Shock ran through Kotone's body as she just witnessed her friend Suguha kissing Rika. She didn't know if this was a hallucination or if Rika was toying with them for fun.

"What the hell is going on!? The world is in black and white, all the trees are dead, and my friend just made out with a seductive psychotic mace-wielding maniac!" she exclaimed in her head as she watched Rika and Suguha part their lips needing air both panting heavily.

"We have to find a way out of here." Kotone tried to stand up but she failed collapsing to her knees and held her stomach. "Crap, I think one of my ribs are cracked from the last hit. I can barely stand up."

As this was going on, Suguha was looking up at Rika blushing like a storm from their intimate moment and didn't know what to do. Rika just stared at her with a seductive smile on her face wanting more of the girl before her until she remembered that she had a job to do.

"So how was it…..did you like that?" Rika asked pressing her breasts against Suguha's. The said girl couldn't answer her as if she was unable to. She just kissed another girl and actually enjoyed it, even though she doesn't want to admit.

"U-u…um…." she stammered trying to formulate an answer but could not. Giggling at her reaction, Rika just slowly stroke Sugu's cheek and gave her a smile.

"You wanna do it again?" she asked her when the pinned girl turned her cheek away from her. Rika looked in her eyes and saw the defiance that she was holding but she also a small hint of want within them. "I guess that answers my question."

"Get away from her. Ugh!" Rika turned around to see Kotone doing her best to stand up but kept struggling as she held her stomach.

"*Sigh* you can't just stay down can you?" she says before turning to Suguha and quickly placed her hand on her neck. "Sorry about this, I'll be right back." She apologized.

Suguha was confused by her statement before she felt something on her skin crawling from her neck. It was rope that came out of nowhere as it wrapped around her legs and pinned her arms above her head.

"What the—Hey let me go!"

"Now, how to deal with you? Oh I know let's try this." Rika suggested as she dematerialized her mace on the ground from earlier and walked over to Kotone. "I'll try not to hurt you too much." She says sweetly but Kotone could hear the malice behind the voice sending chills down her spine.

Rika took one step forward and suddenly disappeared and reappeared behind Kotone surprising the girl as her eyes widened. Rika raised her foot attempting to kick Kotone in the stomach again but missed as the said girl ducked and jumped back.

Going on the offensive, Rika rushed towards Kotone once more and started throwing her kicks and punches faster giving the brunette a hard time to dodge all of these attacks. Kotone then struck her dagger towards Rika who barely dodged as it passed by her hair and jumped back up onto a tree branch as Kotone jumped back near Suguha.

"You alright?" she asked her companion.

"Other than being tied up as someone's plaything, yeah I'm okay." Suguha says as the rope around her started to grip her body tighter than before causing her to yelp in pain.

"Hang on, I'm gonna get you out of this." Kotone says as laying one of her daggers on the ground. Using her left hand to grab ahold of the rope binding Sugu's hands and use her right hand slowly cutting the rope. She cut it off as it freed Sugu but what shocked them is that the rope reattached itself around her wrists. "What?"

"What's going on?" Sugu asked before the rope around her wrists and legs tightened and caused her to grit her teeth and closed her eyes in pain. "Ugh!"

"Suguha!"

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Kotone looked behind her and saw Rika with her arms crossed under her bust and her right hand on her cheek. "It will just make things worse."

"What did you do to her?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Rika said sarcastically earning a growl from the brunette. "Okay if you must know pariah…" Kotone inwardly flinched at the word pariah but remained unfazed as Rika continued talking. "I didn't do anything to hurt her other than tie her up, after it's rope it's not that hard to break free. However…" Rika puts a hand on her cheek before continuing. "….it seems the cube is enhancing my abilities a lot stronger than I thought. Even if it is just a testing cube."

Rika started walking around them her eyes never leaving them. "My friend as you mentioned from earlier cutie…" Giving a wink to Suguha who just flustered at her words. "gave me and my partner two cubes to test their limits in the field, each with a different function."

"She came here with someone else?" Kotone was cut off from her thoughts as a loud screech rang through the air. "What was that?"

"Oh dear, it seems like Pina is angry." Rika answered pinching her brows.

"Who?"

"My partner's pet. If you're two friends somehow made her angry then they have a minimum chance of surviving."

"Strea! Sachi!" Kotone and Suguha both shouted mentally as they thought about the sisters.

