Author's Note:

Hello and welcome to my new Fan Fiction!

This will be my first LONG term project I will be attempting! In the past, I have been disappointed when Fan Fictions stopped their progression, but that will not happen to this one! This story will have every single floor incorporated in it. Either a Boss raid, or a side story.

This is a continuation of ColtonTheSwordsman's work. He created a very promising story, but it ended abruptly, so I am continuing his work!

Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Sword Art Online Franchise...

In-Game

Floor 100: Ruby Palace

Location: Outside Gate

Time: 15:00

The clouds filled the air up above them.

Kirito dreamed about this moment for 3 years now. The moment when he could have a rematch against the one person who put them through this hell. The man responsible for making Kirito bow down to him. The man who was responsible for all 4,000 deaths so far.

Kayaba Akihiko.

Kirito led the small group of players who survived the 99th Floor Boss. They raiding party was full, with 60 players. They all left the Boss Room with only 24 players left. The best players in the game, and most of them were slaughtered before Kirito's eyes.

"Its okay," Asuna hummed in his ear as she gave his hand a slight squeeze. "We will be alright."

Kirito looked over at his wife, and saw her loving smile. He couldn't help but smile back at her, but he didn't mean it. Ever since that day Heathcliff had challenged Kirito to a 1 on 1 duel, Kirito had been regretting his decision of declining it. Cringing at the memory, he pushed away the thoughts as he rallied the Clearers one final time.

"Alright guys. I know that Raid was tough, but we have no time for grieving. They will understand, and we have all awaited this moment. There are players who have been relying on us." Kirito said as he looked around, looking into the eyes of each player. Before he continued, he gave Asuna's hand one more squeeze. "We cannot, and will not stop now. The final Boss lies ahead. Lets make him pay for the 3 years of hell he has put us all through!" Kirito cheered, earning cheers from only a few other players.

Kirito turned around and led them further into the Ruby City, skipping all the vendors and just rushing straight to the Ruby Palace.

One final battle... One final Boss...

Asuna realized what he was thinking, and spoke up.

"Hey, sweety. We will be fine." Asuna tried to cheer up her stubborn husband. "Just think, once this is over, we can go back to the Real World... Where we promised I promised I would find you again."

Kirito couldn't help but smile. "Yeah, I can finally fulfill that promised I made to you, in the beginning."

"Yeah," Asuna spoke while reminiscing on their 3 years together. She remembered all those quirky moments, and those fights that were meaningful at the time, but now seemed irrelevant.

More time flew by as they approached the Ruby Palace, where they all saw a Notification sign on the door.

" 'Dear Players!' " Kirito started to read the message. " "I wish to congratulate you all on your remarkable work on clearing 99 Floors! Although I wouldn't mind the challenge of facing 60 players at once, I must refrain to a 1 on 1 Battle. You of course understand why I would appreciate this?' " Kirito finished reading before turning around to look back at the players.

"I'll go," Kirito spoke out.

"No," Asuna said immediately. Not even caring to hear his usual speech.

"Yeah, Asuna-san is right, you have done more than enough for us over these past 3 years. It is time for one of us to return the amount of favors we owe you," one player spoke out. Kirito learned over time to give in to some of the players requests. Kirito was too focused on his own thoughts, that he didn't even notice another player enter the Palace, alone.

"Hey," Asuna said as she put a hand on his cheek. Noticing his worries, she knew she had to put him at ease. She pressed her lips gently against his, before pulling back, letting him catch his breath. "Everything will be alright."

Immediately after she said that, the doors to the Ruby Palace opened, with a smiling Healthcliff in the doorway, only muttering one simple word:

"Next..."

Real World

Date: November 6th, 2022

3 Years Ago...

The news for the past few days consisted of one and only one thing. The official release of the MMO, Sword Art Online. Kazuto, lately has been restless due to waiting to finally be able to play the game once more. After they had announced the official release, the beta became closed, making it so he had nothing to do but pass time.

The time read '12:57'. Three more minutes. Kazuto thought to himself. Ever since he played the beta, he had been absorbed in the world. The floating castle of Aincrad had become his scapegoat. Whenever things got rough with his family, and little to no friends, he would turn his attention to the castle. All that changed a week ago when the beta closed.

He was forced out of his room to "socialize".

Bull shit, was all he could muster from it. He turned to gaming for a reason. To escape from that reality. After getting lost in thought, he didn't notice the time as it struck '1:00'.

