AN: You can totally blame Mike for how long it took to get this chapter out. He was being a difficult bastard in the duel club scene. Umbridge was being her usual bitch self in her own scene as well, but she wasn't nearly as bad as Mike. Literally every other scene came easily. Anyway, back in chapter 14 part of my review response to BootyBootyBooty was about how Nero wasn't confirmed to be Vergil's son. I said this because last I heard, he wasn't. However I found out that since the last time I checked, he has in fact, been confirmed to be Vergil's son. My apologies for that slight bit of misinformation. Also, fucking hell is the review section long this time. Sorry about that.

Review responses:

Tempest- Well, if you wanna be technical, the Heir should be Vergil, since he's Sparda's first born son. However, the whole Nobility thing is just to protect their family from the anti creature governments, one of which is Britain. The only reason he's even bothering to name an Heir is to protect Mike. Though even if that wasn't the case, and he simply chose to name one of his grandchildren instead of his sons, Nero is technically oldest, but Mike would be next in line, since he's actually older than Marzanna. It's moot though, being a Devil, he's not going anywhere anytime soon, and claiming nobility doesn't mean much to them. It's pretty much only so no one in the anti creature governments will question their heritage and find out they're not human.

DalkonCledwin- Hi! Got a lot of reviews from you, so the things I want to respond to in the order you wrote them: On Ch. 1 Muggle Abortion- Dumbledore and James are both purebloods through and through. They don't even know Muggles have ways of abortion in my fic. Ch. 2 Agnus- He's very arrogant. Though he actually did tell them. Mundus is just so arrogant that he assumed human magic wasn't strong enough to break the enchanted demonic steel the chains were made from. Ch 3 James' parents- Oh, James parents would be furious with him, but sadly they're not around anymore. RIP James parents we never meet in the books. On that subject, why does everyone assume James father's name was Charles? JK Rowling wrote about the Potter family on Pottermore. Their canon names are actually Fleamont and Euphemia Potter. If any of you don't believe me, just type in Pottermore Potter family into Google, the page should be at the top of the searches. Fleamont and Euphemia are talked about near the bottom of the page. Ch 4 Strix- Yeah, I read the mythology of Strixes. Traditionally, they were bad omens, and fed on the flesh and blood of humans. I'll be completely honest, the only reason I chose the Strix was because I needed a mythological owl, and didn't really like any of them, so I just took the name I liked most and changed its abilities. Ch 6 Disconnection- She was just being moved to the hospital. Ch 7 Asuna- Oh definitely. The Asuna that pops up later, when she's all businesses and bossy, doesn't get along with Hanna at all. Ch 9 Magic pulse through NerveGear- Even if they did, it would just short circuit the NerveGear. It's not like it would affect the servers, which is a good thing, as I think the servers going down and not coming back in the two hour time limit they mention would cause the NerveGears to fry everyone's brains. Love potions- I'm assuming you're talking about Ron accusing Hermione. She would be screwed if it was true, but it's not. Ron doesn't even know about those laws, and even if he did, he still might've accused her of it. He's just a jealous idiot. Twin bond- The way the twin bond works in my fic doesn't actually have much to do with them being related. It's because in the womb is when a person's magic does most of its developing, so the children's magic intertwines in the womb. Because of this, you could technically artificially impregnate a witch with two children with completely different sets of parents and they'd still have a bond, it would just be incredibly weak due to being unrelated to each other. Being actual twins just strengthens the bond. By this explanation, 'twins' in the magical world of my fanfic just refers to two children who grew in the same womb. Of course, usually they're actual twins, but not necessarily. Mike's blood status- Yup, he's a half blood. But because he's the Mike Potter, most people in the wizarding world of my fanfic don't care too much about the technicality. Unless they're a pureblood elitist. Ch 10 Fairy Dance- Not necessarily. Kirito will still consider Asuna his friend by the end of SAO. I feel that while he wouldn't be as desperate since she's not his love interest, he'd still go out of his way to save her. That said, my Fairy Dance ending will be rather different. Sugou's crazier for one. Ch 11 Hanna using Kirito's IRL name- That was a genuine mistake on my part. Sorry, my bad. I've fixed the document of it, so I'll update the chapter. Cloak of the Void- It's not invisibility. It just boosts a person's hiding skill. Kirito's coat does as well, even in canon. Skill Chain- Technically in canon, Kirito doesn't create the skill until Sword Skills are introduced into ALO, but eh, I just felt like it. Ch 12 Listening Skill- I couldn't remember when he got it. The only mention of it that I remembered off the top of my head is during Silica's arc. Plus I'll admit I forgot about it. At the end of the game he had twelve slots. I looked up the list of skills he had and picked from that, but I forgot he deleted something for the fishing skill, which had to have been his listening skill since it's not on there. Kikuoka's ignorance- He's not a gamer. I definitely portrayed it worse than it is in canon, but in canon he's defiantly ignorant of how things work in games. Ch 15 Star Trek- What? Why would you think that? I didn't put any Star Trek references in there, or at least, not on purpose. I think you might be reading too much into it. The only Star Trek I've seen are the three movies that came out in recent years, and it's been awhile since I've seen them (except three.). So any references to the movies are accidental, and if there are any references to the show or older movies I'm unaware of them. Whew, that was a lot. Hope that answers your questions and doubts though.

pixelherodev- Yes, there are light novels. Actually, Sword Art Online started as a web series then later became published light novels. It was only later that it was adapted into a manga and anime. As for the omake, I said in the AN for that chapter, I had a specific reason for the date of the previous chapter being New Year's, but I got distracted while writing the chapter and by the time I came back I'd forgotten about it. Originally I forgot to write the New Year's scene between Hanna and Kirito in the labyrinth, so I edited that chapter to add it in, and also added it as an omake in the next chapter for those who didn't want to go back to read it. As for MA stuff, I'm not even sure I'll write it at all. As I told SleepyMangaHead in Ch 6 I've never written a scene like that and I don't really want to put an even more awkward than usually written scene into the story.

gorloxianfang- Well Hell to you too! :) Thank you! I'm glad you like the story. I'm actually really glad you reminded me of Silica, I was so focused on when to bring in other plot points that I had temporarily forgotten about her. Which is sad because Silica is adorable. Didn't forget about Lizbeth though, she just doesn't come in until after Kirito gets Elucidator, as everyone knows.

Swordalfgun- Still not sure if they'll be able to bond inside SAO, but if they can Kirito will definitely be…. agitated at her for not telling him about being able to communicate with people in the real world. I'm just not sure how bad it'll be if I decide they will bond in Aincrad.

Lansar1- It occurred to me, but it didn't make sense to me with the way I've done Lily's character and her relationship with James. She was more than willing to let something as frivolous as money go just to get away from James quicker.

Fireheart K- …. Tell each other their real names? Did- Did you somehow access my phone or something?! I'd already written that portion of this chapter before you reviewed, I was just having difficulty figuring out how to progress the plot in Hogwarts without forcing it… *Whispers* your foreknowledge of what I was writing kinda creeps me out. *Inches away from you slowly*

Henri0812- Yay! Another Kanna/Kazanna (I hereby dub thee thy ship name, henceforth and forevermore you shall be referred to as such.) shipper! We shall unite! But seriously. There weren't that many Kirito/KazutoxHarry on either ff or AO3 when I checked anyway, and pretty much all of the ones that piqued my interest with their summery took place after Harry had finished Hogwarts. I've yet to see another fem!Harry with this crossover ship, but hopefully more will pop up soon. Anyway, I have heard people say things like that a few times, but thank you very much for your support! No matter how many times I hear it, or how high the number of favs/follows gets to, it still boggles me that even a handful of people like this story, much less the number of people who actually took the time to follow, fav, or review.

Brissar316- Ok, I'll be honest, the idea of giving Marzanna her IRL weapons in game hadn't occurred to me, however even if it had there are some obstacles in the way. First of all, summoning them to herself would be a form of magic, which I've mentioned previously that I'm still undecided if she'll have access to it. Second, even if she could summon her weapons, it probably wouldn't have any effect in game. The system decides things like damage via a weapon's stats amongst other things, but it gets the information of the stats by the weapons object ID. With no ID, I don't think the system would even recognize the weapons as existing much less doing damage to anything. The only way I can see her successfully summoning and using her weapons is if she completely overpowered the system with her magic, and considering she's trying not to use any magic, even accidental for fear of the NerveGear malfunctioning and frying her brain... As for pets, I really don't know what you expect me to say. The event of a mob being not being hostile and taking an interest in a player is rare. It's not like any of the mobs are her familiars or anything. So, I have no intention of giving Hanna a pet, sorry.

