A/N: Here it is everyone. It's time for the first fight of the OS story you've all been waiting for. I meant to get this out much sooner, but I have been WAY too busy playing Persona 5, and I'm sure all of you that have been playing it know what I mean. But now that I have completed the story, I can focus again on writing.

Ordinal Scale: Chapter 2

It took a while to find a proper parking space nearby the area Shu recently told her to be at but Nohime managed to find one that had a small walk to the place. But maneuvering the crowd itself was another thing entirely. This was much of a bigger turnout than she had expected with dozens of people all chatting excitedly with each other about the coming event. Teens, kids and adults alike all were engaging in discussions about how this moment was going to be 'epic and crazy'.

This certainly caught Nohime off guard with how popular this whole thing was. The whole VR and AR thing to her looked to be a passing trend, something cool with the kids and teens that would have fun with for a few years and be done with. But even after something as horrible as SAO, people were still jumping into these games by the thousands. AR and the Augma made her life easier sure, but the thought of using it for fun and games never once passed her mind until Hyde started playing this 'Ordinal Scale' game. Even Shu got involved in it much to her surprise.

After some polite moving around and some fire shoving when people were noncompliant, the mother of two managed to make her way to the front of the crowd. From there she saw Hyde and Shu chatting away with their friends along with a couple of grown men she didn't recognize. Judging by the way they were chatting, it seemed to be friends from that AL-whatever game her son played. Rather odd for her son to be friends with such older people but seeing one of them back away in fear when they decided to poke fun at Hyde told Nohime that he was fine.

'Hyde certainly has made a great circle of friends. All these years passed and I never really took notice of it. How did my son grow up so fast?' The feeling of longing crept over the mother from watching her son. It really tore her up that she missed those years in the past with him but what mattered more was that she was here for him now.

"Nohime, is that you?"

Nohime looked to her side and saw a woman with short poofy brunette hair walk over to her. "Juna. Long time no see. Have you been well?"

"Yes, thank you." Juna said with a nod as she stood next to Nohime. "I take it you're here for the same reason I am?"

Nohime nodded her head. "Yes. Shu suggested I come and watch to see a new side of Hyde." She looked in the distance at her son and his friends. "I really must thank you and your son. I'm grateful to him for keeping Hyde out of trouble, he seems to be one of the few people that can rein him in."

"There's no need, Nohime. Your son has also been very helpful to Dan." Juna pointed out. "I remember back when my son used to be such a loner. He barely talked with anyone outside of the family. But Hyde managed to help him break out of that shell of his. If anything, I should be the one thanking you." Both mothers looked over at the kids with a forlorn smile on their faces.

"They really have always been there for each other, haven't they?"

"Yes they have. I suppose that may be the reason those two have so many friends now."

Nohime looked at the time. "Oh, that Ordinal Scale thing will be starting soon. We better activate it so we can watch."

Both Juna and Nohime logged into Ordinal Scale together. As they did, they were both taken aback by how drastically the scenery around them changed. The structures and everything were still there, but their design was vastly different.

"I must say, I wasn't expecting anything like this." Juna said.

"I've seen a lot of things from Hyde and his love for video games, but this is something else entirely." Nohime said.

Soon, the two women saw a pillar of fire emerge in the distance past the group of players. It soon died down and a large demonic-looking samurai took its place.

"Oh my, that's certainly something you don't see everyday." Juna spoke in surprise. "Are the kids going to be alright?"

Juna and Nohime saw Ren and Helios charge in, along with their friends to fight the large monster. The demonic creature sped to player after player, cutting them down one by one. Juna gasped as she saw it come near Ren and Himiko.

"Spread out!" Ren ordered. Like clockwork, he and Himiko both leaped to the side and avoided the sword that Kagachi the Samurai Lord swung down at them. As the sword crashed into the ground, the two siblings sped past the raid boss, cutting into him with their blades.

As she watched the kids fight, Juna found it hard to believe what she was seeing. She knew that her son knew how to swing a sword due to his two years in SAO, but watching it in person was a completely different experience. He seemed so calm and composed, as if he had been doing it his whole life. And Clair. She had always seen Clair as her little girl that still needed someone to watch over her. But her movements as she fought were so smooth and fluent. It was as if she was different person entirely.

'Those two really have grown up.' Juna thought to herself. 'Their innocent childhood days have passed by, haven't they?'

"He's coming again! Get ready everyone!" Ren said as he and his friends all stood firm while the boss ran towards them.

Kagachi the Samurai Lord let out a hiss as it closed in the players. Ren got his sword ready and took a deep breath. So far, its movements and attack patterns had been mostly the same as back in SAO. That meant they could take it down with the same strategy.

