A/N: Well, you all seemed to like the new style of omake that I tried out last chapter, so I'll keep it up, at least for this story. We'll see if I don't get tired of it by the end of this arc :P

In any case, I've kept you waiting long enough- time to show you guys what some of our other heroes have up their sleeves in the world of Shonen! There will be a reference to the Slayer of Aincrad canon in this chapter, so let's see which of you guys remembers that story well enough to spot it.

P.S. For those of you that haven't been reading my other stories, there is a poll on my page right now that is set to determine which of my stories I take a scene from to turn into a short comic. If you want to see some Shattered Fragment action (or one of my other stories), then go put up your vote now! Poll closes at the end of the month.

Race Against Luck

"New York, New York," I muttered as I walked through the city streets, my squad in a rigid formation behind me. "Out of all the cities to hide a dragon ball, they pick this place."

Rivka was at my right hand, Saphira had our left flank secured against any would-be attackers, be they mob or player, and Strea was bringing up the rear. Sinon was hopping from rooftop to rooftop with Rain to back her up. Her job was to take up a sniper's position in the case of a fight, which we expected to come at any minute. Everyone else was with Kirito, chasing a lead near Time's Square while my team was headed toward Central Park. Of the two, I thought that Kirito's team was more likely to find the boss, but it never hurt to be thorough.

"It's not like we can expect this to be easy," my sister commented, her Sharingan eyes flicking all about as she tried to spot some kind of clue that would tell us where the boss holding on to the dragon ball might be. "You're not picking up anything with your scouter?"

"Nada," I answered. "Although if this event is running true to the Shonen form, the boss is probably hiding his or her powers until they're discovered. Their strength is sure to light up on every scouter in the city, if not further beyond that."

"After which we'll probably have to be competing against other players in addition to the boss in order to keep ahold of the item we need to win from it," Sinon said in our earpieces. "I'll have Litrosh ready to go the minute that you guys have the ball, but I don't know how long Rain and I can keep other players off your backs once the fight begins."

"Long enough, I'm sure," I smirked. "This'll be just like that mid-dungeon NM fight floor 89."

"That is not a good memory, Mataras."

"We still pulled it off, though, didn't we?"

"Eh…"

"You seem like you're in a better mood," Strea chirped over my shoulder. "Your doctor's appointment go well?"

"Yeah, they gave me some stuff to help me sleep heavier at night as a temporary measure, but they also want me to see a therapist," I answered as my eyes flicked over to a nearby rooftop, having spotted something with my peripheral vision. Without changing my tone or speech pattern, I told my sister, "Eleven o' clock, hotel complex with the-"

"Honey Bone symbol, I already saw," Saphira interjected with a sharp nod. "Sinon, did you see them?"

"Hang on." There was quiet on her end for a few seconds before a shot rang out, and there was an explosion of pixels on top of the roof we had picked out. Sinon then told us, "It was just one guy, but he didn't look strong enough to be solo. My bet is that there's another party in the area trying to find the dragon ball."

Before I could call out a change in formation, fire balls shot down at us by the dozens, causing us to scatter. "What was that?!" I shouted as I tried to find the source of the attack. "Magic?" The flames all missed us, but our formation was shattered.

"I dunno, but Sinon and I have our own problems right now," Rain answered through our earpieces. "We've got a bunch of players coming to get us. At least twenty." The last part caused me to curse angrily.

"How did we miss so many people?" Rivka inquired as she and I stood back-to-back, a lightning-attribute spear in her hands.

"We'll worry about it later," Saphira answered as she tapped her scouter. "My scan says that there's another forty on the ground headed right for us."

"Either we're close to the prize, or we really pissed somebody off," I muttered. "Either way, we need to dust these fools. Counterattack, pattern: Wasp Storm." This was a maneuver we had drilled many times in SAO in order to counter the hordes of wasp monsters often found in the Hollow Area. They weren't all that hard to beat individually, but when they massed together, it was a big problem.

"Guess that's me, then," Strea grinned as she began to rapidly increase her size. Before long, she was level with the twenty-story buildings around her. She then ripped a billboard off of its supports and used it to flatten a large section of the street where four players had started trying to shoot her down- not that it would have done them much good.

Strea's quirk, Gigantification, increased her physical strength in proportion to how large she made herself. Even if her speed was drastically reduced, her massive wealth of health points allowed her to withstand most attacks that were often sent her way whenever she used her powers, not to mention the fact that speed had never really been her strong suit. She was perfect for drawing the attention of our ambushers, and it took some of the pressure off the rest of us so that we could focus on counterattacking.

"Everyone, mark your targets!" I shouted to be heard above the noise of a crashing city block.

"Squad of ten on our six!" Saphira answered.

"You sure?!"

"Yeah!"

"We'll take the one's coming out of the alley up ahead!" Rivka added as she pointed her spear at the spot to which she was referring.

"Can't we just collapse the buildings on top of them?!"

"No good, Rain is on top of one!"

That gave me an idea that set me to smiling. "Actually, that's perfect," I chuckled as I tapped my com button. "Hey, Rain? Think you can get a tornado going up there?"

"Kinda in a tight spot, but I think so!" she answered as I heard a crack of thunder echo from atop the roof, which had been preceded by a bright flash of light. "Why?"

"Just do it, fast as you can!"

Saphira tore away from the main party, having spotted an opening in the attacks coming at them. Her hands were already moving as she charged at three of the ten people that she had selected to fight. "Water Style, Aqua Clones!" she muttered as she finished the hand signs needed to execute the move. In response, three mirror images of herself appeared to flank her, though they quickly charged ahead to grapple with the trio of fighters she was targeting.

None of them lasted very long, and when they were defeated, they exploded like water bombs, drenching her enemies thoroughly. "Is that all you got?" one of the other players taunted her, even as he flexed an armored hand that bore an alchemic symbol for stone.

