Kirito felt unnerved.

Not because his first match was over -oh, no, that was a straight given. After his initial fear of not blocking the other player's bullets subsided, Kirito still got hurt doing it. But came out on top when he aimed most of his shots just right into his opponent's chest plate and won.

No, what made him unnerved was this tall cloaked guy in a skull mask or helmet suddenly appear behind while he scanned the area around the waiting room. And asked, in a low metallic voice: "Are you the real thing?"

The first time around, it scared the skin off Kirito's virtual bones from how chilling yet threatful it sounded. Enough that he had detached his Kagemitsu G4 from his hip. Ready to use it. Instead, Kirito tried to calm down. "What do you mean by 'the real thing'?"

He nearly gasped when the player, who was a whole foot and half, taller, leaned over at him like a creeping branch. "Don't play dumb with me." The player threatened. His skull's red-eyes, almost as vibrant as the one his partner's avatar had on, staring through him. Not at him.

Kirito gripped his sword's light handle as if it was going to fall from his hand if he let go for even a second. Not that it was going to do him much good. They were outside in a safe-zone, as Sinon ran by him.

Another was the second cloaked guy, a foot behind the one with the skull. He was too far away to make out what he wore under his grayish-black hood. But the cloak he wore was shorter, almost like a cape. But Kirito knew for a fact this other guy was staring at him too. Intently.

Seeing how the skull player wanted an answer to his question. Kirito responded, "It's not against the rules to use a sword here, right? And why do you keep asking me that? I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Hm." The hooded player made an amused noise. He broke the tension by swiping right and opening up his user's interface. Pressing and swiping some more on the miniscreen efficiently enough, he looked as if he'd been doing that a lot. Especially when trying to look for something. Or someone. Kirito noticed when the tall player tapped on BLOCK D under Bullet of Bullets.

He doubled tapped on the upper sections where Kirito was located. And the Black Swordsman watched as the towering player flipped the panel towards him. His pointer-finger, entirely covered in bandages to a complete fit, gently hovering over the name: Kirito.

"That name. That skill with a sword...Are you the real thing?" He echoed, this time more unwavering, stern.

Kirito froze in place. Nothing here felt right -who would've thought?

Though he wasn't going to be when this guy and his pal, who served as a spectator, for now, approached and asked him if 'he was the real thing.' But, Kirito felt different. Like if the bottom of his coded stomach had taken a punch deep enough to kill him. One that made him want to throw up his breakfast in the real world if somehow, this feeling transferred to his physical body.

Then those eyes. Those beaming, gawking eyes from the man's mask burned into him with familiarity. The other hooded guy next to him, too. They both felt familiar. Their presence gave off something less than a friendly demeanor -not that they had one to begin with.

I've met them somewhere before. Kirito thought, feeling his palms turning ice cold through the fingerless gloves he wore. Did they have something to do with Death Gun? O-Or are they Death Gun? His eyes got large when he realized something. It was hard to see at first. But he connected the dots right away. The one place that popped into his mind over and over again.

SAO, He thought chillingly, th-there SAO-survivors! Kirito took a big step back and felt his stomach retract. Now he really wanted to throw up.

The red-eye player hymned, "Do you not understand my question?"

"Ī-Īe...I don't." Kirito muttered.

"Heh!" This time the second clocked player behind the one in the skull made a noise just short of amusement.

His taller partner read as well. Shortly after closing his panel -intently or not- he lifted his bandaged arm, he used to open the interface outward into a stretch. Kirito followed it, like a moth drawn to the flame.

Underneath his wrist, hiding under all those bandages, Kirito's mind went limp with a flood of memories pouring in.

The poking smile and white outline of the red-guild of Sword Art Online staring back at him. The coffin symbol he'll never forget. The Laughing Coffin symbol.

"Ōi, you two!" A voice called out behind them. Kirito was only temporarily in a moment of pure shock. He needed an extra moment or two to recognize the authoritative, slightly-accent voice belonging to his comrade, McKnight. "What's going on here?"

The cloaked, possibly ex-SAO -and or Death Gun player- gave the shorter teen a lookover. Same one as Kirito. "What's your name?" He asked.

"King Leopold II." The other red-eyed teen answered sardonically. "Yourself?"

