Shattered: A SAO Tale (Sword Art Online)

"Wh- Ouch."

The first thing Drifter noticed when his consciousness came back was that his body was floating a few centimeters above the ground.

Once he came to that realization, gravity promptly reasserted itself and he dropped, his head bouncing off the floor.

He grimaced as he propped himself up on one elbow and rubbed the back of his head. That hadn't been fun.

"Drifter!"

And he got to experience it a second time as three bodies rammed into him and he lost his precarious balance.

Drifter blinked down at Yuuki, Silica, and Yuna. The purple-haired teen was basically sitting on his legs, staring up at him with wide eyes. The tamer was wrapped around his side, bawling her eyes out. And his wife...

Yuna had her face hidden in his chest, and his arm automatically rose to pull her tighter into his embrace. She was shaking.

"Drifter? Are you okay?"

He turned his head. Agil and Kirito were kneeling next to him, and the rest of Reaver's Requiem seemed like they were just waiting for their turn to jump on him.

And they weren't the only ones. Klein, Orlando, Akari, Lind, Shivata, Liten, Heathcliff, Ambros, and all the other frontliners, they were all standing in the middle of the labyrinth and staring at him.

Ah. Of course.

Drifter blinked again. He remembered everything. The raid against Laughing Coffin, fighting PoH, getting cut by the man, Agil killing him... And the message.

"That's fucking weird."

So that's what it was like to die in Sword Art Online. One big, red [ YOU DIED ] filling your vision, and then nothing.

"I died. Someone used the stone?"

He was far calmer than he probably had any right to be. But really, it hadn't been that bad.

"Me. Are you sure you are okay?"

Kirito stared at him as if he couldn't quite believe his eyes, but Drifter nodded affirmatively. He was great. Even his health was back to full. The Divine Stone of Returning Soul had worked exactly as advertised.

It also explained why everyone was staring at him like he had grown a second head. He would have some explaining to do. But first...

"Hey. I'm fine. See? Not a scratch."

He kissed the top of Yuna's head, but she only wrapped her arms tighter around his torso. He was sure he would be in for a hell of a scolding once she calmed down, but he could live with that.

"W-Why?"

Silica wasn't going to wait to be pacified, however. Her eyes were red and leaking a constant stream of tears.

"Why? Why did you do that!? I wasn't in danger! I could have killed him!"

"That's the one thing I couldn't let happen, Sil."

His voice was soft as he gently caressed her hair. He didn't flinch as she started punching his shoulder.

"Y-You! You! I hate you!"

She didn't. But he gladly allowed her to let out some of her frustration. She needed the release, and it was a different kind of tears that wetted his armor when she stopped hitting him and let him pull her closer.

"I can't say I don't understand why you did it, Drifter. But it was still really fucking stupid."

Wolv's hand fell on his shoulder, and the spearmaster smiled at the mirthful, if strained, grin on the other man's face.

"I know. I'm sorry."

"Dumbass."

That was Nautilus, who kicked his side while trying to hide his relief. Sinon just punched him on the top of the head, which seemed to be a signal for his friends to approach and call him out on his idiocy - often by hitting some exposed part of his body.

And it weren't just the Reavers either. Fuurinkazan, the Legend Braves, DKB, all of those closer to Drifter had a few choice words to say to him - usually starting with relief and ending in a dressing down.

Akari's glare made him squirm, but luckily someone was there to take the attention off him.

"So, how was being dead?"

One could hear the sound of several hands slapping their foreheads at Klein's bluntness. His guild members followed up by slapping the back of his head.

Drifter couldn't help it, he chuckled. Even Yuuki, still sitting on him, snorted in amusement.

"Honestly, pretty underwhelming. I got a big system message saying [ YOU DIED ], then everything went black. Next thing I know, I'm back. Felt a little like waking up."

Someone - Yuna - pinched his side for how nonchalant he was being. But that was truly how it felt.

"You are all taking this pretty well. I thought there would be more questions by now. Specifically about how I came back."

