Saturday, December 31st, 2022, 3:00 A.M.

"Urrghh…"

I rolled out of the bed and flopped onto the floor unceremoniously, where I laid still for a moment before picking myself up. Once again, any hope of getting a decent amount of sleep had slipped away from me.

Resigned to my fate, I stepped out of my room and left the inn. Shiyaya was a nice enough place to take a stroll around at least, and since it was instanced for the campaign quests I didn't have other players to worry about.

The air was unusually cold and crisp. The holiday must have been favored over the Floor's usual climate for the day. It was a jarring change though, being so chilly and somewhat dry after the jungle weather we'd been putting up with the past couple days.

I wandered around the small town aimlessly for a while, eventually sitting down on a bench to rest in a small garden near our inn. As I sat there and looked out at the plants I was able to just space out for a while. It was a nice change to not be thinking about fighting off mobs or almost dying or stressing over murder plots.

"Rei?"

A sudden voice broke me out of my stupor. I jumped slightly at the sound. I looked around for the source; it was Kizmel, to my surprise.

"Oh… Kizmel." I slid over on the bench slightly to make more space for her to sit down next to me, which she accepted gracefully.

"I take it you woke early as well?"

I shook my head. "Rather, I didn't sleep much to begin with."

"I see… Is something bothering you? I will gladly listen should you need an ear."

"It's… I'm not even entirely sure what's bothering me, really. A lot of things, I guess."

Kizmel didn't respond immediately. I glanced over to see that she had a pensive look on her face.

"I'm suddenly getting a weird sense of déjà vu, here…" I mumbled.

Kizmel chuckled. "I was thinking the same thing. It wasn't but a week ago, no? We spoke the same way in Yofel Castle, under the juniper tree."

"Oh, right, about that weird dream I had…" Between my lack of sleep and everything going on, my memory had felt all over the place recently.

"Have you been feeling any better since then?"

"I'm not really sure…" I shrugged my shoulders. "I'm not any worse at least. I guess? A lot has happened."

"Oh?"

"That run-in we had in the dungeon, mainly. It's been bothering Aa-chan a lot as well, I think."

We had told Kizmel about the encounter we had with Morte in the dungeon beneath Karluin shortly after meeting up with her. She about charged out of Mananarena to track them down herself, saber rattling by her side. It took some convincing to calm her down.

"Those rascals, you say… Certainly, the mood has been rather down recently, hasn't it?"

I sighed. "Yeah… just dealing with it ourselves is one thing, but we're worried that the rest of the clearing group is going to be at risk too… I just want to go home, and yet these jerks are trying to throw everything away."

Kizmel leaned over and patted my head. "I may have not known you three for very long yet, but it is clear as day how strong you are. I'm sure that whatever happens, you will be able to pull through it."

I moved nearer to Kizmel to rest my head on her shoulder. "Thanks, Kizmel. I sure hope so…"

"Fu fu. I'm reminded of one time that I comforted Tilnel in the same way."

"Hm?" I wasn't sure why she was bringing this up all of a sudden.

"It was while we were out on a lengthened expedition. She came to me late one night, saying that she couldn't sleep because she felt so homesick. To be honest, it was starting to bother me some at the time as well. The oddities of Aincrad make it easy to feel out of place sometimes."

"Yeah… Now that you say that, I'm reminded of my little sister as well. She comes to me often to sleep together when she has a hard time falling asleep."

We continued to trade stories about our sisters for a while. Tilnel had actually been a bit of a troublemaker; she liked playing pranks on Kizmel, especially things she could do with her herbal knowledge. Kizmel recounted one story where Tilnel tricked her into eating a herb that made her tongue feel prickly all day, for example.

They were as close as could be though, judging by Kizmel's stories. They rarely disagreed about anything and Kizmel took all the pranks in stride. "In a place like this, the little things simply don't bother you so much," she said.

For my part, I had a hard time relating many stories of my own without having to spend a lot of time explaining how different my world was. With my head still resting on Kizmel's shoulder, I slowly found it more difficult to fend off my exhaustion…

I awoke with a start, feeling more well-rested than I had in a long while. I looked around and found myself in an unfamiliar inn room. I could recall dozing off last night while I was talking with Kizmel, so maybe she brought me here. She probably thought she wouldn't be able to open the door to my room.

