However, it seems that the Red Hunters are lacking in more than empathy for fallen comrades. Despite what they have let on, their legendary Sword Styles are very much out of style. They cannot be used on Floor 50 and above, so they intend to leave floor clearing to the other players. Despite the fact the other Clearers lack Sword Styles and continue anyway, the Red Hunters are stepping down to continue hunting reds, although the majority of them were cut down in the disastrous Crusade. They

Lyra closed her menu. The newspaper she had been reading from her inventory also closed. She exhaled. Idiots. She was surrounded by idiots. She stood from her bed and stalked from her room, heading down the stairs to the living room.

Jan was reclined in one of the armchairs, reading a physical copy of the newspaper he'd fully materialized from his inventory. He glanced up at her steps, louder than normal.

"I take it you read this," Jan offered, waving the newspaper.

"Yes," Lyra snapped.

Hungry, she walked past him to the kitchen to get the bland soup and bread available in the game. When she got back home the first thing she was doing was ordering a giant helping of creole gumbo, heaped with crab, and a plate of pecan pralines. Their proximity to the lake led to an endless supply of fish, but the same fish for almost two years got boring to. It was early in the morning yet, and it seemed she and Jan were the ones out of bed. She ate in silence. Jan finished reading the article and returned it to his inventory.

Despite the article, Lyra was pleased to have Jan back. It was only two days since the Crusade and she had barely gotten to say two words to him since Raiku had brought him out of storage. Unable to track player IDs to find PoH and Nevermore, they had filled him in on what he missed. This included the fact Lyra had Drain and Alto, irked by the bad publicity when all they were trying to do was help, had been told about Scarlett. Jan approached as she finished eating and took the dishes to the sink. She didn't have to manually wash them, only tap on the sink and then the dishes to clean them before returning them to a cupboard. Jan was where she had been sitting by the time she turned back.

"So let me get this straight," Jan said slowly. "Because there were casualties in the Crusade, we're no longer the idolized group of Aincrad?"

"Yes," Lyra promised.

Jan hung his head. "That's stupid. This is a Death Game, people are going to die. Given our opponents and how soft our allies were, they should be grateful there weren't more deaths."

"That's about what I said," Lyra leaned against the kitchen island, "not that they appreciate the truth."

"No one ever does," Jan dismissed, "the truth stings more than a lie since it can't be disproven. Well, our fame was always split with guilds like the Knights of the Blood and our main calling point was Sword Styles. You know how it goes. If the unpopular kid in class has a new toy, the other kids who normally ignore him pay attention just to see the toy. Once they get bored, they leave him alone again. Betas will never be popular without something flashy like Sword Styles."

"You wish you'd been part of the Crusade," Lyra noticed. "I already told you why we couldn't do that."

"I know, getting sympathy from the other guilds to help jolt them into action," Jan dismissed, "good plan by the way."

Lyra inclined her head to his compliment.

"I don't get why the red that killed me helped you though," Jan added.

Lyra knew that was coming. He'd been told about the circumstances surrounding Cassim and Kobi, but didn't like it. This was the first chance he had to talk to her about it.

"PoH forced his younger brother to go red to keep Cassim under control," Lyra repeated what she was certain he already knew. "Cassim didn't like that, but couldn't argue. Raiku turned Kobi's cursor green and reset his player kills to zero, so it was Cassim's way of thanking us. Besides, it turned out he had a friend among the Laughing Coffin he didn't want killed. You know, every time I hear the name Izuna, the first thing that comes to mind is Uchiha Madara's younger brother from Naruto."

"Otaku," Jan accused.

Lyra shrugged. It was why she'd learned Japanese.

"That doesn't explain why Kobi has my Tamed-Beast or why Cassim is upstairs," Jan pointed out, a little hotly. "Why is the red player who killed me being treated like a member of our guild?"

"I told you already," Lyra smiled. "Besides, you're okay. If you weren't I might decide differently. I suppose that's not the most conscientious plan, but…"

"But you're sixteen years old," Jan offered.

She shouldn't hold herself to such high standards. She was only human. He didn't think the argument would help given Xavian had just been killed under her watch.

"Perhaps, but I am in command," Lyra disagreed, looking away. "Xavian has a younger brother in the real world, Satoru. What am I supposed to tell him when we get back?"

