Koharu

The rest of Liten's story was short. After gaining her set from Lisbeth, she leveled up by hunting treants on the third floor and was recruited by ALS on the following floor. At Lisbeth's advice, she joined the green guild and later met Shivata of the DKB. For all other details about their relationship, Koharu will keep to herself.

Afterward, Kirito finally got them to the more pressing issue-the problem within ALS. Liten had vaguely introduced it to Shivata before, but not in detail. Liten, not wanting to directly betray her guild, kept her lips tight, but Kirito spoke for her, that ALS plans to leave the countdown party early to take on the fifth-floor boss.

Liten, now that the problem is out in the open, gave more details. As a new recruit, she wasn't part of the boss strategy meeting reserved for the longtime members, so all she knew came from her group leader. ALS held such a meeting on the twenty-eighth about information obtained from a beta tester. According to the source, an essential item is a drop from the floor boss and depending on who received it could dramatically change things for the ALS or DKB.

The meeting was split between jointly managing the item by both guilds and making a decree to honor it before the fight during the party. But since the item cannot be jointly managed, it was believed that ALS, while they're ahead, should ensure they get the item. Liten didn't know whether Kibaou was initially for or against joint management, but he approved the strategy.

Liten, Shivata, Mito, and Kirito had no clue what the item was. Liten, as a new member of ALS, had no clue due to her exclusion from the party and her leader's vagueness. Her group was going to petition Kibaou today before she received Shivata's message. Shivata and the DKB hadn't heard of anything themselves. Mito and Kirito, both former beta testers and participants in the battle against the fifth floor's boss, didn't remember.

And then, Koharu remembered what another beta tester had told her days ago.

"Oh, there was a special LA for beating the labyrinth boss. It was the Guild Flag, if I remember correctly. It provides bonuses to people within a guild. Nothing we need to worry about, though. Leave it to ALS or DKB to figure that out."

When Koharu revealed that, Mito and Kirito recalled that such an item dropped and immediately recognized the danger of the flag. The flag itself is not dangerous, nor is the idea of one guild possessing it-but for the sake of balance and harmony between an already volatile relation between ALS and DKB, they recognized the importance of either guild keeping the flag.

Later, Kirito and the girls went for lunch. While the others spoke on Liten and Shivata's relationship (and how far they could go because of the Harassment Code), Koharu's mind was on her missing partner. He hadn't contacted her since this morning when he told her he was going to Mananarena to follow a lead on the player-ghost and has been silent since. He's alive and well (his health bar has been constantly watched), so he's focused solely on the lead.

"Yo, Koharu," prods Mito with her fork as the four all eat jumbo roll cake with excessive helpings of banana-flavored cream on top at a secret restaurant in the town. "You and Jaymes sleep together, right? So how does that work?"

"Huh?"

"Mito! Not you too!" Asuna shouts. "You can't ask her that!"

"What? They're the closest boy-girl pair in the game that I can ask. If we want to figure out how Liten and Shivata's relationship can work, whether it's dependent on who the target player is and all that emotional closeness crap Kriito just spewed, why not ask the best source? So, Koharu, what is the secret?"

Koharu feels her entire body heat up like a boiling teapot. "Wh-wh-wh-wh-what are you talking about?"

Before Mito can open her mouth again, the bell at the door jingles, announcing a new arrival. The visitor heads to their table and takes her seat next to Asuna in front of Koharu, looking tired as she orders a roll cake of her own. "Heyaaa. You dragged me outta my own business, so I hope this is more important than the boss quests, Kii-boy."

"O-of course... Umm, I think we figured out why the ALS is planning to sneak ahead on the boss."

Argo's face brightens up. "Wait, really? Even I haven't caught that morsel in my net of intelligence. This is quite impressive."

"Rather surprising, isn't it?"

"What is?"

"Well, I would have thought you knew already. Don't you remember anything about an item from the fifth-floor boss causing trouble in the beta?"

"Trouble?" Argo consults her memory, twitching her whiskers for a silent moment before surrendering with raised hands. "I hate to admit it, but I can't remember. If I can make an excuse, I wasn't an info broker in the beta. I also wasn't a front-runner, so I didn't take part in that boss fight."

"Oh, you didn't? Well, I won't hold it over your head, then. Mito and I participated in that fight and we didn't remember it until Koharu spoke of it, which Jaymes remembered himself. We think the ALS is after a guild flag."

"Guild...flag? Why would they want a flag?"

