The moment she went past it, she saw that not much students are loitering outside the premises. She didn't stand still and also rushed in to her classroom right after changing to their inner footwear. 

Soon, she entered the room with the sign, Class 2-B.

Loud chatter greeted her heightened senses, which is something to be expected in a classroom.

Just as she was about to sit down, a lively voice greeted her from behind.

"Shi~non~chan!"

"Natsuko." She said so in a monotone voice. 

Since the moment she started "practicing" Shiro's techniques, her strength is incomparable to normal people. However, it proved to be a pain to practice due to her world possessing low mana density in its atmosphere.

Just like ether, mana is the life of a planet. It's simply impossible for one to not have mana, lest they've been destroyed already. Only, their density varies from one world to another.

Thanks to that, she can sense her friend whom attempted to surprise her. 

With her silky black hair that reaches up to her waist and hazelnut-colored eyes, Natsuko is a certified school flower. Just the sheer number of rejections that she made is enough to surprise the stoic Shino. 

However, it's not like this before...

"It's a surprise that you almost came in late!" Natsuko said in an intrigued tone, as if she really couldn't believe that Shino made this blunder.

After all, she disciplined her body to wake up early to start doing the stances in the Knight's handbook. She made it like that so she could fit it in just before school starts - which resulted in her being so punctual for the past year.

As for the evening, she meditates, the practice of mages in Shiro's system. It's much easier to do than the former since all she has to do is to sit down comfortably and start immersing herself in it.

As for her sleep schedule, three hours is enough thanks to her constant meditation practice. This allowed her to game until she disconnects to sleep.

"I made a mistake. I slept inside a game."

"A game? Are you playing with an Amusphere?!"

"Yes, yes... Stop shaking me."

"Sorry, my bad." She said in an apologetic tone. She continued, "If I knew that you're playing, I would've invited you with me to ALO!"

ALO, the abbreviation for Alfheim Online. It is considered as Sword Art Online's successor, with its player base increasing even more in the future. 

For now, it only has a slight increase due to people's trauma with the SAO Incident. Though, even the government stepped in and declared that Amusphere is certified to be safe together with the Medicuboid.

Alas, people are still skeptical with VR-related technology even after a year had passed.

"I don't play ALO."

"Ah? What are you playing then?"

"It's..."

Before she could reply to her, their teacher had entered the classroom.

"Later." Shino said as she watched her friend rush to her seat.

Natsuko can only sit quietly beside Shino while their teacher said, "Well, let's begin."

Thankfully for the entire classroom, their teacher this time is an easy-going one. He even stopped requiring them to do their bowing tradition every time the class starts.

He started discussing, though Shino has no intentions to fully listen to it. She has the rights to do so due to her studying the entire semester's course in a matter of a week.

Any students would cry so hard just to have her ability.

'I bothered them yet again...'

Just after killing those two, Shiro sent a message to the Chat Group, which said "We've dealt with them."

It didn't even take a second for her to realize that he's talking about the ones responsible for her ambush.

...

Tap-! Tap-!

Swooosh-!

"Huff... Huff..."

Shino gasped for breath under her hood while throwing another set of throwing daggers at the players. They all have a common characteristic - their color cursors being bright orange.

These dozens of players, which is from the infamous Laughing Coffin guild, laughed out loud like some psychopaths who's chasing their victims.

Their laughter were interrupted when three out of ten daggers curved and unexpectedly hit three players in their sides, respectively.

"Fuck!"

"Get that bitch!"

While the ones hit by it swore loudly, they noticed that their HP Bar is continuously going down even though they already drank an antidote prior to this.

Caught unexpected, they soon turned into bits of blue lights- joining the ranks of death SAO players in the monument of life.

While running, Shino saw the scene and became absent-minded.

'I... Again..?'

Unbeknownst to her, her hands started trembling intensely. This is even worse than her PTSD, which is when she stole a gun from a robber and shot his head.

Due to this state of hers, she couldn't dodge the batch of throwing daggers aimed at her. Some hit her, inflicting a "Paralyzed" status beside her in-game name.

These set of ranged attacks never fail due to the fact that Sword Art Online's ranged attack is only this. It has negligible damage if it's the average, but negative status infliction is easier done with this.

"We finally got her!"

"Shut up, you idiots!" A taunting voice came from behind them. He continued, "She's only a single female player, yet it took you thirty minutes to capture her?!"

""Sorry, boss.""

The man who wore a chainmail armor sat down near her, staring at Shino's face under the hood intently. While doing so, he let out a laugh.

