AN: Before you start to read the real story, (or maybe you already did), I have a few things to say. Please remember that those translation thingies after each chapter title aren't EXACTLY what the symbol means, nor is it for sure what the romanized version is. There can be more than one meaning. An example, you say? The one in this chapter. 'Shoutotsu' came up when I looked up the Japanese symbol/romanized version of the English word 'clash,' but somewhere else said that it meant collision. A few somewhere-elses, actually. What I write is generally one or two of the symbol/romanized version's meanings. (That I've found). Yes, it means that, but it doesn't only mean that.

By the way, more (possible) canonical changes! I don't know if ALO had a level cap for skills, but let's say that it did! Hooray!

I want to thank Guest, who pointed out that Asuna actually does have a sibling. He completely slipped my mind, but that should be fixed by now. I'm also going to preemptively thank perfectshade for talking with me and giving me a few ideas for the future.

Last but not least, the spells. I don't really want to make up English words for all the ALO spells, and I don't know how to write the offshoot of Old Norse the ALO spell system canonically uses, so I'm just going to basically say something about chanting. Lame, I know, but that's better than trying to write the word 'skjóta' every time the spell is about throwing something.

IMPORTANT! I'm going back and writing the OCs out of the picture. Sonochu has brought, ummm… actually, quite a few flaws to my attention, and I think he's right about Jay and co. I originally stuck the OCs in to teach Asuna how to fly, then used them for the quest, then as guides, (comic relief etc.) but they shouldn't be all that important in the grand scheme of things. I decided to think ahead, to see if I could figure out a way to ditch them later on in the story, and I couldn't find a way to do it without making everyone wonder why they were even there in the first place. So, I'm going back and cutting them out. Flying and the quest can be taken care of with the typical 'unnecessary' tutorials of an MMO, and since Yui can supposedly act as a navigation pixie, it's strange for Asuna to need someone to guide her.

I'm going to post the chapter four that I had, then go back and edit the other chapters. Btw, forget about the 20th. The laptop apparently broke while the family was on vacation, so I couldn't figure out how to post this chapter for a while. I wrote this last part from my phone, and I'm posting from the library. For the next long while I'll be mostly fixing edits until I can get either A) a new computer or B) another opportunity to visit the library. Thanks for your patience, since I said '20th,' and I'm pretty much a month late.

Chapter Four: Clash

衝突 - shoutotsu (collision/clash)

POV: Kazuto Kirigaya

Kirito had almost been having fun blasting through the Guardians until he ran into another one of the brain-tube rooms. As soon as he entered, the door shut behind him and a 'locked' notification appeared on it. In the midst of the brain-tubes stood five figures arranged in a circle. He tensed, seeing the relaxed and nonchalant attitude of the five. These were actual players, presumably some lackeys of Oberon.

"Hey, miss? What did I volunteer for again?" One of the men asked a taller woman.

"We're supposed to recapture one of the Boss's escaped toys." The woman said, absent-mindedly twirling an odd looking drumstick in one hand as she responded.

Kirito barely resisted the urge to shout a protest at being labeled a toy at the top of his lungs. It looked like they hadn't noticed him yet, so he decided to take the opportunity to sneakily advance towards them. Well, he tried to take the opportunity. Instead he tripped over a cord he hadn't noticed and fell in a clatter of swords and clinking metal, letting out a pained 'oof' as he hit the floor.

The five turned to him in surprise. The earlier man suddenly blurted out "It's him, isn't it? The person we're after!"

The woman started to answer the man, but Kirito interrupted. "No, you've got it wrong! I'm just one of those Summer interns. I come here every Saturday to help with the work!"

The tall woman that Kirito decided was in charge of the other four raised an eyebrow. "It's not Saturday."

His grin faltered, then he tried again. "I meant Sunday."

The eyebrow went even higher, nearly disappearing into the woman's bright red hair. In fact, most of the clothes she wore were a similar shade of red. "It's not Sunday, and it doesn't feel like Summer anyway. Winter just started, Mr. Prisoner."

He shrugged. "At least I tried." He grabbed his swords and raised them in an 'X' just in time to block an axe strike from the man who had been speaking before. He had charged Kirito the moment the woman called him 'Mr. Prisoner.'