The cloaked player drew back and signaled his friend. On his way out of this particular block, he passed by Kirito and declared, in that low robotic voice, "Whether you're a fake. Or the real one." The iron mask he wore emitted hot steam from either side underneath its bony cheeks. His eyes beamed at him when he spoke, "Someday...We'll kill you." And left. Leaving the once beta tester of Sword Art Online shaken to the core.

He only briefly noticed the skinny player with the skull helmet man give him one last bridging stare. Then at McKnight, and started to walk when he suddenly stopped. Taking a double take at the other teen for a few moments longer than needed. The khaki teen gave him a questioning look. "Take a picture, it'll last longer."

The other guy didn't respond. At least not verbally until he felt the presence of his partner digging into his back to hurry up. Only then did this guy feel the need to break eye-contact and proceed down out of this room. Feeling much less cold now.

McKnight turned over and asked, genuinely curious, "What'd you do this time?"

"I…" Kirito stopped, and shook his head. "I don't know."

Returning to the booth they were in before the Bullet of Bullets qualifiers snatched and sent them out to their respectful matches. Kirito sat down and ran his hands over his head. Feeling his heart or chest, maybe his whole body, go into a nervous state of despair. His throat felt dry and worn out. Feeling like screaming his off from the pressure pressing down on him from all sides as if he were in a box shrinking little by little. Since McKnight took the seat across from him, Kirito tried his best to keep his nerves down.

For what it was worth, that didn't help, either. It just made things worse.

As always, McKnight nonchalantly made light of the situation. "You look like you're sweating bullets," He began, unloading and reloading his pistol -an older variant from Kirito's Beretta M9. "Was the first match that bad or..?" He let the question hang in the air, but Kirito wasn't paying attention. Not anymore.

His time was back in the past.

In Sword Art Online, he had encounters with a few players who, while fully knowing that being killed inside the game, meant dying in real life. Many still used it as a way to coerce or intimate weaker players into giving them free items, potions, weapons, and other expensive gear they couldn't work for.

But the group that terrorized SAO's lifespan, Laughing Coffin, led by a player known as PoH (Kirito only ever saw him once), did more than force or intimate. They killed dozens, maybe hundreds of players without blinking or hesitating. And most of them enjoyed the thrill of it, too. Kirito had seen that first hand.

A raid he was a part of, sometime before the games' end at Floor 75, was sent to eliminate or capture the red-guild. After one of the clearing-parties got the tip of their home location. What happened next?

What happened next was a bloodbath. Kirito recalled in numb pain. Both the clearers and Laughing Coffin suffered devastating losses when the latter ambushed them from all sides. Sure Kirito and his comrades, Asuna and Klein included, were high-levels and had the manpower to back them up. Did that matter to the bastards in cloaks, though? Not one bit.

Because of that, over twenty Laughing Coffin members were killed, refusing to surrender while the clearers suffered about a third. And two of those red players that were killed...were killed by Kirito's sword.

Were they the ones I killed? And they somehow came back…? No...no, that's not possible! Kirito felt his hands grip around his long hair locks wanting to tear them off. Nothing of this made any sense. And Kirito doubted he'd know how to figure this one out.

He was so caught up in that part of his past. That he didn't even consider what to respond with when McKnight warily asked, "How come you were staring at that tall guy's wrist by the way? Was there something on it?" Not thinking much of just asking.

Kirito, when the smiling coffin symbol flashed over his eyes once again, crocked out, "Laughing Coffin." in a sunken voice.

McKnight abruptly ceased fixing up his pistol. Which made the swordsman take some notice.

Staring blankly at him. He asked, "What did you just say?"

"Nasshingu," Kirito responded, assuringly. "Don't...worry about it."

McKnight glared and got off his seat. "No," Kirito blinked as the other teen began walking towards him, menacingly. "No, you said something. Now. What. Was. It?" His voice came off hard as stone.

"Uh-" Kirito stammered out. Anxiety was getting the best of him. "Reg- I mean, McKnight I-!"

McKnight pulled him up from his collar. His own red-eyes blazing hotter than Death Gun's. "What the fuck did you just say?!" He shouted in fierce anger.

Someone shouted and ran up between them, "What the hell are you doing? Let go of him!" Sinon attempted to yank off McKnight's hold.

"Tst!" McKnight growled but let go as Kirito flopped on his knees, blankly.

Sinon looked like she was about to go off on him. Until she got a look at Kirito's face that she gazed back in concern. "Are...Are you okay-?"

