Chapter 13: Back to normal?

Asuna had never been so uncomfortable at school before. That morning when she'd been hanging out with Kazuto before first lesson had already stressed her out. She wanted to tell him so badly yet she couldn't bring herself to do it. 'I just need to wait for the right time,' she decided. But she didn't know when that would be. Kazuto had already picked up on the fact that something was wrong but Asuna just played it as nothing off every time he asked her what it was.

By lunchtime she couldn't take it anymore. Asuna was tempted to pretend to be sick and just go home. But she knew that would make Kazuto worry even more so she decided it was best to stay.

Rika and Keiko spent their lunchtime trying to work out the best way to tell Suguha and Shino about ALO. They couldn't come up with anything that didn't make them sound like they'd gone mad. "Is it really a good idea to tell them?" Keiko asked. "It is pretty dangerous in there. Shouldn't we stay away?"

"No way!" said Rika. "We'll get Kirito to come with us next time and we'll be fine."

"But I thought you didn't want Kirito coming with us because he always hogs the glory?" Keiko reminded her.

"Not this time. We discovered this, so we're the pros. Plus because Asuna's already in. There's no way she's gonna keep this from him."

"That's true. I actually kind of want to see how the two Kiritos will react to each other." Keiko giggled at the thought of two Kiritos.

At the mention of two Kiritos, Rika thought of something she instantly regretted. She still had a chance with Kirito. Not the real one, Kazuto, but a second Kirito who wasn't dating Asuna. While the Asunas had been making tea for everyone, Rika had asked Lisbeth about the other avatars and found out a few things. Rika tried to push aside that thought. For just over a year she'd been able to convince herself that she was over Kirito. However, the occasional idle thought told her otherwise. Before, she would push those thoughts aside because she wanted to be able to look Asuna in the eye. But now, because of Keiko, she tried even harder not to let her feelings for Kirito get in the way. This was despite not really knowing what her relationship with Keiko really was. Rika decided that it was time they figured it out. They'd slept together once and shared a couple of kisses. When they were exploring the alternate ALO it felt more like hanging out with a friend than with a romantic partner.

"Hey, Keiko. What do you think of us?" Rika asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, after what we've been doing in ALO, what do you think our relationship is?" Rika couldn't help but note how unlike her it sounded. She was a little nervous. She'd never had a boyfriend or girlfriend before and didn't really know how to approach this type of topic.

"Erm…" Keiko mumbled. "We did...do some stuff." Rika found it kind of adorable how Keiko was too embarrassed to say sex. "But we haven't really done anything romantic. You know, when I liked Kirito I imagined us walking through the hill of memories from SAO." She instantly regretted saying that. "Sorry, I didn't mean it like that!" she tried to correct herself.

"No, it's fine," Rika completely understood what Keiko was saying. "I thought about when me a Kirito went to get the metal for his Dark Repulser all the time."

"I guess neither of us are really over him are we," said Keiko.

"No, we're not," Rika agreed.

"So where does that leave us?" Keiko asked.

"I guess there isn't really an us then. How about we leave it until we're both really over Kirito then maybe we could give it a try?" she suggested.

Keiko nodded in agreement. "I like that idea."

Suddenly it felt like a big weight had been lifted off both of their shoulders. Rika had to stop herself from sighing in relief. When they had sex in ALO it had felt right at the time but since then their relationship had felt forced. It was better this way.

Suguha had rushed home as fast as she possibly could the moment the bell rang at the end of the day. She wolfed down some food as soon as she got in. She didn't want anything to distract her tonight because she and Sinon were planning to play ALO together all weekend. When she was ready to put on her Amusphere, she shouted downstairs to let Kazuto know that she was diving and so wouldn't be able to hear her but realised soon after that he wasn't home yet. "Wow, I really did rush home," she mumbled to herself. Suguha took her school uniform and changed into a large white shirt and shorts which were more comfortable. "Link start!"

