By the time she landed, Asuna had already drawn the Chivalric Rapier +5. It was much heavier than the Iron Rapier, but the hilt formed around her hand like it was absorbing it. Now that her weapon was once again physically and systematically in her possession, she held it out before her.
The situation was still a dangerous one, but for just a moment, Asuna caught sight of her partner’s face between the two cloaked men. Even Kirito was briefly startled, but he recovered at once, grinning and nodding.
The first to speak was the original cloaked player, who still didn’t understand what had just happened.
“Wh…what the…? Where did…that come from…?!”
It was a high-pitched falsetto screech. Morte extended his left hand to cover up the mouth of the other player, which was poking out a bit from the hood, as he turned around.
Asuna made sure to stare with all her might at the face of the PKer as she caught sight of it for the first time. She couldn’t see much past the hanging chains of his coif in the dim light of the moss, but she could make out some general features. He had a pointed chin and thin lips pulled to one side in a snarl. She burned the image, like that of a joker in a pack of cards, into her retinas.
His lips glistened, curving wetly into a sneer that hid cold steel.
“Ah-ha-ha-haaa, scared by a lil’ boo. First Blackie, now you—y’all like to jump out of nowhere. And how long were you hiding over there…?”
She wanted to shout that she’d overheard the entire thing but decided better of it when she saw Kirito shaking his head at her over Morte’s shoulder.
“What’s wrong, cat got your tongue? You scared a good three seconds off my life with that stunt. I think you owe me one,” Morte said, as sarcastic as ever. The other player yanked his hand out of Morte’s way.
He moved it to the dagger at his waist, tracing the gleaming hilt, and screeched in a voice like rusted metal, “Listen, I’m really pissed off right now. Is this really the time to stand around and chitchat? We gotta react under the assumption that they heard everything.”
Morte shrugged his shoulders in exasperation. “Impatience will get you nowhere, y’know? Besides, you saw that rapier’s stats, didn’t you? Assuming I take on Blackie over here, do you really think you can handle that on your own?”
“Don’t insult me. I can tackle a PvP amateur girl like her,” the first player spat.
Asuna realized her breathing had picked up—but only until she heard the next line.
“Besides, I can’t go home after having my badass rapier stolen on a lucky ruse.”
Since when did this sword belong to you?! You called it “Cilvaric”!! she thought furiously, all hesitation gone.
Perhaps screaming the way she did wasn’t exactly the politest of tactics, but it certainly wasn’t a stroke of luck. Asuna aimed for that very moment based on a specific, precise logic.
She was certain that the piece of parchment that guided her to this point was written and discarded by the first player. Messing up on the simple act of writing a number was, if not the act of someone with an FNC (full-dive noncomformity) disability, at least the sign of trouble with fine finger movements in a full dive—in short, proof of clumsiness. If she startled him at the very moment he moved the weapon from one hand to the other, he would surely drop it. That was her reasoning for shouting like that.
And she made it so the looting shrew would pick up the rapier so that she could kill it, thus ensuring the sword was officially back in her possession. She would never let it go again and could fight another player to protect her precious weapon.
Asuna pointed the tip of her Chivalric Rapier forward in a display of that will.
The first cloaked player clicked his tongue and squeezed the handle of the dagger.
But at that point, the situation took an unexpected turn.
In the back, Kirito turned and raced past Morte’s left side, straight for Asuna.
“…?!”
As Asuna leaned back in surprise, he grabbed her around the breastplate and leaped into the hollow where she’d been hiding. He pressed her flat against the wall, covering her with his coat—and activating the Hiding skill.
Obviously, this was not going to actually hide them.
But the next moment, Asuna heard the reason why Kirito had done it. From the north hallway came a great many sounds of clanking metal, the sign of a group of monsters. But why so suddenly…?
And then it hit her.
Of course. It would be strange for such a thing not to happen in a dungeon after the way she’d shouted.
