Author's Note

7/22/2018: When I said my beta was on a roll today last chapter, I was not kidding. Four chapters in a day and he's started on the fifth… makes me feel lazy AF by comparison. :P Thanks once again, Guy, your productivity puts me to shame!

Okay, I'm sure some of you will be pissed to hear this, but this chapter is not everything before the boss fight like I originally promised. Is there a reason? Yes, because this one was getting too long just like the last one.

There will be one more chapter before the boss fight, but it will probably be literally everything right before it, even to the point of them getting to the boss door and opening it. This chapter may be similar to progressive, but I added several differences, much more so than last time.

So anyway, this chapter also has several new parts added to it, parts that never existed in progressive. I'm glad I can break the mold a little, but I guess I'm supposed to as a fanfic author.

Well, that's enough out of me. See you at the bottom!

Gun Gale Online: The Swordswoman

Transcendent Bonds

Chapter Eight: Eye of the Storm Part II

The dull-colored bread with cream on top… I suppose I'd like another of those before I die.

The desire that seemingly came from nowhere disturbed Asuna considerably. She opened her eyes and sat up slightly in the water.

The taste may have been pleasing, but it was still fake, a total imitation. A polygonal model attached to some variables that decided its taste. But when she looked at it that way, the bath worked based on the same principles; what looked like water was really just a game boundary surface that had transparency and refraction numbers calculated to look real. The warmth and wet feeling that enveloped her whole body were really just strings of numbers being sent from her brother's «Nerve Gear» to her brain.

But… even so…

In the real world, in which she'd lived until a month before, had she ever wanted to eat something as intensely as she did that fake bread with cream? Had she ever wished to take a bath as strongly as she did after hearing that her current host had one?

The full course menu of organic food that she'd mechanically eaten out of duty while talking to her parents, even though she wasn't really hungry nor in the mood to talk, or the virtual cream-covered bread that her body craved for to the point of drooling. Which one of those should be considered more 'real'?

Sensing that she was considering something very, very important, Asuna quietly held her breath without realizing it.

Who knew it'd be so damn hard to not look at a bathroom door?

As my body stayed deeply rooted to its spot on the sofa in the living room, I exerted all my mental restraint to stay focused on Argo's strategy guide for the checkpoint one boss. However, no matter how many times my eyes passed over the simple, easy to read Japanese font, the content still failed to reach my brain.

But at least this whole scenario proved we weren't in real life, which I had so often wanted to escape from in the past.

For example, let's pretend that this was my home in Kawagoe of the Saitama Prefecture, that my family members were away for some reason, and there was a female classmate taking a bath in my bathroom for undisclosed reasons. In those circumstances, what would I do? Honestly, considering I hated all my female classmates for their shallow nature, refusal to mind their own damn business, and tendency to place the blame on others when they got caught in a potentially bad or troublesome situation… I'd probably wait until she was done, then greet her as she exited by putting my shinai level with her face. I'd sternly warn her never to set foot in my house again, and I'd personally escort her off the property, not removing my shinai from its pre-strike position until she was on the sidewalk.

But fortunately, this was the second floor of a luxury suite built on the outskirts of «Frontier City», in the first zone of GGO's spiral-shaped setting. Instead of a short but beautiful girl whose genius outpaced the leading computer companies' top developers, but also made her almost impossible to get along with, I was the swordswoman and sharpshooter Kiriko. Since our bodies were just avatars in a virtual world, I had no need to defend my residence, and nothing bad would happen even after she left the bathroom. And I seriously doubted she had any malevolent reasons for wanting that bath, so I figured it didn't matter one way or the other anyway.

And at this point, I had no reason to go to the bathroom door anyway. When she exited, I'd show her to the bed (I still planned to take the couch, despite her claim that she wouldn't make me), and then I'd explain that we would work on her party knowledge the next day, say "let's work hard tomorrow", and go to the front room.

