AN: Ugg. I honestly can't decide if the Muses weren't being cooperative, or finding the motivation to write this out is entirely on me. Because on one hand, the muses decided that they were gonna start obsessing over a HTTYD/HP fic and a Darker Than Black/HP fic, both of which I have on the backburner, but on the other hand at this point I have the majority of the main plot beats planned out, though not written up, so the end of this fic is roughly in sight. Which is a little sad to be honest, because I've had a blast writing this over the course of seven, I repeat, seven years. Which is actually pretty fair I feel, given that at this point it's at what I'm gonna guess is about 435,000 words, minus any AN and stuff. For the record, the longest book in the Harry Potter series is Order of the Phoenix, which clocks 257,045 words. And all seven of the books put together comes out to 1,084,170 words. Given that it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if this fic crosses the half a million words mark by the end, I feel like even with months between updates, it's somewhat forgivable that it took me so long to write it out.

Review Responses:

AvidReader2425- Don't worry about it. I get annoyed at things I read too, it's fine to vent and I don't take it personally, unless you decide to be rude and cross into flame territory which you didn't. I just wanted to clarify my side of things, ya know?

And yeah, I get sometimes wanting to just grab a character and scream in their faces that they're being dumb. Trust me I do. I'm a reader too, ya know?

Good luck with your fanfic! And thank you! I do put more work into this than might be readily apparent with how long the gaps between updates can be.

DA Exodus- Unfortunately this chapter took a lot longer to get out compared to the previous ones. Hopefully my brain and the Muses choose to cooperate and it isn't as long before the next chapter is ready.

shadowchaos5150- Yeah, he definitely doesn't need to worry about that nonsense. I'm fairly confident at this point that I won't be touching Underworld at all before this fic ends, given that I have the rest of the major plot points mapped out now. Assuming nothing comes up that'll be added and/or require story restructuring of course. Honestly, I haven't even watched Underworld because I wasn't in the mood when it first came out and then, because I'm not someone who minds spoilers, I looked some stuff up for reasons I don't remember at the moment and honestly found the description of the Underworld plot to be… dumb. To be frank. So unless something changes my mind, SAO basically ended at the lackluster movie for me.

Zoran Dawn-Eclipse- Right?! Like, anytime someone comments about how strong Marzanna is I'm just over here like, 'bro, I promise you, if you just looked up some of the cutscenes from DMC, you would not be saying that.'

As the leaderboard automatically scrolls in front of him while the counter ticks down the time until he's automatically logged out, he waits impatiently. Zexceed and Tarako had been disconnected when they died, so if anyone had been disconnected from the tournament it would be a starting indication that they'd failed to protect the players from Death Gun. It wouldn't necessarily be a guarantee, someone could have just legitimately been disconnected for a different reason, but it'd be a starting point.

On the leaderboard each player's name was off to the right with a gap before it showed their number of kills, how long they'd lasted in the tournament, and finally cause of death. Most of them said 'killed by such-and-such player', and over half of them said 'killed by Hanna' which was frankly ridiculous, though he had seen one that said 'fall damage'. He assumes that if someone disconnected, it'd show it in cause of Death, so he'd been watching that like a Hawk.

When it finally hits the bottom and not only had everyone had died normally but not a single player's listing says 'killed by Sterben' he breathes out a sigh of relief. Miraculously, they'd actually managed to stop him from hurting anyone else.

When he's logged out a minute later, he slowly opens his eyes, sits up, and just breathes for a minute while nurse Aki, who Kikouka had gotten assigned to him, supposedly since they were familiar with each other, talks about dehydration and heart rates. No matter how many times he takes calming breaths and tells himself that it's over and Sinon is safe though, he can't shake the nervous anxiety twisting through him.

Surely it was just that final message from Death Gun though, right? XaXa, Sterben, whatever his name is. He stills. Sterben. Sterben.

'It's Sterben. It's German, specially its specialized medical vocabulary…'

'He'll probably come over immediately, and his dad's a doctor…'

Dread washes over him as suspicion creeps through his veins. Then he shakes his head. Just because Sinon's friend was a doctor's kid didn't mean he was part of the Death Gun plot. But if he'd been struggling to shake the feeling of anxiety before, the feeling of dread clung to him like tar.

Deciding that Sinon would probably forgive him for coming to check on her even though she said she'd be fine, he yanks the cords for the electrodes stuck to his chest. Nurse Aki makes a protesting noise, but he cuts off anything she might be about to say and he reaches for his shirt, "Sorry Nurse Aki, but I'm gonna do something you're gonna hate again."

She breathes out an aggravated sigh, "You're leaving?"

He nods firmly as he bends down to hastily begin putting his shoes on, "Yeah, sorry, but I need to make sure Sinon is safe. She was a target for those murders and I can't shake the feeling she's still in danger."

Nurse Aki doesn't get a chance to say anything before he's standing up and shucking his coat on as he rushes out the door, tossing over his shoulder, "Sorry!"

Despite the dirty looks he gets for running in a hospital, he doesn't slow down as he runs down to the parking lot as fast as he can get away with, without breaking the Statute. He dashes to his motorcycle and practically flings himself on it as he snatches up the helmet and shoves it on without buckling it since it's basically for show so he doesn't get pulled over anyway. He starts it up as fast as he can, then peels out of there fast enough that he'd definitely get in trouble if he was caught.

