4
KIZMEL OFFERED TO TELEPORT US WITH HER ELVEN magic—charm, rather—to a location near the main town, but Asuna and I gratefully declined. We headed through the narrow canyon, still choked with mist after the sunrise, and into the deep forest that made up most of the third floor.
I turned back to look at the camp we’d spent the last fifteen hours around and glanced at its rippling flags. A few more yards into the forest, and they would already be invisible. Asuna had the same concerns on her mind.
“…We’ll be able to get back here, won’t we?”
“We can make it back…I think. It should be marked on our maps.”
“You think? It should?”
She looked even more skeptical now. I opened my menu and flipped to the map tab. Most of the Forest of Wavering Mists that made up the southern half of the floor was grayed out, with only the routes we’d traveled visible. But the locations we’d visited—the exit of the staircase from below, the queen spider’s cave, and the dark elf base—were all marked by dots, so we’d be able to reach them again without getting lost…I hoped.
First we set off for the staircase pavilion through which we’d come to this floor. That required trudging through the forest without a path, of course, but it wasn’t the main reason for the feeling of concern in our hearts. We were without our talented NPC guide—the elite mob Dark Elven Royal Guard Kizmel—and that left us feeling alone and vulnerable.
Perhaps we should have waited a few days to return to town and stayed here doing quests with Kizmel instead, I wondered. Asuna spoke up, her voice as weak as my own thoughts.
“Hey…About Kizmel…”
But her words faded out before she could form them into a clear question. I glanced over at the fencer, whose hood was pulled back. The fleeting smile on her lips seemed to contain a number of different emotions.
“…We can’t keep relying on her the way we have. We’re going to have to say good-bye to her someday…”
“Good point,” I agreed, then spread my hands. “Besides, my beater knowledge doesn’t help us out regarding Kizmel. Ever since you beat that forest elf guy in the original battle, we’ve been on a quest path that I’ve never been part of.”
“Don’t try to act like I did all of that on my own.”
“Look, I’m just saying, like eighty percent of the damage was from your—”
An irregular sound came from the forest ahead, and I stopped in place, holding out my arm. Asuna took a fighting stance and focused.
Little rustling sounds grew louder and louder, a few seconds later, a silhouette appeared out of the drifting mist, low and long. It was not human, but insectoid…no, a mammal. There were five types of animal-based creatures in this forest, but only one of them looked like that.
I reached back for my Anneal Blade +8 and gave a brief explanation.
“That’s a wolf. It doesn’t have any annoying special attacks, but it’ll howl to draw more of its kind when it loses half its HP. Once the gauge goes yellow, use sword skills to finish it off quick.”
“Got it,” she responded. I drew my blade. The shape beyond the mist suddenly charged, as though drawn by that metal rasp. The brilliant yellow mane from head to back and long, slender snout marked it as the foe I remembered struggling against in the beta: a Roaring Wolf.
I was the wolf’s target, so Asuna backed out of range. The beast tensed up and pounced in midcharge. This leap attack came down nearly vertical, and if the player tried to simply guard against the wolf’s six-foot-long body, they’d almost certainly get knocked back, if not into a Tumble status followed by the beast’s fangs closing in. The better choices were to dodge out of the way or fight back with a sword skill, but antiair skills that moved from low to high were an acute weakness of the One-Handed Sword category. The best angle I had currently was the second blow of Vertical Arc, but it was extremely hard to place accurately, given that the first swing would miss.
I lowered my blade and crouched slightly. Watching the wolf’s descent closely, I waited for the right moment, then leaped with all of my strength. My right leg took on a glowing effect, and my body rocketed off with an unseen force. The vertical kick as part of a backflip—the martial arts skill Crescent Moon—caught the Roaring Wolf right in the throat, and it flew back upward with a yelp.
The martial arts skill I’d learned with great pain—in more ways than one—from the bearded master on the second floor was an incredibly useful tool to have. Unfortunately, it did not add its own power to the player’s limbs, so its damage couldn’t match that of my sword. Despite the well-placed blow being classified as a counter, the wolf still had about 80 percent of its health left.
