Caring For A Rat: Part 11

I shifted Yui behind me as Asuna marched fearlessly up to the Army grunts. Even though we were in a safe zone, there were a number of exploits that people could use to move each other around or even to the Black Iron Palace if they felt like it.

"Step aside, sweetheart," The army grunt probably tried to sound commanding, but it just came off as condescending. "The Aincrad Liberation Force has business with the woman living here."

Asuna cocked her head to the side, staring up at the man unflinchingly. "And what might that business be?"

"Nothing a little girl like you needs to worry about." Ohh; This guy didn't recognize Asuna. One of his buddies obviously did, from the way he was shifting, but the "leader" didn't.

I was barely able to see Argo as she slipped out of the church, taking advantage of her high [Hide} skill to analyze the situation.

"Since I was going to have Sasha take care of my little sister, I think you will find that it is very much, 'something I need to worry about'." Asuna said, playing up the concern angle in a way that reminded me that she was very, very good at getting people to do what she wanted.

Thankfully, Yui seemed to understand that what Asuna was doing was important, and didn't "correct" her by saying that she was actually Asuna's daughter the way she had when we tried to convince her to call us her siblings.

"Well, I wouldn't give your sister up to someone as forgetful as that woman," The Army Grunt said, gesturing a hand towards the church. "She's late on her last three rent payments, and if she doesn't pay up, we'll have to confiscate some of her possessions."

"I didn't know that this place was owned by the army," Asuna said, crossing her arms. "Is this a new development?"

"The previous owner sold it to us two months ago to recoup profits lost after their planned business failed. We've been leasing it to the current occupants." The line that the Army Grunt feeds Asuna is too well-practiced to be thought up on the spot. This is a meticulously planned operation. And any layperson would probably take it for what it is.

I met Argo's eyes, and she shook her head. That was all the confirmation I needed. The church was public property, and they could no more force her to pay rent on it then they could make me pay rent on my own house.

"Well, Sasha has a very different opinion on what you have been doing to the children under her care than you do." The Army Grunt's muscles tensed as Asuna spoke, and cut her off.

"Sasha is a known liar and philanderer, and you should not leave your sister with her."

"Really?" Asuna said, somehow managing to sound incredulous without being sarcastic. "So if I go to Thinker, he'll say that this is an actual-" The army Grunt's fish flashed out in a backhand, aiming to bring Asuna to the ground. I grasped for one of the swords on my back, only to meet empty air.

The blow never landed.

A shimmering wall surrounded each of the Army Grunts as the anti-criminal code recognized aggressive behavior in a safe zone, and teleported the offenders to the cells of the Black Iron Keep.

I couldn't help myself, I started clapping as the light faded. Next to me, Argo joined in.

Asuna flushed a little, but maintained her composure as she walked back to the two of us. "So…" Argo drawled, "We can probably guess tha'-"

"That was so cool Una-Mama!" Yui burst forward in joy, leaping onto a startled Asuna and wrapping her arms tight. My wife reflexively wrapped her arms around the little girl, keeping her from falling. "You told them off good!" Yui crowed, beaming up at a stunned Asuna.

The fencer smiled slowly, one hand stroking our daughter's hair. "I did, didn't I?"

"As I was sayin'," Argo ground out, her eyes sparkling with mirth despite the clenching of her jaw. "We can probably confirm tha' this wasn' an official operation."

"Definitely." Asuna nodded. "If they were working for Kibaou, or even just someone with real power in the Army, they would have gotten them to block any of my inquiries into the situation."

"And since they didn't…" I could feel the thought being completed in our heads. 'They're just some petty thugs who came up with a decent plan.'

"Let's get ta our Inn so tha' we can plan things out in private," Argo said, nodding her head towards Asuna. "Which one was it, Aa-chan?"

"The Golden Down, why?"

"I know a shortcu'." Argo flicked a hand at one of the alleyways across the street. "Should shave almos' half an hour off our walk."

"Sounds like a good idea." I nodded, and the four of us set out, following behind Argo.

The Alley was dark, and damp. Wet laundry hung from clotheslines strung across the gaps between buildings, and refuse piled up next to some doors. The streets were uneven, and I had taken to holding Yui's hand so that I could lift her over uneven patches of street.

