“The masked NPC is nowhere to be found.”
“Everyone’s heard the rumors, so if anyone had seen her, we’d hear about it right away.”
“But like Argo said, she’s like a ghost. Even if we do hear something, if we don’t drop everything and go right away--poof!”
Leafa agrees with Koharu and looks to her brother. “Then it’s better that we just go around looking for her ourselves.”
Klein sighs. “I wonder if that NPC is still trying to obtain that goal of hers.”
“I think so. That’s the feeling I got when I talked to her, anyway.”
“An NPC acting of her own accord to fulfill her own goals… Once again, that sounds so foreign. Nothing like that happened in SAO, not even with the more human-like NPCs we encountered. They remained limited to bounds of player interaction in their quests.”
“And Zeliska told me about GGO’s Arfa-Sys. Compared to our masked friend, Daisy, Rei, and Lievre are advanced for the type of NPCs they are, but they are bound to their respective players, similar to Genesis and Tia, but with a stricter kind of binding. While they can act as their being, they are still bound to their Masters. In other words, they act within the confines of their Masters’ will.”
“Can we talk about that NPC and what connection she might have with Premiere,” Leafa asks. “That is the biggest mystery of the whole thing. The first thought that comes to mind is that it's Tia. But it can’t be. They look nothing alike. Though her being such a skilled fighter and acting of her own free will does kind of point to Tia.”
“What’d she say when Premiere collapsed again? ‘You’re suffering, too?’”
“That must mean she knows something. And that whatever is happening to Premiere is happening to her, too.”
“Yeah, it could be.”
“We should look and see if there are any other NPCs that have had the same thing happen to them,” Kirito suggests.
“To double-check that Premiere and that NPC are the only two who are affected, right?”
“Yeah, but affected by what, I wonder… I hope our resident AI expert can figure something out.”
“...Remember what we said about Premiere before,” Asuna says after being quiet the entire time. “That there’s no replacement for her. That’s why it hurts so much to think about something terrible happening.”
“And because she’s been with us since she was basically ‘born.’”
“Yeah.”
Koharu drops her head as memories flood her head of the various NPCs they met in SAO. “We’ve met many NPCs back in the original Aincrad. Many of them were the normal, forgettable kind, but some still have an impact on me. And speaking of sick ones, I remember asking Jaymes about the girl on the first-floor quest. You remember the one Kirito?”
“Ah, yes. The girl got sick, so we had to gather herbs to help her.”
“Mhm. I asked Jaymes if it was possible she’d ever feel better, and he told me that, from our perspective, she is okay, but for players who never completed the quest, no. In other words, she’s indefinitely ill for players to make her indefinitely better. And beyond that, there’s that version of Kizmel who we got to know for six floors, how did she fare for the remaining sixty-six floors. Bellatrix, the inventor, I wonder how many inventions she came up with before the game ended. Erassa, who Jaymes, Eiji, Yuuna, and I met on the fortieth floor, I wonder how she’s living her days. We can’t go back to find out, and for some reason, that pains me. After meeting so many NPCs, it didn’t matter that they weren’t like us. They were my friends. And that’s why I have to give it my all to help Premiere, no matter what. I’ve only known her a short time, but she’s my friend and your friend.”
Asuna nods. “You’re right, Koharu. Thank you.”
“Uh, no need to thank me, Asuna.”
Leafa smiles and holds her fist up. “All right, let’s go find that masked NPC already and figure out why Premiere collapsed!”
Kirito nods. “Right, I couldn't have said it better myself. Let’s go.”
xxxxxxxxx
Two hours later, Town of Beginnings, Jaymes
“You’re finally here,” Lisbeth greets Strea and me and ushers us into the inn room she and the other girls occupy. Nodding, I walk further into the room until I get to the bed, where Silica, Yui, and Alice sit around Premiere, who has awoken.
“How’s she,” I ask Yui.
“I haven’t detected anything wrong with her. You can relax.”
“That’s good. How are you feeling, Premiere?”
“I am experiencing a state of hunger but am otherwise functioning normally.”
Silica perks up. “I-I can make some steamed buns real quick!”
I take Silica’s place on the bed and smile at her. “Great. Alice, Yui, Strea, can you help Silica?”
Alice understands what I’m really asking and stands up. “Very well. Should we also inform Kirito of your arrival and Premiere’s awakening?”
“Go ahead, and tell them to keep moving on.” Alice nods and follows Silica and the other AIs towards the kitchen, leaving me and Lisbeth with Premiere. Unconsciously I start to feel awkward with no reason to feel this way, then I look up to Lisbeth and quickly understand my instincts. Until now, I had wholly pushed aside what Koharu did last night all day. Nothing I can do about that now. “Has anything significant happened between now and when Kirito left?”
