Summary: While on his honeymoon, Kirito reminisces about another solo player who helped him realize what really mattered as well as what it meant to be truly alive. SAO One-shot. Kirito/Asuna, obviously.

Disclaimer: I only own one OC. Everything else is not mine.

A/N: After binging on the entire first season of SAO, I find myself wishing that the Nerve Gear becomes a real thing (along with SAO itself but minus the real life death thing). And I gotta say, we're getting frighteningly close to having it too. The Oculus Rift is a huge first step towards it and hopefully by the time SAO is supposed to take place (2022), we'll actually have something similar to the Nerve Gear available on the general market. Perhaps with a sandbox mode of sorts so we can use the Nerve Gear for mental visualization. Imagine the stories that could be told with that method? Makes me excited, that's for sure.

As for the story itself, I've been toying with a few ideas for an SAO story but one story kept popping into my head. I didn't feel like it warranted a long drawn out adventure and eventually I realized that I could simply do a one-shot. The hard part was finding a time during SAO to set it but since the first fifteen episodes span the whole two years of the SAO Incident there was plenty of time in that span to set the story.

That said, we'll begin…

October 28th 2024
Sword Art Online
Aincrad - Floor 22
The Home of Kirito and Asuna

Kirito was wide awake, sitting in his bed, watching Asuna sleep. They had been "married" for a total of four days. He watched her sleep with a soft smile on his face. As he did, he heard a voice in his head echoing a simple phrase…

"Truly alive…I'm truly alive."

He quietly looked up at his and Asuna's health bars, a gameplay bonus of being "married" meant that they had a permanent view of each other's HP, even if they weren't actively in a party together. A small square icon with "Zzz" inside of it next to Asuna's health bar indicated she was asleep. As he watched her, he noticed as she started to stir, the sleep icon beginning to flicker slightly before disappearing. Asuna rolled over onto her side, opening her eyes towards her husband, looking at him worriedly.

"Kirito? What's the matter? Can't sleep?" she asked sleepily.

"I'm alright. Just doing some thinking." Kirito replied.

"About what?" she asked, sitting up slightly as Kirito glanced slightly towards the ceiling in thought.

"Well…not so much thinking as much as…reminiscing." He replied.

"Okay, what were you reminiscing about?" Asuna asked.

"A guy I knew on one of the floors higher up. You ever heard of Foehammer?" Kirito asked as Asuna sat up, thought for a moment, then furrowed her brow.

"Foehammer…hey wait a minute, wasn't that the name of one of the taverns on floor fifty?" Asuna replied.

"That's right. I knew the owner." Kirito said as Asuna noticed a look in his eyes that was clear sadness.

"Well…don't just sit there. I'm wide awake. Tell me about him." Asuna said as Kirito smirked towards her slightly.

"Alright. His avatar's name was Thurston. He was a war hammer user, acquired a rare war hammer while helping out the scout teams which made him a formidable player. What was interesting was, he was a solo player, like me." Kirito explained, surprising Asuna.

"Wait, Thurston? I have heard that name before! He was on the scout team wasn't he? I didn't know he went solo. Why did he do that?" Asuna asked.

"Well, more accurately, he didn't join any parties or guilds but he was…well…he was quite a character…" Kirito said, looking out the windows…

January 25th 2024
Floor 50
Town of Heinsburg – Safe zone…

Kirito was passing through Heinsburg, taking a break from soloing on the front lines, seeking some rest and relaxation and perhaps a bit of easy dungeon questing to pass the time. He was seeking out a tavern to use as a temporary home and Heinsburg was small as safe zone towns go so there was only one tavern in the whole town: the Foehammer. As he approached the tavern, he heard the sounds of shouting and fighting from the inside. At first he feared that there was a fight going on but considering that the Foehammer tavern was in the heart of town, the worst there could be was a duel but usually the game prevented duels inside of buildings, forcing duels to be held on streets or in wide open areas. This alarmed Kirito and he rushed for the door, reaching for the handle just in time for a pair of players to come flying through the doors, tumbling along the ground for a moment before leaping to their feet and running back inside, grinning like bandits. Kirito peaked inside to see a bar brawl inside, the players all fighting with their fists or whatever they could pick up off the tables. Kirito was worried at first, fearing that it was a tavern for orange players but he noticed all the players had green icons. After a moment, the fighting began to slow down as one of the men in the room started calling for everyone to quit fighting.

