Sword Art Online Progressive 4

TO ASUNA’S RELIEF, THE STAIRCASE DOWN DID NOT immediately plunge into eerie, ghostly ambience.

In fact, there were already several dozen players in the large room at the bottom of the stairs. They were gathered in little groups here and there, having meetings or eating breakfast-some even curled up in sleeping bags along the walls.

“...Is this a safe room?” Asuna asked, and Kirito turned to her with a baffled look on his face.

"On the contrary, we re still in the safe haven. The notice never appeared, right?”

“Oh... r-right...”

The tension left her shoulders, and she looked around again. With that fact in mind, she saw that hardly any of the players here were frontline warriors. Most of the parties had gear from the second or third floor, and some were unarmed tourists.

"So they're all here to find relics."

“That’s what I expect. They’ve probably picked this room clean and are by now heading down into the subterranean ruins nearby...”

Suddenly, Kirito's face went stern. She prompted him with a quizzical look, and he shrugged his shoulders and mumbled:

“The first underground floor was within the safe haven in the

beta. So no monsters and no traps. I'm guessing they've all come here to gather relics based on the news about that, but..."

“Is there something wrong with that?”

“…N0，sorry, just overthinking things. C'mon, lets keep going, too."

Kirito started to lead the way, only to stop and motion for Asuna to go first. She swallowed a sigh and looked at the doorways leading out from each wall of the chamber.

Please let me come across the puppy or kitten quest first, she silently prayed, and chose the hallway on the north wall.

The room itself was brightly lit by a number of fires, but it was immediately dark and gloomy in the hallway, bringing a grimace to Asuna's face. Meanwhile, the rain they'd been trying to escape seemed to be seeping down through the walls, dripping here and there and occasionally landing on her head or shoulders.

With things this quiet, she was going to forget they were within the town's safe haven, so Asuna looked over her shoulder to start a conversation with Kirito.

“So I guess it does rain in Aincrad.”

“Hasn’t it rained a bunch of times before this already?”

“I don't recall it. I know there was snow during Christmas, but..."

"Oh, right. Well, its true that it happens only rarely. In MMORPGs before this, rains and storms were a regular occurrence, but it's just a lot more unpleasant in a VRMMO. Like you saw, it ruins visibility; makes your gear heavy, your clothes stick to you; and it's real cold... It rained a lot more at the start of the beta, but they lowered the probability when the testers complained.”

"Ahh, so that's what happened. It's too bad... I like watching the rain from the inside.”

As they chatted, she eventually began to settle down. No matter how it looked, this place was still within the safety of town, and they would never see any monsters. They needed to chip away at the mountain of quests, gain a level, and prepare to tackle the floor for real.

She clenched the hilt of her rapier, feeling emboldened again.

Asuna opened her window along the way and checked her largely empty map, taking a side branch off the main hallway en route to the quest destination. They crab-walked sideways through the foot-wide corridor, then crawled through a tunnel only two feet tall (this time, she made Kirito go first) as they approached the marker.

Eventually they reached a place like a little chapel. There was a line of long pew benches, and next to the wall in the back was an eerie-Iooking crumbled statue. A number of candles here and there on the floor provided some light, but the corners of the space were plunged into darkness. It looked like the perfect place to find some relics, but there were no other players present.

Feeling a very bad premonition from the place, Asuna whispered to Kirito, "What quest happens in this spot?"

“Huh...? You want spoilers now?”

“Just tell me that much.”

“Well, if you just want the title... it’s the 'Thirty-Year Lament'!”

"..."

She successfully kept herself from giving away how aghast she was at her terrible luck and checked the quest log.

The quest story was quite simple. The client NPC was a middle-aged bachelor who had recently moved there from another town on the same floor, but he was disturbed by odd rattling noises and falling silverware late at night in his new home. He wanted help, so Asuna and Kirito had checked his basement, but couldn't find so much as a mouse. The log ended at a suggestion that they go farther down beneath the town.

"...So that means this chapel is directly beneath that mans 110use?” she asked.

Kirito grinned.

“It’ll make sense if you switch your map.”

"..."

She did as he said, going to her map tab and pressing the arrow buttons that switched between vertical levels, moving from the

first underground level to the aboveground level. As he said, the present location marker underground and the quest NPC marker up in the town overlapped perfectly.

