A Reaper's Game -Part Two: The Skyward Offensive-

by Storm VII

After taking an entire month to clear only the first of Aincrad's One Hundred floors, the Grim Reaper sets his sights to the levels above him; confronting dangerous creatures and colorful individuals along every step of the way… which is to say nothing of the chaos he faces as Final Rebellion's new guild leader.

6. A Tasteless Defeat

Sword XII: A Tasteless Defeat

December 15th, 2022

"Yare yare daze… What a day…" Ragna grumbled to himself as he walked through the fields of the fourth floor with the sun slowly starting to rise behind him.

After leaving the festivities when his bout of dancing had ended, he'd headed straight for the fourth floor to take advantage of how empty it was liable to be. He knew that he needed to work on all of his skills and he needed this private time to focus on his own specialized skill pool. Disappointingly, he hadn't acquired anything new from all of his grinding but at very least he'd managed to score a level up that he'd been trying to obtain for a while. The dungeon he'd explored hadn't turned up any leads for the floor boss and it hadn't even offered a dungeon boss at the end for a better prize. A long and grueling effort made all the worse by…

Growl

...his empty stomach.

"Dammit."

Don't get him wrong, Ragna wouldn't want be considered to be a picky eater and he's had to settle for less than ideal food plenty of times in his travels, but the fact that he's had to eat SAO's lower ranking food for so long was continuing to get on his nerves. Aside from combat training, one of the biggest things that Jubei had drilled into his head was the ability to cook, so even just eating food that wouldn't live up to his master's standards felt wrong in a way.

"Guess I could always try cooking my own food," he thought aloud, talking to himself as he headed through the grassy plains. "But… I barely have any ingredients, I sure as hell don't have the equipment to work with and I wouldn't know the first place to start cooking." The Reaper sighed. "Guess until I can find those, I'm fresh out of-"

"EEEEEEEEEKKK!" came a scream a short ways away. Sighing to himself as he knew he was about to be dragged into something, he hurried towards the scream drawing his sword as he went. On the far side of the clearing, he saw a terrified girl that was surrounded by monsters. "GET BACK! SOMEONE HELP!"

"Every damn day with this… I'm starting to see a pattern," Ragna muttered to himself. Giving a passing glance at the girl who was trying to defend herself, he noticed that she had a yellow cursor which would signify that she was an NPC. "Guess I don't to worry about Leafa getting this one to join me… in fact here I'll be able to get away with using a couple more of my personal skills."

The threat that was attacking the young NPC maiden was a group of Ruble Spiders; spiders that (as the obvious name suggested) were covered in a thick, hard, and rock-like carapice. While these were probably the weakest enemies that Ragna had encountered so far on this floor, that didn't mean you should let your guards down around these things. Their caripices made them hard to stagger and made then very endurant, especially for only a common monster. This meant that players would be in for a long encounter and that could be an issue if they were bitten. These things had fangs that did laughable damage by themselves, but they would often poison their target and that damage could be difficult to shrug off. Where these thing would really be dangerous was in ambushing unexpecting players since they looked like any other piece of aesthetic ruin ruble to the common eye. If a bunch of these things surrounded a player, it could mean a length demise where they would struggle to heal their poison. Some of them came in even bigger forms with a higher endurance, a stronger bite, and a just as deadly poison… but the ones here and now were of common size and Ragna was the one with an ambush advantage.

"HELL'S FANG!" the Reaper shouted as he rushed forward with his iconic move. As expected, the move didn't cause the heavier monster to go flying or stagger, but Ragna had planned for the follow up. Taking Aramasa with his free hand, he caught the monster in a great upward slash to inflict another blow to the creature's health before plunging the sword down into the arachnid's body. With one of the monster's destroyed, its remaining friends quickly lost their interest in the small girl that was barely a threat as they looked towards Ragna with fangs dripping with venom.

"Looks like I got their attention," Ragna plainly observed before turning to the NPC. "Stay back while I handle this, it shouldn't take long." Thankfully it seemed like she understood him, as she gave Ragna a nod and started walking away from the conflict. Without another word, the Reaper charged once more into the fields of combat.

Leaping up above one of the spiders, Ragna cleaved his sword toward its top. Leaping against on of the monsters behind it, the Reaper flipped backwards before diving down onto the monster's back and plunged his sword through the beast and caused it to shatter.

Another of the spiders came up from behind to attack him, but Ragna's Inferno Divider was one of the few moves that could send it into air. While he couldn't attack the creature while he was in the air after performing his move, but he could make it back to the ground before it did an continue his assault. Performing a slash as soon as he landed he managed to keep the creature in the air and cause further damage to it. Following up with another Hell's Fang, his attack sent the creature flying and caused it to shatter before it hit the ground.

Channeling his power into the Aramasa, Ragna unleashed his weapon's great scythe form complete with a wicked blade of black Seither. Making a large slash with his weapon, he managed to catch all three of the remaining spiders in a single powerful swing of his blade. Leaping back to gain distance from the enemy, Ragna began charging his Skill. Given the creature's less than stellar speed, Ragna managed to fully charge his skill and unleashed it; taking down another of the spiders. Turning his weapon back into a sword, he quickly charged and unleashed a Horizontal Slash to down another of the monsters. Using both hands to transition to the greatsword style and chained into Blast, finishing the last of the spiders off.