"Alright! ALRIGHT! That's enough! We've all gotten our issues out of our systems! The brawl is over!" a large man yelled with a grin. One of the younger players tried to swing at him but he caught him by the wrist.

"Hey! What did I just say?" he asked, smirking down at the player. The player merely started laughing in amusement before the man let him go, the boy running back over to one of the tables. Because tables and chairs were immortal objects, they couldn't be used during the brawl so they were still in place. The tavern was full of players, most of them had guild tags marking them as belonging to a guild with the abbreviation: "FOE" but the man that had broken up the brawl had no tags at all.

He stood at about six feet tall, a somewhat lanky body shape, scraggly white or grey hair, and looked to be at least in his forties or fifties. He clearly wasn't an NPC since NPCs only have a limited number of player interactions and would most certainly not have broken up a bar fight. The most obvious giveaway was the green player icon over his head. The man noticed Kirito in the doorway and smirked.

"Well are you coming in or are you just going to stand there blocking the door? Doorstop isn't exactly a skill you know." He said as Kirito walked inside. The minute he walked in though, some of the other players noticed his dark clothes. He even heard the word "Beater" getting mentioned. Kirito merely made straight for the bar counter where the man stood cleaning a glass.

"So what'll ya have?" the man asked with a friendly smile.

"Whatever the house special is." Kirito replied but the man winced slightly, still smiling.

"Foehammer's built in specialty is Shield Smasher. It boosts your attack stats with a 12 percent chance to ignore an enemy's armor stats but it-." "I'll take it." Kirito replied, not really caring about what the drink did. The man shrugged and opened the sale menu, Kirito confirming the purchase, the drink materializing behind the counter. The drink was a fizzy blue liquid in a strange square shaped stein mug. The man handed Kirito the drink and Kirito was just about to take a sip when he noticed everyone was staring at him with looks of anticipation on their faces. He then looked suspiciously at the drink and looked at the man.

"It's poison, isn't it?" Kirito asked but the man shook his head, laughing slightly.

"If you had let me finish, I'd've been able to tell you that the Shield Smasher gives you that armor ignore buff but also gives you a negative eight percent attack speed debuff. The effect lasts about an hour then you get the hangover debuff for fifteen minutes. The effect stacks if you're not careful." The man replied as Kirito scowled at his drink. He then took a sip anyway, the drink taking immediate effect. But it tasted surprisingly familiar.

"Grape soda?" he asked, confused.

"Near enough anyway." The man said as the others resumed their conversations.

"I'm not going to be doing much hard fighting for a while anyway." Kirito replied, taking another sip.

"Oh? Why's that?" the man asked, picking up the glass he was cleaning earlier.

"Needed a break from it. We just cleared the boss on level fifty six. It was a tough fight but the assault team was ready. They're exploring level fifty seven as we speak." Kirito said as the man gave an impressed nod.

"Good to hear. Every level cleared is another step up the ladder out of this death game. So I take it that you're on the assault team?" the man asked as Kirito took another sip.

"Occasionally. I'm a solo player." Kirito replied as the man gave him a respectful nod.

"Solo player? No guild? No party?" the man asked.

"Not even pick-up groups." Kirito replied, taking another sip.

"Any particular reason why?" the man asked.

"I'm a Beater. Does that answer your question?" Kirito asked back but the man scoffed.

