150A/N: One of these days, I'm going to get this story's holiday timeline synced up to real life's. As it so happens, this chapter will cover the gang's final Christmas in SAO, so be prepared for less action, and more setup for the final arc of this story. That's right, you heard me. In just four more chapters, Shattered Fragment will come to an end... and a new adventure shall begin in its place.
Read, review, and as always, enjoy.
Rejoice for what comes
A time of peace, of rapture
Savor what doesn't last
Pressure Points
"We've got a new applicant for the Assault team?" I asked, not quite sure that I had heard Klein correctly. "This late in the game we're having a hard enough time getting people to stay, let alone signing on fresh blood."
He, Godfrey, Schmitt, and I were currently gathered at the Fuurinkazan guild's HQ on floor twenty-five to discuss the state of our alliance. This piece about a potential new front-liner was news to my ears, and my spy network was far-reaching, thanks to Strea, Yui, and the other MHCP's that they had managed to reach out to. The next day was about to be our third Christmas in Aincrad, so we decided to cover the bare minimum of information exchanges. Strictly speaking, as the leader of the Moonlit Black Cats, Kirito should have been the one at this meeting, but I owed him a favor, and he wanted to decorate his cabin for Sachi and Yui before they got back from their daily tasks.
"This seems like a good sign to me," Godfrey asserted. "We just cleared floor eighty-one yesterday, and word has gotten out that we're clearing floors faster and faster. Maybe people are realizing just how close we are to getting home, and that if they contribute their own efforts, we could be getting out in time to be seeing the Sakura blossoms in the real world." The rotund man now commanded a smaller guild than the one that Heathcliff had created, but it was still one of the Assault Team's powerhouses. Unfortunately for his group, the news that his commander had been none other than Kayaba in disguise had severely damaged the KOB's reputation, and as a result, nearly one-third of its members had deserted. Some joined up with other guilds, but a few simply gave up and stopped showing up to fight on the front lines at all.
I frowned a little at the words of the guild leader, though I did my best not to let the expression stick around long enough to be noticed by the others. It could have well been as he was saying, but my first instinct was always to distrust people willing to lend a hand when the grand prize was just within reach, and not a minute beforehand. If this guy can help now, what's he been doing this whole time? I wondered shrewdly.
Something on my face must have shown, because Klein turned to look at me and asked, "Something botherin' ya, Mataras?"
"I'm just wondering if this guy is as qualified as he's claiming to be," I half-lied. "I mean, for all we know, he could've swindled somebody out of some really nice gear, put it on, and then strolled up to us, claiming to be a good Samaritan."
"Wouldn't your guild have noticed something like that?" Schmitt asked dubiously.
I frowned again, but he had a good point. "Yeah, fair, I haven't heard anything about a robbery like that happening recently. Plus, I imagine it's pretty difficult to get a front-liner to give up his gear for anything."
"Yeah, I've heard Agil complain about his sales enough to know that much," Klein agreed. "This still doesn't sit right with you, though, does it?"
"No," I answered swiftly.
"Good, cos I'm wondering about him, myself," the leader of the Fuurinkazan fighters muttered. "But I also don't care enough to wanna deal with it until after the holiday. I say we invite him to an interview this weekend, see what he's made of."
"You sure you don't wanna get his recruitment over and done with before tomorrow?" Schmitt inquired. "He seems eager to join the KOB- maybe we should just let Godfrey handle it."
Klein shrugged at that. "Do what you want, man," he said to the older fighter. "But if you really wanna know if this guy's gonna be able to hold his own on the front lines, you should wait until Mataras has a chance to evaluate him."
"Wait, why am I doing the evaluation?" I demanded, caught off-guard by the statement.
"Because you're the best person we have at determining how good of a fighter somebody actually is," Klein said bluntly. "And this high up in the game, we can't afford any mistakes or weak links." Though his words were addressed to me, he did not break eye contact with the other guild leader.
Godfrey sighed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose before he muttered, "I'll hold off on his recruitment until our next meeting. I know my situation is precarious enough as it is, so I won't risk any more heat coming my way."
"Then if that's it, I wish you guys a Merry Christmas," Klein said with a little smile as he stood up from his chair, the rest of us following suit. He shook hands with Godfrey and Schmitt as they left before it came time for me to say goodbye.
As I went to shake his hand, I asked, "Is your guild going to join ours' for brunch tomorrow? Sachi, Kiriha, and Silica are going all-out."
"I'll stop in for a minute with Agil, but me and the boys wanna hit up an event quest on one of the middle floors at around noon," he answered.
"It's not another Nicolas the Renegade, is it?" I asked him, my mind inadvertently travelling back to the time when I had first appeared as the Red Swordsman to my friends. I had actually fought the test version in the Hollow Area so that I could learn how to defeat the real one on my own and obtain the one and only Resurrection Stone, but this year the Cats and I had decided to let someone else pick up on the holiday event quest and whatever prizes it would yield.
I still can't believe how much Argo charged us to make sure that Fuurinkazan would be the only ones to 'accidentally' hear about it, I thought, a little morosely.
"Nah, it's called 'Claus and Effect', or somethin' like that," Klein said in response to my question, causing me to snicker at the name of the quest. "Yeah, I know, dumb name."
"I love it," I chortled. "Let me know how it goes, afterwards okay?"
