A/N:

Hot damn. We've reached over 100 favorites and over 150 followers. Y'all are awesome.

Now, without further ado, here's chapter 23!

"The Resolute Renegades?"

Kirito rolled his eyes as Klein stood there and not-so-subtly judged him and his team's choice in a guild name. Kirito and his guild were standing on the docks of the 4th floor town, Rovia, making idle conversation with Klein and the rest of Fuurinkazan after a successful raid on the 4th floor field boss, a massive two-headed turtle called the ((Biceps Archelon)). The raid itself went fairly well, although they did have to fight the turtle from atop a series of crafted boats. That made things more difficult, but Kirito's guild had a diverse enough set of weapons and skills to compensate for the unusual battle format.

"Gotta say though…" Klein continued, arching an eyebrow and stroking the scruff on his chin thoughtfully. "Calling you guys The Renegades sounds about right. Mister Beater has always been a rebel, though the rest of you aren't far off."

"I hate to agree with the desperate redhead, but he's right, Kii-bou." A familiar voice called from further down the docks. Klein whipped his head over to the short blonde who'd just snuck in an insult. "You're holdin' yer own pretty well for a guild that's only a week old."

Kirito looked over to see Argo approaching, hands casually in her pockets and her face contorted into her signature toothy grin. No doubt the information broker was here to gather information from the Clearers about their fight against the ((Biceps Archelon)), though the Rat did seem to be taking quite the vested interest in the Renegades in particular. Kirito assumed it was because of her hand in bringing Geeou's group together in the first place, as well as her own personal connections to Kirito's original group.

"And you've already got quite the roster, Kirito." Klein said with some amusement, scanning over the group of Renegades assembled before him. "I think you're the first guild where the girls have the majority. Quite the accomplishment."

Kirito watched with some amusement as Dale promptly slapped the back of Klein's head. The red samurai stumbled forward and let out a snicker before looking up. Klein's attitude suddenly shifted as he was met with the disgruntled glares of every female present.

"Klein…" Liz trailed, her voice carrying an edge to it as she grit her teeth. Kirito silently reminded himself not to get on the blacksmith's bad side.

"Honestly, dude." Leonn said with a chuckle, shaking his head. "And here I thought you were trying to get past this."

"Right, sorry." Klein hurriedly apologized. His expression brightened somewhat as he tried to change the subject. "Anyway, I'm surprised we haven't seen you exploring the floor yet."

"They've been busy getting us caught up in levels." Geeou interjected. "We're all caught up now, though, so we should be able to join you in the labyrinth soon I would think."

"Not exactly." Kirito corrected as he looked towards his fellow swordsman. "Last floor, we made an agreement with Kibaou and Lind. While they and the other Clearer guilds focus on exploring the floor and the labyrinth, we focus on completing the Elf War campaign quest."

"Wonder why they agreed to that…" Kirito heard Nautilus mumble under his breath.

"The reason for it…" Kirito glanced over at Nautilus, who only now seemed to realize he'd voiced his concerns aloud. "...is because of something we learned on the 2nd floor."

"Argo figured out - " Liz started before she was interrupted by the Rat herself cutting in.

"The major quests on each floor give helpful hints or information on the floor boss." Argo stated, looking proud of the fact she discovered that tidbit of information. She was met with silence as everyone gathered stared at her with looks of surprise or outright incredulity. "...What?"

"That's not like you at all, Argo." Asuna said with a smirk. "Giving out information for free?"

The Rat scoffed, waving her hand nonchalantly. "Bah, it's basically public knowledge at this point, but if it bothers ya that much, you can just owe me a favor later."

"There it is." Leonn said with a chuckle. "Always a catch."

"On that note…" Kirito cut in, ignoring Argo's fake offended expression and looking to bring the conversation back on track. "We should probably head out now if we're going to get to Yofel Castle before dark. We'll need to supply up first, so best to start now."

"Well, I was gonna get some info from all o' ya about the field boss, but I suppose I can get it from Klein instead." Argo said before pointing a rather mischievous grin towards the leader of Fuurinkazan.

