A/N: Apparently it has been too long since I had updated and some people have forgotten but this Zoro is Post-Post Timeskip. What happened was that Zoro was ambushed by the now fully under Marine control Kuma and sent flying without mercy at such high speeds that he tore a hole through the fabric of reality and ended up in Sword Art Online, hence why he can use post timeskip techniques.
Through the months that followed, each month, one player would be chosen to face Zoro after a showcase fight, none came close to defeating him. Only on Kirito's fifth attempt did someone actually even get him to draw his second blade again. Zoro had been improving at a pace no one could match and was soon getting bored. Kayaba noticed this and tried to create harder enemies but even they could not ease Zoro's boredom, he had simply become too powerful.
As Zoro relaxed in the bar each day while reminiscing on the days with Luffy, the clearers slowly cleared the floors, careful to prevent any casualties and eventually reached the ninetieth floor. Since there were no deaths, Zoro got no action, the showcase matches got boring as things fell before him upon the draw of his blade. None of his old enemies even appeared anymore, too afraid of his strength.
Soon Kayaba also got bored, nothing was exciting anymore, even with the floor bosses, no one ever died since Asuna forced them all to overtrain to reduce the risk of deaths to zero. The Army was also completely restructured following Kirito's return and they became an actual fighting force which managed to join the front lines,
Kayaba's favourite Player Killer Guilds had also slowly begun to disband as more and more safety precautions were placed on civilians to allow them safety while out of safezones. The world which Kayaba created and wished to play God in, slowly fell apart before his very eyes. Kayaba smashed his fist against the table he was sitting at, the Immortal Object notice popping up as the object was hit. Kayaba watched in irk as the next nine bosses were effortlessly defeated until only the ninety-ninth floor boss stood against the clearers and their final step to freedom.
'This wasn't what I wanted! I created Sword Art Online to have a world where I made the rules and could watch over them as they had their adventures! Now because of the shock of the floor bosses being so strong, the clearers have become too strong and completely outclass the bosses, even civilians are completely safe from crime now that the reformed Army has begun to offer protection to all non-clearers when they leave safezones! There is no meaning in such a boring world!''
Slowly, what remained of Kayaba's patience ran out and he decided to start making things interesting by force. Opening his administrative panel, Kayaba opened up the properties customization of the ninety-ninth floor boss, tapping away at the interface and changing the boss. When he had finished, Kayaba smiled a maniacal smile that none would expect to ever grace the mad scientist's face.
The clearers gathered outside the door of the second last boss room and had another of their strict briefings to ensure no one would lose their lives. The clearers had all trained to level two hundred and above in preparation for the boss fight, the blacksmiths had also worked hard the entire time to forge the strongest weapons possible for the clearers. The fight was led by Kirito who would open up with his combo while the other clearers stayed back and protected him while the ability cooled down.
The boss room door opened and the clearers charged in, taking their positions based on the plan discussed earlier while Kirito started the offensive against the boss. It was a rather strange boss to be fighting in Sword Art Online, a world based around bladed weapons without even a bow. It was called The Eye of Anubis and was basically a huge floating eye attached to a wall with a single peculiar healthbar.
As the clearers approached the boss, it started spawning hordes of undead zombies who went after the clearers and overwhelmed them with numbers. They quickly retreated to regroup and Asuna called for a change in formation to better combat the enemy's new pattern. They had only managed to scout the appearance of the boss as all boss rooms now locked behind the Adventurers, making it difficult to scout much information.
Despite the overwhelming strength the players had, they were no match for the unending wave of undead sent their way. Some could not manage to regroup and were surrounded by undead, forced to simply run through the enemy rather than beat them back, sustaining heavy injuries in the process. Most were forced to run back to recuperate while hiding behind those who had managed to break off without difficulty.
After a few minutes, the group had reformed and in their new formation, advanced and fought back the advancing undead army. Kirito and Asuna led the charge with other Guild leaders by their sides, cutting deep into the enemy forces' formation and working to cull them from the inside out. While doing this, two teams, moving along the left and right flank, moved to attack the enemy to split their forces.
