One-Shot - Queen Part 2

"EHTHTHTHTHTHTHTHTHTH!"

The laugh echoed in my ears over and over again as I watched the man before me make faces of amusement, and pain. It was as if he was struggling to show what emotion to show.

"EHTHTH....hth.....th...surprised, my dear?"

"Snow...Daddy...." I teared up. I was having mixed emotions of fear, love, confusion, anger....everything. Nothing added up. I saw his dead body in our little home back in Japan. I saw his eyes, which had bled out after the Amusphere/Lucifer incident. He was lifeless. Cold.

And now here he was, practically the same age as I am.

But that's when I saw it. His other eye. What should be two red eyes, was one red....and the other blue. And his Mohawk wasn't completely brown, it had a touch of black streaks among it.

He hardened his gaze on me, and as if reading my mind, he says,"As you can see, I'm not quite Snow and not quite Lucifer."

His expression turns into hurt once more. "But I can assure you that I'm more Lucifer than Snow. The power from Snow...and the power from me, Lucifer...this strength is amazing. All our weak points are filled. We're like a perfect being now. But it's funny," he tells me while looking at his hands,"even though I feel like Lucifer, why do I feel so much love for you, if all I have are Snow's memories? It's what's stopping me from hurting anyone close to Snow."

And as Snow....or Lucifer...says that, he uses an ability that I'd never thought I'd see again: Blur. For a split second, I saw three of them and like an illusion, he jumped from house to house running away, probably looking for a safe place to log out.

My dominion was quiet. They didn't understand a single thing what had just happened. And after a slight moment of silence, I yelled at them to hurry and destroy what was left of the enemy dominion's base so that this session can end.

And I watched everything burst into flames around me, unable to conceive reality

-

I reawaken in the real world and took off my VR helmet and just sat on my bed. I thought many things. How I was so happy with my present life. How happy I was with my old life. But now...my old life is bringing hell to the present.

In a matter of seconds, however, Maggie bursted into my room.

"What the hell? What happened, Claire? Lucifer was there, and blank! I don't remember anything after!"

And with many tears, I gave her a summary of Snow. Of Lucifer. How they somehow....become one and the same. She stared at me, puzzled.

"No, that can't be true. Seriously. Snow? Alive?"

"WHY WOULD I BE LYING ABOUT IT, MAGGIE?!" I snapped, and in response, she flinched with a hurt look on her face.

"I-I'm sorry, Claire. But that just doesn't make sense."

I showed her the video feed from my VR helmet. The helmets we have are capable of recording and capturing what we see from our eyes in the game, of the last 24 hours until it deletes itself.

"Oh my gosh....Claire...." she reaches out and hugs me, her scent flooding my nose. I relax, my heart beating for her. And when we break from the hug, I hold her hand.

"Listen, I'm...going to go clarify some things right quick, okay? Get some sleep." I tell Maggie and I go off with my phone to make a call.

The person I was calling, Ishi, is my adoptive father after Snow. After Snow's death, Ishi fought for rights on keeping me as we had a connection beforehand in Sword Art Online. In the beginning, I was awkward around him and his lovely wife, Asuka. But as another girl, Asuka quickly became a motherly figure for me and I gradually opened up to the couple.

If there's one thing for certain, I love the both of them, and they could never be replaced. Ah, and let's not forget about little Yamato. My adorable little brother, born from Ishi and Asuka. His cuteness is mine and mine only.

I begin dialing Ishi's number and when he picked up, it was with a warm tone. "Ah, Claire how are you? Doing good in school in America?"

"I am, thanks for asking. How's Asuka and Yamato?"

"Asuka is doing fine. She went out to buy groceries. And as for Yamato, he's here training in the dojo with me." And he moves his head away from the phone to say,"Hey Yamato! It's your sister!"

And in the background, you can hear "Hi, Nee-chan!" to which I almost squealed in reaction to how adorable it sounded.

"So," my adoptive father begins again,"what makes you call so suddenly?"

"Before....when....when Snow died...he really did die, didn't he?"

"He passed away, yes. Why are you asking?"

"Put me on speaker and check your phone." I sent him images of the Snow/Lucifer hybrid.

You can almost sense his surprisement on the other side of the phone. "Oh...this is....what happened? It's impossible." And just then, you can here Asuka's voice upon returning. "Asuka!" He calls out to her. "Call our lawyer; we need to clarify something about Snow's death."

And his attention return to me. "Listen Claire, I'll do a little investigating on my end. For now, just focus on your studies and I'll call you if anything comes up."

"Thanks, Ishi. I love you."

"Love you, too." And he hangs up.

I look beyond my phone, and dig into one of the boxes I've been too lazy to unpack since coming to America. Inside, I find a red ribbon. The one Snow...the one Chris had bought me in order to replace the one I had lost in Sword Art Online. And I caress it, tears filling my eyes once again.