Mystic Knight Online - HP x SAO Crossover

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Mystic Knight Online - HP x SAO Crossover

Unread postby jgkitarel » February 12th, 2016, 4:31 pm

Well, actually putting text to the screen on this idea, though no clue how far I will take it, but my outlining is detailed enough for me to work from.

Anyway, the starting snippet:
Spoiler: show
June 5, 2022 – Malfoy Manor
Lucius Malfoy found himself fuming as he apparated to Malfoy manor. Not only had any efforts he had begun to discredit the headmaster been scuttled, but the whole series of events ended up drawing that man’s attention to him. That it also cost him a servant through an admittedly cunning bit of improvised trickery by the Potter brat was simply embarrassing and not something he would have fallen for had he been thinking clearly.

Still, not everything went badly. He had confirmation that the diary the Dark Lord had entrusted him with was far more dangerous than it seemed, and it had been disposed of. Had the events played out as they had been and resulted in discrediting Arthur Weasley, it would have been a happy bonus. Still, better it had not succeeded. Given what some of the headmaster’ statements implied, he had a fair idea of what the diary may have actually been, which was concerning in itself. There were some magics and rituals which even practitioners of the Dark Arts did not do, and even considered taboo

Either way, that was a matter for the future. Now he had to find another way to keep Albus Dumbledore distracted, and perhaps a means of removing Potter from the picture for a time.

It was a few hours later as he read the summarized reports from his contacts, which included information several who had fingers muggle world had considered he might be interested in, that he may have found a means of doing so. Apparently the muggles in Japan had developed something that could simulate reality for the user of it, covering all five senses, and essentially simulate being in another world. He didn’t fully understand all of the terms included, but the general idea was as clear to him, provided that the information was correct. He made a note to get more information, and to remind that contact, again, to make sure that technical terms related to muggle technology would also be defined in a way he could properly understand.

He didn’t share Arthur Weasley’s fascination with muggles and their technology, but that did not mean that he was ignorant of developments in the muggle world. His father, Abraxas, had warned him that muggles can come up with surprises, and he used the example of the global conflict which had lasted from the late 1930s to the mid-1940s to make that clear, especially since the magical world had been fighting its own war at the same time. The number of witches and wizards killed by muggle weapons when the battles sometimes intersected, or simply had been in the wrong place at the wrong time, had been frightening enough, but what had happened to the thousands of Japanese magicals, who had been in two of Japans cities when they had been destroyed by a powerful muggle weapon, had been horrifying.

Many of those hundreds of thousands of deaths could have been avoided had the wizards and witches been aware of what had been going on in the muggle world and thus stayed out of the way of muggle armies doing their best to destroy each other. As it stood, mainland Europe’s magical population, only numbering a few million at the time, had taken nearly half a century to recover.
Since then, he made sure to keep abreast of developments, mostly political and economic, within the muggle world. Some developments may indicate opportunities, after all, and at the very least, he kept informed. Knowledge and information were a power of their own to be used, after all.

And this latest bit of information presented an opportunity for him to distract one thorn in his side, while removing a potential future thorn for the time being. He would have to wait for more information.

It would be two weeks before more information came from his contact, and he had to give the man who sent it to him credit, he was thorough. This technology, called the Nerve Gear, created an artificial reality for whomever was using it and had just finished being developed and was being released for limited testing before going public later in the year. While the testing was being limited to Japan, its public release was being highly anticipated.

Apparently, the technology was also the main thing to be used in a game which multiple people would be able to play together regardless of where they were. The fact that it did so by immersing their senses in this artificial reality also meant that someone in it would be completely unaware of anything going on outside of it was also intriguing. He looked at the information and saw that the date all of this was to go public for release was to be late in October, with the game itself going live either at the end of October, or early in November.

Plenty of time for him to arrange things.

July 15, 2022 – Malfoy Manor

“Thank you for coming so promptly,” Lucius said to his guest as he gestured for the man to sit down at an available chair. He poured himself some brandy and looked at the man, who simply gestured that he was fine not having any.

“It is an opportunity for my family to repay a debt owed to your own, Lord Malfoy,” The man replied with an American accent as he sat down. “The Wainwrights have had this debt hanging over us for generations, so an opportunity to clear it is well appreciated. I hope you don’t mind if I don’t provide you my name, it’s best that you don’t know beyond the fact that I am a Wainwright.”

Lucius nodded. The Wainwrights were well known internationally on both sides of the law, and while dealing with them was not illegal, there were members who were wanted internationally. “Normally, I would not have called your family in, but I needed someone who is discrete and is familiar with both magical and muggle society on an international level.”

The man smiled. “Something that involves both worlds,” he commented. “Interesting, considering how the British magical community normally is from our perspective.” His gaze sharpened. “Why don’t you explain what service you want from us?”

Lucius nodded and decided that it was time to get to the point. He handed a tied stack of parchment to the man. “I need someone to disappear and be kept occupied in a way that will keep him from turning up.” He replied. “Doing so will keep my own opponents busy trying to find that person and allow me to undermine them.”

His guest looked at him. “This person?”

“Harry Potter.”

The man raised an eyebrow. “The Boy-Who-Lived? He’s still a minor, Lord Malfoy, so I do hope you want him kept alive, or whatever deal you struck is out of the question.”

“I am well aware of your stance on involving children and anything which is designed to cause them intentional harm, Mr. Wainwright,” Lucius replied smoothly. “I just want the boy out of the country and preferably on the other side of the world. The information in that stack of parchment I provided to you may explain some more.”

The man nodded and then began to look over the parchment sheets. Lucius patiently waited, sipping his drink. After a few minutes, the man put the sheets down.

“So,” Mr. Wainwright said. “You want us to kidnap a boy who is not yet thirteen, take him to Japan, and basically distract him with this technology and the expected game to be released with it? And all of this before the release?” Lucius nodded. “It is doable, if difficult. How above board do you want this to be done?”

“As above board as practicable, Mr. Wainwright,” he replied. “I want this operation to succeed, and having it fail due to some details being missed in the shuffle.”

Mr. Wainwright nodded. “Is there any more information you have, then, on Mr. Potter? His location and any security?”

Lucius nodded, knowing that they wouldn’t be asking for more information if they weren’t going to take the job. “Indeed I do, Mr. Wainwright.”
Also, I have to punch you, jgkitarel, because I spent a lot of time on the nanoha wiki trying to locate information on mages being trained due to being above a certain rank, only to remember and confirm that you were the one that came up with that. - Phht
Don't forget: Mass Effect is powered by magic space rocks. Evangelion is powered by Your Mom.
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Re: Mystic Knight Online - HP x SAO Crossover

Unread postby JamestheFox » February 13th, 2016, 10:22 am

I was just thinking about this plot bunny. Good to see it starting up.

There's not much to talk about. I like that you didn't necessarily connect the Wizarding and Muggle wars of the era to each other. They happened concurrently, but might not have stemmed from the same source.

"Huh. These nuclear weapons are certainly terrifying. More evidence that Muggles are mad (if goddamn clever) dogs that need to be put down."

MURICANS.

Typo
Spoiler: show
It was a few hours later as he read the summarized reports from his contacts, which included information several who had fingers in the muggle world had considered he might be interested in, that he may have found a means of doing so.
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Re: Mystic Knight Online - HP x SAO Crossover

Unread postby jgkitarel » February 13th, 2016, 2:07 pm

It's more likely that the two wars happened concurrently, and stemming from different causes, rather than Gellert Grindlewald being responsible for both happening. I can also see the likelihood of most of those killed being those who were caught in the crossfire, as well as cases of cautious soldiers opening fire when they see lights flashing around where they shouldn't.

Also, much of what I'm doing now is trying to lay the groundwork in just how Harry ended up in SAO. In essence, this is the prologue, and only a snipped of it.
Also, I have to punch you, jgkitarel, because I spent a lot of time on the nanoha wiki trying to locate information on mages being trained due to being above a certain rank, only to remember and confirm that you were the one that came up with that. - Phht
Don't forget: Mass Effect is powered by magic space rocks. Evangelion is powered by Your Mom.
From his new fic Long Night of the Harvest

My current project on FFN, Mystic Knight Online
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Re: Mystic Knight Online - HP x SAO Crossover

Unread postby jgkitarel » February 15th, 2016, 7:47 am

Full prologue here. It's short, but it covers getting Harry out of England.
Spoiler: show
Prologue – An Unexpected Trip

June 5, 2022 – Malfoy Manor

Lucius Malfoy found himself fuming as he apparated to Malfoy manor. Not only had any efforts he had begun to discredit the headmaster been scuttled, but the whole series of events ended up drawing that man’s attention to him. That it also cost him a servant through an admittedly cunning bit of improvised trickery by the Potter brat was simply embarrassing and not something he would have fallen for had he been thinking clearly.

Still, not everything went badly. He had confirmation that the diary the Dark Lord had entrusted him with was far more dangerous than it seemed, and it had been disposed of. Had the events played out as they had been and resulted in discrediting Arthur Weasley, it would have been a happy bonus. Still, better it had not succeeded. Given what some of the headmaster’ statements implied, he had a fair idea of what the diary may have actually been, which was concerning in itself. There were some magics and rituals which even practitioners of the Dark Arts did not do, and even considered taboo.

Either way, that was a matter for the future. Now he had to find another way to keep Albus Dumbledore distracted, and perhaps a means of removing Potter from the picture for a time.

It was a few hours later as he read the summarized reports from his contacts, which included information several who had fingers in the muggle world had considered he might be interested in, that he may have found a means of doing so. Apparently the muggles in Japan had developed something that could simulate reality for the user of it, covering all five senses, and essentially simulate being in another world. He didn’t fully understand all of the terms included, but the general idea was as clear to him, provided that the information was correct. He made a note to get more information, and to remind that contact, again, to make sure that technical terms related to muggle technology would also be defined in a way he could properly understand.

He didn’t share Arthur Weasley’s fascination with muggles and their technology, but that did not mean that he was ignorant of developments in the muggle world. His father, Abraxas, had warned him that muggles can come up with surprises, and he used the example of the global conflict which had lasted from the late 1930s to the mid-1940s to make that clear, especially since the magical world had been fighting its own war at the same time. The number of witches and wizards killed by muggle weapons when the battles sometimes intersected, or simply had been in the wrong place at the wrong time, had been frightening enough, but what had happened to the thousands of Japanese magicals, who had been in two of Japans cities when they had been destroyed by a powerful muggle weapon, had been horrifying.

Many of those hundreds of thousands of deaths could have been avoided had the wizards and witches been aware of what had been going on in the muggle world and thus stayed out of the way of muggle armies doing their best to destroy each other. As it stood, mainland Europe’s magical population, only numbering a few million at the time, had taken nearly half a century to recover.

Since then, he made sure to keep abreast of developments, mostly political and economic, within the muggle world. Some developments may indicate opportunities, after all, and at the very least, he kept informed. Knowledge and information were a power of their own to be used, after all.

And this latest bit of information presented an opportunity for him to distract one thorn in his side, while removing a potential future thorn for the time being. He would have to wait for more information.
It would be two weeks before more information came from his contact, and he had to give the man who sent it to him credit, he was thorough. This technology, called the Nerve Gear, created an artificial reality for whomever was using it and had just finished being developed and was being released for limited testing before going public later in the year. While the testing was being limited to Japan, its public release was being highly anticipated.

Apparently, the technology was also the main thing to be used in a game which multiple people would be able to play together regardless of where they were. The fact that it did so by immersing their senses in this artificial reality also meant that someone in it would be completely unaware of anything going on outside of it was also intriguing. He looked at the information and saw that the date all of this was to go public for release was to be late in October, with the game itself going live either at the end of October, or early in November.

Plenty of time for him to arrange things.

July 15, 2022 – Malfoy Manor

“Thank you for coming so promptly,” Lucius said to his guest as he gestured for the man to sit down at an available chair. He poured himself some brandy and looked at the man, who simply gestured that he was fine not having any.

“It is an opportunity for my family to repay a debt owed to your own, Lord Malfoy,” The man replied with an American accent as he sat down. “The Wainwrights have had this debt hanging over us for generations, so an opportunity to clear it is well appreciated. I hope you don’t mind if I don’t provide you my name, it’s best that you don’t know beyond the fact that I am a Wainwright.”

Lucius nodded. The Wainwrights were well known internationally on both sides of the law, and while dealing with them was not illegal, there were members who were wanted internationally. “Normally, I would not have called your family in, but I needed someone who is discrete and is familiar with both magical and muggle society on an international level.”

The man smiled. “Something that involves both worlds,” he commented. “Interesting, considering how the British magical community normally is from our perspective.” His gaze sharpened. “Why don’t you explain what service you want from us?”
Lucius nodded and decided that it was time to get to the point. He handed a tied stack of parchment to the man. “I need someone to disappear and be kept occupied in a way that will keep him from turning up.” He replied. “Doing so will keep my own opponents busy trying to find that person and allow me to undermine them.”

His guest looked at him. “This person?”

“Harry Potter.”

The man raised an eyebrow. “The Boy-Who-Lived? He’s still a minor, Lord Malfoy, so I do hope you want him kept alive, or whatever deal you struck is out of the question.”

“I am well aware of your stance on involving children and anything which is designed to cause them intentional harm, Mr. Wainwright,” Lucius replied smoothly. “I just want the boy out of the country and preferably on the other side of the world. The information in that stack of parchment I provided to you may explain some more.”

The man nodded and then began to look over the parchment sheets. Lucius patiently waited, sipping his drink. After a few minutes, the man put the sheets down.

“So,” Mr. Wainwright said. “You want us to kidnap a boy who is not yet thirteen, take him to Japan, and basically distract him with this technology and the expected game to be released with it? And all of this before the release?” Lucius nodded. “It is doable, if difficult. How above board do you want this to be done?”

“As above board as practicable, Mr. Wainwright,” he replied. “I want this operation to succeed, and having it fail due to some details being missed in the shuffle.”

Mr. Wainwright nodded. “Is there any more information you have, then, on Mr. Potter? His location and any security?”

Lucius nodded, knowing that they wouldn’t be asking for more information if they weren’t going to take the job. “Indeed I do, Mr. Wainwright.”

July 30, 2022 – Little Whinging, Surrey

Richard Wainwright looked calmly at his unconscious target while the rest of his team quickly checked the area and sanitized any signs of their presence. He had to admit, for a boy who had only just turned thirteen, he had put up quite a fight, and that didn’t include the trouble he and his team had gone through to get in and out of the wards placed around the house without being noticed, or hiding the use of magic from not only the muggles, but the Ministry.

