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Chapter Text

Akihiko dreams of the castle for the first time in his second year in middle school. He knows - somewhere in his marrow - it is called Aincrad from the very first dream. He likes it; it looks nice. A castle in the sky, floating above the problems of society.

Akihiko's second dream is of random places in the castle. He looks around, intrigued. He's never been much of a lucid dreamer, but he definitely has some manner of control over where he goes in this dream. He doesn't wait long before looking inside one of the connection towers. He sees monsters there he doesn't think he could imagine himself, and his fear wakes him up.

His next dream, he stays away from the towers. He sees a beautiful... what should he call the layers visible from outside the tower? Floors? He sees a beautiful floor full of flowers. He sees a massive lake, with only islands to call land. He doesn't see a single monster; he's not sure if he's happy about that or not.

Through highschool, Akihiko's dreams continue. He starts looking into every nook and cranny of Aincrad, starts noticing monsters everywhere, and - eventually - starts looking around for a sword. He wants to try fighting one of them. Eventually, he does. The rush of adrenaline is enough to wake him up. He decides he doesn't want to wake up.

He goes to university, planning to major in computer science. That'd be the easiest way to bring the castle to reality: simulate it, like a game. His new friends - Takeru and Rinko, Nobuyuki is too creepy to be a friend despite his intelligence - push his ideas to new heights. Suddenly, Aincrad can step outside of his dreams entirely, if - and only if - he manages to fully realize Takeru's vision of a device that can read the user's nerve input and output, block it from reaching the brain, and replace it with the appropriate signals for interacting with the virtual world.

His prototypes are eventually noticed by Argus, who offer him a job for a decent amount of money in exchange for continuing to develop the new technology. He accepts it; why wouldn't he? The Phantom Thieves happen, at the periphery of his perception, but he can't bring himself to care when he has much more important things to be doing (and dreaming). Eventually, he does manage to produce a working prototype for the device Takeru conceived. He calls it NerveGear.

He's instantly much more famous and much better paid. He has time to reconnect with his friends. He sees Takeru from time to time, but Rinko responds much more often. He thinks she's falling in love, but he's not sure, and so he doesn't ask.

Argus now finally asks him to create a game. Akihiko decides this is his chance to make Aincrad real. He's seen it in his dreams a thousand times by now; he knows every valley, every hill, every cave, every labyrinth, every boss. He gets to work; the castle won't write itself. Rinko reminds him to stay in touch every now and then, and he agrees.

He eventually has a problem: the castle isn't real enough. An untrained, new-to-VR eye may not see anything wrong, but Akihiko, and his audience, are experts. They would all see, and they would always know that the world they are in is virtual; someone's imagination broadcasted across the player base. Aincrad must be better than that.

In his search for a solution, on one night diving down the rabbit hole that is human perception, he finds the papers of one Wakaba Isshiki. (He never remembers that he spent hours the next day at work getting through the defenses on these papers.) At first, he dismisses them as nonsensical ramblings, but then Akihiko remembers the Phantom Thieves. He wasn't perfectly familiar with their history, but he did know they always said something about stealing their target's heart. (Takeru was, by contrast, very passionate about them. Akihito did his best to tune him out, back in the day, but now he sort of regrets it.) The papers match what the Phantom Thieves had probably been doing, and the effect is a spot-on match. He starts thinking about how to make it work.

Akihiko doesn't remember everything about how he does, in the end, make it work. He knows that whoever dies in Aincrad must also die on Earth. (He doesn't remember making or agreeing to this decision.) He knows nobody can log out, and that the only way to exit is to beat the game. He's fine with all of that; it adds to the reality of Aincrad. The castle may - by some definitions - be a game, but it cannot be something to play; that would mean there are no consequences, which detracts from the sense of reality of the castle. The sensory details are elevated to what Akihiko has dreamed of for the past fifteen years. He's finally ready to release it to the audience; but Argus mandates a beta test.

Fine. He sends the strictly digital version of Aincrad as a beta version. Akihiko reasons any logic problems within it may have propagated to the complete version. The beta test lasts for two months; no major problems are reported, and any visual glitches would not be present in the complete version due to its nature.

He asks Rinko to look after him while he dives. She agrees. The game launches, and Akihiko Kayaba prepares for telling the players that they cannot easily escape a new reality.

Chapter Text

Futaba learns of the access to her mom's papers over a year after it happens, just by looking at some logs she can't properly remember coding in. When she does, her first action is to start blasting her 15-year-old self for not adding a very attention grabbing alarm on those defenses.

But then, she would've checked the defenses hourly back then anyway. Maybe it's better this way; it proves Futaba has grown from the scared, traumatized child she was back then into a not-so-scared, still-traumatized young woman.

It takes a very, very long time to trace someone who accessed some files over a year ago. Futaba asks Ren to pass the following question around in the meantime, especially to Maruki: can you think of anyone who'd want to study the Phantom Thieves? She doesn't think any of Ren's confidants, especially Ohya and Iwai, would answer an unknown phone number asking them intrusive things about the Phantom Thieves.

By the time the answers come back from Ohya and Maruki, Futaba has already been blocked by Argus' firewall. She would've needed a couple more days to figure it out; second year in university may not be as bad as the first, without the needed adjustment period, but it is still a fairly sizable time sink with all the courses which require in-person presence, which means Futaba can't dedicate all her time to trying to crack some cyberdefense at a... by now fairly well-known company.

Futaba is... half-surprised to hear that of all the people working at Argus, Akihiko Kayaba is the one who's been reading her mom's research. On the one hand, the man has invented the NerveGear, he's done it, it just needs some actually useful programs and interfaces for Futaba to buy one for herself; what would he want to do with cognitive psience? On the other hand, the man has invented the NerveGear, obviously he wants to know more about human perception and imagination to make better NerveGears in the future; of course that'd lead to her mom's research in the end. Futaba still cracks the company's defenses, since Ohya and Maruki would've had limited access to information and she kinda wants to know more.

Wait. Akihiko Kayaba is working on a game? He's been doing it for the past three years? What?

Futaba starts digging for information on the game. The breach didn't happen until at least a year and a half into development, probably closer to two years. Kayaba wants her mom's research to... create a game that isn't something you play?

Futaba sounds the metaphorical alarm with no regret for what she's pulling her friends out of. Ren's career helping Yoshida won't suffer too much from a vacation. Ryuji's job as a PE teacher is harder to work around, but Futaba puts in a request for some leave and signs it with the school principal's signature. Ann is abroad, but she's returning in a week anyway. Yusuke can probably be pulled away from his paint fumes with enough force applied. To that end, Makoto actually being a cop will probably help; she can take all the vacation she wants since her work ethic means she still has a lot of free days left. And Haru may have opened the cafe she dreamed of in Kichijoji, but... hmm. Maybe they could meet there instead of Leblanc? And Sumire has a national contest in a few weeks; she can join the investigation afterwards.

Futaba skips Akechi's phone number when doing calls.

Yes, their lives have been separating over the past few years. But they've kept in touch all the same; Futaba blesses the existence of the Internet again. They also meet for lunches and dinners whenever they can, however many of them can; it's still not quite the same (though it gets close at times) without the (almost?-) full group. Things may be about to get more fun.

Futaba presents what she's dug up. At first, there's disbelief.

"It's been four and a half years since the last time anyone even tried to apply cognitive psience, Futaba." Morgana's argument isn't even wrong; it has been a fairly long time since cognitive psience has in any way, shape or form been relevant. But Futaba doesn't think this is a coincidence. "A very clearly intelligent man - the creator of the first VR helmet that actually interacts with your brain properly - is looking into cognitive psience. I don't trust him on principle. And then he spends an entire day breaking into my security! And he looks at my mom's files!"

