Chapter Text
Klein sighed as he watched the ground rush by. The sound of the Bullheads engines drowned out all other noise, not that he minded much.
It had been five weeks since SNO's launch day. Five weeks since Klein ended up stuck in this game, fighting for his life. And yet the reality still hadn't set in. Him and the rest of his friends had done pretty well so far, the tips and tricks Kirito taught him helping them to buy two whole Bullheads, one of which he was currently sitting on the edge of, letting his feet hang from the cargo door. The ships themselves were certainly interesting looking. A bulbous grey body with wings set over the top. VTOL thrusters sat on the ends, capable of space travel, but more effective in atmosphere.
They'd been doing constant missions, not even stopping in the City of Beginnings for close to three weeks. He hadn't seen Kirito since the first day, when he left to find a quest. In all honesty, Klein didn't even know if the kid was still alive, but he figured Kirito more than likely was. At least, he certainly hoped so. Especially since a certain visitor had come by asking about him. Klein shuddered at the memory.
"Hey boss, we're almost at the drop point." One of his friends, Harry One, said. Klein sighed once more before pushing up to his feet.
"Alright boys, I'ma go through this one more time, so listen up!" The four men present all circled around the center of the Bullhead, where Klein had set up a hologram.
"This right here is Kunai village. According to the quest we picked up in Tolbana from a totally not sketchy lady, pirates are attacking the village en masse. For some reason, pirates seem to be a very popular theme on this planet. Regardless, our job is to drop in, eliminate the baddies, and enjoy a nice reward of 3,000 Col a piece. Any questions?"
One of the men raised his hand. He was of slight build, with a narrow face and swept back hair. Klein pointed towards him.
"Yes, Issin?"
"What's our team composition going to look like?"
Klein taped on the holo-map and indicated two paths through the village.
"You and Kunimittz are going to take the back alleys towards this building here." He pointed towards what looked like a church in the village center. "You're running long range, with Kuni on backup."
Klein highlighted the second path. "Me, Dynamm, and Harry One will take the main street towards the center. Our goal is to try and limit civilian casualties and fulfill the mini quest. Once we make it to the square, both teams will try and set up a blockade, stopping the pirates before they get any further."
"Boss, you might wanna wrap it up. Two minutes." The last member of the team, Dale, shouted from the cockpit.
"Alright gents, time to lock and load."
Klein grabbed his M4 from where it sat in the mini weapons locker, before tossing a second rifle towards Issin, who caught it easily. It looked like a souped up version of Kleins rifle, with dull blue paint covering the receiver and elongated magwell. A rather expensive looking scope helped show its intended use.
"Still have no idea how you managed to get a New World Longbow in the last fight." Issin chuckled as he checked over the sniper.
"Heh, glad I have it though."
Klein checked over his red Helljumper armor. It was more reminiscent of medieval armor, with hard plates covering the chest, shoulders, and other vital areas. All of them had similar black and red paint jobs, with random armor pieces being worn to help tell the difference between them all.
"Alright, helmets on folks!"
They all did so, completing the armor set and making it nigh impossible to differentiate them, spare their specialized gear.
"Okay," Klein started, transmitting to their radios "You have your assignments. Remember, if your health gets too low you can call for evac. No quest is worth your life."
"Coming in hot boss!"
"Alright boys, let's do this," Klein turned towards the Bullheads side hatch, getting ready to jump.
"Don't worry, we'll make papa Fuurin proud!" Harry said, earring a chorus of laughter from the rest of them. Klein rolled his eyes.
"Thank you for volunteering to take point. Let's get this done."
The Bullhead came in for a landing on the outskirts of town, right where the buildings began. Harry and Klein both dropped down from the hatch, rifles up.
"Clear."
"Clear!"
The rest of the Fuurinkazan dropped behind them, save for Dale, who began flying away from the drop zone.
"I'll circle back and provide aerial support. Radar online in three."
"Copy. Team one heads for the steeple. Team two on me."
