(I DO NOT OWN SWORD ART ONLINE OR IT'S CHARACTERS, THEY ARE PROPERTY OF REKI KAWAHARA)
"I'll catch up with you all shortly, there's just one quick thing I need to finish doing." Kazuto admitted. As he waved off the group that now included Suguha, he closed the door and ran up to his room. He ripped open his closet so fast that everything in it fell out. He tore through all the boxes that had fallen until finally he had found what he was looking for; his old NerveGear system. He had gotten it out because he wanted to see if it still worked well and after plugging it in and turning it on, two of the three small rectangular lights on the upper part of the helmet glowed green and blue while the third one remained off. "Good. I can still use it." Kazuto said to himself. He then procceded to put the NerveGear to make sure that it still fit. Upon discovering that it did still fit him, albiet barely, he went to take it off. Suddenly, his whole world went black for one second and then went back to normal, but before he could comprehend what had just happened, he blacked out again for no more than a second. That time however, in the blackness of the abyss he was in, he could clearly see the silhouette of a human form. The moment he was snapped back to reality, he threw the NerveGear off his head before he could have another strange delusional black out. "W-what…The hell?!" He said as he took a moment to collect himself and his breath. It may have only been a second but Kazuto knew what he saw, he very clearly saw a person in that darkness. But the question of who it was or why he saw them was beyond him. He was lucky enough to have thrown his NerveGear in the direction of his bed, so it had a soft landing. When it landed, the disc tray was ejected and a small disc plopped on to his bed. He didn't need to inspect the disc because he knew what it was. Sword Art Online. The disc itself doesn't work anymore after Sword Art Online was beaten and destroyed. But with the seed that Kikuoka and his employers found, they could, if they wanted, recreate it one hundred percent like the original. "That black abyss I saw…Was that SAO?" Kazuto thought to himself as he put some clean clothes on and went to join the others at the picnic. "Could that have been SAO trying to tell me something? Nah, it can't have been. How ridiculous is that?" Kazuto thought as he waved to everyone who had already set the picnic up.
"It's about time, what took you so long, man! I've been staring at girls all by myself over here." Ryotaro joked as he went to fist bump Kazuto
"Hey, who knows. Maybe I was also staring at babes by myself." He laughed with Ryotaro as he returned the the fist bump.
"One day, we're going to find out that they're long lost brothers." Rika said sarcastically. Asuna just sighed in reply.
After one hour of enjoying the picnic, Asuna walked up to Kazuto who was napping on the blanket.
"Hey Kirito, do you mind coming on a walk with me?" She asked him.
"Oh, yeah sure." Kazuto stood up and walked down the boulevard alone with Asuna. "So, what's up?" He asked her. It took her a few seconds but she spoke eventually.
"I just wanted to ask you; Are you scared of going back into SAO?" She asked him. Kazuto didn't even think about trying to hide it from her. So he answered truthfully.
"I'm absolutely terrified." He said. "In fact, two nights ago, it was so bad that I couldn't even close my eyes to try and sleep, and I started hurling." Thinking about it made Kazuto's skin crawl. That was definitely not a feeling that he would want to go through again.
"That bad, huh?" Asuna said. "I'm sorry I wasn't there to comfort you."
"N-no, you don't have to be. I managed on my own so don't worry about it." Kazuto said desperately trying to cheer her up. He about to continue doing so but Asuna sudenly embraced him, which rendered Kazuto speechless for a second.
"Would you mind comforting me then." She asked "Even though I wasn't there to comfort you?" Judging by her voice, she wasn't on the verge of crying or breaking down. She sounded completely normal, so she must've just needed to know that someone was there for her no matter what. Kazuto was happy to be that person.
"Asuna, I promise you. I will always be there for you. No matter what happens. I'll never leave your side, ever. Because…I love you. Asuna looked up at him in surprise which gave Kazuto the opening he needed. He lightly grabbed her face and softly pressed his lips against hers. Now, Kazuto's no sweet talker, but he gave himself a mental pat on the back for his successful attempt at it. He knew it had worked because when she realised what had happened, she reciprocated the kiss and wrapped her arms around him. Kazuto has happy that the park that they were in was almost deserted. Otherwise it would have been on damn awkward situation. Kazuto and Asuna held on to their kiss for a couple of minutes before finally letting go. They sat on a nearby bench and just enjoyed the moment in silence. Asuna leaned on Kazuto's shoulder while Kazuto rested his head on the top of hers.
"I don't think I've ever known you to be that bold Kirito." Asuna said peacefully as to not ruin the atmosphere. "I think you should be like that more often."
"Maybe I will then." Kazuto said with a faint chuckle. Seconds later, they heard someone who sounded like Rika calling out for them. They looked down the path and saw Rika running in their direction.
"Lisbeth!" Asuna shouted out to her. "We're over here!" Rika came running over and had a slight look of jealousy on her face.
"Of course I find you two out here alone." She said with puffy cheeks
"What's wrong?" Asuna asked her.
