Ryou, or Haseo as his PC name said, could be found hours later, roaming the world of Sword Art Online.

He was on top of a cliff, overlooking the world, his face poised as he gazed upon it.

He closed his eyes, leaning his head back lightly, sighing softly, relishing within the peace and quiet of the area he was in.

Maybe he'd take that advice Atoli had given him a few months ago, Haseo thought, remembering how she acted when they were in "The World".

Back then, he lashed out at her for saying something so weird.

Though that was only because of the fact that she looked so much like...

His character's red eyes opened up, looking towards the sky.

Shino...

Shino had been a close friend of his, but ever since she'd been PK'ed by Tri-Edge, she'd been in a comatose.

That was, until recently that is.

Ever since the Epitaph Users defeated Cubia...

He smirked, seemingly not noticing the rock that was sent hurtling his way.

That was until he leaned his body to his right, watching as it flew over the cliff, the game's artificial gravity making it plummet down the side of the cliff, the fall nothing Haseo wanted to know about.

For he was turning around, looking at the forest laid behind him.

The way it was so heavily forested made it an almost ideal place to hide if you were to try to hunt anyone.

Yet, Haseo iterated the word "almost" as he thought.

"You, hiding behind those trees. Come out, it's not like I didn't know you were there to begin with."

He got a chuckle as a response.

Haseo could hear the grass rustling as a figure walked out from theur hiding space.

"I see you're as sharp as ever." A short, red haired girl said, smiling, her voice that of an impression of what a tough person would sound like, though it seemed a bit unfitting for a girl.

She had a short crop sleeveless t-shirt with an object that resembled a fan connected to it, a makeshift belt that looked like an animal skin wrapped tightly around her waist, which led down her black baggy pants, which soon went in a pattern of black and red arrows, finally to her sandles.

"And I see you're as lively as ever, Alkaid." Haseo commented, hand on his hip.

She gave a warm smile, "Thanks. I didn't think I'd see you here so soon though. Or at all really." She walked next to him, joining him in gazing upon the vast world.

"So you say hello by trying to attack me with a rock?" Haseo responded.

Alkaid would have to look at his smile to see he meant the comment lightly.

"Yeah. But I'm glad you made it here." She admitted, "I guess I just got used to being around you so much, you know? I guess it just wouldn't feel the same without you around..."

"Alkaid?" Haseo looked at her.

She punched him on the arm, "Forget what I said." She said, "Besides, I bet you and Atoli are already together. She did get a head start on me when I was in the hospital."

Haseo flushed, but still scowled, "No way would me and that idiot ever get together." He responded in a rather harsh tone.

"I was only joking." Alkaid was looking at him, hand on her hip, her trademark smirk streaking her lips, "I thought you'd know that I'm persistent and stubborn by now Haseo."

The junior in high school gave no response.

"Hey, Haseo," Alkaid moved in front of him, so they were meeting their eyes as she looked up at him, "You wanna try dueling? It's a pretty awesome thing you can do here."

"Dueling?"

"Yeah. Wanna try it?" Alkaid asked.

He nodded after a moment, seeing the challenging look in Alkaid's eyes.

Alkaid told him to wait, then used a menu that Haseo knew nothing of until that moment, and within seconds, a message appeared in front of Haseo:

You've been challenged to a duel.

Do you accept?

He pressed the "Yes" icon, and his health bar and Alkaid's appeared before their respective characters.

"Ready?" Alkaid drew her twin blades, "Use your twin blades."

Seeing no reason not to, Haseo pulled his own twin blades out, just in time for Alkaid to loudly say, "Go!"

They both began sprinting away in the same direction in that split second.

"First one to reach 50% health loses!" Alkaid yelled over the sound of wind howling lightly in their ears, their feet scraping the grass in an ever rustling harmony.

"Fine by me!" Haseo responded, and he had to look up when Alkaid jumped in the air, only to be blinded by the sun.

He barely brought up his blades in an X formation to block the downward slash she threw at him.

He was left unprotected to the kick she sent to his stomach however.

Haseo went stumbling back, surprised at the fact that he really felt the pain.

He narrowed his eyes, then returned to his battle stance, seeing Alkaid do the same.

They did a stare down for a moment, then charged each other, their hair being blown back by their speed.

Alkaid went for a standard slash at Haseo's head, which he dodged quickly, ducking under the blade and giving a slash of his own to her torso.

She brought up her blade just in time and the two weapons clashed with an angry scratch.

Simultaneously, the dual blade users brought their knives at their opponent, Haseo's going up and Alkaid's slashing down.

As both of their blades met, they held each other, both pushing against the others' might.

Regardless, it was at a standstill for a long time, for each person stood their ground unfalteringly.