She couldn’t see the cloaked men anymore, but she heard the first one hiss, “Shit, they brought a buncha mobs down to MPK us! The dirty bastards!”
“Ah-ha-ha-ha, coming from you?” Morte laughed, but it was not as confident and cocky as before. She heard them drawing their weapons, but as the monsters approached, his order to his comrade was tense and worried. “Never mind, it’ll suck fighting this many of them. We oughta pull back.”
“Tsk, fine.”
“Whoops, that’s a dead end down there. We gotta sprint to the staircase, so do your best to keep up, bud.”
“H-hey, wait!”
Two sets of footsteps raced away, eventually eclipsed by the raucous pursuit of the monsters. The sounds gradually, gradually died away, and disappeared at last.
Silence.
No, not quite. There was one sound left, tirelessly throbbing in her ears in a bass register…the sound of her heart. The sound of blood rushing from her virtual heart. Or perhaps it was her real heart, beating so loudly that it got through to her ears. As she listened, the pulse slowly, slowly calmed, gradually pulling her away from the absolute state of tension.
For just a moment, she felt her wits grow distant, and she nearly dropped her rapier. But she would never let that happen again. She willed strength into her fingers and returned the sword to its sheath from her spot beneath the coat that covered her body.
In response to that action, Kirito let out a long breath and prepared to stand up from his crouch over Asuna. But she unconsciously lifted her right hand, pulling on his left as he rose.
There, right within reach of her arms, was the reassuring presence of her partner.
Yes…it was all right now. There was nothing to fear.
Asuna trembled powerfully, overcome by the sudden upsurge of all the emotions that had been pressed and compacted inside of her from the moment she fell through the trapdoor. Heat gathered in her eyes, and something roiled up into her throat. The strength went out of her knees, and she nearly slumped down to the floor.
But Kirito’s hand propped up her back. His voice said in her ear, “…You did well. I’m glad…you’re all right…”
Those words permeated her mind instantly, removing all self-control.
The demand that she had to be stronger.
The admonition that she was always getting help.
And the fear that if she showed any weakness, she would be left behind.
All these emotions were temporarily set loose, and she pressed her head against Kirito’s chest. Through trembling lips, she blubbered like a young child:
“…I was scared…I was so scared…”
She squeezed her eyes shut, letting her emotions do the speaking.
“There was a ghost, and I fell into a pit…then I got lost, and dropped my rapier, and I thought I was done for…I thought I was going to meet my end in this horrible dark cave…I was so, so scared, so scared…I really mean it…”
Her whole body trembled intermittently. She clutched at Kirito’s shirt, craving direct, if virtual, contact.
Suddenly, a pleasing, gentle sensation enveloped her.
Kirito was rubbing the top of Asuna’s head. He repeated the awkward but heartfelt motion over and over.
“It’s all right…You’re all right,” he whispered, barely audible, but the steadfast will contained in those words was more trustworthy than anything else in this world.
/> “If we ever get split up again, I’ll find you and come help. You’re…my partner, Asuna.”
“………Yeah.”
Like the flipping of a switch, Asuna stopped trembling. But she didn’t let go of him, and Kirito didn’t stop rubbing her head. They kept a long, silent embrace in the little corner of the catacomb dungeon.
6
11:00 AM, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2022.
Asuna stood in Shiyaya, a small village on the northern side of the fifth floor of Aincrad.
It was a Non-Code village, meaning that the Anti-Criminal Code did not work here. But Asuna was in a state of utter relaxation, without her sword equipped and without her armor on—without a stitch of clothing, in fact.
She could do this without fear because Shiyaya was an instanced map that allowed only party members within its borders.
And the reason she was not wearing clothes was that she was submerged to her shoulders in bathwater.
“Hufhuwhee…”
She stretched out her arms and legs as far as they would go. The water temperature was a bit on the lukewarm side, but the floating bundles of fragrant fruit and herbs filled her nose with a pleasing scent that permeated her core with pleasant warmth.