"You got it. Have a good night."
"You too."
"You know, I never thought that I would look forward to a Christmas again," Sinon said as she helped Rivka set the table for the Christmas Eve dinner.
"Why is that?" the other girl asked as she retrieved a new candle arrangement from her inventory and set it as the centerpiece for the table.
"The accident that killed my dad happened while we were driving home from the end of a trip with his extended family," she answered softly, causing Rivka to pause in place. "Kind of killed the holiday cheer for us, not to mention that my last Christmas was here in Aincrad, with Mataras of all people."
"What, he didn't celebrate Christmas?"
"No, he did not, but that isn't the point," the archer chuckled as she got on top of one of the chairs in order to hang some greenery from one of the chandeliers hanging over the long table. "That was before we got along- I actually hated him at that time."
"Did he give you a gift that changed your mind about him?" Rivka asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Wrong again," Sinon giggled. "We didn't get along until a couple of months later, but Crimson… He always tried to be nice to me, even when I was being pretty rude to him. He got me a gift; told me that I should have at least one thing to make it feel like home for the holidays." She shook her head ruefully as she added, "I did not take that well. I wasn't exactly a big fan of the guy that looked exactly like the person that I saw as my captor, and even though I didn't consciously remember why I hated the holidays at the time, I was on edge for like a month. I went to throw the gift in his face, but then Strea happened."
"Strea?" Rivka repeated, causing Sinon's grin to widen. "What did she do?"
"Oh, she saw what he had gotten me, and before I knew it, I was wearing them and being told that I looked pretty," she admitted as she touched the ribbons keeping her bangs parted on the sides of her face. "I still can't remember the last time that someone called me pretty, or said anything even remotely flattering about my appearance, so I guess it's been a while. Whatever the case is, I was crazy embarrassed, but it made me feel good about myself. So, I ended up keeping the things, and now I don't go anywhere without 'em."
"Crimson seems to have a way of leaving pieces of himself behind, even long after he's gone," Rivka murmured as she lit the candles with a nearly-absent mind.
"Yeah, I've seen the cloak," Sinon said as she hopped off of the chair that she had been using. "I'm glad to see you wearing it- means he's still looking out for his friends."
Rivka's mouth twisted into a wry smile at that. "Mataras said pretty much the exact same thing when he insisted that I keep it."
"How are you and he doing, by the way?"
Rivka's body froze for a second, but she tried to cover her lapse by quickly moving to light the last candle on the table setting. "What do you mean?" she asked finally asked.
"You know exactly what I mean," Sinon snorted as she moved the chair over to be next to the other chandelier piece in the room. "It doesn't take a detection skill to see you ogling him every time he's not looking."
Rivka flushed red with a tinge of anger coloring her embarrassment before she said through thin lips, "You're not really the person I want to have this conversation with."
Sinon paused in her efforts to decorate the lighting with holiday greenery before she said, "Based on that reaction, I'm guessing that you view me as an obstacle, so to speak." When her guild mate declined to respond, she let out a sigh and finished arranging the shrubbery before hopping off the chair to land right in front of Rivka, who took an involuntary step backwards before planting her feet and setting her jaw.
Sinon merely cocked her head at the other girl before she said, "Guess I'll just set the record straight, myself, then. Mataras and I are not an item, a thing, a couple, whatever you want to call it. We never were, we never will be. We've had a good talk about it, and neither of us sees each other that way." She shrugged a little before adding, "Maybe in another lifetime, under a different set of circumstances, it could have happened, but it didn't. And that's because you're here, Rivka- his soulmate."
"I don't believe in soulmates," the brown-haired girl replied.
"Surprise, surprise, neither does Mataras," the archer smirked. "And if we're asking all around, then I don't, either. It was just a turn in phrase. But Mataras told me recently that while he doesn't believe in a soul mate, he does believe that God has a special someone in mind for everyone that is looking for love. He says that there's no such thing as a perfect couple, because no one alive on Earth is perfect, by any means. But there are people with compatible flaws that when put together, make something incredible."
"I thought you didn't put any stock in God," Rivka said in an attempt to change the subject.
"I didn't," Sinon nodded. "I have never believed in Him- not with all the pain and suffering that my family has had to go through, especially me. How could I believe in an all-powerful deity that supposedly loves us all and wants only the best for us when we're surrounded by things like SAO and druggies ready to kill a little girl just trying to defend her mom? But when I found out that Mataras was alive, and he ran away from us, I was desperate. I needed my best friend back, I needed him to be safe, and I needed him to be able to live with himself. So for the first time in my life, I prayed to God." She laughed at herself a bit as she added, "I actually went into a church that was full of monsters with Strea, fought our way through it, went to the altar, and we both prayed to your God. I begged Him to bring Mataras back to us, safe and filled with peace. I swore to Him right then and there that if He brought back the person that I care about more than anyone else in the world, that I would learn to follow Him."
For a moment, Rivka was too stunned to speak. How had she not known about this? Sure, she and Sinon were hardly what one could call close friends, but they were allies. How could she not be aware of such a thing among her guild mates?
When she was able to speak again, she slowly said, "You know… You don't have to be in a church to pray. He'll hear you anywhere."