"Like I didn't know that already. I used to work the scout team. I've seen you hanging around the assault team on occasion. I know you're the 'beater' that plays solo on the assault team but I couldn't care less what you are. I'm just wondering why you run solo. Beater ain't an excuse for playing solo." The man replied.

"I don't exactly have a good history with guilds." Kirito replied, remembering the Moonlit Black Cats and Sachi…and how he accidently got them all killed.

"Mmm, once bitten, twice shy huh?" the man asked as Kirito glanced away.

"You could say that." Kirito said.

"So unless you've got a house on this level, I take it you're going to need a room. Well you're in luck. I've got a room available." The man said as Kirito opened his menu and materialized a small bag of Col from his inventory.

"Here. This should cover the expenses." Kirito said as the man accepted the sack, transferring it into his own inventory. A small silver key then materialized in front of Kirito with the item tag "Foehammer room key." Kirito quietly took it and pocketed it.

"By the way, the name's Thurston. I own this place." The man said.

"Kirito." Kirito replied, heading for the stairs.

…

That evening…

Kirito had gone up to his room to sleep off the hangover debuff and as he came downstairs into the tavern, he noticed that most of the other players had left, leaving only a handful of players behind who were discussing their next raid strategy. Thurston was still behind the bar, cleaning the mug.

"Ah, Kirito. Debuff wear off yet?" Thurston asked as Kirito sat down at the bar.

"Yeah." He replied.

"So do you have any plans for the evening?" Thurston asked.

"A little PvE grinding. Nothing too difficult." Kirito replied.

"Take my advice, try the east fields just outside of town. There's a spawn point for monsters there. Might pose a small challenge for lower level players but for higher leveled players like us, it's a nice little distraction." Thurston said as Kirito nodded.

"Thanks. By the way, what was happening when I arrived earlier? Why was everyone fighting?" Kirito asked.

"Oh that. Well there's a little something about taverns that few know about. Since taverns are found exclusively in safe zones, there's no PvP except when duels are held. The exception to this comes in the form of bar brawls and those can only be held inside taverns or inns. Bar brawls are non-lethal PvP fights. No damage is taken and no weapons or sword skills are permitted. Oh and you can't go orange when attacking another player during a brawl." Thurston explained, surprising Kirito.

"I never knew about that." He said as Thurston chuckled.

"Well that was a little feature I discovered by accident after buying this place. See, only tavern owners can permit the brawls. It's a property setting that's turned off by default. And since NPC owners don't ever alter their settings…" Thurston explained as Kirito figured out the rest…

"…they don't ever permit the brawls. So that's why I never heard about that setting." Kirito commented as Thurston nodded with another chuckle.

"Heh…here's another little tidbit of information. Every tavern has a unique item…this." Thurston said, setting the glass he was cleaning down in front of Kirito. Kirito looked at it curiously for a moment before tapping it to bring up the item text which read…

Dirty glass
Skill Training Item
Earns player +1 Bartending EXP per second while cleaning.
Bound to Location: Foehammer Tavern

"You know how whenever you see a bartender in movies or on TV they're always cleaning glasses? Well that just adds some validity to adding it in the game. I've maxed out the skill but it still is a nice mundane way of keeping my hands busy." Thurston explained with a chuckle.

"So you were on the scout team?" Kirito asked as Thurston nodded.

"Sure was. Stayed long enough to make enough money to buy this place. I always dreamed of running a bar one day in real life but…well life just kinda dealt me a bad hand." Thurston explained.

"I think we can all say that." Kirito said, but Thurston looked at him with a concerned look.

"I won't argue the whole death game thing is a bad thing. But have you considered that some of us like it here?" Thurston said, startling Kirito.

"You like it here?" he asked as Thurston nodded.

"I'll explain my reasons to you…if you let me join you for PvE. No party invites. Don't need you concerned about my HP." Thurston explained as Kirito glared at him for a moment. He wanted to know his reasons but he wasn't overly thrilled with the idea of working with someone else.