"You know I don't like it when you look at me like that, Argo!" Klein exclaimed with a look of worry as he started to back away, the object of his trepidation following him and his guild down the dock. Before they got too far away, Argo looked over her shoulder.

"Tell Kizmel I said hi!" Argo shouted before turning her attention back to a mildly fearful Klein.

"You haven't even met her, Argo!" Liz shouted in reply.

"Then you'll have to introduce me sometime!" The info broker shouted back.

As Argo and Fuurinkazan walked off, the former undoubtedly now teasing the leader of the latter incessantly, most of the Renegades split off to replenish their supplies. Kirito, for his part, decided to board their ship to prepare it for the voyage to the Dark Elven fortress.

Their ship, the Endurance (a name suggested by Geeou), was officially owned by their guild; yet another hidden benefit to being part of a guild, Kirito realized. It wasn't a particularly large vessel, especially when compared to the larger ships owned by the ALS and DKB. Where their massive ships could easily hold dozens of people, the Renegade's ship was about half that size and could comfortably hold one dozen. Because of that, their ship wasn't as formidable, but it was certainly a whole lot faster and was clearly built for speed rather than bulk. It had one sail, which was adorned with the emblem of their guild. Another added bonus to having a guild-owned vessel was that not only could it be summoned by the guild leadership at will, but it had its own storage space on board for supplies. A vessel like this would likely come in handy on the upper floors, if there was any water involved.

"Hey Kirito." A voice rang out, interrupting Kirito's inner musings. The swordsman looked up to find that Geeou had returned early with Yuna, Nautilus, and Silica in tow. "We're back early, did you want us to stow the supplies on the ship?"

"That'd be great, Geeou. Thanks." Kirito replied, watching his fellow swordsman lead the others to the storage crates. "Did we need anything else before we set out?"

"We stocked up on rations." Yuna said as she found a seat on the boat. "Asuna and the others went to buy potions since we used up some during the field boss fight."

Around that time, the rest of the Renegades boarded the boat. With everything in order and all nine guildmates ready for what could possibly be an extended period of time away from any major towns, they departed and found themselves sailing along the rivers. Kirito had his map pulled open, carefully navigating them towards where Yofel Castle was rumored to be. Confirming that they were, in fact, on the most direct course towards the Dark Elf fortress, Kirito closed his map and took stock of what everyone else was up to. That was one thing they'd learned very early on after constructing the Endurance. Kayaba had been painstakingly detail-oriented with how nautical travel worked in SAO.

Which meant people actually had to operate the moving parts on a ship if they hoped to go anywhere.

Nautilus was manning the sails, carefully furling or unfurling the canvas to moderate their speed. Asuna was standing next to Kirito at the helm, steering the vessel carefully through the riverways and through various lakes. Sinon had climbed up to the meager little crow's nest atop the single mast in order to keep watch, a task she felt suited towards her capabilities as an archer. Yuna was seated at the bow, facing the rest of the party as she idly played a gentle tune on her lute. Geeou, Liz, and Silica were seated nearby, listening to the bard's melodies but maintaining a conversation of their own nonetheless. Every so often, Liz would glance over at Leonn, who was sitting against the mast and apparently napping, with Pina curled up on top of his head similarly enjoying some rest.

After relaying the approximate course they needed to take to Asuna, Kirito walked down towards the bow of the boat and approached those who were still conscious.

"We should be at Yofel within the hour, I think." Kirito informed them.

"Hey Kirito, some of us were wondering about something Argo mentioned earlier." Geeou said, turning towards the guild leader. "We asked Liz but she said you'd be able to explain it better."

"What's up?" Kirito asked, glancing over towards Liz, who only gave a half-hearted shrug.

"Who's Kizmel?" Silica asked with a subtle tilt of her head.

"She's a friend of ours." Kirito replied with a smile.

