“That’s the last chance! Do your best, Yuuki!”
Yuuki kept her back facing Asuna and immediately answered,
“Leave it to me, Nee-chan!!”
Nee…chan?
As Asuna blinked after hearing such unexpected words, the girl leapt forward.
The giant in front looked like it was going to slice through the ground as it slammed its two hammers down into the ground hard. The deep sound echoed throughout the room, and Tecchi immediately ducked to defend against the radial shockwave.
Yuuki then jumped, using her left foot to step on Tecchi’s left shoulder, and her right foot stepped on his thick and heavy helmet—
“URRIIIYAAAAA!!”
With a sharp cry, Yuuki seemed to be moving the wings that didn’t exist as she leapt high. She got close to the giant’s chest in an instant and pulled the sword in her right hand back hard.
“YAAA!!”
Yuuki shouted out again and charged at the joint of the two necks at an alarming rate. Immediately, the bluish-purple flash effect exploded, causing the coin-shaped room to be filled with light.
Even if it’s an area where they couldn’t fly in, the players just needed to continue using sword skills in the air to remain there before the skill ends. Right now, Yuuki was in front of the black giant, moving her right hand at a lightning like speed, letting out 5 strikes from right up to bottom left, and then made another five hits in a line to form an intersection point. Whenever the sharp tip of the blade hit its weakness, the four arms of the giant would continue to struggle and let out what sound like a wail.
The thrust attacks on the monster created an X shape. Yuuki’s body tilted to the right and put her left hand on the right hand that was holding the sword.
The dazzling flashes released by the blade caused Asuna to narrow her eyes. At this moment, Yuuki’s obsidian sword looked like a diamond. The shining white sword seemed to let out a crisp sound like a bell and hit straight into the intersection of the X point, the point where the giant’s necks were connected, and then stabbed it straight into the giant’s body.
Soon after, the black glowing skin of the giant started to form several cracks, with the point the sword was stabbed in being the center. The cracks seemed unable to take the pressure that was coming from inside and continued to become thicker. The cracks then extended to the giant’s body and limbs.
With the sound of a large tree feeling, the giant’s body was split into half from the point the two heads were joined. The 4m tall giant corpse then looked like a shattered glass statue as it exploded into numerous fragments of various sizes. The pure white light that was given off from the insides of the body started to close in with the physical impact, and Asuna’s head started to throb hard. The sound effects that had deep and high-frequency sounds mixed in bounced through the dome, finally dragging on into a long and stiff metallic sound before vanishing.
The mysterious blue flame that lit the dim coin-shaped dome suddenly shook and became a normal orange. The boss room was filled with bright light, chasing the remaining amount of devilish intent away.
GACHANG. A loud sound rang. The door deep inside that led to the next room was unlocked.
“……Haha…we…we made it…”
Asuna let out a hoarse laugh as she collapsed onto the ground. As she looked up, she exchanged looks with Yuuki, who was blankly staring at where the boss was destroyed.
The petite Imp blinked for another few seconds, and then finally gave a smirk. However, it immediately changed into a smile she had seen many times before—no, it should be said to be the most dazzling smile.
Yuuki sheathed her sword and immediately ran over to Asuna. She immediately jumped over with her arms wide open from afar and leapt into Asuna’s arm.
“GUAA!?”
Asuna let out a loud cry and collapsed with Yuuki onto the ground. Both of them stared at each other’s eyes at a close distance to each other, and started shouting,
“AHAHAHA…WE DID IT, WE WON…WE WON, ASUNA!”
“UN, YEAH! AHHH—…HOW TIRING—!!”
Even with Yuuki sitting on her, Asuna still stretched her limbs out and laid down flat on the ground. The 5 other partners around her who were also so tired that they collapsed leapt up, gave victory signs and started cheering.
At this moment, Asuna noticed a heavy sound from above and looked over at the source of the sound. The entrance that appeared in her inversed vision started to open aside again, and numerous people were gathered there.
