~000~

Chapter Eight: Dates and Sparring

~000~

Leafa looked around the small training area she had made for herself. It looked all right and was the closest thing she had to her old dojo back in the real world. She sat in the middle of the boxing style ring she had set up and waited calmly for someone to enter, which sure enough eventually paid off.

"Uh, hello?" Asuna entered and saw Leafa rise from where she sat.

"Hey Asuna, can I help you?" offered Leafa.

"Y-Yeah." Asuna swept some of her orange-brown hair behind her ear and held her arm. "If it's not too much to ask, I'd like to learn how to fight like you and Kirito."

"What're you talking about? You're already really good." Leafa pointed out.

Asuna shook her head. "No, I'm talking about with other people not with mobs."

"Hm, well all right then. Step in the ring." Leafa nodded as Asuna accepted. "So you really want to learn how we did?"

"Definitely," Asuna responded confidently.

Leafa laughed. "Well, I don't know, it seems like you might want to train a bit softer. You know, considering." She flicked her head sideways at a slight angle towards Asuna.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Asuna asked.

"Nothing. You're gonna learn the old fashioned way. Just like in the rest of Ronbaru, we can't deal lethal damage to each other. You won't suffer any penalty to your [Color Cursor] for fighting as we're in a [Safe Zone]." Leafa looked around her personal dojo.

Asuna placed her hand on the hilt of her rapier. "Shall we get started?"

Leafa shook her head. "We're not using that." Leafa opened her menu and equipped two bamboo [Shinais].

After catching one, Asuna observed it. "How'd you get this?"

"I made it myself. Been working on my [Crafting] skill." Leafa shrugged. "Make the first move."

Asuna [Unequipped] her sword, having it fizzle back into her inventor. When she pulled back her wooden blade to activate a [Sword Skill] nothing happened. "Huh?"

"That won't work here princess." Leafa swept Asuna's leg and slammed her full force into the mat of the ring.

Asuna groaned on the ground as Leafa disarmed Asuna and held two shinais. "H-How?"

"Turns out the game's code only allows skills to work with weapons made of metal. How weird is that?" Leafa chuckled. "Come on, try again."

Asuna took the sword Leafa handed her again and stood up off the ground. She lunged into a thrust and Leafa whacked her over the back of the head with the flat part of her blade. She rubbed it a she turned around to strike, slashing wildly as Leafa easily backstepped and counter thrust into her stomach. Asuna felt the knockback effect fully, flying across the ring from the precision of Leafa's strike.

"You wanted to learn the hard way? You got it." Leafa put her sword on her shoulder.

Asuna rubbed her bottom lip with a small 'kh' as she stood back up. "Ok."

The two girls fought as Asuna kept swiping wildly at her darker-haired opponent. She was very surprised a girl two whole years younger than she was would have twice her skill in sword fighting, knocking her about as her strikes proved wholly ineffective. Asuna took a knee strike to the face and when she nearly dropped to the floor Leafa smacked her to the other side of the ring with her shinai.

Asuna went back into to strike only to get countered again, Leafa trading shots only for hers to land in succession. Asuna felt sweat flick off her head when Leafa knocked her into the ropes of the ring, flying off them into a strike only for Leafa's elbow to strike her back down.

Rubbing her head and getting back onto her feet, Asuna showed slight improvement by using a feint aimed at Leafa's head only for her true slash to land across her shoulder a split second later. Leafa stumbled back and smiled, the hard way was working for the girl.

~000~

Yuuki waved to Kirito as she approached in the town square. "Hey, Ki-kun! Ready for our date?"

"Uh, Y-Yuuki?" Kirito coughed when she walked up to him. "You're wearing something new."

"Yeah, you like it?" Yuuki looked down at it, brushing her purple-colored combat dress that revealed the skin of her thighs and hips. "Thought I should find something special."

"I-It's." He cleared his throat. "It's pretty revealing."

Yuuki smiled. "You don't like it?"

"No no, it's great, it's just I've never seen you wear a skirt before," admitted Kirito.

