A/N: Hello guys and girls! Welcome to the rewrite of my story, The Blader, The Assassin, and The Hunter (aka BAH). Before the chapter, there are a few things I want to mention.

First off is a little bit on why I decided to rewrite this story. When I started writing BAH I had a pretty good idea of how the plot would go, but I was seriously lacking in my understanding of the characters. This created a lot of issues with personalities changing without any rhyme or reason to it, other than the fact that I myself didn't know what I was doing. Now I have a slightly clearer idea of what the characters are like, so hopefully it won't seem as disjointed as some of the events and character interactions in BAH.

Secondly, The majority of this chapter is a good bit darker and more serious than the overall tone of this fic will be. There will occasionally be other chapters with similar tones in the future, but those will be the minority. An important subplot of this fic is about Kazuto and Shino growing by facing and overcoming their dark pasts together. But still, it's just that: a subplot.

There will be a part of this chapter that will probably rub a lot of people the wrong way. I'm mentioning this beforehand because I don't want anyone to get to that part and go "wow this author is a horrible person" and drop this without going any further. Kazuto's opinions on things do NOT represent my opinion, it's just the character's opinion and is subject to change as he grows.

As mentioned before, unlike in the canon, Kazuto also has a dark past that will be revealed through the story. This caused his personality to develop in a very different direction, but at his core he's still the same person.

Last thing to note, the release of SAO is delayed by two years, causing the characters to be a bit older and more mature than in the canon.

Thanks for sticking through this note, and thanks for reading this fic! Hope you enjoy chapter 1 ;)

The first thread

I stood in the center of a massive room. A single dim spotlight shone directly on me, faintly illuminating an area 10 meters around where I stood. Darkness stretched far beyond the lit area, seemingly empty and completely void of life.

This again, huh.

I stood in the center of the light, unable to blend into the darkness as I so desperately wanted to. A short katana, just barely over 60 centimeters long, hung on the left side of my waist.

*Chink*

A soft clink, barely audible, pulsed into the surrounding darkness as my thumb lifted the katana an inch out of its sheath before dropping it.

*Chink*

The first time I had experienced this, I panicked at the sensation of not having control over my body.

*Chink*

I was an outsider in my own body, unable to stop it from repeating the same action over and over again.

*Chink*

A soft wind brushed against my right side.

I know this isn't real, this isn't the first time I've experienced this.

That's right. I knew that this was a dream. A terrifyingly realistic dream, but still just a dream. One that I'd dreamed countless times.

Faster than humanly possible, my body viciously sliced toward the location that the soft wind had come from…

*brrrrring*

I breathed a sigh of relief, glad that the school bell had rung in such a timely manner, preventing the nightmare from finishing. It was at moments like this that I was truly glad that I had no friends here. If someone had approached me to talk to me, they no doubt would have noticed that I was almost completely drenched in cold sweat.

"Kirigaya Kazuto, do you have a moment?" My momentary relief popped like a balloon when I heard my name called by one of the voices I least wanted to hear at the moment.

"Actually no, I don't have a moment right now. Maybe sometime next year." I grabbed my bag and exited the classroom at a pace so fast that if someone on the track team saw me, I'd be pestered to join until I graduated.

The stocky teacher I had brushed off stood there speechless for a moment, unable to react quickly enough to my abrupt refusal and subsequent escape. I breathed a sigh of relief as I exited the school gates barely a minute later with no pursuers in sight.

I shook my head in annoyance. Those people do nothing but stick their noses where they shouldn't go. But hey, at least I've learned to control my emotions better. Causes less trouble.

I stretched my body lightly, confirming that everything had returned to normal. My mood soured slightly as the memory of my nightmare surfaced for a moment, but I quickly shoved it back to the depths of my mind.

Everything was nice and peaceful, as it should be. Except with my luck, when something is going well, all it means is that, very soon, all is going to be not well.

And as per usual, my paranoia was proven to be more reliable than logic.

"NO!"

A short, sharp cry of terror shattered the relative peacefulness of my walk home. My heart rate spiked and my muscles reflexively tensed, preparing to react to an imminent threat. My body relaxed as I realized there was no immediate danger to me, but I couldn't simply ignore someone who was obviously completely terrified of something.