She ducked her head. Jan stood and walked over to her, brushing a lock of white-blonde hair that had fallen in front of her face behind her ear. Lyra still did not raise her head.

He remembered one time when a bird hit the window at Lyra's house back when they were children. It was just a dove. She had run outside and knelt by it to pick it up. Its neck had been broken though and she cried, feeling guilty since it was her house it struck. He helped her bury it in the backyard.

"The first thing that crosses my mind is the dove that hit your kitchen window," Jan said with a soft smile, speaking in English.

Lyra appreciated the sound of her native language. She had spent so much time speaking Japanese here.

"You wou'," she responded, "but dis 'as no bird."

Jan smiled and Lyra looked away, embarrassed.

"Don't blush," Jan shook his head. "I love that twang of yours. I don't have it because I grew up in Silicon Valley. "

"I can't speak Japanese if I let that accent slip," Lyra shook her head, taking care to keep it out of her English.

Jan smiled and shook his head.

"You can go to Kobi an get Skye back," Lyra offered.

Jan smiled at the way she pronounced get. Lyra sighed at the accent slipped through again. He loved the sound of the Louisiana drawl, and Lyra had never been flustered by it before. But she had spent the better part of two years speaking Japanese, so it must sound strange to her ears.

"I'm not under house arrest?" Jan asked, switching back to Japanese for her sake.

"No reason to be, though don't wear your uniform, no need to draw attention."

"Really?" Jan was surprised. "I'm supposed to be dead."

"The con is over," Lyra dismissed.

She wasn't going to say another word about Xavian, was she? It was just like with the bird. It hurt to talk about it so she avoided the topic. He left it alone. He would get her to speak eventually, after she took time to grieve.

"When you were put in storage, Kobi was with Skye," Lyra explained for his previous question. The bond shifted from you to him. We just left Skye with him. Kobi was a mess and he needed a friend."

"Which brings me back to what Cassim is doing here," Jan repeated. "I have yet to hear an answer I accept. He's Laughing Coffin. It won't work. Once a red always a red."

"Are you just upset he beat you?" Lyra asked with a wry sort of smile.

Jan bristled. "Lyra!"

"I don't think he intends to betray us," Lyra repeated, meeting Jan's artificially tinted purple eyes met with her naturally blue ones.

She meant it. He looked away. He needed to trust her, but trusting her didn't mean giving Cassim the benefit of the doubt. Could his brother have made that much of a difference? Jan knew nothing about siblings. He would keep an eye on him, and he knew Merrik would to.

There were steps on the stairs and Cassim appeared in the living room, running his hand through his hair, not yet fully awake if his dazed expression was any indication.

"Guten Morgen," he told them as he rubbed an eye, his voice confirming he was half-asleep.

Jan and Lyra glanced at each other. Guten… what? Cassim lowered his hand. He suddenly seemed more awake.

"Ah," he said, "old habit. Sorry."

"Was that German?" Lyra asked.

He nodded, expression slightly self-conscious. "Our mom is German, so we know it and Japanese."

He stopped and looked away when he realized he was speaking in plural even though Kobi wasn't here. Reactions like that confirmed what Lyra thought. Because Kobi was in danger and it was dangerous alone, Cassim had become a red, but since Kobi was safe and it was her guild that had done it, he allied with them. There was a danger to this mindset as he could flop back to being a red if conditions changed. Lyra was aware of it. In a case like this she'd rather keep him where she could keep an eye on him. Raiku had modified his account so if he attacked someone registered as a Red Hunter, even with that cheating Soulshard, no damage would be dealt.

"I was thinking about going to the Town of Beginnings to see Kobi," Cassim admitted, "I haven't since the Crusade."

He didn't like the idea of being so far from Kobi, though it would be safer for him on Floor 1.

"Go ahead," Lyra dismissed. "We're off duty right now and if we get information we'll contact you. Just mind your manners and keep alert for new information."

Cassim blinked at her and nodded, surprised she was letting him walk around without an escort. "After breakfast."

He passed them into the kitchen, raiding the food in the cupboard.

"I would suggest you go with him but I doubt you two can manage that peacefully," Lyra supposed.

"No," Jan growled.

Cassim turned back to face them, a small loaf of bread in his mouth and a bottle of jam in one hand. He took the bread out of his mouth.

"He leaving to?" He asked.

