Thanks everyone for reading: Here's chapter 3 of book 2, wherein Leafa both misunderstands and understands Kirito's current romantic entanglements. Please leave a review to let me know what you think!

Caring For A Rat: Book 2, Part 3

"I didn't expect my night to get quite this interesting," I mused to myself as the blonde fairy, who had introduced herself as Leafa, led the way back to the Sylph capital of Swilvane. After a quick interrogation, she had been satisfied that I wasn't trying to gather information for the Salamanders or another hostile faction, and had volunteered to lead me to civilization, where we could rest and refuel.

I had wanted to keep on following Yui's directions toward Asuna and Argo, but the pixie had pinched me when I had tried to refuse Leafa's offer.

So now I was headed to a completely different city than the one I had intended to end up in when I entered ALO.

"If you don't mind me asking," Leafa said as she pushed aside a low-hanging branch. "Why are you still using the beginner equipment?"

"Pardon?" I ducked under the branch as it came whipping back.

"You're faster than I am, and your strength stat has to be massive if you were able to break the salamander's spear like that, so why are you still using the beginner gear?" The sylph elaborated, outlining her points on her fingers. "I mean, unless you've done nothing but grind skills for the entire time you've been playing ALO, you should have gotten some better gear upgrades."

"Personal preference," I said, hoping to head off any more uncomfortable discussion about my stats until I could come up with a better cover story or acquire better gear.

Thankfully, Leafa let the matter drop.

The silence that we were walking in should have been uncomfortable, but it wasn't. I somehow felt like I could trust this person, who I had never met before, and hardly knew me. Maybe it was just the result of meeting in battle and fighting a mutual enemy, but if I had to trust her to watch my back, I wouldn't give it a second thought.

I'd only ever extended that courtesy to four people before.

It didn't take too long, maybe about fifteen more minutes for us to enter the Sylph capital of Swilvane. The city was built into the forest in such a way that a party flying over it would have missed it if they didn't know where to look. You'd have to either be invited in or follow someone back to discover this location, which was unusual for an MMO, although I guess it made more sense in a PvP setting.

"Well, I've got to report to Lady Sakuya," My companion said, stopping just outside the gates. "There's a couple of inns on the east side, or if you want to switch up your gear, the blacksmiths and merchants are straight down the road from here. Just ask an NPC if you need any help. Oh, and here." A friend request popped up in front of me.

I tapped the yes button without really thinking about it. If I needed to, I could always unfriend her later.

Time to see what sort of gear I could get on... 8,000,000,000 Yrd?! My money must have been transferred over as well. I probably wouldn't be able to get anything too extravagant, but I could probably at least get a nice sword. Using my current blade felt like I was trying to cut with a butter knife, and it was far too large and unwieldy.

I needed a far slimmer blade, one better suited to be wielded in one hand. This game probably supported dual-wielding, but that was a trick I wanted to keep up my sleeve for as long as I could.

Unfortunately, the player stalls were focused on weapons with the wrong kinds of stats. It seemed like Sylphs tended to favor AGI-and-DEX based builds, to go with their natural stealth abilities and ambush techniques. What few STR-based weapons they did have were huge blades, like my beginner's sword was.

I was about to give up and check the NPC shops before I rounded the corner to see someone who was most likely not a sylph, given that his hair was blue, although what was more surprising was the cat ears popping up from slits in his hat. In front of him lay several swords, and a sign that said [For Sale, Cheap]. The man looked desperate.

It was hard to tell here in VR, where clothing didn't tatter, and you never looked unwashed unless you had a status effect, but the man was looking out at the crowd surrounding him with a resigned expression, as if he was expecting them to ignore his offer.

Still, he noticed when I started walking towards him, his ears swivelling in my direction, followed closely by his head. I almost winced at the look of hope that blossomed over his features.

"What sort of swords do you have?" I asked, and the kid's face lit up so bright I thought for a second there was a lightbulb below his skin.

