Railgun Online, Book 1: Never Forget
Chapter 4: Gekota Packed My Lunch
"W-woah! Yikes...!"
Mikoto held on to the reins of her steed for dear life as she clopped alongside Kirito and Asuna's horses.
"You okay, Railgun?" said Asuna.
"She's never ridden a horse before," said Kirito. "She maxed out her speed stat, so she's really never needed one."
"Y-yeah... usually I just run wherever I need to go," Mikoto muttered. "Woah! Not that way, horse! Not that way!"
"It isn't as complicated as riding a real horse," said Asuna. "Just stay calm and direct it with the reins. I know it feels weird, but you'll get used to it."
Asuna had brought four members of the Knights of the Blood Oath along with her. One of them rode closer and whispered to her, "Listen, m'lady, are you sure we should be bringing Glitch Blade along? She might cause all of us to freeze up or something and get killed."
Asuna gave the man a cold glare. "Firstly, if I hear the words 'Glitch Blade' one more time, I will demote you. Second, she could beat you in a duel without breaking a sweat, so if you think you're any more useful than she is, you've got a problem."
The man gritted his teeth. "But ma'am, she's..."
"Careful what you say, Roshank," said Asuna, "because I'm not in the mood."
Roshank went silent at that.
The large forest didn't look like a place where murderers would hang out, with tall trees and wildflowers blooming everywhere on the forest floor. It looked more like a quiet place for a couple's picnic.
"I don't think Laughing Coffin will be going anywhere," said Kirito. "They're probably waiting to ambush anybody who comes after them. That's why they let some of the others survive. We don't need to hurry, so we can stop here for a bite, at least."
"Sure," said Asuna. "I packed some lunch."
As everyone jumped down from their horses, Asuna began to hand out bags. When she got to Mikoto, however, the short-haired girl shook her head.
"Not hungry," Mikoto muttered.
"Don't believe her, Asuna," said Kirito. "She thinks that it's bad enough that I sometimes pay for her meals, and she doesn't want other people doing it because she'll feel like a moocher."
Mikoto glared at Kirito. "Well, thank you that, Mr. Blabbermouth!"
"Come on, Railgun!" said Asuna with a wink. "I made it myself."
Mikoto stared at the brown package for a minute, then took it. "H-how much do I owe you?"
"You don't owe me anything! Honestly," said Asuna. "I make it from ingredients I got while dungeon clearing. Now just sit down and eat. I want to know what you think!"
"You already know what I think of it," Kirito said as he began stuffing his mouth. "Mmmf... So good... I still don't get... why you don't sell these... you'd make a fortune..."
Mikoto sat down against a tree away from the others. She always ate by herself when taking a break during a dungeon raid. She could tell that the other three from the KoB didn't want anything to do with her. She opened the package Asuna gave her and stared at the large triangular sandwich, with its assortment of meats and veggies and yummy looking sauce.
Mikoto wasn't too excited. A lot of the food in SAO looked good, but it actually tasted bland compared to the real deal. Although, Mikoto was confused about how she knew what the real deal was like when she had amnesia.
Mikoto bit into it, and something amazing hit her taste buds. It actually tasted like food! Oh my gosh! It tastes wonderful! Like a home cooked meal! Incredible! Amazing! Delicious!
And at that moment, a memory flashed through her mind.
"Here you go, Misaka! I thought Uiharu, Shirai, and I could have lunch with you at the park today, so I packed some sandwiches."
"It's delicious, Saten..." Mikoto murmured as a tear trickled down her cheek.
"Who’s Saten?"
Mikoto nearly fell over. Asuna was sitting next to her, and Mikoto hadn't even noticed.
"A-Asuna!" said Mikoto. "Er... t-to be honest, I don't know. Somebody special, I guess... who can cook..."
"Somebody you care about IRL, huh?" said Asuna with a smile. "Yeah. I get it. I bet you can't wait to get out of this game and get back to them, right?"
"Maybe," said Mikoto. "I don't know... I'll be glad if I find out who the heck I am first..."
"What?" said Asuna, feeling rather bewildered at what Mikoto just said.
"N-nothing!" said Mikoto hurriedly. "Th-this stuff is good, by the way. I haven't tasted something that was remotely like real food since... since... well, before I played SAO."
Asuna looked away. "I get it now. When Kirito said it was complicated... You don't remember anything, do you? About life before this game?"
"Wow," Mikoto muttered. "I'm a terrible liar."
Asuna smiled. "Don't worry. I'm sure your family will be waiting for you when you wake up, and it'll all come back. In the meantime, I think I have a little something that might cheer you up."
Asuna went to her item pouch and selected an item. In a flash of polygons, a large green frog plush doll the size of a throw pillow appeared in her arms. "This is Gekota. He's based off a mascot character from IRL. I got it during an event on-"
"W-wow," said Asuna. "You... really like it."
"D-don't tell anybody else," Mikoto squeaked, her face turning red. "I-I don't even remember why I like it."
"My lips are sealed," said Asuna. "You can count on it!"
"Th-thank you," Mikoto whispered.