November 13th, 2023- 378 days since SAO launch:

Mike is in the library reading another book he'd borrowed from his sister. It was a fascinating study on the history of werewolves, and goes into great detail on the first known werewolves and the differences between them and modern werewolves and how they changed into what they are today. Apparently the werewolves of old could, with practice, change into their lycanthrope form without the full moon, though that still forced the change as well. In either case however, they mostly kept their human minds, the only true exception being the first full moon a werewolf turned. Over time though, as the original bloodlines died out leaving only the turned werewolves, the blood got diluted until they eventually became what they are today.

He's yanked from his reading as Hermione stomps into the library and over to him furiously, before flopping into the chair next to him. He sets his book aside in concern. He's never seen Hermione act like that in the library, as she considers such behavior extremely disrespectful. One doesn't need to know Hermione well to know something must be truly bothering her to disrespect an oh so precious library.

After five tense minutes of silence without Hermione saying anything, or worse even touching a book, he knows whatever's bothering her must be really bad. He gently touches her arm to get her attention, and does everything in his power not to recoil when she glares furiously at him, "Hermione, I don't know what's bothering you, but glaring at me won't solve the problem, and I can't help if you silently glare at the table instead of talking to me."

Hermione's scowl deepens as she turns away, and snaps, "You can't help me anyway."

Mike sighed, "Well, I can't be a sympathetic ear to rant to if you don't talk either."

Hermione growls, "I think we both know how horrible that atrocious toad is. There isn't a need to go over it all again."

Umbridge, he should've known. With a shake of his head, he hooks his foot on one of her chair legs and drags it closer, then wraps his arm around Hermione's neck. He tugs her over to lean on him and begins carding his fingers through her hair soothingly, "Alright, alright. If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine, but I'm here if you do, even if you just want to rant."

Rather than getting angrier and taking him up on his offer to rant his ear off as Mike expects, Hermione seems to deflate, "Thank you Mike, but there's really no point. All that would serve to do in this case is make Madam Pince mad at us for being disruptive in the library. It wouldn't even make me feel better. It's- Well, I suppose I could just let you see for yourself."

With that, Hermione quickly pulls a roll of parchment from her bag. She stares blankly at it for a minute, then anger surges in her eyes again and she shoves it into Mike's chest as though she can no longer bare to even touch it. He wordlessly grabs it and hesitantly unrolls the parchment. For a few minutes Mike stares at it, unable to comprehend what he is seeing. It was their most recent DADA assignment going over the legality of one of the most common defence spells, the stunning spell. At the top of the parchment, right next to the title of Hermione's paper was a big fat ugly looking 'T', the worst possible grade someone could get and one of the failing grades.

Mike quickly understands what happened when he reads over the paper. Hermione went into great detail talking about the laws mentioned in the assignment, then began discussing the pros and cons of each law. Though she eventually mostly agreed with the laws, she commented that she believed they needed to be revised. It was a brilliant paper, but mildly questioned the Ministry, something Umbridge had shown herself to be utterly intolerant of.

When he returns his gaze to her her, he's startled to find Hermione has tears in her eyes, "She ruined my perfect record Mike. I know it's stupid to get so upset over this, what with everything that's going on, but I've never failed anything academic or gotten in any sort of trouble in my entire school history, including Muggle schooling. Yet, not only did she fail me for no other reason than being unable to take even a little criticism, when I argued against her decision when she called me in to discuss it, she gave me detention. Me! Detention! I- She-"

At that she broke off and began furiously wiping her eyes, clearly refusing to let Umbridge make her cry. Mike sets the offensive paper down and pulls her to him again. She sniffles as she buries her face in his shoulder. In response he presses a brief kiss to her temple then begins carding his fingers through her hair again, "Oh Hermione. I'm not going to tell you that it'll be ok or anything, because I know how much this means to you, but don't let that toad get to you. That paper was just like every other one of your assignments I've read. Completely brilliant." There's silence for a few minutes, then Mike pulls away slightly and smiles at her, "I've got something for you that'll cheer you up."

Hermione snorts lightly as she furiously wipes at her eyes again, "I hate to burst your bubble Mike, but I'm fairly certain that nothing can cheer me up at the moment."

Mike's grin turns slightly mischievous as he pulls a book from his bag, "Really? Not even this first edition copy of 'A Study of Technomancy' my sister let me borrow for you?" Hermione's eyes zero in on the book he was wiggling in front of her face with the same hungry gleam that a starved predator looking at easy prey would get. With a dramatic sigh Mike makes to put the book away, "Oh well, if it won't make you feel better, I may as well-"

Hermione snatches the book from his hands, then sniffs in a disapproving manner "There's no need to be mean. I said I was fairly certain, not entirely so."

Mike just smiles warmly at her, "Told you I had something that would cheer you up."

Hermione blushes even as her eyes soften, "You know me far too well Mike."

He chuckles in return, "That I do. Which is why I know you'll want to read this other book I borrowed from my sister on the history of werewolves even though I borrowed it for myself."

Hermione grins, "Oh, but of course. Since you were so nice as to borrow a book for me as well, I'll wait until you're finished reading it until I borrow it, but don't take too long or I might have to reconsider my generosity."

Mike outright laughs this time, "But of course Miss Granger, I wouldn't want to waste your marvelous generosity."

Hermione pushes his shoulder lightly, then comfortable silence settles over them as they both turn to their books. Sadly the peace only lasts half an hour before being broken by Seamus, of all people. He hesitantly sits at their table, then fidgets nervously for a moment when both their gazes turn to him. Hermione's look was so cold it would make uncle Vergil proud. She hates the fact Seamus thought he was lying about Voldemort. Mike's own gaze is utterly neutral, he was still angry with Seamus, but doesn't think it worth it to start another argument.

Seamus shifts around a bit more, before glancing over to where he'd come from. Mike sees Dean and a few other people from their year give Seamus encouraging looks. Seamus takes a deep breath while squaring his shoulders, then turns back to them, "So listen, we all know Umbridge isn't going to teach us anything useful even though this is our OWL year. You've got the highest grade in DADA Mike, and Hermione is, well Hermione, so we were wondering- That is-"

Hermione cuts him off coldly, "You want us to tutor you guys. I don't see why we should. You've been horrible to Mike all year. Besides, the only competent Professor we've had in DADA since our first year is Professor Lupin, you should be used to self-study."(1)

Seamus flounders for a moment, "But- Our OWLs!"

Hermione's glare intensifies, "Are neither mine nor Mike's problem. Study a real defense textbook, find an out of the way abandoned classroom, and practice. That's all the help you're getting."

Seamus recoils as though she slapped him. For a few minutes he is silent, then he switches tactics, "But it's about more than our OWLs. You guys said it yourself, the world is a dangerous place."

Hermione's glare hardens and becomes colder, "As long as you do as I told you, and become good enough to pass your OWLs you'll be fine."

Seamus stares at her for a minute, "Will that protect us against Death Eaters?"

Fury bursts up in Hermione's eyes, "You don't even believe Mike!"

Seamus stares at her, "But you do. If you really believe Voldemort's back, you'd help us learn to defend ourselves."

Hermione falters, torn between her fury at Seamus and the others for their attitude towards Mike, and the truth of that statement. Mike sighs, "Enough Hermione. You don't have to tutor them, but I will."

A mixture of smug victory and relief passes over Seamus' face, "Thank you. I knew you'd see things my way. You-"

Mike glares at him, and Seamus immediately shuts up, "I will help, but we're doing it my way. If anyone has a problem with that I suggest you tell them not to even bother showing up, because I'll just kick them out. And another thing, when you go back over there you will make it perfectly clear that if they show up I, and possibly Hermione, are your teachers. I don't care what your personal feelings are towards us, you will be respectful and do what you're told. Failing to do so will also get you kicked out. Do I make myself clear?"

Seamus swallows thickly, nervous once again under that piercing gaze, "Crystal."

Mike tilts his head slightly and gives a tiny nod, "Good. Now go away, Hermione and I are reading. I'll tell you once I've got everything set up."

Seamus nods rapidly, then beats a hasty retreat. Hermione glares at his back, then turns back to Mike once Seamus and his group are gone, "Ignoring the fact we just knowingly allowed ourselves to be manipulated, just how precisely do you intend to tutor a bunch of students right under Umbridge's nose?"

Mike raises an eyebrow at her, "I don't."

Hermione frowns in confusion, "Then how, precisely, do you expect to get away with this?"

Mike grins at her, "My dear Hermione, surely you are aware that Professor Flitwick is a dueling champion?"

Hermione's frown deepens briefly, "Yes, of course I am, but I don't see- Oh. Oh. You're going to pose the lessons as a dueling club! It would, after all, be quite natural to teach defensive and even a few offensive spells in such a club. With a dueling champion supervising the club, there would be practically no danger to the students, so it would be unlikely that Umbridge would have a solid reason to disband it!"

