Who: Kirito and Lucretia Prewett What: A Japanese and a Brit walk into a bar... Where: The diner When: Backdated to the 26th Warnings | Status: None | Log - Complete
She didn’t look like much from a distance but neither did Kirito. The woman--whose name he’d failed to acquire before volunteering to meet with her--was short, pale skinned, and dark haired. She looked like an older version of Yui, being about the same height as the AI had been. She looked like she and Kirito could be related if you saw them from behind or from the side. He was several shades darker than her after all. He was also several inches taller than her, at 5’6”, but not much heavier at 130lbs.
He was a dark stain in the sunlight of Elsewhere, dressed from head to foot in black, a long dark coat hanging down to his ankles. He had two swords strapped to his back and he knew how to use them, otherwise why bother carrying them around? They were garnering their fair share of attention, too, from the few people who wandered by in midday. In such a place, how could a boy wearing two swords not get noticed? He looked like he was about to cause trouble after all. He ignored the general hubbub around him though, only looking at the woman as he got nearer.
Kirito paused and bent at the waist in greeting, the two impulses warring inside him. He was Kirito and he was Kazuto, but they were different people altogether. Kazuto was the filial son, but Kirito was a lone hero in a death game. How was he supposed to behave here? Hell if he knew.
***
Finding the boy had been easy enough; there weren’t very many Japanese people in this village, and besides, Lucretia had already memorized who everyone was (including the locals), so newcomers were easy enough to add to her mental catalogue. It was a habit; she’d grown up in a community not much larger than this, so she knew how important it was to get to know everyone.
The longer the witch was in Elsewhere, the simpler her clothing and presentation had gotten. She’d eventually just turned her formal robes into some simple cotton ones in a deep royal purple, and her hair was just pulled back into a ponytail, like it tended to be when she was learning.
Truthfully, if any of her family knew what she was doing, they would have thrown a hissy fit. Which Lucretia thought was ridiculous. Of course at home she wouldn’t be fussing about with Muggle ‘programming’, but here there was no Wizarding World for the Muggles to be a threat to, so one could hardly claim she was assisting in the cultural degeneration of Wizarding Britain if there was no Wizarding Britain.
In fact, the whole reason she was indulging her curiosity was because it would help her get back.
Certainly not for personal reasons. Of course not. That would be ludicrous.
Lucretia smiled at him as he approached. Something about him reminded her of her husband, even though she’d never allow Ignatius near swords of that size. She wasn’t good at reattaching fingers.
She returned the young man’s bow, though it was slightly less deep than his in order to reflect the difference in their ages, “Konnichiwa, Kirito-san.” Lucretia greeted him, pulling the words out of the dusty recesses of her childhood memory before switching to English.
“Thank you for meeting with me today.”
***
Being a gamer, Kirito met a bunch of different people online, but that never really prepared him for how people were in real life. What he expected from the woman was not what she gave. She was English and she spoke Japanese. She’d even used the proper term of address and bowed at the right angle with the right form.
Kirito blinked, “Konnichiwa,” he replied, “Genki desu ka?” Was she well?
She spoke in English then, but it would be rude to ask her to switch back to Japanese. He understood and spoke English well enough to keep up but it wasn’t his favorite form of communication.
He smiled a little, nodded his head.
“No big deal,” he said, voice tainted with a not so subtle accent, “I don’t mind sharing information to make life easier..” Never one to make money off of information, he usually just gave it away for free.
He paused there, letting her take the lead.
***
Lucretia had not been to Japan in many, many years, so it took her a moment to answer his question, which she did with a polite smile, “Yes, I’m very well, thank you.” She noticed that he spoke with an accent and a bit of hesitation himself when he switched to English. His English was much better than her Japanese, however, so for now it would have to do, “I apologize, I haven’t been to Japan in over three decades, and I wasn’t particularly adept at the language when I visited.”
A little, certainly, but most of her and Orion’s communications had been managed with translation spells since they were too young to expect the degree of learning her parents had displayed. “That is a worldview that I certainly approve of.” She told him.
