Fortune Favors (QQ) Chapter 20 (Patreon)

A brown haired girl rushes through the underbrush, a green knife in her hand. 

This feels... different. 

The wind rushing through her tied up hair, her impeccable vision despite being in near total darkness. The fact she is running at speeds far surpassing she ever could just one day earlier. 

This is... far easier than she thought! 

Just one slash and they go down! 

Her new strength and speed is quite impressive, actually. 

She has already gained four levels in just four hours. 

Fighting level five monsters as a level one really helped her out! 

Now she just needs to- 

"Well well well. Look who it is!" 

Her shoulder stiffen, eyes widening, pupils shrinking in fear, an involuntary shiver racing throughout her body. 

Standing there in the darkness is... 

Is the man from the alley! 

MuFF13: Level 11 

He's joined by three others, the lowest being level six! 

"W-W- S-Stay back!" The girl shouts as she quickly staggers backwards. 

A boot slams into her back from behind, sending her sprawling to the floor with a cry. 

t-there's another! 

"You've got quite a nice knife there." the man observes. "You must have worked really hard for it." 

He lets out a dark chuckle as she is pushed to a laying position by the person behind her stomping on the center of her back. 

The man's hand comes down knife in hand. 

He stabs his weapon through the back of her hand, pinning it to the floor. "Give us everything you've got this second or I will flay you alive." 

"O-OW!" 

"W-Why are you doing this?!" She cries, tears streaming down her face. "P-Please! D-Dont hurt me!" 

"Because I'm strong. The strong rule and the weak serve! That's the way the world works!" 

Mr Argo was... right... There truly are monsters among the people in this game... In... instead of trying to save lives, they just torment people and kill them for fun. 

Maybe... 

They should just... 

Die. 

Her pupils shake, shrinking into slits as power surges within her. 

"Agh- fuck!" The man holding her down cries as he staggers backwards. "She threw dirt in my eyes or something!" 

Silica rises to her feet. 

"WRONG ANSWER!" The man shouts as he stabs forwards. 

There's a spray of blood as the girl is stabbed through the chest. She hunches over slightly... 

Then a ghostly chill spreads through the bodies of everyone close by. 

That attack... 

That attack only did around five percent of her health. 

His weapon is a meadow blade, though! A weapon that's comparable to a sword you get on the fifth floor! 

To do so little damage... she would have to have more health than any of them. 

But she's only level five. 

There's a small shake to the teen's hands as the girl hunches forwards. Her eyes are glowing. 

"HRAAAGH!" A second blade pokes through her body, this time piercing through her back and coming out of her chest. 

She raises an arm, blocking a hurled knife that punches cleanly through her forearm. Purple dribbles off its end. 

Her other hand, which still has a steel knife stabbed through it grasps around the wrist of the man in front of her, 'Muffle'. 

There's a low hiss as the knife falls out of her wound, the sickly red line in her skin it left behind quickly disappearing. 

"L-LET GO!" He screams, slamming his fist into the little girl's face. 

His attack barely turns her head. 

Moving on instinct, the girl lunges forwards, mouth opening wide. 

Her teeth sink into his shoulder as she rends a large chunk of flesh from his arm. 

"AAAGH!" 

The health she lost is rapidly restored as the teen looses around a quarter of his health. 

"M-MONSTER!" He screams. 

Silica kicks, her prey's arm coming off at the elbow, she avoids two slashes of a swordskill from behind, the blade from her back being pulled free with a spray of gore. Her gaze quietly sweeping over the people surrounding her. 

Her knife seems to explode from the ground, kicked upwards by a small gout of what looks like sand. The blade glows as blood cakes her face, her lips turning upwards into a sickly grin. 

A line of light is drawn in the air as her blade slashes through the throat of the one who had previously kicked her. 

Critical hit. 

He clutches his throat as her one sole attack removes seventy eight percent of his heath in one swift action. 

The fingers of her free hand stab into his chest, causing him to gasp as he is picked up and hurled with one hand. 

His body slams into a nearby tree with a loud crack, his body glowing and shimmering as he gasps and falls limp. 

Crackle 

The four remaining people let out shouts of terror and begin to run... but that just triggers something deep inside of Silica. 

A primal hunting reflex. 

Her original target is tackled, another large hunk of his flesh is torn out by her teeth, her green blade raises above her head and plunges down into his back. 