Mike's grin widens, "Precisely. Plus, if we can get Professor Flitwick to supervise it would even be safer than the quidditch matches. With my status as the Heir to an Ancient and Royal house, Umbridge will have to be fair to me. If I bring up how safe it is compared to quidditch, Umbridge will either have to let the club start, or stop the matches. And we both know the sort of riot Umbridge will have on her hands if she stops quidditch."

Hermione purses in lips in worry, "But what if she tries to turn it around on you? What if she stops quidditch then puts the blame on you? Politely of course, Mr. Important Heir."

Mike shakes his head, "Even then, I could still simply explain what actually happened. Everyone hates Umbridge far more than they distrust me over the Voldemort issue. They'll believe me over her, and it'll still be on her head."

Hermione dips her head in thought. She is silent for a few minutes. Mike lets her think it over to try and find anymore loopholes that Umbridge could use. If Hermione thought of anymore, they'd have a chance to counter them ahead of time.

Eventually though, Hermione slowly nods, "That… just might work actually. So, I suppose we need to pay a visit to Professor Flitwick. I'm sure he'll be on board with the idea. He doesn't like Umbridge or the way she's knowingly neglecting our schooling."

Mike gathers his things, then grins at Hermione again, "I know. Well then, I guess it's time to go have a chat with Professor Flitwick." He and Hermione stand up, and Mike offers his arm with another grin, "Shall we my lady?"

Hermione places her hand into the crook of his elbow with barely concealed amusement, "We shall my good sir. Lead the way."

November 26th, 2023- 386 days since SAO launch:

Hanna and Kirito were waiting for Argo to show up at the inn they were staying at. They'd heard a rumor about a revival item, and wanted to ask her about it. Seeing Argo enter, Hanna waves at her to get her attention. When she reaches their table, Argo sits next to Kirito, "So what do the love birds need from the poor humble Rat?"

Kirito flushes lightly and she rolls her eyes. Ever since they got together, Argo teased them mercilessly. Honestly, she was just glad Argo had stopped making little comments about the quality of her information. She had been insufferably smug at first, since she'd told them both so many times, but neither believed her.

Argo opens her mouth to make some other comment, but Hanna kicks her under the table, "We've heard a rumor we want to ask you about. The rumors about a certain event that's supposed to occur on Christmas eve with a particular drop item."

Argo shrugs, "Nothing really, expect what you already know, if the way you worded your question is any indication. I haven't heard anything about a location or even anything to confirm the rumor."

Kirito sighs, "So it might just be some leftover dialog from the beta then."

Argo nods, "It's entirely possible. Tell you what though, if I hear anything more you two will be the first to know, for a fee of course."

She hums, "Alright. We appreciate it, Argo."

Argo snorts, "You better. I won't give you details unless you pay me, but you aren't the only ones asking. I've got quite a few people who are keenly interested in it."

Hanna narrows her eyes, "I don't like the sound of that. Thousand?"

Argo grins, "Normally? I'd say twelve at least, but I like you Hanna, so a thousand is fine." The thousand col was quickly exchanged, then Argo continues, "I've had inquiries from KOB info gatherers of course, but they seem to believe it's just a rumor. Klein asked about it, but he seemed more concerned about you two going after it than actually wanting it. I'd actually worry about the DDA if you're going after it. They've been very interested in it. They've sent a messenger every day since learning about it. You two know how those guys are. They'll go to great lengths to acquire a rare item, even beating up other players. While I'm sure you two can take care of yourselves, be mindful of them." There are a few moments of silence, then Argo receives a message. She reads it over quickly, then sighs, "And that would be Asuna wanting to meet up and ask. I guess she doesn't quite believe the rumors are leftover dialog. Anyway, I've gotta go. It was nice seeing you two."

Kirito nods, "You too Argo, stay safe." Argo nods with a smile then leaves. They sit there in silence with each of them lost in their thoughts for a few minutes, then Kirito nudges her to get her attention, "If it's real, Argo is bound to dig up the needed information to find it eventually. The only real question is if we're going for it."

She shrugs, "I definitely want to."

Kirito sighs, "The problem is that the quest will undoubtedly be difficult already, and with the way the DDA will inevitably be after us for it... but if it really is a revival item... It would definitely be worth it."

She hums in agreement, "Oh for sure, the problem is, I just don't see how it could be an actual revival item. The NerveGear fries our brain, a digital item in a fake world can't undo that."

Kirito sighs tiredly, "I know. I suppose the only way to find the answers would be to go for the item. That would get the DDA focused on us though, and if the item really is just leftover dialog they won't believe us if we say we don't have it." He pauses momentarily, but Hanna doesn't interrupt him, she can see he was thinking something over. A moment later Kirito refocuses on her, "That said... If there is even a tiny chance the item is somehow real, I think the risk is more than worth it."

She shrugs, "The DDA is already interested in our items, they definitely suspect my claw is a rare drop at least. A bit more heat from them shouldn't matter. The difficulty of the quest is barely worth mentioning. We take on difficult quests all the time, this is no different. So yea, if Argo can dig up more info before the event ends, I say we go for it."

Kirito smiles gently at her and nods. She grins then leans over and gives him a quick kiss. She laughs when he turns bright red. She finds it rather funny how embarrassed Kirito gets when it comes to pda. He always becomes flustered and turns redder than a tomato. Still grinning in mirth, Hanna pulls her flustered mate up and begins leading him out of the inn they were staying at. Night was approaching, so with their meeting with Argo finished, it was time to head to the labyrinth.

December 24th, 2023- 414 days since SAO launch:

Kirito and Hanna were sitting on a bench when Argo walked up to them. She doesn't waste any time with greetings and immediately begins explaining, "Sorry I'm cutting it so close. So the Christmas event is supposed to take place under a certain fir tree on this floor, which is why I asked you to come here. Apparently, the event is triggered if at least one player is standing near this tree when the clock strikes midnight. If a player is there at that time, a sub-boss will appear. Defeat him and the rumored revival item will supposedly drop. Since I was almost late and I still don't know the precise location, or can even confirm if the item is real, the info is free this time. You two should get going if you're going to try for the item, it's 11:18. Not much time left to find the fir tree."

Hanna shares a glance with Kirito, then they both shoot to their feet. Hanna flashes Argo a quick grin, "Thanks Argo, we'll see you later, but we gotta go!"

Argo just waves as they take off. Once they were out of town Hanna glances at Kirito, "Under a certain fir…. Do you suppose it's that one? The enormous one we found in October?"

Kirito smiles at her, "Yeah, I do. Though I suppose we'll only get confirmation if we're in the right place when the boss is supposed to show up. If it doesn't we were wrong."

Hanna sighs, "An all or nothing guess huh? Oh well. Can't be helped, I suppose." Kirito hums in agreement. For a few minutes they run in silence, then something catches Hanna's attention and she stops, "Kirito!"

Her mate quickly glances at her, "I know. Klein! What are you following us for?"

There's a beat of silence, then Klein and a few members of Fuurinkazan appear. Klein at least has the decency to look sheepish at getting caught, "You two are as perceptive as always." Hanna makes an irritated growling noise, and Klein holds up his hands in a placating gesture, "Look, I'm sorry we were following you guys, but we were worried. None of us have any way of knowing how strong this boss is. I figured you two would go after it anyway though, and I was worried you two would get in over your heads."

Hanna sighs, "Thank you for your concern, but Kirito and I can handle ourselves." She narrows her eyes as she notices something else, "However, it would seem Kirito and I weren't the only ones being followed."

A moment later members of the DDA revealed themselves. Klein drew his katana as he and Fuurinkazan turned to face the DDA members, "Damn! I'm sorry you two, I didn't even notice them following us. I know you two still want to go after the boss, so we'll hold them off. Just be careful. Please. I don't want you two dying over some stupid item that probably doesn't exist."

Kirito nods even though Klein has his back to them, "Don't worry Klein, we'll be careful. We'll see you later!"

With that, they take off. Almost immediately sounds of fighting breaks out behind them, but Hanna doesn't hear anyone approaching, so she assumes Klein and Fuurinkazan weren't letting anyone pass them. For 25 minutes they ran through the snow covered forest. Hanna begins to worry they wouldn't make it in time, as it was now 11:51. Only nine minutes left.

She purses her lips momentarily as she watches her clock turn to 11:52, then she turns back to her mate, "Kirito! Only eight minutes!"

Kirito briefly loses his footing at her warning. Hanna had been following a few steps behind, but quickly catches up and grabs his upper arm, righting him without stopping. As soon as he regains his footing, Kirito glances down and to the right to check the time. With a quick curse he grabs her hand and sped up, "Come on! If I push my agility stat to the limit, we might just make it!"

