Chapter 18

Hey, everyone, I am finally here to bring in the next chapter to this story, and for those that are reading this there will be two or three chapters left after this, but before we continue I do not own Sword Art Online or any of its contents, I do own my OC's, weapons, that are not apart of the show, and the story idea, other than that I hope you all like the chapter, so enjoy.

"Talk"

'Thoughts'

*Place/time*

(Flashback)

"There we go, another task done, and along with it comes the amazing gift of another demonic sword, while doing this whole thing by myself, well not completely since I have you with me, right Zoey?" Nightmare spoke out loud with a tired sigh before he looked to his left, and saw his daughter in her pixie form giving him a big smile.

"Yep, but on the bright side, ever since you got Gram, you have been given so many other demonic swords that are similar to it, though I do have to admit the time we spend together is great, father-daughter bonding is great and all, but there is something about it after doing it for a long time that just makes it seem so depressing, and it just makes me feel like something is missing, in my life, do you have the same feeling papa?" Zoey replied to what Nightmare said, before asking a question that made Nightmare freeze for a second, before closing his eyes and let out a depressing sigh.

"I know the feeling, and if I am right then it is feeling that you miss Rain, just like me." Nightmare answered Zoey's question with a depressed look appearing on his face, which Zoey soon had on her face the second she heard the answer.

Ever since the quest before the New Year, everything just went south, to start things off Asuna has been looking depressed and tried to hide her problems from everyone, but Nightmare/Ray knew that she was not okay, she seemed lost in thought, along with that Kirito/Kazuto seemed to be getting busy with all of his programmings, on the other hand, Nijiki, Rainbow, and Sumeragi have been distant since the quest was over, there was this aura around them that made everything depressing, though when Ray/Nightmare went to ask if there was something wrong, the answer he got all the time was a negative, something that made him even more worried than before, it has gotten so bad that they have not appeared in the game as often as they did, when they did enter into the game it was for an hour at best, sometimes even less on certain days, other than that everyone was busy with other stuff, such as school or work, and other times it was family stuff, like vacation or cleaning or something along those lines.

'So much has changed, since the party, now it is just a mess these days, especially with those four hiding something painful and not allowing us to help them at all, I just wish that I could do something.' Nightmare thought with a sigh, as he looked at his friends' list, and saw something that he found odd, it was Asuna's location, it was the night that he knew, the stars were out and it was pleasant at the moment, but it was strange to find out that she was somewhere different from where everyone else was at, it honestly bugged him, and from the look, he saw Zoey had on her face it was something that she agreed with him about.

"Papa, why is aunt Asuna far away from everyone else?" Zoey asked Nightmare, who just shrugged his shoulders since, in all honesty, he did not know why Asuna was where she was at, while the others are somewhere else, he did know that they were doing something today, something about fighting someone nicknamed the Absolute sword or something like that.

"I do not know, but I have a request to go help the clearers to beat the boss they were planning to fight." Nightmare answered Zoey, before muttering about a message that he received a bit ago, which seemed to make Zoey look at him in wonder.

"Are you going to do it?" Zoey asked Nightmare with what one would claim to be a cute look appearing on her face, but when she asked that question, it made Nightmare think about what she said for a few seconds.

"I do not know if I should do it, after all, I do not have any reason to do it since there is nothing to make me go out there in the field for me to do, I mean nothing is all that difficult now, just some things that I can easily kill, even the boss the clearers are going to face is easy for me to face, the only thing that I would have to do to make sure the floor is clear is someone with me." Nightmare replied with a sigh escaping his lips, but the second he answered Zoey's question, he felt another tap to his face, and looked at her, before looking at his menu, that she was pointing at.

The thing that surprised him was that Blade was with Asuna and that surprised him since he was not there the last time he checked, or maybe he was, and he just never noticed until Zoey pointed it out to him, though that left a big question on his mind, and that is what are those two doing that was they were away from the others, Blade he can kinda understand since he likes to scop out the competition against their shop, but the fact that he and Asuna are in a building that he remembers as a cafe if he recalls right, then what are they doing there together, it honestly left Nightmare more confused than he would like, so he just shakes his head and just gets ready to fly away from the spot he is at, since he was standing in the same spot for about twenty minutes now, or maybe somewhere close to that, he doesn't know since he did not keep track of time during the whole conversation.

"I have no idea what is going on Zoey, but if I have to guess both Asuna and Blade are talking to someone, so for a while I will just do what I normally do." Nightmare spoke up, as he had his wings appear before he launched himself in the air with Zoey holding onto him, as he was flying to their home.

'...So much has happened, yet I am here by myself...' Nightmare thought sadly, hoping that something good or interesting will happen soon.

*A few days later*

'Hmm...let's see, clearing floors, new dungeons, people making names for themselves, yep, nothing new, wait a second there is a new event, a tournament, well that sounds fun, all the new challenges, that makes my blood race, I can't wait to fight in it, but it also makes me wonder, will the others join too?' Nightmare thought with his face showing the different emotions that he felt, though that changed when he saw two messages in his inbox.

