#i mean kirito's alive so he did played it

[yuzuna123]

rip Kayaba and Kirito you would've loved Tekken 8

[shima-draws]

Higa is playing a dangerous game in keeping Star King Kirito alive. Like, he sounds so detached and solely focused on Underworld and nothing else. He really sounds like a man that has lived over 200 years (props to Kiri’s voice actor holy cow) and honestly it makes me worried on how that affected his mind. He’s being compared to Kayaba, which is bad because for how smart and wise that dude was, he was also insane. Like imagine him being the Unital Ring arc’s final villain 😳

Deadass love how Higa was like oh man I can’t delete Star King Kirito he’s the longest living human period and completely ignores Majesty Asuna like. AIGHT OKAY

Star King has already lost everything and when he was finally ready to die Higa swooped in and said uh nope not today!! Now he has to keep living without Asuna and idk what that’s gonna do to his sanity tbh

GOD YEAH THAT PART. GAVE ME SHIVERS. I love how he sounded like he’d actually lived 200 years and was so far beyond what a normal human could comprehend.

I know that Kayaba was painted out to be a villain and yeah he did a LOT of bad shit but I don’t think he was ever like. Actually insane? He had a vision in his head and he set out to achieve it and despite all of the deaths you hear Kirito and other characters mention several times that they were grateful for SAO. Kirito’s definitely wary of Kayaba but considering how many times Kayaba’s come back to save his ass I’m sure Kirito respects him to some degree;; I definitely don’t see them like. Teaming up or anything. And Kayaba probably realizes that Star King Kirito could hand his ass to him on a platter LMAO

I’ve heard that theory and honestly I wouldn’t be surprised--I’d love to see it, too, we’d get Kirito as a villain but not really--I want to see a Kirito acting as Underworld’s sole savior and fighting to protect it because that’s his purpose now. Also I had a theory that maybe...Eolyne was created by Star King Kirito...I mean he knew Eugeo the most and literally has all of the materials at his fingertips to construct a new Fluctlight based off of him. CAN YOU IMAGINE

[esdeem]

Confession (Lisbeth x Sinon)

Lisbeth is haunted by her darkest memory from Aincrad, but she learns she might not have to face it alone.

A blade to his throat, a thin crimson damage line spreading across it. The man’s ugly mouth curling into a sinister sneer. The toe of his boot slamming against a pile of equipment on the ground.

“Beg me for his life, girl. Perhaps I’ll spare this one.”

“Run…”

A knife plunges.

A mace swings down.

The dagger clatters to the ground, nothing else left save two clouds of debris winking out of existence.

A green cursor turns red, blood dripping down from it onto her hands, staining her pristine white gloves.

As she falls to her knees, the spectral form of the man appears behind her, the grin even larger than before. He leans in and whispers a single word in her ear.

“Murderer…”

-===-

“Lisbeth! Are you okay?”

The young blacksmith bolted upright just before the door flew open, and she hugged the bedsheets to her chest. Her heart pounded as she stared at the slim figure silhouetted in the open doorway, clearly not either of her parents. It took her a moment to realize that she wasn’t in her bedroom, indeed not even in her real body. The pieces started to fit together. She was on the twenty-second floor of New Aincrad, in the forest home owned by her best friend.

A home that Asuna assured her would be empty.

Yet there stood the Cait Sith. Liz half expected her to have both arms folder over her chest as she leaned against the door frame. However, she stood frozen, her face a mask of concern. Despite the look, Lisbeth could only respond to her presence with a single question.

“What are you doing here?”

“You screamed,” Sinon said. “I had the crazy idea I should check on you.”

“No, I mean what are you doing in the house? Asuna told me it was going to be empty for the next few hours.”

“I dropped off some gear in one of the storage chests and needed to pick it up.” Sinon moved closer to the bed. “I know this place is cozy, but isn’t your real bed more comfortable?”

In the real world, her nightmares were accompanied by cold sweat, her cries waking up her family and causing them to fret even more than usual. It meant another visit with the school therapist, another round of prying questions that she refused to answer. They knew what she had done, of course. The ministry recovered enough data to see to that. But she’d never spoken it aloud, even during bad patches where the nightmares came nightly.

At least if she slept in full dive, she could avoid at least some of that.

“I just felt like sleeping in game. I did it for over two years, after all.”

“Asuna told me the other day that you were practically falling asleep in class. Have you been having trouble sleeping?”

“Maybe.”

“I’ll take that as a yes.” She moved closer to the bed. “Whatever you’re going through, it would be easier if you talked to someone about it. Asuna thinks the world of you, I know she’d be willing to listen.”

Lisbeth winced. “That’s just it. I don’t want that to change.”

Sinon smirked in reply. “If she can put up with everything Kirito has done, I doubt there’s anything you could do to push her away.”

Rather than laugh, Lisbeth shrank away. “Don’t be so sure.”

The smile vanished from the Cait Sith’s face and she sat down on the edge of the bed. “Liz, I haven’t known you as long as the others, but if there’s something bothering you… I’d like to help.”