"I'm a solo player. I work alone." Kirito replied.

"So do I, Kirito. I've gone solo since day one. So I guess if you're not going to let me join you, I'll just have to compete against you to see who gets the most mob kills. Finders keepers for all Col and item drops." Thurston said with a challenging smirk. Kirito smirked back, putting both hands on the table as he stood up.

"You're on." He replied.

…

A few minutes later, Kirito and Thurston were running across the fields outside of town, rushing through towards a ruined farm where a number of mechanized scarecrow mobs were moving around. Thurston was armed in a brown leather duster, brown trousers, blue boots with gold lining, and wielded a one-handed war hammer that was a simple looking rectangular grey metal box with a golden glowing lightning bolt icon on both sides of the hammer. He and Kirito were cutting through the mobs with ease.

"Fourteen!" Thurston called to Kirito.

"Seventeen!" Kirito yelled back before felling another mob.

"Make it eighteen!" he yelled.

"Not bad!" Thurston yelled before diving into the center of three mobs, his hammer glowing with yellow energy before rearing it back and then letting loose with a full circular swing, killing all three mobs around him.

"Fourteen now serving seventeen!" Thurston yelled as Kirito ran past just in time to drive his sword into the back of the last mob, slaying it. Just as the mob exploded in the burst of polygons, a game notice appeared reading "Zone Cleared." This meant that the mobs in the area wouldn't spawn for a while.

"Heh. Not bad Kirito. I should've known better than to challenge a beater." Thurston complimented as he and Kirito caught their breath.

"You didn't do so bad yourself for an old man." Kirito complimented with a taunting smirk.

"Thanks." Thurston said as he started to head towards the nearby road.

"So what are your reasons for liking it in SAO? Why don't you want us to beat the game?" Kirito asked.

"Whoa-whoa-whoa you're putting words in my mouth, Kirito. Don't get me wrong, I want the game cleared as much as you do, but just not for the same reasons." Thurston said as he sat down on the side of one of the fences, Kirito joining him.

"What reason is that?" Kirito asked.

"One simple reason…I'm dying." Thurston said as Kirito looked at him in alarm. Thurston's HP was full and didn't have a poison icon of any sort. They had both taken some damage fighting the mobs but their own regeneration abilities had them both back up to full health within seconds of clearing the area.

"Dying?" Kirito asked.

"Not in the game…in real life." Thurston replied. Kirito was unnerved by his calmness.

"What?" Kirito asked.

"I have Parkinson's disease. It's early onset. Within a month of my diagnosis, I lost the ability to maintain my balance while standing. My legs were just too weak to support my body weight so I was checked into a nursing facility. My son was a beta tester for SAO and when he learned about my condition, he had the idea that I could use SAO to escape reality for a while. Thurston was his avatar that he gifted to me." Thurston explained as Kirito looked at him in alarm.

"What happened to your son?" Kirito asked.

"He's not in the game, if that's what you're concerned about. He gave me his preordered copy and his Nerve Gear and promised to get another set so we could spend time together in the game. The game was sold out before he could get a copy. I haven't seen or heard from him since before I logged on so I can only assume that he caught wind of the tragedy going on outside and was unable to acquire a second Nerve Gear. He said he would send me a message if or when he entered the game but I've not received anything so far and in this instance, that's a good thing. I wouldn't want him trapped in here like the rest of us." Thurston said.

"So…don't you want to get back and see your son?" Kirito asked but Thurston shook his head.

"We already said our goodbyes. The plan was for me to actually live in SAO for the final stages of my life. The logout option wouldn't be necessary for me anyway so the lack of it didn't bother me as much as it did everyone else. Either way, I'm dead, whether it be in the game or in real life. But don't mistake my apathy towards my survival for apathy towards everyone else's. One of the reasons I volunteered for the scout teams was to try and do my part to help everyone escape this death game alive. Some called me old, called me useless. I didn't care. I did what I felt was right. I'd scout areas on the newest floors and dungeons alone. Sometimes I'd end up killing a few smaller raid bosses on my own. Then I'd forward my maps to the assault team leadership and wait for the next floor to open up. You see Kirito, I've made peace with the fact that I'm dying, but you…you and all these…these children…you have full lives waiting for you on the outside, and every time I see or hear of a player getting killed in the game is another life lost in the real world, a life cut short by a madman's manipulations." Thurston explained.

