A/N: Here's the next chapter of the Ordinal Scale story readers. Hope you enjoy it.

Ordinal Scale: Chapter 5

After the raid ended, players began going home for the night. To most of them, everything had been a normal raid. But Dan, Hyde, Kazuto, and Alicia knew differently. An air of depression hung over them like a cloud.

No one knew what to say to comfort Alicia. The black haired girl sat silently, her hands trembling. Finally, Dan looked at Hyde and Kazuto. "I'm gonna walk Alicia home. I'll see you tomorrow guys."

Kazuto and Hyde looked at each other reluctantly, but they both nodded their heads and headed home. Finally, both Dan and Alicia stood up and walked back towards Alicia's house.

As they walked, silence was the only thing going on between the couple. Dan had no words that he could think of that would make this situation better. Eventually, he said the only thing he could think of.

"I'm sorry." Dan told her. "I… I was so useless. Even after Eiji did that to you, I couldn't do anything."

Alicia shook her head. "There was nothing you could do. There was no way you could have predicted what would happen."

"But I… I should have been able to do something!" Dan said, angry at how powerless he was. "Because of me, you… you…"

"It's fine. Really." Alicia assured him, giving her boyfriend a kiss on the cheek. "I know we'll find a way out of this. I'm sure of it."

After a few more minutes of walking, the couple finally arrived at Alicia's house. When they got there, Emi answered the door. Dan explained what had happened at the raid to Emi and Alicia walked up to her room. Both Dan and Emi could sense the sadness coming from Alicia.

Emi looked at Dan. "I'll keep an eye on her. If anything happens, I'll be sure to let you know."

"Thanks Emi. I appreciate it." Dan said.

"Good night. Get home safe." Emi told him as she closed the door.

Dan turned around and began to walk home. As he walked through the city streets, tears fell from the teens eyes as he thought about everything that had just happened that night and how useless he had been to stop it all.

"Damnit…" Dan muttered to himself. "Damnit all…"

-The next day-

Emi yawned as she walked downstairs. It was the weekend so she was able to sleep in, but when she looked at her clock after she woke up and saw that it was almost noon, she knew she had overslept.

As she walked into the kitchen, Emi was greeted with a smile from her mother. "Morning Emi."

"Morning mom." Emi replied as she stretched out her arms. She looked around the kitchen and noticed her sister wasn't present. "Alicia's not up yet?"

Mrs. Tsuki shook her head. "No, I'm afraid not. She's been in her room all morning."

Emi's face showed a slight frown. She had a bad feeling about this. "I'm gonna go check on her."

"Emi… is everything alright?" her mother asked. "Is there something I should know?"

"Wh-What?" Emi cursed herself for stuttering as she shook her head. "No, of course not mom. Everything's fine."

Mrs. Tsuki wasn't convinced however as she gave her daughter a hard stare. "Emi…"

Emi tried to put up the best fight she could, but the look from her mother was too much. She let out a sigh of defeat. "Alright, there is."

Emi sat down and explained what was going on to her mother and father, including what had happened to Alicia last night. Her parents were silent throughout the entire explanation, and by the end of it neither of them knew what to say.

"So Alicia isn't able to remember anything that happened during her two years in SAO?" her mother questioned.

Emi nodded her head in confirmation. "I believe that's a safe bet. I know it sounds like a good thing to forget those two years considering it was a death game, but there were also a lot of good memories for her too during that time."

Mrs. Tsuki thought about her daughter's words. There was some truth to what Emi was saying. After SAO had ended, she had thought Emi and Alicia would be traumatized from their two years in the death game. She was surprised however when she saw the two girls acting quite normal considering their situation. The mother could only assume it was because of the many friends they had made during those two years.

"I'm gonna go see how Alicia's doing." Emi said as she got up from the table and walked upstairs.

The young Tsuki girl walked upstairs and went to her sister's room. She slowly opened the door and peeked her head in. Alicia was lying on her bed with the sheets over her. At a glance, it would appear she was sleeping, but Emi knew better than that.

Emi walked up to the bed and looked at her sister, who seemed to have a somewhat hollow expression on her face. A small ring could be heard from the black haired girl's phone. Looking at it, Emi could see several texts from Dan which she could only assume Alicia had yet to answer.

"You wanna talk, sis?" Emi asked. "I'm here for you if you need me."

