Okay, time to continue the story... with a slight change of plans. As I mentioned (more than once, actually), I initially planned to write Kirito's "adventure" as a one-chapter side story, but once I've settled on what to write, I noticed that this would've become longer than I wanted, so I post it as a three-chapter part of the main story instead.
The first part is actually quite short, which may raise the question what took me so long writing it. Well, there was this one scene I wasn't happy with, and I spent what felt like ages trying to fix it... only to come to the conclusion that it would be better to drop said scene entirely. I guess that wasn't worth the effort...
By the way, the title is a reference to "Girls' Ops". I mean, it features three of that spin-off's protagonists, and the fourth one is basically replaced by the object of her worship, so... yeah.
The 95th floor had quite the genuine equatorial desert climate. This applied especially to the characteristic temperature at the different times of the day. It got scorching hot during the day and freezing cold during the night. Neither of these extremes was particularly well-suited for battling or travelling, which was yet another difficulty the Assault Team had to deal with on this floor.
There was, however, a window of about two hours in the morning when it was neither too cold anymore nor too hot yet, and the parties of the Assault Team tried to complete outdoor missions within that time frame. There was a similar time window at night, of course, but operating in the dead of night wasn't exactly popular.
Why was that relevant? Well, there was a group of players who wanted to make the most of these two hours, but right now, they couldn't… They were waiting impatiently for two of their comrades. Well, "impatiently" might not be the right word. It was just that they were restless, but that wasn't really the latecomers' fault.
The players in question were Kirito, Leafa and Philia, and they were waiting at Celes' main gate.
Kirito, in particular, was leaning against the city wall while he pondered over the situation. Today, they'd try to find a quest that would allow the Assault Team to resolve the conflict between the goblins and the lizardmen on the 95th floor peacefully… which was all they had been doing for well over a week at this point.
The gravity of the situation had changed, though. This morning, Asuna had seemed unusually nervous, which Kirito had noticed by the time Leafa had come to drag… ahem, to pick him up. At first, Kirito had thought that it had something to do with Asuna's plans for the day: Apparently, she wanted to do "girls' stuff" with Sinon – whatever that meant. However, Asuna had been looking forward to whatever she had planned with Sinon, so Kirito figured that she wouldn't be as uneasy because of that as she had been.
When he had remembered that Asuna had received a message late in the evening the day before (which she hadn't wanted to talk about), it had clicked. The small clearing guilds probably wanted to finish the last stages of the war campaign – only aside from the goblin HQ – on this day, so this was their last chance to find the solution they had been looking for. Asuna probably hadn't told him about it to avoid putting even more pressure on him and the others, but Kirito knew the general situations thanks to everything he had heard and seen: Akinym, Agil and Klein had told him about certain events, Silica knew some details from the meetings of the smaller clearing guilds, and he himself could tell that more and more goblin bases had been falling.
Kirito wondered if the other members of his recon party had figured it out, too. He glanced over at Leafa, who was standing right next to him. She… looked somewhat calm, although a closer inspection made it obvious that she was actually quite tense. Anyone who was familiar with her mannerisms could've told that this was her typical state when she tried to focus.
Well, and Philia… Kirito directed his gaze to her. Right now, she was pacing up and down. So, to sum it up, Leafa was tense and tried to hide it, Philia was tense and made it painfully obvious.
In fact, it reached the point that Leafa couldn't stand it anymore.
Leafa [frowns]: Philia, could you please stop that?!
Well, at the very least, Leafa's complaint was enough to make Philia stop.
Philia [slightly awkwardly]: W-well, I can't help it! I've always been like this: Whether it's with family or at school, I'm always restless before a trip!
Leafa: This isn't really a "trip", you know? [exasperatedly] Although I also wish that… [slightly surprised] Oh, there they are!
Kirito and Philia followed Leafa's line of sight, and they spotted Silica, who was heading their way with quite impressive speed. She was a bit overenthusiastic, though, and she had to hit the brakes with all her might in order to come to a screeching halt before she would've crashed into the wall… or Kirito, actually. Frankly, it was a bit frightening.