'We've got this.' Ren told himself. "Alice, you and me!"

"Got it!" Alice confirmed as she and Ren charged in to meet the boss's attack. Alice took the front as she held out her scythe to block the boss's sword as it came down at her. She did her best to hold it back, but she didn't have access to the same stats she had in the virtual world. 'Oh well. Good thing I stay in shape.'

Ren slid in between Alice and the boss, thrusting his sword up. The blade ripped into Kagachi the Samurai Lord's neck, making it cry out in pain and stumble back a bit. "He's staggering! Hit him hard guys!"

Mai and Dagger were the first to go in, running past the boss while cutting into it with their weapons at the same time. Shu went next, attacking with several thrusts. It was clear to the others though that the older of the Gekido brothers lacked a lot of experience fighting based on his form. It was too similar to how one would act in a fencing match. But the others understood that this was real combat with monsters, and not a fencing match where simply making contact was enough.

Kagachi let out a roar, making Shu stagger back a little in surprise. He tripped and fell over, gasping as the boss swung its blade down at him.

"Move, you dumbass!" Helios yelled as he appeared and swung his axe upwards, parrying the strike from the boss. He couldn't evade the next attack that came his way though, as Kagachi swung out a serpent-like whip, striking him and cutting down a huge portion of his HP.

"Helios, move back!" Ren shouted. "Get out of there!"

Helios and Shu both quickly ran towards their friends. As the boss was about to follow, a barrage of bullets rained down on it from the gun-wielders on the rooftops. Its attention became focussed on them as it swung its whip out, taking out the group of players all with one lash.

When the two Gekido brothers made it to Ren and the others, they were panting from exhaustion. "Thanks for saving me there Hyde." Shu said.

"Just try not to make me have to do it again. And it's Helios when we're playing this." the axe-wielder told him.

"R-Right…" Shu nodded. "That's gonna take some getting used to."

"You're too stiff with your movements Shu." Mai said. "This isn't fencing. You've gotta keep your movements flowing quickly, and be ready to evade anything."

"See?! Even the squirt's criticizing you! You're making us Gekidos look bad!"

Shu let out a sigh. "Sorry. Guess this was harder than I thought. But I have a newfound appreciation for you guys fighting on the front lines in SAO for two years if the monsters were like this."

Asuna gave Shu a thumbs up. "You're just new to it. Let us show you how it's done." The chestnut haired girl looked toward her significant other. "You ready to go, Kirito?"

Kirito nodded his head. "Yeah, I guess."

Asuna and Kirito both ran at the boss together while it didn't notice them. Ren and the others stayed back to catch their breath. Ren had his hands on his knees and was panting.

"Man this is a lot harder to do without my usual high AGI. I can only move as fast as my regular body will let me." Ren said.

"You can't have the same lightning fast speed like in SAO and ALO. It must be tough for you." Mai said.

"See, this is why I said you should try doing track at school." Alice said.

Ren let out an annoyed sigh. "Can we not talk about my lack of fitness right now?"

The group looked over at Kirito and Asuna as they led the boss around. At one moment, Kirito took the initiative and sped towards the boss to attack. Unfortunately, the raven haired teen tripped over as he ran and tumbled along the ground.

Everyone widened their eyes in shock and the strongest of them making such a clumsy mess up. The awkward silence that came with it was soon broken as Helios started pointing and laughing at Kirito.

"Hey dumbass, I've got a treadmill you can use if you want! God knows you need the rare drop that is fitness more than I do!"

"Shut it, Helios!" Kirito yelled back as he quickly rolled out of the way to avoid the boss's sword that came down at him. He ran away from the boss along with Asuna while it chased him. "Damn it's harder to move than in VR."

"You're just a little out of shape is all." Asuna told him as they ran.

"I'm not out of shape!"

The couple ran their hardest as Kagachi chased after them. As they ran, a muscular tiger-like player with a bazooka took a firing stance. "That last attack bonus is mine!" He fired a blast at the boss, but it tilted away to avoid it. Everyone gasped as the explosive projectile flew towards Yunna.

"Look out!" Alice exclaimed.

Before the projectile could make contact, a new appearance suddenly jumped through the air and cut it in half with a sword, sticking the landing perfectly. Everyone gasped at the incredible movement, but their eyes grew even wider when they saw the player tag above him. Ordinal Scale Rank 2. Eiji.

"Woah…"

"Did you see that guy?"

"Talk about badass."

Ren and the others were equally surprised by Eiji's appearance. Eiji looked towards the players in the raid. "Everyone, let's take it down! Attack it together!"