"I see." Kirito said in thought.

"You want to know the real irony about this whole situation Kirito?" Thurston asked.

"What?" Kirito asked back.

"When I was first diagnosed with Parkinson's, I fell into a deep depression. I thought about suicide. I was in despair that my life was over. But then, I come in here, into SAO, and for the first time since my diagnosis, I feel more alive than I have ever been before. So it's not the real world I want to live in anymore, it's here, it's SAO. So regardless of if he intended it or not, Akihiko Kayaba actually ended up doing some good. He gave a dying man a chance to feel truly alive for the first time in his life. I won't forgive him for the deaths he's caused, the deaths of innocents, but I will thank him for what he's done for me." Thurston explained as Kirito seemed to mull over Thurston's words.

"Truly alive." He said to himself. Thurston looked back towards the setting sun in thought with a smile on his face.

"Tomorrow will be a good day. The weather settings will be at their optimum. Perfect day to simply lay around and do nothing. There's an oak tree just outside of town on a small hill. There's an NPC couple that picnics there around noon but by one they're back in town, leaving the hill completely open. Great place to enjoy the weather." Thurston said as he leapt the fence and started down the road back towards town.

"You'd rather do that than tend the bar or PvE?" Kirito asked as he started to follow him.

"One of the things about being truly alive, Kirito. You've got to find time to enjoy the simplest of pleasures in life, even if it's as simple as sitting back and appreciating an artificial environment. It'd be a waste to not take advantage of it. The bar has an NPC barkeeper running it right now anyway. The others just can't get into a bar fight right now, that's all." Thurston said as they headed back for town. As they walked, they suddenly heard a pained yell coming from nearby.

"That came from the graveyard!" Thurston exclaimed as they both turned and ran towards the source of the scream. When they arrived they found three players in the center of a large mob of zombie-like monsters. The graveyard looked as one would expect. Gnarled trees lining the edges of the area, tombstones scattered within, and a single mausoleum near the northern edge. Oh and to top it all off, there was a semi-thick layer of fog blanketing the area.

"Help! Our crystals aren't working!" one of the players exclaimed as Kirito and Thurston came to a stop.

"They need our help!" Kirito said as he drew his sword and ran in to help but Thurston wasn't convinced.

"Wait! Kirito!" Thurston exclaimed, but Kirito didn't hear him, instead he dove right in, cutting down two mobs with one swing before moving in to help the three players but as he neared the center, they all raised their crystals.

"Teleport! Town Square!" one of them exclaimed and in a flash the three vanished, causing Kirito to slide to a halt. Kirito looked around and found that now he was surrounded by the mobs but not for long as two groups of mobs got wiped out by Thurston and his hammer as he ran in to join Kirito.

"I tried to warn you! I've cleared this area dozens of times! I've never had issue with my crystal here!" Thurston said as he and Kirito stood back to back. Kirito snarled at the mobs surrounding them but his gaze was looking past them, looking into the gnarled and dead trees surrounding him, using his high level detection skills to look for any sign of a hiding player. Sure enough he found them. At least seven orange player icons hidden amongst the trees. He grimaced, angry at himself for falling into an obvious trap. First was the matter of dealing with the mobs.

"Guess we're going to have a rematch." Thurston said as Kirito nodded.

"Yeah. I've already got two." Kirito commented as Thurston smirked.

