Disclaimer: I Do Not Own Sword Art Online

Asuna's selection of food for the past three. . .or was it four days?. . . consisted of the cheapest black bread from an NPC baker, and a bottle of water that could be filled as many times as you liked from the fountains that were scattered throughout town.

Even in the real world, she hadn't enjoyed eating that much, but the food and drink in this virtual world was so bland that it was beyond description. No matter how much you gorged yourself on luxurious food, not even a single morsel would reach your real body. She thought it would be better if the food system and the sensations of hunger and satiety did not exist at all, but, when your stomach was empty three times a day at mealtimes, the hunger would not dissipate until you had eaten some virtual food.

Even so, she had recently become able to cut off this fake hunger by using willpower only when she went into the Labyrinth, but after returning to town, she had to eat. She bought the cheapest items on the menu as an act of minimal resistance, but she found it strangely annoying that even a dry and coarse piece of black bread seemed delicious in and of itself as she tore it apart and chewed it little by little.

At the center of the town of Tolbana, Asuna sat on a simple wood bench in the corner of an open fountain space and continued to move her mouth to chew while keeping her hood low over her eyes. She had finally finished half of the piece of bread, which was comparatively big for a price of 1 Cor, when—

"Those are pretty good, aren't they."

That familiar voice was coming from her right. She stopped her hand that was just about to tear off a piece of the bread, and threw a sharp glance.

The person who stood there was the man that had told her about the meeting earlier. The black-haired and grey coated one-handed swordsman.

A troublesome person that had used some method earlier to move her outside after she had fainted inside the depths of a Labyrinth, and had forcibly reconnected her path which should have been severed then.

The moment she realized that, her cheeks grew hot. Even though she had said her ambition was to die, he was seeing her here, shamelessly eating a meal as soon as she came back alive. A strong embarrassment ran through her entire body, and she did not know what to do at that moment.

As she remained awkwardly stiffened like that while holding the half-moon shaped black bread in both hands, the man coughed slightly, and then said in a low whisper.

"Mind if I sit down?"

Normally, she would have left the bench without a word, and moved away without turning back in this kind of situation. However, right now, she was assailed by a stunned confusion she rarely experienced in this world, leaving her unable to react. Perhaps interpreting Asuna's stiffness as a sign of approval, the man sat down at the furthest distance possible away from her on the right side of the bench, and began searching through his coat pocket. What he took out was a round, black-colored object—a black bread worth 1 Cor.

At that instant, Asuna momentarily forgot about her embarrassment and confusion, and instead looked at the man in amazement.

"Do you really think its good?"

He had to.

Judging by his ability to be able to go that deep into the Labyrinth and the grade of the equipment all over his body, this swordsman should easily earn enough money to choose from a decent course menu at a restaurant.

Hearing this, the man raised his eyebrow outrageously, and then nodded deeply.

"Uh huh. Since coming to this town, I eat it every day. . .course I've got a trick to make it taste better."

"A trick. . .?"

Not understanding his meaning, she shook her head under the hood. Instead of answering, the swordsman put his hand in the pocket opposite from the one earlier, and took out a small unglazed pot. He put it on the center of the bench, and said.

"Try using this on your bread."

The phrase 'use it on the bread' momentarily confused her, but she then realized it was a net game phrase, similar to «Use the key on the door» or «Use the bottle on the fountain». She hesitantly extended her right hand, and tapped the pot lid with her finger. From the pop-up menu which appeared, she selected «Use», and then her fingertip started to glow with a faint purple light. In this state which was called «Target Selection Mode», she then touched the half-eaten black bread in her left hand.

Then, with a small sound effect, one side of the bread was smeared white. The thing that had been fully, or rather, thickly applied to it was, no matter how you looked at it-

". . .Cream. . .?"

She hesitantly bit into the cream-covered black bread still held in her left hand.

At that moment, the taste of the normally dry and coarse bread spread inside her mouth as if it had transformed into a certain country-style cake with a heavy texture. The cream was sweet and smooth, along with a refreshingly yogurt-like sour taste. As she was struck by a feeling of fulfillment that numbed even the insides of her cheeks, Asuna dreamily stuffed the bread into her mouth with two, three bites.

"I got it from the quest, the «Heifer strikes back». It's the quest in the village before you get to this one. You want to know how I did it?"

To be honest, her heart was moved. With that yogurt cream, even the 1 Cor black bread could become a magnificent feast.

It was a false fulfillment from the taste recreation engine, but she wanted taste it once more. . .no, to eat it every day if possible, is what Asuna couldn't help but think.

However—

Asuna lowered her eyes, and shook her head gently beneath her hood.