Slowly, Lisbeth turned to the other side of the bed, away from Sinon. “Do you promise this would stay between us?”

“Of course.”

For a long while, Lisbeth remained silent. When she spoke again, her voice was weak.

“When I first signed into Sword Art Online, I was terrified. I’d never played a game like that before, and I thought for certain I’d die. In the middle of that panic, three warriors walked over. Their names were Hogun, Fandral and Volstagg, after characters from their favorite movie. They volunteered to help me and keep me alive. They encouraged me to become a blacksmith, and I always kept a picture of us together. I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for them. But I’ve never told Asuna, Kirito or anyone else about them.”

“Why not?”

“Because… they died. And they died because of me.”

“What do you mean?”

“Even after I started my smith shop, they still came by and helped out. After a while, I started making really good money. My reputation got bigger and bigger. I guess it caught the attention of the wrong people in the game.”

She paused, the words coming out harder now.

“One day, a man named Rugen showed up. Said I worked for him now, and that all the profits of my shop were his. If I challenged him on it, he’d kill me the first chance he got.” She started to shake as tears ran down her cheeks. “I… I told Hogun and the rest about it. They decided they were going to talk with Rugen. They were gone for two days… then I got a message from Rugen. Told me to meet him in one of the dungeons if I ever wanted to see them again.

“But… by the time I got there… only Hogun was left. I… should have done something more. But I… I… I didn’t know what to do. I just attacked without thinking. I wasn’t fast enough…”

She trailed off, unable to finish. She let the tears flow for a time, then took in a deep breath and continued.

“It took a week for my cursor to go green again. I hid in my smith shop the entire time. It wasn’t long after that I ran into Asuna again. I could never tell her what I’d done. If she knew the truth…”

She pulled the covers tight around herself, giving in to the tears. She expected Sinon to storm out of the room, to reject her for being too weak to save her friends, and for killing another player. The bed shifted and Lisbeth shut her eyes tight.

Then she felt Sinon behind her, one arm pulling her into a gentle hug.

“Tell her when you’re ready,” she whispered. “But don’t feel guilty for what you were forced to do. I know it hurts, but I’m certain you saved people’s lives. You didn’t have any other choice.”

“You really think so?”

“I do now. Some day, I’ll tell you why. But for now, I’m worried about you.”

Lisbeth felt a warmth in her cheeks. “O-okay. But I thought you had something else to do?”

“It can wait, if you need someone to be here with you.”

“M-maybe just for a little while.”

“As long as you need.”

Before long, however, Lisbeth drifted off to sleep with Sinon’s arm draped over her.

There were no nightmares.

-===-

Several hours later, Lisbeth awoke to find Sinon still behind her, asleep as well. She shook her gently, and soon the Cait Sith looked up at her with sleepy eyes.

“Oh. I must’ve dozed off too.”

“Guess you got comfortable, huh?”

Sinon’s ears shot straight up, her cheeks burning crimson. “Um, y-yeah. I guess so.”

The two sat up in the bed, looking at each other in awkward silence a moment.

“Thank you,” Lisbeth finally said. “For listening, and for staying with me.”

“As long as it helped.”

“It did.” Lisbeth’s lips curled into a smirk. “By the way, since you were kind enough to stay with me, would you mind if I told you something else that needs to stay between the two of us?”

Sinon blinked. “What is it?”

The answer came in the form of a kiss to Sinon’s cheek.

“Your in-game avatar’s almost as cute as you are in real life.”

Author’s Note - Forgive any typos, as I was really struggling with this prompt and didn’t want to do nothing but YuuAsu for the challenge. This is a pure first draft story, so I might come back to it as I like the concept if the execution isn’t quite there yet. I’ve always been curious who the three people we see in the photo with Lisbeth are, and I thought it might make for some interesting backstory.

Hopefully I wasn’t too terrible for my first time writing in Sinon’s voice, and maybe I can clean this up for posting on AO3 at some point!

[swans-anime-ramblings]

In defense of SAO

I recently watched SAO for the third time? I think?  and I’ve decided that I should write a blog about why I love this show, and why I don’t think it deserves all the hate it continually gets. A lot of my friends, who are lit majors, writers and other kinds of storytellers love this anime. We love talking about it, too. Contrary to many hater’s viewpoints, loving SAO doesn’t mean you have bad taste in anime. This is a great show and it’s one of my personal favorites. So, let’s talk SAO!

Let me start by staying that even though I think SAO is a great show, I don’t think it’s the best anime I’ve ever watched. If I were to rank the anime I’ve seen objectively, it wouldn’t even make my top 10. So for anyone thinking I’m going to make a case that “this is the best anime ever”, I’m not. 

