[Author's Notes: I am now posting chapters in groups of five, to make things easier for my readers. I still write and classify by small chapters, though, it's just my style. I hope you like the story so far. I promise I won't kill you if you give constructive criticism, even if I have to get a friend of mine to tie me to my chair. Also, Subaru wishes to apologize for being so hysterical, and promises she will be back to her more usual behavior after this moment of extreme stress. Thank you.]

VI

Tsukasa held a crying Subaru tight against him, feeling the dampness of her tears on his shoulder. Such bittersweet feeling, that of Subaru so close to him. He loved to feel her like that, but the very fact that he could feel her was making her cry onto his shoulder like her world had come down around her ears. He stroked her hair gently, the greenish strands flowing between his fingers. So soft, like silk.

"Cry all you want, Subaru… I'll be here" he whispered softly into her ear.

"But… you won't…" she sobbed, her voice muffled by his shoulder. He felt the warmth of her breath against him as she spoke. It was such a heavenly feeling, to hold her like this, to be here to comfort her. Yet… what if she was right? What if Bear was right? What if he… she was lying in a hospital, about to die? What if she would never hold Subaru like this in the real world?

He knew he needed time to think about this, even if he didn't find answers. Subaru also needed to rest, they had been like this for a long time, and it must already be deep into the night in the outside world.

"Subaru… you need to rest. Log out" he said.

She lifted her head from his shoulder and those precious hazel eyes, wet with tears, looked into his.

"But… what if tomorrow… you're already gone?"

Tsukasa tried to smile reassuringly at her, hiding his own doubts.

"I'll be here" he said, and felt a pang of guilt. He didn't know, and if he wasn't... he didn't even want to think about what Subaru would do.

Subaru blinked, two last tears running down her face, and looked at Tsukasa, her eyes pleading.

"Promise?" she asked in a small voice.

Tsukasa hugged her tight once more, trying to instill a sureness he didn't possess.

"I promise" he whispered, and released her.

VII

Subaru stood there, in the grasslands of Dun Loireag, as Mimiru and Bear approached. She looked absolutely exhausted, as if she hadn't slept at all that night. Bear wondered why she had logged into The World in such a state, and why she had called them both here.

"You should rest, Subaru" he said when they had approached her, "not be here in the World"

Subaru looked up at him and smiled slightly, as if amused by something.

"I can't sleep, and I prefer to at least be able to walk around and talk than to sit on my own on the outside," she said, "and I want to see Tsukasa again"

Bear and Mimiru looked at her with puzzlement and concern.

"Tsukasa?" said Mimiru slowly, "Subaru… he's… not here"

Subaru shook her head slowly.

"She's here," Subaru said, "she can't log out, and she can feel the World… again… but she's here"

Bear frowned slightly and looked at the small winged girl.

"Subaru, that's impossible," he said, sternly, "this isn't a coma like the last time, and, anyway, Morgana is destroyed, there's nothing to trap Tsukasa in the World anymore. You should really get some rest, Subaru"

"I should get some rest?" she answered, raising her voice at Bear, sadness, frustration and exhaustion spilling out, "what are you saying? That I made it all up? I imagined holding onto Tsukasa for hours here last night? I dreamt her?"

Mimiru put a hand on Subaru's shoulder, comfortingly, and was quickly swatted away.

"Subaru… calm down…" she said.

"Calm down? Calm down?" Subaru shouted, "Tsukasa is here and I'm going to go to him!"

With those words Subaru held up her Sprite Ocarina and disappeared among golden rings, leaving Mimiru and bear looking at each other in confusion.

"Well, maybe she's right," said Mimiru, after a while, "Tsukasa has been known to do very strange things"

Bear looked thoughtful, rubbing his chin slowly and frowning.

"Maybe," he said, slowly, "maybe…"

VIII

The man in the grey room slowly saved the document he was working on and displayed the mail on the screen. He read the message of one of his employees calmly, without moving a muscle except to scroll the message down. After he finished he clicked the reply button and typed in:

The recapture of subject epsilon-delta-omega is of utmost importance for the current project and out ongoing plans. Work out how he is managing to stay hidden from our scanners, locate him and proceed to capture and reprogram. Under no circumstance make the existence of subject epsilon-delta-omega public, all operations regarding his retrieval must be veiled in utmost secrecy. We have been depending too much on the Crimson Knights, as this situation makes painfully obvious. We must either deploy more agents into The World or form another organization for its control, preferably both those options. The Tsukasa situation is already resolved, and we should remove any agents monitoring him and place them on the search for subject epsilon-delta-omega immediately. Silver Knight may be an appropriate leader for any organization we may set up; he seems inclined to follow orders, although we must be careful of how much information we reveal to him, as he seems to be in contact with Subaru, and we do not want any of our plans to leak to Helba. Finally, although it is lower priority, complete the purging of Net Slum and all other areas that the hacker could use as bases as soon as possible.

The man clicked the button to send the message and immediately resumed work on something else, without frowning, without smiling, without stopping.

