AN: Hi! *gets hit with a rotten tomato* Hey what was that for?

*Audience starts booing*

I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I know, that I promi- *gets hit with another rotten tomato in the face*

Who was that? Anyway, I'm sorry I didn't upload on Saturday. I had a mini-writer's block plus I was quite tired. And I didn't upload yesterday because I was still finishing the chapter.

So… can you forgive me?

*Readers chant: "Burn him on the stake!" Herosassin gulps*

Wait..Wait! I'll try do a make up ch- *gets hit with a third tomato*

Will you stop that?

Anyway, I'll try to upload more regularly since I'll be on holidays soon. Once again, I'm so sorry for letting you guys down. Please don't kill me? *Herosassin whimpers as a barrage of swords, pitchforks and tomatoes were sent flying through the air towards him*


Time to respond to my dear reviewers:

RedBurningDragon: "So it was Assassin. Nice chap the end was really good"

A: Thanks RedBurningDragon! Who/what is 'it' and who is this Assassin character?

YuukiKirigaya04: "Awesome chapter! Please update soon this is really good. What's the next chapter called? Yuuki out! PEACE! V"

A: Hey YuukiKirigaya04, thanks! Imma update now :) Anyway, you'll find out the chapter name…on the top of the page.

jorrdy12: "Pretty awesome chap, can't wait for more. I believe i know what Yuuki is going to trade to Agil"

A: Thanks jorrdy12! Do you really know what Yuuki is gonna trade?

The Rupture: "If there's no Tsuba Gaeshi what about shirou version of Nine live Shooting Hundred Heads, its an Assault of 8 strikes delivered at god speed levels. I'm sure it qualify as sword since there's no magic on it?

A: Thanks The Rupture. I'll take that into consideration. Maybe I'll give it to Asuna….

And that's all the reviews from the last chapter!


Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online. Sword Art Online belongs to Reki Karahara.


~Floor 50, Algade, 5:00pm Game Time~

Kirito's POV

Materialising into the Teleport Gate of Algade, I quickly glanced at my surroundings. Yuuki was right beside me. The main teleport area was empty, with no one in sight. Sighing with relief, I walked towards the dark entrance of an alleyway.

"Where are you going?" Yuuki asked, noticing that I had taken a different route from her.

"Don't you remember that we left our most powerful swords in the hands of Agil, who promised us that it would be done in a few hours?" I asked, confused about her query.

"I…um…forgot about that." Yuuki admitted sheepishly, before smiling once again.

"Well, I'm glad you remembered! Otherwise, we would've effectively lost our swords, not by monsters or durability but by our own memories." Yuuki cheerfully said before popping right next to me.

"Ok, I guess it's my turn to lead." I said before walking towards the dark partially lit alleyway. After navigating for a few minutes, Yuuki and I reached Agil's store, golden beams of lights streaming from the window displays which showed many different types of intricate weapons. Stepping inside, we were greeted by the tired voice of Agil, who looked like he just did a grindathon for three days straight.

"Hey Yuuki, hey Kirito! I finally finished your enhancements. Even with your god-level materials, it still took five frickin' hours to enhance! Without any breaks! Do you know how tiring that can be?" Agil said, collecting our swords from one of his top shelves.

"Yeah, we do. We've grinded for a day straight without sleeping or taking breaks. Man, by the time we were done, we ready to drop dead voluntarily." Yuuki answered, smiling as she looked at her new sword. The plain and simple sheath of the Absolute Obsidian reflected the shop's light with a bright glow, as if to show the world that it was more than what it seemed. The sheath itself was dark purple with small dull runes engraved near the very top, where the hilt met with the sheath. The hilt of the sword was black, studded with dull purple gripping that wrapped around the handle of the sword.

Picking up my own sword, I looked up at Agil and asked how much Col I should pay him.

"Um…see, I'm not sure either as you mainly supplied the enhancement materials." Agil said, surprising me with his response.

"Maybe this should suffice?" Yuuki inputted cheerfully, sending Agil a trade request.

Agil blanched when he received the trade request. "Wh-Wh-What?!" Agil stammered, his eyes widening.

"What did you offer him Yuuki?" I asked warily.

"I just offered him the item drop I got from that field boss as well as 200 grand Col." Yuuki nonchalantly answered, still looking at Agil.

"So, do you accept or what?" Yuuki asked, completely oblivious to what was wrong with her request.

"Yuuki, do you understand how basic economics works?" I questioned, mentally facepalming myself.

