DISCLAIMER: As much as I would love to, I do not, nor do I ever foresee myself, own Oreimo or Sword Art Online. They are the properties of their respective owners. I am just borrowing their works to fulfill my own desires.

A/N: For reference this chapter starts after the first episode and runs through the middle of the second episode. This would correspond with parts of the Sword Art Online Progressive novel. However, that is one of the novels I have not read, so I will not be following along with it. For the most part I will stick with the canon of the Anime, as it is much easier to reference than the light novels, but don't be mistaken, I will not just follow the Anime. For one, I do not plan on breaking the Sword Art Online canon, you may think of this as the story of another group of players that happens concurrently with canon. The Oreimo gang will have some interaction with Kirito and Asuna, but it will not be in a major way. Yes they will take place in some of the bigger fights (of which none of them were in the Anime or Light Novels), so they should be able to fit in fairly well without breaking canon. I have plans to depart from this slightly near the end of the story, but unless I decide to take the story (or a sequel) into the later SAO arcs (GGO, Alicization), it will not be that intrusive.

Title: 私はこのゲームにの中で立ち往生することができない (I Cannot Be Stuck In This Game)

Author: TrowGundam

Chapter: Chapter 3

It had been almost a month that we had been in this game. Somehow we managed to stay ahead of the majority of the players so far. I'd had heard rumors around town that over 2,000 players had died. I tried to not to think about it, but nothing stopped the nightmares at night.

I tried to keep myself distanced from Kirino, but it wasn't uncommon to wake up with my head in Kirino's lap and her stroking my hair. Those were the nights that the nightmares were particularly bad. Her actions were the only thing that could dull the effect the nightmares had on me, but it could never get rid them completely.

Even though we managed to stay at the level of the top players, we also tried to keep a low profile. There several reasons for this. For one there was a growing movement of resentful players that blamed the former beta testers of deliberately holding back the normal players, so keeping a low profile helped protect Saori from this scrutiny. And second, there was also the sinister rumors of players who had started to attack other players in order to steal their items or even worse, just for fun. I shuddered at the thought of what might happen if one of us got cornered alone by a player like that. Luckily, we went everywhere as a group, even in the cities, so it was unlikely we would get ambushed by any malicious players.

Currently, we are heading back from the top of the first floor's labyrinth. As we approached the safe zone about three quarters of the way up the tower we came across a young man and woman that we had happened across. At first I am a bit wary as the boy is crouching over the young woman who was laying on the floor of the labyrinth apparently defenseless. The few rumors I've heard about "orange" players flash through my mind unbidden at seeing such a suspicious pose in the middle of such a dangerous place.

I grasp the hilt of the hilt of my large bastard sword strapped to my back, preparing for the worse, but as we get closer I see him picking up the teenage girl who appeared to have fainted. We had came across other players, and even saved a few from certain death, that had pushed themselves so far past the point of exhaustion that it caused them to faint several times before.

It also helped that I happened to recognize the teenage boy that we had met on several occasions. The first time being about a month ago as we approached the small village after our time in the City of Beginnings. We had also met him several times in the labyrinth when he would just pass us by without saying a word. We had learned through the various information brokers that had popped up that his name was Kirito. He was a mysterious one-handed sword user that had made a name for himself by refusing all group requests and pushing further into the labyrinth than even the most adventurous parties. Some thought him just plain suicidal doing such a thing alone, but our group knew better. We had come across him multiple times in our time in the labyrinth. He was a demon with a sword, I wouldn't be surprised if he was the highest level character in the game with the sheer number sword skills and the aptitude at which he executed them in combat. His moves were near flawless.

I also vaguely recognized the girl. We had come across her several times in the dungeon, but strangely enough had never seen her in any of the local towns. Every time we had seen her it was out in the fields or in the labyrinth fighting monsters, or resting in the safe zone. I wouldn't have been surprised if she never or rarely ever returned to a town. Her skill was near that of Kirito, albeit much more reckless.

We had come across others like her, more often than not they were the ones we had found that pushed themselves so far they fainted. We had managed to save a few of them, but there were a couple that we had only stumbled across in time see them fade from the game. The look of horror on those few faces would become permanent fixtures in my nightmares.

"Oi, Kirito! How goes it?" I call out to the mysterious swordsman.

As normal, Kirito didn't show a bit of surprise by our approach. He slowly turned hold the girl dressed predominantly in red in a bridal style. "Ah, Kitayama was it?" He asks in his normal whisper.

"Ya, that's right, what happened to her? She looks like she fainted." I answered.

"Ya, she told me she had been in the labyrinth for almost four days straight."

