#6: February 14, 2023

"Now!" I shouted to Asuna. In an instant, she dashed beside me like she always does in battle and took out a string of enemies that blocked our path. Also as usual, in one clean swipe, six enemies erupted into a fizzle of blue pixels. The rewards leveled me up once again, this time to level 30.

It has been a great many months since floor one was cleared, and in no time flat, we were all the way up to floor 25. In that time, I grew exponentially in power, with a little help from Asuna. Yet as we climbed higher, fewer and fewer players had the drive to clear the game like the rest of us; in fact, more than half of the players still alive boarded back up in floor one, either out of fear or unwillingness to help.

Asuna and I, meanwhile, were trying to clear the game, and we've even been able to level up fairly high despite our inexperience. In addition, I've only seen Kirito on specific occasions such as boss battles, which kind of sucks. But in the end, I'm pretty sure he held true to his word and has tried extra hard to steer clear of me and the other beta testers. I admit, that little tidbit of information depressed me a little, but you learn to get over it. And considering the bosses get harder and harder with each passing floor, I couldn't really care about one individual player right now.

"So, want to head back to town?" I asked Asuna.

She sheathed her lightning fast rapier. "Sure," she replied. "We got a ton done today, so we should go ahead and rest."

"Alright then," I replied as we began retreating to the floor's town as the sun began to set in brilliant orange. I never could get enough of this view, even if every aspect of it was nothing but lines of data. And every time I came back to this realization, I also thought about my limp body lying comfortably in a hospital bed, leaving me even more depressed.

"Are you ok?" Asuna asked. I snapped out of my trance, realizing we were both stopped, likely due to my cluttered thought process.

"I'm fine," I replied, "but I was thinking about what things possibly look like in the real world."

Asuna frowned. "I think about that too," she added. "It's kind of scary to think about what our bodies must be going through while we're trapped in here."

After that talk, we quietly trekked back into the town of floor 25: Framework. After passing through the welcoming arch, we stopped by a random NPC shop to grab a quick bite to eat; it wasn't anything spectacular, but it isn't like either of us had much cooking skills built up. During that time, we remained silent towards each other thanks to our earlier talk.

As the nighttime hours began, Asuna and I began our walk back to the hotel that we holed up in when we weren't out leveling or searching for boss rooms. Again, we refused to talk to each other, but as we reached the front door, Asuna suddenly spoke up.

"Don't scare yourself," she started. "We'll get through this eventually, and maybe we could finally meet in the real world."

I brushed back my silver hair out of my eyes. "Yeah. Good night, Asuna."

She smiled. "Night."

SAO

I awoke from my sleepy slumber without a second thought. I don't know why, but I just knew that we would find and kill this floor's boss, no matter how difficult it may be. With this in mind, I equipped my deep blue outfit, and left my room for the day. After equipping my items and weapons, I quickly spotted Asuna with her long, chestnut hair.

"Oh, good morning," Asuna chimed.

"Morning, Asuna," I echoed. "I've got a good feeling about today."

"How so?" Asuna asked.

"I feel that the boss is going down today." I remarked smugly.

"Feeling confident, Haiyamoto?"

"No. I feel energized and unstoppable."

"Just one problem: where are we going to find the boss' room?" Suddenly, another player ran up to us, almost as if he was overhearing our conversation.

"Didn't you hear?" he asked.

"Hear what?" I countered.

"They just found the boss lair early this morning, and they're about to hold a meeting in the town center."

"Really?" I asked. "I guess that's our cue, Asuna." I grabbed her arm and we began a mad dash for the center. "Thanks, kid," I thanked him.

"Don't mention it," He replied. I had a feeling we could make it at a regular pace, but I certainly didn't want us to be the last ones there. Asuna probably wouldn't care as much, since many others rarely make the meetings on time, and even showing up at all took a certain drive to clear the game anyways.

After an eternity, we saw the populated town square, confirming the meeting. As a side note, when we had arrived at the meeting, it was still a good five minutes before any conversation began. But even when it began, I sort of tuned out a lot of the information; I did, however, pay much attention to the boss, the Two Headed Giant's, weapons and attack patterns.

And just like that, the meeting was adjourned like the others, and everyone began filing out. But as I was about to head back out, I noticed Kirito in his now trademark black trench coat-like jacket.

"Hey, Kirito," I exclaimed.

To my surprise, he turned in my direction. "Oh, hey Haiyamoto," he replied. As I got close to him, we shared a high five.

"How have you been?" I asked him.

"I've been better," he replied. "After all, this floor has been a bit tougher than the others."

"Yeah," I replied. And he was right, as floor 25 was excruciatingly more difficult than the others, as the notorious maze-like layout meant facing the risk of various death traps. But as Asuna and I battled, we seemed to be extraordinarily lucky when it came to avoiding the traps. Hell, I heard even Kibaou and his forces were having a rough time on the floor, which made me infinitely happier; but yet, they were also one of the driving forces of the Clearers, so it was melancholy happiness.

"You guys," Asuna remarked, "don't forget about me."

"Wouldn't dream of it," I replied.

"Yeah," Kirito replied.

"So what level are you right now, Kirito?" I asked.

"Right around the forties, I think," he replied.

"Damn," I countered. "I just reached level 30."

"That's not too bad, either," he reassured.

"Thanks."

"I just got to level 35, if you were wondering," Asuna enforced.

"Wow," Kirito replied. "That's pretty good."

I cleared my throat. "So, are you going to want to party up with us for the battle later today?"

