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Chapter 5: Epilogue and Omake

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Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

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When Rayneshia first met Queen Asuna of Aincrad, she hadn't been sure what to expect.

The woman was her age, an Adventurer, and the absolute authority of an entire nation.

Adventurers were a weird bunch at the best of times, even if they were usually friendly – as long as they didn't wear glasses, Adventurers who wore glasses were evil down to the last. Their culture was strange and kind of somehow awkwardly blatant about impoliteness, almost as if they knew exactly how to be polite to someone, and took great pleasure in not being such.

Then there were the weird traditions, celebrations, fashions, and the godsend that was Miss Isuzu's amazing Academy of Music. Rayneshia didn't overly care about most of those things though, excepting whenever the Adventurers decided to semi-forcefully involve her in whatever schemes they cooked up that time around.

And once she got her hands on that Evil Glasses Monster, she'd strangle him for abandoning her to this mess. There weren't nearly enough nap-times, considering what had been advertised, and Crusty wasn't even here, and-...

Still, strange as they could be, and despite how Rayneshia kept getting tantalizing glimpses of their bizarre thought-process until she almost thought that they might start making sense – until they proved her utterly wrong in her assumptions – that was really only a part of it.

There weren't queens in Yamato. Princesses, oh yes. All the better for marrying them off in order to solidify alliances. That was their lot in life, and if they managed to grab power through the 'rule' of their children, that was usually expected to some extent. But an actual queen? A woman who ruled a country by her lonesome?

Rayneshia hadn't ever even really considered that to be possible. Though she'd be the first to admit that it sounded like an awfully unpleasant thing to do. She'd seen the amount of work it took to keep even a single city running, let alone an entire nation, and she had no desire to land herself in such a horrifically exhausting position.

Late to bed, early to rise, with a great many important meetings, and without any time for naps. Truly, a most unfortunate existence.

But Queen Asuna was around the same age as herself. A few years older, perhaps, but certainly not old enough to inherit a throne excepting the most dire of circumstances.

How was she supposed to greet her? Subservient, yes. Politeness demanded that much at least. But was she supposed to treat her like the 'queen' whose title she wore, or the 'king' whose power she held? And were different traditions expected of her, as the woman was an Adventurer? How did Adventurers treat their own royalty? Or would attempting to mimic that be seen as presumptuous?

Rayneshia had accepted this damn position of Ambassador because it was supposed to keep her away from all that annoying politicking, but there it was. This was what she had been raised to, and even uncomfortable habits that she'd defied more than once, were hard to entirely break away from.

So, when she'd first met the Queen of Aincrad, Rayneshia had been quite nervous.

Until a cheerful little girl launched herself at her knees, giggling about finally meeting a real princess.

Which had obviously been when the girl's father had decided to crack a joke about 'mirrors being useless conversation-buddies'. And that was how Rayneshia met the Princess of Aincrad and her father, the Head of the Royal Guard.

The age difference wasn't even remotely what it ought to have been, but then the Princess was of the People, and the man was an Adventurer, and honestly she wasn't even going to try to figure that one out.

Of course, then the Queen appeared and smiled in exasperation at both her daughter and her husband, and invited her in for tea. Which she then proceeded to prepare all on her own, because 'her tea was the best'.

Rayneshia would've been worried about arrogance, except the woman was clearly both very talented in the kitchen, and kind of startlingly warm-looking for such a regal figure.

She'd expected her to be like one of those warrior-queens from legend, fierce as a typhoon and stuff like that. And she'd landed herself with a happy young woman who hummed cheerfully as she bustled around the kitchen.

It was all very... domestic.

And if she hadn't been expecting the Adventurers to never make any sense whatsoever, she probably would've despaired over the whole mess.

Still though, there'd always been something strange about how the Adventurers treated those from Aincrad. Everyone knew of it, of course. Even she herself had heard rumors that Aincrad had originally been a 'trap' that had imprisoned all who visited it, designed by a madman who'd figured out how to limit Adventurers to a single life. As if they were merely of the People.

There were even Adventurers who'd lost family to that gigantic castle, though whether they'd survived until it had appeared at their shores-... Well, sometimes they had, other times they hadn't. She'd heard of reunions, but hadn't ever really seen one herself, so she couldn't imagine what they would be like.