"Not at all," she murmured, her hands flying again. "Lightning Style, Sapphire Chidori!" Blue energy crackled along her left hand as she struck as the ground, destroying the pavement and savagely electrocuting the other players with the attack. With their virtual senses overwhelmed, they were unable to defend themselves against the next few blows that she dealt to deplete the last of their HP.

By this time, the other enemy players had noticed her presence and were moving to attack with a combination of varying magics, ki techniques, and ninjutsu. Saphira smirked and worked her hands into a blur before she uttered, "Sound Style, Thunderclap!" She slammed her palms together, producing a soundwave that knocked her enemies off their feet long enough for her to dart in and strike at them with devastatingly powerful blows that sent them flying into buildings and down through the sewers before their health bars were completely drained.

This was one of the reasons the Sharingan was so rare and coveted by players across the globe- the user not only had the ability to anticipate nearly all of their opponent's movements, they could copy any martial arts-based and ninjutsu techniques that they saw, so long as they had the necessary stats to execute the moves themselves. Most players could only spend enough time to master one or two ninjutsu styles, but the Sharingan allowed the user to skip the necessary practices normally required for more advanced techniques. Of course, as an SAO survivor, Saphira was predisposed to have a rare talent like that, as well as have the mental discipline necessary for such a demanding ability.

It had been a difficult adjustment, switching from relying on overwhelming brute strength to a play style that required more speed and precision, but Saphira was talented enough to handle it, not to mention she shared blood with Mataras, one of the fastest and deadliest players to walk the virtual realm. There were very few people that could stand on equal footing with them, so the outcome of the fight was hardly unexpected, despite the opponent's superior numbers.

"Gotta love all the stupidity that's going around," she sighed as she looked around for any stragglers that might try to take a shot after her guard would be lowered. When none came up on the scouter, she shrugged and decided to go check on her brother.

That's when one of the nearby buildings came crashing down, causing her to smile to herself. Guess that means that he's fine.

My plan went off without a hitch. Rain used her quirk, 'Weather' to call down a small, short-lived tornado that swept her enemies up and then subsequently dumped them on their allies in the alleyway, just in time for Rivka to stun them with a lightning burst while I finished my own preparations. With a flick of my wrist, I sent out a Kienzan to shear at the foundations of the building across from where Rain was positioned. This weakened the structure enough that it collapsed in on itself, burying our enemies in the debris, and turning them into red pixels.

Once that was done, I tapped the com button on my scouter again and asked, "Rain? You good up there?"

"All clear," she confirmed, causing me and Rivka to exchange a hi-five.

Next, I made sure to check in with Sinon while Strea and Saphira came running up to join us. "You okay, partner?" I asked.

"Hang on," she muttered, causing me to frown. I then heard two more gunshots, followed by my old friend saying, "And those guys are officially toast. Anyone catch their affiliation? I took them out too fast to look out for a guild mark next to their handles."

"Shamrock again," Saphira answered as her eyes returned to blue. "The fact that there were that many of them in the area lends itself to the thought that we might be in the right area. They've always been good at gathering info about the next big events that line up in the game."

"I concur," I said with a sharp nod. "Question is, how close are we?"

"I'm still not seeing anything out of the ordinary with my Sharingan," she replied with a shrug.

"I got nothing from my vantage point, or with the scouter," Sinon added. "Still, we may have been right to search Central Park. Any landmarks that you guys can think of that would be a good place for a boss to hang out?"

Saphira and I exchanged a look before we said in unison, "Balto."

"Guzuntight?" Rain replied.

"Balto was a dog that saved a bunch of kids' lives by making a crazy trek in the middle of one of Alaska's worst blizzards in order to get their medicine," Saphira explained. "There's a small statue of him in the park- you have to be looking for it, or else it's actually kind of easy to miss."

"Oh yeah, you showed me pictures of you two with it from when you were little," Rivka grinned at me, causing me to chuckle a little ruefully.

"We had all of the city to explore, and that statue was the only thing that Victoria wanted to see," I recalled.

"Mataras!" Saphira looked embarrassed, which made it even better for me, since I hardly ever managed to one-up her in a verbal joust.

"Doesn't that location seem a little too obvious?" Sinon inquired while I held my sister at arm's length.

"You got a better idea?" I asked her. Had anyone else been asking, it would have sounded like an insult, but between the two of us, it was an honest inquiry.

"No," my old partner admitted. "I think Rain and I had better come down if you're headed into the park. Keeping you and any potential enemies in my line of sight is gonna be almost impossible with the trees getting in the way."

"Understood, we'll stand by until you've come down," I acknowledged as I thought over which formation would work best for our party in the lightly wooded area.

As if she could hear my thoughts, Sinon added, "And we are not going with formation Delta."

"What do you have against that formation?!

"Two words: Ent King!"

"Those were extenuating circumstances!"

It didn't take us long to reach Central Park, but it was a little while before we found the statue that we were seeking out. This was mostly due to the fact that neither I nor my sister could remember which pathway led to the monument, so we wound up getting lost a couple of times before we were able to get ourselves straightened out. On the way, we ran into a few NPC enemies called 'Venoms' that were basically blank avatars generated with random skill sets by the game system. Nothing we ran into was particularly difficult, certainly not the caliber of a boss monster, but we had to be vigilant, regardless.

Once we found the statue of the valiant dog, we were disappointed by the lack of a strong enemy. There weren't even any regular NPC's out and about, which struck me as odd. "There should be something around here," I muttered as I checked my scouter again. "The fact that we haven't seen anything in the last ten minutes tells me that we've gotta be in the right place."

"Unless somebody already came in, wasted the boss, and made off with the dragon ball," Sinon pointed out, which caused me and several of the others to slump our shoulders, realizing that she might have been right.

"We should've had Sachi come with us," Saphira muttered. "We could really use her Byakugan."

