Chapter 12: Double trouble

In the log cabin located on floor 22nd floor of New Aincrad, Asuna woke up wrapped in blankets on the sofa. The heater had been turned down, but Asuna's pink underwear had been left on top. She stood up and felt to make sure everything was dry. Once she was sure it was dry, Asuna folded the blankets and neatly placed them on the arm of the sofa before picking her underwear up and equipping it. For a moment, Asuna worried about what else she was going to wear but remembered about the clothes she was wearing when she first logged in last week. She opened her inventory and equipped her white blouse and pink skirt, along with the fur boots Erika had bought her. She also equipped the cheap rapier.

In Asuna's menu, several friend requests had appeared. There was the other Asuna, Erika, Kirito, Lisbeth, Klein, Silica, even Agil just to name a few. Nearly all of her friends had sent friend request. The only ones not to have were Leafa and Sinon. Asuna eagerly accepted the other Asuna's and Kirito's before accepting the others. However, she was reluctant to accept Erika's after what the sylph had done. Asuna decided not respond and closed her menu without selecting an option.

Before leaving the cabin, Asuna decided to check the location of her avatar. She was in the forest nearby with Kirito. Asuna's heart skipped a beat. She was excited to meet Kirito and to see if he was similar to Kazuto. Erika had said that he would have been able to explain everything much better than she could. Maybe Kirito could provide better answers. The other Asuna and Kirito were only a few minutes walk away. Asuna had no clue as to what they could be doing. There wasn't really much hunting to be done near the cabin as the area was designed to be fairly peaceful. The strongest monster nearby was that giant fish Kirito had reeled in during SAO, but even that wasn't very strong. As she walked through the forest Asuna realised that if this was going to become a regular thing she'd need to make more of an effort to call the real Kirito, Kazuto if she didn't want to get confused.

As she drew nearer to where the map had said Kirito and the other Asuna were, Asuna could hear something. It was definitely a person. Eventually she got close enough to realise that they were cries. Asuna put her hand on her rapier and ran towards the source of the noise. Kirito and Asuna were in danger! Maybe a difference between this ALO and the regular ALO was that powerful monsters could appear anywhere? Asuna ran through the trees. Asuna had helped her, and she wanted to pay her back. Asuna made a mental note to come up with another name for either herself of the other Asuna. Conversations would get way too confusing if she didn't.

Running to Asuna and Kirito had only taken about two minutes. But Asuna regretted being in such a hurry. There wasn't any danger at all. The pair were completely naked. Asuna was lying on her back with her legs wrapped around Kirito who was pounding her. The cries she'd heard were her avatar screaming "Kirito! Kirito! Kirito!"

Asuna pressed her hands to her mouth and gasped when she saw the pair. Kirito didn't even notice but Asuna looked up and saw her. "Kirito… let's finish this later," she said, pulling away from him.

"What?" Then he looked over and saw the other Asuna. "Looks like Sinon and Leafa were telling the truth. I wasn't really sure how likely that was."

"Leafa and Sinon? What are you talking about?" asked Asuna.

"Last month we got a message from them saying that they weren't coming questing with us because their players were online," said Asuna as she equipped her armour. "Didn't they tell you?"

"Erm, no. I haven't said anything about this to anyone because it's way too crazy. I didn't think anyone would believe me!" said Asuna.

"I guess it is a little weird. Liz didn't believe Leafa or Sinon when they said that their players had logged in," Asuna agreed.

"I did tell her it was possible," said Kirito, as he put his clothes back on. "She didn't believe me. But now that I'm right, she owes me a bj."

Asuna couldn't believe what she was hearing. Not only had Shino and Suguha already met their avatars, but Kirito had bet a blowjob on it being true! She'd expected Kirito to be more similar to Kazuto. She certainly hadn't expected to find her avatar having sex with him in a forest. "Wait, you're telling me that Sinon… I mean Shino and Suguha have already been here?" she asked. "Is that true?"

"Yeah," said Kirito. "I haven't met either of them, so it's just what I've heard from Sinon and Leafa. Leafa seems to be really into Suguha. I wonder why…"

"What about the others?" Asuna asked. "Has Liz, argh! I mean Rika. Has she been here? What about Sili- Keiko?"

"Not as far as I've heard," said Asuna.

