Sinon didn't actually believe Kotone's accusations. Yes, it is believable - if she discounted that thought, that would be ignorance on her end, considering what just happened a week ago and the previous winter. But she doubted the legitimacy of the message even when the suspect, the woman in the black leotard and red eyes, survived a shot of the anti-tank PTRD-41 rifle with her lightsword.

But when the woman stepped down to the central courtyard, took aim with the SPB Rapier MK2, and with extreme precision, shot Jaymes in his left knee from 1200 yards away - maybe even more - Sinon's jaw slacked. While a machine gun might possess the power to send a bullet that far, that's far beyond the effective range of any machine gun in GGO.

Her eyes remained on the woman as she entered the ship's interior from the central courtyard to regroup with Team Betrayers. Because of this, she didn't notice the movements of the three teams entering the There Is Still Time.

With T-S still where they are, ZEMAL eliminating DEVA, then eliminating themselves with a friendly-fire craze after they defeated Tomtom, only LPFM, SHINC, and MMTM enters the cruise ship. The latter team enters first, down to four members after their sniper sacrificed himself to the water to hold David back and give his comrades a chance to enter the boat.

Following them is SHINC, also down to four members after losing the PTRD-41 and its operator to the water.

Llenn made it first for LPFM; after clearing the sizable, burned out hole, she turned back. Right behind her is Fukaziroh, her dual MGL-140s hefted up on her shoulders and chanting something. Kureha sprints right behind her. Given the Crimson Princess' speed, she could have passed Fuka long ago, but her concern for the limping captain of Crimson Squad holds her back. Brave or foolish, Jaymes stays on his feet, undeterred by his temporary injury. But it keeps him from moving as fast as he should, and it doesn't look like either he or M will beat the fast-moving seawater.

Kureha

"You can do it, M and Jaymes!"

"What, no words of encouragement for me? I feel so left out, I'm gonna sulk now."

"You got plenty of time, Fuka! I'm worried about Jaymes and M!"

Right beside Kureha, Fukaziroh turns around to look at the limping Jaymes and the encumbered M. "Good point... Hey, guys, do you want me to end it all for you? I can shoot you. It's cooler to get blown up than to drown don't you think?"

"Fuka!" both Kureha in her face and Llenn in the comms shout. The grenadier gawks and gets defensive.

"I'm just trying to lighten the mood with a joke. I'm not gonna shoot him. We're almost there, Kureha! Ei-ho! Ei-ho!"

"Riiiiight." Kureha takes another glance towards Jaymes, who continues to move despite the leg injury. It happened out of nowhere. When M noticed the armored gunman was moving away, he gave the call to move towards the ship. Right before Jaymes could move, she heard him scream through the comms and the echo in the air. Someone shot him from the ship, but it wasn't the armored man.

As for why they targeted his leg rather than going for the kill, that's a mystery for later.

Kureha and Fukaziroh make it to Llenn's position just outside the ship a couple of seconds later. The partially sunk hole was created by burning through the internal and external layers of thick steel. Llenn cleared the area of enemies, but Kureha lifted her Draque L Shamai and did another sweep of the LED lit hole. Once she reconfirmed no one was around, she lowers her SMG and turns to the smaller ladies, then to the two men. "Jaymes, M, hurry up!"

"Go in!"

"But-"

"There's no point if we all drown!" M's right, there's no point to the girls drowning while waiting on the men that's between 250 and 300 yards away from the ship. Though he isn't saying anything, she can tell Jaymes wouldn't want them to go out like that either. He'd say that it goes against the squad's creed, but in truth, the gamer in him won't allow Llenn, Fuka, and Kureha to fall waiting on the helpless men.

"C'mon, you know M's right. Right, Kureha?" Fukaziroh is calmer than the others; being a hardcore gamer herself, she must've come to the same realization Kureha did. Call it heartless - ironic considering the person limping has her heart - but that's how it is sometimes. Besides, it isn't like the girls can't pull off a win themselves.

"Yeah. Come on-"

Llenn grabs on Fuka's arm, stopping them both from entering the ship. "Wait!"

"C'mon, I don't want to do a romantic group suicide. You know that Pito is smiling and waiting for us up there. There's nothing left for us to do down here. We're nothing more than useless lowlifes whose only skills are shooting guns."