Honestly, I normally didn't even operate during the daytime. Back in the beta, I always worked at night, simply because almost nobody else did. Plus, as an added bonus, working at night was considerably more lucrative. During the day, most of the gather spots would be picked clean by other players, but at night, all those points had long since respawned. In addition, organic monsters became stronger at night, and thus yielded more EXP, higher credits and better drops.

However, I hadn't yet built up my strength enough to consider doing this, especially as a solo player. At level twelve, I had a good margin of safety for ninety-eight percent of the first zone – everything before the first checkpoint dungeon – however, at night, all organic mobs increased in level by at least two, and sometimes more in organic dungeons such as forests or caves. This could put a pack of nine level eight wolf mobs all up to level ten, and those kind of numbers would actually pose a threat to someone only two levels higher than them, such as myself.

Shaking my head at my own weakness, I returned my attention to the guidebook in my hands. However, in the next moment, a distinct noise caught my attention.

Tap, tap-tap-tap

It came from the front door of the suite, but it most certainly didn't come from the employee which got sent to check on players periodically – their knock was a dull tap, tap, tap. No, this rhythm that strung a bunch of knocks together in quick succession was the signature of someone else – and the particular pattern was one agreed upon by myself and this person long ago.

With a surprised jolt, I looked over at the doorway made of a substance that emulated wood – or, more specifically, I looked over and imagined the one on the other side. That knock… it belonged to the game's leading information dealer, Argo the «Rat».

I can jump out the bedroom window, hotwire the owner's motorcycle, and get the hell out of town. The checkpoint dungeon is full of mechanical mobs anyway, so they won't get stronger after nightfall.

These thoughts raced through my head for a solitary moment before I realized the futility. To successfully hotwire a car was a difficult task in GGO, and I didn't even equip the skill for it. Not to mention that driving a car in this game had to be even more difficult than driving in real life, minus the traffic signals that didn't really apply here. I didn't have the skill for that equipped either, so making a getaway in a car I didn't have a key to was essentially an impossibility.

Instead of continuing to dwell on impossible methods of escape, I chose to get up off the sofa and check on the bathroom. On the other side of that door, Asuna would undoubtedly be in the middle of experiencing a bath for the first time since we got trapped in the game. If Argo found out, it would mean big trouble. I could see it already; she'd add this new piece of information to her selling list: "Kiriko is the type of person to freely share her bath with total strangers." If she started selling that info to others, I knew that the female traffic to my room would skyrocket every time I got one with a bath. My reputation as a cold but talented solo player who hated girls with a passion (my reputation in the beta) would go down the drain in one fell swoop.

However, for once in my life, I ran upon a bit of good fortune. As far as I knew, unless you equipped and seriously leveled the «Listening» skill, there were only three sounds that could be transmitted through a door: shouts, knocks, and battle sounds. Without an adequately-leveled «Listening» skill, sounds like normal conversation or the sounds of a bath wouldn't leak through, even with an ear to the door.

So I could let someone into the suite, and they'd have no idea that anyone was bathing in the tub. And if Asuna happened to open the door while Argo was here… well, there was a small chance I could hotwire the suite owner's car successfully.

All these thoughts flashed through my brain as quickly as my gun's bullets could travel, and I approached the front door, steeled myself, and opened it up. Upon seeing the whiskered face of the girl my height on the other side, I spoke a well-practiced line.

"How rare," I told her with my usual calm voice. "For you to come to visit my room directly. Something must be up."

Her face twitched for a moment, before a familiar smirk made its way to her lips. "Perceptive as always, Kii-boy," she said with a wave of her hands. "That client I told you about on the twenty-first, well, they want to hear a reply today no matter what."

Without a hint of restraint, Argo then walked into the room and nonchalantly sat down on the sofa I had just left with a soft thump. I shut the door, walked to the coffee table in the middle of the room while resisting the urge to look at the bathroom, and poured out two cups of the carbonated beverage from the pitcher. I put one on the side of the table by a chair, and one on the side across from Argo's spot on the couch. She merely raised an eyebrow and chuckled a little right as I sat down in the chair.