"Just what you see here, I made them all myself, and my blacksmith skill is over 500!" I hummed appreciatively. He wasn't a top of the line blacksmith, not with his skill not maxed out, but as I analyzed the swords, one of them caught my eye.

It was fairly close in construction to the [Elucidator], the sword I had used until it broke in the final battle against Kayaba. It had the same sort of guard, with two small spikes jutting out from the quarter-circle of metal that connected the blade and the crossguard.

Those spikes would be able to catch an opponent's sword, and then it would be easy to either disarm them or wrench their wrist, forcing them off balance. Best of all, it was a strength-based weapon, and one that had higher stats than my current one, including durability.

"I'll take this one," I said, pointing to the red blade, the handle decorated with a spiraling vine.

"Alright, that'll be 20,000 Yrd" I couldn't help but raise my eyebrows at that. 20,000 Yrd? Assuming the currency had approximately the same value as Col, and I had reason to believe it did, then I was practically robbing this blacksmith.

"Take it," the cat-eared merchant said, pushing it into my hands, "I just need enough funds to get a new hammer and then I can start forging equipment that'll sell better."

Still feeling apprehensive, I accepted the trade, and walked away from the encounter with 20,000 Yrd well spent.

Leafa caught back up to me when I was sitting at a cafe. She didn't look too happy. I barely caught the tail end of her rant as she walked towards me. "And you can go and swallow your own sword, Sigurd, since you seem to like it so much." She shook her head, clearing the anger from her face as she approached my table

"Well, I'm on leave for now," She said, slumping into the seat opposite mine. "Apparently I let the salamanders come too close to Swilvane."

I remained silent. The intricacies of Sylph politics were not known to me, but it seemed obvious that the swordswoman felt that her circumstances were unjustified.

"Never mind the fact that I'm the only one that survived, or that they know our capital's location from trading info with the Spriggans -no offense- and only haven't attacked because the defenses are too strong!"

"None taken," I said, in between bites of my sandwich, "Although I'm not certain that all Spriggans should be the target of your ire."

"I know they shouldn't," Leafa said, "It's just hard when they keep selling data and items to the Salamanders."

"Are they selling data and items to the Sylphs, as well?" I asked. The steak dish I was eating was decent, but was lacking compared to Asuna's cooking.

"That's-"

"Because I saw at least a half-dozen Spriggan merchants selling very specialized equipment in the market at Swilvane, and it seemed like they were doing well. Certainly better than the poor Cait Sith I got this sword from." I patted the handle of my new blade appreciatively.

"Eurgh," Leafa groaned, shaking her head back and forth rapidly. "Too much thought for now, I'm a simple grunt, I don't have the room in my head for this sort of stuff."

"Well, that sounds like a you problem." Leafa nodded in response. "Anyway, you're probably looking to go somewhere else, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I know most of the routes in and out of Sylph territory, I could guide you there if you want." The sylph tried to be flippant, but it was rare for someone to volunteer stuff like this for an almost complete stranger.

"Looking for something to do while you're off duty, huh?" I asked, taking a swig from my mug.

"Basically," Leafa said, dipping her head in affirmation.

"Well, I'm trying to make it to the World Tree," I said, "And I'm pretty far from where I thought I was going to end up, so I would like your guidance."

"Um, Papa?" Yui poked her head out of my pocket, peering up at me. "Are you certain you don't want to let Ago-mama guide you there?"

"You have a nav pixie? And you still got lost?"

"Random Teleportation event." I tossed the excuse in Leafa's direction before turning back to my daughter. "And I don't want to put too much stress on Argo, she's already got a lot to deal with, having to adjust our plans like this."

Yui nodded, looking satisfied with my answer. "Although, speaking of Argo…" I sent out a quick message to my partner, giving her the details of where I was, and that I'd found a guide to the World Tree.

Her answer was a thumbs-up emoji. I'd have to call her later, there was clearly something eating at her if she wasn't hounding me about my "guide".

"Well, let's head out, shall we?" I stood up from the table, my Sylph companion following half a second later.

