“Got some new info, Ko. Head for a location called the Gromarth Arena, just east of the starting area, The Reimanhills. There’s the beginning of the floor quest. Adding this to Jaymes’ tab as well :D.”
“This is it, the Gromarth Arena.” Koharu and her party of eight girls gaze at the arena ruins, devoid of any signs of life. If it wasn’t for the giant floating quest marker in front of them, Koharu would doubt Argo’s information for the first time. There isn’t an NPC quest-giver ahead of them, which means initiating the quest requires a certain prerequisite. Level? Doesn’t seem like it. Maybe just standing in the right spot will trigger it. There’s no better spot than the center of the area, right?
She faces the other eight party members. In the last month, she hasn’t spent much time with this set of friends, instead unconsciously prioritizing her former Integral Factor guildmates, but luckily her memories and Jaymes’ advice prepped her for this. Outside of Asuna, Leafa and Rain are the best female combatants, thus can fill out the vanguard positions. Lisbeth, as well as the greatsword-toting Strea, functions well as a tank, no less due to being trained by her ex-boyfriend on how to use a shield efficiently. Silica, Philia, Sinon, and Premiere function best as backup attackers and other forms of offense. In the hour and a half they’ve scoured the Reimanhills, Koharu has noted Premiere and Leafa also do well as healers when necessary, and Lisbeth has great leadership qualities. No wonder the blacksmith was able to convince 3,000 players from ALO and GGO to join the fight in Underworld.
Before her mind brims with jealousy, she focuses on the quest marker. “There’s a good chance we’ll be in for a surprise, so be on your guard.”
“It is awfully quiet,” Sinon comments. “No one else is even here.”
“M-Maybe the quest isn’t well-known yet?”
“Three days and the floor quest is unknown? Doesn’t sound right, Silica...but then again, no one knew how to progress Premiere’s quest at first for a few weeks.”
“Argo doesn’t let false information spread. Us SAO survivors owe her that for the early chaos.” Philia looks to the marker, then to Koharu. “Maybe we just have to walk up to the marker?”
“Possibly… I’ll check it out.” Holding her holstered blade, Koharu ventures toward the marker alone. If this was four years ago, she’d be nervous as hell doing this without Jaymes, Asuna, or Kirito alongside her. But she’s stronger than that fifteen-year-old girl trapped in SAO and cried all the time. She stood up to the man who is responsible for many of the PKings in SAO, including her own. She can walk up to a quest trigger and start a quest, right?
If anything, she’s not going to embarrass herself in front of a certain girl in the group.
“Young swordsman…” Koharu pauses and looks around. She heard a voice, masculine and disembodied. She doesn’t feel threatened yet, but she keeps her caution as she gets into a stance to fight.
“Yes?”
“Heed my words, for I am Arzach, Warrior of the Azure Flame. We, the Blue Dragon Order, watch over this sacred place. I welcome you to the Warriors’ Sanctum. Many come here, seeking to claim the might of the Blue Dragon Order as their own. If you too seek our power, I shall bestow upon you a trial.”
Warrior’s Sanctum? So a holy ground for fighters? Koharu kinda feels she’s desecrating the place. But this is the beginning of the quest. A prompt appears in front of her to either accept or decline the trial. She doesn’t know any details, but she pressed the blue circle to confirm her participation. “I’ll accept your trial.”
“It seems you have made up your mind, young swordsman. Then prove that you have the strength and the resolve to wield the power of the Blue Dragons!”
“Koharu!” Silica’s call alerts her as a blue barrier surrounds the area, separating Koharu from the other girls. So this is a duel of sorts, isn’t it? Koharu turns around, finding herself joined by a huge hunk of metal armor with an enormous hammer in its hands. She has to solo this giant “Furious Berserker” all on her own?
“I'll let you have your little honeymoon phase, but when that settles, I don't plan on losing."
Koharu looks over her shoulder again, her pupils set on Lisbeth. “You are strong, Koharu. You can beat this thing. Make that blacksmith eat her words!” The former Kindred Assassin turns her head to her opponent as the duel counter ticks at ‘1’.