She glances at the clock again, then shakes her head. Moving past Kirito so he was no longer leading her, she begins tugging at him as she speeds up, "We won't make it at the rate we're going. Just hold on, and try to keep up, or at least keep your feet under you and moving. As long as the system thinks you're running, I shouldn't get debuffs to my agility stat since I'm not technically carrying you. Are you ready? I'm gonna speed up more."

Kirito tightens his grip, "I'm ready. Let's go!"

She nods, then speeds up to the limit of her agility stat. She feels the pull on her arm increase as she begins dragging Kirito, but as she doesn't get a debuff to her agility, she figures she was right. The system still considered Kirito to be running on his own, even though she was actually dragging him.

A few minutes later they arrive at the fir tree. She quickly glances at her clock. 11:58, they'd made it. Sharing a glance with Kirito, they both open their menus and pull out teleport and healing crystals, then put them in their pockets for quick access. With that they both draw their weapons and tensely begin waiting. It isn't long before she hears bells. Sharing a confused glance with Kirito they both look up. Off in the distance approaching the tree was a flying sleigh.

She stares incredulously, "Oh you have got to be kidding me. I personally never believed in Santa Claus, but really Kayaba? That's just wrong."

Kirito makes a vaguely agreeing strangled noise, and Hanna nearly giggles. That sound was hilarious, she'd have to see if she could get her mate to make it again some time. At that point the sleigh was over the tree and something jumped off. What landed in front of them was a twisted version of jolly saint Nick, its health bars quickly filled and its name appeared, «Nicholas the Renegade».

Just as she begins to grow serious for the fight she hears Kirito mutter under his breath, "All those years doing my best to be on the nice list and now I gotta kill Santa? Seriously? I may not believe in Santa anymore, but if I did I'd be screwed. Killing Santa is definitely naughty list material if I've ever heard any."

She can't help snickering at that. She quickly has to dodge out of the way of an attack, then she glances at her mate, "Focus Kirito, and stop making me laugh, this is serious. You can worry about the repercussions of killing a virtual Santa later."

Kirito huffs as he launches an attack at the boss, "I just said I don't believe in him anymore, didn't I? I just think it's wrong, you know? Kayaba is even more messed up in the head than I thought, making players kill Santa. Santa, honestly. What is wrong with you Kayaba?"

Hanna sighs as her mate descended into muttering too low even for her to hear. At least he doesn't seem to be letting his little tirade distract him, he was fighting as well as he usually does, and he switches when she calls for him to. She supposes she'd just have to deal with it for now. She'd probably end up consoling him later. For someone who didn't believe in Santa, he was really worked up over killing a twisted virtual representation of him. She swore on everything she believed in and loved, if this undid all of her hard work in raising Kirito's opinion of himself, she was going to strangle Kayaba.

An hour and a half later Hanna and a still mumbling Kirito make their way back to the clearing they'd left Klein and Fuurinkazan in. They were scattered around, most of them sitting or lying down, and they all look exhausted. Klein looks over when they walk up, he blinks rapidly in confusion when he sees the muttering sulking Kirito, "Uhh…. Do I even want to know what's wrong with him?"

Hanna doesn't even get a chance to open her mouth before Kirito loudly bursts out, "Dude, it was Santa! The boss was Santa! I had to kill Santa! My childhood is ruined!"

Klein gapes for a few moments then shakes his head, "You're joking right? It wasn't actually Santa, right? Well, I mean a virtual version of him." Kirito doesn't bother to reply, he just gives Klein a look of pure misery. Klein shakes his head again, "Dude, you are so on the naughty list."

She groans, "Not you too." She pauses as she notices the other members of Fuurinkazan nodding in agreement to Klein's statement, and Kirito all but wilting. She pinches the bridge of her nose with a sigh, "You're all idiots. Come on Kirito, let's get back. That fight was exhausting."

Under his breath Kirito mumbles, "And emotionally draining. Seriously, my childhood. I'm never going to be able to look at anything Santa related without feeling guilty again. I'm doomed to the naughty list forever. I've probably even damned my descendants to the naughty list too!"

Hanna sighs. Her mate can be an idiot sometimes. As they near the town plaza to teleport back to the floor their inn was on, Hanna sees something that gives her an idea that would hopefully get Kirito to drop the Santa issue. The plaza had a large Christmas tree near the middle, and there were strings with decorations hanging from them crisscrossing all over the plaza. Hanna glances up then yanks Kirito over. Having momentarily stopped his muttering when she yanks him, she kisses him fiercely.

A few moments later she starts to pull away, and Kirito whines and follows after her. Hanna laughs lightly, then gently pushes on his chest. Kirito finally pulls away with a pout, "What was that for? More importantly, why'd you stop?"

She points upwards with a smile, "There's mistletoe all over the plaza." Then her smile turns into a grin, "And I stopped because we're out in the open. I don't care if anyone sees us, but last I checked you got embarrassed about such things."

Kirito gains a hilariously conflicted look, being torn between wanting another kiss and the fact they were in public. She laughs again then give him a quick peck, "Come on. The solution to your conundrum is to just get back to our room at the inn. There's no one to see us kissing there."

Kirito visibly perks up, then grabs her hand eagerly and starts lightly tuging her along, "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go back!"

Laughing again, she moves up so she's walking next to him, then she lets go of his hand and wraps her arm around his. She smiles at him, "Kirito?" He makes a questioning hum, so she continues, "Merry Christmas."

Kirito pauses as he turns to her. He glances around with flushed cheeks, then kisses her quickly, "Merry Christmas, Hanna."

Hanna was checking her equipment durability as Nicholas had been quite a heavy hitter. Her claw was fine, but she'd need to repair the rest of her equipment before they went to the labyrinth tomorrow. Her attention is pulled from her task as Kirito hesitantly begins speaking, "Hanna? So, listen, I've been thinking about something recently and now seemed like a good time to bring it up, since we just got the revival item and all."

She turns to him, slightly worried, "What is it?"

He clears his throat, "Look, I know it may seem a bit… silly or rushed, since we're in a virtual world and not a real one, and because we're just teens, but I was wondering if you- I mean I just- that is- Would you marry me?"

He blurts the last part out, and Hanna's mouth drops open in shock. That… was not what she was expecting at all. She forces the shock away when she sees Kirito begin to flush and fidget, he was definitely taking her reaction the wrong way. She smiles as she reaches out and runs her fingers through his bangs then trails her hand down and cups his cheek.

Leaning forward she kisses him briefly, but lingers close when she pulls away, "Silly Kirito. That's not even a real question. The answer is obviously yes. Always yes."

He smiles widely, pulling her over to him even as he flops back on the bed, "Awesome. For a minute there I thought I might've screwed things up by rushing this."

She rolls her eyes, then adjusts until she can tuck her head under his chin, "No, but I will admit to being taken completely by surprise and slightly confused."

She feels Kirito pause, but doesn't continue. She knows he was replaying their conversation in his head, trying to figure out what it was that confused her, "It was the mention of the revival item wasn't it?" She nods slightly, "You know married couples share inventory, right? I just meant that while we have the revival item, it's in your inventory, where I can't get to it if anything happened to you. I've been trying to figure out how best to bring up my question, and it seemed as good an opener as any." He pauses, then starts muttering to himself, "Though now that I think about it, maybe it wasn't. It could've been seen as me trying to coerce you into saying yes…"

Even though he trails off, she can practically hear him continue the line of thought in his head, so she smacks his chest lightly to get him off that train of thought. He mutters an apology, then comfortable silence settles over them. Twenty minutes of thinking it over later, Hanna shifts after finally reaching a decision, "Marzanna."

Kirito, who had begun rubbing her back at some point, stops and asks in complete confusion, "What? Err… I've no idea what that's supposed to mean."

She opens her mouth to explain, but remembers a certain conversation they'd had about goddess', so abandons the straightforward answer she was going to give him. She's unable to stop herself from grinning as she replies, "Marzanna. It's a goddess of witchcraft, winter, and death. She's also associated with nightmares."

Hanna knows Kirito, perhaps even better than she knew herself, so she doesn't need to see his expression to know that he finds the explanation familiar. She can all but feel him racking his brain for the answer, but she doesn't need to know him well to tell when he remembers. The sharp intake of breath and the way he freezes are a dead giveaways. Tucked under his chin she hears it quite clearly when he swallows thickly before speaking hesitantly, "Your name." It isn't a question, but she nods anyway as she finally lifts herself up to look at him. He gazes at her in thought as he murmurs her name, testing the way it rolls off his tongue, though his accent changes it a bit from what she's used to, "Marzanna."