One quick tutorial on flying later, The two of us were heading for the nearest "Safe Zone", a small outpost, with only a repair station, two basic quest-givers, and an inn. It was exhilarating to fly through the skies under my own power. The only thing close to it had been when Lisbeth and I had been falling during the adventure that had gotten me my second sword.

Man, Lisbeth probably would have loved this game. I'd never seen her as happy as that time we were in the air; she would have loved flying. Unfortunately, our flight meters ran out approximately half of the way there, and we were forced to make the rest of the journey on foot.

It made for conversation that was both awkward and not.

"So… who is this 'Argo' you mentioned earlier?" Leafa said, trying to fill in the silence.

"Ah, she's one of my oldest friends," I answered honestly. "I met her while beta-testing a game, and we found that we made a pretty good pair. I was good at the coding side of things, but I've never seen a secret in a video game that she couldn't find."

"Sounds like you two are pretty close, huh?" Leafa said with a small smile on her face. I was probably making that dopey lovestruck grin that Argo liked to tease me about again.

"Yeah," I said, bringing one hand over to my pocket to stroke Yui. "We were planning to go to the World tree and do some questing together."

"Well, We'll have to hurry to get you and your girlfriend back together then." Leafa probably meant it as a bit of innocent teasing, and I almost corrected her, but Yui pinched me through my shirt before I could. I guess it didn't really matter to correct her right now.

Hell, Argo would probably get a kick out of it, it's not like I could easily explain my complicated romantic situation to anyone off the street.

The rest of our journey to the safe zone was uncomplicated. I learned that Leafa preferred to use her sword two-handed, even though I had seen people use larger swords one-handed, hell I had used a larger sword one-handed for a while. She also clearly had some formal kendo training.

It was visible in the way that she struck, seldom letting her blade change direction, the confidence of her stance, and the way she stepped while in combat. Most people didn't realize this, but one of the worst things you could do in combat was to cross your feet for longer than a split second, and even then, that was best saved for finishing moves, or if you were trying to retreat while keeping your guard up.

If someone hit you while your ankles were crossed, you would topple over so fast that it would make a jenga tower look slow in comparison.

And Leafa never let her ankles cross.

It was somewhat strange that someone trained in swordsmanship would be playing a video game that all but made a mockery of it, but maybe it was her way of having fun.

When we got to the safe house, I sent another message to Argo that I would be logging out soon. She told me that she was going to be a little longer, but that she'd be done playing by 9:45. The time right now was 9:30. Leafa had logged out after we agreed to meet back up at 3:00 pm tomorrow.

Then I had to say goodbye to Yui.

"It's okay, Papa," My daughter said, from where I was holding her against my chest. "I'll be right here when you're back."

"I know," I said, still not able to bring myself to open up the tab and log out. I wanted to stay here, with my daughter, who I hadn't seen in months. She had been far too quiet while I was with Leafa, and I wanted some time alone with her.

"You have to sleep Papa," Yui said, breaking free from my embrace to hover in front of me. "You aren't in a hospital anymore; you have to take care of yourself."

"I know." I hesitantly pulled open the tab and pressed the log out button. Yui smiled at me as my surroundings vanished in a spray of light.

When I opened my eyes, the familiar ceiling of my room greeted me. I wanted to dive back in right again. Yui was there, and I needed to see her, to know she was all right. But I had made a promise to her, to take care of myself, and I couldn't do that if I laid here in bed and played ALO. I had to get up.

As I got out of bed, an intense thirst gripped me, and I left for the kitchen to grab a glass of water. Along the way, I ran into Sugu, who had changed into workout clothes. Oh, right, it was about time for her nightly exercises.

"Oh, hey Kazuto," She said, slipping past me into the gym. Once I had gotten my drink, I sat on the edge of the indoor dojo, watching as my sister went through her exercises. She was using arm weights, to let her swing a normal bokken faster.

It was very interesting seeing the differences in the programmed sword skills that Kayaba had created and the practiced strokes of someone who actually knew what they were doing.

As much as Kayaba had tried to create a realistic system of combat in SAO, he was hampered by the fact that he wasn't formally trained in any style of combat, thus hampering his research efforts.