"This is just like olf times, isn't it Haseo?" Alkaid yelled, the fight getting her in a fired up mood.

Then Alkaid leaned back suddenly, making Haseo lose balance, falling forward, only for Alkaid to push him roughly away, so hard he went tumbling backwards.

Right when the edge of the cliff was behind him.

He took the step in ignorance to what was behind him, and he slipped and began to fall down a high cliff.

Alkaid ran as fast as she could, throwing herself at the edge at the last second, looking down the cliff with her head hanging off of it.

She saw Haseo hanging on to his weapon, which he had implanted in the cliff's side.

He had switched his weapon to a scythe, and held onto the end, it being the only thing keeping him from plummeting to his death.

"Hang on!" Alkaid commanded, and Haseo fought the urge to tell her he hadn't much choice, watching as she aimed at the ground with her right blade, reaching down towards him while holding tight to the deep rooted sword.

Seeing what she was trying to do, Haseo climbed up his scythe slowly but surely, wrapping his hand around hers.

When it was tight around his hand, Alkaid pulled up with all her might, gritting her teeth at the slight strain she had to use in her muscles, and began to rise from her kneeled down position, releasing the tight hold she had on her blade, using both hands to get him up.

Haseo managed to bend his blade so that it dug itself out of the soil of the cliff, and when his head was just above the cliff's edge, Haseo swung his scythe up, and it landed on the ground, blade end being his new tool for climbing.

Pulling himself up with Alkaid's help, Haseo found himself laying face down on the ground a moment later.

He surprised himself as he realized that adrenaline was pumping in his veins, even though it was only in a game.

"That... that all felt real..." Haseo said to himself, out of breath.

"Yeah, I guess that's why this game's so popular." Alkaid responded, him not seeing what she was doing, "But do you want to know something else?"

"What-"

He stopped mid-sentence, eyes widening as pain spread to his back, looking behind him only to see Alkaid piercing his back with her twin blade that wasn't stuck in the ground.

He could hear his health bar making an obnoxious but continuous sound effect, finally reaching the halfway point when a sign appeared in front of him, the writing clear to him:

Winner: Alkaid.

"I win." Alkaid voiced the sign's words, pulling her twin blade out of his back, helping him up.

Haseo gave her a look, but sighed, accepting his defeat.

Together, they turned to her other twin blade, and together, they grasped it and yanked it out of the ground.

They could be found together an hour later, sitting along the cliff, seated while the duo talked, the sun now on the western horizon as they conversed.

But, out of the blue, "How's Endrance doing?"

It struck Haseo as unusual that she'd ask that (she DID have what many would call a grudge against him), so he commented on it, "Why do you ask?"

"Because, a lot of people are saying you got married." Alkaid said, a serious look on her face.

Haseo felt himself cringe.

He could remember that happening.

He and his friend, Kuhn, had bet on something, but Haseo lost, and as a result, he had to invite Endrance to a Hy Brasail, an event where people got married (and guess who the guests of honor were!).

The only comfort Haseo found in it was that it was on April the 1st, or April Fool's Day.

He only hoped that people realized it then.

The thing that countered this comfort was the fact that Kuhn had taken the liberty of inviting several of the girls he knew to that wedding.

Pi, an older woman who was an employee of CC Corp., Atoli, and Shino.

Pi had only looked at it with a shocked expression, even as the man and bride kissed (Haseo still got chills up his spine at the thought).

Shino had a similar look, only her voice was still calm and collected, unlike Pi's taken aback one.

Atoli, on the other hand, seemed to fall to pieces at that when she finally realized who was marrying who.

And Kuhn could be found laughing his ass off not too long after it was all over.

A darker side of Kuhn was revealed that day, for he said he did it as revenge on Pi for beating him up so badly one time (Shino and Atoli were just coincidentally there at the time).

When given background on this, Haseo couldn't help feeling a bit of irony, for if Kuhn hadn't won the bet, Haseo would have him choose only one girl to flirt with in the world.

But sadly that wasn't the case.

When everyone realized what had happened, Atoli put some considerable distance between them for about a month before deciding to forgive him.

Shino said she'd forgiven him outright at first, but Haseo sometimes wondered with the looks she gave him.

Pi on the other hand...

"I'm guessing that was true." Alkaid said as he noticed him cringe, looking away after a moment.

"...well... it's true and it isn't true..."

"Then explain it to me." Alkaid looked at him, and a Haseo realized there was a bit of hurt in her eyes, despite her light scowl.

And after a while of explaining, that hurt changed to some surprise, then when he told her about how Atoli reacted, she burst out laughing.