"Well that's done," Ragna muttered as the results screen came up. 'Nothing here that's all that new… just another battle like any other.' Giving a sigh, he closed the menu and looked around the area seeing the NPC he'd saved from earlier hurrying over to him. '...Might be the start of a questline or something to that effect.'

"Wow, those are some really awesome moves you've got there!" the NPC said to him with sparkles in her eyes. Now that he was taking the time to get a proper look at her, he saw that this girl's height barely made it past his waist. She was dressed in a strange hard hat that was topped by goggles. While her leather clothing was heavier than most, it was far from what would be considered to be regular armor. Her baggy pants led down to toeless sandals. She had a large and heavy pack on her back, indicating she was some kind of explorer. "I've never seen anyone fight like that before! You're really something!"

"I've been told that before," Ragna said, though he didn't smile at the compliment. 'Is she just saying that because she's 'programmed to, or is it because of my moves… Maybe I should play it safe around NPC's after all.' "So who are you, and what are you doing all the way out here?"

"Huh, but I'm not very far from my encampment," the girl said as she pointed down a short ways, showing a small campground that was surrounded by a safezone.

'I know damn well that wasn't there a second ago,' Ragna thought to himself as he scowled at the location. "Your name then?"

"You can call me… Grantie!" the NPC said, a short but strange pause before she'd said her name. "Thanks for saving me back there, I really owe you one!" Ragna didn't say anything, only crossing his arms as he waited for an ending to these strange events. "But… I don't really have much money on me… But I think I've got something else you could use!"

"Oh yeah, what?" the Reaper demanded, only for a Quest Rewards selection to come up that gave Reaper pause. Aside from a sizable amount of experience (far too much from a run in like this), he also obtained a Beginner's Cooking Set along with several ingredients meant for making meal.

"You're… sure you don't need this?" Ragna asked, thinking he was taking supplies from an NPC.

"It's fine! I've got plenty of left!" she told him before gesturing to her tent in the safe zone. "Feel free to use my campground to rest up! I need to change location anyways."

"...Okay?" Ragna said as he scratched the back of his head. Her dialogue options seeming to be finished, the NPC then turned and started heading off again, evidently with no fear of being attacked again by monsters or even requesting a escort quest. 'This whole thing seems odd as hell… guess she did give me some supplies,' Ragna thought as he considered the gift before turning to the campsite which consisted of a small one person tent, a few pieces of ruin rubble to sit on, and a fire pit. Turning his head back to get one last look at the departing NPC, he was surprised to find that she was already gone, having completely disappeared on the flat plains. '...This reeks of something,.I don't know what the hell it is, but I'm not a fan of it.'

Shaking his head, he thought he's at least take what he had and headed for the small campsite and gained the safezone's protection from any of the monsters in the field. Scrolling through the items he'd received, he tried to come up with a meal to cure his current hunger pangs.

'So I complain once or twice and not five minutes later I'm actually given something completely at random that can help me out,' Ragna thought to himself as he looked through the items he carried. 'Even if this isn't my home world, I know my own luck well enough that something isn't right here.'

Knowing that this game carried its own 'cooking skill' and he hadn't invested any points into it, he decided that he'd have to settle for making himself a rather simple breakfast for now. Taking a match and some firewood out of the supplies he'd gotten, he started a small cooking flame in the campsite fire pit. He then took out a small frying pan, three eggs, some choice pork cuts, a small cutting board, a spatula, a sharp cutting knife, and a small eating set. Keeping everything close together, he started his preparation on the meal.

'Starting with the meat,' Ragna thought as he took the small knife and looked at the edge to make sure it would cut. 'Couple of slices of ham would go great with the eggs.' Holding the meat in place on the cutting, he began cutting the ham into thick hearty slices… or would have, if it hadn't turned into cubed cuts the second he made contact with it. 'That… wasn't what I was going for.'

Shaking his head but deciding to roll with it, he focused on the eggs. Cracking one against the pan's edge, he rose it above the pan and fully broke the shell with a single hand for the yolk and white to fall in. With its contents gone the egg shells shattered in his hand, saving him the trouble of throwing it out himself. Even if things had gone as planned, Ragna couldn't be too happy with cracking a single egg… but then he noticed the egg in the pan had a few small egg shell fragments in it and his mood grew sour.

'Dammit, really?' he swore to himself as he got another egg. This time he tried to be a touch more careful and used both of his hands to crack the egg. He thought he was in luck since this egg and yolk came out perfectly, but when he tried it with the third egg, there were still shells inside the egg and yolk. 'For the love of… now I have to play this annoying ass game of chance every time I want to crack a stupid egg!?'

(Author's Note: LOOKING AT YOU Kingdom Hearts 3. Screw your annoying cooking minigame, screw them all to high hell… that damn egg one especially.)

His temper already rising, Ragna tried to keep his cool as he deposited the meat cubes from the cutting board and held the pan over the fire to begin cooking. Quickly enough the meat and eggs began sizzling, much quicker than Ragna was used to. Shrugging, he pushed the ham around with his spatula making sure he'd cook all of the meat evenly through. He'd barely started when he saw that the meat and eggs looked like they were thoroughly cooked.

