Sword Art Online and The World Ends with You are not owned by me, but this is a work of my own creation. Please do not take any ideas without permission.
-§-
Neku slowly stirred when his alarm went off. Rolling out of the bed, Neku double checked his equipment was in order before exiting. As he expected at this point, Asuna, ever the punctual party member, waited patiently in the main lobby, giving him a wave as he entered. Kirito came down a minute or two later, rubbing his eyes sleepily.
"So what's the plan?" asked Neku as the three exited the inn.
"Food…" muttered Kirito and he started to walk towards the nearby cuisine kiosks.
"Wait, what's happening over there?" asked Asuna as she pointed. Neku frowned before watching a group of people running. While their pace was quick, their faces were not serious, so while it was not an emergency, something of interest was definitely taking place. Neku frowned when he strained to listen, he could hear a lot of voices in that direction. "We should investigate," Asuna prompted before jogging away. Kirito let out a pitiful groan, but followed her shortly after. Neku sighed before slowly bringing up the rear. Turning the corner of the building, the three were greeted to the sight of a large crowd gathered around the dock.
"I don't like the looks of this," muttered Kirito as they came to the edge of the crowd. Neku was inclined to agree. As they had gotten closer, the voices had become clearer and it did not take long for the three to recognize them.
"Get out of our way!" screamed Kibou, head of the ALS. "We saw the boat first, we have the right to investigate it first!"
"Would you be quiet?" asked Lind, leader of the DKB, "Our group has already started their investigation. Wait your turn."
"Turn?!" Kibou sputtered indignantly, "You're talking about turns when we got here first! Mind your own damn business and let us investigate!"
"Of course it's those guys,"Kirito groaned, "I am not ready to deal with this right now."
"We don't really have a choice," Asuna said, "look at what they are arguing over." Kirito glanced over and deflated even more. In between the two arguing guilds was the Tilnel, the boat they had just gotten yesterday.
"Any chance they will just go away?" muttered Kirito.
"Sure they will." cut in Neku as he scowled, "Those two morons will argue until one of them gets to investigate, then the other will get to investigate, if we let them do that, it will only take half the day." Kirito winced at Neku's acerbic tone, but the headphones-wearing boy wasn't done. "I wouldn't be surprised if their 'investigations' involved whacking it a bunch."
"They...they wouldn't do that," Asuna said slowly, "Would they?" Her only answer was a pointed look from Neku. The rapier user wheeled on Kirito, "We just made that boat! We need to do something!"
"Wait," Kirito said, "Even if they hit it a bunch, it should be an immortal object, right?" Neku frowned at the question.
"I actually can't recall…" The orange-haired swordsman muttered, "it was so late when we got back that I didn't really look at all the menu specifications, though I definitely saw a durability meter. It's possible that it is immortal while moored. We can take a chance and let them 'investigate' if you want." Kirito bit his lip before looking between their new boat and all the weapons of the DKB and the ALS. As the lead clearers of the game, every single weapon was high tier.
"Yeah… we definitely can't let that happen," The black haired boy muttered, "no choice but to reveal ourselves as the owners." Neku shook his head.
"Bad idea," the orange haired player said, "all that will do is stall us as we are forced to explain how we got it. And considering Kibou's ego, he might force us to help him make a boat of the same quality just to make sure we don't outdo the ALS."
"Never thought politics would come to play in an VMMORPG," said Kirito with a groan, "So, have any suggestions Neku? How are we going to get our ship while preventing them from stalling us?" Neku rolled his eyes.
"Simple, follow my lead." With those words he slowly backed up, his two companions following him. "Run on three." Neku said as he slowly lowered his posture.
"Not this again…" muttered Asuna, but she prepared regardless.
"One...Two…" said Neku before his eyes sharpened, "THREE!"
Kirito let out a sharp whistle instantly, causing all nearby players to turn in their direction, before they hurriedly got out of their way. The three dashed down the docks forcing the two guilds to leap to the sides. Neku and Kirito jumped into the boat with Asuna following as soon as she untethered the gondola from the docks. As soon as the two arguing guild leaders figured out what was going on, they started to shout at the group to stop, but it was far too late.