At the first red light he hits, he roughly buckles his helmet, just in case he passes a particularly observant police officer as he mutters impatiently to himself, "Come on, come on…"

He continues racing over to Sinon's as fast as he can without risking losing time to being pulled over. He doesn't even bother to take his key out of the ignition when he gets there, just hops off and rips the helmet off, tossing it back towards the bike haphazardly as he hits the stairs at a dead run. A few floors down his enhanced hearing begins to pick up the sounds of a struggle, and he throws caution toward any possible observers to the wind. By the time he reaches Sinon's floor, he hears someone frantically attempting to unlock a door, followed by a thump and the sound of someone being dragged. Then a creepy unhinged voice begins chanting Sinon's real name with frantic insanity.

He breaks the door damn near in two as he slams through it before he actually gets a chance to turn the handle and immediately slams his knee into the face of the psycho pinning Sinon down. It doesn't even knock the guy out, even frantic, he remembers to control himself so he doesn't absolutely demolish the guy with his enhanced strength, but he ends up overcompensating for the weak durability of humans compared to Nephilim and ends up doing little more than break the fuckers nose.

He immediately gets on the dude and pins him down before looking over his shoulder, "Sinon! Are you ok?!"

She stares at him for a moment before jerking, "Be careful! He has a syringe!"

The warning is a little too late. He's so distracted with making sure Sinon is alright and so unconcerned with the guy now that he has him pinned and knows he isn't going anywhere, that he doesn't notice him pull what must be the syringe, if the way the guy slammed something into his chest was any indication. That being said, there was no way a regular syringe would get through his enhanced durability, so he just turns back and grabs the guy by his face before slamming his head into the ground to knock his psycho ass out.

Unfortunately, Sinon sees the syringe in his hand when he goes slack, scampering over in alarm, "Kirito! He got you?!"

He rubs his chest as he tries to think of an excuse, then blinks in surprise as he feels one of the electrodes. Immediately he capitalizes on it, making a show of looking surprised and pulling his shirt away from his chest and looking down it. Then he shifts his expression to relief before smiling at her, "That government guy who hired me had me diving in the hospital. I was in such a rush to leave, I ended up with one of the electrodes stuck to my chest. By sheer luck, it looks like he hit that and it didn't go through."

She looks at him with watery eyes, then sniffles, "Really?"

He nods with a smile, then reaches under his shirt to swipe up some of the liquid and show her, "Really. This stuff must've been what was in that syringe."

Sinon trembles with relief. Then slumps into his shoulder, "Thank goodness…" She sniffles again, "If something had happened to you because of me… because you were trying to protect me…"

Feeling a wet spot growing on his coat, he reaches up and strokes the top of her head a few times. Then Sinon shoves his hand away and yanks her head up before gripping the collar of his shirt angrily, "You scared the crap out of me! I thought you were going to die!"

He raises his hands in surrender, "I-it's not like I meant to scare you!"

Her head droops as she lets go of his shirt with a sigh. She reaches up to rub at her eyes before glancing at the creep, "... Is he okay?"

He nods, "Mm. I just knocked him out, that's all."

She turns back to him, "You're sure?"

He shrugs, "Yeah. If you're that worried though, you're welcome to check his pulse."

She scoots over and hesitantly places her fingers against his wrist for a moment before slumping with a sigh after she confirms what he can already tell with his hearing.

He looks her over, "I should have asked this before, but are you hurt?"

Sinons shakes her head wordlessly. Then she shivers. For a moment he thinks it might be emotional, but then she reaches up to rub at her arms as she glances back at her door with a frown, which quickly turns to surprised alarm, "... You did that?"

He ducks his head in embarrassment, "Ah… Yeah, sorry. I can pay for it."

She glances between him and the door unsurely, "But you're so... scrawny."

He frowns, "H-Hey. I am not scrawny, thank you very much."

Sinon giggles at his indignation and he crosses his arms with a huff. He wasn't scrawny. He might be shorter than… all… of his close male friends, but he was only an inch shorter than the national average, his friends were just tall. And while he wasn't buff, nor had any particular desire to be really, he was toned. There was nothing scrawny about him.

He looks away with irritation for a moment before turning back to her seriously, "Ah. You should probably put on something warmer that you don't mind going out in while I call my employer… and secure my bike. Which I left my keys in. And on, though it's probably stalled out by now."

Sinon gives him a wide eyed look before she starts shoving him, "Go, go! Before your bike gets stolen!"

He holds his hands up, "I'll go, I'll go, just stop that!" He climbs to his feet when she stops, then hesitates at the door, "Um. I really will pay for this, but until it's fixed you really can't stay here. Do you have anyone you could stay with?"

Sinon blinks in surprise, then slumps, "... No. My grandparents live too far away and," Her breath hitches as she glances at the guy, "... Shinkawa was the only friend I had. Or I thought he was my friend."

He frowns, "That's not true. I said it before and I'll say it again, you have Hanna, Blue Rose, and me. You can stay at my house tonight, and I'll get your door replaced tomorrow."

She ducks her head, "... Thanks. I appreciate it."

He nods, "Well. Go and put something warmer on and pack an overnight bag, ok?" She nods, and he steps out the doorway. He blinks in surprise then awkwardly calls to her, "Um. Before that, could you come here?"

She gives him a confused look, but gets up and walks over, then pokes her head out. Sinon's apartment was the one on the end, but her neighbor next door was leaning out with an alarmed expression. Sinon gives her an awkward look, "Ah. Iwata-san, s-sorry did we disturb you?"

Iwata flicks a slightly fearful look at him, "... I heard crashes and saw him breaking your door."

Sinon lifts her hands and waves them slightly frantically, "Ah! He's not the one who broke in! Or, well, I mean technically he did, but only to save me! He's a friend! A friend!" Then she rubs the back of her head, "A-Actually he's going to head downstairs to secure his bike and call the police, right now."