Klein ran for a row of buildings lining the street. Harry fell into step behind him, watching the other side. Dyn was in the back, watching their six.
Before SNO, Klein and his guild, Fuurinkazan, had been avid fans of FPS games. When VR started getting popular, Fuurinkazan decided to join in on the hype, playing plenty of mil-sim games. They even started going to airsoft events before SNO was announced. As the first Full-Dive game, they had to play it, especially because it finally gave them a more realistic feeling version of combat.
Needless to say, they regretted that decision. But their experience in other games and real life made it easy to adapt.
Gunshots could be heard ahead of them, as well as screaming. Klein picked up the pace, trusting the others to do the same.
"Boss, we got road blockage on our end. Gonna have to cut through the buildings."
"Roger. Stay quiet."
"This is Pheonix, coming in with radar support."
"Since when do you have a callsign?" Harry asked
"Since I wanted to. Plus 'Dale coming in with radar support' just sounds dumb."
"Heh, yeah. But still, 'Phoenix' sounds too cool for you. Maybe try 'Hen'." Harry said with a chuckle.
"Quit the chatter, we're on a job." Klein snapped. Not a moment later, the radar showed up on his heads-up-display. "Harry, watch the scans and tell me if anything unusual comes up."
"Got it."
"Fuck! Contact, contact!"
"Cover, cover! I'm tagged!"
Klein stopped dead in his tracks. "Issin, Kuni, what's going on?!"
"Roadblock was a distraction, an ambush set up inside. " Klein could hear the steady staccato of gunfire through the comms. "We'll be fine, head to the rendezvous."
"No, we're inbound. Stay down till we get there."
"Boss, wait!" Harry called, stopping him.
"What?!"
Harry cringed at the anger in his tone but didn't back down. "I'm picking up something weird on radar. Player signatures close to the square."
"Fuck." In most MMO style games, questlines had a dedicated server, so that you were never interrupted by other players during an important mission. It was called an 'instance dungeon'. SNO had no such feature, which meant if you started a raid on a village, the players there would also get stuck in it.
"They're also surrounded. Like, badly."
Klein snarled and punished the wall. "Damn it. Team one, are you sure you can make it without support?"
"A-firm"
"Alright, fuck. Team two we are being repurposed for search and rescue. It's our fault these players are stuck in this mess, so we gotta get them out. We don't have time to be tactical about this, just move fast and watch your six. Let's move."
The three of them broke out into a dead sprint, watching radar all the while. Klein could see the building ahead of him, a squat townhouse connected to more around it. Humanoid creatures surrounded it, rifles in hand.
"Weapons free boys!" He shouted before taking cover behind a broken down car. Harry and Kuni did the same on the other side of the street.
Klein brought the M4 to his shoulder, letting his finger rest on the trigger.
Crack!
He dropped one of the pirates. The rest began to panic before his team opened fire. Half the enemy squad was down, while the last five got to cover. Klein dropped behind the car's engine block as the began returning fire. Shit, if they call for reinforcements this could turn into a protracted firefight. Not good…
Before he could think on it further, the sound of a window shattering reached his ears. Klein peeked his head out of cover to see a player jumping out of the second story. It looked like a pre-teen girl.
"Boss, are you seeing this? What the hell's that little girl doing?"
Before Klein could respond, the girl hit the ground in a roll, right next to one of the pirates. Said pirate turned to shoot her, and Klein tried to hit him first.
He needn't have.
The girl knocked the rifle aside before drawing the pirate's knife and stabbing into his chest. Then, in a show of in-game strength, she spun the body in front of her blocking shots from one of the other hostiles. The girl grabbed her prey's sidearm before throwing his body at the second pirate. The others obviously noticed her by now, three guns turning to fire on her.
She looked vaguely surprised as the one furthest from her dropped dead, courtesy of Harry. The girl then rushed the closest, firing the pistol into his chest. Before he went down, she used his body to vault over towards his friend. As she tore though the pirates, Klein heard something he didn't expect.