"Plus they got Yuuki's full-power Sharingan," Strea pouted. "We're at a total disadvantage."

"Only with that attitude," Rivka replied as she nudged my shoulder. "We still have a Saiyan, another set of Sharingan eyes, two overpowered quirks, and a couple of strong mages. We can work with this."

"Work with, yes," I deadpanned. "Win with? Maybe."

"Are you just allergic to optimism?"

"Guys, shh!" Rain warned us as she held up a hand to punctuate her demand. "Do you hear that?"

The instant that we silenced ourselves, we picked up on a noise that reminded me of sandpaper scraping on a rough countertop. This was followed by a deep, gravelly voice saying, "Are you lost, travelers?"

Our group whirled around to see an old man with an eyepatch dressed in dark, flowing robes, and holding a black staff. His white beard reached past his waist, which he stroked as he gazed upon us with his uncovered orb. One look at him, and I knew exactly who we were dealing with.

"Master Hades of Grimoire Heart," I said to identify him to the others. "Formerly Master Precht of Fairy Tail, if I'm not mistaken." Silently, I added to myself, If he's the event boss we have to fight, we're in for a rough go of it. Still, at least we don't have to look around anymore, even if I still don't understand how our scouters didn't pick up on him.

"You are well-informed, traveler," the old man nodded. "Why have you come to this place? Are you in search of knowledge, like me?"

This was more than likely a quest prompt that would lead into battle if handled correctly, which meant that I had to measure my responses carefully. One wrong move, and we might not get the dragon ball- assuming that this NPC had it, of course. With this in mind, I answered, "We seek a rare artifact that was rumored to be here. If not the item itself, we hope to at least learn about it."

"Ah," Hades mused as he reached into his robes and pulled out an item that made all of our eyes go wide. "Are you perhaps referring to the orb that is said to grant any wish?" The orange sphere gleamed in the afternoon sun, though it was easy to see the four red stars on it.

"That would be the one, yes," Saphira said quickly. We had found our ticket into the tournament- now we just needed to take it.

"For shame," the old man said as he stuffed the treasure back into his pocket. "It seems that you will be leaving this place empty-handed, if you're smart."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Sinon asked, though we already had a pretty good idea of where this was going.

"It means that I've encountered enough youngsters who think that they can rob an old man of his treasure," Hades answered as he tightened his grip on his staff. "I advise leaving me be, lest such foolish thoughts become your actions."

"If I had a yen for every time someone told me 'don't do it'…" I muttered as I settled into a fighting stance.

"Keep your guards up," Saphira warned us as our scouters began to squawk in alarm at the presence of a growing power signature much stronger than anything we had encountered in the game so far, player or otherwise. "Mataras, what's this guy's gimmick, again?"

"Dark magic, mostly," I answered as Hades' cape billowed around him, and four health bars appeared over his head. "He'll probably start making monsters out of nothing once he gets down to his last health bar, but I won't know that until he takes his eyepatch off."

"Thank goodness for all that memory space wasted on anime when we were kids," Rivka giggled, causing me to twist my mouth into a wry grin. A water-type spear appeared in her hands while the air around my body began to rush away from my presence.

"You'll be thanking me for real in a minute," I replied as Sinon equipped an assault rifle and the skies above began to darken in response to Rain's quirk. "Make sure that he doesn't catch you up in Amaterasu formula- you'll lose most of- if not all- of your magic and a lot of health points."

"What should I do?" Strea asked as Hades' body began to emit dark energy, signaling that the boss fight was just about to begin. "My quirk won't be any good against this guy." As an AI, she had probably already analyzed his fighting style and capabilities, and found that turning into a giant in his presence would only make her into a bigger target for him.

"Things are about to get noisy, so do your best to make sure that we aren't bothered by anybody looking to steal the dragon ball out from under us," I answered without taking my eyes off of our opponent. "If you have spare time, it'd be nice to know if he's about to change gears on us, too."

"Understood," she acknowledged as she backed away from the impending fight. "I'll contact Kirito and the others to see if they can come help, too."

"Thanks," Saphira acknowledged before she activated her Sharingan and began to flick her hands through multiple hand signs. "All right, ladies, let's do this."

I knew that she was trying to needle me, but I didn't have time to make a snappy comeback, because Hades was already on the move, unleashing twin magic chains from his hands that sought to snatch up Rain and me. Apparently the boss had decided that we were the biggest threats, and thus wanted to get a start on eliminating us.

"Earth Style: Wood Release!" Saphira shouted as she slammed her hands into the ground, causing the trees around us to stir violently and attack Hades with a sudden explosive growth. This tangled up his chains and left Rain and I to make our own counterattacks.

She summoned a blast of lightning from the heavens while I aimed my hands at Hades and shouted, "Get clear!" Saphira, Sinon, and Rivka wasted no time in making a hasty retreat, the latter two even managing to get in a unison raid comprised of electric bullets and water magic that added to Rain's inbound attack. Hades was consumed in a blinding flash of electricity and booming thunder, but I wasn't stupid enough to assume that he was down just yet. Unleashing twin pillars of orange-red energy, I roared, "Hell's FLASH!"

My attack struck the spot where we had last seen the boss, splitting the ground and causing an underground explosion that saw to spikes of energy sticking out of the ruined park's landscape. As we landed and waited for the dust to settle, my sister said, "Congratulations, buddy. You just destroyed a national treasure."

"Balto's statue hardly counts as a-"

"Is that all you can do?" Hades' voice, unsurprisingly, interrupted our exchange as the dust in the air began to clear. "I was expecting more."

"Typical final boss dialogue," I muttered to myself as we readied ourselves for a counterattack. In a louder voice, I said, "Get ready to scatter- his big spells only work on groups if they're clustered together."

"On your mark," Sinon answered in kind as she conjured a sniper rifle in her hands.

