I stood on a roof in Tolbana, memories of The Cats were coming back. The place where we had the first boss meeting, was reconverted a couple of days ago, into the setting for the play of Snow White. I knew the performers, they were a theater guild that formed awhile back. And it just so happened that Sugu joined them, and is playing Snow White.

"She does an amazing Snow White." A voice said behind me.

"She always was good at theater." I said.

Sugu bit into the apple and fell over, pretended to be dead.

"Did you know, in the original Snow White, The Huntsman was sent to cut out her heart, so the Queen could feast on it."

"Interesting. Are you ready to meet the client?" Philia said.

"Go on ahead."

Philia left while I watched a bit more of the play.

15 minutes later

As I walked into the Orange City, the city of criminals, and was approached by a guard. He told me that Talia, The Don's daughter, want someone dead. Philia was stilling waiting for me to meet her, but I really needed to decompress, so I decided to help. I made my way down to the 20th floor. Once in town, I started rooftop hopping until I was in the Area.

'Now, if I was hiding outside of town. Where would I hide?'

I started walking towards the ruins of an old fort. Some of the walls were knocked down, part of the roof collapsed. All that rubble can offer some decent cover. I looked around the ruins for any places to hide. I closed my eyes and tried focusing on my surroundings, and heard the sound of rubble being moved slowly above.

"Hmmm."

Soon, the sound got louder as the person I'm hunting, dropped down and tried to attack me. I drew my sword and plunged it into his chest. He kicked off my chest and started running away. I followed after him, as he ran through the forest. He ran towards town and upon seeing the Don's men outside the town, he turned and went towards a lake.

'He heading to the lake, that should make things easier.'

I grabbed a pick and threw it at him as he approached the lake. He fell to the ground paralyzed.

"Please, god, don't kill me!" He yelled.

"What exactly did you do to piss off the Don?" I said as I approached him.

I don't know. Talia told him to kill me for no reason."

"Geez, That doesn't sound like Tally at all."

"Please, I want to live."

"Fine, I'll let you live."

"Really?"

"Nope."

I picked him up and dunked him into the lake, and placed my foot on the back of his head. He couldn't even squirm since he was paralyzed. After a few minutes of baptizing him, he pixelized.

2 minutes later

As I walked back, I saw a rock with a familiar symbol on it. The omega symbol. I noticed that Shiva had the same symbol on his arm. Next to the rock was a path leading towards the forest.

"I wonder."

I started walking down the path. At the end of the path was a burnt down village.

"What the hell happened here?"

I searched the village for any clues as to what happened. There were burnt down building everywhere and even a graveyard full of tombstones.

Robin- Loving wife, sister and friend.

War Jackson- Amazing friend.

Cutter- Loving sister and friend.

'Did Shiva make these tombstones? And why did the village get burned down?'

There was a necklace around Robin's grave, I filled it up to look at the craftsmanship and noticed the engravings that I couldn't understand. I put the necklace down and went to check some of the buildings, starting with the least damaged. I carefully bashed down the door and inside was what looked to be a bedroom.

"I wonder if this was Shiva's place."

I looked around the room and noticed papers with the same writing as the necklace. I grabbed a picture of Shiva and three others, who I assumed were the three graves I saw. There was something about the picture. Shiva actually looked happy. When I first met Shiva there was pain and sorrow in his eyes.

Thud!

I drew my sword and turned to the door. I slowly walked out and into the middle of the village where the sound came from. In the surrounding forest, I saw something strange: Legs.

"What the?" I said as I moved towards the tree.

I looked at who the legs belonged to. A young girl unconscious on the ground. She looked around eight years old, with black hair and wearing a white dress.

"The hell?" I said kneeling down next to her, and poking her cheek.

'She's got a player cursor, so she's a player. But how did she survive here for so long? How long has she been in the Area?'

I picked up the young girl and took her somewhere safe. One of my safe houses I have around Aincrad. I leveled up my Searching skill to, hopefully, be able to detect Philia when she shadows me. So far, I haven't picked up anything that would indicate I'm being followed. When we arrived at the safe house, I walked into my room and laid the girl on the bed. I sat in my chair and started to think.

'What do I do with her? Do I send her down to the orphanage? And how would I do that? How long was she in the village?'

I stood up and walked to the living room. I walked in circles trying to clear my head. It was after a few minutes I heard something fall. The girl was sitting up in the bed, and somehow knocked over on my endtable.

"You're awake." I said, putting the picture down and sitting on the bed. "Do you remember what happened to you?"

The girl shook her head.

"I see... How about your name?"

"N-Name... My name... Yu-i? Yui. My name... Is Yui." She said.

"Yui? That's a nice name. Do you think you can tell me why you were in the forest?"

"I dunno. I dunno anything."

"That's too bad. I don't think I told you my name, I'm Kirito."

"Ki-to?"

"It's Kirito. Ki-ri-to."

"...Ki-hi-to?"

"Yeah, it maybe a little difficult to say. How about you call me whatever feels right."

"Papa."

'She thinks I'm her father? Maybe I should play along, at least until I can find a street corner to drop her off at.'

"That's right Yui, I'm your papa."

Yui's face lit up as she jumped into my arms.

"Daddy!"

"You must be hungry, how about I make you some food."

I made her a sandwich and sat down on the couch. I picked up a newspaper and started looking for any ads of missing children. I didn't realized that Yui had fallen asleep next to me. She looked so peaceful, and I didn't want to wake her, so I slowly and carefully carried her to my room. When I went back to the living room, I saw Philia standing next to my sword and jacket on a chair.

"Where were you?" She asked.

"I got caught up in something." I replied moving closer.

"Really? So it doesn't have anything to do with that little girl?"

"Little girl?"

"Don't play stupid with me."

"So I took a little girl home. I couldn't just leave her unconscious in the cold. And I'm not gonna kill her."

"PoH has to hear about this."

"If you do that. He'll kill me, Sugu and her."

I grabbed Philia's shoulder as she went for the door, and she kicked me out the window and I just barely managed to grab my sword. I got up and deflected her attack as she lunged at me. I blocked two more attacks and roundhoused her in the head, then jumped in the air to stab her on the ground. She moved and cut my cheek with her Swordbreaker. I pulled my sword out of the ground and swung heavily at her, but she dodged with a smile on her face. Philia was feeding my angry and it was working. I got three lucky shots in, cutting her leg, arm and her cheek. I jumped over her, grabbing her hair, and threw her to the ground. Using the momentum, Philia got to her feet and made a run for it. I picked my sheath off the ground, threw it on and chased after her using the trees. Jumping branch to branch, I barely missed a knife, with a teal outline around the blade, hitting me. Philia remembered what I said, and coated her knives in paralysis. I grabbed one of them flying at me and threw it back to her, but missed. Once I was close, I tackled her and grabbed two picks and stabbed them into her hands, pinning her to the ground.

"So you're gonna kill me over a little girl you just met? You've really gone soft."

"Oh no. This has nothing to do with the girl, or even Sugu. No, this is simply self-preservation."

I strangled her as hard as I could. Philia squirmed beneath me, unable to try and break out since her hands were pinned down. She kept gagging and gasping for air and before long, she stopped and died. I stood, grabbed the picks, and with a deep breath I walked back to the house.