One hour later, Gardens of Calamity
After the expanded team of Kirito, Asuna, Jaymes, Koharu, Klein, Leafa, Strea, Sinon, and Philia made it to the next region, the Garden of Calamity, Kirito called for a break now that’s it evening time. A few members went offline for the hour; others like Koharu and Jaymes remained online and an ironic source of comfort in the choking heat. Furthermore, once the break was over, the entire group--including those back in town--would be present, as Jaymes determined Premiere’s okay to come with them under watch.
While Jaymes and Klein engaged in a friendly duel that expanded into a three-person fight once Kirito returned online, Koharu and the influx of girls talked amongst themselves until the time to reconvene came up. Everyone listened as Kirito gave two simple instructions: one, their goal is to catch up to the masked NPC before calling it a night (thankfully, it’s a Saturday); two, a small subset of the twelve players will monitor Premiere directly, them being Silica, Liz, and Philia. They’re arguably the three weakest fighters in relative combat ability, Koharu thinks to herself. It’s the only good reason Kirito didn’t assign someone like Leafa or Klein to play guard duty; they’ll be better used fighting any monster that comes their way.
Her assumption would later have merit as the group traveled the narrow, cavernous, lava-filled Garden of Calamity, taking out Lava Slimes monsters and destroying their crystal remains to bring down barriers in the way. Besides that, the two parties lead by Kirito and Jaymes avoided combat as much as possible, leaving it to the other adventurous players that have flooded the area in the last hour until they came across a mob designated as their target for the site, the Brutal Flare Devil.
“And he’s down!” Klein cheers while wiping sweat off his head as the Brutal Flare Devil falls to his last attack. He holds his thumb up to the girls while Kirito steps to his side and looks towards the now-passable pathway now that its guardian is defeated.
“According to Argo, word on the block is that there are four bosses in the next area.”
“F-Four?”
“That’s insane!”
Klein balls his fists enthusiastically. “Four, huh? Sounds like a challenge, but not all at once, right?”
“I don’t know. But we should be careful nevertheless. To speed things up, we can split up between my party and Jaymes’, got it?”
Jaymes lightly shrugs as he closes his open system menu. “Fine with me. Let’s get to it.”
xxxxxxxxx
The Carven Road, 45 minutes and two bosses later
Ironically, it is Jaymes’ party of himself, Koharu, Lisbeth, Silica, Premiere, and Philia that succeed in their task of eliminating their two bosses first. However, neither fight was easy, even with two former front liners. Koharu mentally curses as she takes a seat once her team makes it to the rendezvous point. Beside her drops Premiere, the rapier-user makes a very human face of discomfort. Philia and Strea park their bodies elsewhere while the remaining three party members stand a distance away and converse quite intently to themselves. Koharu can’t hear anything, but it seems Lisbeth and Silica are unhappy with Jaymes about something, and he’s disappointed they’re unhappy.
For now, she’ll let her partner fight his own battles; in the meantime, she faces Premiere. “How are you doing, Premiere? It doesn’t seem like you're having headaches anymore.”
“I am doing fine, Koharu, for the moment.”
“That’s great… Of course, who can be doing perfectly well when the environment around us is like this? The only consolidation would be the presence of a hot spring somewhere on this floor. But given this is Aincrad, I doubt there is one.”
Premiere cocks her head questionably. “A...hot spring? What is that?”
Koharu taps her chin to figure out an explanation. “Well...it’s like...a pool of superheated water. Wait, you’re telling me you’ve never been to one?”
“No, I have been to this thing called a hot spring.” Koharu eyes each girl in her vicinity, knowing that every one of them loves taking a dip in a hot spring. One of her first activities with them before Asuna and the boys returned from the Ocean Turtle was a hot springs trip in ALO, so she knows the group enjoys them. With her family’s real-world business being a resort that includes hot springs, Koharu was practically raised bathing in them, an excellent way to relieve stress from a gymnastics meet or piano practice.
Now that she thinks about it, Koharu wonders whether she’ll get back into athletics. Her body has mostly recovered from four years of disuse, but to regain the athleticism she had at fifteen years old may be trouble for the nineteen-year-old. She never considered what she’d do with her life post-high school. It was either performing gymnastics or taking on the family business; that was what she remembers putting on those dumb career plans third-year middle schoolers had to fill out.