"These names are giving me a headache," Asuna moaned. "Why did I have to use my real name? If I'd used something else, this would be much simpler."

"Look, instead of just standing out here, let's go to the cabin and sit down," said Asuna.

"Yeah, that would be better," sighed Asuna.

"I'll give that a miss, thanks," said Kirito. "I'm gonna meet up with the guys and do some levelling. I'll see you two later. Maybe I'll get my prize from Liz."

"Okay then, I'll see you later," said Asuna. "Maybe we'll get to finish."

After Kirito left, the Asunas went back to the cabin. They were sitting on the sofa, warming up by the heater.

"This whole thing is giving me a headache," said Asuna. "I can't believe Suguha and Shino have already met their avatars. But I get why they haven't said anything. It's just too crazy."

"I get that this is all very strange for you," said Asuna. "But maybe we could sort out the problem with our name? I think if we're going to be hanging out with the others, we need different names so we're not getting all confused."

Asuna hadn't really thought about meeting the other avatars. But she was interested to see how the avatars differed from their players. "Sure, do you have a name in mind?"

"I was thinking that because my hair is blue, I could be Aosuna. How does that sound?"

"I like that," Asuna agreed. Now that they were alone, she remembered what happened when Aosuna saved her from Erika. Aosuna had kissed her. On one hand, she felt guilty because it felt like she'd cheated on Kazuto. But on the other, she had really only kissed herself. Did that really count?

"I'm sorry for kissing you the way I did when we first met," Aosuna apologised. "I wanted to know what it was like to kiss you, and I let my curiosity get the better of me. I know you must be feeling guilty because you feel like you cheated on your Kirito."

"No, it's fine. You saved me from Erika. You don't need to apologise. If anything I should be thanking you for saving me," said Asuna. "So thanks a lot."

"So you didn't mind me kissing you?" Aosuna asked.

"Considering what you did for me, it's really no big deal," said Asuna. "But I'd rather you didn't do it again. I do have a boyfriend." Suddenly, Asuna realised something. "Aren't you and Kirito dating? I mean, I saw you guys…"

"Oh yeah, that," Aosuna nervously laughed. "It's no big deal. We do that all the time. Not many people really date here. Most of us just have casual sex."

"Outside!?"

"That was Kirito's idea. I'm not really into that stuff but I'll try anything once," Aosuna laughed.

Asuna couldn't believe that her own avatar was so different from her. There were similarities, sure. Aosuna was kind, caring, and seemed to be a nice person. Those were some of the things KAzuto had said about her. But Aosuna didn't seem to get so embarrassed over sex. Asuna would never consider having sex outdoors. Not for Kazuto, and certainly not for someone she was casually sleeping with, not that she had ever done that. "So Kirito was serious about his bet with Liz?" she asked, hoping that it had been a joke.

"Yeah, he was. He's probably gone to get his prize," Aosuna confirmed.

Kirito went to find Lisbeth at her shop. "Hey, Liz!" He called. "You there?" He went to the back room where Lisbeth. She was stood at her anvil, hammering a metal ingot to make a new weapon. "Yeah, what to you want?" she asked as the ingot glowed and morphed into a hammer. "I'm here if you want to go questing with Asuna's avatar," he said sarcastically. "What do you think I want?"

"Yeah, yeah. You win," moaned Lisbeth. "C'mon let's go upstairs. I can't risk a customer coming in to find me sucking you off."

"Let's go then."

Lisbeth put her newly made hammer on the rack and led him upstairs. No sooner than Lisbeth had closed the door did Kirito have his trousers off.

"Why are you so eager? You can go to anyone and have sex, not just a blowjob," said Lisbeth.

"Me and Asuna were having sex earlier, but we got interrupted by her player," Kirito explained.

"Great, so I'll be licking Asuna off you."

"You say that like you and Asuna have never done it before."

Lisbeth said nothing in response. Saying that she and Asuna hadn't tried anything together would be lying, but they'd never actually gone all the way. They'd made out to see what it was like but had never had the chance to try anything more.

Lisbeth kneeled down and wrapped around Kirito's cock to see how hard it was. "Jeez, she must have interrupted just moments before you were done," Liz remarked.

"Yeah, she did. It was a real pain," sighed Kirito. "Now remember to swallow."