I wasn’t sure if I had time to follow up with a sword strike before the wolf regained its balance, but I wanted to get in more damage before I handed the fight over. But before either the wolf or I had landed, I heard a voice shout, “Switch!”
The fencer flew into the fray from the right, cape streaming behind her. She held her Chivalric Rapier to her right side as she ran, starting the motion for the two-hit combo Parallel Sting. I was a bit worried that she might not be used to the different weight of the new weapon, but soon I saw that silver shooting-star light again, and a thrust faster than my eye could follow caught the falling wolf.
With a heavy, satisfying slam, the Roaring Wolf shot away, spinning helplessly in midair, and smashed into a distant tree. The wolf’s HP bar dropped precipitously, from 70 to 60—and down into the yellow zone.
“…Oops,” I muttered. Rapier still held out in front of her, Asuna said, “Uh-oh.”
We immediately raced forward, but the wolf was already getting to its feet and let out a long howl from its lengthy throat. Soon, more howls responded from elsewhere in the forest.
Asuna stopped and glanced at me, then shrugged and pleaded, “Well, I didn’t know two hits were going to do so much damage.”
It took nearly ten minutes to take care of the pack of wolves that gathered. It was always dangerous to get in a drawn-out battle with monsters who could summon allies, but we were close enough to the camp that we could retreat if necessary. At least then, the worst we’d suffer was Kizmel’s disappointment.
We sighed with relief and returned our swords to their sheaths once the fifth and final wolf was dead before it could call yet more allies.
The Anneal Blade +8 performed even better than I expected, but the true stunner was the Chivalric Rapier +5. Fencers lived and died by the number of strikes they could inflict, and each of Asuna’s thrusts was as heavy as a two-handed spear. And there were still ten potential upgrades left. I shuddered to think at what it could do if fully upgraded.
The fencer herself strode through the dapple shade of the trees, oblivious to my astonishment. She was probably more concerned with the rapier’s feel and balance than its numerical stats. She wanted that feeling of trust, the reassurance that she could keep fighting to her heart’s content with that sword.
No doubt, feeling was crucial. In the days of games on a monitor before the NerveGear came along, the way a gamer’s mouse and keyboard felt and responded was of the utmost importance. I knew more than a few players who stockpiled multiple units of their favorite devices, just in case the manufacturer stopped selling them.
But I couldn’t help but feel that prioritizing gut feeling over numerical logic in this VRMMO was living dangerously. Ironically, the only “proof” I had to back my suspicion was another gut feeling, but it was undeniable.
“Wait,” Asuna suddenly muttered, and I nearly walked directly into her. I paused in my awkward, unnatural pose, scanning the surroundings. I’d been deep in thought, but not carelessly so. I didn’t sense any monsters around, either visually or audibly.
No, wait…
There was a high-pitched metal clang somewhere far off. It happened again, then again. The sound was not in a rhythm, but it kept happening.
“Sword combat?” Asuna wondered, turning to me. I nodded. This was Sword Art Online—the sounds of battle were not uncommon.
The problem was that the Forest of Wavering Mists did not feature weapon-swinging enemies like the kobold and tauruses of the floors below. The only possibilities were dark and forest elves fighting, elves against players…or worst of all, PvP—players versus players.
I wanted to believe it was not the last option. It was hard to imagine people setting up a proper duel out in this dangerous area, and if it wasn’t a duel, it had to be…
I forced myself not to think about that.
“Let’s go check it out, just in case.”
Asuna looked unsure for a moment, then said, “All right.”
The audible range of a battle depended on terrain, weather, and the status of those listening, but in any case, it was not particularly wide. We stayed low, following the source of the sounds for several minutes, then noticed flashes of light amid a grove of trees ahead—the sign of sword skills in action.
A few yards ahead, we put our backs against the trunk of a particularly old and large tree, then peered around either side.
The first thing I noticed was a semicircle of five players with their backs toward us. They wore matching blue doublets with silver highlights, the unmistakable sign of Lind’s Dragon Knights. The blue-haired man in the center with his long hair pulled into a ponytail had to be Lind himself. He raised his curved Pale Edge high, timing his orders. But the sounds of battle were coming from beyond the waiting group of five.
