The next twelve minutes would be, in a literal and figurative sense, shockingly fun for Anni.
Moments after an explosion from Deck 1 put a whole in the left side of the ship (a plasma grenade given by Pitohui to her teammate, in turned used in the fight between her LFPM and Eva's SHINC), Pitohui commanded Clara to level out the ship by taking in more water on the starboard side and remain level until 1:30. At 1:23, Anni did not understand Pitohui's thoughts nor did she question it.
But she was concerned that her mission might have ended early, It wouldn't be in failure per se, but to complete it on her terms rather than coincidently would be preferable. But she'd have to wait to the next scan to see if Jaymes survived.
Then Pitohui made an odd request: "Clara, show me the wiring layout of the ship. And the location of the sprinklers." Clara followed the command, marking both the wiring and sprinkler location on a diagram present on one of the monitors.
For the next two minutes, Pitohui conjured up a plan as she analyzed the diagram of the ship. It intrigued Anni on how barbaric her teammate was, reminding her of someone else. Many someones, in fact.
At 1:25, the second scan of the ship arrived. Starting from the bottom this time, it revealed LPFM's five members survived and made it to the prow side of Deck 3. Internally relieved, Anni watched the rest of the scan for MMTM's location. They made it to Deck 10, located towards the stern near the port-side cabins, and on route to the courtyard. Or more specifically, using the courtyard to access the stairway and climb up to the bridge. SHINC had not appeared on any of the first ten levels, meaning LFPM wiped them out.
She didn't need to look at Eva to know she was unhappy. Part of Anni empathize with her, after all.
After the scan swept the twentieth deck, MMTM made a bold move. The dots representing each player on the tenth deck started to move into the courtyard towards the fore of the ship as Anni deduced. Seeing that, Pitohui says one word: "Activate." Across the courtyard - and the ship as a whole - the sprinklers turned on. If Anni could see MMTM and LPFM's faces, confusion would be etched on nine different faces, wondering why the sprinklers are on.
That didn't stop MMTM. Instead, they continued moving forward the amusement park area. Once they were there, Pitohui faced the console. "Activate all power in the courtyard."
"Are you sure? It is possible that any humans in the area will be fatally electrocuted."
"I'm sure. Turn it on."
MMTM would never know what hit them, and neither would LPFM, the audience at the pub or around the world until after the tournament and the replay is available. Only the five members of Team BTRY would have the knowledge that Pitohui had set them up to die via electrocution. Only Anni had watched Pitohui in action, for David, Eva, and Ervin watched the bridge's doors, guns up.
"I think that probably did the trick. You can stop now, Clara. But we can;t be sure, so will you go and check? Three of you, just in case." The three being those at the door, for Pitohui doesn't even glance at Anni. "When the next scan comes, all three of you check it. I don't think they'll be coming up yet, but be careful of Llenn making a charge at us."
"Got it."
"All right."
"Let's go."
At 1:27, the bridge's only occupants are Pitohui and Anni. Not even the tournament's camera, indicated by a marker, was present. They were cut off from the world as a whole.
"Ugh..." Pitohui collapses, dropping into the captain's chair as if she just navigate through rough waters.
"What's the matter? Do you feel sick?" Clara inquires.
Removing the comms device from her ear, Pitohui answers, "Ugh, I feel sluggish."
"That is not ideal. Are you ill?"
"No, my brain's fried; that's all. It's not firing on all cylinders. If I was using the AmuSphere, it'd be logging me out automatically by now... But all hail the NerveGear... It's a good thing I kept it around..."
"Why do you feel so tired? Is there anything I can do for you? Shall I call the ship doctor?"
"The reason is simple: I worked too much yesterday. The day after a performance, my body always gives out. So there's nothing you can do about that, Clara. Oh, but there are plenty of other things you can do. No worries there."
"I understand. Please give me any orders you wish completed."
"A NerveGear, huh?" Having heard everything since she's still in the room and Pitohui wasn't whispering in the slightest, Anni removes her comms device and walks around the captain's chair to face Pitohui, stalking her like a preying lion but without showing hostility, only curiosity. "Aren't those thing deadly?"
"So they say, huh?"
Twirling on her feet, Anni puts on a playful act. "Hmm, it's been years since I used one, but I guess it makes sense they aren't inherently deadly. They were used before Sword Art Online, after all... Hey, Pitohui."
"Hmm?"
"Us and LPFM are next. If I know you, you'll directly confront them. All your planning from the moment we set foot on this ship to now was to get the other teams out the way, huh? That was smart...and agreeable. I, too, wish a confrontation with LPFM."
Pitohui sits up, her fatigue replaced by intrigue. "...The captain, huh? Why?"
