A forest on a certain floor.
"My HP? What's going on here?!"
The black-cloaked man who'd fled from Yimi earlier stared in terror at his HP, which kept falling—though the drain wasn't fast.
He tried a healing crystal, more precious than a potion bottle, but the animated flow of the health bar existed only to leave players in despair; in truth, the moment the damage effect appeared, he'd already been sentenced to death.
Poisoned? Or something else? What poison could be this vicious?
Realizing he was already about to die, he didn't even glance at his status window. In that instant his reaction speed outstripped any moment in his life.
A person surely has plenty they want to do in the last instant before an unexpected death—but what he chose to do was fix his gaze on the comrade nearest him, the one whose health bar was already unhealthy from a monster encounter.
Then, without a shred of hesitation, he stabbed him.
"You—?!" His comrade stared at him in shock and confusion.
That's right—Raki chose the most twisted act of all: to drag someone down with him even in death.
Then the weapon of their leader PoH—the one shaped like a great cleaver, the Mate Chopper—came down on his neck, cutting short the slow bleed of his HP for him.
"Heh." PoH gave a cold sneer.
Had someone infiltrated Laughing Coffin?
Laughing Coffin—a pack of people who, whether they'd given up hope or nursed some other twisted psychology, kept killing and stirring up chaos, even though every last one of their bodies lay out in the real world, propped up on drugs like a vegetable.
Its origin traced back to a declaration from their leader PoH: Players die because the NerveGear will burn out their brains; the true murderer is Kayaba Akihiko, and we have every right to enjoy the privilege of killing inside the game.
He'd successfully brainwashed a great many players into following him and causing endless trouble.
"What a frown-inducing little prank. Don't do that kind of thing again." Exasperated, Kirito carried Yimi on his back a little farther off.
He didn't think it did anything at all—where was there ever a thing like drawing a line to kill someone? Still, the meaning behind doing it was ugly, when all was said and done…
The very moment he thought that, he saw the crooked line over Raki's name gradually straighten, with a cause of death now appended behind it: killed by a player.
"…"
A coincidence?
"Why—not do it?"
The kitty had these people memorized. When she got the chance, the kitty would squish every last one of them dead!
"Ah… it's just not a good thing to do, in the end." Kirito mulled it over.
But why, though? The truth was, even outside the zone just now, even in self-defense, he probably still would've hesitated over the finishing blow—at least, that was what he believed of himself.
After spending a whole day with her, he found it hard to fully cast this child into the role of an NPC. There were already two examples, sure, but making a kid this small shoulder the kind of killing sin that even he would balk at—better to just do it himself.
"Are you… lying to me?" Yimi suddenly patted the back of his head.
"Eh?"
"Didn't you say you'd take me to eat good food? But then you made me look at names, and made me change clothes, and now I'm getting sleepy." Yimi rubbed her drowsy eyes.
The quest log popped up again—something called Feed @@, no reward as usual.
"I got us held up a bit. Sorry." Kirito glanced at the sky.
The season and time, synced to the outside world, were nearly out of daylight.
"But if you don't have a change of clothes…" Kirito hit on a good idea. He tapped his equipment tab and took off the black cloak he'd worn for over a year, draping it over Yimi.
Most items in SAO had interactivity; the coat that reached his own calves naturally trailed straight along the ground on Yimi.
The Black Cloak came with its own hood, and once it was up you couldn't make out her face—the one jarring part was that there was still no cursor above her head, but as long as she didn't draw attention it was fine.
Except Yimi already had a hat on her head to begin with…
Kirito took it off for her.
"What are you doing?" Yimi clutched the hat, refusing to let him have it.
"I'll just hold onto it for you… ears?" Kirito stared blankly at the cat ears on top of Yimi's head.
A feature that didn't exist in reality—as if reminding him this child really was an NPC. But at least it put to rest his lingering suspicion that she was Kayaba Akihiko's daughter.
Kirito looked down at the hat in his hand.
Equipment: Black-and-White Mouse Hat
Bonus: /
Effect: [Pickpocket]May randomly steal an item off the target; whether you're caught depends on your Stealth value and the target's Detection value (cooldown 24h per person).
"…"
Floor 50, the item shop.
"What kind of look is that on you?"
Agil—the most NPC-like of all the players.
Not that he acted like an AI. It was simply that among a whole crowd of gamers, each scrawny in his own way, he alone had the appearance of a bald, dark-skinned, powerfully built man. You had to remember that thanks to Kayaba Akihiko's meddling, everyone's looks matched their real-world selves.
Well—at least their real-world selves from a year ago. Nobody knew how skinny they'd wasted away after a year without a normal meal.
Frightening as his looks were, this fellow—worlds apart from Kirito in age—counted among the few friends Kirito could actually talk to, so much so that after Agil opened the item shop, Kirito would occasionally drop by to crash for a while.
"Doesn't it suit me?"
Doing his best not to wake Yimi, asleep on his back, Kirito struck a pose and pointed at the shrine-maiden hat on his head.
Equipment with a built-in skill effect—but it took up two slots at once, both the hat slot and the outer-garment slot. Even so, Kirito still considered it a broken, above-the-curve piece of gear.
Agil stared. "It actually goes pretty well with that face of yours. Which floor'd you pick that item up on?"
Because Kirito's features leaned a little feminine, back when he wore casual clothes and walked around with his little sister, people had even taken them for sisters.
He fidgeted with the hat on his head, torn. "It's only temporary. Stand right there and let me try something… if I can steal the main weapon straight off you, maybe I could subdue someone without having to kill them…"
Kirito reached toward Agil and activated Pickpocket.
A pair of Boxer Shorts appeared in his hand.
"?"
Agil's face went pale. "I have a wife in real life!"
"I don't want to steal an old man's boxers either! Equip them back on, hurry, before somebody sees." Kirito quickly flung them back at him.
Why could he even steal a thing like that?
"Nnh…" Yimi smacked her lips and shifted into a comfier position against Kirito's back.
"I've been meaning to ask—what's this?" Agil pointed at Yimi, who'd buried her face to go back to sleep.
Kirito tugged the brim of her hat lower and pondered a moment. "Sorry. I'll tell you about it later. There were a lot of players at the place I'm renting just now, and business here's a bit slow—mind if we crash the night at yours first?"
"'Slow' is going a little far! But I did say before, you're welcome to intrude anytime."
"Thanks."
Kirito started up the stairs.
Whatever he was thinking, he couldn't quite sort it out himself.
After Laughing Coffin showed its face and got under his skin, he'd just carried Yimi back like this.
Seemed it was about time to find somewhere quiet.
"Oh, right—the Clearers had a meeting today. Clearing Demon-san was pretty mad about your absence." Agil called after his retreating back.
Kirito frowned. "The last boss was only just cleared not long ago. That tight a schedule?"
Too much had happened; he really hadn't checked his messages.
Agil rubbed his bald head. "She's got no sense of security, you know? Been that way ever since the game crashed."
"So—did you all reach any conclusion?"
"Lure the outside-zone boss into the zone, and take it down while it's busy slaughtering NPCs."
"…"