'Already? But I barely started cooking this,' the Reaper thought to himself as he looked at the meat. 'There's no way that this is already cooked, if I cooked this for twice as long they're still be pink in the middle and HOLY CRAP!'

Ragna struggled to move fast as one of the eggs and a few piece of the ham caught fire. Quickly taking the pan out of the fire, he quickly used his spatula to throw the flaming bits into the fire so that he could try and save the rest. The fire ate up the discarded bits as Ragna quickly deposited the meal to one of his plates to prevent the rest from catching fire.

'Dammit, that wasn't good,' Ragna thought to himself as he looked over the poor meal he'd made. Not only was the ham in the wrong form, but the pieces that he had saved were still a little burnt on the outside. The single egg he'd had to throw away was the only one without shells in it and the eggs that were left had begun to harden from too much cooking. Not the most appetizing meal.

"Well… I wanted my own cooking," Ragna muttered as he decided to start with the meat. Taking one of the less burnt pieces he managed to chew through the crusty exterior, but without the smokey taste and texture it was about as bland as you could get. Managing to get it down, he moved on to the eggs. The was barely any oozing from the yolk once he'd cut one in half, the taste was even blander than the ham, the texture was off by a wide margin, and the egg shells did nothing to help it. "Shit, just… shit."

Jubei's teachings still taking hold after all of these years, Ragna continued eating determined to finish his own cooking… but damn him if it wasn't the hardest fight he'd had that day.

Later -Floor Four Town-

"Hope that map data comes in handy out there!" Argo said cheerfully as she adjusted her hood. "Stay safe and come back if you need any oth'r info!" The leader of a small group of players gave a nod as they headed out of town with the data that they'd been looking for, ready to tackle a dungeon on the newly opened floor in the hunt for levels and experience. Argo checked the Col she'd been given for the trade and smiled. A new floor opening up made any information valuable and this was prime time to start selling whatever basic info that she could get her hands on. Her smile didn't falter as she closed her menu and saw one of her regulars approaching her. "How's the floor?"

"Large, full of monsters, and it's got plenty of dungeons to look through," Ragna told her with a sigh. "How's business?"

"In the boom right now, and now that yer here I can practically smell the Col," the Info Broker told him, a bright shine in her eyes and a happy grin on her face.

"Get your nose checked on ked then, I'm not here for much," the Reaper told her, leaving Argo to give him a disappointed look… before smirking.

"In that case, you can settle your tab of-"

"Let's talk info first, prices later," her guild leader asserted, leaving her to give a small shrug. "No matter where I go, there's some hooded girl around here treating me like her meal ticket…"

"Eh, not my fault that you make for such an easy one," the info broker told him.

"I gotta wonder. So, you know any place that I might be able to grab some spices?"

"Spices… you mean for cooking?" Argo asked as she thought it over. "That mean you an' Asuna are finally takin' a crack at the cooking system?"

"...Something like that," Ragna told her enigmatically. "So you know a place or don't you?"

"Well…" Argo said, trying to think. "I heard about a place where you can buy cooking supplies in the Town of Beginnings, but that's about all I've ever heard about cooking. Not much more I can tell you, so sorry."

"Better than nothing I guess," Ragna said with a sigh.

"Since there's next to nothing I can tell ya, I won't charge ya for this piece. Anything else you wanted to ask me?"

"Yeah, small project that I've got for you," Ragna told her. "There was an NPC I just found on this floor, called herself Grantie. I was hoping you could ask around about her."

"About an NPC?" she confirmed, tilting her head in slight confusion. "What's so special about 'em?"

"I honestly couldn't tell you, but they were acting pretty damn weird… I can't help but shake the feeling that something's up with them, maybe something important even."

"Right, like a clue ta clearing the floor," Argo said before nodding. "If that's the case, I can ask around the other infobrokers. You can pay me once I get you yer info."

"That works, while you're at it I was hoping there was something else you could do for me. You know the spider monsters around the field, right?" Argo nodded. "...Just pass the word on to be careful in the dungeons; they team up in hordes there and it's easy for them to get the drop on you. I don't want anyone doing anything stupid."

"So what do you call whatever the hell it is you do?"

"The Reaper's Job."

"...You know somethin', I can't tell if you're being serious or not," Argo told him, leaving Ragna to finally take a turn in shooting a smirk. "But sure, I'll pass the info along and let everyone else know ta be careful. Get back to you in a bit?"

"Sounds good, because I've got supplies to buy," Ragna told her as he started heading off to the town's teleport gate.

"Make sure you save some cash! You still got yer tab to pay off!" Argo shouted his way with a taunting smile that stretched across her face.

...Ragna had to fight hard not to turn around and flip her off.

Town of Beginnings

It had been quite some time since the Reaper had returned to the first floor of SAO, with the new floors getting opened up and stronger monsters showing up on the frontlines he hadn't felt much of a need to return to the starting point of the game until now. There were a lot fewer people walking around here than there were that last time he'd been here, but with new floors and town opening up it just made sense for them to move higher up. Most of the people he did see standing around we equipped with their starting gear, meaning they were likely the type of players that would be sitting back and waiting for the game to be cleared so that they wouldn't have to risk their own necks. While they types of players were often called Slackers by certain players (Kibaou) that were actually putting work into the game, Ragna was oddly one of the outliers hat didn't have a problem with their self preservation lifestyle.

