Jaymes

Kizmel dropped Jaymes and Koharu in a similar room across from Asuna and Kirito. Still, unlike how she was antsy to deny Asuna the chance to suggest another girl stays with her, Mito announced she'll stay with him and Koharu. Neither they nor Kizmel offered any retort, so once the elven woman left the room, Jaymes found himself stuck with two girls.

Just every boy's dream, isn't it? Kirito gets the queen of the front lines, and Jaymes gets two equal beauties for himself. Just what in the heck was Kizmel thinking...no, no, this can't be the thought of Kizmel. A god is watching him somewhere, using Kizmel as his agent to make Jaymes' life a living hell. It's already bad enough that he has to encounter a high-level artificial intelligence; it's worse that AI put him here.

To be fair, he isn't complaining. He'd been happier to be here with Koharu alone. It's what he's used to. Mito adds an unknown variable to a stable situation between the partners, one he isn't looking forward to. To address that, he turns to her, narrowing his eyes. "You could have stayed with Asuna and Kirito. Aren't you wary of leaving your real-life friend with a strange boy?"

She shrugs uncaringly. "She'll be fine, plus it's not the first time they've been alone, right? If Kirito wanted to make a move, he could have done so. Of course, if he does, the system will handle it...or maybe she'll go along with it too, hehehe." She chuckles, making Jaymes more apprehensive about the iliac-haired girl's intentions. When she's done crackling like a witch, she points at Jaymes and Koharu with a winking eye. "Besides, it is you two I'm more interested in."

"U-us?" Koharu stammers out.

"Yes. I wonder how you two can be so close despite being strangers as he suggested of the others. So to answer my questions, I need to observe things for myself... Koharu, how old are you?"

"I'm fourteen."

"You?"

"Fifteen." He'll be sixteen in two weeks, five days into the new year. Jaymes decides not to divulge that information in case someone decides to get celebratory. He wouldn't mind it, as it is his birthday, but he rather that Koharu keep her mind on the game. Yet... he so wants to know when her birthday is. And she's a year younger than he is? Jaymes figured they were the same age. She doesn't look surprised that he's older.

"I'm fifteen myself. Good. See, we know each other a little more." She moves her finger to the wall behind her, pointing at the door to the west. "Now, here's the deal. I'll take this room, okay? Koharu, you take the other one..."

Ah, so he's to sleep in the living room. That'd make the most sense. If Koharu said he could sleep with her, he would do so, but with Mito here (and already messing around) it might be better not to cause misunderstandings. He'll lose the comfort of a bed for a couch, but the prize of not having a headache later is unbeatable.

There are two other doors in the room. One is most likely the bathroom, which must be the bathroom, and the other...maybe a closet. Mito will take the bedroom closest to the bathroom...and already Jaymes wants to leave. He's having flashbacks to the first floor when Asuna and Koharu (because Argo is an idiot) ran out naked, and while he admits to admiring Koharu's form (accurate to her real form, thanks to the Nerve Gear's calibration scan and Kayaba's day one 'gift') it doesn't mean he will take every advantage to see it. Her wet clothes pressed against him at the beginning of their time on the fourth floor are still at the forefront of his brain. Mito is quite the looker herself, and her experience with games brings a sense of familiarity from his past. Girls have never been a problem for him in social situations, but nerds or "otakus" have been easy to befriend. His old friend Momiji was a gamer girl herself. If he met Mito in the real world or had a better first impression when they did meet over a month ago, they would have hit it off perfectly.

All boys (and girls) are perverts. He will admit to being one himself, but he practices it within the social limits. That doesn't get him in trouble...so he patiently awaits the swimsuit-wearing moment.

"N-n-n-n-n-no, I-I don't have a problem with it! But you can't decide that for him!"

"Why not? Oh, Koharu, I don't mean to steal him from you."

"H-he's just my partner, nothing m-more!"

"Oh? Then you don't mind if we share a room since there's nothing more to it?" He starts to pay attention at the worst time. From what Jaymes gathered, he's not assigned to the living room but Mito's room with her. Koharu's face is redder than his shirt as she tries to collect her thoughts. Mito smiles triumphantly, and then her dark red eyes shift to Jaymes. "Any objections from you?"

He nods and holds Koharu's shoulder. "If I'm going to sleep in any girls' bed, it will be hers."

"Oh? Why is that? Am I not as attractive as her?"

