Asuna's POV...

Star, Leafa and I were back in the dorm, holding shopping bags full of new things. Star was wearing her casual outfit (green dress, striped stockings, dark purple boots) whereas Leafa and I were wearing our school uniforms.

'Let's drop by Kirito's room first,' Star suggested. 'I have to take my scissors back from him anyway. Besides, he was supposed to borrow them only for one hour but it's been way longer than that since I gave them to him.'

'Well, we'd have been back sooner if it hadn't taken you and Leafa so long to choose which stockings to buy to seduce my boyfriend with later,' I glared at her.

Star stuck out her tongue. As if one Leafa hadn't been enough, now I had to deal with two!

'Speaking of which, we can seduce him right now,' Leafa smiled and nudged Star.

'I like the way you think, girl,' Star winked.

I rolled my eyes and put my bags down for a moment in order to open the door to Kirito's dorm room.

That moment, Kirito's scream was heard. Instantly, I knew that something bad had happened!

'Oh, no,' Star gasped. 'Don't tell me he...'

I burst into the room and saw a lot of open portals around the bed and Kirito's earphones dropped on his bed. (He would never drop them and leave them like that; I know my boyfriend pretty well!) Kirito was nowhere to be seen!

I screamed.

It had been about two weeks since I found myself in Dimension X-103. Life was hard but I had got accustomed to it. I had learnt how to light fire, build huts and hunt for my food.

I had noticed some changes in myself. My body had started becoming more muscled, more tolerant to pain. Also, a light beard had started becoming visible on my face. The changes weren't merely physical, though; my mindset was different too. In a sense, all that gave me some sort of feeling of accomplishment. Considering that, up to a few weeks before, I had been a pampered boy with an army of girls taking care of me, I felt I had come a long way.

I had long since discarded my socks and t shirt. I was now going around only with my trousers on. And I didn't know how much longer even those could last. Perhaps I had to try making garments of animal skin sooner or later.

Predictably, for a guy like me, the toughest thing of all under those new living conditions was the lack of sex. Between my struggles for survival and my everyday sprints in order to catch the respective Hekapoo clone, I had neither the time nor the energy to even consider jacking off. But, sometimes (which became more and more often as the days passed), while I was lying on my makeshift bed (which I had put together from leaves and grass) waiting to fall asleep, I caught myself craving some naughty action. And it didn't help that that Hekapoo chick (and all her clones of course) were sexy like hell.

During our chasing sessions, I could feel sexual tension being slowly built up between us. Every time I met a Hekapoo clone and initiated a new chasing session, I felt that the sexual tension was a little greater than before.

The sexy glances Hekapoo (or her respective clone) would give me whenever she momentarily turned her head to look at me as she was running away from me pursuing her. The random touches between us whenever I managed to somehow trick her and come close enough to blow out the respective clone's flame. It was like, every time we had one of our tag sessions, we were engaging into a sexy dance, a dance full of innuendo!

All those things made it harder and harder for me to remain concentrated on my mission (to get the scissors) instead of thinking about how to throw myself at that woman.

Asuna's POV... (1 second after Kirito left)

Star slapped me to cure me of my shock. The slap was effective indeed; I stopped screaming!

'Thank you,' I said.

'You're welcome,' the blonde princess smiled.

'So, now tell us, Star, what happened to Kirito,' Leafa asked, with genuine concern.

'Well,' Star began, 'I told him not to abuse my scissors, but, as you can see, he did.'

At that point, she stopped and pointed at the open portals to emphasize her point.

She carried on, 'That attracted the attention of Hekapoo.'

'Hekapoo?' both Leafa and I asked in unison.

'She's the one who crafts the dimensional scissors,' Star explained. Next, she leant towards us, cupped her hand around her mouth and, in a low voice, said, 'Just between us, she's a little cuckoo head.'

'Okay, I get it,' I sighed. 'But what does that Hekapoo cuckoo head want from Kirito?'

Star stroked her nape and laughed awkwardly. 'I guess she wants to take her scissors back.'

I raised an eyebrow. 'HER scissors?'

'But I thought you had won it fair and square,' Leafa pointed. 'That's what you have told us.'

'And bragged about it,' I added, annoyed by the memory.

'Umm, funny story,' Star kept laughing, more uncomfortably. 'There is a tiny little chance that I might have exaggerated a little when I said I won the scissors.'

Both Leafa and I glared at her. What had that stupid princess done? And what kind of danger had she put Kirito into?

Star lowered her head. She blushed.

'STAR,' I cried, crossing my arms and tapping my foot on the floor. 'I demand to know what you have done.'

With her arms behind her back, Star drew an imaginary circle with her foot on the floor, with the expression of a little child that has just been busted misbehaving.

If something bad happened to Kirito because of that spoiled princesses shenanigans, I was gonna kill her!