So here's the next chapter. And it's actually not after a long hiatus! Yippee! Oh and beware the chapter below... Mwuhaha.

Thanks to all the followers(146), favoriters(105), and reviewers(68 in total) of the story. You are all awesome! Especially the five reviewers:

Doubleminor20

lifewillbegood (guest):Thanks for the compliment and I'm glad you enjoy my story. The cat is actually based off of my own cat whom I got when I began this story.

DiasterMaster0

shypuppylover19

Patient 0 Zero

Thank you for reviewing almost right after the last chapter came out. You guys make this story worth writing with your great feedback.

{Edit 2/26/17: Thanks to Shiranai Atsune, I realized that this chapter, after I had tried to reupload it after reading mistakes, had turned into code-formatting stuff. So I reuploaded it. Sorry to all of you who tried to read the chapter previously!}

Chapter Nine
Re-Saving Each Other's Lives

They did end up finding a place where they weren't stared at in a small restaurant on the 50th floor. That was a positive. The negative was that only Silica was talking while Kirito and Asuna were having a somewhat casual, somewhat intense stare down. Kirito was still having a hard time wrapping his head around how much Asuna had changed. Why? Was it just because he was gone?

No, that couldn't be it. It's not he was dead or anything so she should have looked somewhat depressed but forcing friendliness or something not… coldness.

"So where are you from?" Asuna finally asked, tilting her head to the side a little.

"Bit personal, isn't it?" Kirito dodged, leaning back in the chair and crossing his arms.

She rolled her eyes. "I meant what floor, guild, town, stuff like that."

Kirito paused. He hadn't really thought it over. The story he was going to go with was that he was a solo player that didn't interact with other players or go into towns unless they were small or rural which was why he wasn't known. He had once had a group of friends but they'd all died so he distanced himself and didn't even try to go for the front lines even though he knew he could probably make it because that was their goal. But that would not satisfy Asuna.

Yet it would have to do.

"I jump from floor to floor depending on my mood or goals. No longer part of a guild and I only go into less populated areas."

Asuna frowned. "Any friends?"

"Nope. Besides Silica."

"What about the blacksmith you met with yesterday?"

Kirito cursed in his head. Stupid, stupid, stupid. "More like an acquaintance."

Silica jumped in this time. "Then why did you say friend? And wouldn't I also be an acquaintance?"

"Ah…" Kirito gulped. Stay cool, stay cool, stay cool. He repeated the mantra and tried to quickly think of an explanation. Finally he couldn't take it.

Silica and Asuna jumped when Kirito slamed his hands on the table. A purple notification popped up saying, Immortal Object. It disappeared and Kirito gritted his teeth. He stood up and yelled.

"To heck with it Kayaba! I'm not going to be you stupid pawn anymore!"

"Uh, Sao… What are you talking about?" Silica asked.

He looked at both of them. "My name isn't really SaoKakk. It's Kirito and I'm alive. I don't know if you'll believe me but trust me I'm not going to let this death game go any longer."

Asuna was speechless. "Bu-wha-How?"

"Made a deal with Kayaba. He's an aggravating little game master."

"K-ki-kirito!" Asuna cried and latched onto him.

"Asuna!" And they both sobbed on each other's shoulders for good solid minute.

"Uh… guys? Silica said.

Kirito sobered up. "Asuna my dear. Now I must go."

"No! I just got you back!"

"We shall not die in this world. Let's meet IRL and really get to know each other and become each other's significant other."

"Of course! When we do meet my name is Yuuki Asuna." She whispered in his ear.

"And mine is Kirigaya Kazuto." He told her back. Then he released her. "Now I must go and probably save everyone lives."

He pulled up a menu and changed avatars. He took a teleport crystal from his inventory and raised it above his head. "To the Ruby Palace, floor 100!"

Asuna and Silica watched as he disappeared.

"When do you think he'll remember about Moonlit Zeal Flare?" Silica asked Asuna.

Asuna leaned down to pick up said cat. She purred and planted lick from her rough tongue on Asuna's cheek. "Eh, probably once he defeats Kayaba."

Moonlit Zeal Flare let out a loud meow.

THE END.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha, no. Just kidding. This ending was something I made up while eating top ramen for lunch. What did you think?

…..*crickets*…..

And no I'm not going to just leave it here. I'm going to actually finish this chapter properly. So here you go, the ACTUAL chappie that I planned.

"Ah…" Kirito gulped. Stay cool, stay cool, stay cool. He repeated the mantra and tried to quickly think of an explanation. "Well you see, my way of identifying people is a little unique. If you're friendly and I like you, you're a friend. Even if we've only talked or seen each other for a day or two. Other people it takes a while to get that close."

Asuna tilted her head back and nodded slowly. With that Kirito knew she didn't believe him but wouldn't push it any further. Silica was grinning and had a light blush on her cheeks. He mentally thanked Silica for that because he really didn't want to lose her trust.

"Where is our food? I thought for sure we ordered it a while ago." Asuna said, looking for a waiter.

Silica fidgeted. "Well, neither of you were paying attention so the waiter said she would come back later when I told her we weren't ready."

Kirito snorted to hide back laughter.

"Why in the world is that funny?" Asuna snapped at him.

"Well, usually I'm so much more observant. And I'm going to guess so are you but here we were locked in each other's eyes so that we couldn't even order." Kirito said, slightly smirking. For some odd reason, it was a kind of fun to mess with his in-game wife.