The man blinked at the swords even as he pushed his weight against Kirito. "I thought you said he had one sword, not two!" He yelled over his shoulder. The second of split focus was all it took for Kirito to disengage one blade and gut the man, just as he had done earlier with the guard in his cage. The man looked taken aback by the large amount of damage and the bleed effect on his avatar. "What the hell kind of prisoner are you?" He asked Kirito, health draining quickly.

Kirito put a fist on his chin as if in thought, still tightly gripping his blade. "I don't know, maybe you should have thought about that before going up against a level 96 player."

"B-but Alfheim doesn't have any levels! It's a skill based game!" The man protested.

Kirito laughed and momentarily ducked to avoid a trio of thrown daggers from another player headed towards them. "I'm going to let you in a little secret. I don't really care." The man opened his mouth to say something more, but Kirito kicked him away in the direction of the player closing in on Kirito just before the first player shattered, leaving a ghostly flame behind.

The second player rolled out of the way of the body while it was still flying and shot into the air.

That's right, Kirito thought to himself, running in a zig-zag pattern towards the still airborne fairy to avoid the daggers still being thrown by his opponent. I have wings now. He ran in a straight line for several steps and tried to launch off of the ground the way he'd seen the other fairy do it. He ended up falling onto his face again.

"Really?!" He shouted angrily, rolling out of the way of yet another dagger. "Why give me wings if I can't use them?" He pushed himself to his feet and rushed towards the flying fairy once more.

The player seemed to always be just out of his reach. That's it. He decided, annoyed by the multitude of glancing scratches and burning cuts the daggers had gifted him. I'll have to use a skill. He put himself into a strange pose and loudly shouted "VORPAL STRIKE!" at the top of his lungs. He stabbed forward with one sword, expecting a blue-ish purple beam of light to extend from his sword and impale the fairy. He only received a weird look from the fairy and a dagger to the gut for his trouble.

"Uh.. ah.. eh? Ehhhhhh?!" He stared at the still intact fairy, then his sword, and back and forth several more times before remembering that, just as the skills list full of question marks had suggested early on, there were no sword skills in the world the axe-man had called 'Alfheim.' He grimaced and dropped one rusty sword as the pain from the dagger registered. He grabbed it and yanked it quickly out. It was a bittersweet victory, the resulting pain of removing it nearly outweighing the benefit of not having a dagger in his stomach.

Another projectile barely missed his foot, reminding him of the situation he was in. He picked up his sword and attempted to attack the extremely irritating player with the daggers, but he was stopped by a woman with a cutlass-style sword blocking his path. She looked like she was cosplaying as a pirate, the brown trenchcoat, pants and a pair of boots helping the impression, but the odd-looking tri-corner hat on her head completing the look.

"You want to get any further, you'll have to fight me first." She said, baring her teeth in an almost-snarl.

He growled back at her and bared his teeth. It must have been more effective, as the woman squeaked in response and backed away a few steps. A flash caught his eye, and he looked at the status bar that shone near her head. He noted that an effect called 'Fear' had appeared. He subconsciously shrugged. He would study that more later, but at the moment he still had three fairies to defeat. Three? He thought to himself. I thought there were four… He heard a footstep behind him, immediately spun away from cutlass-woman and brought his sword down, narrowly avoiding an attack and cutting off the arm of a fairy who had tried to stab him in the back with a wickedly sharp knife. "That wasn't very polite." He told her before whirling back to face the other three, a blade flat across her back, forcing her to move with him.

He ducked behind her in time to avoid two daggers from the annoying fairy. They hit the assassin instead of Kirito, bringing her health bar into the yellow zone. He winced in sympathy, remembering the pain that just one dagger had inflicted. Then he stopped feeling sympathetic, also remembering that these players most likely had their pain absorbers working full blast. He cursed Oberon in his head. Again.

The cutlass-wielding woman tried to slice at him but he dodged the strike, letting the woman cut the rest of the lady-assassin's arm off at the shoulder. The assassin fell over, and cutlass-woman instinctively crouched down to apologize. Kirito didn't let that happen. He spun into his swing, one sword following somewhat later than the other, and let the combined blows take the woman down to one-third of her health.

