Sword Art Online: Reinitialization

Episode 9 - "Down The Rabbit Hole"

Kirito couldn't believe his eyes. The sight of these two, ghosts in his long past, shot him back to a time he had almost completely removed from his memory. Diavel and Kibaou were there, as real as they could be in a virtual world. "You... you guys aren't supposed to..." Kibaou cracked a grin. "Be here? Yeah. We get that a lot. Good to see you, Kirito." The swordsman placed his hand against the wall of the alleyway to steady himself. "How long has it been since I even saw your faces? Since I even thought of the two of you?" The cloaked pair looked at each other and exchanged worried expressions before turning back to him. Diavel stepped forward and placed a hand on Kirito's shoulder gently. "It's okay. There's a lot of jarring experiences in this web of replicant worlds. We get it." Kirito paused. "Did you just say 'replicant worlds'?" Diavel smiled, helping his comrade regain balance. "Did you think we'd be blissfully unaware of our own circumstances if we could help it?"

After Kirito had taken a moment to collect himself, the three got down to business. He stared intensely at Diavel. "Why are you guys here? More importantly, how are you guys here? How do you even have self-awareness?" Kibaou leaned against the wall and nodded to his companion. "If you were the Kirito of this simulation you'd know those answers... meaning you are the genuine article our Kirito said would come. We have a lot to tell you, but unfortunately time is short. We can only explain how we came to this point." Kirito sat on a wooden crate. "I've got time. Fill me in. Please."

Diavel inhaled, then exhaled.
"As you might already be aware, this world is one of many simulated points in VRMMO history with various randomized tweaks applied. The land, its people, and even the events in history themselves are vastly different. We come from SAO server 07, with history that admittely must be better than what you went through." Kirito bit his lip at the thought. The blue haired man continued. "When we went through the first floor's labrinyth and faced off against Illfang, you saved me from its attack pattern change and led the players to total victory." He smiled. "Not a single person died that day. After that, you created the Black Beaters, a guild of former beta testers and other players of various backgrounds. You led us floor by floor, clearing the bosses and keeping others safe." Kirito felt better knowing that in one of these test servers a version of him succeeded where he failed.