Disclaimer: I don't own anything apart from the words that I write and the characters that I create. Credit goes to the original creator of the SAO universe; credits also to the creators and contributors to the Code Lyoko series and related works.
Aincrad Standard Time: [18:30] June 1st, 2025
Location: [Floor 98: Iwaya]
The game of SAO was cleared after nearly 3 years of fighting in Aincrad. Everyone cheered and enjoyed their last day in Aincrad, however the hidden truth behind one of the stronger clearers kept him and his friends from truly enjoying it. The clearer known as Hikaru Murai or Ulrich Stern and his friends have gone to the newest house owned by the entirety of the Senryaku unit in Iwaya on floor 98, which is the size of a giant mansion and the only reason Hikaru has it is because everyone in the Senryaku unit pooled their money together and became co-owners because of its immense price of nearly 100 million Col, to enjoy their final days in Aincrad. The people who have assembled in Hikaru's mansion are: Hikaru, Sylvia, Karen, Katsuo, Kana, Kazuto, Asuna, Tsuboi (Klein), Keiko, Rika, Haruka, Mamoru, and Yui.
"I-I can't believe it, after three years, Aincrad has been cleared and we can all leave" Kazuto says, doubting himself somewhat out of the happiness of freedom after three years.
"Not all of us Kirito-kun." Asuna says sadly, glancing at Hikaru, knowing that he exists in Aincrad, body and soul, unlike everyone else who is here only in their minds figuratively.
"Oh, I'm sorry Hikaru, I forgot." Kazuto says in a sad tone, having forgotten his unique circumstances.
"It's alright, atleast you all can leave, your friends and families must be worried sick, the sooner you all can return, the better." Hikaru says, trying to sound happy over how his friends can reunite with their friends and families.
"Hikaru, you're part of our family too, even though we'd return to our own world, you'd be left behind" Karen says sadly.
"Karen's right Hikaru, you're part of our extended family, it's never good being forced to leave family behind." Keiko says, with Sylvia, Haruka, and Rika nodding in agreement.
"They're right about all this. After all this time we spent together in Aincrad, I consider you, Kazuto, Tsuboi, and Mamoru as my brothers. I also think of Keiko and the other girls as my sisters." Katsuo says proudly.
"Yeah Hikaru, never assume you're alone, you're part of our family, even if we're not blood related." Tsuboi says with his usual attitude, giving a thumbs up during his speech.
"You guys...you're so silly." Hikaru says desperately trying to hold back his tears.
Everyone in the group begins laughing trying to ease the tense situation, which succeeds rather easily. When things calm down between the group, Hikaru decides to ask a question of his friends since they'll be leaving him relatively soon and he might not be able to see them again. He at least wants to know their plans for the future after this.
"Anyway, what are you all going to after this?" Hikaru asks the group.
"I'll have a lot of education to catch up on, I'm sure being stuck here for 3 years really reduced my actual intelligence." Karen says casually, being a bit depressed near the end, remembering that three years passed in real life and a lot of things could've easily happened outside Aincrad.
"I'll need to talk with my sister and mother, they're surely both worried sick and mad at me." Kazuto says with mixed tones, praying things will end civil between himself, his sister, and his mother.
"I don't know actually, SAO was my purpose for the last three years. I don't know what I'll do after I'm done here, I'm definitely going to keep playing MMORPGs though, it's very fun." Katsuo says, having enjoyed 'playing' this MMO and wants to play more of them.
"I do miss my younger brother and sister, I've been raising him with help with my sister after my parents passed away. I hope the both of them are doing fine. I never anticipated that I'd be stuck here for three years. Originally, this was just going to be a fun activity to pass time, but not THIS much time." Sylvia says, with a hint of guilt, remembering her family on the other side.
The rest of the group answer in similar ways, with Hikaru being made mildly jealous with each response because of how he's trapped in this virtual reality world.
"Hikaru, why did you ask us this? Is there a reason?" Karen asks out of curiosity.
"I wanted to know, it helps me relax a little knowing what you're going to do with this time of conflict ending." Hikaru says calmly.
"I see, I suppose knowing the plans of your friends can bring one a little stability." Mamoru interjects calmly, knowing the logic behind his intent.
"I want a way to meet up with you all in the real world actually, is there a place all of us can meet up in?" Kana says with a little optimism and sadness.
"Doesn't Andrew run a bar in real life? We could meet up there." Asuna mentions calmly, hoping that things work out in this manner.
