Abyss of the Shrine Maiden

A Father's Advice

But if she's calling me in the middle of the night, I do believe she isn't calling for fun. I may be dating Koharu now, but I still care deeply for Rika Shinozaki. "...Hey."

"Hey… I didn't wake you, did I?"

"No. I'm quite restless right now. Reading the latest book in that series you got me started on… You okay?"

"Yes… I just got a text from Asuna. Koharu's in trouble, and they're searching for her. Some of us who logged off earlier are going to help look, so I thought you should know."

My eyes follow the white tiles that compose the floor to my backpack, where my neglected Amusphere resides. I haven't used it all week, and I'm not worried about Koharu. This isn't Sword Art Online or the Underworld, and it's not she'll die on me again. Ko can take care of herself... Okay, I am a little worried. What the hell could she have done to get lost in the first place?

"Give me a few minutes. I'll link up to your avatar's location when I make it to AInground."

"Okay."

"...See you in a bit, Rika." I don't know if she heard that last part. The line disconnected a second after I said her name. Sighing, I roll off the couch and grab the pillow my head rested on. Dropping it on the floor near my backpack, I take out the Amusphere, hook it to the nearby outlet, and lay down on the floor. I place the headset in its proper place and turn it on. Before I say the boot-up words, I look over to Momiji.

In another timeline, I bet it would have been her dropping with Asuna down from the dark skies of the Dark Territory as Lunaria, saving me, Ronie Arabel, Tiese Schrinten, and Human Guardian soldiers from PoH and his Dark Knights that surrounded us. Later on, she'd join Asuna and our friends in fighting the red soldiers and fighting PoH independently. It would be her that I'd wait to see again after two hundred simulated years, and it would be her I'd see when I woke up a month later. Maybe she wouldn't be working for my father and could stay in our home. It'd be her who proves that the childhood friend does indeed have a chance of winning.

There has to be an alternate timeline in which there is no Lunaria, and I'd be shocked to see a flying archer in blue drop down as Alice and I mourn the death of Commander Bercouli. And after we convince Alice to hurry and fly away to the south, I'd be alone with her. She would scold me as always, and I'd shrug off her worries while being grateful for them. And amid our usual banter, Subtilizer will come, we would fight him as it happened, and she'd say those words to me again, a desperate plea to be seen not as my friend, my partner, and my rival, but as a woman. Maybe I'd answer the same, perhaps I'd answer differently, maybe my answer wouldn't come until I see her when I come home.

There has to be a timeline where I didn't lose Koharu two years ago, a timeline where Rika and I didn't break up because I decided not to be a hero, and a timeline I chose Medina Orthinanos over Eydis Synthesis Ten.

I wonder if such timelines exist and how the Joshua there is faring in each of them.

Sighing, I close my eyes and clear my head of such thoughts, and focus on joining my ex-girlfriend to search for my current one...this should be entertaining. "Link Start…"

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Northazard Tundra

My worry for Koharu may be low, but Tia is a different matter.

When I caught up to Lisbeth, she stood alone, her usual SA:O attire covered with a pink coat to keep her warm in this blasted cold. Before I got a word out to her, I began shivering, to which she gifted me a coat of my own. Grateful, I equip it to my avatar and sigh in warm relief.