“...Ah, I see. So this is where the gho… the mystery vibrations are coming from," she corrected, closing the map and looking around the chapel again. But she didn't see anything that might have any effect on the home above, biological or not.

Normally her partner would take over and tell her the answer, but this time, he stayed back, like a teacher observing his pupil during the learning process. It was the result of a complete and total misunderstanding, but it was also true that she needed to be able to finish quests on her own by now. There was no guarantee that their temporary partnership would ever be permanent...

She made up her mind to solve this one on her own, and went over the information in her head.

A home in Karluin was suffering from ghos— From supernatural phenomena every night. The cause was believed to be subterranean, so they went to the spot in the underground catacombs beneath the house, where they found an obviously spooky and suspicious chapel. In order to find the source of the phenomenon, they could search all over the chapel for the appropriate object—or cause the phenomenon to happen before their eyes. They couldn't find anything, so they would need to attempt the latter.

Once she reached her conclusion, Asuna looked up. “Didn’t that man say the house would rattle at around two in the morning?”

“He did,” Kirito confirmed.

“Then… we’ll need to come here at two o’clock to ascertain the nature of the sound, right?”

"Good thinking. That's the orthodox way to solve this. As a matter of tact, many quests are time restricted in this fashion."

"Look... I appreciate the compliment, but it's only nine o'clock right now. Are we just going to stand around here waiting until two in the morning?” she demanded, exasperated.

Kirito waved a finger theatrically. "We could, but it's also the case that such quests often have a bit of a shortcut. Just wait, and a hint will come along... ah, speak of the devil!”

He started to push her back, but she slapped his hand away. "What do you mean, a hint will come along?" she demanded, confused.

Suddenly, she heard creepy, scraping footsteps from behind her. She desperately held in the scream that nearly erupted from her throat and darted behind Kirito, reminding herself that she was in the safety of town.

Standing silently in the doorway they'd passed through just minutes before was a small NPC, like a child. Its face was hidden behind the hood of a deep gray coat, but its bare feet were extremely large compared to the rest of its figure and its arms equally extraordinary in their length. In its left hand hung a dirty sack, and in its right, a long candle.

The color cursor was yellow, which guaranteed that it was an NPC, but she couldn’t be sure as to its humanity. As she watched fearfully over Kirito's shoulder, the small man (she thought) dragged and slapped its feet across the chapel, approaching one of the little candle piles found here and there.

It squatted and pulled a fresh candle out of the sack, lighting it from the tiny, nearly spent one and placing the fresh one on the ground. Then it moved to the next pile and repeated the process. It seemed to be a manager of sorts for the underground chapel, but the species of the thing was still uncertain.

He must have been what Kirito called the “hint.” In that case, she had to be brave and get her information. It might look scary, but that was just a design. It was no more than data. She summoned her courage, stepped out from behind her partner, and strode forward to speak to the little man.

“H...hello.”

"..."

He came to a dead standstill, then slowly, awkwardly turned to face her. The hood was totally dark, but two eyes glowed dully within it.

“Um... are you the one refilling all the candles here?” she asked for starters. The little man silently nodded. Relieved that they could at least communicate with each other, she continued, ''Um,

have you ever seen anything strange happen here late at night?”

"..."

The little man did not reply, so she wondered if her question was a little too vague, but his long pause was broken by a rasping voice.

“I don’t come here at night. I wake up in the morning and light candles. During day, I add candles. At night, I put out candles and sleep.”

He resumed walking away. Once he had put down a fresh candle at the last pile, he shuffled his way out of the chapel.

Once the little mans footsteps were gone, Asuna thought it was over. If his words were to be believed, the candles lit the chapel from morning until evening. She had no concrete times, but it suggested that at two o'clock, in the dead of night, the chapel would be pitch-black.

“Ah...”

She looked over at Kirito. He didn’t say anything. She went to the nearest pile of candles, crouched, and blew them out. The chapel got about a quarter darker and eerier than before, but she was certain this was the answer.

“Blow out those candles, Kirito!” she ordered, extinguishing the next pile.

When he finished the last pile moments later, the chapel plunged into total darkness. It was impossible to move around like that, so Asuna was about to open her window to pull out her own lantern when a pale blue light illuminated her hands.