Truth be told, that was one of the things Kirito was looking forward to the most about this floor, and he knew he definitely wasn't alone in that. The entirety of his original party was eager to continue on with the Elf War campaign quest, if only for the remote possibility of seeing Kizmel again. In the week that they spent around her, they'd almost completely forgotten that she was an NPC. Naturally, they all felt a sort of kinship with the Dark Elf and already considered her a good friend.

"I think you'll like her."

As it turned out, he was right.

Geeou would be the first to admit his skepticism about this Kizmel when Kirito and the others had told him. The flaxen-haired boy never claimed to be an expert when it came to game mechanics and artificial intelligence - that seemed to be more in Kirito's wheelhouse - but the idea of a sentient NPC did strike him as odd, if not outright unlikely. It just didn't seem possible with the way that SAO's NPCs already behaved. Sure, they were lifelike enough, but there was that uncanny valley, either in mannerisms or in conversation, that always gave away who was an NPC and who was a player, even if you ignored the cursors over their heads.

Suffice it to say that Kizmel was a pleasant surprise.

They'd only met her a half hour ago after arriving at Yofel Castle, and very quickly the Dark Elf was already endearing herself to Geeou and his friends. Silica, naturally, was absolutely ecstatic to meet Kizmel after hearing so much about her from Kirito, Asuna, and the others. Strangely enough, the feeling seemed to be mutual, even before Kizmel met the little feathered dragon that called Silica her master. The Elf was also strangely interested in Yuna's songs and ballads, even going so far as requesting a performance in the near future. He and Nautilus weren't nearly as exciting as their companions, but nonetheless Kizmel seemed to be making a conscious effort at making them feel welcome and comfortable. It was all very strange for the newest members of the Renegades.

Almost as if on cue, given that particular train of thought, Geeou's attention was brought to Liz, who was excitedly talking with Kizmel as they were all led inside the castle itself.

"So Kizmel, you'll never guess what we've been up to since we last saw you." The blacksmith said. "Or, more specifically, Kirito and Asuna."

Kizmel seemed to brighten up, raising her eyebrows in clear interest. "So my suspicions were correct then! Perhaps our talk helped, Asuna?"

Asuna's face had become beet-red. Steam was practically coming out of her ears at this point, her embarrassment was so evident. "N-nothing like that, Kizmel! She means we formed a guild!"

"Well that is also good news then!" Kizmel exclaimed before turning to Kirito and Asuna. "I was under the impression that you did not wish to form a guild, last we spoke. What changed?"

Plenty, Geeou thought to himself. In the week since their guild's creation, Asuna and Liz had informed Geeou and his friends of the unique circumstances surrounding the formation of their guild. How reluctant Kirito was to the idea, and ultimately how the four of them (plus Argo) had to effectively stage an intervention to get him to agree to the idea. Geeou had only known their leader for a week, but he could already tell that Kirito was one of those few individuals who was qualified for leadership but only took on the mantle reluctantly. Those were the best kind of leaders, in Geeou's opinion.

"They kind of cornered me." Kirito admitted, looking rather sheepish. "Eventually, they convinced me that it was the right thing to do for the sake of the front line."

Kizmel smiled. "I have to agree. While I only met them the one time, I must confess that I did not find Kibaou or Lind to be capable leaders. Kibaou in particular seemed painfully arrogant."

"You've got that right." Nautilus scoffed.

Geeou couldn't help but share in the sentiment. The leader of the ALS had been nothing but rude and unnecessarily confrontational when they Clearers met to defeat the field boss, and he suspected that Kibaou was like that all of the time. Geeou did not look forward to any further interactions with the man.

"Nonetheless, if it is any consolation, I believe you made the correct choice, Kirito." Kizmel said, resting a hand on the swordsman's shoulder briefly. "Your people need capable leadership if they are to ever survive and escape this floating castle."

"That's why I decided to make Asuna my vice leader, and make Leonn and Geeou my officers." Kirito replied, making brief eye contact with each of the players in question. "I trust Asuna to keep me in check, while Leonn's a fellow beta tester and Geeou was the party leader for his own group before they joined us."

"Wise choices." Kizmel said with a nod.