Kirito: G-good morning, Silica! It's good to see you so… full of energy.
Silica: I'm sorry! I didn't mean to almost crash into you, Kirito-san! I only wanted to get here as fast as possible since I was already late. For which I'm also sorry!
Leafa: Well, it's okay, Silica-san! [slightly awkwardly, to Kirito and Philia] R-right?
Silica [slightly dejectedly]: Th-thank you, Leafa-san, but I'm really sorry! We have an important task, and here I am, delaying our departure… That's so unprofessional. I hope you didn't have to wait too long?
Leafa: It's fine! Don't worry too much about it!
Philia: W-well, it hasn't been that long!
Kirito [slightly at a loss]: Philia, weren't you almost unable to wait any longer until just a moment ago? Besides, how long did we actually have to wait? Ten minutes?
Silica: Urgh… So I really am late…
Lisbeth: Geez… In that situation… you're supposed to say… that you've only just arrived yourself!
It was only now that Kirito, Leafa and Philia realised that they had completely failed to notice Lisbeth, who had been following Silica. Or rather… It would be more accurate to say that she had desperately tried to keep up with her. Now that she finally caught up, Lisbeth was out of breath for a moment, even if it was only a psychosomatic reaction to the simulated exhaustion.
Kirito: I-is that how it works? [thinks] I've thought that this is only a trope from comedy shows…
Lisbeth [slightly upset]: It is! [slightly annoyed] But seriously, Silica, what's up with that speed of yours?! I've got longer legs, but I still can't keep up with you! [slightly teasingly] Did you want to see Kirito that badly?
Silica: L-liz-san! Don't say such things! And so casually, at that!
Kirito [averts his eyes, thinks]: Yeah… I kinda wish they wouldn't drag me into this…
Leafa [slightly annoyed]: Well, keeping that aside, [slightly curiously] if you feel that bad about being late, what took you so long in the first place?
Silica: Um… About that…
Lisbeth [points at Silica, slightly exasperatedly]: A certain someone was apparently so nervous that she forgot to bring her equipment to me for maintenance yesterday, and today, she finally noticed that she should. So, we took care of that, and… Well, you get the idea!
Silica [bows]: I'm terribly sorry!
Leafa: W-well, don't sweat it, okay? I mean, [glances at Kirito, slightly exasperatedly] there's also a certain someone who didn't really come off the stick this morning, and we didn't chew him out for it, so…
Kirito [slightly annoyed]: Give me a break… You still chased me up to come with you… even though I still would've made it in time without you shoving me all the way to the next teleporter.
Leafa: Judging from how relaxed you looked when Asuna-san let me in, I kinda doubt it.
Kirito [slightly confusedly]: How long do you think it takes me to get from the cabin to this place?!
Leafa: You still ought to be a bit early when meeting others, you know?
Kirito: Is that another rule nobody has ever told me?
Lisbeth [clears throat loudly, annoyed]: I hate to interrupt your sibling spat, but could you stop that?!
Leafa: Sibling spat?! [slightly huffily] I-it wasn't that bad!
Philia [slightly awkwardly]: Actually, I think this isn't worth making such a fuss, so… I kinda wish you would just let it go…
Silica agreed with a slightly hesitant nod. Getting called out by everyone around them was a bit embarrassing for Kirito and Leafa… although both of them were somewhat used to such scenes by now.
Philia: Well, that said… Why is this such a big deal for you all of a sudden, Leafa? [slightly taken aback] I mean, I saw you barging into Kirito's house like a whirlwind, and I could hardly keep up with you myself… You weren't so… brash so far. [confusedly] What's different today?
Leafa: Th-that's… [slightly dejectedly] It's just that judging from what I've heard from Akinym-san and others… there's not much time left for us to find a way to stop this war. [determinedly] That's why I want to make the most of every second we have!
Nobody had anything to add to this declaration. Well, if nothing else, it was enough to fire everyone up.
Kirito [hums]: Let's do that!
