4 Months into SAO...

"Hello?" Lyn's voice echoed through the modest home as she entered. "Toshi?"

"Hey!" Toshiyan called, walking into the main room. "You're back!"

Lyn glanced around the house. "It's a good thing too. I leave for a day, and the place is a mess!"

"That's not true! I just cleaned up my stuff!"

"Well, help me clean this up, we have a guest coming."

Toshiyan looked confused. "Who?"

"A good friend of mine, I'm going to talk with her about joining our guild."

"YOUR guild." Toshiyan corrected. "They don't want me to join, remember?"

"Well YOU are just a little too young right now. We're going to face some pretty tough bosses, and they want you to be a bit older."

"Fine, but one day, I'll be strong enough."

"I believe you." Lyn replied, smiling. "Just not as strong as me. It's been a long time since you were at a higher level than I was. Thus you see, I am, and always will be, the superior swordswoman."

"Don't forget 'most humble'." Toshiyan muttered under his breath.

"Hush now, dear brother." Lyn muttered, cupping her hand over her ear. "Hearken, she comes!"

"No she's- stop being weird!" Toshiyan ordered. A gentle tap was suddenly heard at the door. Toshiyan glanced back and forth between the door and his sister.

Lyn tapped a finger to her temple. "Listening skill, it's something that I've been leveling up recently. If you'd like some help, I'm happy to train you." she stated, looking sincerely at Toshiyan.

"I'll, um, I'll think about it."

"Anyway, can you go to my room and grab my guild papers? I need to talk over some stuff with her, and give her some notes."

"Sure," Toshiyan replied, walking back the way he came. As he stepped through the hallway, he could hear the door open and Lyn's voice greeting someone. He parted an already-open door at the right end of the hallway, which was loaded with clutter all over the floor. A variety of clothes were scattered across the room, and the bed was in disarray. On the nightdesk, Toshiyan picked up the papers, observing a little notice pop up in front of him. After dismissing the pop-up, he walked towards the exit, gazingg at the door of his room across the hallway. It was parted slightly, allowing only a crack for the earnest watcher to see. The view only allowed a flawless, spotless floor to be visible. "Okay, I'm back." Toshiyan stated walking back into the main room.

"Hey bro, thanks." she stated, accepting the incoming trade request from Toshiyan. "By the way, this is my friend, Asuna."

Toshiyan looked at the warrior who was sitting across from his sister. She had chestnut-colored hair, which draped over her shoulder as she turned to look at him. She looked up at him, her brown eyes meeting his own, and stood up to face him. "Hello! I'm Asuna, it's nice to meet you!"

He looked at her, perplexed for a moment. "I-It's nice to meet you too."

"Legit, Asuna, you don't need to be so formal." Lyn encouraged. "Relax, you're with friends. Hey bro, could you get us some water?" she asked Toshiyan.

"Oh, I'm fine." Asuna said, sitting down. "You don't have to-"

"It's fine!" Toshiyan interrupted, almost too loudly. "I'll be back in a second." He took a few quick steps towards the kitchen.

"So, tell me about this guild."

"Right, so we're called the Knights of the Blood Oath." Lyn explained. "We're not really big right now, we have maybe, I dunno, 20 guys, but they're all kind of BAMFs in their own right."

"They're BAM…What?" Asuna asked.

"She means they're cool." Toshiyan interjected, grabbing some glasses from off the counter.

"No, go on Toshiyan, say what it REALLY means." Lyn jeered.

"No way, you keep your weird American curse words to yourself!" he retorted.

"You're saying they're pretty skilled though, right?" Asuna interrupted.

"Yeah," Lyn continued. "So, I ran into this guy named Heathcliff. He's a rather clever fellow, I think he's a professor or something, but he's super big into knights and, like, ancient history and stuff. I met him while doing a boss run last time, and have been working with them ever since."

"That was about a month ago, right?" Asuna asked.

"Yeah, and to be fair that was the first time I'd ever seen him too. But hey, we're already doing pretty well for ourselves. We're planning on taking on the boss dungeon on Floor 12 in a week or so, but we could really use some backup. You're the first person I thought of, and so I wanted to run it by you."

"You…want me to join your guild."