I waited until Hades pointed two fingers at me before I growled, "Mark." Magic bullets shout out of his fingertips while my teammates scattered, leaving me free to conjure an energy shield that intercepted the attack.

Taking advantage of his directed attention, the girls swiftly went to work in unleashing a devastating counterstrike. Sinon's rifle spat out a bullet that exploded as soon as it connected with Hades' head while Rain and Rivka conjured lightning bolts to strike him from the opposite side. Meanwhile, Saphira hurled a storm of shuriken created via shadow jutsu that flew along the paths of the lightning until they all created a web of metal and electricity that rained down upon the boss, draining a substantial amount of health.

The instant that his focus was off of me, I dropped the shield and unleashed a full-power ki wave that resulted in another explosion. This did not cause us to drop our guard, however. To the contrary, we kept our movements random as to not give the boss a sitting target when it would inevitably emerge again.

Sure enough, Hades soon leaped out of the smoke and launched more chains at us, this time aiming to take out Saphira and Sinon, neither of whom took kindly to the fact. My old partner sniped one of the energy links, and my sister slashed through the other with a kunai that she then hurled at the boss, hoping to take out the eye hidden behind the patch. We both knew that as soon as he took that thing off, the fight would be much more difficult.

Next thing that Hades threw at us was a massive blast of purely dark energy, which I knew exactly how to counter. "Kamehameha!" The red laser shot out of my outstretched hands and held his magic in check for a moment before it began to push his power back.

Saphira and Rivka chose then to swoop in for close-quarters combat, but this quickly turned out to be a mistake. Hades used his free hand to grab at Rivka's spear when she drew near, and then used it to throw her violently at my sister- which was also a mistake on his part, because I really didn't like that.

"Cocky bastard!" I yelled at him, drawing his attention back to me. "Kaioken!" My energy output increased dramatically, swallowing up his magic and send him on a long trip through Central Park. As soon as he was gone, I shut of the amplifier and ran over to help Rivka up. "You okay?" I asked her.

"Yeah," she nodded as she picked up her spear from where it had fallen. "I'm good, thanks."

"I'm fine, thanks for asking," Saphira grumbled. "Also, you let our target get away!"

"He's not going anywhere," I said with a smirk as I tapped my scouter. "The cavalry's already arrived."

"Strea said that they were somewhere in Central Park," Kirito said as he and Sachi led the rest of their guild members through the lightly wooded area, having just warped in with Pina's help. "It sounded like she was getting caught up in something, so she couldn't tell us where, exactly." Both of the portal AI had been left at home for fear of them getting damaged during the fighting today, but they could still be reached with their com devices.

"I've got this," Sachi told him when they began to look around in confusion.

Before she could activate her particular kekkei genkai, Philia held up a hand and said, "Don't bother with the Byakugan. Finding Mataras in this place will be easy."

"What makes you say that?" Silica asked.

"Come on, you guys fought him for ages, back in the day," Yuuki snickered as she activated her Sharingan. "This should be easy."

"Am I missing something?" Kirito asked the others, who shrugged in resignation.

Right then, an explosion ripped through the trees, flinging an unknown figure through the air and into the dirt, with a huge crater resulting from the impact. As soon as the noise had settled down, Philia deadpanned, "The Red Swordsman loves his theatrics. And in a Shounen game…"

"What bigger theatrics than the over-the-top explosions that one can wreak with nearly-unlimited power?" Kiriha said with a roll of her eyes as her wings carried her up in the air. "Figures."

"I think it went this way!" A new voice came into the air, one that the Cats did not recognize, which could only mean one thing.

"Competitors," Sachi murmured as she drew a kunai from her pouch. "Me, Silica, and Philia can handle them along with Strea. The rest of you should go with Mataras and fight the boss."

"Good plan," Kirito nodded. To everyone else, he called out, "You heard her! Philia, coordinate with Strea! Yui, stay close to me, and everyone else, keep on guard! Yuuki, you take point! Break!"

"Break!" the others cried as they all ran off on their appointed tasks.

Yuuki zoomed toward the boss, an old man that was climbing out of the crater with an irritated scowl on his weathered face. Her hands were nothing but a blur as she shouted, "Fire Style: Phoenix Flower!" Fireballs flew out of her mouth by the dozens to rain down on the boss, whose health bars they could now see, though not too much damage had been inflicted on this 'Hades' character.

"Anyone know anything about this guy?" Kiriha asked as she flew above the fire shower.

"He's a character from the manga 'Fairy Tail', a dark magician of incredible skill!" Yui answered as she reached into her pouches for a handful of shuriken. "I can't pull up much of his data without more time, though!"

"Maybe Mataras knows!" Kirito grunted as he stabbed his black sword into the ground, sending shadows snaking across the earth to snatch at Hades' feet and hold him in place.

"Someone say my name?"

"Shadow Clone!" Philia conjured twenty duplicates before she decided that she had enough, and sent them to engage with the dozen-odd players that were closing in on her friends' location. With a wave of her arms and a flick of her fingers, she added, "Lightning Style: Triplet Strike!" Electric-charged shuriken flew out of her hands, striking several players on their bodies and paralyzing them so that her clones could go to work.

Before she could really get started, though, a giant foot came in and crushed half of the enemy players. Philia looked up at Strea, who grinned down at her from a staggering height of well over a hundred feet in the air. "I had that!" the treasure hunter called up.

"I know, but my way was more fun," the tall girl said as she shrank back down to her normal size.

"You also flattened six of my clones."

"Oh… Sorry about that."

There was a slightly awkward pause before Strea said, "Mataras told me to come and help you?"

"Go figure- Sachi had the same plan."

"He did train her… and some of those Shamrock guys are getting back up."

"Again with these guys?!" Philia complained. "They're everywhere these days!"

"Either that, or they just seem to have it out for us."

"Gun's Magic: Blast Shot!"

"Wind Style: Air Blade!"

"Glacier Spear!"

"Fire Style: Phoenix Flower!"

