(A/N: I forgot to mention I made a cover art for this story! Kirito is not my character; however Jewel is. I don't like putting notes up here, but I wanted to let you all know. ;))


-[MAIN MENU CLOSED.]-

"... Is that all? I thought it'd be more complicated," Jewel said with a somewhat surprised look. "That was quick." Of course, that behavior brought up questions.

"Have you been solo the whole time?" Asuna asks. "That seems kind of dangerous, don't you think?" She swivels her head to Kirito mid-sentence; both knew about the raven-haired boy's rash tendencies as an amateur Beta-tester, and Kirito stifles a nervous laughter disguised by a series of short coughs.

"Yeah. But I'm pretty new to all this, so I don't know much about it yet. I caved to buy it when the event was announced though," Jewel explained. "I'm glad I got to join your Party for a while."

This time it was Kirito's turn to speak. "Thanks, it isn't much though, but it gets the job done. Stay with us for as long as you like."

"Heh, thanks." The newcomer's face shone with a tint of pink.

At the moment, they were walking through the forest from their house to start their search in the Town of Beginnings. It seemed to be a good place to start. Kirito led the group, followed by the girls; Asuna, with some struggle, carried an asleep Yui in her arms. 'Since she is an AI, I didn't expect her to get any bigger than when we first met her. But she seems to be getting heavier by the month,' the "mother" inquired silently. 'It's like she is a real human, and not just some sort of computer-generated character.'

Other than the adults' conversations, the chopping down of thick underbrush from Kirito, and the soft breathing of the AI, they were surrounded by NPC nature sounds, which were programmed to sound like reality's birds, rodents, and other animals. It was a peaceful time, as it always felt we ever the spouses took a walk alone together when Yui was asleep.

~~TIMESKIP TO ARRIVING IN THE TOWN OF BEGINNINGS~~

"Ah, we made it!" The newcomer exclaimed. "I thought we'd never get here alive!"

The rest of the Party just snickered at Jewel's enthusiasm. "Hey, the forest isn't that risky," Kirito claims. "It's really easy to get through there-"

"Yeah, but we got lost three times and I'm new!" the girl shot back.

Asuna forcefully put her hands -which are not carrying Yui anymore because the AI is now awake- on her husband's shoulders as an attempt to scare him, then whispered, "This one is good with comebacks, isn't she?" with a giggle afterwards as she was shoved away by the now-flustered, raven-haired boy. The rest of the girls laughed along with Asuna as Kirito regained his composure.

"Ahem... Haha, very funny..."

"Of course it is, you silly," Jewel said. She ran off a ways, then shouted, "Hey! Let's ask around to see if we can't get any leads!"

Asuna was the first to agree, and she ran after Jewel. "Okay! I'll be right behind you!"

"Me and Yui will go this way! Let's all meet at the Portal Gate in three hours, okay?!" Kirito shouts after the the two female Players.

"Okay! See you soon!"

Kirito turned and looked down to Yui to explain what she could do, only to find that she has already started talking to a trio of other unfamiliar Players. The suddenly-protective "father" briskly walked over to her side in case they seemed like trouble.

Luckily, the three Players were female, and from the looks of it, none had weapons on them at the moment. Two, judging from the clothing, hairstyle, and ear shape, transferred from Alfheim Online, and they looked like they were sisters. The other one, brunette hair, looked... Not from either SAO or Alfheim... She wore a heavy-looking black uniform and rubber boots, along with a matching hat to complete the outfit. 'Maybe she was from that new game... What was it called... Gun Gale Online or something?' Kirito inquired. He picked up the conversation while he was in thought, rolling his eyes at the stereotypical gossip conversation his "daughter" was in.

"Have you encountered the Event Boss yet?" The AI asked curiously.

"Nope, we haven't yet. But I've, like, heard stories!" One of the sisters replied. "I'll tell you if you want!"

"Yes please miss!"

"Okay, um... Let's see... There was this guy who was just wandering around, okay? And... He was jumped by one of the NPC monsters, you got that? But it turns out that the monster was actually the BOSS! I mean, a name wouldn't just APPEAR on a boar like that, and it even had four Health Bars, just like the Event Boss would have! The guy had to stall until a group of other guys came, y'know, because he was walking alone on the field."

Her sister nodded occasionally while adding her own commentary: "Yeah!" "Uh huh!" "Totally!" Yui made her own quiet exclamations throughout the story, much to Kirito's dismay. 'These kinds of conversations can go for hours if we were at a coffee shop...'

