Koharu

When Lisbeth finished creating Rain's twin blades, she was instructed to give them a try-out. Koharu got to witness Rain's skills with one of the swords as she cut through the brisk noontime air, then the swordswoman unveiled her secret technique. To an unsuspecting player, Rain might look like a member of the front lines testing her technique.

All Koharu could think was how beautiful Rain's movements were. It was like Rain's not fighting an invisible enemy but moving to the beat of a song. Every movement is timed perfectly, from her feet taking steps to the motion of her arms. For Koharu, who has a taste for music as a former pianist, Rain is a living metronome.

She stops after a spell of time, then stares at the swords in her hands. "Hmmm."

"Is it not good enough?" Jaymes inquires.

"Net...excuse me, no, I think it's good. The weight's right, and the parameters are good. This should be good for now."

"For now?" Offended, Lisbeth starts to bark again at the redhead warrior. "It would bother me more if you treated this as a stopgap after all of our hard work!"

Koharu shudders as a wave of intense energy emits from Lisbeth's being. She worked hard to gather the materials and to forge the swords, so to have her creations implied to be inadequate must be disappointing. It's another thing Koharu can relate to. "Are you mad, Lisbeth?"

"Just with myself! On my honor, Rain, I will make you a pair of swords that you'll love! I won't leave you alone until I get you to say that I've made you what you wanted!"

Rain seems to realize how Lisbeth feels and brandishes a smile. "Spasibo, Lisbeth. Thank you. But no, I am truly happy with these blades. There's just something missing... Oh, I know." Her eyes lock on to Jaymes and she skitters close to Koharu's partner. Too close, like a fan to her idol, or like a girl to her boyfriend...and that strikes a nerve with Koharu. She grabs his hands pleadingly and says, "Jaymes, can you spar with me?"

"Spar?"

"Yes. Maybe I fing out what's missing if I get to put them to a serious test."

"True...but have you ever dueled another player before?"

"No, I haven't."

"Then there's no point in sparing with someone who has. Though I am interested in seeing how you fight... Hey, I have an idea. We can knock out two birds with one stone." Jaymes slams his right fist into his left palm and glances at Koharu. "Rain, Koharu, you two will spar against the other."

"Huh?"

"Me against Rain? Are you sure about this?"

"Yes. Make it a half-health duel so it'll be more interesting and we don't kill anyone. Rain gets to figure things out, and you can practice fighting other people besides me."

As the duel counter counts down from sixty seconds, Koharu feels her self-confidence wavering. Jaymes had convinced both her and Rain to duel each other, so now they stand face to face in the grassy plains. She darts her eyes in Jaymes' direction, who stands a distance away with his arms folded as he reads something with his system menu open. His expression is remarkably serious.

Of course it is. Diavel's death the previous night still lingers in his mind. It is on the mind of everyone who saw it and those who knew Diavel from the beginning. He was the symbol of the frontier players, the ideal leader Kibaou and Lind strove to become. If it wasn't for him, Christmas and New Years' would have been held on the first floor, not the fourth and fifth. That symbol was saved once from death by Jaymes, but the second time all he could do was watch helplessly as Diavel plummeted down the trap of Fuscus the Vacant Colossus to his doom.

"Don't sit and blame yourself. You did everything you could, so... You've given me so much courage; you're like a hero to me! So, please...don't look so down. You can talk to me sometimes. Because I'll always be by you no matter what happens."

As the countdown reaches ten, Jaymes glances in her direction after closing the menu. His eyes lighten up with warmth, but his facial muscles retain their seriousness. His mouth moves, but no voice comes out from it. Even if it did, Koharu had no time to listen to him as the counter reached zero, and the duel began.

But his words did reach her. "'Don't hold back, partner.'"

Rain begins the fight with both her swords, with makes the opening act easy for Koharu as the two girls charge each other. She rather Rain start with her full might than not, for it'll give Koharu the time to assess her opponent without any surprises. Rather than attacking with both blades simultaneously, Rain times them one after the other with blinding speed. If she hopes to throw Koharu off balance with a wild flurry, Rain must be surprised that Koharu's keeping up with ease.

