The Land of Fairies

January 20th, 2024 - Dicey Cafe

After the call I got from Kirito he told me to go to Dicey Cafe who the owner is Agil

We both opened the door and head inside where Agil noticed us

Andrew: "Oh, you two got here quickly."

Kazuto: "Looks like business is bad as usual." I elbowed him in the arm

Kazuto: "Ow!"

Rin: "Watch what your saying Kirito... Don't mind him Agil he's just a bit grumpy"

Andrew: "Oh I don't mind besides... This place is packed in here at night."

We both sat on the chairs in front of the counter

Rin: "So Agil... What was that image that Kirito sent me?"

Andrew: "It'll take a while to explain, but first..." He then takes out what looks like a game

Andrew: "Do you two know about this?" He then slides the game on the counter and Kirito grabs it

Kazuto: "A game?"

Rin: "I've heard about it but that's it."

Andrew: "It's an MMO for the AmuSphere, the successor of the NerveGear

Rin: "So it's pretty much like SAO then?"

He nods

Kazuto: ""Alf...heim Online"?"

Andrew: "I heard it's pronounced "Alvhame". Supposedly means "Land of Fairies"."

Kazuto: "Fairies?"

Kazuto: ""Land of Fairies," huh?"

Rin: "That's pretty cool." I say while drinking my water

Kazuto: "Is it a casual game?"

Rin: "From what I heard it's pretty repetitive."

Andrew: "She's right it's not a casual game. It features an extreme-skill system, which emphasizes a player's skill and encourages PKing."

Rin: 'At least they don't die now...'

Kazuto: "Extreme-skill system?"

Agil: "It means that players don't have levels."

Rin: "Can you explain it more?"

Agil: "What I'm saying is that each skill is improved through girnding and combat depends on a player's physical capabilities."

Kazuto: "Sounds tough."

Rin: "No kidding..."

Agil: "It's like SAO, but with magic instead of sword skills. I hear that it's all the rage lately. The reason being that can fly in it."

Rin: "I'm sorry what?"

Kazuto: "Fly?"

Andrew: "Since the players are fairies, they have wings. The game has a built-in flight engine, which allows for free-roaming flight once a person becomes accustomed to it."

Kazuto: "Eh? How do the controls for it work?"

Agil: "No clue. But I hear it's pretty hard to master."

Rin: "Obviously... it's a new body part pretty much."

Kirito who is still a gamer at heart got excited at this feature

Kazuto: "Well, that's a given. You'd be manipulating wings that humans don't have. Maybe it's controlled with back muscles."

Andrew: "Ahem."

Kazuto: "Ah."

Rin: "Aren't we on more a bigger situation right now Kirito?"

Kazuto: "R-Right so, how's a popular game like this related to Asuna?" Agil then shows us the pictures that look like Asuna

Andrew: "What do you two think?"

Rin: "What do we think? It literally looks like Asuna." Kirito nods

Andrew: "I thought you two would agree."

Kazuto: "Then hurry up and tell us. Where was this taken?" He stood up

Rin: "Hey relax Kirito he's going to explain it to us." He calmed down the sat back down

Andrew: "It's inside the game in Alfheim Online." He then flips the game over and showed us the map of the game

Andrew: "At what's called Yggdrasil, or the World Tree. There's a legendary castle atop this tree."

Rin: "You don't say?..."

Andrew: "Anyways players are divided into nine races and they compete to see who can reach the castle first."

Kazuto: "Can't they just fly there?" I deadpan

Rin: "Kirito if they can just fly there then there would be a winner already..."

Andrew: "There's supposedly a flight duration limit, so it's not possible to fly endlessly. And so, five players piggybacked on each other in order of size and used each other like rocket boosters."

Kazuto: "I see. It's a ridiculous idea, but ingenious at the same time."

Rin: "So what happened?"

Andrew: "Well they still couldn't even reach the tree's lowest branch, but... they did take a few pictures. One of those pictures showed something strange."

He then told us the picture

Kazuto: "A birdcage?"

Andrew: "And when you zoom in as close as possible what you get is... this." He pointed to the pictures

Kazuto: "But, why is Asuna in a place like this?"

We then saw a familiar company name on the back

Kazuto: ""RCT Progress"?"

Sugou: "In other words, it wouldn't be wrong to say Asuna's life is being sustained by me."

Rin: "Tch... It seems like something is up right now..."

Kazuto: "Agil, mind giving this to me?"

Andrew: "Not at all, but are you planning to go there?"

Kazuto: "I want to see it for myself."

...

