Alright, now I'm back on a computer and unfortunately am too lazy to fix the *switches* I used in place of horizontal lines in the last 2 chapters. One of these days, though.

Also yes, I read Harry Potter.


"What time is it?" Kazuto asked.

"Quarter to five." Asuna replied. "She still isn't here yet."

"I dunno, maybe she got lost or something." Shino said.

A twist of events had led the real-life team SALK to gather instead in the afternoon air of a humble café. Kirigaya Kazuto found refuge from the boredom of waiting for LLENN by silently observing the comings and goings of the shop's patrons.

There was a hasty man wearing a suit, a small family, a casually-dressed, tall woman, a pair of-

"Hang on." Kazuto nudged Asuna.

"What?"

"I think that woman is heading towards us."

Indeed, a few seconds later she was standing next to the fourth, empty chair at team SALK's table. Kazuto thought that if this really was LLENN, she was a stark contrast to her in-game self, who was practically a dwarf compared to the other members of the team. He wondered whether this difference was intentional.

She cleared her throat. "Umm...I'm here to meet 3 of my friends that I met in a VR game, and I was wondering if..."

She didn't need to continue; Asuna had already risen from her seat and held out a hand. "Yup, that us. Welcome to team SALK(Stalker), LLENN!"

"Please, call me Karen." She smiled, shook Asuna's hand, and sat down.

"Karen, if you don't mind me saying so..." Shino spoke up. "You're kinda tall. Unlike, you know, your Remnant Online character."

Karen shrugged. "It's the random appearance generation from GGO, bless it. I've had a...complex about my height, actually, so I thoroughly enjoyed playing as a cute little girl!"

"Ah, hang on," Kazuto said. "We haven't introduced ourselves yet, the three of us. I'm Kirigaya Kazuto, or Kirito!"

"Nice to meet you," Karen smiled. "And...?"

"Asuna Yuuki." Asuna replied.

"That's-hang on, isn't 'Asuna' also your in-game name?"

The fencer simply rolled her eyes while Shino finished, "Asada Shino, or Sinon. It's a pleasure to meet you!"

"The pleasure's all mine."

"OK, then, I suppose that'll be enough..." Kirito said as their drinks arrived. "Now..."


"Mind telling us a bit about yourself?"

The question startled Kirito slightly. He wasn't exactly expecting to be in team RWBY's dorm this long, nor did he think they would actually want to know more about them, especially considering that their first impression was a bit...well, rough.

"Uh, about me?" He repeated Ruby's question. "Tell you what, exactly?"

"You know..." Weiss added. "Your powers in detail, your motivations for becoming a Huntsman, your...backstory."

Kirito hadn't thought much of that. He could, of course, tell them what had really happened in the last 3 years, which was the only material he could come up with, but he wasn't keen on breaking the fourth wall and informing team RWBY that they were in a game. So he had to do quite a bit of editing.

"Well, if you want to know my past, I suppose I'll tell you that first." Kirito straightened himself up. "A few years ago, 10 thousand people were trapped without warning, within a giant floating island with 100 floors, which they had entered thinking it would be good practice for fighting, or entertainment, or other reasons. I was one of them."

"Each floor was like a miniature world, with settlements and dungeons filled with monsters - I don't remember if there were any Grimm in there. Every floor had an extremely strong monster, which held the key to unlocking the next floor. To escape, we had to advance through all 100 floors."

"And it was hard. I saw many friends I made within that island die. It was difficult, trying to hang on and stay determined for 2 years. Even worse, people weren't just being killed by the monsters - there were a minority, they were murderers, who tried to slay anyone who wasn't allied with them. In the end, of the 10 thousand people who went in that island, more than 4 thousand of them never made it out alive."

"But we did it, and I'll admit that the experience, along with the people I met along the way, it changed my life forever." Kirito paused, sighed, then resumed. "I met the rest of my team in there. Especially Asuna... I'd never experienced love first-hand until we crossed paths."

He paused again. Now, that was a fib, but not an outright lie. Indeed, he only encountered Sinon in Gun Gale Online, months after the events of Sword Art Online, and it wasn't until their meeting a few days ago that Kirito and LLENN had ever met. But he thought that if it weren't for SAO, he wouldn't have bonded so deeply with Asuna.

