#like it’s a ship that could go wrong in so many ways (whether asuna gets with sena or not) and im just. ✨thoughts✨ yk???

[deus-ex-mona]

been thinking about how asuna’s [spoiler] scene in the last chapter of idol sengen is oddly underwhelming in the volume version compared to the piccoma release?

i mean l i ke (spoiler reveal under the cut)—

idk if it’s just me but seeing it in colour made the scene hit harder somehow? in some way?

s o . im just. thinking ahead here but…

what if i tried to overlay the colour panel onto the page when i eventually tl it in a few months?

i’m not good at picture editing at all.

b u t still.

i kinda wanna try to go the extra mile for asuna anyway… hmmmmmmmmm…

[kalimarswriting]

Wrong Floating Castle: Chapter 2

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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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