To paraphrase a famous quotation "Rumors of this story's death have been greatly exaggerated."

Hey guys! As you may have noticed, this is not being uploaded before Christmas of 2018, or even before the beginning of 2019. Honestly, I'd originally intended to have it ready as a Christmas gift to you all, but I quickly realized that that was just not going to happen. But, I finally managed to get around to finishing this, and I hope that it at least somewhat makes up for the undue delay. Anyways, once again I'd like to thank everyone who's favorited, followed, or, especially, reviewed this story. You all have no idea how valuable reviews are to authors and so I'm grateful for everyone who's willing to take a moment to give me some feedback.

Anyways, as promised, this chapter will start off the series of lemons for this story. I also have an announcement that I'll include in my debriefing at the bottom. I hope you all enjoy, and please don't forget to follow, favorite, and review!

Chapter 3: Overlooked No More

Kazuto's dreams that night were haunted by old ghosts, making his sleep both shallow and restless. Everything started out pleasantly enough: he found himself in his log cabin on Floor 22, sitting in his familiar armchair and smiling as he listened to Asuna and the others speaking animatedly about some unfamiliar topic. This was what he'd always wanted, just to see the people most important to him happy, and himself being there with them.

Then the dream suddenly shifted. Asuna and the others seemed to vanish and the cabin darkened as it warped into a rough stone chamber, dimly lit by a menacing red light. The room was familiar. It did not bring back pleasant memories.

"Kirito." A soft voice shattered the silence, seemingly reverberating in his ears despite how quiet it actually was. Spinning around, he saw a black-haired girl with sad, lonely eyes staring at him. As their gazes met, Kazuto felt like her stare pierced through to his very soul. His blood seemed to freeze as he recognized the girl: Sachi.

"Have you forgotten about me so quickly?" she asked, her voice remaining as soft as ever, "Have you forgotten about the promise you made to me? You promised me that I would survive, that I wasn't going to die." She started walking towards him. "You lied to me Kirito. You let me die. You just watched helplessly as I was mercilessly cut down in front of you."

Kazuto opened his mouth to protest, but no words came out. Shaking his head, he tried desperately to break free from the dream. This couldn't be Sachi. She would never have said anything like this, she would never have blamed him; her final message to him was to not blame himself for her death. And yet, here she was, standing before him and reminding him that he had been responsible for killing her. He tried to back away, but the gap between him and Sachi only continued to shrink.

"And it wasn't just me you killed," Sachi continued, the other members of the Moonlit Black Cats appearing beside her, facing Kazuto as if in accusation, "you killed all of us." A bitter, cruel smile engraved itself onto her face. "You're a horrible person. Did you think that you could protect us, that you were a hero who could save everyone? You can't save anyone; you couldn't protect me, and you can't protect them either."

Sachi pointed past Kazuto, and he unwillingly turned to see look where she directed, helpless to stop himself, as if he was unable to control his own body. He felt like someone had rammed a knife into his chest as he saw a hooded, shadowy figure skulking around six bodies littering the floor: Asuna, Suguha, Rika, Keiko, Shino, and Argo. Kazuto's eyes widened as he saw dark pools growing around each of the girls, and he felt like gagging and throwing up from the heavy metallic scent in the air, the scent of blood. The hooded figure seemed to notice Kazuto and looked up at him, his eyes oozing malevolent intent even with the mask covering his facial expression. Kazuto recognized him immediately: Johnny Black.

"There you are, black swordsman," the Laughing Coffin member said, the creepily cheerful sadism in his tone only enhanced by how high pitched his voice was, "I've been looking for you. I just wanted a chance to show you my handiwork." He looked over at the girls' bodies. "How tragic for such pretty young things to end up like this. But then again, they knew the risks when they stayed close to you. Xaxa told you this wasn't over. He warned you that I'd find you, and anyone close to you is fair game as well." He cackled maniacally, and Kazuto slammed his eyes shut, praying that the nightmare would end.

"You should know by now that you only bring pain to everyone close to you." Kazuto looked once again and saw that Sachi had replaced Johnny Black. "All you do is cause suffering. You don't deserve to be happy after all you've done, after all you've allowed to happen." Her mace appeared in her hand and she raised it up, preparing to swing. "Come, Kirito. Come join us in death." The weapon came crashing down.

Kazuto bolted awake, covered in cold sweat. His heart raced as the memories of the nightmare burned fresh in his mind and his breath came in frantic heaves. Sitting up, he tried to calm himself down, to banish the memory of the dream from his thoughts. Gradually, his breathing slowed as he managed to settle down, though the haunting words and images from his nightmare continued to plague him.

It was only a dream he told himself, attempting to dismiss the newly reawakened fears and doubts in his heart. Despite knowing that Asuna and the others were still fine, he couldn't shake the images of their broken forms lying on the ground before him. Despite whatever comforting words he'd try to tell himself, it was undeniably true that he seemed to have a habit of getting himself and those around him into danger. And, he'd made dangerous enemies, enemies who would not hesitate to hurt those closest to him. How could he still agree to the girls' request knowing that he'd be putting them in even more danger than they might already be.

His mouth felt dry. With an inaudible groan, Kazuto rolled out of bed and walked over to the door, opening it and slowly making his way down the house's stairwell as quietly as he could. Once he'd finally made it to the ground floor, he slipped into the kitchen, which was bathed in soft moonlight shining in through the massive window overlooking the beach. Kazuto pulled a glass out from one of the cabinets and filled it from the refrigerator's water dispenser. The water felt cool and soothing as he sipped it down, trying to focus solely on that rather than on his lingering fears.

"Trouble sleeping?"

A hushed voice broke the silence in the room, causing Kazuto to jolt momentarily in surprise. Looking over, he saw Shino standing near the threshold of the kitchen, dressed in beige pajamas that almost seemed radiant in the moonlight, looking at him, her eyes filled with equal parts concern and empathy.

"Oh, Shino!" Kazuto exclaimed, trying to keep his voice low so as to not wake anyone else, "Sorry if I accidentally woke you up. I just wanted to come down and get something to drink, no big deal."

Shino sighed exasperatedly. "You're a terrible liar Kazuto, you know that? Even with those black clothes I can tell you've been sweating, and your face is still really pale."

"Can't pull one over on you, huh?" Kazuto said in defeat.

"As someone speaking from experience?" Shino remarked rhetorically, "No. Was it… about the three players that you killed?"

Kazuto shook his head. "No, it was…something else."

"Why don't we sit down and you can tell me about it then," Shino said, indicating towards the dining room. Seeing Kazuto hesitate, she gave a slight scowl. "Come on Kazuto. You've always told me to trust you and to share with you or someone else whenever there's something going on. You can't deal with everything by yourself, and you shouldn't keep things bottled up."

Kazuto knew she was right. Not only should he have learned through the past few years that there were some things that he couldn't tackle by himself, but it was hypocritical for him to have worked so hard to convince Shino to share her problems and then refuse to do the same himself. But, even after having become accustomed to having friends to spend time with, his old habits as a loner, a social pariah who kept to himself and remained distant from other people, were hard to break. "Alright," he conceded, "I'll tell you. Just…bear with me. I've only ever told Asuna and Klein about it. It's still…painful."

Shino's eyes softened and she gave an understanding nod before walking out of the kitchen and into the adjacent dining room. Kazuto followed after her, taking a seat across the table from the girl. To his relief, she didn't pressure him to start talking right away, and seemed content to allow him to gather his thoughts for a moment before beginning.

"In SAO, I was a loner, one of the few people known for their solo player status," he began, "Actually, I was kind of a loner before SAO. I met Asuna early on and we stuck together for a while, but eventually we fell out hard." Shino's eyebrow raised a bit at that, but didn't pursue the matter, "Anyways, I went back to playing solo for a while until I ended up rescuing a small group of players inside one of the dungeons. It wasn't something I'd planned, but it looked like they might not be able to make it out if they drew the attention of more monsters, so I wanted to make sure they got out safely. They ended up inviting me for a drink as thanks and invited me to join their guild, the Moonlit Black Cats."

"In SAO, I was known as a…beater, that is, a beta tester who'd basically cheated by using my knowledge of the game for my own advantage rather than sharing it with the other players. I didn't tell the Black Cats what my true level was, and actually pretended to be around the same level as them because I didn't want to look like I was showing off or to let them know that I was a beater. It was just… they looked like they were having so much fun together, like they were actually enjoying playing SAO even though it was a death game. And I…I wanted to experience some of that happiness for myself. I accepted their offer and joined their guild."

"There was one of them in particular, a girl named Sachi." Shino's eyes narrowed for the slightest moment at that information, though she quickly resumed her more passive expression. For his part, Kazuto didn't even notice, as engrossed as he was in his troubling memories. "She was so afraid of dying in Aincrad. The leader of the Black Cats, Keita, wanted her to work on being a frontline fighter, and she couldn't handle it. One night, she ran away, and none of the others could find her. I managed to track her to one of the sewers in town. She…she was so afraid that she couldn't sleep and all she wanted to do was run away."

Shino noticed Kazuto tense up as he clenched his fists under the table. "I told her…I promised her that she wasn't going to die, that she was going to survive and make it out of SAO alive. I knew it was a horrible lie, a cruel falsehood, but even so I said it. And she believed it."

Unable to even meet Shino's eyes, Kazuto's gaze drifted down the table as he continued. "One day, the Black Cats had made enough money that they could actually afford to buy their own house to use as a home base. Keita went off to look for one that was suitable, and the others wanted to go explore one of the dungeons while he was gone, to earn some extra money for furnishings. I knew the floor we were looting was filled with dangerous traps, but I couldn't tell them how I knew it. The Black Cat's thief opened a chest on the floor and triggered a set of traps that prevented us from teleporting out. Sachi…everyone… I killed all of them. They died right before my eyes, and I couldn't do a thing about it, all because I was too selfish to be honest with them. And then when I returned and told Keita what had happened, he blamed me as well, telling me that I had no business being a part of their guild before he leapt off the ramparts of Aincrad and killed himself."

Kazuto's words started to break up as he continued, and Shino could tell he was choking back sobs near the end. After letting Kazuto sit for a few moments, she asked, "Is that what you dreamed about? Your guild dying?"

Kazuto looked back up at her and blinked some lingering tears out of his eyes before shaking his head. "No, not exactly. I…I dreamt of Sachi. She was…accusing me, telling me that I'd lied to her, that I'd forgotten my promise and that I didn't deserve to be happy. And it wasn't just her." He swallowed, his throat feeling a bit dry again. "You remember Xaxa, don't you Shino? Death Gun?"

She frowned a bit at that, the name obviously brining back some unpleasant emotions. "Yeah," she said, "What about him? Last I heard he's still rotting in jail, isn't he?"

Kazuto nodded. "Yes, he's in jail, but his other partner is still missing. His name's Johnny Black, and he was one of the three leaders of Laughing Coffin in SAO. In my dream, he was there and he'd…he'd killed you. All of you. Just to make me suffer." Kazuto closed his eyes. "I know that you all said that you love me, that you want to be with me, but I'm afraid that you'll all be in danger. I can't stand letting any of being hurt just because you're important to me."

"Kazuto, look at me." Shino's authoritative tone compelled him to look up from the table, where he could see a serious expression on his friend's face. "I know that you like to play the hero, and want to protect everyone, but that's too much for any one person to handle. Do you really believe that the Black Cats would have stayed away from the higher floors if you hadn't been there? You said that you had to rescue them when you met for the first time, so it sounds like they were always taking excessive risks. They made their decisions, and it's not your fault that they died."