He barely gets out a scream before his body begins to glow and after a moment shatter into millions of pieces. 

Her gaze snaps upwards towards the three fleeing players. 

Annoying. 

Oh. 

That's a solution. 

She blurs forwards, knife in hand, easily catching up with her three targets. 

With a couple quick flashes of her knife, three feet flip through the air. 

The three orange players collapsed, each now missing a good portion of one of their legs. 

She kneels on the back of one of the three, repeatedly hammering her knife into the back of his skull. 

His body disappears with a flash as she turns to the next, the nails of her free hand glowing briefly before she slashes a trio of slashes deep into his chest. 

He weakly swings his arm up, mace in hand, managing to successfully knock Silica's knife from her hand. 

Not that it matters. 

Her now empty hand comes down, grabbing the man by his face and repeatedly slamming his head into the ground. 

She doesn't stop until his body disappears like the others. 

She slowly rises to her full height, her head tilting slightly to the side as she stares at the final prone figure. 

She looks down suddenly to the green blade sheathed in her chest down to the hilt. 

She carefully tugs it free, being forced to shift her grip several times. 

Eventually it clatters to the floor as she returns her attention to her final prey who had crawled a short distance away, propping himself up on a tree. 

"S-Stay back! M-Monster!" 

Silica slowly prowls forwards, her footsteps almost silent. 

"GET AWAY!" The man shouts, hurling a knife forwards. 

It sinks into her chest up to the hilt, a small little annoyance appearing at the corner of the girl's vision proclaiming that she got poisoned. 

It seems to not even slightly affect her beyond slightly slowing her rate of healing as she takes the blade out and allows it to fall to the grass below. 

By the time she is standing in front of her target, she is already long-since healed. 

She glares down at the player, eyes narrowed. 

He seems to wet himself, tears begin streaming down his face. "P-Please don't- D-Dont kill me! I-i-i I don't want to die!" 

"Funny." Silica glares. "You tried to kill someone without being ready to be killed yourself? I was helpless... and now you are helpless. How do you like begging for mercy?" 

She tightly grabs his shirt, pulling him forwards. 

"M-Monster." He whimpers. 

That's not very nice. 

Silica's fist slams into his jaw, snapping his head to the side. 

She does it again... and again. 

A quiet laugh echoes out as she continues hammering her fist into his face. 

He disappears like the rest as the laugh continues. 

Oh... 

It is... Her laughing. 

Her jaw clicks shut, realization of what had just happened crashing into her like a tsunami. 

She killed them. 

She looks to her reddened hands, the blood beginning to evaporate slowly into little red motes of light. 

Her vision swims slightly, she feels sick to her stomach. 

She- she BIT someone! 

She took a chunk out of their arm and ATE IT. 

She heaves briefly, body involuntarily shaking. 

She- she is a monster. 

So? 

Strength merely brings out the body's true nature. And it appears her nature is a monster... 

They deserved it. To feel terror before their deaths. To feel even an ounce of what they inflicted upon others. 

They... Maybe... 

In doing that she totally saved people. 

Her fingers still shake, but... 

She doesn't feel as sick to her stomach. 

She feels nauseous, but... crying won't change anything! 

She is tired of being weak! 

Then be strong. 

She wants to protect people. 

Then do so. 

She- She won't lose control again! 

But it felt so good to let loose like that. 

She might hurt someone innocent! 

Is anyone truly innocent in this game? 

YES!  

The brown haired girl shakes her head violently. 

There are hundreds of THOUSANDS of innocent people here! 

She... 

She might not be one of them. 

Accept the dark to protect the kind. 

W-well... she is already sort of... a vampire. 

With a dull flash, a pocket watch appears in her palm. The hands of the watch quietly ticking away. 

Also within her inventory is a notebook, a bottle of ink, and a feathered quill. 

She... is going to seek out the deaths of players and figure out what happened to them. 

The girl pauses and glances upwards. Spying a green diamond floating above her head. 

She... 

She savagely murdered all of those people... yet she is still green purely because they were all orange players. 

To think. There are people out there that get away with brutality like she just did... except with people that have done nothing to them. 

They all need to die. 

They... It might make clearing Sword Art Online easier if that happened. 

She closes her eyes briefly, clutching the watch to her chest, its quiet ticking filling her mind. 

She opens her eyes, seeing little floating ghastly auras around the surroundings. 

She is stood right in front of-  

Oh... 