Lucretia took her tablet out of her robes and held it in delicate looking hands, presenting it to the young man, “I was thinking and perhaps it would be best if you showed me something to do with maths. That seems to be the same across all worlds, so it has the least likelihood of a mix-up. Unless there’s something else that’s better suited, of course.”
She was old enough and secure enough in herself that deferring to a 16-year old in his area of expertise didn’t bother her.
***
“It’s okay,” he accepted her apology. She knew enough to make the proper introductions, which was more than most foreigners he’d ever come across. Most foreigners behaved the way he did when he was fourteen. Sure, he was sixteen now. But when he’d been younger he was allowed to make the childish mistakes others did.
He accepted the woman’s tablet in both hands, bringing it in against his chest so he wouldn’t drop it. That would be embarrassing.
She wanted to learn maths. On the tablet? What maths did he know that she didn’t? He could show her binary, actually. That was a basic place to start in computer programming and wouldn’t go off the walls into crazy equations or difficult concepts. It wasn’t that he thought she was stupid--no matter that he’d insisted to Marco the Japanese were smarter than everyone--it was just that it was less confusing to begin with basics. Besides, what math he did know for programming was self taught, so it wasn’t like he was anyone’s authority on how to do it.
Kirito nodded again at his own mental decision, “Okay,” he said. “We can go somewhere for tea,” the tea in this place was terrible. But it would work. “Do you have background knowledge on tablets or similar technology?” Al and Marco had both indicated they came from different times and places, knowing if she knew anything about technology would be a great help.
***
Tea.
While both the Japanese and the English were polite, and they both drank tea, the English were a bit more forthright about their opinions. Which is what allowed Lucretia to give a long-suffering sigh and say, “Must we? The tea is horrible. I think they only call it tea to cause those of us who love it distress.” She couldn’t think of any reason for serving that brown water except to distress newcomers.
“However, I find the… diner. I believe that’s the word, is palatable, so long as you stick to American cuisine. Sadly.” Lucretia was sometimes surprised everything on the menu wasn’t deep-fried. It was ridiculous.
“No,” She admitted in answer to his question, “Well, I suppose it depends. I assisted in creating a magical radio system, but we don’t have the tablets.” Which was a type of computer. She was learning, “Or computers. I took apart an Enigma machine once?” Lucretia ventured as a question.
***
He laughed when she said the tea was terrible. They were her words, not his. It wasn't as if she were insulting him either, so he shrugged. “Yeah, it is.” But he didn't mind so much, because after almost three years of everything being simulated through virtual reality, having the real stuff was a whole new experience. So it tasted bad, at least it tasted real.
The diner was an acceptable alternative. He didn't have a whole lot of money--having traded his coins for a place to sleep--but he would make due. So he nodded again and turned with the woman to head in that direction.
He paused, just briefly, when she explained her familiarity with technology. Radios. An enigma machine. He blinked, surprised.
“Oh,” Umm.. brows furrowed, “What year are you from?” That was quite beyond what he'd expected to hear. His mom--his aunt--was familiar with technology from the early 2000s and later, as were his grandparents. It was a little bizarre to meet someone who wasn't at least passingly familiar. Even Marco had thoughts about the technology. He'd mentioned aliens anyway.
“I'm from 2024,” he told her. “Our tech is a little more advanced than a lot of other places.”
***
She fell into step next to the young man, matching his stride on their way towards the diner, though she had to stop when he did. Apparently her answer was surprising. Then again, she found it odd that Kirito had no understanding of magic, so that was fair enough. Lucretia smiled slightly, “1979.” She informed him, “I’d never seen one of these tablets before. A few people here made fun of me when I tried to use it at first. It was rather rude.”
And that was just unacceptable, as she was sure Kirito would understand.
2024. That didn’t even feel like a real year to Lucretia. She could still be alive then, but who else would be? Would she be living in a Muggle world full of morpgs? Whatever those were? Would she even recognize the world she was born into?
“The last time I was in Japan was in 1937. I imagine things are rather different.” She commented drily.
***
He smiled a bit, “You're a noob, that's okay. Everyone starts from the beginning.” Okay. So they trolled noobs a ton online, Kirito wasn't that much of an asshole. He'd helped Asuna in the beginning..
