Hello again. The short chapter does have a reason. See below for the explanation.

Chapter 10

Dust

The area just outside of the gate looked like the entrance to a cave, which I guess makes sense. The pipes from the dungeon were spilling water out into the ocean. Palm trees made a natural path leading to a mountain pass.

And then there was the sand. The wind was strong, blowing the desert into our faces. I guess that a sandstorm was either beginning or was finishing up, something that would definitely impede our progress at certain points.

"We should head back to town!" Kureha yelled over the wind. We all nodded, opening our menus and selecting the SBC Glocken.

The steel city was lit up by several street lights due to the starry sky above. Looking at the time, I felt a lump in my throat, knowing that I would probably oversleep tomorrow. I let out another yawn, confirming it was time to head off.

"I think someone's going to be dead on their feet soon." Itsuki chuckled. "Thanks though."

"Did you get what you needed?" Arfa-sys asked.

Itsuki shrugged. "I got some good perks. If I combine this with other weapons, it should be a good weapon. Thanks though. I had…fun."

"My, you do have a soft side Itsuki." Zeliska tried to laugh but that was interrupted with a yawn. Itsuki turned away, but I could make out the corner of his mouth was curved upwards.

"If it's alright, I'd like to join you all again." He muttered. I think it was supposed to be to himself, but I made it out.

"Sure you can." I nodded.

Itsuki looked rather surprised and then laughed in disbelief. "I have my own squadron to look after, but if you need help, I'll be a message away." He opened his menu and sent me a friend request. I noticed he didn't send one to the others.

We all said goodnight and one by one, the others logged off. "Master, will you be on tomorrow?" Arfa-sys was still as perky as ever.

"Yeah. When I wake up." I chuckled, not knowing when that would be.

"I told you already Speigel, I don't want to go and do that right now! Have you seen the time?" A familiar voice came from a gate just to the left of the Teleport Gate. I put a hand up to Arfa-sys so she'd stay put before going to investigate. I saw two players, one I recognised who was looking rather irate and the other was wearing a camouflage suit with armour protecting his chest, elbows and knees. He had long silver hair and thin eyes. Right now, he was looking rather disheartened. Sinon let out a groan. "Honestly, you should be sleeping right now too."

"Anything I can help with?" I leaned against a pillar supporting an overhang. The two of them jumped upon me announcing my presence. "She's right you know. You should probably be sleeping. Both of you." I added on the end.

The guy, I think his name was Speigel, scoffed. "Says you. You're still awake."

"I was about to log off when I heard you two." I frowned, narrowing my eyes. I didn't know exactly what was going on, but I was guessing he was trying to pressure Sinon into doing something right this minute. Considering how late it was, it wouldn't be healthy to do something that required heavy concentration, like using a sniper.

Speigel sighed, giving up. "Fine. I see you tomorrow Sinon…" He disappeared.

Sinon exhaled, exhausted. "I had that."

"Well, it can be best for someone else to be there to prevent things from escalating." I felt all the tension from that melt away.

Sinon shrugged. "I wouldn't worry. He very rarely bothers me. Only when Kirito has logged off." She smiled suddenly. "Oh yeah, you're the guy who helped us in the Angry Berserker fight."

"Helped is an interesting way of putting it." I scratched the back of my head, remembering that I died.

"Well, thanks for that." She opened her menu. "Could you do me a favour? Don't tell anyone else about what just happened." I nodded. "Thanks. Bye." Sinon disappeared.

I let out a final yawn, signalling that it was indeed time for bed. I walked back over to Arfa-sys and said goodnight before logging out myself.

"[YN], please stop!"

The massive figure hovered overhead, charging a weapon that locked onto me.

"Kill them."

And that concludes the first part of my Fatal Bullet Rewrite. Our heroes move into Solitary Sands, with new adventures, allies and threats to discover.

I'm also uploading my first set of Friendship Events today. This is going to be the first set of them. I'll detail them in there.

It's about time I start introducing some of the regular SAO characters into the story, don't you? Kirito and Asuna have had some time, as well as Leafa and Sinon to a much lesser extent. As I said previously, a lot of characters are being cut out due to them being unnecessary. For example, why is Philia there? She's kind of just stuck on there for little reason other than fanservice (not the sexy kind of fanservice).

By the way, very soon, I'll be offering up a fresh perspective. Kirito Mode was...lacking in my opinion. I think it might've been nice if we could start to play as him earlier to try and get more information on Death Gun a lot earlier. So, I'm expanding it a bit. These chapters will be labled as [KM Chapter 1].

But anyway, I'll move on to uploading the Friendship Events. Hope you guys and gals enjoyed the first part of Fatal Bullet Rewrite! As always, Stay Cool!