I launch forward with a single step, moving faster than I had ever moved before, and draw my blade, a black streak cutting through the air and slicing the water that had splashed up. He draws his own blade at the same time, and the resounding clash sent ripples through the water. I press the attack, slashing left, right, up, down. He parries and dodges in suit, but wasn’t counterattacking… I wasn’t leaving openings… however, he does eventually find one and manages to throw me back, launching himself into his own offensive. I do the same as he, parrying and dodging every single strike without even thinking… my blade seemed to move on its own as I fought… it seemed to always know just where to be at just the right times. I find an opening in his guard and throw my blade out, rebounding his away and allowing me to return to my attack. I moved like wind… each step and each swing flowing seamlessly into the next… it felt… it felt so new… but at the same time strangely familiar.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">However, my focus began to slip and I took notice, further dooming myself as I misstep and allow my father into my guard, forcing me to narrowly avoid a vertical slash that sliced a few hairs from the side of my head. I spin and kick myself backwards, retreating to a safe distance to recollect myself.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“That’s it, Yamato.” He nodded, sheathing his blade and readying himself once more. “Again.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I shake my head, clearing my mind and taking in a deep breath, holding it for a second and letting it out slowly, decreasing my heart rate slightly, allowing me to focus more… It was difficult being like this; completely thoughtless as I concentrated and readied myself… it felt like something else entirely was controlling me, and it was hard to keep my mind clear of any thoughts whatsoever, lest I lose my focus completely and end up getting hurt. It was a state in which you weren’t even aware that you were breathing… a complete zen-like trance that enhanced combat performance exponentially… it was a difficult state to hold, but somehow my father held a mastery over the art… something that I was only now coming to grasps with.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">I open my eyes again, sheathing my blade as my father came at me this time. Without missing a beat, I draw my weapon. At blinding speeds the blade cuts downwards through the water, seamlessly reaching out of the water and splitting the air in two as it met the opposing blade, reverberating off each other with an audible screech. The shock sent vibrations through the blade and into my arm, but the way I had hit his blade and the way I recovered from the blow absorbed the impact perfectly, causing next to no damage to myself. I quickly sheath the blade again, spinning around and preparing to draw again, just as my father was doing the same. We lash out simultaneously, once again clashing into each other, sending another shock through our bodies and through the water below us. It was difficult to describe just how I was feeling in the heat of the moment, as you’re not supposed to even think about it… but I did know that we were perfectly synchronized in our movements. I felt a perfect balance of ability and movement as we both went at each other… I sensed his movements with more than just my eyes… my sight felt like an even part of my entire focus, allowing me to sense to an incredible degree of accuracy which move we both previously made, which one we were in the process of making, and which one we were going to follow up with… if felt absolutely exhilarating.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">We fought evenly for what seemed like just a split second, but turned out to be more like 20 minutes, before we finally clashed swords, pushing our blades strongly together and trying to get an edge over one another. I swipe my sword horizontally, sliding his blade off mine and allowing both of us to spin around and make one last attack. Our forearms collide just as our blades meet each other’s necks, keeping us both just centimeters away from beheading each other.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">We stay there, eyes locked as strongly as our blades, the heat of the fight finally dawning on us. The battle high began to wear off on me, and I finally registered just how hard I was breathing and how much I was sweating, even with the cool night air to cool me off I felt hot from the fight. My father felt somewhat the same way, though he seemed to be a bit more collected than I was at the moment. Taking notice of my exhausted state now, there was no way I was going to be able to keep up the fight, even though he could go on.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">My father, however, relented, and detached his blade from mine, sheathing it and smiling lightly.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“You’re becoming a lot like him…” He closed his eyes, as if he was remembering something. “Do you understand what I mean now?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“I…” I pant lightly. “I’m not entirely sure…”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Hm… of course not.” He said. “But you’ll figure it out.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Will I, really?” I ask.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“I know you will.” He smiles warmly at me. “You’re my son, after all.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Yeah… I guess he was right… I was his son. That simple fact didn’t really hit me properly until now. I had always taken that for granted. He was my father, that’s all there was to it… but that wasn’t quite it. My father was a completely different character. I was the main character of my own life, but I’m just the current section of his own story which has gone back for years longer than I’ve been alive. I could only imagine what kinds of things he went through in SAO… the kind of person he used to be. I wondered how he felt back then… how he thought, how he behaved, how he interacted with others… and the story of how he became who he is now.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">The man standing in front of me is a Blade Master… and my father. I felt I understood him a bit more… and I felt I learned a little more about myself as well.