Leafa was back in her apartment in Alfheim. This time nothing seemed wrong. She looked in a mirror to check that she was definitely Leafa. In the mirror was a silph with blonde hair and a large rack stared back at her. Leafa sighed in relief. This weekend she didn't want anything out of the ordinary to happen. She just wanted to play ALO with her friend.

Leafa opened her menu and checked if Sinon was online yet. To her dismay, the sniper wasn't on yet. "I probably didn't need to rush so much," she sighed. Sinon had probably only just got back home from school. She left Sinon a message saying that she'd be waiting in a nearby town for her. Leafa's plan was to see if she could pick up any quests so they could get started straight away.

Leafa didn't have to wait long for Sinon to come online. It turned out that Sinon had rushed home, just not as quickly as she had. By the time Sinon was online, Leafa had already accepted a few quests. Most were nothing special. Just mundane ones like collecting so many items from certain monsters.

"Hey, I wasn't expecting you to be on so quickly," said Sinon. "Have you been waiting long?"

"Not really," Leafa answered. "I got home as fast as I could because I was so excited about this weekend. But while I was waiting I accepted a few quests. We need to go pretty far out for some of them so we might come across something really good."

"That sounds like a good idea," agreed Sinon. "The quest we did last week was out in Jotunheim and we got some good stuff from that."

Lisbeth and Silica decided to meet up In Lisbeth's shop in ALO after school to discuss how they were going to explain the new ALO to Suguha and Shino. "There's no way we can explain it without sounding like we've lost it," said Lisbeth. "It's just too crazy."

"What if we get them to come online next time there's an update?" Silica suggested. "It would have to be one during the day. I'm not sure we can get them to go online as late as some of the others were."

"That's a really great idea, Silica!" said Lisbeth. "Once they're online we'd just need to explain everything." Suddenly everything felt like it was falling into place. They were all going to hang out together in the new ALO. It would just be the girls and Kirito to start with, but eventually the others would join them. Klein would go crazy over both the female players and avatars. There would be two Kleins going crazy, Lisbeth realised. Maybe even other SAO survivors they didn't see very often would join them, like Yolko and Caynz. Maybe even the surviving sleeping knights. Lisbeth found herself becoming more excited the more she thought about it. Suddenly, her group of friends was going to double!

"I've just realised something," said Silica, distracting Lisbeth from her thoughts.

"What is it?" she asked.

"We'll need to make sure that everybody is safe when they log in," said Silica. "They'll need to log out somewhere safe so that when they log in, they won't be in any danger."

"I don't think that's how it works," said Lisbeth. "When I logged in the night you saved me, I wasn't where I had logged out last."

That revelation worried Silica. "If it isn't the same for everyone, then how can we get the others in safely?"

"I don't think we should invite the others in," said Lisbeth. "If we can't be sure that they won't end up in the same situation that I did, we'll just be putting them in danger."

"You're right," said Silica. "What happened to you and Asuna was terrible. Even if they would believe us, they would be in trouble if they didn't log in somewhere safe."

Lisbeth sighed regretfully. "Damn, I was really hoping that this would be something great."

"At least there's us, Suguha, and Asuna," said Silica, trying to look at the positive side of things.

"Yeah, I guess," Lisbeth agreed reluctantly. "I'll check when the next update or server maintenance is. Maybe one of the avatars could tell us how to log in safely."

"Good idea."

Leafa and Sinon raced across the sky as fast as their wings could carry them. They were in hot pursuit of a rare dragon. Sinon fired an arrow which hit its wing and knocked off a small chunk of health. The monster in question was a purple dragon the size of an average person. Leafa flew ahead and swung with her sword at it. The dragon dove to avoid her attack before retaliating with a volley of indigo fireballs. Leafa managed to dodge all but one. Her health, which had already taken a few hits, dropped into the orange. Sinon fired another arrow and hit it square in the back. The dragon cried out and turned to attack with another wave of fireballs, but Sinon hit it in the head with another arrow. Leafa seized her chance and got a good hit in with her sword. The dragon changed its attention back to Leafa. It swung at her with its claws. Leafa parried with her sword and kept the dragon still long enough for Sinon to deliver the killing blow. The dragon shattered into polygons.