"...Jaymes, grab M and activate Hyper Awareness."

"Huh? Mo-I mean, what are you thinking, Kureha?"

Something incredibly insane. If it doesn't work, she just caused the deaths of their leader and strategist. But if they succeed, it's highlight reel worthy. "Something that'll definitely go down in SJ history. Fuka, prepare to fire Leftania."

"Huh?"

Ignoring Fuka's confusion, Kureha points to the sea right on Jaymes and M's heels. In a couple of seconds, it will swallow them whole. "Fire right behind them at the water! Now!"

Without argument, Fukaziroh shoots the plasma grenade. It flies in a low arc, flying right over the men's head. Just as she hears Jaymes shout for his special ability to activate, it's drowned out by a massive explosion. Right behind them, the grenade explodes in a brillant-blue vortex, eviscerating everything in a twenty-yard diameter except for Jaymes and M. Caught on the very edge of the blast, the two men warp forward a couple of feet and don't stop moving.

"This can work!"

"One more, Fuka!"

"You got it!" Fuka shoots another plasma grenade. She shoots it with a lower arc, sending the grenade twenty yards again behind the men, using Jaymes' ability to shoot them forward while bring temporary pause to the powerful seawater. "Kureha, I cannot believe you thought of this! I think I'm in love!"

"See? You've got something to do after all, don't you?" Llenn grins.

"I think I picked up on Pito's insanity...and delete what you said last, Fuka. C'mon, before the water drowns us!"

After the women entered the hole, the men followed. Seconds later, the seawater smacked the sides of the There Is Still Time, but it did not stop chasing the quintet. Fortunately, they found a narrow hallway with a staircase a few yards away from the hole, and with Llenn taking point and Kureha at the rear, ascended the staircase.

When Kureha got to the top of the long, winding staircase, she came up to a mirrored door that says GUEST FLOOR AHEAD, CHECK YOUR APPEARANCE. Beyond the door, a large hallway expands beyond it. It's about five feet wide and a little more than seven feet high, so it's not exactly spacious, but it fits M's height and width.

Back in the day, this hallway would have been magnificient, but the thick carpet was faded and the off-white wallpaper is degraded. It's a miracle the hallway is holding up as is.

Closing the door behind her, Kureha takes a deep breath and glances at Jaymes. His left knee still displays a red wound mark, and because he moved on it, it "bled" out over time. Thankfully his health is around fifty percent. "Are you okay?"

He nods as he administers a healing sytinge over the afflicted knee. "Yeah. Thanks. You three saved us."

"Are we safe here? Will the water come up?" Llenn wonders.

"We should be for a while," M answers. "First the water will flood into the lower sections, bit by bit. But before that-"

Grurrrrurrurrurrrrrrg.

It sounded like a large creature was growling, waking up from a disturbed nap. The sound, the source seemingly from the exterior of the ship, was continuously until Fukaziroh interrupted it. "What's this? Are we in the belly of some beast?"

"No. but the ship is groaning."

"Why?"

"It must be happy."

"Heheh. So you do have humor."

"Excuse me? Don't treat it like a person. Again, why?" For the record, it was M who spoke of the ship's emotional state, not the surprisingly stunned Fukaziroh.

And it is a pleased M who says, "It gets to be a ship again."

Itsuki

"Things are getting more interesting." On screen, the pub witnesses the seawater surround the There Is Still Time after Jaymes and M entered the ship. As the water level rose, the debris from the rescue ships were submerged while the contents of the smaller vessels rose to the surface of the sea.

Eventually, the sea stopped rising against the ship - or it is better to say the ship itself was rising with the water. The submerged parts of the ship pulled free due to the buoyant nature of the craft, ripping up the dirt and grass around it.

The ship rose up against the surface of the water, lowered, then stabilized. For the first time in forever, the There Is Still Time was floating. The audience within the pub causes a racket - Bazalt Joe himself is enthused - but Itsuki keeps a calm demeanor. After all, one hour and fifteen minutes after Squad Jam 3 began, the final stage has been set.

Four teams are onboard the vessel:

Team Betrayers, with Pitohui, David, Eva, and two others.

SHINC and MMTM with four members still alive apiece.

LPFM, with all five loyal members still kicking.