She blushes slightly at the look of pure love and slight awe Kirito gives her, "Yeah. Don't think you have to tell me your own name or anything I just… wanted to tell you mine."

Kirito smiles at her, "Who says I don't want to tell you mine?" She blushes a bit, then freezes as Kirito continues, "Kazuto. Kirigaya Kazuto. Though, with you being an American, I suppose by your customs it'd be Kazuto Kirigaya."

She returns his smile while playfully replying, "Well, it's nice to meet you Mr. Kirigaya. Though if we're going for full introductions I should've informed you that my last name is Sparda."

Kirito stares at her blankly for a moment, "Please tell me you did not just say your last name is Sparta, as in the city in ancient Greece and spartan soldiers."(2) He pauses then eyes her, "Though that might explain quite a bit."

She smacks him in the chest lightly for the last comment, "No, though admittedly that's not the first time someone has made that mistake. It's Sparda with a D not a T."

He hums in thought, "Sparda Marzanna." Then he gains a mischievous look, "Nope. Still think Sparta suits you better, or at least makes more sense." She smacks him again, and can't help but be amused when he makes a big show of acting like it hurt. Eventually she rolls her eyes and distracts him with a kiss, though it's not long until she is the one distracted.

January 15th, 2024- 436 days since SAO launch:

Dolores furiously watches everything going on in front of her. Sparda, the insolent mudblood, and the disgusting halfbreed were setting up for the Merlin damned dueling club. She'd been furious when the formal request for the club was received by the headmaster, and had immediately contacted the Minister after hearing Sparda's quidditch defense. This was precisely what Minister Fudge had sent her to Hogwarts to prevent, but between the Sparda's heritage as an Ancient and Royal house, and the absolute riot she'd have on her hands if she tried to cancel quidditch, her hands were tied.

The Minister was understandably horribly panicked by the turn of events, but eventually after she made him calm down he'd ordered her to delay the club's creation as long as she could while he attempted to find or, if he had to, create a way to put a stop to it. The first attempt to delay it, was to question whether the filthy halfbreed really had the necessary skills to ensure the students safety. After all, he'd been out of the dueling circuit for at least 20 years. Her inquiries were not received well by anyone, and even worse were immediately refuted.

Then she made a new educational decree that stated that official club applications had to be approved by the High Inquisitor rather than the headmaster, and that all previous clubs were disbanded, therefore requiring new applications to be submitted to her for approval. She immediately approved the house quidditch teams first as they fell under the definition of what counted as a club per the educational decree. She didn't want a riot after all. She'd looked over the dueling clubs application and happily denied it on the grounds that she found it unfair that it was an exclusive club that wouldn't let just anyone join. She had hoped, but knew it was unlikely, that might be the end of it. She was entirely unsurprised to receive a new application for the dueling club, now open to anyone over third year, as was a school requirement of all clubs and extracurricular activities. She again managed to deny it, this time on the grounds that the club took place too early, and would take place during some of the very last class of the day for the seventh years.

After she hadn't received a new application for over a week, she dared to hope that perhaps Sparda had been beaten down. She now realized how foolish that hope had been.

The next thing to occur was Sparda going through the trouble of making an actual appointment with her. Not knowing what he wanted up speak to her about, she accepted out of curiosity. He and the mudblood brought the application in personally, so as to be able to fix any reason she could think of to deny them a third time. She'd nitpicked at the application for half an hour with the two countering any excuse she could think of immediately. In a final attempt to put a stop to the club, she attempted to deny them under the claim that the club would undermine her and her lessons as the DADA professor. That was smoothly shot down by Sparda. He said he was willing to briefly go over the legality of each spell he taught, and that if she ever taught a specific spell in class that he would be more than happy to go over it further during the club. With no other options left, she was forced to approve the club.

Which brought her to now. She'd insisted that she have the right to observe the club whenever she wished. She was hoping to find a reason to disband the club, though she wasn't optimistic that she would. The three running the club, Sparda, the mudblood, and that filthy halfbreed, were finishing setting up for the club.

Mike glances around to make sure there is nothing else that needs to be done before they open the doors and officially start the club. Beside him, Hermione purses her lips, "Mike, are you sure it's a good idea to let Umbridge be here? She'll surely be looking for any excuse to stop us."

He glances at her, "She insisted. She wouldn't have approved the club otherwise, so there's nothing to be done about it."

Professor Flitwick nodded lightly, "Indeed. It shouldn't be an issue though. As long as club members stick to the rules we set up, Umbridge should find no reason to disband the club. Now, I believe that's all the preparation needed to be done, so go ahead and let the students in when you're ready."

He glances at Hermione and nods, silently telling her he was ready. Without hesitation, she moves over to the door and opens it. Students immediately begin filling into the room. Some hesitate at seeing him on the raised dueling platform, and a few incredibly rude students turn around and leave the moment they realize he was in charge of the club. There was doubtful murmuring among the students, no doubt questioning if they should allow the nutcase who claimed Voldemort was back to teach them.

There are a few who stood out though. The Weasley twins and Lee Jordan caught his eye first. The twins both flash encouraging grins and Lee gives him a thumbs up. Next to catch his attention are Ronald Weasley and Zacharias Smith, both scowling fiercely. Though whereas Ronald looks away with gritted teeth when Mike looks at him, Smith glares at him as soon as their gazes lock. Then the runes Hermione put on the door notifies him of an animagus. Ignoring Smith, he turns his gaze to the door, where Malfoy had just entered with Crabbe and Goyle. Mike tilts his head, while Hermione had threatened to reveal that Rita Skeeter was an unregistered animagus, she'd only demanded Rita report the truth. Chances were that Malfoy and Skeeter believed he'd start going on about Voldemort. If he did, Skeeter wouldn't need to lie to write something nasty about him that fit with the smear campaign on Dumbledore and himself. He had no intention of even mentioning Voldemort, though even if he did, he wondered how Skeeter planned to convince her editor to put it in the Daily Prophet. The Prophet had been made aware of his new official status as Heir to the Sparda family, and while they hadn't made the information public, they had quietly stopped the smear campaign against him and shifted their entire focus to Dumbledore.

He glances at Hermione. She looks very annoyed since the runes have informed her as well, so he nudges her with his arm. When she gives him a questioning look, he gives her a 'don't worry about it' shrug. She sighs, but nods. Turning back to the assembled students, Mike steps forward and clears his throat, "Good afternoon. The first meeting of the dueling club will now begin. First of all-"

Mike isn't really surprised to be cut off by someone, even less so considering the Ravenclaw and her friends had been giving him doubtful looks since they came in, "Wait a second, are you really leading the club Potter? When Professor Flitwick announced a dueling club we thought it'd be run by a Professor like the Astronomy club or the Ancient Runes club." The girl gestures to herself and her friends, "I don't know about everyone else here, but we're sixth years, how are we supposed to learn anything from a fifth year?"

He sighs, "What's your name?"

"Heather Hodhedge."

Mike nods, "Miss Hodhedge, Professor Flitwick will be helping me out, but if you still feel I can't teach you anything I'd be more than happy to prove you wrong. A duel should suffice seeing as that's what this club is, right? If I win, I'll have proven there are things I can teach you, of course you're still welcome to leave anyway."

Heather pauses in thought for a moment, then nods and makes her way over to the dueling platform. Hermione and Flitwick step off the platform, and Flitwick moves to activate the rune based safety wards placed around the platform. Mike stops him by holding up his hand, "Please wait a moment Professor. I'd like to even the duel a bit. Hmm, let's see. Zacharias Smith, why don't you join Miss Hodhedge."

Both of them jerk, and Heather glares, "Excuse me? Do you think I need someone else's help to beat you? You're even more arrogant than I thought."

He smiles lightly at her, "Humor me for a moment."

Heather purses her lips, but nods tensely. Smith scowls as he climbs onto the platform, "I don't see why we have to duel you together. I could take you myself."

Mike tilts his head at them still smiling, "We'll see. Go ahead Professor."

Flitwick nods and activates the wards, "Right, I'll be brief. The wards will stop any spells from leaving the platform, this is for the safety of everyone else. Be careful though, spells will bounce off the wards. Also, for duels like this with more than two people, the wards will prevent anything bad happening via someone getting hit with multiple spells at the same time, so don't worry. I'm overseeing all duels, so it's over when I say it is. If you don't stop when I tell you to, you'll be kicked out of the club immediately. The duel is over when one side is either knocked out, is unable to continue, or forfeits. Understood?" The three of them nod, "Then if you're ready? Bow to your opponent. You may begin."