I leaned out farther, curious as to who or what was fighting, so that I could see beyond the group.
The first thing I noticed was a whirling green cape, platinum blond hair, and long ears. That was not a player, but a forest elf knight—exactly identical to the Forest Elven Hallowed Knight that Asuna and I fought the night before. The snow-white elf had his back to Lind’s group as he struggled in violent battle with someone else. His back was completely exposed, but none of the five made any move to strike. Which meant…
“Are they in the middle of the ‘Jade Key’ quest?” Asuna wondered, her back to mine.
“I think so…And they probably took the forest elf’s side. Which would mean the elf is fighting…”
Suddenly I felt a tremble jolt through my back from Asuna. She must have come to my conclusion. On the other side of the Dragon Knights and the elite forest elf would be another dark-skinned, purple-haired Dark Elven Royal Guard…In other words, a second Kizmel.
It was possible. In fact, it was inevitable. Anyone could take on this campaign quest, which meant that the battle between forest and dark elf had to be occurring at every moment somewhere. It was extremely strange to think of many Kizmels existing at once, but we had no right to demand that every other player in the game avoid the quest. All we could do was watch as the two elves fought to their mutual deaths…
But that wasn’t true. I knew from experience that it was possible to avoid a double KO, to ensure that the champion selected would survive.
And I learned that fact because I was working with Asuna yesterday. If it had been just me alone, I would have been trapped by my beta knowledge, focused solely on defending myself rather than defeating the forest elf. But Asuna took everything dead seriously, using all of her power to challenge an elite foe far stronger than herself, and won. Of course, Kizmel did most of the damage, and I fought very hard myself, but that outcome would not have transpired without Asuna’s presence.
With that in mind, it was clear that Lind’s blue team knew what they were doing with this quest. Either Argo had already released the first volume of her third-floor strategy guide just a day in, or they learned about the quest through other means. At any rate, the fact that they were sitting back rather than taking part in the fight meant that they knew what would happen, and were waiting for the enemy elf to unleash a major attack, prompting the friendly elf to perform the self-sacrifice to win the fight.
What should we do? I bit my lip in frustration.
Should I leap into the fray, advising Lind that if they did their best to defeat the enemy elf, the survivor would be a powerful companion in the campaign? But Lind was nearly as suspicious of me as Kibaou—would he really listen?
The other factor was that if we did that, Asuna and I would be assisting in the murder of a second Kizmel.
It would be shameless sentimentality, of course. We sided with Kizmel on nothing more than a whim and callously slaughtered the forest elf. There was no right or wrong between the elven races. If we’d chosen, for whatever reason, to help the forest elf, we’d have killed Kizmel, spent the night at the forest elf base, and forged a pact of friendship with him instead. And just moments before, I’d been scolding myself about the dangers of prioritizing sentiment over logic.
…But.
I bit my lip even harder. A hoarse voice sounded in my ear.
“Sorry…this is your call, Kirito.”
Deep internal conflict was evident in Asuna’s words, as few as they were. She was grappling with the contradiction, just as I was.
Damn these quests, I muttered to myself.
I’d just discussed the inherent contradictions and dilemmas of MMORPG quests with Asuna the last night. There could never be just one hero in a world with thousands of players logged in at once. Everyone had the right to experience the story as the protagonist. Even now, with the stakes turned deadly—especially now.
But sometimes, different players following different stories would intersect. We should not have come so close to contact with Kibaou in the cave this morning, or Lind in the forest right now. If that happened, the story lost its consistency. It was no longer unique.
The ideal way to handle this was to spirit away every player or party into its own instance the moment a quest began, isolated from contact with anyone else. But it was also impossible to generate dozens, if not hundreds, of maps and dungeons at the same time. It was surprising enough to me that the elf base was an instance. Plus, too many instances removed the entire point of an MMO. How could you share a world where no one was connected?
As I gritted my teeth, the battle between the elven knights rose in intensity. Based on the state of their HP gauges, if I wanted to convince Lind, there was no time left to make up my mind.
