A/N: It's finally the time you've all been waiting for readers! The long awaited tournament is right around the corner. This chapter will be reintroducing two characters from Blazing Revolution's past. At the end, I will show the chapters they appeared in if you want to look back at them.

Guest: That's for me to know, and for you and Liz to spend eternity wondering.

Dan sat in front of the computer in his room browsing the main site for Alfheim Online. Excitement for the upcoming tournament was larger than ever. After all, today was the day the servers would be officially linked together. In one week, the ALO World Tournament would finally begin. Once it ended however, the servers would become separated once again. As a result, everyone was dying to enjoy this opportunity while it lasted. The VRMMO had been offline for the past two days for the special server maintenance required for the big event.

As Dan looked around the website for any new information, he heard his phone buzz. He picked up his phone and saw a text from Alicia.

It's almost time! I am so psyched for this! –Alicia

A large window with a timer counting down was on the homepage of the Alfheim website. Once it hit zero, the new fused server would be officially opened to dive into. Only two minutes remained on the timer. Clair was in her room as well, looking forward to diving into the soon to be worldwide ALO. The same was true for all of their friends as well most likely. There wasn't an ALO player alive that wasn't excited for this.

Ren inserted ALO and got ready. He fit his Amu Sphere around his head and laid down on his bed. The clock slowly ticked towards the moment everyone was waiting for. In a few seconds, the world would be echoing two simple words.

3… 2… 1… 0

"Link Start!"

Ren dived into the world of ALO. He waited patiently as the update downloaded onto his game and he entered the virtual world.

The male Imp woke up in his player home on floor 17 of New Aincrad. Within seconds, Alice's avatar appeared next to him. She smiled at the sight of her in-game husband.

"Looks like I beat you here" Ren grinned. "I'm still the fastest there is."

"Maybe but you're forgetting one thing" Alice pointed out.

"What?"

"I'm gonna beat you to Yggdrasil City!" Without any warning, Alice sped out the door of their house and took off into the sky towards the teleport stone in the center of town, leaving the tactician behind.

"Hey, no fair!" Ren yelled, unable to contain his laughter as he flew off after Alice.

"All's fair in love and war!" Alice called back. The female Imp sped through the air at full speed, not slowing her pace for even a second. The town's teleport stone was within sight.

'I've got this. There's no way Ren will catch up to me'

As she thought this to herself, a speeding figure zoomed past her, blowing her long hair around wildly. Alice looked ahead of her to see Ren had passed her. He turned his body around as he flew on ahead and had a playful grin on his face.

"Nice try, Alice. Maybe next time."

"No fair!" Alice pouted.

"Like you said, all's fair in love and war!" Ren replied, using Alice's own words against her. He quickly landed on the altar in front of the town's teleport stone. "Teleport! Yggdrasil City!"

Alice watched as Ren vanished into light in front of the stone. She stood on the altar and called out the same destination. "Teleport! Yggdrasil City!"

The black haired girl became veiled in light and disappeared from the floor of New Aincrad. She reappeared in the large city on top of the World Tree. Ren was standing nearby, waiting for her. The couple spread their wings and took off. They flew outside of Yggdrasil City and looked at the city of Alne below them. Alne had always been a place that was constantly populated with players. Now with the servers linked, that usual population had doubled, if not tripled. Thousands of dots could be seen across the city.

"Hey guys!" a loud voice shouted. The couple turned to see Helios, Dagger, Himiko, and Mai all fly over towards them. Ren and Alice waved to their friends as they flew over.

"This is so cool!" Mai said in awe. "There's so many players!"

"And more players means more suckers to scam" Dagger grinned, thinking about the profit she could make off the unsuspecting foreign players.

"I'm looking forward to bashing some skulls!" Helios said with excitement. "Who should be my first victim?"

"Hey, Ren! Long time, no see!" a new player called out. The group turned to see Yuuki flying over to the guild. "Isn't this just the coolest?! It's like a giant ALO convention!"

"How's it going, Yuuki?" Ren greeted. "You doing any better?"

"Yep!" Yuuki nodded. "My condition is improving a bit. It's a little sad that I can't go to school with everyone anymore since it's summer, but now I have so many new people I can meet!"

"Good for you" Ren said. "I'm really looking forward to the tournament."

"None of you guys have any chance" Helios smirked with pride. "I'm going to be the champion hands down."

"Umm didn't you lose to Yuuki in the last tournament?" Mai reminded him. "Not just lost, she destroyed you."

"Quiet you!" Helios growled as he grabbed the Sylph and brought her head in for a noggy. "If I face you in the tournament, you are so going down!"

"Unfortunately for you, I will be the victor of the tournament" yet another new voice said. Everyone looked above them to see Yaksha floating above them. He had the same black hair tied up in a ponytail just as it was in SAO. He was now a Spriggan and was dressed in samurai-like armor with a red colored rope belt tied around his waist with a long katana held by it. A hawk mask still covered the top half of his face.

"Oh well if it isn't our mysterious little friend Yaksha" Helios retorted. "How are you going to win? Isn't Ren still ahead in that rivalry thing you've got going on by five wins or something?"

