Koharu
"F-F-F-F-FIFTEEN?????" Koharu can see Joshua's soul escape his body as Asuna shows off her newly forged rapier, the Chivalric Rapier. What has him shocked is the number of upgrade attempts the rapier has. Instead of the eight like their first-floor weapons had, Asuna's has doubled. But not just that; Kirito said that, in a few successful attempts, her rapier would surpass Jaymes' Azure Sky Blade in power, the strongest weapon in the party. Koharu's partner continues to blink at the stats of the rapier again and again until she's sure his virtual muscles will give out from wear. "That's unfair! How did you, of all people, get this?"
"Jealous," Asuna says wryly.
"You didn't even know how to upgrade a sword a week ago! Forget that, you were using Iron Rapiers like a noob not too long ago. How many times did that blacksmith hit the sword?"
"Forty," Kirito answers.
"FORTY? That's... That's unbalanced." Jaymes faces Koharu and looks at her plus five Anneal Dagger. "You better get something good, Ko. I'll accept it if you get a weapon comparable to Asuna."
"Does it matter?" Koharu retorts. "It could be that the elf blacksmith is very good compared to the human ones. At least, that's how it is in all the fantasy movies."
Kirito crosses his arms and hums. "Hmmm... Well, that's rather true for RPGs, but still. Could you give it a go, Koharu? This will prove if lightning indeed can strike twice."
"Okay. For research purposes, then."
"...That's the cleanest use of that sentence ever. C'mon, Ko."
The quartet makes their way to the blacksmith. Kirito and Asuna stayed back, and Jaymes walked halfway with Koharu, leaving her to deal with her business alone. Nervous, as this is the first time she's created a weapon from scratch (she bought the Anneal Dagger she owns) and the blacksmith height and general look of apathy admittedly frightens, Koharu looks back to her partner, who nods encouragingly. Taking a deep breath, she steps up and speaks to the blacksmith. "Excuse me, I would like to create a new weapon."
Snort.
Koharu is taken aback by the rudeness of the blacksmith, but the shop menu appears. Relieved, she holds her finger above the 'Create Weapon' command, then shifts it down to the 'Create Ingot' button. Not sure of herself, she looks again to Jaymes. "Should I..."
"It's your choice. I think you got enough ores to make a good ingot. You can fail a craft, anyway. But... If you believe in the soul of your current weapon being carried over, go ahead."
Koharu takes the dark-bladed weapon and holds it in front of her. She never told anyone, but she didn't buy this weapon for herself; Jaymes bought it for her about a week into the game. He didn't have the Col to get the Azure Sky Sword he was aiming for but saw an opportunity to upgrade her while the opportunity was present. She wanted to deny him, but he did what he wanted anyway. Since then, she's done her best to make the most out of her weapon to show her appreciation to him. Like Asuna, she wants the soul of her sword to continue so she can appreciate her partner's gift even longer.
So when the blacksmith hands her the dark ingot made from the Anneal Dagger. she proceeds to the next step. She hits the "Create Weapon' button, followed by 'One-Handed,' 'Dagger,' and 'Select Materials.' A second window showing eligible items for use popped up, and Koharu added as many materials needed along with the recently received Ebony Ingot. Pressing the 'Yes' button, two sacks filled with the materials appear next to the blacksmith. He picked them up and tossed them into the forge.
While he got to work, Koharu once again turned back to Jaymes. Without having anything said between them, he walks up to her side, and she takes his dominant hand in both of hers. Earlier, she didn't care much about whether her weapon's stats matched Asuna's or not; but after the smith adds the got to the currently white-flamed forge, she prays lightning strikes again, that she's as lucky as her friend.
When the ingots are optimally heated, the smith takes it to the anvil and grabs his hammer. He makes his first strike, and with each successive one, Koharu grows more and more nervous. Her grip on Jaymes' hand tightens after five hits. Then came ten. Fifteen. Twenty, surpassing the power of the base Anneal Blade. Twenty-five. Thirty, surpassing both Kirito's Anneal Blade and Jaymes' Azure Sky Sword. The hammer didn't stop until it hit thirty-seven, just three shy of Asuna's new Chivalric Rapier. The ingot, shining with a dark glow, shifts into a small weapon not much longer than Koharu's forearm. It's primarily black except for the upper two-thirds of the blade, which is dark blue in hue.
"...Good sword." The blacksmith picks it up, picks out a new sheath that's dark brown, inserts the dagger, and hands it to Koharu. She lets go of Jaymes' hand and accepts her newest weapon.
"Thank you."
Snort.