The teen's words seemed to snap the players out of their confusion and soon players were all running at the boss. Ren and his friends also joined in as they ran towards the boss to finish it off. Eiji parried a slash from the boss and Ren and the others ran past him to attack while he was staggered.

As Asuna ran past Eiji, her ears registered him saying something to her. "Switch."

The group all attacked collectively with slashes from their weapons. Kagachi the Samurai Lord had his health drop to a small percentage. Asuna ran in and sped past with a thrust of her rapier, dealing the final blow. As she held her rapier out past the boss, it shattered apart.

Several cheers were heard as players celebrated their success. As Ren and the others congratulated Asuna, Yunna leaped off from her sitting position on the bridge and slowly descended onto the ground near Asuna.

"Congratulations. You're today's MVP." Yunna said as she delivered a kiss to Asuna's cheek. Several widened eyes came from the group while Asuna blushed hard.

Helios let out a snicker as he nudged Kirito. "Looks like Asuna couldn't stand the competition, so she decided to make her own harem to get you jealous, eh Kirito?"

Kirito didn't give any verbal response, but instead shoved his elbow into Helios's gut, making him wince in pain for a moment.

"Until next time everybody." Yunna said as she waved goodbye and ascended into the air.

With the boss raid over, everyone logged out of Ordinal Scale, having their surroundings return to normal. Klein showed a grin as he walked over to Dan and the others. "Man we sure kicked some ass there. Almost felt like we were back in SAO with Ren giving out orders and Helios rushing in like that."

"So I take it my brother was always as reckless in there as he was in this fight?" Shu asked.

Hyde frowned and shoved his elbow into his older brother. "Watch it. There's a difference between what I do and reckless."

"Yeah, usually people have good intentions for being reckless. In his case, it's because he's too stupid to know any better." Emi quipped with a smug smirk.

Before the ash haired teen could pull the girl in for one of his trademark noogies, an older woman came rushing in and wrapped him up in a binding hug. Dan and the others jumped back in surprise from the sudden new arrival, but relaxed a little when they realized it was Nohime, Hyde's mother.

The Gekido woman smiled warmly at her youngest son, despite the fact that he was fighting to get loose from her grip. "Hyde you were amazing out there! You looked so cool the way you swung that axe around! It was as if you'd been doing it your whole life!"

"Get off of me, woman!" Hyde barked when he felt her start to nuzzle his cheek. If there was one thing he couldn't stand, it was being treated like a kid. Especially in front of all of his friends, who were currently snickering at him. "Why are you even here?!"

While the others continued to laugh, Klein nudged Dan's shoulder. "Uh, mind filling me in man? Who is this woman and why is she hugging one of the most dangerous teens in Tokyo?"

"It's his mom." Dan started, ignoring the look of utter shock from Klein and Furinkazan. "They used to have a rather… disagreeable relationship for a long time but now they're on the road to recovery. But something tells me Hyde isn't quite used to the parental affection just yet."

Once the initial shock wore off, Klein got to looking up and down the house wife. "Gotta say, hard to believe someone like Hyde came from such a foxy woman. The years certainly have been kind to her."

Regret came too soon and too hard for the man to handle once Hyde suddenly broke free of his mother's hug and ran up to him. Almost every single ounce of air left Klein's lungs once Hyde drove his fist into Klein's stomach with no signs of mercy. "Don't you open your perverted mouth to talk about my mother ever again, you hear me?!"

Seeming not to mind the fact that Hyde just assaulted someone, Nohime giggled at Hyde's instant reaction. "Oh this reminds me of the good old days."

Lilina titled her head. "What do you mean Mrs. Gekido?"

"Well Lilina, when he was a kid, Hyde used to growl at every single man that wasn't my husband if they got near me. He would yell stuff like 'No, that's my mommy!' or 'Back off, she's mine!'. It was so adorable to see how easily he got jealous." the mother smiled.

"MOM!"

There was nothing Hyde could do to stop the laughter that came from his friends, especially Emi who was pointing a finger at him. He frowned as Shu patted him on the back. "It's okay bro. It's just what mothers do."

"Shut up you asshole! Did you invite her here?!" A nod from Shu's head was all the reason Hyde needed to grab him by the collar. "What the hell were you thinking, telling her to pull this Shu?!"

Shu held his hands up. "Hey I suggested she come and watch you, not run up and smother you like this."

The drive home for Hyde was filled with thoughts of his embarrassment from his mother's affection. Eventually the topic of conversation came back around to the boss fight.

"So was that the kind of thing you guys had to go through in SAO? I couldn't even begin to imagine that sort of craziness becoming the norm."