Still, he thought. Dumbledore was a bit too clever for his own good here. I would have used a bit more than blood wards and whomever he may have in the neighborhood watching the boy. Reliance on only blood wards, and probably a watcher, was foolish, especially if someone was willing to take their time to prepare. Making the arrangements to spirit the boy out of England would have taken some time regardless, so he had used that time to work out how to bypass the wards and get the rest of the boy’s family out of the way while they did their little snatch and grab. The fewer potential witnesses, the better.

Still, aside from the fact that the boy had put up more of a fight than expected, given what they had seen of him during their recon, things had turned out well so far, but he wouldn’t be satisfied that things were well on their way until they started moving and put some distance from their current location. “Carlisle, you done?” He asked to a member of his team.

“Just finished, boss,” A woman responded.

“Good, let’s go then, I want to be out of Surrey and on our boat waiting in Ramsgate ASAP.”

The rest of his team nodded and quickly reached for their portkeys, Carlisle taking a brief second to pin one on their target, Harry Potter. Thirty seconds later, they were gone, and less than an hour later, their boat was already crossing the Channel, on its’ way to the French coastline. A few hours later, they disembarked the boat in southern Normandy before taking a portkey to another location. They would arrive in Japan six weeks later, after laying enough false trails to keep anyone who might try and follow them busy for months.

Albus Dumbledore would know within an hour of their leaving England that Harry was missing. He would follow their movements to France before the first false trail was laid in Marseille. It would take two days for the false trail to be realized, but by then, half a dozen more had been laid and Harry was no longer in Europe. By the time Harry was found in Japan, it would be impossible to return him to England.
And there it is. Harry kidnapped and gone. I am leaving developments in England in the air for now, such as things with Sirius and also the reactions of the others, but that will be handled down the line with some interludes at the relevant places. Already working on the first chapter and already deviating a little from my outline. Mostly just keeping the start of events in line with SAO canon, so things start on November 7 November 6, 2022.

EDIT: Corrected the date SAO went live.
Last edited by jgkitarel on February 18th, 2016, 10:58 am, edited 1 time in total.
Also, I have to punch you, jgkitarel, because I spent a lot of time on the nanoha wiki trying to locate information on mages being trained due to being above a certain rank, only to remember and confirm that you were the one that came up with that. - Phht
Don't forget: Mass Effect is powered by magic space rocks. Evangelion is powered by Your Mom.
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Re: Mystic Knight Online - HP x SAO Crossover

Unread postby RagnorakTres » February 15th, 2016, 10:23 pm

Do you mind overmuch if I edit this for word choice, flow, and sentence structure? Your spelling and grammar is fine, I don't even see any errors, but your actual prose feels choppy.
Like XCOM, but finding vanilla too easy or too short? Try XCOM: Long War for a whole new experience.
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Re: Mystic Knight Online - HP x SAO Crossover

Unread postby jgkitarel » February 16th, 2016, 12:09 am

By all means. I'm posting it here to get practice and help in getting things working smoothly. Dialogue is harder than it looks, as there are major differences between thinking and speaking it, and writing it are very different. It's something I've noticed myself, but I will admit that I need assistance in that regard.

Also, getting things to flow right can be a challenge as well.
Also, I have to punch you, jgkitarel, because I spent a lot of time on the nanoha wiki trying to locate information on mages being trained due to being above a certain rank, only to remember and confirm that you were the one that came up with that. - Phht
Don't forget: Mass Effect is powered by magic space rocks. Evangelion is powered by Your Mom.
From his new fic Long Night of the Harvest

My current project on FFN, Mystic Knight Online
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Re: Mystic Knight Online - HP x SAO Crossover

Unread postby RagnorakTres » February 19th, 2016, 11:08 pm

Spoiler: show
Prologue – An Unexpected Trip

June 5, 2022 – Malfoy Manor

Lucius Malfoy (fumed silently) as he (appeared inside the) Malfoy manor(, his cloak still swirling from the twist-step of Apparition). Not only had (his) efforts to discredit the headmaster been scuttled, but the (entire) series of events (had) ended up drawing (the) man’s attention to him. (That the Potter brat had demonstrated some basic cunning in depriving him of his servant was salt in the wound. Such a thing would never have occurred if he had been less distracted.)

Still, not everything (had gone) badly. He had confirmation that the diary the Dark Lord had entrusted him with was far more dangerous than it seemed, and (that) it had been disposed of. Had events played out as (planned) and (Weasley been discredited), it would have been a happy bonus. Still, better it had not succeeded. Given some of the headmaster’s statements, he had a fair idea what the diary (had) actually been, which was concerning in (and of) itself. There were some magics and rituals which even practitioners of the Dark Arts considered taboo.

Either way, that was a matter for the future. Now he had to find another way to keep Albus Dumbledore distracted, and perhaps a means of removing Potter from the picture for a time.

(Several hours later, he thought he might have found a method. Several of his agents had fingers in muggle pies, and their reports frequently included information they thought might become relevant.) Apparently the (Japanese muggles) had developed (some sort of illusory world generator that could fool all of the senses simultaneously.) He didn’t understand all of the (jargon) included, but the (gist) was clear to him, provided that the information was correct. He made a note to get more information, and to remind that contact, again, to make sure that technical terms (were accompanied by a definition).

He didn’t share Arthur Weasley’s fascination with muggles and their technology, but that did not mean that he was ignorant of developments in the muggle world. His father, Abraxas, had warned him that muggles can come up with surprises, and he used the example of the global conflict which had lasted from the late 1930s to the mid-1940s to make that clear(; a lesson made especially effective since the magical world had been fighting its own war at the time.) The number of witches and wizards killed by (“mere”) muggle weapons had been frightening enough(. The devastation of Japan's magical community by the muggle's “newks” was oil on the fire.)

Many of those hundreds of thousands of deaths could have been avoided had the wizards and witches (merely maintained an awareness) of the muggle world. As it stood, mainland Europe’s magical population, only numbering a few million at the time, had taken nearly half a century to recover.

Since then, he made sure to keep abreast of developments, mostly political and economic, within the muggle world. Some developments may indicate opportunities, after all, and at the very least, he kept informed. Knowledge and information were a power of their own to be used, after all.

And this latest bit of information presented an opportunity for him to distract one thorn in his side, while removing a potential future thorn for the time being. He would have to wait for more information.

It would be two weeks before more information came from his contact, and he had to give the man who sent it to him credit; he was thorough. This technology, called the Nerve Gear, created an artificial reality for whomever was using it and had just finished being developed. (It was being released for limited testing in Japan before going public later in the year, and that was evidently a highly anticipated event.)

Apparently, the technology was also the main thing to be used in a game which multiple people would be able to play together regardless of where they were. (The fact that it would render the user completely unaware of anything going on outside of it held intriguing possibilities.) He (glanced over) the information (again) and (noted) that the date all of this was to go public was to be late in October, with the game itself going live either at the end of October, or early in November.

Plenty of time for him to arrange things.
Here's the first bit of my editing. I tried to leave as much of the core structure alone as I could, but some of the sentences flat out needed to be rewritten. There were a few spots where you spliced together what really should've been several sentences into a single longer one with commas. Everything in parenthesis is my own addition, I was going to mark out removals as well, but it was getting hard to read.

Also, semicolons. Learn them; love them. They're my favorite piece of punctuation, even as they're hard to use to full effect.

Sorry this took me so long, first day off in a week. I'll try to have the other half done by or on Tuesday, which is my next day off.
Like XCOM, but finding vanilla too easy or too short? Try XCOM: Long War for a whole new experience.
XCOM: War Within 101: Bounding is not a suggestion. Neither is cover. You will make mistakes, and these mistakes will cost you men; this is a war, and war is hell.

Maxim 6: If violence wasn’t your last resort, you failed to resort to enough of it.
Maxim 17: The longer everything goes according to plan, the bigger the impending disaster.
Maxim 47: Don't expect the enemy to cooperate in the creation of your dream engagement.
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Re: Mystic Knight Online - HP x SAO Crossover

Unread postby jgkitarel » February 20th, 2016, 2:26 am

You definitely kept to what I was intending to say, and the changes improved the flow of the prose. This highlights why I am posting it here for people to put another set of eyes on it all before I post it anywhere else(FFN, probably), which won't happen until I have a fair number of chapters finished. As for semicolons, I'll try to use them properly, but you're right that using them to proper effect is a bit of a challenge.

On a side note, I'm about 2300 words into the first real chapter. Actually having fun with it, even if the prose is probably as choppy as the prologue, though I did work some more edits into the prologue outside of what you recommended, Ragnorak.
Also, I have to punch you, jgkitarel, because I spent a lot of time on the nanoha wiki trying to locate information on mages being trained due to being above a certain rank, only to remember and confirm that you were the one that came up with that. - Phht
Don't forget: Mass Effect is powered by magic space rocks. Evangelion is powered by Your Mom.
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Re: Mystic Knight Online - HP x SAO Crossover

Unread postby jgkitarel » February 23rd, 2016, 11:32 pm

Well, about 4300 words into the first actual chapter, and I figure I will post the completed parts of it. I would appreciate any comments on how it is working, what I can do to improve it, and any proposed fixes. Ragnorak, feel free to chime in on this and everything else.

I will post the other parts when I finish the chapter.
Spoiler: show
November 6, 2022 – Setagaya Ward, Tokyo

Harry woke up when one of his captors knocked on his door. Glancing at the clock, he noted that it was about eight in the morning as he got up from the futon that he had slept in. Slowly stretching he walked over to the dresser where he kept his glasses and put them on before getting his clothes for the day out and gathered them. He had a few minutes before one of his captors came in and escorted him to bathe and then eat. It was a routine he had been doing for the last several weeks, after arriving in Japan, but being escorted by one of his captors had been the case since the first day. While they had allowed him the illusion of privacy for things such as bathing and sleeping, he knew full well that they were discretely watching him even then.

It didn’t take him long to realize that trying to escape, especially since they kept possession of his wand, was a waste of his time and effort. They even used magic and potions to keep him in line during their travels, entering the various countries legitimately and with proper documentation. He could legitimately answer that in the space of a couple of months, he had “seen” nine different countries on three continents due to the route they took, and did so legally, aside from the fact that he had been an unwilling companion to the group he traveled with. His passport had the stamps to prove it, though he wondered how they had managed to get a legitimate one for him in a short period of time, and had gotten a relatively current picture of him to have on it.

He could have sworn he saw the Weasley family at one point when they stopped in Egypt, but his captors quickly had him moving on and he was soon on his way further east before he could confirm it, or do anything else if it had been them he saw.

Another knock sounded. “You decent in there, kid?” A woman’s voice asked.

“And if I wasn’t, Ms. Carlisle?” He called back.

The woman opened the door and walked in. “Then I would be getting a show,” she replied, amused. “Not that you have much to show right now. Anyway, time to clean up.”

Harry blushed and placed his clothes into a basket with his bathing supplies. “I’m only thirteen.” He told her. “Isn’t that a bit young for you?”

His only reply was a chuckle as the woman gestured for him to go ahead of her. Walking out of the room, he immediately headed to the bathroom to take care of his morning business.

An hour later he sat at the low table, a kotatsu if he remembered correctly, in the dining room and looked at the food available. It was simple, with miso soup, a fried egg on rice, and those fermented beans which he would rather not eat, with milk to wash it all down with. He also saw a couple of apples available. All in all, not much different from the usual fare he had been eating over the last few weeks.

Sighing, he began to eat, taking his time in the, admittedly pointless, hope of disrupting whatever schedule they may have lined up for him today. Given that they had been spending weeks shoving the Japanese language into his skull with magic, alongside getting him up to speed on muggle computers and that Nerve Gear device, and hammering into his skull the “official” story of why he was in Japan, he was expecting more of the same.

Ms. Carlisle, seeming to read his mind gave him an amused smile. “Take your time, kid,” she told him. “There’s not much for us to do today.”

Harry paused his eating and looked at her curiously. “Would it be too much to think you’re finally letting me go, or at least giving me my wand back?” He asked her.

She snorted. “We’re not doing that,” she replied cheerfully. “Today we double check the calibrations on your Nerve Gear and get you into SAO the second it goes live.”

Harry blushed at the word “calibrations”. They had insisted on doing so rather thoroughly the first time, and Ms. Carlisle loved teasing him about that, saying that he was going to make some girl happy in the future. He then realized what she said afterward. “So that is today?”

“Indeed it is, Mr. Potter,” can a man’s voice from the door.

Harry turned to the man who had led the group that captured him and gave him a half-heartedly sullen look. “And a good morning to you, Mr. Wainwright.” He said sourly.

Mr. Wainwright simply nodded to him, “Good morning as well, Mr. Potter.” He replied as if Harry was being polite. It was a routine the two of them had since two weeks after his abduction. Harry would give him a sullen greeting, and the man would respond as if nothing was amiss, keeping a polite and professional façade on at all times.

After the meal ended, Harry piled his dishes together and took them to the kitchen. Placing them in the sink to be washed later, he turned and headed back to the dining room. Sitting down at the kotatsu, he watched as Ms. Carlisle poured some tea for everyone and placed a cup in front of him.

“Now, Mr. Potter,” Mr. Wainwight said. “As Ms. Carlisle told you, Sword Art Online goes live today this afternoon. We will be double checking the calibrations, running some diagnostics, and then you will be spending the rest of the day in Sword Art Online. We will have you logout at around seven for dinner, and you will be allowed to either go back into the game, do something else, or go to bed as you see fit. Are there any questions?”

Harry shook his head. “No,” he replied. “Given that you’ve been getting me ready for this for the last few weeks, I might as well see what it’s all about.” He frowned. “Still, you all went through a lot of trouble, just to get me here, and all for this.”

Richard gave a thin smile. “Our client wanted us to, and I will admit, I am curious about all of this as well.”

Harry snorted. “I find it odd that your client even pays attention to the muggle world, let alone keeps up with technology developments.”

“You would be surprised, Mr. Potter, at how many in the magical world do pay attention to developments in the muggle world, including developments in technology.” Mr. Wainwright answered easily. “Those developments may sometimes lead to opportunities.” He smiled again. “Also, I have no doubt that you are interested as well.”

Harry nodded, grudgingly acknowledging the truth of that. It all still seemed like a complicated effort to get him out of the way, and keep him too busy to try and return to back to Britain. At the same time, it would be a break from the tedium of having to learn not only the language, but also how to use the technology.

Magic may have helped with the former, even if it had given him enough headaches to go through Madam Pomphrey’s entire supply of headache potions. It had gotten him to the point where he could speak the language fittingly for his age, if not quite read it as well. He was fine with hiragana and katakana, but kanji was giving him trouble.