All in all, it was better than the last alley I had found myself in. At least this one wasn't filled with rats. Still, we had been walking for almost fifteen minutes now, and while Argo still hadn't hesitated in making a turn, Asuna had shared some hesitant looks with me.

And to top it all off, I had had to gently tug on Yui's hand a few times to keep her moving at a reasonable pace. She kept slowing down as we walked. Maybe she was getting tired?

I stopped, and kneeled down in front of Yui. "Do you want to get on my back?" My daughter stared through me, as if she was viewing some other location.

"I remember…" She said, her voice hesitant and unsure. Despite that, a jolt of excitement ran through my body. Further down the alley, Asuna and Argo had stopped, staring rapturously back at me and Yui. "I remember darkness… And… and filth… I- I- I did… didn't…" Yui shuddered, her chest rising and falling in great heaving breaths.

I was dimly aware of Asuna and Argo starting to move as Yui spoke again.

"I've never been here before."

Yui's eyes rolled back in her head, and she collapsed motionless to the street.

Without hesitation I scooped my daughter off the street and pulled her up into a princess carry. Argo took one look at me, and turned back around, already leading the way to the Inn. Asuna fell in beside me as we ran, tense with worry.

Why did this happen? Was Yui trapped in an alley like this once? She'd said that she hadn't been here before, did she mean the alley, this town, what? The mystery in my arms was probably deeper than I knew, and it tormented me as the three of us ran through the alleys.

Ahead of me, Argo turned a corner, and I heard the bustling noise of a main thoroughfare. The wheels of a cart rumbled across the city street as I turned the corner, and the vehicle towered up over me.

Argo had already tumbled under it, and I could see her legs vanishing into the crowd on the other side. I took a deep breath. I had three strides to do this.

I pushed off hard with my left foot, my legs pumping hard, moving towards the edge of the narrow alley. When I reached the wall, I angled back toward the cart. One stride left. My right foot stomped hard onto the ground, my leg flexing as I pushed as hard as I could.

Up, up, and up I soared, going horizontal in midair as my legs barely cleared the top of the six-foot high cart. Asuna lept above me, her stronger legs meaning that she could easily clear the height that I had had to take special steps to prepare for.

I landed as lightly as I could, but I couldn't roll to bleed off momentum. Instead, I took several stumbling steps, wincing as my legs twinged in protest of the stress they were going through. By the time I had recovered my stride, Asuna was several feet ahead of me, her head still tracking Argo.

I followed my wife and my friend, the three of us making for a rather unusual sight on the 1st floor. Hell, we would have been an unusual sight on the 55th floor. I could hear the noise of conversation increasing by almost 300% as we passed, but that didn't matter. Argo was better than anyone I knew at controlling rumors, and nothing mattered but Yui.

I sidestepped an ambling NPC, the preprogrammed statue making no reaction of any sort as I swerved around it. It didn't react even as Yui's hair brushed against its face, obscuring it's vision.

The rest of the trip was a blur; the only clear thing I could recall was that horrifying moment when Yui collapsed like a puppet with the strings cut. I would have nightmares of that moment for months to come.

Argo waved me down from the doorway of the Inn, her chest rising and falling from exertion. Taking a deep breath, I forced my aching legs to move. It was only a psychic pain. I had run faster with wounds worse than this.

"Aa-chan's settin' the room up," The info broker said heavily, trying to calm her breathing. "Let's ge' her comfortable." I nodded in response, one hand gripping a little tighter to Yui's shoulder.

The Inn was high-class, the sort of thing you might see in a renaissance or early-industrial styled hotel in the otherworld. The walls were painted red and purple, stylized to look like threads being woven into a tapestry with golden tassels. It was the sort of ostentatious decor that only the wealthy could afford, and I found myself wondering if we would be able to afford it.

Argo unlocked a door that didn't look any different than the rest, revealing a simple two-bed room with an attached bath and a view of the street. For all that the furniture was medieval in nature, the layout of the room matched quite a lot of hotels I had been in before SAO.

Asuna had dressed up one of the beds, and was sewing pillows at a rate that I found a little scary. Her hands flickered through the sewing pattern so fast that I couldn't even see them, and only the repeated *dings* that signified a perfect match gave any evidence that she was actually succeeding. Three pillows already laid at her feet, and as I watched, a fourth one appeared in an explosion of sparks.

By the time I had laid Yui down on the bed, a fifth one had joined them.

