Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was not often that Madoka Kaname was actually late for school, but this moment was an exception from the usual. She hurried along the path she normally walked with her two friends Hitomi Shizuki and Sayaka Miki. The pinkette was late already, but she did not have to make things worse as far as she was concerned. She was already closing in onto the building of the Mitakihara Middleschool. Normally the grounds were lively with students when she arrived, but on this cold autumn morning it was already deserted. It took the young girl a bit of time to catch her breath, before she made attempts to hurry onward, but something distracted her from doing so: It was an older girl with golden hair which was styled in drilled pigtails. The girl had caught Madoka's eye before, but she never had made a move to talk to her. She had seemed nice enough, but the way she presented herself always gave off a certain air that made the 14-year-old feel, like they were from two different worlds.
She seemed to be standing in the schools countryyard all by herself, her head raised to look at the sky and her thoughts seemingly far away. She almost looked sad to Madoka. Madoka had never been particularily extroverted, but she could also not let it go when she saw people who were sad and seemed to be suffering. Even stuying was considered less important right now, no matter the later outcome. Madoka turned to talk to the goldenheaded girl, but said person turned her head and beat her to the punch.

"Excuse me...", she began and she sounded like she wanted to say more, but as soon as she reconized Madokas dishevled state, her poking out from her pigtails and generally all mussed up, the wrinkled state of her uniform, the unclosed schoolbag which she hadn't had time to zip up properly and her mouth still opening with pants, her smile changed from a usually polite one to an amused and slightly worried one of an upperclasswoman or a big sister worrying about the girl beneath her agegroup.

"Oh my, you seem to have been in quite a rush getting here.", the older girl chided.

"I...I know I am late. I did not hear the alarmclock and I...slept in this morning...", Madoka tried to stammer an excuse.

No one would ever be comfortable when it came to tardiness in a Japanese school, but to be seen in such a state by an older student really was most embarassing. Madoka was sure every person in her agegroup and those younger than her would agree with her on that matter.

"There is no need for you to explain. It is not supposed to happen, but sometimes it is just not avoidable. It happens even to me.", her senior waved it off, before reaching for the pinkettes ribbons and undoing them.

"What are you doing?", Madoka asked sounding a bit more confident now.

The upperclasswoman had brought out a comb to manage Madokas mussed up hair, before redoing her pigtails. Afterwards she smoothed out Madokas clothes.

"You can not step in front of your class in this state.", the elder mumbled while fixing up the crooked ribbon on the younger girls uniform.

"I appreciate that, but what about you senpai? Won't you get scolded for being late too?", Madoka asked and prayed that she did not come off as rude.

The girl opposite from her did not lose her kind smile though.

"Oh stop with the senpai, those honorfics sound all too stiff. As for your question, I appreciate your concern, but today my classes do not start until later. One of my teachers has caught a bad cold due to this weather and called in sick because of it.", the blonde awnsered the question.

"What else should I call you?", the pinkette kept on asking.

The girl seemed to reconize just now that she had never told Madoka her name.

"Oh I was being rude, I never told you my name. My name is Mami Tomoe and I am in third year. Who might you be?", Mami asked Madoka to return the favor.

"Umm...my name is Madoka Kaname, but you can just call me Madoka, Tomoe-san.", the younger girl replied.

"If you feel, like you must keep up with the honorfics, then Mami-san is more than alright.", Mami chided then.

Mami-san really spoke like a proper lady, a girl from a rich household, which reminded her a bit of her rich friend Hitomi Shizuki, but this time her warm smile and kind gestures overtook the air that Mami gave off which made Madoka feel like they were living in two different worlds. She was comfortable in Mamis presence and almost felt protected. It made Madoka want to see her again some time and maybe even become friends with her, if the upperclasswoman was interested in it.

"Let me walk you to your classroom. You are a second year correct?", Mami suddenly pulled Madoka out of her thoughts.

"Y-yeah, but...why?", Madoka asked a little startled.

"I distracted you on your way there. Therefore I hope that saying so would mean that you avoid getting into too much trouble.", her senpai awnsered steadily.