"Haha, you're so incredibly funny." Asuna retorted, crossing her arms.

"Aw, are you pouting now Miss Flashy?"

A butter knife with a purple flame-like glow appeared between his eyes. Kirito had to go cross eyed just to see it. It also reminded him of a familiar scene in Asuna's apartment. Right after the meal with the ragout rabbit meat if he was remembering correctly.

"Shut up." Asuna said, her voice low with a dangerous edge to it.

Poor Silica nervously laughed and got their attention. "Waiter's here."

Kirito relaxed, realizing that had been tense with the knife in his face. Asuna flipped the knife back to her other hand and set it back down on the napkin. She quickly looked over the menu and Kirito couldn't help but notice that she still wore her silver wedding ring.

"May I get any of you nice people something delicious to eat?" The NPC asked taking out a small notepad and pen.

"Uh, yeah. May I have the lemon and berry cream with scones please?" Asuna said, ordering first.

"Can I have the cucumber salad with no olives please?" Silica asked, handing her and Asuna's menus to the waiter.

They looked expectantly at Kirito when he didn't say anything immediately.

"Oh, ah, yeah. Can I have the curry sandwich?" The waiter nodded and wrote down the orders, before taking the last menu and walking away.

Asuna smiled after the waiter and then gave Kirito a look of "seriously?"

"What?" He said, his palms up in a questioning manner.

"Curry sandwich?" Asuna and Silica burst out laughing.

"Come on guys. That's so not cool." Kirito protested, trying to get them to stop. "Their good, I swear! Well, if you like super spicy stuff."

Asuna suddenly sobered up and looked downcast. "You sound like someone I once knew really well."

Silica's laughter died off as she looked at Asuna. Kirito looked between them, confused as to why they were so upset. He assumed that they were talking about him but they shouldn't be like this if he was just supposed to be in the Ruby Palace with Kayaba. He mulled over the various ways and which were right to ask them about the topic but wasn't able to in the end due to the food coming and the quick talk of going to the dungeon to fight some monsters. The only eventful part of the meal was Zeal trying to steal everyone's food once it came out, which Kirito fixed by giving her half of his sandwich. Then Kirito ended up paying for the meal. Asuna had somehow persuaded him by saying that he must have gotten a huge amount of money from defeating a rare monster and Silica wanted proof.

Now Kirito was behind the two females and browsing through his inventory to see if their was anything that needed to be upgraded, so he knew how much of his little amount of kol left would be spent, or sold, so he could at least gain some new inventory or kol. Zeal was perched on his shoulder, happily chewing on a piece of hair. Kirito himself was mumbling colorful words about Kayaba, SAO, and girls in general.

"We're almost to the dungeon. I have a map of the corridors but if you find something interesting, let me know." Asuna said, pulling up the menu.

A notification popped up in front of Kirito saying that Asuna wanted to be in a party.

"But first, we have to be in a party." Asuna announced, smirking at Kirito's gaping face.

Kirito mentally scolded himself for thinking that they were already in a party. He accepted, the notification closing. Another one popped up, this time giving him the map of the 50th floor dungeon and a durability upgrade for his cloak.. He accepted and gave her some kol in exchange. A he looked up, Asuna's head was tilted to the side.

"Why give me kol? We're in a party, remember?" She said, making eye contact with Kirito.

Kirito shrugged. "Because. The durability costs a bunch of kol, so I didn't want to take something from you for free. And mapping is a pain."

"Wait she gave you durability?" Silica asked, dismissing the map that she had been looking over.

"Well, I just thought it would be best because your cloak looks extremely flimsy." Asuna said, crossing her arms and looking away. Was that a slight pinkness on her cheeks? "And… you remind me of someone dear to me."

Kirito had a feeling his face was red just because he could the heat his face was giving off. "Oh, um, okay. Thanks."

Hastily, he applied it to his cloak. It turns out it didn't really need it, but he wasn't going to give back a gift. They entered the dungeon soon after that, with Silica changing into some more armor and equipping her weapon. Strangely it was rather quiet. Silica voiced this and Kirito couldn't help but mimic her nervousness internally. And then, there was a strange sound.

"What's down that corridor?" Kirito asked as he turned to where the noise was coming from.

Asuna looked at her map and back at the hall. "I-I don't know. It's not on the map."

"Should we check it out?" Silica said, looking over Asuna's shoulder.

A sinking feeling filled Kirito. But before he could voice his concerns, Asuna went forward and into the corridor with her determination face.

"Nooo… Nonononono." Kirito murmured but he went unheard. With nowhere else to go, he followed them.

Zeal Flare let out a hiss and scrambled down his cloak into his pocket. She let out a couple more hisses, like warnings, before going silent. Kirito gripped his sword tighter. He looked at the walls in suspicion, searching for any sign of danger. He was lagging behind but at least he was still in earshot. That's when he saw something slink on the walls, almost invisible. He watched it, following its movements to… To the front of the girls. They hadn't noticed it. He broke into a run but he was too far back to get there in time. The sinking feeling hardened into ice and moved to his throat.

The shadow-like monster rose, still unnoticed, over Asuna's head. The girls were too focused on the map and mapping this hall. The monster dropped, a large maw right over her head. It snapped.

"ASUNA!"

Tehe, enjoy the cliffhanger! And please tell me what you thought of the chapter in the review or even PM it to me. Hope you enjoyed and stay tuned for the next chapter...

Chapter Ten:

Ruining Plans