Laughter. She was giggling hysterically while killing them, a huge grin on her face. She finished off the fourth one, before rushing towards the pirate she originally incapacitated. He had managed to get the corpse off him, however his rifle sling was caught on the body. The NPC cursed before attempting to draw his sidearm.
"Hiiiiiii~" The girl said before blasting his head off with the stolen pistol.
Klein watched all this with slight terror. This little girl had just eliminated an entire NPC squad without breaking a sweat, and she was laughing!
"A-alright boys, lets uh, go make sure she's okay." The rest of Team two looked at him like he was crazy. Still, Klein prided himself on being honorable, and he couldn't not check on the girl.
"Excuse me, miss? Are you alright?" He yelled as he ran up to her. The little girl turned to him with a manic grin.
"Oh I'm just swell. Although you might wanna check on the ones inside. They got a little scared, the pussies."
Klein was shocked to hear her talk like that, but that didn't matter at the moment. She mentioned others, and checking his radar he saw two more player signatures in the building. He walked up to the door and opened it slowly.
"Hey I'm coming in, don't be alarmed!" He called out before making his way to where the green dots indicated. There, in a small bedroom, sat two teenagers, a boy and a girl. The boy had brownish-grey hair, with eyes of silver. The girl had brown hair with a small braid in it, with matching eyes. Both were dressed in beginners' fatigues. They looked terrified.
"You guys okay?"
The boy nodded. "T-thank you for trying to save us. Sorry if our companion got in your way."
She had actually saved their bacon but Klein didn't bother to correct the kid. "What are you guys even doing in this town? You don't look equipped to be this far from the city."
"W-we were wanting to start getting stronger. But we hadn't really done anything up to this point so we didn't know where to start…" He trailed off, and the brown haired girl continued.
"That girl said she knew the easiest way to level up, so we followed her out here. Before we knew it the town was under siege."
Klein nodded along as they spoke, making note to figure out just what the hell was up with the little girl outside.
"So, uh, why exactly did you trust her?"
The boy looked at the girl, who started squirming uncomfortably. "Don- don't you recognize her?"
Klein looked out the broken window to the crazy girl. Black hair, white fatigues, short as hell. He could admit she did look vaguely familiar, but he didn't know why.
"I mean, not really. Anyway, we need to get you out of here. I have a ship in the air that can evacuate you. Are you two armed?"
They both nodded. The boy pulled out a handgun, and the girl a combat knife.
"You have got to be shitting me." Klein said with a sigh. He opened his own inventory and pulled out his old pump shotgun, tossing it and some ammo at the boy, who fumbled a bit before catching it. He then loaded a spare MP7 in with some ammo and left it for the girl.
"Here. Take these and load up. Meet me outside when you're ready." He paused before getting up. "By the way, what are your names?"
The boy hesitated before replying. "I'm Nautilus, this is Yuna."
"Cool, I'm Klein. Let's get you two out of here."
Klein left the room to let them get prepared, comin back out the front door. The crazy girl was sitting on the bed of a destroyed truck, kicking her feet happily.
"Team two, on me now. Team one, status?"
"We survived. Issin got tagged twice but the med kit healed him right up."
"Copy, make your way to the rez. We'll meet you there shortly. Picked up some passengers."
With that done, Klein walked up to the young girl. She was busy tearing into Harry One, who had made the unfortunate decision to follow Klein.
"You stole one of my kills!"
"Actually I covered your ass."
"I had it handled." Klein could feel a headache coming on as Harry spoke to the girl, which was just doubled by the fact he knew he recognized her from somewhere. He couldn't place it however, until Dyn caught up with them.
"No way… aren't you that famous singer? Elsa Kanzaki?"
The girl grimaced as Dyn spoke. Klein was shocked as he realized Dyn was right.
"In this world, my name is Pitohui, got it?"
"Huh? O-oh yeah, sure. Mind if we just call you Pito?"
The girl, Pito, shrugged. "Fine with me." She turned to Klein. "Get stooges one and two to come out yet? I'm boredddd."
