Files: Classified, Eyes Only

Date: xx/xx/202X

Subject: Debriefing of Redacted

Audio Files Only

001: "Are you comfortable, Miss Redacted? Is there anything I can get you?

002: "I...I would like some water please, and maybe something to eat. We are going to be here for a while, after all."

001: "Indeed."

DOOR OPENING

001: "Thank you."

MUFFLED FOOTSTEPS, DOOR CLOSING

001: "Here is the water and snacks. No need to worry, we know you are gluten intolerant."

SIPPING NOISES

001: "Now, shall we begin?"

002: "...Okay. Is it on? Good."

CLEARS THROAT

002: "What I'm about to say will be shocking. You probably won't believe me, and even if you did, there's nothing you can do. After all, you can't change the past, however much I wish it were possible. I just hope you can find it in yourself to understand, to look past what has happened. Ah, but I should get straight to the point. My name is...well, you may call me Monika, and I am a survivor of Redacted, and SAO .

001: *Ahem* "Miss, perhaps we simply stick to the latter for now."

SILENCE FOR SEVERAL MOMENTS

002: "Very well then. Let's start with what happened in that place. That wondrous World of Swords, where things began. November 6, 2022…"

November 23, 2022, 1843 hours

"Yunker, to your left! He's going for another charge attack! Once he dodges that, Sazuki will draw aggro and tank, Mochi should be finished healing by now!"

The party had been doing well, all things considered. By all things, I mean getting trapped in the Matrix's child with Scanners. Thrusting his short spear at the Dire Wolf, he grinned. He grinned in spite, no, because of the odds they were facing. More specifically, the pack of 5 Dire Wolves surrounding his party. Well, at least the exp will be good.

Again the wolf came, prowling forward and leaping back. "Kal, I'm alright now. SWITCH!" shouted Mochi. Leaping back to avoid a sudden swipe of claws, he complied. "Go get em, Mochi-chan!"

Switching. An abrupt movement of players, intended to confuse Monster NPCs by changing aggro, thus throwing off response algorithms.

"Jeez Kal, enough with the 'chan' already! Hyaa!" Shouting as her 'Sword Skill' activated, Mochi rolled over the Dire Wolf, dagger nearly too fast to see. A long line of crimson streaked around the wolf's neck, and the Dire Wolf shattered into particles.

Before they could celebrate, the rest of the pack stopped growling. They started backing away, slowly at first, but soon turning to a full on sprint.

"Yeah! Take that, you stupid bots, run away!" Sazuki cheered. Walking up from behind, he arm-locked Yunkers before the older boy could do anything. "See that, Yunkers? They couldn't handle the might of the Great Sazuki! This is why I'm called the legendary…...Yabai!"

Two things happened: Firstly, a shimmering sound and flash of light went off behind him. Secondly, and more importantly, Sazuki had just violated the most crucial rule in a game where RNG is involved; Never. Mess with Murphy.

Leaping to the side, the shield wielding tank was just nicked as meter long claws swiped at him.

"Friggin Kayaba, making a game system where they spawn right behind you! Stupid RNG, stupid wolf-" He cut off, quite literally, as the mini boss' raked lethal claws across his arm. The rest of the party had been shocked, but moved into action the moment their tank was hurt.

Yunkers, the closes of the party, hacked into the flank of the Alpha Wolf with his battleaxe, dealing only a small chunk of damage to it's rather menacing triplet set of health bars.

"Sazuki, get back and heal, NOW! Yunkers, let Mochi draw agro, and switch when the time is right." Kal called out. He himself would hang back for a bit, and try to determine the attack patterns of what seemed to be a mini boss.

The beast's fur was an orangish red, with yellow eyes aglow. This, added to the terrifyingly dangerous claws and fangs, certainly made for a decent mini boss. Alpha Wolf was its name, and Kal could only shake his head in appreciation. This might be a Death Game, but there were times he felt as if someone had poured their soul into making it.