That particular choice had taken Geeou by surprise. He suspected that Kirito might hold him in relatively high regard for leading his own group, but Geeou never expected him to offer the position of officer. It made sense logically and politically, but it was a welcome surprise nonetheless.

"In any case, you are welcome to stay in the castle here for however long you are visiting. I am sure the viscount would agree wholeheartedly." Kizmel said with a slight bow of her head. "In fact, he is most eager to meet the humans who helped secure the Jade Key."

"Thank you, Kizmel!" Asuna said with a warm smile. "You and your people are always so hospitable. Not many would offer a place to stay, let alone their baths, to strangers."

"Nonsense, it's the least we can do." Kizmel refuted, giving a casual wave of her hand. "We have baths here as well, and you are all welcome to use them."

Geeou looked over to see Asuna and the other girls absolutely brimming with excitement, until the vice-leader herself seemed mellow as if in sudden realization.

"T-they're not mixed bathrooms, are they Kizmel?" Asuna sheepishly asked.

"I'm afraid they are, Asuna." Kizmel said with hesitation in her voice. "I apologize. I know your people are not comfortable sharing bathrooms with the opposite sex."

There was an uncomfortable silence among the Renegades as they were escorted down the hall by Kizmel. The girls seemed uncomfortable at the prospect of bathing alongside the boys, and the boys were just as uncomfortable with the suspicious looks being thrown their way.

"Why not simply stagger your bathing times?" Kizmel suggested. "For example, the women could go first, followed by the men afterward."

"Why do we have to go - " Nautilus began to object before being immediately silenced by a glare shot from Yuna. "I mean we can go after you, that's not a problem."

"Yay!" Silica abruptly shouted, instantly obliterating the awkward tension hanging in the air and causing almost everyone to jump in surprise. She immediately began to run down the hall at breakneck speed until she came to the end of a T-intersection. "Let's go then! Come on, Pina!"

"On your left, young Silica." Kizmel patiently informed her with an amused sigh. "Second door on the right."

Asuna, Yuna, Liz, and Sinon quickly took off after the dragon tamer. Geeou wasn't sure if it was mainly to keep an eye on the rambunctious girl or if they were also excited at the prospect of a bath. He suspected it was probably both, given how happy they looked chasing after Silica. That left Geeou and the rest of the male Renegades to follow after Kizmel.

"I'm surprised you're not joining them, Kizmel." Kirito said. "Asuna said you enjoyed the baths almost as much as she did."

Geeou, Leonn, and Nautilus gave curious looks over at Kirito. Even Kizmel looked amused at that little tidbit of information.

"...What?" Kirito asked, clearly feeling everyone's gazes focused on him. "We talk."

"I should escort you men to your sleeping quarters for the night first." Kizmel finally answered, giving a subtle smirk. "I'll join them later but I would not be a good host if I left you to find your room yourselves."

"Thanks, Kizmel." Kirito said. "We appreciate that."

"And thanks for the save back there." Geeou said with an awkward chuckle. Surviving in Aincrad was hard enough without having to worry about offending the fairer sex.

He did not need that kind of added pressure.

If the Renegades ever got their own guild base, a bathhouse was going to be the first thing on Asuna's wishlist.

"Ahhh…" The fencer sighed out, feeling relaxed and content in Castle Yofel's bathroom. The last time she'd had a bath was in the Dark Elf camp a couple of weeks ago, so this bathroom visit was long overdue, at least in Asuna's eyes. There was something about the sensation of immersing yourself in hot, steaming water that did wonders for the body, relieving stress and uncurling knotted muscles. Well, more accurately, Asuna supposed the bath was instead doing something for her mental health since her physical body was likely atrophying even at this moment.

"This… this was a good idea, Asuna." Sinon said with a long, comfortable sigh. Asuna and the rest of the girls had followed Silica to help her find these vaunted bathrooms and were now seated within the bath, all pretense of modesty out of the window as the five women let their stresses and worries drift away. Calling themselves women might seem a bit pretentious, but the rigors of survival forced all five girls to mentally mature a bit faster than the typical teenager. Asuna let her gaze drift over to Silica, who was similarly stewing in the bath while Pina sat atop her head. Even the little dragon tamer, whose enthusiasm and innocence was so characteristically childlike, knew when to be serious and when to be playful. Asuna inwardly winced at the reality that poor Silica would never have a normal childhood. And that was assuming she survived long enough to escape this game.