She elbows him harshly to punctuate her statement, and he nods as he rubs the back of his head awkwardly, "M-Mm! I am! I was just super worried about Si- ah, A-Asada, and may have ended up going a little, um, overboard."

Iwata looks unsure for a minute, "Well, I guess if you're sure. You're OK though?"

Sinon nods firmly, "I am! Thank you for worrying."

Iwata nods slowly, "Well. Alright then."

Then she closes her door on their nervous smiles. Immediately Sinon smashes her elbow into his ribs, "You-!"

He holds up his hands, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! But I heard you getting dragged and that creep chanting your name insanely and just kinda…"

She sighs as the anger drains out of her at the reminder of why he'd put her in such an awkward position, "... It's fine. Go secure your bike and call your employer."

He smiles awkwardly as he nods and Sinon steps inside before frowning at her door and closing it as best she can. With a sigh he starts to head down as he pulls his phone out and calls Kikouka. It only rings for a moment, "Kikouka."

He hums then begins without preamble, "Mm. It's me. Death Gun wasn't killing people in game, not really. He was finding out their information in game using invisibility to read their IRL information when they put it in at the terminals in the main building in GGO when they wanted to redeem prizes for the tournament and stuff, then had at least one accomplice, though I heavily suspect he had at least two or more, who would break in and inject them with something that would stop their hearts at the same time, to create the illusion he had real power and because he was obsessed with being a red player from SAO. His old screen name was XaXa, commonly known as Red Eyed XaXa, he used to be a member of Laughing Coffin. I caught one of his accomplices when I went to check on a player I met in the tournament. He's unconscious at," He rattles off Sinon's address, "I, uh, I kinda broke her door when I heard the sound of a struggle, so I'll be taking her to my place for tonight after the police come and get the psycho and we give our statements. I didn't see anyone disconnected on the leaderboard, so I think Marzanna, Nero, and I managed to keep him from killing anyone in the tournament, but you might want to go arrest the creep before he runs. Let's see, is there anything else?"

The last part was muttered to himself, and Kikouka hums, "Probably nothing that can't wait. And if you caught an accomplice, he had at least two."

He blinks in surprise as he scoops up his helmet and places it on his bike and grabs his keys, "Hm? How do you know for sure?"

Kikouka coughs, "Ah. About that…"

Marzanna stretches, then pulls her AmuSphere off and gets up. Stepping out of her bedroom, she finds Nero coming down the hallway. He grins at her, "Nicely done."

She grins at him as they start making their way down the stairs, "Thanks. Where were you by the way?"

He lets out an explosive sigh, "Ugh. I was wiping out the players in my quadrant and had just taken out two before the scan, while I was looking it over I was focused on a different section of the map than I was in, and ended up being so distracted that someone snuck up on me and wiped me damn near before I knew they were there since my health hadn't recovered yet from the fight with the other two. Kinda embarrassing to be honest."

She laughs at him and he grumbles in annoyance. Her dad swings his arm around her shoulders in a hug, "That was some damn fine shooting kiddo."

She smiles at him happily at the sheer pride in his voice, "Thanks dad." Then she draws up short, blinking in surprise, "... Who's that?"

The person in question was handcuffed on the living room floor. As soon as she meets his eyes he glares at her hatefully, "Fucking bitch."

Her family sends angry scowls and snarls at him, but she frowns at him thoughtfully, "Hold on, I know you…" She narrows her eyes at him as she looks him over. But it's not until she spots the edge of a familiar design poking out of the end of his shirt on his wrist that she realizes from where. She moves over to him, then grabs his hand and yanks his sleeve down before a sneer of disgust takes over her face, "Laughing Coffin." She closes her eyes briefly in thought, "Ah. Yeah I thought I recognized you, or your voice at least. Jonny Black. Partners with Red Eyed XaXa. The two of you were considered second in command together. I suppose this was about Death Gun?" He twitches and she nods, "So that's how you did it. It was never an in game kill that you guys had found a way to transfer to real life. You just found players' IRL info and snuck into their houses like the creeps you are and murdered them while they were defenseless like cowards. All to create an illusion for the players that you had real power." She shoves his arm away from her in disgust, "I suppose it isn't surprising, since you guys used to get off on that sort of thing. Though I guess I am surprised you had the guts to try to attack someone who doesn't live alone, unlike Zexceed and Tarako."

He narrows those hateful eyes at her, "We weren't going to risk it when we saw other people here, but then I saw you. One of the filthy front liners who ruined everything. Like we couldn't act once we knew we had She-Devil Hanna in our sights."

She snorts, "Then you guys are even dumber than I thought you were. Although I am surprised. I don't recall Death Gun ever shooting his pistol or stun bullets at me."

Nero steps forward, "When you guys fought at the end. I set my screen to follow him and he took one of the bullets out of his sniper magazine and added a stun bullet on top. It was the one that hit your bike and made it explode. When he missed he probably panicked and just started firing the regular bullets."

She turns away with a shake of her head, "I'm going to go call Kikouka. He can get someone to come pick the freak up, then he's his problem."

December 16th, 2025

As he waits in front of Sinon's school, he scrolls through a particularly popular gaming forum while he listens to the news in the background with one ear bud. To his surprise, the incident with Death Gun had managed to reach the ears of various news outlets, though he suspects someone in Marzanna's family had tipped them off with enough details that the police had been unable to deny it. If it was them, it likely wasn't done with malicious intent, but rather to point out that even in this age of VR, people should keep in mind internet safety, and if anything the higher level of technology means that gaming companies and the like should take more precautions to protect their users. He'd have thought that the media would use this as another excuse to throw VR technology under fire, but they seemed to be running with the sort of angle that he suspected Marzanna's family would be going for if they were behind it. If it was them, he doubts that's a coincidence. They have influence in the strangest places sometimes.