"The whole ordeal left behind many bad memories, but there were good ones as well. I guess I kind of missed the thrill of fighting, so I decided to become a Huntsman, and went here to Beacon. All in all, I'd taken a very different path than I thought I would when I was a kid."

Kirito stopped there, and for the first time he saw team RWBY's reactions to his story. Weiss was covering her mouth, her eyes wide. Blake was shaking her head in disbelief. Yang seemed to be fidgeting uncomfortably. Ruby...

There was an audible bump, and a thud - Ruby's cup of coffee had fallen off the table and spilled onto the floor.

"Oh!...I'm sorry..." She quickly grabbed a tissue. "I was shaking a bit too much...Hang on, I'll clean it up..." Kirito's story seemed to have hit her particularly hard. Realizing the change in mood, he quickly changed the subject. "Uh, that's also how I unlocked my Semblance...Let me explain.

"So today, we've got double History first with Professor Oobleck...then Combat with Professor Port..."

Being team SALK's "official" team leader, Sinon had taken the liberty of reviewing their new semester class schedule ("You're just in time for Volume 2!" Sirius told them). While they came in a bit late compared to the other first-years, Kirito, Asuna, Sinon and LLENN had proven unusually knowledgeable of what they apparently missed in the first semester (God bless the Internet), which was good enough for Ozpin to let them skip ahead to everyone else's level - including team RWBY's.

"...And finally we've got...Strategy? That's a new one." Sinon said as the team headed downstairs. "And it's taught by Sirius, too, so that's something to look forward to."

"If all goes well, at breakfast this morning there'll be a food fight." LLENN joked.

Kirito laughed. "You can tell there's something wrong with the cafeteria food when they make for legitimate weapons."


"So," Sirius said once the class had settled down. "Welcome to Strategy! I'm here to teach you on the kind of mindset you should be having while you're fighting."

"Now, why Strategy? It goes without saying that nothing's free in life. Not every Grimm you encounter is going to rush at you looking like moving target practice. You don't often see a Huntsman or Huntress with obvious downsides that you can exploit easily. So, by the end of the day, I want you to be able to locate and hit your opponent's weaknesses, and protect your own. Simple as that."

"There are two core things (he held up two fingers) that we will cover this semester. The first is positioning, or where you stand and move during battle. Basically, if you let yourself get backed into a corner with nowhere to go but the danger zone that is forward...well...you suck."

A few chortles were heard rippling throughout the room. Kirito knew too well that Sirius was all for humor.

"Second, we will learn about striking without being countered. Personally, I've always preferred being the proactive one in combat. Of course, not everyone here is the same as me. But let's pretend you're defensive, and you face an opponent who does the same. Awkward, isn't it, two people, none daring to attack the other? So I want you to be able to break that stalemate. Now, I have nothing against a well-timed riposte, but no one wants a fight to drag on forever because none of the combatants are getting finished off."

"That's all you need to know about learning Strategy - now here's a taste." Sirius walked over to a large metal crate set up near the edge of the small fighting ring in front of his desk. "See this?" He indicated the crate. "Professor Port has kindly provided me with a Boarbatusk, which I'll use to see how you fight. He's also informed me that a few of you have already fought this species of Grimm before."

"Which is good. Now, who can tell me what's the best place to strike at a Boarbatusk?"

Several hands shot up. Sirius surveyed the students before... "Hmm... Miss Schnee?"

Weiss stood up. "Professor, the most notable part of the Boarbatusk is its underside, as it is unarmored unlike the rest of the body."

"Excellent!" Sirius said approvingly. "Now, I have here a challenge:One of you is going to stand inside this ring, on the opposite side of the Boarbatusk. When I let the Grimm out, you have to slay it. The catch? You're timed - if you kill the Boarbatusk in less than 15 seconds, you get a bonus. Who's up?"

Kirito's hand, along with a considerable amount of others, were raised into the air.

"Hmm...OK, I have an idea..." Sirius opened a compartment in his desk, took out what appeared to be a throwing knife, and turned to a seating chart behind him. "Now, I'm not the best at throwing stuff, but I think that's good for occasions like this." And he launched the knife into the paper chart pinned on the wall.