"Hikaru, I may know a way you can attend as well. Considering how you entered Aincrad through unorthodox methods, I imagine Cardinal would've digitized you. If I can find an admin console, I think could turn your existence into an item and transfer you to my NerveGear, in a way, you'd become a pseudo Artificial Intelligence." Kazuto says, praying that this works as he thinks.
"That sounds depressing, I'm not sure how much I'd like that." Hikaru says in an obviously depressed tone.
"Don't take it that way Hikaru, your mind and body would still stay here, but you'd have access to us digitally, we'd be able to meet in the real world." Kazuto says, trying to cheer up Hikaru.
"If you put it that way, it does sound a little better." Hikaru says sheepishly.
"I imagine you all must be hungry; Asuna, Kana, Haruka, would you all mind helping me with cooking up a feast?" Karen asks, since these four are the best chefs in this group of friends.
"Certainly, Kirito-kun, keep out of trouble." Asuna says seriously, with Kana and Haruka nodding in approval for cooking the feast and leaving to the kitchen, leaving Hikaru, Kirito, Katsuo, Sylvia, Klein, Rika, Keiko, and Yui.
"I don't plan on waiting here until the food's ready. Hikaru, you said this place has a forge right?" Rika asks.
"Yeah, it's a floor above us, far right." Hikaru says relatively nonchalantly, knowing Rika's favoritism of forging.
Rika departs to the forge, not wanting to be stuck in a room full of guys, aside from Sylvia, Keiko, and Yui.
"I'm going to head to the library; Keiko, Yui, Mamoru, do you three want to come with me?" Sylvia says, wanting to read up on various topics.
"Fine by me. Normally I'd be drinking a little, but what the heck." Mamoru says in a light hearted manner.
"Certainly, bye bye Papa." Yui says while running towards Kazuto and giving him a quick hug, then departs with Sylvia, Keiko, and Mamoru to the library.
"This leaves you, Katsuo, Klein, and myself; Hey, do you all want to spar in the ring? It has a unique ability of creating any environment." Hikaru asks what's left of the group.
"Normally, I'd say yes, but I'll pass. Have fun." Klein shrugs, laying back against a couch.
"Are you sure? What about the rule of death?" Kazuto asks in mild shock.
"Remember when Kayaba told us that he disabled the rule of death?. How do you think we've survived since XANA showed up?" Hikaru says, surprised that Kazuto forgot this common information.
"Count me in, I've been crazy bored since we beat Heathcliff." Katsuo says with fire in his tone, wanting to get one fight in between this group to see who would be the victor.
"Very well...what setting will we use? Total loss? Half Loss? First Strike?" Kazuto asks.
"First strike is unfair because of the fact you and Hikaru are much faster than us." Katsuo says, knowing that he's not as fast as Kazuto and Hikaru.
"Let's do Half loss, it'll allow us to go all out and avoid dying in battle." Kazuto says, hoping to make a compromise with the group.
"Fair enough, let's head to the ring, I have a special environment in mind." Hikaru says with giddiness in his tone, while heading to the ring with Kazuto and Katsuo.
The group wander through the large hallways of Senryaku's mansion to reach the dueling ring near the top of the mansion to start the duel between Hikaru, Katsuo, and Kazuto. They arrive at the ring and when they enter, a special field is created and the environment changes to a giant ice mountain field, that is reminiscent of floor 58's mountains. The four challengers are in random parts of the environment, thus it's become a sort of race to take down the others and come out victorious.
"Hmm; a mountainous terrain, I'm glad I have this pure white shield, I can hide myself near the snow and pick them off one by one, but if this place is giant-sized, the match would never end. As much as I would want to stay alive, I'm not going to use stealth and fight them face to face. You are so going down Hikaru." Katsuo says quietly, not trying to alert the others if they're close by, and trying to avoid causing an avalanche.
Katsuo then decides to draw his dual blades and runs north to try catching at least one of the others.
"This environment reminds me of floor 58, I remember that my Dark Repulser was made by Rika from a crystalline ingot I got from that dragon." Kazuto says quietly, wondering how to make this environment work for him.
Kazuto decides to head towards the mountainside to get an aerial view of the area and find the others.