"You guys again!" spat Kibou as the three slowly drifted away from the dock, "Don't you three think that you guys can get ahead of us!" All the other members of the two guilds called out similar sentiments. Neku just rolled his eyes.
"The guide to build your ship can be bought by Argo," Kirito called out as Neku angled the boat away from them, "sit tight until then!"
"Why you little!" growled Kibou as he went into his menu and materialized his fruit pool inflatable. "I'll chase you down and-" His last words were lost as Neku activated the Tilnel's boost feature. A geyser erupted from behind them and water doused the dock and all the players on it in freezing water. The boat sped away, down one of the canals and soon enough the dock was out of sight. Neku quickly brought up the Tilnel's menu and looked up all the parameters. The ship, as he had guessed, was not invincible. It would only stay afloat as long as it had durability, so things like crashes, damage by large monsters, or even battles with other boats would lower it. Fortunately, it could be restored by visiting a shipwright or if one was experienced enough, use their own carpentry skill. However, it was invulnerable when it was moored and unmanned, so in the previous situation it would have been fine. He relayed that to the group, and while Kirito was happy about it, Asuna bemoaned their situation.
"That could have been handled better," Asuna said as she looked back at Kirito and Neku, "We certainly aren't making friends with that stunt."
"Does it matter?" asked Neku as he titled the oar, guiding their gondola through another waterway, "Kibou and his group are going to hate us, no matter what we do, Kirito and I are both Beta-Testers or Beaters, or whatever they call us. Let's not worry about that for now, where are we going for now?" As if to answer his question, Kirito's stomach growled.
"Hehe… How about some food?" Kirito asked, scratching the back of his head." All Neku could do was sigh.
-§-
"This is so good!" said Kirito as he took another bite of his fish-themed pizza. Neku rolled his eyes and focused back on his menu while taking another bite of his sandwich. The group had cut across the town and found a food stall sequestered away between some buildings. Hopefully, it would shield them from prying eyes until they were done with their meal. Unfortunately, that plan failed.
"YO! Kirito! Asuna! Phones! How's it going?!" Neku groaned mentally as an overly loud voice echoed throughout the area. The group looked in the direction of the sound to see Beat and Rhyme walking towards them, Beat waving frantically while Rhyme smiled.
"Nice to see you three," the younger girl chirped as she drew near, "The new floor is certainly pretty, don't you think?"
"Yeah!" Asuna gushed, "it is so much like Venice!" The two girls started a conversation on the aesthetics of the new floor. Beat, in a show of either maturity, or boredom, left the two girls to their chat, instead of butting in. Unfortunately, that meant that Neku and Kirito had to deal with him instead. Beat wrapped his arm around Kirito's neck and pulled him close. He also tried to do it to Neku, but he had ducked out before he was trapped.
"How are you two doing?" the blond boy asked with a huge grin, "Me and Rhyme have gotten much stronger since we last met. The elf campaign certainly was a huge EXP dump for the both of us." Neku's eyes widened before he asked.
"Hey Beat, the last quest, that you had to defeat that Fallen Elf Commander, you two have any trouble with it?"
'You're kidding right?" Beat barked out a laugh, "That guy went down like a ton of bricks, no sweat. Why? you guys have trouble with it?"
"Not really," Neku deflected, "Just was interested is all."
"Oh!" Kirito cut in, "That reminds me, I didn't see you two at the 3rd floor boss fight, what happened?" Beat actually grimaced and released Kirito from his hold.
"That was on me." Beat said as he kicked the ground in frustration. "Rhyme had told me that we had to hurry up if we wanted to make the boss raid group. I was an idiot though and wasted time on a pointless side quest. We turned out missing the raid by a few hours."
"Sorry to hear that," said Kirito, giving him a pained smile, "but I'm sure that Rhyme doesn't blame you."
