I walked quickly down the street, following Argo, who was ducking and weaving through the crowd of NPC's and players like it was nobody's business. Normally even the busiest towns didn't get this busy, but we were in peak rush hour on the 55th floor, home of approximately one third of the player-run shops in the game, including many of the big-name blacksmiths.
The Player shops tended to not be very busy, in comparison to the NPC shops. Those ones had basic NPCs, little more than moving cutouts, entering, shopping, and leaving almost constantly. In comparison, only players frequented the player-run shops, and given that most shops sold the sort of things people only needed to pick up every couple weeks, if that, they tended to be empty most of the time.
And Argo was heading for one of the few that tended to be busy: Tin and Leather Plates. The owner was, as the name implied, specialized in armor, specifically the Medium-to-Heavy spectrum, and as such, neither Asuna or I came here often, preferring lighter armor.
It was surprising that Argo had chosen to go here, instead of to Jin's Armor Shop on the other side of town, where I was planning to visit to commission new gloves and boots, but even though this trip was my idea, Argo had taken command of it fairly quickly.
Asuna and I had to scramble to keep up with her; neither of us wanted her out of her sight. We eventually caught up with her at the entrance to Plates, where she was standing a few feet in front of the doors.
"Hey Argo," I said, resting one hand on her shoulder.
"Hey." she sounded blank, like she was trying to distance herself from her emotions. The last time she'd been like this… she'd been compiling the lists of Laughing Coffin victims.
"Do you want to go in?" Asuna said, from the other side of Argo. The info broker was silent for a time, and no one passed in front of us to enter the store. It was almost like the world was taking a breath.
"I want heavier armor," Argo said, after almost a full two minutes of silence. "Somethin' that'll protec' me when I'm standin' still. Somethin' that I can fall asleep in and trus' to keep me alive until I wake up."
And with that statement, Argo walked into Tin and Leather Plates, projecting a fragile confidence that slowly grew more sure of itself with every step she took.
"Got any idea what you want?" I asked, after watching Argo browse through the store's inventory for about an hour.
"Somethin' with high defense," Argo said, paging through the extensive list of chest armors. "You shoul' go pick somethin' out for yourself."
"Eh, you wanted to come with me," I said, leaning back in one of the chairs that the shopkeep had thoughtfully left near the racks of armor. "So I'll stay with you as long as you need."
"Careful, Kii-bou," Argo almost purred, "Aa-chan might get jealous if she heard you sayin' things like that."
"Why would she? She'd probably be happy that I was helping a friend."
"Oh, fer cryin' out loud!" Argo groaned, selecting an item seemingly at random. As she did so, she muttered something under her breath. "How can…ime?"
"I'm sorry, what?" I sat up, inclining my head slightly.
"Nothin' ya need to worry about, Kii-bou." Argo booped me on the nose, carrying the heavy leather chestplate on her back, "You jus' stay as oblivious as you always are."
"I'm not oblivious!" I stood indignantly, trying to salvage some of my dignity. "I maxed out my scanning skill!"
"What does your scanning skill have to do with anything?" Asuna asked, stepping around the rack of armor, carrying a pair of bracers. "You know what I had to do to get it through your thick skull that I was into you."
That was... a very good point actually. "Okay, okay, so maybe I'm not the best at social interaction, but I don't get why that makes me unaware of what's going on, and if something I said made you angry, Argo, then I'm sorry for upsetting you, and I hope you can forgive me." Argo fumbled closing her menu as I spoke, her eyes growing wide.
"O-Ok," Argo said, turning and rushing towards the counter, her steps as light as always. She was holding her intended purchase close to her face, for some reason. Maybe she was trying to find some sign of a defect? No, she'd be able to tell that just by looking at it's stats.
I guess some things would remain a mystery.
"Wow…" Asuna whistled from her position by the rack. "I'd forgotten just how smooth you could be."