He stopped again. 1979 was okay. His grandparents were from around that time. But 1937? What the hell year was that? The war..
He shook his head slightly.
“Wow,” he said. How old was she? It didn't matter, he wasn't that interested. He talked to people of all different ages behind their avatars. But still. 1937.
“Okay. Well. That's pretty impressive,” he said lightly. “No one is still alive from then, but I know some family history.” to say the least.
“What were you in Japan for?” that wasn't invasive, was it? Just general curiosity. What could a Brit be doing in Japan right before the war?
***
She was a what? Lucretia gave the young man a blank look with light grey eyes, “What’s a noob?” She asked in puzzlement. Would it kill children to use actual words? They weren’t that bad, were they? There was that anagram phase they all went through, but that was different.
Although she couldn’t blame him for his reaction to her time period, since she felt the same way about 2024. That would be… Narcissa was pregnant, so assuming everybody had children at about 25 years of age, Narcissa’s grandchildren would be being born. That was strange to think about. Lucretia had grown up knowing that her bloodline stretched centuries into the past, but they’d never been overly concerned about the future.
“I’m sure someone is. I would only be 99 years old, people live longer than that.” Didn’t they? Maybe Muggles didn’t?
She didn’t know. “It was part of a cultural exchange. We’d been making visits on a fairly regular basis to affirm the relationships between Wizarding Britain and Wizarding Japan since the Meiji restoration. My great-aunt Elladora told me that when they visited in 1868 that first time everyone stared at her a lot.” Lucretia smiled at the memory, “We have some Japanese magical texts from the sakoku period as well. Because the Emperor’s family predates the Statue of Secrecy - which is our international law regarding secrecy on magical matters - they were therefore aware of magic and their return to power was a cause for celebration among the magical community.” Lucretia explained.
***
What’s a noob? He suppressed another laugh, “Noob just means you’re new at it. A beginner. It’s the hazing phase where everyone else teases you until you learn the ways. The shaping period.” In other words, the institutionalizing phase where they created others like them.
He had to agree people could live to 100, but not many. And not many in the heart of Tokyo. Maybe the old people in the villages. He didn’t know. He was only sixteen, why would he know that? So he just accepted her suggestion with another polite nod.
Except…
Who the hell was this woman?
Kirito stared at her, eyes widening a degree in surprise. She had been involved with Japan during the Meiji restoration? Ties to the royal family? She hadn’t said that part, but he’d inferred… Wow.
“That’s crazy,” he said, “I didn’t know Japan had magic.. I mean, we have stories.” Folklore. That was the word. Was it the same? She said she could do mind magic, which wasn’t exactly kitsune. But what did he know? Maybe he should have listened to grandpa when he talked. Maybe grandpa’s lectures were more than just to scold Kazuto for being… well, himself.
“The Imperial House is still there.” They had more than 125 generations to their name. Japan had a long history. It was something to be proud of. Kirito… Kazuto supposed he was. But he was still a young person.
***
“Ah, so I’m a Firstie.” Lucretia concluded with a smile and a nod, “Yes, I suppose that’s an appropriate metaphor. Although I hope being a noob doesn’t involve pushing me into as many lakes as the First-Years are pushed into.” She teased him gently. One of the benefits of age was being able to tease young people. Lucretia enjoyed it.
And then there was the stare. That look that Lucretia was rather used to, because unlike, say, her cousins, she was perfectly content to travel without announcing herself to all and sundry unless it was in some way relevant. She normally travelled for academic purposes, not to make a fuss, and when she did so, she preferred to be received for her work.
“Of course Japan has magic. Or at least my Japan.” Lucretia amended, since it clearly could be a different place, “If they do, they’re not allowed to tell you. You Muggles have a nasty habit of trying to kill us all and we disapprove of that.”
A more British sentence was never spoken.
“I’m glad to hear it. So many things are dying out. It’s a shame.” She said.
***
“Then I guess we’ll avoid the lake,” he said, joking back. Not that he’d ever push her in. Marco, sure. Al, definitely. But this lady? Never. His family would be embarrassed. Not that they’d ever know, but Kazuto would.