'Not as many people here as I was expecting,' he thought to himself as he walked through the streets. He knew that not all of the the players hoping to stay out of the conflict would be out in the open; most of them would have locked themselves in room the first chance they'd gotten and stayed in there for as long as they could to keep themselves as safe as possible. All in all, it was a sad state of things for the first city. '...Let's just focus on finding that shop for now.'

Walking through the city streets, Ragna slowly started to realize that this was going to be hard than he'd thought it would be. He'd only been to the Town of Beginnings a few times and while it was no Kagutsuchi, he hadn't been able to truly appreciate how massive the city was until now. It was a complete maze of streets and to his unfamiliar eye there was no easy way of telling where anything was. In the end he had to resort to talking to the players on the streets and while some wouldn't even talk to him, eventually he got the directions he needed to start heading the right way.

'This is supposed to be the place?' Ragna thought to himself as he stood in front of the building that was supposed to be a shop that offered spices. It was on the far end of town, didn't have any windows, and had a small and faded sign that was impossible to read. '...I'm getting a bad feel off of this place.'

Shaking his head as he walked inside he was greeted by a store that was a little on the drab side. An elderly NPC man sat boredly behind the front desk not far from the front door. All along the small stores walls were shelves filled countless jars of powder, roots, trimmings, and other forms of herbs and spices. Taking a close look at one of the jars, Ragna saw that it read Mandrake Root.

"...Don't think I'm going to be finding any paprika in here," the Reaper predicted with a soft sigh. Taking a more thorough look around the store, he saw that most of the ingredients were labbed with some form of fantasy name. Dragon's Spice, Troll Leaves, Kobold Shreds… None of these sounded like ingredients to him. "Honestly…"

Just as he heard the door to the shop open, the Reaper paused as he came across one of the jars. It was labeled as Pyre Shavingings, but it looked a lot like a pepper mix that he used to use in one of his spice rubs when he barbecued. Figuring it was something he could start with, he reached for the jar… right as someone else was going for the spice.

"Oh sor-" Ragna tried to say, but found it too difficult as his heart skipped a few beats. 'What the…?'

The woman standing in front of him looked far too damn familiar, almost like he was looking at an image of his past. She had dark redish hair that was done into a ponytail in the back. She was even dressed as a nun in a similar dress that he was used to seeing. If it wasn't for her glasses and different hairstyle in the front, Ragna might've screamed Ghost! like a little girl.

"No I'm sorry, after you." the woman told Ragna, who shakily turned his head away as he looked over an grabbed the jar in front of it, pretending to look the spice over. "Is something wrong?"

"...This stuff…" Ragna began, still feeling awkward with talking to someone who looked so close to his foster mother. "Is it close to Red Pepper flakes?"

"Yes, that's the closest thing you'll find in this game at least," she told him. Ragna slowly nodded as he went to unscrew the jar, only for it to appear sealed shut. "Are you… not sure how to purchase ingredients?"

"Yeah, first time," he said before offering her the jar so that she could do it. Instead of taking it in her hand, she tapped the front of the jar and brought out a small screen. Adjusting how much of the spice she was buying (in grams) which also showed the price she'd have to pay for that amount, she accepted the trade on the screen and the contents of the jar were shifted to her inventory.

"Huh… thanks," Ragna said as he went into the jar's menu himself, grabbing half a kilogram of the spice. Giving a satisfied nod, he placed it back onto the shelf.

"Miss Sasha! We found the Dragon Spices!" a child called from behind Ragna. Turning his head, he saw that there were three children (two boys and a girl), with the lead one holding one of the jars he'd been looking at earlier. With the fact that these three looked nothing alike and had called her Miss Sasha, Ragna was starting to piece together what was really going on.

"That's perfect," Sasha said as she took the jar and got the spices that she needed. Smiling to the children, she handed them back the jar. "Okay, now I just need you to go find a the Elder Root and we can head out."

"Okay!" one of the boys said as the three ran off with the jar. Sasha watched them leave with a soft smile on her face… one which Ragna had seen before.

"...You're their caretaker then?" Ragna asked as the kids in their search.

"Someone has to be," Sasha told him, her smile turning just a touch sad. "There are more kids inside of Sword Art Online than you'd think, and many of them didn't have their parents come with them on launch day. Some have parents that are on the frontlines fighting to get their children out of this game and others…"

'Others have lost someone…' Ragna finished in his head, though he knew not to say it aloud. "How many are you looking after?"

"A baker's dozen," Sasha told him. "They're good children, but they're energetic and restless like anyone would be in this situation." She turned to Ragna and smiled. "It's not easy work and I have to be careful with our money, but I'm still happy to be doing it."

"...They're lucky to have you," a sentiment that he knew only too well as he thought back to what little he could remember of his early childhood.

"We found the Elder Root," another of the children said as she came back to their caretaker. Sasha then purchased the ingredient using the same method that she'd used earlier and the kids ran off again to return the spice jar to its proper rack.

"I'm afraid I have to get going; I need to get these kids back to the others at the Inn and get their lunch started,," she explained to her new acquaintance. "It was nice to meet you…?"

