Chapter 1 - Trap

A thin red flash shone through the plains right outside the town of beginnings. A Frenzy Boar was flung some dozen meters away from a bandana clad man who caused the earlier flash.

The said animal exploded into translucent polygons.

[.Exp: 21 .Col: 33]

"Alright!"

"And here I thought you'd take another hour to finally learn-" His companion patted his back. "Congrats."

The bandana clad man was practically flying towards his friend.

"Granted, the boars here are basically fodder."

"Don't you dare ruin my moment."

"Right." His friend waved dismissively. "In any case-"

A piercing scream echoed throughout the plains. The two companions darted to the source: It was two players dashing towards the former pair. One had raven colored hair and the other brown.

Both were wearing the expected basic equipment, the black haired one was wearing the same blue color scheme as the bandana man's friend, the latter was wearing an orange colored variation.

The running pair was now very close to the two other players.

"Uwaaaahhh!" The brunette was scrambling right past the pair and jumped behind a rock. "Here, Yamamoto!"

"Stand back!" The raven haired one called. "This guy's pissed!"

"Oi, Kirito. Should we-?"

But bandana man's friend was already dashing his way to the Frenzy boar that was five times the size of what the Red bandana clad man killed earlier. The raven haired man turned back to see two other players were holding the boar off.

The raven haired teen faced the Boar. "Looks like we don't have to take this thing on alone!"

His brown friend was carrying a Buckler. "Thank goodness. I thought I was gonna die!"

Kirito was unlashing a 3-hit combo to stagger the large boar. 'It's a good thing I bought a better sword before heading out earlier.'

His arming-sword finished its predestined combo path, Kirito stepped back.

"I got it!" His partner dashed forward in a red flash.

The boar roared for the last time before it exploded into polygons.

"That was a close one." The raven haired man waved at their rescuers. "Thanks a lot for the save!"

Kirito looked at the two players. "Don't mention it."

"Thank goodness we saw you idling by- we could've died back there." The brown haired player had his brows furrowed. "You alright, Yamamoto?"

His raven haired friend laughed. "I didn't expect that guy to be so hard."

'How come-?'

"Yeah," The brunette squeaked. "That guy was definitely bigger than the most of the pigs we killed."

"Yeah, Kirito. How come that thing was bigger?"

The bandana clad man gestured to his company.

"That was an area boss. They usually spawn in a center of other mobs." Kirito looked at the direction where the boar came from. "Granted, you need to level up a bit to be able to challenge it."

'But how come it already had most of its HP drained- don't tell me those two tried to take on that thing without knowing it was a boss?' He looked over to the pair.

"So that's why I couldn't do anything to the boar. I just need to level up more." The raven haired teen bellowed. "This place is fun, isn't it, Tsuna?"

His brunette friend's sweat dropped. "I don't know. It's giving me the creeps."

Kirito nodded. "That's how most newbies feel when doing a full-dive."

He observed the pair.

Both of them were using the default player design, except the other had his hair changed to brown; but then again, so was Kirito. Although that was because he really wanted to play the game right away.

"By the way," Klein raised an eyebrow. "Why aren't you guys equipping your weapons?"

"Ahahaha." Takeshi scratched the back of his head.

Tsuna sighed. "They broke when we were fighting the big one."

"Wait, you were scouting the plains with only your default weapons?"

They both nodded.

Kirito resisted the urge to face-palm.

"Now now..." The raven haired player patted his shoulder.

"I mean, we didn't expect it to break that quickly." Tsuna had his brow furrowed.

"We were doing quite well till they gave out." Takeshi added.

Klein waved his hand. "Don't worry too much, Kirito. They're still newbies, you know?"

"And you're not?"

"Hey!"

Klein looked over the two newbies. "I guess this is the first time you guys logged in?"

They nodded.

"Both of us decided to play around with the game for the day while my mom went shopping with the kids-er, friends of the family."

"Cool, you're friends in the other side?"

They nodded again.

"We also come to the same school." Takeshi added. "Tsuna's tutor got a few copies of the game to keep the kids in his house busy."

'Who the heck is this tutor guy? He can't possibly get multiple copies of the game just like that and not have any prior connections.' Kirito's eye twitched.

Klein held his arms over his shoulders. "I definitely know how that feels. I've got a couple of cousins, rowdy bunch. Though I lived alone for some time now."

Kirito interrupted them. "We really shouldn't be discussing real-world stuff in-game."

"Why not?" Takeshi raised an eyebrow. "It's now like we have anything to hide, right Tsuna?"

"Hiiii-" Tsuna waved his hands. "Of course!"

"In any case." Klein waved his hand. "I'll introduce myself first, I'm Klein."

"Ah, right." The black haired player nodded. "Kirito."