"Oh well, let's get started shall we?" Yuuki equipped a [Teleport Crystal] and handed Kirito one. "Found this nice spot just outside Giltstein. Ready?" Kirito nodded and gripped it, echoing her words when they spoke at the same time. "Teleport! Giltstein!"

They reappeared a few floors below and in the center of the town of Giltstein.

"Damn, been a while since we were on the 25th floor," said Yuuki.

"Yeah," Kirito scoffed. "Don't remind me. What were you thinking of doing?"

"Just a picknick, and then we could just walk around a bit," Yuuki answered.

It wasn't long before they sat on the lush green hills above a riverbank and Kirito gasped a little. "Dang, this is a nice place. Where'd you find it?"

"Spent some time by myself before we took on the floor boss." Yuuki equipped a [Quilted Blanket] and a [Handbasket] full of food and set it out for the two to sit on. Yuuki opened the handbasket as Kirito sat down and handed him a sandwich.

"Damn," Kirito said after taking a bite. "Really good." He chewed a bit more and swallowed. "Asuna's?"

"Yup." Yuuki bit into hers and wiped her mouth with a napkin. "It show's doesn't it?"

The two ended up finishing everything inside the basket within a few minutes.

"Asuna's a magician or something I swear." Yuuki laughed as she brushed crumbs off her skirt.

Kirito nodded as he leaned his head on his hand. "Hey Yuuki, I wanted to ask you something. Why did you want to ask me on a date?"

"Well, we've known each other for a while, all the way back since the beta. Just wanted to get to know you better that's all."

"I mean, we talked a lot during the beta." Kirito rubbed his chin.

"Yeah but, what were you into in the real world? Besides video games and kendo?"

Kirito answered calmly. "Computers. That's it."

"That's it?"

He nodded. "Between school and practicing every day with Sugu, didn't have time for much else really. Think I wanna take that walk now."

"Nah." Yuuki yawned as she stretched and fell back on the picnic blanket. "I'm good."

Kirito raised an eyebrow. "For someone as high energy as you, I was sure we'd already be walking by now."

"Nope." Yuuki placed her hands behind her head and rested it on them.

"What about you? What were you into?"

"Basketball and horses pretty much. School was boring as hell, and I wasn't into much else."

Kirito watched the water in the river rush by. "You miss it, the real world?"

She snickered. "Besides my family? Not in the slightest."

"Yeah, the only family I have besides Sugu is my aunt back outside. I miss her, but I'm glad Sugu's here with me."

Yuuki smiled. "One day when we get out of here, I'll take you to one of my basketball games. And then we'll go out afterward."

"What if I'm busy?" Kirito smirked.

Yuuki stood up off the blanket and smirked back. "You won't be. Because would you be going out with anyone else?"

"Well." Kirito thought of his adopted sister and Asuna. "I don't know."

"Come on, is there anyone else you're interested in?"

"Yuu, don't take this the wrong way, but the dynamic we have with Asuna and Sugu... we're a team. I don't want to screw that up."

Yuuki looked at him. "So you just want to be friends or something?"

"I mean, we can still go out and stuff, but I don't know how they'd feel if we were together."

"Great way to kick off a first date Ki-kun." Yuuki laughed quietly.

"I don't know!" Kirito held his head. "Maybe we should, or shouldn't. I don't know, I just." Kirito shook his head. "You're awesome. You're the coolest girl I've met. But this is, my first date ever, with anyone."

Yuuki understood. "Mine too."

"And this whole dating thing is, completely new to me. So don't expect me to know how this'll play out with them."

"We're not just a team I'd say. More like a family." agreed Yuuki. "I like you too, and I don't know either about dating. But I guess we can figure it out together right?"

Kirito was nodding and smiling. "Okay. Okay yeah, that's sounds great."

"Awesome." Yuuki smiled back as she stood up and tilted her head to the side. "Come on, I'll race you up this hill."

Kirito panted as he tried to outpace his date, but the tough thing was that she had the same if not higher |Agility| stat he did. When they reached the top of the hill, Yuuki won and cheered by bouncing up and down with her hands in the air.

