Welcome to my first major Sword Art Online story, referred to as "Enfants Perdu." The term Enfants Perdu, or "enfants perdus" is a French plural noun referring to "a soldier assigned to a dangerous post."

Enfants Perdu is an alternate universe story that takes place a few months after the Sword Art Online Arc but ignores most if not all fiction of the events following and some during. The Fairy Dance Arc could have been a good arc in the series but turned out to be much of a monstrosity, ALO will be mentioned and appear in Enfants Perdu in some form or another but the events that occurred are considered irrelevant in this storyline. Our story focuses on the suspicious Military/Survival Simulator sponsored by the United States Military. This is a world of guns and monsters. This isn't Gun Gale Online however, this is about realism. GGO may share certain elements but the two are different entities. This is the story of Day Night, a world of death and life just like the transition of daytime and nighttime.

A big thanks to my counterpart and acquaintance, Mr. California for coming up with this title. Self-proclaimed "Gun Nut of SAO," he's as good of a military junkie you can find in this fanon. His story, "GGO: Casualties of War," while short is probably one of the best military fiction stories in this Fanon. Even with its one chapter, it's a highly suggested read.

Another mention to Shinobi no Ryu, Artie Ross, and ThisIsGreatestUsername for providing their suggestions, criticisms, and expertise. Each of them have great SAO Fanfics that should not be passed up. "Neon Rain, Global Warfare Online, and a Perception of Reality."

And finally the biggest appreciations to the one and only, Agent 94 for dealing with my constant nagging of questions, ideas, and responses to his strict but stellar critiques which have helped make this story much better. He's got an awesome story called "Aincrad Reborn" which brings a lot of fixes to the vanilla SAO storyline while exploring in greater depth into the lore and mechanics of Aincrad. Without his help, this story would not exist at all. Literally, he was the one that helped me design the premise and forced me to actually push this idea forward after the failure of my first SAO fic.

Please Read and Review, I really could use the feedback. I also have several more science fiction and military fiction stories on my author page including stories from Halo, Battlefield, Mass Effect and more.

I'm still unsure of the idea of OCs but I've allowed them at the support of Artie and Username. Please don't bring in any Mary Sues, do research and understand that I'm looking for realism when I ask for new characters. I'll reply if anyone leaves a submission.

Reviews are much appreciated, in depth ones will have my endless gratitude. If there is anything anyone wants to know about my current decisions on this story, please PM or leave a review.

I've currently (July 17, 2015) removed the second Enfants Perdu chapter due to a major rewrite and I've begun working on the third chapter so I don't know when it will be back up but continued support is always supported. Thanks for all the help guys, here is the rewritten version of Chapter 1, now known as Demons.

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O.C. SPREADSHEET

Full Name (include Titles):The Character's Full name (Be Realistic) must meet Cultural Norms and include all identifiable extensions (EX. Jr., Sr., III, IV, Dr., Military Rank, etc.)

Username/Player Name: Player's Username (Be Realistic). When making the Username, please make sure it's not already in use and it the name pertains to the character's personality and life. You may also want to point out how they would be address based on this name, in game. (EX. Anac0ndaSilver)

Real World Location: Where this player was born and where they take up residency. This must be a real location that someone can live in and have access to middle class living standards. I should be able to find this location on Google Earth. Please don't give me an address, just a general area. (EX. Fort Worth-Dallas Area, Texas, Continental United States of America)

Occupation:What does your character do in real life? Do they have a job, are they a student? What is their major? Did this person ever go to College? (EX. Professor of Economics at Yale University)

Combat Behavior: How does this character prefer to engage people? Do they act conservatively and stick to one spot? Do they only hunt at night? Are they brutish, or are they quick and lithe? Do they move around a lot or stay still for hours on end? (EX. Player X prefers to not engage groups and is more focused on self-preservation, she will not kill unless forced into a conflict. She's a hunter and scavenger, preferring to stay out of human conflict and simply hunt and survive in its simplest terms.)

Equipment & Weaponry: What type of weapon does your character prefer? (Be Realistic, no huge revolvers for smaller individuals just because they look cool.) (Don't give me a weapon, tell me a type of weapon: the weapon is by my consideration) What does your character use in game? (EX. Assault Rifle, Semi-Auto Rifle, Lever-Action Rifle, Personal Defense Weapon, Squad Automatic Weapon, Battle Rifle) (EX. Walkie-Talkie, Old Paper Maps, Night Vision Goggles, etc.)

Real World Experience:Does your character have skills in Real Life that may translate over to the VR World? (Be Realistic) If they are capable of using the skill in a real life application or in the event that society collapses, it's probably a useful ability. Skills are not unique or specific to one individual, these are learned traits from real life, not MMO mechanics. (EX. Player knows how to use a parachute, Player is a marathon runner, Player knows parkour, Player took fencing classes as a child, Player knows how to drive a boat, etc.)

Faction/Guild:Please create a Guild group and several member usernames if the character is a part of a player faction? What group or people does your player affiliate with? What group are they a part of? Maybe they are loners? Maybe they are a bandit group? Maybe they enjoy helping others? The only way to be a part of a Military Faction, groups made from actual Veterans or Enlisted Soldiers from National Militaries is for your character to be a member of said Armed Forces. If it's a military organization, it has to be an organization operating in the Eastern Hemisphere including the Pacific and Indian Ocean such as United States of America, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Thailand, Philippines, Japan, China, Russia, etc. (EX. "Snake's Crew," bandit/raider group, members include "WLDstallion, LORDslythR, Voldemort, Ex0rcist") (EX. "United States Armed Forces," Military Faction, members include "SGTbrown, Blue Dogma, LeatherNeckedBULL, Doc N Town")

Video Game Preferences:What type of games does your character play? Or is this their only game? This shows what type of gamer your player generally is. (EX. Racing, RTS, Sandbox, Simulator, FPS, 3PS, Turn-based Strategy, Horror, Survival, Story Telling Games, Platformers, etc.)