"Nautilus and Yuna are coming out soon, yes. After that we'll try to evac you guys in the Bullhead. We would do it now, but the streets are not big enough to land here and we can't backtrack now. So you may have to be prepared for combat."
"Good, I can actually have fun." Pito kicked off the truck and walked away, staring down the road.
"Well she's certainly… interesting." Harry said. Klein felt the need to agree, except replacing the word 'interesting' with 'batshit'.
"Mister Klein sir, we're ready." The nervous boy, Nautilus, and his companion had come out while Klein was distracted. He sighed and walked over to the girl before taking the MP7 from her and extending the stock, before handing it back. Yuna took it with an embarrassed look.
"You don't need to call me 'Mister' or 'sir'. Now you both should know there is an almost one-hundred-percent chance of combat ahead of us, so you need to prepare yourself."
They both glanced at each other, some silent message passing between them. The girl looked back at Klein with a determined expression.
"We're ready."
The blade streaked down towards its target, striking it with a mighty thunk!
Asuna stepped back with a sigh, before bringing her wrist up to wipe the sweat on her brow. She looked at the wooden practice target with hate, even as she brought her practice sword up for another strike.
"Your stance is off. If you keep your feet that close together you won't have any balance." And there was something else she hated at the moment, despite her debt. Diavel sat on a stone, sipping some tea, as he watched her toil away. He'd been sitting there for close to two hours, occasionally offering some small comments on her progress, or lack thereof.
Asuna seethed silently to herself before correcting her stance. She brought the wooden sword up in a guard position. The blade was longer than she was used to, but the bokken was the shortest practice sword available for crafting. It wasn't even meant for practice, being a decorative item.
Another twack! sounded as she hit the dummy once again. This time an uncomfortable vibration went up her arm, making Asuna want to drop the sword entirely.
"Your edge alignment was off. Make sure you aim properly."
The comment sent her over the edge. Asuna threw the sword to the ground with a growl before glaring at Diavel accusingly.
"Shouldn't you be busy recruiting or something? Or preparing for the battle?"
He seemed to consider the question before answering. "Well normally yes, but seeing as I've been doing so non-stop since I recruited you two weeks ago, I decided to give myself some breathing time. If I'm not well rested, then we might end up with a bad plan that gets everyone killed. Besides, I got someone else to help with recruitment."
A certain boy in black came to mind when he said that. "Let me guess, Kirito?"
Diavel raised an eyebrow at her remark.
"No actually, someone else. It's strange, I don't think I've ever seen you react so hostile to anyone before. You seem to get on fine with Agil and Kibaou."
She grimaced at the reminder of Diavels other lieutenants. Agil was fine, in fact she rather liked the man. Kibaou however? His personality practically screamed cockyness and a need to be seen. She was only polite to him because she knew he was important to Diavels operation.
Which begged the question, why didn't she do the same for Kirito? She had only really talked to the boy once, and he seemed nice enough. She just… didn't like him. Asuna had no idea why Diavel put so much stock into what seemed to be an average teen boy.
"I just… don't trust him is all." Diavel took a sip of his tea, reminding Asuna as to why she was mad in the first place. "But nevermind that. Why do I even need to practice with a sword anyway? I have a gun if things get bad." She gently patted the leather holster on her hip, the same one Diavel had given her when they first met.
"Because a gun isn't always viable. Think about it, if you're on a ship and trying to capture it, you don't want bullets flying around damaging everything. Later in the game you'll see people using plasma weapons, but in lieu of that melee is also a popular choice. Especially in a game like this where if you have a high enough agility stat you can dodge bullets to an extent."
As usual, he presented her with a sound argument full of facts and logic. Asuna hated that she could never argue with him, or get him angry. He always shot back with a calm and well thought out explanation. It was both his most infuriating trait and the one she lov-... liked the most about him.
"Fine, but I still don't think I need this much practice. I can fight just fine without it." Asuna turned away while she spoke, not wanting to see his calm demeanor anymore.
