On the first floor of the hidden dungeon, Thinker was trapped, with the powerful boss mob "The Fatal Scythe V7" guarding the way out to the surface, he was forced to seek shelter in the safe zone.

"Damn that Kibaou! I need to get back to the guild! It's been three days already, surely someone would have noticed I was gone? Yulier-san should! Then again, Kibaou might have gotten rid of her too. Damn it!"

Looking out the door, Thinker saw the name of the boss in the hallway, waiting to ambush any people coming down here.

"I can't take it anymore! I need to get out of here now!"

Thinker drew his sword and ran straight towards the exit, regardless of whether he would die or not, he was determined to at get back and save his guild or die trying.

"Hyaaaaaa!"

'I can only block one hit, I need to use the hit to send me flying towards the exit so I can get away.'

As he was just at the intersection where the boss came out, he jumped and used his sword to block behind him and the scythe came and tried to cut him. The hit was so strong that the sword's durability was instantly brought down to zero and it shattered, sending Thinker flying. Low on health, Thinker ran as fast as he could down the hallway when suddenly "The Fatal Scythe V7" appeared in front of him.

'It teleported?!"

As the scythe once again came for Thinker, he used his arms to try and shield himself from the blow. He shut his eyes, waiting for the blow.

"Kitsunebi-ryu: Karyu Issen!"(Fox-Fire Style: Flaming Flash!)

Upon hearing the voice, he opened his eyes and saw a green haired swordsman sheathing his sword and the boss enveloped in flames before it broke into pixels.

"Tsk, damn bosses respawning, well at least when they get stronger it's not by too much. Now I'm back here again, great." Zoro complained as he drank some more sake.

Shocked that this player had managed to take out the boss in a single hit, Thinker was frozen on the spot.

'Who is this guy? Forget that, what is he doing down here anyway? Did Yulier send him?'

"Umm, who are you?"

"Huh? I'm Roronoa Zoro, you okay? What you doing down here?"

"I'm Thinker, I was trapped here three days ago by someone."

"I see, do you know the way out? I'm kinda lost in here."

"Yea… I can bring you out if you protect me."

"Perfect! Then lead the way."

"Right…"

As Zoro and Thinker walked, Thinker was in deep thought.

'Roronoa Zoro, where have I heard that name before…'

Thinker looked over to Zoro's waist and saw that he had three sword sheaths tied to him.

"Why do you have three swords?"

"Huh? O, cause I'm a Santoryu Kenshi, I use three blades to fight."

"Three blades?! How?! I have only heard of The Black Swordsman wielding more than one blade!"

"The Black Swordsman? I would love to fight him then." A grin appeared on Zoro's face as he slashed another Scavenger Toad.

"Now I remember where I heard your name from! You're the guy from the announcement those weeks ago! You cleared this dungeon?!"

"Yea, so?"

"But this dungeon's first floor is even harder than the 50th floor of the one on top!"

"Really? Then I guess that makes my job easier."

"What?!"

"I'm getting you guys out of here!"

Thinker was shocked into silence, as they turned a corner, they saw four people in front of them.

"Thinker! Your safe!"

"Yulier-san!"

They both ran to hug each other as Zoro walked towards the Swordsman garbed in black with two sword handles visible behind his head. Kirito and Asuna examined the green haired swordsman as he approached them with his signature grin.

"You're The Black Swordsman?" Zoro said gripping his swords.

"That's what they call me, I assume you're the guy from the announcement weeks ago, The Santoryu Kenshi?" Kirito admitted, sizing Zoro up as he grabbed the handle of his Elucidator.

"I guess my reputation precedes me, would you by any chance be interested in a spar? If you impress me I'll help you clear the floors."

"Wait Kirito-kun, I don't think it's such a good idea." Asuna added.

"Papa…"

"We don't have much of a choice, the floors are getting harder and harder, the next floor is one of the tougher ones."

"So do we have an agreement?"

"Yes, let's get going then, we can decide where to fight after we get out of here."

"Fine by me."

In the arena where Kirito fought Heathcliff, Zoro and Kirito stood staring at each other. The arena was once again filled with players from all over Aincrad.

"Let's make this more interesting shall we? How about we make it a fight to the death?"

