Lost Days - SAO One shot

[Suryn]

I vote that side characters just show up and not join the guild. No need to absorb everyone of plot importance.

[LawOhki]

I vote that side characters just show up and not join the guild. No need to absorb everyone of plot importance.

That is the preferable route.

I've been trying to come up with something to do around the curse though. At some point I'll be including that Ranma went through a period of a few hours early on of being completely uncoordinated and unable to do anything. (Changed into a girl outside and the brain shifted enough to make things wonky) The NerveGear doesn't fry him because it never lost connection but the cardinal quickly does a scan to figure out wtf happened. And then this thought goes into territory demanding that I make this a series.

I was thinking to get them to finish the piece off by doing a short trip to ALFheim with Nabiki not missing the money making opportunity of Ranma-chan in game. At which point the rest of the side characters can be brought up as survivors wondering who the redhead cait sith claiming to be Ranma is since gender can't be changed in the game.

[Spica75]

Since I don't want to affect or get involved with canon events tooooo much.

Already did that.

[LawOhki]

Already did that.

I am prepared to do so much more.

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May 2nd, Month of the Olive
543 Days since launch
Floor 57, Marten City

“Someday, I would like to visit Italy.” Nabiki commented, the fingers of her left hand laced together with Ranma’s. “Or is it more like France?” She asked, strolling along the lamp lit street with the raven haired boy. Publicly she kept to the taboo of never speaking about the real world but when alone with him, she would sometimes break it.

“It’s both, I think.” He looked around in thought at the buildings and road bathed in a soft gold light from the tiny flames burning inside glass lamps. “Maybe Spanish?”

‘If we get out, I’ll be sure to make us enough money to go and see.’ She promised. The floors of Aincrad were so varied in location that it was like she was traveling the world and she wondered if it would be as amazing to see what had inspired the sights in person.

“What’s with the new armor?” Ranma asked foxily, having noticed hours ago that she had picked up a new set.

“You don’t like?” She asked in mock hurt. It was a blue sleeveless dress that reached just above her knee with a second longer skirt that only covered the back of her left leg. A white dou style chest protector with golden accents covered her upper body. Her gloves were fingerless white silk with little articulated metal bands that ran from her knuckles to her elbow. Nabiki’s boots matched her gloves, with a small heel and reached up to her knees.

“I just wanted to know the reason.” A small amount red colored his cheeks as he admitted to checking her out. “Or why you haven’t let me check our inventory all day.” He suddenly pulled her close against him.

“Why do you think?” She asked sarcastically, turning herself to the side enough to open her menu. “You have no patience, I swear.”

“Just with you.” He teased, his free hand wrapping around to rest at the topmost curvature of her hip.

“In that case, let me give it to you, now.” She slid through her inventory before settling on her recently purchased item, and summoned it into her hands. Gift wrapping in Aincrad was quite simple but it did nothing to hide the contents from him if he bothered to inspect it.

“In public?” Ranma asked in mock shock, letting her go to take the package, and to go through the few options to remove the wrapping paper.

“I should slap you.” Nabiki watched as the gift wrap vanished and Ranma caught the new war fans that dropped into his hands.

“Wow, these are great.” He hadn’t even checked the stats before equipping them. The golden light from the street lamps was reflected perfectly off the silver polished to a mirrored finish.

“I got them but you’re responsible for any upgrades.”

She knew that his old set were at their limit. Several clearing guilds were openly pestering him to return to the front lines and to bring the dozen guildmates who he had personally trained along. It had been their goal to help develop players capable of dealing with the horrors of the front lines. And now they were at the point where none of them could progress any further without joining the others at the cutting edge of content.

“Happy birthday.” She clasped her hands in front of her, feeling immensely happy at his reaction to her gift. But the lack of her selfish and uncaring sister still seemed to hold her back from fully enjoying today. Because if they did return to the front lines, Akane would be there.

“Thanks, Nabiki.” Ranma smiled brightly, stepping away into the mostly empty street to experimentally swing his new blades, and feeling how the new stats affected his abilities.

“Quit bouncing around like an idiot, you’ve got an image to maintain.” She grabbed him to pull him down the street. “And I’m getting hungry.”

“Food, right!” He exclaimed with bubbly excitement, wrapping an arm around her waist again. “I didn’t even know you knew when my birthday was.” The raven haired boy brought up.

“I always remember important days to make Col on.” She answered, remembering how she had manipulated her sister and the other two fiances for her own ends in Nerima. “And you won’t need to surprise me with anything. You’ll be getting a detailed list of everything I want.” She explained.

For a moment she let herself wish that the simple but fulfilling life she had built was reality. “So you can’t get killed before then.” She had never thought she would be so concerned for someone like him. ‘You can’t leave me alone, not after we just got married.’

