A/N: There’s a considerable timeskip between chapters 9 and 10. Just sayin’.
October 18th, 2024.
Field boss, Klein cursed silently as his guild plus two Moonswords ran toward the spine-chilling screaming. From the corridor the Aincrad Liberation Force had vanished down. Of-freakin’-course. The so-called human saviors of Aincrad just couldn’t listen to the Black Swordsman when he said something might be a bad idea. Who’d have thought Kirito’s feathers would make other people featherheads?
It was supposed to be a field boss….
Granted, you didn’t usually find field bosses this deep in the labyrinth, but it had happened before. One impossibly huge Monstrous Scorpion with a cohort of merely boar-sized Giant Scorpions, nothing special to fight but tremorsense and poison – fifty-fifty odds that was just a field boss, no matter how ominous the door was. Sure, Kirito and Asuna had taken a look inside and retreated – but come on, huge monster, just begging for a bigger party to whittle it down. Not to mention those two tended to play it safe and reserve their magic whenever Kayaba unleashed a new infection on the players, and so far the seventy-fourth floor had been crawling with yuan-ti. Those shapeshifting snakelike abominations could force a mutating potion down the throat of any captured player, youkai or not, and even if you had days to get cured NPC healers were damn hard to find ever since Kirito’s spiritwalk. And if you did find them… even Grandma Tiger wasn’t always herself, these days. A golem, as Tae put it. And very tightlipped when she was herself.
All Kirito did was talk to his sister. Why the hell did that get us cut off from help?
Actually Klein could think of a couple reasons, none of them good. Kirito, Argo, other spell-hackers he’d met – all of them agreed it was damn hard to break a curse from the inside. But get someone outside the spell’s effect in on helping?
Yeah. Beniryuu had every reason in two worlds to make sure they didn’t get Earth or the youkai lords in on what was really happening.
Crossover Queen's Creative Chaos 
Thanks.
This immediate bit I’m not so much looking forward to.
But I think I will enjoy some of the stuff that happens afterwards.
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*G* Klein gets to wreck stuff.
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Aaand… cue the Gleam Eyes fight, and Dual Swords revealed.
…If that‘s your intentions.
Are NPC healers getting rarer because the players (should) have leveled up accordingly, or does a certain red-scaled BASTARD resent Stheno‘s little loophole abuse?
I’m tending towards Option B.
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From the view of the dragon, itt is only permissible if he is doing it. If anyone else, time to stop them. (Or perhaps engineer something outside that distracts them, and make it not so obvious.)
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“It’s not cheating if I do it.” Yeah. Ow.
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Same timeframe, different monster. 😉 Bunnies wanted to change the plot up a bit.
Option B. Yep.
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Who’d have thought Kirito’s feathers would make other people featherheads?
Humans have a lot of tendencies towards us vs them.
The Aincrad Liberation Force probably sees youkai or anyone they think of as youkai as a them. Or even fellow humans if they think of them as collaborators or something.
It probably doesn’t help that Kirito is a “Beater.”
Sure, Kirito and Asuna had taken a look inside and retreated
Which I would take as a signal that we might have to cut and run. Provided we are able to. Because you can’t always run.
NPC healers were damn hard to find ever since Kirito’s spiritwalk
I see our favorite red dragon decided to be a bigger jerk when the people he trapped had the nerve not to accept their fate quietly but fight back. Against him. He doesn’t believe they can win against him but the fact they are trying is annoying.
Yeah. Beniryuu had every reason in two worlds to make sure they didn’t get Earth or the youkai lords in on what was really happening.
I have the feeling that he might too little too late on that one.
Not that anyone is having an easy time of it but he probably wouldn’t be this cranky unless they were onto something. Or doing something.
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On Earth, they’re certainly onto something. In SAO… a group of clearers have a plan.
(Part of that starts in ch 10. The rest goes off in 11, and there is a very unhappy dragon.)