The duel begins and the Ferocious Berserker strikes first, slamming its hammer on Koharu’s position. As dust clouds its sight, the Berserker doesn’t notice a streak of red flanking its left side. She executes a sword skill on the knight’s left side and falls back. She takes a glance at the enemy’s health… about 15 to 20 percent shaved off with that attack? She didn’t expect an easy fight anyway. However, with no prior information (or, at least, any Argo is willing to spill before she directly charges Koharu) Koharu has to examine the enemy for her own.
The hammer could probably do heavy damage, to a fair amount. But the Berserker is slow. A standard slow but heavy type of enemy, but even then, Koharu is limited in her mobility by the barrier. It’s a large enough area for her to flank the knight as long as her feet stay on the ground, but the length of the hammer could cover a fair amount of distance.
If she had to choose how to envision this fight, her opponent is Agil. Not a fast fighter, but his strength and length of his ax cover him. If this was a duel against him, her advantage is her agility. If Agil can’t hit her, she can create opportunities to hit him. Just as she struck the Ferocious Berserker by flanking it during its attack, she can use that strategy against it.
And on its chest glows a yellow core. A weak point? She’ll find out.
Koharu lets the knight attack again, running towards the barrier and avoiding a shoulder ram-like skill. Moving quickly she strikes the Berserker’s back, colliding it with the barrier. As if the barrier has some sort of stunning effect, the Berserker drops to its knees, exposed to attack. Taking the opportunity, Koharu strikes with her strongest dagger skill, Integral Existence. She hits the core, seeing the Berserker’s health drop sharper than before into the yellow. As Koharu finishes the skill execution, the enemy rises, stretching its arms out and causing a force to drive Koharu sliding across the battleground.
Koharu manages to stop herself, then leaps for dear life as the Berserker takes to the air and nearly squashes her with its foot. Twice it tries to ram her with the hammer, then goes for an overhead smash. She dives out of the area of effect and rolls to her feet, turning to attack again. Throwing caution to the wind, she continues to press the offensive with basic strike and short-chain skills, driving the Berserker back to the barrier and dropping its health to red right before the barrier stuns the Berserker. “Sorry about this, but I have to win. Sacred Invasion!” Koharu’s blade glows as she strikes the core three times, the final one converting the armored warrior to glowing blue polygons.
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“Take this as proof of your deed here today. Now go, seek the next trial.”
Taking a deep breath, Koharu sheathes her dagger, finding herself surrounded by the other girls, first being hugged by Silica. “Koharu, you’re amazing!”
“You beat it all by yourself!”
“Awesome!”
“Somehow doubting you could win seems just a bit rude. You are Jaymes’ first partner, after all.” Koharu turns to Sinon, who has her arms crossed. The spearwoman looks away and stares at the empty fighting grounds. “Hey… This quest’s difficulty was supposed to be auto-tuned to be appropriate to most players. Maybe it’s just me, or isn’t it a bit too hard for that to be the case?”
“It’s not just you,” Leafa answers. “The monsters up here are definitely stronger than those down in Ainground.”
Rain shrugs. “I guess Origin’s Aincrad is supposed to be a high-level area, huh? Well, I don’t mind! That just makes it more fun!”
Philia grabs her chin. “Hmm… Maybe Cardinal purposely made Aincrad this hard to give people something they could get a lot of mileage out of?”
“Well, either way, Koharu beat the first trial,” Lisbeth says as she approaches the group. She presses a few icons on her opened inventory and initiates an exchange with Koharu. “Here are the spoils. Let’s make our way to the next one. You may be the only one who can really fight these things, Koharu. Don’t fail.”
Sensing the latter statement is more of a veiled threat than a statement, Koharu accepts the spoils, including a piece of armor, and steps past Lisbeth. “I won’t, Liz. Count on it.“ She looks ahead to the arena’s entrance. She narrows them as she thinks she spots a figure standing in the shadows, but as she blinks, what she thought she saw isn’t there. Turning to everyone else, Koharu drops the mask of animosity and smiles. “C’mon, the next one is far to the west. Let’s go!”
“Right!”