"Of course I do! I simply am giving Agil a huge discreet sum of money to not blab about our location. That particular sum of money also covers the cost of enhancing our swords and the axe is for him since he's our friend." Yuuki explained, folding her arms.

"Wow, you really thought this through huh." I said apologetically.

"Agil, thanks for enhancing our swords and not telling everyone who we are. We'll recommend them to your store if our identities ever get found out." Yuuki cheerfully said before grabbing her sheathed sword and attaching it to her waist. I followed suit, strapping the sheathed Elucidator onto my back before following Yuuki out of the shop.

"Now it's your turn to lead us to our house Yuuki."

"Just follow me. Try to keep up." Yuuki taunted before breaking off into a sprint. I ran after Yuuki through the narrow, dimly lit alleys of Algade, following her dark figure. After a few minutes, Yuuki and I stepped into a large cobblestone road that lazily meandered towards the eastern gate of Algade. A marvellous and stunning sunset view filled my vision, the soft orange beams of light enveloping my vision.

"It's a beautiful view isn't it?" Yuuki said softly. "But we mustn't stop and gawk. Otherwise we'll have crowds chasing us down for our autographs. Our house is close by anyway and it has a good view as well." Yuuki continued before taking my hand and guiding me towards one of the many houses lined up along the road. One particular house caught my eye. Its exterior walls were tinged light purple while the roof was glazed with black. The door was light blue, with a few small concrete steps leading up to it.

"Here we are, our new home that has everything we need!" Yuuki exclaimed. She looked behind her shoulders before opening the door and gesturing for me to come in with her.

"Isn't the colour scheme a bit…obvious?" I asked, closing the door behind us.

"Well, not really. Considering most people would think we are in the lower floors and that house prices here are pretty high, meaning not many people are able to afford living on this floor, I say we are pretty safe from paparazzi." Yuuki responded walking towards a lavender coloured armchair and sitting on it. "So, how do you like our new house?"

"It looks nice. But perhaps we splurged a bit on a kitchen? I don't think either of us will be using the kitchen." I said, looking around the room I was in. The area Yuuki and I were in was clearly a kitchen/living room hybrid, with a decent sized open kitchen on one end of the room while the other had a small dining table, some armchairs and two fluffy sofas. The walls themselves were a pale cream colour, which seemed to only highlight the furniture items that were placed around this room in the most aesthetically pleasing manner. Past the kitchen was a long corridor with a large bathroom at the end. There were two rooms on either side of the corridor, one with a purple-coloured door frame while the other was jet black. I assumed the door frames were colour coded to signify whose room is whose.

"Not really. I mean I can cook. I'm 800/1000 in cooking. Its not great but with a proper kitchen, I can hopefully make some nice stuff and level up my cooking skills." Yuuki said, sinking into her armchair.

"I honestly never thought you could cook." I commented, walking towards one of the sofas.

"Just because I'm good at fighting with a sword doesn't mean I don't take time to enhance my other skills. Besides, I enjoy cooking. I just never have the resources nor time to do it much." Yuuki said.

"Oh yeah, there's another boss meeting tomorrow. Do you think we should go?" I asked.

"Why not? I'm not surprised that they've already found the boss room. The past few floors have been cleared within a week. I guess once they have momentum, they keep going." Yuuki got up from her chair and headed towards her room. "Well, see you tomorrow Kirito!" Yuuki said to me before disappearing to her room. After a few minutes, I too went to my room and got ready for tomorrow's meeting.

~The Next Day, 7:00am Game Time~

I woke up to the smell of food being cooked. And it smelt heavenly. Getting out of bed, I walked out of my room and was greeted with the sight of Yuuki in a short sleeved, violet dress and a white apron splattered with splotches of what looked like oil, busily cooking in the kitchen area.

"What are you cooking?" I asked, wanting to know what exactly it was that gave off such heavenly smell.

"Well, you'll see in about 20 seconds. Until then, just sit at the dining table." Yuuki responded, not bothering to look at me while she busily handled a frying pan. Complying with Yuuki's orders, I headed towards the dining table, sitting down and waiting in anticipation. As promised, Yuuki brought two plates of steaming food to the dining table, one for her and the other for me. As she set down the plates, I noticed that she had made bacon and eggs with some slices of toast, all of which were cooked to perfection. Yuuki soon took off her apron before joining me at the dining table, sitting directly opposite me, her crimson eyes fixated on my face.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Dig in." Yuuki encouraged, before turning to her own plate. I quickly stacked the eggs and bacon on top of the toast before taking a bite. To be honest, that was probably the best food I've eaten for a long time. Yuuki later told me that she'd never seen someone eat food so quickly.