"Yamamoto Takeshi," The raven haired teen one beamed. "Nice to meet you!"

"Sawada Tsunayoshi," The brunette followed accordingly. "Sorry we had to rely on you guys to save us."

Slap!

Kirito's hand was on his forehead.

"Oi," Klein's eyes were wide. "You don't just blurt out things like that here!"

The two tilted their head.

"I mean saying your names!"

"You did ask for them, you know?" Takeshi chuckled. "You're a weird one."

"Weird-!?"

"I should've guessed." Kirito massaged his temple. "You guys also used your real names, didn't you?"

"Huh?" Tsuna turned to the exasperated player.

"Just click accept [Yes] when a party request pops up, alright?"

Kirito navigated the menu.

[Would you like to join Kirito's party?]

The two newbies accepted.

Klein darted his head to their party screen. "Wait-"

"Figures."

"-seriously?" Klein's eyes went wide.

The upper left corner of their screen showed the current members of their party.

[]Kirito

[]Klein

[]No-Good Tsuna

[]Takeshi

"Have you guys even played any MMOs before!?"

"I've played a couple of console games with the kids-" Tsuna shook his head. "but this is the first MMO, why?"

"You don't put any of your personal info in these sorts of things!" Kirito chastised them. "It could end up getting in the hands of dangerous people."

Takeshi laughed. "It's alright. if it's one thing Tsuna can handle, it's danger!"

'Are these people for real?' Kirito was looking over their newfound company.

"Also, Tsuna-" Klein looked at the player's name.

"Ahahaha." Tsuna scratched the back of his head. "My tutor threatened to kill me if I changed it."

'What the hell kind of tutor is that!?'

"In any case, I should be logging out now. Got some stuff to do before getting back here." Klein was exhausted trying to understand their new companions.

"You can show these guys around while I'm gone for a bit, Kirito. God knows they need it."

Takeshi laughed. "Now now..."

"S-sure..." Kirito sighed.

Klein was silent all of a sudden.

"H-hey, Kirito? Total newb question, but how do you log-out again?"

"Silly, even I know how to do that!" Takeshi chuckled. "Here, look at this-"

The raven haired teen gestured the menu and navigated to find the button. "Huh?"

Tsuna shivered. "Yamamoto?"

"It's not here."

"What?"

Then the four players were engulfed in a green light and were transported to a very familiar square. It was the center of the Town. The next thing they noticed was player after player were also being teleported to the same place till the square was filled to the brim.

"Hey! What's the big deal!? I can't get out of the square!"

Kirito heard one player shout. After that the whole area burst out a wave of noise coming from the confused players.

The beta-tester looked over to look at his company. They were sticking close together.

He walked over to them.

"Kirito, you know anything about this?" Klein raised an eyebrow.

"No, this wasn't in the beta." Kirito looked at the other two.

Takeshi had his hands over his shoulders. His face was the same as before, oblivious? no, calm. He was clam despite the oddity of the situation.

"Wow, I didn't expect to see this many people." He had his arms over his shoulders. "This game is pretty famous, isn't it?"

Kirito actually had his eye twitch at the words.

He, for the sake of his own sanity, tried scooting over to Tsuna. At least the brunette had the common sense. Even if it's askew, at least it's not on the same level as Takeshi.

Tsuna had his eyebrow furrowed like always. The brunette was clearly also unnerved by the situation, but he was looking up to the sky, unlike the other players that were busy staring at each other.

"Tsuna-?" Kirito was about to ask when the brunette opened his mouth.

"Something is coming."

Kirito darted his eyes towards the sky and, surely enough, something definitely came. The sky was currently bleeding, as the fluid that bled through materialized itself the rest of the players were already screaming.

"Saluti!" A voice erupted.

The players were now silent. The fluid promptly turned into a gigantic robed figure, it had a daunting hood over its head and loomed over the players.

"Players, I welcome you all to my world." The figure raised its arms. "My name is Kayaba Akihiko."

'What?'

'What the hell...'

'Isn't that guy supposed to be the...'

Players were now beginning to restore their earlier noise. But the figure waved his arm and the players were engulfed in a bright light.

Kirito was able to close his eyes so he was able to recover quicker than the others. He looked over his company to ensure their safety; only to find three completely different people rubbing their eyes.

Granted, they were wearing the same equipment his company had now that he gave a second look.

One man was about the same height as him, he had a brushed up hairdo and a stubble. Kirito was easily able to tell he was Klein, he was wearing his red bandana, after all.

The other two, however he could only ask to confirm.

"Is that you, Takeshi?"

"Kirito?" The one who answered was the man taller than Kirito. He had short-spiky raven hair and when he opened his eyes to look around, they were brown.

"I'm here." He waved.