"I know that now, but I didn't, then," Sinon shrugged again. "In any case, God clearly delivered, and then some. He brought Mataras home to us, and He even sent Saphira with him, providing the peace that my friend so desperately needed in order to live on. So I've been learning what I can from Mataras, Saphira, and Yuuki, and doing my best to live by the edicts of the God I'm now sworn to serve. It's been weird, trying to undo a lot of my ways of thinking from the course of my life, but I made a promise, and I aim to keep it. Mataras always stressed the importance of keeping one's word."
"Ironic, considering what he pulled after the Laughing Coffin Raid," Rivka muttered, hoping that the rabbit hole they had ventured down would keep them away from the original topic long enough for someone else to come and interrupt the flow of conversation.
"He admitted that even by his own moral code, that was jacked up," Sinon replied. "But we're getting way off-topic. We were discussing you and him, not my sudden change in lifestyle."
Dammit, Rivka thought. Out loud, she grumbled, "What's there to talk about? Despite what everyone else seems to think, despite what I want, he clearly doesn't feel the same. It seems like he goes out of his way to avoid me in the field!" At the last part, her voice spiked with her pent-up frustration.
"You know as well as I do that's just a matter of logistics to him," Sinon countered calmly. "His thoughts are more than likely running along the lines of, 'If I suddenly switch up the teams this late in the game, it'll throw everyone off their normal patterns, which could be a fatal mistake on the front lines.' Sound about right?"
"…Yeah," Rivka admitted as she forced her hands to relax. Her childhood friend had all but said as much when he apologized to her after his fight with Saphira. He had even offered to go on quests with her in the lower floors if she wanted to try and get some of their old rhythms back, and while she appreciated the gesture, they simply didn't have the time to be frolicking in the flowers on the lower floors. Kirito and Sachi got away with it, but they were married, and despite the fact that they contributed a lot of time and effort to the clearing of the game, they needed their space.
She remembered Mataras and Kirito arguing about whether or not to stop taking days off altogether in an effort to clear the game even faster, with Mataras being in favor of the more unforgiving work schedule, but the guild leader had overridden his subordinate and mandated that the others be allowed at least one day off a week. If they chose to work in the field every day, it had to be their decision- which Mataras and Sinon mostly did, with Yuuki joining them on occasion, because she had too much energy to just sit still, and then Philia, if there was a promising treasure hunt. Everyone else- even Saphira, who had been turned into a much harder person by her time in the Hollow Area- enjoyed the day off that they were allowed by their guild leader.
Rivka was suddenly snapped out of her reverie when Sinon told her, "He's probably one of the most stubborn people I know, but his mind can, in rare instances, be changed. I feel pretty confident that he'll come around to you, one day. Might not- actually, probably won't- happen in Aincrad. But when we get out of here, and he realizes that he's not gonna be sitting on death row, he'll need someone to show him how to be happy- make him realize that he deserves to be happy. And that job, my friend, falls to you. Not me, not Saphira, and definitely not Rain, much as she might like the idea of that."
"So I'm not the only one that thinks she's been hitting on him!" Rivka said with a surge of satisfaction, which led to Sinon sharing a conspirator's smile with her.
"Good thing he's too dense to notice," she giggled. "Like I said, he'll come around. He does love you, even if he's not good at showing it, or refuses to act on the romantic aspect of it."
"Sinon…" Rivka hesitated before she asked, "Why are you telling me all of this? We're not exactly good friends."
"I know," the archer answered. "But I'd like it if we could become friends. If it comes down to it, Mataras would choose making you happy over having me in his life. It would hurt him more than he'd ever admit, but I know he'd do it. I want to be in his life- I want to keep watching his back, even if from a distance. But I know that eventually, if you decide that you don't want me around him anymore, I won't be. So I want to be your friend, too. I want to get to know the girl that won the heart of the Red Swordsman."
Rivka's face reddened again, but there was no anger in the coloring this time. "I don't know enough about you to say for sure if we can be friends or not, but…" She firmed up her chin and said, "You clearly care about him almost as much as I do, even if it's different. Maybe I can learn to accept that, but only time will tell. I'm willing to give it a shot, so to speak." So saying, she extended her hand to the slender girl, whose eyes brightened a little bit.
"It's a good thing that Mataras didn't hear that last part, or we'd be hearing archer jokes until the New Year," she chuckled as they shook hands.
"True," Rivka replied with a half-laugh. She hesitated once more before saying, "Merry Christmas, Sinon."
"Merry Christmas, Rivka."
"…And you owe me some col," Strea said proudly as she held a hand out to Saphira, who grumbled a little bit before she pulled the required money out of her inventory and tossed it to the taller girl. "Told you they could talk it out." She had been reading the lips of the two girls while Saphira was working in the kitchen in order to monitor the situation that she had set in motion.
Being programmed to detect the stress of those that she came across, and address the situation as best she was able, Strea had told her friend that a more direct approach might benefit both her and Rivka, as they were both two of Mataras' closest friends. She knew that Sinon no longer bore the other girl any ill will, with the merging of the Fifth Commandment and the Moonlit Black Cats having proved largely successful, but it wouldn't be entirely accurate to say the feeling was mutual. They both knew that Rivka wouldn't actually harm Sinon, but there was clearly a sense of animosity and jealousy coming from her that wasn't entirely unjustified.
"Better to nip this in the bud before it has a chance to get really ugly," Strea had told the archer.
"But I haven't done anything wrong, why should I apologize?" Sinon had countered stubbornly.
