Upload schedule of every other day is back to normal ^^

Kazuto Kirigaya could feel every bump in the road. It was to the point that the tall man across from him had to slouch in order to keep his head from slamming into the roof of the truck every time there was a decent rock on the road.

The boat ride had been… weird to say the least. Being separated from his aunt and put in charge of protecting his cousin Suguha who was practically his sister had been a sobering experience. Even without the many painful flashbacks of memories of the time a year ago that he had been locked up with thousands of other people. Being mere dispensable lab rats at the full whims of the scientists and the group that was no doubt in charge of what was going on now.

Namely the fact that rather than some kind of humane bus, he was stuck in the back of some kind of truck with about thirty other people.

At least they weren't all scared, thanks to the man across from him occasionally cracking jokes and livening up the dreary mood with how all of them knew that they weren't going back to their families any time soon.

"A complex?" Kazuto blinked in confusion and asked his aunt in confirmation, "they've made some kind of complex for all of us who have weird abilities, people like Sugu and I?"

"Kazuto, I don't know what to do about those abilities that you and Sugu have now," his aunt Midori told him calmly and Kazuto could hear the uncertainty in her voice. "The sparring you two do are dangerous now, the broken shinai in the dojo are enough proof of that. I don't know how to help you two learn to control that wild strength that you two have after that incident."

Incident? What incident? Was she talking about the area of time that he didn't remember?

"Incident? What incident-"

"Kazuto? Mom? What're you talking about?" Sugu called out from upstairs and Kazuto reluctantly set his jaw.

"Okay, we'll go, hopefully they can help us."

Help them? This was more like imprisonment. Imprisonment of however many people with so many holes drilled into their brains that their memories didn't work and they had odd almost supernatural abilities that just didn't make any sense even to his computer attuned brain.

"You look pretty lost in thought over there," the man across from him nudged his foot with his and leaned forward on his knees once the truck had settled dwon after the latest harsh bump. "You thinking about how bad the shock absorbers on this thing are? Cause I mean come on, they could've at least put some decent shocks on this baby regardless of how ugly of a baby it is."

Kazuto couldn't help it, he smiled and chuckled, "nah man, this thing's a rusted piece of junk beneath all of that pristine paint," he snorted, referring to the pristine grey and white truck they were in that only had metal seats and was completely logoless. Now shaken out of his thoughts, the boy looked to his left, checking briefly on his cousin who was sleeping peacefully leaning against his shoulder.

She was still asleep, sleeping peacefully despite the mild chill and the rough ride and Kazuto didn't regret folding up his jacket and setting it down beside him before Sugu sat down. Since it would've been protecting her from the slightly cold seats.

Seriously, was this truck in a freezer on the boat or something? Cause the metal really was cold.

"Here," the man across from him slipped off his bland jacket, the same type of bland jacket Kirito had been given but the blonde's was more of trench coat than Kazuto's high collared casual jacket. With what space they had between them he flared out the jacket to shake anything on it off before offering it to Kirito, "it'll help keep your… uh, she warm," he stated with a a bit of a sheepish smile beneath all of that charm that had made the mood light enough for those awake to talk amongst themselves.

"Sister," Kazuto filled in for him, after all he and Sugu had been close enough to be siblings at one point, before he had found out that they were just cousins. He had been determined to rectify that fissure between them and rebuild that sibling relationship when he got home and now a year later, he had. "Thanks, er, what's your name?" He asked as he carefully spread the large white jacket over his sibling.

"Kuroshiro Kazuma," the blonde boy with heterochromia, meaning one gold eye and one silver, greeted charmingly with a smile and offered his hand out to him, "though I never got yours~"

"Oh," Kazuto took the boys hand with a firmshake, "Kazuto Kirigaya, my sister's Suguha Kirigaya."

"Gotcha, nice to meet you Kazuto," Kuroshiro greeted and returned the handshake before relaxing as they hit another bump, taking care to not smack his head on the ceiling again. "Hopefully those names don't get knocked out of my head from hitting it on the ceiling again, cause at this rate I might be concussed by the time we get there!"

Kazuto laughed and shook his head, "I dunno man, with all your complaining I doubt you're concussed."

"With how semi-dim it is in here we'll never know," Kuroshiro laughed in turn and a comfortable silence reigned between them for a few minutes, both boys lightly shaking their heads at the amusing banter and just relaxing, waiting.

Till Kuroshiro broke the silence.

"Though…" the joke cracked turned a bit serious and glanced over at the door of the truck, "I wonder if we're almost there-"

The truck started to slow down.

Kazuto and Kuroshiro exchanged silent glances, both boys tensing silently at the decrease of speed when they had been moving at the same rough speed for the past thirty minutes since they were put on the boat.

"Sugu, wake up," Kazuto gently shook his sister with a hiss of her name while his and Kuroshiro's eyes were glued to the door of the semi-lit truck.

"Big brother?" Sugu mumbled but she did sit up, "did we make it to where we were going?"

"I think so, yeah," Kazuto confirmed, especially as the truck rolled to a stop. "Definitely, try and shake off the drowsiness, we have no idea what we'll be dealing with when we get out of this truck." He carefully pulled the long jacket from his sister's shoulders and tossed it to Kuroshiro who caught it.

"Who's he?" Sugu asked curiously, referring to Kuroshiro since she had seen her brother toss him his jacket.

Kuroshiro slipped one arm through his jacket and offered her his other hand, "Kuroshiro Kazuma, glad to meet you~"

"Suguha Kirigaya, though I go by Sugu," Sugu quickly introduced herself and exchanged a handshake as they all heard it, someone stepping up onto the back of the truck around the sliding door at the back of the truck.

The light that spilled in as the door was pushed up by slender fingers nearly blinded Kazuto so he squinted and briefly shielded his eyes as the person who pushed up the door greeted them.

"Sup, welcome to hell," came a girl's voice and Kazuto blinked as his eyes adjusted. Allowing him to see a brunette with pink highlights and a shield slung over her shoulder with a slender blonde standing a little ways away from the truck with a long table of… clothes?

"My name's Lisbeth," the girl with pink highlights in her brown hair told them and pointed a thumb at herself with a friendly smile, "and I'll be your resident blacksmith here at the Complex. Sorry to say it," she teased, "but my beautiful best friend, your commander, isn't here at the moment so I'll be taking over for her introductions. So you'll just have to settle with me, pinkie, instead of her, capeesh?" She asked, her friendly attitude effectively breaking the tension between everyone.

Except Kazuto. Since somehow he just knew that he had met this girl somewhere, he just didn't exactly know where.

Lisbeth? Why was she so familiar?

And who was this "Asuna" character?"