"You know, we really seem to be rushing these past few bosses," Johnny commented as he tramped along behind Kirito, spinning his spear offhandedly. Asuna glared at him, before looking pointedly ahead. The rest of the group glanced over at him. Johnny had been mostly quiet for the Boss Clearing Meeting, mostly just listening to whatever schmuck was in charge of this one, and hiding from Payton and Asuna's angry eyes.

Kirito hummed in agreement. "Well, due to the beta testers, we know where to find the bosses and whatnot. That at least hasn't been changed too much. Fear in the early stages of the game stagnated progress, but now that most of the frontline players have gotten over that, the speed of which we clear is accelerating."

"Ki-bou's correct, sa," Argo chirped. "Tha' said, there's been some changes ta the bosses thus far, ta."

Asuna shrugged, finally joining their conversation. "Even if they change, they're still all so slow. Why not just dodge better?"

Payton, real name Taylor, who had been hanging on the fringes of the group, rolled her eyes. "Oh yeah, just get good. Brilliant advice, Miss Naturally Talented."

"Get good? Hardly. Get competent is more like it," Asuna sniped back.

Resting his spear on his back, Johnny glanced at Kirito. "Those two seem fairly high-strung. What's the cause, do you think?"

Both girls spun towards him, anger flashing in their eyes. "You are the cause, JB!" they shouted as one.

Johnny glanced between them. "Is this about hanging you up in that elf city in just your underwear?"

"Yes!" Asuna ground out through clenched teeth. "It was a very long and cold night."

Pointing towards the Dark Elf girl who had been tied up with Asuna, Johnny blinked. "I had thought that she would have kept you somewhat warm, considering how tightly I tied the two of you."

The Dark Elf girl, Kizmel was her name, Johnny had learned, nodded slightly. "Well, Miss Asuna's undressed body was quite warm," she admitted freely, bringing a blush to Asuna's face. "Though the warmth of her breath on my breasts was a touch distracting." The more Kizmel spoke, the redder Asuna became.

"So that's why Asuna is in such a tizzy. What about you, Taylor?" Payton flinched at the use of her real name.

"Stop using that name, you sunovabitch," she muttered angrily. "Seriously, you threatened to kill Koharu. I don't even know why I'm even letting her near you."

True to Payton's words, Koharu trailed behind the American girl, though she seemed much less wary of Johnny then one would expect.

"Aw come on! I apologized for that one, and besides, I already told you that she wasn't in any danger. It was a non-lethal poison anyhow," Johnny defended.

"Well I didn't know that at the time!" Payton shouted.

Shrugging, Johnny pointed towards Koharu. "Well, she knew she wasn't in any danger. It tells you what kind of poison it is on your HUD and all."

"Yeah? Well, she couldn't tell me that, on account of you also paralyzing her!"

An eyeroll was her response. "Of course. How would I blackmail you if you didn't think she was in danger, Taylor?"

"Stop calling me that!"

Johnny shook his head. "Nope. I like calling you by your real name anyways. Taylor. Pretty name, for a pretty girl."

Stumbling, Payton coughed in surprise, blushing slightly. "Uh? Wait, I don't want to hear that from you!"

"He's not wrong," Koharu murmured from behind Payton, bringing an even brighter blush to the freckled redheads face.

As the American girl tried to stammer out a response, Johnny sighed and scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Well, still, I did go too far that time, as Kirito-kun was kind enough to remind me of. How about this? I don't go after Koharu again, and you at least consider forgiving me at some point."

Calming herself, Payton met his gaze. "...tch. Fine. But in addition to that, you'll do your utmost to protect Koharu in any boss fight. And in exchange, I'll forgive you for threatening to kill Koharu, right here and now."

Johnny's eyes widened slightly. "That's… more generous than I had expected. You sure?"

Payton sighed. "Well, I already took out most of my anger on that damn Rat over there." Quickly glancing away, Argo could not hide the dusting of pink on her cheeks at the reminder of what she had been through. "And besides. Besides… I'm not actually mad at you for anything other than threatening to kill Koharu."

The assembled group blinked in surprise. Payton rolled her eyes. "What? I'm a nerd, and I was a nerd in high school too. Atch, the amount of bullying… regardless, embarrassment is something I'm used to."

"So you wouldn't mind if I stole your pants right now?" Johnny asked.

Reaching over, Payton slapped him on the top of his head. "I said used to, not enjoy you little brat. Still, that I can overlook… provided you do whatever you can to make sure Koharu doesn't die."

After a moment's thought, Johnny stretched out a hand. Payton grabbed it in hers. "You American's sure are forgiving," the scruffy looking man commented as he watched them.

Payton scoffed at the idea. "Hardly. No, but the way I see it, I'd rather forgive the person that threatened to kill Koharu than stay mad at a little brat and potentially lose her. Besides, like he said, Koharu was never in any real danger. If you had actually poisoned her, I'd never forgive you. As is, I'll just take out my anger on Kayaba." After a moment's pause, Payton fixed Johnny with another look. "By the way, I noticed that you didn't say that you wouldn't go after me."

"Well of course not!" Johnny recoiled in mock shock. "You're totally my type, I'd never stop embarrassing you!"