"You got it." Lyn said, smiling. Toshiyan walked back with a tray of water glasses, placing a glass in front of Lyn and Asuna. "Thanks bro!"

"No problem."

"Thank you," Asuna muttered, smiling. "But Lyn, why pick me?"

"Are you kidding?" she asked, after downing the glass of water in a matter of seconds. "You're the strongest swordswomen I know, and that's a lot, coming from me. You've also got a head for strategy. I guarantee you, if you joined, they'd put you in leadership within two months, bet my longsword on it."

"Well, I'm flattered, but…I don't know."

"Come on, have I ever steered you wrong?" Lyn asked. "Also, shut up Toshi, no one asked you."

"Hey! I didn't even say-"

"You were totally about to! Don't lie to me!"

"Okay, I'm just saying, I can think of a very particular instance where you convinced six-year-old me to eat raw rice because, and I'll quote, 'The rice would grow in my stomach, and I wouldn't have to eat vegetables again.' Does that ring a bell, sis?"

Lyn chuckled to herself. "Yeah, that was a good one."

"I was sick for days after that!"

"You were fine," Lyn retorted, waving her hand dismissively. "Jokes aside though, I'm serious about this Asuna. This is a good opportunity, and I want you to be a part of it. You know as well as I do that guilds are going to be very important, especially as we start climbing more floors. Soon, we're going to need more people, and more organization to start clearing these dungeons. One friend to another, I want you there with me. We need you."

Asuna paused, a contemplative look on her face. She nodded to herself first. "Alright,"

"Alright?"

"Yeah, I'd love to join."

Lyn shot to her feet. "LET'S GO!" she yelled. Both Toshiyan and Asuna winced at the outburst, and Asuna smiled to herself as Lyn sat back down. "You won't regret this."

"I know I won't."

"So I have some papers for you, you can take a look at them." Lyn continued, sliding the papers over to her. "Actually, you know what," she said, standing up. "I just realized there are a couple of other things I need to get for you, I'll be right back."

"Okay," Asuna replied. Lyn walked back towards the hallway, leaving Toshiyan with Asuna. The latter sighed. "Your sister is quite the character."

"Tell me about it." Toshiyan groaned as he leaned against the counter. "She talks a lot about you though. She really likes you."

She giggled. "She's very sweet."

"When she wants to be." Toshiyan chuckled to himself. "Both of us kind of give each other a hard time though, but we know we're just kidding around."

"I figured." Asuna smiled. "You know, she loves you quite a lot too. When we're hunting together, or we're on our way to a dungeon raid, she talks all about you."

"Let me guess: She tells you all about my 'Top 10' most embarrassing moments."

"Not really, mostly she talks about how you're trying hard to help her, and how you're improving in your sword fighting ability. She's very sweet, I promise."

"Really?"

"Yeah," she continued. "You're a good brother."

Toshiyan's eyes met hers again, until he looked away. "I- Thanks."

"It's no trouble."

"I'm back!" Lyn called, walking back into the room. "Here's the last bit of paperwork, and I'll put in an order for a uniform for you. That sound good?"

"That sounds alright to me." Asuna replied.

"Cool, but if it's all the same to you, let's get lunch first. There's this great place nearby, where the rice balls are to die for! Would that be alright?"

"Sounds great," Asuna responded, standing up.

"Hey Toshiyan, you wanna come too?"

Toshiyan looked at both of them, his eyes lingering slightly longer on Asuna. He smiled. "Yeah, I'd love to."

"WOAH!" Ruby yelled nervously as she flew.

"Careful Ruby!" Asuna cautioned.

"And you guys say you fly like this all the time?" Ruby asked.

"It's a faster way to go." Liz replied. "Controllers work fine, but it's not super efficient."

"You're kind of leaning forward as you fly." Toshiyan noted, flying alongside the three others. "Try stretching your body out." It's a weird feeling though, I get why she's having a hard time. Still, I can't believe I didn't pick up on this flying technique earlier. This will cut our travel time in half.

"Sorry, I'm not super coordinated, not gonna lie."

"No worries, luckily for us, we're here." Liz said. The four of them landed, Ruby stumbling slightly as she found her footing.

