"Ahhhhhhh!"

Emu was sharpening his skills with Parad in a field dungeon on the 35th floor when they heard a scream come from somewhere close.

"Emu!" Parad called out to his partner to stop their training, and together they rushed off to the source of the sound.

"Pina!"

When they arrived to the source of a sound they found a young girl, surrounded by Drunken Apes, on the ground, tears streaming from her eyes. Without even having to think they rushed in to save her.

It didn't take long for them to realize that they weren't the only ones who had done so.

In a matter of moments the Apes had been taken out, leaving Emu, Parad, the girl, and one more person who had helped take out the monsters.

"Tsk. You again…" Parad scoffed at the man.

"Huh, it's been a while since I've seen you two."

Kirito turned to the girl, who had clearly been traumatized by the experience, and helped her up.

"Are you alright, Miss?" he asked.

"Yeah… but Pina…" Tears started flowing once again.

"Miss, if you don't mind me asking, who is Pina?"

The girl attempted to stop crying, and wiped the remaining tears away from her eyes.

"Pina is… Pina was my Dragon…" she explained. "Pina took a hit for me and…"

"Don't worry Ma'am, there's a way to revive your Dragon." Emu interjected.

"Really?" the lady looked at the trio with longing eyes.

"Yeah. There's a plant on the 47th floor called the Pnuema Flower." Kirito explained. "It's in the Hill of Memories."

"There's only one problem with that though, Kirito." Parad said. "She only has three days and she is not a high enough level to get there in that time period."

"Thanks for the encouragement Parad…" Kirito turned back to the girl. "My name is Kirito. I can help you get there and revive your friend."

"You can?" her eyes lit up. "Thank you so much!"

"Of course!" he grinned.

"Oh, my name is Silica!" the girl said. "If you don't mind me asking, why are you so willing to help me?"

"Ah- well… if I do tell you do you promise not to laugh?"

"Of course!" Silica replied.

"Well… it's because you remind me of my sister…"

There was dead silence for a second before Silica hit the floor laughing, and a faint chuckle could be heard from Emu and Parad.

"Hey!" Kirito pouted as Silica got up, wiping away the tears of laughter from her face. "Hold on just one moment… I have to talk to these guys for a second."

Kirito walked over to Emu and Parad, dragging them out of Silica's earshot.

"Listen, do you two mind coming with us?" Kirito asked the pair. "There's something I didn't tell her… her pet isn't the reason why I'm accompanying her."

"Heh, you thought we didn't notice?" Parad spoke.

"What?!" Kirito whisper shouted. "How did you-"

"We don't know what the reason is, but we could tell you were hiding something." Emu interjected. "Let's just say this isn't the first time someone's withheld something from us."

"So out with it. What are you trying to do?" Parad asked.

"There's a guild, Titan's Hand, that's luring green players into traps to PK." Kirito explained. He went on for a bit before Emu interrupted him.

"I guess no matter what world we are in, there are always people taking advantage of others, right Parad?"

"I suppose. But why do you need us Kirito? You should be strong enough on your own, right?" Parad questioned.

"Let's just call it insurance. In a death game like this you can never be too careful, even for a solo player like myself."

"Ah that's right! What happened to that guild of yours from before?" Emu asked.

"I moved on. They became strong enough to handle themselves and joined the clearing group. I still work with them on occasion but I am no longer a part of their guild." Kirito answered.

"Too bad. That girl looked like she was kind of into you." Parad snickered at Kirito's reaction to his comment.

"Parad, enough." Emu stopped him from causing any conflict. "We'll help you. You never know where Bugsters will appear after all."

After their encounter with Salty on the second floor, Emu and Parad had been taking care of Bugsters around the game before they could do any damage to anybody. So far they had encountered Salty, Alhambra, Revol, Motos, Gatton, Vernier, Kaiden, and Charlie Bugsters, but none of the Level 5 or higher Gashat Bugsters. They had been leveling up as they progressed too, so they weren't exactly easy for them. All Bugsters had been declared as special bosses by the players and were told to avoid at all cost since they were too difficult for any normal player to handle.

Since their last encounter with Kirito on the 27th floor, Emu and Parad had dedicated themselves to, when they weren't taking care of Bugsters, leveling up so that they could clear the higher floors more easily. So far they had gotten to level 58(since they had the same account they shared the exp they earned and therefore earned double EXP). Although they barely have even caught up to Kirito's level, they were able to unlock the Gashat Gear Dual for Parad, which meant he could take care of stuff even Emu couldn't.