Hyde shrugged casually. "Yeah, that sort of crap was pretty much a weekly thing back in the day. Explore new floor, kick ass and level up, find the floor boss, form a raid party to kill it. Rinse and repeat for about two years and you have the front lines summarized for your college essay."

"But from what you guys said, that was only the 10th Floor boss. How crazy did things get in there?" Nohime asked, her curiosity peaked at the steep and dangerous life her son lived in that game.

Both of them were caught off guard from Hyde suddenly laughing as though she told some hilarious joke. "How crazy did things get there? Oh boy the stories I could tell you two! We had hydras that vomitted out floods of venom and poison. Giants that were as tall as one of the skyscrapers in Kyoto. Giant demonic bipedal goats that swung around giant swords with shining red eyes. … That thing…" The teen coughed into his hands. "Point is, the Samurai Lord was one of the more tame bosses in that game. When shit got real. It. Got. Real."

It was hard for Shu to find words to respond to this speech. From the sound of it, he and his friends went through such tremendous trials that would've crushed any normal person. But the front liners seemed to conquer these challenges time and time again. 'Would I have been one of them if I had logged into SAO instead of Hyde?'

"Well I for one am very proud of you honey." Shu was taken from his thoughts by the happy voice of their mother. "You came back to us in one piece and have a wonderful group of friends. And from the show of it, you were on those front lines often enough to help."

"My help always made any situation better." Shu rolled his eyes at the ego stroking Hyde was currently doing. "Anyone on the front line could tell you that when I came into the picture, things were always interesting."

"Yet from what Emi said, it seemed that you were just as much trouble as you were help."

"Oh that squirt can bite me. She was always jealous that I was more powerful than her. Swear, if she didn't have Alicia protecting her like a hawk…" Hyde trailed off with a series of grumbles, seemingly irritated at some bad memories.

Soon enough the Gekidos' made it home for a nice dinner and a relaxing rest of the night. As Hyde relaxed on his bed, his phone buzzed with a message. Looking at it, he smiled to see it was from Lilina.

'Good job out there, you were amazing today!'

'You know it babe. You were great out there too.'

'Your brother wasn't too bad for his first time. Funny for him to think hitting the boss once would be enough lol'

Hyde chuckled to himself at that message. 'That's why I'm the better than Shu in VR or AR. He never really got into games that much.'

'Wonder how much you'd have to bail him out if he was in there with us?'

'I'd rather not have to think about being a babysitter for my bro. Never give any reason for the shrimp to laugh at me any.'

'Well, I gotta get going to take care of Koro. Little guy has to go for a walk.'

'K, tell him I said hi. Love you babe.'

'Love you too!'

The ash haired teen gave a content sigh, placing his phone down and gave a glance to his Amusphere. Given that it was only around 8 PM, he supposed he could get away with a bit of ALO before bed. He got comfy on his bed before putting on the device.

"Link start!"

Dan yawned as he rested on the couch of his home. The boss fight yesterday had been more exhausting than he had predicted, but it was also an interesting change of pace to have to fight with his actual body instead of his virtual avatar.

There was one thing nagging at his mind though. How had the company behind Ordinal Scale managed to replicate an SAO boss. The servers of the infamous death game were said to have been destroyed after SAO was cleared. Did they have someone on their staff that was on the front lines in SAO? He assumed that was the most likely scenario.

According to Ordinal Scale's website, there was supposed to be another boss fight tonight as well. But the location had yet to be announced. Dan texted the rest of his guild to see if they were interested in going to it if the location was close enough, and they had all responded with a yes, though Hyde had mentioned that Shu would be unable to make it. On the bright side though, Riku had texted saying he'd try to be there. But with the raid being tonight, Dan still had the entire day to kill.

The question of what to do was soon answered as he received a text from Alicia. 'You want to hang out until the boss fight? We can go to the park and relax together.'

Dan texted back with a response. 'Sure. I'll need to bring Clair with me though since she wants to participate in the OS raid.'

'No problem. I'll bring Emi along too. Those two can keep each other company while we relax together.'

After getting ready, Dan headed out with Clair, telling their mother where they were going and that they'd be going to the OS boss raid tonight. They walked together for a bit and eventually arrived at the park.

A few minutes passed before the Hiryo siblings caught sight of Alicia with Emi in tow. Clair and Emi ran off together to play in the park while Dan and Alicia sat together against a tree, enjoying the nice weather.

"So what did you think of yesterday?" Alicia asked. "Must have been tough for the Crimson Flash to fight without his legendary speed."

Dan let out a chuckle as he stretched out. "It was way more exhausting having to fight using my real body, especially since I couldn't fight in my usual style. But at least I didn't go and trip over like Kazuto did."

