Lusus Naturae

by SaintInfernalNeos

[Freak of Nature] When Kirigaya Minetaka and his wife Midori found a strange 'pod' in the mountains, they knew they should have walked away. When a confused and weird-eyed little kid came out, the feeling was only doubled so. But...he seemed harmless, and he made their daughter laugh, so really, bringing him home couldn't hurt, right? After all, what's the worst that could happen?

10. Chapter 8: What makes you a Monster?

Hello everyone, this is Saint once again, bringing you all another chapter of the weirdest SAO Fic around! No apologies this time, as more than enough people has told me it doesn't matter, but I want to at least reassure you that the next chapter of RU is underway and that I'm no longer having problems like pressuring myself to write, it's just that this thing is SO damn addictive XD

Speaking of which, I have a great and surprising announcement: Both this story and Requiem Universus now have their own TvTropes pages! Can you believe it?! You can find the links to both of them in my profile, my dear readers, and I would be grateful to anyone who has time to help filling them :) They're small now, but with your help we can make them grow and have everything they should XP Also, RU now has a new cover, thanks a lot to the dear friend and reader Pikanet128 for that =D

Oh, and this story finally went over 200 reviews! Yay! Thanks a lot to you all for loving this weird-as-hell idea of mine OwO Now, on with the show!

PS: This chapter has been Beteaed by CrayZay Jay! Once again, thanks for your hard work :D

Disclaimer: SAO and its characters don't belong to me, but to Kawahara Reki. If they did, I would make 'There is But One Ultimate Way' the official canon epilogue of the series so as to everyone could be happy.

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Lusus Naturae (ˈLuːsʊs Næˈtʊəriː)

A freak, mutant, or monster. Also called: Lusus.

[Latin: 'Freak of Nature']

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Chapter 8: What makes you a Monster?

August 25th, 2023. Yokohama, Kanagawa. Yokohama North General Hospital, 01:10…

Konno Yuuki stared at the 'ceiling' of her 'room' with a vacant stare, feeling that strange sensation of not being really tired but still having the 'need' to sleep.

Of course, being technical, she was already 'sleeping'. At least her real body was, out there, in her real room. Where she was right now, however, was the Virtual Space within the 'Medical FullDive Tester', or Medicuboid to abbreviate. Actually, it was the second, improved version of the machine, as its predecessor, the MFT1, had been way clunker and misshapen before they got enough data to upgrade at the, while still big, way more compact and functional machine she used today. Idly, she recalled being told by Dr. Kurahashi that the Upgrade from the first prototype had come along so fast because it was Kayaba Akihiko himself who had looked over and processed the data they got from her testing of the machine.

Being honest, Yuuki didn't really care much for that. Sure, she was very grateful to everyone that had given her the opportunity, and knew that the fact such an important man bothered to go through so much for her sake, even if indirectly (As it was more about the machine than her), was kind of a big deal, but, at the end of the day, she was just a sick 13 years old girl that had spent more than a year in a hospital and probably would spend the rest of her (Arguably not very long) life there. For her, the single moment when Aiko had told her that she should be the one to test the Medicuboid instead of her was way more important and touching than anything the creator of the machine could be doing for her, especially because of the cruel reality it implied, even if her smiling twin never addressed it and she certainly didn't either.

The probability of Aiko dying before her was all but absolute. It could happen in 5 years or maybe the day after tomorrow, there was no way of knowing or to prevent it, but the fact was that her big sister would probably leave this world before her.

She didn't know what she would do when that day came…but Merida always said that there was no need to fear for the future as long as they lived their present as best as they could.

The memory of their smiling friend and leader brought a smile to Yuuki's face. It was surprising, shocking even, how she could be in a situation actually worse than the twins' and still be so positive about life. After all, while Konno sisters had known for almost their whole life, even if they could barely understand it when they were younger, that they were going to die because of a bad joke of Fate. Unlike the incurable disease that they got infected by at birth, though, the older girl's tumor was something that had been discovered all of a sudden, relatively recently in her life, literally taking her future away without any warning.

…okay, maybe this wasn't exactly the best train of thought to have when she couldn't sleep, but being fair Yuuki sometimes found the virtual space inside the machine that, in a way, was becoming intimate part of her life to be a bit depressing. Every time, though, she found herself not only forced, but also welcoming spending more time inside it than outside.

The girl wasn't foolish, and she knew that Aiko either, so she had obviously noticed it: As the months passed, it became clear how weaker her body got, how easier it was for her to simply get away from the pain and the sorrow that using her real body gave her by just letting the Medicuboid cut off all those feelings.

Soon, she would probably be unable to even get off the machine without seriously risking her health anymore. It probably wouldn't take more than a year for that point to be reached, maybe even less.

But despite that, Konno Yuuki had sworn she would continue moving forward. Even if the world did not care for her suffering, as long as she had those she cared for at her side she would keep smiling, she would keep 'fighting' against Destiny and Fate, even if it was absolutely pointless.

After all, just the mere act of smiling and making those around you smile was more than enough for some people. Like that strange and unbelievably skilled boy that had beaten their best friend and leader.

"Psst…Yuuki-san! We came for you!"

Yeah, the same boy that was now calling her from the observation room beside her…wait, what?!

"You idiot! Why did you rush ahead?! I told you this place is way more guarded than any of our hospitals! Hell, Aiko-chan repeated it like a dozen times!"

"So-sorry, Meri…uhm, Akane-san, but that's exactly why we should hurry! I put all cameras here on a loop, but we have little time before someone notices something is wrong!"

"And I still have no idea of how you even know how to do that…actually, given what has happened tonight, I don't think I want to know…"

"Merida, don't be so mean to the boy, we need to…!"

"Yuu! Yuu, you there?! Come out, we have to hurry!"

"A-Aiko-nee? Merida?! Everyone?! And…Kirito-san?!" shouted the wide-eyed Yuuki through the external audio of the Medicuboid, which was directly connected to the observation room, making all lights lit up to see that, effectively, her whole guild was there, in the flesh, looking surprisingly well for a bunch of terminally ill people (Even with the strangely wild hair and the hospital gowns), not to mention her very own twin standing beside their best friend and the very same boy she had just been thinking about (Who was wearing some very ragged-looking and partially destroyed clothes). "Ho-how…why…you…?!"

"Yuuki, please, calm down!" stopped her Merida with a serious and commanding voice, that which everyone recognized as her rare 'Guild Leader'-mode. "I know you have a lot of questions, but as our careless 'friend' here said, we have little time, so please, trust us with this, okay?! We need to get out of here…all of us!"

"O-out of here…? As in…out of the hospital…?" asked the youngest Konno with a shaky voice, feeling a horrible fear gripping her very soul. "But…Merida, you know I-I can't even leave this roo…"

"Yuu. Please hear me out." spoke Aiko with an unusually serious voice, attracting her sister's attention…and making her gasp at noticing that, with the lights on, not only did she look healthier than ever, but one of her eyes had suddenly turned a bizarre mix of colors. "You know I wouldn't be able to get here on my own normally…hell, you should have realized Merida shouldn't even be standing here with us, you remember how she looked when she visited last week! So, please, trust me…everything is going to be okay, but we need to get out before someone notices we're here."

For a moment, no answer came as Yuuki stared at her twin from within the machine.

Then, a soft smile blossomed on her face, because if there was one thing that she was sure of more than anything in the world, was that her sister would never lie to her. And that everything she had ever done had been for the youngest sake over her own.

"Okay, Aiko-nee…you know I will always trust you. But, how do I get out of…?"

"Waaah!"came a screaming voice from just beside Yuuki's bed, the girl's eyes widened as she looked through the camera aiming to that side in time to see the ceiling's vent duct break open as the boy she only knew as 'Kirito' fell down, face crashing against and cracking the floor of her room. "Uh…damn, it's not as easy as it was a couple years ago, at least not without changing…have I grown up that much or is this just way smaller than the one at Argus…?"

"Wha…? How did you get there?!" demanded a shocked Aiko while Akane and An Si-eun blinked, looking to where the boy had been between them and only seeing the half-open entrance to another duct in the floor.

"No time for explanations, Ran-san, we need to hurry! I'm not sure but there may have been some hidden sensors in there that I tripped!" replied Kazuto with urgency as his hands flew over the complex external controls of the Medicuboid and the attached machines, drawing many surprised looks from its user and the rest of the Sleeping Knights at seeing them all powering down without issue.

"Yo-you know how to operate the Medicuboid?" questioned a surprised Yuuki as he finally started powering down the main machine, making the virtual room around her go dark.

"I read the prototype's original manual directly from the creator's computer…it's kind of a long story." offered the gamer for answer after seeing the disbelieving looks being sent his way even as the youngest Konno sister gasped and opened her eyes as the machine removed itself from over her head. "What? This machine it's not only expensive but also extremely important! Did you think I was just going to tear it apart to get Yuuki-san out?"

"To be honest…yeah, a part of me did." confirmed Akane with a sheepish look even as the rest of her guild nodded along, Kazuto pouting their way in a way too childish way for someone his age as he swiftly grabbed Yuuki bridal style, ignoring her squeal of surprise in favor of securing her firmly. "So, how are you getting out of that sealed room with Yuuki-chan without tripping any alarms?"

Another moment of silence filled the area while the black-haired boy's face became unreadable, his eyes never leaving the anxious forms of the Sleeping Knights.