"I really hoping Keiko doesn't go overboard and accidentally kill her new playmates again." Rika sighed in exhaustion at the thought of her friend. "I swear that little kitten just does that to get on my nerves, then again she can't exactly control her urges ever since….well you know."

"Suguha….what do we do?" Kotone asked.

"I'm not sure…..I can't get out of these bindings. What about you? How hurt are you?"

"I'm fine…..ugh!" Kotone says before clutching her chest with her free hand.

"Kotone!" Suguha shouted worried for her friend.

"I'm…..okay…..I can still fight." She whispered slowly standing up while Rika just giggled at her.

"Wow, you really are stubborn. I wouldn't continue fighting if I were you, it just make it worse." She says before she disappeared and reappeared in front of Kotone and punched her in the stomach. The impact caused the brunette to cough up a bit of blood stunning her, before feeling herself grabbed by the neck and was thrown over to the tree by Rika.

Her eyes stretched out as her back hit first, before sliding down and fell flat with a thud. She tried to get up but yelp in pain as Rika planted her foot on her back. "Agh!"

"Aw~ does that hurt?" Rika mocked as she lifted her foot up and slammed it down on her back again.

"Aaaaahhh!"

"Kotone!" Suguha shouted as she tried to break out of the rope but couldn't. She then saw one of the daggers that Kotone left behind on the ground near her. She quickly grabbed it and started cutting the rope, but it didn't work as the rope remained uncut. "Come on!" she shouted in desperation trying to break free.

Rika rolled Kotone on her back, the said girl having small drop of blood rolled down her mouth and was breathing heavily. Rika then picked up her dagger and held it before gripping the handle and thrusted it into Kotone's stomach receiving stunned gasp from her. "I told you would only make it worse for yourself. Now here's a little game of my own…..can you survive this torture for the next five minutes?" she whispered before twisting the blade in the brunette's abdomen.

As soon as she did, Kotone screamed loud from the unbearable pain Rika was giving her. "AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

Suguha was working faster on trying to cut the rope not being able stand hearing her friends cry for help. "Come on! Come on!" she whispered desperately. As she continued cutting, her eyes suddenly changed color and the blade glowed green screeching small sound.

Over with Kotone, the said girl was breathing very heavily as Rika pulled out the dagger slowly before completely removing it from her abdomen. "Agh! *pant* *pant* it hurts..."

"Now what should I start next?" Rika asked herself slowly dragging the blade across Kotone's cheek but not enough to pierce the skin. She was about to talk until she felt a blow to her right side knock her off and over to the cement as she rolled along the ground before she flipped herself over with both hands and landed on her feet skidding across the pavement.

She slightly grunted in pain as she touched her side before turning upwards to her attacker and her eyes lit up in curiosity. Sugu was by Kotone with green aura flowing around her body with what look like virtual wings come out of her back. she kneeled over Kotone who slowly opened her eyes and saw Sugu leaning over her.

"Su….gu….*pant*"

"Don't talk yet." Sugu said softly as she placed her hand on Kotone's stomach where the blood was leaking before softly speaking. "Sū firra heiragūru ausutoru, burotto subāru bāni." She enchanted as Kotone's body was slowing engulfed in water. She could feel the wound on stomach slowly healing as the wound closed in on itself. As the water disappeared, Suguha removed her hand and turned to Kotone who stared back and noticed that the kendo girl's eyes were a different color than her normal dark grey ones.

"Suguha?"

"Just rest okay." She replied as smiling softly at Kotone. Turning towards Rika her smile now gone and replaced with a frown, Suguha glared at her before speaking. "I'll take care of this."

Rika was looking at her with a calculating gaze before giggling aloud. "Hehehe, well isn't this surprising. I didn't know that you would be able to draw your power from the cube, which is weird considering you shouldn't be able to."

"You're done hurting my friend." Suguha says as she moves her hand to her waist where a sword suddenly appeared out of thin and gripped the handle.

"Now that's not nice." "More importantly how is she able to summon her weapon? Either there is a bug in the cube or…." she looked back at Suguha and noticed the wings on her back slowly flapping as if it they were stretching out and ready to take flight. "….her avatar is not from SAO. Guess I'll have to test her out."

"Hopefully you can give me more of a fight than pariah over there."

"Let's find out."

Kazuto and Sinon both stared each other down as their auras remained glowing around their bodies both with black veins. Sinon's in control as she slowly moved her fingers while Kazuto's still trying to fight back for control.

