Someone didn't want me to write this chapter. I wrote the two different chapters, discarded both, went with a third idea, my computer ate it, and then I lost the drive to write for a while. This was attempt 4.

A big thanks to the guy that proofreads these!

Enjoy the story!

(Kirito's Perspective)

From the bench to the teleporter, which wasn't more than two hundred feet, I managed to trip several times. The main reason I was tripping over myself was that this new body is severely off balance in the postures I had grown up using.

Quite frankly, I had been put in an almost female body. I have seen some people that had bodies that made them look like they were the opposite gender, but this one takes the cake. Hell, when I saw my reflection in the water I thought I looked like a girl.

Of course, the first thing I did was open my menu. There, it still said I was male, so I would have to trust it. Still, if I had been a girl… I didn't really have the assets.

That didn't stop people from turning their heads and staring as I stumbled down the path. I was so much lighter in this form that it was hard keep my balance, and on top of that my now momentously long hair was getting in the way. I resolved to get rid of it as soon as I got to an area with a hair stylist.

Yui walks silently beside me, watching as I slowly stop stumbling every other step. Once I reach the teleporter though, she holds up her hand. "Incoming message."

I turn to her. "Huh? I don't have a mess- oh, there it is."

I press my finger to the icon and open the message. Inside is the same weird message color I had received from Kayaba way back when I was still switching between this world and the outside one.

Wait, Kayaba? That would be bad. I scan the message, but the only indication of who this could be is an "x" in the from box. I had no choice but to read the letter.

"Kirito, I can't watch over you all of the time, so please make wise decisions. Kayaba has confided in some of his higher ups that he suspects someone is helping the players within the system. That is indeed what I am doing, helping you clear this game. I cannot directly affect your stats either. The only help I can provide, at least while everyone is in high alert, is advice. My advice is this: Do not do what Kirito would do. That means no grinding on high level floors. I expect you can get away with still using one handed swords, but I beseech you not attempt to dual wield. Every new flag you raise against your new identity makes it harder to clear the game in the long run."

I stare at the message, and Yui glances over my shoulder. I doubt she needed to do that, even if my privacy settings were set to allow people to look over my shoulder. I glance down at her. "Apparently, I'm not supposed to do anything that would make me too similar to Kirito. So, that means no grinding. What other ways are there to quickly level up?"

Yui pauses. "No feasible methods. There are several that would get you up to level twenty in the next twelve months. The most viable course of action to level while still avoiding papa's gaze would be to join a party and go on a low level raid." She tilts her head, giving the impression she is thinking.

I make a face. "I don't like raids. Other people would just slow me down."

"Right now," Yui steps in front of me. "You are not powerful enough to be of any help to Asuna, Klein, Lizbeth, Kuradeel or Silica. To twist your own words back on yourself, you would be the one slowing everyone else down."

I pause and think. "That… Damn it. Now I'm powerless." I feel like hitting something, but there isn't much to hit this close to the teleporter.

Yui approaches me, pauses, then wraps her thin arms around me. I stand there in shock for a second. "Uh… Yui?"

"I have determined that you need cheering up. After two weeks experimentation, I have determined that this gesture is effective with 80% of test subjects." She says in her typical monotone. "It is the most effective of my preprogrammed techniques."

I scruff up her hair, which settles back perfectly into position. "Thanks, Yui." I straighten up and look around. "Now, how do I join a clearing group?" Yui gives me a look from her position at my side. "Okay, okay. How do I join a raid?"

"There is an established grouping area on floor 7. There are several wide clearings used for finding new parties." Yui stops. "I have concluded that it would be bad for me to accompany you any further."

"Hey! You said you were going to take me up to see Asuna and the others."

Yui responds without delay. "Since I am not a player myself, it is suspicious for me to be around any one particular player."

I grumble under my breath. "Fine. You said level 7? That's Freeman's Ruins, correct?"

Yui nods. "I will be taking my leave now."

I wave as she disappeared into dust. Then I step into the teleporter and head to Freeman's Ruins.

(Asuna's Perspective)

I don't know how long I had been lying in my bed when Yui teleported in. I barely registered her arrival as it was, and even then I just kind of half raised my hand in greeting. The fact she had appeared without any warning at all didn't even cause me to jump this time, which was a bit unusual.

"Asuna?" Yui inquires politely. Something we were still working on. "Are you okay?"

"D-Do I look okay?" I mutter. "I don't think I look okay."