"I want to see Kobi and get my Tamed-Beast back," Jan glanced away. "He's on my friend list. I can track him."

The two eyed each other. Cassim couldn't hurt him unless all safeties were disregarded in a duel, and Jan couldn't do anything since he was a green again. Rather, Lyra hoped he wouldn't. Cassim had defeated Jan. That was proof of his skill and he knew better than anyone how reds functioned. If only they could assure his loyalty…

Lyra shook her head as the two continued to glare at each other. There was never a dull moment, or at least, never a quiet moment.

Kobi exhaled as he re-entered the Town of Beginnings, the Safe Zone ensuring he could relax. He smiled and opened his inventory to check the cor and drops. It had been nerve-wracking leaving the city by himself and he supposed he hadn't had to go – the Red Hunters had deposited plenty of cor into his player account. He didn't want to rely solely on donations. Skye leaned his head forward to look at the account and Kobi scratched him under his chin as he walked.

A general rule was for the player's level to be ten higher than the floor they were on, and this was the 1st Floor. He was level 15 – 16 – he'd leveled up while out. He'd studied the maps before he left and he had a teleport crystal. It had been unnerving watching his HP drop, since that was literally his life, but it was like he had told that Red Hunter Jan, be it the game or real life you only got to live once. It was fair. He'd only spent a single day in the Town of Beginnings before he'd gotten irked by the other players' fear of dying. They would look out over the walls, see the Frenzy Boar outside it, and turn white and start trembling. He'd taken one down with a single hit to the back of its head like the guidebook said was their weakpoint, although he hadn't expected to be jumped by a Dire Wolf afterwards… Skye's warning had saved him from taking heavy damage.

Other players cowered in the streets, no longer having enough cor to rent a room or buy food. While one could feel hunger, players couldn't starve to death so many no longer ate. He didn't want that to be him when the cor the Red Hunters gave him ran out, so it wouldn't be. Kobi had been terrified when PoH had been his commander and made his cursor orange, when he'd been capture by the Red Hunters, and when Cassim had tried to rescue him and almost wound up killed. He knew he'd never be a clearer, but he was tired of being scared. It was so exhausting, and even when his brother was scared, he kept going. He didn't want to need to be rescued again.

He scrolled through the drop items. Nothing he got was better then what he had, so he'd sell it all. There was a quest called Secret Medicine of the Forest, perhaps he could complete that and get the Anneal Blade. He didn't much care for swords, so maybe not, though a quest would be a good XP source. He'd just wandered around the grasslands by the town and into the northwestern forest. He should get more comfortable with the type of creatures on this floor before he did a quest. It was too bad he couldn't talk any other players into going with him. Only a handful strayed into the grasslands. None would risk a quest in the forest.

These were all common goods so he headed for the Central Market to ask around the NPCs and figure out what he should sell to whom. Given that not many players strayed outside, perhaps he could sell to them. At least a player wouldn't give him a flat rate for objects like an NPC. Skye settled back as he closed his inventory, resting his hand on his front paws on his left shoulder, his hindlegs on his right shoulder. He also had to get some honey for his dragon.

There weren't many other players outside, even in the Central Market. He'd noticed that before, but didn't understand. Shrugging, he approached an NPC. The price he would give him for the boar tusks and wolf pelt wasn't bad but he walked away to continue to explore. It wasn't like he had anything else to do so he'd just talk to everyone. He opened a memo and set up a chart listing the items on the top and the vendor to the left. The price he put on the chart. There were a lot of vendors and he consulted the town's map to determine which ones accepted the items he offered.

All NPCs who accepted the items he offered did so for the same price, which was what he thought, so he stopped midway through and headed for the nearest player run vendor. He'd have to ask them to see if they accepted the item. He reset his chart so there was only one entry marking NPC and emptying the other rows.

Skye fluffed up his feathers and Kobi reached up to pet him, menu closing as he did so. He had heard footsteps for some time but now looked up. There were men in front of him dressed in the armored uniform of the Aincrad Liberation Force, green capes pinned to their shoulders ad helmets hiding most of their face. He counted five. They spread out in front of him, preventing him from moving forward. Kobi stopped walking.