Personality/Backstory:Who is your character? What is their personality? Why do they act like they do? What is their history and life like? How is their family and friends tied to who they are? This area is pretty straight forward, everything however must be realistic. And a huge note: No characters will be allowed in as a former player of Sword Art Online unless they're a Japanese citizen or have been naturalized into Japanese culture for quite some time, no foreigners.

In-Game Behavior: How does your character behave under pressure? What type of behavior would they often do in a post-apocalyptic, military/survival simulator? Are they killers? Scavengers? Survivors just trying to make out a living in a dangerous, new world? How do they act around other characters in game? Do they kill on sight? Do they help newer and less prepared individuals, do they avoid others or enjoy their company? This is an extension of the personality point, why does your character want to play Day Night, what is their motivation?

Physical Description: In Day Night, while the player model's body is customizable, the physical structure, shape, and bodily strength and adaptability are copied from the real world, the same as Sword Art Online was when players were switched to realistic avatar clones of their real bodies. What does your character look like in real life and in the game?

"Why should I use your Character in this Fiction?"This is arguably the most important part of the spreadsheet. Why should I use your character? What is so special about them? Are they realistic? Is there a good reason why I should be interested? This section will have a significant part in deciding whether I want your character in my story. If your other factors above are superb however, I will gloss over this without a second thought. However, if I don't like your character, it may be the only saving grace for getting your character in? I am a supporter of realistic and mature story plot lines so I don't want trolls and shallow characters in my service. I will accept comedic and joker characters if they can still remain realistic and are likable enough that they don't seem out of place. Your character needs to fit into the world, don't make something outrageous like a 5 year old dressed in pink surviving on her own and killing American Special Forces like they are baby dolls. Keep it clean people. For OCs already chosen I'll leave a list at the bottom of Chapter 1. Thanks for the continued support.

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Welcome to RiptideZ's "Enfants Perdu," a non-profit fan-produced fiction product under the ownership of set penname: RiptideZ.

DISCLAIMER:

All copyrighted items mentioned or used in this work belongs to their rightful owners of Reki Kawahara, Aniplex USA, and other brands mentioned below or later under terms of Fair Use. The author only owns their own creations. This author is an adamant supporter of Constructive Criticism, please read and review. If anything needs modification with the writing piece below, please contact RiptideZ through the Review section, or Instant Messaging."

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Chapter 1: Demons

Words: 7717

Franchise: Sword Art Online

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["Demons"]

[Feburary 2025]

…

It was finally over, the world of Sword Art Online defeated, freedom had come finally for the human inhabitants of Aincrad.

Asuna stood upon the crystal clear floor of the SAO skybox, the clouds flew overhead almost peaceful as a floating castle in the sky, a hundred floors tall, violently shook itself to pieces.

The only feeling the girl could manage was saddened detachment, as if a piece of her soul had been lost. She wasn't sorry to see the game defeated, she wasn't sad that this world was coming to an end. It was the memories of this place that brought a feeling of loss, as if a new void had forced its way into her heart.

The memories of this place, she could admit openly, were some of the happiest of her short life. She had begun a prisoner of this great castle, but in the end she had come to love it for what it gave her. Her relaxed hands rested comfortable in the grasp of her in-game husband, Kirito; as a pair, they stared off into the expanse of the collapsing structure of the metallic prison. The two still retained their clothes and equipment from their journey, black and white, standing beside each other in the very end.

The object was shaped originally in a kind of gourd or pear shape, bronze in color and floating above the Earth. The only thing that kept it anchored to the Earth below had been a series of large tree-like roots erupting from the ground far below. Asuna had remembered seeing what appeared to be a vast land of fields, forests, lakes, and mountains below when she had gone out to the edge of the castle to watch the mass suicides so long ago. Now from an even higher position than before, the ground had seem to disappear from below Aincrad, replaced by an empty, white void. Aincrad slowly shook itself apart and the damage was tremendous. Like rock and rubble, little by little the floors emptied from the bottom up. Currently they were approaching the 22nd floor, her little home at the lake front.

It took her eyes a little searching but she found the medium-sized wooden cabin at the edge of the woods on the 22nd floor. A once beautiful paradise and sanctuary turned to rubble as it slowly broke apart with the ground it stood upon and fell down into the nether of Aincrad.

Below the collapsing gourd, a slowly swirling vortex swallowed the floating building like a large vacuum cleaner.

She let out a surprised sigh grabbing Kirito's attention toward the same location.

Asuna was unsure what to feel, so many memories of that small house. Of Kirito, of Yui. Of her family within this World of Death. To see all it go and be gone in an instant, all she could do was be shocked. In her peripheral vision, Kirito showed no signs of an automatic emotional response: only shock carried on as if something was trying to process the actual events transpiring.

The two shared this emotion: for two whole years they had been trapped in a virtual reality that had become to them a near-substitute to real life, and abruptly, it came to the end. Ironically their loss of normalcy was brought by their own hands by killing its creator in armed conflict.

