Hello, hi, what's up. Anyway, here's a small note for everyone. I just started a full time job as well as studying for my NREMT exams that I am trying to take soon. So chapters will more than likely fluctuate in quality. I am still trying to work on my own novel and I need this practice horribly so I will keep writing and hopefully get a constant good quality out. Also English and German exams are soon so that is also fun.

Anyway, I do not own SAO or any of it's characters, with the exception of Hayato/Shiro as he is my own original character from my novel. Enjoy!

It had started slowly, slower than Argo had hoped for. The gathering of info for her new guidebook had came to a stand still; unsure if she was finished with everything obtainable for the time or if players just stopped exploring, she could not find a single player to help her find anything she had missed. Worse she had been trying for the last few days to get in contact with Kirito regarding the "ninja" he had not responded to any of her messages. The lack of business and things to do was seriously getting on her nerves, leading to her seeking the ninja out herself, only to find-like everyone else-nothing about him at all. She was so sure the ninja was the missing link to the last of the info on the floor, she even was further convinced that he had contained the location and map data of the floor dungeon and boss room. To make matters worse for Argo, Shiro had still been missing. The concern for his well being had not been soothed by his name missing from the memorial stone which, she checked daily.

As the days went on, the situation with Shiro and the ninja seemed to haunt her in her sleep. Constantly having dreams about Shiro being dead, or about unmasking the ninja just to see Shiro and an absolute blank stare as if dead but alive. Getting rather tired of the dreams, or nightmares rather; she constantly threw herself into her work, ignoring the perturbed feelings that seemed to grow larger over time. Few more days of grinding and endless talks with NPCs, as well as higher level players she considered her manual for the floor done. All information regarding dungeons and enemies were in it, even information regarding the final boss of the first floor of aincrad.

Shiro was far worse off than Argo, still on the search for the girl which resembled his sister. Even after spending every waking moment grinding, and searching he had not found a single trace of said girl. Kirito was his first choice in help, or even Agil, yet the name of the girl was not something he could find in any memories he had of the incident at launch. Pushing all limits of his binary body was taking a heavy toll on his mental state, had he slept or even worked with others more this could have been avoided, or so he thought to himself multiple times over.

Keeping an eye on Kirito and Sinon during their quest for a heirloom sword seemed to provide a small since of comfort knowing they were doing well. He had not even thought to bother checking on Argo, she would have smelled him out from miles away preventing his plan from proceeding. Watching Kirito and Sinon finish the quest, he had made his choice, not one he wanted, but rather one he needed. Jumping from the tree he was perched on, he landed in front of Kirito who was just leaving the house of the quest NPC. Slowly removing the hood from over his face, Kirito glared at him. Feeling as if he deserved it, Shiro let out a deep breath he had held in. The anxiety of this was eating him, piranhas eating away at the entirety of his insides.

"Yo," Shiro waved awkwardly, "long time no see huh?"

"I'll say," Kirito walked past him, "why bother showing up now?"

"I failed."

"Hmm?"

"I was searching for someone, hoping she was a lower level player I was going through them by helping when I could."

"Rather selfish no?"

"You're one to talk."

"Fair... Argo is worried even if she will not say it aloud."

"Sure she is."

"She is." Quietness grew around, somehow making more noise rather than none.

"I see."

"You don't have to be alone Shiro."

"You wouldn't understand."

"True, but maybe I would, and I doubt your actions are justifiable."

"Kirito, ready to head back?" Sinon joined behind him, freezing in her spot, she stared at Shiro. "Shiro?"

"The one and only."

"So you were the ninja everyone was talking about."

"Yeah." A slap echoed the forest, wide eyed Shiro stared at her. Not able to move, the guilt of abandoning the few people he knew truly settled in. "You suck." she said calmly, walking away, not sparing a single glance, Kirito had joined her.

"Wait!"

"What is it Shiro?" Stopping, she did not look back, but was willing to listen.

"Take this map data, I do not know what all everyone has but I did find the boss room."

"Got it."

For the first time in recent memory, Argo felt trapped and utterly lost. Making the bold, and absolutely stupid choice of going into the boss dungeon to find the final information for herself. The manual was out, but that didn't stop her from having a business to run. Argo was shocked to see the dungeon had been mostly cleared, with the exception of the mildly hidden room she was currently trapped in. Surrounded by Kobolds, her chance of escape was close to zero without severe damage. Mentally beating herself, she thought she was smarter than this, however, apparently her yearn for her business ran stronger than her brains.