"...but the weirdest thing about the Boss that everyone in the battle learned was that it was just outside of the Town of Beginnings! Only a few hours ago!"

That part stuck out to the raven-haired teen.

He decided this conversation was important enough to gather information from, so he spoke. "What about the other attacks? Were they around the same time?"

The storytelling blonde looked at Kirito before speaking, as if she was being pressed for information. Kirito bowed a bit in apology.

"Um, yeah. All right after the other, and all only in the first night. There were only three, though. Um... All the stories started the same way: the Player -or Party- decided to get up really early to try and catch the Boss off guard, or, uh, to have a better chance at catching it. They found the Boss, and um... Then the stories got different."

"How different, miss?" Yui spoke, as if something scary was going to be told.

"Well, um... Everyone involved noticed a battle strategy, but it was different for all three stories."

Of course, this shocked everyone in the conversation. The Gun Gale Online Player did not react, as if she had heard this story repeatedly already, which she probably has if she were acquaintances or Party members with the two sisters.

"Wait... How is that possible Daddy?" Yui asked her "father."

"Well-"

"Hold up, did she say, "Daddy?" The blonde who didn't tell the story asked with a confused face.

"...Yeah, she did. It's a little complicated, so I won't go into detail. But anyway, it's possible since the Guidebook page for Jewel said she could change anything except her name."

"Um... Oh, right! I forgot about that."

"Anyway, misses? Do you know if any of those attacks had the Boss defeated?" Yui questioned, as if to break the awkward tension between her "father" and the girls.

"From what I've heard buzzing around, nope! No one was able to get three of her Health Bars down either."

"...That's all we need to know. We have to get moving, but it was nice to talk to you," Kirito said, feeling satisfied with the new information he received. He looked down at Yui who was also itching to find more insight on the Event Boss, and everyone waved their goodbyes and safe journeys.

Jewel and Asuna figured the best way to gather informations about the boss was through casual conversation. And where else to find such a thing? A café. Both grabbed some light coffee -Jewel remembered reading that holding a hot drink in your hand will allow you to get into less-awkward conversations- and wandered about, searching for a talk that would seem interesting to jump into. They found a red-head teenage boy sitting a short ways from them who looked inviting, and pitched a conversation.

"Okay, so do any of you guys have any information about the Event Boss?"

"Uh, no. But you should ask those guys over there, they say they saw the thing!" He point in the direction of a small crowd about a few yards away, and waved them off after they expressed their thanks.

On the way, they managed to pick up bits of the conversation: "...Yeah, the Boss was CRAZY!..." "I'm glad I had five extra lives, I needed three of them!..." "...We both managed to get out alive!" One had long, dark-brown hair tied in a loose ponytail and was the taller of the two, while the other had choppy platinum hair.

Asuna brewed up the volume and courage to ask the two boys. "Uh, hello?" Luckily it was loud enough to be heard by undeaf ears as both turned their heads to her and Jewel's direction.

"Yeah? Who was that?" The silver-haired boy spoke.

"We just got here, and we wanted to know what happened!" It was difficult to speak under the ruckus, but a conversation managed to weasel its way through the chaos.

"We were walking and we found a weird looking bird! It attacked us and you could've imagined our faces as we found out it was the Event Boss!"

"Well, that's not really the surprise! The surprise was that it SPOKE!"

Ever since the world learned about the NerveGear and Sword Art Online, it became common knowledge that Bosses didn't have the ability to speak, only barely being able to make incoherent words from English and Japanese lettering at the most. But even then, those words weren't spoken through their voice boxes at all.

Jewel's shock surprisingly didn't seem real; it was like an act, and those who only looked wouldn't know the difference. Asuna wasn't one to be oblivious. When the light-brown haired Player found out this, she became a little more cautious about the new Party member, the doubt and the feeling of being insecure floated from the depths of her mind to the surface. She almost lost track of her thoughts, only to be brought back into the SAO game with an elbow nudge to her right arm. Jewel whispered under her breath, just loud enough to allow Asuna to hear.

"Pay attention! We need this stuff!"

"It said, "You aren't worthy of my time boys," and then it just vanished and we were sent back here! We didn't teleport of our own free will, either!"

That seemed like enough information for now; it was really crowded and it was possibly one of the only main points needed from a place like this. The girls decided to take their leave.

"Okay, thanks!"

"No prob! Happy fighting!"


(A/N: Another awkward ending to the chapter... But it got too long again. Whoops. Anyway, hope you like it, I'll post another one up HOPEFULLY by next week.)