Accepting Moonlight

It's been a month since Kirito has joined the Black Cats of the Full Moon, and as of yet, none of the members know of his secret. He still trains to be a lead party player, training most nights to keep up his level. The Crows of Saika all know about him, Jinx and Naomi told everyone that they knew for certain that it was the guy who named himself 'beater' during the first floor boss fight.

This hasn't changed the relationship between the Cats and the Crows at all. They are still both great allies, and Kirito often mentions the fact that the front lines could do with some guilds like them. However, catastrophe still looms overhead.

"So, Keita said he was going to be training alone with the Black Cats today. He said they are close to accumulating enough money to get a guild house." Jinx was sitting in another inn, talking to the rest of the Crows of Saika.

The rest of the group looked at their leader. Over the past month Rukia had abdicated his leadership over the guild and handed it over to Jinx. Handling a guild had been proving to be too much for the boy and the guild all agreed that Jinx was a better organizer for the guild.

"Damn it, I thought he was going to train with us today. Ever since he had focused on getting a guild house he has had less and less time for us." Rukia kicked a wall, a small purple hexagon appeared with the words 'Immortal object'. "I can't take this anymore. Sachi, Kirito and Tetsuo are getting a bit sick of it as well."

Naomi and Monkey sighed. They hadn't seen their friends for a week at least because Keita was so insistent on buying a guild house. If he went out grinding with the Crows then his guild would only get half the money and it would take twice as long.

"Well, I guess we will see them sometime soon." Jinx leaned back against the wall.

Rukia grinned. "And if not, we could always knock Keita out and the rest of us go out and do something." Monkey and Naomi laughed, Jinx had to hide a slight chuckle behind his hand. "Well, I have something else I need to do. See you guys later."

"Rukia. Why don't you tell us where you are going?" Naomi looked at Rukia and frowned. She had been curious about what he was doing and constantly tried to guilt trip and answer out of him.

"You will see eventually. It's a pretty big project." Rukia opened the door and left. He was almost sure that they couldn't hear him. "And I'm pretty sure you guys are going to like it."

He walked out of the hall and into the inn's main reception room. He opened his message system and sent a message

Yo AD, have you opened up shop yet? I'm coming down right about now. Rukia took a teleport crystal from his inventory. "Warp, Mechania."

As usual, a blue light shone around Rukia and he warped to a town on another floor.

Mechania was a town that existed on the 13th floor. It was a Steampunk inspired town that a lot of starting Blacksmiths and Shopkeepers were. There were also some cheap buildings that Players could purchase to start up a weaponsmith, armoury or simple item shop.

Rukia ran down the street, passing by different stores, some NPC and some Player stores. "I really hope she is open today. I have way too much ore in my inventory today." While he was still running, he got a message.

Just opening up now Rukia, great timing. Knock whenever you get here, and no Sheldon Cooper knocking. Rukia laughed, still running. He finally reached the store, The Immortalis Blacksmith.

Rukia knocked on the door, the shopkeeper inside yelling for him to come in. "Hey AD, I've got a huge amount of ore with me. The smithing station is clear."

The girl at the counter waved at Rukia. She had blonde hair in a ponytail, a metal breastplate and a black shirt and pants. "Yeap, I'm pretty sure I haven't left anything in the back."

"Last time you said that you left all your projects on the table and I had to help you move them out front." Rukia glared at her.

AD grinned and held up a peace sign with her hands. "Yea, that was totally an accident." She opened the door to the back of the shop. "But seriously, there isn't anything else back there."

Rukia walked into the back of the shop. There was a furnace, racks for completed weapons and two anvils in the middle of the room.

"Anyway, for my own requests I need some speed ore, power ore and dark ore if you have any. I've gathered everything else myself. Let's work on the other stuff together. Experimenting is the best way to get what you want."

Rukia looked through his inventory. "I've got the Speed and Dark Ores, it's a no on the Power Ore though" He opened up the trade tab and sent the Ores to AD. "I guess you will need to collect that."

AD looked disappointed. "Oh well, one of my really good customers requested a Dark and Power Ore combination. I'll message him quickly and tell him I still haven't got the ingredients. Poor guy, I haven't been able to find Power Ore for a whole week. I'm going to give the guy a discount."

She walked over to Rukia and passed him the blacksmithing hammer. Rukia spawned one of the Bronze Ores and hit it with a hammer, creating a small dagger. Every little thing he did would raise his Blacksmithing up slowly, letting him make higher quality stuff. Plus, unnecessary creations that wouldn't go to customers would just be sold at NPC shops for some extra cor.

"Alright, I'll equip my own hammer now AD." Rukia handed the hammer back to AD, who took it gleefully. Rukia grabbed the bronze dagger and threw it into a box labelled 'to sell #2'. Since Rukia had started using AD's blacksmith shop, she put a new crate in the corner of the room for Rukia's scrap weapons. Rukia would then take the weapons to a nearby NPC shop and sell them for cor, giving 10% to AD for the use of her shop.