"…you have no idea, right?" expressed Clovis, known in the real world as Madarame Kaito (And hanging upside down from that room's ceiling too), what everyone was thinking.

"…everyone, start running towards the nearest window." was all that the now blushing gamer answered before, to Yuuki's absolute shock, his arm turned into a sharp and long limb ended in a spiked bone-like tail, which he proceeded to smash against the reinforced glass separating them from the observation room.

The alarms hadn't even started ringing when Yuuki found herself staring in frozen wonder at the endless shards of glass raining all around her, idly aware of her sister screaming while her friends dragged her and rushed out of the room.

Thousands of small black tendrils shot out all around her, trapping the broken pieces of glass in midair and dragging it inside the black-haired boy's body, making him grimace but not allowing even a single one to touch her weakened body.

The next second, they were already out in the hallway, some screams being heard at the opposite end of it as they rushed after Si-eun, who motioned crazily as she jumped out of the closest window, the youngest Konno realizing that everyone else but her frozen sister had done the same before her.

Aiko didn't even have time to scream before Kazuto shot past her, grabbed her arm with a new tentacle, and dragged her along as he catapulted himself out of the hospital and into the air, more than 30 meters above the ground.

The twins screamed at unison (Though one of them quickly broke into a coughing fit because of it) as they 'flew' all the way to the closest building's rooftop, the boy's feet cracking the surface of it as he landed.

"Woah! That was fucking cra…!"

"Keep moving!" shouted the gamer without slowing down, interrupting whatever Jun, or Yamashita Daiki in reality, had been about to say, still carrying/dragging the terrified Konno twins while everyone looked at him in shock. "We need to get far enough away so that they won't find us! Security there was way higher than any of your hospitals!"

"Well, you heard the 'boss' everyone! Follow the alien!" ordered Akane with a strangely cheerful tone, earning many disbelieving looks as her legs morphed into that strange and bizarre form and she leaped after Kazuto with a massive grin. "Yahooo!"

"…are we sure she didn't go insane because of whatever he did to us?" questioned Nori, Tano Asami in real life, as she casually sprouted a long and strong-looking snake-like tail from her lower back in the middle of her next jump, using the new limb to casually swing herself from a lightning rod.

"…I think we all did a little, Nori." sighed Si-eun as her hair expanded into a myriad of tendrils, wondering about how bizarre it was that she did not feel any pain when she used them to drag herself forward as she almost fell short from her next rooftop-hopping.

"If we did, I prefer it a thousand times over how we were before!" said Daiki as he jumped forward, his legs abnormally long and ending in deadly-looking claws that let him impossibly maneuver through the roofs.

"This is…bizarre." commented Kobushi Nobuyuki, better known by his friends as Tecchi, even as his now powerfully long and armored arms, seeming like those of some super gorilla, carried him easily through the distance. "But undeniably cool…you okay back there, Talken?"

"Ehm…define okay?" was the answer of the young man known as Tamaru Atsushi out of the virtual world, currently hanging from friend's back, as one of his hands nervously moved to adjust glasses he wasn't truly wearing and realizing his mistake at the last second, almost having slammed his suddenly scythe-like limb to his face. "Ugh…damn it, keeping this normal actually takes focus…and I'm sure I SHOULD be creeping out way more from it…"

"Well…at least Clovis seems to be enjoying himself as much as Merida?" offered Nobu with a sheepish grin while looking towards the one closing the march, the boy's limbs now filled with sharp-looking 'spikes' that let him easily grip and jump from vertical surfaces.

"Damn…I feel like an alien Spiderman, minus the webs!" shouted Kaito with a massive grin as he somersaulted over his two friends.

"…like what?"

"Ehm…you know, Spiderman? American comic superhero? Does anything a spider does?"

"I was never really into superheroes…"

"Never read an American comic."

"…seriously? How can you two have never heard of…?!"

"Hey, you three! Can you please go faster?! We're trying to run away from the authorities without anyone noticing!"

"So-sorry, Siune!"

After the 3 males gave their shaky answer, silence descended among the bizarre group as they tried to keep up with their strange 'savior', Aiko's screams finally stopping after a while. Not long after that, Kazuto finally landed on a relatively small building near the outskirts of Yokohama, the silent area making clear that most people there were sleeping. Releasing a tired sigh, the boy turned around…and blinked at the sight of the tired-looking Sleeping Knights trying to catch their breaths, the Konno twins whimpering as he let go of the oldest one and she fell to the ground while seemingly trying to hug it, Yuuki barely able to release a small cough.

"Uhm…sorry about that, I guess I was going a bit too fast…"

"Just…'a bit'…?" gasped Akane with a disbelieving look, she seeming the less winded of the group, but still looking exhausted as hell. "How could you run and jump around like that for half an hour without even slowing down? Hell…you don't even look tired!"

"Well, I'm not feeling tired at all…and I already told you, you're not really 'like me'. I remade and enhanced your bodies beyond what any normal human has, but genetically you're still human." explained the gamer while sitting on the rooftop's edge, giving the group of 'hybrids' time to recover. "Biologically, you're still the same: You have lungs to breathe, a brain, a heart pumping blood through your veins…the main difference, though, is that you will probably find professional athletes having a hard time hurting you with even their best efforts, or getting any kind of sickness again. A big car running you over could still seriously injure you, though, and falling from a skyscraper tall enough may overcome the regeneration I gave you…"

"So…we're superhuman, but not Shonen-level characters. Got it." spoke Asami while scratching the back of her head, her gaze moving towards the shrinking tail that was vanishing inside her hospital gown. "And these, uhm, super alien-things you gave us…?"

"Partially because I thought they would suit you, but they're mainly biological stabilizers." everyone blinked in clear confusion, looking at him with raised eyebrows while he tried once again to explain it. "Well…look at it this way: While I did use your DNA to reconstruct your bodies, I still used MY biomass to do so, and it's not exactly…stable, so to speak. Let's say I had to put those on and rewire your nerves for you to use them as if they had always been part of you so that you could still conserve your human forms without…complications."

"…that's SO ominous that not only do I not want to ask for details, but I think I don't even want to know what you 'put' in my body…" muttered Aiko as she finally stood up again, before her eyes widened at hearing a weak cough coming from the young girl still in Kazuto's arms. "Yuu! Kirito-san, you have to…!"

"No. I need to ask for her permission first." firmly denied the black-haired boy, ignoring the older Konno's outraged shout and the worried looks the others send his way. "I gave you all the chance, right? Even to Merida-san…but I ended up doing to her, and to you all, way more than I originally expected. Even if she bothered to explain it better to every single one, I still asked you, and so, I will do so again…Yuuki-san? Can you hear me?"

"Ye-yes…heh…you're quite fast…" weakly muttered the girl, noticeably pale and trembling from the cold, but with a smile on her face as she stared past him and towards the heavens. "Ah…when was the last time I could see the night sky in this world…?"

"Yuuki-san…I can help you. Like…like I did with your sister and with everyone here, but…you will stop being normal. Become 'weird'. You will be saved, but in exchange…"

"Just do it." cut him off the youngest Konno with a surprisingly strong tone, having gathered all her strength to say those words like that. "Even if…I hadn't already…accepted Aiko-nee's words…these last minutes had been…the greatest I could have…dreamed of. After all, I never…thought I would be able to…go out and run around with everyone…in the real world. So, if you're going to do…something, then please, do so alre…!"

Whatever else Yuuki was going to say died in her throat when she felt flesh shaking and shifting around her and saw alien eyes and black tentacles close around her body.

She didn't even have time to start screaming before feeling a momentary sharp pain in her chest and her consciousness became muddled.

Everyone around couldn't help but grimace at the sight of the 'alien cocoon' forming, and Aiko looked positively sick as she took a step away from the bizarre thing, eyes wide.

"Go-Gods…that's how it…looks from the outside…?" shakily questioned the older Konno.

"No matter how many times I see it, it's still quite bizarre…" muttered Akane while walking around the monstrous chrysalis. "I wonder if he can even hear us right now…?"

"Is anyone else freaked out by…how calmly we're taking this?" questioned a nervous Atsushi as her nervously sat down near the roof's edge. "As in, shouldn't we be all screaming or having some sort of existential crisis right now?"

"We're not all like you, Talken." snorted Asami while hugging her legs.

"No, Nori, he has a point." commented Si-eun with a pensive look, a hand over her cheek as she looked from her friends to the pulsating form of the alien boy (And wasn't that still a crazy thought to have?) 'saving' Yuuki. "I think we're all just in shock and the full reality of the situation hasn't fully settled in yet. We will most likely be freaking out way more in a few hours."

"Either that or he brainwashed us all to not panic about this." joked Nobu with a light tone, only to blink at the sudden frozen and pale looks on his friends' faces. "He-hey, guys, c'mon, I was just joking to lighten what Siune said. There is no way he would have done that…right?"

"…well, if he was really going to brainwash us, he would have made us do his bidding or something, right?" offered Kaito while repeatedly calling forth and retracting the spikes from one of his hands. "He doesn't seem even remotely smart enough to do that…if anything, I would say he's even more innocent than Yuuki, and that's saying something."

"Hey! Clovis, was that an insult to my sis…?!"

"Aiko, please, calm down." interrupted Akane with a serious voice, making them all look at their leader as she crossed her arms. "I know this isn't what any of us imagined how things would be…but we are already here, so we have to do our best to keep moving. I…I do trust him. Kirito doesn't seem to be the type to use and lie to others, the whole alien business notwithstanding…but if things get out of hand, we're literally 9 against 1, all of us with alien powers. We can totally take him."

