Chapter 21: The Sleeping Knights

January 7th, 2026

The Peeping spell was active and I was paying attention to Asuna and Yuuki's conversation while simultaneously controlling my focus to keep my wings active and fly toward the town and keep up a conversation with Argo.

Go go gadget multitasking. Bleh, if only that actually worked.

"I picked ya! Because you're the only one that can help us!" Yuuki exclaimed.

Beside me, Argo glanced at me. "Are you sure you're doing okay?" she asked. "You've been quiet."

"Help you? With what?" Asuna asked.

I shrugged helplessly. "I don't know what to tell you, Argo. That fight was a... surprise." Which it was; I hadn't expected Asuna to be selected by Yuuki for whatever she needed.

"I'll explain when we get there! C'mon!" Yuuki grabbed Asuna and resumed pulling her along.

"H-hey! Wait a second!" Asuna's protests went unheard, and I watched the camera resume following the two at a distance. Good thing it was automatic unless I controlled it directly.

"I mean, if there's anything wrong, you can tell me," Argo said quietly. "I'll listen without judging or saying a word. Even if you shout and scream, I won't care. I didn't before."

I smiled at her, tuning out the sound of the rushing wind coming through on my Peeping screen. "I believe you," I told her. "I just don't think that I need to get off my chest right now. That's good, right?"

Argo looked at me for a while, something I couldn't read in her eyes, before smiling and reaching out, taking my hand in hers. "Yeah. It's great."

When we landed in the main settlement of the 24th Floor, I stumbled on the landing, disoriented by the second screen showing Alfheim passing underneath them. "Whoops," I mumbled, slightly embarrassed. "I've suddenly forgotten how walking works." Argo snickered, and squeezed my hand gently.

We walked through the city like that, slowly making our way to the Warp Gate; at the same time, Yuuki and Asuna were landing in another city I didn't recognize off-hand and making their way to what looked like an inn. It didn't help that both cities were full of people, and I had my second screen in front of me, leaving me about two heartbeats to dodge out of the way of anyone that walked through my screen unknowingly. I rammed into a few people accidentally when I didn't get out of the way in time, and bumped into Argo when a player walked into the almost invisible familiar. Fortunately, it wouldn't disappear when that happened, or I'd be all kinds of screwed. "Ry, you really should pay attention," Argo sighed when I bumped into her for the third time. "Did the fight really distract you that much? Or are you thinking about Yuuki and Asuna?"

"Guilty," I said with a dry chuckle. "The way she just took off... it's a little, um..."

"Worrying?" Argo supplied for me, and I nodded. Yuuki and Asuna had just arrived at the door to their inn room. "Just hold on tight, then." Gratefully I squeezed her hand; instead of squeezing back, she shifted even closer and hugged my arm to her chest. "There, this is better," she purred. I could feel the vibrations of her voice, even though we were in the game, and I smiled, feeling my cheeks heat up slightly. "Now all you have to do is let me steer you and you can think to your heart's content."

Would she be saying the same thing if she really knew what I was doing? ...Probably, come to think of it. Hopefully, at any rate. "Is it any wonder I love you?" I asked her, resting my cheek on her head and absently trying to nibble on one of her ears, getting a squeak from her when I gently closed my mouth over it.

"Not in public," she scolded me gently, prodding my ribs with a finger.

"Yeah, yeah..."

"One 'yeah' will do."

I just chuckled quietly and let her steer us toward the gate, turning my full attention toward the feed from my familiar. By the looks of things, it'd managed to slip past the notice of Asuna and Yuuki and was currently... sitting on top of a lamp to hide, if my guess was right. In any case, it was in an inn common room, looking over a table filled with five people other than Asuna and Yuuki. I needed to get a good look at them, and my little camera obliged, turning its head and sweeping from left to right. I was fortunate in that their appearances were more or less indicative of their races; Undine, either Gnome or Pooka, Salamander, either Sylph or Pooka, and Spriggan. The big guy I was leaning towards Gnome and the other one Sylph - he just had that pretty-boy look about him, despite the glasses - and I focused the camera back on the group as a whole. "Hey guys!" Yuuki chirped, pointing at Asuna with one hand. They'd been in the middle of dinner, but naturally Yuuki's wants and needs took precedence over everything. "This is Miss Asuna. Asuna, this is my guild, the Sleeping Knights!"

If I hadn't been in public, I'd have laughed out loud in joy. As it was, I couldn't help a small smirk; she was giving me all the information I could have wanted and she had no idea.

The Salamander boy stood up and grinned. "My name's Jun!" he said. "What's up? How's it goin'?" Cheerful, exuberant, and friendly. Probably a little inexperienced, though. Granted, I was judging based off of appearance and sound alone, since I wasn't present, but he had that... child-like innocence? Can I use that as a descriptor? Eh, at least it worked. Armor was middle-class, vendor stuff mostly, so he was a new player too.

"H-h-hi... Miss Asuna..." Glasses boy stammered. Definitely young; Asuna was on the lower end of beautiful in this game - according to Argo, at least - if only because she used her real appearance and not one that was hand-crafted to be gorgeous. Still, my girlfriend had said that the too-beautiful ones looked fake and unearthly, so I'm going to side with Asuna's appearance on this one. Anyway, got lost in my tangent - the kid was obviously struck dumb by how pretty Asuna was, so he wasn't too used to women yet. Young and new to the game. That was the third newbie in a row, and I decided to save time and just assumed all of the Sleeping Knights were new to the game. "I-I'm Talken. It's n-nice to meet y-ah!"

The Spriggan had slapped him on the back. "You really need to get a grip on those nerves, Tal," she said, resting her cheek in one hand while grinning at him. "Seriously. Every time you meet a girl, you turn into a blubbering mess." While Talken looked away, blushing, the Spriggan beamed at Asuna. "Anyway, my name's Nori. Glad to meetcha."

"My name is Siune," the Undine said with a soft smile. "It's wonderful to meet you. And thank you so much for coming today!"

"It's a pleasure to meet you," the Gnome said. "My name's Tecchi." Low voice, past puberty... Young to old we had Talken and Jun, then Nori, then those two. Not entirely sure where Yuuki landed on the scale; judging by appearance, with Jun and Talken, but her manner put her closer to Nori. Maybe younger than Asuna?

"We're here, Ry," Argo murmured into my ear, and I jumped slightly; I'd been paying so much attention to the Sleeping Knights that I'd completely lost track of where we were. Yuuki was taking Asuna's hands in hers and introducing herself energetically, so this was as good a time as any to warp.

"Yggdrasil City," I called out, and let the light envelop me.

The first thing that I heard when my senses came back was Yuuki saying, "Miss Asuna? Don't laugh, but see... We want to be the only guild to beat the boss on this floor. And we want you to help us!"

"What." I... That came from so far out of left field that it wrapped the fucking globe and came from right field instead. I had to react verbally – fortunately, Argo hadn't appeared yet.

Asuna took a few seconds, staring at Yuuki, before she reacted as well. "Huh?" In response, Yuuki just flashed her megawatt smile again, and I shook my head. For fuck's sake...

"Back with the land of the living?"