He got transported when the bubble-aura took him to his next match.

Waiting silently in the loading-room -an area where he stood on a single white platform surrounded by darkness. The text displayed above him telling who he'd be fighting, the map, and time left until the match started.

By the time Kirito spawned, and the shooting started, he hardly remembered the Congratulations! sign when he won it.

. . .

I knew it. McKnight thought in deep anguish. There wasn't any doubt, but I knew it! He felt like gritting his teeth into sawdust. And for good reason.

After his first match had ended. McKnight returned to the waiting room at the start of the Bullet of Bullets -the place he and the swordsman were deployed in.

Along the way, sure enough, he spotted the girly-dressed player talking to two guys in cloaks that didn't fit the description of friendly, and they sure as hell weren't. They ended up leaving the staging-area when McKnight told them to go where the sun didn't shine. Or at least he wished he was more blunt and cold on making that point known. But those two players left anyways, which counted for more depending on your perspective.

It was worse when, after returning to the booth he sat previously, did he find out why the Hero of Aincard's once composed and stoic face...fell about thirty knots to the ground. His ghostly expression saying he'd seen hell and twice over.

And he ended up catching way more than that times a thousand when he muttered out that name. Laughing Coffin. McKnight had had that goddamn name in his mind for more than a week. But rarely brought it in case he was getting his hopes up and could've been wrong.

He wasn't anymore.

When his Japanese employer, Kikuoka Seijirou (Or Mr. Seijirou when he first met him), ran by the possibility on his trip to McKnight's hometown of Richmond for the Death Gun case. Under the flag of a "Game-Recruiter" for Gun Gale's Bullet of Bullets tournament. A story that gave McKnight's parents something to think about, but something he knew from the get-go was bullcrap. Since he never participated in it before.

It was only when Mr. Seijirou shifted him away from his parents' ears. And told him why he made an effort to travel all the way to the United States did McKnight start to listen. When the Japanese man mentioned that guild's name, he was willing to play along and then convince his family to let him return to Japan for it. The thought of Laughing Coffin and Death Gun -or was it Guns because there were two of those bastards?- being linked was a far fetch plan when it was presented by his boss. However, what evidence he did have was enough to say the possibility was there. Not one-hundred percent, but it was there. Even now.

McKnight hardly spotted the time between him nearly breaking the back of Kirito's neck to repeat his answer -until Sinon showed up to prevent such an incident. And being teleported into his second round.

All he could recall was running around a dirt-covered landscape, with the sun overhead, like a madman. Feeling his eyes darted in a wild wariness, he didn't remember the last time since he had. And when he spotted the poor bastard out in the distance peering off in the opposite direction. He probably assumed McKnight was heading...he didn't know what hit him until McKnight literally was top of him. Blasting and shredding him to red ribbons with his submachine gun. Emptying his magazine of what was left of him for good measure.

More or less, the Black Swordsman was doing plenty of that when McKnight returned and watched him on the multiple TV set at Block D's center of the room. The Japanese teen took more damage than McKnight did. He was still clumsy around the edges when he fought, especially when he tried closing the gap between him and his opponent with the M9 McKnight gave him. Yet, he won, and his shots, while half missed, still found its way into the other guy. Sinon wasn't too far behind either when her massive sniper rifle blasted a guy in a jeep to bits. McKnight swore.

Spawning into his next match left him something to do and someone to shoot at the moment. The desert prairie around him -the map named Dust Bowl, probably named after the famine back in the 30s in the U.S.- felt like molten steel pressing around his pale face from the sun's glare and the sand all around him.

For a second, McKnight wondered if this was what it felt like in North Africa? It sure looked like it from the photos he saw online and through history books showing the battlefields around El Alamein and Tobruk. McKnight never actually been to those areas or had hard-copied pictures from his great grandfathers -mostly because both on his mother's and father's side fought in the Pacific against the Japanese. The guy McKnight was facing -Hiryu's Thunder- was maybe someone from the island nation he fought on with that kind of name.

McKnight was determined to meet him and knock him flat to get this tournament done and over with. My main prize is those two Coffs in their cloaks, He thought with malice. ...one of them anyhow.

He ended up finding his intended target passing, actually, by a row of burnt-out antiaircraft guns and hunkering down around a battered, but not too battered, sandbag position with an actual machine gun.