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Sooooo…would Kirito giving Asuna a pair of Dragonhide boots (and maybe some gloves and a jacket) be considered gauche?
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Of course it’s gauche. It’s also main.
…No, wait, that’s parrying daggers, not gloves. Unless you’re counting left-hand gloves. Not that Asuna would mind a dagger made of dragonclaw….
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there is a very unhappy dragon
Good. He deserves to be unhappy.
Actually, he deserves a lot more than to be unhappy but since slaying an ancient red dragon is . . . difficult . . . one can settle for thwarting.
Through if I were the thwarters , , , especially the ring-leaders of it like Kirito . . . I would be working very, very hard on finding a way to slay said ancient red dragon. Because I have the feeling he holds grudges and a dragon with a grudge against you shortens your life expectancy by a wide margin.
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It’s on Kirito’s to-do list. Right after “get everyone out of SAO and find out what’s going on with ALO”.
(Granted he’s going to try really hard to cross that item off the list before SAO is over. But he knows Beniryuu cheats.)
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. . he’s going to try really hard to cross that item off the list before SAO is over
I’m sure.
“There is still an angry dragon out there.”
“Yeah. Shame that kid didn’t manage to tear him apart.”
*nods*
But he knows Beniryuu cheats.)
Of course he does.
(Why he should avoid Shadow Games. Cheating in those tends to go very poorly for the cheater.)
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>> Not that Asuna would mind a dagger made of dragonclaw….
I don’t recall Beniryuu’s age category, but given the sheer size categories that dragons (especially red – and gold – dragons) can get up to, if she wants a dagger she may have to settle for dragon fang. If you want a dragon claw weapon there’s a decent chance your not getting smaller than a short sword.
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Cue Asuna talking about how she looks good in the skin of her enemies…. 🙂
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*G*
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At least it’s just the skin; drenched red in blood would clash so horribly with her blue coloration… 😛
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*Snrk*
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Would one of these plans be a Shadow cast Black Blade of Disaster? Because a shadow born sword shaped rift in reality sounds like something that the vindictive Arcmage ordered.
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*G*
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Imean- let’s be real: it’s just not Sword Art Online without timeskips.
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So here’s a wierd, random thought.
Many stories emphasize the power of “True Love”, especially in regards to curse-breaking.
Metaphysically speaking, you could imagine that as being a strong emotional connection, going both ways, which allows it to both “break out” and “break in” at the same time, attacking the curse from both sides.
I think it would be hilarious to imagine somebody scoffing at love breaking a curse, and having someone else pipe up with a detailed explanation for how it works.
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That also implies it could be lots of other relationships/feelings other then “true love”, just that’s the easiest one to pull off successfully.
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Now I’m imagining a cursed individual, who has no confidence in inspiring love, finding a person they hate, and embarking on an extended “courtship” of hatred with pranks and harassment in order to create enough mutual hatred to break the curse… and getting someone with the patience of a saint.
“Why won’t you hate me!?”
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…I’d love to read that.
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DogbertCarrol did that in Storybook Hero. The key part’s in chapter 3:
_”True love’s kiss,” another auror replied.
“What?” Tonks asked in shock.
An older female auror laughed. “The younger you are the better it works. Children love easily, but as we age and get more hardened it becomes harder and harder to make that connection.”_
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-October 18th, 2024.-
Now why does that date seem familiar? Oh yeah.
– The so-called human saviors of Aincrad just couldn’t listen to the Black Swordsman when he said something might be a bad idea. Who’d have thought Kirito’s feathers would make other people featherheads?-
In canon SAO I can see Kayaba not really caring about the ALF (minor background characters) since he’d already set up the hero to his villain etc etc.
Here however, Beniryuu is A: a dragon, B: a gigantic ass**** (the two aren’t always one in the same, just most of the time), and C: invested in getting as many players turned as possible. It probably grinds his gears that Kirito is still human (assuming that he hasn’t gone beyond the feather tufts). But in the end Kirito is just one human. Meanwhile the ALF is a humanocentric organization that is potentially causing a slowdown in adoptions, turning etc.