Alicia stayed silent for a bit before finally speaking. "Emi… can I ask a question?"

Emi nodded her head. "Sure. Of course."

"Kouta and Otoha died in SAO, right?" Alicia asked. "Could… you tell me how they died? I can't seem to remember anything about it, except that Naruki had something to do with it."

"Oh…" Emi frowned as she realized what she was going have to explain. She sat on the edge of the bed. "Well it was about two weeks after SAO began. We were hunting out in the fields with Otoha, Kouta, and Naruki. Then a gold slime appeared, and Naruki attacked it even though we warned him not to. We got surrounded by monsters almost immediately after that. Naruki used a teleport crystal to get away before giving any out to us." A tear formed in Emi's eye, but she quickly wiped it away. "Kouta and Otoha died while fighting the mob. We were about to join them, but luckily Ren, Helios, and Riku showed up and saved us. That was the day we first met them."

"I see…" Alicia said.

Emi showed a small smile. "It's funny. I was so scared at that time. I was scared I was going to die. But you stayed right by my side and protected me. I could see you were scared too, but you put me before your own fear."

"Emi" Alicia interrupted. "I'm sorry, but… could you just let me rest for now. I'm a little tired."

The young girl could easily see right through her sister's lie, but nodded her head. "Alright. If you have anymore questions, or need to talk about anything else, just ask." Another text alert was heard and Emi saw it was from Dan again. "You should also talk to Dan. He might be able to help you too."

Alicia made no response to her sister's words. After Emi walked out of the room and closed the door behind her, tears began to roll down Alicia's face as she huddled with the blanket tightly.

'Damnit… why…' Alicia thought to herself. 'I can't remember anything about SAO. I can't remember meeting all my friends there.' She let out a small sob. 'I couldn't even remember how I met Ren.'

Alicia continued to quietly sob as she laid in her bed crying, ignoring the continuing list of texts coming from Dan and her other friends.

As Emi walked downstairs, she heard a text alert from her phone. She took a look at the text and saw it was from Dan.

Alicia hasn't responded to any of my calls or texts. Is she doing alright?

Emi hesitated on what to say. She knew Alicia was going through a lot right now, but was it right for her to tell Dan the state she was in and worry him even more. Was it even her place to tell him at all in the first place. She finally sent a text back.

She's just tired right now. I'm sure she'll respond once she's mulled over things a bit.

Emi wished she could believe her own words. But with how Alicia was right now, she wasn't entirely sure how to deal with it. She couldn't think of anything to say that would cheer her sister up without it seeming like false comfort right now.

'Why Alicia?! Why her?!' Emi thought to herself. 'She didn't do anything to deserve this! Neither her nor Asuna!' She clenched her fists tightly. 'If only I was stronger. If only I had the strength to stop that bastard Eiji.'

Never in her entire life had Emi cursed her own lack of power as much as she did now. But with their current situation, she wasn't sure what they could do to stop things.

Suddenly she heard another text come to her phone. She took a look at it and saw that it was a group text for the entirety of Wyvern's Inferno, minus Alicia. It was sent from Dan and what it said only made her feel more powerless.

"Hyde, calm down."

"How can I calm down about this? You saw that text, Lilina."

Hyde was currently walking up to the Hiryo household after reading the text sent by Dan. Lilina was at his side, trying to make sure her boyfriend didn't lose his temper. Well, anymore than he had already.

Hyde walked up to the front door and knocked. A few seconds passed before Dan's mother opened the door. "Hello Hyde. Lilina. Can I help you?"

"Is Dan home?" Hyde asked. "I needed to talk to him about something."

Juna nodded her head. "Yes, he's up in his room."

"Thank you." Hyde said politely before walking upstairs. He made his way to Dan's room with Lilina walking nervously behind.

Inside of the room, Dan was busy typing away on his laptop. He noticed the couple walk in and looked up at them. "Hey guys."

"Don't give me that crap, you asshole!" Hyde said, walking up to his friend. He grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. "Where do you find the balls to say what you did?"

"What are you talking about?"

"You know damn well what I'm talking about." Hyde said, holding up his phone and showing the text Dan had sent them.

I've decided that I'm not going to take part in anymore of the OS raids. I think we're wasting our time trying it as an approach.

Dan saw the text and looked away. "Hyde… I just can't-"

"You can't what?! Be a man and help Alicia who's lost her memories?!" Hyde yelled at him. "Who the hell do you think you are?!"