Not that any of that really changed her situation any. Crusty was still off and disappeared somewhere, the Evil Glasses Wearing Adventurers were always scheming, and most everyone else made absolutely no sense at all.

But from the way the Head of the Royal Guard would wax poetically of napping under trees in summer-weather, regardless of the season, Rayneshia could admit that – even if they probably wouldn't ever make any sense – Adventurers were definitely worth befriending.

If only because they were sure to lead her to places that were perfect for catching a nap.

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Tohya didn't think he'd ever be able to forget the final mass-suicide of the Odyssey Knights.

He hadn't really been present during the actuality of it, thankfully, but he'd seen the ships filled with people arriving at Aincrad's docks. Hundreds of people begging Aincrad to allow them to die permanently.

In the end, maybe half of those people had actually gone through with it, and Tohya was still unsure of exactly how sickened he was by the idea that the Queen of Aincrad had allowed it. That she'd been willing to let those people kill themselves, instead of actually trying to help them.

Sure, half of them had ended up returning on their ships back to Minami, humbled by the realization that even now they still feared death too much to take that final step. But there were so many people who hadn't returned, who would never return.

Silica had tried to explain it to him, but he wasn't sure he understood it. Something about how there would always be people who couldn't handle being dragged away from their previous lives. Most of those people had killed themselves within the first month of being trapped in SAO, and back then at least they'd had a chance at returning to their lives.

Even if through some miracle they managed to establish contact with their home world, they would've all probably already been declared dead by then. The lives they were so desperate to return to would be in shambles, and there wasn't really anything Aincrad could do about any of it except give them the ability to make their endless suicides stick, should they wish it.

So the queen had given the Odyssey Knights the chance to use the sacrifice-system of Aincrad to kill themselves permanently. And then breathed a heavy sigh of relief when at least half of them backed out before the end.

Tohya wasn't sure if the queen had really been relieved, but Silica kept insisting that the woman was a good person. Personally, he was fairly certain that the girl just saw the best in people, regardless of everything else. Silica was nice like that.

The Odyssey Knights as a guild disappeared after that, but a lot of the survivors were still obsessed with finding a way back to their world. Even if they'd given up on believing that the path home was to die.

It was hard to say whether Minami was better off without them, considering that they had been going around fighting monsters and protecting people, but according to Shiroe there hadn't been any really noticeable problems cropping up with their disappearance.

The People of the Land had been more horrified about it. About immortals giving up their immortality, and about Aincrad being able to help them do it. There'd been some kind of fallout, and Shiroe had been running interference for a bit until it'd all calmed down.

Tohya's main source of information on the political spectrum was his sister, and Minori hadn't really been paying attention, seeing as she'd been lost to the world for nearly a month, buried underneath the paperwork that the Golden Retriever kept generating. Tohya wasn't even going to try to understand the many numerous details were involved with the running of an entire academy. Though he was more than willing to help Rudy drag the two recluses out into the open air for a few hours here and there, to keep them from forgetting what it was like to actually be alive.

Serara would help sometimes too, but she was generally either busy with her own guild, or training to become stronger, or a better chef, or a better dancer. And it kind of kept adding up until she was really busy almost all the time. Even if the girl could still find plenty of time in her schedule to hang around Nyanta for seemingly no reason at all.

Not that anyone actually believed that there wasn't a reason behind it, except maybe Nyanta himself, seeing as Serara was kind of ridiculously obvious about her affections.

Isuzu would still dissolve into giggles whenever Rudy showed up and declared that it was time for her to get some fresh air and 'take a walk' with him. But considering that Tohya had gleefully given Rudy a rope – to 'threaten' Isuzu with the prospect of literally getting tied and up and dragged out into the sunlight – he couldn't say that he disapproved of it.

It was definitely kind of hilarious to have the flamboyant mage show up with his 'leash', and begging for a walk.

Minori usually needed to be hauled out from behind her desk with actual physical force though. Or by having Silica pout at her, but that was kind of unfair because Silica was-...

Well, Tohya was still kind of confused about why the pout worked on Minori, but he knew that it worked on himself mostly because his heart-rate tended to get erratic, and he'd walk into things. Which, actually Minori would do sometimes too, but probably not for the same reason.