"I appreciate the offer. But, I didn't come to this town to eat good food."

"Hmm. Then, for what purpose?"

The swordsman's voice, while it could not be said to be an especially beautiful voice, did not have a single part of it that was unpleasant to the ear, and it had the cadence like that of a boy somehow. Maybe because of that, Asuna spoke without being conscious of it the thing deep inside her heart that she had spoken of to no one since coming to this world.

"So I don't lose sight of who I am. I don't want to lock myself in a room in the Town of Beginnings and slowly rot away. I'd rather stay the way I am until the last moment. Even if a monster beats me and I die. I won't lose. . .to this game or this world. No matter what."

Asuna—Yuuki Asuna's 15 years of life had been a series of battles. Beginning with her kindergarten entrance exam, she had had an endless number of challenges big and small imposed on her one after another, and she had overcome them all. It was set so that even one failure would make her a worthless person, so she continued to brush aside that heavy pressure.

A new challenge with the name of «Sword Art Online» had come upon her at the end of these 15 years of fighting, but she probably could not beat this challenge. With rules and a culture that were far too unknown and far too different, this was a type of battle that a single person's strength could not do anything about.

This was the required winning condition: 'Reach the top of the 100 floor floating castle, and beat the final enemy.' However, one month after the game started, one-fifth of the players had already fallen, and furthermore, if what was said at the meeting was true, most of them were experienced veterans that were confident in their abilities. The remaining fighting force was too small, and the distance that blocked their way was too long.

"I wouldn't want a party member dying on me."

After a few seconds, Asuna wondered, 'Why would he say that?'

She met this swordsman for the first time just this morning, so there should be no reason for him to apologize. When she glanced at the person beside her from beneath her hood, the grey-coated man that was sitting lightly on the bench rested both elbows on his knees and hung his head down.

"Maybe. . .perhaps he sees the same thing in me that he saw in that other man?"

The one that had stood up for beta testers during the meeting.

She had been listening with the 'Klein' she recalled his name had explained who the swordsman next to her was. . .and what he had done when this death game had started.

"Why did you help him. . .Kirito?"

Again her mouth moved faster than her brain as she asked the question. She had even used his name. Something she didn't normally do because why bother learning someone's name when they were going to die anyway?

"Him? Ah, you mean Klein. . ."

Kirito didn't look up from the ground. He hesitated and Asuna almost told him to forget about her question when he spoke.

"I helped him because. . .he was my friend."

"Your friend?"

Hadn't Klein said they had met only hours before? A few hours was long enough to become friends, yes, but to get to the point where you were willing to risk your life for each other?

Underneath her hood, Asuna shook her head. That was crazy.

"Yeah, that's why I'm not a solo player like I planned."

A quiet gasp only she could hear came from her throat at the confession she was hearing.

"I wish I could say that I was a hero like he makes me out to be. . .but I'm not. I didn't help him because it was the right thing to do. . .or because it was what a hero did. My reasons were entirely selfish. I didn't want to lose my only friend. If I hadn't spent those few hours teaching him how to play the game I would have left Klein in the Town of Beginnings. And when he said he had friends. . ."

Kirito shook his head.

"What Klein said at the meeting was a lie. I didn't agree to help them without hesitation. No, I almost left all of them back at the start of this game."

"Ah, come on, Kirito! Why'd ya have to keep saying things like that?"

A boisterous voice pulled Asuna's attention from Kirito. Looking over to where she could here the voice coming from she saw the same man that had defended the beta testers during the Boss meeting.

Klein, was his name.

"Hey, Klein."

Hanging his had at the unenthusiastic greeting Klein sighed.

"Kirito, if you talk to people like that, they're gonna think you don't like them."

"Why would I care if people think I like them?"

Kirito asked tilting his head.

"We're fighting for our lives every day in this death game, Klein. I don't think popularity matters."

"It's not about popularity, Kirito. You're going to be a guild leader soon and occasionally we may need to team up with other players. But if our guild has a reputation for having a standoffish leader...?"

Klein trailed off as he leaned forward waiting for Kirito to finish the sentence.

"They won't want to work with us. I don't mind."

Watching the two Asuna should have been annoyed that she was being ignored. After all, she and Kirito had been having a conversation before Klein found them and interrupting was rude of the samurai player.

Instead, she fighting the giggle rising in her throat. Laughter had been another thing that had been absent from her since SAO launched. Now, watching the interaction between the two players who seemed to be exact opposites yet were somehow friends she was struggling not to laugh.

Lucky for her Klein sighed and waved before walking back to the party going on in the courtyard. Obviously seeing that he wouldn't be getting through to Kirito tonight.