She gasped in surprise and made to stand and fight back, but his kick pushed her back to the floor. A sword isn't the only thing someone can use in combat. He absentmindedly thought to himself as his next blow connected. She dissolved into another flaming orb, just as the first player had. What use is that? Kirito wondered, pondering the flame. Is it just so you know where they die? Is there a revival item, like the one from the Christmas quest in SAO? The thought was quickly pushed out of his focus as another projectile nicked his arm. Annoyed, he speedily put a sword in his makeshift cloth sheath in exchange for one of the discarded daggers on the ground. It was time to see how good his throwing skill was in this world. He drew his arm back, and threw the weapon at the fairy.

To put it simply, it amazing. During SAO, though he was mainly a swordsman, he had managed to level his throwing skill up to a mighty 967/1000. The thrown projectile hurtled straight for the fairy, and lodged itself in the player's shoulder. The player spun, unbalanced by the impact, and Kirito took his chance. He barely managed to 'unsheathe' his second sword as he raced towards the fairy struggling to regain his balance. He jumped onto a tube and then leaped at the fairy. The player brought his eyes back to Kirito just in time to see two blades rushing straight towards him.

The player managed to dodge the first sword, but not the second. The strike batted him out of the air, sending the player's dark and slim form towards the ground. Kirito landed and headed towards the nearly dead fairy. A single stab to the chest, and the fairy's body disappeared. This player left behind a different colored orb. In this orb, a dark purple fire pulsated out from a yellow core.

Kirito turned back to the center of the room to see the woman still merely raising an eyebrow. He brushed off his suspicions and walked steadily towards her. She didn't have any weapon he could see other than the drumstick, and he didn't expect a drumstick to do any harm to him. The mumbling she was doing didn't seem to serve any purpose either.

He finally realized what was going on when she pointed the drumstick at him and shouted the last syllable of her chant. The drumstick - no, the wand - glowed a shade of orange, and out of its tip came a roaring stream of fire. He was taken completely unawares, the flames sending universal pain signals throughout his body. He roared by accident, an unfamiliar rage filling him as the burning heat covered his body. He walked towards her, raising both swords in another 'X' shape. When he got closer, he swung both of them downwards in their respective courses.

The flames disappeared, leaving the perplexed woman in front of Kirito staring wide-eyed at her wand as it split into three separate pieces. Her surprise left her guard open. He slashed at her with one blade, the other still by his side. It cut across her face as she fell back to the ground in surprise and shock, leaving an open gash that glowed red-orange. He raised his sword to strike again, but he felt a sudden pain in the side of his neck and a weight on his back.

"Just because I'm missing an arm doesn't mean I'm useless." The assassin whispered into one of Kirito's pointed ears. His eyes shot to his status bar just in time to see the 'paralysis' icon appear. Remind me to cut off both arms next time. He slumped over and hit the ground, forced to close his eyes as the system did its work.

POV: Sugou Nobuyuki

Sugou's day was not going as well as it could have. First, his prisoner had escaped. Things had started looking better as the head-of-division gathered a team to capture him, but there was an unfortunate consequence to underestimating his captive. According to her report, three players with maxed out stats second only to his - and apparently the prisoner's - had fallen victim to his captive, and the other two had been injured. Even the head-of-division had been unable to bring the boy to less than ninety percent health with her powerful fire magic.

The only lucky thing about the event was that one of the task force had thought to bring a weapon with a paralysis effect. Still, it was a blow to his pride that none of the team had escaped unscathed. His first act upon their return was to dismiss the three that had died facing the boy. His second was to give the head that pay raise he had been thinking about. He decided to give the other woman that survived one as well. After all, her back-up plan had kept the boy from defeating all of them and wreaking havoc upon the research facilities within the World Tree.

"Nice work bringing him back," Sugou said to the two of them, finally standing up from the poor employee's chair that he had been sitting in. It dawned on him that he still didn't know the head-of-division's name. Glancing at the nametag all of RECTO's employees were required to wear, he read her name aloud. "Aika Shinomiya. At this point, I think I can tell you that you and this team member you picked out will be very important in future operations such as this one. Consider yourself praised."

