The wide spaces of the crest of the World Tree echoed with the sounds of bare footsteps against hardwood. A girl ran along the tree's broad branches garbed in sheer white, long chestnut hair fell to her waste and brushed against translucent white wings folded flush with her back. The bark beneath her feet felt strange, rough and irregular and tacky with sap.
Yuki Asuna moved cautiously but quickly. Since whatever had happened . . . had happened . . . she'd felt lighter and stronger than she had in months, almost like her old self, but she dare not fall. Sugou had promised her that though she possessed a fairy's wings, he had clipped them himself, and she had no way of knowing what would happen if she plunged from the top of the World Tree.
Asuna froze as she heard a distant cry, unlike the faint chirping of birds. It was a familiar sound to someone such as herself, who had fought countless battles on the front lines in the death game known as Sword Art Online. A low cry filled the air, the sound of a Slug type enemy in the throes of battle.
Asuna looked about for something, anything she could use as a weapon. Of course, there was nothing to be had. Even in a virtual environment, Sugou would never have left anything in this place that Asuna could use to harm him. Nothing that she could use to make even a display of defiance.
The cry came again and Asuna grit her teeth, curiosity and desperation winning out against discretion. The cries were coming from the direction of that place, the lab, the place where she had learned the true extent of Sugou Nobuyuki's cruelty and the fullest depths of his insanity. As much as she loathed to return to that place, she followed the sounds, coming once more to the stark circular corridor hewn into the bulk of the World Tree. Beyond here was the lab space where Sugou stored his . . . subjects . . . three hundred players from SAO trapped by Sugou to use in his depraved research. Asuna swallowed as the cries came again, and crept slowly forward.
She walked softly on the balls of her feet, afraid to make any noise lest she draw the attention of Sugou or one of his accomplices. As she neared the sounds of battle grew louder and as she rounded the last corner Asuna froze. For that one instant she was transported back. She was no longer a fairy standing in Sugou's domain, she was back, back on Aincrad's 61st floor, once more Asuna the Flash, Sub Commander of the Knights of Blood.
A man in the brilliant white and red of the Knights of Blood was in the midst of his assault upon a monster that resembled a dark blue sea slug. The creature squirmed and writhed whipping out with its tentacles in an effort to defend itself. The man dodged left and parried the blow with a heavy two handed sword before shouting out. "Switch!"
Another figure, shorter, slimmer, wielding a shield and sword, and dressed in the armor of the Liberation Army guild, stepped forward, and with a single clean stroke severed one of the slug's extended tentacles. The creature let out a low crooning wail, and beneath the cry Asuna heard something that made her blood run cold.
"Noooooooo . . . . Puuuuhleeeesssssssssss sssssttttoppppp." A sickening realization dawned on her at that instant. And no matter how much she should despise the creature . . . the person standing before her . . . Its suffering moved her to action.
Thought didn't factor into it. Reason didn't factor into it. In the blink of an eye Asuna was running out into the chamber.
"Stop!" She shouted throwing herself into the path of the Knights. The man wielding the broadsword staggered to a halt, barely catching himself as he began to deliver the coup de grace. The man starred at her in surprise and then recognition dawned. "Asu- Asuna-sama. Asuna-sama is that you?" The man whispered.
"Asuna-sama?" The man with the sword and shield asked before looking more closely at Asuna.
Asuna studied the man, he possessed the same pointed ears that adorned her own head but the face was familiar. "Arguile-san?" She asked softly. "Arguile-san it's you isn't it? It really is you?" Her former subordinate nodded slowly.
"My Lady, why are you stopping us? This monster is dangerous. It and its companion were attacking defenseless players."
"Its companion?" Asuna asked and her heart trembled.
The shorter man hooked a thumb over his back. Over the man's shoulder she could see the still twitching bulk of a dead slug. From behind her the remaining slug moaned softly, "Puuhhlleeeaasss Dddddooonnttttt . . . Ddddooonttt killllll meeeee." It wheezed.
Both Knights stood stiff with surprise. "First the corpse of the first one didn't vanish and now this one is talking. Asuna-sama . . . What is happening here Asuna-sama?" Arguile asked.
"I don't think I know." Asuna said. "But we can get answers from this thing." She almost placed a hand on the slugs slimy skin and then thought better of it. "If it lives." She added.
Death seemed to be a definite possibility as the massive creature, formerly one of her prison wardens, twitched and soaked the ground with its blood. "Iiittttt huuurrrrttsssss. Plleeeeaassseee ddddooonnnttt killlll meeeee." Asuna averted her eyes lest she grow nauseas. If it hurt so much, why didn't he just log out? He wasn't a prisoner like the rest of them. Maybe having his limbs severed had left him unable to utilize his user menu?
"You mentioned other players." She said softly.
"Yes Asuna-sama, lots of them. We all woke up here not long ago."
Asuna's eyes widened. "Arguile-san, what is the last thing you remember. Please, tell me!"
The man looked startled but then concentrated. "It was the boss raid. Heathcliff . . ." His eyes widened " . . . Heathcliff was Kayaba Akihiko!" The man clenched his jaw. "I remember . . . I remember him paralyzing all of us and then . . . I saw you die, you and that Beater, Kirito. Somehow, somehow that Monster of a Beater managed to bring Heathcliff's health bar down to zero before he died. But how are you alive? And what happened to you?"
Asuna followed his gaze and brought a hand up to her ears. She grimaced as she felt the elongated shape. "It's not important now." She said quickly. "You don't remember anything after that?"
The man shook his head.
"Me either." His partner said.
"Weren't we to be released if that Beater won the duel?" Arguile asked. "I suppose it was too much to
expect for Kayaba Akihiko to keep his word, that snake."
