Koharu
Three hours after first stepping foot on the Elionward Dominion, Koharu's group of fourteen find themselves jump-dashing over scattered floating islands through the remains of a fortress. Whatever the floor was to be, it never completely formed into the disc-shaped landscape she's used to. Based on the teleporter they activated and used to get here, it seems they'll have to ascend the shattered floor.
It's a pain to jump-dash, so as her feet hit solid ground just beside the Unguis Peak's exiting teleporter, Koharu prays the next section of the dominion's map is one landmass. Despite her former athleticism, she was never good at the long jump when it came to physicals. Then Agil, the bigger members of their group, Agil, Klein, Alice, and Strea (in terms of equipment type for the girls), they're moving fine, so she doesn't have a reason to complain.
Getting her bearings, Koharu jogs up to the people present on the island, which is the two boys, Asuna, Premiere, Leafa, SIlica, and Sinon. Leafa's holding an object in her hand, handing it to her brother. "It's the mask Tia was wearing!"
"Oh no," Silica squeals in worry. "You don't think she--?"
"This can't be happening…"
"Tia."
Kirito takes the mask from his sister. "Don't worry, Silica. It's not as bad as you fear. The rumor that NPCs drop items--let alone rare ones--when they're killed is a total lie. Althought there are NPCs that drop event-specific items. Premiere and Tia probably aren't configured that way, at the very least."
"Right," Jaymes confirms. "Remember they were integral to the grand quest Origin was supposed to have."
"Considering they don't have any sort of setting profile after all," Sinon reminds them.
"RIght. Her mask probably just came off in battle, and she never bothered to pick it up."
"Not to mention her mask would have disappeared if the worst had happened," Asuna adds on. "It still being here says otherwise. And it would probably return to Tia even if one of us picked it up. I don't think we can claim it."
"If that were possible, everyone would run around hunting NPCs for their equipment, Though the fact it hasn't returned to her yet tells me she dropped it recently."
Silica perks up. "So she must be close by!"
Leafa sighs in relief. "I'm glad she's alive."
"Whoa, whoa, let's not get too complacent now," Lisbeth warns. "She's still way ahead of us, fighting ll by herself."
"Liz is right," Koharu cosigns and faces the teleporter. "Let's go!"
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Her prayers are answered, though in an unexpected fashion. Her group arrives at the front of a large fortress, its walls so high she has to fully extend her neck and squint her eyes to see the top. Three paths lay before them, to the south, east, and west. The southern pathway is blocked by a huge gate, while the eastern pathway is blocked by a barrier. Beyond the sigil is a large head made in the shape of a snake.
"'The Ouroboros Corridors, named after the symbol of eternity, are the plans that sustain our civilization. A vast defense system has been installed to protect them. Take extreme caution near them when they are active.'" Jaymes sighs after reading the nearby inscription to the sigil and looks at Koharu with a wry smirk. "For being the ruins of ancient civilizations, we sure do encounter a lot of these things."
"Old Aincrad didn't have anything like this though. Well, not on this scale. We wouldn't have progressed as fast as we did to the twenty-fifth floor if that was the case."
He shrugs as they walk back to the others. "Mhm. I thought to myself earlier that the old frontier groups would have mapped out this floor in a weekend's time. We're lucky to be moving this fast because we're ignoring everything we did back then. Or maybe we're not as meticulous as we used to be."
"We are ignoring a lot of things, but then again, me and you were usually focused on the primary quest lines that we never did that stuff a lot."
"True. Anyway, here's the deal, everyone." Jaymes explains the inscription to everyone, and a plan is set. Being that it is around dinnertime for some people, Kirito brings up the idea to use this point as a moment to log out if need be, while the AIs and those who can stay behind look for a way to open the barrier. Jaymes volunteers to lead the group, which ends up consisting of him, Koharu, Alice, Premiere, Strea and Lisbeth.
Unintentionally, Lisbeth volunteering ignites a shred of possessiveness in Koharu. She holds it on the inside, careful to not let it show on her face. Koharu knows why she feels that way, but she did believe the feeling of being threatened by the other girl was over and done with. The atmosphere between them has more or less calmed, and their shared common interest has been getting along with the other girl as of late. Their performance earlier today displayed that they can work well together, and there were no ill feelings rising to the surface then.
Then again, Koharu was in a mindset for battle, not the petty politics of love.
As the others log off, promising to reassemble here and enter the Ouroboros Corridor together, Jaymes pivots on his heel and looks to his party of him, three artificial lifeforms, and the avatars of two real girls. He looks at them first. "You two sure you want to stay on? What about your brother, Ko?"
