Ascension: Online

Now without a way out, we had no choice but to explore the cave further. We decided to all put away our weapons, since there didn't seem to be any sign of enemies nearby.

The interior of the cave was vastly different from the outside. The moment we turned around from the now-locked door, we found ourselves staring at a wide black corridor, as white lights placed at a fixed distance from one another on the walls to our left and right lit up, one by one. The corridor wasn't a perfect rectangle, but instead more like a flattened hexagon, with the sides jutting outwards in a triangular shape. The outline of the floor and ceiling were marked by glowing green lines, and the hallway seemed to stretch on endlessly.

Overall, this futuristic and high-tech artificial place seemed like a whole different world compared to the nature-filled forests surrounding it. It felt strangely out of place.

There was no other way to go, so we just began walking. Occasionally, Ichigo would try kicking the walls in the hopes of breaking them down, but to no avail.

"God damn it... where the hell is the place?" he muttered, looking around.

"That's what we're here to find out," Furuwa said. "So stop your complaining and get a move on. Also, kicking the walls won't do anything."

"I-I know that..." Ichigo murmured, looking away.

Somehow, in front of Furuwa, Ichigo seemed like a frail rabbit. Ironic, considering I wasn't afraid of Furuwa at all, but I was of Ichigo and Horiya, who had mentally scarred me throughout middle school.

"Still, I've gotta say... this is pretty bloody cool, ay, mate?" Jim, who was in the lead, chuckled, tracing his fingers on the right wall of the corridor, jutting outwards in a triangular shape, as we walked. "This place is bloody futuristic, even by the real world's standards, ay? Ain't bad, ain't bad at a- ow!"

Hearing his sudden yelp, we all focused our attention on him, who had pulled his hand away from the walls.

"What happened?" I quickly asked.

"Somethin' cut my bloody fingers on the wall!" Jim yelled, clutching his hand in pain. I could see blood coming out of the tip of his fingers.

Ichigo frowned in disbelief. "Huh? The hel-"

[Warning. Time remaining: 15 seconds.]

The mechanical male voice blared out of nowhere, and all of us froze as we heard the low whirring sound that sounded suspiciously like... sawblades.

As if on cue, we looked at the walls to see multiple circular rapidly-spinning sawblades slowly coming out of the walls and making their way towards us.

"Oh, you're fucking kidding me!" Ichigo yelled.

"Up ahead! An opening! Quick!" Furuwa shouted, before making a sprint for the exit up ahead - in other words, the end of the corridor, where a diamond-shaped entrance was waiting.

[10 seconds.]

We didn't need to be told twice. With my high AGI stat, I immediately passed by every one of them, much to their surprise. However, the sawblades were closing in fast, and soon, there wouldn't be any room to pass by others anymore.

[9 seconds.]

I was almost there. I turned around for a brief moment and saw that Ichigo was last. He looked like he was fast enough to pass Horiya, but because of the whirring sawblades closing in fast on either side, there was no room for Ichigo to pass him unless he wanted to risk getting carved into multiple different pieces. There was a short delay before dying in this game, so he would have to feel all the pain.

[8 seconds.]

By this time, I had thoroughly left the other four in the dust, having already reached the end of the corridor and stepped through into the safe zone.

[7 seconds.]

Furuwa also arrived, accidentally crashing into me, sending us both falling to the ground. She immediately got up after though, without a single word of apology. Though, her face was red from embarrassment.

[6 seconds.]

Jim made it as well, doing a front roll before landing in a hero-like position.

[5 seconds.]

Ichigo and Horiya, who both had horrible stat distributions, still were a short distance away. I had used 'Inspect' on both of them earlier as we were traveling, and saw that Ichigo spent nearly all his SP on STR, and Horiya had spent most of his points on... LUC. Both of them were Level 10 - had they participated in the sabertooth slaughter last night, maybe they would've been higher, but neither of them did.

Because of this, neither of them was very fast. However, Ichigo was still slightly better. Unfortunately, he could not pass by Horiya with the limited amount of space they had, thus slowing them both down.

[4 seconds.]

"Hurry up Horiya, damn it!" Ichigo yelled furiously, pushing Horiya slightly to give him a speed boost.

"I-I'm trying!"

[3 seconds.]

Ichigo, cursing, caught up with Horiya and gave him another shove to make him go faster. However, this one was a bit too forceful, and Horiya ended up tripping.

"A-Ah!"

[2 seconds.]