"For you, that's a fair bit more considerate than usual, Kii-boy," she said after the chuckles died down. "You slipped some kind of drug in there, didn't you?"

"Notice the glass I poured for myself?" I asked her rhetorically, pointing to my own glass. I then picked it up with my right hand, and took a sip before setting it down again. "I wouldn't have poured one for me and drank from it if it had a drug in it."

"Fair enough," came the standard reply. She clapped her hands, nodding, and then used her right hand to grab the glass and lift it to her lips. She then proceeded to drain its contents in a single chug, sighing in contentment.

"Thanks for the drink," she finally expressed her gratitude. "For a free, unlimited drink, this soda is pretty good. Ever think about bottling it up and selling it to players?

"Nah," I told her whilst preparing to go into an explanation. "It starts losing durability the moment you take it out of the suite, dropping completely after half an hour. And instead of disappearing, it just loses its fizz, which just makes it a super sugary drink."

Although I knew plenty of people would still buy it for the sugary flavor, my personal preference of spice to sweetness prevented me from doing it. Plus, I already got a considerable amount of credits by selling the unneeded rare drops I got from dungeons, so I didn't really need to open a business.

"Oh, right," she acknowledged, a look of remembrance dawning on her features. "I forgot about your obsession with spicy foods. It'd still sell as a kind of juice, so I think I'll rent out this place once your stay is up. How many days left?"

"Three, and be my guest, since I'll be on the next zone by then," I caved, before deciding to add something for future benefit. "But depending on what you sell it for, I might want royalties for concept design assistance."

"Deal."

As our rather pointless conversation continued, my head kept filling more and more with the desire for her to get to the damn point. But considering her unpredictable nature, I decided it'd be best to not let it show, lest she find out and do something crazy. With an inquisitive expression, I held up the book in my left hand, «Argo's Strategy Guide: First Checkpoint Boss Edition», and waved it around a bit.

"Speaking of free stuff that could be making profit, what's with this?" I asked her, stopping the waving as my expression hardened. "Now, I don't mind much, since I'm a loyal customer of yours and all, but I've been buying these for a thousand to fifteen-hundred credits a pop. But then yesterday at the first meeting, the dude with the anti-tank rifle said that they were all free."

I knew she could hear the slight resentment in my tone. However, despite my mild ire, she chuckled mischievously, drawing even more 'Kiriko aggro' on herself.

"It was because of the good sales of the first printings that I was able to distribute the second printings for free," she explained as if it were a hilarious joke. "But don't worry, only the first release printings have an authentic Argo autograph printed on the last page."

"What a way of doing business," I responded with a sigh while putting a hand to my face. "Well, I think I'll wait until the free version comes out in the future."

At this point, the reason for the free version was just north of obvious; she felt the need to take responsibility as a beta-tester. Although I couldn't deny the urge to ask about it directly, that desire didn't weigh half as much as the near-complete refrain from discussing the beta with Argo that bordered on a taboo. And considering that I myself was a former tester who'd only helped two retail players since the official release, I may not have even had the right to ask.

The silence became heavy for the faintest of moments before Argo cut through it with her words. "Well, I'd say it's about time for the main event, wouldn't you?"

In my head, I shouted 'get on with it!', over and over like a mantra, though my exterior remained calm and composed. I gave her a polite nod, and the negotiations began.

"As you can probably guess by how I mentioned a client, this is about that potential buyer of your photon sword," she began by explaining what I already knew.

Over the past two or so days since I met Argo officially in-game, we had been in talks about a certain player through messages during the time I wasn't dungeon-grinding. This player wanted to buy off my photon sword, for reasons I couldn't fathom. Sure, as an almost fully upgraded weapon with eight maximum attempts to begin with, it had a lot of power. It could probably even one-shot anything shy of a mini-boss in this zone with a hit to a critical weak point. But the fact remained that it was still just a sword, and therefore wouldn't be as effective as a gun when it came to landing hits without taking any yourself.