Drifter tilted his head and looked at the assembled players. A few shuffled uncomfortably on the spot, but the leadership of the Assault Team was surprisingly composed. Shivata sighed.

"We definitely have questions, Drifter. But right now we are just glad you are alive. At least until Yuna and the rest of your family gets their hands on you properly."

"Ha! I would pay to see that!"

Orlando laughed, as did several of the non-Reaver's Requiem players. Drifter just shivered.

"And, well..."

"We had time to cool down about the whole revive item debacle, Drifter. You are not someone who would keep a secret like that if it could benefit the Assault Team. So I'm guessing... Time and guild restrictions? It's a one time use, that much is obvious."

Lind's gaze was calculating, but soft. There was a hint of melancholy in there Drifter tried to ignore. Laughing Coffin's end hadn't come without a price, and clearly the other guild leader was trying not to think of the 'what ifs'.

"10 seconds, same spot, same party."

It was Asuna who rattled off the details of the Divine Stone of Returning Soul. Lind and the others nodded slowly. The restrictions were even harsher than they expected.

"Explains why the Black Swordsman had to do it and not Agil, who was already next to you. Eh. We are gonna wanna know how you got it later, but for now, we have other things to deal with. Think you are up to it? Won't blame ya if you don't. Dying couldn't have been fun."

Right. Laughing Coffin. The raid.

Drifter looked down at the three girls drapped over him. Yuuki promptly jumped up, and Silica moved with a little coaxing from Wolv, who wrapped her in a hug, but he had to pull Yuna up with him when he got up.

"Hey, love. I'm fine, I promise. I'm here, songbird. I'm not going anywhere."

Maybe it were the familiar words that roused her, but Yuna slowly peeled off him - just enough that she could look up and break his heart with her tears.

"Oh, my songbird. I am so sorry I worried you."

"You died."

"I did. But I came back."

He gently wiped off her tears with his thumbs, holding her head in his hands. He touched his forehead to hers, and Yuna closed her eyes, a gentle smile forming on her lips. It was small, but it was there.

"We are going to have words later, dummy. You are never doing something this stupid again. I won't let you."

"I promise."

He wasn't sure he could keep it, but he intended to try.

Pulling back from Yuna, but still keeping an arm wrapped around her, Drifter raised his head to fully take in the labyrinth and the players.

The portal from the Corridor Crystal was still open, and there were some puffs of shards - he shuddered at the thought that those were what little was left of actual people - swiftly vanishing.

But no hoods. No masks. Only the tired and familiar visages of the frontliners and their allies. Drifter's gaze found Akari.

"What's the damage?"

The others also turned their heads to stare at the ninja. Drifter may have been made the de-facto leader of the Assault Team for this raid, but Akari had been instrumental in Laughing Coffin's demise.

"17 dead frontliners. 6 of my Fuumaningum."

Drifter closed his eyes while most of the frontliners balked at the numbers. He had known it was going to be bad, but not that much.

"The Laughing Coffin leader, PoH, did most of that. 3 frontliners and 5 of my subordinates. His Unique Skill... I had never seen something like it. It made him stronger the more he killed."

"At least we won't ever have to face it again. Something like that... Like him... Shouldn't exist."

The frontliners could agree with that. Except Heathcliff, who privately thought the Unique Skill had played its role to perfection. But no one needed to know that.

"What about Laughing Coffin? What's their state?"

Even under her mask, the frontliners could feel Akari's savage smirk.

"They are done. We have 23 in custody - 16 from the battle today, and the 6 spies, plus the one we arrested long ago. They won't be leaving Black Iron Palace for the rest of SAO. And Argo's already committing their faces to her memory so we can make sure they get what they deserve once we are out."

She didn't know the entire world was watching. None of them did. Even with Kayaba and Cardinal's preventive measures that blurred the faces and censured the names of the red players, what the world witnessed today, and the statements of the present players, would be more than enough to identify and lock away the murderers for good once they were in the real world. They would never walk free again, and, once their mental faculties were appraised and proved to not have been influenced by SAO, even the death penalty wouldn't be off the board.

"And their casualties?"

Drifter himself had killed 12 red players today. To call them people would be going too far.