Too excited to think about the snort, Koharu turns to her partner. "Check it out." Jaymes takes the dagger from its sheath and taps it for inspection. He makes a face that says the words Koharu feels a girl shouldn't says (and that he shouldn't say around girls) and hands her back the dagger. She does her own inspection, seeing that its attack power is very similar to Asuna's, obviously lower due to the difference in weapon types. Still, based on her partner's reaction, her weapon is excellent. She even sees the number of attempts is fifteen as well.
She won't tell Jaymes, it's too embarrassing to say it, but it is because of him that her newest weapon is so strong. He may forge one stronger, but one day, her strength, both in weaponry and within herself, will be able not just to protect herself but him as well.
Thanks to Kirito using most of his Last Attack reward from Colonel Nato, metallic planks that boost the upgrading rate to near perfection plus letting players choose their desired attribute to increase, Asuna's Chivalric Rapier and Koharu's Bullstar were successfully upgraded to plus five. Kirito and Jaymes maxed out their swords to plus eight, ensuring the Anneal Blade and Azure Sky Sword will be useful until the next floor at best.
While lightning did strike twice, they were still unconvinced about the smith's actual skill; is it a stroke of luck in the game or a bug the operating system missed?
Kirito offered a solution--ask Kizmel. The four marched across the large campgrounds to its southern end. Once reaching the tent, Kirito opens the fabric that's the door and announces their arrival. "Hello, it's Kirito. May we come in?"
"Certainly. I was just about to finish preparing breakfast." Jaymes clicks his tongue and is in the middle of saying something about they should've waited for breakfast when Kizmel rises from the cushions on the floor. Once more, Koharu is reminded just how beautiful the elf is, but with nothing but a gown covering her dark skin, Koharu's eyes subconsciously averts to her partner.
While Kirito at least looked away (whether he felt Asuna's deadly glare or not), Jaymes' jaw was unhinged. "...Kayaba, you're a bastard, but you give blessings too."
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Present day, ALO...
Jaymes pauses in place as he feels a shiver creep down his spine. At first, he thinks it's the air in the dungeon, but it feels like the stares of several girls from across the map of the game are bearing down on him...are they still talking about Old Aincrad? They did leave off just before the Elf Quest... Oh.
Oh.
Yeah. That.
"Jaymes, what's wrong?" He looks forward to Philia, Strea, and Rain, thankful that they haven't heard (and hopefully never will) the tale currently being told. It's terrible enough Leafa, Alice, Silica, and Sinon will know about it; he doesn't need Strea to learn that he nearly had several nosebleeds around Kizmel...and he'll kill Kirito if he spills some of those nosebleeds.
"Nothing... Let's continue onward..."
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Deciding not to let the harassment code send a warning (or worse) to Jaymes, Koharu pinches her partner in the nap of his neck, causing him to spasm in his seat; at the same time, Kirito is decked by Asuna in his side. Kizmel, now standing at the stove attending to a pot, turns to the four and smiles. "You four get along so well."
"I didn't do anything wrong," Kirito mumbles as they're served a meal of some milky starch dish seasoned with nuts and dried fruit. The portions are small yet delicious, but Jaymes doesn't seem to enjoy it. To her, he looks displeased with the dish (as if he knows what it is) but eats it anyway. When Asuna confirms the identity of the meal as oatmeal (which Kirito and Koharu never had before in the real world), Jaymes finally let his face distort.
When Kizmel finished, she switched the topic to the players' inquiry. Learning it was about the blacksmith, she explained that he's fickle; he can produce masterworks but will deny orders that are 'pushy and misguided.' All that confirmed for Koharu is that she and Asuna's weapons were not made by a bug, but by...well, pleasing the blacksmith's personality. Jaymes and Kirito have perfect weapons now, so whatever the criteria are for the masterpieces is still unknown--but she's not complaining.
Kirito thanked Kizmel for the meal and announced they should head for the human town instead of continuing the questline. She offered to teleport them, but Kirito, Asuna, and Koharu declined, Jaymes not saying anything. They make their way towards the canyon that precedes the camp. Still blanketed by mist, and enters the jungle again.
"...We'll be able to get back here, won't we?" Asuna asks.
"We can make it back... I think. It should be marked on our maps."
"You think? It should?"
"It's on the map," Jaymes answers as he steps into the lead, still apathetic but for once doesn't address Asuna like she's an idiot. "We should head to the staircase pavilion first, right? Take the path we didn't head." Kirito agrees, and the four march through the pathless woods quietly. There isn't much to say, they've been together for the entirety of their time on the floor, but there's an obvious hole in their group.
"Hey... About Kizmel... We can't keep relying on her the way we have. We're going to have to say goodbye to her someday."
"Good point," Kirito agrees with the girl between him and Koharu. "Besides, my beater knowledge doesn't help us regarding Kizmel. Ever since you beat that forest elf guy in the original battle, we've been on a quest path that I've never been part of."