A realization had also begun to well up within the teenage girl. Hadn't they died, winning against Kayaba? Did that mean they two would disappear with this world once it was deleted? How were they even still alive right now?

No one had seen how the people died in the Death Game, maybe the glass plain they stood upon, was an analogy for purgatory. A final stop before the final passing into the beyond. She could not guess, however; any thought on the possibility of eternal death after everything she had been through was too much. She quickly broke her focus on the house and the memories and the ideas she had been contemplating in order to stop the breaming tears.

Asuna attempted to cut off the feeling of an expanding energy within her to breakdown once again after sacrificing herself to save her lover and only for him to return to her presence even for how short a time.

The floating castle of Aincrad continued to degrade under their watch. The hurricane eye below it sucked away the material and information to who knows where. It was as if the vortex were a digital black hole.

"A stunning view isn't it?" A voice said grabbing the couple's attention from the dying world below.

The couple's heads turned to their right passing the brilliant Aincrad star to look toward the outspoken individual. He wore a white trench coat similar to that of a scientist and tan slacks. Asuna could not recognize his face as she realized this person was from the real world, or at least she assumed he was.

Asuna noted that he looked familiar however as Kirito spoke her suspicions: "Akihiko Kayaba?"

The man, once known as Heathcliff and before as Kayaba, the creator of the Nerve Gear and the death game of Sword Art Online, continued to look down upon his dying creation. There was a brief silence as if to confirm his identity. Kayaba spoke with disinterest, "At Argus headquarters, the SAO mainframe is in a room, 5 floors below street level; and right now it is deleting all the data from its drives. In about 10 minutes, everything in this world will disappear forever."

Asuna did not realize it until she spoke, but she asked, "And what about all the players? What happens to them?"

"You don't have to worry about them."

Kayaba maneuvered his left hand in a familiar motion, activating his game menu from thin air with a quick and unique electronic chime.

"The six thousand one hundred, forty-seven players who have survived this game up till now were logged out a few seconds ago."

The last three human beings watching above the destruction were now the last true-sentient beings left in this world.

"And what about the four thousand people who died? What about them?" The Beater-in-black asked the Game Master. Everyone knew the answer already, but Kayaba answered the question anyway. Almost without emotion as if the death of these players were simply another statistic, another number to gloss over in the back of his mind. In a way, it was. Yet still there was a feeling of emptiness in his voice.

"They'll never return. In any world, real or virtual, once you are dead, you're gone."

Asuna in her mind echoed the statement, the term, forever, quickly coming to mind.

"Why? What's the point? Why did you do this?" Kirito's emotions began to build to a head, a sniffled rage was beginning to build within the young man.

"That's a good question… it's been so long, I've forgotten the reason."

Asuna didn't dare speak as the two prodigies stood parallel from each other contemplating each other's motives. She felt that if she said another word, she would most certainly break down, no matter how emotionally drained the girl had become from only moments before.

"Isn't that strange?" Kayaba looked up.

Several large dragons, flew even farther above, out of reach of the deletion algorithm. Their extinction was only temporary, as Kayaba said, very soon everything in this world would be deleted.

"Before I developed a system for the Full Dive environment, I dreamed of this; a castle and a world, not governed by Earthly laws and restrictions. I had poured my life into making that dream, a reality."

The Game Master paused as he looked on into the expanse, the two sets of teenage eyes looked upon him unrelenting. He looked back at the two.

"I created this world, and I got to see something that surpassed anything that I could have imagined for it." Kayaba spoke in reference to something Asuna remained unknowing of, however, she let the statement pass without consideration. Kayaba turned and looked back down toward his dying dream.

"My steel castle, floating in the sky, I don't remember how old I was when I became obsessed with it." He spoke, and suddenly he was reflecting on his past to his two-person audience.

"I wanted to leave the Earth, to fly to that castle, I wanted that more than anything else. For as long as I can remember."

He continued to gaze on, this time toward the sun.

"You know what, Kirito? I want to believe it is still out there, that somewhere in some other world, my castle is still standing. Taller than ever."

"Yeah, maybe it still is." Kirito agreed, his face contorting into a frown as he realized his own longing for Aincrad, no matter how much pain and suffering it brought him.

Asuna nodded along, feeling the same as her two male counterparts.

"Before I forget, congratulations on clearing the game. Kirito. Asuna." He said and turned to the two players standing before him, the last survivors left in this game.

Asuna thought this would be the goodbye. She considered asking the man a question on their own mortality. Were they going to return to reality or would they be lost with this world as well?

"Kirito, Asuna. I leave you with my final token for completing my game. As this world collapses, you will be returned, back to reality. You will wake up tired and confused at the hospital. This will be my final gift to you two, if you have any love left for this world."

"What are you talking about?" Asuna asked.

Akihiko Kayaba outstretched his right hand toward the couple and using the menu in his right, he pressed a few administrative keys and activated whatever item he was looking for. A theatrical display appeared in a brilliance of golden light, like a sun in his palm. Then the light dimmed revealing an egg-shaped holographic display. It was bathed in golden light with yellow and purple patterns dancing randomly around within.

"The beginning of a new world. I call it the Seed."

"…" Kirito let out a throaty sound suggesting Kayaba to continue.

"Once it buds, you'll understand what it is. I'll leave what to do with it up to you two. You can delete it and completely forget about it. However, if you have any feelings left for that world besides hatred…"

"You didn't say what the Seed is." Asuna stated looking up at the man curiously and accusative.