The host of the news channel he was listening to, Kuroki, was talking to an expert on VR, "Some people are saying that this is yet another nail in what should be the coffin of VR technology. What are your thoughts Nakajima-san?"

The man makes a noise of disagreement, "No, I don't agree with that at all. This wasn't caused by an inherent danger born of VR technology, this should realistically fall into the category of internet safety in general, but you don't see anyone calling for us to universally shut that down completely, now do you? This seemingly new wave of hate for VR is coming from people who have hated the technology since Kayaba used it for his own twisted purposes without taking into account that it isn't the fault of the technology, people who haven't genuinely looked into what happened and only heard the story from naysayers, or people who distrust technology in general. No one says we should do away with cell phones when they're used as a trigger in a bomb, so I fail to see how it's fair to put the faults of people taking advantage of the fact that this is a newer technology in which we still haven't nailed down the safety precautions necessary and abusing it on the technology itself."

Kuroki makes an agreeing hum, "That's very true. There are also those who are placing the blame for this incident on the company who owns the game in which the 'Death Gun incident' took place, Zaskar. Do you agree that they should be made to make reparations and held accountable for the failure to protect the players personal information, which they required to be input in game rather than on their website?"

"No, no." Nakajima disagrees once more, "Zaskar required players to input their information in game because of confidentiality and safety reasons. It's much more secure to input your information when you're safely within the massive levels of protection you'll find on a VR server, than to trust your own cyber security. This was an isolated incident in which it was overlooked that players could combine in-game invisibility with binoculars to spy on other players. And Zaskar did take precautions against invisibility being used within the building in which players input their information. No one is perfect, and it's rather unfair to hold Zaskar to such a standard just because they're a gaming company, isn't it? There are security breaches of some form on sites we trust with our personal information all the time, and while they get some negative attention, you don't see anyone practically screaming to shut them down do you?"

Nakajima sighs, "What happened was tragic, I'm not denying that, however the fault for this incident should be placed where it belongs. Namely on the criminals who found the loophole in the safety precautions Zaskar had put into place and decided to abuse it for such horrendous purposes. If Zaskar had failed to respond to the incident, I could understand raking them over the coals, so to speak, but even before they learned that there had been deaths, as soon as they learned of the method to get around their safety precautions, they immediately did an emergency shut down and patch of their servers to fix the issue. They've also offered monetary rewards to anyone who finds such loopholes in the future and offered to compensate families for the funeral costs and more of their own accord. If anything, I think their response is admirable."

He tunes them out as he scrolls through posts.

Pedroid 2539 posts

Um. So the media mentioned that people were hired to go in game and investigate "Death Gun", right?

Given what was going on in the BoB tournament, does that mean Hanna, Sinon, and that Kirito guy were the ones hired? Because they were going after Sterben/Death Gun pretty hard.

Jellyfish 4289 posts

Still struggling to wrap my head around the fact Kirito is a dude to be honest. The rest of this is basically breaking my brain.

Lazyhazy 5287 posts

They definitely knew at the very least, and the only way I could see that happening is if they were. Did you see the way Sinon freaked out when Death Gun was getting ready to shoot her? It made zero sense at the time, but if she knew he was a psycho who'd been actually killing people…

Pedroid 2539 posts

Right? Also, I'm now convinced that the reason Hanna was going so hard at the tournament unlike last time was because she was trying to clear out the players before Death Gun could get to them. I mean, his real screen name was Sterben, not Death Gun, and when she got to the city and saw the scan, she looked torn between going after the players nearby and Gunner X, who was one of the only newcomers. If she wasn't totally sure what his real screen name was, she might've been trying to decide to take out the other players and going to see if Gunner X was Death Gun.

Tsardine 4276 posts

That makes sense actually. I suppose that's also probably why Sinon shot Yumikaze at the end? Since they had no way of knowing if he was in danger of Death Gun.

Pedroid 2539 posts

Probably.

ShyGeneral 1257 posts

Have you heard that rumor going around that Kirito was also involved in the SAO and ALO incidents?

Lazyhazy 5287 posts

Oh, that. I sincerely doubt it, the odds of one person being involved with both the SAO and ALO incidents isn't very high to begin with, something like 5%.(1) And then on top of that, whoever was the person in charge of hiring Kirito would have to have been like, "Hey! Remember that guy who was part of the 5% traumatized by SAO and ALO? I want that guy. Let's hire him to investigate the possible murders!" And I'd like to think our government hires people smarter than that…

He snorts, then mutters quietly, "You have no idea."

Then his attention was grabbed by Sinon, who has finally come out of her school, "Hey! I told you we could meet, but what are you doing somewhere so obvious?"

He turns and smiles lightly at her, "Yo. Hey there, Sinon." She narrows her eyes at him, so his smile fades, "... Did I do something?"

She steps closer and whispers angrily, "Do you realize what this looks like? It looks like you're my boyfriend. A couple of the other girls already asked me if you were! I'm going to be the center of rumors tomorrow!"

He blinks a few times quickly in surprise before jerking away. He looks over Sinon's shoulder at the girls gathered around the school entrance whispering and giggling and waves his hands awkwardly as he calls out to them, "Ah! N-No! We're just friends. I already have a girlfriend."