"Wasn't aware I left," I said to Argo with a smile. "In all seriousness, I'm back with you, catling." I noticed Din watching me from his perch on Argo's shoulder, his eyes occasionally darting to the screen that was now beside me, off away where it wouldn't catch my interest. Shit, I hadn't thought about that; he was plugged into the system so he'd know what I was doing. Still, he hadn't said anything, which was good. "Ready to go back to the apartment? I was thinking of just resting for a while."

"Sounds like a plan. I have some notes to write down and then a client to meet."

As we flew, I thought about what the fuck Yuuki had just dropped on Asuna, and therefore me by proxy. She wanted to kill the Floor boss - 27, I'm assuming, since 26 was killed yesterday or around that time - by herself. Well, her party. A party of seven, if we included Asuna. She was searching for strong players so that her guild could solo a boss? That was dumb on so many levels I didn't even know where to begin. Even the weakest boss of Aincrad, good ol' Illfang, had been massively inflated to keep it a challenge, and he'd taken almost a full raid party. Even still, the best fighters, banding together, needed at least forty people to kill a boss. I'd know; I was one of the forty-something that killed the Crawlerpede, and we only did so well because I had prior knowledge of some of its abilities and attack patterns. ...Not that I used them, mind, but it was still there. To try to kill the boss, with just seven people? That was tantamount to suicide.

Which, given Yuuki's situation, kinda made sense, in a sick, twisted, delightful way.

But regardless, the usual strike force was seven parties of eight or nine players a piece. The more-or-less dedicated merc party, for raids that had one, usually didn't fill up all the way, but that was the exception that proved the rule. Was it arrogance, that drove the leader of the guild to try this exceptionally stupid stunt? Or was it something else? Despite how I viewed her, I was fully aware that Yuuki was a competent fighter, and that the Sleeping Knights seemed to respect her, at least. They didn't sigh or shake their heads when she arrived with Asuna in tow, so they knew of and were on board with her plan. Probably didn't know she kidnapped Asuna, but then again nobody's perfect. Whatever her plan was, it was one shared by her entire guild. What would even happen if they succeeded, anyway? The Monument of Swordsmen would only record the name of the party leader, leaving six blank spaces.

Click. But... what if they weren't in a party? There was no party leader to be recorded? The system would... My eyes widened. The system would treat each player like the leader of their own party and record the name of every fighter, so long as there were only seven or fewer people.

Wow. That...

That really was exceptionally stupid.

Why wouldn't they just organize a group and have each member of the Sleeping Knights lead the party? Same result, far easier time of it. Hell, I had contacts in most of the races' upper echelon of fighters, and whatever I didn't have Argo could get me; if Yuuki had just… talked to me instead of going all crazy mad, we could have had this wrapped up two days ago. Gods damn.

We reached our apartment without any mishaps or midair collisions, and I shook my head before collapsing on the couch and staring at the ceiling. Or, at least, that's what it looked like to Argo; I was watching the screen carefully, not missing a single riveting moment of the Sleeping Knights and Asuna chatting idly while my sister waited for her drink to be delivered. Riveting. "I'll be in the work room if you need me, Ry," Argo called out, and I called back acknowledgment. As I watched, the waitress delivered Asuna's drink - some glass full of red liquid and ice - and the guild started actually talking. Asuna started out by telling them exactly what a bad idea it was, hitting most of the points I'd already thought of. Things like most raids being over fifty players, things like that.

When Asuna called their ambition 'unrealistic' - polite as always. I seem to remember her being a bit more... abrasive in Aincrad, though, especially when acting as second-in-command of the KoB - Yuuki rubbed the back of her head and grinned sheepishly. "Yeah, it kinda is, isn't it? We tried taking on the bosses on Floors 25 and 26 the same way." I slammed the heel of my palm against my forehead.

"Huh?" Asuna yelped. "Ju-just you six?!"

"Yup!" For fuck's sake. "And if you ask me, we put up a pretty good fight, too. But both times, this huge guild swooped in and beat 'em before we could figure out our next move."

"Hey, Argo?"

"What's up?"

"Do you remember who beat the bosses of the last two floors? The big guild."

Argo emerged from the other room and leaned on the back of the couch, thinking. "I'm pretty sure it was... Crimson Blitz. Y'know, that guild that always steals the kills unless the boss is killed on the first attempt?"

I glanced at her, frowning. "How do they do that, anyway?"

I heard more voices coming from the video feed and I split my attention, half of it on Argo as she lectured me on the Crimson Blitz' method of killstealing and half of it on what was happening with Asuna. She'd asked why they even wanted to do something like that, and Siune was saying, "It goes back to when we met in another game's net community. We hit it off right away, and we've been friends ever since! But... we only have until next spring to go on quests together." ...Bwuh? That made no -

Argo snapped her fingers. "Hey, Ry, you listening?"

I glanced at her. "Of course, Argo. They wait for another group to try to fight the boss, then raid the boss once the other group wipes and then beat it." It's actually kinda clever in a way.

"Since our time's limited, and we wanted to make the most of it," Siune was saying. "You see, come spring we'll all be busy with other things. So we decided, before we disbanded the guild we had to do something so amazing, so unbelievable that we'd remember it forever." The other Knights nodded.

"So that's why you want to do this boss raid," Asuna murmured. I guess it makes sense why they didn't just lead parties for their names on the Monument of Swordsmen; they really wanted it to be just their guild to kill it.

"Exactly!" Siune exclaimed.

"Anyway," Argo told me, "I don't know exactly how they do it, but I'm pretty sure with the way they snatched the boss kill from under the nose of another guild on 25 and 26 it's got something to do with invisibility or concealment spells. Anyway, I've gotta head out to meet my client. Later!"

"Later."

"I know it sounds vague, and maybe even a little vain," Siune said, "but we'd really like to get our names up on that wall no matter what." I think I was on... three floors? Maybe more? I know Kirito was on the list for Floor 17, and Asuna for Floor 18. "But... Getting them on there is the hard part."

A light pressure landing on my head alerted me to Din's presence. "'Sup, kid?" I asked, still watching as Siune talked about how they had to do it just by themselves. "I'd have thought you were going with Argo."

"No," he said, "watching this is more enjoyable."

I chuckled. "Don't tell your mom, okay?"

"Why not?"

I shrugged. "She doesn't like the Peeping spell for some reason. She knows I can cast it, but I make it a point not to let her know I'm using it."

"Okay." Din shifted to my chest and got comfortable, watching the screen with me. "I won't tell her."

"That's the catch," Siune was saying, Yuuki staring at her drink silently. "If we want all the names of the Sleeping Knights up on that wall, we have to beat the boss. Together, just us. No one else." She smiled. "So, we talked it over and came up with a plan. The Monument of Swordsmen can record up to seven names max. Therefore, we decided to find someone just as strong, or stronger, than our most powerful player, Yuuki!" The Imp in question looked embarrassed at the praise, staring at her drink with slightly red cheeks before rubbing her head sheepishly. "And hope whoever we found accepted our invitation."

"I get it," Asuna said to Yuuki. "That's why you were dueling!"

"Well?" Siune asked. "What do you think about joining us?" Asuna was a member of Trinity, so I suppose she'd take the job. Come to think of it, though, I don't really remember her taking a solo job before... Whenever she fought as part of Trinity, it was always when we were contracted as a group as a whole. "We can't pay you very much, but you're welcome to what we have."

