Hm... I really should be doing my Junior Project... oh well. Here's the next chappy!

DISCLAIMER: Hahaha, I'm a girl not a guy. Anyone got Chocolate?

Chapter 3

Klein climbed up the stairs in an inn and headed to a room at the farthest end. It was three days after the announcement of the death game. Practically all the beta players left immediately after the event as they focused more on their own lives than all the beginners. Everyone still in the Starting City were still debating whether to continue into the game since they were scared of losing their life.

However, Klein had been searching for his friends. Luckily for him, he was able to find all six of his friends. But right now he was more concerned about someone else; the kid he met the first day of the death game. Don't get him wrong; he's grateful that his friends are alive, but this kid make him worry. There was something about Kirito that makes him uneasy with a lot of things. If he were to explain it, it would be a long list.

His friends were getting suspicious of Kirito.

Without bothering to knock, Klein opened the door and headed inside. The room was a small, simply decorated place with a bed at the corner and a small, wooden circle table with a matching wooden chair. Not much, but the pay for the room was very cheap. He closed the door behind him and pulled the chair up to the bedside as he sighed.

An unconscious Kirito laid there as he "slept" another day away. He scared the crap out of Klein when he suddenly collapsed. At first, Klein thought that Kirito passed out from panic, but that didn't seem to be the case. After trying to wake Kirito up for ten minutes, he decided to at least give him a place to rest. But soon those minutes turned into hours, and hours into days, and he didn't move an inch. Klein concluded yesterday that Kirito's avatar was either acting weird or the Kirito in the real world is having problems.

He shook his head to clear it. It must be the latter reason. Hopefully, it wasn't bad. As he leaned back in his chair, Klein opened up his menu and began to sort the things in his item storage. He got bored after a few minutes. But just as he dismissed his menu with a sigh, Kirito's hand twitched.

"Kirito...?"

._._._._._.

Kirito drowsily forced himself to wake up when he heard someone call his name. His vision blurred then cleared. He was staring at a ceiling before a familiar face came into view.

"Good morning?" Kirito asked as his eyes were still half closed. He was still waking up. Klein's face showed relief. "Why are you looking at me like that? Is something wrong?"

Klein gave him a disbelieving look. "'Something wrong'?! Kirito, you've been asleep for three days!"

Kirito only blinked, confusion written all over his face as he sat up. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and stretched, his face in a complete daze. "Kirito?" He shook his head. "Whatever, time to wake up. Sugu is going to be fussing over me if I sleep any longer..."

Hardly noticing Klein, he got out of bed and made the covers. Klein stared at him in shock. What in the world is Kirito doing?! He asked himself. He quickly grabbed Kirito and pushed him into a chair.

"Hey, Kirito! Wake up! Are you okay?" he asked as he shook the boy a bit. Kirito flinched but the drowsiness didn't leave his eyes.

"Of course, I'm fine. What are you doing? Did Sugu let you in? Or was it Okaa-san?" he asked tiredly as he tried to remove Klein's hands from his arms.

"What am I - I would be asking you the same thing! Kirito, you're not at home! Do you know who I am!?" Klein nearly exclaimed. Kirito blinked and shook his head again.

"Aren't you one of Rinko-nee-chan's workers?" he asked as he continued his attempt at getting Klein off him. Klein gave him a bewildered look.

"What? I don't even know who that is!" he said as he gripped Kirito in slight fear. It can't be possible that Kirito had lost his mind, did he? "Look, Kirito." he began firmly. "Right now, you're in a game called Sword Art Online. Three days ago, the creator of SAO had trapped all the players into a death game. And you are one of them."

Kirito frowned as he gave up trying to get Klein to let go of him and rubbed his eyes again. Part of the drowsiness had left. "SAO? A death game...? Akihiko?"

Klein waited impatiently. He could see that he was able to knock some sense into Kirito when he saw his eyes widen slightly.

"Wait... Klein?" he said as his focus was finally coming back. "What happened?"

Klein let out a relieved sigh and let his arms fall as he leaned back. "Thank, Kami-sama! I thought I lost you for a second there, Kirito. You suddenly collapsed three days ago. You hadn't moved at all so I thought something must've happened to you in the real world! Do you remember anything?"

Kirito closed his eyes and tried to remember something - anything - about that day. But all he came up with was the mechanical voice in his head. What the heck did that mean? He knew what system collaboration is but he didn't know what system his NerveGear is collaborating with! He bit the back off his bottom lip and decided not to say anything to Klein. If this had something to do with him and not anyone else, he will keep it to himself.

"I can't seem to remember anything," he replied as he straight-out lied to Klein. He felt guilty as he tried to convince himself that he did the right thing, keeping Klein, his first friend in an online game, in the dark.

Klein didn't seem to notice his lie as he nodded to himself. "I see... Then all this must be bad luck." he said.

"Must be. Hey, how long did you say I was out?" Kirito asked.

"Three days." came Klein's response. Kirito's eyes widened as he suddenly stood up.

"Three days?! I'm so behind!"

Klein raised his hands in a calming gesture. "Easy, Kirito! Look at your stats before jumping to conclusions."

Kirito opened up his menu and checked his stats. "I'm...level five? How? I thought I was still level one...!"

Klein laughed as he scratched the back of his head. "I forgot that you were still in my party..."

._._._._._.

Koujiro Rinko was ready to kick something. She was never the one to actually have the urge to do that, but when it came to a certain someone, she could not stop that urge. She had been looking for her patient's file medical for over an hour but she could not find it anywhere.

She clearly remembered placing the file on her desk in her office right before she left to get a cup of coffee. At first, she suspected that the nurses around the hospital took it, but when she asked around, she learned that none of the nurses were near her office and that one of them saw a shadowy figure walking around.

Rinko sat down behind her desk and thought hard of who in the world would take the file. No one came into mind until she heard another ambulance in a distance, no doubt bringing in another SAO victim.

Kayaba Akihiko must've stolen the file. But, if he stole it then why would he need it? As far as she was concerned, Kayaba didn't care much about the lives around him. Then she remembered who's medical file it was. The patient happened to have mental disorder that took his ability to walk for long distances because of an accident several years ago. Her eyes widened as realization dawned on her.

Kayaba Akihiko has stolen Kirigaya Kazuto's medical file.

Haaaaa~ I was planning to reveal that a little later but I thought, "oh, what the heck. You guys already know who Kirito is." But anyway... Thank you to Guest, Reeves-san, Tantei1412, NNeko, Kanrei, and SnowTime for reviewing last chapter! Tell me what you guys think of this chapter! And yes, I just realized that we didn't really get anywhere, oh well.

-CloudyLightning