A/N: Phew, can't believe I finished this chapter so quickly. Hope you like it everyone. Also, I know I've said it before, but I must really stress it this chapter. Watch the movie first. There will be multiple things you don't understand this chapter if you haven't seen the movie or at least read a summary of the plot.

Ordinal Scale: Chapter 7

"Kirito, it's gonna start using its long range attacks soon! Be on guard!"

"Got it!"

Kirito followed Ren's instructions as he jumped back. The raid boss they were fighting, Zennel the Treasure Orc from Floor 48, let out a monstrous roar. It was a large demonic monster with orange skin and a sack on its back filled with several types of weapons.

Ever since Ren had joined back in with the raids, Kirito had been finding the boss fights going far smoother than before. Although he had been in each of the raids just like Ren, it was Ren that remembered the strategies used to exploit weaknesses and defeat the bosses on each Floor. His strategic input had been a blessing.

"It should end up throwing several weapons your way, but the last one will be a bomb. Whatever you do, don't get hit by that." Ren warned.

Kirito silently nodded as Zennel began reaching into his sack and chucking golden weapons at him one after another. Using his sword, Kirito managed to deflect each of them and then finally saw the bomb come his way. Quickly jumping to the side, Kirito got out of the way from the bomb just before it hit the ground and exploded. Several players were caught up in the blast and taken out simultaneously.

As a thick layer of smoke filled the area from the explosion, a sudden figure dashed through it and ran towards the boss. Ren readied himself as he noticed Zennel raise it's fist up to slam down at him as he ran towards it. Ren quickly sidestepped out of the way of the fist as it smashed into the ground, following up by going in and performing a series of slashes on the boss. After his combo was finished, he jumped back.

"Now Kirito!"

With a loud war cry, Kirito sped in and slashed at the boss. He kept hacking away at the boss's HP, even as it recovered and prepared another attack. The boss's health gauge was almost depleted.

Ren widened his eyes. "Kirito, get out of there!"

As Zennel swung its arm down at Kirito, the raven haired swordsman performed one last slash, finally finishing off the boss. It froze just before its fist made contact with Kirito and shattered into fragments. Both Ren and Kirito wiped the sweat from their foreheads with the hard fought battle finally over.

Kirito briefly glanced at his points, seeing he had gone up another few ranks. He was already ranked 11 among all the players ranked in Ordinal Scale. He immediately closed it and looked at Ren. "I'm heading to the next raid. I'll see you around."

"Right." Ren nodded. "Good luck."

Kirito quickly hopped on his motorcycle and took off towards the next site. Lately, several raids had been happening in succession of each other, or sometimes at the same moment. Kirito had been trying to go to as many as he could each night to raise his rank as high as he could. His friends had also been to the raid sites to provide backup whenever they could.

"Yui, where's our next target?" Kirito asked.

"Ichoyama Square. The raid there just started." Yui told her father. "If you hurry, you should be able to get there in time for the very end of it and grab some points by getting the last attack."

Kirito sped up as he raced through the city streets. "Check how the raid is going. Give me details of the boss's health."

"Right. I'll have for you in a minute Papa." Yui said.

As Kirito rode on his bike, his mind went to what Ren had told him the other day. Sarah had gotten a broken leg along with Marcus and Emma being bruised up after a fight with Eiji. But he had also been informed of a possible source and weak point to Eiji's strength. It was something to go on, but Kirito couldn't risk betting everything on maybes. If he was to raise his chances as much as possible to win, he had to get his rank up closer to Eiji's standing of rank 2.

"Papa, I have the information of the raid!" Yui said.

"Good job Yui. What's the current situation?" Kirito asked.

"It's… No way." Yui gasped astonishingly. "The raid boss was just beaten."

Kirito quickly pulled over to the side of the rode. "What?! It got beaten already?!"

"Yes, just a few seconds ago." Yui explained.

"Not again." Kirito mumbled bitterly. The past few nights, he had noticed raid bosses being defeated surprisingly quickly. It had stopped him from earning some extra points a few times. What he didn't know was who was doing it. No one was as desperate to defeat the bosses as him, and all of his friends were assisting him with the raids.

"Who could be doing this, Papa?" Yui asked.

Kirito thought about it, suddenly coming to a realization. "It's Eiji. That bastard." Kirito curled his hand up into a fist. "He knows what we're doing so he's trying to take down raid bosses before us."

"But then… what are you going to do?"

Kirito let out a sigh. "I'll just have to do what I can and earn as many points as I can get my hands on." He looked at his phone, which he was currently using to communicate with Yui. "I'll call you later when I get back home. Night Yui."

"Goodnight Papa." Yui said before ending the call.