Suddenly, all the members of the Sleeping Knights blinked and looked around, confused, wondering why they felt as if some Higher Existence was laughing at them.

However, none of them could properly understand the feeling before the wet sound of the cocoon beside them open filled the night, Aiko being the first one on her feet as the coughing form of Konno Yuuki fell to her knees, eyes wide as she looked at her hands.

She was shaking as she easily stood up, even as Kazuto reformed behind her, sighing as he looked at his ruined clothes before passing the slightly ragged and soaking wet hospital gown she had been wearing to the naked girl.

"Here, I made sure to not destroy it by mistake, but I couldn't do anything to keep it dry. Sorry about tha…" suddenly, the black-haired boy found himself blinking in confusion as he was trapped in a hug, the young girl seemingly trying to bury her face on his shoulder sobbing but smiling at the same time. "Yu-Yuuki-san…?"

"Thanks…thanks…" cried Yuuki even as her worried twin rushed at her side, whispering soothing words at her as she took the gown from the gamer's hands and, after a couple minutes, awkwardly separated her sister from him, helping her put it on. "Aiko-nee…I feel great! I can stand…I feel like I can go jumping from here to the other side of the city! The smells, the sounds, everything…it feels amazing after so long!"

"Shhh, okay, Yuu, calm down. I know you're excited, but it won't do if you start going all crazy and someone notices us, okay?" after getting a shaky nod from her enthusiastic twin, the oldest Konno sister sighed and looked towards the smiling Kazuto, a complicated expression on his face. "I never thought I would say this to someone who turned me into an alien but…thanks. Really."

"Hybrid. And you're welcome, I only wanted to help." nodded the black-haired boy while his eye shifted between his 'human' and his 'alien' ones. "Hope you two get used to the Osteokinesis without problem!"

"…the what?"

"Wah! Aiko-nee, look!" shouted an excited Yuuki from besides her twin, making her look with a blank face as her sister was somehow extracting a black blade made of bone from her back, the gruesome visage apparently not affecting her as she extracted it and the 'wound' on her back closed, her eyes fixed on the 'weapon' like a child who just got their birthday present. "It's awesome!"

"The virus in you two…well, it's probably the nastiest thing I have ever seen, at least from what I can remember of 'before' being who I am now, so…I gave you the ability to freely manipulate your own bones." explained the gamer while looking at his hand with a frown, isolating and disassembling the workings of the HIV deep within his DNA, only to dismiss it as he looked back to the sisters. "Don't overuse it, though, you don't have a massive reserve of biomass like me…oh, and make sure to drink lots of milk!"

"…ah."

"Will do! Thanks for the advice, Kirito!"

"…okay, before you keep frying poor Aiko's mind, can I ask you something, Kirito?" intervened Akane before one of her closest friends suffered a mental breakdown. "What now?"

"…eh? What do you mean?"

"Isn't it obvious? You wouldn't have gone ahead with revealing your great secret and turning a bunch of people you barely know into alien hybrids if you didn't have some sort of plan in mind. The Smiling Swordsman that was a bodyguard of the infamous Argo the Rat during the Beta wouldn't be so stupid." declared the girl known mostly as Merida while nodding to herself, sending a kind smile towards their blinking savior. "So, what now? You have some secret base or spaceship waiting for us? Heh, or perhaps we're going to take over the world?"

As she closed her eyes and laughed at her last joke, the leader of the Sleeping Knights realized that something was wrong, given that no one else was laughing. Opening her eyes, she saw what was probably the source of the clear distress among her friends: The clearly panicking expression and wide eyes in the gamer's face, which made her own laughing expression morph into one of horror.

"Ehm…uhm…I…!"

"Wait…you seriously didn't think this at all?! You did it just…because?!"

"I…I really wanted to help you all?"

"I-It's not that we don't appreciate it, Kiri…uhm, Kazuto-san? But, you see…"

"Be blunt with the kid, Siune! We're all half-naked on a roof on the outskirts of Yokohama, with the police and who knows what else looking for us and nowhere to go!"

"…w-we could go to my ho…a-ah, wait…what time it is now?!"

"Ehm…a bit over 1:30, I believe? I think I saw it on the digital clock of a store when we were running towards here…"

"Thanks, Tecchi-san…WUAAH! So late?! A-and I left my phone home because I didn't think it would be out all day! Sugu is going to kill me…and mom too if I don't get back home before she wakes up and realizes I'm not in my room!"

"…is he serious?" expressed Si-eun what everyone was thinking of seeing the panicking boy, acting more like a child than the supposed alien-thing he was.

"Well…it seems this is going to be a long ni…"

"AH! Wait, I got it! I can fix this too!" suddenly shouted Kazuto with a bright look in his once again alien eyes, his gaze shooting over the Sleeping Knights as he once again smiled brightly. "I know where you can stay AND I know who to call to help you all out now too!"

"Re…really?" questioned Aiko with clear doubt, even as the black-haired boy nodded before frowning slightly.

"It's a long way to Tokyo from here, though, all of you are still tired and it's pretty late…" muttered the gamer before nodding with determination. "Okay, there is no other way, I will have to carry you all!"

"Carry…us all?" repeated Akane with clear disbelief, a feeling that most of her friends apparently shared, if their looks were anything to go by. "Uhm, Kiri…Kazuto, I don't think you can just drag us all along, even with your tentacles, without it being too awkward or…"

"Eh? Oh no, not like that! You will just hop into my back so I can carry you!"

"…on your back?" commented Daiki as he looked at the one at his side, Kaito, to exchange an incredulous look. "Uhm, no offense Kirito, but I don't think you're big enough…to…carry…"

Slowly, the boy trailed off, his voice finally dying away while everyone stared, eyes widening and mouths dropping open as the figure before them grew and twisted, losing all resemblance to humanity, most of the group taking terrified steps backward as the now truck-sized abomination towered over them.

A massive eye blinked open among hundreds more, a mouth way too fucking many teeth opening under it into a nightmarish smile, dozens of others spread all across its body not helping in the slightest while countless tentacles waved lazily into the air between a myriad of spikes. Supporting it, two absurdly long limbs ended in wicked claws that must have been some kind of arms hovered sinisterly over the hybrids, each one more than big enough to crush even the tallest of them like an egg without effort, countless other smaller ones apparently serving as legs but positioned in ways that no human mind could biologically make sense of.

"Like this, I CAN carry you. And you can grab on my tendrils for support if you need. We will be in Tokyo in no time!" happily spoke Kazuto, before a thumping sounds made him blink (Which given the number of his eyes was quite terrifying on its own way). "Why did Siune-san faint?"

"…she must be tired…" was all that Akane was able to squeak, still staring at the thing before them with fascinated horror.

"That's…terrifyingly cool!" shouted Yuuki before, without a doubt, scrambling towards the alien nightmare, ignoring her sister terrified scream as she jumped on one of his arms and easily climbed to his head, raising her arms as she stood up and a tendril grabbed her hips to stop her from falling. "Guys, this is awesome!"

"…why is my sister so crazy?" lamented Aiko before sighing and walking towards the alien experiment's confused form with a defeated expression.

"…okay, yeah, why not? Everyone, get on the Lusus Naturae." declared Akane while shaking her head and walking to join her 2 closest friends, looking back with a raised eyebrow at seeing the rest of her guild's hesitation. "That is, unless you want to risk walking all the way to Tokyo wearing only those hospital gowns?"

Unsurprisingly, that quickly shifted the group's opinions.

And while these events had been taking place, another quite strange non-native inhabitant of Earth had been having a busy but positive day.

He had finally finished gathering all the 'pieces' he needed from scraps of human technology (Even gotten an old cellphone that still worked from a junkyard!) to start with his 'secret project', had managed to find a tarp big enough to cover the hole in the apartment he previously occupied and even got lucky enough to get his job in the ramen shop back again!

Suffice to say, Waryum the Tryum was feeling particularly content and satisfied with how things were going even as he tried to sleep on the cold ground of another abandoned apartment, covered with just some cheap sheets he had bought recently…until someone started knocking on his door, making his 6 eyes open with annoyance.

"Who the hell comes here at 2 in the morning…?" groaned the alien with annoyance…before his eyes shot wide open with panic. "Wait a minute! No one knows I live here except…"

"Waryum-san!" came the hauntingly familiar voice from beyond the door, confirming the Tryum's worse fears. "Waryum-san, are you there? It's an emergency!"

With a mix of resignation and fear, the scientist walked towards the door, shakily opening in…and coming face to face with X-K0940 and a bunch of other humans.

Some of which were hanging from the ceiling, using a tail to stand on the stairs' edge or showing off a blade-like bone to another one (Probably her sister given their uncanny similarity) and easily impaling it through a wall as if it was made of paper, earning a facepalm from her twin.

All of them turned to look at him with wide eyes the moment the door opened, though, gasps and shocked shouts coming from them

"Holy shit…it's an actual alien!"

"You weren't kidding!"

"Man, that's so cool…and creepy, but still cool!"

"Those 6 legs are awesome! And the eyes too!"

"Hey, hey, can you say something in alien?!"

"So…yeah. It's a long story, but…can my friends stay over for a while? They…kind of need help." explained Kazuto with a blush of embarrassment while looking down, even as Waryum tried to not have a terror-induced breakdown as he stared at the mutated humans. "Also, do you have a phone? I need to call someone to help sort this all out."