"But you would...you should not get into trouble on my account! I mean, we just met and you have already been so nice to me and...", the pinkette tried to stop the blonde from going through with this.

Mami did not let herself be distracted though. At the end of the day neither of the young girls ended up in too much trouble and Mami slipped Madoka a paper with her phone number, before disappearing again.

Chapter Text

Keiko Ayano was in a drowsy state. This was what a certain degree of warmth often brought her. The offline party for all of the SAO survivors at the Dicey Café was still going on at full speed and she had simply left to grab a bit of fresh air. The adrenaline rush of the party was only now wearing off a bit, as she was sitting in front of the bar and listened to the SAO survivors, her friends, chat onward and have fun...some of them already seemed to have gotten drunk, as the young girl noticed with a nervous laugh. There was only one thing missing. So many nice people were here, people she had grown to love in her years in SAO, but one certain person was missing. The one living being, excluding her dragon familliar Pina, whom she had shared the closest connection with in SAO. A girl of her age group with black short hair, brown eyes and a far more outgoing personality than her own. She had seen this game in a whole different light than Keiko had. They had both been beast tamers in the floating castle and both been ripped off by Titan's Hand. They had complimented each other, as they supplemented the areas, the other girl lacked. Unfortunately they had fallen outta touch after Kirito aka Kazuto Kirigaya had managed to clear the game. Keiko did not know her real name or her adress IRL. Nobody provided her with info after waking up and she had not seen her friend at the school for the SAO survivors either. All she had left was the online alias that bounced around in her head like a manta: AKIKO.
At first Keiko had assumed that Akiko wished no further contact with her after the game was cleared. Her parents had even gone as far as to further that dark thought, as they had the delusional thought of Keiko drifting away from reality. They had wanted to keep the game out of her life and it had taken a number of arguments for her parents just to accept the fact that it happened and that the memories of the VRMMORPG were important to Keiko in every possible way. Apperantly Akiko had ended up in a similar situation, which is why she had not seen or heared of her. It was to be expected, as her own parents had not really been that understanding and she expected that Akiko just had even more strict parents. They had no way of even figuring out what happened to the other and as far as Keiko knew, she could be out of her reach entirely.

"Am...I really late?", she suddenly heared an all too familliar voice, ripping her out of her thought.

In front of Keiko was the all too familliar face of the adventurous girl. Brown eyes, short black hair styled in the usual bobcut, a cute button nose. For a moment Keiko could picture her wearing her robes from Aincrad, carrying around a bow and some arrows, a highly rare weapon of choice in SAO, and her dog familliar Hayate right there by her side.

"Ak...", Keiko began, but quickly cut herself off, as she had the rule not to use the names from Aincrad engraved into her memory.

No student from the survivors school understood the need for that rule and not only because of the fact that some people had used their real names in the game. Not using those names would mean having no way of adressing people. For some people it was a way of accepting what happened, for others it was no big deal. One young man, who had been kind to her and helped her out more than once, had even poked fun at that idea of counselling and insisted that Keiko call him Klein for as long as the party was going on. As the girl took a closer look, her face lit up at a similar pace with Keikos.

"Silica!", she squealed and tackled the caramel-headed girl in a hug.

Keiko had no qualms about hugging her back. For a moment they were in the small bubble again. They had always felt at ease as long as they had been around each other in Aincrad and for a moment Keiko was once again Silica and whatever her real name was was once again Akiko.

"I can't believe it!", the brunette croaked with happy tears in her eyes.

"I hope I am not too late for the party. I was held up at the Archery club meeting of my school. No matter what, they just would not let me leave.", the blackheaded girl apologized.

"Better late than never.", Keiko sobbed with happy tears in her eyes.

Even after pulling away from the hug, Akiko would not let go of Keikos hand. They sat down on the bench and talked about how life had been treating them after SAO being cleared. Keiko had also learned Akikos real name: Saya Tokamizu, but she insisted that Keiko called her Akiko.