"What is she, an idiot? That is just suicidal. She must have a death wish or something, tch." My sister exclaimed before I could express my own astonishment at such an unbelievable assertion. I can tell by their muttering that Kuroneko and Saori shared the same opinion and Kirino and myself.

Kirito merely shrugged his shoulders and went to continue his path towards the safe zone and the stairs that lead down and out of the labyrinth. I quickly realize that he would be at a severe disadvantage if anything decided to attack him while he carried the girl.

"Hey let us escort the two of you back to town. You'd be in trouble if something attacked you while you were carrying her." I offered.

"Do whatever you like." He said in a barely audible voice without turning back to us.

We quickly caught to his rather sedate pace, and took up formation arrayed around his back. We encountered very few monsters on the half hour trek out of the labyrinth, most of which were executed with a perfect sword skill to a vital point by Kirito before any of us could move to strike. Kirito was already a monster of a player, and we hadn't even made it off the first floor! There was no telling how far he would come as we made our way up Aincrad. I knew for one thing I'd never be able to keep up with his sheer skill, not that I wouldn't try.

Once we were out of the tower, we had a completely uneventful trek down the path to the nearest town. While monsters were rare on the roads between towns and the various dungeons not encountering at least one or two was almost unheard of. But there was no sense looking a gift horse in the mouth, especially since my own fatigue was starting to catch up with me.

We quickly made our way to one the larger inns. The girl had awoken as we entered the tavern.

"Put me down." I heard in a calm demanding town. It was the first time I had ever heard the girl speak the few times I had come across her. She had surprisingly pretty voice, her speech remarkably similar to Saori's when we spoke on the phone or chatting over instant messenger. I could detect a faint blush on her cheeks under her hood, but she quickly turned and the innkeeper and rented a room for the night and left for the upstairs.

Kirito turned to do the same as Kirino, Kuroneko, saori and I turned to one of the tavern tables to grab a meal before we turned in for the night. As we took our seats Kirito came by our table on his way upstairs.

"Hey, Kitayama, one of the leader of a front line party called a meeting for tomorrow in the square. Supposedly a scouting party has found the first floor boss room. I believe they wish to discuss a strategy for the boss. They asked that I let any of the other front line players I came across know. The more we have the better chance we have at not losing any of the players in the battle. It should begin about noon." He informed us and then left for the stairs without waiting for our answer.

I thought about his message and turned to the others, "What do you all think? Should we go to the meeting? I doubt it would hurt to hear them out."

"I agree Kyousuke-shi. We have come this far, it wouldn't do to back out now. It is our duty to all those that remain in the City of Beginnings to clear this game and free us all, at least that is how I feel."

"I agree with the titan, dark beast. My angelic fallen soul would accept nothing less." Kuroneko responded. She had been slipping back into her old ways since we gotten trapped in this game.

I turned to the side to get my sister's answer. She just glared at me before responding, "As if you have to ask, idiot. I go where they go."

I nod to them and we start to discuss other topics as we weight for our food.

After we ate our meal we got our now customary two rooms and split off to our rooms for the night. That night was especially bad. It had been a few days since we had come across just a little too late to save an unfortunate player and seeing girl that Kirito had rescued had brought up the horrible memories. I awoke with a start to feel my sister holding my head in her lap and her stroking my hair.

"Another nightmare, huh? You really should learn to toughen it up a little. We are all counting on you. I know its tough, but you should probably get use to it. We are bound to see many others die in this game game before we finally break free." My sister speaks down to me as she sees me awake from my nightmare.

It was only during these times when she held me after a nightmare, that I got to see this softer side of my sister. Normally it was her tough-as-nails persona that she presented the world. It was kind of nice, especially since everywhere else I could see the tough independent girl that I had grown to love.

Instead of answering her, I make a contented hum and closed my eyes again. I turned my head slight and was soon back to sleep.

I awoke later than normal that morning. We had decided to forgo anytime in the dungeon today so that we could attend the meeting Kirito had informed us about, so it was ok. This morning unlike most other mornings, I woke up with something warm pressing against my front. I opened my eyes to be greeted by a mass of tea colored hair filling my vision. Normally on the nights where I woke up from nightmares to my sister holding my head, she would normally sneak back her bed once I fell back asleep. This was a change, but a really nice change in pace if I was being completely honest.

She hadn't awoke yet, and looking at the in-game clock she still had a few hours before she would need to get up so we could make the meeting.

I very carefully extract myself from behind her and approach the window. The sun had already risen past where we could see it out the side of the castle. It was a rather peculiar thing the sun. You could only see it in the morning and evenings as it is rising or setting, yet sunlight would filter into this level of Aincrad at about the same strength all day and then slowly fade as the sun set. I just figured it was part of the games system and left it that. There was no sense thinking about something so trivial when we were almost constantly in danger and a single distracting thought could be the difference between life and death.