Mike casually sidesteps the spell Hodhedge immediately sends his way, then twists out of the way of Smith's stunner. For a few minutes he easily dodges their spells without even bothering to bring his wand up. After five minutes, he stops. Smith had doubled over heaving in breaths a minute ago, and Hodhedge had paused, now similarly out of breath due to all the spells they'd cast in rapid succession.

He tilts his head at them, "You two would be doing much better if you'd work together."

Smith glares at him still panting heavily, "Sh... Shut... up... We are…. working….. to-… together…."

Mike shakes his head, "No, you aren't. You both just happen to be casting at the same opponent. Personally, if I had a dueling partner, I'd have one of us focus on offense and the other on defense."

Hodhedge frowns, "You weren't casting."

The protest sounds weak to everyone in the room, even Hodhedge herself is her expression is any indication. Mike raises an eyebrow, "Are you saying you would've worked together if I had been? I don't think that's true Miss Hodhedge. Though even if that was the case, you could've just had the person on defense acting as support. Have them cast a tripping jinx, or a leg lock, really anything to stop me from dodging the offense's spells would've worked. You two look like you've caught your breath, feel free to continue whenever."

There was a pause, then Hodhedge shifts, "My offensive magic isn't terrible, but I'm better at defense. So unless you'd prefer to be defense?"

Smith scowls, "No. I want to be offence."

Hodhedge nods. Mike grins, "Well, if you two have that all worked out, I suppose I should start casting as well. If you're ready?"

His answer was a tripping jinx/Stunner combo. He grins as he deflects the tripping jinx with a small shield on his wand and twists out of the way of the stunner, "That's better! Hodhedge, be a bit more creative with your spells. Smith, surely you know more than stunning and disarming spells?"

He smiles approvingly at Hodhedge when she sprays his feet and legs with Aguamenti, then freezes him in place. He blocks Smith's follow-up stunner, then quickly breaks free with a low powered Elido he'd learned from his sister.

The next few minutes pass in much the same way, with Hodhedge becoming increasingly creative with her spells and him continuously attempting to get Smith to do so as well with no results. Eventually, he decides the duel has gone on long enough and casts a spell he'd learned from Wæter Wiccedom. The spell in question conjured a sphere of water(3), the size of the sphere entirely dependent on the amount of power put into the spell, and Mike put enough in to encase both of them. Smith immediately drops his wand in shock, and Mike quickly summons it. Hodhedge manages to keep a hold of her wand for a moment, and nearly succeeds in casting a non verbal bubble head charm, but ends up losing her wand to the turbulent water. He quickly summons Hodhedge's wand as well, then lets the spell go.

Getting rid of the water with another spell, he nods at Hodhedge, "That was good. Clever use of your spells. Distracting me with Avis then stopping my casting for a minute with Langlock was particularly ingenious, though it would've been better if you'd followed up by freezing me in place as you did earlier, or tripped me. Other than that, an overall outstanding performance Miss Hodhedge. Mr. Smith, you could've benefited from being a bit more creative. Hodhedge created more than a few openings for you, but you wasted them by being predictable with your stunners and disarming charms. You two can step down now."

He dries the two off and hands them their wands back as they pass him. Hodhedge accepts hers with a respectful nod, and he smiles in return. Smith on the other hand all but rips his wand out of Mike's hand with an angry growl. Mike frowns at him, but says nothing. He surveys the room briefly. It would seem that though he'd quelled most of the students' doubts he'd pissed of Smith and Umbridge. That could be problematic. Smith, from what little he knew, could be a pain in the ass. Umbridge was more worrisome, especially since she was already against him, but her hands were mostly tied since he'd been officially named the Sparda heir.

Mike sighs. He'd just have to be careful and take the problems as they come.

February 22nd 2024- 474 days since SAO launch:

Hanna and Kirito are on their way to the labyrinth of the 50th floor, which had just been opened three days ago, when a desperate man begging everyone who passed by to help him catches their attention. She and Kirito share a glance before approaching.

She gives the man a wary look, while Kirito steps towards him, "Err, are you alright?"

The man whirls around to them desperately, "Please help me, please."

She shifts, "What do you need?"

The man glances away briefly, "Everyone who's bothered to listen for even a moment has called me a fool, but I need help bringing criminals to justice."

Hanna and Kirito both tense slightly. They'd finish hearing the man out, but if he was wanting them to kill anyone, they'd refuse. Kirito looks hesitant, "Who are these criminals and what exactly did they do?"

The man sniffs lightly, tears in his eyes, "They're an orange guild known as Titan's Hand. Eight days ago, they attacked me and my guild, the Silver Flags, and demanded that we give them all of our belongings. At first we refused, as we believed that since they were only an orange guild and not red that they wouldn't kill us, but we were wrong. They killed our guild leader when we wouldn't cooperate. After they'd taken everything, even our clothes, they killed everyone but me. They told me it was so that I could spread the word not to defy their guild. When I tried to tell them that I couldn't tell anyone anything if I was dead, and that I wouldn't make it back without any equipment, they laughed at me. Their guild leader, a woman named Rosalia, found it particularly amusing. She gave me back my sword alone, and told me to try my hardest to make it back to town without dying. Then they left me there. I ran as fast as I could and avoided fighting as much as possible and somehow made it back."

She eyes him for a moment, trying to tell if he was lying, then decides he was being honest, "And now you want justice. What exactly do you want us to do?"

The man looks her in the eye, "You've heard of the prison on the first floor, correct? How it's programmed to be impossible for players with orange or red cursors to leave?" She shares another glance with Kirito before nodding at the man, "I've bought a Corridor Crystal and set the destination as the prison. I just need someone to track this guild down and somehow force or trick them to go through. I just don't want them to be able to hurt or kill anyone else until this stupid game is cleared and they can face the court of law for murder."

She can see that Kirito has already decided he wants to help the man, but stops him before he can agree. There was something about the man's story that was bothering her, "Wait a second. If you were robbed of everything but your sword a mere eight days ago, how did you afford a corridor Crystal?"

The man startles them when he starts crying at her question. After a few minutes he calms enough to give a shaky answer, "I've never really been a social person, so there's never been anyone I could really call my friend, and my brother was the only family I had left. He was playing this game with me. To be specific, he was the leader of our guild. I'm sure you've heard of «Argo the Rat» and her rather famous ability to acquire any item or information you need. After losing everything, the only thing I had left was the possibility of getting justice and stopping those criminals from repeating what they did to me and my guild to anyone else. So after I made it back to town, I sold my weapon for some lower class gear, and threw myself into grinding in the hopes of purchasing a Corridor Crystal from her. It's not like I had anything left to lose, so I wasn't cautious in my grinding in the slightest. Two days ago I finally got enough Col to purchase the Crystal. I've been staying by the teleport gate on the frontlines begging anyone who'd listen to help me since."

She can tell the man was telling the truth, and she feels for the man's plight, she does. She wants to help him. That said, they had no idea how long this would take, and they couldn't afford to spend a lot of time helping this man. She glances at Kirito again, he was all but pleading with his eyes for them to help the man. She sighs and hold up a hand at him briefly, asking him to give her a few more moments.

She turns back to the man who was glancing between them, clearly a bit confused at their interaction. She clears her throat to get his attention, "I'm still not sure if we can help you, so I'd like to ask you some questions." The man nods, "What can you tell me about the guild itself?"

The man sighs, "Not much. As I said previously, a woman named Rosalia is their guild leader. She's a red headed spear user, and the only one that I know of with a green cursor. When we initially saw her she appeared to be fighting an orange player. We approached to help, but were ambushed by six other orange players who'd been hiding. So I know they have at least eight members including Rosalia, but I don't know if there are more."

Kirito hums, "Probably not. That new red guild, Laughing Coffin, is the first criminal guild to recruit en masse. Up till they came along, the largest criminal guild I'd heard of had twelve players, but the average is seven."

She nods, "Do you have any idea where we could find this guild? It doesn't need to be an exact location, just a floor would be helpful."

The man glances away, "Not precisely. I paid Argo to look into the guild, and in the past two months all their activity has been on the 35th, 36th, and 37th floors. My guild was attacked on the 35th floor if that helps any."

She frowns slightly. "Three floors was a lot of ground to cover…"

The man bites his lip when she trails off unsurely, "I've heard they're extremely interested in rare items. Particularly ones worth a lot of Col."

She snorts, "Most everyone is these days it seems. Still, it helps a bit. If we can find what floor they're on, we can let it 'slip' that we have a particularly rare item. It might lure them out." She thinks for a minute more, then sighs, "You realize that even if we find them, there's no guarantee we can get them all? Anyone in particular you'd like us to prioritize?"

The man nods, "I know. I'd be content with the capture of Rosalia and a particular guild member. I don't know his name, but he has black hair, wears glasses, and fights with a curved sword and buckler."