One of people’s biggest complaints about SAO is that Kirito’s super strong. “He’s so OP!” and he gets this way “without much effort”. Long-time anime fans expect SAO to play out like a typical battle shonen with the whole “starting at the bottom, train, beat foe, triumph, train, get stronger, beat foe, triumph” cycle. SAO is a shonen anime, but is NOT a battle shonen. Battle shonen stories are about the main character getting stronger to achieve some kind of personal goal with aforementioned cycle. For some heroes, their goal is to be the strongest. For others, it’s to be King of the Pirates or Hokage. As you can plainly see, SAO doesn’t belong in this category. 

So let’s knock-out this idea that Kirito is “OP without much effort”, because that is absolutely not true. As a solo player, Kirito is constantly grinding to become strong enough to simply survive. When Kirito joins the Black Cats guild, one of the members looks around for him and doesn’t find him. The next scene shows Kirito fighting monsters alone at night before he runs into Kline. Kirito’s strength isn’t just because he’s “good”. Yeah, Kirito is obviously a very skilled gamer and is above average (as are all shonen heroes, I might add), but he’s CONSTANTLY working to level-up so he can stay alive. The anime just doesn’t show you this. Why? Because as every RPGer knows, grinding is boring AF.

Seriously, nobody wants to watch an anime of a guy grinding to level-up. As a gamer, I don’t want to see Kirito constantly grinding because hell, I don’t want to grind my own characters. Kirito talks about how he’s constantly having to “fight monsters to level-up” because he’s a solo player, and comments on his grinding throughout the anime. Kirito also talks about how leveling systems in RPG’s are unfair…aka, if he constantly grinds, he can be strong. “Strength in an MMO RPG is just an illusion,” Kirito says. So, it’s not as if the show doesn’t address how he gets his power, it’s just not in your face.

If SAO isn’t about a dude getting stronger like a typical battle shonen, what’s it’s about? There’s a couple themes. One theme is about Kirito’s journey as a selfish player to becoming someone who’d risk everything for the people around him. SAO abridged turns up Kirito’s obnoxiousness to an 11, but it isn’t baseless. Level 1 Kirito is awkward. He doesn’t want to make friends and he doesn’t want to help Kline and his friends. Instead of acknowledging that his skills could help a small group of people survive; Kirito simply leaves Kline behind. During the level 1 boss fight, Kirito reflects on his selfish choices.

It’s not that Kirito’s a bad person per-say, but he doesn’t want to be responsible for anyone else (hence the reason he’s a solo player). As SAO progresses, Kirito begins to open up by helping people, joining a guild, clamming up after everyone is killed, until his character development culminates with him falling in love with Asuna and putting his life on the line. It isn’t about Kirito winning through the power of friendship or the whole “nakama” plot point. Love is the most vulnerable relationship, so if Kirito’s character arc is about him making real connections, it makes sense that’s where his arc ends. Every encounter Kirito has in the Aincrad arc is to move him forward on this trajectory.

SAO’s larger arc which goes beyond Aincrad is about how technology affects our world. The good, the bad, and the ugly. This is why Kayaba himself is such an interesting character. He creates a death game, yet later we find out his technology was given to hospitals to be explored with patients who are suffering. There’s always this interesting balance between the positive and negative effects of advancement. In SAO’s latest arc which just concluded in the light novels, a “bottom-up AI” is developed, true artificial intelligence. There’s positives and negatives to artificial intelligence. 

Asuna and Kirito’s relationship is one of the best in all of anime, and as a female character, Asuna is written very well. In SAO, she’s the second-best player in the entire game, just behind Kirito (Heathcliff doesn’t count since he’s the GM). Some of her skills are better than Kirito’s as well, which Kirito talks about fondly in a later arc. Their relationship is based on mutual confidence and trust. After they’ve gotten together, Asuna says, “don’t worry Kirito. I’ll do everything I can to protect you. Make sure you protect me too, okay?” That’s the basis of a healthy relationship, and in my opinion, a way better ship than most others. 

Where SAO falls short

Earlier I talked about how as much as I love SAO, it doesn’t make my top ten best anime I’ve ever watched list. Because even though I think it’s a great anime, it has shortcomings which prevent it from ranking it among the best.

The first and biggest problem, is the way in which the story was created. Despite this information being readily available, it isn’t something many people know: SAO was written by Reki Kawahara for a contest. While writing, he went over the page limit so instead of submitting it, he published it online under a pseudo name. Later he submitted Accel World, won the contest, and his work was officially published. The publishing company then requested SAO and he took it offline. In some ways, this scenario is a writer’s dream. You write-up a story for a competition, and suddenly, a publisher comes to you and wants to publish your work. I’m salivating just thinking about it. But because of the competition, Kawahara wrote his novel in an a-typical fashion. And as much as I love SAO, it hurt the story to be written this way.

There’s this frustrating sense that SAO should be much better than it is. Kawahara knows a lot about gaming. There’s so many jokes and callbacks specific to gaming and the premise of SAO as a game is awesome. I want this game to be real (minus the whole death part). I want to play it. I wanted to watch what happens in Aincrad for much longer than I did. I think everyone is agreed; the anime moves too fast.