SAO changed her a lot, though not on a surface level like Kirito, Asuna, and Jaymes. For example, she remembers that Asuna once fell for a fake log-out spot because she wanted to take the high-school mock entrance exams that day; nowadays, that same girl is playing a game with friends on the weekend instead of having her head stuck in a book. Koharu knows those two years raised her confidence in herself. She knows, had she come out when everyone else did, what she would have done, and in truth, she has that now. But that’s the wish of Koharu, the Kindred Assassin, the Goddess Lunaria. What is the wish of Koharu Hanao?
“Hey, Premiere. When we find Tia, what do you plan to do afterward?”
Premiere looks at the incoming Kirito party. “I want her to be with my friends, to get to know how nice and fun you all are.”
“Do you think it is possible? Genesis...and the negativity of the players affected her, after all.”
“It might be hard, but I do believe it can be possible. You all taught me that before, so I want Tia to learn the same.”
“...I see.”
xxxxxxxx
Brungrot Caverns
Kirito and Jaymes return to their group after meeting with the assembled players down the cavern. From what they report, the floor boss is at the other end of the cavern, and another raid is about to commence. “From what you’d expect, they got their butts whooped.”
“Seems like this boss is no pushover.”
Kirito nods then looks to the crestfallen Premiere. “Don’t worry, Premiere. If we work together, there’s nothing that can stop us!”
“...I concur. Friends allow you to overcome difficult obstacles.”
“Right. Let’s join this raid.” Kirito leads the group over to the rest of the raiding party just as the meeting begins. It’s been a while since Koharu has participated in a raid meeting like this. She skipped out on the one New Aincrad had just a few weeks ago. One difference is that the meeting isn’t hogged by any guilds, though there are several present by the number of groups matching armor colors and the like. If anything, the raiding party combines several small guilds or fractions of big guilds. Nothing like the domination of numbers Lind, Kibaou, and Heathcliff’s guilds had for raiding parties.
Of course, their lives aren’t on the line either, so that might also factor in the informal gathering.
One player takes center stage and rallies everyone together. “Okay, everyone, let’s go over what we know about the boss.”
“Its name is Bane, the Crimson Demon. Its arms are covered with chains. Getting the boss to defend will keep it from using them to attack.”
“It’ll use its long reach to attack huge areas. Don’t try to dodge. It won’t work. Just focus on guarding against it.”
“When the boss moves to attack, it takes off its arm chains and focuses everything it has on offense. Break the chains on its arms when it switches to offense, and we’ll be able to do serious damage to its body. That’s all we know about this boss. Any questions, especially you newcomers?”
Kirito shakes his head. “We understand everything.”
“So, what do you say? Want to help us take down this boss?”
“Let’s do it,” Asuna replies.
“Glad to have you with us. Now choose your four people to help in the raid, and we’ll be off.”
“Four?” Koharu looks to Asuna, who nods in understanding of Koharu’s confusion.
“Yes. Being used to six or seven party members joining a raid is quite the change. Four is the max here per party. And it seems our four is quite obvious.”
Kirito nods as the larger two parties are disbanded and reformed by inviting Asuna, Koharu, and Jaymes. The girls join up immediately while Jaymes is last to party up. With the other raiders prepared, Koharu and her party follow closely behind as they head for the boss chambers.
Walking in line with her partner, she begins to think about the familiarity of the setting. For fifty-four boss fights in total, Jaymes and Koharu have been at this moment, the marching calm before the storm. Many of them had Kirito and Asuna present, either one or both, and either as party members or just as fellow raiders. This is the first time since Asuna, Jaymes, Koharu and the Integrity Knights looked out to the advancing Dark Territory army that she feels a nervous pit in her stomach before what’s to be a brutal fight. This time, though, she doesn’t have to worry about making fatal mistakes; as long as the entire raid isn’t wiped out, she can be revived by another player.
Feeling excited, she slows down to walk side by side with the lingering red swordsman. She notices his less-than-cheery expression has not left him in the two or so hours since he came to their rescue with Sinon, Strea, and Philia. When she asked them about it, they admitted he’s been like that since the Town of Beginnings. If anyone knows about it, it is the only person who has been with him privately: Lisbeth. Their mysterious talk in the prior subarea with Silica seems to confirm it, but would Lisbeth tell her? Probably not. They may not be together anymore, but the bond they share has proven to be hard as a diamond. The War of Underworld proved that Lisbeth would still come to Jaymes’ aid without hesitation, and yesterday, vice versa.