"I'm not saying that you have to say you're sorry," her comrade had answered. "But if you want to make things easier on Mataras, then do what you can to make peace with Rivka. If nothing else, you'll be able to say that you did the right thing."
Sinon had grumbled about that. "Mataras is right."
"About what?"
"Doing the right thing is such a drag."
After Saphira had found out about their plan, she made a wager with the AI as to the outcome of Sinon attempting to clear the air up about Mataras, with Saphira predicting that it would end with Rivka walking away or getting worked up to the point of irrationality, while Strea claimed that a more peaceable outcome would prevail.
"In the years that I've known Rivka, I've never seen her be assertive, especially when it comes to other girls," Saphira answered as she went back to chopping up the herbs that would be going into their Christmas turkey. "She's always been too unsure of herself. I didn't think that she'd actually make peace with her."
"'Make peace' might be too strong of a term," Strea admitted. "I'd say it's more like a proverbial cease-fire at this time."
"Either way, it looks like we can all enjoy the holidays together," Saphira said contentedly.
This feeling was immediately dashed when her lavender-haired companion said, "Well, at least until Mataras finds out that Kirito is giving all of us the week off until the New Year."
"…We'd better prepare a contingency plan in case of a mutiny."
"Good idea."
That night was probably the best one that every member of the Moonlit Black Cats had during our imprisonment in Aincrad. The food was excellent, and the company more so. For that one evening, we managed to forget that we were soldiers on the front lines of a war that sometimes seemed endless. Even our quarrels with one another were lost in the sounds of laughter and the feeling of a warm fire by the Christmas tree.
Once the dishes were done, we all wound up going outside to play in the snow, losing ourselves in the holiday spirits of our childhoods. Yui built a snowman with Kirito and Sachi while Saphira started a snowball fight with me, which wound up dragging in the rest of our guild mates along for the fight. It started out as a free-for-all, but eventually members were drawn together in pairs or threes.
Toward the end of it, Saphira, Rivka, and I had managed to shovel together a small wall behind which we could hide and hurl our frozen projectiles at our friends. Strea was throwing snow boulders while Sinon protected her from enemy fire with pinpoint accuracy, even as Silica, Philia, and Rain hid behind the porch steps while they fed Pina snowballs that she could regurgitate as icy projectiles at anyone that her master told her to. Kiriha and Yuuki were the most unpredictable, scooping up snow as they ran around in random directions and hurling it at anyone whenever they saw an opening.
By the end of it, we all felt overheated in spite of the cold, and we collapsed one by one, just lying in the snow and laughing at the sky. Eventually, even our laughter died away, and we found ourselves just enjoying the quiet company of our friends as the cold seeped into our virtual bones, giving us an inexplicable peace that we hadn't felt in a very long time.
It was during this time that Silica asked, "I guess we should go to bed, huh?"
"Pfft," I laughed, which I'm pretty sure surprised the others. "It's Christmas. Not like we have a curfew."
"Did hell just freeze over?" Kiriha laughed hoarsely. "Did the Red Swordsman just suggest that we take it easy?"
"Had to happen sometime," I pointed out. "Much as I tried to run from the fact, I'm just as human as the next guy." I was happy that there were no barbs in our words- we were simply having a silly conversation, something I had long thought would be lost to me.
"We should probably at least head inside," Saphira said as she got to her feet with a small grunt. As she helped Rivka get to her feet, she added, "We've missed our little tradition for the last two years, and you'd better believe that it's not happening this time."
"Tradition?" Strea repeated. "What tradition is this?"
"Didn't we do it the first year we were in here?" I asked my sister, confusion flitting across my face as I rose and brushed snow off my cloak.
"No, we were so stressed that we nearly forgot that we were having Christmas in the first place," Saphira answered with a negative shake of her head. "And we definitely didn't have the means to celebrate like this."
"True."
"Hey! What tradition are you talking about?!" Strea demanded impatiently with a pout.
"It's something that Mataras, Saphira and I used to do before we were trapped in SAO," Rivka began. "All three of us are terrible at waiting for our Christmas presents, so on Christmas Eve, we'd each open up a single gift from among the pool between us. For example, three years ago, I opened a gift from Saphira, while she and Mataras both opened their gifts from me."
"So you scratched your proverbial itch while leaving the majority of your gifts for the next morning," Sinon commented before she helped Strea get a few more snowflakes out of her hair.
"Yep, and we wanted to expand the tradition this year," Saphira chirped as she led the way up into the house. "We'll all each pick one gift to open before we go to bed, and then we'll pick it up in the morning."
"That sounds nice, but we're gonna spend our day down on floor 22 tomorrow," Sachi reminded her.
"Yeah, I know, which is part of the reason why I wanna do this with everyone here, tonight," my sister said as we were greeted by the warm air of our house. "C'mon, it'll be fun."
"I'm in!" Kiriha giggled as she put her overcoat in her inventory. "I'm not good with waiting on stuff, either!"
"You're still such a kid," Kirito teased her as he ruffled her hair, much to her irritation.
"I wanna do it!" Yui agreed as Litrosh settled on her head. "Momma, Papa, can we?" Upon restoring the life of my little fire dragon after the battle against the Skull Reaper, I had decided to transfer his handling over to the little girl. I missed him, but I felt that it would give Kirito and Sachi more peace of mind if their adopted child had a powerful deterrent against evildoers- Litrosh was, after all, a higher level than most players in SAO. Anyone that tried to mess with her, her immortal status notwithstanding, would be sorry.