I think Kawahara himself understands and recognizes this, and that’s the reason he’s writing SAO Progressive. In this series, Kawahara’s re-writing the story of Aincrad floor by floor. But he’s also changed the story a bit, because Asuna and Kirito don’t end their party after level one. Instead, they continue traveling together. And he made the change because the story would be boring otherwise.

SAO also has that harem thing going on, and it’s really annoying. Kirito collects women. Some are more interesting than others, but at the end of the day, it just feels…blech. It feels cheap, and it’s a terrible trope. Can you tell I hate it? Haha.

There’s also the bit that comes after Aincrad, Alfheim Online, and that arc just…well, it’s not good. Asuna becoming the damsel in distress sucks. I don’t think I’d mind it as much if she managed to log-out the other players who were being held captive before being re-captured, but sadly that’s not the case. Asuna, the Lightning Flash and badass of SAO does so little and it was disappointing.

So yeah, SAO has some issues, but this anime is still great. It’s got a wonderful story, an awesome romance, and at the end of the day, it definitely doesn’t deserve all the hate. I think that it’s trendy to dislike popular things. There’s a reason SAO is popular, and that reason means no matter how many anime I watch, SAO will always be one of my favorites. 

Hope you enjoyed 😊

[keepyourpantsongohan]

Ayesha Liveblogs SAO S1

The real question is how no one has arrested this game creator yet 

There are only two types of game players those who create their avatars to look as much like them as possible and those who want to be a pretty princess 

“2,000 people have died so far” well that escalated quickly

Lmao @ Kirito’s group-work anxiety same my guy same

I don’t trust Blue Haired Knight he is hanging back at the rear while everyone else fights 

Well he’s dead now so I suppose it’s irrelevant

I like that Kirito was phased by the fact his partner was a pretty girl for about five seconds before he was calling out battle tactics

Jesus Kirito went from plucky young boy to Edgelord in ten seconds

“Are you talking about suicide?” “That’s not such a bad idea” I mean... u right

I can’t be the only one wondering what’s happening to their bodies while they’re spending literal months in this game unable to eat or defecate

How do u think Kirito’s mum would feel about him sleeping in bed with girls

Kirito made friends and they all died so quickly yikes 

All of Kirito’s decisions are made so abruptly he decided to adopt Silica out of nowhere

Nice to know romance isn’t dead in the virtual reality hellscape

Things are so happy right now I’m sure everything’s about to go terribly fucking awry

Apparently Kirito is a bounty hunter now these time lapses are wild

I can’t believe Asuna is taking Kirito on a date in exchange for letting her nap

Grimlock is a name that screams evil but I’m honestly more suspicious of Yoriko

It seems me being suspicious of someone means they’re immediately going to die lmao

Nope I was correct the first time whoops

“How many times you been married anyway?” Kirito pls 

“I had to kill her while she was still my wife” calm down Othello

Kirito, explaining marriage: “If you marry someone, that means you already like whatever you know about them, doesn’t it? And if you discovered something you didn’t know about them before and fell in love with that too, then that would be awesome?”

Dfghjkfhgkjdhgksd;hf

Lisbeth: Brr it’s cold

Kirito: Well damn Lisbeth I can’t control the weather

But if Asuna has a date and it’s not with Kirito who else are these teens romancing 

“Especially if that someone’s a girl like you, Lis” the biggest recurring trope in this anime is that Kirito is inadvertently romantic 

Lis is such a good friend she sees that Asuna likes Kirito and immediately backs down

“It’s been almost two years since this game of death began” yikes how decrepit must your real body be what about your family what if some of these players have children you are a child

These domestic virtual times are sweet but depressing because their lives are a lie

Sfdjhgdfhgkjh does Asuna’s bodyguard have a titty detector that senses when someone is touching her

“Hey, Klein, still alive huh?” Kirito’s social skill are so great

Lmao @ Kirito punching Klein for trying to hit on Asuna even he seemed surprised by it

I appreciate the plot twist of dual wielding because it’s cool but not like unreasonable within the context of the story

I really do not like that Asuna is basically the prize in this duel 

It’s really zero percent surprising that this event turned to murder so quickly

Literally every choice Kirito makes is so abrupt like I know he likes Asuna but he went from reluctantly joining her guild to kissing her and vowing to stay by her side forever in like a day calm down Romeo 

Gfkhgkjdfhgkfhgkjhfkgj Kirito just wanted to hang but Asuna thought he wanted to bang I’m crying

“And then... we’d get married” I know you’ve been in this game a long time but I feel like you are definitely still minors

This show is the definition of that escalated quickly they decided to get married one minute ago and now they have a house in the woods

“Is he younger than me?!” ASUNA I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU MARRIED HIM WITHOUT KNOWING HIS AGE WHAT IF HE’S 12 AND YOU’RE 17 AND ALSO IF YOU DON’T KNOW HIS AGE WHAT EXACTLY DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE BOY YOU JUST MARRIED

They’ve still got separate beds and haven’t seen each other naked but also I don’t know what I expected they’re like 15 

I can’t believe they’ve just adopted a child this is insane they are really embracing the ‘I do what I want’ philosophy