There were no more raids to go to tonight, so Kirito locked up his motorcycle and walked over to a nearby vending machine after logging out from Ordinal Scale. After grabbing a drink from the vending machine, Kazuto leaned against it and quenched his thirst before letting out a sigh. 'I'll get your memories back Asuna. I swear it.'

"Lovely evening, isn't it Black Swordsman?" a sudden voice spoke.

The voice made Kazuto jump as he turned to see someone standing near him. He glared at the identity of the sudden arrival. "Eiji."

"I see you've been busy." Eiji said. "You've been raising your rank quite high recently."

"If you're here for a fight, then bring it on." Kazuto told him. "And when I beat you, you're going to tell me how to get Asuna and everyone's memories back."

"I appreciate the enthusiasm, but this is neither the time nor place." Eiji said with an amused grin. "Two days from now, at the special Yuna concert. Meet me at the parking garage on the lowest floor at nine o'clock. We'll settle things there one on one." He turned around to walk away. "If you win, I'll return everyone's memories back to normal."

Kazuto watched as Eiji walked away. He had been waiting for this for a long time. Even though he wasn't as ready as he would have liked to be, this was quite possibly his only chance.

'When we fight Eiji, I'll win.' Kazuto told himself. 'And I'll make you pay for everything you've done.'

Crowds of people gathered for the Yuna concert. The AR idol had been skyrocketing in popularity, so it only made sense. And each of the students at the SAO Survivor School had been given a free ticket to the concert.

Dan, Alicia, and the rest of Wyvern's Inferno stood out by the entrance as they waited for the rest of their friends to arrive. Finally, Lilina caught sight of the last of them walking over. "There they are!"

Looking out into the distance, the group saw Marcus, Sarah, Emma, and Kione walking over to them. Sarah was using crutches on account of her broken leg.

"Did we make you guys wait long?" Marcus asked.

Emi shook her head. "No, we just got here not too long ago."

"Well we're glad you could make it." Alicia said.

"Well Kione's been looking forward to this for forever." Sarah explained with a smile. "I couldn't stay behind and have her worry about me. Besides, it'd be a waste not to use a free ticket."

"How's your leg doing, Sarah?" Emi asked, looking at the cast. "I heard you got hurt pretty bad."

"The doctor says it'll be another two weeks before I can take the cast off." Sarah explained. "But I'm managing."

Emma was filled with excitement to the point that she felt she might explode. "I can't wait to hear Yuna sing! I stayed up so late to get a ticket!"

"Me too!" Clair squealed in agreement. "Her songs are so awesome!"

"Well now that everyone's here, let's get going." Dan suggested. "Better grab some seats before there's no good ones left."

The group gave a collective nod. They walked inside the stadium. After a bit of searching, they soon met up with Asuna and the rest of their friends by the restroom. As they walked up to them, Rika emerged from the girl's room.

"Alright, good to get that out of the way." Rika grinned. "It'd suck if I had to go during the concert."

"How long did you take in there?" Hyde asked. "What, was it your time of the mon-" The teen was interrupted as he felt Rika stomp on his foot. "Ow! Geez, guess that's a yes."

"You are insufferable, you jackass." Rika growled.

Asuna quickly stepped in between her friends. "Now, now, let's not go killing each other. We're here to have fun."

The two looked away from each other. Fully together, the group went together to their seats. When they entered the main stage, it was surprising to see how big it was. The quickly found an open area where they could all sit together.

Emi grinned. "Oh man, it's almost time! I can't believe we got free tickets to this! How lucky are we?!"

"I guess." Hyde said as he leaned back in his chair. "To be honest, her music really doesn't do it for me." As the words escaped his mouth, most of the girls turned his way and shot a collective glare. "What?"

Kazuto got out of his seat. "I'll be right back. Gotta go pee."

Asuna turned to her boyfriend. "Seriously? We all just went."

"Don't know why, the urge just came suddenly." Kazuto shrugged. "Save my seat."

As Kazuto left, Asuna couldn't help but feel something was up. Kazuto had been acting weird the past couple of days. She just couldn't figure out why.

The elevator pinged as Kazuto walked out into the parking garage. He had spent the past two days honing his skills for this. Everything would be decided here.

Standing in the parking garage was Eiji. He grinned at the sight of the person he had been waiting for. "Glad you could make it, Black Swordsman."

Kazuto dropped his bag and pulled out his Augma. He hooked it on and steeled his resolve. "Let's do this."

The two teens called out the words to start their battle simultaneously. "Ordinal Scale, activate!"

In unison, both Kirito and Eiji had their OS gear manifest around them. Once the log in was complete, Eiji took the offensive and sped at Kirito. Quickly reacting, Kirito lunged to the side. As Eiji sped past him, Kirito looked at Eiji's back. He took notice of the glowing area at the back of Eiji's neck that Ren had mentioned. 'That's where I need to aim for.'