"We'll stay long enough to open one present, but then we should get you to bed," Sachi laughed softly as she leaned into a one-armed embrace from her husband.
"Thanks, Mama!"
"Suckers," Sinon snickered as she passed them by, earning her an irritated look from the Black Swordsman.
When we had all gathered around the decorated tree, we each selected a gift from beneath its branches and sat either in one of our chairs or on the floor near the fireplace, which cast a comforting glow into the darkening room. I sat next to Saphira in a pair of comfy armchairs that I liked using for reading late at night when I wasn't quite able to fall asleep.
"So… How we gonna do this?" Yuuki asked, almost tremoring with excitement, her chosen gift in her hands. Everyone seemed to be looking at my sister, Rivka, and me for an explanation. When we each gave each other blank gazes, Yuuki added, "It's your guys' thing. You make the rules."
"Oh we do, do we?" I said with an evil grin, before I was smacked on the head with Saphira's chosen package. "Hey! I wasn't gonna do anything!"
"We'll go youngest to oldest," she said without looking at me, though I could hear the smile in her voice. "Yui, you're first, right?"
"Nyope!" Strea said proudly as she stuck her hand up in the air, much to the surprise of several of us. "I'm MHCP-02, remember? I was created after Yui, which makes me the youngest person here. I'm not even two, yet!"
Saphira and I exchanged blank looks for second before I shrugged and said, "Who knew?"
"Okay, Strea, you go ahead," Rivka said before we could start another round of friendly bickering.
"Yay!" she cheered before she started ripping the blue wrapping off of her gift. "Let's see, this is from Philia, and it's… cute!" She practically squealed with delight as she held up a little plushie… of me?!
"What the hell?!" I yelped as she squeezed in a tight hug, while everyone else burst out laughing. "What is that?!" Even Sinon was holding her sides with laughter, much to my horror.
Philia just managed to gasp out, "Oh man…! Your reaction was the only Christmas present I needed to see! Ha!"
"Why is that a thing?!" I sputtered, completely lost as to how such an item could even exist. "I didn't even know there were stuffed toys in this game!"
"There's a lady on the first floor that specializes in making toys for the kids in the orphanage," the orange-haired treasure hunter continued to snicker. "I paid her a butt-load of col to make that."
"Why?!"
"Well, you never let Strea hug you, and we all know how much she likes giving hugs," Philia answered cheekily. "Now she can have the second-best thing."
"That abomination belongs in the fireplace! Gimme!"
Before I could get out of my chair, I suddenly had two massive broadswords aimed at my face, causing me to stay very still, despite the fact that we were in a safe zone, which would make it impossible for me to come to any actual harm. Strea and Saphira both glared at me from down the lengths of their blades before the AI growled, "Mine."
"Duly noted," I nodded as I held my hands up in a gesture of surrender while sitting down in the armchair again. When did they even get those out of their inventories?
Once we were all settled and everyone had mostly finished laughing at me, we spent a few moments comparing ages and varying birthdays to determine what order we would continue on in. Once that was done, Yui held up a little package and said that it was from her 'Auntie Kiriha'. With eager movements, she tore away the wrapping to unveil a soft pink sweater that she immediately put on over her normal outfit. "Thank you, auntie," she said with a sweet smile before she was enveloped in a bear hug by the younger Kirigaya, a sight that would have made all but the blackest heart smile.
Next to go was Silica, who was opening her gift from Kirito. It turned out to be a new chest piece for her armor with an etching of Pina stretched across it, which of course delighted the smaller girl. She was eager to try it on, but Sachi told her that it would be better to wait until tomorrow, as we still had ten more gifts to open up before the night was over.
With that in mind, Yuuki took her gift out of a bag to find a pair of fuzzy socks with angels embroidered on them from Saphira, which she promised to wear every day until we got out of the game. Next up was my sister, who had elected to open her gift from Rivka.
It turned out to be a blue Santa hat with her name stylized in the white, fluffy trim on the edges. Saphira immediately put it on, which led to Pina trying to bat at the dangling ball like a kitten, amusing all of us until Silica made her leave it alone.
Following that was Sinon, who had chosen to open Strea's gift. She and I both felt nervous when she did this, as Strea could sometimes be a little unpredictable with her gestures of appreciation. However, in this case, we needn't have worried. Our resident archer was pleasantly surprised to find a long red scarf waiting for her, similar to the white one that she used to wear whenever she went undercover.
Then it was time for Kiriha and Sachi to open their presents, both of which were from Yuuki. To the blond girl, she had given a large, white flower-styled hairpiece that could hold up her ponytail when she was out in the field. Sachi got a pendant in the style of a black cat that could hang from a necklace, which seemed to touch her deeply, because she gave the other girl a tight hug after she clutched it to her chest.
Next up was Kirito, who had elected to reveal my gift to him. When the last bit of red wrapping fell away and he opened the wooden box inside, he was surprised to find a new jacket to replace his black wyrm coat. This one had longer coattails and less white on the trimming, while the color had darkened even further, less of a gray-black and more like the dark of a cave from deep within the earth.