“Th-thanks...” she said, looking up to thank her partner for his consideration, but Kirito was at a distance, his hands empty. She looked around, wondering where the source of light was.

The floor in the center of the room was glowing faintly.

It wasn't the glowing moss from the spiders cave on the third floor, nor was it a magic item with light properties. There was no

>>153060226
Neat, thanks! I hadn't seen the previous threads.

warmth from it... In fact, the empty light seemed to fill the room with an icy chill.

"Hyoooo..."

A sound like the rustling of branches disturbed the chapel air. Asuna bolted upright, her body stiff.

Something was seeping through the floor and taking shape. It was a pale, transparent, twig-thin hand.

...Pleasepleasepleaseplease, nononononono.

Of course, her silent plea did not stop the thing from transforming. It rose from the floor with another wail of hatred—next an arm, then a shoulder. Long, stringy hair, a scrawny body... It was a woman. But where her eyes should have been were only red flickering fires, and sharp fangs jutted from her mouth.

No matter how hard Asuna focused on it, no cursor appeared. But it clearly wasn't an NPC or a player. It was a monster—no, a ghost.

The apparition, which took its sweet time appearing in full to really make the most of its terror, brandished hands with long nails like claws and emitted a third shriek.

“Hyoooooh...!!”

Suddenly, the entire chapel rattled violently. The pews fell over, one after the other, and fine pieces of stone fell from the walls and ceiling. She had to stand firm, or she might lose her balance… but her body wouldn't listen. All her senses grew distant, and her stiff body toppled like a stick—

“Whoa there," went a voice in her ear as thin but powerful arms propped up her back. Somehow, Kirito was now standing right next to her.

“Oh... you didn’t like it? I thought it was kind of a cool haunted house effect..."

Then he noticed Asuna's abnormal state.

“You okay?”

She tried to reassure her concerned partner, but her mouth wouldn't work properly. He sensed her predicament, slipped his left arm around to cradle her, walking her over to the wall.

The ghost continued to wail as he did so, and the chapel only vibrated harder. It was clearly the source of the quest giver's troubles, but that was as far as Asuna's mind could work. She shut her eyes as tight as she could in Kirito's arms, praying that it would disappear soon.

The next fifteen seconds felt like many times more than that, but at last the rocking began to subside. The ghost's voice calmed, trailed off, and vanished.

As silence returned, Asuna let out the breath she'd been holding in. When her numbed senses returned to her, she realized Kirito's arm was around her, prompting a rise of embarrassment. She opened her eyes to tell him that it was fine, that she could stand on her own...

About a foot away from her nose was a ghostly face, emitting a pale blue light.

"Yaaaaaaaah!!"

Asuna let out an ear-piercing scream that far eclipsed the ghosts, clutched Kirito with all her might, and buried her face into his black leather coat.

When had she become so afraid of ghostly things? She didn't even remember the reason why.

Asuna wasn’t afraid of anything supernatural. Depending on the type, some kinds of traditional Japanese yokai were even cute, and she tended to like zombie movies. But the ones she couldn’t handle were anything “ghostly”一the things without a body, that could appear and disappear at will, floating through walls and floors. The unease of not knowing if they were truly there was what got to her.

She'd fought a great variety of monsters since being trapped in SAO but had yet to face a single noncorporeal ghost monster. She'd been hoping this meant they hadn't been programmed in, but that was clearly a pipe dream. Kirito had mentioned an “evil spirit” earlier, and sure enough, the source of the rattling that plagued the old man's house was none other than an eerie apparition.

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Now that spiritual creature was floating just inches away, watching Asuna with eerie glowing eyes.

With that in mind, there was absolutely no way she could remove her face from Kirito’s jacket. She wanted to do this quest on her own to reduce her dependency on her temporary partner, and it took all of a single instant to blow that determination to shreds. It was all she could do to keep her mouth shut and not scream again.

After what felt like ten seconds had passed, her partner mumbled, "Um... Miss Asuna...?"

She kept her face pressed to his jacket so as not to see anything and rasped, “I-is the ghost gone now?"

"Umm... no, it's right here..."

"Yaaaaaah!!"

[insert illustration]

She screamed again, but there was no helping it now. She shook her head back and forth rapidly and pleaded with him like a little child: “Make it go away! Drive it off right now!!”