"Running away won't work forever!" Eiji yelled as he charged at Kirito once again.

This time, Kirito blocked Eiji's attack, their two swords pressing against each other. The two became deadlocked in a test of strength.

"Give it up! I'm rank 2, you can't beat me!" Eiji roared.

"So what?! It's not like your rank 1!" Kirito shouted back.

Eiji managed to shove Kirito back. He sped at the raven haired teen again, but Kirito blocked him. Eiji's sword skidded across Kirito's as he sped past him. Eiji continued his relentless assault, attacking Kirito from every direction. Each time, Kirito blocked Eiji's strike, but it was taking everything he had to keep up.

Eiji attack with another barrage of slashes, huge bursts coming from each hit every time he was blocked. Kirito soon found clouds of debris blocking his view from all directions.

"You're skills are just like they say." Eiji said bitterly. "Just like they all say! All people care about are those who fought on the front lines! People like me and Yuna were forgotten!"

Kirito widened his eyes. "What?! You knew Yuna in SAO?!"

"That's right!" Eiji yelled as he came out from a debris cloud with a downwards slash. Kirito quickly found himself pushed back. He tried to retreat, but Eiji stayed right on his tail, pursuing him with slash after slash. "All she wanted to do was spread happiness with her music! That's all she wanted! And I… I lacked the strength to protect her!"

As Kirito tried to jump out of the way of another slash, Eiji landed a hit on him. Kirito was knocked back and his sword fell out of his hands. 'Shit!'

Eiji saw his opportunity as a wide grin became stretched on his face. "You're finished!" he called out as he swung his sword down at Kirito.

Kirito closed his eyes, regretting his inability to win when so much was on the line. 'I'm sorry Asuna. I wasn't strong enough.'

As Eiji swung his sword down, he suddenly felt something grab the back of his shirt. Before his blade could connect with Kirito, he found himself thrown back, making him tumble across the parking lot. Once Eiji recovered, he sat back up and looked at the person that had thrown him. His eyes widened, but were quickly replaced with a glare. "You…"

Kirito opened his eyes and gasped at the identity of the person that had saved him. "Alicia?!"

Alice didn't look at Kirito. She was too busy glaring directly at Eiji. "It's been awhile."

"Impossible… what are you even doing here?" Eiji asked.

"Something didn't seem right with Kirito, so I followed him." Alice explained. "Good thing I did too. I've been wanting to have a rematch with you."

"You think someone with your low rank can beat me?" Eiji asked with a smirk.

Alice returned the gesture with a smirk of her own as she pointed to the cursor above her head. "I may not be ranked 2nd or anything, but I think you'll find my rank is far from low."

Eiji took a closer look at Alice's cursor and gasped when he saw the number. "Fourteen?! But how?!"

Kirito slowly got up and picked his sword up from the ground. "Alice… were you…"

"Yeah." Alice nodded. "I was the other person taking out the SAO bosses at the raids."

Alicia walked along the city streets. She was still hesitant about this, but she couldn't sit around and do nothing anymore. As she reached the sight, she saw Lilina waving over to her.

"Alicia! Over here!"

Alicia ran up to her friend. Along with Lilina, there were both Rika and Keiko too. All three girls had eager grins on their faces as they saw the black haired girl come up to them.

"Thanks so much for this, girls." Alicia said. "I owe you all for this, big time."

"It's fine." Lilina assured her. "But are you sure about this? You haven't even been able to fight in ALO ever since… you know…"

Alicia felt her body shake and tremble. "I'll… I'll be fine…"

"Sorry Alicia, but you don't see so fine to us." Rika told her. "We can't have you fight like that. If you die again, who knows what could happen."

"But-"

"Don't worry, we all thought this would happen." Lilina told her. "That's why we came up with a plan."

Alicia blinked her eyes in surprise. "A plan?"

Lilina nodded her head. "Yeah. You'll stay back while we all deal with the boss and take out it's HP. Once it's really low, you go in for the killing blow. If you can at least get the last attack bonus, your rank should rise a decent amount each time."

"Are you sure though?" Alicia asked. "I feel kind of bad doing that. You'll all basically be carrying me."

A sudden pat to the back came from behind, making Alicia jump in surprise with a yelp. "We ARE carrying you. Don't forget that."

Alicia turned around and gasped at the person she saw. "Hikari?!"

"Surprise!" Hikari greeted with a big grin. "I heard your situation from Lilina so I decided to come out and help."

