December 1st 2022 1 am

Chie looked in horror as he saw his sister standing in front of him, scolding him. Shouting at him...

"How could you let me die? And worse, how could you replace me with the reason I'm dead?" Kina said, making sure Chie felt guilty.

"But-" Chie attempted to say, before he was cut off.

"But what, you think that a stranger is more important than your sister? Let me correct, your adopted sister." Chie looked surprised and Kina obviously noticed, "What, you thought I didn't know? How could you keep it from me. do you know what? I'm happy that I died, at least I don't have to see your ugly good-for-nothing face anymore."

Chie woke up, panting. he knew it was just a nightmare, but he couldn't forget the last words he heard. At least I don't have to see your ugly good-for-nothing face anymore.

December 1st 2022 8 pm

Chie got out of their new guild headquarters. The HQ contained a living space that could accommodate about a hundred players. He looked around to see if anyone was following him then set off to the agreed meeting place.

Once he was there, he sat down on a bench looking at the Christmas display.

"You know, we could have just done it at the base, right Chie." Argo asked.

"I don't want anyone to know what I'm about to do." Chie replied. I'm going to bring her back, even if I die in the process. If I survive, I'll accept whatever she has to say to me. I deserve it.

"Well, here it is. On the day before Christmas Eve, an event boss will spawn. His name is Nicholas the Renegade, basically a messed up version of Santa. He will drop an item that can supposedly revive a dead player. The only way to get to him is through a tree on the newly cleared 24th floor. Oh and Chie," Argo said, remembering something else, "Be careful, you know that there is a chance for this to all be a lie."

"Don't worry I will," Chie told Argo, not very convincingly, "And if it isn't true, at least I tried."

Chie stood up to leave but was held back by Argo, "You already know where it is going to spawn, don't you?"

"Maybe." Chie simply put.

December 23rd 2022 7 pm

Chie walked up to a tree and seemingly walked through it. He was teleported to an opening in a forest that led to a clearing. Unknown to him, there was at least three groups following him. They all has heard from Argo that Chie knew where to go. As Chie got ready to go and fight the Renegade, the Fuurinkazen guild came through the portal.

Klein walked in the snow loudly to alert Chie of his whereabouts, "Hey, Chie, you don't need to do this by yourself, you could just party with us, whoever gets the item keeps it, no hard feelings."

Chie took a deep breath and sighed, "Klein, I don't expect you to understand. It's not about the item. I just need to do this, if you know what I mean."

"Yeah... I guess I can understand that."

As Klein told Chie of his understanding, a new group went through the portal. The Divine Dragon Alliance. They'll do anything for a rare item, even if it means killing most of their guild.

Klein drew his sword, "Chie you get out of here, get the item. We'll hold them back.

Chie ran through the opening until he reached a clearing. He saw a name appear on his HUD, 'Nicholas the Renegade', along with 3 health bars.

Chie ran up to him, got out his second sword about to charge up 'Starburst Stream', a 16-hit swords skill until he saw that it disappeared.

Guess I have to do this the old fashioned way. Chie thought to himself, before charging up his best one-handed sword skills. Kirito and Chie had found that you could alternate between swords to make use of many sword skills without the post-motion skill delay.

He let out a scream before attacking the boss. Front. Left. Right. Fight. Back up. Chie gave himself an endless mantra of instructions. He dodged the next attack and sent a flurry of attacks to Nicholas. Something Chie had learnt from Asuna was that you could use the backing up of a mob after a hit to aim a consecutive hit straight after. Now that Chie had 2 wielded swords. He could do an extreme version of this.

As the first health bar ran out, the demented Santa turned all of its power to knock Chie away, only to fail due to the swordsman's insane reaction time. Though not the fastest in the death game... anymore.

Chie chiseled through the remaining health bars as easily as the first.

As the last health bar went down, Nicholas landed a punch on Chie. Though Chie ended up barely dodging the attack, the impact of falling made Chie lose most of his health. As he was getting up, Nicholas the Renegade let out a final skill before shattering into millions of polygons, Frost Breath. Chie was left on the ground.

As Chie slowly died from the attack, the last group made a timely appearance. It consisted of Lisbeth, Kirito, Asuna and Yuuki.

Lisbeth ran over and got a health crystal out, "Heal." She said, shattering the crystal.

She then hugged him, "Never do that again, how do you think we would feel if you died."

"Sorry..." was all Chie could say. He then stood up and opened his inventory to check the rumor.

Divine Stone of Returning Soul

Nicholas the Renegade once was the hoarder of precious items. One of which was the Divine Stone of Returning Soul. It was his most treasured item until he was cast away. Legend has it that it can revive anything. Use wisely as you can only call upon its power once.