The girls look disappointed at the lack of gossip, which sounds like it should be sexist since not all girls like gossiping, but it's not that surprising when you take into account that the only one's who'd hang around would be the sort who did like that sort of stuff.

Sinon sighs lightly, "... Hopefully that'll cut down on the rumors, but can we please just go?"

He nods and shoves his phone in his pocket, then picks up the second helmet and holds it out to her. As she puts it on she frowns vaguely at the bike, "Mm. I didn't notice it before, and I'm not a bike expert, but this looks like an older bike? Mind you I'm only really comparing to GGO though."

He glances up at her after he settles on his bike, "It is. I prefer manuals and those aren't all that common anymore, even if you ignored the fact I don't have the money for a brand new bike. Actually, the bikes in GGO aren't actually particularly difficult to use despite their reputations. They're just manuals. The problem people have with them is that most of them, and the majority of people nowadays to be honest, have no idea how to drive any manual vehicles. The reason I used them so easily in game is because I own a manual, so of course I know how to drive one."

She hesitates in surprise from where she'd just settled and started to wrap her arms around him to hold on, "Really?"

He nods, "Mhm. If you learned how to drive a manual like this, either from me or someway else, you could absolutely use the bikes in GGO just fine."

Sinon finally wraps her arms around his waist, "Huh. I might have to harass you for lessons then."

He laughs lightly as he pulls away from the curb, "I can teach you if you want, no harassment necessary."

Sinon laughs mischievously, "Where's the fun in that?!"

He sighs in fond exasperation. What was with his luck in finding friends who thought the height of entertainment was making his life difficult?

He pulls up to the Dicey Café with Sinon after their meeting with Kikouka. Honestly, they'd clarified some details, but for the most part, nothing in that meeting was a huge revelation. Kikouka did ask them if they were the ones who leaked the story, but he'd shut that down firmly. He was a little nervous about this meeting though. Sinon would have every right to be angry at him shortly when she found out he'd told others what happened in her past, even if it was only the barebones basics and he'd only done it to try and help her. She would be justified too, though he hopes she'll at least hear him out on why he'd done it.

Sinon gives him an uncertain look, probably because Agil had flipped the sign to "Closed". He gives her a reassuring smile as he opens the door without hesitation. Immediately some slow jazz and the smell of coffee wash over them. Agil was wiping down some glasses at the bar, with Marzanna and Argo sitting in front of him.

Argo tilts her head at him as she rests her straw against her lower lip, "Mou, Kii-bou, you sure took your time. I've ended up drinking more smoothies than I really should while waiting for you."

He sighs as he guides a hesitant Sinon forward, "That's not my fault. If you knew you shouldn't have them, it's on you if you drank them anyway."

She presses her hand to her chest in mock hurt, "Cold, Kii-bou. Completely cold. How could you betray me like this? After everything we've been through?"

He sighs again as Marzanna and Agil laugh, then looks beside him, "This is Argo, one of the best information brokers you'll ever meet, her IRL name is Hosaka Tomo(2)."

Argo gives a mock salute and Sinon gives a small bow of greeting. Then he gestures at Marzanna, "Though you won't recognize her, you already know Hanna, otherwise known as Sparda Marzanna."

His wife waves cheerfully, "Heya Sinon! Nice to meet you IRL."

Sinon nods with a faint blush, "Mm. You as well Ha- um, Marzanna-san."

Marzanna laughs, "Mm, no need for that! You can call me Hanna if it's easier, Kazuto and I still call Tomo Argo pretty much all the time, and it's the same with our other friends from SAO. And it may just be because I was raised in America, but I'm not fond of people I consider friends being formal and using suffixes, so while you can if it makes you comfortable I prefer not to."

Sinon blushes lightly, but nods hesitantly, "Hanna then."

He moves on, "As you may have guessed from the fact we're in here even though it's supposed to be closed, this isn't some random Cafe. The big guy back there is the owner and our friend, Agil, his real name is Andrew Gilbert Mills, but he generally prefers Agil."

Agil leans forward with a smile, "Nice to meet you little lady, friends of Kirito and Hanna are always welcome here."

She smiles and gives him a bow and a short greeting as well. Then he gestures to her, "You guys already know this, but for politeness sake this is Sinon, her real name is Asada Shino."

Then he gestures over to one of the big tables. Marzanna and Argo collect their drinks and get up, moving over to the table he'd indicated. He glances at Agil, "Ginger Ale for me, please. What do you want, Sinon?"

She looks back from where she'd started towards the table, "Ah. I'll take a Ginger Ale too actually."

He tilts his head, "They're really spicy here."

She nods, "That's fine."

He flashes her a smile, "I'll get our drinks, so go ahead and go sit down."

She nods and mutters a quick thanks before making her way over to the table. The beverages don't take long, and he's soon settling next to Marzanna. Not wanting to overwhelm Sinon immediately, they chat idly for a few minutes before he takes a deep breath, "Um. So, there was a specific reason I asked you to come here today. Before that though, I need to apologize to you Sinon." He pauses to give her an apologetic bow before continuing, "I'll understand if you get angry with me, but please hear me out." She nods hesitantly, "You see, though I didn't go into particular details, I told Argo and Marzanna about what you went through five years ago. I needed their help."

Marzanna leans forward, "Sinon, we went to the town where you used to live."