I’m willing to bet that the microsecond he got the notification that the ALF engaged the boss, he ‘tweaked’ the fight a little so that they will either get nailed by a ton of mutations, lycan infections and/or get slaughtered.
-Why the hell did that get us cut off from help? –
Have to wonder if Caerulus got nailed by the limitation/general banning or that Beniryuu thinks a fellow dragon (even if he is of a lesser breed, younger and weird at times) would want to help him fulfill the prophesies.
-The rest goes off in 11, and there is a very unhappy dragon.-
Beniryuu: “No…NO! What have you fool mortals done?!? This can’t be happening, I planned for every possible contingency. You’ve ruined everything….EVERYTHING!!!!”
Caerulus : (while munching on a dragon-sized bowl of popcorn) “I knew setting up that triggered scry-display-record spell combo would be worth it.”
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A lot of people are going to approve of what Kirito pulls on the red dragon. *G*
Unfortunately for the ALF, Kayaba turns out to have nothing to do with this mess.
…Granted, Beniryuu would have slammed them if he had the chance, because the ALF ticks him off, for the reasons you mentioned. 😉 Kirito has a thought on how to use that annoyance….
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-Kirito has a thought on how to use that annoyance….-
Congrats ALF. You have been promoted from ‘mostly forgettable secondary characters’ to ‘dragon bait’. And no, you don’t get to deny the promotion.
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Actually, no. *G* Kirito’s working the angle of “Beniryuu’s more focused on high-level humans than youkai”. He has a Plan to use that attention… or lack of same.
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– Of course it’s gauche. It’s also main. –
Insert facepalm here. That was a horrible pun, V.
Really pleased with chapter 9, not surprised red soon-to-be boots is still the nasty scum we’ve come to know and loathe, and eager for more snippets of chapter 10.
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*Le gasp!* And now you know my weakness!
…Ahem. There was a point in my teens when I was called “the Sub-Machine Pun”. These days, I mostly refrain. Mostly. 😉 Sir Pratchett is awesome, and the footnotes of the Ciaphas Cain books leave me snickering. So.
Canon Kayaba still chills me, in part ’cause I can see exactly how someone might decide to pull off a scenario like SAO if they had an awesome creative vision and no morals whatsoever. And… I have, in fact, known a few people like that. Not voluntarily, but I have. So SAO feels very plausible to me.
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…Now all I can picture is Kayaba as a member of the Villain faction ‘Are We Cool Yet?’ from the SCP-Foundation setting.
Bonus points tho’, now I’m imagining Kirito as a member of ‘Gamers Against Weed’, AWCY?’s (moderately) Heroic or at least Nuetral counterpart.
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SCP is scary!
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SCP is terrifying. AWCY? is worse… Tho’ not the worst thing in that setting…
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It really really is.
In terms of plausibility there are two things in SAO that are implausible.
Kabaya gaining single person control of a system as big as an MMO without an extensive conspiracy supporting him: This is ‘Peirce controls the government without needing hydra or indeed, any help at all’ level implausible.
And the idea that somehow the login server controlling the AMU killswitch isn’t part of a rolling server set and therefore can’t be undone just by bringing a server set that /doesn’t have the killswitch/ online next time the killswitch machine is scheduled for reboot. That would require a login machine with 2+ years of predictable uptime which, at the level of abuse of a login server is…
Well, I’ve heard you can buy one. In about the same terms as being able to buy live pheonix eggs or dragon hatchlings.
I wonder if this kind of thing is actually noticed by the taskforce in Monsterous compendium – because really, those two things? Are /less/ believable than Kabaya actually being an extradimensional dragon sorcerer. We don’t anticipate that to change for quite some time, even at current advancement rates.
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… I kind of hope so.
It is always fun when fanfics can turn what are plot-holes in the source material into internally consistent plot points.
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These are excellent points.
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