"As an object, it's no more than a low-powered spear, but if you do this..." Kirito strikes the table with the base of his fork, "When the player with it equipped sticks it onto the ground, all guild members within fifty or sixty feet get increased attack and defense, as well as extra resistance against debuffs."

"Wh...what?" Stunned, she points at Kirito's fork and rapidly fires questions. "C-can the player with the flag move around? How long does the buff last? Is there a limit to how many players it affects?"

Mito takes over. "No, the player cannot move; the flag must remain planted on the ground for the effect to remain. But if the player moves and plants it again, the buff returns. There is no limit to the buff. As long as the flag touches the ground and the recipients are members of the same guild, it can go on and on."

"Hmmmmmmmmmmm..." Argo crosses her arms as her cake arrives, then cuts a quarter of it off and stuffs that quarter in her mouth. "...That is indeed very big trouble."

"Exactly."

"The statistical boost is one thing, but the effect on the players' mentality is especially dangerous…If the ALS gets that item and plants it during battle, their morale is going to skyrocket, and the DKB's will plummet. The same would hold true for the reverse…It's more than powerful enough to crush the uneasy balance that exists now."

"You can understand why Kibaou would decide to attempt the boss prematurely once he learned about it."

Argo cuts another quarter of her cake and glances at the girl to her left. "You see pretty quiet today, A-chan."

"Er...uh, no, it's nothing!"

Argo merely blinks, then turns her attention to Koharu. "Same to you, Ko, but I can understand that." She points to the empty seat on the other side of Kirito, across from Mito. "Actually, I need to talk to you after this, but it's a private matter, according to your partner. Something he prefers to travel by word of mouth."

"...Okay."

"So...how'd that spiky-haired buffoon manage to get word about this item? It's kind of a shock to me that they got this intel before I did."

"W-well, the four of us and Jaymes aren't the only beta testers, Argo," Kirito points out. Argo hasn't been told about what Asuna heard in the dungeon or the PK gang. If she knew, there would be a chance she'd learn about them on her own, putting herself in greater danger. To Koharu, Argo has proven her ability to escape danger, but the enemy is a greater unknown. They never met the man in the poncho, who they believe is the leader. Morte alone is dangerous; who knows how many there are with him?

Once again, the topic turns to what to do about it. Asuna proposed letting Lind know and having the loot split evenly. Still, without being sure how ownership of the flag works, it might be impossible to split the flag between the two guilds, literally by removing it from the staff and figuratively. Even if it was possible, while Lind can be reasoned with, Kibaou is more stubborn, but on the flip side, Koharu believes Lind might be against it. They'll have to reasonably find a way to relinquish the flag to one guild

ALS's creed is that all players should be given an equal chance with resources, whether it be gold, items, or information. That has been Kibaou's creed since his speech calling out beta players back in Tolbana. It has been that belief that, in her mind, puts Kibaou in a greater light in Koharu's eyes and is probably why she trusts him more.

Lind's philosophy is that DKB should possess the best players with the most significant knowledge and power. Fighting bravely, they'll be a shining light in a world of darkness and generate the hope and inspiration to defeat SAO.

Neither would easily cede the flag to the other. Both want their guilds to be number one, to be the true successor to Diavel's leadership. If only the knight who initially led the front lines hadn't disappeared after Illfang the Kobold Lord's defeat...

"...Let's beat the boss."

Kirito proposed this so smoothly that Koharu had to blink thrice to ensure she heard it correctly. Mito raises an eyebrow, Asuna's face is stern, and Argo stuffs her mouth with the remaining half of the roll cake. Once she clears her mouth, the informant says, "You mean the six of us?"

"Oh, not at all."

"Then who are you going to ask for help?"

"Well... First, there's Agil and his three friends; then, Nezha might help us."

"That's it?" Asuna wonders.

Mito counts the numbers with her fingers. "Eleven people...that's still not enough."

Kirito clears his throat awkwardly and turns to Argo. "Um, Argo, do you know anyone?"

"Come on, don't be ridiculous, Kii-boy. Well, I keep an eye on the people trying their best to join the front-runners, but that very potential means I can't invite 'em on a dangerous mission. Why do ya think I've been handing out those strategy guides on lower floors for free... Wait, no, I might know a guy." Argo says that while stroking her chin. "Yeah, he'd join."

"Yeah, good point…Well, even if Nezha and your person say yes, that's me, Asuna, Mito, Koharu, Jaymes, Argo, Nezha, and the Bro Squad for twelve in total. That's two full parties, it might be enough at the least."