"Hyde, stop it!" Lilina said, pulling him away from Dan.

"Let me go Lilina! How can you stand there and be okay with what he said?!"

"Just hold on for a second." Lilina told him. She looked at her friend. "Dan… you have a good reason for this, right? If so, then tell us."

Dan lowered his gaze and looked down. "Right now I'm the only one between me and Alicia that still has their memories of Aincrad. I can still remember the time we all spent together. If I lost that… there'd be nothing left."

"That's why we're trying to get both her's and Asuna's memories back, dumbass!" Hyde yelled.

"We don't even know if it's POSSIBLE to get their memories back!" Dan suddenly shouted, getting off his bed and standing up. "I thought we would be able to find out more information if we dealt with the raids, but look where that's gotten us! We don't have a single new lead and Alicia got her memories taken too!"

"So what, you're just going to give up and run away?!" Hyde asked. "You're supposed to be the leader of this guild! How dare you show that kind of weakness in front of any of us!"

"I'm not giving up!" Dan said. "I'm just… taking the safer option."

"What you're doing is being a damn cowardly-"

"That's enough Hyde." Lilina told him, grabbing her boyfriend's arm.

Hyde turned to Lilina, unable to understand what she was saying. "You can't be serious Lilina. How can you defend him?"

Lilina shook his head. "I'm not saying he's right. But still… I can kind of see where he's coming from."

"Lilina?!"

"He's right Hyde, we don't know if we can even get Asuna and Alicia their memories back. And we haven't really made any notable progress with our raid plan." She then looked towards Dan. "But Dan… you should also realize that we don't have any other options right now. If we want to find a way to get their memories back, then we're going to have to take them head on."

"..."

"You know what that means right? You're going to have to face Eiji again." Lilina told him. "You're scared you'll lose to him, aren't you? That's what this is about."

"... He's invincible in AR." Dan said. "He's faster than me. Stronger than Hyde. I don't know how he does it, but I do know that if we fought again, I wouldn't be able to beat him. And losing in OS has some serious consequences." He trembled slightly. "I can't afford to lose the memories of the time Alice and I spent in SAO. They're too precious to me. And I'm the only one that has any of them right now."

Hyde scoffed at his friend. "You're just running away, and you know it." The teen turned around and walked out of the room.

Lilina let out a sigh as she watched Hyde leave. She turned back to Dan. "I get how important those memories are to you, Dan. But you should also think about if that's what Alicia would want."

"I couldn't tell you. She hasn't talked to me since last night."

Lilina showed her friend a soft smile. "At the risk of sounding cheesy, look inside yourself." she told him. "You'll find the right answer."

Dan watched as Lilina walked out of the room. The red haired girl's words echoed through his head. He thought about them as he went back to typing away on his laptop.

Three days had passed since Alicia had lost her memories. In that time, the most Emi had seen from her sister was coming down to eat breakfast in the morning and dinner at night. When she was at the kitchen table, she barely spoke. Never in her entire life had Emi ever seen her sister this reclusive.

Currently, Emi was standing in front of the door to Alicia's room. In the past three days, Alicia had barely left her room. Dan was growing more and more worried, texting Emi since Alicia was barely responding to any of his texts.

So many times, Emi could recall when she was in trouble or feeling down and Alicia was there for her. Her kind older sister always seemed to find a way to make her feel better. If she couldn't do the same for Alicia when she needed it, what kind of sister would that make her?

"Alicia?" Emi asked as she knocked on the door. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine Emi." Alicia replied, though the sobs Emi could hear from inside the room told a different story. "Just leave me alone."

Emi listened to Alicia's sobbing as she stood in front of the room. Alicia had said she wanted to be left alone, the same answer she had given every time Emi asked her. But Emi was done running away. She knew being alone was the last thing Alicia needed right now. Slowly opening the door, Emi peeked into the room and saw Alicia sobbing on her bed.

"I said leave me alone, Emi." Alicia said in a slightly bitter tone.

"Sorry sis, but that's not happening." Emi told her with a shake of her head. "You wouldn't leave me alone if I was in your state, and I'm not doing it to you either." The young girl walked up and sat on the edge of her sister's bed. "Alicia, I'm worried about you. Dan's worried about you. Everyone's worried about you. Just talk to us."