"Um..." Asuna mumbled, bowing her head. A trade screen appeared in front of her. "Oh, no, that's okay!" she said, hastily pressing the cancel button. "Boss raids cost a fortune as it is, so you should use your money for that!" I'm not sure I'm thrilled she's not accepting payment... Still, of all of us only Sinon and I are really mercs. Kirito and Asuna just didn't have their hearts in it. "I'd feel horrible taking your money, really!" The rest of the Sleeping Knights looked so excited by her refusal of the money. "I-if you want, you can just give me whatever the boss drops, and I'll be fine!" ...Okay, that's acceptable payment.

"Really?!" Siune gasped, her eyes shining. "Then, you'll join our party?!" They all looked so happy that Asuna was joining their party, everyone laughing and smiling. It was too happy; in Aincrad, they wouldn't have survived the first boss fight, let alone make it to Floor 27. Asuna didn't reply right away, instead staring at her drink. I wondered what she was thinking, and then sighed. There was no way for me to know, after all, not unless she told me herself. Why was she even considering this, anyway? It was stupid, it was suicidal, and it was pointless. The odds of victory were small at best. All it would be doing is taking up time she could - should - be spending with us.

She looked up at Yuuki, then nodded decisively. "Okay. Let's see how far we can go." ...Fuck! As the Sleeping Knights celebrated their new temporary seventh party member, I gritted my teeth and growled under my breath. "In the end, it's not about winning or losing, it's about having fu-"

"Thanks a bunch, Miss Asuna!" Yuuki exclaimed, lunging from her seat to grab Asuna's hands in hers.

Asuna laughed slightly uneasily. "Please, I'd prefer it if you just called me Asuna."

Yuuki smiled. "Then you can call me Yuuki!"

After that, the group separated into small little pods; Nori and Talken were chatting about something quietly, while Jun was enjoying his meal. Siune and Tecchi had some papers out and were going over them - finances, maybe? - while Yuuki just sipped at her drink. "That reminds me, Miss Yuuki - sorry. Yuuki. The duel was all about testing players, right?"

I grimaced. That stupid... "Yep, pretty much!" Yuuki chirped, smiling. In the background, Jun moved over to lay his hand on Talken's shoulder and said something that made the boy blush slightly and Nori to start laughing uproariously.

"Then... you must have gone up against a ton of strong fighters before I showed up," Asuna said. "Do you remember fighting a Spriggan dressed in black?" You mean half of the Spriggan population, Asuna? "He would have been using a one-handed sword." ...You mean a quarter of the Spriggan population, Asuna?

"Huh..." Yuuki hummed, looking up at the ceiling thoughtfully. I'm pretty sure she stared straight at my Peeping familiar, but the translucent golden kitty was hiding above a lamp, so it blended in, hopefully. "You know what, I do! Man, he was pretty tough," she laughed.

Asuna blinked. "Then, why didn't you ask him to help you out?"

Yuuki frowned slightly before grinning at Asuna. "I don't know, he just wasn't right.

"Well, why not?"

"He found out my secret." In the background, Jun locked his arms around Talken's neck and Nori laughed gleefully. "I can't have that. It's why him and that asshole Cait Sith wouldn't work." Pfft. Like I would have worked with someone so self-centered anyway.

Eventually, the party wound down and they grouped together outside of the inn. "Okay," Asuna said. "So for tomorrow, how about we meet back here at one?"

"You got it!" Yuuki, Jun, and Nori chorused at the same time, the first two throwing their fists up in the air. I didn't really need to be listening in on this, but it was habit by this point to have as much information as possible.

Asuna smiled. "And let's have fun."

"Right!" the Sleeping Knights shouted.

Asuna was walking the streets with her menu open, chatting with Liz; I didn't read in on the conversation, because those were private and I wasn't supposed to look at those, according to Argo. My Peeping camera hovered in the air around rooftop level; enough for me to see Asuna without irritating anyone else. The little thing could be super useful at times. While she walked, making her way toward whatever destination she had in mind - I was assuming the Warp Gate - I thought about what she'd been saying. The important thing was to have fun? I... I guess, maybe. But people can only have fun when they're winning, right? That's why losing made people hate playing the game. It's just another one of those sayings that people say but don't really mean, perhaps. Like saying that everyone was worth something - that one was obviously false. After all, what worth was -

"The fuck?" I swore when Asuna suddenly disappeared, my feed going black and the window closing. She'd just... vanished. Like her internet connection had cut off. But that'd never happened before. It was like she'd... been disconnected from the game or something like that. Abruptly and without warning. I glanced at the time - it was 6:35. "Oh... That bitch," I growled. Her mother, most likely. Forcefully disconnecting Asuna because she was late for dinner. Who the hell does that? Still, I'll give Asuna a call later and make sure she's doing okay. I could be wrong, after all, and if something happened I'd feel bad. Ah well, I should probably be getting some food myself. The last time I'd eaten was at lunch, and that was... a while ago. Yeah, I was starting to get a little hungry, I guess. I had to keep reminding myself that this wasn't Aincrad and that I couldn't actually ignore my body like I had back then.

I tapped Din lightly. "Hey, kid, I'm gonna be logging out, okay? Feel free to come with me or stick around for Argo." He nodded and lifted off of my chest.

"Bye, Dad."

"Later, kid." I swiped open my menu and swiftly logged out, waiting patiently for my body to recognize the real world's input instead of the virtual. That was the time where I always felt a small amount of fear and curiosity - what if I couldn't log out? What if something went wrong? What if, just like in Aincrad, I was locked in Alfheim and couldn't log out? Would I... care? Would I miss the real world, or would I gladly accept Alfheim as my new home?

And then every time I opened my eyes again, I was staring at the ceiling in my room, seeing through the filter of my AmuSphere. My cat would be sleeping at the side, my light may or may not be on, and the question would be pushed off until the next time I logged out.

I still didn't have an answer.

Dinner was quick and easy, just some rice and chili, but it was hot and filling. I wonder, Asuna said that her mother warned her about being late again. What would happen now that she was late again? Would she lose permission to access Alfheim, or would she be able to escape with just a warning? If Asuna disappeared, I would have to take action. I'm not sure what I would be forced to do just yet, but I'd do something. I'd get her back.

After I finished my meal, I grabbed my phone and laid on my bed. I hit Asuna's speed dial and listened to it ring for a while as I rested, staring up at the ceiling. When it finally connected, I raised an eyebrow; that was a lot longer than I had expected. Was she okay? "H-hey, Nick," Asuna said.

"You doing okay?" I asked her. "When Yuuki took off like that and dragged you along, none of us knew what to think."

"Yeah," she said, laughing shakily. "Liz was saying the same thing. It's fine, though. She just wanted me to help her with something." There was silence where I didn't press her for an explanation and she didn't offer one. "Oh... it's snowing."

I raised an eyebrow. "You sound a little, um... a little like you were crying. Is something wrong?"

"N-no, I'm fine."

I sighed. "Really? Somehow, I doubt that. Asuna, you sound like you're crying. Does this have something to do with why you got disconnected?"

"...Yeah..." I heard her sigh. "I was late for dinner again, and my mom just unplugged the AmuSphere with no warning."

I shook my head. "She didn't just shake you or something?"