"Mine as well," Koharu pipped up, interrupting whatever Payton was going to say. "Sorry, JB, but I call dibs."

Johnny sighed in mock disappointment. "Oh, what a shame. Though I hope you don't mind me taking advantage of your girlfriend."

"Ah, she's cuter when she's blushing anyways, so…" Koharu commented.

Red faced and angry, Payton alternated her glare between the both of them. "Argh! Both of you—!"

As the rest of the group watched the three bicker, the scruffy man rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Kids these days… are so strange."

"It ain't like you can say tha' like tis' somethin' profound," Argo replied. "'Sides, yer what, early twenties? Can't be tha' much older than us."

The scruffy man shrugged. "Aye. But compared to you kids, I'm the responsible adult here."

Kirito looked over at the man. "Even if you say that, you're more like the irresponsible uncle or something."

"That hurts, Kirito," the scruffy man sighed, clutching his chest in mock agony. "But really. I wasn't kidding. Kids these days are quite strange. Much more willing to forgive then I would have been." He gestured towards Payton and Koharu as he spoke.

Having finished his chat with Payton and Koharu, which mostly involved the usually shy Koharu and Johnny teasing Payton endlessly, Johnny skipped back over to the main group.

"Oh right, Asuna, I have something for you!" Pulling a masterfully crafted rapier from his inventory, he brandished it. "Neat, huh? Want it?"

In spite of her annoyance at Johnny, Asuna still reached over and tapped on the rapier, her eyes widening when she saw the stats. "This is… a very good weapon."

"Yup. Got it off that Garrison Commander I killed." The others twitched slightly at Johnny's offhand mention of killing an NPC. Sure, they'd all done it too, but still. NPCs were so human-like, that to just kill them was a bit… "Anyways," Johnny continued, uncaring of their opinions on NPCs, "What're your favourite kind of panties?"

Asuna gave an exasperated sigh. "I should have expected something like this."

The scruffy man and Kirito exchanged glances, before stepping away from Asuna and looking away resolutely. Asuna fixed them with a nasty look.

"Seriously? Do you honestly think I'd just accept his offer, just like that?" she accused.

Kirito took another step away before glancing over his shoulder. "Er… well, you might be a noob at video games, but you're almost as obsessive as me when it comes to getting stronger."

"Fuck you," Asuna grumbled, before turning towards Johnny. "White with blue accents, stripes or a bow or whatever," she muttered under her breath. "Now can I have my damn sword?"

Johnny tossed the weapon to her. "And you said I have no taste in underwear, and yet I was entirely right about you." As Asuna caught the weapon, Johnny's hand swept forwards, flipping Asuna's skirt up to reveal white panties with red polka dots. "I was right, red and white do fit you."

Kirito, who had turned around just in time to get an eyeful of Asuna's panties, spun back around with an eep. Asuna glanced at the blushing other boy, before turning towards Johnny with an unkind expression. "You know, JB, I've just so happened to come into possession of this new rapier. Mind helping me test it out?"

A streak of light shot towards Johnny, the boy only just managing to deflect it by pinwheeling his spear. Grinning cheekily at the others, Johnny waved towards them. "See you all later!" And with that he was dashing away, Asuna on his tail.

"Chances that she catches him?" the scruffy man asked, sighing at their antics.

"Tis' pretty high, sa," Argo commented. "She's faster than him."

The scruffy man amended his statement. "Chances that she catches him and returns with all her clothes intact?"

"Ah." Argo considered that, before raising her hand, thumb pressed to her other fingers in a zero sign. The rest of the group nodded their agreement. It wasn't like they couldn't beat Johnny. Kirito could do it with easy, the scruffy man had deadlocked Johnny on multiple occasions, and Payton and Koharu working together could overpower him. In a fair fight. Too bad Johnny never fought fair.

The group gave their goodbyes before disbanding, Kirito to grind, Argo to gather intel on the boss before the next boss clearing meeting, Payton and Koharu to farm up the [Col] that Johnny had stolen from them, and the scruffy man to do scruffy man things.

Asuna would find herself limping into Nezha's workshop a few hours later, armour in tatters, a blush of both exhaustion and embarrassment on her face. Though Nezha wasn't exactly trusted as a blacksmith anymore, due to her past as a scammer, she had still become the go-to person for victims of Johnny's Corrupting daggers. Mostly because… well, she was a girl, and also never commented on one's state of undress. And she was a competent blacksmith, even if it wasn't her main job anymore.

Real short chapter. Mostly character interactions and filler. Yeah, Koharu and Johnny get along surprisingly well, considering he poisoned her. Payton is a forgiving girl...sort of. Too bad for Argo she didn't forgive earlier. Nezha returns for a brief moment, and Asuna gets embarrassed again. Anyways, the boss is coming up. And what a dumb boss it is. Just, AoE poison spam. God, there's a reason I farmed the Hippogriff instead of the Treant. The amount of Antidotes needed… Atch.

Anyways, if this chapter seems a bit rushed… well, I can't say it's not, as I wrote it in a day, but it's not as if I plan any of my stories. They're all ad-libbed, so eh. Bah, I just think this chapter was a bit boring, and I'm not talking about the lack of fanservice. I write action scenes, dammit! Give me my action scenes! And yet, character development is still important. Feh.