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An hour later, Koharu claims her second victory in the second trial of the Blue Dragon Order. In the Ares Coliseum, she just finished off the Hurricane Banshee, a small (in comparison to Ferocious Berserker) and speedy fighter with a sword and shield, and if Sinon thought the Ferocious Berserker was difficult, the Hurricane Banshee put Koharu to the test. It took every known strategy she had practiced with Jaymes and Asuna in SAO to figure out how to get past the weapon combination and the raw speed the Banshee possessed, but it resulted in her favor and a few scratches. But as tough as it was, fighting Banshee was fun.
“I have witnessed your strength and judge it sufficient. Here, take this. It is proof that I find you worthy.” With that, Ludonia, Warrior of the Radiant Light, rewards Koharu and her party with another treasure chest. Wiping off virtual sweat, Koharu claims the chest and the rewards within, including another piece of armor. It seems to be part of the same set as the first piece. Maybe it is an awesome set with great attributes? She’ll have to check them out later.
“Well, that finishes that,” Philia says.
Strea nods. “We can move on now. To the north from the Riemanhills, right?”
Leafa checks her map. “Yes, the quest pointers are to the north and northeast of here. Two more arenas, Koharu. Maybe someone else can take them on.”
Koharu shakes her head. Call it stubbornness, but she wants to fight them all. “Don’t worry. I can handle it.”
Leafa sighs. “And I thought Asuna was the female version of my brother. All right, fine. Okay, let’s get going. We still might run into Tia.”
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Four and a half hours since the party first stepped foot on Aincrad, the third trial given by Kruger, Warrior of the Dragon’s Eye, is complete. After fighting the Impact Spike (an actual comparison to Agil than the Ferocious Berserker), Koharu and the party take a moment to rest. Koharu may be handling the duels, but the fighting and traveling in the field for four and a half of the last six hours online is taking its toll on the nine girls. They decide to leave Aincrad momentarily for a spot in Ainground’s Phoeniath Knoll. Silica brought a plethora of hot buns for the group, so they make a picnic and relax in the green plains of the starting area.
While everyone else eats in groups, Koharu unconsciously isolates herself. Silica, Sinon, Rain, and Strea sit together, while Liz and Philia log-off temporarily. Premiere, well, she sits alongside Koharu but happily munches on her meal. For some reason, Premiere has taken a liking to Koharu despite only meeting her yesterday. Maybe it has something to do with the fact Asuna introduced the two and played with that Premiere feels she can trust Koharu, or maybe there’s a reason beyond that. Whatever it is, the little girl is content to sit with the newcomer in her virtual life.
Meanwhile, Koharu silently checks her messages and bobs her head to the music streaming service connected to Seed games. Joshua texted her two hours ago; they entered the Underworld around that time and while be down there for the next three. It’s closing in on 2 PM right now… It’ll be early mid-evening when Kazuto, Asuna, Joshua, and Alice join them. Klein might log on beforehand, and no telling if Agil will make it himself.
To Koharu’s right, the grass shuffles as a small girl in a pale pink dress and long, black hair sits beside her. “Good afternoon, Auntie.”
“Good afternoon, Yui.” Koharu pets her “niece” and hands her a bun. When Koharu reconnected with Asuna prior to the girls entering the Underworld, they met at Asuna and Kirito’s home on New Aincrad. There, Koharu was reintroduced to Yui, an AI she met with Jaymes the second winter of SAO. After the war, with her “parents” and “uncle” still in the Underworld, Koharu made it her duty to look after Yui, not that it was necessary. It just felt right. Yui dictates Koharu is her “aunt” due to her relationship with Jaymes (never mind that Yui was fully aware Jaymes and Lisbeth were in a relationship and Leafa is Kirito’s sister) and Koharu played the part as best she could. “I wish we could bring you along, but Asuna says not to do so unless it is necessary. Must be boring staying back in town.”
Yui shakes her head. “Not all the time.”
“Oh? Then that’s good to hear.” She diverts her attention back to her music. “Even though I stumble and roll all over, I still remain in one piece so the soul that’s in my heart, tell me the true colors now…” As Koharu continues humming, Premiere taps her on the arm. “What is it Premiere?”
“Why are you moving your head like that?”
“Uh… It's just something you do when you enjoy the sound of music. Have you listened to music like this before?"