But in fact, this was not the time for hesitation in the first place. Preserving the integrity of the story was not what mattered here—it was escaping SAO. I ought to do everything I could to increase that possibility.
“Let’s go,” I murmured, and I felt Asuna agree.
Suddenly, the positions of the fiercely clashing elven knights switched ninety degrees, and I saw the dark elf who had been blocked by a green cape until this moment.
The black-and-purple armor, long saber and small kite shield, dark skin and pale purple hair were exactly the same as Kizmel’s. But that was all.
“Huh?!” Asuna exclaimed. My eyes were wide with shock.
The dark elf knight, hair slicked back, was just as tall as the opposing forest elf. The arms were bulging and muscular, and the face was beautiful and proud—and masculine.
As I watched in astonishment, the dark elf knight leaped forward powerfully, evading the forest elf’s longsword and swiping upward to catch him with a solid blow. The blond knight was knocked back several feet, grunted, and collapsed.
Rather than chase down his opponent, the dark elf glared menacingly at Lind’s group. His saber took on a purple glow. Lind lowered his scimitar and raised his shield.
“All members, defend!”
His four companions raised their shields or large weapons in defensive stances. We’d lost our chance to intercept the encounter. If we darted out of the trees, Lind’s group would panic, and possibly lose their defensive positions.
The dark elf let off a sword skill directly at the tightly clustered defenders. He slid forward to close the gap and slashed faster than the eye could follow with his saber, left to right. With each collision of purple light and shield, a roar and sparks burst forth—but none of them fell.
I thought they’d successfully held strong, but the elf wasn’t done. Spinning like a top, he unleashed another sideswipe, then again. These three attacks together were a high-level saber sword skill called Treble Scythe.
The second blow knocked down the team’s defensive wall, and the third sent them all sprawling. They landed with an enormous clatter about six or seven yards away from where Asuna and I watched, behind the grove. All five of their HP bars plunged into the yellow.
I knew what would happen next, and presumably, so did the team. But my pulse raced out of my control, virtual sweat forming on my palms. I could feel a tension just short of outright panic from the five players looking up at the approaching dark elf.
Asuna took a step forward, and I hastily reached out to grab her hood.
The dark elf spoke in a voice as sharp as steel. “If you’d followed my warning and left, this would not have happened. Foolish humans…accept the punishment for your actions.”
It was the exact same line I’d heard in the “Jade Key” quest during the beta. The dark elf held his saber with both hands overhead, pointing straight for Lind. Lind raised his shield out of impulse, but it would not stop the coming blow.
The elf’s weapon began to glow, accompanied by a keening vibration.
“I am your foe, Knight of Lyusula!” bellowed the forest elf, who was back on his feet and charging. He struck with astonishing speed, longsword glowing green. The dark elf was unable to evade in time. He caught the strike with his saber, and the resulting shock wave sent Lind’s group sprawling to the ground again. Even the tree trunk we hid behind trembled with the force of the collision.
The two elves were locked in a stalemate, their blades grinding. But the forest elf, whose HP bar was in the red, slowly began to give. When the saber was pushed right in front of his eyes, the forest elf cried out.
“Holy Tree of Kales’Oh! Grant me the final sacrament!”
A brilliant, yellow-green shine erupted from the forest elf’s chest. When it had spread to cover his entire body, it shot out rapidly to engulf the surrounding area. It did not look like an attack, but the dark elf’s HP bar quickly drained to nothing, and the forest elf’s emptied with it. Still locked in combat, their swords joined in a standstill, the two fighters slowly collapsed.
Every detail was as I remembered it. I had witnessed this scene three times in the beta—once for my own quest, twice while helping a party member. Whether on the dark or forest elf side, the event and dialogue were all the same.
At the time, I hadn’t given it much thought, other than that it was a common development, but this time, it felt as though I’d been stabbed through the chest. I could only take short, gasping breaths, and I clutched the end of Asuna’s cape.
Before he perished into motes of light with the dark elf, the forest elf imparted his final message to the Dragon Knights. Only a small leather pouch was left behind on the grass, which Lind reached out to pick up.