He'd heard all about the army from the other Laughing Coffin. They tried their hand at being Clearers but after the disaster of the 25th Floor, the Aincrad Liberation Squad retired to the first floor, merging with MMO Today, which focused on distributing information and resources. They had made the guidebook he'd used earlier. The resulting Aincrad Liberation Force was supposed to maintain order among the players but it was never the Army, as they were fitting called, that troubled him or the other Laughing Coffin. The Red Hunters were the only threat to them. Given that, he didn't fully understood what ALF did.

"Hello," he greeted.

He'd never met any of the Army so he was willing to talk. This must be a squad patrolling the area, but why were they patrolling a Safe Zone? It didn't make sense.

"You're new here, aren't you?" One of the group in the center asked.

Kobi nodded. "The higher floors were too dangerous," which was technically true… "Can I help you?"

"Do you know who we are?" He asked.

"Aincrad Liberation Force," Kobi said, "the uniforms give it away."

"That's right," he nodded. "We have an important part of our duty to fulfill. Say, you were just outside the town weren't you?"

Kobi nodded again, keeping his expression neutral and innocent. He didn't like how the group had spread out to totally block the way, or the way they were smiling. They weren't happy smiles, more so… smug. Skye refused to settle, tail twitching.

"You're brave," the captain of the squad smiled. "You even left sight of the town. You're a Beast Tamer to, aren't you?"

Technically not, but Kobi nodded to save everyone the trouble of an explanation. He wondered if they would ask him to join their guild. The rarity of Beast Tamers meant other guilds often used them as mascots. Kobi had no interest in joining a guild so soon after leaving the Laughing Coffins.

"If you were out killing monsters you must have some nice drops," the captain continued. "It is the privilege of the ALF to distribute wealth to other players so why don't you give us most of what you won, and we'll spread it evenly with the other players?"

"No thanks," Kobi dismissed. "There are almost two thousand players in the city. I won less than two thousand cor. There's no way it can be given to everyone, even if I handed over all of it. I intend to complete a quest soon. Maybe after that."

He took a step forward, but the group didn't move.

"You really are new around her," the captain mused. "Don't you know that citizens have a duty to pay taxes?"

There were a few snickers. Kobi was right to be wary. He remembered going to school, the other students in his class gathering around him so he couldn't leave, asking for money for their lunches – because they were friends and friends helped out friends. Unless he paid, they wouldn't let him leave. No matter the environment, humans were humans.

"Half of what you earned will do for now," the captain promised, "a special discount since this is your first time."

Kobi blinked. He was serious. A snicker escaped his lips and it turned into a laugh. Kobi almost doubled over from laughter at the situation. The Army stared at him, not expecting that response.

"Huh?" The captain said. Then he shook it off. "What the hell? Hey! Be glad we're being so generous or we'll have you give all of it."

Kobi regained control of himself.

"Sorry," he told them, still giggling. "The absurdity of the situation just struck me. You remember when Laughing Coffin was first formed? All the Clearers were working on Floor 11, so they blockaded the entrance of the Town of Beginnings. Unless players returning from questing gave them half their cor and all their drops, they killed them. I just find it funny you Army sound exactly like them."

"Why you," The captain spat.

"You're obviously not dispersing the money or there wouldn't be so many players forced to sleep on the streets because they can't afford rent," Kobi added.

"We are nothing like those player killers," one of the other soldiers spat.

"Are you going to obstruct the duties of us, soldiers of the Army?" A third demanded.

Kobi was surprised. They'd actually called themselves the Army. The NPCs continued to stare ahead, blinking occasionally, waiting for someone to approach their stall before they interacted. No wonder the streets were so abandoned. The Army was running the same extortion scheme the Laughing Coffin had.

"Give me a minute," the captain said, stepping forward.

Kobi didn't step back. He remembered in school the kids shoving past him, knocking him to the floor. They had laughed as they walked away, his lunch money in their leader's hand. He'd hated being so weak and he'd been just as weak when niisan tried to rescue him, unable to do anything but freeze as a Red Hunter held him hostage. Unlike before, his cursor was green, and since they were all in the town's boundaries they were in a safe zone. None of their HP could drop, no matter what happened.

"You're new to these parts," the captain told him, "but you do know what it means to obstruct the Liberation Army, don't you?"

He drew his sword, brandishing it overhead. Kobi didn't flinch. They could bluff and bluster but they couldn't actually hurt him. He had nothing to fear. The captain brought his sword down, falling into an attack stance. Didn't he get they were in a safe zone? Or did he expect the hollow threat to scare him? Five men against one boy would work in the real world, but this was Aincrad, and compared to PoH this captain didn't frighten him.

