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Chapter 6

Floating Castle Aincrad, 50th floor.

June 1st, 2024. 1:30PM

Everyone pitched in to clear the table and place it at its original position before making their way downstairs the the roomier living room/back room of the shop. As everyone sat down, Asuna received a message from her commander, who also happened to be the leader of The Knights of the Blood Oath and The Paladin Heathcliff. Excusing herself, she stepped back upstairs to the bedroom to communicate with him as she would be more distracting than anything else.

As her footsteps retreated, Argo looked at Kirito, who quietly nodded before turning to Agil and saying "Well, I think I'll start, bein' that Aa-chan already knows mos' of what happened already. What started it all was a guild called th' Moonlit Black Cats..."

Floating Castle Aincrad, 30th floor.

June 22nd, 2023. 7:00 AM

Argo mumbled as she swiped open her menu without opening her eyes to snooze her personal alarm she had set the night before, hoping not to disturb the bundle she was cuddled against, and maybe steal a few more blissful moments to enjoy the comfort and warmth that said bundle produced. All too soon though, it started moving itself, making her grunt in complaint and pout sleepily "Jus' a few more minutes, Ki-boy..."

The Black Swordsman in question shifted his body to face her before replying mischievously "If we don't get up now, we won't at all" as he wrapped his free arm around her, giving her a peck on her forehead. "Come on, you have that meeting to get to soon, and I've got to get ready for the Floor Boss in a few hours."

Grumbling in annoyance and giving up trying to burrow further into both him and the bed, she threw the covers off herself and got up, stepping to the window and stretching out her toned body luxuriously, naked as the day she was born.

Looking out of the third floor of the inn they were staying in, she failed to notice his approach and squeaked in surprise as arms that belied their strength wrapped around her middle and gentle lips kissed the nape of the neck they were nuzzled against, almost making her melt on the spot.

"You can't fool me babe" Kirito whispered in her ear, making her shudder. "I know what you're trying to do, and it's not gonna work... this time. But maybe I can make it up to you later tonight as we celebrate another floor cleared" he said, kissing her whiskered cheek before releasing her and stepping back to open his menu and equip his gear for the day.

"No fair, luv..." she mock-whined as she closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around herself to revel in the lingering warmth he produced. Finally relenting, she opened her menu again, equipping herself for her own daily activities.

They grabbed a quick breakfast downstairs, her absorbing what gossip she could, hoping to hear if any new information could be gleaned from the players for free, him silently admiring his girlfriend as he ate. Soon enough, their food was finished and they stepped outside, Argo stealing a quick kiss from her boyfriend and saying their farewells before she set off toward the teleport gate to the 11th floor, Kirito heading to the meeting at the edge of town to prepare for the Boss Raid.

As her eyes cleared from the flash of the teleportation, she quickly darted towards the tavern near the edge of Taft, the main town of the 11th floor. She reached the tavern with relative ease and entered, taking a table at the corner closest to the door out of habit, always keeping an eye and ear out for anything that could possibly help expedite the efforts to clear the game and get home as soon as possible as well as any possible dangers while waiting for the client.

In this case, it was clients, a small guild calling themselves the Moonlit Black Cats, asking for information about a dungeon on the 27th floor. From what she remembered Kirito said, they were an intermediate-level group consisting of five members trying to advance to the front lines to help out with the clearing efforts. He had originally mentioned meeting them after a day of grinding for mats on the 16th floor as they were unwinding for the night back in April. As he was leaving the labyrinth, he ran into them desperately fending off a pack of the goblins he had just finished hunting there. After helping them escape, he gave them a basic breakdown of the rest of the dungeon and the next couple of levels before recommending a few strategies for combat given their current setup and handing them a card to reach out to Argo for additional info. She (or one of her associates depending on whatever floor they were on) had met up with them a few times since, and this meeting was no different.

She had barely finished her first drink when the door to the tavern opened and four of the five aforementioned members walked in. She thought that was unusual until their second-in-command, a dagger user and treasure hunter by the name of Ducker, explained that they had finally acquired enough funds to buy a proper house to serve as their guild headquarters. Their leader, a staff wielder named Keita, was down at the Town of Beginnings to purchase one and they didn't want to reschedule the meeting and inconvenience her since she had been so very helpful in the past. After their explanation, they discussed the details of the dungeon they paid in advance for, Argo even throwing in a freebie about a rumor concerning a hidden trap room near the middle to avoid.

Their business concluded, they left, presumably to meet their leader and see their new house Argo mused, and she set off back to the 30th floor for the rest of her plans for the day. She stopped by the tailor shop Ashley's for an outfit and another store to buy a couple of rather expensive items to hopefully surprise Kirito with after his triumphant return from the boss raid to celebrate another floor cleared, and her maybe celebrating even more later.

