The first floor was a lot more open and happy than I remembered. But then again, I hadn't been back since the third floor opened, when a lot of people were convinced that we were stuck here, with no hope of getting out.
Now it was just the hub for the people who decided they were going to make a life for themselves on the first floor.
And it was here that all the players younger than twelve had ended up.
Argo led the way through the streets, as the one who knew the way to the Church that served as Aincrad's sole orphanage. Yui skipped along to the cheerful BGM, the violins in the background bringing a content smile to my face. The little girl practically brimmed over with curiosity, peering at everything within sight.
Asuna kept a careful grip on Yui's hand, preventing the little girl from running off.
I was happy, walking with my family? My family like this, one arm around Asuna while Yui ran alongside and Argo guided us to someplace only she knew about. I leaned lightly against my wife.
"Oy, hurry it up Lovebirds!" Argo yelled from the next corner, "Not all of us can spend hours at a time starin' into each other's eyes!"
"We're coming!" Asuna called back, disentangling herself so that she only gripped my hand, before she started dragging me along. I adjusted my stride to be longer before I could fall, and we had caught up to Argo before she had crossed the intersection.
"We're not in any particular rush Argo," Asuna said, slipping one arm into Argo's, "Let's enjoy our journey."
Argo shook her head. "I've been gettin' reports tha' Kibaou is actin' up again. I wan' to get in an' out before we get stopped by the Army, so tha' I can gather more info."
"Do you know what he's trying to do this time?" I asked, cocking my head. Kibaou was the biggest threat to the cohesion of the different guilds that was still at large. If he had gained control over a large portion of the Army again.
"No, and tha's what worries me." Argo said, falling into our pace as we continued walking, Yui now trailing along behind us, frowning in thought.
"Alright, then let's make this quick." I said, starting to increase my speed, "If Kibaou is acting up again, I don't want Yui anywhere near him."
"Who's Kii-aou?" Yui piped up.
"Who?" Argo said, scratching your head, "Kii-bou is right here-"
"No, Kii-aou." Yui enunciated patiently, "The one you were just talking about."
"Oh, Kibaou," Asuna giggled. "They do sound similar, Argo." the fencer nudged the info broker playfully, causing her to let out an indignant squawk.
"Maybe you should find another nickname for me," I said, "I'm not sure I want to be so easily confused with Kibaou."
"Hmm," Argo tapped her finger against her chin a couple times in thought. "Nope!" She grinned. "You're stuck with Kii-bou."
"Great," I drawled, making Argo laugh in response.
"Who. Is. Kii-aou." Yui punctuated each word with a stomp. It would have been scary if she weren't approximately six years old.
"I'm sorry Yui, we got caught up in our own thing," Asuna said, kneeling down in front of her daughter. "Now, how to begin…"
"Kibaou is probably the bigges' threat to inter-guild cooperation tha's still active righ' now," Argo said, starting to walk again. Yui ran for a bit to catch up, head cocked intently to listen to the info broker's words.
"He almos' broke Aincrad in two before we'd even really got started."
Yui nodded seriously, her face contorted into a question, "So he's a meanie?"
Argo stopped, falling behind us momentarily, before she shook herself and jogged a little to keep up. "I guess you coul' call him tha'."
"But if Kii-aou is such a meanie, why is he in charge?" Yui asked almost eagerly, as if she was trying to pull back the curtain on the human mind and see how all the little bits and gears worked.
"Well, a lot of what people look for is to blame their problems on other people." Asuna began, unhesitatingly laying out several things that were still uncomfortable for me to acknowledge. "And Kibaou knew how to inflame and direct that anger."
Yui nodded along seriously, at a sharp contrast with her very young features. "So he's a a- demogoe?"
"Demagogue, yes," Asuna continued, "And thankfully, he isn't really in charge anymore."
"Yeah, Thinker an' Yulier really run the army nowadays," Argo said, chewing her fishbone. Where she had found another one, I had no idea. "An' it's a good thing too."
"Thi-er? Yulie?" Yui asked eagerly, her eyes shining with curiosity.
"They're the people who are officially in charge of the Army," I said, casting my mind back through my many encounters with them, "As the Army mainly keeps the peace on the lower levels, they aren't clearer-level-"
"Cleaer?" Yui's eyes are even more curious, if that's possible, and it strikes me just how little this little girl knew of Aincrad, how it's people conduct themselves, and the language they used.
"Oh, um a clearer is someone who 'clears' floors, and unlocks the next floor for clearing by defeating a boss…" The explanation of all the intricacies of what makes a clearer a clearer and why the Army was one of the few large guilds that didn't have more than a few clearers or former clearers took the rest of the walk to the church.
Every time I thought that I or Asuna or Argo had explained things to completion, Yui asked something else that made me question my answers.