Kazuto: "A game where your life isn't on the line is a piece of cake."

Rin: "Of course it is..."

Andrew: "What about you Hikari?"

Rin: "Of course I'm going inside the game, Agil."

Kazuto then finishes his tea

Kazuto: "I'll need to buy the hardware too."

Andrew: "It's compatible with the NerveGear. The AmuSphere is just a safer NerveGear, after all."

Kazuto: "Good to know."

Andrew: "You two better bring Asuna back to the real world. Until then, our fight isn't over."

Rin: "You bet it isn't."

Kazuto: "Yeah. Let's all meet up here someday." We fist-bumped each other

We went outside the cafe to go to our respective homes

Kazuto: "Hey Hikari..."

Rin: "What is it?"

Kazuto: "Thanks for helping me all this time..."

Rin: "Don't thank me yet until we bring back Asuna okay?" I then faced him

Rin: "Besides we are a party of three after all right?" Kirito then smiles

Kazuto: "Yeah we are." We high fived and then we continued walking

Outside of Kirigaya Residence

Rin: "Well see you later inside the game Kirito."

Kazuto: "Ah right there are some cupcakes if you want before you go."

Rin: "Wait really? Well, I won't say no to free food." I dashed inside the residence to find Sugu laying on the porch

I then see Sugu go hot red and sit up

Rin: 'Hmm?'

Suguha: "I'm being so stupid!" She was going to eat a cupcake not realizing I was right beside her

Rin: "And why is that?" She then ate the cupcake

Suguha: "Eh! Rin! Ack-" She then started holding her throat

Rin: 'Ah... Right, I forgot about this...' She was choking

Suguha: "Mmmmgh!" She tried to reach for her juice box but it fell over

I then gave it to her

Rin: "Umm here..."

She then drank the juice box and exhaled

Suguha: "I-I thought I was a goner."

Rin: "Ahaha... Sorry, Sugu."

Just then Kazuto came in and was confused

Kazuto: "What happened?"

Rin: "Just a minor accident that occurred." He then shrugged it off and sat on the porch

Kazuto: "Sugu, about last night..."

Suguha: "Y-Yeah?"

Kazuto: "Well, how should I say it... Thank you." I was busy eating the cupcakes since it was really good

Suguha: "Eh?'

Kazuto: "Because of you, I finally snapped out of it. I'm not going to give up."

Rin: "When would you not give up Kazuto that's the thing."

We both chuckled

Kazuto: "In any case I'm... No..." He faced to me

Kazuto: "The both of us are going to bring back Asuna no matter what."

Rin: "You can say that again." But when I checked Sugus face she had a hint of sadness in it

Suguha: "Sure. You two better give it your best. I'd like to meet Asuna-san too."

Kazuto: "I'm sure you'd get along with her. Well then, I'll see you two later. Enjoy the cupcakes Rin." He then went inside

Rin: "Yeah you too." Now it's just the two of us

Rin: "So what was that about when I came in?" She flinched then she had a blush on her face

Suguha: "U-Um it's nothing." I then leaned closer to her face

Rin: "Oh~ But it looked like you were thinking about something naughty~" At this point her face was now like a tomato

Suguha: "T-Too close..." She muttered I then chuckled

Rin: "I'm just joking I'm sure it's none of my business." I leaned back

Rin: "Anyway changing the subject who baked this cupcakes."

Suguha: "It was me."

Rin: "Well they taste really good!"

Suguha: "Really?!"

Rin: "Yep!"

Suguha: "T-Thank you... I picked it up when you were baking cupcakes for us."

RIn: "Really you got that just from watching me bake that amazing!" I smiled at her and she got even redder

Rin: "Oh right I should better go now. See you later Sugu!" I then got up and walked back to my house

Suguha: "B-Bye Rin."

Home

After putting on my casual outfit I went upstairs looked at the AmuSphere and the game I bought

Sugou: "The ceremony will be held in a week, on January 26th, in this hospital room... you guys are invited."

My eyes glow red for a few seconds

Rin: "Tch... Just thinking about him makes me ticked off." I then plugged in the AmuSphere and made sure the game is in its place

After that, I then put the AmuSphere on my face and lay on my bed

Rin: "Six days left no biggie..." I took a deep breath I then closed my eyes

...

...

...

Rin: "Link Start!"

System: "Welcome to Alfheim Online!"