"Kienzan!"

Hades was really stepping up his evasion patterns now, because he effortlessly dodged all of our combined firepower, even Yuuki's pit of black flames that would consume anything that they touched. Then he started his counterattack, getting in close with some hand-to-hand combat combined with dark magic blasts that kept all of us on our toes, save for Yuuki, who's matured Sharingan allowed her to practically predict his next moves before they landed, though he was attacking too fast to allow her to give us any warning. Saphira's own Sharingan eyes helped, but as hers' were not as powerful as our friend's, she still ended up being on the receiving end of some of the dark magician's blows.

My own training in martial arts proved to be of some use when he tried to strike at me with his fists, but even with my Kaioken enhancing my reflexes and physical prowess, I was hard-pressed to keep him at bay. Irritated at the lack of progress we were now making, I grunted, "I thought we were doing a lot better than this!"

"We could be doing way better if a certain someone just cut loose!" Sinon said pointedly as she requipped her shotgun for an assault rifle that utilized ground-type ammunition.

I knew what she was getting at, but I refused to bite. "Not happening, partner," I responded grimly. "We can win without me having to lose my head."

"Let it go, Sinon," Saphira told her. "He's told us where he stands, and we gotta respect it- no matter how irritating it might be."

As I managed to plant a solid kick into Hades' abdomen and sent him flying with a scarlet Big Bang Attack, I managed to toss over my shoulder, "I feel like you're on her side."

"That's because I am!" As my sister spoke, she unleashed a storm of kunai at our enemy, who managed to bat them away with a combination of magic bullets fired from his fingertips and an energy chain, which he quickly managed to bind Kirito's hands with.

"Try hitting me with your hands tied!" he taunted the boy, who had been forced to drop his sword.

"Ooh, you shouldn'ta did that," Kiriha grinned at the boss. "He really likes his sword."

Kirito glared at the boss before he said, "I prefer not to show this off in public, but in this case, I think I'll make an exception." Drawing in a deep breath, he then shouted, "Shadow Dragon Roar!" Darkness blasted out of his mouth and smashed into Hades, knocking him off of his feet and finally draining the last of his health bar- the first of four. Given that most bosses in this game so far had only sported two health bars, this was not exactly what we could call a comforting development.

As Kirito shook off the binding magic, he quickly retrieved his blade and assumed a ready position. "Guards up," he warned us. "He'll probably change his attack patterns now."

"We know," I groused, still a little sore at my sister and Sinon. "Half of us have fought bosses way more spastic than this one, pal."

"Wait, why are you only counting the Fifth Commandment members?"

"You never fought the dragon on top of the Bastia Tower."

"Swap war stories later, this guy looks pissed!" Kiriha warned us as Hades began walking toward us, having lost his cloak during Kirito's surprise attack.

"A dragon slayer, eh?" the man said with a shrewd glare at our leader. "An impressive talent to possess at your age, youngster. But make no mistake- surprises will not help you defeat me."

"Oh, you are gonna eat those words," I said with an evil smile.

"For Seven!"

"For Seven!"

"They're dedicated, I give them that," Sachi murmured as she and Silica stood back-to-back, having been cornered by some of Shamrock's more fanatical members.

"Is now a bad time to remind you that I'm not very good at close-quarters in this game?" Silica said timidly as she eyed a hulking man with red skin and yellow eyes.

"Don't worry, I have this in hand," her friend said calmly as her eyes turned pure white. "Just stay behind me, and see if you can't get some birds to distract them."

"Sure." Silica's quirk, Anivoice, allowed her to communicate with and control just about any animal that she came across, which was an invaluable power to have when exploring out in the wilderness. Unfortunately, in the city areas it seemed that her power was next to useless, and while her agility was still as good as it was from the days of SAO, it wasn't enough to rely on without a proficiency in weapons, something that her new avatar was sorely lacking. She could use a knife, and she did, but she couldn't use any of the sword skills that she had grown to rely on for over two years.

Therefore, it would fall to Sachi to take up most of the actual combat in this fight, a situation that, three years ago, would have made her faint from sheer fright. Now, having become an SAO veteran with training from both the Red and Black Swordsmen, she feared nothing in the virtual realm of Jump Force. Twenty fanboys on a mission were nothing but an exercise to someone of her skills.

She moved the instant after the man with red skin started toward Silica, leaping backward in reverse flip that planted her behind the attacker. With two swift jabs, she disabled his avatar's ability to use his magic, reducing him into a skinny teenager that collapsed from paralysis. It took her striking down three more of their members before one of them understood what was happening.

"Crap, you guys!" he shouted as she disabled a girl a little older than herself. "She's got Byakugan!"

"Byaku-what-now?" asked his friend, before he was taken out with a kunai to the head.

Realizing that not all of his comrades knew what this power was, he started to say, "She can see in every direction at-!"

Wham!

Sachi's foot slammed into his mouth, sending him reeling, even as pigeons descended upon the clearing, attacking the members of Shamrock, as to blind them to the girls' movements. As the speaker tried to get up, he felt a small hand press on his back, followed by a soft voice saying, "Sorry, but I'd rather you not warn your friends." His magic energy flow was severed, leaving him all but helpless as Sachi struck him in two vital spots that obliterated his avatar and sent him to respawn back at his home base.

Seeing this, Silica couldn't help but shiver just a little bit. "I'm glad we're on the same side," she said under her breath. Their leader's wife was still one of the nicest people one could ever hope to meet, but training under Kirito had honed her skills to a near-perfect edge, to say nothing of her tutelage under Mataras, who had shown her how acknowledge her fear in order to crush and absolve herself of it. These factors combined served to produce a fighter with an almost chillingly serene composure, no matter the odds.

"There's two of them, and only one is fighting, how are we losing?!" one of the other Shamrock members cried out.