The instant Yui's bottom hit the bed, Asuna was sliding pillows under and around her, propping up her head, back, and arms so that she looked like a princess on a throne of pillows.

When Asuna finished arranging the pillows to her satisfaction, she tried to worm her way into the pile, trying to plaster herself to Yui's side. Behind me, Argo was tapping and scrolling through half-a-dozen menu screens at once. I just stood dumbly in the center of the room, desperately wracking my brain for something, anything I could do.

People didn't collapse like that in SAO. Paralysis was a status ailment, yes, as was Petrification, but those never made you non-responsive the way Yui was. Maybe I could try feeding her a healing potion?

No, that wouldn't work. Her status bar was completely clear. There was no reason for her to be unconscious like this. Her health bar still sat at 100%, and she had zero debuffs or status effects affecting her. So why wasn't she waking up?

Did she hit her head when she fainted? I knew that that could cause damage in the Otherworld, but it wasn't any different than getting hit anywhere else in SAO.

But Yui had always been a little strange, ever since we picked her up. Maybe the damage system for her was even more "realistic" than it was for us.

Behind me, something shifted across the wall. When I turned around, Argo was halfway to the door.

"Where are you going?" I winced. That had come out a lot more accusatory than I had intended.

Argo refused to stop or even meet my eyes as she spoke. "Ou'."

"For what?" I asked, "Have you even figured out who we're going to investigate first?"

"O' course I have!" Argo snapped back, looking much like a hissing cat. "Kibaou."

"Okay, we've got an end goal. But who are you going to start with?"

"I'll figure it out." Okay, this was really not like Argo. Why was she being so prickly? She didn't… she did.

I moved to block the door. Argo's eyes widened as she saw me move, and she almost beat me to the door. Thankfully, I managed to close and block it before Argo got to me. I stoically stood in front of the door as Argo punched me in the stomach, refusing to move so that she could go off and wallow.

"Damn, it Kirito!" The info broker hissed, "Let me through!"

"No," I said, and watched as a visible aura of anger flared up around Argo. Behind her, Asuna watched warily from the bed, having moved in front of Yui. "Not until you stop blaming yourself for what happened to Yui."

"Oh don't you star', Kirito!" Argo shouted, jabbing one finger at me. "I decided on tha' shortcut! I'm the one who kep' us in there longer than we needed to be! I'm the one tha'-"

"I don't think it's your fault." Argo's eyes widened as I cut her off, and she took in a deep breath. For one second, it looked as though she was going to keep yelling at me. Then her shoulders slumped, the fire went out of her eyes, and her hand dropped to her side.

"It's my faul'."

"Then you'll just have to apologize to Yui when she wakes up." I grabbed Argo by the hand, leading her over to the bed not currently occupied by my wife and daughter.

"Wow, Kii-bou, I didn' realize you were so eager ta hold my hand," Argo teased at me, And I smiled. She wasn't going to run off now. Probably.

"Just making sure you aren't going to leave." Half a second after I spoke, I knew that I had made a mistake as Argo's eyes gleamed, and her mouth opened.

"Oh, tha's so sweet~" I wasn't certain if the tone that came out of the Info Broker was genuinely appreciative or overacted to the point of sarcasm, and I wasn't sure I wanted to know. "I'll be happy ta stay for as," Argo kissed the back of my hand, "Long..." The info broker pulled closer, dragging one finger up my chest. I felt sweat form on the back of my neck.

"As..." A sudden jerk nearly yanked me off my feet, only for an arm to wrap around my back as Argo dipped me. "You…" The Info broker leaned in close, breathing the last word into my ear. "Like." My face felt a lot hotter than it normally did.

It had been almost a year since Argo had gotten me this flustered.

"If you're done trying to set my husband on fire, can you help me figure out where we can get food?" Asuna called from next to the door, having left Yui's bed while I was occupied with Argo.

"Comin'" Argo said, unceremoniously dropping me on the floor and walking over to Asuna. My wife pulled open a map of the Town of Beginnings, and started gesturing to various places on the map.

"Last time I was here, six months ago, I remember that a food merchant had set up here with mats from the middle floors," Asuna said, touching an intersection, "Do you know if-"

"He's not there anymore," Argo preempted Asuna's question, "He moved up to the seventh floor, where he coul' turn a profi'."