Kirito's energy suddenly seemed to drain from his face. "Ummm…"

"Yeah, Kirito," Asuna chimed. "You never team up with us anymore, and yet we were such a team back at floor one."

"Well…" Kirito droned. I then put my hand on his shoulder.

"C'mon, man," I pressured. "It'll be just like the old days." After a minute of silence, he nodded his head.

"Alright," he replied. "If you insist, I'll come along this one time."

"Awesome," I exclaimed.

Finally, I thought, a chance to fight alongside the legendary Kirito once again. I promptly sent him a party request, which he also promptly accepted as I saw his health bar materialize on my screen.

"Well," I started, "how's about we go level up some more out there before we have to fight again?"

Kirito stared at me, then to Asuna. "Is he serious right now?" he asked Asuna.

"Unfortunately," she replied. "He's been like this all morning."

Kirito turned back to me. "Sure," he replied, "I guess we could do that for a little bit."

"All right," I exclaimed again. "But don't worry; I don't plan on staying out there too long. I'm not quite suicidal yet." Kirito and Asuna snickered.

"What?" I asked.

"N-nothing," Asuna replied. "Shall we get going?"

SAO

"Whew," I remarked as we walked through the arch that signified the town entrance. "That was a true workout."

"What I want to know," Kirito started, "is why we spent half the day in the labyrinths."

I sank a little. "I might have gotten a little carried away."

"A little?" Asuna joked. "You didn't stop until you got to level 35.

"Not my fault it takes forever to level up," I countered.

"Right," Kirito remarked. "Well, it at least helped me out a little."

"I know, right?" I asked. "I told you that…" I cut myself off as I saw Kibaou and his forces trickling out of the teleport gate.

"What's up?" Kirito asked.

"It's that bastard, Kibaou," I snarled.

Kirito looked. "Oh, him," he replied.

"But," Asuna started, "why does it look like his forces have decreased in size?" She was right, as Kibaou always had an entourage of up to 40 players surrounding him at all times, but it also looked like he and his forces just returned from a battle.

I took off towards the gate, wanting to get a closer look. I halted around the teleport gate as I started to hear fragments of his recent encounters.

"…pain in the ass…" I heard from Kibaou.

"…too tough for us…" another player remarked. However, the group didn't stay long, as they departed to the western part of town. Suddenly, Kirito and Asuna materialized by my sides.

"What happened?" Kirito asked.

"I'm still working on it," I replied as I asked others in the square what exactly happened.

"I know what happened," I voice droned. I turned to find the friendliest info broker in Aincrad: Argo.

"Really, Argo?" I asked sarcastically.

"Really," she replied. "Would I lie to you, or even Kirito for that matter?" She had a point.

"A-alright, what do you know?" I asked.

"First, my fee," she remarked. I promptly paid her before she spat it out.

"Apparently," she began, "Kibaou was given false information about the boss and took 40 of his guild members to the boss' lair. After his forces and incoming reinforcements suffered major casualties, they teleported out of the boss' room without batting an eyelash."

"That idiot," I remarked. "Thanks a lot, Argo." I returned to Kirito and Asuna shortly afterwards.

"Well?" Asuna asked.

"Apparently, the idiot tried taking on the boss with just his own forces on false information."

"Yep," Kirito remarked. "That sounds about right."

"So," Asuna continued, "should we be worried?"

I shook my head. "With all of the forces participating, and with PROPER info, we should be fine." Suddenly, I noticed the rest of our forces nearing our position.

"Speaking of, it seems like it's almost time for the battle."

Kirito nodded. "Looks that way."

SAO

A feeling of anguish took over my body as we stopped in front of the boss lair's door. Considering what all has happened on this floor, it isn't really much of a surprise. But, I still held onto a scrap of hope that we would get by easily.

In an instant, the door opened slowly, and a veil of darkness once again separated the opposing forces and the boss. Then, just as suddenly, torchlight filled the room, and I saw the boss. He easily stood dozens of feet tall, was a distinct bluish color, and, true to his name, had two distinctly similar heads. The beast roared and his name, The Two Headed Giant, appeared over his head.

At that moment, Kirito, Asuna, and I were ready for whatever this beast had to throw our way.

And, done! Another chapter has bit the dust, and I'm very sorry for the long wait. Between a bunch of stuff happening at home and at school, along with a lack of creativity on my part, I had a very tough time writing this chapter. It wasn't until a few days ago, staring at the cover of SAO novel volume one's cover that I found the drive to continue and even came up with a basic plan for the chapter.

But here's a funny story. When I came back to my fragment of a chapter and started referencing the wiki of SAO for assistance, I found that I picked the absolute best timeframe to write in; floor 25 was reached by February, the KoB was founded just after the floor 25 boss, and Kirito's time with the Moonlit Black Cats was just two months after the battle. In short, that made me reshape how the rest of the story will play out, including when Haiyo and Asuna will join the KoB (as she joined very close to its formation), Kirito's willingness to party up in this chapter, and a few more details I'm sure will be affected later on in the future.

In closing, I feel this is one of the hardest chapters I have written to date due to my obsession of sticking as close to continuity as possible; on the other hand, I feel it's one of my favorites as well due to how much freedom I had with the chapter due to the minimal info I had on floor 25. Although there wasn't much action in this chapter, I must admit that outside a few random encounters and the bosses, there might not be as much action as I would like to include (these scenes are daunting to write in the first place). However, do expect some strong ties to the both the anime and the light novels, as they are ultimately why I even began writing this in the first place.

So, until the next chapter, read on, and don't forget to read my other fanfics if you just can't get enough of me!

-rjm324