"Yeaaah!" she laughed as Kirito chuckled a little. "Guess who beat the Ultimate Assassin?"

"That doesn't really work," Kirito said.

"You know what really doesn't work? That ridiculous hood of yours." Yuuki pointed to part of Kirito's [Assassin's Gear.] "Leafa and Asuna are right, it's not that cool."

"It's awesome." Kirito corrected. "And what do you know about fashion?"

"Uh, hello!?" Yuuki looked down at her purple combat dress that matched her hair. "Goes with my sword and everything? Come on."

He snorted. "All right then."

"Hm," Yuuki smiled mischievously. "Don't like that tone of yours Ki."

"Wait what?"

She flung him down the hill and he went rolling down it. Yuuki slid down the smoothness of the grass on her boots and when she reached the bottom she shoulder tackled Kirito away as hard as she could.

"Oh crap!" Yuuki's brown eyes widened seeing him fly off as she overdid it. She ran as fast as she could to the river bank to see Kirito laying back covered head to toe in water laughing as loud as he ever could have. "Wow!" he exclaimed. "That was crazy!"

Yuuki gasped when Kirito ran up the side of the riverbank to the side of the plains where Yuuki was standing and flung her into the river behind him. She gasped when she herself was thrown and laughed too alongside him, hearing his response from the side of the riverbank. "That's what you get for getting all my gear drenched!"

"This dress is new Kirito!" she whined.

She pulled him back into the river and the two splashed each other until they got tired.

They dried off on the side of the river as Kirito sighed and looked down at his clothes. "You know I really liked this stuff, wonder if it'll dry off if I change into some new clothes."

"Think I'm gonna change now that you mention it." She stood up and made for the small forest on the other side of the river. "No peeking perv."

"Why would I? That's rude," stated Kirito.

She pushed him. "Hey, not cool, all guys are into that stuff just admit you want to look."

"I'm a pervert if I want to look but insulting if I don't? What!?" Kirito raised his hand to his temple in confusion.

"Fair point." Yuuki shrugged as she crossed the river and changed into a plain light lavender colored dress as Kirito took the opportunity to do the same on the other side of the riverbank, choosing some simple blue trousers and a red shirt he found on a lower floor.

Kirito called out loudly. "Yuuuuki!?" he walked into the forest. "Are you hiding behind a tree? I swear if you try to scare me."

"You'll what?" her voice echoed.

"I'll...dammit." he sighed. He started walking through the forest calling out Yuuki's name before she burst out from behind a tree and yelled. He jumped with a yelp as she nearly fell over laughing. "Wow, I knew you were gonna do that just not when." he said.

"That's what makes it scary silly."

"I wasn't scared." Kirito lied in the attempt to seem tougher to impress his date.

"Then why did you jump so high?" Yuuki stopped laughing. "For an Assassin, you really should sneak around easier, and be harder to scare."

"You'd be scared too if you were in that situation." pointed out Kirito.

She smirked and leaned back with her arms crossed. "Oh, would I?"

"Let's play a game. You jump higher than me when I scare you or scream louder, I win. You find me before I can scare you, you win."

"Fine. But don't leave the forest, that's not fair." Yuuki accepted.

Kirito rubbed the back of his dark-haired head. "All right, count to twenty and close your eyes."

"Ready?" Yuuki covered her eyes. "One, two, three..."

Kirito simply stood behind her as quietly as he could and Yuuki uncovered her face. "All right I'm going to find you now." She turned around and Kirito lunged forward with a roar, making her shriek.

He snickered as Yuuki shook her head as she knew he'd won. "That's the oldest trick in the book. You think I didn't play this sort of game with Sugu when I was little?"

She sighed. "Let's go again. You know that wasn't fair."

"Sure."

Yuuki counted down again and when she looked up Kirito was of course gone. She started searching for him everywhere throughout the forest, leaves crunching beneath her boots as she walked. Yuuki looked behind every tree and boulder she came across, but it just wasn't enough. The forest was larger than she expected, but still small enough that she finished searching all of it under an hour.