A breath leaves her lips as she brings out her notebook. 

She... she should probably get started. 

It takes her a minute to figure out how to write with a quill, but after a moment, she has finished the first entry. 

Player: MuFF13 
Status: Orange Player 
Known Crimes: Assault, Extortion, Attempted Robbery,  Certainly attempted but unconfirmed other murders. 
Status: Deceased. (Ripped Apart By Player Silica.) 
Time of Death: 5/20/2022 

With that, the little spectral fire seems to change from blue to green. 

There's a little chime, a screen appearing in front of her. 

'Fate Solved'! 

There's another little chime, signifying that she had leveled up. 

If it was a result of her... activities... or a reward for solving Muffle's fate, she is unsure. Probably the prior, but... she might have gotten most of her most recent level from the latter. 

She didn't catch the names of the other four, but... with this watch she can find out! 

But... 

It shows their last moments... 

So... 

She'll be forced to see just what a savage beast she was up close. 

But. 

She can't fail Mr. Argo! 

He was so sexy! She wouldn't mind him putting a few fox babies into her. 

She nods slowly at that thought before she freezes, a blush crossing her face. 'NO! I WOULD mind!' 

It's a shame that you can't really touch friendly NPCs like that. 

'It is-n't! It isn't! Who would ever think about doing such depraved things to a... powerful... nice... attractive... kind...' 

She shakes her head again, deciding that she desperately needs to get these dark intrusive thoughts under control before she hurts someone innocent... or worse! Attempts to molest Mr. Argo! He saved her, after all! And he granted her all this strength! 

Thus, he should be repaid in full, no? And what better way to repay him than- 

NO! 

She gazes down at the watch in her hand, the blood of her brutalization of five people now completely evaporated. 

She needs to get to work! No time to think about Argo or his cute fox ears and fluffy tail! 

~~Linebreak~~

Pov: Returned. 

I blink down at the small brown haired girl that comes through the door. 

"Mr. Argo! I solved six murders!" 

"S-Six?! Already?!" I whisper. 

She looks to the side, looking a little dejected. "Y-Yeah..." 

She holds up a small booklet. "H-Here..." 

I open it and look inside. 

She gazes down at the floor in guilt, seemingly ashamed, but that doesn't really make any sense as- 

Oh... 

Oh. 

Player: MuFF13 
Status: Orange Player 
Known Crimes: Assault, Extortion, Attempted Robbery, Certainly attempted but unconfirmed other murders. 
Status: Deceased. (Ripped Apart By Player Silica.) 
Time of Death: 5/20/2022 

Player: Super Stan 
Status: Orange Player 
Known Crimes: Assault, Extortion, Attempted Robbery, Certainly attempted but unconfirmed other murders. 
Status: Deceased. (Thrown By Player Silica.) 
Time of Death: 5/20/2022 

Player: Gregori 
Status: Orange Player 
Known Crimes: Assault, Extortion, Attempted Robbery, Certainly attempted but unconfirmed other murders. 
Status: Deceased. (Stabbed By Player Silica.) 
Time of Death: 5/20/2022 

Player: Iridanass 
Status: Orange Player 
Known Crimes: Assault, Extortion, Attempted Robbery, Certainly attempted but unconfirmed other murders. 
Status: Deceased. (Head Crushed By Player Silica.) 
Time of Death: 5/20/2022 

Player: Wingeeey 
Status: Orange Player 
Known Crimes: Assault, Extortion, Attempted Robbery, Certainly attempted but unconfirmed other murders. 
Status: Deceased. (Beaten to Death By Player Silica.) 
Time of Death: 5/20/2022 

Oh... 

She... 

She killed five people last night. 

I look to the final person. 

Player: Garyguyman 
Status: Green 
Known Crimes: None or repented by time of death. 
Status: Deceased. ('Monster PK'd after being stabbed in the back by Johnny Black) 
Time of Death: 5/09/2022 

I close the book and hand it back to her, patting her atop the head. "Good job, Silica." 

Her red eyes widen slightly as she looks up. 

Her eyes glisten slightly, shoulders shaking as she lets out a small sniffle, then she takes the book and looks down as she clutches it to her chest, leaning into my hand. 

"Do you need a place to stay?" I question. 

"Mmm-mm." She shakes her head. "I... I've got money... and a bunch of things to sell. I don't want to take advantage of your kindness, Mr. Argo... I-I... I don't deserve it." 

