I'm back with another chapter! And leaving for Disney! Yeah, this update was late and I'm supposed to be cleaning before my departure for my trip, but I wanted to get this up before I go. Thank you to Thatonekidnobodylikes, Elia950, MrConcreteDonkey, realisticFantasy, All the names are used, and AkimiMaeNyan for reviewing last chapter!

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Sword Art Online.

Chapter 6

The pain in his head had faded to a dull thump. Kirito knew something was wrong. He didn't how, or what was wrong, but he just knew. After he stepped through those doors to the second floor, everything just turned black. Oddly, the game screen was still there: his HP and the time.

5:57.

Five hours after they defeated the boss. He knew he didn't collapse again since he didn't feel the all too familiar pain from falling over. He tried to raise his hands up to get his bearings, but they didn't twitch. A small tad of worry reached him when he tried to move anything else. Nothing moved.

Then, suddenly, his eyes snapped open. He had a clear view of red-orange clouds lazily drifting across the sky, but the sun was no where in sight. Panicking, he tried to move around. The only thing that he could move was his eyes.

"What-" he began.

"Are you having fun, Ka-no, Kirito-kun? You've been playing for a whole month." said a familiar voice behind him. Kirito blinked. He recognized the voice but he couldn't place a face.

"Who...?" he subconsciously asked. He heard the voice behind him chuckle.

"I'm a little concerned about your impaired speech. Hopefully you can talk normally here. I never actually asked you about this during the beta. Maybe I should ask you now..." the voice said. Kirito furrowed his eyebrows.

"Impaired speech? How do you...who are you?" he asked. He tried to face the speaker, but his body wouldn't move.

"Don't tell me you already forgot the sound of my voice." the voice said with a hint of hurt. Kirito closed his eyes and tried to remember. Suddenly, he saw a picture of a man with short grayish hair and small black eyes as he reached over to pat Kirito on the head with a smile, but no name. He opened his eyes slowly with sadness and confusion.

"Who...?" he asked as he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"You know what? Forget it. Let's make things a little more interesting, shall we?" the voice said. "How about the two of us play a little game? It's a simple one."

"A game in a game? You have to tell me who you are first." said Kirito. The hand left his shoulder.

"That's the point of the game, Kirito." the voice sighed. "If you can find me, you have to beat me. Beat me in battle and I'll bring you 'home'. See? A simple game of hide-and-seek. We used to always play these games together when you were younger."

"'Hide-and-seek? That doesn't really sound like it. It's more like a hunting game to me..." Kirito trailed off. The voice behind him chuckled.

"True... Then how about you find me before I find you? So, if I find you first and I beat you, I will bring your level back to one and you have start all over again right where you are. But if you find me first and you beat me, then I will grant you one request." the voice said. "Sound fair?"

Kirito's eyes narrowed. "It doesn't. You know what I look like already, but I don't know what you look like. Hardly fair."

There was a pause before the voice came again.

"Now, that isn't true. I'm only seeing the back of you. I'm sure the next time we meet you wouldn't be wearing the same thing. We might not even notice it." the voice said. Kirito could hear the smile in its tone.

"You know my name." Kirito countered. The voice laughed.

"I'm not going to remember it. I can't help but think of your IRL name. I won't remember it when you leave this area, though." the voice said.

"Are you lying?" Kirito asked.

"No, you always had a knack of detecting lies." came the immediate response from the voice. Kirito was about to answer but was cut off by something-or rather-someone.

Someone pushed him from behind and he felt himself falling. Kirito saw a huge metal object floating before him. It was shaped like a gigantic cocoon with thorns stabbed inside. A majestic gold castle glistened in the honey colored light as it sat at the top of the cocoon, screaming its importance.

The castle came closer and closer by the second. Kirito finally regained his mobility of his body. He brought his arms in hope to lessen the raging wind blowing into his face. He couldn't tell of he was screaming, but he knew his voice started low and gradually crescendo to a terrified cry.

"WWWAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

Everything went black.

._._._._._._.

SYSTEM COLLABORATION AT TWO PERCENT.

._._._._._._.

He suddenly sat up and his breathing was erratic. He could feel his heart racing even though he was in a game. He brought his hands to his chest and tried to calm himself down.

Kirito closed his eyes.

"I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine." he kept saying to himself. He repeated those same words between breathes over and over and over again until those words became a jumbled mess tumbling out of his mouth. It took him a while, but after thirty long minutes, he was finally able to breathe normally.

He opened his eyes and took a good long look around him. Green fields of endless grass surrounded him and the ceiling was red-orange from the setting sun. He was back in Aincrad. He knew where he was right off the bat.

"Why am I back on the first floor?" he asked out loud. Fearing that his profile may have been messed with, he quickly opened his menu and checked his stats.

LV: 12

STR: 35

INT: 21

VIT: 28

DEF: 33

SEARCHING: 29/1000

TRACKING: 23/1000

SPRINTING: 30/100

HIDING: 19/1000

No change there. Kirito just noticed the black sleeve covering his arm. He dismissed his menu and held his hands before him. His arms were covered by the item he received as the last hit bonus.

Kirito dropped his hands on his lap and grimaced at the memory. He didn't like what he did, but it had to be done. Shaking his head to clear it, he remembered ending up at some weird place.

He looked at his hands and thought about the game he was suddenly dragged into. Well, another game to be exact.

Kirito figured out who was the guy talking to him. The creator that trapped thousands of players. He sighed and brought his knees to his chest.

"Damn it, this is exactly why I didn't want to play this game in the first place." Kirito muttered to himself. He sat there and thought about what he should do. Should he go back to the second floor? Or should he try to find something important to do while he was here in the first floor?

As he thought, he remembered a side quest he did during the beta. It was an easy one that got him a really good sword. Kirito looked up and decided to head to the closest town or village. He got up, dusted himself off, and began his long walk.

But as he walked he couldn't help but hear the same words echo through his head.

"Beat me and I'll bring you 'home'."

His eyes saddened and remembered his sister. "You're good at lying, Aki-nii-chan. I don't ever recall playing hide-and-seek with you before. Only me and Sugu played that game."

Please don't get mad that me since this chapter was short and didn't go much further. But I had a ton of stuff to turn in and I barely made it to the deadline of turning things in. That's why this was late. Anyway, I will be gone for a whole week and back soon. Well, tell me what you think and I'll finally progress through the story! Have a great spring break!

-CloudyLightning