Silica: Um, yes! Do… Do you already have something in mind, Kirito-san? I mean, since you've asked us to meet here and not at the teleport gate?
Kirito: Oh, right, I should explain the plan… Alright, everyone! Argo discovered something that might help us. Apparently, there's a quest to fortify a lizardman outpost near the mountains in the south of this floor.
Lisbeth: Um, what does that have to do with us? I mean, isn't that a lizardman quest?
Lisbeth had a point. In order to search for undiscovered quests, Kirito and his party were the only ones who had picked the quest "Side with the Goblins" instead of "Side with the Lizardmen". That way, they had access to a variety of quests which would've gone unnoticed otherwise. The small clearing guilds took care of all the "lizardman quests", so they were actually none of their party's business.
Kirito: It is, but that's not the point. This quest is about defending the base against an attack, but according to Argo's intel, you don't actually have to fight any intruders. You only have to prepare the base for it.
Silica: Well, that does sound unusual…
Kirito: It sounds as if the attack will come at a completely different time, right? Argo had this feeling that there might be a corresponding quest from the goblins, and yesterday, she finally found something. What's more, the quest-giver is at one of the remaining goblin bases, the one that is not too far away from Celes.
Lisbeth: I see, so that's the quest we're gonna do. [slightly annoyed] Although that sounds like we'll have to walk there through the desert. I guess that would explain why the city gate is the meeting point…
Philia: Come on, what's so bad about a little walk?
Kirito: W-well, there is no teleporter nearby, so we'd have to walk just as far…
Leafa [flatly]: There's no helping it anyway, is there? [seriously] More importantly, what's so special about that quest?
Kirito: This lizardman base is in the far south, and Argo has discovered that the directive of the quest is to steal mountaineering equipment, which is apparently pretty important for something. If there's going to be an expedition in the mountains…
Silica: Oh, I get it! If it's related to the dried-up river, we might finally find a way to restore it!
Kirito: That's right. There aren't many quests left that we could try, and this one seems to be our best bet.
Lisbeth: Alright then… [slightly curiously] Wait, speaking of Argo, will she join us today, too?
Kirito [shrugs]: Argo has to deal with some customers, as usual. She said that she would meet up with us later, so we shall go ahead, and she apparently wants to meet us at this lizardman base.
Lisbeth: Hm, if that's how it is…
Philia: Anyway, shall we get going?
The others all confirmed it with a determined nod, so they walked through the open gate, setting out for the one goblin fortress in the north that was still left.
The two races on the 95th floor lived mostly inside several larger settlements, which were commonly referred to as "fortresses". Each side had had about a dozen of them when the war campaign had begun. These kind-of-towns were, however, fortresses in name only. Most of them were far from what the average person would've called a stronghold of any kind. Aside from hidden outposts, most of the bases of both races were merely oversized adobe huts. The headquarters of each race were the only exception to that rule.
In light of that, it should come as no surprise that the fortress Kirito and the girls went to may have been a three-story building the size of a large mall, but it was nothing like a military facility. In fact, players could just walk through the front door at any time without trouble.
That is, the NPCs that inhabited the place would still defend it against intruders. There was a large open space on the lowest floor, which served as a battlefield where the attacking players would have to fight their way through hordes of defending goblins. If they succeeded, the attackers would reach the second floor, which was a maze full of traps, but there was also a lot of hidden treasure on that floor.
The third floor, on the other hand, had no noteworthy defense mechanisms. It had no roof, and when looking at it from above, this floor looked like yet another maze. Alas, the walls were much too thick, and there were a lot of doors and windows in them. This was because those "walls" were actually buildings – or sub-buildings, to be more precise. Basically, this was the residential district. Any party who made it this far wouldn't have much problems with reaching the dungeon crystal they had to destroy in order to "conquer" this fortress.
Well, not that this was what Kirito and the girls where here for. Besides, since they had picked the quest to side with the goblins, they wouldn't even be able to damage that crystal. For the same reason, they didn't have to fight any of the goblins. For them, the goblins were friendly NPCs.