You can never escape the stranglehold of capitalism even in virtual reality

“Your mom’s crazy strong, isn’t she?” they’ve really embraced their roles as Yuhi’s parents huh

“I’d rather trust her and regret it than not trust her and regret it” what a lovely philosophy Kirito

It’s really cute that they’re like this little family and all but also really fucked up and sad because they’re not her parents and who knows if Yuhi’s even real

Oh my goodness their baby is a robot 

“Remember, you’re our child” this is going to be upsetting

Did they just promise to recreate their robot baby christ how do you plan on raising her

“Nice job, honey,” this is so funny he’s so proud of his wife the fish slayer

Finally addressing the reality of their decrepit comatose bodies

I knew we couldn’t trust Captain Cheekbones 

I’ve never heard “I promise I’m gonna end this world” said in such an optimistic tone

Whoa they’re both dead that is not where I thought this was going but I guess they went full Romeo and Juliet huh

Well this plot twist makes a lot more sense also how is no one in this hospital stopping Kazuto from escaping the hospital surely a nurse notice him flatline

Is this intro meant to imply that these guys continue to play MMO games after their extremely traumatic two year comas

How exactly did Kazuto explain his relationship with Asuna to her family

Is Asuna’s father going to marry off his comatose daughter?? Surely there are laws against this 

“If I proposed and she could speak, I’m pretty sure her answer would be no” WHAT THE FUCK 

Kazuto makes it sound like she’s just moving away instead of being married against her will while in a coma 

“In the end your heart belongs to her” Is Suguha in love with Kazuto because even if you’re not siblings you’re still cousins ew pls stop

Robot baby has returned

Kirito does not know the meaning of low profile

I am not okay with this cousin-fucking vibe that’s going on Leafa u need to stop

This dude is a fucking rapist I hate him 

How is Kazuto’s education going I wonder considering he just lost two years of his life 

“Do you feel the same way about him?” Obviously not bc she’s too busy wanting to fuck her cousin

Dickface accidentally giving Asuna hope by confirming that Kirito lives

“Did he.... set you that way?” Leafa is asking if Kirito has a daddy kink

This level of drama and dedication to not letting anyone die must not make sense to someone who does not know he was trapped in a life-or-death game coma

It’s funny to see how quickly Kirito has jumped on the killing train now that there’s no longer a danger of actually killing someone

Although with Asuna there it stands to reason that there is potential to hurt someone because there are still some people whose nervous systems are still tied to the game

I can’t believe that Kirito is delaying stopping his girlfriend’s real-life marriage to deal with in-game politics where are your priorities dude 

Kirito as a news anchor: Violence in video games is ruining this generation

Honestly this boy has never been anything less than 200% Extra a day in his life how does he expect to get Asuna if he is causing a ruckus everywhere he goes

Lmao @ everyone hitting on Kirito while he is lowkey thinking about how he’s married 

I can’t wait for Asuna to murder her forced fiance

“Do I want to be a good sister? Or...” do you want to fuck your cousin? It is the latter and it’s unsettling

“I’m in love with my brother, and that’s something I can’t tell anyone about ever” at least you’ve registered that it’s incest but doesn’t mean it doesn’t give me the heebie jeebies still

Without the context it might just seem like Kazuto and Asuna are a weird couple that calls each other mommy and daddy 

I guess Kirito brought a sword to an arrow fight 

“I can do this on my own,” he said immediately after dying

Leafa tried to give Kirito the Hug of Passionate Restraint but instead gave him the Shoulder Grab of “You’re Making a Poor Decision”

Suguha coming to the realization that her life has twice as much incest as she thought it did

I DON’T KNOW WHO IS MORE UNCOMFORTABLE RN ME OR KAZUTO

“I’m sorry” Don’t apologize Kazuto it’s not your fault your sister/cousin wants to bang you

“Right then and there, I swore to close the gap that had grown between us over the last couple of years” looks like that gap was closed a little too well my guy 

That’s a lot of love confessions in a very short time frame 

What are you apologizing for homie literally all you did was exist and be a good human being 

I fucking hate Sugo he is the worst person alive

I think this is the first time I’ve seen someone assaulted on screen in an anime I feel sick to my stomach

What kind of honourable ass shit is this Kirito just gave his enemy a sword

I guess honour only extends so far when you’re tossing someone’s bisected body into the air to impale them

What the fuck are you gonna kill a teenage boy Sugo 

Well if you’re gonna get stabbed a hospital is the best place for it to happen

THIS IS THE REAL WORLD KAZUTO YOU CAN’T JUST KILL PEOPLE YOU DON’T LIKE 

Kazuto should really get those stab wounds treated

Lmao @ these priorities “well you just woke up from a coma it’s time to meet and make out”

Pretending you have objection to PDA Ms. Let’s Get Married at 16

I like how they all come out of the VR world and they’re all still fuckin nerds

Kirito is such a good big brother to his creepy little sister

[kalimarswriting]

Wrong Floating Castle: Chapter 2

Prev | Table of Contents | Next

I do not own Sword Art Online or Yu-Gi-Oh.