His head snapped to his nerve gear. He reached for it and plugged it in. Once he was finally in a position where he could be comfortable enough, he put it on. He reminisced when he had it last on. He took one last look at his ceiling, before closing his eyes.

Smiling he said, "LINK START!"

A few seconds passed before it asked for his Username and Password. Eagerly putting in all his information in, an option came up into his sights asking if he wanted to used his character name and gender that he used in the beta. He thought to himself for a second before agreeing to keep it easy on him self.

His username read, "Kirito".

Happy with that he was appeared in his old reality. His appearance was randomly generated so that he did not look like he would of in real life. He was about a half a foot taller, and his hair was blue rather than black. He opened his eyes to his old reality.

In-Game

Floor 1: City of Beginnings

He looked down at his hands, before making two fists, saying "I'm back... to this world!" Kirito was too absorbed to notice all around him players started to appear one after another, before he was 1 out of a few hundred.

Feeling a bit overwhelmed, he raced out of the starting city to get a head start on the game. He ran past people who was staring in amazement at their surroundings. As he was weaving his way through everyone, he occasionally bumped into a few people, making him grunt a short apology before continuing on his marry way.

As he reached the booths of shops that were run by NPC's for now, he noticed a lot pf players starting to converse with each other. Let them get along. He thought to himself. That made him want to get away faster. Making him run a bit quicker.

As he passed by a small group of people, one of them looked Kirito's way. The man muttered a slight 'gotta go' and hurried after Kirito.

"HEY!" the man yelled after Kirito, but it took Kirito a few seconds until he noticed that the man was talking to him. Slowing to a stop, Kirito turned his head slightly and looked into the strangers eyes.

Kirito, confused looked away for a split second before returning the strangers gaze. He turned his body fully to the man before saying, "Can I help you?"

"Ah- Ah-Yes!" He said before putting a hand to the back of his head before continuing. The mans hair was red while he had a red bandanna tied around his head. The two were about the same height. "Call me rude for saying this, but the way you moved told me instantly you were part of the beta. Am I right?"

Kirito hesitated for a second, thinking to himself if he should be discussing this anyone. But he made a quick judgement that he shouldn't worry about it, seeing as how the beta was now closed. "Yes, I was."

"Thought so!" the man yipped. Startling Kirito a bit, that and a few players who were passing by. "The names Klein by the way." he said approaching Kirito, putting a hand on his shoulder before continuing. "I am new to this game, mind showing me the basics?"

Kirito was uncomfortable by the sudden contact, even if it were only a game. He was quick to continue by agreeing, making Klein jump in glee.

After introducing himself he lead Klein out of the starting town on into the first field of the game...

In-Game

Floor 1: Outside Starting Town

Time Skip: 20 minutes

After a bit of Kirito teaching Klein all about letting the system do the skill, he started to show Klein some of his moves. Picking up a rock, he held still for a split second before firing it from his hands. The rock shot like a bullet, hitting the boars back-side. Angering the boar, it charged Kirito, pulling out his Iron Sword, he dodged the boars attack with ease. it turned, stamping its feet, it charged once more. His blade turned a light blue, alerting Kirito that his skill Slash was activated. He took off in a blur and hit the boars side, leaving a red gash in the boars side.

The boars health dipped into the red zone. Klein took this opportunity. He readied his short sword and armed a Slash like Kirito has taught and demonstrated. Klein finished the boar in one hit. The boar shattered into particles, signaling the system to respawn a new.

"Phew," Klein panted while looking at the time. He established that it was time for him to log off, seeing as how it was time for him to get a mouth full of pizza. "I should probably log off," he said while sending Kirito a friend request. He hesitated for a second before accepting it.

"Alright, I'll see you later. But if I were you, I would log off in town. Seeing as how you don't want to spawn in a field of monsters."

"Understandable. Alright man, I'll see ya." Klein said, walking off back to where he once came from. In that time, Kirito inspected his stats.

In the time he was teaching Klein, he managed to level up to level 2. Great. He thought to himself. Another 30 then I'll be caught up to my level in the bet- his thoughts were interrupted by a girls scream. Kirito's head perked up to where the noise had come from.