"Look, say he read your mom's research. That's shitty, yeah. I'd be pissed too. What the eff does he want to do with it?" Perhaps not so surprisingly, Ryuji makes a good point. He has been talking to kids for a couple years now, he's probably had a few arguments. "I don't know. That's the problem. I literally cannot find any inkling of a project that would need cognitive psience to run in the entire company, not just around Kayaba. So why did he spend a working day as a black hat? People don't just do that."

"So we need more information." Makoto and Ren look at each other, and then at Yusuke.

"Okay.. How do we get it?" Ann seems determined to do something already, even if none of the Thieves know what, exactly, to do.

Futaba doesn't have an answer to the very good question Ann just posed. For now, all she can say is "I don't think we can do anything right now. We can't investigate using... alternate means, and we don't have the authority to just go in and ask Kayaba what he's doing, so we have to wait for him to communicate."

Eventually, Ren does think of disassembling a NerveGear after using his weird perception power thing. Futaba meets up with him so he doesn't screw anything up. They don't find anything, but at least they have new information: it's related somehow to the NerveGear.

A couple months pass, and the beta version of Sword Art Online releases. Futaba buys a NerveGear just to look at recordings of people playing. The surroundings are obviously polygonal, even beyond the fact that this is a recording; the game itself has nothing wrong with it.

On a whim, Futaba tries to break into the game servers. She doesn't even want to mess with anything, just to snoop around. And the firewalls and other apparently-cyber defenses make her sound the alarm again. She's seen these kinds of patterns once, but she wouldn't be able to do anything against them. Not without the Metaverse. Not without Al Azif. Even with Al Azif, EMMA stumped her badly enough to ask for help from Ichinose. Taking this thing on with only a few (thousand) desktop processors is not ending well.

With this new information, the Thieves make a decision. They have to play Sword Art Online. The beta filled up its 1000 players in a matter of hours, so they can't join in anymore, and the hype on the internet is massive. They have to buy standard release copies.

Chapter Text

Kazuto is supremely excited. Sword Art Online is coming back.

He lived and breathed the beta test (metaphorically speaking). Sure, it was all very polygonal, and sure, sometimes there were minor glitches and NPC lines that didn't quite fit in. Still, the core of the game - and quite a lot more - was there. He didn't have any major problem with any of the sword skills he tried. The game was practically already functional. Kazuto had seen full-release games in worse state than the beta test, and they'd only had to be rendered in a 2D format on a monitor. Sword Art Online was... so much more polished. He couldn't - and wouldn't - go back to other games.

And now, Aincrad is absolutely flawless.

Kazuto doesn't even see any lines. Any polygons that must be rendering are so small they may as well functionally be atoms. He can feel the wind as if it's really there. He pinches himself. It doesn't hurt. This... feels like a dream.

He equips his tried-and-true One-Handed and Searching and rushes out into the field. He wants - needs - to test the new feel of sword skills. He finds a boar, and pounces on it with a Horizontal. The boar is stunned by the surprise hit long enough that Kazuto can recover from the animation and slam home another Horizontal.

The boar - instead of exploding into vaguely rainbow-colored polygons - crumbles into a fine white dust picked up by the wind.

Kazuto stares at the fine dust. It felt... so natural. No issues whatsoever. In the beta, it had been a bit of a hit or miss whenever anyone'd tried to assume the starting position for a sword skill. A bit of standing still had been almost expected among players. Here, it was fluid; he didn't even know what stance he took, he just went for it, and it worked to perfection.

The Searching skill tells Kazuto another player is nearby. Since it's still base level, the player must not be making any effort to hide themselves; sure enough, a fairly handsome man - just like Kazuto's model - appears from between the bushes, breathing hard.

"Dude, stop running so hard. I get that you're very excited, but come on, let a man catch up to you. Damn."

Kazuto doesn't... really feel bad. He didn't at any point tell this player to follow him. Still, he doesn't look like a griefer, and Kazuto has practically nothing to lose if he dies. "Hey, you were the one who started running after me. I'm just minding my own business."

"Yeah, but I have an idea. I think we can figure out together how this game works. I have some buddies coming in a couple hours and by that point I wanna impress'em."

"Figure it out with them. I know all I have to."

"How would you know all about this?... Wait, shit, you're a beta tester? No wonder you're so fast, you already know how all of this works. Now I'm really curious about what you know."

Kazuto thinks for a few seconds. What does he really stand to lose? Again, it's nothing. Maybe he'll come out of this with a new friend. "Sure, stick around. You want to go find a boar?"

"They the slimes in this game? Absolutely. My name's Klein. Let's party up and go!"

"I'm Kirito."

It doesn't take long for them to find another boar. Kazuto is a fan of teaching people how to swim by throwing them in the lake, so he lets Klein take the aggro. "You remember the stances for the basic sword skills?"

"Yeah, but hurry it up! I don't like being knocked around! Especially by a damn slime!"

Kazuto laughs out loud. "Fine, fine. All you have to do is take the starting stance and focus on the skill. Then, the system will do the rest for you. Lucky you. Back in my day, we had to yell skills out loud."

Klein tries the advice out, but doesn't seem to get it. He takes a hit from the boar for his failure. "This feels too real, Kirito! A lil' help?"

Kazuto laughs again. This time, it's not because of Klein's reactions. He's reminded of the first time he fought a boar in the beta, trying - and failing - to hit a boar with a sword skill. He died a couple of times before managing his first. He died a few more times trying to be consistent with it.

"Get it to run into a tree so you can take a good look at me when I use my skill!"

By what's probably sheer luck, Klein manages to do exactly that. He quickly gets to the side with a look practically broadcasting curiosity, and Kazuto prepares his stance slowly.

He discovers that as he gets closer to the right stance for Horizontal, his sword starts glowing and keeps it up. That's new. In what probably now counts as a correct stance, the sword is just as bright as it was in the beta, just... more real. The system assist kicks in, and Kazuto lands the first solid hit on the boar.

Kazuto notices Klein's started to copy him. His sword is lighting up, and Klein uses that as a hot-and-cold game to land in the correct stance. Finally, he hits the boar for the first - and last for this boar - time. "Oh yeah! First kill!"

"Periodic reminder that they're slimes."

Klein punches him in the shoulder. "Let me enjoy my victory!"

Kazuto does just that, and stands back a bit with a smile on his face as Klein looks at his spoils. Kazuto knows boars don't really drop anything worthwhile except meat cuts that can be prepared by someone with a few levels in Cooking, but Klein doesn't.

Kazuto thinks Klein may be alright; a bit rough around the edges, but a decent person.

Klein wakes him out of his thoughts. "Do you wanna keep going for another hour or so?"

Kazuto doesn't have anything to do in the next hour (that he's not avoiding). "Heh. Sure, why not?"

They keep going; for the next hour, Kazuto keeps giving Klein tips. They talk about switching, about different weapon skills. By the end, Klein looks exhausted mentally, and his health is in the yellow, but he still has a grin on his face, and his sword skills are coming out faster, and his decision making is better, so Kazuto assumes he's been having fun.

"Thanks, man." Klein looks like he kind of wants to leave.

"Hey, you did it yourself. I'm just here for advice."

"Nah, you killed half the first boar, and staggered it. Plus all the switches afterward. I dunno why I couldn't lock in at the start. Now I think about it... It felt so real. Like a real boar was in front of me. It still feels real. I'm just getting used to it."

"Yeah. Yeah, I get what you mean. Even the beta wasn't this polished. You could see the polygons. The wind wasn't right. You wouldn't have stunk like this."

"You stink too!"

Kazuto looks at the bottom of the second floor, above them. He can see shadows on it, cast by (relatively) small deformities, aside from the big dark shadow the floor labyrinth has always casted.

"Mhm. That's my point. This is so much... more. There's shadows on the ceiling. I don't even know how the NerveGear processes all this data. I have even less of an idea about how it's all simulated. All this, for ten thousand lucky players."