Being pushed into the corner of the room, she slowly began to chip away at the HP of the kobolds, yet they never stopped coming, taking more from her HP than she was able to take from theirs. Having no area attack sword skills, and just her small dagger made this fight incredibly unfair in her eyes. The fight raged on, planning her next steps as carefully as she could, she used fast step to get behind a small group and took wild jabs at their backs. While killing a fair number, she found herself encircled, one last thought crossed her mind before she fainted from fear... Hayato.

Just when Shiro thought he was having a peaceful sleep, his dreams came back to haunt him. He thought he knew Argo well enough that she would not do anything to rash, at times, he felt almost like a guardian to her, constantly keeping her in check. Sitting up slowly, his brain raced, heart beat rapidly increased, and a large discomfort ate at him. Flashbacks of his family and past flowed into him, recovering emotions and thoughts long forgotten, considered ancient in his mind. Feeling the god of bad luck looming over him, he grabbed his gear and rushed out. He had prayed to no one in particular that he was wrong, but he prayed nonetheless, Argo did something rash, just like his sister had.

Checking his friends list for Argo's last position he berated himself heavily, he knew better than to leave that rat alone. Clutching onto the straps of his armor he raced to the dungeon as quickly as possible. Still strapping on his equipment he arrived at the entrance to the dungeon, completely unaware of what was happening in the room Argo was in. Rushing through listening for sounds that would be of a fight, he came across the groan of monsters. Coming to an abrupt halt, he saw the hidden room he skipped over had been opened, peaking in he saw Argo falling to ground surrounded by Kobolds of different levels, some of which multiple levels above her own.

Sliding into the room Shiro went behind a group of the Kobolds unleashing a staggering sword skill into them with his dagger. Jumping back he threw picks at two that were getting close to Argo making them turn to focus on him, the bigger threat. The two charged him; readying his dagger he activated his piercing dash forward sword skill effectively slicing them in halves, lighting the room up in blue shards. Rushing towards the passed out girl, he completely lost sight of the enemies around him. Crouching down, he attempted to wake her, slowly her eyes started to open. Before she could process the situation she was in, she watched her HP bar fill back up as Shiro used as many healing crystals as he could. Regaining her thoughts, her eyes widened as the situation seemed to arise from bad to horrendous.

"Shiro behind you!" Yelling she was too late, the Kobold spear piercing straight through Shiro. Shiro coughed in shock, though he felt no pain, it still hurt horribly; the thought of losing it all; the thought of this being death made his brain process this as actual pain. Quickly trying to think up a solution, he randomly thrust his dagger behind him; while aimless he managed to hit the kobold in the face making the monster let go. Turning around, to face the monster he dashed forward swinging aimlessly. Moving around barely, the Kobold seemed amused at how easy it was to avoid the injured mans attacks. Shiro made one last powerful dash forward ramming his dagger straight through the chest of the monster, finishing the beast. As the blue shards spread, the spear fell out of his body, making him fall as limply as a noodle. "Shiro! Hold still will ya."

"Argo," Passing out he let her name fall out of his lips, his HP bar slowly dropping as if he was bleeding out. As a few Kobolds remained, Argo did her best to attack them. Eventually only one was left, the leader of the squad of monsters, the highest level. Enraged, Argo jumped onto its shoulders, grabbing his neck with her left arm, and repeatedly plunging her small dagger into his chest. With little HP left, she walked over to Shiro who seemed to be lucky enough to have 20 HP left out of the thousands he had.

Carrying Shiro on her back Argo rushed into the Inn she had met Kirito in just days before to give him the quest info for the heirloom sword. Finally arriving in the inn, she saw Kirito, Sinon and the hooded girl sitting at the far corner of the bar. Being loud as she entered the building all heads turned to see her holding Shiro who had not seemed to be able to recover any HP as of yet. Kirito already had a rough idea of how this could have happened, quickly walking over gave Argo a hand in taking Shiro to her room she had rented out. Yet, what Argo and Kirito both failed to notice was the look of horror on the hooded girls faces as she slowly followed behind them alongside Sinon.

"I see." Kirito said after listening to the long winded explanation Argo had gave him. In the few years he had known this girl, he had never seen her so worked up ever. "It will be fine, as much as we all hate this game, it won't let someone suffer continuously like this."

"We have no idea though." Sinon added quietly.

"True, but if we know anything about Kayaba, he not only likes fair fights but good stories as well." Focused on their own discussion, they again failed to see the hooded girl leaning over the bed. Pushing the hair out of his face, she leaned down onto his chest letting out a silent sob.

"Hey Kirito, who's she?" Argo finally asked pointing at the girl, "I know I've asked ya before, but like, what's she doin' over there? She know Shiro from the real world."

"No idea," he shrugged, "He was always with you, at home, and if not either with me. Never seen him with anyone else."