On top of their rather strange request, they had already given an offer equal to the market rate the day before, or fifty-two-thousand credits. I had refused them then, so if they were making another offer, odds were that it went past the market rate.

"If you accept today, the offer will be seventy-five-thousand credits."

"…Se…"

Seventy-five-thousand?! I had to bite my tongue to prevent myself from screaming this outside just my mind. After a deep breath and a few seconds to wait for the pain in my tongue to abate, I spoke.

"I mean no disrespect, Argo, but this has got to be a scam," I told her frankly, my gaze hardened as I waved a hand dismissively. "A plus zero version of my photon sword, a «Radiance Burst» with all upgrade attempts remaining, is worth thirty-thousand credits. The materials needed to upgrade it to plus seven with minimum failure chance would only cost twenty-two-thousand more. It might take a little time, but you could get the exact same blade as mine with just fifty-two-thousand."

"I said the exact same thing three times just to be sure, but the moron just kept insisting!" Argo shouted with an exasperated hand gesture, a rare expression of disbelief on her face.

I crossed my arms and leaned back into my chair, the bathroom situation completely forgotten now that this newer topic demanded my full attention. In this situation, I found myself completely against giving up my photon sword for more reasons than just attachment and familiarity. Until I could get myself to shoot properly, I only had my blade to rely on, which meant that I couldn't give it up for a second.

It sucked that I'd lose a bit of extra money by declining, but at this point, I had bigger fish to fry. Who in their right mind would make such an outrageous offer for my sword? It was a question that I decided couldn't be left unanswered, no matter what – something told me I needed to know. Having made up my mind, I spoke to the leader of the «Info House».

"Argo… I'll pay three-thousand credits for the name of your client. Check with them and see if they'll increase their hush money," I told her, already feeling the weight of my wallet decrease. My offer was twice what I offered last time I tried this, but the other party had come back with seventeen-hundred credits and it had ended there. This time, however, I felt confident that I'd get an answer – and lose three-thousand credits in doing so.

"Gotcha."

Argo nodded, then opened her menu and began rapidly typing an instant message. A few seconds later, her eyebrows twitched as she read the reply, and she gave a big shrug. "He says he doesn't mind you learning his name."

This is so ridiculous, I don't even care anymore, I thought to myself as I opened my own menu. I pulled up a trade window and typed Argo's name into the field for the other party, then in the optional «Credits Transfer» box, I typed in the number 3000. I hit finish, and I saw my total credits take a three-thousand point drop at the bottom of my field of vision as hers undoubtedly did the opposite.

The «Rat» gave me a playful smile the moment I looked up at her, and then she spoke in a tone that told me she was laughing it up inside. "Actually, Kii-boy, you already know his face and name. Believe it or not, he went on quite the rampage at the boss meeting yesterday."

"No way…" I whispered in a hoarse tone, my expression of complete shock. "Kibaou?"

Argo nodded.

Kibaou, the man who burned with crazy flames of hatred towards the former beta-testers. He was the one willing to buck up seventy-five-k for my photon sword? First off, where did he get the money, and second, why did he want it in the first place? His main weapon was an assault rifle, completely different from my own. Not to mention Argo started pestering me about this the day before we met for the first time, which meant he had to have known about me somehow beforehand.

The info I'd bought with three-thousand credits left me even more confounded than before. I crossed my legs on the chair's cushion to think over this development. Just to be certain, Argo asked me a question from her spot on the couch.

"I take it there'll be no deal on the sword again?"

"You got it…"

I wouldn't part ways with my favorite starter sword for any sum of money. I nodded with my words and saw the «Rat» get on her feet. "Well, I'll be going her soon. Make good use of that guide, you hear? By the way, if you were having trouble reading it, that's because it's upside down."