[Suryn]

That last zinger wow. That is going to have repercussions. I am surprised it has taken them about 25 floors to get there group up to par. I would think Ranma at least would show up every once in a while just to keep himself able to help on the front

[Dumbledork]

Oooh, married. I doubt Akane will like that. I'm sure their eunion with Akane will be very bad. Can't wait to find out what you've planned.

[WG_Writer]

"Ohh happy day! The Schools are joined!!!"

[Cheb]

The best R/SAO cross I've seen so far

That isn't the end.

Yay

her voice shaking the various items on display, sending many crashing to the floor.

Impressive! Kayaba even thought of supporting sonic blasts from a player yelling

It does, due to some nagging I dropped the number of them down to around five hundred at the start.

{i}This{/i} is the only part of the fic that feels highly artificial. Why would Kayaba care about piracy? (unless the server is overloaded) What does the game client really run on? Does NerveGear helmet contain all the hardware processing the physics simulation and rendering? Then why do they connect it to a PC in the anime?
Or is the helmet akin to an ascended Oculus Rift, i.e. an interface device only, with rendering and physics processed on a PC? Does Nabiki have 3 computers then?

that he nearly had his chest caved in

There's no mutilations, except the ability to cut off limbs.

[Spica75]

"Ohh happy day! The Schools are joined!!!"

[LawOhki]

That last zinger wow. That is going to have repercussions. I am surprised it has taken them about 25 floors to get there group up to par. I would think Ranma at least would show up every once in a while just to keep himself able to help on the front

Not so much to get them up to par but enough for them to run out of things to do on relevant cleared floors. 12 people personally trained by Ranma to fight without relying on the sword skills to do everything, and having learned to work as a team through experience. If given the chance they'd trivialize all but the toughest content. (Is going to be a thing that Ranma's created his own little martial arts school in the game.) All the clearers tend to be from random guilds coming together just for the boss without much cohesion past the overall tactics. Pick up groups are never more effective than consistent guilds.

But as Nabiki lightly touched on, their lives are pretty good at the moment, not a great deal of reasons to be quick to get back into it. So much to explore , do, and enjoy.

Ranma, Agil, and a couple others have made reasonably regular forays up into the front lines when asked but majority of the floors are cleared without issue. IIRC when they ran into the 74th boss it had become almost routine and only one person had been lost since the 50th floor.

The best R/SAO cross I've seen so far

Well thank you.

{i}This{/i} is the only part of the fic that feels highly artificial. Why would Kayaba care about piracy? (unless the server is overloaded) What does the game client really run on? Does NerveGear helmet contain all the hardware processing the physics simulation and rendering? Then why do they connect it to a PC in the anime?
Or is the helmet akin to an ascended Oculus Rift, i.e. an interface device only, with rendering and physics processed on a PC? Does Nabiki have 3 computers then?

Game client runs through a cartridge loaded into the helmet which is then connected to the internet. Only thing I remember him plugging in during the anime was an ethernet port in the wall. Most of the game seems dependent on the cardinal system running it while the NerveGears are primarily for receiving the images/giving input.

There's no mutilations, except the ability to cut off limbs.

Sounds better than 'blow to his torso.' No?

[WG_Writer]

it would be amusing to see Ranma's dozen flaten a boss without using more then a few basic sword skills ocassionally with even heathclif looking on in wonder

[WG_Writer]

I have reread this a few times and I keep running into a problem. You are using the word 'proselytize' while this is a proper form and usage it is a word I had to look up when I first read it, I would recommend changing it as its not a common word.

[Cheb]

Hmmm, the same here. The online dictionary I use translates "обратить в свою веру" (to convert [someone] into one's own faith) as "proselytize" or "proselyte", no other variants.

[LawOhki]

I suppose I can change it to something else. Though if this becomes a regular request I may start going through with a thesaurus for every word.

[LawOhki]

Almost done

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May 31st, Month of the Olive
572 Days since launch
Floor 59, Danac Village

Enjoying the wonderful summer weather that this floor currently offered, Ranma only barely listened to Nabiki and Agil discuss how the dark skinned man could make the most of his recently looted items. Another floor had just been cleared and Agil had taken part in the activities. No one had been lost in the boss fight or the long march through the dungeon to get to the end, so there would likely be a big get together tonight to celebrate.

Even so, it wouldn’t be as big as the last one nor the one from six months ago. While many were still fervent to reach and clear the hundredth floor, the majority of the population only wanted to hear about the new city that had opened up to them.