"I was going to use it for potion making," said Liz.

"Do you have any bottles on hand?"

"No, I left them downstairs," she realised.

Kirito shrugged. Lisbeth sighed and began to suck. She rubbed her tongue against Kirito's head. His foreskin peeled back and it soon become even firmer. She began to bob her head back and forth. Next she let go of it and ran her tongue all the way up the underside of Kirito's cock. "Mmm…" he moaned. Liz pressed her lips around his head and gently sucked on it. Kirito began to thrust gently, pushing himself further inside her mouth. Lisbeth swirled her tongue around his dick. She could taste the salty precum leaking from it, along with something else. She assumed that was the taste of Asuna's pussy. She couldn't help but admit that it actually tasted pretty good. She made a mental note to find time to have sex with Asuna. But for now she just enjoyed whatever of her she could taste. Kirito suddenly grabbed her head and began to thrust vigorously. He pulled back so that only his head was inside her mouth and sprayed his cum in her mouth. Kirito let go of Lisbeth's head. She knew what he wanted. She opened her mouth to show him her cum-filled mouth before swallowing.

"You enjoy that?" she asked.

"Yeah," answered Kirito. "That was great. Got any other bets you want to make?"

"Nah. I've learned my lesson for now. Don't question the all-knowing Kirito."

Kirito laughed. "All right then. You want to come do some grinding? I'm off to meet Agil. He wants to gather some 'rare' metals he can sell at 'reasonable' prices." Kirito made air quotations with his fingers at the words rare and reasonable.

"Sure. Maybe I can get some for myself. There's no way I'm paying his prices," said Liz.

Back at the cabin, Aosuna and Asuna had been talking. Aosuna had been answering questions on how her ALO different from the regular ALO. She'd explained how there were some monsters that would rape players, that there was a lot more weapons and armour that in the regular game. Plus, a lot of the armour in this version was somewhat skimpier than in the regular version. "This version of Alfheim Online is so weird," Asuna sighed. "How do you live here?"

"It's not so bad," said Aosuna. "We just make sure that we don't go anywhere we don't think we can handle. For some reason, with a lot of female armour, less is more."

"What? I don't get it," said Asuna.

"Sometimes, the armour that doesn't cover as much offer more protection," Aosuna explained.

"But that makes no sense!" Asuna cried. "How does that work?"

"I don't know. Magic?"

"I wouldn't wear that armour even if it was the best in the game," said Asuna.

"Why not? I would."

"It's embarrassing."

"You get used to it," Aosuna shrugged. "I used to get embarrassed just as easily as you, but I've learned not to. If I still got embarrassed over a bit of nudity, I'd be stuck in this cabin all the time."

"So you've been, erm… attacked by monsters?" Asuna guessed.

"If by attacked, you mean raped. Then yes," Aosuna answered. "It's a little annoying that monsters only seem to be interested in female avatars. It's like a guy designed this."

"From what you've told me, that wouldn't surprise me," Asuna agreed.

"I wish there was more stuff I could enjoy," said Aosuna. "Like a monster that goes for the guys for once."

"Wait, you said the monsters go for the girls. Is Yui okay when you go hunting?" Asuna asked. She suddenly become extremely worried.

"I've never actually met Yui," said Aosuna. "I only know her from your memories of her in your version of Alfheim."

Asuna sighed in relief. She was extremely glad that Yui wasn't in this version. Who knows what would have happened to her.

"Can I ask something about your Alfheim now?" Aosuna asked.

"Go ahead," said Asuna. "I've asked so much about yours, so it's only fair."

"The other girls seem to really like your Kirito," Aosuna began. "Have you ever considered letting them join in?"

Asuna nearly choked on her tea. "No!" was all she could say.

"You've never even considered it?" Aosuna was surprised.

"Of course not!" said Asuna. "Have you?"

"I told you before that I'd had sex with Erika," she replied. "I also made out with Liz once."

Asuna didn't know how to respond. The only time she'd done anything with a girl was when Erika had forced her. She had never seen Liz as anything other than a friend.

"You look surprised. I thought it would have at least crossed your mind."

"No," she repeated. "Never."

"Huh," Aosuna was a little surprised. She knew that her player would be different, but she thought that her personality would have been based on some part of Asuna's. Or maybe it just needed a little encouragement to come out.