Asuna sighed again. "No. She said that... oh, it's nothing. Don't worry about it." You say that, and yet still I'm going to worry. "Don't tell Kirito, okay?"

"There a reason you don't want me telling Kazuto something's going on?"

"I... I can't explain," she said. "It's... It's okay. I'll be okay."

I shrugged. "So long as you're sure," I told her.

"Hey, Nick?"

"Mm?"

"How did you know I was disconnected?" she asked me suddenly, curiosity in her voice.

"Peeping spell," I told her easily. "I linked it to you right as Yuuki was dragging you away and -"

"You were spying on me?!" Asuna demanded, interrupting me halfway through my explanation. "What the hell, Nick? What is wrong with you? How would you even think I'd be okay with that? Do you even realize how big an invasion of my privacy that is?" I was speechless; I couldn't reply. What... I'd done something wrong? How was... What? "Of course you don't, you're not normal," she spat. "If it's not one thing, it's another."

"Asuna, I -"

"Don't, Nick. Just don't." I heard an angry sigh over the line. "I'm mad right now, and you're not going to be able to talk your way out of this one. Good night."

"Wait, wait, Asuna -!" The line went dead and I stared at my phone in shock for a few seconds before gripping it tightly as I tried to master the urge to just chuck it at the wall. What the hell? I... Damn it, Asuna, I was worried about you! And you lash out at me for that? Fuck. Fuck!

Eventually, though, my anger drained and I drew my legs up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. Asuna was mad at me, Kana was disappointed in me, this was just a fucking fantastic week. Gods damn it, all I needed was for Kazuto and Sugu to decide they hated me too and that would be the full fucking hat trick. And I couldn't even ask Kana what I did wrong, since it involved using the Peeping spell, and she'd just say it was my own damn fault for using the spell in the first place. Ugh...

Fuck it, I'm going to plan how to ruin someone's day. If I'm having a shitty day, so is everyone else. I swung my feet off of my bed, calm and controlled again, and moved to sit down at my desk. This shouldn't be too hard to handle, and it'll give me something to do other than sit around and mope. Let's see... Crimson Blitz, was it? You're all about to have a very, very bad day...

I was working on my homework – unlike Nick, that lazy man – when my phone rang. I glanced at it and picked up immediately. "Asuna, what's up?" I asked, pushing back and stretching with a satisfied sigh. "You usually don't call this late."

"I-I don't know what I'm doing anymore," she said, and my eyes widened. She was crying? Uh-oh. That's bad.

"Well, you know where I live, so you'd better be over here in ten minutes or I'm sending out a search party," I told her firmly, getting a small weak chuckle out of her. "At least you're laughing. See you in ten minutes."

"…Thank you, Kana." The line went dead, and I stared at my phone for a long while. Asuna never sounded like that… I wonder what happened? And… why call me? Why not call Kazuto, or Nick, or the other girls? I was more than aware the two of us weren't as close as we could be; we had our friends in common, but the bond between us was weaker than the others.

I frowned. Let's think this through – if she's calling me, arguably the person she is connected to the least, then that means it involves a subject that she can't exactly talk about with the others. Naturally, I'd assume it was girl talk – except she'd also been unable to speak about it with Keiko or Rika. Whatever the topic of our emergency discussion was going to be, it had to be extremely personal and at the same time something that deeply affected all of us. Something about Alfheim Online or the school, then. That was the only thing it could be, really, if she couldn't speak to Kazuto about it.

I shook my head and went downstairs to start preparing some tea. If she was outside in this weather, she'd be cold when she got here and hot tea would be just the thing to warm her up.

When Asuna rang the doorbell, I was waiting in the living room to keep an eye on the kettle. "I'll get it!" I called out, swiftly padding across the cold floor and opening the door. "Hey, Asuna. Get in before we lose the heat."

Shivering slightly, Asuna stepped inside and I closed the door behind her, just fast enough to avoid letting more than just a swirl of cold air in. "Thank you, Kana," she mumbled, taking her coat off. "What... what do you want me to do with my coat?"

"Give it here," I told her, "and sit down. You look like you've been crying."

Asuna smiled slightly and handed me her winter coat; while I hung it up, she slipped her shoes off and took a seat on the couch, drawing her legs up to her chest. Hm… Whatever was bothering her was serious, wasn't it? I smiled her before heading into the kitchen and pouring two cups of tea; I handed one to her, and she accepted it with a quiet 'thank you'. I sat down facing her, sipping at my tea silently. This was the time for her to speak first; all I could do is offer my support silently until she asked for my help. A long time passed, the only sound the distant noises of my parents in the other rooms – I'd already asked them not to disturb us no matter what happened, so I didn't have to worry about that - and still Asuna didn't say a word. Still, I didn't say a word, only quietly sipping at my tea when I felt the urge to do so. When there were only a few sips left, Asuna looked at me. "I'm going to be transferred out of school in two weeks."

Hm. I might need more tea.

Instead, I sat my cup down with a small clink and looked at her levelly. "Would you mind explaining?" I said quietly. "If you don't want to, you don't have to. But I think it'll let you feel better if you talk about it." I smiled. "Don't worry, I won't say a word to anyone. It's all confidential."

"N-no," Asuna murmured, "I can tell you." Haltingly, she told me everything – all about how her mother never listened to her, and how she'd told Asuna that the transfer would go through no matter what. I listened without saying a word, trying not to let my rising horror show. If she'd told any of this to Nick… That explained a lot, especially why he was distracted earlier. I know there's something wrong, but... he won't talk to me. If I push he'll talk, but I don't want to push. "…I just don't know what to do, Kana," Asuna finished, looking at me. "I can't tell Kirito about this… and Nick is…" She just shook her head. Judging by that, she told Nick and he's done something idiotic. How marvelous.

There's something wrong with him, I can tell. When we were flying back earlier, he was distracted, and I took advantage of that fact to study his face. There was something in his eyes earlier… I think it has something to do with Yuuki. He was staring at her intently while she was fighting Asuna, and I know it's not because he's interested in her. Whatever it is, it's bothering him and it's something he should talk about.

Well, he'll tell me if he needs me. Right now, Asuna needs me more. "I think," I told her carefully, "that right now you're thinking in circles, Asuna. One thought leads to another leads to a third and leads to the first… All you're doing is digging yourself further and further into confusion." Asuna blinked at me, confused, and I smiled. "Please, sweetheart, get a good night's rest and in the morning, you might see something you missed. I'm sure you just need someone to give you a good push to snap you out of this, and then everything will be okay."

Asuna smiled at me. "I… I will, Kana. Thank you."

She stood up, and I grinned at her. "By the way, if you don't want to go home tonight, you're more than welcome to stay the night. Just give your mother a call and I'm sure it'll be okay." I shrugged with a smile. "And if she asks, let's just say we're studying… hm, let's say chemistry."

"Chemistry?"

My grin widened. "Yeah, chemistry! We're gonna study the process by which stomach acid breaks down ice cream!"

"Wait, what?!"

"Oh, come on," I laughed. "It's double fudge, chocolate is nature's anti-depressant, and you sound like you could use some dessert to take your mind off things. Besides, it's not like it'll go straight to your hips or anything."

"Kana!" Despite her tone, she was smiling. Good, at least that's looking up.

