Kotetsu wandered through a forest on the fifty-third floor, his dagger in hand. He spun the weapon around in his hand with ease, the curved blade becoming a spinning blur of grey. His free hand pulled his blue cloak slightly closer around him to ward off the cool air that swept between the massive trees. He had been told by a friend of his who had tasked himself with tracking down DGamer hideouts to warn people, that a rather small one was located here in this forest on the fifty-third floor.

Kotetsu bought up the map his friend had given him and scanned the area he was in. According to the map he was roughly three hundred metres away. The hideout was supposed to be a small series of treehouses connected by wooden bridges between the trees.

He figured it was a pretty good place for them to hide. They could see anyone passing below and surprise them. After all, who really looked up without a good reason when proceeding through a dungeon? Kotetsu's high detection skill kicked in and he noticed a ladder leading up a tree to his left. It was well hidden in the darkness but the combination of Kotetsu's detection and night vision skills enabled him to see it with relative ease.

He crept over to the hidden ladder and glanced up. It seemed to just lead into the leaves of the tree but he knew it would lead to the DGamer hideout. Kotetsu sheathed his dagger and took hold of the rungs, climbing up slowly and silently. As he passed through the leaves of the tree, Kotetsu's hand found greater purchase on a thicker piece of wood.

His head rose slightly above the base of the platform he had grabbed and he glanced from side to side. Satisfied that nobody was around he pulled himself onto the platform and crouched down. Kotetsu couldn't help but grin slightly, he felt like a ninja or something as he crept over to a swaying bridge that led to a platform on the adjacent tree.

Kotetsu took a second to draw his dagger once more in case he was caught by a DGamer. When your life was on the line, you couldn't afford to waste those precious seconds having to draw your weapon. Kotetsu knew that while the enemy was drawing theirs, he could hurl at least two of his darts in that time or ready a skill.

Moving with stealth and precision, Kotetsu crossed three separate bridges before finally arriving at a decent sized, circular treehouse. He crept over to the closest window and peered inside. He could see two men and a woman sitting down at a table talking amongst each other. Kotetsu knew that there was likely a fourth person watching to see if any unsuspecting players walked below their hideout.

He took a few seconds to examine the gear on each of the players inside the house. It was all fairly decent but nothing really stood out to him. They were most likely mediocre players who used surprise attacks and numbers to defeat their opponents. If he chose to attack, Kotetsu would take the element of surprise but they would still have their numbers.

"I should take out the lookout first, eventually one of them will come to see where they are. If I can take them by surprise as well it'll only be a two on one fight, much better odds," Kotetsu thought to himself as he crept around the house.

His eyes glowed slightly as he looked around the trees, searching for any sign of a player. After two minutes of searching he spotted his mark crouched on the edge of the next platform over, an axe resting against his shoulder.

"There you are," Kotetsu whispered, making his way to the bridge connecting the platform he was on to the one where the axeman was. Kotetsu reached to his right hip with his left hand and pulled out one of his long, throwing darts. His elbow bent upwards as he raised the sharp object and he lined up his shot.

"Hey, who are you?" a male voice said from behind him rather loudly. Kotetsu clenched his jaw and cursed in his mind. He spun on the spot and threw his dart into the player behind him. It had been one of the men in the house, he was armed with a scimitar that he had yet to draw.

As the man fell back from the paralysis inflicted by the dart, Kotetsu drew his dagger. The player went to say something, probably some form of begging but Kotetsu couldn't afford to listen. He plunged his dagger down into the player's heart and watched him shatter instantly from the critical hit.

By now, the axeman was already on his way across the bridge, shouting something that Kotetsu didn't bother trying to understand. Kotetsu quickly judged the distance between the player, not enough time to throw a dart, he'd have to fight this time. Though it was dangerous up here, one wrong step and he could fall from the platform and the fall damage would probably kill him.

Kotetsu turned and began running back towards the ladder he had climbed to the trees from. There was probably another way down where the axeman was but there was no way he could get over there now.

As he ran, he glanced back to notice the remaining two players from the house were now chasing him as well. "Well I guess my surprise attack is a failure," he muttered to himself as he reached the ladder and swung onto it, sliding down to the forest floor. He took a few steps back and pulled a dart from his belt. He waited for all three of the DGamers to be on the ladder and then threw at the person at the top, the axeman.

The dart struck home and as the axeman's body went limp he began to fall. As Kotetsu expected, the paralysed axeman took out the person below him, the male player from the treehouse but the female player managed to jump from the ladder in time. Now the two male players were lying on the ground with the axeman on top of his comrade, unable to move while the sword and shield wielding female player advanced upon Kotetsu.

"You still wanna try and fight me on your own?" Kotetsu asked, spinning his dagger around.

"I don't need those oafs to beat one little boy," the woman said. Her voice was deep and Kotetsu could tell by her tone that she really didn't care about her comrades.