However, magic did nothing for the latter, mostly because even his captors had only a limited knowledge of the technology. They knew what computers and the internet were, and how to use them to a degree, Ms. Carlisle more than Mr. Wainwright. However, being magical themselves, they didn’t make much use of muggle technologies unless necessary, mostly because they had perfectly usable alternatives that they were accustomed to using. Given that the Nerve Gear was new technology, they were also learning alongside him.

Still, he was going to be in this Sword Art Online this afternoon, and after everything he went through, it had better be worth it. He just hoped there wasn’t a catch involved that would cock up everything.

That would just be his luck.
Spoiler: show
November 6, 2022 13:15 – Aincrad, 1st Floor, Town of Beginnings

Harry opened his eyes and looked at what would be his surroundings for the foreseeable future, or at least the next few hours after his avatar finished materializing. “Whoa,” he said. “This is supposed to be a game?” He looked around in amazement and saw people of all ages, though most seemed to average in their late teens to early twenties, and a surprising number of girls. Given what little he knew of gaming, he was fairly sure that more than a fair number of them were guys. Why they would play a game that simulated reality as the opposite gender, he could guess, but he had no inclination to stir that cauldron when he could customize his appearance.

He had gone with a look that was reasonably close to his own appearance, same hair and eye color, but little taller, a bit more muscular, but still close to his own appearance. It also meant that he wouldn’t have trouble adjusting. The little bit of prior experience from calibrating the Nerve Gear and using some of the included software, made him realize that the closer to what you really were, at least in body type and size, the easier things were.

He took another look at his surroundings and decided to look around the town. He had no idea what he should do at this point, aside learning how to play the game, but a little exploring around the town wouldn’t be a bad idea, either. This way he would know where things are.

He brought up the menu, the required hand position and gesture having been clearly explained in the manual that he had been forced to read, and browsed through it. He brought up his status menu, inventory, and even the map several times so that he would remember how to do so later. After playing with the menu for a few more minutes, he dismissed it and walked off into the town.

It was about an hour later when he bumped into someone, or to be more accurate she bumped into him. One second he was looking around, and the next, he was on the ground. Outside of feeling something, it wasn’t painful, so he could chalk up pain as thankfully not being a part of the game. It still knocked the breath out of him.

He looked at who bumped into him and noticed it was a girl who was looking a little dazed, as if she didn’t expect to run into someone in the literal sense. He took a look at her, noticing her features, or at least the features she decided to have in the game. She had decided on an avatar which was slightly shorter than he would be in the real world, with moderately long blonde hair tied up in twin tails, and violet eyes. Add in the white shirt, brown skirt, simple armor over it and what looked like a dagger, it was rather cute.

“Sorry about that,” he said apologetically. “I wasn’t paying attention.” He stood up and held his hand out to her to help her up.

She blinked and then reddened in embarrassment before allowing him to help her back to her feet. “Oh, umm, it’s nothing, really.” She replied shyly.

“Still, my apologies, Miss-”

“Kei- Silica,” she replied, correcting herself from probably telling him her real name. “My name is Silica.”

He smiled. “Well then, Miss Silica, call me Hadrian, or if you want, Harry.” He had picked a name which his own could be used as a diminutive for, deciding that having to remember a completely different name with no relation to his own would be more trouble than it was worth. That and he could probably convince them to use ‘Harry’, without letting on that it was his actual name.

“Ok, Hadrian.” She shuffled slightly. “Um, can I ask what you were doing?”

Harry shrugged. “I was simply looking around the town, deciding to see where everything was before I went outside and fought a few monsters.” He put his hand on the plain sword his avatar had. “I figured I would learn how to use this.”

“Oh,” she replied. “Well, can I come with you around the town, at least? It’s bigger than I thought.” She fidgeted a little. “The idea of fighting the monsters looks a little scary, though.”

He chuckled a little at the idea of being scared fighting the monsters, though he could understand her point. He had seen, and in some cases fought, some of the things that exist in the real world, and going up against those things had been scary. He would know, given how much terror he had felt when being confronted by acromantulas, or fighting a basilisk. Everything here might not be real, but there was a difference between seeing something charging on a screen, and seeing it actually charge you.

It may be a virtual world, but the first few times would probably come as a bit of a surprise to people, as they would be seeing these things up close and personal.

Silica’s cheeks puffed out in irritation. “It’s not funny!” She said as she stomped her foot.

Harry simply smiled. “Sorry,” he apologized. “I wasn’t laughing at you.” He turned and looked back at her. Why not? He thought to himself. “So, want to look around town for a bit?” He asked her.

Silica smiled and nodded.

The two of them would spend an enjoyable few hours exploring the Town of Beginnings, from the Black Iron Palace that was in the center of the town, to a few of the markets, where they browsed the wares. Harry began to think that calling it a town was a bit misleading; it was closer in size to that of a small city. The shops definitely reflected that in the variety of goods available, which ranged from the inexpensive to the moderately expensive. While some of the equipment available looked intriguing, the prices were outside of what he could reliably afford and still have enough col, the currency of SAO, for other things, like potions and such. Given that they were given a starting allowance of 2500 col, and the cheapest weapon or armor piece that would be noticeably better than what they started with cost around 2400 col, he decided that it was better to hold off for now.

Harry had insisted on getting a few more health potions when they stopped at a stand selling them for less than the price at some of the other shops, though. When Silica asked him why, he simply replied, “Well, I did say I was going to head outside the town. If you’re not, you don’t need to, but still get a few just in case. Besides, these are the same potions we could get at another store, but are being sold cheaper here.” He showed that they were being sold for 90 col, rather than the 120 col some of the other shops were selling them for. Looking around, he saw a stall selling some food. “Anyway, want to get a snack?”

Silica blinked. “They sell food here?” Harry pointed out the stall he noticed to her. “Okay.”

They both walked over to the stall and browsed what was for sale. Apparently it sold various breads for a relatively low cost, the most expensive item on the menu was 50 col. Harry perused the available breads before requesting a dark bread and tea to with which to wash it down, while Silica went with a sweet bread and juice.

Biting into the bread, he mused the flavor. If he were to compare it, it tasted similar to rye bread, if not quite the same. The tea he had to wash it down was slightly more bitter than any English tea, but wasn’t quite like some of the Japanese teas he had been drinking for the last few weeks. If he were to sum up the tastes, he would say that they were close, but not quite the same, as if something was missing. It seemed that the virtual world couldn’t fully duplicate the sensations of reality.

“Oh!” Silica exclaimed, her food untouched, though he noticed that she had finished her drink. “It’s almost time for me to log off and get ready for dinner.” She gave Harry an apologetic look. “Sorry, but I have to go, and I still have homework to finish.”

Harry looked at the time and saw that it read 17:22, which surprised him a little. “Huh, I’ve been on for about four hours myself.” He said. “I know I have a couple more hours before I have to log off, but now would be as good a time as any for me as well.” He smiled at her. “Want to call it a day?”

She nodded, if a bit reluctantly. “Yeah, I guess we should.” She was about to open her menu to log out when she had an idea. “Wait, maybe we can add each other to our Friends List.”

Harry quirked an eyebrow. “Friends List?”

Silica nodded. “Yeah!” She exclaimed. “I read up on it while I was waiting for the game to go live. It allows players to remain in contact and know if others that they know are online and where they are.”

Harry blinked. He hadn’t thought of that. He didn’t know how much longer he would be in Japan before Dumbledore finally tracked him down, but he was going to be spending a lot of time in the game for the foreseeable future. Having someone to play the game with, even if it was only a few times, would be nice.

He smiled. “Sure,” he replied. He opened his menu and realized that he didn’t exactly remember what to do. “Um, how do we do this?” He asked with some embarrassment. “I don’t think I looked up how when I was reading up on the game. Or found it when I was playing with the menu earlier.”

Silica giggled and then went through the process, explaining what she was doing. Before long, Harry saw a message saying that she wanted to add him as a friend. Pressing the button that would acknowledge it, he then browsed his menu and noticed that she had already been added to his list. He looked back at her and noticed that she had a confused expression on her face as she looked at her menu.

“Silica?” He asked.

She looked at him. “Um, Hadrian, can you check and see if you have a Logoff button?”

Confused, he went back to his menu and browsed through it. “That can’t be right.” He said simply, looking back at her as he suddenly had a foreboding feeling.

The Logoff button was missing.

He absently heard the bell chime the half-hour before they were both engulfed in light.
EDIT: Made some minor edits.
Last edited by jgkitarel on February 28th, 2016, 7:31 am, edited 1 time in total.
Also, I have to punch you, jgkitarel, because I spent a lot of time on the nanoha wiki trying to locate information on mages being trained due to being above a certain rank, only to remember and confirm that you were the one that came up with that. - Phht
Don't forget: Mass Effect is powered by magic space rocks. Evangelion is powered by Your Mom.
From his new fic Long Night of the Harvest

My current project on FFN, Mystic Knight Online
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jgkitarel
 
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Re: Mystic Knight Online - HP x SAO Crossover

Unread postby jgkitarel » February 24th, 2016, 12:24 pm

Well, found a good place to end it. You will notice that what I posted earlier wasn't the first 4300 words, but the competed sections. Anyway, the rest of the chapter is complete for everyone's perusal.
Spoiler: show
Aincrad, 1st Floor – Plaza in front of the Black Iron Palace

Harry blinked to clear the spots in his eyes as the effects of the forced teleport dissipated and looked around. He could see dozens, if not hundreds of other players looking around in confusion. His eyes widened as he quickly looked for Silica, who had been near him when they were teleported. Spotting her, he quickly walked over to her.

“Silica, are you alright?” He asked.

She turned and looked at him and sighed in relief. “Hadrian, what’s happening?” She asked nervously.

He frowned. “I don’t know,” he replied. “One second we were in a market on the north side, and now we’re here.” He could already see some players already beginning to get nervous. Grabbing Silica’s hand, he made his way to the edge of the crowd and started making his way around the edges to the back of it. He was tempted to use one of the exits to leave, but he noticed a couple of people get stopped by some barrier as they tried to do the same, keeping them in the plaza.

He let go of Silica’s hand after they were behind the majority of the crowd. He noticed a man with apparently black hair and eyes look like he had calmed his companion, a man with pink hair of all things, down. He decided to take a chance and approached the two of them, Silica closely following him. “Any idea what is going on?” He asked the man with black hair.

The man shook his head in the negative and was about to reply when a sound came from above. Looking up they saw a hexagon with the words “System Announcement” on it, before the shape multiplied and took up the entire sky, staining it red. “I think we’re about to find out.” The man said simply.

When he saw the sky apparently start bleeding and the “blood” converge on one place to take the form of a figure in a red cloak, Harry felt a pit form in his stomach. He also felt Silica brush up against him and a quick glance down to her showed that her nervousness was beginning to morph into actual fear. He put a hand on her shoulder and hoped that it would calm her as the figure spoke.

“Attention players,” the figure said. “I am Akihiko Kayaba and I welcome you to my world.”

“His world?” Harry asked to himself absently as he remembered just who it was who was responsible for the development of the Nerve Gear and Sword Art Online.

“You all may have noticed that the option to log out is no longer in your menu.” The figure continued. “This is not a bug or defect. I repeat, this is not a bug or defect. This is an intended feature of Sword Art Online. You cannot log out of Sword Art Online, and you cannot be logged out, either.

“If someone tries to remove or shut down the Nerve Gear, it will emit a powerful microwave, destroying your brain and ending your life. I had sent this warning out and, unfortunately, the friends and families of several players have ignored it.” Several screens popped up out of nowhere, all of them seeming to be showing various news feeds. “Due to this, two hundred and thirteen players are now gone from Aincrad, and from the real world.”

Two hundred and thirteen people are dead? Harry thought in shock. No way.

“As you can see, news organizations all around Japan and the world are reporting this, including the deaths. Thus, you can assume that the Nerve Gear being removed is now minimal. Before you worry about your bodies, your families, friends, and the government if necessary, have been notified. They have two weeks to make arrangements for your care, and during that time, the window for being disconnected has been extended to facilitate that.

“I hope that you will relax and attempt to clear the game, but I want you all to remember this: there is no longer a way to revive players. If your HP drops to zero, you die in both the game, and the real world. There is only one way to escape, beat the game. You are all currently on the first floor of Aincrad. If you defeat the boss on a floor, you can advance to the next floor. Reach the one hundredth floor and defeat the final boss, and you will clear the game. Finally, I have added a little present to your inventories. Please, take a look.”

Harry opened his menu, almost as if his body was doing so automatically, and found the item. “A mirror?” He asked. Absently, he pressed the name and brought it out. Looking into it, he saw not the face of his avatar, but his own. He was briefly blinded as his body was engulfed in light. Blinking the spots out, again, he looked around and saw that everyone in his vicinity had changed in appearance, as he probably did..

“Hadrian?” He heard Silica ask.

He looked and saw a girl with brown hair and reddish-brown eyes, wearing the same clothing and armor that Silica had. “Silica, is that you?” She nodded.

He heard more than a few exclamations of surprise, many of them along the lines of “You aren’t a girl?!” He snorted in amusement at that, finding a bit of grim humor in the situation.

“What’s going on?” Silica asked.

The black haired man, now a boy not much older than Harry, looked at them and then turned his gaze back towards Kayaba.

“I think he’s about to tell us.” He said.

“All of you are probably asking this question right now,” Kayaba said. “Why? Why would Akihiko Kayaba, the developer of the Nerve Gear and creator of Sword Art Online do this? I will tell you.

“I created all of this so that I may have a world I created to call my own; a world, which I can intervene in. With the Nerve Gear and Sword Art Online, I have accomplished that. As I said earlier, if you want to leave, you must beat the game.” Kayaba’s figure began to dissipate into smoke. “This concludes the tutorial of Sword Art Online. I wish you all luck in your endeavors. Farewell.” Kayaba’s figure finished dissipating and the red sky returned to the blue it had been before all of this.

“No,” Silica whispered, a panicked tone entering her voice. “This, this can’t be happening.”

Harry quickly grabbed her shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Silica, let’s go,” he said as he quickly and guided her out of the plaza as he began to see people panic. He had seen fear spread like a wildfire in a crowd before, and he doubted that panic was any different.

The two of them kept going until they reached an alley. Harry noted that they weren’t the only two there, the black haired boy and the man from before were there as well. Since they looked like they were discussing something, he left them to it and directed his attention to Silica.

“Silica,” he said gently. “Silica, look at me.” He quickly realized that she wasn’t paying attention, simply muttering to herself that the situation they were in couldn’t be happening. He tried to get her attention a couple more times before she registered that he was trying to get her attention. Her eyes were still full of fear when she looked at him, but her panic was beginning to fade.