She huffed as she put her hands on her hips. 'Where could he be? Unless he's moving as I'm looking for him, he shouldn't be that hard to find.'

"Okay this isn't funny anymore!" said Yuuki loudly. "We've gotta go back now, I'm sure Asuna's making a nice dinner!"

Silence.

Yuuki equipped her [Sword of Midnight] as she knew the sun would be going down soon. "Goddamnit."

She whistled quietly as the forest grew darker slowly, whipping her head around at random moments to see where he was. This didn't work as Kirito was still nowhere to be found as Yuuki still searched for him.

"This is taking it way too far, we should head back home!" Yuuki said as night fell.

Silence.

Yuuki equipped a [Torch] and after using some [Flint] she started searching for her.

She was lying if she denied the fact that fear was growing like a balloon within her stomach every minute. Whether it was Kirito or a random monster, either could strike without warning.

"You win! Let's just please go home!" yelled Yuuki.

A [Rope Dart] flew out of the tree branches and wrapped around her wrist, Yuuki shrieking so loudly as she was yanked upwards that the entire forest echoed with her voice. When she reached the treetops where Kirito was perched and laughing his head off, she removed it from her wrist and gripped her purple blade harder when she pushed his shoulder. "That was horrifying!"

"So? You were the one who started this game!" Kirito kept laughing. "Wow, I didn't think that would be how loud it'd be!"

"You took it way too far." she shook her head. "Stupid [Assasin's Gear]."

Kirito wiped away a tear from how hard he was laughing. "Hey, you knew how scary the game could be."

"Ugh." Yuuki rolled her eyes.

"At least you got a great view from up here." Kirito showed a hand to the very high tree branch they were sitting on.

"It's the middle of the night, there is no view." bitterly noted Yuuki.

Kirito looked into the black abyss below at the bottom of which laid Yuuki's torch. "Oh."

He saw a massive [Deer Horror] with claws the size of small cars step into the light offered by the torch Yuuki dropped. It growled and its red eyes glowed brighter when it looked up at the teens above.

"Kirito?..." Yuuki whispered.

"Sh. Maybe it can't see us from up here."

It growled loudly and hacked a sizeable chunk off the tree trunk.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure it can." said Yuuki.

The tree began to fall as the [Forest Demon] swung away at the tree and Kirito released another [Rope Dart] into a nearby tree. "Hang on!"

Yuuki clung to her date as the boy swung them to safety when the monster below finished tearing apart the bottom part of the giant tree. Kirito lowered them to the forest floor below using his new upgrade to his [Assassin's Gear] as a sort of winch again and stared off at the gigantic demon bear deer hybrid.

"I thought there wouldn't be any monsters on our date." quipped Kirito.

"Shut up and fight." Yuuki charged as fast as she could against the beast as Kirito smirked.

He pulled his hood over his head and drew his [Hidden Blades].

The beast slashed at Yuuki, and she dodged, sliding across the forest floor on her knees, and coming up by charging up her sword, multiple purple slashes cutting across the beast's chest in a [Quintuple Hacks]. It staggered back from the power of Yuuki's attacks, Kirito latching onto the [Deer Horror]'s neck with a rope dart and flying into its collarbone and driving his blade as deeply as he could into it.

It roared in pain as Kirito took to Yuuki's side as it stepped back. The monster wrapped its claw around an entire tree and flung it at the teens, roots and all. Yuuki sliced it in half with the precision of her strike, Kirito latching both his rope darts into the beast's shoulders. He flew as fast lightning into the deer monster's chest, leaving a clean red cut across its chest and kicking off its head with a snap kick to fly backward.

When it stumbled back and grew angrier, it smacked Yuuki aside with a claw and came sprinting towards Kirito, trees flying away from the power the charge built up.

As Yuuki smashed against a tree, Kirito pulled himself upward with a rope dart and the [Deer Horror] missed completely. He unattached himself from the branch above and latched himself back onto the neck of the beast below, flying downward and spinning he cut a gigantic slash into the mob's nape.