For the next hours or two, Rukia and AD worked at making up random weapons. A good deal were dud weapons, which were thrown into their 'to sell' bins. Some were decent weapons that AD could sell to her occasional customers. One or two of them were a high quality weapon that would be sold to AD's more frequent customers.

Rukia and AD had met two weeks prior while the Crows of Saika were out on a grinding trip. Well… Rukia and AD had actually met on an Online TCG about a year before the SAO incident. Rukia quit the game a month before SAO started, but the last thing that Rukia expected was his best friend from that game to have joined SAO, let alone come across her.

AD had been out searching for ores and she had come across the Crows of Saika. Why not party up with a group that seemed kind of strong, she could have collected more ore and a lot faster. She had not expected that one of the guild members would recognize her username.

"So, wouldn't it be great if we met some of the other players from that game here?" Rukia was leaning against a wall after finished with all the ores they were using today.

"You say that every time you come over here. It was just a lucky coincidence that we met that one time. Even if they did play, in a game this big what are the chances we'd find them? You're lucky I even kept my username from that." AD was putting some of the better weapons on the weapons rack.

Rukia looked disappointed. He grabbed one of the regular weapons and brought it out front. Suddenly he got a message from Jinx.

Keita said that we can go and meet up with him and the rest of the Black Cats. He must have realised how much of a douche he was being or something, or he got tired of Sachi and Tetsuo slamming him over ignoring us.

"AD, I'm going up to Floor 20, Keita has finally stopped being a douche and is letting us do some hunting with them." Rukia started to wave goodbye, but before he could leave AD shouted to him.

"Rukia, could I come with you? You've talked about the Black Cats a number of times before, I want to meet them." AD started at Rukia. "Deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee"

"AD, stop tha-"

"Deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee"

"Fine, you can come. Equip your weapons." AD jumped in glee, almost running to hug Rukia but stopping herself before she could perform the action.

Rukia send a party invite to AD, which she quickly accepted. He then got to typing a message to Jinx.

That's awesome Jinx, I really hope he will drop hte whole thing about the house and stuff, it's stupid. Also, AD decided she wanted to tag along. She is coming up too.

Rukia only realised he made a spelling error after sending the message. He kicked nearby wall and swore. Then he turned to AD. "I hope you have a good amount of TP crystals. I'll help you out up there, since you haven't gone as high as the 20th floor."

AD nodded in response before they both pulled out a teleport crystal. "So, what was it again?"

"Uhh, I think it was the Sunshine Forest. Thank god you can warp to places you haven't been before if you know the name of them. It would be a pain trudging through so many floors if you were behind." Both Rukia and AD pulled out their teleport crystals.

"Warp, Sunshine Forest!" Both AD and Rukia teleported to the entrance of the forest. Jinx, Naomi and Monkey were already waiting for them. Naomi and Monkey waved at the two of them, Jinx was busy with his message bank.

"Keita and the others are at rest stop 2 at the moment. They said that they would wait there for us. And it's good to see you again AD." Jinx spoke without looking up from his messages.

"It would be nice if you said that while looking at me Rocket Girl." AD had nicknamed Jinx 'Rocket Girl' after Jinx from League of Legends. "Sometimes I can't tell if you can't deal with human contact or you just aren't polite."

"It's neither, I'm just busy. Rukia's generally the one who sucks at human contact, especially with girls." Jinx was still looking down at his messages, typing one up to Keita. Rukia snuck up behind him and read over his shoulder.

The idiot has arrived, he brought a friend, we are coming now. Rukia whispered into Jinx's ear. "You're an ass"

"Goddamnit Rukia, what the hell." Jinx yelled as he hit the send button.

"It's not nice to be referred to as 'the idiot' Jinx. I wish you and Keita would stop referring to me like that." Rukia folded his arms over in annoyance.

"At least I don't misspell the word 'the' constantly." Jinx smiled slyly.

Rukia acted surprised. "I type fast, I misspell 'the' because the positioning of the letters on the keyboard is weird. There isn't any autocorrect in SAO." He flicked his head to the side in mock annoyance.

"Let's just go already." Jinx walked into the Sunshine Forest dungeon.

"You're an ass, you're an ass. You're. An. Ass." Rukia was chanting to Jinx as they walked into the forest.

AD pulled out a battleaxe. "Let's go, and you're quoting it wrong. What you want is you are an ass."

As the group was nearing the area 2 rest stop, they came across the area boss. A giant praying mantis. "If the Black Cats could beat this thing then we shouldn't have too much trouble. We're just that bit stronger than them, right?" The Crows and AD were all worn out. The area boss wasn't tough on the grounds that it was an exceptionally strong monster, but just a slightly stronger monster after wave and wave of regular monster.