Asuna shook her head. No, she couldn't think like that. Silica was a capable fighter, and Pina would be there to help her in a pinch. She would survive.

She had to.

"Asuna?" Liz asked, bringing the fencer back to reality. "... You alright?"

"Sorry." Asuna said with a faint smile. "Just thinking, that's all."

"What about?" Liz followed up.

"Just… everything." Asuna answered vaguely, closing her eyes as she enjoyed the heat and steam of the bath.

"If you say so..." Liz trailed off, but Asuna could swear she heard the slightest bit of amusement in the blacksmith's voice.

The five of them spent quite some time sitting in comfortable silence, the only noises echoing through the chamber being the occasional sigh of relief, the scrubbing of cloth against skin, and the flapping of Pina's wings as the tiny dragon would flit about or try to rebalance itself on Silica's head.

"Hey Yuna." Asuna said, breaking the silence that hung in the bathhouse air.

"Hmm?" The songstress hummed, releasing her grip on the sponge she was using and letting it drift to the side. "What is it, Asuna?"

"If you don't mind me asking, are you a musician in real life?" The fencer asked. "I'm not trying to pry into your personal life, so you don't have to answer if you don't want to. I just… you're very good at singing and performing, so I was curious."

"I don't mind at all." Yuna replied, giving the fencer a warm smile before answering. "Yes, kind of. I don't - or didn't, I suppose - perform for others, but I have spent my whole life around music. I've always had an aptitude for music, so father enrolled me in lessons early on."

"How long?" Sinon interjected, seemingly interested in the conversation.

Yuna turned to the archer. Her eyes angled upward as if trying to recall a memory. "I've played the piano for as long as I can remember, honestly. I suppose you could call me classically trained at this point."

"Classical?" Asuna asked. "I don't think I've ever heard you play anything like that before. I didn't think SAO had pianos to play."

Yuna shook her head. "They don't - at least not yet, I imagine - but that's not why you never hear me play classical music. I was interested in playing SAO because Ei - err, Nautilus told me you could play instruments here and sing."

Asuna caught on to that slip of the tongue, but decided not to press the issue while Yuna was telling her story. She was curious, but not to the point of being rude.

"Father was always strict about my music lessons." Yuna continued. "I tried to branch out into other musical styles, but he wouldn't allow me to deviate from the piano. The opportunity to play what I wanted to who I wanted, even in here, was too much to resist. So here I am, I guess."

Asuna suddenly found a kindred spirit in Yuna. She, too, had been pressured and molded by her parents to behave a certain way. That was part of the reason why she asked her brother to let her play SAO while he was away for business. The chance to live free, albeit virtually, from the social pressures of real life had been too good to pass up.

"I'm the same way, actually." Asuna said, drawing everyone's attention over to her. "Sinon and Liz already know some of this, but to make a long story short my parents are the same way, but with academics and social customs instead of music. I also wanted the chance to escape a little every once in a while. I guess that's one silver lining to all this; we get to choose who we want to be instead of having others choose for us."

"Exactly! It's nice to meet someone who understands." Yuna said, smiling yet again. She turned to the other girls. "What about you three? What was life like for you before SAO?"

"Not really much to say about me." Liz said with a shrug. "I've always been interested in crafting things with my hands. In school, I always enjoyed art classes. Painting, ceramics; you name it, I've tried it. I heard SAO had a good crafting system, so I wanted to give it a try. Once Kayaba trapped us, I figured I could maybe put those skills to use and help make weapons for people."

"I just wanted to try what a VRMMORPG was like." Silica said as Pina glided over and landed on her head. She raised a wet hand up to scratch behind the dragonling's jaw. "It seemed like a lot of fun, getting to play like it was real life. Guess we got more than we thought, huh?"

