"Liz? Liz! Liz!"

I could hear Fin saying my name, but it was as though he were calling me from miles away, his voice a scarcely audible echo in the cacophony of blood thumping past my ears. It was only when he shook my shoulders roughly that I saw him, brow furrowed, scrutinizing my features closely. His was a face of keen concern; mine was, I surmised, simply pure, unbridled shock.

"What happened?" he hissed.

"I… I…" I tried to get the words out, but I could barely muster a whimper. "I… I saw…"

His look slowly changed to one of understanding. "Someone you knew?"

I nodded, gulping and gasping for breath. A steel chain had wrapped itself tightly around my chest, constricting my lungs, squeezing my heart. No matter how much I sucked in the virtual air, it did not seem like enough. Every inhalation was shallow, unfulfilling, an act of desperation that only fueled the distress rapidly welling up in my chest.

"Let's get you out of here first. C'mon Wing, we're leaving." He took my hand in his, pulling me away from the crowd, many of whom had turned to stare at us as we departed. My fingers were numb and I was far too weak to relinquish his grip, so I let him drag me away, out of the suffocating environs of the domed chamber and back into the open space of the plaza. Yet as we re-entered the sunlight, the prior warmth I felt did not return, instead being replaced by an inexplicable chill that seeped outwards from within, an iciness that could never be thawed again.

A tiny part of my soul forced my eyes to search the plaza and see if I could spot that swaying black ponytail, perhaps allowing me to convince myself that what I had just witnessed had been nothing but a daydream. But the image of the crossed-out name filled my vision, painting the world around me, taunting me with its horrifying truth. Beyond it, I could see precious little else.

I had only known Rimi for the better part of a few hours, and ordinarily that would not have been enough to make much of an impression, if any. Yet these were not ordinary circumstances, and Rimi had been no ordinary person. She had been cheerful and sanguine even when she'd had every reason not to be so. At the very least, she had shown me the way forward. It was telling that my first though upon waking up this morning had been to find her, to cling onto the modicum of friendship that might have blossomed between us.

Her broad and somewhat mischievous smile was the one thing I remembered most about her appearance. It was, I knew, also something that I would never see again.

So preoccupied was I with wallowing in my overwhelming sorrows that I failed to notice a sharp tapping on my shoulder. The tapping grew into a series of increasingly persistent jabs and pokes that, eventually, even I could not ignore.

"Fancy seein' ya here."

My joints, which had been made rigid by panic, were freed so suddenly that I almost collapsed into a puddle on the ground. I whipped my head around to find that smile, the expression that I had been holding on to lest I lose it forever, shining brightly just inches away from my face.

I rubbed my eyes as hard as I could, but the mirage didn't go away.

"W-what…" I stammered, feeling a wholly different type of shock overtake my psyche. "R-Rimi?!"

"Who else?" Rimi grinned, and the shackles around my heart were immediately melted. "Y'look like ya just saw a ghost-"

Before I could stop myself, I had thrown my arms around her neck, pressing my face into her shoulder, tears leaking uncontrollably from the corners of my eyes. Rimi, clearly stunned by my embrace, gradually placed her hands on my back, rubbing it gently.

"What's up with ya?" she muttered. "Yer embarrasin' me in front of the crowd."

"I-I thought… I thought you were dead," I warbled.

"Me? Dead?" Rimi laughed heartily, though she seemed to be doing so in order to hide her confusion. "I ain't goin' anywhere soon – this game won't be killin' me just yet. What made ya think that?"

"Your name… I saw your name on the… the tablet."

"On the Monument of Life?" Rimi untangled herself from me and nodded in the direction of the chamber, her expression belying a tinge of worry. "Show me."

We returned to the base of the tablet, where the crowd had thinned somewhat, having had their fill of seeing their names laid bare on the obsidian. Wordlessly, I pointed up at the spot where I had seen Rimi's name crossed out…

…only to find a name that, though similar in certain respects, turned out to be a different word altogether upon closer inspection. It seemed that I had not only neglected to double-check, but also missed the mark entirely to begin with.

"'Puni'?" Rimi's forehead scrunched into a frown. "The hell's that?"

I could sense that my ears and cheeks were beginning to glow red. Despair was rapidly giving way to embarrassment, and I went from feeling as though the ground was sinking under my feet, to wishing I could actually be swallowed into the earth. Rimi's smile switched from one of bemusement to one of unbridled entertainment. She snorted, and that, too, swiftly morphed into a full-bellied chortle. A particularly awkward moment, considering the somber and sorrowful mood of those around us, most of whom glared at Rimi as she continued creasing up.

"Y-ya thought…" she spluttered amidst spurts of laughter, "that was my name? That looks nothin' like mine! D'ya need glasses on or somethin'?"

"You're being too loud," I mumbled.

"Bet. Sorry 'bout that." She raised a hand in apology. "Let's be leavin'. It ain't a place for laughin', but I just… just ain't help myself."

"It's fine." In a way, seeing her filled with such mirth over my glaring mistake was cathartic. Rimi was here, and she was how she'd always been. "I'm happy as long as you're alive, Rimi."

"Don't be gettin' sappy on me," Rimi huffed, though she then curled her arm around my shoulder and pulled me close, giving me a few hard pats on the arm. "C'mon Lizzy, brighten up. Whaddya say about lunch?"