"Sorry, boys," Silica giggled as she watched him get swarmed by more pigeons that had taken notice of his shiny armor. "You're just outmatched."

The battle with Hades raged on for over an hour, when all was said and done. The last time a boss had taken that long for us to beat it was the Skull Reaper on the 75th floor of Aincrad. Of course, back then we didn't have to compete with other guilds once the fight had begun, as we were all more concerned with getting through the fight alive than we were interested in squabbling with each other.

Shamrock was the most persistent of the groups that came to try and swipe the prize out from under us, which just added to my list of reasons to dislike them. Most of the intruders were handled by Sachi's team, but there were other, more elite fighters that required even Kirito and my abilities to drive off at one point. Even so, we managed to keep most of our hidden skills secret while fighting other players, such as the true nature of Kirito's magic, a few new hand signs that Yuuki and Saphira were able to pick up, as well as one particular weapon in Sinon's arsenal that we knew would be handy if we could make it into the tournament.

Or rather, when we made it to the tournament.

At long last, Hades fell from a spear in his chest, which Rivka had conjured, and I had driven through his body with the assistance of Kirito's shadows. "Surprise," I grinned at his vanishing face as I stood up from atop his fallen body, using the spear for support as I did. A notification popped up, causing my smile to widen even further as it was confirmed that we now had our ticket into the world tournament.

"Check it out," I grinned as I swiped the notification to the side in order to show the others while they gathered around. "I've got a dragon ball."

"Oh, thank goodness," Strea sighed heavily as she sat down in the dirt. "I'm so beat…"

"Let's get back to the house before someone comes along again to fight us for it," Saphira said, sounding just as tired as the other girl.

"Don't worry, nobody can steal it from him, now that it's in his possession," Kirito said with a shake of his head. "Event items like this one are tied to his player ID unless he gives it up willingly. Even if someone managed to knock him out, they wouldn't be able to win it off of his avatar's death."

"That's a relief," Philia said heavily. "I was worried we were gonna have to spend the next week on constant guard."

"As opposed to the lazy strolls that we've been taking?" I asked with a sardonic tone while I allowed the pop-up to fade away.

"Maybe they could be, if someone hadn't pissed off Shamrock!"

"Hey, Mataras? Kirito?" Rain stopped us just as we were getting ready to log off for the day, having returned to our guild's home. "Can I talk to you guys about something before you go?" Everyone else had already departed, while Kirito and I remained behind to do some inventory work for the guild's treasury. I had honestly thought that we were alone by then.

"Sure," Kirito said before I could stop him. "Is something wrong?" I made a mental note to give my friend a lecture on asking people if something was okay before volunteering them, but for now I decided that I could stay quiet.

She's a Cat, even if she wasn't with us since day one, I reasoned to myself. She's earned the right to confide in us, even if I wish she'd do it with one of the girls. I knew that I should reserve judgements until the conversation was done, but even if she was a guildmate, I still wasn't totally comfortable around the redhead.

"Nothing's… wrong, per say," she said awkwardly as she looked at the ground while she shuffled her feet. "I just… I need help, and it's something that you guys are best suited for."

"Please stop beating around the bush and tell us what's up," I sighed, knowing that unless she was prompted, this would take a lot longer than it needed to.

"…I need help getting in touch with my sister," she said softly, giving the both of us pause.

"Your who-now?" I asked her. Out of all the topics we could have touched on, this was not what I had expected.

"My sister," she repeated as she took turns looking between the both of us. "She's in JFO, and I want to talk to her, but I haven't seen her in years. I doubt that she even remembers me, or that there even is a 'me'."

"That long?" Kirito asked, his tone reflecting my own growing surprise. We had known that Rain had a sister that she was estranged from, but as she hadn't talked much about her before now, it was very surprising to hear her voluntarily bring it up.

"Why would we be better suited to getting in touch with her than anyone else?" I prompted her. "Why not ask Argo for help, she's good at knowing where people are."

"She doesn't trade information on people, remember?"

"Oh yeah," I said with a frown at Kirito's words. "Forgot about that."

"My sister isn't hard to find, it's just getting to her that's the problem, especially if she doesn't know who I am," Rain said with a pained look in her eye. "Our parents split when she was just three years old. Dad won custody of her, and Mom was stuck with me."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Kirito said sympathetically, a feeling that I now shared. "We'll do what we can to help, of course. But who is your sister?"

"Professor Rainbow Ashvarin."

Her words left me and Kirito both in a silent shock for a few moments before I was able to say, "I'm sorry, my Amusphere must be on the fritz, because I could have sworn that you just said that everyone's favorite new pop star, 'Seven'… is your little sister?"

"…Yeah, I did say that."

"Hah?!"

Interviewer: What a chapter! I'm sure our viewers were glad to get an idea of what each of you were capable of in this new setting.

Kazuto: I'm sure a few people might've been able to guess what I was gonna do- after all, it's not the first time I've used this fighting style in VR.

Interviewer: That's right, you were a Shadow Dragon Slayer in the Slayer of Aincrad iteration, right?

Kazuto: That's right.

Interviewer: How was it getting back into that role?

Kirito: Well, Michael actually asked me if I wanted to do it, and when I asked him what the alternative was, he just told me it would be regular shadow magic or ninjutsu, and I was like, 'Why would I downgrade?' So yeah, it's cool to be back in costume for this fighting style, not to mention graphics have come a long way since Slayer. I'm just as excited as the next guy to see how the rest of this turns out.

Michael: I still think you aren't giving shadow ninjas a fair assessment, but eh, that's your prerogative.

Interviewer: Today we have another special guest with us, the director of the new story. Hello, and how are you today?

Asuna: I'm doing very well, thank you!

Interviewer: How is it, directing the sets instead of being a part of the action now?

Asuna: I mean, I'm still part of the action, and everyone's great to work with- except these two, of course.

Michael/Kazuto: Hey!

Michael: Is that any way to treat your story writer? And producer?!