Kazuto's face hardened for a moment; Shino's words were similar to those of Klein, who'd essentially dismissed the fate of the Black Cats as being due to their own stupidity and incompetence. And yet, Shino's assessment lacked the same condescension. Kazuto hadn't actually considered the possibility that the Black Cats might have died weeks earlier than they had, during any one of the raids that they'd gone on, heedless of the usual ten level margin of safety that most other players abided by. And it wasn't as though he'd suggested exploring the labyrinth where they had met their end. That had been Tetsuo's idea.

"Even so…" he managed to whisper out, "even so, I made it my duty to protect them. Sachi…all of them. I chose to watch after them, and I failed! In the end, Keita even blamed me for what happened."

"I'm sure that he didn't mean it," Shino replied softly, "he was just in shock at the news, and lashed out at the one person he could, the one who had told him what had happened."

"But…how can you know that for sure?" Kazuto questioned.

Shino gave a small smile. "Do you remember what I said when were together in that cave during the BoB? After we were chased by Death Gun, and I broke down? I said that I hated you, that I hated your guts and wanted you to leave me alone. Do you think I really meant that?"

Kazuto shook his head. "No. I knew that something was bothering you, and that you didn't mean what you were saying. You just needed to let it out of your system."

"That's right," Shino confirmed, "So why would it have been any different with Keita? He'd just found out that all of his friends had been killed, and wasn't thinking clearly. Do you think Sachi would have blamed you? From how you've described her, I can't imagine she would have held it against you."

Somewhere, at the back of Kazuto's mind, he could almost hear the humming of a certain popular Christmas tune as he recalled Sachi's final message to him. She'd told him that he shouldn't blame himself for her death, and that he should keep on living. She wouldn't have wanted him to remain plagued by guilt for her death, or the deaths of the other members of the Moonlit Black Cats. It was irrational to continue bearing that burden, and almost insulting to Sachi's memory as he ignored her final wish for him. Yet, he couldn't let it go.

"You're right, of course," he admitted, "Sachi wanted me to move on, and not blame myself because she died. It's just…" he trailed off for a moment, struggling to express his real concern. "I can't let it happen again. I can't let you, or Asuna, or anyone else die. I'm afraid that I'm not strong enough, that if something comes along again that I can't protect you all. I can't afford to lose you!"

"No one can live forever, Kazuto," Shino said gently, "You and I both know how fragile life can be, given our experiences. But there's no use worrying about it, and denying yourself happiness just because you don't want to potentially put us in danger is both stupid and arrogant. Do you think any of us would want to see you get hurt? If something does happen, we'd rather be by your side, fighting with you like we have before, rather than being trapped and watching you be hurt or killed from the sidelines."

Shino's words struck a chord inside Kazuto. He recalled another time when he wanted nothing more than to protect someone he loved, how he'd accepted Heathcliff's challenge and made him promise to prevent Asuna from killing herself if he died. All he'd been trying to do was to keep his beloved safe, but then she had somehow overcome the system's paralysis and leapt in front of the strike meant for him, apparently sacrificing herself in the process. But wouldn't he have done the same thing if their roles had been reversed? Would he stand by and watch if any of his friends risked their lives?

How could he not have seen it before now. He should have learned from his experiences, that it was just pride, sheer arrogance, to think that his life was any less important to the people around him than theirs were to him. And any thoughts of distancing himself from Asuna, Shino, Suguha, or any of his other friends in order to protect them was doing nothing more than hurting them instead. He needed to let go of the past, along with its ghosts of failures and specters of his perceived inadequacy, and look towards the future instead: a future with Asuna, Shino, Suguha, Keiko, Rika, and Argo by his side.

"Thanks Shino," he said gratefully, looking directly into her eyes for the first time that night, "I…guess I needed that."

"It's no problem," she assured him, "I'm just glad that you finally decided to open up. I know that I've felt a lot better once I actually told someone about my feelings, and you've always been there to listen to me. Consider it as repaying the favor."

"You know, you're actually really good at this," he observed, "Have you been doing this for anyone else?"

Shino blushed, though it wasn't easily visible in the dimly lit room. "I haven't actually helped anyone else, but…I've been doing a bit of research on therapy and counseling. I'm actually considering joining the police as a designated counselor, so I can help out people like you and me. I don't want anyone to feel as isolated and alone as I did." She quietly cleared her throat. "Anyways, you should probably try getting back to sleep. Tomorrow's going to be busy, considering it's our first full day here. Just… promise me you'll let me, or at least one of the others, know if you're having nightmares again, okay?"

"Alright," Kazuto agreed. It still wasn't easy to actually express what was on his mind, but maybe that would get better in time. After all, he wasn't alone anymore, and he had to remember that. As Shino got up and headed back to her and Suguha's room, Kazuto downed the last of his water. He hadn't exactly planned on dredging up those old memories, much less sharing them with anyone else, but he felt relieved that he had. Making his way back up the stairs to his room, he crawled back into bed and stared at the ceiling for a moment. I promise you Sachi, he thought, I promise that I'll stop living with this guilt weighing me down, and start living the life you wanted me to lead. And…thank you. With that, he closed his eyes, and gradually let sleep take him once more.

No more nightmares plagued Kazuto that night.

The next morning, the delicious aroma wafting up from the kitchen woke Kazuto from his slumber. Gradually opening his eyes, he pulled himself up and stretched for a moment to work off his lingering sleepiness. Suddenly, his stomach gave a growl, prompting him to leap out of his night clothes and throw on a new set of clothing before hurrying down the stairs.

As he reached the kitchen, he saw Asuna, Keiko, Suguha, and Shino all seated at the table, munching through a large heap of fried eggs, a platter of thick-cut toast, and a stack of sliced ham. It looked as though Asuna had pulled out all the stops in putting together a hearty Western Style breakfast.

The girls noticed his arrival. "Good morning Kirito!" Asuna said warmly, "we wanted to let you sleep a bit longer, but I made sure to fix plenty of food! Help yourself to whatever you want."

"Thanks!" Kirito replied, "It looks great!" Pulling up a chair, he eagerly began piling food onto his plate, always happy to partake in Asuna's cooking.

"So, Kazuto," Shino said as she amusedly watched the typically reserved boy enthusiastically dig into his food, "How did you sleep last night? Was it better?"

Kazuto paused for a moment and gave a smile to Shino. "Yeah, I did. Thanks for that talk last night Shino. I really needed that."

Asuna, Suguha, and Keiko shot questioning looks at Shino, who gave a slight shrug and mouthed later. Kazuto had already returned his attention to the food in front of him and missed the entire nonverbal exchange.

It only took about five minutes for Kazuto to finish scarfing down as much food as he cared to eat. Finished, he pushed his plate forward a bit and leaned back in his chair, giving a contented sigh of satisfaction. It had been quite a while since he'd had such a calm and uneventful morning. He didn't have anything he had to worry about, he could feel comfortable and relaxed, it wasn't excessively noisy…

He opened his eyes at that thought. It was unusually quiet and subdued, which alerted him to the absence of the two more vocal girls. "Where are Rika and Argo?" he asked, now a bit surprised at their absence.

"Oh, they got up early and went into town together," Asuna explained, "They said that they needed to go pick something up, but they should be back fairly soon. I was a little bit surprised. Argo never really came across as an early riser."

"Yeah, as far as I know, Rika usually tends to sleep in too," Keiko added, "But, she said that she'd gotten a great idea and wanted to surprise us. She wouldn't tell me anything more than that though."

I wonder what they have planned, Kazuto thought. Putting those two together seemed like a recipe for an…interesting time, though he wasn't sure if he should be eager or terrified to see what they had in store. Probably a little of both.

"Anyways," Asuna said, interrupting Kazuto's thoughts, "I figured that since the weather is so nice, and this is our first full day here, we could all spend the day enjoying the ocean and the beach! How does that sound to everyone?"

"Alright! That sounds awesome!" Suguha said excitedly. Only a year before, she probably would have hated the idea of spending an entire day around the water, given her inability to swim and associated hydrophobia, but ever since the others had taught her how to swim, she'd gradually eradicated all of her apprehension and was looking forward to getting to really swim in the ocean for the first time.

"Yeah, I haven't ever gotten to actually visit the beach in real life before, so spending the day outside sounds great!" chimed in Keiko.

"I guess that's the plan then," said Kirito. "Although…" he glanced momentarily at his gut, "I might take it easy for a little while after all of that."

"Well, even if that's the case, you should still come outside and enjoy the fresh air," Asuna said, "After all, that's one of the best things about coming all the way out here." Her tone took on a sterner note. "Plus, I know for a fact that you haven't been getting outside much at all for the last few weeks, so I'm not just going to let you hide out inside for this entire trip."

Keiko and Suguha gave soft giggles at Asuna's lecture, and even Shino cracked a faint smile as she nodded in agreement. "Also," Asuna continued, her voice wavering slightly in uncertainty, "You missed seeing us all in our swimsuits last year. So…you'd better not miss it this time!" The color that had crept onto her face betrayed her embarrassment at the statement.

For his part, Kazuto simply gave a bashful smile, feeling more than a little bit awkward about the whole thing. "Anyways," said Asuna, shaking off her nervousness, "since we've already eaten, we'll go ahead and change into our swimsuits and head down to the beach. You'd better finish eating so you can meet us down there!"

About twenty minutes later, the quintet found themselves down on the beach, eagerly taking advantage of the beautiful weather and picturesque shore and ocean before them. Content merely to recline and relax for the moment, Kazuto lay down on a beach towel with his eyes closed and his hands behind his head, basking in the warm morning sun.

A cool breeze drifted by and Kazuto allowed himself a small smile. It felt so nice to just do nothing for once. He always loved the luxury of being able to lie down and take a nap, as he had occasionally done in both Aincrad and Alfheim, but there weren't many places that he could do so in the real world. Even in those places where it was theoretically possible for him to do so, it was generally frowned upon to just fall asleep in a public area. Now that he had the opportunity, he decided that the experience felt far nicer here than in the virtual world.

"Hey Silica," came Asuna's voice, "would you mind helping rub this sunblock on my back? It's kind of hard to reach everywhere myself."

That caught Kazuto's attention, and he unconsciously squirmed a bit.

"Sure, if you don't mind helping me as well," Keiko responded, "What about you Shino? Do you want some help too?"

"Sure, that'd be great," Shino's voice responded.

Kazuto couldn't keep himself from fidgeting as unbidden thoughts began crossing his mind. Why hadn't Asuna asked him for help? He imagined how nice it would feel as he rubbed the sunscreen onto his wife's back, feeling her soft hair as he brushed it aside… Desperate to push away such thoughts, he tried to think about something else. Sword skills. That would do it. He tried to mentally list each of the sword skills that could be used in ALO, beginning with one-handed skills and planning on moving on to two-handed and weapon specific skills after that. Unfortunately, the pop of the cap off of the sunscreen broke his concentration. He couldn't stop himself from thinking about the girls nearby, and how much he wanted to watch them. Don't look, he mentally commanded himself, don't look, don't look, don't look…

Involuntarily, his eyes opened, and he couldn't stop himself from staring at Asuna, Keiko, and Shino laid out nearby. Asuna's red and white striped bikini immediately drew his gaze, though he supposed that that was the point. Asuna was laying on her stomach on one of the other beach towels that they had brought down with them as Keiko rubbed sunscreen onto her back. While not quite as eye catching as Asuna's outfit, the younger girl's swimsuit was still quite attractive, with its soft yellow and pink color scheme perfectly fitting its wearer's personality. Next to them, Shino sat under an umbrella, legs scrunched up as she focused on the book she'd brought down with her. She was still wearing a t-shirt over her swimsuit, as she'd mentioned that she'd prefer to just relax in the shade for a while.