I was in the character selection area

Rin: "Well this is interesting..." A keyboard screen came up in front of me

System: "To begin, please enter your character's gender and name." I put the gender to female and I was going to type my name but I stopped

Rin: "Should I really use the same name?" I thought about it then shook it off

Rin: "Eh. Kazuto is going to use his old avatar name anyway." I then typed "Hikari" on the keyboard

After I clicked confirmed I saw multiple avatars in different race

System: "The next step is race selection. Please choose one of the nine races."

I then looked through the nine races Cait Sith, Gnome, Imp, Leprechaun, Pooka, Salamander, Spriggan, Sylph, and Undine.

Rin: 'I want to choose Undine because of its healing magic and because of its amazing support magic but the Spriggan while not really having the best magic spells for combat I could use it to hide and get some good loot and I can also have Night Vision which makes it easier to fight in total darkness and not to mention I can wield any type of weapon."

I was going to pick Undine when I just remembered something important

Rin: "If I choose Undine I won't be able to be in the same location as Kazuto... Ugh!" After much thinking...

Rin: "Screw it I'll choose Spriggan I'm much more of a stealthy type of player anyway and besides I love to get some good loot and not to mention it's nice to wield any type of weapon."

I then picked Spriggan Race

System: "Spriggan, correct? Your character's appearance will be randomly generated. Is that all right?"

Rin: "Please be lucky and not change anything about my body." I then clicked okay

System: "You will now be transferred to the Spriggans' hometown."

I was then consumed by a bright light

System: "We wish you the best of luck."

...

...

...

I opened my eyes to see myself falling down and I can see the Spriggan hometown below

I then see someone else falling down as well

Hikari: "Isn't that Kirito over there?" Looks like we both dived into the game at the same time

Just then lightning struck

*ERROR ERROR*

I stopped falling for some reason

After that a black void consumed the Spriggan Hometown

I was now slowly falling down

Hikari: "Ahh crap..."

I fell into the dark void

Hikari: "AHHHHHHH!"

...

...

January 20th, 2025 - Alfheim - Neutral Region - Elder Forest

I then hit the ground but...

Hikari: 'Hold on why is it soft?'

Kirito: "Aughh..."

Hikari: 'Oh...' I was on top of Kirito

I then got off him

Hikari: "Sorry about that Kirito."

I then inspect my avatar and it used my real body and I also have the starting gear

Hikari: 'That's good...'

Kirito: "It's fine Woah..." We then looks at our surroundings and it was beautiful

Kirito: "Here we go again. Even after we have gone through all that."

Hikari: "Well we are a gamer at heart so we couldn't stay away for too long."

Kirito: "Yeah" He then got on his feet

Kirito: "Anyway, where are we?"

Hikari: "Hell if I know I never know the map of this game."

Kirito: "Hmm..." He then tried to open his menu using his right hand

...

...

Nothing

...

...

Hikari: "I think you suppose to use it on your left hand." I then swipe my finger down using my left hand and the menu popped up

Kirito: "Oh." He did the same and we both checked the settings to see if the logout button is there

Kirito: "It's here!" He then clicked on it to make sure it works

Hikari: "Well that's a relief" We both relaxed after we found out the logout button works

Kirito: "So what about my stats..."

Hikari: "It's probably the same as when we first started." I then checked my stats to see

Hikari: "Wait what?"

Kirito: "Hikari look at this." He then showed me his stats and I showed him mine

Kirito: "Is this some sort of bug?"

Kirito: "Wait a minute they're the same as our skill levels in SAO."

Hikari: "But how is that possible? Are we in SAO?"

Kirito: "I have no clue."

We both checked out items to see all of them were question marks

Hikari: "Well that's a shame..."

Kirito: "Wait a minute!"

Hikari: "Hm? What's wrong?" I then see him scrolling down his items

Kirito: "Please... be here." I then see a familiar item name

Hikari: "MHCP001... Wait isn't that!" He then clicked the item name and it showed a tear-shaped object

...

He then tapped the item and it blinded us by a bright light

...

It was forming something or someone

It showed...

Yui.

She then opened her eyes to see Kirito

Kirito: "It's me, Yui. Remember?" She then teared up

Yui: "We meet again, Papa."

Kirito: "Yui!"

The two then hugged each other and I smiled

Yui: "Papa! Papa!"

Hikari: 'I'm glad to see she's doing alright.'

Yui: "Papa..."

Kirito: "Miracles really do exist."

Hikari: "Maybe they do Kirito."

I then walked to Yui

Hikari: "Hey Yui."

Yui: "Onee-chan... It's you."

Hikari: "Yep it's me your big sister!" I smiled at her

Yui: "Onee-chan!" She then jumped toward me and I fell to the ground she then hugged me really hard

Yui: "Onee-chan..." She keeps rubbing her face on my chest and I couldn't help but smile at her

After a few minutes, we sat down to relax a bit and again Yui as old times sat on my lap

Hikari: 'Ahaha...'