“W-well, we have to move the quest onward for that...”

“Then move us onward!!”

Kirito tried to break free from her, but Asuna only clutched his coat tighter, “No, stay like this!!”

“G...gotcha.”

He tried to keep Asuna's body in place as he turned slightly to speak to the ghost. "Umm, Miss Ghost... why are you rampaging in this chapel?"

After a few moments came an echoing voice that sounded like whistling wind. Asuna felt a scream seize her throat, but she kept it in, just in time.

“…Because... I cannot leave…"

“Why can’t you leave?”

“…I am locked... inside of this place...”

It was still scary, of course, but the voice seemed more tinged with sadness than hatred. That recognition helped Asuna's mind work a little smoother, and even with her face pressed to Kirito's chest, she realized something.

When they entered the chapel, the door was a bit out of alignment, but it wasn't locked. And it was a ghost without a body, so it should be able to just swoop through any door or wall as it pleased.

Because Kirito shared the same suspicion—well, more like because he knew the proper conversation pattern to complete the quest—he was able to get through the ghostly conversation quite smoothly.

She (?) had been trapped inside this chapel thirty years earlier, when she was still alive.

The one who locked her inside was the man she had promised her life to.

Her hatred of him was what kept her chained to this place.

Once all of the above information had been related, the ghost's presence faded. Asuna still wouldn't take her face out of Kirito's jacket, so he carefully prompted, “Umm, Miss Asuna…?"

“...Did it go away?”

“Y-yeah, for now.”

“...And it won’t come back?”

“Y-yeah, for now.”

She let out a deep sigh and felt her shoulders relax. With the end of the ghost show, her fear was ebbing away, only to be replaced by a rising discomfort.

After all, she had screamed at the top of her lungs and buried her face into her partners chest» where it still rested. She had no idea how she could extract herself from the situation and maintain any face.

As she stayed frozen and downturned, she heard Kirito's equally uncomfortable voice say, "Umm, well... sorry for not noticing that you had trouble with the... astral types…”

The unfamiliar term caused her to lift her head a bit.

“...Astral?”

"It's a category of monster. Kobolds and goblins are demihumans, giant spiders and mantids are insects, golems and gargoyles are enchanted, and so on. Specters and wraiths like the

one we just saw—basically, undead without solid bodies—are astral types. The other undead with proper bodies like ghouls and skeletons are classified as living dead.”

“Ahh…”

When he laid it out and explained it like that, it helped reinforce the concept that this was all just data on a computer, ghostly or not. Asuna counted to three and forced herself to pull away.

Once she had looked around to ensure the coast was indeed clear, she took a step away from Kirito—who was kneeling on the floor—put her hands on her hips, and announced, "I was only startled by how abruptly it appeared. That's all."

“…R-right...”

“Yes, I might not like ghosts… or astrals or whatever, but isn’t that true for most girls?”

“...R-right...”

"So let's forget that ever happened and not bother with mentioning it in the future."

“…R-right...”

Having agreed with her thrice, Kirito got to his feet. Based on prior experience, she took the twitching of his nostrils as a sign of an intense internal battle over whether or not to tease her, and she fixed him with a glare.

“And absolutely no childish pranks!”

“Yes, ma’am...” he replied like a scolded boy, and began to relight the candles. At last, Asuna felt comfortable enough to crack a tiny smile again.

They searched the area of the ghost's appearance and picked up a gold pendant marked as a quest item, then returned to town. When they had an NPC identify the pendant, it turned out to be not a relic, but the signifier of a rich merchant family in Karluin. They headed for the family s mansion.

After a brief argument with the guard at the gate, they were allowed to meet the fifty-something leader of the family, whom they showed the pendant from the underground chapel. He broke into tears and admitted to his past sin. He had grown tired of the

girl he was betrothed to thirty years ago and lured her into the chapel under the guise of relic hunting. As he locked her inside, she tore the pendant from his grasp.

Asuna wanted to punch him right in the kisser, but Kirito warned her that it would cut the quest short, so she held it in and followed the man back to the subterranean chapel. They put out the candles again, the wraith girl appeared, and the merchant got down on hands and knees to grovel and apologize for his crime. The ghost vanished at last; they escorted the man back to his mansion, received some rewards, and had just closed the door to his office when a terrific rattling started. Upon opening the door, the man was nowhere to be seen... A rather chilling but satisfying end to the “Thirty-Year Lament” quest.

