During the same night as Shiro's all-nighter...
Right after waking up in the middle of the night, Kuroneko recalled what happened earlier after his "outrage". They actually went to grind for some levels before resting in that floor's city.
No one would find it surprising, however, since she's always with Shiro whenever he's up to something fun.
There's that time when they have to 'exorcise' a ghost on one mission, but they ended up seeing a thief. Then there's also that other time when Shiro accepted a mission to look for a missing cat, only for it to lead him to an ancient legacy that contained a busted growth-type dagger.
When the latter became more interesting, he pulled in someone to do it with him. Of course, it is none other than her.
As for Roman, Kouzuki, and Kal'tsit, their time is limited due to them needing to prepare for the upcoming calamities on their worlds. The first two has to deal with his unruly son and endless amounts of alien monsters, while the last one has to deal with the ongoing war in her planet.
It is also due to that reason that they couldn't fully concentrate in the game for the first few months, leaving the rest to play freely on it. Plus the fact that Shiro helped Kuroneko get used to the dagger, the former thought that the quest is a good practice for her.
"Such gap moe..." She couldn't help but mutter after remembering his innocent sleeping face.
Right now, her mind is filled with irrelevant thoughts. If those poor monsters whom she massacred saw this, they'll definitely do a double take just as how Cardinal did so the first time she saw this.
This is simply a young maiden in love!
"I saw a new side of him today."
Of course, she's talking about both his scary side and defenseless side. Honestly, she found it shocking that he could be that cruel, especially when he popped off their eyeballs with his bare hands.
No matter how used she is in seeing gore from watching Maschera and other anime, she found the scene scary and terrifying. Still, she got over it after realizing that's how Shiro truly is when he's pissed.
To his enemies, he's a demon incarnate. To his friends, he's the one that wouldn't abandon you and help you when you needed it. Them being his first friends that he made might be attributed to Shiro seeing them such as this, though it may also be a prominent characteristic of his in the past.
He might be harmless when it comes to most things, but no morals would hold him back when he's really at it. He simply acts as he wills.
Yet, it is also the same Shiro that everyone had accepted as a friend.
"Only if I could take a picture of it."
She felt regretful that she could only view it again on her memories and not in reality.
Alas, the Chat Group only allowed sharing files if it's connected to a device. That's how she sent those files in the first place. Only when it is sent through the panel could the recipient view them inside it.
Just like Shiro, Kuroneko didn't sleep for the rest of the night.
*****
Tap-!
==========
Place the Coffee Beans in the coffee maker?
Confirm / / Deny
=========
Clicking Accept, the bag of coffee beans that Shiro got from a quest got lessened. At the same time, it appeared on top of the coffee maker. Without further ado, the maker began doing its wonders once Shiro pressed "Yes" on the interface.
"Yawn... How's the thing on your side?"
Unsurprisingly, the one beside him is Kal'tsit whom is also about to brew some coffee. Ever since she discovered it, she quite liked the taste of it, especially when doing all-nighters.
Her body here is different from the one outside, after all. Concentration dropping is one of the few effects of lack of sleep. In regards to this, she felt the feeling of a normal being once more.
Her slightly tired eyes looked at him before she replied, "I managed to deduce the complete political landscape when I was gone. Being pre-occupied with The Silence took a huge chunk of my time."
"That sounds a lot of effort."
"I have to be ready once I return to Babel."
Hearing her mention the word 'return', he thought of what to do once it happens. Right now, they're already on the 66th floor. Thanks to their intervention, it only took a year to arrive at this point.
One has to know that in the canon, the players took nearly two years to reach this floor.
"There's only a few months before we return, right." He muttered as he poured in the coffee on their cups.
"What are your plans by then?"
"Plans, huh. I have none, to be honest. Maybe keep exploring Terra? I can't exactly visit Shinji's world... Roman's too."
Due to the intervention of both wills, he is 70% sure that he'll meet the other Shirou once he steps in. The Counterguardian EMIYA, to be exact; and Shiro's not confident to handle another Shirou.
That is, unless he uses his Time card and hope to get a strong enough time projection.
This is why he told Roman that he could only offer his help in the Temple of Solomon - Ars Paulina. It existed in the Imaginary Space where it is separated from space and time, thus Shiro could only hope that their influence there isn't strong.
"I'm interested in the company behind that guy, though."
"Ferdinand? He's a director of Rhine Labs."
"Rhine Labs?"