The ones who rushed in without waiting for the doors to open completely and made such a loud ruckus was obviously the large guild alliance party who blocked the corridor. These people noticed that the boss room was filled with orange light, and curbed their momentum as they slowed their footsteps before stopping to look around.
A dark red haired Salamander was standing in front of the large party of about 50 people. At this moment, his eyes seemed to meet Asuna’s. The leader’s face seemed to show amazement, understanding and regret, and Asuna merely watched this in a really happy mood.
“Hehe…”
Asuna, who was lying on the floor, laughed, and then showed a victory sign to Yuuki and her 5 partners.
The members of the large guild left some common menacing words before leaving, and Asuna and the Sleeping Knights opened the door deep inside the room. They climbed up the long spiral staircase and came out from a pavilion shaped building. They arrived at the 28th level where no one had entered previously. They immediately ran over to the nearest shopping street, and the moment Yuuki activated the transfer gate at the central plaza, the boss conquest quest was completed.
The seven of them immediately used the gate that was giving off a blue light to return to the streets of Ronbaru, formed a circle at a corner of the plaza, and again hi-touched each other.
“Everyone worked hard! It’s finally over!”
Asuna smiled as she said that, but she felt a little lonely inside her heart. She was just a mercenary after all, and the end of this contract would mean that they would have to go their separate ways.
No. There was still a lot of time to be friends with them —as Asuna thought about that, Shiune suddenly pat her on the shoulder. That nice looking face showed a serious expression that was different from usual.
“No, Asuna-san. It’s still not over yet.”
“…Eh?”
“There’s still one more thing to do.”
After looking at her expression, Asuna immediately thought of the incident at the «Monument of Swordsmen» in Black Iron Palace. Speaking of which, the members of the Sleeping Knights weren’t aiming wasn’t to conquer the bosses, but to leave the names of all the members on the monument as proof that the guild existed. Speaking of which, it would be too early for her to be happy now—
However, what Shiune said next was far beyond what Asuna expected.
“—Let’s have a party to celebrate.”
Asuna’s knees went limp as she nearly fell. She raised her fist in protest, and then put her hands on her hips before saying,
“Un, okay! Let’s have a big one!”
After saying that, Jun’s face showed a smile,
“We still have lots of funds here! Which place are we going to choose? Should we rent some high-class restaurant in some city?”
“Ahh…”
Asuna suddenly had a thought. She then locked her fingers together and looked around. Even though she only knew them for a mere two days, she should be able to get along with these people like old friends. Asuna really believed in this as she said,
“Well…in that case…do you want to come over to my house? It’s a little small though.”
On hearing Asuna’s invitation, Yuuki immediately showed a smile.
However, for some reason—her smile vanished like melting snow. Yuuki bit her lower lip and looked down.
“Yu…Yuuki, what is it?”
Even though she was feeling puzzled, Asuna still asked the normally en
thusiastic girl who in turn didn’t lift her head. At this moment, Shiune looked like she was going to finish off what Yuuki said as she continued,
“…Well…I’m really sorry, Asuna-san. Please don’t mind us…it’s just that we…”
However, before Shiune finished, Yuuki, who had her head lowered, suddenly gasped and grabbed Shiune’s right hand.
She bit her lips hard, and her large eyes showed an earnest look as she silently looked at Shiune. Even though Yuuki looked like she was trying to say something as she moved her lips twice, she didn’t let out a voice in the end.
However, Shiune seemed to understand what Yuuki wanted to say. Her lips showed a smile that was difficult to understand. She put her right hand on Yuuki’s head, and then faced Asuna again.
“Thank you, Asuna-san. We’ll gladly come over to your house then.”
Asuna could only feel troubled as she didn’t understand what was going on just now. However, Nori seemed like he wanted to dispel the gloomy atmosphere as he said with his usual forthright voice,
“If it’s like that, we have to prepare the wine! Let’s buy one whole barrel!”