Yui sits down beside me. "It is normal to grieve the loss of a close friend." She says calmly. "It wasn't your fault that he died. You attempted to make contact, and you did everything within your power once you realized what was going on. It isn't your fault."

"But… I could've gone down there and at least tried!" I turn my head to the side so she wouldn't see my tears stain the pillow.

I'm sure she noticed anyway, seeing as she could tell where people were between floors and evaluate their mental states from that great distance.

"If you did, you would likely be with him." Yui says after a moment. "Would you rather abandon your friends to save one person, or save all of them as was his stated objective?"

Despite myself, I noticed that Yui seemed a lot more insightful than normal. She normally needed the "why" explained to her, but she was getting it at least for the moment. Must be because she's doing her job for once, not stuck on a higher floor unable to help. "I-You're right. I j-just wish he wasn't dead."

"Of course. Nobody with a sound mind wants their friends dead. If you did, I would be compelled to fix that as well." Yui tilts her head. "You do not wish any of your friends dead, do you?"

I let out a weak laugh. "No, I don't."

The two of us sit in silence for a few minutes.

"Sometimes talking helps. Do you want to share anything? I can immediately delete it from my memories if you wish."

"Th- thanks."

More silence.

"I didn't really know Kirito, if you think about it." I say. Yui refrains from commenting, so I continue. "I met him on a lower floor and he saved me from an orange player. I think I was amazed at how easily it seemed he handled the situation, to be honest. Well, I felt bad that I caused him so much trouble, and maybe I was a bit star struck, but I ended up training with him while he served out his punishment on the walls of floor 12. I- He immediately went and turned himself red protecting me again. I don't know why I was following him after that, whether I felt indebted, or… or something, but I followed him until he left us to go clear ahead.

"I don't understand why, but it made me angry. He just up and left, and he… He seemed different than when he rescued me. It's like he had experience that he shouldn't."

Yui speaks up. "He did have abnormal XP due to his long grinding hours."

"Yeah, but that's not what I meant. He seemed older than he should have been. Jaded, I guess."

"He did end up in a kill or be killed situation less than a month after his update. That is not usual even during the very first days of the Cardinal server." Yui says. "Though I do have to agree that his emotional state was drifting into an extremely poor area before his death."

I give another short laugh. "He seemed borderline insane last time I talked to him, shouting at him on top of a rooftop. I almost cried there, at least on the inside. Then I learned he was telling the truth, or I'm caught up in one really elaborate lie."

Yui flops down beside me, and I turn my head to find her thick black hair. "I doubt he would blame you."

"He always takes the blame for everything." I agree. "Thanks Yui. I feel a lot better now. I'm going to get some rest."

Yui nods. "Do you want me to erase that conversation?"

"No, that's alright."

I yawn and close me sore eyes. Maybe everything would look brighter in the morning.

(Kirito's Perspective)

I had never joined a guild before. It wasn't like I really had time, seeing as for my entire updated life except for less than a day's worth of hours I have been a criminal of varying degrees. I did once want to join a Clearing guild, but since then I learned that what I used to think a Clearing guild was essentially a second wall guard that sometimes went out into the fields in large groups to level up.

I think that is the main reason I wasn't fitting in with these… players.

I had joined up with a group called the Moonlit Black Cats, a small guild that is full of energy. They had all grown up together on floor four, and decided that they would make a guild all their own and clear floors with the best of them. I had to refrain from smirking. My new persona doesn't smirk.

The leader is nice, and genuinely cares for the safety of his guild members. I was included in this, despite me being a new addition. When I revealed that I had no combat experience (From now on, I refer to my new body as I and to old body as Kirito, no use in considering someone I'm not anymore) and that I had only the basic armor, he decided to spent guild funds to get me some better gear despite my protests that I would earn it myself.

"If you're dead before you can earn yourself armor, there isn't much point. If you really feel that strongly about it, then you can pay me back once you have spare col." He said with a merry smile.

I was able to say that I was a front line player, one that knew his way with a training sword. I just never fought anything that was actually trying to kill me.

Seconds after informing them of my abilities, I tripped over myself again and crashed into a nearby player. I turned to apologize-

Oh, crap. Klein!

Klein's alive! I didn't kill him after all!

He barely looks at me as I stammer out an apology. Not for killing some of his guild mates, but for stumbling into him. He walks off without saying anything, a cloud of gloom hovering over him. Of course, that first one probably was the cause of his bad mood... A shiver goes down my spine.

I turn back to my new group and say, "Sorry, I'm also a bit clumsy."