A greatsword-wielding man named Hafner, who was something like the second-in-command of the group, plopped down onto the grass and exclaimed, “Whew! Man, that was scary!”
I could vividly recall him swearing at Nezha for using the money from his sword to buy himself a feast when the blacksmith had admitted his crimes after the second-floor boss battle. It seemed like he’d been repaid with a weapon of similar level. Shivata, another of the scam victims, was present in the group as well. I didn’t know the names of the other two, but I recognized one of them.
The man on the right, holding a blunt flail on a chain, smacked Hafner’s shoulder bracingly.
“You’re just fine, Haf. That was an auto-defeat event.”
“Whatever. You looked pretty scared to me, too, Naga.”
“Can you blame me? That elf’s cursor went past red into black. I’ve never seen one that high.”
“Yeah. That was insane.”
Based on their conversation, neither seemed to be beta testers. Nor were Lind and Shivata, who were speaking a short ways off. I snuck a peek at the fifth member.
He was a thin man wielding an Anneal Blade like mine. He wore a chain coif that hung low on his head, so I couldn’t see higher than his mouth, but I didn’t think he was present for the second boss battle. I was pretty sure I’d never seen him before, but there was something eerily familiar about his manner.
I wanted to check with Asuna, but they were standing just thirty feet from the tree we were hiding behind, and I didn’t want them to detect our whispers. I could probably stroll out with a friendly greeting and not get a bunch of swords in my face, but they weren’t going to be happy to see me, either. It was a good place to use my Hiding skill, but if they saw through it, that would only make the situation worse.
Fortunately, they had no idea we were there, and at a gesture from Lind, the five huddled for a meeting. I could only pick up isolated phrases at that hushed tone, but I began to get a sense of the topic.
“…is supposed to be to the north of the forest…we get there, then start on quests…next destination is shared with the guild quest, so we’ll follow that…evening is the first overall meeting at the town, so if we get the guild established by…”
…Aha, I thought.
Based on the way he was talking, it seemed their quest info came from a different beta tester, not Argo. I guessed that it was probably the unidentified fellow with the Anneal Blade. I made a mental note to buy info on him from Argo, then concentrated on the conversation again.
But now they were talking about how to deal with the monsters of the forest, and I didn’t catch anything of note. They raised their fists in salute at the end of their talk, then headed off to the north.
Once the clanking of their heavy footsteps disappeared, I heard a frosty voice command me to let go. I turned and realized that I was still gripping Asuna’s hood tight.
“S-sorr—”
I hastily let go, and she snorted and put her hood back on. Asuna’s expression shifted from angry mode to questioning mode.
“What do you suppose that was about…?”
I wasn’t sure which part of the conversation she was referring to, so I shrugged my shoulders.
“I don’t know. I was certain that we’d see a second version of Kizmel…but it was a totally different person.”
“Even though the forest elf was clearly the same guy…”
“That’s the weird part. If they were both different, it would mean the system rolls different NPCs every time the fight event is generated. That would at least make sense,” I noted, arms crossed. Asuna sent a glance my way from beneath her hood.
“Was it always the same people during the beta?”
“Yeah. I only participated in this particular battle three times, but the forest elf was always a long-haired blond guy, and the dark elf was always a short-haired lady…basically, Kizmel. At least, in appearance.”
“Hmm…”
Asuna thought over my answer for a few moments, then shook her head. “I suppose we can’t say anything for sure until we at least witness this scene one more time. But we should get moving now. The mist is thickening.”
Just as she said, the western end of the little grove was already turning white. If we got lost in the unique mists of this forest, we’d only have a visibility of fifteen to twenty feet, and the monster encounter rate would rise. Fortunately, the staircase we were heading for was to the northeast, so we didn’t have to charge into the mist.
“Gotcha. They said the strategy meeting was tonight, so we’ve got some time. Let’s try to avoid combat where we can.”
I headed away from the tree, and only after several steps did I realize that Asuna wasn’t following.
