Author's Note

So I originally thought this would take a lot longer than it did. I thought I wouldn't be done until late December or early January. But then, while writing chapter two of Sword Art Online: The Strongest Warrior, I referenced something that I figured could happen in this fic. However, because it hasn't been written yet, I realized I had to write out what SAO TSW was referencing before I published the next chapter and referenced it.

Thus, this chapter came into being. I figured out how to begin that event and the start of the next major arc in the story, which is what happens in this chapter. This arc that starts this chapter is all about confusion for our protagonist. I won't say anything more on the subject for fear of giving you spoilers.

Anyway, that's enough out of me. I'll let you read now. See you at the bottom!

ALfheim Online: Path to Recollection

Arc Two, Chapter One: New Weapons, Old Feelings

My Cait Sith companion's ears twitched, and she put a hand to her chin. "Before you go to the Cait Sith capital, we need to get you a new weapon. There's a master blacksmith that lives here, in another part of town, so we'll do that here."

"Gotcha," I replied, before turning back to Ashley. "Well, we're off. Thanks again for the new gear."

"Don't mention it, dears," the blonde tailor told us with a wave. "And Kiriko, Argo."

We both looked at her, wondering what she would say. She seemed to hesitate for a moment, but before long, she gave us a warm smile, and said the boldest thing she'd said all day. And considering her personality, that was saying something.

"I'm glad you two are a together again. You make a better couple than Kiriko and the blue-haired girl."

Blue-haired girl? Just how many people have I gone out with?!

Not ten seconds after we left Ashley's tailor shop, I turned to Argo with a look of grave severity. "Okay, be serious with me, Argo. Just how many people have I gone out with?"

She looked at me quizzically, as if wondering where the question came from. "Why are you asking me that?" she queried as if it were completely pointless.

"Because during lunch today," I began, looking to the side. "Some black-haired girl with glasses made us go up to the roof alone. She told me her name was Sinon in-game, and that we were together."

"Oh, now it makes sense," my whiskered companion donned a look of sage understanding. "So you're freaking out because it seems like you went out with two people."

"That's… not all she said," I decided to spill everything, though I knew I'd probably regret it. "She also said that before I got together with her… you and I were… like that, too. I don't have memories of that, so… was it true?"

"Damn you, Sii-chan…" I heard Argo mutter under her breath. "You always have to show up and change everything at once, don't you…"

Frankly, I had no idea what any of this meant. I merely stayed silent, hoping that my whiskered companion would say something to clear up the confusion I felt. Finally, just as I was about to give up and ask again, she spoke, though she didn't say what I expected.

"After school tomorrow, come to my place instead of going home. I'll explain everything there."

"O-okay…"

With that, we began walking again, with Argo taking the lead and me following close behind. As we walked to our next destination, I couldn't help but feel like tomorrow would bring a lot more than a simple explanation.

About ten minutes later, we found ourselves in front of another shop. This one had a sign hanging out front of the brick building that read a name in big, easy to read font:

Lisbeth's Smithy

"What's a smithy?" I asked Argo, confused to an astounding degree about the word.

"It's a blacksmith shop," my companion elaborated, though her use of more foreign words only confused me further. Noticing the perplexed expression still on my face, the whiskered claw-user spoke again. "Basically, a blacksmith creates weapons and heavy metal armor. This one is known as the best in the business. Both her skill level and her luck are the absolute highest you'll find in all of ALO."

"So that means she'll be expensive, right?" I couldn't help but imagine my funds taking a serious plunge during this particular outing.

"Normally, it depends on what kind of materials you give her to work with," Argo explained the process a little before giving me a devious smirk. "But because it's you, I get the feeling she'll do the same thing Ashley did."

"So it's another person who knows me, huh?" I felt a bead of sweat run down the side of my face, though not from nervousness. Instead, it was because I realized that my companion deliberately chose people the old me knew.

Is she trying to test my amnesia or something?