January 8th, 2026

"C'mon, Ry, you're running out of time," Argo said impatiently, tapping her foot. "You've got until what, 1:30, 2:00 before you have to be at the boss room?"

I shrugged. "A little earlier than that, actually, given that I have a few things to set up first."

She shrugged. "Sure, whatever, 1:15 then. It's almost 1:00 right now, and you still have to get through the floor to get where it'll actually be. Given travel distances are faster now that we're able to fly, that's about ten minutes travel time just to get to the boss door."

"Trust me, I know."

"So why are you taking so long? I'm supposed to be the one that takes forever getting changed, not you."

I rolled my eyes. "Just making sure I'm stocked up on everything I might need," I told her. "You know accessing my menu once I'm out there will be risky, and I won't be able to change my equipment. Besides, I need to make sure this plan is foolproof. They can't suspect a thing until it's too late."

With a yawn, Din appeared. "What are you two arguing about?" he asked after he finished stretching in midair.

Argo grinned at me. "Rythin's being a girl about his equipment."

"Just because I let you do that one time," I grumbled. "See if I let it happen again."

"You know you loved it."

…I liked her fussing over me, at any rate. "Bite me. Anyway, equipment is looking good, timeframe is looking good, plan is looking like it's got enough redundancies to bounce back from anything that's not total failure." All that's left is to hope that my acting skills are up to par. I raised my hand and chanted a long string of spell words, closing my eyes to better remember the pattern. It helped that Argo murmured the words quietly when I slowed down; without her help, I probably would have fucked it up. When I finished, I snapped, and the words disappeared before a panel popped up in front of me. One for each race, they'd let me access all of the saved character data I could use the Disguise Race spell for. To use this particular spell I needed to use a base character model captured from whoever was nearby that was then modified slightly with random aesthetic tweaks, but hopefully for later levels I could customize the disguise personally. As it was, though, I needed to decide what race I was going to appear as. I still didn't have a character for Imp, Pooka, Gnome, or Leprechaun, so they were greyed out; and because of who was involved with this, I couldn't choose Spriggan, Salamander, or Undine. That left me with just Sylph and Cait Sith, both of which were... unpleasant choices. "Rrrgh... I don't want to do this."

Argo grinned at me. "It's your own damn fault for not reading how the spell worked properly."

"I thought it would at least... Oh, whatever." I slammed my palm on the Sylph panel and glowered at it as my body shimmered and changed shape. "This is the worst. I'm regretting this decision immediately."

"You know," Argo said, "Green and blonde is a good look for you. You should go out like this more often. You look cute!"

Cute, she says. I glared at her. "There is nothing in this world that could make me go out in public as a Sylph woman." Not my fault! Leafa was the one that taught me the spell, so I copied her! And we didn't have any other Sylph friends. At least the mass and height stayed the same, so I didn't have her... bountiful tracks of land - thank gods for small mercies - though they were by no means subtle, much to my dismay.

"If you go out right now, without any more bitching," Argo said calmly, "nobody will ever know about your Sylph disguise. And, as a bonus, I'll even help you get a better one. If you don't... well, some bits of information are cheaper than others."

I pointed at her immediately. "Except that. Might as well get going, then. Later, beautiful, love you."

Argo tilted her head thoughtfully. "Y'know, it's really weird to hear that from a big-breasted Sylph girl."

Snarling curses under my breath, I shot out of the window and sped through the air as fast as possible, thanking the programmers that the spell itself handled all the animations for the illusion and that it was basically just a shell around me. I would not have been happy if I'd needed to deal with a shifted center of gravity too. The Disguise Race spell was pretty thorough, though; it even took into account what weapon I had equipped and made a similar copy appear somewhere on the new character's body. I glanced down and over my chest - a really weird feeling - and patted the dagger on my hip. It rattled like it was supposed to, even though I only felt the fabric of my pants. Very thorough, at least. And my voice had a modulator attached to it, so I even sounded like a female - which was also a really weird feeling. Still, so long as I acted the part they shouldn't suspect me. Part of me was glad I could use the illusion spell in towns, though – especially after Death Gun – I was more than aware of its potential to be abused.

The instant I was on the 27th Floor I beelined towards the dungeon, speeding off as fast as I could manage safely. As I made my way through the dungeon, I was careful not to encounter any monsters; if I attacked or took any damage of any sort, the shell would be broken and the illusion would vanish. After experimentation, I'd learned that 'attacking' counted drawing my weapon, but not an open-hand slap, for some reason. Maybe it was a girl thing. Either way, I didn't want to have to deal with recasting and reselecting one of the two disguises I had available to me; partially because the initial cost was massive – more than half of my magic – partially because the incantation was a bitch and a half and I didn't want to do it without Argo feeding me the commands, and partially because the Cait Sith disguise was based off of Alicia Rue, who'd insisted on my scan being based on her rather than Gilvs when she learned what I was in Freelia for. Y'know, on second thought her wide grin and knowing giggle probably should have clued me in, but I still hadn't looked at my scans. I gave Kirito shit about his GGO avatar, but right now I looked and sounded female... Nobody could know about this. Ever.

I arrived in front of the boss's doorway and looked around. "Hello~," I called out, peering back and forth. "Is anyone here? Crimson Blitz, come out and play~." Still, nobody answered me and I grinned. "Seriously, I'm here to talk to you all. I want to join you." Nothing happened; Argo had been right, this was the time when they were shifting watchers. "Excellent," I purred. "I'm alone." The first thing I did was to activate Future Step. My eyes bled from the Sylph green to the dull crimson that marked the skill, and I sighed slowly. I raised my hand and chanted a quick spell; a circle appeared on the ground and rose into a cylinder, and I shifted to the right slightly. I repeated this process three more times and nodded in satisfaction; that should just about do it. Good thing about that spell? While the Disguise Race counted any completed spell as an attack and broke the illusion, the spells I'd just cast could be set ahead of time and then completed whenever I snapped my fingers. So useful. That done, I just sat back and waited patiently for my guests to arrive into my parlor.

"Hey! Who are you?!"

I'd been waiting for ten minutes. C'mon, people, move faster. "Hi!" I chirped, bouncing over to three people that were there. Two males, one female - Sylph, Imp, and Imp respectively. "I'm, uh, I'm Cassandra." Named after the famous prophet - I felt it was fitting. My other disguises had similarly-themed names; made it easy to remember them. "You guys are with the Crimson Blitz, right?" C'mon, Rythin, remember how Leafa moves and talks. You look like her now, so act like her.

"Uh, yeah," the Sylph said, looking me over. "We are..."

"Cool! Can I help you fight the boss?"

The two Imps looked at each other, then at the Sylph. Looks like he's the leader of this particular task force. "What's your deal, anyway?" Greenie said.

I beamed at him, leaning forward slightly with my arms extended behind my back, hands clasped. Don't know why, but Leafa did it every now and then, and I was trying to copy her mannerisms as best I could. "This is my first boss raid, and I really wanna fight, so I was just hanging around until a group showed up that I could join. I'm a..." Here I raised a finger and stared at the ceiling, trying desperately to project innocence. "Support mage, with a focus on physical and defensive buff spells. I can do some light healing, too. That's what my friend told me to go with, anyway, and she's really good at this game." Technically true. Misleading, but technically true, since Leafa is the one that told me to use that line. It made sense; that was probably the most generic of the skillsets I could claim to have, and if I kept shifting around during an infiltration fight they might not even notice I wasn't doing anything useful.