Sinon's brows furrow in pain, "Why did you…"

She shoves up from the table and turns to leave, so he quickly reaches out and grabs her sleeve, "Because I thought you hadn't met the person you needed to meet, or heard the words you needed to hear. It may hurt you, but I couldn't just ignore your pain. So I asked Argo for help since she's particularly good at tracking down information even IRL and she used a press database to investigate that incident, then Marzanna and I took Monday off from school and headed there, because I didn't really want to have that conversation on the phone. Luckily the current manager also worked at the post office then, and once we explained the situation, they were very helpful."

Sinon looks at him in confusion, "The person I needed to meet? The words I needed to hear?"

He looks over at Argo, who had gotten up and headed to the door to the private room in the back, and nods. She nods back then opens the door, before briefly having a conversation with someone. When she returns, she's with a middle-aged woman and a small child. The child just looks sort of excited though the woman gazes at Sinon with a mixture of happiness and sorrow. Marzanna gets up to give the little girl her seat, and the two settle down across from them. As Marzanna and Argo move back over to sit at the bar with Agil.

The woman bows her head in greeting and the little girl looks up at her mother before mimicking her.

Sinon looks like something is niggling at her memory but she can't quite place it, "Um, who are you?"

The woman smiles, "Hello. You're Asada Shino-san, right? My name is Oosawa Sachie." She looks down at her daughter, "This is Mizue. She's four. I moved to Tokyo after giving birth to her, but before she was born, I worked at the post office. I'm sorry. I'm really sorry, Shino-san. I should have come to see you earlier, but… I wanted to forget about that incident. So I used the fact my husband was transferred as an excuse, without thinking about the consequences or how much that incident must have hurt you. But I never apologized." She reaches up to rub away the tears that have appeared with her index finger, "Or thanked you. To be honest, after the first little bit, when I'd come to terms with what happened, it bothered me quite a bit that I hadn't, but I had no way to find you." Then she sniffs and reaches over to rub at the Mizue's head who's young enough to be pretty oblivious to the weighty nature of the conversation and smiles cutely in happiness, "When it happened, I was pregnant with her. So, Shino-san, you not only saved my life, but her's as well. Thank you…" She bows pretty deeply, "Thank you so much." Her daughter once again glances over before mimicking her again, "Thank you."

Sinon stares with wide eyes, "I… saved your lives?"

He stands to move closer to her and Sinon turns to look at him, "Sinon, you've always blamed yourself. You've tried to punish yourself. I won't say that's wrong, since I think it's only natural that someone with a conscience would, but…" He takes another deep breath, still struggling to let this sink in himself, but knowing Sinon needs to hear it, "But at the same time, you have the right to think of the lives you saved. You have the right to think about them and forgive yourself. I wanted you…" His voice shakes and he clenches his hand as he forces himself to push through, "I wanted you to know that."

He's barely finished before Mizue draws their attention when she climbs down from her chair and approaches Sinon. She digs in her cute little bag for a moment before pulling out a paper folded into a square, then clumsily unfolds it before holding a drawing out to Sinon. At the top in messy child's handwriting it says 'To Shino-oneesan' and below that was a drawing of what's likely her family beside a tree with a bright orange sun in the corner.

She waits until Sinon hesitantly takes it before with unusual clarity for her age showing that she'd practiced it repeatedly in a sweet innocent voice, "Shino-oneesan, thanks for saving Mama and me!"

Sinon clutches the drawing tightly as tears roll down her face from her wide eyes as she stares at the picture. She's startled when Mizue places her hand on hers then smiles brightly when she has her attention.

She smiles at the little girl and carefully sets the drawing on the table before taking the child's hands in hers, "You… You're welcome. I'm… If nothing else. I'm glad that you and your mama got to live."

He steps back at that, moving over to wrap his arm around Marzanna and leaving Sinon to talk with the two for a while. There's still a chance that Sinon could be furious and hate him for spreading her story without her permission, but… he thinks it'll have been worth it, to see that smile that makes it clear that Sinon is finally leaving that post office in the past and moving forward.

After a while, the two head out, Mizue waving an enthusiastic goodbye to Sinon and they move back over. Then Marzanna claps her hands once cheerfully, "Well! Assuming Kazuto passed on my request to make sure you have nothing you need to do today, there's just one more thing we gotta do!"

Sinon smiles tiredly, "I don't think I can handle another conversation like the two I've had today. I think I'm already getting emotional whiplash."

She waves her hands, "Nothing like that! Promise!" Then she grins widely, "Just trust me for a little while, ok?"

Sinon nods hesitantly, so she turns to Agil with a grin, "You coming?"

He nods, "Mm. My wife is out of town visiting relatives tonight, so I figured I would."

She nods, "You catching a ride with me or taking your own car."

He barks a laugh, "With you of course, noy everyday I get to ride in such a damn fine beast."

She flicks a look over to Argo with a grin, "Sorry Argo, you'll have to ride in back!"

She grumbles, "I still say that's cheating. You're not supposed to be able to get an international driver's license(3) until you're eighteen. It's so not fair that your family managed to get you an exception."

Sinon looks at Marzanna in curiosity, "What do you drive anyway? Most people don't get good cars for their first vehicles, since there's a higher chance of getting into an accident when you're a newer driver."

His mate grins, "Mm. Not a newer driver though. I've driven quite a few times, so my family got me my dream car for my birthday along with my other individual gifts. I'll show you when we get outside."