The past month had seen a very few changes in our group. After a couple of days into the game, I had tried to swap to a shield and sword style thinking that it would be better to have what others called a "forward" or what Saori called a "tank," but I just did not have the aptitude for it. I had a surprising amount skill with the bastard sword that Kirino had forced on me in the beginning. When I finally gave up Kirino just smirked at me and had a look as if to say "I told you so!" Then again she was the one that argued that I should just stick with what I had, so I guess she was right in the end.

The only other significant change was Kuroneko. About a week and a half ago we had come across a rare kobold named "The Kobold Executioner." I heard a couple rumors around town about the mob almost killing several groups before they could escape. Before I could even suggest that we get away from it, Kuroneko rushed forward and used her staff to force it's wicked looking scythe out of its hands. The weapon went flying across the corridor and clattered to the floor. The monster was quickly stunned by a sharp quick blow to the back of its head by Kuroneko's staff. Kuroneko took opportunity while it was stunned to dash over to the fallen weapon and quickly exchanged her staff for the monster's fallen scythe. I didn't even think such a thing was possible, not to mention the sheer look of malicious glee on Kuroneko's face scared the shit out of me. She rushed back over to the mob and with a slightly demented cackle used the monster's own weapon to decapitate it. I could have sworn there was a look of disbelief on the mobs face at these actions, but I must of been seeing things, because it was just a computer program not an actual monster. The sole drop from the mob was an ultra-rare Scythe weapon, it may have even be one of the few unique weapons that were rumored to exist in the beta that Saori had told us about. No matter what we did Kuroneko refused to sell the weapon, and it was from that point that her old Queen of Darkness personality from our teenage years started to emerge again.

Saori and Kirino seemed to be settling into the routine pretty well, although I suspected that Kirino would sometime cry at night, since a few nights would I would more gradually wake from the nightmares, I could sometime hear what sounded like quiet sniffling coming from her bed, but I just put it up to my imagination. She seemed to be alright during the day when we were hunting, so hopefully it was really just my imagination.

It was approaching eleven o'clock when I heard a light knocking on our door. I quickly answered to door to find Saori and Kuroneko outside.

"Kyousuke-shi, we were going to get some food downstairs before heading to the meeting place. Why don't you and Kiririn-shi join us?" Saori asked.

"Sure, I just need to wake her. I think she had a late night last night," I said with a faint blush on my face.

"Fufu, you dark beast. What were you doing with your own sister in this room all night, hmmm? Maybe we should separate the two of you from now on. Fufufufu." Kuroneko said looking at me with a dark smirk.

I just glared at her for insinuating such a thing and just forced the door closed. I could hear both Kuroneko's and Saori's laughter through the door as I turn back to the bed with my sister.

I walk over to Kirino and give her a light shake to try and wake her. She didn't wake at first so I leaned over to whisper into her ear and shake her some more. Before I could react my sister turned from her side and leaned up just enough for her lips to touch my own. I was too shocked by her actions to react at first, but after a few seconds I pulled back.

"What the hell was that Kirino?" I ask astonished.

"Don't you know to wake up the princess you have to give her a kiss? hehehe" She answered.

"You are no Sleeping Beauty..." I trailed off at the glare that she leveled at me. "Umm... I mean hurry up and get ready. Kuroneko and Saori are waiting for us downstairs to grab some lunch before the meeting."

Kirino grumbled a bit about stupid brothers and them ruining a good moment as she climbed out of bed. She tidied herself up a bit and was quickly ready.

We quickly left the room and descended the stairs. As we reached the bottom of the steps, Kirino wrapped herself around my arm with a cheeky grin and pulled me over to the other's table.

Saori and Kuroneko broke out into fresh laughter at seeing us approach like that. I realized that Kirino had been awake the whole time I was talking to them back in the room. I try to fight the blush that grew on my face, but I was failing miserably. When we reach the table I was finally able to free my arm from her grasp and take a seat across from Kuroneko. Her and Saori merely smirk at me.

We ate a small meal before we left for the meeting. It was a short walk to a small ampitheater near the center of town. There were already a small number of players milling around the area, there was still a good fifteen minutes before the meeting would start.

We sit down about halfway down the stage and make small talk. As the rest of the players began to take their seats I see Kirito and the girl from yesterday wander in from the opposite side of the theater. Kirito took a seat and the girl continued down the row and took a seat as far as she could from Kirito in the same row.