Asuna waves her hand in front of her face. "No way, even with two parties, that would be hard enough. You were the one who said we just barely beat the fourth-floor boss with a full raid, Kizmel, and Viscount Yofilis. If the next boss is tougher than that sea horse, how is a group of twelve going to win?"

"Hmm. In numerical terms, every fifth boss is always going to be especially tough. Assuming that each boss grows stronger at the same equivalent amount, then I imagine that the fifth-floor boss is going to be close in strength to the sixth-floor boss. But a boss's strength isn't measured in just attack, defense, and HP. If that giant golem hasn't been altered since the beta, there's a way for even a twelve-man raid to beat it. Depending on the information from the boss quests and recon of the boss chamber, of course… Oh, right. What kind of hints were the boss quests giving?"

"Kii-boy, are you forgetting that I deal information for a living?" Kirito opens his window to propose a transaction, but Argo denies him. "I'd thank ya for the transaction, but I'll give it to you in return for that tidbit about the guild flag. Speaking from the conclusion first, it seems like the boss is still a golem. Let's see here..." She opens her window and switches to the memo tab, allowing players to take notes. "Remember what you told me from the elf quests, the secret of Aincrad's creation and whatnot?"

"Oh, the Great Separation, you mean?"

"Well, in a shortened form…this floor was originally an industrial area for a human kingdom. They dug up metal and magical ores with spells and mass-produced arms that were sold into a regional conflict elsewhere. But the king of that land didn't export the truly powerful magical ore, saving it up to build a massive war weapon…the golem. When the golem was finished, he was going to use it to invade the dwarves that were his trade rivals when the Great Separation occurred, and the golem and king were summoned up into the sky. The power of magic was lost, so they couldn't mine or refine the material…and that's the story."

"Ahhh, I see…"

"Um," Asuna speaks up, "now that I think about it, when we fought that zombie boss in the catacombs...wasn't he wearing a crown of some kind?"

"Oh, he was," Mito confirms. "So he must've been the old king...he stretched out over time."

Argo chuckles, "Hey, it's customary for all those evil king bosses from video games to magically grow in size."

"Either that or being in a damp place for eons made him bloat from all the moisture. Zombies always seemed highly absorbent to me." If Kirito was expecting the girls to laugh, all he receives is four grimaces. Realizing that he's not the humorous boy in the group, he returns to the topic. "Anyway, back to the floor boss. If that's what the boss quests said, then it seems like we can rest assured that the golem from the beta is still in place."

"In a basic sense, yes. It's just...even the bosses that have looked the same as their beta form have been changed in some way. The minotaurs on the second floor got an extra companion, for example."

"Illfang switched weapons on us."

"That's something we won't know until we scout it out. Also, we should plan out an escape method from the boss chamber."

"Wait, Kirito," Asuna cuts her partner off. "You just said a twelve-man raid would be enough to handle the boss, but we're still one short. And we don't even know if Nezha and Agil's group will help us."

"If the Bro Squad says no, we're plain out of luck. If that happens, we can tell Lind about the guild flag and pray that his talk with Kibaou reaches a peaceful conclusion. As for the last member..."

"Kirito," Mito calls, "we don't need exactly one more member. That'd be hard to find. However, I do agree we need more than twelve people to cover our bases. Let's invite another group and have three full parties...no, at least twenty people to have nearly half a raid party to be successful."

"Hmm... Then let's ask Shivata and Liten."

"Wh...what?" Asuna exclaims. "Y-you know that won't work; they're members of the DKB and ALS!"

"That's exactly why. If they were members of the same guild, they wouldn't assist a plan that ultimately undercuts their group...but since they're each from one, I think there might be a chance."

"Liten's the one in the plate armor who just joined the ALS?" Argo says with a grin. "So she and Shivata from the DKB…Ahhh, that's a new one to me."

"Hey! No, Argo, you can't sell that to anyone."

"Nya-ha-ha, I know. But like Kii-boy says, if they're that close, they might help us out. Love is stronger than guild regulations, as they say. Wouldn't ya agree, Koharu?"

"Why is everyone picking on me..."

"A-anyway," Kirito interrupts, "if Shivata and Liten can each bring a partner, that will make twelve. Fortunately, they're both members of the party-planning committee, so they should be moving from Mananarena to Karluin soon. If we can catch them before and head straight for the tower, their guilds won't find out about their participation in the boss battle…I think…"

"You'd better be certain about that." Asuna states. "Also, assuming Shivata and Liten even agree to help us, how will we help them if they get kicked out of the guild for what they do for us? I can't agree to bring them into our plan if you can't give me a proper answer."