It fell and Kirito ran to Yuuki to help her recover from the attack. When he saw the beast get up and roar again, Kirito engaged the forest monster with rolls around its smashes and claw hacks, leaving small cuts across its hairy and gigantic arms as he cut across them and ran to the beasts chest.

His hidden blades glowed bright blue when he activated [Double Stab], loading up his knives when he drove them as far as he could into the demon's chest. It managed to grab Kirito and hurl him against a tree in anger.

He managed to control himself midair and leap off the tree trunk with his legs toward the beasts face. Instead of opening its jaws and swallowing Kirito whole, it knocked the boy away and attacked again before he could recover from the blow. If Kirito had not rolled away just in time he likely would've died under the [Deer Horror]'s claw when it tried to pancake him under its massive fist.

Before the monster could attack Kirito again, Yuuki cut across its back to get its attention. When it turned around to Yuuki, Kirito's rope dart flew quicker than ever before and right into its eye. Moving so quickly he drove his hidden blade into the monster's neck before it could shriek in pain, Kirito flew off the monsters head by leaping off its head as strongly as he could with a backflip.

The demon lost sight in its left eye as Kirito's rope dart ruined it and it shrieked in pain, roaring even louder in increasing anger at the two beta testers fighting it.

"The fuck!?" Kirito yelled. "How is it not dead!?"

Yuuki twirled her sword around her hand. "We gotta cut off its head." she looked to him and nodded the two jumping back into the fray once more.

Flying around speedy claws together the two struck the beast as hard as they could, dashing up its chest with multiple consecutive cuts. When they reached the [Deer Horror]'s head, they both struck it onto its back with a combined blow.

It fell and Yuuki spun downward, landing and dragging her [Sword of Midnight] cleanly across the beast's neck sending dirt flying about when she removed its head from its body.

Kirito nodded and smiled in approval before receiving a notification.

[Result]:

|Exp- 1103|

|Col- 1709|

|Items- 2|

Kirito checked his inventory and saw that he had gotten a |Demon Heart| as well as a |Deer Horror Eye|. He knew they didn't have much value besides selling them or making potions so he just shrugged when seeing this.

"Well, I guess we just went back to how it was in the beta huh?" Yuuki looked at him.

Kirito nodded. "Yeah I guess so. For being my first date ever, this was a ton of fun."

"Let's go get some dinner." Yuuki tossed a Kirito a [Teleport Crystal].

~000~

Kirito returned home with Yuuki to see the new dojo area Leafa had made in it and Leafa and Asuna spar as hard as they could in the middle of the ring. Asuna's improvement showed, barely holding her own against the experienced kendoka.

Leafa struck twice high and once low, knocking Asuna's legs out from under her.

Being driven back from the speed and ferocity of Asuna's strikes whence she spun back onto her feet, Leafa wiped some sweat off her forehead as Asuna had more than pushed her for the day. Leafa and Asuna circled each other, making intense eye contact as neither made the first move. Striking suddenly, Asuna's leg sweep missed and Leafa jumped over it barely.

When she landed their shinais connected when they smacked them together when Leafa's slash met Asuna's block. Asuna hacking at Leafa's ribs but missing when she stepped back before Leafa dodged a strike to her temple. The two failed to land any attacks on each other as they went back and forth fighting. Like waves crashing against each other, the dojo was filled with the loud cracking of bamboo against bamboo Leafa, one dodging, parrying, or jumping at low and high strikes when the other attacked.

Finishing their movement in sync, Leafa finished the fight by grabbing onto Asuna's arm when she thrusted and tripping her into the mat. She straddled Asuna's torso quickly and laid her shinai against Asuna's throat. The two kept panting as Leafa helped Asuna up off the ground.

"Have you two been practicing all day?" pondered Yuuki.

"Mhm!" Asuna used a towel to dry her face of sweat. "Let's eat shall we?"

Yuuki and Kirito made eye contact after Leafa and Asuna laughed and put their arms around each other's shoulders when they left the ring, complimenting each other on how they performed during an entire day's worth of intense sparring. Kirito muttered in Yuuki's ear. "Should we tell them we're going out?"

"Maybe. But we'll know when the time's right." Yuuki answered.

~000~

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