"You shouldn't fight that gift of yours. If you do…it will just make it even harder to control." Sinon stated as crossing her arms behind her back. Kazuto just scoffed at the girl clearly frustrated with himself, she was right. He could feel himself losing dominance over trying to remain control of himself both mind and body.

"I just hope I can beat her before I lose control of myself." he thought before suddenly rushing forward at Sinon.

He swung his fist upwards but missed as Sinon leaned back and took two steps backwards before having to dodge more as Kazuto went on the offensive. He quickly went for her midsection as he swept his left leg upwards aiming his inner foot to land and attack to her stomach, and then a roundhouse kick with his right foot, heel aiming for the chest. Seeing this, Sinon simply raised her right knee and lowered her right elbow to block the first attack and moved back to dodge the second attack.

She landed on her feet before upwards and Kazuto raised his fist above her, but instead of landing his overhead attack it was blocked at Sinon stopped him in midair by grabbing his wrist. "Too slow." She whispered as her black veins lit up for a second and then faded, using her enhanced strength she pulled Kazuto over and slammed him into the hood of a car behind him denting the entire roof.

Kazuto gasped in pain from before feeling the Sinon grip his wrist tighter as she jumped to the roof of the car and jumped again in midair throwing him over her shoulder and kicked him square in the chest. The hit caused him to cough up blood before being sent flying to ground and rolled numerous times before stopping and skidding across the pavement.

As Sinon landed on the ground, Kazuto struggled to stand up as he held his chest before coughing and hacked up more blood as it left his mouth and stained the pavement. Also the black veins were starting to revert back to normal as it slowly left his face but stopped below his chin. "Dammit. Ugh!" he tried to stand up again but couldn't as he felt immense pain.

Sinon calmly walked over to him, kneeled as she cupped his right cheek with her left hand. He would've moved away but the pain was preventing him from doing so. Sinon inspected the black veins that covered his neck as it went up and down as if it was fighting for control. "Weak."

"What?"

"You're weak in controlling this gift, both body and mind." She stated as her black reins slowly retracted from her eye. "You resist it don't you? Why?"

"I'm not *pant* resisting a gift. I'm resisting whatever the hell *pant* this is…." He says as blood drip down from his chin. "….it's nothing more than….*pant*….a curse."

"I see." Sinon asked before she swiped some blood off his chin with her thumb and sucked on it. Tasting it, she smacked her lips a few times slowly savoring it. "So that's why Asuna chose me." She said aloud.

"What?"

"Your powers….in this state…..if you don't receive help within time then you lose yourself completely." She muttered forgetting the fact Kazuto could hear her.

"What the hell is she talking about?"

"Nothing, for now you need to learn how to control your gift." Sinon started as she cupped his other cheek forcing him to face her. "Let me give you some advice, Black Reaper…..stop resisting it. It will only get worse if you do. Take it from me."

"I will not—" he started off but Sinon placed a finger to his lips shushing him.

"You don't have a choice in this matter….and I've stayed long enough to test your abilities." She says removing her finger as she used her free hand reached into her back pocket and took out a syringe needle filled with some type of green liquid. Before he could do anything, Kazuto felt himself paralyzed as Sinon quickly pressed two fingers into his neck applying pressure and caused his body to go numb. He felt his head being guided to her chest as he leaned back.

"Sorry about that but I need you to be completely still for this." She apologized before injecting the needle into the right side of his neck. If he could feel anything he would've felt the needle being drilled into and a slight jolt of pain. "There that should help you keep darkness stable for the next few hours."

Raising her hand in the sky, the cube above her descended and floated in her hand rotating. As she pressed her finger against the flat surface of the cube it disappeared and faded away. "When I leave this area, everything will return to normal." She said cryptically. "And before I go….."

She gently removed his head from her chest before tapping her index and middle fingers onto his forehead. "Don't panic, this will allow me to know when you are losing yourself again now that I marked you. Until next time Black Reaper."

Leaving him on the pavement she picks up her blazer and walks off in the distance, her figure disappearing. As soon as she was gone, Kazuto immediately felt movement in his body and he clenched his hands and stood up on one knee.

"Hey, are you okay?" he heard a voice in front of as he looked and saw a couple in front of himself gazing at him with worried eyes.

"What the-?" Kazuto asked himself in confusion as he tried to stand up only to fail. Looking down he realized he was still hurt from Sinon's attacks.

"Hang on, quick help me get him inside."

"Okay." Kazuto accepted their help as they helped him over to the hospital. While this was happening, Kazuto thought to himself about his friends and his sister hoping that they were doing better than he was.

