For the first time since Sword Art Online's inception, the player base spread itself across the lower floors. Floor fifty-five had just a couple dozen people consisting of guild leaders, major support characters like Argo and Agil, and the top fighters such as The Black Swordsman. Even Kibaou was invited to represent the first floor.

Why? Forty dead players.

No one released the details to the player base, but somehow forty players died in an unscheduled boss fight. Klein and Heathcliff banned anyone from leveling on the top floor then started a meeting. Rumors of all sorts swirled around the community, but Argo remains tight-lipped.

On the bright side, Silica has a lot more people to party with. She plays as one of the few who neither stay under Kibaou and the Aincrad Liberation Force on the first floor or clear the game with the Clearers. Though, that never bothered Silica. She became the most famous mid-leveler in the game. Being young and the only beast tamer in the game seemed to have helped in that regard. She often acted as a guide of sorts for the Clearer parties who ventured down for various reasons. She didn't build herself for soling anyway.

Two of her skills went to Pina, her tamed Feathered Little Dragon. As far as everyone else knows, she's the last of her species after other players killed all the Little Dragon nests. Her blood still boils at that memory. Anyway, two of her six skills went to Familiar Recovery and Familiar Communication. The other four went to One Handed Dagger, Acrobatics, Light Metal Equipment, and Sewing. Pina looks so cute in the jacket she made her even though she doesn't like wearing it, so she only does that one special occasions.

As a result, she built her avatar more for group work than soloing. Pina provides healing support while Silica can provide minor PDS and stat nerfs on the enemies. Groups are fun most of the time too, though this group annoys her to no end. More specifically, the bitchy woman could jump off a cliff for all she cares.

"Give me some healing crystals." Seriously, what the hell? No one asks for others' healing crystals, especially when that person has a lower level. Rosalia the Mega Bitch is a Clearer for crying out loud!

Silica crosses her arms and huffs, "You don't need any healing crystals." That's also true. The red-headed, spear-wielding woman has over three-quarters of her health. Plus, she hardly did jack squat for the entirety of their time in this field dungeon.

"Why do you even need those crystals? You're a child idol!" The woman chuckles in a way that irritates Silica even more. "You could go up to any male in the game and ask for a dozen healing crystals, and they'd give them to you in a heartbeat with that body." She points to the girl's chest.

Silica flushes, mostly out of embarrassment. Her avatar looks exactly like she did when she was twelve. She must be lot bigger now that she's thirteen, right? Maybe she'd even be able to look at Rosalia the Mega Bitch in the eye. "Fine! You want them? Take them!" She takes two healing crystals out of her inventory and drops them in the dirt. "I'm leaving!"

She takes herself out of this group and marches away, ignoring the pleas from the other members of the party. I'm not some kid to be babied. There are other parties to join anyway… Maybe I'd even get to be with The Black Swordsman and Greensleeves!

Of all the people stuck in Sword Art Online, those two must be the coolest. They find the door to the boss room almost every time, and they're almost always ahead of even the front lines. Those two are the only true scouts of the game, and they fought in every boss raid until the disastrous one. Maybe they'd even take down a boss together!

Unfortunately, they also are among the most mysterious players in the game. Most people agree that they know each other in real life, and they're probably bother and sister. So cute! And, the Black Swordsman has among the highest DPS output in the game while Greensleeves is the only player who can tank and deal serious damage at the same time. Oh, and she does it all without a shield! Super cool! There was even a time of four months where next to no information came out about them, but they've been in the news for the past two months. Even if the Black Swordsman has been mentioned as one of the people in the meeting, maybe Greensleeves will come down. She must be so beautiful! They must be college age to be that amazing, but Silica will do everything possible to be as cool and amazing as them.

But first, she must make it outa this field dungeon, the Forrest of Wandering. Though, she was never on this particular dungeon before, it won't take long to get out, right?

ZZZ

Silica uses her last healing crystal as she runs from the Drunk Apes. From the corner of her vision, she could see the monsters passing her to the left and right. Even as her nimble form weaved through the trees, they crashed through or swung over. She has no idea how to leave the forest, long since losing her way while fleeing. Drunk Apes have enough power to make them a challenge for an entire group to defeat, and four chase the girl. They've been chasing her for hours. The sunny day has turned to a dark night.

A fist comes out from the brush, and it connects with the girl. She crashes into a tree and watches her health move down to read. Pina fares no better. She flies next to her, giving her health whenever her cooldown finishes. I'm going to die.