All five girls laughed. Oh, they certainly got more than they bargained for, alright.

"What about you, Sinon?" Yuna asked. "How was life before SAO for you?"

Sinon looked visibly uncomfortable, her normally stoic exterior melting away as she nervously fidgeted with her hands. Asuna looked at the other girls, who'd noticed the same thing and looked uncomfortable at the realization that they'd unintentionally struck a nerve.

"It's OK, Sinon." Yuna quickly amended, raising her hands in a placating gesture. "You… you don't have to share."

"S-sorry." Sinon sputtered out. "It's just not easy to talk about, but I'll try."

The girls patiently waited while Sinon collected herself. The air was still and it was as if the tension in the air was personified in the thick layer of steam hanging stagnant throughout the room.

"I was bullied when I was younger for something that happened a long time ago, but I'd rather not discuss it right now." Sinon began, earning an almost simultaneous nod of understanding from the other girls in the bath. Clearly saying this much was difficult enough for Sinon, and no one wanted to make their friend more uncomfortable than she already was. "I ended up moving to where I live now when the bullying got too bad, but once the people here learned my secret, the bullying followed."

Pina got up from atop Silica's head and flew over to nestle itself in Sinon's hair. The presence of the feathered dragonling seemed to calm Sinon some. Asuna saw the archer visibly relax and reach up to stroke the familiar's side.

"As a result, I didn't have any friends. At least, not until Leonn transferred to the school." Sinon continued. "He didn't seem to mind, or care, about what happened. He was a bit of an outsider too since he came from America, so we ended up becoming friends."

"So you and Leonn know each other in real life?" Silica asked. "That's really cool!"

Sinon smiled gently. "Yeah, he was actually the one who convinced me to try SAO. I guess you could say he's the reason I'm trapped in here. I'll have to get revenge somehow, I suppose."

Asuna smiled; Sinon's special brand of sarcasm making itself known was a sign that she was becoming more comfortable with the conversation. She hoped that talking like this would be therapeutic somehow for the clearly emotionally-scarred archer.

"So… are you and Leonn… you know…?" Liz asked. Asuna could swear she saw the blacksmith flush in the face, but she wrote it off as a symptom of sitting in the bath too long.

Sinon blinked. "What? Oh, no. We're not like that. No thank you."

The girls laughed at how nonchalantly the archer dismissed any suspicion of a relationship between her and Leonn. She was so blasé about it, it was actually impressive. If someone had implied something like that about her and Kirito, Asuna would have probably gone red as a tomato.

Wait, why would it be Kirito?

"Leonn's my best friend, but that's it." Sinon said. "He's a great guy, but he's not my type."

Asuna could have sworn she saw Liz breath out a sigh but before she could say anything about it, she heard a sixth figure enter the bath waters from the opposite side. Immediately, Asuna flung her limbs inward to cover herself from this unknown sixth guest. This was a mixed bath, after all, so there could be no telling who had the audacity to join without asking. Asuna hoped and prayed that the boys hadn't gotten impatient and decided to join them. That would have been mortifying.

"I'm glad to see you all enjoying yourselves." A familiar voice rang out. Asuna whipped her head towards the voice and felt herself relax once she recognized their guest. It was Kizmel. "I trust the baths of Yofel are to your liking, then?"

"Yes, thank you again Kizmel." Asuna replied. "I don't think I'll ever get used to these bathhouses. They're so relaxing."

Kizmel gave a warm smile. "Of course; you are our guests, after all, and it's wonderful to see you and your friends again."

"Speaking of, the boys aren't waiting for us to leave, are they?" Yuna asked. "I'd hate to make them wait too long."

"Oh no, not at all." Kizmel assured them. "After I showed them to their quarters, Kirito mentioned wanting to meet with the viscount of the castle. He mentioned something about a quest?"