Earlier:

Strea and Sachi were still behind the counter hiding from Keiko as the little girl strolled through the small store. She looked through all the aisles and found nothing but items currency of the park. No humans.

"Where are they?" she mumbled as she came back to the entrance after looking through the last aisle. "Mm….oh! I think I know where they're at let's try the garden." She says running to the back again leaving the two sisters alone.

"Strea what do we do?"

"I don't know unless we have some other way out of here, we're pretty much trapped here since that girl's pet is blocking our only exit."

"She said she wants to play right?" Sachi started as her sister nodded. "So what if we give here what she wants, I can go and stall her while you get help or something."

"NO!" Strea whispered harshly at her. "I will not allow you to be bait for that beast and end up being it's meal. Plus there is no else but us here!"

"We'll we have to do something! That little girl will find us within the next few seconds and who knows what she'll do." Sachi retorted quietly stunning Strea before releasing a sigh. "Strea let me do this."

"Mmmmmmm *sigh* fine." She reluctantly agreed before feeling her sister's arms wrap around her midsection. "Just be careful okay."

"I will." Sachi says as she ran from the counter and up towards Keiko. "Hey!" she shouted gaining the little girls attention as she turned around and saw Sachi before bouncing up and down in delight.

"Found you! Now you have to join me."

"W-what?"

"You know to help find your sister, we're playing hide and seek remember and the game's not over until I found the both of you." Keiko stated showing a bright smile and Sachi.

"Is she actually smiling at me or is it fake?" she was brought out of her thoughts when the little girl grabbed both of her hands.

"I forgot to ask you, I know we're playmates and everything but can we be friends too?"

"….Eh?"

"Mmmhmm, I would really enjoy being your friend."

"Um…..uh…okay." Sachi says still baffled by from her statement. "This...isn't a trick is it?" she asked skeptically.

Keiko shook her head negatively before looking up into her eyes. "No, I mean I really want to be friends. Nice to meet you I'm Keiko."

"Um…..my name is Sachi, nice to meet you too." She replied slowly trying to comprehend the situation before her. "Um….if you don't mind me asking who is your giant friend?"

"Oh! That's Pina. She's really friendly and she loves to meet new people. Come on I'll take you to meet her." Keiko exclaimed pulling Sachi towards the entrance leaving the garden.

Over at the counter where Strea was hiding, she was looking over at her sister worried for her safety and just like her was baffled by the little girl's offer of becoming friend leaving her to question if she was really harmful toward them….until she heard her name.

"Keiko." "Now I remember her, her avatar name is Silica back in SAO. She was locked up in the chambers of sanity. She was deemed unstable after witnesses told reported of her killing an a small squad of Liberation troopers and then Titan's Hand afterwards." Strea couldn't help but feel dread at seeing the girl again and then suddenly remembered that her sister was with the little girl right now. "Sachi!"

"You're going to love Pina. She really likes to meet new people but whatever you do don't pull her tail." Keiko warned the older girl.

"Believe me I don't think I could pull her tell even if I tried." Sachi thought nervously before feeling hearing her sister shout her name and run over to them.

"Sachi!" Both girls turned their attention to Strea as she ran over to them and gripped her sisters wrist causing her to let go of Keiko before letting go. "Stay behind me!"

"Strea what are you-?"

"Oh goodie! I found both of you that means I win! Okay it's your turn—" she was cut off as Strea shouted over her.

"We are not playing anything with you Silica!"

"Sister what's going on?"

"I remember Keiko. She was hung with Asuna and the others back in SAO, out of all of them she was the second unstable member." Strea explained to her not noticing that Keiko had her eyes hidden by her bangs and as she hung her head.

"W-what?" Sachi says in confusion.

"I don't like that word." Both girls looked back at the little girl as she spoke. "I don't like being called unstable, that's what other people called me. So did the soldiers, adults and other kids older than me." She said in a cold tone catching both siblings off guard.

"They have no idea…they have no idea of what I've been through…..the pain I suffered, the emotions I thought I lost…..the loneliness….and yet they have the audacity to say that I'm unstable." She growled.

Strea and Sachi suddenly felt the air around them go cold as an overwhelming surge of malicious intent came from Keiko as her aura slowly flared around her. Suddenly the rooftop to the Shop was ripped off as Pina clawed her way through and roared at them with anger and fury in the beast's eyes.