Yuuki's POV

"I guess that means that my food is ok?" I asked, trying to contain my laughter from seeing Kirito eating at the speed of sound.

"If that's what you call ok, I don't think my tastebuds can handle 'good'." Kirito responded with a smile. "I didn't know you had any other clothes excluding your battle gear." Kirito said, after a moments silence.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, glaring at Kirito.

"Well, I never knew you actually owned any other clothing items except for your armour. You're always so focused on clearing the game you know?" Kirito answered, seemingly unfazed by my glare.

I scowled before responding, "Just because I'm focused on clearing the game doesn't mean I don't buy some in-game luxuries to make it more bearable, living in here. Plus, do you know how uncomfortable wearing battle gear all day is?"

"Fine, fine, you win. Let's go to the floor boss meeting then." Kirito said, putting his hands up in the air as if surrendering.

"Not before you help me clean up the kitchen." I said with a small smirk.

"What!? Why? You're the one who cooked breakfast." Kirito asked.

"And you're the one who ate the breakfast. So you have a part in this. You're going to help me or else…" I stopped and pretended to think. "I'll stop cooking for you and make you watch me eat my own food." I said with a sly smile.

"Wow, you are cruel. Are you sure you're still Yuuki?" Kirito said, pretending to be hurt. With that, Kirito walked over to help me bring the plates and pan to the sink where it automatically started washing the plates.

"See? That wasn't so hard. Now give me two minutes and I'll be ready." I turned towards my room and started walking. When I reached my room, I quickly equipped all my gear, feeling the comfortable and familiar weight of my sword on my hip. Stepping out of my room, I walked towards Kirito and followed him out of the door.

~Floor 51, Temple of C'Caiglth, 10:00am Game Time~

"And we're here!" Kirito exclaimed, walking towards what seemed like an ancient Mayan or Aztec temple. After walking for half an hour in a very dense rainforest, we finally made it to the supposed meeting place for the boss meeting. Along the way, we had to fight swarms of mutant ticks, leeches and giant praying mantises. While they were easy to deal with; our weapons and skills placed us into a category leagues away from the intended skill level of these monsters, the number of monsters per encounter was tiring. Swarms of twenty or more would either viciously ambush us or simply approach us, attempting to kill us. And if that wasn't bad enough, Kayaba decided it would've been funny to include crazy, creepy tribal warriors that excelled at long ranged to combat to fight us. They were elites, using blowpipes or bows to shoot at us. Honestly, without Sasaki's training, we would've died as solo players on this floor.

"Halt and identify." A player dressed in the standard Knights of the Blood Oath uniform was standing near the edge of the forest, where Kirito and I were standing. The knight had a bored expression on his face, as if he was shafted the worse possible job in the whole raiding party group. Which of course, he was.

"I'm Yuuki and this is Kirito. I regularly come to boss meetings while Kirito has only started to reattend them. We're both very capable players." I introduced cheerily, trying to somewhat entertain the player.

"Guild?"

"We're not in a guild. We solo together."

"Then you can't attend." The knight stated with no emotion.

"What do you mean we can't attend?" Kirito asked, giving off a confused expression in light of this new information.

The knight simply sighed, as if preparing himself for a long rant.

"All players who want to be part of the raid group have to be in a guild. This is to stop meaningless and preventable deaths of players who overestimate their skills or do not work well with other people. Especially solo players. This was implemented after the heavy casualties of Floor 50, with the vice commander of the Knights of the Blood Oath's advice."

"Are. You. Kidding. Me?" Kirito said menacingly, clearly annoyed by this new implementation. "Fine, we'll go make our own guild, then we'll join again!"

"No, you may not. Only guilds who are part of the Clearing Alliance can take part in boss raids. That means you will have to join the Knights of the Blood Oath if you want to go on the boss raid." The knight droned on seemingly prepared for that particular response.

"Surely they can make an exception for us? Your vice-commander and I are good friends. I understand that this policy is to prevent deaths, but you're also blocking powerful players from helping out." I reasoned, trying to strike a deal with the knight.

The white-clad knight simply chuckled before responding sarcastically, "Yeah, and I'm Kayaba's son."

