A/N: Hello there! Thanks for clinking this story. Just a brief setting summary, this is an AU where the death game never existed and everyone just goes to a normal high school. This will be a Kazuto/Shino love story that i will write based on the 100 themes challenge. Each chapter will either be a scene or a short one-shot that connects to the story as a whole, but may not happen consecutively one after the other. This will mostly be a pretty easygoing story with a few twists and turns that i will mostly write when i need a break from my other stories, but i should be updating frequently since the style of this is different.

I've wanted to do the 100 themes challenge for a while now, and i love this pairing, so wish me luck and please enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online or any of its characters.

Introduction

"On the rocks." A boy with black hair plopped down on the bar stool with a sigh.

After a few seconds, the bartender slid a glass full of a brownish liquid his way. The boy caught it in his hand, and looked down into the depths of the cup.

"This is Darjeeling tea… again."

The bartender shrugged, putting his hands up into the air innocently. "I run an honest business here, Kazuto. I can't give alcohol to minors. Anyway, it's too early and you're about to go to school."

Kazuto sighed again, briefly closing his onyx eyes as he took a sip of his drink.

"Kirito!" A man with red hair tied back with a bandana roughly sat down in the chair next to the teen and slung an arm around his shoulders. "Hey! How's it goin' man?"

Kazuto shrugged the man's arm off of him. "We're not gaming right now, Ryoutaro. Don't tell me you're drunk already."

"What? Of course not!" Ryoutaro assured him cheerily, making Kazuto seriously doubt his claims. "What's gotten you so upset today?"

"Didn't you know?" The man behind the bar asked amusedly. "Kazuto got his heart broken."

"It's not that big a deal, Agil." Kirito mumbled. "And heartbroken really isn't the best term."

"Really? Our playboy, Kazuto, got his heart broken?" Ryoutaro asked slyly. "By who?"

"I'm not a playboy!" Kazuto complained in an attempt to defend himself. It's not his fault that girls apparently fell for him left and right. After a while, the teen traced the lip of his glass with his finger. "Asuna and I broke up."

"You mean your hot girlfriend? When did that happen?"

"… Yesterday."

"Damn. I'm sorry, man." The man with the bandana tried to comfort Kazuto with a clap to his back. "That must have been rough."

The boy shrugged. "No. Not really."

"What do you mean 'not really'?"

Agil cleaned a mug with a rag as he watched Kazuto explain.

"I really did like her in the beginning. She was strong and really caring… but recently, she's gotten really clingy. She won't let me hang out anywhere without her and she's always paranoid about where I've been whenever she's not around. After a while of that, I tried to avoid her to get some space and eventually we spent less time together. Then, after school yesterday, she came up to me saying that she felt like our relationship wasn't working out anymore and suggested we just be friends."

"So you basically didn't know how to call it off and decided to wait it out until it fell apart on its own?" Ryoutaro asked. "You know, not many guys are that lucky when it comes to breaking off relationships."

Kazuto shrugged again. "I guess."

"Wait a minute!" Ryoutaro suddenly exclaimed. "That means she's single now doesn't it?

"Ryou, don't."

"Seriously, man, know your boundaries." Agil shook his head as he set his mug down and picked up another. "Going after your friend's ex will make things awkward."

Before Ryoutaro could answer, Kazuto placed his empty cup on the counter and slid off of his stool. "I better get going. How much do I owe you, Agil?"

Agil smirked. "On the house."

"Thanks." Kazuto muttered, grabbing his school bag off of the floor and slinging it over his shoulder as he made his way to the door. "See you guys later."

"See ya, Kirito." The man with the bandana briefly put his hand up in farewell.

Kazuto didn't even care that "Klein" had used his username as he exited the bar. He briefly thought about his recently ended relationship with Asuna as he shut the wooden door behind him. To be perfectly honest with himself, he felt like that relationship had ended a while ago. The spark between them had died well before Asuna finally ended it. Even though he knew that to be true, for some reason, he still felt slightly depressed about the whole thing. What had he expected? For them to be together forever and live happy lives? She was his first girlfriend for Pete's sake and he had just met her in their first year of high school. Things in real life weren't the same as they were in fairy tales.