"She doesn't" Beat confirmed, "But it still frustrates me for wasting her time like that, we were grinding as much as possible to get on the raid team." Beat bit his lip, "I never should have listened to that guy in a black cloak." Neku raised an eyebrow.
"Guy in a black cloak?" Neku asked slowly, "What do you mean?"
"Just what it sounds like Phones," Beat said, "Some guy approached me and told me that there was this super secret quest that would net us a huge amount of experience, and it was super quick and easy to do." Beat snorted, "While it was easy, it wasn't quick at all, and the item and experience point pay off was poor as well." Kirito suddenly stilled while Beat was talking.
"Neku… You don't think that these are the same guys who talked to the Legend Braves guild… do you?" Kirito asked.
"What are you-" Neku took a sharp breath as he put together what Kirito was insinuating, "It must have been, they were trying to weaken the raid group again, by getting rid of Beat and Rhyme, they weakened the clearing effort."
"Exactly," Kirito said as he clenched his fist, "Though we are lucky they only did that."
"They didn't have time to do anything else," Neku hissed, "They already tried to MPK you at the elf camp, and since that fell through, they had to resort to other measures."
"But why weaken the raid group?" Kirito asked furiously, "doing that will only make it longer for us to get out of this game."
"You two ok?" asked Beat as he crossed his arms, "You guys are losing me." The two ignored the blond haired player as their minds raced at this new implication. If there was really a group that was trying to slow down or even stop the progression of the clearing of Sword Art Online, what could they do to stop it? Should they announce it? Would that incite panic?
"Wow… you guys look like you're in really deep thought, did Beat say something profound?" The two looked at the girl who had spoken. Asuna tilted her head to the side, "what? Did I say something weird?"
-§-
"I thought so as well," Rhyme said after Kirito and Neku finished their explanation regarding the cloaked player Beat had met. "I had hoped that it was just a coincidence, but if both Neku and Kirito both think so, then this is a bigger problem than we imagined."
"So, you guys are saying that this guy tricked me to weaken the clearing effort?" asked Beat. When everyone nodded, Beat continued, "That's messed up! I'ma beat that crap out of that bastard the next time I see him."
"Hold on Beat!" Rhyme chided, "You told me that you didn't get a good look at the player's face. You don't know what they look like so there is not a lot we can do about it now. The best we can do is be more careful in the future." Asuna nodded.
"Rhyme's right Beat," the chestnut-haired girl said, "The best thing you can do right now is learn from this mistake. You don't know if or when you will be targeted next, so you need to stay vigilant."
"Don't worry Asuna," Beat said as he cracked his knuckles, "When the chips are down, I can be as violent as the best of them." Rhyme paled.
"Vigilant! Not Violent! Beat you cannot become a Red Player!" Rhyme said and she held onto Beat's clothes, "Asuna is staying that we should always be prepared."
"Oh gotcha," said Beat, giving the others a thumbs up, "I got it now." Somehow, Neku doubted that. Rhyme certainly had her work cut out for her. Taking control of the conversation, he took the opportunity to steer it into different waters.
"You guys want to get your own boat?" he asked, causing the two blond players to turn to him, "We already have a gondola of our own. It is proving to be quite a benefit to move around without waiting in line and paying for a ride."
"Yes please!" Rhyme said as her eyes sparked, "Though you said you have your own right? Can we take a look?" The group nodded and a minute or two later, the five players were near the moored ship.
"It's beautiful," whispered Rhyme as she rubbed the side of the boat, "and it had such an exotic name, "Tilnel…where did you get such a name?" The three look at each other silently. Which one among them would explain that the name had been from an NPC's sister. Finally Asuna spoke.
"A friend of ours had a sister… we named the boat after her in her honor." the girl spoke quietly. Rhyme took the hint and did not dig farther. Beat, for all his boisterousness, seemed to be impressed with the boat as well.
"Aww yeah! This thing is hella tight!" Beat said as he looked at it, "how fast does it go?" Kirito shrugged.