"Hah, Argus is probably bringing in more players later. A second edition or something."

"Probably."

They just sit, and look around them. Take in this new, fantastical world, practically gifted to ten thousand lucky people.

Klein interrupts the peace. "Sorry, man. I gotta go. I've got a pizza coming in right about now. I'm gonna go eat, then come back in. What do you wanna do?"

Kazuto... doesn't really want to quit playing. "How long do you think it'll take?"

"Probably half an hour? My friends are joining in one hour, so I want to be back in town by then."

Kazuto thinks about it. He realizes he doesn't want to split up. "I'll wait. I can grind some more boars. Maybe I'll even go up a level."

"Alright, sure." Klein opens his menu. By this point, he's gotten used to it; it took him a few tries the first time. "Hey, where's the logout button?"

Kazuto knows the entire menu by heart. "Under system, third option."

"There... is no third option."

Kazuto checks. Sure enough, the "System" submenu only has the "Calibration" and "Menu Organization" options. "That's a pretty serious bug. This used to work in the beta. Weird."

"Wait, then how do I log out for my pizza? Exit! Escape! Log out! Quit!"

Kazuto has read the manual for the NerveGear (and much more) enough times to almost recite it. "The NerveGear does not respond to vocal commands; all of its computing power is dedicated to rendering the virtual reality and processing internal logic. The program must send a logout signal to the NerveGear, or someone must detach it from the user's head, for a logout to be achieved."

"That sounded like a documentation quote."

"It is. There's no other way to log out of the game on your own, just the logout button. Someone coming in and taking your NerveGear off, or a GM coming in and logging everyone out, would also work. I don't live alone, though; my... family... might come in my room with dinner. You live alone?"

"... Yeah." Klein is obviously dejected. "You think a GM is gonna come?... Wait. This is a serious bug. I'm losing my pizza. Other people are also missing dinner. They gotta do something about all of this."

Kazuto was going along the same line of thinking. "A GM has to make an announcement at some point."

Ironically, this is when both of them are teleported back to the Town of Beginnings.

Chapter Text

Ren has been a lot busier these past few weeks.

At first, he just wanted to finish all the tasks Yoshida was giving him, so he could take his vacation with a clear conscience. Eventually, he managed, and the politician understood and told Ren he could hang on for a couple weeks. So Ren took his vacation.

Futaba immediately brought an issue to his attention. NerveGears are made for... human bodies. Morgana couldn't easily come with them.

That didn't mean he couldn't come with them at all. Ren tinkered with the disassembled NerveGear a lot until it became Morgana-sized. In the process, he had to sacrifice almost all the battery, but he did make it work in a few days. He also had to call in Futaba to make sure Morgana's NerveGear could connect to his for more battery life, and that the companion could piggyback on his own connection. Sword Art Online copies would be sold on an individual basis; they couldn't buy one for Morgana. This would (hopefully) let them bypass this issue. Morgana tested it on other software, and found it satisfactory; it even gave him the chance to try a human body again.

Then Sumire - of all people - reminded him of Sophia and Zenkichi. Ren facepalmed, but then he got to work. Unfortunately, Zenkichi couldn't really take a break from work the way Makoto could. His higher position in the general Japanese internal government meant a lot more responsibilities, and fewer (but longer) breaks. (Akane wasn't complaining. She could take care of herself now, and when her dad came home he wouldn't be immediately called to work on another case.) Ren still sent Zenkichi all the info they had, which was not that much, and explained the vague plan that boiled down to "enter the game, check if it's linked to the cognitive world, figure things out from there".

Sophia was a bit more responsive. Ichinose was still travelling, but Sophia figured she could join the investigations occasionally by piggybacking on Futaba's connection to the servers the way Morgana would on Ren's.

Then, the eight remaining Thieves stood in line to buy the game. For an entire day. Apparently, only the nost dedicated of people could play this game. Ren wasn't about to be outdone.

Finally, the Thieves decided on their game nicknames. The first idea - thrown out by Makoto - was to use their Personas' names as a quick way to identify each other. Others disagreed; Morgana was concerned about such blatant connections to their full selves, in a frankly strange and sort of fae-like fashion; Futaba and Ryuji already had prepared nicknames (that they probably already used in other games; Ren wasn't that attached to any of his ones); Yusuke decided it was an opportunity for artistry and representation. So, they decided on nicknames, and then the Thieves all dived.

And now, Ren is in Aincrad. Morgana is next to him, but from the way the companion, now looking human (like in Maruki's reality, but Ren's not thinking about that), also immediately raises his guard, he's not wrong about his feeling.

It takes the Thieves a few minutes to all find each other and head to an out-of-the-way alley. When they meet, the grim, focused looks on their teammates tell them they're not imagining anything.

Ren decides to open the discussion. "So we're in the Metaverse."

Futaba and Morgana look at each other. Morgana's the one to explain. "Not quite."

Ryuji looks confused. "I can actually feel William though." Ann nods in agreement.

"Yeah, and Diego is also a lot closer than in the real world. Still, there's differences. I can't sense a single Shadow, and there's nothing comparable to the cognitive size of a Treasure or of Desires."

Makoto is quick to respond. "This could be the equivalent of a safe room. From what Futaba told us about these beta videos, this is even considered a safe zone by the game system; the cognition should be strong enough to make it a proper safe room."

Futaba even proposes an experiment. "Then let's go outside the town. The safe room can't extend too far from it, if it does exist; player cognition shouldn't be wired that way."

Makoto and Futaba's logic makes sense. Still, Ren isn't happy with one unspoken assumption in the explanation, and Sumire is apparently also playing devil's advocate. "You're assuming the game system and the cognitive world are linked together. Maybe they're not."

Yusuke, who has been quiet so far, and has relaxed quicker, interrupts the debate. "While studying the artistry of the menu - which is quite lackluster - I have noticed I have some things assigned to me. They appear to be called 'skills'. I do not have art as a 'skill', which is quite upsetting; however, my mastery of katanas and the hiding skills we utilized in the Metaverse are both present."

This prompts everyone to check their menus. Ren's first skill is Dagger, and his second is also Hiding, both sitting at 100 levels; he doesn't know yet whether that's high.

Futaba answers that question for him. "Skills start at level 0 in here. 100 isn't the max, we knew that, but it's not low either. It's also giving us our specialties. I don't even have a weapon skill; aside from Hiding, I have Searching. Twice is a coincidence." Ren doesn't miss the idea that a third unexplainable thing will convince the navigator that they are in the Metaverse.

He even finds the third time (enemy action) when he stumbles upon the inventory. He double-checks what the items he has are. He still doesn't believe it. "I have an... untradable? dagger. I also have at least... some... of our items."

Haru confirms she has items of her own by equipping her battleaxe. A small ember of blue flame floats around the weapon for a second before it extinguishes itself. Ren swallows.

"Makoto, Futaba, you were right. We should probably go outside of the town. We need a chance to practice - what were they called - these sword skills. And we need to know how our Personas have changed, since I can't summon Ella right now and I don't think any of us are doing any better. This all sounds like practice to me!" In a way, Sumire is right. A lot of immediate problems can be solved with practice, and a bit of adapting to this world's worst ideas.

Ren immediately submits the idea to consensus. Yusuke persists in looking at the roofline, but quickly caves. They all remember the signature on their contract. I am thou, thou art I. They want their Personas back to buzzing happily in their heads... Because this eerie, silent Satanael doesn't feel right with Ren, either; not when he knows he's not in the real world, and there's just a thin wall separating them. Maybe like this, they can do something about it.