Aosuna leaned over and pressed her lips against Asuna's. Asuna's entire body tensed for a moment, but then it relaxed and she sank into the kiss. Aosuna was able to slip her tongue in without any resistance. That surprised her. She expected Asuna to be more resistant. A warmth began to spread throughout Aosuna's stomach. For some reason, kissing Asuna was way more exciting than kissing anyone else! Was it because she was kissing another girl? No that couldn't be it. Having sex with Erika wasn't this exciting. Making out with Lisbeth had been more exciting than sex with Erika, who only really cared about pleasuring herself. So what was it?

Asuna had no idea what was going on. When her avatar kissed her, she wanted to pull away but for some reason she'd just sank into the kiss as if it was perfectly normal for her to do something like that. Her mind was in conflict. On one hand, she couldn't stand to think of betraying Kazuto again. But for some reason Asuna couldn't stop herself. She also found herself becoming increasingly aroused. When she and Kazuto had sex she'd experienced similar feelings but never so quickly. She wanted to stop. Yet when Aosuna broke the kiss and said "Do you want to take this to the bedroom?" Asuna didn't say no. She nodded and allowed her avatar to take her hand and lead her to the bedroom.

The moment they stepped into the room, Aosuna removed her armour through the menu. Asuna sat on the bed and stared at the Undine in her blue underwear. "Aren't you gonna take your clothes off too?" she asked. Asuna slowly used her menu to remove her own clothes, leaving only her pink underwear. Aosuna sat in the middle of the bed and pulled Asuna close again. Asuna had every opportunity to stop but she didn't. She couldn't explain why she went along with everything that her avatar did despite wanting to stop. When Aosuna moved her kisses to Asuna's neck she just let it happen. When Aosuna cupped Asuna's breasts in her hands she said nothing, and just moaned in response. She still didn't argue when Aosuna slipped her hands around Asuna's back and took her bra off. She blushed slightly but that was all.

Aosuna cupped them again, comparing them to her own. They were completely identical as far as she could tell. She gave Asuna another kiss. "Could you get mine for me?" she asked. Asuna reached round Aosuna's back and unclipped her bra. Aosuna let it slide down her shoulders before tossing it aside. Asuna caressed her avatar's breasts, using her thumbs to caress Aosuna's nipples. Aosuna moaned gently. "I like your gentle approach," she said. Asuna nodded. Her heart pounded so hard it felt like her chest would explode. Without thinking she kissed Aosuna.

She began to relax and her thoughts of Kazuto were pushed aside as Aosuna pressed her hands against Asuna's chest, pushing slightly signalling for her to lie down. Asuna lay on the bed while Aosuna played with her boobs. Aosuna took one of her nipples into her mouth and sucked for a while before letting it go. There was a popping sound as it left her mouth and bounced back into place. Asuna moaned. She couldn't believe how great it felt.

Aosuna had confirmed that hers and Asuna's boobs were exactly the same, which meant she knew just how to touch them. She knew things that it would take Kazuto a long time to learn. Once Aosuna was done playing with Asuna's breasts, she decided to test how far her player was willing to go. She planted one last kiss on Asuna's nippple before leaving a trail of them down her stomach. After that she slipped her fingers under the waistband of Asuna's pink knickers and gently pulled them down. She was surprised to find them damp with Asuna's precum. Instead of teasing her for a while like she would have preferred, Aosuna decided to dive straight in as she knew how embarrassed Asuna would be. She poked her tongue inside. Asuna moaned quietly. Aosuna continued slowly, but not so slow that it could be considered teasing. She was fast enough for Asuna's orgasm to build at a steady pace.

Asuna was enjoying herself more than she had expected herself to, and she hated herself for it. In the back of her head, her guilt was growing. But that guilt was being overwhelmed in the ecstasy that Aosuna was creating. Her body cried out for Aosuna to be rougher and make her cum, but in the back of her head where the guilt was growing she wanted to stop. Aosuna made her strokes longer and faster. Asuna couldn't help but moan as she climaxed in her avatar's mouth. Aosuna licked up every drop of Asuna's cum. She was surprised to find that it didn't taste sweet like Erika's. All the guys she'd been with tasted pretty much the same, so she thought that girls would have been the same too. However, she did remember Lisbeth saying that Salamanders tasted a little spicy, but she wasn't sure if that had been a joke.