"This place is a nightmare, but being able to get insect parts will be good for my blacksmith shop. They make for some interesting looking speed weapons, and the handles you can make out of them feel so cool." AD was thinking about all the weapons she could make from the equipment she was gathering. "I could even start an armoury and have Ru-"

She stopped herself before she said anything more. Rukia's little trips to the blacksmith shop were a secret (although she suspected that they may have figured that out already by the fact that she was here). Rukia's blacksmithing was a secret only she and one of the members of the Black Cats knew, although she hadn't been told the name of them.

"What were you saying AD?" Naomi was curious, but wasn't fully paying attention to anything she had said, being in the middle of a fight.

"Don't worry about it." The Mantis rushed towards AD and swung its scythed arm at the blacksmith. She blocked it with her battleaxe and Monkey rushed up and smashed it with his quarterstaff. The Mantis was knocked to the ground temporarily, but it got up and continued its barrage of attacks soon enough.

The group was dodging the flurry of attacks while slowly whittling away its health. They were getting very tired and their dodged were slugging. Naomi and AD were able to block the jabs with their weapons because of the width of them. Monkey was able to use the lack of weight to his weapon to parry any attacks that came his way without difficulty. Rukia and Jinx were taking the brunt of the damage.

Rukia noticed something about their foe while they were fighting. He didn't realise for a while what he had seen, but he thought that there might have been an easier way to beat the monster.

"Hey guys, has anyone else noticed that there are smaller joints around the body? The ones that look like those little spherical magnets that you would roll around in your hand and they'd stick to each other." The group responded with a resounding no.

"Oh… uh, AD, could you try and get it to attack you so its arm is outstretched. Everyone else look at the joint." AD hesitantly did what Rukia suggested. She attacked the Mantis with a powerful attack, getting its attention temporarily focused on her. She waited for an attack to come and blocked it again with her axe.

The armoured plating that covered the insect's joint moved away so that the shoulder could be seen by the rest of the group.

"And what are we supposed to do with that." Monkey asked.

"I think that either Jinx, Naomi or AD could sever the shoulders of the Mantis, meaning we could attack it with full force and not worry about a counter attack. I've seen monsters that have lost limbs or other parts of their body in a fight before, so I think it is possible."

Before Rukia could say anymore, Naomi rushed at the right shoulder. It was moving towards AD again, its attention still focused on her. She swung upwards with her greatsword and the limb flew clean off. It shattered midair and a transparent item screen showed up in the centre of her HUD.

"Hey, it actually worked. AD, you take the other one." Naomi called out to the axe wielding blacksmith just as the Mantis swung an attack at Naomi, enraged at the severing of its arms.

AD swung the axe down hard at the left shoulder. It came apart, shattering into blue triangles again and AD got the same item screen as Naomi.

The Mantis was now completely unarmed. It couldn't fight back, only stand there, completely armless, while the party wailed on it as hard as they could. Its health drained quicker than before, as there was no worry about counterattacks. Eventually the monster lost all its HP and shattered into the same blue triangles as its arms had previously.

"Finally, we're done with this area." Rukia sighed, lying against a tree. "Time for the rest stop."

The rest of the Crows breathed a collective sigh of relief. They all walked towards the clearing where they could see the layered stone bricks of the rest areas in Sunshine Forest. One the very edge they could see the Black Cats.

"Keita you jackass, we finally made it!" Rukia shouted out to the group of six who were sitting around waiting. Ducker was already screwing around, with Keita in a healock.

Tetsuo stood up with Sachi and Kirito doing the same behind him. They were waving at the group. Naomi shot off running at Sachi. She jumped to try and glomp the blue haired girl.

Sachi dodged and Naomi fell face first onto the ground nearby, an inch from where Ducker still had Keita trapped. Naomi looked up and smiled.

Tetsuo offered her a hand. Naomi shook her head in refusal and got up herself. "Sa-chan, you're no fun sometimes."

"Sometime I wish you would stop calling me Sa-chan." Sachi was looking at the ground, rubbing her arm nervously. She clearly still hadn't gotten used to fighting. Kirito tapped her on the shoulder and she looked at him inquisitively. He smiled at her and she smiled back in turn.

Rukia walked over, cocking his head sideways. "It there something going on between the two of you?" Kirito looked confused at the dagger wielder's words. Sachi stepped backwards and quickly started to deny any idea of it.

"No, definitely not, why would you think that?" Rukia looked at her quizzically. He knew he could play on this for a little while longer. He gave a cheeky smirk.

"Deny it like that and it would seem like you two have a relationship." Sachi balled up her fist and smashed it down onto Rukia's head.