There was also the fact that being a Nephilim meant she had literally inhuman reflexes, so there was no way she'd ever get into a car accident. But since she isn't going to fill Sinon in on the whole 'magic is real and I'm not human' thing until Sinon's had a little time to settle emotionally and get more used to them, she can't exactly say that. To be honest, he actually had an international driver's license too, but he was still saving up for a better bike. He wasn't in any way going to rush things and ask to take on bigger jobs on his own until Marzanna's family firmly felt he could handle pretty much any nasty surprises that might pop up, but that was one thing that made him wish he was ready for big jobs already. Bigger jobs like Great Demons paid bank, whereas there was quite a gap in how much smaller jobs paid in comparison. He wasn't a greedy person or anything and fully agreed with the Sparda's way of doing things of donating extra, but between only being able to take on smaller jobs on his own and being essentially part time since he still had school he still wasn't at the point that what he made had hit the vaguely defined level where the Sparda's consider themselves fully taken care of.

Despite that though, they'd both heard that complaint many times from their friends that were under eighteen, so she just laughs. They quickly gather their things and Agil locks up, then Marzanna grins at them again this time with a little mischief, "Why don't you guys go wait near the entrance to the alley while I go get my car?"

She gets agreement all around, so she takes off while he and Sinon get their helmets on and the four of them make their way to the entrance of the narrow shop alley, he and Sinon on his bike, Argo and Agil on foot. Hearing a familiar rumble, Agil barely hides his grin of amusement long enough for the roar of Marzanna revving the engine from where she's taken advantage of Agil pulling Sinon's attention in the other direction and creeped the car up to the curb next to them makes Sinon jump so bad she almost flings herself off of his bike.

The three of them bust up laughing, and he feels Sinon whip around, "What?!" Then she stops and gapes, "That-"

Marzanna rolls the window down, laughing just as hard as they are as she leans out, "S-Sorry Sinon! But in fairness I've done it to pretty much all of my friends at some point! So I guess you could consider this a sort of right of passage?"

Agil sighs happily, "God, I love that car."

Sinon leans around him and stares some more, "I don't think I've ever seen something quite like it, I mean, it looks like some of the muscle cars I've seen in movies and stuff, but…"

Marzanna laughs again as Agil and Argo circled around to get in, "Old American Muscle baby. This thing was originally built in 1969, so they really don't make them like this anymore. These cars are actually pretty expensive to be honest. I mean, my family easily makes enough money all put together to afford it pretty quickly, especially since it was a collective gift, but my family doesn't really have much interest in getting rich. As long as our needs are taken care of and we have some money set aside for emergencies as well as some for ourselves for leisure, we don't usually feel a large need for much more in life, so we tend to donate a lot. If they'd cut back on that, they could've afforded it easily, but since they've apparently known for a while that they were going to get me one for my seventeenth birthday they've been setting money aside for it and any repairs or modifications needed to get it how I've always wanted one for years without mentioning a word to me."

Sinon's mouth drops open in surprise, then she frowns vaguely, "That's not really a good thing though, is it? That it's so old I mean."

His mate laughs yet again, "There may be a lot of modern conveniences this thing wasn't originally built with, or upgrades to things like the stereo, but you can modify them for that." Then she grins, "Besides, these old muscle cars are such beasts that owners of them used to do things like take a twenty dollar bill, put either double sided tape or regular tape looped on itself on the back and smack it to the dashboard, tell the person in the passage seat that if they can grab it they can have it, then floor it and laugh as the Gs pull the other person back into the seat hard enough that they can't reach up and grab it. Also, this is a Boss 429 Fastback and they're just badass."

Sinon shakes her head, "I won't say that's wrong, it is pretty cool. Why seventeen though?"

She tilts her head, "Ah. Modern laws may usually consider someone an adult at eighteen, but old family tradition considers someone an adult at seventeen, so it was basically a coming of age present." Then she glances over at Agil and back at Argo, "Anyway, these two are all settled, so let's get going. I'm more than happy to talk about my other baby with you later if you want." The first being Yui of course. Then she glances at him as she settles back into her seat, "We're just heading to my house."

He nods, "Alright, we'll see you there."

His mate nods back and rolls up her window, then takes off and he pulls out behind her. It's as he's stopped at the light pretty much across the street from Marzanna's behind his mate's car when Sinon leans around him a little and points at it, "That place is super old school, isn't it? I mean, what looks like actual brick and an old neon? It's got a feel like it should be a biker club or something equally tough, doesn't it?" He can't help but laugh at that, and he can practically feel the confusion rolling off of Sinon, who says defensively, "What? It's true."

He glances back over his shoulder right as the light turns green, "Well. You aren't wrong."

Then he pulls into the driveway after Marzanna, tucking his bike in the gap she'd left between the garage and her own car for him. There's a beat of silence before a very quiet "Oh." comes from his passenger.

Heading inside, they find the rest of his and Marzanna's close friends hanging out in the shop at the front of the building. They all, strangely enough, were wearing white long sleeved T-shirts and had some sort of face mask they were either holding onto or had pulled up on top of their heads. Marzanna grins, then wordlessly grabs bags with their names on them and hands them out before pointing over to the nook the pool table usually was, where it had been pushed out of the way so panel screens could make private areas to change, which Marzanna promptly heads to with her own bag. Sharing a confused look with Argo, Agil, and Sinon, he opens his bag to find his own shirt, mask, and cheap sweatpants as well as a change of socks.

He lifts his head in confusion, "Anyone know what's going on?"

Asuna tilts her head and raises an eyebrow at him from where she's sitting on the edge of the pool table, "They didn't tell us a thing, just told us to change and wait for you guys. You mean to tell me you don't know either?"

Marzanna comes back, "Nope!" She pops the p cheerfully, and immediately ignores Lizbets muttered 'that was fast' to continue talking, "I didn't tell him what was going down in the slightest. Go get changed. You'll regret it if you don't."