"We should land for now. We've been flying a long time and we should take some time to heal after that fight," said Leafa.

"Yeah, you're right," Sinon agreed.

The girls headed down towards the plains where they would be able to find the monsters needed to complete their quests. When they landed, Sinon checked what the dragon had dropped. Leafa watched the archer scroll through her menu hopefully.

Sinon shook her head. "Just scales, dragon tongue, and claws," she sighed. "Nothing rare this time. But the scales can make some good scaled armour so will sell for loads."

"That's something at least," said Leafa.

"I knew it was too good to be true. I really don't think there will ever really be an item that increases flight time."

"I should have known better. I've been playing this game pretty much since its release," said Leafa. "They'll never do anything like that. I just saw the dragon and got my hopes up."

"What we got is better than nothing," decided Sinon. "Let's get moving.

The girls pushed forwards to the plains. The monsters they needed to beat were strong so Leafa used a healing spell to restore her health and let her mana restore naturally. They couldn't risk wasting resources so far away from a town. Over the next few hours, they were able to defeat several monsters. Some of which dropped valuable items, which would go for a lot.

After a while, Sinon noticed that despite the area they were in being labelled as 'plains' on the map, she noticed that there was very little grass and decided to mention this to Leafa. "Aren't plains supposed to be covered in grass and other stuff?"

"Yeah, you're right," Leafa realised. "You think it's a bug?"

"Maybe," said Sinon.

They continued on, fighting more monsters as they went.

Eventually, they began to run low on potions. All of their quests had been completed anyway, so they decided to turn back. As they were about to take off, somebody called out to them. "Excuse me, fairy maidens!" it called.

Sinon and Leafa turned around to see a young man with blond hair standing behind them.

"I watched you defeat all those monsters with such ease!" he complimented. "If you wouldn't mind, I have a job for the pair of you. As you can see, these plains have been ravaged by drought. If you can defeat the fire Jotun that is causing it, I will reward you!"

A quest box appeared in front of Leafa, as she was the party leader. "What do you think?" she asked Sinon.

"Let's do it," she said.

Leafa accepted the quest and the man was instantly pleased with her decision. "Thank you, fairy maidens!" He cried.

"So who are you anyway?" Sinon asked.

"I am Freyr," he introduced himself with a slight bow. "I am god of rain, fertility, peace, and sunshine."

"It is an honour to meet you, Lord Freyr," said Leafa, bowing. Sinon did not copy her.

"You don't need to do that," said Freyr. "I've marked on the map, the Muspell's last known location. Do not fail me!"

"Why don't you just kill it yourself?" Sinon asked. "You are a god after all."

"I lost my sword many centuries ago. I gave it up for a beautiful frost giant," he sighed wistfully.

"Men," Sinon muttered.

"If you have no more questions, then I will meet you again when the fire Jotun is dead," said Freyr, who disappeared in a soft orange glow. The moment he disappeared, both Leafa and Sinon's health and mana were completely restored.

"Wow!" said Leafa. "I bet this quest will give us something amazing!"

"Maybe we'll get that sword he was talking about," Sinon suggested.

Leafa opened her map. "Yeah, it would be great to get a legendary weapon!" She found the marker Freyr had placed. "Okay, we should get a move on. We've got a lot of distance to cover."

The girls took flight once again and headed in the direction of the marker Freyr had given them. Leafa was right. The marker was in the centre of the plains and they were still close to the edge of the area. However, their journey wasn't as simple as they'd expected. The closer they got to the marker, the more monsters that appeared and tried to stop them. It also become much hotter. By the time the marker was close by, the heat was almost unbearable. After slaying several more monsters, their target was finally in sight.

In the distance stood a giant figure surrounded by flames. When they got close enough to see properly, they could see that the Jotun was easily three times their size. "We should land," said Leafa. "If that thing has a bow, it could shoot us out of the sky. Let's try sneaking up on it and see if we can get a good look before deciding if we should call for backup."