"A support mage, huh?" the Sylph said, looking down at me. Stupid tall people. "I don't know... We're usually pretty full."

Cue the Silica act: I pouted. "Pleeease? Pretty please? It really would mean a lot to me..." I looked up at him with big eyes and a wobbly lower lip.

He sighed and glanced back at the two Imps; they, in turn, just shrugged. Girl Imp was a mace user, and Guy Imp had a big staff strapped to his back, so my guess was attack mage. A lot of big guilds like these guys just had so many damage dealers and tanks that they didn't even need to bother with support, so a support mage offering to join up would be nearly irresistible. "Okay, okay," he sighed. "You can join so long as we have an open spot after everyone gets here. If we even have a raid today."

"Yay! Thanks!" I grinned at him, cackling at his foolishness in my mind. What an idiot.

"Alright, just stand close, okay?" I obliged the Sylph and he gestured; the Imp raised his staff and chanted a quick illusion spell. I made the appropriate gasps of awe - a buff and healing mage would have no reason to use illusion spells, of course - and he grinned at me before starting to whisper. "This is just so we don't get attacked by monsters or other players while we're waiting, alright? Don't go outside the ring or talk too loudly," - here he gestured at the ground, and I made a big show of looking around me to see the glittering ring inscribed on the floor - "or it'll break, and we'll have to recast the spell."

The female Imp tapped me on the shoulder and I looked over at her. "It's nice to have another girl around to chat with," she sighed. Shit shit shit shit shit, this is bad this is bad! "I mean, the guys are cool and all but sometimes I just wanna have a little girl talk, y'know? Name's Leah, by the way." Abort mission abort abort abo-ho-horrrrrt, I wailed in my head.

I laughed uneasily. "Sorry, my friend also plays this game, so I'm usually with her." I giggled. "I'm usually not the only girl in the group." Also technically true. Since I'm a guy.

The Imp grinned mischievously. "So have you seen the pictures of General Eugene from the Salamanders? Now there is one good-looking slice of beefcake."

"Heheh, yeah..." Fuuuuuuuck. The Imp looked like she was going to continue discussing the physical attractiveness of Eugene and possibly the Spriggan Lord if my luck kept up when there was a commotion down the hall and the three players stiffened before drawing their weapons. "Oh thank the gods," I whispered.

"Did you say something?" she asked me.

"Nothing!"

The commotion turned out to be a player running towards the boss room, and I nodded when I recognized the long purple hair and the striped dress. "Yuuki, hold it!" a familiar voice called out. Asuna was here too, exactly as according to schedule. The rest of the Sleeping Knights were there with them; Yuuki skidded to a halt, and the guild grouped together. Yuuki took a step forward and Asuna whipped out her wand to stop her; good, looks like her senses haven't been dulled by whatever the problem last night was. "Ek kalla fimm fiskr, brjóta ljúga galdr," she chanted, cupping her hand, and I watched carefully; a pool of water appeared in her hand and spawned five tiny blue fish. Searcher, was it? That'd find us easily, though it wouldn't break my own illusion unless it struck me directly. She blew at the fish and they scattered, fanning out to fill the hallway. All of the Sleeping Knights watched, Nori holding on to Yuuki's shoulders, as the fish swam down the hallway. Suddenly, two of them stopped and swam straight towards us; they impacted the shield and disappeared with a ripple effect.

"Look!" one of the girls gasped - maybe Nori? I couldn't tell - as the concealment disappeared and the three Crimson Blitz players cowered slightly, their weapons drawn.

"W-w... Hang on, hang on, hang on!" the Sylph called, waving his hands wildly. "We're not here to fight you!" Which was smart, given that Yuuki could probably trash these three without breaking a sweat.

"Then lower your weapons," Asuna snapped, her wand pointed at the four of us. "Now!"

The Sylph turned to us and nodded; the three complied quickly, desperate not to antagonize her. I couldn't draw my weapon, naturally, and so settled for pressing my arms close to my chest, using my hands to hide my mouth. It made me look worried and tiny, and also had the fringe benefit of letting me hide the massive smirk I had at Asuna's authoritative tone. Welcome back, Lightning Flash, I missed you.

Asuna said something to Siune, and the other Undine mage raised her staff; probably an order to attack us if we tried anything. Siune said something else, but I couldn't pick out what. "If you're not PKers, then why were you hiding from us?" Asuna demanded.

"We were waiting for someone!" the Sylph said. "We were hiding, because we didn't want to get hit by a mob before our friends got here?" His tone was halfway between condescending - that is, of course we'd try to remain safe when it was just the four of us, stupid - and placating - as in, oh god oh god please don't kill us. "You know how it is."

"Alright then." At Asuna's acceptance, the three Crimson Blitz members slumped slightly in relief. "We're here to take on the boss. So if you're not ready to enter yet, we'd like to take a crack at it first."

The guy lowered his hands. "N-no, that's cool," he said. We moved off to the side and the Sleeping Knights walked past us, giving us a wide berth on the off chance that we really were PKers and were going to spring a surprise attack. Asuna in particular gave us a cautious look, and I tried to avoid meeting her gaze; but she didn't say anything, and I let out a little sigh of relief. "We'll just wait here," Sylph guy said after they'd passed us. "You know, until our buddies arrive. Oh, and... watch your backs in there. Good luck!" he called out. The Imp spellcaster raised his staff and chanted the invisibility spell again, and at the same time the other Imp raised her hand and muttered something. I couldn't hear it, but she lowered her hand almost immediately, so I didn't really care all that much.

The Sleeping Knights approached the door, but as we disappeared I watched as Yuuki turned around to look at where our invisible bodies were. Jun said something, I thought, but Yuuki kept staring dubiously; eventually, Asuna placed her hand on Yuuki's shoulder and escorted her forward. They stood in front of the door for a while in a little huddle, and I watched them carefully. Jun raised his fist and shouted something I couldn't make out, but it had to have been something stupid because Asuna reached forward and flicked his forehead. "Did you recognize the Undine spellcaster?" the Imp guy said, and my ears flicked as I listened to them absently.

"Yeah, that was Asuna, I think," the Imp woman - Leah - replied.

"Oh, my friend told me about her!" I added cheerfully. "I think she described her as 'a pretty Undine with a branch wand and a rapier'. Doesn't she work with a mercenary group?"

"Yeah, the group's called Trinity," Sylph guy told me. "They're lead by this real dick, Rythin. Guy's an asshole in every way."

I crossed my arms. "I've seen him around. I think he's kinda cute," I huffed. Oh gods oh gods oh gods did those words really just come out of my mouth. I'd scream if it wouldn't break character so hard.

"Whatever you say, sweetheart," Leah told me. "Not my type, that's for certain. Besides, he's already dating someone."

"Aw..." I whined. "Rats." I really do have to remember to buy Silica some cake once we reach that floor with the cheesecake shop she liked. She's earned it, that's for certain.

A grating sound caught our attention and we looked over to see that the Sleeping Knights had finally pushed open the doors and entered the boss room. The Sylph guy turned to Leah. "Are you getting video?" She grinned and raised her hand, tapping at nothing; after a second, a window appeared with a familiar - heh - video feed. "Excellent."

