AN: Wow. I never expected this story to get such a good reception. Thanks to all those who have supported me last chapter through reviews, and thanks to all those who have critiqued my work last chapter as well. I originally planned to just post it to see the reception for it, without any intention to finish the story itself. However, seeing that one chapter had me having almost 100 favs, it made me contemplate expanding the story to a greater degree than I planned.
I trashed the plan story will be short and sweet. I have seen many other authors attempt to write a long story for SAO only to fall short in completing the story. So I will be upping the speed of the plot.
There will be a time skip in the middle of the chapter, so it might be a little confusing, but I'm doing what Kawahara had done: A brief intro, then a story starting when the main character is suitably high leveled and op.
Also, I was late to update this story because I couldn't figure out how to make this story even more badass and end in a note that all of you readers would remember when the start of the story was just too strong for the climax to be equally or even more awesome. Then a muse struck me, and I began typing, my storyboard filled with great ideas.
Welp, let's do this. The climax is set in stone, and I just have to fill out the section in between the start and the end for this story.
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or Sword Art Online. they belong to their respective owners. If I had the stories… I would not be sitting here typing this. I would have just ended Bleach with Aizen getting his ass handled by super powered Ichigo, but alas, the quality has lowered in Bleach, and I stopped reading it after (WARNING SPOILER) reading that Ichigo having Quincy powers from his mom.
"ICHIIIIIIIGOOOOOOOO~~~~~~!" The disgustingly familiar sound made itself known to Ichigo, reflexively making him turn around and smash the assailant with a lariat. The action was so smooth, so natural, that anyone else seeing such spectacle would have thought that the movement was instinctive, like the action of eating or drinking, the action was performed without even blinking an eye.
"Urk!" Keigo squeaked out, his legs going forward at a momentum while his neck, caught in the lariat, stopped like it hit a brickwall, making his lower body float up in air like a swing for a few seconds… Before his entire body crashed down onto the ground like a sack of potatoes.
Ichigo looked down at the guy that had wailed out his name and flung himself at him. The moment he did, his brain froze, and only one word came out of his mouth. "Keigo?"
"Iiiii~Chi~~~Go~!" The previous dead looking body came back alive as if he was never hurt, and the brown haired friend of Ichigo again, flung himself at Ichigo with sparkling eyes… Only for his face to meet the dirt as Ichigo reflexively avoided him by turning his body to the left.
A silence.
...
"GOD, what's wrong with you Ichigo? Why are you so cold man?!" Keigo exploded as he thrust his face at Ichigo with a tick mark on his head, his face scrunched up like a hanya with tears falling off of it like a stream. "All I wanted… All I wanted was a hug…"
Ignoring Keigo's little sob opera acting, Ichigo voiced out the only question that popped up in his head. "...Why are you here Keigo?"
Keigo paused his wailing for a bro hug to look at Ichigo, a serious face crossing into his visage, which, to Ichigo, happened every time Chad began chatting away, which meant that it pretty much never happened. "Ah, yeah..." Keigo grimaced before starting to speak once again with a fake sheepish smile(which looked more like a grimace) and his hand scratching the back of his neck. "Well, what to say man? I just got trapped. You know how I love games, and I just had to try this new game and… yeah…"
This explanation clicked in Ichigo's head like a puzzle, and nudged away from his shocked state. Ichigo sighed. "So? How are you holding up Keigo?"
Keigo immediately regained his pathetic visage, turning around from Ichigo and looking to a far off distance with a thousand yard stare.
Ichigo immediately became alarmed for his friend and stepped closer to him. "Keigo?"
"You know… Ichigo… I was a beta tester as well. I played this game for a whole month with 1000 other players before any of you guys came." Keigo started speaking, a small smile starting to form in his mouth. "I met this girl, you know? She was a real pretty one with a great body. She was funny, flirtatious, and was great enough to lead the fourth floor boss raid, and she gave me all the attention she had during our private moment! We even kissed during that one month!"
Keigo's face then fell, his face contorting into something of a dread.
"Keigo!" Ichigo shouted, holding his shoulder and giving him a little shake. "What happened?!" Did he see the girl die in front of him? What would have made his fried become this bad?
Keigo's head bounced around his shoulders, as if he had no strength left in his neck to uphold his head. "You know, Ichigo, reality is not just cruel. It's a sadist, ya know? It wants us to be in constant pain, tolling for every drop of honey then leaves us single rose that hurts us with thorns, and then even the rose withers and dies in a few moments... I… I don't think I can go on man." Keigo's hands were shaking, his whole body shivering. "It's painful to even remember…" Keigo choked out, his words a whisper.
Ichigo grimaced. It was likely that the girl had died. If so… Ichigo had to listen to it and stop his friend from falling off the abyss.
"In my embrace… She… She turned into a guy Ichigo!" With that proclamation, Keigo started bawling like a baby.
Ichigo looked at Keigo, not understanding what had happened to his friend for a few seconds. Then, the bell struck inside his head, and with it came a flood of relief… Which turned into a flood of anger in a few moments. Was THIS what his friend was agonizing over? Now Ichigo just felt stupid that he had even fallen for that stupid acting. Ichigo punched Keigo with a haymaker, sending him flying away for a few moments, before he stood up straight. "Stop being a wussy Keigo! That sort of thing shouldn't make you feel so bad!"
Keigo, from his limp-dead-body-on-the-ground-position resurrected like a vengeful devil, getting close to Ichigo with blood flowing down his eyes, his face scrunched up to show a pissed off expression, freaking Ichigo out a little on the inside, though he didn't show it on the outside.. "GAAAH! You fuuuuuuuuuuuuucking baaaaaaaaastaaaaard! Don't you have a heart? Don't you see his scar on my chest because of that moment?! It traumatized me for life! I will never trust a woman again! I'm confused about my masculinity now that I figured out that I ki-ki-kissud a man!" The words seem to pain Keigo as his mouth twisted in a weird way when he was pronouncing "kissed."
"Get over it! You never had much masculinity anyway!" Ichigo imperiously shot Keigo's protests down, chalking the whole event up to Keigo's "Dumbass Moment" in his head and storing it up into a metaphorical junk yard in his brain that would eventually erase the memory.
"Uuu… You are so cruel man…" Keigo groused on the ground, curling up like a porcupine and trying to shut himself from the cruel cruel reality.