Whimpering, the Tryum handed him his phone…

---

"Friendship is a great power. Especially when you have powerful friends." – Anonymous (Keep reading and you will get it).

---

Kayaba Akihiko was woken up from his pleasant slumber by the sound of his phone going off beside the bed, making him grunt in annoyance.

Certainly, while it was not strange that someone would call him out of the blue at some unholy hour, the number of times this happened had reduced drastically since the Nerve Gear and SAO had been released, which is why it was only natural for him to feel annoyed at someone calling him at 2:30 in the morning on one of his free days.

Seeing an unknown number in the Caller ID, though, made him frown in confusion as he put the device to his ear, as no one except people from Argus and Rinko had his personal number, with the exception of…

"Kayaba-san, sorry to wake you u…"

"Kirito?! Is that you?! Where are you?!" all but screamed the man while jumping to his feet and tightly gripping the phone. "You rushed out of here without explanation and I know you saw the files of…!"

"Kayaba-san, please, stop!" cut him off the boy with a clearly worried and resigned (?) tone. "I promise I will explain and apologize for everything later, but I really need you to answer something right now. See, because of the Nerve Gear and SAO…you're kind of rich, aren't you?"

"…uhm…yes?" uncertainly answered the man with a raised eyebrow, clearly not having expected such an answer.

Certainly, that declaration was more than an understatement. After all, just by the creation of the Nerve Gear alone, he had gained quite a noticeable amount of wealth, but when the device actually started being sold and Argus started paying him his share of the benefits, he was suddenly among the richest people in Japan, not to mention being lauded worldwide as one of the greatest minds of the century because of his revolution in the field of Virtual Reality starting to branch out into almost literally other field: Robotics, medicine and, as much as he disliked it, military application, though this last one was kept low-profile for now and obviously denied by the government. Then, you added to that the money he had been getting because of Sword Art Online and he had suddenly found himself slowly entering the world of the richest people in the WORLD, and the company he worked for as one of the most powerful ones in Japan.

Of course, given that he had originally intended to use the technology he created and the virtual world within the 'game' to fulfill his dream, before the anomaly known as Kirigaya Kazuto had crashed into his life and 'set his moral compass straight', he had never actually stopped to think about such facts, not to what the hell he would do with so much money and fame. Given the antisocial tendencies he had lived by for most of his life, the latter was more annoying than anything and he was still at a loss about what to do with the former, besides having gotten a better house and car, but only as normal necessities (The fact that his house was a pretty normal and boring one closer to Argus instead of some fancy mansion was more than proof enough of that).

However, what was truly surprising him about this was that, despite being more than sure that the inhuman boy knew this very well, he had never even hinted at bringing it up. Most kids his age that had such emotional pull over someone like him (And there was no denying he had a lot, that was a fool's errand) would have jumped at the chance of asking tons of things, but then again, 'Kirito' wasn't like any normal child in the world.

The fact that he was some sort of discarded alien experiment gone wrong probably had a lot to do with that, but the fact was that his way of seeing the world was too warped. He only cared for the people close to him and anything that caught his 'curiosity', otherwise being oblivious to the world. Kayaba could still remember the first time Yuuna tried talking to him and he all but ignored her until she all but forced him into their first 'singing duel'. Nowadays, the girl was an irreplaceable part of the boy's life.

Even when he had made him gifts for his birthday, he had happily thanked him more for the gesture than the gift itself. Which was why he was truly baffled that he would now ask him about money unless it was for something that…

"Then…do you think you could buy an abandoned apartment building near the outskirts of Tokyo, then have water and energy restored to it? Also some new furniture…ah, and internet connection? A…portable computer would also help. Was that it, Waryum-san?" Kayaba was still too busy blinking in shocked surprise to care when the gamer apparently pushed away to talk to someone else. "Something else, anyone?…oh, clothes, of course, silly me! And…a 70 inches plasma screen TV? Jun-san, Nori-san, this is something serious! Don't try to abuse…!"

"Kazuto." calmly spoke the man while trying to not facepalm, a long sigh escaping his mouth as he felt the boy tensing at his use of his real name. "What exactly did you do?"

"I…I just wanted to help some friends, but I also made things a bit difficult for them without realizing." muttered Kazuto with a low and slightly sad voice. "That's why I want to fix it, but…I know I'm asking a lot, so…"

"Consider it done." interrupted him the creator of SAO with a nonchalant tone, making the gamer gasp in surprise. "But I want a full explanation tomorrow…well, later today, I guess. And I just KNOW it's going to give me a headache."

"Tha-thanks, Akihiko-san, you're the best!" happily shouted the boy with genuine joy, making the man almost freeze in surprise, as he had NEVER used his first name before. "A-and don't worry, I'm trying my best to fix this without putting more people in trouble, I promise!"

"…it's okay, Kirito. I'm sure that, whatever you do, it was with the best intentions in mind." sincerely answered Akihiko with a small smile, a part of him thinking how bizarre it was to say that about what was basically a space horror thinking himself to be a childish teenager. "Care to give me a summary for now at least?"

"I saved the lives of my terminally ill new friends by remaking their bodies and turning them into hybrids of human and my body's biomass!" cheerfully explained Kazuto without missing a beat.

"…Akihiko-san?"

"…sorry, it's just…headache. Also, I called your mother and sister one hour after you left in a frenzy, and Suguha-chan realized you had left your phone home. She also probably called Yuuna-chan soon after."

"…what?" squeaked the suddenly pale boy, but the father of FullDive technology didn't answer and simply finished the call, a slightly smug smile on his face being almost enough to counteract the horrible headache starting to hit him.

Then, the smile vanished when he realized he would probably need to cancel his date with Rinko later that day because of this, and that the woman wasn't going to be happy about it in the slightest.

"Goddammit, Kirito…"

Meanwhile, Waryum the Tryum blinked and stopped looking at the excited/resigned/curious hybrids walking through 'his' apartment as a trembling gamer walked closer to him, still gripping his phone tightly but with a haunted expression on his face.

"…X-K…uhm, Kazuto…you okay?"

"I'm SO dead when I get home…" muttered the boy with a shaky voice before taking a deep breath and looking back to the alien, giving him a shaky nod. "Yeah, it's a problem of mine…anyway, I made the arrangements! Hopefully them, and you too, will get this place much more…'comfortable' to stay."

"I can't believe you not only know Kayaba freaking Akihiko, but also are in good enough terms with him to ask for…all of that." muttered Si-eun with wide eyes, sitting on a half-broken couch.

"Well, I myself can't believe we're going to stay over with a real alien!" expressed Nobu with a grin before looking at the tarp covering part of the roof. "Also, what happened up there?"

"I accidentally broke through it when Waryum-san kidnapped me the first time we met." explained Kazuto while walking past the group and biting his lips as he typed another number on the phone, ignoring the gaping looks he was getting or how the aforementioned Tryum facepalmed. "And once again…sorry for all of this, everyone. I know I should have thought things more thoroughly, but I just really wanted to…!"

"Kirito, please, stop." stopped him Akane with a serious look, getting everyone's attention as she took a deep breath. "Yeah, maybe this isn't exactly a fairy tale's ending…but we're all alive, we're going to LIVE our lives completely thanks to you…and that's something I don't think we could have even dreamed of before tonight. For that, I'm forever grateful to you…and also partially to blame for this. I mean, I could have stopped you instead of letting you go and 'save' the others, but…"

"Tha-that's not true, Merida-san! After all, I was the one who changed you without asking permission first and…!"

"You DID ask for permission to heal me, and I did give it to you, remember? Sure, I didn't know what it would entail, but given the alternative…"

"But if I hadn't…!"

"…woah, look at them go." whispered Aiko with wide eyes while watching the verbal exchange as if entranced. "It's almost like a tennis match of who takes the blame…"

"…none of us is really blaming them, though, right?" spoke Yuuki what everyone was thinking, getting affirmations or simple nods from all around, making the arguing pair blink and look at them.

"Everyone…"

"Yo-you really aren't…?"

"Kiri… Kazuto-kun, it's just as Merida said. We may not have exactly wished for this situation, but you DID fulfill your impossible promise when giving us the option." sincerely spoke Si-eun with a soft smile. "Yesterday, we all thought we would die too early in our lives and that there was nothing we could do about it. Now, though…we have our entire lives before us, and it's all thanks to you. So, truly, from the bottom of our hearts…thanks."

"Yeah…thank you, Kirito."

"You're awesome, man!"

"Hell yeah! You're even getting use a place to stay and stuff to make it comfortable for free!"

"Yes! Even if you're a giant alien with lots of eyes and tentacles!"

"Nori, that was mean…"

"I think even his alien form is cool! Also, riding on his back was a blast! And his tentacles were very comfortable when they kept us from falling!"

"Yuu, please, don't say those things out loud…"

"Guys…thanks." happily answered the black-haired boy before an uncharacteristically determined expression appeared on his face as he raised the hand with the phone in a half-closed fist. "But I'm not done yet! Not until I deal with all the consequences of what I did to help you, and that includes your families!"

Everyone in the room tensed at that. Obviously, the trip from Yokohama to Tokyo hadn't been spent in total silence. Instead, they had ended up asking a bit about Kazuto's life, and the alien abomination they had been riding on happily gave them a summary of it while also explaining where they were going. Through it all, they had been unable to not start opening up to fill the conversation from their side, so it was inevitable that, once he brought the subject of his family, they had ended up mentioning theirs in passing too.