"Then how about a compromise?" She heard an item materialize as he spoke. "If you can beat me, you can go back to the ship."
"Wha-?" She was cut off mid turn by a sharp jab in her side. Asuna hit the ground hard, before turning to glare at her assailant. Diavel rested his own bokken on his shoulder, grinning down at her.
"Hm. Guess you still need some practice, eh?"
She grabbed her discarded sword and jumped up, bringing it back for a heavy strike. Diavel turned his body out of the way, letting the blade pass him harmlessly.
"Come now, a snail could dodge that. You have to be less telegraphed."
She continued to strike at him, cutting and slashing in large sweeping blows. He dodged every one, smirk never once leaving his face. Asuna's arms began to tire from the strain, sweat dripping from her form.
On her next strike, Asuna thrusted her sword towards him in a piston motion. Diavel dodged like always, but this time she felt a hand push the back of her head. Asuna stumbled forwards before tripping over his outstretched leg.
She landed on her knees, breath coming out in short pants. She spun around, only to find the blue haired man already leaving.
"Keep practicing!" He called over his shoulder. "Maybe one day you won't be so useless with a sword."
Asuna grabbed a fistful of the grass under her. She wouldn't be useless. She couldn't afford to be.
The City of Beginnings was bustling with activity. Kirito found himself pleasantly surprised by the mood around the main markets, as well as the large amount of noise. People were chatting adamantly, buying things and selling. Some players had set up small shops, with craftable wares on display. He could tell these were more recent ventures, however, as there was already a few player owned shops around.
Still, there was a slight desperation to the way people acted. Smiles felt plastic, and the conversations bland. It felt as though they were trying to keep some semblance of normalcy.
Scattered among the crowds, Kirito could see a different kind of player. These ones wore more functional clothing, with weapons strapped randomly across their bodies. They were players like himself, who chose to fight instead of hiding in the city. He'd heard Diavel refer to them as 'Frontliners', and he supposed the name fit.
And that was another enigma Kirito had yet to solve. Diavel was apparently someone he knew from the beta, but his name didn't ring any bells. He'd claimed to go under a different handle at the time, but Kirito didn't know why the man would give up his beta rewards just to change his name and avatar.
On top of that, Kirito had no idea how the man had been able to afford the Anneal. No one should have been able to buy a ship of that size on World One. And yet Diavel somehow managed to.
Kirito let his thoughts on the matter die down as he inspected a coat from a player vendor. Said player looked on nervously, no doubt worried he wouldn't make a sale. Kirito hummed as he looked the article over. It was a simple thing, really just a charcoal peacoat, with no real advantages except warmth. Not that it really mattered since he was looking more for casual clothes than anything. Walking around town in an officer's uniform was rather strange after all.
He paid the player the required amount, plus a little extra. The player's eyes widened at the gesture. Kirito left before he could thank him, throwing the coat over his uniform. It was a rather chilly day, so the extra warmth didn't make him uncomfortable. He had already bought some gloves from another vendor, and was working on warming his hands up.
A small cafe nearby caught Kirito's attention just as a few small snowflakes drifted through the evening air. He could hear laughter emanating from within, drawing him towards the door. Kirito pushed the frosted glass open, hearing a small bell ring as he did so. A few eyes traced towards him as he walked in, however most ignored him entirely.
Upon closer inspection, Kirito realized he'd mistaken what the shop was. It appeared to be a cafe/bar combo, serving both typical drinks like tea and coffee, as well as alcohol. Being closer to the evening, most appeared to be drinking the latter. Kirito passed more than a few drunk faces as he headed towards the main bar. There were plenty of seats free, most sitting at tables with large groups. He sat in one of the tall stools lining the bar, getting comfortable before browsing some of the drinks they had on display.
"What can I get'cha hun?" Kirito looked up to find a blond woman behind the bar. Her words sounded translated, although from what language he didn't know. Her features were western, as was the flannel uniform she had on. In fact, the entire cafe seemed American themed, which wasn't too much of a surprise considering how many American players there had to be. Kirito was just lucky to run into mostly Japanese.