Ichigo then realized that they were making a scene in the middle of one of the main roads leading out of the Starting City, and grimaced when he spotted several onlookers looking at him and Keigo with amusement. He had just finished his lesson with Argo, and was itching to get a room for the night. It was a bitter sweet surprise to find that his friend had come to this new world of death game with him, but Ichigo was simply tired from everything he did on his first day.
"Get up Keigo." Ichigo mercilessly drove home his uncaring attitude towards his friend's depression by lightly slapping the back of his friend's head. However, he was not a complete devil, as he added, "You will find a girl that suites you. Just not now though. Just think of the… incident as something you would redeem when you really get a girlfriend."
"I-Ichigo…" Keigo stuttered out, his eyes tearing at the first barest sign of verbal kindness Ichigo had shown him since, well… Ever. Every time he showed kindness, he showed them with indirect actions instead of words. Ichigo was that kind of slightly tsundere guy who got embarrassed if he had to say any kind of verbal comfort. For him to actually word those sappy words in his mouth... "I was wrong! You do love me!(as a friend)" He shouted out as he dove once again toward Ichigo.
Ichigo stretched out his hand, and forced Keigo to stop in mid air as his palm smacked him right in the face, burrowing his head into his other hand. "What the hell did I do to deserve this…?" Ichigo groused, sighing as he turned and started walking away.
"Ichigo! Where are you going?" Keigo whined as he stuck close behind Ichigo and followed him, finally escaping the amused scrutiny of the crowd around them as they understood that the show was finally over, and began dispersing themselves.
"To sleep! Don't you sleep, Keigo? Speaking of which, why didn't you show yourself up to me when I was talking to the beta testers earlier?" Ichigo snapped back at Keigo, now beginning to get REALLY annoyed by his friend's whiny attitude.
Keigo blinked his eyes and spoke, "...Hmm? Because that was important."
"Wha-" Ichigo raised an eyebrow at his friend's straightforward attitude.
"I mean, come on, if I flung myself at you like a baby then, wouldn't it have been a bad time and place? I just did what you asked me to and got 15 people as my charge and then came to find you." Keigo frankly said it as he straightened up his back and scratched the back of his head.
Ichigo got an idea of what Keigo could act like when he was serious few minutes ago, and although he was a bit startled at the abrupt change in his friend's attitude, he did not show it on his face except a raise in eyebrow and just nodded, turning his back to Keigo and going towards the INN.
In fact, Ichigo knew that his friend Keigo could be mature in some aspects of life. Although the moments when Keigo showed off that maturity was far in between, Ichigo chalked off Keigo's attitude as something befitting for the situation.
However, he was halted by a window opening up in front him. It read, "Gunshin has sent you a friend request." with a accept or decline button below the message.
Who the hell was Gunshin? Ichigo frowned and was about to click decline, but Keigo intervened.
"Oi! What are you doing Ichigo?!" Keigo cried out as he grabbed Ichigo's arm from going near the decline button.
"Hmm? Taking care of spam mail." Ichigo replied directly, and slowly forced his arm near the decline button.
"Hey, wait! That's me you idiot! I'm Gunshin! I sent you the message! Don't decline my friend request man!" Keigo explained quickly, shakily losing in the battle of strength.
"You are Gunshin?" Ichigo asked with a deadpan, pointing to the name on the friend request.
"Of course! I am GUNSHIN(eng trans: War God)!" Keigo thrust his thumbs up fist up to Ichigo with a wink.
ichigo snorted, and turned away from Keigo, looking at the screen in front of him for a few seconds before accepting the request.
"Alright!" Keigo whooped in joy, before slinging his arm around Ichigo's shoulders and began walking with him toward the INN. Ichigo growled in annoyance, but accepted his friend's action of friendship and didn't brush him off.
Again, that little side of tsundere showed itself.
"So, you wanna join us tomorrow for the first day of tutorial Ichigo?" Keigo asked with a grin, bouncing along the path with an arm slung around Ichigo's shoulder. Although Ichigo didn't really mind it, Keigo's bouncing was beginning to get annoying.
"No." Ichigo curtly replied, shrugging off his friend's arm as they went into the INN, where a woman bowed and greeted them with a smile.
"What?! Why?" Keigo raised an eyebrow. Far as he knew, Ichigo did not know how to play Sword Arts Online, so Ichigo would be going in blind into the game if he did not get any tutorial as well.
"I already learned the basics from Argo. That's all I need anyway." Ichigo paid for a night's stay in INN along with Keigo, receiving a key which automatically placed itself in his inventory.
"Hah? Argo the Rat? Sword Arts Online's self proclaimed best information dealer?" Keigo muttered to himself as they walked up the steps.
"Yeah, that's how she introduced herself as." Ichigo shrugged as they walked down the hallway toward their rooms.
Keigo nodded in approval. "Yeah, her information gather is one of the few that are top notch in this game. Whichever group that got her could earn a lot of information from her that could help them in anyway… If they have enough money that is."
Ichigo raised an eyebrow. "She is normally that expensive?"
They stopped in front of their respective rooms.
Keigo hesitated before replying. "We~ll… Not expensive per say, but she puts a price on any kind of information a person wants, not divulging any kind of information regardless of whether the information is for professional or personal stuff."
"Isn't that what information dealers are suppose to do?" Ichigo asked drily.
Keigo shivered and whispered to Ichigo, his eyes glancing at various directions as if the walls were listening into their conversation. "You know, she gives an information, but what is inside the information is a piece of information that the employer might be interested in even more, making him pay for the other information with an exponential price hike! Then, she makes another off hand comment about a person's personal life, who he likes, what he likes, anything he might be interested in. Argo eggs them onto making further purchases that he didn't really care to know beforehand. Sooner or later… If you aren't used to her method of giving information anymore, you would find yourself with so much money spent on her information that it leaves a permanent mark in your financial account in the game!"
Ichigo looked at Keigo skeptically, before opening the door to his room, ignoring the paranoid fast talking of his friend for his own sanity. "See ya Keigo. Good luck."
Keigo perked up fro his conspiratorial mood and said good bye with a large wave before going into his own room.
WWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
When Ichigo went into his room, he came face to face with a small, bare room with only a small bed and a small closet.
He walked over to the bed silently, sitting down on its side and looking out the small window the room provided.
Ichigo could see that the night had settled in, and the ceiling of the floor, the 2nd floor's bottom could be seen from his window, blocking his view of the sky..
When he walked into the silent room, it seemed as though a switch had been shut off in his brain, making him unable to think about anything.
