Yo guys! Here's another update from me, hope you enjoy it! Thanks for reviewing my story! I'm not worthy! And a thank you for reviewers that reviewed my other chapters! Thank you!

Also, Shoto will get a special rare skill like Kirito's, It's still in consideration, so please be patient. Seeing as magic are restricted in this game, I must choose wisely, hope you understand.

This chapter will be focus on Shoto. And I decided to make a female OC, I hope you all don't mind! And also, our heroes shall meet Sachi and her party for the first time! Enough spoiler! On to the story!

(Opening theme)

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XXX

"Hey Kazu! Let's go and pull a prank on Mr. Kobayashi again!" A young spiky blond haired kid said. He wore a red shirt with a dragon symbol and black pants.

"I don't know... Didn't we get caught the last time we tried that?" A black-haired kid, Kazuto, said, wearing a blue shirt and a white pant. "Let's just go and play something else Sai..."

The blond haired kid, Saito, shook his head. "Pfft! Boring! Fine... let's go and play a video game I just bought!"

"Okay... but I have kendo practice later..."

"Just ditch it! Come on!"

"W-wait! Stop puling me!"

"Where are you two going?" A black haired girl asked, walking towards them, she wear a kendo practice uniform, and carrying a small boken that fit her size.

"Oh, hey Sugu..." Saito said.

"Your not planning to ditch, are you brother?" The girl asked.

"W-well..."

"He is! He's not some slave to be forced to learn swords, you know?" Saito said.

Before the dark haired girl could argue, Kazuto cut her off. "I-I'll be there... Let's play again sometime Saito..." With that, Kazuto took off running, leaving the other two behind.

"Kazu..." Saito whispered, watching his friend run away.

--------------------------

Floor 16: Swamp of lost.

Shoto opened his eyes as he stood up and looked around. His surroundings were filled by mist, the sound of frogs and other swamp animals were heard. "You awake?" Shoto looks toward the source to find Kirito, sitting by the fire sharpening his sword with a whetstone. "Bad dream?"

Right now, the two of them were in a swamp area with their vision covered by fog, thus the name of the area, the two of them were now camped near a big swampy looking tree.

Shoto shook his head. "Nah... I just remember the day I ask you to ditch your kendo practice for the first time... You ran home in fear of your grandpa being mad at you." Shoto said in a teasing tone.

Kirito's face went a little red. "Shuddup! It was a long time ago!"

"And you still look like a girl till now."

"What was that? Big talk coming from the guy who scored bad on almost every test at that time."

"Ugh!?" Now it was Shoto's turn to go red. "I-I just didn't like reading books back then, okay?"

"Idiot!"

"Girly!"

"Spiky!"

"Cry baby!"

With that, the two players wrestled each other, Shoto pinching Kirito's cheek and Kirito putting Shoto in a headlock.

"What are you two doing?"

They both stopped and turned towards the voice, and saw a beautiful girl with red in hair in a pony-tail, wearing a brown turtle neck shirt, a brown coat, bronze breast plate, blue shorts and bronze pair of boots.

"Uh, nothing." They both said, letting each other go.

The girl stared at them for a minute before remembering something. "Oh yeah, it's sudden but... can I ask you both a tiny, tinsy witsy favor?"

"Huh?" Shoto asked, Kirito only looked at her confused.

"Well..." The girl began. "You see... There's some monsters following me... Look, can you two just take care of them?" The girl said as she quickly dashed to hide behind the two boys, while pointing at the mist behind her original spot.

"What monster-oh... THOSE monsters..." Shoto said, eye twitching.

The fog had lifted a little, revealing a large number of Toad Warriors, a giant toad monster with equipped weapons, quite a pain when dealing with many at once.

"Why are you being followed in the first place?" Kirito asked, unsheating his sword.

"Look, can we talk AFTER you guys are done with them?" She asked, pointing at the monsters.

"No problem." Shoto said. "This will take only a few minutes..." He then took out a flask with greenish liquid, and hurled it towards the nearest Toad warrior, the flask broke upon contact and the monster scream in pain, holding a part of his face that got hit by the green liquid.

'Is that... acid? Is he an alchemist?' The girl thought as she looked at the blond, only to find him charging at the enemy, with his black haired friend in tow.

"Hyaaaahhh!" Shoto cried out as he jumped and kicked the accided hit monster, destroying it. He immediately unsheathed his blade and performed a circling slash, destroying three monsters near him. "Yeah!"