"You got it!" the whiskered girl said before opening the door in front of us.

The sound of bells jingling made its way to my ear as the door swung open effortlessly. Argo walked in and I followed suit, only to find… no one there.

The room itself looked to be stocked to the brim with weapons of every variety, some of which hung on the gray brick walls, and some of which rested on pedestals in and on the various glass display cases that populated the sides of the room. At the back of the store, a closed, brown wooden door stood out as the only part of the room not gray or clear.

However, not a single person seemed to be there to greet us. I wondered if maybe the smith was out, but Argo, completely disregarding the concept of privacy, walked around the display case and straight up to the other door. Just as I closed the front door, Argo opened the back one and called out in a perky voice.

"Liz, it's Argo! I brought a customer!"

"I'll be up in a minute!" a light, somewhat pubescent voice called out from the other side.

"Hurry it up, you're going to want to see who it is!" Argo shouted back.

"Who could possibly make you impatient? This is quite the annoying mystery!" the other voice responded without missing a beat.

"You'll see when you get up here, now move it!"

I could only listen to the exchange with moderate interest. Argo seemed to be hyping me up quite a bit to this person, which made me wonder just how we knew each other before I lost my memories.

I heard the sound of footsteps coming towards the doorway, coming from beyond and below it. There must have been stairs on the way or something, I belatedly realized. Just as Argo retracted herself from the doorway, another figure appeared to take her spot.

This player, another girl, seemed to be about my age, maybe a little older. She had short, pink hair that came down to her neck in the back. Her bangs ended just above her deep blue eyes, which were widened in shock as they stared straight at me. Her clothing consisted of a red, long-sleeved shirt with white and gold trim, as well as a silver chest plate. She also wore a red pleated skirt that brought a school uniform to mind.

Her figure seemed decent, though my own curves in real life were more pronounced after my body started getting proper nutrients. After looking her over, I met her shocked gaze with a blank stare.

"Uh, hi," I said with a small wave of my right hand. She didn't seem to register the gesture, until finally…

"Shorty!" the pink-haired girl shouted as she crossed the room in a single second. She enveloped me in a bone-crushing hug, squeezing me hard enough that if we weren't in a safe zone, I would probably lose some HP.

Before my nerves could get the better of me, a stiff "Ahem" came from the other side of the room. Argo stood there, clearly trying to hold back a smirk as she watched the display of affection between this stranger and me.

"Something you might want to know before hugging her half to death," my whiskered partner told the pinkette, whose bear hug had loosened so she could look over at the speaker. "Is that she doesn't remember you. You pretty much just hugged a complete stranger out of the blue."

"What?" the arms loosened their hold on me enough for me to slip out of her grasp entirely. She looked back to me as she continued. "If that's a joke, it's not funny."

"Sorry to disappoint you," I said with a wry smile, shaking my head. "But this isn't a joke. When I woke up about a year ago, all of my memories, from the day I was born until right when I awakened… were gone."

"So… you don't remember me…"

The look of pain on this girl's face hurt me just as much. Even though I hadn't a clue who she was, it still made me feel bad to see people hurting because of me. Suddenly, I felt a strong urge to just run away, to save both of us the agony of having to interact with each other, but before I could—

"Liz-san!" a tiny voice squeaked from my jacket pocket. Both of us looked to the spot just as Yui flew out of it, drawing our eyes to her. "Mama may not remember you now, but she will soon! Her memories are in this world as data, and she's trying to get them all back!"

"Is that… Yui-chan?" the pinkette called Liz asked, flabbergasted at my daughter's sudden appearance. "Why are you so small?"

"Apparently she became a «Navigation Pixie» after materializing in this world," Argo piped up from her spot by the back door. "It helps us with finding Kiriko's memory fragments, so we keep her like that."

"Sorry, this is a lot to take in…" Liz muttered, putting a hand to her head. With one eye covered, she continued speaking. "Why is it that you came here again?"