"You do." I whisper. "You should value yourself more. Six fates have been solved and you have even taken care of some trash which sought to take advantage of your situation to do harm to others... who knows how many people you have already saved through your actions. If you ever need anything... please don't hesitate to ask me." 

"O-Okay!" She smiles brightly. 

I feel like maybe I should have used Excalibur on her regardless. But... at this point, she looks resolved... and we need every slight advantage we can get. Having her hunting down player killers like a bounty hunter might seriously help with this game. 

~~Linebreak~~

One of my fox-like ears twitch slightly as I sit side by side with Tsukasa. 

Shiro is sat in her lap, kicking her feet. 

"Electrode! Diglet! Nidoran! Mankey! Venosaur! Rattata! Fearow! Pidgey!" 

Clutched in her hands is my iphone. 

Turns out Yui can do a little fuckery with her technically reality warping ability. 

What she did, is basically take the data from that pokemon disk set I had and transfer some of the episodes to the phone itself. 

Thus. There's now something for Shiro to pass the time with. 

It appears that the white haired girl is still quite cautious of me, but... it does appear she is slowly warming up to me. 

"So... Your emotions went wildly out of control yesterday." Tsukasa hums, head turning to look at me. 

Shiro looks back briefly, but seeing as she isn't being spoken to, she returns to watching pokemon. 

"Yeah... ah... I might have messed up a little bit." I admit quietly. 

"How?" 

"I might have accidentally turned a little girl into some sort of... like... vampire." 

Tsukasa stares at me. 

"And then she might have immediately turned around and got attacked by some other players and murdered all five of them in cold blood after they attempted to kill or rob her." 

"Good." The blonde fox woman smiles. 

"The issue is... I don't think her new... capabilities... are doing that good on her mental state." I admit. 

"I could talk to her." The blonde suggests. 

"That might help." I nod quietly. 

I just hope she doesn't try to adopt this girl too. 

~~Linebreak~~

Two red eyes blink up at two brilliant yellowish orange ones. 

"Huh?" Silica mutters. "Who are you?" 

"Oh, I'm Tsukasa Kudamaki! It's a pleasure to meet you! I've heard so much about you from Argo." 

"You know Mr. Argo?" Silica gasps, a bright smile on his face. She seems to sniff the air for a moment. "You smell a lot like him... are you his sister or something?" 

I am currently sat in a miniature pipe in the top corner of the room observing what is happening. 

"I am his second half." Tsukasa explains 

"Oh... do... fox youkai come in two parts?" She questions with a small head tilt. 

"They do! Or, at least, Kuda Gitsune do! Though, to compare it more readily to human concepts... I am his Wife or Mate." 

"H-Huh?" The smaller girl blinks. 

"..." 

Tears begin to prickle at her eyes suddenly. 

"It- IT'S NOT FAIR!" She sobs as she turns and quickly rushes off. 

"Eh?" Tsukasa blinks. 

Huh? 

"..." 

She slowly looks over her shoulder towards me. 

I look just as confused as she does. 

~~Linebreak~~

So. Silica apparently has a crush on me. 

I... uh... didn't see that coming, actually. 

"Hey Silica." I greet the small girl as she crouches under a bridge. 

She looks over, her face wet, eyes slightly glowing in the darkness. 

I take a seat beside her, gazing over the river that goes before us. 

"Are you alright?" I question. 

"I'm fine." She replies curtly, her knees brought up to her chest. 

"You don't sound fine." I observe. 

"But I am." She frowns, eyes narrowing slightly. 

She looks over me briefly before her gaze softens, eyes being drawn to the gentle rushing of the water in front of us. 

"M-Mr Argo..." She quietly whispers. "Uh- I... I'm sorry I snapped at you like that. Since this... this... thing... happened to me... and I became a vampire-" 

"Demon." 

"Demon." She corrects. "My emotional state... hasn't been the best." 

She lets out a long breath, a hand coming to her chest. "It's like all these dark urges I have are magnified a bunch and- well... sometimes it scares me. I feel so greedy and... hateful a-and... evil at times... It- it just doesn't seem like me!" 

"Am... Am I a bad person, Mr. Argo?" She asks quietly. "A-Am I dangerous? C-could I hurt people?!" 

"Silica." I breathe as I reach over and pat the top of her head. "You're not a bad person." 