Minori liked boys, after all.

Even if she'd abandon her precious paperwork in a heartbeat, the moment she heard Silica had returned to Akiba after one of her trips. It wasn't like that was completely unheard of, and Minori tended to do the same whenever Shiroe stopped by to ask for help with something.

She'd continue doing that paperwork of hers if Akatsuki showed up though, and was actually likely to toss things at the woman until she left, calling her a nuisance who cheated unfairly. Which Tohya had never entirely understood, because cheating tended to always be 'unfair', but he guessed that it had something to do with the way that Akatsuki had at some point harnessed the ability to make Shiroe walk into walls by swinging her hips.

Cruel as it might seem to say it out loud, Tohya's sister had never really stood a chance against whatever it was that those two were to each other. The ninja and her lord. And Tohya could swear that sometimes it seemed as if they spoke an entirely foreign language between each other, even when they wouldn't actually say a word. It was creepy.

Still though, Isuzu and Minori were keeping the biggest academy in Yamato running almost entirely by themselves. That was impressive. Even if Isuzu played more figure-head, idealist, and motivational speaker; whereas Minori did most of the actual paperwork.

Rudy could still be struck silent some days, staring in awe as the People who came to study music there experimented with their own new songs, improvising with instruments and lyrics and pretty much anything that came to mind. And Tohya was proud of them. Both for starting this, and for keeping it going even now.

He didn't love music like Isuzu did, but he liked it well enough, and it was wonderful to see so many people gathering in one place to share their love of something with each other. So he wasn't really surprised when his sister would randomly shut herself away from the outside world and bury herself in her work. After all, she desperately wanted to keep Isuzu's and all their students' dreams alive.

Silica seemed to understand that too, even if she didn't do much more than smile happily at them for it. She smiled more at Minori than Isuzu though, but that was probably because Isuzu had Rudy around to smile for her.

And even if Silica had kind of unofficially joined their party – much like Serara had done – all those months ago when the Beast Tamers had all grouped together to go out and explore the world for monsters to tame, Tohya was pretty sure that he and his sister were Silica's best friends. Isuzu and Rudy were usually off in their own weird world, and Serara was usually busy elsewhere, so it stood to reason that it would be the two of them who ended up showing Silica around Akiba whenever she had time for it.

From what little he'd heard when meeting other Adventurers from Aincrad, Silica was a lot friendlier with the two of them than she was with pretty much anyone, except maybe Kirito. But it was a bit unfair to compare her relationship with the guild-leader of the KoB – and Head of the Royal Guard – with their own, seeing as she admired him like a kind of distant big-brother-figure who'd swoop in and save her in her direst hour.

It'd be like comparing Isuzu's and Minori's relationship to Minori's crush on Shiroe. Totally unfair.

Still, them being Silica's best friends had both advantages and disadvantages. Namely, it was really awkward for Tohya to have to deal with the girl deciding that they needed a hug. She was their best friend, and it was bad enough that Tohya stood the chance of screwing that up because of his stupid hormones, without including the fact that his sister was usually also included in the hug. Awkward didn't begin to describe it.

He might love her dearly, but he really didn't need his sister to figure out that he had a crush on their best friend. If she ever did, she might try forcing him into confessing that to Silica, and then everything could end up going to hell. And, really, Tohya was perfectly fine with things as they were. He didn't need anything complicated like a girlfriend, because he had a weird kind of family always hanging around, and he had a really wonderful best friend.

He was more than happy with that.

And if he was perhaps a little bit too aware of how Silica's shoulder would bump into his own when they sat next to each other-... Well, that really wasn't all that important on the whole.

XXX

Nobody was entirely sure what 'Aincrad's Landing' was named after.

There was the general idea of it being the place in Aincrad where ships 'made land', seeing as the area it included was mostly harbor. But there were also people insisting that it was named after 'the place where Aincrad landed', which might help explain why some of the channel and the harbors cropping up around what used to have been an inlet into Tokyo Bay was also included in the area so named.

In the end, most attributed it to some guy getting clever and the name sticking, and scoffed at idea of thinking further on it. Which, admittedly, was probably what had happened, just like it usually did with names like that.