He just nodded to himself and closed his eyes as if he just told them something or had come to a difficult decision.

"Well then, I should probably get going now. This world will be ending soon."

He turned away from the black and white clad warriors and started to walk. He waved his hand behind him as he went.

Some smoke erupted from his body obscuring him and as soon as it cleared, he was gone.

The two stared at the place the mastermind of this world had last stood, now lost to his final exit. Kirito suddenly spoke, "Asuna, I'm sorry."

The said girl turned to him, curious of what his next words would be.

"I died down there fighting Heathcliff, I won't be returning with you."

She was suddenly stricken scared. What was her partner talking about?

"Kirito-kun, don't be silly he just said that we would be logging out soon…"

"Goodbye Asuna, live a fulfilling life." Kirito said and then he was also gone with a puff of smoke. Her hand dropped to her side.

"No…Kirito, what…what is going on?"

She didn't get to grab at his receding form of smoke as the world around her phased out of existence to be replaced with a more earthly stage, a classroom. The girl was no longer in Aincrad anymore, no longer in Sword Art Online. The classroom she was currently inhabiting was a mirror image of her old classroom, that of the school day before she had entered the Death Game. This was no longer Sword Art Online, she was in the real world, at her old all-girl private institution in Tokyo.

She sat in her seat, the first row in front of the teacher's desk, toward the windows on the left as she always had two years ago, the door was opposite of her on the other side of the classroom. There were twenty seven desks set up in the class, one for the teacher who was nowhere to be seen, the other twenty six desks were occupied by Asuna's classmates all dressed up for another school day. The students' uniforms were simply that, cute and innocent. She herself was still wearing her white combat attire from Aincrad. Her mind normally would have recognized that something was wrong but at this moment it simply told her it was normal.

Asuna turned to look out the window, the skyline of Tokyo was irregular in comparison to her familiar classroom however; the sky was painted in a similar scheme as the skybox of Aincrad.

She started thinking of Kirigaya Kazuto as she realized that he had told her to "live a fulfilling life." The shuffling of shoes and desks broke her from her trance as all the other young girls of the institution made their way to the front of the class. Following her classmates up to the board, the electronic display revealed the college entrance exam results that would decide what colleges the girls would go to in the future. Asuna immediately went to the top, expecting her name at the top per usual, after all, she was almost always at the top of her grade; either that, or within the top had aced all the practice exams before the true exam; this should have been a breeze. Now however, she could not find her name. She went down the list – name after name after name. No Yuuki Asuna. She wasn't even in the top 100, she wasn't even ranked.

Voices started to murmur around her just out of hearing, she turned around to get an idea of who was talking, momentarily forgetting her dismal performance.

The girls around her were grinning gleefully and pointing at her as they whispered. The girls, her classmates, she had studies with for years were now laughing at her, jeering at her. A dangerous gleam glowed in Asuna's eye, she quickly went for her rapier at her waist. She would not kill, but she would certainly intimidate. A noticeable absence was felt as she reached down looking for the long and familiar cylindrical pole and handguard of her prized weapon.

She looked down, she was wearing her old school uniform: a major blue suit over her dress shirt, skirt, and shorts. The absent combat attire was replaced by red ribbon tie and her white socks and dress shoes. No longer did she wield a set of dangerous weapons of her warrior inventory, she had only her brown school bag to protect her. All the predatory confidence that had been building up within was sapped in seconds. The girls continued to jeer, their voices now louder calling her names.

"Otaku! Otaku!"

She remembered telling her classmates about how stupid video games were, how they had no value. The shame of being a hypocrite and finding love in something she had originally dismissed, a cloud of doubt materialized over her mind revealing her worst nightmares coming true.

She had been a hypocrite, calling video games stupid; "Gaming is wasting life!" The voice of one of the younger girls who had looked up to Asuna, said mockingly. "Onee-sama used to say that games were a waste! Turns out she was a gamer! What a joke!?"

She was a failure. Images of Asuna's mother, her family looking down upon her sleeping form swarmed in disappointment. Their grim faces. The classmates making fun of her. It was a repeat of the nightmares she would have almost every night during the sleeping periods she experienced in the first days of SAO Crisis.

She backed away from all the failure she had achieved and became cornered in a side of the classroom. Her family and classmates looking down upon her with disappointment and cruel joy. Asuna wanted to back into a corner and hide herself in the shadows. The girl wanted away from this nightmare. These monsters, these demons. Society's pressures and expectations came crashing down upon the female warrior, crushing her lungs and leaving her breathless. She was being crushed.

This time there was no Kirigaya Kazuto to back her up, no Guild to call upon, no strength or pride in herself that could be mustered like she had within the Death Game. Here she was powerless, nothing could be done against waves of this nightmare.

The voices grew distant however as the faces of her oppressors distorted into smoke and then into fog and a constant veil of rain. The sounds of buckets spraying down upon herself sent a shiver up Asuna's spine, her umbrella absent and nowhere to be seen. She wasn't in her classroom any longer, she was outside, in a place filled with people in black attire among a large sequence of tombstones. A graveyard, one full of fresh grave sites. Asuna stood in the front row of a funeral procession upon this rainy day. The group was numbered in the dozens and everyone remained in silence, it seemed almost everyone went to forgo their umbrellas, only two or three could be seen in the endless mass of individuals.