"Those restrictions are one reason I never planned to take up on the offer of going to the school for survivors. I mean COME ON! They're treating the students, like they could have their hands around someone eles neck, after snoozing in class. If they were to make me take those meds, I'd spit them right out. I'm glad my grandparents could pull the strings.", Akiko griped.

Keiko smiled slightly. Akiko was outspoken as always. At first Keiko had been grateful about the counselling, but now she also felt more and more restrained by those methods. Akiko had set off like a firecracker about it, like she always had done back in Aincrad, but she was right in some way of course. Those methods were restrictive. Those weekly therapy sessions to rule out antisocial behavior, extra sessions or even meds, if they deemed your behavior antisocial. Prohibition of the use of SAO names and even sometimes subtly discouraging the students to pursue any further contact with friends they had made in the game, as that could bring up the painful memories. They often had even made a conscious effort to keep people who knew each other in SAO apart. Akiko had always loved her freedom and Keiko knew that it was natural that she did not want to have any part in this.

"They're marring it. All of the good things that happened to us.", the raven-headed girl sighed sadly.

"Yes...you are not wrong.", Keiko replied as the two girls stared into the sunset.

The caramel-headed girl was still drowsy and her head automatically fell onto the shoulder of her blackheaded partner, whom giggled.

"You never change do ya? Heh...you're so cute Silica.", Akiko smiled and was uncertain that her friend had even heared her.

"You can snooze a bit, before we're going in .", she offered then, but the former dagger-wielder shook her head frantically, as she saw what happened.

"N-n-no, I'm awake.", she squealed and bolted back up again.

The archer girl laughed and then looked into the sunset again.

"What was it?", she asked then.

"Huh?", the former dragontamer asked back.

"The good things. Tell me all of the good points in SAO. We can go back and forth in saying that okay.", Akiko pleaded.

"Okay...finding Pina.", Keiko began.

"Meeting Hayate.", Akiko added.

No doubt about it. No matter if they had been AI's or not they had loved the dog and the dragon anyways. Keiko hoped that with the new feature in the new VRMMORPG Alfheimr Online, she would also be able to get Pina back.

"Helping out at the Level 44 church.", Keiko said then.

Level 44 had been serene and downright beautiful. It was covered in snow, with serene places to hide in and at night the lights of all of the towns made everything beautiful to look at. In the first town of the floor had also been a church, where frontliners and also former frontliners could find refuge. The two girls had helped out there for a while, after finding out how badly those who had split from their clearing guild had been treated occasionally or how they were drifting aimlessly. Death had not been particularily bloody in this game, but there had to be other things that scarred those men and women so badly. They had helped out there for a while and still came on occasion.

"Un...", Akiko confirmed and then added. "Meeting those nice guys in red armor."

Keiko smiled at the memory. The young man who insisted that she called him Klein had been their leader. They had been frontliners, always ready to help out and all smiles.

"The adventure with Kirito-san.", she added then.

Keiko was still grateful to the black swordsman for helping her save Pina. They had been friends then and considered as honorary siblings. She had even kept the flower in case its nectar would be needed to aid Hayate.

"Meeting you.", the girls said at the same time.

One moment there was silence between them. All of the sounds that were there for anyone to hear, was the faraway hussle from the city, as the part of town where the Dicey Café was, was not remotely busy. Their time together was one thing the girls cherished the most about Aincrad. From sharing their warmth in bed at the inns to standing back to back against monsters. From speaking the way they had to carve away the barriers restrainting the words about the real world to simply watching the sun set, just as they did now.
Akiko slipped of the bench after that, but did not let go off Keikos hand.

"Ak...Saya-san...are you coming? To the party in Alfheimr tonight?", the brunette asked her friend.

Keiko wanted to kick herself after that. Akiko could have been trying to be careful about gaming after SAO, but her friend had never seemed like the kind of person to do this...even now.

"Sure. I'm already looking foreward to it. Save a dance for me at Agil-sans new place.", she giggled.

The former dragon tamer wanted to imply all sorts of things, like how they could go there together so she would not have to save dances, but she simply let Akiko pull her back into the Dicey Café.