How Yuuki and Aiko's aunt had been coming to visit them less and less, but that they didn't resent her for that. How An Si-eun's brother had brought her a delicious tea last week. How Merida's parents had made her a special cake the other day for no other reason than to see her smile…and the inhuman boy had taken more than enough notice of how they felt while saying those things.

Maybe the strange creature named Kirigaya Kazuto, or X-K0940, could be called too naïve or innocent about many things, but he was certainly not stupid, and he had a scary amount of empathy that came straight out of his inhuman nature. Especially if it was something related to 'family', probably the thing he valued above everything else.

Which was why he knew that even the younger of the Sleeping Knights felt conflicted and scared at one simple and probably obvious realization: For everyone's sake, it would be better if their families didn't know what had happened to them. Even if that meant that they could never see them again, and let them suffer by thinking they had been kidnapped or worse…

And now, it was more than obvious that the gamer didn't plan for things to be that way, but…

"You're being stupid!" growled Waryum while boldly walking before Kazuto, his self-preservation overridden momentarily thanks to his disbelief/anger. "Do you have any idea of what may happen if you involve that many normal humans in this?! Forget them, you more than risk exposing YOUR true nature to the world, and that could only end up in a catastrophe!"

"…even so, I have to try. It's my responsibility for changing them."

"Kirito, we already told you that…"

"No, Merida-san, please don't lie." interrupted the black-haired boy with a smile, making the young girl bite her lips. "I know none of you would really be okay with doing that to your families. And I don't want you or them to suffer through that for the rest of your lives!"

"Well, tell me then, genius: HOW are you planning on 'fixing' that particular mess without making it even worse?!" challenged the Tryum while crossing his arms.

"…by calling the most expert person in the world in weird, crazy and unexpected things like this!" replied the gamer before, quickly, dialing a number on the phone (Probably about to exhaust whatever credit was left in Waryum cheap pre-paid phone card) and putting it on a speaker, making everyone blink. "They must still be up working!"

"Wait, you seriously know someone like that?"

"Fo-forget that, human…well, hybrid! It's almost 3 in the morning, Kazuto! Who the hell do you know that is going to be awake you at this…?!"

"Uh? Who is this? How did you get this number?!" came an annoyed and young female voice from the phone, making the hybrids and the full alien exchange confused looks. "Do you have any idea of what time it…?!"

"Shino-san, it's an emergency, and I knew you would still be awake, working on that latest Investigation Project of yours." cut her off Kazuto with an urgent tone, making the girl gasp. "I need your help!"

"Ka-Kazuto?! Wait a minute!" the sounds of papers being moved and a portable computer being closed were heard before the Asada Shino's voice echoed again, apparently now giving the boy her full attention. "What's going on?"

"I need your help to find a way to get the families of a bunch of formerly terminally ill people I turned into alien hybrids to save, in contact with them again, while making sure they don't freak out and that there is a way to convince them it's for their sake to not scream about my existence." summarized the black-haired boy with a straight face, everyone gaping at him at the sheer absurdity of what he had just said, expecting to hear some screams or laughs of indignation from the line.

However…

"…woah…can I see the alien hybrids?!" came an extremely excited answer from the bespectacled girl.

Everyone deadpanned at the phone.

"If it's okay with them…" commented the gamer while looking at the people in the room, who gave hesitant nods after some dumbfounded seconds. "They're okay with it! They will be staying with Waryum-san in Tokyo, so…"

"The Tryum?! Does that mean I finally will get to see it too?! Consider me on this case with my full attention, you crazy alien experiment!" happily answered Shino with an excited tone. "I'm calling Silica as soon as I'm done, we will have to put an all-nighter just to gather the basic info! Later!"

"Ah, wa…she hung up. Dammit, I didn't think of that…she's going to work poor Keiko-chan to exhaustion…" sighed Kazuto while lowering the phone and handing it back to the stunned Waryum before giving out a reassuring smile to the Sleeping Knights. "But don't worry, if anyone can figure this out, it's Shino-san! She's a maniac about all these crazy alien things and how people view them!"

"…why are all the humans you know such a bunch of lunatics? Seriously…I work in Akihabara and I have seen way saner people there than those who surround you…"

"…she didn't sound that much older than me…"commented Akane with a blank expression, trying very hard to ignore what the alien had just said. "…what was she working on at this hour again?"

"Oh, I think a report about me and the things she noted down when I told my friends what Waryum-san revealed to me the day he kidnapped me and…"

"Kazuto, can we please go talk in the kitchen?!" quickly spoke Waryum while grabbing the boy's shoulder, making him blink as he dragged him away towards the aforementioned (And currently barely usable) area of the apartment. "You all feel as if you're in your own home!"

With that declaration, the alien closed the slightly damaged door leading into the kitchen, leaving behind a group of confused hybrids while he turned around to grab the confused alien experiment by the shoulders.

"Is something wrong, Waryum-san?"

"It's something…?! Do you have any idea of what you're doing?! Are you really being serious with this, X-K0940?!" half-shouted the Tryum while trying to not actually scream, least the Sleeping Knights barged in to see what was wrong. "Have you even truly considered all the fucking risks you're going through for a bunch you didn't even know two days ago?!"

"But…I want to help them. It's the right thing to…"

"Don't give me that bullshit!" cut him off Waryum with an uncharacteristically angry tone, making the gamer freeze in surprise. "If THAT was your real reason you wouldn't have bothered with them! You went to all their hospitals, right?! And all of them were in their ICU, I bet…why the hell didn't you 'save' everyone else in there if you were doing it out of the goodness of your heart?! EH?! Because…because…! Oh…Fate…" slowly, the alien let go of the silent boy, as if just realizing something at the same time he remembered at WHAT he was screaming. "You only did it…because they befriended you…right?"

"…they're good people…none of them deserved what they were going through…but yes, you're right. I wanted to help them as soon as I knew the truth because they were nice to me…and to Asuna. Because they became our friends. And just imagining how sad I, or her, would be when they died…I already went through that with my grandfather. I don't…I don't think I could ever go through the same again…" slowly, Kazuto's face rose from where he had been looking at the ground since the Tryum's rant started, making him cringe at seeing his real eyes staring back at him, the black veins on them pulsing ominously as red tears threatened to spill from them. "I…I know you may think it's stupid…or dangerous…but I really want to help them, Waryum-san…I know it's selfish, but…isn't being selfish part of being human?"

The image of a certain man in a hood and with a coffin-tattoo appeared on his mind, telling him how they were alike…

Innocent. Too innocent. Nice. Too nice. Once again, the former keeper was forced to accept that the creature he had once studied had become something extremely terrifying, not only in the physical but even more in the psychological sense: A human that was too good for their species. Who ran mainly on positive emotions and a childish view of the world, who got emotionally hurt easily and that had not an actual ounce of ill will in him…and that had the power to wipe out all life on the planet in days if someone or something ever pushed him over the edge.

X-K0940. Kirigaya Kazuto. A ticking 'bomb' that, one way or another, would end up exploding in a horrifying way, that Waryum was sure of, even if not a single one of the people surrounding him seemed to realize. One day, maybe tomorrow or maybe in 30 years, something would make him snap and then they would all be lucky if they could scream before dying…or worse.

And yet…there was only one possible way that one could react to his current state, and also the only way that the Tryum knew would 'help' everyone at all. Even if, in the long run, it was only delaying the inevitable.

Despite this, the alien didn't hesitate in sighing and leaning down, closing his arms around the surprised boy and giving him a very awkward and sloppy hug.

"Okay…just, calm down, okay, Kazuto? I know you mean well…but you need to think things through more thoroughly before you do them, okay? You're not like any other person on this planet, so, please…be more aware of that."

"…I will! I promise I will, Waryum-jii!"

For a moment, Waryum felt something within him twist painfully at the cheerful way in which he said his name like that, the 'code' that was hidden within a wall on the far end of the same room they were in right then almost seeming to stare at him with damning judgment.

And yet, he steeled himself and simply patted Kazuto's head, slowly letting go of him.

"That's good to know…also, you may want to go home before your family gets even madder with you."

As he saw the face of what was probably the worst monster his species had ever created and at the same time the nicest human being Earth had ever seen grow horrified at the thought of his 'mother' and 'sister' scolding, Waryum the Tryum couldn't help but laugh within his mind.

Truly, they only had themselves to blame if this ended as badly as he thought it would.

But well, it wasn't as if anyone was already on their trail for this, right?

"…serial kidnapping with no apparent reason except that the patients were all terminally ill. Many could attribute this to something dark, but…as you know, we have found things others don't: All of the disappeared patients were part of a 'guild' called 'Sleeping Knights' in the VRMMORPG Sword Art Online."

"I see…that seems more than just a simple coincidence…so, I was called to look deeper into this, right?"

"Indeed, lieutenant colonel. You're currently the one with most experience in this 'field' within our ranks. Can I count on you?"

Standing firm, Kikuoka Seijirou saluted.

"You most certainly can, my general."

---

"There is nothing wrong with wanting to help people." – Emiya Shirou (You can kinda see where these quotes are going, can't you?).

---

Munching calmly on his sandwich as he stared at the setting sun while sitting on the rooftop of his new high school, Kirigaya Kazuto let out a soft sigh as he lowered his gaze to look at the students walking back home now that the day was over, except for the few that already had joined a club.