Asuna couldn't believe she forgot. She'd been so excited at the possibility of seeing Kizmel again, not to mention the news of another bathhouse, that she'd completely forgotten the in-game reason for coming to the castle. The Elf War campaign. According to the NPC shipwright who crafted their boat, the Fallen Elves were also building ships of their own for some reason. It all seemed suspicious to Asuna, but Kirito at the time assured her that this had to do something with the next part of the campaign. They were supposed to inform the Dark Elves of the Fallen Elves' activities.

"Kirito did mention that he wanted to speak with the viscount about some information we stumbled on." Asuna informed her. "We recently had a ship constructed for our guild to use on this floor, and the shipwright said something that was… concerning."

"Oh?" Kizmel asked, shifting her attention to focus solely on the fencer. "What did they say?"

"It wasn't so much just what he said, but what we also saw." Asuna elaborated before looking over to Sinon. "Sinon, you were there with Kirito when you saw it, right? The rest of us were busy assisting with the construction."

"I was." Sinon confirmed with a nod. "When the shipwright mentioned Fallen Elven activity at a nearby dock, we went to investigate. It looked like the Fallen and the Forest Elves were working together to make ships of their own."

Kizmel's eyes went wide. "That cannot possibly be good. The only reason those two would ever work together would be if…"

Asuna glanced up at her HUD to see that something had changed on her quest log. What once had read [Inform the Dark Elves of the plot.] had changed to something far more concerning. Asuna looked over at the rest of her party - at least those present in the bath with her - and saw looks of confusion and concern of their own on their faces.

Kizmel abruptly stood up and rushed out of the bath, hurriedly re-dressing herself as she addressed the others. "I am sorry, but this needs to be brought to the viscount's attention as soon as possible. Please forgive my sudden departure!"

With that, the Dark Elf finished dressing herself and rushed out of the bathroom. The five girls all looked around, making eye contact with one another before they too rushed out of the bathroom. Asuna was the last out the door, silently thanking Kayaba - how ironic - that leaving the water and re-equipping their gear removed any dripping water from their bodies. It'd be incredibly embarrassing and frankly poor timing if any of them were to slip and fall as they ran through the hallway. However, they had much more pressing issues than slipping and falling. They needed to get to the others.

The Dark Elf was right.

This was not good.

"I wish the girls would hurry up…" Nautilus sighed out.

Kirito looked over at the ashen-haired swordsman and gave a smirk. Shortly after being escorted to their room by Kizmel, Kirito had decided to take them over to see the viscount and continue the Elf War campaign quest. After all, what else were they going to do until the girls finished their bath? There wasn't much else to do around the castle aside from sight-seeing, and they could just as easily do that on their way to the viscount. Now, the quartet were walking down a hallway to their destination; off to their left were a series of windows that overlooked the courtyard below.

"If they're anything like Asuna, they're going to be a while." Kirito said with a little chuckle.

"Just be patient, dude." Leonn added, reaching over and lightly slapping Nautilus on the back. "Unless you wanna be the one to barge in on them and try to kick them out. Let me know how that goes."

Nautilus visibly blanched at the suggestion. "Point taken."

"How long have you all known Asuna?" Geeou asked suddenly, catching Kirito off-guard for a moment.

In the half-second it took Kirito to properly process the question, Leonn had stepped in to answer. "We met Asuna on the 1st floor in the labyrinth. Poor girl had run herself ragged killing kobolds."

"What do you mean?" Geeou asked.

Kirito frowned at the memory. Compared to the Asuna he knew now, that Asuna back then just seemed so… different, and not in a good way, either. The Asuna of over a month ago was reckless and had little to no sense of self-preservation. She had no hope for the future and had resigned herself to her own eventual death. She was inexperienced and careless, traits that were commonly found in someone brand new to VRMMORPGs.

Unfortunately, those traits were also common among the dead.

"Back then, she was still a new player and made a lot of mistakes. Costly ones, too." Kirito began to explain, his brow furrowing at the displeasure of having to relive the memory of watching her struggle against those kobolds, not to mention against herself. "She spammed skills instead of supplementing them with unassisted strikes, for example."

"... so she ended up exhausting herself. That makes sense." Geeou seemed to realize. "I did the same thing back when I started."

