Poke poke~ then she spun around and bolted.
Crouched behind a chair, Yimi kept a wary eye on the chest sitting quietly where it was.
"..."
It had been like this ever since that day. The box that should have had a fixed spot she'd carted back home, and after several days of prodding it had never reacted again.
Kirito's method of "education" wasn't especially good. One night Asuna had been startled awake by Yimi wriggling out from under the covers; feigning sleep, she'd watched Yimi sneak Mr. Crocodile out of her inventory and drop him into the chest—apparently silencing the witness by killing the fish.
"Yimi-chan, could I get another forty Rat Stews? I've got a Floor 61 specialty set aside for you."
"Okay."
Yimi let the chest off the hook for now, turned, and dashed toward the kitchen.
Anything to do with Rat Stew and the little one turned especially eager; by now everyone pretty much knew how to coax her.
Special bosses and terrain aside, Rat Stew was still the single most popular dish. For safety's sake, no one on the clearing front line was spared it except the Commander, and mid- to low-tier players all said the Clearers had clearly lost their minds—you could often catch them clustered together farming rats.
"Has the Floor 61 boss room already been found?" Asuna asked, startled, looking at the middle-aged man named Godfree.
With Rat Stew, the clearing pace had picked up considerably, though the Clearers had always kept up an efficient one-floor-a-week rhythm—everyone knew every delay was grim news for the bodies waiting outside, which was exactly why a single wilderness boss blocking the road with the GeoCrawler had left Asuna so on edge back then.
But going by Floor 61's characteristics, wouldn't water-repelling and movement-speed food suit better?
"It would, true, but that's not what this is about. Did the Vice Commander not see the Commander today?"
Godfree gave her a puzzled glance. "It'll come up at the meeting in a bit anyway—an info broker has finally pinned down Laughing Coffin's hideout."
"Laughing Coffin?" Asuna sobered too.
"Mm. The Commander means to rally the Clearers for a crusade against Laughing Coffin. These aren't AIs—in a certain sense they're more dangerous than any boss. We have to be completely prepared."
Most of the Clearers had their heads on straight, and even before the crusade began it was easy to foresee that someone unwilling to kill would get counterattacked. In moments like that, the second life became critical.
"How was it found?"
"The location's a dungeon zone on a low floor. They're saying the clearing progress may have triggered some special mechanic. A chest that had already been opened suddenly turned into a Mimic with what looks like an instant-kill mechanic, right at the mouth of their hideout. It ate five or six Laughing Coffin members before they even noticed—which is what tipped off the info broker."
Godfree laughed twice. "No telling whether it's evil getting its due or Kayaba Akihiko's doing on purpose."
"..."
Asuna stared at the busy Yimi and sank into thought.
Which meant that day the three of them had been maybe only a few steps from Laughing Coffin's lair—and Yimi had left a real Mimic sitting right there.
Far too dangerous. If they'd happened to run into that lot, their little family of three... pft. The three of them would absolutely have been swarmed.
"Of course, out of consideration for the Vice Commander's feelings, the Commander says you don't have to take part in this crusade. As it happens, the Floor 61 boss room has been found—you'd put your strengths to better use staying here to draw up the plan."
Asuna used to genuinely detest PvP, players fighting one another; that one bout with Kirito had truly irritated her because of the notion behind it.
"The Floor 61 boss room has already been found?"
Godfree nodded. "That mask is just too useful, after all. Though I do think we're rushing a little—if we don't leave people time to grind levels, it'll cost us on some later floor for sure."
Asuna had studied garment-making for a good while now. Beyond designing the crucial outer clothes and skirts, she of course hadn't forgotten to teach Yimi to make a few simple pieces—things like underwear, which no one felt wasted an equipment slot, and masks, which everyone usually overlooked but which happened to be the only gear item useful to their clearing so far.
Cat Mask Made by @@: [Smell]Widens your field of view for chests and monsters, lets you spot both categories one wall-layer ahead, and gives one second of advance warning for traps.
This thing drastically cut the danger of exploring the Labyrinth, and selling both Kitty Cuisine and gear had left Yimi, young as she was, with more assets than Kirito and Asuna combined.
If you overlooked the all-insect-monster theme, the main city of Floor 61 had genuinely lovely scenery—an old-town district built from white granite, its market full of every kind of shop. Aside from the central island that served as the main city, the floor was almost entirely lake water, exceptionally friendly to fishing. Yimi would probably love it. Asuna was already thinking about setting up a home there.
Because it had no durability limit and her working hours were irregular, Kitty Cuisine was already stockpiled among most of the Clearers, to the point that dishes other than Rat Stew hadn't seen any business in a long while.
As for Rat Stew... the others didn't know it, but Asuna could actually make it with that rewarded pot—though her nearly maxed cooking skill did nothing to change that vile taste.
"Rat Stew's ready." Yimi rapped the lid with her ladle, and a smell that turned the Clearers' stomachs spread through the air.
"Good work. This is the extra reward a hard-working child deserves." Godfree set the promised pastry on the table, took the Rat Stew, and left.
"Something's come up, so I can't keep you company today. Be a good girl in the guild and don't go out on your own." Asuna pinched Yimi's little cheek, then turned and walked out—of course she was going to take part in this crusade.
"Vice Commander, are you going out?" Kuradeel, stationed at the door at some point, stepped out to block her.
"Is there something?"
Asuna remembered him well enough, given he'd once made Yimi angry, but that alone wasn't enough to make her outright despise him—from a player's standpoint, in a way he'd only been testing that child's limits.
"The Commander has said the Vice Commander is vital to the Clearers, and must take a bodyguard whenever she goes out." Kuradeel patted his sword, as if to say he was that bodyguard.
"Ha?" Asuna plainly didn't buy it, seeing as this man was at least ten levels below her.
In fact Kuradeel had badgered Heathcliff relentlessly until, worn out, Heathcliff had tossed off an "I'll consider it" just to be rid of him—whereupon Kuradeel had unilaterally decided he was now her bodyguard.
"Go tell the Commander I don't need any bodyguard. And I don't believe this is an order he gave." Asuna went right around him and walked on.
The Commander wasn't brainless. However fitting the reason, why would he assign the one person on the worst terms with the whole team—and with Yimi—to shadow her?
...
"Mm."
Idle once more, Yimi sat at the table cutting fabric with the tools Asuna had bought her, working a sewing machine despite her age—luckily its shape didn't leave her little legs unable to reach the pedal.
With the game applying corrections, sewing was no longer overly delicate work. It did strip out the finer steps, but if you also had to grind labor inside a game, that was tedium by definition.
She didn't know how much time had passed when a noise that didn't belong to the sewing machine rose beside her ear—neither right in front of her nor exactly far off, a sound a human could make, like the murmur of a little girl, though she couldn't make out the meaning.