Disclaimer: I don't own BlazBlue or Sword Art Online

Author's Note: Hey guys, just a few things before I get started. If you've read the summary you probably have a good idea what's going to happen, if not here's a small explanation.

Ragna the Bloodedge from the fighting series BlazBlue is in SAO's Aincrad, specifically he'll be in Kirito's place as the main protagonist. (I'll admit I don't exactly like the guy, but this is NOT a hate story) Ragna will seem somewhat nerfed at first early on, but this will be explained. Ragna will also be the only outside character in this story.

With no further interruptions, enjoy!

A Reaper's Game

Prologue: The Reaper's Arrival

'My head…' Ragna groaned as he felt himself lying on the soft grassy ground. 'What in the seven hells just happened?' He slowly opened his eyes and saw the blue sky. 'The last thing I remember is…' Images flashed through his mind, including one of him impaling someone who he'd once been close to. 'Right, I just finished killing the Imperator and then she… what did she do? I remember this bright flash of light and the rest is blank.'

Ragna made his way up and observed his surroundings he was in the middle of a large grassy field. There was a town a small ways to his right and a forest further to his left, but one of the most noticeable features was giant pillar in the distance that seemed to be reaching towards the sky.

"Well, I'm not in Kagutsuchi anymore," Ragna said aloud to himself with a dark chuckle. It then occurred to the Reaper that he was able to use his right arm and eye. "Is there Seither here or something? I wouldn't be able to move otherwise."

Ragna then noticed his sword, Blood-Scythe on the ground beside him. He picked up the weapon with ease and twirled it around in his hand a few times before setting the sword on his back. With no other places in mind he then decided to head out to the town, maybe ask around for his bearings if he could.

"I haven't seen anyone yet…" Ragna thought as he made it closer to the town. That was before he noticed something approaching him. It appeared to be some form of a feral boar. The boar dug its hooves into the ground before sprinting at Ragna full force. 'The hell?' Ragna thought as he dodged to the side. He then noticed the red bar above the boar. 'Wait…'

The boar skidded to a halt and charged again for a second attack. This time Ragna slammed his fist into the boar head as hard as he could. The result was the boar giving a squeal of pain as it was forced back, the red bar above it depleting slightly.

"You've got to be kidding me, that would have killed most people," Ragna groaned as he took his sword out and impaled it into the boar as it tried a third charge at the Reaper. The red bar was completely depleted and the boar exploded into something that resembled glass shards. To seal his fate a strange message appeared in front of him.

Result

Exp 24

Col 30

Items 2

"Great," Ragna sighed to himself. "I have absolutely no idea what's going on right now. Hopefully there's someone in town that can explain this damn hell hole that I'm in."

As Ragna started getting closer to the town he noticed that there were only a few people at the entrance, touching a weird screen in front of them that looked similar to the one that he'd seen after he beat the boar. He then observed a player make a motion with his hand to open the screen.

Feeling a little curious he tried it out himself, creating a screen in front of him with several options. 'Well crap… this is what I get for never buying an effing laptop,' he thought to himself. 'Let's see here… maybe if I try 'equipment.' After touching the button on the screen, a sub-screen with his inventory came up. The first item was his sword: Blood-Scythe Basic. He pushed the button revealing the sword with several statistics linked to it. 'These numbers don't make much sense, but this small section at the bottom says that it has locked abilities, whatever that means. It also says it can be improved by adding different metals. Does that have something to do with the stats?'

Ragna then went to the next option on the list was his outfit, given the title The Red Reaper's Coat Basic. Again, this weapon gave Ragna a few statistics, these ones pertaining to defense. It seemed like this could also be improved by adding different materials. 'Hopefully it doesn't change the design, I like my coat the way it is.'

He went down the list, observing that he managed to have a healing potion and some boar hide, items that he'd gotten from the boar. The last option on the list was different than the others, the text was in red instead of the usual black. Azure Grimoire. Ragna clicked on the option.

'Description: An arm of otherworldly origins, this certain piece of equipment allows for unorthodox and arcane fighting styles. This artifact will increase in power along with its wielder.

Ability Enhanced Battle regeneration Lv1: When recovering from damage in battle using natural battle regeneration this arm increase the hit points recovered by 5 points.'

