Sword Apocalypse Online
Chapter Two
Yuuki Konno and her sister Aiko were watching the amusingly named Asuna Yuuki leading the meeting to take on the dungeon. The crowd of men and woman had come together in the afternoon sun to discuss the upcoming raid...
"You should TOTALLY marry her," the taller Aiko teased her little sister mercilessly, "then you'd be Yuuki Yuuki."
"SHUT UP," Yuuki hissed.
Aiko just chuckled wickedly.
Though if Yuuki was going to be honest, 'Lightning' Asuna was very striking, with her long strawberry blond hair and attractive figure. Plus she was quite charismatic too. If you had said a week ago that someone would rally the surviving lead players to attack the dungeon AGAIN, Yuuki would have said you were nuts. But here they were.
"Argo will be going in with us to offer any insights on the Kobold Lord's attacks. We think counters are possible," Asuna continued.
"It's Argo's fault things went wring last time!" a heckler called from the back, apparently feeling safely anonymous.
"No, it's that bastard Kayabas' fault. All Argo is responsible for is being unable to read his mind in advance," Aiko called firmly.
The crowd parted to reveal the warrior, whom looked visibly wilted.
"We'll go in tomorrow morning," Asuna added. "Please form up in squads of six, and we'll meet at the enterance."
"Come on," Aiko softly ordered her sister as they both hurried after Asuna once the meeting officially ended.
"Hey, what...," Yuuki complained.
"Miss Asuna!" Aiko called as she reached the small group.
"Yes?" Asuna asked as Argo and Liz looked on.
"We'd like to join your party for when we take on the dungeon boss," Aiko said briskly. "I'm Aiko, this is my sister Yuuki."
"Why would you want to...?" Liz started.
"Because all the other player groups are made up of just men and it'd get creepy." Aiko observed briskly.
"She's got a point," Argo noted.
As the other girls talked, Asuna looked over Yuuki. She was a bit shorter than Asuna, with an almost purple black cape of long hair. Like everyone she was decked out in basic armor, but in her case also died black.
"Well?" Liz addressed Asuna.
Asuna pulled her gaze away and nodded. "Sure. Why not," she agreed.
"You've sisters in real life too? How did you both end up here?" Liz asked as they walked back to the Inn.
"We're both really into gaming and got lucky," Aiko noted wryly.
"REALLY lucky," Yuuki added, laughing softly.
"If it helps, I just randomly tried on my brother's system...," Asuna observed.
Liz and Argo had both heard the story before, but both Aiko and Yuuki looked surprised. "You weren't even a gamer before all this?" Aiko blinked.
"Yeah. Luckily I met Argo and some others," Asuna waved it off.
Realizing Asuna was uncomfortable Argo changed the subject. "Were you guys brought in from the Aincrad Army group Thinker is trying to set up?" she asked.
"He and Yulier tried recruiting us," Yuuki nodded. "I think their hearts are in the right place, but I don't know if their 'share everything' idea is practical."
The group reached the Inn and headed inside.
"Welcome!" the NPC Inn Keeper said. "Would you care to renew your room rental?" he asked them mechanically.
"You're here too?" Liz asked, looking at Aiko and Yuuki.
"We have a room, but I think we'll do a few hours of materials farming. I'd like to try upgrading our weapons again before tomorrow," Aiko mused.
"Materials farming. Do we need to do the damn bees again?" Yuuki sighed.
"Hey, YOU picked the rapier," Aiko reminded her.
Asuna exchanged glances with the others. "Doing it as a group might be faster," she observed.
"Yeah, I'll help," Liz agreed. "But I can do the upgrade, okay?"
"Yeah, what the hell," Argo said.
"Thank you," a visibly surprised Yuuki beamed up at Asuna.
Weirdly, Asuna blushed.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
They trooped in together a few hours later. They had fought mobs in several local areas to get the materials, then Liz had finished upgrading the weapons along with repairing everyone's gear.
"Nicely done," Aiko clapped her on the shoulder.
' "Lucky. I've flubbed upgrading once or twice before. It's as much probabilities as skill," Liz noted dryly. "I just hope it never REALLY goes bad on us."
"Agreed," Aiko nodded.
Argo was still mildly bewildered by her apparently being a user of a massive claymore. The sword was nearly as big as SHE was. But she had put her 'skill' points into physical strength, and could weild it like a pro. And with her health, she was a pretty good tank too.
Yuuki used a slim longsword, and was a speed/strength build, basically. She wasn't as fast as Asuna could be, but she was damn fast. Plus, she seemed to have slightly better reflexes than Asuna, which made up for the slight speed difference.
"We should rest up for tomorrow," Asuna noted as they checked in to the inn.
"There is a complication, ma'am," the inn-keeper noted to them politely. "There is only one open room remaining."
"WHAT," Argo blinked.
"We forgot to re-book our room earlier," Yuuki noted, blinking. "Shit."
Argo looked at Asuna, their de-facto leader. You couldn't really just camp out on the streets, it wasn't safe...
Asuna nodded briskly. "We'll split the room," she decided.
"And the harem grows AGAIN," Liz deadpanned.
"Harem?" Aiko asked, amused.
Argo noted, "Clearly the great Asuna-sama MUST have a harem."
"Oh, yes, Asuna-sama! Take me!" Yuuki joked, grabbing her arm.
Several passing adventurers watched, wide eyed.
"Could we JUST go up to the room, please?" Asuna groaned.
Argo snickered softly as they all headed upstairs. "It's a two bedroom suite, right?" she asked Asuna mildly.
"Yeah. We can just split up the bedrooms," Asuna agreed. "And I think there's a couch too."
They quickly confirmed there was indeed two single beds, and a couch. "Okay!" Aiko decided briskly, "Liz and Argo take one bed, Asuna and Yuuki get the other, I'll take the couch."
"Right," Argo agreed.
"WHAT." Asuna started.
"We'll see you in the morning!" Liz added as she and Argo went into one bedroom. At the same time, Aiko calmly set up on the couch.
"But..." Asuna started.
Yuuki gave her a sympathetic look. "I think we're stuck," she noted.
The bed was a single. Worse, it was a relatively SMALL single. "I suppose I can just take the floor," Asuna mused.
"It's fine, really," Yuuki reassured her.
"Uh huh," Asuna said dubiously.
They DID in fact get both of them onto the small bed. Asuna was faintly surprised at how fast Yuuki fell asleep. She was ALSO surprised at how a sleepy Yuuki ended up clinging to her like a baby koala to her momma.
Morning came, and Asuna was surprised she slept reasonably well. Yuuki, annoyingly was STILL curled up against her. "Ytuuki," she tried to get free. "YUUKI," she growled.
"Don wanna get up..." Yuuki groaned sleepily then rolled over on to Asuna.
'EEEP,' Asuna 'eeped' softly.
To be continued...
Notes: Slightly more comic chapter. Also, bringing in Aiko and Yuuki from later in SAO.