"I- I wasn't flirting!" I stammered out, spinning to look at Asuna. I wasn't flirting with Argo. Even if she had ever deigned me the privilege of taking her out on a date, I'm certain she would have dumped me at the first opportunity.
Besides, Asuna had somehow taken pity on me after I had destroyed our friendship, and taken it into her heart to love me. She didn't deserve me flirting with other girls.
"I know you weren't. You're just a natural charmer." Asuna cupped my face in both hands. "At least, until people realize how geeky you are. Nobody can be charming and be that geeky," Asuna said, a serious frown crossing her face.
Wha- "Asuna!"" I giggled, grasping her wrists and wrestling them away from me as she started rubbing my cheeks. "I seem to recall you being very infatuated when I described my dream PC."
"What can I say?" Asuna said, stepping around to one side, her hand running underneath my chin, making me look into her eyes as she leaned on one of my shoulders, "I guess I just like it when you're passionate."
"Asuna…" I breathed, staring deep into my wife's eyes. We leaned our heads in together, angling for a kiss. It was a simple, chaste kiss, nothing like the ones we had shared before venturing to the 22nd floor, but it still relaxed me, and it felt good; to feel my wife like this.
We broke apart, and I leaned my head against her, while she rested her head on my shoulder. She was warm.
"Hey, guys?" Argo's voice broke through the comfortable haze that had descended. "Are ya ready yet?" Slowly, hesitantly, I untangled myself from Asuna, preparing myself to walk out the door.
"Mmm, not yet." My wife stretched, the bracers jingling in her hand. "I wanted to purchase these. They've got anti-paralysis properties." That was a good choice. Paralysis was one of the few statuses that you couldn't deal with on your own, but gear that resisted paralysis was rare, and correspondingly expensive. It looks like the money we had planned to spend on a house was going into gear now.
"Do those bracers come in black?"
"Let's see, ah still need some new claws, and you two need…"
"Boots," Asuna and I said in unison, each of us nudging Argo occasionally, guiding her through the crowd as she scrolled through her notebook, trying to figure out which claws she wanted.
She's only gotten more absorbed in her notes as the trip has gone on, seeming to try and block out as much of the outside world as she can.
"Alright, I got a store for us." Argo closed her notebook. "Normally if I was lookin' for those things together I'd go to Agil's, but he's on vacation at the mo', so we're headin to Jeanne's."
"Jeanne's?" Asuna voiced the question I found myself asking. Most clearers stuck to a few proven shops, and it was hard for a newcomer to make any impact on the market unless a prominent crafter had died recently. That neither Asuna or I had heard of Jeanne meant...
"She's one o' my contacts with the crafters," Argo said, confirming my suspicions. "She an' a few others don't like dealin' with customers, but put passion into their work to match your friend Liz', an it would be a shame to lose 'em."
Argo turned a different way, opening a different window with her hand and starting to type out a message. "So I set up a trading system with some merchants for them. I get the weapons at a discount in exchange for their privacy, and then I sell them to the merchants at just below market value so that they can make a little money off of it, and I pay the crafters by tellin' em about the rare drops and mats in the middle floors."
I wasn't sure whether it was luck or not that we had turned onto a deserted street when Argo had started explaining this subcategory of her network. Given how devious Argo was, I wouldn't put it past her to have planned out a route that avoided other people as much as possible.
"And if anyone wants to order a commission with a crafter, I send the request to Jeanne. She's got a bit of everything, and is at least willing to do business with me an' my friends. Just lettin her know that I'm bringing ya two."
The closer we got to our destination, the more desolate the streets got. While the buildings were still in good repair, cycling through the same models that the rest of the city used, we passed fewer and fewer people on the streets. The last one was twenty minutes ago when Argo stopped in front of a small house, distinct only by a small sign hanging from the door.
Jeanne's Shop
Entrance by appointment only
Hours negotiable.
If this shop had been in real life, there would have been a fine layer of dust over that sign.
Argo carefully pushed the door open and walked in, making a little bell tinkle as she did so.