Asuna couldn't believe how amazing that had felt. The guilt she had felt in the back of her mind was gone. All she cared about was pleasure. When Aosuna lay down, she pounced, pulling her avatar's knickers down to her knees. She stuck her fingers inside her and, without a second thought, began pumping them in and out. Aosuna was already wet enough for her fingers to glide in and out with ease. Aosuna was over getting embarrassed so easily and didn't hold back her moans. Asuna began to flick her click using her tongue, causing her to moan even louder. Asuna pumped her fingers so hard her arm to ache. "Ah! Ah! Ahhh!" Aosuna moaned, on the brink of her orgasm. Asuna removed her fingers and switched to using her tongue. When Aosuna came, she tasted like a refreshing glass of water on a hot day spent in the sun.

Aosuna and Asuna lay in bed, gasping to catch their breath. Neither of them could believe how incredible that had been. She shared one last kiss before falling asleep tangled in the bedsheets.

"We should go back to town to restock," said Kirito after taking down a monster by piercing its heart with Excalibur. "Without Asuna here to use her advanced healing magic, we're not gonna last much longer."

"Yeah, you're right," agreed Liz. "We haven't even been out that long. Really should have restocked before going out."

"You could've bought some stuff from me," said Agil. "I had plenty of potions back at the shop."

"At your prices, no thanks," said Liz.

"Give me some of that ore you've got and I'm sure we can come to an agreement," Agil offered.

"Not a chance," Liz insisted. "This is some good stuff, and you'll only con me."

"Guys, lets go before more monsters show up," said Kirito. "We're running low as it is. Another one of those and we're toast."

"Can you believe him? One minute his mind's on nothing but sex, and the next it's on dungeon crawling," Liz sighed.

On the way back to town, they were walking through a forest and in the distance moaning could be heard. They looked over and found that the moaning wasn't so much in the distance as it was right next to them. Sat against a tree was Erika while a Spriggan pounded her. Erika held him close so that his dick was as far inside her as possible when they came. When the spriggan got up, Erika could see the group staring at her. "Hey guys!" she called. "You just missed the party! Next time I'll let you know in case you want to join in."

"I'm good, thanks," said Lisbeth.

"Maybe another time," said Kirito. "We're just going into town to restock on healing potions. You wanna join us?" he asked, much to Lisbeth's annoyance.

"Sure," said Erika. "Maybe afterwards we can all go back to my place."

'I am not joining in with that,' Lisbeth thought.

Asuna woke up after her brief nap. She felt surprisingly refreshed. However, after looking over at the naked body of her avatar, it all came flooding back. The guilt that had been building in the back of her mind exploded. Why had she done it? She remembered wanting to stop but couldn't. Tears ran down Asuna's face. She'd cheated on Kirito.

"Asuna, what's wrong?" Aosuna asked.

Asuna couldn't bring herself to speak. Tears poured from her eyes. "Kirito…." was all she could say amongst her sobbing.

Aosuna immediately realised what was wrong. She suddenly felt guilty for what she had done. "I'm sorry," she said. "I shouldn't have kissed you, but when you didn't pull away… You seemed into it."

"I was," Asuna sobbed. "But I don't know why. This is the second time…"

"Erika doesn't count," said Aosuna. She grabbed Asuna by the shoulders and made her look into the Undine's eyes. "She forced herself on you. You have nothing to feel bad about for that."

Asuna wiped away her tears, though they were quickly replaced by fresh ones. "I-I guess…"

Aosuna relaxed her grip. "And as for what we did. That was my fault. I should have resisted the urge to kiss you, and I'm sorry." Tears began forming in Aosuna's eyes. "I know how you feel about Kirito. I wish I had that too. Maybe not with Kirito, but with someone else. I don't want to ruin what you have… I'm sorry…" The Undine bowed her head in shame and let go of Asuna.

When she looked at her avatar, Asuna couldn't help but accept her apology. Maybe it was because she looked identical to her. "It's my fault," said Asuna. "I should have stopped."

"No, it's mine," argued Aosuna. "I never should have put you in that position."

All of a sudden, Asuna laughed. It was short, but still made her feel a little better. "We're pretty much the same person. We'll just go in circles if we keep at it."