Kirito took his time and eyed those NPCs while walking through the alleys of the rooftop area. This place wasn't so different from the regular towns on the other floors, except that the NPCs were goblins instead of humans (which were the inhabitants on most of the floors). Well, and it wasn't a safe zone, but that hardly mattered right now.
Right now, he was much more concerned about the way to the quest NPC Argo had told him about. A lot of the NPCs around him weren't actually related to quests. The majority of them had no actual purpose… aside from making this place livelier, perhaps. Although… Kirito frowned when a thought occurred to him: There was one purpose these NPCs served. However, he didn't want to think about it.
Anyway, there were also a few merchant NPCs which sold simple supplies. For the most part, these were items that players could also buy in Celes. In fact, the goblins and lizardmen sold those items at slightly higher prices than the humans did. That didn't mean that the merchants at these bases didn't serve any purpose. They still offered a convenient way to restock when hunting around such a fortress without a teleport stone nearby. Saving the long way to the next teleporter could be worth the higher expenses.
Lisbeth: Hey, Kirito! Are you actually searching for this NPC, or are you just randomly spacing out?!
Just like that, Kirito snapped out of his thoughts in an instant and hastily backed away from Lisbeth, who had suddenly walked up next to him… or to be more precise, from her scrutinising, kind of judgmental gaze.
Kirito: Liz! Don't scare me like that… [slightly reassuringly] Of course I'm going to that NPC!
Lisbeth: Really? You seem to pay more attention to random pedestrians than the direction you walk into.
Kirito: I was just thinking about something! There's no need to…
Silica: No, I think it's better to keep a close eye on them, just as Kirito-san does!
Kirito and Lisbeth turned towards Silica, who stood close behind them. She looked incredibly tense, and her eyes were darting around nervously. To be honest, Silica had been like this since they had come to this fortress.
Kirito wasn't sure what to make of it, but Silica had been acting like this for a few days. He took a glance at Lisbeth, who seemed to be completely done with Silica's behaviour. She seemed to know something about this, but so far, she had tried to avoid talking about it.
Silica: You never know when the goblins strike! Once you're deep inside their territory, they suddenly jump out of hiding and surround you… and then, it's already too late!
Kirito: W-well, you don't have to worry, Silica, okay? Remember: We've taken the quest that makes us ally with the goblins, so they're friendly NPCs.
Silica [sternly]: That's exactly what they want you to believe! [worriedly] They're waiting for the moment when we let our guard down, and if we do, they'll strike, [scared] capture us and drag us into their den… and then, they'll do unspeakable things to us!
Kirito [taken aback, slightly at a loss]: U-unspeakable things? [thinks] What's gotten into her? Just what is she imagining?!
Silica [upset]: If I could say what things, they'd obviously not be unspeakable!
Lisbeth: Ugh, Silica, would you please just stop already?! Honestly, when I meet those idiots again…
Kirito: "Those idiots"?
Lisbeth: The dumbasses who thought that talking about Goblin Slayer at Agil's inn would be a good idea, dammit! Seriously, we enter a floor full of goblins, and they talk nonchalantly about… about that!
Thanks to Lisbeth's explanation, Kirito understood the situation… even less, actually. He took another look at Silica and tried to think of something he could say to calm her down when he noticed something else.
Kirito: Wait! Where did Leafa and Philia go?!
Lisbeth: You're only noticing this now?! Just how little attention can you pay to your surroundings, Mister Number-One-Solo-Player? They left pretty much right after we had reached the rooftop settlement.
Kirito: Really? Sure, I was looking for the right way the entire time, but to miss something like that… Where did they even go?
Lisbeth: To put it briefly, some goblin kids kicked a ball our way, Leafa wanted to return it and was immediately smitten with them, so she joined them, and Philia stayed behind to watch over her.
Kirito [sighs, thinks]: Seriously, Sugu… [says aloud] Well, I guess they'll be fine.