As they left the mansion for the center square again, Kirito idly checking out his quest rewards, Asuna remarked, ''You know... that quest seems like a very bad example for children."

“Hmm? Ahh... true. The NerveGear’s not for use for kids under thirteen, and SAO had a recommended age rating of fifteen and up, so there aren't any actual children here... I think."

“Yes, I suppose...”

Now that he mentioned it, Asuna had turned fifteen just a month before SAO launched, so she'd just barely made it inside the rating level.

If she was still fourteen on November 6, would she not have even played the game? Would she have given up on borrowing her brother's NerveGear and successfully escaped the fate of this deadly trap?

...No, she ultimately decided. When she snuck into her brother's room on the day he was unluckily—or luckily—on an overseas assignment and put the already-set-up NerveGear on her head, she hadn’t even bothered to glance at the game’s age rating.

But she had supposedly given up regretting the past when she left the inn room in the Town of Beginnings. Now the only thing to do was keep her eye on the impossibly distant hundredth floor... and push onward in an attempt to beat the game. And if any astral-type monsters appeared, she would simply have to make a brief detour.

"...Well, let's get going with the next quest... There better not be any ghosts in the puppy quest. Are there?" she asked her partner. This time, he couldn't help but grin evilly.

“Probably not. But you never know, it might be a ghost dog.”
Once they had finished the other two underground quests (fortunately not horror themed) and wrapped up the others in town, it was the evening hour, and they had both gained a level—Kirito to 18, Asuna to 17.

As they walked the same path from the previous night to the restaurant and inn, Asuna grumbled to her partner, "For some reason, I don't seem likely to catch up to you in level at all."

"Huh...?"

“Well, the amount of experience needed to gain a level is higher for you than me, right? So how is it possible that you're always exactly one level higher than I am?”

"Oh, right..." Kirito thought about how to answer the question and awkwardly scratched his head. "Well, there's no party bonus to experience gained in SAO, so when multiple people beat a monster, its experience is split among them, but it's not an even split... It takes into account the damage and debuffing inflicted, as well as time spent targeted and stuff like that. Our current battle pattern usually involves me pulling aggro all the time, so..."

“…Ah, I see...”

In that case, she couldn't really complain. When they encountered a monster, Kirito always attacked first and used a sword skill; then, she switched in and did a normal attack, then finished it with a sword skill of her own. But since that order caused Kirito to be the one targeted, it was natural that he wound up with more experience.

And given that he had much more knowledge, experience, and technique than she did, it wasn't logical for Asuna to take over that role.

“Hrrm…" she grumbled, unable to accept this fact at face value.

Kirito eventually offered a weak follow-up. “H-hey, we’re getting to the point where one level hardly means any difference... And we're both well within the safety margin, so you shouldn't worry about it...”

“Rrrmmm," she said, nodding despite her frown.

Kirito was right, of course, and she was not planning to lobby for a switch in combat duties, but she still felt miserable about it.

Ever since coming to the fifth floor, she felt like her worst qualities were on display. She let her greed come out when searching for relics; screamed at the astral monster; and even asked for a personal duel, only to surrender before either of them swung a single blow. She was at least hoping to catch her partner in level, but it only served to remind her that she was relying on him even in normal combat.

Yes, their partnership might be temporary, but she did not want to be the one always getting helped. She had to provide a benefit, something she could offer the other.

…I need to think of what I can do.

No sooner had she come to that resolution than she walked right through the restaurant door Kirito was holding open for her and scolded herself for not realizing it.

Even on the third night within the fifth floor, the Blink & Brink restaurant was surprisingly barren. It was the height of mealtime, but there were no players on the outdoor terrace or inside the restaurant.

“Huh...?" Kirito exclaimed as he sat at the same table as last time, examining the menu.

“What’s wrong?”

“Well… that blueberry tart hasn’t sold out yet… I would have figured that by now they'd be lining up for it before the restaurant even opens."

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BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP

"That's surprising... Especially since so many people are hunting for relics underground. Have they been doing it without the sight bonus, then?”