“Hadrian, are we really trapped here?” She asked. “Is everything he said, true? If we die here, we die for real?”

Harry considered telling her that Kayaba was lying, that the man was simply playing a horrible joke on them all. He didn’t even know if what the man was telling was the truth, after all. However, he also didn’t know that he wasn’t.

“I don’t know,” he said honestly. “He could have been, and it sounds possible.” He knew that those were not the words Silica wanted to hear, but he also wouldn’t lie to her. He didn’t know enough about how the technology worked, but it sounded possible, given his admittedly limited knowledge.

Silica closed her eyes and ran to him, burying her face into his chest. “I want to go home,” she said as she started to cry. “I want my mom and dad. I want this to just be a nightmare.”

Harry looked down awkwardly as he realized that he now had a crying girl in his arms. He didn’t know what to do and looked around frantically to see if someone had some idea of what he should do. Damn it, I wish Hermione was here. He thought. She would know what to do. There wasn’t anyone else around, save for…

“Hey, you two, you okay?” A man’s voice asked.

He turned his head and looked at the man who asked the question. From the look, it was the guy who had pink, if now brown, hair. He didn’t see the other person. He shrugged and looked down at the still crying Silica. “What do you think?” He asked sarcastically.

The man winced. “Ah, yeah, sorry about that.” He said apologetically.

Harry shrugged. “It’s not your fault.” He looked past the man. “Where’s your friend?”

“He went ahead,” The man replied. “He’s a beta tester and knows what to do.” He grinned. “He taught me a few things until all of this happened. He offered to take me with him, but my friends are probably back at the plaza.”

Harry nodded. “You just can’t leave them behind.”

The man nodded. “Damn straight.”

“Good. I would ask if I could join you; I need to learn how to fight. But I think she needs someone to look after her.” He looked back down at Silica. “She’s not taking it well.”

The man nodded. “Yeah, I can see that. What’ll you do?”

Harry shrugged. “Find a place to stay for now, I guess.” He replied. “It’s getting late anyway.” He opened his menu and pulled up the map. “Let’s see,” he said as he looked at it. “If I remember right, this picture of a bed means a place to sleep.” He looked at where he and Silica were. “If we’re right here, then the nearest place is three blocks east and a block north. It even serves food, it seems.” He closed his map and looked back at the man. “I think I may have found a place, so I’m taking her there.”

The man smiled approvingly. “Good idea,” he said. “I’m going to go pick up my friends. Where was the place you found? Probably won’t hurt to have a place to crash for a few days.

Harry told him.

“Thanks. By the way, I’m Klein, what about you?”

“Hadrian, but call me Harry if you want to.”
Spoiler: show
Real World – Setagaya Ward, Tokyo

Richard Wainwright slowly drank his tea and looked at his plans for the next week as Ms. Carlisle monitored Harry. While the job of kidnapping the boy and taking him to Japan didn’t sit entirely well with him, his family had been contracted for it. Granted, they weren’t above doing so, usually when they were hired to remove someone from somewhere and place them into “protective custody”, or to blackmail someone for that matter, but they’ve done so for far more sinister reasons in the past, if not in generations.

They had stopped doing so after they had ended a brutal criminal war that had wiped out three magical clans and had reduced the other two, including the Wainwrights, to only a handful of members a couple of centuries ago. Since then, they had turned their efforts into keeping the magical underworld under some form of order, or as ordered as it ever got, while straddling the fine line between being legitimate and criminal themselves. They had also defined their stance on going after children: they won’t cause them any intentional harm.

Even unintentional harm, especially if it was fatal, would result in the one responsible being severely disciplined unless it could be conclusively proven that the unintended harm was outside of their control. He had seen one such incident and the man responsible for it would never walk again. They made no distinction on whether you were a family member, or simply a member of the organization in that regard.

If it hadn’t been for the family owing the Malfoy family a debt of honor, something they took very seriously, he wouldn’t have even considered taking the job. There were too many ways that things could have gone south and gotten the boy injured. Admittedly, the challenge of doing so, given that they had a short timeframe, and having to do it without Albus Dumbledore noticing, was one he enjoyed.

As it was, if Dumbledore tracked them down, they wouldn’t put up a fight, and simply hand the boy over. They knew the man’s reputation, and they knew that he could back it up in a fight. It wouldn’t stop him from telling the man, at length, just what mistakes he made with the boy’s security, however.

Fighting Albus Dumbledore was a losing proposition in any case. There were a few in the family that could do so with a fair chance at winning, but Richard knew full well that, while capable in his own right, he wasn’t one of them.

He absently turned the television on and watched as an urgent news broadcast interrupted some program. It took him a second to realize what it was about before his face paled. He was about to rush to where Ms. Carlisle and Harry were when the announcer laid out the next bombshell.

“I repeat,” The man on the TV said. “Do not try and remove the Nerve Gear from someone. We have gotten word that approximately two hundred people have died due to that. If you know someone who has a Nerve Gear and they are using it to play Sword Art Online, contact the authorities or the nearest hospital so that the person can be transported.”

He stood up as the message was repeated and made his way to the room where Harry was being kept. Ms. Carlisle. He noticed that she had a news feed up on a computer as she looked back to him, her face as pale as his.

“I see you already know,” he said simply. “Good. Look after him for now, I have a few calls to make before we get him to a hospital.” He felt the wards he had set to detect anyone magical who got close enough trigger. “And it seems that we have a visitor as well.” He sighed. “Of course.” He said resignedly.

“As if I needed this shit right now.” He muttered as he headed to the entrance.
Spoiler: show
Outside

Albus Dumbledore felt the wards trigger as he crossed them and nodded. Those who had Harry were not fools, and the presence of the subtle perimeter wards reaffirmed this. If it wasn’t for the fact that he had determined which group was behind Harry’s disappearance, he would have been worried about the warning.

It had taken Albus three months to track where Harry had been taken, and another month before he had the time, and went through the appropriate channels, to address this matter himself. He did not trust the Ministry to not make a cockup of this, especially with Cornelius Fudge as Minister and his suspicions of Lucius Malfoy’s involvement in this.

Cornelius was a competent, if easily pliable and manipulated, administrator. At least when there wasn’t a crisis of some sort; his current handling of Sirius Black’s escape from Azkaban being a prime example of how lacking his crisis management skills were. The man’s reaction to Albus notifying him that Harry had disappeared, though he was apparently fine, had not helped matters. Cornelius had panicked and was more than willing to lay the blame on Black for this. However, given that periodic, and verified sightings of Sirius Black continued, that was unlikely. Furthermore, the methods of the kidnappers had been too professional and too neat.

Lucius had the resources to hire such a group, and after the Chamber of Secrets incident, a reason to do so. However, Lucius being Lucius, there was no evidence to back it up.

It was two weeks after the incident, when his enquiries to some muggleborns and squibs who had entered the muggle civil service that he made on a hunch, had borne fruit. A Wainwright had been in England at the time and had apparently pushed the paperwork for Harry to be issued a passport through with unusual rapidity. The man had also left England the same day that Harry disappeared.

A possible oversight on the Wainwright’s part, but an understandable one. The Ministry of Magic wasn’t known for interacting and cooperating with the muggle government more than the bare minimum required by law. Then again, the Wainwright may have just not considered erasing those traces worth the bother, given that muggle records were increasingly not physical ones.

It was all moot, anyway. He was in Tokyo, and approaching where Harry was. He had forgone his usual robes for a simple suit, and some quick charms to make his beard seem smaller and more neatly trimmed in order to not stand out too much.

As he approached where Harry was, he saw a door open and a man simply wait at the threshold. There was a slightly wary and resigned look in the man’s posture, but there weren’t any tells that the man was going to cause trouble. As he approached the open entrance, the man looked at him and nodded.

“Professor Dumbledore, please come on in.” The man said.

Albus shook his head. “Can I at least have the name of the man inviting me in?” He asked pleasantly.

“Wainwright.” The man said simply.

Albus nodded and walked in as the man stepped aside. He kept his senses alert as the man shut the door, instincts that had served him well over his life letting him know where the man was and that he was not making any threatening moves.

He didn’t expect the man to. If the man intended, or even expected, a fight, he wouldn’t have given the invitation to enter. The Wainwrights observed and respected many old traditions, and one was to not initiate a fight when inviting someone in without cause.

“Professor,” Mr. Wainwright said. “I know why you are here, and sincerely wish you had gotten here this morning.”

Albus raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

The man sighed. “Our plans were to hand Mr. Potter over if you, or one of your representatives approached. However, a complication has arisen.”

“What kind of complication?” Albus asked.

“The kind that is outside of everyone’s control, and it means that we can’t hand him over to you.”

Albus fought down an urge to pull out his wand. “You had better explain to me why you can’t, Mr. Wainwright.” He told the man coldly.

“That is my intent, Professor Dumbledore,” the man replied. He then proceeded to explain the current situation, about the Nerve Gear, Sword Art Online, and what the creator of both had done, and that approximately two hundred people had died when those around them had tried to remove the Nerve Gear.

As the man explained, Albus began to feel his age as he realized the situation. Mr. Wainwright was correct in that, had he arrived a few hours earlier at the latest, this wouldn’t have happened. However, his busy schedule, the necessity of making sure he entered Japan legally and properly, and the time difference between Scotland and Japan, had made that impractical.

“Professor Dumbledore,” the man said. “Do you want me to take you to see him? We haven’t transferred him to a hospital yet, something I was going to do after I made a few other calls.”

“Please,” Albus replied, wanting to confirm things with his own eyes.

“Very well.” Mr. Wainwright led him to the room where Harry was. Albus noticed a woman sitting at a desk and working on some muggle device, a laptop computer if he recalled correctly.

“Boss,” she said, turning to him. “I think I got something. Also, who’s the old guy?”

Mr. Wainwright smiled. “Ms. Carlisle, allow me to introduce Professor Albus Dumbledore. He apparently decided to handle Mr. Potter’s retrieval on his own.”

Mr. Carlisle winced at that. “You tell him the situation?”

“Indeed, Ms. Carlisle.” Albus said with a calm he did not entirely feel. He looked down on Harry and saw the muggle device on his head. Mr. Wainwright was telling the truth in that regard at least, not that he expected the man to lie. “You said something?” He asked.

Ms. Carlisle brightened. “Oh yeah,” she said excitedly. “We can’t get him out, but I had a hunch and linked the laptop with an Ethernet cord. Since the hardware is still new, there isn’t really any built-in way to record what goes on it, so they set it up so that you can do so from a computer.” She showed them. “At least we can see what’s going on. It doesn’t seem to be coming from his eyes, but from an offset point over his shoulder.”

Albus looked at the screen, seeing what Harry was seeing as if he was looking over his shoulder. It wasn’t much, just Harry pulling out a chair for a girl to sit down on right now, but it was something. “How remarkable,” he said.

Ms. Carlisle nodded. “I was going to check and see if we could move the point of view around to get a better look at things next.”

Mr. Wainwright smiled. “Excellent work, Ms. Carlisle. Do so, and make sure you document it. When we notify the authorities, we should let them know about this. I don’t know how long it will be until Kayaba closes that option off, but until, or if, he does a means exists for those of us on the outside to see what is going on.” He considered something. “Do we have audio?”

Ms. Carlisle nodded. “I have it turned down for now, but yeah. I’ll turn it back up in a bit so we can hear what he’s saying.”

Mr. Wainwright nodded. “Excellent.” He looked at Albus. “Feel free to stay here Professor, but I have to make a few calls. The first one is to the family patriarch so that I can explain the situation.” He sighed. “I am going to catch Hell for this.”

Albus’ smile was cold. “I hope you don’t mind if I’m not sympathetic to your plight.” Given what he knew of the current patriarch of the Wainwright family, “catching Hell” is an understatement, but he wasn’t so crass as to mention that.

Mr. Wainwright snorted. “I don’t expect you to be,” he replied as he exited the room.

Albus turned his attention back to the screen, showing what Harry was doing. From what he could see, the girl had been crying and Harry was working to reassure her. As Ms. Carlisle turned the audio back on, he realized that he couldn’t understand what Harry was saying, though it was rather obvious what language he was using.

“How did you teach him Japanese so quickly?” He asked curiously.

“We did so using magic,” Ms. Carlisle replied. “It gives you one hell of a headache, but it allows you to get competent at the language in a couple of weeks.”

“Ah, I think I know the method,” Albus said. If it was what he thought it was, then having a headache from it was a mild reaction. Most would be laid out for the rest of the day, but Harry had proven himself resilient in the past.

“Huh, he’s deciding to find a place to hole up for a few days, rather than rush out.” Ms. Carlisle noted. “Not a bad idea.” She chuckled. “He also offering to the girl, Silica by what he’s calling her, to pay for her room for the night. He seems to be holding it together fairly well, all things considered.”

Albus smiled. “Harry’s tends to put the wellbeing of others before himself, and he’s shown calm in the face of a crisis before.” He said. He watched as the point of view moved around a bit. “So, you can move it around, I see.” He said as he turned to the woman.

Ms. Carlisle nodded. “Yeah,” she replied as she noted down what she did. She looked at Albus. “Want to keep watching for now?”

Albus looked at the screen and then back to Ms. Carlisle. “I might as well, at least until the arrangements are made for Harry’s care.” His eyes hardened. “I will want to be there, so I know where he will be cared for. I will also have his wand and personal effects remanded to my care, as well.” His tone brooked no argument, and Ms. Carlisle wasn’t inclined to dispute it anyway.

She wasn’t stupid.
EDIT: The last two can be edited out, which I might do and use them when I need to do interludes on the outstide world. It would make some sense, in a way, but I put them in, for now, as it was happening on the same date.

Also, made a few more changes.
Last edited by jgkitarel on February 28th, 2016, 8:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
Also, I have to punch you, jgkitarel, because I spent a lot of time on the nanoha wiki trying to locate information on mages being trained due to being above a certain rank, only to remember and confirm that you were the one that came up with that. - Phht
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Re: Mystic Knight Online - HP x SAO Crossover

Unread postby RagnorakTres » February 28th, 2016, 3:42 am

Here's the last of my edits to the Prologue, feel like I got a little more aggressive, but Wainwright's voice was very similar to Lucius' and needed some tweaking. I was shooting for upper crust Boston with his words, but let me know if it's too much.

Sorry this took so long, been out of sorts for days; work has been a horrid bitch lately. Spring Break is coming up, though, so that means a nice long furlough period. I'll poke at your new stuff tomorrow and start my brain working on it for then.
Spoiler: show
July 15, 2022 – Malfoy Manor

“Thank you for coming so promptly,” Lucius said to his guest(, gesturing) for the man to sit down at an available chair. He poured himself some brandy and (glanced) at the man, who (waved off the unspoken offer).

