The lapses in her memory couldn't be some dream or joke.

Somehow, Asuna Yuki had lost her memories of the past four years. Four years of experiences that she only had the vague inkingly of. People she didn't remember, a place she vaguely remembered as a beautiful forest complete with a small cabin and a family of her own.

Who she didn't remember.

It was like someone had drilled thousands of holes into her brain, causing all of her memories within a specific time range to just leak out of her head. Leaving only small beads of water left inside, the tiny beads of her memories with not enough to scoop out and actually remember or experience. So all she had were snippets, faint short snippets that together were too jumbled up from her brain trying to make sense of them that they didn't make any sense.

Even now six months since she had woken up to find herself being all but smashed in a hug with her sister by her brother and father, she didn't remember anything.

Akira, er, Argo, since she seemed to want to go by her middle name now, seemed to remember more than Asuna herself did. However, the blonde had only recently within the last two months started acting like the girl Asuna remembered of her sister, so she was in no rush to ask her more probing questions about what happened to them.

She didn't want to bring up bad memories for her and see that same numbness that she had seen for a month on her sister's face.

Though Asuna had to admit, it was weird having Argo in the house again. Since the last thing she remembered was the multiple years of time where Argo had come over a lot to spend time with her or would take her out somewhere, but she didn't live with them. Having been disowned by Asuna's mother and Argo's step-mother.

What was even weirder was the distinct lack of Asuna's best friends.

She knew Rika was alive, and had since the beginning of her memories restarting up. In fact, the girl's parents had visited her this morning to ask her to talk to Rika. Since evidently the brunette was struggling with the same problem Asuna had. But was having a much harder time coping with it all.

But Shino? She had no idea where the computer nerd of a bookworm was. She hadn't seen her once since she had woken up, and it was disorienting.

But… she understood a possible reason for why Rika was struggling to cope so much. Since Rika had had a crush on Shino before, from what Argo had said and her beads of memory told her, they were in some sort of game.

Which was why she was here, in her best friend's house, searching for her in the large building after greeting her parents with a smile. They had always gone back and forth between each other's houses before whatever happened to them happened. Where Rika purposefully got on Asuna's mother's nerves but her mother couldn't say anything without also offending the influential family Rika was from.

"Rika?" Asuna sighed in exasperation and rubbed at her forehead to soothe the headache pounding at her skull as she left Rika's very messy room, which just showed how much of a mess the brunette was right now. "Where are you Rika?" she muttered under her breath, wracking her painful brain for where she could be if she wasn't in her room or any of the general areas of the house.

"In front of you, why? How come you're even here?" Rika's voice startled Asuna and the strawberry blonde with hazel eyes nearly had a heart attack as she snapped her eyes open to look wide eyed in front of her. Where Rika was standing.

She looked tired, extremely sleep deprived and had her, 'I'm done with life right now' expression that she had adopted from Shino years ago when they were kids. The engineer was rubbing at her thick curly hair with a towel in a casual tank and shorts and her eyes, pink from some kind of mutation of sorts-

Seriously, what the hell happened to them?

-looked exhausted and a bit red rimmed like she had been crying recently. Plus she seemed to have cut open her cheek from something. All in all, Rika looked terrible.

"My god, Rika," Asuna approached the brunette and looked at her in concern, aware that if Rika was like her and Argo after they had woken up too, she wouldn't want to be touched without permission. "You look horrible, have you been sleeping at all?"

"No, I gotta catch up on the years of work I missed," Rika joked and offered her a tired smile, "and I'm fine, just been struggling to sleep a bit, but it's not a big deal."

Asuna could read between the lines. Rika wasn't sleeping anywhere near as much as she should be and something was tormenting her enough that she couldn't sleep properly.

"My house, sleepover, no tinkering," Asuna told her simply, even if she didn't really recognize her own tone. Even if Rika apparently did to a degree, even if it was subconscious, since she didn't fight back and her shoulders slumped.

"Yes, Asuna."

"Argo?" Asuna blinked at the blonde who was sitting rather precariously in one of the thick trees in the backyard.

The blonde was holding her camera, the rather dusty DLSR that she hadn't used since Asuna was ten years old, since she hadn't been able to bring anything with her when she had walked out of the house after being disowned years ago. Before her father had insisted that the blonde stayed with them, at least till she got her footing, which could take a while.

Especially if she had blockages in her memories like Asuna and Rika did.

"Hmm?" Argo responded without any sass, evidently not in that much of a good mood today. Even if she was high up a tree twisting the lens of her camera to bring into focus the bird perched on the tree on the other side of their yard. "What sis?"