He raised a brow at her. “Muggles?” He grinned. She was very British. She was a very older British woman. Which, Kirito could say, wasn’t what he expected them to be like. If all older British women were like this, then that was pretty cool. She wasn’t as stiff as he imagined they would be.
Hell, she’d even made jokes and admitted she didn’t know something, which was pretty cool. You could always tell when people were lying about their skills, online.
“Why aren’t they allowed to tell us?” he asked. “How do you know there’s magic if they’re not allowed to say it’s there?”
***
“That would be very appreciated. I enjoy your company, it would be a shame to have to drown you.” Lucretia replied, with only a slight smile to let Kirito know she was joking. Which she certainly was.
No Black would kill someone by drowning them. How barbaric was that?
“Ah, it’s a term for people without magic. Magic flows through inheritance of a bloodline.” Lucretia explained, “You lack magic, ergo you are a Muggle.” She was surrounded by them. It helped that she wasn’t in Britain, though she was fairly certain Walburga, Cygnus, and even Alphard would have had a breakdown by now. Ignatius would have gotten himself killed in a portal. Orion probably would have walked into one voluntarily. Unlike many people, Lucretia didn’t ask why this had happened to her.
“I know there’s magic. You can speak of magic to other magical people; I knew some Japanese witches growing up. We were pen pals.”
She’d enjoyed tracking the letters.
“They aren’t allowed to tell you because back when Muggles knew about magic, they would try to kill witches and wizards. This may be a surprise, but we enjoy not being murdered in horrible ways.”
***
“Yeah,” he agreed, ‘It would.” She could do magic. His chance of success against her was minimal to none. Sure, he had the swords, but nothing he could do with them would be useful in a battle.
He furrowed his brows again, reaching into his pocket to pull out a blue square shaped crystal framed in silver edges. “I don’t have a magic bloodline,” he said easily. “But I have magic items. Technically, in SAO, this would be magic. But it’s actually programmed to teleport me places. I think I can break into it and change the locations to reflect coordinates here, if I knew them.” In SAO, he just had to talk to it. But that was just to say there was a logic behind ‘magic.’ He wasn’t unfamiliar with magic as a concept.
Storing the crystal in his pocket again, he reached back to touch the black handled blade of Elucidator, “This is classified as a magic sword, but it was from a demonic drop. When I access the blade’s attributes it …” How to frame it? “It does magic things.” Way to go Kirito.
But none of that was based on bloodlines. He didn’t have magic in real life. No one did. Magic wasn’t real. That was what made games so cool. Because online, you could do anything. So what if magic was only an illusion? It was neat as hell.
This woman being able to do magic was cool as hell!
He was only a little jealous.
***
Luckily, Lucretia Prewett nee Black had been trained for over half a century to behave, keep calm, and not grab things that weren’t hers. That didn’t mean she didn’t have the impulse to snatch the tiny blue Portkey right out of the Muggle child’s hands. How could Muggles have made a Portkey? That was ridiculous! Was programming another word for magic? Were the Muggles going to get magic?
Oh, she hoped she was dead first. That would be such a headache.
“I believe… the young shapeshifter and Captain Jones are the ones who are working on maps. So it works here?” Lucretia asked curiously, “It sounds like something we have at home called a Portkey. It’s useful for people who can’t Apparate. That is, teleport.” She explained.
“Magic things.” She said in a deadpan voice, “Well, now that I know it does magic things, I feel much more enlightened about these morpgs.” Lucretia told him with a shake of her head.
They finally arrived at the diner and Lucretia looked at the sign outside. The special was… pancakes. Well, it could be worse, she supposed.
“I would recommend staying away from the salads, sadly.” She told him.
***
He blinked at her. Oh, cool. People were mapmaking, that made things easier. He’d trade Marco for the information later. No idea who Captain Jones was. “Yeah, I haven’t tried it yet,” he said, “but I think I can make it work..” It was just a matter of math, if the thing was already made to teleport then the hard part was done and he’d just have to fudge the numbers. Maybe a math that was well over his head, but there were people here who could understand things he didn’t. He’d tap them for it later. Right now, he didn’t exactly want to widely advertise that he had it.