Kirito just charged head on and slashed every monster within his blade range. He stopped as he saw a toad warior behind Shoto, trying to cut him with its sword. "Shoto, behind you!" Kirito quickly took out three short knives, and threw them towards Shoto.

Shoto, now realizing his mistake and hearing Kirito yell, ducked, avoiding the knives Kirito threw.

"That was close... Thanks Ki." Shoto said, he then looked towards the rest of the toad warriors. "All of you are going down!" Shoto then dashed forward, throwing another acid flask towards one of the monster, stuning it, before cutting the monster into two. He then blocked one of the monsters' swords that try to cut him, and kicked the monster away, and used his sword to cut the monster. Another monster then tried to cut Shoto in half, but before the monster could lift it's sword, the toad warrior was cut into two by Kirito, thus ending the battle.

"That's that I guess." Kirito looked at the girl, who still standing in shock not believing her eyes. "So, how did you get chased by them?"

The girl seem to get out of her trance. "W-well... I uh.. I just took a walk and got ambushed by them, okay? And my weapon broke when I was fighting them..." She mumbled the last part. "A-anyway... I uh... T-thank you both... B-but that's doesn't mean I owe you two or anything okay? I could've handled them just fine!"

"What? Thats not what you said earlier, ponytail!" Shoto said. "Beside, we just saved you!"

"P-ponytail! I have a name you know! Its Miku! Remember that blondie! What's up with the blonde hair anyway? If you had glasses, you'd look like a nerd."

"N-Nerd!? I have you know that this radiant hair is quite popular with the girls! And I prefer to be compare to a dragon lion, not a nerd. And my name's Shoto!"

Miku raised an eyebrow. "Why either one?"

"They sound much cooler." Shoto looked at Miku. "At least my hair doesn't look like a horse-tail!

Miku's eye twitch. "Are you saying my hair looks like a horse but?!"

"Nope, you just called yourself that."

Kirito sighed as he watched the two argue like children. 'Those two are alike I guess..' Kirito thought.

The arguing between the two was cut, as Miku stopped talking, she opened her menu as she received a new mail, she read it bofore she sighed, closing the menu. "Tch, I've got to go." Miku said as she turned around and walked away. "See you around, dark haired guy, and baka-blond."

"W-what!? Who are you calling a baka?" Shoto yelled towards the disappearing figure of Miku. "Grr... that girl can stubborn as a mule..."

"Look who's talking." Kirito whispered. "Anyways, we best head back to town on floor 11, were running low on supplies."

Shoto nodded. "Okay, fine." The two of them took out their 'portal crystal' that players used to return to town instantly, the duo used it as a bright light appeared and engulfed them.

------------------------

Floor 11: Taft

A day later...

Annoucement!

To all brave adventurers, the mayor of this town wishes to inform you,

That the annual 'Hope Flower' hunt will be held this afternoon.

For those who wish to take part, please inform the hunter guild member.

The event start at the entrance of the forest of the maze at floor 18.

Sincerely:

announcer.

"So... we're going to enter right?" Shoto asked Kirito with a hopeful gaze, Shoto was now wearing a red turtle neck shirt, with a silver breastplate, his 'Twilight coat', and a badge of sun at his coat.

"Of course, I heard the reward is a one of a kind rare item." Kirito said, he wear a black shirt with a silver breastplate, his 'Midnight coat', and a badge of the moon at his coat.

Right now, the two of them were at the Taft town central plaza, the place was quite lively right now, since a event registration was here."I'm going to write our names at the guild, you stay here." Kirito said looking at Shoto.

Shoto grinned and nodded. "Okay, cool." Kirito walked away towards the hunter guild, a guild that provided the quest for hunting stuff. Shoto then walked towards a near bench and sat down, next to him was a old man, wearing a full robe that covered everything except his mouth.

"I'm bored..." Shoto said, looking at the morning sky.

"Bored? At this beautiful day? What youngsters have become these days..." The old man beside him commented.

Shoto rose an eyebrow. "What do you mean old man?"

"Hohoho... you show no respect toward your elder?"

Shoto frown. "You still haven't earn my respect."

The old man laughed."Hohohohohoho, is that so... What I meant was that could youngsters these days just watch the clouds in peace... hear the nature around us... and feel the wind on our skin..."