Maybe Koharu is reading into it too much. It isn’t like Lisbeth has done anything wrong...and if anyone has done the other wrong, Koharu broke the truce herself. So what if Jaymes confides in the blacksmith more, or the sniper, or the treasure hunter, or the pop idol, or the beast tamer, or his big-boobed AI companion…
“Why are you looking so angry? Did I do something to make you angry at me?”
“...No.”
Jaymes leans down and scans her face. “No? You’re doing that pouty-face thing and covering your face with your hair. You were fine until you started walking with me.”
“...It’s not what you’re doing, but what you aren’t doing.”
“What am I not doing?”
“It’s been a year and a half since we’ve done this, you know? Taking on a boss together...and you look lost in thought.” Jaymes vanishes from her peripheral, continuing to walk forward until she hears him chuckle. She looks up and glares. “What’s so funny?”
“You really care about that, huh?”
“Yes. I know it’s still weird for you to have me back, but you can at least pretend it isn’t.”
“It’s not weird anymore, honestly. Not after last night… What I mean to say is that, well… It feels normal having you with me as we walk to our victory or doom. No need for fanfare. Besides, Kirito and Asuna aren’t making a big deal out of it, and we haven’t been a party of four since the ninth floor of Old Aincrad to end the Elf War Quest.”
Koharu sighs. “I guess...sorry I made a fuss about it...and about last night, I--”
Jaymes holds his hand up to silence her. “You did what you wanted to. Don’t worry about it now, okay?”
“Yeah.” Jaymes has a point. There are other things to focus on as the forty-plus players cross into the boss room. Unlike Old or New Aincrad, Origin’s Aincrad doesn’t feature the large, ominous doors preceding the room, so the effects of entering a dark, occasionally damp, or some other adjective kind of room and watching torches light up the space is absent.
xxxxxxxx
As for the boss, Bane the Crimson Demon, it greets them with a flashy display of power. A ball of charged energy explodes within its hand, threatening the players that it means business if they decide to fight it.
But for the raiders, the final barrier to the next level of Aincrad is to be fought here and now. “Charge!” As the players advance towards the demonic serpent, Koharu’s party stays in place. Koharu herself goes over the information they learned prior to the fight: One, it’ll defend itself with its chains. Two, guard against long-range attacks. Three, when the chains come loose, it's prioritizing attack. Four, break the chains, damage Bane. Easy enough to remember.
“Crimson Demon, my ass. It’s not even crimson.”
“Says the Crimson Warrior, who wears more black than red.”
Kirito intervenes before Jaymes and Asuna get into it. “Hey, now, save the fighting for the boss. Koharu, are you good to go?”
“Yes.”
Kirito raises his fist and points to the serpent. “Yeah, let’s g--move!” Bane opens its mouth and shoots an earth-shaking fire attack in a straight line. Some players in the path take damage, but for Koharu’s party, it simply divides them between respective partners for the duration of the attack. Kirito gets up to his knees and laughs. “Like I was going to say, let’s go!”
“We’re on his right side. Let’s target the chain!”
“Watch out. It’s about to attack!” Kirito and Jaymes pull the speedier Asuna back just in time as Bane’s lengthy tail is spun in a circle. Once the attack ends, the party charges again, attacking simultaneously at the yellow-glowing chains restricting Bane’s right arm. Koharu watches as their attacks quickly drop the health bar of the chain, almost wholly breaking it before Jaymes calls for a retreat. Kirito, Asuna, and Koharu follow him back, though before Koharu can question her partner, Bane begins to traverse the battlefield, slamming its hands against the rocky platform. Besides the path from which they entered, the floor of the boss chamber is surrounded by a river of lava, so falling off is as deadly as the monster they face. Thankfully it seems everyone is aware of their positioning and doesn’t set flattened or shoved off the platform.
When Bane stops moving and settles in place, Koharu takes some initiative and runs back to the right hand. Using a sword skill, she slashes three times against the chain, breaking it. Smirking, Koharu retreats and shouts as loud as she can, “The right chain is broken!”
“Lett one at a quarter health!”
They’re doing fine so far. Wow, these boss fights are still as fun as they were in SAO. However, as she takes a glance at the time, it’s only been six minutes since the fight began and they’re already almost finished exploiting the boss’ vulnerabilities; in Sword Art Online, to reach this stage in the battle took much longer. It took many quests to find just a trace of those vulnerabilities, many of them Koharu and Jaymes took on, but here in Origin, all they needed was one prior boss fight to figure things
“Chain destroyed!”
“Woooo!”
“Alright! Beat it up!”