He didn’t have long to think about it. She’d just said words he didn’t understand, more pee gees? What was that?
“It’s a sword,” he said, “I use it to kill things. The magic in the sword helps me make stronger attacks.” And that was about it. A cool sword, that was for sure. A rare item.
Looking up at the sign when she did, he nodded. Salads. Right. He wasn’t a vegetarian anyway. Was there soy sauce in this place? Asuna made the best sauce. He sighed softly, following the woman into the diner. This food was the worst. But, he reminded himself again, at least it tasted real. At least he could feel real hunger. At least he could eat real food.
“What would you recommend?” he asked. “Can you cook? I just burn things.”
***
“Be careful and don’t Splinch yourself.” Lucretia commented idlely. They didn’t seem to have proper Healers here, so odds were any limbs Kirito left behind would stay severed from his body, and that would be rather unpleasant. She led him inside the diner and selected one of the less distasteful, cleaner booths, sliding herself in and gesturing for him to do the same. She did, however, give him a look when he said he used his swords to kill things, “I’m old, not stupid. I’m well aware of what swords are used for.” Lucretia told him, flipping the menu over and sighing at the options, “Honestly, I normally stick to the bread and cheese plate.”
Then she blinked.
Nobody who knew Lucretia Prewett asked if she could cook.
“No. I also tend to burn things. Usually the room the cooking is in.”
She wasn’t the best at domestic magic, to say the least.
***
He let the woman seat herself first, sliding in after and setting her tablet down on the table before he took the menu himself. He smiled a little. Bread and cheese plate. Sounded boring. But it was food, and it was cheap. Not as cheap as the cheapest item on the menu though. Which is what he’d be ordering.
“It’s okay, I’ve been trying to cook for two years and it hasn’t gotten any better than burned. Asuna’s a master chef. She makes her own recipes.” He sighed softly in nostalgia, missing her home cooked meals already. And he’d only been here a few days.
She took over that chore, not because she was a woman, but because she was genuinely just better at it. She wanted to eat good meals, that meant she cooked them.
“She makes the best tea..”
She made the best everything. But he was biased. So what?
Asuna was great!
***
“Oh, yes. I saw that you mentioned her. Your wife?” Unlike Marco, Lucretia didn’t seem particularly scandalized by the idea of Kirito being married. Instead, she simply ordered some beer (she didn’t particularly trust the water) and the cheese plate as she’d said she would, “The two of you are fond of each other then? That’s good.”
“My niece is rather adept at cooking. I think she gets it from her mother-in-law, because my husband and his brother are as hopeless as I am.”
She smiled fondly herself, “Though his fires tend to be multi-colored.” Hers were boring old orange.
Mostly they had the elf do all the cooking, or they went out.
“Oh, I would kill for a decent cup of tea. It’s been a trial, I will tell you.” Lucretia sighed.
Whether she was exaggerating or not was up in the air.
***
“Yeah,” he said, showing his age when he reached up to rub his head awkwardly. Which reminded him he was wearing his gloves still. His eyes widened. Dropping his hands, he stripped his gloves off and stuffed them into his pocket. There. Not so uncouth. It also revealed the silver ring on his left hand. Evidence he was married.
“She's really great. We met two years ago..” he said. Who cared they'd only been married for two weeks? He trusted her. They took care of each other.
He smiled at the woman.
“You can make fire?” that was so cool. Magic, what he could do with it if he had the skill.
He laughed though, still surprised that he'd have even that much in common with an old lady that wasn't his grandma. Man, he missed grandma.
Shaking his head, Kirito ordered soup and a beer, too. SAO didn't make a distinction when you ordered beverages. If you wanted beer, you got one. They wouldn't make a distinction here, either. None of the people were that interested in his life and he wasn't interested in theirs.
***
He really was adorable. Not that Lucretia would ever say that. Not to him anyway. Despite what young people seemed to think, she did remember being 16 and the last thing any 16 year old wanted to hear was that they were adorable. It didn’t keep him from being adorable, though, and it didn’t keep Lucretia from smiling when he complimented his wife.
It was nice to hear. It would be nice if she heard men talk about their wives that way more often. Maybe fewer of the women she knew would be sad with their lives.