"I'm up by six." Thurston replied before they both leapt into action, cutting down the zombie mobs. They both took small damage here and there but their regeneration abilities took care of that. Within minutes the mobs were dead and Kirito and Thurston were standing back to back again in the center. Kirito then looked towards the trees, the orange icons still there.

"I know you're out there! Show yourselves!" Kirito ordered. After a moment, nine orange players emerged from the fog, surrounding the two.

"Look what we have here. Two loners. You both have until the count of five to drop all your items before we start cutting." One of the orange players said as Thurston glanced back towards the mausoleum and then back towards the orange players.

"So which murder guild do you belong to? Laughing Coffin? Titan's Hand? Blood Smoker?" Kirito asked as Thurston started to back up towards the mausoleum.

"None! We're the new murder guild in town. Perhaps you've heard of us. The Nine Lives?" the lead player asked.

"I have. You're a group of twelve players that use an old trick. Use three green players to lure victims to an ambush spot. The green players teleport out while the orange ambush the victims. I've heard reports of you from the lower floors. You've steadily been working your way up, trying to steal bigger and better stuff." Kirito explained as the lead player grinned.

"My you're smart. So about those items…five…" the leader said as he and the other eight players adopted fighting stances.

"Kirito, we're outnumbered. If they've gotten this far, the nine of them combined might be too much for us." Thurston said as Kirito noticed he was standing near the mausoleum.

"Yeah but I'm not going to go down without a fight." Kirito replied.

"Four!"

"Neither am I but I refuse to PvP, even against orange players. Besides, they've already lost and don't even realize it." Thurston said as he kept his hammer ready.

"What do you mean?" Kirito asked, not taking his eyes off the Nine Lives.

"Three!"

"The minute they set foot in this graveyard they made a grave mistake if you'll pardon the pun! This mausoleum acts as a spawn point for a rare mob! The minute I open this door, it'll unleash a Boss! Not even I've been able to defeat it as of yet!" Thurston yelled.

"You're bluffing! Two!" the Nine Lives leader yelled.

"Kirito…" Thurston said as he put a hand on the door, "…GET BACK!"

Kirito immediately leapt back to stand next to Thurston just as he threw open the door. The minute he did, a pair of torches flanking the mausoleum doors lit up, a pair of withered skeletal hands reaching out from inside and grasping the sides of the doorframe. The Nine Lives all looked up at the emerging boss in shock.

"He wasn't kidding! Boss! That thing's at least six levels higher than us!" one of the players exclaimed as the boss emerged from within the mausoleum. It was essentially a giant skeleton clad in a black cloak and hood reminiscent of the grim reaper and carrying a large scythe. The boss had three health bars and the name over its head read "The Crypt Master."

"Come on, let's get out of here!" the Nine Lives leader yelled just as the Crypt Master raised its scythe and quickly swung at the nine players before it. Most of them ducked but one of them got hit and was killed instantly.

"Kagara! What did you two do?!" one of the Nine Lives asked in horror.

"The Crypt Master, along with every Boss in Sword Art Online has a special buff called Spirit of Vengeance! It prioritizes orange players and adds a damage multiplier equal to that of the number of green players an individual orange player has killed or harmed! It was built in as a mechanic to discourage PvP outside of duels by making orange players bigger targets for the bosses! The more people you kill, the more damage the boss will do to you!" Kirito exclaimed as the Crypt Master took another swing at the Nine Lives, killing two more of them.

"How do you know that?!" one of the Nine Lives asked as they scrambled for cover.

"Wait! Black cloak! One handed! Holy crap! It's the Beater that runs solo with the assault team!" one of the Nine Lives exclaimed before another Nine Lives was killed.

"Why are you just standing there?! It'll come for you too!" the Nine Lives leader exclaimed.

"Yeah it will but didn't you hear him explain it to you? It prioritizes orange players! Kirito and I are green! We're safe where as you orange players are its top priority!" Thurston exclaimed as three more Nine Lives were killed, the leader amongst them, leaving only two left.