"What's that?" I asked innocently, peering at it. Yeah, that's what I thought; it was showing a view of the boss chamber as the torches inside started lighting up, one at a time. A Peeping spell. Made sense, really; they needed to be able to see the boss's attack patterns if they were going to kill-steal, especially because there were a bunch of people willing to go against a boss multiple times and get further each time. A successful snipe - and all apologies to Sinon for offending her, of course - required that the Crimson Blitz rush the boss almost immediately after the previous group failed.

"It's the insides of the boss room," Leah told me. "I cast a spell that'll let us watch as they fight."

"I don't know," I frowned slightly. "That seems... a little mean, doesn't it?"

The Sylph guy shook his head. "Look, we're just here to beat the boss, okay? This is how we do it."

I shrugged and started watching the video - hey, I wasn't going to pass up free intel, and it beat standing around for ten to fifteen minutes. I could see the Sleeping Knights and Asuna taking up a cautious stance, almost circular in nature as they waited for the boss to appear. Soon enough, it obliged; flames traced the ground and rose into the air, forming the fighting ring. Black blocks appeared in the air and started expanding into a humanoid shape, and I watched as it grew into a figure over four meters tall. Shit, that thing's big. The blocks shattered, revealing black skin, and when the boss was finally revealed I almost swore out loud, somehow managing to avoid breaking my cutesy persona. That thing was a four-armed two-headed giant - I wonder if it was also a purple-people-eater - and its horned heads grinned malevolently as it towered over the Sleeping Knights. Two arms each held a massive hammer, while the other two gripped either end of a massive chain. It had scars here and there along its muscular body, and its only ornamentation was a large red crystal at its neck. It threw back its head and roared, and the Sleeping Knights got ready for battle.

"Let's get him!" Asuna shouted.

"Right!"

It was actually a really neat fight, for their first run; the giant started off slow and ponderous, but as they chipped away at its health it started speeding up. Honestly, Talken was the one that surprised me the most - I'd had him pegged as a mage, but he was up there with his terrifyingly long lance, carving away at the giant's calves. Jun and Tecchi were the tanks, as expected, and Yuuki, Nori, and Talken the damage dealers while Siune and Asuna held back and healed as best they could. The giant itself had two main attacks at the start - smash person with giant fuck-off hammer and smash person with other giant fuck-off hammer. The hits themselves came in two varieties: truck, and slightly larger truck. After every swing of those massive war hammers the giant was stunned for half a second, maybe a heartbeat more, and the Sleeping Knights recognized that almost immediately as Asuna shouted out commands. The back was wide open, too. As the health dropped, it incorporated new attacks, like a wide-ranged chain sweep that managed to catch Tecchi by surprise, getting past his massive shield and killing him, and a charging attack that gored Siune, ending her contributions to the fight. Still, though, they put up a good fight; it had a few weird moments where it just raised its arms and covered its face for a few seconds, giving in some easy damage. I wonder... In the end, they'd taken too much damage too soon, and they wiped when the boss busted out an eight-hit combo with its hammers.

Surprisingly, Talken was a Leprechaun. Why that was the most surprising thing I learned in that fight, I'm not sure.

"These guys just make it too easy!" Guy Imp laughed. I blinked up at him, curious, and he elaborated, "We've seen that group of six before, the past two boss raids. They're actually pretty good, so by the time they lose we've seen most of the boss's early attacks and know what we're up against. Some people would say it's dirty pool, but I think it's fair."

"You're still cheating," I pouted.

"It's not cheating," he corrected me. "It's creatively using your resources." I subsided, still pretending that I wasn't certain about their actions being nice. Honestly, it wasn't a bad tactic; we'd done similar things in Aincrad, although the scouting party knew exactly what their job was - engage the boss, get its patterns, and above all don't die. I knew by now that the Sleeping Knights had respawned and Asuna had pulled them off to the side to explain exactly what was going on, and started a mental countdown. It was... 2:30 in the afternoon, and given that it was in the middle of the afternoon, most people weren't online... They'd need to gather a raid group of fifty-odd players, which would take about an hour. That was more than enough time for the Sleeping Knights and Asuna to get their gear repaired and attack the boss room again - they'd be back in about thirty minutes, hopefully.

Twenty minutes later, a large group of players showed up and I tensed, only to relax when I did a brief counting of heads. That put their count at about twenty - nowhere near enough for a full raid group. "Hey, boss," Sylph guy said as the concealment spell broke. "It was those Sleeping Knights guys again. You'd think they'd learn."

"At least they had a seventh player with them this time," Leah said.

The three spies went off with the guy they'd called boss, probably to give him the information, and I was left more or less alone near the back. I slunk off to the side slightly, hiding near the edge of a chatting group. Close enough that people looking over would think I was talking with them, but far enough away that the ones talking wouldn't really notice me. Finally, my middle school years are worth something. I let a brief moment of relaxation run through me, only to tense up again when someone in heavy armor approached me. He made a big show of looking me up and down, and I started mentally preparing to kill him and fight the rest of the guild. I really didn't want to have to do that; if I got into a fight, I'd get killed without doing much damage and the rest of the Crimson Blitz members would know about the trap. As good as I was, even I couldn't kill twenty people when surrounded - especially when they were backed up with healers. "So, Leah and the boys tell me you want to fight with us," the large Gnome said finally.

"Uh huh!" I nodded vigorously, bouncing up and down slightly. "This is my first raid, so I wanna be part of a large group like you guys! Oh man, this is gonna be great!" Silica crossed with Leafa - a terrifying combination. May those two never realize the power they hold.

He grinned. "Sure, so long as some of the boys don't show up. We can always use another pretty mage helping us out." I tried to look away bashfully, with a small grin, but I couldn't exactly replicate the blushing cheeks and the grin was hard to keep steady when I just wanted to vomit. "Who knows, do well enough and you might be able to join the guild permanently."

"That'd be neat!" I said, rocking back and forth on my feet before leaning forward slightly. "You guys are so cool."

After that, they left me alone, more or less, and I was thankful for that. Big guy drifted off to talk to someone near the other side of the pack, and the three spies had split up to join their groups. The mage squad was near the back, chatting about their spells - most of them were Salamanders, unsurprisingly - and I grinned. All is as according to the plan. I heard the sound of running feet and I nodded; like clockwork, Asuna. I watched as the small group of seven slowed from a run to a stop at the sight of all the other players. Asuna said something quietly to Yuuki before approaching big Gnome dude. "Excuse me!" she called out, and he turned to look at her. "We'd like to try the boss before you do. Could you guys let us by?"

I seriously doubted they'd let that happen. As it turned out, I was right; big Gnome smiled patronizingly. "Sorry, dollface," he said, and I saw red for a second at the offensive way he referred to Asuna. "The boss room's off-limits for now." I immediately swiped my menu open and shot off a quick message; I liked ironic echoes and that line was perfect for one.

"Wait," Asuna said, scowling, "off-limits? What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means, in a few minutes, the rest of the guild's gonna roll up here," Gnome guy said. "We're just holding the room 'til they do. If ya want, you can wait over there." He was starting to piss me off.