"It goes at a good speed," the black-haired boy said, before adding, "Unless we use the boost feature, then it gets pretty fast."
"Boost feature?" asked Beat with a grin, "Now that is something I need to experience for myself."
"If that wouldn't be too much of a hassle," added Rhyme quickly, "we don't want to waste your time or anything like that."
"I don't think it would be that bad," Asuna stated, "Do either of you mind?" she asked, looking at her other two companions.
"I don't mind," Neku said, "but who is driving them around?" The other two just looked at him with raised eyebrows.
"Neku," Kirito stated, "you're the only one who has driven the boat."
"And we promised Mr. Romolo that we wouldn't crash it," added Asuna, "aren't you really the only choice?"
That was how Neku was forced to ferry the two siblings around the city. While Neku was away, Kirito and Asuna assured him that they would be contacting Argo about the shipbuilding quest, so they would not be idle.
"This is so much fun!" Rhyme cheered as Neku turned the gondola down another waterway, "This certainly beats waiting in line all day to get a ride. How are the controls though, are they complicated?"
"Not really," said Neku as he maneuvered the oar, "it is pretty straightforward, and it gets easier with practice."
"Don't know if I could handle something like that." Beat muttered as he looked around, "Would rather have a personal NPC driver that just ferries us from place to place." Neku rolled his eyes.
"Nice luck with the rest of the floor then," Neku said, "The NPC gondolas don't go out of town."
"Bwaaah!?" cried Beat, "You for real!? How are we supposed to move around then?!" Rhyme gave Beat a patient smile.
"Beat, we can make our own boat, remember?" Beat nodded at Rhymes' words, but the girl then turned back to Neku, "Are you sure they don't travel out of town?" Neku frowned.
"It was one of the first things I asked when I got into town, why do you ask?" Neku said as he steered the boat around the perimeter of the city.
"Because we've seen some ships leave the city, like that one." Rhyme said as she pointed. Neku looked up and lo and behold, a gondola was breaking away from the city and travelling out toward the field. This one was particularly large, larger than the ten person gondolas meant for tours then Neku had seen around the city. It was heavily stacked with a multitude of wooden boxes. There were three people as well, the gondolier, obviously, but at the prow were two overly buff NPC, each carrying an oversized dagger. Neku scrunched his eyebrows.
"That's stange, I know for a fact that you can't use an NPC gondola outside, so I just assumed that they don't leave. Neku's eyes widened. The exact wording of the NPC when he was asked if anything would go out of the city was "I cannot answer that question." He had initially assumed that the NPC didn't understand his question, but maybe those words had meant something else. Neku opened his quest log and selected the "Shipwright of Yore'' quest that he thought they had already completed. A new line had been added at the bottom.
The boats of the water carriers guild are acting strange. Talk to the old craftsman again.
"Sorry you two!" said Neku as he yanked the oar and swiftly banked into another channel back to where Kirito and Asuna were waiting for them, "I just unlocked the next part of a quest, I need to get back."
"That's fine," Rhyme said with an understanding smile, "Thank you for showing us your boat." Neku nodded.
"Hold on tight! I am going to use the boost function." The siblings nodded and clamped onto the sides of the ship. A geyser erupted behind the boat and Beat's howls of excitement were heard throughout the city.
-§-
"This is definitely weird," Kirito said as the three of them finally emerged back onto the waterways of Rovia after talking with Old man Romolo, "I expected more answers, but all we were left with was more questions." Neku couldn't help but agree. The information that the Old Shipwright had was very limited. All they suggested was to follow the same ship that Neku, Rhyme and Beat had seen, the gondola filled with wooden boxes. The only caveat was that they had to follow it at a distance since these suspicious gondolas also had guards.
"It is what it is," Neku said, "We don't have a lot of options except follow the gondola right?" Neku leaned the oar and the gondola sped down another channel.
"Wait!" cried out Asuna, "You're going the wrong way, the gondola appears in the southeast quadrant!" Kirito interrupted before Neku could respond.