Alicia slowly sat up with tears still leaking from her eyes. "Emi… I can't remember any of it. Not a single thing that happened during SAO."

Emi nodded her head. "I know. But you can't let this stop you. You're my big sister and one of the best warriors from the assault team."

"But I don't remember any of that!" Alicia shouted, startling her sister slightly. "I don't remember the boss raids! I don't remember fighting on the assault team! It's all gone!"

"Alicia…"

"That's not even the worst part." Alicia said, clenching her fists. "I can't remember all the time I spent with Ren. I don't remember when we met, or when I started loving him, or even the dates we went on in Aincrad. I don't even remember our first kiss. And I don't even know if I'll start forgetting things outside of SAO too." Alicia couldn't take it anymore and curled up, burying her head into her knees. "How can I even look at Dan now when I can't remember so much of our time together? It'd only hurt him." Emi didn't let her sister continue any further as she grabbed Alicia by the hair and yanked it, forcing Alicia to bring her head up and look at her. "Ow! What the hell was that for, Emi?!"

Emi looked at her sister sternly. "You think avoiding Dan is making him feel better?! Alicia, he's hurting right now because you're barely speaking to him! He's worried sick about you!"

Alicia gasped at her sister. "Emi…"

"He knows you're hurting. We all do." Emi said. "But shutting us out isn't doing any good. Let us help you. Let us be there to comfort and support you."

Alicia looked at Emi as she stared at her. She could see the worry in her eyes. If Emi was like this, she could only imagine what Dan was like right now. A small smile came to her face as she wiped a tear away. "I really am dumb, aren't I?"

Emi let out a small chuckle. "Yeah, but you're also my sister." She smiled at her softly. "So how about it Beserker Lotus? Ready to come back to us?"

Alicia nodded her head. "Yeah. Thanks Emi, I needed that."

If you want to thank me, call your boyfriend. He's been bombarding me with texts asking about how you're doing."

Alicia giggled at her sister. "I'll be sure to do that."

Emi got off the bed and walked out of the room. "I'll close the door and give you some privacy. No telling what lovey dovey stuff you might say over the phone."

A bright red blush came to Alicia's cheeks. "Emi!"

Emi giggled as she closed the door behind her, leaving Alicia alone to call Dan.

Taking a look at her phone, Alicia could see the long list of texts from her friends, and most notably her boyfriend. She knew she'd have a lot of apologizing to do for making everyone worry. She called Dan's phone and brought her cellphone to her ear. Alicia was surprised how quickly he answered.

"Alicia, are you alright? How are you?"

"Relax Dan, I'm fine. More or less at least." Alicia assured him. "I'm sorry I haven't called you. I've been thinking to myself a lot these past couple of days."

"I'm just glad to hear from you." Dan said.

"Yeah, I got a bit of a wakeup call just now." Alicia said. She stayed silent for a few moments before continuing. "Dan… I'm sorry. I can't remember anything that happened in SAO."

"It's alright. I'm just happy that you're alright."

Alicia frowned slightly as she went on. "Dan… can I ask you to do me a favor?"

"Anything, Alicia. Just name it."

"We don't know if our memory loss won't progress even further." Alicia said. "So if I end up forgetting things outside of SAO… promise you'll be there for me. Even if I forget all our time together. Even if I forget how much you mean to me. Promise you'll still stay with me. Please."

"I wouldn't dream of doing anything else." Dan told her. "I don't care how much of our time together you forget, I will always stay by your side. That will never change."

Tears rolled down Alicia's face once more, but these ones were tears of joy. Joy at how blessed she felt to have someone who cared about her this much. "Thank you. You have no idea how much that means to me."

"Is there anything else you want to talk about, Alicia?" Dan asked. "Anything at all. Just tell me."

"No, I think I'm good." Alicia told him. "I'll talk to you later. Good night."

"Good night Alicia."

"Dan… it's nice to hear your voice again." Alicia said. "I think I needed that more than anything."

Alicia hung her phone up and laid back down in her bed. A small smile was present on her face. She didn't know what was going to happen from here on out. She didn't know how much worse things were possibly going to get. But one thing she did know was that she had people who loved her on her side. And that was more precious to her than anything.

A/N: So I know there wasn't any action this chapter. It was more of a drama one. Next chapter will also have a lot of drama, but will also have a fight or two. And perhaps a cameo for some characters. Interested? Well you'll have to wait until next chapter to find out more.