"Here. . ."

Kirito pinched his fingers together and slid them down through the air opening his menu.

Seconds later Asuna blinked as a window opened in front of her.

"I noticed you were left out when everyone started forming parties together at the meeting."

"Not even."

Asuna stared at the question bobbing in front of her. Yes? Or No?

"Everyone else seemed to be friends already, so I just stayed out of it."

Raising her hand she tapped the green icon accepting the party invite.

"Cool. That makes nine of us, which should give us enough time for Switch and POT rotation."

". . .Switch? POT. . .?"

"I'll explain in detail later."

Kirito looked around the courtyard as laughter and cheers rang out.

"If we talk here it will never end. The place I rented in this town is on the second floor of a farmhouse at the cost of 80 Cor12 a night, but it has two rooms that come with the bonus of getting all the milk you can drink, it has a bed with a scenic view, and on top of that there is also a bathroom attached. . ."

Extending forward at a godly speed like her«Linear» Asuna grabbed the grey coat's collar with force just shy of triggering the Crime Prevention Code. Then in a low husky voice barked out forcefully.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?"

Although she had said it herself already, Asuna thought that, among all the acts within this world, the only act that could be called real was «sleep».

Everything else was a virtual imitation. Walking, running, talking, eating, and fighting. It would not be a lie to say that all these actions were nothing but data-code calculated by the server that ran Sword Art Online. Since, no matter what one's avatar did, the body in the real world that was lying down somewhere would not move a single finger. The only exception was when the avatar slept on a bed, and one's real brain also went to sleep. Therefore, she wanted to at the very least sleep soundly which was done when she slept at town inns—however, this was actually rather difficult.

She got caught up in the heat of battle when she fought in fields or dungeons, so she had no time then to look back and reflect, but when she returned to town and laid down on the bed of her single room, she would inevitably replay her actions from a month ago in her mind. Why, on that day, did she have such an unusual whim? Why had she not been satisfied with just touching the Nerve Gear? Why had she put the grim headgear on her head, and say the single phrase "Link Start"? —That was what she thought about.

She would fall into a shallow sleep while thinking of such regrets, and naturally saw bad dreams. Her classmates, ridiculing Asuna at having hugely stumbled at the important time of their third year of junior high, all because of a mere game. Her relatives, pitying Asuna for have dropped out from the race that would continue on during the many years ahead. And—her parents, staring at Asuna's comatose body on the bed of some hospital, with expressions that she could not see.

With a trembling body, she would suddenly jump up in bed and see at the time displayed in the lower left corner of her vision, indicating that, even though a long time had passed since she went to sleep, the actual amount of time she had slept was less than three hours. After that, no matter how many times she closed her eyes, she simply could not fall back asleep. Then again, if she had slept properly every night, she might not have been able to drive herself to fiercely fight for three or four days continuously in the dungeon.

Therefore, Asuna had always wanted to at least spend the money she saved up on a high-class bedroom and bed. The rooms in this world's inns were all narrow and gloomy, with beds made out of unknown materials that were rustling and hard. If it was made of Italian high-elastic and high-tech urethane foam…or at the very least normal cotton, she might have been able to turn her three hours of sleep every night into four hours. And speaking of things she wanted, she wished that there was a bathroom or at the very least a shower attached to the rooms. Even though bathing here was nothing more than a virtual experience and her body in the real world would probably be regularly washed by the hospital staff, this was just a problem of feeling. She was already prepared to die alone in the depths of the Labyrinth, but before that she wanted to just once, even if it would only be virtual, dip her hands and feet as much as she liked into some warm water. And that ardent wish of hers had been directly hit by the Kirito's words.

"What did you say?"

Asuna asked again with a hoarse voice, while unconsciously grabbing the other party's collar. If she wasn't having a hallucination in her brain's hearing, Kirito had really said just now that..

"A-All the milk you can drink?"

"After that."

"I-It has a bed with a nice view. . .?"

"After that."

"T-There's a bathroom. . .?"

She hadn't heard wrong after all. After letting go of his collar, Asuna continued as if becoming impatient.

"We can talk there. Let's go."

"O-Okay. . .?"

. . . .

The farmhouse that the black-haired swordsman had rented was situated along a small pasture in the eastern part of Tolbana. It was much larger than she had expected. If the barn and main building were included together, the place would be about as large as Asuna's house in the real world.