I quickly located the area that the cry had come from: an alley on a relatively out of the way street. A girl was collapsed on the ground, shaking in fear, while three girls surrounded her with mocking looks on their faces.

Although one of the girls held a gun, I could tell at a glance that it was a relatively poorly made imitation. Three ganging up on one, nasty looks, fake gun, equally fake bravado, no big deal.

I said that I couldn't ignore someone who sounded so terrified, but that in no way meant that I'd throw myself headlong into danger for a girl I'd never seen in my life. It's not like I'm the protagonist of a shounen anime or something.

I'd gauge the risk to my life, and if my chances of survival were over 95%, I'd gladly help.

"Ahem." I coughed lightly, and in perfect sync, the faces of the three girls whipped toward me.

Such a nice feeling, being stared at so lovingly(?) by a group of girls. I could get used to this.

Their gazes fell on the phone in my hand as their leader spoke in a rough voice "You, what's your business here?"

Yep, I'd been videotaping the whole thing. Makes stuff a little less messy if "something" were to happen.

A small smirk crossed my face at the authoritative tone of the girl. I knew these type of people all too well. The kind that would try to dominate anyone they came across, but run in fear at even the slightest hint of danger. Strong against the weak and weak against the strong. Typical bullies, in other words.

I didn't recognize the girls, but the uniforms they were wearing identified them all as students from my school, which gave my threat the credibility it needed.

"Three girls ganging up on a single one, even using a gun to threaten her. It would be quite unfortunate if this video were to make it into the hands of one of the teachers…" my smirk widened as I saw their leader clench her fists.

Even though my life changed significantly after my parent's death and my subsequent adoption by my aunt, one of the few things that didn't change was the enjoyment I got out of beating down people like this; those who bullied others while not having any strength of their own.

"Tch, have it your way. Come on." If looks could kill, I'd be dead from the venomous glare that the leader of the bullies was sending in my direction. But sadly, for her at least, her glare only served to give me a sense of fulfillment.

"Come on, it's just some random guy, Endou. We can break his phone and no one will know better."

Oh? We have a "smart" one here, I guess.

"Tch, just leave him alone."

My hopes, which had been raised by the girl's words, were soon dashed to pieces by the girl I now knew was called Endou. Hm, I guess she's actually a little smarter than she looks. The most important skill to learn in life is to pick your battles, and the next most important skill, knowing which of those battles to pick. Seems like she has both, to an extent.

I shrugged off my disappointment. There was something more important to take care of right now.

I walked over to the girl collapsed on the ground. Damn. Why is everyone that I meet weird in some way. The most common type of person I saw was simply empty. No substance, no hopes, no dreams. Maybe they'd say they had substance and hopes and dreams, but they have the same wishes as any random person you could pull off the street. In a word, a faker.

The second type of weird person was my cousin-slash-sister, Suguha, who I was actually relatively scared of. I'm definitely not out of shape, and I'm not a bad hand at martial arts, but Sugu was, and still is, a world class kendo champion. In other words, she could wipe the floor with me in seconds if she tried. I can't really think of any situations that she would do that (aside from when I eat her food), but it's still pretty unnerving living around her.

Yeah, Sugu is scary enough that she gets a category of her own.

The third type wasn't weird by normal standards, but then again, I haven't been called "normal" many times in my life. It was the only type of person that I absolutely could not stand. Someone who never stood up for anything, someone who never fought back.

Churchill once said something along the lines of "If you have enemies, good. That means you've stood up for something." I call total bull on that point. The type of people that usually get picked on are those who have never stood up for anything.

Of course there are obviously other types of people that get bullied, such as those with disabilities or tragic pasts, but those usually fall into that very same category. It's nearly impossible to find someone who is actually unable to fight back, either with their own strength or by borrowing the strength of others.

At least, that's what I've believed ever since I could remember.

Sure, call me cold, unfeeling, or unsympathetic, but it annoys me when people don't realize that if you never stand up, you'll forever be walked over.

Annoyance filled my heart as I reached the side of the figure lying inert on the pavement.

"Hey, you. Are you ok? Can you stand?"

I hid my emotions and made my voice as calm and comforting as possible. The girl relaxed slightly, but then shuddered and tensed back up.