Silica holds out her dagger and points it at the four advancing beasts. Their eyes glow red in the dark and their teeth glisten in the moonlight. Pina lands on her head and lets out a growl.

"Pina…" Throughout her life, Silica noticed friends often come and go, at least with her. One moment, they're besties while the next they're just friendly acquaintances. Animals were different. She had a fluffy little bird that lived in the tree outside her window. For as long as she could remember, the little creature greeted her every morning with song. She had a small cat named Pina a year before this game happened. The cat latched onto her. They were besties, just like her dragon Pina.

"Pina!" She opens her menu as the apes advance, not bothering to struggle in vain. They will kill her no matter what she does. She selects her treasured friend and drops her from the inventory. "Fly away, Pina! Live!"

Pina looks down at her from on top of her head and cocks its head to the right. She tries to put on a brave face to convince him everything will be alright, but her tears and quivering lip ruin the effect. When I die, she won't now. She'll be safe.

A Drunk Ape saunters in front of her and roars. It raises its club and swings it at her. Pina will be safe.

Pina leaps from her head and intercepts her blow with its body. She crashes on the ground with a sickening crunch as Silica watches helplessly as her health vanishes. When it hit zero, Pina looks at her trainer… her friend for a fleeting second. Then, she closes her eyes and explodes into countless glowing shards.

"Pina!" Silica wails her friend's name. She could've saved herself. Silica freed her the dragon, yet it chose to save her on its own volition.

The same Drunk Ape raises its club again. This time, its growl sounds more like laughter. Silica stares at the monster with empty eyes and accepts her fate.

All four die.

Silica, quivering in misery and loneliness, stays perfectly still and gazes at the patch of ground where the monsters once stood. This must be a dream, a nightmare! This can't be happening.

"Hey." Silica jerks her head to the speaker. Striding towards her is a woman wearing a brown cloak and a bandana over her face. "You alright?" The voice sounds soft, like her mother when the girl scrapped her knee as a child.

"P-Pina…" She looks back at her friend's final resting spot. Only a white feather remains. She clutches it and presses it against her chest… close to her heart.

"Sorry I didn't get here sooner." The woman kneels next to her. "That feather was Pina, right? You're that beast tamer."

"She d-died to save me. I left my group and ran into Drunk Apes, and now…" She clenches her eyes shut in a vain attempt to stop her tears. "Pina's dead!"

She feels the woman gently place her hand on the girl's head. Then, she pulls Silica's head forward until it presses against her shoulder. "It's alright to cry for Pina," she whispers, so Silica cries. She sobs and wails, all the while being held by a total stranger. The woman says sweet nothings in her ear as if Silica was her crying baby. Silica lets out a final whimper before lifting her head up.

"Sorry for the t-trouble." She hasn't let go of the feather.

"Does that feather have an item's name?"

Silica checks. Pina's Heart. Her lips quiver again out of both happiness at having a memory and guilt over failing her familiar.

"We can save her."

Silica almost drops Pina's Heart. "What?!"

"I've heard of some way to revive familiars, and I know someone who'd know." She opens her personal message and types a quick message. "I promise you I'll get back Pina, okay?"

Silica nods, not able to find any words. I can get Pina back? She hears the ping of a PM. Her savior reads the message.

"Well Silica, it's on floor forty-seven on the southern side. At the top of the field dungeon Hill of Memories, there's a flower that'd revive a familiar." She glances at the moon. "How about we set out tomorrow, alright?"

"Why are you being so nice to me?" Tears continue to trickle down her eyes, but they're all from happiness. "Why are you going to save Pina?"

"Oh, I almost forgot. You can have some of my old equipment. You'll need to great gear to make up for your lower level." She opens her inventory and pulls out a dagger, boots, a belt, a blazer, and a full set of light armor. Silica's jaw drops open when she sees the stats on the equipment.

"This is better than the Clearers' gear! I can't take this!"

The woman waives her finger back and forth in jest. "Nah ah. This's the price of my help. You must accept and wear all of this."

Silica accepts and dons the gift. She notices her stats raise to the point where she could've defeated the Drunk Apes. She also knows the gift costs more Cor than she made during the past year in the game.

"The look suits you." The woman nods in approval.

"Um, I'd say the same, but all I really see is your cloak."

The woman laughs. "Oh, I forgot." She takes off the bandana and pushes back her cloak to give the girl a clearer view. "Ta-dah!"