Asuna nodded, and the two of them continued working their way through Asuna's map, steadily crossing off a list of places. It was nice, watching them work together like this. Even though they both worked with people, and for people, their fields of work rarely overlapped, so it was good to see Asuna making Argo feel useful like this.

Argo must have felt me looking at her, because she glanced up from the map, and her eyes widened. She ducked back down so fast that Asuna had to move her arm out of the way before the Info Broker hit her head. Was she still worried about me blaming her for what happened to Yui?

I sure hoped not. I thought that I had made my feelings on the matter perfectly clear.

"Oh, this is hopeless." Asuna swept the map closed with a flick of her wrist. "Let's go find a food merchant, because obviously my knowledge is hopelessly out of date."

I rose to my feet, putting one hand on the bed for leverage. "You stay here Kirito." Oh, right.

"Aw, ya wan' me all ta yourself, Aa-chan?" Argo smirked, leaning against the wall, one hand propping up her head.

"That has nothing to do with why Kirito is staying here!" Asuna exhorted, flushing lightly. She looked cute when she got embarrassed.

"Oh, really?" Argo drew out her words, savoring them on her tongue.

"Let's." Asuna drew in a deep breath, calming herself, "Let's just go." My wife grabbed Argo's arm, and pulled the info broker through the doorway, the door banging shut behind them. As it closed I could hear Asuna listing out the ingredients that she wanted to make tonight's dinner from, and a suspicious lack of Argo saying anything.

Not that it really mattered. I had at least thirty minutes until they got back, so I was going to optimize my skill loadout. The new bracers I had gave a bonus to parrying blows, so I could more effectively use some counter skills. Most of them required a shield, but a few only needed a weapon, and there were some that could be performed bare-handed as part of the [Martial Arts] skill tree. But I was more interested in the counterattack skills that had been unlocked when I unlocked [Dual Wield].

I settled into my chair, flicked open the menu, and started to read.

It was a very pleasant day on the first floor. The sun was shining, making the late Autumn chill a little less prevalent, merchants were hawking wares in the market square that had formed around the teleport plaza, and one Info Broker was screaming internally.

What the fuck did I just dooooooooo! Argo roiled much like liquid in a food processor; calm on the surface, but wildly churning beneath. I just- I just- Why did I just- Fucking dip him! The info broker walked through the marketplace exceedingly calmly, narrowly avoiding nearly a dozen different collisions when she refused to move out of the way of people coming towards her.

And I just had to say such a fucking cheesy line- The info broker was yanked out of the path of an incoming NPC, the burly shopkeep not even noticing the small women over the stacked crates he was carrying. I mean, I"ll stay as long as you like? What the hell even is that? The Info Broker wailed internally, even as her face remained flattened into a picture of stoicism.

"Argo." I've already mucked things up with Kii-bou, so why did I have to go and- and insinuate- insinuate Things with Asuna! The Info Broker's thoughts spiraled into a mess of startled exclamations, ineffective rebuttals, and a loop of Kirito's flushed expression when she had dipped him; how his eyes had flickered around her face, and his lips had parted slightly as if expecting a kiss.

"Argo." It's not like I'd even deserve to date either of them even if they weren't already together, not with how I fucked things up with Yui. The Rat thought morosely, now moving through the square towards the stalls that lined the edge. Barely avoiding three different clerks who were rushing about with deliveries. No, the best thing to do is leave after this investigation is over. I've-

"Argo!" The Info Broker was yanked out of her thoughts by someone grabbing her shoulder and pulling her around to face them. "Honestly, can you please pay attention to where you're going?" Argo, now stunned for a different reason, failed to answer.

She- she just- why- why- why was her tucking a piece of hair behind her ear so hot?! The info broker stood stock-still in front of Asuna, her eyes valiantly trying not to linger on any one part of the beautiful fencer for too long. Asuna sighed, and Argo strained to not stare at the rise and fall of her graceful shoulders.

"I know that you feel guilty about Yui, but we need to focus on getting dinner now," Asuna said, pulling open an updated map. "Now, which of these merchants do you think has the best chance of carrying some chicken?"

Argo shook herself and allowed herself to fall into the familiar pattern of dissecting info and consulting her notes to help the woman she was crushing on decide what her, her two crushes, and potentially their daughter would be eating tonight.