"He can manage for himself. I did tell him to not wait on me for dinner."
"Okay. Liz?"
"I'll tough it out until we catch up to Tia. That is our plan for today, correct?"
Jaymes nods. "Trying to solve this in one night will be tough. Catching up to Tia is our priority."
Alice raises her hand. "What about the singularity?"
"The singularity should remain as long as it doesn't interfere with us players, right Strea?"
Strea nods. "That's the optimistic hypothesis, seeing as it has remained thus far for months. But as players start to flood the floor…"
"Our window to save Tia and Premiere closes." Lisbeth places her hand on Premiere's shoulder and looks at Jaymes. "We're gonna save them, right?"
"Yes. Let's get started by getting past that barrier...though if it's still up, we may be a little lucky. Let's assume Tia has passed it, though, and the system erected a new one. "
After about half an hour of following Jaymes' intuition about the west side of the Serpentia fortress, defeating mobs with so much ease that they have forgone establishing a formation, Koharu finds it hard to let go of her inner feelings. Her worry for Tia is intense, and that translates to Premiere as well.
There's been no signs Tia's close, as if she'd drop any more armor but it was some wishful thinking. There haven't been as many monsters deep in the fort as there was near the entrance, but Koharu knows that could be due to a variety of factors. It's not unlikely Tia vanquished them, there are no players ahead of them, but it is possible this is the workings of the system.
Jaymes says their only priority for now is catching up to Tia, but Strea's optimism that the singularity would be present as long as it doesn't interfere with players arriving on the floor doesn't inspire hope in Koharu. Already some effects of the singularity are visible, such as the spots of data corruption. True, the players themselves are fine--despite Jaymes' worry, they've been here for three hours without any issue--so their only enemies here are time and attention. If they're still on a floor equivalent to the size of floors ten through twenty on Old Aincrad and New Aincrad, it shouldn't take but a couple hours to fully cross it if they never log out, like when she and the girls explored the Stalvatos Ruins on the sky warriors questline. If they keep their focus on Tia and the singularity, the Elionward Dominion can be crossed in a reasonable amount of time, exempting distractions such as the barrier on the Ouroboros Corridor.
Her mind is calculating all those factors that she almost ignores the call of the girl beside her. "Koharu."
"Huh? Oh, Liz… What is it?"
Liabeth's brown eyes sparkle with interest at the slightly older girl, then aims their sights up ahead at the boy in red surrounded by Premiere, Alice, and an arm-holding Strea. "You're being extraordinarily quiet for someone who used to pout if he kept things to himself."
"...I'm just thinking, that's all."
"What are you thinking about?" Koharu hesitates to answer, which Lisbeth picks up on quicker than Koharu anticipated. Sighing, the pink-haired girl continues facing forward while she speaks. "You know, Koharu, I don't believe you ever liked me."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Do you remember the first time we met? It was a few minutes after you and those three opened the fourth floor, in the main town's square. I was looking at the town map, trying to figure out what to do first, when you and Jaymes came up. We were fine at first when I asked you two to help me, but when we got back to town...that's when the flip switched."
Koharu lowers her head, trying to remember the events properly. After she, Jaymes, and Agik's group helped Lisbeth gather materials, she paid the pair back by servicing their weapons. If she recalls correctly, she was unhappy with the way Lisbeth flirted with Jaymes, though that was her being protective of her partner, not the jealousy of a girl in love. She wouldn't sprout feelings for him for another sixteen floors, when he allowed himself to be beaten by PKers in order to protect Sanya, Liten, and Koharu.
She wants to argue that point, but it wouldn't line up with her interactions with other girls. Jaymes and Asuna weren't close back then, hell they were usually one second away from slaying the other, but when they acted together at their best, it never made Koharu feel protective or jealous. When Jaymes stuck his neck out for Rain, Silica, Sanya, and other girls, she never beget those feelings. When they partied with Sanya from the fourteenth to the twentieth floor, she did feel inferior to their ability to work as a unit, and their might have been times she felt that way when he teamed with Asuna.
She's sure she's missing a few women, like Kizmel, but she used to not count because he hated artificial intelligence. It eventually changed as he, Koharu, Asuna, Kirito, and another who joined them (and whose name slips Koharu's mind at the moment) spent more time with Kizmel, and the result is who he is today.