But Koharu is still on the defensive. As much as she'd hate to damage Rain's new swords, she doesn't plan to lose this duel. Not when Jaymes, Asuna, and Kirito are counting on her. Not when life or death can be settled by one of these duels. Not if she's to surpass Jaymes one day.

Koharu leaps back, setting the premotion for the simplest Dagger sword skill, Slice. Once her feet touch the ground, her Bullstar is enveloped in red light, and she bursts forward. Rain bends her knees as if she's to defend instead of countering with a sword skill. Rain may assume the power of a dagger is nothing against a longsword, but a dagger's sword skill can overcome that disparity in strength. Her partner and Kirito taught her those things, to use the weakness of the dagger into her strength.

"Haaaaaaaa-huh?"

But they did not teach her what to do when your opponent pulls the rug from under your feet - or leaps over your sword skill at the last moment. As her dagger comes down, Rain flies over Koharu as if she has wings coming out of her back. Distracted, Koharu realizes too late her missed attack had not only failed but she's vulnerable due to the skill delay. Rain has an opportunity to strike.

And Rain takes it. She positions the right sword across her back, turning the air around it green. Sonic Leap, a one-handed sword skill that Kirito uses a lot. Koharu reads that and prepares to counter if she can, but mid-flight, she learns just how dangerous someone like Rain can be as an enemy. But there's no way the system would allow such a move, would it? Whether Rain hits Koharu with Sonic Leap or not, she'll be temporarily stuck in place.

Koharu regains feeling in her legs two seconds before Rain is in range to attack, and bounces away by twisting her body a second before she's struck. She doesn't avoid Rain's sword completely, the tip grazes her, but its better than the alternative...or so Koharu believed. The very thing she was counting on not to happen suddenly springs the left-handed sword to life. The partially angled stance and the pale green light is indicative for the two-hit sword skill Vertical Arc, and miraculously Rain's body - supposed to be frozen - inches forward in movement with the skill. Not far enough as it normally would, but far enough to land a V-shaped mark.

The sword skill's knockback power throws her off-center and hard to the ground. Shocked by the second sword skill but not defeated. Koharu reigns in her racing thoughts and takes the extended skill delay of Rain's to recover and regroup. As things stand, Koharu lost twenty percent of her health from that one attack - meaning Rain was hoping to end it with the combo sword skills or come close to it - while it looks as if Koharu nicked her opponent earlier. Seven percent is not much, but Koharu has one advantage.

She saw the stats of Rain's swords earlier when she checked them out. Their damage output is the same, but they're no stronger than Jaymes' Imperial or Kirito's Sword of Eventide. Koharu's Bullstar, raised to plus-five, is one of the strongest weapons in the game right now. Rain may have enough skill to flourish in a duel, but she doesn't have the same life-and-death grit that has been hammered into Koharu for nearly two months. Two months of tears, frowns, smiles, weakness, and strength were traded from Koharu's Iron Dagger to the Anneal Dagger to the Bullstar - and now, on the first day of 2023, those emotions are put to the test.

Koharu forms a fist with her left hand, nods to herself, and runs at a forty-five-degree angle toward Rain. Rain matches her, and the girls continue their duel while racing each other in parallel lines. Rain continues to pummel Koharu with a berserker's offensive power, but Koharu's agility and speed hang on.

"How can I do better in fighting other players? I know how to read their moves and all, but in the end, I have too many disadvantages."

"As a dagger user, you have one advantage no other weapon class has. The blade is weak and small compared to the others, so you'll never win in a straight fight...but you have nothing barring you from using your body as a weapon. Against mobs, this might be dangerous. but against another human being, and with your past as a gymnast, you can win. Never fight fair, Ko, and not even the dirtiest PKer will best you."

That was Jaymes' advice to her before they went to bed the previous night in the inn. Unfortunately for Rain, this is where Koharu will end the battle.

She slides to a sudden halt and gets low. Rain reads this as a potential sword skill motion and reacts first. This time, it's Horizontal Arc that she uses, forcing Koharu to leap back to avoid Rain's left sword. It's not the skill Koharu was expecting, and she takes more damage, but it serves her purposes as Rain's right sword is in position for the next skill. That's when Koharu opens her left fist for the first time in a minute and blows hard.