Present:

Both girls couldn't move their bodies at all from the wave of malice coming from Keiko. Their bodies instantly froze in fear and She suddenly started giggling as she grasped her hands and put them behind her back. "They were very bad people, and bad people deserve to go nite-nite."

Strea and Sachi felt pangs of fear run through their chests when she said nite-nite meaning that she killed them and the way she said was like it was normal for her. No killing intent was released but she said it without a second thought making them both shiver.

"Sachi-san." She started lifting her head and both girls could now see her eyes only to have their own widened in shock. Her that were filled with joy and cheerfulness were now filled with madness as she had a creepy ear to ear grin. "Do you know what game I want to play next?"

Sachi slowly shook her head negatively while Strea tightened her grip on her sister not wanting Keiko to get anywhere near her.

"I want to play reenactment."

"Reenactment?"

"It's where I put bad people to night-night by reenacting particular deaths heard by stories or off the top of my head. Also Sachi-san is the other lady your twin?"

Neither one could answer her verbally, so they only nodded their heads in agreement before Keiko's eyes lit up in excitement. "That makes this…even more exciting. How about we reenact…..Sister Sister?"

"Strea…"

"Sachi, stay behind me." She ordered her younger sibling not taking her eyes off of Keiko as she had a creepy smile still plastered on her face.

"Oh come on now don't be shy….I don't want to hurt you….I want to kill you, hopefully you'll last longer than the last playmates I've had." Keiko said tilting her head slowly and looked at them.

"Previous?"

"Now…..who wants to die first?" Keiko asked slowly walking toward the two with her signature dagger that she materialized out of thin air and slowly dragged the tip of the blade against the floor, all the while her eyes never left her prey.

Rika and Suguha stared each other down neither making a single move as the withered leaves blew around them. Rika slowly licked lips while eyeing Suguha and had her hands behind her back along with her mace, Suguha got into her kendo stance and aimed her sword at the brunette.

Time seemed to slow down as a small withered leaf seemingly inched closer and closer to the ground leaving nothing but silence. Once it reached near the bottom both girls narrowed their eyes at each other ready for confrontation, as soon as the leaf touched the ground both eyes widened and they both rushed at each other.

Suguha did an overhead strike while Rika did an underhand strike and both of their attacks clashed. As metal met metal, a reverberating shriek rang through the air and wind bounced off the them. Kotone had to use her arm for cover from the heavy wind that resonated.

Speaking of which both girls were fighting for dominance over the other as sparks flew. Deciding that it was a stalemate both girls jumped back a few paces before rushing at each other once more. Rika went for a downward swing only for Sugu to raise her sword and block the attack. As she did she went for a few strikes to Rika's sides as she swung her repeatedly getting faster from each swing. Rika used both of her hands to swing her mace side to side to block the repeated attacks. Blocking them all Rika jumped in the air using her momentum flipping sideways as going for a downward swing while Sugu her sword upwards.

As the attacks met head on, both girls bounced off each other and landed a few paces away from each other. "Hmhmhm not bad."

"!" Rika paused in her movements as she let out a surprised sound as she felt something go through her head.

"Rika, it's time to come back. I have everything I need."

"Aw, come on. Can't I just mess around for a few more minutes please?"

"No and even though I would let you continue, you cannot. Sinon just messaged me and told me that your cubes are about to expire so grab Keiko and head back here."

"Understood. I still hope she hasn't killed her new playmates yet."

"*giggle* that depends on her report. See you at home."

"Okay."

"*Sigh* sorry cutie but it looks like I've taken enough of your time to be here so….." she paused lifting her hand upwards signaling the cube to come down as followed her command and dematerialized as soon as it hit her hand. Once she was done, Sugu was behind her with her blade at her throat.

"You're not going anywhere."

"As much as I love to continue our dance cutie, I have to go early but don't worry you'll see me again." Rika said slyly as she moved Sugu's sword away from her throat. "Everything will return to the moment we left. No need to worry about the collateral damage, once I leave it will be as if we never fought here in the first place." Rika said as she started to walk off but was stopped again as Sugu grabbed her wrist.

"Not just wait a sec—mmph!" Suguha shouted trying to stop her but was cut off as Rika used this opportunity to turn her head and grabbed the back of Suguha's head pressing their lips together once again. Only this one was short like about 2-3 seconds before they separated.