Ragna was unsure what to make of all of this. Keep in mind this guy had constantly been fighting the NOL, so he never exactly had the chance to be able to enjoy himself and play an RPG or anything. With little ideas of what was going on he decided to walk around town, finding it overcrowded with people. Eventually he came across a tavern and decided to stop there. There were several people inside eating and talking with one another. The Reaper took a seat off to the side of the group, not exactly feeling sociable at the moment.

After a few moments a waitress made her way over to him. "Can I get you something?"

'Answers, for one thing,' Ragna thought to himself, but decided against saying it. "Just some coffee."

"Sure thing, that'll be five coal," she told him. A panel appeared in front of him asking if he'd like to pay five coal in exchange for the mug of coffee. Though a little caught off guard, he decided to accept. "Great, I'll be back in just a few."

As she walked away Ragna opened up his menu again and continued looking through it. Under abilities he saw that he had two techniques. One called Power Attack, and even his original Hell's Fang. It seemed he'd lost most of his fighting techniques, but he figured he'd work to get them back later… somehow. By the time the serving girl came back to him with his coffee he'd read through most of the basic tutorials from his menu and was starting to get the hang of how to apply stats in the system.

"I still can't believe it," one of the people close by to his table said. "I remember buying the Nerve gear thinking of all of the fun I'd have with it, not being sent into some sadistic death game."

"Two weeks in and you're still complaining about it?" one of his friends asked as Ragna took a sip of his coffee and listened from afar. "Well I guess you have plenty of reason to. You buy the game thinking it'll be the next big thing and then they drop the bomb and tell you that you can't escape and you die in real life if your health hits zero. Even though the system doesn't have us register pain we all got screwed over."

"Yeah, especially when you found out about the girl you were hitting on was actually a guy, that probably hurt!" another one said with a laugh. Ragna fought the urge to roll his eyes, he fought hard. "But seriously, clear all a hundred levels or you get trapped here forever. We haven't even found the first boss room and over a thousand people are already dead!"

"Yeah, well at least there are people working on it, hopefully some of them are beta-testers that know what they're doing," the first one told the others before standing. "Come on, let's see if we can get a quest done and level up by the end of the day."

"Well I'm going to need some coal anyways to get myself some better armor, so what the hell?"

As the group left Ragna attempted to make sense of what he just heard. 'So I'm trapped in some sort of video game. I die here, I die in real… life? But if I don't have that Nerve gear thing, do I not exist in the outside world? In that case, my life is literally tied to the game, so clearing it could mean that I die for real…' Ragna let out a small chuckle. 'Don't tell me I've become shallow enough that I'm afraid for my own life when over thousands of people are at stake?'

Ragna finished his coffee and left the mug on the table. He exited the restaurant and proceeded to leave town. 'All right, let's see if I get used to this weird combat system,' he thought as he came across another boar. "Hell's Fang!" he shouted as he lunged forward and slammed his fist into the boar. He also tried to follow-up the attack with a wave of darkness, but for some reason it didn't work. "Like I've never had to deal with this before," he complained as he dodged the boars rush.

Ragna drew his sword and slashed the boar across its body, finishing it off. As the result screen came up the Reaper gave a small grin. "All right then, let's see if I can power through a couple more of these fights and go from there."

*Two hours later*

Ragna had been fighting every boar and wolf he came across. With all of the constant fighting he'd managed to level up three times, but he still hadn't recovered any of his earlier techniques. Currently he was searching for a better challenge so he could get more experience and col at a faster rate. He'd decided to go follow the path out of town in order to head to the next town, hoping to find something stronger.

While Ragna tried to appear carefree he was actually doing most of this fighting in order to avoid the recent memories in his head. He still thought back to killing the Imperator, the time he'd lost Lambda atop Kagutsuchi, and even the Terumi's massacre at the church during his childhood.

'I need to learn how to move on,' he thought to himself. 'I've always done what I've had to, including now.' It was then that he noticed a group of players who were finishing off a large group of wolves and boars. They were dressed as samurai seemed to be somewhat skilled as they were teaming up with each other in order to flank, out maneuver their prey, and using a small ledge for cover.

"Looks like that's all of them," a redhead with a bandana said as he sheathed his katana and looked over the result screen. "Looks like we're getting close to level ten. We should be able to get to eight by the end of the week." He then looked up and saw Ragna off in the distance. "Hmm? I haven't seen him around here before, who's he?"

"Don't know," one of his teammates responded. "Guess he's a solo player."