Still, there was no denying that it was a flourishing place, having grown exponentially once it became apparent that the varied climates of Aincrad's Floors were ideally suited for a large number of foreign and hard-to-get plants. And it certainly hadn't dwindled when the neighboring Akiba started to reach for the title of 'Capital of the Arts', luring even more people towards that city and the trade-hub next to it.

It'd taken Argo some time to piece all of it together, but in hindsight their violent reaction to Lord Marves had actually served to stabilize the political climate of Yamato. Aincrad had been a new player on the field, and everyone were very hesitant to cross them. Add to that the sudden upswing in revenue as Westelande traded the goods produced there onwards outside of Yamato, and they had very good reasons to not rock the boat by picking fights.

That obviously wouldn't have stopped any of the schemers from trying to think of a way to claim Aincrad and its luxuries for themselves, but the ruthlessly violent reaction to Lord Marves, followed by Asuna revealing a way for Adventurers to kill themselves permanently-... Considering that nobody was sure if Aincrad would figure out a way to use that offensively, they'd been far more trouble than they would've been worth. And their already-existing trade-agreements with Maihama and Akiba would've likely meant that any attack on them would've drawn Aincrad's ire as well, whereas most everyone in Eastal considered them too odd to really attempt to include them in any true alliances.

It really was quite neat, the way that a third force had been enough to force an unstable peace into a more solid one.

Also very useful, because most of the Clearers had seemingly retired once Heathcliff had fallen, and they probably wouldn't appreciate any outside pressures forcing them back into battle. It was actually fairly peaceful, even if Argo was pretty damn sure that a great many Clearers were putting a lot of thought into the idea of going out adventuring and raid-participating in the dungeons of Elder Tales.

There'd been some noise about investigating the Aincrad's 'basement', but most Clearers were simply too over-leveled to apparently find that 'thrilling' enough to be entertaining. Even if there were some interesting rumors coming from there, these days.

Honestly though, Argo had been more intrigued by the mid-Floor players starting to venture outside of Aincrad in order to find new and interesting things without having to grind their way through level after level in order to climb Floors. Or, in the case of some of the smiths and other craftsmen, to investigate new materials and artifacts.

For example, Argo had been dragged off on a reconnaissance-quest with Lisbeth, in order to find a way to make 'a sword that Kirito would use instead of that shitty monster-drop'. Which had been both hilarious in concept and utterly mind-numbingly boring to actually investigate. Argo wasn't a smith, and she most definitely didn't enjoy spending hours upon hours talking about magical theory and different metal-strengths.

Though at least she'd been able to drop by the Golden Retriever and grab a dance-partner or two to keep herself from going completely insane. Most of them were beginners, and she ended up being temporarily roped into being a tango-teacher, but it was a most welcome change from having to listen to Lisbeth talking shop.

She even got to meet up with Nyanta again, and it was endlessly entertaining to tease that blatantly obvious girl. Why, one of these days she was going to have to properly teach Serara the moves for tango herself, and then throw her at Nyanta. Though that day was probably a few years down the line, because Argo wasn't entirely sure whether the girl would survive it as she was. And Nyanta would probably have a very unpleasant reaction to having someone so young vying for his affection.

Or, at least, Nyanta would probably have a very unpleasant reaction to the realization that he'd woken up next to someone of Silica's age, sans clothes, one morning. He was a good man, and further proof that cats were forever superior to dogs.

Regardless of the details of that relationship however, after the mind-numbing mess that had been Lisbeth's investigation, Argo no longer accompanied anyone on anything that wouldn't be immediately interesting to herself, 'best information-broker in Aincrad' or no.

But that didn't mean that she didn't keep a close eye on the ones who did travel outside. So she knew perfectly well that Silica – the idol of mid-Floor players – had more or less eloped with a certain very influential guild from Akiba. Oh, the girl wasn't officially a member, and the guild was a really small one for a non-Aincrad guild, but it was rather obvious that she'd made friends there that she intended to keep.

Or 'more than friends' if Lisbeth's gleeful cackles were to be believed. Though Argo wasn't going to get involved with whether or not there was some kind of romantic triangle going on between Silica and a pair of twins. She was a respected information-broker who most definitely didn't deal with gossip.

Even if she did have it on good authority that Silica had asked Kii-bou for advice about 'how you knew you were in love'.

Argo wasn't touching that mess with a ten-foot-pole.