“That’s wonderful. I met my husband in first-year. We were 11. I didn’t really notice him until I was 15, however. He was very shy until we got into an argument over History.” Lucretia smiled at the memory, “I’d never seen him so animated. I liked it.” “Yes, I can make fire. Although when I was trying to cook I wasn’t doing it on purpose.” Lucretia admitted, “And I don’t prefer fighting with fire. It’s too flashy and too easily blocked by shielding charms, unless it’s Fiend Fyre, and sentient fire is just never a good idea.”
No, thank you.
***
She met her husband when she was 11? Jeez. That made him less awkward about the fact he'd been 14. “Asuna's older than me,” he said. “I met her when I was fourteen, we partied up in a boss fight.. She surprised me because she was so quick with her rapier. I never ever see her sword point, she's that fast.” faster than Kirito himself.
He said it with pride though. No jealousy present. He loved her, she was fantastic.
Listening to someone else talk about their spouse was nice, too. Someone who understood.. So what if he and Asuna lived in a virtual world? Because they were illusions didn't mean the feelings weren't real.
He leaned his head on his hand, a small smile on his face.
“How do you prefer fighting? Kinda obvious for me.. sword fighting. I can throw a decent punch.”
***
“Hmm, she should hold onto you. Most men get defensive when women are too good at things.” It was absurd. Lucretia fought the urge to roll her eyes, instead opting to thank the woman who set their beers in front of them. She took a sip of hers. It wasn’t that good, but it wouldn’t make her sick, and in places where she didn’t trust the water…
“How old is she? Not too old, I hope.”
Because in Lucretia’s opinion, spouses should be near the same age. Though of course it wouldn’t be like some of the gaps Lucretia had seen in the other direction. Men wouldn’t put up with old women.
“Oh, preferably I wouldn’t fight at all. I despise fair fights. I prefer to murder and frame someone else for it.” Lucretia considered, “Or just use a Killing Curse. I don’t see any point in drawing things out.” Neither she nor her brother were the type to torture people.
“If it doesn’t involve killing, I’d usually just take over their mind. Then they’re not going to be able to attack me anyway.” She said evenly, then made a face at her beer.
“That said, there have been a few situations I’ve gotten out of through physical force, specifically because it was unexpected.”
***
“That's stupid, she can handle herself.” he'd often let her, she wasn't weak or useless. She stood on her own two feet for everything and when she needed support she asked for it. Like Kirito did with her. Somehow, in the death game, they'd found each other and somehow they worked.
“Not too old, she's seventeen or eighteen. I just turned sixteen.”
But all talk of spouses and age differences left the room when the woman calmly explained her methods like she would her choices for garden flowers. It didn't bother Kirito. He knew of the player killers, the people who got off on murdering others. He knew people who liked playing red, instead of green. Hell, he had no problem playing orange for a few days if he had to. It was just the way she said it.
“Fair fights are a match of skill.” That's all he said. He wouldn't panic or balk at her statements. He'd seen far worse in SAO. It wasn't their hands that killed, it was their minds.
“If you go into my brain, we're going to have a very awkward relationship. I've had enough of people controlling my mind.” no one told him what to do in SAO, but he'd been kept prisoner in that world for too long.
***
Lucretia nodded in approval, “It’s always better when the member of a couple who is more talented at a certain thing takes the lead in doing it. It tends to produce better results. Society is just strange that way.” Much to her annoyance. Even as far back as Orion being more valuable than she was.
Well, the joke was on them, she supposed, now that everything was in her hands.
“Exactly,” Lucretia agreed with him, “I’m not attempting to harm someone unless I or someone I love will come to harm if I don’t, and I’m not leaving my welfare, or my husband’s welfare, up to skill when I could rig things to win.”
She was a Slytherin, after all.
The woman waved a hand dismissively at his warning, “I have no reason to, and some reasons not to. One, practicing Dark Magic without any kind of oversight is just asking to go insane, and I enjoy my sanity. Two, we’re all here together and I might need you to find my way home. That would be… the Muggle saying is shooting myself in the foot, yes? And three, I like you so far.” Lucretia considered all those reasons about equal.