Asuna hesitated, not sure she wanted to possibly further bring her sister's mood down. But… she needed to know before Rika showed up soon for the whole sleep over thing. She had to know why Rika had instantly given into that strange tone, and the person who would likely know it the best would be Argo. Since the blonde seemed to remember more than Asuna herself did. "Um…"

Argo's camera clicked as she pressed down on the flash and caught a picture of the bird as it was startled and started to fly away. She let the expensive camera hang around her neck and looked down at her younger sister, as if wondering why she was hesitating so much. "Ya don't gotta be nervous, A-chan," she used that slightly strange nickname again, one she seemed to have picked up during the time that Asuna couldn't remember. "Ima not gonna break ya know."

Asuna's shoulders relaxed a little and she sighed, "I know, I'm just worried about you. You always look so sad when you don't notice I'm there."

Argo winced a bit at the truth before the blonde sighed herself and jumped down, holding her camera in one hand and swinging from branch to lower branch till she dropped to the ground with both feet firmly on the ground. Another of those odd things Argo did now that she hadn't done before. Since before she would've broken something if her best friend wouldn't catch her.

"Just cause Ima sad 'omtimes doesn't mean Ima break, sis," Argo reassured and patted her younger but taller sister on the shoulder through reaching up a bit. "Just like ya got 'omeone ya miss but on't 'emember dem, I got 'omeone too. Well, two technically, but 'till," Argo gave her her typically cheeky but sincere smile, "Ima 'ine, sis, 'romise."

Asuna looked skeptically at her, as Argo was definitely not fine, but she knew that Argo wouldn't give up any more information than she had already. So with great reluctance and feeling just as worried about her sister as before, Asuna moved onto the real reason why she had come out here. "If you say so… but hey, do you by chance remember if I was some kind of commander or something in that game?"

Argo blinked in surprise at the question before she scratched at her cheek, thoughtfully. "Hmmm…" her eyes, green from a mutation like Rika's were pink, went a bit glassy, like she was trying to break past some of the blocked memories that she and Asuna just didn't have access to for some unknown reason. "It… 'ounds vaguely 'amiliar, why?" Argo eventually settled on, blinking and refocusing on her sister as she spoke, "omething 'appen?"

"I talked to Rika today, who's looking more terrible than you do when you get up in the morning," Asuna added the details a bit dryly, succeeding in getting an amused smirk out of her tired looking sister. "She's not sleeping and so I gave the idea for the sleep over here, but…" she paused at the concerned expression on Argo's face, "what?"

"Are you 'ure she's not 'avin' nightmares, A-chan?" Argo asked slowly, allowing her to pronounce a word here and there normally, "like she 'emembers 'omethin' at night?"

Asuna hadn't even thought of that.

Judging by how Argo reacted, Asuna showed her guiltiness on her face. "Keep an ear out, 'ust in case," Argo suggested, "nd 'aybe talk to 'er afterward if it 'appens?"

"I will."

Asuna didn't know it then, but her sister's concern would be spot on.

"Rika!"

The rope binding her ankles was too strong, too strong for Rika even with her STR stats. Too strong to break with her own hands as rocks threatened to tear at her shirt as she slid or the rocky ground of this side of the cliffside. Being roughly dragged away from her, away from the girl struggling to overpower her combatant so she could get to her.

She stabbed the PKer in the throat with her dagger and threw her throwing knife in an attempt to take out another one of them. Not hesitating to take a life of the cruel and evil if it meant she could save Rika and lunged.

Her fingertips brushed Rika's, brushing hers as Rika flung out her own hand to grab onto her as fear rippled through her body.

Rika was dragged out of range barely a few milliseconds after the other girl caught her fingertips and Rika cried out in pain when she felt a blade pierce through her calf.

The trickling sensation at her neck told her of paralysis before the effect had even been given yet.

"NO! Let her go!"

"Get Asuna!" Rika shouted as the debuff flickered into her HUD and her feet went over the edge of the cliff. "Hurry!"

"Oh look, the little blacksmith can speak," one of the cackled as they couched down beside her while their buddies stopped the other girl, blocking her and overwhelming her with cackling laughs as she blocked them and stabbed another one.

"Fuck you!" Rika spit into the PKer's face before giving one last urge to the other girl. "Run! I'll be fine-"

She could still hear the other girl's scream as the angry PKer shoved her over and the heartwrenching scream rang in her ears as her head collided with the rocks-

A touch on Rika's shoulder startled her and the girl jerked awake to recoil, jerking rapidly away from the touch. To the point where she slipped partway out of her chair and landed hard on her back with one of her feet wedged underneath something.

Oh god, she was stuck.

Someone had finally kidnapped her.

She could feel her body trembling, shaking as she fought with whatever cloth was covering her face, fingers scrabbling against the rough burlap fabric in a panic while her chest heaved in a short shallow breaths, hyperventilating while she writhed, fighting to get free of whoever had gotten ahold of her.

This was supposed to be over! She was supposed to be safe now!

Who had her?!

"Woah, woah, honey it's just me!"

"I told you you would scare her like that, Mio!"

That was her father's name and her mother's voice.