"You guys do know it's eleven thrity, right?" Both Asuna and Kazuto looked at their watches after hearing her and panicked.
"Oh crap, we need to get home fast! Thanks for coming to get us Lisbeth." Kazuto shouted as the three of them bolted down the path. "Is everyone else gone?"
"Yup. Everyone is already is waiting at the building for us." She informed them.
"Thanks Lisbeth, you're a great help." Kazuto thanked her again.
"How about you thank me by taking me out on a date when we get back into Aincrad." She said jokingly. When they got to the point of separation, they quickly said see you soon to each other and started sprinting to the allocated building that Kikuoka had made specifically for this mission. Something else that Kikuoka told them two days ago was that he would be meeting with them in the center of the Town of Beginnings once the transition happened. Kazuto quickly separated from them in order to go home and get his NerveGear. He got to his house in the blink of an eye and shot up the stairs to the upper floor where his room is located. He flung his door open and reached for his NerveGear which was upside down on his bed. It was for but a moment but when Kazuto picked up his NerveGear, he felt lightheaded. He was honestly getting fed up with the trauma that SAO had caused him to develop.
"I'm starting the have second thoughts about this." Kazuto said as he grabbed a small USB stick as well as a little piece of paper that was sitting on his desk. He made his way over to Kikuokas building while frequently checking his watch which told him that he had less than ten minutes before the new SAO was activated. When the building was finally in sight, he got a call from Asuna. But since he was less than a minute away, he decided not to answer it. When he entered the building and found the room he was supposed to be in, he saw that everyone except Asuna and Suguha had already dived.
"Hurry up Kazuto, everyone else is already in!" Suguha urged Kazuto onto his dive bed and then dived herself by shouting the words "Link Start!" Asuna put her NerveGear on as well but before she dived, she saw Kazuto tell Kikuoka something as he gave Kikuoka what seemed like a piece of paper and a USB stick. After brushing it off as just something that Kazuto wanted to be kept safe while they were in SAO, she dived as well. Kazuto got back on his dive bed and looked around at the sleeping bodies of all his friends before putting on his own NerveGear. As he laid down, he saw a little notification in his window that told him that his ExoLinker had been connected to Kikuokas computer. Kazuto closed the window and prepared himself by taking a few deep breaths.
"I'll see you in there." Kikuoka said as he saw his data team arrive. Kazuto nodded in his direction and put his head back down. Kazuto closed his eyes and took a reliving breath as the strange vision he had earlier had not troubled him again. Kazuto opened his mouth to speak and after a little bit of hesitation, he shouted
"LINK START!" And with that, his consciousness faded.
Soon after, he felt his consciousness re-form, not as Kazuto, but as The Black Swordsman, Kirito. As he look around he saw that he was in the house that belonged to him, Asuna and their in-game daughter, Yui. At the sight of her in-game dad, the small fairy flew over and turned into her normal form so she could embrace him.
"Daddy! You're here!" She said happily as Kirito hugged her back.
"Hey Yui, how are you doing?" He asked her.
"It's been a few days since I last saw you, so I got a little lonely. But Mommy and all you're friends arrived a few minutes ago and-" She suddenly stopped causing Kirito to slightly worry. But she continued before he could say something "Oh wait! I forgot. Mommy told me to give you a message when you arrived. She said, Go to the small island with the single tree on it in the middle of the lake, that's where they're going to wait. I don't know what she means by it but it sounded important." Yui finished relaying the message as Kirito gave her a small pat on the head.
"Thanks Yui. Well come on, they're waiting for us." Kirito said as he summoned his spriggan wings and headed for the door. Yui transformed back into a small fairy and flew into Kirito's front chest pocket before he took of towards the small island in the middle of the lake at break neck speed. The moment he got the island, an announcement appeared in the sky above them as well as a loud voice that relayed the words for people who were underground.
"This is an important message to all players of Alfheim Online. Alfheim is about to make a transition to a different world. This will mean that those who are still in the game after the countdown that will follow this announcement ends, will be transported into the different game world called Aincrad. Better known as, Sword Art Online. If you do not wish to take part in the second coming of Sword Art Online; Please log out immediately." A counter appeared below the announcement that showed the amount of people currently logged into Alfheim. That counter dropped from 11,038 to 7,359 within thirty seconds. "For those few who are unaware of what happened during the first Sword Art Online event, please refer to the link that will appear in your chatbox shortly." No one from Kirito's group received the link but a lot of other people did. And suddenly the user counter dropped from 7,359 to 5,987. The announcement continued. "For those that have been brave enough to stay logged in, we would like to inform you that, during the second coming of Sword Art Online, perma-death will be de-activated. Meaning that dying in the game will NOT mean dying in real life." Kirito looked up and noticed that the counter had pretty much stopped dropping all together at 5,912. "Everything else will be explained once the transition has been completed. Until then…Enjoy the new Sword Art Online." With the end of the announcement, a sixty second timer took the place of the announcement bubble.