"…Agil's party has exactly four. I'll ask them if they mind letting the other two join up. If that's a no-go… Argo's contact and the two of them, maybe their partners, can join him and Nezha if he's in. "

Asuna seems satisfied with that answer, but Mito is not. "That's still less than twenty. Are there another six players who may join our cause? What about Nezha's friends, the rest of the Braves? Or any other parties?"

Koharu glances at Jaymes' name on the left side of her heads-up display. On the top of her head, there's a party that might be willing to join now that they've made it to the front. Asking them might get the response she hopes for, but there's another problem. Her eyes move to Kirito, who types on the holographic keyboard in front of him.

Moments later, he pumps his fist up and announces, "I'm going back to the main city to meet Nezha. Asuna, can you get in touch with Agil, Shivata, and Liten?"

"M-me?"

"Your Persuasion skill is a lot higher than mine."

"Uh, it is... Hey, there's no such skill in the game!" Asuna pouts, but she does as Kirito asks anyway.

"And what I be doin', Kii-boy?"

"I want you to stock up on consumables for us. Budgeting isn't a variable here, so just get as many of the good potions as you can."

"I'll help with that," Mito says. "You hurry, Kirito. Once we get answers from everyone, we'll meet up at a designated location." Kirito nods and runs out of the cafe. Once he's gone, Mito turns to Koharu. "Let Jaymes know about this, okay? And I can tell something is on your mind, so speak it, Koharu."

With Kirito gone for now, Koharu finds the means to voice her opinion. "I think I know a party that would join us. But first...Argo, you know where Jaymes is, right? He's looking for the player-ghost?"

"Aye. By this point, they should have encountered each other. He told me not to speak to anyone but you about it and paid handsomely for it, so I can't say more yet, but I'm assuming there's something you want to know?"

She nods. "That player, is that the person you believed will join us?"

"Certainly."

"How certain?"

"Without a shred of doubt."

"Second, is Jaymes with someone else familiar with the matter?"

"Yes."

"Understood. I know all I need to know." As Mito and Argo depart, Koharu composes a message to her partner, not leaving a single detail absent. If Jaymes is going to gain the support of seven other players, he'll have to explain things in detail.

xxxxxxxxx

"Well, Koharu and the others are planning quite the scheme." Jaymes closes his window and walks to a table where two men sit. Once seated, Jaymes closes his eyes and twiddles his thumbs. A lot has happened since this morning, but he'll admit he did not see Koharu and the others making up a plan to engage the floor boss before ALS can mobilize and with less than half the forces.

If they get all the people they're asking for, they'll have twenty-two people, three full parties and four extras. In theory, it can work; the battle will be more challenging with half the numbers and an overall lack of strategy, but not impossible. So far, they haven't lost a life on the front line.

"Klein," he starts with the man in the red bandana to his left, "What I am going to ask is an astronomical favor, and feel free to bow out. But-"

"Count me in."

"H-huh? But you don't even know what I'm about to say!"

The man shrugs. "I got a message from Koharu. Something about you guys going to take on the floor boss. I'm sure there's a good reason, but Furinkazan was planning on joining the raid anyway. I owe you and Koharu one anyway, and I'm sure the rest of my guys will help."

"Then...there's you." Jaymes looks ahead to the man in front, finding the right words to convince him. "What we're planning is dangerous and a gamble, but...if you're there, it might be enough morally. Neither Lind or Kibaou can have the Guild Flag for themselves. You know what it can do as much as I do."

"I do. You're right. To maintain the balance, the ALS and DKB cannot have the flag, but one day it will come into use. One day, when there's more weight on the scales of the top guilds, it can be useful. A third guild to rival DKB and ALS will rise one day." The man's eyes hone in on me. "And I personally owe you one for saving my life, Jaymes, and your party for defeating Illfang and the previous bosses. So count me in. After what I did back then and what you've told me from your perspective, this is my responsibility as a knight."

Jaymes nods to the man whose blue eyes are set in a determined frown. Argo sent Jaymes this morning with Klein to seek out the player-ghost who she finally identified, and the since then, all they've spoken about is the past three floors and the troubles between Lind's DKB and Kibaou's ALS. The only thing he's omitted is the Morte and the PK group, for Klein's sake.

And now, the man who started this all has returned. "Welcome back, Diavel."