In the distance, he saw a girl being ganged up by a pack of wolves. Seeing this, Kirito took action. He sprinted towards the girl while drawing his Iron Sword in the process. He activated Slash while he was running. Leaping into the air, he slashed down one of the wolves in one swoop. Where Kirito got this surge of adrenaline, he did not know, but he used it to his advantage.

As Kirito worked, the girl was on the ground due to falling over in shock from the sudden assistance. She looked up at her savior to see him getting thrown around by the wolves. She drew Her Rapier and tried to help out. She charged up her skill Stab and attacked one of the last three wolves remaining. After a few minutes of them getting thrown around, Kirito managed to kill off the rest of the pact by using Slash over and over.

After the last one shattered into particles, he stood up. Amazed that they were able to handle a small pack of wolves. He walked over the the girl and noticed her struggling to get up. Grabbing her arm, he helped her stand up straight. In this time he noticed she had brow hair that was tied back into a pony-tail. She was a lot shorter than Kirito originally expected her to be.

"That was dumb!" she yelled at him. "You could of gotten your self hurt!"

Kirito was a bit shocked at this. Seeing as how he was the one who was helping her by keeping her away from the pack. "You are joking right?" Kirito rebutted.

"Yes of course!" she said sticking out her tongue. All he did was roll his eyes and smiled. "Thank you," she said at last. She then looked up to him and said while bowing her head, "My name is Asuna! Thank you again for saving me."

"You are welcome Asuna-san," he said looking at the sun that started to set. "My name is Kirito, a pleasure."

He extended his hand, she looked at it for a second, before finally accepting it. "Kirito...-kun was it?" he nodded slightly and she continued. "I really do appreciate the help. But it is getting late, so I should log out. I hope we can be friends though!"

Kirito opened his menu and sent her a friend request. He then said, "Yeah I should log out too, my family is probably preparing dinner." He said tapping the options button.

"Hey- Kirito-kun. I don't see the 'Log Out' button. Do you?" She asked curiously.

After tapping the options, he noticed the same thing. His eyes opened in shock. "I don't see it either, Asuna-san."

"Perhaps a glitch?" She questioned, fearing Kirito's answer.

"No, not a glitch. I was part of the beta, and then obviously there was a 'Log Out' button. It even has a spot for it and all. But this seems like it was removed purposefully."

"So what you are saying is this SUPPOSE to happen?" She asked with a bit of fear behind her voice.

All he was able to mutter was a 'yeah' before both him and Asuna were both teleported back to the Starting Town.

In-Game

Starting Town

Time: 17:20

As soon as Kirito's body stopped glowing, he noticed he was not the only one that had been forced back to the starting point of the game. All around him people showed up one after another before he was one of almost 10,000. He looked to his left and noticed Asuna was standing at his side, looking up at the sky.

Curious at what she was looking at, he too turned his attention to the sky, realizing that a red 'WARNING' sign appeared. As he looked at it, it started to expand until they were completely surrounded by the sign. At this people started to mutter among themselves all curious at what they were witnessing.

"Kirito-kun," Asuna said while grabbing his elbow. She pointed to the spot in the sky that started to turn a darker shade of red. Soon enough, it started to fall into the new dome that had been created. After a few seconds it started to form a giant avatar that read 'Immortal Object' at the top of it.

"Welcome!" it began. "I want to welcome you all to Sword Art Online! But lets skip right to the chase shall we?" It said swiping down its own menu. "As some of you have already discovered, there is no 'Log Out' option. As some of you may think it is a bug in the program, I want to assure you, it is not. It is officially part of the Sword Art Online experience!"

"Experience...?" Kirito muttered to himself. All around him people started to begin to worry about what he ha meant. Say things like, "What does he mean?" , "He's saying we can't leave the game?" "Why?"

"-When your HP hits 0, electromagnetic pulses will be transmitted from the nerve gear on your head, and be set into your brain, causing a painless death. To sum up, if you die in this game, your avatar will be destroyed, and you will die in the real world." A small cry was let out somewhere behind Kirito. He wasn't bothered by this and continued looking at the GM.

"As of now, 213 players have died in this world, and so has their real bodies," he paused pulling up news alerts and papers. Proving his point. "And to answer many questions starting to form, anyone in the real world will not be able to remove it from your head, due to many people already trying." He stopped again to show more reports.

"The reason for this," it began again. "Is because I have already accomplished my original goal for creating this game."

"Created?" Kirito began. After saying that, Kirito's eyes widened in realization. "Then he is...!"