"No, you're very attractive. If I were a lesser guy, I would take your offer instantly. But I wouldn't sleep in the same suite as Asuna even if she threw herself at me, and same to you and Koharu. But this is a game of death, very real death. I only trust one person with my life with my eyes closed: Koharu. That's my only reason."

Mito digests my answer for a moment, then nods her head. "No other reason? You are a boy, after all."

"I'm well aware of that and the trouble it brings. But she trusted me first with that, so...if Koharu can ignore those problems, so can I with hers." Jaymes then form a smile and glance at the bathroom door. "But, since you offered one intimate setting, we can take a bath together if you'd like since we're 'getting to know each other tonight.'"

"Deal."

"Huh? J-Jaymes!"

He protects himself from the assault of shoulder slaps. "That was a joke, Ko." Holding her back, he returns his gaze to Mito, who is snickering again. "Apologize yourself for starting this."

"Okay, I'm sorry for messing with you, Koharu. Like I said, I wanted to understand why you two are so close compared to those two." She straightens up and waves her right hand. A few waves later, she removes her armor and scythe, leaving her in the tunic and other clothes. Stepping over to one of the couches, she takes a seat and crosses her bare legs. "Trust, huh... That's good. Asuna and I have known each other for a while and trusted each other, yet I couldn't fulfill that trust when she needed me to come to her. Yet she finds three strangers and sticks with them far longer than we have... It's been over a month since we first met, and the trust I see in you two now is much stronger than then."

When the three met, Jaymes and Koharu were under attack by Dire Wolves. They wouldn't stop coming for some reason, so the pair had to keep fighting to exhaustion. Jaymes was going to act recklessly when Koharu got surrounded on her own, then Mito showed up and helped clear the wolves. After Koharu sobbed in Jaymes' arms and thanked Mito for saving her, Mito pulled the boy aside and scolded him for endangering himself in a situation with low chances of survival. She may have been right, he did agree with her, but in his mind, he was not wrong to risk his life. Eventually, Mito would do as he did despite her lecture, only failing to protect Asuna from the Nephantes, whereas Jaymes would have succeeded in protecting Koharu. Or so he hopes.

Right now, he wouldn't hesitate to do it again, but Koharu is much stronger than she was in that first week of SAO. Maybe that's what Mito means right now. He turns to Koharu, who has removed her metal plating just to wear her tunic.

An idea suddenly forms in his head. He promised Koharu a couple of days ago, but they hadn't had the time to make good on it. Now, the party isn't out adventuring on a late night, and they have an amazing background and a holiday on the horizon. What he's going to ask could be mistaken for certain intentions, but he doesn't care what Mito, Kirito, or Asuna thinks. "Well, Mito, I'll have to raincheck our bathing time for later. There's somewhere Ko and I have to be."

She looks up from her typing hand and nods, her previous mischievousness returning. "Ah, a late-night outing? Asuna asked us to come with her and Kirito to the baths upstairs. She's making swimsuits."

"Really?" Koharu gasps. "Jaymes, let's go! We can do what you want later."

The swimsuit moment comes in an untimely manner and a place it has no reason to appear. He sighs and "...Yeah, let's go there first."

"So...you want the golden bull on red or the orange bear on black?"

Kirito unceremoniously holds up two pairs of shorts, the one he got as a LA bonus from General Baran and the gift he just received from Asuna as a Christmas gift. Jaymes feels somewhat short-handed; he helped decide on the trip to the castle. The decision would have been easy, but Jaymes loves red a tad bit more than black, but what halts his choices is the gold bull marking on the backside of the red shorts and the orange bear on the back of the black shorts.

Asuna is a cruel lady. Jaymes makes a quick decision and points to the item in Kirito's left hand. "I'll...go with red."

"I think it fits you more than me."

"Black is your color." He accepts the trade request from Kirito, then places the shorts on his mannequin's underwear slot after unequipping all armor and clothing, then follows Kirito out of the changing room. The girls, based on hearing, are already in the pool, so it's safe to enter. After passing through the glass door, Jaymes' jaw drops at the size of the ivory bath chamber. Water falls from a golden faucet in a gentle stream. The south and west walls are made of glass, offering an amazing view of the snowy weather and the lake surrounding the castle. The bath itself is lined with the ebony basalt that lines the lake.

But the most beautiful thing to a nearly sixteen-year-old boy is the three girls in the pool. Jaymes silently thanks Akihiko Kayaba for the foresight to have...basic biology be locked on default, or else it'd be embarrassing. Since she's the closest to where Jaymes looked last, the south and west wall, seated at the southwestern corner of the pool and looking outside, Jaymes' eyes fall first to Asuna. She wears a one-piece white swimsuit that looks to open up in the back based on the slightly visible cut. He may have seen her completely exposed once, but he's still amazed by Asuna's figure. He tries not to stare too much, but it is hard to look away.