Asuna: But yeah, it is a little weird not getting to be in front of the cameras, you know? Although, I think the weirdest part is seeing Kazuto and Sayuri on-set, cos they're just too cute!

Kazuto: Oh, come on, not this again!

Michael: Don't ignore me!

Interviewer: That's right, as I understand it, you and miss Motodato have been seeing each other for a long time, right?

Kazuto: Well, yeah. She actually auditioned for Asuna's part originally, but Kawahara wanted Asuna to play the love interest for the hero of the story. Of course, Sayuri still got to be on the show, even if for an episode, which was... interesting.

Interviewer: How did that happen?

Kazuto: Well, there was another girl who was supposed to play the part of Sachi, but we just didn't have very good chemistry on-set, and thinking about her getting killed honestly wasn't doing it for me.

Michael: You heartless bastard.

Kazuto: I'm sorry! I just couldn't get into it!

Asuna: I wound up talking to Sayuri off the set one day- she'd come to visit Kazuto- and I wound up telling her about the trouble he was having with the episode. She ended up trying the script, and Kawahara was impressed with her performance, plus it got Kazuto to react a lot more authentically.

Interviewer: Did you and Miss Sayuri get along well during the filming of the original series? Or was there a little competition going on?

Asuna: It was a little awkward at first, given that she'd wanted to play the part of the heroine that gets the guy, but we worked things out eventually, and now we work together pretty well. I think it helps that she finally got her man, too.

Michael: The crew thinks you're a pretty great director, too.

Asuna: Aw, thanks!

Interviewer: Well, before we run out of time, we'd better get on these reviews. Who want the fist one?

Asuna: I got this!

Interviewer: All right. KiroZen says, '"Wait, good luck or bad luck?" From my experience with online games, 75% chance of the luck being bad.'

Asuna: Well, it seems like our crew has had a little good luck to start, but that can always change with these guys.

Michael: Yeah, not gonna lie... There's been some threats along the lines of mutiny because of some of my decisions.

Interviewer: As much as I would love to cover that line of thought a little more, we should get on to the next review. Naruto Sakura Usumaki writes, 'Yep! The first scene of Lost Wish held up to my expectations! Actually, it exceeded my expectations! I am curious to know if this story actually does plan to reach the world-wide tournament fights, or just end up like the final boss battle of "Lost Song" where Seven is the boss (not the Extra Final Boss, Lost Song)?
If the tournament DOES end up reaching the world-wide matches, you could use the OCs from your other iterations of the previous Red Swordsman stories using or representing avatars/characters from the other Jump titles to be representatives for the other servers?
For Example: Yugioh characters and Bleach characters represent the United States/North America server. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure characters, Death Note characters, and Hunter x Hunter characters represent the European server.'

Michael: Well, as we've already seen, powers are not necessarily bound to the servers being used by the players. This story will cover the tournament (it's actually going to take up more than half of this story) as well as a few things going on in the real world, that of course, will affect the team and their gameplay. As for other original characters, the only ones that will be appearing in this one will be those that have already shown up in the Shattered Fragment canon. I've said it before, but just to reiterate, it's very difficult to keep track of the number of people already involved in the story, and adding another dozen characters would just be too much for me to handle. Sorry if that comes as a disappointment, but I'm glad that you enjoyed the first chapter, regardless!

Kazuto: Tell me about it. I can't handle any more girls coming after my character.

Asuna: That's rich, coming from the guy that just got another side chick in the new video game.

Kazuto: Hey, I did not ask them to do that!

Michael: Hey! Play nice, munchkins. Next question, please? We've still got a blooper reel to get through after this.

Interviewer: Our next review comes from Kayn Zakkun, who says, 'Love the chapter, Love the new omake too. Good to see the crew back in action.
Been reading your stories of sao (Still one of the best oc stories to me) and SF was my favorite. Happy to see it continue and ready to see the twist and turns you got for us.'

Asuna: Well, we appreciate that, Kayn! There's a lot of hate for OC stories on this site, so it's always nice to hear from a supporter!

Michael: Yeah, cheers mate!

Interviewer: Let's see... Now we have another one of our regulars, Triforce Hero, who had this to say; 'Very happy to see the First Chapter or Lost Wish posted, and let me start off by saying what a chapter! Love the mix of powers and abilities from some of my favorite anime's growing up.
I have a feeling when we see more of the different servers, we will see different anime's and abilities tie into the story for the tournament. Also, I have a feeling Mataras will be the next one to break through the Barrier and become a Super Saiyan, hopefully at the Worldwide tournament!
I cannot wait for the next chapter to be posted, and remember I will always be here to review or be someone you can always talk to my friend!'

Kazuto: Always great to hear from you, man! Michael worked pretty hard on trying to come up with a diverse-yet-compatible set of powers for all of us. Although, I remember Sayuri and Victoria being pretty unhappy about the contact lenses they have to wear for the visual jutsus...

Michael: Yeah, that was not a fun day. But in regards to the Super Saiyan thing, we'll have to see. Who says Mataras needs the ascension to win?

Asuna: Literally everything Dragon Ball that has come out in the last few years.

Michael: ...Moving on.

Interviewer: Yeah, I'm with her on this one.

Michael: Moving on!