"Looks like things are going well, I bet that Kazuto and Katsuo are dumbfounded and I can use that chance to get a drop on the others...but who should I go after first? Kazuto is very skilled with dual blades so he'll be trouble, but Katsuo is incredibly resilient so if I go after him, I'll be too weak to fight Kazuto. But I'll have the same problems vice-versa." Hikaru is pondering who to go after first.
Hikaru departs to get a drop on either Kazuto or Katsuo, as Kazuto is known as the Black Swordsman and Katsuo's known as the adaptable White Fortress. When Heathcliff was defeated, they were the most powerful of all the clearers, with Hikaru tying for first alongside Kazuto and Katsuo because of his increased strength but with his capability to become exhausted making him relatively fragile. Sylvia herself is widely considered by the clearers strong enough to take down any of these three but Sylvia has never desired to fight against the trio so they'll never know if this is true or not.
Hikaru and Katsuo are dashing through the mountainous terrain trying to find their opponents, with Kazuto taking the different approach of climbing the mountainside to find the others. Hikaru quickly sees the silhouette of one of the challengers and uses his super-sprint skill to quickly sneak up on the person. To his surprise, the silhouette is Kazuto's.
"Excellent, my most difficult opponent is here unaware of my presence, Katsuo is not as strong as Kazuto generally, so removing Kirito from the duel will be a definite plus." Hikaru says to himself, using a special version of the dual blades unique skill that he received from Cardinal when Kayaba reprogrammed it and draws his Kingetsuga & Kurogetsuga, the one katana that Rika made with the unique quality of changing color & name separated into three different katanas upon the acquisition of the dual blades skill, and creeps behind Kazuto to begin the attack.
Right when Hikaru would begin the attack, Kazuto draws his Elucidator and Dark Repulser and blocks the attack
"Did you honestly think you'd be able to eliminate me that easily Hikaru?" Kazuto says with pride, trying to hide how he's having a degree of trouble keeping Hikaru back.
"Not really, but I figured I'd eliminate you here and now and deal with Katsuo later." Hikaru says with the same amount of pride.
"Then let me fight you with everything I've got Hikaru, I will not lose to you." Kazuto says proudly.
"Same to you, we both use dual weaponry, so we'll need to see who comes out victorious amongst us." Hikaru says, before beginning the clash.
Hikaru and Kazuto fight with their dual bladed weaponry for over 15 minutes and neither side seems to hold an advantage. They are beginning to make mistakes because of exhaustion, which Katsuo takes advantage of, because he was taking cover out of sight during their fight, wanting to fight the two in a weakened state because of how tough it'd be to fight them at full strength.
"This is my perfect chance to defeat you both, prepare to be defeated!" Katsuo exclaims, before rushing to attack them.
Kazuto and Hikaru break away from their fight to keep Katsuo from taking victory because of how they're both rather weak. Right when they were going to inflict their final attacks, a voice is heard from outside the ring
"Kirito-kun, everyone, get out of that arena! We finished cooking ten minutes ago and we've been trying to find you!" Asuna says very angrily.
"Uh-oh, Asuna is very scary when she's mad...we ought to leave now and try to keep that anger minimal." Kazuto gulps in a very scared tone, having seen Asuna's anger more than once.
"Agreed." Hikaru and Katsuo say in the same scared tone, knowing how Asuna gets when she's mad.
They exit the arena to find Asuna, Kana, and Karen in the room, looking very annoyed. Hikaru and the others get shivers down their spines upon seeing those angry faces, they then head down to the dining hall to eat the meal that was prepared.
After they finish eating, they start up new conversation that last a few hours. They all notice it's gotten relatively late, with Kazuto, Asuna, Yui, Haruka, Mamoru, and Tsuboi departing to their own homes to sleep one last time in Aincrad before leaving Aincrad tomorrow, as they are among the last few hundred people departing this game. Sylvia, Karen, Katsuo, and Kana reside in the estate with Hikaru as these four are the closest friends Hikaru has in the entire world of Aincrad.
"I guess this is our last full day in Aincrad, we've agreed to all log out tomorrow at noon." Katsuo says with relative sadness.
"Well, if what Kazuto said is true, I've become integrated with Cardinal's code, so I should be able to be with you outside of Aincrad to a limited extent." Hikaru says.
"I thought that thought made you depressed Hikaru?" Karen asks, wondering why Hikaru suddenly seems interested to do this.
"Knowing that you all are leaving kind of pushes me to do extreme things to make sure we all stay together." Hikaru says with a little doubt in his tone.