Kobi drew his dagger, raising it in a reverse grip as he slid into an attack stance. Recognizing he was about to go into battle despite there being no monsters, Skye took off from his shoulder and landed on the top of a pole keeping up a stand's canopy.

He had no idea what level these players were. They could be some of the original Clearers, or the Level 1 and 2's from MMO Today. He didn't think they were Clearers. He'd hunted players before and this one's stance was awkward, his feet too close together. If he tried to fight like that he'd end up on his butt, yet didn't have the experience to know better. This was obviously the leader, so logic dictated he was the strongest in the group.

Kobi smiled and ran forward, dagger turning a light red in a Sword Skill. The startled Captain swung but he easily ducked under it and inside his guard, leaping into the air so he was eye-to-eye. Then he thrust at his face. The captain was knocked back by the barrier that appeared to stop the Sword Skill, crashing into another. Both almost went down. Kobi was moving forward even as his feet landed and this time did a sidekick to the chest, foot glowing as the kick was enhanced by another Sword Skill. This time both of them went down, skidding backwards at the knockback.

He glanced left and then right. The other three Army stepped back at the look in his eyes. He'd had practice hunting players and unlike computer-generated monsters, they were inclined to panic, especially if he went for the face.

"We're in a safe zone in case you forgot," Kobi pointed out. "You can't force me to do anything. Now if you excuse me, I have drops to sell."

He walked straight ahead, passing by the Army. They didn't try to stop him. Skye left his perch and flew back to him, almost clipping one of the Army with his wings as he settled on Kobi's shoulders.

"What do you mean there's a problem?" Kibaou asked, eyeing the squad captain who was standing on the other side of his desk.

"There's a new player in the city, he said the higher levels were too difficult for him, he's not scared of us at all," the captain shook his head. "You should have seen the look in his eye. It was almost like he was going in for the kill when he attacked me, not just defending himself."

Kibaou rolled his eyes at what he assumed was meaningless exaggeration. Things had been going well since he merged with MMO Today and taken control of the resulting guild. Over 3,000 players were cowering in this city and he was in control of them all.

"Did you get a picture of this player?" He asked.

The captain withdrew a Camera Crystal and tapped on it. The screenshots taken hovered above the crystal. The squad member who had used this without the opponent being any the wiser had only taken two pictures. He gave the crystal to his superior.

Kibaou snatched it from him as he held it out. The first picture was too blurred to be useful, but the second would do. The player in question wore black pants and boots and a light blue tunic. He had black fingerless gloves with armor plating over his forearms and a silver breastplate. There was a white belt around his waist that his dagger's scabbard was attached to, but nothing too fancy to indicate he was higher level. His hair was short black, eyes artificially red.

"Oi," Kibaou said, eyebrow twitching. "This is a kid."

He couldn't be older then twelve or thirteen.

"How did this kid scare off all five of you?" Kibaou demanded.

The captain didn't answer, looking away, abashed. Kibaou scoffed as he looked back at the picture of the boy. The boy's expression was carefully neutral, feigned innocence. One of his hands was close to his dagger. There was something familiar about him.

He stared at the picture, tuning out the captain. That boy. He knew he'd seen him somewhere before. Where?

"Dismissed," Kibaou ordered.

The captain hesitated and then saluted and left, quicker then he otherwise would. He had been a fool to let a boy get the better of him and was getting off easy. Kibaou continued to stare. Where had he seen that boy before? It was recent, sometime during SAO.

Shaking his head, he closed the crystal. What was it? He sighed and tapped his fingers on the desk. Then he brought up the newspaper with information about the Crusade. The eleven players who had died were in the newspaper, as were pictures of the raiding party. There were no actual pictures of the raid, though Kibaou wasn't surprised. It had been bloody. Most of the pictures were from before, a few of the prisoners after. He had looked through them once already and felt he should look through them again. Something was familiar here.

He scrolled, searching for the picture that tugged at his memory. He stopped. It featured two KoB but standing behind them was a black-dressed player speaking to another with white hair. Kibaou zoomed in. He recognized Kirito, but focused on the white-haired player. His eyes were not on the player, but his arm. There. That was what he'd seen. He'd thought it was strange at the time. On the white-haired player's left arm was a vambrace made of three bars of metal, the points tipped and sides sharpened. He'd seen that weapon before. It had something to do with the kid.