Conversation takes place on which team has the best odds of winning. As a traitor once upon a time, Itsuki could say he's pulling for Pitohiu and Team Betrayers, but his loyalties are forever to his hero. The hero who bested him in life and death and took him back into the fold, he swore to never go against him again.

But the audience inside the pub didn't share that opinion. Despite her team being two-time champions and made of two high-rankers in the last Battle of Bullets, they're ruling against Llenn for once. They have a point, though.

Llenn's speed is her strength, but it won't be enough to pull through inside a ship.

Fukaziroh's powerful launchers are virtually useless.

M is too big and he won't have time and space to set up the shield wall inside the ship.

Jaymes is a short-range pistol user and everyone knows his ability with a photon sword is unmatched. But in this close environment, those traits might be disadvantageous against long-ranged gunfire.

Kureha is the only one who seems favorable in the eyes of the public, given that she's the most versatile of the group.

"They say Llenn and the others are least likely to win, huh?" Zeliska murmurs with a grin. "On paper, that's true, but after what we just saw from them and Pitohui's prior planning, nothing Crimson Squad does is always against what's true."

"Maybe you should say that to everyone else, Zeliska... Just kidding."

"Mhm... Joe, what do you think?"

The eldest member of Crimson Squad reclines in his chair and swirls the contents of a yellow bottle. "I bet M will come up with something fancy... But my worries is not the other three teams. It's that guy with the beret down there. Isn't it weird he wasn't disappointed with his failed plan?"

"True, but I decided to ignore it," Zeliska remarks. "But why does it bother you still?"

"I wonder if there's more to it. If so...that girl, she's from DEVA, right? She's the other part of this plan. Has to be her, after how she shot Jaymes... But I could be wrong."

"Could she be after Master like Miss Pitohui was after Miss Llenn in the last Squad Jam?" Rei, the Arfa-Sys AI companion to Jaymes, bears a stunning hypothesis. It is true that girl shot Jaymes, but she didn't kill him, only impaired his ability to run. But as far as Itsuki knows, Jaymes has made no external enemies in GGO. Well, yes, he could have people looking for revenge after the previous Squad Jam or Battle of Bullets, but that attack was different. It might take a traitor to know when an attack on another is beyond the confines of the game, and that shot was indeed from something external to either tournaments.

Itsuki can't accurate tell the distance without seeing the map for himself, but the woman was at the central courtyard of the ship and Jaymes was near M at the back of the group. From his estimates, Jaymes might have been 700 yards from the prow of the ship, and his shooter was around 800 yards away from the front tip of the ship...which math dictates Jaymes was slightly over a thousand yards from her. That exceeds the effective range of the machine gun by two or three hundred yards.

"Maybe our heroic captain has an enemy he's unaware of."

"I think so." Sinon's system menu becomes translucent to all, and she flips the display for all to view a message she recieved from the outside world.

"Sinon, what I am about to tell you may be untrue, but it is of the utmost urgency given what happened to you and Kirito seven months ago and to Kirito and Asuna last week. According to Sanya, a friend of myself, Rain, and Jaymes from Sword Art Online, that girl looks similar to someone they used to know. A member of the red guild Laughing Coffin."

"Those guys?" Itsuki half-heartedly scoffs. It is true that the popular red guild have reared its head through old members or cult followings, but aside from the Death Gun incident last winter, there's no reason to fear the darkness Laughing Coffin spreaded. For one, no one can die in-game and in real-life anymore - well, it is possible, Itsuki would know since he tried it himself and allegedly Pitohui did the same - but that requires tampering with NerveGears. The Amusphere cannot be modified that way. "There's nothing wrong with it, even if she's a member. What's the worst that can happen?"

Sinon, however, glares at Itsuki, "You wouldn't know. I doubt anyone besides me, my friends and other SAO survivors close to Jaymes know. But Zeliska, Joe, Rei, and Lievre were there with us back in May in the White Frontier, remember?"

Joe nods in understand. 'That replicant data that manifested as a girl... Her name was Koharu. He did say she died in SAO, but that was the extent of it."