Most of the group broke into laughter. "It's just comforting to have someone a bit stronger than us to help us out in a fight… There is nothing there." Rukia looked back up, stuck out his tongue and held up a peace sign. This time, Sachi struck him in the jaw, knocking him backwards.

Everyone started laughing even harder. Even Sachi was laughing at Rukia. "It's like you guys are just one guild, you all get along so well."

The Black Cats all looked over to the new voice they didn't recognize. Keita spoke first. "I'm assuming she is the one who tagged along with Rukia." AD was aghast. She could hear in his voice that Keita didn't like Rukia. The way Keita talked, he made it sound like anyone who willingly did anything with Rukia was an idiot.

"I'll have you know I'm a capable Blacksmith and fighter." AD puffed out her chest to try and look as cool as she could. "I'm better in every way than Rukia, so maybe you could consider he was tagging along with me." Everyone else laughed, Keita just groaned.

While all of this was going on, Sachi tapped Rukia on the shoulder. "I need to talk to you quickly. Over there where the rest of my guild won't hear. Especially not Kirito."

Rukia looked at her confused. He saw a sort of desperation in Sachi's eyes. He didn't argue, they walked over to the highest platform of the clearing and started talking.

"I noticed something about Kirito. His level is almost double ours. He was lying when he joined us." Sachi had some worry in her voice.

She looked surprised when Rukia just grinned at her. "So, have you figured out who he is yet?"

It took the blue haired girl a few seconds to realise what Rukia meant. "Hold on, you knew that he was a higher level to us this whole time!"

Rukia just nodded but also signalled for Sachi to keep her voice down. "Yea, ever heard the term Beater before?" Sachi nodded hesitantly. "Kirito is the one who created that term. I don't know the whole story since I was only told secondhand by Jinx, but there was something about beta testers and stuff. Anyway, he is one of the members of the lead group."

Sachi's eyes widened at the news. The person who had joined their guild was the infamous Black Swordsman. But why? Why would he of all people join a guild like theirs?

"I don't believe it. He's the Black Swordsman." Sachi was trying to keep her shock in check, making sure the rest of her guild didn't hear her.

Tetsuo yelled up to Sachi and Rukia. "Yo, lovebirds, are you done talking yet?" Rukia simply flipped him the bird and went back to the matter at hand.

"Basically, yes. He is the Black Swordsman. I honestly don't know why he came down here and joined you guys, but I'm pretty sure he still does some of his lead group stuff as well, since I've heard stuff about the Black Swordsman recently." Rukia scratched the back of his head.

"Well, I really don't care. He has become a normal part of our guild, and he is a comforting figure within our guild." Sachi was smiling while she was talking.

"You look like Crona Gorgon right now. That one scene where she is smiling into the pillow." Rukia was grinning cheekily, which he immediately regretted. Sachi brought her fist in a right hook into his jaw. Rukia was sent flying off the platform and down onto the one below.

Tetsuo was laughing again. "Ouch, is Sachi mad at her boyfriend." Sachi glared at Tetsuo.

"Tetsuo, I will impale you if you don't shut up." Sachi equipped her spear, still glaring at her guildmate.

Keita laughed. "If only you showed this much tenacity while you were fighting monsters."

Everyone started laughing now, except for Rukia, who was conscious as to not push Sachi's buttons much more than he already had.

AD was sitting on her knees. "Is it normally this crazy around here?" Jinx and Naomi both responded with a resounding yes. "Why don't I join up with you guys, I could also do some personal smithing for you guys." She smiled. "I could get used to this more often, but my shop certainly comes first."

Naomi looked at her, a bit shocked that someone had asked to join their guild. Jinx as slightly surprised as well. Eventually the two of them came out of their daze and, once again, a yes came from the both of them.

Jinx opened up the guild menu and tapped 'add member'. He typed in 'AD' into the bar and an accept menu appeared in front of the blacksmith. She tapped onto the accept button and a little menu saying Congratulations appeared in its place.

"Welcome to the guild, AD the blacksmith." Jinx reached to her hand and pulled her up to her feet. "Get ready for insanity." AD smiled with absolute glee.

"So, are we guys going to finish off this dungeon or what? We only have one more area to clear." Kirito was starting to get impatient with the group. "Let's get going."

The Crows and Cats both got up from where they were sitting and moved towards the exit of the safe area. "Let's get going."

Okay, so I just wanted to explain something quickly. AD was inspired by someone by the same username on a TCG called Immortalis. She was probably my best friend on the game and while I played that I was in the middle of another SAO fanfic which I stopped. I had talked to some of the people about adding their character into that one, but it stopped before I could get people in.

I thought that just I'd put AD into this because I thought it was time for a new OC to join, something to link into Rukia's blacksmithing, and because nostalgia for myself.

Oh, and don't play Immortalis. It is no longer a good game.