Around 2 PM Kirito arrived through the teleport gate, Argo all but flinging herself onto him in a tackle-hug, causing both of them to spin around to keep from falling down and embarrassing themselves further. As they made their way to the nearest item shop so he could restock, she asked him how the raid went and he obliged by recounting in detail the boss, its moveset, and the strategies they used to overcome it.

They had just started making their way back to the inn after taking care of everything gear-wise when Argo got a message alert, but different than normal as it had an alarm signifying its urgency. Stopping both of them, she opened it to find the following message:

Argo,

Haven't seen the rest of my guild since this morning and can't raise anyone. Any idea where they might have gone?

Keita

Concern growing on her features and worry growing in the pit of her stomach, she quickly responded:

Keita,

Met them this AM to discuss the 27th floor dungeon after they said you left to buy a house. No word since. I'll ask around.

Argo

"Kirito, we need ta check out th' 27th floor real quick" she said, no pet name sending all kinds of flags up to denote the seriousness of the situation.

"Alright. You can let me know what's up on the way" as he picked her up bridal style and took off back towards the teleport gate as fast as he safely dared to while dodging everyone else going about their day.

They were well out of the 27th floor city and almost halfway to the dungeon by the time she had finished. Reaching the entrance, he set her back on her feet. Before he could even open his mouth, she stopped him.

"I'm comin' with ya. We need ta be quick in case there's trouble. I know how ta avoid th' unnecessary fights so follow my lead" she commanded.

Nodding almost reluctantly, he stepped in behind her as she darted in. He actually had a bit of trouble keeping up with her, but he dutifully followed in her footsteps, being as quiet as possible as they navigated through the labyrinthian hallways, keeping an eye and ear out for any sign for both mobs and other players. Very different from attempting to fight and kill every mob within eyesight and earshot for the Black Swordsman.

A little bit after they passed the midpoint of the dungeon, Argo slowed down considerably, and Kirito almost barreled her over before nearly sliding to a complete stop himself.

After a moment to study the surrounding area, a realization dawned on him with a sharp inhale.

Without looking back, Argo asked "So ya noticed it too?"

"Yeah. It's too quiet. Like the area was recently cleared."

"I got a bad feelin' 'bout this..."

Placing a comforting hand on her shoulder, he responded "Nothing is for sure yet. Let's keep going for now."

She nodded quickly, resuming her stealthy approach but at almost breakneck speed now, Kirito now clearly struggling to keep up, but keep up he did, not wanting to voice her fears out loud.

They were coming up onto the last safe zone before the boss room when Argo stopped again, signaling Kirito to do the same. After a couple of moments, both of them could hear sobs in the distance.

Looking at each other, they both took off, almost racing toward the safe zone where the cries seemed to be coming from. When they arrived, what they saw, neither of them were prepared for.

Huddled in the farthest corner of the room, a petite female was curled up in it, wearing nothing but the undergarments afforded by the ethics code of the game (which, after digging deep enough into the menu could be disabled, as Argo had shown Kirito several months ago), attempting to cover herself with her arms at their appearance, eyes wide in terror while tears flowed freely down her face.

"Sachi!" Argo screamed as she bolted toward the clearly terrified girl, who at the familiar voice, broke down anew with even more tears springing forth.

"A-A-Argo!? W-w-what a-are you doing here!?" the girl cried out between sobs, relieved to see a familiar face as Argo reached her, falling into the info broker's arms and crying even harder.

Kirito approached them slowly, feeling with his feet as his head was turned away to try and give Sachi as much modesty as he could. Sensing that he was close enough, he turned his body to the side, his head now facing the hallway they originally entered from. Opening his menu, he unequipped his long coat, his primary defense, and tossed it towards where he estimated the girls in the corner were.

His aim was unusually accurate even by game standards, his coat landing on Argo's shoulder that Sachi wasn't crying on, Argo quickly grabbing it and draping it over the other girl.

When she felt the warmth of it, she jerked her head up, and seeing Kirito properly for the first time (although not recognizing him with his head turned away and lacking his coat which she was now wearing), she recoiled back into the corner, glaring at him warily while wrapping herself further in his coat.

"Easy, easy" Argo soothed, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. "He's th' one who rescued ya from th' goblins a while back. It's okay. I trust him wit' my life."

Glancing over and seeing she was fully covered, Kirito allowed himself to face them and slowly approached before kneeling down and gently grabbed her hand as she visibly relaxed at recognizing him.

He looked directly in her eyes as he softly smiled and said "You're safe now. Do you know where the rest of the party is?"

At that question, Sachi's eyes welled up with even more tears before shaking her head quickly and burying her face in Argo's shoulder once more, sobbing uncontrollably once again.