Nodding, Kal'tsit continued explaining, "It's a pharmaceutical company closely tied with the Colombian Government. If you're planning to cause trouble, you'll need some level of preparations."
"Mn, alright. I'm not that much of a troublemaker, y'know?"
"I doubt it." She deadpanned at the thought of him not causing trouble.
Shiro living peacefully? Having less than five casualty at Kazdel is more likely to happen than it. That's taking into account that there's war everyday in Kazdel.
Knowing how he encountered a trouble regarding Outer Gods the moment she met him, she immediately knew that it's his nature to be like this. Either he causes trouble or the trouble comes at him.
While the two are talking, another person arrived in the kitchen with droopy eyes.
"Good morning, Shinon-chan."
"Good morning, Shiro, Doctor."
Just as she was about to open the fridge, she realized that something is amiss.
"Wait... Am I still in the game?!"
"Yes..?" Shiro replied with a teasing tone.
Meanwhile, Kal'tsit kept her cold face as she affirmed, "Yes, you are still in the game."
"I forgot to log out!"
Embarrassed, she left Aincrad before waking up in the real world. She didn't stare at her room as she hurriedly prepared for school, which didn't go unnoticed by her grandparents.
"What's the rush?"
"I'll be late at school!"
"Wait a moment, eat your breakfast too."
Minutes later, she finished preparing for school and stormed off the house after saying goodbye to her grandparents.
"Is that Shino? I'm glad she's lively, unlike before." Her grandfather commented as he entered the house from the backyard.
"I told you to have some confidence with her. I knew she would overcome it."
Meanwhile, Shino is glad to see that the school gate is not closed yet.
"I never thought of oversleeping in Aincrad before..." She muttered as she regained her previous calmness and walked past it.
*****
Fact #32: In Sword Art Online, you can't feel pain. Unlike ALO where you can set the threshold for it, SAO completely blocked the sense of pain. Instead, players would only feel a "strange" sensation whenever they get cut. One such example is Kirito having his arm cut off. He didn't feel any pain (as evident with his face) and even fought against Kuradeel normally. Meanwhile, ALO has the option of 1:1 senses. Remember when Kirito used Heathcliff's ID and went admin mode? Well, he forcefully set Suguo's pain receptors to 1:1, all the whilst slashing and skewing him like a barbecue on his sword.
During the same night as Shiro's all-nighter...
Right after waking up in the middle of the night, Kuroneko recalled what happened earlier after his "outrage". They actually went to grind for some levels before resting in that floor's city.
No one would find it surprising, however, since she's always with Shiro whenever he's up to something fun.
There's that time when they have to 'exorcise' a ghost on one mission, but they ended up seeing a thief. Then there's also that other time when Shiro accepted a mission to look for a missing cat, only for it to lead him to an ancient legacy that contained a busted growth-type dagger.
When the latter became more interesting, he pulled in someone to do it with him. Of course, it is none other than her.
As for Roman, Kouzuki, and Kal'tsit, their time is limited due to them needing to prepare for the upcoming calamities on their worlds. The first two has to deal with his unruly son and endless amounts of alien monsters, while the last one has to deal with the ongoing war in her planet.
It is also due to that reason that they couldn't fully concentrate in the game for the first few months, leaving the rest to play freely on it. Plus the fact that Shiro helped Kuroneko get used to the dagger, the former thought that the quest is a good practice for her.
"Such gap moe..." She couldn't help but mutter after remembering his innocent sleeping face.
Right now, her mind is filled with irrelevant thoughts. If those poor monsters whom she massacred saw this, they'll definitely do a double take just as how Cardinal did so the first time she saw this.
This is simply a young maiden in love!
"I saw a new side of him today."
Of course, she's talking about both his scary side and defenseless side. Honestly, she found it shocking that he could be that cruel, especially when he popped off their eyeballs with his bare hands.
No matter how used she is in seeing gore from watching Maschera and other anime, she found the scene scary and terrifying. Still, she got over it after realizing that's how Shiro truly is when he's pissed.
To his enemies, he's a demon incarnate. To his friends, he's the one that wouldn't abandon you and help you when you needed it. Them being his first friends that he made might be attributed to Shiro seeing them such as this, though it may also be a prominent characteristic of his in the past.
He might be harmless when it comes to most things, but no morals would hold him back when he's really at it. He simply acts as he wills.
Yet, it is also the same Shiro that everyone had accepted as a friend.
"Only if I could take a picture of it."
She felt regretful that she could only view it again on her memories and not in reality.