As they took their seats the organizer of the meeting, a player by the name of Diabel, called everybody to order. "Hey everybody, let's get started. My name is Diabel and I consider my 'job' to be that of a Knight."

At this the crowd broke out in laughter talking about how there was no class system in this game. Diabel just shrugged off the comments with a chuckle before turning serious.

"My party found the boss at the top of the tower." At this the crowd sobered from its previous merriment and became serious. "We need to defeat the boss, reach the second floor and tell everyone waiting in the City of Beginnings that it is possible to beat this game. Everyone of us here that fight on the front line shares this duty. Do you all agree?" He called out getting louder and louder, shouting out his question to the group. I could see his conviction and recognized that I shared the same feelings, even if I only cared about proving such a thing to myself and my small group of friends.

The crowd quickly agreed and broke out into cheers. Diabel sure was a charismatic fellow, just the kind of person we needed to lead such a risky endeavor.

"Ok, then let us begin our planning. First, divide into parties of six. An ordinary party has no chance against a floor boss. We'll need to form a raid group using multiple parties." Diabel told us.

I look around and almost everyone else had already formed parties with the others. I wasn't too worried, since even if we only had four people, we worked pretty well together and would probably be hindered more by someone trying to butt into our dynamic than they could help with the additional power. Besides if we were going to be in a raid group it didn't really matter how many players were in each individual party.

I look up and I see a look of panic cross Kirito's face. He must really not like working with other players. I was about to get up and offer to let him join our party when he slides over to the girl and starts talking to her. I sigh and remain in my seat as I see them form their own party.

After the commotion of everyone breaking into parties died down, Diabel continued. "Okay, have you finished forming your parties? Then..."

Diabel was interrupted during his speech by a rough looking guy who had just entered the amphitheatre, "Just a second!"

The player quickly made his way down to the stage level and introduced himself, "My name's Kibaou. I wanna say something before we take on the boss. Some of you here need to apoogize to the two thousand who have died so far!"

The crowd broke out into murmurs at his accusation.

"Kibaou, are you referring to the beta testers?" Diabel asked the intruder.

"Of course I am! On the day this stupid game started the beta guys ditched us beginners, and they all disappeared. They took all the good hunting grounds and easy quests for themselves, so only they could get stronger. And then, they just ignored the rest of us. I'm sure someone here was in the beta! They should get on their knees and apologize, and give up all the items and money they've hoarded. Otherwise, we can't trust them to protect us as party members, and they shouldn't trust us!"

The crowd tensed, none more so than Saori who had started to shake. Before long a tall black man stood up, "May I speak?"

The bald, black man stood up and I could see a two-handed axe strapped to his back. He made his way down to the stage and stood in front of Kibaou. "My name is Agil. Kibaou, tell me if I have this right. You're saying that because the beta testers didn't take care of them, many beginners died. That they should take responsibility, apologize and provide compensation. Correct?"

"Y-yeah." Kibaou answered unsure how to deal with the person confronting him.

"You got this guide book, didn't you?" Agil said as he pulled out a little brown book I had seen in some of the player shops. "It was provided for free at player stores."

"Sure I did... Why?" Kibaou said not sure where this was going.

"It was compiled from information given by the beta testers." Agil informed him.

The crowd broke into murmurs of amazement. I guess that is why Saori told me I didn't need when I had decided to grab it at a store a couple weeks back.

Agil turned to the audience, "Listen. Everyone had equal access to this information. And even still, many players died. I thought the topic of discussion here was what we could learn from their deaths, and how that can help us defeat the boss."

Agil turned back to look at Kibaou that just grunted and took a seat in the front row without any further argument.

"All right, " Diabel continued. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out the same guidebook that Agil had used to make his point. "Then, can we resume? The latest edition of that guidebook was just issued, and it contains information on the boss. According to it, the boss's name is Illfang the Kobold Lord. He is guarded by assistants known as Ruin Kobold Sentinels. He is armed with an axe and a buckler. He has four health bars, and when the last one enters the red, he switches to a curved sword-type weapon called a Talwar. His attack pattern changes, as well."

Myself and seems a good number of the other players in crowd are amazed by the level of detail that the beta tester's guidebook had completed. I looked to the side at Saori and could see her normal enigmatic smile. I'm sure she had something to do with this, she had been a beta tester afterall.

"This concludes the briefing. Lastly, items will be automatically distributed. Experience goes to the party that defeats the monster. And whoever receives an item keeps it. Any objections?"

Diabel paused as a quick general consensus agreed to his terms for the rewards. "Okay, we leave tomorrow, at ten in the morning. See you there!"