The other guy in a uniform that was of a mustard color yelped and cursed when he spotted the speed McKnight charged at him. Fiddling and cursing some more. The mustard player hastily turned the barrel of his heavy mounted machine gun, chattering it to life.

McKnight's close proximity and deadly firepower from his Thompson quickly put more lead in the air than his adversary. Forcing the other guy to duck his head further down. Behind his sandbagged position as bullets wheezed by near and at the bag post -fingers still holding down his gun's triggers wildly.

Grunting when one of those lucky bullets found a way into his lower hip, McKnight snarled and squeezed his gun until it smoked empty once again. It didn't matter because as soon as he stepped out of the line of fire from the Bullet Lines, Hiryu's Thunder was throwing at him. McKnight dropped his smg and removed his .45 from its holster. Jumping into the dugout hole with him.

"Kuso!" The other guy's eyes scream out, along with his mouth.

Grabbing and attempting to swing his large machine gun at him like a blunt instrument. He succeeded in grabbing and swinging the thing: over McKnight's head. Who saw the act from a mile away. By then, McKnight gave a swift punch right into Hiryu's stomach. Making him howl like a wolf.

He tried swinging his massive gun again. But the sluggish movement from the weapon's weight -and getting one right in the kisser- gave McKnight enough time to grab the MG mid through. And deliver an even swifter kick right near privates. Throwing and knocking Thunder at the perimeter's edge. The glimmer of McKnight's Colt against the sun punched a series of bullets into Hiryu's body. Quickly turning him into red polygons. The first few already did him in. But McKnight's finger was still loose on the trigger until the whole magazine, like his submachine gun, clicked empty.

Still, he attempted to fire more despite the empty rounds. "Son of a bitch," He was sweating profusely, and his nostrils were flaring by the time the trumpets and his victory text appeared overhead. By then, he was already done caring about that.

Returning back to Block D and thus, to the waiting room, talk around the place started to increase and increase as each match concluded, most notably about Sinon, Kirito, and himself.

Since all three of them were winning their matches. All three of them promptly stayed away from one another as they -well, Sinon and McKnight mostly- took refuge in the now many empty booths. With Kirito hanging around somewhere, McKnight neither knew nor cared to look for.

When McKnight realized the other teen was in his second to the last match, the Black Swordsman's style was always the same. Clumsy and reckless and charging straight at the enemy. Not that McKnight wasn't that either, far from it. He was just better at it since he'd had lots of practice fighting with shock and fear in the mix. Kirito was doing much of the same thing, only with his stupid saber sword. And deflecting the bullets coming at him like they were nothing. Which made him grumble.

As soon as he was close enough, Kirito slid down and hacked his opposite number's legs off from the big-screen shown. The army man screamed out in pain until he was silent when the girly swordsman spun around and dug his plasma sword right into his back. Letting out a sharp gurgle noise before shattering into pieces. Victory! displaying across the TV of Kirito's match. "Gosh, she keeps fighting like that and winning." Someone muttered out close by.

"Un, it's crazy," someone else nodded, awe-struck.

"You think Kirito and her boyfriend and Sinon will make it to BoB?" He asked his buddy.

The player who spoke first shrugged. "I don't know. I heard five or six other blocks have three players going perfect already." He shrugged again. "Unless something happens soon, I bet only two of them are going to advance on for the main tournament." McKnight listened intently to that -having heard that bell before (ignoring the part where his name was indirectly inserted).

There were only thirty people in total that could participate in the Battle Royale -two players a piece from each of the fifteen blocks of sixty-four players that registered. But, since two of those last blocks were entirely empty...that left four extra possible slots open, sure. However, if five or six other three-man participants had the same idea already: what were the chances of his block getting a third runner up for the main tournament? Pretty damn short, by God.

Sinon had to know it when he caught her looking in his general direction. She scowled, and he only squinted in attenuation. Not sure if either her, Kirito, or some random would be his latest opponent.

So long as he advanced, though, that was all that mattered.

Standing over a pile of rubble from a destroyed house, he flogged both his grenades in. The player that tried fleeing didn't know what hit her when she was caved in from the debris - McKnight only finding out she was a girl when he spotted her crawling out battered and groaning in pain.

McKnight promptly ended her suffering by firing a stream of lead into her when she tried putting her hands up. "Not today." as she crumpled and became what everyone else had before her. Red pixels.