"Don't try to act like I did all of that on my own."
"Look, I'm just saying, like eighty percent of the damage was from your--" Kirito suddenly stops dead in his tracks and holds his hand out in front of Asuna and Koharu as a noise dispels the quiet forest air. A few steps ahead, Jaymes reaches for his sword, scanning the area. The Azure Sky Sword plus eight is slowly drawn from his sheath, followed by the Anneal Blade plus eight as a shadowy, four-legged creature appears within the mist.
"That's a wolf. It doesn't have any special attacks, but it'll howl to draw more of its kind when it loses half its HP. Once the gauge goes yellow, use sword skills to finish it off quickly."
"Got it."
"Okay." Koharu, somewhat eager to try out the strength of her new dagger, eyes her partner as he draws the Roaring Wolf's attention and holds his shield out. The wolf snarls at the red warrior, tenses up, and prepares to pounce. Remembering how they fought the spiders earlier that day, Koharu springs to attack.
She overheard Kirito instruct Asuna on fighting the spiders previously; Jaymes gave her the same talk during the fight. Leaping enemies can inflict the Tumble status, which downs and immobilizes the affected being for a few seconds. Under normal conditions, even if Jaymes' guarded with his shield, he'd still be Tumbled with reduced effect. It's probably why Kirito and Asuna call out to her as the wolf leaps at Jaymes. She continues forward as the buckler glows yellow, and he swings it, bashing the wolf in its face. As it flies in the air, Koharu slashes its underbelly. It drops to the ground with a squeal.
"Switch!" Koharu dives back as Asuna sweeps in, thrusting twice as she activates her sword skill, Parallel Sting. The wolf spins through the air into a tree, and from the beginning of the fight until now, Jaymes' Bash, Koharu's Oblique Slash, and Asuna's Parallel Sting drain just a little over half its health. However, no one is quick enough to stop the wolf from getting on its feet and howling.
"Oops."
"Damn it."
"Oh no."
"Well, I didn't know two hits were going to do so much damage."
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After dealing with the wolves, Koharu and company continued onwards. It wasn't too long until they were sidetracked again at the sound of metal against metal, once again coming across an encounter between Kizmel and the forest elf she fights. This time, Lind and the Dragon Knights Brigade are present, and their choice to side with at the beginning of the 'Jade Key' has been made clear.
The four stay in hiding and watch as Lind's group backs the forest elf, but unlike her party, they're not participating in the fight. Whether due to a lack of information or if Argo is knowledgeable about the quest, she only knows what Kirito thought was true yesterday. The two combatants would end the fight with powerful skills and a double KO, and the human players would retrieve the Jade Key for their chosen faction. She wondered if telling them that if the selected elf survives, they earn a powerful ally, but that's...well, she's not that attached to Kizmel to advise everyone to side with her, but part of her didn't want to see Kizmel die.
Koharu does not know what Kirito and Asuna are thinking right now as they face the battle, but she can see her partner's face as he stands against the backside of the closest tree and closes his eyes impatiently. His demeanor recently has been fluctuating, with the only two times it's been 'up' being when he saw Kizmel earlier and shortly after he and Kirito left the baths last night. At the same time, the lows have been around Kizmel, too, from when they met her and walked to the base the day prior and this morning when they shared breakfast.
She stands up and walks over to him. He opens his eyes and notices her, glances at the still-kneeling teammates of theirs, and huffs out a sigh. "Are we still here?"
"...Are you angry with us or something?"
"I would like to not intervene in the decisions of other players, but no, I'm not angry with any one of you."
"Then what about Kizmel? You have had conflicting attitudes about her since we've met her."
Jaymes' brow lowers, and his arms rise and cross his chest plate. "It's complicated. But I'll dumb it down to say that I don't like artificial intelligence."
Koharu drops her head. That's right. He won't tell her everything, if anything, as he adheres to the hidden, unwritten rule of MMOs. She can't ask him why, so she'll have to assume he has a good reason. Still... "I don't get it. Kizmel has done nothing but help us."
Jaymes ignores the sounds of conflict behind them and stares into the forest, a forlorn look in his dark irises. "I don't hate Kizmel. If I act unnatural around her, it's because of that one reason." Jaymes rolls on his right shoulder and takes a peek at the two elves fighting. At this point, they can see the dark elf, noticing it isn't Kizmel at all but a male knight. The two elves were locked in combat, both health bars low, then the forest elf shouted a command that engulfed everything in sight in light. When it faded, the two elves were dead, and the DKB were rewarded the Jade Key. Unconcerned with the outcome, he looks back at Koharu, who stares at him with a stern face. "What?"
"If we had to side with one of those two guys, who'd you chosen?"