"No." Shoto answered simply.

"Why not?"

"Because I have a mission, and an obligation." Shoto answered.

"Oh? What obligation if you don't mind this old man asking?"

"Well... I need to fight Aincard's strongest monsters... high above there." Shoto said with a serious face, and pointing to the sky. "If not... more and more people are gonna die..."

"I see..." The old man nodded before standing up. "Just remember this young man, bonds and hope are mankind's mightiest weapon... when your alone in the darkness, your bonds shall light the darkness, and when you're lost, your hope shall give you a path... Never fear, and fight... Hero." With that the old man walked away.

Shoto looked at the retreating form of the old man confusedly. "Bonds? Hope? darkness? Hero? What the hell is he talking about?"

"Hey Sho, I signed us up." Kirito said as he walked up to Shoto. " You want to head there now or- you okay?" Kirito asked.

"Yeah... I'm good... I just met an odd old man is all... why do weird things always happen to me?"

"Because you're a weird magnet, wherever we go, we always encounter weird things and most of the time find you in the middle of it all."

"Hey! What's that suppose to mean!?"

Kirito shook his head. "So, you want to resupply again?"

Shoto nodded. "Yeah, I need to buy more flask, acid, and smoke bombs... I will probably need it."

"Alright then, to the alchemy shop it is." Kirito said as he and Shoto walked towards the alchemy shop at the town.

------------------------

Floor 18: Forest of the Maze

"So... this is it?"

"Yeah... this is it." Kirito answered, looking at the entrance of the forest.

Right now, Kirito, Shoto, and many other players were at the entrance of the forest, waiting for the event to start.

"Alright so now all we got to do is to wait fo-" *BOOOONG* Shoto was cut off by a sound of a large trumpet, signaling the start of the event. "Nevermind."

Kirito, Shoto, and the other players all rushed into the forest without second thought.
_____________

"What the hell is this!?" Shoto cried out.

"Will you be quiet?" Kirito said.

"What? Quiet? We've been exploring this damn forest for nearly 2 hours, and all we found were monsters and traps and trees and more traps and monsters!" Shoto said in frustration. "And I think we've been in this area before."

"I noticed that." Kirito said. "Besides, this forest is not called the forest of the maze for nothing, you know."

"But... we found the stairs to the next floor no problem."

" That's because we were looking for a stairs, not a flower."

"What's the flower looks like anyway?"

Kirito raised an eyebrow. "You didn't read the items description from the paper we got?"

"What paper?"

"The one I gave you before we headed out."

"Oh... THAT paper... I uh... threw it away..." Shoto said sheepishly.

Kirito shook his head. "I should have known..." He sighed. " The flower is said to be blue in color and generate a blue light."

"So... all in all, we're suppose to find a glowing blue flower?"

"Yeah, and it also said that only one flower blooms a year."

"One flower!? You mean we have to search a frickin forest just to find this one flower? It's like searching a haystack in a pile of needles!"

"You mean... Needles in a haystack?"

"Yeah, same thing." Shoto said. "So, what's your plan?"

Kirito took out a book. "It says here that the Hope flower only blooms in a place where the spirits favor." Kirito explained before continuing.

While Kirito explained, Shoto looked around the creepy dark forest, where the players had split up to search more ground, so there's only two of them, he stopped as he spotted a small figure in the forest, looking at him. "...Claire?" Shoto whispered, looking at the small figure that looked very much like Claire, she smiled as she ran into the forest, away from Shoto and Kirito.

"Claire!?" Shoto called her quitely as he quickly ran after her.

"-And whatever happens, we must not seperate, that's the last thing we need, you got it Shoto?" Kirito looked at the spot where Shoto was standing before. "... Shoto? Damn it!"

--------------------------

With Shoto...

Shoto kept running after her. "Claire!" Shoto screamed out, jumping some tree roots. "Claire! Where are you?" Shoto looked around, trying to find Claire, he then stopped as he found her walking deeper into the forest. "Claire!" Shoto then quickly ran after her, Claire stopped at a few big rocks, as Shoto stopped behind her. "Claire?"

Claire looked behind her, towards Shoto o and smiled, before her figure begun to disappear.

"Claire wait! No!" Shoto ran towards her and tried to hug her, but he just passed through her. "!?" Claire then disappeared, but not before she whispered something to Shoto.

"...For you... big bro."