After the usual jingle that went along with his win, McKnight stared up at the text right as he was encompassed by the bubble aura around him to send him off to his next destination.

Standing in the pitch-black room. The only thing illuminating was the white marble floor underneath McKnight's darker brown boots. Did he see who his last opponent was.

Or, more appropriately, his last two. Kirito and Sinon.

. . .

"Shouldn't have stepped away when you could, Typhoon," Sinon critiqued as the player in question went up in smoke.

That match went, for the most part, as you'd expect. Typhoon, to be sneaky and throw her off by wearing a ghillie suit -a type of clothing that covers the user from head to toe that blends in with the current environment- tried getting close enough to kill her.

If they hadn't been fighting in the middle of nowhere with only some bushes and trees spouting here and there in the desolate gas station nearby -he might've stood a tiny better chance. Sinon was glad for her patience because she spotted him leaving his position by crawling into a more highly dense bush. And since she had hidden on top of the destroyed building's roof -with the burning smoke emitting from taking a bomb- was it took late for him to spot her. Especially when she touched off one of the plainly visible grenades attached to his belt.

When the familiar sound of trumpets blared out, and the text of GGO's game mode congratulating her, Sinon felt it as a second stable to what was on her mind. Or, relatively still fresh on her mind.

Her two rivals, McKnight and Kirito.

One minute they were happily teasing and joking at her expense. The next? McKnight looked ready to tear his crossdresser companion into pieces. And Kirito looked terrible. Frighten, in fact. And not because of the arrogant light brown mercenary holding him up by the collar, either. Sinon had been wondering what had happened for something like that to happen?

Before she could ask, the two boys spawned into their second matches then Sinon herself, too. And that was the status quo for the rest of the qualifiers it looked like. Sending her in a state of bewilderment when she heard and saw how they fought. And won their fights with such anger and effectiveness that she had to slap herself to realize what she was seeing.

To make up for the losses, there was a chance that more than one player from each selective block could advance to the main tournament. Sinon didn't want to put too much faith in her and her rivals all moving on. Because if she were to lose and get eliminated now because there wasn't any space left... she'd lose herself in it all.

But that wouldn't happen. I'll make sure of it.

She sighed, though. "It's a shame Spiegel won't see me win if I do," Sinon muttered out loud, in disappointment. Apparently, his dad had given him a timelapse for how long he could stay logged until he had to study or do more school work again. She hoped when this was over, she'd treat him to something for always coming regardless to say hi. Must be worse for him since I rarely see him as much as before. She nodded, seeing as next week was final exams. And with him becoming a doctor...Yeah, she would have to do something for him when this was over with.

For now she went back to the task at hand. Then, her heart skipped a beat, and she felt her fingerless gloves tighten around her sniper-rifle, Hecate. Spawning back into the waiting room -other people called it the anxiety room. The names

Sinon vs. Kirito vs. McKnight

spread across the text screen in front of her as if they were the main event. To most watching -and her participating- they were.

When she first spawned in. The Construction Outskirts was the map their final match was called -due to the many abandoned construction vehicles -mostly trunks- and the half-built abandon construction site all around her.

Sure enough, the nearly invisible squared barriers behind her glimmered, as if to remind her not to step out and remain inside the destined zone to fight in. Unless you were up a cliff or a highway where you could fall. Or, sometimes, jump off then give your opponent the satisfaction of killing you. Not that she planned on it even if the map gave the option.

But it those two find me out here in the open like this, Sinon didn't need long to figure out what would happen, then.

Instead, giving a quick one-eighty around her surrounding, did she dash to cover like her life depended on it right that second. If I can find a high enough elevation or somewhere to conceal my position unnoticed. -Sinon huffed as she hauled the sniper rifle that was nearly as tall as her around. Running between several stacked steel plates from either side of her- McKnight, that jerk, would probably be running and looking for me as an easy-kill with his submachine gun as we speak. Kirito, too if given a chance.

Racing ahead, Sinon spotted a short tower crane approximately 115 feet away over the interior of the construction building she had stepped in -the patches of sand or cement underneath her boots felt rough. If she could get up there undetected, it'll be like swatting flies. Except the flies wouldn't know what hit them till it was too late and go splat from afar even if they did.