"Thank goodness," Ruby sighed. "That was stressful."

"Huh, you're sure this is the place?" Toshiayn asked. The four of them looked up at a large mountain of garbage in front of them. The mountain seemed spread out more thinly, stretching on for kilometers, with little valleys formed between mounds. The landfill appeared as a pile of rusted metal, broken weapons, ripped up books, and a variety of other refuse. "It smells atrocious."

"Yep, this is it." Liz answered. "This may look like a dump, and to an extent, it is, but the savviest Leprechauns know that this is the best place to get enchanted metal, or if nothing else, metal that has an aptitude to be enchanted."

"So…what are we looking for?" Ruby questioned.

"We're looking for little silver ingots, about this big." She held her hands apart by about 20 centimeters. "It'll stand out from the others, a lot of them have kind of a bluish-greenish outline, if that makes sense."

"Yeah, I think most enchanted items have a different colored outline, at least when they're naturally spawned." Toshiyan mused to himself.

"Should we split up?" Asuna asked.

"Spread out, definitely, but don't go too far." Liz mentioned. "I've heard that sometimes bandits will hang out around here."

"Sounds good," Asuna replied. "Let's go." The four of them began to march towards the closest valley. As they got closer to the mounds in front of them, the clear space that acted as a path earlier seemed to rise up into a pathway of trodden-down garbage. Toshiyan looked up from his feet back up to the largest mound in the center of the area.

"It's funny, that mound ahead of us is larger than the others. Is that a dungeon?" Toshiyan asked.

"Kinda," Liz responded. "The first part is a dungeon, but it also allegedly leads to the capital of Leprechaun territory. Unfortunately, there's not a ton of useful loot in there, so most players just ignore it after they clear out the quests."

"I see, and let me guess, those quests are geared to lower-leveled players, right?" Tosyian asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"Oh, well, I guess it's close to the capital of a city. It'd be easier for new players to level up." Toshiyan got distinctively more quiet as he spoke.

"Huh, I never really thought of it that way." Liz replied. "Anyways, let's actually get looking. The sooner we can get that ore, the sooner we can get you those daggers."

"Alright," Toshiyan said, trudging towards the large mound on his right. He could hear a pair of footsteps following behind him, and he turned slightly to see Ruby following closely after him. "You know, you didn't have to come with us."

She looked up at him. "What?"

"Sorry, that came out wrong." he replied. "I meant to say that I hope you didn't feel like you had to come with me. I wouldn't blame you if you needed to log out."

"Don't be silly," Ruby responded. "I'm happy to help. You've been really good about helping me level up, and get accustomed to this whole 'Video Game' thing. It's the least I could do."

"Ah, but you see, you just proved my point."

"I did not!" Ruby retorted. "I mean, can't I just want to help you after the good things you've done for me?"

Maybe it's best that we change the subject. "No worries, I know what you meant." He squatted down, and began poring through the scrap metal in front of him.

"Okay good, sorry, I'm kind of an idiot sometimes." she continued. "I mean, I didn't even really recognize that Liz was a Leprechaun until she kinda said so."

Toshiyan smiled to himself slightly. "What did you think she was?"

"A Salamander, like me. I mean, she's wearing a lot of red, you can't blame me."

"I don't blame you." he continued. "It was a good guess, statistically speaking."

"Statistically speaking?"

"Well, the three most popular races in this game are Salamanders, Sylphs, and Cait Siths, in that order. Ignoring the Spriggans, I like to remember them as the big three "S" races. They make up about, I dunno, 60% of the total population of players."

"Just between those three?!"

"Yep."

"Why?"

"A lot of reasons." Toshiyan continued. "Again, statistically speaking, Salamanders have the best attack magic overall, and the Sylphs and Cait Siths are fast and very well rounded attackers and magic users. Their base skills and affinity for different kinds of magic makes them powerful opponents, especially during combat. It's like I always say: Gamers aren't stupid."

"Wow," she mumbled. "And I just picked it because I thought the red looked cute." Toshiyan chuckled to himself in response. "What? What's so funny." Ruby pressed.

"Nothing, that just sounds like something you would do."

"That's not a bad thing, is it?"

"Depends on what you want." Toshiyan replied. "Are you happy with your choice?"