"One of the few that survived you mean," another one commented. "Most of the thousand we lost were stubborn solo players. But if he's survived this long, maybe he should join us?"

"Worth asking," the leader admitted before waving his hand above his head. "Hey buddy! Over here!"

Ragna was a bit confused on what they wanted with him, but he eventually decided to see what they wanted. "Something wrong?"

"Nah, just wanted to know why you've decided to travel alone. You stand more of a chance in this world if you find a good team to survive with."

"No offense, but I'm not exactly a people person," Ragna told them. "I'm better off figuring this stuff out on my own." 'Plus, I'm not really sure how I feel about them knowing about my BlazBlue…'

"Aw… C'mon," the redhead said looking a little deflated. "Look, I'm not saying that you have to join up with us or anything, but solo playing in this deathtrap is suicidal."

"I'm pretty careful, and I know when to avoid trouble. Trust me, I'll be fine," Ragna assured him.

"If you say so. By the way what level are you?"

"Only level four," Ragna admitted. "But I've been working hard in order level up as fast as I can."

"You're going to need to," the redhead told him. "The first five levels are pretty easy to get to, but after that you have to grind like crazy an entire day just to get one level… Kind of like Dragon Quest (shots fired). Anyways, my name's Klein. And these guys are all part of my guild, the Fuurin Kazan. Nice to meetcha."

"Ragna, and likewise," the Reaper told him. "Anyways, I'm going to head for the next town so I'll see you around."

"Try to get there soon," Klein advised as Ragna started heading out. "Monsters are a lot stronger at night in here."

"Thanks for the tip," Ragna told him as he started running off.

"Boss, shouldn't we have tried harder to convince him to join us?" one of Klein's followers asked. "It seemed like you let him go pretty easily."

"If he didn't want to join us, he didn't want to join," Klein told him. "Plus that guy seemed pretty intimidating, didn't really want to argue that close to his face. He might be a few levels below us, but it's clear that he means business."

*Later*

Ragna continued travelling along the plains, the setting sun giving way to the orange sky above him. The Reaper didn't have any ideas of where the next town was, so his current plan was to keep walking along the path and see where it took him. He had a hard time wrapping his head around the opponents he fighting and his current state of strength. While he retained all of the skill he'd acquired from his countless battles against the NOL, his strength itself was no weakened greatly to what he'd had before. It didn't help that he'd lost most of his techniques when he'd made his way here.

A collection of snarls came from around the Reaper. Surrounding Ragna were four tiny reptilian creatures that were wearing some sort of leather armor. They were coming at Ragna from all sides with some sort of jagged hunting knife. Ragna didn't waste any time as he brought out Blood-Scythe and rushed towards one of the creatures and slashed at its head. Surprisingly the creature was still standing as the 'slashed' animation played across its head. It did however take out two-thirds of its health.

'Guess I'm still at a pretty low level,' Ragna thought as he blocked the attacks from the other creatures before sticking the group back with a powerful roundhouse kick. Ragna then took advantage of the opening, causing his sword to glow a dark red as he performed his Power Attack across all of their chests. The creature he'd destroyed earlier was defeated and exploded into bright glass as the other three were heavily wounded.

The other three scurried around the Reaper before lunging, hoping to surround and impale him. Ragna leapt into the air as he performed a slash in mid-air, killing one of them and getting out of the pincer attack. "Hell's Fang!" he shouted as he rushed forward and finished another one with his signature technique. His punch struck the creature right in head and destroyed him while the other one tried to advance Ragna when his guard was in the middle of an attack.

The creature's knife caught Ragna's forearm showing a 'slashed' animation, causing Ragna's health bar to decrease slightly. Ragna felt pain emanating from the wound, something he was surprised with. He didn't let the pain stop him though, as he brought his sword around for a final slash on the creature. The creature perished like the ones before it and the result screen was displayed.

'Didn't those guys back at the restaurant say that you shouldn't feel pain in this world?' Ragna thought to himself as he examined the rewards he'd obtained, still holding Blood-Scythe in his free hand. 'I guess that means I really am tied to this world.' After closing the screen he realized that his health bar was slowly reverting back to maximum HP. 'At least I have my BlazBlue to make things easier. But…'

The Reaper closed the results screen and turned behind him to see another group of the creatures approaching him. 'Something tells me that I'm in for a long night…'