Looking down, Asuna realized her attire had changed again. She was dressed in a black T-shirt, maybe Kazuto's even. She wore a black skirt and tights as the company stood in mourning. The clothes that Asuna wore were quick to remind her of Kazuto, of the boy that had helped her and the one she had come to love. Her own attire was ironically a testimony to that boy as Kazuto, unlike Asuna, wore dark clothes almost the entire game only donning a silver-like white during his time with the Knights of Blood Oath, Asuna in retrospect would commonly wear bright colors: red, white, cyan, etc.

Asuna looked for her boyfriend's face in the crowd but did not find him. Kazuto was missing, instead the young teenage girl saw the solemn faces of her friends and guild mates. Agil, Klein, Lisbeth, some members from the old guild. She kept searching desperately until her eyes caught upon the tombstone everyone loosely surrounded. As clear as blood, the engraving shocked her.

Kirigaya Kazuto.

Imprinted in bold engraving in both English and Japanese dialect was his name upon the smooth concrete slab. Numbers noting birth and death dates were shown followed by a QR code that would take any digital readers to a summary of the deceased boy's identity and life that was buried here. Below the markers was a final parting quote but it was too small to make out.

Kirito was dead. Dead.

She was alone in this world after all. In the back of her mind however, she was sure he was still alive, how could he be dead if she had made it out?

Her mind scrambled to find an answer and as the rain fell, the world collapsed around her oozing like a melting oil painting. Colors distorted, people blended out of view, the world disappeared into an inky black. There was nothing.

A beeping began to fill her ears and the sensation of drowning in this blackening void started to take hold. She fought screaming and yelling until she opened her eyes to find the darkness gone.

This was Hell, her demons had her at their whims. This darkness was Hell.

…

Asuna woke with a sudden snap. Her eyes were wide and staring at her darken ceilings, her breathing was irregular and her mind was still shell-shocked. She groggily awoke from her daze.

It had all been a dream, it seemed.

Asuna stood up and looked around her room. It hadn't changed much since she got back from the hospital about 4 months ago. Just like all the other players in SAO, the girl had woken up in the hospital to sounds of moving equipment, scrambling nurses, and the accelerated beeps of her heart monitor as her breathing spiked and she returned to reality. SAO was over and the return to reality had begun. Kirito or Kirigaya Kazuto as he was known in the real world, had been staying in the Tokyo General while Asuna had been moved to another on the other side of town closer to her family's Tokyo Estate.

For three weeks, Asuna had not been allowed to leave the hospital. She got to see her family yet she could not get in touch with any of her friends from SAO; it had been a difficult first month not being able to contact Kirito or Lisbeth. Then there were the other survivors from her ward; because the people were not familiar with Yuuki Asuna, but The Flash. She had been quick to introduce herself as Yuuki, using her family name as her first. It kept the people off her and allowed her some privacy.

During the three weeks, the staff would perform physical and mental tests and she would be tasked with reclaiming her ability to walk and her previous strength. Originally she had looked like sickly child in famine, nothing but bone and pale skin. Then there was her family that had quickly arrived to see her as soon as the news came out that all the Death Game survivors had made it out of the game successfully.

Her father, mother and, dear brother. And Nobuyuki Sugou, a real turd of a human being.

They had all come to visit it her and genially happy to see her awake, Sugou more on the faking side of happiness. Following her first encounter with the family she had Sugou removed from the list of acceptable visitors. He seemed even more pissed off when she first saw him, as if he had been planning something while she had been out, but she did not act on her suspicions. His sickly sweet smile was a cancer to her vision.

Beyond that, life had become more routine. She recovered the majority of her strength and regained her ability to walk within two months but her physical strength remained something of wishful thinking. The physical therapy became the norm, a few members from a special division the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs, informally called the VR Crimes Division or SAO Incident Victims Rescue Force came to visit her on occasion. They mostly asked Asuna about what occurred within SAO and what her part in the events within Aincrad was. The joy and happiness and peace of being alive slowly ebbed away with time and old problems began to resurface. Sugou being one of the obvious ones but she had handled him well, she did not see him unless her entire family had come to visit her, otherwise he could not see her.

Since entering the game, her dear mother was more than disappointed in the situation finding that Asuna's new shared fondness of video games with her brother was not healthy. Also, the issue on her education had been brought up a few times between the daughter and mother, the doctors were quick to deny any form of tutors or education at the time due to possible psychological strain that they had not yet accounted for. So for her time spent in the hospital she had been mostly kept stress-free but that had not stopped the recovering teenager from making long night marathons on restudying her old school material that she had accessed from her old cloud storage.

She was an overachiever and a stickler to impress others, this was only in her nature brought up by a life of strict nurturing. She had become determined to retrieve her previous level of educational proficiency; not for her mother, but for herself. Even after all her time spent in SAO and learning to live life a little more for herself, she still found that her need to be a tier higher than her peers had not been relaxed. She had been slightly afraid she would be permanently behind her peers, or even having to face her old classmates in the real world. Lucky for Asuna, she did not have to face her classmates or her own personal demons.

For how long she had known the other girls, she had never taken the time to make any real friends among her age group. In the former warrior's good fortune, the Japanese government had been quick to provide specialized care for the SAO survivors; be it to keep the demographic in an easily observable scenario or if they generally cared for the victims of the Death Game, they provided well.

A legion of doctors, therapists, and educators on the government payroll were assigned to monitor and help the survivors recuperate. Financial aid was provided for college students, lesser-income families, and those who had become vacant in the national workforce who had by this time lost their jobs for good.