"He is taking us to the shopping district. We might not have used too many items while fighting the Bear King, but we should resupply to be safe." A look of realization overcame Asuna's features and she nodded, but Kirito wasn't done. "Also, we were talking about upgrading some of our gear, and speaking of that, isn't it about time you upgraded some of your things yourself? You've had that breastplate since the second floor." Asuna looked down at her armor.
"I don't want anything too heavy," Asuna admitted, "It would compromise on my fighting style."
"You can get studded leather instead of the stuff you have now," stated Neku from the back of the boat, "There must be a better breastplate as well, yours is bronze right? They must have iron or even steel available."
"You know, I am appreciative of your concern, but may I point out that you two only have leather and cloth as your armor? Shouldn't you two consider a new mode of defense?"
"Can't," Neku stated bluntly, "or rather, won't, not at this time," at Asuna's questioning glance, Kirito elaborated.
"Any metal armor has weight to it, but the skills, like your light metal armor skill, offset that weight depending on how high the skill is. Both Neku and I cannot risk being weighed down by metal armor, and at the current time, I doubt either of us has room for an armor skill." A nod from Neku confirmed the black haired boy's statement. "We mitigate this slightly with our choice of weapon, since we can block and parry with it, something that your rapier cannot handle with its lower durability."
"Either way," Neku cut in, "We will see what is available. Nobody can have too large a safety margin, so if we see something that is worth buying, we'll get it." Asuna nodded happily at Neku's statement. The orange-haired player shrugged and maneuvered the craft forward towards the shopping district.
Once their ship was tied down the group started to walk through the streets browsing through wares that NPCs displayed in their stalls on the side of the road.
"Hmm, nothing is really jumping out at me," said Asuna as she returned from yet another NPC's store, "All the equipment is too low tier for an upgrade."
"We have only been checking out stalls," commented Kirito, "Those usually hold lower tier equipment but at a more manageable price than the floors before. If you want to find any better gear, we actually need to enter a shop." Asuna scowled.
"Then why are we strolling around here?" Asuna said with annoyance, "Let's just enter a shop and get going!"
"What he isn't telling you is that we might be able to find something of use." Neku said as he came up behind them, "The general rule is as Kirito said, but there is always a chance that they might have something that is unexpectedly useful." Asuna's eyes sparkled.
"Like a rare item?" the girl asked as she looked back across the marketplace with renewed interest. Neku rolled his eyes.
"If you are expecting to find a SSR item, then let me stop you there," the headphone wearing boy said, "I said unexpectedly useful, not some sort of rare hidden gem. It could be a ring that raises agility by one or some gloves that increase your strength parameter by two. The probability of finding something like that is low, especially on such a low floor, but with SAO as it is, I wouldn't put it past Kayaba to add some additional items at the last minute."
"Hey now," said the black-haired boy, "That isn't all I'm looking for. There is a chance there is a player owned shop," At Asuna's questioning look, Kirito elaborated, "Player made gear is much better than usual store bought goods, if you would remember the equipment we received from Shiki and Eri were better than your gear you had before." Asuna's eyes brightened at Kirito's comment.
"Hey! How about we go and buy gear from them?" Asuna suggested whirling around to face her two party members, "If my new gloves are anything to go by, they can make clearer level gear already, so there would not be any problems in quality."
"You do realize that we have a schedule to keep right?" asked Kirito as he crossed his arms, "We don't have time to go down to the lower floors and look around for them." Asuna slumped in dejection.
"I should have friended them when I had the chance…" she muttered, "I should next time I see them."
