The next time Arune saw Koharu was really weird and almost impossible. He was both creeped out and glad.

It was all very confusing.

After Arune had been attacked by that axe wielder and hearing Koharu was probably dead, he had kind of stopped playing the game. He had only written a quick leave note to the leaders of the guild, saying he didn't know when he would return and logged off. Right there and then. He didn't even bother to get to a safer point so he wouldn't get ambushed, he just ran away.

His life was on the line, now it hit him what this meant. So maybe he was going to stop playing this game for real, forever, hoping the murderous guild and its members didn't know where he lived.

It turned out they knew. Well, one member of the guild knew. And made sure the others didn't by deleting the information. At least she hoped they didn't know. And that if they knew, that she was going to get to Arune first.

While Koharu had gone missing and Arune had searched for her, the girl had actually worked on her plan, trying to get more information and find a way to stop her 'guildmates'. She didn't know what had happened with Arune or what he was doing, she had decided not to get the boy any deeper into this mess. He was strong enough, he could defend himself. She hoped.

Koharu had sneaked into her guild's headquarters, and using the item they had given her to use on Arune (a ring making her invisible, most rare items were rings for some reason), she had gotten into the vault room. There were all the rare items the guild had 'found' (stolen) and only the two guild leaders could give an item to someone. If someone took anything without permission, they were either tortured (Koharu didn't know how this worked) or killed (this she was about to find out).

So far the items collected were around fifteen. And nine of them were rings, the other were always some other accessory - bracelets or even hair ties. Weren't those item easy to lose, especially if you're fighting? What with how she had lost her hair accessory, albeit a normal, not rare one.

There was one that looked like phone though. And that one caught the attention immediately since there was nothing so modern-looking in SAO. Koharu decided to try it out first and hit the jackpot.

That was the machine with which they killed the players. It was simple. You had to just enter the name of the player and on which map in Aincrad they were, then wait for someone or something to make their life points go to zero. While they were waiting to get revived or teleported to a safe zone, the game would play music, often from the player's own playlists. That meant it reached files on the vr machine. And this little device in Koharu's hand sent a virus to those song files, making them somehow attack everything else on the gaming device, even the human itself. After all, the brain was a delicate organ.

But the evil device also reached other information. Like IP addresses and via a GPS program, even the real address of the person attacked, where they lived in the real world.

Koharu couldn't believe all of this. Who would create such a machine? And why? This thing shouldn't exist here, shouldn't exist anywhere, let alone in a game. Was it a police or military device?

"Don't touch what's not yours, little girl." Came a voice from behind Koharu. "You don't know what power you are holding in your hands."

Koharu froze but somehow managed to regain her composure just enough to say something. "The instructions are quite clear though. I know how you do it. How you kill people!" She turned around, facing one of the two leaders of the guild.

"If you wanted to kill that boy, you could've told me. I would have given you this item. Maybe." The big man said, walking closer to Koharu. Then he stopped and smirked. "But I have the feeling it's not him you want to kill."

Koharu clenched her teeth, not saying anything. The man rolled his eyes, again walking closer to her.

"You see, you're pretty easy to read. Especially when I have an item which reads people's thoughts. Even if they are invisible." Koharu's eyes widened. Of course, both of the leaders always had one ring equipped, they always had a rare item on. "Now you see your mistake, huh?" The man sneered. "Still, it's too late, you're not getting out of here!"

He took out his mace and swung it at Koharu. She jumped to the site but her arm still got hit and according to the system message had now a broken status for one minute. Meaning she couldn't move it. Good thing she was holding the phone device in her other hand, the same hand that had her rare ring on. This man could sense her thought but couldn't see from where exactly they were coming if she was invisible.

So the girl used her rare item and began running at random patterns but still towards the door, trying to evade any more hits. To make it harder to read her thoughts, she began repeating only one word in her mind - rabbit. Why this word, she couldn't tell. Maybe because she had to run like one?

The man chasing her didn't give up easily though. He somehow followed her all the way to the Teleport gate. Once she teleported away, she was safe. He didn't follow her. Koharu thought hiding amongst humans was the safest so she had teleported to the small town on the tenth floor and entered a random house. They couldn't see her and she was as quite as possible. For now, she was going to stay there, hiding her thoughts. She forced herself not to talk about Arune or the guild or the items. Just clear her mind. Also, begin thinking about something more believable than only one word. Maybe about her homework or where she wanted to farm next. Just nothing suspicious.

Koharu hid in this house for a whole day before going outside. She didn't search for Arune though, she didn't need his help, she knew what to do. If she got close enough to her guild mates, close enough to know on which map they were, she could end all of this.

But she couldn't harm even one person. It took her weeks to prepare and find them, starting from the not so important members of the guild. But even they knew what had happened and talked about it.

"It seems she ran off with something important. Her friend is in great danger, they've locked him."

"They don't let him log off?"

"They do but just for five minutes every six hours. You know they know his address and all that."

"They know all of our addresses."

"But not her's..." It was obvious who 'her' they were talking about.

"And we're in all this trouble cus of her and the leader's negligence."

"Shush you!"

"What about this flying guy? Do they have his address at least?" Flying guy? So Arune was fine for now?

"Don't think so. This mission failed."

"What if he tells the police?"

"Tells them what?"

"Didn't they send one man after him?"

"He got back half dead."

"And where is the flying guy now?"

"Hasn't logged in since the battle on the fifth floor. Coward."

He wasn't a coward, Koharu thought. He was brave for fighting and surviving against them. But this conversation had saved those guys' lives. She was going to find Arune again, make sure he was alive.

If using the machine/rare phone item worked on logged off people.

It turned out it did. And now Koharu was at Arune's home's door. His real life home's door. And he was so happy to see her there, just as much as she was.