As if sensing his gaze, Asuna's eyes shifted towards Kazuto and their eyes locked for just a moment. Asuna shot a knowing smile at him, as if sensing his thoughts, causing Kazuto to quickly look elsewhere. His gaze shifted out towards the ocean, where Suguha had immediately taken off to upon arriving at the waterfront. As he watched his adopted sister swimming vigorously off in the distance, Kazuto couldn't help but give a smile. He had to admit, Asuna, Keiko, and Rika had done a great job teaching Suguha to swim. Just a few years ago, she would have made all kinds of excuses as to why she didn't want to go into the water, unwilling to admit that she was scared and that she didn't even know how to swim. Now, she took to the water as if she had been born to; he was certain that, in another life, if Suguha hadn't committed herself to kendo, she could have easily been an Olympic grade swimmer.

"Hey Kirito," Keiko asked, excitement in her voice, "do you want to help us build a sandcastle? It's been forever since I've done something like that, and with more people, we can make something really cool!"

"Aren't you a little bit old for something like that?" Kazuto questioned in a deadpan voice.

Keiko adopted a slightly pouty expression, and next to her, Asuna frowned as well. "Come on Kirito," Asuna chided, "it'll be fun! We are at the beach after all."

"Alright," Kazuto sighed, "I'll help you guys out."

The three of them spent the next hour-and-a-half huddled on the shorefront where the wet sand was ideally suited for molding into shape. Though they didn't explicitly agree on what form their structure would take, the three seemed to have had the same idea, and after carefully packing the circular base into shape, a miniature model of Aincrad slowly began to take shape. After about half an hour of work, even Shino decided to put down her novel and come help out. She finally shed her shirt, revealing her dark, navy blue bikini.

Seeing the four bunched up together, Suguha decided to take a break from her swim and returned to the beach, giving them five people to work on the project. With so many people, the structure really started to come together. After roughly another hour of work, the five all sat back, rather worn out from the laborious work, and admired the end result. While not perfect, and certainly not cleanly showing all 100 floors of the castle, anyone familiar with Aincrad would have been able to identify it right away.

As the tired friends sat back and admired their handiwork, a shout from above them drew their attention. "Hey you guys! We're back! Did you miss us much?" Rika's voice echoed from above, and Kazuto turned to see her and Argo standing up by the road looking down, several large sacks and boxes in their hands. Kazuto was honestly surprised that they'd been able to haul so much back with them, whatever it was that they'd gotten.

"Glad you guys could finally make it," Kazuto yelled back, though it was slightly halfhearted due to his weariness from the last hour's work, "I was wondering if you two had just decided to ditch us and go off on your own!"

"Nyahaha," Argo laughed, "Trust us Kii-boy, once you see what we brought, you'll understand why we skipped out for the morning."

"Well, we'll have to wait for a bit," Asuna shouted up, "We're all a little worn out, and I think it's about time to fix something to eat for lunch."

"Alrighty then," Rika replied, "We'll go ahead and meet you inside then!"

A few minutes later, the group reunited back in the beach house, enjoying the cool air inside the building. Asuna pulled out some ingredients from the refrigerator and started plating sandwiches for the group to have a light lunch, with Shino giving a bit of extra help even though Asuna seemed able to handle most of the job on her own. The others sat back and lounged around, taking the chance to rest for a bit.

"So, where did the two of you take off to?" Kazuto asked Rika and Argo, "And what was all of that that you brought back with you?"

The two girls shared a glance with each other. "You'll find out soon enough, Kirito," Rika replied.

"I'm pretty sure that everyone'll like what we have planned though," Argo added.

Excited by the prospect of finding out whatever secret Rika and Argo were hiding, the group hurriedly chowed through their lunch. Even when Asuna offered to make more food, everyone else declined, both because of the large breakfast they'd eaten earlier, and out of anticipation of the mysterious surprise.

"Alright then," Kazuto said as everyone finished up, "I think it's about time you told us what you've been scheming up."

"Fine," Rika said in a playfully exasperated voice, "Since you can't stand to be kept in suspense any longer, I guess we'll share." As Rika spoke, Argo bounded back to the hallway, returning only moments later with a large plastic trash bag.

Kazuto blinked in surprise as he spotted the colorful plastic objects inside. "Are those…water guns?" he asked in slight confusion.

The two girls grinned broadly, causing a sense of unease deep within Kazuto. "That's right," Rika confirmed, "The idea just came to me last night. It's summer, and we're all out at the beach, so what could be more appropriate?"

"To be honest, once Rika here told me about her plan, I was ashamed that I didn't think of it myself," Argo commented, "It really was an inspired idea. We have a few other surprises for later, but this is the big one."

A thought came to Kazuto, and he shot a concerned glance at Shino. The girl just smiled. "It's fine," she assured, "I've gotten to where I can deal with guns reasonably well. Even if I hadn't, I think these things are so absurd that I doubt I'd have ever been scared of them anyways."

"Alright, as long as you're sure it's okay," Kazuto replied. "Anyways, so, we're just going to shoot at each other with water guns?" he asked Rika, "I guess that seems like it could be fun." However, his voice betrayed his lack of enthusiasm over the idea.

His tone didn't evade Rika's notice. "Don't underestimate me," she admonished with clear annoyance in her voice, "Trust me, there's far more to my plan than just 'shooting at each other with water guns.'" Digging through the sack a bit, she withdrew two large handkerchiefs, one black, one red. She tossed the black one to Kazuto, who snatched it out of the air, and the other to Shino, who likewise deftly caught the piece of cloth.

The two looked at Rika, clearly uncertain about why she'd just thrown handkerchiefs at them; fortunately, Rika wasn't planning on leaving them in confusion for long. "What we're going to do is have ourselves a game of water gun capture the flag! I assume that everyone here has played capture the flag before, right?"

Keiko, Asuna, and Suguha just stared at her, obviously having no idea what she was talking about. Kazuto just gave a slight shrug. "I guess I'm familiar with the general rules, seeing as a lot of games have it as a mode, but I can't say that I've ever actually played it in real life before."

"Seriously?" Rika groaned, "What the hell did you guys do growing up that you never played capture the flag?" She gave a sigh. "Oh well, I guess I can explain the rules, since it's not like it's really complicated anyways. We're going to split into two teams and divide the area into two sections. Each team will hide its flag, the handkerchief, somewhere on their side, and then when we start, each team will search for the other's flag. If they can find it and return it to their side, that team wins!"

"So, where do the water guns come in?" Asuna asked.

"That'll be how we sort of tag people out," Rika explained, "If you get hit by the water from one of the guns, you have to return to your team's side, if you're not already there, then stay out of play for one minute. We don't really have any way to enforce that, but I think we can get away with using some sort of honor system."

"What if we get hit by water, but it's not actually a hit from the gun?" Keiko asked curiously.

"Hmm," Rika pondered, "I hadn't really thought about that. How about if it's a direct or glancing hit from the stream then you're out, but not if you just get spray or mist on you?" Everyone nodded in agreement. "Alright then! Kazuto, Shino, since you two are the only ones here who have experience with guns, you're going to be the captains for your teams. You'll take turns picking who among the rest of us you want to join you."

"Wait a minute," Kazuto objected, "between you, Asuna, Keiko, Suguha, and Argo, there are five other people to pick. Won't the teams be unbalanced?"

"Don't you worry a bit about that Kii-boy," Argo said, waving her hand, "I'll be sitting this part out. I've got a special role, but you'll have to wait and see what it is."

"Alright then," Kazuto said, a little worn out by the continuous mysteries. "Shino, do you want to pick first?"

She smirked at him. "I think I'll let you choose first Kazuto. After all, you're going to need all the help you can get.

Kazuto grinned back, excited at the implied challenge laid down by Shino. "If that's how you want to play this, it sounds good to me." He looked over to the remaining girls. "Asuna, you're with me."

The other girls internally groaned. Of course he'd pick Asuna first. Even though Kazuto had agreed to their proposal, and they had no reason to doubt the sincerity of his returned feelings towards them, the fact remained that the relationship between him and Asuna was still something that they could hardly hope to achieve.

"I kind of figured that you'd pick Asuna first, so I'm not too worried," Shino confidently remarked. "Suguha, how about you join my team?"

Kazuto gave a grimace at that, but he wasn't too surprised. No offense to Keiko or Rika, but Sugu was clearly the best pick for this kind of athletic event. Now, that left the two best friends as the remaining picks. It was a rather tricky decision deciding which of them to choose; Rika was always energetic and gung-ho, but she also tended to be stubborn and liked to do her own thing. On the other hand, Kazuto had had a chance to really work with Keiko before and knew that she tended to be more willing to fill the role of team player. Plus, he knew that, despite her own considerable accomplishments, people tended to underestimate her given her relatively smaller statute and younger age. In the end, all of those factors came together to help him reach a decision. "Keiko," he said, "How about you join us?"

Keiko's face lit up as she bounded over to where Kazuto and Asuna were standing. Rika just gave a wry grin. "I guess I'm with you two then," she said, walking over to where Shino and Suguha stood. "Now that we have teams established, we can go ahead and start. How do you guys want to divide the area up?"

"How about we have the beach as one half, and the area around the house through to the road as the other half," Shino proposed, "and we can use the steps connecting them as the dividing line." Everyone nodded their assent to the suggestion.

"Since I got first pick on team members, I think it's only fair that you get to choose which half you want," Kazuto said, "We wouldn't want things to be too unfair, right?"

"You might just regret that," Shino replied, stepping comfortably back into her role as a rival to Kazuto. "We'll go ahead and take the side up top by the house, and you guys can have the beach area." To Shino's amusement and satisfaction, she noticed Kazuto give a slight grimace; she knew it was going to be a lot tougher on them having to run up the steps in order to reach their side than it would be for her, Suguha, and Lisbeth to race down the steps in order to reach the beach.

"Well, now that everything's ready, let's get these all filled up, then everyone can decide where to hide their flags and we can start!" Lisbeth said cheerfully.

It took around ten minutes for everyone to choose their preferred water gun from the pile that Rika and Argo had bought and to fill them from the hydrant outside the beach house. After that, the group split into their respective teams and moved off to decide on where they wanted to hide their flag. Down on the beach, Kazuto, Asuna, and Keiko stood in a loose huddle to discuss their strategy.

"So, since this area is pretty open, I think we should have our flag as deep within our territory as possible," Kazuto recommended, "that way, it'll be more difficult for the other three to either find our flag or to return it to their side." Asuna and Keiko nodded in agreement. Ideally they would have liked to completely hide their flag, but Rika had admonished everyone that, in the name of fairness and ease of play, the flags had to be at least partially visible. That meant no burying them or otherwise totally concealing them from sight.

Suddenly, Keiko's face lit up a bit. "How about we stuff the flag into one of those crevices over there?" She suggested, pointing to a small rock outcropping that marked one of the edges of the beach. "We could shove it in there, and make it harder for anyone to pull it back out!"
"Great idea Keiko," Kazuto said with a grin, "that should make things difficult for them. Now we just need to settle on a strategy." He glanced back and forth at his two teammates, trying to figure out what the best plan would be. "Alright," he said after thinking for a moment, "Here's what we'll do. Asuna, you and I will alternate probing their side and looking for their flag. If one of us gets tagged out, the other can take their place so that we always have someone on the offensive. Keiko, since you'll know exactly where our flag is, you'll be our last line of defense. Try to take out anyone who makes it through and starts looking for our flag."