Soon the undead stopped spawning and the players cleaned up while those injured took potions. As the last undead was killed and it broke into hexagons, the players regrouped and readied themselves for the next phase of the mysterious boss. As predicted, the Eye of Anubis now entered the fight personally.
Four legs sprouted from behind the eye and dug into the wall where it rested. The legs lifted the eye before jumping onto the platform where the clearers fought and spawned another wave of undead. The eye had landed in the group of clearers and scattered their formations. The undead spawned in any opening between players and many rushed to rejoin others or rescue allies. Kirito had little trouble slicing down the undead before he finally realized something.
He had managed to get a good look at one of the ghouls that attacked him, it had shoulder length black hair and a feminine face. A light blue tunic, smudged and darkened by blood and gore, with a hanging chestguard was one of the more key features. It was when he examined the face and noticed a small mole near the bottom right of her right eye that realization dawned on who he was fighting.
"Sachi…?"
"Ki...Ri...To…"
In panic at finally understanding the enemy, Kirito slashed at the ghoul before it could do anything else in an effort to bury the memory he had that day. In fear, Kirito looked around and glanced at the myriad of faces, recognizing some as people he once knew. He heard a shout nearby as another also discovered the truth.
"Kobatz!? Didn't you die? Oi, snap out of it!"
Kobatz, Kirito recalled, the leader of the members of the Army that had gone to fight on the seventy-fourth floor.
"Yamada!? Is that you?"
'People are starting to panic, something needs to be done before any further chaos ensued.'
Kirito looked to Asuna and could tell that she too understood the gravity of the situation. The leader of the KOB issued her orders and called for the clearers to retreat for a quick meeting.
"Everyone, head towards the door, we need to re-strategize, Silent Coffin, cover our backs!"
Silent Coffin, a relatively new addition to the clearers who joined only a few floors back. It was a Guild made up of ex-player-killers. They were grudgingly accepted after much deliberation and now worked towards the common goal of getting out of Sword Art Online. Asuna chose them to fight off the undead as they would not feel much remorse towards killing people again. She tried her best to rally the troops against the undead but a number of them wouldn't move, unwilling to kill others.
Seeing no other alternative, Asuna assigned those under duress to be part of the boss attackers and hastily tried to rebalance formations to assault the boss. While there had yet to be any casualties, many were getting injured too quickly to be logical when facing the ninety-ninth floor's boss spawns, even accounting for the fact that Kayaba would want a tough challenge for them. Without time to ponder on it any longer, she declare the attack.
Zoro sat at his bar, swirling a cup of sake and watching the fluid swish around the cup. He sighed a long sigh before feeling that something was wrong mid-sigh and stood up with urgency evident in his posture. He turned on the television Kayaba had prepared for him to look at boss fights with to know how it was progressing.
It had been a while since it was last on since there were usually no issues and nothing exciting usually happened. Following a feeling in his gut, he looked at the boss fight taking place and noticed that the boss was completely overwhelming the players, not giving them a single opportunity to let them attack it.
The Eye of Anubis had summoned up wave after wave of enemies that the players somehow managed to combat. Adjusting his viewpoint, Zoro noticed that they were low on healing items and that most of them had cuts deep into their flesh while fighting. As if not already unfair, the boss was also near unhittable besides the four spider like legs holding it up.
He watched the fight intently for a few minutes before he saw the clearers finally manage to get the giant eyeball to fall over and be vulnerable. They sent everything they had at it, Kirito's Comet Rain included, until its health bar was cut down to seventy-five percent. Fearing a phase shift, which was a logical thought, the players retreated and fortified their position for the new attack pattern that could strike them.
Their fears were confirmed as the boss changed from simply summoning troops to fighting its own battles. The first batch of players who hacked away at the giant eye's legs got a taste of its wrath as a gold ray of heat shot out from the eye and roasted one of them alive, their first casualty. Powering through his death, the players continued their onslaught in hopes of taking down the boss before any more losses occurred.
Unbeknownst to the clearers, the ashes of the killed player did not break into hexagons but instead slowly integrated back into the dead player, only now, his body had rotted and turned pale. His sword arm had a broken joint and the jaw of the man once known as Yuma hung loose. A painful moan emerged from its mouth, scaring those around and causing them to look towards the origin of the call.