She thinks about that for another minute, "Alright. Why them in particular if I might ask?"

The man looks down, "I'm not foolish enough to think they'll stop unless they're all caught, but throwing Rosalia in prison might slow them down. And the black haired man… The black haired man is the one who killed my brother."

Kirito contemplates the man for a minute, "You know, most people would want revenge in the manner of 'eye for an eye'. They'd want him dead. I'm glad you're not asking for us to do that though. I want to help you, but I couldn't if you would want them dead."

The man looks at the ground, "To be honest, I did at first. Originally I wanted to set the Corridor Crystal to someplace that would undoubtedly kill them, but as I was trying to figure out how to set a waypoint on my map for the Crystal without getting myself killed, I realized that my brother wouldn't want that. He wouldn't want me to stoop to their level. He always believed strongly in the justice system, so I decided to do what he would've done if our positions had been reversed. I'll let you check the location of the Crystal if you don't believe me before you make your decision, I'll understand why you wouldn't want to trust me. But similarly, I'll inform you that I'm not stupid enough to blindly trust other people. I've locked the Crystal's destination to the prison, so if you're just trying to trick me out of my Crystal it's useless. I've already had three people try."

She nods, "I'd like to check the Crystal please."

The man nods back, then opens his menu and manipulates it briefly. A moment later it becomes viewable and he pushes it over to them to read the Crystals description, which as one with its location already locked, states it on the screen. Hanna looks it over before nodding in satisfaction. Then she glances at Kirito. He was back to pleading with his eyes, so she sighs, "Alright, we'll try to help. Though we can only spare three or four days, so if we don't find them in time we'll have to give up."

The man nods, "I understand. All I can ask is that you do your best."

Kirito smiles lightly, "Of course. How do we contact you when we're done? Even if we fail we'll need to return the Crystal."

The man tilts his head, "I suppose we could temporarily friend each other for conveniences sake if you're fine with that method."

Kirito nods in agreement, and the man quickly sends him a friend request which Kirito accepts after glancing at it, "We'll do our best Manu-san(4)."

The man nods gratefully. She thinks he must've been really desperate to not care that it was Kirito, 'The Black Swordsman' and 'Beater', that he just accepted help from. Either desperate or hoping that Kirito's reputation as one of the best in the game was well earned. It was of course, but a ridiculous number of people questioned it.

February 23, 2024- 475 days since SAO launch:

Hanna follows Kirito through the Forest of Wandering. Since it was the last place the Titan's Hand had been seen, it was where they were looking for clues to their whereabouts first. Night had fallen a while ago, and they had decided that they'd done as much as they could today. On their way back to town though, they hear a loud scream. They barely spare a glance at one another before taking off towards the sound. They arrive just in time to see a tamed beast die.

The young girl it belonged to seems to snap when it dies, and begins attacking the three «Drunken Apes» with reckless fury. She seems particularly intent on one ape, all but ignoring the other two as she charges it. Once that one was dead she turns to the next and charges that one, even though her health was already in the red, and she was charging straight into an attack without seeming to care.(5)

Kirito is quick to rush forward and kill both of the «Drunken Apes» with a one hit high damage sword skill. She moves next to him and scans around for more mobs as he slowly sheathes his sword so as to not frighten the suddenly afraid girl even more. He stares at her for a moment before murmuring quietly, "I'm sorry I couldn't save your friend."

At those words the girl starts crying and her dagger slips from her hand. The moment she spots the feather her familiar had dropped she falls to her knees in front of it. The girl clutches herself while staring at the feather and crying, "Please….. don't leave me… Pina….."

Kirito looks distinctly uncomfortable and hesitates for a moment, "I'm really sorry…."

The girl lifts her gaze to Kirito, then replies with clear difficulty due to her crying, "No….. I was…. being stupid… Thank you….. for saving me….. especially… especially since Pina… died to protect me…."

Kirito hesitates, then quietly asks, "... That feather, does it have an item name by any chance?"

She immediately understands where Kirito's thought process was going, and shoots him a questioning look. They'd already agreed to help Manu, considering what he wanted and why, it would be plain cruel to abandon his task on a whim. And this girl clearly couldn't make it to «The Hill of Memories» on her own.

Kirito ignores her and the girl wipes the tears from her eyes and gives Kirito a confused look. Then she hesitantly reaches for the feather and clicks it. A moment later an item description menu, which was viewable to all players, appears showing its name to be «Pina's Heart».

The girl immediately tears up again, but before she can begin crying a slightly panicked Kirito cuts in, "Wait, wait, wait. If a heart item was left behind then you can revive it."

The girl lifts her head sharply, "What?!"

Kirito nods, "It's something that was discovered recently, so it's still not common knowledge. There's a dungeon in the northern region of the 47th floor called «The Hill of Memories». It's quite hard despite its name… but I've heard that the flower that blooms on the top of it is a familiar revival ite-"

The suddenly hopeful girl shoots to her feet and cuts Kirito off with a shout, "Re-really!?" Then something seems to occur to the girl and she slumps in a disheartened manner muttering to herself, "... But it's the 47th floor….. I'm nowhere near ready for that…"

Kirito hums thoughtfully, "I would offer to go get it for you if you give me the expenses and some pay, but they say that the flower only shows up if the beast tamer who lost their familiar goes…"

The girl smiles warmly at Kirito, "No… I'm happy with the information you gave me. If I work hard to raise my level, someday I'll be able to…"

Kirito is quick to correct her assumption that she has an unlimited amount of time, "You can't do it that way. I've heard that you can only revive the familiar within four days after it was killed. After that, the item's name will change from «Heart» to «Remains»."

The girl looks alarmed, "What?!"

The girl seems to slump into herself, then she picks the feather up and clutches it to her chest as she tears up again. Hanna is completely unsurprised when Kirito gives her an inquiring look, as he isn't going to give any of her stuff away without her consent. She gives an exasperated nod, and he immediately opens a trade window with the girl and begins depositing items. A plus of being married to Kirito was that she could see the window without him having to make it viewable, the equipment he deposited was mostly their spares, though the dagger was a rare drop that they hadn't had a chance to sell yet. They may have gotten in a comfortable enough position to finally be a bit generous, but it still sometimes left her fondly exasperated at how much of a bleeding heart Kirito had.

The girl looks at them in confusion, and Kirito casually explains, "These should cover four or five levels. If we go with you it should be fine."

The girl lifts her gaze from the trade menu to Kirito, "What?" She stares at him in shock for a few moments before murmuring, "Why….. are you being so kind?"

Kirito looks embarrassed, "... I'll only tell you if you promise not to laugh."

The girl nods firmly, "I won't."

Kirito looks away in further embarrassment, "It's because….. you look like my sister….."

Hanna gives Kirito an amused look, and the girl covers her mouth as she tries to hide her giggles. Kirito gives the girl a hurt look and his shoulders slump in a sulking manner, which only makes the girl laugh harder. Kirito pouts and mutters in embarrassment, "You said you wouldn't laugh…."

The girl gets her laughter under control and with a smile says, "Thank you, I hope we get along. You saved me and even offered to do something like this for me…." She turns her gaze back to the trade window and bit her lip briefly before adding col. From the looks of the rather odd number, she'd guess it was all the girl had. The girl cuts into her thoughts hesitantly, "I suppose this is too little, but…"

Kirito shakes his head and removes the Col from the trade window, "No, you don't have to pay. They were spares anyway, and this coincides with why we came here."

The girl hesitates, clearly unsure about just taking their stuff without giving them anything in return. With one last hesitant glance at them, she accepts the trade. Then smiles at them, "Really…. Thank you so much…. Oh! I almost forgot, I'm Silica!"

Kirito smiles lightly, "I'm Kirito, and this is Hanna."

Hanna smiles and nods in greeting, "Nice to meet you."

The girl smiles back broadly, "You as well Hanna-san!"

Hanna looks around with as much curiosity as Kirito, but subtly rather than his open fascination. The only time they came down to the lower floors was when they needed a specific item or wanted to do a quest on a lower floor, both of which were very rare occurrences, and they never hung around afterwards. So neither of them had been around when the mid-level players returned to the towns of the lower floors after a day of questing and grinding.

It was so much more lively than the front line towns, and there were a lot more people. She gets pulled from observing when two male players approach them, or rather, approach Silica. One of them immediately begins talking to her, "Hey Silica! We heard you left your previous party, so we were wondering if you'd thought about joining ours?"

Silica looks uncomfortable, "Errm, well, thank you for the offer but…" She suddenly grabs the arm of Kirito's coat and gestures to Hanna with her other hand, "I'm going to be in a party with these two for a while."

The two males look shocked, and the other one blurts loudly, "What?! Seriously?!"