"Ragna… And likewise, Sasha," he said in response. Watching as she left with the children, Ragna opened up his menu and went through a few small commands. 'This isn't much… but it'll give them all a fighting chance. I can try to give them that much.'

Later -Ragna's Campsite-

"Hmm…" Ragna hummed to him as he tasted the special blend of blend of spices he'd created. "Not exactly my premium stuff… but I guess this will do for now."

The Reaper had ended up going a little overboard in the spice shop, buying just about every spice the store had to offer and in bulk. Even seeing how much Col each ounce of spices cost, Ragna wanted to be sure that he'd have enough to work with when he was preparing his food. Since his breakfast that morning had gone south and his plans for lunch hadn't happened due to him fighting to earn back the money he'd spent, the Reaper decided that he was going to do his damndest to make his dinner count. Already he'd spent well over and hour to be sure that he'd have the proper spices to go on the meat.

"Now what to make and how to make it," the Reaper thought to himself aloud as he cycled through his options, seeing what meat the spices would go on. He'd already had pork for breakfast so that was out. Beef was a decent option, but he felt that his spices could go on something better. Considering his his options, he then came across a skinned chicken in his option settings. "...Rotisserie style it is."

Using the tools that he'd gotten from the NPC yesterday, he managed to set up a small rotisserie style cooker over the firepit. Lighting a small flame underneath his cooking setup, he put the chicken over it and slowly started to turn the meat. Once it started to heat up, he slowly started applying his spice blend as he turned it. It seemed to stay on the chicken easily enough, being absorb as the bird cooked and it's juices sizzled.

'Okay, now my gut is telling me that this isn't long enough even though it looks cooked,' Ragna thought to himself before sighing and taking the bird off of the flame, while keeping the fire going. 'If I don't want a repeat of this morning, this is the time where I need to take the bird off.'

Placing the bird onto a small plate along with an apple from his inventory, the Reaper began his feast. Using his fork and knife he cut around the bone and held up a small piece, examining it. It didn't look any different from the stuff he was used to making and he could tell that it had cooked well with the spices. Bringing it up to his mouth the Reaper began to chew, enjoying the flavor and the texture it brought before swallowing… and promptly facepalming.

"Goddammit… why is it raw this time?" he groaned at himself before looking back at the chicken in a fierce glare, stabbing it through a second time, and putting it back over the fire. His determination to cook this chicken fully was meet by failure because not ten seconds after he'd put it back over the flames, his dinner bursting into flames before shattering into light. "...No… No… No no no no no NO!" Ragna shouted as he delved back into his menu. "I swear to god I'm eating SOMETHING tonight!"

...That something would be an apple.

December 16th, 2022 -Market Street-

"That should be everything," Sasha said with a bright smile as she turned to the children with her. "Great work everyone, it's so much easier buying supplies with you helping me."

The three orphans traveling with her gave their caretaker a proud smile. While these weren't the same three as she'd brought shopping yesterday, they were just as eager to help with as the last group. All of the kids under Sasha care were. Taking a few of them out at a time was one of the few times that she could make sure they were safe while giving them some fresh air, hence why she always made a point to go out on these daily trips.

"Miss Sasha," a little girl asked, trying to give the redhead her biggest puppy dog eyes. "Do we have to go back to the Inn now? Can't we stay out and play a little later?"

"I'm sorry Juno, but you know that the others are waiting on us and I have to get back to them so I can get dinner started," Sasha patiently explained. At Juno's disappointed whine, she gave a patient smile. "But you know what? Maybe if I can get a couple of the parents to help, we can try bringing everyone to the park an extra day this week."

"Okay," the little girl said trying to hold onto hope as she gave Sasha a smile. Her smile quickly vanished as she stood on her tiptoes and leaned to the side looking at someone who was behind the older woman. Sasha turned her head to follow where she was looking, eyes landing on a familiar red coat.

"Can you three wait for me here?" she asked them sweetly. "This will just take a minute." They were a little confused to be sure, but they all nodded in agreement and promised to wait. Knowing she'd be gone for a only a minute, she headed off to she the stranger she'd spoken to the day before.

Ragna had his arms moodily crossed as he stood in front of the fish shop, waiting as the owner prepared their best cut of salmon meat for the Reaper. The Reaper's eyes were watching as the fishmonger prepared his order, almost sure that they'd leave some bones in or even forget to gut the darn thing… that's how his luck seemed to be going lately.

"Excuse me?" Ragna did his best to immediately drop his scowl as he turned to face Sasha. "I'm not bothering you, am I?

"Nah, just sorta caught me on a bad day," he told her, trying to relax his usual 'on edge' personality. "Something you needed?"

"I just wanted to thank you…" she said to him nervously, adjusting her hair with slight embarrassment. "I wasn't expecting you to send Col our way… and I certainly wasn't expecting the sheer amount that you sent."

"Don't worry about it, I got plenty more," he told her as the fishmonger placed his order on the table. Nodding his head as he accepted it, Ragna sent the item to his inventory.

"Most days I have to rely on donations from the parents just to get by, so you've really managed to get me some peace of mind," she told him. "It's a really kind thing you did."

"Well… figured it would be kind of heartless if I didn't," Ragna told her as he gestured back to the kids. "You should get back to them, and I gotta get going to start cooking my own dinner."