The players and the Alpha Wolf continued to fight as the sun went down in the west. Stabbing, jumping back, hacking, switching with another member, and healing. After what felt like hours (but was probably never more than 30 minutes) the players finally reached the red health bar.

Kal, as the party leader, pulled everyone back. When monster bosses reached certain points in battle, their attack patterns changed. Reaching the red bar was the most significant phase, and already many players had perished for not respecting that.

Giving out an ear rending howl, the eyes glowed an intense red that was soon matched by an aura surrounding the wolf. When the flash of light faded, the players' jaws dropped. The fur, once sunset red, was now midnight black, allowing the wolf to blend in with the dusky atmosphere. Above, the words spelled out Midnight Greatwolf.

"It's like Sif took a dip in the Abyss! Not cool, Kayaba!" Sazuki cried out, tears leaking out of his eyes like a stream. 'That emote system….I could probably live without it,' Kal thought, rolling his eyes as Sazuki theatrically fell to his knees. Abruptly, the game's BGM queued a new song that Kal hadn't heard before….yet was familiar. 'Well, we are only on the first floor,' he thought.

"Sazuki, get yourself together and start tanking. Be on guard for special moves and patterns! Everyone else, just test it for now. Only one bar left!" He shouted, giving the encouragement he could.

The party's tank leapt forward, raising his shield to catch the now much faster paw as Yunkers and Mochi sprinted around the flanks. The Midnight Greatwolf started turning towards Mochi, who had just dealt a good portion with her backstab, and thus drew aggro. "Get away from her!" Came a shout from Sazuki as his short sword flicked from behind his shield.

Only after 3 stabs did the monster turn to face the new threat.

'It is getting smarter, keeping it's aggro on the glass cannons, so to speak'. If things were going like this, they would have to spread out the damage dealing. But the Greatwolf's actions were not what Kal had expected.

Yet another howl shrieked through the air, more panicked than angry. Eyes flashing red once more, a ball of light appeared in it's open jaws.

"Oh, now it has a Bijūdama?!" yelled Yunkers. Everyone turned to look at him, deadpanned expressions evident on their faces. "What? I can't make nostalgic references too?" The Midnight Greatwolf growled, and the beam of light shot for Mochi, who simply danced around it. Not missing a beat, she turned back to the ax wielder.

"Yunkers, at least Sazuki referenced an actual game!"

'Oof, shots fired from Mochi!' came the mental Commentator in Kal's mind. With an unseen signal throughout the party, they advanced on the boss, which was now on a long cooldown from using a charge skill.

"Oi, Oi, Naruto had tons of games! I made a perfectly viable reference, thank you very much. Right Kal?"

'Friendly bantering, to distract from danger or negative feelings. I can do that.'

Raising his spear, he replied. "I don't know, Dark Souls is much more of a game than anything Naruto had. They have you on that."

"Oh, you had to take their side? For another thing, Please don't reference any souls games while we are trapped in a Death Game!"

The boss' health bar was now under 10 percent. 'One more solid hit should kill it. That is….if it doesn't heal. You never know with bosses.'

He grinned, and raised his spear in a fluid motion. Alongside him, Mochi entered a ready stance. "Let's dance this last dance, eh? I shall do the honors, according to my grand authority as Party Leader!"

Rolling her eyes at his overly theatrical tone, Mochi nodded, and they sprinted forward. Kal, while not a full AGI player like Mochi, had put quite a few points into speed, and was only just behind his partner as they called for a "Switch!"

Eyes flashed, teeth bared, the Midnight Greatwolf growled once more, before the night was punctuated with breaking glass.

.

.

The sun was long gone as the party trudged through the woods. The adrenaline had long worn off, but their spirits still remained high. 'Well, as high as they can be in this situation.'

Nights in SAO were often beautiful things, even in the towns, but out in the fields….it was breathtaking. There were no stars, but on some nights the sky seemingly glowed, occasional pinpoints of fireflies taking the roles as moving constellations. That was not this night, though.