"I guess a beer. Seems to be what everyone else is enjoying."
The bartender looked him up and down with a skeptical eye. "Are you old enough to drink?"
"Depends on whose country's laws we're going by." That was a bluff at best since the Japanese drinking age was twenty, and America's was twenty-one. Still, the blonde woman seemed to appreciate the retort if her laughter was anything to go by.
"I guess you're right kid, I guess you're right." She opened a bottle and slid it in his direction. Kirito caught it easily. "So, what's your name kid?"
"Kirito, and you?"
"Kara. I'm the owner of this fine establishment."
Kirito raised an eyebrow. "I wasn't aware there were any player restaurants yet."
Kara seemed to give him an odd look. "You haven't been in the city for a bit then. This is one of more than a few. Rent in the first city is cheap."
He only hummed in return before taking a tentative sip of the beer in his hand. It didn't taste great, with a heavy stodgy texture. Kirito had never had beer before, and now he was wondering why people drank it. Kara had left to serve someone farther down on the bar, and Kirito took the opportunity to look around the cafe.
It was sparsely decorated, with only a modern-ish looking jukebox in the corner. Other than that, there were no real decorations to speak of, most likely on account of a lack of money. Most of the occupants seemed to be normal players, with only a few frontliners mixed in. Waitresses were walking around serving drinks, dressed in the same flannel and skirt combo Kara had been wearing. Despite that, Kirito could see a few of them were not American, with one Japanese girl serving.
She looks young, probably thirteen. Far too young to work at a bar. He wasn't much better either way, sipping on a beer.
"So, what's your story?" Kara said, interrupting Kirito's thoughts. He hadn't even heard her come back.
"My story?" He asked, uncertain as to what she meant.
"Sure, everyones got some story as to what they've been doing for the last month."
Kirito thought for a moment, trying to figure out a way to make 'sitting on a ship for five weeks' sound not boring.
"Well, I've mostly been doing quests, getting gear and such. I was going to buy a ship but my captain beat me to it. Other than that I fought a boss, got shot, and a few other less impressive things." He said the last part with a smile that was echoed by the blonde barkeep.
"Ah I'm sure your other tales are no less impressive. Still a frontliner? Wouldn't have guessed it." She nodded towards his unfinished beer. "That's on the house by the way. All Fronters get one free."
"Thanks. But yeah, I figured it's better to at least try and clear the game. Even if we lose, we can lose with pride."
"Do you think we will?" Kirito looked up in surprise. Kara had a worried look on her face, and she wouldn't meet his eyes. "Lose, I mean."
"No way." Kirito took some satisfaction in her shocked look. "After all, I have a family to go back to. I can't lose. I refuse to."
"Heh, you're right I suppose. Well I'll leave you with your drink. Call if ya need anything."
With that she was gone, serving the next customer. Her question was still fresh on his mind, and not because of her forlorn look. It was because of the one battle that caused him to question if the game was beatable at all. The one battle that he participated in.
The battle for World Eight.
Gunfire tore through the spot above Kleins shoulder, making him curse and roll to the side. He was grateful a second later when an RPG hit the once solid cover.
"Can't catch a fuckin' break."
"Boss, psycho girl cleared the spot ahead. We're almost to the square." Over the sound of his radio, Klein could hear Pitohui laughing maniacally. How she managed to clear an entire building of hostiles with her bare hands, he wouldn't question.
"Alright. Team two, move in towards the square. Team one, eliminate all hostiles in sight."
A chorus of agreements came over the speakers, before he heard the crack of a sniper. That's Issins Longbow. Perfect.
Klein moved away from his makeshift cover and regrouped with Team two. Their new tagalongs filed in behind him, while Pito continued to move far ahead of the group and demolish anything in their path.
"Approaching rendezvous, twenty meters." Harry One said as they were running. Klein could see a large archway ahead, no doubt the entrance to the town center.
"Issin, what are we looking at in terms of hostiles?"