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A/n: Using the Kirito/Shiroe POV felt unnecessary, because they're both kind of 'unmoving' after the last chapter. So this Epilogue is for everyone who's been curious about what is happening out of sight from those two.

And yeah, the main reason this if where it Ends is because the Plot has by now been thrown so far out of whack that I don't really have a clue on how the politics and events of Yamato and the rest of the world might develop.

Thank you for all your reviews. They've been wonderfully helpful in reminding me of various aspects that I needed to include. I mean, Rayneshia's part in the Epilogue hadn't even been considered before someone mentioned her in a review. So yeah. A great many thank yous for all of your infinitely helpful comments.

Below are a few scenes that are mostly just there for shits and giggles.

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(Omake)

XXX (Tetra's Handsome Samurai) XXX

"I'm sorry Nao-chan, but my heart has been stolen by another!" Tetra proclaimed dramatically, flailing about like she usually did.

"That's the greatest news I've heard all month." Naotsugu deadpanned without looking up from the paperwork Shiroe had suckered him into finishing. "Now shoo."

"Ah! If you must know, Tetra-chan has fallen in love with a noble samurai from a foreign land!" Tetra continued as if he hadn't said anything, because she seemed to live for these kinds of moments.

"I'm sure we can get you a visa. Have a nice long trip." Naotsugu gritted his teeth.

"Nao-chan, you're so romantic!" Tetra hugged him, clinging on like a particularly unpleasant barnacle. "Since you insist, I'll introduce you!"

Naotsugu took a brief break in the middle of trying to pry the 'idol' off of him without resorting to a crowbar – he didn't actually have a crowbar available, otherwise he would've definitely resorted to it – in order to glare at her. "Whoever agreed to dating you is either a masochist or a loony."

"Hey! I resent that." Klein appeared in the doorway, grinning. "I could also be 'desperate'."

Naotsugu stared at the man most famous for his supposedly horrible attempts at diplomacy, and for hitting on everything with legs. "You poor misguided fool."

"Klein-chan!" Tetra waved at the 'samurai from a foreign land'. "Come here and hug Nao-chan! He needs it!"

"No, I don't!" Naotsugu returned to trying to pry the annoying self-proclaimed idol off of him.

"But Tetra-chan is leaving you for an even more handsome man." Tetra shook her head in tearful and completely unnecessary sympathy. "And Maryelle-san doesn't hug you as well as I do. So you're going to be all pent-up without any kind of outlet at all."

Naotsugu wasn't entirely sure if that had been an intentional play towards innuendo, or if Tetra was innocent of at least that particular annoyance. Either way, Klein just snickered at the sight of them.

"Don't worry, Tetra-chan. I'm sure there'll be plenty of times for you two to catch up on hugs." Klein said from his position by the doorway, a weird air of fondness to his expression.

Tetra pouted, and batted her eyelashes at the other man. "But Klein-chan, I have to hug him lots and lots. Otherwise his shoulders gets all stiff and cranky."

Klein nodded, as if understanding this explanation and proclaiming it a reasonable and wise such – instead of the incessant ramblings of a crazy wannabe-idol. "We all have crosses we must carry."

Naotsugu decided then and there to make Tetra's new boyfriend's life hell. Though he also made a careful mental note to never do so within sight of Tetra, lest she take it as him 'being jealous'.

He was perfectly fine with Tetra disappearing off somewhere and no longer going around picking fights with Maryelle about who got to hug him the most – though a jealous Maryelle could be cute too. In fact, he wouldn't have minded terribly if Tetra had actually decided to move to Aincrad, though he'd known he'd get disappointed on that front from the get-go.

Naotsugu also wasn't entirely sure why everyone had been looking at Klein funny when he'd been introduced to the guild at large, or why the man had shrugged at their disbelieving gazes and said something along the lines of him being 'equal opportunity' in regards to pretty people.

Naotsugu kept getting the distinct feeling that he'd missed a joke somewhere, but he wasn't sure what it was.

XXX (An Unfair Cheater) XXX

Akatsuki had never really considered herself to be 'pretty'. Cute, yes. She could usually pass for 'cute' without much issue, but never 'pretty'.