"Does it matter to you? After all, loyalty is not your thing. You've betrayed your teammates twice over."
Pitohui raises an eyebrow. "Have I?"
Anni matches that expression with a smirk as the two ignore the 1:30 scan. Instead she turns towards the windows. At the horizon to the right, barely visible, is the top of a skyscraper. Three stories separate the sea from the roof, and this is where they were headed all along. "Like I said, you don't want any teams between you and LPFM. Total victory, at whatever the cost, is your thing. Even if it means tricking others. And given what you've done... I believe you've sold the part of 'liar' well."
"Huh... So you knew everything all along. No wonder you've been silent." Pitohui sits up, eyeing the incoming structure intently with Anni. "But you haven't answered my question... You seek the captain?"
"Indeed."
"Why? You an ex-lover? No, that was someone else... Or are you her? That's cold."
"As far as I'm concerned, his lover died. And because of it, so did mine. But you can say we're old friends from another game long ago."
"...So you're from Sword Art Online, too? I see. Then let's say what's preventing me from killing you right now? Or you killing me? My loyalties may be questionable, but I am a member of Crimson Squad."
"Indeed, but if you wanted me dead, you would have killed me the moment I suggested allowing me to target him. So the bigger question is why haven't you? The answer to both questions is the same: You want to have fun. They built this stage for us, and the show must be dramatic as possible."
Pitohui remains silent, fixated on the skyscraper on approach. "...Clara."
"Yes, Pitohui?"
"Turn to the left and smash through that building." As the AI obeys Pitohui's instruction, she turns towards Anni, her blue-grey eyes cold and void of emotion. But her lips are stuck in a slight grin. "You sound like a madwoman."
"Takes one to know one."
"Mmm... Well, I must admit, it would be troublesome if Jaymes got in the way of my appointment with Llenn. I already have the Amazon and Daveed in the way. No doubt M and Fukaziroh will be with her. But I must warn you, Jaymes comes with a package deal of his own in Kureha. In theory, I'm sending you to someone that I don't think I can outsmart. Isn't that a betrayal in itself?"
Anni smirks and turns away, walking towards the doors of the bridge. "That's because you don't know his weakness. No, I say you do know his weakness well enough." As the doors to the bridge open, Anni feels the ship rock as it collides with the skyscraper. She didn't need to witness the event to know the result will end with the deaths of T-S. "You just don't know how to exploit it."
"Is that so? Well, then...go annihilate Jaymes."
Moments after T-S was destroyed, a saddened and confused Ervin followed suit, impaled by Pitohui who used her tiredness to her advantage. Turns out he was looking from an observation deck on the seventeenth level, so he got a good look at the destruction outside before running towards the bridge. He didn't see Anni at all, nor did he see a three-foot laser beam penetrate his head like a pole.
From that moment on, Anni did not put her comms back on her ear. Whatever happened to Team BTRY from now on is not her concern. She didn't need Pitohui's permission, but it made things easier if the two came to an understanding that Jaymes is Anni's and Anni's alone.
Descending down the staircase and watching the 1:35 scan, Anni only has one thing on her mind, for revenge for what happened two years ago is in reach.
Jaymes
"What? Why? What in the world happened up there? A betrayer is gone!" Llenn, in disbelief, shouts as we watch the next scan pass through. MMTM mysteriously disappear in the previous scan, but neither us or Pitohui's team were nearby to attack them. Whatever happened...I bet the damn sprinklers played a part. It's bad enough we almost drowned in the sea, but being drenched in seawater from the sprinklers sorely pissed me off.
Though I'm not fuming as much as the vice captain. Talking to her is a volatile situation under we are dry.
"Maybe Pito killed them?" Fukaziroh suggests.
"That's crazy."
"No, I wouldn't put it past her." M, still recovering HP, says. After all, Pito did shoot him in SJ2 when he sided ever so slightly with Llenn and Fukaziroh near the match's conclusion. And given what just happened, I bet Pitohui had some hand in whatever we collided with moments ago. "If we let that happen, Piothui herself could completely demolish the rest of the betrayers' team."
"That sounds great, M. Should we chill out here for a bit longer?" Fuka replies in a manner that's hard to tell whether she's serious or joking.
"It's not a bad idea, but it's not going to be an option. The water's rising again."
"Again?" Llenn goes to check the staircase, but it's not a total surprise. M is right, though, we do need to move to the upper decks. The only reason we've stayed down in the lower the last ten minutes is to allow M to recover his health. It would require all three of his emergency kits and nine minutes total to recover all his hit points.