"Yes. She was his partner who fell to a member of Laughing Coffin. But not only her. Those who died last year and myself were attacked by them, so was Kirito this past week. And though I haven't heard the full story, I know Jaymes, Kirito, Asuna, Silica, and Lisbeth had many encounters with Laughing Coffin over their time in SAO. And those facts haunt him, even if he'll never admit it. It's why he's the way he is." She cuts her gaze back to Itsuki and coldly says, "You asked if he could have killed you... He would have killed you back then as he did to others in SAO."

"...Hehe... I was happier knowing I interrupted him when I asked."

"Well, there's nothing we can do," Zeliska remarks. She folds her hands in front of her face, conflicted with an internal struggle. After a moment of silence, she sighs and looks at the screens. "There are six stats in most Seed Nexus games, GGO included. Strength, Vitality, Intelligence, Luck, Agility, and Dexterity. You know which affects what in this game. But there's a secret mechanic in the game that no one but Zaskar knows about, tied to a valuable item in the game."

"Are you going to tell us more or continue being vague?"

"I'm conflicted on telling you all, Joe. Not because we're keeping it a secret at Zaskar, but I respect your integrity as gamers. But you already noticed the impossible; that woman shot Jaymes in the leg with a machine gun in single-shot mode with the accuracy of a sniper rifle. That was no sleight of hand or a skilled trick. It is impossible for all except her...in the same way it is impossible for all except Jaymes to avoid most attacks as he does."

Itsuki's brown eyes manuever from Zeliska to Rei. The Arfa-Sys of Jaymes, much like Daisy and Lievre, have been quiet for the duration of the conversation. Zeliska might be vague on purpose, for she told them everything they need to know to put the clues together.

When Jaymes joined Kureha in GGO almost year ago, they partnered up to take on a special dungeon. To Kureha, Jaymes had no experience with VRMMOs (long explanation short, Kureha had no idea Jaymes was trapped in SAO or played ALO until he confessed last winter during Itsuki's betrayal, so she didn't know Jaymes used Strea to hide his true stats when he began were converted from ALO to GGO) so she used the dungeon as training for him. Itsuki would meet Jaymes for the first time there, having known Kureha due to her skill and popularity.

It was that same dungeon that, by luck, Jaymes would stumble upon the hidden prize - Rei - and claim her right before being attacked by the pair Llenn and Pitohui. Later on, he would fight Bazalt Joe multiple times to retain ownership of Rei. Over time, his story of how he gained a rare prize on his first day would give Jaymes the moniker of "Lucky Red."

Through Rei, Jaymes gained the ability of Hyper Awareness, first used when avoiding a fatal blast from a boss monster Itsuki implemented in the trapping server he created and used against him, Kureha, and Zeliska. He never thought much of it, but if what Zeliska is saying is connects Jaymes to the woman who shot his knee...

"There are other Arfa-Sys who can grant their masters abilities?"

She nods and looks at Rei to her, Daisy between her and Itsuki, and Lievre on the other side of Itsuki. "Yes. As you know, Rei, Lievre, and Daisy are special types of Arfa-Sys that are permenant possessions of the players who claim them, not like the others kinds that are rentable. When creating the AIs initially, someone from the development team decided that there should be a few that players can own and possibly give their companions a rare item and talent. Each Master or Mistress gains a item like Jaymes' Ultra Fiber Gun upon meeting their Arfa-Sys. There are six stats in GGO, so there were six Arfa-Sys created with the ability to boost one of those stats. Two Type-Xs, two Type-Ys, and two Type-Zs, each randomly assigned a 'Hyper' ability."

"Master gained Hyper Awareness from me," Rei says, holding her hand to her heart. "Does that mean Daisy gave something to you?"

Daisy looks at Zeliska with her eye that isn't behind a eyepatch, asking for permission silently. Zeliska nods, then Daisy announces. "I gave Mistress Zeliska the ability of Hyper Critical."

Eyes fall to Lievre, who scoffs and turns away. "Unfortunately, I did not give my Master any ability. I wasn't with him that long."

"In any case, we found the fourth owner. If what Philia said to Sinon is true, then...well, there's nothing we can do." Itsuki leans back, his shoulders dropping as he returns his attention to the pub. His gaze catches the man in the red beret, still perched on the front table by himself and grinning. If the woman is a former member of Laughing Coffin, it explains why he too was fixated on the captain of Crimson Squad.

"All that can be done is hope the hero doesn't become the villain of his own story..."