"You're right," Sinon agreed. She landed far away enough from the Jotun not to aggro it. Leafa landed next to her. "Any ideas if we can't sneak up on it?" Sinon asked.

"You keep a distance from it and keep shooting it while I attack up close," said Leafa. It wasn't much of a plan but it was all she could think of. "Unless you've got anything better?"

"It doesn't leave us with much room for healing," said Sinon. "Maybe we should call for help and wait here until they arrive." Leafa was about to agree with her when the Jotun suddenly shouted at them. "I'm not going to wait forever, fairies!" The ground began to shudder as the Jotun stomped towards them. Their first instinct was to run. It had two health bars, which wasn't many as far as bosses went, but it was still likely out of their league.

Their hopes of escape were dashed when a wall of flame appeared. They turned, looking for another way to escape, but they were completely surrounded. They had no choice but to fight now. The circle of fire grew higher and higher, reaching the altitude limit. Leafa drew her sword and Sinon readied an arrow in her bow. The Jotun drew a sword with a blade that was as big as them and swung. They both managed to avoid the hit. While the Jotun was getting ready to strike again, Leafa dashed underneath it and made several quick strikes to its ankle. The Jotun roared and kicked her. Leafa would have hit the wall of fire if Sinon hadn't dived in the way. That kick had taken a sizeable chunk off Leafa's health. "Thanks," Leafa groaned as she stood back up.

"No problem," Sinon replied.

Leafa's health needed restoring but there was no time. The Jotun swung its sword again, this time aiming it at Sinon, who narrowly avoided it before firing an arrow into the Jotun's chest. It swung again, lightly slicing Sinon's stomach, leaving a long red gash. During this distraction, Leafa had been able to get close again and was swinging at the Jotun's legs. The moment that its attention was back on Leafa, Sinon was able to plant several more arrows into its body. "Keep it up, Sinon!" Leafa called.

They continued the fight by having one of them attack, then when the Jotun's attention was drawn, the other would strike, briefly switching its attention. It wasn't a great strategy but with only two players and limited resources, it was the best they could do.

Eventually, they were able to whittle its health down to half of its last bar, but Leafa had taken several hits in the process. Her health was in the red, and with only two of them, she couldn't use a potion without the Jotun finishing her off. Sinon had taken to the sky and was firing volleys of arrows at it, but the Jotun had all of its attention of Leafa. She kicked off the ground, joining Sinon. "Do you think you can keep it distracted while I drink a potion?" Leafa asked.

"I'll try," Sinon nodded. She carefully took aim and let another arrow loose. Leafa opened her menu as fast as she could and got out a potion. The moment that she started drinking, the Jotun let out a roar and threw a fireball at her. Leafa managed to evade the attack but singed her arm on the wall of fire in the process. Sinon flew in closer to keep its attention while Leafa finished her potion. Her health was back up to yellow. It would have been green had she not caught her arm on the flames.

Seeing that Leafa had finished healing, Sinon created some distance between herself and the Jotun once more. She had been able to chip away at its health a little bit. Leafa dove at it, slashing its neck with her sword. The Jotun raised its large fist and swatted her away before swinging its sword at her. Leafa parried the blow with some difficulty. The Jotun's strength was so high that it was a real struggle not to get pushed away. Sinon planted several more arrows into it, dropping its health into the red zone. The Jotun pushed Leafa away and launched a fireball at the archer. Sinon tried to avoid it, but was engulfed in flames. Leafa looked back in horror. When the flame dissipated, Sinon become visible. Her health was low but she was still alive. Leafa breathed a sigh of relief. She turned back to the Jotun and avoided several more strikes before planting her sword into its back, knocking its health down to just a sliver. As the Jotun reached round to swat her away, Sinon fired on last arrow. The Jotun shattered into blue polygons and Leafa fell to the ground. The ring of fire quickly extinguished itself.

Leafa shakily got to her feet and sheathed her sword. "You okay?" Sinon asked as she landed beside her.

"Yeah, I'm okay," Leafa answered. Where the Jotun had stood, there was a strange-looking item. It was a mace made of some sort of animal horn. When Leafa tried to pick it up, there was no way to interact with it.