A school for the younger generations who had made up the majority of the game's population was opened.

A full service to those who had fallen in SAO and had not return to the land of the living were provided with their own national monument and memorial marked with both the usernames and real names of the dead near the Imperial Palace State Park. These services had been a godsend to the survivors and their families, but to Asuna, it did not matter as much as reaching her goal: reuniting with her friends and especially Kazuto Kirigaya, her online and real life lover.

Asuna had been quick to push through her rehabilitation in an unexpected vigor seen by her parents and the medical staff at the hospital. Her recovery time was faster than anyone in her ward, an astonishing feat of a month and 15 days. Her mother was not happy to hear about the young man who Asuna had met online, but was respectful enough not speak her mind before her own family or the Kirigaya family when the two households finally met. Kazuto had been in a wheelchair when the two had met while Asuna herself had been on crutches, nearly two months after each had started their final rehabilitation programs. Much of the teenager girl's own time had been spent catching up in her education, rehabilitation workouts, daily-to-weekly checkups with the hospital, and seeing a therapist to gauge her mental capacity. Meeting Kazuto in real life had been a dream come true.

Kazuto had made a joke the first time they saw each other in real life. "Look at you, always trying to be first at everything. You even beat me at walking!"

Kazuto had mentioned that he had been visited by a man from the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs to discuss the events that occurred in the SAO, Asuna however was not met to discuss the subject in detail. Asuna's own interviewer had visited for a few hours and then left to visit the next patient, from what the often black-clad boy had said, the man, a Kikouka Seijirou, had taken a personal interest in Kazuto and had brought up his relationship to Asuna, his family, his personality, and a spectrum of other personal matters with the boy to be a simple curiosity.

Now however, she and Kazuto were going to the SAO Survival School, the informal name for the new school for underage SAO victims. It has been four months since SAO ended, today was now just another school day.

Asuna quickly drained her mind of reminiscent thoughts and clambered out of her bed, a queen-sized mattress dressed in a scarlet covering; a high quality design exported from somewhere in the European Union. Her desk alarm rang with urgency, much to the annoyance of Asuna who was swift to smash down upon the cancel button.

Today was Tuesday, school was going on as usual. On her desk, a high-definition, pearl-colored holographic monitor took up most of the space. Next to the desk, her old fashioned alarm clock, and a picture Kazuto had scavenged from the files of his Nerve gear Local Memory, it was a picture or more like an in-game still of Asuna and Kazuto standing, facing away from their cabin and the camera toward the Aincrad sky above, standing shoulder to shoulder.

Sadly, the boy she had fallen in love with had yet to crack open the Nerve Gear and get access to their in-game daughter and Artificial Intelligence, Yui. Something about being closed software and incompatible with his current systems. The VR Seed was in the same situation, he had yet to figure out how to access it, but he said he was getting close. Asuna still found it strange that her own VR headset had been confiscated by the government but her boyfriend's had not. Maybe that Seijirou fellow had pulled a couple of strings for him.

Among Asuna's possessions in her room, her walk-in smart closet still remained in the corner. A shelf that was covered in her trophies from school and photographs of various types. One out-of-place item was a miniature cloud server that stored the Local Memory of her now lost Nerve Gear remained on the shelf. Asuna's mother had thrown it out after her daughter had returned from the hospital 3 months after she officially came home from the hospital, though, Kazuto had managed to break the headgear open and remove some of its essential software and stored it in a large file in a storage Cloud.

Asuna pulled a journal from her book shelf and wrote down a quick note marking the time and date and dreams of her sleepless night for her next therapy appointment. She quickly put it back and went to do her daily routine in her washroom. Make-up, personal hygiene, brush teeth, styling her hair, and making sure to shut down all her electronics in her room. Her mother had been nagging her recently about getting an automated room management system since a more economic versions had become available, not that they couldn't afford the more expensive ones. Personally for Asuna, she had a strange preference to being able to do things manually. Maybe her time spent in Aincrad with its overly simplified mechanics had made her enjoy the complexities of life much more.

She swiftly and silently snuck out of her room: she had set her alarm extra early, as she had been doing for the last month to avoid her mother and having a discussion that was due to start a shouting match. She knew that discussing things like her video games, school, Kazuto or anything of that sort would only make their relationship more fragile.

She quietly maneuvered down the stairs, copying her stealthy and cautious movement that she had adopted from SAO with the old Sneaking skill.

The smell and sounds of cooking were heard coming from down stairs. The house keeper, Sada Akiyo, was making breakfast.

Asuna managed down the stairs with grace, the spotless white and tan walls made the house distinctly European in mode. The silent, teenage girl peeked into the dining room and found that her mother was not up yet for work but her brother was. He was reading on his tablet when she entered, sighing reassuringly for herself that her mother was not in. Her brother was always the earliest up usually because he made more out-of-country trips than the rest of the family.

Her stated brother, Yuuki Kouichirou, looked up at her as she entered.

"Morning Asuna-chan, how was your beauty sleep?" He said with a slightly humorous tone.

"It was very good, Nii-san, my sleep was good, but I think you could use a little more for yourself!" Asuna replied back with light banter jabbing at her brother's notable bed head that was skewed to one side.

"Very funny, young sister. Why don't you sit down with me and have some of Sada's breakfast?"

"Sorry, nii-chan, got to get to school early again."

"Avoiding Mother?"

"…Eh…yes, Onii-chan."