Not only that, but the bath was quite large. Not as big as the great bathing chamber in Yofel Castle, but the granite bathtub could easily fit at least ten at once. It was clear that the dark elves truly loved their baths.
“I wonder if the forest elf village has baths this big…” she speculated idly, trailing her fingers in the water. Her answer came from a short distance away.
“Not so, apparently. The forest elves have tiny baths, but their food’s supposed to be phenomenal.”
That was Argo the Rat, floating freely on the surface of the water. Naturally, she wasn’t wearing her trademark short hooded cape, but even in the bath, those whiskers on her cheeks didn’t wash off.
“Oh, I happen to think the dark elf food is quite good on its own,” Asuna remarked, but Argo only chuckled without changing position.
“They bring out feasts like they came out of a three-star restaurant. But after experiencing this bath, I’d have to say that I personally prefer the dark elf side. Thanks for letting me into your party, A-chan.”
She looked up to the left. Instead of the usual two HP bars, there were now three.
“Don’t be silly. I wanted to thank you properly, Argo, for camping out in the catacombs for an entire day to nail down the boss’s attack patterns.”
“Not at all, not at all. I didn’t do much. In fact, I should apologize for lettin’ you and Kii-boy worry about me. And I hear you got yourselves into a bit of trouble when you came lookin’ for me?”
The events of two days prior returned to Asuna’s mind in vivid detail, and she felt her face grow hot.
It’s not red, right? If it is, I can always blame it on the bath…
She glanced over to her right, where the floating information broker chuckled in all-seeing delight. Asuna lowered herself down to her nose and blew bubbles in the water to hide her embarrassment.
After Kirito’s rescue on the third level of the catacombs two nights ago, Asuna resumed activities with him—he had been on a search for Argo, after all—once she had regained her composure.
Fortunately, they found Argo less than an hour after that, but the reason she couldn’t be reached by messages was not nearly as ominous as they’d imagined.
Argo was camping out in a small safe room right in front of the area boss’s chamber at the end of the dungeon. It turned out the boss’s name and appearance were totally different from in the beta. At first she was planning to mark the location of the chamber, then go back to town and put out her first issue, but when she noticed the boss was entirely different, she figured she might as well collect some info while she was there—a process that was harder than she expected and ended up taking an entire day.
The boss was an enormous zombie far too large to have been a human in life, heavily resistant to slashes, thrusts, and piercing damage, but by manipulating levers scattered around the chamber and solving a stone puzzle in the ceiling, sunlight could be let through to weaken the boss—assuming it was daytime, of course. Argo ran into trouble solving the puzzle, and at one point was basically just trying combinations out of sheer trial and error.
Thanks to that, the boss was defeated handily by a chosen group of top players on the thirtieth, but Asuna still didn’t rest easy during the fight. Not just due to the openly competitive DKB and ALS, but even more so due to their reliance on Argo’s information as a whole—and the dangers that Argo was putting herself through to get that intel.
It wasn’t polite to comment too heavily on others’ playstyle, but there wouldn’t be a better opportunity, so Asuna pulled her head out of the water and hesitantly asked, “Um, Argo…?”
“Hmm? What is it?” the girl replied, sitting upright at Asuna’s serious tone.
“…It was thanks to your work that we were able to beat the catacombs boss that easily, and I’m very grateful for that…but I think it’s too dangerous for you to be collecting data on an unfamiliar boss all by yourself.”
Based on her experience at an all-girls school, Asuna knew that offering (what might be seen as) patronizing advice could easily blow up in her face, but Argo maintained a slight smile, prodding her to continue. Feeling emboldened, she chose her words carefully.