Chapter 2: The Second Castle

"Kirito?" Yugi got his attention. "We're playing Kaiba's Duel Monsters adventure game, the first of it's kind. Are you sure you're okay?"

…What?

That couldn't be right. SAO was the first VR game. Kirito hadn't even heard of this other game.

"Kaiba's Duel Monsters adventure game?" He tried out the name for himself. Nope, still wasn't ringing any bells.

"Yep. It hasn't been released to the public yet. Mai's beta testing and we're here to rescue Kaiba and Mokuba." Yugi elaborated.

Kirito didn't know what to think. But whether they knew what SAO was or not, he knew Aincrad was up there, and they were standing on the very solution to his problem. "I'll still help you, but on one condition: when we're done here you fly this thing back up to Aincrad and drop me off."

"Watch out!" Before he could get an answer, a pillar of flame rushed past the helm of the ship. Kirito turned to see a dragon made of fire growling threateningly from its cave.

"A Salamandra!" Mai exclaimed. Yeah, sure, whatever that was. "Go, Harpy Lady!"

The monster that had saved Kirito appeared and attacked the flaming dragon, felling it in one hit.

"We're hit!" Joey announced, and the ship started to break apart. The column of flame had hit the wing when it passed the helm, setting it and the motors on fire. One of them exploded, jolting the ship and everyone on it.

Yugi held up another card. "Winged Guardian of the Fortress!" A blue dragon big enough for everyone to ride appeared, and Kirito had no choice but to get on or go down with the airship. He didn't know what was up with things appearing from cards, but he counted everyone as lucky that it worked.

The ship broke apart behind them as they flew away. There went his ride home. But then again, maybe he could ride one of these…card monster things.

Kirito finally got a look at their destination. It appeared to be a smaller, darker, more gnarled version of Aincrad, complete with a ring floating around it. They landed on the outskirts of the dark castle, finding themselves surrounded by great, shady trees.

"What on Earth? A floating castle with its own forest? Maybe Kaiba oughta spend more time in reality." Joey quipped.

Kirito said nothing, still a little overwhelmed by the revelation that somehow, he wasn't even in SAO anymore. But a forest around a floating castle? That was close enough to normal that he could keep his head on straight.

"Keep your guard up," Yugi warned.

Mai stopped and pointed, causing the others to stop as well. "Look, cocoons of evolution!"

Kirito looked in the direction she was pointing and his breath caught. Through the forest some distance away were three gargantuan cocoons infesting an even bigger tree. The cocoons were each large enough to contain a floor boss. If blood were a thing in the virtual world, it would have drained from Kirito's face. Was he going to have to fight three mid-bosses, if not floor bosses, at once?

"But why are they buzzing?"

"I don't think that's them, Joey." Mai responded. As if on cue, the buzzing intensified and a horde of wasp-looking monsters rose out of the trees.

"No problem," Joey smirked.

Kirito stayed on his guard, but waited to see how Joey handled the situation if he was so confident.

The blond held up another card, surprise, surprise. "Attack, Fierce Knight!" He commanded. A knight came forth, only for another creature to latch onto it, causing them both to shatter. "My knight…"

Kirito growled. There went another tamed beast. Although…Joey only seemed mildly upset. Maybe these card monsters regenerated?

"Man eaters," Yugi said in that oddly deep voice that he'd had since Earu fell, "This must be one huge bug nest."

Okay, waiting time was over. Without a word, Kirito leapt towards the nearest bug, sword out in front of him. The bug dissolved almost as soon as his blade pierced its carapace. How weak were these things? He landed neatly and leapt for the next one.

"Stand strong," Yugi commanded, then held up yet another card. "Go, Mirror Force!"

The wasp-like monster Kirito was going for burst into flames and he had to shield his face. All around him the rest of the creatures were burning as they fell to the ground. He landed sloppily and rolled out of the way of a fireball, hurriedly making his way back to the group. His arm felt hot, and he looked down to see the sleeve he had blocked his face with was on fire. He smothered it with his gloved hand before he could take fire damage.

He turned to Yugi, scowling. "If I'm going to fight with you, I need to know I can rely on you to differentiate between friend and foe when you're attacking."

"Sorry Kirito." Yugi looked sincere, so Kirito let it go. Still, now the forest was on fire. It was time to move.

"The fire!" Mai gasped. "It's disturbing the cocoons! They're hatching!"

Oh, shit.

True to Mai's word, the cocoons were indeed splitting open. Giant green moths emerged and began flying away from the fire. Towards them.

"There's no way we're going to be able to take down that many Great Moths!" Joey exclaimed.

Kirito steeled himself and readied to fight them, despite what Joey thought. So far, all the monsters in this new game had been weak, each going down in just one hit. Maybe these so-called Great Moths would be the same?