With that everyone broke into groups and went their separate way. As a group we decided to go see the town. We had never seen much this town other than the inn and the market, since we had concentrated on leveling in the labyrinth since we had arrived.

The town was actually quite large compared to the majority of the villages we had been to on this floor, although nowhere near the size of the City of Beginnings. But, there really wasn't much to see. There were a couple of parks that had NPC children running around and playing, numerous fountains and of course the customary church where the poorer players could stay for a considerably cheaper rate than the inns. It was a bit more dangerous as the rooms weren't private, but luckily in the city they only had to worry about robbery instead of losing their life like out in the fields. Luckily there had only been a few minor rumors of that in some of the smaller villages.

We wasted the rest of the day relaxing in the park and talking about what we would probably be doing outside the game right about now if we hadn't got trapped here.

Kirino was of course worried about her body, she was a model after all and needed to keep good care of herself to keep that position. But, from in here there was nothing she could do about. She, and the rest us, were probably sitting in some hospital in Tokyo somewhere with tubes sticking in us everywhere as we slowly wasted away with our minds trapped in this damn game.

It had been an unspoken rule amongst Kirino and I not to discuss the state we had been in when entering the game. It was probably our dad our mother checking in on me when I hadn't called for a few days that discovered us. There was no telling how they would react to the two us laying together on my small bed spooning as we were trapped in this game. It was going to be something we would have to eventually deal with when we got out of this game, if we got out that is. But, we tried to not let the negatives of our situation get us down and continued to speculate about the world outside and what our other family and friends that we missed were up to.

It didn't seem like long before the sun had started to set and the world darkened all around us. We picked ourselves off the ground made our way through the lantern lit street back to the same inn as the night before. Most of the NPC's had disappeared from the streets, and there were only a few players still around. Most of the towns died at night.

We returned to the inn and had nice dinner before we rented two rooms for night. Kirino and I slipped into our room and sat down on our respective beds and faced each other. I could tell there was something on her mind. I also had something I wanted to ask her, but I was having a hard time working up the courage to ask her.

It was only a minute before I hear her mumble something looking down at her feet with a faint blush on her cheeks.

"What was that? I couldn't understand you." I said. She mumbled something again just as quiet, and I still couldn't understand her. I got up and walked over to here before sitting on her side.

Kirino leaned into my side with a sigh. "Let's try this again, what did you say?"

"Idiot making repeat such an embarrassing request. I asked if you would hold me as we slept. WIth such a dangerous fight tomorrow I just want to feel your arms around me." Kirino replied in a heated whisper.

I chuckled and pulled her into my arms, that saved me from asking her to let me hold her tonight. It was one of the few things that dulled the nightmares and allowed me to get a truly restful night of sleep.

"Don't get any funny ideas. Its not like I want you to hold me in my sleep, I just know you sleep better when we are close, and you need to be at your best for tomorrow. That is all, and don't you dare try anything else or I will make you wish that the boss kills you tomorrow. You hear me?" Kirino says in her normal heated voice with her face almost completely red in embarrassment.

I chuckled again and replied, "Sure, matter of fact it saved me from asking you the same thing. I need all the rest I can get tomorrow. C'mon lets head to bed." I stood back up and pulled her with me. We both quickly open our windows and remove our bulkier armor in favor of some lighter clothes that were better for sleeping in. Kirino climbed into my bed and I followed her shortly.

.

As I got in the bed she scooted back into me, and I wrapped my arms around her stomach. No matter how wrong my mind knows this situation is, I can't help but feel that there is just something right about holding her in arms like this.

I heard a little sigh come from Kirino as she rests her one hand on top of my hands that rest on her stomach.

I sat and listened with my eyes closed as her breathing leveled off and she started to snore lightly like she always did when asleep. After I'm sure she is truly sleeping I allow myself to finally fall asleep.

This would be the first time in a month, that I was sleep throughout the night without a single nightmare.

A/N: When I started this chapter I really did mean to take this through the first floor boss battle, but everything else just kind of grew out of control, so I'm going to cut this chapter off right here. The next chapter you will finally get to see the first floor boss fight. This will give me time to actually rewatch the episode (in Japanese and English, since it airs tonight) and get myself reacquainted with the fight. Hopefully this will help my portrayal of the scene. Also, thanks to Eliya Shirwood for the suggestion of Kuroneko's new weapon. If I would have thought of it, it would have been her weapon from the start. If you have not, I would definitely recommend his Oreimo fanfic, The Sibling Complication. It is a very good, and most importantly, LONG story. It is definitely worth a read. I'll try to have another chapter out soon, but it may be next weekend before I get around to writing it all down.

As always, please read and review!

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