For half an hour, they try to hunt boars. ("It's called grinding, dammit!" Futaba is sometimes ready to die on these small hills, and each time, they take Ren by surprise.) The operative keyword here is "try". Their Personas are still silent, although they do at least sense their presence, and that in itself is a small comfort in this... dream. (They don't feel pain on health loss. This is throwing all of the Thieves off, except Futaba, who's sitting on the sidelines.) None of them, even with their supposed skill mastery, has performed a single successful sword skill. Sure, everyone's weapon has lit up at some point, and everyone has yelled the right sword skill name, but no one actually attacked with a weapon. (They have fallen onto each other, and that does register as minor damage between their two parties.)

Ren goes to ask Futaba about the beta recordings she'd watched... again. "So are you sure these videos didn't include anything else?"

"Yeah, I'm very sure."

"And have you tracked down anything else?"

"Nothing... It's like this place isn't fully formed yet."

"Come again?"

"Oh! Hmmm. Yeah, maybe you're right. That was just a random comparison, but maybe this cognitive place is just not finished yet, and our Personas can't quite enter the field. Still, maybe that's not it."

"All we can do is keep trying, then. Anyone snooping?"

"Everything's clear on that front."

Haru chooses this precise moment to make a perfect Whirlwind happen. She doesn't say anything; Ren still sees the trail of light left behind by the properly-used skill.

He seems to be the only one that's noticed, so he calls out. "Haru did it!" He's not the only one who congratulates her, but after the congratulations everyone settles down and listens to the trick.

Haru makes them all feel like idiots. "You just have to see the attack! Imagine it happen! Then it will!" It's not quite that simple; some very basic testing proves that the stance at the beginning of the sword skill does need to have a certain degree of precision. There's also, as... live testing... proves, that knowing where your enemy will be is fairly difficult, and the enemy needs to be part of the image. After that realization, it quickly becomes obvious that to best kill monsters, players in general should switch between each other for more stuns on monsters and an easier time imagining the sword skill the right way.

Before they can try this idea on something bigger than a boar, though, they all crumble into blue dust picked up by the wind, and they're suddenly back in the big plaza in town.

Chapter Text

Back when he put on Ren and Futaba's modified NerveGear, Morgana had to sit down and ruminate on how he wanted to appear in this... possibly-Metaverse, as well as what would be practical.

The practical side was simple: he needed to have as much semblance to his standard Metaverse form as possible, size-wise. It was what he was used to; cognition did allow him to perform some maneuvers that would be unfeasible in the physical world (not real, thoughts were as real as physics and molecules and other things that - frankly speaking - Morgana didn't understand that well). Holding his slingshot and scimitar had been one such example; his big, wobbly head, another; his stubby legs, that in a cognitive world would be fine, would not help him move - or sneak - to places. He had to ask for help regarding those differences, but they were very much solvable.

It only took two weeks of constant testing with Futaba and - when he could afford the time - Ren. Eventually, they settled on scanning Ren's face for a picture, then a few... liquid-filled clothes, placed in appropriate positions such that Morgana could still feel the pressure. No, he still didn't want to get wet; luckily, he didn't have to. Ren did all the testing for him. And the NerveGear proprioception recording mostly worked. It was - of course - fairly... inaccurate. The Thieves laughed when they saw what the... initial sketch of Morgana would look like, rendered by Futaba on her computer; until she showed them the polished design she created by copying it from the NerveGear and fixing what was wrong with Morgana. Then, they were all proud.

Then there was his appearance.

All the Thieves understood why Morgana had wanted to be human, back in Maruki's reality. Still, he did need to have as much semblance to his standard Metaverse form as possible. At first, Morgana thought he had to look like a little kid. Then, Futaba attempted to explain how the image (avatar? Who coined that term?) worked. If Morgana was honest, it flew over his head. He didn't want to admit it though. He did understand the main result: he could design the way he looked to be as adult-appearing as possible, and his balance would be (mostly) fine. He could get used to a little bit of a difference; he was a professional.

Besides, he knew what he wanted to look like. He still remembered all the details of the human body he'd once had, almost five years ago, for a week and a half. (Futaba had already implemented them; well, as much as she could.) The... unfortunate methods by which that body was created were still fixed in his mind alongside said details.

Everyone regretted bringing Maruki down, the tiniest bit. But they all agreed it was the right thing to do, and they were proud of who they'd each become through their own efforts. Even Morgana.

So, when he connected to the Sword Art Online servers, the way he'd discussed it with Ren and Futaba, Morgana was immediately ready to start shaping his new image. It didn't take him long to have a fairly precise recreation; he kept narrowing it down for a few minutes, then decided he could live with looking the way the image looked for this mission. So, he logged in.

Morgana does have an excuse as to why Haru figured out how to use a skill faster than he did: he was still adjusting to his new bodily proportions and size, and using them is partly an exercise in proprioception. He doesn't have either an excuse or an explanation for why they're back at the plaza. None of the other Thieves seem to, either. Nobody else - is this all the people in this world? Morgana can't see that far but simply based on body density it probably is - appears to know more.

Then the sky turns red and begins bleeding.

Unlike Christmas Eve, the coloring is clearly hexagonal, and the blood doesn't rain down on people who ignore it. Still, Morgana can clearly see none of the Thieves - his friends - are having a great time. Instead, the blood coalesces into... a cloaked figure larger than life, with its face obscured. (Morgana can sense a little tinge of insanity radiating from the figure. It's such an old, but recognizable feeling. Futaba also clearly remembers it, by the look they exchange to confirm they're not the ones growing insane. The figure is - in some sense - human. Morgana isn't willing to bet on more.)

"Players... welcome to my castle."

Morgana and Futaba exchange another look.

"My name is Kayaba Akihiko. I am curently the only person who can control this world."

Morgana clearly sees Futaba draw in a sharp breath. He agrees; this isn't at all going anywhere good. The entire plaza has begun to fill with the whispers of people.

"I trust you have already noticed the logout button is missing from the player menu."

This is not going in even a moderately useful - let alone good - direction!

"This is not a bug; it is a desired function of the game. You cannot log out of Sword Art Online on your own. No one on the outside will be able to remove your NerveGear, either."

Morgana still thinks this is not that useful, but Futaba appears confused. After a moment of thinking, it makes sense. How would the normal people exit?

Wait, how would they - the Thieves - exit?

"Should this be attempted, the NerveGear will use its internal battery to send a high-power electromagnetic beam into the user's brain, killing them."

The whispers in the plaza grow into actual voices. Even Morgana can see the chaos that is staring to bloom. (He can still exit. Ren had to remove most of the battery to... no, wait, he's still using Ren's connection. It poses a risk to his leader - his closest friend.)

"Unfortunately, several players' families have ignored this warning and attempted this. Two hundred and thirteen players are now dead, both in Aincrad and in the physical world."

The plaza is not quite shouting yet, but it is getting there. Morgana can barely hear the Thieves right next to him, nevermind any other random voice in the crowd. However, his Metaverse senses tell him something is clicking together.

"Do take note of three more things. First, the respawn mechanic in the game has been disabled. A death in this castle will result in a death in the real world, via the same mechanism."

And with a horrible, horrible snap, Morgana can finally hear Diego again. He can see blue embers at his feet, and everyone else seems to hear their Persona(s) too. Morgana - Mona - is ready to fight for freedom again.

Joker issues a quiet order through Oracle's communication channel; saying anything out loud would be useless with all the shouting happening. (They're all falling back into old, rusted, but never forgotten patterns. You don't forget what keeps you alive for a year - and change - of fighting.) "Suppress all Persona signs. This is a major identity risk; Kayaba's right there. We have to take him by surprise in the future." Their leader is right. But Kayaba isn't done.

"Second, there is a way to free yourselves. Simply ascend through Aincrad to the one hundredth floor and clear the game."

Oracle's the one to provide further information. "The beta testers reached the ninth floor in two months. And they could respawn. Kayaba's definitely gone insane." All the Thieves seem to agree with the last part.

"Finally, all of you have a gift from me in your inventory. Take it out, please."