"Could you at least ask your vice-commander to come talk to us?" Kirito asked.

"I don't know if I should waste our vice commander's time by telling her two weak players want an audience with her. Tell you what, if you can beat me in a duel, I'll go ask for her. Deal?" the knight said mockingly, still believing that we were weak, upstart players. He sent me a duel request.


[Knights of the Blood Oath] [Player] Milkins challenges you to a [Half Loss] duel.

Do you accept?

[Yes] [No]


"Deal." I said, pressing the 'yes' button. The message disappeared, and a countdown appeared in between us, starting at ten. I drew my sword, holding it in front of me. The white-clad knight, I think his name was Milkins, also drew his sword and readied his big, rectangular shield. As the countdown ticked towards zero, I studied my opponent's stance and weapons. "A basic sword and shield combo. He's a tank, meaning that he won't be agile but will have a lot of health." As the countdown hit zero, I held my sword behind my head, activating a sword skill. My sword glowed behind my head before I ran head on towards Milkins. Milkins simply grinned when he saw I was running towards him, holding his shield out, ready to block my attack. Sadly for him, I was not the weak, pathetic player he thought I was. When my blade collided with Milkin's white shield, he was sent flying through the air before landing on the dusty grounds that surrounded the temple. Before Milkins could even get back up, I ran at him, unleashing a rapid combo of three hits that reduced his health into the yellow zone.


[Player] Yuuki is the winner! Remember to shake hands with your opponent!


Milkins groaned as he saw the message, knowing that I practically wiped the floor with him.

"Well, I guess a deal's a deal." With that, Milkins drank a red potion before heading towards the entrance of the pyramid-shaped temple. Milkins only got halfway when Asuna and another man briskly walked to meet them.

"What is with the commotion?" she asked, her hands on her hips.

"Sorry to disturb you, vice-commander Asuna. These two solo players requested that you see them to make an exception to your guilds only policy. I told them that if they beat me in a duel, then I know they are legit." Milkins explained.

Asuna peered at us before widening her eyes.

"Yuuki? Kirito? Why are you here?" she asked.

"Well, we wanted to join the boss raid but your new policy seems to be holding us back." I said.

"Well, it's a good policy to keep people safe! Plus, I know you guys are more than proficient, but I can't just waive my policy for you two. It would be better for the whole community of SAO if you just joined our guild, you get to do boss raids and we get to have two very powerful members." Asuna offered.

"No." Kirito suddenly said.

"What?"

"I won't join a guild. I can't speak for Yuuki but I will not join any guild." There was a dangerous edge in Kirito's voice.

"I won't either. I'll stay with Kirito, soloing." I added.

"Why?"

"Personal reasons." Kirito said with a guarded tone.

"And I'm sticking with Kirito since we made a promise to look out for each other." I said, looking at Asuna. "Anyway, you can't stop us from joining the raid group. You know what? Let's duel; if I win a half loss duel with you and your friend beside you, Kirito and I can join the Clearers Alliance as solo members who can vouch for other solo members. If I lose, then I'll join your guild."

"What about Kirito?" Asuna asked, looking at Kirito.

"Wait, Yuuki. I don't think challenging SAO's top guild's champions is a good idea. Maybe we should back out, let things simmer over and wait till they really need us. Plus, I don't want more…followers." Kirito advised, a concerned tone in his voice.

"Kirito, sometimes you have to fight to get your point across. And our point is that we aren't joining any guilds, and no one is going to stand in our way of helping to clear the game." Kirito was silent for a moment as he thought about my words.

"I'll do the same as Yuuki." Asuna looked at us with a victorious smile. "Because I know Yuuki and I won't lose to both of you." Kirito continued, wiping Asuna's smile.

"I think I'll go first Kirito, gotta set the bar high!" I said, stepping forward towards Asuna and the other man beside her. "So, who wants to duel me first?"

"I'll duel her. I bet she's all talk. She'll be easy." The man sneered, grabbing his sword from his sheath. I quickly sent a half-loss duel request to said man, whose name I discovered was Nicolai. Nicolai simply pressed the accept button before standing in a fight stance. I followed suit and readied myself.