They share looks for a moment before Sinon shrugs and heads over to change. While the four of them are taking turns changing, Diabel leans towards Marzanna from where he's leaning against the wall, "But what are we doing?"

His mate just grins, "My family is repainting some of the shared rooms like the living room and kitchen next week, but we have a fun little tradition we do before that. I thought I'd be fun to invite you guys. And I also thought it might be just the right thing to cap off Sinon's day."

Sinon glances at her, "Why?"

She just grins, "You'll see. Don't worry, you'll enjoy it."

They share more looks as they continue to attempt to needle answers out of her while they finish changing, but she refuses to say more. When they're all changed, Marzanna cheerfully grins as she shoves his mask over his head, "Masks on before we go in!"

The instruction is followed in confusion before she shoves him through the door into the rest of the house and grabs Sinon's wrist to drag her behind him, "Come on then!"

He looks over his shoulder at her as he adjusts the straps on his mask, "But you still haven't said what we're doing."

She laughs brightly, "Right now? Entertaining Sinon at your expense."

He doesn't have time for her words to really register before he's entering the 'intersection' sort of area where the stairs going both up and down are to his left, the doorway to the living room is on his right, and the hallway leading to the kitchen is ahead of him. As soon as he steps into the middle, movement has him jerking his head around, to find Alessio and Nero popping out from the kitchen, Eva and Kyrie leaning through the doorway from either side of the living room door, Yui, Lily, and Vergil leaning over the railing on the stairs going up, and Dante, Lady, and Trish peering over the stairs going down. They all have water balloons in their hands.

Theoretically, his Nephilim reflexes should have made it a piece of cake to dodge. But between the feeling of relaxed safety in the Sparda household and sheer surprise... Well. He ends up acting more like a freshly painted target than a Demon hunter in training as they all let loose and nail him.

He also found out in that instance why they were all wearing masks, because as it turns out, the water balloons don't have water inside of them.

They're filled with paint.

The Sparda household immediately starts laughing and after a brief stunned silence their friends soon start howling right along with. Marzanna practically giggles before saying, "I thought it'd be nice for Sinon to end off that emotional day with our traditional paint balloon fight and seeing Kazuto absolutely pelted."

Without hesitation Sinon responds, "I think I love you."

She laughs in response as he whirls on them dramatically, shoving a finger into Sinon's face, "Keep off my wife!" Then he moves his finger to his mate, "And you! How could you betray me like this?! You even got Yui in on it!"

She throws her head back and laughs, and he hears Yui giggling up a storm on the stairs. Sinon shakes her head, "Immensely satisfying."

He tilts his head at her, then grins evilly even though she won't see it behind his mask, "Oh yeah?" Hearing the shift in tone, she suddenly gives him a weary look, but he doesn't give her time to try to escape before he throws his arms wide, "Free hug!"

She tries to backpedal away from him, but unfortunately for her the way is blocked by Klein and the others, and she soon has his arms thrown around her and paint all over the front of her shirt.

Just from her tone of voice and body language, he knows she's gritting her teeth, "I. Am going. To decimate you in this paint war. Prepare to be a technicolor masterpiece."

He sees Lizbet raise her hands, "Hold up! Question first. What's this paint gonna do to my hair though? Will it wash out?"

Marzanna hums, "Yeah definitely. Well, I mean, it's a brand of paint that needs specific kinds of cleaners for hair or body or whatever, but we have both the hair and body wash, so just take a shower and use it before you leave and it'll be fine. Afterwards, you can throw the sweatpants away, and maybe the socks and shirt if you want to. Most of us like to keep the shirts, though some of us like to keep the socks too. Up to you. Just keep the paintball masks on. Won't hurt you, but it isn't pleasant to get paint in your eyes or your mouth. Trust me."

They all share looks, then nod at each other, and he turns to his mate, "Any rules?"

She shrugs, "Locked rooms are off limits, don't actually hurt anyone, stop if someone hurts themselves or might've, and for us, keep it toned down to normal level."

In other words, no inhuman abilities and stay at a human level of physical athleticism. He nods and turns to look over their friends, wondering who would be best to try to team up against Sinon with, then a moment later he sputters in shock before turning back to her, reaching up to touch the fresher paint running through his hair.

He narrows his eyes at his mate as she giggles joyfully and gasps out, "Sorry! Couldn't help myself!"

A playful smile stretches across his face as he spots the container full of pre-filled paint balloons and snatches two up, "Oh, it is on!"

The Sparda's and his friends scatter, laughter ringing through the house as chaos ensues.

It's admittedly a blast. Chasing each other through the house nailing one another with the paint filled balloons and the small paint cans they quickly realize are spread around the house for no other purpose than dumping them on one another.

One of his favorite moments is definitely teaming up with Marzanna, Yui, and Dante to dump a couple of the paint cans on the previously almost clean Vergil.

He of course gets swift relentless vengeance, especially since they're all too busy laughing to run away, but he doesn't regret it in the slightest.

He definitely has to agree with his mate. This was absolutely a wonderful way to cap off the day.

(1): The actual statistic of three hundred players being kidnapped to ALO from the 6147 survivors is 4.880429477794046%

(2): I haven't read the books past GGO, and I haven't really read the side stories, the progressive volumes and whatnot, that much, so unless I'm spacing something from an earlier light novel I'm not sure when her name is learned, I just got it from the SAO wiki.

(3): I don't know how common this knowledge is, so maybe this is one of those times where someone doesn't know something most people do, but I discovered when I was looking up the driving age in Japan, which is 18 unless your driving a motorcycle under 400cc, that international driver licenses are apparently a thing? So. Yeah.