"Right… oh, he's something small for you," Sasha said as she opened her menu. "It's not much, but I think that it will go great on your salmon."

"A lemon?" Ragna asked as he saw what Sasha had sent him over his screen.

"Just drizzle that over your fish and and it'll make your dinner even better," she promised him before walking back to take care of the kids, but not before turning back to Ragna and bowing. "Thank you again, you have no idea what you've done for us."

Ragna didn't say anything, but he did give her a small relaxed smirk as he watched her walk away, escorting the children back to the Inn they were staying in. He did notice the children glancing over his way, shooting him odd looks as they followed. The Reaper watched them go, waiting until they were out of sight until he opened his menu.

"Hope Argo doesn't find out about this," Ragna said to himself aloud as he prepared another donation of Col to Sasha, this one thrice as much as the last. "If she did, her prices would hike so far I wouldn't be able to afford a bed to sleep in."

Later -Ragna's Campsite-

"Sasha wasn't wrong," Ragna thought aloud, laying back on his side and resting near his campground fire. His prized sword Aramasa was impaled roughly into the ground on one side of him and a plate of his most recent creation sat next to him on the other, untouched save for a single bite taken out of it. The Reaper's attention remained on the sky as he thought back to the results. "That lemon really did help the flavor… Mixed well with my spices too… But…" His face went into a scowl as he tried to cut another piece off of his piece of salmon. It was taking an awful amount of force to make any noticeable progress. "...It doesn't matter if the salmon has the same damn texture as rubber." Ragna sent the item to his storage as he sat up. "With how long that stuff's going to last, I might as well treat it like jerky."

Giving a small grunt, the Reaper rose to his feet and dusted himself off of any dirt. Grabbing his weapon's hilt, he roughly yanked the armament out of the ground and gave a rough swing towards the fireplace, the force enough to immediately put the flames out. Walking outside the safe zone, the Reaper went looking for trouble once more.

"Back to the drawing board tomorrow…" he promised himself.

December 17th, 2022

"So you're back here again," Sasha noted as she and Ragna walked down the streets of the Town of Beginnings to the market of the first floor. Unlike the last time, Ragna was walking close enough that the kids could get a good look at the giant that he was (in their eyes). "You must have a real passion for cooking."

"It's a hobby of mine…" Ragna told her bluntly as he looked around the market for ingredients. "So… what were you thinking of making tonight?"

"Hmm… Well I suppose it's been a while since I've made a stir fry for the children," she considered. "Maybe I'll try one of those tonight, I can even see if I can find some pineapple to put in it."

"The rice fused together like some inedible blob and the toppings are burnt, lumpy, and smell like shit," Ragna muttered as he looked over the bowl still completely full, without even a bite taken out of it. Growling, he dumped the contents into his campsite fire. He soon wished he hadn't as the smell covered his campsite. Grabbing his sword once more, he headed off to recollect the money that he'd lost.

December 18th, 2022

"I saw instructions on how to flambe meat," Sasha said as she looked over some of the heavy liquor that was on sale at one of the market stalls. "It sounded kind of fun, so maybe I should try it."

"That… was expected…" Ragna coughed, his face completely covered in soot, the meat in his pan completely burnt to ash, and his haired blasted back in a poor hairstyle from the explosion. His fireplace seemed a little less welcoming from then on.

December 19th, 2022

"The children might not like it, but I have to make sure they eat their vegetables," Sasha said as she purchased a few heads of lettuce to the obvious grimacing of the children. "Be sure you wash and dry them thoroughly, even in this game it makes them fresh and taste all the better."

"...In my case it just makes them a soggy mess," the Reaper growled with an obvious tick mark on his face. The salad before him nothing more than a collection of torn lettuce, tomatoes that were falling apart, limp cucumber slices, and dressing that was appallingly watered down by the other ingredients. "Can't even make a salad."

December 20th, 2022

"Since all of the children ate all of their dinner last night, I thought I'd try making something a little more advanced," Sasha told the Reaper as she looked over the options for cheese she could purchase. "Pizza sounds like something fun I could get everyone involved with.'

"..."

Ragna didn't even want to say anything during his deep facepalm of shame. His cooking was so bad that it was completely Censored… not unlike Noel Vermillion's death dinners.

December 21st, 2022

"Is everything all right? Normally when you come shopping with you'll either get something similar to what I'm buying or some grand mixture so that you can experiment with your cooking, but today all you've been doing is buying some cooking essentials in bulk."

"Well… today might be the last day that I'm going to be coming down here for a while," Ragna told her honestly. "I'm not going to be working with anything too fancy from now on so I'm just stocking up on the basics."

"If that's what you want, I'm not going to keep you down here," Sasha told him as she looked over the vegetables that were on sale. "Still, it was nice of you to come down and visit us while you could."

"It might be for the best though, I'm pretty sure most of the kids are terrified of me," Ragna admitted as he watched the three kids that had come shopping with Sasha that day as they rushed to find ingredients.

"You'd be surprised, most of them can't stop asking about you," Sasha told him as she looked over the types of beef that were on sale and tried to decide what would go best into a pie. "Many of them are taken with that coat of yours."

