4 Chapter 4

From time to time, many girls could be seen steal a glance from the corner of their eyes towards a youth while blushing hardly. As for the boys, some of them could be seen had an irritated expression seeing how their girlfriend or their crush blushing hardly like that, while some other boys feel jealous -and wonder at the same time-, thought about how a man could have that kind of face along with that kind of fair skin, one that will make women in the world would willingly gave up on everything to obtain.

The youth that attract their attention was a junior high school student, which could be described clearly by his uniform.

He had similar hairstyle like Takigawa Yoshino from Zetsuen no Tempest, with the same hairpin on the left side, but with a little bit longer bangs at the right side. His back hair also rather long which tied in short pony tail like yatogami's calamity-god version.

He really has unbelievably fair skin for a male -female also included though-, make him ridiculously very handsome- well, maybe from a different point of view he could be said . . . . beautiful instead?

This youth name was Handa Naoharu, first year junior high school.

To begin with, actually from his childhood -maybe because the world energy-, he had an attractive face already. But now, it looks much more refined from before. Very much much more.

All of these happened because when he included an effect to refined his body constitution at the time he create The Sleeping Cheat Magic, he thought that it will interpreted as only his body. But without him knowing, after some time, his face become refined as well each time he cast the magic, make him extremely and devilishly very attractive as the result.

To the point that right now, if he says that his handsomeness was number ten, then number one to nine will be a hoax and unsolved mystery for many centuries.

Nao feels so excited now, not because the look he got from the girls, but because today was November 5th 2022, mean that tomorrow, SAO server would be started. Joy that he felt from the excitement make him giggling unknowingly along the way.

"Why are you giggling like that?" A girl beside him asked annoyingly with a pout on her face.

"Nothing, I just can't wait for tomorrow to come." Nao said while smiling at her.

"Hmm~~~" The girl respond skeptically with his answer, while still pouting because when another girl was staring at him hungrily like that, somehow, it made her felt really uncomfortable for unknown reason.

'How cute!!!!' Nao thought while looking at how she was pouting.

He couldn't help but feels like want to hug her right now.

"What's wrong?" He asked while restrain his urge to just hug her right now and there.

"Nothing." She said while turning his head to the other side to evade eye contact with him.

"Hmm~~~" He responded the same way with her a while ago with a bright smile on his face and kept staring at her intensely along the way. He has sixth sense after all so no need to worry about hit something in front of him.

He kept staring at her intensely while smiling to tease her along the way.

Each time passed in that awkward silent, while also stared by him with that kind of eyes and face, make the girl very nervous and blushing hardly, dyed her face redder and redder as time passed.

Even the evening sun at dusk also powerless and couldn't help her hide the blush on her face.

"Nani yo? (What?)" The girl couldn't hold on any longer and glance at him shyly with the same pout from before.

"Fufufu~, well, I just thinking that Sugu-chan's pouting face was really cute. Make me really want to hug you tightly like a doll." He said to tease her even more.

"Wha!?? Don't tease me!!" She reached her blushing max limit, made her face become really red like a tomato. She grabbed her shinai on her back, ready to strike the guy in front of her who always teasing her every given time, make her really embarrassed every time.

"Ahahaha~, alright, alright, I'm sorry!" Nao chuckled and raised both of his hands in defeat.

"Hmph~" She pouted again with bulging pink-red cheek.

"Sigh, I'm serious though when saying that you are really cute." He sighed and said, almost inaudibly, but still make sure could be heard by her at the same time.

He then peek from the corner of his eyes to see her reaction, and could seen that she was blushing again after heard what he said, made him felt an urge to laugh.

The girl's name was Suguha, Kirigaya Suguha. She was Kazuto or Kirito's little sister.

There was no school today actually, but they had just returned from the kendo club activities, and because their house was "coincidentally" in the same direction, they always commuted together.

He started to practice kendo these years, and because of that, in some occasion that had something to do with it they always met.

When he entered junior high school, he choose the same school with her. Then "coincidentally" placed in the same class, and entered the the same club as well after that, the kendo club.

The both of them were the ace of their respective branch. While Suguha was the female branch champion of the kendo national tournament, Nao was the champion of the male branch.