She paused for a moment. "Yeah,"

"Then what's the problem?"

Ruby stood silently again. "Good point."

"I have my moments." Toshiyan replied with a smile. "And maybe..." Toshiyan began pulling more of the ore away, yanking free a loose patch of ore with a teal outline.

"Nicely done!" Ruby cheered. "That was lucky."

"Would you mind taking this to Liz? There might be a bit more over here that I can find."

"No problem," she said, taking the ore from him in one hand, and extending her hand to access her flight controller in another. As she took off, Toshiyan sighed to himself, and began rummaging through the garbage again.

She didn't want to hear all that, you moron! Toshiyan's brow furrowed as he began to more earnestly pore through the scrap. Maybe, if you info dump like that again, you can just BORE them all to death. At this rate, you'll have people annoyed with you in record time! He sighed again, pushing the thoughts out of his mind. He haphazardly grabbed onto a piece of metal that was deeply lodged into the mountain. He strained at the scrap, pulling as forcefully as he could. Perhaps if you actually had some kind of useful intelligence, people wouldn't find you to be a nuisance.

Suddenly, the metal gave way, causing Toshiyan to stagger. When he regained his footing, he noticed a faint glowing light emanating from the now exposed hole in the mound. He crouched down, and found a large cavity with a floating orb in the middle of it. He looked at it confused. "Something's not right here," he muttered.

"Toshiyan! Look out!" he heard a familiar voice call.

Toshiyan felt the mound beneath him rumble, causing him to jump to his feet. As he looked up, he saw a large pile of garbage careening towards him. "Woah!" Toshiyan lept backwards, his feet skidding down the hill a meter or so as he landed. He watched as the pile of metallic refuse slammed into the portion of the hill where he once stood. He turned to see the three girls running towards him.

"Are you okay?" Asuna and Ruby seemed to ask at the same time.

"I'm fine, what in the world was that?"

"You've got to be kidding me," Liz murmured to herself. What had appeared before as a mere amalgamation of garbage being thrown was now shifting in form to create what looked like a hand. Loose rubble began falling off the mound as it erupted, hurling pieces of scrap everywhere. The party winced as some of the rubble began to fall towards them, a couple of them taking steps back to avoid incoming debris. Another metallic hand, composed of multiple colors of metals, slammed onto the hill nearby, pushing against it. As it did, a massive heap of scrap lifted itself out of the mound, the arms connecting themselves to a larger, central body of metals. On the top, a head morphed itself into existence, with a mouth and singular glowing orange orb on top. As legs appeared, it stepped forward, unleashing a shrieking roar through the junkyard. Two health bars appeared, as well as a crystal above the title "The Scrap King".

"Is it some kind of boss?" Asuna called.

"I think that's a Scrap Golem." Liz answered. "Some of them supposedly live around here, but I've never seen one this huge!"

"Do we run?" Ruby asked.

"We've got company." Toshiyan called, pointing towards the exit. Where they had entered into the scrapyard, several smaller versions of the giant monster in front stood blocking the path. "I'm counting at least 15, probably more."

"Maybe we can fly?"

"The smaller golems are only about level 40." Toshiyan continued. "I can't quite tell for the big guy."

"Only level 40?" Asuna asked, brandishing her rapier. "That's not bad."

"Man, I'm glad you guys are here." Liz added, equipping a large mace.

"In case you guys forgot, I'm only about level 35!" Ruby exclaimed desperately. "I can't do anything against these guys!"

"No worries Ruby," Toshiyan said, placing a hand on her shoulder, and locking eyes with her. "Remember, there are four of us. Stay back, use your fire magic against them. We'll keep you covered."

"Toshiyan," Asuna called. "Take this." She opened a trade request panel, placing a couple of items in it. Toshiyan watched as a level 65 sword appeared in the request. "It's a spare of mine, but its DPS is higher than your current weapon."

"Sounds good," Toshiyan replied, accepting the trade offer. "I'll give it back."

"You better," Asuna said, smiling. "Ruby, back me up, I'm going to see if I can clear a path through the smaller ones. Toshiyan, you and Liz see what you can do about distracting the big guy."