A beautiful stream flowed through the side of the farm grounds, and the installed small waterwheel made peaceful *pitter-patter* sounds as the water passed through it. At the two-story main building, there lived an NPC farm family on the first floor, and the cheerful missus of the house directed a wide smile at Asuna when they arrived at the entrance. There was an old woman who was sleeping on a rocking chair near the fireplace and had a golden [!] mark—the indication for a quest starting point—floating above her head that was worrisome, but she ignored it for now.

Asuna followed the swordsman up to the massive staircase to the second floor, where there was but one door at the end of a short corridor. When the swordsman touched the doorknob, there was a sound of a lock opening automatically. Had it been Asuna who touched it, this door would definitely not have opened. It was completely impossible to unlock rooms rented out to players even with the «Picking»13 skill.

"This is it."

Kirito pushed open the door and made an awkward welcoming gesture.

". . .Thanks."

Expressing her gratitude in a low voice, Asuna then entered the room—and at that moment, she cried out unintentionally.

"W-What is this? So large. . .T-There's only a thirty Cor difference between this and my room!? I-Isn't it too cheap. . .?"

The room the two of them were in right now was at least twenty-tatami. If the door that could be seen on the east wall was the bedroom, then that room was certainly about the same size as well. And on the western wall, there was a door with a [Bathroom] plate hanging on it. Those alphabet letters, inscribed in a strange typeface, seemed to release a magical attractive power to Asuna. The swordsman quickly unequipped his one-handed sword from his back and the defensive equipment on his hands and feet, and comfortably sank his body into the soft-looking sofa among the set of furniture that was simple yet possessed an excellent ambiance.

After giving a long stretch of the body, the swordsman looked at Asuna, who had been lost in thought for a while, and then he cleared this throat and spoke.

"Bathrooms over there if you want to use it."

"Ah. . .o-okay."

Asuna couldn't believe that she would visit someone else's room and then suddenly rush into the bathroom, but it was too late to show restraint now. As she muttered "Well, then" and headed to the door, the swordsman's voice called after her.

"Oh yes, I'll tell you just in case, but even if it's called a bath, it's not the same as in the real world. The Nerve Gear seems to be inadequate at recreating a liquid environment…So, don't set your expectations too high."

o0o

Kirito didn't know why he was still talking. Asuna clearly had only come to his room to use the bathroom given how she had freaked out in the courtyard.

Just let her get on with it.

He wasn't a talkative person, to begin with. So he didn't get why he was trying to drag out their conversation.

"As long as there is a lot of hot water, I don't desire anything more than that."

Answering with complete sincerity, Asuna opened the bathroom door. She slipped inside and then immediately drew back the doorknob firmly.

Leaning back on the couch Kirito looked up at the ceiling thinking about how the boss fight would go tomorrow. Trying to stay focused on that in order to withstand the urge to look at the bathroom door.

As his body sank deep into the sofa in the living room, he thought he had the urge under control. Then he heard it.

". . .Uaaa. . ."

A low long moan came from the bathroom.

Biting his lip he closed his eyes trying not to listen to closely.

Because the room was under his name, and Asuna was in his party the usual privacy noise barrier that was in most rooms wasn't turned on. . .meaning even without a high listening skill, he could hear everything.

He would just have to wait it out and when Asuna came out he would explain as best he could, how to work in a party. Then they would go their separate ways for the night and meet up tomorrow to take on the boss.

All he had to do was last the next maybe ten minutes as she showered.

". . .Uaaa. . ."

I can't do this.

Moving at speeds he usually reserved for battles he stepped up to the hallway door and left the room leaning against the door with his back.

He would just periodically open the door every few minutes and when Asuna was out of the bath he would tell her he just stepped out for a minute to get something. And hopefully, she would not press the matter.

"Kirito!"

"Klein?"

Kirito eyes grew as his friend walked down the hall. Glancing at his room he gulped as the image of Klein entering the room and seeing Asuna ran through his mind.

If that happened he would jump out the window and leave town.

"Sorry to bother you so late, but I noticed we got a new member to the party. What's up with that?"

Klein asked stopping a few feet away.

"You're usually not one to make friends."

Sagging in relief when Klein didn't ask to enter the room Kirito answered deliberately leaving out Asuna's gender.

"It's the player I met in the dungeon. They were kind of left out when everyone else formed their parties so. . ."

Laughing Klein waved a hand.

"So you decided to be the nice guy and invite them to ours. You know Kirito under that surly attitude of yours, your a nice a guy."

Glancing down at his feet as Klein walked away Kirito clenched his fist.

That isn't true.

If it was Klein wouldn't have had to beg him for help. He would have offered to take Klein and his friends with him at the start of the game.

Fourth Chapter!

Up next is the first Boss Battle!

Leave a review with what you think so far, and thanks for reading!