"Until today, I basically just had my starter equipment to work with," I explained, happy for the chance to talk business. "We just got me new defensive gear, and then Argo told me that we'd get my weapons from a master crafter, then brought me here. I didn't know until the last minute that you knew my past self. Sorry, I know it probably hurts that I don't remember you…"

Something seemed to flash through the pink-haired blacksmith's mind for a moment, before she did something most unexpected – as the brought her hand down, she smiled at me. It looked kind of forced, but it was a smile, clear as day. "What the heck are you saying? Don't be sorry, just hurry up and find the memory fragment with me in it! Then we can have a real reunion instead of this depression fest."

My eyes widened at the kind gesture – nobody had ever reacted so well before. "Y-yeah…" I stuttered out, feeling like I was treading unfamiliar waters.

My whiskered friend chose that moment to speak up again. "And to do that, she's gonna need some top-tier weapons. That's why we came to the best and luckiest blacksmith in the business."

"Well, you've come to the right place!" Liz said, turning to walk back to the door where Argo stood. Just as she passed my whiskered friend, she spoke again. "Follow me and we'll get down to business."

Both Argo and I filed behind her, walking through the doorway and down a ramp. As we walked, my partner mentioned something I probably should have thought of myself. "By the way, what are we gonna do about materials? I know you usually have customers bring their own, but Kiriko's a newb at this game and my materials are more speed-based than power-based."

The pink-haired blacksmith turned back to us and gave us a reassuring smile. "Actually, believe it or not, someone already covered that. A couple days ago, a certain katana-wielding Salamander came and gave me a bunch of top-level materials. He said an old friend had joined the game recently, and that when they came to me, I should use the materials to make them new weapons."

"A really strong Salamander that used a katana brought it in for me the other day."

Ashley's words flashed through my head the moment I heard Liz mention the 'katana-wielding Salamander'. Somehow, I knew that they were the same person. I couldn't quite explain how I knew, but I just did.

"You make it sound like I should know him," Argo said with a hint of confusion. "But I don't know any Salamanders besides Eugene, and I only know of him."

As we reached the bottom of the ramp, Liz turned around completely to face us. She smirked in a way I thought only Argo was capable of, then said, "That's because you knew him before he joined ALO. Does the name «Crimson Guns» ring a bell to you?"

"Don't tell me…" my whiskered partner muttered, a look of disbelief etched into her features. "It's Klein, isn't it?"

"You got it!"

The latter part of this exchange left me very confused. "Who's Klein?" I couldn't help but ask, watching as Lisbeth's face became conflicted and Argo's turned business-like.

"Klein is the first person you met in GGO's official launch," my whiskered friend explained, her tone and face as emotionless as possible. "You taught him how to play before Kayaba's tutorial. After the sixteenth checkpoint clear, you started living with him at his legion base. He was a good guy, and though he could be a bit perverted, you never found out because he was always chivalrous around you."

I took in this new information with a blank stare. From what he had done and what Argo said, this Klein person seemed to be a good guy. But that didn't change the fact that I had no memory of him at the moment. It only made me want to gather the memory fragments even faster.

"Well, let's get started on making your weapons!" Liz interrupted my thoughts with a cheerful call.

With that, we began the process of making me new weapons.

After making my first weapon, a top-tier one-handed sword, Liz actually forced both Argo and myself to leave the forge and go back up to the front of the store. She told us the second weapon would be a surprise, and that I should go ahead and look at the stats of my new sword while we waited. So I did. I pulled up my menu, tabbed over to the equipment section and looked at my equipped weapon, my new sword.

[One-handed Sword] Galaxy Breaker +0

Range: Short | Type: Slash

Attack: 850-970 | Durability: 1300/1300

Weight: 160 | Equip Requirement: One-handed Sword Skill 900

AGI + 44, STR + 70

Special Effect: Attack Speed x1.3

After looking at the equip requirements, I found myself quite fortunate that one of the weapons I apparently used in GGO became the basis for the one-handed sword in ALO. In Gun Gale, the photon sword skill seemed to be rarely used, but I had apparently used it to great effect, to the point that my skill level maxed out. When GGO's system was copied to create the basis for ALO, they apparently used the coding for photon swords as the coding for one-handed swords, which meant that my one-handed sword proficiency in this game was at the maximum level.