"Yes ma'am," Liz replied, her mechanical wings unfolding. "You hear that, ugly?! We're coming for you!"

The beast roared, and Toshiyan caught a glimpse of the golems charging towards Asuna and Ruby. He forced himself to look away, and launched himself into the air towards the beast. The giant made an attempt to swat at Liz, but was met with a deftly timed dodged by the Leprechaun. She slammed her mace into the chin of the giant, smacking several shards of loose metal from off its body. Toshiyan capitalized on the giant's recoil, stabbing his sword into the side of the monster while his wings propelled him forward. This led to a large, gaping gash being drawn into its side as metal cut through metal. As Toshiyan pulled his sword free, he flew up to meet Liz. "Nice shot," he commented.

"Same to you." Liz replied. The giant turned to face them, reaching its hand forward to grab at the two fairies. Both of them dodged out of the way, taking well placed shots into the golem's arm and chest as they flew. "Check this out!" Liz called, pulling her mace back, until it glowed a bright red. She yelled as she slammed it into the giant's side, enacting a large explosion that caused the golem to stumble slightly. "How'd you like that?" she yelled at the monster.

The monster seemed to glare at the two fairies, scooping up a large amount of garbage, and slamming it into the gaping hole caused by the explosion. Toshiyan and Liz watched as the health bar proceeded to fill itself up to almost completely full again. "That's not good." Toshiyan mumbled. "I don't even think that cost him any MP either."

"Crap, if that's a natural ability, then we need a new plan. How are you on flight power?"

"Could be better after our trip up here. Whatever we do, we need to- Look out!" Toshiyan grabbed Liz, flying downward as they narrowly avoided a large ball of scrap metal being thrown at them. They landed on the ground as Toshiyan helped Liz to her feet. "You alright?"

She looked at him curiously. "Y-Yeah, I'm fine."

"Good," Toshiyan replied, but both of them looked up to find a giant, metal hand slamming downwards. There's not enough time to dodge that! He turned to Liz. Sorry about this. He pulled his hand back. "Su-Chi-Aulen!" he chanted, his hand glowing a dark purple as he muttered the incantation. He thrust the glowing hand into Liz's stomach, which upon contact, formed rings around his palm. The rings then contracted, launching Liz away from the incoming attack with incredible speed. She skidded back several meters, rolling to regain her footing.

"What in the-" she stopped as she saw the monster's hand slam into Toshiyan, creating a small wave of dust from the impact. "Toshiyan!" She ran forward as the monster was lifting its hand up again. She rushed over to Toshiyan's body, care kneeling down. "Toshiyan, are you okay?"

"What are you talking about?" he moaned weakly, watching his health bar drop barely above the red region. "I've never been better."

"We're running out of options." Liz said, looking up as the giant took another step towards them. "We need to move fast."

"Don't let me slow you down." Toshiyan replied, pushing himself to his knees. "But I know what you need to do."

A bright flash appeared behind the monster, causing its attention to shift behind it. Asuna glided almost seamlessly around the monster, slashing at it repeatedly with a combo after combo. The monster leaned down to approach the swordfighter, but was met with a fireball to its side.

"Leave them alone!" Ruby yelled, lowering her hands.

Asuna leapt next to Toshiyan and Liz, holding her hand out. Immediately, a glowing yellow aura enveloped the wounded swordsman, and his health bar increased until it was almost out of the yellow area. "Is that better?" she asked.

"Loads better, thank you." Toshiyan replied, gratefully. "Here's the thing, I think its chest cavity is hollow."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I saw that too." Liz affirmed. "What did you have in mind?"

"I think that it has a core blue area, almost like a heart."

Liz's eyes widened. "Right! Most golems do, their core is what has the magic that keeps them together, and if they're broken, they fall apart! Most core's are too small to be effective while fighting though, because proportionally, the golems aren't large enough to have huge cores."

"I think I speak for all of us when I say that this one doesn't have that problem." Toshiyan stated.

"It's settled then," Asuna interjected. "Liz, Toshiyan and I will get you an opening. Can you blow another hole into it?"

