Hey there, people of the internet!

Been feeling a bit exhausted with life at the moment so I took the opportunity to just let myself rest and forget about all the bad things in my life. I won't go into detail but now I'm better and may start uploading somewhat frequently.

The big problem now is that, with every upload, we get ever so closer to catching up to where I'm at with the story. I've hit yet another writer's block so instead of forcing myself to keep writing, I've just stopped entirely and will just wait for all the ideas to come back to me. Hopefully, that happens before we catch up to where the story's at but if not, I'm afraid you'll have to play the waiting game again :/ (But I promise it won't take 2 years this time)

Anywho, back to the story...

"Remind me never to do that again," He finally said as he got up from his prone position. The two of them then checked the other side of the rock to see the results of Kirito's troubles and were greeted with an odd sight. The Ox had indeed rammed the boulder and dealt some fine damage, but it's horns were stuck and as such, the game decided it was incapacitated and despawned it right in front of their eyes.

"Guess we won't be trying that again," Argo complained with a sigh. "Not only that but just one hit will only have knocked off about twenty to thirty minutes,"

"Sorry about that, I guess I'm still rusty in some ways," Kirito apologized awkwardly which was further proved by the way he scratched the back of his head.

"It doesn't matter, one hit is better than none, right?" Argo cheerfully exclaimed which allowed Kirito to forgive himself. "Welp, time to get back to work." She said as the sound of fists striking a boulder filled the area once more.

While she went about her business, Kirito turned his thoughts to the 2nd Floors main boss, Asterius. If he remembered right, Asterius wasn't in the beta of SAO and thus, they had quite a difficult time dealing with him. Had it not been for Argo's impressive information gathering, He might've even died right then and there. But with his avatar the way it was now, Asterius himself wouldn't be too much of a threat.

The real challenge of the 2nd Floor boss fight was the fact that Asterius had two henchmen that fought for him. Plus, Asterius himself doesn't actually spawn until both of his henchmen had health bars in the red zone. All this meant that, while he probably could do it by himself as he did with the first floor's boss, he would much rather have some companions to help him just in case.

In fact, a small part of him wanted to leave this boss to some other people so he could see what the other players in this SAO restart were capable of. But in the end, he couldn't say no to another chance to destroy one of his most hated bosses. He actually remembered almost the entire fight him and the raid party had back in old SAO so he replayed it in his mind and reviewed what he could do better this time around.

"You okay there Kii-bou? You've been pretty silent for a while," Argo said, snapping him out of his thoughts. He must've seriously lost track of time because the sun was starting to get quite low.

"S-Sorry! I got completely lost in my head," He apologized but she ignored him and instead question his actions.

"What were you murmuring about all that time? Sounded like you were talking about Asterius," She said as she continued her assault on the boulder "You planning on fighting it again with Asuna?"

"I don't necessarily care who I fight with, as long as I have trust in them and they trust in me," He replied with a brief explanation of his beliefs. "Speaking of bosses, did you partake in any of the raids at all back then?"

"I partook in two or three of them, but I never actually helped fight the things," she admitted. "Remember, I'm an information broker. I don't fancy getting my hands dirty with that kind of thing. I'm more of a fan of giving others the information they need to succeed and whatnot," Kirito understood her explanation, but a new thought regarding the subject entered his mind.

"Have you ever at least thought about becoming a fighter? Because if you remember, we pretty much already have all the knowledge we need for every floor up to floor 75," Kirito's convincing statement caused Argo to give the idea some thought. "So, no offense, but information brokers like yourself won't be very useful for a while."

"Would it kill ya to say that in a nicer way?" Argo retorted sarcastically. They both shared a small laugh at the comment and then proceeded to continue on in a bit of silence. This was good for Argo as her thoughts had begun to run wild after their latest batch of banter. She fully understood that her skills as an information gatherer would be of no use until the higher floors so the idea of getting herself familiar with real combat was starting to sound good to her. Plus, she already had an idea of what kind of fighter she would be. The weapons she had on her now, her Iron Claws, were bought for the sole purpose of self-defense, should a deal go south. But as far as damage went, they were barely better than using her bare fists.