Yuma's mind watched helplessly as he once again saw light after being killed. He at first thought he had been revived but soon dismissed the thought when he realized that he had no control over his body. A second presence had invaded his mind and was controlling his now decrepit avatar. He found himself attacking his allies against his will and was internally screaming when he cut down one of his closest friends who promptly joined him in the world of the undead. Zoro slammed his cup against the table at the sight of this and bolted off to the boss fight immediately.
'This isn't fair Kayaba, has their strength and ease in clearing of the floors finally made you crack?'
After an hour of brutal fighting, Zoro finally found his way to the boss room and entered to find most of the clearers exhausted. Barely any had even noticed him opening the doors to the room, too focused on their own fights for the sound of the doors to break their intense concentration. The adrenaline was pumping in all the room's occupants as tensions were high. They were all scared and practically fighting for their lives as Zoro had failed to appear despite multiple deaths.
"All of you! Get clear!"
A loud echoing shout from Zoro broke the clearers from their combat trances and recognizing their savior, retreated to the nearest safe area they could find. Zoro readied his blades and looked with an accusing eye at the giant eye of a boss. Taking all three of them and getting into stance, Zoro prepared his attack.
Santoryu Ogi: Sanzen Sekai: Dai Yongai! (Three Sword Style Secret Technique: Three Thousand Worlds: Fourth Realm!)
Zoro dashed forward with his blades so quickly that likely not even a high speed camera would have seen him. Using his sword, Zoro had somehow made four cuts that severed all of the eye's legs, causing it to collapse to the ground. With a final deadly thrust, Zoro stabbed Shusui into the centre of the eye, causing it to squirm in pain for a few seconds as its health drained rapidly before it burst into hexagons and all its minions disappeared.
Everyone but Zoro collapsed as the fight ended, coming down from their combat adrenaline high, now completely exhausted as the fatigue their body ignored to prioritize survival kicked in. Most were sore all over and would barely be able to move for days. Zoro looked up, knowing that Kayaba would likely have been watching from above.
"Oi Kayaba! What is the meaning of this!?"
As if answering to Zoro's question, a giant screen made itself visible and Kayaba could be seen sitting in a chair, his face smiling like a madman.
"This isn't good Zoro, you weren't supposed to be at that boss fight, it was meant to wipe out everyone!"
"You crazy bastard, wasn't this supposed to be a fair game?"
"It was, but then you all made it so boring by all your training. If no one dies then this is practically just a game, and that's no fun!"
'He's lost it…'
"Come, come, go through the door and fight the last boss I've prepared, it will be a fun time I promise!"
Zoro looked around and saw the one he had been looking for.
"Kirito, get everyone out of here and be ready to leave."
"Leave?"
"I'm clearing this game, alone."
Zoro walked off towards the door to the next floor and opened it. A sense of nostalgia overcame most of the clearers, especially Kirito, as Zoro opened the large doors and stepped through alone, much like the Black Swordsman had on the first floor. They got to work healing up and helped those still too mentally exhausted to exit the boss room before using a crystal to teleport to the nearest town.
Zoro entered the room and found himself facing a giant wall. Just as he thought he had gone through the wrong door and was about to leave, hundreds of health bars appeared on the wall and he looked up to see its name, the Immovable Object. This was not the boss fight he had been expecting, Kayaba watched from afar as he saw Zoro appear.
"Kayaba, you sure are a funny one aren't you?"
Kayaba then descended from above the wall and floated in mid air.
"I don't have a clue what you are asking Zoro, I am not joking whatsoever!"
"I figured you would change the final boss into something ridiculous but instead all I got was a wall…"
"Ah, I apparently locked myself out of access to the last boss, a safety protocol supposedly."
"So this thing is meant to be here?"
"Yup!"
"You expect me to believe the final boss in the game was supposed to be a damn wall?"
"Well it was supposed to be a symbolic boss, to show that only one that overcame the power of an unstoppable force would be able to break through the wall."
"So someone was supposed to solo this thing?"