"Please… just leave me alone. I'm fine."

A quiet voice came from the girl, but the intensity of her words mildly surprised me. I figured she wouldn't even talk to me. Maybe I generalize too much? Her voice at least sets her apart from category #3.

"Alright, see ya. Hope you feel better."

I came. I did the thing. What else do you expect me to do? If she was in any immediate danger, of course I would have helped, but she only seemed to be suffering psychological pain. When I asked her if she was ok, I had briefly scanned her body for injuries. Needless to say, I didn't find any.

There was plenty of daylight left, the part of town wasn't too terribly sketchy, and she had no physical injury that prevented her moving.

I judged she was good enough to be left alone, so I turned around and started to walk away. But I had barely made it 5 meters when a tiny whisper, a whisper that was never meant to be heard by anyone in this world, reached my ears.

"I'm sorry…"

I stopped in my tracks. I could tell she wasn't apologizing to me, and she certainly wasn't apologizing to the bullies. I turned around and walked back to her, now slightly curious about her circumstances.

I plopped myself down on the pavement next to her, crossed my legs, and placed my chin in my hands. "So, what's up with that?"

"I said just go away. Please."

"Nah, not gonna do that."

Her figure curled up more at my casual words.

"So tell me, why do you just lie down and just let them walk all over you?"

Although her face was barely visible, I thought I saw a tear roll down her cheek. I felt a slight twinge of guilt, but I pushed that aside. Plenty of time for guilt later. But her reaction made my faith in my instincts waver slightly, making me wonder if I had just imagined it.

A little more is needed, I guess.

My lips curled into a mocking smile. I didn't know if she could even see me, but the expression on my face would influence my tone of voice. And as I knew from experience, when acting a part, the devil's in the details.

"Tch, for a minute I thought you might have had a story, thought you might have been different. But I guess I was wrong, you're just too spineless to stand up to them just like every other bullied kid out there. You don't even want to try to stand up for yourself. After all, it's easier to be an empty shell than become a real person."

Her entire body tensed, but this time she wasn't cowering. Her head came up off the pavement and she shook her hair out of her face with a violent movement. My mocking smile changed into a real smile when I saw the fire blazing in her eyes, but that only served to provoke her further, which fit my goals just fine, if I must be entirely honest.

"YOU! Just who the hell do you think you are? What do you know!? The pain of having your weaknesses used against you, the darkness of reliving your most painful moment! WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU EXPERIENCED TO LET YOU THINK YOU KNOW ME?"

She hurled herself to her feet in a violent motion, my taunts finally triggering the fight response that had been hidden so far down in her. With a strength that seemed impossible for her small frame to contain, she grabbed my collar and forcibly dragged me upright.

At this moment, looking at her tear-streaked face and blazing eyes, I knew that my hunch had been right. The face I was looking at right now wasn't the face of some weak person who knew nothing but retreat. It wasn't the face of someone who just temporarily burst out and would soon be back to the same old empty shell. It wasn't the face of someone who'd rather run and hide than stand and fight.

Yes, the face showed anger, but if that was all it showed, I wouldn't have given her a second glance. Her expression showed a will to fight, a will to survive. I could tell she wasn't someone who wanted to retreat, but someone who was up against such overwhelming odds that she was forced against a wall, even with the will to fight burning in her.

It was the face of someone who had fought, someone who knew the price of losing, and the pain of achieving victory.

This was why I provoked her. Why I taunted her. I wanted to see the real person lying underneath, not the fake facade she put up to be seen as acceptable in society.

I could tell that she was just a second away from completely snapping and punching me. At that moment, I did what was possibly the strangest thing anyone could do in this scenario. With my right hand, I reached out to the girl that was about to attack me.

I entirely forewent defense, and in a strangely affectionate gesture, cupped her face in my right hand and wiped her tears off of her cheek.

"I'm sorry. I truly am. It's ok now." She completely froze, her brain seemingly short-circuiting.

At the unexpected gesture and my obviously heartfelt words, her anger abruptly flipped to sadness.

I smiled sadly and said, "Thank you."

It was as if her brain booted up again the moment that I spoke.

"You… Why would you..? What..?"