‘Hasn’t even been two years.’ Running his fingers through the long blades of grass surrounding him, he could understand why they had forgotten about the real world; because he was starting to forget as well. Even the constant physical restrictions that he had to fight tooth and nail against no longer seemed as harsh. Had he ever been able to do half the physical feats he remembered?

“Hey, Ranma, this would be perfect for you.” Nabiki put a hand on his shoulder and showed him the dialog box for a new piece of chest armor.

“How much?” He casually asked Agil, who had won the item by defeating the floor boss. It would be another nice upgrade, to match the new tessen that Nabiki had recently given him.

A familiar girl’s voice chose that moment to chime in, before the bald man could answer Ranma’s question. “For something you didn’t earn? I hope that XP leech charges you a lot.”

Ranma slowly turned around with Nabiki to see a small group of players leaning on the simple wood fence that followed along the road leading out of town. He didn’t immediately remember the vaguely familiar voice; however, he instantly recognized the short haired girl he had been engaged to.

Akane, like everyone else, hadn’t physically aged a day since entering the game. Her entire demeanor though, had shifted to one of extreme confidence; from the way she stood with both hands planted firmly on a fence post to her proud smirk. Like the two boys and one girl orbiting around her, she wore dark blue heavy plate armor over a black foundation layer. Strapped to her back was a massive spiked kanabo that was so long it nearly dragged on the ground.

“Akane.” He breathed, feeling Nabiki grip his arm tightly, a confusing mess of feelings welling up in his chest.

“You know them, Oni-hime?” The boy nearest to Akane asked in a very familiar and dismissive tone.

“Who doesn’t know the coward pirates that fled from the front lines?” A man in his twenties asked with a smirk.

“Agil, why didn’t you mention that Akane was cohorting with such riff raff?” Nabiki turned and asked the dark skinned man in shock.

“Leave me out of this.” Agil held up his hands and laughed nervously. He was the one who had spent the most time around the frontlines. “You just asked me how she was.”

“No worries.” Ranma regarded the small party accompanying Akane with open disdain.

Having heard the rumors about Akane showing up at the front lines and becoming something of a celebrity. A girl with a cute smile using an oversized weapon set her apart from over ninety percent of the clearing players. That she was an incredibly skilled fighter rivalling all the elites only increased her popularity. What really drew Ranma’s ire was that Akane had purposely avoided any contact with him or Nabiki. Going so far as to leave the frontline if either of them would show up.

“An apology would be a good place to start.” Nabiki crossed her arms irritably.

“You have some nerve asking me for an apology.” Akane scoffed and her party laughed to themselves like they were in on a joke.

“Why are you here?” He asked softly, having spent the better part of a year searching for her. Now that he could see she was alive and well, Ranma wanted nothing to do with Akane after the pain she had caused.

“You’re holding a tournament on the fifth. We want in.” Akane declared, jumping over the short fence to stalk towards them, her party falling in step around her.

“Buy in is fifty thousand Col each. But seeing as you asked so nicely that’ll be a hundred each.” Nabiki answered coldly.

“You can forget it.” He snapped, stepping between the two sisters. “Your Col is no good here.”

Akane froze mid step, her eyes narrowing into dangerous little slits at being rebuked. “Are you afraid to face me? Ranma-kun?” She asked slowly.

“If you wanted a rematch you should have just asked. But the answer is no.” Ranma didn’t know what kind of game his former fiance was playing but he really wanted no part of it. Nabiki leaned in close to his side and put a comforting hand between his shoulder blades.

Across from them, Akane face became extremely strained, and flushed a dark shade of red. “I knew you were a coward, but-- mercenaries like you refusing money?” She snarled, hands clenching repeatedly. At her side, Akane’s party members stood uncomfortably waiting for some order from their leader.

“No, it’s okay.” Nabiki openly disagreed with his dismissal of Akane’s party. “One hundred thousand each-- just so everyone can see how pathetically childish you’ve always been, when you lose--again.”

‘Damn it, Nabiki! Let me make a decision for once!’ Ranma fumed over his wife completely ignoring what he had said. “You heard her.” He added.

“Pay ‘em.” Akane spat and roughly shoved a party member forward. “I have better things to do.”

Ranma’s resolve nearly crumbled as he once again watched Akane walk out of his life. As quickly as the urge to stop her came, it was gone. “You sure about letting her into the tournament?” He whispered to Nabiki and squeezed her free hand as she accepted the trade for the entrance fee.

“You’re not the only one who wants to rain on her parade.” Nabiki smirked and her eyes glinted cruelly at the boy in front of her.

‘If that’s how the brackets work out.’ He just nodded, making a mental note to talk with Dolmez when he created the tournament structure to make sure it would be fair, and that Nabiki hadn’t hand picked any opponents between herself and Akane. Because he wanted to be the one to face Akane.