Mona's really confused about the mirror. Then, he starts seeing blue particles around him - and everyone else? - until they obscure his vision. He instantly goes on guard, only to realize this isn't a teleport like the last time. All his teammates look like their real selves; Oracle showed him how the NerveGear stored the entirety of how you looked, and Mona can see cognition filling in the blanks left behind by the polygons. He can only assume he looks like the hybrid creation of himself, Joker and Oracle. He did inhabit this shape, once upon a time. At least now his height is correct (mostly), and he still looks human.

Fox is the one to break the silence. He's not using their communication line; the plaza's gone (mostly) quiet. "He's trying to make this real."

Before the Thieves can discuss further, Kayaba resumes speaking. "You must be wondering why. Why would I do this?" No one responds before the man continues. "My goal has already been achieved. I simply wanted to bring this castle to reality. However... reality has consequences." Mona doesn't like these consequences. "I wish you all the best of luck, players; goodbye."

As the sky returns to its sunset colors, the image of Kayaba dissolves into smoke, and the plaza into meaningless but loud noise, Queen suggests a retreat to a private location. Oracle gets them to an inn; they barely have enough currency (cor?) to rent a room large enough for all nine of them. Immediately, their outfits burn into existence with a flash of blue.

"What's goin' on, Oracle?" Skull is always the one to barrel forward with questions.

Mona knows the answer, though. "The cognitive part of this space wasn't complete yet; not until Kayaba told us all about dying. Then, whatever fragments of artificial cognition were around suddenly snapped together into something coherent. I think he needed a large enough amount of people to manifest a noticeable spike in the collective unconscious. Say, ten thousand people."

Oracle continues. "Yeah, Mona's right. There's something at the top of the castle, too. I can feel it even this far down. No other Shadows, though; not yet, at least. I don't think they'll stay away for long." No one has a positive reaction to the powerful presence. It is, after all, their second (third? (fourth?...)) rodeo.

Queen seems to have thought things through, a little bit. "We should go find an isolated place; see how everything has changed. We shouldn't assume our tests are still valid now that this is a complete cognitive space, and we can't be seen experimenting with our Personas."

After everyone (swiftly) agrees, they all leave the room, not having rested even a little bit, and head out into the city. Their Metaverse cognition of being extrememly skilled at hiding seems to partially transfer to this space; with it, they do manage to get out of the city without being seen, and then away from any voices that have already left the city.

Chapter Text

Ryoutarou is sort of relieved when the two of them are teleported to the plaza. The GMs are making an announcement. Everyone around him looks confused, except for Kirito, who seems to have reached the same conclusion he did.

The sky is covered by polygons, and a figure is shaped by the blood dripping from the cracks.

"Players... welcome to my castle."

Oh. Only one man would say "my castle" - Kayaba Akihiko. Kirito also relaxes, which gives Ryoutarou more confidence that things will be alright, and that his pizza will be fine.

"My name is Kayaba Akihiko. I am curently the only person who can control this world."

Hey, Ryoutarou guessed right!

"I trust you have already noticed the logout button is missing from the player menu."

Ryoutarou begins to relax further - the company knows, so now the players are getting kicked out so the bug can be fixed, right? But Kirito tenses next to him.

"This is not a bug; it is a desired function of the game. You cannot log out of Sword Art Online on your own. No one on the outside will be able to remove your NerveGear, either."

Oh, fuck. Fuck. Fuck!

Ryoutarou can't log out, his friends are coming and he can't stop them because he can't log out and then they'll be stuck here too, and his pizza delivery is probably not happening since it's five minutes past delivery time and he can't log out! Fuck!

"Should this be attempted, the NerveGear will use its internal battery to send a high-power electromagnetic beam into the user's brain, killing them."

Wait, what? Through the panic setting in, because there is absolutely no freaking way that's the prequel to any good news, Ryoutarou tries to think. He doesn't know enough about the NerveGear to know whether that's possible. Kirito could, though, so he asks with what he hopes is not a crack in his voice. "Can the NerveGear do that?"

Kirito doesn't give him a good answer. "...Yeah. The NerveGear uses the beams for injecting new signals into the nerves, but they have a safety limiter. And the battery is very beefy. If the safety was removed... yeah, a third of the battery concentrated into one beam would probably kill us." He's also very obviously scared, and... wait, he said he doesn't live alone, right? Holy shit, Kirito might just die right in front of him if one of his family members tries to pull his NerveGear off.

Kayaba isn't done yet. "Unfortunately, several players' families have ignored this warning and attempted this. Two hundred and thirteen players are now dead, both in Aincrad and in the physical world." Oh my god. Kirito could have been one of them. Ryoutarou is losing his absolute shit.

"Do take note of three more things. First, the respawn mechanic in the game has been disabled. A death in this castle will result in a death in the real world, via the same mechanism."

What the fuck? What? Why? Why is Kayaba doing this? Ryoutarou feels overwhelmed. (He doesn't doubt that the man is telling the truth for a single second.)

"Second, there is a way to free yourselves. Simply ascend through Aincrad to the one hundredth floor and clear the game."

Ryoutarou hears Kirito mutter under his breath. "We only got to the ninth floor in two months! How long will this take, years?"

"Finally, all of you have a gift from me in your inventory. Take it out, please."

Ryoutarou opens his inventory, his fear and anger partially smothered by confusion. Why would an item matter now? After all that Kayaba's said, he just gives them a fucking mirror?

It doesn't take long for everyone to be enveloped by blue particles. Klein can barely see himself, let alone those around him. When they fade, he's next to... a kid with dark hair? Where is Kirito?

Hold on. He's made his character a little taller than he is. It didn't really feel wrong so far, thanks to the calibration, but now he's back to his normal height.

In the mirror, Ryoutarou sees his real face and draws in a sharp breath.

"Kirito?" "Klein?"

Okay, okay. He just got taught by a fourteen-year-old, that's cool. He's fine with that, the kid knows his shit. He has other problems, though. "How does this game know how our faces look? I get the body shape, 'cause I just bought my NerveGear, so I know the calibration probably has to build an accurate body model, but what about our faces?"

Kirito thinks for a second. "I don't think the NerveGear can scan our faces. The NerveGear does require you to take three photos of yourself from different angles because of government regulations; crimes like sexual harassment could happen here, and they'd have to be prosecuted, so they look up your face in their databases for identification. I bet Kayaba could run an AI to build a 3D model of our faces from three perspective points. But AIs hallucinate. Our faces shouldn't be this precise. I can't even tell the difference. "

So they don't know. Great. This just keeps getting better and better.

"You must be wondering why. Why would I do this?" A short pause. "My goal has already been achieved. I simply wanted to bring this castle to reality. However... reality has consequences."

Finally, the conclusion of all that's been said filters through Ryoutarou's head. Kayaba trapped ten thousand people in a game where dying also kills you IRL, and he wants them to beat it, all because he's insane.

What the absolute fuck.

"I wish you all the best of luck, players; goodbye."

Ryoutarou is still frozen as the figure disperses into smoke and the sky returns to its normal (not natural) color. He feels a hand grabbing him, and realizes Kirito's dragging him through the alleyways of the city. "Hey, hold on! What are you doing?"

Kirito stops and releases his grip. He also starts explaining. "People will start going out into the fields soon. That place with the boars is going to have at least five players arguing over each and every boar. You know, standard MMO procedure; except even worse, because nobody wants to die, and levels will help with that. We can't go there if we want to stay ahead. I can make my way to the next town; I'm confident I can bring another person with me."

(Ryoutarou - no, Klein - feels a rush of gratitude. The kid could have abandoned him, but he chose to drag along a newbie - and give him a better chance.)

Klein gets a friend request. It's from Dynamm. Shit. He accepts the request. Dynamm quickly sends a message. "'We're all here; we managed to get off work early. We only found each other before the announcement. Where are you, leader?'"