A quick glance at my UI clock said it was 11:30 A.M. I sat up and sighed. "Well, at least we weren't planning to do much today…" I mumbled to myself. I quickly got ready and headed downstairs; the others were nowhere to be found. A quick glance at my map told me they were about in Shiyaya.

I wasn't particularly hungry, so I skipped over getting any breakfast and headed straight for where the dots on my map were. I noticed fairly quickly that my feet were taking me to the big open bathing area. It had become clear to us that the dark elves were fans of living a good life; wherever possible, they put an emphasis on having big baths and filling meals. Supposedly the forest elves' food was more lavish though.

Up ahead I could make out the black form of Kirito standing guard at the bath's entrance. Well, really it was more like he was lazing about; he was leaned against the wall with one boot up against it, arms crossed and eyes closed.

I increased my pace and walked up to him. He perked up slightly as I approached. "Some guard you are."

"Oi, I paid attention as I heard you walking up, didn't I? Not like anyone's going to be sneaking around here."

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever. I take it Asuna's in the bath?"

Kirito nodded. "Yep. Argo's here as well. They said you're free to join them whenever you showed up."

"I…" I focused my attention on the bath's entrance; I could faintly hear the sounds of splashing and chatter, but I couldn't make out what they were saying. "Uh, I'll pass, thanks."

"Hm. Anyways, weren't you supposed to be an early riser?"

I slapped him on the shoulder. "Shut it. You should be glad I actually got some sleep for once, you can thank Kizmel for that." I opened up my menu to look at my map again. "Speaking of which, she's in there as well?"

Kirito gave me a look. "Uh? She left for the next Floor already."

"Huh?" I glanced up at my UI. There were four people in our party, but Kizmel had been replaced with Argo. I wasn't firing on all cylinders yet, it seemed. "Oh. Duh. Well, why is Argo here?"

"Asuna invited her to come check out the bath, mostly. We did also ask her again about those items you've been picking up, but she didn't have anything still. Definitely elf-related items was her guess."

"Yeah… Say, were you planning to do anything else today? I have an idea for where to go to try and find out more about those."

Kirito shrugged. "Not really. Wanted to just take it easy today, and the New Year's party is tonight."

It was my turn to give him a look. "Wait, you actually want to go to that? I mean—not that I should be one to talk, but I'm surprised."

"Oh, bite me."

"Anyways, if it's all the same to you I'm gonna go to the first Floor for a bit."

"Sure… Well, actually, maybe it'd be best to not go off alone for now. Since, y'know…"

"Mister dual classer, right." I crossed my arms in annoyance. "Well, you're right I guess. Let's wait for them to get out of the bath then."

"Sorry, I wish I had more to tell you."

My slouch sunk a bit deeper as I stared at the NPC blacksmith across the small table from me. It was Linda, the NPC that gave us the quest I got my current dagger from. She was currently inspecting the locked journal I had found a couple of days ago. I had guessed that if anyone could deal with that lock, it would be the person that could work with magical golem metal… but apparently I was wrong.

"The thing seems like plain iron at first glance, but I can't so much as scratch it. It does remind me of that golem, but I can't really place it…"

Linda seemed much more lifelike all of a sudden compared to when we had met her before for her quest. It must have been the influence of the elf questline. It was forming a habit of making these NPCs unbelievably lifelike.

She leaned back in her chair and tousled her hair. "Whatever is propelling that golem is likely similar to whatever made this lock like this, I can say that. I'm weary to try poking at the book itself for similar reasons."

"So… you think it's some kind of magic, or something?" I asked.

The old smith nodded. "Yes, that would explain a lot. As for this jewelery, it's even stranger… it just looks like normal rusty jewelery, but I can't identify the materials at all. Perhaps the elves can help you with it, but I'm not sure..."

"I… see."

She slid the journal and jewelery back across the table to me; I picked them up and returned them to my inventory. "Sorry I couldn't be more helpful. But…"

"But?"

Linda paused for a time, a contemplative look on her face. It seemed like she wasn't sure if she should say what she was about to. "Well, you'll probably meet him soon enough anyhow. On the sixth Floor, there's an old man—older than me, I should say—that goes by the guise of a music teacher these days. He did a lot of traveling in the past though, and has some ties with the dark elves. I'd bet he knows more about these."

"Oh!" She was likely referring to the NPC on the next Floor that gives the quest to learn the Musical Instrument Skill. It was surprising to hear that there might be some ties to the elves now. "I actually knew about him already from his music teaching, I'll be sure to ask about these then."