"Exactly." Kirito said with a nod. "It was hard to see her like that, honestly. She ended up collapsing on the floor of the labyrinth and we had to take her out of there ourselves."

"I think you mean you took her out of there yourself." Leonn corrected him. "Sinon and I just kept watch. You were the one to actually carry her out of there."

"No wonder the two of you are so close." Geeou said with a faint smile. Nautilus seemed to agree, if his expression was anything to go off of.

"We're not that close." Kirito refuted. Just because they got along didn't necessarily mean they were close. Sure, he'd selected Asuna as his vice-leader, but that was because he trusted her. Right?

"Dude." Leonn said, bringing Kirito's attention over to the maul user. "You and her are always fighting side-by-side, no matter what we're facing. Illfang. Asterius. Nerius. Hell, even the trash mobs on every floor, you two are always fighting together."

Thinking back, Kirito couldn't say that he was wrong, actually. Even if he and Asuna were fighting on opposite sides of the battlefield, one always knew where the other was at all times. When it came to switching, Asuna seemed to move in before Kirito could finish speaking the phrase, and the same applied to when he switched in. He couldn't really explain it. It was instinctual.

It just felt right. Maybe they were close, in one sense at least.

"I guess so." Kirito reluctantly agreed. "We do work well together, even if we're at each other's throats sometimes."

Leonn raised an eyebrow at Kirito before looking forward down the hallway. "Did we pass it or something? There's no way the castle's this big."

Kirito stopped in his tracks and took stock of his surroundings, as did everyone else. All four started looking around, desperately looking for some sort of indication of where they were in the castle. Kirito quickly realized that yes, they had, in fact, gotten lost somewhere along the way. Kirito kicked himself; he was the one leading the way and now he got them lost. He'd never had problems navigating inside games, so this was something unusual for him.

How had he gotten so distracted?

"Hey Kirito?" Nautilus asked. Kirito looked over to see his fellow swordsman looking up in the corner of his vision. "Didn't you say we needed to talk to the viscount to move forward with the quest?"

"Yeah…" Kirito trailed off. He did not like where this was going.

"And the girls are busy in the bath, right?" Nautilus continued.

"In theory, yes." Kirito answered. The girls could have gotten out of the bath by now, but knowing Asuna's absolute love of baths, that wasn't likely. On top of that, Kirito was not about to go barging into the bathroom just to check on them; that would amount to suicide, and Kirito very much wanted to survive the death game.

"Then why did the quest update just now?" The ashen-haired boy asked, his eyes focusing on Kirito.

What?

Kirito looked up and focused on his HUD only to find that the quest log had indeed changed. As various Dark Elf NPCs began to shuffle past them in what amounted to a panic, Kirito's eyes grew wide at the new message that was now displayed. Kirito ran over to the nearest window and looked outside. Below was the courtyard and the long stretch of road that led down to the front gates and, ultimately, the docks. Standing in the courtyard were Kizmel and Asuna, who seemed to be jointly issuing orders and commands to the NPC soldiers and the rest of the female Renegades, respectively. Around them was a flurry of activity as the guards and soldiers seemed to be preparing for something in a hurry.

"Well color me impressed." Kirito heard Leonn say off to the side. "Looks like making her vice-lead was a good choice after all. She's already taken command."

"We need to get down there." Kirito said with finality. He sped off down the hallway where he could see a handful of soldiers descending what appeared to be a stairwell. "Let's go!"

Kirito ran down the stairwell, slipping past the guardsmen who had preceded him. Glancing back, he saw Leonn, Nautilus, and Geeou keeping pace with him, albeit shoving their way through the guards and soldiers. He hoped he'd get there in time. Asuna seemed to have taken control of the situation, but there was no way Kirito was going to leave her on her own, or the rest of his guild for that matter. Knowing that his guildmates were right behind him, Kirito glanced back up again at his quest log on the HUD, where an ominous message displayed.

[Prepare the defenses. Forest Elf attack begins in 3 minutes, 17 seconds.]