Tears start to roll down Shoto's cheek, as he couldn't hold back his tears. "Claire..." Shoto whispered. After a minute, he shook his head and wiped his tears away with his hand. He then looked towards the rock Claire looked at before, and spotted a necklace with three blue crystals on top of the rock. "A necklace?" Shoto picked it up.

* You have acquired the Goddess Tear*

"So this is for me, huh Claire?" Shoto smiled and putted it on. "Thank you..." Shoto went silent for a moment, before a rustle of bushes catch him off guard, as he quickly turned towards the sound, sword ready. But, instead of monsters, or squirel that most people think, a girl came out, her red pony tail and brown coat quickly register in the blond's mind. "Y-you..."

The girl too realized she wasn't alone, and looked at the familiar blond. "You're...

"Pony tail!"

"Baka-blond!"

"Who are you calling baka you horse behind!" Shoto said with a tick mark.

"And who are you calling horse behind huh? Baka-blond!" The girl, Miku, said too with a tick mark.

Shoto gritted his teeth. "Why this girl..." He then noticed a quite large iron battle axe behind her. "That's a nice weapon... you sure you can handle it?"

Miku puffed out her chest. "Of course I can! I'm not some weak common girl!"

"Fair enough, you're a gorilla then."

"Yeah! I'm a-Wait a minute! Who are you calling a gorilla?" Miku asked a retreating form of Shoto. "Hey wait!"

----------------------

XXX

"Hey... Stop following me." Shoto said while walking through the forest.

"I'm not following you." Miku said while walking the same direction as Shoto.

"Yeah right... I've been turning left and right to see if you were following, and the result, you ARE following me!"

"I-I-I'm not!"

"There are two possibilites... first you are scared of darkness and alone, the second is you are lost.. you're lost aren't you?"

Miku looked away.

Shoto sighed. "Fine... you can come with me."

Miku looked at Shoto with surprise. "I could?"

Shoto nodded. "Yeah... I'll take you to my friend who remembers the area."

"Okay then..." Miku whispered. "Wait... a 'friend who remembers the area'? You mean you don't remember the area!?"

"No." Shoto answered simply.

"You mean I've been following a lost person! Why didn't you tell me! Where are we going anyway?"

"Well, I was hoping by luck we could find my friend, so I walked around, it's your fault for following me."

"Why you..." Miku fumed with a tick mark, before she could explode, she was cut off as she and Shoto fell down a hill, as the two of them were too busy arguing. "What the-!?"

"Oh shi-"

"UWAAAGGGHHH!"

------------------------

With Kirito...

"That idiot..." Kirito mumbled as he ran through the forest. "Why did he have to just disappear? He know he's bad with directions! And he's probably lost right now... forgetting that he has enough tracking skill to track a person miles away even in this forest... Let's just hope he's not walking too far away from my tracking skill... This forest cuts the skill by half it seems..." Kirito said to himself as he walked through a bush, following the friend track he turned on, as he arrived at a clearing of tall grass field.

But then, out of the grass came out greens humanoid creätures.

"Orcs..." Kirito muttered, taking out his sword. "Why now?"

One of the orcs cried out, signaling the attack as Kirito was surrounded by the orcs.

"You better not die Shoto!" Kirito yelled out as he charged toward the orcs.

-------------------

With Shoto and Miku

"Ouch... That hurt..." Miku said as she rubbed her head.

"Hey... can you get off me? You're kinda heavy." Shoto said from under the sitting Miku.

"Wha-?!" Miku quickly stood up. "Are you saying I'm fat?"

"No I-Hey, isn't that the Hope flower thingy?" Shoto said, walking towards a blue glowing flower on a tree stump that had fireflies and other animals around it.

"Huh? Your right..." Miku walked towards the flower, following Shoto.

But after a few steps away from the flower, Shoto stopped. "What the-!? Miku look out!" Shoto quickly dashed back towards Miku and rammed her out of the way.

"Wha-!?" Miku cried out in surprise as Shoto rammed her. "What do you think you-" She was cut off as a dark figure descended down at the place she was standing before. "Huh?"

The figure was all dark, wearing a trench coat and other clothe similar to Shoto, have similar hair, and a very similar face although the figure was all dark even the hair except the red eyes. All in all, it was Shoto's perfect dark clone.

"Oh my god..." Miku whispered. "There's two baka-blonds!?" Miku hysterically said.