"Well done, fairy warriors!" Freyr appeared once again in a soft orange glow. He walked over to the item and lifted it out of the ground. "Not only did you defeat that mean old Jotun, but you also retrieved my weapon! If Ragnarok came and I didn't have it, I would be in a lot of trouble! Anyway, here's your reward!"

Leafa was given a notification saying that she had a new item.

"I know it may seem useless to you right now, but it will come in handy when we next meet!" In another orange glow, Freyr disappeared once again.

"What a weird guy," said Sinon.

Leafa opened her menu and groaned. "He gave me his mace. I can't even give this to Liz! It's stats won't be nearly as good as Mjolnir's."

"He said that it would come in handy again later," Sinon pointed out. "Maybe you'll get something better later?"

"I guess," said Leafa. "Let's get going before more monsters appear, I'm out of potions."

"At least Freyr refilled our hp," Sinon gestured to where she could see the party's stats.

As they took to the sky and headed back to the nearest town, the plains was soon transforming from a barren wasteland into a lush environment. Dead trees were replaced with living ones, tamable monsters appeared, and grass began to grow.

Later that evening, they returned to the plains to check on the progress. They were blown away by how beautiful it looked. It was as if there had never been any damage. As they flew over, the only signs of what had taken place was a ring of burned grass that didn't seem to be healing. Sinon and Leafa landed just near it. "It's so beautiful!" said Leafa in amazement.

"But I wonder why this is still here," Sinon wondered about the ring of scorched grass.

"Maybe it'll be fixed when we do the next part of the quest," Leafa suggested with a yawn.

"You tired already?" Sinon smirked.

"Just a little," she admitted. "But let's keep going! I'm having such a great time!"

"An all weekend dive. You really remind of Kirito in some ways," Sinon laughed a little.

"You know, before Kirito was in SAO, I had never even considered picking up a game. But now I'm spending my whole weekend in one. I guess he's starting to rub off on me."

"I think he has that effect on everyone," Sinon chuckled. They waited a little longer to see if Freyr would appear, but when there was no sign of him, they took to the sky and set off for their next quest.

"Hey guys," said Kirito as he entered Agil's shop. "Nobody else here yet?" he asked upon seeing that only Klein and Agil were present.

"There's been no sign of the girls," said Klein. "I figured Leafa and Sinon would be here first, seeing as they were planning on diving all weekend. Did something change?"

"No. Suguha ate dinner as soon as she got home after school yesterday, and I didn't see her this morning, so I assumed she must still be diving."

"What about Asuna?" Agil asked.

"When I texted her this morning, she said she would still be coming online," said Kirito.

"I haven't heard anything from Liz or Silica," said Klein.

"I've tried messaging Leafa and Sinon, but I've heard nothing back," said Agil, opening his menu. "Huh…"

"What's up?" asked Kirito.

"Are you sure that Leafa is diving, because her and Sinon aren't marked as online," he explained.

"Maybe it's a glitch. What do you think, Yui?"

The little fairy flew out of Kirito's coat pocket. "It's not a glitch. Neither Leafa nor Sinon are online. Mommy, Silica, and Lisbeth are all offline too," she said.

"I'm going to log out for a minute," said Kirito. "Maybe Sugu logged out just after I logged in. Look after my avatar while I'm gone. I'm also going to give Asuna a call."

"I'll try calling the others," said Klein.

"Fine, but if you take too long, I'll loot your body," Agil joked as Klein logged out.

Kazuto pulled his Amusphere off and jumped out of bed. "Sugu?" he called out. No reply. His heart began to pound. He raced to Suguha's room and knocked hard on the door in his panic. "Suguha!?" After what happened in Sword Art Online, Alfheim Online, and Gun Gale Online, Kazuto wasn't about to take any chances. "I'm coming in!" Kazuto burst into Suguha's room. Suguha was lying in bed with her Amusphere on. One part of Kazuto wanted to think that maybe they'd just missed each other, but the other part nagged at him, telling him that something was wrong. Kazuto went back to his room and tried calling Asuna. After ringing a few times, it went to answering. "Hi there, this is Asuna Yuuki! Please leave a message and I'll get back to you as soon as I can!" He tried calling again. And again. And again. When he was about to give up hope, his phone rang. "Asuna!" he answered.