And while he had succeeded in creating an admirably realistic system in terms of how swords were shaped, and how much damage they could do to certain areas of the body, and how they acted with armor, many of the sword skills he had created were poor techniques in actual combat.

They weren't egregiously bad; he never included spin attacks without a shield to cover your back, and for the most part kept people in proper stances, but he also didn't realize that changing the direction of a sword mid-cut minimizes the force behind the edge, that half-swording was a technique that was lethal to foes in armor, and that crossing your feet in combat was a disaster waiting to happen.

Or perhaps he did, and was relying on those weaknesses to take advantage of people using sword skills. It wasn't like I could ask the man; he was dead.

"Haah!" Suguha shouted, bringing her sword down in an overhead stroke. If she had been wielding a normal blade, she probably would have split her opponent from the top of the head to the top of the ribcage. People often didn't realize just how lethal a sword could be.

My sister wiped the sweat from her brow, she glanced up at the doorway, seeing me standing there, leaning against the doorframe.

"Your form's really nice Sugu," I said, taking another sip from the glass of water I was carrying.

"Thanks," My sister said, hefting her bokken over her shoulder. "I've been practicing really hard! I'm planning to go all the way to the finals next year!"

I pushed off from the doorframe, intending to walk to her and give her an affirming pat on the shoulder. "I'm certai-" My leg buckled as I pushed off, and without my cane, all I could do was stumble and try to catch myself. It wasn't going to be enough.

I couldn't move my legs fast enough. I was going to- "Kazuto!" Suguha all but dove under me, throwing the air from my chest as her arm wrapped around my ribcage.

There was a moment when no one moved. I was too busy cursing myself. Why had I left the cane at the entrance to my house? It could have prevented me from falling like this.

Suguha pulled me up, slinging one of my arms around her shoulders as she supported me with her body. I sank gratefully into one of the chairs that stood on the other side of the gym, thankful for the seats that my sister used after her practice every day.

"Kazuto, are you okay?" Suguha said, still hovering at my elbow as I stretched out my leg. It was twinging a bit.

"I think so, just need to rest." My sister looked unconvinced, and about ready to argue before I cut her off. "Just, can you please get me my cane?"

"Only if you promise me not to get up before you have it," Suguha said, to which I nodded. She paused at the door of the dojo as she left, looking back at me as if making sure that I wasn't going to move. I smiled up at her, trying to say that I wasn't going anywhere.

Mollified somewhat, she left.

Five seconds later, my phone rang. Tomo! I had forgotten to call her! I frantically answered the call, an apology already on my lips.

"I'm so sorry Tomo."

"Eh, it's okay Kii-bou," Tomo's voice sounded over the phone. I could picture her laying in bed as she made the call, her mouth quirking up into a grin. "I'm actually callin' a bit early 'cause I had an Idea."

"An Idea?" Tomo's ideas usually had good results, although they were a little hit and miss on the execution stage of things. I still remembered the time she had tried to lead two groups of hostile mobs into each other in the Beta, and ended up hiding in a tree as they joined forces. We had still managed to gather all the experience and drops, but it had taken almost as long as it would have to defeat the two packs separately.

"Yeah," my partner said, fabric rustling as she shifted positions. "You know how Kayaba was actively undermining Asuna's position in the KoB because she was so popular outside of it?"

"Of course." It had been one of the big things that had tipped me off about Heathcliff in the first place. He had started making stupid decisions in an effort to curb my wife's influence within his guild.

"There's gotta be a lot of people that would try and free her if they could, right?"

"So we tell them that we think we know where she is and get them to help?" I finished Tomo's plan for her.

"Yeah, sounds nice, doesn't it?" My partner said, her voice picking up in excitement. "I've been doing some studying, and it looks like the biggest party that ever challenged the Grand Quest was a 30-man raid group. Do you think we could get more than that?"

"Easily," I said, feeling a jolt of excitement rising in my chest. "The hardest bit is going to be gearing people up."