“An opportunity to repay a debt owed, Lord Malfoy, (is not an opportunity lightly ignored.)” The man replied with an American (drawl) as he sat down. “The Wainwrights have (owed the Malfoys) for generations, an opportunity to (repay) it is well appreciated. I hope you don’t mind if I (retain my anonymity), it’s best (if) you don’t know (my precise identity).”

Lucius nodded. The Wainwrights were well known on both sides of the law, and while dealing with them was not illegal (per se), there (was a certain attention paid to those who retained their services). “(A debt of this magnitude is not lightly called) in, but I needed someone (both discreet and familiar with all sides of the Masquerade) on an international level, (conditions your family fulfills nicely).”

The man smiled. “Something that involves both worlds,” he commented. “Interesting, considering how (isolated) the British magical community is from our perspective.” His gaze sharpened. “Why don’t you explain what (exactly it is you require?)”

Lucius nodded, handing a (neatly bound) stack of parchment to the man. “I need someone disappeared and kept occupied (for an indeterminate amount of time).” He replied. “Doing so will...(well, the whys and wherefores aren't really relevant.)”

His guest looked at him, (one eyebrow raised). “(Got a name?)”

“Harry Potter.”

The man's (other eyebrow joined it's brother at his hairline). “The Boy-Who-Lived? He’s still a minor, Lord Malfoy, so I do hope you want him kept alive, or whatever deal you struck is out of the question.”

“I am well aware of your stance (regarding) children and anything designed to cause them harm, Mr. Wainwright,” Lucius replied smoothly. “I just want the boy out of the country, preferably on the other side of the world. The information in that stack of parchment I provided to you may explain more.”

The man nodded and began looking over the parchment sheets. Lucius patiently waited, sipping his drink. After a few minutes, the man put the sheets down.

“So,” Mr. Wainwright said. “You want us to kidnap a boy, not yet thirteen, take him to Japan, and distract him with this technology and the game released with it? And all of this (prior to) the release?” Lucius nodded. (Mr. Wainright returned his eyes to the parchment before clicking his tongue.) “Doable, if complex. How above board do you want this?”

“As much so as is practical, Mr. Wainwright,” he replied. “I want this operation (successful), and having it fail due to a minor detail being missed in the shuffle (is unacceptable).”

Mr. Wainwright nodded. “Is there any more information you have, then, on Mr. Potter? His location, habits, any security?”

Lucius (smiled), knowing that they wouldn’t be asking for more information if they weren’t going to take the job. “Indeed I do, Mr. Wainwright.”

July 30, 2022 – Little Whinging, Surrey

Richard Wainwright (gazed) calmly at his unconscious target while the rest of his team quickly sanitized any signs of their presence. He had to admit, for a boy who had only just turned thirteen, he had put up (one hell of) a fight. (Richard had figured on this being a relatively easy swoop, but if they'd had just a little more trouble getting through the wards, this could've ended very differently. A single mistake would've had Dumbledore and the Ministry on them in minutes, and the boy might've slipped through their fingers.)

Still, he thought, Dumbledore was a bit too clever for his own good here. (Relying solely on) blood wards, and probably a (sentry), was foolish, especially if someone was willing to take their time to prepare. Making the arrangements to spirit the boy out of England would have taken some time regardless, so he had used that time to work out how to bypass the wards and get the rest of the boy’s family out of the way (for) their little snatch and grab. The fewer potential witnesses, the better.

Still, aside from the (boy putting) up more of a fight than expected, things had (gone) well so far; he wouldn’t be satisfied that things were well on their way until they started moving and put some distance from their current location, (though). “Carlisle, (we) done?”

“Just finished, boss,” A woman responded.

“Good, let’s go then, I want to be on our boat in Ramsgate (yesterday).”

The rest of his team nodded and quickly reached for their portkeys, Carlisle taking a brief second to pin one on their target, Harry Potter. Thirty seconds later, they were gone, and less than an hour later, their boat was already crossing the Channel, (well) on its way to the French coastline. A few hours later, they disembarked in southern Normandy before taking a (series of portkeys to Marseille, where they began to split up).

Albus Dumbledore would know within an hour of their leaving England that Harry was missing. He would follow their movements to France before the first false trail was laid in Marseille. It would take two days for the (initial bout of) false trails to be (exhausted), but by then, half a dozen more had been laid and Harry was no longer in Europe.

By the time Harry was found in Japan, (almost a year later), it would be impossible to return him to England.
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Re: Mystic Knight Online - HP x SAO Crossover

Unread postby jgkitarel » February 28th, 2016, 5:19 am

I actually have Albus finding Harry sooner, but that is something that is explained at the end of chapter 1. Random chance favored Albus there, he just didn't have time on his side.

Still, nice job there, and it definitely gives Richard some definitive character. While not what I was necessarily shooting for, it works. Sadly, he won't show up much after Chapter 1, I might have him show up periodically when I go into what is happening in the outside world, but he's going to be busy talking his way out of trouble.

Also, Ragnorak, feel free to also provide opinions on the story itself as you do.

I definitely need critique on more than just prose, considering that I already went over Chapter 1 and found a few things to improve. Nothing major, but some changes in word choice and sentences.
Also, I have to punch you, jgkitarel, because I spent a lot of time on the nanoha wiki trying to locate information on mages being trained due to being above a certain rank, only to remember and confirm that you were the one that came up with that. - Phht
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Re: Mystic Knight Online - HP x SAO Crossover

Unread postby jgkitarel » March 1st, 2016, 7:32 pm

Here's the completed Chapter 2. It's shorter than the previous chapter, but I found a good place to close it.
Spoiler: show
Chapter 2
November 13, 2022 – Aincrad 1st Floor – Town of Beginnings
Keiko woke up as the morning light entered the room of the inn that had been her current residence for the last week. She looked at the increasingly familiar ceiling blankly for a few seconds before she closed her eyes and sighed as, once again, she realized she was still in Aincrad. She was not thirteen year old Keiko Ayano here; she was Silica.

She glanced to the upper corner of her HUD and noticed the time and was actually surprised that it was only seven, given that she tended to sleep in if given the chance. Hadrian was right, she thought. You do feel better if you actually go out and do something.

She had spent the first five days and nights since being trapped in Aincrad not really doing much of anything; just remaining holed up in her room, or wandering around the town feeling sorry for herself. At least until Hadrian tracked her down each evening to take her back to the inn when he got back into the town after a few hours of fighting monsters, or mobs to use the slang term that was already becoming used, in the fields. Two days ago, he asked her if she would like to accompany him out into the fields, given that he could tell that she hadn’t been sleeping well.

“I think a chance to take it out on the mobs will do you some good.” He smiled. “I’ll be with you if you want to go out and try. I will protect you.”

He had been right about that. After teaching her how the sword skills worked, she would then spend the next four hours taking her anger and frustrations over her situation out on the boars and wolves that had littered the field he took her to. Outside of his intervening a few times, mostly when she had gotten an extra monster’s attention, he let her do it herself. Before she knew it, she had received a level up notification and found herself five hundred col richer. She also felt considerably better than she had that morning.

That night, after a hot meal she had insisted on paying for, she found herself sleeping more deeply than she had previously. She had also decided to accompany him in his forays outside the town again. A part of her was ashamed that she had done nothing for those five days, but Hadrian hadn’t said anything about it until the previous night, and that was only because he made his offer.

After using a water basin to wash her face and wake herself up some more, she opened her menu and equipped her gear. Taking a look around her room to make sure she hadn’t forgotten something, by habit if nothing else, she opened her door and walked out. It was time to get something to eat and find out what ideas her companion had for the day.

Harry looked up from his meal of porridge as Silica sat down at the table he occupied in the small restaurant that the inn had. “You’re up early,” he remarked as he watched her look over the menu.

“I woke up and didn’t feel like going back to sleep,” she replied as she made her order. She looked at what he was eating. “How can you eat that?”

He shrugged. “It’s not much, but I’ve had worse.” He replied. He took another bite and grimaced. “I just wish there was something to add to it, like honey or sugar, though. Plain porridge is just bland. Still, food is food.”

Silica nodded, accepting his reason. She looked at what the NPC waitress placed down in front of her and sighed to herself. Simple black bread, a little bit of fruit, and some weak tea to wash it down with. Not much better than Hadrian’s choice, to be honest, but the inn’s selection was rather limited, though cheap, in the mornings. Not that the afternoon and evening choices were any superior, given that the inn was cheap and they usually hit the stalls in the markets for an evening meal.

More the kind of food someone would eat when they simply wanted something quick and cheap.

“What’s the plan for today?” She asked after taking a few bites of the bread.

Harry pulled up the floor map. “I was thinking of heading to an area to the west, or heading to the next town. Heading west and hunting mobs will give us more experience and col, but I’ve heard of some quests in the next town which can help us with our gear.” He looked at her. “What do you think?”

Silica gave both options some thought as she drank her tea. “Well, I can use some more experience and get my level up a little more.” She admitted.

Harry nodded. “True, and hunting the mobs will get us the col to buy better gear anyway. Not to mention finding a better place to stay.” He smiled. “I’ve heard of a place near the West Gate that has some very good food and even offers baths.”

Silica felt herself perk up at that bit of knowledge. The possibility of a warm bath sounded real good right at that moment, provided that what he had heard was true. “You sure about that?” She asked hopefully.

Harry shrugged. “It won’t hurt to check, and it’s in the same direction anyway.”

Silica grabbed Harry and started to drag him out of the inn. “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go!”

“Silica, hey leggo!” Harry protested.

“But Hadrian, a bath!” Silica cheered.

He heard the laughter of several patrons as Silica manhandled him out of the inn. At the same time, a part of him was glad that she had found something to be happy about. It beat the depression she had been exhibiting beforehand. Of course, the opportunity to enact some violence on mobs yesterday probably helped as well.

Also, a chance to relax in a warm bath did sound pretty good, all things considered.

After confirming the rumors about the inn, and making a reservation that set Harry back three hundred col for the only room with a bath left available, they made their way to the western parts of the floor.

Three hours of wandering and fighting later, they stopped for a break, and Harry took the time and looked over the drops. Given that the average level of the monsters was slightly higher than his, he figured that another two hours or so would net the two of them another level increase. They were also getting more drops and col, possibly as a reward for taking more risks.

“Hey Silica, how are you holding up?” He asked.

Silica looked up from browsing her inventory. “Um, not bad. I still have plenty of potions left.” She then noticed something in her inventory. “Looks like I got a weapon drop called the Hornet’s Sting.” She materialized it and saw that it was a dagger. Idly looking at the stats, it was an improvement over her Iron Dagger, with an increase to her accuracy and damage when attacking from behind. She looked at Harry. “You get anything?”

“Nothing more than the usual you can expect from mobs.” He replied, shrugging. “We can probably find a use for the hides, fangs and stingers later, if only as a source of extra col.” He materialized some bread from his inventory. “Well, it looks like a good time for lunch.” He said as he handed her a piece of bread.

Silica materialized a couple of water skins and handed one to Harry as she accepted the bread. They ate in companionable silence for a bit when Silica wondered something. Ever since that first day, Harry had constantly wandered out of the Town of Beginnings and fought mobs. In fact, he probably would have done so on the first day, but he decided to stay with her.

“Hadrian, how do you do it?” She asked.

Harry gave her a confused look. “How do I do what?” He asked.

“How do you keep yourself from being scared?”

“It’s not like I’m not scared.” He replied. “I’m scared every time I step outside the town.” He sighed. “Silica, I am scared, but I won’t let that stop me.”

“What do you mean?” She asked.

“If I do nothing, Kayaba wins, it’s as simple as that.” He replied. “Someone may clear the game and get us all out, but if I don’t do something, if I don’t try, then he still wins.”

“I see.” She replied quietly. “You’re braver than I am.”

Harry chuckled. “You’re out here, fighting mobs, I think that’s brave, don’t you?” He remarked. He looked at the time in his HUD. “Well, why don’t you equip that new knife of yours and we go back to killing mobs? I think we should gain another level soon, and we can then head back to town for dinner and that bath.”

They returned to town about four hours later, both having gained a level, and Harry getting his own dropped piece of gear in the form of a shield called a Carapace Shield. While he hadn’t decided to equip it, he was happy with it. Walking into the inn, Harry remembered something.

“Oh, bloody hell.” He said in English.

“What?” Silica asked.

“We only reserved one room.” He replied with some embarrassment. “I’m going to see if there’s another room available.” He walked over to the counter and talked with the NPC innkeeper before walking back.

“Is there another room?” Silica asked.

Harry shook his head. “Nope. I did find out that paying three hundred col reserved the room for a week, though.”

Silica blinked at realizing that he had gotten a room for a week. She was a little disappointed that there weren’t any other available rooms, though. “I’ll go back to the other inn, then.” She offered.

Harry held a hand up to stop her. “No, I will. You can have this.” He handed her the room key

“But you paid for it.” Silica objected, trying to hand it back.

“It’s no bother, we made more col than I spent.” Harry countered, refusing to take the key.

“Can we at least take a look at the room first?” She asked, giving him a frustrated look. “It might have a something, like a couch. At least take a chance and enjoy the bath you paid for.”

Harry was about to refuse when he caught the look in her eyes. He had seen Hermione give him and Ron a similar look when she was restraining the urge to hex them for something. “We’ll check it out.” He conceded.

“Good.” Silica walked off, heading up the stairs to the room. Following her, Harry hoped there was a second bed or at least a couch.

Fortunately, it had a couch, which Harry immediately offered to take. Noticing how Silica was giving the bathroom an almost eager look, he told her to go ahead and take a bath, while he headed back downstairs to give her some privacy.

That and he was interested in seeing if the food and drink choices were actually better than the other inn’s.

November 30, 2022 – Aincrad 1st Floor, Tolbana

Harry idly flipped through the most recent version of the guidebook for the floor that had been made freely available to the players while he waited for Silica to finish her shopping. Given that she was in a lingerie shop, he had wisely not accompanied her, though he did wonder why she went in there. Oh well, it wasn’t his business. They had decided to take a break from hunting mobs, doing quests, and exploring the labyrinth for the day and simply relax, anyway. If she wanted to spend her time shopping, he wouldn’t stop her.

Especially after how rough the last couple of days in the labyrinth had been for them. Despite Harry being level ten, and Silica having reached level nine, the labyrinth had proven to be more challenging than expected compared to anywhere else on the floor. Admittedly, it was more due to the size of the place, rather than the mobs, but they wandered in far enough that they ran out of health potions trying to get back out the previous day.