"You're right," said Aosuna. "How about we both just accept the blame for this one?"

Asuna nodded in agreement. "Yeah, that's fair." It only made her feel a little better. Her chest still burned with guilt.

"How about we get dressed? We can go meet the others if you want," said Aosuna. She hoped that would take Asuna's mind off things.

"Can we go see Liz?" Asuna asked. That caught Aosuna a little off guard. She'd have expected Asuna to ask to see Kirito. But considering how guilty she must have been feeling, Aosuna realised that it made sense for her not to want to see him so soon.

"Sure," she replied. "I gave her my rapier to sharpen earlier today, so that works for me too."

When Asuna stood up to put her underwear back on, Aosuna couldn't help but sneak in one last glimpse of her naked body. It may have been identical to her own, but there was something about seeing her player naked…

Aosuna pulled her knickers back up, as they hadn't been fully removed earlier, and retrieved her bra before getting dressed so that they could go meet the others.

"God I hate her," muttered Lisbeth as she entered the back of her shop. She'd left the others as soon as Erika had joined them. Erika had been trying to pull her into an orgy again. Liz had no interest in doing anything with her.

She picked up Asuna's rapier and took it to the grinding wheel. She'd meant to sharpen it earlier but had been sidetracked by Kirito. Being alone with nothing but the sound of the grinding wheel soon helped her to calm down. Maybe she'd go find Klein later. He was always good for relieving stress. Plus he wasn't constantly being hit on or only focusing on levelling.

Liz heard the front door open. She decided to finish sharpening Asuna's sword first before going through. But just in case she shouted to let them know that he shop wasn't deserted. ""I'm in the back. Come on through!"

The door to the back room opened, and a girl with the same haircut, but in brown instead of pink, and wearing a set of dark spriggan armour walked in. She was followed by another girl who looked identical to Keiko. Lisbeth dropped Asuna's rapier in surprise.

"Rika!?" she yelped. "Crap!" she muttered, picking up the sword and placing it on a nearby table.

"Who the hell are you!?" Rika shouted. "How are you using my account?"

Before Lisbeth could explain, the door behind Keiko and Rika opened. Two Asuna's walked inside. One Asuna had the blue hair that Lisbeth was accustomed to. The other had orange hair and was wearing a chestplate over normal clothes.

"Liz!" Asuna cried, wrapping her arms around her friend. "I'm so glad to see you!"

"Asuna!?" Rika exclaimed. "W-what are you doing here?"

"It's a long story," said Asuna. "You wouldn't believe how happy I am that you're here, and how glad I am that you're safe! This ALO is nothing like the one we know."

"You can say that again," said Rika, pulling out of the hug. "But I'm safe thanks to Keiko really. I wouldn't say that my experience here has been all that great." Keiko blushed at the mention of her.

"Neither has mine," said Asuna. "But I'm glad you're safe now, Liz."

"Excuse me, but I'm Liz! She's Rika," Lisbeth interjected.

"Sorry about that," Asuna apologised. "Force of habit. I'm glad to meet you, I'm Asuna Yuuki." She offered her hand to the leprechaun.

"Lisbeth," she replied, accepting it. "I can't believe Kirito really was right."

"There's another Kirito too?" Rika asked.

"Of course there is," said Lisbeth. "There's an avatar for every player. Two in some cases." Asuna knew that last part was directed at her. From the way Liz spoke, it was as if she didn't like Erika very much. 'I couldn't possibly understand why,' Asuna thought sarcastically.

"You all probably have a lot of questions," said Aosuna. "Seeing as there's so many of us, how about we head back to my place so we can talk about this properly?"

"Good idea, there's not exactly the space back here," Liz agreed.

They left Lisbeth's shop and teleported back to Kirito and Asuna's cabin, where the Asunas made some tea for the others. Asuna still felt horrible about what happened with her avatar but she pushed those feelings aside for the sake of her friends who clearly hadn't had a much better time of their own. She wanted to hear about what Rika and Keiko had been through so they all sat down and told their stories. Rika did most of the speaking for her and Keiko, except for when Keiko was explaining what had happened when she first logged in. When Asuna told the others her story, she just about managed to tell of what Erika did but avoided too much detail. The others all looked horrified, even Aosuna who knew what Erika had done. "Asuna, I'm so sorry that happened to you," Rika began. "That must have been horrible."