Interviewer: Okay, next one is... a long one from Joeclone! 'Hoo boy okay, a lot to take in here. First off, that nightmare at the start was pretty frightening. Nice to see Sachi calm Mataras down that way. The sweating blood though, I see a Jesus parallel. Are conditions like that going to be common for SAO survivors in this story?
The game itself looks fairly similar to what my impression of it was from your let's play last year. I may need some artwork to help me get a better picture of everyone's new avatars and clothing. I'm guessing Sinon went with a similar look to GGO and Kiriha looks almost exactly like Leafa from the original ALO. Yuuki with the Sharingan though is a pretty awesome idea! Wonder what else the gang got? Can't wait to see some other skills shown off, especially Kirito's because "shadow magic" sounds like it could be from a lot of different IPs and I wasn't sure which one. Fairy Tail? Black Clover? Shikamaru's jutsu? I don't have Jump Force so I felt a bit overwhelmed with excitement that I didn't think too hard about accuracy to the actual game.
Victoria my gosh you are so adorable berating Michael like that! Hope to see more of it going forward!
An interview format for the end? If I knew that my last review would've been longer. That's a new one.
Just had a thought. July 11 is the date that SAO Alicization War of Underworld continues. Will you be watching after it's all over like you said you did with the first part? Just wondering if you'll factor in Alicization into your canon at any point. Can't wait to see what you write next!'

Michael: Wow. That is a long one. Uh... Wanna divvy it up, guys?

Kazuto: Sure, I got the first part. So, no, the sweating blood thing was not meant to be a Jesus parallel- have you met this guy?

Michael: What is happening right now?!

Kazuto: Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me if there were people that struggled with side effects of PTSD after spending more than two years in that crazy place. Sweating blood is fairly rare thing, but it's not unheard of in people put under severe duress, like Mataras has been.

Asuna: You can definitely expect to see some artwork coming from Mataras while this story goes on to show off what at least a few of the characters look like in the new game. We've already seen what he looks like, but I'm sure he'll take suggestions for who to draw next. Kirito with the dragon force might be kind of cool, if you ask me.

Michael: Yeah, I'm with you there. And by the way, I still think that Victoria enjoys hitting me a little too hard on-set. She keeps arguing that we have to make it look realistic, and somebody keeps letting her do retakes.

Asuna: You killed my character off.

Michael: Fair enough. As for Joe's last inquiry, yes, I will absolutely be incorporating Alicization into this story. Not sure yet if I'll adapt the original story arc, continue on the video game canon, or do some amalgamation of the two. But don't worry, we'll definitely get to see Best Boi Eugeo and Alice.

Kazuto: Hey, I thought I was best boi?!

Michael: Pfft. Have you met this guy?

Kazuto: ...Okay, I earned that.

Interviewer: And, last review, from Ethan Kirous! 'That was interesting. So players can literally buy entire cities if they have the money? And please give Yu-Gi-Oh! some significant appearances in this. I haven't played Jump Force, but am wondering why the 'verse with the biggest success outside the manga/anime (I'm assuming here, but I think it's a fair assumption) only got 1 character in, who doesn't even figure into the plot. Kaiba could've at least provided funding for Jump Force as an organization, or turned them into a card game in-story, like how the Kaiju and Jaegers get action figures in Pacific Rim.
IRL question: so the servers, at least for Jump Force, are like multiple copies of the same dimension/universe existing independently, with different people in each one?
And something I've been waiting to say to someone who can understand: if nobody has tried to make VRMMORPGs-FullDive or not, though preferably the former-a "reality" yet, SOMEONE needs to get started ASAP. Throw in a little Covid-19 and you have the best probability of success any not-yet-existent industry has ever had!

Michael: I mean, I guess you could buy enough property to own a city, but... Why would you want to? I'd rather go out and spend my money on things to help me blast stuff. Also, historical sites are pretty damn expensive in-game!

Kazuto: Yu-gi-oh will have some presence, but as Michael's experience with it is very limited, don't hold your breath on there being a lot of those. Sorry, man. But for the record, Kaiba did make it into JF as a DLC.

Asuna: As for the servers of the real Jump Force... yeah, we're not too sure about how that all works.

Michael: Man, we are sucking at this last review!

Kazuto: And whose fault is that?!

Asuna: For the record, we agree with you on the VR industry thing. Get it together, Sony, Microsoft! Make us a NerveGear, already!

Interviewer: And with that, we are out of time. Thanks for the show, guys!

Michael: Thank you, and thanks to all our readers! See you for the next chapter!

Kazuto: Next time- Seven

Asuna: Seven what?

Michael: Ha ha.

Bloopers

(Water Stunt Mishap)

Asuna: And...! Action!

Saphira: Water Style, Water Clone! (runs, trips, crashes) Ow!

Asuna: Cut! ...What happened?

Stunt Woman: My bad! I came alongside her too fast for the clone sequence and tripped her up!

Mataras: Can we just keep that shot?

Saphira: I think I lost one of my teeth.

(Stutter Shot)

Sinon: Requip! Gun's Magic, Fast shot!

Asuna: Cut!

Sinon: What? What's wrong?

Asuna: It's 'blast shot', not 'fast shot'!

Sinon: Dammit! Okay, okay, lemme go again.

Asuna: You sure?

Sinon: Yeah, yeah, I got this.

Asuna: Okay... And, action!

Sinon: Requip! Gun's Magic, Fast sho-! No, blast shot!

Asuna: Try again!

Sinon: Okay... Requip, Gun's Magic, Bast Shot! 'Bast shot?!' What the hell is happening here?!

Asuna: Okay, everyone, take five!

Sinon: I swear this never happens!

(Bird Brained)

Asuna: Okay, what happened here?!

Shamrock Member: Sorry! (laughing) One of the birds took a crap on Kazuma, and when Silica tried to point it out, more of the pigeons landed on him and did the same thing!

Kazuma/Bird Handler: I forgot I had bird seed in my pocket, sorry!

Asuna: I don't get paid enough for this...

(Dog Lovers)

Mataras: Sis, get off the dog! We have to blow it up now!

Saphira: No! I will love him and pet him, and take him home with me!

Mataras: That's not how this works!

Saphira: You're not how this works!

Mataras: Get off that, or I'll have them blow it up with you on it!

Yui: No! Don't hurt the doggy!

Mataras: Yui, that's not a real dog.

Yui: You're not a real dog!

Saphira: Yeah! (hi-fives Yui)

Mataras: What is happening right now?!