He watched as Shinomiya stretched and sat in the chair he had just vacated, making the owner of the chair slump in despair. (They were beginning to doubt that they would ever be able to sit again.) "I'm glad to be of service," she said, crossing one leg over the other, "But what exactly did that prisoner do to get your attention?"

He laughed to himself, then said, "Oh, fine. I'll tell you. This boy is the one who tainted my Asu-" He caught himself. He wasn't going to tell this woman that, he reminded himself. He wasn't yet sure he could trust her to keep a secret. "He was one of the players in the final boss raid within the Sword Art project. I wanted to see how the quality of one SAO player would compare to the quality of all of the ALO players. It'll be an interesting opportunity to collect data, don't you think?" He said, giving her the same BS excuse he had given the other workers that had asked him about his reason for choosing the boy.

She scrutinized him for a second, trying to determine whether or not he was telling her the entire story. Eventually, she shrugged and said one last thing: "Anything else I should know?"

"Nothing at the moment!" He was grinning when he told her to leave, still grinning when he walked back to his office, still grinning when he put on the AmuSphere, still grinning when he walked through the hallways of the World Tree. He only stopped smiling when he walked up to the boy's new cage, deep inside the world tree.

It was less than a fourth of the size of the other cage, only allowing the boy in the center space to move six inches in any direction. "This is the cage you deserved from the start." He said aloud, coldly glaring at the sleeping figure. "I don't know why I bothered to try to make you comfortable. You aren't truly another royal. You are merely a beast, a monster below my notice. At least I'll only have to deal with taking care of you for another two weeks at most." He viciously kicked the cage. The boy flinched when his shelter shook, but didn't wake up. "Dirty scum." Sugou spat on the boy, thanking his past self for deciding to leave the odd aesthetic feature in the game. It had its uses.

He kicked the cage again for good measure, then left the room. He didn't see the answering glare full of hatred being sent his way when the 'sleeping' boy opened his eyes. He didn't see the five people separately making their ways to Alne, the city beneath the World Tree. He certainly didn't see a girl crying for her 'sleeping' 'brother' in a hospital. Not that he would've cared much if he had seen any of them. He was Sugou Nobuyuki, soon-to-be CEO of RECTO Progress, and he was on top of the world. The virtual one, at least. Being a Game Master certainly had its perks.

POV: Asuna Yuuki

Asuna grinned at Sapphire as the other girl stared open-mouthed at the sparkling dust still falling. "Asuna, what was that?" Sapphire said. She sounded dazed, like she was still trying to comprehend what she had seen.

The group, minus Cardinal and Jay, had already moved on to the next quest when they logged on. Asuna had gotten into the game a little after seven in the morning, but for the others, it was already three in the afternoon. Apparently the group lived in a time zone that ran sixteen hours after her own. Scheduling the log-on times would be quite difficult in the future.

"Nothing important. That wasn't really my best work." This was true. Asuna had stumbled and gotten scratched by one of the wolverine-like creature's claws during her skirmish with the AI. She absentmindedly studied her health bar. It hadn't gone down all that much, so she was still almost at maximum health.

A sparkling green effect flew off of her body. She stiffened, then shook her head. It was only Sapphire healing her again. She smiled at the grumbling girl in thanks, then asked a question that had been on her mind for a while. "How do you do that? I've been curious for the longest time."

Sapphire raised an eyebrow. "Jay told you yesterday. It's magic. Didn't you take a magic course from one of the trainers in the city?"

Asuna froze and looked to the side. "Y-yeah, of course I did!"

Sapphire scoffed. "Like hell you did. It's your own fault." Asuna pleadingly stared at her, doing the best impression of a puppy that she could. Sapphire didn't take long to break down. "OK, OK! I'll do it. I'll teach you how to use magic."

Asuna raised an eyebrow of her own. She had only wanted an explanation of how it worked, but if she could do it herself… she let the thought drift in her head before tuning back in to Sapphire's words. "...words mean something different than the others, and can change the effect of the spell. Magic in ALO is all about memorization. You can probably go to any old site nowadays and find a list of ALO spells that anyone can use in the game. All players have the ability to use magic, but some people either find the process bothersome, they're too lazy, or they just don't want to be a magic-wielder."