Shoto sweatdropped. "That's not the point you know..." He pointed at his dark clone. "That thing tried to attack you, and what worses is he's got my face! Although more evil-looking."

The dark Shoto smirked, before he charged with his sword, which was colored black. Shoto unsheathed his sword and countered the dark replica. Shoto grunted as Dark Shoto kicked him in the stomach, before he jumped up and kicked Shoto's head.

"Ugh!" Shoto grunted as he hit the earth hard, as Dark Shoto lifted his sword. Shoto held up his sword to block the incoming attack, but before Dark Shoto could slash Shoto, he was thrown back as a large iron battle-axe hit him in the waist, sending him into a nearby tree.

"Annddd STRIKE!" Miku said as she shouldered her large battle-axe. "You okay Blondie?"

"Yeah... thanks." Shoto said as he stood up. "He's sure does got some moves..." Shoto said as he watched his dark clone stood up. "I'm going to call him Yami for name sake, and we'll see if he's good as I thought he'll be." Shoto grinned as he took out two medium size balls. "When I give you the signal, attack him with all you got."

"Now you're speaking my language! Let's do it!" Miku grinned as she took a stance, with her axe still at her shoulder.

Shoto nodded to her, and immediately charged at Yami, Yami too charged at him, sword ready. Shoto then threw the balls at him, Yami cut the two balls, but to his and Miku surprise, it was a smoke bomb. Shoto quickly jumped up, looking down at the smoke area before diving, blade ready as he entered the smoke and a loud 'CLANG' was heard. When the smoke cleared, Miku saw the two Shotos clash swords, they separated and clashed blades again, 'Clang' Clang' 'Clang', the sound of their swords was heard as they kept on fighting, when Yami lifted his sword to strike Shoto, who saw his chance. "Gotcha, bitch!" Shoto charged his sword just in time as Yami's sword came down, Shoto struck upwards towards Yami's sword as they are thrown away by their skill clashing. "Now!"

Miku quickly charged and struck Yami, throwing the clone into the dirt. Yami grunted and quickly stood up just time to block Miku axe, Yami was pushed back several feet, before kicking Miku away and jumped back.

'Wow... She sure is strong.' Shoto thought as he watched Shot swing her large axe very quickly despite the size. 'Her movement is average, but she swings that thing like a stick!'

Yami grunted, blocking another of Miku's strike, but this time his weapon was thrown away by the impact, making him weaponless. "Hah! Gotcha now!" Miku said, as she prepared her last strike, but instead of running, Yami only grinned and move his left hand into his coat.

Shoto realizing that Yami's still got another weapon, rushed forward. "Damn it! Evade!"

"Eh?" Miku blinked as she look at the running Shoto, then to Yami, as the dark clone threw a dark dagger at her, Miku only titled her head to evade. "Hah! You miss!" But Yami only grinned and moved his left hand. Miku then saw something shining like a string right next to her head. "String?" but before the string manage to tied it self into Miku's neck, she was shoved to the side by Shoto. "Hyah!?"

"Damn..."

"Ow... thanks Blondie."

Shoto smiled. "Don't mention it." Before Miku could said anything else, Shoto was thrown or drag to the side, hitting a tree. "Uagh!"

"Shoto!" Miku then realized that Shoto's right hand was tied by Yami's black string. "Y-you.."

Yami grinned as he kept slamming Shoto into trees and rocks, Yami then spun around as Shoto hit a tree again, this time destroying it. "Ugh!?" Yami then threw Shoto towards a shocked Miku.

Miku snapped out of her trance and saw Shoto heading her way, threw her axe towards the string, cutting it, and she dashed to a thrown Shoto and caught him, the impact made them both fall. Miku check Shoto's HP bar, to see it already reach red. "N-no! You can't die!"

Shoto opened his eyes a little to see a crying Miku, he then started to close his eyes again. "I'm so sleepy... I just want to close my eyes..." Shoto closed his eyes.

"SHHHOOOTTTOOOO!"

----------------------

XXX

Shoto opened his eyes, and all he could see is darkness, he looked around, more darkness. 'It's all black...' Shoto thought. 'Its lonely here...'

Yes... its lonely here...

"Who's there!" Shoto quickly opened his eyes to look at the voice, only to find a white hollow mask of his face, staring at him.

You are lonely... That's why you became a class clown and did all those pranks in your childhood...

"W-what!? Who are you?"