Even though They always met in many occasion, in the same class and club, they weren't this close and intimate before. They started to become more close to each other only after the summer vacation was ended.

A few day before the summer vacation begin, they talked about places they wanted to visit in holidays, and when the topic about the beach come forth, she told him that she couldn't swim because of her water phobia. And after heard about it, he offered a help to her, to overcome her phobia.

She was not sure at first, and Nao didn't want to force her either. So he let her be and think about that slowly first. After that, he just told her that if she need something, he was willing to help.

He offered a help because there's a pool in his house that they could use every time. So there's no need to go to the public swimming pool.

He created it with his magic when he want to try the possibility of learning a skill to breath in the water with his Extreme Super Growth skill. Though he was drown many time in the attempt, filling his lung with water.

It wasn't an easy thing to do, intentionally suck in water into your lung Instead of the air to breath. It so painful, though luckily, he had already create Divine Healing Magic before, so he could be healed in an instant every time he drown.

In the end, not a skill to breath water that he got, but the Internal Breathing skill instead. It was a skill to breath internally, make him could last in the water for almost a month. Though had a time limit of a month, it was enough for him.

When she found out about the pool in his house, she reconsider his offer again and agreed after that to try to overcome her phobia.

It wasn't an easy thing to do, though. She always trembling every time she reached the water. But Nao always there to support her, reassured her that he will be always by her side. He could use hypnotic magic on her, but he didn't want to use it to the people that close to him. Also, he wanted her to overcome her phobia by herself.

After many time failed and almost gave up, he reached her hand and holding it while leading her to the water.

"It's alright, I'm here. I'll protect you." He said while holding her hand and caressed her head.

She looked at him and nodded after a while.

After that, she tried again while holding his hand. In the end she forced her self too much, made her panic and trembling uncontrollably.

Looking at how panic she become, Nao hugged her gently and whispered to her to make her calm.

"It's fine... It's fine... I'm here. I'm here." He whispered to her while hugging her tight and gently.

She then calmed down after a while and hugged him tightly while trembling. He kept reassure her that everything was fine until finally, after some awkward moment between them, she could overcome her phobia with embarrassment.

Because she could finally overcome her phobia, so the next step was the swimming lesson, made them always spend their time together a few days after that. Not only when swimming lesson, but also the other things, like go to summer festival, fireworks festival, training and sparring kendo, they always together. Though what she likes the most was his food.

These five years, out of boredom that he felt, he learned many things. From a simple thing like how to twirl a pen, to the more hard one like flying an air plane. From music, to acrobatic.

His learning is a broken skill, so it would be a waste if he doesn't use it to the full potential and learn rise his skill -cooking included- as high as possible.

So he created many clones and teleport them around the world to learn many things. As for cooking, he makes them doing part time job or full hour one in many restaurants and hotel. Then after all of them disappeared, the experiences he got from the clones enhanced by the Extreme Super Growth skill, make them greatly refined.

His movement in cooking was like an acrobatic show, so mesmerizing but at the same time, flow naturally and harmoniously without any flaw. Not only the process but the end result of the food also marvelous, had an amazing taste beyond delicious.

These years, when Suguha's relationship with Kazuto or Kirito doesn't change too much, strangely, Nao's relation with kazuto was quite good.

Nao doesn't sure as well, so he thought that maybe it because they had a few same thing that they like -he was a tech-nerd too-, so they in a very good relationship. Though when Nao tries a bit to fix his relation with Sugu, the atmosphere always went awkward, made even Nao uncomfortable.

Well, a family problem wasn't something that an outsider could involve with just like that, and his problem had something to do with his feeling about wasn't the part of the family, so the reaction was a normal thing.

He want to help, but decide to stop after considering Kazuto's reaction every time. He didn't want to make the situation more complicated.

After walked in silent for a while, Suguha started the conversation to hide her embarrassment.

"Cough... Then, what's wrong with tomorrow?" She asked.

"Mm?Ah~ Tomorrow I will propose you for a wedding." He said with straight face, finding a new "opening" to teasing her.