At 1:25, when we on at the prow side of Deck 3, that was a gamble. MMTM, up on Deck 10, had a choice to make: come down to us or up to the betrayers on Deck 17's bridge. LFPM wouldn't have been troubled by MMTM in any way - that might be my pride talking - but I would have prioritized protecting M over the trouble of eliminating MMTM, especially in the enclosed spaces of the lower decks. Thankfully they chose the traitors, and paid a unknown price for it before 1:30.
With no one left but us and BTRY, I let my eyes linger on a moving dot heading downward. This "Annihilator" is coming alone: Pito remains at the bridge, David heads up on another staircase from the former, and Eva hasn't moved from Deck 15. The logical thoughts in my head wage war with the emotional ones. I know Annihilator is dead, so this could be someone else who happens to have that name...but I believe in red strings of fate too. As illogical as it sounds, part of me believes that someone out there knows I'd be drawn to the name and is intentionally drawing me out.
And it's not irrational to think that person might be a former member of Laughing Coffin. XaXa, Johnny "Joe" Black, and though she's a friend, a girl named Lux are reminders that former members of Laughing Coffin are out there. I never changed my SAO player name and my appearance differs slightly, so anyone who knows the Crimson Warrior of SAO might pen him as me.
So as idiotic as it is... I'll bite the bait one way or another. I have to know the truth. "...M, I'm delegating leadership back to you?"
"Huh?"
"Wh-what?"
"What do you mean?"
"I...have something to do on my own. Don't worry about me. Finish off the rest of Team Betrayers, but leave that one, Annihilator, to me." Llenn, Fuka, and M look at me with decreasing levels of confusion. Well, M hides it well, and no one argues. Nodding, I head to the staircase to ascend, avoiding eye contact with Kureha. I know she wouldn't understand if I told her, or any of them - how could she?
Kureha wasn't there in Sword Art Online.
She didn't live for 730 days fighting for her life.
She didn't watch people die unfairly, outside the bounds of SAO that Akihiko Kayaba set up.
She didn't watch a swordsman in black be called a "beater" because one person riled up a mob based off misinformation.
She didn't watch a blue-haired knight, present only because we had caught wind of a deadly plot, sacrifice himself to we'd live.
She didn't watch as a purple-haired scythe-wielder was stabbed in the chest by a rapier like a helpless dog.
She didn't watch as I was beaten nearly to death while my companions had blades to their neck, and I made the decision to protect them if it meant dying in a disgustingly pathetic way.
She didn't watch as I and others raced against time to save a small, feathered dragon by gathering rare items, only to be betrayed and nearly lose those items before I fought back for them.
She didn't watch as a young woman, a dear partner, died in my arms, stabbed outside of a town by a poisoned dagger.
She didn't watch as I waited outside of the operation room with two girls close to me. One of them is my best friend's girlfriend and also another best friend of my one. The other was his little sister and something of a sister to myself.
She didn't watch the manipulations, the turning of good people against each other, of heroes into the very villains they fought against. As much death in Sword Art Online is Kayaba's blame, he did not kill anyone directly. But PoH and his Laughing Coffin did.
"Joshua!" I'm halfway between Deck 7 and 8 when I hear my real name. I could have been called by my username many times now, but that stops me in my tracks. I do not turn around, but I hear the furious steps of Kureha until they stop just below me. In English, she yells at me, "Who the hell is this Annihilator to you?"
I turn off my comms device first before answering. "...You wouldn't understand if I told you."
"What does that mean? How can I understand anything if you don't tell me?"
"Don't you see that maybe I don't want to tell you, Kureha?"
"Why? I know you better than anyone! What is so damn that for you to say to me of all people?"
Angry beyond reasonable thought, I growl, "You don't know anything about me. You just think you do because we were childhood friends. So don't you dare..." I turn to lash out on her, but the cold, wet barrel of the Draque L Shamal shuts me up. On the other end of the SMG, Kureha looks at me with the fierciest glare I've ever seen on her face...and a puddle of tears brimming on her eyelids.
"You're right, I don't know you. I don't what happened to you in Sword Art Online or the three years before that when I left. All I have are the seven years we had together as kids and the last year as adults. I don't know "Jaymes' very well...but I know Joshua. I know you're trying to protect me. You've always done that. It's how we met, you defending me from bullies. But I also know you don't think of the consequences, which is why you had to clean the classroom by yourself. I know that you love playing games so much that you would beat me without mercy, but you taught me how to be better. That's how I became a gamer myself."
"Kureha..."