Kirito's POV

"Kirito, sometimes you have to fight to get your point across." Those very words echoed through my mind as I watched Nicolai and Yuuki square off. I honestly felt somewhat sorry for Nicolai. "He'll have no idea what hit him" I thought as I watched the timer hit zero. While I guessed that Yuuki would win, I didn't expect her to win within four moves. As soon as the duel started, Yuuki charged at the white-clad knight, swinging her sword at him. Nicolai blocked with his long, red sword only to be disarmed when Yuuki slammed the hilt of her blade into his sword hand. The blow caused Nicolai's hand to involuntarily let go of his sword, effectively disarming him. After disarming Nicolai, all it took were two lightning fast swipes of Yuuki's blade and Nicolai's health depleted to the yellow zone. And all of this only took seven seconds.

"Yay! I won. Now Asuna, I believe you're next." Yuuki gave a grin.

Asuna didn't respond for a full ten seconds, probably still comprehending how Yuuki managed to dispatch one of her high-ranked players in seven seconds.

"Alright then. Time to duel." Asuna finally said, sending Yuuki a duel request. Yuuki pressed the accept button before readying herself once again. "This will be interesting" I thought as I looked at the two women facing off each other. "Asuna is actually pretty decent and compared to Nicolai, she's leagues above him. I wonder how long Asuna will last against Yuuki." As the countdown hit once again hit zero, the spectacle of colours began.

Asuna's POV

I expected Yuuki to go and charge at me as soon as the countdown ticked to zero. So, I braced myself, ready to dodge any incoming attack. But no attacks came. In fact, for the first ten seconds of the duel, both of us were just standing there, waiting for the other to make a move. "Well, this is very anti-climactic."

"Are we going to attack or are we just going to stand there until the timer hits zero?" Yuuki asked, shifting her stance slightly so that she was facing slightly sideways from me.

"Well, if you say so." I responded before running straight at Yuuki. The purple-haired girl's eyes widened as she saw me, clearly underestimating my agility. Then Yuuki smiled a feral grin, sending chills down my spine. "Was she baiting me to attack first? In that case, I'll do an unexpected and use my skills straight away." I held my rapier close towards me, activating my sword skill which glowed blue. Waiting until I was barely half a meter away from her, I activated my skill, unleashing a fusillade of rapid stabs at her. What I didn't notice was that Yuuki also had activated a sword skill which glowed green. As I performed my skill, Yuuki's blade arced downwards, swiftly parrying all of my stabs before counter-attacking with a slash towards me. I instinctively stepped backwards, the blade just narrowly hitting me in the shoulder. Yuuki looked mildly impressed, as if she was expecting that her counter attack would've done more than a small graze to the shoulder. "What on earth? She just parried all of my stabs in my Quadruple Pain skill. No one has that kind of skill."

Gritting my teeth, I gripped my rapier tightly, ready for the devastating the purple-haired girl was going to unleash on me. I wasn't wrong about that thought. Yuuki rushed at me like a demon, raining blow after blow on me while I desperately defended, blocking, parrying, dodging. Each blow sent me staggering back, giving myself less time to recover while other nicked my body, slowly lowering my health. "There's no way I can beat Yuuki with pure skill. She's just too good; too strong, too skilled and is almost at the same level as me in agility. I'll have to play dirty if I want to win." Ideas ran in my head, each of them hypothetically ending up with me losing. Except for one.

Running full-on at Yuuki, I quickly side-stepped to avoid an incoming strike before continuing to run, nimbly dodging her attacks until a golden opportunity rose. After evading Yuuki's deadly blows for a while, I noticed a small gap in her defences. Filled with adrenaline, I beelined for that gap, swinging at her. A flash of dark purple zipped across my vision before I saw Yuuki had somehow stopped my blow. The two of us locked blades and I took this opportunity to execute my idea. I raised my left hand slightly before punching as hard as I can at Yuuki's stomach. The purple-haired girl doubled over, breaking the engagement, stumbling backwards. I took this opportunity to finish her off using skill after skill. Cuts started to appear all over Yuuki's body and Yuuki's healthbar started to go down slowly, but steadily. "I can't believe my tactic worked. Now I'm going to win and-" A ringing sound stopped my train of thought. I looked at the source of the sound, realising that Yuuki had recovered and was blocking my rapier with the flat side of her sword.

"So, you wanna play dirty huh?" Yuuki said, her crimson eyes darkening.

"Oh crap, I'm screwed." I thought, backing away and getting into a defensive position. Yuuki twirled her pale purple sword, activating some sort of skill.