I am met with five large grins. "You said you don't have a nickname yet, right?" Says Ducker, a kid in yellow clothes. He has a moderately evil look in his eye. "How about we call you Klutz?"

"Eh-"

"I like it." Says the leader, Keita. Sachi, Tetsuo, and Sasamaru all agree heartily. I sigh and bring up my menu, assigning the name "Klutz" to my nickname field. Now, I wouldn't be able to change the name for a while...

"Today, in honor of our new forward, we are heading to the 15th floor." Declares Keita. I start to raise an objection, but then think better of it. I had no place to criticize this guy's choices. They are all probably all perfectly capable of fighting on this level, since they had been doing this for a month. At least, I really hoped so.

"Don't worry, Klutz. We won't put you in too much danger. We've been doing this floor for three days now, so we know what we are capable of. We'll get a feel for your style and figure out the best position for you. I mean, you said you were a forward, but then so did Sachi when we started."

"Hey! It's not my fault that the monsters are scary! I'm not as brave as you four!" Sachi says in indignation.

I smirk. "I think I'll be fine as a forward. Just give me time to get used to combat and I'll be fine."

Keita nods. "Okay, let's get you some decent equipment and then let's get moving."

It took very little time to find me gear. I already knew what I liked, single one handed sword, but since I'm not allow to dual wield, I decided to opt for a two handed sword instead. The two are closely linked, and the sword skills are similar, just slower and more powerful. The sword I chose was barely good enough to do anything to the floor fifteen monsters, but I wasn't a damage dealer for this party. Really, I was more of a tank, despite my low health.

Yeah, my small health bar was also pretty disturbing. I wasn't used to it being so short. I could hear voices in my head sniggering at that comment, but I couldn't figure out why. I wonder if someone is monitoring my thoughts besides Yui. Very briefly, before dismissing that idea as patently ridiculous. There's over ten thousand people in Aincrad, no way was anyone monitoring all of them at once. That would be absurd. Wait, Yui does that, right? I wonder if there's a MHCP002-

Okay, tiny health bar. Don't get hit, or I'll die in one hit… Why am I a forward again? Oh yeah, they needed one.

Once I got equipped (and estimated that I could probably handle anything up to level 15 myself as long as I didn't trip over myself. Unfortunately, that means that on floor 15 I would be outclassed by anything other than a minion. Well, At least I had people to rely on…

Oh. That's why it was weird. I never relied on anyone in a fight before. Or, I did once for about half a second before the coward ran off. For some reason, I got the impression that I could trust these people with my life. They all seemed so friendly and actively sought to help me.

Once we reached the edge of the protective zone on floor fifteen, Keita made sure that I understood the plan, my role in the plan, an what to do if they get overwhelmed. I was handed a blue crystal and told to use it if I was about to die.

I felt bad that I knew what was going to happen in this dungeon, seeing as I had cleared it… a while ago. Instead, I just followed orders, listening to the interparty banter. I had to admit, it had been a lonely few months that I had been gone while working up to the 50th floor. Just hearing so much constant chatter was slightly distracting, but when we encountered our first mob, they stopped the lazy chatter and started to give me instructions.

They let me get the last hit on the mob, and I level up 4 levels in one hit. There was a disproportionate amount of applause and cheering… and for the first time, I felt like I belonged. It as a strange feeling. It wasn't the love I got at home, it wasn't the driving feeling that kept me going while I was all alone. It certainly wasn't the abrasive feeling I had between my other "guild" under Asuna.

I think I truly smiled for the first time in forever.

We fought through the rest of the day, and as I fought, I stopped stumbling. The movements I had learned over the past few months gradually adapted to my new form, and I was definitely holding my own by the end of the night, mostly due to the fact the party let me get all of the last hits.

We all went out and ate at a tavern on the 8th floor after the day was over. It wasn't something I was used to, to say the least. The five of them were busy reliving the moments they had just lived through, while I sat at my seat and watched them re-enact their sword skills and holler. I was worried that we might get kicked out a few times, to be honest.

"Yo, Klutz!" Ducker calls out. I look up from my plate to see his clean one soaring towards my face. I duck my head while simultaneously grabbing the plate and stopping it from hitting anyone behind me.

"What was that for?" I ask after setting it back down on the table, out of his reach.

"You aren't participating!" Ducker says with mock indignation. At least, I think it's mock indignation. Kind of hard to tell with him.

"I'd rather not make a spectacle of myself."