"I had Erika make that for you just yesterday," I told him with a slight grin. "I wasn't sure that she would make it in time, but I'm glad that she did." What I didn't tell him was that I had spent a lot of my training time in the Hollow Area trying to take on quests to gather the materials needed to make the 'Grimm Coat'. The thing required an absurd amount of fabric from the cloaks of death reapers and the wings of black gargoyles, among several other things that I just couldn't be bothered to remember at the moment.
Regardless, he definitely seemed to appreciate it, because he set it back in the box and gave me a grateful smile. "Thanks, Mataras," he told me. "This is a really cool gift."
"Don't mention it," I chuckled, glad that he liked it. Turning to Rain, I then said, "Your turn."
She smiled happily at me before she held up her present, which was once again from me. Admittedly, I hadn't put as much effort into getting her present, but she seemed to appreciate the red-and-silver bracelet that I had purchased from a limited-time NPC in Arc Sophia, the main town on floor 75. She immediately put it on, beaming as she did, and thanked me for the gift.
"My turn!" Philia said eagerly as she reached for her present from Sachi, eyeing the red wrapping as if it were a prized treasure chest. "What have we here…?" She ripped off the packing, and her smile widened as she held up a bejeweled, golden dagger. "Yes!" she crowed triumphantly. "Aw man, this is just what I wanted! I've been trying to get started on this quest on floor seventy for weeks now, but I needed one of these to do it! How'd you find it?!"
"A little rat told me," Sachi laughed softly as she enjoyed her friends' delight. "I hope you find what you're hoping for."
"Hehe, beautiful treasure, here I come!"
As she continued to admire her gift, I realized with a start that it was my turn. "Well, let's see what we got here…" I said as I picked up my gift from Saphira. The package was small and rectangular in shape, but not too heavy. As I undid the deep blue wrapping, I muttered to myself, "Is this a photo frame?"
"Not quite," my sister answered as I tore away the last of the paper and beheld my gift, which caused me to freeze in place. As Rivka peered over my shoulder, Saphira said in a soft tone, "Merry Christmas, Bro."
It was a nice photo frame, but the picture inside had already been placed by Saphira, and it caused my eyes to sting a little. It was an image of me and Crimson, our blades crossed, and fierce smiles on our faces. I realized that she must have taken the picture during the time when I had been trying to ignore her, and based on the gear that I and my doppelganger were wearing, it couldn't have been more than two weeks before the Laughing Coffin Raid.
It was the last image of Crimson before he had died, and we both looked happy.
"I kept hoping that I'd have an opportunity to give that to you," my sister told me as I tore my gaze away from the picture in order to look at her as she wore a gentle smile. "I wanted to show you that it wasn't all bad, you know? There was some good during your time in exile."
"Yeah…" I said as my hands trembled with emotion. "Some good…" Slowly, almost with reverence, I put the picture in my inventory, promising myself to put it on the dresser in my room once I went up for the night. "Thank you, Victoria."
"You're welcome, Michael." We both got up and exchanged a tight hug, glad to be where we were in that moment, in a room full of the people that we had come to trust and love.
When we both made our way back to our seats, it was Rivka's turn to open a gift, and she had chosen to open mine. This made me nervous, because while I was reasonably sure that she would like it, I didn't want there to be a scene between us if she didn't. Please like it, I begged silently. Please like it, even if just a little!
Her gift was in a box a little bit bigger than the package that had contained the photo frame, and I actually held my breath as she ripped off the red bow and green paper to reveal a black wooden box with a clasp that she quickly undid. When she lifted the lid, her eyes lit up, and she gasped as she unveiled my gift to her, and I knew that she liked it.
Yes!
"Michael, you… This is beautiful," she said as she gingerly touched the item inside. "How did you-?"
"Grit, spit, and whole lotta questing," I admitted with a laugh as I scratched my lengthy raven locks. "I'm glad you like it."
"What'd he get you?" Philia asked eagerly, ever the enthusiast when it came to potential of rare items.
"It's called 'the Crown of the Exalt'," I answered as Rivka gently took out the headpiece for everyone to see. "And damn if it wasn't hard to get."
The item in question was slender, silver tiara headband that would contour perfectly to her head with intricate lines that wove across the metal like ivy creeping on a tree. I had spent days' worth of hours fighting goblins, ogres, and every other natural enemy of the elves to get the gift, but the look on her face as she placed it into her hair was more than worth it. It helped to reveal more of her face, and it gleamed brightly, even in the dim light of the fire, giving her an almost radiant appearance.
"Thank you so much," she said right before we exchanged a warm embrace. For a moment, we felt the tension and the pain of the last two years just fade away between us. When we closed our eyes, we could feel the floors of my home, hear our parents laughing the background, and even smell the Christmas cookies and hot chocolate.
As we held each other, we were home- and I knew. I knew what I had been hiding from, and what I wanted to do with it. I knew where my heart lay, and it wasn't on the battlefield, drowning in blood and depravity. It was with Rivka- it was with the girl that had waited for me to come home, no matter how far I tried to run away. She would always be my home.
I can't spend my life with anyone else, and I don't want her to, either, I thought as we felt the moment fade away, and we pulled back from each other with bright smiles on our faces.
I couldn't tell her, not yet. I had to wait until it was certain that my sister and Strea had found a way for me to get out of SAO without getting the death sentence, or a life in prison. But if that day comes… I will tell her what I felt just now. And so long as it is within my power, I'm going to see us both home, so that I'll have that chance to tell her that I love her.
