Leafa heard the faint clanging of Yuuki and her brother engaged in an intense sword fight. Asuna clearly wasn't nearly as experienced as a sword fighter as she was, but her defense was still fairly impressive.

"Zephyr Blades!" Leafa charged her sword and unleashed a quick flurry. Asuna panicked and stepped backward.

"You're a good swordswoman, I admit," Asuna chuckled. "But I have more than that!"

Asuna pulled a water canteen out of her bag and yanked off the cap. At once, a floating blob of water flowed out, guided by Asuna's open hand.

"What the…?" Leafa's eyes widened.

"I control water! The essence of life itself! And you dare consider yourself worthy of Kirito-kun's attention?"

"What's up with you?" Leafa took a defensive stance. "Why do care so much about him all of a sudden?"

"Whoever I was before was clearly blind!" Asuna sighed dreamily. "Kirito is the entire meaning of my existence. Without him, I am dead inside!"

"That's creepy!" said Leafa.

"Maybe to you!" the water elongated into the shape of a tentacle. "Water whip!"

Leafa floated out of the way of Asuna's lashing.

"Oh, if we're doing it like that…" Leafa concentrated on the air around her. "Air shield!"

"Impressive!" Asuna flew after her and resumed her sword attacks. But a blast of fire knocked her away.

"Ack!"

Klein summoned another fireball.

"Greater Fireball!"

Asuna simply formed her water whip into a round circle. The fire hissed as it struck the cool liquid.

"Dang It!" Klein thought quickly. Just then, a glowing blue bullet shot right past his ear. His heart stopped as it grazed a hair off his head.

"Watch out!" Silica yelled. She and Pina wove around Sinon's bullets, trying to get close but to no avail.

"She gets a gun?" said Kirito, was starting to have trouble keeping up with Yuuki. "What the heck is up with that?"

Seeing an opportunity, Yuuki swiftly knocked both swords out of Kirito's hands. She kicked him right in the stomach, sent him toppling to the ground, and jumped on his back.

"There's Yui!" she jumped upwards towards the aforementioned pixie, who narrowly avoided her hand.

"Eek!" Yui flew in Suguha's direction.

Yuuki grabbed Kirito by the face and stared him dead in the eye.

"Listen, you!" she paused. "Huh, nee-chan was right, you are pretty handsome! Tell me Yui's weakness!"

"Weakness?"

"Hey!" Asuna darted over. "Get your hands off him!"

Without a second thought, she kicked her sister right off of Kirito.

"OW!"

She grinned as she looked him the eye.

"Finally… it's just you and I… forever."

"Get off him!" Leafa flew over. "Winds of Fury!"

"Hemokinesis!" Asuna stretched her arm out, and Leafa dropped her sword.

"What the… HNG!" she grasped her heart.

"Blood has water too!" Asuna cackled. "I can stop your heart by touching my fingers together!"

"Please… stop…" Leafa panted as she felt the strength leave her body.

Just then, Yui shot a tiny bolt of white energy at Asuna's eye.

"Ow! What the…?"

Yui quickly flew off before Asuna could grab her.

Leafa saw her chance. She tensed up the air behind her and loosened the air in front of her.

"Gale Dash!" she flew forward with the speed of a bullet and knocked Asuna off of Kirito.

"Thanks!" Kirito got and grabbed his swords.

"Why you…!" Asuna drew her sword, as Silica and Kirito fought Yuuki and Sinon.

Asuna reached towards a nearby drinking fountain. A torrent of water flew out, as all the pressure released onto Asuna. The water grew into an ever-expanding sphere of clear floating mass hovering above her.

"Heat Wave!" Klein shot a narrow beam of fire from his sword at the water. Hissing steam started blowing off.

"How pathetic!" Asuna cackled. Klein dodged one of Sinon's bullets. Sinon grunted and her sniper rifle shifted into a bow. She pulled an arrow back and shot it right through Asuna's water ball. The water hardened around the arrow, creating an icy tip.

"Ice Arrow!" Sinon shot more of these frozen projectiles. The heroes narrowly avoided the arrows, having trouble keeping up.

"Gah!" one of Lizbeth's robot arms was knocked off her. "Go go gadget, flamethrower!?

She shot a column of fire at the water, making more steam.

"All you can do is make steam?" Sinon stared with empty, innocent, eyes. "How pathetic."

"Not just that…" Lizbeth chuckled. "Look above you."

"Huh?" said Sinon. She noticed a large cloud gathering above her.

"The water feeds the clouds above." Rika chuckled. "Now for my special ingredient…"

Lisbeth raised her gauntlet. "Plasma beam!"

A pink bolt of lightning flew into the sky, igniting the cloud with lightning like fire to a tree.

"What the… a lightning strike?" Yuuki's eyes widened. "You'll kill us all!"

"Oh, is that it?" said Sinon. "I thought you'd be better than that."

"Not quite!" Klein thrust his sword into the ground. "Lava stream!"

A glowing puddle of lava started flowing out of the sword. When touched by the raindrops falling from above, it hardened into the pavement. Lizbeth wrapped one of her metal tentacles around it and grasped each of her friends with other tentacles.

"Huh?" said Silica.

"What are you doing?" said Kirito, as Lizbeth dragged him away from Asuna.

Klein chuckled as he grasped Lizbeth's robot arm.

"For you see, by rooting ourselves into the ground, Lizbeth acts as a lightning rod! But you, on the other hand, have a giant bubble of superconductive water above you."

"Klein and I have been planning this for weeks! We call it…"

"Duo Attack! Wrathful Smite!" Lizbeth and Klein both struck poses from some shonen manga.

"Have you been rehearsing this?" Leafa raised an eyebrow.

"Uh-oh…" Yuuki noticed the streaks of lightning making arcs across the sky. "Nee-chan! Get rid of the water fast!"

In the spur of the moment, Leafa leaned over and wrapped her lips around Kirito.

"Mmph!" he exclaimed.

"HOW DARE YOU!?" Asuna screamed but accidentally lost her concentration for a moment. She could barely utter the words. "I'LL KILL YOU!" before a downpour drenched her, Yuuki, and Sinon.

"Well…" Sinon shrugged. "That could've gone better."

"Why are you so kuudere all of a sudden?" said Yuuki.

CRASH! BOOM!

A bolt of lightning struck the water, sending waves of white-hot electricity across the three girls.

"AAAAAAAAAAAGGH!" they all screamed, their voices being muffled by the dancing lights than tore their skin from bone.

One extremely disturbing series of events later…

Yuuki, Asada, and Asuna all lay on the ground, barely moving and their skin charred with third-degree burns.

"Ugh…" Yuuki used every ounce of her remaining strength to reach into her bag and pull out another red crystal. "T-t-teleport. R-R-Ruby…"

"Oh, no you don't!" Pina flew forwards as Silica yelled. "Pina! Steal!"

Three red crystals appeared in Pina's mouth. She flew back to Silica.

"Thanks!"

Yuuki felt the warmth of her sister on her chest. The warmth of her real sister, not the psychopath she had seen in the battle. She couldn't help but smile at the familiar feeling. She felt Asada's warmth and imagined a future where they could've been really close friends. She sighed, thinking about the little pixie she was supposed to bring and couldn't even do that. How pathetic, she thought, that all of that training and preparation was all put to waste. I mean, there'll be more to come. We're just another battle, another attack, another stepping stone on the road to paradise.

Yuuki let out one last breath before everything turned to darkness.