Bane collapses on its side, fully exposed to the players. Kirito, Jaymes, and Asuna don’t waste a moment hesitating to take their blades to Bane along with the rest of the raiders. Koharu follows, and everyone fires off their sword skills as quickly as possible before Bane recovers. Looking at the enemy health display directly in front of her, only a fraction of it remains on what’s to be one of many health bars; most likely four, as the HUD over Bane shows its lost nearly a quarter of its total health.
The fight resets with the chains reappearing. Now they know the plan works, Koharu looks at her party. “Should we be a tad bit reckless?”
“Koharu!”
“What, Asuna?”
“First, you break the chains alone, and now you want to be reckless and let loose? Jaymes, is this truly the Koharu we know?”
“She has a point. His size makes him slow, especially to you girls. Why not let down a guard a bit? What you say, Kirito?”
Kirito chuckles. “I think we got a handle on the boss for now. Continue to focus on the right hand...and let loose cautiously.” Returning to the offense, it takes the party about three minutes to sever the right side chains, this time slower than the left side. When Bane revives, he’s closing in on about 55% of total health. Another seven minutes, Bane has gone down past half health.
“Be careful,” Asuna shouts out, in case the previous raiders hadn’t gotten this far in the first fight. “Expect new, stronger attacks from now on--like that!” Bane raises to full height and slams itself down, dealing heavy damage to a third of the raiders. Asuna grits her teeth and fully downs the health potion in her hand. “Dammit! C’mon, Kirito!”
“Right behind you!”
“How dare they leave us.” Jaymes chugs his potion and faces Koharu. “You good?”
“Yeah. You?”
“When have I ever not been good?”
“Should I remind you?”
“...Anywho, be careful from now on. I know we can’t die here, but...doesn’t mean you have to risk it.”
Koharu smiles and pushes her medium-length hair back to show Jaymes her bright emerald eyes and her warm smile. Even in a deathless game, he still offers his protective nature to her. Maybe he is right. Time has made their weirdness quite normal. Last night, kiss or no kiss helped them out. “Thanks. I’ll stick by your side, so I don’t worry you. But I can protect you now as well.”
“I know… Hit-and-run, like we used to. Let’s rejoin the fight!” Jaymes and Koharu catch up to the other pair just as the chain on the left side is broken, dodging a series of eruptions from underneath the platform. Bane’s attacks have increased in intensity; every attack seems to fire off a giant beam pillar from the ground now. It makes getting close to Bane difficult but not impossible, and soon, the raiders are at the last stage of the fight.
Bane’s entire body glows orange and yellow, its tail, hands, and head bright purple. Once more taking the lead, Asuna warns everyone to be cautious as if her days as the KoB vice commander had never ended. Jaymes and Koharu, for their respective paired might, continue hit-and-run tactics and aiding in the breaking of the left side chain. With victory one chain away, the raiders actively target the chain; as if it senses the immediate danger it is in, Bane straightens up and stands on its tail. After an ear-piercing roar, Bane holds its hands out and forms the dark energy sphere from the beginning of the fight. Everyone runs as fast as they can out of the way, but when the range indicator shows up under their feet, followed by the initiation indicator that fills the former gauge up, some realize they won’t escape the ultimate attack.
Jaymes so happens to be one of them, and Koharu doesn’t realize it until he pushes her out of range and she turns back to him. “Jaymes!” The sphere explodes, sending everyone in range off their feet. Some are lucky to land on solid ground; others either fly lifelessly or are thrown into the molten river. Jaymes flies over Koharu’s head and rolls on the floor towards the edge, nearly sliding entirely into the lava had not Koharu’s high agility gotten her to him at the last second. Now, as she holds onto his arm, she wishes she invested somewhat into the strength stat. “H-Hold onnnn…”
“Oh, this is bringing back bad memories.”
“This is not...the time for your jokes!”
“S-Sorry, but it’s hard not to when you’re between a rock and a, um, scorching and melty place. Give me a moment to gain my footing...dammit, there’s no good place.” Jaymes struggles for a moment longer before sighing and facing Koharu. Oh no, she knows that look. When he softens his face, he’s going to say something she isn’t going to like. “Ko, let go.”
“No.”
“What do you mean ‘no’? I’ll be fine. Well...mostly fine.”
“I said no!”
“Yes! I’ll probably respawn in a minute or so. At least delay those rotten bastard friends of ours from getting the last attack.”
