This is the Sword Art Online Limited Edition Light novel: Sugary Days. These chapters are commonly known as, Chapters 16.6, 16.7, 16.8, and 16.9.
This covers on what happens during their honeymoon.
I let out those words and Asuna, drinking from a glass filled with iced water on the opposite side of the table, glanced over.
“…What did you say, what is it?”
Her words and expression were apprehensive, but the fencer looked truly adorable with a towel wrapped around her head and a large white bath towel around her body. Now that I think about it, this was the first time I saw her dressed in such a state, wasn’t it? Of course, I only had a towel around my waist as well—not wrapped by hand but by equipping a towel on the «lower underwear» section of the equipment figure—so the two of us should take a photograph to remember this moment… or so my mind thought, addled by the long hot bath, narrowly stopping after judging that suggesting it would result in iced water in my face.
Draining the water remaining in the half-filled glass in front of me, I cooled my thoughts down somehow before voicing out what I hit upon several seconds ago.
“Erm, look, about why the bath seemed more like a bath.”
“Eh… you know why?”
I began an explanation filled with confidence to my young wife who blinked in surprise.
“It’s simple. Look, the sensations on our skin are magnified to more than the usual for us at the moment, right?”
“The sensations on our skin…?”
Asuna made a doubtful expression, but roughly three seconds later, that face immediately turned red from her cheeks to her ears. I would rather not go into detail, so I put on a solemn expression and stopped at a nod with a “yes”.
The reason for what had occurred in the bathroom earlier was because Asuna and I currently had a hidden setting, «Ethics Code Off», switched on. In this state, it was like some limiters were removed, especially in regards to the sense of touch. The quantity of tactile data, kept to the minimum by default, must have been temporarily increased.
“…Of course, that will cause just as much burden on the circuits and Nerve Gear, so we should keep it off when we go out. But you agree, don’t you, if only I knew quicker that baths would be so much more realistic just by switching off the code… it probably didn’t take long for that Argo to find out about it, so if only she sold me that information…”
And immediately after I voiced out that absent-minded remark, I ended up suffering a cold water attack in the end, after all.
Asuna went off to the bedroom in a huff, so I continued my train of thought while cold drops of water dripped from my hair.
We switched the ethics code off the night before yesterday and left it off since then. But we were only conscious of the tactile sensations being different from usual when we entered the bath, with no feeling like my senses were amplified now as I sat here half-naked and moreover, half-wet. In other words, the effect only manifested itself when all equipment were removed. Thus, even if we leave it on, there wouldn’t be any problem with the load on the machine and circuits…
“Come on, how long are you going to stay like that?”
I raised my face at that voice; Asuna stood with both hands on her waist, her bath towel changed into a dressing gown.
“Don’t come complaining to me when you catch a cold from after-bath chills.”
“R-Right.”
It remained a mystery whether such a phenomenon could happen in this world, but I could only nod obediently after being nursed by Asuna in an inn when I previously felt ill here due to my body in the real world catching a cold or something like that.
Standing up with only a towel on, I thought to turn towards the bedroom, but came to an abrupt stop. I had to tell Asuna the conclusion I arrived at several seconds ago even if it meant I had to suffer through another explosion of water.
“…Um, Asuna-san?”
“Whaat?”
Timidly, I asked the young wife who started tidying up the glasses and pitcher.
“Erm… I know I said all that about burden earlier… but apparently, those sensations only seem to amplify with all equipment removed, so I was just going to say that there’s no real need or hurry to switch it off and all…”
Is she going to get mad again?! I spoke out expecting that, but Asuna showed an unexpected reaction, holding tightly onto the pitcher with her face turned down.
“…it off yet.”
“Eh?”
“Like I said, I didn’t switch it off yet. After all… it’s such a bother going that far into the options every time…”
The fencer who quietly explained with her cheeks red was so adorable and captivating—
“Ah… I-I guess so…”
—that I could only reply in a giddy voice.
(End)
Afterword
I ended up writing the main text to the very limit, so excuse me for placing this here *.
Eh, it finished right after they entered the bath… It seems next time, some sort of incident will happen or the day will change! I hope for your support for ME13!
Notes:
“Young adult fiction book with a narrative circling entirely around that main character” – Originally “sekai-kei”. It’s a loosely defined genre where… the fate of the “world (sekai)” circled around the main character(s). Examples include books like Iriya no Sora, UFO no Natsu. “placing this here” – The afterword is on the back cover of the book. He really wrote to the limit of the pages.
(A/N) Hi, it's Asuna here. I won't be writing as much, since school starts tomorrow... So yeah. '-'
Just for you to know, the copyright of this book is under 'public domain' for a reason. None of this is written by me, but by Kawahara-sama, ahem, or Kawahara Reki.
Anyways, have a great day!
―xXAsuna_SenpaiXx
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