Asuna looked away from them. She had seen what Sugou was doing to them. But if they could not
remember it, then it was a blessing. In the dimness of the lab room Asuna became aware of others. The tall cylinders representing the avatars of Sugou's test subjects had vanished and in their place huddled the players, restored to some semblance of their old selves. They huddled in the far corner of the room, a perimeter of armed players shielding those that were defenseless when the fighting had begun.
"Arguile-san, please do what you can for this creature, we need him alive." The Knight looked confused but bowed his head in acknowledgment. With those words Asuna turned to the others within the room.
Her eyes swept across the gathered players. It was a varied group, some old, some young. Some wearing the high quality armor of the clearing group while others were dressed in the day to day garb of support players, the merchants, woodcutters, and smiths who had struggled from behind the front line to keep the Clearing group in fighting condition. Asuna recalled from long ago school classes that scientist conducting research would want to create a statistically representative test group, so it seemed that with the exception of Asuna, Sugou had selected his subjects at random. The only constant seemed to be that they had all been altered in some way, small pointed ears, not unlike Asuna's own, protruded from every head. Thankfully, aside from appearing confused and frightened, they all seemed unharmed.
"Asuna-san!" A voice cried out. An elderly man, gray haired and broad set, stood up from the huddled crowd.
"N-Nishida-san?" Asuna said, recognizing the elderly fisherman almost instantly. Save for his pointed ears his appearance was almost unchanged.
Upon hearing her name the people in the crowd began to murmur amongst one another. "Asuna-san? As in Asuna the Flash?"
"What's happened to her?"
"What's happened to us?"
"Where are we? The game was supposed to be cleared!"
"Everyone, please calm down. I will tell you all everything that I know." Asuna said. It was ridiculous to see
such a crowd of people suddenly fall silent at the words a slim girl wearing nothing but the revealing attire of a fantasy princess. But some among the crowd remembered that decisive tone of voice and the girl, the swordswoman, who had wielded it, or else had heard of her second hand. Asuna the Flash was one of their heroes, one of the people who would save them from Kayaba Akihiko's deranged game, and regardless of her appearance she was to be taken seriously.
When the crowd fell silent she continued. "I know you must all be confused and are disappointed that we
have not been returned to the real world. You're all probably wondering about your appearances as well. We are currently inside of a game called ALfheim online. When SAO was cleared and Kayaba Akihiko released the surviving players, a man named Sugou Nobuyuki captured some of us as we were logged off. He wanted to use us in his research experiments as test subjects."
"Asuna-sama." A girl near the front of the crowd said. "How do you know this?"
"Sugou kept me as his prisoner." Asuna said. "He came to me every day to gloat about what he was doing while I was powerless to stop him." Asuna clenched her hands and felt the pain as her nails dug into her palms, she didn't even pause to think about it. "I know it may be painful, but do any of you remember anything after hearing that SAO had been cleared?"
As the crowd mumbled negatives, Asuna gave a small prayer of thanks. "Then this might be hard for you to believe." Asuna said. "But SAO was cleared three months ago, you've all been . . . unconscious . . . for that time."
The crowd looked to one another nervously, whispering to those around them.
"So what has happened now. What has changed?" It was Nishida who asked the question.
Asuna shook her head. "I don't know. The last thing I remember was the world standing still and then I was suddenly in pain." Asuna said, she resisted the urge to throw her arms around herself. "When I woke up, I was outside of my prison. I don't know how."
"What do we do now?" Arguile asked, walking up beside his former leader.
Asuna grimaced. "Everything we can. This can't be something Sugou planned for, we need to take this opportunity to find any way to break free. There's an administrative access terminal at the back of this room. We need to access it and see if we can find a way to log out. If even one of us can get free, they can alert the authorities in the real world. I can guarantee that the people Sugou Nobuyuki works for would never tolerate what he is doing here."
Asuna turned to the gathered players, she stood straight, and took the posture of a Commander. "If anyone here has experience with network or computers I want you to help with the Terminal. I attempted to access it once but I'm sure the security has been tightened. Anyone who has skills as a healer, help to see to that slug monster's wounds. Anyone who can fight, stand guard over the prisoner. If he attempts to use a player menu to log out, severe his limbs. We need any information we can get from him."
The crowd exploded into activity as the players organized themselves. Asuna might have spurred them to action but all of the Survivors of SAO were remarkable people in their own way. Nishida raised his hand and called for anyone with network or computer experience to gather with him to go examine the Admin Terminal. A young girl with dark hair called for any tamers or medically oriented players to join her in tending to the slug. The front line players grouped together with other players that they knew or recognized and formed two man teams to stand watch.
Of the remaining players, those that had no skills to add to the tasks at hand. Some watched over the very youngest members of the group, while the others came forth to ask for more instructions.
Asuna found herself instructing the eager volunteers to look around beyond the confines of the lab. She explained the environment of the world tree and told them to keep at least two other people in sight at all times so they could find their way back. She instructed them to report back if they found anything that might spike interest.
As they departed, Arguile placed a hand on her shoulder and nodded solemnly.
"It is good to see you alive, Asuna-sama."
"I'm sorry we aren't meeting again in real life." Asuna said.
"That isn't your fault." Arguile promised. "I'm sure we'll find a way."
Asuna nodded and a determined smile crept across her face. Memories of the day before coming to the
surface. "You're right, we have to find a way out of here, because that 'Monster of a Beater' survived too."
Arguile's eyes widened. "You don't mean . . ."
"I can't give up as long as he's still alive. Kirito-kun is the strongest person I know. But Kirito-kun isn't quite as strong as he thinks he is. We'll have to meet him half way."
Arguile grinned down at his former commander and the fiery determination that filled her eyes.
Asuna the Flash was back.
https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/ok-guys-you-all-are-familiar-with-the-procedure-znt-39.230557/page-364#post-9309874