It wasn’t hard after that, to think that they should take a day off. Silica had been very much for that idea when he told her last night. Having to dodge mobs, carefully make their way between the few safe areas that were mapped, and outright running away, while an exhilarating experience, was hardly fun. In fact, it was downright terrifying.

“Hey, kid, long time no see!” He heard a familiar voice call out. Turning towards where it came from, he saw the familiar faces of Klein and his friends.

“Hey Klein,” Harry replied. “How’re you all doing?”

Klein grinned. “We’re doing great.” He said cheerfully. “Just got into town and were about to grab something to eat before hitting the labyrinth. What about you?”

Harry shrugged. “Decided to take the day off,” he replied. “Hit the labyrinth yesterday.”

“Any tips?” Klein asked.

Harry nodded. “Bring plenty of potions, and once you run low, head back.” Harry replied honestly. “The mobs aren’t much tougher than out here, but the labyrinth is big and you don’t want to run out of them on your way out.” He rubbed the back of his head. “Made things a bit exciting, that, but being in the red and not close to the entrance isn’t my idea of fun.”

Klein winced.

Harry nodded. “Anyway, you got the most current map data?” He asked. “If you don’t I can send you a copy of mine.”

Klein nodded. “Yeah, I got it. By the way, kid, what happened with that girl you were with?”

“Ah, she went shopping for some clothes.” Harry replied.

Klein raised an eyebrow. “And you’re not with her?”

Harry shot Klein a look. “Not those kinds of clothes, Klein.” He said with some embarrassment.

Klein was about to say something else, when Issin, one of his friends spoke up. “Hey, wait a second.” He said. “I heard a rumor a while ago that a pair of kids were staying in the same room at an inn in the Town of Beginnings.” He then looked at Harry. “I heard that one of them had green eyes and a scar on his forehead.”

“Oh yeah, I think you’re right Isshin.” Klein said and then looked at Harry. “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?” He asked with a grin.

When I find out who started that rumor, we’re going to have a talk, Harry thought with some annoyance. “First Klein, my names Hadrian, or Harry if you like.” He said with some asperity. “Second, I seem to recall hearing a rumor myself. Something about some girls chasing this thuggish guy wearing a red bandanna out of the Town of Beginnings while threatening to stab him somewhere painful.” He smirked. “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, kid.” Klein said with false sincerity.

“Of course you don’t. Just as I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Harry said with equally false sincerity.

The two of them then shared a grin. “Still, nice to see you’re doing fine, kid.” Klein said.

“Same to you Klein.” Harry said. He then saw a message notification on his HUD. “Just a sec, Silica just sent me a message.” He opened it and quickly read it. “Well, she’s done with her shopping and is waiting for me back at the inn. Take care, you guys.” He looked back at them. “And if calling me by my name is that hard, just call me Harry!”

“I already know someone called Harry.” Klein replied, pointing at his friend, Harry One. “Besides, you’re a kid, so ‘kid’ will do.”

Harry nodded and turned back, a small smile on his face. To be honest, he wasn’t all that bothered being called a kid and addressed as such by Klein. The guy was friendly and took the time to teach him how to use the system to fight.

“Heh, he’s travelling with a girl and stayed in the same room with her for a week.” Klein chuckled as he watched Harry walk away. “Makes me little jealous.”

“Hey boss, shouldn’t we get something to eat?” Issin asked.

Klein nodded, getting back to business. “Yeah, let’s go. First, Dynamm, Harry One, go stock up on potions. Dale, find Kunimittz and bring him back here. Once we eat, we’re hitting the labyrinth for a couple of hours.”

“Right, boss.” They all acknowledged and split up.

“So,” Issin remarked. “Jealous of the kid, huh?”

“Shut up, Issin.”

December 5, 2022 – Aincrad 2nd Floor, Urbus

Harry and Silica quickly cleared the teleport gate as the light faded, having taken the advice to move away from it quickly once the teleport finished. While no one would get hurt if they didn’t, it would be embarrassing to have people crash into you. And given how busy the teleport gate was, and was likely to continue to be, there was a high likelihood of that happening to anyone who stood still for more than a moment after the teleport.

With the first floor boss having been defeated the previous day and the opening of the Second Floor of Aincrad, players were very eager to move on. Harry agreed with that sentiment, even if his reason for rushing to the gate before even eating breakfast was for a slightly different reason.

He wanted to get away from the angry rumors about the Beater, Kirito that were starting to be spread around. The rumors of how he let the raid leader, Diabel, die during the boss fight. Of how he took advantage of his knowledge from the beta to steal the Last Attack Bonus. Of how the Beater then bragged about his knowledge to the rest of the raid. He wanted to get away from that.

While he didn’t doubt that there was a grain of truth to the rumors, if you squinted real hard, there had to be more to the story. Especially since he had heard some rumors to the contrary as well. He knew about Kirito from Klein, and how he had helped the man learn the basics on the first day.

Klein had not been pleased, to put it mildly, to hear those rumors. In fact, Dynamm and Dale had to physically restrain him in order to keep him from assaulting one loudmouth who had been particularly vocal about it.

Harry could recognize when someone was being set up to be the scapegoat. He’d almost had it happen to him during his Second Year in Hogwarts, when he inadvertently revealed that he was a Parselmouth, after all. If it hadn’t been for Fred and George taking the incident and running with it like they did, things could have gotten ugly.

That, and he remembered some of the rumors which had been spread about beta testers before this. Those rumors had dried up in favor of this, which made Harry think that it had been deliberate. On Kirito’s part, someone else’s, or both, he didn’t know, but the previous statements and rumors about the beta testers had quickly stopped now that the attention and anger could be directed to a single person.

“Well Silica, we’re on the Second Floor,” He said, turning to his companion. “Want to look around town and see if the shops have anything?” His stomach growled. “Or, we could find a place to eat, first.” He added.
Silica giggled. “Well, if you hadn’t been in such a hurry, we could have eaten first.” She said with some amusement.
Harry shrugged and looked around. “Yeah, I know. So, let’s find some food.” He said as he walked into the town.

Silica followed him and looked around at the town itself. It didn’t look too different from what she saw on the First Floor, but she did feel a little excitement. The First Floor had been cleared, and people were beginning to think that it was possible to clear the game.

Of course, she thought. We’ve only cleared the first floor. We don’t know how long it will take from here. Still, the excitement amongst the players was infectious, and she didn’t put up any protests about heading up here.

“Hey Hadrian after we eat and look through the shops, what’s the plan?” She asked him.

Harry stopped and thought for a moment. “I was thinking of hitting the fields near the town.” He told her. “Not for long, just a quick check on what the mobs are like right outside, since the guidebook doesn’t have anything on the floor.”

“They’re about the same level as around Tolbana,” a female voice said from behind, startling the both of them.

Both Harry and Silica turned to the source of the voice and saw the speaker right behind them. She was wearing a cloak that was left open in the front, showing the brown tunic and pants underneath. With her dirty blone hair, golden eyes, and the whisker marks on her cheek, it was a person both of them had met a few times. Argo, also known as The Rat, a player who was quickly setting herself up as a reputable information broker.

Harry sighed. “You always sneak up on people?” He asked.

Argo grinned. “So, you want some information on the floor?” She asked cheerfully.

“Well, I’m wondering if you have any updates to the guidebook.” Harry replied. “You know, general stuff so I can get a basic idea of what to expect.”

Argo shook her head. “Give me a couple of days, I’ll be releasing an update for it. I want to make sure of some things, first.”

Harry nodded, not surprised by her response. “Alright then.” He was about to turn and walk away when he realized that he had an opportunity to confirm something. “Oh, by the way, can you confirm something for me?”

“Depends on what you want confirmed.” Argo replied.

“It’s about those rumors going around.” He said. “About Kirito. How true are they?”

Argo looked around and then back at Harry and Silica. “And what makes you think I know anything about that?” She asked.

She knows something, Harry thought. “You strike me as the type who likes to get to the bottom of such things, especially after that rumor about that secret log out spot.” He raised an eyebrow.

Argo sighed. “Not here,” she told him. She then gestured that they should follow her. She led them to an alley with no other players around and, after a quick look to make sure no one was following, turned back to Harry. “Before I confirm anything, five thousand col.”

“Five thousand?!” Silica exclaimed in shock. “Your usual rate is a thousand.” She protested.

Harry was surprised at her asking price. If she was charging more than her usual rates for a rumor, then it must be serious. He opened his menu and set up the trade. Before he entered the amount he gave Argo a level look. “It’s fine, Silica,” He told her. “I can afford it, and it’s not like I can’t make the money back.” He entered the five thousand col and approved the trade.

Argo shook her head and accepted the money. “I should have asked for more,” she said drily. “Well, you wouldn’t be paying if you didn’t suspect something was off about it. Still, the rumors are true, from a certain point of view.”

“And which point of view would that be?” Harry asked sharply. “From the point of view of needing someone to blame? From the point of view of turning someone into a scapegoat??” His voice had lowered to a growl by that point.

Argo blinked in surprise as Silica looked at him in shock.

“I thought so.” Harry sighed. “Did he allow this?”

Argo nodded. “Yeah, he did. He knew that everyone would need someone to blame if someone died in the boss fight because the information provided in the guidebook about it was wrong.”

“The information from the beta, you mean?” Harry asked. “Why? You had that warning on the cover that things might have changed from the beta.” He materialized his guidebook and pointed out the warning. “I also sent you information on things I noticed that were different, and saw the updates on the next version.”

“It’s not that people were unaware of that fact,” Argo pointed out. “But there was already a lot of bad feelings regarding beta testers, and well…”

“Someone would figure out that he was a beta tester, and blame him anyway.” Harry concluded.

Argo nodded.

“It doesn’t matter where you are, some things never change,” Harry sighed. “All right, thanks for clearing that up for me, Argo.”

“No problem.” She replied as she turned to walk away. “Oh, and if you want a decent place to get some food, try the March Hare.” She said over her shoulder and walked away.

Silica looked at Harry and saw his pensive expression. “Hadrian, why did you ask her about those rumors?” She asked.

Harry shrugged. “Just wanted to confirm a few things.” He replied.

“But why?”

He sighed. “I’ve had something like that happen to me about a year ago. Being blamed for something, in my case, there were some incidents that put some of my classmates in the hospital.” He was clearly uncomfortable saying that much. “It got cleared up, eventually, but it made things bad for me until it was.”

“Oh. Sorry to bring it up then.” She apologized. She then realized something. “You want to go to that place she recommended to us?” She asked, changing the subject.

Harry’s stomach growled, causing Silica to giggle. “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.” He replied.
Also, I have to punch you, jgkitarel, because I spent a lot of time on the nanoha wiki trying to locate information on mages being trained due to being above a certain rank, only to remember and confirm that you were the one that came up with that. - Phht
Don't forget: Mass Effect is powered by magic space rocks. Evangelion is powered by Your Mom.
From his new fic Long Night of the Harvest

My current project on FFN, Mystic Knight Online
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jgkitarel
 
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Re: Mystic Knight Online - HP x SAO Crossover

Unread postby jgkitarel » March 12th, 2016, 3:41 pm

Here's the, more or less, completed Chapter 3. Got The Raven Sennin going over it for beta purposes and final QC right now before posting it on FFN.
Spoiler: show
Chapter 3

December 21, 2022 – Aincrad 4th Floor, Rovia

Both Silica and Harry looked around at the town they had just taken the teleport gate to. Having heard about the third floor being cleared and the teleport gate now allowing for travel to the next floor, both of them had immediately queued at the teleport gate, grabbing a snack to eat from one of the NPC stalls for the inevitable wait.

The town itself, from what they could see from the Teleport Plaza, was partially submerged, with the main streets acting as canals, dividing the town into four quarters. It also meant that it would require a boat to navigate the town. Seeing as there was a line at the dock, it was apparent that the city had its own services available for use, though the line was moving at a relatively decent pace.

One of the conveniences of a virtual world, I guess. Harry thought to himself. Within about ten minutes, they were climbing onto one of the boats, or gondolas as the NPCs were calling them, and were asked by the NPC gondolier where they wanted to go.

“Where are the inns located?” Harry asked.

“The inns would be in the south-western district, sir,” he replied. “Is that where you wish to be taken?”

Both Harry and Silica nodded. “Yes, please.” He replied.

“Very well then, sir, madam.”

While they were being transported, Harry enquired about the town’s layout and where everything was.
The gondolier proved to be a goldmine of basic information on where everything in the Rovia was. Simply put, Rovia’s was divided into four districts, with their functions based on whether they were on the eastern side of town, or the western side. The residential nature of the western districts, with the NPCs living in the north, and the southern part being dedicated to the transient player population. On the east side, the southern district housed the businesses, while the northern district was dedicated to sightseeing, parks, and even had an outdoor theater. All in all, Rovia had a number of amenities for players to enjoy if they so wanted to do so.

“Hadrian, since it’s the afternoon, what’s the plan?” Silica asked once they disembarked their gondola.

“We’ll ask around town for information on quests, and see what’s available,” Harry replied. “I’m thinking we’ll do maybe one quest before taking the rest of the day off, or we can just take it easy and start out tomorrow morning.” He stretched. “Even with extra players around, clearing out mobs and grinding levels, hitting the labyrinth took longer than expected.”

“It’s not like we helped with the floor boss, Hadrian.” Silica pointed out.
“True,” Harry acknowledged. “But we still went in behind them, as did a bunch of others.” He looked at the various inns, pubs, and restaurants. “It made going through the labyrinth a little easier, and we still got enough drops, or found enough treasure for that matter, to upgrade our gear.” He grinned. “Why, we’re actually starting to look like we’re wearing armor, not to mention looking like serious adventurers.”

Silica looked down at her new armor and admitted that he was right. True, in terms of appearance, what both of them were wearing was not significantly different from their starting gear. However, rather than the armor pieces looking as a badly put together and fitted afterthought over clothing, it was starting to look like it belonged on them.

It made both of them look less like kids playing with their parent’s old armor, and more like adventurers. Harry had even started making use of his shield, and found that it was handy on more than one occasion.

“Hey Silica,” She heard Harry say. “I found a place.”

“Does it have a bath?” She asked, hopefully.

Harry chuckled. “You and your baths,” he said with amusement. He pointed at the inn and the bathhouse next to it. “If it doesn’t, you can still take a bath next door.”

Silica nodded. While not the same as reality, whether it was a private bath or not was immaterial. Bathing was a luxury she enjoyed at every opportunity, and she knew full well that Harry was the same way, even if he didn’t make any issue about having to go without one. Then again, he was male.

“Well then,” she said. “Shall we?”