He blinks and adjusts his eyes mid-blink, landing his sight on Mito seated right in front of them. She's in a similarly styled swimsuit, her back to the guys, and her hair tied completely up. He turns away from her, splitting off from Kirito as he heads in Asuna's direction, and looks towards the final girl. He unconsciously feels his eyes widen at the sight of Koharu, the black-haired beauty in a red two-piece suit. She sits somewhat timidly in the southeast corner, looking up to Jaymes as he approaches and does his best not to stare at her so that she'll notice. He still hasn't forgotten seeing her in the nude, or the closeness of her wet clothes hasn't left his mind since their arrival on the floor.

"Those red shorts. Aren't those Kirito's?"

He clears his throat and sits down beside Koharu, staring across the pool at Asuna while she converses with Kirito. "Someone didn't see it fit to make me swimwear."

"I see."

"So, Jaymes," Mito says as she maneuvers over from her perch to Jaymes' left side, a smile on her face. "you say you made it up to the eighth floor in the beta, right?"

"I cleared eight but made it to the ninth, so yeah."

"But it's clear you're one of the best players in this game. I'm surprised you didn't make it to the tenth." She places her chin on her fist, wonder in her eyes. "Why is that?"

He shrugs. "I played leisurely, to be honest. I wasn't a mid-level player, but I strayed from the front simply because I wanted to save some things for the official game. It seems to work well, considering all boss knowledge is somewhat useless. Of course, no one expected that we would fight for our lives. So... I can't do things at my own pace if it means we're one second closer to coming home." There's another reason I'm not taking the game at my own pace, but it needs not to be said. Mito understands that with a nod.

"Hmm... I agree with you on that." Mito looks ahead to Asuna, who now lies facedown, stretching her legs to float in the water. Kirito seems to be straining himself to look anywhere else but at his partner. "It's my fault Asuna's here. Before that day, she was concerned about the mock entrance exam, getting the best possible score, impressing her parents, and maybe even beating my ranking at school. I'm the one who convinced her to play video games and get her brother's Nerve Gear to play SAO. I just wanted to help her chill out, you know. So I have to get her home, even if it means-"

"Don't say it," Jaymes interrupts. "She's not the same anymore. As a matter of fact... Asuna may one day be better than Kirito and I. One day, we'll be following her to freedom. If you want to see that, you have to live too. And I bet one day I won't need to protect Koharu anymore. She'll be my equal, if not stronger than me." He looks at his partner, whose attention is on the outside world, and smiles at the thought of her being a strong player, then hear a slight chuckle from Mito. "What?"

"You sound confident that she'll be alive to make it home."

"I promised myself I'll be sure she survives and returns home. Whether I live to see it or not... I won't say that because I plan to be with her the entire time."

"I see that now... So who looks the best in their swimsuit?" she asks loudly, a higher volume than their previous conversation that Koharu hears them and slightly glances in their direction. Jaymes doesn't get a chance to curse Mito or answer her question as they hear the door open behind them. Mito, Jaymes, Kirito, and Koharu turn towards the door while Asuna half-hides her face under the water's surface. Due to the steam in the room, they can't make out the exact form of the silhouette, but then a voice comes that's familiar to them all.

"So here you five are." It's Kizmel...and the next moment, Jaymes' eyes are covered from behind. He almost resists, then realizes why Koharu acted as such. Kizmel must be nude again, and Koharu doesn't know that Jaymes already had an uncomfortable encounter in the baths on the third floor. He prefers to keep it that way.

Eventually, his eyes are uncovered, allowing him to see that Asuna had left the bath. Moments later, she returns, Kizmel following behind. The elf wears a swimsuit herself, a darker shade of purple than Mito's. She struts over to Kirito's location, analyzing all of us. "So you are wearing your underwear... I mean, 'swemsoot' too. Humankind certainly has some strange customs."

"Uh, I guess."

"But I seem to remember that in the camp's bathing tent, you and Jaymes were-"

"Man, Kizmel, you look great in your swimsuit," Jaymes interrupts with a forced laugh. "And this bath is awesome too. So large compared to the one in the tent. I wonder how great the one on the ninth floor in the queen's castle is!"