The fencer was frozen next to the tree, staring at the empty space where the battle event had just taken place. Eventually, she snapped out of it and trotted over to catch up. I was going to ask her what she was looking at but reconsidered. The march over the dark forest floor resumed.
We managed to stay ahead of the tide of mist and ran into only two monsters along the way, so it did not take long at all to reach the staircase.
The shadowy mouth of the passage down to the second floor opened in the middle of the mossy ground. It had been less than a day since we’d come up those stairs, but it felt like several. Asuna stared at the opening, apparently lost in the same thought.
“You don’t think that time flows differently in that elf camp…do you?”
“I don’t think even the NerveGear can affect the passage of time,” I said, laughing it off. She glared at me.
“That’s not what I’m saying. It can send this realistic data to our sensory centers, so maybe it can adjust the way we perceive time. That’s all I’m wondering.”
“The way we perceive it…So even if only one day has actually passed, it feels like three?”
“Yes…Wait, forget I said that. There’s no use for that function.”
“Huh?”
I stared at her in confusion. She blinked a few times, searching for the right words, then murmured, “I just don’t want to rely on false hopes.”
In a flash, I understood what she meant. She’d been hoping that these thirty-nine days in the world of SAO were a shorter period of time in real life—say, ten days. Or just one. Maybe even a single second. How much easier her life would be if that were true.
But sadly, it was clearly impossible for one’s mind and senses to be accelerated to hundreds of times the normal speed during a full dive. I didn’t know the fundamental properties of how the NerveGear worked, but even I could guarantee that.
“No, I’m the one who dragged you into this…I’m sorry for throwing the fruit at you.”
Asuna’s facial effects finally wore off, and she regained her normal expression. “You said that any party member can go freely in and out of an inn room, right?”
“Yep.”
“How does the cost work, then? Does it subtract the money equally from everyone?”
“That depends on the setting you enter when renting the room. Remember how there was an occupancy number on the window? If it’s set to one, you pay the whole cost, and if it’s multiple people, then the cost is split.”
“…”
The odd expression on her silent face told me that she was remembering it had been set to a room for two. In that case, my wallet had already suffered the loss of half the cost of a deluxe room, but that wasn’t anything I couldn’t make up.
“Don’t worry, if we split the party up, I’ll still be able to rent my own room…but only if I get back the cost of what I’ve already spent here.”
“…”
She didn’t respond to my half-joking suggestion, either. Eventually, she came to a conclusion of some kind.
“…We’re not spending the night here, just using it to rest until this evening’s meeting, right?”
“W-well, that was the plan. I want to be back at the dark elf camp by tonight…”
“…Okay, let’s leave it at that, then.”
“L-leave it at what?”
“Well, I only paid the price on the assumption that we’d be splitting it. It would be crazy to spend that amount on my own without even staying the night,” Asuna announced, then scanned the room for the beds on either side and pointed at the one on the east wall. “This one will be mine. And just so we’re absolutely clear, there’s a border right here that must be respected.”
She indicated a line straight down the middle of the room with her toe, then walked over to her sovereign territory and removed her Chivalric Rapier +5, breastplate, hooded cape, gloves, and boots. Loose and comfortable, she sat down on the bed and looked up at me.
“I’m going to take a little nap. You ought to get some rest yourself.”
“Uh, okay,” I said.
We needed to conserve money where we could, we needed to rest when we could, and we’d be spending the night in the same room—well, tent—anyway. This wasn’t the time to be succumbing to the Confusion status effect. Wait…SAO didn’t have a confusion effect.
At any rate, I moved to my territory and removed my Anneal Blade +8, coat, and other armor. When I sat down on the bed, I was facing directly at Asuna, which felt awkward, so I rolled back into a lying position. Appropriately for the price we paid, the pillows and mattress were soft and comfortable, and I felt sleep approaching quickly. I’d been up since two in the morning. After all we’d been through, I had earned a bit of a nap…
“About our earlier conversation,” Asuna said from across the room. My eyelids opened up about three-quarters of the way.
“Which was?” I prompted, looking up. Asuna was still sitting on the side of the bed, boots off and feet dangling. Her response took me by surprise.