"No, it can be done, Joey. With these!" Yugi held up two more cards. A giant turtle appeared…with a catapult on it? Along with a brown fuzzy creature. Kirito looked between the two and the moths coming for them. Those were going to defeat the moths?

…Right.

High, high above them, Asuna was checking her friends list. It was almost time for the next boss raid and no one had seen Kirito anywhere. Going through the list of names, her eyes finally landed on the beater's. Location: Out of bounds.

Out of bounds? What was that supposed to mean? He was still on her friends list, so he was alive, but how could he possibly be out of bounds?

Her eyes drifted to another name on her friends list. Well…desperate times called for desperate measures. No one else was likely to know what "out of bounds" meant.

Asuna sent Argo a message. <Argo, have you seen Kirito-kun? No one knows where he is.>

Almost instantly she got a message in return. <Lost track of your boyfriend, Aa-chan? I'll tell you for 500 col.>

Asuna scowled at the message window. <It's not like that! There's a boss raid coming up and he's an integral part of DPS.> She attached 500 col to the message before sending. It was an oddly cheap fee for Argo, but she didn't want to look a gift horse in the mouth.

<Okay, according to the friends list…> Argo typed back, then paused. Asuna rolled her eyes. Was that why the fee was so cheap? Because it was information she could have gotten herself?

<I already checked that, Argo. It says he's "out of bounds."> She was careful to not tack on "Do you know what that means?" At the end, because Argo would probably charge her for that, too.

Argo took a full minute to respond. <Normally I'd raise my fee by another zero for the trouble, but for you, Aa-chan, I'll make it just 1,000. I'll get my sources on this and get back to you.>

Asuna huffed, sending the Rat the col without verbal complaint. She knew that low fee was too good to be true.

After Yugi actually managed to defeat the moths with the turtle and exploding fuzzball, they finally made it out of the forest and to what could be the interior of the castle itself. It was more of a cave, really.

"Wow, from creepy forest to creepy cavern, and still no trace of Kaiba and Mokuba." Joey remarked.

Wait, like the Kaiba who designed the game? Why would he be trapped in his own game?

"Hey, do you hear that?" A dull roaring sound echoed through the walls of the cavern.

"There's definitely something up there." Yugi agreed.

A portal—yes, an actual portal—appeared on the ceiling and a dragon's head emerged. It was smoother than the dragon Kirito had fought with Lisbeth, he noticed.

"A blue-eyes!" Yugi announced in astonishment.

Kirito was just opening his menu to equip his second sword (why couldn't mobs just spawn on the ground like normal games?) when two figures dropped from the portal. They landed in a crouch, and stood. One was absurdly tall and wore a coat not unlike his own, while the other was younger (and much shorter) and had long, black hair.

"Kaiba! Mokuba! You're okay!" Joey did the talking, as Kirito was starting to realize was the usual. He relaxed his stance and closed his menu; those two weren't random humanoid mobs dropping from the ceiling like he'd initially thought.

"Joey, you look like an overgrown monkey in that outfit." Was the first thing out of the taller one's mouth.

"Overgrown monkey!" Joey fumed. "That's the thanks I get for coming to rescue—"

Deep, ominous laughter echoed from deeper in the cavern. Screw it, Kirito thought. If things kept interrupting them like this there was bound to be a boss fight soon. Real soon, if the villainous laughter was any indication. Might as well go all out. Without further delay, he opened his menu again and finally equipped his second sword, the Dark Repulser.

Yugi blinked as a second sword appeared on the new guy's back. What the—did he just equip a card to himself?! That would make him both a player, because he was able to use cards, and a monster, because if he was able to equip something to himself, then he had attack points, which would explain how he was able to defeat those wasps on his own. But how could someone be both a player and a monster? Unless he was some kind of AI companion character? Just what was he?

But wait, hadn't he said he was from a different game? That would make him a player for sure.

But now wasn't the time for thinking. What had the laughing voice said? That they had reached the final level?

"Correction, you slime ball," Kaiba cut in. "We've beaten the game."

"Oh? Is that what you think, Seto Kaiba?" The voice sounded amused.

So that one's Kaiba, Kirito thought. They hadn't had time to be introduced.

"That's right; I escaped the lava pool, therefore the dragon wasn't summoned," Kaiba stated angrily, as if saying it firmly would make him right. "That means this game is over!"

Kirito had a bad feeling Kaiba was wrong.

The voice chuckled. "It will be game over alright. But for you, not for us." The cavern around them dissolved until there was nothing around them but a techy-looking floor and ceiling. No walls were in sight.

"What is this?" Joey cried in shock.

"They've rewritten the program! They're summoning the mythic dragon themselves!" True to Kaiba's words, the smoky form of a five-headed dragon dramatically swirled into existence.

Kirito's mouth drew into a grim line. Yup, he knew there was going to be a boss. He drew his swords.

"Alright everyone, stick together." Yugi started. "We'll fight it together, or together we'll fall."

Kirito looked over at Yugi in shock. Yugi seemed like the leader of the group; Didn't he have any sort of plan?!