Harry nodded and they walked in together. The inn didn’t have any baths, and only one available room, fortunately with two beds. They could work with that.

A couple of hours later, the two of them were at a nearby restaurant and browsing the menu. Unsurprisingly, given that the town was water themed, many of the dishes were oriented around fish. From stews, to platters, to meals that can go for several courses, they had their choice of seafood dishes. The drinks, however, can be summarized simply enough. Small beer and a wine that was liberally cut with water comprised the low alcohol selection. Beer and spirits made up the rest. There wasn’t any non-alcoholic selection this time.

“Why are so many drinks alcoholic?” Silica asked.

“It’s because the developers for this game did their research.” Came a familiar voice.

Both of them turned and saw Argo, along with a boy and girl they didn’t know, though they knew of them. Kirito and Asuna had been making names for themselves, after all.

“What do you mean, Argo?” Harry asked.

Argo grinned. “I won’t even charge you for this,” she said. “Basically, it’s a nod to historical realism. Since the levels so far aren’t based on the modern era, which means that things like clean water are not common.”

“Ah, the whole don’t drink the water thing then.” Harry said.

“You got it.” Argo then turned to her companions. “By the way, Kii-bou, Aa-chan, these are the two I told you about.”

Kirito blinked. “Wait, these are the two who were the ones who corrected that information in your guides for the third floor, and the two who scouted the field boss?” He asked. He looked at them. “They’re kids.” He pointed out.

“You’re one to talk, Kirito.” Argo pointed out. “You’re not much older than them.” She turned back to Harry and Silica. “Surprised you’re both here, Harry’s usually chomping at the bit to hit the fields.”

Harry blinked, and then cast a narrow eyed glance at his nearly managing not to giggle quest partner.

“We just got here a couple hours ago, and wanted to rest up from exploring the labyrinth.” Silica replied, mastering herself. “That and we wanted to take some time to gather information. Well, after a bath and getting something to eat.”

Harry looked at Argo. “So, got anything?” He asked. “Any useful quests or areas we might want to check out?”

Argo nodded. “I have a list of quests for the floor that I’ve confirmed.”

“Usual rate then, Argo?” Silica asked.

“You got it.”

Both Harry and Silica opened their menus and offered to trade the money to Argo, who blinked in surprise. “Well, this is new.” She said, accepting the trades. “Usually it’s Harry taking the lead in this.”

Harry gestured to Silica to take the lead. She nodded to him and looked at Argo. “We figured we can check the quests and see which ones take us to the same general area.” She said. “It will allow us to cover more ground, while not being too far apart.”

Kirito nodded. “Makes sense. Each of you can do different quests, map out the area you’re in in more detail, and still be able to back each other up if necessary. It also means that if you two find something that might need more people, you can send someone back to get help.” He looked at the two of them. “Whose idea was this?”

Harry gestured to Silica. “It was her idea.” He replied. “When we stumbled on the field boss for the Third Floor, we didn’t have the area mapped out that well, so making our way back, as well as finding the best path took longer than it should have.”

Asuna blinked at that revelation. “So you two scouted the field boss simply because you stumbled on it?” She asked incredulously. The idea that they ended up finding it and scouting it out by accident seemed like something that Kirito would do.

Both Harry and Silica shrugged. “We weren’t looking for it, if that’s what you want to know.” Silica added. “We were looking for something else that was part of a quest.”

Harry chuckled. “Yeah, and of course, we find what we were looking for, right at the Field Boss’ feet.”

Silica shot Harry a mock glare. “And then Hadrian decides to do something idiotic and try and sneak up and grab the item.”

“Hey! I managed to grab it.” Harry protested.

“You got the boss’ attention as well.” Silica countered. “We spent the next hour playing hide-and-seek with the thing until we could actually get out of the area. It then took us two hours, to find another route back.”

“It gave us plenty of information on what it did, not to mention the map data we gathered.” Harry said defensively.

Asuna looked at Harry, then she looked at Kirito. “There are two of them. Oh, Gods, there are two of them.” She grumbled. She then looked at Silica. “Silica, right?” Silica nodded. “So, you have to deal with an idiotically brave partner as well?”

“Hey! I’m not that bad.” Harry and Kirito both protested at the same time.

The two young men blinked at each other. Asuna shot both of them a look, quelling any further protests. “Silica, why don’t you and I get together later and talk.” She offered. “I bet you already have some stories you can share. And I bet you want to talk to someone who’s female.” She saw Argo about to interject. “You don’t count, Argo, but I guess you can be there as well.”

Argo grinned and then looked at Kirito and Harry, a gleam in her eyes.

Harry sighed. “How much to keep that quiet Argo?” He asked.

Argo’s grin widened, causing a pit to form in Harry’s stomach.

Looks like he was going to be heading out to do a quest tonight, if only to make back some of the col he was about to spend in order to keep The Rat quiet.

December 22, 2022 – Aincrad 4th Floor, Rovia

It was nearly one o’clock in the morning when Harry and Silica tiredly got off the gondola they took from the South-East District and made their way to the inn they had reserved their room at. The quest they took, one wanting them to cull the bear population in the Bear Forest, had ended up taking longer, and being tougher, than expected. Not because of the mobs themselves, but because the two of them had to spend time carefully avoiding, and eventually fighting, a giant bear called the Magnatherium.

They took one look at it and decided that fighting that thing, at least with only the two of them, was a bad idea. Well, Silica decided that, and Harry took her lead with regards to that. If she didn’t want to fight something, he wasn’t going to complain. He considered her caution to be half the reason they haven’t yet bitten off more than they can chew.

Also, giant bear. Even Harry knew that was bad news.

As it stood, the two of them would have continued avoiding it, had they not come across it again, and saw that Kirito and Asuna were fighting it. Harry stopped Silica and the two of them took the time to observe the mob’s attack patterns, such as its charges and flame breath, when they weren’t gaping at Kirito and Asuna.

While it was likely that those two could handle the fight, Harry wasn’t one to not help when he was in a position to do so. After telling Silica to stay back and watch to mob to look for weaknesses, he jumped in right in time to block a swipe from the bear with his shield.

“What’re you doing?!” Kirito called out.

“Thought you guys would like a little help,” Harry replied. He took a quick glance at Kirito’s health and tossed him a potion. “Drink this and heal up, I’ll distract it.” Kirito nodded and got behind a tree. Harry turned his attention back to the bear just in time to jump to the side as the bear charged.

Good thing Hermione’s not here, he thought. She’d be lecturing me for this.

While Harry played matador with the giant bear, Kirito worked his way around as the health potion did its work and found himself next to Asuna, who had moved to stand next to Silica.

“What is he doing?” Asuna asked her.

“Being a reckless idiot,” Silica growled. “He told me to watch the mob, look for weaknesses-” She spied the mob rearing back. “Hadrian, fire breath!” She watched as Harry ran under the bear, taking the chance to land a few opportunistic strikes on its legs. She scowled. “If he doesn’t get killed by that thing, I’m going to have a talk with him.” She turned her attention back to Asuna and Kirito. “Anyway, he told me to keep an eye on it and see if I can spot a weakness and then proceeded to jump right in.”

“So, he keeps you out of the fight?” Kirito asked.

Silica shrugged. “Well, if I see a chance to attack…”

“You will,” Asuna finished, knowing full well how such a tactic worked.

Silica nodded and spotted the bear with its back to a fallen tree. “On that thought, wait a second.” She darted towards the tree and used it and its branches to get some height. Activating a sword skill, she struck several times at the bear’s hindquarters and also got its tail, causing it to roar in pain. She noticed that the last hit, the one on its tail, caused the most damage.

“That’s it!” She called out, as she darted away from the bear, keeping something between it and her. “Kirito, Asuna! Its’ tail is a weak spot!” She called.

“Got it!” Both shouted as they reentered the fight.

“Hadrian!” Asuna called out. “Get it to charge into a tree so it will be stunned!”

“On it!” Harry replied.

Before long, the impromptu party of four got into a rhythm, lead the bear’s charges into a tree, attack it, dodge its’ fire breath, rinse, repeat. They continued like that for twenty minutes when the mob was finally killed when Asuna used Harry’s shield as a springboard to gain the height needed to land several devastating hits on the Magnatherium’s tail.

Harry pulled a potion out of his inventory and drank it as he saw Silica walk up to him, an unreadable look on her face. He looked questioningly at her, a look which quickly turned to a pained one when she smacked him upside the back of his head.

“Silica?!” He shouted in surprise.

“You reckless idiot!” She shouted at him, her voice a mixture of anger and relief. She then proceeded to tear into him about his reckless behavior and how it could have gotten him killed, how it made her worry, and so on. Harry stared at her bemusedly as she did so for about thirty seconds, before he started to chuckle.

“And what is so funny?” Silica asked angrily.

“It’s not that it’s funny,” Harry explained hastily. “It’s that, right now, you’re reminding me of a friend of mine in the real world. Every time I would do something that she thought was stupid and reckless, she would get on my case about it. Thinking back on it, those thing I did usually were stupid and reckless.” He finished wryly.

“Her?” Silica asked in confusion. “Was she a girlfriend?”

Harry blinked and then shook his head. “No, she was a friend. Almost like a sister, really.” His face fell. “And being reminded of that makes me realize just how much I miss her, and all of my other friends.” He sighed.

“Oh,” Silica said, realizing she might have touched upon a sensitive subject. “I’m sorry.”

Harry reached over and patted her on the shoulder. “There’s nothing to be sorry about, Silica.” He said. He opened his menu and brought up the quest. “Looks like we’re done, so why don’t we head back to town, turn it in, and get some sleep?”

Silica nodded her acceptance and looked the time on HUD. “It is rather late, isn’t it?”

Harry checked the time and blinked. “It’s half an hour to midnight? Wow, it is a bit late.” He then yawned. “Maybe more than a bit.” He amended.

Silica giggled in response to that before she yawned as well.

“Well, let’s turn in the quest and get back to the inn.” Harry said.

As such, by the time exhausted pair made it to their shared room, they were more concerned with getting some sleep. A minor issue like having the privacy to change into something more comfortable to sleep in was of significantly less concern. So was making sure they were on separate beds for that matter.

About six hours later, Harry woke up to the unfamiliar sensation of something warm and heavier than expected being draped over his right side. He blearily looked over to see what it was and stiffened when he realized that it was Silica; wearing a shirt that wasn’t quite long enough, nestled into his side and using his shoulder as a pillow. He could also feel her small breasts pressing into his side, which was already causing a reaction he was desperately trying to suppress.

Oh hell, Harry thought as he tried to extricate himself without waking her up. I thought things like this only happened in those anime shows Ms. Carlisle watched! He froze when Silica shifted, sleepily mumbling something he couldn’t make out.

Ok Harry, just stay calm, move slowly and… she’s waking up. Harry began to fervently hope that his situation would not end like it did in anime as he saw Silica open her eyes. Blearily blinking her eyes, she blankly looked at him and he noticed the moment that she realized she was in bed with him, and her state of undress.

They didn't agree to jump out of bed at the same time, but Harry was kind of glad it worked out that way. They spent a moment smoothing out clothing and pointedly not looking at each other-- especially after he noticed that she had a full-body blush, which caused him to blush and rapidly face away from her.

It was going to be an awkward morning for them. Harry almost would have preferred the anime violence. Almost.

Aincrad 4th Floor, Fields Outside Rovia

Harry looked at his map as he checked what he already had explored to see if there was any paths already leading to the quest he decided to do on his own. He absently noticed Silica’s location, a short distance away and nodded. Both of them had compared the quest information provided by Argo and had decided on two which were along the shoreline of the bay that comprised a third of the floor. Outside of remaining in a party so they could keep an eye on the other’s status, they split up to tackle their quests.

Far enough apart to do their respective quests solo, but not so far apart that one couldn’t rush in and support the other if need be. At level sixteen, Harry was more than capable of handling the mobs in the area on his own, so he wasn’t overly concerned about himself. Especially since it was a simple kill quest, requiring him to kill some two dozen crabs which were infesting the shoreline.

No, he was more than able to take care of himself. At the same time, he kept periodically checking to make sure that Silica was alright. This was her first time going solo, even if he was close enough to rush in and back her up if need be. Still, from everything he could tell, she seemed to be doing fine.

He checked again-- just to be sure-- before closing the map to get on with things.

##

Silica sheathed her dagger as the last mob shattered and quickly checked the results window that came up; decent experience, decent col, and a couple of items she can use to enhance her weapon being the earned results.

While Hadrian had taken a simple kill quest, she had decided on one that had her searching the area for feathered dragon nests. Apparently, the very same local mobs in the area were beginning to encroach on their nesting grounds. So, while Harry killed crabs, she was tasked with checking to make sure that the nests were safe, and if need be, kill any mobs threatening them.

Not much different from what Hadrian was doing, when she thought about it. The only difference was that if there were no mobs threatening the nests, she didn’t need to fight. Also, she wanted a chance to see them up close, if possible, given that she had seen several flying around over the bay, or sunning themselves on rocks just past the harbor.

When she had told Harry that, he simply gave her an amused look, shrugged, and told her to be careful.

After clearing mobs from five abandoned nests over the next hour, she was beginning to think that her hoping to see one up close were going to be dashed as she carefully made her way to the final nest that was marked on her map. Even so, she had taken the quest, and she was going to see it through.

As she approached the nest, she heard a frantic sound that was a mix between a chirp and a screech coming from its direction. She picked up her pace and drew her dagger as she moved, keeping an eye out for any mobs.

As she approached the nest, she growled as she saw a group of five mobs surrounding a juvenile feathered dragon which was grabbed every time it tried to take flight and thrown to the ground.

Her next growl nearly a roar, Silica activated a sword skill as she approached. By the time the mobs registered her presence, three of them had already been taken out, and the fourth mob would quickly be joining its companions. The fifth mob had just enough time to position itself to attack when its final companion had been killed and Silica charged through the dissipating polygons. It fared no better than its companions.

Silica checked her surroundings to make sure no more mobs were approaching and sheathed her dagger before looking at the nest. A chirp had her look down and she saw the young feathered dragon looking at her curiously. She squatted down to take a closer look at it, keeping her movements slow and careful so as not to startle or frighten it.

The small dragon was the size of a housecat, blue feathers covering it from snout to hind quarters, with two long feathers taking the place of where a tail would be on most animals. Giving it a quick look over, Silica saw that it had no obvious injuries, though the blue of it’s feathers was marred by dirt in places.

Apparently satisfied with looking her over, the dragon started looking around the nest, clawing at the dirt as if it was looking for something. Acting on a hunch, Silica opened her menu and took out a bag of peanuts she had purchased a few days ago to have as a snack while out in the fields. She opened the bag and reached in for a handful of them, the sound attracting the feathered dragon’s attention. She slowly put her now full hand forward, allowing it to inspect the peanuts in her hand.

