Kirito stretched his back out, pointing his arms up towards the sky.

'Feeling tired?' asked Asuna, a delicate smile forming on her lips.

'A bit. It feels like we've been walking for hours.'

Several months had passed since Kyrie rescued Asuna. They still visited Alfheim Online whenever they had the chance, despite the fact they did not have a particularly positive history regarding VRMMORPG games.

'Remind me again, why are we walking several miles to some obscure town on the outskirts of the map?'

Kirito felt a flick on his cheek as Yui stood up on his shoulder and prodded him.

'Papa, don't tell me you've forgotten already. There's been too many reports coming from that town. It's gotten to the point where we can't just ignore it. Now that players don't die anymore, more and more players have resorted to kidnapping and stealing. We've received several requests asking for help.'

'Sounds like a pain... but you're right. If these people are asking for help, we can't turn them away.'

The last few remnants of sunlight had begun to fade as the sun lazily drooped from the sky; the entire world had been enveloped by a blanket of stars, with only the faint moonlight to light the path ahead.

'This is enough for today. We'll make camp here.'

Kirito leaned against a nearby tree as he flicked through the game's menu. Under the miscellaneous items tab, he selected a tent, which suddenly deployed itself in front of them.

'I'll take watch first, get some rest.' said Kirito, as he prepared Asuna's bed.

She turned to him, and lightly kissed him on the cheek, before turning in.

Several hours passed, and after no apparent sign of any disturbances, Kiroto returned to the tent. For a moment, he was transfixed on Asuna's soft, golden hair which lay against her chest. It was always one of her best features, he thought.

He was disturbed by the clattering of hooves off in the distance. He steadied himself, and returned outside, drawing his sword. It was most likely a passing caravan, or perhaps a friendly NPC, but he wasn't ready to take the chance. Through the thick veil of darkness, Kirito could make out a red orb approaching closer and closer. It wasn't until several moments when he recognized it. It was another player; or to be more specific, a player killer. A character's orb would only turn red if they had killed an innocent player.

Three, tall men came into view, clad in dark red armor. The first one aimed his sword at Kirito. He bore a crest on the front of his shield, slightly different to the others, which led Kirito to believe he was the ring leader.

'Hide in my pocket Yui. This could get ugly.'

Yui nodded, and disappeared into the pocket of Kirito's jacket.

'Drop all of your items, or you're dead. You don't want to be sent all the way back to your hometown, do you?'

Kirito laughed, and in defiance, pointed his own sword towards the assailant.

'You must be one of those bandits I've been hearing so much about. Good, I'm glad I ran into you. I've decided to start cleaning up all the trash around here, and I've got to start somewhere.'

'W-Why you!'

The bandit charged at Kirito, who quickly stepped to the side and struck him in the chest. That one attack alone depleted his HP by almost half. In an act of desperation, the bandit charged again, aiming a strike towards Kirito's head. Kiroto drew his other sword, and parried the attack, while using his other sword to impale the bandit through the stomach. Before he had chance to react, he burst into countless shards of light.

This clearly had an impact on the morale of the other two attacks, who stepped back in fear. They were of a significantly lower level than their leader; if he wanted to, Kirito could have killed each of them in one strike. Instead, he drew his weapon, while sighing.

'Get out of here. If you ever try anything like this again, I won't let you go so easily.'

They nodded, and promptly fled in the opposite direction. Kirito returned to the tent, and poked Asuna on the cheek - a habit he appeared to have picked up. When he saw her sleeping face, he couldn't help himself.

'Is everything ok?' she asked, rubbing her eyes.

'We had a bit of unexpected company, but it's taken care of.'