"Not too many, I cleared a squad. That being said, reinforcements are approaching from the east. You guys might want to get here fast."
"Way ahead of you." Klein replied as they passed under the archway. A large, open space lay beyond, with little inside of it besides a few tented shops. It honestly seemed more like a courtyard than a town square, which was why Klein picked it.
"Target, target!"
Gunfire exploded from their left, sending the team scrambling for cover. Klein felt two rounds impact his chest. His armor stopped them, but not the force behind them. He felt a sharp pain in his ribs, one that only promised to get worse as one of the more melee oriented NPCs noticed his hesitation.
The pirate charged in with a machete, chopping down towards Kleins head. He held his rifle up like a quarter-staff, too close to use it properly. The blade bit into the rifle's handguard, before Klein wrenched it out of the NPC's hands and threw it aside. Before the pirate could react, he drew his pistol and fired three rounds into it.
Klein didn't have time to grab the damaged M4 as another NPC rushed him with a battle-cry, this one wielding a hatchet. Before he could even think of dispatching him, a whirr sounded behind him, followed by the deafening sound of gatling gun fire.
"Need a hand down there?"
"Ha! Dale, I could kiss you right now!"
"Do me a favor and don't. Coming in for a landing, keep the LZ clear."
Klein sighted more enemies and fired, causing them to stay behind cover. The rest of Team two began making their way towards the landing area, keeping their own weapons trained on the pirates. Klein could see Team one scaling down the church steeple.
The Bullhead slowly began its descent behind them, causing the pirates to get a bit more aggressive. They began firing over cover, trying to stop Fuurinkazan from escaping. Kleins handgun bucked in his hands as he shot round after round, only stopping to reload. The Bullhead touched down behind them, the door on the side already open.
"Shit! Kid got tagged!" Klein cursed as he looked behind him. Nautilus was on the ground with red staining his shirt. He wasn't dead, at least not yet.
"Get him on that ship! We're getting the hell out of here." From the corner of his eye, Klein saw Pitohui detach from a now dead enemy squad to regroup with them. He turned and ran towards the Bullhead, trusting those already on board to cover him. He and Pito reached it at the same time, jumping on before it began ascending.
"Is everyone here?!"
"All accounted for, boss." Harry said while applying a medical syringe to Nautilus, who seemed to be unconscious. Yuna hovered close by with a pinched look on her face.
"How's he?" Klein asked, nodding towards the wounded boy.
"He'll live. If we hadn't packed extra syringes he may not have." Klein nodded before sitting back on the Bullheads ledge, safe now that they exerted the town. He leaned against one wall while staring back towards the town they came from. Fires could be seen overtaking it, with black smoke billowing. Certainly immersive…
"Woah kid! You shouldn't be standing yet!"
Klein turned to find Nautilus staggering towards him. His face was pale from blood-loss, soot staining it. "Mr. Klein, I wanted to thank you for getting us out of there."
"Of course, but you should probably sit down, kid. You lost a good bit of blood." Something the game was all too happy to punish you for. Klein was convinced at this point that Kayaba was some sort of sadist.
"Yeah, s-sure." He sat down with a wince, only to grunt as a missile in the shape of a girl hit his back.
"I was so worried! I can't believe you got shot!" Yuna went over all his injuries, checking and prodding, much to Nautilus' dismay. The display was somewhat wholesome, leaving Klein to chuckle silently.
"There good kids, eh?" Klein was surprised to find Pito sat next to him, blood coating her clothing.
"Isn't it a little strange for you to say that?"
She looked at him with a confident expression that didn't quite match her features. "Actually, I'm twenty-three."
Yeah hi God what the fuck.
He noticed some of the blood was pooling beneath her. Klein followed the trail to a messy wound in her side.
"You're injured!" She grinned before laying back onto the floor.
"Haha, isn't it great! I can feel my life dripping away!"
Harry already noticed Kleins exclamation and was pulling out another medical kit. He slowly pulled Pito inside the Bullhead despite her protests.
Somehow he thought everything was gonna be okay.