The woman wears black trousers, a grey shirt, and black gloves. In fact, the only skin she shows is her head which has long, blonde hair. Heck, she seems to be wearing the same clothes the Black Swordsman reportedly wore last month. Then, a realization dawns on Silica.

"You're a girl!"

Her savior flushes in a red matching Silica's new clothes. "Oof. I'm wearing Kirito's old stuff, but I didn't think it made me look like a dude. Darn, that sucks."

"No no no no!" Silica shakes her head back and forth at a speed only achievable due to her acrobatics skill. "I thought you were a grown up! But, you… You're only about four years older than me!"

She smiles. "Silica, how old are you?"

"Foute-" The girl looks at the ground. "Um, no. I'm just thirteen."

Her savior chuckles. "Silica, I'm fourteen."

"You're so awesome!" She jumps up and down in excitement. "I had no idea someone as young as me could be like you!" She sends out a friend request without hesitation. "I'm Silica, and I wanna be your friend!"

The girl smiles and nods. "I'm Leafa, and I'd like to be your friend too."

"Leafa?" She tilts her head to the side. "That's a really pretty name."

ZZZ

Silica hears a nock on her room's door. She and Leafa retired to rooms on the floor's inn, but the girl couldn't sleep. They met Rosalia the Mega Bitch on the way there, and that woman mocked her for Pena's death. She even said the two will fail at reviving Pina when she told her how she'd save her familiar. Those words still hurt.

Silica dresses herself and answers the door. Leafa stands on the other side, wearing the cloak and bandana. She put them back on after they reached other players. Many players wear masks or change their hair in the game since it uses their actual faces. For example, Silica is sure Leafa doesn't have naturally blonde hair.

"Trouble sleeping because of that woman who mocked you?" Silica nods in reply. Leafa steps inside and closes the door behind her. "This is your first MMO, isn't it…"

"Y-Yeah…" She drags her foot on the floor in shame. She's still a newbie.

"Mind if I let you in on two secrets?" She nods in anticipation. "This is my first video game ever." Silica stares. She's this amazing without playing a video game… ever? "I'm only doing this good because I tagged along with an MMO veteran and am… was a kendo champ IRL. I ran around in the woods like a wild banshee for the first two months without knowing even the most basic game mechanics. The other secret is the Red Flash. She never played a video game either other than phone games."

"Wow! You got this good using just skills! Kibaou seems even more dumb with his Beater story. And… And you know the Red Flash! She's one of the top players! How good are you?"

"Um…" This time, Leafa drags her foot across the floor. "I'm a common site during boss raids, but that wasn't the point I was trying to make. I mentioned an MMO veteran I play a lot with. He explained those assholes like that woman to me like this. People often are different online than they are IRL. You, me, the Red Flash… We're the same, but most MMO players create a different personality for their games. For all we know, that bitch could spend all her free time in real life helping orphans or puppies."

Leafa walks to the window. "I think this's one benefit you and I have over the veterans, Silica. We're us, not some other personality, and we know what we're in is real. Forty players just died, the biggest single disaster we've ever had in the game." She clenches her fists. "I don't care if someone is good in real life. Orange players are still murderers."

"Leafa?"

She turns around and smiles. "Sorry. Just don't let her words get you down, okay! We're getting Pina back tomorrow!" The blonde extends her fist to Silica for a fist bump.

"Yeah!" Their fists connect.

ZZZ

The two girls appeared at the center of Floria, the only city on the forty-seventh floor. Despite its reputation and being just a little to high-leveled for her to safely explore, Silica never set foot in the place until now. She regretted that decision immediately.

She gasped, unable to comprehend how such utter and unfathomable beauty could exists in such a horrible world. The sun shines in all its warm brilliance. A soft breeze rolls past her. The air carries the heavenly aroma of flowers. There are so many flowers. Blue, orange, red. If the color existed, so did a flower. The city has beds devoted entirely to blossoms. Instead of grass or dirt, petals covered the hills like a living blanket. Even the people carried bouquets or a single flower in their hair.

This is where she can revive Pina, as if the duo will march into heaven itself and snatch her soul from its embrace. For a moment, Silica felt guilt. Then, she glanced at Leafa's sword and realized they haven't reached heaven. This floor subsists as a mockery of paradise. Death still awaits outside the safety of the town, and the floor sits nearly in the middle of Aincrad. They haven't reached heaven. No, this is hell masquerading as heaven.

"You ready?" Leafa takes hold of her hand and squeezes it. Even though the woman… girl… wears that bandana, Silica could feel the smile anyway.