The cheeks that I had wiped clean were rapidly covered in tears again. Her grip on my collar didn't relax despite her anger disappearing, and instead tightened more as she collapsed against my chest.

Finally guilt and disgust entirely filled me. It certainly wasn't the first time I hurt someone, but those times were very different than now. What I just did was something only a complete asshole would do, regardless of how well I meant it. Not to mention it also really doesn't help my case when I say that I did this partly out of curiosity and partly out of annoyance at seeing her wallowing in darkness.

But even if the reason I walked back to her was just pure curiosity, there was one thing that was undeniable. I simply couldn't leave someone who was in pain alone. My actions may seem contradictory to that point, but it's the truth.

And even stranger, for some reason, I felt an odd sense of familiarity from her.

I just stood there, feeling the hot tears soak through the cloth of my shirt. Again, the thought crossed my mind that what I had just done was entirely unforgivable.

Damn, I really didn't have to go that far, did I? For a moment I was scared that I made a mistake. The human psyche is really a very fragile thing. Even a professional sometimes messes up and faces situations where they are helpless.

Naturally, I didn't have a degree in psychology, but I trusted my instincts enough to bet my life on them. So, I naturally trusted them enough to bet someone else's life on them.

Distracted by these thoughts filling my head, I almost missed the girl's body going limp.

"Woah!"

I let out a small shout of shock and wrapped my arms around the girl's body, catching her before she hit the pavement.

"Fainted, huh? First time a girl's ever fainted on me. First time one's ever cried on me, for that matter." For the sake of my sanity, I temporarily decided to ignore the fact that I was the one who made her cry.

Without much difficulty, I picked up the girl, holding her legs so that she was resting against my back. Slightly at a loss of what to do, I resumed my walk home.

Albeit with some added baggage.

*clickclickclickclick*

I sat in a dark room, illuminated only by the light of my two computer monitors. On the left screen I had several windows open, one of which was a black window with lines and lines of incomprehensible text. On the right screen was a barely less complicated application window that said "Metasploit" in English in the top left corner.

The only sound in the room came from the rapid clicking of my mechanical keyboard as I typed what seemed like endless gibberish into the black window. There were short pauses every now and then as I messed around in the Metasploit application window, checked various things in a small book on my desk, or looked things up on the internet.

Hours passed. Hell, for all I know, it could have been days. It wouldn't have been the first time that I stayed cooped up in my room for over 24 hours. Once I got focused on something, I had a bad habit of entirely losing track of time until it was completed.

"Nnnnngh." I groaned lightly as I leaned back in my chair, stretching my hands behind my head. I shifted my eyes away from the computer screen, glancing around the room to give them a much deserved break.

"NO!"

Already leaning back in my chair, I almost fell backwards when the sudden yell that came from my right side caught me completely by surprise. I was disoriented for a moment, but soon remembered all the events that had happened after I had left school.

I laughed to myself as I reached over next to my monitor and flipped the switch on the lamp sitting on my desk. In the light, I was able to clearly see the terrified look on the face of the girl who, until a moment ago, was sleeping on my bed.

Wow Kazuto, what a man. Despite literally having a girl in your bed, you still go playing on your computer and entirely forget about her. I lightly shook my head, clearing away all extra, unnecessary (and possibly improper) thoughts before speaking.

"Nightmare?" she nodded wordlessly, seemingly not knowing how to respond to my matter-of-fact inquiry.

I stood up and walked over to the bed before stretching out my hand. "Sorry about earlier, I guess I really started out on the wrong foot. I'm Kirigaya Kazuto, you can just call me Kazuto."

A look of incomprehension appeared on the girl's face, trying to reconcile my calmly smiling face with her hazy memories of the boy she met in the alley. I don't know if she made sense of the situation or whether she just decided to give up on trying to make sense of it all, but she shook my extended hand.

"Shino, Asada Shino. Where-?"

She glanced around the room, obvious confusion filling her face.

"Sorry about that," I sat back down in my chair with a small laugh. "I took the liberty of taking you home with me. You fainted, and I figured you'd rather go to some strange kid's house than lie on the cold, hard concrete of a dark alley." I joked lightly, trying to cheer her up and bring her around to a slightly more positive mood.

