Chapter 25: Lingering

24th February 2023. Aincrad, Floor 16,Eska Forest Lake. 08:00 AM, Aincrad Standard Time.

"Kirito a player's been murdered."

"So?" Came Kirito's reply. Asuna was stunned at the coldness of the response.

"What do you mean 'so'?" Asuna pressed.

"This isn't necessarily rare, Asuna. Duels go wrong, other accidents happen. This wouldn't be the first time. " Kirito replied. Asuna couldn't deny his reasoning or response now.

"Kirito this was...different. It was actual murder. As in planned and almost...ceremonial." Asuna clarified, adding gravity to the situation. Now Kirito took on a disturbed expression.

"I see. Why blame me?" Kirito asked. Would Asuna really think of him as a psychopath? Would others?

"We weren't blaming you, per say. It was more it happened near you. Believe it or not you haven't been as hidden as you may think here. Many people pass through here during the day while you may be asleep. And the corpse was found not too far from here. Maybe you saw or heard something. We just wanted to ask."

"I can probably guess, but who is this 'we' you keep referring to?"

"Who do you think? It's the Knights."

"Why does your guild care?"

"The Commander feels it our responsibility to also maintain the general sanity of the population. If word got out that there was a killer going around, people would panic, and that would be disruptive, to say the least. We might have less people joining us to clear, our supply of weapons and armor may be disrupted, you probably get the idea."

"I see, so you guys are also a police force now."

"Still not quite. As I said before, this is a special case."

"Wait a minute. Asuna, you said you found the corpse. How? When HP reaches zero, things disappear." Kirito inquired.

"Well, outside of who did it, that's question number one. The Knights who found the corpse reported it disappearing about fifteen minutes after they found it. But who knows how long it was there. I asked Argo this morning, and she had no idea how the corpse could stay present like that. So we thought we would find you also. Maybe you might know of some game mechanic that could lead to this. And Kirito?"

"What is it?"

"I need you to tell me. Not the Knights but me. You didn't do it did you? You didn't see it or help or anything like that, right?"

"Wha-, no. Of course not. "

"I knew it!" Asuna thrust forward, hugging Kirito.

"What gives, Asuna?"

"The Commander, Heathcliff that is, jumped to some conclusions. Especially after you dueled the Knights last night. He wanted me to come with a full squad because he was afraid you might hurt me. I told him you wouldn't, and it took a lot of convincing, but it's just me out here. But I knew. I knew you wouldn't do anything bad!"

"Heathcliff thinks I did it?"

"Maybe not. But you're at the top of the list. Kirito, if there was any player who would know how to pull this off and get away with it, it'd be you."

"I'm almost flattered." Kirito replied, humorously.

"Then, I guess there's one last thing to ask you, if you didn't see anything and obviously didn't do it. Do you know this image from anywhere?" Asuna retrieved a paper card from her inventory and displayed it to Kirito.

The card had an inked image of a laughing face. The eyes looked depraved, and there was no nose, the next feature being a mouth with a wide grin.

"No, I don't. Was that left near the corpse?"

"Yes. We would probably call it a calling card in the real world."

"Have you tried checking ownership of the card? If someone drew that it should be tagged with the player name." Kirito suggested.

"Yes, it comes up as unknown. Even bringing it to an appraiser gave us nothing."

"I see. So we're kind of screwed here then, huh?"

"I suppose so. Well, since you're a dead end-"

"Gee thanks."

"Since you're not an accomplice in murder, I suppose I should be going."

"See you later, Asuna."

Asuna departed through the forest back towards town.

24th February 2023. Aincrad, Floor 16,Florentine Inn, Eska. 05:00 PM, Aincrad Standard Time.

Kirito felt a primal fear stir within himself as he stared into his image reflected from his tea.

"A murder…" He thought." And so close to himself? Did it happen when he was near camp or off somewhere? Could it have as easily been him who was killed? No...Asuna implied it was a targeted attack. But the victim...what was special about him? Did certain groups of players now have targets on their backs? Would there be more murders? And what about item persistence? Who would be next?"

"What about Asuna…" He continued thinking, trying to figure out who he knew who may have targets on their back. "No, she'll be safe, their guild hall is guarded as a formality. Klein, Lis, and now Egiru? Surely if they're together they won't be in danger. But, none of them are necessarily the sharpest, they could be attacked in their sleep. Wait they sleep in inns all the time and don't camp outside the safe zones. But Argo...she is no stranger to the outsides of the safe zones. She could easily be attacked and overpowered in transit...Damn it!"