"We'll give you whatever you want! Please! Don't let it kill us!" one of the Nine Lives yelled.

"You think we want your bloody items! Those were likely taken from innocent green players that you killed! We'd never take them!" Kirito yelled as the Crypt Master cornered and killed the eighth one.

"You brought this on yourselves! If you had just waited, the statute timer would've counted down to zero and your murders would've been ignored by the game's systems and the damage multiplier would've been reset down to zero!" Thurston yelled as the Crypt Master cornered the last Nine Lives.

"Get ready! That thing's going to come after us!" Kirito exclaimed as Thurston nodded, both readying their weapons.

"This thing's not going to be easy. I've whittled it's health down to two bars but when that happens it changes its attack patterns to use a two handed technique with two hand scythes." Thurston said as the Crypt Master raised its scythe to deliver the final blow to the Nine Lives.

"Right." Kirito said. Finally the Crypt Master swung down on the last of the Nine Lives, killing him instantly.

"NOW!" Thurston yelled as they leapt forward, Kirito striking the Crypt Master in the back before leaping back just as the Crypt Master turned around, allowing Thurston to deliver a vicious swing with his war hammer, the hammer glowing with yellow energy, crackling with electricity. They began working in tandem, switching out whenever the boss made an attack, whittling it's heath down little by little until it only had a sliver of health left on its third health bar.

"Get ready! It's about to change attack patterns!" Thurston exclaimed as Kirito ran in with blade in hand, letting out a battle cry. He delivered a powerful blow to the boss's side, dropping its heath into its second health bar. Kirito quickly leapt back just as the Crypt Master let out a roar, its scythe breaking in two and morphing into two hand scythes. The Crypt Master was now faster than ever, moving at greater speed and agility. But just as before, Kirito and Thurston quickly adapted to its style, avoiding or blocking its attacks while seizing opportunities to attack and inflict damage of their own. Soon they had gotten it down to just a hair left on its second health bar.

"We've got it on the ropes! Now let's finish it!" Thurston exclaimed, delivering a vicious uppercut with his hammer, destroying the Crypt Master's second life bar. The second it happened though, the Crypt Master dropped its scythes with a roar and reached into its sleeve, pulling out a long black sword with a skull design on the guard. Both Kirito and Thurston froze in alarm at the sight of the blade.

"A Death Blade! Thurston! Be careful! If you get hit by the blade, it'll give you a Doom Debuff!" Kirito exclaimed as Thurston dodged a swing from the blade.

"Uh, what does that do?!" Thurston asked.

"It's like poison but it doesn't go away unless you drink an antidote potion!" Kirito replied as Thurston's eyes widened and his face paled.

"Antidote?!" he asked. Kirito immediately realized what his expression meant. Thurston had no antidote potions. The two quickly had to evade the Crypt Master as it came in to attack.

"I've got one but that's it! We need to kill the boss and avoid getting hit otherwise its game over for the both of us!" Kirito exclaimed as they continued to evade the Crypt Master. They managed to avoid most of its attacks but the Crypt Master was simply moving too fast for them to try and make a move against it. Kirito then grimaced in frustration.

"I've got an idea but you need to buy me some time to get ready!" Kirito yelled as Thurston reared back his hammer with a grin, his hammer starting to be enveloped with a yellow glow.

"You've got ten seconds!" Thurston replied before charging in towards the Crypt Master. Kirito immediately knelt down, opening his menu and quickly accessing his skills and items menus. Thurston was struggling to try and keep the Crypt Master distracted, he narrowly dodged one swing when something suddenly happened, he lost his footing and he stumbled backwards over a tombstone but managed to regain it again but only just in time for the Crypt Master to swing and strike him in the chest, Kirito powerless to stop it.

"THURSTON!" he yelled as Thurston tumbled to the ground, a glowing red gash across his chest. Kirito was stunned and quickly snarled at the Crypt Master, letting out a battle cry as he charged towards it, reaching his empty left hand towards his back. Thurston lay wounded on the ground.