It had been almost 2 weeks since the whole ordeal with the Sleeping Knights, and things had been 'hectic', to say the least.

The group of hybrids had adapted to their new 'home' very fast, and when the things that Akihiko had promised had started to arrive, barely one day after the call, things had become even better. Sure, a couple of them still had freak outs from time to time when they accidentally lost control of their new anatomies, but, for the most part, they had been adapting pretty well to the fact that they were being flatmates with an alien. He had gone to visit them yesterday and the previously abandoned apartment building was already looking like a comfy and happy place to live in.

He couldn't believe they actually got that plasma TV, though. The boy had been convinced Akihiko would realize it was a joke, but Nori and Jun (Asami and Daiki, that is…he still wasn't used to their real names) were enjoying it a lot, so he supposed it wasn't that much of a problem.

They had also gotten brand new Nerve Gears. The gamer had been slightly surprised by that (Though not as much as the open-mouthed Sleeping Knights when they received them), but he understood it was an act of specific kindness from Akihiko's part: They were all forced to keep a low profile in reality for now, and could barely even get out of the building without risking suspicion (The news were still ablaze with the 'Mysterious Serial Kidnapping' of several patients from different hospitals), but in Aincrad they could still have all the freedom they wished for as their virtual-selves.

On a side note, it was kind of ironic that the one who actually was a 6-legged and 6-eyed alien all the time was probably the one that could come and go without raising any suspicion at all.

Then…there was his family.

Barely suppressing a shiver, Kazuto remembered the moment he had returned home and found both his mother and Suguha waiting for him. They had spent quite a few moments fuzzing over him in worry before Midori announced he was grounded for a week and his adoptive sister complained about how he had promised coming back right away. That was the moment he had to explain everything.

By the end of it, his time grounded had increased to a month and he had to prevent his mother from having a breakdown right there, with the help of a slightly annoyed but way more understanding Sugu (Which had seemed to freak out Midori a bit more). In the end, he had managed to convince her there was no danger and that he had only tried to help people he thought he could save, not to mention that the outcome wasn't one he had planned in the first place.

She had still made him bring her to where the group of hybrids lived that weekend (Much to Waryum's chagrin) and apologized on his behalf to all of them for 'The problems my son has brought you'. They had all surprisingly panicked, even Nobu and Si-eun, and quickly assured her that they were nothing but grateful towards him for saving their lives.

That day, when returning home, as he sat in silence in the shotgun seat of his mother's car, she had looked at him with a complex expression and told him something that still warmed his heart.

"Kazuto…you did a good thing. I'm proud of you. But…please, don't do it again, okay?"

One could almost say that nothing could dampen his mood, not even the fact that he hadn't made a single friend since entering his new High School (As usual, everyone in his class seemed to think he was weird or something like that and actively avoided him)…except the fact that he had felt 'something' very weird around him lately.

Namely, since the day after he helped the Sleeping Knights, he had noticed that Suguha had been slightly more reserved around him, and more than once he could swear she was avoiding him for some unknown reason. Yuuna had been acting the same, for some reason, and even asking Asuna yesterday had given him no answers, though she had promised she would ask to see if the girls told her the reason of their strange attitude.

Between school and helping out the group of hybrids he had made, though, he knew very well it could have been just a "girls' thing", nothing serious at all…but he wasn't so sure. He knew his little sister and his best friend very well, and something within him was telling him something was worrying them a lot, even if they seemingly refused to tell him what…

Blinking as his mouth closed around empty air, the boy realized that he had just finished his fourth, and last, sandwich. With a sigh, he stood up, shaking the crumbles off his uniform as he looked at the sky once more. Maybe he should choose a club to join already, but he just didn't seem especially interested in any (Not to mention that he couldn't join any sports-related Club for obvious reasons). Besides, he wasn't sure if…

A disturbance coming from down below, that he only picked because of his inhumanly sharp senses, made Kazuto stop and look down, a frown adorning his usually smiling face.

There were a couple of second-year girls surrounding a third one, who looked to be a first year like he was, and she didn't seem too pleased about the situation.

"Hey, freshman! What's with the flashy dyed hair? Trying to say you're better than the rest?"

"It's…not dyed hair, it's my natural color." softly answered the girl with bright silvery-brown hair and similar eyes, looking uncomfortable as she tried to move past the pair, only for the second girl to block her way, almost making her stumble back…without touching her. "Wa-wah! Watch out, se-sempai!"

"Eh?" was all that the second girl could say before both of them watched spectacularly how the first year managed the surprising feet of tripping over her own feet by doing nothing and slam face-first on the ground. "…is this girl for real? I mean…no one can be THAT…"

"Pathetic?" finished the first girl as they watched the freshman twitch on the ground and assure them she was okay. "…okay, screw it, let's just go home, this is making me feel bad…"

With those words said, both second years walked away, not even bothering to look back as the bright-haired girl awkwardly sat up.

"See? I'm okay…oh, they're gone." muttered the first year before shrugging and looking down at her skirt, pouting as she did so. "Ah, damn, I got dirt all over me again…"

"Hey, need a hand?" asked a gentle voice as a hand appeared in her range of vision, making her look up in shock to see a fellow freshman offering her a hand, with the friendliest and most innocent smile she had ever seen. "I'm Kirigaya Kazuto!"

"Ka-Kashiwazaka Hiyori…" stammered the girl as he helped her up and dusted some dirt from her uniform, her eyes never leaving him as if he was the biggest mystery in the world. "…say…Kazuto-kun?"

"Yeah?"

"…weren't you up in the rooftop like 20 seconds ago?"

The boy's smile froze while Hiyori tilted her head to the side, curiosity shining within her bright eyes.

"Ehm…n-no, I wasn't."

"But…I saw you up there just as I fell down."

Another few seconds of silence passed between the unblinking girl and the now unusually nervous gamer.

"O-oh, look at the time, I gotta get home! Bye-bye, Hiyori-san, see you tomorrow!" quickly shouted Kazuto before dashing away as fast as I could without it seeming inhuman…but still way faster than any boy his age and apparent constitution should be able to.

Staring in the direction the boy had rushed off to, Kashiwazaka Hiyori blinked several times with a mix of wonder and confusion.

"…he seems like a nice person." commented the girl before staring at her hand with a curious expression, something between a smile and a look of wistfulness on her face. "…did I just make a friend?"

Meanwhile, the gamer was already a couple of streets away from his school, taking a deep breath as he calmed down.

Damn, that had been too close. He had been worried when it seemed those 2 older girls were bullying the last one, Hiyori, so he had made sure no one was around watching before half-climbing/half-throwing himself off the rooftop to help her. He certainly wasn't expecting for both girls to be gone when he finally got down, nor that she would have noticed his impossible stunt after he helped her up.

Kazuto had promised his parents he wouldn't do 'weird' things that could risk exposing himself to others and more recently reinforced that with a new promise to his mother. He shouldn't have been so careless, but seeing her being treated like that just because of being different had made him react almost without…

Suddenly, the boy's train of thought was interrupted when a fancy-looking car stopped just beside him, making him blink as one of the doors opened, the man sitting in the backseat offering him a kind smile.

"Hello there! It's been some time since we last saw each other, eh?"

The gamer, for his part, just tilted his head in confusion, before a spark of recognition finally hit him as he pointed towards the bespectacled man.

"Ah…I know you! Sugou-san, right? You're…Asuna's fiancée…" remembered Kazuto with a small frown, wondering what the angry feeling in his chest at remembering that bit of info was.

"Why, yes, that's me! We haven't seen each other since that day in Kayaba's lab, right, Kirigaya Kazuto-kun? Fancy meeting you here, going back home from school." smiled Sugou Nobuyuki with apparent gentleness, before patting the seat beside him. "Want me to give you a ride home? You must be exhausted!"

His eyes never leaving the man he had never told his real name to…the black-haired boy smiled and nodded.

"Sure! I don't see why not!"

"…excellent." grinned the man while the gamer happily boarded his car, gesturing his driver to start the engine while he turned to look down at the smiling boy. "Can I offer you something to drink while we go?"

The door ominously closed behind Kazuto's honest 'Thanks!' while Sugou chuckled sinisterly.

Somewhere within the cosmos, within a tank in a spaceship's lab, a certain alien experiment shook in her dreams…

---

Author's Notes: Gasp! Cliffhanger! How horrible! What terrible things may Sugou be about to do to poor, defenseless Kazuto :D?!

…yeah, that's going to end not much different than how it did in canon. Only, you know, probably more traumatic. Explanations as for what is happening, though, next chapter!

And so, the Sleeping Knights fully become part of this mad plot. Also, they're staying with everyone's favorite alien! Can Waryum survive the weird sitcom his life is seemingly about to become? Who knows!

Hope that the more 'serious' parts of the chapter felt 'right' in the way I intended them. I mean, you have to remember, this story is a strange mix, just like how I have it tagged 'Humor/Horror'. Its overall idea is crack, what with how the interactions and nature of Kazuto are taken in a very comical way for all that happens, but the 'horror' part, besides the obvious Eldritch Abomination vibe, comes from how the 'silliness' in his life comes because his view of the world is so warped and, indirectly, has warped that of those around him, his family being the most obvious examples because they raised/grew with him (Sugu is obvious, while Midori…well, I think no normal mother would take so 'well' and so fast knowing that her son turned a bunch of terminally ill people into half-aliens, even if he did it to save their lives), and Waryum reacting to his 'madness' by trying to be supportive, half because he truly pities Kazuto's view of life and half out of fear of what may happen if (Though for him it's just a matter of 'when') he snaps.