Kirito: "So, what exactly is going on here?"

Yui was confused a bit

Hikari: "Well, um Yui this world isn't SAO. It's a different VRMMO game that is called Alfheim Online and that is what we are in."

Yui: "Hm... Please hold on for a moment." She then presses both of her temples

Yui: "I believe this world is a copy of Sword Art Online."

Kirito: "A copy?"

Yui: "Yes. The main programs and graphics format are completely identical. However, they seem to be using an older version of the Cardinal system."

Kirito: "After Argus went under, a company called RCT was entrusted with the post-management of SAO."

Hikari: "So basically RCT is just taking advantage of the Argus technology that they inherited?" He nods

Kirito: "But why did our character data remain?"

Yui: "Please let me take a quick look at both of your data." She then closes her eyes

...

Yui: "There's no doubt about it. These are the character data of both of your SAO avatars. The save data format was practically unchanged, so the skill levels that were carried over from SAO must have overwritten the two of your base stats."

Hikari: "Oh yeah so that's why your Dual-Wielding skill is gone Kirito"

Yui: "The two of your items... seem to be missing as well."

Hikari: "Well we are in a different game after all so it makes sense."

Yui: "I think it's best to get rid of them before an error inspection program notices."

Kirito: "I see.

Hikari: "Awesome... Well, these are practically useless anyway." I then went into my item storage and deleted all of my items

I looked over to Kirito and he is reluctant on deleting all of his items

Kirito: "Um..."

Hikari: "Kirito those items are useless anyway they are just wasting storage."

Kirito: "Y-Yeah your right..." He closes his eyes and presses the okay button deleting all the items

He then sighs

Hikari: "So Yui. What are we going to do about our skills?"

Yui: "You two shouldn't need to worry about that as long as a human Gamer Master doesn't check them personally."

Kirito: "I-I see."

Hikari: "Great we're now both cheaters now..." I sighed

Kirito: "Hey Yui what does the system categorize you as?"

Then closes her eyes to check

Yui: "Um... I'm seen as an artificial personality program for a player support- navigation pixie." Yui who was sitting on my lap was glowing and it was blinding us

Hikari: "U-Um Yui..."

Kirito: "Hey!"

She then transforms into a pixie which she has a light pink dress with wings on her back

Yui: "This is how I look like a pixie."

Kirito: "Woah..." He then pokes her cheek

Yui: "That tickles!" But he kept poking her I then gently grabbed her and put her on my shoulders so she can sit down

Hikari: "You should probably stop that."

Kirito: "Oh sorry so, do you have admin authority like before?"

Yui: "No, I'm only capable of referencing and accessing wide-area map data."

Kirito: "I see. The truth is, we might find Asuna no Mama here."

Yui: "Huh? Mama? What do you mean?"

Hikari: "You see Yui even after your Papa cleared SAO, Asuna and a bunch of other players didn't wake up in the real world. We were informed that somebody who looks like Asuna is in Alfheim."

Yui: "I see..."

Kirito: "We have a general idea of where we can find her. Someplace called Yggdrasil. That's probably it..."

Yui: "Mama's over there?" I nodded

...

...

...

Kirito: "That reminds me. Why did we end up in this deserted forest when we logged in?"

Hikari: "That's what I want to know. We were supposed to be at our hometown not here."

Yui: "I wonder. Maybe the location data was corrupted or maybe there was some sort of interference."

Kirito: "Either way, it'd have been nice if we ended up closer to Yggdrasil." We both stood up then suddenly our wings came out

Kirito: "Oh, so these are our wings?"

Hikari: "How do we even use them?"

Yui: "There should be a support controller. Raise your left hand and close it as if you were grasping something."

We both did what Yui told us and a controller spawned in our hands

Yui: "Um, pull it towards yourself to ascend, push it outwards to descend, and move it left or right to turn."

When we pulled it towards ourselves our wings made us hover above the ground

Kirito: "Woah!"

Hikari: "What's next Yui?"

Yui: "Push down on the button to accelerate, and release it to decelerate."

I started to just do it slowly and then started to move however it is still hard to control since I'm using a controller

Kirito however took a while to get used to and we both started to fly

Yui: "You guys can fly as long as the wings are glittering. After a certain amount of time you need to let your wings rest."

We then did just some test loops and we both got used to using the controller

Kirito: "All right, I think we both got the hang of this. For starters, can you tell me where the closest town is?"