"Having... intrusive thoughts does not make you a bad person." I continue as I cross my arms. "Personally... I have sort of been having issues with my emotions at times as well. I... am greedy. Selfish. And in the past, I have even felt deeply satisfied with being the direct cause of someone dying... he was a bastard who murdered people casually after making deals with them, but regardless... I- I try to not let these thoughts control me. I don't allow this darkness to seep deep inside of me. And you shouldn't allow yours to control you." 

She looks over slowly as I give her a small reassuring smile, I let out a quiet sigh as I glance away. "Being a Youkai is... different... than being a human... we just don't think the exact same way. I'm... rather young among youkai. Barely twenty years old. For a species that can live thousands of years... I'm practically an infant in comparison. And, well, a year is nothing to them... and they hold grudges. You could wrong a youkai as a boy, then, eventually in fifty years, you'll find yourself in the lowest position of your life... all orchestrated by that sole youkai out of spite." 

"Youkai are creatures of darkness by nature, thus, we are more greedy, more hateful, more vicious. there is no end to youkai who hunt and consume humans. Men. Women. Children... it's sick. We are monsters." 

"You're not a monster, Mr. Argo." Silica declares. "You're so kind to me and everyone else! You're helping us all defeat Aincrad!" 

"I... am... but I could be doing so much more. I could be putting more effort into it. I could be helping out more. I could set the prices in my shop lower so more people can buy life-saving materials." 

"But, Mr. Argo. If you sell things at such a low price how would you ever get enough money to buy more things?! You need to make a profit... because if you do, surely you are putting most of that back into your store, right?" 

"I am." I nod once. 

"Well, there you go! You're helping so many people already!" 

I gaze up into the sky for a brief moment, a low hum leaving my lips. "hn... well... the point I was trying to make, Silica, is that you aren't human anymore so you might begin to think differently. But... you shouldn't let those thoughts consume you. Regardless of whatever small changes happen to you. You are Silica. Some intrusive thoughts won't change you for the worse, nor does it make you worse." 

"I tell you, there's been practically no end to me looking down at my hand while holding a knife and thinking 'I wonder if I would die if this knife stabbed me in the stomach?'. Does that make me suicidal? No. Do those thoughts make me stab myself? No." 

"..." 

"..." 

"I'm really bad at this." I whisper to myself. 

"No! You're good!" Silica protests. "You've made me feel a lot better, Mr Argo!" 

We sit in silence for a long moment. 

"Mr Argo..." Silica eventually speaks.  

"Hm?" 

"How did you and that woman meet?" She questions. 

"Well, ah... It's been a couple of months now." I admit. "She literally just showed up at my door and proclaimed that we're married. Then she took her clothes off." 

"H-Huh?!" The girl gasps. 

"Yeah." I nod slowly. 

"But-But- that's rape!" She exclaims before turning scarlet and letting out a few sputters. "I-I mean... if... you weren't accepting of it..." 

"Ah... I really didn't have much choice." 

"THAT'S RAPE!" She exclaims, her voice being slightly muted by the sound-proofing of my domain. 

Having a girl shout rape is a bad scene in general, and I don't want anyone to really hear about Silica's inhuman attributes. 

This is more of a private conversation as well. 

"I mean... as more of a species sort of choice." I clarify after a moment, her red eyes narrowed in fury quickly darting over to me. "You see... Tube foxes need to have a second half. They fundamentally must come in pairs. We cannot unleash our full capabilities without being in a male and female pair. Lesser tube foxes, which are just sort of normal foxes, will die if they can't find a second half. Greater ones like myself and Tsukasa could technically last on our own, but we could never make use of our ability to manipulate fortune." 

"..." 

"And, well, Tsukasa hadn't ever seen another greater Kuda Gitsune despite being alive for over two hundred years, male or female, so she leapt at the chance." I shrug. 

"And... are you happy with her?" Silica questions. 

"Yeah, I guess..." I admit. "Though... she isn't really paying me that much attention as she used to since she adopted a girl with severe anxiety issues who can't really function without near constant supervision..." 

"So... I just need to look like a better mate, then..." She mutters under her breath. 

"Fucking what-" 

"Thank's Mr. Argo! I'm gonna go solve some more fates! Thanks for cheering me up!" She beams as I watch her sprint away at high speeds. 

"..." 

Maybe her dark thoughts are affecting her more than I thought... 

How do I explain that to Tsukasa?