Silica [nervously]: Are they? Who knows what might've happened to them in the meantime… And if malicious goblins got their hands on them…
Lisbeth [slightly annoyed]: Before Silica imagines even more weird stuff, how about we move on and go to this quest NPC? Where exactly are we even going?
Kirito turned around and pointed above the buildings to their right.
Kirito: Argo told me that he's in a building around the far corner to the right.
Lisbeth [slightly suspiciously]: Th-that's it? [slightly exasperatedly] That's not exactly a detailed description! There are way too many buildings here…
Kirito: Maybe, but do you remember how we searched for new quests in other fortresses like this one? Most of the doors and windows are blocked. Searching the few possible buildings that remain shouldn't take too long.
Silica: Sealed buildings… Maybe that's where all the horrific scenes take place…
Lisbeth: Ugh… Let's just get going, okay!?
Without even waiting another second, Lisbeth started walking in the direction Kirito had pointed at, and she vanished into the next alleyway in a heartbeat. Kirito awkwardly scratched the back of his head for a second, but since Lisbeth probably wouldn't stop and wait for them, he hurriedly followed her. Well, and since Silica didn't want to be left behind in a town full of goblins, she quickly ran after her companions.
Kirito certainly hadn't been exaggerating when he had said that searching for the quest NPC wouldn't take long. After two more turns and a walk of only about one hundred metres, they reached a dead end where they could enter three buildings. There, they found the NPC in question inside the second building.
On their way back, Kirito wondered if finding their "missing" team members might turn out to be more difficult. His sister… could get absorbed a bit too much in whatever she was doing, at least sometimes, so there was reason to worry that Leafa would've wandered off to who-knows-where. Well, Philia had stayed behind to keep an eye on her, so they probably were fine.
Oh… Speak of the devil and she shall stand at the next street corner. There stood Philia, observing something further down the road to the left.
Kirito: Hey, Philia!
No reaction… Kirito and even the girls tried calling again, but Philia didn't seem to hear them. Well, Kirito actually wasn't very surprised. This part of the goblin settlement was relatively lively, so there was a lot of background noise in this area, and when Philia was focusing on something around the corner, they could shout to her all they wanted, but their yells would just melt together with the sound of this town's hustle and bustle.
It wasn't until the group stood right next to her that Philia noticed them. When she saw Kirito "suddenly" appearing out of the corner of her eye, she jumped back a little.
Philia: K-kirito?! Oh, Lisbeth, Silica… You're back.
Lisbeth [slightly annoyed]: Yeah, and not just since a second or so! Geez, we've been calling out to you, and you didn't react at all!
Philia: Y-you did? [slightly awkwardly] S-sorry! I was… occupied with something else. Or maybe I should say someone else…
Philia glanced in the direction she had been looking in before. The others followed suit, and sure enough, there was Leafa, standing out so much that it was absolutely impossible not to spot her immediately. She was playing with a small group of goblin children, probably those NPCs from earlier. Kirito waved at her, although he didn't have high hopes of catching her attention. If their experience with Philia was anything to go by, it probably wouldn't even be enough to call out to her.
However, Kirito had luck: When he was waving, Leafa looked up after kicking the ball she and the kids were playing with, and she happened to catch a glimpse of him and the others. Thus, she jogged over to the rest of her party, but not without saying goodbye to the group of kids. None of them reacted to that, though. Even Leafa didn't pay any mind to this reaction (or the lack thereof), but Kirito, who caught on to it, couldn't help but think that it was a bit weird that these children would let players play with them while not saying anything when such playmates left. Well, they were still only simple NPCs with low-level AI.
Right now, it wasn't the NPCs' behaviour that concerned him the most, though…
Kirito [slightly exasperatedly]: Leafa… What were you doing here?! We're on a mission, you know? And you get distracted by the first group of children we come across… [exasperatedly] It's that story from when we had to protect this herd of sheep all over again.
Technically speaking, it had been NPCs that were merely sheep-like, but those are just details. The important part was that – looking back on these events – Kirito had the feeling that it had taken him and the other girls an hour to peel Leafa off from one of these sort-of-sheep.