I looked back at the guidebook, noting for the first time that it was indeed upside down. I felt my face heat with embarrassment, and my tongue tied itself in a metaphorical knot for about five seconds.

"Oh, and before I split," Argo told me, completely ignoring my embarrassed state. "I'm gonna borrow that other room. Gotta go change into my night equipment."

I stopped scanning my memory right as Argo finished talking, looked up, and found her on the way to the bathroom. I got up with a lightning-fast reaction time and bolted in between Argo and that room, knowing my very life could be at stake here.

"N-not this room," I told her, trying my best to remain as composed as possible. "Use the bedroom if you must."

"Who are you hiding in there, Kii-boy?" the brunette's guess came as a complete shock. She smirked devilishly as my face drained of color, then spoke again. "Wow, I was right!"

"N-not hiding, per say," I tried to explain. I knew I was on thin ice at this point. "Just… letting them use the bath. And if you open that door, I have no guarantees that either of us will make it out unscathed."

"Oh? You keep dangerous company, don't you, Kii-boy?" Argo's whiskers were distorted by her wide smirk as she pointed this out. "I think I'll stick around until this dangerous guest decides to make an appearance."

"Why, because you want more info to sell?" I deadpanned.

She merely nodded. Not a moment later, the door opened behind me, and I turned around just in time to see Asuna step out, fully-clothed in the same outfit and cloak as before. "Thanks," she said with eyes closed as she walked forward. "I needed that."

Feeling like I narrowly avoided a disaster, I turned back to Argo with a look of relief, who merely said, "Oh, it's A-chan! Going for the kill so early, I'm impressed!"

I looked back and forth between the people I planned to introduce to each other, wondering just when the heck they met one another. Asuna, on the other hand, opened her eyes from under the hood of her cloak with a jolt of surprise.

"I told you before, it's not like that!" she retorted in a slightly elevated voice, making me wonder just what they were talking about. "A-anyway, why are you here, Argo-san?"

"Official business," the leader of the «Info House» replied with a smirk. "But if you're curious enough, I'll tell you for a thousand."

"No thank you," Asuna deadpanned in a highly similar manner to how I would have in that situation.

"Well then, my business here is done," Argo told the both of us, making a move towards the door. "See you around, Kii-boy and A-chan."

Didn't she want to change into her nightclothes…? I couldn't stop myself from asking in my head as she opened the door before walking out. But then, just as she shut the door, I figured it out – Argo wasn't the type of person to change clothes in another person's home in the first place. In reality, she must have somehow figured out that someone was in the bathroom, then used changing into her nightclothes as an excuse to check it out.

Which left only one question: how did she figure it out?

With the time and place set up for teaching Asuna about the basics of party combat, we decided it'd be best to turn in early so we could wake up early the next morning. After much deliberation, my future partner put her foot down and said we'd share the bed. I kept trying to tell her I could take the couch, but she wouldn't listen, and eventually, I just gave up.

So there we were, both of us laying down in the spacious, comfy bed that really was probably meant for two anyway. I didn't much mind that I'd be sharing it; it could comfortably house one more without anyone even touching each other, unless someone tossed and turned in their sleep. And considering this was GGO, and you couldn't toss and turn while unconscious anyway, that concern flew out the window.

Speaking of windows, I gave Asuna the side with a glass bay window view out of courtesy. This also meant that, based on the location of this bed (right up against the wall with the bay window), she'd have to climb over me if she woke up and wanted to, I dunno, pilfer the chest in the other corner and beat a hasty retreat. Call me paranoid, but I still saw it as a possibility that something like this may occur. Although, the more likely option at this point would be for her to wake up at some odd hour of the night and go dungeon crawl for several hours, which is the other reason why I put her by the wall and window.