“I suppose so…”

Meanwhile, the NPC waitress arrived to take their order, so they stopped to handle business. They shared a toast of ficklewine for a good day's work—white for Asuna, sparkling red for Kirito—and took a sip.

Kirito downed half of his wine in one go, then examined the bubbling flute glass and said, “I like the flavor, but I don’t think the sparkling red thing will take off...”

"Oh, that's a real thing. There's Lambrusco from Italy, and Shiraz from Australia, and so on."

"Whaaat, for real? You're so knowledgeable, Professor Asuna," he replied, eyes wide with wonder.

She denied it with a smug smile, then looked down and added, "It's not like that knowledge has any value here..."

“That’s not true.”

“Huh?”

She looked up at Kirito's dead-serious expression.

‘‘There are plenty of times where real-world knowledge comes in handy when solving quests and puzzles... Besides, Aincrad might look like a fantasy world at first glance, but it's not a true otherworld. We and the NPCs all speak Japanese, and player interactions are all rooted in modern Japanese values. It's a taboo to talk about the other side, but we can't just completely ignore it like that...”

“…Mmm...” Asuna nodded. Her partner looked back at the menu, hoping to change the topic and mood.

“So anyway, knowing they’re still selling the blueberry tart makes me want to eat one. The buff's great and all, but I like the taste."

"I agree," Asuna said, recalling the refreshing tang of the blueberries and the thick creaminess of the custard. "But I wonder why it doesn’t sell out. You wouldn’t find a better buff for hunting relics.”

“Maybe Argo didn’t put it in her strategy guide? Or, in fact,” Kirito noted, looking toward the teleport square, "I don't think

I saw the Rat's strategy guide in the item shop at all. Maybe she hasn’t started consigning them yet."

"Now that you mention it... until now, the first volume of her guide has always been out by the following evening after the floor opens.”

"Hmm. Well, I'm sure she has her own circumstances... Maybe I should shoot her a message.”

Kirito set down his fork and opened his menu, quickly typing out a message on the holo-keyboard. A few seconds later, he frowned.

“...It won’t send...”

“Maybe she's on another floor?” Asuna suggested.

Kirito looked away shiftily and muttered, "No... that was a friend message.”

This came as quite a surprise to Asuna, who was his temporary partner but not registered as a friend of his. She let out a very long and pointed "Ohhhhhhh?"

Kirito hastily explained, "Er, it's just... I buy lots of info from her and offer her my own from time to time, so it's just more convenient to have her registered..."

“I didn’t say anything,” she noted with a smile, only to consider the new information for a moment.

A regular instant message could be sent to any player whose name you knew (and could spell properly in the Western alphabet), but the space restrictions were severe, and it wouldn't arrive unless you were both on the same floor. Meanwhile, the more expansive “friend messages” could be sent to any registered friend, regardless of floor, as long as they weren't in a dungeon or instanced map.

“So that could mean Argo’s in a dungeon right now,” Asuna suggested, to which Kirito nodded seriously.

"Yeah... probably. But I don't recall if there was any information in this dungeon important enough to delay the release of her floor guide."

"What do you mean, 'this dungeon'?”

“Oh...” Kirito glanced down at the terrace floor. “The first level of the underground catacombs we were wandering around in today is within the safe haven, so the message would reach her there. But starting on the second level, it's treated like a dungeon and is technically outside of town.”

“Oh... I see. How many levels are there?”

“Three, I think. There’s an area boss at the bottom, and if you beat it, that opens up a shortcut tunnel to the next town.”

“So it’s not just a minor sub-dungeon. I suppose it wouldn’t be out of the question for Argo to go collect information from a necessary dungeon..."

Kirito bobbed his head, still wearing an unconvinced frown. "Yeah... maybe you're right. It's a dungeon linked to town, so I'm sure she wants to cover it thoroughly in her first issue."

“I’m sure she’ll just pop out of nowhere, like she always does.” “Yeah… C’mon, let’s eat.”

With a grin at last, Kirito closed his window and picked up the fork again.

Since they weren't sold out yet, the two decided to order the blue-blueberry tarts again and call it a night, renting a room on the second floor of Blink & Brink, which acted as an inn.