"I don't know. Probably gone with the flow.'
"So you picked Kizmel because she was a girl?"
"It tipped the scales in her favor, yes."
"Then...if you knew beforehand, would you--"
"If I were by myself, I wouldn't have done this questline, probably. So whether alone with you, or now as is, it doesn't matter. I would have gotten involved with her or any elf somehow."
Koharu turns back to the DKB, where Lind's small team of five huddle together. She recognizes two of them, Shivata and Hafner, as two of the players who approached Nezha yesterday. Two of them she did not identify by name, but one she recalls somewhat from the previous battles. That leaves the guy in the dark hood, who Koharu knows she hasn't seen before. Interestingly, he wields an Anneal Blade like Kirito, not that it's the first time she's seen another like it.
Sighing, she notices Kirito and Asuna walk away from their hiding spot and hear Jaymes pivot on his heel too. Following in line, she thinks about all he just said and reaches out to his sleeve with her thumb and index finger. He doesn't stop walking, but he notices the slight weightiness of his right arm.
"What is it, Ko?"
"I know you have your rule, but if we... No, when we make it to the hundredth floor, the day before we fight that final raid, whether we're to live or die... The night before, I want to tell you about me, the real me, and I want to know the real you. Just in case..."
"...I'll think about it."
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Zumfut is the name of the human town on the third floor, and Koharu cannot help but let her jaw hang as her neck goes into full extension as she stares at the enormous trio of trees that make up the town. According to Kirito, the city is like three skyscrapers, with the tree trunks hollowed out by the residents. At around twenty-five levels, Koharu wonders if any other magnificent cities aren't...well, typical of what one would expect from humans.
Jaymes remarked this reminds him of a village from a RPG he loved, something about things called "Nopons" and the like. But like Kirito, he's not overwhelmed with wonder like the girls are. He still stares around curiously, though, as they walk from the bottom floor past the teleport gate to where Kirito leads them.
"Anyway, that hero's descendants have been the mayors of Zumfut ever since. The mayor now says that the precious guild sigil has been stolen, and the guild quest is all about getting it back for him."
"Ahh."
"...I'm guessing you have no interest in guild-related stuff, Asuna?"
"Not at the moment," Asuna answers Kirito. "I mean, according to Argo's book, don't guilds set it up so that a certain percentage of the money you make gets automatically deducted?"
"Y-yeah, that's right. In fact, that's one of the best things about the leader's sigil..."
"I'm not saying that I'm desperate to keep all of my money. I'm just saying, I don't like that kind of heavy-handed system, forcing you to participate in that way."
"You look like you could be a guild leader," Koharu says to Asuna. "I mean, back at the first boss fight, you did get everyone's attention, and while our reputations might be sullied a bit because of someone, I'm sure plenty of people, especially girls, would be willing to follow someone not Lind or Kibaou."
Asuna shrugs. "I don't think I can be a guild leader. I mean, if I was offered a position of leadership, that'd be different. But right now, I'm fine as is. If anyone between the four of us could start and manage a guild, it could be you, Jaymes."
"Me? Nah, guilds aren't my thing. Plus, the tax system is a little...off-putting."
"Something tells me you'd be an excellent leader."
Jaymes scratches his head and makes a low chuckle. "Well, if you're saying it, it must be true. But I agree with Ko myself. You got the quality yourself. At most, you could be a vice-commander. But even if you were interested in joining a guild, I think ALS and DKB are bad options right now."
Asuna nods. "I agree. I wonder if a third guild of their size will show up on the front lines someday... Anyway, Kirito, did you join a guild in the beta?"
"No, I didn't. But it wasn't because I hated the tax system, or didn't want to work under someone's command, or anything like that. It was just..."
"A matter of efficiency?"
"I guess. SAO is rare for an MMO in that it's more efficient gaining experience alone or with a partner than in a large party...at least, in the early stages. In the beta, all I cared about was how far I could get in a month."
"I see."
Eventually, they reach the top floor (more accurately, the faster, more agile girls race the boys to the top and win) and split into two rooms in the inn. Koharu waves farewell to Kirito and Asuna as they go in one direction, and she and Jaymes head in another. Once inside, Koharu takes in the spacious, deluxe-type room with its best feature being a window where they can see the surrounding forest. As they settle in, Koharu has two things on her mind.
One, Asuna will eventually realize she's sharing a room with Kirito. Two, Jaymes and Asuna had a civil, friendly conversation for once. It has taken quite a while, but if those two are getting along, maybe her inner desire for the four to become a real team is coming true.
She didn't know that, seven hours later, due to external happenings outside their control, that dream would nearly dissolve; not just the party with Kirito and Asuna, but even her partnership with Jaymes...