"Means they have good taste at least," the Reaper told her with small smirk, earning earning a small laugh from Sasha. "...At the very least I can try and leave you with some more Col before I go, that's the least I can do."

"I really wish you wouldn't give out so much at once though," Sasha told him. "It's not that I'm not grateful for it, but you're going to need some if you need to fight on the front lines."

"I'll be fine, I-" Whatever Ragna had been about to say was stopped as a small alarm rang out. The small screen in front of Sasha indicated that she had been sent a message. Knowing that it could be important, the Reaper decided to put their conversation on hold until the caretaker had read it.

"Oh dear," Sasha sighed. Though she seemed sad, it didn't seem bad enough to have heard that someone had just died. "There goes our visit to the park."

"What happened?" Ragna asked.

"Whenever I take the children on a trip to the park I try to make sure that I bring one or two of the parents along so that we can have two pairs of eyes on all of them. That message was from a mother of one of the kids; apparently she can't make it since her guild needs her… and all of the other parents are already busy."

"Sounds pretty lame," Ragna muttered as he crossed his arms… before giving a soft sigh. "If the kids are okay with me… like you said… I can step in for today."

"You don't have to do that; they'll be able to see their families on Christmas anyways," Sasha told him.

"Not all of them will, and these days in the park seem to mean a lot to them," he told her. "I don't have anything else to do today, and I'm not exactly in a hurry to try cooking again." He looked at the kids who were hurrying back to Sasha, carrying the supplies she'd sent them for… a happy laugh as they raced back to their caretaker. The Reaper turned his head away. "It's your call."

Not long later all of the kids were inside on of the small park on the first floor, running around, playing with a ball or their dolls, and laughing as they seemed to enjoy themselves. While he kept his eyes on the children as he'd promised, Ragna was more or less relaxed as he leaned back on the pack bench, sitting next to Sasha as they watched over the young players

"Dang, they got a lot of energy," Ragna observed, almost impressed with youth's stamina as they race around the grassy fields.

"Having to spend so much time inside of Inns for protection can make them restless, she explained. "Meaning that whenever they finally do get the chance to go out and play, they'll be running themselves ragged."

"Must make it easier to put them to sleep," Ragna guessed, trying to put a positive twist on things for once in a rare while.

"I won't deny that it does," Sasha told him, giving a soft smile as she watched over the children. "Do you mind if I ask you something?"

"Already sort of did, but go right ahead."

"If you're trying to make a joke, your humor could use work," Sasha told him honestly with a giggle, a statement that did little to help Ragna's waning confidence. "I'm sorry, but I have to know, is there a reason you seem so focused on helping the children?" Ragna didn't answer he immediately. "You've given more Col than I thought I'd ever see and now you're taking the time out of your obviously busy life on the frontlines to help me…"

"...Think it's suspicious, do you?" Ragna questioned as he watched over the children.

"Nothing like that… I just wanted to know why you feel like you have to give us so much when we don't have anything to give you in return," Sasha asked him, trying leaning forward so she could try to get a better look at the Reaper's face. She couldn't grasp a thing as Ragna's expression remained almost hauntingly stoic.

"...It's because you remind of someone I used to know… someone that took care of me when I was that age," he told her darkly, thinking back to his past life. "...And because I want to make sure they have a chance in this godforsaken hell hole."

"...I understand that you're serious about this, but try to keep the swearing to the minimum," Sasha strictly instructed, breaking the Reaper out of his moody expression as he turned to her with a guilty smile. "I'd be hearing plenty of complaints from the parents if their children started swearing."

"Right…" Ragna admitted scratching the back of his head.

"But you know... Maybe I have something that you can use after all," Sasha told him as she went into her inventory before sending something over to the Reaper. Looking down at the screen before him, he saw that he'd been sent a Beginner's Cookbook. "I'm sure you've probably made most of the recipes already in this book, but maybe there's something new for you to try in there."

'Jubei would have never let me use a cookbook, probably would have thought it would make things too easy for me,' Ragna thought to himself as he brought out what he'd been sent and began turning through the pages. 'And… I probably would've been too prideful to try it for myself.' "Thanks… this will probably help me out a lot down the road." Ragna said as he pocketed the book. "Won't you need it though?"

"It's fine; I've already completely copied the pages into my notes and I've even got a more advanced book to work with," she explained before smiling brightly at the Reaper. "If you want to borrow the next one though, you'll have to come back and visit once you've finished with the recipes in that book."

"...You're telling me not be a stranger," the Reaper realized. Sasha nodded as he finally got it. "...It's a promise."

Later -Ragna's Campsite-

"At least it smells decent," Ragna thought to himself, sitting down besides his campfire while his stew cooked over the flame. The kids had spent more time running around than he had planned on, so he'd been greeted by a sky full of false stars upon returning to his campsite. Using the book given to him by Sasha, he'd immediately undergone preparations to make his own simple stew. The cookbook had given him precise instruction including amounts of spices and other ingredients to use along with a proper cooking time. His eyes were sharply focused on the time before him; he'd be damned if he was going to burn his dinner again.

The Reaper would be lying if he didn't feel a little better after spending a day with Sasha and the kids under her care. Seeing the children play as he and Sasha watched over them brought him back to the few carefree years that he'd had, time that he'd spent with those who were now impossible to see. Strange as it sounded, it almost gave a sense of peace to have come full circle a caretaker, even if only for a few hours. Cooking whilst using the instructions given to him on the other hand… that was killing him.