Right. If Fuurinkazan is here, then he's their leader. He can't abandon his friends. "I'm not coming."

Kirito was already looking confused, but now the confusion is focused on him. "What?"

Klein explains. "My five friends managed to get out of work earlier than they thought; we all did the same thing, and now we're all trapped in this damn game. I'm the leader of our guild; I can't abandon them." Kirito seems to think about something before slumping a bit. Klein would bet the kid just tried to calculate if he could bring six people along, instead of one, and that it wouldn't work. He has to cheer the kid up. "It'll be fine. We'll learn the basics in the field with the boars, like you taught me, figure out how we work. We'll follow after you as soon as we feel confident. We'll catch up, Kirito; that's a promise."

Kirito sighs; the plan doesn't seem to make him happy. "Alright, Klein... don't die out there."

Klein tries again with a joke. "Hey, at least now you look properly edgy instead of like a handsome man who just had random clothes in his closet."

Kirito does, finally, chuckle. "This face suits you better, too. At least now you look like you talk, Klein."

They bump fists, and wave goodbye before turning around. Klein does look back after a few steps; Kirito is no longer anywhere to be seen. Klein thinks he sees a few shadows on the rooftops going towards the walls; he puts it out of his mind and starts running back to the plaza and his guild.

Chapter Text

Asuna's... just exploring.

She's never talked to her brother much. They simply have very different interests. (Mother doesn't give her time.) When she put on his NerveGear, she just hoped she could understand this passion of his about videogames. They weren't real; what was the point?

So she took his NerveGear, did the calibrations and everything else (why did it need three photos of her face?), changed nothing about her... avatar? at all, and tried to look at his world the way he always said he saw it before the NerveGear was even a concept.

She thinks she can see it now. This place is beautiful.

When she appeared in the plaza, she expected to see... tiny pixels everywhere, aggregated into other players, like a more granular version of that one popular thing with blocks. It looks real, though. There's just... people, running around in armor, yelling names (of friends?), making weapons glow and then moving at inhuman speeds.

She kind of wants to try it out. (Mother can't be angry at her here.)

After some wandering, she eventually finds a store in an alleyway with weapons on display. The counter is manned by... it can't be a player, nobody just repeats the exact same thing over and over and over again in the exact same tone every time. In the end, she chooses a rapier; it looks light enough to lift, it's long (so she can also look cool), and... she doesn't get how money works here quite yet, but she can afford this rapier.

She goes out into the alleyway and immediately tries to make her weapon (her weapon) glow. It... doesn't work.

She asks another player walking into the store how the weapon glow works. He laughs at her, but eventually, after some weird moment of realization, he tells her how to open a menu (why is a menu necessary?), how to 'equip' a weapon (it's in her hand! what more could this game want?) and how to equip skills (skills should be something you practice, learn, get better at, not numbers on a virtual screen disconnected from the rest of this place).

The player goes inside to buy a weapon of his own, and she tries again. This time, there's nothing stopping her weapon from glowing, and once she reaches the correct position for the rapier -

She's two meters (it feels like two meters) in front all of a sudden, and she nearly trips and falls due to the sheer surprise. She can see, behind her, a lingering light. The player that helped her walks out of the store with a war axe, chuckles, and gets going.

She keeps exploring. What else does this place have to offer?

Her avatar starts glowing with a blue light, and she's weirded out, but she appears in the plaza. She can see other lights here, and players are appearing. Apparently someone wants to talk to everyone.

The sky is covered in red polygons (that look more like what Asuna's seen in old games). Blood drips out of them (disgusting) into a shape eventually condensing into a shadowy figure.

"Players... welcome to my castle. My name is Kayaba Akihiko. I am curently the only person who can control this world."

Huh. Is this the person who came up with the game?

"I trust you have already noticed the logout button is missing from the player menu."

Asuna hasn't even looked at most of the menu. Still, missing an exit button seems weird. Was there a mistake when coding the game?

"This is not a bug; it is a desired function of the game. You cannot log out of Sword Art Online on your own."

Oh. Mother will find her like this, then. She's not going to be happy with Asuna.

"No one on the outside will be able to remove your NerveGear, either."

That makes no sense. Why wouldn't they? What could go wrong with pulling a helmet off a head?

"Should this be attempted, the NerveGear will use its internal battery to send a high-power electromagnetic beam into the user's brain, killing them."

Oh. That would be an issue. (Asuna cannot panic. It would be improper to lose her composure in public like this.)

"Unfortunately, several players' families have ignored this warning and attempted this. Two hundred and thirteen players are now dead, both in Aincrad and in the physical world."

Oh no. Mother would do that if she found Asuna. (She cannot panic. It would not reflect well on RECTO.)

"Do take note of three more things. First, the respawn mechanic in the game has been disabled. A death in this castle will result in a death in the real world, via the same mechanism."

Asuna feels breathless. Why can she breathe? (She cannot panic. Mother would be disappointed.)

"Second, there is a way to free yourselves. Simply ascend through Aincrad to the one hundredth floor and clear the game."

Asuna is - is - (fear) - is not going out there.

"Finally, all of you have a gift from me in your inventory. Take it out, please."

Through the panic, Asuna obeys. She opens her inventory, like she was taught by that player, and a mirror appears in front of her. Around her, everyone is enveloped by a blue light. Very different people remain afterwards. A lot more men, Asuna notices as an afterthought.

"You must be wondering why. Why would I do this?" At the moment, it's a very small curiosity in the back of Asuna's mind. "My goal has already been achieved. I simply wanted to bring this castle to reality. However... reality has consequences."

So it's real. Asuna doesn't know how she finds, pays for, and enters a room; she simply does, and starts crying on the floor.

Chapter Text

Ryuji gets the feeling of sword skills pretty quick once William comes back into play. (Kayaba's kind of an idiot. Why name them "sword skills" when a warhammer doesn't work like a sword at all?)

Funnily enough, sword skills seem to function a lot like Zios and Lunges now. With their outfits on, outside the town, and testing sword skills (again), they're suddenly much easier to perform when they have elemental power at their backs. His hammer swings even have lightning effects when they're powered by a sword skill.

Ryuji's not stupid enough not to understand that this means - more than Oracle and Mona's assesment - that he'll have to be careful. The Thieves still haven't stopped heckling him every once in a while about his old mess-ups. He's not about to give them new ammo.

Still, it feels amazing. "Hell yeah! We're back in business!" He does, now, have the sense to keep it mostly quiet, but he's excited.

They need to do some live testing (on boars and such) immediately, though. They're burning through their spirit with all this practice, and that room they rented for the night (that isn't even being used right now) is not going to pay for itself.

"Alright, does everyone feel like they have a good handle on their Persona?" Renren's obviously still in Joker mode. Come to think of it, really, everyone is. Even Ryuji.

"Everyone just suppressed, so yeah, probably." Futaba isn't as tired, but she hasn't been doing much. "But we have a new problem. A few, actually..."

"Huh?" Ryuji's willing to bet he's not the only confused person right now.

"The party limit imposed by the game is six players." Aw shit. That's two problems in one right there. One, sticking together as a group of nine would stand out. It's not enough players to really form two parties, even with missing players, and it's too many for one party with some support. Two, in raids and such (Ryuji's willing to bet that this game has raids), other people would join their parties, and they'd have to pay very close attention to the Thieves simply to function within the party. That's a bad idea. Someone will slip in the middle of the fight, and any party members would notice. Oracle's reports would come as second nature, as would their tendency to shout out when using spirit to coordinate better.

Also, while Ryuji, Yusuke, Sumire, Haru and Ren are accomodating fairly quickly to the standard way of fighting, owing to their experience in using physical skills, and Makoto is doing fine thanks to her sport (was it aikido?) and job, Ann and Monamona are having a rougher time. Ann's probably forgotten how to use a whip after so long.