They look at Kirito suspiciously, completely ignoring her. The first one who talked frowns at Kirito, "You're a new face, but you shouldn't cut in line. We've had our eyes on Silica for a while now."

Kirito rubs the back of his head awkwardly, "Well, I didn't know. Circumstances made this a rather sudden development."

Silica pouts briefly, then gives an apologetic smile to them, "Actually, it's something I requested. He's helping me with something a bit out of my league." She then begins to tug Kirito away calling back to them, "I'm really sorry. I'm send you a message next time, ok?"

She follows silently, she'd practically been forgotten in the entire exchange. It was surreal. The players didn't immediately recognize Kirito and her. Something that hadn't happened since less than a month after they became the first Beaters.

Silica moves quickly, and once they can't see the other players anymore she lets out a sigh as she turns to Kirito, "... I- I'm sorry, for making you go through all this trouble."

Kirito smiles lightly as though he was completely unbothered. He probably was actually, being disliked because he 'stole' someone's party member was a lot less stressful than being hated as a Beater, "It's fine." He gives Silica a look of curiosity, "Silica-san is pretty popular. Barely left your last party and people are already clamoring to get you to join theirs."

Silica glances away, "Please just call me Silica… It's not because I'm popular, they're just trying to get me in their party as a sort of mascot, really. But… I thought that I was special… and tried to exit the forest on my own... and ended up…."

Her eyes begin to tear up again, and Kirito quickly reassures her, "It's alright. We'll get Pina back, I promise, so don't cry, ok?"

Silica wipes her tears and smiles at Kirito. Eventually they come up to a two story inn. Silica seeme to abruptly think of something as she turned to Kirito, flushed in embarrassment, "Ahh, I brought us here without even thinking about it. You probably wanna go back to your own home." Then she tilts her head in thought, "Where is your home anyway?"

Kirito smiled lightly again, "Currently, we are just staying in an inn on the 50th floor."

Silica looks briefly confused, then glances at her and flushes lightly in embarrassment. Huh, she'd been completely forgotten. That hadn't happened since she lived with Potter, though it was much more innocent and benign in this case. Hanna shakes those thoughts from her head and turns to Kirito, "It's too much of a hassle to go all the way to the teleport gate, and teleport up to the 50th, only to come back down in the morning. Let's just stay here tonight."

Kirito nods, and the still flushed Silica smiles a bit as she glances between them, "Ahh, ok!" Then she turns back to the inn and proclaims, "The cheesecake here is really good!"

She was just about to lead them inside when four players exit a shop next door to the inn. They don't seem to notice them, but Silica tenses a bit and looks like she was about to hurry inside when the only female in the group glances their way. The woman grins in a way that immediately makes her suspicious, then calls out, "Oh, is that you Silica?"

Silica tenses a bit more then slowly turns back to the woman, "Yes…"

The other members of the party turn around quickly, there are cries of Silica's name as relief washes over the others faces, and unlike the red heads theirs are clearly genuine.

The woman, a red headed spear user, which only made her more suspicious of her, grins wider, "Ho, you somehow managed to get out of the forest. That's a relief." Then she smirks a bit, "But you're too late. We've already distributed the items."

Silica bristles a bit, "I said I don't need them. I'm busy at the moment so goodbye!"

Something unpleasant flickers across the woman's face, she clearly hates being dismissed in such a manner, then a cruel gleam enters her eyes, "Hmm? Where's that lizard of yours?"

Hanna narrows her eyes. It was pretty common knowledge that you can't put familiars in your inventory or entrust them to other people. This woman undoubtedly knew that. Plus it was exceedingly obvious even to her and Kirito who'd only known Silica for an hour and a half an hour, tops, that the girl loved her familiar deeply. As her previous party member the woman definitely knew that too, if the look in her eyes way any indication was rubbing it in on purpose.

Seeing Silica tear up again, Hanna scowls. Though she'd never put up with it, she'd been on the receiving end of bullying attempts ever since she started her magical education due to her heritage. She would not tolerate it, and especially not when it was such a sweet girl like Silica. Channeling every ounce of her inner Vergil and natural demonic rage, she glares fiercely at the woman, who takes a step back in fright, "Back off bitch."

The woman recoils as if slapped, her party and Silica gape at her in shock, then the red head flushes with anger, "How dare you! Being so rude to a complete stranger!"

She shrugs then points lazily at herself, "American. We have a tendency to speak our minds. On the other hand, if there's something I've noticed about Japanese people in general, it's that you're very conservative and overly polite."

The woman scowls, then looks at Silica, "Hm! Throwing in with such a rude sort. I'd thought better of you Silica."

Silica frowns at the red head, "They aren't rude! They're gonna help me revive Pina!"

The woman raises her eyebrows in sudden interest, momentarily forgetting about her, "Ho, so you're going to the «Hill of Memories»? But can you get through it at your level?"

Kirito steps in front of Silica, hiding her behind his coat as though to protect her. Good, he had the same suspicions about the woman as she did. He stares the woman down with narrowed eyes, "She can. It's not that hard of a dungeon anyway."

The woman looks Kirito up and down, looking thoroughly unimpressed, "Another one that fell for her? You don't look all that strong."

She frowns at the woman, "That's gross." At everyone, minus Kirito, startled expressions she rolls her eyes, "I don't know how old Silica actually is, but she looks 11. That's so not ok to think like that about a girl who looks eleven at all. Though looking as young as she does, she is admittedly childishly cute. So either you're gross as fuck, or you really need to think how you phrase things, because you're giving people a very bad impression. The kind that lands you in prison for pedophilia." She pauses briefly then tacks on, "Plus, he's my boyfriend, so I'd appreciate it if you didn't associate him with such gross tendencies. It won't turn out well for you if you persist."

A bit of a crowd had gathered wanting to know what was happening with Silica, who was apparently well known to the mid-level players. They were now all blatantly staring at the woman. Some just look wary, others look at her with mistrust, while some give the woman looks of outright disgust.

The woman flushes in mortification, "That's not-! I just meant-! I was just referring to the fact that all the guys are always clamoring for her attention because she's so cute." The woman sneers the last part mockingly, "I bet she's already been harassed by some dumb guys wanting the great Silica to join their party, hasn't she?"

Hanna gives her a deadpan look, "So you're not gross, just pathetic. Are you seriously jealous of a girl that can't be more than 13 years old? You've gotta be, what, at least 20? That's just sad. The green of envy looks ugly on anyone, but you wear it particularly badly."

The woman flushes more, "Me?! Jealous of that- that little- brat?! As if! You- you-"

Abruptly Kirito cuts across her, "You might want to stop there, Miss. You've already made quite the fool of yourself."

The woman looks around briefly, and her face finally turns red enough to match her hair. She glares at them, hissing a threatening, "This isn't over!"

Then she turns and storms away. Her party members hesitate, then the leader seems to reach a decision, "I don't know how long you're partying with these people Silica-chan, but you're welcome to rejoin the party whenever you want. Rosalia was completely out of line earlier when she withheld healing potions from you, but I'm definitely kicking her out after this outburst."

Silica looks startled, then nods with a smile, "I'm only partying with them briefly, so I'd love to rejoin the party once I'm done, as long as Rosalia is gone anyway. I'll message you when we're done doing what we partied for, ok?"

The male nods with a smile, then he and his two party members left. Kirito glances at her, and she grins lightly in return. It would seem their prey had practically been handed to them on a silver platter.

(1): In case anyone is wondering why Hermione is treating the situation so differently than she did in canon. It's because my Hermione didn't have any friends until Mike in fourth year, and was otherwise bullied.

(2): I don't know if this happened to anyone else, but when I was first introduced to the Devil May Cry franchise this kinda happened to me. The first Devil May Cry I owned was 4 and the way Sanctus says Sparda seriously sounded like Sparta to me at first. Sorry if this little… joke to myself confused any of you.

(3): Basically the spell Dumbledore cast on Voldemort. Originally I was thinking less along the lines of the spell Dumbledore uses and more along the lines of Juvia from Fairy Tail's Water Lock or Naruto's Water Prison, but I changed my mind.

(4): I've developed a bit of a habit of going to name meaning sites and just typing in something, usually just whatever popped into my head first of it's a side character like this, then selecting the one I like the sound of best whenever I need a name in my fics. In this case the random thing was bird. Manu apparently means bird of the night in Tahitian.

(5): If you haven't read the light novels this is probably confusing, but in them while Silica does freeze up and Pina does take a fatal blow for her, she doesn't just sit there like she does in the anime. In the novel she kinda snaps and charges the ape that killed Pina before pretty much kamikazeing the other two. I decided to go with the light novel version of this event as the anime version was downright pathetic, whereas the light novel version is a little badass to me.