Looking at each other, they both nodded in silent and solemn agreement as they waited for Sachi to calm down again. After quite a while, she finally leaned back from Argo and shakily stood up, taking deep breaths to steady herself.

Squeezing the hand that never let go of his to get her attention, Kirito asked "You ready to get out of here?"

She nodded slowly, then, looking at him with tears on the verge of forming again, asked "How are we going to get out of here though? A-all my items were stolen, including my crystals. And I'll just slow both of you down as I don't have any weapons or armor left..." she trailed off, wrapping the coat she was now wearing as tightly as she could with her free hand.

"It's fine. As long as you hold on to me, I can use a teleport crystal to get us all out of here together" he answered, materializing one from his menu with his free hand. "Where do you need to go?"

"Um, the main town on the 11th floor, Taft" Sachi responded, latching onto his whole arm like a lifeline now. Argo wrapped her arm around his waist from the other side as he held out the teleport crystal.

"Teleport: Taft!" He announced.

Arriving back in the town Argo had been to earlier that day, they quickly darted into the closest NPC shop to the teleport gate they just exited from. As luck would have it, it was also a clothing shop. After taking quite a bit of time convincing her it was okay, Sachi finally relented and allowed them to pay for any outfit in the shop.

Almost twenty minutes later, they reemerged, Sachi fully clothed and Kirito with his coat back. They then proceeded to the inn where Keita stood outside anxiously waiting since Argo had messaged him while waiting for Sachi to equip her new outfit.

Upon seeing each other, Sachi bolted toward him as if her life depended on it, slamming into him so hard he would have lost some HP if they weren't in a safe zone, and fallen down if not for the wall he was standing in front of, the purple "Immortal Object" sign appearing above them.

Patting her back awkwardly, Sachi openly crying again, Keita looked from her to Kirito and Argo, asking where the rest of the guild was. Just like before, all she could do was shake her head while sobbing uncontrollably, her two saviors looking down solemnly. Understanding dawning on his features, tears welled up from Keita's eyes before joining with Sachi's already falling tears.

Almost an hour later, after them calming down considerably, Argo made arrangements with Keita to get in contact with them again as soon as Sachi was ready to talk about what had happened. Returning to their room in the inn on the 30th floor, celebrating anything was the last thing on either of their minds.

Three days later, Keita finally contacted Argo. Understandably, she was agitated with not knowing what had happened while Kirito tried his best to be the pillar of support for her as they had been for each other for years, even more so since being trapped in SAO.

After all but rushing to the tavern in Taft (and almost dragging Kirito the whole way), Argo finally composed herself before stepping inside. With Kirito following suit, they were immediately waved over to a secluded corner of the room where Keita and Sachi sat, drinks they had ordered barely touched by either of them.

As they sat down, Keita opened immediately by saying "First, I want to thank both of you for rescuing Sachi. Not only that, you probably saved my life too. I doubt I would have been able to go on by myself" as he looked down, ashamed at his own admission of weakness.

Kirito spoke first. "I'm just glad we were able to make it when we did." Argo nodding silently in agreement.

"We'd appreciate anythin' 'bout what happened ta make sure no one else has ta suffer like that" Argo added, looking at Sachi "Anythin' at all could help."

Sachi looked down at her trembling hands, tears about to form again when Keita placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, nodding when their eyes met. Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she started telling her tale.

"We... we were actually doing pretty well clearing out the dungeon" she said softly. "When we got to the area that you mentioned the trap room was in," looking directly at Argo as she said that, "we decided to just avoid the temptation of it completely by taking a small detour. There was a corridor about a hundred meters long that was completely open along the way that felt... wrong to not have any enemies in it, but we continued anyway as it only took an extra five minutes to navigate around the trap room. That's when... they appeared..." she had started shaking so bad she couldn't continue at first.

After everyone gave her a few moments to collect herself, she slowly continued on. "They appeared on either side of the corridor trapping us in. I think there were at least five people on each side. I couldn't see anything of them except what looked like rags beneath oversized black or blood red hooded cloaks." Both Argo and Kirito gasped in unison with wide eyes at that statement. "We knew that we didn't stand a chance against them so we surrendered almost immediately. Their leader was wielding something that looked like a cross between a giant meat cleaver and an axe, and when he came up he started monologuing about the black rat paying for humiliating him and that wasn't their only trap." At this, Kirito looked puzzled, but in contrast Argo could barely contain her fury. He was about to open his mouth to ask what was going on, but Argo gave him a sidelong glance and subtly shook her head, telling him that now wasn't the time to ask, him discreetly nodding in understanding.