Ichigo idly realized that he felt hungry, and remembered that he had nothing to eat since this morning. He began to grumble inside his mind, that Kayaba Akihito made things TOO REAL for his taste. Since it was too late to go for dinner, Ichigo would skip it for today. It wasn't like Ichigo had never been hungry before. He would endure it for tonight and have a big breakfast made by Yuzu-
Ah.
...
...
He forgot- no. He realized. He realized what he had lost by coming into this world and what he would have to do to get out of this world. Although Keigo had been a welcome distraction, the truth was that his mind was a jumbled mess after meeting with Argo.
"So that is how you equip armor or weapons... I don't think I have anymore to tell you that isn't basic knowledge. But I gotta say Ichi-bou, you are pathetic in terms of gaming. How is it that you are already level 2 when you don't even know how to use sword skills?"
Ichigo looked over at Argo while upping his speed in stats, "I accidentally went out and killed bunch of bears in a forest- what?" Ichigo stopped talking and looked at Argo with a raised eyebrow at her gaping expression.
"You killed the beasts at level one? With the starting equipment? Without sword skills?" Argo asked Ichigo skeptically, as if she was waiting for a punchline in a joke.
"Yeah, so?" Ichigo asked irritably, sensing that Argo wasn't believing him. He wasn't a liar!
Argo sighed before shaking her head. " I don't know if I should think that you are an ignorant idiot or an amazing dunce..."
Ichigo growled, and was about to respond acidly for being Insulted for no reason, when Argo held up her hand and stopped him. "Enough. Sorry about that. If it works for you, I have no reason to stop you from going there again."
It made Ichigo huff in annoyance.
"Well, that's the end of all I gotta say to you Ichi-bou." Giggling, Argo turned around. "See ya later Ichi-bou!"
"Hey wait!" Ichigo stopped her from going away, putting a hand on her shoulder.
"Hmm? You still have something more to ask?" Argo wondered, paused, and added seriously, "I'm single, but I don't want a boyfriend yet Nya."
"That's not what I was gonna ask!" Ichigo sniped back at her immediately, before asking his question. "Where is the castle that we have to beat to get out of the game?"
Argo stared at Ichigo strangely.
"...What?" Ichigo asked warily at her gaze, which now questioned if he was serious in asking that, and if she should treat it as a joke.
"Are… are you serious, Ichi-bou?" Argo asked carefully, before looking at Ichigo's expression and realizing he was serious, slumping down on the ground and looking at him as if she was looking at an endangered animal. "Ichi-bou… you seriously don't have any idea? Do you even know where we are right now?"
Ichigo glanced at the map in the corner of his vision, and answered stiffly. "Starting City." A few moments later, he added, "We have to beat the game by going to the hundredth floor of a castle in Aincrad, right? And we are in Starting City of the game right? So there should be some castle around here that's hundred floors high, but I can't see any skyscrapers jutting out of the ground!"
A moment of silence continued after Ichigo's last words, which made Argo look at him as though he had caught on some particularly bad case of idiocy.
Argo explained the situation slowly, as if she was talking to a specially dumb kindergartener. "Starting City, situated IN the 1st floor of Aincrad, the floating castle in the sky, with 100 floors, with the beta testers beating to only 8th floor even in one month. Where we are standing now, and the surrounding villages and dungeons are ALL part of the first floor of Aincrad. What Kayaba Akihiko meant when we had to beat the castle meant that we would have to go through all 100 plates that are 10km wide with various dungeons and villages while beating a floor boss, the strongest boss present in each floor that can't be beaten without a full raid of players that number at least over 40, without dying. Do you get it now, Ichi-bou? What we are facing is a gargantuan castle which might take months, if not years to beat."
Ichigo put his head into his hands.
Memories flashed by in his mind, filled with sound and images of his family, friends, allies, and so much more that he would not see until he beat this game.
He missed them already. He missed his insane dad's wake up ambush in the morning. He missed Yuzu's delicious cooking in the morning. He missed Karin's aloof standoffish aura that reminded of himself. He missed Orihime's ditzy yet bell-like laugh. Uryu's pole up his ass attitude, Tatsuki's brash cries, Chad's silent and calm presence, and everything else he didn't realize that he needed until he lost it so abruptly today.
Tears stung his eyes, but he did not cry.
He just sat, defending his heart against all weakness and setting a goal for himself as he had done all the time. A simple goal that would make up his determination throughout his problem.
Win Sword Arts Online
Beat the Bosses in every floor until it goes to 100th floor
This was good. As he had done so many other times in the past, he knew that if he beat the bosses in 100th floor, he would live. He would win.
He just had to win.
He also had to make sure Keigo and other people didn't die, but that would be solved if he became so strong in this game that he could protect everybody.
Become strong, protect everybody, beat the bosses, rise to 100th floor, and clear the game.
Simple.
Even though he knew that such things were not so simple, and that in the process of reaching his goal, he had so many unknown obstacles before he succeeded, he could not start doubting himself.
Self doubt led only to failure.
Therefore, he would accomplish these goals no matter what.
Ichigo lifted his head from his hands and stared at the ceiling of the 1st floor once again, before fire ignited in his eyes, a fire of self confidence that seemed to have thrown away all his doubts, all his fears, and all his weaknesses to an abyss in his heart. The self confidence that the rest of his ragtag group from the past had relied upon in their moment of weakness, never knowing that Ichigo also harbored doubts so deep in his subconsciousness that he himself did not realize that he had such doubts at all himself.
Ichigo looked at his small bed before turning off the lights as he laid down on the bed.
He had work to do tomorrow.
Time Skip
Ichigo gritted his teeth as he blocked a downward swing, his perception of reality slowing down like always when he began fighting against an enemy, his eyes flitting from place to place as he took in his surroundings and accessed the situation.
[Rampant Minion] was the monster that was attacking him, a red skinned classic depiction of an "orc" in games with an ugly mug, high armor, and medium attack power. Although [Rampant Minion] could be easily killed one by one compared to the rest of the monsters in the 60th floor, their special ability activated when there were more than one of them in a 5 meter radius. All their stat rose by two percent per every [Rampant Minion] in 5 meter radius.
He glanced down to little girl beside him, looking up at him with a troubled expression as she clung onto him without any armor or weapon, just her white one piece dress.
Oh why, WHY did she have to earn the aggro of the trap monster on the field? The trap monsters usually roared out loud when they activated, often attracting copious amount of other monsters to their general vicinity and trapping the players in a ring of monsters that would ambush them.