Saphira then got to her feet, and we all turned to her, wondering what she was up to. "I just wanted to say something real quick," she began. "Mataras and I don't have any family left back in the real world, you know? No aunts, uncles, cousins, nobody. And with the way that this past year has gone, I wondered whether or not I would ever be able to celebrate Christmas with a family again. Now I know. We have a new family, and although the circumstances that brought us together are far less than ideal, I'm glad that we have you guys for the times that are ahead of us. I know we're gonna have some rough stuff coming, but because we have each other, I'm confident that we'll also have the best of times heading for us." Done speaking she raised her mug of hot chocolate in proposition of a toast.
"Hear, hear!" Sinon agreed, followed by the rest of our guild.
"Merry Christmas, everyone," I said as I stood up with my sister. "And to all, a good night."
Christmas morning was another cheerful affair, even though Sachi, Kirito, and Yui were not with us, having decided to spend their first holiday together as a family. Agil and Klein arrived in time for brunch and to exchange a few gifts, but the both of them had their own affairs to settle, so they only stayed for about an hour.
I think the group wound up having the most collective fun with Sinon's gifts to Strea and Silica- two sleds perfect for sliding down the slopes of the hills surrounding our house. Both were big enough for two people apiece, so most of us took turns sliding down the biggest hill on the map. I didn't care to join in on the action, myself, but I did stand on top of the hill to watch and talk to those that were waiting their turn.
At one point, Rain invited me to go on a ride with her, which I declined. "Sorry, I'm not much for snow sports," I told her with a small grin. "Thanks for the invite, though."
"Okay," she said as she shied away to go ask Kiriha to join her on the next run.
A moment later, I felt Saphira sidle up next to me before she asked, "Not much for snow sports, huh?"
"That's what I said."
"Funny, I remember a lot of ski trips with Mom and Dad that beg to differ." She turned toward me with a raised eyebrow and a crooked grin. "What's up with that?"
"Maybe my memory hasn't fully returned," I answered, making no effort to sound convincing. "Or maybe I would rather avoid jumping on any unnecessary grenades."
"You thought about what I said?" she asked hopefully, causing me to roll my eyes.
"No, I totally let it go when you punched me across the yard and then proceeded to repeatedly use a 'Hulk Smash' on me," I muttered dryly. "Of course I thought about it."
"And…?"
"Tell me your plan for getting me out of the grave I've dug myself, and I'll tell you what I plan to do with said freedom."
Saphira cocked her head at me for a second before she said, "I guess I can give you an extra Christmas present this year- even though you're probably at the top of the naughty list."
"Method of escape?" I prompted her impatiently.
My sister then proceeded to spend the next fifteen minutes explaining how she and Strea- along with several other MHCP's- had set up a safe release for me that would activate the second the game was over. I had several concerns with her plan, but she was consistently able to explain the contingencies for their problems. In the end, I had to concede that she had a very thorough, very impressive plan in play, one that would certainly get me out of this prison and not straight into another.
"And I thought I was the clever one between us," I commented once she was done explaining.
"You never thought that."
"True." Pausing for a moment, I then asked, "How'd you get the other MHCP's to go along with this?"
"Let's just say that they're none too pleased with Kayaba or the Cardinal System for locking them up over the last couple years," Saphira answered smugly. "Now, spill. What're your plans for when you get out?"
Without hesitation, I answered, "If we survive long enough to make it home, then I'll let my guard down. I won't push her away anymore."
"You promise?" my sister asked seriously, all traces of humor gone from her bearing. "You're not just trying to get me off your case?"
"You'd know I was lying if I was," I chortled. "But yes, I'm serious. I don't believe in destiny or soul mates, but I do know who I'd want to spend the rest of my life with, if I can."
"Rest of your life?" For once, Saphira sounded surprised. "Aren't we a few years away from thinking about that kinda situation?"
"I'll probably be nineteen by the time we get out of here," I reminded her. "Dad was twenty-two when he married Mom, remember? It's not that far off for me."
"Wow," Saphira said blankly. "I guess I kinda forgot about getting older in here."
"Doesn't help that our bodies don't age," I pointed out. "But yeah, I'm a legal adult, back in the real world. Plus side to that is that I can become your guardian, and we don't have to worry about getting separated by the system."
"True, but don't think for a second that you can order me to take out the trash or do the dishes," my sister smirked. "You can ask nicely, though."
"I'll bear that in mind," I said with a laugh as Philia and Yuuki came staggering up the hill with one of the sleds in hand.
Seeing this, Saphira grabbed my hand and called out, "Dibs! Mataras is going on at least one trip downhill!"
"Sure!" Yuuki chirped as I was fairly pulled off my feet against my will.
"Hey! I didn't agree to this! Leggo!"
That evening, when everyone else had gone to bed, and the house was quiet, Sinon and I sat alone in the study room, a book in each of our hands where we sat against the walls on the floor. "Good Christmas," I murmured as I turned the page in my novel, not really paying attention to the words in front of me.
"Definitely better than the last one," she agreed. "Like I told Rivka, I can't really remember a good Christmas from my life. So, thanks for making this one happen." The lobes of her ears glinted in the dim light of the room, due to the cross-shaped earrings she was wearing as a gift from me.