"Too bad!" Crows Tetsuo. "You aren't an official member of the Moonlit Black Cats until you have been publicly embarrassed!"

"No, that's not how it works-" Begins Sachi, but Ducker, Tetsuo and Sasamaru shoot her a look. I quickly realize that while they might be telling a lie, there isn't much I can do to stop them from whatever they had in mind.

At least, not without going orange again, I think I should avoid doing that as well. As per Mr. X's orders, pattern matching is bad.

Huh, that is one hell of a pattern too.

Sasamaru Grabs my left arm, Tetsuo my right, and I get marched right to the table in the center of the tavern and they dump me onto it. I turn around in place on top of the table and give them both what I hoped was a both frustrated and questioning look.

Ducker claps his hands together. "Okay, now dance."

"Not on your life." Comes my flat reply.

"Aw, come on! We went through all the trouble to reserve a table for you and everything!"

I stare at Ducker. "You reserved this table? You reserved a table for me to dance on? Why the fu-"

"If you don't dance, then you're going to have to pay for everyone's meals tonight." He says, crossing his arms over his chest.

I groan. "Fine. I will kill you three later." I wait a few seconds. "Do I at least get music?"

Ducker nods and pulls out OH MY GOD I HATE MY LIFE. He brings out a set of BAGPIPES. Those are obnoxious, and whoever made them needs to have their arms chopped off.

"Now, to the tune of 'For He's a Jolly Good Fellow,' I bring you 'For He's a Jolly Good Cross dresser.'"

That's it. When I get to floor 100, I'm using these three as bait for the boss.

What follows… I'm going to say I don't remember, and I'm sticking with that. The wolf whistles though… Those are going to haunt my sleep for the rest of my life.

By the way, I slept that night. No nightmares, no waking up in a blue sea of jelly, no lying awake and tracing the cracks in the ceiling. I was so startled by my alarm actually being the thing that woke me up I almost stabbed the person in the bed next to me. Not that it would've done any damage, but battle reflexes suck outside the battlefield.

Despite my alarm going off at seven thirty, when I always woke up, I was all alone when I headed downstairs. I waited a few minutes, but it looked like everyone else was in their rooms, still sleeping.

I receive a message in my inbox from X. I open it to find a rather short message:

"Nice dancing."

I swear I'm going to clear this game, and then kill everyone who I know just because.

(Klein's perspective)

Asuna, Silica, Lizbeth and I wait for Kuradeel to arrive. Asuna had informed us that we were going to go into hiding. Because she was afraid of Heathcliff, and she was worried that he would come after the rest of us. Personally, I thought that the act of hiding made us into targets in the first place, but she had become a lot more forceful since meeting Kirito.

It's not like I hadn't seen her before Kirito saved her, I just never saw her up close. She was always in the back of the KoB meetings, acting as if she'd rather be in the barracks sweeping or something. I don't think she was ever on any of the joint parties we sent out back when progress on level 12 meant documenting where monsters tended to show up. The player's handbook thing called them spawn points.

I never thought about it before reading that book, but it was a little strange that killing a flaming bat would net me a fire crystal. It would just show up in my inventory which was like an invisible bag. An invisible bag that made it so that we couldn't feel the weight of our items, which could get pretty heavy for some of us.

Funny though, that magic disappears so quickly when you know how it works. Or, at least the concept of how it works. I foolishly asked Yui how exactly this cardinal worked, and she started talking about numbers and codes and I had to stop her. I'm not all that into secret messages, or how they somehow correspond to making magic work.

That girl is so nice, despite her eccentricities. She genuinely wants to help everyone she meets, at least as far as I can discern. Asuna has been giving her manners lessons to get her up to the standards most of us live by. Asuna had said that Yui hadn't had human contact for her entire existence, so I could understand her difficulties.

Right now, I am pacing back and forth with the little girl on my shoulders. She smiled when I had lifted her up there, so I'm assuming she liked it.

In front of me, a purple window displays a tabloid article about someone getting drunk and dancing on a table. I hardly see how this is newsworthy, but whatever.

I glance at the three other girls. Asuna is still completely blank-faced, Lizbeth's eyes still look red, and Silica… She's hiding her eyes, but the veritable puddle of water that continues to spread tells that she's still broken up about our very temporary comrade's death.

It's weird. Out of the 4 of us here, I knew him the longest. My mother knows his, and I was his playmate growing up, at least until my own update. Yet, I was one of the least broken up. I felt bad, but his behavior towards the end… I can't help but think Yui was spot on that Kirito had gone off the deep end.