"But if a cleaer is on the frontlines, and always in combat, why did you call Ago-mama a cleaer?" Yui said, honest confusion written across her face.
"Clearer's aren' all full-time warriors like Kii-bou an' Aa-chan here," Argo cut in, "In fac', mos' o' 'em aren'. They're usually smiths, or merchants on the side, an' treat clearin' as a chance to get rare items or mats." The Rat explained with the air of someone who was far too eager to have a reason to finally be sharing this info.
"We're here." Asuna's words shut all of us up.
The Church was smaller than I had expected, and I almost asked Argo if she was certain that this was the place, but she'd never led me wrong before. With deep breath, Asuna opened the door.
The large windows inside the church let in light from all sides, creating a welcoming atmosphere. It was easy to see that the main body of the church had been repurposed as a schoolroom, with the area normally reserved for a pulpit and altar converted to become a blackboard and other school supplies.
The church was currently deserted. Yui, as curious as ever, scampered over to the blackboard, Argo following along like a rather suspicious caretaker. The little girl found endless fascination with the chalk left nearby, rubbing it along her fingers and examining it from all angles.
Argo kept her interest by making a wild series of guesses about the sort of people who frequented the place, and assuring Yui that she could tell because they had left their mark in the chalk. The curious girl found this incredibly interesting, and alternated between poking and prodding various pieces of chalk and quizzing Argo.
I almost bolted for a second when Yui made to put the chalk in her mouth, but thankfully Argo managed to grab her before she could manage it. Things calmed down immensely once Asuna made her way over to show Yui how to draw with chalk, Argo pouting exaggeratedly at losing her playmate, but heaved a sigh of relief as soon as Yui's back was turned.
"I don' know how she does it," Argo said as she flopped down next to me in the pew.
"Asuna?"
"She's jus' so patien' with Yui, an' never loses control," Argo said, kicking her feet up across my lap. "No matter wha' Yui does, she never lets any anger show on her face." The info broker tilted her head to watch my wife and the girl I was coming to see as my daughter.
Asuna was currently experimenting with how the chalk drew lines. It wasn't like in real life, where pressing differently would create different line weights, you just touched the chalk to the board to create a line. But Yui still managed to create an impressive variety of line thicknesses.
She had since moved on to drawing a set of stick figures, one small one standing in front of three others, the one in the middle- oh. She was drawing a family portrait. I could see the four of us overlapping Yui's art; the little girl in the center, laughing and smiling as Argo told her a joke, wrapping her arms around mine and Asuna's shoulders while we held Yui's hands.
I wanted to take a picture like that, someday.
"Argo, look," I said, tapping the lightly snoozing info broker's leg. She almost convulsed with how quickly she snapped her legs off of me and into a ball. The info broker shifted upright, sitting stiffly in a way that I hadn't seen from her recently. "Yui's drawing us." I gestured towards the chalkboard.
Yui had finished drawing the stick figures, and moved on to detailing them, moving the chalk very slowly as she put the finishing touches on Argo's whiskers. I felt more than saw Argo relax next to me, and when I glanced over, she had hidden her face in her hood.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah," Argo said, smiling in a way I had never seen from her before. "I am." I very carefully did not mention the water forming in her eyes.
"Hey," I said as Yui finished drawing out Asuna's long hair. "You want to go do some drawing?"
"Only if you're gonna draw as well, Kii-bou."
Asuna looked up and smiled as we approached, wordlessly handing us pieces of chalk. With unspoken agreement, the three of us all took up different positions to draw. As the tallest by a small margin, I stood behind Yui, drawing above where she worked on her family portrait.
Argo worked on her own piece to my left, her chalk moving in grand sweeping circles just like she drew in information. Small straight lines appeared between and inside the circles, forming shapes out of small pieces. On my other side, Asuna created a network of points, with lines moving in the shortest path from one point to the other. The figure she created was hard around the edges, but it was posed in a warm stance, welcoming whoever may come.
Just because she was the fiercest fighter I knew didn't mean she wasn't kind.
We kept drawing until Sasha returned.
The door creaked rather loudly as it opened, which made all four of us turn our heads around in unison. All of us froze. Were we not supposed to be in here? Argo had said it was okay, and I trusted her. But what if Kibaou acting up had made Sasha change how she ran the church?
Did we need to leave righ- "Well, It's nice to see you again Argo," Sasha said, slumping over as if she had just set down a rather large weight.
"Nice ta see ya too, Sasha," Argo snapped back, her tone light and teasing. "Still letting Calvin steal as many cookies as he likes?"
The caretaker blushed lightly, but sat down in one of the pews nearby, leaning back against the backrest like it was a plush velvet armchair. "Now, is there anything I can help you with?"
"Well, it has ta do with Yui here," Argo began, waving a hand in Yui's direction, The girl took that as her cue to step forward and introduce herself.