Revives a dead player, boss or returns a building to its
original form.

Use within 10 seconds of death.

"At least I tried, Kina. At least I tried." And with that, he collapsed onto the ground out of pure exhaustion.

December 24th 2022 6 pm

Sitting at a desk in his room at HQ, Chie looked wearily at the item that had just been sent to his inventory... from Kina. He opened the item.

"Is this thing even on? Oh. Hey Chie, If you get this, that probably means I died. I wanted to make sure you were alright if I did. Just don't blame yourself for me dying, that's my only death wish. I made it so that you would get this near Christmas so why don't I sing you a song."

As Kina started humming 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer', Chie clutched the recording crystal in his hands and fell asleep.

December 25th 2022 2 pm

As Chie went out to the Town of Beginnings to admire the decor, he spotted a chocolate rabbit, an event mob that would drop chocolate bars. As there was no one else out today, he decided to kill a few. The Dual Blades of Courage were having a Christmas party, he could give these out there. He knew that there would be at least the fifty-ish people from his guild, plus a few other guilds and players. Chie looked through the invite list.

-Dual Blades of Courage.
-Fuurinkazen
-Knights of the Blood Oath
-Golden Apple
-Silver Flags
-Aincrad Liberation Force

And a few other guilds and players. Chie didn't realize that they were on good terms with so many guilds. Especially the ALF. The ALF (Aincrad Liberation Force) was a guild. It was originally 2 guilds: the Aincrad Liberation Squad and MMO Today. Normally referred to as the Army, the ALF had 2 leaders due to it being made of two guilds. The first was the Thinker, as his name might suggest, he was a thinker. He used to lead MMO Today. The other leader was no more than Kibaou, the very reason betas and beaters were a thing. he used to lead the ALS (Aincrad Liberation Squad).

As Chie made his way 'home', he saw that Lisbeth's shop was still open.

"Hey Lisbeth, you alright in there?" Chie called in, seeing that Lisbeth was not at the counter as she would usually be. Chie heard some shuffling then an answer.

"Yeah." The answer was, although hidden, sad.

"Aren't you going to the party?" Chie asked tentatively.

"I would, but I have no one to go with and if I go by myself, boys would try hitting on me like they do all day when I am working." Lisbeth put bluntly.

Is that really what she has to go through every day? She must be sad. Wait, why don't I take her. As friends I mean... Chie told himself

Another voice entered the conversation, Sure... You realize that we both know that you like her.

Oh great, I'm getting teased by my own self.

But it would be the perfect chance...

Fine.

"Why don't you come with me?" Chie asked. Seeing Lisbeth's face turn around, Chie quickly added, "A- as friends I mean."

Lisbeth jokingly eyed him, pointing at him, she said, "Then why did you stutter, hmm? Well okay then, just stick close to me, I don't really know anyone."

"Sure..." Chie answered, "Shall we go then?"

"Why not?"

Dear Reader,

Hello, it's me again, Smartyul, the author. Although I am really sure that nobody will answer this, I have a question. well questions. For the future of this story. Firstly, how long should each arc be? Secondly, should each arc be a different story, or should it be one long arc? And which arcs should be included, this is my idea so far:

-The Aincrad Arc. MCFA.
-The Fairy Dance Arc. MCFA.
-The Pursuers Arc. MOA.
-The Phantom Bullet Arc Arc. MCFA.
-The Mother's Rosario Arc. AFRA.
-The Ordinal Scale Arc. AFRA. (*1)
-The Alicization Arc. AFRA.
-The Divine Arc. MOA.
-The Accel World Arc. AFRA. (*2)
-The Resting Place Arc. MOA.

Key:
-AFRA is A Fully Rebuilt Arc. An arc that will probably only contain some resemblance to canon.
-MCFA is Mostly Canon From an Angle. It is like this arc, it runs along side canon with a few twists.
-MOA is My Own Arc. A completely new arc that might be based of AU fanfictions.

I know, I know. That's a lot of arcs. 10 in total. By the time I finish, will SAO even be remembered? 'Will I even finish?' is the more important question. I usually work on something then disown it after getting bored.

(*1) Technically a movie.

(*2) Technically, Accel World is a completely different series set years after the SAO timeline, building upon the Full-Dive technology.

Welp, that's a lot to do. Do not fear though readers (panic ensues), in school breaks, I will update a lot more frequently and arcs after the Fairy Dance Arc will go quicker with the exception of MOAs.

Bye, from Smartyul, the author.

EDIT: The combo for Starburst Stream was corrected.