"Klein?"

I stop pacing and turn around to find Lizbeth had gotten out of her sitting position. "Klein, do you have a minute?"

"Yeah." I squat down and pull Yui off of my back. "Yui, go and comfort those two."

The girl looks up at me with her unblinking eyes and nods. "Understood."

Lizbeth and I watch her walk over to the other two girls before turning and heading down a narrow path that leads deeper into the forest.

"So, what do you want to talk about?" I ask politely.

"Kirito."

I could have guessed that. I could have guessed that she wanted to talk about him with only one eye and no ears. Maybe without even the eye.

"Yeah? What about him?"

"Why did he do what he did?" I was about to ask what she meant when she answered before I could ask. "Why did he just… leave? We had just saved his life, or something, but he got mad at us. It's not like we did anything to hurt him." She kicks at a rock which goes flying into the branches. I watch as the stone falls out of sight and hits something. "He was always pushing himself so hard. I wonder if he felt all alone up there on those higher floors."

"Probably." I shrug. When she looks at me, I just look back at her. "What? Yui said as much, and did you see his face when we confronted him on the… whatever level we confronted him on. He wanted us to believe so bad he delayed his escape. We almost got him too."

"Really?"

"Yeah. The Dragon's Alliance guild all got light gear and ran around side streets while we were confronting him. Their objective was to surround him in case we were unable to convince him to stand down." I grin ruefully. "Obviously, it didn't work as planned. I don't even think he noticed them."

Lizbeth shows a weak smile in return. Finally. This is the first time she hasn't looked like complete death since Kirito went and died.

The idiot.

"You know, I don't think Kirito is completely dead." Lizbeth murmurs loud enough form me to hear. "It's like he lives on in all of us."

"I didn't take you for the sappy type." I tease.

She snorts. He smile grows more genuine and less forced. "Heh, I'm usually not. I just… I don't know, I feel he's not gone. I mean, we're still trying to carry out his suicide mission, right"

I raise an eyebrow. "Suicide mission?"

"We're still going to try and clear the game, right? That means Heathcliff will be after us the second we go through the portal. How far do you think he will let us get before he comes after us? He hasn't deleted any of our progress yet, because it would be suspicious. It's only a matter of time before he decides to make those floors lock again. He'll have a good excuse, but he will. He loves this world, judging by his speech."

I nod. "I guess you are right. And, we're the only ones that still believe that this world is fake." I add glumly.

She sits down on a log heavily. "That damn fool." She stares up at me with a good approximation of Yui's unblinking stare. "Promise me this. I want you to make sure nobody else dies in our group. You are in charge of protecting us. Got it?"

"Of course. Just don't go and get yourself killed while I'm protecting the other four." I smirk.

Her weak smile comes back. She lies down on the log and looks up through the canopy. "You can start now. I'm going to sleep here, and you can watch over me."

I laugh. "Ok, but I'm going to make you return the favor later."

A smile crosses her lips once more before her eyes close and remain so for a few hours.

(Kirito's Perspective)

My eye would not stop twitching. There is a good reason for that too. See, I may have embarrassed myself in front of about thirty people in that tavern, which I am never going to ever again, but someone had taken pictures. And sent them to a small news source. Which then made my dancing a news story for some god-knows-why reason.

And now I was a celebrity again. Too bad that positive fame came with the added bonus of gender confusion. Apparently, not only do I look like a girl, but I dance like one as well. You know, that really just made me mad for some reason.

Aside from that, I don't know which made me more angry, that people kept asking for favors from me, autographs and poses, but they also kept 'whispering' about how flat my chest was. I was starting to get tempted to have Sachi write "boy" on my forehead. Seriously. I'm ashamed to be a part of the male species now.

Thankfully, the rest of my party felt pity for me and allowed me to retreat to our guild where I could be alone for the moment. It was a welcome relief until I realized I was alone again.

And that made me so sad I almost considered heading back out. I had never formed bonds like those I had with the Moonlit Black Cats before now, and I was just finding out that having forged those bonds it made me that much lonelier when I was completely cut off.

And then Sachi's message arrived.

If anyone had been recording me at the moment, I would've ended up in the paper again. I swear I almost yelled with joy.

"Sorry Klutz, if I had known what they were going to do, I would have stopped them. Keita says we are going to go back out tomorrow on floor 26, so to mentally prepare yourself. Oh, he also says that you should get some rest. He said you almost took his head off when your alarm went off this morning.