Alas, the Chat Group only allowed sharing files if it's connected to a device. That's how she sent those files in the first place. Only when it is sent through the panel could the recipient view them inside it.
Just like Shiro, Kuroneko didn't sleep for the rest of the night.
*****
Tap-!
==========
Place the Coffee Beans in the coffee maker?
Confirm / / Deny
=========
Clicking Accept, the bag of coffee beans that Shiro got from a quest got lessened. At the same time, it appeared on top of the coffee maker. Without further ado, the maker began doing its wonders once Shiro pressed "Yes" on the interface.
"Yawn... How's the thing on your side?"
Unsurprisingly, the one beside him is Kal'tsit whom is also about to brew some coffee. Ever since she discovered it, she quite liked the taste of it, especially when doing all-nighters.
Her body here is different from the one outside, after all. Concentration dropping is one of the few effects of lack of sleep. In regards to this, she felt the feeling of a normal being once more.
Her slightly tired eyes looked at him before she replied, "I managed to deduce the complete political landscape when I was gone. Being pre-occupied with The Silence took a huge chunk of my time."
"That sounds a lot of effort."
"I have to be ready once I return to Babel."
Hearing her mention the word 'return', he thought of what to do once it happens. Right now, they're already on the 66th floor. Thanks to their intervention, it only took a year to arrive at this point.
One has to know that in the canon, the players took nearly two years to reach this floor.
"There's only a few months before we return, right." He muttered as he poured in the coffee on their cups.
"What are your plans by then?"
"Plans, huh. I have none, to be honest. Maybe keep exploring Terra? I can't exactly visit Shinji's world... Roman's too."
Due to the intervention of both wills, he is 70% sure that he'll meet the other Shirou once he steps in. The Counterguardian EMIYA, to be exact; and Shiro's not confident to handle another Shirou.
That is, unless he uses his Time card and hope to get a strong enough time projection.
This is why he told Roman that he could only offer his help in the Temple of Solomon - Ars Paulina. It existed in the Imaginary Space where it is separated from space and time, thus Shiro could only hope that their influence there isn't strong.
"I'm interested in the company behind that guy, though."
"Ferdinand? He's a director of Rhine Labs."
"Rhine Labs?"
Nodding, Kal'tsit continued explaining, "It's a pharmaceutical company closely tied with the Colombian Government. If you're planning to cause trouble, you'll need some level of preparations."
"Mn, alright. I'm not that much of a troublemaker, y'know?"
"I doubt it." She deadpanned at the thought of him not causing trouble.
Shiro living peacefully? Having less than five casualty at Kazdel is more likely to happen than it. That's taking into account that there's war everyday in Kazdel.
Knowing how he encountered a trouble regarding Outer Gods the moment she met him, she immediately knew that it's his nature to be like this. Either he causes trouble or the trouble comes at him.
While the two are talking, another person arrived in the kitchen with droopy eyes.
"Good morning, Shinon-chan."
"Good morning, Shiro, Doctor."
Just as she was about to open the fridge, she realized that something is amiss.
"Wait... Am I still in the game?!"
"Yes..?" Shiro replied with a teasing tone.
Meanwhile, Kal'tsit kept her cold face as she affirmed, "Yes, you are still in the game."
"I forgot to log out!"
Embarrassed, she left Aincrad before waking up in the real world. She didn't stare at her room as she hurriedly prepared for school, which didn't go unnoticed by her grandparents.
"What's the rush?"
"I'll be late at school!"
"Wait a moment, eat your breakfast too."
Minutes later, she finished preparing for school and stormed off the house after saying goodbye to her grandparents.
"Is that Shino? I'm glad she's lively, unlike before." Her grandfather commented as he entered the house from the backyard.
"I told you to have some confidence with her. I knew she would overcome it."
Meanwhile, Shino is glad to see that the school gate is not closed yet.
"I never thought of oversleeping in Aincrad before..." She muttered as she regained her previous calmness and walked past it.
*****
Fact #32: In Sword Art Online, you can't feel pain. Unlike ALO where you can set the threshold for it, SAO completely blocked the sense of pain. Instead, players would only feel a "strange" sensation whenever they get cut. One such example is Kirito having his arm cut off. He didn't feel any pain (as evident with his face) and even fought against Kuradeel normally. Meanwhile, ALO has the option of 1:1 senses. Remember when Kirito used Heathcliff's ID and went admin mode? Well, he forcefully set Suguo's pain receptors to 1:1, all the whilst slashing and skewing him like a barbecue on his sword.