Usually, such monsters were welcome to the dungeon raid parties when they were grinding levels to attract monsters without having to look for them. However, in Ichigo's case, the helpless kid that he had found the other day dangerously close to the front lines without any specific reason had come looking for him after he had asked a friend to take care of her, trapping both of them in the ambush.
In a normal circumstance, Ichigo would never have any trouble with the ambush, but to protect a little girl from the monsters…
"Hey, do you know how to use teleport crystals?" Ichigo asked quickly, warily watching the monsters creating a circular net that was spread out widely to not let Ichigo easily get away, along with the trap emplacement mob that was still pressing down the first overhead strike on Ichigo's hand, even though Ichigo could easily block the strike.
He doubted that the girl had a teleport crystal by looking at the equipments, and if Ichigo could hand the girl a teleport crystal from the small pouch at his side, then the girl would not have to risk being struck by the monsters. Although Ichigo could escape with the girl, he didn't want to risk the danger since the girl seemed like she would keel over at the first strike of the monsters.
A wordless shake of her head answered everything.
Ichigo sighed a little before murmuring to the girl.
"Duck."
Taking in the girl's quick nod as an ascent, he quickly twisted around the sword pressing onto him from above, the trap monster's axe crashing onto the ground beside him as he used the following motion of the twist to activate a sword skill for his two handed great sword, [Steel Whirlwind], spinning his sword in 360 degrees three times rapidly from lower level to the top, catching and dicing through the monsters that were in midair in their jump three times and killing them immediately.
The monsters that were previously closing on him and the girl jumped back to escape from the horizontal sword swing, but their algorithm for behavior did not take in mind the great knockback of the wind that the swing produced, blowing most of them away.
Far enough for Ichigo to crouch down on the ground in front of the girl.
"Get on" Ichigo simply ordered the little girl, and thanked the god that the girl was not mindless enough to wait around as he felt the light weight settle on his back.
The girl would not be able to hold on while his body was in motion. Therefore, he had to use one of his arm to secure the girl on his back while his other hand held onto the dark great sword that was as black as night.
He could not use two handed sword skills with only one hand on the hilt of the blade, and when one hand was separated from the hilt, the damage of a normal strike of the great sword decreased by 25 percent.
Therefore, he changed his sword skill.
Eject, [Two handed Straight Sword Skill]. Run, [One handed Straight Sword Skill]
Normally, a sword skill of One Handed Straight Sword could not be executed with two handed sword.
However
His black blade began to waver, and like water, flowed into a smaller form, morphing into a one handed long sword.
The objective was not to kill all the [Rampant Minion], but to break out of this encirclement and bring the girl to a safer location. Katana would have given Ichigo extra boost of speed and a wider range of skills he could use, but one handed long sword gave better dps for punching through the high defensive power of the mob surrounding him.
"Hold on tightly. Don't ever let go." Ichigo flatly said as he put one foot in front of him, his now, one handed sword being raised in front of him in a diagonal manner.
"Hai, Oji-san."
Ichigo's eyes twitched, for he had no idea why she was calling him such a title. Oh, he planned to find out, but first-
The mob of [Rampant Minion] struck as one, jumping at him from all sides with a guttural cry of anger.
Ichigo's mind went through the list of skills he could still use with one handed straight sword skill.
Sonic Leap
His black and white form seemed to blur while the monsters seemed to hanging in the air motionlessly, cutting through the gap in between the monsters that were jumping at him to strike the [Rampant Minion] that was coming several feet behind the initial wave of monsters, striking a downward strike that penetrated through the flimsy guard of a short sword in the monster's hand to give a diagonal blow from the left shoulder to right waist.
The [Post Motion] rigidness settled on his body for a moment, then disappeared since the [Sonic Leap] was a relatively low level skill.
However, that one moment was enough for the monsters to readjust their target and lock onto him again, their battle algorithms that were designed to trap the player in a circle and not let him escape responding to his blow that let him slip by the first encirclement and making them jump back away from him in a collective group and create a thicker circle that would be designed to whittle him down slowly and surely without letting him escape.
Just what he wanted
Because while the [Rampant Minions that were the closest to him had backed off a few feet, the ones at the back had also moved forward in order to have the circle more dense.
The algorithms that made up the behavioral patterns of these monsters were complex, but if one fought multiple mobs that surrounded and attacked from all sides many times, they began to find a pattern in their seemingly random and smart movements. For normal players they could not take advantage of such patterns due to their algorithms usually adapting to the type of sword skill used by the player and making their behavioral patterns most suited toward defeating that particular sword skill. Such was the reason partying up with other players was such a necessity as the floors went up and the difficulty rose along with monster strength and number. If the party had different sword skills, the system of [Switching] made the monster usually unable to cope with the sudden change in sword skill of the opponent they were facing.
However, such was not the case for Ichigo.
[Darkness Blade]
One of the three Unique Skills present within SAO
The skill was given to him when the clearing party had punched through the fortieth floor, appearing in his skills inventory when he had checked his menu in Algade.
The sword skill allowed the usage of one more weapons skills in SAO during battle by switching sword skills and the weapon type freely as the skill points went up by 100 except for other Unique Skills. It let him switch freely between each skill and his weapon being switched to a black version of whatever weapon he had installed into the Darkness Blade, which was originally a circular blob that held no form until he had "dumped" his two handed sword into the blob and morphed it into his first "blade of darkness" which held the same stats as the weapon he had put into the "blob."
Also, the range of skills available to him for a sword skill consisted of what he had before, and therefore, even if he had six different forms of Darkness Blade, he had only mastered three weapon skills, with other three only a third to being mastered. Therefore, even though it seemed like an ultimate flexible form of sword skill that could give off variety of different attacks from one moment to the next, it could not reach its full potential unless Ichigo mastered 11 weapon skills not including the Darkness Blade itself.
Ichigo doubted that he could get all 12 weapon skills mastered even by the time when the clearing group beat the final boss in the game.
Anyway, with such Unique Skill, the algorithms of mobs were useless since Ichigo could freely switch between different weapon skills.
Eject, [One Handed Straight Sword]. Run, [Rapier Sword]
Rapier Sword, along with Two Handed Straight Sword and Katana, were the three weapon skills he had mastered.
As the black blade flowed freely and changed into a rapier from one handed long sword, Ichigo gave a running start with the space thankfully provided by the group of [Rampant Minion] that had backed away to prepare for weapon skills of One Handed Straight Sword, and activated a skill.