So as she considered Kirito's proposition, she decided that the first weapons she would get would be the Silver Twin Blades she saw back in the weapons shop in Urbus. The interesting thing about Twin Blade weapons is that it's commonly thought that you need the Dual Blades skill to use them, and to be fair, having that does help. But in reality, as long as you don't use both swords at the same time, it doesn't necessarily count as dual wielding. The two of them must've fallen in deep thought as when Kirito had snapped out of his daze, the sun had dipped halfway below the horizon already.

"It's getting pretty late," Kirito said while yawning "You gonna finish up soon?" Argo didn't reply to his question straight away. She struck the rock about four or five more times before stepping back and observing her progress.

"Eh, why not," She said as she made her way over to their little camping spot and summoned her sleeping bag out of her storage. It wasn't until she was patting it down to fluff it up that she realized that Kirito was sitting almost right next to her. "You okay?"

"You asked me to sleep with you tonight, didn't you?" He replied to her question with another question, but Argo couldn't have cared less about that. She was too busy stuttering rapidly for a response with a super red face that Kirito thought was kinda cute.

"W-WHAT? I-I-I WASN'T REALLY SERIOUS ABOUT THAT!" She cried as she tried to avert her eyes from his direction.

"I know that, but I still haven't properly apologized for this morning and you said you wanted this," Kirito said which just caused Argo to get even more embarrassed. "Plus, I actually kinda want to get the well-rested stat boosts for tomorrow so this works out both ways," While Argo was still super red from his first reason, she could understand the second one. Not only that but she also remembered that last night, she had said that she really didn't mind whether he slept in the bag or not. So after clapping her cheeks with her hands to get the bad thoughts out of her head, she answered him cooly.

"Whatever, as I said, I don't mind whether or not you do. It's big enough for two people anyway," She said convincingly before they both got in the sleeping bag. Once they were both settled in, they realized that, while they both indeed fit inside, it was a tad bit of a squeeze so they were a little pressed up against each other. Argo could do nothing but look away to avoid bad thoughts but Kirito started up another conversation as if everything was completely normal.

"By the way, correct me if I'm wrong but I'm not sure you've actually logged out at all since we started this quest. Is there a reason?" He asked without a tinge of awkwardness to his voice. In fact, the lack of awkwardness actually made it awkward for her at least. But even still, she kept her cool during her reply.

"I'm not sure about every quest in the game but the few that I've done since SAO restarted, including this one, have required no logging out," She explained to him, even though her head was facing completely elsewhere. "Basically, if I log out during this quest, it'll auto fail and all our work would've been for nothing." She finished replying, only to be immediately hit with another one.

"Speaking of logging out, you never told me your real life name," He pointed out. She didn't know if this was a spur of the moment question or if he was legitimately curious about her personal details so she gave him her usual answer.

"Sorry Kirito, but that kind of information is going to cost more cor than even you could possibly gather," She said, causing Kirito to seemingly realize that his words were kind of taboo.

"Right, of course, I apologize for asking. I'm not quite sure why I asked, really," Kirito kicked himself for sub-consciously touching on one of the biggest taboo's in gaming and went straight to sleep to avoid any awkwardness between them.

Once Argo knew he was asleep, she built up the courage to turn around and face him. When she did, all she could think about was that fact that their two faces were now less than a few inches apart. As she stared in unintentional awe, she reminded herself of what he had done for her. Not just in the old SAO but in this one as well, like this entire quest for example. Had it not been for Kirito, who knows what she would be doing right now. Part of her didn't know whether to thank him or hate him for doing this but then she thought about how he had been by her side this entire time.

He kept his promise to her that he wouldn't leave until she finished, and as she thought about it, he had always been one to keep the promises he had made, that kind of thing was what she loved about him. It was here where Argo had actually realized just how close they were. Not just their bodies but their faces and their lips.