"Come one, Come all! We're selling all your tailoring needs!" A femanine voice broke through the silence, "We have armor! We have stylish outfits! We have household items and more! See what you like and…"
"That voice is awfully familiar." Neku said as he turned his head towards the noise. The trio slowly made their way through the crowd, finally coming upon the source of the noise. Eri stood in front of a wooden kiosk, advertising various wares and items. Shiki herself sat behind the kiosk ready to finalize the purchases of any interested players. There was a blanket that sat next to the kiosk filled with a plethora of different goods. Most were, expectedly, clothes that ranged from coats, dresses, skirts, gloves and even leather helmets. There were, however, a number of non-battle related items lined up. Pillows, blankets, and even an assortment of dolls sat innocently on the blanket. The dolls were surprisingly expansive with at least ten different styles. There were the common designs for dogs, cats, rabbits, and obviously bears, as well as more exotic styles such as penguins and llamas. The stall was crowded, much to Neku's displeasure, so the three only stood on the outer edge of the ring that had formed around them.
"Wow, they're doing pretty well for themselves," Kirito commented as he looked at the crowd, "With this many people they are going to sell out of their stock in no time."
"I don't think everyone here is going to purchase something, though they are here to certainly peruse the…" Neku paused before speaking, "goods."
"The what?" asked Kirito before catching onto what Neku meant and frowning, "Oh...I see what you mean." A closer inspection at the surrounding crowd showed that the multitude of guys were not looking at the wares for sale, but at the girls selling them. It was not a surprising notion. Female players were much less common than male players and both girls were fairly pretty. One had a bubbly, energetic personality while the other one had a shy, demure disposition. Even then, there were concepts such as common courtesy that some of the players were refusing to follow. The leers of some of the players were fairly obvious and Eri and Shiki knew about it as well. You could tell Eri's smile and cheer were forced and Shiki's posture was much more defensive than usual.
"These bastards," Asuna hissed, "come on, we need to do something about this." a hand on her shoulder stopped her before she could advance more.
"What exactly do you plan to do?" asked Neku, "by causing a commotion, we may chase away those unsavory players, but it may chase away all this potential business that they drew up as well. Nobody sticks around for a shouting match." Asuna opened her mouth, doubtless to argue judging from the expression on her face, but Neku cut her off with another statement, "Asuna, we can't stop every unsavory person that approaches them. Like it or not, they will need to figure out a way to deal with it." Asuna frowned at Neku's cynical view, and made to retort, but her words were ultimately lost as arms from behind him suddenly grabbed his arm.
"Neku! You came to see us!" Eri cheered, "Come on! Come on! Let me show you the stuff we are selling!" With those words Neku was dragged away from his two party members towards the front of the crowd. If Neku had not known the situation Eri and Shiki were in, and how their close proximity was nothing more than an act to dissuade the predatory gazes, he would have hit the harassment warning pop-up and sent Eri to jail almost instantly when it appeared, even then, the 'yes' button was tempting. "I'm really sorry about this," muttered Eri as she dragged him up to the stand, "But we couldn't think of anything else." Neku sighed but didn't say anything, instead turning fully to greet the two entrepreneurs.
"You two have certainly drawn quite a crowd," Neku said as he motioned around. He idly noticed some of the males in the crowd giving him death glares, but he ignored them, "how is business going?" Shiki gave a nervous laugh as she tapped her two index fingers together.
"We were doing well on the lower floors," the black-haired girl said, "so we thought it was a good idea to capitalize on the rush of visitors to the new floor. It started out well, but the amount of guys coming and just staring just kept increasing…" she finished in a whisper causing Neku to wince. He certainly could sympathize with too much attention, even more so when it was unwanted.
"Well, in spite of the unwanted attention," Eri cut in with a smile, "we certainly got much more commissions than we usually do. And we even worked with some rarer materials. But we are going to shut down for the day, could you stay with us as we pack up?" At this point, his two wayward companions had finally come up behind him.
"Actually, if you wouldn't mind..." Asuna asked hesitantly, "could you do some things for us?" Eri's smile brightened significantly, and sparkles appeared in her eyes.
"Absolutely!" the red haired girl exclaimed as she grabbed both of Asuna's hands in her own, "What do you need? Do you have your own materials? What is your budget? What color are you looking for?"
"Eri! Please calm down," Shiki said as she shook the other girl's shoulder, "you're getting too excited!" Eri blushed and coughed into her hand before regaining her composure.