"Sure can,"

"Good, then let's finish this." Asuna said, confidently pointing her rapier at the monster. After the monster unleashed another screech, Toshiyan and Asuna sprinted forward, closing the distance between them and the monster's legs. The giant tried to stomp on Asuna, but was outsped by the Undyne, leaving itself exposed to several quick jabs by the swordswoman. Toshiyan lept up, charging up a Power Strike that seemed to almost completely cleave through the leg. The monster groaned, dropping to one knee. "Now Liz!"

Liz let out a battle cry as she charged forward, her mace glowing a bright red. The monster raised its arm up to defend to block the impact, but wasn't prepared for the fairy to slide under its arm, unleashing another explosion at its chest. This knocked the monster onto its back, groaning as loose scraps fell from the top of the gaping hole in its chest into the cavity. Just below the gaping hole, a blue, metallic core stood plainly exposed by the hole. Both Asuna and Toshiyan lept upwards, their swords glowing with magical energy, and with a synchronized lunge, they plummeted themselves into the cavity, towards the blue core of the monster. As their swords made impact, a flood of blue light shot from the cavity, illuminating the air around it like a spotlight. The monster unleashed a pained cry, as the glowing orb on its head seemingly faded into a dimly-lit bulb, until it flickered out entirely as the blue light from the core faded entirely. The form of the monster quickly began to fade, as the magically bound pieces of scrap began to disperse, falling to the ground. When the dust settled, both Asuna and Toshiyan stood alone, the core of the monster just below both of their swords.

"Well," Toshiyan sighed. "That was easy."

Asuna laughed, leaning onto her sword. "Yeah, of course."

"Hey, did we win?" Ruby asked, running over.

"I think so." Liz replied. "Golems are pretty simple monsters, and now that we destroyed its core, we-WHAT?!" Liz yelled, practically shoving both Asuna and Toshiyan aside, kneeling just in front of the core. "This was its core?"

"Uh, yeah?" Toshiyan answered.

"This is all enchanted metal, maybe what, 5 kilograms?"

"Oh, that makes sense."

"This is the largest pull I've ever made from coming up here!" she said, tapping the metal, harvesting it into her inventory. "I could make over a dozen swords with all kinds of cool abilities from this alone!"

"That's great news!" Asuna congratulated. "We should head back then, if you have what you need."

"Yeah, let's get out of here." Toshiyan agreed.

"So, just to clarify, you want a pair of level 70 daggers, with upgrades in durability and speed, and affinities with both dark and lightning magic."

"Yep, if that's no trouble."

"Of course not," Liz replied confidently. "I've made plenty of weapons like it before."

"Alright then, have at it."

Liz placed two small pieces of the enchanted ore on the anvil, and began hammering against it. After several hits, the metal began to glow, and transform into a pair of sleek, black daggers. Liz smiled, setting the hammer down. "There you go, two brand new daggers, just as you requested."

Toshiyan took a few steps forward, grabbing hold of the weapons in front of him. He gripped the handles tightly, squatting slightly into a battle stance with both the daggers open to him. He made a few practice slashes, feeling the muscle memory slowly work back into him. "They're fantastic," he said, smiling.

"Yay!" Liz cheered, clapping. "I'm so glad you like them!"

"And you're sure that I don't need to pay you for this?"

"Not at all! Even if I did charge you, the metal you helped me get would've more than covered what these would've cost."

"Well, thank you again." Toshiyan replied. "These are fantastic, I never should've doubted."

"Of course, anytime, and hopefully, I can count on your continued patronage? Eh?" she offered, smiling.

"If you can whip up stuff like this all the time, I'm absolutely open to continuing paying for your services."

"Excellent, I look forward to your patronage." Liz responded cheerfully.

"Sounds good," Toshiyan replied, making his way back to the front room.

"By the way," Liz continued. "What was that spell you used? To push me out of the way?"

"Oh, that? It was a Knockback Jinx. It was a Dark Magic spell I picked up a while ago, it reminded me of, um, another ability I had a while ago."

"Well, I appreciate the effort, even if it did give me some whiplash. I could've handled that attack though, you know that right?"

"Yeah, you probably could've, but naturally, I'd rather you not."

"It was very nice of you, in a funny sort of way." she said, leading Toshiyan back into the front area.