"Thank of it as a little gift." Rika says holding her by the chin. "Maybe someday in the future we'll go further than just kissing." She said seductively sending shivers down Sugu's spine as her face flustered even more from her words. "Ta-ta~"

Rika let go of her chin and walked off in the distance away from them as the world started to return to normal. Sugu's eyes also returned to normal as they changed back to dark grey and the virtual wings on her back disappeared, while staring off at where Rika was last seen.

She heard slow steps from behind as Kotone came up holding her stomach still. "Ugh! I know my wound is gone and all but I still feel the bruises from all hits she gave me. How are you holding up Sugu—whoa!"

Kotone quickly caught Suguha in her arms as she fell backwards. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just feel *pant* exhausted." She replied placing her hand on her forehead before turning to Kotone. "You?"

"Nothing but bruises. Come on let's go find Strea and Sachi." Kotone says as she helped Sugu up and they both walked over to where they're friends were last seen.

Keiko was slowly walking over the two with a creepy grin on her face as she tossed her weapon from side to side in boredom. "I'm gonna enjoy ripping you guys open."

"Keiko." The little girl stopped in her tracks as she saw Rika standing behind her. "It's time to go."

"Aw come on, Rika-nii can't we stay a little longer I really enjoying myself to this until one of them called me unstable. So now they go nite-nite." She replied in a cold manner.

"No wonder Pina screeched in anger. As much as I want to let Keiko have her fun, it's better for her to have playmates who are still breathing." The older girl thought mentally before she shouted at the younger girl. "Keiko!" Raising her voice at her seemed to snap Keiko out of her anger and looked up at her.

"Huh?" Keiko blinked twice looking at the two sisters and then at Rika before lowering her head and frowned. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay." Rika started before glaring at Strea and Sachi. "Be glad that we have to leave early, we've taken enough of your time so until then."

Keiko raised her hand upwards bringing the cube down and dematerialized it, once so Pina let out a small roar before glowing and its body return to normal. Pina let out a small screech as it floated down and landed on Keiko's shoulder.

"Time to go." Rika announced as she held out her hand to Keiko who immediately took it and leaned herself into Rika's side. Rika also frowned at her behavior but understood why the little girl was upset. "We'll see you next time…..twins." she says as mist surrounded her and Keiko and Pina let out a cry as it completely engulfed their bodies before it faded away showing no trace of any of them.

Both girls fell backwards and started breathing heavily as they were on their knees panting. The feeling of malice intent and hatred that Keiko was releasing overwhelmed them.

"I can't believe a little girl like Keiko was-is consumed with so much malice." Strea says as wiping the sweat off her brow.

"She scares me a bit." Sachi said aloud but her thoughts had a different reason. "But at the same time, she seemed like she really wanted to be my friend."

"Come on, let's go meet up with Sugu and Koko." Strea says helping her sister up before they both walked over to the entrance as the world around them went back to normal. The color was all there, the trees returned to life and people were casually walking through as if nothing ever happened.

Moments later they all meet up at the Tochigi Tea House as Strea and Sachi were sitting at a table outside of the place. They were sitting waiting when they saw Suguha and Kotone slowly walking over.

"Hey!" Strea noticed Sugu being extremely fatigue while Kotone had some bruises shown, the visible ones. "What happened are you okay?" she shouted in alarm as Sachi came from behind and notice their states.

"I'm fine, but Sugu looks like she's about to pass out. Can you help me out?" Kotone asked as she let Strea tend to Suguha and walked her over to the table while Sachi helped Kotone, noticing the blood stain on her shirt.

"Kotone!? You're bleeding!"

"Huh?" she looked down at what Sachi was freaking out over and saw the red stains on her shirt. "Oh well, I don't know if you're gonna believe me if I told you."

"Try us, because we have something to tell you that may be just about crazy as yours." Strea challenged settling Sugu down in her seat.

"We….we were trapped somewhere that just seems…not even possible." Kotone says while trying to find the right words.

"Was it a cube floating in the air, withered trees, no people around and the atmosphere feeling completely void of life?" Strea listed as the dagger-user looked at her.

"How did you….."

"Because that's exactly where we were." She answered.

"You too?"

"Yes. We were attacked by a little girl and her….um….giant pet." Sachi said.

"And it wasn't just any little girl." Strea says earning looks of confusion from Kotone and Suguha. "She was someone we met or crossed paths with in SAO. I'll give you a hint, she has a pet on her shoulder."

"Silica!?" Kotone called out in alarm receiving a nod from Strea.

"Yep, her real name is Keiko."