Keiko looked a bit disappointed that she was being essentially relegated to guard duty, but she didn't protest the decision, since it did make sense. "We can always change our strategy later if we have to, but I think this is pretty good to start with," Kazuto continued, "Does that sound good to everyone?" Both Keiko and Asuna nodded in assent.

"Hey, are you guys ready yet!?" Rika yelled out impatiently from the top of the steps, "We've been waiting on you for almost five minutes now!"

Kazuto seriously doubted that it had been nearly that long, but he was used to Rika's exaggerated mannerisms by now. "Yeah, we're ready to go!" he shouted in reply.

"Alrighty then!" Rika responded, "We'll start in three…two…one…go!" As soon as Rika's countdown ended, Asuna and Kazuto bolted towards the stairs separating the beach from the house above. While Asuna stopped at the base, Kazuto continued bounding up the steps, where he saw Rika and Suguha barreling down in the other direction towards him. For a second, he considered trying to simply rush past them, since the stairway was wide enough to allow such a move, but as he saw Rika raise her gun towards him, he quickly realized that they wouldn't just let him by even if he wanted to do so.

With only a moment to react, Kazuto hunched over as a stream of water from Rika's weapon passed over him. At the same time, he brought his own gun up and pulled down on the trigger twice, sending spurts of water at both Rika and Sugu. Suguha just laughed in enjoyment as she nimbly avoided the shot, but the first stream hit Rika right in the face.

"Dammit," muttered Rika as she turned around to head back up the stairs. Kazuto rushed past her, while Suguha continued her way down towards the beach, apparently not wanting to bother getting drawn into a shootout with Kazuto. As Kazuto reached the top of the stairway, he barely had time to register the sight of Shino lying on her stomach next to the stairs before he felt the blast of water from her gun hit his chest. She gave a smirk and a little wave of her hand as Kazuto sighed and made his way back down the steps.

Reaching the beach once again, Kazuto saw Asuna standing with her arms crossed, a clear look of annoyance on her face. "Did Sugu manage to hit you?" Kazuto asked.

"Yes," Asuna replied, "I tried to hit her a few times, but she's really fast. Then I guess she had enough of trying to dodge me, so she went ahead and shot back at me."

"Well, she has been practicing kendo for pretty much her entire life," said Kazuto, "She'd never have made it that far without good reflexes. How much longer are you out for?"

"That's just about one minute," Asuna replied, picking her gun back up off the sand, "I guess I'll head up and see if I have any better luck up there than you."

"Be careful," Kazuto warned, "Shino's set up next to the stairs."

"Thanks, I'll be sure to watch out for her," Asuna stated as she headed up towards the beach house. Meanwhile, Kazuto was mentally counting down how long he had left until he could get back in the action. As he waited, he watched in amusement as Keiko and Suguha chased around after each other, both girls trying to land a hit on the other. Finally, Suguha stopped and looked down for a moment, then slumped her shoulders as she walked back towards the stairs as Keiko gave a victorious cheer.

"So, you finally got taken out, huh?" Kazuto asked as Sugu walked by him.

"Yeah," his sister/cousin replied in a slightly tired voice, "I mean, I've never used one of these things before, so that makes it a bit harder to hit people, but I guess me being a bigger target gave Keiko a bit of an advantage."

"Yeah, being a smaller target seems like a good thing when it comes to something like this," Kazuto agreed. "Anyways, my time's up, so I'll be seeing you later!" Picking up his gun, Kazuto quickly swiveled towards the steps and blasted Rika in the face again right as she reached the bottom.

"Are you serious!?" Rika griped as she was forced to head right back up the stairs again.

"Remember, this whole thing was your idea!" Kazuto yelled back at her. She casually flashed him a rather vulgar gesture with her hand without even turning back around to face him. Kazuto grinned. Oh yes, this was turning out to be much more fun than he'd originally thought…

For roughly the next hour, the six teenagers raced back and forth around the area, with each team trying to gain some advantage over the other. While thus far Kazuto, Asuna, and Keiko's flag had remained hidden, eventually Asuna had managed to break through Shino, Rika, and Suguha's defenses around the beach house and found their flag tied around the doorknob of the house's road facing entrance. She'd even managed to get it untied and started bringing it back, only to get tagged out by Shino after carrying the flag about ten feet. Now, the three were jealously guarding their flag, aware that if they got too careless, it could easily be snagged and returned, resulting in them losing the game.

The game was, however, taking its toll on everyone. Constantly running up and down the steps in the summer heat quickly began to tire out even the athletic Suguha. After about half an hour, Kazuto had given Keiko the go-ahead to break off from her position on the beach and let her have a chance at going on the offensive, giving him and Asuna a bit of a breather.

However, physical energy wasn't the only thing running short. Kazuto could tell that his gun was feeling significantly lighter, as most of the water in its chamber had been used up. Given that the game wasn't looking like it was going to end in the immediate future, that was not a good sign. But, if their guns were running dry, surely that meant the other team's were low as well. Fortunately, it seemed like there was a temporary lull in the action, probably from Rika, Shino, and Suguha being equally tired after running around for so long.

"Hey! Asuna! Keiko!" Kazuto shouted, hailing his two teammates over. Both girls heeded his call and made their way over to a shaded area next to the steps where they could temporarily enjoy a break from the sun blazing overhead. "How are you guys doing on water in your guns?" he asked, "Mine is running low, which means we probably need to get them refilled as soon as possible."

"Yeah, I'm nearly out too," Asuna confirmed, "but how are we supposed to refill them? The hydrant is really the only efficient way to do it, and it's in the middle of the other team's territory."

Kazuto cursed internally. He hadn't even really thought of that, and had just automatically assumed that wherever he could refill their weapons would be neutral territory. "Well, that's going to make things a bit more difficult," he said, "I'd thought about trying to get them all refilled at once, but if we have to make our way through to the hydrant, it would be too risky to leave our side completely unguarded." He thought for a moment. "How about we try cycling through like we have been for trying to get their flag? We could have one of us try to draw them off by going after their flag, while one of us refills our weapon and one of us stays to guard our flag."

"That sounds like a good plan," Asuna said, while Keiko just nodded in agreement.

"Alright then," said Kazuto, "I'll go first then in order to check the area out. Keiko, you can make another try for the flag. Remember, you're mainly trying to draw their attention, so get the flag if you can, but just try to keep them distracted for as long as possible."

"Got it!" Keiko replied, trying her best to sound confident.

"Let's go then!" said Kazuto, as he hurried up the stairs. Keiko followed him and both she and Kazuto kept their weapons raised in case they ran into their adversaries. Oddly enough, however, it looked as though Shino, Rika, and Suguha had completely withdrawn from the area around the stairs, as none of the three could be seen anywhere. "It looks like they're probably still keeping a closer guard around their flag," Kazuto observed, "Try to keep them busy. I shouldn't need too much time to get this refilled."

With a nod of her head, Keiko ran off towards the side of the beach house where the flag had last fallen. As soon as she began moving, Kazuto made his way to the hydrant. He knew that there was no way Keiko could avoid all three of their opponents for too long, so he needed to make this quick.

Hastening to the side of the house, Kazuto quickly removed the cap, which he had already loosened beforehand, and turned on the hydrant, trying to work as quickly as he could. However, there wasn't much he could do while he waited other than look around. Curiously, he saw tiny fragments of color strewn across the ground. He hadn't noticed them as he was moving, but now that he was nearer and able to look more closely, they were clearly visible. Realization struck him suddenly: had someone been tossing water—

Before the thought had even fully crossed his mind, he felt a thump on his head, immediately followed by the sensation of cold water exploding all over his head and upper body. He gave a slight gasp at the unexpected feeling and began looking all around for the source of the surprise attack.

A familiar, raucous laugh coming from up above soon gave away the identity of his assailant. Looking up, he saw Argo perched on the roof, largely concealed in a shadowy nook. Still sputtering, Kazuto was speechless for a moment before finally getting his question out. "What the hell are you doing up there!?" he demanded.

"I told ya that I had a special role Kii-boy," Argo informed him, her voice filled with obvious mirth, "It wouldn't be too much of a challenge if everyone could just resupply whenever they wanted now, would it?"

She did have a point. Certainly Kazuto hadn't expected her surprise attack, and judging by the other balloon fragments scattered around, clearly he wasn't her first victim. "Don't tell me," he said as the thought dawned on him, "Did the others already try to get refills only for you to ambush them? Is that why they haven't been on the attack for so long?"

"That's some pretty good deduction there Kii-boy," she said in a slightly congratulatory tone, "but if that's the case, then they're probably ready to attack again, wouldn't you say?" Leaning her ear towards the far side of the house, she seemed to listen for a brief moment before turning back to Kazuto. "Ya'd better get back to your side so you can start counting down though," she warned, "it looks like poor A-chan's gonna be outnumbered here in a moment."

Turning his head, Kazuto saw Keiko racing back down, followed closely behind by Rika and Suguha. "Damn!" he swore, giving the faucet a yank to turn it off and then bolting towards the stairs.

"Sorry Kirito," Keiko said in a pant, "I tried to avoid getting hit for longer, but with all three of them over there, it was too much!"

"Don't worry about it," Kazuto replied, "I ended up getting tagged out by Argo; she's hiding on the roof above the hydrant with water balloons to hit anyone who comes near. But right now, we just need to get back to Asuna as quickly as possible." Fortunately, even though he'd technically been tagged out by Argo, he'd still managed to mostly refill his weapon, so that was a positive, even if he couldn't use it for the moment. But, that didn't mean that someone else couldn't.

As he and Keiko reached the bottom, they were met with a clearly surprised Asuna, who had no idea what exactly was happening. "Asuna!" Kazuto called out, "Catch!" He tossed his weapon over to her and, quickly deducing what was going on, she caught it and immediately swiveled towards the stairs. Just as Rika and Suguha came into view, she swiftly stepped to the side, giving the trigger two quick squeezes and sending a pair of water streams arcing towards the other two girls, who were caught flatfooted by the unexpected counterattack. Both shots found their marks, causing Suguha and Rika to stop and forcing them to turn back and make their way to the top again.

Suguha just gave a shrug as if to say what can you do, but Rika couldn't help letting out her frustrations a bit. "Shit!" she swore, "I thought for sure we were going to have you this time, since we actually had a numbers advantage. Oh well. That was some nice shooting and good reflexes though Asuna!"

Asuna smiled back at her friend. "Thanks Li—"

She was cut off midsentence as Shino dashed in like a gale, quickly tagging the distracted Asuna with a well-aimed shot before continuing on deeper into her, Kazuto, and Keiko's territory. Kazuto groaned internally; with all three of them now temporarily out, Shino would have nearly a full minute of free rein to look for their flag. Kazuto silently counted down the time until his minute was up, hoping that Shino wouldn't be able to find their flag in that time.

Unfortunately, given the fact that she and her teammates had already searched most of the beach area earlier, she was now able to narrow down the remaining hiding spots for the flag. Kazuto watched as she peered into the rocks, then reached in to where their flag was placed. Five, four, Kazuto counted down internally, readying himself to stop Shino as soon as his time was up, three, two, one. He immediately moved forward, and Asuna returned his earlier favor by tossing his gun back to him. "Keiko! Asuna! Go for their flag as soon as you can!" he directed. The two girls nodded, and Keiko immediately took off, since her time had been the same as Kazuto's.

Shino noticed that he was running towards her, and with one final tug she managed to free the flag from its resting place. However, she decided against taking the time to try picking it up, especially now that Keiko was making her own move for their flag. Dodging a shot of water from Kazuto, she raced back across the beach and up the steps, somehow still having enough energy to run up rather than walk.