Alicia let out a giggle. "I feel bad for saying this, but it was actually pretty funny when that happened."

"I know what you mean." Dan said with a nod. "To be honest, that fight yesterday kind of had me go back to SAO. For a brief moment, I remembered the fear of fighting a boss with more than just a game at stake."

A slight frown came to Alicia's face. "Dan…"

"Don't worry, it's gone now." Dan assured her. "But it did make me remember that not everyone made it out of those fights alive."

"I know. And it must have been hard dealing with the responsibility you had as head tactician." Alicia added, holding her boyfriend's hand gently. "But you don't have to worry about that anymore. We can put SAO behind us. From now on, we can play games for fun."

"Yeah." Dan nodded. He lean against her, resting his head on Alicia's shoulder. "But for now, let's just stay like this. Just the two of us."

The couple rested together for what seemed like hours. They talked about various things, mostly about upcoming college stuff. Alicia had also asked about whether Dan was going to the Yunna concert next week. Although he wasn't as big of a fan for the AI idol's music as some of the others, he agreed to go with her. Tickets were given out to all of the students of the SAO Survivor's School so it would be a waste not to use them.

Time passed by and without them knowing it, the couple fell asleep. They were eventually woken up by the giggling of their younger siblings. Dan peeked his eyes open and saw Clair and Emi looking at them with teasing grins on their faces. "What?"

"Oh nothing." Cliair said. She showed her brother her phone, with a message on it. "By the way, the time and location of the raid was just announced."

Dan took a look at the message to see the location. "Crap, that's on the other side of the city! We better get moving!" He nudged his girlfriend awake. "Alicia, we gotta go."

"Mmmm, five more minutes." Alicia moaned, still half asleep.

After getting Alicia to wake up and telling her the location, the group of four hurried out of the park to make it on time to the raid.

"Come on guys, we gotta hurry!" Ren said as the group ran, all of them already logged onto Ordinal Scale through their Augmas.

"Well maybe we wouldn't be so late if someone had shown up sooner." Helios commented.

"Oh piss off. The location was announced thirty minutes ago." Riku argued. "It's not easy to get to the other side of the city on this short notice."

"Any mention of who else is gonna be there?" Himiko asked.

"I think Asuna, as well as Klein's group." Ren said.

In the distance, Wyvern's Inferno saw an explosion. "Aw man, the battle's already started!" Mai exclaimed as she pointed towards it.

"Then we've gotta pick up the pace. Let's move guys." Ren said.

"You're not going anywhere."

None of them could tell where the voice had come from, but a pillar of fire shot up, blocking their path. The group all gasped as they looked at the light show before them.

From the bridge behind the group, Eiji looked down at the group, none of them aware of his presence. "You will all be sacrificed here tonight, to give way to her rebirth. My only regret is that I won't be here to witness it myself. But I have another target tonight." Eiji said to himself before disappearing from the scene and heading towards where the Furinkazan guild was located.

"What the hell is going on?!" Dagger gasped.

"Could there have been a second raid event scheduled now?" Riku asked.

Ren shook his head. "No, there would have been a notification. And even if we missed it, there's no way no one else wouldn't have seen it. There'd be other players here by now."

"Then what exactly are we dealing with?" Himiko questioned.

"We're about to find out." Alice said. "Let's see which floor boss they have-" Alice was cut off by a loud roar as the flames began to vanish, revealing Wyvern's Inferno's opponent. As they slowly began to make out the figure, Alice's eyes widened. "No…"

"Please god no." Riku begged.

"This can't be happening. What is THAT doing here?!" Ren gasped.

"What? What is it?" Himiko asked.

As the monster stood before the group, it let out a low snarl. It stood on four legs and was much taller than any of the group members. Two devilish horns stuck out from its head while white fluffy wool covered its body. It wasn't a floor boss though. There was only one monster it could be, and it was one no SAO Survivor ever wanted to see again.

Sheeptar the Sheep King.

The group all stood silently as they stared at the monstrous sheep. After a few seconds passed, Helios reached into his bag and pulled out a pair of shades. "So we meet again." he said as he slowly put the shades on. "For the last time."

Riku narrowed his eyes at Helios. "Did you seriously bring those in case we ended up fighting this particular boss?"

"Shut up, I'm doing a thing."

A/N: So I know that technically only floor bosses were brought back in the Ordinal Scale movie, and Sheeptar was not a floor boss. But when I came up with this idea, I just had to do it. I can promise you all this will be a fight worthy of rivaling the first Sheeptar fight, so look forward to it everyone.