In the hallway, they agreed on a meet-up time for the morning, bid each other good night, and opened adjacent doors. Asuna paused for a second, but Kirito yawned hugely and disappeared into his room, so she followed suit and slammed her door shut.

She opened her window to her equipment mannequin, bashed the remove button twice so that she was in her underwear, then dove into her bed. Once she'd buried her face into the big pillow, she grumbled a series of interjections: "Hmph! Fine! I don't care anyway!''

Logically, she understood. There was no merit to friending Kirito at the present time, given that they were currently a team working together, they wouldn't possibly get split on different floors, so instant messages would serve if they needed to talk remotely.

But emotionally, she couldn’t help but wonder why he didn't just ask. All he had to do was phrase it like, "Well, should we register, too, just in case?" and she'd be fine with answering a simple “Sure, I don’t see why not.”

As she lay in bed, grumbling away, she played back the conversation with Kirito the previous evening.

How long are you planning to work with me?

Until you're strong enough to not need me.

Maybe that was where Kirito wanted to draw the line. They were partners, not friends... so when the time inevitably came for them to split apart, it would be easier to do so if they weren't registered as friends,

“...No. He's just that inconsiderate and thoughtless," she grunted, then relaxed at last and rolled over. She looked up at the ceiling—flickering with the play of light and shadow cast by the rooms lantern—and muttered, "Fine. One day I'll ask you for that friend status... once I'm just as tough as you."

She stretched her arms up, clutching the hands together, then rocked back and used the momentum to bound upward. Deciding to take a bath, Asuna looked around the room but saw nothing resembling a bathroom door. Tapping the wall brought up a reference window for the room, which showed on its map that there were no attached bathrooms; there was only a large one at the end of the upstairs hall.

She panicked briefly, thinking of the great bath hall at Yofel Castle, then realized that unlike that mixed bath, this one was properly separated by sex. However, it wasn't clear if that was actually a rule or merely a directive advising good behavior.

Just in case, she put on her casual wear and set it up so she could equip the swimsuit she'd crafted on the fourth floor if necessary, then headed out. She had just turned the first corner toward the bath, which was on the opposite end of the floor from the staircase, when she heard a door open and close behind her, and instinctually flattened herself against the wall.

When she peered around the corner, a figure was walking away down the dim hallway. She was momentarily relieved, but then her eyes bulged.

It was only a silhouette, but she couldn't mistake that form. It was Kirito. He was outfitted in his usual full garb of long coat and boots, and she could make out the graceful hilt of his new Sword of Eventide over his shoulder.

It was already past nine at night. Maybe he was only leaving for a bit of gear maintenance, but there was something hard and resolute in his walk.

He was probably going to venture into the underground catacombs to search for Argo the Rat.

“…Why does he have to be so standoffish?” she grumbled， reaching up to open her menu window. On her equipment mannequin, she activated her breastplate, leather skirt, and Chivalric Rapier. The bath could wait—she was going to follow the man.

Yes, she'd briefly sulked about the friend registration matter, but Argo was also a good friend to Asuna. Aincrad might be big, but Argo was the only one who called her by a nickname like “A-chan.” If Argo was in danger, it only made sense to forego her own comforts to help her.

The hallway was empty. She raced down the stairs two at a time, darted past the NPC at the desk—who issued a generic "Have a nice trip”一and leaped out the front door of Blink & Brink.


------

That's chapter 4.
I was really late today, sorry.
Hopefully tomorrow I can start some hours early (maybe 3 or 4).

Didn't SAO end already?

>>153064653
No? Even the main series is still ongoing (it just finished a 10 volume arc).

Oops, was busy. Will start proofreading now. (Shameless bump.)

>>153066704
Hey! Don't worry, take your time. You're already a great help.

>>153060343
>we re
we're

>>153060481
>“…N0
No

>>153060607
>mans 110use
man's house

>>153060874
>spiders cave
Not sure if there should be an apostrophe there.

>>153061578
>her partners chest»
Get rid of those brackets. Kirito's chest is not a quest item.

Fuck, have to do something else real fast. Will check the rest in a few.

>>153062982
>so if they weren't registered as friends,
Please check to see if that is really supposed to be a comma at the end of that line.

>rooms
room's

Okay, I'm done. See you tomorrow!

>>153067951
Until tomorrow!