"Hah. One of NEXUS' guild members is a f*cking middle school student?! What a revelation!"

Aside from Shinji, she's one of the youngest Chat Group members, with her turning 14 last year. She's on her third year in middle school.

"What should we do with her, guys?"

"Cut her fingers first!"

"To hell with her annoying daggers!"

Hearing this, the hooded man's expression faltered for a moment. He retorted, "You make it look like we're from a yakuza gang! We should be more refined!"

He then looked back at Shino and asked her, "Mind visiting our base while sipping a cup of tea?"

 "N-no..!"

While in a state of panic and disorder, she can still understand what he meant and refused. Her clouded mind thought that she'll only bring trouble if she answers that. Only if she can think straight, she would've had confidence with them. But now?

She thought that it's impossible to fight 1v40 and even 1v50. No matter how they cleared the boss with their reaction speed, they'll only get overwhelmed.

Pshk-!

Without any prior warning, the hooded man cut one of her finger off. 

"AHHH!"

Just like Kuroneko, her face became unsightly as she felt the pain of her fingers being separated from her finger. Not only does it feel like burning, it's also itchy and painful at the same time.

Pshk-!

This time, her index finger was cut off. Her screams filled the entire place, only stopping when her entire right hand is chopped off. 

"Did you change your mind now?" The hooded man said so without any change to his previous tone.

However, what he didn't expect is that this small torture session didn't scare Shino; rather, it woke her up from her absent-mindedness. Her eyes being sharper than ever is the sign of this.

'If I die once, then I can also die a second time..!'

At that time, the only thought of hers is focused on one thing - protecting her mother. She lost her father at a young age, so she grew up with her mother and grandparents.

Seeing her mother's once peaceful and happy become traumatized by her father's death, she decided to become strong - strong enough to protect her mother and avoid letting another accident like that happen again.

However, fate is playing tricks on them. 

When they decided to visit the post office in one time, they're very unlucky enough to encounter a robber who demanded money from its staff. There's so many other places to rob, but they had to choose exactly that one!

Japan has a very strict control when it comes to guns, so only god knows how the man got one.

At the end of that ordeal, Shino shot the robber in the head. A thirteen-year old teenage girl pulled the trigger against a robber and saved many possible casualties in the building!

It caused a huge sensation in the media, but they didn't know at that time the suffering that it caused to Shino. That's why every time a gun-like thing gets pointed at her (finger guns, toy guns, airsoft), she starts having panic attacks.

This moment is almost similar to the one that she had experienced before.

"Will you continue running?" She recalled Shiro's response when she asked for his help on dealing with her trauma.

"Will you run away every time you face your greatest fear?"

"Or will you face them once and for all?"

"We both know what you chose in the anime, but can you prove that you're strong enough to choose it this time?"

Thinking of what he'd said, Shino closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Her body is still trembling, but her mind is already set on one thing.

"I'll prove it... That I'm strong..!"

"What did you-"

Poof-!

A small metal ball was taken out from the hidden pouch behind her, releasing a huge puff of white smoke.

When it was cleared, the players saw Shino holding a bow in her left hand. Shockingly, she bit its bowstrings and drew it. A single light arrow was created in its wake, shining so brightly as if conforming to her will.

...

'What should I do later...' She got caught in her reverie while planning on her to-do list in Aincrad. Her friend noticed it and thought, 'She definitely has someone she likes!'

*****

A/N: 1.6k words for Sinon, my first waifu (SAO is my first anime)~! (⁄ ⁄>⁄ω⁄<⁄ ⁄)⁄ 

There's less than 10 chapters before the SAO arc ends. In the advance chapters that I wrote, they're already fighting with The Skull Reaper (75th Floor Boss). This is for those whom are thinking that it'll get unnecessarily prolonged xD. To me, they already satisfied the character development that I planned, so onwards to Terra's world (and another secret world), I guess.

Anyways, here's the fun fact of today~!

Fact #33: Remember the Sui (Deity fragments) chapters ago? Unlike Arts, they don't need any catalyst (originum) to bend physics at their will. Their powers can be compared to Divine Arts, but since they're the gods in this case, it's much more powerful. Nian can create kaijuus at will (corresponds to her blacksmithing role), Dusk can paint boss monsters at will (corresponds to her painting role), and Ling that has something related to winery role. Ling's powers isn't exactly said in the lore, but she can summon literal dragons in-game. She's the only one that could fight against their "Eldest Brother" (The strongest fragment obviously). Also, it is said that Nian's shackles and Dusk's paintings could be broken just with a shake of her tail. Basically, treat them as reality bending entities within a certain aspect.