So many questions swirled in Kirito's mind. His thought process was interrupted by Argo who took a seat across from him and instantaneously ordered tea as well.

"Argo, I was just-" Kirito was cut off.

"Thinking about me? I'm sure it happens a lot." Argo winked and teased.

"Yeah, kind of."

"I see you survived your interrogation."

"Yeah. I'm sure you've heard what's happened by this point."

"Of course, it's the talk of the brokers. Although somehow, not the talk of the town yet."

"At least that's good."

"Are you helping with the investigation at all?"

"No, I didn't intend to."

"Why not?" Argo was surprised by Kirito's inaction.

"Not my job. If I wanted to play white knight I would just join them. But this is none of my business." Kirito put up the facade of indifference. He didn't want to let Argo know his concern so she wouldn't be scared.

"Fair enough I guess. But maybe you can still help me." Argo continued.

"So this is business?"

"Half and Half."

"What is it then?"

"Kirito, do you know of ANY mechanic that could have allowed the body to remain after death? Anything at all come to mind? I'll pay you the contents of my coin purse. For just something. Even your wildest theory."

"Well, I-"

"Kirito, don't tell me you haven't thought about it. At least one bit? Come on, that part has to be the most intriguing to you."

"Well, honestly yeah. I have thought about it. But I don't know if what I've come up with will be accurate or not."

"Just give me something, boy!" Argo got excited to hear whatever would come out of Kirito's mouth next.

"Here goes then: I think it would have something to do with the paralysis mechanic."

"How so?"

"Things affected by paralysis remain stationary, as far as the game is concerned."

"Yeah a few players have floated that idea around, but upon further thought, they don't hold water. I guess you lose then boy."

"Here, let me finish. You can apply the paralysis "poison" to weapons, as it's typically used in hunting. Thus far, all the poisons in the game have been weak, with the affects only lasting a few seconds. Someone may have figured out a stronger poison. One that would last longer. If the time duration was still valid even when the HP was zero, then there's a chance the affected object would remain."

"But how would someone get this stronger position? That's what we haven't been able to figure out yet."

"That beats me. There's probably a quest or something for it somewhere. Or as we've seen, you can acquire skills by doing actions not associated with quests now."

"Interesting. Yeah we first noticed that at around Floor 11 or so. The skills thing that is."

"So that's my working theory."

"Well it's my favorite so far. Here." Argo handed Kirito the contents of her coin purse.

"Thanks."

"Don't go spending it all in one place now." Argo winked and left the inn.

Kirito finished a second glass of tea before talking to the innkeeper about a room. Using his newfound wealth courtesy of Argo, he decided to treat himself to the nicest room they had.

He walked up the stairs to the room, and opened the door. Unequipping his gear he sat and rested on the couch in front of the room's fireplace. The heat felt nice, as the air outside still had a nip to it. He could certainly see where the premium price came in. The room was beyond spacious, a massive bed, and all of the commodities one could want.

Kirito sat up and opened up his inventory to sort through it. After a short while, he heard the bathroom door rustle. He turned over his shoulder to look. "What the-"

Asuna, wrapped in nothing but a towel walked out of the bathroom. Her gaze met his and her expression turned to one of shock with a hint of anger. Kirito jolted to his feet.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE!?" Asuna screamed, Kirito ducked back behind the couch.

"I could ask you the same thing. I rented this room!"

"YOU THINK I DIDN'T DO THE SAME!?" Asuna replied. Kirito couldn't tell if that had made matters worse or not.

"I don't know what happened then, maybe the innkeeper forgot or something."

"I DON'T CARE. GET OUT OF MY ROOM KIRITO!"

"As you wish." Kirito got up and left the room, going back down to the common area.

That was certainly the most angry and aggressive (and for that matter, embarrassed) he had ever seen Asuna, at least towards another person. He was going to speak to the innkeeper but he was nowhere to be found. Kirito sat back at the table he and Argo had occupied earlier that evening. After a short while, he looked up and saw Asuna walking down the stairs, this time fully clothed, albeit casually. She sat across from Kirito.

"I just had a discussion with the innkeeper."

"Where's the body?" Kirito quipped.

"Not funny." Asuna replied with a sour look.

"Oh, yeah that's right, sorry." Kirito was reminded of the context of his remark.

"He mistakenly rented out the room twice. Earlier to me and then to you."

"How is that even possible? The technical mechanic is that it goes under the temporary ownership of the player that rented it, so that others can't enter it without the permission of the owner and the sound doesn't escape through the doors. You know? All of those fun property mechanics."