“No, I’m not letting go! Pull yourself up on me. We’re fighting together to the very end without either of us dying.” Jaymes opens his mouth to protest, but Koharu hardens her face. Tightening his grip on the arm that she holds him with, he quickly climbs as far up as possible. Once Jaymes has a hold on Koharu’s back, she uses her strength to roll them away from the edge. Winded, she breathes heavily as she angles her head and looks at her partner. He looks back at her shakes his head while laughing.
“You’re stupid.”
“So are you.”
“Right. So how’s the boss?”
Koharu lifts herself off him and faces the still fighting Bane. “Downed and almost dead...nope, now dead,” Koharu smirks at Jaymes’ swear as the familiar celebratory prompt hangs in the air while a prompt window is showing their loot, EXP, and who got the last attack. To her partial relief, it isn’t Kirito or Asuna. Koharu spots the black swordsman and his girlfriend celebrating on the other side of the battlefield, then faces Jaymes as he rises and claims his loot.
“Well, we won. I’ll send Liz a message and--whoa, Ko?”
Koharu places herself on his lap, wrapping her arms around her partner and resting her head on his shoulder. For some reason, she’s doing this, though it's not because he nearly died or anything. Somehow she’d grown used to that. It must be the natural feeling of being back at his side now, from walking up to a new floor, questing through it, and finally clearing it. They’ve done that fifty-four times in the past, and now they can do it all over again. A new set of tears fill up between her eyelids and stain his shoulder as the last few days lead to one realization. “Jaymes...we’re back together.”
“Well, yeah, we are.”
“No, I mean...who we were on Aincrad, all we did, and who we came to be because of it… We’ve cleared a floor together, so now we’ve been truly reunited.”
Jaymes sighs and raises Koharu’s face, and connects their foreheads. “You do worry about the littlest of things...but yes, you are right. The Crimson Warrior and the Kindred Assassin are back together. And we won’t be separated again.”
“Never again.”
xxxxxxxx
“You guys won, somehow,” Leafa says as she and the rest of the team join Koharu, Asuna, Kirito, and Jaymes minutes later. Most of the raiders have left the field, some linger behind, but Kirito has been adamant about staying for a while longer, though he hasn’t said why. Or, as it is evident, he hasn’t stated it explicitly.
Asuna sighs and stretches her arms. “Stage bosses are sure a pain in the butt.”
“And we still haven’t found the masked NPC after all that. Where could she have run off to?”
“Hey, what is this?” Everyone turns to a group of lingering players who start to cause a stir. Koharu recalls that one of them got the last attack. “This treasure chest is empty!”
“You sure you’re not the one who emptied it?”
“Of course I’m not, idiot! It was empty when I opened it!”
Jaymes groans. “A treasure chest with nothing in it...But there’s no way…”
Lisbeth seems to pick up on Jaymes’ mind as she faces him. “Beating a boss like that and then not getting a reward would suck pretty bad. And this isn’t the beta anymore...but no way could happen, right?”
Kirito turns back to the group, facing the male his age and nodding. “We should investigate this. Jaymes and I will be right back.”
xxxxxxx
Jaymes
“Hold your horses, buddy!” Kirito and I catch up to our suspect, impossible as it may seem, yet we caught her exiting the boss chamber. It took up far from the volcano, but Kirito and I tracked her down to the ruins of Bardette City, back at the laboratory where we first saw her on this floor.
“We finally caught up to you… You opened that treasure chest back there, didn’t you?”
“...I did.”
“What was in it? What was so important that you had to get it at all costs?” The NPC doesn’t answer, but at least she acknowledges our presence by turning to us. Kirito figures her silence is her answer and accepts it. “Alright, let me ask you something else. When Premiere--when our friend collapsed, you said, ‘You’re suffering too.’ Right? Which means the same thing is happening to you. During the fight earlier today, it happened again. That’s why you looked like you were suffering so much.”
“What is it? What’s happening to you two?”
“It’s...my destiny.”
“Destiny?”
“What do you mean?”
If the NPC was going to answer, she’s interrupted as she grips her head and grunts. Kirito and I look to her in concern, but she retains her posture while shouting out, “Get OUT! I refuse to allow you… Aaaaaahhhhhhh!” A strange green glow envelopes the girl and flashes outward. Kirito and I cover our eyes as the light lessens in intensity, then slowly open them back up...only for our eyelids to expand as far as they can go. With her hood and other accessories gone, who we see before us is a glowing Premiere, but with white hair instead of black. Only one person we know fits the bill, and we boys suspected it before.
“I knew it.”