"I'll be back in a few minutes! –Sachi."

"Heh, he was awake. Oh well." I close the message just as a second one comes in. I glance at the sender and almost delete it offhand, but decide it's better to open it now then have the potentially needed advice go to waste.

"Klutz, Heathcliff is starting to look for more recruits for his own army. He is recruiting entire guilds by allowing them to remain their own guild, but they pledge to respond to orders in return for decent equipment. If your guild joins up, you be placed under even more scrutiny than you 'antics' last night have drawn… although I do believe that you are less likely to be identified as Kirito now.

"I have been monitoring Heathcliff, and he seems to be preparing for something large. I am very confused as to his objective, since he seems powerful enough to take out the army at full strength, and there is little else anyone can do against him. If this turns into a war, it's not going to be a quick one, and lots of people are going to die. I believe there are two or three reasons for this: I think he is planning on sweeping the already open floors to get rid of all the monsters he can and deny experience to any new upstarts like you or planning on invading the towns and instigating a ring around the safe zones where killing is legal to keep people contained. In either case, I believe he is imposing this as kind of a time limit for you. He's trying to draw you and your comrades out. It wouldn't be a good idea to attack him directly for obvious reasons.

"Stay safe, and level quickly. Your friends found a new hideout and are all currently safe.

"X"

"Gee. That's comforting." I say sarcastically.

"What is?"

I practically leap out of my chair. I turn around to find Sachi. "Jeez… Sachi, I'm sorry. Just got some… news."

"Can you tell me what?"

I hesitate, but her way to honest face made the decision for me. "Yeah, I don't know if it's public knowledge yet, but Heathcliff seems to be recruiting an army for some reason."

Her eyes light up. "Maybe he's going to start clearing floors like that Kirito guy is." She blinks and looks off into the distance. "I wonder if Kirito is still up there. Floor forty nine is unlocked, but fifty isn't yet, I don't think."

I blink. "Wait, you actually want these floors cleared?" I ask confusedly.

"Of course! I want to sit on the highest floor and watch the sun and the stars. I bet the view is beautiful up there."

"I… never thought about it that way." I say. It's true. I was so focused on clearing, I bet I walked right past some really nice places, like that one waterfall floor, or the one with the meadows…

"Not many people have. I don't think there is really any reason to get to the top floor for most people, it's just an objective that nobody understands. Maybe once we get up there we get some nice gear or a home right at the peak. Wouldn't that be nice? A house at the peak, nobody else to disturb you."

"That does sound cool, although I've heard that Aincrad is a castle more than a city, so maybe it's a throne room at the top."

She purses her lips and thinks for a minute. "Maybe. I wouldn't want to live in a throne room though."

I laugh. "Me neither. It sounds like it would be great at first, but then get old quickly."

Sachi smiles. "Let's find out together, okay?"

My smile vanishes. I hastily erect in back on, but Sachi definitely noticed. "Eh… Yeah, sure. I'm just trying to get stronger for the moment, so I hadn't really planned that far ahead." That was a lie. That was almost all I thought about now, at least when I wasn't being distracted by things like dying.

Wow. Not even dying fazes me anymore. I need my head checked by Yui.

"Oh. I… The Moonlit Black Cats all want to go to the top floor. I figured you did as well if you wanted to join a guild."

I scratch my head. "Technically, I was looking for a raid. I joined you guys as a guild member because you said you needed a guy on the front lines." I hang my head a little.

Sachi claps her hands together. "Well, you're one of us now. Remember, we're going to level 26 tomorrow!"

I mumble "Hope that my fame has died" and trudge down the stairs. Nobody else was back yet, so I might as well cook myself something. I look back over my shoulder. "Sachi, you want anything to eat?"

"No thanks." She says. "I just ate."

I nod and head down the rest of the stairs.

Thirty minutes go by and I realize I am not a chef. Asuna was smart to level the skill, seeing as the only thing I can make is eggs. And I still burnt half of them. I was still at it, and getting sick of my own cooking when the rest of the guild returned back to the guild hall.

I was so absorbed in trying to figure out what I was doing wrong that I didn't notice that there was another person with them when they walked in.

"Hey, Tetsuo. You're normally the cook, right? What am I doing wrong-"

I look at the newcomer in shock.

Why me?

Why this guild?

Heathcliff extends his hand. "Hi. I'm Heathcliff. It's my pleasure to meet you."

I am SO screwed.