"Sorry about that," the red haired player said before her eyes brightened and she swept her hand behind her, "Welcome to Thread of the Heart. How can we help you?"
The five players immediately started discussing what they needed and while it was no surprise that Eri and Shiki could not make the steel breastplate Asuna was after, they could make another skirt for her. Specifically she could get a plated leather skirt. When discussing materials, Neku brought up that they still had some Fire Bear's fur that had not been used to make the gondola. Intrigued, the two seamstresses asked to see the material and were over the moon when they saw how good it was. There was enough for Asuna's skirt so the girls got working on it immediately. The boys ordered items as well. A new pair of black boots for Kirito as well as a blue shirt for Neku.
The world of SAO oversimplified skills into easily manageable tasks. Even the creation of a sword was as simple as heating up materials, taking out the ingot and striking it with a hammer ten times. In this case, Shiki and Eri only need to make some stitches and the material would glow before transforming into the desired item. However, the speed of Shiki's stitches spoke of a long time skill honed far before coming into the game. Kirito picked up on this too.
"I know asking about real life is a touchy subject," the black haired boy said carefully and the trio of players received their requested items, "But you wouldn't have sewed in real life… did you?" if the black haired girl was offended at Kirito's faux pas she didn't show it. Instead, she smiled warmly.
"Yes" Shiki said while nodding, "I loved sewing before I started playing SAO. Designing clothes has been my dream for as long as I have known Eri. It was something that Eri and I did everyday if we could help it." Eri blew a raspberry.
"Oh please, I hardly stitched anything, you were always so much better." Eri said.
"That is why I was so happy you told me about the tailoring skill Neku," Shiki looked directly at Neku, before looking away with a blush, "This helped me ground myself in SAO. Even in an uncontrollable situation like this, I can still do something that I love. I really can't thank you enough for this." Neku was never one for such heartfelt emotion, even when not directed at him.
"Uh… umm no problem," Neku said while looking away and rubbing the back of his head, "glad I could help?" Eri seemed to delight in Neku's embarrassment. She leaned over and whispered something to Shiki. Whatever she said however, caused the black-haired girl's face to light up and she started to slap Eri repeatedly. The red-haired seamstress just giggled at her friend's futile attempts. After Shiki calmed down, the two started to pack up their stall and the crowd dispersed slowly. Any lingering players with ulterior motives were chased away courtesy of Neku's and Asuna's glares. Eventually the two bid the three farewell and departed, but not before sending the group friend requests.
"Well," Asuna said proudly as she did a small pirouette, causing her new skirt to flutter out around her, "I'd say that was a very successful endeavour." Neku definitely agreed with Asuna. Her skirt not only raised her overall defense, but had an extra bonus. The new piece of clothing granted a small amount of fire resistance as well, due to the Fire Bear's fur that was used. The shirt Neku had gotten had raised his defense and Kirito's boots gave a +2 agility bonus.
"Once we get your steel breastplate we should be set." said Kirito as he started to walk away. Their resident rapier user nodded before smirking and walking up to Neku.
"You know," the girl said with a smirk, "That girl, Shiki? She likes you." Neku snorted.
"Please, you must be blind if you think something like that." the orange-haired swordsman said, waving off her comment, "Let's get going." As the three walked down the streets, Neku internally laughed at Asuna's comment. He was a loner, nobody could ever develop feelings for him...right?
-§-
This chapter was supposed to be released a week ago. Unfortunately, I was confined to bed for two days due to sickness. Then took the rest of the week to recover, and fortunately I am fine now. This chapter was difficult to write. I initially wanted to go much further in the story, since the outline I was following did not flesh out details related to the town itself. While mulling it over however, I came up with the idea of having Beat and Rhyme return. One thing led to another and I figured Eri and Shki would make an appearance as well. Overall I am satisfied with how the chapter turned out.
As always, leave a review if you enjoyed it, or comment on how I could do better.