"What?! There's no way Kirito-kun will agree to that right?" Asuna yelled from the stands.

"But here's the trade off, if you impress me, I'll give you five of these and even let you live." Zoro suggested holding out a gold crystal crystal shaped exactly like the revival item.

"The Revival Item?!"

"Actually they're Immortality Crystals, anyone who uses this will be sent back to the starter town as a level one if they die instead of having their brains fried."

"Hmm…" Kirito closed his eyes in deep thought.

'I would be able to protect Asuna, Klein, Agil and Yui with it...'

"So how bout it?"

"You have a deal, but you better not be lying!"

"O, I never lie."

As the timer counted down to the start of the match, Kirito drew his Dark Repulsor and Elucidator, Zoro drew Shusui

"5...4...3...2...1...Begin!"

Kirito charged in with his two blades and immediately initiated the his signature sword skill on Zoro.

"Starburst Stream!" (50-Hit)

Using only one sword, Zoro effortlessly blocked all 50 hits of the attack at insane speeds, even the 15 hit "Corkscrew" was completely blocked.

"You're gonna need to do better than that to even stand a chance at beating me kid,"

With that, Kirito jumped away and noticed Zoro had changed his stance.

"Ittoryu: Sanjuroku Pound Ho!" (One Sword Style: 36 Pound Cannon!)

As the burst of compressed air flew towards Kirito, he crossed his swords and activated Cross Block to block it but the attempt was futile as he was blown away by the force of the blast. Looking at his health bar, he saw that he was already at 16,000/18,500 hp.

'He's strong! In one hit he reduced so much of my health!"

"What? You done already kid? I thought you were tougher than that! That was one of my weakest techniques! Show me the power of The Black Swordsman!"

'I need to find a way to catch him off guard if I want to even touch him!'

"I'll give you a free hit kid, come on!"

Grabbing the opportunity, Kirito went straight for a Dual Horizontal at Zoro's waist. The swords cut at both Zoro's sides, but did not go deep at all, barely leaving a flesh wound.

"Really? That's all you got? I barely felt that."

'Maybe if I use multiple chained one sword techniques I can catch him by surprise.'

He ran up to Zoro, both swords glowing, with his barrage of out of sync hits catching Zoro by surprise, Kirito found an opening while switching between Vertical and Horizontal and managed to slash at Zoro's left leg.

"Purposely attacking out of sync to make predicting more difficult for me, but it won't work again."

Zoro drew his second sword, Sandai Kitetsu and changed stance once again.

"Nitoryu: Nigiri Hirameki!" (Two Sword Style: Double Slash Flash!)

As the two compressed air projectiles flew towards Kirito, instead of blocking, Kirito tried to dodge them. One hit the ground beside him but the other was a direct hit on his right shoulder.

"Ugh!"

Asuna, Yui, Klein, Agil and many others that were gathered in the seats gasped as they saw the scene unfold.

"Go Kirito-kun, I know you can do it!"

"Papa! Ganbatte!"

"Kirito! I know you can do it! Beat that Santoryu Kenshi's ass!"

"Kirito! If you fail here, I'll never forgive you! I'm going to burn all my merchandise if you don't come back safely!"

'Damn, I didn't dodge in time! Now I'm down to 11,000 hp! I need to be faster! Everyone's counting on me!"'

Kirito grabbed five throwing needles from his belt and threw it towards Zoro as he ran for a slice while Zoro was distracted. Unfortunately, Zoro had anticipated it this time and used one sword to block the needles while the other countered Kirito's two blades as they came for a diagonal slash.

"Heh, pretty neat trick you have there. But it won't work on me that easily!"

Zoro jumped back and readied his stance.

"Nitoryu: Nanajuni Pound Ho!" (Two Sword Style: 72 Pound Cannon!)

As Zoro launched the compressed air projectiles once more, Kirito tried to counter them by launching his own.

"Double Circular!" (2-Hit)

The projectiles collided with each other and dissipated.

"Still have some tricks up your sleeves I see, interesting. Well then I guess I should take you just a bit more seriously."

Zoro drew his Wado Ichimonji and clamped down on it with his mouth. Kirito readied himself as was about to witness first hand the power of The Santoryu Kenshi. Kirito ran up to Zoro and initiated his sword skill.