“I used to spend lots of time in the labyrinth alone, so I can’t really act blameless here…but your information is helping not just the top players like us, but also the mid-level players who left the Town of Beginnings later on. It’s such a help that if something happened to you, it could completely stop us from proceeding in the game. Therefore—actually, just speaking for myself, I’m worried that you might be putting yourself through too much. Um…as a friend…”
They were difficult words for her to tell a friend in the real world. Ironically, it took being trapped in a virtual world for her to finally speak her mind like that.
She was half expecting Argo to be upset by this, but the Rat’s whiskers only rose in a smile. Perhaps it was just the echo of the bath, but her voice seemed louder than usual as she said, “Thanks, A-chan.”
Those big eyes of hers, usually hidden behind the long brown curls, stared Asuna full in the face. When she continued, she spoke slower than her usual rapid-fire pace.
“It makes me happy that you’re so concerned for my sake. To be honest, I was wonderin’ if my stakeout was pushing it a lil’ bit, too. But…I got a duty to continue risking danger to provide information.”
“Because…you’re an info dealer…?”
“Nope,” Argo said, drops flying as she shook her head. “Because I’m a beta tester.”
“…!!”
She had sensed for herself that this might be true, and Kirito seemed to believe it as well, but it was the first time she’d heard Argo admit it aloud. Asuna was taken aback briefly before she followed up with, “But…even if that’s the case, it doesn’t explain why you need to take on that dangerous role by yourself. Kirito’s a fellow beta tester, and he takes part in the frontline group’s raid parties for all the floor bosses…You could join us as a support scout, Argo…”
“I don’t like how long and cloying that ‘frontline group’ term is. I think ‘front-runners’ is a much cooler name.”
Argo chuckled to break the mood, then poked at a banana-like fruit floating in front of her.
“Hmm…The reason you’re so worried about me is because I play a noncombat build, am I right?”
“W…well, yes…” Asuna admitted.
Whenever she met Argo out in the field, she was equipped with minimalist armor and combat claws, but her skill lineup and proficiency couldn’t possibly be suited for battle. If she focused on Hiding, Search, and Eavesdropping, she wouldn’t be able to spend much time on weapon skills, and she was most likely sacrificing max HP and other stats to raise her agility as much as possible.
She could dart her way around wimpy monsters, but that raised the danger of scouting a boss, who held a variety of attacks…
Argo smirked again, sensing Asuna’s concerns, and picked up a floating bundle of herbs to toss at the other girl. Asuna caught it by reflex; then Argo grabbed the banana and stood up with a forceful splash.
“Proof is what we need, not arguments. Wanna try it, A-chan?” Argo challenged, emerging onto the side of the granite bath.
Asuna stared at her, baffled. “T-try…what?”
“A duel, of course…Well, I guess that’s a bit dramatic. A little sword fight, let’s call it.”
She descended to the open washing station, twirling the banana deftly in her hand.
So Argo meant for them to have a mock duel—she with the banana and Asuna with the herbs. She was willing to accept the challenge, but the problem was that both Argo and Asuna weren’t geared up with a single item. It was already embarrassing enough to be bathing together, but having a play fight? She wasn’t sure she could concentrate properly.
“Umm…can I wear a swimsuit?” Asuna asked. The information broker was taken aback, then looked down at her avatar, and her cheeks puffed out.
“Listen, I’m here baring what minimal assets I’ve got, so how can you be so ashamed when you’ve got much better?!”
“Th-that’s not the issue!”
“Well, fine…”
“And I want you to wear a suit, too, Argo…”
“Huh? But I don’t have a swimsuit.”
“Then I’ll make you one right now!”
And after a brief demonstration of Asuna’s Tailoring skill, the two faced off in the bath of Shiyaya village.
Asuna was wearing a simple white one-piece.
Argo was wearing, upon her own request, a yellow tankini.
Asuna swung the bundle of herbs in her hand, idly wondering how in the world they’d come to this point. Her weapon was three fairly thick stalks about two feet long, which made it surprisingly firm. It couldn’t be compared to an actual rapier, but that wasn’t the point. And besides, Argo only had what looked like a banana.