"One might say, it was kind of pushy." Toshiyan replied, a smile creeping onto his face.

Liz looked at him curiously for a moment, then her eyes widened at the realization of what happened. "Ugh, you like puns?"

"They are the highest form of humor," he continued. "Isn't that right, Asuna?"

"Um," Asuna chimed nervously. "I'm not sure I agree with that."

"Where's Ruby?"

"Oh, she had to leave." Asuna answered. "She said that she wanted you to text her later though."

"Yeah, I think she has a shift this evening." Toshiyan hummed. "Still, thanks again to you both. This was really good."

"I'm glad you liked it," Liz said happily. "Honestly, Asuna, he fights well enough, he should come with us on our next boss raid."

"Boss raid?"

"Yeah, some of our friends from back in SAO get together every now and again to take down dungeons on certain levels in New Aincrad." Asuna explained.

"New Aincrad?"

"Yeah, wait, were you a part of SAO?"

Toshiyan turned to face Liz as she asked, forcing himself not to wince as memories of the game seemed to flood back into his mind. "Yeah, I was."

"Didn't I tell you that, Liz?" Asuna asked.

"No, you didn't." Liz continued. "It explains a lot though."

"You don't have to come with us," Asuna commented. "But we'd love to have you."

"No, I'd be happy to do it," Toshiyan replied. "Especially now that we've officially met and fought together."

"Sounds fun! I'll go ahead and let you know when the next one is happening."

"Hey Asuna, I have a couple of things to take care of in the back, can you walk Toshiyan out?"

"Sure thing,"

"Thanks, it was nice to meet you Toshiyan! Come back anytime."

"Thank you again Liz!" Toshiyan called as she ducked again into the back. "So first things first, let me send you a friend request."

"Sure," Asuna replied, pulling open her menu. As Toshiyan clicked at his menu as well, Asuna looked at him with a cautious expression. "Um, Toshiyan,"

"Yes?"

"I was talking a bit with Ruby, and…well, she doesn't know, does she?"

Toshiyan felt his heartbeat start to quicken. "About what?"

"About SAO."

He paused, sighing. "No, she doesn't."

"I know it's none of my business, but, why not? If you don't mind me asking-"

"No, it's fine. I just…don't feel comfortable telling her yet."

"Of course," Asuna replied. "You know, Toshiyan, if you ever need to talk…"

"I'm good Asuna,"

"Are you, really?" Asuna asked earnestly.

Toshiyan looked at her silently, only able to meet her eyes for just a moment, before turning away. "It's…complicated. I-"

"Listen, Toshi, I don't want to force you to do anything you don't want to do," Asuna interrupted. "But I want you to know that you can talk to me."

"I know, Asuna."

"You know what else?" Asuna asked. "Lyn liked puns too."

Toshiyan laughed to himself. "I know," he said. "For better or worse, she taught me everything she knew."

Asuna chuckled to herself. "Listen, just promise me that if you do need help, or need someone to listen to you, you'll let me know."

"I will,"

"Thanks, that means a lot to me." Asuna took a few steps forward, pulling Toshiyan into a tight embrace. The act shocked Toshiyan for a moment. He raised one of his hands to hug her back, hesitating for a moment, then letting his hand drop back down. When Asuna let him go, she looked at him smiling, her eyes welling up slightly. "It was good to see you."

"It was good to see you too." Toshiyan replied. "Thank you, for everything."

"I'll, um, let you go now."

"Sounds good, and let me know when that raid with your friends comes up. I'd really love to join."

"Will do."

Toshiyan made his way to the door. "Take care!" he said, pushing against the door.

"You too! Bye!"

Toshiyan walked outside, extending his wings and taking off, teardrops staining the paved cobblestone below him as he flew.

Hello once again, dear friends! It's great to be back after a LONG hiatus, and hopefully, this long chapter will make up for lost time (at least a little bit). I'm pleased to announce that I'm back in business and ready to rumble. Here's the deal: I was away on a religious service mission for a while, and when I got back, college slammed me hard. I've been working on this project as well as a couple of others, but the next chapter is already mostly written, so I imagine that it won't take long to finish, but we'll see. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I hope you enjoy what we have in store to come! Take care until then!

-Paladin