"But of course. It is located much higher up than this one, with a view of the entire ninth floor. But I'm afraid that only the noble officials and the queen's sworn knights can use it. It may not be possible for humankind to enter..."

Asuna, who looked the most suspicious of the girls (well, Koharu and Mito's suspicions may not lead to the boys' death), had a dreamy look as Kizmel spoke of the queen's bath, but it melted upon the last statement. "Oh, I see... But this bath is quite wonderful itself. I almost wish I could live in this castle forever."

Kizmel smiles faintly, then drops her chin to face the water and scoops some with her hand. "I am happy you like this castle...but it is best not to stay for too long."

"Huh... Why?"

"As you've seen, Yofel Castel is an impenetrable fortress surrounded by lake water and cliffs on all sides. From time immemorial, it has never fallen to an attack by goblins, orcs, or even Forest Elves." Jaymes doesn't recall goblins or orcs being seen on this floor, so this must be a pre-Separation castle that survived the formation of Aincrad. The defenses here are great; the only way to reach the castle is by water. If the Forest Elves were to attack, they'd have to do so by boat-but as Kizmel told them earlier, the elves (at least the Dark and Forest sects) don't cut down trees out of respect for them, not a rule like they heard from the Fallen Elves. But since fallen lumber is allowed to be collected, in theory, the Forest Elves could do as the Fallen are...

"Isn't that a good thing?" Kirito asks. "We went to all the trouble to recover the Jade Key on the third floor, and now it's safe and sound in here, right?"

"Yes…but because of its safety, the troops stationed here are too lax. They've driven back Forest Elf attacks enough, but the Forest Elves have their fortress on land and have barely any ships. Winning every time through an easy advantage causes one's skills and heart to go soft." Irritated, Kizmel kicks the surface of the water. "On top of that, the priests demand no metal armor within the castle grounds, as they find the noise unpleasant. With people like that around, it's no wonder that things around her are getting soft."

"And that's why you've been in a dress this whole time," Asuna notes.

"It looks silly on me, doesn't it?"

"Not at all," Koharu says with conviction. "You looked so pretty, Kizmel."

"I agree," Mito affirms. "It's not often a warrior or adventurers like us get the chance to wear something like that, so we should take the opportunity when it arrives."

"I wonder if they would yell at us, too, if we had plate armor."

"Most likely. No need to test your theory."

"Good idea."

"What? Asuna not trying to stir a little trouble? I thought you changed, haha... Jaymes?"

Jaymes had subconsciously stood up on his feet. Before this, while the others continued talking about the defenses of Yofel Castle, he stared out the window to the lake, wondering why he thought of the Fallen and those boxes. Kizmel said the Forest Elf fortress is landlocked and has few ships. They wouldn't cut lumber themselves out of respect for the trees. It may be weird to him for Kizmel's people, but it is a characteristic trope for the forest kind to respect flora and fauna. The only way the Dark Elves collect lumbar is when it has fallen due to monsters or any other means, and if the same applies to the other elves as they've heard... Earlier, he only thought of it as a hypothesis, but what if there's truth to it?

His eyes staring at the only appropriate person he can stare at-Kirito. Kirito looks back blankly, though Jaymes could tell he was thinking about something himself. "Kirito... Those boxes..."

"...Oh!" His eyes widen, and he turns to Asuna. "Asuna, today's the twenty-fourth, right?"

"Obviously."

"It's Christmas Eve," Mito adds. "What's up with you two?"

Kirito ignores her and looks at Kizmel. "We've got trouble, Kizmel. I'm almost positive that the Forest Elves are going to attack this castle in three days with an entire army."

"I told you earlier, Kirito. The Forest Elves hardly have any ships, and they bring others down through the spirit tree. Even if they tried to swim to this shore, our ships would scatter them in moments."

Jaymes intercedes. "Well, I'm not sure it's the Forest Elves we need to worry about. Them, on the other hand..."

Asuna fills in where he left off with a gasp. "Oh! Are you saying the Fallen aren't going to attack Rovia...but here?"

"What?" Kizmel rises from the edge of the bath, alarmed by our claims. "You've seen the Fallen on this floor?" They took time to explain our findings to Kizmel, and once they were done, the five players received a notification that the "Shipwright of Yore" questline was complete. As Jaymes suspected, it was Kizmel they needed to warn. The experience gained bumped the boys and Mito to level seventeen, Asuna and Koharu to level sixteen, but there was no time to think about it. Kizmel, aware of the impending danger, sharply commands them to follow her.