"Let's go Asuna," Kazuto said as Shino retreated, "we can go ahead and get your gun refilled while they're all busy." The two pushed through their exhaustion and climbed up the steps again, making sure to clear the area at the top to make sure that none of their opponents were waiting. Presumably, they'd all heeded the danger and had returned to protecting their own flag. As they approached the hydrant, Kazuto hopped to the right, dodging another water balloon that Argo halfheartedly lobbed their way, then sending a spurt of water at her in response, hitting the older girl in the face.

"Eh, I guess I kinda had that coming," she admitted to Kazuto as she shook the water out of her hair, "Well, you two'd best take advantage of this while you have the chance if you still want to get more water. The other three pretty much gave up after a few times; I guess they figured they could just get by with what they have left."

"Yes!" Kazuto exclaimed, with just a little too much enthusiasm, "Asuna, all we have to do is just wait them out then and make sure they can't refill their weapons and we should be able to just grab their flag and win!"

"Well, we may not even have to wait," Asuna observed, pointing over to their left, where Keiko was enthusiastically running with the red handkerchief in her hands.

"Kirito! Asuna! I got the flag!" she yelled, excitement evident in her voice.

"Great!" Kazuto replied. He started to trot after Keiko, and turned back to Asuna. "All we need to do is just to protect her until she gets the flag back to—"

Before he could finish his sentence, he felt a spray of water hit his back. He saw Asuna give a jolt, indicating that she had been hit as well, then had to step out of the way to avoid being stampeded over by Shino, Suguha, and Rika, who were all running at a breakneck pace towards Keiko, apparently tapping into their last reservoir of strength for this final push.

"Well, that's not good," he drily observed as the three swept past and managed to take down Keiko too. He shook his head; how had they gone from a fairly confident position to having suffered a complete team sweep? He started making his way back towards the steps, hearing Argo's amused chuckles coming from behind him. At this point though, it didn't really matter how quickly they made it back. They'd overextended a bit, and now Suguha, Rika, and Shino had a clear path to return the flag to the beach house.

It didn't take them very long; after only about 40 seconds, the three came stumbling back up, with Shino holding up the black handkerchief in victory while Suguha and Rika cheered. Kazuto just let his weapon fall to the ground and gave a weary smile. True, it didn't feel great to lose, but the entire game had been a lot of fun anyways. "Congratulations you guys," Kazuto said, "that was a great game. I'm actually really glad you thought of this Rika."

"So you're saying that you actually doubted me?" Rika demanded in mock indignation, "I would've thought you'd have learned by now that my ideas are always great."

"Maybe great at making a mess," Kazuto shot back, enjoying the rise that he got as Rika scowled back at him.

"Anyways, I agree," Shino said, "this was a great idea. You guys kept it close pretty much the entire time too. We were just lucky to get the drop on you there at the end. But, I'm pretty beat after all of that. Is everyone else ready to go inside and cool down?"

"If you need to cool down, maybe this'll help ya!" Everyone spun around and looked up to where Argo was still perched on the roof top, just in time to watch a bundle of water balloons tumble down on top of them. The balloons burst against the ground or against the six people standing below, sending cool water splashing over them. For a moment, everyone was shocked into silence, then, one after another, they began laughing at the absurdity of the whole thing, enjoying the precious moment of carefree fun.

After that, the seven of them quickly cleaned up their mess, emptying the water guns and leaving them to dry, and also picking up the scattered fragments of water balloons that had littered the area. Once they were done, they followed Shino's suggestion and made their way back inside to recover after spending so much time racing around in the hot summer sun. In fact, by an unspoken consensus, most of the group headed off to their rooms to enjoy a nap, with Kazuto at the lead.

A few hours later, Kazuto was woken by a light knocking on his door frame. Sitting up, he saw Asuna standing outside, smiling in at him. "Hey Kirito," she said, "I thought it might be fun to get everyone together to help cook dinner tonight. Do you want to help? It might be useful for you to know how to make something besides that bland pasta dish you know."

Kazuto gave a slight yawn as he sat up and scoot himself off of the bed. "Sure," he said, blinking away any lingering particles in his eyes, "that seems like a good idea. Did you have something in mind you were wanting to fix?"

"I was thinking that curry would be pretty good," Asuna replied, "Of course, we made sure to grab some spices so you can make yours into as much of an inferno as you want. Meanwhile, the rest of us can enjoy normal curry like reasonable people."

Kazuto couldn't help but grin slightly at Asuna's jab. She'd developed a real passion for cooking and especially loved having her food appreciated by Kazuto and the others, but she made her annoyance known when Kazuto insisted on spicier and spicier meals. Not that that ever stopped her from fixing them anyways.

The two headed downstairs where they found Argo leading a yawning Rika and Keiko out of their room. Meanwhile, Suguha was sitting on one of the couches in the living room watching television, with the volume low enough so as to not disturb Shino, who had fallen asleep in one of the recliners, her book resting in her lap.

"Hey everyone," Asuna announced, "I was planning on fixing up something for dinner, and wanted you all to help. If you know how to cook, it'll be a nice way to show off your skills, and if you don't, then it'll be a great way to learn!" At her words, Argo began fidgeting slightly, while Rika gave a rather nervous smile. In contrast, Keiko and Suguha seemed rather excited as they energetically moved towards the kitchen.

Shino, awakened by Asuna's announcement, stood up slowly and stretched her arms out after her nap. "I guess that sounds like a good idea," she noted, "I guess I can see how much my cooking skills have improved; I've been pretty happy with the results, but now I can actually see what other people think."

Within a few minutes, the seven had managed to pull all of the ingredients Asuna said they needed out of the refrigerator and pantry, and divided up the tasks to get the process going. As it turned out, Argo and Rika lacked significant experience with fixing anything more complicated than the most basic of foods, so Asuna took pity on them and gave them relatively manageable tasks: slicing vegetables and managing the rice cooker respectively. Keiko didn't have much more experience than the two older girls, but she seemed a bit more enthusiastic, so much so that Asuna let her take care of fixing the base for the curry, melting butter over the stove and mixing in flour, curry powder, Worcestershire sauce, and tomato paste.

Meanwhile, Asuna assigned Suguha and Shino, the two girls with the most prior cooking skill and experience besides Asuna herself, with the more delicate steps in the recipe: toasting some of the spices and sautéing the onions, both of which required careful maintenance in order to avoid burning the ingredients. As for Kazuto, Asuna had instructed him to slice the chicken into cubes, then to help add all the ingredients together afterwards. However, with six other people, there wasn't much left for Asuna to do. In order to avoid quite literally having too many cooks in the kitchen, she decided to flit between the different prep stations, giving instructions for the recipe and advice to the more inexperienced hands. She smiled as she watched the others work with each other to put together the meal, with Rika and Argo trading banter with each other and teasing Kazuto over his far from uniform early products, Shino and Suguha sharing previous recipes and culinary advice, as well as giving Keiko some assistance when they felt necessary, and Keiko herself enthusiastically stirring her roux.

In fact, even though more than half of the chefs lacked any substantial experience with cooking, the entire process went off pretty much without a hitch, and it took just over thirty minutes for the more time intensive tasks to be completed. "Alright everyone, how about you take a break and I'll handle finishing everything up," Asuna said, stepping forward, "It should only be about twenty minutes, so if you want to go ahead and get dishes out, that would be great."

With that, everyone began to withdraw from the kitchen, though they were considerate enough to drop any dirty dishes and utensils into the sink for later cleaning. Now, Asuna could finally have some quiet time to focus on putting together the last elements of the curry, mixing the roux, the chicken, the vegetables and the spices together. The mixture began bubbling and the aroma it gave off smelled intoxicatingly delicious. Asuna smiled, quite pleased with her near finished product. It wouldn't be much longer before the curry was ready and the rice was just sitting in the cooker waiting to be served. She hoped that everyone would like the food, even more so because they had a hand in fixing it.

As she was considering the food, Asuna noticed a flash of movement and a quick glint of white ceramic darting in from her right side. With speed befitting her nickname, Asuna immediately slapped away the hand holding the spoon that had been going for the curry.

Argo pulled her hand back, her wrist stinging slightly from where Asuna had smacked it. "A-chan," she whined in an amusingly needy voice.

"That's what you get for trying to taste the food before it's ready," Asuna reprimanded, a no-nonsense look on her face. "It won't be much longer, so you can wait along with everyone else." Without even looking, she swung behind her on her left side and was rewarded with a quick yelp. "That goes for you too Kirito," she said.

"Well, so much for that," the black-haired boy said, pulling his hand back, "I guess it was worth a try."

"Anyways, Kirito," Asuna said as Argo slunk back to the dining room in defeat, "since you're here, how about you fix up your portion. That way you can make it as spicy as you want without tainting everyone else's food."

That got Kazuto's attention. As Asuna transferred some of the curry to a separate pot for Kazuto, the boy eagerly sifted through the various spices, sauces, and ingredients to pick out the ones he thought would work the best. Not having much experience with actually preparing food, Kazuto eventually settled on grabbing both chili oil and shichimi.

Asuna raised her eyebrows slightly. "I know that you like your food spicy Kirito," she cautioned, "but I'd be careful not to add too much of either of those. You can always add more later, but if it's too spicy there's not much that you can really do."

He sighed slightly. "Alright, I'll try to hold back a little bit."

Kazuto made sure to stick to Asuna's advice, and to his surprise he managed to hit a pleasant amount of spice that was still hot enough for his taste, but not so spicy as to smother the other flavors of the curry. The others seemed equally pleased with the end result, as everyone ended up getting at least a second helping. Once everyone had finished eating, most of the group sat back in their chairs, content to just enjoy the moment. Kazuto was particularly satisfied, with the entire day having been great fun and a fantastic way to start off their vacation together.

"Alright Kirito," Asuna said, standing up and finally breaking the silence, "We're going to try to clean up down here. You should head on up to your room and try to relax for a while."

"Yeah, I have a feeling you're going to need to rest up for a bit," Rika teased, shooting a subtle wink at Keiko.

For his part, Kazuto had almost completely forgotten the events of the upcoming evening, with that particular part of their agreement having nearly slipped his mind during the course of the day's excitement. Now reminded of what was expected of him, he paled slightly. But, even if for some reason his feelings had changed from when he'd given his answer the day before, he was in too deep to back out now. Besides, his feelings had in fact not changed; he still knew that he very much cared for and loved all six of the young women sharing the house with him and had dedicated himself to making them happy however he could. That certainly didn't alleviate his nervousness though.

"O-okay," he managed to stammer out, awkwardly withdrawing from the kitchen as the girls finished cleaning up the aftermath of their cooking adventure.

Fortunately, with six people, the cleanup didn't take too long either and soon only a handful of dishes remained to be cleaned. Taking note of the situation, Asuna spoke up again. "Silica, why don't you go ahead and get yourself ready. We can handle the rest, so go ahead and take whatever time you need."

A clearly nervous Keiko glanced around at everyone else as if making sure that it really was okay for her to leave, then gave a wordless nod of thanks as she scurried off to the bathroom.

As predicted, it took under ten minutes for the remaining five girls to finish cleaning, drying, and putting away the remaining dishes and utensils. Once they were done, everyone dispersed through an unspoken agreement, either returning to their rooms or heading towards the living room to watch TV or otherwise pass their evening.

For her part, Rika decided to head back to her room for the moment. As she passed through the hallway, she noticed that the bathroom door was still closed. I guess Keiko must still be in there getting ready, Rika thought. Maybe she'd get the chance to tease her friend one more time once she was finished. So, Rika decided to wait and catch Keiko before she headed upstairs.