"Who's Silica and Keiko?" Suguha asked as the waitress came by and handed them their tea.

"Silica is one of the three that hung around Asuna back in SAO. She was the youngest out of all of them, but she was also a red player." Strea answered.

"Wait what?"

"She killed an entire small squad of Liberation troopers and an orange guild Titan's Hand."

"Orange guild, red player, what are you girls talking about?" Sugu asked lost in the conversation.

"Right you were not in SAO, remember when we talked about the Laughing Coffin?" she asked receiving a nod from the girl across from her. "Well they were two type of color cursors players have, green and orange. Green means they player has not committed any criminal activity to other players while orange means that have some type of criminal activity."

"Wait I thought you said Keiko was a red player so there has to be three types." Sugu guessed.

"That's not entirely true…." Sachi started as she gazed down at her tea. "Orange players are those who committed an infraction like attacking a green player outside the safe zone. If they commit five infraction acts, then their cursor remains permanently orange. The first three acts committed and they're cursor will return to green in several hours, four infractions and they must do a quest for their orange color to be removed and the fifth act committed, your cursor will reman orange." She explained to them as she took a sip of her tea and placed the cup back on the table.

"So, what about the red players?" Sugu asked.

"Red players are aliases for player killers. They were only referred to as Red players because of them interference with clearing the game however their cursors remained orange. Even though they were called Red they cursors were never red, it was only a nickname for those who killed other players." She finished.

"Oh, look at my little sister becoming so smart all of a sudden, it's so cute~~" Strea squealed wrapping her younger sister in a hug while rubbing their cheeks together.

BONK!

"Ow~~meanie!" Strea whined as Sachi had pounded her fist onto her sisters' head with a blush on her cheeks while Suguha chuckled at them.

"Anyway, who did you two run into while we were dealing with her?"

"We ran into someone named Lisbeth." Suguha answered

"Lisbeth?" the sisters shouted in alarm

"Yep. She's the blacksmith, mace-wielder and now….." Kotone rubbed her stomach where her previous wounds were. "…a hand-to-hand combat." She finished leaving both girls to look at her in shock. Last they heard Lisbeth wasn't much of a hand-to-hand fighter. "That's not even the most bizarre thing, she actually summoned her own mace and attacked us."

"What!?"

"Yeah she said because of that cube she was able to summon her weapon."

"Oh god I'm so sorry you too and Kotone I took your dagger earlier and you didn't have anything to defend yourself, I hope you two can forgive—"

"Um…..Kotone had another dagger hidden in her clothing." Suguha said as Strea turned to Kotone who just whistled and look away.

"*Sigh* your lucky that we were in trouble, so I'll let you off this time." Strea told her. "But next time we go somewhere fun, you leave All of your daggers behind okay?"

"Yes mom." Kotone groaned as Strea rolled her eyes before smiling at her. "Also, Rika wasn't the only one to summon her weapon, Sugu over here somehow did the same thing and grew wings out of her back."

"You did?"

"How?"

"To be honest, I don't know. I just wanted to stop Rika from hurting Kotone and all of a sudden I'm free from the ropes and fighting Rika. It all happened so fast." Suguha answered. "While we were fighting she talked about Keiko and her friend Sinon who was fighting-" Suguha paused as she realized that her brother was fighting Sinon and the black veins were up to his face.

"Kazuto!"

"What is it!?" Sachi asked in alarm. "What's wrong is he in trouble!?"

"We need to get to the hospital now!" Suguha shouted as she started running to the exit.

"Suguha wait a minute!" Kotone shouted running after her.

"Come on Sachi." Strea shouted as she stood up and followed the others.

"Hi!" Sachi quickly left money on the table to pay for their drinks before catching up to the others with one thought in her mind. "Kirito, please be okay."

Takiguchi was wrapping bandages around Kazuto's chest with a stern look on her face. "Seriously young man, what happened to you? One second you were in therapy room and the next I hear you needing first aid as the doctors found you with blood dripping from your mouth?"

Kazuto had no idea on how to explain to her that he just fought someone was out to kill him or test his abilities or that he was in a different dimension…no idea. Not to mention his friends and sister were in trouble according Sinon and he had hoped to leave the hospital to go after them but his body still hurt like hell.

"That girl…Sinon.." he thought back to his encounter with her and narrowed his eyes. She had the same veins appear on her skin just like him and she scolds him in not accepting his gift. Why would he? All this would do is cause harm to those he cares about. He's already accepted the fact that he may never get rid of it but that didn't mean he had to embrace it.