The blackness of her sight softened as the cloth tangled around her head and shoulders was carefully lifted and Rika flinched at the light. Before she was squinting, trying to focus around the rather agonizing light in one of her eyes.

She hissed and slapped a hand over one of her eyes, hiding the eye from the bright light of what looked like… her… workshop?

Wait…

"Alexa, turn down the lights," her father spoke quickly at her reaction and Rika blinked, disorientated despite the light now being at a more manageable level.

The fabric still tangled around her shoulders but being lifted enough from her head wasn't burlap, rather it was soft and… fluffy. And…

Ozone and jasmine tickled Rika's nose.

Her head and free arm dropped to the floor and she slumped with the only remnants of the panic attack and nightmare being her trembling and heaving breaths as she caught her breath.

She was home.

Alone yes and shaking from a nightmare she couldn't remember other than someone had tied her up and been dragging her from her partner, but safe.

The blanket had been the thing that tipped her off, the soft fabric alongside the combination of scents that tickled her nose were her partner's. The last bit of something that she had of her missing partner and beloved.

Thank god, no one was hunting her, no one was coming after her family, no one was going to hurt her.

Just a dream, another one of the horrible moments of her waking up panicking and barely able to breathe and function properly.

"Are you alright?" Her father was asking worriedly, his brown eyes, which Rika had from him before her eye color changed for some reason alongside some of her hair. "I'm sorry for scaring you, Rika."

Rika's pink eyes vaguely focused on him, glazed with a sense of exhaustion and fear that still had her body trembling from the hell she only remembered in her dreams.

All but one, which she remembered almost perfectly very waking moment.

She wanted to respond, to shake it off and act like she was fine, but there was no way they would believe her. Not after all but throwing herself to the ground and wrestling in a hyperventilating panic with the blanket over her head and shoulders and the chair that probably had it's metal foot rest all bent out of shape if she had been kicking it. Like she had done in the past.

Besides, she didn't know if she had the energy to pretend she was fine right now…

…but she had to.

"It's fine, a bad dream isn't going to take me down," Rika joked and was glad that they couldn't see how weak her smile was.

She didn't want to worry them.

They were busy enough without taking all of this time off for her because she was cry baby and panicked every time she dozed off.

"I doubt that was just some bad dream, Rika," her father pointed out and Rika mentally groaned. "You don't usually respond this violently."

"Yes she does Mio," her mother defended her and Rika just let her eyes close, resting for a moment while her mother finished what she was saying, "whenever she falls asleep without meaning to she always responds like this. Rika," Rika opened her eyes at her mother's voice and saw her giving her a gentle smile and holding out the eyepiece she had woken up having on her face. When she had finally woken up from whatever had happened to her and her childhood friends that they didn't remember.

Her heart stung, being stabbed by a knife at the mental reminder that she was still missing one of them.

Her partner and the girl she had loved and lost somewhere between where her memories stopped and where her new ones started, Shino Asada.

"Thanks," Rika cleared her throat to fix the thick emotion in her voice at the reminder of what she had lost and how she couldn't even remember almost any of the moments she had had with her. She carefully took the device from her mother and uncovered her other eye. Where pushed the device against her face till she felt and heard the click of it's complicated mechanism locking it in place in front of the eye.

The screen flickered to life, dimming the light that entered the eye and providing her with other information as the moving circles narrowed and expanded. Listing defects in materials and objects in her room that she could see while also identifying the people in front of her.

Like she needed it to tell her that it was her parents.

On command with the grumbling though that she didn't need the screen active, the screen dimmed again. The eye piece functioning as a set of one way sunglasses, so it just looked like a normal see through lightly tinted piece of glass, while to her it was a mostly opaque red tinted lens while the screen was offline.

"What did you wake me up for?" she asked a tad quietly and reluctantly pushed herself up into sitting up, Shino's blanket sliding off of her and ending up in a fluffy heap on the floor behind her.

"You have your sleep over with Asuna in about five minutes," her mother hummed while Rika's father still looked rather guilty at the panic he had accidentally put his daughter into when he had woken her up.

"Oh, right, that."

She didn't want to go.

Her sister might've suggested what was going on with Rika, but that didn't mean that Asuna had been fully prepared for it to be a reality.

Cause nothing could've prepared her for it all.

Rika had dozed off almost mid conversation, dozing off during the short lull in the conversation while Asuna read. Yet rubix cube and all the engineer had mumbled about not wanting to fall asleep but despite that, she had crashed without seeming to have much say in the manner. Which just proved how exhausted Rika was.

From what she vaguely remembered being told by Rika herself when they first woke up, Rika didn't need as much sleep as someone else would and only had to sleep every forty-eight hours. Which had been entertaining at the time since the Rika she knew before their memories just halting would sleep all day if she could talk herself out of being productive or was having a rough anxiety day, but now it was just concerning. Since if Rika was just dozing off like this…

How little sleep had she gotten in the past however long-?

That's when the choking started.