Midway through, Sinon's memory decided to rerun Kirito and McKnight's faces when she saw them. Again she wasn't sure why of all times she would be thinking of them at that point. Why should she? It wasn't like it reminded her of herself in the real world...right?

Sinon shook her head and had just managed to get out of the inner skeleton of the building she was under when someone bumped into her hard. Hard enough that she rolled back on her heels and felt the sand -guess it was sand- dig into her fingernails to stop herself.

Grunting, she looked up. The surprised face Kirito gave off reflected off of hers, too. "You!" Sinon screamed out and heaved her sniper at him.

The rapid-firing of bullets sprouted up debris between her and the black-armored boy -who had already activated his plasma sword when Sinon looked and aimed to fire at him right then and there.

"Well, well, well? Look who I caught sleeping at the switch?" McKnight announced in musing tones. GGO's sun nearing the horizon, acting as a backdrop against his soldiery, light brown uniform. And the deadly Thompson he had pointed at them -specifically at Sinon. "Yoi. This match is going to be easier than I thought." He gestured with his automatic.

Sinon growled. "It's just my luck! I forget how cocky and arrogant you sound." She returned. Wishing her hand was on her Glock on her back belt.

The boy shrugged. "Too damn bad, sniper. You aren't too far off, either." Which made her growled fiercer this time. Now she really wished she had her hand on her pistol.

McKnight must have seen she wanted as much because he chuckled, knowing that it wouldn't do her much right. He was the one pointing the gun at her. "We don't have to do this any more guys, so quit the act." Kirito, who was surprisingly quiet during this whole exchange, answered immediately.

"Oh, yeah?" McKnight sounded out. "And what makes you say that, swordswoman?" He added the apparent jeer to it, more pungently.

"If the three of us made it here, in GGO's Qualifiers for its final round," Kirito lowered his sword. "Then we made it to the Bullet of Bullets tournament. I'm not sure how this game fully works, but seeing how we're in a match made for two-players, there's a chance" His voice sounded, probably not convinced, but something close to it. "So, what's the point?"

"'What's the point?'" McKnight echoed. "Only that right there. That's something I can't take, and not going to. How do I know if that part might be true, but only for those who finish their three-player matches first? And every second we waste is another second less of that part being true?" He waited for a response. Even sticking out his chin for good measure. Kirito frowned towards the concrete floor.

"T-Tsukamatte iru!" Sinon took a step forward. "Don't think my voice in this conversion isn't important." She asserted. "You two just got here on this game and act like this all just some stupid match that doesn't matter." She gritted, scowling at the two boys adjacent and across from her.

It looked like Kirito was going to say something -maybe ask Sinon about if what he said was true from how concerned he looked -and worned out. Then McKnight started up first with what she said. "You're right, Sinon. None of this crap matters." And in less than a few words, landed a thirty-pound bomb directly over her head. "So why the hell would you be any less than that?" He replied back.

Sinon jerked and felt her eyes getting watery. How can...he say that with a straight face? She thought with venom and tremendous pain from what she's gone through to get to this point. How...

Then she burst out, "It's not like that, god damn you!" Enough that it startled Kirito and momentarily gave McKnight a reason to raise both his eyes. "You think that's why I'm here?" -tears running down her cheeks as she fought in vain to close them- "It's not! It's not like that to me and don't treat me like I'm nothing here..!" She shouted out in frustrated pain -falling down on her knees and even dropping Hecate during the moment. Not that...what he said wasn't false.

She didn't want to become afraid any more than she was already in the real world. And after what happened all those years ago. She wanted to become stronger. And be a normal girl, again. But that wasn't going to happen for a long time, and she knew it. Having someone like him just proved it.

"That was too far, even for you, McKnight." Kirito began.

McKnight flinched. Only for a moment then did he swore under his breath. Lowering his gun only by a fraction.

Sinon saw after Kirito picked her back up. Her vision was blurry and she was still reeling back. Kirito went on, "Sinon, we didn't know this meant so much to you. That's why I'm -maybe that's why we're all here. There are things I've done...things I thought I forgot and buried. And I tried to move on from them." He straightened up to her. "Let's try to rewrite that wrong. Let's have a duel -the three of us and settle things, right here and now. Is that fine with you?"

Sinon, still feeling the sting of the tears under her left. Sniffed and half heartedly wiped them away. "If this is some trick.." She warned but didn't say no. And she guessed the only slightly taller boy saw as much.