"In middle school, the other kids teased us for being close. We did everything together. Schoolwork, homework, field trips, we were there side by side. We would walk to and from school. leaving others to wonder if we were a couple. And outside of school, we were just as inseperable. Not a second between sunrise and sunset we weren't together, and sometimes even later than that. But more important than that, we were each other's rock. You have your family problems, I had mine, but when I was with you, all of it went away...up until I left. But even then... I never forgot you. From the moment we separated until we reunited in this game, you remained everything to me. In those two years, when I was told that there's a unexplained reason I couldn't see or meet you, all I thought about was understanding why. I patiently spent the last seven months wanting to understand why."
"Maybe I have no right to demand anything from you, but do not tell me that I, of all people this world, can't understand you! I'm not Asuna or Lisbeth or any of those girls, but before they knew Jaymes, I knew the real you! Before any of them were your friend, I was! Before any of them loved you, I did! So unless you want me to shoot you on camera in the middle of your head, please...let me understand."
I can't find the words to answer her. But I do understand her feelings, for this isn't the first time someone has said this to me. But they were petitioning Jaymes; Kureha, no, Momiji is talking to the real me. So I search for those words as I lift a hand and remove her gun from my head, then reach out to her to clean the tracks of tears from her cheeks. "I'm sorry..."
I step down to the step right in front of her, drawing her wet body to me. I put my chin on top of her drenched pink hair, letting the choice words I dug up flow out of my mouth. "Annihilator...was someone I met in SAO. He was a member of Laughing Coffin, and he, among many things, had it out for me for whatever reason. And...he is the one who killed Koharu. But... I know it isn't him, for I killed him too. Paralyzed his body and broke his neck under a waterwheel." I feel Kureha's body stiffen at that point, but I cannot stop now. "He was one of five people I killed that day during the raid on Laughing Coffin's hideout. He just happened to escape to go harm Lisbeth. The other four...just got in my way, but I was too angry to realize what I was doing. Or I didn't feel like they had to live. I don't...even know anymore."
I hold her away from me to see her face. The rage is completely gone, line with confusion and the rare trace of sadness. She knows what Laughing Coffin is to me, but I never went into great detail as to personally why it is so. "The rest of the story, all of my troubles with Laughing Coffin, I'll tell you later, but he and I go as far back as the sixth floor of Aincrad. So whoever is wearing that name now has to know me and him well enough that I'll be baited into going after them. For my peace of mind, I hope I'm wrong, but...I have to know the truth."
"...Okay..." Momiji nods her head and leaves my grip. Wiping her face and turning away, she says, "Then go. We'll handle the rest. But...if what you say is right, how many people would know that you and Annihilator were enemies like that?"
That is a great question. I had considered someone might be using the name, but not who could be hiding themselves behind it. Lueur's book was very detailed on Aincrad's two-year history, but one thing he did was not use player names without permission, and even then, he used them sparingly. Kirito, Asuna, and I were popular enough in those years that he could have used our names and we'd been known, but our epiteths worked too. No one in GGO except Crimson Squad knows I am the Crimson Warrior, and aside from Death Gun back then, that's still to my knowledge. So if someone is to know who I am and my relationship with Annihilator, that's a limited group of people.
"Well, remember that XaXa figured me and Kirito out, then there was Black the other day, so it can be said that, at the very least, the founding members of Laughing Coffin know us. Well, others members could. Lux, despite being a fan of Kirito, almost passed out when she found out who I was, but she wasn't a willing member of the guild. So back to the founders that still live and aren't jailed to my knowledge... PoH, Morte, Buxum, Devesta..."
On those words, I quickly turn tail, not even saying goodbye to Kureha. I did not stop walking until I reached the eighth level and, as if those damn strings of fate guided me, decided this is where I'll head out. But before I opened the door, I heard Kureha called out to me one more time.
"Jaymes!" She raises her right index finger and thumb in the position of a finger gun. She then switches up, holding her pinky towards me even though we're a whole floor apart. "No, Joshua... You better win, or I'll kick your ass when you come home. I seriously mean it...since the damn world saw us."
No wonder she looked embarrassed, the whole world bore witness to the last few minutes. She did say she'd shoot me on camera, but I didn't notice the flying camera marker as I do now. I hope no one heard us in that case. "What if I win?"
"I'm still going to kick your ass to oblivion, but..." Cheeks turning red, she somehow manages an embarassed smile. "Maybe a little more, too. But that's not a suggestion, but an order from your vice-captain."
I dare not think of those implications, but that's a great motivator if I ever heard any. I smile back at her and say, "Then I better win, huh? Good luck to you, too. Beat Pitohui and the rest of her team. Those are my orders." I hold up my pinky and we mimick locking them as we did many times as kids when we were separated by distance.
Kureha moves back down the stairs and I let fate guide me to the eighth deck and the nearby opera house at the fore of the ship.