Asuna smiled as she watched Mikoto eat while hugging the plush toy. She didn’t know why, but Railgun felt almost like a little sister to her. It was a sharp contrast from the rough and tough girl who always skipped meetings to go fight bosses on her own. On the inside, this girl was really cute and sweet.
"Say," said Asuna, "why does Kirito call you by your real name? Are you two...?"
"No," said Mikoto. "We're just friends. It's nothing romantic or anything. We might have dated if things turned out differently, but that ship has pretty much been left at sea. Mmmf... this is so good... so... eh? No... I-it's gone..."
Mikoto licked the crumbs from the packaging sadly. "It... was so good."
"Here, have another." said Asuna, bringing out another package.
"Y-you are an angel," Mikoto said, taking the sandwich. "Anyways... mmmf, delicious... I let him call me by my name because he's one of the only people who treats me like a real person. And I feel that if somebody keeps calling me Mikoto Misaka, then maybe it'll jog my memory, and I'll remember who Mikoto Misaka is... or was."
"Is that so?" said Asuna. "Well, if it helps, can I call you Misaka too?"
Mikoto looked at Asuna with surprise. "What?"
"Well, you need all the help remembering that you can get," said Asuna, "so why don't I help out too?"
Mikoto blinked for a moment in astonishment, but then she smiled and shrugged. "Sure, why not?"
"Ma'am, we should go." Roshank was standing above the two, holding the reins of Asuna's horse.
Mikoto's grip on her lunch stiffened as she noticed the cold look that Roshank was giving her.
Then, something happened that Mikoto wasn't expecting. Asuna put a protective arm around Mikoto’s shoulder. She gave Roshank a quiet warning look. Roshank seemed a little bewildered by this, but he gritted his teeth and walked off without saying anything.
Asuna gave Mikoto another smile. "Well, shall we go now, Misaka?"
Mikoto spent the rest of the trip thinking about how different Asuna was acting now than when she was in meetings.
During strategy meetings, Asuna was cold and calculating. Her personality seemed to clash with Kirito’s. As a result, the two were constantly arguing. In fact, it was taken for granted that Kirito and Asuna would be arguing over seemingly pointless details.
Agil, a strong dark-skinned axe wielder and a friend of Kirito's, would comment on it often. Agil was now friends with Mikoto too, through Kirito, and would sometimes remark on the subject to her, too.
"I think those two secretly have some sort of attraction for each other," Agil had said once. "Just you wait. Someday, they're going to go on a solo dungeon clearing trip together, and the next thing you know, they'll be married in-game."
Mikoto considered in-game marriage to be a total waste. It didn't have the same meaning as it did in real life. All it really meant was that you had shared item storage and that you were taking your dating relationship to a higher level.
In any case, Asuna's attitude towards Mikoto was usually on a totally different level than constant arguing. Mikoto always felt that Asuna thought she was a klutz and a moron, but, just now, Asuna had treated her like a little sister. Not that she knew or remembered what it was like to be somebody's sister. Was this what it was like?
The Asuna now was very different from the Asuna Mikoto thought she knew.
"Misaka," Kirito brought his horse to a stop. "You feel that?"
"Yeah..." Mikoto muttered. "We're being watched. Hold on."
Asuna silently signaled for her men to stop as Mikoto dismounted. After a moment of manipulating her menu, she had equipped a longbow made of crystal. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes as she took the bow and loaded an arrow. She could feel it, as if all the ones and zeros that made up the game were flowing through her brain. She found the lone target standing about eighty meters to her right.
Mikoto opened her eyes and aimed her bow at a figure wearing a dark hooded cloak, just standing there.
"Got him," said Mikoto.
"Well, what are you waiting for?!" one of Asuna’s men exclaimed. "Fire!"
Mikoto started to loosen her grip on the bowstring, but something stopped her. "Hold on. Something isn't right."
"Are you deaf, Glitch Blade?!" Roshank growled. "Just take the bastard already! He won't risk resisting if he takes massive arrow damage!"
"It would be wise to be silent right now, Roshank," Asuna growled. "What do you mean, Misaka?"
"Or you're baiting," Kirito finished. "They know we're here... He's distracting us! Stay on your guard."
The target in Mikoto's sights turned to look directly at her. He smiled underneath his open-jawed skull mask with red eyeholes and spoke quite audibly over the distance. "It's showtime."
"Move!" Asuna pulled Mikoto out of the way of a sword that nearly took Mikoto’s head off.
They were surrounded.
The skull-masked man dashed out into the clearing with extraordinary speed to join the similarly dressed and psychotic allies.
"Hello. Red-Eyed XaXa is the name, killing's the game," said Skull Mask. "What a lovely, lovely day! Don't you think?"
"A lovely day to put my blade through your face," Mikoto growled as she unequipped her bow and re-equipped her sword.
"Oh, a feisty one! Isn't that wonderful, boys?! We've got a feisty flat-chested girl on our list!" Red-Eyed XaXa spread out his arms and laughed along with the other members of his group, all of them sounding like a wild pack of hyenas.
Mikoto's expression turned furious. "F-flat-chested?!"