We had turned off the light about thirty minutes prior, and I knew for a fact that the girl next to me was already asleep – the slow, even rise and fall of her chest when I looked over gave it away. With the suite's only other occupant asleep, this gave me some much needed time to think. Partially about why Kibaou wanted my sword, and partially about how I'd be able to survive the boss fight without the use of my gun.

Unfortunately, my photon sword wouldn't be of much use against it. To be frank, every boss in the Karakuri series was made of a metal resistant to light-based weaponry, which put my «Radiance Burst» at a type disadvantage. This meant that if I planned to survive the boss fight, I'd need to get past the minor trauma now associated with using my gun.

The whole situation sucked, honestly. Though I may have used my photon sword very well (years of kendo training paid off – although at the end of the beta, I underwent a fierce training regimen to remove the flaws of a kendo-based style from my form), the loss of my gun would defeat the purpose of using them both in the first place. I originally chose to use both weapons in the beta because it gave me numerous type advantages against both monsters and players. Light-based weapons such as photon swords and optical guns had a type advantage against ninety percent of the game's mobs, while a decent physical handgun would provide adequate firepower against players who enjoyed PvP more than PvE.

Without the use of both, my style became fundamentally unstable. What's worse, in the beta, I amassed quite the reputation for being able to shoot long-distance with handguns that would typically have half the accuracy range. I had the range of an amateur sniper with a handgun, and not many people could boast that, even though the system's assistance made it easy to someone calm enough.

Without that part of my reputation, I really didn't have anything to make me a top player. Just about everybody could probably shoot me down way before I got within range to attack with my blade, which made me effectively defenseless against PKers.

Well, there was the time I intercepted that shot with my photon sword… a stray thought flew across my mind as I turned over in bed. After I figured out I could do that, I actually incorporated it into the de-kendo training I went through before my meeting with XaXa. But at this point, I don't have the agility to make it a part of my style unless I can see the prediction line ahead of time.

Just in case I somehow figured it out before the boss battle, I already had my gun upgraded to +6, one away from its maximum bonus. If I could shoot the right spot on the boss's copies, I could kill them in one hit. I just needed to find a way to shoot without my mind wandering to that event and making my heart race, thereby causing my accuracy to go down the drain.

Well, thinking about it at night, when I won't be able to do anything about it, won't solve the problem, I told myself while stifling a yawn. I'll just have to work on it tomorrow.

With those thoughts in my mind, I turned over onto my side, falling asleep minutes later.

December 25, 2022

Sunday, 3 AM

I awoke to multiple sensations at once. First, the sound of something rustling, then the feeling of the bed shifting as someone climbed over my body, and finally, the soft sound of their feet hitting the carpet floor.

Normally, I probably wouldn't care. It's her life, she can do what she wants with it. But I had gotten her to party up with me for the raid, and I'd be damned if I let her die in the dungeon before she fulfilled that part of our deal.

Now on high alert, I reached out my left hand and caught her wrist. Her whole body tensed, and when I opened my eyes and looked up at her, she had an expression that said she'd been caught red-handed.

"Did you think I'd just stay asleep if you pulled a stunt like that? You crawled right over my body, of course I'd wake up," I told her, watching as her body tensed even more. I gave a sigh before continuing. "Look, I won't tell you how to live your life, cause it's not my place. But since you woke me up on the way to your trip out, I'm coming with you, got it?"

"Okay…"

With that, I let go of her wrist, got out of bed, and followed her out of the suite.

Author's Note

This chapter would have been over nine-thousand words (possibly even ten-thousand) if I didn't stop and cut out about fifteen hundred of them to be part of the next chapter. But on the bright side, this means I'll probably be able to release the next chapter really fast, possibly even later today or sometime tomorrow! Here's to hoping for a double release!

Anyway, what do you think of the differences between progressive? It's amazing what simple changes can do for a fanfic. I'd like some critique, if you don't mind.

Anyway, I won't keep you any longer. I've gotta keep going on the next chapter, so I'll be able to release it in the next day or two. Hopefully you don't mind the slight wait!

See you next chapter!