"Yea, cool isn't it!?"
"No."
"Oh you're no fun Zoro, what happened to the old days, when we would have fun?"
"Those days are long gone Kayaba, it's time to end this."
"Whatever floats your boat Zoro, though you probably already cut it with your swords, hahahahaha!"
"Wait a minute, come to think of it, why are you the only one who recognizes me? No one else I've met had heard of me before the game."
"Ah that? You're not supposed to be real is all, you were in some show which ended years ago. They probably never heard of it!"
"Crazy old man… Whatever, I said I would clear the game, so let me have at it!"
"Alright Zoro! I'll see ya on the other side!"
'Crazy old man, maybe if I ended this earlier he wouldn't have snapped…'
With that final thought, Zoro drew his swords. He sent a barrage of attacks at the wall, all in a fruitless effort to at least damage it slightly. He looked at the very first health bar after about ten minutes of constant attacks and saw that it had not even dwindled a bit.
'What the hell Kayaba, were you planning on trapping them here forever!? Looks like it's time to get serious!'
Zoro closed his eyes and sat on the ground crossed leg for half an hour before standing up and drawing his blades. Having them at extremely awkward angles, Zoro opened his eyes, both of them. A demonic red glow was present in his normally closed eye as he uttered the words and activated his technique.
Kindanryu: Sente Asura Keishiki Kaihou! (Forbidden Sword Style: Thousand Hands Asura Form Release!)
As the last syllable of the technique's name left his mouth, Zoro suddenly floated up and an aura began to envelope him. In mere moments, the aura grew to a size easily comparable to that of a flagship and started to become solid. The form took the shape of a giant deity and had a thousand arms sprouting out of it, each holding a unique weapon from maces to swords to hammers to forks.
The giant began its onslaught, swinging all its arms continuously at the wall, pounding it with enough force that the entire of AIncrad shook, causing its inhabitants all to panic. After a full minute of punishment, the first of the Immovable Object's health bars broke. The barrage continued relentlessly as Zoro attacked the wall with all his weapons simultaneously.
By the time Zoro milled through a good number of the bars, word had spread that Zoro was up on the final floor fighting the final boss. Most, if not all, of the players in Aincrad prayed for his success while going about their final preparations, finding out the names of new friends and making arrangements to meet up in real life once all this was over. The more pessimistic of the bunch who knew of Zoro prepared suicide paths as they knew that if Zoro, who easily outclassed every player in the entire game combined and multiplied by five, could not win, then they were never getting out of here.
Time passed slowly for everyone as the fight raged on and Zoro slowly chipped away at the great wall. As the sun was just rising the next day, a beautiful sunset graced the plains of Aincrad as Zoro plowed through the walls final few remaining health bars. Just as the sun came fully into view, the final health bar went empty and the wall broke into hexagons. A bright light enveloped the world as all the players suddenly were logged out. All except, for one. Zoro stood as he was, facing Kayaba, who laughed.
"So, did you have fun?"
Zoro stood still for a moment and sheathed his swords.
"Yea, yea I did."
"Then go and have more fun then, hehehe, just beyond this door..."
With that, Kayaba broke into hexagons, leaving Zoro alone as the last player of the game. He stepped through the doorway without looking back and the game was shut down.
Epilogue:
Kirito and Asuna both held each other's hands as they sat in the bench of their school garden. Kirito held onto Asuna with one hand and Sandwich-kun with the other as he thought back to the events after he had been discharged.
'I still never found out who Zoro was… There were exactly six thousand five hundred and one people in the game when he cleared it, but only six thousand five hundred made it out, I wonder where he is now…'
Kazuto then looked over to Asuna then back at the sky.
'Wherever he is, I hope he's happy…'
A/N: Yes I realize this was a humongous timeskip but a similar one would likely have happened if they didn't defeat Heathcliff early so just accept it. This is the end of Zoro's time in Sword Art Online for now but I seriously let this drag on for way too long so I apologize. For those who are disappointed, I am sorry. For those who enjoyed, if any did, and want more, don't worry, Zoro's adventures in virtual worlds are far from over, on that you have my word…
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