"Apparently, the room can accept joint ownership as it's more than large enough for two players."

"I guess that would make sense. Well, sorry Asuna. I didn't mean to-"

"Sorry? It's not your fault. It's that useless innkeeper's mistake. I just hope you'll forget what you saw."

"I'll try to. I'll go see about another room." Kirito began to get up.

"Don't. There's no refund mechanic from NPCs in the game, it'll be a waste of your money. You already paid for the room, right?"

"Yeah."

"It certainly isn't cheap. And even the normal rooms here are expensive as well. So in fairness, I'll let you stay in that room also. Deal?" Asuna extended her hand.

Kirito blushed a nervous shade of red at her proposition. "Deal." He reached across the table and shook her hand. "Really, spending the night with someone who might be a murderer. I wouldn't let Heathcliff know." Kirito teased.

"Don't worry, he won't. But, you're of course sleeping on the couch." Asuna clarified. "Don't be getting any ideas now."

"Relax, I wouldn't. I figured that was the case anyway."

"Good. Shall we?"

The two wandered up to what was now their agreed upon room.

Kirito sat in the bath. The simulation for the feel of water in Aincrad was certainly the weakest point of the full dive technology. There was something just not quite right about it. Nonetheless, the water and steam was relaxing.

Kirito got dressed in the bathroom and returned to the primary bedroom. Asuna was already asleep in the bed. Kirito turned off the lamp still illuminating the room. He walked over to the couch and rolled out his blankets to use. After settling in he heard a soft voice from across the room.

"Hey Kirito, are you still awake?" Asuna's soft voice carried across the silent room.

"Yeah, what's up?" Kirito replied. He honestly had no idea what she was about to bring up. Would it be about the murder or something else he wondered.

"Can you come join me?"

"Wha-? Are you sure?"

"I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want you to." Asuna confirmed.

Blushing brightly, Kirito thought he was dreaming and pinched himself. Did she really just ask him? He was about to be in the same bed as a girl, and a very pretty one at that, he thought to himself.

In the real world he had never been in a relationship. Never held hands, or let alone kissed. As weird as it was for himself to admit, Kirito's first kiss had been with Asuna in Aincrad.

He slowly walked over to the bed, and nervously got in with an awkward motion. Noticing, Asuna decided to tease him.

"Oh come on, I'm not that repulsive." She said, trying to get a reaction out of him.

"Wha-oh no no, it's not that all." Kirito hastily replied.

Asuna just giggled. "I know, I'm just joking. Don't worry about it." And giggled some more.

Kirito turned to face her.

"So what's up? You know, sharing a bed with possible murderer, you better be careful Asuna." Kirito joked referring to their meeting in the forest earlier that morning.

Asuna giggled once more. Her voice went soft again. "I, I just...I don't know."

"What do you mean?"

"I guess I just feel safer like this. I know we're in a room and no one else can get in without our permission and everything. But I'm still scared. Call me naive or whatever you want to call it, but to think that a player would do that to another player. To take a life like that. I thought that because we were all stuck here, all in Aincrad together, that it wouldn't happen. I guess I was wrong though."

"I know what you mean. That our common bond would be strong enough that this sort of thing wouldn't happen."

"Exactly. But people can be mean. They can be scary and unpredictable, even in this world."

"Human nature unfortunately won't change. If someone was evil in the real world, they'll be evil here too."

"We're still capable of so many other things. Incredible and wondrous things, even in this world. Even capable of escaping this place, no matter how daunting it may seem."

Kirito couldn't think of a reply before Asuna continued.

"Kirito, we will escape right? You think we can survive, right?"

"Yes."

"I want to see my parents. My brothers. I miss them a lot."

"I miss my sister and mother as well."

"What about your father?"

"He's not around anymore. He died when I was really little."

"Oh God, Kirito, I'm sorry I didn't mean to ask. I know I shouldn't ask about real life. It just-"

"It's fine. Don't worry about it." Kirito smiled and reassured her by reaching his hand over and placing it on her cheek.

"Kirito, can I tell you something else?"

"Of course. What is it?"

"Right here, right now. I don't feel scared. Not with you here. Even when we're fighting a boss, I get this reassuring feeling whenever you're around. I feel like everything will be alright, and nothing bad will happen to me because you're there."

Kirito didn't know what to say.

"But Kirito, you need to survive too, alright?"

"I will."

Asuna smiled and closed her eyes.

"Thanks for this, Kirito. You know, I think you can remember this night."

"I will then." Kirito smiled, confirming Asuna's permission.

The two peacefully fell asleep until morning.