Her facial expression didn't change much, but her voice lightened up slightly. "Yeah, definitely. You're probably not some serial killer or something."

I shrugged with an exaggerated evil smile on my face. "You never know. Can't judge a book by its cover!"

Thankfully, my response elicited a laugh from her. Either the memories of our first encounter were sufficiently blurred, or she had just decided to temporarily ignore the events. Either one was fine by me. Inwardly, I breathed a sigh of relief. Thankfully, the impression I made after she woke up had overwhelmed the impression already inside her mind. I had expected this to happen, but I wasn't entirely sure how it would all play out. I was gambling on the fact that people tend to only have blurred and vague memories of extremely high emotion events.

Naturally, she wouldn't immediately see me in a good light, but now at least I wasn't in any immediate danger of her hating me forever.

"Anyways, are you hungry at all?" I glanced down at my left wrist. "You've been asleep for around four hours, which would make it past dinner time."

"Um, no thanks, I'm fi-" she started to respond, but was interrupted by a loud growl from her stomach. I chuckled quietly as she broke eye contact with me and coughed awkwardly.

"I'll take that as a yes, then. Come on, Asada-san. I asked my au-my mom to fix some extra."

Shino looked at me questioningly, noticing that I caught myself and said something different than I had originally intended. "Your mom?"

"Yeah," I nodded, responding just a little too quickly."I live with my mom, my dad, and my sister. Come on, let's head downstairs."

Shino nodded wordlessly and followed me while I mentally beat myself up. Dammit Kazuto, you should have adjusted by now. After I mentioned I lived with my aunt and uncle, inevitably the conversation would either move to my parents, or the more perceptive ones would avoid the topic and just give me a look of pity. It was hard to choose which one I hated more.

A wry smile crossed my face and I snorted silently to myself as a thought occurred to me. Pff, that was probably the only good thing about that hellhole, at least we were all in the same boat there.

A few weeks passed with no real change in my lifestyle. It's not like helping one girl once would change my life at all. The only difference was that I'd greet Shino-san on occasion if I passed her in the hallway.

Life went by as usual, my days consisting of school, exercise, work, and gaming. Did I forget to mention? Yeah, I'm a gamer. Anything from old school Real Time Strategy games such as Starcraft or Age of Empires, to both old and new MMOs (massively multiplayer online) such as World of Warcraft, EVE Online, Eternal Conquest, or Final Fantasy XXXVIII (38).

Generally I stick with strategy games and MMOs, but occasionally I'll pick up an FPS (first-person shooter) or other games if I feel the itch.

Currently I was sinking a lot of my time into EVE Online, a space MMO around 20 years old but still going strong. I sighed as I watched my ship and even my escape pod explode into flames and a [Clone Activated] message pop up on my screen.

There truly wasn't a feeling comparable to blowing other people's ships up, but that came with the risk of the same being done to you. And that was what had just happened to me. I shrugged my shoulders and opened up a chat window with the person who had just blown me up.

[Kirito Naru]: gf¹

[Sinon Shiki]: gf

[Sinon Shiki]: Kill: Kirito Naru (Cynabal)² thx for the fight, open to a rematch anytime

[Kirito Naru]: good service, 10/10 would die again.

[Sinon Shiki]: :D

[Sinon Shiki]: o7³

[Kirito Naru]: o7

I closed the game and leaned back in my chair, attempting to calm my racing heart. Even with how long I've played EVE Online and all of my other experiences, nothing else could still get my heart pumping as much as a good 1-on-1 fight in EVE could.

Now that the game was closed, the contents of my web browser that was open behind it were revealed. The zKillboard for my character was open, and with nothing better to do, I clicked on the red entry that had just popped up.

Belatedly, I realized the name of the player who had killed me sounded vaguely familiar. I placed my head down on my desk and thought.

"Sinon… Sinon…"

I raised my head as I made a connection.

"Shino?" I snorted in laughter. "If it really is Asada Shino, her naming sense is just as bad as mine. But what are the chances."

In a small apartment, at the same time as the events above…

The forehead of a girl was placed against her desk, who was obviously thinking hard.

"Kirito… Kirito… hm?"

Her head lifted off the desk as the face of a boy popped into her mind.

"Him? He did seem to have a good computer in his room, so it's not an impossibility. Just unlikely."