Red-Eyed XaXa drew what appeared to be a long, thin, rod-like spear, like some sort of needle. According to the item list, it was called an Estoc Thorn Sword.
All the other Laughing Coffin members copied their leader, drawing their own weapons and laughing.
"So, either they all went to clown school and flunked out for traumatizing children, or they're just crazy," Mikoto concluded.
"A-are you mad, Railgun?!" stammered Roshank. "We're outnumbered here! There's at least fifteen of them! And you're joking around like it's funny?!"
"Oh, she's not laughing," said Kirito. "She's pissed."
"Flat-chested my ass..." Mikoto growled, tightening her grip on Static Smite.
"So, I hear you've been doing a lot of killing in-game lately," said Asuna, her face in a determined glare. "Come quietly, and we won't have to get rough."
"You? Get rough with us?" said another Laughing Coffin member. "Hahaha! Wow, we're so scared! Somebody call the police! Princess Leia, The Rebel Alliance, Blackie, and Flat Chest over here are going to teach us a lesson!"
"Blackie?" Kirito muttered.
"Say flat-chested one more time..." Mikoto growled.
"Yeah, I think I'll start with flatty over there," said Red-Eyed XaXa. "Remember my name, girl... it's the last name you'll ever hear!"
Red-Eyed XaXa closed in at extraordinary speed, but before the point of the needle could make contact it was blocked by the Static Smite's blade.
"Wh-what?!" said XaXa with a bit of astonishment.
"Take a long look, skull boy," said Mikoto, "’cause this is the deepest you'll ever be in a woman."
"W-well oh yeah?!" said XaXa, seeming rather bewildered by the sudden burn. "Well... fuck you! ...Dammit."
Mikoto slammed Red-Eyed XaXa away with the flat of her blade before turning to grab Roshank, who was trying to sneak away into the bushes.
"Where do you think you're going?!" Mikoto snarled.
"You're crazy! We're going to die if we stay here!" Roshank stammered.
"We’re going to die anyway if you stay in the freaking bushes sniveling like a coward!" Mikoto roared. "Look around you! Your second-in-command needs your help! Either you die fighting or you die running! Which would you rather it be?!"
Roshank stood up, amazed at the righteous fury he could see in Mikoto's eyes. "We die fighting."
Asuna could hardly believe it. A girl who refused to join a guild was showing leadership skills beyond many of the players she knew.
Kirito grinned. "Hey, Misaka, your badass is showing."
"Oh, shut up" Mikoto muttered.
The other Laughing Coffin members weren't laughing now. One of the men turned to Red-Eyed XaXa for instructions. "H-hey! Boss, what do we do?! PoH said if they were too much for u just to plain run."
"They're just a bunch of overconfident sad saps," said Red-Eyed XaXa. "The devil waits for no invitation. Let's kill 'em good... kill 'em nice and dead."
And so they attacked. Kirito, Asuna, Mikoto, and the others fought with all their might, their combined skill proving impressive enough to make up for being outnumbered.
Mikoto found herself fighting one-on-one with Red-Eyed XaXa as the others fought multiple opponents themselves. That said, it was no picnic. Red-Eyed XaXa turned out to be extremely skilled, managing to dodge and parry many of Mikoto's swiftest blows.
Mikoto knew that all she needed to do was land one strike, and her opponent would be stunned for two seconds thanks to Static Smite's effects. Then she would only need one more blow to force a surrender out of XaXa with the sword's high critical hit ratio.
But XaXa wasn't providing many openings. His wild fighting style was causing Mikoto to defend more than attack.
"So! Railgun!" XaXa yelled with glee as he attacked. "That's you right? The Glitch Blade! Are you the real deal?!"
"Say what?" Mikoto gasped as she blocked another blow.
"You heard me!" said XaXa. "Are you the real deal?!"
Mikoto parried another attack. "What the hell are you talking about?!"
Mikoto scowled. "Shut up... and go to hell!"
That's when she felt it: a prickle of danger sense, making the hair on the back of her neck stand on end.
One of the Laughing Coffin members had come in from behind with a knife in his hand. But before the knife could reach her, Roshank dove in front of the knife. It stabbed in to his chest and took out the remaining hit points in his health bar.
Roshank fell into the frantic Mikoto's arms.
"No!" Mikoto screamed… she took out a potion and prepared to give it to Roshank, but he stopped her with a hand.
"It's... no use..." Roshank said. "I-I was wrong about you, Railgun... I'm... sorry... please protect… Lady Asuna..."
There was a burst of light, and Roshank shattered into a hundred multicolored polygons.
"N-no..." Mikoto grabbed at the polygons, as if she could put Roshank back together, but Roshank was gone. A man was dead because of her.
"Wow, look at you!" said Red-Eyed XaXa as his partner moved to stand next to him. "All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put that schmuck back together again! What makes you think you can? He's dead because of you! Haha!"
Something flashed, and Red-Eyed XaXa stepped back in shock as a blade stabbed into his shoulder and sent his HP bar into the yellow zone.
Mikoto's voice was full of venom as she spoke. "I'm... going to... kill you!"