Why, I am you, and you are me.

"Huh?"

You did all those pranks just for attention, you are lonely, your dad's too busy attending the family business, and your mom's too busy attending the hospital than paying attention to you.

"That's... that's..."

You hate them both, right? They abandoned you, your father loved his business more than you! Your mother loved taking care of strangers than taking care of you! That's why they sent you to an apartment with Robert...

"I...I..." Shoto held his head in fear.

Robert only took care of you for money! You have nothing! And that boy and his sister... your first friends... You only hangout with them because no one else going to play with you... You just use the fact that Kirito's just a lonely kid, and decided to use it to your own selfish gain! You snake!

Shoto then started shaking. "No..."

And then Claire... you failed her! You let her die! How can you?

"No... stop it..."

And then that new girl, Miku was it? Your gonna failed her too huh? Letting her die to that Doppelganger!

"No! Stooooppp itttttt!" Shoto screamed out.

"Hey! What are you doing there? Stand up! Come on!"

Shoto looked towards the voice, a ball of light. "Kirito...?"

"You said you want to save the people in this game right? How can you save them when you shaking like an idiot here?"

"I..."

"Come now young master, must I said it again?" A new older voice appear.

"Robert?"

"You know your parents work because they had the obligation. Your father needs to maintain the company, or else how can he feed his dear family? And your mother's a doctor, she needs to save other people! That's her duty! They both sacrifice their time with you, their only child, for their duty, don't you have one too?"

"Duty..."

"Don't die Blondie! You just can't!" A new source of light and voice appeared.

"Is that... Miku?"

"You can't die on me! Shoto!"

"..."

"Can you hear them big bro?" A new voice and light appeared. "The voice of your friends, calling for you?"

"Claire... What... should I do..? I failed you... "

"You haven't failed me! You will if you keep this up though!"

"Claire.."

"Your friends need you... this world needs you. Don't you remember our promise? That you will become strong? You'll become a hero?"

Shoto nodded. "Yeah.."

"Then stand up, big bro! Come on!"

""""Come back to the world!""""

"That's right... I have a duty... obligation to help the people of this game get out alive! I know I'm lonely... I seek attention, but Kirito and Robert are always with me! Claire too! And Miku as well! That's why... I'm going to be a Hero! And save everybody!"

"That's the spirit, blondie."

"That voice... The odd stalker girl?" Shoto turned around to see indeed the little nymph.

"Called me Zella damn it!" Zella shook her head. "You are needed out there, so get out there and kick that dark clone of yours in the ass!"

Shoto grinned and thumb up. "You got it!" The light from the voice begin to shine brighter until the world was engulfed in it.

"Show that dopplganger how my champion fights!"

------------------------

XXX

Miku kept on crying on the dying body of Shoto, until a warm hand patted her in the head, she look at a wide awake Shoto. "Sorry for worrying you."

Miku smiled, her tears still seen. "You stupid idiot..."

Shoto smiled and stood up.

"Wait! Your health-Huh?" Miku confusedly looked at Shoto's Hp bar to see it regenerating itself, and she just noticed that a blue aura covering him.

"Don't worry." Shoto looked behind him at her with a charming smile. "I won't let you cry again."

Miku face went red as she looked away. "You better not, idiot."

Shoto nodded and looked at Yami. "I won't lose to you again!" Shoto picked up his sword and clenched it tightly.

Yami pulled out his dagger, and took out another one in his right hand.

"Let's go!" Shoto dashed forward, with Yami in tow, Yami threw his daggers, at which Shoto evaded and kept on charging. Yami moved his hands in a dance like manner to control his strings.

"Shoto look out!" Miku screamed.

Shoto only narrowed his eyes, and with multiple slashes with his sword, all of Yami's strings got cut off. Yami and Miku looked at Shoto with wide eyes. Shoto then proceeded to dash towards a stunned Yami and pierced him with his sword to a tree. "Our hope is stronger than your string..." Shoto whispered to Yami, as Yami dissapeared in a black smoke, and so does Shoto's aura. Shoto then exhaled and fell down tired.

"Shoto!" Miku quickly ran over to him.

"Sorry to make you worry Miku." Shoto said with a apologetic smile.

Miku blushed and turned away. "I-I wasn't worried about you..." She whispered, but their conversation was cut off as a black blur appeared out of the bushes.

"There you are!" The black figure said.

