2
"Yumari, what are you even doing?..." He laughed lightheartedly, watching the girl fight a boar.
"Hiyah~!" She squealed as she hit the lvl 1 monster with her staff.
It bounced off the skull of the boar and barely did any damage.
All it did was make the boar mad, and it charged into Yumari, hitting her pelvis and sending her flying.
"Kyaa~!" She yelped and collapsed onto the ground, tumbling twice over her head and rolling to a stop on her back.
With a silent grace, a blinding ray of light shot down from the sky just as Yumari's skirt dropped, effectively censoring the view from the male player in her party.
"..." Hinomaru, a young brown-haired player wielding a short sword, blushed and turned away.
As the boar lost aggro, Yumari peeked over her skirt from her spot on the ground and her cheeks flushed.
She quickly picked herself off the ground and brushed off the dirt from her skirt.
"... Did you see?" She asked, her green eyes peering up from their sockets.
"N-No, I didn't see." He replied quickly, finding interest in a bird flying off in the distance.
"Really…?" Yumari puffed out her cheeks and regrettably muttered something about censoring.
"Did you… want me to see?" He asked timidly.
With a small puff of smoke emitting from her ears, Yumari's face burned red and she peered down at the ground.
"Maybe…" She whispered.
"What was that?" Hinomaru leaned in closer to hear.
Her cheeks puffed out.
"Idiot!" She yelled, exasperated.
Yumari hurled her staff like a spear at the innocent boy, and it struck him between the eyes, pushing his head back and sending him sprawling across the grass with a pathetic yelp.
Critical Hit!, it said above his head, and his health bar disappeared.
Shoot. I might have overdone it…
Yumari yelped and ran over to the fallen player.
She quickly dropped beside him and located his health bar.
She saw nothing.
Then, she realized that there was still a tiny spot of green left in the bar.
Did I really do that much damage to him?!
Yumari panicked and started yelling, "I-I'm sorry! Don't-don't panic, I'm going to heal you right now!"
"Heal!" She yelled, placing her hands above Hinomaru's chest.
Nothing happened.
"Recover!" She yelled again.
Again, nothing happened.
"Oh no! I'm sorry! I don't know how to heal!" Yumari's panic heightened, "I'll try to use the staff!"
Frantically grabbing the staff off the ground, she whipped it in front of her, accidently hitting herself in the face, and screamed, "Heal!"
…
The artificial birds seemed to chirp louder for a moment.
With a small voice, Hinomaru asked slowly, "Isn't there… no magic… in SAO?"
Ah.
…
But I'm a Celestial Mystic…right?
"But that can't be right, I'm a healer…!" Yumari gestured chaotically.
He shrugged, which was a little awkward to pull off while on the ground.
"Could you just give me a potion?" Hinomaru smiled at her faintly, wincing through an imaginary pain.
"Um, yes..."
Yumari fumbled around for her bag, which lay at her side, straddled on her chest.
She located the opening and folded the leather back, searching for the cold touch of a health potion.
After a moment, a peculiar glass bottle filled with a red liquid emerged from the bag, and Yumari brought it to her companion's mouth.
"Here, drink this," she said, opening the cap and holding it to Hinomaru's mouth.
"No, it's fine, I'll do it by myself…" he wheezed, pushing the bottle back.
"No no, I'll do it for you. Just stay still…!" Yumari said, focusing intensely on the task at hand.
Hinomaru began to blush again as the girl leaned in close to pour the potion into his mouth.
Yumari got so close that Hinomaru could see each strand of hair on her head, each perfect virtual pore on her smooth skin, and her small pink lips, moist and glinting in the sunlight, letting out warm breath after breath as she carefully tended to Hinomaru.
Lost in a trance, he vaguely realized that Yumari's hand was propping his head up, and he blushed even harder, attempting to find somewhere else to look.
A sweet fragrance wafted into his nose and snuck up into his brain in the form of a tiny electric pulse, clouding his judgement and filling his head with a scarlet glow.
Suddenly, he was forced to stare into Yumari's eyes.
They were a deep bright green; nature churned over and over in her pupil, glinting and shining for the world to adore.
She was inexplicably beautiful, but not in the way female models and celebrities were―Yumari was just so overwhelmingly adorable that she had crossed the threshold to just being cute and became something else.
As the last of the health potion was emptied, Yumari pursed her lips and lifted the bottle from Hinomaru's lips.
She sat back and looked at his half-recovered health bar.
"Um," Yumari held her breath, "How do you feel?"
"Ah…" Hinomaru sat up and shook away the trance.
He scratched his head and said, "I think I'm alright."
Relieved, Yumari sighed and replied, "Thank goodness. I don't know what I would have done if I had killed you by accident."
"Ahaha…" Hinomaru chuckled half-heartedly, "Yeah…"
A brief moment of silence passed before they moved again.
Hinomaru realized something.
"Wait, Yumari, how did you damage me? We're in a party, right?"
Yumari turned her head, "Huh? Party?"
"Yeah, I invited you to a par-" Hinomaru suddenly paused.
There was no party window where it should have been.
He slowly shook his head and exhaled. "You didn't accept the invite, did you?"
"Invite? What invite?" Yumari asked, clueless.
"The party invite that I sent you before we started fighting…"
It took her a second, but Yumari realized, "Ohhhh… That invite. Sorry! I thought it was a friend invite!"
She clapped her hands together and apologized, closing one eye.
With another sigh, Hinomaru said, "You know what parties are for, right?"
Yumari nodded her head nonchalantly.
"They protect us from damaging each other," Hinomaru continued, "Without it, we wouldn't share the experience and gold from killing… monsters…"
He stopped.
After a moment, Yumari tilted her head and asked cutely, "What's wrong?"
Hinomaru realized something.
He was still level one, with zero experience and gold.
Yumari had insisted on finishing every last monster they'd killed, and, naturally, she had obtained all of the rewards for dealing the killing blow.
"Hinomaru? Is something wrong?" The innocent female player leaned in closer, "Are you lagging?"
"N-Nothing…" Hinomaru said quickly, looking at the ground.
"Nothing?" Yumari repeated, leaning in even closer, "Are you sure…?"
The boy turned away, "Yes…"
"If you say so, idiot," she whispered slowly, her lips inches away from his ear.
After realizing how much of a fool he'd been, Hinomaru felt ashamed.
How much of Yumari was fake?
Was she even a girl?
Yumari reset her position and chuckled a little too light-heartedly, "Well, I think that's going to be it for the day. I'm worn out!"
She knotted her hands and stretched them up towards the sky.
"Are you going to continue playing?" She smiled at him.
"Actually, I think... I might go now," Hinomaru said abruptly, "I'm… not feeling too well."
"Aw, really? Are you okay? It must be the virtual reality…" Yumari laid her hand on his back and rubbed it.
"Yeah… It must be the… the uh… the VR that's getting to me," Hinomaru said, suddenly drained, "I'll see you later…"
"Will you?" The girl asked.
"I gue-"
"Well, I hope you feel better then! Goodbye!" Yumari picked herself up, let out an inaudible snicker, and walked away.
Dejected, Hinomaru opened up his menu.
As he looked for the logout button, he couldn't help feeling a little stupid.
What girl would even play this game in the first place?
Moreover, why would she choose some loser like him to party with?
He sucked at role playing games…
Well, it's about time I log out anyway.
Sis told me she'd peel the NerveGear off me if I wasn't out in time for dinner.
Yumari continued back to the Town of Beginnings and didn't look back.
As she broke into a violent fit of laughter, Hinomaru disappeared behind her.
He never found the button.