"Don't worry about it, I won't say anything. Just make sure you speak to her eventually. Avoiding family is never good, you could be exiled." Kouichirou said trying to be serious but his cheeks had risen to his eyes and with his grimace he looked like a large rabbit or other small mammal.

"Nii-chan, stop being so overdramatic, it isn't good for your face. You look like a rabbit."

"Ah! Asuna-chan you don't have to be so rude to your older brother!" He said mockingly dramatic as he waved his hands in a desperate manner. "…By the way, Asuna, if you need help with homework—"

"Big Bro, don't worry I'm still as good as ever, the homework is a breeze."

"—and a certain boy—"

"Kazuto is nice, he would not do anything to hurt me!" Asuna said defensively, "Plus, you should talk to him more, you two like a lot of the same things."

"Now don't forget you met him on the internet, he is not that trustworthy—"

"Brother just stop it or I'll have to strike you down with my own blade… I'm serious though, you should talk to him. I think you would like him." Asuna stated, pointing out the two boys had only met once during Asuna and Kazuto's reunification a few months earlier.

"Alright, alright. I always forget you're a prodigy in school and on the battlefield, you don't need your older brother anymore to watch your back…" Kouichirou said, now mockingly sober.

"Don't worry brother, I still need a figurehead for Father's corporation before I take over!" Asuna said as a joke with a wink. Asuna truthfully had no interest in the family business, she had yet to decide what she wanted to do, but Kazuto's interest in electronics had piqued her interest.

For now she was planning to enter college for a Business major.

Kouichirou was silent but smiling before doing the mature thing and stuck his tongue at his sister. The two shared a brief staring contest before erupting in mild laughter. Her brother took a sip from his lukewarm coffee and avoided touching his breakfast all together, no matter how appetizing it looked to the not-so-hungry Asuna. That was just her brother being himself, a trait shared among siblings, he often skipped out on breakfast because he always claimed he wasn't hungry. The young businessman of a brother was dressed in a dress shirt and slacks of the gray hue and a plain red tie. He had a mop of brown hair similar to his mother's, but was messy and all over the place, reminding her of Kazuto's. She had the urge to ruffle it as she walked up to the table.

His playful growl and shiver went unnoticed by the young sister.

"Asuna-chan, you're up!" Sada exclaimed as she walked in preparing the dining room for Asuna's parents when they would wake up in half-an-hour.

"Good morning, Sada-san!" Asuna was quick to reply in gratitude.

"Asuna, I prepared your breakfast for you, but if you are in a hurry again, I can pack it for the trip to school?"

"Thank you Sada-san, I would very much like that."

"Okay." She went into the kitchen next door and was quick to pack a breakfast into a lunch bag.

She came back within a few moments and had a breakfast sack ready for the young school girl.

"Take care." Sada quickly said as she got back to putting together the silverware for the elder Yuuki family members.

"You too, Sada-san!"

The young girl made for the hall leaving her brother and the family caretaker behind to their business as they began their own merry conversation that was drowned out in Asuna's echoing footfalls upon the tiled floor of the house atrium. Asuna missed the sight of her brother waving goodbye to her silently from his seat at the dining table. The girl was quick to close the door behind her as her excitement for a new day began to well up inside her. She quickly moved to the entrance of the Yuuki home and was out the door in a flash.

A nice winter breeze drew Asuna's attention to her clothes: a traditional school uniform covered in a light pink, worn jacket.

She ran through the front gate and out upon the sidewalk and began her long trek toward school. She was to ride the subway for most of the journey since it was somewhat close to Kazuto's residential district on another side of town. The trek remained uneventful as she arriving quickly at the SAO Survivor School, Asuna, the former Captain of the Frontline Clearer guild of Knights of Blood Oath, was now going back to high school.

Asuna was exceedingly early again, only a few students had arrived so far but Asuna disregarded the students. She knew she would not see Kazuto or Rika until later as Kazuto, for the love of God, stayed up late at night on his computer. Kirito was still taking late nights working on a supposed project, but Asuna had quickly deduced that he was trying to gain administrative access to the Nerve Gear rig in an attempt to get a hold of Yui and the VR Seed which from what Kazuto had said, "It has not bloomed yet."

The former Captain passed along the observation hallway, a hall of large glass panels on one side of the school adjourned with indoor plants and red fabric arm chairs that brought a more homely feel to the school that looked more like a mental asylum from the outside with its silver-colored roof and baby blue walls. The building's internals were much more inviting than the outside; supposedly it had been an old abandoned high school for one of the Tokyo School Districts that failed to further fund the building's construction because of a major recession two decades ago, the building was completed but was never fully paid off before it was abandoned due to lack of further funds or property buyers. Eventually it was bought by the government and renovated for SAO specifically.

Out the window, she made out the central courtyard and her favorite outdoor picnic area, a pattern of benches under an open pavilion surrounded by trees, bushes and flower pots that have yet to bloom with the coming of spring. Kazuto and Asuna often spent lunch over there but because it was in full view of the school cafeteria, it had little to offer in terms of privacy.

Asuna passed the large two-story cafeteria, crossed over the central foyer, and traveled down the west wing staircase to her first class of the day. National Language. Class was not yet in session due to her early arrival; the teacher's absence was quite apparent. Rather two students were already seated for class but neither of them were paying any attention to their classmate entering from the hall. One was asleep, the other was playing a hand-held gaming device. Asuna moved to the center of the class where she normally sat, and put down her bag under her desk.