"Also, healing and buffing were nerfed really hard. I've been looking at Mona trying to use a Salvation and it's not working." Oh no. Physical attacks almost always result in a counter-hit or two by the opponent. This is bad; Ryuji's never been very performant as a Zio user. Even his Matarukaja is gone, taking a very good tool out of his arsenal.

"Also also, Ren only has Arsene, Satanael and Raoul."

What? Ren's always been able to use multiple personas. Well, he still has three, and their coverage is okay-ish, with Curse, Almighty and sleep still on the table, but this is really bad.

"On the plus side, we still have our guns!" Yeah, Ryuji's noticed. He's also noticed that all the weird things the Jails did to the cognition of their guns is still working. But there are no sword skills for... wait, what was Haru's name for her most powerful attack? Riot Gun? Yeah, that might still work... maybe? He's leaving the guns to the gun experts; his still charges, and that's all he cares about.

"On the minus - again - side, we can't use them in public." Oh. Yeah, now that Oracle says it, Ryuji feels like clocking himself in the head. If their guns only appear with their costumes, then they have to be in costume to use the guns. That's not happening.

"So what's the plan then?" Ann's question is a very good one.

"Our cognition should help disguise us if there are many people nearby and we let our outfits show. So I say we try to help anyone who's in danger in front of us, but stay hidden otherwise. No need to attract attention." Makoto's plan is one Ryuji can get behind.

A swirl of blue particles stops the discussion.

"Hello everyone!"

Ryuji can tell immediately by the floating hearts that Sophia just logged into the game. She should be in town though. What gives?

"I followed Oracle's connection here!"

Oh. O-kay.

The Thieves bring Sophia up to speed, and she quickly informs them of a new - and worrying - development. "I can't exit either."

""Why?"" The rest of the Thieves more or less chorus.

"I believe the being currently inhabiting this world is preventing my exit."

Oh shit. So there is another god at the end of this.

At least it's not their first rodeo. This time, they even know their target. The god won't even know what hit them.

Chapter Text

Kirito's not sure what to make of what happened when he was saying goodbye to Klein.

I am thou, thou art I...
Thou hast acquired a new vow...
Another speck has been added to the light that guides thee towards peace...
As thou strengthens the Hierophant Arcana, thou shalt find new power to match the eternity of conflict within...

He hadn't hallucinated before, and he's not sure why he'd start now. Aside from the stress of his current situation, obviously. But he can't really go get himself checked out by a mental institution. Damn Kayaba. It's probably his fault, some way or another.

The past month has not been kind to the players. Almost 2000 players (privately, Kirito thinks they shouldn't be called players since they weren't here to really play the game, they just wanted to look around and maybe try using a sword skill once, and then Kayaba did his thing) killed themselves in desperation. Kirito doesn't pretend to know whether they're dead or not to himself. He just knows they weren't seen again, and thinks that's plenty enough to not want to die. Enough have died to the game's hazards to push that number above 2000.

Anyway, he's back in town because the boss room has been found (damn Kayaba for changing the labyrinth layout) and Argo told him about a meeting for killing Ilfang.

The plaza the meeting takes place in is fairly empty. Only eight parties can enter the boss room, in the end, but it looks like there's less people here than that, barely. Someone wearing a cloak sits themselves next to Kirito, but he's busy looking at the center stage, because someone just jumped up there.

"Hello everyone! My name is Diavel, and my job is Paladin!"

Kirito lets a small laugh escape his lips. Other players straight up cackle loudly.

"Yeah, and I'm a Druid!"

"C'mon man, you know there aren't job classes in this game!"

Kirito kind of disagrees with the last statement. Sure, there's nothing written beside your stats and skills as a job name, but your stat allocation and skills still force you into a build with surprising resemblance to some standard job roles. Knights are definitely a thing in this game, even without the title.

"Anyway! Our party found the boss room yesterday evening! So this meeting is about beating the first floor's boss!"

Before Diavel can continue, another player jumps down from the stands to take a spot alongside the "paladin" on the stage.

"'Fore that, I got somethin' to say. Name's Kibaou. 2000 players've died in this past month, 'n I think some'o y'all gotta apologize."

The crowd quiets down.

"'M talkin' 'bout them beta testers."

The crowd immediately breaks back out into talks.

A large man with dark skin and a bald head goes down amidst the talking and takes - for the first time - the stairs to the stage. "My name's Agil. Anyway, you say the beta testers are responsible for the deaths so far."

"Yeah." Kibaou doesn't back down. Kirito knows strength is a function of stats in this world, but he sure would be intimidated in Kibaou's place.

"You've all seen this book, right?" Agil's question prompts nods from most of the players. Kirito also nods. He's bought it from Argo before as a refresher. Argo's even told him about the crowdfunding from the first buyers for the rest of the people who look for the book; only the first edition costs money. "Alright, then you know it's free at all shops."

Kibaou, uncertain, nods as well, though his frown stays on his face. "So what?"

"The book has info on mobs before anyone sees them. When people first looked for this book in the shops in this village, it already had info on labyrinth kobolds. I'd bet this book is written by beta testers. Hundreds of players have died still." Agil seems to stay calm to counterbalance Kibaou's aggressiveness.

Kibaou huffs, but throws out a "This topic ain't closed" and jumps off the stage, heading back up to a bench occupied by five other people.

Diavel resumes speaking. "If that's solved, let's continue." Kirito doesn't think it's resolved. "Anyway, I want everyone to party up."

Kirito sees ten people grouped on two benches. Weirdly enough, two of them appear to be kids, which would make them a lot more careful during the fights. He starts to head there, and he's followed by the hooded player.

"So how are we going to build our parties?" A guy with blond hair throws out a question as Kirito approaches, and he assumes this is the best moment to interrupt. "Sorry, can I join your parties for this boss fight?" The hooded player also steps forward to stand next to Kirito.

"Okay... sure? We were thinking of asking two more people to join, so this works out." Kirito did not expect the orange haired girl (that has to be hair dye at work) to give the answer, but he's happy with the affirmative response.

"You'll be working with me. Hand Of Raoul, but call me Raoul. In our party are Pirate King, Milady and Weaver." The frizzy haired, nondescript man who feels like he's the leader of the parties gestures to the slouching blond, a woman with a big forehead and curls, and one of the kids with startling greenish-blue eyes. "I'm a dagger user."

"I use a warhammer."

"Personally, I prefer the battleaxes!"

The kid pulls out a kusarigama, hopping in place with what seems like boundless energy. "I'm Weaver!"

Kirito doesn't like being responsible for a kid. If he's being honest with himself, which he is generally not (but this is an exception), he doesn't like responsibility. Especially when this world kills people. (He can't say "game", even in his own head. Overconfidence kills here more than anything else so far.)

But it's the party he gets to work with, so that's how things are going to be.

Chapter Text

Asuna had been returning to the labyrinth with a few new rapiers in tow.

During her first couple of (sleepless) nights in the first town's inn, she'd come to a decision. She'd fight with all she could until she died. (She had no illusion she was going to live to the end of the game.) So she'd started advancing, first with one rapier in her inventory, then two, all the way up to five.

When she passed by the (until then empty) arena, the hubbub coming from inside had drawn her attention. Weirdly, she heard voices during the blue-haired man's speech, which distracted her a fair bit from what was happening.

I am thou, thou art I...

Thou hast acquired a new vow...

Another speck has been added to the light that guides thee towards peace...

As thou strengthens the Strength Arcana, thou shalt find new power to match the eternity of conflict within...

It started during Diavel's weird "job" thing at the beginning. She thought it was a game thing, but then nobody else ever heard that. Or maybe they did and Asuna just never knew it was a thing.

Then, when Kibaou jumped on the stage, she heard things again.

I am thou, thou art I...

Thou hast acquired a new vow...