I drew my new sword from the scabbard at my waist, holding it out in front of me in my right hand. Its black blade seemed to radiate a darkness that cast a shadow on darkness itself, as if it were a black hole drawing in all light around it. At the base of the blade, in between the jagged, spiked cross guard, a white and silver spiral design quite similar to a galaxy resided.

It had to be one of the most powerful blades in the game. Not just because of its stats, but also because of the equip requirement. If it weren't for my nerve gear's local memory, I definitely wouldn't even be able to hold this sword a centimeter off the ground, much less equip it.

The door to the forge opened, snapping me out of my thoughts. I turned to find Liz, one hand on the door knob, and another holding something behind her back. She had a gleeful smile on her face.

"This one turned out really well!" she exclaimed, running up to me. "Hold out your hand!"

I sheathed my sword and held out my right hand in wait. She quickly placed a very non-medieval item in my outstretched palm, and I marveled at the familiarity. This weapon…

It was a gun. There was no mistaking it for anything else, this weapon was a handgun, through and through.

"How is this even possible…?" I murmured, shock keeping me immobile. "This… this doesn't…"

"In a recent update patch," Liz began, making me look up and meet her eyes. "They added a new weapon type, «Spell Shooter». This device basically acts as a shortcut system for spells, so that you don't have to chant their words of power to use them. Which spells can be equipped to the shooter depend on your skill level and the quality of the weapon, and most of them can only have one or two spells equipped at a time. But with this one—"

The blacksmith ran her index finger over a particular part of the side of the black metal handgun. A several centimeters long indent with curved ends. On the end of the indent closest to the grip, an ovoid bump protruded out from the rest of the weapon. When her finger reached the bump, she continued her explanation.

"You can load up to four spells into it," she said, tapping the bump. "This gun has two modes, each one with two spell slots. By flipping this switch, you change modes. One mode is for support spells like buffs or healing, and the other is for spells that deal damage. Right now, it's in damage mode."

Looking the sleek, black gun over again, I noticed for the first time that it had two triggers side by side. With Liz's explanation, I now realized that each trigger probably corresponded to a certain spell slot. And by flipping the switch, the spells assigned to each trigger would change.

"Wow…" I murmured, still in shock at seeing a gun in a fantasy VRMMO based in times before they existed. "This is amazing. Thanks, Liz."

"Don't thank me," she told me off with a happy smile. "Just hurry up and get your memories of me back so we can have a real reunion. We'll hold off on discussing your payment for your new weapons until then, too."

After a few more episodes of giving thanks and a lighthearted farewell, Argo and I left the shop and the town, heading for the Cait Sith capital.

Author's Note

In case you didn't figure it out yet, the event that I was talking about in the top author note was Kimiko's visit to Argo's house IRL. Since that's going to happen in the tomorrow of this fic now, I figured it'd be appropriate to label the chapter that sets it up the beginning of arc 2.

Which means that this story has actually entered its second phase! I'm glad it finally happened, all things considered. It took me a few months, but I actually entered arc two of this story! The next fic to enter arc two in terms of chapter closeness is GGO: SW – TB, for those of you curious.

Moving on, the stats I used for the new sword, for those wondering, were based off of two things: one was the format used in appraisals of items in SAO's canon, and the other was the relative stats of rank 9 one-handed swords in Sword Art Online: Lost Song, which I've had for almost a year now. Though my first version was the Japanese version, I also have the PS4 UK English version now.

Anyway, I think I'm about done. Time to start working on chapter nine, or chapter two of arc two. I'm going to renumber all the chapters accordingly as well, with the arc number appearing before the chapter number.