However, five minutes passed and Keiko still hadn't come out. Then another five minutes. Then ten. Soon, as far as Rika could guess, Keiko was coming up on forty minutes inside the bathroom. The brunette was becoming annoyed, but also concerned. What was keeping Keiko for so long?

Walking out of the bedroom and into the hallway, Rika headed straight for the bathroom door. She knocked on the door. "Hey, Keiko!" she said, "What's taking so long? Are you almost done in there!?"

A few seconds passed, then the door unlocked and Keiko's hand shot out, grabbing Rika's arm and pulling her inside before the younger girl hurriedly locked the door again. It only took a moment for Rika to shake off her surprise. "Keiko!" she demanded, "What are you—"

"I don't know what to do," Keiko said softly, cutting Rika off midsentence. The older girl let her momentary annoyance vanish as she took a closer look at her friend. Keiko's eyes were watering, and it looked as if she might burst into tears at any moment.

Any thoughts of teasing her friend instantly evaporated from Rika's mind. "Alright Keiko," she said as gently as she could, taking a seat on the tile floor and indicating for her friend to take a seat next to her, "Can you tell me what's wrong?"

The younger girl nearly collapsed to the ground next to Rika. She sat for a moment, trying to steady herself and put into words what she wanted to say. "I thought that I had prepared myself for this," she began, "I thought I could be confident enough to go into this just like you, and Asuna and Leafa, and the others. But who am I kidding?" She started to choke up for a brief moment before managing to calm herself back down a little. "I mean, just look at me Rika. I'm not at all attractive like you guys. Even you pointed out how little I have…" she seemed to have difficulty finding the right word, and ended up just indicating around her breasts, "here. I'm not that much younger than Sugu or Shino, but I still look like some little kid. There's no way that anyone could find all of this attractive. I know Kirito would never say anything, but I just know that he doesn't see me the way he sees the rest of you."

Rika frowned slightly at her friend's rant. Had Keiko always felt this way? Like she wasn't good enough, or attractive enough compared to the rest of them? Rika suddenly regretted some of the times that she'd teased Keiko about her body or made similar comments. The younger girl always acted so happy and had never really pushed back at any of her comments. So, this sudden reaction had really caught Rika rather flatfooted.

"Keiko," Rika began, her tone substantially different from her usual impish personality, "listen. You don't have anything to be ashamed or afraid of. The truth is, you're really cute and attractive, and any guy would be lucky to be with you." Keiko looked at her, but the look in the younger girl's eyes made it clear that she wasn't convinced. "I'm not lying or just saying what you want to hear you know," Rika insisted, "You're just as attractive as any of us, and maybe even more. I mean, look at me." She gestured to her face, "My hair is messy and rough, I have something of a baby face, and I have these freckles all over. I'm hardly what you would consider to be the most conventionally attractive girl around."

"But it's not just that," she continued, "I tend to speak without thinking, and I rub a lot of people the wrong way. I'm not particularly girly a lot of the time either. To let you in on a secret, I didn't really get much business at my blacksmith's shop in old Aincrad until Asuna convinced me to wear that ridiculously frilly pink uniform. But you? You're probably the sweetest person I've ever met. You're always kind and thoughtful, and I've never heard you say anything bad about anyone. You're always harder on yourself than you should be. And Kirito? He loves that kind of thing. Trust me, you've got nothing to be worried about."

Keiko blinked away the tears that had gathered in her eyes, genuinely surprised at Rika's warm words. She hadn't ever heard anyone really talk about her like that before, and the fact that the words were coming from Rika, who tended not to be particularly sappy or sentimental, made it even more unexpected. Even so, after so long being overlooked or ignored, it was hard to really take such a statement at face value. "Do you really believe that?" she asked, filled with the need for confirmation.

"Of course!" Rika affirmed, "I'm your best friend, right? I'm not going to lie to you about something like this. You have absolutely no reason to doubt yourself. Now," she concluded, rising from her position on the floor "stand up and go get him! That loveable idiot is upstairs just waiting for you and you have first dibs on him! So, don't waste this opportunity!"

Following her friend's lead, Keiko stood up and gave Rika a soft smile. "Thanks Rika," she said sincerely, "I…no one's ever talked about me like that before. So, thank you."

"Like I said, you're my best friend," Rika reiterated, "and I'm not about to let you dump on yourself like that." With her friend no longer visibly distressed, Rika was able to notice something she had overlooked and hadn't really thought about when she'd first been pulled in. "You're not wearing your hair ties," she noted, "Your hair actually looks really good without them."

"I thought…maybe they made me look a bit too childish," Keiko replied shyly,

"You should definitely wear your hair down more often," Rika said, "not that your pigtails don't look great too, but it's hard to appreciate just how smooth your hair is when it's tied up like that."

"I'll keep that in mind," replied Keiko as she walked over and opened the door to leave. She opened it, but then turned back for a moment. "Thanks again for everything Rika. Well, wish me luck!"

"Of course!" Rika responded, "Make sure you have fun tonight! Don't do anything I wouldn't do." Keiko nodded and nodded and smiled as she headed out into the hallway, starting her way upstairs towards the master bedroom where Kazuto was staying. Suddenly, Rika was hit with a burst of inspiration, one last little tease before her friend went off. Unable to resist, she stepped out into the hallway. "Just remember," Rika called out, giving Keiko some parting words, "you owe me all the juicy details tomorrow!"

Upstairs, Kazuto lay back against the backboard of his bed, mindlessly watching the latest action movie that he could find on television. At this point, he relished any way to take his mind off of what was to come. He'd been up there for quite a while, and as if just knowing what was going to happen soon wasn't stressful enough, the interminable waiting was even worse. He had only ever done this once before, and that hadn't even been in the real world.

He wondered which of the girls would be coming through his door. He would obviously feel most comfortable if it was Asuna, given that they had already seen all of each other before, but given that there were six possible girls, the odds of that weren't particularly good. It still befuddled him how all six of the girls, Asuna, Rika, Keiko, Suguha, Shino, and Argo, had all not only fallen in love with him, but actually wanted him to impregnate them. Despite his relative poise and conviction in accepting their proposal the night before, the idea of suddenly being a father to seven children, including Yui, was a rather daunting prospect. But, he supposed that his own fears were nothing compared to those of the girls. After all, they were the ones who would have to undergo the entire ordeal of pregnancy and childbirth. Knowing that things definitely wouldn't be easy for them just made Kazuto double down on his desire to provide for them as best he could, and to be there for all of them every step of the way.

Suddenly, the door clinked slightly as the handle turned, causing Kazuto to jolt slightly. He quickly grabbed the remote and turned the television off, trying to look as composed as possible. To his surprise, it was Keiko who walked in, meekly closing the door behind her. She was dressed in a pale-yellow pair of night clothes and her hair was untied, falling loosely just past her shoulders. "Hey Kirito," Keiko said shyly as she climbed into the bed next to Kazuto.

Kazuto smiled at her. "Hi Keiko," he said in reply. The younger girl pulled up some of the covers and snuggled up against Kazuto, but he could sense that she was rather uncomfortable. The last thing he wanted to do was to hurt her or any of the girls. He gave Keiko a serious look. "Have you changed your mind?" he asked, "We really don't have to do anything if you don't want to."

"No!" Keiko quickly exclaimed before subduing her voice again, "I still…want to do this, but…maybe not right away?"

"That's fine with me," Kazuto replied, secretly a bit relieved. He remembered how uncomfortable he'd initially felt when Asuna had suddenly made her intentions known back in Aincrad. Of course, he'd understood, and certainly hadn't been opposed to her desire, but that hadn't made things any less awkward or uncomfortable initially. If Keiko needed time to ready herself, he was more than happy to give her as long as she needed. "Here," he said, picking the remote up from the nightstand next to the bed and offering it to his companion, "I was just watching TV earlier, so why don't you see if there's anything that you wanted to watch?"

Keiko gratefully took the remote, pointed it toward the television and clicked the power button. Kazuto just lay back, watching as Keiko flipped through the channels, curious as to what she would settle on. To his mild surprise, she ended up stopping on what looked like an old wildlife documentary. It looked like they'd lucked out and the program was just beginning; the narration was in English, which made following it a bit more difficult, but fortunately the program came with subtitles in Kanji.

Apparently, the program was covering wildlife in forested areas, and while Kazuto wasn't particularly interested in such shows, he did find it a nice change of pace from his usual fare. Honestly, it had been too long since he'd actually gotten to appreciate real, natural beauty, even though Asuna had been trying to convince him to come visit her grandparents' old home up in the mountains. More importantly however, Keiko seemed to really be entranced by the program. Other than a few moments when he caught her stealing a glance towards him, either to see if he was also enjoying the show or because she actually just wanted to look at him, her focus remained glued on the television screen.

Kazuto smiled warmly at Keiko's reactions: she would give an occasional 'aww' when some particularly cute animals were featured, such as a group of fledgling owls or a pair of snow leopards, let her mouth hang open slightly in amazement at the incredible height of some of the trees on display or the emergence of literal billions of insects all at once (something that kind of made Kazuto a little uncomfortable), and gave a scowl as some small mammal stole eggs from nearby bird's nests.

As the show went on, Kazuto found himself focusing more on Keiko and her reactions to the show than to the show itself. He'd never really thought about any of Keiko's interests, beyond VR or her obsession with the latest pop music. But, in hindsight, he really shouldn't have been too surprised. After all, she was one of the few players in SAO to have successfully become a beast tamer and the love and devotion she showed to her miniscule animal companion indicated that her feelings extended beyond merely what one would expect from a player just taking advantage of a useful game feature.

Suddenly, Keiko jumped a bit, causing Kazuto to jolt in alarm as well. Glancing back towards the TV, he saw a tiger with a lifeless monkey hanging from its jaws. Apparently, he'd missed the predator's strike and Keiko herself had been surprised at the suddenness of its attack as well. While he was distracted, he felt something warm and noticed that Keiko had slipped her hand into his.

With that, Kazuto decided that the initiative was his. He slipped his hand away from Keiko's, causing her to flash a rather sad and disappointed look, but that was replaced by an expression of happy understanding as Kazuto slipped his arm behind her back and pulled her in closer to him. With the gap between them now closed substantially, Keiko nuzzled her head against Kazuto's shoulder as they finished watching the rest of the show.

As the program ended, Keiko took the remote again and turned the television off, snuggling up closer to Kazuto to the point that she was almost on top of him. "You know," Kazuto said, "I never knew that you enjoyed stuff like that. I've never heard you talk about anything like it before."

Keiko leaned back a bit. "Yeah," she said, "I've loved animals for a long time. Maybe…it's because I felt like I could always trust animals more than people."

Kazuto looked down at Keiko, but didn't say anything, allowing her to continue. "I'd been alone for a long time before SAO. My parents are both university professors and travel a lot to give lectures around the country. They've always been so obsessed with their work, that I never felt like anything other than an annoyance to them. I mean, they left me by myself as soon as they were able, and they even named me after a stupid element of all things, just because it was a 'family tradition.'"

"I guess they at least felt like leaving me completely on my own was wrong. I didn't really have any other kids nearby who wanted anything to do with me, so they ended up getting me a cat, Pina." She gave a bittersweet smile. "Since I felt like I had been largely abandoned by people, I started trying to fill my life with animals instead. I had Pina, and I spent time at the nearest animal shelter helping to take care of the animals there. After so much time dealing with animals, I decided I wanted to become a vet. I still do!"

"When I'm helping animals, I can at least feel useful. Even though now I have you, and Rika, and Asuna, and everyone else, I still feel like I'm such a burden to everyone. I'm constantly needing help from Suguha or Rika, and I'm the reason why…Asuna ended up losing her memories in Ordinal Scale." That particular incident still weighed heavily on her, and she had to stop for a moment. "But you've never treated me like that Kirito," she continued, "Even after you had to save me back in SAO, you didn't act like I was a burden. You didn't even treat me like a mascot, like how so many other people did. You helped me out, and gave me advice, but you treated me like an equal."