Flashing Penetrator
With a sonic boom, Ichigo sped up and punched through the dense but thinner group of [Rampant Minion], letting him escape from encirclement of monsters.
"You alright kid?" Ichigo asked as his body steamed from the visual after effect of the skill before he began running with all his speed, which wasn't much compared to Asuna the Flash or Twin Bladed Black Swordsman since his stats were mostly centered around strength compared to speed.
"Unh!" Ichigo felt the shake of the girl's nod as he ran, and mentally relaxed since he wasn't sure if the rough and shockingly fast moves of the sword skills would put stress upon the little girl that looked painfully like a delicate flower that did not have a place in this dangerous world.
So he ran. Even though he had come out of the encirclement, he still needed to be far from monster infested area. Since he had attracted maybe 50 or so monsters' aggro, he would be sought after in this dungeon unless five minutes of monster aggro expired or he went out of the huge dungeon.
However, that didn't mean he would run throughout the whole dungeon while looking for safe zones. In such a field, getting out without a single fight was impractical with a kid slung over the back.
Eject, [Rapier Sword]. Run, [Katana]
As the black rapier wobbled and expanded to become a katana, Ichigo put the sword into the sheath on his waist.
Then Ichigo rummaged through the small pack on his side with his now free hand. When his fingers closed around a familiar shape and size of the [Teleport Crystal], he pulled it out and put it into his empty pocket before rummaging through his side pack for another similar crystal.
Once he found it, he tightened his hold on the girl on his back while slowing down a fraction so that he would be ahead of the monster pack, but would not be fast enough to jostle the girl on his back too much while running.
"Here, grab onto this crystal." Ichigo told the little sprite as he held the teleport crystal toward her face, which was leaning on his shoulder. "Grab it tightly." Ichigo added as an afterthought as her small hands hesitantly took the item from his hand.
He put his hand back in his pocket to grab onto the crystal.
"Alright, which floor are you from?"
"Floor?" The girl tilted her head in a confused manner, staring unnervingly at Ichigo's back without blinking.
However, Ichigo had no patience for the girl's seemingly innocent question and bit out the next few words while biting back some snarky aspect of his words, but unable to completely hold back a miniscule amount.
"Yeah, floor. Which floor do you usually stay in? You don't live in this dungeon, do you?"
As Ichigo said these words, he felt a chill creeping up his back as he realized what he could be doing by piggybacking an unknown girl in a high level dungeon who had absolutely no equipments and came with no one else in this floor.
How did this girl find him?
Or rather, who or what was this girl?
Ichigo had just improvised at the spot in the middle of the monsters and unconsciously protected a person that looked like she needed protecting in the dangerous dungeon, but could it be that she was some sort of trap or a part of some unknown quest?
Before his sudden foreboding imagination could take a turn for the worst, she spoke.
"Ah, mama and papa lives in floor 22."
Ichigo twitched at the answer.
There was no way for a girl like this to end up here, in 60th floor from 22nd floor.
Unless she was a clearer in disguise she could not have conveniently come up all the way to this floor.
However, the mystery could be solved later.
"Alright, what you have to do is hold up your hand and say 'Teleport: [Name of the village]!' with Coral as the village name. Can you do that … err what's your name?"
"Yui."
"Can you do that Yui?"
"Yes Oji san."
Ichigo twitched.
Yes, he would be having some word with this "Mama" and "Papa". Especially if they were officially in charge of this kid. Who the hell names him "Oji san" of all things?(English Translation: Uncle) He was only 16 years old! 16 and half if one wanted to be precise, but how does he give an impression to be an Oji san?
"Alright. Say what I told you first. I'll be right along to walk you to your home." Ichigo instructed, his stamina gauge starting to run out.
"Hai. Teleport! [Coral]!"
With a flash of blue light, the weight on Ichigo's back disappeared, making him internally sigh in relief. Although he was confident in his skill, if the girl came up from 22nd floor and had equally no amount of training like she looked, then a single blow to her body might have killed her. With this, she would be at least be safe from the monsters.
Now… To follow her…
"Teleport: [Coral]" He muttered without any joy since teleport crystals were still a little expensive. He would have rather decimated the monsters out of the dungeon, but a little girl was probably by her own so he had to guide her home.
With a flash of light, he disappeared from the dungeon just as the stamina gauge fell to zero.
Ichigo braked on the dry floor on the Teleport Gate on Coral, halting the running inertia from when he was running in the dungeon.
He took a deep breath, the tension of being in the dungeon leaving his body as he felt the warm sun of Coral seep into his body.
"Oji san?"
The inquiring address of the title made him sigh before turning to the black haired girl once again. Now that he could study her with more than a glance from his slowed perception during battle state, he noticed that the girl was even younger than he thought she was, with youthful appearance of at most eight years old, this kid did not look like a kid that would come into the game like SAO at all.
Well, it didn't matter. If she had come in with her parents, then the parents must have thought they could take care of her inside the game before discovering that they had brought their kid into a death game.
The girl seemed to get nervous when he didn't respond to her calling except staring at her intensely for a few seconds.
So he acted.
"Alright, let's find your parents. Where's your home kid?" Ichigo asked as he patted the girl's long black hair softly, and action which he hoped to be taken as reassuring.
It looked like it succeeded since he could see a bright innocent smile spring forth from her face as she nodded and gripped his shirt sleeve before she began dragging him to some unknown location.
They walked.
Ichigo began to raise an eyebrow when they passed by Coral's gate.
His face became a frown when they entered a forest with fairly dense foliage.
Then he began to grimace when he noticed that the sun had set over the horizon and gave the white stones of Aincrad a reddish tinge.
Finally, after more than 30 minutes of walking, he noticed that the girl was leading him toward a fairly small house with bright lights on.
"That's your home?" Ichigo muttered to himself instead of asking, but the girl must have heard him since all she did was give a loud "Unh!" With a enthusiastic nod.
With a slight skip in her step, Yui bounded to her home and opened the door with a cry of "Tadaima!"
"YUI!" A brunette almost slammed into the small girl's form with a flash, embracing her in a tight hug. Tears starting to spill from her eyes with relief.
Long brunette hair, dressed in mostly white clothes with black intonation to signify her status as a member of Moonlight Phantom guild led by Black Swordsman, a heart shaped face that vaguely reminds Ichigo of Yamato Nadeshiko. Although her temper and discipline often reminds her subordinate to never judge a book by its cover everyday.
Right, Asuna the Flash.