Lisbeth may be the special case because she openly teased him in front of Koharu that day, but as far as Koharu remembers, she doesn't recall a dislike of Lisbeth. "I...may not have liked that moment, sure, but I don't think that means I didn't like you?"
"Explain the fifty-second floor then, when you two helped me gather those crystal ingots made from the dragons...you remember… Anyway, when I asked why you'd help me, he said because he hated seeing me look down. You didn't look happy with his answer. So unhappy you questioned if he had special feelings for me." She looks at Koharu out of the corner of her eye, a winning smile on her face.
"You were kidding then, but how true they came to be. And as often as we met up, there have been other times, Koharu. And now that I say all this, you probably realize that I spoke of him that same night. The thirst that racked my heart since SAO began was not filled the day Kirito and I fell into the lair of the dragon. It was given a cup of warmth that day on the fourth floor, when he helped me on the twenty-fifth. thirty-fifth, forty-eighth, and fifty-second floors, but it was quenched the day the strongest boy I knew entered my shop in tears...and I emptied it the day he saved our friend."
"...Why are you telling me this?"
"Because I want you to trust me, to be my friend again as we once were. Back then, we were close, so I just admitted to confessing my feelings for him right in front of you. If we're going to save Tia and Premiere, no, if we're going to merely coexist, I want you to hear me say that we hate each other, but not because we dislike each other. You dislike me because I'll be always something to him you cannot be, and I hate you because you will be able to love both Jaymes and Joshua. Kureha said it best, that for as much as I loved Joshua, and even if I love Jaymes, there's one fundamental part I hate; the Crimson Warrior, because that crucial part of him, that belongs solely to you." Lisbeth clears her throat and adjusts her eyes to Premiere.
"Part of me wants him to say 'There's no chance of us saving Tia and Premiere', but I know that's impossible. The Crimson Warrior is just like the Black Swordsman, just like Lightning Flash. Impossible is not a word to him. It'd be nice to hear him admit it just once so I can set him straight. But maybe he's right, for once already the impossible happened. You're walking beside me, after all… As your friend, I want you to succeed, but as your rival, as someone who had for a moment what you have, I don't want him to love you as he did me. At the same time, I don't want us to become enemies over some boy. We've been through too much, made something we once thought impossible happen, and made the impossible possible again and again over the years. What we have, I now realize watching Tia and Premiere, is something more ..real. Something only us girls have together."
Something more that only the girls can possess? Koharu has a clear idea what Lisbeth means, but not once has she thought that "more" extended to her, or anyone not named Asuna. To a degree, it would seem that way. Koharu and Asuna spent the better part of Sword Art Online as companions, whether directly as party members or indirectly as members of the frontier. That same distinction can be made for Sanya, Liten, Yuuna and a few other girls...but now that she thinks on it, there is a bond between her, Silica, Philia, Rain, Strea, and Lisbeth. Not as tight as the one Asuna possesses, but as Koharu stops walking and suddenly wraps her arms around Lisbeth, she realizes how foolish she has been the past few weeks.
"K=Koharu?"
"Liz… I don't know what to say. I don't know if I disliked you or not back then, but I will admit I may have felt jealous. Even now, hearing you say all this, I know you're right, that there's parts to him I'll be able to claim because they belong to you. But that's okay. There's part of him neither of us can claim, they belong to others. And if I hate you, then I'll have to hate him for living his life, and then I'll hate myself for asking him to do so. How could I hate you, the one person who I was once close to that I undertook a quest getting them a house. How could I hate the person who was the first human face I recognized and welcomed me home two months ago? How could I hate someone who saved the person I cherish the most's life so many times? But most of all, how could I hate someone who was...no, is a good friend to me, and a--"
"Hey," Jaymes' voice comes from several steps ahead. He doesn't take his normal tone with them, but a more authorative one. Is this how he speaks with Crimson Squad? "I'm glad you two are having a bonding moment for whatever reason, but we have a barrier to bring down and a wayward NPC to catch up to. So if you can hurry this up, that'll be great."
"I seem to recall someone embarrassing a girl at school and nearly crying himself once he found her again," Lisbeth barks back, and Jaymes shrivels under her words. He turns around and continues onward, and the girls separate with a smile. "He folds so easily these days. But he's right, we should drop this matter once and for all. Tia and Premiere are our priority."
"Yes...and speaking of that, what worries me is that we may have less time than we think. We have to do this now. Tonight."
"Does he know about this concern of yours?"
"No… To be honest, it could just be me, but--"
Their conversation is interrupted again by a single shriek, the source being Premiere as her small form bursts into a sprint. "TIA!"