Asuna opened her book bag and removed her breakfast and biography novel the class had been reading as of late; the book was written by a Japanese author on the life and experiences of the Imperial Admiral Yamamoto, deceased Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Japanese Military during World War Two before his death at the hands of the United States.

Along with Japanese literature, the national language class maintained an educational assortment of general writing, calligraphy, and proper grammar. Asuna however did not find the class difficult or interesting due to her parents' support of linguistic education through tutoring and her old private school. The autobiography on the deceased Japanese Admiral was well written and an intriguing read, but the underlying nationalistic views failed to phase Asuna's perception of the novel. She had little interested in Japanese national views.

Asuna bided her time by eating the quick breakfast made up of assorted fruit, a small carton containing fresh coffee, and a sandwich that Sada had made for her. The seated, former SAO Survivor decided to distract herself with a good book on her tablet as she ate her packed breakfast. Overtime, more students and the teacher arrived in class; eventually the late bell broke Asuna from her novel. Asuna's resident classroom had originally been designed as a music room and had a distinctive bleacher-like setup to the seats. Each row of students was propped up higher than the next allowing every student a view of the front of the class, and by extension the teacher could see all his students from below.

Asuna sat in the third row alongside three other girls, however, none were among her close friends. These students were simply mild acquaintances; Asuna would, on occasion, gossip with these students before class, but today, someone else had caught her attention.

A young-looking boy, Chino Teiji, one of the more academically successful students in Asuna's class, was only a mild acquaintance. Asuna had served with the boy back in Sword Art Online on the Frontlines. Teiji once had once been a runner for the Divine Dragon Alliance; he often ran news between the Front and the player population.

Today he didn't look so good, his school uniform was untidy and loosened. His jet black hair was a rat's nest. He had obviously large bags hanging from his eyes as if he had gotten no sleep for several weeks. He looked close to what someone might confuse a zombie. His brown eyes were bloodshot and his grim expression looked like he had taken a tour in Damnation. He was hacking a semi-constant cough, his weak voice came with a puff, light beads of sweat glistened his forehead; he sure didn't look alive. If Asuna was ever to meet the Chino family, she was going to have a serious talk with the parents on their child's apparent neglect. There was no way he could have come to school looking like this without striking a warning alert in someone's mind. It also didn't help that the morning before, he had been looking just fine. He didn't look like he could have marched to school like this, much less get out of bed. He shouldn't be in a classroom right now, he should be in a hospital ward!

He slowly made the trek to his desk, he looked like his breathing was labored and he managed a slight limp. This wasn't the Chino Teiji Asuna had come to know, this wasn't the "Kuku Hunter" he prided himself as in game. He wasn't happy, positive, and bubbly. He was drowsy, mopey, and negative. Teiji, or what kind of husk had replaced him, took a seat at his desk and dropped his book bag with a distinct thump. He laid his head down and seemed to go into hibernation. Asuna looked away, logging her concern for later when class ended where she could ask about his condition.

The teacher was already beginning the class. The aged man didn't seem to have missed on Teiji's failing health as he started his lecture.

"Good morning, class."

"Good morning, sensei." The class was quick to reply as they quickly stood then sat back down in his presence.

"Alright, today we are now on Chapter 8 of…" The teacher, Mr. Juba Sumio, was suddenly quiet looking up toward the class, specifically one boy.

Hacking coughs continued to fill the room from behind Asuna, she was quick to turn to face Teiji who was now starting to cough renewing her concern for the former SAO Frontliner.

"Chino-san, are you well?"

"Ye-yes, Juba-sensei…"

The boy was quick to reply but quickly broke down into another angry fit of coughing. One of the older boys in the back rushed to the boy's side. He patted Teiji's back as his coughs got progressively worse in an attempt to cure him of his fit. Teiji began to put his hands to his throat as if he were choking; the other students nearby had surrounded the choking boy in concern. The teacher rushed up the steps as the boy started to make audible cracking noises in his throat. Asuna knocked over her chair in her rush to get a view of the suffocating teenage boy.

"Teiji! Teiji!" A girl was calling his name as he continued to scramble for air. The boy who had tried to cure his coughs now was picking him up and putting him in a Heimlich maneuver to dislodge whatever he was choking on. The teacher had already ran to the intercom to contact the school nurse. The rest of the students watched in group horror. What the Hell was happening?

Teiji continued to choke nonetheless and started to spasm. He was running out of air.

Asuna watched in silent shock as the boy collapsed and started to gasp for air. His spasms were already beginning to slow as he ran out of oxygen. A few students screamed in apparent surprise. Crusher, the older boy performing the Heimlich maneuver, grabbed Teiji's body and put him down flat on the desk knocking away students' property and clearing the table. The teacher was next to Crusher checking for Teiji's pulse. The school nurse could be heard running down the halls outside, coming closer. Everything about this morning was quickly turning into a disaster. What was going on? What was wrong with Teiji?

The students continued to stare in shock at their unconscious classmate as the teacher began to perform CPR.

Asuna swore, it was as if demons had come out to mock her and play with her personal life. The dreams. This accident. Today wasn't Friday the 13th, today wasn't the fourth; it wasn't even Monday.

Somewhere in the distance, ambulance sirens were beginning to get closer. Asuna stared on simply asking herself, "What the hell was happened?"

…

This story is dedicated to the SAO community. When the last time I posted this chapter, it was Easter Sunday.

Below there will be a list of OCs and their creators when I use them in my story, a chapter number will note what chapters they are used and introduced.