"Have it your way then," Kotetsu muttered, taking up a low stance with his dagger ready. His opponent charged towards him with her shield raised, her sword out to her side. Thankfully, after battling alongside Chrome for so long, Kotetsu was pretty familiar with most of the sword and shield skills.

He went to the side to avoid a rather clumsy thrust attack before countering with a fast slash to the woman's hip. She hissed and took a few steps back, keeping her shield raised. Next came an overhead slash and Kotetsu blocked it with his dagger. He pivoted on his heel and slammed his leg into the woman's side, sending her crashing to the ground. As he expected, these players weren't overly skilled.

The fingers of Kotetsu's empty hand curled at the second knuckle and his hand began to glow orange. He took up a steady stance as the woman came forward again, her shield raised like the previous attacks. Kotetsu took a single strong step and then pivoted slightly. His hand rose, striking the DGamer under the ribs. His hand pushed up and a shockwave erupted with the sound of an explosion.

The DGamer was propelled off the ground and thrown several metres away before she crashed to the ground hard. She groaned as she tried to sit up, her HP was in the red. As she looked up, she saw Kotetsu's eyes staring down at her, that threatening dagger spinning around in his hand.

"Please… spare me…," the woman whispered, trying to slide away.

"Tell me where Nobunaga is, maybe then I'll consider it," Kotetsu said, pointing his dagger at her throat.

"I can't, he'll kill me."

"I'll kill you if you don't tell me. So choose whose blade you'd rather meet your end by."

"He's on the seventy-third floor."

"That's impossible. We've only cleared up to the seventy-first."

"I'm telling the truth! Lord Nobunaga can go where ordinary players can't."

"Why should I believe that crap? You Death Gamers aren't exactly known for telling the truth."

"Would I be stupid enough to tell such an obvious lie?"

Kotetsu thought for a second. The idea of Nobunaga being on a floor that had not yet been reached wasn't all that too far-fetched. After all he had already done several things that proved he had an unnatural control over the system. Although if this was a lie, it meant that players would be spending all of their time trying to clear two floors while he could be down on a lower floor doing god-knows-what.

"Prove to me that you're telling the truth, give me some evidence that Nobunaga is on floor seventy-three as you say," Kotetsu said, making sure his dagger did not move from the DGamer's throat.

"He really is gonna kill me," the woman said, moving her arm. Kotetsu moved his dagger down but the woman yelled at him. "I need to open my menu so I can give you the proof you want!" Kotetsu moved his dagger away from her slightly, watching as she opened her inventory. She sent him a trade and Kotetsu glanced at the contents. It was mapping data, for the town on the seventy-third floor.

"Very well, you can go then," Kotetsu said, taking the data and backing away from the woman. The DGamer scrambled to her feet, watching Kotetsu as she backed away, obviously expecting him to attack her. "Would you just buzz off?" he said, watching as the woman now ran away at full speed.

Kotetsu turned to see the two DGamers that had fallen from the ladder were gone also, obviously the one who wasn't paralysed had used a crystal to teleport them both out of the forest. That was good, he really wasn't in the mood for anymore pointless fighting.

He too used a teleport crystal to leave the forest and headed back to his home in Algade. He sat down in the living area of the single bedroom apartment and opened up the map data the Death Gamer had given him. He looked over it a few times before opening up his friends list. He scrolled down to a player in the 'K' section and quickly began writing a message to him with a copy of the map data attached.

Hey,

I remember you telling me that you were one of the original SAO players. I've just gotten some mapping data for what I was told was the city on floor seventy-three. If possible, can you confirm this?

Kotetsu

Kotetsu sent the message and sat around for a few minutes, hoping he would receive a reply fairly quickly. He had met the player during a grinding expedition a few months ago. Apparently this guy had been a pretty strong player in the original Sword Art Online as well as guild leader. He figured if anyone would know the layout of higher floors, it would be one of those guys. Only at that point did it occur to him that he could have messaged Vakross. Oh well, that would be his back-up plan.

After a few minutes Kotetsu received the following response:

Hey Kotetsu,

I'm not 100% sure but I think that is roughly what the town looked like. I can't remember too well since I didn't spend much time there. Not sure how you got that map but it seems pretty legit to me, hope that helps man.

Klein

Kotetsu read the response and thought to himself. If Nobunaga really was on floor seventy three that meant the players clearing the floors would need to beat two more bosses before any sort of offensive could be launched against Nobunaga.

Although, if Kotetsu did release this information there was no guarantee that people would believe him. It seemed pretty odd that someone could have the map for an inaccessible floor. There was a good chance people might think he was on Nobunaga's side and he would be hunted down. That would definitely be a bad thing.

"I guess I'll leave it for Chrome to decide. He's the guild leader after all," Kotetsu said to himself as he began typing out a message to his friend. He asked if Chrome could gather everyone somewhere when they were all free.

As Kotetsu laid down on his bed to go to sleep, the thought of Azure Storm having to clear floors seventy-one and seventy-two by themselves sent shivers down his spine. But whatever had to be done, they would do it.