Before they went to the 47th floor to retrieve the item needed, the group stayed at Kirito's inn for the night to prepare. Kirito lent Silica some of his items so she would be able to hold her own on the trip(although she didn't know for what reason at the time). They moved out in the morning, teleporting to the 47th floor and making their way to the Hill of Memories. After a quick incident with a plant that left Silica slightly embarrassed and lightened the mood for everyone, they made it to the site where Silica was able to revive her pet.

"Pina!" she exclaimed as the Dragon reappeared on her head.

"Now that we are done here, why don't we…" Parad said turning around and noticing that they weren't alone.

"Yeah. You can come out now, whoever's there!" Kirito spun around to see a lady appear from behind a tree.

Silica also turned around and was shocked at who she saw. "Rosalia!"

"You know her?" Emu asked.

"Yeah, she used to be one of the members of the guild I was in…"

"So," Kirito began, "You were trying to lure Silica into one of your traps, is that right, leader of the Titan's Hand?"

"What? Rosalia?" Silica looked shocked at this news.

"So you know of me?" the red haired leader asked as others from her guild came out from behind the trees. "Then if you don't mind me asking, who might you be?"

Kirito walked ahead of the others, drew his sword, the Elucidator.

"Kirito, be careful!" Silica called out to him.

Rosalia took a step back at the mention of his name. "Wait a minute, you can't be- you can't be the Black Swordsman!"

She gave a silent order to her guild members to draw their weapons, who then proceeded to surround Kirito.

"Attack him now! What are you all waiting for?!"

The group started hacking away at Kirito, but he wasn't even flinching.

"Hmm… about 400 damage every 10 seconds… Too bad for you guys I guess. Due to my high level healing skill, I regenerate about 600 HP every 10 seconds." Kirito explained. "So I'd suggest giving up now."

He dashed at Rosalia, bringing his sword up to her neck but not making any contact.

"You- You wouldn't dare, Black Swordsman… You wouldn't become an Orange player!"

"I'm a solo player. I can deal with being an Orange player for a few days."

A couple seconds of silence passed before Rosalia hit the floor, hands clutching her head as she screamed out in pain. Kirito jumped back to the others.

"What's going on?!" he asked Emu.

"These symptoms… It can't be!" Emu went over to her and inspected her. "Parad! Get ready to transform!"

Parad pulled out his Gashat Gear Dual as Emu pulled out his Gamer Driver, and Mighty Action X and Drago Knight Hunter Z Gashats.

Emu activated his Gashats and Parad flipped the Gashat Gear Dual to the Perfect Puzzle side.

MIGHTY ACTION- X!

DRAGO KNIGHT HUNTER Z!

PERFECT PUZZLE

As the game fields spread out, the Bugster emerged from Rosalia, forming into an all too familiar form.

"Graphite!" Parad called out.

The figure formed into the Bugster of Drago Knight Hunter Z, Graphite.

"Ah it's good to be back…" he noticed Parad and Emu and his face turned to one of disgust. "Parad… you might be my friend but you know I can't hold back against you."

"Don't worry, you won't have to." Parad replied.

Emu inserted his Gashats into the Gamer Driver to prep his transformation.

"Dai Dai Dai Dai Dai-" "Dai-"

"Henshin!" the two said in unison, with Emu flipping the lever on his Gamer Driver and Parad pressing the button on his Gashat.

GASHAT! GACHAN! LEVEL UP!

MIGHTY JUMP! MIGHTY KICK! MIGHTY MIGHTY ACTION- X!

A GACHA!
D-D-DRAGO NA-NA-NA-KNIGHT! DRA- DRA- DRAGO KNIGHT HUNTER~ Z!

DUAL UP!

GET THE GLORY IN THE CHAIN! PERFECT PUZZLE!

They both transformed, rushing in to take on Graphite, who had pulled out a Gashacon Bugvisor and began to transform as well.

"Baiou"

BUGGLE UP~

LET'S GAME! BAD GAME! DEAD GAME! WATCHA NAME? THE BUGSTER!

Graphite transformed into his Bugster form, and the trio of otherworldly fighters went at it, surprising even Kirito with their speed and power.

However, in the meantime, someone else had shown up.

"Ah! It's a pipupepo panic!"