She was only half-listening when Sapphire decided to test her. "Asuna? Are you paying attention?" She shook herself and nodded hurriedly. "Really? Fine then. Tell me how you would cast a group healing spell that would get three members from half health to full."

Asuna opened her mouth, then shut it.

"That's what I thought." Sapphire sighed. "Let's just start with a basic spell memorization. This is the most basic healing spell in the game. It can only heal one person at a time, and it's more like a regeneration spell. All races can use it, so you should be able to too. This is the chant you need:" Sapphire chanted several words that Asuna didn't recognize, and when she was done, she pointed her staff in Evie's direction. The green glow surrounded the scratched Evie, (she had accidentally hit a tree while trying to land), and then disappeared after five seconds.

"...what?"

"Did you even listen?!"

"It's hard! You have to do something like that slowly, or it doesn't work!"

"It would've worked if you'd listened!"

Asuna sighed. She breathed in deeply, held the breath for a few seconds, then let it out. "OK. Let's try that again. What are the words?"

The two girls went over the syllables one by one, reviewing every time Asuna missed one or forgot how to pronounce it. Finally, Sapphire decided that Asuna was ready to try and cast the spell.

"Here, I'll scratch myself so you can try it out." She said before taking a small shortsword from her inventory. She drew it across her arm, taking away a miniscule portion of her hitpoints.

Asuna readied herself, raising the practice wand Sapphire had just handed her. She closed her eyes and started her chant. While she chanted, she felt a light draining sensation coming from her body's core. She opened her eyes to see Sapphire coated in a dark purple light.

"Asuna. You cast the wrong spell. This is poison." Sapphire said loudly, staring at her gradually decreasing hitpoints. "You messed up on the third syllable. It's pronounced 'thu,' not 'su.'"

Asuna nervously laughed and tried to cast the spell again.

"Still poison!" Sapphire said again, watching as the effects stacked.

On Asuna's third try, she correctly cast the healing spell. Sapphire whistled appreciatively as her HP went from the still-draining 90% to 100%. Asuna's magic level was still mostly nonexistent, so the poison spells hadn't been able to do much damage. However, this healing spell was reliant on the target's HP instead of the caster's magic level, healing 10% health each time it was cast.

"Nice job Asuna! You've officially become a sorceress!" The girls grinned at each other. "Although, now that I think about it, we should probably get back to the others." Sapphire put the shortsword back inside her inventory just as Solo poked his head into the creatures' den.

"Sapphire, I thought you said you wanted to get at least three quests completed?"

"We're still good on time. Asuna completed the quest faster than I planned for." Sapphire yelled to Solo over her shoulder. "It freed up some extra minutes, so I taught her a spell."

Asuna nervously tapped Sapphire's shoulder. "Ano, Sapphire-san?" Asuna spoke quietly. "Can you go over the words with me again?"

Sapphire's brow twitched. "Y-you forgot already?"

"It's hard! I'm not used to this!"

She sighed. "I'll just reteach you on the way to the next quest."

Asuna's mood brightened again at the prospect of action. "What kind of quest is it? Are we fighting giant worms? Trolls? Dragons!?"

"We are going to be searching for a missing wedding ring." Sapphire deadpanned.

Asuna's vision of an exciting adventure shattered. "Why?" She asked, confused.

"If we're going to leave, we kind of need to go right now…" Solo's voice dwindled away as he walked further from the den's entrance.

"Let's go. I'll tell you on the way." Asuna grumbled her many complaints as she followed Sapphire out of the area. "So, first off, we're finding that wedding ring because of the quest reward. The NPC that lost it gives the finders a special pair of boots."

"What do they do?"

"I don't know. We just know that the quest reward is a pair of special boots. That's all that Solo could find online." Sapphire took out her flightstick and launched off of the ground, making Asuna take off after her.

"Slow down!" She called as she urged her wings to go faster. She drew even with the sorceress before long, easily flying next to her. "Why did you fly off like that?" Asuna asked the girl.

Sapphire looked at Asuna and nearly jumped out of her skin. "How'd you get here! I'm going as fast as I can using the flightstick!" Her eyes dropped to Asuna's hands. "Asuna? H-h-how are you doing that?"