“Who’s been controlling your mind?” She asked curiously.
***
Kirito listened, nodding his head only when she finished. He took his mug of beer finally, taking a drink. Ugh, it tasted like piss water. But it tasted like something! That was nice. So he took another drink and didn't complain.
He didn't like getting close to people. He didn't have a lot of friends, he was a loner in every sense of the word because he just… didn't know where he fit in in the world. Hearing someone say they liked him so far was about as good as it got. So he cracked a faint smile. That was nice, he guessed. He wasn't a terrible person, he just didn't talk much.
And well, he couldn't feel too bad about himself because the woman sitting across from him was crazy. He laughed to himself at the thought. What did that say about him that the first person he'd made any sort of impression on was so calmly Creepy?
Maybe it was a magic thing. She had just said magic could make you go insane. Kirito blinked.
“Hey,” he said, “can magic make you lose time?” he asked, brows furrowing. “Sometimes when I use the swords, I blank out until it's over. I don't remember what happens.” He tilted his head.
“No one is controlling my mind, but they have kept me prisoner in it. In a fake world. Sort of like an endless hallucination.”
*** Can magic make you lose time?
Lucretia blinked. She didn’t know it, but her reaction was similar to Kirito’s when she’d asked him what ‘programming’ was. Everybody knew that. Didn’t they? Even Muggles had stories about magic, right? Something that basic, they had to…
Oh dear.
“Of course,” She finally answered, “That’s fairly easy to do, especially if you don’t particularly care about the person noticing, as you’ve experienced. Though that’s a fairly odd Charm to put on a sword. What good is having somebody use a sword if they don’t get better at it?”
Really, Kirito’s world made very little sense, “Is that normal in the morpgs?” Lucretia asked.
“Oh yes. I remember. I apologize; you had told me that.” She thought it over, “Well, someone has to be doing it. Otherwise you would have been trapped in another real world, like this one, not a fake world.”
That was the difference, after all.
***
“No, it started happening since I mastered it.” He said. Well he'd actually leveled up and increased the attack, gaining new skills and combos. But all of that was too difficult to explain to someone who didn't understand at least a little about the world. So mastered would have to do.
“I engage the sword and the... the attack,” he explained, “and I just blank out when I reach a certain point. It's weird.” maybe it was a glitch in the game. Maybe it was Cardinal doing its job and protecting his brain from a surge or something. Maybe he'd just reached the max level of the attack. Who knew?
He rubbed his head.
“His name is Kayaba Akihiko, he was the developer and director of the project. He told us he wanted to create a world so he did, and then he trapped us in it. Dying in that world means you die in real life.” they'd started calling it a death game for a reason.
He shrugged. “I'm not convinced this place is real. But I'm not questioning it either.”
He wasn't convinced he was a real person, just a copy pulled from the transceivers attached to his brain.
***
“Hm,” Lucretia responded, “Yes, that’s doable by magic, but I don’t really understand why. Unless it’s one of those dadaist magical art pieces…” She trailed off. She’d never gotten that, really. Even when she was younger and it had been the thing to do for a while, “Has anybody told you what you’ve done during this time?”
Kayaba Akihiko. Of course the name meant nothing to Lucretia, but she still nodded.
“Well, I can see that being very intellectually interesting to explore, but it probably wasn’t a good idea for him to do that.” Lucretia said, “Particularly not with children.” People got very sensitive about children’s involvement in things, “So how do you win?” She asked.
“Yes, this could all be a hallucination on someone’s part. Though I have trouble knowing who or what could think up all of us. It’s rather ridiculous.” Lucretia said in an exasperated tone.
***
“Yes,” He confirmed. “Usually fighting a monster. The last was called the Gleam Eyes.” it had nearly killed him, but he'd won. And winning was what mattered. Failure meant everyone died.
He leaned on his hand again, swirling the spoon of his soup around before he took a bite of it. Huh, not bad. He took another bite while he considered her question. How did you win a game like that?
Hold on..
How could a woman think that was intellectually interesting? They were trapped in a virtual world living lives in fantasy. Sure, it didn't make it less real. But still! The more he learned about her the more he questioned her. Clearly magic was evil. Hadn't She said they burned people who did magic? He understood why, if this was how everyone thought.