"After his ranting" Sachi continued "he said we were smart in surrendering so quickly and offered us a deal." Her eyes became shadowed by this point, her trembling renewed and close to tears again. "H-he said, 'our inventory for our lives'. We looked at each other, determined to survive no matter the cost, so we materialized what we had stored on us and dropped everything on the ground in front of him. As we turned to leave, he jumped in front of us, saying we hadn't paid our full tribute yet. We were puzzled, until he showed a disgusting grin on his face and sang out that everything we were wearing was considered inventory too." Tears were streaming down her face, her voice starting to break as well.

Keita was horrified at the tale so far, placing a hand over Sachi's shaking ones on the table. "We can take a break if you want--"

"No!" Sachi cut in, shaking her head. "If I stop now, I may never continue. I have to do this for them, or their deaths meant nothing!" she cried out.

By this point Kirito was as livid as Argo, connecting most of what was left to be said as Sachi pressed on.

"Sasamaru, h-he, he stepped up to him, asking how they were supposed to have any chance to survive without any weapons or armor... a-and as an a-answer t-to his q-question..." she trailed off, squeezing her eyes shut to dispel the vision "h-he... cut his head off!" she started openly sobbing.

Argo reached across the table and put her hand over Sachi's, squeezing gently. Keita still had his hand on her shoulder, and while doing his level best to keep his own emotions in check, Kirito quietly murmured "That's all we needed to know. Thank you for being courageous enough to share your story with us. We will make sure this doesn't happen again" he finished as his eyes narrowed dangerously.

Getting up and bowing, Kirito and Argo left the tavern, both lost in their own thoughts. As they reached the teleport gate, Argo stopped suddenly, grabbing Kirito's arm. He was about to open his mouth again when she spoke first.

"Ya gotta go talk ta Asuna an' see 'bout gettin' a raid team together" looking up at him, almost as if studying his features for the first time. "Ya can't go solo on this one."

"I know" was his reply, momentarily startling the Rat. "I've got too much to lose by going it alone."

Looking down and anywhere but toward him, she said "Well, while yer doin' that, I'm gonna see where they're hidin' an' let ya know as soon as I find somethin'. Afta that I got some things ta double-check on so I don't know when I'll be back." As she said this, she opened her menu and dissolved their party.

He nodded his head in acquiescence before leaning in and sharing an intimate kiss. When they parted, he quipped "Don't be gone too long. We still have to finish the new guide soon." With that statement, he stepped to the teleport gate and made his way to the still relatively new guild The Knights of the Blood Oath that Asuna had joined, unaware that was the last time he would lay eyes on Argo for the next year.

Present Day

"So that's why that raid party was gunning for other players out of the blue" Agil commented. "Excellent job taking down those PKers by the way" nodding to Kirito before looking back at Argo. "But it still doesn't explain why you disappeared like you did."

"Afta I found out where Laughing Coffin was, I tracked down a stray member and had 'em tell me where th' other traps were that PoH said he had. Found three other places where they were doin' th' same thing at just from him. An' afta that, I was obsessed with personally double checkin' every tip I hadn't personally verified already ta make sure there weren't more traps..." she trailed off, looking down.

"...And?" Asuna asked, having rejoined everyone about halfway through the story.

"An' I found four more" Argo answered, looking down and away from everybody. "In total, almos' 300 people died 'cause of faulty info I put out, jus' ta get back at us survivin' what happened on floor 10." She squeaked out, openly crying now.

Asuna quickly moved to Argo, the former wrapping her arms around the latter as she cried on the former's shoulder.

A few minutes later, Argo calmed down and extricated herself from Asuna. As she leaned back, hiccuping slightly, Kirito spoke for the first time in a while.

"It's not your fault" he almost monotoned. "They used you to get back at me. You said yourself that one of the main reasons they formed their guild was because I was basically leading the charge to escape. It also doesn't help that they tried and failed to take me out on floor 5 on New Year's Eve just because I stumbled onto them by dumb luck while looking for Asuna when she fell into a trap and lost her rapier a few days earlier." Asuna shivered at the memory herself.

Agil turned back to Kirito. "So what happened to you to make you try and solo entire dungeons nowadays like your life doesn't matter anymore?"

Kirito looked around at everyone to see them waiting for an answer with almost pleading eyes from Asuna and especially Argo. As he looked away, with his voice already thick, he started his heartbreaking tale.

"She was a beast tamer named Silica..."

A/N: So basically to clear up any confusion, Tetsuo and Ducker sacrificed themselves after escaping the clutches of Laughing Coffin to ensure Sachi reached the safe zone and had a way to possibly survive as they had literally no weapons, armor, or items anymore. Next we get to see what happened to Kirito to make him pull an Asuna. Until next time, Peace!