"What was that announcement all about? Mommy, what's going on?" Yui asked Asuna with concern.
"Don't worry Yui, I promise I'll tell you all about it later." Asuna reassured her in-game daughter.
"I don't know about you guys but I'm starting to get pumped!" Klein said with excitement.
"For the first time, I actually agree with you." Lisbeth said with Silica nodding in agreement.
"You guys were stuck in this death game for two whole years though. It's kinda hard for me to get pumped when I think about it." Leafa said with worry as she looked at her cousin.
"That maybe be so, but since there's no death threat. I reckon this'll be exciting." Sinon said with a faint laugh under her breath. At this point the timer was at thrity seconds. The user counter had also risen ever so slightly. Kirito's eyes never left the timer for the whole sixty seconds. Because he knew that if he took his eyes away from it for even a second, it would feel like it counted down faster. So Kirito wanted to make these sixty seconds last a lifetime. But alas the timer came when the timer had reached ten seconds left. Every person who was logged in would remember this day as the day that Alfheim stood still. With five seconds left, Kirito spoke some final words.
"Here we go guys, get ready!"
…3…
…2…
…1…
when the timer disappeared, there was but a moment of utter silence. Suddenly a giant black hole appeared where the timer was in grew instantly to the size of the sun. It shattered Kirito's avatar and enveloped his crystalised shards as the world cracked and spiralled into nothingness. "What the hell, no one told me that that was going to happen!" Kirito shouted until he realised that no one was around him and he was standing in a black abyss. The exact same black abyss that he saw a day ago when put on his NerveGear for the first time in ages. He also attempted to raise his hands in front of him but nothing appeared in his eye sight. He had no body, he was just a floating consciousness. As he tried to look around in a panic, he noticed a silhouette, the same silhouette from before. But before he could even confirm that it looked like a human body, a light appeared and the silhouette was lost in the disappearing darkness. The light suddenly enveloped Kirito's consciousness and started to crack, after the light was close to shattering, it spiralled out of control and enveloped itself. All of a sudden the shattered light that was just enveloped exploded. The explosion, that argued against physics and logic, pulled Kirito's consciousness into it and after reaching the centre he was thrusted into a patch of long grass with a bang. Kirito let out a scream of terror as he looked upward. However, to his strange relief, he saw a familiar set of big waterfalls coming from islands that lay rest on massive pieces of almost floating metal. He slowly turned his head to the left and saw a familiar town in the distance. "No doubt about it, this is definitely SAO." Kirito said as he looked towards the Town of Beginnings.
"Hey Kirito, does this look familiar or does this look familiar?" Said a very familiar voice. Kirito turned and saw what he expected, Klein was sitting down, legs crossed and staring into the artificial sunrise. Just a couple of meters away from him. "This is the same place where you taught me how to play SAO." He admitted. As Kirito did look at him though, he noticed something odd about Kleins appearance.
"Hey Klein, that outfit of yours." He asked
"Yeah? What about it?" Klein replied in confusion
"I may be looking to much into it but; weren't you wearing that same outfit during the 74th floor boss fight?" Kirito asked with something bothering him.
"Yeah. Why?" Klein said, trying to find out what Kirito was getting at.
"What I mean is, if we're restarting SAO from the beginning, then why do we have all of our original gear and stats back?" Kirito admittingly asked as he played with his menu and summoned his Elucidator and Dark Repulser. To this realisation, Klein jumped up from his sitting position and opened his menu.
"Holy crap! You're right! I've got all of my original weapons and armor back. Awesome! I wonder how that happened." Klein played with his inventory while Kirito had a quick think about it.
"Could it be that every original SAO player has all their stats and items back?" Kirito asked Klein who was hugging all his old items.
"Who cares, it doesn't really matter. But hey, at least with this stuff, we'll be able to hammer through at least the first fifty levels without much trouble at all." Klein spoke some logic which caused Kirito to stop thinking about it. Kirito opened his menu to check something but before he could he got a message from someone named Chrysheight, a.k.a Kikuoka.
Everyone is waiting for you in the middle of the town of beginnings. Hurry up and get here.
"Looks like we're the only ones not there. Hey Klein, let's go meet up with the others." Kirito turned to get his attention but he had his back turned to Kirito. And he looked frozen. "Klein? We need to go." Kirito walked up to Klein but he got another message. This one came from Asuna. He read the message as Klein finally spoke to him.
"Kirito, I hate to say this but, I'm afraid we can't log out again." Klein said darkly as Kirito read the message he was sent.
Kirito…The log out button is disabled again. We can't log out…
Hearing this, Kirito went straight to his menu and clicked the log out button. But alas, nothing happened. Kirito rapidly pressed the button multiple times but still, nothing happened.
"B-but I thought…That they changed it." Kirito said as he came to a proper realisation.
Alas, they have re-entered the world of Sword Art Online. However, after realising that they are once again stuck, how is the group going to react? And judging from this, what other possibilities could arise? Thanks for reading! Please Review before leaving.