"I love you for that," she said, "I couldn't tell you after we first met, and when you gave me that birthday gift, I accidentally let it slip and tried to cover it up. You've always been so kindhearted, but you don't even recognize it. You deserve to be happy, and I didn't think you'd ever notice someone like me." She looked up at him, her feelings visible in her eyes. "But, now I can tell you without any hesitation or regret that I love you."

Kazuto looked over at Keiko, mixed feelings of warmth and confusion welling inside him. She really saw his actions that way and thought so much of him? He certainly didn't think that what he'd done had been anything special. But clearly she saw things differently. And now, he considered how he felt about her: her innocent kindness, her honest zeal for those things she was passionate about, and her ability to see the best in everyone. After so long around Keiko, Kazuto knew how he felt about her too.

"I love you too Keiko," he said, "you may not realize it, but you're a really special person. You may not feel like you're needed, or that you're a burden, but it's not true. You and Pina are always up at the front helping out, and you're the first one to volunteer whenever anyone needs assistance. Even back in SAO, I really looked forward to every moment that I got to spend with you; you're always so fun to talk with and you know both when to be serious and when to have fun. It's something that I've always really admired about you, your ability to balance those so well."

He noticed that her eyes were almost sparkling as they reflected back at him. Kazuto hadn't thought he'd said anything particularly noteworthy, but then again, she'd apparently grown up without anyone acknowledging her. She continued looking up at him expectantly and there was almost a…need in her eyes. Is this the right moment? Kazuto thought. Clearly Keiko thought that it was, but it was up to him to take the first step. Here goes nothing.

Slowly, carefully, Kazuto leaned in towards the younger girl. Keiko smiled slightly and closed her eyes in anticipation. A few seconds later, their lips met, both of them enjoying the warmth of the other's skin against their own. After a moment, Kazuto pulled away and watched as Keiko fidgeted a bit.

"That was…my first kiss," she observed.

"Was it what you were expecting?" Kazuto asked, a bit concerned.

His fears were unwarranted. "Yes," she replied, satisfaction evident in her voice, "but…could we…do it some more?"

Kazuto smiled at her and leaned back in. Once again their lips connected, but now both of them were feeling a bit more confident. They both tried to deepen the kiss, interlocking their lips and pressing against each other. But, kissing wasn't enough. While Kazuto's right arm remained behind Keiko's back, pulling her towards him, his left hand began to roam across her body, starting at her head, stroking her soft, silky hair, then slowly descending, first to her back, then to her side, and finally down to her thigh. Keiko gave a slight shudder of pleasure at the foreign touch, enjoying the feeling against her, but suddenly wanting to feel the same thing without an extra layer of fabric in the way. Likewise, Kazuto's pants were beginning to feel extremely tight and restrictive.

Keiko broke off the kiss and pulled away for a moment. "Kazuto," she said gently, "I want…I want you to actually touch me. So, could you…help me with these?" She hoped that she sounded sexy rather than like the awkward clumsy mess that she felt like inside. Fortunately Kazuto seemed to understand as he reached over and grabbed ahold of her shirt, slowly lifting it off as Keiko wriggled her arms inside her sleeves to make the garment easier to slide off. And, off it came, revealing her baby-blue bra underneath, almost the exact same color as her beloved animal companion in ALO.

With her shirt now removed, Keiko laid back and stuck her feet out, inviting Kazuto to remove the lower half of her clothing as well. This was far more intimate as he grabbed around her waistband, feeling the warm, bare skin of her belly and side against his fingers as he tugged the clothing off, leaving Keiko in only her undergarments. Suddenly a bit self-conscious, Keiko moved to cover her small breasts, still embarrassed at their size compared to those of the other girls in their group. "I'm sorry they're so small," she whispered out.

Kazuto reached over and gently pulled her arms away. "You're perfect just the way you are Keiko," he assured her.

Keiko's face reddened a bit at that comment. "A-anyways," she said, "now it looks like it's my turn to help you." Trying her best to be confident, she reached out and pulled up Kazuto's black shirt, turning it inside out as she forced it over his head. Even though she'd seen Kazuto without his shirt earlier in the day, she'd been so busy enjoying the beach that she hadn't actually taken the time to consider how he looked. Anyone who saw him would know that he wasn't the stellar athlete that Suguha was, but he wasn't out of shape by any means. After the years trapped in SAO, there wasn't any noticeable belly fat, and Suguha and Asuna's constant nagging and encouraging to get out and exercise had left him lean and perfectly fit.

Next came the hard part for Keiko. Kazuto seemed to realize it too as he glanced away in embarrassment, despite not making any effort to stop her. Gathering her courage, Keiko gripped his pant legs and slid them off, revealing, to her complete lack of surprise, a pair black boxers underneath. However, the boxers weren't what drew her attention, but rather the obvious tenting coming from within. Keiko had rarely actually sat down and considered sex before, but now her hormones were getting the best of her as she desperately wanted to see even more.

But, that could wait, despite the rising heat she felt from her body, signaling its impatience. With their outer layer of clothing gone, Keiko practically leapt back towards Kazuto, embracing him as their lips clashed again. Kazuto returned to allowing his hand to explore her body, and as expected the feeling was much more intense against her bare skin. Kazuto let his fingers linger for a moment on Keiko's side, eliciting muffled giggling as she reacted to the ticklish sensation, then moved them over to her flat stomach, drawing circles around her navel.

Keiko continued squirming a bit, then decided to launch a counterattack of her own, rubbing her petite hands down Kazuto's back, tussling his hair, then moving in on his thighs, coming perilously close the bulge in his boxers.

Seeing how far things had escalated, Kazuto felt it was time to go farther. His hands found the clasp on Keiko's bra and, after several failed, fumbling attempts, he managed to undo the clasp and allowed the article to fall, revealing Keiko's small, pale breasts underneath. Unable to restrain himself, he brought his hands back around, toppled Keiko onto her back and softly gripped at her chest, Keiko's nipples hardening at the intimate contact.

Keiko gave a pleased sigh, enjoying the treatment, but didn't want to make Kazuto do all the work. Hesitantly, she reached back towards Kazuto's boxers and cautiously touched at it with her hand, feeling something hard underneath, but also something soft connected to it. Kazuto gave a groan at the contact, and Keiko was suddenly struck by the thought of what Rika might do in this situation. "Does that feel good Kirito," she purred, trying to channel as much impishness into her voice as possible.

As a reply, Kazuto lowered his head and kissed her again before bringining his head back up. "Yeah," he admitted, "it does. I didn't expect that you would do something like that."

So, she'd managed to surprise him, had she? Well, that apparently meant that she was on the right track. Keiko continued stroking at his manhood and, letting her lust start to take over, brought her right leg back in order to hook her toes under the waistband of his boxers. Kazuto seemed to realize what was happening, but he was unable to respond before she'd managed to push the item all the way down, leaving Kazuto completely naked. Keiko gazed longingly at his now exposed member.

Kazuto, on the other hand, was now the one who was a little embarrassed, being completely exposed to Keiko as she lay under him. "That doesn't seem very fair," he observed.

In response, Keiko arched her back a bit, raising her butt into the air and inviting Kazuto to even the score. He eagerly obliged, removing her panties and exposing her sex to him.

Now though, with all of their clothing removed, the two were at a loss on how to proceed. Kazuto's instincts were telling him to dive in, but this was Keiko's first time, and she needed to be the one to set the pace. While Keiko was a stranger to anything even close to this, her time around Rika had fortunately given her some idea of what she should do next. "Kirito," she said, sliding herself out from under him and sitting a bit further back on the bed, "Can I…?" she couldn't manage to form the words, but she timidly pointed towards his manhood, making it quite clear what she was proposing.

"You don't have to if you don't want to," Kazuto reminded her, not wanting her to do something just because she felt obliged to.

"I want to do it," she assured him. However, she wasn't sure what the best way to go about it would be. In the end, she decided that the simplest thing to do would be to just continue what she'd been doing before. Scooting over next to Kazuto, she brought her hand down until it was gently wrapped around his manhood. It still felt hard, but now that she was touching it directly, the flesh felt extremely warm as well. Now in position, she began to work her hand up and down the shaft, slowly at first due to her nervousness and inexperience, but gradually picking up speed as she gained confidence.

However, she felt Kazuto twitching a bit, and caught sight of what seemed like a fleeting look of discomfort on his face. Was she hurting him? His manhood did feel dry as she rubbed it, and she hadn't really considered that that probably wouldn't be very comfortable. But wasn't this what she was supposed to do?

Then she thought of something else that Rika occasionally would allude to when she was being particularly lewd. Was she really going to do something so naughty? Given that it seemed like the right answer, the choice was obvious. She removed her hand from his shaft and dipped her head down.

Kazuto didn't have any time to react as he realized what Keiko was going to do. "Wha—" he managed to get out before felt a hot, wet feeling around his member as Keiko took it within her mouth. Kazuto groaned and had to move his arms behind him to brace himself against the mattress and avoid simply falling on his back as his body reacted to the new stimulation.

Keiko involuntarily giggled at the reaction as she adjusted to the foreign object in her mouth. She didn't even bother trying to get the whole thing in, but was content to stick with the tip and upper part of the shaft. She began working it back and forth in her mouth, in a similar way to how she had been using her hands earlier, pushing forward, then backward. Feeling a bit daring, she ran her tongue against the shaft for a brief moment, which elicited a wriggle from Kazuto.

Meanwhile Kazuto had adjusted to the sensation and was now able to control himself a bit more. Realizing that he was making Keiko do all the work, he stretched over and gripped around her waist, managing to pick the small girl up slightly and rotate her to where the two were almost at right angles with each other. Keiko gave a muffled squeak at the unexpected change in position, but trusted Kazuto enough to not break her mouth away from his member.

Her trust was rewarded as she felt Kazuto's hand rubbing against her entrance. Now it was her turn to squirm a bit, her sensitive womanhood unused to such contact. Kazuto's other hand found its way to her head, where it gently stroked her hair, similar to how one would pet a dog. Some girls might have found such treatment insulting, but Keiko just smiled as much as she was able with Kazuto's member in her mouth, finding the pets to be endearing, an intimate sign of affection.

To Kazuto's relief, Keiko's entrance was already moist as he slid one of his fingers between the folds of her lower lips. As Keiko continued to attack his manhood with her mouth, her oral thrusts coming more rapidly, he decided to escalate along with her. Spreading her folds, he tried to insert a finger inside, only getting it in partially before he felt it stop. Keiko gave a stifled cry, her inner walls twitching around the invading digit. As Keiko's body shuddered, Kazuto grinned, pleased that his efforts were succeeding.

Then he gasped as Keiko lightly ran her teeth along his shaft and he found himself starting to shake involuntarily. "Silica!" he yelped out, accidentally slipping into her in-game in the heat of the moment. Suddenly, the warmth around his manhood disappeared and Keiko reluctantly pulled herself off of Kazuto's finger, shifting back to a sitting position now across from Kazuto. Kazuto gritted his teeth at the denial of his climax, but didn't say anything. Instead, he apologized, though his pulsing manhood made it difficult to really focus on anything else. "Sorry for calling you by your in-game name," he said.

"I don't mind," Keiko assured him, "I mean, that was how we met each other after all. But…" She looked at his member again. "I…I still want you to give me a baby Kazuto. That means you have to let it out…here," she said, indicating her now soaking womanhood.