He knew that was an absurd number. Unlike most of his guildmates, he hadn't even tried to arrest any of the Laughing Coffin murderers. He cut all of them down without a second thought.

But he also knew most everyone in Reaver's Requiem, and, indeed, the other guilds, had also either been forced to take lives, or chosen to. Silica, Yuna, and maybe Vallerk were the only exceptions.

"Too few of them, in my opinion."

Now Akari was sporting a full on snarl, and it sent shivers down the spines of many a frontliner. Drifter, however, weathered her bloodlust with nary a flinch.

"How many?"

"76."

Even his eyes widened at that.

"Come again? I don't remember even seeing that many when we began!"

"PoH held some of them back. An ambush inside an ambush. Unfortunately for them, my guild was on the lookout for that. We never expected Laughing Coffin to play fair. The final count is 76."

Which meant that, all in all, counting the Laughing Coffin players who had been killed before today, there had been close to 130 red players in Aincrad.

It shook Drifter. Maybe that number wasn't very significant compared to the 10.000 souls that started SAO, but to think that over a hundred players would willingly chose to become murderers and monsters... It boggled his mind.

But...

"At least it's over now."

"Hm, indeed. If by some oddity of destiny one or more of them managed to slip through the net, Fuumaningum will hunt them down over the coming weeks. But Laughing Coffin is over."

It was a feeling of relief that washed over the Assault Team. Their worse enemy, the nightmare that had haunted Aincrad for months... Was over.

"And just in time."

Drifter looked around. They had still lost too many frontliners. Especially from the smaller guilds, who had a more loose chain of command, which allowed for more hesitation when striking down the red players.

But, the Assault Team still had whereabouts a hundred able-bodied players. Some probably weren't in too good a place mentally right now.

But unfortunately, death, in all of its forms, was something they were used to.

They might never be okay. But they could certainly fight. And that was what the Assault Team needed. Because they were getting close.

"One month to the 50th floor. One and a half to the boss raid. That's how long we have to prepare and train any new recruits now that Laughing Coffin isn't looming over our heads anymore. Then we tackle the 50th floor."

Broken Spear Drifter, guild leader of Reaver's Requiem, titled player, and spearmaster of Aincrad, nodded to the faces around him.

"Good job today, everyone. I'll see you tomorrow."

It was an anticlimactic end for the devastating battle. But Aincrad didn't leave corpses to bury or dead to honor. Just a bunch of crossed names back in the Town of Beginnings.

Standing there in the labyrinth, moping around and fighting the occasional mob, wouldn't do anything. Best to go back and set their heads to right - as much as possible, anyways.

Drifter already expected the Laughing Coffin raid to have lasting effects on all of Aincrad. Especially once word got out to the normal players of what had transpired with them none the wiser.

"Akari, I want to talk to you. Kirito, Asuna, if you could grab Argo and meet us?"

The ninja blinked at him.

"You are disturbingly calm for someone who died, Broken Spear."

"Like I said, I barely registered it. And I'm sure I'll have nightmares later, but for now, I need to put all of this behind, otherwise I won't even be able to sleep."

He was going to catch hell from Yuna, Argo, Silica, and all of his friends. But especially the first three. One was his wife, the other two were his little sisters.

He was going to be in the doghouse for months.

But he stood by his actions, no matter how idiotic and hypocritical they had been. It had been over a year since he killed Morte, and he still woke up sometimes with the red player's mocking face at the front of his mind. He expected many more would join him, and doubted he would ever be fully free of them. He couldn't subject Silica to that.

At the moment, he didn't stop to consider that Silica's life would have been much worse if she spent the rest of it blaming herself for his death. But she would hammer that particular point, and many others, into his head in the near future.

Now, however, it was like he told Akari. He just wanted to tie up all the loose ends and put the whole Laughing Coffin debacle behind them.

Aincrad wouldn't climb itself.

And with a sure-death floor coming up, even the bloodbath that was today had to be put on the back-burner in favor of preparing for the 50th floor.

Otherwise, odds were it would be much, much worse when they got there.