"The heck!?" Klein patted his shoulder. "Is that really you, man?"

Kirito nodded. "I think you should take a look at each other."

Yamamoto laughed. "Is that you, Klein? You have a stubble!"

"Yeah yeah...wait what!?" He rubbed his chin. "The heck!? This is my face!"

He looked over the other two. "Damn, you guys are pretty tall for your age."

Yamamoto laughed. "Thanks!"

Kirito laughed dryly.

The raven haired teen then turned to his friend. "Tsuna?"

The other two looked over to see their last companion.

Kirito saw Takeshi pat the shoulder of a short brunette whose hair defied the laws of gravity. The brunette was looking down at the floor, furrowing his brow. When somebody called he turned to look.

"Eh? Yamamoto?" Tsuna looked over and saw them. "Klein? Kirito?"

Kirito looked at Tsuna's eyes; they were amber. 'Those eyes.'

He shook his head. "Tsuna? You're quick to guess who we were."

"Ah-" He laughed dryly. "Intuition, I guess?"

Kirito raised an eyebrow.

"Tsuna's good at guessing." Takeshi grabbed him by the shoulder. "That's how he's passed every test so far."

"Hey!"

Takeshi rubbed Tsuna's head.

'These guys are taking this in stride.' Kirito sighed. 'Scratch that, I don't think they even understand the situation at hand.'

"Now that I have given you ample time to adapt to the visual changes in your avatar, I am here to explain to you the recent updates I have placed upon the game." He flew higher. "First and foremost, you can no longer log-out."

This raised a loud outburst. The figure however ignored most of it.

"If you people do not be silent from now on, you will not be able to hear, let alone understand." it continued. "Are you willing to sacrifice crucial intel over petty noise and ranting?"

As if a ghost passed through the entire area, all players became silent.

"Good." The figure nodded. "I have already informed the general public about this information as well, so you need to worry over yourselves now."

'General public?' Kirito furrowed his brow. 'Why does he need them to know?'

"Other than the general changes in appearance- you now have two items in your inventory."

All the players scrambled to gesture the menu and look over what changed in their items.

Kirito looked at his items to find two items.

[Dying will Flame - Guidebook]

[Unidentified E-class Ring]

"W-what are these?" He murmured.

Then he heard a shriek. Klein and he looked over to the source and found it was Tsuna. The brunette had a mortified face while staring at his user interface.

But what shocked Kirito most was that Takeshi also was stern. He didn't even know the teen could actually have that kind of expression.

'Do they know something about these new items?'

Kirito was about to ask when the figure spoke again. "As you can see, the two items in your inventory are the guide book and a ring. Any further questions about what I am to explain to you now is found in the book."

As the figure explained the brief changes to the game, two players were too focused to the revelation than to listen over the looming figure.

Tsuna was staring at his inventory, completely shutting out any noise made by the figure and the other players. 'H-how...'

He eyed the items again. 'Dying will flame.'

"Tsuna," He looked over and saw Takeshi looking grim. "This- how come...?"

"I don't know, Yamamoto." He shook his head. He clicked the book and a physical tome was summoned.

Tsuna scanned the contents of the book.

'Seven flames... the mafia... Verde's research notes... they're all here!'

Takeshi was also looking over Tsuna's tome. "But there isn't anything that says about the Vongola."

Tsuna turned.

Takeshi was smiling at him. "They're still safe, Tsuna. Whoever this Akihiko guy is, he knows about the flames."

"But he doesn't know anything about the current affairs."

"That's right."

"Then- if we use this ring?"

"It said unidentified..."

"so-?"

"If we summon our flames, it'll designate itself to whatever type the user carries." Tsuna spoke softly, Yamamoto looked at him and saw his eyes had an orange glint to it. "We need to tell Reborn about this."

"Roger that," He nodded. "But how can we contact the baby the others-?"

The pair was then distracted by the sudden series of screams.

They looked around to find some people that suddenly collapsed. After a few moments their bodies suddenly disappeared into polygons.

"What in the-"

"As I explained earlier, any attempts at removing your gear will result to death. Likewise when your HP will reach zero. These people had their gear tampered from the other side, thus the results."

The figure became bigger. "Players! I implore you to struggle, to endure, and to overcome this obstacle. Of course, with the dying will aiding you it is never impossible. As explained in the book. Such an ability exists in the outside world."

The players that were panicking became worse.

Kirito was pulled from his thoughts as he heard.

"If you clear the castle's floors and survive in this game, by then you will have the ability to control this power in the real world. Call it an unparalleled reward for beating the odds."

"What make you so sure we'll take that bait!?" one player voiced.

'I'd like to think it's a ruse, but-' He looked over to the two of his companions that were reading a copy of the guide.