"Nightmare Rain!" (16-Hit)

Kirito's blades continuously slashed downwards at Zoro, the speed of the slices forced Zoro to only parry the attacks. The end of the combo, a jump-spin slash, caused Zoro to be knocked back slightly.

'Tsk, he's tougher than I thought he would be, this will be a good fight."

Kirito did not let up the attack and immediately activated another sword skill.

"Shine Circular!" (15-Hit)

The 15 hit combo came as a surprise for Zoro as multiple waves of compressed air were sent flying at him at close range. Through a combination of luck and skill, Zoro managed to only get hit by one of the projectiles. It had cut his waist slightly and left him open for a moment. This brief moment was all Kirito had needed to land a deadly strike on Zoro.

"Countless Spike!" (4-Hit)

His two swords slash at Zoro's two front diagonals then they were put together and aimed to pierce the middle of the two diagonals slashes, Zoro did little but smile as the attack connected. He jumped back and once more changed his stance."

"You're doing better than I ever expected you to, truly the title of The Black Swordsman fits you nicely. But, you still have a long way to go before you can surpass me!"

Zoro posed and readied himself to attack.

"Ichi Gorilla, Ni Gorilla, Nigori-Zake!" (One Gorilla, Two Gorilla, Two Arm Strength Slash!)

Kirito activated Cross Block again and tried to block the attack. Zoro's three sword tips all clashed against the middle of Kirito's Cross Block. The clashing of steel caused sparks to fly. As Zoro continued to push against Kirito's Cross Block, Kirito kept on pressing his swords, trying to push back Zoro somehow. With one final push, Zoro sent Kirito flying into the wall of the arena.

The audience gasped as one of their strongest players was sent flying by a single attack. Kirito looked at his health bar and saw that even with battle healing, it had gone down to 9,000/18,500, putting him in the orange zone. He looked at Zoro's bar and saw that it was at 19,800/20,000.

A/N: Remember his actual stats are hidden, his health is actually at 990,000/1,000,000 hp + he has the 50% Damage Reduction System Bypass. Also keep in mind that he has no armor so he takes quite a lot of damage.

'Impossible! My entire barrage of attacks only hurt him by 200 hp?!'

"I have to admit, I didn't think you would be able to hold it back for so long!"

"What the hell kind of defense do you have! All my attacks barely scratched you!"

"Maybe if you win I'll tell you! Now come!"

Kirito charged at Zoro holding both swords out.

"End Revolver!" (2-Hit)

Zoro blocked both sword tips with Shusui and Sandai Kitetsu, then slashed at Kirito's already injured right shoulder with Wado Ichimonji.

"Argh!"

Everyone spectating was stunned as they saw Kirito's right arm fall to the ground and break into pixels, The Elucidator fell and embedded itself into the ground. Now with an extremely panicked look on his face, Kirito jumped back, the full weight of what he had agreed to finally hitting him.

"Now what will you do, Kuro Kenshi! I took of your arm, you're at a disadvantage now!"

Kirito charged back in with a One Handed sword skill.

"Vorpal Strike!" (1-Hit)

Kirito's Dark Repulsor glowed yellow as he thrusted it straight at Zoro, forcing Zoro to block the strike with his three swords, giving Kirito time to attack again.

"Serration Wave!" (1-Hit)

The attack stunned Zoro slightly and impeded his movement, Kirito followed up with another powerful attack.

"Howling Octave!" (8-Hit)

Kirito quickly stabbed Zoro's chest five times before slashing his sword downwards, then upwards, finishing with another, more powerful, upwards slash. The force of the slash knocked Zoro into the air before he fell down on the ground. Taking the opportunity of Zoro being vulnerable, Kirito used one of his finisher moves.

"Sharp Nail!" (3-Hit)

Kirito stabbed his blade into Zoro's front three times continuously at high speeds. Recovered from the shock, Zoro used his swords to knock Kirito away and got back up to his feet. He looked at his hp and at Kirito's. He was at 19,500/20,000 and Kirito was at 6,000/16,000 (Max Health Temporarily Lowered Due To Severed Limb).

"You've really done a number on me kid, I commend you for managing to bring me down that much at all, but I'm gonna win."