"Good deal. By the way, you and those other adventurers are currently on the fifth Floor, right?"

"Y-yeah, why do you ask?"

"If my memory serves me right… you should be careful about that tower guardian. That golem's probably become infused with the jungle surrounding it. A great big gaggle of adventurers like I've heard you like fighting the guardian with might only get in your way."

"Oh, thanks. Sorry for bothering you, and thanks for your help."

Linda waved away my apology with a small grin. "Oh, it's nothing. An old lady like me's always happy to have someone to talk to."

With that, Kirito, Asuna and I left the smith's house. Argo had went off to do her own thing after the two got out of the dark elf bath. Once outside I let out a drawn-out sigh. "Well… I guess it's actually a lead at least. We should probably tell Argo about that boss info, though…"

"Yeah, we did get something out of this at least."

I shot a quick message to Argo telling her about the boss tidbit we got. "Alright. Well, anything else for us to do today?"

Kirito shrugged. "Nah."

"Mmh… I'd like to get to level 20 so I can get Musical Instrument right away on the next Floor, but I don't really want to bother with grinding right now… Sounds like we'll end up going that way regardless now anyways."

"I feel ya there. With the atmosphere because of the party I'd rather just laze around."

"What are they actually doing for the New Year's party, anyways?"

"I asked Argo about that," Asuna chimed in. "She said Shivata kept his cards close to his chest but it wound up being a lot bigger than they expected."

"… Now I'm curious…" I muttered.

"Woah."

"You can say that again…" Kirito muttered.

"Woah," I said again, more emphatically this time.

Kirito smacked the back of my head, which drew an annoyed glare from me. "I didn't actually mean you should say it again, dingus."

"No, she's got a point," Asuna said as she took in the sight around us. "I figured they would just be messing around in one of the inns, not… this…"

We were stood at the northern inlet of the teleporter plaza in Karluin. 'A lot bigger than they expected' was a huge understatement. What was unfolding in front of us wasn't a party, it was a full-blown celebration just like we would have back home.

There were two lines of stalls each forming a square around the plaza, one on the inside surrounding the teleporter and the other around the outer edge, forming a big ring of food and entertainment. The place was incredibly crowded, just as you'd expect in the real world. I could even see a number of people walking around in kimonos.

It was hard to see from where we were standing due to the crowd and stalls, but at the southern entrance to the plaza there was a makeshift shrine, along with a stall that had charms and fortunes.

I just barely heard a voice directed at us from the side of the road. "Ah, so the trio actually showed up, eh?"

I stood up on my toes and looked around, but I couldn't see over all the people, even from the sparser area that we were standing in. Asuna was able to spot them though, and Kirito and I followed her over. "Ah, Shivata?"

Shivata was a member of the DKB, fairly high up if I remembered correctly. He was more agreeable with us than a lot of the clearers, and was one of the main organizers for the New Year's party.

"What the heck happened here?" I asked.

"Ahaha…" Shivata gave an exasperated shrug. "When Li—… when we were talking over some plans for the party in the inn, one of the NPCs came up to us and started talking about how they had plans for a festival but had no chance of getting everything they needed."

"So this is all from a quest?" Asuna asked. I was curious as to why Shivata cut himself short at first, but didn't bother to ask.

Shivata nodded. "Well, a few quests actually. We about ran ourselves ragged trying to get all the materials… it was worth it though, as you can see. Most of the stalls are run by NPCs, but there are a few player crafters around as well selling some things. There should be plenty of kimonos left to buy, too."

"I see…" I mumbled. "Well, I guess we should have a look around, then."

"Have fun! There's a big surprise coming up too, so stick around for a while." Shivata gave us a small wave and slipped away through the crowd before we could ask about this surprise.

The first stall we came to was the one selling kimonos. As Shivata had said, there were still a number available to buy. The price was lower than I expected as well, just a couple hundred Cor at most for really complex looking ones. Asuna immediately ran up to the stall and bought one, and stepped behind a folding screen that was set up nearby. A couple of flashes of light later and she stepped back out, clad in a light pink kimono with a simple flower pattern. She also had her hair tied up in a ponytail with a large red ribbon in place of her usual half-updo.

"Well, damn," I muttered. Asuna was pretty enough as it was, but this took it to another level. Judging by the look on Kirito's face, he had to agree.