She nods. "Yeah. I…" She takes a deep breath. "Pina needs me to save her."

And absolutely nothing of note happened until they reached the highest hill in the Hill of Memories. Silica had no trouble fighting at all, and there was no plant monster that grabbed her. It did not lift her upside down to eat her, nor did her skirt follow gravity's design and cover her chest instead of her thighs. Her underwear certainly wasn't flashed for any to see which fortunately only included Leafa, and the blonde didn't have to save her. She also didn't suggest wearing pants to avoid such an awkward situation happen, not that it did. Leafa also didn't suggest taking her to some tailors who knew how to make clothes, including pants, of high durability that also looked super cute. And they are much better than me in their tailoring skills.

Silica wasn't embarrassed at all, and none of that happened. Alright, she'll admit to the shopping part. Yeah, that'll be awesome. Her parents had more than enough money for Silica to have shopping as a common hobby. Silica splurging with money consisted of buying Pina a few extra nuts. She already acquired enough Cor to actually afford to do such a… normal thing.

But now, something better than a day of shopping in the real world floated before her very eyes. Leafa mentioned how it only appeared under specific conditions. Specifically, beast tamers who recently lost their familiar. Since Silica remains the only beast tamer after all known Feathered Little Dragons were killed, this moment is the first and hopefully last occasion this flower shall ever exist.

Silica takes the Pneuma Flower. It's has seven petals of pure white and almost sparkled in the sun. She took it as if the flower has the same delicacy of a newborn.

"We should revive her when we get back. This place is still too high for your level, and I'd rather play it safe." Why don't we use a crystal to teleport back? It costs enough to hurt their finances, but it seems like a safer choice. On the other hand, it means they get to spend more time together.

"Alright!"

Coming out a dungeon presents less of a challenge in most cases. Maybe monsters don't spawn as frequently when a party travels away from the center, or perhaps the enemies they cut through haven't reappeared yet. Could it just be excitement making time move faster? Still, Silica understands how they're making it out without any trouble.

It scares her that Leafa seems so on edge.

The girl replies in shorter sentences. Her eyes move from tree to tree yet never lingers on the NPCs. Even when not fighting, her hand twitches as if she fights back a desire the unsheathe it.

Silica understands that she should ask what's the matter, but she doesn't. Too many thoughts jumble in her head. She pushes out ideas that Leafa wants to betray her and take the flower for herself. First, Leafa has no familiar. Silica would've heard about another beast tamer by now. Second, she gave Silica a nearly sinful amount of high-quality armor. Silica already made it apparent that she is willing to die for Pena, so she'd die before giving up Pina's Heart or the Pneuma Flower. By dying, all her armor would dissolve along with her.

Still, why would Leafa act so weary only after they retrieve the flower? While Silica hasn't been in life and death situations as often as the Clearers, she still faced it dozens of times. Often, she could feel something ominous before it happened. Right now, she doesn't feel that ominous presence. Instead, it seems to be strangling her alive.

Silica doesn't see any danger. No players are in sight. They just defeated a mob of monsters. All she can hear is running water and their footsteps pattering over the stone bridge. Ahead, only trees line their path.

She feels Leafa's hand on her shoulder. "Leafa?" she asks.

The swordswoman takes a step ahead front of Silica. Like a human shield. In a calm voice, Leafa orders, "Rosalia, come out." Silica hears the cold fury behind the words.

The bitch's laughter ends the peaceful tranquility. She steps out from behind a tree with her spear in hand. "Your detection skill must be-"

"Max level." The redead's eyes open in minor shock at the blunt truth. Leafa is even more amazing. I didn't even know anyone had that! "The other seven of the Titan's Hand can come out too." Seven!

"Whatever." Rosalia the mega bitch shrugs. "So much for a dramatic entrance." Seven others do step out, all but one have an orange curser overhead. A Player Killer Guild! All the players also happen to have gear that'd rank with the Clearers. In fact, they probably all are or were Clearers at some point. "It's no fun to play a villain without surprising a few people."

"Like the forty?" Leafa's hands shake in anger. "Forty-two went attacked the boss, but only forty names were marked off the Monument of Life. I tracked you, figured out you were part of a Red Guild. Your guild attacked them during the boss battle and slaughtered them all. Over half were children!"

"Oh? I hardly count fifteen as a child, though you seem to have the brains and body of one." She smirks. "You knew all of us wouldn't hesitate to take that Pneuma Flower, but you didn't bring backup? You may be a Clearer too, but I don't even know who you are. Just a pissed nobody who's going to die, along with the kiddy idol after she gives us what we want… after some fun."