"You two starting to get along?" I teased her.
"Starting to," she nodded before looking up from her book with a raised eyebrow. "And you? How fares the intrigue of the tainted heart?" The second part was cast in an overdramatic tone that irked me a little bit.
"You've been reading Shakespeare again, haven't you?"
"Thomas Malory, actually," she snickered. "And you're avoiding my question."
I sighed as I shut the book and leaned my head back against the wall. "I'm gonna go for it," I said in a small voice, as if speaking it too loudly might make the possibility go away. "After we get out of here, I'll tell her the truth."
"What truth?"
"That I do want to be with her," I answered. "That I love her, despite the fact that it makes almost zero sense. That I regret taking a path that delayed my ability to see it."
There was a dead quiet in the study for some time before my partner asked, "Now, was that so hard to admit?"
"I'd have rather fought the Skull Reaper again." This made her laugh, which got me to smile back. Drawing in a deep breath, I then added, "Thank you."
"For what?"
"For playing the part that you did in my story," I replied sincerely. "I wouldn't be here without you, nor would I be who I am without your influence. You've had my back this whole time, so I want you to know that if- when the day comes that you meet the right guy, I'm going to be there, just like you've been here to support me."
"That's very sweet of you," she replied contentedly. "But I don't see that happening for quite a while."
"You never know," I told her as I stood up to put my book back, having given up on even pretending to read it. "I'm pretty sure that Rivka is the right one for me, and I met her in grade school. Your guy could be just around the corner, as it were."
"Maybe, but I'm not really looking right now," the archer laughed softly as I passed her by. "Good night, Mataras. I'll be up in time for our usual hunt."
"Thanks," I replied as my thoughts were temporarily colored with annoyance. "Can't believe Kirito mandated a week of vacation for the entire guild… Waste of a perfectly good week."
I had just settled into my room when I received a notification from my menu, alerting me to an incoming message. Sighing in annoyance, I thought to myself, If that's Argo trying to swindle me out of one more measly col, I'm gonna have Hollow Asuna haunt her for the rest of the game. She was the only person I could think of that would be contacting me at this hour. It wouldn't have been the first time that the info broker had messaged me in the middle of the night, as I was usually up at this time anyway, but today I just wanted to go to sleep.
I almost ignored the notification altogether, but if this was some kind of a time-sensitive quest, I'd be remiss not to know about it. Giving vent to another frustrated exhale, I swiped open my menu and hit the message tab, preparing myself for a message full of shortcuts and grammatical errors.
Instead, all I got was a message containing a gift and four words; 'Prepare for Avalon, Pendragon.' The user ID was hidden, which only added to the mystique of the letter.
Blinking rapidly at the short sentence, I felt an inexplicable shiver of dread run down my spine as my finger automatically hit the discharge function, depositing the item into my waiting grip. It turned out to be a long sword colored bright red, beautifully crafted and perfectly balanced for my hand. The jewel in the pommel was a sky blue crystal, while the hilt was wired with gold, which led into a hexagonal crossguard just beneath the keen blade.
Prepare for Avalon, Pendragon… Assuming that they're referencing the legend of King Arthur, Avalon is where Arthur Pendragon goes to die… after he duels Mordred.
I frowned at that part. There was a lot of controversy surrounding Mordred's origins in the Arthurian tales- some said that he was an illegitimate son of the king, while others depicted him as a more distant relative, or even just as the child of one of the king's allies. Whatever the case of his heritage, his was a character that should have been loyal to Arthur, but wound up fighting him unto their respective deaths.
Is this a warning, then? I wondered as I absently inspected the sword's stats. Is someone planning to betray me? Is it someone I know, or a person I have yet to meet? If it's the latter, is it maybe the person that's sending this? That didn't make any logical sense, but I was so used to dealing with madmen that had sent me multiple death threats that this seemed a natural assumption for me to make.
I'll have to ask the others what they think in the morning, I thought as I rubbed my eyes. I can't make heads or tails out of this, but there's no sense in waking anyone else up right now. We wouldn't get anywhere, tired as we are. That thought didn't help the feeling that someone had just struck several incredibly uncomfortable pressure points simultaneously, seizing up my joints and tightening my muscles into painful knots.
One thing was certain to me in that moment- it was going to be a long, restless night.
Kirito: Okay, when you said the end of Shattered Fragment, did you mean-?
Mataras: No, this is not the end, end. This story shall continue on until we reach the end of the game canon's timeline. I do however, have something of a dilemma.
Asuna: That being...?
Mataras: I'm not sure whether I should continue on to the Lost Song Arc, and those beyond it, in this story, or in a fresh one. I've put up a poll on my profile for our readers to vote on the matter.
Kirito: I'd vote for continuing on this story, myself.
Mataras: Normally, I would do the same. However... Well, just go check out the poll for more details.
Kirito: Jerk move!
Mataras: Have you met me?
Saphira: Speaking of, you were so close to making this chapter a happy one- like, all the way through. You couldn't have saved the ominous cliffhanger for next chapter?
Mataras: You know exactly how I operate- why bring it up?
Saphira: I'm an optimist.
Asuna: Anyone else catch that Toa of Aincrad reference he made?
Mataras: No idea what you're talking about, time for the next chapter title reveal.
Asuna: Next time- Old Habits.