Asuna stepped over and started pushing me towards the stall. "C'mon, Rei-chan. You too!"

"Ehh…"

After some prodding from Asuna, I eventually gave in and picked out a kimono myself. I got a dark blue one with a simple mist pattern in lighter shades of blue. I had a matching ribbon and ponytail as well. Kirito attempted to slip away while Asuna was distracted with me, but was ultimately coerced into getting one as well. Annoyingly he somehow managed to find one that was almost solid black, though it did have some white accents.

"Seriously, are you just able to magic these things up or something?" I asked.

"Gimme a break, I saw it so I got it, okay?"

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever, let's just have a look around."

The authenticity of it all was even more staggering when seen up thing that stood out to me the most was the food. For the most part, the food that had been available to us so far was Western in style, and while there were generally analogues to real-world foods it wasn't identical. Here, though, the food the stalls were selling was very much Japanese, and no different from the real deal.

I was drawn towards a certain stall in particular, led by the smell of takoyaki being cooked. There was an awfully long line for it. I figured it would be worth the wait though, since it might be a long time before I'd have the chance to taste something like that again…

As I waited, I took the opportunity to take in the sight around me more closely. The lanterns and colorful decorations of the stalls cast a warm glow over the crowd. It was quite packed, and with faces I hadn't seen before. No doubt there were people here that had never left the Town of Beginnings that came to enjoy the celebration. The guilds must have spread the word far and wide.

You could still feel the tinge of our reality in the air, but for once it was easy to forget. We were surrounded by people in colorful clothes, carrying around good food and enjoying the moment. It almost felt like home.

The line ended up moving fairly quickly, and in only a few minutes I was walking away with my spoils. Kirito and Asuna weren't as interested in the food, so they continued on through the crowd without me when I lined up for the takoyaki. I slipped through the crowd as quickly as I could and made for one of the plaza's exits to get some breathing room. There were still a number of people around, but nothing outside of what normal foot traffic would be like.

I found a bench to sit down at and sent a quick message to Kirito and Asuna. I wanted to wait for them to come find me before I started eating, but the smell was too tempting… I sank down into a slouch after taking my first bite. The takoyaki were cooked perfectly; the outside layer was crispy, and the inside just chewy enough; the filling, whatever it might have actually been, was identical to octopus. The mayo and sauce covering them were spot-on as well.

"There she is… Hm, Rei? What's wrong?"

"Eh?" I looked up to see Kirito and Asuna had found me, and only then did I realize I was starting to tear up a bit. I quickly wiped at my eyes with my sleeve before holding out the remaining takoyaki to them. "U-uh, no, it's nothing. Here, have some."

I slid over on the bench to give the two room to sit down next to me. We sat there in silence for a while, simply demolishing the takoyaki I had bought. I had gotten quite a lot, but it all disappeared within minutes.

The sound of an explosion from above our heads drew us out of our silence. I looked up towards the next Floor to see what was happening.

"Eh… fireworks?" I narrowed my eyes. "Wait, uh… um… what was the Japanese word again?"

Kirito cast a sidelong glance at me. "Hanabi. I guess this is the surprise Shivata was talking about… wonder if you can only get them from those quests they had."

A strange feeling washed over me as we sat there watching the fireworks. There was this juxtaposition between the past two months and sitting here like it was a normal New Year's, eating snacks and watching fireworks… it made everything feel like it wasn't real, like this was some kind of reality where these things were happening to us but they weren't really. Which was almost true in a sense.

If we could spend a day normally like this then we'd probably make it through okay. All I could do was hope as much, at least. I let out a soft sigh and watched as my breath turned into mist in the cold air and dispersed.

Author's Notes

Hey everyone!

I'll save you the usual spiel; that said, I just had to get this finished up and posted on November 6th of all days (where I live, at least). It's pretty sobering to think that I'm not even two months ahead of reality now, though…

Anyways.

I've flip-flopped on what exactly I wanted to do with the latter part of the fifth Floor for a while—how much more I wanted to take from canon, how exactly the changes to the Floor will affect certain things, and so on. Ultimately I decided to skip out on some things, and landed on the nice idea of expanding the New Year's celebrations. It's some nice fluff, and a well-deserved break for the gang.

Also, more frustration for Rei as the mystery surrounding the Elf questline continues to mount. Don't worry, some answers will come for her (and you!)… eventually. But some later than others.

That's all for today. Take care!