"I can still fight, Zoro! Even if you take my other arm off, I'm not going to give up until I win!"

"Well said…" Zoro said as he grinned and readied his stance for another attack.

"Yasha Garasu!" (Demonic Raven!)

Zoro launched himself off the ground and flew towards Kirito, thrusting all his swords forwards as he flew. Kirito tried to block the attacks best he could with only one arm but to no avail. Some hits had managed to get through, creating a multiple cuts in the shape of a Crow's Feet along his body and arms. Zoro was unrelenting and launched another attack straight at Kirito directly after his barrage of thrusts.

"Hyakuhachi Pound Ho!" (108 Pound Cannon!)

Kirito was blown back as the three compressed air projectiles merged together and stuck him square in the chest. Walking over to Kirito's limp form, Zoro looked down on Kirito.

"Kirito!" the spectators all shouted in shock.

"Ready to give up yet?"

"No…" Kirito strained as he struggled to get back on his feet.

"I'm never going to give up!"

"Then come at me! Kuro Kenshi!"

Kirito charged Zoro again, starting with a block breaker.

"Meteor Break!" (3-Hit)

Kirito knocked Zoro's three swords away and continued his assault with another combo attack.

"Star Quint Prominence!" (6-Hit)

Kirito's sword glowed and slashed Zoro six times, forming an asterisk of cuts, using the momentum of his hits, Kirito activated his Ultimate One Handed Skill.

"Phantom Rave!" (6-Hit)

He slashed at Zoro continuously six times at unbelievably high speed. After the barrage of hits, Zoro jumped back, actually injured by the multiple continuous barrage of sword skills, he spat out some blood on the ground and wiped the rest off. He was now at 19,100/20,000 and Kirito was at a mere 2,000.

"Didn't expect you to be so proficient at using only one sword, but I think it's time I finish this…"

Zoro sheathed Wado Ichimonji and Sandai Kitetsu, wielding only Shusui, he closed his eyes and breathed in and out deeply before he suddenly disappeared.

"Ittoryu: Sanbyakurokuji Pound Shogeki!" (One Sword Style: 360 Pound Bombardment)

Running at speeds incomprehensible to human eyes, Zoro circled around Kirito and fired off ten '36 Pound Cannons' at him.

Confused by the attacks coming at him from nearly all directions, there was little that Kirito could do to avoid them and so he braced himself for the attack to come. As the hits struck him, he felt like a pinball, battered around in all directions. A massive dust cloud was created by the attacks. As the dust cleared, Kirito was seen standing, with his arm limp and head facing down. Zoro had stopped and sheathed Shusui, as the sword clicked into the sheathe, Kirito fell forward and broke into pixels.

"Winner: Roronoa Zoro!"

"Kirito-kun!"

"Papa!"

"Kirito!" both Klein and Agil yelled.

"Hahahaha! He's gone! That bastard of a Beater is dead! I may have been expelled from the guild, but at least I get to see that beater's demise!"

The crowd looked over and saw Kibaou laughing maniacally as he rejoiced over Kirito's death.

Asuna grabbed her Lambent Light and was about to attack Kibaou when Agil put his hand over his shoulder and shook his head.

"Hey look over there!" Klein suddenly shouted.

The audience looked back to the arena and saw a familiar giant cloaked figure appear.

"Now now Zoro, why did you have to go and kill my favourite player?"

"I guess I got a bit too carried away."

"Well, regardless of that, you should know, I will only allow you to enter the boss fight once five people die by the boss."

"Well then you better tell that to Kirito after you revive him then."

"Don't worry I will, now I suggest you take a break. You will be given a notification once four people die on a boss. Once the fifth dies, you will be teleported in his place to fight the boss. I have no doubt you will annihilate it instantly which is why I have set the conditions as such."

With that, a bright light enveloped Zoro as he was transported to a distant location. Kayaba opened up his interface.

"System Command: Revive Player: Kirito ."

Pixels reformed Kirito's body as he was revived, upon opening his eyes, Kirito saw that Kayaba had appeared and for some reason revived him.

"Everyone, Roronoa Zoro has been impressed and will help you in your boss battles!"

The audience rejoiced as they heard the good news. Cheers erupted from the audience as they now had such a powerful player on their side and thought that clearing the game would be a breeze now.