"Man, I've really had it with this virtual reality stuff," Joey lamented. "Saving Kaiba was one thing, but now we have to deal with a mythic dragon?"

These people had no clue, did they? This dragon looked like it would be a pain, but it wasn't even as big as most bosses were. It looked like it was slow, and the main thing to watch out for was the variety of types in its attacks, if the different types of heads were any indication. But this isn't SAO, Kirito had to remind himself. Maybe they're not as experienced, but they know more about this game then I do. If they were afraid, maybe he had reason to be too.

"Suck it up," Kaiba told Joey. "There's only one way to get out of this game."

"I agree," Yugi said. "We need to take this dragon down. Let's go!

While Kirito waited for the boss to attack so he could get a handle on its attack patterns, Mai took initiative. "Me first! I choose my Harpy Lady Sisters!" She held up a card and three harpies emerged with a cry, only to get electrocuted almost as soon as they appeared. "What's happening?!"

"Another little bit of reprogramming we did," The deep voice laughed. "We like to call it the Dragon Seal. Only dragon monsters are allowed to attack." It said smugly.

While the others looks horrified, Kaiba laughed. "You dare challenge me to a battle of dragons? You five should know better than that." He held up another card. "I call the Blue-Eyes White Dragon!"

A blue-tinted dragon materialized in front of Kaiba, the same one whose head Kirito had seen in the portal earlier.

"Only dragons huh?" Joey got over his horror and smirked. "Then I call on Red-Eyes!" A spiky black dragon with glowing red eyes appeared.

As Mai summoned her dragon, Kirito began to wonder why the five-headed monstrosity wasn't attacking yet. No boss politely waited while you readied for the fight. Once you entered the boss room, the fight was on. Something was up.

"And I summon Curse of Dragon!" Yugi called, heralding the appearance of a great big green dragon.

Kirito looked at Mokuba, who was standing behind the others. Didn't he have a dragon?

"Attack!" Came the command from all the dragon tamers. Each dragon had a different breath attack, to which the mythic dragon responded in kind. Kirito didn't dare interfere with so many attacks colliding at once. His level may be high, but he had not built an defense or HP-based avatar. Trying to attack now would be suicide. When the smoke cleared, both sides stood undamaged.

"They must have canceled out when they collided." Yugi mused.

"So they did." The voice agreed, somehow still sounding menacing. "But some of you do not have a dragon with which to attack or defend. Isn't that right, Mokuba?"

Kirito's eyes narrowed in anger. Knowing what was about to happen, he sprinted forward as fast as his speed stat allowed towards the five headed dragon, but as soon as he began charging a sword skill his limbs seized up as he was electrocuted. He fell on his face as his avatar spasmed and sparked.

"Thought you could get around the dragon seal?" The voice laughed as one of the heads charged an attack, "Think again, brat!"

The mythic dragon released its attack straight towards the youngest of the group, but Joey wasn't a talker for nothing.

"Block it, Red-Eyes!"

The dragon obediently flew into the line of fire, taking the attack for Mokuba. It was vaporized instantly.

"But that means—" Yugi started.

That means what? Kirito thought, only just managing to get up.

Joey's life points fell to zero.

"So long, Yug." He said as he began disappearing into golden sparkles. "I'm done for."

"Don't say that!" Yugi cried desperately.

"Stay with us, please!" Mai begged.

"You can't go." Mokuba added.

Kaiba said nothing.

Joey held up a weak thumbs up before he dissolved completely.

Kirito didn't understand. Why did Joey die when his dragon was destroyed? Were they connected in some way?

Did it matter? Now they were both dead.

Mai rose from where she had fallen on her knees. "You creeps! What kind of sick, twisted game have you turned this into?!"

"Game?" The voice laughed again. "This ceased to be a game long ago."

Kirito was frozen. He was flashing back to the tutorial when Kayaba announced that SAO wasn't just a game anymore. To all the deaths he had seen since. To Diavel, to Sachi, to all the players in boss fights in between.

Sachi.

He saw red.

So he couldn't use sword skills? He didn't need sword skills. He ceased to think as he once again charged the mythic dragon. He was a whirl of deadly blades, not noticing Yugi and the others calling his name, not noticing his swords go through the dragon with no resistance at all. Not noticing that he had no effect, that his game of origin didn't compute with the Big Five's reprogramming.

What he did notice, however, was the heads charging up another attack. He jumped up to the incredible height needed to reach the heads and made a horizontal slash through their necks. But the charging didn't stop. As he began to fall back to the ground, the red daze faded, and he realized that he had done nothing. He heard his name.

As he looked back at the group the attack finished charging. He saw Mai's dragon flying intercept it and ran, determined to make it there first. At the last second he made it between the beam of deadly light and the red dragon. He watched his health tic down by five thousand points; A relatively small percentage of his overall health, and well worth the sacrifice if it saved Mai's life.

But alas, the attack went straight through him, as his own attacks had gone through the dragon.

The Harpy Ladies' Pet Dragon was obliterated, sending Mai's life points to zero.

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