She didn't notice it at first but she weirdly started to stare right at his lips. The look of longing started to fill her eyes as the feelings that she had tried so long and so hard to bury and forget was starting to bloom rapidly in her once more. She tried so hard to deny it and silently told herself off constantly, but it all just made it worse. Soon enough, she even started to feel her body move. At this point, she was begging her body to stop but in reality, her heart knew what she wanted. She was fighting a losing battle to her feelings.

As she realized that there was nothing she could do, she slowly let her heart take the reigns. She apologized to Asuna countless times in her mind and promised herself that tonight would be one of the very few pieces of information that she would take to her grave.

Once she was close enough, she just closed her eyes and braced for impact. All of a sudden, it happened. Her lips made contact with Kirito's, and she kissed him.

As soon as it happened, her heart exploded in emotion. Something she secretly longed for was happening and it made her tears start to fall. It wasn't long and it wasn't fancy, but for about five seconds, she was lightly kissing the lips of someone she loved. As she pulled back and regained control of her body, she made sure he was still asleep by double checking the little 'ZZZ' icon above his head. For all he knew, he had just had a totally normal sleep with no worries. But to Argo, the last few minutes alone had felt like a lifetime. As she rested her head back away from his, she smiled and spoke softly.

"It's Ariko," She said just before she was whisked away to dreamland.

Kirito got up just after sunrise the next morning, unaware of what had gone down, and woke Argo up as well right after.

"Come on, today's the day!" He said cheerfully in an attempt not to sound like he was just excited for the quest to be over.

"Mmm, I don't wanna," She mumbled lazily as she tossed and turned in the sleeping bag. "You do it,"

"I wish," He thought to himself as she slowly rose out of the bag and stored it back in her inventory.

"Alright, let's do this," Argo yawned as she stretched her back (which wasn't really necessary as things like bone stiffness and pain didn't exist in SAO). Once she started, Kirito noticed immediately that all her punches were lazy and half-assed, so he teased her to a great extent to get her all riled up. After yelling at him for being 'such a meanie', she got back her fire and started to attack the rock really hard with overexaggerated intensity. Kirito entertained her intensity by supporting her in the same way a football coach would support their team. The two of them laughed multiple times as they both went to great extent to try and out-intensify the other.

Almost four hours after they had woken up that morning, a loud crack resonated throughout the entire surrounding area. After a few moments of confusion, Kirito realized what it was.

"Argo, hit it hard one more time!" She blinked at him in confusion for a moment but quickly followed his orders by bringing her fist back and thrusting it as hard as she could towards the boulder. Upon impact, the boulder exploded in a firework of small rock debris.

Argo had finally destroyed the boulder, but before they could celebrate, the old man in the hut opened the door again and slowly walked over to her. After focusing his eyes on the empty patch of grass where his boulder used to be for a moment, he looked up at her and spoke.

"Congratulations adventurer, you managed to destroy my boulder with your bare hands and allowed my precious plant to bear fruit," The old man said. Argo was bewildered by his words but followed the old man's gaze to the spot of grass where the boulder used to be.

After a moment of silence, she watched as a Golden Rose sprouted from the ground and bloomed at a height of about half a meter. Golden Roses were an extremely rare flower found in the original SAO that had a special ability to cause every player within a ten-meter vicinity to slowly heal and be cured instantly of any ailments such as poison or paralysis.

"As a token of my respect, allow me to bestow upon you the title of Warrior," As he said this, a small window popped up in front Argo asking her if she wanted to accept the Martial Arts Extra Skill. After a moment's hesitation and a brief look at Kirito, she pressed the 'Yes' button and a second window popped up congratulating her for acquiring a new skill.

"Thank you, sir," Argo said in acceptance, but the old man wasn't done.

"Before you go, allow me to remove those whiskers," The old man said as he walked up to her to rub the whiskers off her cheeks.

Argo unintentionally leaned back in defense, these whiskers had become apart of who she was. To her, it was what made Argo, Argo. Just a few days ago, she would've scoffed and gagged at the idea of removing the things that had been so special to her ever since the start of the old SAO.