"Bout time I found ya!" a sudden shout sounded off from the edge of his campsite. Ragna didn't have to turn his head. "So this is where you've been hiding for the past week."

"Who's hiding?" he answered, not taking his eyes off of the timer he'd set for even a second. "What are you doing out in the fields so late?"

"Looking for the idiot I'm talking to," Argo the Rat told him as she sat beside the Reaper, giving a small sniff from the pot. "You're cookin?"

"...You can have some if you want," the Reaper told her with a short sigh. "I won't be able to eat it all myself anyways."

"Okay, somethin's up with ya. You'd never off'r me food otherwise," Argo said as she glared at Ragna before poking him in the forehead. "What's got you in such a funk?"

"...Just a little more annoyed at the cooking in this game than I thought I'd be," he admitted with a groan. "Back home, cooking was one of the few things I could take honest pride in… doesn't feel that great to have it stripped of you."

"Eh, you can still fight can't ya? That's probably worth a lot more here anyways," Argo told him with a passe wave of her hand. "Or does cookin' mean more to you?"

"It shouldn't, but I can't help but feel a little frustrated," he told her, opening up to what he was really feeling.

"Is that why you didn't want to cook with Asuna? 'Cause you wanted to be sure you could cook first?"

"Maybe… I don't know, I just wanted to try it out for myself." He let out a lengthy and frustrated sigh. "So what about you then, how did your investigation go?"

"Not great, I haven't had that good of a week m'self," Argo admitted sadly. "I tried asking about that NPC you told me about… no one on this floor has even heard of her and I've asked just about every player I could get into contact with. It's like she doesn't even exist."

"I'm telling you what I saw, and there's no way that person could've been a one off thing," the Grim Reaper told her as the timer finally reached zero. Rising to his feet, he took the pot off of the flame and rested it on the rubble in his campsite.

"And I'm telling you there's no sign of her; either she's nowhere to be found, or she plays a mean game a' hide an' seek," Argo defended while Ragna began cutting a loaf of bread on his cutting board. "Bad new doesn't end there though… I did my best to spread that warning like you asked me to."

"...But we already have losses," Ragna guessed, pausing in his work for all of a moment. "How many?"

"A dozen… at least," Argo told him, staring deep into the fire. "Some of those people were regulars of mine… And we're nowhere closer to clearing this floor."

Ragna didn't have an answer for her, only finishing his work on their supper by slicing the bread and pouring the stew into two dinner bowls for him and his unexpected guest. Heading back to the fireplace, he wordlessly gave her one of the bowls of stew before sitting right beside her.

"It's not much," he started looking down into his own bowl. "...But maybe you'll at least feel better after you've eaten."

It took her a long moment, but the infobroker eventually to her spoon in hand and scooped up a small bit of the stew. Even then she didn't immediately start eating the stew, only bring it closer to sniff a small spoonful. She didn't have anything to comment on the smell and eventually ate the small spoonful she'd been given… and continued her longstanding silence.

'Looks like I've got another bust,' the Reaper thought to himself as he facepalmed once more, growing annoyed at his failure to cook even a basic campfire stew. "Listen, you don't have to finish that if you don't want-"

"Seconds."

Lifting his head up, he saw Argo thrust her empty bowl back at him as she munched on the piece of bread he'd given her. For a long moment, Ragna didn't have anything to say, Eventually he set his bowl on the ground and rose to his feet to grab Argo another serving of stew. After retrieving her a filled second bowl, he finally mustered the courage to try a little himself. It was nothing special… but there was nothing wrong with it. Shrugging, he decided it would have to do after the week he had.

"It's good," Argo complimented as she took a large spoonful out of her bowl and slurped it up.

"I can do better," the Reaper promised her before taking another large bite from his own bowl. "...Much better."

Ragna meant it too.

Author's Note:

Hey everyone, well the results for the Poll are in and it looks like Floor 4 is going to be going on for a few chapters. Final score 18-11.

I'm now implementing a date system so that it's easier to see the passage of time. It might not go as an exact flow to SAO, but I'm hoping that it at least gives a setting to how each floor is cleared.

Let's take care of the review responses.

ArmantusCunPinnae: Thanks for pointing out the mix up, and yeah it seems people want this one to go on for a while.

The Unplanner: Another of your in depth reviews, not much to say other than thank you.

TheEmeraldMage: I'm going to plan on keeping Klein's relationship as awkward as I can… but that doesn't mean he can't be happy.

Lightkirinhuruname: Hello? Police? I think my safety is at risk if I don't post my chapters for this individual.

Reclusive Dork: No safe zone would keep those girls safe from Nu, she'd have them scarred in every imaginable way and more.

GhostHornet: Cleared the air via PM… but maybe if I get enough pressure from the fans, I'll start making the couples official sooner rather than later.

Tohoufanatic: It's less of them trying to get into his pants and more of a 'trying to get him to be a little more lax' as was seen in the chapter before it.

Dracus7: Mind posting something else instead of demands for the same story request everytime? I'm sorry, but you seem to be doing this a lot.

That's all for now! Ciao!