"Hikari…"

The blonde girl silenced Alicia with a finger on her lips. "I told you to take care of Dan for me, and you sure as hell can't do it in the sorry state you're in. So I'm gonna do what I can to bring back the girl I entrusted him with."

Alicia was left speechless. Tears came to her eyes, but she quickly wiped them away as she smiled at her friends. "Thanks you guys. Really. All of you are the best."

"And don't you forget it." Lilina grinned. "Now enough chit chat. Let's kick some butt, girls."

"Right!"

Eiji stared at Alice, unable to comprehend what was happening. "This is impossible. You should be unable to fight! You should be terrified of dying!"

Alice looked down at the scythe in her hands. "To be honest, I still am. I'm terrified of death, both real and virtual. If it wasn't for my friends, I wouldn't have been able to fight my way to this point." She slowly lifted her head and glared at Eiji. "But that won't matter here. I don't need to worry about a fear of death if all I'm fighting is a cheater who can't even rely on his own strength."

The black haired girl's comment struck a nerve in Eiji as he glared at Alice viciously. "You bitch… I'll show you just how strong I am!" He kicked off the ground and sped at Alice with his blinding speed.

"Kirito! Move!" Alice called out.

Kirito didn't need to be told twice as he jumped out of the way. Alice ducked and kept her body low as she met Eiji's attack. She ducked under Eiji's slash and slid under him. As he moved past her, Alice reached out her hand and grabbed the back collar of his shirt.

"Let's see how well you fight without a handicap!" Alice yelled out as she delivered a kick to Eiji's back while yanking on the device on the back of Eiji's neck. The combined force ripped out the device attached to Eiji.

"No!" Eiji gasped as he felt the device detach from his body. He turned around and saw Alice holding it with a smirk on her face. She dropped it on the ground and proceeded to smash it with a stomp of her foot.

"Now with that out of the way, things are finally even again." Alice said as she took her fighting stance. "Now come at me you little shit. Come get the first real fight you've had in a long while."

Eiji's face slowly turned into a look of pure rage. He charged at Alice with a loud roar. "YOU BITCH!"

As Alice watched Eiji run at her, his speed seemed so low that it was as if he was barely moving in comparison. Alice easily sped past him and ripped her scythe through him, depleting his HP drastically. "Kirito!"

Eiji turned around to face Alice, but he was met with a different person as Kirito raised his sword up. "Raaaaaaaahhhhh!"

The blade slashed through Eiji and brought his HP down to its last few pixels. He was completely outmatched. Without the power he had obtained from Shigemura, he was nothing.

"I won't lose to someone who denies his past." Kirito said.

Eiji collapsed to the ground. Kirito and Alicia stood over him, glaring down at him.

"You lost Eiji. Now give Asuna and Alicia their memories back." Kirito demanded.

Slowly, Eiji began to chuckle, gradually bursting out into laughter. "You think beating me will do anything? Soon, the endgame will commence. All of the people in this stadium will be sacrificed for her."

Both Kirito and Alicia gasped. "What?!"

"It's too late! You can't do anything!" Eiji laughed. "You've lost!"

Alicia shut Eiji up with a swift kick to the face. Before she could continue, Kirito put a hand on her shoulder. "We need to hurry and warn everyone. We can't waste any time."

Alice sighed and nodded her head. "Right." She quickly took off running with Kirito to the stadium, leaving Eiji on the cold hard ground.

"Wooo! I love you, Yuna!" Keiko cheered from her seat as she and the others listened to the AR idol sing.

Listening to Yuna's voice, the entire audience was cheering at her song. No one could deny Yuna's popularity. Even Kione, blind as she was in the real world, was in love with her singing.

Dan looked back at the door where Alicia had left a few minutes ago to go to the bathroom. "She's really missing out. She was really looking forward to this concert."

"Well I'm gonna be sure to brag about this to her later." Emi said with a grin as she continued cheering.

Not much longer, Yuna finally finished her song. She gave a bow and the crowd went wild. The cheers were practically deafening. They finally began to die down as Yuna brought the mic to her lips once again for her next song.

And then it happened.

Out of nowhere, several pillars of light shot up around the stadium. They were both in the stands and near the main stage. Several boss monsters appeared from each of them, as screams of surprise and terror were heard all around the masses of people there.

Dan and the others all gasped as they looked around, seeing a giant horde of boss monsters from SAO. One thought echoed throughout all of their minds.

'We're screwed.'

A/N: Bet you all thought Ren would be the one to finish off Eiji. Nope, that right goes specifically to Alice. Next chapter will be the finale for the OS story, and all of you that have seen the movie know what's coming so be prepared. I can't promise I'll have the next chapter out within a short amount of time like I did this chapter, but I will try to at least get it out in a reasonable amount of time.