But yet, she found herself happy. She leaned forward and closed her eyes as the feeling of experienced fingers caressed her cheeks and erased what felt like an entire part of her body.

As he finished removing the last one, Argo felt as if she was looking at an image of her old self waving as it drew further and further away before ultimately, it disappeared. But shortly after that, a new person started to take shape, it took the outline of her old self but as the details came into view, what she saw was something else, and when she opened her eyes, she revealed not just to herself, but to the entire world, the new Argo. She took in a deep breath while caressing her bare cheeks as if new life had been breathed into her.

"How's the new look?" Kirito asked after he watched it all unfold before him. Argo didn't answer but ran over to him and embraced him in a heartfelt hug. As much as she tried not to cry, a few tears managed to escape as she embraced the friend who had helped her achieve a new life. The friend who she also longed to call her lover but accepted its impossibility. Nevertheless, never would she forget the kindness and encouragement he showed her. Only he can pull off these odd miracles, and she was sure that Asuna would agree.

"Thank you, Kirito," she said as she slowly loosened her grip.

Over the next few minutes, the old man gave a brief congratulatory speech and offered Argo the Golden Rose as a special reward, who in turn, gave the rose to Kirito as thanks for helping her overcome her past mistakes. He was reluctant to take it at first but Argo insisted to the point where Kirito took it solely to shut her up. After this, Argo announced that it was high time she logged off.

"You gonna be on later?" Kirito asked her as she sorted her inventory before departing to the real world.

"Doubt it, I'll probably spend the next day or two taking care of real life nonsense," She said. "Oh, but by the way…I've been thinking about it and I've realized that I've never actually met you IRL and…well, I kind of want to," She said with understandable hesitation, seen as sharing personal information such as IRL details were absolutely prohibited. However, while it was against the rules to do that, there was nothing in place to stop people from saying such things. It was more of an honor rule than a law.

"I mean, I'd rather not say it out loud in-game, but I'll give you my phone number so you can message it to me," He suggested. Argo nodded in agreement to his proposition.

"Alright, it's 049-…" As he said his phone number, Argo committed it to memory as best she could. Once she was done, she realized something.

"49? So you live there then," She said after remembering the area code. "That's a little far from where I live,"

"Don't worry about it, I have to drive over an hour from my house if I want to see Asuna so it'll be fine," He admitted confidently "In fact, tell you what. We'll make it a promise, I'll find time to come see you as soon as I can,"

"Alright, it's a deal," She beamed happily before quickly regaining a bit of her composure. "You'd better remember to come." She said before saying one last goodbye before logging out. After her avatar disappeared in a flash of blue light, Kirito felt a brief moment of loneliness before remembering that he actually liked to be alone. As he made the long trek back to Urbus to catch up with his friends, he received a message from Argo,

5 Chome Mifunedori

Nagata Ward, Kobe, Hyōgo

Oh, and make sure to warn me when ur coming so I can prepare

See ya soon Kii-bou 3

"Kobe? Well damn, she does live ages away," Kirito complained as he unknowingly said the prefecture out loud. "Oh well, sure hope I have enough yen for a plane ticket. No way am I driving six whole hours on a bike." He mumbled to himself for a few moments before it finally hit him.

"Oh yeah that's right, I can teleport back to Urbus," He said moments before he was whisked away via teleportation.

Ok, confession time, I accidentally started shipping Kirito and Argo while writing this chapter to the point where i actually started to write about them getting together behind Asuna's back but realized what i was doing and erased it all.

Don't worry though, as I have previously stated, this will be a harem story so Argo will get her moment with Kirito, but i want to save that for later. I'm quite content with what i have here.

So without further adieu, that brings an end to Argo's main arc. She will still be there throughout the story, but I'm mostly done with her as far as character development goes.

Hope you liked it, write me a review and tell me your thoughts. 'Till next time :)

pls excuse all grammar mistakes, proof-reading ain't my strong suit.