Floor 25. Kibaou inhaled and exhaled, breathing rapid. He leaned back against the tree, tired from the fighting against the monster. He had gotten separated from his squadron and headed to find the other members of his Aincrad Liberation Squad. He stopped when he saw one of the HP bars of a player in his party drop, Seth, and looked around for him. Where was he? Where was any of his squad? This floor was hell and they hadn't even in the dungeon!

Seth's HP lessened more and then his name greyed out. Kibaou stopped and stared. That was impossible. He was… dead? He bit his lip and looked around, knowing that using the friend's ability to track Seth was now useless. Seth's HP bar vanished from his sight, leaving only five. He thought he was going to be sick.

Then he heard laughter. He froze. Surely such an unnatural thing could not happen with one of his men dead. He followed the sound. Three players were standing in a loose circle, one of them checking their menu, this one having green hair and a strangely shaped vambrace on his left forearm made of three bars of metal. One of his companions had very bright blue eyes, while the third member was younger than the other two with black hair and red eyes. All three had orange cursors above their heads and HP in the yellow.

"That was too easy," the red player chuckled as he dismissed his menu.

"You have a strange definition of easy," the blue-eyed red grumbled. "He was a Clearer. I can't believe we managed to take him out."

"But that's why we got so much cor off him, Izuna," the green-haired red smiled. "And look at these items. Hey he's got a real high-level dagger he wasn't using."

"Oh?" Izuna glanced at him. "Then I'm glad this wasn't a waste."

The third younger player didn't say anything as green hair closed his window.

"Let's get to a safe zone and divvy up the loot," green hair closed the window. "PoH doesn't know about this side trip and I'd rather keep it that way. Then we don't have to share with the rest of the guild."

Kibaou understood now. These were Laughing Coffin. How could three of them defeat a Clearer like Seth? He didn't know and he didn't intend to ask. Since their cursors were orange, his would remain green even after he killed them. He stood to take a step forward when a winged beast flew down from the canopy with a screech. He leapt back as its teeth snapped at his face and the red players looked his way, weapons up. They must have decided they had enough from Seth because they turned and fled through the undergrowth. By the time Kibaou killed the monster, he was unable to find any trace of them. Red players always had a high Hiding Skill.

Kibaou had never forgotten that. It was the only time the red players had been as bold as to hunt Clearers on the frontier and succeed. He reactivated the camera crystal. He was right. The boy that had scared off his squad was the same Laughing Coffin that had killed his guildmate, and the white-haired player who had participated in the Crusade had the same claw-like weapon as the green-haired red player. It was a unique weapon. After losing Seth he'd researched it, the only defining feature he could find, in hoping of learning an identity. Despite checking records, Kibaou had never found any trace of the weapon in stores or as drops, or even as a possibility to be made.

As for the third player, he moved the newspaper and crystal aside and opened his menu. His status as Captain of Black Iron Palace gave him special privileges and he used one of those to check the list of inmates in the prison. If those three were Laughing Coffin then they should have been among the casualties at the Crusade. He already knew one had escaped, back in his town, and it seemed like a second was pretending to be a Crusader – though that was so impossible he assumed he had that wrong. He knew the name of the third one who had killed Seth.

There. A player with the username Izuna was in the prison. Kibaou smiled. Then it faded. Cursors didn't appear in pictures, but his guild hadn't said he had an orange cursor. He knew there was such a thing called a Thief's Cloak, which made the cursor of the equipped player orange and allowed them to enter towns until they broke a rule, equipped a weapon, or activated a Sword Skill. This boy wasn't wearing a cloak. Had they found some new way to get around the safe zone? He'd better warn the other players, but first, to bring them in and confirm it.

He closed the prison list and opened the second menu that appeared as Guild Leader, tapping on the message and setting it to send to all members of his guild. By tapping on the crystal and newspaper, he was able to copy the pictures into his inventory, which he then attached to the message. He hit send. The message appeared in all of his guild.

Find these and bring them into custody at once. Be careful. I have reason to believe they are red players. Attached were the pictures of Kobi and Cassim with white hair.

Yikes. It'd be too hard for the brothers to get off without any repercussions. They did kill, and it was murder. Inevitably, it would come back to haunt them - as it is.