"No. I've heard Rain and her sister sing, but not music that doesn't require that or makes me move my head."
Koharu sighs. "I guess I shouldn't expect the gamers here to show you our world's simple pleasantries. Then again, it's Kirito’s fault probably. Here, both of you." She hands a virtual earphone to Premiere and Yui, in case the other AI wants to listen as well. Koharu selects a different song for them to listen to. "This was Rain’s debut song, after SAO, Crossing Fields." She and the two "younger" girls take a moment to listen to the song up to the end of the first chorus, in which Koharu keeps her eyes on the girls, especially Premiere. “Well?”
“I don’t feel like moving my head.”
“But what do you feel? Or, at least, what do you think Rain’s feelings were while singing the song?”
“Feel?” Premiere takes a moment to think to herself before answering. “I feel sad yet hopeful. Scared but willing to be brave. But there’s someone with me, so… Everything will be okay.”
Koharu nods. “Exactly. And if I know anything, I’m sure there was someone Rain felt safe with. She spent lots of time with Philia and Strea, so the song is probably dedicated to them… Or maybe… Well, Rain and Jaymes are close too, I guess.” Koharu shakes off that feeling as the next song plays. As it goes on for a minute, Koharu not paying much attention, Premiere and Yui seem to get into this one and start to sing along.
“Oh love me, Mister. oh Mister. Let me hear it, if it isn’t a dream. Hey Mister, c’mon Mister, so sad that it makes me frantic. Feelings alone go wild, I nearly lose to that stare. Just us two, a dangerous game, love is war, love is war, love is war.”
Koharu did not mean for that song to play. “Uh…”
“But how is love also war?” Premiere questions. “War is a fight, but love is not.”
Yui raises her hand. “I know, I know! Mommy and Daddy love each other, but they fight all the time. Mommy and Uncle fight all the time, so they must--”
“Y-YUI!”
“Or maybe it means two people love something they’re willing to fight for it. Like maybe two girls fight for the same boy. Koharu, are you at war with someone for love?”
Before Koharu can answer it, she hears a loud cough from behind. Turning around, she sees it is Lisbeth, freshly returned from the real world and glaring at Koharu. The other girls are still seated, but it seems...no, it is with certainty Lisbeth is keen on aiming her attitude at Koharu, whether just or not. “Break time over. Let’s get a move on.”
“Why so angry, Liz?”
“Spill your lunch?”
“Or maybe she’s on her period.”
“N-No! Just come on!” As Lis takes shots from the other girls, Koharu sighs and stands up, dusting her magenta miniskirt. She turns to Yui, who is sad everyone is leaving when she just arrived herself and pats her niece on the head.
“Don’t worry. When we get back, I’ll play more music for you and Premiere, got it?”
Yui immediately perks up. “Yay!”
“I would like that very much,” the less animated Premiere says with a hint of cheerfulness. Koharu nods and takes Premiere’s hand. Opening her map, she takes a momentary glance at Lisbeth’s back, her eyes unconsciously narrowing. In SAO, Koharu considered Lisbeth to be a good friend. She never denied a smithing request from Koharu, and even made two presents at Jaymes’ request for the two birthdays Koharu had in SAO. Even in Underworld, Liz welcomed her back happily, and they were amicable in the last month.
But ever since Jaymes woke up and spent real-world time with Koharu (not much at all. Their first outing was yesterday when they met with Asuna and learned of their current predicament in Origin, but she was there on the Ocean Turtle when he, Asuna, and Kirito woke up), the current Lisbeth has taken place. She thought it was a fluke until their conversation before the start of the adventure. Lisbeth declared she will win against Koharu with the prize being Jaymes. At the time, Koharu only responded in kind but didn’t really mean it. She had thought about having that conversation with her former partner when he came back but continuously delayed it.
But now, Koharu feels annoyed. She has done nothing wrong to Lisbeth, and if anything, Lisbeth’s emotions are her reason for losing Jaymes, not Koharu who was dead to the world. But if Rika Shinozaki wants to wage a fight...then so be it. She clicks the farthest point north on the map of the Stalvatos Ruins and confirms it. “Let’s go, Premiere.”
If love is war, then let it be waged.