"Your weak in controlling this gift, both body and mind. Why? Why do you resist it?" those words he heard, it was clear that she knew more about this than him. He needed to figure out where she was hiding or where she was period.

"Kazuto!" he was brought out of his thoughts from the nurse in front of him. "Did you just ignore me for the last few seconds?"

"Yes…ma'am…..sorry about that I'm just a little out of it today." He said rubbing the back of his head nervously as the nurse stared into his eyes looking for any type of deceit.

Takiguchi stared at him for a few more seconds before releasing a small sigh and spoke. "Fine, I will let you go today but only today understood?"

"Yes ma'am." He replied getting up putting on his black shirt and then his jacket.

"Alright kiddo off you go, and please take care of yourself."

"I will. You do the same see you later Takiguchi-san." He says waving his hand and she repeated the gesture. He left the building got on his motorcycle and sped his way out of the lot and back home where an unexpected visitor would be waiting for him.

Arriving home, he parked in the driveway far right side and turned off his bike. Taking off his helmet and leaving it on the handle, he walked up to the front door and opened.

"Tadaima!" he announced as his mother appeared around the corner and greeted him.

"Kazuto."

"Hi Kaa-san, I just got back from therapy." He answered. "It was an hour late…but I was able to do it."

"That's good, I got off work early and spent half of the day here." Midori said.

"That's nice." Kazuto chuckled at her before realizing something. "Wait, you're home early?"

"Mmhm, I finished my stuff early today, so I thought I would be able to hang out and surprise you two, but I forgot that you had therapy and your sister was having a girls' day."

"Yeah sorry about that. It's just rare that you are home so early in the day."

"No need, I wasn't alone I had a guest over here the entire time." His mother waved off smiling at him.

"Really?"

"Yes and it's one of your classmates. She wanted to thank you for SAO but found out you weren't home, so I decided to have her stick around until you return."

"One of my classmates? The only people I know outside of school are Kotone, Strea, Sachi, Klein, Agil and Argo. So who else would be here?" he thought to himself before speaking. "So where is he….or she?"

"She's in the bathroom. Would like some tea, I just finished making—hmm?" Midori paused as she saw her phone buzzing with Suguha's number.

"What is it?"

"It's your sister. She says to come and get her at the SAO survivor school."

"What happened, did they cancel their plans or something?" he asked, his voice filled with concern.

"I don't know but she keeps sending me alerts about getting her now. Either it's important or something else."

"Do you want me to get her, I can go if you want?"

"No, it's okay I'll go and get her." Midori says putting on her shoes and grabbing her purse as she opened the door. "I'll be right back."

"See you later, Mom." He said as she smiled at him before closing the door and left leaving Kazuto by himself along with the guest.

"Okay so who is this guest that mom was talking about?" he asked himself as he walked to the living room and sat on the sofa. "Besides my friends and sister, I don't really have any other classmates that I know outside of class but for some reason I feel like I do." He was so deep in thought that he didn't footsteps entering the room or notice the person looming over him.

"That's because you do." Kazuto immediately felt dread at the sound of the voice. He now knew who exactly his mother was talking too and he couldn't believe that Asuna was here…..in his house.

As he was about to jump up in shock, Asuna wrapped her arms around his neck hugging him from behind and laid her chin on his shoulder, pressing her cheek against his before she whispered in a seductive tone.

"I've been looking everywhere for you, Kirito."

Author's Note: And that's a wrap. Looks like Kazuto is by himself with Asuna once again and has found himself another person who has more control of their "gift" than he does. Who knows what's gonna happen next? As for him and Sinon, the black veins, I haven't really come up with a name for it yet. I'm still thinking of what I should be called and when I got it, the name will be revealed in the next chapter. Also sorry if the fights are not as good as they are, PM me if you have any problems with the fights being so short. I will make them longer as the story progresses, just know that it will take awhile to update because fight scenes are not that easy to write.

Side Note: Also 17 favorites, 23 followers and 9 reviews? I didn't think this story would be of to a good start, I thought it would take time for me to build it up before it got anything of those things. You guys are awesome! Thank you for taking the time to read this story and enjoying it. Finally I've made the decision of putting up the poll for Infinite Scenario. Just like in the last chapter there are four choices; SAO, ALO, GGO or all of them combine together. As for how long it will be up I guess until May...or when chapter 6 is posted.

Read, Review and See you next time.

HellLaser descending back to Hell.