8 Victory or Defeat?

"Switch!" Agil shouts aloud.

"Right on!"

Kirito confirmed as he uses Sword Skill to continue Agil attack as they make a great pair of combo of defence and attack.

Kirito while running, place his sword on his left side the sword then glowed with yellow light and he swung it diagonally upward to the right, activating the skill 'Slant' successfully.

But surprisingly the Kobold was fast as it agilely back-step even after get parried by Agil axe before, as expected it was not an AI anymore as it was alive and of course it would not behaving like what the program would. Kirito Slant grazes its face and makes the Kobold bleed and blind in one eye.

"Moves it Agil, Kirito!" Akira said as he rotates his body 90 degrees to the left and uses his left thumb to push the Katana guard as his right hand pulled out the katana that glowing lime coloured light and slash the air in front of him.

"Tsujikaze!"

Akira was 5 meter away from the Kobold if he was doing this on earth than everyone would think he was a crazy teenager with chuunibyou disease. But in this world, this sword skill was one of the most terrifying skills in Sword Art Online.

From this one slash of motion, the 5-meter space in front of Akira was slashed 12 times and created an amazing sight out of the Kobold.

"Ouch Ouch, my shoulder." Said Akira uncool breaking the cool persona he created early.

"Good teamwork," Agil said as he slaps Akira shoulder, which makes Akira scream in pain once again.

"Thanks for the hard work," Even when his sweat was dripping on the ground, Kirito still need to say it politely.

"Oi Kirito, you okay?" Ask Agil worriedly as he looks over Kirito that dripping wet with sweat.

"I... I'm fine."

"It's just my body felt heavy, I never moves my body this much."

"Welcome to reality son." Akira said jokingly with opened arm.

---

"Oi!" Said a bearded man from afar. This guy is Klein, donned in red clothes with red bandana on his head, he sure could be easily identified from afar.

At the afternoon after the first expedition, Akira team that consist of Agil, Akira, and Kirito were the only one that comes back with only fatigue. While the other team like Klein, there were some with serious injury like broken bones and such, but it was not caused by enemies it was because they were still not used to using their real body to moves around just like Kirito earlier.

After hearing what Klein said, Akira parted ways with the 3 of them and visited the hospital by himself.

Before arriving there Akira saw someone in front of the teleport gate was surrounded by many people, she was a girl with short hair, which she had dyed milk-tea-brown, she wore vivid royal-blue one-piece dress with golden frills. Her outfit was supplemented with a pure white cape, a pure white feathered hat on her head.

Curiosly Akira walks nearer and he could hear a melodius voice singing while playing a harp. The tender voice she echoes attract many people to watch her, Akira also enjoyed her performance as he get closer to the crowd, in this desperates time to had the courage to encourage other is what Akira called as 'Brave' and he respect that alot.

Akira listen to the song until the end, where the girl introduced herself as Yuuna and the song name they heard just now is called "Smile for You". The crowd were bursting with cheers and clap as she goes out of the crowd with reddened face despite her big smile on her face.

Inside the dispersing crowd, Akira met someone that wiping the tears on her face but looking at her face that messed up with tears and snot, you could see her expression was full with a new conviction to moves forward.

Akira could not get enough of this face as he laugh and made the girl notice his presence.

With beet red face, she wiped her face with her hands quickly before decided to storms out of the place quickly. But before that, Akira caught her hand and took out his handkerchief and wipes the leftover tears and snot on her face.

"How old were you?" Said Akira with his soft smile while wiping the beet-red face of Asuna.

"Shut up." She pouts after she saw Akira smiling face that only breath away from her.

Akira laughs after seeing her pouting face as it was very cute to looks at.

---

He and Asuna were together walking around the town after their visit to the Hospital. After getting confirmation that the injured ones could be healed by just using Health Potion, he was very glad that there would be no need to create medicine from zero. The only thing they need right now was the way to produce the Health Potion.

"So you better now?" Akira asks as he looked over to Asuna that been painted with the sunset. her long chestnut hair was fluttering along with the wind as it creates harmony on the air. The hazel coloured eyes she had captivates Akira once more just like what he saw from behind his monitor that day.

But right now it was different, she was in front of him, she moves, talks, laughs, and cries, he could reach her unlike before, but... should he reach to her?

She comes close to him and tucks his black shirt, "Mou! Are you listening?"

"No, I'm not," Akira said truthfully as he covers his thought with a laugh. "You just too beautiful that I had a lag on my processing thought," Akira said with a grin on his face.

Despite being used to praises, this is the first time that Asuna got praised so straightforwardly and it made her chest skip a beat when seeing his smile.

"Yup, That's good. Seeing your embarrassed face is good." Akira nod repeatedly.

"Do not need to get depressed Asuna, maybe you left behind your parents, friends, and school in that side, but right now you are alive. Be yourself, keep getting stronger, and the most important thing, stay alive."

Akira said convincingly as he looks deep into Asuna eyes, and because of this conversation that later in the future she would become one of the strongest women that even the deities feared.

"The Flash - Asuna, Yuuki"