Kal glanced around, using his Detection skills to check for any surprises. Come to think of it….

"Hey, you know how that field boss spawned right on top of us, and we didn't detect it until it was trying to gut us?"

"How could I forget?! I know I'm a tank and all, but that was way too close for comfort," Sazuki complained. Before the other members could begin to tease him for his 'Whining', he continued.

"Well, I'm thinking that it was only possible since the sun was going down." The party remained silent, chewing on those words. It was Yunkers who spoke up.

"I agree; we've already seen that certain monsters are stronger at night, so why not during other times of day as well? The dusk certainly matched it's fur. In addition, we've never heard of anyone coming across a mini boss such as that, so far. I imagine that certain monsters only appear at night, and become stronger because of it."

Mochi nodded. "Sono tori desu, I agree. When it's fur turned midnight black to match the sky, we dealt half as much damage as before. On the other hand, the drops, Exp, and Col were much more than the average field boss!"

In other words, night time made the monsters much more numerous, and at much higher power levels. On the other hand, the risks were matched by the rewards.

If the game had gone as planned, this would certainly have been exploited, but would the average player really put their neck on the line for a bit of extra rewards? 'If there are, they probably won't be around for long,' Kal surmised.

"Now that we know what to look for, we can do it again when the fields are full of players in the daytime. It's a risk, but with limited resources to go around on this floor, we might have to take it."

The group fell silent once more, as to not draw more attention to themselves as they walked on.

It was not 10 minutes later Kal's shoulder was tapped by a gloved fist. Mochi was mouthing the words 'Possible enemy, 6 o'clock.' Kal's fist went up and the party entered a defensive formation.

"Trace on," Kal muttered under his breath, activating his search skill. He could practically feel Mochi's eyes roll at the reference, but he ignored her. He gazed into the distance, eyes slightly glowing as his vision pierced the gloom of night.

"Looks like a humanoid, walking slowly. Can you confirm?" he whispered to the resident ninja. She nodded in affirmation, replying, "I think it's a player, or NPC, but they're lightly equipped, if at all."

A low level player, in the middle of the monster fields, in the dark of night. Whoever it was, they were a fool, desperate, or both. Either way, he felt the urge to help.

"Mochi and Sazuki, you two keep an eye out for other life forms, Yunkers, follow me at a pace of 10 meters. I don't want to spook them into fighting, or risk drawing aggro from monsters. Got it?"

Three hands signaled the 'okay' sign, and he crept forward. The figure was still shambling forward, like something out of a cheap zombie movie. Stopping about 15 feet away, Kal softly called out. "Hello? Are you a player? I'm here to help." The figure stopped, and not moving anymore than that. His Search skill still active, he could just make out their appearance. Rather, her appearance. She was of average height, with long orange hair reaching down to her waist. "Hello? Who are you?" He called out again, starting to inch his way closer.

Quietly, almost like a whisper on the wind, a sigh escaped her lips. What happened next was something Kal was not prepared for. She looked up, and two pinpoints of green flashed out, before the girl collapsed towards the ground, not unlike a marionette with cut strings.

Behind him, he heard Yunkers curse in German. In a blur, Kal sprinted forward, just catching the falling player. To his right, he saw a flash of white light and the noise of a spawn. 'Crap, we drew aggro?'

All pretenses at stealth abandoned, the party wordlessly rushed forward to create a ring around their leader and the mystery player. Over half a dozen Dire Wolves had spawned, barking into the night as they sought to rip their prey.

The moment passed, and the combat began claws clanged against steel in the night.

Author's Note: This has been bouncing around in my head for a while. This is, obviously, an SAO story, about 17 days into the death game. This is technically a crossover, but I'm probably not gonna set it up as that, initially. I leave it to you to find the connections.

In addition, I will be using a smattering of Japanese to match the story.

Please review the story so far, or PM me. I make it a point to respond to all reviews (well, the ones that go beyond "Good", "Give me more", etc). Be sure to catch any mistakes, eh?