I feel disgusting.

The woman acts like a villain. The intention seems painfully clear to Silica. Like what Leafa said, Rosalia plays evil and enjoys it. Maybe this woman lived a pleasant and kind life outside the game, but here she intentionally chooses evil.

But, Leafa is good. In this moment, the hero would give some retort or reveal how the villains walked into a trap. However, Silica and Leafa understood that they aren't heroes. Lives hang in the balance, and the eight in front of them murder people. This is real.

Thus, the only person not surprised by Leafa's attack is Silica. The first Orange player merely screamed in terror as both of his hands fell to the ground. The second Orange player readied his sword by the time he was disarmed, literally. The third Orange players made his first attack before Leafa parried the blow and ripped the man's arm off… with just her left hand.

It is at this point that Silica realizes her traveling companion is far more powerful than she previously thought.

The remaining four, because Rosalia stood to the side and the one arm man did nothing but cry, attacked. Despite Leafa's initial success, a straight four-on-one battle between similarly ranked players can't be won by the one. The one can't switch. The one can't stop four simultaneous strikes. Silica knew this very well. The Laughing Coffin favored this method for killing Clearers. Even though Silica believed that Leafa must be among the top twenty players of the game, there's no way she could withstand three players attacking her, let along four.

Thus, her jaw hangs wide when Leafa parries and refuses to stop. Every blow. Every swipe. They all stop at the girl's blade. After twenty seconds of their assault, the four back off and pant. One seems to have trouble still holding his sword. Leafa breathed without haste and held her sword in front of her. Silica gasped, vaguely recognizing the stance not as one from Sword Art Online but from kendo.

Leafa sprung forward to the nearest player who had no chance to stop the attack. Sword went through synthetic flesh as the forth watched his severed leg dissolve into pixels. The fifth simply drops his spear, knells, and places his hands on his head. The sixth lunges with a rapier, but Leafa sidesteps with ease and swipes her sword across the murderer's face. Judging from the terrified shrieking about being blind, Silica concludes that he covers his face because he lost eyes until they regenerate. The seventh attacker stabs Leafa from behind, and she rolls to the side. Her cloak, however, disintegrates from being grazed. Leafa grabs the backstabber's hands and squeezes. Her hands glow, indicating the legendary Martial Arts skills. A sickening crunch and a girlish scream erupt from the final attacker before he passes out from the pain.

Silica smiles, fully aware of that only the elite few carry the skill. They said that its power wasn't something they wanted the player base, especially the Murder Guilds, to know. Kibaou claimed it was Beaters being evil. After seeing Leafa's display, Silica reaffirms her belief in the former.

"Greensleeves," Rosalia croons. "You're Greensleeves." Leafa's eyes open in surprise while Silica's open in amazement. Greensleeves! "You dyed your hair blonde, wore your brother's clothing, and put on a bandanna just to chop off our arms? Pathetic."

Leafa takes out a Corridor Crystal from her inventory. She clears her throat. "This will take you to our prison. Come peacefully."

Rosalia laughs, her mocking and haughty laugh. "Take them!" She waves her hand dismissfully. "Since I never attacked another player, I'm still green. That means-"

In the blink of an eye, Leafa stands in front of Rosalia. She pushes the sword forward until the final few centimeters disappear into her stomach. The woman gurgles from the pain.

"You talk too much." She activates the Corridor Crystal, and a gate opens to an awaiting group of players, shackles ready to be used. Leafa tosses the guild members in besides two. The one who surrendered enters on his own volition. Rosalia grasps onto Leafa's shoulders. With desperation in her eyes and a sword still lodged in her stomach, she pleads, "How?"

Leafa twists the sword as she pulls it out of the woman's flesh. With the orange player marker hanging over her head, a passerby would assume Leafa is the player killer, not the other way around. "Simple." She sheathes her sword. "We figured I'd be the only one wouldn't murder you, and I knew I could do it." She pushed Rosalia through and the gate closed.

"Leafa?" Silica gulps and takes a step forward. Her mind tries to reconcile two people, Leafa who helped her revive Pina selflessly and Greensleeves who brutally destroyed a guild with extreme prejudice.

"Sorry." Leafa looks at the ground and takes off her bandana. "I needed to get that entire guild in one place, but I did… do want to help you."

Silica clenches her fists, steeling her resolve. "C-Can we still go shopping? With Pina too?"