"Shall we all go together then?" asked Fin, who had just caught up to us, Wing in tow behind him.

Rimi tiled her head quizzically. "Who are ya?"

"Oh, right," I said quickly. "He's a friend I met out in the field today. His name's Fin, and that's his sister, Wing."

"Do you mind if I join you?" The bespectacled man from a few minutes prior stepped calmly into our midst, bowing slightly in greeting as he approached. "I owe this young lady a little something for helping me find my wife's name. I will buy lunch for all of you, if you will have me."

"Gladly," Fin replied. And so the five of us set out, away from that hauntingly cold chamber of life and death, through the sunny plaza, and back down the busy alleys branching away from the middle of town.

As it was noon, all of the shops and restaurants were open, with NPCs dressed in a variety of suits and outfits waving and calling for potential customers as the players passed by. Some locations were grandiose establishments, decked in gold and glamor, winking at us seductively in the fervent blaze of the sun; others were simple stores and cafes, unassumingly decorated, but without ever losing their homely charm. I would have been more than fine with visiting any of them, so sapped and depleted was my strength, but the man insisted on treating us to something a little more high-end, and so we entered an eatery that was reminiscent of an old Western-style coffee shop, the aroma of tomato and cheese immediately piquing my olfactory curiosities. I silently questioned how Larkspur might be able to afford lunch for all five of us, though having myself splurged my money on several dozen people's drinks the night before, I was in no position to cast any doubt on his financial capabilities.

As we tucked ourselves into cushioned seats at the booth near the window, Rimi still emitting a wry smile whenever our eyes met, the man cleared his throat.

"Please, order whatever you would like. Also, before I forget, I probably ought to introduce myself." He swept a hand over his hair. "My in-game name is Larkspur. As this young lady will know," he said as he gestured to me, "I have been looking for my wife, whose in-game name is Lotus."

"Two flowers," I commented.

"Quite so. And as for all of you, I would like to hear your names as well."

In turn, we each told him our names. Fin's and Wing's were of particular interest to him, as they, like Larkspur's and his wife's, shared common motifs.

"We have a parrot and a fish tank at home," Fin explained sheepishly. "That's where we got the idea."

"They are beautiful names," Larkspur assured him. "Concise, yet purposeful. Though, in a sense, the inspiration behind our names was opposite to yours."

"How so?"

"All flowers have certain meanings attributed to them. Larkspurs symbolize levity and facetiousness – however, I am a very serious person, even on the best of days. On the other hand, lotuses represent purity and health, while my wife…"

He paused and bit his lip.

"My wife has been quite sickly since she was a child. She is often confined to a wheelchair, and spends much time in and out of the hospital. Sword Art Online was meant to be a way for her to escape the harshness of her reality, and yet… it seemed she has simply been brought from one form of hell to another. We have not been able to meet up in-game, and I have sent her many messages asking for her whereabouts, but she has not replied. Seeing her name on the Monument of Life gave me a great deal of peace, but until we are reunited, I cannot truly rest."

"Have ya looked 'round town?" Rimi suggested.

"I have. Which leads me to believe she may have strayed away. She can walk like a normal person in this game, but she has not actually done so since she was young, so I do not think she will have gotten very far on her own. However, if by any chance, someone took her away…" He chewed on his finger as he spoke. "I fear the worst."

For a while, none of us said anything. Being trapped in this game was vastly inconvenient in itself, of course, but it also threw up problems that many of us would not have anticipated. Fin and Wing still didn't know if their real-life bodies were safe; meanwhile, Larkspur was perhaps assured of his own safety, but not that of his beloved wife. My own troubles, however significant they might be, paled in comparison to my acquaintances'.

"I apologize for bringing the mood down," Larkspur said hurriedly. "Let us eat first. Things are much easier to figure out when we are not hungry."

We concurred, and gave our orders to the NPC waiter that had materialized at the end of our table. Within minutes, our meals were whisked out of the kitchen at the far end of the restaurant, and I had to resist the urge to drool as my black pepper sauce steak and creamy spaghetti were set in front of me. A small voice in the back of my head reminded me that none of it was real, a fact of which I was all too aware, but that didn't really matter in the face of my desires. The meat was as tender and juicy as any that I ever remembered eating, melting into the mildly spicy pepper sauce as I chewed, spreading through my mouth, wrapping my tongue in pure, unadulterated flavor.

"That looks good," Rimi quipped, poking her fork into a chunk of my steak and plopping it into my mouth. "Mm." Before I could protest, she had stabbed a portion of her own meal – a hunk of fried fish dipped in tartar – and held it up to my lips.

"Here. Give it a go."

I reluctantly acquiesced, to the noticeable amusement of Fin.

"You two get along well," he observed. "I see why you were so upset when you thought she'd died."

"Don't remind me," I snapped. "I'm never crying over something like that again."

Rimi put a hand to her chest in mock melancholy. "Ya wound me, Lizzy. Y'would be the only one who'd do somethin' like that."

"I'm sure your family would be very upset, too," I replied.

Rimi smiled, though for the first time, her smile did not reach her eyes.

"Nah," she sighed. "I ain't so sure 'bout that."