The figure gestured and a gigantic holographic screen appeared in front of them. It played a video of a man in a tuxedo in the middle of a gun fight. He was cornered when he pulled a small box and a ring.

The video was shot in a zoomed in angle where they could see what he was doing but the man was oblivious of the fact he was being filmed.

He put the ring on and clenched his fist.

To the surprise of everyone a green flash erupted from his hand and a crackle of green lightning was present in his ring.

'What in the hell-!?' Kirito was wide eyed.

The man then proceeded to punch in his ring to the strange box. After a second and a flash of light, a turret gun suddenly appeared!

The screen disappeared and the figure waved his hands. All players were still in awe of the scene, nobody tried to make any noise.

"Satisfied?"

In the thick pile of players was Tsuna being dragged down by another player that collapsed.

"Damn," He instinctively tried to carry him. "I got you!"

But before he could do anything else the man disappeared in a pile of polygons. The brunette looked at the polygons as it was snuffed out. The face of the player right before he disappeared burned through Tsuna's mind.

The player-no, the man knew he would die; his face said it all.

"C'mon, that's not a face to show at a time like this." A blonde man tightened his embrace. "That's not what your mother taught you."

Tsuna could feel the couple's raw emotion from afar.

The teen looked at the peaceful face they were showing amidst facing death. Then his eyes fell to the gentle azure eyes of the girl on the blonde man's embrace.

'When you're happy; smile with your heart!'

Tears fell from the girl.

Both of them disappeared in a feint orange glow, leaving seven pacifiers to fall in their remaining clothing.

Tsuna slammed his fist on the ground.

"Tsuna-" Takeshi tried to grab his friend but he was able to stand up on his own.

The brunette was looking down, his eyes hidden by his thick hair but Yamamoto could sense it: Tsuna's killing intent.

His friend wasn't the one that can hold a grudge, hell, he's even befriended most of the people he once fought with. But there were only few instances that his fights included innocents. And every time it did he would always put their safety first.

"Hey, kid-?"

Takeshi held back Klein who was about to come close to his boss. 'It was just like when Gamma and Uni...'

Tsuna started to walk.

Kirito was looking at the figure, his thoughts on the fact that they're all practically hostages by the man.

"Players-"

"Why are you doing this?"

The figure was about to conclude its speech when a voice cut through the players' silence. It was not a loud voice, it wasn't deep either. But everybody that heard it felt the authority behind its words.

Kirito tried to find where the source was. The figure shrunk itself and went closer to the player that voiced.

"My purpose is to reveal the truth to the world-"

"Just for something petty as that, you dare toy with innocents?"

'Tsuna!?' Kirito was wide eyed.

Tsuna was looking down, his hair covering his eyes.

"Petty- You dare call my life work petty!? Who are you to-"

"People just died!" The brunette raised his head.

Kirito flinched at the boy in front of him. 'Tsuna-?'

Tsuna's face was furious! He looked like he was ready to tear the figure to shreds. His eyes had an orange glint but it looked enthralling despite the ominous killing intent.

"You dare put all this under the pretense of truth!?"

"But-"

"But nothing!" Tsuna waved his hand dismissively.

Bang!

All the people that surrounded him reeled back from an unseen pressure excreted; except for Takeshi, who was now standing behind the left side of the brunette.

Kirito was able to retain his balance. 'W-was that from...'

"Tsuna!?" Klein called from beside Kirito.

Kirito ignored him and looked back to see that the figure taken aback. "W-who are you-"

"I know that's not the real you." Tsuna interrupted. "But know this, for the sake of those who already died-"

Kirito could've sworn he saw a flickering light on Tsuna's face. Tsuna grabbed the empty cloak and slammed it down to the rim of the fountain.

"I'll make you regret it!"

Immortal Object

The fountain revealed a purple polygon. Then the entire radius of the fountain was then riddled by the polygons.

The figure teleported to the sky, it was now bigger than earlier. It hovered by the sky, unmoving.

Kirito waited for any response.

"R-right. Players..."

The figure glanced back to the brunette.

"-fight bravely."

The figure disappeared.

Author Notes:

I know, I know. "Another story? What the hell, man!? Just stick to one and update it a lot."

I couldn't help it. I saw an ēlDLIVE + KHR video on youtube and I was struck with nostalgic memories like a bus!

Here's the Link: watch?v=Pd7PMr5C4Lc

I really loved this manga when I was still in grade school so couldn't help but have the need to quench my nostalgia tug. (My phone was playing LiSA songs while I was re-reading some favorite moments of the manga, that's how I got the idea of the fic.)

. . .

Also by the 18th will be my college department's Christmas party so after that I've got all vacation to finally update my first fic (I actually have four chapters roughed out; just need to polish them).