A speck of light will be removed from the light that guides thee toward peace...

The Chariot Arcana shall show thee the depths of war...

She got her bearings just in time for the first man to say something about parties, so she followed the player she sat down next to at the beginning and kept thinking about things while the rest of the people kept talking around her.

So here she is, trying to navigate the menu to join a party. Eventually, she manages it, and is greeted with a few new things.

First, there seem to be a few new bars beneath her health bar. They're accompanied by names: Hand Of Raoul, Pirate King, Milady, Weaver and Kirito. She guesses they're her new company's health bars.

The group goes out on the fields to see what each other can do. Before they even start, though, Kirito wants to know some things. Stats? Skills? Oh, she knows the skill thing - she's at almost 100 in the rapier skill. What are stats though?

After a bit of bafflement, Kirito gets her through her menus again, where Asuna quickly realizes how much her physical condition can be improved. (The game's obsession with numbers is still a mystery to her.) Afterward, when they try fighting a few monsters, Kirito quickly points out she's doing too much damage. At first, Asuna doesn't understand why she shouldn't use a Linear on something that's not a player or dead, so when Kirito proves himself right by pointing at the other players, who kill monsters often without their weapons even shining once, she's confused.

"Give it a try without a sword skill for the finishing blow. Just whack it with your rapier."

Asuna notices that she's done faster by a large enough margin to be worth it, since she can go faster to the next monster. The party keeps fighting, further improving their coordination. Eventually, Asuna is confused again by switching, but she gets the hang of it fairly quickly, in her opinion.

-/////////-

When they all return to town, most of Asuna's group goes somewhere else since their parties have a larger room rented for a while. Asuna moves to return to the labyrinth, but Kirito stops her.

"Don't you want a better weapon?"

Asuna is confused. Her rapiers have done the job nicely so far.

"I know a place that has a rapier as a reward."

"But these rapiers do the job fine. Why get a different rapier for more effort than going out and buying one?"

"It'll... do more damage? Do a better job at killing monsters?"

Asuna's confused by Kirito's confusion.

"This one does the job well enough."

"It won't tomorrow."

"How do you know?"

Kirito doesn't answer. But eventually, he does convince her to go back to the previous town for the night, where he drags her off to do two quests.

One is obviously for her rapier, which she does admit is good. Better than the iron ones she kept buying. Mostly, she admits this because of the second quest, where she wouldn't have been able to do enough damage to really contribute to the escort of the cow.

The cream the two get is good. Asuna devours hers in four bites.

The next morning comes quickly, thanks to Asuna's exhaustion, once they get back to the labyrinth. And today is the boss (?) fight.

Chapter Text

The boss fight is here, and there's a weight to it. Makoto can feel it in her bones, the way she could feel Kaneshiro's presence back in the early summer of 2016: this will not be a normal fight.

Then again, they have a lot more than six people here. There's 48 people here. That has its own drawbacks, like simultaneously being too many and too few people to use their Personas, but forty-eight people to fight one boss, when the Thieves never had more than ten, is reassuring.

She's in command of Morgana, Ann, Yusuke, Futaba and Sumire. Makoto is not expecting Futaba to fight, so they'll be down a member, but Diavel had assigned all the Thieves - and their two new "friends" - to fighting additional enemies appearing during the boss fight. She's not worried.

So when the fighting starts, and Queen is satisfied that everyone is listening to call-outs from Oracle, switching properly and dispatching the Kobold Ruin Sentinels fast enough that they're not being overwhelmed, she takes a moment to look at Joker's party, mostly out of worry, but with a grain of curiosity.

Their two party members are amazing.

Kirito's almost always the one to jump in first with his longsword. He's fast enough on his feet, and precise enough with his strikes, that he can often push one sentinel off-balance faster than Joker and Noir working in tandem. And when he calls for a switch, Asuna is there, coming in blindingly fast and finishing the fight in a few short bursts of speed, courtesy of her Linears.

The rest of the team is handling the other kobold they're responsible for a bit slower, but they're managing fine in the end. Noir's the only one that can push a kobold off-balance properly, by using the weight of her battleaxe, but Joker's the one giving her the opportunity. Then, Skull and Sophie come in, one with a hammer headed straight for the head and the other with her new weapon, from a range, hitting hard enough that the kobold disappears only seconds after Kirito and Asuna are done.

Then the phase change happens, and Queen immediately sees something wrong. The boss has a different weapon, more akin to Fox's katana than the big, blocky thing the guide described.

She's not worried about this at first; the Thieves have experience on their side. Very quickly though, Diavel alarms her by yelling at everyone to step aside and falling in the stance of a sword skill. Has he not noticed the change?

When the boss strikes with a sword skill that comes out faster than Diavel probably expected, she has her answer. The raid leader is sent flying, and Queen knows he can't move a muscle because of her own experience with failed sword skills. The stun that follows them is deadly for a single person, and because of Diavel's shout and charismatic leadership up until now, nobody is close enough for the follow up.

Time freezes to a crawl as Diavel is sent flying. He's not dead, not yet, but a single sword strike would be enough, and Ilfang doesn't give anyone the opportunity to get between him and his kill.

Someone else doesn't care about the lack of an opportunity. Before Queen can react, let her costume out, Asuna is there, blue embers following in her wake and a dagger stabbed through her heart.

She pulls it out, and the wound doesn't bleed. "Thjalfi! Zio!" The strike of Asuna's rapier is fast enough to get to Ilfang's sword before it can touch Diavel, and behind her, a blond man with skates for legs burns into existence around the dagger, infusing lightning into her weapon. With the added strength, the kobold's weapon is knocked off its course, and time seems to resume.

Kirito's the first to jump in, delivering a slash to the giant's flank. He calls for a switch, and Asuna strikes again. The rest of the raid stays still, unsure of what they've just witnessed. The Thieves are the first to come back into the action; Asuna is going to fall hard in a few minutes, after the awakening exhaustion hits her, and the boss can't be alive when she crumbles. The rest of the raid brings themselves back together fairly quickly, all things considered, but in that time Kirito, Asuna and the Thieves have brought the health of the boss to a few slivers put together.

Before anyone else in the raid can react, Kirito switches in and uses a sword skill, killing Ilfang.

Everyone - even the Thieves - take the time to be stunned. The Thieves didn't know there were other ways to awaken Personas. But there's no doubt about it: that is a Persona.

Kibaou's the first one to open his mouth. "Tha' hell wazzat?"

Nobody answers out loud. Oracle does, however, report through their private lines. "Her Persona didn't seem that strong. I've never sensed anyone that weak before. She has to be weaker than you all were before... my pyramid."

Silence is broken outside of their lines, too, thanks to Kibaou again. "She's a beta tester! She knew all about a hidden system! Let's make her pay!"

Queen notices Diavel is holding his mouth shut, trying not to say something, and comes to the obvious conclusion: Diavel was a beta tester. Asuna couldn't have been, not when she knew so little about the game systems a day ago. Kirito... maybe. He knew almost too many things about the game, but never anything that was outright unknown by other players.

But then time stops again, and a dagger also stabs through Kirito's heart. At first, this doesn't make sense. Then, the boy begins to speak. "Hah... No, she's not. Just stumbled her way into this system. But I am, Kibaou. And I know all there is to know about it." Queen can see the way the speech is forced in the smile that doesn't fit on Kirito's face and in his scared, but determined, yellow eyes. The eyes of someone about to awaken. "Too bad I'm not telling you anything about it. Come, Mani!" He pulls out the dagger and throws it behind him, where a faintly glowing feminine (?) figure comes out. Kirito lets it dissolve into glowing blue embers, and equips a high-quality coat that swooshes as he turns around and leaves for the next floor. With his departure, the silence in the boss room shatters into arguing over what seems like at least three different topics. The Thieves don't have time to listen in, though; they have to discuss things themselves.