Now Kazuto understood why she'd pulled away when she had. And yet, he couldn't in good conscience move on just yet. "Alright," he said, "I'll do my best to give you what you want. But first…" he took Keiko's arms and slowly lowered her onto her back. Not understanding at first, she had a surprised look on her face, but the look was replaced moments later by a blissful expression as Kazuto buried his face into her womanhood. Her fists clenched and her face scrunched up in pleasure as Kazuto lapped up the wetness around her entrance. The feeling of his tongue was ticklish, and felt incredible against her hyper-sensitive slit.

Then she felt Kazuto's tongue actually flicking in between her folds before making its way further inside her. His finger earlier had felt nice, it had been dry and bony, and not altogether comfortable. But his tongue on the other had was wet and fleshy, causing Keiko to wail in delight at the feeling. As his tongue flicked back out and began circling around the small nub at the top of her womanhood, the pleasure intensified, and ripples of ecstasy began coursing through Keiko's body, starting at her fingertips and shooting their way all the way down to her toes.

Kazuto noticed Keiko's reaction and redoubled his efforts, trying his best to alternate between attacking her clit and licking around her inner walls. Keiko suddenly let out a loud whine, her legs kicking uncontrollably. In order to avoid being struck in the head, Kazuto grabbed onto Keiko's legs in order to keep them still as she flailed around, consumed by an irresistible flood of pleasure.

After about a minute of being unable to control herself, Keiko finally began to regain her composure, allowing her breathing to slow a bit and reassert control over her body. "That was…amazing…Kirito," she managed to gasp out. Kazuto just rubbed the back of his head, unable to come up with an appropriate response. But, now that the surge of pleasure had passed, Keiko remembered that she wasn't done yet. "I think I'm ready now," she said softly, hoping that she sounded more confident than she felt. This was the point of no return, but she'd made up her mind long ago. This is what she wanted. "Could you…lay on your back, Kirito?" she asked.

Sensing what she had in mind, Kazuto did as Keiko instructed and lay back, his member left sticking up in the air. Carefully, Keiko positioned her petite body on top of Kazuto until her entrance was lined up with his manhood. This was it.

With a deep breath, Keiko braced herself as she slowly slid herself down onto Kazuto's shaft. She gave a slight grimace as Kazuto's manhood entered into her, but to her surprise, it didn't actually hurt. It did feel quite strange to have something of that size inside her, but even though it was definitely weird, it wasn't at all painful. She continued to sink down until she'd fully hilted Kazuto, taking a moment to stop and adjust to having his shaft inside of her.

"Are you okay Keiko?" Kazuto asked, a bit concerned, given that this was the girl's first time.

She nodded. "Yeah, I'm okay," she said "It's just…could you…hold me?" Kazuto smiled back, wrapping his arms around her back and pulling her towards him as she slowly began to raise and lower herself on his shaft. It had been so long since Kazuto had actually experienced this, and never before had he actually felt this in the real world. Keiko's womanhood was tight around him, its warmth putting Keiko's earlier treatment with her mouth seem like nothing in comparison. It gripped his manhood in its velvety embrace, and after Keiko's earlier blowjob, he was worried that he might not last very long.

Likewise, Keiko was now swimming in pleasure, her eyes becoming slightly glazed with lustful ecstasy as felt Kazuto's manhood enter and withdraw with each lowering and raising of her hips. Hungry for more, she drew in and kissed Kazuto passionately, trying her best to move her hips faster and faster. It was a little bit awkward given the height difference between the two, but that just made everything even more worthwhile.

Now with his lips interlocked with Keiko's once again, Kazuto began to feel pressure building within him. With such a beautiful girl on top of him, it would have been strange if he hadn't been struggling to contain himself. Not yet, he begged his body, give it time… He allowed his tongue to enter Keiko's mouth, causing the girl's eyes to widen in surprise, but she didn't seem to mind and in fact allowed her own tongue to swirl around Kazuto's. Taking one of his hands back from behind Keiko, Kazuto brought it forward and began fondling the girl's right breast, causing Keiko to give a whine in response.

Kazuto was finding it more and more difficult to think. The pleasure was building so rapidly that he wouldn't be able to control himself for much longer. He had to let loose. "Keiko!" he gasped, "I'm close!"

Hearing his words, Keiko stopped her movements. "Kirito," she urged, "flip me over!"

Her request left Kazuto confused for a moment, until he remembered what the purpose behind all of this was. She wanted to be on her back. She wanted him on top. Gravity. Of course! Wrapping both arms around Keiko again, he rolled so that she ended up underneath him. Of course, now the onus was him to make the movements and bring their joining to its finale. Gathering his remaining strength, Kazuto moved his hips like a piston, sliding his member in and out of Keiko's womanhood as quickly as he could. Beneath him, Keiko began letting out slight gasps of pleasure at his thrusts and Kazuto swore that he saw a tiny bit of drool coming out the side of her mouth as it remained slack.

"Keiko!" he warned again, "I'm…about…to…"

With a bit of difficulty, she swung her legs up so that they rested on his shoulders as he continued moving in and out of her, leaving her tiny butt just above the mattress. The pressure became too much to bear and Kazuto's body started to tremble. With one final push, he rammed his manhood as far it could go and he felt his lower body shake as he jetted inside of Keiko, depositing his load directly into the girl's womb.

Keiko cried out at the sensation of Kazuto releasing inside of her. It felt so…warm. Kazuto withdrew from within her, now spent after his climax. Keiko lowered her hips and looked down towards her entrance, somewhat happy to not see any of Kazuto's fluid escaping from within her. This had been everything that she could have dreamed of. But, she did feel a bit disappointed. Now, it was all over.

Or not. Despite Kazuto finally moving off of her and rolling onto the bed next to her, clearly exhausted, he still mustered the energy to lean his head over and kiss her again. Unlike some of their prior kisses, this wasn't one full of passion or lust, but a simple kiss of love and affection. Keiko felt like there butterflies in her stomach and her body seemed to flutter as she reciprocated the kiss.

After a moment, Kazuto pulled away. "Thank you for all of this Keiko," he said with a warm smile on his face, "I hope that you're happy, and I promise I'll be with you the whole way, no matter what."

"It was perfect," Keiko said softly, a happy expression on her face, "and…I promise to be there for you too. You really are my hero." She involuntarily gave a yawn, unaware until now just how tired she was after their romp.

Her yawn was contagious, as Kazuto soon gave one as well. Keiko chuckled a bit at that, and he joined her. "I guess that took more out of us that we figured, huh?" Kazuto noted.

"Yeah," Keiko agreed, "I'm sleepy now."

"Alright then sleepyhead," Kazuto teased, reaching over to turn off the light in the room, "I guess we're both done for now then."

"Mhhm," Keiko let out in reply, her eyes already closed. Kazuto leaned over and ruffled her hair one last time, and she managed to sneak in a quick peck on his cheek. With that, the two lovers finally laid down and let sleep take them. Keiko drifted off first, smiling happily as she continued to feel the warmth of Kazuto's seed within her.

As for Kazuto, that night he had the best sleep he'd had in a long time.

Debriefing

So, I really like this style, so I think I'll keep doing this where I give general author's notes up top, then including extra tidbits (sort of a behind the scene type of thing) here at the bottom in the form of a debriefing.

Anyways, congratulations to everyone who's read this far! You've gotten to read the first lemon that I've ever written, so I hope it wasn't too bad. It was extremely tricky for me to feel like I was getting everything right, despite actually taking me less time overall than most of the rest of this chapter (about 2 days of research and subsequent writing). There's not much out there for scenes like this between Keiko and Kazuto, as I've noted before, so I struggled a bit to try finding the right chemistry that the two would likely share in a situation like this. Since they're both rather shy and inexperienced, I focused on that as one of the dominant themes of the scene, with neither one really knowing what to do beyond instinct and comments from other people (plus one prior experience, in Kazuto's case).

As for Keiko's backstory, I always found it interesting that we really never heard anything about her parents. But, given their absence, the fact that Keiko seems far more attached to Pina (her cat) than to anyone else as far as who she misses while in SAO, and the fact that she managed to be playing SAO at such a young age in the first place makes me think that her parents are relatively absent. Given their odd naming convention, I thought it appropriate to have them as academic workaholics, content to largely let Keiko take care of herself.

The show that Keiko and Kazuto watch is episode 10 of the "Planet Earth" BBC documentary series. I've long imagined Keiko as being big into animals and nature, and this gave me a chance to show that off a bit. Unfortunately, from what I could find the series is not currently licensed to air in Japan despite being more than 10 years old, but seeing as this is around 2026, I can act as though it's airing there by that time.

Regarding the initial scene with Kazuto's nightmare and his conversation with Shino, I really wanted to have an opportunity to close out that particular part of Kazuto's character arc. It never really felt like we got a proper resolution to his lingering guilt over the Black Cats and their fate, plus he still hasn't figured out that his life actually means just as much as the lives of those around him. I had an opportunity to kind of kill two birds with one stone here, and had a blast writing it out. Plus, it gave me the opportunity to tease Shino as a counselor/therapist, which was pretty fun!

The water gun fight scene was a shoutout to both my own youth and to a few external influences, such as the water gun fight in Higurashi No Naku Koroni. The capture the flag element also drew from my childhood (though we tended to do a form of flashlight capture the flag rather than playing with water guns), and also incorporated tactics you might found out a MOBA like Heroes of the Storm or League of Legends. Kirito's a big gamer, so it's natural for him to be aware of the concept, and it was fun to hve him consider the ending as a "team wipe."

Kazuto's thoughts regarding Suguha and her potential to become an olympic swimmer are actually a shoutout to "Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc" which sees one of its characters, one who is considered as the "Ultimate Swimmer" and an upcoming olympic competitor, voiced by Cassandra Lee Morris, who also voices Suguha.

There were some more Toradora! inspirations here, particularly with the curry dinner. I wanted to see all these characters try cooking together, and even though it ended up not coming together quite the way I'd hoped, I'm still glad that I managed to fit it in somehow.

I don't have a whole lot of specifics to say about it, but I really wanted the chance to show a softer side of Rika, so her scene with Keiko meant a lot to me. She really does care about the group even if she gives them crap most of the time.

The idea of Keiko with her hair down and without her iconic pigtails (or whatever the precise hairstyle is called) came from a piece of artwork I found on Reddit, which can be found here: r/swordartonline/comments/9emzgf/her_priceless_smile_weekly_silica_lxxii/

I had one reviewer who clearly has gotten a rather negative impression of Argo, so hopefully I can start to change their mind on her from here on out. She's a great character and it pains me to think that I've caused someone to sour on her.

As always, I'm continuously working on editing and adjusting this to make it more satisfactory to me. So, if there's anything that you think should be modified/adjusted/corrected, feel free to let me know! If I agree, I'll consider making the change to the story.

Lastly, I said I had an announcement, but I'm sure it'll annoy some people. I'm going to stop giving any kind of predictions on when the next chapters will be released. I received quite a few reviews and PMs letting me know that people were concerned that this story was dead, or expressing impatience as to the next update. Well, the next update probably won't be any quicker than this one, and might actually be longer in coming. The truth is that I'm a full time law student and am now working 20 hours a week as well. On top of that, I have some additional stories on my main account that have been languishing for nearly a year, and which I desperately need to devote some attention to. So, while I can assure you that this story WILL continue and is far from dead, you might have to be patient to see later chapters. Unlike some authors, I don't have prewritten material that allows me to post regularly; I write as I go. I sincerely hope that you'll all understand and bear with me throughout this.

Anyways, thanks again, and I'll see you all next time!