"We'll definitely have to meet up with Kazuto and Yui, I'm pretty sure that Heathcliff told Kazuto the admin code to this game when he spoke with him privately, so we can use it to properly digitize you Hikaru." Karen says.
"Guys, let's continue this discussion tomorrow, we need rest." Katsuo says.
The group nods in approval and head out to their bedrooms to sleep for the night. The next morning, there's a light knock on Hikaru's door that he wouldn't even hear without his strong natural listening skill.
Aincrad Standard Time: [8:00] June 2nd, 2025
"Who is it?" Hikaru asks half asleep, wearing a new sleeping outfit he purchased on floor 80: a robe colored gold and brown.
"It's me, Karen, Katsuo and the others left already, we're meeting in Floor One's hidden dungeon, underneath the Black Iron Castle. Would you mind if I came in?" Karen asks softly.
"Uh sure, come on in." Hikaru says.
Karen enters the room wearing a robe herself, the design is similar to Hikaru's, but the colors are different with a purple color with red trims.
"Karen, when did you start wearing that?" Hikaru asks in utter shock.
"Keiko made it for me a few days ago, I like the colors of this outfit believe it or not. Anyway...do you like it?" Karen says in a casual tone, hiding a mild blush.
"Y-Yeah...it's nice." Hikaru says nervously, he's trying to avoid making her mad.
"I see." Karen says trying to hide her blush.
"Well; I suppose we should go, we don't want to keep the others waiting." Hikaru says.
"Right, let's go." Karen says with a nod.
Karen and Hikaru depart to floor 1's City of Beginning and walk to the Black Iron Castle where they find Katsuo, Sylvia, Kana, Mamoru, Haruka, Kazuto, Asuna, and Yui outside the dungeon entrance, with all of the people wearing their newest armors, aside from Yui who's wearing the same white dress.
Aincrad Standard Time: [10:00] June 2nd, 2025
"Good, everyone's here. We can go to the admin console that exists in this dungeon to solve this problem of yours Hikaru." Kazuto says, beckoning everyone to follow his lead.
The group journey through the abandoned dungeon to find the safe room and reactivate the admin console to begin digitizing Hikaru's code to Kazuto's NerveGear.
"Wow, this dungeon was among one of the most dangerous in Aincrad and now it's outright empty." Hikaru says in mild shock.
"Yeah, all monsters and NPCs were deactivated to prepare for the dismantling of Sword Art Online two hours from now." Kazuto says calmly. "I'm going to begin the procedure, are you ready Hikaru?" Kazuto asks.
"Yeah, I presume I'll be asleep while I'm in your NerveGear, so I'll see you all when I'm summoned." Hikaru says.
Kazuto starts the procedure to begin the digitization of Hikaru's character data to his NerveGear, so he'll be reborn as an Artificial Intelligence like Yui. Things appear to be going smoothly until problems begin occurring
"Kazuto...I feel odd...is this supposed to happen?" Hikaru asks in confusion.
"What sensation do you have?" Kazuto asks, trying to figure out the specifics.
"It feels like a...transporting sensation." Hikaru says, with this sensation overriding his senses.
"Transporting… That's not supposed to happen!" Kazuto exclaims in a panicked tone, working the controls to figure out what's happening.
Hikaru quickly begins to dissipate pixel by pixel, first starting with his legs
"Wha-What's happening?!" Hikaru asks in shock, with his body still disappearing.
"I-I don't know!" Kazuto says freaking out, trying to figure out what's happening and the group all gasp in horror at what they're seeing.
The dissipation continues rapidly with only Hikaru's arms and everything above the upper torso remaining
"Hikaru, just stay calm! if I'm right, you're just being transferred to a different version of Cardinal, what that means is that you'll be sent to another VRMMORPG. When we log out, we will do our best to find you." Kazuto says trying to calm himself and Hikaru down.
The devirtualization is at the phase where Hikaru's head is left, who is smiling lightly and nods before he vanishes.
"What? Where'd he go?!" Karen shouts in surprise.
"I don't know Karen. But don't worry, we'll find him." Katsuo says, trying to calm down Karen.
"Come on, let's get out of Aincrad, return to reality and we'll search for Hikaru then." Sylvia says in a calm tone, with her and the others logging out of Sword Art Online with them hoping to find Hikaru soon.
Unfortunately, things will not be going so smoothly for this group of players as they will not be returning to reality as soon as they hope.