“There’s none of potato sake you like, Nori.”
Taruken interrupted at this moment and gave a stern comment from behind.
“Stop spouting nonsense. Since when did I like potato sake? I like Awamori sake the most!”
“Aren’t you still like an old man.”
Jun’s stronger punchline caused everyone to start laughing. Asuna started joining in too, and then looked over at Yuuki. Though Yuuki’s face showed a smile, a certain sense of reluctance in her seemed like it didn’t vanish completely.
The gang went to the central marketplace of Ronbaru, bought a large amount of alcohol and food before moving to the 22nd level.
Most of them took off from the plaza in the town area, looking down at the forest that was buried by snow below as they moved south. They flew by the frozen lake, and could see a stretch of open land and a round house there.
“O, over there?”
Yuuki’s excited voice caused Asuna to nod.
“Yeah..ah!”
Before Asuna could even finish, Yuuki opened her arms and immediately flew down to the courtyard in front of the house, landed with a huge ‘BFUU’ and whipped up a large amount of snow. A large number of birds that were perched on the trees nearby were all shocked.
“…Really.”
Asuna and Shiune glanced at each other before smiling and opened their wings as they got ready to land. Asuna glided around for a while before landing in the courtyard, and was immediately dragged towards the door by Yuuki, who couldn’t wait.
Asuna wanted to introduce her friends if they were around, but there wasn’t anyone inside. Kirito and Cline, who helped to stop the large guild, haven’t returned from the save point, so it couldn’t be helped. However, even Lizbet and Scilica weren’t around. Did everyone expect this to happen and deliberately moved aside for the 7 of them to party?
“Heh. Fuu-n, is this Asuna’s house?”
Yuuki happily looked around at the tables that grew out from the floor, the heater that was burning red and the swords and other items that were hanging on the wall. The other six were all gathered around the table, taking out the food they bought out from their item inventory. Soon, obscure food, drinks and snacks were piled up like a hill.
They followed Nori’s wishes and bought wine. They unplugged the corks to pour the golden liquid into the cups and lined them up. With that, the preparations for the party were complete. Jun dragged Yuuki, who was watching Asuna intently as she kept her collection of condiments, back to the living room, and the 7 of them sat down in front of the table.
Yuuki, who was in charge of leading the toast, smiled brightly and said,
“In celebration of our triumph in the boss conquest…cheers!”
Cheers! The other people chanted. After that, the sounds of glass cups knocking into each other could be heard as everyone immediately gulped down the wine and started their reckless party.
Jun and Tecchi talked about how they defeated the boss. Nori and Taruken were excitedly talking about all the wines in ALO, and Asuna, who was beside them, heard Yuuki and Shiune talk about the past VRMMOs they were in.
“And the worst thing is that it must be some sort of game called «Insect Site» in America!”
Yuuki used her arms to wrap around her body as her face tensed up.
“Ahh…about that.”
Shiune also nodded her head helplessly.
“Heh…what kind of game is it?”
“Insects! They were all insects! It’s fine if the monsters were all insects, but even the players were all insects~. I was an ant that could walk on two legs, so it was fine, but Shiune…”
“No, you can’t say it!”
“She was one huge hornworm. She could let out thread from her moment…”
Yuuki finally couldn’t help it as she started laughing at this point. After seeing Shiune smirk, Asuna started to laugh too.
“It’s great~ we could go about travelling through all sorts of worlds with everyone.”
“What about Asuna? Looks like you’ve played VRMMOs for a long time.”
“Me? Errm, don’t tell anyone. Actually, I spent a lot of time playing to get enough money to buy this house…”
“I see~”
Yuuki lifted her head, and again narrowed her eyes and looked at the living room.
“But this house is really comfortable. Sure has a memorable feeling to it…”
“Yeah. I feel safe staying here.”
Shiune nodded deeply too.
However, her small lips suddenly opened.
“Wha, what’s wrong with you, Shiune?”