"Hm? Kirito!" Shoto said with a smile.

"You idiot!" Kirito stomped on Shoto's stomach. "I was worried! You suddenly disappeared and your health went red for a moment! I thought the worse!"

Shoto looked at Kirito in surprise, before he grinned again. "Sorry for troubling you, Ki."

Kirito shook his head. "It's fine... I'm used to your always trouble situations." He then noticed another figure. "Oh... you'rw that girl from yesterday... Miku was it?"

"Ah yes... you're that black swordsman that travels with this idiot, Kirito was it?"

Kirito nodded. "Yep."

Their conversation was also cut short as another figures appeared from the bushes. "Miku!"

Miku looked at the figure, a white coat and blue scarf wearing man, he had blue hair and carried a spear, behind him was a white and red armor women with a red cloak, brown hair, and carrying a broad sword. "Brother! Meiko!"

"There you are girl, me and Zane been searching all over the forest." The red swordsmen, Meiko, said.

"Yeah! We've been worried sick!" The blue hair spearman, Zane, said. "And those guys are...?"

"Oh, they're okay, this is Kirito." Pointing at the black wearing person. "And that blond idiot is Shoto."

"Hey! Why am I the only one that gets the 'idiot' comment?"

"You two, this is my brother Zane, and his girlfriend Meiko."

"Nice to meet you." They both bowed at the same time.

As they all talked, Shoto stood up, and walked over to the flower he and Miku had seen. And sure enough, the flower was there. "I'm very sorry, but I need this flower." Shoto said to no one in praticular, and picked up the blue glowing flower.

"Hey Shoto... Is that the hope flower?" Kirito asked, as he and the others walked towards Shoto.

Shoto nodded. "Yup."

Miku sighed. "Come on brother, Meiko." Miku then walked away from the group.

Shoto blinked. "Huh? But we can share the reward-"

"No." Miku cut him off. "You beat that dark bastard, you deserve it."

"But Miku..." Her brother whined.

"No." Miku then proceeded to drag her brother away, Meiko give one last nod before the three of them left.

"Huh...That was surprising." Shoto pocketed the flower.

"I never expected the flower would be in this area of the forest... by the way, what did Miku mean by, 'dark bastard'?"

"Oh that, just some black shadow like monster that look like me but more skilled and stuff."

"Hm... probably a doppelgänger... quite a surprise to see one here..."

Shoto nodded, he and Kirito took out a portal crystal, but Shoto stopped as he recieved a new mail.

Miku invited you to her friend list. Will you accept?

Confirm/Decline

Shoto smiled and pushed the confirm button. "Let's go."

Kirito nodded. "Yeah."

"Hey Kirito... thanks for being my friend."

"... Anytime." Kirito said without asking any questions.

They both disappeared.

'You have acquire the skill 'Hero mind'.

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XXX

Floor 20: Sunlit Forest

"Hey... are you sure you want to give me this necklace?" Kirito asked Shoto while holding a shining three red crystal necklace, just like Shoto.

"It's fine, I already got one." Shoto said, showing his blue crystal necklace.

"I see... Where did you get it anywa-Hm?"

"What's wrong Kirito?"

"There's 5 players surrounded by a group of 'Praying Mantis'." Kirito said as he ran towards the place with Shoto following, and indeed, there were 5 players surrounded by mantis monsters.

"We gotta help!" Shoto told Kirito. "Like hell I'm gonna watch another person die in front of me again!" With that being said, Shoto jumped from the hill they were standing on and charged into the crowd, sword draw.

"W-wait damn it!" Kirito cursed as he followed Shoto into the crowd, sword draw, but he didn't jump, instead circling around.

"We can't wait! They're in trouble!"

"There's a pond down there!"

"Huh? Oh shi-*SPLASH*"

To be Continued...

(Ending theme)

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Yeah! This was my longest chapter! Hope you all enjoyed it! Ask me anything in the review! Oh and more review, faster update or so I said, since reading review boost my morale!

New item:

Goddess Tear, (Necklace): A blue crystal necklace that was said to be the goddess tear, crystalize. It is said to give the wearer a boost in all stats.

God Tear, (Necklace): A red crystal necklace from the event 'Hope flower'. It boost the wearer battle status by 5%.

New Skill:

Hero Mind (Passive): This skill increase the wearer all mental status by 8%, and allow the dispel any confusion the wearer receive.

See ya!!!