Leafa looks up, not bothering to hide the tears in her eyes. She smiles. "Thank you."

And that's how I got a big sister.

ZZZ

Yui's comments:

There were a few more scenes the writer wanted to add, but they didn't seem to fit. Instead, he ended it here. The other scenes will be put on later. If there is any confusion for what Leafa was doing, then we'll be sure to clear that up if you voice it in the comments or PMs. I can say the meeting with all (except Leafa) of the big-name players was a "real" meeting where they genuinely tried coming up with ways to protect players from Murder Guilds. They also had Leafa operating to find the killers during the false sense of security.

As much as this fanfic focuses on Leafa and Kirito's dynamics during their time in SAO, the story will also branch out to give both characters moments away from their prospective sibling. Leafa shouldn't be defined by Kirito, and Kirito shouldn't be defined by Leafa. In this instance, Leafa gets to act as the older sibling instead of being the little sister.

There isn't much more to say about this chapter. Hopefully, you found it different enough from the canon where it's interesting, but original enough to be entertaining.

Also, there's a reason Leafa's swordsmanship suddenly being different (more arm slicing and such). From what happened in the story already, you have a good chance to figure out why. If not, it'll be cleared up soon enough.

Lastly, Silica didn't connect Leafa to Greensleeves thanks to Argo. The Rat has kept the identities of her two scouts somewhat clouded. Plus, the duo spend most of their time scouting labyrinths, not much time for player interaction besides the most proficient players.

Now, onto the-

Wait. I had a mistake in my replies that I want to address now. To SaintInfernalNeos I meant to say "I'm not saying you're right or wrong" instead of "I'm saying you're right or wrong". Sorry. Hopefully, all y'all don't think that made me sound mean or anything like that. My intention, at least, is to always be civil to all who are generous enough to leave a review. I also don't reread my comments nearly as close as I reread the story to check for errors and such. I probably should be more proactive.

Okay, now we can do the comments.

SaintInfernalNeos, I'm glad the chapter worked for you. It took a lot of effort to find the proper balancing act. I knew Kirito and Leafa were in a dark place, but at the same time I didn't want it to just be a depressing chapter. So, I went with a hopeful ending to the chapter. It's also a reason why Kirito wasn't in this chapter. I needed to give myself a break with their interactions. Plus, there wasn't much for me to do with them for the moment. While the idea of Kirito and Leafa helping Silica out was quite appealing, I didn't want one of them playing third wheel in the chapter.

Xaxa actually happens to be one of the characters I like writing the most for this story even though I haven't used him much so far. (The others are Argo and of course Leafa. I feel like I'm missing something with Kirito while Asuna hasn't had a chance to shine.)

I'm extremely interested to see how you view this chapter, especially with having Leafa save Silica instead of her brother (and using Yui's spoilers to sorta misdirect what the readers were expecting).

Warorpeace, things will get better… eventually. Even though a pit bull tried to heal me since posting the last chapter, my arm healed though besides some itchy scars. So, I can add "ripped pit bull off arm and kept it on the ground until its owners arrived" on my list of things that I never want to do but did anyway. At least it makes good stories to tell people.

Guest, thanks for sharing your opinion! I won't spoil pairing or a lack of them, but if anyone does get together, I'll do my best it fits the characters and isn't for a stupid reason. (I find it annoying when the best explanation for a character pairing is "the writer wants them together" regardless of my feeling to that pairing.)

Quality over Quantity, Argo is very fun to write, and I want to give her character justice by making her meaningful to the plot. Same with Xaxa. I didn't incorporate both so much for the heck of it… No spoilers, Yui.

No fair.

Anyway, the next chapter still has a few technical aspects I'm not sure about. Do I split it in two? Should I have a few scenes I have planned in there? Heck, I only deduced the two who'll be the "protags" of that arc a few days ago. Before then, I had about five different routs outlined depending on who and how many I wanted to use. It was pretty important anyway, giving momentum to the canon Kirito and Asuna pairing while also introducing the three mains from the Laughing Coffin.

EDIT: This does not mean that the best chapter will be Kirisuna. I was just refering to how this part of the story really pushed Kurisuna. I apologize for any confusion or irritation I caused.

Hopefully, the next chapter will be out in two weeks. Thus, be sure to follow to know immediately!

^Shameless advertising.

Oh, and please point out any errors I have with tense usage. This is the only thing I'm working on that's in present tense, so I've often been accidentally reverting to past tense. I tried to catch all those mistakes, but you know how it goes.