“Damn it, I forgot about it! Speaking about money…we told Asuna that we would hand all the boss drops over to her when we asked her to defeat the boss. What should we do? We bought so much stuff…”
“Wah, I forgot about it!”
Both of them looked apologetic as they lowered their shoulders. On seeing this, Asuna smiled and waved her hand at them before saying,
“It’s alright. I’ll just take a little. Ah, I suppose—it’s better…”
After saying this, she kept her mouth shut and sighed hard,
“Not take anything. However, I have something I want to ask you people.”
“Eh…?”
“Well…even though the agreement is complete…but I still want to talk to Yuuki some more. I have a lot of things I want to ask you about.”
Yuuki, I hope you can teach me—how to become as strong as you. Asuna thought deep inside and continued,
“Can you let me join the Sleeping Knights?”
Asuna had never joined any guilds ever since she became a spirit in ALO. Large guilds have invited her a few times before, and Kirito and Lizbet said that they could form a small one, but nothing came of it.
The reason it became like that was mostly because Asuna still had some «fear» about guilds. In the past, she was the sub-leader of what was called the strongest guild for more than a year. At that time, she demanded iron-like discipline and steel-like will from her members, and she acted as an example and never showed a smile in front of them. The members back then only feared her, and never looked up to her. Asuna was scared that if she joined a guild in ALO, her mannerism in the past would return.
However, Asuna managed to blend in amongst the Sleeping Knights naturally, and could give them instructions without hesitation. That must have been because the earnest attitudes of Yuuki and the rest made Asuna get rid of the doubts inside her easily. Being with them would definitely make that wall in her heart shorter, and she could become really strong. Asuna herself never noticed it, but Kirito, Lizbet, Cline and everyone should have noticed this and supported her actions. Thus, when Asuna stated that she wanted to join in the conquest activity of another guild, they didn’t feel unhappy, but continued to give Asuna encouragement.
On hearing Asu
na’s request, Yuuki didn’t answer immediately as she bit her lips hard. Her wide eyes showed anxiety again.
Shiune and the other 4 quietened down and stared at Yuuki and Asuna. Amidst this silence, Yuuki merely stared at Asuna. Finally, the voice she let out was a trembling one that was different from usual.
“Well…Asuna. We…the Sleeping Knights will probably…disband in spring. After that, it’s unlikely that everyone would be back here.”
“Un, I know. It doesn’t really matter until spring. I want to be friends with Yuuki…and everyone. It should be alright if it’s before spring, right…?”
Asuna leaned forward and stared at Yuuki’s purple eyes. However, Yuuki actually avoided Asuna’s gaze for the first time. She gently shook her head and said,
“Sorry…I’m really sorry, Asuna. I’m really sorry…really…”
Yuuki continued to mutter, and yet it sounded really painful. Asuna didn’t have the heart to let her continue.
“I see…it’s alright. I should be the one sorry here for making things difficult for you, Yuuki.”
“Well…Asuna-san, we…we…”
Beside her, Shiune looked like she wanted to help Yuuki to continue, but it was rare that even she didn’t know what to say.
Asuna looked around at the pained expressions on everyone’s faces, and clapped her hands to try and ease the mood as she said in an energetic voice,
“Sorry for troubling you after mentioning that. Let’s go see that to change the mood!”
“That…?”
After hearing Asuna say that, Shiune merely felt troubled, and Yuuki lowered her head dejectedly. At this moment, Asuna pat both of them on the shoulder.
“You forgot about the most important thing! The «Monument of Swordsmen» at Black Iron Palace should be updated.!”
“Ah, that’s right!”
Jun shouted as he got up.
“Let’s go, let’s go! Let’s go take a photo!”
“Shall we go?”
Once Asuna made that invitation, Yuuki finally smiled.
After dragging Yuuki, who still looked a little dejected, Asuna saw the center plaza of the «Starting City». Actually, she hadn’t been here for a long time.
Sword Art Online - Volume 7 - Mother's Rosario Page 12