'Blade and Sumeragi sent me messages for me to meet them at two different times today, for Blade an hour, for Sumeragi it is three hours, two different time tables, but they are at the same location, it would be best if I closed the shop today, these messages sound important.' Nightmare thought before he closed his menu, to then change into his combat gear, and left the shop to go to where he had to meet Blade, it took a bit, but he soon saw his friend standing on a hill by himself, which made Nightmare worried a bit, but he pushed those thoughts to the side and landed near him, but when he didn't turn around Nightmare knew that he was here, and it unnerved him a bit seeing him like this, but after a bit, he finally spoke.

"Nightmare...I need advice..." Blade spoke up with a tone of voice that sounded dead, causing Nightmare to cringe a bit when he heard it.

"Alright I will help you to the best of my abilities, but I need to know what is going on, so a little bit of detail would be nice." Nightmare commented, but all he got was a sigh and nod from Blade.

"Alright, so you know the new guild the Sleeping Knight?" Blade questioned, causing Nightmare to raise an eyebrow.

"Yea the guild you and Asuna joined, so what I have heard, what about it, did something bad happened?" Nightmare replied with a bit of concern appearing on his face when Blade started mentioning the guild he was apart of.

"Well the leader, is well...she has a medical issue, and I was wondering...do you have any idea to solve the problem?" Blade answered Nightmare, though the answer was a bit hesitant to say the less, but Nightmare accepted the answer.

"It honestly depends on what she has." Nightmare stated honestly because no one can answer a question if they do not have all the information that it is needed.

"She has AIDS." Blade answered with a sigh escaping his lips, causing NIghtmare to wince a bit when he heard Blade say that.

"Um...well maybe, I have some people you can talk to about that, but if what I think is going on is happening, but I think it is possible if we mix something that I was told with some medical stuff, but that is a long shot, though it is not something out ruled." Nightmare replied after thinking about it for a few moments, causing Blade to look at him in shock.

"R-Really?" Blade muttered out in pure shock appearing in his voice, something Nightmare noticed but did not dive into why Blade was acting like this since he honestly knew a good reason why he was acting like this.

"Yea, now let me just send you the information, so you can see if it works or not, well my idea, also tell them I'm cashing in my favor." Nightmare told Blade in a stern tone of voice, to which he bowed his head to Nightmare, causing Nightmare to sweatdrop a bit when Blade did this.

*A few hours later*

"Ugh, I hope Sumeragi gets here because now I am bored." Nightmare muttered under his breath, before he paused, as a blue blur fly around before landing right next to him, revealing the blur to be Sumeragi.

"Nightmare..." Sumeragi spoke with a calm calculated look on his face, causing Nightmare to sweatdrop when he heard what he said.

"Hey...so what did you want to talk about, did something happened to Nijiki?" Nightmare replied with a question that has been making him worried, the health and condition his girlfriend was in, he honestly does not care how rude it made him look, after all, nothing matter at the moment other than the condition Nijiki is in, but because Sumeragi did this, it was something to be concern about.

"No, nothing that is harmful to her physical health, but the situation she is in, well I can't say much, but before you say something let me explain what is happening, then you can make any comments that you want, so until I am finish do not say anything, after all the news I am going to give you is something that you should take seriously since this news will change everything you know in the real world, otherwise known as your personal life, meaning your love life will be different, and it will break you probably, it honestly depends on you, and how you act later, after the events of what happens to you and Nijiki happen, so I am sorry for what is going to happen to you two," Sumeragi replied, before saying something that made Nightmare freeze since the very tone that Sumeragi was using was nothing he ever heard from the man before, and it made Nightmare nervous to hear what Sumeragi has to say, but after hearing no reply Sumeragi knew that he could continue speaking.

"As you know Nijiki's father is a man that is different from others, but he also hates to be taken away from a place that he loves to someplace he does not want to be at, in other words, he is going to force his whole family to go to America soon, meaning that the two of you will be separated, and to add more to the problem, neither of you can afford the price of the contact distance you will have to deal with...once again I am sorry for what is going to happen, and that is all I am here to say, but I also want you to know that Nijiki is fight to stay here along with her mother, and Rainbow, they are honestly trying to fight the man in this decision that he forcibly made, leading to the situation that we are in now." Sumeragi told Nightmare the news about what was happening to Nijiki, causing him to freeze in place when he heard what was happening with Nijiki, he was so lost in thought that Nightmare did not notice that Sumeragi left a few seconds that Nightmare was deep in his thoughts.

"...Well then, I guess your not the only one that has to fight something without their fist, there is only one way to solve this problem and the answer starts with me getting enough money to do it, hopefully, I can do what needs to be done before they have to leave to go to America." Nightmare spoke out loud, as a blazing fire appeared in his eyes before he logged out of ALO to go achieve what he was planning.

To be continued...

There we go, I hope that you all liked the chapter, and all that, and I will do my best to hurry up with the next chapter if you have any questions feel free to ask by any way possible, besides that, I hope that you all have a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year as well!

Alternate Journey