IX

Tsukasa wandered in the baking heat of the desert, looking for something. He did not know what he was looking for, but hoped he would know when he found it. He thought it was something that would let him log out again but… did he really want to log out again? Did he really want to go back to a world where he couldn't touch Subaru, couldn't feel the mountain air on his face, just the breeze of the city? Did he really want to go back to that ludicrous world? Morgana's words echoed in his mind, bringing back others with them: live here peacefully… forever… Aura and Maha… where were they? Did Maha really die defending him? Was she a player character or an AI? And Aura? What had become of Aura after she awoke? Then he realized it. He was looking for Aura. Aura would help him. He would either log out or… live here forever.

Then, suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted by a voice behind him.

"Who are you?"

Tsukasa turned around and found himself face to face with a pale, black-haired Wavemaster clad in white and gold robes. Three odd red symbols decorated his cheek. He was definitely unlike any other character that Tsukasa had ever met. Why was this strange person asking him who he was? He didn't have time for this sort of thing, anyway. He took out his Sprite Ocarina and was about to port away when a sort of low-pitched buzzing entered his ears and the odd Wavemaster said:

"You feel… strange, different from other players"

Tsukasa stared at him. He felt different? Did this guy somehow know that Tsukasa couldn't log out? Was he some sort of hacker? No, he didn't think so, as far as he knew nobody had been able so far to tell that he was different. This was just some strange person pulling some sort of prank. Still… it was unnerving. He probably should tell Subaru about it. The strange character still looking at him as if expecting an answer, Tsukasa activated his Sprite Ocarina and soon disappeared in the middle of rising golden rings.

X

Mimiru walked along the dark corridor of the dungeon, deep in thought. She had decided to stick around and see if Subaru was right and Tsukasa was again trapped in The World. She had sent a message to Subaru asking her to call her if she found Tsukasa, but she wasn't sure if she would. Poor Subaru, she must be really affected by all this, Mimiru had never seen the calm and stern girl get angry like that, much less at Bear. Tsukasa must mean a lot to her. Tsukasa… that Wavemaster she had argued with so many times and yet cared for… the person she had waited for hours on end many times… the one they had managed to free from The World after so much effort… he was going to die. It was… hard to believe, in a way. She had seen Tsukasa die, once, in The World. His own Guardian, or something like it, had pierced his chest right through. Yet the next day he had been there, maybe with a bit of memories lost in the process, but not much worse. Maybe she half expected it to be like that. She was trying desperately not to think about it, that's why she had gone to a dungeon, fighting would keep her mind off things, yet no monsters seemed to want to help.

That's when she heard something like a low-pitched buzz, or static. On second thought, she almost seemed to feel it. Before she could wonder about this, though, a demon with a giant sword flew out of a side corridor and into the wall to her side. The crash echoed throughout the dungeon before the monster turned grey and dissipated. Mimiru cautiously poked her head round the corner where it had flown out. A brief corridor opened up into a rather big room with a treasure chest at the end of it. However, her eyes were locked on the white and gold-robed Wavemaster backed up against the wall. His staff was lying on the ground and his right hand was clutching his left shoulder. His face was scrunched up into an expression of extreme pain, and a crimson substance was seeping through his fingers, slowly. He was bleeding, but that was impossible, no one bled in The World, and no one felt pain… no one except…

A small Wavemaster is hugging his knees close to him on the floor of a dungeon while Mimiru and Bear fight. "Ow… this sucks" he says weakly, and tries to make himself even smaller, to hide from the blows of the monster.

…Tsukasa.

She approached Edo, for she was sure this was Edo, the strange character she had met before, and healed him. He looked up at her with relief and gratitude on his face.

"Thank you" he said, weakly.

Mimiru smiled at him. At least he didn't seem to run off as readily as Tsukasa. All the better for her, she wanted him to answer some questions.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

Edo nodded slightly. "Yes"

He seemed to be talking much more fluidly than the last time she had met him. She wondered if he was really the same person.

"You're Edo, right?" she asked.

He nodded again. "Yes, we met before, did we not?" he answered in absolutely perfect Japanese. Now Mimiru was really puzzled.

"Yes," she said, "we did. My name is Mimiru"

He nodded once more. "Thank you for healing me. That… thing… caught me off guard"

"Oh, no problem" she paused a moment and then decided to say it. "Hey… don't you find it weird that you can… like… feel pain and stuff… in here?"

He looked at her, puzzled, as if he hadn't understood the question, but answered. "No, why would I? Doesn't everyone?"

Mimiru was taken aback, even Tsukasa had realized it was strange for him to feel The World, she didn't really know what to say.

"Uhm…" she started, "no, normally people can't feel anything inside the game"

Edo looked at her as if she had suddenly said the sky was down instead of up. "A game? What are you saying? This is the world, what else is there?"

Mimiru fumbled, she was certainly not expecting this… was he an AI? "Eh… the real world? The one you go into when you… log out?"

He frowned at her for a moment and then threw his head back and laughed. "That ludicrous dimension? You think that is the world? Even a fool can see this place is much more real than that grey place"

Mimiru was left without anything to say. This person knew the real world, but he thought The World was reality instead…

Edo chuckled once more and smiled at her. "Well, well, what strange ideas you have. Goodbye… Mimiru"

With that he walked off, leaving Mimiru wondering if he was joking or he really was as convinced as he sounded. That apart from the fact he seemed to be able to sustain a fluid conversation now when the day before he had barely been able to pronounce a few words. She was definitely going to talk to bear and the rest about this.