So perhaps it wasn't all that surprising that she couldn't quite help succumbing to the confidence-boosting rush of watching her lord dissolve into a stuttering mess whenever she swung her hips in his general direction.

Sure, even Minori might have more curves than she did, but it wasn't as if that girl had ever really been a rival for Shiroe's affection. Crush or no crush.

It wasn't really that Akatsuki had been very confident in her lord being attracted to her – though she'd gotten quite smugly certain of that ever since he'd started signing about 'damned dancing' and blushing helplessly whenever she faked being out of breath – so much as she'd quickly figured out that Shiroe was more likely to legally adopt Minori as a little sister than he was to stare at the girl's cleavage.

A rival for Shiroe's attention, certainly. A rival for his affection, to some extent. A rival in romance? Not really, no.

Akatsuki wasn't entirely sure if she was supposed to be feeling guilty about that, considering that Minori was all of fourteen years old. What the girl might feel for Shiroe was no less real because of her age, true. But it wasn't as if Shiroe could really reciprocate the girl's feelings without coming off as a cradle-robbing pervert.

Which, actually, might help explain why Nyanta was so oblivious about Serara's blatant interest. The girl might have a few years on Minori, but she was still firmly in her mid-teens, in comparison to Nyanta's supposed 'middle age'. That kind of age-gap-... well, there was a reason why there was that 'half your age, plus seven'-expression. It might sound like a decent enough age-difference once everyone involved were past their thirties, but with a teenager it was mostly just disturbing to imagine.

Either way, there'd been an insurmountable wall blocking Minori's desire to capture Shiroe's heart. And Akatsuki hadn't had anyone else aiming for her target, even if she was vaguely suspicious that Henrietta had very deliberately avoided making a move of her own, so somehow Akatsuki had managed to keep his attention all to herself. Not that Akatsuki was entirely sure what she ought to be doing with it.

Laugh and sing and dance a jig on the rooftops, obviously. But she'd already done that. And the question had more to do with how she was supposed to 'start' being in a relationship with her lord.

Follow him around? She already did that. Swing her hips in his general direction? She did that too – and it was equally satisfying every time he wandered into a wall because he'd been paying attention to it. Be affectionate with him? She'd been doing that for ages. Tell him that she was in love with him? She-...

She couldn't possibly do that! That was much too-... too something!

And besides, wasn't the man supposed to be doing the hard work? Except, no. Shiroe was kind of an idiot about social stuff, wasn't he? He kind of just kept everything on the inside until he'd figured out how to either deal with it or simply internalized a way to ignore the problem entirely.

She should know, she'd been catching glimpses of his inner monologue through some rather unorthodox hand-signals that he seemed to be inventing on the spot. Like the 'damned dancing' one, which was more about 'timing' and 'movement', with an added modification towards 'swearword', and didn't so much seem to represent 'dancing' in itself as it did Shiroe's associations to it. Namely, Akatsuki was pretty sure that it might be related to how hard Shiroe tended to blush whenever someone brought up the word 'tango'.

Which actually might've been a bit annoying – because she didn't actually know tango herself, and Argo's demonstration had left her feeling somewhat inadequate in her own femininity – except sometimes Akatsuki wondered if the sign wasn't so much 'damned dancing' as it was 'rhythmic movement'. As in, the kind of rhythmic movement that you really did not need to think about when you were supposed to be concentrating on other things, and not lock yourself in the bathroom to have an emergency-related cold shower.

Not that she was ever going to seriously reconsider naming the 'damned dancing'-sign into anything else. Her heart wasn't ready for that kind of-...!

Besides, if she did that, she'd never be able to look her lord in the eye ever again. And that would be awful, because he actually had kind of really pretty eyes. Even if they were kind of beady, and usually hidden behind the light reflecting in his glasses.

Akatsuki wasn't entirely sure if she was more, or less, attracted to him when he smirked with evil intent, than when he smiled kindly. She figured it was about on the same level, but there seemed to be very different kinds of attraction involved.

And she was infinitely grateful that she knew better than to keep her hands where Shiroe could see them, because otherwise they'd probably have to fight over who got to use the emergency-related cold shower first.

After all, it wasn't like they could use it together-...

Akatsuki tilted her head. Suddenly deeply in thought.

Perhaps-... Perhaps she should start keeping her hands where her lord could see them?

XXX