Asuna had to force herself not to cry. "But the same happened to you," she said. "If Keiko hadn't rescued you, you'd probably still be there now."

"But what happened to you was done by your own avatar," said Rika. "That's way worse."

Aosuna felt a pang of guilt. Asuna hadn't mentioned what they had done, and was glad of it. She wasn't sure how the others would have reacted if they knew.

"It's not so surprising," said Lisbeth. "I knew she had it in her."

"But it's Asuna's avatar, how can she be that bad?" Keiko asked.

"I dunno. Ask Kirito about that kind of thing. He'll probably know."

Aosuna decided to change to conversation. Asuna was clearly upset at talking about Erika. "But don't worry. You're all safe now. I'm so glad that I got to meet all of you," she said. "It's getting late, and you probably want to sleep. You've all had a rough day, so feel free to stay here the night until you get logged out automatically. I understand if you all don't want to come back but it would be great to see you all again next month."

"What do you mean 'next month'?" Rika asked.

"Well, we only become self aware once a month," said Lisbeth.

Rika shook her head. "No, that's not right. We only came here last week."

"So Kirito was wrong about something," Lisbeth grinned.

"That's just what the admin told us," said Aosuna. "We had no reason not to believe it."

Lisbeth scowled. "Don't take this away from me!"

"But I still don't know exactly what this is," said Rika.

"What we were told is that this is a version of Alfheim where developers test new concepts," Aosuna explained.

"So how are we getting in?" Rika asked.

"I don't know. Kirito guessed that some kind of safety feature was turned off."

"And that's all you know?"

"Pretty much."

After a long yawn by Keiko, Aosuna insisted that the players got some sleep. Rika and Keiko slept on the bed at Asuna's insistence, while she slept on the sofa again. Aosuna and Lisbeth decided to go for a walk.

"Why Aosuna?" Liz asked.

"It's the first thing I came up with," she said.

"I'm not calling you that. Shouldn't she come up with a new name? She couldn't even be bothered to set a proper name when she first logged into Sword Art Online," said Lisbeth.

"You don't have to call me that when she's not around," said Asuna. "It's just so conversations don't get too confusing."

"You say that, but having a second me and a second you is pretty confusing," Lisbeth complained.

"I guess it is," Asuna admitted. "If you come up with a better name for either of us, I'm open to suggestions."

"Can I ask you something?" Lisbeth asked. "It's about the other you."

Asuna knew this was coming. "Sure, what is it?"

"Things seemed a little awkward between you and her. She didn't want to get to close to you, neither of you ever made eye contact…"

"Out with it," Asuna sighed.

"Did you guys have sex?" she asked.

"Yeah, we did," Asuna admitted. "But I feel awful."

"Why? If anyone should feel awful about anything it should be Erika," said Lisbeth.

Asuna sighed again and thought before speaking. "I kissed her and then she didn't pull away. In fact it felt like she was enjoying it, but as soon as it was over…" she couldn't bring herself to finish.

The next morning, Asuna woke up back in her own bed. Her heart throbbed as she thought about her avatar. She had to tell Kazuto at some point. But how could she tell him that she had cheated on him? Asuna lifted off her amusphere and placed it on her bedside table. Her phone buzzed so she checked it. She had a message from Kazuto. She dropped the phone and cried into the palms of her hands before even reading it. She couldn't face him.

I hope you enjoyed that!

Sorry this chapter has taken so long. I've been really busy lately which is why the Kazuto and Asuna scene was a separate shorter chapter.

Writing scenes where there's both a player and their avatar can get really confusing to write. There were many times when I nearly wrote the wrong name.

The next chapter will focus back on Suguha and Shino playing ALO all weekend, so look forward to that in a few weeks. I don't know how long it will take, but I hope it doesn't take as long as this chapter did. Now I think of it, it feels like ages since I wrote about Suguha and Leafa in the gerbera. Turns out that was back in July. Oops!

I got the name Aosuna by combining Asuna with Ao, the Japanes word for blue. Let me know what you think of the name. If you don't like it feel free to suggest something else. If you do, then let me know.

Current page count: 98

Until Next Time!