Asuna looked down to her hands as well. She didn't see anything that she was doing wrong. "What do you mean? I'm not doing anything."

"That's my point! You aren't holding the flightstick!"

"Oh." Asuna shrugged. "I don't know, but doesn't that mean I'm not supposed to be flying right now?"

Sapphire looked at her as if expecting her to fall out of the sky at any moment. "Yeah. You're supposed to be falling to your death."

They both waited several seconds for Asuna's avatar to remember gravity, but for some reason it didn't happen. Asuna waved her limbs around, testing to see if she would still be able to stay afloat in the clouds. Again, nothing happened.

"What's it like to not need the stick?" Evie suddenly said softly.

"It's wonderful…" Asuna was in awe of the freedom it gave her. She had already felt freed from everything by the usual sensation of flight, but this was a whole new level of excitement. "It's feels like I can do anything, like I could fly forever…"

"Sounds amazing. It's too bad that we can't fly forever." Solo said, disrupting Asuna's second fantasy of the day.

"What!?" She yelped, falling towards the ground. She willed herself back to the others, ignored Sapphire's snickering, and waited for Solo to explain himself.

"In ALO, there's a time limit on flying. Haven't you noticed that we always stop for breaks every ten minutes?"

"I noticed, but I always thought that Cardinal was just going to get a snack."

Sapphire failed to hide a laugh when Asuna finished talking. "H-he usually does, but a-anyway, do you want to try that spell again?"

"Won't it be hard while we're flying?"

Sapphire blinked. "It shouldn't be that hard if you remember the words and do the chant." Asuna sighed and submitted to Sapphire's magic lessons. At least one good thing would come out of listening to the lecture. She would be able to heal as long as she had the energy she needed.

"Oh, and by the way, be on your guard for the next few quests."

"Why is that?" Asuna asked, curiosity piquing. Maybe this day won't be too boring after all.

"We'll have to swing into Spriggan territory for these quests, and some Spriggans don't take kindly to people from the other races invading. Spriggans specialize in illusion magic and ambushing, so we'll need to be extra careful."

Asuna didn't really understand, but she nodded anyway. What kind of monster is a 'Spriggan' supposed to be?

AN: This is where I cut this off. I hope I eventually manage to address the things I missed in previous chapters when I go back and edit, but for now updated are postponed, only edits! I haven't abandoned this story, thanks for asking, but it might take some time to get back on track.

Review Responses:

Th3-Dragon-Lord:

Yeah, Sugou is kind of an idiot. I'm planning to rewrite him a little less stupid, but it's in his character, so I've got to make sure he misses a few things. Possibly important things.

VergilChan:

This response is going to look a little similar to the one above. Yes, Sugou is a bit of an idiot. Kirito is now level 96, and has maxed out most of the combat skills he has equipped. Though some of them may not carry over to ALO correctly, the basic principle is the same: he's pretty much going to own whoever gets near him. Unless he forgets to cut both the arms off.

Sonochu:

I don't really think we can carry out a conversation together here, so I'll just respond by PM. It's been awhile since you reviewed, but a PM'd do it more justice than a response right here. If you'll excuse me for just a moment, I'll go post the chapter, and… oh, wait. The rest of the AN. Just give me a second, I'll be right with you. (ehhh... I sound kinda rude. Sorry, I just want to talk a bit!)

Other Appreciated Messages:

nburr16, Sn0wk1tty (Guest), (Guest). I think that's it, so if I forgot someone else, sorry.

What else… Ah! I was thinking of posting some concepts of other ideas that I've already written some stuff for, but that isn't really what Fanfiction is for. That's more for, ermmm… I don't actually know where, exactly. Anyway, I'm just doing this 'cause I'm nervous about how this new news is going to be received. Plus it was my first time writing an actual 'fight' scene. (No, I'm not going to count the guards.) Bye! I'll be back here once I finish editing! Probably..

K! I think I fixed everything the 'clear formatting' button erased, but I might've missed something. Don't press that button. Seriously, it made everything the same. Last time it fixed everything, but this time I had to re-format everything.. Actually, come to think of it, I should've just copy-pasted all over again...