"Mother's Rosaio!" Yuuki shouted, before charging straight at me. Her pale sword glowed with power as she uttered what I assumed was her skill's name. Yuuki's sword seemingly danced around me, each stab, strike or slash knocking me back. But before I could recover, another hit would land, again knocking me back. After fourteen strikes, Yuuki drew her sword backwards, seemingly charging up for one final attack. Then the sword dove straight through me, exploding on contact and sending me flying.

Kirito's POV

Honestly, I never expected Asuna to put up as much of a fight as she did. Then again, I could clearly see that Yuuki was holding back, never using a sword skill offensively, just using it to parry/deflect oncoming skills. That itself was beautiful to watch, like a symphony of colours, flashing and flowing towards each other. That was until the punch. When Asuna punched Yuuki, I almost lost it. Asuna played a really dirty and dishonourable tactic. If Asuna won, she would've only won because of that sucker punch. But then Yuuki surprised me. She managed to recover from the punch and hailstorm of jabs from Asuna. Then she activated her unique skill, Mother's Rosario. Why she chose to say it out loud confused me at first, until I realised that by uttering the skill's name, her sword literally ignited purple spectral flames and the runes imprinted on both her sheath and hilt glowed with conviction, changing colours every half second into a different colour. "By uttering a skill's name, it seems that you can boost its power slightly and make it look more intimidating." I thought as I watched Yuuki pummel Asuna. As Yuuki landed her final blow, a massive explosion rocked the makeshift battlefield created by the players who watched from the side. An enormous dust cloud obscured both Yuuki and Asuna from my view, giving a suspenseful vibe as everyone strained to see who won the epic duel. But in my heart, I already knew who won. As soon as Yuuki used Mother's Rosario she had won the duel.

The dust cleared, revealing Yuuki helping Asuna up. Looking at their healthbars, I saw that Yuuki was close to the yellow zone while Asuna had been sent straight to the red zone. The crowd that had gathered to watch this duel of epic proportions clapped and cheered.

"Your turn Kirito, show'em your deflection skills!" Yuuki said, smiling at me.

"Kirito? You mean this beater is with you? I bet he's all talk and no skill." Nicolai spat, glaring at me.

"Why don't we find out then?" I responded, sending him a duel request.

"Yes we will, you talentless beater." Nicolai sneered, readying himself once more for combat.

Let's just say the battle ended very quickly. As soon as the duel started, I copied Yuuki's strategy and ran headlong at Nicolai. The knight clad in white simply raised his sword, but this time held it with both hands as if to safeguard against Yuuki's disarming tactic. Sadly for him, I wasn't going for a disarming tactic. In fact, I didn't care if he bothered to block or not. Tapping the non-lethal side of my sword twice activating my skill Phantasmal Shift, I watched as my sword started to fade and shimmer in the air, until a bare outline of my sword was visible. That was when I swung my sword at Nicolai who moved to block my strike. Sadly for him, there was nothing for him to block. My sword simply phased right through his sword, colliding full on with his body. His health immediately plummeted, and it only took another hit from the side of my blade to get him into the yellow zone, grounds for the duel to end.

Silence filled the air as I walked away from the duel, sheathing my sword. Suddenly, a huge round of applause erupted from the gathered players who watched our duel.

"Holy crap." one player commented.

"How did he do that?" another murmured.

"Is he the Black Swordsman?" a third whispered to his friend.

"Black Swordsman? What is he on about?" I thought as I approached Asuna. Asuna looked at me warily, her warm, hazel eyes analysing my every move. She then opened her menu, sending me a duel request before readying herself. I accepted and once again drew my sword. This time, when the countdown finished, Asuna came running down towards me at the speed of sound. "Why does everyone now copy Yuuki's 'charge at the opponent' strategy?" I thought before lifting my sword.

Third Person's POV

When Asuna reached the black-clad swordsman, she started to unleash a maelstrom of thrusts, stabs and slashes. Going with the expectation of the crowd, which had gathered and formed a decently sized circle around the two duellers, the swordsman deflected, countered and blocked all of these stabs with relative ease. What impressed the crowd the most however, was the speed in which he did what he did. His sword arm and sword were a blurry mass of black, seemingly intercepting the multi-coloured attacks of Asuna with relative ease. After a span of two minutes, Kirito finally decided to end the duel by parrying one of the thrusts of Asuna with considerable foce, sending the rapier flying out of the owner's hand, effectively disarming her. With a swift blow to the abdomen, Asuna's health dropped, ending the duel.

"So, I'm guessing you're the Black Swordsman while Yuuki is Zekken, the Sword Saint?" Asuna asked.

