Just an indulgence late at night while re-watching SAO.
"With that name," the cloaked figure demanded, "and those sword skills; are you the real deal, or what?"
Kirito thought back to all the people who could possibly know him from previous games.
If he knows me... then I should know him.
...
He looked up and realized.
That's it! He's an SAO Survivor.
...
Chills ran up his spine.
But who is he...? And where did we meet in SAO...
...
The Black Swordsman thought harder, trying to remember who he could possibly be, but to no avail. His heart rate increased, and his breathing shortened; panic had begun to set in. The rest of the room began to fade out, the only things Kirito could feel was his own anxiety spiking, the cloaked figure's glaring gaze, and a fuzzy detachment from reality.
The figure closed the tab showing his username, eliciting a surprised intake of breath from the swordsman, and deliberately exposed his wrist to the Hero of Aincrad. Kirito recognized the emblem of Laughing Coffin, and his panic increased tenfold. He could feel his eyes widen, his breath quicken, and his entire body shaking as he broke out in the closest thing to a cold sweat in a virtual world.
"Answer the question." the concealed man growled, "Or don' t you understand?"
"No..." he said shakily, "I don't." he prayed that this man would leave him alone, "Whaddya mean real deal?"
"Nevermind. Whether you're a fake, using his name, or the real guy, someday... I'll kill you."
Kirito stood frozen in place as the man walked past him. Once he had left, the teenager stumbled to his seat as the full panic attack took hold. He gripped his head in his hands and it suddenly became hard to breathe.
What the hell was that...?
Sinon had finished the first match of the prelims earlier than she expected. Her opponent was a foolish man that had been strutting his stuff in the waiting room and was clearly not one for strategy. He was probably a noob, because he didn't know that she was a sniper despite her being almost the most well-known sniper in all of GGO, with her Hecate II. Not that she minded of course, it just made the job easier on her. But more of a challenge would have brought a lot more satisfaction with her first victory in this Bullet of Bullets. She was teleported back to the waiting room to wait for her next fight, and for some odd reason she immediately scoured the room for that bastard whom she had helped prepare for the BoB. The sniper told herself that she shouldn't care, but found him standing and looking around. The girl decided to harass him again as payback from before, but a man in a cloak walked up to him and started talking.
She was far enough that she couldn't hear, and assumed it was someone he knew, so she planned to go rat on him to his friend, or so she told herself. But, the closer she got, the more she realized that was not the case. The man seemed to be threatening Kirito, and the gamer who normally played "your typical fantasy type game" was in a completely defensive stance. She moved to the side for a clearer view of the situation and realized it was pure panic and fear that resided on his face. The Cloak Guy, as she dubbed him in her head, pulled up the BoB bracket window with his name and pointed to it. He paused for a moment and then closed it, before making a deliberate show of the movement of his arm.
Whatever that was for, it made Kirito's eyes widen, breath quicken, and body become even more rigid than before. The man, who she glimpsed red, glowing eyes from, said one more thing before exiting the waiting room. The swordsman was frozen in place for a few seconds, lost in thought she supposed, before stumbling backwards into his seat. He stared the table down before placing his head in his hands.
Why did this seem so familiar... Oh.
...
He was having a panic attack.
...
Just like...
She does...
...
This scene made her rethink everything she thought she knew about him, being a sexist bastard who takes advantage of people for example, and flush it down the drain. Absentmindedly, she noted that if she had arrived later without witnessing the exchange, she would have thought that this panic attack was just him freaking out about his previous match, probably finding it out that he would react this way even though his bracket finished extremely fast.
...
Oh.
...
OH!
...
She came to and realized he was having a friCKEN PANIC ATTACK and that even though she hated his guts, she should probably help him out of it. Because nobody deserved what she goes through on almost a weekly basis.
"Hey." she shook his shoulder and spoke louder, "Hey! Kirito, are you okay?"
That seemed to snap him out of the full-fledged attack, leaving him slightly dazed and slow to process his environment.
"Are you okay...? What did that cloaked dude say to you to freak you out this much? Your first gunfight didn't even scare you so how did..." she cut off as he stared up at her with haunted eyes. The kind she recognized every time she looked in a mirror at home alone. He gripped her hand, still shaking slightly, and took a slow, deep breath.
"Did you... Have you ever... I... He-" Kirito tried to explain pitifully, but was cut off by the teleportation animation and sent off to his next match.
Sinon was left staring at where his hand gripped hers desperately. She couldn't help but worry, because going off to a gunfight after a panic attack like that is just plain cruel, so even though she hates his guts, she mentally notes to check up on him after the semi-finals. Whether he makes it there or not.
...
She couldn't believe he would make it no matter how much she wanted to.
She hoped he wouldn't be too traumatized by this.
She prayed for once in her life that fate would have mercy on Kirito.
...
She forgave him for his slights against her, and swore to help him with whatever ulterior motive lead him to BoB.
...
Because there was no way in hell that he was here by choice.
...
And there was no way in hell she would leave someone to suffer like that...
Like her.