"I can imagine her falling to pieces because of that." She chuckled, Haseo scratching his head and letting a somewhat sheepish look get on his face.

"But, I'm sort of happy though."

"Huh?" Haseo looked at her.

"My Prince Charming isn't homo after all." Alkaid punched him rather harshly in his arm.

Haseo lifted that same arm a moment later, biting back the pain, looking at his hand.

"It's pretty amazing how you can have the experience of doing things in real life while still in the game..." Haseo commented, clenching his hand into a fist, not really saying how weird this felt.

After all, spending what had felt like hours in the AIDA server the phenomenon for which said server was named after, and having no way to return to the real world, due to the fact that logging off wasn't an option, the entire experience left him not wanting to have anything to do with AIDA, his sole purpose for getting involved in the first place (as well as a few other addings to that reason) Haseo really didn't want to feel like he was trapped again.

"Well, I bet it's about time I log out now." Alkaid said, pushing herself up to her feet.

"...hey Alkaid, can you tell me how to log out of here?"

"Hm?" Alkaid looked at him, "You didn't read how to in the manual?"

"I didn't really read the manual," Haseo admitted, standing up himself, "With so many people saying that this was so great, I just wanted to try to just play it and leave it."

"Well, you should be relieved I like to read so much." Alkaid said with an air authority in her tone.

"You like to read?" Haseo asked, looking at her.

Her eyes widened as she realized what she said, "Forget I said that."

"Why? I'm... curious. Why would you try acting so tough all the time when you like to read so much?"

"I don't like it THAT much. Just a little..."

"Then explain how someone who likes to read only "a little" would read a whole manual and memorize it all on the day you got it."

"I didn't memorize it all!" She defended.

"How do you add people to your party?"

"Well, it's just like the way you do it in "The World", only-" Alkaid stopped herself mid-sentence, "...shut up."

Haseo smirked.

She flushed angrily at his expression, then sighed, "Just shut up and let me show you how to log out . I leave you here all by yourself." She said.

Haseo only shrugged.

Alkaid walked next to him, and lifted her right hand, all fingers bent except for her middle and forefinger, "First you lift up your hand like this," after Haseo did as was told, she continued, "Then you pull it down through the air, like this," she slashed her fingers down, and a line of circles appeared in front of her.

Haseo copied, and the same went for him, a line of circles appearing in front of him, and Alkaid continued.

"Then at the bottom if your menu you should see..." she suddenly trailed off, staring at her menu.

"What? What's wrong?" Haseo looked at the bottom of the menu, and saw a faded circle at the bottom.

Then he realized, faded writing was next to his, which said "Log Out" in his language.

He tried pushing it, yet he found that it was... broken? Not working?

Maybe it was the former.

Hopefully he'd just jinxed it with his thoughts and...

No. He wasn't so stupid to actually believe in jinxes.

But that didn't explain why the log out button wasn't working though...

He looked at Alkaid, seeing her only looking back at him.

"Maybe it's a bug." Alkaid mused, shrugging her shoulders.

"It's okay book worm. Everyone makes mistakes." Haseo responded calmly, walking away, "I'll go to the town and ask if anyone else knows."

"Hey! I'm not a book worm!"

"I was only joking." Haseo said over his shoulder, then started walking away again.

He could hear the sound of feet scraping against grass a moment later, and as it reached his side, Haseo didn't need to look to know Alkaid was next to him.

A few minutes into the walk, he felt her eyes on him, voice suddenly much softer than before, "Hey, Haseo..."

"Yeah?" He glanced in her direction.

"Is it alright if I tell you a secret?"

He took a moment to respond, "Sure. I won't tell."

"The truth is... I kind of AM a book worm. I like to read books so much that it's an obsession almost."

"Really? What's your favorite book?"

"I like the Chinese classics like "The Water Margin" and..." she seemed somewhat embarrassed to say the next title, "'Romance of the 3 Kingdoms'." Just based off the title of the latter mentioned book, Haseo found himself wondering if everytime she called him "prince charming" it was a small reference to that, "But I think I'd have to throw in Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series." The last two names definitely made him wonder if her flirtatious nickname for him was in reference to those.

"That's good. I never really got into reading. But it's good that you have at least."

"Yeah..." She looked at him, "Just don't tell anyone."

"I won't tell anyone." Haseo said nonchalantly, shrugging his shoulders.

"I'm serious Haseo."

"I know. And I wouldn't want to ruin the reputation of the "cool, super hot, bad-ass chick that TOTALLY should have beaten the crap out of me for kicking her off my team in Holy Palace tournament"." He said, quoting a forum post of a guy who didn't seem to have a very positive view of him but really liked Alkaid, praising her as though she were God.