"McKnight, is that fine by you, too?" Kirito asked the other boy, who may have been a tiny bit shorter than himself.

At first, he didn't say a word. Just stared away from them, his submachine gun still pointing at Sinon. But not directly. Only around her boots. After a moment, all he said was, "Sure." And that was that.

After explaining the rules, Sinon placed her sniper up against the pillar behind her and unlatched her holster for her pistol. McKnight, fifteen meters directly away from her, marched off and turned around, doing the same. But with the same silent expression on him. With Kirito roughly around the same distance away perpendicular to either of them.

The rules being that, while the boy in black used only his sword, Sinon would square off against McKnight in a draw. The first one to shoot and kill the other wins and turn if given enough time to shoot their guns on the long-haired sword-bearer beside them.

If Kirito hadn't added he'll use only his sword, Sinon wouldn't have agreed to this. But, since he did, that left her more willing to go along with the idea for now.

He nodded with the bullet casting he ejected out of his Beretta M9. "Ready guys?" When neither one of them said anything. He flipped the bullet up and reignited his sword. Getting into position.

Sinon didn't want to follow the bullet with her eyes. It would've blocked off all concertation on her target, her rival, the damn mercenary in front of her. And McKnight's crimson eyes steadily looking back, and hand ready to draw. I'm going to get even with you from all you said and done to me. Sinon wanted to scream that out plainly into his opponent's face. Looking at them now, even without his visor, brown helmet, or those two stupid black marks under his cheeks, made her blood boil ingame. Half tempting her to grab her pistol now and fire every single bullet into his face.

There was a calm silence as if everything had stopped. Then the ping! sounded off to her right.

Drawing her gun with record speed with McKnight a second quicker, a force of energy took over Sinon. As she lowered and aimed her iron sights and Bullet Circle at his chest. And, seeing the red Bullet Line comes from his pistol aiming somewhere down her neck or head, did they fire.

Adrenaline pumping either on them when their guns clicked! back.

"Huh?" Sinon aimed and tried again. But her gun clicked empty once again. McKnight looked equally confused and surprised when he did the same thing.

"What just happened?" Kirito asked, as he looked to be getting ready for a short sprint. "Was it a glitch?" Seeing how his sword was now deactivated.

"How the hell should I know?" McKnight angrily answered and popped out his magazine -to find no bullets.

As if on cue, the forward victory horns sounded off, and the text display of this match's winner came out.

Congratulations!

M)_in_to Wins!

They all looked at the sign dumbfounded. And began muttering something along the lines of "What" and "the" and possibly another, more profane word when they got teleported back to the main room.

The energetic announcer from before, upon Sinon and the two teens returning, exclaimed out loud, "And like that, we have our winners! Let's give them a big welcoming cheer!" She exalted.

The attendees all around shouting out in the same vigor jubilee. While sizeable others looked around somewhat confused. Sinon among them.

All the players moving onto the Battle Royal portion of BoB showed up on the giant tv screen. Displaying the blocks, they were coming from. Some players Sinon recognized, like Dyne, Yamikaze, and Ritchey the Lion King. And many others she didn't know off the top of her head.

Sure enough, hailing from Block D, her name, along with McKnight and Kirito were right up there with the rest of them. This made her, hating to admit, that the long-haired boy was correct that they were one of the picked three players going to the Battle Royale.

And, promptly, both her and McKnight being wrong about that one.

That was until Sinon saw that they weren't supposed to. At least according to the times, each match concluded. Blocks A to C and E to K finished roughly under four to five minutes, seconds before theirs did.

One of the last ones, who like the others, had three-players, had someone disconnected. A pretty famous player named Garrett -she heard his name around Glocken- did. "Talk about bad luck," Sinon said with sympathy, concerning how far he got only to get the boot towards the end.

But, the looks Kirito and McKnight sent towards the screen were of trepidation. McKnight's much, much more irate than Kirito's. Sinon felt her chest sink in some underline detail because of it. Didn't he just get disconnected, though?

Something told her she didn't know the half of it. Good thing, too…

*Author's note: Hello There. I bet your bottom dollar you didn't expect the qualifiers to end like this, haha? Don't worry, it gets much, much, more interesting, I promise. *wink. Anyways, thank you all so very much for reading! If you want to support the story, consider showing some love (favorite/follow) and leave a review on what you thought. Till next time, have a damn good day!