The boy's thoughts were cut short as he suddenly was knocked off kilter. Something clipped his shoulder and soon he had spun and fallen onto the ground. His mind went hazy for a moment as he lay there on the ground. He brought his hand up to his head in an attempt to soothe the pain. When his eyes finally focused, he noticed that a black something was obscuring his view. He blinked in confusion, wondering what that thing could be. Then, he registered the weight that was pressing on him from above and realized that it was a body.

Suddenly, the black thing lifted up and the face a girl appeared. White ribbons tied her hair away from her face and black half-rimmed, oval-shaped glasses framed her angry eyes.

The girl supported herself on her hands and knees above him as she said "Hey! Watch where you're going!"

"Uh…" Kazuto didn't know what to say for a moment, all he could find himself able to do was stare into her eyes. Their exact color eluded him. They looked gray, but could also be a dark shade of brown.

The girl huffed as she sit up, using his stomach as a chair as she looked at the ground around them. Trying to distract himself from her position, Kazuto looked too, and noticed that her bag had busted open, the contents spread everywhere.

"Oh… um. Sorry about that." He apologized quickly.

"You should be." The girl huffed again angrily, getting off of him to gather her belongings. "You weren't paying attention to where you were going."

Kazuto flipped over and got on his hands and knees to help her. His eyes were narrowed slightly in annoyance. "I'm pretty sure that you're the one that ran into me." He muttered, distinctly remembering that he had just walked out of a door when she ran into him.

Immediately, she turned to glare at him.

The boy could feel sweat forming at the back of his neck. This girl was really scary. "Uh… I mean, I'm sorry. I guess I was also lost in my own thoughts, so it's partly my fault." He said, offering the books and paper that he had gathered from the floor.

Eyes still narrowed, the girl snatched her things away from him before placing them into her bag.

"…Ok. It was totally my fault." Kazuto corrected himself as he stood up. Once he was on his feet, he offered his hand to her in a gentlemanly manner. The girl just glared at him before she stood up on her own, dusting off her school uniform. Kazuto blinked when he realized that that was the girls' uniform for the school that he went to.

"Um. I'm still sorry. I'm Kazuto Kirigaya, by the way." He introduced himself, still offering out his hand.

The girl eyed him skeptically. "Who said I wanted to know your name?" She asked before turning on her heel and walking away.

Kazuto rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly as he watched the girl leave. He had just thought that introducing himself to her would make up for what he apparently did wrong. Hurriedly, he scooped his stuff into his bag before slinging it back over his shoulder and hurrying down the sidewalk. He would be late for school if he stood around any longer.

A few minutes later, he finally arrived at his classroom. He placed his bag on his desk and sat down in his usual chair by the window before briefly glancing around at everybody. He saw his classmates and several other students that had wandered in from other homerooms. It took him a few seconds, but eventually, he spotted Asuna chatting amongst a group of friends. Before she could catch him looking, Kazuto turned away and instead set his gaze on the trees swaying outside his window. He really didn't want to look at her right now. At least she wasn't in his homeroom.

Awhile later, the bell rang, sending the students to their respective rooms before the teachers came in. Once Kazuto's homeroom teacher walked in, she gave a cheerful "good morning, class!" Kazuto stood up like everyone else and bowed respectfully with a greeting of their own before sitting down again.

"Well, before we get started today, I would like to introduce you to a new student that will be joining us today."

A few whispers broke out as guys wondered whether it would be a hot girl and girls wondered whether it would be a hot guy. Oh, the usual teenager talk. Kazuto on the other hand just stared around at them all uninterestedly. Is that all they could talk about?

"If you would please come in, dear?" The teacher asked, beckoning to someone outside. After a few seconds, the new student stepped inside.

Kazuto's mouth fell open when he saw who it was. It was the scary girl he had run into that morning outside of Agil's bar! He continued to stare as the girl walked up to the board and wrote her name in neat Hiragana characters before turning around to look at the class.

She bowed slightly and said. "Hello, may name is Shino Asada. It's nice to meet you." Then, she stood up straight and briefly scanned the room.

"Please give our new classmate a warm welcome everyone! Well, Asada-san, there is an open seat in the back there. Why don't you go ahead and get settled?"

As the teacher said that, the girl's eyes traveled over to the back corner seat by the window. That's when her eyes locked with Kazuto's. The boy gulped when her eyes narrowed in dislike and he realized that the seat behind him was the only one left available.

His last year of high school would be interesting to say the least.

A/N: Please review!