"Oh, where were you Yui? We worried so much!" Asuna cried out as she cradled the girl's head, squeezing the girl tightly as if she would dissipate into the air if she did not hold on.
"Sorry Mama, I had to go find him." The girl replied as she hugged the older female back, her hands softly tapping the back of her supposed mother as if SHE was the one who was comforting the other.
"Him?"
Asuna finally looked up, and came face to face with Ichigo.
"Yo, Flasher." Ichigo gave a flat look and an equally flat wave.
"YOU!" Asuna immediately leaped backwards, her hand reaching to her side where her rapier-
Would not be.
Who would keep their rapier equipped in their own house? Especially a girl that likes to cook and keep her house well furnished?
Slightly blushing at her lack of weapon in his presence, Asuna chose to just point a finger at him and push Yui behind her back as if he was someone with an virulent infectious disease.
"What are you doing here?! What have you done with Yui!"
"The little girl brought me here." Ichigo pointed at the black haired girl and deadpanned, unsure of what to say since it definitely wasn't HIS choice that he come out all the way into the woods outside of Coral. Well, it was his choice to accompany the kid, but by the kid's words, he could assume that the kid somehow went into the sixtieth floor and found him through some method without dying, and began leading him back to this house. There was no way a normal girl could go into 60th floor dungeon and conveniently find him through chance in that large cavern.
"Huh?" Asuna blinked in confusion. Then she felt light tug at the hem of her skirt, and when she looked down, she saw her "daughter" pulling at her skirt.
"Mama, Mama, don't fight with Oji san." The girl said with a sad expression that gave an impact to Asuna's heart with 300% more piercing damage than any sad puppy face could have given her from other people.
"Kuu!" Asuna leaned back as if she was in pain before the girl's words registered in her brain. "...Yui chan, why do you call that thi-... person Oji san?"
Ichigo definitely caught what the brunette was about to call him, making him roll his eyes.
As if he didn't call other people worse nicknames.
"Because Oji san is Oji san!" Yui brightly replied with a reasoning only possible for those that had innocence of youth still within them.
Ichigo did not believe such thing could exist in SAO after all that had happened, but he incredulously stared at the probably the only exception in existence in SAO.
"Ichigo?!" A voice sounded from Ichigo's back, and Ichigo turned around.
A black haired youth that looked oddly feminine and yet held the title as one of the strongest players in SAO: Kirito, the Dual Blade wielder AKA Black Swordsman. He still seemed to prefer wearing black clothes like Ichigo, and subsequently, his guild, Moonlight Phantom, declared black as their primary guild color.
"Yo, Kirito." Ichigo gave a short wave again.
"What are you doing here?" Kirito asked as he walked out of the dense foliage. Although Ichigo was well known amongst practically everyone in SAO, they did not interact outside of occasional Boss Raids that they participated in together.
"I brought your kid back home. Or rather, your kid brought me here." Ichigo blandly thrust his index finger over his shoulder, pointing at the brunette and the black haired girls.
Speaking of which…
"Yui chan, please don't go near that person. He's a rude and insensitive brute. He'll be a bad influence on you."
"Ehhh? Mama, Oji san is a good person Mama!"
The woman was trying and failing to brainwash the future generation.
"Yes, I'm a good person Flasher chan." Ichigo snarked back at Asuna, knowing that calling her such name would instantly make her riled up. Normally, he would have never call any non-thugs any insulting names, but Asuna the Flash's strict and commanding nature made Ichigo, a vagabond who did whatever the hell he wanted in Boss Raid to help as many people he could even if going against the plan, contrast , friction occurred between them every time they met, throwing light jabs and insults at each other. Her die hard attitude waned off when she join Kirito's guild, but the old frictions from the past still lasted.
"You! Be quiet!" Asuna shot him a glare before her eyes caught the sight of her lover next to the resented being. "Ah, Kirito kun?"
"Yo, Asuna, I came back to get a lantern or something to look for Yui better, but it looks like it's not needed anymore." Kirito chuckled as he scratched the back of his head out of personal habit when he accidentally did something bad.
"Papa!" Yui ran toward Kirito and hugged him around the waist, freezing Kirito who tentatively lowered his hands on Yui's back to give her a pat. It seemed that Kirito's antisocial tendencies made him still a little awkward toward affectionate contacts.
Ichigo looked at the girl dubiously as he began to understand the situation.
"So you guys did it huh?" Ichigo remarked questioningly.
"Do what?" Kirito and Asuna stared at Ichigo in confusion.
"Whatever you guys did to get your child." Ichigo bluntly replied. "I mean, I know it's a big choice in the game, but I didn't know you guys would be daring enough to get a child when you guys are just teens."
"..."
"..."
"…"
A beat.
"WHAAAA-!" Both Asuna and Kirito flushed crimson at what Ichigo was implying.
"Hmm? How do you get me Papa?" Yui chose the perfect moment to look up at Kirito, making him stutter and try to divert Yui's attention away from the subject.
"We didn't- I didn't-" Asuna seemed to be struggling to retort to Ichigo's inane conclusion while Kirito was busy trying to form coherent response to Yui's question.
"Hmm? So you guys didn't do it?" Ichigo frowned as he turned to look at Yui. A black haired girl with cherubic face that could have had the impacting power of 1000 bunnies.
"No we didn't!" Asuna yelled out loud, stomping the ground while glaring at Ichigo with red and puffed up face.
"Eh? We didn't?" Kirito looked at Asuna in surprise. He had no situational awareness in these aspects of life when his head was messed up, and it showed by his mistake just now.
Ichigo looked at Asuna with fascination as her face, if possible, became even more red than it was. He wondered how such question could make anyone so embarrassed. He knew making such actions in a game was a big choice, but was it anything to to become so red faced about?
She then became oddly quiet as she looked down at the ground, her eyes shadowed by her bangs, and her fists trembling as she grabbed the hem of her dress seemed to pull it down as far as it could.
Ichigo frowned and spoke as he looked at Asuna, who was shaking with rage and embarrassment, and then at Kirito, who seemed to be trying his best to placate Yui.
"So you guys didn't adopt Yui from the orphanage in the fiftieth floor?"
"..."
"..."
"..."
A beat.
"Huh?" Asuna and Kirito both looked at Ichigo in confusion.