"Wha?! Majime ni kotaenasai!!(Answer seriously)" She exclaimed while blushing hard again.

"Why? I'm very serious now." He pointed to himself while trying so hard to hold his chuckle and maintain the seriousness of his face.

As the respond, she didn't say anything because she knows well that it pointless at this point. She reach her Shinai right away and ready to strike.

"Wait! wait! Alright, alright. I'm sorry, cough... It's about SAO." He said after rose the both of his hands in defeat.

"SAO? The same thing that Onii-chan played?" she tilted her head and asked for confirmation.

"Yep, that one. Tomorrow their official service will be started." Nao nodded.

"Hmm~ Is it that interesting?" She asked again after put away the shinai.

At this point of time she hasn't interested in VR just yet, huh. Nao thought looking at her reaction.

"Well, each person has their own taste, and there were many kind of game and genre out there. So which one you might prefer could be decide by only yourself. As for this SAO and the thing that make it interesting, it would be the full-dive feature i guess." Nao said after think the best answer for her.

"Hmm~~ And this full-dive is?" She asked again and their conversation continue around the topic of VR where Suguha asks and Nao explains. Aside from the topic about VR, they talk much about many things as well, until finally ended when they arrived in front of the Kirigaya residence.

"Then, see you tomorrow." Nao said and smiled at her.

"Un! See you tomorrow." Suguha said too and entered the house.

After Suguha entered the house, he left and went home as well.

It wasn't that far though, beause their house was just around 100 meter apart. They are neighbor after all and he reached the house not long after that.

The area was surrounded by high walls as the fence with only a gate in the front as the entrance. Inside, one could seen a two-story medium sized house, with modern style as the design. He was living alone here.

It really hard to assured the orphanage to allow him live alone. So he had to make a story, something about an illegitimate grandson that because couldn't come into the main family, they gave him a house under his name and allowance until college and bla bla bla...

With his clone transformed as his "guardian", and considering how he very mature for these years, they finally allow him live alone when he enter junior high school.

After he arrived, he created clones to cook something for dinner, while he entered the bathroom to take a bath.

Finished his bath and ate the dinner after that, he then entered his room and turned on the computer.

Ting~

And he receive a message as soon the computer was on.

"Mm? Who is it?" He opened the mail, "Kazu?" he muttered after read who the sender was.

-kazuto: you go tomorrow?

Nao typed "Of course" but stopped before he sent the reply.

"Well, let's make a surprise then." Nao thought and type the reply again.

-naoharu: Of course. Though maybe not in the afternoon. I will log in at night. Let see... maybe about 19:00 I guess, I will log in after the dinner right away. I have to go to the Kendo club tomorrow in the afternoon after all.

-kazuto: alright, I will log in first then.

-naoharu: Roger that!

'With this he won't have expected that I was trapped inside as well.' Nao said and chuckled a bit.

"Well, for now... That's right. Let's make an item that would make me vulnerable to something that has sharp edge then. It would be troublesome if when I moved to the hospital, my body was as hard as metal and couldn't be penetrated by syringe or Infusion needle. I will become the most wanted Guinea pig if they find it out." He said and closed his eyes.

He concentrated his mind and made an imagination about a ring that could only be seen and taken off by the user, make the user vulnerable to something that had sharp edge and lowered their regeneration ability to a normal human. He then activated the Imagination Creation Magic after that to create the ring.

Not long after that, many dots of light began to gather on his palm, and after the light died down, a simple looking ring could be seen on it.

"Let's see whether it's work or not!" He said after looked at it and put the ring on his ring finger. He grabbed a paper cutter from his desk and made a cut on his palm. After that, blood could be seen started to came out of the wounded part on his palm and trickled down.

'It's work well. With this, at least if it was a sharp edge like syringe or Infusion needle, they would be able to penetrate my skin and flesh. Though the poison and other damage inducing things would still be defended. That way, even the microwave from the Nervegear will never inflict any damage to me.' He thought.

"But still, it's been a long time since I could see my own blood." He said while looking at his own blood and use Divine Healing Magic on his wound after a while.

He laid on the bed after that and slowly, he let the drowsiness take over him and fell asleep.