Her first impression of the dark haired boy was honestly quite terrible, but for some reason she couldn't find it in her heart to hate him. He said some clearly mean things, but somehow she had an inexplicable feeling that he meant it all well. It also helped that her memories of that time were very fuzzy.

She blushed hard in embarrassment as she remembered a single moment. His hand brushing her tears away and her then crying into his chest. She shook her head, trying to entirely erase the embarrassing moment from her memory. For good measure she banged her head lightly on the desk a few times.

"He doesn't seem to be a terrible person, I guess. Well, maybe just a little bit."

She relaxed after her outburst, resting with her cheek on her desk. "What a strange person," she softly murmured to herself. She thought back to the battle, and had a strange feeling that there were similarities between the boy and the person controlling that Cynabal.

The fight had lasted almost an hour from first engagement until she had killed him, covering several systems and more than a dozen jumps, which is absolutely ridiculous for a single solo pvp fight, but still the most fun she'd had in months.

The player she was fighting had somehow managed to keep maximum transversal while staying just within the optimal range of her guns. Despite being slowed, he managed to escape her lockdown several times. The only reason she finally won was a difference in pure stats.⁴

The unpredictability of his movements. The confidence to get under her guns and then back out again. The ability to walk through a field of fire unscathed.

She paused for a moment at that thought before laughing out loud.

"Hahahahaha, what the heck am I thinking? This is way over-dramatized. Shino, you should be a writer, girl."

Her mood suddenly dampened as she realized another thing. "Yeah. Just because you can do something in game doesn't mean it affects real life." The shortcuts visible on her second monitor showed a large assortment of first person shooters.

"Yeah, no way it's him." but despite her words, she couldn't help herself from looking back at the open application.

Just in time to see the player who was on her mind reappear in the chat window.

Although the possibility was slim, I somehow couldn't help myself from acting on the thought that the player who killed me really was Asada Shino. I still harbored a faint feeling of guilt over the event a few weeks back. I wanted to make it up to her, but had absolutely no idea how to do that.

But if this was really somehow her, it'd be a perfect opportunity.

I logged back into the game, tabbing over to the chat with the player who had just blown me up. Thankfully, she was still online.

I rapidly typed a few words and hit enter. Two messages appeared on the screen at the same time.

[Kirito Naru]: Asada-san?

[Sinon Shiki]: kazuto-san?

[Sinon Shiki]: so it is you!

[Kirito Naru]: Hahaha, seems like we have a similar naming sense

[Kirito Naru]: But wow, definitely not every day you randomly meet someone you know IRL in a game. Fun times.

[Sinon Shiki]: XD

[Sinon Shiki]: yeah i was wondering why your ign sounded familiar! funny coincidence

[Kirito Naru]: welp I gotta head off now, just logged back in on the off chance it really was you. I'll see you at school in the morning, and maybe we can do some pvp together later? I'm generally a solo player, but I'm not particularly averse to small gang pvp.

[Sinon Shiki]: sounds good to me

[Sinon Shiki]: i generally have a small group of ppl i play with but whenever no one is on or people are busy i just go roaming soolo

[Sinon Shiki]: solo*

[Sinon Shiki]: so yeah i'd be down for some pvp together later, cya at school!

[Kirito Naru]: o7 Fly safe

[Sinon Shiki]: o/ fly safe

I pulled myself out of my chair and flopped on my bed, finally feeling the adrenaline from the fight leave my system. The fact that it was 2 am definitely didn't contribute at all to my tiredness. Definitely not.

As my consciousness slowly faded to black, a small smile crossed my face at the strange twists of fate.

¹gf means good fight

²Sinon linked the killmail there. For those unfamiliar with EVE, when you destroy a ship, you get a killmail that shows various things like total damage dealt, who got the kill, and what ship was destroyed. In this case, Kirito was flying a ship called the Cynabal.

³o7 is a salute emote

⁴Nope, not gonna put a full explanation of EVE Online here. Basically Kirito was just flying his ship like a total pro here. If you're interested you can google stuff about EVE.

A/N Thanks for reading! The next chapter will be more focused on Shino so you can get a clear idea of the starting point of our two main characters. See ya next chapter! o7