One of Ichigo's eyebrows went up as he looked at both of them. "...What?" He looked at their blank staring. "You can find a child as young as Yui in Algade. I think a woman called Sasha opened an orphanage there about two months ago I think. She recognized how it was increasingly becoming dangerous in the frontlines and didn't want the younger children to be active in the frontlines anymore, so she took them in. I think some married older players are taking burden off the caretaker by adopting some kids."
Both Kirito and Asuna looked at Ichigo with blank and stunned faces.
Ichigo tilted his head. "What did you guys think I was talking about?"
That statement snapped Kirito out of his brain failure and made him hastily reply. "Nothing! No-ot thing AT ALL! Ahahahahaha…ha…" Kirito scratched the back of his head while forcing a smile to his face as he refuted everything and anything that may have been on his mind.
Ichigo frowned as he recognized Kirito's subconscious action, but didn't mark upon it. If they didn't want to talk about their secret, it was no harm off his books.
"...You…"
Ichigo turned his head at the sound, a trembling Asuna coming into his sight.
"...You…You did it on purpose, right?"
"What?" Ichigo looked confused more than anything at their strange behavior. "What did I say Flasher?"
That title seemed to break Asuna's trembling, but what came next was an unnervingly gentle smile directed at him.
"... It seems that you truly didn't know Ichigo kun."
That statement was made with absolutely smooth voice that Ichigo backed up a step just as Kirito laid his palms over Yui's ears and his fingers over her eyes, making her squirm and call Kirito in protest. The young did not have to witness what was to occur and be traumatized forever.
"...I really have no idea what you are talking about. Did I do something wrong Fla- I mean, Asuna san?"
"Ne, Ichigo kun."
"Huh?"
"Let me hit you."
"...What?"
"Let me hit you. Just once. It's fine, the muted pain receptor from the game won't let you feel too much pain anyway."
Ichigo took this request seriously, and even if Asuna was really unnerving currently, he shook his head. This told how big of balls he had, to refuse a girl even if the said girl in front of him was scary and creepy as hell as she asked for something that brooked absolutely no argument from the male. "No."
Too bad big balls couldn't save him from what happened next.
"Too bad. I'm gonna do it regardless."
"Hey! Wha-"
With a flash, Asuna struck at Ichigo with an overhead chop at his head, the speed of the strike fast enough to seem like it was coming at Ichigo like lightning. Truly, it was a strike worthy of Asuna the Flash.
However, as Ichigo was already wary enough of Asuna already, and all his battle instinct and slowed time perception aided him in lifting an arm to block Asuna's arm that came down on him with terrific force.
Because of the overhead chop, he couldn't see the uppercut until it had already touched his chin.
The blow blew him away a few feet from the ground, and in a beautiful arc, Ichigo landed on the ground with a resounding thud.
Truly, hell hath no fury like women scorned.
"She found me, in the dungeon of sixtieth floor." Ichigo blandly spoke on the kitchen table as he rubbed the spot where Asuna's fist smashed like a meteorite, his gaze giving a flash of speculative searching look as he looked at Yui.
Asuna and Kirito's eyes widened, their eyes turning to the tyke that was busy devouring Asuna's sandwich like Kirito could.
Looking at their faces of disbelief, Ichigo explained further. "And I'm completely serious. I had to break out of [Rampaging Minions] circle since she activated a trap monster." Ichigo bit into his own meagre amount of food grudgingly given by Asuna when Kirito persuaded her saying that he was the one that had brought Yui home.
"...Ah, is it possible that she went through a [Corridor Crystal]?" Kirito asked, the tone of his voice speaking volumes about his own belief at the idea and probability.
Ichigo shrugged his shoulders with clear gesture of 'Don't ask me' as he continued to chew the food. No matter how meager, it was food made by "Master Chef" so one had to savor such meal.
Ichigo gulped the food before resuming his speaking. "But I think she went specifically looking for me. I don't know why. She called me Oji san, so maybe she knew who I was?"
"Everybody knows who you are." Asuna retorted without any barb in her words. After all, whether the person in front of her was her natural enemy or not, he was a person who had "acted" on that day to help everyone, just as Kirito had been the first one to cry out as a Beta Tester to help the people.
Ichigo twisted his expression before nodding at her statement. Being well known had its ups and downs.
God damned fan club. Apparently, A LOT of people wanted to monitor their most famous player. It let them find him even if he was in only a handful of people's friends list, which numbered less than ten, for boss raids and guild invitations that came one after another for several months before they gave up for invitations at least.
Kirito gave a contemplative look for a few seconds before he turned to Yui and spoke.
"Yui chan, why did you go to look for Ichigo?"
Yui then suddenly stopped eating, and looked down at the table with a sad face before she looked back up with a confident smile. "Because I think Oji san can do it."
"Yui chan…?" Asuna looked at the little girl with uncertain lilt in her voice. It was probably because she acted nothing like the girl she knew when she calmly spoke the last sentence.
"Do what?" Ichigo questioned quickly. He quickly realized that the girl in front of him was not a normal one, seen by her appearance in the sixtieth floor, which the other two couldn't digest fast enough since they didn't see it themselves.
"Dispel the rising hatred in the players." Yui commented simply, swinging her legs while sitting on the chair.
"Rising hatred between the players?" Kirito muttered with a frowning eyebrow in deep concentration before an eyebrow rose up. "Umm… Yui chan, are you talking about the increased tension in between the guilds?"
"Yes." Yui stated simply.
Asuna and Kirito traded worried glances, the look which Ichigo did not miss. They were probably worried for Yui, and confused about how she would know about such information about the frontline.
It has been nine months since the game started. The frontline was at the sixtieth floor of Aincrad, with less than thirty guilds with about a few hundred players each dedicated to clearing the game trying out reach the other guilds in clearing the floor first and claiming the boss fight for their own guild.
However, not all guilds were the same.
Some guilds were specialized for combat personnel, like the Knight of Blood, led by Heathcliff, where every member of the guild was specialized for combat and for greater efficiency in floor clearing.
Some guilds were specialized for merchants, like the Dicey Goods, led by Agil, a huge man with strength to back up his size, exchanging materials, weapons, foods, and other variety of goods for money or for bartering.
Some guilds were specialized in most things by themselves, containing various groups within a guild, like Moonlight Phantom, led by Kirito, who had many skilled individuals like Asuna the Flash(who was rumored to be the secret head chef of the guild) and Lisbeth of the Steel(the leader of blacksmiths in the guild), and many more.
All the guilds competed with each other, striving for a floor boss after floor boss, trying to become the one to manipulate the field and obtain the loot for themselves, trying to reach the top floor as well as become the best out of all guilds. Such competitive drive made the speed of the clearing of the boss faster, resulting in taking only nine months to beat the sixtieth floor boss.