"Gah! Der'mo!" Rain, who bleeted out a phrase in something other than Japanese, is blanketed by veil of dirt, coughing and hacking up the surprise distraction of particles. Her follow-up sword skill, Vertical Arc again, still initiates while hitting nothing but air. Koharu smirks at the success of her plan as sky blue light captures her dagger for the three-hit sword skill Tri Piercer.

"Hiiiiiiiiyahhhhh! Euyahhh! Seeeiiii-Pwah!" As Koharu's dagger completes the triangle-shaped attack right at Rain's heart, she feels a sudden slash of pain in her abdomen. Rain, in a desperate attack to win, unleashed Slant with both her blades just as Koharu completed Tri Piercer.

Fighting the nonexistent sensations of pain, both stare at each other as their bodies are frozen by the skill delays. Koharu and Rain glance at their health bars and their opponents, seeing both are in yellow at comparable levels. But it doesn't matter who has the lowest amount of health: the loser is the one who lost half their health first.

"Proklyatiye...You're pretty good, Koharu," Rain admits as she steps back and dematerializes her right-hand sword. "Honestly, I didn't think much of your ability at first. I believed you were nothing more than someone who attached himself to Jaymes and nothing more. If you'd lost as easily as I was expecting, I would have demanded you leave his side."

Slighted by Rain's sudden harshness, Koharu bears fangs of her own. "I would never do that. If I lost to you, so be it. That means I have room to improve...but never mind the results, Jaymes would still call me his partner. I won't allow anyone to replace me unless he says it himself."

"So you say... It's good to know you have a good friend in this world." Rain's countenance becomes warm, which throws Koharu off. The redhead sheathes her remaining sword and looks up to the sky, "Don't worry, I wouldn't dare take your place. I'm not right for the hero type of role. I simply wish I could have someone like him by my side, a dear friend, but... No, Anya would be foolish to log in after all the news about SAO."

"Anya..."

"Oops, I'm using real world names again, huh?" Rain giggles and looks at Koharu. "Secret between us girls. My best friend, whose username would have been Sanya, and I were to play this game together, but she wouldn't log in until later in the evening. By the time Kayaba summoned us all, she would have been stopped." Rain sighs and looks back to Jaymes, who engages in conversation with Lisbeth. "So what's it like being his partner?"

"It's..." It's not a question Koharu can answer easily just off the top of her head. But the answer is obviously on the tip of her tongue. Her partnership with Jaymes has kept her alive and made her stronger in spirit, but that's the simple answer. Being with him opened the doors to new friendships with Kirito, Asuna, Mito, Lisbeth, and many others. Being at his side let her explore a world far beyond her wildest dreams. Every time she thinks it is threatened, she finds her heart hardened; every time he confirms her as his partner, her heart skips beats. It sounds like she bears a schoolgirl crush on him, but she doesn't believe that's the case. Maybe one day, and if that day comes, she'll accept her feelings, but as of now, all she feels is admiration. The same admiration Rain must feel.

He looks away from Lisbeth to the pair of girls, waving at them. Again he and Koharu share a glance, and again he mouths words to her that she's somehow able to read.

All she feels is admiration...and a selfish desire to keep him all to herself. "It's something I'll never trade anything else for. And every day, I'll prove that I deserve to be called his partner."

"You won."

In a post-Scherzo of a Deep Night mood right now (excellent movie IMO), so this chapter is mighty early. Probably a good thing because the last two chapters were hard to plan out.

This is a SAOIF chapter, but Yuuki appears in the original telling. I needed someone that at least Jaymes would know and who could have encountered Lisbeth about making swords, while at the same time, it'd be someone that Jaymes (by the time of Blacksmith and Warrior) would not recall meeting early on. Since I reconned that Jaymes and Rain met on the third floor in the first Progressive story, it narrowed down the choice to Rain.

Of course, this introduces my second favorite of the SAOIF original characters, Sanya. Her time is removed from the Progressive Factor series, but it is coming.

Next chapter is back to Asuna/Kirito and the start of the sixth floor's main quest.