[6 January 2026]

(Arashi/Aiza's P.O.V)

With the blinding white light engulfing me, the virtual me dissappeared from the land of fairies Alfheim Online.

I opened my groggy eyes at a slow pace to adjust to my rooms lighting and stared aimlessly at my white ceiling.

"Absolute Sword huh. She's a interesting one." I then told myself monotonely again. I put both of my hands onto the sides of my Amusphere gently removed it from my head.

As I did that action my black emo styled hair dropped back down onto my head. The ticklish feeling of my hair touching and covering my left eye did the job of reawakening my nerves that were numbed by the Amusphere.

Strangely enough, I could still see using my left eye even though it was covered by my hair... That's odd but that never really bothered me.

I placed the Amusphere on the bedstand beside me on my right and begun to sit up on my bed.I looked up again to my white ceiling and then to my brown door which was again on my right side.

My room was rectangular shaped 4 metres across and 3 metres wide. My bed coloured in different shades of brown,and it was on put at the furthest left of the room, making it oddly squeezey, which was perfect in my opinion.

I walked towards my door and opened it exiting my small room and begun to decend the stairs of the house that I shared with my friends to the first floor.

"How's it going Aiza." The Blonde-haired female, Emi, greeted me. Emi was around the same age as me, she was also a SAO survivor. However unlike me, she was one of the mid level players back in Aincrad, hoping to join the frontlines one day.

"Oh. Hi Emi." I greeted her back,in probably the most bored way possible. I sometimes consider her less of a friend and more a a person I know. I knew that was cruel but that's the reality.

I sat down on the dining table to start eating my dinner, which was just the salad I bought but did not eat yesterday. Once I was done with eating, I washed the plate and sat down on the couch to 'interact' with these people I shared a house with.

Sitting adjacent to me was a blue-haired kendo freak named Aichi. He was the only person who lived here that wasn't a SAO survivor, which was probably the best for him. He was always the over emotional type.

Sitting next to me was Emi and sitting opposite Aichi was Hitomi. A brownette girl with hair that was braided into a fishtail style.

They begun to talk about different stuff that I was obviously not interested in. Shut the hell up. I mentally cursed at them. I was ticked by their talking and decided to go back up into my room, leaving the couch silently to avoid them asking why.

(Emi's P.O.V)

I was listening to Aichi brag about his recent kendo achievements when I saw Aiza stand and walk back up the stairs to his room. He had a scowl on his face that resembled him during SAO. Emo, dark, brooding, baisicly someone that's better if you stayed on their good side.

I wanted to approach Aiza to ask him what's wrong but I knew that would be useless,since it's extremely likely he would just tell us to stop asking.

His problems were clearly about his sister dying back in Aincrad. We all lost someone dear to us in there, so we knew the feeling, and that's why we don't talk about it. We don't want to bring back the tears.

(No P.O.V)

Aiza put his head on his table and sighed. He put his hands onto the edge of the table and pushed himself backwards. Since Aiza was on his chair, the wheels beneath it begun to roll him to the back.

He stopped himself by slamming his left leg onto the floor, and then propelled himself to the side of his bed. From there, he got off the chair and knelt down and grabbed a cardboard box under his bed.

The box was no bigger than 1 metre wide and 1 metre wide, yet it contained things too painful for Aiza to see.

On the lid of the box, there was a label, saying :Asami's possessions'. Asami was the real name of Merle, the sister of Aiza.

Before Aiza could take it out fully, he stood up and kicked the box back inone swift move. Too painful... To see. Aiza thought.

[7 January 2026]

(Yuuki's P.O.V)

3 months. That was the time left for me to live. 3 months. It's a scary thought, I don't want to leave this world. I haven't left my mark. Well, leaving my mark as in leaving it on the Swordsman Memorial, not any OTHER types of mark leaving, duh.

I glanced at my left to look at one of the floating screens and checked the time. "Gee. So quick?" I said to myself. It was already time for me to do the duels.

I have a hunch that today's the day I'll get the one I'm looking for, although my hunches usually aren't correct. But hopefully... Hopefully I can find someone to help me and the Sleeping Knights.

[A/N:Hi again and thanks as always for reading. I'm sorry if you feel its a late update my schedule has been packed with Christmas partys. Oh, I almost forgot, Merry Christmas to whoever is reading!! I know it's late but I just want to wish it. Anyway next year is going to be a stressful year for me, so updates may reduce to 2 times per month, so I'm so sorry for that. But I PROMISE that I'll finish this fanfic by maybe July or earlier next year. Anyways... Goodbye for now, and thanks for reading and I hope to see you all in the next chapter!