"Kirito! Run! Run while you-…" He yelled but froze when he saw a second sword materialize on Kirito's back. It wasn't as high a level a sword as his primary but it was still a high level blade. The fact alone that Kirito was now using two blades stunned Thurston as Kirito ran in, anger and determination clear in his eyes as he swung at the Crypt Master, blocking a blow from the boss with one blade while delivering a series of swift strikes with the other.

"Faster! Faster! Gotta go FASTER!" Kirito grunted as he swung, sparks flying from his blades as he continued to block or evade the Crypt Master's own sword while delivering small and fast strikes of his own. Soon the boss was down to only a small sliver of health on its fourth and final health bar. Before he could deliver the final blow, Kirito's offhand blade was knocked from his hand by the Boss, the blade shattering into polygons after landing. Kirito was suddenly knocked onto his side, receiving a small cut on his cheek from the Death Blade. Kirito was now lying on the ground, staring up at the Crypt Master.

"Kirito!" Thurston yelled, hurling his war hammer towards him. Kirito quickly reached up and caught it in time to block another blow from the Crypt Master, lunge to his feet and deliver a finishing blow against the Crypt Master, causing it to explode in a shower of polygons, the "Congratulations!" message appearing along with an item drop. The item was a sword called the "Elucidator" but at the moment Kirito didn't care. His health bar was black and his HP was dropping. He quickly rushed to Thurston's side, quickly opening his item menu and materializing the antidote potion.

"Thurston! Here! Drink this! It'll heal you!" Kirito said but Thurston smiled and shook his head.

"No. I don't think so. Don't try and trick me boy. I saw you get hit. You need that more than I do." Thurston said as Kirito froze.

"But…" Kirito said but was interrupted.

"Kirito! I've lived my life. I have no regrets. If you should ever make it out of this death game, lookup Kaien Hasabi. Tell him his father was truly alive for the first time in his life. And I was proud to have died fighting alongside a friend. Oh, and do me one last favor, take the hammer back to Foehammer. Put it behind the bar. The others will know what it means." Thurston said as Kirito, tears welling up in his eyes, nodded.

"I will, Thurston." Kirito said as Thurston smiled, his health bar nearing empty while Kirito's health still had a little bit left.

"And Kirito…don't just fight your way through this game. Find some friends, find that someone you just work well with. Find them and never let them go. You won't be able to solo your way through this game." Thurston said as Kirito nodded again. At this, Thurston looked towards the sky, the Aincrad moon high overhead.

"Truly alive…I'm truly alive." Thurston said before his HP hit zero and he exploded in a burst of polygons. Kirito quickly drank the antidote potion, tears blinding his vision but his heath bar was no longer black. It was low but slowly regenerating.

…

Kirito sat on the bed as Asuna sat next to him, genuinely saddened by Thurston's fate.

"After that, I took the hammer back to Foehammer. The guild that made the tavern their home knew at once what had happened to Thurston. I explained what happened and they put the hammer up on display in the tavern. The last three Nine Lives members, the ones who baited us into the trap were reportedly killed by the Laughing Coffin not long after that. But I never forgot what Thurston said about being truly alive. I guess in a way, I owe him. I listened to his advice. You know, I sat on that hill outside of Heinsburg on floor fifty, and I realized why he liked sitting there. I felt what he felt…I feel that way even now..." Kirito said before turning to Asuna and gently cupping her chin, looking into her eyes.

"…especially now." He said as Asuna smiled tearfully at him and the two leaned in to kiss. As they kissed, Thurston's last words echoed once more in his mind…

"Truly alive…I am truly alive."

The End.

Well this was my first foray into the SAO franchise. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did writing it. I didn't want it to be a long drawn out adventure like most of my other stories are but I wanted to do something with SAO and I hope I did the franchise justice. So until next time…

Keep R&Ring…

Star Tours Traveler