It looked at the peanuts being offered to it and took a cautious sniff. After apparently finding nothing wrong with the offered food, it took one peanut and ate it. As soon as it finished, and apparently finding the peanut satisfactory, the little creature began to eagerly eat the offered peanuts out of Silica’s hand. Once it finished all of them, it looked at Silica, it’s surprisingly expressive red eyes giving Silica the impression of a pet looking at its owner and desiring more treats.

Giggling, Silica reached into the bag and pulled out another handful and offered them. She would spend several minutes feeding the feathered dragon when a window popped up in front of her, asking her if she wanted to tame it. Curious, she pressed the button that would confirm it, and to her surprise, she got a notification saying she had just tamed a Feathered Dragon. She was then given a request to give it a name.

She thought for a moment, wondering what she would name a dragon when she looked at it and saw that it was still eagerly eating the peanuts she provided. Well, it likes peanuts, so why not Pina? Shrugging, she entered the name on the available console and acknowledged it.

It would take several hours before it dawned on her that she had given Pina the same name as her cat in the real world, if for completely different reasons.

She checked her quest log and saw that she had finished the quest. Sending a quick message to Harry that she was done, she made her way to the place they had decided to meet back up at. At the same time, she looked at Pina, the feathered dragon taking wing and flying around her and wondered just what he would think of this development.

Aincrad 4th Floor, Dock Outside of Rovia’s South Gate

Harry browsed through his menu, checking his skill progression as he waited for Silica to arrive-- akin to playing with a yo-yo or casting Lumos and Nox in an idle cycle. It was good to know where you were, and what you had, but you could spend hours opening, browsing, and closing the menu before you realized it.

From the looks of things, he was getting close to earning new sword skills, and being able to get some new supplementary skills, so it wouldn’t hurt to look through the guide to plan what supplementary skills he would take. Furthermore, he was close to reaching level fifteen. That opened up a new skill slot, so he had to plan that out as well.

“Hadrian!” he heard Silica call. He looked up, smiled to greet her-- and then a shadow flickered over her. His hand on his sword on instinct, he blinked as the shadow passed again. Looking up, he cocked his head in puzzlement as he saw something flying around her. It wasn't giving off that 'mob vibe'.

The form made another pass, before it descended, settling on his quest partner's shoulders. Outside of a small stagger, her only reaction was to reach up and scratch it before approaching him. As she got closer, he was able to identify what it was: a feathered dragon.

“Silica... why is that with you?” He asked.

Silica looked at him and smiled. “This is Pina, I tamed her during that quest I took.”

Harry looked at Silica, then at Pina, and then back at Silica. “You tamed her.”

"Yes."

"On a quest that was at least partly a sightseeing jaunt."

"Yes."

“One which didn’t have the possibility of taming a beast listed or even suggested.”

Silica nodded and smiled.

He shook his head, then shrugged it off and turned his attention to Silica. “Well, why don’t we go into town and turn these quests in?” He asked. “We can go over how our quests went and discuss what we will do tomorrow.”

Silica looked at the time displayed in her HUD and nodded. “It’s also late in the afternoon and is almost time for us to get dinner.” She thought for a second. “I wonder if Pina will eat more than just the peanuts I fed her.”

Harry shrugged. “She’s a dragon, so I wouldn’t be surprised.” He blinked. “Wait, is Pina female?”

Silica shrugged. “I don’t know, but why not?”

Harry had to give her that. It’s not like he was an expert on dragons anyway. Besides, unless Pina demonstrated otherwise, Silica can say Pina is female if she wants to. For all he knew, she might even be right. Besides, it wasn’t like it was an important issue.

“Well Silica, why don’t we get going?” He asked, gesturing to the dock. “We can find out what Pina eats in town by letting her try various things. We also have to turn in those quests.”

Silica nodded and gave Pina a scratch behind the tufts of feathers that sat where a real world cat would have ears before following him.

December 22, 2022 - GM Administration Area

Akihiko Kayaba looked at the data scrolling across numerous holographic screens. Since SAO started, he had been fine tuning everything, from how sword skills worked, to mob AI, to drop rate algorithms. Not everything was running smoothly from the start, which was to be expected, given that the players who participated in the beta could only find so much in the space of a month.

Add in his need to rebuff attempts to hack into the system to free the players, some of which were fiendishly creative, and he had been kept busy for nearly two months until things fully stabilized enough for him to check on matters which didn’t need his immediate attention.

Or so he thought.

Apparently, some enterprising person had found a way to observe players in game through their Nerve Gears on the first day and notified law enforcement and the families of those trapped in the game on how to do so. He had looked at the method used, and while crude, it worked by making use of the Nerve Gear’s own hardware to record what the user was seeing and hearing, and transmitting it to a computer’s own video player using a compatible format.

It was essentially a glorified playback system, one which had been useful and even necessary during the development of SAO, and one he had simply forgotten about. He queried the Cardinal System, the central AI which handled SAO on how many of the Nerve Gears were now streaming to computers to get an idea of the scale and nodded when the results came back.

Over a thousand Nerve Gears were now being utilized for this. While an issue, he had intended for the outside world to be ignorant of what went on in Aincrad after all, it didn’t affect the game itself. He could cut the feeds, but he also could see the utility of something like this.

“Cardinal,” he said. “Create a virtual space using partitions 0x9422FE62210DA - 0xA1CC0023DD000. Record and store feed information for transmission from IPv6 Address 2ecf:510a:0010::9311.” He brought up a console. “Delete stored feeds using first in, first out rules when partitions reach 80% storage capacity.”

“ACKNOWLEDGED.” Came the female voice the AI had chosen for itself. “QUERY: TRANSMISSION PROTOCOLS TO BE UTILIZED?”

“Use streaming protocols in current use for standard PC architectures and Full Dive technology.”

“ACKNOWLEDGED.”

Simply because he didn’t plan for this, or even desire it, did not mean that he could not make use of it. So far, the audience was limited to whomever had access to the computers connected to the Nerve Gears. With this, he could expand the audience, turning a limited availability thing to something that everyone could see.

He idly wondered if this would replace any popular Reality TV shows for a moment before he turned his attention to other matters.
Also, I have to punch you, jgkitarel, because I spent a lot of time on the nanoha wiki trying to locate information on mages being trained due to being above a certain rank, only to remember and confirm that you were the one that came up with that. - Phht
Don't forget: Mass Effect is powered by magic space rocks. Evangelion is powered by Your Mom.
From his new fic Long Night of the Harvest

My current project on FFN, Mystic Knight Online
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Posts: 2534
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Re: Mystic Knight Online - HP x SAO Crossover

Unread postby jgkitarel » March 14th, 2016, 4:40 pm

A little bit of a world building snippet. Not part of the fic, but something I had to think over, especially considering that I fleshed out Silica's family better and took a different tack than what was in my outline.
Spoiler: show
The Statute of Secrecy: Enforcement in Japan


Japan’s relationship with the secrecy of magic is interesting. Rather than go through the extensive pains that European nations do in order to protect the secrecy, they instead mix it with aspects of Japan’s traditional culture and using Japan’s own social dynamics.


The cultural mixing stems from Japan’s natively shamanistic Shinto religion, as well as a large dose of mysticism through Buddhism. This means that minor magics, such as magic used in good luck charms and talismans are common in Japan and publically available to even muggles. These minor magics are just that, minor. They last a short time, are unobtrusive, and don’t have much in the way of effects.


On the social side, Confucianism plays a role. Japan is very personal relationships and network based, so the Japanese magical community has more options to maintain secrecy without using obliviators. Muggles who stumble on the magical world in a way that they can’t rationalize into something they understand, something they are rather good at, are often contacted by representatives of Japan’s Ministry of Magic and are given offers of contacts, networks, and potential friendships which the muggles can use. If that doesn’t work, paying them off to keep their silence is usually effective as well. Only in the more intractable cases do they resort to memory modification.


That does not mean that Japan’s magical community has carte blanche to use magic in the open, but there are means in place to allow some magic use, and also keep the secret as well.
Also, a little humorous thing for you. I present, Things the Clearers (and Harry) have learned about Aincrad.
Spoiler: show
1.If something seems safe, it probably isn’t.

2.If a chest is in an empty room, it’s a trap.

3.If you enter a room empty of mobs, it’s a trap.

4.If things seem too easy, they’re about to become the opposite.

5.If the clearing of the floor has been going smoothly recently, the floor boss will be exponentially more dangerous.

6.If the clearing of the floors prior have been going easy, then the one you are on will change that. (see Floor 25, Aincrad of SAO)

7.If the clearing of the floor hasn’t been going smoothly, you need to level up.

8.There’s a time when you should be brave and stand your ground, and there’s a time when you should run like a bitch.

9.If it was stupid and it worked, it was probably done by Kirito.

10.Don’t, under any circumstances, try any stunt that Kirito has pulled.

11.Don’t piss off the blacksmith repairing or upgrading your gear. Their hammers are not just for work.

12.You’ll have just enough money for the following in the next town: food, a place to sleep, repairs, or new gear. Pick three.

13.You’re guaranteed get the following as drops: trash, something you don’t need, or something you can’t use. Sell the first, and be ready to work out a trade on the other two.

14.Keep out of swinging range of your allies, there’s no such thing as a friendly slashing or stabbing.

15.If you can see the mob, you’re in it’s aggro range.

16.If the mob hasn’t shattered, it’s not dead yet.

17.Just because you think you’re out of a mob’s attack range doesn’t mean you are.

18.Never drink the water. There’s a one in ten chance of it giving you an illness debuff. Kayaba’s a dick like that.

19.Don’t startle people who have sharp and pointy things to stab you with in the field.

20.A yellow health bar is SAO’s way of telling you to slow down.

21.A red health bar is SAO’s way of telling you to be more careful.

22.The only time you will have enough potions or healing crystals is when you don’t need them or can’t use them.

23.The more colorful and harmless the mob seems, the more humiliating, violent, and ironic your death will be.

24.When out of a safe zone, doing something might get you killed, including and especially nothing.

25.There is no such thing as being too cautious.

26.If you have a bad feeling, trust your feelings.

27.If your gut is telling you something, listen to it.

28.You can be a veteran player, or a reckless one, don’t expect to be both.

29.Eat when you can, drink when you can, sleep when you can, it means you’re still alive to do so.

30.If someone says they have an idea, put some distance between you and them.

31.If someone say’s “Hey guys! Watch this!” Start running.

32.If a group of players are running like the hounds of Hell are after them, take it as a hint to do the same.

33.If the information came from anyone else but Argo, don’t trust it.

34.If it came from Argo, it will cost you.

35.Just because Kirito is an exception to any rule, don’t think you are.


Things Harry’s learned in SAO

1.Don’t just buy the best gear in town, buy the most effective gear in town. But first, see if anything drops something just as good, if not better.

2.You can never have enough health potions, healing crystals, or the all-time favorite, teleport crystals.

3.If you’re not afraid, you will be soon.

4.If you are afraid, good.

5.If your gut is telling you that something’s a bad idea, it’s a bad fucking idea.

6.Don’t taunt Pina with steaks or fish covered in peanut sauce. She will bite you.

7.Don’t hog the bath.

8.If Silica’s not in the room and there’s a bath available, you know where she is.

9.Don’t accuse Silica of the following: hogging the bath, hogging the covers when you have to share a bed, taking up too much space on the bed, and for Merlin’s sake, don’t complain about those cute little sounds she makes which are most definitely not snores.

10.If Silica’s trying to stab you, you done goofed.

11.Never let Silica drink any the following again: Bacchus’ Wine, Klein’s Homebrew, or Clearer Gravediggers. While cheerful and funny while drunk, she has no inhibitions, no brain-mouth filter, and is… affectionate in public. She also gets stabby when the drunk debuff wears off.

12.If it’s all in private, disregard the previous rule at your own risk. She might get stabby when the drunk debuff clears.

13.When Klein teases you, remind him that you’re the one travelling with a girl (and later have a girlfriend). It shuts him up.

14.When running into Laughing Coffin, you stab first, and stab often. If that doesn’t work, you haven’t stabbed them enough times.

15.Reserve changing the BGM to Power Metal for those epic boss fights, not mundane activities.

16.Even if Heathcliff finds the latter amusing.
Also, I have to punch you, jgkitarel, because I spent a lot of time on the nanoha wiki trying to locate information on mages being trained due to being above a certain rank, only to remember and confirm that you were the one that came up with that. - Phht
Don't forget: Mass Effect is powered by magic space rocks. Evangelion is powered by Your Mom.
From his new fic Long Night of the Harvest

My current project on FFN, Mystic Knight Online
User avatar
jgkitarel
 
Posts: 2534
Joined: January 20th, 2011, 5:14 pm
Location: D.C - Baltimore Area

Re: Mystic Knight Online - HP x SAO Crossover

Unread postby jgkitarel » March 24th, 2016, 9:02 pm

Anyway, I'm working the fic in Google Docs, with The Raven Sennin and others acting as a beta. You know, the guy who is doing The Accidental Sensei?

If anyone wants to get in on that, because I cannot have enough input and advice, let me know. I will put in the link for the current chapter I'm working on, though. Here it is what I've done so far for Chapter 4.
Also, I have to punch you, jgkitarel, because I spent a lot of time on the nanoha wiki trying to locate information on mages being trained due to being above a certain rank, only to remember and confirm that you were the one that came up with that. - Phht
Don't forget: Mass Effect is powered by magic space rocks. Evangelion is powered by Your Mom.
From his new fic Long Night of the Harvest

My current project on FFN, Mystic Knight Online
User avatar
jgkitarel
 
Posts: 2534
Joined: January 20th, 2011, 5:14 pm
Location: D.C - Baltimore Area

Re: Mystic Knight Online - HP x SAO Crossover

Unread postby jgkitarel » August 9th, 2017, 11:01 pm

Ran into some minor problems, and got them sorted out, for now. Anyway, if any of you have been following my fic on FFN or AO3, then you know I've made quite some progress. Should I post the completed chapters here?
Also, I have to punch you, jgkitarel, because I spent a lot of time on the nanoha wiki trying to locate information on mages being trained due to being above a certain rank, only to remember and confirm that you were the one that came up with that. - Phht
Don't forget: Mass Effect is powered by magic space rocks. Evangelion is powered by Your Mom.
From his new fic Long Night of the Harvest

My current project on FFN, Mystic Knight Online
User avatar
jgkitarel
 
Posts: 2534
Joined: January 20th, 2011, 5:14 pm
Location: D.C - Baltimore Area


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