"The Black Swordsman?"

"Zekken, the Sword Saint?"

Yuuki and Kirito asked simultaneously.

"Do you guys live under a rock? A day ago, a video was released to SAO Today featuring two players who almost dress exactly like you displaying incredible feats of skill. Two players, a girl dressed in purple and a boy dressed in all-black were fighting a floor 29 field boss. While that wasn't too much of a feat, the way they did it was. The purple-clad girl, used a never-before seen skill that consisted of a 15-hit combo (AN: Yes, I know Yuuki's original combo is 11-hit but I added four more extra slashes cus why not?") and completely demolished the field boss, taking it out faster than anyone could, not to mention that soloing any boss above floor 20 is quite remarkable. The black-clad boy literally parried every and all of the boss' attacks with incredible speed; no one, not even the top players could do that. Then, they disappeared, not even revealing who they are to the guild they saved. That's why people started to create nicknames for these mysterious players. The Black Swordsman is pretty obvious and Zekken, which means Absolute Blade, the Sword Saint because of the girl's mastery of her sword and using a crazy and overpowered skill." Asuna explained exasperated.

"Really? Yuuki gets a badass nickname while I get some lame nickname? Heck, even Beater is cooler than the Black Swordsman if it didn't have a bad reputation." Kirito complained. Yuuki gave Kirito a playful punch to the arm.

A crowd of players started to walk towards us, making a few comments.

"Look they're Zekken and the Black Swordsman."

"Zekken is kinda hot."

"What do you mean? She's hella cute. I wonder if she'll go out with me."

Yuuki blushed but felt very uncomfortable while Kirito glared at the crowd, seemingly angry for no apparent reason.

"Well, at least we're not getting swarmed yet. Well, thanks Asuna for the duel and letting us join the Clearer's Alliance. However, I think we best be going home to avoid our…admirers." Yuuki said, grabbing a small teleport crystal. Kirito replicated the same action as Yuuki.

"Teleport Home!" Yuuki and Kirito said, disappearing as the white light consumed them, transporting them home before the crowd of players spectating could approach them, presumably to ask them to teach them their skills.

~Line break brought to you by overused humour~

A mysterious person hiding in the cool shadows of the forest tapped a send button on his console. "Perfect. I have all I need now." He said to himself before heading away to an unknown location.

~Meeting Room 2B of the SAO Case Victims Rescue Force, 10:00am – Real Life Time, four days later~

Aiko's POV

My mother, father and I were being lead to a meeting room by a person who introduced himself as Kikuoka Seijirou, an investigator from the SAO Case Victims Rescue Force. He had said that new information from SAO had just been released regarding the players still trapped inside. My parents and I braced for the worst. Stepping inside the dimly lit meeting room, I could make out three other families waiting. The first was a group of three; a young girl probably one year younger than me. She had relatively short, black hair and a slight athletic build. She was having an intense conversation with her mother who was a kind-faced, middle aged woman with green eyes. They seemed a little bit faded, probably from worry about her child. The father was very similar to the girl, with short black hair. He was speaking comfortingly to the girl, giving her a warm look. The second family consisted of a couple in smart business dress, straight crisp suits and hardened, emotionless faces. The man had a worrying sort of expression on his face while the woman continued to be emotionless as if she had something else to do than be here. The final family consisted of a girl who looked about eighteen. She had streaks of white in her otherwise black hair, giving a Ying-Yang sort of feel. She looked around anxiously as if desperately trying to find any information about the one she cared for, who was trapped in SAO.

"May I have your attention?" Kikuoka asked, walking towards the front of the meeting room. "As you may know, I have gathered you here today because the SAO Case Victim Recuse Force has received new information regarding the trapped players. After receiving it, we had to check for any viruses but there were none. Instead, there was a status report on the current situation of the game, including who are alive, where they are and more. While I have shared relevant information to all immediate relatives of the victims in similar fashion as I am about to with you, you are a special case. See, the ones you know trapped in SAO are the top-ranking players in SAO who are actively trying to clear the game." Kikuoka paused.

Kikuoka pressed a small button, igniting what seemed to be projector. An image of a purple-haired girl with crimson red eyes appeared before us. She had a red headband on her head, a purple sword sheath on her hips and a dull purple breastplate.

"Introducing SAO's currently most powerful player, Yuuki or in real life, Yuuki Konno." I gasped, looking closer at the picture. My parents hugged me tightly as we stared at my trapped twin sister.