"I have dedicated myself to training for the past month" the masked Spriggan replied. "I think you will find that I am not the same as before. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to scope out the new players."

"Wow, everyone's appearing for the big tournament." Alice said as Yaksha flew off. "Wonder if we'll see anyone-"

"Yoo-hoo! Renny-kins!"

"… Please god no" Alice begged. The group looked over to see the blonde Salamander Asami flying over to them.

"Hey guys!" Asami cheerfully waved as she flew next to the group. She gave a separate greeting to Ren's in-game wife that was filled with a hidden cold taste. "Hello Alice"

"Hello Asami" Alice replied with a cold glare.

The tension between the two girls was so thick, you could almost reach out and grab it. Yuuki leaned in and whispered into Ren's ear in a very quiet voice to avoid catching the attention of the two glaring girls. "Mind filling me in here?"

"Trust me, it's a long story and you'd be better off not knowing." Ren whispered back.

"You know now I'm looking forward to this tournament even more" Alice said. "Cause I'm finally gonna get the chance to beat you into the dirt Asami."

"Bring it on" the blonde Salamander growled, accepting Alice's challenge. She turned away to fly off "I'll see you at the tournament." As if to anger Alice even further, she added "I'm especially looking forward to seeing you Renny-kins."

The group of friends was once again left alone, with Alice grinding her teeth at how angry Asami always made her when she tried to steal Ren. "Well, let's go check out all the new players" Ren suggested.

The group all cheered in agreement and flew down into the city, excited for all the new exciting battles to come.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The days that passed in Tokyo's Maximum Security Prison were increasingly long for the prisoners here. One person, a lone man, sat in a room and waited for the prisoner he was visiting to be brought to him. It was several minutes before the brought him in.

Looking at the once proud scientist, it was almost sad to see his condition now. Prison had taken its toll on him. He had gotten a lot thinner, and all signs of life seemed to be drained from his eyes.

"We can only allow you ten minutes" the guard said. "In addition, everything that goes on in here will be monitored by security camera. Please keep that in mind."

"Of course" the visitor said. "Don't worry. Ten minutes will be plenty."

"Very well then" the guard replied. He went outside and shut the door behind him. The two of them were now completely alone.

"Now then" the mystery man began. "I hope prison hasn't been too harsh on you, has it? Sugou Noboyuki."

"What are you doing here?" Sugou asked. "I already confessed to everything I did. What else do you want me to say?"

"Oh Sugou, you've got it all wrong" the man grinned. "I'm here to give you an opportunity."

"Opportunity for what?"

"For freedom"

"Freedom doesn't matter anymore" Sugou replied. "My career is ruined, I can't leave the country, and worst of all my beautiful Titania has been taken from me"

"Yes and that's very heartbreaking" the man said sarcastically, showing his patience was thinning "But what if I said I could help you with something else?"

"Like what?"

"For starters… revenge on a certain black haired swordsman."

"… I'm listening."

"I believe you're already familiar with the people I work for. The American company you were selling your research to" he said as he took out some snacks from his bag and offered them to Sugou, who gladly accepted the food.

"I see… so you're with them" Sugou said as he took a bite of the food. "By the way, isn't this conversation getting recorded?"

"I wouldn't worry about that. Guards these days are quite easy to fool. Our conversation is being taped over with a fake version as we speak."

"I see you people are as resourceful as ever." Sugou said with a small grin. "So what do you need from me?"

"We heard rumors that there was some special data taken out of ALO when it was first created. Is it true?"

"Special data? Ah, you mean the viral spells." Sugou realized. "Yes, I was unfortunately forced to remove them as they had inverse effects on the mind of those that used them. They would have been perfect for those mindless zombies I was making out of those SAO survivors though."

"So it IS true" the man smirked. "Now where is the data for them?"

"First, I want proof that you can help get me out of here so I can get revenge on that brat Kirito"

"Very well then" the man said as he took out some papers from his bag and handed them to the prisoner. "I believe these can help prove your 'innocence'."

Sugou read the papers in front of him and grinned. "I'm impressed. You're even more resourceful than I had thought."

"Now then, the location of the data?"

"Of course" Sugou nodded. He wrote an address and some other info on a sheet of paper and handed it to the man.

"Thank you for your cooperation" the mystery man grinned as he read the papers. He got out of his chair and began to walk away. "By the way, did you enjoy your meal?"

"My meal? Oh yes, it was quite good." Sugou said. "Where did you find it?"

"It's a homemade brand" he chuckled. "I think you'll find the taste quite unique."

The next day, an interesting news story was in the paper. The article began reading "Prisoner Sugou Noboyuki died yesterday at 6:43 pm. The cause is believed to be food poisoning."

A/N: Hope everyone liked the reappearance of Yaksha and Asami, and the look at what's to come. Next chapter will bring back yet another two characters from this fanfic's past, and will also be the start of the tournament. As I promised in the beginning of the chapter, here are the chapters that Yaksha and Asami were featured in.

Yaksha: Chapters 14 & 15

Asami: Chapter 30