"Let's see..." He muttered, observing the chart with the knife stuck in it. "Our lucky one will be...Kirito!"

Kirito shrugged and stood up.

"Ah don't worry, he'll be fine." Asuna reassured LLENN after seeing the slightly concerned look on her face. "He's had more than two years to hone his skills, after all."

Facing the metal crate with the Boarbatusk within it, Kirito summoned his blue ethereal sword.

"You ready?" Sirius said, now holding a stopwatch, and his harpoon gun, hooked to the crate's lock.

Kỉrito nodded.

"Alright then, releasing in 3...2...1...GO!" And he yanked the lock open, stepped back, and at once the boar Grimm emerged from the crate."

Remembering the timer, and the fact that Sirius preferred to be proactive in combat, Kirito charged.

"Try to make it fall over!" Asuna yelled.

The Boarbatusk reacted by curling up, and beginning to roll quickly in place, before propelling itself at Kirito.

"They're going to crash!" Ruby gasped.

"No, only the Boarbatusk will, you dunce!" Weiss said irritably. "Kirito's feinting!"

She was right - Kirito had stopped at the last few seconds, leaping to his left, dragging his sword along the ground. Whatever he had in mind seemed to work, for the rolling Boarbatusk collided with the end of Kirito's ethereal sword, causing it to lose its momentum, spreading out and landing on its back.

"Now!" LLENN shouted. "Finish it!"

Kirito summoned his red sword on his left hand, leapt at and drove both swords into the Grimm's exposed stomach.

The Grimm squirmed for a second, then dissolved.

"Time!" Sirius smiled. "Well done Kirito, it seems you took my advice to heart. Your time is..."

Most of the room held its breath - Kirito, Asuna, Sinon and LLENN could guess the result from the look of Sirius' face,

"13 seconds. Excellent!" Sirius clapped, and soon quite a few in the room joined in the applause. Kirito was rather surprised to see team RWBY among those cheering.

"Well then, that'll be a bonus point in the scorebook for...you're part of team SALK?...yes, one point for all four of your members, I suppose, because the rest of your team were pretty supportive. Now..."

The class spent the rest of the lesson discussing their idea of good positioning ("Never clump up unless you're doing some kind of special team attack" Kirito commented) and before anyone knew it, the bell had rang. The students all left chatting excitedly.

"Wait!" Sirius called after Kirito, Asuna, Sinon and LLENN. "A word with you, please."

Team SALK looked at each other, then at the other students, before moving towards the Strategy professor.

"So," Sirius asked, drumming his fingers on his desk. "How're you feeling so far?"

"Well," LLENN started, "I'm liking how we can skip lessons where a player teacher isn't present - not everyone has time for a full RWBY school day - but the one thing I think we can improve is the overall excitement value of a normal day in Remnant Online - either we get to skip to events, or throw in something interesting every now and then."

"Gotcha." Sirius replied. "Anything else? If so, save 'em for tomorrow - I'm busy now, but you can ask Professor Nidus - that's Nick - at Geography. Man, I always thought that was a boring subject, especially in a game..."

There was not much else, really. As soon as team SALK had returned to their dorm, they logged out - except for Kirito.

Visiting team RWBY was, for some reason, becoming quite a habit of his. Yang often teased that he was becoming attached to Ruby, since that was who Kirito talked to the most in the team.

Perhaps she's right, Kirito thought, as he knocked on the door of team RWBY's dorm.

"Who's there?" Blake's voice rang from inside.

"It's me!" Kirito answered.

It was Weiss who opened the door "Oh, hi Kirito - Ruby's been downstairs in the library to return some books, and I think she'll be back soon." She gestured into the dorm. "Why don't you come in? I thought you were coming around, so I put on the kettle for some tea and coffee."


Well, that's over with, isn't it? Haven't much to say, except that I just started a new story called "Within The System", a RWBY X Warframe crossover that I recommend you check out. Man, about 150 views, 11 followers and 5 reviews in 3 days...that's got to be a record for any newly published fanfiction of mine.

Stay tuned!