Leafa [huffily]: I couldn't help it, they were fluffy! [slightly awkwardly] The sheep, I mean. Not the kids. [huffily] They were cute, though! Of course I couldn't just leave them be, especially since they didn't mind me joining. Besides, you didn't complain when we separated, so why now?!
Kirito: W-well, that's…
Lisbeth: It's because this genius completely missed that, and he didn't realise that you were gone until we were on the other side of this town.
Leafa [annoyed]: And you are complaining that I got distracted?!
Kirito [defensively]: I had to remember where to go, okay?! Besides, that's not even the point! [slightly confusedly] When we left Celes, you seemed as if you couldn't wait to get started, so I just don't understand why you'd run off to do something completely different as soon as you get a chance to.
Leafa's expression shifted from "Stop nagging me!" to "that's a complicated story"… and simultaneously, Kirito's confusion made way for a certain level of worry.
Leafa [mutters, worriedly]: I… I couldn't help it… It may have been the only time I get to see them…
Kirito [thinks]: Ah, so that's how it is… It's not even though this might be our last chance to help the goblins, but because of it. Now that I think about it, hasn't Sugu tried harder than anyone else to interact with the goblins, almost as if she wanted to immerse herself in their culture to the utmost extent?
To be perfectly honest, it wasn't just the goblins on the 95th floor. Leafa had shown above-average interest in any part of this virtual world, especially after she and Kirito had had a conversation about what it meant to the players to live in Aincrad.
Leafa: It's not like all of us have to take that quest anyway, right? If one member of our party taking the quest is enough, there shouldn't be a problem.
Kirito: You're right, you're right! Sorry, I guess I just… kinda underestimated how much is on your mind.
Leafa [mutters]: What do you mean, "how much is on my mind"?
She turned around to take a look at the playing children once more. While her gaze was fixated on them, her expression became quite melancholic.
Leafa: That much should go without saying, honestly… And here I thought that you'd definitely understand how sad this actually is. [sternly, slightly upset] I don't care what everyone says, even if they might be just computer programmes or whatever, when I look at them, I see a bunch of happy kids, not a computer simulation!
The rest of the group watched the goblin children for a moment, too. None of them voiced dissent… or saw any reason to object to begin with. They all agreed that destroying the tranquil, happy scene in front of them – even if it could legitimately be called an illusion or a fake – would be wrong. It was as simple as that.
In that situation, a particularly nasty detail of the war campaign came to Kirito's mind. As mentioned earlier, when the Assault Team would raid this fortress they were at right now, the attackers would have to reach and destroy a crystal here on the third floor. In order to do that, they had to fight their way through the two lower floors. On the third floor, however, there wouldn't be any battles. Instead, this part of the dungeon was like some sort of disturbing "bonus round".
Kirito took a look at the various NPCs which were walking or standing around the surrounding area. Since he and the girls he was with had taken the quest "Side with the Goblins", they were all classified as the kind of NPCs they could find in pretty much any town – as far as their party was concerned, that is. To anyone else, these NPCs were monsters. In their "monster form", the NPCs here were called "Goblin Villagers", and they had no fighting capacity whatsoever. Despite that, killing them rewarded players with a considerable amount of EXP – much, much more than the difficulty level would suggest. Therefore, those who invaded a goblin base would always hunt down a fair amount of Goblin Villagers before destroying the central crystal.
The thought of the scene that would unfold when the Assault Team would attack this place was quite unsettling, so it was a good thing that Lisbeth broke the heavy silence by clasping her hands together loudly. When the others turned towards her, they were all a bit taken aback by the cheeky grin on her face.
Lisbeth: Alright, everyone, I get it that we all want to keep that from happening, so now that we're on the same page, how about we get started? This quest we've got won't finish itself, will it?
She was certainly right about that, so no objections here, especially not from any of her party members. Thus, they headed out – straight towards the next fortress, although that one would be enemy territory.
...and the group's adventure there is what the next chapter will be about. Hopefully, writing that won't take me as long as this one.