Yui: "There's a Sylph town called Swilvane to the west. That's the closest- Huh?"

Hikari: "What's wrong Yui?"

Yui: "There are other players close by."

Hikari: "Where exactly?"

Yui: "Follow me."

Hikari: "Well you heard her Kirito let's go."

Kirito: "Yeah." We then started following Yui

~Third POV~

AN: Prepare for bad fighting scenes

While Kirito, Hikari follows Yui to the players nearby.

In the Sky

Recon: "Lea... Leafa-chan! Wait!"

Leafa: "Hurry up, Recon. If we can manage to reach Sylph territory-" Just then Leafa saw a fireball coming right at them

Leafa: "Recon, dodge to the side!"

Recon: "Woah!" He barely dodges it and Leafa does the same

They then saw five Salamander players coming right to them

Leafa: "Jeez, they're persistent! Fine then." She takes out her sword

Leafa: "Prepare for battle!"

Recon: "What?! We can't! I'm sure Sigurd and the rest were..."

Leafa: "I'll draw their attention for as long as I can, so take one of them down in the meantime."

Recon: "I'll do my best."

Leafa: "Show me your capable side for once." Leafa then charges at the five salamanders

One of the salamanders tried to hit her with its lance, however...

Leafa dodges it and attacks the salamander with her sword knocking him back

*SLASH*

Salamander 1: "Augh!"

Leafa then went past two salamanders and attacks one of the militias knocking him into another salamander and then Leafa attacks again using a wind spell

*SLASH*

Militia: "Damn it!"

He then disperses into flames after that two salamanders attack again but Leafa dodges the attacks

Recon who was busy dealing with one of the Militia damages him making his HP go to zero

Leafa: "We'll win at this rate." Just then a FIre ball intercepts Recon making him stunned

Leafa: "You idiot! Keep moving!" However, he couldn't react in time and the Militia took down Recon and they both disperse into flames

Recon: "Sorry!"

Leafa: "Recon! Agh!" More fireballs then keep aiming for Leafa but she keeps dodging them

The other two salamanders then go to attack Leafa

Leafa was going to attack them however one fireball hit her causing her to fall down

Leafa: "AHHHHHH!"

...

...

...

Leafa who was tired and backed into a corner was now in front of three salamanders

Kagamune: "My apologies, but orders are orders. If you forfeit your money and items, we'll let you go."

Salamander 2: "What are you being so polite for, Kagemune? It's been ages since we last fought a girl. Let's slaughter her."

Leafa: "Tch. I'll make sure to take at least one of you down with me. Come at me if you're prepared to die!"

Kagamune: "You're a strong-will girl. It seems I have no choice." Both parties are prepared to attack however

...

...

...

Kirito: "AGGGGGHHHHH!" A spriggan then comes down to grown face first

Kirito: "Ack..."

~Hikari POV~

Hikari: "Really Kirito?" I then deactivated my wings and fall down to the ground and land on my feet

Kirito: "Landings are going to be the end of me..."

Hikari: "Probably..."

Leafa: "What are you two doing?! Get out of here!"

Hikari: "Yeah with three guys who are going to gang up on a girl no way."

Kirito: "Yeah now isn't that embarrassing?"

Salamander 3: "What did you say?!"

Salamander 2: "You're out of your league, newbies!"

Hikari: "Then come and say it to my face." I smirked

Salamander: 2: "Why you little I'm going to enjoy slaughtering you, little girl!"

I sighed and looked at Kirito and we both nodded

One of the salamanders powers up its lance and attacks me

Leafa who couldn't watch a player getting killed closes her eyes

Salamander 2: "Take this!"

*THUD*

Leafa then slowly opens her eyes to see another player killed however

Leafa: "Huh?"

Hikari: "How boring..." I was holding the tip of the lance without much an effort

Salamander 2: "W-What?!"

I then threw him back to his partner and they both collided and landed on the ground

Hikari: "Hey can we ask you a favor?" Leafa looks at us

Kirito: "Is it okay for us to kill these guys?"

Leafa: "S-Sure, why not? It's probably what they were intending to do to us anyway."

Hikari: "Perfect well then Kirito I'll take this one and you take the other."

Kirito: "You got it."

We then took out our swords

I then took one step and dashed right through one of them leaving a cloud of dust

*SLASH*

Salamander 2: "S-She disappeared... ACK!" He then disburses into flames

Kagamune: "Huh?"

Leafa was surprised to see me one-hit killed the salamander

I then turned back to them and I smirked

Hikari: "Well then... Shall we get started?"