Consequences may be deeper than he thinks, though, because everyone's favorite bespectacled government agent is on the case! Also, Sinon (And her dear and totally willing helper Silica) has a mission now, so expect to see more of them soon. Next chapter we will also get to see Sugu and Yuuna 'talking' about 'you know what', and maybe even Asuna, so expect some frustration and anger, probably misdirected…

Oh, and how many of you noticed how the narrative changed to refer to Kayaba by his first name when Kirito started doing so :3? Also, we got a Lux, from SAO Girls Ops, cameo! For those who didn't know, Kashiwazaka Hiyori is her IRL name (Though she's stuck in her 'clumsy yet positive' persona because, you know, in this Universe she never went through the bittersweet shit which happened to her in SAO). But will she stick around? Who knows…

One last thing, in case people didn't notice: Only Merida and Clovis' real names are inventions of mine; for the rest of the Sleeping Knights' names I used their original voice actors', like I did with Argo and Sachi in One Punch-Gamer O,O

That said, though, I shall leave you all with today's Omake. Have fun with it!

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Lusus+Vampire 5: Be amazed, Lonely Little Witch!

As she saw the 3 lizardmen stalking ominously towards them, the 11-year-old girl with the pointy hat and cape hiding behind a fearful but determined Akashiya Moka trembled in guilt and panic.

Sendou Yukari barely resisted the urge to cry, her eyes flickering to the destroyed remains of her magic wand that she still held tightly in her hands, totally useless.

All of this was her fault, and she had only made things a horrible mess without even wanting to.

Things had started seemingly like normal the day before when the results of the midterm exams had been posted and she had walked towards the board to see them.

As expected, she had been at the very top, graded 1st Place of the entire school. Then again, given that she was such a prodigy that she had skipped enough grades to already be in the first year of High School at her age, this wasn't a surprise in the slightest. If there was anything Yukari could pride herself in, it was her genius intellect.

…it was also the only thing she had, though. Being a witch, a being that was looked down even among other monsters because of being 'too human', and that the humans had feared since immemorial times (One only needed to look back at the times of the Witch Hunts to know it), she had been alone for most of her life.

Never any friend. Never a kind soul offering something positive to her. Aside from her parents, she had no one else in the world…

And then, she had seen HER.

Akashiya Moka, the most beautiful girl in the school, also the kindest one she had ever seen, ranked 13th in the midterms and known as the most beautiful girl in all of Youkai Academy.

Smart, kind and beautiful, all in a single dream-like girl. Just from this, Yukari's heart fluttered every time she saw her, but that day, when she had protected her from her horrible class representative and his cronies (Who just SO happened to be the same lizardmen about to kill them right now) as they engaged in their typical witch-hate against her, making her answer in kind with her magic, the witch's heart had made her decision.

She loved Akashiya Moka, and she was going to make sure they were together forever!

There was only ONE 'problem' with that, though, one that had appeared soon after her beloved had saved her from those bullies, asking if they were okay and introducing himself with a happy smile.

Kirigaya Kazuto. Ranked SECOND in the midterms, the supposedly smartest person in the entire school after her, exceptional in PE and notorious for having been seen with Moka every day since the term began.

An unparalleled rival, a threat to her dream of being happy with her beloved Moka and one that, honestly, Yukari couldn't see herself surpassing…but the witch wouldn't give up! After all, all was fair in love and war!

First, she had started with a direct confession of her feelings for Moka, right on his face! Sadly, it hadn't had the effect she would have wished for, what with her beloved pink-haired angel only seeming troubled and the boy seemingly confused. Not even molesting her in front of him seemed to elicit more than a blush and giggles from him, as if he thought it was just a joke! Then, she had decided to declare an all-out war against him for the right of being with Moka!

His only answer had been "But, I'm Moka's friend! Of course I want to be with her. Wouldn't you want that too? Why would that be a problem?", which had made Yukari almost reel in disbelief. No one could be THAT innocent, after all, right? Deciding it had been nothing more than an attempt to confuse her, she had unleashed her awesome powers against him for the whole day!

…with no effect whatsoever. He would just keep walking happily when objects fell down on his head, usually said objects being the ones that ended up damaged instead of him. When cleaning instruments tried attacking him, he would just stand there and watch in awe as they moved around in the air and ineffectively tried to beat the shit out of him, saying how cool her magic was. He was freaking praising her for her seemingly useless attempts! What the hell?! Was he looking down on her that much?!

With that train of thought, the young witch had set off to bring out her 'big guns', and what better way to do so than taking advantage of her 'rival' and Kurono Kurumu being alone talking in one classroom after school? After all, she knew it all about the voluptuous and dumb succubus, and how she was clearly interested in Kazuto, always following him around almost as much as Moka, only hindered by the fact that they were in different classes. And so, while overhearing their conversation (Which annoyingly enough seemed to include the black-haired boy saying how amazing and funny her magic was), she had prepared her dear 'Warawara-kun' (Aka her homemade voodoo doll) and proceeded to enact her perfect plan: she had gotten her dear Moka to be heading that way at the right moment, and she would have her cacth Kazuto doing unspeakably perverted things to the air-headed Kurumu, totally destroying any respect she had for him! With those thoughts in mind, she had readied the spell-bound doll and started her plan…

And that was when everything went wrong.

At first, everything seemed to be going smoothly: She got the startled boy to launch himself face-first at the succubus' chest (Not that she seemed to mind much) and had been ready to keep going when he had SCREAMED in abject fear, almost paralyzing her in shock.

She had barely started moving his other arm (Having vaguely intended him to lift the girl's skirt) when she had seen said arm stop and all but MELT into liquid black flesh that seemed to compress upon itself, much to Kurumu's terror as she shouted the boy's name and he just screamed again, saying he couldn't control his body.

Yukari had never seen anyone looking so utterly terrified in her life. Kazuto's suddenly inhuman eyes, probably a testament to his true form, were filled with such terror and despair that she had let go of her doll with nerveless fingers before even realizing it.

The next moment, as soon as he had realized he could move by himself again, the black-haired boy had bolted from his spot and broken through the window, just above where the young witch had been hidden, and then ran towards the woods, ignoring how Moka (Who had just entered the room) screamed his name in worry before demanding what had happened of Kurumu.

When they had, obviously, set out to try and find him, the two girls had seen her, her hat covered in glass fragments and just staring in the direction the boy had vanished to.

The succubus had been immediately suspicious of her, demanding what had she done, when she herself wasn't sure of it. But her beloved Moka, bless her heart, had defended her, then asked if she was okay and if she knew which direction Kazuto had run off to.

Yukari had joined them in their search, of course. After all, the look in his eyes was engraved into her mind, almost haunting her, like an endless voice whispering that it had been her who had made someone feel such terror and despair.

When it became obvious they wouldn't find him that day, night having fallen, the witch's guilt had grown tenfold, especially at seeing the devastated looks in her beloved and the succubus' faces.

She was barely able to sleep at all because that image and the memory of Kazuto's scared eyes would come back for her. And so, as soon as it was time for classes, she had headed into the forest, ready to skip as many lessons as needed until he found the boy…and begged for his forgiveness, she supposed.

The young girl certainly wasn't expecting to be ambushed by her class representative and his 2 followers again, who this time revealed themselves as lizardmen and quickly left her defenseless by biting off the top of her magic wand. They were even discussing how they were going to eat her…when Moka had appeared out of nowhere, apparently having been worried when not only Kazuto but SHE as well didn't show up to school, and come looking for them.

Yukari had tried to make her beloved see reason, to have her run away because they only wanted her, but the pink-haired girl had denied her. Then, she had spoken with that kindness of her, about how she understood her pain, her loneliness, about how she had been the same for a long time before coming to Youkai and meeting Kazuto. How she knew that all the little witch's 'pranks' were nothing but a desperate cry for attention, of making the world that didn't care for her to acknowledge her existence.

She had felt like crying once again, even more when Moka had tried to get her away but had shown being no match for the speed of the lizardmen, and now was determined to stand before Yukari to shield her from harm. Now, both of them were going to die and it would all be her fault.

Finally, tears fell down Sendou Yukari's face as she sobbed on the pink-haired girl's arm, even as the 3 reptilian monsters took their sweet time in approaching their cornered preys.

"I'm sorry, Moka-san! Sniff, and…I wish I could have also…told him that I was…sorr…!"

A loud sound echoed through the forest before something fell from the heavens and slammed between the two girls and 3 approaching lizardmen, freezing everyone in their tracks.

Slowly, as if deliberately dramatic, a figure rose from the crater created by his impact…

"Fear not…for I Am Here!" heroically proclaimed Kirigaya Kazuto while raising his right arm (Once again perfectly fine-looking, if lacking all of his uniform's sleeve) before suddenly breaking into a giddy chuckle. "Man, that was one of the things I have always wanted to say in a proper context!"

"Yo-you…" muttered a shocked Yukari as if she couldn't believe her eyes.

"Ka-Kazuto!" shouted Moka with utter relief, her face reflecting pure joy upon seeing the black-haired boy unharmed. "You're okay!"

"Yeah, of course I am!" answered the gamer with his usual smile while turning towards them, totally ignoring the wide-eyed lizardmen. "Sorry about worrying you, Moka…I ki-kinda fell asleep in the forest after running for a couple hours…"

"…what." deadpanned the young witch, as if unable to believe what she was hearing.