"Damn it, Horiya!" Ichigo yelled as he leapt over Horiya, still struggling to get up from the ground.

[1 second.]

The razor-sharp sawblades were now right next to Horiya, threatening to cut him at any time, and the doors began to close on him.

"HORIYA!" Ichigo looked back at yelled, just as he squeezed into the safe zone.

"W-W-Wait, damn it! H-Help me! Hel- AHHH!"

[0.]

The doors shut tight, cutting Horiya's screams of agony short.

"HORIYA!" Ichigo yelled once more, slamming on the door. But it would not open, no matter how hard he tried. Then, he collapsed to the floor and punched the floor with his clenched fists. "Damn it... Horiya..."

I closed my eyes. "Ichigo... he's gone, but... at least he's not really dead."

"I... I know that... but still... you can feel pain in this game as if it were really happening... and it was my fault... I shouldn't have pushed him, damn it!"

"If you hadn't pushed him, both of you would have died," Furuwa analyzed calmly. "What's done is done. We can't have you like this if we are to break out of this place."

"N-Nah, man... I'm out. I'm logging off. I can't do this anymore," Ichigo said, clutching his head.

"... I hope you realize if you do that, the next time you log in again, you will still be exactly where you logged out from. In other words, stuck in here," Furuwa said without a hint of worry in her voice. She was merely stating facts, giving Ichigo a mild warning.

"I... I don't care anymore, dude. I have to think about how I'm going to face Horiya in real life now. If that means I can't ever play this game again, then so be it. I really like this game, and I've only just gotten started, but... my friend is more important."

Furuwa still wasn't convinced. "But-"

"Leave 'im be," Jim said. "I respect the man. He values his friends over anythin' else."

I sighed, realizing I needed to say something here.

Sure, I hated the two of them, but Ichigo may come in handy for a Trial later on. He was pretty athletic, after all. I didn't know what the future held - perhaps I would be in need of his help one day, though reluctantly.

It was better to manipulate him from the shadows than to outright leave him to die. The former would be a better way of getting revenge, since it would help fulfill any other goals I may have at the same time.

"Look, Ichigo... is your friendship with Horiya that shallow?" I scoffed. "Tell me, how many years have you known each other for?"

"Wha? Uh... ever since middle school. Why...?"

"So, you became friends thanks to bullying me, huh?" I muttered.

"That's..."

"But that's beside the point. What I'm trying to say is, you've known each other for 3 years now. You think a video game will cause you two to fall out? Sure, it must've hurt a lot for Horiya - but only physically. I don't think he's angry at you at all. If anything, I think he's happy you made it out. Horiya has always been an optimistic guy. I have a good grasp of both of your personalities, thanks to all the bullying you did to me. You can decide yourself whether my words are worth believing or not."

"Igarashi... why are you trying to convince me? After all the shit we did to you..."

I shrugged. "I'm not trying to convince you to do anything. This has nothing to do with the game. This has to do with your friendship with Horiya. To me, it feels kind of sad, the fact that you don't even realize how deep your bond is despite knowing each other for 3 years."

Sighing, I continued. "Sure, I hate you and him both to the bones, but hey, Furuwa hated Qin Yao too. That said, she didn't just let him die. It's kind of the same theory here. I might hate you, but I don't necessarily want your precious friendship with Horiya to deteriorate because of your own lack of self-confidence. Besides... I'm sure he knows too. If you hadn't pushed him, both of you would've gotten killed."

Furuwa sent me a glare, most likely because I used her first name without honorifics, but she wasn't so insensitive as to interrupt here.

Ichigo fell silent, then slowly stood up. "... You're right, Igarashi. Horiya wouldn't just turn his back on me after this. I'll get the treasure he was hoping for, break out of here, and give it to him as compensation. Hopefully, that'll make him feel better."

"There you have it," I said, as Furuwa and Jim looked at me in amazement.

"Thanks, Igarashi... and also, sorry. For the past three years," Ichigo said suddenly, bowing down in apology.

I blinked in surprise. "Hm... never expected you to do that. As for the apology... I'll consider it."

Yeah, no. I'm not considering it. But to successfully gain his trust and make it easier to manipulate him, this was a necessary move.

"Can we... be friends? From now on," he said meekly, as if embarrassed to be asking this.

I chuckled softly. "Friendship isn't just something formed with words. You and Horiya should know that best of all."

Ichigo laughed slightly. "Yeah... you're right."