4
The next day: Monday, June 23rd, at nine o’clock at night. Asuna was back in Frieven on the eighth floor of New Aincrad.
The second attempt on the boss, after she and Kirito had left the raid party, had once again ended in a painful, last-minute defeat. But they also reported that after getting the boss to its final HP bar, they were able to devise a winning strategy; thus, everyone present had promised to come back together the next day for a rematch.
This time, Asuna and Kirito would be taking part, as well as the best teams from General Eugene’s salamanders and Lady Sakuya’s sylphs. There was twice as much heat and excitement in the teleport square as there was last time.
Klein, who was again playing the role of raid leader, said to the sylph warrior, “It’s kinda freaky, right?” The man had seemed intimidated to be remaining in the leadership position when there were two fairy leaders in the mix, but with Sakuya herself giving him furtive glances and requests to take over, he couldn’t possibly back down now.
“You called up Sakuya and General Eugene together? Who are you?” the sylph leader asked.
Klein just chuckled awkwardly. “Aw shucks, I’m nobody special, ha-ha.”
Agil, meanwhile, interjected, “They weren’t your connections,” while Asuna just shook her head in exasperation.
Behind her, she could hear Kirito and Yui talking.
“Wh-what? My hair?”
“Yes!”
She turned around and asked, “What’s going on, you two?”
“Well, the thing is,” said the spriggan, pinching a lock of his spiky black hair in demonstration, “Yui’s saying I should change my hairstyle because it’s hard to sit on my head…Even though changing your hair is actually pretty expensive…”
From his shoulder, Yui put her hands on her hips and argued, “You could stand to spend your money on something other than the weapons store and the casino! Plus, the higher I can sit, the more efficient my information gathering will be!”
“I’m sorry, Yui—what did you say after ‘weapons store’…?
“Aaah! Fine, fine! All right! I’ll change it right after this boss fight!” Kirito suddenly exclaimed, having changed his mind very quickly.
But Yui shook her head. “You still have ten minutes until the gathering time! That’s more than enough time to go over to that barbershop and have your hair changed!”
“Fine, fine…Well, sorry, Asuna. I’ve got to get this taken care of right now.”
“Um, sure. Have a nice trip,” Asuna said, waving as they headed off.
It occurred to her that while his avatar’s face and hair were different than what he’d had in SAO, if he flattened his hair, he might actually look a lot like his old self.
She wasn’t necessarily hoping he would go back to his old SAO look, but the idea seemed kind of fun, so she waved to Lisbeth, Silica, and Leafa as they came out of the teleport gate.
“Hey! Come quick!”
“What? What’s up?” asked Lisbeth as the trio came over, curious.
Asuna beamed and shouted, “Listen, Kirito’s about to…!”
(The End)
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