"You fell…asleep…?" muttered the vampire with equal disbelief.

"So-sorry, it's just that, when I stopped freaking out I hid inside a tree to make sure I wasn't really going to lose control again…and I kind of dozed off there. When I woke up it was already morning and I was hurrying to classes when I heard Yukari-chan crying…" as he said those words, the boy's eyes drifted towards the aforementioned girl, who froze under his gaze, as if expecting scorn or hate…only to receive another smile. "Hey, Yukari-chan? It's okay. I get you now."

"Wha…what…?" whispered Yukari with a diminutive voice.

"You're scared. SO scared it's not even funny…you're scared of loneliness, right? You have been alone for so long, but you still fear the loneliness filling your life. That…must be something horrible." declared Kazuto while closing his eyes, suddenly looking quite serious. "I can't say I understand how you feel. That would be lying. After all, all my life I have had a caring family that didn't mind what I was despite being humans, friends that accepted me and that understood me, people that supported me along the way…But, I know one thing for certain. That imagining even one single day without them would be the most terrifying thing I could ever think of."

"Kazuto…" spoke Moka while feeling her heart clenching, wondering why she felt a half-forgotten longing in her heart at those words, as if something she didn't know was forgetting.

"Do you know why I ran away yesterday? Because I thought I was losing control…and that's something that terrifies me. After all, despite how long it took me, I realized some time ago that I'm very different to everyone I care for." confessed the boy while looking at the morning sky, his eyes seeming sad all of a sudden. "They're all so dear to me, but…so fragile. It would take nothing of what almost everyone in this school can do to cripple them or worse, while I…sometimes feel that, if I wasn't careful enough…could crush everything around me as if it was glass…"

Suddenly, every single person there felt IT. As if the shadows around the boy had become more ominous, as if his presence suddenly had become that of something that did not belong among them while he slowly turned around, regarding the 3 lizardmen with his inhuman eyes.

"Ku-kuh…!"

"Wha-what's with this guy, boss?!"

"Hi-his presence is terrifying…what monster are you?!"

"Heh…I'm Kirigaya Kazuto. A Lusus Naturae." kindly explained the boy while waving at them. "Nice to meet you."

Moka blinked in surprise, being the first time she heard her best friend's 'species', but not recognizing it in the slightest.

Yukari didn't either, but she was smart enough to know what those Latin words meant: Freak of Nature.

Any ominous chill she was feeling at that thought washed away when he sent a sideway look towards them, smiling softly and giving them a thumbs up.

"You…"

"Don't worry, I got this." assured him while turning towards the tense lizardmen, who were looking at him with their teeth bared. "I don't suppose you will just forget this whole thing and walk away without threatening my friends, right?"

For all answer, the reptilian monsters roared and charged, making Kazuto sigh.

Of course, he could easily dispatch of the 3 students before him without much effort. They didn't even have super speed or something flashy like that going for them like Gin-sempai had.

…but doing that would achieve nothing. After all, there was a little girl behind him that was feeling emotionally confused and that had lost her way in life. She urgently needed something that was very difficult to get: Hope. Hope that she could have a better life and be accepted by others without fear.

Yui-chan would have told him that she needed several sessions with an expert psychologist to get over such a thing, but he, obviously, knew better.

All that was needed was an action, bright and inspiring enough to reach such an effect. Anime had taught him that.

He had already delivered a speech from the bottom of his heart, so all that remained now…was the true final touch.

In one swift move, he raised his right arm, letting it grow, the skin blackening and hardening until the limb was bigger than him and had an almost 'mechanical' look to it, everyone's eyes widening at the apparently impossible feat

And that's when he started to Shout.

"This hand of mine glows with an awesome power!" roared the boy to the heavens as, effectively, his mutated hand started to 'glow' with an ominous red and yellow shine. "Its burning grip tells me to DEFEAT YOU!"

Everyone's mouth dropped open, the lizardmen feeling as if dread was filling them while the girls felt utter awe when a strange 'aura' seemed to surround Kazuto, as if a burning power was enveloping his body.

Yukari felt her eyes shine as she stared at his back, something within her shaking at the sight and the words.

They were so random. So unexpectedly out of nowhere. So senseless.

And yet, they were filling her with a sense of euphoria the likes she had never experienced before.

"That boy…he is…!"

"TAKE THIS! MY LOVE, MY ANGER, AND ALL OF MY SORROW!" screamed the black haired boy as he catapulted himself towards the terrified reptilian monsters, all their instincts now screaming at them to run and not look back, which they promptly tried to do…too late. "SHINING FINGER!"

Now then…luckily for every single being that would dare to threaten his loved ones (And in this Universe that list was quite a big number), the alien experiment X-K0490 could not, in fact, replicate the special technique of the 'Shining Gundam'.

…unluckily for them, however, the denominated 'Blazing Heat Bomb' that a certain insectoid creature of the planet the Tryum classified as Uniperum-D78 could produce on its abdomen, and that he had enlarged to fit in the palm of an arm the size of one of the aforementioned mecha's (When the original insect was the size of an adult's closed fist and had more than enough power to blow up a reinforced steel door), was a damn good, and probably more destructive, substitute. In fact, the 'aura' surrounding him was because of all the heat being produced through his mutated limb, so hot it was making the earth around him crackle.

Luckily, he seemed to judge that it wouldn't really be a good idea to try and crush the head of one of the running monsters with it, so he settled in slamming his 'shining finger' on the ground behind their retreating forms.

The resulting explosion was still powerful enough to throw Moka and Yukari on their asses and blow away their hair/hat from the heat produced, the 3 lizardmen flying away while shrouded in flames, thankfully falling into one of the many and conveniently placed swamps that filled the forests around Youkai.

Gingerly, Kazuto stood up from the MASSIVE crater his 'trick' had created, looking at what remained of his now destroyed arm before shrugging and turning it back to normal.

As he turned around and saw the smiling form of Moka rushing towards him with open arms (Not caring to have to jump into the crater to do so), the bright-eyed form of Yukari not far behind, he realized it had been more than worth it.

"Justice has prevailed."

From the swamp, one of the half-dead lizardmen gurgled.

Later that day, on the Newspaper's club's clubroom…Kurono Kurumu watched with a twitching eyebrow how a happy little witch hung from her Destined One's back as he finished telling everything that had happened.

"It seems that you had…quite the hectic morning." summarized the succubus while cursing not having been present to see her beloved doing what both her rival and the little annoyance were recalling as something beyond amazing. "And…what exactly is she doing here?"

"I have joined the Newspaper's Club, of course!" happily replied Yukari while looking at Kurumu with 'absolute innocence'. "After all, I want to spend as much time as I can with my dear beloved ones!"

"Hehehe, s-so you're still with that…" awkwardly muttered Moka while scratching her head, feeling happy that at least the young girl seemed more open about…"Wait, beloved 'ones'?"

"Yup! Because, after this morning, I have realized it! I'm not only in love with Moka-san but also with Kazuto-san!" proudly revealed the young witch, causing the vampire to choke on her own spit and the succubus to go white as a ghost, while she once again nuzzled her face on the back of the blinking boy's head. "That's why I'm not going to surrender until I have made both of them fall for me!"

"Ah…you're welcome?"

"WHA-WHAT?!"

"Oh no, like hell! I have enough with the vampire already, I'm not letting a little girl cling to my Destined One like that!"

"Oh yeah? Well, come and separate me from him if you dare!"

"You bet I'm going to…! AWW! What the…?! Where did that bucket come from?!"

"Who knows, hehheh…?"

"YOU…!"

"Yu-Yukari-chan, please, stop clinging to Kazuto like tha…!"

And as the classroom descended into mayhem around him, Kirigaya Kazuto couldn't help but tilt his head as he pondered over something.

"…I wonder if Akihiko-san could let me borrow some Nerve Gears for everyone here. After all, I finally hacked the Wi-Fi and I would like to show them SAO…"

And so, another typical day at Youkai Academy came to an end…

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Author's Notes 2: Random anime reference power for the win, yay XD!

Jokes aside, though, hope you enjoyed this Omake as much as I did writing it :3I don't think I need to tell anyone who has already read the series, but Rosario+Vampire is quite an ambivalent series because it has quite deep and serious themes (Especially in the 2nd part), but it's able to mix them quite well with hilariousness and touching scenes. The first part, despite being mostly comedy during its beginning, had quite a few very serious and dark tones through it. How Yukari felt through most of her life was quickly downplayed in favor of laughs during her introduction, never mind that those 3 wanted to freaking EAT her alive (Though her character DOES get more definition later), so I wanted to play around with it a bit to both make her feel more 'real' while still being herself and also show a bit of what's hidden within the mind of our dear Freak of Nature. While the main point of these crossover-Omakes is still comedy, I didn't want to waste opportunities to do things like this so I hope you had fun reading it :3

Oh, and how many of you know who Lusus!Kirito was quoting when he fell from the sky to save the day :P?

Next time, it's Kurumu's turn! Yeah, I'm most likely going to 'summarize' the Art Teacher Incident while her own chapter (Which is a manga-exclusive one, the one about the pervert slime) takes place not only because I don't feel it needs its own chapter, but also because I want to write more about my favorite R+V girl and her interactions with our weird Kirito XP So, yes, next time: If you dare to touch…

Until then, this is Saint, signing off!