No… magic wasn't evil. What you chose to do with it was. That was the difference.
“Programs could generate a body of people. NPCs. People who guide you through new quests and stuff..” He shrugged. “Not that hard, creatively. I could be convinced this is all some experimental phase in the development. Or a glitch in the game the Cardinal didn't pick up on and you have all been trapped here.”
That would be too many coincidences though, so it was likely untrue.
“You win by leveling up. Er, that is, you get stronger. As strong as you can, and you fight the monsters that try to keep you from advancing. Floor by floor. There's a hundred of them.”
*** “Hm,” She said again, “It’s possible that the sword is turning off your consciousness so it can make use of strength you normally block, but that’s my only idea. I don’t perform much combat magic.” Because what would she be doing in an army? Talk about ridiculous.
“Fighting monsters is how you win? That’s it?” Lucretia asked in a skeptical tone, “Then that whole thing is a horrible idea and I’m sorry that you’re enduring it.” She said in a disapproving tone, which wasn’t directed at Kirito, but at this Kayaba Ahikito. If it was a training exercise, you tested it on people who needed training. Not children.
And they already knew how people reacted when they were forced to fight. That was most of human history, after all. So he had to be doing this for another reason, not for intellectual inquiry, and therefore Lucretia disapproved.
Fake people made sense to Lucretia, but there was that ‘programming’ again.
“If we were all trapped here, why would we think we were from different worlds? So we’d have to be… programmed this way, but that would mean someone came up with the details of myself and… say, Ms. Mason, and I’m afraid I don’t understand anything she says. And vice versa, most likely.”
“Mr. Dresden and I were speaking about Faerie, and meeting worlds, and it seems possible... we just don’t know how this is happening.”
“Then again, I might say that if I were a fake person. An En Pee Cee.” Lucretia teased.
***
Turning off his consciousness to access a strength he normally blocked? He supposed that made sense. Maybe so. What did he know about magic? Nothing at all. Kirito took another bite of his soup before he set his spoon down and pushed the bowl away, empty. Feeling full was a cool thing these days and it wasn’t hard to achieve. This body, whatever it was, had never had a lot to eat in the first place.
He leaned his head on his hand again, watching her.
“Yes,” he agreed, “but that would be a lot of wasted energy for NPCs. They only make that kind of detail for main characters. So I think it’s unlikely this is a simulation, but you never know.” How could you when virtual worlds were a factual thing in his life?
“What’s Faerie?” he asked, interested. He smiled when she teased him. What a weird old lady.
Huh, a thought occurred to him.
“Have you ever played a video game before?”
***
“Yes, I agree with you. A simulation or hallucination is unlikely.” She said, eating her cheese delicately with a thoughtful look on her face, “I suppose our best hope is that one of us, or all of us, can figure out what is happening here so that we may return home as soon as possible.” Lucretia said. That was her goal in this place anyway.
What’s Faerie?
Another odd question.
“It’s a realm that exists parallel to ours. It’s somewhat difficult to access, but you wouldn’t want to go there anyway. You’re liable to end up trapped or come back a thousand years later or be eaten by something from a storybook… I agree with my grandmother that it should be avoided if at all possible.” Lucretia finished her food and folded the napkin, setting it across the empty plate.
She blinked, “What’s a video game?” Lucretia asked in puzzlement.
***
Home was a strange idea, but Kirito supposed it was the goal to return to wherever people had come from. He had no such aspirations, if he was really a copy of his brain inserted into a body then he hadn't left Aincrad at all. He hadn't woken up. He hadn't died yet, as far as he knew.
So why worry about what was happening there? Why worry about what was happening here? He was disposable, not a real person.
He watched the witch, nodded his acknowledgement of the things she was saying. Then a grin spread across his face and he reached for the woman's tablet, turning it on with deft hands before he stood and slid around the other side of the table to sit near her.
He searched for the games on her tablet, bringing up a poor resemblance to Tetris. “Video games. These are poor examples, but games in my age get way more involved.” He turned the tablet to show her, and that would end his productivity for the day as he introduced the woman to the world of video games.