"Hey, you know Shiro over there?" Argo walks behind while speaking. Standing up the girl removes her hood, and looks at everyone else in the room, making a brief eye contact with everyone.

"He ever talk about his family?" Heads shook, silence fell, and the girl made fierce eye contact with Argo. "Not even with you? Ah well, I am his cousin. At one point a long time ago our families were close, but well, things happened and that's that."

"So you're the one he was looking for." Kirito said more so to himself, without realizing it that statement drew the stares of Argo and the girl, Sinon did not really want to get involved, therefore she just tuned everyone else out.

"Shiro was looking for someone?"

"Yeah, we had met a few times, always on accident, but he had mentioned that in the beginning after Kayaba left, he noticed a girl that looked scarily like his sister. However, he seemed annoyed by the topic so I didn't bring it up more."

"So that's why..." Argo was upset, not at Shiro, but herself.

"I see," Flipping her hood back on the girl walked out, turning back to face the two other conscious ones in the room, "I am heading out, this is a bit much for me to handle at the moment."

Kirito and Sinon followed shortly after leaving Shiro and Argo alone. Kirito had used some healing potions on Shiro recovering his HP, yet he still did not wake up. For days Argo sat there, constantly checking over him, and selling info she had gathered in the dungeon. Kirito had shared the map data that Shiro provided him with Argo leading to the completely finished first floor guide. This had made it a walk in the park for low levels to level up. Good things started to happen in the floating castle, the amount of those dying had decreased, guilds were being formed, forever parties and friends were made, and rumors of a party forming to fight the boss of the floor had risen. With the disappearance of the ninja however, made concerns over hunting grow. The safety net at which lower levels had was gone, not only that, fear started to grow due to this. People started to think that if such a skilled player had died, that what was ahead of them is not worth their life. However, this led to a growth in blacksmith, chef, and merchant players.

However, the recovery of the spirit of the players did not help everyone. The girl that is known to the others as Shiro's cousin had been missing of and on. Finally learning her name was Asuna-though everyone knew this thanks to the HUD-Kirito had taken multiple quests with her to help her level. She had grown exponentially in a matter of days. Kirito could not pinpoint where the drive had come from, but loved to see it. Anytime he would ask about her and Shiro's past she would say angrily, "none of your business."

"Hey Argo," Kirito walked into their usual inn, "How is Shiro?"

"I want to say good, ya know I do, butttttt..."

"I get it."

"What will we do, I mean, we will need his strength in the fights ya know, plus I don't think that girl can talk this much longer."

"Probably not," Kirito sighed, she had went missing again and he just gave up stopping her. "It's like she thinks she can find a way to wake him, though I can;t say I didn't push her to, it's just, out of hand now."

"Well you would do the same."

"True that."

"Think he'll wake?"

"I know it, but we have to keep fighting even when he isn't. Don't want him to wake when we made no progress." Sitting at the bar in silence, Argo looked conflicted. There was some info that she had come across that was sure to be unpleasant; there was enough going on to just not make this the time. However, she felt the need to share it now before it would get out of hand later.

"Kiboy, there is something, unnerving I need you to know."

"Hmm?"

"There are small groups of people blaming the lack of progress on beta testers. Some forming groups against them, a lot of these people are saying that the 'ninja' was the first to see this issue and that is why he had helped so many."

"Well, that, is not unexpected I suppose."

"It is though! We have done so much for them all. Not only that, but their hero is a beta boy."

"Knowing Shiro, this would really upset him too. We will just have to wait and see I suppose, going to go and fight in the boss raid if it comes up?"

"Nah, I got other things I got to do, but be sure to pass any info you gather along, I'll pay ya."

"Yeah yeah, for sure." Standing up Kirito walked out of the inn, leaving Argo with her stale bread and weird milk that the inn keeper had given her. Walking back towards her room, she had seen Asuna sneak in just before she could get there. Peaking through the door she saw her sit on the bed Shiro was laying on. Though Asuna seemed to be speaking some, she could not understand or hear anything she had said. Trying to get a better look, she saw Asuna give Shiro a small hug before leaving.

"Oh hey Argo,"

"Yo,"

"Keep an eye on him got it?"

"No need to tell me twice."

Walking into her room, she stared at Shiro for a few minutes analyzing his features. The nerve gear had for some reason read his piercings as part of his body, so he had all of them. His hair was out of his face exposing his sharp features. Yet even in sleep, his face had a look of being in pain. His eyes looked to be forced shut, his eyebrows were rounded as if he was concerned, and his extremely pale and fragile looking skin made him look sick. Laying down on the bed next to him, she played with his hair a bit. As she started to nod off, darkness began to take her eyesight, she heard a quiet but steady voice.

"Argo?"