"However! I will only allow him into the battle after five people have fallen! There is an exception though, if you beat him in a duel, I will allow him to fight in every single boss battle once only one person has died. He is now hidden on the first floor. Fight well clearers, for five people a floor is no small number." Kayaba's body started to fade away.

As Kayaba left, silence fell over the arena, the previous joy was crushed by the conditions. To get through a floor using Zoro, they basically had to sacrifice five people. Meaning that it was only useful as a last resort. Kirito was still in a daze from being resurrected and after taking in what had happened, he quickly ran back to the meeting point he and the others had agreed on. No one noticed him slipping away as most had started discussing among themselves and gossiping rumors around what had happened.

Back in Agil's shop, the group was assembled in the back room with troubled looks on their faces.

"Kayaba showed up, in two years he never showed his face and never said a word. What was so special about today? Does Zoro have something to do with him?" Kirito questioned.

"It seems pretty strange to me, but that Zoro guy was ridiculously strong, I saw both of your health bars, his barely went down from any of your attacks and healed extremely slowly, like he had some kind of low level battle healing. Your battle healing is almost maxed out, so you healed pretty fast, but those attacks he threw at you…" Agil added.

"It was like he threw the slice of his sword! I mean some sword skills make your swords hit a bit farther but those looked like they could really fly!" Klein exclaimed.

"He only used attacks that threw those air blades at you, he didn't really run at you with his swords, but all your attacks were deflected easily and he even said that he was going easy. He killed you while he was going easy, what if he comes back and this time he kills you for real! You can't let that happen to you Kirito-kun, I'm not allowing you to die again!"

"I promise I won't Asuna, so stop worrying, it's strange though, why would Kayaba revive me for?"

"You don't suppose maybe Zoro is some kind of experiment that broke loose do you? His name wasn't on the Monument of Life after all. Maybe Kayaba wanted to use him for something, but he killed you and it went against what Kayaba had planned so he tried to fix everything?"

"It's possible, but I don't know Agil, it seemed too off."

"He could just be a programme! I mean he wasn't on The Monument of Life what if he's some kind of ghost programme Kayaba wanted to use if we started lazing around instead of clearing the game?"

"Hmm…"

As Kirito thought on the idea, he suddenly got a notification. He had received a message from Roronoa Zoro. He opened the message.

'Here are your Immortality Crystals, you're pretty good with the swords. I expect you to come and face me again, of course I won't kill you again, Kayaba wouldn't like that. I will be on the first floor if you ever want to try and fight me. Go train in the hidden dungeon first, but don't fight the bosses, they get stronger every time they respawn and I think I killed them a lot of times on my way back so most of them are on V5+ or something. With your skill, you should be able to barely take on an infinite wave of scavenger toads. Also, Kayaba said to give the kid the extra item that comes with the message. I'll be waiting.'

Items Attached: Immortality Crystals (5), Memory Crystal (1)

"It's from Zoro, he wasn't lying, he gave me the crystals, but he apparently knows Kayaba personally and wants me to give this to Yui for Kayaba."

"See I told you! He's a programme! I say we delete those items! They could be poisonous or something."

"But what if it has Yui's memory in it, it is a memory crystal…" Asuna said.

"Yui, what do you think?"

"I'll try it, if it gives me my memory back it may help understand what's going on."

Yui took the crystal from Kirito, but when she activated it, something different happened. The top of the crystal opened up and hexagonal pixels came out of it. The pixels flew into Yui's eyes. Yui froze as a stream of pixels continued to flow out of the crystal into her eyes. As it completed its job, the crystal close back up and then shattered.

After a few moments, Yui blinked, regaining her senses… she heard people calling her name.

"Yui!"

"Yui!"

"Yui-chan!"

"Oi! Yui!"

She blinked again and looked around. Everyone was now crowded around her.

"What happened?" Yui finally responded.

"You were not responsive after that crystal shot some kind of beam into your eyes!"

"Yui are you okay?!"

"I think I'm fine…Agh!"

Yui suddenly clutched her head and closed her eyes as she grunted.

"Yui! What's happening?!"

After a while, Yui calmed down and looked back at everyone.

"I remember everything…"

A/N: Review for faster updates, it encourages me to write and not give up on a story.