"Someone said that about me?" Alkaid looked in surprise.

"Yeah, though I saved you a bit of the more... graphic writing in that forum post." He could recall the several curses the guy had said of him.

If it were in the game though - hell, even in real life! - Haseo would probably have kicked his face in from how stupid and insulting he sounded all at once.

"...do YOU think that too?"

"What?" Haseo returned to the present, "What he said about you or how he wished you'd kick my ass for allegedly kicking you off the team?"

"The first thing. And be honest." Alkaid had gone red again, but only slightly now.

Haseo stared, then thought for a moment, "Cool... I'm not sure. Bad-ass... Yeah, definitely." He admitted. She was still looking at him. "Super hot, though... I don't really know. I honestly can't say. I can't even say you're cute." He said bluntly.

"What?" Alkaid said in a somewhat offended tone, actually stopping in her tracks.

Haseo looked back, "After all, what can I really say from just your Avatar?" He pointed out, "After all, for all we both know, you could either be this really nerdy looking girl," she pouted, but he didn't seem to care, "A really beautiful girl, or, as it's very possible, we could BOTH be posing as the opposite gender, without either one of us knowing to begin with."

Alkaid didn't give a response to that, thinking about it.

"...yeah, you're right..."

Suddenly, a bell tolling in the distance brought them to attention, and they looked in that direction, only to have a light burst up around their bodies, enveloping their bodies as it made them disappear.

They reappeared in an arena type coliseum, and surrounding them were other players.

Hundreds, if not thousands of other players.

Many were walking around, wondering just what the hell was going on.

Alkaid and Haseo looked around themselves, seeing more and more players filling the area.

"Where...?" Haseo looked around himself, as did Alkaid, as they took in their surroundings.

But suddenly, a voice boomed over them all.

"Hello players. Welcome to my world." A giant figure spoke, its robe and hood covering his face from view. "Many of you may be wondering about the lack of the log out button in the menu. I assure you, this is not a bug in the system. For now, you will be trapped in this world. And if any force on the outside world tries to remove your NerveGear headsets, then an electrical shockwave will be sent to your brain, thus killing you. The same will happen if you ever die in this game." He said unfalteringly.

Many cries of outrage came in response to this.

But he went on, never caring of their yells.

"I wish to give to you a gift. Open your items section in the main menu and use the new item."

Many players did this, and as Haseo did the same, he saw what it was as he saw it have a "new" icon blinking next to an item he'd never heard of.

"Mirror?" He said to himself, pressing it.

A small mirror fell then, and he caught it, looking right into it and seeing his own reflection.

A flash next to him made him look at Alkaid again, and was shocked to see her become engulfed in light.

The same happened to him, and when the light faded, he opened up his closed eyes.

He looked down at himself, seeing his hands.

Nothing looked different...

"Haseo..." He turned at Alkaid's voice, hair swaying at his rotation, only for his eyes to go wide.

Where Alkaid once was, a girl around his age with light brown hair that came down to the scrape of her neck and eyes that were just as brown had replaced her.

Alkaid gave him a similar look, and he could see his own reflection in her eyes, his hair significantly darker, face the same way.

He pulled at his hair, looking at it, surprised to see it was now brown instead of white as well.

"Right now, how you look is a reflection of yourself in real life. Now, I repeat, it isn't a defect of the game that you cannot log out. If you wish to escape this world, you must work your way through all 100 floors and defeat each boss. All of you will remain here so long as this is not done. Welcome, to Sword Art Online."

The man's body disappeared with that, crumbling to ashes in the air.

Haseo looked around himself quickly, Alkaid doing the same, almost already expecting what came next.

And as it did, to Haseo, it was as though everything was suddenly in slow motion.

All of the players began shouting at the area where the game creator was once floating, though he'd gone now already.

Alkaid and Haseo looked towards each other, "We need to find everyone." Haseo said.

"Alright, we'll look for Atoli and everyone else." Alkaid agreed instantly, brown eyes steeled in determination.

"Do you wish for me to accompany you Haseo?" A new voice said behind them.

At the voice, Haseo turned slowly, jumping back in surprise when he saw who it was.

A pale skinned boy who wore a red hat and attire on his body, covered in different symbols, spiky hair once blue but now brown.

"You?!" Haseo pointed.

"I guess you can't recognize me right now... sorry. This was my dad's old avatar. Look." He pointed at his health bar, curled like a halo above his head.

As Haseo looked, he couldn't believe his eyes.

Slowly, as he looked at him again, the boy before him spoke once more, "Do you remember me now, Master Haseo?"

"Zelkova?!"

A/N: Hope you enjoyed. ^_^

Explanations will be given next chapter.