Lyra looked at the blue teleport crystal and replaced it back into her pouch. Before her was the door to the Floor 11 boss and behind her were her guild. Raiku was the furthest away. "Everyone ready?"

The other Red Hunters nodded. They all had teleport crystals. If the whole group of Clearers couldn't beat the Wild Whistler then there was no way their small group of five could, but they at least could hold out long enough for Raiku to look into the bosses abilities with his admin account.

Slowly, Lyra pushed open the door to the Boss Lair, saber ready. Just like last time it was dark. They walked in. Music pierced the total silence, a mournful song. When they were far enough in blue torches lit up and the Wild Whistler appeared.

"Aden stay with Raiku. Everyone else, attack him directly," Lyra ordered.

They split up. Raiku hovered near the doorway and sat down, opening his admin screen and playing around with the windows. A 3-D image appeared in front of Raiku of The Wild Whistler. "Go!" He shouted.

They wouldn't be able to do much damage to it, the Red Hunters knew that already, they were just buying time long enough for Raiku to get the scan. They had barely began to make a dent in the boss when The Wild Whistler froze. His cloak was in mid-twirl from a spin and his fingers half-raising to shift to another note.

What in the? The torches turned red and a whining crescendo could be heard. Error messages popped up on the walls and roof, their lettering flashing red.

"What is going on?" Jan shouted over the noise.

"I have no idea," Lyra shook her head, "Raiku?!"

"The system's detected me!" Raiku slashed his screen closed. He grabbed his teleport crystal out of his pouch, "Teleport: Town of Beginnings!"

He disappeared.

Unsure what to do, as they looked at the dungeon the other guild members followed his lead.

They materialized near the stone gateway that stood in the courtyard of the town. Raiku didn't even wait for them. When they materialized he was already running.

"Brother!" Aden called, taking off after him.

Really confused, the others followed the twins back to their temporary base. Their easily identified uniforms evoked awe from the other players and they respectfully stepped aside so they could run unhindered. They probably assumed they were running to a call of a red player attack.

"Raiku!" Aden shouted when Raiku bolted up the stairs. "Raiku!"

Raiku was sitting on the ground, trembling.

"Hey?" Aden leaned forward and touched his twin. "Are you alright? What happened back there?"

"Cardinal detected me." Raiku answered. "It identified me as a cheater so it froze the battle. I-I won't be able to do that again. For any boss, sorry…"

"Not your fault," Lyra shrugged. "Did you get anything?"

Riaku held out a recorder crystal hand trembling. Aden took it and passed it to Lyra. "Why did you freak out like that brother?"

"The Cardinal system is the support system that makes sure Aincrad functions as it should. It identified me as a glitch that needed to be terminated in order to ensure smooth gameplay," Raiku bit his lip and clenched his hands. "It started to delete me when I teleported out of its sight. There's nowhere for me to hide. If I use my admin privileges again it will delete me. It might not even be safe for me to open the screen now."

Lyra closed the screen on the recorder crystal. "The info you got is good Raiku. I'll give it to Asuna. You did well. With this, Asuna should be able to organize a raid to defeat it." She hesitated, wanting to calm him down. How do you comfort someone who almost got deleted by a game they created?

She couldn't. Maybe Aden could. "Come on," she whispered to the rest of the guild. Let's give the brothers some peace."


"Hey Lyra? I don't know if now is a good time but I got a new idea for the Guild symbol..."

"You what Merrik? Now is an interesting time. How's Raiku?"

"Aden's calmed him down. Here, look."

"… Hmm. What does it stand for exactly?"

"One for each of our kills."

"Clever, very clever."


Asuna let the wind ruffle her brown hair a bit, taking a brief moment to relax.

"Not often I see you away from the front," Lyra commented coolly as she walked up beside her "friend."

"At least I am on the front." Asuna gibed back. Tension had arisen between the two about many subjects.

"I tried," Lyra shrugged, "you saw the response. The uniform suits you though far better than it would me." I'm not quite enough of an obedient little player enough to wear one.

Asuna glanced down at her white clothes. "You would not be able to wear a uniform." You have neither the discipline nor the respect.

Lyra materialized Raiku's recorder crystal out of her inventory and passed it to Asuna. "Here, like I promised, information about The Wild Whistler."

Asuna obviously didn't believe that it would be useful but opened the crystal anyway. Her eyes widened as she looked at the information. It listed the Boss's attacks and its weakness. "This is-how did you get this!"

"It's hard to explain," Lyra shrugged. "And my source is gone now so it's irrelevant." Asuna would likely just assume that the player was dead.

"I see," Asuna whispered, closing the crystal. "This will help. Are you sure you will not change your mind about Heathcliff's offer?"

"White isn't my color," Lyra promised. "Besides, I'm already a member of a guild."

"The Red Hunters," Asuna sighed. "So the newspaper says. You made the front page."

"Let us help you take on The Wild Whistler, Asuna," Lyra implored. "My guild and I are strong. As Beta's we can use Sword Styles."

"It is because you are Beta's that tension arises," Asuna shook her head. "I will not stop you though if you wish to come. Give me a day and then meet at the same inn again at 9am. I will message the other Clearers."

"Don't tell them we're going to be there," Lyra inputted.

"I won't." If she did, then half of them wouldn't show up. Asuna had nothing against Betas, but the new knowledge of their access to Sword Styles made her wary. What other powerful secrets did they have that they weren't sharing with the others?

Lyra didn't look like much, she stood only 5'4'' and was dressed in plain green and gray clothes that she had likely collected one piece at a time on Floor 8 until she had the entire set. With her saber sheathed and its crystal light hidden, it too, looked plain. She wasn't in uniform. Asuna wanted to underestimate her, but couldn't quite manage it.

"We'll be there," Lyra promised. "All of us."


I just realized as i was looking over my story just how short the chapters and the story in general are so sorry. My stuff is usually way longer. sorry about the eradict updates, but i've been driving over to my new college (which is in Arizona and i'm normally in Texas) and getting used to dorm. I'll try to keep my updates up, but school work is going to come first so i have no idea how often i can update. I'll try my best.

The Asuna in this story is the Asuna before she meets Kirito and learns to relax. Right now she's just clear, clear, clear, and is counting the days she's missing in the real world. She's pretty no nonsense and Lyra's relaxed attitude sort of grates.

Notice how she's not wearing her uniform. Lyra wants to surprise the other players.