“About the experience gain being better with one or two people than a whole party.”
“…What about it?”
I raised my head, then recalled that Asuna had been about to say something back at the staircase when I’d first mentioned it. But perhaps that was just my imagination.
“Just wondering, alone or with a partner, which is better?”
“Which…? Oh, meaning which gives you better experience points?”
The fencer nodded. I lowered my head back against the pillow again, blinked a few times to clear the sleep away, then thought my answer over.
“Hmm…It’s not as simple as one or the other. The reason you don’t gain as much with a full party is because it’s really hard not to have some strength go to waste. You can’t surround a small monster with six people and swing away wildly. If you break into two halves of three, it’s hard to time when to switch out. It’ll be different once we find a map with a whole bunch of extra-large mobs to fight all at once, though…And of course, the more people you have, the safer it is,” I prefaced, then actually answered her question.
“Soloing or playing with a partner are basically the same thing. With a two-man team, if you can hunt twice as fast as solo, your rate will be better. But that’s difficult to do. You need to be able to switch from one player’s sword skill directly into the other’s…”
At this point, I finally realized what Asuna was wondering about. I looked back at her and our eyes met directly, so I quickly glanced back at the ceiling and coughed to hide my embarrassment.
“W-well, that’s the ideal outcome, but it takes a lot of time to work together that smoothly. But at this point, safety is more important than efficiency, so in that sense, you’d want to have a partner rather than fight solo…”
“Kirito, if I’m ever more of a hindrance than a help, you’d better tell me,” she announced, clear and firm. I held my breath.
The fencer stared me down with a calm expression nothing like her fluster just minutes ago. She put her fists on her knees and continued, “Like I told you back in Tolbana, I left the Town of Beginnings so I could continue to be myself. But…maybe I’ve forgotten that feeling, bit by bit over time. We’ve been fighting side by side since meeting up in Urbus…but if that’s making things harder for you, or causing your leveling pace to drop, that’s not what I want to do.”
“…”
So she could be herself.
I didn’t know enough about how other people thought to truly understand those words. I didn’t even know how I was processing this insane game of death we’d been trapped inside. It frightened me, of course, and I wanted to be free of it. I didn’t want to die, and I felt hatred for Akihiko Kayaba for orchestrating it all.
As a result of this, I’d focused on nothing but making myself stronger since the day the game began. I prioritized efficiency, gathered information, tested out my ideal build, and gave up on everything else.
So the fact that I was now working with Asuna the fencer was the result of a decision—that doing so would improve my chances of survival. There was no other reason. There…shouldn’t have been.
“…You’re very strong,” I finally put into words. “You’re not holding me back in the slightest. In fact, with your new Chivalric Rapier, your damage per second is higher than mine. But it’s not just about DPS numbers. Your poise in battle, the execution of your sword skills—I’m in no position to claim you’re not good enough. On the contrary…if you decide to keep working with me, I’d be grateful.”
It felt silly to say these things while I was rudely lying on the bed, but Asuna only straightened her back, still and silent. I thought I detected her slender body trembling slightly.
Wait, what does that reaction mean?
But before I had more time to wonder, she said simply, “Oh. In that case, I guess I’ll stick around for a bit.”
“Um…cool. Glad to hear it.”
It felt like we ought to shake on it. I lifted my head off the pillow, but Asuna was already lying on the bed firmly in her own territory and rolling back toward the wall. With her back turned to me, she whispered, “Well, I’m going to take a nap until noon. Good night.”
“Um…okay. Sweet dreams.”
I lowered my head back down, wondering what her deal was. It felt like I ought to take this time to think things over, but the sandman was attacking again, and I only had enough willpower to set an alarm before closing my eyes and succumbing.
Across the surface of my mind, little thoughts rose like bubbles, then popped.
So much stuff happened in the span of this one day.
At this rate, we’re gonna be really busy with conquering the third floor.
I guess it’s not that bad knowing there’s someone there to watch your back…
At that point in time, I had no idea that just seven hours later, external factors beyond my control would threaten the dissolution of our team.
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