"She is known by the community as Zekken, the Sword Saint. She is not affiliated with any guild and is one of the only solo members to be in an alliance called the Clearer's Alliance, consisting of major guilds that coordinate to clear the game. She plays as a solo player, her only companion being Kirito who solos with her. They together are known as the Duolos. She has incredible skill with her sword and has supposedly created her own sword skill in SAO. Here is a clip of her in action."

A clip started playing, showing Yuuki facing an ugly, dwarven monster who was overstacked with weapons. We watched as Yuuki started a rapid repertoire of stabs, slashes and jabs, watching in amazement as she quickly downed the monster.

"She is also voted as SAO's second hottest idol according to a poll by SAO Today, who are an organisation similar to newspaper organisations in the real world."

The room was so silent, you could literally hear a pin drop from a few kilometres away. Kikuoka pressed the button again, changing the clip into an image of a boy, dressed fully in black with a sword sheath on his back.

"Going on, this is SAO's second most powerful player. His name is Kirito or known in real life as Kazuto Kiragaya. He is a master swordsman whose skill is almost parallel to Yuuki. He is known as the Black Swordsman because of his attire as you can see. He also is known as the beater although the reason behind it was never given. He is the second of the three solo players that are members of the Clearer's Alliance and is the one who solos with Yuuki. He is recorded to have the fastest reaction time, seen here."

Kikuoka played a clip showing the same black-haired boy moving his sword at the speed of light, seemingly deflecting/parrying/blocking lightning fast strikes from an auburn-haired girl. Once again, we were all impressed. I looked over to the families and saw the family with the younger girl watch intently. They were all smiling, their eyes twinkling. Once the clip finished, another image appeared. This time, it was of the auburn-haired girl we saw earlier fighting Kazuto.

"Next, we have Asuna, or known in real life as Asuna Yuuki. She is the vice-commander of the top guild in SAO known as the Knights of the Blood Oath. She is notoriously known as Lightning Flash Asuna and is the most agile player in SAO as of currently. She is voted as the hottest idol in SAO according to SAO Today."

I looked over and saw the two people in business attire look intently. The woman had a slight expression of disgust while the man was smiling. A clip started playing of Asuna duelling Kazuto. This time, it was in her perspective. We could see her dashing everywhere, unleashing hailstorms of jabs whenever she could. When the clip finished playing, an image appeared for the final time. A white-haired boy dressed in a dark brown cloak with two daggers by his wrists appeared.

"Finally, we have the fourth most powerful player in SAO. He is Hiyoto or known in real life as Himiragi Lamzatuo. He too is a solo player who wields a pair of daggers. He is known as the most proficient in daggers in SAO and has been recorded as the stealthiest player. He is the only other solo player who is part of the Clearer's Alliance. He is known as the Vindicator and is not as focused on clearing the game. He mainly focuses on catching red/orange players who are the equivalent in the real world to murderers and criminals."

A clip started playing showing Himiragi apprehending a player, wielding his daggers very skilfully before tying ropes around the player and teleporting away. The eighteen-year-old girl had tears in her eyes as she held her hands close to her chest.

"There we have it. Thank you for taking time away from your busy schedules to attend this. Hopefully this will keep your hopes up. We will notify you when another report is released." Kikouka concluded before showing us the way out. The young girl who I assume was the sister of Kazuto approached me shyly.

"Hey, my name is Suguha. I think I know you from our school." The younger girl said, fiddling with her hands.

"Hey, my name's Aiko. I'm the twin sister of Yuuki, who you saw. I guess your brother is Kazuto?"

"Yeah. I'm glad he's ok." The younger girl said timidly.

"So, I heard you're the best at kendo in our school, heck even in the country." I said.

Suguha blushed.

"Thank you. I heard you're the top academic in our school as well as the best chess player in the whole of Japan."

Now it was my turn to blush.

"Well, I need to go. My mother needs me back at school." Suguha said.

"Same, see you at school then!" I said before we parted, following our parents.

"Stay strong Yuuki. I know you can beat this game. You were always the best at playing games."


And that's done! Review if you want to, I'd really appreciate criticism to help me write better. Just as a hint, next chapter is gonna be episode 4 of SAO. Tell me if you think I'm too descriptive (sometimes I get carried away). I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Thanks for all of your continued support. I really appreciate it.

Welp, I'll see you guys next week for another chapter of The Tale of Zekken and the Beater!

Peace be with you!

~Herosassin