"Sorry to disappoint you, buddy," came the reply. It was Ryoutarou.

"Hey, Klein."

"Is Leafa okay?" Klein asked.

"I don't know," said Kazuto. "She's got her Amusphere on, so maybe I just missed her. I've tried to call Asuna but she isn't answering." He tried to keep the panic out of his voice.

"I'm sure they're okay. Let's get back on ALO and see if they're online," said Ryoutarou. "I couldn't get a response from Sinon, Silica, or Lisbeth."

Back in Alfheim Online, there was still no sign of the girls.

"You said that Leafa was wearing her Amusphere? That's strange because she's definitely not online," said Yui.

"And there's still no sign of the others," said Agil. "Your sister definitely didn't say anything about not coming to help clear the next floor of New Aincrad?" He asked, turning to Kirito.

"No, she didn't," he said. "In fact, the last time we talked about it, she was really up for it."

"Maybe they had plans to play another game and just didn't mention it," Klein suggested.

"Maybe…" Kirito mumbled. He wasn't convinced. Asuna had said nothing about playing another game. They'd agreed to meet up in ALO as usual, though Asuna did seem distracted again.

"Did you guys notice the girls acting weird lately?" Kirito asked. "It's just that Asuna has recently. Her mind always seems to someplace else. It was worse this morning."

"I haven't seen the girls all week, so I've no clue," answered Klein.

"Same here," said Agil. "I've been too busy with the cafe to log in."

"Come on, let's go," said Klein. "The raid isn't for another half an hour, so if they're in another game, they should catch up soon."

"I guess..." said Kirito. He wasn't convinced but headed to New Aincrad with Agil and Klein anyway.

None of the girls showed up for the boss fight. Kirito nearly logged out again to check if Suguha was okay, but Klein convinced him to stay. "They could just be running late. You know how easy it is to lose track of the time in here," he said. But once the boss fight started, no players came in late. "Yui, if any of the girls log in, let me know," he whispered to Yui as he drew his swords.

"Don't worry, daddy, I will!" Yui answered.

After the fight ended, Yui hadn't detected any of the girls coming online. Without a moment's hesitation, Kirito logged out again. Klein stayed to protect his avatar.

Kazuto checked on Suguha again. Just as before, she was lying in bed with her Amusphere on. He tried calling Asuna's phone again. This time he got an answer at the last second. "Hello?" asked a voice that was not Asuna's. "Who is this?" Kazuto asked.

"This is Asuna's mother. I'm guessing this is Kazuto Kirigaya."

"Is Asuna at home?" he asked.

"Yes she is, but she's playing games. I'd assumed that she was with you."

"I must have just missed her."

"No. She's been playing nonstop for hours. I was getting tired of hearing her phone ring so I answered."

After getting off the phone with Mrs Yuuki, he logged back into ALO.

"Hey, Kirito, you might wanna hear this," said Klein as Kirito stood up.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I got in contact with the game master and asked about mommy and the others," said Yui. "Apparently, Leafa and Sinon were logged in late last night but vanished. They didn't log out, but their avatars aren't in ALO and are not registered as being online."

"But what about Asuna, Silica, and Leafa?" Klein asked.

"They all logged in some time this morning, but vanished too," replied Yui. "I don't know what's happened, but something isn't right."

"It definitely isn't," Kirito agreed. He opened his menu and began typing a message to the only man who could help. Seijiro Kikuoka.

I hope you enjoyed that!

The next chapter will probably take a while because I've got exams coming up so my time is going to be even more limited. We're finally getting to the part of this story that you've all been waiting for! All the avatars and players will be coming together soon, allowing for some pairings. I won't be taking specific requests however. I have a few ideas that I think you will enjoy.

Until Next Time!