“Tia? Is that you, Tia?” She glares at us angrily, but it doesn’t stop Kirito from asking questions. “What happened to you? Why do you look different?”
“My destiny drowned me in despair. I must put an end to this madness. I must go.”
“What do you mean? Go where?”
“The place where my destiny awaits. Don’t interfere with me again.”
“Wait,” I call out, not caring about ‘destiny’ or anything. “If you and Premiere are in some sort of trouble, then talk to us! Tell us what’s going on! Not that I care too much about you personally, but that pain could hit you again at any moment! It’s too dangerous on your own, or at least give us some way to help Premiere--”
“Premiere… I can NOT end up like her.”
“What does that mean,” Kirito asks, but Tia reserves her answer as she dons her newer, taller appearance and dashes off faster than I’ve seen our resident speedster run. “Wait! Tia! Dammit!”
I sigh and cross my arms. “All this time, it was her. We had a feeling, but…”
“Yeah.”
“What do you want to do now?”
“...There’s no point in continuing our investigation, and for now, we’ll have to wait for the way to the next floor to open. Given our penchant for trouble, we’ll meet Tia again. Let’s return to town and discuss. We can take the rest of the weekend to relax...especially with tomorrow’s festival.”
I punch my forehead lightly. “Oh, that’s why there were some stalls at the park last night… Well, let’s get back to town.”
xxxxxxx
Koharu, Town of Beginnings
“So the masked NPC was actually Tia the whole time?”
“But that doesn’t make any sense. They’ve got totally different builds!”
Jaymes shrugs. “I did suspect, but I thought the same as you, Leafa. It was the only reason she’d be the sole NPC to experience Premiere’s headaches. Yet we both saw here in the flesh, that same ‘I’m gonna rebuild Aincrad’ glare, it still shocked me.”
“What happened to her,” Silica asks while glancing at the Record Memory Jaymes took of Tia.
“Given what we know,” Sinon analyzes, “it seems like she’s become a prisoner of her own ideology. I can speak to that experience myself and saw it happen with Lievre.”
“Do you have any more insight, Yui?”
“Sinon’s found the most likely reason--that Tia has become trapped in a particular thought process. But I haven’t yet determined what that could mean, or how it happened.”
“It could be some sort of error, right?” asked Philia.
“Nah,” answers Strea, “I don’t think so. Cardinal, including the Seed Nexus’ version, can self-correct errors as they occur. So when SA:O was ported over from the original version of the system to the Seed’s version, it wouldn’t have mattered. Those errors are long corrected. Of course, that’d mean Tia’s behavior isn’t an error at all… The devs must be messing with us.”
“is that why she looked totally different?” Klein exclaims. “Somebody help me out here!”
“Well, Premiere’s clearly upset by whatever’s going on with Tia. NPC’s that the system pits against one another often share data, so maybe that’s what’s happening here.”
Jaymes nods. “That sounds right to me.”
“So, Kirito, thought of any explanation as to what this ‘destination’ Tia mentioned might be?”
Kirito answers Alice by shaking his head. “She didn’t say. She only said that her destiny awaits her there.”
“Her destiny, eh?”
Asuna sighs and stands up. “I think we’re just going to keep talking in circles at this point and that won’t bring us any close to figuring out what’s going on with Tia and Premiere.”
Koharu nods. “We’ve got to track Tia down and ask her what’s going on!”
“We should go, Kirito,” Premiere speaks. “I want to talk to Tia myself. And if she is trying to overcome some internal struggle alone, I want to be there to offer my help.”
“I understand. Our goal, once the next floor opens, will be to find Tia. For now, we’ve done all we can, so let’s celebrate what we can.”
Jaymes smiles and clasps Asuna and Kirito on the shoulders. “I hope that includes you two buying me all the grub and drinks I want. Koharu included.”
“What for?”
“Asuna, you two almost let me burn in that boss fight, and poor Koharu had to hang on for dear life! You could’ve helped!”
Koharu offers her opinion. “I recall the last time you were hanging for dear life, and you couldn’t handle being suplexed by Kirito and us girls. Besides, I saved you, and you didn’t even thank me.”
“Ah.”
“Wow, you suck.”
Jaymes frowns. “...You’re supposed to be on my side, not theirs!”
“Sorry.”
xxxxxxxxx
“Ungh…”
“You’re so alone… You’re so pathetic. Why are you even here?”
“Shut up!” The pain subsides, and Tia rises, shaking her hooded head. Facing the densely clouded skies, she clenches her fists. “This is my destiny...”