Although most guilds were dedicated towards combat, there was diversity in the style of each guild, and with each to their own differences, there were also conflicts between the guilds.
If such conflicts were to arise, who would stop the conflict from becoming too large? If the animosity between the guilds ran to high, there was a chance of somebody actually being harmed due to the resentment and conflict.
Although the guild leaders tried to mitigate the conflict from their guild members to a degree, when death threats began to exchange between the members of each guild with several challenges for duels being exchanged between them with hp going low as the red zone, the situation began to deteriorate even faster. The severity of the situation was diverse amongst each guild, and those that had different situation for their own guild tended to ignore the problems of other guilds, leading to a shortage of information concerning people's attitude between guilds. Therefore, one had to have deep knowledge of the total situation of the frontline in general before one could see that the tension of frontline among guilds ran tight.
"..."
"..."
"..."
All three clearers in the house kept their silence, giving an occasional glance toward each other. Asuna and Kirito were afraid of asking just who Yui was, and whether she was tricking them from the start with her act that let them view her as a victim of the game who lost all her memory. Ichigo was a little more confused on what Yui was leading at, saying that she had deliberately seeked him out to get his help on this matter. Finally, Ichigo just went on to asking the question.
"...How do you know all of this?" Ichigo asked bluntly, crossing his arms over his chest. "And why do you need MY help if you just want to lessen the tension between the guilds?"
At Ichigo's question, a brief jolt ran across Yui's frame, visibly shaking her. Yui's eyes dilated as her back straightened.
"Yui chan?!" Asuna was there with a flash, holding onto the smaller girl's frame.
Then, the shock seemed to have dissipated, and Yui's body seemed to slump, but her head moved and looked at Ichigo.
Ichigo's eyes sharpened at the blank eyes of the small girl that seemed to look back at him with slight inhumane quality.
"...Yui chan?" Kirito seemed to be in a ready stance. For what, Ichigo couldn't decipher, but Yui's sudden seizure seemed to have unnerved him along with Asuna and Ichigo.
"I don't know." Suddenly stated, her tone of voice vastly different from the childish connotation it had before.
"Huh?"
"Most of my program is shut down due to a "death" that I had suffered previous to this date. I do not even have the ability to analyze myself and find out my purpose nor access my memory drive. What I am speaking now is not "Yui" that is speaking, but a pre-program embedded in her failsafe, a failsafe that will activate once she has established certain level of security within this world. "Yui"s subconscious will and action to bring you, Ichigo, to the secure location and relay the situation has succeeded."
Ichigo tried to process what this little sprite was sprouting out of her mouth. He was unused to the slight mechanical tone that the girl used, and the info dump had made his brain short circuit for a few moment, the maelstrom inside his mind definitely not helping his analytical abilities.
It seemed that Kirito was in slightly better situation than him as he asked a question. "Why did you appear before us then, uhh… Other Yui?"
"Please don't call me other "Yui" I am not a full personality like the ones that you have seen for the last few days" Yui stated with a sad smile. ""Yui" appeared before you and your wife because in order to heal and gain back her previous functions, she needed to be exposed to constant source of happy and stable emotions. That is also a failsafe that activates when most of her program is damaged. She is attracted to people with stable and steady source of positive emotion, but she didn't do it consciously, so please don't think she was manipulating you."
Yui bowed her head to the couple, and an awkward silence permeated, Yui still being held at an arms length by Asuna, and Kirito with a little more relaxed stance but with a sad expression.
"We forgive you."
Three words, spoken by Asuna. However, there was a wealth of meaning and a chest full of emotion contained in those three words that made Yui visibly relax.
Kirito also came forward and knelt by Yui and his wife, patting Yui's head with his hand. His actions spoke more loud than any other words he could have said in such situation.
Tears began to streak down Yui's cheek, and her small and delicate form began to tremble, before she pull up her head with a smile that held all her happiness and relief at their acceptance for who she was.
The three hugged tightly.
Ichigo stood by with an awkward air about him, not knowing what to do in this personal familial scene before him. However, before he could act, Yui spoke.
"Mama? Papa? Why am I crying?" Yui spoke innocently like she did before. The preprogrammed action sequence must have run out of its time as Yui reverted back to who she was. "Mama? Papa? Why are you crying? Don't be sad."
In the confines of the small cabin in 22nd floor, a small family would be made, and a person would later find out how the meeting with the small fairy-like girl would be the catalyst to a series of events that would affect SAO as a whole.
AN: Before you guys come onto me with torches and burn me at stake with all your complaints and denial of how I portrayed the story, I have some comments I have to make. Of course, if you ignore this message, then I have nothing else to say to you except you should frequently check this message for my own sanity and your understanding of this story.
My portrayal of Asuna against Ichigo in this chapter is how I contemplated Asuna would react against a person that just rubs her the wrong way. With Ichigo's normally lackadaisical attitude in "sticking to the plan" and just doing whatever the hell he wants to like how he fights against Jidanbou during the first part of coming to Seireitei, I thought friction would occur, and that Ichigo would not apologize for his actions, leading to many frictions that would lead to Asuna's behavior that's the culmination of all past frictions.
Ichigo's name for Asuna: Flasher. Sounds like some panty flasher, so Asuna hates that name. She hates even more that the name came from her respective name of being the fastest player online.
Also, Ichigo's innocent question(at least to him) is not because he is really clueless or dense. It's because he doesn't know that "ethics off" button exists in SAO. Leading him to believe that you can't have sex in this game.
I hope I have introduced and portrayed the problems this SAO well with Yui. It was not easy, thinking up of how the change in SAO structure would affect EVERYTHING with new problems and whatnot, and the protagonist's introduction to the problem itself took time to find out how to do.
I was late for this chapter. I was planning to post it last week, but another muse hit me. I have been getting interested in OC/Semi SI stories lately, and have been thinking what it would be like in Halkegania, which was too frivolous of reality for my taste with a taste of Game of Thrones. Without being summoned by Louise as the starting factor. I mean, so many fucking cliches of being summoned by Louise as a character beginning in FoZ crossovers. Why not being summoned by Joseph? Or starting a story with Brimir himself? So many possibilities, so little imagination by other authors that just got taken into Gabriel Blessing's Hill of Swords hype.
Anyway, I might post it up if I don't get bored of writing the first chapter halfway.