"Hi, I'm Yui!" The little girl said, raising her hand in greeting, "Are you friends with Ago-mama?"
"I'd like to think that I am," Sasha said, "And can you tell me a little about yourself, Yui?"
"That's actually why we're here," I said, patting Yui on the head.
"I can't remember anything." Yui shrunk into herself, her hair falling to cover her face. Sasha looked heartbroken.
"We were hoping that you might remember her, and help us figure out who she is, but if you didn't recognize her…" Sasha shook her head in response to my question.
"I haven't seen Yui before, I'm sorry." left unsaid was the possibility that her caretakers, if there even were any, had died.
"It's okay," Asuna sighed, "We knew it was a long shot."
The room fell silent. Yui shifted restlessly next to Argo. Sasha looked uncomfortable with us being here. Maybe we should leave before she gets fed up with us. "Why don't we go for a walk around and see if anything jogs Yui's memory?"
"That sounds-"
"I'd be careful if you do go out," Sasha said, "The Army has been trying to extort my kids for some time now." Argo's eyes gleamed.
"Oh, really~" the info broker all but purred, "Tell me more."
"I've been trying to get in contact with you for a while now, actually." Argo shrugged, and gave a careless smile.
"Sorry abou' that, I've been huntin' down tricky quests recently." I frowned as Argo spoke. Unfortunately, without the facade of strength she put up, customers would go elsewhere. Argo wasn't the only Info broker, just the best one. And a lot of that was because of her image as an unflinching fighter with a mind of Steel.
"Well, it's good that you're here now." Argo swiped open her notepad, one hand holding a stylus, ready to take notes. "It started a few weeks ago," Sasha began, to the background scratching of Argo's writing.
The Army had been trying to extort gear and Col from the kids under Sasha's care. Why, Sasha had no idea, but she thought it likely that whoever was doing it was operating independently of the Army leadership.
"After all," She said, "It's not like the leaders leave the Black Iron Palace much these days."
"Still," Asuna said, tapping her chin in thought. "It's not a good sign if Thinker has lost control of the Army to such a degree."
"Looks like the infightin' with Kibaou is more serious than we though'." Argo leaned back, swiping her menu closed. "Kii-bou, Aa-chan, I'm gonna stay here an' try ta get to the bottom o' this. You wanna help?"
"You know you can always count on me for help, Argo," I said, leaning onto her shoulder. She wrapped an arm around me and pulled me down into a one-armed hug.
"Good, 'cause I'm gonna work ya to tha bone!"
"Can we ask you to help us take care of Yui while we're investigating?" Asuna asked. The question was something I hadn't thought of. There were three of us, and Yui needed to be watched. Sasha being able to watch over Yui would free up all three of us to investigate and respond to any challenges.
"I could," Sasha said, "You'd have to leave her here with me for the duration of your stay in the Town of Beginnings though. I don't want to have to remake a party because one of the members had to stay back to help me."
"What do you think, Yui?" I kneeled down in front of the girl I was quickly coming to think of as my daughter. "Do you want to stay with Sasha?"
The black-haired girl bit her thumb nervously, her eyes darting back and forth between me, Sasha, Argo and Asuna. "I want to stay with my Mamas and Papa," Yui said in a burst of emotion, almost a plaintive cry.
Sasha cast an incredulous glance at Argo, who shushed her with a gesture.
"Well then, it looks like we'll have to figure out a schedule." Asuna tapped one finger along her cheek.
"A schedule?"
"For taking care of Yui." When I hesitated to answer, Asuna gave me a disbelieving look. "What, you didn't think I was going to stay home while you and Argo investigated this split in the ALF?" I was hesitant about Asuna involving herself in this matter. Argo was a known independent actor, and I hadn't been part of the KOB long enough for people to associate me with them, especially when I didn't wear their colors, but Asuna was different.
Every guild member of significance knew Asuna, and that she acted for the KOB. If Kibaou thought that the clearer guilds were trying to muscle in on the lower floors… Well, Asuna knew the politics of the situation better than I did. I trusted her to handle herself, even if I thought that the situation would be more stable without her investigating.
"Well, in any case, let's go pick out an Inn." Argo stood up, her cloak falling around her body heavily.
"I remember a pretty good one near the Black Iron Palace," Asuna said, grabbing on to Yui's shoulder to keep her from jumping into the pew in front of her in her eagerness to move. "I stayed there last time the ALF hosted the Guild Leader's council."
"Alrigh' then, lead the way." Argo bowed theatrically, gesturing towards the exit of the church. Asuna nodded towards Argo as she passed. Argo fell in beside me as I passed, Yui holding my hand.
Asuna pushed open the door of the church, And I blinked in surprise. Immediately outside the doors was a four-man "squad" of the Army, arranged in a semicircle. None of them had drawn their weapons, but they were clearly ready to fight.
Leave a Review to let me know what you enjoyed!