“No, she’s been asleep the whole time, and Yui was monitoring. We passed the time watching SJ4. Give my congrats to LLENN and the others.”
“I’ll do so.”
“Where’s Sinon and Philia?”
“Philia and Sinon are restocking on our supplies.”
“Oh…” Lisbeth looks away from me to somewhere off the bed. Concerned, I reach over to her shoulder, slightly taken aback when she reacts by jumping and partially pulls out of my hold.
“Liz… Are you okay?”
“I… I’m fine. Premiere’s who you should be worried about, right?” No discussion to be had there. I let go of Lisbeth and face Premiere, who was watching us silently. I wonder what she thinks of what she just saw, with her budding understanding of the world.
“Premiere, can I ask you what happened earlier? Do you know what made you pass out?”
“I do not. However, I can recall the feeling just prior to that. It was strange. It felt as though I was becoming someone other than myself. Like another person was invading my mind and body. I began having someone else’s thoughts. Incredibly sad, lonely thoughts.”
“What could have caused that?”
“External data corruption or there was a buffer overflow error. I can’t really pin it down with the little we know. But Yui says she didn’t detect anything different… Okay. Premiere, stay in bed. For now, we’ll leave everything to Kirito and those with him. Until we know what happened, I want to keep an eye on you. Got it?”
“Affirmative.”
I smile and stand up, then face the pink-haired girl with a strangely sad face. “Liz, can we talk outside for a moment?” She looks up, possibly prepared to repeat what she said minutes ago, but I give her a look that quells her lie. Relenting, she stands up and follows me to the door, telling Alice and Silica we’d be back. Initially, I wanted to go outside the room, yet my feet take me to the stairs to the inn lobby, then out those doors. Out in the market square, we continue walking until we reach the center of the nearby bridge crossing over the river that splits the square in half. Of course we end up here; where else would we end up and talk about all our troubles? “Lisbeth… No, Rika, what’s wrong?”
She stands distant from me, but since we’re out in public, she’s not out of reach or earshot. “There’s a lot wrong, but for the wrong you don’t know of… It’s just me being worried about Premiere, that’s all. You remember back in SAO there was this NPC girl that helped tend my shop?”
“Yeah.”
“On that day, we weren’t assisting any customers. It was like the entire player population was waiting to hear if the front lines would pass the final checkpoint and lead us to the final quarter of the castle. Instead, I talked to her about what happened when I saw you that morning and what to do when I saw you again. I was...over-excited and all, and she understood every bit of it. We talked every day… We managed the shop, we laughed, we cried. Basically, we were together all the time. Because of her, I was never alone when you were gone for days… I can’t ever go back there, but I bet you anything that girl is still waiting for me to come back, even now. To me, it stopped mattering that she was just an NPC. It only mattered that we were friends...”
I watch and listen silently as Lisbeth told her feelings, then follow the trail of a tear down her left cheek. Instinctively I interrupt its path with my finger. I step forward and turn Liz to me, my hand settling on that side of her face, fully aware that we’re in public but not caring at all. “Liz, I--”
She shakes her head but doesn’t move away. “Sorry, I’m rambling… But what I meant to say is that I’m going to help Premiere, no matter what.”
I nod and look to the river, the multitude of memories of our time on the bridge outside the town of Lindas forcing a smile on my face. “We’ll protect Premiere. It’s what you’ve always done better than me, protecting those you care for.”
“That’s...not true.”
“You’ve come to my aid more times than I’ve ever come to yours, and even if the quantity is debatable, the quality is not. You severely outweigh me on that. Even when… Even when I hurt you, you still came for me in the Underworld. That’s not a debt I can pay you back for easily, but I’ll begin soon. After all, we’d be back on Lindas in New Aincrad, right. I did say we’d go back, right?”
“Yes, but--J-Jaymes!”
Once more I pull Lisbeth into a hug, really ignoring the passing stares. I hope some of these people aren’t customers...or jealous teenagers who desire affection as the cold season approaches. “Once we set foot on that floor, I swear it on my family’s name and honor, the first thing I’ll do is get your shop back. Maybe you’ll find the girl again. And then we’ll be home again.”
“Home…”
After a moment of embracing (and my ability to not feel embarrassment wanes), I release Lisbeth and we head back to the inn, leaving the mission on the Vulcanus Citadel in Koharu and the others’ hands. I trust she’ll do what she does best, and I can’t let her down while watching Premiere. After all the things she said last night… I didn’t know what to say or do after she kissed me, but eventually, I’ll have to answer her and everyone else soon. In the meantime, I’ll do whatever I can as her partner, as I always have done.
But I didn’t realize it then, and I wouldn’t realize for a while longer, but in saying those words to Lisbeth, it was the first time since reuniting with her at the end of the War of Underworld that I (as Joshua, not as Jaymes) felt a semblance of peace and happiness...until I got a message from the outside world...