"Yes, I am Kayaba Akihiko. The soul creator of Sword Art Online. I made this game for my own personal enjoyment, meaning I have no other meaning in my life now. So now that that is all cleared up, I have given you all a gift that now resides in all of your inventories." he paused allowing everyone a moment to exclaim their inventory.

Kirito drew his open and found a 'Mirror' in it.

"A mirror?" Kirito said looking in it seeing his avatar. After a few seconds, everyone then had theirs in their hands. Kirito looked back to Kayaba, before he heard a squeal coming from Asuna's direction.

"Asuna!" he looked over to her to find her enveloped in a blue light. Soon after everyone including himself to be enveloped in one of their own. Everyone glowed for a few seconds before everyone finally stopped shimmering. He was finally able to see Asuna after being blinded for a few seconds.

Asuna was no longer there, instead she was replaced with someone who was a bit taller, yet more beautiful. She had chestnut colored hair and eyes, and her hair flowed down to the center of her back. She looked over at Kirito and let out a faint gasp.

"Who are you?" She asked him. Kirito, who still had the mirror in his hand looked into it and realized he looked like he did in real life. His hair changed from a blue back to a black, yet his eyes remained the same color.

"I look the same as I do in real life!" he exclaimed. His eyes widened in realization. He looked back over at the girl and said,

"That means you're Asuna-san!"

"Then you're Kirito-kun!" her eyes were just as wide as Kirito's was. "How do we look like we do in real life?" She said with shock in her voice.

"The Nerve gear covers our entire head and face, so it has a rough idea of our face features, as for out height and over parts, we had to do a calibration when we first get the piece."

"Why is he doing this?" Asuna asked, with fear clearly in her voice.

"I think he is about to answer that question."

"You may be asking yourselves why? It is because, as I said before, I have no more reason to live. I have accomplished all I have wanted to do, by creating this floating castle. Now to answer the more IMPORTANT question. The only way to officially complete the game is by completing each dungeon and boss on each floor. Once accomplished, the next floor will be available to everyone. Beat each boss on each floor till you get to the 100th, and might I add, last floor. Once that boss is complete, the game will be considered 'Complete' allowing everyone to successfully log out."

"I figured as much..." Kirito said to himself. Processing all the information that was being thrown at him. Unlike everyone else, he was able to handle it better then everyone else was.

"I wish you all good luck! And we shall meet later...!" Kayaba said at last before seeping back the way he came.

A few minutes passed while everyone finally realized just how screwed they are. Kirito looked into the mirror one final time before it shattered in his hands. With that, everyone started panicking. Some people were slouched over while other people were hitting the walls. Kirito grabbed Asuna's hand and began to ran, saying 'Come on!'

She was at first resistant at this before finally going with him.

They ran for a few minutes until they were in an alleyway away from all the chaos.

Kirito looked into her frightened eyes and said, "I know you are in shock. But this isn't the time. I need to leave. It is more important than ever to get a head start on this game by leveling and completing limited quests." He started looking away from her eyes. "The next town is a ways away, so I should be going. I suggest you do the same," he finished and started to turn away.

"Wait," she said in an almost whisper. She grabbed his wrist stopping his movement. "If this is a death-game now I think it is important if we stay- together," she finished looking at his hand.

Kirito looked back at the road ahead of them. He thought about it for a minute. Normally he would of said no to anyone, but considering the circumstances, and the way she used her Rapier, he saw potential in her.

"Alright." he said at last. "But we need to get a move on. There is a limited amount of quests right now because its the start of the game. I know a few that rewards some good weapons. Seeing as how this is now a fight for our lives, we need the head start."

All she did was nod once, refusing to let go of his hand. For some reason, he wasn't bothered by the touch. Its because of the pain she is in. He decided that was the once reason for being this nice to her.

"Come on, I think we better go."

She nodded once more and he took off with her hand in his. After he knew she had enough momentum, he let go of her hand, racing to the next town.

Author's Note:

There we have it! The first chapter of many. I know most of it was in the first episode, but I didn't want to skip it, and I knew I wanted this to be when they first met. Another thing, is this will be a long term project, maybe like 100+ chapters and such. And as Colton had his fanfic, I will have a few chapters per floor. Plus some side stories and such.

Expect the updates to be once a week. But when school picks up, probably once every 2 weeks.