"And how long do you expect us to wait?" Asuna said, ice-cold. Eek, I was getting flashbacks to when the two of us would argue over boss raids in Aincrad constantly.

He tapped his chin in a mockery of thinking. "Um... another hour or so?" And that little whistling sound was the last of my restraint just sailing right off the cliff. Man, these guys are gonna be so fucked.

"But... We don't have that kind of time!" my sister snapped. "If you were going in right now, that'd be a different story, but you're not, so let us go in first."

"Look, I don't make the rules." Bullshit! I call bullshit! "I'm just a grunt here, following orders like everyone else. You got a complaint, go to the guild headquarters and talk to them. It's over in Ygg City, so just -"

"Are you kidding?!" Asuna interrupted him. "That's far away! It'd take us at least an hour to get there."

"Hey, big guy," Yuuki said, calmly walking forward. The rest of the Crimson Blitz paused in their conversations and looked over. "Just tryin' to figure things out here. So, no matter how nice we ask, you're not gonna let us get by you," she said, stopping in front of him fearlessly. "Is that what you're sayin'?"

"Yeah, that's it, that's pretty much what I'm sayin'."

"Oookay, if that's what you're sayin'..." Saying has stopped sounding like a word. Fuck, I hate it when that happens. "You wanna fight?" she asked, smiling up at him. Honestly... If we didn't hate each other, I think I might actually sorta maybe get along with Yuuki. She's got the fighting spirit, at least.

"Huh?!" the big guy grunted, looking startled as a wave of shock ran through the assembled Crimson Blitz guild members. Asuna looked just as shocked, so I'm assuming that maybe Yuuki didn't let the rest of the Sleeping Knights know about this little throw-down.

Asuna looked worried. "But... Yuuki, are you sure?"

"Asuna..." I stared at Yuuki as she stared down the big guy in front of her. "Sometimes, you gotta fight to get your point across. Y'know..." She turned around and grinned over her shoulder. "Like how dead serious you are about something. Just sayin'!" she finished with a small chirp.

Asuna looked stunned. "Yep, that's pretty much how it is," Jun said, hefting his massive sword over his shoulder with one hand. Seriously, that thing is as tall as he is. Asuna murmured something as the Sleeping Knights closed ranks, their weapons at the ready.

"These guys know exactly what I'm talkin' about," Yuuki told Asuna as she stared down the Gnome. "We could chop away this whole day, and they'd defend this room to the last player." Heh. ...Fuck, I might almost like Yuuki. "Right? Big guy?"

And he was trapped like a rat. If he backed down from her challenge, that was tantamount to saying that he didn't think his group of twenty could hold off seven players - and if he agreed, he'd just committed himself to a fight that was going to waste a lot of his resources. I watched with barely concealed glee as he gritted his teeth, trembling, before finally declaring, "W-w-we got orders ta..."

Yuuki unsheathed her sword with a calm smile. "Come on," she told him before dropping the smile. "Draw your sword." A small thrill ran down my spine, and I arched my back slightly as my stomach muscles clenched. Yes! I've been looking for someone like her. What a shame that she hated me.

Gnome gritted his teeth, and reached back to grab his weapon, and Yuuki lunged forward, sword licking out with a crash to deflect his weak swipe. Easily, she stepped into his range and sliced open his chest, draining his health by a third in a single blow. He grunted and swung heavily, but Yuuki easily countered with a simple Sword Skill, knocking his blow away and chaining into Vertical Square, sending him flying back with ease. He skidded to a halt among the crowd of watching fighters, and slowly forced himself back to his feet. "You little punk," he growled, his health at red already in just two blows. "I'm gonna make you pay for that!" The rest of the guild got ready to fight, the mages clustering near the back where they were the most protected, and I smiled, moving over to join them.

There was a brief moment of tension where both sides stared at each other, and then Asuna gasped suddenly. She stared into space for a second before her eyes firmed, and I felt another chill down my spine. Had... Fucking hell, Yuuki had done it. Whatever problem Asuna had been having, it had been shattered; she put away her wand and drew her rapier with a ring of steel that echoed in my memories. She stepped up next to Yuuki and smiled at the smaller Imp, and Yuuki grinned back up at her. ...I can't hate Yuuki. Not if she made Asuna smile like that. ...Fuck. All I'd managed to do was make her mad, and then in all of two hours Yuuki had her smiling confidently again. Rythin, you're a useless idiot, aren't you?

Suddenly, the Crimson Blitz members grinned, snickering darkly, and I narrowed my eyes. "Hey, you guys?" Nori called out, looking over her shoulder. Another group of players from the Crimson Blitz guild were racing forward, trying to make it in time, and this one had another thirty players or so. Almost impossible for the Sleeping Knights to defeat, especially since this would make them surrounded.

I breathed slowly, focusing on my plan. If everything moved as it should, things would be fine. "Sorry, Asuna," I heard Yuuki say apologetically. "My big mouth got you into this mess. But it was totally worth it! Know why?" Asuna just stared at her. "Because just now, I saw the best smile I've ever seen on you!" I gritted my teeth, careful not to let my anger get the best of me. I couldn't be there for Asuna, but Yuuki was, and that grated on me. She was my sister, damn it! I should be the one to make her feel better when she was depressed!

"In that case," Asuna said with a determined smile, "I'll start pulling my weight! We might not take down this boss, but I promise... The next boss..." She grinned. "That one's ours!"

A member of the mage squad snickered as he watched the little drama, the Sleeping Knights firming their grip on their weapons and refusing to back down even as they were surrounded. "Heh... Some folks just don't know when to quit!"

Calm, Rythin. Calm. You can't kill him yet. You just needed the queen to move into place and reveal the check, and then you can kill him for his foolish words.

A black blur from the back of the pack dashed up on the wall, faster than any of the other players were moving, and raced along the wall with the Wall Run skill. With a grunt, the player kicked off the wall and landed with a heavy thud, sliding to a halt between the rear of the Sleeping Knights and the approaching force of Crimson Blitz. The thirty players screeched to a halt as the figure slowly straightened up, black coat flapping slightly, and Asuna's eyes widened. "Sorry guys," the figure said, and I hid a triumphant grin.

"No way..." Asuna breathed, turning around as though she couldn't believe what she was hearing.

With a ring of steel, a large metal sword was slammed into the ground, and the thirty Crimson Blitz all gasped. "Stand down," Kirito declared, Yui and Din riding on his shoulders like the angel and devil. "This boss room's off limits."

Man, he fucking nailed that delivery.

I really don't know what to say. Rythin fucked up hard, but he's trying his best to un-fuck up. He royally pissed off Asuna, but he's doing his best to help her out where he can. Still, though, it would probably help if he knew why exactly she was mad at him. Regardless of whether he knows what he did wrong or not, he's (relatively) aware that the best thing he can do right now is just be there to support her – I guess? Maybe he just wants to throw down with a big group of people.

Kana, on the other hand, is trying to give the best advice she can; without knowing the whole story, she can only do so much, but her advice – with Yuuki's simple words of wisdom – seem to have helped Asuna figure out what she needs to do.

Also, 'weather' is the worst word because after seeing it about ten times it stops looking like a word and turns into just a weird collection of letters. This is unrelated to anything in the chapter, it's just an observation.

Many thanks to everyone that favorited, followed, or reviewed.